Spring 3 – A Wild Tabane

I DO NOT OWN INFINITE STRATOS

|I|

May 4th, 20XX

Charline POV

I glance up from the computer as Char walks in, holding several bags in her hands. She drops them on the kitchen bench and starts rifling through them, before pulling out vegetables and putting them into the fridge. She pauses as she pulls out an apple, then glances at me. She throws it casually at me, before resuming putting things into the fridge.

"I couldn't find any ghost activities today while going shopping, so I think they abandoned Paris. It really does speak poorly of them if they just abandon every city we hit them in." She finishes the bag of vegetables, and moves onto the next one, pulling a cut of meat out of the bag. "There any new information on the network, or has it stayed completely silent?"

I glance back down at the computer. "I think those networks -chomp chew chew- were shut down when the cell stopped reporting in. That or all of the people in those networks were within the cell." I shut down the command prompt for the network login. It's 10:27 AM. She puts away the two bags and opens up one of the cabinets, putting on a small backpack before turning to me.

"Don't worry about it then. We have something else to do, anyways. Follow me, we're going out." I close the lid and slip both laptop and charger into my own backpack beside me. The charger barely fits on top of all the clothes that are stuffed in there, but I manage to make it work before putting the backpack on, throwing the apple in the bin as I walk out. She locks the door behind us as we leave, before going to the stairs and going up. I follow, adjusting the straps so the pack sits comfortably on my back.

"Where are we going? I thought we were on the top floor." We climb up two more flights, before reaching a door. She pushes it open, walking out onto the plain concrete roof beyond. The sun's too bright...

"We're heading to Japan. The moon rabbit decided to meet with us two, both for experimentation and for upgrading some of the tech we have." My mind stops. The moon rabbit…? Ah, right, the…ah, this is bad… "Well, no time to waste. Give me a second." She stops in the middle of the building, standing there, looking towards the river. She starts glowing, and I cover my eyes as the light becomes too much for me.

The light slowly fades, and I put my arms down when it finishes. I see a plane, but no Charlemagne. I walk around the plane, a relatively bulky machine with two inverted wings and a thick body. Two massive thrusters sit in the back and there are weird emitters all over, but I spot no air intakes. I notice two turrets above and below the machine, two of what looks like railguns hugging the body underneath, and four holes in the pointed nose. (It is similar to the Eagle from Elite Dangerous in design.) The cockpit shows two seats, and I spot her working from the one in the front. The aircraft lowers itself a little, legs compressing, before the cockpit opens up.

"What are you waiting for? Hop in. It's not like this plane just landed here, did it?" She finishes flicking switches as I pull myself into the cockpit, the backpack sliding into a compartment to my right. The cockpit closes itself, trapping me in a small air bubble, and I glance to the small mirrors in front of her. She's no longer there, but she speaks up over several speakers. "Don't worry, I'm still controlling myself. Alright, here we go!" I hear thrusters roar before we take off, several heads-up displays showing speeds already exceeding Mach 1.

|II|

I openly gape as we skim the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. How fast are we going! "Where'd this plane come from? I know you're cooperating with Tabane, but this seems a little over the top for her!"

"That's because it isn't her. I am the plane, as I am the IS and the human being." A small hologram of her shows up on the back of her seat as it becomes translucent, granting me vision of where we are going. "If you remember, I said on the third day that I am Human, Infinite and Eternal. This is my Eternal form, a high speed aircraft, designed for dogfighting." A small 3-D model of herself pops up on my right side, slowly spinning.

"Alright. So, where are we right now? Evidently, we're still going over the ocean, but otherwise, I have nothing." We pass through a particularly big wave, the PIC air pocket maintaining a wide disc shape as we vaporize a portion of it. The 3-D model snaps to a forward-pointing orientation, turning slightly as it mirrors Char's current actions.

"We're heading towards an island in the Pacific, just barely in international waters. How nobody's decided to look here for Tabane, I'm not sure, but it's possible she's shooting everyone else down, since there's a fairly obvious exclusion zone around said island." A map pulls itself up on my left, a flashing red arrow heading about an eighth of the way across the Atlantic Ocean towards the North American coast and a small pink dot flashing in the Pacific. "That exclusion zone includes aircraft and marine vessels, so it'd be a perfect place to hide out."

"Wait, since we're going into a no-fly zone, won't we be shot down as well?" I glare at her smirk. "You've got a friendly IFF."

"Yes. Why wouldn't one of her helpers have open access to her location? We just have to ask her to let us in beforehand." She lowers herself partially into the water, and I watch the water partially ride over us. "It just becomes a problem of getting there in the first place without being targeted by long-range radar, since literally no-one flies in that area after the Air France incident."

"We can just cloak through, can't we?"

"We could, but I find that relatively boring. No, we'll skim the water on approach and let the waves break up the radar for us. Which reminds, we're approaching Mexico, so we'll need to get out of the water and into the air." She pulls her nose up and out of the water, flying just above a small boat going the opposite direction, its roof flying off.

"They'll be mildly pissed."

"Who, the boaters we just passed? I'll put on some more speed to make sure we aren't chased. Not that they can fly, heheh." The whine grows a little louder as we pass over a city, the map zooming in to indicate the area's topography.

We arrive near the island when Char next speaks. "Alright, we're here~ Be careful in there, I'm making a rather steep dive!" She rolls herself over and I almost throw up when she pulls up hard towards the ocean. Guh, since when did motion sickness become a problem! I lean forward as we level out, not trusting my stomach to show its acidic side. The chair becomes solid at my touch, before I slowly use it to reseat myself.

"Sorry there~ I hope you don't have motion sickness! Probably should have asked about that beforehand. Anyways, contacting Tabane's lab, I'll be quiet for a little bit while we approach." She slowly lowers herself into the waters as we speed towards the island. I glance towards the small physical radar as we go, watching as it slowly goes haywire as we enter the water. Huh, what's that crackling?

"Char, is that you making the crackling noISE-" The distinctive crack of a railgun firing jolts me out of my seat as a pshwoom sound throws itself over the aircraft. Char immediately throws herself into a hard left, changing her direction and speed hard enough that the followup rails miss completely. A small ding comes over the speakers before she goes even faster, drawing out a small circle on my map.

"Alright, we've been cleared to come in by Chloe-san. A heads up, Tabane considers her island part of Japan, so lead with last names and include honorifics to the people's name. Oh, and best to sit down for this. We're going to be pulling some hard turns, so it'll be better to sit down and enjoy the show~" I slowly sit down, watching the small movie screen in front of me.

She silences the thrust, fully inverts her direction by flipping vertically, and slams open the throttle towards the warship. A targeting HUD pulls itself up, with four munitions gauges also displaying on the right side. All four gauges decrease by one before conducting a small combat roll, several holes spawning inside the ship's outer casing. The guns fire once more before she breaks off her pursuit and turns towards the island, rails chasing us in. She directs herself towards a small crack in the island's supporting structure, slowing significantly before doing a slow roll to let herself in, drifting down the final tunnel.

"…Whoa." She slows to a stop before raising herself out of the water and depositing herself on the side of the cavern. Oh, what a cavern, extending at least 300 metres in radius and 100 up. There's a submarine and several aircraft attached to the ceiling by large chains, and a single-seater fighter aircraft sitting in the corner over there. In the corner opposite it, I see another, fully stripped down to its individual components and surrounded by massive tools.

"Come on Charline, we don't have all day." I shake myself a little, before looking up and realizing the cockpit is open, sliding down the side. I take a look around the cavern again, and notice a pair of metal doors carved into the final corner, with a small nameplate over it and a numpad beside it. Something lightly hits my head as Char walks past me, her hand falling back down beside her. "Come on, we can't be standing around here all day."

As we approach the door, it slides open, revealing a silver-haired girl looking at us. She lifts a small cane from behind her in front of her doll-like dress, before bowing low before Char. Her blue dress smooths itself out as she comes back up again, her cane once again at her side. She glances to me before looking back to Char. She knows… "Char-san, would you like me to lead you to Tabane-sama?"

"It would be much appreciated, Chloe-san."

|III|

We follow Chloe down the twisting corridors, turning left and right fast enough for my head to start spinning. The lack of decoration on the bare steel walls eventually stops at one of the corridors, which has a small pink band running down the middle of it, broken only by the endless numbers of doors and nameplates beside each one. Chloe continues down to the right, but Char turns to one of the doors Chloe passes and pauses there. P104, AI Analyser.

"This is where you sit, isn't it? May the world never break the seal on you, lest it change irreversibly." Her hand brushes against the door, several lines lighting up on her skin, before pulling her hand back and turning to catch up to Chloe. What does she mean by that? Does she mean the AI modifier is behind this door? The nameplate says AI Analyser, so it analysed the AIs within the Cores and modified them, or –

"Charline? You there?" Char's voice echoes over my right shoulder, mirth evident. I turn and look over at her, spotting Chloe standing further down the hallway behind her, looking back at us both. Ah, they both noticed me standing back here, didn't they? I suppose I'll just have to catch up to them.

We resume walking as a group, journeying back through the never-ending maze. Why is it that these facilities are always so large? My thoughts stop wandering when Chloe stops in front of a large door, at least double the size of the others. Char quietly pulls out her blade from nowhere and steps into a defensive position while Chloe starts attending to the door controls. I stare at Char's positioning amusedly, her oversized sword angled with its blade towards the door, drawing a line from floor to nose in front of her body.

The doors creak open a little more, and I turn back to –

"CHAR-CHAN!" Char's on the ground? And is that Tabane hugging her?

"Tabane-san, I brought the person along, now can you please stop hugging me?" Char's using an awfully level tone with Tabane. She glances over me, before resuming her hug.

"Tabane-sama, please don't embarrass yourself in front of guests." Chloe comes over beside me, glancing at my face. I quickly shut my mouth before she comments on my surprise, but she doesn't look like she really wants to. "Lux-san, please do not mind Tabane-sama's actions." Even with the knowledge that she knows, my thoughts slam into a brick wall, jaw unhinging in surprise.

"How do you know that name?" Tabane looks back over at me, looking up and down my body, something evidently processing through her brain. My brain finishes unjamming its brakes when Tabane hugs me with an indiscriminate warcry and I start staring at the ceiling. Char walks over me, looks down upon me.

"Need a hand, Lux-san?" Oh crap.

|IV|

"Let go, dammit!"

"I'm not letting Lux-san go until she explains where she was for the last two years!" Tabane continues hugging me from behind while I try to pull her into her own lab, Chloe having already lead Char into one of the smaller side-rooms to explain to her what I was doing previously.

"Fine, fine! I was looking into the missing Cores, OK? Apparently one group's been going completely haywire in taking all the IS Cores they can. Char-san just stopped the operative I was trying to trail. You know how the procedure goes – kill them, take it and whatever research I can, before sending it off to Kuromochi with a certain message. You never talk to me, anyways!"

"Ehehehe, I forgot about that, teh-het!" She knuckles her forehead before releasing me and walking over to her chair. I sigh and glance around, absently noting the complete mess of the main laboratory. Several loud noises echo out of the room Char and Chloe enter, before pausing. Sigh, what's Char doing this time? I poke my head in when Char rushes out and tackles me to the ground, her broadsword being drawn directly against the bottom of my head.

"Char-san, please do not harm Lux-san. You have not heard the full story." The blade continues throbbing at my throat, her eyes glowing blood-red. OK, holy crap, I've managed to piss off one of the, if not the most powerful slaughtering machine on the planet.

"How many lives?"

I can't believe I'm about to answer this.

"…Six. Only four cores survived." Her eyes go back to their dull shade of green as Durandal dissipates away, before pulling herself up and offering me a hand. I take it gratefully, although I'm not sure if she's still trying to kill me, considering her grip on my hand.

"…Why did you not mention this to me? I would have gotten in contact with Tabane that much faster." I look back down at my feet, cheeks blushing slightly.

"Standard procedure at the time of Lux-san's initiation was to delay sending the Core or any information for up to two months, to ensure the delivery will not be traced on either end. We have lost several informers due to that, although two months were almost up, Lux-san." Her tone turns chiding, and I lower my head even more. "The last report stated you were up against an organised foe and would need to enter their service to attack the target. The fact that Char-san managed to execute them before you means that the Forgotten Knights are becoming more effective at this than the three embedded informers we had, of which Winter-san was one."

"We'll finish dealing with this after I've done what I need to with Tabane." Char runs off to greet Tabane, Cores in hand. I face Chloe again, head looking at her.

"So, what are my orders, Chloe-san?" She glances over at Tabane before answering, watching her put the Cores one by one into a machine.

"That is up to Tabane-sama to decide. However, I believe the informers will be disbanded soon, and it may be good for you to stay with Char to assist her." I nod my head in reply. From what I've heard, the informers group wasn't very large in the first place, and was prone to going after its own members, so this is probably for the better.

"I was planning to do so anyways, considering that group would have put a bounty on my head for not dying. As she said, I've entered the underworld. It's difficult to get out once you're in, so why not go with someone who is already cloaked to both the normal and underworld?" I spot Char's beckoning motion from the corner of my eyes, and I quietly start shifting the conversation over there.

|V|

As we get closer, I start overhearing Char and Tabane discussing specifications of Cores using terminology I doubt anyone could understand.

"…the origin point for the antimatter is not one of yours. Do you think they jumpstarted their own reactor, then used that to provide the antimatter for these Cores?"

"Hehe, does it really matter?"

"It kind of does. It makes the Knight's job a lot easier, after all."

"Heh, I'm just happy none of my AIs are in this thing! The containment is weak! The shift systems are designed outside the Core, not inside! The Absolute Barrier drains too much power!" Char leans back on the bench, staring Tabane in the eyes.

"It's their design style, it seems. More power for less stability in the long run. Any clue who the manufacturer is?"

"Nope, although I'm finding out soon~" Char sighs while I rub my forehead at the exuberant energy Tabane is displaying.

"Well, at least we know why it's able to maintain so much energy to its weapons systems. A parallel circuit instead of a serial circuit in the distributor section here, although I'm not sure why that hasn't seemingly translated to more shield energy for the resulting IS." Tabane's face grows serious, and her entire demeanour changes from that of a lax person to a very serious scientist.

"Well, Char-chan, remember that a serial reduces voltage where a parallel reduces current. The resulting watts have no difference for the shield generator while there's a minute increase in the weapons systems. Of course, that means manoeuvrability is lost, due to expanded weapons systems – one cannot have the Holy Trinity in one machine, although ES do come close."

"Oh, stop pandering. Anyways, I get your point with the wattage to the shield generator. Although, are we still sure they're using the same generators as on the previous model Revives?" Char glances over to my arm, specifically to the small eagle armband, and hops off the bench.

"Well, we can always check. Lux-san, if you wouldn't mind removing your current IS so we can take a look at it?" Tabane wonders over as well, leaning forward somewhat. Why are – No, don't think about it Lux, just remove the IS. I summon the IS before leaning out of it, allowing them to take a look at it. Tabane quickly goes behind it and pulls off several sheets of plating, before looking at the insides and pulling out a small box.

"This looks like a normal generator. Chloe-chan, would you mind bringing the – ah, thanks." She drops the cube onto the bench and manoeuvres the machine Chloe gave her over it, pressing a button and then letting go of the machine. A low tone sounds, before the box expands and the sides fully uncompact. The internals cling onto the walls, unveiling a small blue sphere of energy, which slowly dissipates, showing a small spike. Char then walks over, her arms moving the machine out of the way before dropping another cube onto the table.

"This matches the original schematics. I'll open up the PIC, can you grab the weapon equalizers, Lux-san. Uh, how many weapons did you have on yours anyways?" I shrug and start moving, reaching up to the shoulders to eject the different equalizers.

"There were 6 – two rifles, two submachine guns and two shotguns." I finish ejecting one of the two trios and scamper over to the other side, Chloe-san coming over and pulling them out. Tabane reaches between the shoulder blades to eject a small sphere, but doesn't pull it out until I've finished pulling out the last equalizer. She pulls it out and the IS powers down fully, arms almost pulling themselves off.

"The Revive's offline, and we can analyse this Core separately to the others. Actually, I might give it back to Lux-san after I finish up some experiments with the Core." She glances over to me, then to the weapons equalizers, and perks up. Oh no… "I have an idea! Chloe-chan, how complete is the Fold-Out Armour?" She runs over to one of the benches and starts tapping on a holographic interface, dragging and dropping parts onto a mockup of a person.

"Tabane-sama, all systems planned for Fold-Out Armour are complete. All prototypes of the final product have proven successful in their specific experiment aim, although production of parts for Akatsubaki has not begun." Chloe glances at a certain door.

"Hnnng…Chloe-chan, collect Lux-chan's data for me~ Oh, Lux-chan, look at this! This'll be what you get!" A hologram appears in front of me, displaying a full-body IS suit. Segmented armour plating covers the entire front of the body, overlapping each other in a similar manner to samurai plating. The joints in particular have extra armour off the forearm and shin, segmented down the middle. The back is a simple metallic finish, wrapping completely around the body, while the head is similar in design to a samurai helmet with a large visor covering the face. The headcrest isn't attached, however, creating a motorcycle helmet look.

A glance at the experimental weapons systems show a ballista inside a BiT casing. "You'll have twelve of these BiTs! Ehehehe, time to go produce it~" She runs off into a side-room, the door closing behind her.

|VI|

Chloe walks in front of me, bringing me to a room off the primary corridor. It's a moderately small room, with a small bed in the centre, surrounded by machinery. She goes to one side and starts operating one of the touchscreens, lowering the brightness of the lights before beckoning me onto the table.

"Lux-san, please hurry. I would prefer to be out of this room soon." I quickly slide on and wait for the machines to do their job.

It takes several minutes for them to finish their movements before I'm allowed to slide off the table. Char pushes off the wall as I exit the room, putting the item in her hand behind her back. "Well, the data's been collected. I have one of the early prototypes for the weaponry you'll be using. Here." She passes it into my hands, and I turn the BiT over.

"The different plates don't line up perfectly with one another. Is that intentional?"

"It certainly seems to be, seeing as there's no other forms of propulsion." The door closes behind us as Chloe comes to look at the BiT herself.

"It uses Fold-Out Armour as a means of propulsion. Tabane-sama has already tested Fold-Out Armour's offensive capabilities, but not its defensive or mobility-focused capabilities. Lux-san's IS is intended to test out these two capabilities and find any problems before Tabane-sama starts work on Akatsubaki." Char starts walking back towards the lab, and we follow, continuing to turn the BiT around. It's rather small and flat, and the ballista inside is hard to see.

"Akatsubaki? She's making another IS? That means it's for one of her only friends, then. Houki Shinonono, maybe?"

"Yes." I put the BiT down to one side of the bench, while Char grabs the machine again and resumes breaking open the different components of the Revive. The PIC and weapons equalizers open without any fuss, but she leaves the Core alone with a soft glare. The PIC's internal bubble drops as Char slowly rotates the structure.

"A second-generation PIC, standard for the Revive. Did they only change the Cores? That's quite unusual." She then moves onto the first equalizer, and paws through the components stored there. "Lux-san, do you recognize this weapon?" I take a closer look at it, before pulling out one of the components and turning it over. It's the bolt.

"This was the submachine gun. I'm surprised this is what the equalizer contains, I thought it would have just been a solid drive." I put the piece back before pulling another equalizer over and looking through the parts, before pulling out part of the casing. "This is the shotgun, so the odd ones out must be the rifles."

Chloe takes the rifle equalizers before reassembling one of them. "Lux-san, what were these rifles used for specifically?" I pause in my reconstruction of the shotgun.

"They were mostly long-ranged weapons, either semi-auto or burst." Char starts assembling one of the submachine guns, pausing as she put the bolt within the assembly. "We didn't get much time to train with the Revives, and I wasn't told of any shooting ranges, so I think the others were already used to the weaponry available to them."

"Hm. I'll have to assess your skills at some point, considering I don't know how well you'll do when pushed to your limits. Melee and ranged both. Also, about the equalizers, this is what we consider a half-completed weapon – you'll notice there's no magazine or rounds anywhere. Those are stored in data storage at the bottom of the equalizer, as well as anything they couldn't squeeze into the equalizer normally, such as large weapon casings or components that can't be broken down." Snip!

"I was never that good with melee weaponry, so just doing ranged will be fine with me." Snip! "What's that snipping noise?" I turn around, hand gripping the barrel of the half-completed weapon. Tabane looks back at me, a pair of scissors and some of my hair in her hands. Snip!

|VII|

"Mou~ Did you really have to throw me across the room, Lux-chan?" Tabane finishes pulling herself out from underneath the bench I threw her at, still gripping onto my now-lost pieces of hair.

"You started cutting bits of her hair off, what'd you expect Tabane-san?" She quickly runs over to a machine and puts the hair inside, before closing the lid and tapping on the interface. Chloe walks into my field of vision before turning to the underside of the bench and pulling out a small terminal, looking at results for the Core examination. Char wonders over to observe over her shoulder. Several interested sounds echo from that corner of the room while I continue glaring at Tabane.

"Mn, you have very interesting DNA Lux-chan~ Can I cut one of your fingers off to ex-"

""NO!"" One of her rabbit ears droop.

"Aww~ Ooh, Chloe-chan, I want to see the data!" Tabane then proceeds to teleport across the room before clinging onto Chloe and swinging herself around to see the data on the terminal.

"Well, that explains how they managed to mass-produce these. A bare-bones VI, designed specifically to operate the Core with no opportunity to Shift, although I think that'll likely change in future." Tabane's face pales significantly after hearing that, before slowly turning to face the Core I was using. She grabs it and the other Cores before disappearing from the lab entirely while I take a look at the data. "Wait, these Cores have better processing power than standard Tabane-patterns, so why'd they give them VIs?"

"There may be an answer we never get to hear, Char-san." I return to the weapons bench before grabbing the separate casings for the shotgun and sliding them on. "You said you wanted to do some assessing of my skills?" She nods before grabbing the rifle, checking everything on it in the process.

"Chloe-san, would you mind bringing us to the training areas? Me and Lux-san have some testing and training to do…"

|VIII|

May 6th, 20XX

The cacophony of rounds firing slowly replaces with the sounds of guns clicking, and we remove our ear protection while Char manipulates the targets a bit closer to see our round dispersion. Char's is tightly clustered around the centre of the body, Chloe's is a little wider and mine consists of a circle around the body. Char sighs quietly before moving closer to me.

"You're still reliant on your suit to hit the target. Still, you're getting better without the hypersensor, since you actually managed to hit the target. You want another go at the pop-up dummies?" I finish reloading two magazines before slamming one into the rifle and pulling the bolt. "Very well. Activating hologram setpiece."

Several lights turn on and spin before drawing boxes and barrels throughout the firing range. The dividers pull back up into the ceiling while I reattach my ear protection, shouldering my rifle towards the centre of the room.

Three.

Two.

One.

The first target appears to the left, and I snap a shot at it before shifting to the right, firing three rounds at two targets. From there, it devolves into a hailstorm of rounds hitting metal, concrete and rubber, broken only by the sound of a magazine hitting the floor. The second-last target pops up in the back left-hand corner, and I point and pull the trigger, connecting. The last pops up in the centre of the room, but the rifle clicks empty before I pull the IS-sized hand cannon on my waist and point it at the target. I put down my guns and turn to Char, who's mouthing something in my general direction. She mimes taking off her ear protection and then waits until I do.

"45 targets shot, 61 rounds expended, 35 seconds. Not bad. I think your reloads could do some work, but otherwise nice shooting, and most of your shots hit the target dead on. Chloe-san, any tips?"

"I have a suggestion, Char-san. Lux-san, try using double pistols." A scampering noise echoes behind the door, and we all turn to watch Tabane pushing the door open.

"Ah? Did I accidentally come across a funeral? Aheheh, sorry~" Char rubs her forehead in frustration while I just sigh at Tabane's inability to catch social cues. Seriously, does she not understand any of them?

"We're about to watch Lux-san try using double pistols on a pop-up dummies course. Can your thing wait until after it's done?" She leans forward slightly, hand on the side of her head, before nodding. Does it really need you to think that hard?

"Eheh, sure~" I plug in my ear protection after hearing that, before arranging several hand cannon magazines in front of me. Char slides her hand cannon over to me, nodding as I go through the motions of loading the two weapons. Hers is a revolver-type design compared to my pistol-type design, with far greater impact compared to mine. The hologram activates again, generating a new set of terrain while I fiddle with the revolver's hammer.

Three.

Two.

One.

The first target resolves partially behind a tree, before being blown away by a shot to the body. Several more pop up with sniper silhouettes, small boxes laid against the ground. All get hit by the first chamber, the next few being hit by my pistol while I quickly reloaded the revolver with a single hand. I finish fumbling and immediately drop my pistol magazine, terminating three more targets in the two seconds it takes for me to throw in another magazine. The chained reloads continue for a while before the final targets show up, laser pointer directed at me. Two more cracks of the sound barrier echo through the firing range, before I put down both weapons and readjust my ear protection.

"50 targets shot, 50 rounds expended, 30 seconds. Well done, Lux-san. I think your specialty is in dual pistols. Tabane-san, would you mind adding two handcannon equalizers to Lux-san's IS? I know it had two extra equalizer slots while you were building it." I glance over to Tabane, and for some reason her head is lowering towards the ground.

"Ehhhhh~ Maybe? Anyways!" She perks up, then grabs my jacket before dragging me out. Nonono, stop moving, I'm gonna TRIIIP- crash "It's done~, it's done~, the IS is done~" She literally drags me out, the door closing behind me as we go.

Several bumpy floors and turns later, she finally lets me go, and I slowly push myself back up off the floor. Char follows Chloe in, before pausing at the door and staring at something, hand cannon equalizers under her arms dropping to the floor. I turn to follow her gaze, and spot the IS.

"Tada~ This is Red Lotus~" The hologram, brought to life with full colour. Red armour plating with black suit and well-camouflaged BiTs acting as miniature wings, twelve in all, all faintly glowing a dark red. The leg plating forms one continuous armour plate standing straight up, the arm armour lightly expanding and contracting.

"I used the final prototype of Byakushiki's Expansion armour on this~ Try it out, Lux-chan!" On closer examination, there are two holsters on the side of the hips, large enough for weapon equalizers and normal weaponry alike. Then Tabane presses a button. The torso piece cracks in half, extending itself forward and out. The leg armour splits down the middle, hinging open like a set of saloon doors, followed by the arm armour doing the same. The helmet's armour simply splits down the middle like a sea, pulling itself forward and back around the helmet.

I gulp. Then I walk forward.

|VIII|

I put my back inside the Lotus, arms out to either side to allow it to wrap around my arms, legs placed inside the armour plating, fingers as far out to either side as possible. The armour waits for a second before closing, a wave of ants passing over me as neural relays activate and terminate. A quick scan starts before my clothing disappears, replaced by a thin piloting suit and helmet, followed by the HUD activating. Several screens flashed and disappeared before I could read them, followed by the shield energy values popping up in the corner and the hypersensor activating.

"Movement unlocked. Weapons unlocked. The IS is yours, Operative Light." A light female voice chimes over the internal speakers as an AI portrait lights up on my left. The main screen lights up, showing everything in front of me, including Char's faint surprise.

"Hello, uh…"

"IS Core AI number 550. My name is Electra. Connection with IS Core Network established. Connection with ES Core Network established." My jaw drops while Char turns to Tabane, a curious face peering at the cause of this madness.

"Red Lotus has a new AI, tehe! I finished designing an extrovert AI! If this goes well, I can equip Akatsubaki with one as well~" Char sighs in exasperation before turning to me.

"Shall we head to the training areas and duel it out so you can get your first shift?" I nod and take off for the training areas, monitoring the PIC's effectiveness. Two screens appear to the right, each filled by a familiar face, one scowling and the other…giddy.

"We'll head into training arena two, Tabane-san. I want to see if Lux-san has gotten better in close combat, or if she's still figuring out how to throw a punch." Hey! I can throw punches, it's not my fault you almost break my arm every time I do so.

"Lux-san, I forgot to tell you about some of the features! Okay, so we have the twelve Lotus BiTs, capable of firing lasers. That's the weaponry you have by default, although Electra might allow you to put on those hand cannons soon! Then we have the wraith system, which decreases your visibility to others, and the upgraded hypersensor to help with running around and scanning those people for money, tehe!" Char's face twitches as I land in the training arena, while Electra handily adds those options onto the HUD above Tabane's face.

"We do not go around stealing money, Tabane! Oh, Lux-san, this is your entrance test for entering the Forgotten Knights. We'll be starting as soon as I enter the arena, which is…now!" (Author's music choice (on YouTube): /watch?v=lNS2zC4oqDo) I Ignition Boost away from her while launching all of my BiTs into separate directions, each one's running light growing as it leaves the armour. She comes towards me, thrusting Durandal towards my face while her impact cannons summon up atmospheric disturbances. The BiTs finish clustering together, 3 in a group, opening fire to entrap the target. She changes direction and flies above, moving to maintain a positional advantage over me. In response, my left hand twitches, sending the two outer groups to flank her, while the other two stop firing and reposition above me.

Her impact cannons fire as I dodge to my left, the larger cluster of BiTs scattering and reforming into their two groups while the flanking groups laid down suppressive fire. She summons her 8 Caliburn BiTs and throws them towards one group before charging me with Durandal split in half. The cluster opens fire, forcing her to change her movements while her Caliburn BiTs chased retreating Lotus BiTs, suffering casualties.

"Well done, well done. Eat this!" How much longer are we going to duel!? I glance at my shield energy – 750, still at maximum. Still don't want to be hit. I move away from the impact zone as the impact cannons fire, ducking back into the dust that it kicked up while engaging the wraith system. I directed my cluster of BiTs to split up while firing, hopefully distracting her from WHOMP nope that didn't work. The impact cannons push me back towards the entrance, expansion armour re-expanding automatically while the wraith system cooled itself down. I take another glance. 580 points left.

"That was smart, but it won't work against ES. Try again when you're in the field!" Electra pings me with a small notice that the Caliburn BiTs have all been destroyed and that there seems to be two equalizers sitting at the door. I direct the BiTs into distracting Char while I go to pick up the equalizers, stuffing them into the hip holsters before re-entering the battlefield.

"New equalizers detected, weapons unpacked and ready." The two handcannons generate into my hands. Excellent, now just to find Char. Several impact cannon rounds fire into a group, drawing my attention back to her. One of the HUD elements goes dark as I spot her and open fire with my dual revolvers, impacts splashing up against her shielding. She turns to me and throws Durandal at me, summoning her concussion cannons in the process. SHIIIING I manage to bat away the blade, but only after another 400 points have been claimed from my shielding, and by then…

"Grin and bear the pain, Lux." 2 concussion cannons and 3 impact cannons fired their rounds at me, ignorant of the constant stream of high-velocity plasma bolts splashing over her shielding.

100 metres away. My left handcannon clicks, echoed by the right handcannon a trigger-pull later.

50 metres away. Both eject their spent casings before I flick the two cylinders back into the frames.

25 metres away. "Optimization of settings is complete, initiating formatting. Formatting complete, proceeding to activation." What?

WHOMP.

|VIII|

"IS first shift activated. Electra is now ready to assist." What? "What do you want me to do?" What? I blink before glancing at the HUD. Electra's now permanently a part of it, if that UI change has anything to do with it.

"First off, can you locate Char and dissuade her from attacking using the BiTs? We'll need some time to coordinate changes." You can just communicate to me using your thoughts. Uh, sure, fine, ruin any semblance of privacy.

While Electra disrupted Char's movements, we coordinated reorganizing the HUD and verifying any new changes that occurred. The armour rippled several times during the process, before Electra notified me of the major changes: the BiTs were far more capable now, having equipped both laser and plasma-based weaponry, a very slowly recharging shield and a maximum speed just above the speed of sound. The armour itself had become better, with Fold-Out Armour emitting around Expansion armour plating, with highly upgraded plasma emissions to generate more shielding and higher speeds. Overall, the Red Lotus became thinner, and the helmet adjusted to compensate, becoming little more than a thin plating over my head, with several asura-style face masks on it. The hand cannons would be upgraded separately by Electra, considering there was very little battle experience stored in the weapons themselves, but several pulls of the trigger in Char's direction proved they had no errors.

"Did you first shift? You must have. Very well then, take this!" I sense another mass of atmospheric pressure moving towards me before I move towards them, ducking underneath them. My handcannons begin roaring in Char's direction but lands on arena shielding, her having ducked and dodged her way towards Durandal. She picks it up before turning to face me, broadsword over shoulders, watching as my BiTs fly in formation beside me.

"You ready?" No. "Here I come!" I said no.

She charges towards me, lowering herself to the ground in the process. The BiTs open fire, their rounds going all over the place, several hitting her. My handcannons fire towards her, hitting naught but the dirt around her. She enters melee range and swings Durandal down then up, aiming for a straight hit. I jump upwards before boosting back down, aiming for a swing at her head. Durandal swings from the side, and consumes the rest of my shield. Ow.

"I…wow, that was good. That was really good, easily more than what I was expecting. That required the backup generator to kick in. You ended up taking the equivalent of around 6000 shield points." Ah, we did good. Shut up, Electra, that last hit hurt. "Still, you need training. It was good, not excellent – you have no melee skill, you were unable to draw me into a crossfire and you were unable to capitalize on me having lost my main weapon."

"Still, your skill leaves me with only one question." She pauses, her head cocked while she thinks about something, then evidently dismisses it.

"How would you feel about joining the Forgotten Knights?"

"Yes. You're a part of it, and since I'm technically unwanted by the underworld, it'd be best to stick to others who are in the same situation – namely, you." I get no choice in the matter? It wasn't really a question, though.

"It'll have to be informal until we can get the Knights together for a formal invocation."

"I don't care." You're going into this quickly. I was already willing to do so, ever since Paris.

"Char-san, the plane and simulators are also ready for use." I turn, seeing Chloe standing in the doorway, cane in hand. I see Char grinning from the corner of my eye. This isn't going to be good.

|END|

Author's Note:

This was initially intended to be another base assault. Yeah, no, that's boring there's been so many of them. The next proper one that's planned is within the third-year arc, so it won't occur for a long period of time.

Oh my god, Tabane is hard to write. She doesn't understand sarcasm, doesn't get social cues, is extremely energetic – basically the polar opposite of me. Actually, quite frankly, she scares me – she has no regard for society, or what she unleashed upon it. She does not care what the results of those using IS Cores maliciously are. And she only cares for a specific number of people, doing all she can to get them situated as best as possible.

I've basically had to give a reason why she doesn't care for the IS Cores – because there are ES, and she sees them as the future. Of course, she still cares for those specific people, meaning she'll give others substandard gear to ensure that for those special ones they get the best of the best. Which Lux got (substandard gear) – what she has on her IS is basically to collect the last of the data for Akatsubaki. The name Red Lotus was chosen because the lotus isn't native to Japan, giving the idea of a machine not built to be top-of-the-line, but to prepare for it.

As for who Charline-san, or Lux-san, is, well, she's one of Tabane's acquaintances. Basically, she was ordered by Tabane to follow up on her Cores, and watch for Cores going mysteriously missing. If one did, she would try and follow up and regain it, before shipping it back to Tabane for redistribution. Of course, she was almost immediately forgotten by Tabane, and when Chloe arrived, she took over that portion. And as for why Lux wasn't identified at any point before, Char actually gave her the name Charline – she never asked for Lux's name, and Lux never bothered to identify herself.

Finally, sorry this one wasn't on "schedule" – its length…well, is excessive and far longer than I usually write (8.1k to my usual 3k or thereabouts). Its length also makes it a little inconsistent in the quality of writing - I'm already noticing a few bits towards the end where Lux goes partially out-of-character or has no explanation for a certain action (and now I absolutely must rewrite the first bit because there is a lot more to Lux than I've written, dammit). The two straight after this will likely be delayed as well, due to the expected size of the chapters and the fact that my exams are coming up. Nooooooooooooo~

Now, reviews!

Kerlongsj: I've thought of a lot, yes. I'm actually having to go back and rethink the concept of the story somewhat, since a lot more characters than I anticipated got added in at some point...Of course, I completely forgot about the Gospel's pilot when I was writing that bit, so now I have to somehow explain how she survived 3 months without food or water...*sighs* I wish I could just handwave some of this background creation I'm doing.

Date Started: 12/09/17 (DD/MM/YY)

Rewritten: 3 times (First a change in chapter choice, second an early partial rewrite, third a partial rewrite)

Date Completed: 07/10/17 (DD/MM/YY)