Chapter 7: Evacuation

-Wind Runner POV-

The second day of the invasion did not begin with the same spontaneity as the first. The element of surprise had been thoroughly used up by the Hyakki Yagyō. Now the Protectorate and the forces of the PRT had dug in, continually repelling the invaders with grim resolve and a plethora of firearms.

They were stationed just a few hundred meters away from the farming district of the city. The huge pearly domes full of hydroponics, medicinal herbs and luxury goods had done much to bolster the faltering morale of the PRT. Supply lines had already been set up between the farms and their current position while nearby a tinker was feverishly working on something to address their ammunition issues.

Assuming that could get up and running then time would be on their side. They could slowly start retaking ground and grinding the enemy to a fine mulch through attrition.

Captain Valeska had command of this section of the line. She had previously ordered all mortars (mostly used by the PRT to fire Containment foam grenades at long range) to fire munitions at the slightest sign of enemy combatants, and even approved the use of tinkertech munitions that Cartridge cooked up.

Definitely nonstandard, but it worked. Hours of firing had depleted their reserves heavily but not a single freak had dared approach them since.

Rather dumb in his opinion. If it were him he would have slowly bled their ammunition dry until they were too weak to withstand a charge.

But after a day of waiting it seemed their enemies had finally gathered up some courage, as both scouts and thinkers had reported a build up of forces to their south.

The base had been abuzz with activity since. Their already frantic pace kicked up even further, Captain Valeska needing to rein them in and slow them down to something manageable.

Thus, when the Hyakki Yagyō finally advanced, they were ready. The sound of guns reverberated harshly against the clean backdrop of the city while the thundering roar of a dozen self-propelled batteries and tinkertech ordinance made his bones quake.

He waited for the explosions, for the light and sound and fire to drive them back as it had so many times before. But he heard nothing, saw nothing.

Where there should have been detonations by the dozens there was nothing, the enemies in front of them were still charging and it was like their attack had gone up in a puff of smoke.

“There!” cried one of the troopers behind a heavy machine gun, pointing at the sky.

He frowned, his eyes squinting as he tried to pick up what the man had seen. A flicker of light met his eye, like a heat haze surrounding the charging enemy.

A forcefield!

“Fuck, all parahumans move up!” the captain growled, and her message was passed up the line by the surrounding soldiers. He saw her reach down and fumble in her bag before pulling out a large bore handgun and a black flare.

She loaded it, pointed it high and fired.

He knew it was meant to signal the rest of the PRT forces of ongoing situations, a way to mitigate their lack of radio.

Green meant that the current situation had been handled and everything looked to be stable.

Red meant that the enemy had gotten passed their line, likely through teleportation or flight. This typically required the aid of one of their few fast response units.

Black meant that the enemy was likely to break through the line, and that they required reinforcements.

He knew that there were more, but the thought fled his mind as he leaped passed the gunnery and took to the skies. Wind swirled around his feet and legs, forming vortexes which he used to fly.

Up above he could see the devastation they had wrought upon the city. Clean white towers now stained black by the sooty remains of previous attempts to push them back. Small fires flickered in the charcoal remnants of what used to be trees. And more importantly he could see the charging figures. None wore any sort of matching uniform and their forms all stood in contrast to one another.

With a jerk of his hand the wind took ahold of a lone piece of rubble beneath him and hurled it at a centipede-looking woman. The rock shot through the skies with a crack, before abruptly disappearing as it hit the shield.

He grimaced, picking up more pieces of stone. It was possible there was an upper limit of how much this field could take before dissipating, he just had to find it! Each piece of rock met the same unfortunate end as he desperately eyed the forcefield for even a flicker, all while the monstrous forces came closer and closer to the PRT troopers below.

He could see others attempting the same as he had, bursts of light and pillars of plasma being depleted on the shield to no effect as his mind raced for an answer.

“All troopers! Fall back, fall back!” he could hear the Captain scream from even here, evidently she had also seen their efforts and how few fucks their enemy had given.

He yelled, half in exertion and half in frustration as another batch of repurposed ammunition flew towards his enemies.

There was a yelp and a crash as a broken tree impaled a writhing mass of coiled together hounds.

He paused, staring in incredulity before he snapped out of it.

“THE FORCEFIELD IS MANTON LIMITED!”

His roar was amplified by his winds, spreading them across the battlefield.

The battle paused for a moment, as everyone seemed to take in his words.

The brief silence was shattered as several protectorate members raced towards, and then through the seemingly impregnable barrier to meet the Hyakki Yagyō directly.

He chuckled, ignoring the burn in his throat and charged in after them.

-Rebecca Costa-Brown POV-

“At 13:00 hours today a force of about a dozen parahumans stormed section B2 of the line and broke it, forcing our men and the rest of the line to retreat to our fall-back position” an analyst spoke, clutching the paper in his hands.

“They did this with the aid of a forcefield that completely destroyed incoming inorganic substances but left organic matter untouched” the man continued, briefly swallowing “While local members of the Protectorate were able to identify this weakness it was only after the Hyakki Yagyō members were able to get within a dozen meters of our soldiers.”

The man trembled slightly as he continued, the eyes of every director weighed heavily upon him.

“Our capes engaged the enemy from within the barrier but.. most of them were Blasters and Shakers. Without the range that is ideal for their powers, and without long range support from the PRT, they were all killed.”

The man took a shaky breath before continuing.

“Despite this they were able to slow the advance enough for the rest of our forces to retreat, but another advance like that and we’ll be pushed out of the city.”

There was a pause, and as soon as it was apparent the man was finished with his report, there were murmurs. Directors looked at each other in discomfort while others still stared forward.

“I assume there is now at least one brute per section, to prevent this from happening again?” Director Armstrong lead.

The analyst grimaced “There aren’t enough brutes present for them to be available at every section, but we have assigned as many as we could.”

It was probably the best they could do. The amount of capes sent had been purposely small partly in order to appease Japan's fears of American occupation of the island. It was also because Cauldron knew many capes that were sent there might not have a chance of returning.

Regardless she decide to change the subject before the mood could fall even further than it already had.

“Did Armsmaster retrieve the information?” Rebecca asked, already knowing the answer.

The grip the man had on his papers softened as he brightened up.

“Yes! He retrieved the information, the scientists and even procured a few books the scientists had yet to read through!” The man responded, looking more chipper than she had seen him all day.

Not that that was surprising, it was the only piece of good news he had delivered to them all day. The rest had been the gruesome tales of a grinding and bloody advance that had already killed dozens of capes and hundreds of soldiers.

All in all the plan was proceeding smoothly.

“Did he experience any issues?” asked Director Wilkins.

“Surprisingly no, he manged to reach the group of scientists and return them to the northernmost base entirely unmolested.”

She saw Tagg’s eyes narrow at that, the paranoid man no doubt suspicious of that piece of good fortune.

He was right, of course. Contessa had to kill a lot of people in order for Armsmaster to reach the base with all of the scientists and data intact.

The murmurs returned, much more positive in tone, with a few raucous cheers erupting before being silenced by a glare of hers.

“Do we have an estimate of the enemies forces?” Tagg finally asked with his arms crossed.

The man shifted uncomfortably at that.

“More than they should. Estimates place them at one hundred capes.”

A few gasps echoed across the room while others shifted nervously. One hundred capes was far more than any minor power should be able to throw around at a whim. It implied that either the Hyakki Yagyō had been gathering members more ardently than anyone had ever expected or that they had the ability to mass produce capes to some extent.

Trigger farms weren’t anything new, the Gesellschaft was only the most notorious example. It was no doubt what everyone was thinking of… but she knew better.

“A biotinker” she stated, noting the many alarmed faces that snapped towards her at the mention. “All of the capes of the Hyakki Yagyō were assumed to be Case-53’s, but what if they’re biotinker creations that are simply given an omega symbol to hide their origins?”

Many Directors quietly looked around at each other, not exactly eager to speak up at this horrifying theory.

Director James Tagg simply nodded to himself “Trigger farms tend to be hit and miss with producing parahumans, given how frequently this group loses members in their-” Tagg’s nose scrunched up in disgust “-indulgences, the mass production of beasts would be the only explanation.”

Their were mutters of assent and another Director also spoke up "It would explain why so few of our prisoners from the group actually speak to us. I had simply assumed they were keeping quiet out of loyalty."

She noted Piggot in the corner of her eyes steadily turning pale before flushing red with rage.

“Ma’am, if this is true shouldn’t we commit more forces to wipe this infestation out now?”

Rebecca simply shook her head.

“Given the attitude of the leadership of the Hyakki Yagyō it is unlikely they can self-replicate or make them in truly worrying numbers, otherwise they wouldn’t content themselves with terrorising only a small portion of Japan.”

And it was true. The Hyakki Yagyō were debased hedonists to the highest degree, they did whatever they pleased regardless of any moral quandary and took delight in the terror their whimsy caused with the people under them. They certainly wouldn't apply limits to themselves or their creations that weren't forced upon them.

Cauldron themselves had briefly investigated them after Case-53’s began appearing in their territory that they had no memory of creating. The results were interesting, if unimportant. A monster maker cape under the command of Nurahiyon as well as an ongoing contract with Cranial of Toybox allowed them to manufacture weak capes completely loyal to the Hyakki Yagyō and its ideals.

This allowed them the numbers and cohesion required to rule their territory despite being complete wastrels.

Rebecca leaned back in her chair.

“Run some tests on some of the captured members to either prove or disprove this theory of mine.”

A few looks from the directors caused her to sigh aloud “Non-invasive, obviously. Scanner from San-Francisco should be capable of that.”

She scanned the map of New Fukuoka noting casualties, remaining forces and the projected strength of the enemy forces. It was something she had already memorised, but she made of a show of it. Her face scrunched up in seemingly intense thought, before she sighed and slumped into her chair.

“Have the remaining forces evacuate the island and head for the Okinawa Islands”

This prompted startled shouts from the remaining Directors, each drowning the other out in their desperate need to be heard.

She waited a moment, before realising they weren’t going to stop to let her explain.

“QUIET!” She yelled, the sound silencing everyone. She usually controlled the tempo of any room she was in with a quiet and commanding presence, so something so unlike the Chief Director they knew briefly shook them out of their yelling.

“As it stands we would only be delaying the inevitable if we stay. I have spoken with the President, and the situation has expedited the planned mission to liberate the Okinawa Islands. Five ships and thousands of well supplied soldiers will be sent. If we can link these two forces up in Okinawa then we can use it as a beach head to eventually retake Kyushu.”

“Isn’t Okinawa ruled by a warlord?” Armstrong asked, still appearing shaken.

“A minor one that can easily be dealt with by the capes we sent to Kyushu.” Rebecca waved off.

“It’s a good plan, but won’t our reputation take a hit if we simply retreat from a group like the Hyakki Yagyō? Our allies in Japan are already hesitant to trust us after we pulled our support last time.” Another Director worriedly asked.

“And being forced out wouldn’t hurt our reputation?” She tiredly asked back “Regardless of their feelings Japan currently needs us. I’ll explain the situation to the Prime Minister after this meeting”

Not that his opinion actually mattered, given he wouldn’t be the one in control of Kyushu by the end of this.

There were still grumbles of Directors unsatisfied by the idea of retreat, but it was clear they saw the way the wind was changing and were choosing to suck it up.

“Alright if there is nothing else I’ll send out the order and make our allies aware of the plan. Does anyone have any final questions.

There were none.

“Good, then I’ll begin the preparations”

Part one of the plan was complete. Now it was time for Mount Ooe to begin their unknowing part.

AN: Alright now that I've begun properly publishing this publicly it's time to speed up the updates. I'll try to do one a day if possible but Sunday and Monday may or may not have updates because of my schedule. Either way the PRT has been ordered to leave Kyushu and will be running to link up with their allies. Only a few more chapters and we'll get to our next city!

Thanks for reading and please leave some comments!