Chapter 95: Preparation
Summary: Preparing an offensive...
Warning! Chapters 92-95 were all posted back-to-back. Make sure you don't miss any!
Chapter 95: Preparation
"Alpha Strike, go, go go!"
Ryukyu's voice had come through the comms as a harsh order, and Miruko, Momo, Izumi, and Pony didn't hesitate to execute. They fell through the air, accelerating from an airdrop, and zeroing on their target building. The fake version of the Jaku Hospital Cementoss had thrown up for them approached fast, and Miruko and Pony slowed, Pony using her horns for breaking, Miruko a jetpack provided just for the descent.
Momo and Izumi didn't stop.
Instead, they plunged into the anti-air envelope around the building, Izumi unleashing a fusillade of missiles ahead of her to soften their target, even as she began to used Hyper Cognition to dance around the anti-air flak coming up from the 'Hospital.' Momo's own reaction times, sped by One for All, had her performing a similar dance even as she dual-wielded a pair of anti-armor railguns as big as she was, using Blackwhip to make it practical. While Izumi's missiles were mostly shot down, Momo's massive railguns ripped through the weapons emplacement that had exposed themselves to do it, after which she reabsorbed them back into her body. Not bothering to slow from terminal velocity, both of them crashed into and through the thick, reinforced roof of the false hospital. Incidentally 'opening the door' for Miruko and Pony coming in behind them.
There were bots inside, painted to represent Nomu. Though they weren't anything special. Sadly, even UA's resources had limits during the ongoing war, so these were more representations than credible threats. Momo and Izumi treated them as if they were credible threats, all the same. Ones they couldn't count on knowing the Quirks of. As a result, both of them dodged the fire coming from the bots as if the rubber bullets were real threats, sending back air pressure strikes that blew the bots away in reply. Miruko and Pony arrived at almost the same instant as a much larger response wave of bots, just seconds after first contact. More importantly, their arrival coincided with Team Two, the other half of Alpha Strike, hitting the front of the hospital. Secondary strike teams would be hitting from other sides, in less than a minute, hopefully making the confusion absolute. All while the JDSF that airdropped in right after them set up sniper teams, mortars, and anti-air launchers.
The entire operation was designed, first and foremost, for speed. And it showed as Alpha Strike One, Miruko's team, penetrated deep into the fake hospital. They outright ignored many Nomu, looking for the small number of larger bots that represented their primary targets. Curses flew from more than one mouth as the blind nature of their assault cost them, drones starting to swarm in representation of the clones that might well be spammed in reaction to their raid. The goal for the real op was to hit at least some of their priority targets, which included those being cloned and hopefully the cloner, before that could happen. Unfortunately, their simulations so far had less than a forty percent success rate, and this wasn't looking to be one of them.
Pony took a 'disabling hit' two minutes later, causing them to grimace as they pushed through the mass of enemy fire. Miruko went down next, her reaction times insane by any normal standard but just not up to the swarms of shots coming in from the ever-increasing swarm of drones. Momo and Izumi were up to that level of reaction, however, and pushed onward, locating the bot representing the unknown cloner a few seconds after Miruko went down. They flatlined it, causing bots to stop being added, but not disabling the existing drones. They didn't know if taking out the cloner would erase the clones or not, after all.
The action still bought them breathing room, and the same for the rest of the teams as well. With what seemed like glacial slowness but was really lightning speed, terse announcements of takedowns flowed over the comm. Eventually, only Shigaraki was left…and 'he' blindsided one of the smaller teams. His bot, unlike the others, was a serious combat model. One that used Midnight's gas to represent 'kills' and scythed through the team it made contact with. Momo and Izumi shifted to chase it, but didn't manage to close the distance before it encounter Bakugo and Kodai, who erased it fairly easily.
Pity it probably wouldn't be that easy in reality.
"Alright, teams. That's a wrap for this run through. Take twenty to get cleaned up and meet in the auditorium. This looked a lot better than the last two runs, but I still think we can make some solid tweaks to streamline the initial strike. That part is the only bit we can more or less be certain will actually go the way we want. So we need to make the most of it."
Izumi nodded her own agreement with Ryukyu's sentiment, even if she was pretty sure they were reaching the limits of how much better they could make it work without more data to work form. Still, she had one or two ideas, including a thought or two about the drone swarms they'd just been dealing with. If they equipped them with Midnight's gas and dropped them in mass, letting 2B control them…
... ...
"So, I think we're as ready as we're going to be going to get. I'm not exactly happy about that, given we're stepping into so many unknowns here. But all attempts to penetrate into Jaku hospital itself have failed. Usually spectacularly so. The secondary teams and JDSF should be able to deal with the outer perimeter of Nomu, leaving just the hospital for the main strike group. But…this is going to be ugly."
Not everyone was present, but every member of both Alpha Strike teams were and none of them looked any happier than Ryukyu when she said that. Unfortunately, they couldn't really argue either. Izumi half-heartedly pushed forward the only real alternative they had.
"We can still try pushing the Drone Swarm forward first, let them soak damage and give us some intel…"
As expected, more than one head shook at the renewed suggestion. It was, after all, the only alternate plan that they'd considered at least half viable. Unfortunately, there was a major issue with it.
"No, giving up the element of surprise we gain with the Alpha Strike Protocol is just too much. Alpha Strike is our best bet to seal some of the major players before they properly get going. In a best case, we might even get Shigaraki with Alpha Strike."
Unlikely, but possible. Worse, it really was the only way they might even the odds against whatever nasty surprises waited for them. If they hit hard, fast, and with deep penetration in mind with the first strike, they stood a good chance of at least wrecking whatever existing plans the LoV had for defense. Sighing, Izumi pushed forward the last decision they needed to make.
"That just leaves us needing to decide what the Rules of Engagement are for Shigaraki. His kill order is non-negotiable, but his Quirk…its insanely dangerous. Nearly an instant kill if he makes contact and we've seen evidence he may have been farther modified. What do we do if we encounter him? Who should and shouldn't be authorized to engage him?"
There was a long pause, before Ryukyu sighed, clearly not liking the answer that was coming.
"I can't. My fighting style doesn't use evasion and he can disintegrate me too easily. Rumi might be able to take him under the right conditions, but it's not ideal. Only you and Yaoyorozu have both the reflexes and protection for a close combat fight. He has to get through her armor, and you can outright regenerate to a high extent if he catches you out. Better, 2B can manifest directly and her projection is concentrated QE. He can't disintegrate it."
That particular secret had been a victim of their planning. Izumi and Momo had realized it was simply too valuable against their current target, particularly as Izumi could now maintain the projection significantly longer without Momo feeding her more juice. Still only a few minutes, total…but that was a few minutes of 2B performing at her true peak. A peak at which she might well have been able to one vs one a Prime All Might with decent odds of success.
"Aside from you two and Rumi with enough open space, the only ones I'm comfortable giving the go ahead to engage him are Eraser, Dasher, and possibly Moondancer or Ghost Ember. Moondancer with the same qualifier as Rumi, Ghost only because he physically can't touch her unless she allows it."
Everyone mulled the list over, trying to think of anyone to add to it. Sadly, there were too many unknowns. Surveillance had revealed that the man could disintegrate things far faster than before, meaning only a touch was now potentially disastrous if you didn't have a serious armor layer. Which…really meant only Momo as far as armor went. Kodai might have qualified, except that she didn't actually have much in the way of hand-to-hand skills to go with her new power armor. She just hadn't had the time to dedicate to gaining such since Mei made her the suit.
"That puts too many of our possible engagers with either Alpha One or the Beta Squads. Can we move Eraser or Ghost Ember to Alpha Two?"
There was some consideration of that, before Ryukyu nodded.
"Not Eraser, he's on Delta for a reason. His group is fast reaction for particularly problematic Quirks. But we can move Ghost Ember and Moondacer both. Switch out Fat Gum from my team for them and we should still balance."
There were nods all around at that possible switch, causing Ryukyu to finalize it. Even Fat Gum didn't seem too put out, knowing that he really didn't add much to the heavy combat element that made up Alpha Two. Ryukyu and Gang Orca anchored that team, and compared to them…he just wasn't in the same weight class. Nejire was their air cover, if they needed it, but Fat Gum had mostly just been a filler spot as another relatively heavy tank. Replacing him with Moondancer, who was a telekinetic sword wielder with reflexes nearly as good as Miruko's, made sense. Adding Ghost Ember, who had a phasing ability that tended to set anything she phased through on fire, was relatively unnecessary…except for being a potential hard counter for Shigaraki. That alone made her worth attaching to Alpha Two.
"Right…now we just need to finalize an attack time and do one last run through with the shifted teams under predicted conditions. Do we hit at night with all the advantages and risks alike? Or do we go for a daylight raid?"
With that question, the discussion rapidly heated up as various Heroes championed either side of the argument…
... ...
"Nervous?"
Miruko snorted.
"Fuck no! Excited! Who would have thought I'd get to perform a midnight HALO Jump into a Villain lair! This is awesome!"
Izumi smirked but shook her head.
"I know that, adrenaline junkie. I was asking Pony."
The Half-American girl focused at the sound of her name, and shook her head.
"Not…nervous? Not really. More…fighting a feeling of this all being surreal. We're actually doing something like, well, like this was a really shitty movie about Heroes, you know? And I'm still a first year."
Miruko snorted again.
"Don't worry too much about peaking in college, kid. We've still got a hell of a slog against the Alien Invaders after this is all over. Now, I just saw the warning light. Get your gear on, we've got five minutes to the drop zone. Thank God Mei's pack makes this take a lot less skill than HALO jumps should require...I might just thank the LoV for giving me the excuse, though. Even if I do it while punching their faces in!"
Momo giggled behind the rabbit heroine, even as she activated her helmet. The rabbit and Pony were both right. This was ridiculous…but the LoV had put out some sort of spotter tech that had been able to zero attempts at insertion from lower altitude already. The only way this would work is if they made a high altitude nighttime drop and picked up enough speed on the way down to slip through the air defense net. Something which should be doable, with Izumi and Momo leading the way.
It was time to deal with the League at last. Hopefully, they wouldn't run into any surprises they couldn't handle. Izumi wasn't feeling particularly great about the chances of that going in their way, given how much time the League had been allowed to prepare. Instead, she'd just have to hope that the tricks they had up their own sleeves would help even the odds…
... ... ... ... ...
A/N 1: Just one note here, the reason that Alpha Strike is having to take such a radical approach wasn't just for Rule of Cool. Jaku has survived all the Monster Attacks on its own for a reason, and in doing so the Doctor and his minions have created an Air Defense net against the flying varieties of monsters. They are bullrushing through it, counting on the speed and producibility of a HALO drop to minimize the fire that can be brought to bear on them. Even then, they are nearly certain to take some hits, which is why Izumi and Momo are taking the brunt of the attack. Both have the durability to soak some damage, so long as the damage isn't from a radically exotic source.
A/N 2: I only put this out there once per update...but this fic (and my others) does have Early Access chapters over on my Page. ALL fanfiction content is eventually released here and elsewhere as well, just at a delay. Currently, chapters 96-100 are available over on , adding another 16,000ish words to the fic! Right alongside those chapters are 45,000+ words of other Early Access content for my other fics!