Shooter Meets Hacker

Shooter Meets Hacker is the second episode of Black★★Rock Shooter DAWN FALL. It aired on April 10, 2022.

Synopsis
Empress had made the decision to take Norito back to the mountain town where he and his sister live. Along the way, she was suddenly attacked by Strength, her supposed ally. Empress tries to fight back with a powerful weapon summoned from her right arm, the Coilgun, but the weapon doesn't work due to lacking the necessary energy. Placed at a disadvantage, Empress leaves to escape. She arrives at the mountain town and is then asked by Norito to help bring essential supplies from the nearby site of a former hospital. However, there lays a very dangerous beehive.

Plot
The tank Titan from the previous episode lays in ruins after being crushed by Strength, who is in the middle of attacking Empress. Empress asks who she is while dodging all of her attacks, and Strength introduces herself while demonstrating her power. She throws a tank truck on Empress and attempts to kill her by blowing it up, only to find it was empty. Empress lifts the truck off herself and stands off with Strength.

From afar, their fight is being closely observed by another girl. Empress briefly summons the Coilgun, but it disappears just as soon as it appears, forcing Empress to resort to the gun in her holster. Strength blocks the bullets with her Gigantic Arm and punches Empress, knocking her back into the rubble of an abandoned car. Strength is about to fire missiles at her when Black Trike rams into Strength, sending her into the air and causing all of her missiles to miss their target. Black Trike drives up to Empress and tells her to retreat while the Colonel fires at Strength from the wartime vehicle, giving Empress enough time to get away on Black Trike. The Colonel, with Norito and Miya in the vehicle, follow suit. As Strength watches them leave, a fragment of her memory where she and Dead Master were put up on crosses and manipulated with comes back to her, causing another headache and aggravating her as she curses Empress for it. Strength leaves on her own Black Trike and goes elsewhere. Meanwhile, the girl who was watching their fight senses a great opportunity for herself, and leaves on her own bike.

On the road, the Colonel asks Empress why Strength was attacking her, since they're supposed to be allies. Empress seems unsure of this, and the Colonel explains to her again about how Artemis came from Project Elysion but chose to fight against humanity, and how its unmanned forces throw humans into the Iron Ocean to draw out the machines' energy. As they make their way into the mountain town, the people living there are shown to exchange batteries as currency. The Colonel explains the importance of batteries for the people in the town as a man is shot dead for trying to steal batteries from a seller. The group enters an underground tavern that has been cleared of Arche, where the Colonel asks the bartender about the nearest location of a Peacebuilding Forces base to no avail.

The Colonel continues his explanation to Empress, this time about who and what the Hemiteos Unit are. He tells her that she was their leader, known as Black Rock Shooter. The Colonel then tells Empress how she fought for humanity's sake against Artemis, but lost in the end and went missing afterwards. Empress then thinks of Lighthouse No. 8 and says she must go there, though cannot explain the place to the Colonel when asked what it is. Norito tries to speak up, but the Colonel shoots him down by threatening to kill him. Norito retorts how professional the Colonel is at killing, and the Colonel claims to live a daily routine based on killing, and even goes as far as to violate their dead bodies. Miya doesn't understand what he means, but Norito says it's better she doesn't. The Colonel tells Empress to forget about Strength for the time being and focus on saving humanity. Having eavesdropped on their conversation, the girl who was watching Empress and Strength fight comes in and interjects, claiming to like the Colonel's earlier vulgar claims, though the Colonel shoots her down too and asks who she is. The girl then reveals the way to a Peacebuilding Forces base via a terrain-analyzing mapping system rather graciously, but the Colonel sees through her overtly generous act and asks what she wants in return. As the Colonel and the girl have their banter, Empress taps the food options on a digital menu. The girl then reveals her passionate interest in Empress, whom she wants to learn more about while doing maintenance on her and her motorbike. She then goes on to introduce herself as Monica Kaburagi until Norito interrupts her to plead to Empress for help.

The group, now including Monica, come down to the underground refuge where Norito and Miya live. Here, many people are found to be suffering with very little supplies to get by. Empress approaches one of the refugees carrying a baby and lightly touches its face. Norito tells them of a former hospital site that contains supplies they could use, but is too dangerous to approach because of the "beehive" of swarm-type Titans nearby. He begs Empress to help get the supplies they need, but is struck by the Colonel, who coldly disregards his plea. Empress, cradling the baby in her arms, says that the Colonel talks a lot about saving humanity, but doesn't do much himself to help humans who are in need. Although she remembers nothing about herself, Empress believes her old self wouldn't abandon the people who need help, and agrees to help Norito. The Colonel and Monica simply sigh.

At a scrapyard outside the mountain town, Monica helps Empress to regain the energy needed to summon the Coilgun by placing Empress' hand on a scrap of machinery, which Empress absorbs into herself. The group then observes the beehives of swarm Titans from afar. They plan to have Empress divert the swarm divisions of Titans away from the hospital site while they retrieve the supplies from there. Monica comments on how the Colonel decided to go along with what Empress wanted to do, and the Colonel says that he wanted to know how strong Empress is. Empress drives down onto the road to initiate the plan. Meanwhile, Strength is watching the beehives from afar. The swarm Titans come down and pursue Empress, keeping them away from the hospital site long enough for Norito, Miya and Monica to get as many supplies as they can. However, a number of dormant bipedal Titans in the hospital activate and attack the group. The Colonel fires at them while Monica drives everyone out of the hospital site and towards Empress' location.

Empress summons the Coilgun (which Strength witnesses) and fires a laser that eliminate numerous swarm Titans. While everyone was distracted watching the Titans be eliminated, however, a bipedal Titan is revealed to have snuck onto the back of the wartime vehicle. It grabs Norito, forcing Monica to swerve to get rid of the Titan, though with Norito still in its grasp. Empress leaps off her motorbike and protects Norito from the Titan, nearly dispatching of the Titan until a surviving number of swarm Titans bombard her, rendering her vulnerable while the Colonel and Black Trike fire back at the remaining swarm Titans. Before more are about to bombard Empress, Strength suddenly appears and protects her from the Titans with her Gigantic Arm. Strength asks Empress why she fights for a cause that Strength sees as pointless, but Empress calmly replies that she does so because she can fight, and does not believe in a human that isn't worth caring about. Strength remembers Lighthouse No. 8, and annoyed, she takes off on her motorbike again, wondering why she can't help but hate Empress.

The group returns to the mountain town and delivers the supplies to the people in need, leaving Norito and Miya behind there. The Colonel thinks he wasted his time being kind, but Monica says she saw the "real" Colonel while they were up against the swarm Titans, and thinks about how Strength has weighed on her mind. She looks at a photo in the wartime vehicle of a young girl together with her mother, and the Colonel tells her to be quiet and keep driving. Empress asks Black Trike what she is and why she was born, and Black Trike tells her that she is a Hemiteos Unit developed for the sake of protecting Project Elysion. With her unique DNA possessing Hemiteos protein, she is meant to protect humanity from the "scary things". Empress thanks Black Trike for having helped her out so many times. Later that night, the group camps out at a clearing with the Colonel on watch and Monica sleeping soundly. Empress asks Black Trike about Lighthouse No. 8, and the motorbike tells her the relevant archives about the location are currently locked, and it only has a rough idea of where the place is. Suddenly, the Colonel spots lights from afar. He identifies them as belonging to the enemy, the Education Institution.

Characters

 * By order of appearance
 * Empress
 * Strength
 * Monica Kaburagi
 * Black Trike
 * Colonel
 * Norito
 * Dead Master
 * Miya
 * Charlotte

Gallery

 * Full Article: Shooter Meets Hacker/Gallery