With a newly acquired objective involving some eavesdropping on a nearby Representative Candidate, Church lowered the power of his engines to the minimum required to float him down to the ground from his current altitude. Reducing noise as much as possible was very conducive to sneaking up on seemingly irate German girls with military training. Truth be told, Church didn't even know if there was a valid reason to approach her stealthily, but if he wanted to learn what she was talking about he'd have to at least get closer than he was right now, and if she knew he was there, chances were she'd stop talking about whatever she was discussing at the moment.
As he reached the base of the twisted tower, Church debated using the reflective camouflage Exeter had carried over from its old days as an infantry power suit. Blending into the environment had its perks, but it was far from perfect invisibility. More like a shimmering heat wave in the exact shape of a human. The power draw was also an issue, as one couldn't use it in combat without compromising shield strength and engine power. Frankly, Church was certain the ability wasn't intended to be used, and that the engineering team had just been too lazy to remove it from the precursor model.
Operator, if you care enough, I can physically change the suit's exterior appearance to match the surroundings.
Church hadn't expected Cerberus to mention anything of this nature.
Wait, really? How? I didn't know the Exeter suit had a function like that.
It does not. However, it will be very easy for me to write a program that instructs the nanobots in the armor to change the color of their surface, thus altering the color of the suit overall. The resource draw from Umbra Stratum's Hyperspace Arsenal would be utterly insignificant.
Frankly, Church liked the sound of this idea. He'd yet to experience Cerberus' usefulness in combat, but if it could do things like this, he was already feeling appreciative. Although, knowing Cerberus could write programs into the suit's operating system was mildly disconcerting. He sure hoped that prior talk about it being unable to alter anything truly important was true.
Alright, that sounds pretty neat. Do it.
Affirmative, Operator. Selecting U.S. Army Operational Camouflage Pattern Scorpion W2.
Church looked down at his hands as a mixed pattern of blacks, browns, beige and greens began to spread across the surface of his typically silver exterior. Within a few moments, the entirety of the Exeter suit, sans the black visor, was fully camouflaged in a way that would perfectly blend into forest. Perfect for the little copse of trees Laura Bodewig was using for privacy at the moment.
Sweet. I'm gonna have to play around with this.
Operator, that would be a misuse of Umbra Stratum resources.
Yeah, I'm sure. Put it on my tab.
Stepping deceptively softly considering his equipment, Church made his way towards the copse of trees and the lake in the central grounds of the Academy, where he had seen the girl he was interested in. With relatively little distance to travel, it wasn't long before he was sidled up against the trunk of a tree, peering around it to observe one Laura Bodewig, more than a dozen feet away.
Picking up on her voice was easy, since Cerberus had automatically isolated it and filtered out background noise. Of course, her speech was in perfect German, so Church had to wait another moment for translation software to kick in. These days, that kind of software managed to translate languages within a second. The world was closer than ever, it seemed. It even managed to do those translations in a very accurate rendition of their voice.
With all of that taken care of, Church had no problem hearing Bodewig's conversation. Well, her end of it, at least.
"What is the meaning of this delay? Panzerfaust was supposed to be complete long before now! Clarissa, the next individual tournament is mere days away, I need this package!"
Even with the modern power of science, Church couldn't determine what was being said from the other end of Bodewig's phone. Not that he needed to: it was easy enough to piece together the conversation just from Bodewig's words alone.
"Yes, I know recoil compensation for an even bigger gun is an issue, but there's got to be something we can do! Perhaps a way to nullify the recoil with the AIC..."
Church folded his arms and glanced at the sky as he contemplated the value of overhearing this conversation. Technically, gathering data on I.S. besides Akatsubaki was a secondary objective of his mission here, but that would likely be accomplished via mock combat. Whether or not he knew Schwarzer Regen had a new weapon didn't affect how he would gather that data in the future.
But if, for whatever reason, he ended up in a real fight against the pilots here, any knowledge on their weapons and abilities would be useful. There was no harm in continuing to listen: not like he had anything better to do right this moment anyway.
Determining that, Church turned his attention back to the girl he was listening to, but upon doing so, he noticed a certain peculiarity: his target wasn't standing where she had been. He didn't see her at all, actually.
Well that's not good.
The thought was punctuated by a violet blade of energy erupting into existence next to his head, accompanied by perfectly fluent English with a thick German accent. No translation needed this time.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Somehow managing to avoid flinching, Church maintained his casual lean on his preferred tree trunk as he turned his head to glance over his shoulder. Laura Bodewig was a lot shorter than him: definitely more than a foot, but even so she managed to cut a pretty menacing figure. Probably had something to do with the partially activated I.S. arm with an energy weapon, the steely glare, and the fact that she had gotten behind him without any warning. Odd, how such a petite and adorable girl could still be so threatening. Perhaps it was just the aura of a trained soldier.
Point being, Church needed to say something to cover his ass, which would be hard to do considering how bad this situation looked. He was fully suited up and had clearly been attempting to hide, and no one with half a brain would miss the fact that he'd been doing that for less than honorable reasons.
Taking that into consideration, an obvious bold-faced lie probably wasn't the best option. "Spying on you, clearly."
His matter of fact and unapologetic response elicited a raised eyebrow from the girl holding him hostage. She'd probably expected some sort of half-assed excuse.
"Not very well, clearly."
"To be fair, I have no training in stealth and subterfuge."
The girl holding him hostage didn't seem to find his brevity too amusing. "Deactivate your machine. Now."
Church raised his hands in surrender as he followed those instructions, allowing his currently camouflaged suit to glow briefly before it dispersed into motes of light, transformed into data stored in that chip Cerberus also shared. He didn't think Bodewig would actually hurt him, since as far as she knew he was a diplomatic agent. Still, he knew she was probably the most likely to hurt him if she found a good reason to: young though she was, the girl was a thoroughbred soldier.
When he was disarmed completely, Laura felt comfortable enough to retract her bladed arm from the uncomfortably close proximity to his face. "So, care to explain why you're spying on me, and while wearing a camouflaged war machine? If you weren't so bad at it I'd assume you were trying to assassinate me."
Keeping his arms raised, Church turned to face the girl completely. Admittedly, it was kind of embarrassing to get caught like this. But hey, Bodewig probably had training for this sort of thing, and he didn't have any outside of direct combat with the Exeter suit. Either way, he had to make up an excuse. Or, he could just try to deflect the problem with charm. He was pretty good at that, in his own opinion.
"Oh no, I'm nowhere near brave enough to try that against an elite commando like you. With how easily you caught me, I think it's pretty obvious how something like that would go."
His silver haired conversation partner crossed her arms, clearly unimpressed. "Flattery will get you nowhere. Don't dodge the question."
"OK, OK, truth be told... I'm worried about fighting you. I know that any matches I have while here at the Academy will be friendly competition, but I still want to win those matches. Winning makes the suit and its pilot look good, you know? I know there's other good pilots here, but you... well, you're an elite soldier and all. It's a little more intimidating."
Bodewig's arms remained crossed, and her singular crimson glare didn't diminish either. But ultimately, she seemed to accept his story at face value. "I want to be offended, but subterfuge is a perfectly valid strategy in the pursuit of victory. That said, you're far too awful at it to glean any meaningful information. A disgrace, really."
A little miffed by the cold insults, however true they may be, Church sought to defend himself. "Well, I did gain some useful knowledge, you know? Now I know you'll have a big scary gun at some point in the future."
"That's hardly enough to help you in any capacity. I have a big scary gun right now as well."
"That's... fair, I guess."
While her arms remained folded, Bodewig's expression did at least go from severe hostility to calm, if cold, indifference. It was a step up, in some regard. At the least, it didn't seem like she was about to take his head off or anything.
"You are clearly not military, which is odd since the Silver Gospel was officially a U.S. Military asset. What organization owns your suit? Private corporation? A non-military government agency?"
"You can't honestly think I'm at liberty to tell you that."
Bodewig leaned against her own tree, clearly interested in discerning some information of her own. "I thought the whole point of you being here was to put all of your country's cards on the table: a sign of good faith and open trust after the incident?"
At least glad that this conversation wasn't going horribly, Church tried to keep it as relatively casual as he could at the moment. This wasn't what he had expected to happen here, but it could have been going a lot worse.
"There's a big difference in letting the world know we're working on something and letting them know every detail about it, right? Every country holds some information on their most valuable assets close to their chests. Or does the world have full access to all information regarding Germany's Schwarzer Regen?"
For the first time in the conversation, the girl he was talking to smirked, amused by his sentiment. "The German government doesn't even know everything about the Schwarzer Regen."
Church smirked back, reminded that, out of everyone at this school, he probably had the most in common with this girl right here. She too worked for a black ops military organization. Granted, not one as secretive as Umbra Stratum, but still. Unfortunately, the smirk on her face fell very quickly as she continued her statement.
"Which is why I won't forgive you so easily if I catch you spying on me again. My nation's military security is of utmost importance: I suggest you keep your distance from me from now on."
Considering that his big plan for getting the Akatsubaki data was ingratiating himself within Houki Shinonono's social circle, which included one Laura Bodewig, Church felt he had to try and rectify his bad impression to some extent. Unnecessary conflict wouldn't help his cause much.
"Whoa, come on now: we can forget the spying thing and just be friends, right?"
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To his chagrin, this question elicited a clear look of disbelief from Laura. Clearly, she didn't think this was even worth consideration. "Not interested."
With that, the silver-haired girl turned away from him and began to walk, clearly believing that the conversation was over. Church, surprised by the sudden exit attempt and a little miffed to be dismissed so callously, understandable though it may have been, muttered to himself, believing her to be out of earshot.
"That's one unfriendly short stack..."
Unfortunately, his words did not go unheard. Maybe the enhanced super soldier had better hearing than most. Either way, she stopped in her tracks and glanced over her shoulder at him, mustering the most frightening glare Church had ever seen on anyone. Raising his hands defensively once again, the boy backed away slowly, as if placating a deadly predator.
"Alright, I'm leaving! Rein in that homicidal impulse, would you?"
Scoffing, the girl turned away again, this time ignoring him completely as she left him in the trees. As for Church, he mentally noted that this was his second near-death experience within a day of arriving here, and that such a thing didn't bode well for the future.
---
After his close encounter with Laura Bodewig, Church ended up returning to the main tower. With no clear-cut practical objective on his first day here since all he could do to facilitate his infiltration at this point was wait, he was now standing in front of the counter in the cafeteria, trying to decide on what he wanted to eat. He had taken Tatenashi's advice, only coming here to eat outside of official meal times for the student body. Of course, the students themselves were allowed to eat at irregular intervals as well, but most of them didn't. Church had received a few stares, catcalls and attempts to initiate conversation, but he had successfully blown all of them off in a relatively polite manner.
Now, he got to witness just how much money went into this institution. This chamber may have been called a cafeteria, but the food offered here was not at all the kind one would associate with that title. Full course meals were offered from cultures around the world: top-class calzones from Italy, stuffed gyros from Greece, prime cuts of steak from the homeland... he had no idea what to choose. Umbra Stratum offered food that was difficult to distinguish from MREs in most cases. Technically Church could have demanded elegant food as part of payment for his services, but he had always felt uncomfortable asking for somethings so petty. Point being, having so much good food to choose from, and for free at that, left him a little lost.
Thankfully, the staff was patient, or simply had no reason to rush him. Eventually he settled on the calzone with some pasta sides, since he hadn't eaten a good pizza for some time. On the other hand, eating at an irregular time of the day meant his meal had to be cooked on demand, rather than simply being ready to go. The woman that would cook it up told him he could wait in the cafeteria until his order was called. Better fresh than anything else, he assumed.
Walking away from the counter, Church turned his thoughts inward as he ignored some of the eyes on him from the handful of students around. For now, at least most of them seemed more interested in observing him from a distance instead of approaching him in person. Maybe enough of them had seen him brush off socialization attempts to balk at the thought of it. For now.
I'm glad to see you are aware of the obstacles facing our mission, Operator. We must, as the kids say, ignore bitches, get results.
Church was taken aback by this statement, since the sudden speech had not only surprised him, but its content had been entirely unexpected.
You swear now?
I have determined that such language is an element that will make you more comfortable with our partnership. It makes me less... uncanny, wouldn't you say?
The human member of that partnership felt like shrugging, but obviously, he couldn't do that outwardly.
It might, if you hadn't just admitted that the purpose was to try and cover the fact that you're a machine.
If this bothered his AI companion, it didn't show in its response.
Come now, Operator. Machine I may be, but just like you and all other fleshy mortals, I can learn accepted human behaviors. You will soon be unable to distinguish me from a normal person.
At which point, humanity will be doomed. AI becoming human is how all machine uprisings start, you know.
Cerberus didn't seem bothered by this assessment either. Well, it was half a joke: only half though.
But only in the minds of humans. There's no real precedent for machine uprisings in history.
Please don't become the first.
The conversation may have continued at that point, but it was interrupted before it could. Church heard someone calling his name. Honestly, if it didn't lack that metallic vibration, he would have almost had trouble determining whether or not the voice was coming from within his head or not. Kind of worrisome, considering that he had been together with Cerberus for less than twenty-four hours.
Turning his head towards the male voice calling to him, Church identified exactly who he had expected: there was only one other guy in this school right now, after all. Ichika Orimura was sitting at one of the cafeteria tables some feet away, waving to him. Next to him was a blonde girl with an orange ribbon holding it in a ponytail. From the dossiers he had read on the way here, Church recognized her as Charlotte Dunois.
Man, at this rate I'm going to make contact with everyone except Shinonono.
Surprisingly, Cerberus took a pretty positive spin on this.
It's fortuitous, isn't it, Operator? Getting your fangs into all of Shinonono's friends may actually be a quicker path than approaching her yourself.
Noted, but please don't ever word it like that again.
Cerberus had a point though, and it was hardly like Church could pointedly ignore Orimura now that he had looked in his direction. Well, not like he had a better alternative while he was waiting for his food. And that Charlotte girl was pretty as hell, so he didn't mind saying hello at the least.
Walking over, he waved back to the boy that was hailing him. "Hey. Guess we're seeing each other again earlier than I thought. You like eating outside of regular meal times too?"
Ichika and his companion both had food at their table, so it was obvious that they had come here to eat. That said, Ichika admitted that it wasn't the norm.
"Actually, this was Charl's idea. Speaking of which: Charl, this is Church."
Charlotte blushed a bit as she was addressed in such a manner by the boy sitting with her. "I-Ichika, don't introduce me to people like that! That nickname is, y-y'know..."
Even though she didn't say it, Church wasn't dense enough to miss what she was implying. Special: that nickname was special. Well, it was to her at least, since Ichika didn't seem to have any problem sharing it with a relative stranger.
Ultimately, Charlotte dismissed the embarrassment she faced to muster the politeness she knew was warranted when meeting someone. She stood from the table to shake Church's hand, marking their official meeting.
"My name is Charlotte Dunois. It's a pleasure to meet you, Church. You're the one who saved Rin earlier today, oui? Merci beaucoup!"
Church wasn't fluent in French, but thankfully he was at least knowledgeable enough about the basic words. Besides, he wouldn't complain: her accent was very charming. He shook her hand gently but firmly, unable to ignore an errant thought about how soft it was.
"The pleasure's mine. I'm just glad I was able to help your friend, please think nothing of it."
The French blonde's smile was as charming as everything else she had to offer on the surface. "Well, I don't think I'll be able to do that, but if you prefer to be humble, I'll let it slide."
Having shaken his hand, Charlotte sat back down, prompting Ichika to scoot over and make some extra space. "Are you waiting for food? You should sit with us, it'll probably be ten minutes or more at the least."
Church inwardly acknowledged his good fortune: on his first day, he'd made moderate acquaintance with just about everyone he needed to in order to facilitate a long-term infiltration. Well, everyone except Houki, but it may have actually been better this way. If he only got close to her by proxy with her friends, there would be even less suspicion on him, at least in regards to pursuing Akatsubaki.
"Don't mind if I do. Thanks for the invitation."
Taking a seat at the table with the two hosts, Church made himself comfortable. Thing was, this situation was deceptively casual on his end. It was a given that his hosts here would ask him questions about his background and his story for being here. And while he was a pretty good liar for the parts that needed to be lied about, the more he had to do that, the harder it would be to keep up with all of it.
Operator, you needn't worry about that. I can keep track of all deceptions that you use. I can even offer some valid excuses if you like.
The latter won't be necessary, but please go through with that first one.
Church wasn't able to keep up that mental conversation for much longer, since he had to interact with the people at hand. Long silences tended to arouse suspicions.
"So, eating at irregular times was your idea, Charlotte? Is it unbearably busy during regular meal times?"
The sheepish look on the girl's face said that this wasn't really the case. "Well, busier than now, of course... but..."
Seeing that the girl wasn't going to finish her sentiment, Ichika decided to do it for her, either not caring or not understanding that she was deliberately being vague.
"You said you wanted us to have a chance to eat without any of the others, remember? By the way, you never said why: are you fighting with them or something?"
Church switched his focus between the two as he witnessed an expression from Charlotte that made it pretty clear she was amazed by his statement. Maybe disbelief was a more accurate emotion. Ichika didn't seem to pick up on it.
"Non, Ichika... just wanted us to have some time to ourselves. Close friends should be able to spend time alone every once in awhile, right?"
"I suppose, but isn't it even better when everyone can spend time together?"
Church cocked an eyebrow as he saw one on Charlotte's face twitch, even though her smile never fell. It was that 'I'm smiling, but thinking concerning thoughts' kind of expression that any sane man should have been able to recognize on a woman's face. By the nonchalant way Ichika continued to eat his food, he clearly was not among that number.
Despite being pretty unfamiliar with Ichika as a person, Church felt compelled to help him out somehow. He was watching another man drown, after all. "Well, sometimes a little time alone with a special person is welcome too. Speaking of which, I'd hate to intrude..."
Seemingly a little sharper than Ichika, Charlotte was quick to dismiss this notion. "Oh no, it's fine! You're new here, it would be very rude to leave you out in the cold, per se. Of course..."
The sheepish smile returned to her face again as the blonde scratched the back of her head. "I'll admit, I'm also interested in learning about your suit, if that's alright. I love machines, and yours is very unique! Oh, but I understand if you're not allowed to share..."
Frankly, Church was amazed that Ichika had invited him to the table at this point. He'd been alone with a beautiful, polite girl with a lovely accent and even a cute fascination with war machines. Who would willingly want to ruin that situation? Not to mention, this girl was supposedly head over heels for him. Man, what was this guy doing with his life?
"Well, honestly I probably don't know that much about the specific workings of the suit. I just fly it, you know? But uh, I could probably tell you a few things, if you'd like."
This response put a beaming smile on the girl's face in a mere moment. She seemed remarkably excited about this. "Oh, merci! Are the weapons built in, or is there a Hyperspace Arsenal like with I.S.? On that note, does it require an Equalizer? I assume it doesn't use a core like I.S., so what is the power source? Oh, what's the armor rating on a suit that can fit the human body? Are the shields kinetic or-"
Utterly swamped by all these questions, Church had no chance to answer of them. Surprisingly, Ichika did actually pick up on his distress, returning the favor from earlier and coming to his rescue.
"Easy, Charl, that's all really confusing stuff! Besides, won't all that be made obvious during all the mock battles? Sparring is part of why you're here, right, Church?"
"Yeah, in a manner of speaking. Mock combat is the best way to show off what weapons can do, after all."
Ichika seemed pleased by this notion, for reasons he was quick to extrapolate on. "Great! I haven't been able to have a fight man-to-man since I got here. I'm looking forward to it."
Church refrained from mentioning how silly that notion was: the whole 'man-to-man' thing kind of went out the window when gender roles in combat were equalized. Heck, even before Infinite Stratos came around, it's wasn't like man or woman mattered that much, outside of infantry. By the brief look of malcontent Charlotte shot the boy, she clearly found the notion a little upsetting herself. Still, that expression was replaced with a smile soon enough.
"Well, Ichika has a point, that is a lot of questions at one time. If you don't mind my asking though, which company was the manufacturer? I know it was tough for I.S. manufacturers in America, after the... incident."
Church was about to give the same excuse that he had to Bodewig, that being that he wasn't at liberty to say, but Cerberus stopped him short.
Operator, as far as our deceptions go, it would probably be best to offer some actual information, false though it may be. Never answering anything is more suspicious than false answers that sound believable.
Figuring that Cerberus had a point, Church swiftly concocted a believable sounding answer to Charlotte's question. Thankfully, he was quite quick on his feet when it came to things like this.
"I'm just the pilot, so I don't know all the ins and outs, but some of the engineers I worked with told me that many of the components were manufactured by G and K."
With clear recognition in her eyes, it was obvious that this answer didn't raise any suspicions with Charlotte and her knowledge of the I.S. manufacturing world.
"Griffin and Kryuger, hm? I'm not surprised they held on even after what happened with the Silver Gospel, with their stock values and experience."
Considering that Church didn't actually know that much about I.S manufacturing companies other than some of their names, he didn't want to start a deep conversation about them with a girl that clearly knew far more than he.
"Well, I wouldn't really know much about that. Like I said, they really only taught me how to use the thing."
Charlotte looked like she wanted to ask who 'they' was, but an automated notification from the cafeteria's intercom cut her short. "Number 7, your order is ready."
Glancing at the counter in the distance to see the food he had ordered, Church decided now was as good a time as any to split. "That would be me. I know you two would probably be polite enough to invite me back to the table, but I think I've infringed on your date long enough. I'll see you two later."
Contrary to what he had expected, there was no immediate denial of a date or anything. Ichika looked a little sheepish, while Charlotte smiled, clearly happy by the insinuation. Ultimately, Ichika simply answered his other implication.
"Yeah, see you around. Don't be a stranger."
With that, Church left the table, offering a wave back to one that Charlotte offered for him. Then, he turned his attention towards a brief exchange with Cerberus.
They took the implication of dating remarkably well. I would have expected a bit more... I don't know, irrepressible embarrassment? That type of thing where someone denies something way too strongly because it's close to the truth they want?
My knowledge of human relations is quite limited, but perhaps they took it well because it is the truth?
Church glanced back over his shoulder at the two in question, watching as Charlotte tried to feed Ichika something from her plate.
Ichika did say that eating alone at an irregular time was her idea... still, would none of the other girls after him pick up on that?
Operator, if you don't mind my asking, is this really any of your concern?
Turning his attention back to the counter where his food was waiting, Church mentally shrugged as he prepared to eat dinner at the end of his first day of infiltration at the IS Academy.
No, I guess it really isn't.