Chapter 86: Counter Force

Summary:Some actual information on the invaders!

Chapter 86: Counter Force

Izumi had needed to spend several days focused on helping entirely too many different groups of people get worldwide production of her RADS arrays going. There had been a nigh-infinite seeming sea of questions. What materials could be used, if certain materials could be substituted, how much the arrays could be scaled up or down, what the effects of containing them inside vehicles would be. Power ratios, manufacturing tolerances, margins of error in the designs, the streams of questions had never seemed to end.

Only two things had kept her sane among the deluge of questions-of-variable-intelligence. The first was that her answers were yielding results. Already, the larger industrial powerhouses like the United States and the Republic of China were pumping out hundreds of RADS arrays a day. It was a tiny fraction of what they would need, of course. Particularly when the electrical power needed to actually use them all was quickly going to become just as big an issue as making the arrays themselves. But it was still serious progress. Serious progress that was already having noticeable effects as arrays were deployed. A particularly clever think tank in North America had even figured out how to use them in the agricultural heartlands that had so far been such an issue to properly support. Instead of trying to shield vast areas, the clever bastards had used the arrays to intentionally shift the local QE currents.

The entire problem with tackling rural Rifts was the relatively low population densities. By the time someone even noticed the monsters, they'd already scattered everywhere, often even having collected enough energy to turn a Rift into a Gate. But that same low population density meant that the QE fields in those areas were mostly the result of global QE 'currents' shifting QE into relative 'low pressure' zones. The clever think tank had deliberately placed a bunch of arrays so that they caused those QE currents to narrow down to a focal point. That, in turn, caused an artificially high area of QE density while lowering the density for hundreds of kilometers around that one 15 km focal zone. The result had been attracting virtually every rift in the entire state of Iowa to that one area, making it far easier to intercept and manage them. It was an admittedly ingenious idea that Izumi hadn't thought of herself, with Japan not really having the same vast empty spaces to deal with.

The point was, she was seeing progress. But better yet for her sanity was the second thing keeping her sane. While they hadn't been willing to pull Momo off combat rotation to help her, Jirou had been rotated off front-line duty. Those rotations were new, something only possible because they were beginning to claw back enough control that Nedzu had insisted on trying to rest people between combat actions, trying to prevent combat fatigue from building up too quickly.

In the first days, in the emergency scramble right as the invasion started, it had been a case of 'all hands on deck, all the time, 25 hours a day.' As the prediction algorithms had begun to work, as more and more siphons had become available, as better team structures and more viable tactics had been slowly put into place, that had needed to change. If they'd kept up with the original, they'd have been faced with more and more of their own forces shifting from 'combat stress reaction' symptoms into outright PTSD. Any solider or hero that ended up going into full PTSD was effectively killed in action as far as the pragmatic numbers of war went. Which meant Nedzu and the JSDF higher ups had pushed as quickly as possible to transition to a combat rotation instead of constant action for all.

Frankly, that rotation was still too short. There were still too many fires in too many places around the world. But they had managed to institute mandatory rest cycles for most of the younger and less experienced combatants on the Heroics side, at least. Which, in this case, had included Jirou. The punk girl had spent the first day of her 'rest cycle' with her parents, but said parents had been forced from their home and into more secured housing without a lot of space. Their home was fine, it was just currently located in a high danger zone. The 'more secure housing' was a stadium that had gone through rapid Quirk-based reconfiguration into housing for those displaced by damage or danger. It was nothing like the desperate tent cities that had been set up in the first few days of the invasion in similar locations. But it was still cramped, with the couple only having a 2.5-meter by 2.5-meter temporary room that included both sleeping and bathing facilities.

As a result, Jirou had been faced with either returning to the mostly empty dorms at UA…or taking up the standing offer Izumi and Momo had given her to crash at their safehouse/workshop. To Izumi's delight, the punk girl had decided on the latter. Izumi was fairly certain either Momo or 2B had asked her to do it, which might have slightly conflicted with the whole 'supposed to be resting' thing. But however it had come about, Izumi was incredibly grateful that the other girl had been there to both vent about stupid questions to and cuddle with.

Mostly, she really appreciated the cuddles. Also, the fact that there seemed to now be an unspoken cuddle-agreement in place. Progress toward infinite Jirou headpats acquired! Admittedly, it was that extremely awesome cuddling that was making Izumi very reluctant to get up from her most recent face-plant into their super-poofy couch, though. Just because Izumi didn't need much sleep, didn't mean she couldn't be mentally exhausted, and she was an introvert darn it! The fastest way to drain her mental batteries was to make her deal with people! She'd been doing way, way too much of that lately!

Thankfully, her fellow-introvert in Jirou understood, and let her cling for a silent recharge until the last minute, when Izumi had to leave for an important meeting she'd been called in for. Reluctantly letting go of her new second-favorite recharge station (Jirou was a great little spoon! But Momo's momos were the best recharge station! She was sure Jirou would agree!) Izumi trudged to the door and smacked her face twice to psych herself up. At least the ridiculous amount of QE being harvested by siphons meant she could afford to just fly over to UA instead of having to call for their still-rather-battered car…

... ...

Izumi looked on in shock, for once not the central focus of attention. Instead, that honor belonged to a non-descript man who was presenting them with the unbelievable. Unlike their usual conference table, everyone who was attending the briefing this 'meeting' had turned out to be, were all facing a large holoscreen. The man, a holo projection himself, 'stood' in front of the screen as the main display cycled through a slideshow of a city on their enemy's planet. The inside of the city and the many people there.

"As you can see, the initial efforts by various Hero groups were an inspiration. A new task force, created from agents and planners of a dozen intelligence agencies, has run with the initial recon successes by joint Heroics and Military efforts. In particular, Taskforce Counter took note that the primary limitation on getting things through invasion Gates appears to be some sort of electromagnetic interference. This is backed up by the groups studying various phenomenon related to the Rifts. With the most detailed data yet having been provided by Midoriya Izumi and the Gajajima Island teams."

He paused to nod an acknowledgement Izumi's way, causing her to blush as attention shifted to her for a brief moment. She still wasn't used to that and might never be. Thankfully, the non-descript man quickly continued and the collective focus shifted back toward him.

"Much like the few who had already succeeded, we dug into the past for solutions. In our case, we had the collective institutional records of several agencies to work with, giving us more options to choose from. We quickly came to the conclusion that our best bet for a more advanced and reliable recon solution was to slip parts of various older technologies through enemy Gates. After casting a very wide net for operatives that would be able to sneak through Gates, we created stealth recon teams, several of whom have Quirks that would let them take other people or items through with them. In example, a Quirk that lets the user shrink themselves and other people for a set duration."

The slideshow behind the man stopped cycling, replaced in a quick flicker with a new image. The enemy city was visible out a slanted stone window…but the more interesting bit was the foreground, which showed what appeared to be a listening post of sorts. Manual telescopes, directional listening devices that were obviously crude-but-functional. Everything was very function-over-form.

"Our expanded teams managed to establish three separate listening posts, two located by cities and a third near an enemy Rift creation site. In addition to monitoring tools, they've been able to use a combination of Quirks and assembled-on-site hardware to transfer gathered data into an old format known as a compact disc, which uses laser etching in polycarbonate to store data. These are then snuck back through gates by various means, allowing the listening post teams to slowly fill us in on gathered data. Data which includes careful scouting expeditions inside the enemy cities."

There was a hungry feeling to the room's atmosphere. So far, they'd been working with bare snippets of data, stolen out of the jaws of impossibility by clever tricks. Finally, they were going to get some real information. Which was an important step toward turning this clusterfuck around. Know thyself and know thy enemy were still two of the most critical pillars of warfare, after all.

"First off, due to providing several people with translation Quirks sufficient samples, we've now got a crude translation for the main language our enemy uses. Which, in turn, means we now know who our enemy is. They are the Empire of Kurrick. A trans dimensional empire that has, in fact, already conquered 17 other worlds. The world we are connected to is their home world, from which they always seem to launch their campaigns. The World of Ziltmach…"

There was a stir, a tightening of focus. Their enemy had a name. Moreover, they had confirmation this wasn't their first try at conquering a world. Given how well executed it had been, the military minds had suspected as much. But this was confirmation.

"As all of you might already be thinking, this is part of where the insane diversity of the invaders comes from. Many of the attacking 'monsters' are simply mutated versions of animals native to an already conquered world. Moreover, virtually all of the more intelligent enemies are slave or servant races, who had been either indoctrinated or bribed into answering to the original race. So far, we haven't actually figured out what the Zilts, the species in overall rulership, look like. Their first conquered species, which is now their highest servant caste and largely in charge of conquest, is a familiar one however."

The holoscreen shifted again to show two Lizardmen. They were one of the intelligent 'monster races' that all front-line combatants had likely run into by now. They were never the first through the Rifts, but they were one of the most commonly seen species to perform the sacrifices that stabilized Rifts into Lesser Gates. Given the way most of the other species seemed to take orders from them, there had already been a suspicion that they outranked most of the other monsters. This seemingly confirmed that idea, at least for now.

The two images were, according to the data displayed, showing the two genders of the species. To be honest, there wasn't that much visible difference. Both had mottled brown-green skin and an only roughly humanoid frame. Digitigrade legs, clawed feet, and equally clawed hands. Roughly scaled flesh and a snout-like face full of sharp teeth. The major difference between male and female seemed to be that the females were significantly larger and had a crest of feathers that swept back along the top of their heads. Izumi had seen those feathers before, but not thought to consider what the difference had been at the time.

"They seem to have been folded entirely into the Kurrick Empire at this point, enjoying their power as the primary hatchet people of the enemy. That, however, isn't the case with every species. We've picked up quite a few whispers that several of the more recently conquered species still having ongoing rebellions."

The displayed image shifted, showing several other species. Included, to Izumi's interest, was the Ogre species that often served as Mid-Level Elites with the more recent Rift and Gate openings.

"Conquered worlds, so far as we can tell, remain 'harvesting' worlds, where the populace is harvested for their QE value. Something that occurs until all rebellion ceases. Obviously, something of a major, if brutal, incentive for each populace to turn on their own rebellions as the body counts pile up. Better to be slaves that can work their way up to being valued servants, than be outright harvested like animals. That's the narrative that the Zilts and their armies seem to push the moment they have enough control."

There was quiet cursing all around as that processed for a lot of people. Thankfully, this briefing was almost entirely for military and Heroics personnel, so it was quickly brought under control.

"As I'm sure many of you are already putting together, service as Elites is one way for a species to work their way up the caste system, trying to convince the Zilts to transition them from harvesting worlds to slave worlds, or slave worlds to servant worlds. The worlds that still have open rebellions, however, may be of use to us later. In particular, that is due to the next point of information I have to bring up. Packets on what we've found will be given to everyone to analyze, but to keep this meeting reasonable, I need to move onto the possible plan of action we've developed based on all of this new intelligence."

The holoscreen images shifted again, this time moving away from displaying races or cities, and back to enemy Rift creation site that was under observation. Abruptly, the still image turned into video and a specific set of Lizardfolk were highlighted. As the clip played, several exclamations sounded throughout the room as waving gestures created a far more stable-looking Rift than anything they'd seen so far, even from stabilized Gates. The Lizardfolk were quick to move through the new mini-Rift, which was barely tall enough for them…and to everyone's surprise the video shifted to another clip which showed that a camera was following them.

The camera, shockingly enough, didn't die as it passed through the far more stable-looking rift. When it came out the other side, the Lizardfolk were already moving, having not broken stride. Whoever was playing spy quickly slunk behind them, following them through what seemed to be some sort of carved-stone passage. There were a few side passages, but the Lizardfolk ignored them, and thus so did the spy. Instead, they headed straight to an open room, a circle perhaps 10 meters across. Hovering in the center of the room, over a stone plinth, was a glowing blood red gem perhaps the size of All Might's head. It was surrounded by ritualistic looking spikes, with pulses of energy flowing from the stone down the spikes at irregular intervals.

The Lizardfolk split up, going to a half dozen places around the room, and the holoscreen froze. The non-descript man brought all of their attention back to him by speaking a moment later.

"This was one of three risky but informative trips taken into what turned out to be the local command and control post for this Rift creation site. From what our team could gather, that gem in the center is called a Harvest Stone. Its job it to do just what it says in the name, to Harvest QE for the Kurrick empire to use. However, more critical to our planned operation, it's also the most critical piece of their Rift creating process. They draw collected energy from the Harvest Stone to create their side of the Rifts they open…and thus it represents the first true weak point we've found in their logistics."

There was a quiet sort of stir at that, as every eye locked on the man.

"That small Rift they open each time appears to be the only way to access the stone, but the stones are by far the most important thing we can currently get at. They are, from what we could determine by translating everything the Lizards said, extremely costly to make and charge. Thus, our goal is audacious. Using what we've learned about Rift stabilization, we intended to Counter Invade through a specific Gate, or even a series of Gates. We'll establish a beachhead at a single Rift creation site and hold it as long as possible. During that time, we want those experts we have that can handle field operations…"

The man nodded Izumi's way again, making her straighten as she realized this was likely why she was part of this briefing at all.

"…We want them to attempt to open what seems to be a pocket dimension that stores the Harvest Stone and steal it once they do. At the same time, we'll be launching spoiling raids at other sites, attempting to both distract the enemy and possibly destroy a few more of those stones. The end goals are to deny them this critical and expensive asset, to force them to fight on their territory, and to hopefully secure one of the stones for our own experts to study. With, of course, the hope that we might eventually be able to open our own Rifts. Either to the enemy home world…or to other worlds where active rebellions are going on. Rebellions we could supply to cause havoc for our mutual enemies."

The man wound down, crossing his arms behind his back in a show that he was done. There were only a few moments of silence before a tidal wave of talk burst out, everyone wanting to ask questions, share ideas, or a dozen other things entirely…

... ... ... ... ... ... ...

A/N: Right! So, I took a small time out last month to get my outline for this story's future more properly fleshed out! I knew where I wanted to go, and some points I wanted to hit along the way, but I needed to get some more detailed thought put into how to get from Point A to Point B without getting lost in Points C-Q in the process. We are now back to two updates a month, going yet, I now have things far better mapped out, with an extremely solid plan in place for the next few updates at the very least. Which should get us through the primary 'Invasion' arc. The invasion isn't just going to magically go away. This isn't an animated DC cartoon episode where the 'we don't kill' heroes suddenly figure out the enemy weakness and brutally genocide the entire invading race, after all!

But, past a certain point, the invasion will be more 'under control' and the UA students will actually return to UA eventually, where they'll switch targets to dealing with all the things the villains have been up to while the invasion ate up all their attention. I even have some content for after that mapped out, based on some changes UA and the world as a whole are going to make in reaction to needing to manage both an extra dimensional invasion and regular villainy.

That's for later, though. For now, we have a few chapters with (I think), a decent mix of exposition, action, and fluff! Yes, fluff! No lemony goodness just yet, but progress along the path to acquiring Infinite Jirou Headpats! Well, in the public chapters at least...the lemony goodness is already in the Early Access stuff ;-)!