AN: Unfortunately this is not a new chapter. I allowed several authors to adopt this story but seeing as there have been no results (as far as I know) I figured I'll let everyone else who has been following this access to my notes. Warning: These are rough ideas and are not very organized or polished.
If anybody does intend to adopt this, go ahead. No need to contact me anymore.
As for my other story... There's a chance I may decide to write another chapter or two for Red Dragon Emperor but I wouldn't put my hopes up...
Orimura Family Past (Revealed to Ichika through fragmented dreams):
Ichika's parents were both scientists working under the Japanese military. In response to Germany's super soldier program that created Laura Bodewig, the two wanted to create their own program but was ultimately rejected as it was deemed unethical. Undeterred, the two scientists turned to their connections with Phantom Task and in exchange for future 'products' they acquired funding and equipment. The Orimura's then went underground and disappeared from public view.
Wanting to surpass Germany's program, the Orimura's aimed to create a method enhancing pre-existing humans. Using their own children as experiments, the two scientists achieved results within a few short years. Orimura Chifuyu, in her early teens, gained superhuman strength and reflexes and began going on missions for Phantom Task. Similar results were achieved with Ichika's twin Madoka, but Ichika himself showed no improvement. Due to his shortcomings, Ichika was subjected to harsher experimentations by his parents, Madoka treated him like a lower being, while Chifuyu was initially indifferent.
Chifuyu though gains an interest in Ichika after he insists on bandaging one of her wounds from one of her missions. The two begins to communicate more, gradually growing closer. It became a routine for Ichika to give Chifuyu first aid after a mission, and for her to give him hints and tips in combat techniques.
Despite Chifuyu's support, Ichika's situation in the Orimura family continues to deteriorate. Madoka becomes increasingly jealous of Chifuyu's attention to Ichika and subsequently treats him even harsher, and with him still not showing any dramatic physical improvements, more dangerous experiments are performed on him. One night after discovering plans to 'dispose' of Ichika, Chifuyu proceeds on a rampage, slaughtering both her parents and rescuing a barely conscious Ichika, before burning the lab to the ground. Madoka confronts Chifuyu in the burning wreckage of their 'home', and after discovering that Chifuyu had destroyed everything for the Ichika, she attacks her. Chifuyu easily defeats Madoka, and decides to spare her life on the condition that she never appears in front of them again.
As a result of his parents' final experimentations, Ichika develops partial amnesia and can't recall much of his childhood apart from Chifuyu. Ichika's ability to pilot IS is hinted to be from one of the many modifications done on his body.
IS Academy Festival:
Much of the festival is similar to cannon though I was thinking of changing the "Cinderella" game into something else. One of the main focuses in this chapter would be on Kuu's infiltration into the academy causing an initial uproar when she states that Ichika is her "papa". During the chaos of the game though, Kuu sneaks into the restricted underground areas of the academy, revealing a cold and professional personality. With a few tools from Tabane, the girl enters the most secure room and finds Chifuyu's IS, Kurazakura, in the midst of being rebuilt. Kuu proceeds to hack into a nearby terminal and download all the data but before she manages to escape, Chifuyu blocks her way. The girl attempts to knockout Chifuyu but is shocked when the older woman successfully blocks her attack and locks her in place (see details on Kuu below). The two talk and Kuu confirms that she was sent by Tabane. Chifuyu eventually releases the girl but gives a warning that if she were to hurt Ichika in anyway, Chifuyu would hunt her down. Shaken by the encounter, Kuu makes her way to Ichika's room before hugging the boy. Confused, Ichika comforts the distraught girl.
After receiving the information, Tabane happily discovers that Chifuyu is upgrading her IS though is sad that her friend hasn't asked for her or Ichika's help. Deciding to give some aid, she makes plans to "supply" more parts to Chifuyu.
Laura Arc:
The morning after the festival ended, IS Academy is visited by a few German military personnel. Ichika walks into them just as they announce to Laura that she is to return back to Germany immediately due to her poor showing in the ISED convention and that Katherine Bodewig, another subject from Germany's super soldier project, would replace her. Laura objects and challenges Katherine to a duel in order to show that her piloting hasn't degraded but due to the advantages Katherine's IS possesses, she inevitably loses. Depressed and doubting herself, Laura makes preparations for her leave despite protests from everyone else.
Meanwhile Ichika gets a sense of déjà vu in regards to Katherine's superiority attitude towards Laura. He half recalls the times that Madoka regarded him as trash or failure, and sympathizes with how Laura is feeling now. Convincing Laura not to give up, Ichika negotiates for another match in a week's time and trains with her.
The second fight is a close matchup. With the help from Ichika, Laura learns ignition boost and uses it to consistently close in on her opponent, largely negating her range disadvantage. Unfortunately, a small slipup turns the turns the tables against Laura and pushes her to the edge of losing. Desperate and out of options, Laura pleads in her mind and unexpectedly receives an answer from Schwarzer Regen. Achieving second shift, she forces Katherine to concede.
Katherine breaks down, refusing to believe that she was defeated. When Laura deactivates her IS, the deranged girl attacks with her energy cannons and Laura is barely saved by Ichika. The German military agrees to Laura's continued stay in IS Academy as she has achieved second shift and puts Katherine on probation.
At the end of the chapter, Katherine receives a visitor from her cell. Phantom Task offers her a position in their organization as a chance for revenge against the "inferior product". Katherine agrees and defects from Germany.
Tag Team Tournament:
Ichika teams up with Kanzashi in another IS Academy school wide tournament. The rules though are a little different as each team can have up to four units, with personal IS's counting as two units and generic IS's counting as one. Ichika and Kanzashi would have one match against a group of four upperclassmen and need to rely on tactics and teamwork. Their second and third match would be interrupted when Tabane's upgraded Golems appear. The new Golems possess the ability to pierce through an IS's absolute shielding and all participants have to work together in order to survive.
At the end of the battle, Chifuyu recognizes the Golems' appearance as another test by Tabane to train both Ichika and Houki. Salvaging the Golem parts, she finds a message coded into the core with detailed schematics on how to integrate the Golem weapons into her IS.
Pandora Incident:
In a secret Phantom Task base, alarms begin blaring as an IS goes berserk. The IS core, code name "Pandora", had merged with an experimental IS frame based on Valkyrie Trace technology and broken out of containment. The local leader locks down the entire base and orders all IS units to destroy the runaway AI. After the sounds of battle dies out, he reopens the blast doors in order to receive a report from his soldiers only to realize too late that it was Pandora under disguise. With the entire population of the base killed, Pandora hacks into a computer and searches for something, finally stopping on files about Ichika and core 001.
Meanwhile, Ichika gets a message stating Kuu has a fever before being teleported away by an anxious Tabane. By the time he returns to the academy, the entire place is in an uproar. Apparently an IS with features extremely similar to Byakushiki Setsura had attacked a military base, killing dozens of personnel. Police come storming into the academy to arrest Ichika as the prime suspect, and with no alibi, he decides to go willingly despite protests from his sister and friends.
Chifuyu suspects that arresting Ichika is simply a ruse and that the main objective was to get the sole male pilot back in the government's grasp again. When Ichika's friends barge into her office to find a way to rescue Ichika, Chifuyu pulls a few strings and sets them on a mission to find and capture the mysterious IS.
In a cell and restrained by an explosive collar, Ichika discovers a mechanical mouse sneak in. A hologram of Tabane appears and she asks if she should break him out. Refusing the offer in order to avoid giving more trouble to Chifuyu, he instead asks for information on the IS that looks like Byakushiki. Tabane reveals that the Pandora is actually core 000, the prototype of all IS cores. When first created, the core showed too much aggression and Tabane was forced to seal it away. She hypothesized that Pandora probably felt anger towards her creator and wanted to exact revenge by framing Ichika, making him easier to find and hunt down. The scientist though shied away at why the IS would go after him and not Tabane herself. Tabane asks Ichika again if she should break him out, but he refuses once more, this time stating that his friends would no doubt find the impostor and clear his name.
Due to the imitating nature of Pandora, it takes the five (six or seven if the Kanzashi sisters are included) working together to take the rogue IS down. Once they present the evidence of the actual attacker, Ichika is freed.
Cecilia Arc:
Cecelia suddenly returns back to England for reasons unbeknownst to her friends. Despite her best attempts at keeping her family fortune alive, her mother's business is in danger of being bought out by another conglomerate due to its long period of inactivity. One of Cecilia's relatives introduces a 'family friend' from another rich family and pressures Cecilia into an arranged marriage to 'protect' her assets. Conflicted by her love for Ichika and the want of keeping her family's legacy, Cecilia enters into depression and her maid calls for Ichika to cheer her up. Ichika is more or less coerced into leaving for England when he discovers that a private jet had already been arranged.
In Cecilia's mansion the two find her father's hidden journal and upon reading the contents, they discover that her parent's deaths may not have been an accident after all. Her father had uncovered something and had wanted to warn Cecilia's mother.
Investigation reveals that Cecilia's relatives had planned the assassination of her parents in order to steal their money. Unfortunately for them, Cecilia had been more resourceful than they had anticipated and her deal with the government had protected her from further assassination attempts. The threat of another conglomerate buying out her parent's business had been a trap in order for Cecilia to marry someone under their control.
With their plans revealed, the relatives pull out their trump card, calling out an illegal squad of mercenaries to kill the two. Battle ensues, leading to a win for our heroes and the relatives put behind bars.
Cannonball Fast:
During Cannonball Fast (basically a racing competition with IS's), the Academy is attacked by Phantom Task. Madoka faces off against Cecilia in a fast pace laser battle, where the blonde achieves second shift. Despite the new power, Cecilia is still heavily injured and Ichika convinces her to leave for treatment while he faces off against Madoka. The ensuing fight is largely a stalemate until Madoka reveals that she is indeed his sister and that Chifuyu killed their parents. Stunned, Ichika is critically wounded and barely avoids death thanks to Chifuyu's appearance in her newly upgraded IS. He remains conscious long enough to witness Chifuyu calmly kill Madoka and wonder if this is the true face of his sister.
When he regains consciousness in the infirmary, he confronts Chifuyu on the truth behind their parents' demise. Chifuyu replies that she did kill both of them but before she could explain further, Ichika slaps her hand away and calls her a monster. Finally realizing what he did instinctively, he attempts to apologize but Chifuyu had already left. From there the siblings' relationship grows distant, purposely avoiding each other and not talking at all unless forced to.
At the end, it's discovered that the attack had merely been a distraction and that Phantom Task's true objective was to break into the academy's inner sanctum and steal some of the intact Golem cores.
IS Academy Invasion:
IS Academy receives a distress signal from nearly every military base nearby. Confusing messages of hundreds of IS's attacking and requests for immediate re-enforcements flood their communications seconds before their radars picks up rapidly approaching objects with signals similar to IS's.
Ichika receives a warning from Tabane and activates his IS seconds before the Academy is engulfed in flames. Giant machines similar to the Golems that Tabane built arrive in droves killing everything in sight. Ichika notices that these machines, while similar to the unmanned IS's, lack an Absolute Defense and can only use physical weapons (ie no energy weapons) and uses Reiraku Byakuya to its utmost after discovering fellow students murdered. After regrouping with Yamada-sensei and his friends, Ichika finds out Chifuyu had used herself as bait to distract the majority of the machines and leaves the group to find her.
He arrives where Chifuyu is, to witness her nearly defeat Sarah before being struck down by Squall, Phantom Task's leader. After Chifuyu is teleported away along with Squall, Ichika nearly kills Sarah, barely holding back at the end thanks to the arrival of his friends. He finds out from Sarah where Squall ran to and that Phantom Task actually wants him to come find them.
Assault on Phantom Task Headquarters:
In the aftermath of the attack, Iris Calling and Natasha Fairs visit, revealing that the entire world had been attacked as an act of force from Phantom Task. The two are forming a strike team to attack Phantom Task's main base and attempts to recruit Ichika. Unfortunately, the boy has entered a state of depression, blaming himself for not helping Chifuyu, especially in upgrading her IS. The two Americans attempt to comfort him but after receiving no response whatsoever, they turn to provoking him. After a few comments degrading his sister's abilities, Ichika blows up. Natasha and Iris team up together against Ichika, revealing that they too have the ability to synchronize with their IS and in order to counter them, Ichika synchronizes with both Byakushiki and Setsura, creating a stalemate. With all three pilots completely exhausted and out of energy, Iris attempts to recruit Ichika again, stating that regardless of past mistakes, his strength would be needed if he wanted to ever see his sister again. Ichika finally concedes, and along with his friends who also volunteered, travel to an American naval base designated by Iris.
At the naval base, Natasha and Iris reveal the United States' secret project: a state of the art naval cruiser integrated with an IS core. As the global attacks had caused many nations to withdraw their IS's for national defense, the strike team consisted of only around twenty IS's. In order to supplement their lack of numbers, the American's hope that the cruiser's superior firepower would be able to make up the difference. On route to Phantom Task's hidden island base, Ichika contacts Tabane and discovers why the terrorist group was targeting him. It turns out core 001 had a failsafe built in that could deactivate all IS cores. Phantom Task wanted the first core in order to make Infinite Stratos obsolete and monopolize the entire world's militaries with the sales of their drones.
Tabane warns that by attacking the base, Ichika would just be going along with Phantom Task's plan. Despite the dangers, Ichika decides to continue with the assault, refusing to abandon his sister a second time. Tabane smiles knowingly and hands all over all information she has on Phantom Task along with the equipment Ichika requested. She wishes him luck and states her regrets on not participating due to the threat against Chifuyu's life.
Closing in on their destination, the strike team is ambushed by hundreds of drones and the group barely holds them back. Ichika is caught between staying on the defensive and supporting his friends, or attacking all out in order to break through and infiltrate the base, but decides on the latter after being yelled at by the girls. In the base, he finds Chifuyu and Squall. He manages to rescue his sister and successfully teleports her away with help from Tabane, opting to stay in the base in order to stop the drones. The final battle against Squall pushes Ichika to his very limits but in the end, he manages to kill Squall and self-detonate all the drones.
In the epilogue, Ichika wonders if he would ever be forced to use the failsafe built into Byakushiki Setsura. He later shakes those thoughts away, stating that he would prevent such a situation from ever happening with the help from all his friends.
General Timeline:
1. IS Academy Festival
2. Laura Arc
3. Tag Team Tournament (Golem Attacks)
4. Rin Arc?
5. Pandora Incident
6. Cecilia Arc
7. Cannonball Fast (Phantom Task Attacks)
8. Houki Arc?
9. Charlotte Arc?
10. IS Academy Invasion
11. Assault On Phantom Task Headquarters
Character Backgrounds:
Kuu (real name is Chloe Chronicle):
The pinnacle of Germany's super soldier program that made Laura. Her body is literally fused with an IS core, allowing her to possess superhuman strength, durability, and senses. Due to her militaristic upbringing, she has developed a split personality: a child mode which Ichika is familiar with and a soldier mode, devoid of feelings. Tabane rescued her from Germany and offered her a home as she initially found Kuu to be interesting and the closest form to what she hypothesizes to be third shift. She sees Chifuyu as a monster from the older woman's ability to subdue her and often wonders if either of them deserves to stay by Ichika's side due their abnormal status.
Katherine Bodewig:
Created from the same program as Laura, she is practically her sister. Katherine has a superiority complex, viewing Laura as defective trash. After being defeated by the silver haired German, she ultimately descends into insanity and joins Phantom Task in order to hunt Laura down. Her fighting style appears to be cool and calculated at first, but Katherine ultimately reveals herself as a berserker.
Squall Meusel :
The former lab assistant of Shinonono Tabane and helped to create the first cores. She eventually got into a fight with Tabane when the scientist refused to use her invention for financial gain and stole some of her research material. Though she does not know how to create an IS core, she has enough knowledge to create a crude copy of the autonomous AI cores used in Tabane's Golems, creating the drones. Her wish is for complete control of every military in the world, allowing her to start and end wars as she pleases and profit from them.
Orimura Madoka:
Unlike her brother, she was treated very well by her parents and viewed Chifuyu as her idol and goal. As such, when Chifuyu payed more attention to her failure of a brother than herself, her jealousy exploded. Though she made it her goal to gain enough strength to kill Chifuyu and Ichika and avenge her parents, she ultimately wanted to be acknowledged by her older sister.
OC sempai in Rin's arc:
Possible character for use in Rin's arc and final battle. An older female pilot who is rather possessive/protective of Rin and acts like her older sister. She would have problems with Ichika as she deems him to be unworthy and attempts to chase him off. Would be skilled in martial arts.
IS ideas:
Schwarzer Zweig:
Katherine's IS and Schwarzer Regen's sister unit. The design is largely similar, with the Zweig also installed with an AIC field generator. In contrast with the Regen though, is the change of all armarments to plasma based weaponry. The Zweig has a large advantage over the Regen due to its ability to stop the Regen's ranged attacks but not vice-versa. Close combat though yields no advantages as AIC fields negate each other when in contact.
Zwielicht Schwarzer Regen (Larua's second shift):
The Regen gains a large shield on its left flank. The shield is capable of absorbing energy based projectiles attacks (to a certain limit) and store the energy. It is also capable of splitting up to reveal a cannon and fire projectiles comprised of nanomachines. These projectiles, when sufficiently charged with the excess energy, is capable of emitting a weaker AIC field, slowing down any target it hits. The AI of the Regen reveals itself to have a bubbly personality, much like Laura's subordinate Clarissa but possesses a militaristic side in battle.
Golems (new version):
The new Golems possess the ability to distort space, allowing it to bypass any shielding at the price of enormous amounts of energy. The distortion can only be applied as a thin layer around their fists, so IS shields are still effective against its long range attacks.
Rin arc's OC sempai's IS:
A close quarters battle type IS complimenting the pilot's martial techniques. Uses similar technology as the Shenlong to compress and rapidly rotate air around its arms and legs. This allows the IS to use its limbs to defend from physical attacks by or deal explosive melee attacks. The compressed air can also be 'thrown' as a medium ranged attack.
Huanghou Shenlong (Rin's second shift):
The Shenlong gains the ability to manipulate flames through nanomachines superheating the air. Along with augmenting its air cannon's destructive abilities by adding flames, it's also able to manipulate the fire for short-medium range attacks. Concentrating the nanomachines on the Souten Gagetsu's edges also increases its power through thermal cutting. The AI has a calm and gentle personality, often chiding Rin for her rashness, but also teases her when Rin gets embarrassed due to Ichika.
Pandora:
The sentient prototype core created by Tabane merged with an IS frame based on the Valkyrie Trace project. Using large amounts of nanomachines, it's capable of imitating other IS's it observes to a certain degree. Second generation IS frames can be mostly copied perfectly, but third generation technology suffer a degradation of power despite looking the same. The rogue IS can supplement this weakness by copying different parts from different IS's and incorporating it all at once. It holds a grudge against Tabane for decommissioning and abandoning it, and seeks to destroy what Tabane created to succeed her: the other IS cores. Knowing of core 001's ability to shut down all other IS's, it imitates as Ichika to frame him and make him an easier target.
Crystal Blue Tears (Cecilia's second shift):
Blue Tears gains a reflective shield bits composed of 16 camouflaging 'petals'. These bits are able to reflect energy based projectiles, allowing Cecilia to preform trick shots or counter enemy ranged attacks. The more powerful the attack though, the more shield bits it takes to reflect it. The camouflaging also distorts when the shields are hit, allowing an opponent to track its position for a second. Cecilia would develop a tactic where the shields would completely surround her opponents before she open fires, trapping the enemy in a sphere of lasers. The IS AI has a sense of royalty and a bit of superiority complex, often acting snooty and refusing to help Cecilia until she pleads. The AI also holds a bit of a crush on Ichika, causing massive headaches for Cecillia.
Raphael Evolution (Charl's second shift *undecided name):
The Evolution's second shift expands on the AIA hammer's technology, allowing the IS to affect any object in close proximity with an AIA field. Using this, the Evolution can increase the impact of all her guns that use physical ammo, augment any physical attack, or boost her speed for an instant. The downside is a relatively high energy consumption rate. The Evolution's AI has a motherly feel to it and is protective of Charlotte.
Akatsubaki Kurenai (Houki's second shift):
The Akatsubaki gains a pair of scabbards for its swords. When sheathed, the scabbards build up large amounts of energy and supercharge the blades, allowing it to release a powerful large scale attack or transfer the energy to the Fold-Out Armour for lightning fast attacks for a second. The AI is a tad shy and adores cute things.
Phantom Task Drones:
While the drones possess energy barrier shielding, they lack the IS's absolute defense, making them susceptible to damage with powerful or rapid attacks. These drones also lack enough power to utilize energy weapons of any kind, forcing them to rely on conventional physical weapons. While inferior to IS's, they are still more maneuverable and powerful than any tank or fighter jet. Their large numbers makes it a credible threat even against IS's.
Kurazakura (Chifuyu's IS)
Upgraded with parts from Tabane's Golems. The Kurazakura's sword now has the ability to distort space as well, practically being able to cut through anything. Speed has also been increased through incorporating multiple jet propulsion nozzles.
Squall's IS:
The research Squall stole from Tabane included her early work on space-time manipulation and over the years Squall has been using this research to create the ultimate IS. It initially possesses the ability to rapidly teleport short distances (long distance travel requires a charge up time and a long cool down time) and create an unbreakable space-time barrier. After Squall breaks into the academy during Cannonball Fast, she also upgrades her IS so that is possesses the same space distortion cutting ability with her sword. The main weakness of the IS is the inability to use more than one ability at the same time. If Squall attacks, she can't defend and vice-versa.
Byakushiki Setsura:
Ichika's requested equipment when they head off towards the Phantom Task base is a packet for Byakushiki that he designed long ago and deemed too dangerous. The warlord packet is a set of disposable armour using advanced malleable crystal technology. With the entire armour covered in the malleable crystal, the packet is able to release laser beams from any point of its surface. The packet includes a high density plasma cannon powerful enough to superheat the surrounding air along with two reload cartridges for a total of three shots. The entire packet runs off it's own power supply, and is meant to be dumped once depleted.
Third shift:
Third shift was something I considered on including. An IS's third shift requires the consent of the pilot as it's a complete merge between the pilot and the IS core. When accepted, the pilot's body is practically reconstructed, enhancing all parameters to IS levels. Compared to traditional IS's, the armour is much smaller, made to fit the pilot and mostly covers the limbs and back of the pilot for flight and movement enhancements.
I was thinking of using third shift in the final fight against Squall. Ichika, would lose a limb in the fight and on the edge of defeat, he orders Byakushiki Setsura into third shift. His third shift consists of no weapons except for the use of Touketsu Koutei. The energy manipulation range of Byakushiki Setsura also doubles.