My Hero Automata

Summary: Always make an attempt to know your enemy, as well as yourself...

Warning! Chapters 76 & 77 were posted back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss chapter 76!

Chapter 77: Getting Down to Business

"If only all we had to do was defeat the Huns. That would be easier."

Nedzu was the only one that seemed to get the reference.

"Yes. This is somewhat like the Eastern Roman Empire's issues with the Huns. Raiders that weakened the Empire by hitting wherever the Empire was weak, and then fading back in such a way that the Empire could not simply hunt them down and bring them to battle."

The handful of others in the room looked at each other and shrugged, but at least the comments had broken the silence. And someone followed up on at least a part of the exchange.

"That is the fundamental problem, I suppose. We're stuck reacting, not acting. We don't have a way to hurt these bastards at their home. We're doing little more than playing whack-an-alien as they pop out of the woodwork. We need to get ahead of this somehow, or we're going to lose by sheer attrition eventually. Even if we hold our own Gates, the situation in Africa is going to spill over into the rest of the world eventually. And others might fail to hold their own Gates eventually too."

It was the gruff JSDF General who had been assigned to work with the Heroes who had spoken. The Heroes were now effectively organized under Nedzu, with the HPSC having been brutally shut out by all the major players. The heads of the HPSC had, in fact, been outright arrested by the JSDF for attempting to fight over control of the situation. The government's patience for any sort of empire building had firmly run out now that it was effectively under foreign assault.

All Might had stepped in as the technical interim head of Japan's Heroes, using his WHA authority. He had also quietly undergone a very risky application of Eri's Quirk. It had been considered, previously, but dismissed until Eri could gain better control and UA had a better understanding of her Quirk. With the current crisis, they'd bitten the bullet and taken the risk. Thankfully, the precautions they'd taken had only caused them to overshoot their 6-year target by 2 years, leaving All Might back at least close to his Physical Prime.

It notably had not restored One for All to him. But Momo could keep him topped up with the transfer device. He wasn't quite the unstoppable juggernaut he'd once been. But he was a lot closer than he had been since his near-loss to All for One, and he was busily using that fact to spearhead the containment around Yokohama's Greater Gate. Sadly, the enemy had taken notice of him, and were keeping him pinned to that Gate by lancing out periodically with their elite units. Those assualts didn't seem to be serious attempts to break out yet, but rather attempts to gauge All Might. Which was worrying in and of itself.

Endeavor had taken over theater command for the Osaka Gate in the same way. With Hawks and Ryukyu backing him up as he didn't have the same endurance as All Might. There, too, all three of them were being probed by the enemy. Thankfully, Hawks actually got along with Endeavor, and Ryukyu was perhaps the only other member of the Top 10 whose basic nature kept her from creating friction with the man. Equally thankfully, Endeavor was busy enough managing Osaka that he hadn't protested All Might's suggestion to give overall strategic control of the Heroes forces to Nedzu.

The fact that the Japanese government was willing to work with him, had already been working with the Dean, only made that work out better. Though the entire edifice was unstable. The JSDF and Heroes were working together mostly out of desperation and on the initiative of the lower ranks of the JSDF, for now. The fact that the cooler heads in the JDSF top brass had prevailed, rather than those that wanted to try forcefully folding the Heroes in, was helping. But if things got ugly enough, the whole house of cards could collapse.

"Getting ahead of it implies we've caught up to the immediate disaster. Which we haven't. The predictive algorithms for the Rifts are still only hitting around 40 percent, and we're running everyone ragged in reaction teams."

It was Sir Nighteye that voiced that response. The man's Quirk had proven completely non-functional at this point. Apparently, it couldn't account for variables that originated outside their own reality. Which had reduced him to fulfilling a logistics coordination role, which he was, at least, well suited for. Izumi, who had found herself press-ganged into this conference despite wanting to go back out and at least try to help, frowned at the man. He still didn't seem to like her girlfriend for unknown reasons, and he was wrong this time anyway. Though, when she spoke, she phrased her disagreement as neutrally as possible.

"That still doesn't mean the General doesn't have a point. We need to have some idea, at the very least, of what our enemy's resources are. Getting a look at however they are opening those Rifts from their side would help, too. Has anyone made attempts to get a drone through a Rift and back?"

The General scowled but nodded toward her.

"Good thinking, miss. But we've tried that. We can't get broadcasts through the portal, as far as we can tell. And none of the drones we send through come back, even if they're ordered to instantly about face and dive back into the Rift. Either the enemy has accounted for that and is killing them…or the Rifts are one-way only."

Dean Nedzu raised a paw.

"From my own observation of the footage of each Gate type, I believe Rifts are uni-directional. Lesser and Greater Gates appear to allow transport both directions. Yet the two teams I had directed to secure Lesser Gates and poke a camera through had the camera fry before being pulled out. The only one that was pulled fast enough that it had no external damage showed signs of an EMP effect."

Izumi hummed, nodding her head at that.

"The Gates themselves don't produce anything like that. But if our enemy has done this before, they might have come up with something to shut down non-biological equipment that crosses through. We haven't seen any sign of actual technology from them so far. Perhaps that's not actually a sign of them being primitive, but that they can't bring technology through either?"

There was silence for several moments as everyone considered that. Izumi, however, had already jumped to a possible solution.

"I think I might have an idea. I know of at least one UA student that can create sensory organs on the ends of hands. Better yet, he regenerates. If we can have Shoji try to get a look at the other side of a gate…"

Nedzu immediately nodded.

"I can think of several others that might be able to do the same sort of thing. Given the risks, it will have to be volunteer only. But if even one of them succeeds, I know of another individual, a member of the press in fact, that can project recent memories. If we have her on hand and rush anyone that succeeds to her, we can record the projection to look over in detail."

The General, who had been looking a little doubtful at how useful a single person getting a look might be, perked up.

"That's not nearly what we need, of course. But knowledge is power, and right now it's at least a practical step in the right direction. Any intel we can get on where these bastards are coming from, what their numbers are, and even the limitations of those Gates. All of that would be more than we have now. I'll contact our people and have them hunt up anyone in the service that have similar Quirks."

There was some talk about the logistics of how to make it all work for the next hour and a half. By the time the small group dispersed, they had at least a tentative plan. Izumi just hoped it worked, even as she worried about her friends and girlfriend. Momo had recovered completely from her own efforts and was out leading a Reaction Team. Several of their friends were likewise split between other such teams, or were guarding critical infrastructure points that the enemy had begun attempting to target when their initial swarming failed. Come to think of it, the fact that they even recognized such infrastructure as legitimate targets probably indicated they were more familiar with technology than they first appeared…

... ...

It had taken most of the day, yesterday, to organize their attempt. The upside, for Izumi, was that the Powers that Be had sat on her to fully recover and help with planning the attempt. That meant she was almost back to one hundred percent as she took command of one of the teams they were using for this operation. Strangely, that hadn't been a difficult sell even for the military, despite her age. They were well aware Izumi was the brains behind much of their initial intel, and the JSDF people she'd worked with on the first horrible day had apparently spoken well of her command ability. Which meant that, while she wasn't in charge of the entire effort by any means, she had been easily assigned to lead one of their six 'Recon' teams.

Each of those teams were situated in locations of high QE density, but low population density. In fact, they were combining this effort with an additional idea Izumi had presented during planning. The idea of artificially increasing the QE density of a specific location, in an attempt to draw a Rift on purpose. She'd argued, successfully, that it would increase the odds of them containing the result. They wanted the Rifts to be converted into Lesser Gates, after all…but they didn't exactly want to let a bunch of civilians be sacrificed to do that.

Observation throughout yesterday had shown that the Rifts would eventually convert to a Gate even without the sacrifices. It simply did so more slowly. Which was bad in most respects. But in this one specific instance it was to their advantage. They would be attempting to attract a series of Rifts to relatively isolated areas with no population. Not outright wilderness since that might have clued their enemy in that something was wrong. But to a mix of small towns or evacuated city districts.

Those who responded to 'contain' the Rift would make a show of struggling to do so, allowing the Rift to continue to build until it became a Lesser Gate. At that point, the rest of the force would come out of hiding to pounce, quickly wiping out the monsters and placing a physical barricade before the Gate with only a small opening. Such barricades had been proven to break down quickly when hit by matter coming from the other side of the Gates. But it should last long enough for the six people they'd found with extendible, regenerating, visual organs to send them through and get a look at the other side. In Izumi's case, that person was Shoji, who would be generating as many tentacle arms with eyes and ears as possible and sending them through the gate. If it worked, he would be rushed to a central location to have his memory projected and recorded.

Aside from Shoji, the rest of Izumi's team was a mixed bag. This entire operation had to be put together with non-critical personnel that could be spared from reaction teams and manning the defenses around the Greater Gates, after all. Even those Heroes and other forces working to keep the MLA in check had higher priority. Which is why there were only six of these Recon teams, and most were filled with a wild hodgepodge of personnel. Izumi was one of the two 'heavy hitters' that her group was formed around, and she'd been given mostly other UA students to work with. The second 'heavy hitter' was Nejire, who was thankfully content to let Izumi call the shots despite technically being her more experienced senior.

Aside from her, also present from UA were Tsunotori, Fukidashi and Yanagi of Group B. They were joined by Kirishima, Kaminari, Sato and Ashido from Group A. Along with a pair of second year students named Fuwa and Tsubari, the UA group made up the 'reinforcements.' The heavy strike element that would 'appear' to help rapidly seal the Gate. Hiding them had been made possible by borrowing a student from Shiketsu. Utsushimi Camie was a second year with an illusion generating Quirk that the reinforcement strike group would be hiding under until the time was right.

Meanwhile, the 'decoy' group that would be faking a losing battle to contain the Rift as it transformed into a Lesser Gate, consisted of a number of pro-heroes who could be spared from the front lines. Airjet was the highest ranking, he and two sidekicks were present entirely to shut down attempts by the monsters to spread out via the air. They didn't want to lose containment for real, after all, and airborne monsters were the most likely way for that to happen. Dasher and Flasher had volunteered, having worked with Izumi before and their Quirks making them ideal for the hit-and-run tactics needed to fake difficulty with containment. X-less and Gunhead were also present, along with a single sidekick from each of their agencies. All with ranged Quirks meant to help keep that balance of faking a rough containment effort.

The JSDF was, of course, also present. Though it was mostly in the form of a sniper and heavy-weapons team perimeter well-back from the immediate area around where they hoped the Rift would form. Those snipers, along with RPG teams, would be responsible for cleaning up any actual breakthroughs that the monsters made. They would cleanse any leakers so they didn't escape and open other Rifts, elsewhere.

All in all, it was a good plan. They'd set the large QE batteries rigged with a means to disperse their contained QE over time in a suitable, already moderately-high QE area. And now all they had to do was wait…

... ...

The waiting ended abruptly as an unnatural sound, not wholly unlike tearing cloth yet far more unsettling, filled the air. The sound wasn't that loud, but it was one most of those present had heard in the last three days, and instantly had all of them on alert. The sound, as always, didn't exactly behave like sound should have. Which meant that their natural ability to pinpoint it was effectively non-existent. Thankfully, Izumi had seeded the zone they expected the Rift to form within with micro cameras, and 2B quickly highlighted the spot it had just formed at. Izumi keyed the group comm channel and barked out the data.

"Back alley, straight across from Disperser C2."

There were quick acknowledgements as others zeroed in on it, even as Izumi considered the placement. Not ideal, but not bad either, she ultimately decided. It might make it a bit of a pain to secure the Lesser Gate, once it formed, since the constant stream of monsters would fill the alley in both directions. On the flip side, there were easy points on the nearby rooftops where she could have her team quietly set up the three MK II siphons they would need to close the Gate once they were done. Something which would lower the risk of something going wrong in the final phase of this little scheme. With that in mind, she motioned the last member of her group over, the only one that wasn't part of either the decoy or the reinforcement group. Hagakure was quick to respond, quick stepping the few meters between them.

"Refraction, I want you to sneak a siphon onto the northwest corner of the west building's roof. There's a bit of overhang there that can conceal it. Be careful, since it's always possible something will scent you. But if you can get that one in place, 2B can get one on the building across the gap with a drone when we run the assault. And we can easily get the third in place across the street pointed down the gap from the backside of the facing building."

Hagakure, Hero name Refraction, gave her a thumbs up.

"You got it, boss!"

Izumi nodded with approval as the girl moved off quickly. Hagakure had come a long way in recent months with the understanding of her Quirk. Something reflected by her choice of Hero name. She could now control her own refraction well enough to take decently sized objects into invisibility with her, such as the backpack-sized MK II siphons. Izumi's original, crude design for the siphons had resulted in them being large and bulky enough they were best handled by two people, if they needed to be manhandled physically at all instead of by a Quirk.

The redesign she'd hammered out yesterday, between everything else she'd done, was considerably more portable. It was also a bit harder to make, so a lot of MK I siphons were still being assembled for mass use. But Izumi had easily produced enough of the MK IIs herself to give to the teams involved in Operation Recon. Hagakure was here with her team for precisely this reason. To help maneuver siphons into place without the enemy noticing. As she lacked a lot of offensive punch still, not quite having figured out how to focus light for a laser reliably, it was the best use for her in the current crisis.

With Hagakure moving, Izumi contacted the JSDF to get them to send a team through the back of the building facing the alley to situate a second siphon. The last one would have to be done at the last minute, as the other building was an abandoned wreck she wouldn't risk sending Refraction into. As she'd told Hagakure, she could easily send a Pod via 2B at the last minute to handle that one, though.

"Contact! Looks like…those 'Gnoll' things!"

Izumi looked back to the still-expanding Rift at the report from Chargebolt. She wasn't sure who had started using fantasy terms for the enemy, but they did serve a sort of purpose. Even if the descriptions didn't quite match up. 'Gnolls' were an example of that. Yes, they were bipedal and had dog-like heads. But the head shape was closer to African Wild Dogs than a hyena, and they had bone plates down their spine, extending into a razor-sharp bone tail that could whip around behind them. Smarter than some of the monsters they'd cataloged so far, they were still closer to animal and human intelligence as far as anyone could tell…and there were apparently a lot of them. They had been, after all, sighted as among the first scouts through a good third of the Rifts worldwide. Something bigger and nastier would follow in a few minutes, then something more intelligent and able to manage the Rift after that. Assuming the pattern held, at least. Fliers of some sort could intermingle with all three waves.

"Keep calm. Let them spread out. Make sure you stay upwind of them. We don't want to make a fight of this until whatever bigger unit follows them comes through."

Her orders were the ones they would be expecting. But everyone was twitchy from two long days of fighting already, so reminding them of the plan was part of her job. The Gnolls were unlikely to try leaving their zone until after their support arrived. So, for now, they just needed to wait and let the Rift keep building strength. No one was sure if the Rifts were two-way, and this plan might only work once. So orders were to wait until a Lesser Gate was opened. Those they'd seen the more intelligent monsters move back through, sometimes even retreating in good order.

It was a tense fifteen minutes as more Gnolls arrived and spread out. Then, finally, something new came through. As in, there was no records of the type having been seen in Japan yet. It's possible it had shown up at other country's Gates, but there wasn't anything even remotely like a central information exchange for that sort of thing arranged yet. Entirely new or not, the dusky-metal scales covering a bull-like body were an unwelcome sight. Each one was roughly two meters tall at the shoulder and had to weigh in at a solid two metric tons. Suddenly, the idea that they were going to have any trouble 'faking' containment issues looked a lot less likely. If those things were as tough as they looked, they might have trouble with containment for real.

With that in mind, Izumi was quick to snap orders.

"Decoy 1, we're deploying you immediately, instead of waiting around. Mess up the Gnolls and take a shot at one of the Bulls. Hit and fade. We need to know how tough they actually are."

A strong acknowledgment came from Gunhead, who was leading the Groundside Decoy Squad. Airjet was leading the anti-air group, and could stay back for now. Izumi watched as Dasher and Flasher were sent in, bypassing the Gnolls almost effortlessly to hit one of the new metal bull units. X-less and his sidekick tore into the Gnolls behind them, though Gunhead remained unengaged, likely thinking to make it look like they were responding piecemeal. The Scaled Bull the two speedsters had hit rocked from their attacks, both of them now using blunt weapons that let them transfer some serious kinetic force from their speed. Unfortunately, while the Bull lost a few scales, it seemed more pissed off than anything.

"Fuck. Resolution, no way Flasher and I can get through that armor. The recoil nearly ripped my arm out of socket. Even with the dampeners."

Izumi grimaced.

"Understood, Dasher. We'll let X-less take a shot, see if he can burn through it."

Acknowledgements and orders flowed, even as the monsters themselves started reacting to the attack, charging away from the Gate in all directions. Dasher, Flasher, and Gunhead acted to contain the Gnolls when they did, while X-Less tried his luck with the Bulls. His first shot was no good. But a second tagged the already damaged spot on the first Bull Dasher and Flasher had it. That shot clearly hurt it, giving them a potential method of attack.

With no air units yet appearing, Izumi made the call to bring in the second Decoy team to help Gunhead keep the Gnolls in check from the air while Dasher, Flasher, along with X-Less and his sidekick, played kite-and-shoot with the Bulls. They were slowly taking them down, but more were still arriving, making it clearly a losing fight. Well, technically that's what they'd wanted. Though it would have been better to have to fake it a bit more than they currently were.

Twenty more minutes passed, with Izumi having to push a heavy weapons team and Kaminari forward to help out. Kaminari had been equipped with a railgun his electricity could power, and he made the difference with the Bulls. As a few fliers had also appeared, she had to send Nejire up to manage the airspace, so she could leave Airjet in a ground-attack closer-air-support role. Still, things were mostly contained as an intelligent enemy unit finally stepped through the Rift.

Thankfully, this one was nothing new, being one of the common Lizardman shamans that seemed to be the enemy's most common 'magic' troop for Rift management. They were nowhere near as dangerous as the four-armed Gorilla things that Momo and Izumi had seen the first day, and Izumi was grateful for it at the moment. After all, they needed the things alive until they expanded the gate, this time. She could see her fellow students getting antsy at that fact and spoke up to remind them of the goal here.

"Stick to the plan. We're looking for Intel here, not just closing another Gate. I'll order more of you in like I did Kaminari if things start looking ugly."

Jerky nods were her only response, and she sighed. None of them were soldiers. Hell, most of them had barely done anything more than fight random purse snatchers before the world went to hell three days ago. Three days that already felt like weeks or months. Going for another angle, she pointed to the two indicator lights in their jury-rigged little command area that indicated two of the three siphons already in place.

"Calmly, people. If we have to, we can shut this down in minutes with two of the siphons already in place, and the third one easy to rig with a Pod."

That thought seemed to ease the tension a bit more. Good. The last thing she needed was her team to run off half-cocked and ruin all this effort. Keeping her eyes on the various feeds of the fighting, she weighed if it was a good idea to add anything else to the mix. Finally nodding and deciding not making more of a response would look stranger than sending something, she contacted the JSDF and got the one light assault vehicle they had moving. She didn't dare commit infantry with those Scaled Bull things here. But the LAV had tough enough armor and a big enough gun to at least hold its own for a bit.

Despite her efforts to defuse it, despite how well the Decoy teams were doing, tension continued to ratchet up as the Rift expanded. Izumi's sensors noted how it was soaking in the energy their dispersers were still outputting, confirming the theory that doing so would accelerate its growth. Enough so that the Lizardman were already starting to chant and wave their arms at the Rift, starting the process of it converting into a stable Gate. Seeing that and noting how ragged Dasher and Flasher were starting to look, Izumi bit her lip and committed more assets.

"Emily, Acid Trip, deploy and aim for the Bulls. Emily, direct Trip's acid with your telekinesis to try taking some of them out. If it works, I'll pull the speedsters back to rest."

Yanagi and Ashido were quick to obey, even as a few sighs of relief came from the others. Clearly, they'd seen how strained the speedy pair was starting to look, too. At least they'd kept themselves from arguing with her. Thankfully, her guess had been right. Mina's acid was pretty bullshit, more like cartoon acids at its higher concentrations than the real stuff. With Yanagi guiding it to pour over the Bulls, it quickly crippled and killed them by seeping into gaps in their scale…or eating right through them in thinner places.

"Dasher, Flasher, pull back and recover. X-Less, use your discretion on targets."

X-Less almost immediately started sending lasers toward the Lizardmen, which almost made her curse. She bit back the desire to do so as she realized he'd only winged a couple of them. He was a better shot than that. Which meant he was just trying to sell the battle better. It made sense. Under any normal conditions they should have been trying to stop the Gate from transforming. An oversight the more experienced Pro had noticed and was helping conceal. She let go of the self-recrimination of having missed that and focused on the Gate itself. Readings were…

"Five minutes. Maybe a bit more. Then it will convert. Prepare to deploy in six minutes. Rocketti, you and I are the opening act. Hose the area in front of the Gate with your gatling, I'll do the same with missiles. Red Riot, you and Sugarman are plowing the road for the barricade. You'll move in five, get downstairs. You too Tentacole, you know your job."

All four of them nodded and headed down immediately. Until now, the reinforcements had been hiding under Camie's illusion on a roof, where they'd put together an open-air command center. And those she hadn't just ordered below all had means of rapid movement to follow in the wake of Pony and Izumi. The clock was ticking now that she'd committed the barricade team and they all tried to steady their nerves as the moment of truth approached. Abruptly, at 4 minutes 57 seconds, the Rift stabilized and expanded. Over roughly fifteen seconds it went from a jagged hole in space perhaps two meters wide and three tall, to roughly half again that size and smoothly rounded at the edges. The frothing nothing with colors shooting through it that made up a rift was replaced by the shimmery grey of a Lesser Gate.

"Not yet!"

She barked the command out roughly, forcing everyone not to react despite their hair-trigger.

"Red Riot, go."

It would take at least three minutes for the barricade to move forward. Izumi waited sixty seconds, then…

"Go! Go! Go!"

She and Rocketii were in the air in an instant. Izumi had already been in her CFS unit, missiles equipped. She took only a moment to form up a Pod for 2B to grab the last Siphon with, then zipped forward and began firing a stream of missiles as fast as she could summon them from data space. The first wave were anti-personnel cluster munitions, not the big boys she'd used against the Kaiju-Nomu what seemed like ages ago. They split and peppered the entire area in front of the Gate, blowing the group of Lizardmen to hell. Her follow ups were individually more powerful, each targeted on one of Bulls guarding the Gate. They died just as easily…and just in time as the Barricade moved onto the street. The Heavy Weapons on Sato's power armor were firing anti-armor rounds, tearing through the Bulls just as easily as the Gnolls, with Red Riot throwing grenades and tanking any return fire easily.

Rocketti was quick to join Izumi, using her gatling gun to hose down the Gate itself, preventing anything from coming through as the Barricade covered the last dozen meters. Then it was in place, the rest of the reinforcements following in its wake to create a pocket of safety as Shoji thrust his tentacle arms through the one breech in the barricade. For a few seconds, there was only the sound of combat, then Shoji gave a muffled cry, followed by exactly what they wanted to hear.

"They killed the arms but I got it. Extract!"

Izumi didn't hesitate. She zipped in, grabbed him, and booked it at the top acceleration she could manage without turning him to paste. She gave the order to the teams to activate the siphons and clean up the mess, even as she raced with Shoji in her arms to get him where they needed him. The faster she got him there, the clearer his memory would be, and she was determined to make all this effort worth it…

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

A/N 1: Can't actually remember if I mentioned this in previous ANs or not, but the monsters I'm using are heavily inspired by their Dungeons and Dragons equivalents. They are NOT exactly the same, I've tweaked their descriptions in places to reflect that, and they won't always share the same abilities. I just didn't want to have to craft every single monster from scratch, so I'm using the 3.5e monster manual for inspiration for most monsters. Don't expect details to match up, even if you recognize a name or description, though.

AN 2: This is the one-per-release that I mention this and my other works have a Patreon Page. Currently, chapters 78-82 (roughly 15,000 additional words) are already up in Early Access! Not to mention there are early access chapters of my other stories amounting to roughly another 40-60k words at any given time. If you're enjoying this story, please consider tossing a bit of support my way?