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2008-08-18, 14:50 | Link #3383 |
Wild card
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Finland
Age: 39
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"Life is the only game in which the object of the game is to learn the rules." Unknown
"The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it." Norman Schwarzkopf "Whoever stands by a just cause cannot possibly be called a terrorist." Yassar Arafat Sayings and quotes hold wisdom in them. Either the wisdom is found in the correctness of the quote, or in the lesson learned from the error. Hard part is figuring out who's making the errors... |
2008-08-18, 15:06 | Link #3387 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Philippines
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Goose. Spoiler tag. -_-
And speaking of the Naga laugh... Her most powerful attack in Magical Battle Arena involves encasing the enemy half in ice and then LAUGHING nest to them...D: Anyway, status report for me. It's schoolwork all the way from this day to the next two weekd for my finals. I'll be disappearing for the most part from OC activities. I'll work on GenerationS again afterwards, though, since I have ideas already for Chapter 3. :3 And Keroko, look at what I found! Tesla? :3
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2008-08-18, 15:17 | Link #3388 |
Adeptus Animus
Author
Join Date: Jan 2007
Age: 36
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Though ironically, the coloring of her clothing makes her more akin to Syn, whom, even more ironically, spawned from FSNverse, where this picture, yet more ironically, draws ellements (like the typical UBW scenery, with Excalibur to boot). Perhaps something to work on untill I can get my hands on some info on the SSX. Oh, and Kha? Still reading the profile. You made the mistake of using an image of Chao, so I'm going to do this thoroughly. >3 |
2008-08-18, 15:27 | Link #3389 |
Slash!
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Oxnard, CA
Age: 31
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I'll hold my comments. @Goose: Wow....that was....long. |
2008-08-18, 19:35 | Link #3390 |
NERV Personnel
Author
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Thread is too slow...
And it's probably time I wrote something anyway Spoiler for In the Shadows:
NERV Commander Fuyutsuki took a moment to glance over three lieutenants sitting in the briefing room. All three were still young with most of their lives ahead of them. Yet here they were being sent out to face criminals and magical items of unknown power. And he was the one to send them. There were times when he sometimes questioned the TSAB's recruiting of such young mages. Granted one of them in the room was taken in for the better and another was saved from a criminal life, they were a small number of the exceptions. Perhaps it was because of those three young ladies from that Non-Administered world. Had the TSAB become that desperate to find powerful mages that they would recruit children? He shook his head. Things had really changed from when he first joined the TSAB all those years ago. Perhaps the future of dimensional space did rest in the hands of today's youth. Or he was getting too old for these things. "Good morning, Lieutenants." "Good morning, sir." "We have received word from intell about a shipment of mid-class Lost Logia from Non-Administered World 182." A screen materialized, detailing the Lost Logia. "From what they managed to gather, these Lost Logia are stable in their current form and pose no immediate danger unless activated. Unfortunately, information on the parties involved could not be attained." Another monitor appeared over the first, zooming into an industrial part of a city. "We've managed to isolate their shipping point to this warehouse district on the planet. Your primary mission is to recover the Lost Logia. Neutralizing the smuggling operation is secondary. The Longinus will depart in one hour. Dismissed." He watched as they saluted and made their way out of the room. With his job done, Kouzou retreated to his office to check on the paperwork he had to file through for the day. "Meeting...meeting...report...bulletin..." The next document caught his attention. Leaning back in his chair, he opened the file and read over the title, "Proposal for Formation of Lost Property: Riot Force 6..." Some two hours later, NERV's main (and only) squad sat around in the Longinus' mess hall. Several screens were open displaying the information sent to them from intell about the world as well as the smuggling operation. "We really don't have much to go by, huh?" mused Shamsel with his arms crossed over his chest. Evangeline shook her head, "Apparently their contact could only provide this much." "Which means we're basically going in blind. We'll need to be on our toes for this one." "Yea, but that doesn't mean you," remarks Ryoutaro as he gestures to Shamsel, "can use it." "I know, I know. Don't worry." Their female companion raised an eyebrow at the pair, "Use what?" Ryoutaro was the first to answer, "It's just some super-powerful attack to try and make up for his lack of si-" A spoon collided with his head. "Oh be quiet, you." The pair exchanged a few more insults, forgetting about the previous conversation as Evangeline sighed and mumbled something about stupid men. An hour later, the trio made their way over the rooftops of their target area. They had opted to deploy with Barrier Jackets active to avoid alerting the smugglers to their presence with the large mana draw it would have generated. Most of the warehouses in the area were unoccupied and filled with unused machinery or crates. It also meant they didn't have to worry about the local populace seeing three people in weird outfits leaping from roof to roof with ease. "I'm getting a higher heat signature from that warehouse to the south-east," says Evangeline. Shamsel nods, "Alright, let's take a look." With a bit of magic, they land silently on the roof of the warehouse. Wear and tear and bad upkeep left the rooftop door rusted and required only a sharp tug to open. Before they even entered they could make out voices inside barking orders of some kind. A nod was given and they climbed inside. The door led them to a catwalk close to the ceiling, giving them a good view of the warehouse. Several local transport vehicles were lined up gear the main entrance. Numerous people dressed in black milled about carrying crates to and from the vehicles. "Well that doesn't look very local, does it?" remarks Ryoutaro as he gestures to the inter-dimensional transportation array set up in the middle of the warehouse. Shamsel quickly tries to formulate a plan. "So first we need to disable that transporter and then secure the Lost Log-" "INTRUDERS!" On instinct, they all dive out of the way as their location was pelted by enemy fire. Shamsel runs along the catwalk while Ryoutaro and Evangeline leaped off to the floor below. "Ore Sanjou!" Evangeline sighed, "Do you HAVE to do that every time?" Shamsel chuckled in response and charged into the group in front of him. "Take care of the transporter!" She rolled forward and slammed the hilt of her sword into the nearest target before gripping the tail of her Zector and slamming to forward, "Cast Off!" CAST OFF Those unfortunate enough to be near her were sent flying back from the discarded armor sections. CHANGE SCORPION "Clock Up!" CLOCK UP The next thing anyone saw was the purple-armored mage on the opposite side of the transporter as it crumbled to pieces. From above, Shamsel had left the catwalk and did his best to avoid the combination of mass- and magic-based projectiles as he remained airborne. "Magnum Impact!" Light-blue spheres of magic and air formed and fired off at the enemy clusters below. One sphere exploded and send one of the black-clothed men into a pile of steel beams. As he re-emerged from the twisted pile, sparks few from his damaged left arm. "Cyborgs?!" exclaims Ryoutaro who had been nearby. "We are NOT cyborgs!" Ryoutaro cried out as two projectiles exploded against his back. From the far end of the warehouse, a larger figure made his presence known. He was clearly taller then them and...probably not completely human. While it had the legs and mid-section of a human, everything above was something else. It was almost as if a tiger had been attached to a human's legs and made buffer. fingers were tipped by sharp claws to match the large fangs from the mouth. What really stood out, however, was the pair of smoking cannon barrels from its shoulders. The creature fired again at Evangeline who dodged and charged at the new opponent. She swung her sword at his shoulders, only to have it scoff and grab the blade with its hands. In that moment of surprise, its free hand connected with her stomach to send me staggering back in pain. "Eva!" cried out Shamsel as he prepared his own attack. "Tuebor, Dividing-" He gets cut off as another salvo slams into his auto-barrier and send him to the ground. "Restrain them! And get those AMF Generators online!" With the mages bound and the AMF Generators running at nearly full power, the apparent leader of the operation smirks with his hand on his hips. "Your first mistake was thinking you could take us on. Your second mistake," he remarks as he grabs Ryoutaro by his helmet and tosses him across the room, "was thinking we were mere cyborgs!" "Just...what are you?" Shamsel manages to get out. The tiger creature laughs and holds his arms out to his side, "We are the future. The result of Shocker's research and destined to rule over you pitiful people: kaizo-ningen, enhanced humans! Unlike those pitiful cyborgs, we are a perfection of cybernetic and genetic enhancements." "S-shocker?" "That's right," he remarks, leaning over Evangeline. "Shocker, Destron, G.O.D., Black Satan. We have many names across many worlds. Many have been...'recruited' to work for us and undergo our enhancement process. Perhaps you would care to join us?" He tilted her head in his hand. "A few implants with an infusion of scorpion DNA and maybe a lovely tail..." She pulled back and snarled at him. "I'd NEVER join the likes of you!" "Ha! That's what they all say at first. But they all eventually change their minds in the end. They all come to see our way." He paused for a moment. "But seeing you've stumbled on our little operation here we can't exactly let you leave, now can we? I'm sure you'll all make excellent additions to our forces." "We'll nenver give in to you!" "Is that so?" He stepped up to Shamsel and pressed his claw into his forehead. "By the time we're done with you, you'll be working for us and like it, boy. Oh yes, they'll really drill it into that brain of ours." "Alright you slackers! Let's get a move on here! I want these ready to be shipped out NO-" The sound of shattering glass and an engine cuts off his orders. All eyes turn up to see a motorcycle flying through the upper windows and skidding to a halt across from them. The rider revs the engine and looks up with the large, red eyes of its helmet. Dark blue gloves, boots, and chest armor lie on top of the full-body black outfit. A fairly oversize belt was strapped to the rider's waist with some strange device in the front with a red turbine of sorts. "It's the traitor! KILL HIM!" Several dozen of the black-clad men charge the newcomer. Without a word he hits the gas and charges straight into the oncoming assault. Right before they connect, he leaps off his bike and into the enemy with a flying kick. "Toh!" The impact sends the center group flying back and sprawled out across the floor. It quickly changes to a brawls with punches and kicks flying only to have the stranger visibly having the advantage. "Argh! If you want something done, you do it right yourself!" The kaizo-ningen exclaims as he prepares his cannons. Another crash comes behind them. "What the...?" A second motorcycle speeds in and slams into the tiger-human, sending him to the floor. The rider is almost identical to the first except for being of a more greenish color with red gloves. He hops off his bike and breaks their bonds easily. Before the mages could say anything, he charges and engages the leader. "I guess they're on our side," absentmindedly states Ryoutaro. "You mean hope," correctly Evangeline. "Yea, whatever." Shamsel steps into the conversation, "Alright you two. Let's take care of the AMF Generators, first." No arguments were given to the proposed plan as they grabbed their Devices to battle through the remaining goons. On the other side of the warehouse, the two masked men were engaged with the Shocker solider. "Shocker has no tolerance for traitors! I'll kill you both!" he cried, firing a salvo at the pair. They rolled to opposite side and leaped in, fists connecting with his chest. "Ragh! DIE!" Claws and fists met and countered. Blow after blow was exchanged between the combatants but it was obvious the two masked men had the advantage. FULL CHARGE Before he could react, the lance struck his back and immobilized him in the blue field. "Gah!" "You forgot about us? How mean." The two groups stared at each other and a silent nod was given. With their target between them, the four masked combatants charged forward. From behind his partners, Shamsel used his affinity to wind to give them a boost as they leaped into the air. "RIDER...KICK!" All four kicks impacted, crushing the kaizo-ningen's upper body. The field faded, letting the body slump to the floor before it exploded in a fireball. Ryoutaro backed away from the intense flames. "The hell?" "It's a safeguard designed to destroy any evidence to keep Shocker hidden," remarked the blue one. "So I assume it's safe to say you two aren't our enemies?" The other one nodded, "Very safe." "I'm Lt. Nagisa of the TSAB along with Lt. Nogami and Lt. Kamishiro." "You can call me Kamen Rider 1," responded the blue one. "And Kamen Rider 2," finished the green one. "Kamen Rider....the Masked Rider project?" asks Evangeline. "In a way," answers Rider 2. "We were the products of Shocker experimenting with that idea after it was announced along with the others." Ryoutaro stepped up, "There are others?" "Ah. On other worlds by other sections of Shocker. Some of us managed to escape from Shocker and we now fight to bring them to an end: V3, Riderman, Stronger, Amazon to name a few." "So," steps in Shamsel, "you are all like him? A kaizo-ningen?" A simple nod was given as an answer. "If...if Shocker is this big, I'm sure the TSAB would be willing to offer assistance to put them to an end." Rider 1 shook his head, "Help would be great but not even we know how far Shocker's influence lies. We feel it would be safer for us to work as we are. That way it's harder for them to find us and puts less people in danger." "I see..." "If Shocker is there, you can be assured we'll be there to stop them. Just remember, be careful who you talk to. No matter how secure there is always a way in." Evangeline nods, "So Shocker has eyes and ears in the TSAB..." "Yes," confirms Rider 2, "But we don't know how far they have infiltrated. They'll soon find out about this and try to keep themselves hidden. So be careful." "We will." With a nod, the two Riders hopped on their bikes and sped off from the warehouse. |
2008-08-18, 20:21 | Link #3391 | ||
Nuclear Fusion
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Sky of stone, floor of flame.
Age: 37
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Good god, man...maybe there's something I didn't get in regards to this alleged Khrack spring, but was that REALLY necessary???
Yes, please do. A half-page Kha Breaker is just...excessive. *facepalms* Is that...bad? Quote:
Cool image, too. Although it doesn't scream Tesla to me, that's what crack is for, ne? Quote:
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In my hands, a sun, that my path may be lit. At my back, the sky, so I may be free to soar. In my eyes, hell, for it is my cradle and grave. |
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2008-08-18, 20:26 | Link #3392 |
Truth Martyr
Author
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Doing Anzu's paperwork.
Age: 38
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Sorry, forgot to spoiler. My bad.
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One must forgive one's enemies, but not before they are hanged.Heinrich Heine.
I believe in miracles. |
2008-08-18, 21:45 | Link #3393 | ||
~ I Do ~
Author
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: In the XV-8A Spartan "00"
Age: 38
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Spark a burst I did, but it died out too quickly. D:
Kia: Would you like to try the Nyan Nyan Bao ne? Quote:
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See you in two weeks then. Quote:
Awaiting your in-depth comments. I need someone who bothered to read closely to pick my ideas apart for once. And where's Liingo; I need someone to debug my English too! Is that a bad thing...? I mean, even Clerics had to come from somewhere. Quote:
Maybe I shouldn't have spent so much on dolling the post up like I always do. Wrong impressions and write-offs are all I'm getting. <_< Its a little wild, but this was to expand on Kia, and reconcile her violent nickname with Kha's memories. How has it worked for you?
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2008-08-19, 02:20 | Link #3395 |
Sword Wielding Penguin
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MSLN TEST DUMMIES: Chapter Six
Spoiler for When we last left the Aces...:
Spoiler for Six A:
CHAPTER SIX: "You can't Hide from me child" 2:30 PM 120 Miles NorthWest of Selene Onboard TSA B.E.S.T. FORCE Aircraft: DEEP SKY Altitude: 40,000 ft As it would turn out, to Fate's mild amusement. The Deep Sky was Roland's biggest, and leanest callback to his home on Earth. The scrapped B-1b Lancer had been taken from the Boneyards located in the Southwestern United States one very foul day when the weather made it impossible for the local forces to notice a large TSAB transport Circle being used to haul it up to a cruiser. Roland still owed Admiral Lindy a good number of large favors for the whole stunt. Back at the base, Roland, Don, Martin, and a swarm of Mechanics in on the little project spent upwards of eight months overhauling and upgrading the aircraft. In fact... The list of work was so extensive that Roland admitted the vehicle was essentially completely replaced, and that the only thing it really had in common with the original, was the shape, the copilot's seat, and a plate on the ceiling inside that had originally been part of the verticle stablizer fin that held the aircraft number. (It had been kept out of respect for the original vehicle.) But it was still an order of magnitude cheaper than trying to design a new craft from scratch and have it built. All in all, it was a completely new and advanced aerospacecraft compared to the hulk they'd started with. The hull had been pressure sealed and replaced with materials that could withstand the stresses of leaving the atmosphere and vice versa. The engines were replaced with TSAB cruiser heavy thrusters. It even had modifications to use a moderately efficient magic generator for power. The most important overhaul however, was the bomb-bay, or lack there of. The bomb-bay doors had been removed and the hull sealed there. The deck there had been replaced with a command and control suite not too far from what the AWACS were carrying, and the extra space accomidated for hauling people rather than bombs. The back had been cut open and turned into a sealing boarding ramp. Since he couldn't use it as a bomb truck... Roland had turned the craft in the fastest Light Mage Deployment Vehicle in the TSAB. A glorified transport. His decision to name it the Deep Sky stemmed from a CD of a band with the same name, and that he'd even picked the song RIDE as the vehicle's theme song out of the fact that's what he'd be doing on it most of the time. And when Roland said thirty minutes, he meant it. No sooner were they clear of the runway and the landing gear retracted did the pilot pull the nose back hard and threw the drives right to max. He had essentially thrown the entire aircraft into a long sub-orbital arc, clearing the atmosphere for a few minutes at the top. Reentry was smooth, with the help of TSAB standardized barriers for such trivial issues. In fifteen minutes, they'd cleared well over seven thousand miles and crossed over into the southern hemisphere of Mid-childa. As useful as a JF-704 helicopter was for light deployment, it was just a snail compared to a craft who's orginal intent was, as Roland put it... 'a deep penetraiting high speed killing machine'. Why the General had such a craft? He'd shrugged off the question. Things could be done with transport circles and cruisers, or point to point via fixed facilities. In the end, it was Nanoha who suspected correctly. It was just plain COOL. And all Generals had their toys. Regius had his Einharijar project, at least until it had been totaled by the numbers and Gias himself killed. It was reasonable that Roland's 'cool toy' would be something both useful, and nostalgic to him. Of course, in retrospect, it didn't help the Archipeligo's transport facility was a pile of rubble. After leveling off at forty thousand feet, the Deep Sky had participated in a series of shallow S turns, bleeding off speed systematicly until they'd dropped down to the more respectable low mach threshhold. It had only taken twenty minutes for the initial sub-orbital arc, but they were still a few hundred miles out, and the General didn't want a sonic boom from hell causing all kinds of trouble as they approached the populated areas on the Southern Continent. "I hope you don't mind my tagging along on your mission here," Roland stated in an apologetic tone to Hayate. He was stationed at one of the AWACS styled C&C terminals squashed into a corner of the hull. "This kind of thing is your jurisdiction in terms of experience." Hayate shook the appraisal away with a smile. "Don't be silly. Having a few extra eyes on a mission's always useful. I would be a fool to refuse an offer to help. Besides, it's not like I could stop you... Sir." "The chain of command is to ensure the quick and efficient flow of information and instructions," Roland responded with a grimace. "Not to throw one's weight where it doesn't belong. This is your job, not mine. You're in charge." Of course, he silently admitted, outranking everyone here had its perks when he had to push to get the right action done at the right time. "Seven Minutes!" the pilot interrupted. "So... why am I here again?" Crash asked nobody in particular, "Because I said so," Roland responded automatically. "Is there any point to it?" Crash asked. "Because I said so," Roland repeated. "How about a purpose of some kind?" Crash was getting vexed trying to get the General to justify dragging him along. "Because I said so, because I wanted it to be, because it is my perogotive, my call, and my will," Roland made it final. Crash breathed an extra loud sigh of frustration and sat back in his chair, staring deadpan across the small isle at Signum, who in turn sat with an ever present stoic look on her face as if nothing in the world could bother her. Whatever reason Roland had towed him along on their little venture would remain his own, and further probing would simply result in PT, which was not something he'd like to embarass himself with in front of some of the TSAB's best Aces. Hayate watched the quick exchange with mild amusement as Crash tried without success to probe what the General was up to. Of course, it was plainly obvious from her point of view. Ever since her conversation with him in his office, it was clear as day and he made no attempt to hide it. The General was a true soldier, and wanted some frontline action as much as Nanoha wanted to drag Crash away and train him until it nearly killed him. He wanted to get out and help a little bit, even if he could do next to nothing but provide a sounding board for ideas. He'd been working that Test Facility island assignment so long now that he was probably getting a little stir crazy. Any reason to come out of his hole and strut his stuff. People were so easy to read sometimes. Perhaps it was just because she'd spent so much time as an investigator. "Okay," she stated, turning to Nanoha, Fate, Vita, and Signum. "Just like we've done hundreds of times before, same routine, but with a twist." Hayate blinked up a small Holoconsole. "The Selene Magical Power Facility is a large complex consisting of Eight mana reactor buildings and their cooling towers set up in formation matching a standard Mid-Childan Magic circle. The main generator building is located in the center where the Mana Focal Point is. The entire Facility rests on a location where many of the Ley-Lines on Mid-Childa cross, making it one of the highest output power facilities on the planet. This plant alone supplies power to the entire southern continent as well as the city of Selene itself." From a birds eye view, the satellite photo of Selene Cental Power did look like an oversized magic circle made of buildings. A scale marker on the display showed the whole thing was a kilometer across. "HQ thinks this may be the work of a Terrorist Organization known as Sektor 21, who are well known for their violent attacks on magic based power complexes throughout Administrated Space. The only confusing part for them seems to be the use of a wide area AMF field, something they didn't have before. If it IS Sektor 21, they probably utilized the AMF to hide their attack on the power facility. After all, this is the first time they've struck on Mid-childa itself, and this would be the most ambitious attack ever recorded." After a moment, she closed the window. "However, they may not have known just how complicated the complex was. The facility is still generating power, it may be redundancies, it may be a trap... so let's be careful down there okay?" "Five Minutes!" Roland put his hand up to a headset he was wearing and issued instructions. "Mav, bring us down to five thousand feet and come in over the lake. Be ready to equalize pressure for air deployment." "Roger that sir," came the response. They felt the Deep Sky roll, and the familliar sensation of stomachs trying to escape through their mouths met them as the vehicle went inverted and dropped its nose, falling gracefully into a dive. The arteficial gravity kept everyone from losing their seats, but the dampening was turned down so they experienced a rare and unsual sensation of gravity pulling from two seperate directions. Like an overpowered roller coaster, the aerospace craft dove below the clouds at high speed. After a few seconds, another roll put everything right side up once more as they continued to lose altitude. "It's not a fighter Mav," Roland advised. "Don't fly it like one." "Roger sir," the pilot stated. "I'll keep that in mind." After a few a few more seconds of diving, they felt the gentle tug as the nose came up to a more level position. "Angels Five," the pilot stated. "Leveling off." "Okay!" Nanoha stated suddenly. She felt like getting things rolling. "Since we don't know where to start, I think I'll head in with Fate and check out the central generator center first. If they failed to shut the plant down the first time, they may be trying to finish the job, and that would be the place to hit." Hayate nodded. "Take Signum and Vita with you. There's safety in numbers. I'll hold here and be ready with Rein and Shamal to back you up." Nanoha and Fate nodded. "Coming in over Lake Celcia. Three minutes to drop zone." The deep sky shot over a large lake, most likely caused by glacialization thousands of years ago in the southern hemisphere. It was the perfect location. Asside from the Ley Lines converging as Hayate had stated, the proximity of the Lake provided a virtually unlimited supply of fresh water for both cooling the mana reactors, and for domestic use. It allowed the engineers who designed the power facility to scale the plant quite liberally. The mana reactors were arranged in the formation of a magic circle, and the main generator building was placed in the center, maximizing the amount of mana-to-energy conversion that could be pulled based on the mathematical mana focal-point calculations that Mid-childa knew best, and then boosted a hundred fold by the saturation caused by the Ley Lines. Coupled with the kilometer wide layout, it produced enough energy every day to provide for the total energy needs of the entire TSAB back to its founding day. Or at least, it could at maximum capacity, or so the numbers stated. However, it's actual energy loading was substantially less by many orders of magnitude. Yet, this did not reduce the facility's sensitivity. And as a prime target for terrorists, it was extremely well guarded and considered impossible for mere terrorists to successfully attack. At least, until the attackers learned a new trick. "Two minutes!" the Pilot called out. "Coming up on transition envolope." There was no mistaking the feel of being in an AMF. Even the weakest magic sensitive could describe the sudden chill down the spine, momentary vertigo, and the seeming sense of lethargy that coincides with the weakening of their magical link. It was like having ample energy one moment, and suddenly having it yanked away the next. Normally transitions were slower and less intense, but coming in at just under Mach One made the gradiant feel more like a sudden impact. When Jail's drones had been using AMF, it required a massive number of them working in concert to produce an envolope of any considerable size. And then the only other large area AMF had been produced by the Cradle. The wide area AMF that they had entered was a new variety. The field itself was known as the Anti-Magilink Field, and would impare the magical links used by common Mid-childan and Belken magical styles. A strong enough field could even completely disable a mage's ability to use magic at all. However, the properties of the field seemed to reduce the overall strength of the link rather than just cutting it off. So strong mages can remain active, though at reduced performance. For the Aces, they'd long ago learned how to counter weak AMF, and dealt with it almost without thinking about it. Crash however, had never experienced anything like it, and found the sudden chill and lethargy disturbing. So much so that he shuddered visibly in his seat. "First time experiencing AMF?" It was Signum, with an almost calculating tone. "You get used to it after a few minutes." "Felt like I just got the wind knocked out of me without ever being hit," Crash shook the feeling off as best he could, but just couldn't lose it. Roland, with about as much magic potential as a ball of string, continued to stare unflinching at a display. "Just focus a little and use your will to boost it," Nanoha stated, with an approving nod from Hayate and Fate. "That should get rid of the sensation, though you will be working with less energy than you normally could." Crash nodded, but he almost felt taunted as he formulated a sarchastic response within the confines of his own mind. 'Easier Said than done... Focus she says... boost it with your will she says. How the smeg do I do that?' He may have incredible combat potential and funky luck, but Crash was still a C rank mage in terms of plain magical skill and power. Most of what he'd demonstated was AI and armor assisted, doing the mental work for him while he operated on his instincts and reflexes. Despite the Charade, Vita didn't miss a beat and sighed. "Imagine yourself surrounded by a glowing light, and then make it grow brighter." Crash blinked... "Oh." "Yeah," Vita scoffed. "Oh." After a few seconds, Crash managed to force the sensaton away. "Thirty Seconds!" Mav called out. "Alright!" Roland snapped up. "Opening the rear hatch!" There was a clunk and a hiss as the cabin did one last pressure equalization before the hydraulic ramp at the back started to lower itself down. It was blended well into the hull of Deep Sky as to not disrupt the natural Aerodynamics of the frame. With a hollow metallic boom, the ramp stopped, letting in the dull roar of the passing air outside as Deep Sky bled off more speed, easing off at a nice three-hundred MPH. "Anyone need JMPI Ed?" Roland cackled from his console. Nanoha, Fate, Signum, and Vita looked at the General in a confused manner as they quicky rose and moved over to the ramp. "Twenty seconds..." Nanoha grabbed an overhead hand rail and moved to the edge, overlooking the pristene blue sky and sparkling lake. "Ten.... Nine... Eight..." "Watch your backs," Hayate advised. Nanoha nodded. "Six... Five... Four..." "We will," Nanoha nodded. "Two... One..." And Nanoha threw herself away from the hand rail and out the back of Deep Sky, followed immediatly by the other three. Their bodies lingered in the slipstream for only a moment before they broke through the air current and began hurtling towards the ground five thousand feet below as the roar of Deep Sky dropped into the distance to be replaced by the roar of rushing air. It was a breath-taking sight to behold. Sprawled out below them, a kilometer across, the Selene Magical Power Facility lay waiting. The overhead photos and schematics didn't do the facility justuce. Arranged like an eight pointed magic circle made of buildings and landscaping, it sat on a slight artificial penensula jutting out into Lake Celcia, the Ley Lines crossing over the surface of Mid-Childa coming to a focal point directly in the center. Where there wasn't buildings, there was the green of grass or trees, and the blue of ponds and fountains, keeping in Touch with the Focus of Mid-childa trying to promote their green thumb where in contrast it had failed to take hold in places like Cranagan. It held a beauty of its own from the artful, yet practical application. From this altitude, it was impossible to see exactly what, if anything, was going on, it seemed peaceful. [STAND BY READY] But that was merely an outward appearance, and lingering in freefall wouldn't change that. "Raising Heart," Nanoha called. "SET UP!" -BING- [SET UP] "Mission START!" Roland snapped, activating a stopwatch, then spun to his console and began typing furiously. "Opening primary communications channels as well as preparing backup communications channels, ECM, ECCM... all go. Rein, get on the wide band and link us up to MIDSAT DELTA, Shamal, access thermal-optical sensors arrays and begin a systematic grid-by-grid search pattern, check for anamolies such as heat masses and the like." "What are you doing?" Roland paused and looked at Hayate, then blinked. The question was an honest curiosity. "Establishing a Battle Network," he nodded. "You said I could help, so I'm helping." "Isn't all that a little overkill?" Hayate asked. "There's no such thing as OVERKILL," Roland stated with a sudden, disturbingly haunted look. "Only, OPEN FIRE, and RELOAD." And it was gone just as quickly as it came. "Uh, sir..." Crash managed force his way into the situation. "I don't think we're at war here, there's no need to set up like we're going to fight one." "Oh, we're at war all right," Roland responded as he typed furiously. "We're at war with ignorance itself. Though we may not be under attack from people trying to kill us, we do battle with the demons of nescience, clashing our wit against a wall of unfamiliarity in a siege against the very pits of oblivion for the prize of information most enlightening. No matter what the situation, knowledge is power. And I LIKE power. The people of southern Mid-childa probably like power too, and want theirs to be on tomarrow as well. So if I can keep that power flowing by going the extra mile, I'll do it." Crash could only sweatdrop and suppress an uneasy laugh. "I'll just shutup now..." After a pause, and a nod from Hayate, Shamal and Rein quickly followed suit, establishing an effective communications and information network running from Deep Sky, out to all the mages, and linked up to MIDSAT D and relayed back to RF6 HQ, and from there, back up to the network and all the way back to McGreggor, where the Maidens slapped everything up on the Master Situation Monitor while they began compiling the data. "Alright," Roland concluded. "Network's up. Lt. Col. Yagami, it's your command." Hayate nodded. As the Deep Sky orbited the area, Nanoha and fate were the first to make a gentle touchdown on the rooftop of the Central Generator Building. There was no sign of activity on the outside, or anywhere on the Grounds as far as she could tell. Vita and Signum spread out to circle the imediate area around the building itself. "Touchdown on site," Nanoha crackled over the radio. "And not a soul in sight anywhere." "Are you sure?" Hayate's voice crackled back. "There should be someone... anyone even. That facility employs over five-hundred workers and at least that amount of security mages." "Could be hiding indoors out of sight," Vita responded. "But I can confirm there was some kind of attack. There's a trashed Type I drone over here." "There's a breach in the wall on the south side," Signum added. "Looks like explosives of some kind judging from the scortch marks." "Check inside," Hayate instructed. "But be on your guard." Nanoha and Fate nodded at each other and lept over the retaining wall on the south side of the building, half-jumping, half-flying to land lightly on the grass near Signum, who stood inspecting a blast hole in the wall large enough to drive a truck through, literally. Vita came down next to them a moment later. "Nothing else nearby," she concluded. "Must have been a one-sided fight," Signum nodded, stepping forward. "But there's nobody around." With a light bound, she lept into the hole and landed in what would have been a hallway. Fate followed behind and fanned out to the left, and then Vita to the right. Nanoha brought up the rear, and after a quick look, they began to move into the undestroyed section of the building. As they rounded a corner, they began to hear the steady humming of the generator room. "Generators are still going," Nanoha advised over the radio. "Nothing interesting here." "Keep searching," Hayate instructed. "Check the Focal Core room, it should be in the middle of the building." They followed the circular hallway down, and found another hole blasted in the wall, this one with the remains of a type I drone scattered everywhere. Whoever had attacked knew where they seemed to be going. Following a few more blast holes through the building interior and into the center, they found the Focal Core. Vita entered the room first, and suppressed a curse, her reaction quickly earned the company of the other three, who had mixed reactions. The Core room was, a mess, to put it lightly. Several security mages lay dead almost right at the blast point, obviously killed by the explosion. Many more lay scattered about the room, killed in a variety of manners ranging from what seemed to be burns, to slashes, to being crushed under partially collapsed peices of concrete where the floor from the room above had come down. Many more lay in crumpled heaps as if something had driven a battering ram into them. It looked as if the entire scene had been one dramatic and failed last stand. "This was a massecre," Signum's eyes narrowed at the carnage. "Who or whatever killed them was so strong they couldn't even put up a fight." Nanoha suppressed her own shudder as she looked around, her eyes falling upon a mage that seemed to be the local captain... He seemed fine up until you got to his head, but then... oh dear. "Type One drones couldn't do slaughter like this," Fate stated as she followed Nanoha's gaze. "There are too many bodies here with fatal head contusions and too many of the injuries seem to be blunt trauma rather than slashing or burning weapons typical of a drone's laser or manipulators." "Combat Cyborgs?" Signum queried. "There could be more we never accounted for," Vita nodded. "It's a possibility," Hayate's voice crackled on the radio. "We've been discovering bits and pieces of Jail's widely distributed legacy for years. I wouldn't be surprised if we found another ultimate end product of his work." "But that wouldn't make sense," Nanoha interrupted. "What wouldn't?" "Why would Scagletti, a firm magic user, let any part of his work go to a group who, according to records, hates Magic in general?" Roland, at his spot watching a video feed of the mess in the core room, quickly tapped a button. "Run that past me again," he instructed. "Just how deep is this hatred?" "Sektor 21," Nanoha's voice crackled back. "Is one of the most imfamous organized terrorists organizations on record. They have a fanatical following of people who hate mages, were hurt by mages, or just hate the TSAB in general." "To date," Hayate continued. "They're one of the largest consumers of black market weapons out there, and they use that to fuel a guerilla war of sorts with the TSAB. As with what we're finding here, their favorite target is mana fueled power facilities since these are such high profile, and high value targets of oppertunity." "For a terrorist organization," Rein came into the conversation next, the screen blinking past her at high speed. "They're quite well organized, and their logistics are rather amorphous, making it hard even for the investigations department to track them down reliably. Most Sektor-21 agents captured are just fanatic lunatics trying to take their hatred out on anyone with magic abilities. There have been over three hundred documented suicide bomber incidents across dimensional space since the official opening of the record on S-2-1 thirty-three years ago." "I better read up on this," Roland muttered darkly, blinking up a secondary panel. "For a pesky terrorist organization, they've suddenly gotten ahold of some pretty good toys to be pulling jobs like this." "That's what bothers me," Nanoha's voice crackled back. "If what we're dealing with is the magic hating Sektor Twenty-One group, what are they doing with stuff that's very heavily leaned on Magical research?" "Which begs the question," Hayate continued. "Are we really dealing with Sektor Twenty-One? Or someone trying to give the impression of Sektor Twenty-One?" "The other alternative is hypocracy," Signum crackled in her own thoughts. "Terrorists aren't known for playing by even their own rules if they can use something to their advantage." "But then, if it IS," Hayate returned the ball. "Why is the power facility still functionally in tact after such a lopsided victory?" "And ergo," Signum continued. "What kind of nasty toys do they have that we should be worried about? And who's supplying the Toys?" As Signum said that, Vita looked around again, and noticed one of the dead technicians was leaning up against the core itself, a trail of blood leading all the way across the room as if they'd dragged themselves while bleeding to death. It only took a moment of inspection at a distance to notice there was something in each of his hands. With a quick, almost skip across the room, she quickly moved over to the core and examined the hands. One hand was clutched around a deformed block wrapped in a black material. The other was gripping something that had frayed wires. One of them crossed over into the black block, the other was obviously pulled free. "I got something," Vita snapped. "Come take a look at this..." Nanoha bounded over quickly, stepping carefully over a few bodies as she went. "I think we have a hero," Vita nodded solemnly. Fate and Signum joined Nanoha next to her and looked down at the once techie. "Let's find out who this one is," Nanoha stated, and carefully reached forward, intending to get an ID card. "DON'T TOUCH HIM!!!" Hayate nearly jumped out of her skin as Crash shouted in her ear, having jumped out of his seat in the process. "Don't touch him, don't touch ANYTHING!" he continued. Roland was staring intently at him from the outburst when he nodded to him. "Sir, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Roland looked at the image. Looked simple enough, dead mage, disarmed detonator, squashed black wrapper that said 'M112' in yellow lettering just where it could be seen... "C4," Roland scowled. "Add that to the list of shit they've gotten ahold of. Bastards." "Yeah," Crash nodded. "But I think something's wrong with the block." After a few seconds as Roland tried his best to examine the scene, Nanoha's voice crackled back. "It's empty," "Hol-E shit," Roland scowled, seeing it as well. "It is, good eye there young lady. You too Crash." "I've nearly been blown up by that stuff two-hundred and thirty-seven times," Crash scowled. "I know what it's supposed to look like." "Indeed," the General paused, searching the image. "But if it's not in the wrap, where is it?" And his eyes fell on the blood-stained base of the Core itself, and for the first time, he noticed the odd texture that the technician's head was resting against, unnoticed at first compared to the smooth steel thanks to the discoloration. Oh, clever move. "F-kkin' Booby-trap," he growled. "His head's sitting right in the stuff. The body is probably the trigger, or sitting on the trigger. Move him and you blow yourselves and the entire building to smitherines in a spectacular way." Hayate examined the image. Roland was right. Some kind of putty-looking material, covered in blood, was behind the technician's head. Just barely noticable, was a thin wire dropping down near his neck, looking almost like hair. If moving him was the trigger, the blast would have breached the Focal Core, and the resulting energy release would create an explosion that would have destroyed the building, most certainly killing any mage reguardless of ability. It seemed almost perfectly made for taking down a high class mage. Make it so only strong mages can really get in, then set a trap that would complete the 'mission' AND kill the mage (or mages) at the same time. The appearant disarmed explosive and detonator was a decoy meant to throw investigating mages off just enough for them to make a mistake of moving the body... and BOOM! This just got more interesting. "Seal the stuff," Hayate ordered. "We better search the rest of the facility for more traps. I think this pretty much answers if they're still around." As she recived an affirmative response, she rose from her seat and moved towards the back ramp. "Where are you going?" Roland asked. "I'm heading down there," Hayate responded, transforming in a flash. "We need more eyes on the ground to find the cause of the incident." "You think it's wise to do that?" Roland crossed his arms, as if asking her to weigh her actions. Hayate smirked. "We stand a better chance of finding the problem this way," she stated. "It's more logical. I want you to cover us from up here, if you have any suggestions, I'm open to them... Sir. Roland nodded, spinning around to hit a button on his console. "In that case, take Crash along with you," he instructed. "That'll make it even so you can pair off, and he's the one who caught the trap just now." "What?!" Crash snapped, grabbing one of the hand bars and taking a step back. "Oh no way! I'm not going down there!" Roland's head came around as he looked back. "Don't tell me you're scared of a little creepiness?" "Scared?" Crash laughed, then turned serious. "I'm not scared!" He looked at the monitor where it projected an image from Raising Heart showing the body of the dead tech as she placed a seal on the C4. "I'm terrified." "Oh, don't be a wuss," Roland shook his head. "There ain't nothing down there but AMF, Mages, and corpses. You're not going looking a fight, just going down to investigate the situation and find out of there are any more nasty traps." "With all due respect," Crash shot back. "It's finding one I'm worried about. Or finding out what caused the corpses. Because I don't want to be one of them!" Hayate crossed her arms behind Crash, waiting for someone to make up their mind. She had an investigation to run... And wanted to know what to plan for sometime today. Roland noticed and tried to apply a little more pressure. "Utter nonsense," he stated. "Nonsense?" Crash sputtered. "My gut says otherwise. And I'm sure you remember what exactly happened last time my gut told me something wasn't right." Roland spun around on his chair and put both his hands on his knees. "There's no Cyborgs or anything like that down there wanting to swarm you," he stated. "You'll be just fine. Better in fact, than the mages with that power armor in an AMF." "You don't know what might be down there any more then-URP!!" Whatever Crash had been planning to say was abrubtly cut off as Hayate, fed up with the argument, decided to take matters into her own hands. Yanking Crash by the collar of his uniform shirt, she hurled him backwards with more magically enhanced strength than her stunted frame would betray to the average passer by. Before Crash really understood what had happened, he found himself uncerimoniously tossed out the back of the Deep Sky into open air, and instantly dropped out of sight. Roland, Rein, and Shamal stared blankly as Crash, along with his argument, became a moot topic. After a few seconds, the General turned his eyes to Hayate. "I would never have thought of that one." "I have kids," Hayate shrugged. "He is older than you, you know," Roland replied. "So is Vita," she continued. "Doesn't make a difference to me. Kids will be kids." And with that she jumped off the ramp and out of sight. "MOTHER HUBBARD!" Crash snapped as the air roared past his ears. It took a few seconds after he'd dropped from the back of the Deep Sky to realize exactly what the short mage had done. The girl probably knew exactly what she was doing when she decided on it, but he could at least answer honestly next time on a test if if ever asked the question 'Have you ever been thrown off of a plane?' As he tumbled, Crash silently labelled Yagami into one of a few catagories he had, this one of the jokester. Of course, this joke wasn't funny. "NOT FUNNY AT ALL!" he roared over the wind. "What's not funny?" It was Hayate, her hair an odd color, and she was diving along side him, inverted, her strange set of black wings were pretty, yet creepy. Crash blinked silently at her once as she looked 'up' (down really) at the ground below them. "You should probably transform before you get too low or you'll have trouble slowing down in that armor." And with that, she began to slow her own descent, leaving Crash to plumet towards the ground. Maybe transforming was a good idea. "Battery?" [PRIMED] "Uh... engage, very quickly." [ENGAGING!] There was a flash of light, and Crash found himself wearing the now familliar Olympian Armor. With the roof of one of the Mana Reactor buildings coming up to greet him rather quickly, Crash decided Hayate's advise was indeed the epitome of all wisdom, and used his flight power to brake his fall. ... Nothing. Why wasn't the armor slowing down?! WHY?! It was capable of turning on a dime, manuevering at high speed, and coming to sudden stops with the gravity assisted- ...Oh. Crash remembered one very important fact. The gravity drive took forty-five seconds to complete the cold start warm up process. "OH SHI-" Hayate cringed as Crash went straight through the reactor building rooftop with the force of a small bomb, ripping a hole in the reinforced concrete like it was made of shoji screens, like the walls in some buildings back home. Without hesitating longer, she quickly flew down to the top of the hole and looked in, fearing that her method of stopping an argument may have had very adverse consiquences. As the dust started to clear, she heard the sound of shifting rubble, and then a crackle on the radio. "I feel... Pain. Good. That means I'm still alive." She breathed a sigh of relief and jumped down into the hole. Crash was busy digging himself out from the shattered concrete and powder around him as she touched down. Asside from the grunts of pain he was making, there looked to be no physical damage to him. "You okay?" she asked. "Yes, I'm a masochist... I LIKE smashing through four feet of reinforced concrete at terminal velocity," he sputtered through his headset, but kept it off the open channels. "With friends who throw me out of planes, at the rate we're going I'll be dead before an Enemy gets to take a shot at me. Why don't we just have my eulegy now and save the trouble later?" Hayate blanched at the scathing remark, glad her friends weren't able to see it. Crash in the mean time, finally cleared himself out of the rubble by lifting a large chunk of concrete, and tossing it asside. Then he paused. "Great, HUD's out again..." After slapping the side of his helmet a few times, the transparent screen blinked, and came back to life. "Phew... Battery, run a silent diagnostic." While the AI did the self check, he looked around the room, then to Hayate. "So where'd I land anyway?" "Reactor Building Four," Hayate nodded to him. "Southeast side of the complex closest to the town." "At least I didn't land on anything sensitive," he looked around. "I hope." A brief diagnostic summary blinked up on the inside of his Heads Up Display, Grav Drive Anomally, probably from Impact... ETA to functional time, thirty minutes. Lovely. Crash looked back up the hole he came through. Four foot thick reinforced concrete ceiling, then two floors where he'd blown straight through. They must have been on ground level now. "Do you hear something?" Hayate asked. Crash turned, looking around. Maybe he DID land on something sensitive. Great. "Probably just the mana reactor," he waved it off, hoping to any diety that would listen he was right. "No," Hayate turned and walked into another room. "Mana reactors don't pulse..." Crash turned the input gain up on his helmet, there was definately some kind of low pulsing sound. "More traps?" he suggested helpfully as he bounded off his rubble pile. "I like to not set one off..." And they both found what appeared to be the source of the noise. A capped off cylinder about Hayate's size, with an antenna sticking out of the top sitting on a tripod that looked like it folded up into the sides, was methodicly pulsating under its own power in the corner of the next room. The low pulsating thrum it was giving off seemed almost soothing. Hayate's first thought, considering the explosive trap Nanoha took care of, was BOMB. But at the same time, her gut instinct said this was something different. Crash started to walked forward to give it a closer look, but remembering previous events, he instead, opted to radio the others. "Hey guys, we got something over here you might want to see," he began. "We're over at Reactor Building Four on the souteast side. Fastest way will be in through the skylight." "The reactor buildings don't have skylights," Vita's non-plussed response returned. "Building four underwent renovations in the last few minutes," he responded. "We're one room over from the skylight." It only took the other four a minute or two to get over to the Mana Reactor Building, and down through the new 'skylight' as Crash had dubbed it.' "Renovations," Vita shook her head. "Funny..." Signum whistled at the hole as she passed down through it to the bottom floor, eyeing the damage with a calculating eye. As she touched down behind Nanoha and Fate, she kicked a small piece of the crumbled concrete to the side. "What do you make of this?" Hayate asked. Nanoha and Fate walked over to what seemed to be an unspoken 'safe distance' from the small pod. "Think it belongs here?" Fate asked. Of course, considering most of the equipment in the mana reactor building consisted of panels, and items bolted to the ground, the tripod mounted... Pod Thingie, seemed oddly out of place in a back corner. "What do you make of it sir?" Crash asked over the wide channel. Onboard the Deep Sky, Roland inspected the Video feed intently. "Looks like some kind of portable transmitter to me," he shrugged. "Transmitter for what, I don't know. As far as the networked intel goes, not a single transmission's gone in or out since this whole thing began." Crash crossed his armored arms and walked up to the device. Signum made a motion to stop him, but Hayate blocked her with a shake of her own head. "Riddle me this," he pondered alloud. "If I punch it... will it simply stop working? Or blow us all to Al Hazred?" Nanoha sweatdropped and laughed uncomfortably. "I don't think that's the best idea right now." Crash shrugged. "I don't really want to anyway... I like being alive." Up on Deep Sky, Roland laced his hands together under his chin, on a nearby console, Rein suddenly straighened up visibly as she noticed something on her display. "Shamal, look at this," she motioned. The short haired blond shifted from her own console and gave a quick look, and then her eyes widened as she opened the radio link. "Crash, back up," her voice crackled. Crash blinked, then backed up several paces from the object. After a few more seconds, her voice crackled again. "Okay, step closer..." Crash obeyed. "Now back up again..." "Do the hokey pokey," Crash muttered in annoyance, but obeyed. "Now you Nanoha," Shamal's voice crackled. "Same thing, twice." Nanoha complied, and after a few moments, Shamal quickly cycled through the rest of the group. "You got something?" Roland asked as the support mage worked with Rein on their consoles. Shamal silently nodded as she took advantage to the link to the main processing systems back at RF6 HQ and the Maidens at McGreggor. After a few seconds, a clean data set showed up on her monitor. "Got it!" she announced. "Local AMF field density increases sharply just two feet from the unidentified object. It's pretty uniform beyond that, but it spikes when you get right up to it." "AMF Projector," Hayate shook her head. "I should have known." "Well," Roland crackled in. "At least it's not a bomb." "Like the hero really wasn't a hero but a decoy," Crash rolled his eyes. "Riiight. How do we know this isn't a double decoy?" "To be fair," Nanoha Shrugged. "The explosive alone wouldn't have been enough to do anything, I've been hit with bigger." "But an exploding focal core would have certainly done it," Hayate critisized. Nanoha laughed it off quickly. "Maybe." "So now what?" Crash asked suddenly. "I think it's rather obvious," Roland's voice crackled. "It's producing the AMF... AMF slows us down. Let's shut it off." "Exactly!" Hayate nodded in agreement, then turned to the pod, and frowned, heaving a sigh out with her next sentence. "How do we do that?" A quick glance to Nanoha got merely a shrug, Fate similarly drew a blank. The pod, seemed to have no external interface. Perhaps it was remote controlled by radio signal or- "SMASH!!!" They all jumped as Vita pulled Graf Eisen out of the remains of the pod, which sparked and burst into flames for a moment before falling apart harmlessly. Crash took a step back as Vita turned a non-plussed look at them all. "Universal Off Switch," she quipped. "I think it would have been a better idea to take it in-tact," Crash nudged. "To see how it works and all..." Vita turned an unimpressed scowl on him. "We're not here to find how it works, we're here to unscrew the problem." Crash sighed as the deceptively young looking mage swung her warhammer back onto her shoulder. Was she always this critical under stress? "I personally would have liked to know how they got the AMF to behave so uniformly over long range," Roland crackled back. "It would help us for pinpointing them in the future." "You may still get your wish there sir," Shamal's voice followed. "The AMF is still active, though it seems to have weakened by about one-eighth." There was a sound distinctly like a sigh coming from the General. "Great... If my mathematics are what they used to be, that means we got seven more of those things hiding anywhere in a ten kilometer diameter area." "Unfortunately." Up on the Deep Sky, Roland put his hand on his face as he thought. His gut instinct was violently against a house to house styled search of the entire facility and the surrounding town. With so many places to move and hide at the disposal of a potential enemy, Urban Warfare was a soldier's worst nightmare. Surely Hayate realized this too. She was a rather smart girl after all. "Okay guys," her voice crackled. "We're going to have to split up and perform a complete area search if we want to find those things." God dammit... "I disapprove," the General announced into his headset. "A search in this environment is way too risky." "All due respect sir," Nanoha's voice came back a little surprised. "I think we can handle a little risk..." "I think he's right," Crash's voice cautioned. "We're talking about an area that's seventy square kilometers in size." "Significantly less," Reinforce snapped up from her spot. "Remember that the center of the AMF is over the facility. Even if they managed to control their transmitters quite well, their distribution has to be pretty evenly spaced and within at least two kilometers of the facility in order to keep the field centered because of the lake. Too far apart, and the field center would move inland away from the plant." "Never the less," Roland turned to the AI. "That's the worst possible environment for ambush. We should call in more backup and wait before searching." "We can't do that Sir," Hayate's voice crackled. "The AMF may be reletively passive, but nobody in the area can effectively operate in it like we can. At best we could pull my Forwards, but we're looking at transit time for them since I gave them the day off, and that would only give us four more people." Roland swore, sitting back in his seat and scowling at the unforgiving logic of the situation. It was one of those things that had irked him since he'd been in the TSAB. The distribution of Power was ludicrous at times. Yes, a good mage was worth an armored batalion. Then again, most of the stock mages had about the effectiveness of a civilian police officer. With the distribution of power favoring, single, strong mages, the strategic planning could be tailored to the vulnerability that brought up. A loss in terms of a single mage of any decent level was potentially catastrophic. And the trouble with mages, is that despite being flying tanks in terms of firepower, a lucky hit or good sneak attack could still kill them as easily as any other human. It was the same problem that had ultimately driven Gaias Regius to an Early Grave. This situation and environment absolutely reeked of the potential for dissaster. But Hayate knew her job better than he knew her job... |
2008-08-19, 02:21 | Link #3396 |
Sword Wielding Penguin
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Spoiler for Six B:
"It's your call then," he came out of his thoughts. She knows the risk, she's got the experience. "We'll search," Hayate sounded determined. "But nobody goes alone, we pair off and stay close." The Buddy System. Yes, yes. Smart Girl. "Sir, you've got the birds eye-view and the data hub, so you'll be our coordinator," she continued. Roland nodded, time to do this systematicly. "Got it," he began. "Priority search is going to be our seven remaining AMF transmitters, we'll refer to them as Projectors. If little Rein's analyssis is accurate-" Reinforce Zwei instantly puffed up at the 'little' comment, but was ignored. "-we can narrow our search area to a three kilometer radius of the generator building. The pods are man sized as we already know, so they can be in any building, in any room, which is a lot of places to search. A grid search method would take to long this way, so I suggest we break up into three teams." Shamal looked over as Roland was reviewing data on his screen. "Nanoha, Signum, Alpha team, use your callsigns. You've got search magic, so scour the inside of the reactor buildings from head to toe, leave no stone unturned as they say. Fate, Vita... Bravo Team... External grounds search. Check storage sheds, vehicles, open fields, trees... You'll back up Alpha as well in case they meet trouble. Hayate, Crash, Charlie Team. Immediate town search, outside only. Look for signs of forced entry for now. I don't want you doing a room by room search alone until we finish the facility. Check doors and windows, and remember... Anything suspicious enough to look at is suspicious enough to point an attack at." There was a chorus of affirmatives from the ground party as Roland looked at the data on his console. After a moment, Shamal turned to him. "I'll start an area search with ClairerWind from the outside and work my way inwards. If there's anything suspicious, we'll be the first to know." "Okay guys, let's get this Search going!" Hayate seemed to almost cheerfully belt out, despite the ever pressent threat hanging over the area. Nanoha quickly spun, floating off the ground and levitating quickly across the room, dropping several white gloing orbs as she went, signum following her with her hand already gripping Levantine in preperation to slice something up. Fate and Hayate bounded back to the opening the in the ceiling and quickly lept up out of sight, leaving Crash and Vita to catch up before they dispersed. "Hey," Vita snapped as Crash walked the opposite direction to a room door. "Hayate went that way... go cover her like you're supposed to." "Can't fly," Crash quipped. "Grav. drive's out from that impact, so I have to take the normal exit first." "If you hadn't acted like a dofus and powered up immediately, that wouldn't be a problem," she responded. "You can thank Lt. Colonel Yagami for that one," Crash responded curtly. "If anyone was acting like a dofus, it would be her okay? I didn't exactly ask to be thrown out of the back of a plane, so cut me some slack... I'm no combat expert like you guys are." Vita turned on a heal and walked over to the test pilot, a non-plussed look once again on her face. As she stopped, Crash suddenly got that crawling sensation down his spine he didn't like. Then she raised one gloved hand and waggled her finger for him to come closer. Crash leaned in. WHAM! Graf Eisen didn't hit, so much as the hammer end wedged itself between his helmet and shoulder armor, and then Vita gave a firm yank, dragging crash down to one knee in front of her. The sight of a four foot tall 'little girl' manhandling the six and a half foot tall armor behomouth with ease using what looked like fancy metal polo mallet would have been funny were it not for the look on her face that was a vicious in its silence as Don was in a two our long double S rant. "Listen, and listen good," she growled in a tone that was obviously off the radio. "This is not a game, this is not a joke, and this is certainly not a vacation. This is a potentially life threatening situation and not your island paradise test facility by the sea. This is a real mission, and as long as you're here, you need to at least take the job seriously whether you like it or not, whether you wanted to come here or not." She then pointed with her free hand towards the hole and lowered her tone almost impossibly to a hiss.. "Hayate is -VERY-, important to us... You are assigned, by your commander, to act as her escort and she to you. So you will ensure that you guard her to the best of your abilities and beyond, because I don't want ANYTHING to happen to her. And God help me, if you let anything so much as SCRATCH her, both myself and Graf Eisen will ensure that you know what it feels like to be a can of sardines caught in a trash compactor while it's being used in a presentation of Verdi's Anvil Chorus! Are am I making myself clear?" "Crystal," Crash gulped. The half maniacal look she had was easily seen from this close, and it said she meant every syllable of that threat. "Good," Vita nodded, lifting Eisen out of its wedge and allowing Crash to stand himself up straight. "Don't you dare fail me." "Let's go guys!" Hayate's voice sounded through the hole. Vita spun and bounded over to the hole and lept into the air, leaving Crash in the dust. Hayate looked at the girl with just the slightest impatience as she appeared over the rooftop. "What's taking so long?" "Crash's gravity drive system is malfunctioning," Vita shrugged as nothing had transpired. "He can't fly without it so he said he'll meet you at the building entrance." Hayate rolled her eyes and smirked, at least her little stunt hadn't done worse. Spinning in the air, she floated over towards the reactor building entrance where Crash would emerge. Vita turned to Fate, who Nodded and took off to begin their search of the grounds. Roland could say that it has been his personal experience that most people do not appreciate the scale of One Square Kilometer until they've personally had to search and clear an area. As a former US Army Veteran who spent sometimes weeks doing dull Field Training Excersizes, the concept of searching for a man-sized objecct in such an area was one that immediately made the General blanch. If you could for a moment, imagine the average American football field, roughly a hundred meters though you must remember to carry the extra few inches the yards lose... Now you stack ten of them end to end to have one kilometer distance. Then you take ten more and go perpendicular to your direction of travel, making a giant L shape with them. Once you've done this, and you see your fields extending in two directions from the corner, you look in the middle and imagine everything within this partially outlined square to be your search area. Then you fill this area in with numerous multi-story buildings, and lots of random clutter. Once you've firmly established what that looks like in your mind, you multiply it by nine and that would be an adequet visual representation of the current search area. In short, it could be best described by the classic saying 'Trying to find needles in a haystack.' Nanoha was no stranger to the concept of the extremely wide area search Once before, and under similar conditions, she used search magic for two solid hours while in combat onboard the cradle just to find one person. She could still remember the look of total shock on Quattro's face through her targetting window as she prepared to blast the sociopathic cyborg through over half a kilometer of reinforced bulkheads. Even still, it had taken two hours, and that was searching for a single person. This time there were seven objects to locate, and even though there was less volume to search though, she still expected this would end up taking several hours. Nanoha's outlook on the situation, while more optimistic than the General's outlook, was still locked into the grim realization that this was going to be a long and tedious process. At the same time, Hayate's almost jovial approach to the search stemmed from her time spent doing more office styled duties and data searches. There was just something about the girl that seemed to thrive under harsh conditions. It was perhaps a psycological after effect of spending her childhood days paralized and reduced to a wheel chair patient, and the unique outlook on life it gave her. Or perhaps it was the fact that she knew she could find happiness now matter how grim things looked. Whatever the true reason... Despite the carnage in the core room, and the forboding of the situation, Hayate seemed ready to tackle it with a smirk. To Crash, who'd just gotten what amounted to a Death Threat from Vita, it seemed completely inappropriet as they walked, yes walked, to the main entrance to the facility. The first ten minutes went as expected for any search... Absolutely nowhere. And Roland calmly marked each area off on the map as they cleared the sections a piece at a time. It was the Vita and Fate, arbitrarily dubbed 'Bravo' team who reported in first. "We've got something interesting over here," Fate's voice crackled over the wide-band. "Define: 'interesting' as it were," Roland responded. "Interesting 'Oh neat', or Interesting 'OH SHIT' ?" "More like interesting 'what the hell' really," Vita's voice crackled in. "There's been some kind of excavation done just north of the cooling tower of Reactor Building Seven." "Excavation?" Hayate's voice popped in. "That's rather strange..." "Strange nothing," Roland grumbled. "Why would they be digging up a place they want to destroy?" "That's a very good question," Nanoha's voice crackled. "Anything else there?" "Lots of scrapped drone parts," Vita responded. "Also, it looks like someone caught on to the operation and tried to stop it. It's not pretty over here." "Another Massecre?" Roland asked. This was looking more sinister as the death toll climbed. "Not quite," Vita responded. "Looks like they tore up a number of type ones over here... but it looks like they were attacking, and drones had an effective defense. They seem... Modified." "We'll have to collect one for examination," Hayate crackled. "Any clues as to what they were excavating for?" "It's like they strip-mined the place," Fate comented. "There appears to be some kind of, room below the foundation of the tower... It looks old." Roland squinted and turned to Reinforce. "Can you bring up the historical records for this area?" he asked the pint sized unison. "Blueprints, floor plans, survey crew reports? Anything and everything, even myths and legends if there are any." "Already searching," Reinforce Zwei responded. "Just so you know, the Navy just sent word that a special investigative unit assigned to hunting Sektor 21 is on the way and should arrive in ten to fifteen minutes." "Oh really?" Roland asked. "Good, then we won't be alone with this mess." On the ground, Fate worked her way forward between debris of both the organic and inorganic types, and into the hastily ripped ground. "I'll check inside, watch my back." "Just be sure you watch your front," Vita nodded, looking around. "I don't really want to dig you out if there's a cave-in trap set up here. Fate nodded, bringing her protective barrier to a higher level before stepping inside. The opening was narrow, but in just a few steps, she was in a small enclosed room. Roughly rectangular, and covered in dust. The ceiling was low, and the back corner was collapsed. However, looking at the ground, it was obvious there HAD been somethign in here. Several heavy somthings, that had been dragged quickly out of the narrow entrance. "Not much to report," she stated informatively. "Looks like they found what they were after in here..." "Now I'm confused as hell," Roland crackled back. "This stinks more of a cover operation than a real attack with every passing moment." Fate looked around puzzled, and set Bardiche firmly on the ground with a small clang. [SIR, I AM DETECTING TRACE AMOUNTS OF IONIZED HELIUM IN THE SURROUNDING ENVIRONMENT. ENERGY LEVELS ARE ABOUT FOUR POINT SEVEN ELECTRON VOLTS] "Radiation?" she quipped. Indeed, she was underground, it was probably accumulated Radon gas. "What was that?" Roland crackled. "Radiation? You find some Radon in there? Don't beathe the shit. I had an aunt in Iowa who got cancer from it and I never got to meet her." "Grab a soil sample if you can," Hayate interjected over the commlink. "What are you thinking Yagami?" Roland asked. "Like I've been watching too much CSI," she quipped. "Anything can be evidence." "You watched CSI?" the General seemed surprised. "I watched it all the time in the hospital when I was little." Hayate admitted. "The Head Nurse seemed to eat it for breakfast." Fate ignored the rest of the conversation as she walked over to the collapsed section of the room and quickly took a soil sample with bardiche, then turned and left the empty room for the open air outside. "Got a projector," Nanoha chimed in happily. "Reactor Building Two in the northeast quadrant, they hid it among a bunch of CO2 tanks." "Awesome," Roland crackled. "See if you can disable it without turning it into scrap metal." "Rip the antenna off," Crash interrupted. There was brief silent pause in which it could be imagined that everyone was considering the reppercussions of any advice the test pilot might give. After a second, there was a radio amplified sigh. "Transmitters without antennae don't transmit. I've broken enough of them to know that much. Trust me." There was a loud metallic crack, followed by a ringing snap, and after a few seconds, Rein informed them the AMF had dropped by another one-eighth of the total. "Two down, Six to go," Hayate crackled. "Stay Sharp," Roland responded, a little more terse than he had been. "The more we dig up, the more I'm starting to agree with Crash." "Thank you... I'm glad you see it my way..." "Shut-up Crash." The tone was one-hundred percent No-Nonsense. "Shutting up." "Something's fishy, and I don't mean Lake Celcia," Roland continued after Crash clicked off the line. "This level of strategic diversionary prowess is TOO smart. My skin's starting to crawl. It hasn't done that since the Persian Gulf." "Care to share your insight with us sir?" Hayate asked. "Well," the General began. "What appears to be Sektor Twenty-One terrorists, have, out of the blue, and with resources they previously didn't have, attacked the largest target of their 'style' in a move that was in and out without any significant losses to them. They rigged a booby-trap and decoyed it, and then used the whole thing to cover some bizzare excavation of theirs to locate something it seems the building planners didn't know about. I know Terrorists aren't stupid... but this seems more like a Special Forces operation then some random Abdul-N-Da-Boyz stunt." "Abdu what?" came Nanoha's voice. "Just ignore my terminology," Roland waved it off. "It's just a way I used to reffer to terrorists." "What would you suggest in this situation then?" Hayate asked. "I would suggest exactly what we can't really do," Roland shrugged. "Pull back, get a few hundred pairs of boots on the ground, and put a gunship on station. If they're still here, bring the rain, if not, well, it makes a good excersize." "My gut tells me they found what they came for and left," Hayate responded. "Whatever was in that excavation was probably the real target, and that worries me." "Me too," Roland admitted. "They got what they wanted, and the trap was just their parting gift, which makes me wonder what else they've left for us." There was a click as Crash rejoined the line. "That's entertaining and all, but tell me... Was this place always a ghost-town out here? Or did they evacuate?" Roland looked at his monitor puzzled. "As soon as the AMF went up, there was an immediate evacuation order for everyone in a six kilometer radius for public safety. Why?" "Oh, I'm just wondering," Crash crackled. "If the place is evacuated, then anyone I see is suspect..." "Generally, yes." Nanoha's voice popped in. "Oh good," Crash responded... and then suddenly. "HEY YOU!!!!" |
2008-08-19, 02:22 | Link #3397 |
Sword Wielding Penguin
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Spoiler for Six C:
Spoiler for song cue:
Hayate spun around as Crash used his voice speakers like a megaphone. Down a side street she'd passed, about twenty meters away, she noticed who Crash was shouting at. Whoever it was jerked around suddenly, looked at them for a full two seconds, and bolted around the corner. Crash burst into a run, his boots making loud clanking sounds as he gave chase. Hayate immediately pushed off the ground and arced up over the seperating building. "What's going on?!" Roland snapped. "Appearantly Crash's sharp eyes aren't tuned only to objects," Hayate stated. "He spotted someone just now, I'm moving to box him in." Hayate cleared the building and spotted her quarry... "Suspect is white male," she began. "About a hundred eighty-five, a hundred-nintey centimeters, very... impressive build." Just as she looped overhead to get in front of him, the man looked up, then spun and smashed into a shop door, shattering the glass as he did so and vanished into the building. "Suspect is indoors," she advised. "Crash, keep going and try to flank him in the back." "Easy for you to say!" Crash snapped. "I have to run!" "You're fit," she smiled. "Keep laughing LongArch," he snapped. "At least you don't have to put up with Will on a daily basis like I do." "Keep in mind this is an Open Channel," Roland's voice dripped back with utter sarchasm. "Cut the chatter." "Yessir," Crash huffed. His armor may be powered, but he still had to do the running. "Suspect in the open again, sprinting southeast!" Hayate snapped. "Make a right!" "On it!" Crash shouted, leaping a dumpster, then sliding across a sawhorse to catapult out onto the next street. "Got 'im!" Crash spotted his target making a beeline from a recent forced exit of the building Hayate had seen him enter and sprinted as fast as he could. As he charged the man down, he noticed the man raise something, and reacted on instinct. "HE'S ARMED!" -K'TING!- -CRACK!- Crash felt the round graze his helmet just as his reflexes pulled him out of the way. He mildly noted that if he handn't moved, the round would have hit dead center in his faceplate. His hud quickly displayed estimated size of the round from the impact strike as Battery analyzed it. There were more loud cracks and bangs as more shots struck his armor plates. Crash immediately crouched and sprang towards a nearby building, smashing bodily through a door as rounds zipped past his head. "Suspect is using mass weapons!" he snapped as he rolled to a halt, bringing out his Multiform Rifle. "Looked like a medium rifle, brown finish... Battery says it's a seven point six two milimeter round..." "Sounds like an AK," Roland responded. "Moderate armor piercing ability against normal materials, but then again, you're a step away from tank armor." "You want our help over there?" It was Signum. "No I'll take him!" Hayate stated, snapping open her book. "I'll tie him down and take his weapons away." "Don't rely on your jacket to stop seven-six-two!" Roland snapped. "If it's FMJ it can still cut through!" "I'll cover her then!" Crash snapped, coiling for another spring. "Go now!" Hayate snapped as she began reciting a spell. Crash rolled out of his spot and opened fire with the MFR. The man ducked the bolts and retaliated with his own return fire. Crash heard a loud ping as a shot connected with his chest plate. "Holy- LongArch, keep moving! This guy's scoring a bullseye every other shot while on the move." "STRUGGLE BIND!" She crowed, hurling a glowing rope of binding magic at her foe below. Hearing her shout, the man's head yanked around to see the fast moving restraint magic bearing down on him. With a spin and a step, he fired off a few more rounds into it and threw himself into a backflip as the spell met ressistance in the form of bullets. He landed just outside its grasp and snapped a hip shot off at Hayate, who had the pressence of mind to zip sideways the first time he fired. Even still, she almost yelped as she felt a round nip her barrier just past her neck. "I missed!" she growled. "I should have brought Rein along too. I wouldn't have miss-" -CRACK!- "YEOUCH!" "BUT HE HAS NO PROBLEM HITTING!" Crash snapped as Hayate took evaisive action in the air. All he needed was her to get hurt and Vita would use him for Croquett Practice. "Wait, he's reloading!" he snapped. "I got him!" Crash braced himself and took careful aim. The MFR barked a report as a blue bolt shot down the street and struck dead on, shattering the wooden hand-grip of the rifle as the man prepared to snap another magazine into place. "Score!" Crash snapped. "I'll-" Crash ducked as the man flung the entire rifle at him full force, which was surprisingly hard. Crash looked up again and the man was gone. "Shit," he swore. "Battery, thermal scan! Longarch! Where'd he go?!" "South from the intersection!" Hayate responded as the man ran towards a side door on a building. "Now going west through a building. Step it up, he's booking it fast." "On my way!" Crash responded, barreling down the street and continuing on to the next intersection in an attempt to cut the man off. "Out in the open again," Hayate informed him. "Now backtracking north, you're almost to him..." Crash upped his sprint, feeling his legs starting to burn. "Slow him down," he panted. "I'm fit, but this guy's some kind of athlete or something!" Hayate nodded, pages already flying in her book. A large triangular belken spell pattern flashed to life as she raised Schwertkreuz. "Oh ruler of the white snow, with silvery wings. Turn all the earth in vision to ice!" She rounded on the target as it smashed into an alley. Four white cubes forming around her. "Come forth, Breath of Frost... Atem Des Bodeneisis!" And she swung Schwertkreuz down, hurling the energy into the ground below. In seconds, the entire block below was flash frozen by the spell, the man skidded to a halt before he too was frozen in place. "I said FREEZE!" she quipped with a smile. "Very funny," Crash responded, nearly slipping on the ice as he rounded a corner. Luckly Hayate's magic could at least identify friend from foe. "I'm almost on him." Hayate smirked as she watched the scene below, Crash was about to come in on the opposite end of the alley... wait. "He's still moving!" she shouted. Crash rounded the last corner to the sound of a click. It was really the only warning he had. "THOOMP!" "BOOM!!!!" The next thing Crash knew was that he was flying the opposite direction he'd intended until he slammed into a wall. "Crash!" Hayate yelped. "Takes more than that to kill me!" he snarled as he sat up, shaking his head. Armor or not, impacts hurt. Twenty-five meters ahead, the man, still stuck in place, snapped open the tubular weapon he was carrying, dropping a cylinder on the ground and placing another one in. He then yanked quickly, snapping the barrel shut and turned to point it up at Hayate. Hayate's eyes went wide and she threw her hand forward, erecting a shield as the weapon gave off its characteristic sound. -THOOMP!- Hayate felt the round detonate against her shield, the force jolting her arms slightly. "Suspect armed with breech loading grenade launcher!" Crash snapped immediately as he tried to right himself. Hayate, above, fell back a little to see around the smoke cloud. In front of him, the man went to reload, ripping his feet free of the ice where they'd been planted. "He's strong, fast, and I'll be he's had practice with these crazy snap shots." "LongArch, get your ass in the sky or out of the sky!" Roland snapped. "You've got a bullseye painted on you at low altitude like that!" "I won't be able to spot him if I'm too high up," she countered. -THOOMP!- Crash hurled himself clear of another oncoming grenade that blew a hole in the wall behind him. When he stood back up, the man was again, out of sight. "I lost him again!" he alerted. "He's not taking us head on if he can help it." "He can't have too many grenades on him," Roland advised. "If that's an M-79, at best he's going to have six or seven in a combat load." "And if he has MORE?" Crash asked sarchasticly. "Unlikely," Roland crackled. "He hit you at fifteen meters and it arned and detonated. So he's probably operating on a limited supply of modified grenades." "Did he use the explosion to break out of the ice?" Hayate asked. "I don't know," Crash responded as he sprinted to an intersection. "But speaking of ice, either that explosion screwed up my HUD for a second, or that guy's not human. "What do you mean?" Hayate asked. "The guy's a popsicle," Crash responded as Hayate shot overhead to look around. "I was trying to use thermal to spot him faster, but he's no warmer than anything else around here." "Am I showing up cold?" she asked. Crash looked up, Hayate was illuminated by a red and yellow blob. "No, you're Hot," Crash responded. "Why thank you," Hayate smirked overhead. Crash ressited the urge to put his hand squarely on his face before Hayate returned more seriously. "I have him, down the street a block over and moving quickly. Head east. I'll see if I can get him to waste another shot." Crash took off sprinting again. When was battery going to get that Gravity Drive back online? Somewhere around then, Fate announced that she and Vita had found and disabled another Projector, dropping the AMF ever so slightly, but still not enough to let their device sensors function effectively. Crash heard the distinct report of the M-79 followed up by a boom as Hayate successfully shielded herself from attack. Rounding the corner to see the man, once again reloading the weapon. He snapped up the MFR and clicked over to autofire. There was no way he would let that reload finish. The man spun away from the flurry of automatic blue bolts as they sprayed into his position, ducking himself behind a parked car to finish. Then, in a single deliberate move, came out from behind the vehicle barrel first, and brought it to bear on Crash. This time, Battery silently responded to the spike of adrenaline in its master's bloodstream and erected a defense shield. -THOOMP!- -BOOM!- Crash spotted the barrel of the M-79 through the smoke on his thermal scan and took aim, a moment later the MFR barked in retaliation and the grenade launcher was jerked violently out of the man's hand. When it hit the ground, it was obvious the barrel was warped from the shot, and was now useless. "I've dissarmed him!" Crash snapped as the man again bolted into a side alley. "Help me pin him down LongArch!" Hayate arced overhead and over the building as Crash sprinted into the alley. Just ahead, the man rounded the corner onto another side street. Hayate shot back the other direction to try and cut him off. As Crash rounded the corner, he came face to face with the last thing he would have expected. An Unidentified Flying Dumpster (UFD). The reflex was automatic, just as it had been with Fate's zanber. Crash swung out and struck at the dumpster with his free hand, stopping it dead in its tracks and spilling refuse all over himself where his armored fist tore the thing open. "Ewww..." he twitched as a diaper landed at his feet. "He's so getting my drycleaning bill." Swinging wildly to the side, he hurled the dumpster out of his way and looked quickly around... There was no sign of the target (the term 'suspect' pretty much disposed of at this point). Just an empty street, and a nearby open door. "Dammit," Crash muttered, having lost sight of the guy for the fifth time. "He's quick... I think he went in here." he pointed to the empty office. "Into that building?" Hayate asked, coming to a landing next to him. "You sure?" "Definately," Crash nodded through his helmet. "The door's still moving." Crash moved up carefully, holding the multiform rifle in front of him, then stood slightly to the side and kicked the door open. After a few seconds he rotated into the entryway and swepth the room left to right. "Nothing," he muttered. "Just a private office." "In the back or on one of the upper floors," Hayate responded. "Probably bolting out a back door." -CRASH!- Crash swung the MFR up as Hayate threw up a shield. Above, a shraptnel cloud of glass issued forth from a second story window and rained down on them. It bounced harmlessly off Hayate's shield, and just as harmlessly off Crash's armor. But glass wasn't the only projectile raining on them. Hayate jumped backwards as an office filing cabinet crashed into the ground where she'd been standing, erupting in a cloud of papers as the concrete proved its superior strength. Crash spun around to make sure Hayate was okay. "Someone doesn't like us very much," he chuckled after a moment. The office must not have a back exit and the guy was getting desperate without his weaponry. And then something else landed in the pile of papers. Crash and Hayate both looked down at it. A small cylinder. "What is-" Crash began. -POP!- Crash's hud reacted instantly to filter the violent flash. His helmet speakers managed to only blare the sound instead of recieving it full force. Hayate's world in contrast, went silent, and white as the item worked as intended. Expecting a sudden violent attack, Crash fell back and stood between the Lt. Col. and the building the attack had come from, even as more shattering sounded around him. After a moment, no further attack came. Only silence. As Hayate attempted to blink away the after-image burned into her vision, Crash sighed a little inwardly, visions of Vita and Graf Eisen using his head for a golf ball banished back to the nightmare realms where they belonged. "Heads up," he muttered. "Add flashbangs to the list of tricks." After recieving a positive response from Roland, he turned to Hayate. "You okay?" Hayate shook her head a little more, then looked at him confused. "WHAT?!" Why did Aces seem to end up temporarily deaf around him today? "ARE YOU, OKAY?" "BARBQUE TODAY?" she asked. "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" Crash sighed and leaned his head on the nearby brick wall of the office. Knowing she would be deaf for a moment, but otherwise okay, he opened a direct channel to Roland. "Banshee One to Deep Sky... Dammit Will, why'd you pair me with the Lt. Clown?" he grumbled. "Because it's a good compliment," Roland's voice crackled back. "You two go well together." "I hope that's not the attempted girlfriend joke you were pulling this morning," Crash responded. "Not this time," Roland came back. "She's a double S mage, but I've checked her record. She's a glass canon, no close combat. You're good for close defense if things go south." Crash stood up and turned to Hayate, noting the glass all the way across the street, and the scattering papers. "Why not Signum or Vita? Aren't they her guards anyway, AND more skilled?" "AMF," was Roland's response. "Your close combat ability relies on mechanical strength rather than magic, which is good in that blanket field. Keep that in mind. Besides, I also wanted to keep competativeness down to a minimum. Stand by, I've got an incomming message to check..." "Right..." Crash responded deadpan. "Banshee One out." Hayate looked alert again. "You okay?" he asked. "Yeah," she responded. "I take it Bar-B-Que wasn't the topic the first time around?" "No..." Crash responded. "I only ate two hours ago..." "Looks like this guy doesn't want us to find him again," Hayate nodded to the filing cabinet and scortch where the small flashbang had gone off, changing subjects on a dime. "I was expecting us to get jumped," Crash admitted. "It's what I would have done here." "Same," Hayate responded. "But I guess this guy doesn't think he can take on two mages without his toys." Crash nodded. "He's probably still in there." "Hayate? HAYATE!?" Vita's voice was coming from around the corner of the building behind them. "Hayate?" "Keep an eye on the bottom floor," Hayate instructed him. Crash decided Vita must be coming to make sure herself that Hayate was in decent shape, and whether or not she'd fullfill her earlier threat. Deciding to just stay out of sight, Crash looked back to the office. "Got it," he nodded. Hayate turned and walked away towards Vita's calls. Crash carefully walked into the office entrance, looking around slowely. Something was nagging the back of his mind as he did so, weren't they using callsigns out of sight? "Easy there," he muttered. "It's just from being in live combat..." Hayate rounded the corner of the building, looking down a side alley where Vita's voice had come from. Where was that girl? Just a pile of trash cans. "Vita?" she called. Stepping forward a few paces towards a side door. Crash heard the call in the distance, what was wrong with this picture, he felt a chill down his spine like a horror movie. Hayate felt a similar shudder as suddenly she felt her magic weaken and her dark wings vanished. 'Wha?' 'click' Crash's hud flickered, and suddenly the field density counter skyrocketed. A second later the radio erupted. "Whoa, the AMF just got stronger he-" "-Stay sharp, there may be-" "-ammit! I amost fell into that cooling tower!" "Don't let it faze you." Crash froze in mid step. Vita was over the cooling tower? Crash found himself spinning on his heal even as the pieces suddenly clicked into place. That second crash of glass... He looked at the street from the door, the glass across the street was too far away from the window the filing cabinet came out of, he looked up the building and saw the second floor window there violently shattered as well. If Vita wasn't here then... "HAYATE!" he shouted, comm open wide on every channel. "IT'S A TRAP!" -KABOOM!!!- If Crash had still been in the office, he probably would have been killed by the massive explosion that demolished the building. Luckly, being just out the entrance, he was thrown across the street into the ground floor window of the opposing shop. "LARGE EXPLOSION IN SOUTHEAST QUADRANT!" Roland thundered over the radio, completely scrapping the original search plan as he did so. "Drop EVERYTHING and Converge!" Hayate spun around at the sound of the blast tailing Crash's warning. Along side her, the door suddenly blew outwards in a cloud of debris as something came through it. She managed to dive forward just enough to get out of the way. She then stood up, concentraiting to get flying, but suddenly found the AMF even stronger than before as if it was being focused to thwart her efforts. Spinning around, she saw the man they'd been persuing barreling down on her. He had a frame like living tank, now that she got a good look at him. Holding her rod, Schwertkreuz, in front of her, she prepared to take him with a Black Impact from her free hand as he raised his arm. -CRACK!- Hayate didn't expect the delivery to be so fast, or strong, and was hurled clear of the alley and landed painfully without any protection from her barrier jacket. Schwertkreuz went skidding off to the side. http://search.playlist.com/tracks/comatron%2520missing "Arc-en-ciel... FIRE!" Crash pushed himself up from the floor of Debris as he checked his HUD was still online. An Admiral Lindy plush doll gave away that he'd crashed into a toy shop. "Arc-en-ciel... FIRE!" Crash cocked one eye as he shoved the doll away and stood up. He saw Hayate trying to get to her feet as the man they'd been persuing bore down on her. As the man gave Hayate a kick that was obviously not buffered by jacket defense, Crash found himself tearing out of the shop at a full sprint despite his protesting body, tucking the Multiform Rifle over his shoulder on a minor thought over the amped AMF and charged blindly. "HEY ASSHOLE! PICK ON A LINEBACKER YOUR OWN SIZE!" The man's head spun, and Crash idly noticed the AMF field density spike even more as he tore into him. But as he reached his target, the man swung his arm around and slugged him straight on. Crash was completely surprised at the strength as he was hurled right back into the toy shop, smashing a support pillar and causing a section of the floors above to cave in on him. "Arc-en-cial... FIRE!" 'Hello again Admiral.' Crash didn't wait around though, and opened a comm even as he started to dig his way clear of the debris. "BANSHEE ONE TO DEEP SKY!" he roared over every channel. "LONGARCH IS IN SERIOUS TROUBLE OVER HERE! I NEED BACKUP DO YOU COPY?" Managing to get a hole to see through, he saw the superhuman grab Hayate by the shoulders and throw her forcefully towards the debris of the office building across the street as Roland came back hard and fast. "DEEP SKY HERE! HANG IN THERE BANSHEE ONE! NEW ASSETS ARE BEING VECTORED TO YOUR POSITION NOW!" New assets? As the brutality began to climb, he started thrashing violently at the rubble around him, putting over half a ton of leverage to work. "HURRY UP WILL YA?! THIS AIN'T A PICNIC!" Hayate found herself coughing up blood after being thrown. This... thing wasn't human... couldn't be human. She tried to stand up, but the figure loomed up over her and grabbed her again, this time by the throat, lifting her off the ground, and holding her in the air. She could see the Deep Sky cruising overhead trying to observe the blast area. "Drop a transfer on those coordinets and I mean NOW!" Roland barked into his communication screen. "Keep your pants on General," a harsh voice responded. Crash was almost free, but he wouldn't be free fast enough. The guy looked like he was getting ready to finish Hayate off. He felt a twinge of panic as he snarled into his mic again, punching a particularly tough wedge of concrete as best he could in his limited space. "WHERE'S MY DAMN BACKUP!!!?" "There," the voice responded causticly. "Transfer commencing." Roland flipped the channel and barked a new advisory as he tried to focus on the area. "STANDBY! ENFORCER COMING DOWN NOW!" 'THUMP! THUMP!' Crash paused as he heard the sound, someone was coming in fast. Very fast. Fate? Hayate was losing it. As this thing held her up, it was slowely squeezing her neck harder, slowely depriving her brain of blood flow. The corners of her vision were starting to go black as she continued to stair helplessly at the sky. At the borders of conciousness, the brain can do some pretty weird things. Hayate found herself thinking about having the late General Regius dressed up like Zangief from Street Fighter. A strange thought, no stranger than the appearance of halucinations, like the bright star in the sky. A star that was quickly glowing brighter as her vision grew darker. Was this the famed tunnel of light one saw just before death? There was a flash, and even an angel was coming for her. Somewhere in the last shreds of conciousness, her logic kicked in. An angel with a battle axe? Her mind reasserted its will enough to hear Roland snap over her radio link. "THANATOS ONE! ENGAGING!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxUZUnRwH7s 'KABLAM!!!!" Crash's head jolted up from his digging at the thunderous explosive sound. The concrete around Hayate's position was shattered, the superhuman monstrosity was falling backwards... missing an arm. Hayate had dropped to the ground, the arm sparking uselessly to the side. Sparking? A cyborg? No, no blood, a ROBOT! In the center of the crater, was someone new, wearing a white barrier jacket, silvery hair, and standing crouched with a battle axe in her grip. She looked up as the android regained its balance quickly, then let go of her axe and brought that hand around. Crash briefly noticed something on the back of the hand flash, and the bot was hurled backwards by a concussion of air. As she stood, she spun around and held her hand out at Hayate, saying something quick and hard to hear. There was another flash from the back of her hand and Hayate was envoloped in a green barrier. Hayate coughed a few times as the barrier shot up around her. Whatever this woman had just hit with, hit her attacker hard. She looked at the severed robotic arm next to her, now completely dead, and quickly grabbed it up, immediately regretting the sudden motion as no doubt, several broken ribs or worse protested angrily at anyone daring to move them. "Engagement successful," the woman stated. "Requiring Evacuation Immediately." The robot looked up as it recovered its footing. - DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: 18% - RIGHT ARM SEVERED, FUNCTIONALITY COMPROMISED - SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: FAILED - THREAT TYPE: COMBAT MAGE - HOSTILE THREAT ASSESSMENT: MEDIUM - CHANCES OF SUCCESSFUL COMBAT: 78% - ACTION: TERMINATE Spinning around, it ripped a steel reinforcing rod out of the concrete, leaving just a head of concrete on the end and brandished it in its one arm. "Target still active," the woman stated, tightening her grip on her Axe, then shot forward rather suddenly, surprising Hyate with the motion. "HYAAA!!!!" She reached the attacker in under a second and came down with her axe, the robot blocked overhead with its makeshift sledgehammer. She quickly drew back and returned with a fast swipe. The Robot managed to block again. A loud clang anounced the impact that easily proved to be quite a formidable matchup of strength. The robot retaliated, striking back, and the woman parried the blow, sliding back a few feet. Gritting her teeth, she planted her feet and drove into the android a third time, this time spinning off the counter-move and coming around hard. There was a flash as the axe connected and the makeshift rebar sledgehammer snapped in two right out of its hands. Using the momentary opening as the robot threw its weapon asside, she stepped in and brought her arm into its chest, then grit her teeth and jabbed the base of her axe into the spot, driving it back before she came around and up with the bladed end. -CRACK!- The android was flung into the air and backwards to smash a nearby car utterly in its impact. A moment later, Crash, having had enough digging, manually switched completely to physical power, putting all his magic into boosting strength. With a thunderous crack and a collumn of dust, he punched staight through the rubble pile, breaking it up enough to manage lifting a still rather titanic slab the size of a truck. "Have a piece!" he shouted, and took a heavy step, hurling the entire slab of reinforced conrete. It smashed into the car and crumbled into a pile of rubble and rebar. A moment later, a fist smashed its way out of the mess, and the robot broke free and stood up, walking forwards in a slow and menacing fashon. The Woman brandished her axe and prepared for round two. "HEEEEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAA!!!!" The robot lept asside as Vita joined the fray like she'd gone completely mad, Graf Eisen coming down hard to crater the concrete where it had been a moment before. She came about with a snarl of rage and took another swing, striking air as the android ducked. The strike connected solidly with a nearby lamppost and sent the whole thing tumbling down the street end over end. On her third try, the robot managed to Catch Graf Eisen, surprising Vita before it grabbed ahold and started to swing her. As it let go, Signum landed hard next to it and took a shot of her own, Levantin flaming from a recent cartridge load. The robot barely avoided having its head taken off as the blade struck its good shoulder, iliciting a flurry of sparks as it spun away from the slash and jumped backwards onto the remains of the car. It looked up and prepared to fight off more opponents when there was a series of clicks above. [DRIVE IGNITION] "Limiters released," Roland growled over the radio. "Engage hostile." Nanoha brought Raising Heart in front of her, spell circles forming benieth her. Fate duplicated this action a few meters away. The robot paused and quickly looked from mage to mage as they assembled in front of it. - TARGET COUNT: 2 AGRESSORS, 3 COMBAT MAGES, 1 COMBAT EXOSKELETON, 1 ARTILLERY MAGE - THREAT ASSESSMENT: VERY HIGH - CHANCE OF SUCCESSFUL COMBAT: 5% - ACTION: RETREAT "I'll be back..." Suddenly, it raised its arm in the air, Crash noticed the small cylinder it was holding as something popped off to the side. "EYES!" he warned, but too late. 'POP!' The flash and bang disoriented everyone in the vicinity save for Crash, who was unfortunately, tripped on leftover rebar in an attempt to grab the machine as it bolted. When the effect wore off, the robot was nowhere to be seen. "DAMMIT!" Vita snarled, smashing the the remains of the car in frustration. "It got away!" "Deep Sky, can you track it somehow?" Nanoha asked into the radio. "Negetive," Roland came back. "Too much AMF interference as before. How's Longarch?." "I've seen worse General," Hayate winced, trying to stand up, but gritted her teeth in pain as who knows how many injures made themselves known, and collapsed again as Vita rushed over to hold her. "Oooh... heh. Just like old times isn't it?" "That's not funny," Vita fought back tears now that the rage was wearing off and her own emotions tried to rush through. But she was tougher than that, and wouldn't let it go past that. Crash watched as the group quickly broke into a rapid exchange of information with the newcomer. Combat talk just wasn't his thing. There was a beep and a message on his display informed him that the Gravity Drive was once again online. Wonderful timing. He continued to look around, pulling the MFR back out and readying a charge in case that magicidal maniac robot decided to show its ugly face again while the others quickly prepared a point to point transport spell to transfer Hayate up to the Deep Sky where Shamal could get to work on the medical aspects. A few minutes later, after a quick flash, he noticed Vita stalking over towards him, Graf Eisen slung idly over her shoulder while she herself sported some kind of hollowed looking scowl, dried tears notable in the corners of her eyes. Crash inwardly thought he was going to recieve her previous threat and took a step back as she reached him. He quickly prepared for any excuse and an inevitable pummelling, but she simply gave him a tired smirk. "Good job," she nodded. "You probably reacted better than I would have under the same circumstances. Thank you." Crash blinked. It was praise he reclieved, and not pain. Was he already dead and someone neglected to give him the memo? Crash sighed, the voice filter of his helmet making it blatently obvious as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I should have realized it the moment I heard your voice calling Hayate rather than using a radio or a callsign, but I was a little preocupied with your threat to think about it right away." Vita glanced at him. "My voice?" "Yeah," Crash nodded. "Probably that Robot the whole time. I only realized it was a decoy because you started swearing about that cooling tower on the radio when the AMF amped up." Vita looked at him silently before nodding in understanding. After a moment, she gave him an uncharacteristic gentle pat on the shoulder plates of his armor. "If its any consolation, I know I tend to be more vicious sounding than I am half the time. But don't be too hard on yourself. If the forwards can keep up with things, an experienced test pilot should pick it up quickly enough." Crash smiled behind his faceplate, shifting his stance slightly. "Arc-en-ciel... FIRE!" They both looked down. "Arc-en-ciel... FIRE!" Crash lifted his armored foot up, revealing the Lindy doll that had survived both of his impacts. He reached down and picked it up, turning to Vita. "She's still this popular even after retiring to a desk job?" Vita shrugged. Crash dusted the doll off, managing to stop it's constant voice action after finding the button and unsticking it. After a moment, he paused and looked at Vita. "I told Fox I'd bring her back a souvenir." Vita resisted the urg to laugh outright. |
2008-08-19, 02:24 | Link #3398 |
Sword Wielding Penguin
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Spoiler for Six D... Big enough yet?:
The woman introduced herself as Captain Lynn A. Bardou. Callsign Thanatos One. Third Fleet, Seventh Armada, Special Weapons And Tactics Unit, Shock Enforcers. A small four mage unit under the command of Admiral Kanemitsu Mishima, commander of the D.S.S. Tsunami, and head of the TSAB's Naval task force investigating, or rather hunting down, Sektor 21. She replaced Hayate as Crash's partner in the area search after Leiutenant Colonel Yagami was evacuated to the Deep Sky where Shamal could give her medical attention. Crash discovered quickly that the woman was even colder, if it were possible, than Signum. Asside from some commands, she never spoke, unless she was speaking to her device. Its name was Waldron, a fearsom looking battle axe as long as she was tall. 'Waldron', Crash learned from quiet commentary from the General, meant 'Powerful Raven'. And after seeing how it had cleaved right through the android monstrosity without so much as a thought, he believed it. Despite her cold nature, she wasn't unapproachable like Vita had seemed. However, when she said something, Crash felt the urge to snap to it the way he would around Roland, even though he outranked her. It took them three hours to find the five remaining AMF Projectors, and with one seccured for study, they simply destroyed the rest as they located them. Once they got down to the last one, it became insanely easy to find it in the surviving section of the Toy Shop Crash had nearly demolished when the android had sent him flying. With the projectors disabled, normal investigative forces quickly poured into the area to assess the damages and casualties, allowing them to head back up to the Deep Sky as it made a few final rounds over the area. The brief from Lynn was swift and to the point, something that Crash had never experienced from anyone but Roland or Martin. Hayate was 'lucky to be alive' after an encounter with a heavy assault android who's only known identification was 'Zed'... the name it reffered to itself as. Zed, as it were, was known for being a tactically intelligent combat machine that would kill Bureau mages with brutal efficiency, and had been linked to a higher tier of the Sektor 21 terrorist activities. It was quickly decided that the weapons it had been using, while dangerous, were simply a ploy to take them off guard. However, the use of extensive AMF projection capabilities, as well as modified versions of Jail Scagletti's gadget drones was something new. Lynn admitted that this new connection pretty much drew the entire case into the jurisdiction of Riot Force Six. As such, it would be wise to combine resources for a more complete investigation. But first, they had to get Hayate into a bed. She's suffered several broken ribs, nearly punctured a lung, and minor internal bleeding from the beating Zed had given her. Shamal had stopped the internal bleeding and pretty much dealt with the overall critical aspects of her injuries, but she still needed time to recover. However, thanks to the timely arrival of Lynn, she'd managed to recover Zed's arm. Lynn had taken one look at it and had marveled, despite her anger. It had been made with the highest technological skill. The steel itself that composed the 'skeletal' components was some of the strongest known, crafted carefully with precision well above even what Jail had to build drones with. The synthetic material disguising the arm was so lifelike, that if it weren't for the metal endoskeleton and electronics, one would think it was a severed arm. Zed was now without a doubt, an extremely well funded, custom made killing machine. "The only question to ask now" Hayate had coughed as Mav put the Deep Sky into its sub-orbital climb. "Who exactly has the technological and industrial capability to build such a thing?" -BEEEEEEEP- "Apeture Systems, Gracie Maria speaking..." The young blond woman spoke into the phone with a genuinly friendly tone, but a look of annoyance flashed across her face as the sun set on her tower room. Who calls at this hour to do business? After a few seconds listening to the person on the other end, she replied. "I'm sorry, Mr. Phabrizio is in a late meeting... If I could take a message, he'll get back to you." Jotting down a few notes she made a friendly closure to the conversation and cleared the line. After pausing, she pushed a small red button on console near her, and waited. After about a minute, a voice replied. "Yes Gracie?" Not put off in the slightest by the annoyed tone in the man's voice, Gracie responded promptly. "Sir, your Eleven-thirty for tomarrow just cancelled," she stated. "You want me to bump up your eleven-forty-five?" There was a pause on the other end as her boss thought about it, then he responded. "No, I was looking for a spot to take a quick Lunch, there's too much to do otherwise." Gracie chirped an affirmative as she brought up a schedule block on her console and crossed it out. After a few seconds, the line clicked off. In his office, Marcellus Phabrizio learned back in his chair, backlit by the gleaming lights of the city behind him, and stared up at the... it seemed to be a man, but wasn't. "As I was saying," he continued. "You certainly got fucked up." On the side of the face that was blackened and burned away to reveal polished metal, a glowing orb in a recess that should have been an eye socket flashed slightly. "The operation had gone exactly as planned," the harsh synthetic tone responded. "The secondary objective was nearly complete when I encountered unexpected interference with the Arrival of Thanatos One right on my position." Marcellus eyed the robot before him with subtle disdain. Marcellus Phabrizio was a slightly short man. He had black hair, or at least, half his head had black hair, the other half was covered in transparent fiberglass to protect a permanent injury he'd recieved many years ago from a bumbling TSAB mage. Likewise, he was missing part of his right leg, another result of that mage's actions, it had been replaced with a cybernetic replacement, which was made obvious as he reclined in his chair and put his feet on his desk. "Such a mage you should have been able to handle effectively at full capacity," he stated. "My combat effectiveness was reduced by eighteen percent almost immediately," the robot raised what was left of its right arm. "This damage was inflicted with a single blow. Reinforcements arrived only twenty-four seconds later to assist her. My odds of surviving the engagement were negligable at that point." Marcellus nodded idly at the missing arm. "A pity you didn't get to finish off that mage girl..." he continued. "I would have loved to watch the recording of her last moments, over and over. It's just intriging to watch their face when they realize their magic was beaten by pure technology." He paused, sitting up straight in his chair. "Now... did you bring me what I asked for?" The robot merely nodded, its chin barely tilting down before coming level again. Then, with a sudden rapid motion, turned and walked to the corner of the room. With one hand, the robot effortlessly picked up a large bulky case and walked back over to the desk with it. The enormous thud it made as it landed betrayed just how heavy it really was, though Zed made no indication of being hindered in the slightest. Marcellus swung to his feet and leaned forward, undooing locks on the huge case like some little child unwraping a birthday gift for the first time. After a few moments and one final satisfying click, he grabbed the edges and gave a heave. The case came open gently and he stared at the contents for a few moments before closing it, a cheshire cat smile plastered on his features. "Good boy," he began. "You've done very good Zed. Go downstairs and have the guys slap a new arm on and get you some new makeup. As much as I like the polished finish, we can't have just any old TSAB mage noticing someone such as yourself walking down the street, now can we?" Zed nodded, and turned away, walking purposefully towards the exit to the office. After he exited, Marcellus learned over and hit his intercom switch. "Gracie." "Yes sir?" "Send a note down to the boys in cybernetics, have a right arm replacement for the Z-0001-3325-3689-3 model ready. And hold any other calls unless it's important. I don't want to be disturbed." "Yes sir..." After a pause for the line to clear, Marcellus sat back in his chair, turning around to face the dusk. The cityscape before him was his playground. The Apeture Systems Central office was located in the landlocked city of Jillachi, about four-hundred seventy miles southeast of Cranagan, seperated by a mountain range that resulted in most of the onshore flow dumping its moisture along the coast, leaving this part of Mid-childa drier than most. But the clear, dry air made for spectacular sunsets, and the environment itself meant those who were gruff enough to live in it only cared about themselves... So nobody ever really bothered him. "So, how many beaurau mages did our son catch in his little outing Gladdis?" he asked appearantly nobody at all. "About twenty, all said and done," the synthetic feminin voice instantly vibrated from everywhere at once. "What do you think we should do with them this time?" Marcellus pushed slightly with his foot, just barely tilting his chair back and forth as he put his arms behind his head and leaned back, the chair reclining as he did so. In his mind, profiteering schemes dashed around as he thought of how he could make the most money out of it. After a moment, he smiled as he came to a conclusion. "Ship them to group six and hold them for ransom, either the Beaurau will pay handsomly for their safe return, or we can watch the action on the news, either way, we profit." "Of course dear," the female voice responded. "And what of group six itself should things take the latter course?" Marcellus shrugged as he watched the last glow of Mid-childa's sun dissappear behind the mountains in the distance. "They can eat cake for all I care..." "I had sent them a message that they would be getting a nice chocolate/coconut frosting cake in a few days to help their morale," the AI voice continued. "I lied of course." Marcellus smirked. "Yes, that cake was a wonderful lie, unlike the great Pi... such a beautiful equation, do you think not?" "A most delicious calculation," Gladdis responded. "I simply feel I must calculate it every time you mention it." "Such a sweet victory," Marcellus grinned, and fell silent. After a few seconds, he spoke again. "Gladdis..." "Yes dear?" "Sing me a song." There was silence for several seconds, then Gladdis began in a very soft and high tone. "This was a triumph..." "I'm making a note here... huge success." "It's hard to overstate my satisfaction..." "Apeture Systems." The feminin voice was joined by a slight increase in percussion. "We do what we want, because, we can." Marcellus started to tap his foot to the beat. "For the good of all of us... " "Except the ones who are dead." And then Marcellus joined the AI voice in a light chorus. "But there's no sense whining over every white lie." "You just keep on trying, since you'll always have Pi." "And the science gets done, and you make a neat gun, for the people who are still alive!" Some people would say Marcellus was married to his work. This wouldn't be too far from the truth if they only KNEW the truth. If it were even remotely possible for this businessman to love anything other than money itself, it would only seem appropriet that he considered Gladdis, the Apeture Systems Central AI Computer, his wife. This image could only further be reinforced by the way they constantly addressed each other in private, or more importantly, by the way he got up and danced around his office for the next two minutes while she sang a song for him. As bizzare as this was, nobody who knew dared question him on it. The last person to do so... well. The TSAB had yet to find the body. It was the urgent beeping of the intercomm that brought Marcellus back down to some semblence of reality. Gladdis quickly fell silent as Marcellus walked briskly back to his desk and hit the intercomm, putting it on speaker as he walked back across the room to fix a knick-knack he'd knocked over in his hurry. "I thought I said not to be disturbed Gracie," he stated in an annoyed tone. "I know you said not to be disturbed unless it was important sir," came the response in an apologetic tone. "You also told me that if it's Mr. Kage, it's always important... And Mr. Kage is here to see you sir." Marcelus froze and looked in the door, then quickly straightened up, fixing his clothing as he went. "Right then, well send him in!" "I already am." Marcellus jumped and spun around. His chair was facing the window, but it was obviously filled with someone where it hadn't been only seconds ago. Or at least, that's what he'd thought. Mr. Kage, as the only name (Obviously fake, the name existed nowhere in any databases... period.) the man had given calmly rotated the chair arround to face him. The mask he wore concealed his face ever so completely, save for his yellow eyes, which seemed depite the tone of his 'greeting', to look like they were in a lazy mood. "Mr. Kage," Marcellus nodded, slightly uncomfortably. The masked man always seemed to have a way to make him feel uncomfortable, even if he was technically a partner in their endevours. It had to be that icy cool exterior he always presented. 'Mr. Kage', merely nodded at Marcellus' greeting before turning his head to the recently opened case. "It seems the mission was a success..." he stated. The voice was of course, as fake as the name, run through some kind of modulator. Marcellus kept toying with the thought of Mr. Kage being related to Darth Vader. "Yes," he managed to respond after a moment. For the time being, that uneasiness was fading. "Zed completed his primary objective without any problems at all. He didn't succede with the side task of taking out any strong mages and got a bit tore up from it, but otherwise, no problems." The masked man nodded. "Very good, then I guess we're all set to go for phase two then?" Marcellus nodded. "I need a day to prepare for it, but the assigned groups already know what to grab, and where to get it once we start. Barring any unforseen setbacks, we'll be right on schedule." "Our window of opertunity for this will not last long," the masked man stated. "I was surprised myself that we would be able to move the timetable up so quickly. When it begins, we need every single salvaged drone for the job. The location is one of the most seccure places on the planet." "Do you want me to send Zed with them just in case things don't go as planned?" Marcellus grinned imagining pitiful mages falling to the hands of his modern marvel. "No..." the masked man stated after a pause. "This is too important a job, and too great a risk for just anyone. I will oversee this myself." Marcellus did a double take. "I hope that's your version of a joke," he stated. "But you've never cracked a joke. Seriously?" The masked man nodded, raising a finely gloved hand. "One day, we go. Ready or not.." "Then we will be ready," Marcellus nodded curtly. He then reached down to his desk and flicked a switch. A large section of the wall on one side of the room began to slide up out of sight, revealing an extension to the already extensively large office. The masked man then noticed the figure of Admiral Chrono standing on the other side and began to jump up out of the chair he'd been in. But after a second, he realized it was merely a life sized, and very lifelike duplicate of the Admiral. "We will be ready," Marcellus restated. "And the grunts will be ready too." He walked over to a table where a strange looking tan camoflauged pod sat conspicuously. "Vwa-la... The MH-1..." With the click of a remote, sections of the pod folded in on itself, and then it split open and stacked up, revealing to be some kind of device inspired gun. Marcellus reached down and picked it up easily, spinning about. "It's light... Handle's adjustable for easy carrying, good for righties and lefties, breaks down into four parts undetectable by magic sensors. Ideal for surprising TSAB lackies before they can fight back." As he said that, he walked with the weapon back to his desk before coming to a stop. "A word on capability," he continued, flipping a switch. The weapon expanded again. "Advanced Tracker Rounds, the ultimate answer to the problem of magical homing bullets. If magic can do it, so can we.... ONE SHOT!" He spun around and shot the Admiral Chrono figure, blowing a spiked shoulder pad right off. "And even if he blocks it with a barrier, these babies will chase him all over the field." Marcellus turned and went full auto right in the Masked man's face. The man tried to jump back but realized all the rounds were curving right around in mid air and ripping the Chrono to shreds. "And to finish the job," he continued after a second. "Anything a mage can do... RIOT CANNON" There was a whine, and then a wicked looking bolt of lightning suddenly scortched the Chrono figure. "Sniper Laser..." He turned and suddenly a large hole was burned in the Chrono's head, and then it expanded. "...With wide and narrow beam settings." After he was sure Chrono was headless, he went on to the next feature. "The imfamous AMF Projector, Guaranteed to slow down any mage..." A simple barrier generator set up next to 'Chrono' suddenly went out. "The always effeicient Flame Thrower," The room suddenly got extremely warm as near plasma temperature flames lashed out and roasted the Admiral Chrono Figure where it stood, after he let up, Marcellus turned to the masked man. "A classic." "And if things get a little too hot," he stated, turning around. "A little toy I like to call... Frostbite." The weapon jerked and suddenly the scortched Chrono figure sprouted icicles and a frozen arm snapped off. Marcellus slowely turned around with a smile, recieving a slow deliberate clap from his one man audience. "I've already got three-hundred of these babies made, and another batch of four-hundred on the way. I can have them in the hands of the fruitcakes with plenty of time to give the Beaurau all the hell it can handle." "Most impressive," the masked man nodded. "A wide range of combat abilities to match the mages, without having to rely on a single sparkle of magic. Just make sure if they get picked up by the TSAB, they can't be traced back to you. You know how well they can do that kind of thing." "You run your part, I'll run mine," Marcellus stated with a smirk. "I planned for such eventualities. Any mage with an active barrier jacket picks a Mage Hunter One up by the handle without pressing the little red button on the bottom of the gun, is in for a nasty surprise." 'Mr. Kage', nodded slowely behind his mask. "Then we are prepared." "As we'll ever be," Marcellus smirked, setting the MH-1 down on its stand again. "Our inside guy just needs the signal, and we'll have free run of the place." "Then it is settled," the man stated. And with that, he stood up and walked calmly to the door. "We will begin late tomarrow night..." "Ah, an early morning attack," Marcellus stated, turning towards his window. "We'll catch most of them asleep easily. It'll-" As he turned back, he found himself alone. Not a sign of 'Mr. Kage' anywhere, the main doors hadn't even opened. After a few seconds pause, he walked over and hit the button on his intercomm. "Yes Mr. Phabrizio?" "Gracie," Marcellus began. "Mr. Kage has stepped out for the night. You can go ahead and head on home early, I won't be dealing with anyone else." "Yes Mr. Phabrizio... have a good night sir." After a few moments, the line clicked off, and Marcellus turned to his window, clasping his hands behind his back. He stood there for several minutes in total silence before he suddenly spoke up. "Gladdis." "Yes dear?" "A change of plan..." he smirked. "Those Beaurau mages... execute them. All of them. They're just a liability anyway." "Anything else dear?" Marcellus paused in thought, but smiled again as he continued. "Yes actually, I feel like another song... play... " he froze and furrowed his brow in concentraition. "What was that Earth song? Ca... cow? Cal..." He frowned... he'd remember eventually. End of Chapter. |
2008-08-19, 03:31 | Link #3399 | ||
OC Belka Scriptor
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Germany
Age: 40
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Ah, Time for me to post a little writing myself.
Spoiler for A free day:
It was a good day to be outside. The weather was sunny but not hot, perfect for taking a walk through the city. Yes, even a guy like Elric wants to go out on days like this. There was not much to do in peaceful times like this besides some desk work and combat training, so he had a little more free time then other Bureau Mages.
And on a day like this, he decided to be lazy. A small bench in the shadow of a tree, a perfect and quiet place for just doing nothing. Elric stretched his legs and took a sip from his cold juice. As he watched couples and families taking strolls, he hadn’t felt this peaceful in a long time. The only thing disturbing the peace was the itching where his bandage rubbed against his arm, but nothing a little scratching couldn’t handle. The city was not as busy as he thought it would be. “Good, nothing to worry about.” He closed his eyes and enjoyed the small upcoming breeze. The jarring of the bench indicated that someone had taken a seat beside him. Out of interest, Elric opened his eyes halfway and took a quick look. He spotted a cute dress, two blue pigtails and heterochromatic eyes. The younger girl was grinning at him. “Jo, Elric! Buy me a crepe!” Elric closed his eyes again. “Ah, peaceful…” “…” The sharp pain of someone tweaking him in the arm brought a quick end to this. “Ouch!” Elric rubbed the now sore part of his arm and faced the attacker. The girl had gotten up and was now standing in front of him. She held her arms akimbo and her head was tilted slightly to the side. “Don’t ignore me! That’s rude, Thorn-san!” The way she stressed his family name showed a slight degree of anger. Elric just kept staring at her. It wasn’t his intention to do so, but her dress! Frilly and covered in such an array of ribbons, that it had to be unique. Much like the adorably cute but upset girl in front of him. Elric finally spoke. “Who dressed you up this time? Your mother, young Takamachi or both?” “Mum did.” The answer came without hesitation. “After she found out I would go to the movies with V, she said I had to wear this.” But then there was something like uncertainty in her voice. “Does it look stupid?” Elric exhaled slowly and leaned backwards. “Nah, don’t worry, you look cute.” He gave her a lazy thumbs-up. Syn sat down beside him again. “Well, if you say so.” Can’t she just sit somewhere else? It was not that Elric disliked Syn. Only the fact that a younger girl in a uber-cute dress was attracting to much attention, and it was that what Elric disliked. If she would wear more casual clothing it would have been no problem. “So you are meeting up with Vivio here?” The girl nodded “Yeah. We are supposed to meet at the fountain over there.” “And why are you hanging around here instead of waiting there?” “Boredom, mostly.” In other words, she just wanted to get on his nerves. Elric let out a small sigh and took a long sip through the straw of his drink. It was starting to get warm. “So…” Syn started to speak in a conversational tone. “…you’ve finally decided to date Rinya and screw her tonight?” The orange colored liquid sprayed out of Elric’s mouth, shortly followed by a fit of coughing as he choked on the remainder. Amused, Syn started to hit Elric’s back to help him out a little. “There, there.” Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Elric glared at her. He knew she had waited for the right moment to say something like this. “What the..!? Does your mother know about you saying things like that?” “I won’t tell her if you won’t. But more importantly, when is Rinya going to show up? ” Elric’s shoulders sunk. He just couldn’t keep up with this girl. “Rinya is not going to show up…” he started to explain. “Oh.” Syn made a disappointed sound showing her sympathy. “Wait! It’s not like I even asked her out!” Elric quickly explained. “Oh…” This time it was pity. “That…” Elric was at loss of words. He took a deep breath. The only thing which raised his spirit was the thought that if Rinya was here she would probably be crawling all over Syn. She strangely had a thing for ‘cute’ stuff. “Listen, I was just relaxing here.” Elric suddenly felt very, very tired. “And don’t you have to meet with Vivio or something?” “Don’t worry she will be here soon.” Syn said, nodding in the direction of the fountain. “So Elric, I take it that you are free right now?” “Why?” “Then how about a date with two beautiful, young maidens.” Syn gave him her sweetest smile. “You want me to get arrested, right?” “No, of course not!” Syn let out a sigh. “You don’t need to be with us all day. But you see, there is this movie we’d like to watch, but the problem is we need a guardian to get in.” Elric looked at her in silence for a moment. “All I need to do is to get you two into the cinema?” Syn nodded. “Of course!” “And then you will leave me alone?” “Of course!” “…” “…” Elric nodded slowly in defeat. “Alright, if this is all what you want. I’m doing it.” “Alright!” With a cheer, Syn linked her arm through Elric’s and pulled him up. Startled by her sudden outburst, Elric let himself be pulled towards the fountain. After a few steps Syn started waving at the blond girl that was standing at the meeting point. Vivio’s face showed surprise after she saw her best friend dragging an unexpected guest behind her. Elric couldn’t help but to smile. Syn was always like this. Normal girls her age would be taken aback from his scared face or the gloominess that surrounded him. But Syn was never that way; she always faced him head on, made fun of him and dragged him around. She was even worse than Rinya in that regard. But that was alright. She always reminded Elric this way that he should have more fun with others. Her good mood was contagious and even the surprised Vivio was now running towards them, happily laughing and curious about what happened. Yes, something like this wasn’t bad in a while. Thanks Liingo for grammatical support and Keroko for the great OC ============ No need for new post. Quote:
And this his how she broke her hand. Final sentence is just great. Quote:
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Nice to see more Shamsel.
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Last edited by Kyral; 2008-08-24 at 12:58. |
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2008-08-19, 12:14 | Link #3400 | |||||
NERV Personnel
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Very, VERY bad Quote:
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Always warm and firm *RUNZ* Yours...or Anita's when she's 'punishing' you? *RUNZ AGAIN* Quote:
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hayaurion, kaonland, keroland, khrack, original content |
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