Chapter 83: A New Normal

Summary: Developing some new tactics...

Warning! Chapters 81-85 all came out back-to-back! Don't miss the earlier ones!

Chapter 83: A New Normal

A week after successfully closing the space-time rift over Gajajima Island, Izumi found herself in yet another surreal situation. It shouldn't have felt so surreal, if the world hadn't gone mad with the invasion, but as it was…it certainly felt very strange to find herself back in a UA classroom. Had it really only been a month since the day the invasion started? It felt like an entirely different lifetime separated the last time she'd sat in the Group A Heroics Classroom and now. The world had simply changed too much since then. Even now, despite the recall of Group A to UA, the class wasn't full. While there hadn't been any outright deaths among Group A, there had been several serious injuries and more than one breakdown.

Their class of nineteen was now a class of just fifteen. Asui had dropped out of heroics when it was discovered both of her half-absentee parents had died in the initial invasion, with their former classmate now facing raising her siblings who had, thankfully, all survived. Koda had suffered a breakdown, not handling the violence well, but had been recruited into a scout group that was helping track new Rifts. It took him off the front lines while still allowing him to contribute, but he was no longer a Heroics student. Sero had been badly injured, though was expected to make a full recovery eventually. Ojiro, meanwhile, had lost both legs below the knee and wasn't expected to recover anytime soon. Someday, he might adapt well enough to his new prosthetics to consider heroics again, but it would likely take him years to do so.

Other students had changed in various ways. Many wore new battle scars, while others had undergone significant changes to their personality. Mineta was far quieter than he had been, Kirishima no longer quite so loud and with his hair no longer dyed red. Ashido had picked up a scar through one eye that thankfully hadn't damaged the eye itself. Honestly, given that she was as high-energy as ever, it really just sort of made her seem more badass. Aoyama was perhaps the most changed in personality, serious and grim instead of 'sparkling.' Others, such as Bakugo, Shoji, and Tokoyami were outwardly unaffected, though it was unlikely they'd gotten out of recent events completely unscathed mentally.

All of them were in costume.

None of them even twitched as Midnight sauntered in.

The days where any of them were less than hyper-aware at all times had most likely vanished for good.

"Hello my darling minions! It's nice to see all of you back where you should be…even if we all know it won't last."

Midnight's voice started with her usual teasing lilt, only to quickly fall into seriousness.

"I'm sure all of you were a bit startled to get recall notices to report back to UA! The invasion of our world is still ongoing, after all, and many of you have come in clutch playing significant roles in defensive lines or Reaction Teams. So why, then, are you all back to school?"

Midnight let the question linger for a moment. It was a good question. One that virtually all of them must have had hovering in the backs of their minds. Izumi had some inkling, but only some, having been too heavily involved in monitoring the aftermath of the Gajajima Island situation to truly keep abreast of the planning. Thankfully, Midnight didn't leave them hanging for long.

"The truth is that you're here precisely because most of you stepped up to the plate and hit it out of the park during the chaos. Now that we've achieved something vaguely resembling control of the situation, there's been a strong call to try and condense the lessons learned and create new action plans that will farther wrestle the world back from the brink. We need not to just get control of the Gates, but to hammer the various villain groups back into line…and deal with the chaos in the rest of the world. That means we need to find more efficient solutions to maintain or better the current status quo, while also freeing up a minimum of ten to fifteen percent of both Heroic and Military forces to start bringing order to the chaos elsewhere."

Midnight let that sink in for several moments. A quick glance around the room showed that the more strategically aware were grimacing, and even those that weren't so gifted in that area seemed to have some inkling of an idea that such force reductions weren't going to be as easy as they sounded. After letting it set in for them, Midnight snapped her riding crop to gather everyone's attention again.

"With that in mind, and given that the UA first year groups have both proven themselves extremely adept at team-based tactics, all of you have been pulled back to UA to workshop a more cohesive engagement plan. Most of you have taken part in Reaction Teams, a few of you have helped with the cordons around the Greater Gates, and all of you have fought in actions against various monsters spilling out of Rifts. Our goal is to create a proverbial playbook that can be applied to a broad spectrum of Rifts, with the goal of getting maximum effect out of minimum force levels. To start, we'll be looking at several examples of both successful and failed Gate suppression…"

The surreal feeling of being back in the classroom, working through theoretical problems, didn't quite go away. Not even when they knew they were working on solving problems that were sadly far from theoretical...

... ...

"Wolf actual, overwatch in place. All members sound off once you're in position."

Izumi listened as her Wolf Squad, her team of seven Heroes and their support, checked it. Eyeing the timer for their fake 'Rift' to open as they did. The prediction algorithm had reached the point where they could now reliably predict where roughly 97 percent of all new Rifts would open. At least for the cases of Rifts that opened from the other side. It would be far more random for anything opened by monsters that slipped the net and opened Rifts via sacrifices. Those more random Rifts would have to remain the jurisdiction of Reaction Teams. But the predictable Rifts, those were the ones that they were currently trying to create a combat doctrine against.

Sadly, all attempts to shut down Rifts with a siphon before they finished forming had failed. In fact, doing so actually seemed to make the Rift harder to close in some way they didn't currently understand. Thus, they had to wait until after a Rift opened, for a set period of about 10 minutes, before they could activate the siphons and start the closing process. It was this window of vulnerability that they were creating a doctrine for. Something that would allow a minimum number of people to contain whatever came through a Rift, place the siphons around said Rift, then last through the closing procedure.

The trick was trying to make the entire process fit in a way that could be universally applied. Something that was causing them to have to completely rework the way Quirks were classified, so that they could make reliable teams that could be expected to close Rifts like clockwork. The goal was to get the teams down to no more than eight heroes and a platoon of JSDF troopers. Currently, the average was ten heroes and three platoons. Which meant they had their work cut out for them.

"Brute 1 in position."

"Brute 2 also in position."

"Fire 1 and 2 both in position."

"Striker in position."

"Reinforce in position."

"Aircap in position."

As the last of their current formation plan checked in, a flier in the form of Kaminari in this case, Izumi double checked their target zone from the air via the overflying drones. Not a Pod, and not even the higher end drones she used normally. These drones were a trio of a more mass produceable model that they were hoping could be turned out for broad deployment, giving every unit eyes in the sky for Rift closures.

"Wolf Actual, all positions ready. T minus 20 for projected Rift opening. Keep your eyes peeled."

Just as with a real Rift, they wouldn't know exactly where this fake one would 'open up.' The hologram projector that would be mimicking the Rift for them was being carried by a tiny bot, which would pick a location within their target 'zone' at random, before deploying its 'rift.' Also just like with an actual rift formation, there was variance for timing, size, and what would come through. Given that the 'enemy monsters' were themselves drones with projectors on them, Izumi could have isolated where they were gathering below the training ground to predict their exit point with her sensors. Doing so would have defeated the purpose of this test, though. The entire point was creating a doctrine that could be deployed by any given field team, not just one supported by Izumi herself.

"Rift projected time elapsed. Eyes open."

As the earliest possible opening time passed, everyone tensed, heads on a swivel as they covered the specific zones they'd been assigned to watch.

"Sighted! Grid C-7! Gnoll surge!"

The report was barked out by Kaminari, and the entire group reacted, twisting from their scattered positions to zero on the 'Rift.' Their reactions weren't quite seamless yet, just three days of practicing the formation not nearly enough to make them so. But it was more than serviceable as Brute 2, Striker, Fire 1, and Aircap quickly coordinated an opening action between them. Kirishima launched grenades even as he dove into engagement range as a Brute, Jiro zipped in from one side to hit one flank as a Striker, and Aoyama and Kaminari bracketed the other flank and airspace respectively.

The coordinated opening strike cleared away ninety plus percent of the opening wave of Gnolls, and seconds later the rest of the team folded around the initial responders. Their second Brute in the form of Sato anchored the opposite side of the Rift from Kirishima, even as the armored APC that made up 'Reinforce' skipped to a stop and it's top-mounted light machine gun opened up. The Platoon of relatively green JSDF they were training with, leavened with a handful of veterans to managed them, deployed in an arc to seal off a third side of the Rift, with the fourth being sealed by a building front. Izumi and Fire 2 helped sweep the airspace, as an unusual number of fliers coming through attempted to swarm Kaminari.

That swarm was the last legitimate threat, with the amount of focused firepower now too great for the enemy to push through, even when a pair of elites came through the Rift near the end of its lifespan. The instant the initial boost that kept them from siphoning the 'Rift' wore off, the Siphons that the remaining members of the JSDF platoon had circled around to deploy flared to life. A few minutes later, the 'Rift' dissolved, leading to cheers from everyone at how smoothly it had gone this time. No breakouts, no fuck ups in their positioning. Izumi nodded in satisfaction and shot Wolf Squad's results off to Nedzu…

... ...

Ten days after Group A had been pulled back to UA, Izumi found herself in another meeting. This time, most of those included were students. In addition to herself, Bakugo, Momo, Setsuna, and Itsuka were all present. Also present were Midnight, Vlad King, Nedzu, and a trio of JSDF Captains that had been assigned to this training operation. Nedzu, as by far the most senior person present, started the meeting with little preamble.

"I've seen the reports on your various formations, but I want your personal feedback. Captain Kusanagi, let's start with you."

The only female JSDF officer nodded and spoke up clearly and concisely.

"My teams attempted to use formation Bravo. It was more effective than the ad hoc approach currently used in the field, but we still suffered several breakouts and sloppy containment, even after the entire duration of testing. I do not believe this reflects on the troops or Hero units, as the same issues were reproduced across the control groups of veterans when they cycled through."

Nedzu nodded and gestured to the next officer, Captain Bosco, who spoke up in a dry tone that left little doubt about his opinion.

"Formation Charlie was a horrific mixed bag, as expected. It proved extremely effective with indoor or underground Rifts, but an utter clusterfuck in a more open environment. My recommendation is that some teams be trained for it, but it not to be the primary focus, as such Rifts are the minority."

Another nod and gesture from the Dean had the final military man, Captain Akagi, speaking. His tone was more jovial, but he was just as informative as the others.

"Formation Alpha was, also as expected, something the inverse of Charlie! It worked extremely well on open air Rifts, but extremely poorly on ones in confined areas such as a buildings or underground. The Aircap in particular became nearly useless indoors, but was utterly invaluable in containing open air Rifts. As did the Striker, though they were still at least somewhat able to be used indoors as well."

Nedzu nodded, seemingly fairly pleased with the reports.

"As expected, then. Alpha and Charlie worked well, with the Bravo middle-line position of attempting to make a truly universal deployment being a mixed result at best. Student commanders, please give your own feedback, starting with you, Miss Midoriya…"

Izumi nodded and started to speak, outlining how her own Wolf Squad had done…