Chapter 93: Turn of the Tide

Summary: There are still other problems waiting in the wings...

Warning! Chapters 92-95 were all posted back-to-back. Make sure you don't miss any!

Chapter 93: Turn of the Tide

It had been a lovely vacation, Izumi thought as she stepped back into a large conference room. Pity it was over now, though at least this time she had Momo with her and fully briefed on everything Izumi knew. Her girlfriend was far better able to deal with people in general, and doubly so the politically powerful, than Izumi was. Thankfully, even after their two weeks of mandatory leave time, Momo had been assigned to lighter duties with Izumi, instead of being sent back out to the front lines to fight. It wouldn't last forever. Not for either of them, given that both of them were heavy hitters that no one could afford to sideline from the fighting entirely. But they both also possessed other skills, which they'd been putting to use extensively in the last few weeks since their true vacation had finished.

Of course, how that would change was something they were likely about to find out. Both of them were high ranking enough in the extremely nebulous Heroics chain of command that they'd had access to the daily briefs on the war effort. But there was a big difference between that and attending the various meetings that Izumi had been part of previously. It seemed, from those daily briefs, like things had been going well over the last month and a half since the original Bristol Gate counter invasion. But, well, there had also been a number of sweeping complications as the enemy adjusted their own posture. Both sides were settling in for a long pounding match after the Empire of Kurrick's first blitzkrieg style invasion had faltered.

This meeting was one of the higher-level ones. The type that both briefed policy makers and got the ball rolling on new policies. That said, it was a regional meeting, rather than a global one, which meant that Nedzu was chairing as the closest thing to a neutral party. There were World Hero Association reps presents, along with some ranking members of not just the JSDF, but other Asian militaries as well. Izumi, along with Momo and a few scattered scientists and logistics people, were here mostly to answer questions and provide technical advice.

As the last few people trickled in, it was Nedzu who opened the meeting.

"Ladies, gentlemen, others. All of you are aware that this meeting is to discuss how our operations are going to change going forward, based on the new developments over the last two months. Our enemy's move to a new operational tempo and method in response to our counter invasion, combined with the slow but spreading creation of Safe Zones via RADS Arrays, has led us to the point that we need to adjust our own operational stance. General Utsumi, if you would describe the change in enemy approach briefly for everyone?"

The JSDF-liaison nodded and stood. As everyone was already aware of most of what he was about to say, he didn't bother with a proper presentation, instead simply highlighting the details.

"As predicted somewhat by the Harvest Stone research team, our counter invasion led to a fundamental shift in enemy methodology. Said methodology wasn't instant, instead being a rolling change. But it appears to now be complete. Instead of mass Rift openings that connect directly between Ziltmach and Earth, they have switched to a dimensional bubble model. As of this moment, it has been several days since the last non-bubble Rift has been reported."

The General let that set in for a moment, before going on, expression showing mixed emotions.

"While this has dramatically lowered the number of Rifts that open, it had also made the Rifts largely immune to the Siphons developed to close them. Instead, per warnings from the Harvest Stone team, it is now necessary to enter the dimensional pocket physically and remove or destroy the fragment of Harvest Stone inside. This makes Rifts much harder to close, as the pocket dimension has terrain intended to give the guardians inside the advantage. Simply leaving them alone is also non-viable, as reinforcements arrive in waves via additional dimensional bubbles that glue themselves to the first. The longer you wait, the harder the fighting inside, and the more enemies sortie out to assault nearby populations or infrastructure."

The General abruptly sat, seemingly done, but he'd summed things up nicely. Nedzu thanked him, then triggered the central display, it quickly projected a circle split into three triangular symbols. The first bore the emblem of the Empire of Kurrick, a blood red dagger, made of Harvest Stone they'd realized after encountering it for the first time, surrounded by a crown of multicolored gems. As near as they'd been able to make out, each gem represented a conquered world, with the Harvest Stone dagger representing Ziltmach itself.

The second triangle bore the stylized image of a human in a skull mask, one of several common symbols used to represent villain groups when looking at tactical maps. Such symbols had been uncommon to see prior to the invasion, as few villain groups had truly held territory since the end of the Era of Chaos. Sadly, since the Invasion began, they had become a depressingly common sight on both world and regional maps. Japan itself now sported a dozen such symbols on its map, along with a large strip out of the middle of the main island that bore a different symbol for the Meta Liberation Army.

The final symbol bore the image of a horde of monsters, of many different types, though all rendered in silhouette. A symbol that had begun to circulate as a way to denote areas with active Rift or Gate breaches. More detailed tactical maps typically had specific monster silhouettes on them, representing whatever Elite was known to be operating from a specific Rift or Gate. This was a more generalized symbol.

"As you can see, we now face three problems. Two of them are related, but for planning purposes we have determined that splitting them up makes the most sense. Those two, of course, are the ongoing containment requirements of the Greater Gates..."

As Nedzu said this, the top triangle bearing the emblem of the Empire of Kurrick flashed.

"…and, of course, those areas that are either already flooded with enemies, or experiencing Rift Breaks. That latter being the term we've been using to describe the mass sorties that originate from the new Reality Bubble method the enemy is using."

This time, it was bottom right wedge of the circle that flashed, bearing the images of the monster horde.

"Finally, we have domestic villain groups that have taken our moment of weakness as we fought for all of humanity in order to stab humanity in the back."

Nedzu's voice had a dangerous growl to it for just a moment, as the final wedge of the circle flared blood red. Thankfully for everyone's peace of mind, his voice was calm again as he resumed speaking.

"All three of these issues need to be dealt with. A long-term plan is in the works to deal with Rift Breaches, which will involve significant overhauling of the Heroics system that will take some time to finish. For the time being, we will continue to lean on ad hoc Rapid Response teams, only in greater numbers and enjoying regionally-managed support from Task Force Counter and the World Heroes Association. Despite the potential issues, this is being given the lowest current priority, as we attempt to get our own house in more complete order."

The Monster Horde wedge greyed out, with the highlight returning to the start, focusing on the Emblem of the Empire of Kurrick.

"Similarly, we already have a solid containment on all Greater Gates outside Africa. Several major assault groups are being pooled together with the goal of getting control of those Greater Gates, as well. But doing so will require fully mobilized Army Groups, supported by hundreds of Heroes. It is not going to be fast to organize, and we're suffering on the Hero front for having too many places to focus."

After letting them process his points for a few moments, Nedzu tapped keys and both of the Invasion-related wedges outright faded away. The last remaining wedge rotated to point triangle-point down and moved to the top of the display. Below it, a number of other emblems and names faded into view, some of which were quickly recognizable. The MLA icon, an icon that represented the remaining LoV, and a dozen more besides. Not all of them were in Japan, of course, this was a regional meeting for all Asia. China, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam were all represented. As were a few others. Sadly, Japan had the single largest problem, followed by China. Not a great outlook for a country that had been previously touted as one of the safest due to All Might's presence.

"Given the factors I've already covered, it has been determined that our best move going forward is to engage in some house cleaning. Every villain group currently active and holding territory is taking up resources to monitor and keep in check, as well as disrupting our ability to find and deal with Rifts. Some groups, out of expediency, are being offered…deals of sorts. The major ones, such as Japan's Meta Liberation Army and League of Villains are not. They have, in point of fact, been officially reclassified as terrorists."

The way Nedzu said that was so calm that it clearly took many of the people around the conference table several moments to process what he'd said. As they did, however, a murmur began to rise from many of them. Some muted their remote presences, others talked in quite voices to aides or bosses that were physically present. Most of the military leaders didn't react, clearing having been warned. But few of the Heroes present had been, given how obviously many of them were paling.

There was a reason for that.

Normally, Villain groups went to pretty significant lengths to keep from being labeled as either foreign or domestic terror groups. So long as they remained classified as Villian groups, the rule of law protected them to a considerable extent. Heroes were a step between police and military, and were expected to attempt peaceful resolutions and to escalate only in proportion to the crimes ongoing. Capture was prioritized, with virtually all instances where a Villian died being carefully investigated to make sure it hadn't been a case of excessive force. Well, that was the theory at least. The Japanese HPSC had spit all over that repeatedly. But then, there was a reason they weren't around now. Lots of reasons. Their blatant mismanagement of their duties in this area had been a big one, though.

Terrorist groups did not get the same treatment. The Era of Chaos had taught the world a lot about dealing with such groups. More, even, than the infamous War on Terror that had happened just prior to Quirks really becoming common. Adding Quirks to the mix had been something of a final nail in the coffin for any organization labeled such. With mass terror attacks now often coming in people-shaped packages, the Powers that Be had zero fucks to give about the rights of anyone attached to such a group any longer. All members of any such group had International Kill Orders.

Period.

Attempts to solicit surrender didn't happen. Deals were not struck. Gender, age, or willingness were barely considered. It wasn't nice, it wasn't pretty. It wasn't a solution anyone really liked. There had, in fact, been a massive drop off of groups labeled in such a way after the Quirk Wars. It was no longer considered a useful political tool to simply throw around the word 'terrorist.' Now, it was essentially a death mark. Once your organization earned that label, you better get out fast, because the gloves came all the way off and prisoners were only taken to gain intel. Intel that no one bothered with due process on, instead using a bare handful of very carefully monitored telepathic Quirks capable of simply ripping information out of someone's head.

Casual use of those Quirks were banned, virtually everywhere in the world, without extremely hard to get court orders or the willing consent of the person scanned. The results also weren't, normally, admissible in court. Terrorists didn't get court cases in the modern world, however. They got executions. Prisoners had their membership confirmed via brutal telepathic scans, all information they had on their organizations was ripped from their heads, and then they got a long drop from a short rope. No exceptions.

Prior to the Invasion there had been a grand total of seven recognized terrorist groups scattered over the entire globe. Compared to the fifty plus that had been recognized by the United Nations Security Committee alone, prior to the Quirk Wars, a number that could be massively expanded if you started adding domestic groups only recognized by the own countries, the post-wars number was tiny. For damn good reason. Even most groups that previously would have owned the label now made efforts to be considered as Villian organizations in the modern era, in order to protect themselves from the extremely heavy-handed methods modern terror groups faced.

Nedzu was currently displaying a list which identified 37 such groups in Asia alone.

Apparently, the Powers that Be worldwide had entirely run out of fucks to give about the idiots that had taken the chance of humanity being invaded by aliens as an opportunity to seize power. Those groups had fucked around, and they were about to find out, as the very old saying went. Something that was clearly recognized by the people around the table. As some of the rowdier individuals began to get disruptive, Nedzu…hit a key that made a nearby robot strike a gavel?

The sheer incongruity of that certainly worked to gather the attention back to the Dean, with everyone trailing off. Nedzu bared his teeth in what most certainly was not a smile.

"Given how thinly stretched we are, dealing with these groups will be a joint operation with various militaries. However, given our experience in dealing with Quirk-Focused Villain Groups, the Heroes have been given the lead on this set of operations. We will be peeling off and concentrating groups of Heroes. Far too many of them will be a bit younger than I'm completely comfortable using for anti-terror operations, it has to be said. But we will be smashing these groups hard with the resulting taskforce. This is no time for humanity to be clawing itself apart, and operation Clean Slate will be tasked with dealing with those that thought it was…"

Izumi couldn't help but swallow, hard. Somehow, she suspected from that comment about younger individuals, that she and others from UA were going to be tasked as part of this operation. Particularly against the LoV, she figured, given they were arguably the only group that had successful experience against said group. Even the warmth of Momo's arm wrapping around her and squeezing was faint comfort under that cold realization…

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

A/N: This chapter is meant as the true pivot point, which will allow the story to back away from the frantic scramble just to survive the Invasion. They have a long way to go to actually win, but they at least have some breathing room. It also starts setting things up for some changes to UA caused by the invasion...