[Part 2 of "Get Equipped!" mission. Part 1]
Hideyoshi Raijuta and Tokugase Fuurika. They, with a handful of other medics and engineers, called themselves the Bishamonten Project and were working to create a new line of specialized puppets which could be remotely activated and put into service against the forces of the daimyo. That was what Raijuta had told him. Their "automata puppets" would revolutionize war as they knew it if they could overcome some of the hurdles that were facing them. Katsuo wasn't sure he liked the potential consequences of remotely controlled fighters who lacked any soul or empathy but Raijuta had figured out his secret about his lineage and Katsuo wasn't ready to have that information be public just yet. Raijuta hadn't threatened to reveal it necessarily but it was a potential outcome if he made an enemy out of them.
As a result, he was standing alone in the wind-swept portion of the Desert biome which belonged to the Ranger Order where they intended to conduct the first major weapons test for an automata-type puppet. This was their prototype model-- something that all of their work and data had gone into creating but it lacked any real field testing.
"Katsuo, can you hear me?" Raijuta's voice crackled in Katsuo's ear through the ear-piece he wore that was patched into the inner-workings of the helmet he wore on his head. Cherry red and white with a black visor, it was the same helmet that he'd worn on the mission into the Diamond Maelstrom. Likewise he wore the same yellow scarf that had adorned his shoulders then as well.
"I hear you." Katuso said back, reaching up to touch the side of his helmet and depressing the button on the side of the helmet which opened his speaking channel with his index and middle fingers.
"Excellent. We'll be deploying unit APU-00 shortly. I want to caution you not to hold back-- it will be fully armed and is not capable of affording you a similar courtesy. Wreck it as hard as you can. We want to see how it performs."
He could hear Fuurika in the background yelling something about how her baby was going to "fuck him up" but it was hard to hear her fully and Katsuo was suddenly very glad that Raijuta had not made the decision to give her access to the wireless communication channels.
"You got it, Doc."
He'd still hold back a little bit, at least. He didn't want to turn the Desert biome into a miniature Diamond Maelstrom unless he had to. He had no idea what to expect from this "APU-00" but this wouldn't be the first time that he'd battled with a semi-animated piece of hardware. His test for earning the power that he held now had been against an amalgamation of diamond particulate brought to life by the energy of Tatsumasa and if this battle were going to be anything like that then Katsuo was certainly in for it.
"Automatic Puppet Unit Zero-Zero deploying now. Good luck, Katsuo."
From the top of the chamber, Katsuo could see the "sky" overheard split and a small opening appear suspended in the air and from it a small cylindrical object was ejected before rapidly plummeting to ground and impacting with a geyser of sand to announce it's arrival. With the telltale cloud of smoke of sealing scroll technology deploying, a tremendous figure stepped out from within the cloud.
Easily over eight feet tall, it bore the appearance of a gargantuan armored humanoid with a backpack that belched smoke and fire. Small bolts of energy coursed across it's form as it raised it's right arm, covered in a large lance-like weapon that glowed ominously with heat and pointed it at Katsuo who, up until this point had just been standing watching the arrival of "APU-00" had only moments to dodge before the air around his body rapidly ignited and exploded with heat.
Skidding backwards through a cloud of smoke producted from the puppet's attack, Katsuo's body crackled with energy as he called on his own power to envelop his body in preparation for the battle he had just engaged. When Raijuta had warned him that APU-00 wasn't going to cut him any slack, he hadn't been kidding.
Coulda used a heads up about the chakra techniques though.
The sand beneath his feet heating up and beginning to bubble as Katsuo's body began to superheat the air around him, the young prince dashed forward through the smoke created by APU-00's opening attack and ducked just in time to dodge a large steel fist that swooped in from the side at his head. The attack hadn't been fast necessarily but the weight that it carried behind it had possessed enough force to generate a shockwave of wind as it passed that nearly throw Katsuo off balance as he moved around to the side of APU-00 under it's arm and raised his own fingers that pulsed now with summoned power. APU-00 began to turn to face Katsuo but it's slow speed failed it and by the time it was turned enough to point it's large lance-weapon at him again Katsuo had already gathered enough chakra for his attack and had already closed distance with it's bulky body. Slamming his fist first into the side of the lance to knock it out of the way, APU-00's steel exterior crumbled beneath the force of the attack and it's arm went spiraling away from it trailing a few globules of molten metal from where Katsuo's super-heated strike had impacted it.
Halting for a moment in APU-00's tremendous shadow, Katsou crouched low and dived upwards with his right fist a maelstrom of his golden chakra as he laid his fingers into the face-mask of the automous puppet and squeezed. Like a hot knife through butter his fingers sliced through the metal exterior of APU-00's head and the rest of it simply burst under the strain of Katsuo's attack allowing him to put his weight into the huge puppet's chest and ride it backwards into the sand as it went limp and fell backwards from the force behind Katsuo's diving lunge.
The fight was over almost as quickly as it had begun but those first few moments had been tense. An automatic puppet that could use ranged chakra-based attacks? With accuracy? That was dangerous. If APU-00 had gone up against a lower-ranked shinobi, it would have been a serious threat to say nothing of mundane soldiers. A group of soldiers armed with ordinary steel and shields would never have stood a chance against APU-00.
"That was incredible Katsuo, we obtained a great deal of data from the excercise." Raijuta's voice couldn't hide the tremors of disappointment even though he clearly tried. In the background Katsuo could hear Fuurika absolutely going bananas in a flurry of curses and swears. It seemed that the two leading members of the Bishamonten Project thought their APU-00 would do much better against a seasoned fighter like Katsuo. "We'll send a crew out to pick up APU-00. Consider your mission complete, for now. We'll be in touch."
Reaching up, Katsuo pulled the helmet from his head and looked down at the still remains of the automatic puppet weapon he'd defeated. Was this the future of shinobi warfare? Of fighting in general? Impersonal machines with no souls? He didn't like it. It went against everything that his study of martial arts taught him. But... admittedly there was some appeal to no longer having to put lives on the line to deal with mad men like Ishii Shiro. He decided that he'd keep a close eye on this Bishamonten Project and their progress... if only to make sure that they didn't end up making something truly horrifying.
Hideyoshi Raijuta and Tokugase Fuurika. They, with a handful of other medics and engineers, called themselves the Bishamonten Project and were working to create a new line of specialized puppets which could be remotely activated and put into service against the forces of the daimyo. That was what Raijuta had told him. Their "automata puppets" would revolutionize war as they knew it if they could overcome some of the hurdles that were facing them. Katsuo wasn't sure he liked the potential consequences of remotely controlled fighters who lacked any soul or empathy but Raijuta had figured out his secret about his lineage and Katsuo wasn't ready to have that information be public just yet. Raijuta hadn't threatened to reveal it necessarily but it was a potential outcome if he made an enemy out of them.
As a result, he was standing alone in the wind-swept portion of the Desert biome which belonged to the Ranger Order where they intended to conduct the first major weapons test for an automata-type puppet. This was their prototype model-- something that all of their work and data had gone into creating but it lacked any real field testing.
"Katsuo, can you hear me?" Raijuta's voice crackled in Katsuo's ear through the ear-piece he wore that was patched into the inner-workings of the helmet he wore on his head. Cherry red and white with a black visor, it was the same helmet that he'd worn on the mission into the Diamond Maelstrom. Likewise he wore the same yellow scarf that had adorned his shoulders then as well.
"I hear you." Katuso said back, reaching up to touch the side of his helmet and depressing the button on the side of the helmet which opened his speaking channel with his index and middle fingers.
"Excellent. We'll be deploying unit APU-00 shortly. I want to caution you not to hold back-- it will be fully armed and is not capable of affording you a similar courtesy. Wreck it as hard as you can. We want to see how it performs."
He could hear Fuurika in the background yelling something about how her baby was going to "fuck him up" but it was hard to hear her fully and Katsuo was suddenly very glad that Raijuta had not made the decision to give her access to the wireless communication channels.
"You got it, Doc."
He'd still hold back a little bit, at least. He didn't want to turn the Desert biome into a miniature Diamond Maelstrom unless he had to. He had no idea what to expect from this "APU-00" but this wouldn't be the first time that he'd battled with a semi-animated piece of hardware. His test for earning the power that he held now had been against an amalgamation of diamond particulate brought to life by the energy of Tatsumasa and if this battle were going to be anything like that then Katsuo was certainly in for it.
"Automatic Puppet Unit Zero-Zero deploying now. Good luck, Katsuo."
From the top of the chamber, Katsuo could see the "sky" overheard split and a small opening appear suspended in the air and from it a small cylindrical object was ejected before rapidly plummeting to ground and impacting with a geyser of sand to announce it's arrival. With the telltale cloud of smoke of sealing scroll technology deploying, a tremendous figure stepped out from within the cloud.
Easily over eight feet tall, it bore the appearance of a gargantuan armored humanoid with a backpack that belched smoke and fire. Small bolts of energy coursed across it's form as it raised it's right arm, covered in a large lance-like weapon that glowed ominously with heat and pointed it at Katsuo who, up until this point had just been standing watching the arrival of "APU-00" had only moments to dodge before the air around his body rapidly ignited and exploded with heat.Skidding backwards through a cloud of smoke producted from the puppet's attack, Katsuo's body crackled with energy as he called on his own power to envelop his body in preparation for the battle he had just engaged. When Raijuta had warned him that APU-00 wasn't going to cut him any slack, he hadn't been kidding.
Coulda used a heads up about the chakra techniques though.
The sand beneath his feet heating up and beginning to bubble as Katsuo's body began to superheat the air around him, the young prince dashed forward through the smoke created by APU-00's opening attack and ducked just in time to dodge a large steel fist that swooped in from the side at his head. The attack hadn't been fast necessarily but the weight that it carried behind it had possessed enough force to generate a shockwave of wind as it passed that nearly throw Katsuo off balance as he moved around to the side of APU-00 under it's arm and raised his own fingers that pulsed now with summoned power. APU-00 began to turn to face Katsuo but it's slow speed failed it and by the time it was turned enough to point it's large lance-weapon at him again Katsuo had already gathered enough chakra for his attack and had already closed distance with it's bulky body. Slamming his fist first into the side of the lance to knock it out of the way, APU-00's steel exterior crumbled beneath the force of the attack and it's arm went spiraling away from it trailing a few globules of molten metal from where Katsuo's super-heated strike had impacted it.
Halting for a moment in APU-00's tremendous shadow, Katsou crouched low and dived upwards with his right fist a maelstrom of his golden chakra as he laid his fingers into the face-mask of the automous puppet and squeezed. Like a hot knife through butter his fingers sliced through the metal exterior of APU-00's head and the rest of it simply burst under the strain of Katsuo's attack allowing him to put his weight into the huge puppet's chest and ride it backwards into the sand as it went limp and fell backwards from the force behind Katsuo's diving lunge.
The fight was over almost as quickly as it had begun but those first few moments had been tense. An automatic puppet that could use ranged chakra-based attacks? With accuracy? That was dangerous. If APU-00 had gone up against a lower-ranked shinobi, it would have been a serious threat to say nothing of mundane soldiers. A group of soldiers armed with ordinary steel and shields would never have stood a chance against APU-00.
"That was incredible Katsuo, we obtained a great deal of data from the excercise." Raijuta's voice couldn't hide the tremors of disappointment even though he clearly tried. In the background Katsuo could hear Fuurika absolutely going bananas in a flurry of curses and swears. It seemed that the two leading members of the Bishamonten Project thought their APU-00 would do much better against a seasoned fighter like Katsuo. "We'll send a crew out to pick up APU-00. Consider your mission complete, for now. We'll be in touch."
Reaching up, Katsuo pulled the helmet from his head and looked down at the still remains of the automatic puppet weapon he'd defeated. Was this the future of shinobi warfare? Of fighting in general? Impersonal machines with no souls? He didn't like it. It went against everything that his study of martial arts taught him. But... admittedly there was some appeal to no longer having to put lives on the line to deal with mad men like Ishii Shiro. He decided that he'd keep a close eye on this Bishamonten Project and their progress... if only to make sure that they didn't end up making something truly horrifying.