Chapter 141: An Unexpected Call for Help
Warning! Chapters 140-145 were all posted back-to-back! Returning readers, make sure you pick up the story in the right place!
Chapter 141: An Unexpected Call for Help
Izumi and Momo found themselves in Nedzu’s office for the first time in…a month and a half? Roughly that, anyway. With them exiting the Hero track, they’d had less and less exposure to the mammal of questionable origin, and most of what they did have tended to be via conference call when dealing with larger issues. This wasn’t that, instead having been a private request from Nedzu that had caught them off guard. As it happened, given that the introduction of 21O and 6O had streamlined and sped up work on Refinery 1, to the point they had just finished their part of things well ahead of schedule, the pair of them hadn’t seen any reason not to honor the request for a private meeting.
There was a certain nostalgic quality about accepting their favorite teas from him. Even if it had really only been a little over a year and a half since first entering UA, the events that had happened over that time had made it seem much longer. In a way, it felt like entire lifetimes since they’d first entered as Hero students. In other ways it felt like just yesterday. As they sipped appreciatively, Nedzu put down his own cup and addressed them with more than the simple greetings they’d started with while accepting their teas.
“I imagine the two of you are quite curious about my personal request for a meeting. In truth, while I think the matter is an important one, I find myself in a situation where the official framework for dealing with something is…nonexistent. In part due to my own efforts, ironically enough.”
Politely putting down her cup and tipping her head, Momo spoke for both of them.
“You said it had something to do with a distress call, of sorts? I admit I’m having a hard time imagining a situation where a distress call would fall outside normal purviews.”
Nedzu sighed, his whiskers twitching in an unusual display of stress. Something he would normally never allow to become so visible.
“As I said, partially my own fault. You see, the distress call came from Australia. Specifically, it came in the form of a visit from one of the more intelligent Quirked animals of the island to the floating trade station that…interacts with them. Are you aware of its existence?”
This time it was Izumi who replied, having herself been fascinated to discover the phenomenon when she was studying Quirks in general.
“Yes! The Quirked animals of Australia first approached a few ships that got close enough to their waters, and resulting negotiations with some of the most intelligent resulted in a sort of limited trade. Eventually, a permanent floating platform was built where the Quirked animals with human or near-human intelligence can come to trade for certain refined goods. The trade is minor, but has attracted all sorts of scientific attention over the years, given that it technically represents trade with a newly emergent intelligent species. More than one species, in fact.”
Nedzu nodded, chuckling a bit as Izumi’s obvious enthusiasm for the subject.
“Quite correct. As you might imagine, I’ve been quite interested myself. Indeed, I’ve championed keeping the borders of Australia as neutral territory that belongs to the Quirked Animals there, helping defeat several efforts by the less scrupulous to try poaching from the population there.”
Izumi and Momo both nodded at that. They hadn’t specifically known that little detail, but it was certainly in line with Nedzu’s other efforts on behalf of Quirked Animal kind. For that matter, he’d been one of the driving forces for Japan to recognize some Quirks as having sentient rights. Something which 2B and Izumi certainly appreciated the results of.
“Now, initially, despite the Quirk Energy density being exceptionally high in Australia, the Empire either avoided opening Gates there…or may well have been quickly defeated by the more dangerous wildlife. Unfortunately, that appears to have changed.”
Izumi frowned, already able to see where this was going. Suddenly, Nedzu making this a personal request and his comments about the situation were making a lot of sense. Speaking up to move the conversation along, she outlined her realization.
“Australia is an unadministered territory. Essentially ceded to the local animal population by international treaty. The World Hero Association has no jurisdiction or representation there, and neither do any governments. If the Quirked animals are under assault there…”
Nedzu signed, took a sip of his own tea, then shook his head and picked up where Izumi had left off.
“It’s a bit worse than that, apparently. The representative sent to ask the trade station for help indicated that the Empire has been raiding for captures through a number of Lesser Gates. Since the animals there lack the ability to close them easily, even if they can and are fighting back, they are effectively being harvested. Worse, they are targeting top predators as much as possible, making me think they are looking for new weapons.”
Izumi and Momo both grimaced at that thought. There was a reason, a very good reason, that Australia had originally been abandoned during the Era of Chaos. For whatever reason, there had been an extremely high rate of Quirked animals there…and the animals on that really-should-be-called-a-continent island had already been sort of horrifying. A number of animals that had gained the ability to boost their entire pack/herd, combined with some mad science type that had released a mutagen that made everything there grow? Male saltwater crocodiles had been able to regularly reach 6 meters in size before the mutagen. After it? Some of them had grown to be nearly twenty.
Nor had those, or the croc named Blimey who had developed intelligence and somehow built an army of sorts out of other Quirked animals, been the only species affected. Incredibly lethal spiders now the size of wolves, some of the world’s most venomous snakes sized up to match anything in the Amazon, upsized dingos, cassowaries and bulldog ants. Which wasn’t even getting into the ocean life. Thankfully, whatever had affected the animals hadn’t spread to sharks or other wide-ranging species. It had upscaled things like the blue ring octopus, a few species of local jellyfish, and stonefish, though.
In the end, even the vast majority of the locals had ‘noped’ out and evacuated to elsewhere. Small numbers had stubbornly tried to stay, and theoretically there might still be people there somewhere. If there were, however, no one had been in contact with them for at least a century, and their tech level had fallen back to the stoneage at best. Far more likely, the remaining humans had died out or been killed off, leaving the Quirked animals in charge.
The last thing the world needed was the Empire getting its talons on four meter tall, Quirked, cassowaries as cavalry mounts. Let alone to find out what sort of horrors they could come up with some of the more exotic things that might have come out of places like Tasmania. Trying very hard not to think of what she knew of the creatures that had once lived on that particular island, Izumi tried to respond calmly.
“You want us to respond to the distress call, find out what’s going on, and possibly come up with a way to disable Gates there? Or to allow the more intelligent Quirked animals to run siphon sets?”
Nedzu nodded, looking serious as he replied.
“Yes. Sending active Heroes off the battlefield would be hard to manage, sending large numbers is unrealistic, and sending anyone weaker than you two without numbers to back them up would be more likely to end up with whoever I sent dying without accomplishing anything. The two of you, with Miss Yayorozu’s ability to build defenses or provide siphons in place? You stand a good chance of resolving the situation entirely, quickly, and without the Empire being able to take advantage.”
Silence settled for a few moments as Izumi and Momo looked at each other. This wasn’t exactly a small ask. Not just because, even for them, Australia was potentially dangerous. Mostly, admittedly, because they’d be going into a lot of unknowns. Which didn’t even mention the diversion this was from their work on the various space going efforts and development of the mech line.
Yet, the space going efforts were actually stalled for the moment while others finished their part of getting Refinery 1 online. Shipyard 1 would be next, but that was a much larger project, and they really needed the Refinery online to start harvesting the near-earth asteroids that the Drone fleet had started the capture process on. There was a limit to even what a One for All boosted Momo could make, and the planned Shipyard was beyond that limit if they wanted to make rapid progress. Refinery 1 and Forge 1 working together could and would make a good 45% of the more finicky shipyard components, leaving Momo to just the structural bits, which were easier to make.
Because of that, and equally because they’d finished Refinery 1 a week early, they had a gap in their schedules. One that would last as much as three weeks, possibly a full month at the outside. They’d intended to shift to working on the Mech project in the meantime…but even that was well in hand at the moment as it turned out that 21O and Melissa complemented each other insanely well. The pair had already worked up a Mark II design for the Shieldmaidens. Heck, they were even creating the barebones of a second mech model that would fill more of a scout and rapid response role. Izumi and Momo could certainly contribute. But they weren’t critical at this juncture.
On the other hand, stopping the Empire from gaining access to Cassowary Cavalry sounded pretty important. For that matter, just the amount of QE that the bastards would be able to harvest from the island was horrifying for their long-term plans. No, something had to be done to stop that. Exchanging a tiny nod with Izumi, Momo was the one to speak up for the both of them.
“Alright, Nedzu. You have our attention. We’ll help, so long as we can pull this off in no more than a month.”
The dean looked relieved, and soon they were talking about what information he had and what their best approach would be…
… … …
Thankfully, since they had already been in the process of switching projects, it had only taken a day and a half to hand off various secondary operations to others. 2B actually had the most of that to do in that regard, as they weren’t sure how well she’d be able to connect back even via satellite to various ongoing efforts. Thankfully, 6O and 21O had already taken a lot of the load from her regarding the juggling of worldwide communication, logistics organization, and juggling the results from various think tanks. The Operator units were far better at that sort of thing that 2B was, even with 2B having gained over a decade of experience, so handing most of that sort of thing over to them had only been common sense. 2B had retained plenty of personal projects and input into various tactical think tanks, strategic committees, and more. But she wasn’t in charge of any of those, leaving her able to hand them off to the other Androids at least temporarily.
With that done, the method of insertion into Australia had needed to be sorted. There were plenty of airborne creatures that wouldn’t take kindly to them arriving in their territory, so the only real way to approach was by water. Which, to be fair, was also where their local ‘guide’ was to be found anyway. Nedzu had arranged for a fast transport out to the Menagerie Trading Platform, where the ‘distress call’ had originated. Currently minimally staffed and never exactly a tourist spot, the heavily armored floating trade station was their immediate destination. After that? Well, that would depend on what the cockatoo who had apparently arrived with the message had to say.
They were certain it would prove to be an interesting experience…