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The Interstellar Medium
 Author
Join Date: May 2008
Location: [SWE]
Age: 34
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Spoiler for Text:
They were supposed to check every transfer going into the base before it got loaded off, but that wasn’t possible with the few people Mary had under her. This day was even worse than usual. They had twenty trucks coming in with supplies and they were only three people with an already tight time schedule. Mary waved another truck forward and went up to the driver’s seat. A man in his forties looked at her with a look that suggested that he knew they were hard-pressed.
“What you’ve got back there?” Mary asked.
“Some food, kitchen equipment and other boring stuff,” the man said. “Look, it isn’t anything worth checking and I have a tight schedule myself. Just let me load it off and I’ll be out of here.”
Mary thought about it for a moment before giving in.
“Alright, but get out of here as quickly as you can before anyone asks.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He pressed the pedal and entered the complex. He positioned the truck at the loading bay and opened the cargo door. The people on the loading dock started carrying out the large containers, while the man settled down in his seat. He took a deep breath and tried to relax.
He had nearly fallen asleep when someone hit his door and told him it was done. He put a gear in and left the complex as quickly as he could. When he entered the highway he let out a sigh of relief and smiled.
=== === ===
Light Nova and Dark Nova walked outside the building and took off. Friedrich had to pull a big weight as Caro and Erio plus Anna had to ride on his back. Nanoha carried Teana while she flew ahead of them and Subaru rode on her wing road. They were not far behind Dark Nova as they passed the city limits and entered the surrounding area. The sun was obstructed by grey clouds and the air was moist, but it didn’t rain.
Nanoha was glad for that as they approached the specified location. The base was a square in shape and pretty small compared to the military outpost that had been attacked some days earlier. As they got closer, they noticed that soldiers were lined up in the yard, sitting on their knees. Two reapers stood guard at the entrance to the base and two others guarded the hostages.
She told Dark Nova to take care of the guards at the entrance while Light Nova concentrated on freeing the hostages. The two teams split up and approached their enemies on different approach vectors.
When they were above the hostages, Freidrich went in first. He flew over them and shot fire at the reapers while those on his back dropped off. Erio activated Strada immediately and did a fast attack on one of them. The reaper stumbled backwards, not really prepared for what hit him. Directly after it was time for Anna. She had jumped off a few seconds later and was now behind the reaper.
Caro was already on the ground and gave Anna a power boost. Her spell made Queen glow even more than before. It was now crackling the air around it with magic.
“Heroic Strike!” Anna yelled out and swung Queen into the back of the reaper.
The device called Queen had beforehand been covered with a special substance, thanks to Rapier’s input. With it, Queen was now sharper and strengthened, perfect for cleaving metal.
Anna hit the part of the reaper where its legs were attached to its upper body and her device went through clean. The reaper hadn’t understood what was happening and fell to the ground with its legs and arms still flailing around.
The power boost from Caro and the melee spell for Queen had not been tested before and this was the first time they had tried it. The result was self-explanatory.
With one reaper down, there was one left guarding the hostages, which Nanoha, Subaru and Teana had kept occupied, and the other two that Dark Nova was still fighting. Anna, Erio and Caro regrouped and moved in to help the others.
=== === ===
“Hey, David! Give me a hand over here,” Daniel said and pointed at a big container.
“What, you can’t lift it yourself?”
David grabbed a hold of one of the sides and Daniel the other. It took an effort for the two to lift it, despite having it floating with a special device.
“Damn, that’s the heaviest I’ve ever carried!” David said.
“Yeah, pretty heavy to be food. Let’s just carry it to the storage, it isn’t far. This is the last one too.”
They carried the container to the food storage where the others were and let it fall to the ground, banging against the floor. They looked at it for a moment before returning to the cargo dock. They closed the storage door behind them and the room fell into darkness.
The room was quiet, except for a buzzing sound that had started after they left. The containers in the room began to dismantle themselves into smaller parts, revealing metal inside. A few of the metal pieces began to glow and float in the air. They raced against each other and collided, attaching themselves. After a while, something humanoid stood in the dark room, quiet and still. Then the other pieces began to glow and fly around while two glowing orbs appeared in the metallic face.
=== === ===
Vita brought Graf Eisen down on the last reaper and smashed its head to small metal pieces. The mission was completed and all the hostages had been freed. She met up with the others just outside the base for a debriefing.
“I know I haven’t fought any of these…things yet,” Vita said and looked at the others”, but I think it was too easy.”
The others agreed on what she had said.
“They looked very relaxed, like they were expecting us,” Erio said. “They didn’t react fast either.”
“It was almost like they didn’t care what happened to them or the hostages…” Subaru said and trailed off.
Nanoha looked around at the base and surveyed the mess. Reaper parts were everywhere and small fires was being extinguished by other mages. She remembered that the reapers could sense technology on long distances and that they should have been prepared when the Nova teams arrived, since they all carried devices.
“I have a very bad feeling about this,” she said.
“Don’t say that,” Teana muttered. “When they say that in a movie, the situation always gets worse.”
Nanoha was about to tell her to focus when a com link, sound only, opened in front of her.
“This is Mary Len working at the TSAB loading bay. I think we are under attack.”
Mary Len. Nanoha remembered she had met her once on a staff meeting. “Under attack?”
“Yes, I just got back to the storage room and the doors had been broken, crushed outwards. If I didn’t know better I would say something came with the shipments and infiltrated from the inside. It looks like they moved further into the building. It also seems like they cut off our communications inside the building, because I can’t reach anyone.”
“We are on our way,” Nanoha said. “Try and get out of harm’s way, this might be worse than it looks.”
The voice on the com link breathed out deeply. She was obviously scared.
“I’ll do what I can to alert the others,” she said and flicked off.
The Nova teams looked at each other, nodded and took off once again.
=== === ===
Shamal had stayed behind at the base when the others left. Even though she was part of Dark Nova, she had to look over Fate and check her all the time to see if anything changed. She was writing a medical report when she heard a loud noise and screaming outside. She dropped what she was doing and went to check.
When she opened the door to the corridor, she stood a mere meter from a reaper. Shamal reacted quickly and jumped back into the room and deployed a barrier. She didn’t notice at first, but it was obvious now that the reaper had not noticed her. She sneaked forward again and noticed it held a guard by his throat in its hand. The guard tried to get out of its grip but slowly lost the battle as he fell into unconsciousness. The reaper let the guard go and he slumped down on the floor. Now the reaper noticed Shamal in the doorway and it turned around to face her. Shamal ran back into the room and deployed the barrier again. The room’s door swung by its hinges and blocked the view outside.
She didn’t move a muscle until the door opened again and no less than six reapers walked into the room, their glowing eyes focused on her. Shamal froze with her mouth half-open and didn’t know what to do as one of the reapers grabbed her throat and suspended her in the air. The grip was hard, but not so hard that she couldn’t breathe. He flung his arm around so she had a look over Fate. The remaining reapers stood around the bed and one of them took out a small, white box. It bounced into the floor and started to increase its size. Shamal watched with amazement as the little box evolved into something resembling a coffin, with a small window at the top.
The reapers opened the lid and, with great carefulness, put Fate into it. They had the knowledge to disconnect all cables and surgical equipment before lifting her. Shamal still tried to get out of the reaper’s grip to no avail. The reapers closed the lid of the coffin and it started to float. She fell to the floor as the reaper holding her released its grip and walked out with the others, the coffin floating between them. She coughed, trying to get her throat working as usual again. She stood up on shaky legs and headed for the control panel she had been working on. An alarm button was pressed and a siren started its rotation through the base as Shamal fell to the floor unconscious.
=== === ===
“There! I see them!” Nanoha yelled out and pointed as they approached the base.
The reapers had gotten a fair distance from the base but they were under heavy fire. The base was under full alert and all the remaining mages was attacking them from a distance. The reapers were in a small circle, protecting something in the middle. Judging from the way they walked, Nanoha estimated that they were heading for a forest close by.
“I understand it now,” Nanoha said. “The hostage situation was only a diversion for this. That’s why they were so easy to handle.”
“How dare they?! Infiltrating our own base, they wil-“ Vita said and was interrupted by an energy bolt hitting her straight in the chest. She gave out a yelp and lost altitude. Signum flew after her and managed to catch her before she hit the ground. She looked around to see what or who was firing on them and saw numerous reapers standing at the opening to the forest. They were returning fire at the mages in the base, covering their allies, and also firing on the Nova teams.
Nanoha ordered Dark Nova to spread out and try to take out the reapers by the forest, while Light Nova would try and take those walking towards it. By now, two of the reapers walking towards the forest had fallen under the relentless assault from the ranged mages. Spheres of magic filled the air around them. She also noticed that the reapers in the middle didn’t return fire at all, only trying to protect themselves and whatever it was they had in the middle.
Nanoha made a big turn in the air and flew down towards the small group, going ahead of the rest of the team. She brought Raising Heart to bear and made a melee strike against one of the reapers. It held up a hand, palm opened, and stopped Nanoha’s attack. She flew backwards into the air again, releasing herself from the stalemate. That’s when she noticed what they had between them. A white coffin and inside it was a blonde girl, sleeping away everything around her.
Fate! Why do they have Fate? Nanoha thought and froze for a moment. She noticed that the ranged assault from the mages began to tear through the remaining reapers and a few bolts hit the coffin. It moved slightly but continued to move forward.
They don’t know that Fate is inside it. I have to make them stop, but then the reapers will get away. What should I do?
She looked around and tried to figure something out. The rest of Light Nova had soon arrived but they were tired and couldn’t stand against two reapers together, four being impossible.
Dark Nova was pounding the ranged reapers pretty hard but they somehow still stood and fought. It looked like the reapers had called in reinforcements, because the forest was filled with metallic humanoids.
Nanoha made her decision and opened a com link.
“This is Captain Nanoha Takamachi. Hold your fire and await further orders,” she said and regretted she had given the order. “This is now a hostage situation, so please watch your fire.”
One of the mages at the base broke through the com chatter and confronted Nanoha.
“Hostage situation? What are you talking abou-“
Nanoha interrupted him. “Investigator Fate T.Harlaown is being transported in the middle of the reapers. If you continue to fire you may harm the transport.”
The mage looked confused, but nodded. “Understood ma’am.”
Now that that was done she brought her attention back to the reapers. Dark Nova had been pushed back from the forest line and had to retreat from the power of the ranged attack. Light Nova had engaged the reapers on the ground but couldn’t do anything. The two teams were simply too tired from the previous battle and would have to rest.
Nanoha had to make a decision she felt she would regret later. It was heavy on her heart, but she opened the com link anyway.
“Dark Nova and Light Nova,” Nanoha said slowly and tried to keep her throat clear. “Retreat and regroup, there is nothing we can do.”
The others looked appalled by the order but deep inside, they knew she was right. They began to fall back two and two until they got out of range. The battle had ended and the sound and sparkling of magic left the air. The reapers protecting the coffin reached the forest and converged with the rest of their allies. They disappeared into the forest and only left one reaper behind. It had the same shape and color as the others but instead of a scythe, it had a flag. On it, the marking of a half-moon, lying on its back on something that looked like a pedestal, covered the flag. The reaper looked at Nanoha intently and she felt that it tried to tell her something. The moment ended and the last reaper left the field, leaving five heavily damaged reapers behind it, free for the taking. Nanoha wiped a few tears off her cheeks and flew back to the base.
=== === ===
//A.I ’Reaper’ Log #6021797//
Subject retrieved
Subject Conversion Process…..89%
Optimal Conversion Program initiated
Transferring backup files…..Transfer complete
Mission process…..56%
//Exit log//
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