Just went thru a enjoying re-read and throughly enjoyed it just as much as the first time. Can't wait for some more situations between Church and his "Harem".

Also glad that Marcus hasn't bit the dust. I'm sure Cerberus is aswell.

Hope to see another update soon.

Peace.

Good to have you back looking forward to the next year of content.

Love

Well that was a very nice plot twist you had in their were the "good" guys were trying to save the day by killing unit A2 with the very important AI. Just read this wonderful work over the course of a few days. Let me tell you that you done a wonderful job. I think one of the main plot twist will be the fact the AI got damaged during the cold nuke. When it repaired itself it did it to the base standards built by Marcus and not with the commander add commands which most likely be still their but damaged. (I am guessing one stop it from exploding in ) Which would be could lead to a very nice story if written well. I think the real screw over will be that Church would have pointed out that part of the Geneva Conventions were the soldiers are required to go against crazy commanders and orders. I totally see Marcus adding a override function to follow the international law as Church is basically a cyborg. On the note of the main plan I see two different ravens one for IS pilots and one for regular humans like Church their job is to turn selected humans into cyborgs and have Valravn basically eat their minds to grant new skills to the AI forces. The IS pilots will become like the silver gospel adding to the AI forces. Well honestly I personally think the commander rushing his mad dream. While it may work at the start with his mass drones and the picking off of IS pilots then turning them and arming X units. Everything based on prototype equipment that has been built for certain people. The commander going to use this tech on the regular masses making a massive network which will break down sooner and start rotting. The massive network will then cause errors then a virus will come to play and cause the network to crash. If not that then someone going to hack in and destroy the network. Phantom Task might know all this and helping out cause once the network goes down they can collect IS and go about doing whatever they want while world war 3 rages. Well great story!

So, after about 10 days of reading off and on I finally reread the whole story. Yes, the whole thing takes on a different tone now, especially with the reveal this chapter and its a doozy. My guess is that Exeter and Cerberus are really a lot more powerful than has been realized at this point. Cerb is some kind of expanding super AI, who can probably learn, adapt, and take over Church if need be as it becomes the ultimate weapon, that sort of thing? Perhaps the part about ravens eating the dead and gaining human knowledge means the end game is to consume Church's very mind to learn and grow?

Also, if Church just had a birthday does that mean he's 18 now, considered an adult, and perfectly fine to pursue Chifuyu in any country? No reason for her to say no on account of age anymore. Oh what a pipe dream, but a damn good one. I really think they have an excellent dynamic.

Between Umbra Stratum, Phantom Task, what is sure to be some behind the scenes involvement from Tabane, Church's own growing independence, and whatever Chifuyu knows, it'll be interesting to see who is playing who.

I remember watching Infinite Stratos as a teenager, just browsing through whatever was airing during the season and deciding to give this series a show. It wasn't the best, nor was it the worst, it occupied a space that can only be described with a half-hearted shrug and an "It was alright, I guess." I watched the second season out of a mixture of completionism and obligation and, much like the first, it left me feeling very much the same in the regard that Infinite Stratos was nothing special. Too much potential was lost or thrown to the wayside for the sake of harem antics, something I disliked as it seemed like none of the girls (save for Houki, and Charlotte on a few occasions) were ever making any real progress towards an actual relationship with Ichika. The protagonist was just too dense, too much of a damn blockhead, to ever put the pieces together and make a move on any of them even if none of the other girls were to interfere. As a whole, the entire thing left a bland taste in my mouth, like the taste that comes after accidentally licking the rim of a styrofoam cup while drinking from it.

Your story, on the other hand, couldn't be more the opposite if it tried. It's like an explosion of various different flavors, with each one being used carefully for the sake of not overwhelming or overpowering the others. A precarious balancing act that you pull off with an enviable amount of both skill and finesse. Something that I especially appreciate is that every scene feels organic, with little unnecessary padding or fluff for the sake of meeting some arbitrary word count. Scenes end naturally and without dragging on until they've overstayed their welcome. There's a real purpose to every line of text or dialogue, whether that be for the sake of laying the foundations for the next encounter between Church and Phantom Task's shadowy agents, elaboration and further explanation of Umbra Stratum's machinations and what the organization's true goals are, or the relationships developing between Church and the rest of the story's cast as he grapples with the internal conflict of where his true loyalties should lie.

There's more—so much more—that I could gush over, such as how Percival Church feels like such a breath of fresh air as a protagonist compared to Ichika's absurd denseness when it comes to all matters concerning women; the realistic way you've approached how a dense harem protagonist would steadily lose the attention of the girls he unintentionally courted by way of simply being too oblivious to notice how his lack of attention/common sense would slowly push them away; how Church feels like a natural fit to the group and introduces a new dynamic to it; the amusing banter between Church and Cerberus as the AI learns and continues to adjust itself to its operator; turning me from someone that didn't care much about Rin one way or another while watching Infinite Stratos to absolutely adoring her; the list goes on and on. But, for now, I'll end it by saying that I very much look forward to the next update and I hope that it maintains the high standard of the chapters that have preceded it. Cheers and good luck to you in all of your future endeavors.

First, let me say it's good to have you back! Once I got the notification for this chapter, I had to do a double take. To be honest, it really hasn't felt that long since the last update. Probably because of travel and work.

Regarding the "new plot" it's got me excited, hearing that we'll be getting some more information on Church's life prior, and knowing that you got big plans for this story is fantastic. Also the remark on "a certain popular ship" my guess being Chifuyu or Charlotte, is once again music to my ears. I am banking on Chifuyu though. Overall they both deserve the love. Hell all of them do. I do have to ask if we can expexcted some darker tones within this new plot?

After reading this chapter I can't help but wonder if the girls will go to far with Church's surprise party. Also noticed more development with Church and Charlotte, I wouldn't mind those two together one bit. I would support that decision 100%. Especially after those smooth remarks by Church in a previous chapter.

I will be sure to check out that link tommorrow, once Im off work. life keeps you busy, you know. Once again it's great to have you back! Also whats wrong with red velvet Church?

Welp I just binged this in a day so hooray gotta say this feels like cannon or how it should’ve been Plus I agree with ya hoki does feel like the main pairing ah classic childhood friend and her bust sure helps anyway church is a great oc heck I love how he deals with everything and ship him with Chifuyu cause it just feel like it work plus the interaction between the two felt pretty genuine sure the age difference is there but he’s 17 or 18 Ben while since you said his age I’m pretty sure at the beginning it was 17 anyway at best the two could date and wait till he reaches 20 before going further with that outta the way gotta say his Exeter is interesting the idea of a Knight now that kinda supports the Chifuyu ship so Cerberus has kinda become my favorite thing about this fic it’s obvious he’s evolving slowly but surely how that will benefit Church I’m curious about and that’s all I got keep up the good work.

Reading this... I can't help but wonder why they didn't really mention the American's in the anime or manga.

I mean, even if the creator of the I.S is Japanese, that doesn't change the fact that America is a World Power... and for good reason.

Glad to see this back up

Well shit, guess I need to reread the whole story again. Because I’m a little confused as to the relationship between the commander (human one), valravn and Cerberus (who is apparently valravn? The whole bit this chapter about that was weirdly structured so I wasn’t sure if Marcus was saying the commander was Cerberus or Valravn was Cerberus).

Oh, silly me. Bemoaning an excuse to go back and read this lovely little gem of a story :D
Glad to see it’s back up and running!

You know, the story is really well written so I don't mind having to re-read it.

I also applaud you for actually going through with a story revision. Many authors write themselves into a corner, prompting them cancel or just abandon it. You actually made the necessary revisions to the plot for ity be coherent and set up an endgame for the story. Well done!

Ok, it is nice to see you again and wow, another fanfiction that rebooted itself. So far, the changes are small, but they do build up. Church's personality seems to have changed a good amount as now he seems a little more open. While he still hides crap, as the girls are just as annoyed as I am which results in Rin and Charlotte telling Church what they are planning for him. I don't think I will ever like Cerberus because the original put a bad taste in my mouth BUT I think they are not as annoying as before, I could be wrong though. The military are a bit more interesting instead of being generic American army 101 and the new hot woman coworker is a great new addition. In the end, the changes definitely fixed parts of the story and shed some light into some questions that did not get answers in the old version. Will check out the rest and see if the changes will still be good by the way we reach your focused endgame but keep it up!

I can understand your contempt for Ichika and Houki. In all seriousness, they are likely the two most stubborn & static characters in the entire IS Academy pool of characters that are teenage pilots. In a weird way, it makes sense that these two characters are absolutely made for each other.

Have we really gone almost a whole year without an update to one of the better IS fics on this website?