Fate touched down at the entrance to the disposal facility, several of the Sector-21 'peons' as she had come to think of them scattering away from her. She could see several more guarding a hoversled covered in various explosives equipment sitting in the middle of a prepatory magic transport circle. Strange they were using high level magics when they claimed to hate magic. But now wasn't the time to think about that. She needed to stop them before they stole more of the quaranteened materials.
With a snap, Bardiche bit into a cartridge, her arm coming back as the axe-like head rocked back, igniting a blade of plasma.
[ARC SABER]
And with a swing, she hurled her boomerang of plasma at the sled...
'BAM!'
...and a hexagonal green barrier flashed, scattering the attack.
Fate quickly tried to figure out where it came from, and for the first time, noticed the figure in the flowing cloak and mask just opposite her side of the sled. His hand was extended, glowing. After a few seconds, he lowered it. Around her, the various fanatics seemed to gain a new sense of courage. On that reaction alone, Fate realized this may be their trump card for this operation. If she took him down, the rest would probably flee or surrender.
The masked man seemed to reguard her silently as his followers tightened the ring around her slowely automatic weapons raising unsteadily. Then he raised a hand. They all looked up at him as he signalled for them to back away. Grudgingly, they did so. And then he floated up over the top of the sled, as if simply standing on the air. No wasted movement at all. Coming to a rest on the ground a few meters away, Fate took a moment to study him some more.
Wrap around green cloak with a purple robe benieth it, a mask disturbingly similar to one a pair of familliars had used years ago, but with a single teardrop coming off the corner of the left eye. Almost like a cleric. It was most certainly a style of barrier jacket, and had blue orbs at the shoulders and on the cloak's tie off.
"Keep prepping the sled," she heard one of them say. "He'll handle her..." That was arrogant.
The man held out his hand, palm up as if accepting change. There was a glow, and a small green orb appeared in his outstretched hand. With a flick, he twisted his wrist around and grabbed the orb. There was a flash and the green ball elongated in his grasp and took shape, becoming a glowing green broadsword. Fate tightened her grip on Bardiche. Whoever this was, was far too calm.
With another flick of the wrist, the glowing blade arced, slashing down to a low position as he seemed to challenge her to advance.
[SONIC MOVE!]
Fate made the first move, but was surprised when he met her in mid air. Batting asside bardiche with only one hand while shifting and floating back, he parried her first and second strikes, then slashed with the blade, forcing her to swing bardiche around rapidly. He continued to maintain a verticle position, as if the air itself was as solid as the ground they had started on. Pressing the attack further, his sword arm curled up near his neck, and he let go with a stronger swing, forcing her to duck back, skidding across the ground slightly.
Parrying his followup, she jabbed with the head of Bardiche, hitting nothing but air as he suddenly zipped upwards and back in an arc, his body movements betraying none of his flight motion intents.
Pushing back towards him, she continued impossibly find nothing but air as he evaided a vicious combo of swipes from Bardiche, only the last blow managed to hit anything, and it was merely a parry from the sword, which the masked man used to propel himself backwards.
Gripping his sword with both hands, he rebounded almost immediatly, hurling himself full force into Fate's half-prepared block. Fate stumbled back and pushed off into the air rather than fall flat on her back. He drove into her with ferocity forcing her to give up ground... or air to the flurry of sword strokes.
Then Fate suddenly realized the sword techniques coming at her were strikingly similar to ones Signum used. Adjusting accordingly, she quickly found a hole she'd often use to exploit Signum's defenses and drove back on the offensive. The masked man quickly shifted back again... Without a scabbard like Signum had, she knew exactly where to strike. Vanishing in a blur, Fate went for the opening, Bardiche kicked off a puff of smoke as it bit into a cartridge, igniting its scythe blade as she came out of her dash in a blind spot. And gave a swing.
'CLANG!'
"WHAT?!"
The man's back was still turned, but a green blade had interposed itself between bardiche and his open flank. Tracing it, she discovered it came from his other hand. This would produce exactly the same opening as-
'BAM!'
Fate winced as she went through a couple of trees. She remembered now, Signum hesitated in that fight.
Roaring overhead at high speed, Fox saw the exchange from the cockpit of her Arwing. Breaking persuit of a couple of modified Type IIs, she banked around, spotting the transport circle glowing slightly on the ground.
"Hey guys!" she snapped over the communication lines. "Looks like Lightning ran into some kind of trouble over here at Seimei... Some dude with a green sword just got into it with her, and he's holding her off."
"That's a joke..." Crash began. "Right?"
"Not from what I'm seeing," Fox retorted. "Looks like they've also got transport magic up and a loaded hoversled. The next inspection won't turn out too well if those are missing... WHOA! Did he just put her through trees like that?!"
"Who's clossest to D complex?" Roland's voice sounded like he was running. "Get over there and back Testarossa up!"
"I'm already on my way," Signum's voice crackled in.
"You've got two behind you Fox!" Martin's voice suddenly interrupted her view of the fight. "Do a barrel roll!"
Fox ressisted the urge to roll her eyes as she yanked the flight stick hard to the side and then back, sending the Arwing into a corkscrew as the whole thing tried to 'climb' while spinning. And not a moment too soon as a stream of bluish bolts shot through the air where she'd previously been.
Fate managed to regain her wits just as she saw the green bolt coming in at her. Rolling off her arm and to the right, the bolt slammed into the ground, igniting some of the grass and kicking up a cloud of dust. Fate scrambled to her feet and ducked past a tree trunk as another one whipped past her face, exploding bark off a tree further behind her. Preparing a shield and risking a glance, she spotted the masked man floating towards her while hurling the green bolts like daggers.
She ducked back as this time four were fired at her, one bouncing off the shield and the other just barely missing her legs. The man hopped into the air and hurtled at her, reaching back and then swinging, his sword igniting to life again as he aimed for her head.
Fate jumped away and took flight as the blade went right through the tree, cutting it down in a single swipe. Dropping to the ground and dashing sideways to avoid some of the falling branches, she swung Bardiche to block as the man closed the gap. After a few seconds, and more falling trees, Fate realized the constricted space was putting her at a disadvantage, parried a blow, and lept upwards. Only to be caught by the foot. It was a mistake she knew she shouldn't have made in her haste, leaving herself open like that, but her autoguard took care of the impact when he swung her around into a tree, and then threw her back into the open.
[EXPLOSION!]
The man jumped back into the clearing of collapsed trees without so much as looking up as the flaming blade of Levantin slashed where his head had been, creating a guard as Signum planted her feet and came around with a brutal horizontal slash. The masked man quickly parried the blow as he jumped further back, then slapped down on her swing, smacking the sword into ther dirt and igniting a blade with his other hand. Signum reacted quickly, having so many practice fights with Fate to be used to such speed and aggression, and quickly whipped her scabbard up to block.
What came next was a total surprise, as the man used the blade to rebound his momentum and spun around in a whirl of cape, leaving signum shocked as the back of his boot connected squarely with her jaw. It didn't hurt very much, but left her off balance as he opened his hand and shoved his palm into her stomach. There was a green flash on red as her autoguard protected her from the point blank blast, and was hurled several meters backwards to crash directly into Fate.
Both went down in a heap.
"He seems to fight very well," Fate stated, her head somehow stuck between signum's thighs in their tangled mass of limbs.
"He's definately no amateur," the Knight concured, rolling back off Fate and regaining her feet. As she did so, she looked up, and immediately froze.
The masked man crossed his arms in front of his body, eight green dagger-like blades between his fingers. With a snap of his arms outwards, he hurled the cluster of energy blades directly at the duo.
Signum pushed Fate to the side and dove the opposite direction as they shredded through the spot they'd occupied. As soon as they gained bearings, they bounded as one in a pincer move towards the man, who in turn brought his hands together and his sword became a single long rod, which he quickly began to twirl in a defensive motion to block multiple attempted slashes from the two mages. As he maintained position to keep them both on the same side, he retreated back slightly. Then suddenly, ducked under one swing, half his blade vanishing from sight, allowing Levantin to swing uselessly through empty space as he elbo checked Signum in the abdomen and formed a small dagger in his empty hand to slash at Fate's face. Stepping back from his strike, he struck Signum with his return stroke, who had reacted to the Gut-strike by hunching slightly, square in the back. Signum slammed face first into the ground with a loud thud as the man reformed his bo staff-like blade and piled into Fate.
Backpedalling quickly away from the twirling fury of green, Fate tried her best to keep the masked man's eyes on her by probing a little more agressively between parries, if only to draw him away from Signum long enough to recover.
"SHOOOOOOT!"
On the telepathic command to 'MOVE!', Fate used a backwards leap to hit the skies as Nanoha joined the fray with an Accel Shooter attack. The man shot after her and charged right into the magical attacks, swinging at the shots as they homed in on him, changing his thin bar into something more akin to a tennis raquet as he did so. Nanoha dove to the side as one of her own shots was sent right back at her before she could will it away. Below her, the man created an arm length shield over his free arm and began to return her 'serve' like a champion, either defending against shots with the shield, or actively swatting the attacks away with his raquet. Fate was forced to dodge a few that seemed actually aimed at her.
"Stars has engaged the target," Martin's voice crackled over the commlink. "This guy's still going though. I want someone else in there, and I want them in there right now!"
"I'll mop up here and move to assist as soon as possible," Lynn snapped in response. "These guys are pushovers, but there's a lot of them."
Signum regained her feet and shook her dizziness off. Those last two blows were even more surprising and she made note to keep an eye out for such a trick again. Turning to the fight, she saw Nanoha dropping back and firing on him once more as Fate tried to position herself for a better blow. Her eyes Narrowed.
'CRACK!'
[SNAKE FORM!]
Levantin's blade came apart into links as she whipped it up and gave it a twirl, turning it into a ribbon of blades as she crouched and then sprung upwards, taking off into the sky.
The masked man parried back another blow from the twenty or so shots Nanoha now had in the air, trying to overwhelm him with sheer numbers as her attack whipped around him like a swarm of angry wasps. When he noticed Signum charging up to meet him, he changed direction, heading straight for him. Almost immediately, Nanoha's attacks clustered up and shot towards his back.
Thinking ahead a few seconds, Nanoha recognized a lead into a friendly-fire shot and prepared to will her attack out in a split second. Signum seemed to the think the same thing, as she whipped Levantin out and shot sideways, trying to smack the man with the elongated blade whip. Instead of dodging it, he suddenly reached out, his blade condensing into a green glow around his hand as he grabbed hold of Levantin and gave a yank. Not to fall for such a simple whip counter, Signum leveled her strength in a massive heave. Only instead of being flung off, the man stayed along for the ride of his life as Levantine curled up and cracked madly. Then at just the right moment, he gave another tug and snapped off in what seemed to be a random direction as if swinging from a vine, just missing Nanoha's cloud of shooter spheres, which had to do a one-eighty to continue the chase.
Using the extra momentum, the man shot towards Fate, catching her just slightly off guard as his 'weapon' became a lance. She dove out of the way as he hurled it mid-flight, and spun quickly to counter as he came in on her face first with an axe this time, emmitting a loud clang as it slammed into Bardiche. Pitching backwards from the momentum, they quickly came close to getting tangled up in each other's limbs as he leveraged in and grabbed hold of Bardiche. Letting his weapon dissappear, her elbow checked Fate right in the face to disorient her, and then used the momentary shock to gain control of the two of them and spun around, hurling Fate right into the oncoming cloud of shooter shots.
They winked out instantly as Nanoha had prepared, but Signum wasn't so lucky when for the second time, herself and Fate collided.
Nanoha snapped her attention from the two to discover a cluster of green blades coming right at her. Without so much as a thought, her own barrier went up and they exploded harmlessly.
With her best attempt at a blood curtling scream that her deceptively young body could produce, Vita joined the battle, Graf Eisen about five times larger than her head at this time. The man crossed both his arms, his weapon becoming a double thick shield in front of him as she struck, sending him flying towards the ground... Vita kept the momentum and chased right after him.
He landed like a cat on all fours, then immediately backflipped out of the spot with a swirl of cape, just half a second before Graf Eisen slammed into it and turned it into a small crater. Reacting quickly, he snapped forward and stomped down on the head of the giant war hammer, reaching back to form a sword. Vita would have to either let go or be decapitated on the spot.
Luckly, this was the moment Signum came to her aid with redoubled fury, Levantin just narrowly missing a counter-decapitation as she went from fight and arrest, to just trying to win.
The man jumped back from the blade, twisting in the air as he landed right on it then bounced away, hurling himself into the sky once more and tossing more exploding dagger attacks to cover his flight.
[SCYTHE FORM]
Forming a shield on his forarm and reaching up, he blocked a strike from Bardiche as Fate brought the blade down on him from a blind spot. He whipped around the moment the blade came to a stop on his arm, his free hand forming a dagger while he leveraged in towards Fate and gave a slash. Yelping, Fate backpedelled as the blade nicked her barrier jacket right across her belly, exposing skin from the strike. A sword would have been more effective, but it probably would have been too slow to hit.
Nanoha narrowed her eyes at the exchange but couldn't find a clear opening to attack just yet. The masked man was too close to Fate. He obviously knew this, as he seemed to be deliberately staying as close to someone as he could. Amidst a flurry of exhanges with Fate, he smashed and opening and twirled. Right in the middle of it he hurled blades at Nanoha. Shifting lightly to avoid them, she realized he wasn't ignoring anyone, best to stay on one's toes then.
Driving a knee into Fate's stomach, the man spun and countered a flanking manuever by Signum as she rose again into the fight, going back into bo staff motions as he did so. Then Vita came right up the middle and went for another overhead smash. Pushing off Signum's sword, he braced the staff with both hands and caught the blow just behind the actual head of the hammer, then twisted and dumped her momentum off towards Signum. Twisting to form a blade to block a blow from Bardiche, the man fired an open palm shot at the two from his free hand, flipped into the inverted and kicked Fate square in the back as he came around, driving her into the other two to crash into a tree before falling to the ground.
Nanoha saw her opening. This guy was just too mobile, but there were was of dealing with that.
Coming around to hurl daggers at the collapsed form, them an suddenly found his arm locked in place, followed by the other, then his legs and feet. Taking that as her cue, Nanoha brought Raising Heart into position, a cartridge ejecting as she did so.
"Diviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine..."
His eyes narrowed behind the mask as Nanoha prepared to trump him in brute power.
"BUSTER!!!!!"
With a crack, the pink beam of force fired. A sure victory when it hit.
But this wasn't quite over. The blue orbs on his shoulders flashed to life, the binds around him wavering and shattering. Even as the beam rocketed away from her, Nanoha barely contained her shock as she felt the burst of AMF. With nothing to hold the man up, he dropped right out of the path of the buster shot, arching backwards as the beam ripped through his position just inches from his face.
Recovering his flight, he whipped his arm and hurled four dagger bolts right up along the edge of the beam. Nanoha reacted a moment too late and jerked slightly as one caught her shoulder, cutting into it through her barrier jacket and sending a small mist of blood out from the minor flesh wound.
Nanoha bit her lip to ignore the pain and the urge to grab her shoulder as the man immediately righted himself and zipped at her, reaching his arm back to create a sword. Gripping Raising Heart, she took a defensive stance as the man layed into her.
"You're not going to believe this guys, but he's taking them ALL on and WINNING!" Fox blurted as she shot overhead once more. "He just dodged a buster from Stars and has her pinned in hand to hand range. The others look to be picking themselves up."
"Jesus Fucking Christ!" Roland swore from somewhere with a lot of background noise. "That's got to be what? Double S level skill?"
"Whatever it is," Fox responded. "He's kicking ass and taking names."
"I want as many people on station as possible then," Roland ordered. "Take him out before he kills someone!"
Nanoha winced as she took a near miss to her arm. The man was exceptionally fast, and his fluid shifting from daggers to sword to staff and back again was nothing short of nearly impossible to plan against. If he'd been limited to just one weapon style, she'd have won this a while ago, but his ability to manifest whatever shape he desired at will confounded any attempts to effectively fight back.
The masked man swiped at her once more, his weapon glancing off the head of Raising Heart as Nanoha defended. Then suddenly, as he'd done with Fate earlier, he lashed out and grabbed the device, pulling himself inwards towards Nanoha as his free hand formed a dagger. Nanoha couldn't get away from it and reached up with one hand, grabbing the blade directly. For a second, neither moved as she held the blade an inch away from her neck. The man seemed to reguard this move with a certain level of respect, if the curious look coming from the eyes behind that mask was any kind of indicator.
Nanoha could feel the blood dripping from her hand, but dare not let go with him putting so much force into the stab motion that would mean a near instant death. Then, without warning, he jerked backwards, pulling her in his grasp and swinging around, hurling her bodily towards the spot where he'd deposited the rest of his opponents less than thirty seconds ago.
Fate, only half recovered from her own tumble through the tree, jumped back in suprise as Nanoha came through the tree branch above her with a loud crack before slamming into the ground.
"NANOHA!"
Nanoha winced before quickly sitting up.
"I'm okay."
They all looked up as the masked man settled into a verticle stance once more, as if standing on an invisible platform above them.
"He's extremely clinical in his style," Signum nodded, sporting a minor black eye. She'd taken Graf Eisen to the face in their little tumble. Vita in turn had a cut where Levantin had accidently come across her leg, her battle dress torn and shredded below that point. "No taunting, no gloating, no hesitation, not even speaking. He just fights."
"He's stalling," Nanoha stood up. "All the more reason to take him down quickly."
As she said that, she looked up at the figure as he stood, a white star coming to life in the sky above and behind him.
'THUMP-BOOM!'
The man tilted his head slightly, keeping one eye on the group below him as he seemed to casually reguard the newest reinforcements. What was one more to a fight?
With a true blood curtling battlecry, Lynn came out of her dive with a crack that almost sounded like the call of an eagle as she brought her battle axe high over her head.
The man went on the defensive immediately, spinning about and creating a staff to guard against the blow as it prepared to fall.
The Waldron came down with the full force of Heavenly Descent as Lynn struck the man like a falling meteor, the axe slamming into the green energy given form. And for the briefest of moments, it held, creating a shockwave that billowed the man's cape. But under the incredible force of Lynn's signature strike, the staff finally gave in, and snapped clean in two. Since Lynn carried so much momentum in a downward stroke, the masked man had more than enough time to display total shock to everyone close enough to see it. Lynn continued on to the ground to slam into it with the force of a small truck, cratering it around her feet as above her, the man tumbled backwards and landed lightly on the ground himself.
After a second, she stood up and faced him, swinging Waldron down and to the side as she began to walk towards him with a certain air of Menace not even Signum managed at her most fierce.
"I recognize you now... " she began. "All because of you. My first squad, my first command... a total dissaster."
The masked man cocked his head to the side as if to question her. Nanoha noted it had been off the communications channels when she spoke it. This was new, and most certainly it seemed personal.
The man took a fresh battle stance as Lynn redied her axe, still marching forward.
"That's our Cue!" Signum kicked into the air, Levantin ejecting a cartridge.
"Right behind you!" Vita snapped as Graf Eisen performed similar.
Nanoha and Fate looked at each other and nodded, bolting in seperate directions.
Lynn scowled and crouched in, then suddenly shot forward. The man sidestepped and parried the strike, Lynn immediately blurred away as Fate shot in from a disjointed Angle. The man reformed his staff and began to parry Bardiche as Signum planted herself beside him and tried a horizontal slash. Lynn came out of her high speed Blur, her face a mask of concentraition as she jabbed with Waldron from the open spot. The man lept into the air and immediately twisted to avoid Graf Eisen caving his skull in. His staff flashed and became a pair of wicked short swords as he began to twist about three sets of weapons, Lynn having once more vanished in a blur of Flash Dance.
Since only two or three could really attack simultaniously, Nanoha fell back and began charging for a buster shot should the opening present himself.
Vita was limited in her motions and knew it, with such packed grouping, hammer strikes in a horizontal fashon would be silly. Falling back from the pack of attackers, she eyed Nanoha across the way and started forming her Swallow Flier attack. In the blur of the melee, the man shifted his short swords into shields and let go of a dagger swarm with a swing, forcing her to duck as a blur of green ripped into the newly formed metal spheres. Then he spun again, hurling a dagger at the ground in a seemingly random direction. With a blast of dirt, Lynn suddenly came out of her blurring Flash Dance and tumbled several meters to land upside down against a tree.
Signum and Fate redoubled their strikes, coming in fast from each side. The masked man crossed his arms, his shields overlapping as he fell back to the ground and then planted his feet. With a hefty thrust, he pushed them outwards, causing them to expand as he did so, catching both mages in preparation for their own strikes.
Nanoha saw her oppertunity.
"Diviiiiiine..."
With the flick of the wrist, a green dagger hit the glowing orb. Nanoha realized she needed to stop drawing this attack out so long as the orb exploded in a burst of magical energy.
In the commotion, the man started walking forward, his hand's snapping to create new blades. Then with a second snap they elonated, with a third snap of the wrist they started to waiver around, and a fourth snap the ends split into three parts.
Signum immediately recognized them as flail whips... but made of energy. And then the man began to cycle them, causing them to curl and snap around his body as he began to advance.
Nanoha dropped back quickly, erecting a shield as she saw a flail snap at her. The others quickly began to work on the defensive as the flails snapped about quickly and precisely. Now the man was on the offensive, his latest weapon style having as much distance as Signum's Levantine in its Snake Form, and the unpredictability to strike at anyone with almost no warning.
Vita was the first to realize what the true intent was when suddenly the flail snapped about and caught her by the foot. With a quick yank, he flung her into the air. Fate managed to dodge a strike aimed at her, but he quickly brought Vita around with a spin and let her go to slam into Fate full force. Signum tried to charge in and close inside the effective striking radius, but only got herself wrapped up with her arms pinned to her sides before she was launched straight at Nanoha.
Realizing she would hurt Signum if she left her defense up, Nanoha was forced to drop her shield, allowing the knight to plow directly into her as she tried to backpedal to lesson the impact... They still landed in a heap on the ground not too far from where Vita and Fate had likewise landed.
With a blur, Lynn appeared right at point blank range from a Flash Step, Waldron already high to strike. The whips blinked out as the man spun sideways, the Axe passing an inch away from his face, and with a continuation of his spin, he brought a closed fist around in a backhand.
'CRACK!'
Lynn's eyes snapped wide as she felt the blow to the base of her skull, her vision instantly going double as she stumbled forward. Then she dropped to her knees, and fell flat on her face. Waldron clanging to the ground by her side. And for the first time in several minutes. There was silence. The man looked at each of the mage groups, once again trying to untangle themselves from each other, then down at Lynn. His shoulders heaved in a sigh as he raised his hand. Both pairs of mages froze when they saw a green sword snap to life over his head.
"LYNN!"
"LYNN!"
Nanoha shut her eyes as the man swung.
"CRACK! BAM!!!"
Opening one eye, Nanoha saw the blow hadn't quite fallen. The reason seemed to be the blade had been stopped in mid air... by a hand. A hand attatched to a very muscular looking arm. Blinking away the tunnel vision of Shock, she noticed the remains of a transport spell around an extremely muscular, and extremely grizzled looking old man, his hair graying and spikey around the large bald spot on top. His glare was met only by total and complete shock from the masked man.
"That is MY disciple you just tried to kill," he snarled in a low tone that seemed to hold the threat of a thunderstorm. As if to emphasize his point, he tightened his grip on the blade, drawing not a single drop of blood. Then suddenly, it cracked and shattered. The masked man stepped back quickly.
"But seeing as you did manage to take her, and all these aces on single handedly," the muscular man continued... "You may be..."
He tightened his fist, flexing his biceps as he did so with a sound similar to stretching leather. He sneered at the masked man as sparks of lightning based magic danced across his arm.
"...a worthy opponent."
And then the hammer fell. The masked man had no time to react as a vicious punch caught him straight in the face. This was quickly followed up with, Nanoha tried to keep track. One, two, four... seven... TEN lightning fast punches, not a single one met with any sort of defensive counter. On the tenth blow, the old man struck his opponent straight in his mask covered face so hard that he went flying backwards a good twenty meters and nearly crashed over the hoversled. Recovering his footing in an attempt to gain some dignity, the masked figure stood up, carefully placing one gloved hand on his mask as he noticed the long crack in it. The old man scoffed.
"Is that all you've got?!"
He crossed his arms and raised his chin a little bit, but his eyes remained narrow, and directly on his opponent.
"I'm amazed you managed to even land a blow on these girls... You're not even worth my breath."
After ensuring the mask was seccure, the man took two steps forward, creating his energy sword again, then froze.
[LOAD CARTRIDGE!]
[EXPLOSION!]
Signum and Fate were in the air once more, powerful bombardment spells forming around them. With a snap, Nanoha joined the group, followed shortly by Vita. The masked man seemed to reguard this sudden level of pure firepower with caution, as his blade vanished and he took a step back, relaxing to that neutral stance he'd used so often, his arms hidden under his cape. After a few seconds, he took a look to his left and to his right, then raised his arm. Around him, the glowing circle of the transport spell began to light up.
"Running away?!" The old man spat, as if in disgust. "HMPH!"
"Don't let him finish!" Nanoha stated, charging a divine buster as Fate began charging a Trident smasher.
"Don't waste your energy," the old man interrupted. "He's already gone."
As if on cue, there was a green flash, and the loaded hoversled, as well as the masked opponent, vanished from sight.
"However, you may wish to do something about the cannon fodder," the old man continued. Around them, the resounding click of nearly a hundred automatic weapons greeted them. Nanoha's eyes nearly bugged out noticing some of what Roland had called Fifty-cals being pointed at them.
"Fire on my Fire!" she heard someone shout. Without a second thought, she flung up a Protection Powered.
With a roar, the fanatics opened up, peppering the magical shield with heavy automatic fire. It seemed that the Masked man had bought plenty of time for them to bring as much armaments to bear as possible. Nanoha felt the strain already building as the barrier held. Fate quickly joined her to reinforce the defense with one of her own. In the middle of it all, the old man stood along side Lynn's unconcious form, arms crossed, a kind of chagrinned scowl on his face.
"Most obnoxious," he rumbled, then turned to Vita.
"You, Brat," he snapped. Vita ressisted the urge to put Graf Eisen in Gigant Form and smash him right there. "You know transport magic don't you?"
"Yes I do," Vita snapped back, glaring at the rude old man. BRAT??? Why I oughta...
"Then perhaps you should use it and send us some place a little less hostile," he continued. "We can't shoot out, and they're not likely to run out of ammo anytime soon." To emphisize, he motioned at a couple people acting as runners into the disposal storage bunker, and more coming out with cases of ammunition.
Vita grimaced at his clearly logical statement as Nanoha's face tightened under the strain, and for just a second considered leaving the old man behind to eat automatic weapons. Maybe he could just smash his way through them if he handled that masked man so easily.
With a flick of Graf Eisen, she formed the transport markings. The man bent down and picked up Lynn and Waldron as she did so.
"Any time," he rumbled, seeming to reguard the events around him with little more interest than dust under a carpet.
Vita muttered a silent curse and activated the magic. After a few seconds, the group felt the vertigo of transport as she jumped them clear of the area.
After a few seconds, the world came back into focus and they were standing within the confines of the Test Operations Command Center... TICTOCC.
Nearby, Don held what appeared to be a large wrench up like a baseball bat, obviously ready to smash anyone who wasn't supposed to be there upside the head. After a second, he managed to identify who it was aimed at, and lowered it.
[SAFETY FIRST]
Nobody really payed attention to that line. Cooper was over in a corner with a panel removed from a wall below Cherry's monitor. Martin was over in the operations command console looking to the back of the room.
"You got out of there alive," he began. "From what Fox was saying-" He broke off and shot to his feet. "Admiral Mishima! Sir!"
Everyone froze and turned to the old man carrying Lynn. Cooper jumped from the shout and bumped his head from somewhere inside the cluster of wires he was half buried in.
"It's about time someone around here recognized me," the Admiral growled, stepping forward and handing Lynn off to Signum. "Where's General Roland? It's time to stop toying with these terrorists."
"Getting myself better equipped," Roland's voice crackled over the shortwave across the entire room. Again, it sounded like he was somewhere with a large amount of background noise. "Nice to hear your voice Kanemitsu... when'd you get here?"
"I just arrived," the Admiral admitted. "Sorry I'm a little late, I was having trouble through the blanket AMF fields in the area getting a good position lock on the largest threat."
"That's fine," Roland stated. "Oh, one moment."
There was a crackle as the whine intensified.
"Target! four, five, nine meters... Again, four, five, Nine meters..."
"Roger, target four five nine meters..."
"On the way!"
'POP CLANG!'
"Oh man look at them scatter!"
There was a crackle and Roland returned.
"Sorry, dealing with a few drones here. What's the sitrep Admiral?"
"The airbase is in the clear, and complex C is ninty percent under control last time I checked... Looks like they've got the Disposal Facility completely locked down though," the Admiral rumbled. Even with these Aces, we won't be able to take it back without taking heavy casualties."
"And we can't wait for reinforcements or they'll make off with half the materials," Roland returned. "There's around five hundred tons of explosive material... in... there-"
There was a pause as Roland came to a halt in mid sentence.
"Admiral, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"If I'm the Pinky to your Brain," Mishima folded his arms. "If we can't have it, nobody can."
"Got that one right," Roland crackled back. "We'll blow that bunker sky high and take the entire enemy force with it!"
"NO WAY!" Don cut in. "That's ten feet of heavy reinforced concrete. It would take an S class, or better spell at very close range to penetrate it. And the explosion that results from five hundred tons of explosives would make any such attack a suicide mission!"
Mishima crossed his arms and looked around. "I could have the Tsunami Arc the site, but there wouldn't be an Archipelligo left after it."
"Come on guys," Roland came back. "ACCEPTABLE ideas here. Time is the enemy!"
"I have a solution," EDI suddenly resonated across the room. Lime's screen blinked to be replaced with an inventory display. "Next week's test schedule was for a test of multi layered barrier defenses against various types of attack."
"And?" Roland seemed to be hanging on EDI's concept.
"One of the test sequences was the application of a moderately up to date test on bunker penetration weapons," the AI continued. The inventory list scrolled down and selected an item, a picture of a fairly generic missile flashed onto the screen. "Mouse one was Equipped with two AGM-130 Bunker Busters in advance preparation for that test."
"The AGM-130 is capable of penetration up to eleven feet of solid reinforced concrete," Cherry interrupted. "A direct hit would punch through."
"That's good enough!" Roland snapped back. "Every second counts!"
Martin spun in his chair and hit a comm switch.
"Geofront to Mouse One," he snapped in his authorative tone. "Do you copy?"
"Mouse One here..." came the response. "Where's the fire chief?"
"Listen carefully," Martin began... Everyone else looked at the screen, examining a photo of the AGM-130.
At twenty thousand feet, Mouse One banked around towards Complex D in his modified F-15, carrying two live, mass based weapons onboard.
"Nose on target Vector," he crackled over the radio. "Confirmation is Smoke on the Water. I'm in."
"Roger that," Martin responded. "You're cleared hot. EDI will lase the target."
There was a crack as EDI shot by several thousand feet below at mach four, ripping towards Angel Island. Rising up along side Mouse One, Fox brought her Arwing into formation to cover him while in the distance, the Deep Sky continued to orbit the area.
"Roger, Mouse One Hot, arming AGM-130..."
On D complex, EDI cut speed as he came around the main entrance to the storage bunker. Almost immediately, the massed fanatics defended their transport circle with heavy small arms fire. Unfortunately for them, they had no concept for speed and altitude as EDI wripped around and shot away, having marked the target and keeping a laser designation right on it.
"Area clear of friendlies," he resonated on an open channel. "Cleared to fire."
Mouse one saw the bracket go green on his HUD, and squeezed the trigger.
"Missile away!"
The AGM-130 dropped away from the Test Force modified F-15, it's rocket motor igniting almost immediately and hurling the weapon away from the jet at mach three. Those around the transport pad saw the white trail of smoke it left as it closed on them. Eyes followed it in silent aprehension as it curved in overhead, arching down into the bunker, and that was the last thing anyone on the ground ever saw.
Fox saw the brilliant flash and the billowing smoke cloud as far away as she was along side Mouse One, the blast wave creating a semi-transparent dome of condensing water vapor as it rushed out from what had previously been the Seimei Mass Weapons Disposal Facility. Small yellow streaks of burning debris were launched from the cloud over a mile into the sky as that entire section of Angel Island was oblitterated by five hundred tons of high explosive. Her jaw dropped.
"Oh my god..."
Inside TICTOCC, they all paused as they felt the ground shudder slightly around the same time. Nanoha and Fate both looked each other, their eyes widening in realization.
No matter where you were on the Archipelligo, you could hear, and see the blast from the D complex island as it rose high into the sky.
"I confirm the target has been Neutralized," EDI resonated over the channel. "No further transport magic can be detected from the target area."
"There isn't even a target area left," Admiral Mishima rumbled more to himself than in response to EDI.
Logan nearly tripped and fell on his face when the sound of the explosion passed over him. Pausing from his run, he stared at the rising cloud coming from the northwest, fragments of white hot debris high in the sky overhead. Feeling his panic redouble, he turned quickly and started to run towards his escape point. He could jump himself out of here.
'THUD!' Crash came down ten meters in front of him, wires from a drone he'd just destroyed still gripped in one armored hand.
"Nice try," he growled. "But you're not getting away so easily after the shit you've pulled."
Logan spun and ran the other way. A pair of drones that had been programmed to guard him came into view. A pair of Type IIIs would be more than enough to handle ANY mage for a minute or two. He'd have to jump here and risk being tracked but he'd be able to make a second jump before they could catch up. All he had to do was-
'CRACK-FWOOSH-BOOM!!!'
One of the drones turned inside out and exploded in a hail of debris against the concrete wall of one of the nearby test buildings. The violent event was even more sudden and noisy than the distant explosion on Angel Island, causing Logan to jump backwards in surpise and fall flat on his back. Crash too, took an invuluntary step back.
"HOLY SHIT!"
After a second Logan realized the type III heavy drone had been taken out in... in a single SHOT?! How did the S level Mages get back so fast?!
The second drone began to pivot in place, turning to face whatever the new threat was. Just as it reached position and identified its opposition, there was a loud crack and it too dissolved into a cloud of flying metal parts.
Logan tried to pick himself back as a strange whine grew in intensity from somewhere around the corner. Along with the whine, came the distinct sound of someone playing heavy rock. After a few seconds, the ground began to shake, and then with a metalic roar, a squat, tan, tracked vehicle he'd never seen before came around the corner. It was covered in flat, angular armor, and had one large gun sticking out of a turret on the top. The vehicle rolled right up to Logan, causing him to scramble back to his feet and stumble towards Crash in sheer panic before it came to a stop. The large gun on the front depressed downwards, aiming straight at him. And he froze in the realization he was facing a Tank, but nothing like what the TSAB ever used.
"You know what my favorite part of Those Who Hunt Elves is?"
Logan looked up. Roland, previously unnoticed, was learning half way out of a hatch on the top of the vehicle, a boom box next to him obviously the source of the music he'd been hearing.
"I'll tell you what my favorite part is," the General continued. "It's the part where a little girl driving a Japanese Type-74 Main Battle Tank blows an old pirate ship right out of the water in a single shot. This is about the level of overkill you're up against when you decide these pathetic little machines are a match for seventy-four tons of good ol' fashoned WHOOPASS. The TSAB don't make them like this boy."
He narrowed his eyes.
"I might be a bit biassed, but my Abrams is the best Tank on Mid-Childa. A little taste of home for an old dog like myself."
He paused, turning the volume on his boom box down.
"As for you, I'm afraid you won't be seeing home for a long... LONG time."
Logan stumbled slightly, and fell to his knees.
2008-05-30, 22:14
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