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blinded by blood
 Author
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Oakland, CA
Age: 40
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In a vain attempt to re-ignite my writing spark which has been very, very dead, I present to thee... a short! A snippet! A little piece of Reborn: A Magical War Chronicle for your general consumption!
Spoiler for Holy crap Batman, it's a Nena short!:
It was as if a hurricane had blown through the small, secret military installation. The bodies of dozens of guards dressed in an unusual uniform lay scattered about. Rapidly darkening blood pooled thickly on the tarmac.
"Sector sweep, clear. Fifteen targets neutralized," the armored trooper said aloud, his communication system picking up the confirmation and piping it directly to his unit commander. The other two soldiers with him, all wearing a lightweight suit of recon-class power-assisted armor, waited impatiently, their fingers hovering anxiously over the triggers of their linear rifles.
"Did they manage to raise an alarm, Lieutenant?"
"No, sir. Signal jammers were in place; their primitive communications equipment could not penetrate it. Nobody knows this installation has been taken."
"Excellent. This is a non-administrated world," the commander's voice came back, "and there's no Bureau presence here whatsoever. The local military forces don't stand a chance against us."
"Thank you, sir," the soldier responded smartly. "Your orders?"
"Rendezvous with the collection team. Maintain vigilance and protect the collection team as they secure the artifact. We cannot allow the Bureau to obtain it."
"Yes, sir!"
"Lieutenant," one of the recon troopers spoke up, "there's something strange showing up on my sensors. It doesn't read like anything else I've ever seen before."
"What do you mean?"
"The signature is similar to that of a Modern Belkan Armed Device... but it's extremely faint. As if the Device's mana has been completely exhausted and it only has enough power left to maintain the limited artificial intelligence."
"That is odd, Corporal," the lieutenant remarked. "Intelligence reports suggest that there were once Midchildan mages present on this world, during two previous incidents... but a Modern Belkan Device?"
"If it was the Bureau, they'd be here in force," the other soldier remarked gruffly. "What are the coordinates of this anomaly?"
The corporal rattled off a string of numbers, which were quickly keyed into a holographic interface by the gruff-voiced soldier. It was impossible to tell, of course, behind the powered armor's mirrored visor, but the lieutenant could have sworn he saw the man's eyes widen.
"It's getting closer," the gruff-voiced soldier responded warily. "The signal... doubled? I'm detecting something else now..."
"If the signal is that weak, the mage in question must be injured and their Device damaged," the lieutenant said irritably. "They may have ran afoul of the guards just as we did."
"Life-sign sensors show nothing," the corporal reported.
"Nevertheless," the lieutenant remarked, unlimbering his linear rifle from the holding clamps on his backpack, "we should still be careful. I'm going to report this to the commander."
"Lieutenant, my communications are down," the corporal said, his voice betraying his nervousness.
"We're being jammed? That isn't possible," the lieutenant said adamantly. "The humans on this world don't have the technology to jam subspace radios."
"The strange Device signals we picked up?"
"Could be. Stay alert, gentlemen. The collection team should arrive in twenty."
"Lieutenant! I'm detecting a high-energy discharge! The readings are off the cha--"
The lieutenant's jaw dropped behind the visor of his helmet as a violet-white beam of incandescent death seemingly materialized through the body of his communications officer. The corporal was killed mid-sentence as the beam of accelerated, energetic particles blasted through his body and breached the small microfusion reactor contained within the backpack unit.
The shockwave knocked the lieutenant and the gruff-voiced soldier from their feet, sending them sliding across the smooth floor, dazed but relatively unharmed. The soldiers were well-trained and shook off their surprise, quickly leaping to their feet with preternatural quickness. Linear rifles were out and ready as the two soldiers instinctively ran for cover.
"What the hell was that, Lieutenant?!"
"Particle beam rifle," the lieutenant responded grimly. "It's not a magic-based weapon at all.
"I know who we're up against."
"Where is he? That jamming field is too strong, I can't get a reading on anything--"
The lieutenant cursed aloud as his own sensors suddenly detected an immense spike of magical conversion. A barrage of brilliant yellow bullets of magical energy slammed into the other soldier's armor, exploding with concussive thunderclaps.
The shots themselves weren't terribly damaging--even the recon-grade powered armor was potent enough to ward off an attack of this level. But the constant micro-detonations had pretty much pinned the man down where he was. The lieutenant figured that the attacking mage would have to stop their barrage of weak attacks in order to let loose with something that could seriously hurt him, and the sniper...
The sniper would be hunting him. The lieutenant frowned darkly, wishing that his communications officer had detected the unusual Device signature thirty seconds earlier. But what was done was done and the recon unit had no choice but to fight until the collection team finished their task.
Something wasn't right. The sniper should have already fired--these walls, even reinforced against heavy armor-piercing slugs, would be like tissue paper against a particle beam weapon, even a man-portable model.
The lieutenant didn't take long to tumble to the fact that the Bureau people wanted to take them alive. Well, that would not be possible--the lieutenant and his remaining soldier had dispatch pills and were under strict orders to take their own lives if it came to that--
"[Plasma Smasher]."
A column of blinding golden magic blazed into existence around the lieutenant, the force of the attack slamming his body into the hard concrete below him. His powered armor was well-designed and could withstand incredible forces directed against him, but it was a lightweight suit and had never been designed to withstand such a powerful attack. Sparks shot from the backpack unit as the microfusion reactor shut down and vented plasma to avoid a critical breach and explosion.
The attack suddenly stopped, the wide swath of magical destruction suddenly ceasing. Astonishingly the lieutenant was still conscious--but he could barely move. Without the tiny servos and myoelectric polymer cables that powered the movements of the suit, his own muscles just weren't up to the task. Even the recon-grade suit weighed at least three hundred pounds including the backpack reactor.
Without suit power, he couldn't move his arm enough to open his visor and take out the dispatch pill.
From his prone vantage point the lieutenant could only see a pair of armor-plated boots and a pair of shapely legs encased in opaque black fabric. A wicked-looking Intelligent Device with a bright yellow central "eye" stared down at him menacingly.
"Don't move a muscle," a feminine voice snarled threateningly. "You're under arrest."
---
"The collection team surrendered without a fight," Nena Ashley reported in a flat tone. The blond woman, younger than Nena by several years but very obviously higher-ranking within the Bureau, nodded absently.
"Archer, open a channel to Admiral Harlaown," the red-haired woman commanded.
"Yes, ma'am," the Device brain's masculine voice said snappily, processing the command and opening a communications link to the Admiral.
The heavily-modified neutron rifle in her hands had been equipped with the limited AI of a Modern Belkan Armed Device, despite the weapon's roots in "violent" non-magical technology. It was a curious blend of the gentle and the brutal, thought Nena idly as the secure connection was established.
"Ah, Nena," a rich male voice came over the communications line, a holographic display projected by Archer's Device brain materializing before her. The man on the other end of the line was Admiral Chrono Harlaown, a hero of the Time-Space Administration Bureau and a savvy commander who controlled much of the Bureau's navy. He was also Nena's boss.
"Mission complete, Admiral," the redheaded mercenary reported. "The recon unit has been defeated--two dead, one taken prisoner. The collection team was apprehended without resistance."
"The Lost Logia secured?"
"Bardiche has it," the blond woman spoke up, walking over to stand beside Nena, staring at the admiral through the video communication window. "It's sealed down pretty tightly."
"Good work, Fate, Nena," Admiral Harlaown said. "I trust you had no problems working as a team, yes?"
"None at all," Fate replied agreeably, though her expression told another story. It would be a long time before they would start to trust her, Nena knew. The Admiral kept her on a fairly short leash--but the mercenary knew that Admiral Harlaown was not the type of person who trusted anyone outside of his own rigorously defined circle of friends.
And so Nena was often sent on missions with an escort. She was often partnered with the taciturn Captain Harlaown, whose own distaste at being ordered to work alongside a mercenary was painfully obvious.
"I'm sending somone to collect the Lost Logia," the admiral continued, snapping Nena out of her private thoughts and pulling her back to the mission at hand. "He will take possession of it and study it personally. Stand by to receive a transfer."
"Yes, sir," Fate responded curtly, turning away as the communications link was shut off. With Bardiche gripped in her hands, Nena thought the younger Harlaown looked as if she was disappointed the fight had been over so quickly.
A flash of green-white magical energy bespoke the incoming transfer. Nena's eyes focused on the newcomer, a young man of average height with long, straight blond hair pulled back in a loose ponytail with a green ribbon. The man wore a pair of wire-rimmed glasses and carried a thick datapad in one hand. He had a distinctly academic look about him.
"Yuuno! What are you doing here?"
The man named Yuuno let out a nervous little laugh and smiled at the sight of his old friend. "Well, you know I'm the closest thing the Bureau has to an expert on Lost Logia... but who's this with you?" Yuuno's green eyes locked on Nena suspiciously, his gaze lingering on the rifle in her hands and the automatic pistol holstered at her waist.
"Nena Ashley," Nena said by way of greeting, extending her right hand, keeping Archer balanced on her left shoulder. "I work for Admiral Harlaown."
"Yuuno Scryer," the blond man said, extending his hand to shake Nena's. "I've heard a lot about you from Nanoha and Fate."
"All of it bad, I'm sure," Nena said slyly. She could almost feel Fate, standing next to her, go rigid at the comment. The Enforcer couldn't quite keep a faint blush off her cheeks as she glared daggers at the mercenary.
"Where's the Lost Logia?" Yuuno asked, trying hard to ignore the not-so-subtle ambivalence between the two women.
"Bardiche has it," Fate replied in a low tone. "Bardiche, let's see it."
"[Put Out]."
Yuuno peered at the small crystalline shard as it emerged from the dimensional pocket Fate's Intelligent Device had sealed it up inside. It didn't appear to be active--
The magical researcher manifested a green Midchildan spell circle as he began to run several magical tests, casting detection spells and lore spells on the fragment. The two women watched, entranced, as the male mage went about his work with eerie efficiency and precision.
After several minutes had passed, it was clear that Yuuno had discovered all he could without taking the Lost Logia back to the Bureau's headquarters.
"This is a fragment," Yuuno said with conviction. "I don't know what of, but it's a piece of some type of Lost Logia. And whatever it is... it's extremely powerful."
"That explains why the invasion force is looking for it," Fate agreed, "but why is it here, on Earth?"
"I don't know," Yuuno replied grimly, "but this is important. This fragment--and the rest of whatever it is that this was a part of--could be the reason behind the whole war."
"Wars have been started over much less in the past," said Nena coolly. "Seal it down good and let's get out of here before these guys come looking for their missing recon and collection teams."
"What about--" Yuuno began, but Fate cut him off.
"My brother said he'd be leaving a detachment of Enforcers here to make sure the invaders don't cause any more trouble here on Earth. The destruction at this installation won't go unnoticed for long and the Americans should be put on their guard."
"They don't stand much of a chance against the invaders' tech," Nena pointed out truthfully. "But I doubt they'll stick around here once they figure out that we've got their prize."
"It's just a precautionary measure," Fate said defensively. "Some of us don't like to let people die when it's not necessary."
"It's war. People die in war," Nena said flippantly, the comment and her tone causing Fate's eyes to narrow dangerously. Yuuno laughed nervously and interjected himself between the two women, noticing the obvious tension there.
"Let's just get out of here, okay? We don't want to be here when the American military shows up at this place with all guns blazing."
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