|
|||||||
 |
|
|
Thread Tools |
2011-02-18, 21:01
|
Link #29321 |
|
"Hey, Isaac?"
 Author
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Pennsylvania. It's sort of like a real state.
Age: 39
  |
Quote:
Spoiler for Chapter 1:
Do I get half a cookie? I realized something was up as soon as Nanoha was already with the Bureau and Linith was still alive, but I freely admit that I had no idea how MUCH was up until the very last line.
 Very promising beginning, dc! Looking forward to parts 2-4.
__________________
 |
|
|
|
2011-02-18, 22:46
|
Link #29322 | ||
|
Queen of Tragedy
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Place of rocks and trees, and trees and rocks...and water.
Age: 33
|
Quote:
. They are delivered by the powers of Imagination and Tongue-in-Cheek Humour  .Quote:
Spoiler for reply:
Half a chocolate chip cookie for you!
I'm glad to see that people caught the fun little hints--I stuck a whole lot of them in there, but subtly! ^_^
__________________
|
||
|
|
|
|
2011-02-18, 23:27
|
Link #29324 | |
|
Queen of Tragedy
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Place of rocks and trees, and trees and rocks...and water.
Age: 33
|
Quote:
. But you're kind of on the right track...The first draft is all finished, but I haven't combed through it to edit out any errors yet, so that's what will be delaying the releases--but no more than a couple of days or so between each chapter  . (Er, since Chapter 2 is three times the size of Chapter 1  ).
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
|
2011-02-18, 23:30
|
Link #29325 |
|
Even if it just for a bit
Author
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Cold Storage
Age: 32
|
Spoiler for Blood Calls to Blood Guessing Game.:
I knew there was something fishy from the Linith thing. The other things just made me more and more suspicious. Spoiler for Baseless speculation:
Also also, Time travel shenanigans? Alternate Universe collide? Or Precia learning from her mistakes and letting the new clone on the Alicia thing to avoid the whole 1st season incident, also making a new contract with a familiar that she also called Linith because it's a cool name and that's why Nanoha and Fate are in the TSAB and there are other Jewel Seeds? Color me interested.
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
2011-02-19, 01:52
|
Link #29327 | |
|
Goat Herder
Author
Join Date: Jun 2008
Age: 36
|
Quote:
Spoiler for Spoiler:
... and considering the fact that "Officer Takamachi" was attacking using melee attacks... christ, it's probably Vivio. Add in "Fate"'s amazement at her eyes... and Harlaown would be Karel, most likely.
__________________
 |
|
|
|
|
|
2011-02-19, 12:35
|
Link #29330 | |
|
Cute things, sharp teeth.
Join Date: Jul 2008
|
Quote:
Spoiler for well...:
I thought it was an 'everything goes' AU to start off with until lil' Takamachi recognized Bardiche and 'fate' saw 'her eyes'. But maybe it was 'eyes' that pointed me to Vivio - that's a reference from an entirely different fanfic by Satashi though
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
|
2011-02-19, 21:43
|
Link #29332 |
|
Queen of Tragedy
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Place of rocks and trees, and trees and rocks...and water.
Age: 33
|
Amazing predictions, you guys!
Now let's see who was right ...By now, use spoiler tags at your own discretion .Blood Calls To Blood Chapter 1 Spoiler for Blood Calls To Blood, Chapter 2:
Blood Calls To Blood Chapter 2 Fate gasped, stiffening in shock. How could this be? She spun around, completely forgetting that the Enforcer had a weapon in her face in her need for confirmation with her eyes. Red eyes met red eyes. The Enforcer's mouth dropped open in a mirror of Fate's shock. The light cast from her Device—her Bardiche—illuminated their faces enough to see the identical features in the darkness. The TSAB officer looked like an older version of Fate, in her mid-twenties, although her hair was styled differently, in a single ponytail. Even so, they looked like exact twins, differentiated only in years. She said her name was Fate. Fate Testarossa! "What are you?" Fate cried out, raising Bardiche as if to physically fend off the horrifying discovery. "Who are you?" Her doppelganger exclaimed, her red eyes narrowing in a detective's scrutinizing stare. "Fate-mama!" Takamachi's voice called from behind the Enforcer as the girl flew up to them. "Vivio, stay back!" Enforcer Testarossa warned, her gaze unmoving from Fate's, but Fate acted on her moment of distraction. "Photon Lancer!" She shouted, thrusting her hand forward and launching a dozen shots towards the two officers. Her double flipped out of the way faster than Fate ever could have done while Vivio put up a rainbow shield. Fate zipped for the new opening to escape but the Enforcer dove down at her, her weapon shifting from a scythe into a broadsword shape mid-dive. If Fate got out of this, she was going to get Linith to figure out how to get her Bardiche to do that too. The other Fate shouted, "Plasma Lancer!" Fate dodged the lightning arrows, but it had only been a distraction—the moment she looked up again the Enforcer was cleaving at her head with her huge sword. Bardiche's shaft blocked the blade for a heartbeat before snapping into two, sending Fate crashing into a wall and blowing a hole in the drywall. Stunned, Fate shook her head. Ignore the ringing, get rid of those sparkling lights in her vision...she groped for Bardiche with numb fingers. But Vivio snatched it up first as Enforcer Testarossa levelled her weapon at Fate in mute warning. "Please surrender," the Enforcer repeated, the only difference from before being the slight waver in her voice as she looked at Fate. In her head, Fate heard, BARRIER BREAK! The barrier shattered above them, the dome splintering in a thundering explosion that shook the buildings. Fate lunged desperately at the cadet, bowling the surprised Vivio over as the blonde reacted to Linith's Barrier Burst spell. It was like smashing into a stone golem, but Fate managed to rip Bardiche from the other girl's grip and break free before the stronger mage could seize her. "Stop!" Enforcer Testarossa blocked Fate's way, a spell circle blazing beneath her feet as she readied an attack. Fate ignored her. "Sonic Form!" "DIVINE BUSTER!" Vivio yelled, but she was too slow. Her attack blasted the wall behind Fate as Fate shot away, streaking in the sky towards the outskirts of the city. Fate blazed away, pouring as much speed as she could into her new form. She didn't care if she left a trail, she just had to outrun them and get to Linith. With Linith giving her cover, Fate could teleport both of them home before the TSAB could catch up. Harlaown and Takamachi looked like traditional fighters, not lightning mages, so there was no way they could possibly catch up with her in time to stop her. Fate! Linith called worriedly. Are you alright? Who was she? Fate cried out desperately as she cut through the air at high speed. Linith, she called herself Fate! Something slammed into her, knocking Fate out of her path and causing her and her assailant to crash into the ground, smashing a crater in the concrete. Fate groaned, but surprisingly her limbs didn’t hurt as much as she feared—it seems that she had fallen on top of the other person, who had spun them around to take the brunt of the impact. She tried to fly again but an armoured gauntlet seized her cape, and her older doppelganger shook her fiercely. “Wait! Who are you?” Enforcer Testarossa demanded, her own Bardiche tightly clenched in her hand as she kept her iron grip on Fate. Her Barrier Jacket was different from Fate’s but still frightfully similar, and the lack of cape or other accessories on her streamlined Jacket gave Fate a hint as to how the Enforcer managed to overtake Fate’s fastest speed. “Who are you?” Fate cried out, struggling to free herself. “I’m Fate Testarossa!” “You can’t be!” the Enforcer rejected, her red eyes pained. “Are you…Alicia?” Fate struck out with Bardiche, but Enforcer Testarossa blocked it easily, her strength nearly disarming Fate but she clung onto Bardiche tightly, feeling her shoulder twist painfully with the powerful parry. “Alicia is my sister!” Fate yelled. The Enforcer’s eyes widened in shock and confusion, but her grip didn’t loosen in the slightest. “How do you know…” Her eyes flicked upwards, and Fate automatically looked up too to follow her double’s line of sight. A snarling mountain cat collided with the Enforcer, bowling the woman over and ripping her off of Fate. Linith roared, lunging at Enforcer Testarossa again but the Enforcer evaded by flying in a sharp turn. “Linith!?” Linith paused mid-strike, confused to hear her name coming from the stranger. Fate also gaped—how did this woman know her mother’s familiar? “Lightning Bind.” The Enforcer’s Device said, and Linith yowled as yellow rings bound her legs, sending her sprawling back into the ruins of the street. “Linith!” Fate cried out, raising her hand. “Photon Lancer!” The bombardment didn’t phase the Enforcer at all as the tall blonde dodged nimbly around the shooting spheres, coming back at Fate with her Bardiche shifted into a glowing sword form. Fate blocked the blade with the edge of her scythe, trying to flank the Enforcer but she wasn’t fast enough. Enforcer Testarossa looped her and caught onto Fate’s right wrist, twisting it behind her back and tangling Fate’s arms in her own cloak before Fate could break away. “Surrender, and you will have the right to—” Storm clouds boomed overhead. Both of them looked up, seeing the abnormal clouds collecting in a darkish layer across the sky. Fate’s heart soared when she recognized the crackle of purple lightning that snapped in the clouds before streaking down at them in a silent jagged slash. The Enforcer let go of Fate, rocking back on her heels with the oddest expression on her face, agony mixed with desperation. “Mother!” the Enforcer cried, stretching one hand out towards the thunderous storm. Fate flew to the bound Linith and called up her teleportation sigils. “Run!” She couldn’t help shouting at Enforcer Testarossa as she felt her own teleport fire up, the only warning she had time to give. The last thing Fate saw was the Enforcer screaming, tears running down her cheeks as Precia’s purple lightning struck her, flooding the entire scene with an explosion of magic and searing light. **O** “Fate, maybe you should wait a bit before—” Linith tried to say, but Fate marched straight ahead, not even stopping to banish her Barrier Jacket as she walked down the broken road. “How could she not have told me!” “Maybe Precia didn’t want to worry you,” Linith said quietly, giving up on convincing Fate to drop the issue. Fate gave her a side-long glance. “Did you know about her, Linith? That other Fate?” “No,” confessed Linith, shifting into her human form and keeping up next to Fate, reaching up to adjust her hat with one hand. But Fate suddenly felt a watchful suspicion rise inside her stomach. How did she know if Linith was really telling the truth? “But I’m sure that Precia had a good reason for not telling you, Fate.” “A good reason for not telling me that I have another sister? An older sister, even older than Alicia-onee-chan…” Fate swiped downwards with Bardiche, frustrated. “She could have been helping us! Mother and Alicia don’t have much time left…I just don’t understand!” They had reached the ruined palace doors, and Fate pushed it open impatiently. One of the door jewels gleamed menacingly, but since nothing obvious happened Fate ignored it and kept walking. Growing up amongst all sorts of weird magics and Lost Logias had made her immune to the normal reactions one had to mysteriously glowing items. “Mother!” Fate called out firmly as she opened the door to the private bedroom by the throne hall. Linith grunted as she walked into Fate’s back when the blonde halted in the doorway. “Yes, Fate?” Precia asked slowly, turning from where she had been sitting and reading to Alicia, the tired lines around her eyes extra deep today. Abashed, Fate crept into the bedroom more quietly, coming next to them and laying one gloved hand on her mother’s shoulder. “Are you feeling alright today, Mother?” She picked up the blanket on the edge of the couch and draped it over Precia’s lap. “Alright,” Precia assured her falsely, a quaver in her voice stifling what Fate knew to be one of her exhausting coughing fits. “We did some reading today.” “That’s nice,” Fate replied softly. It took her a moment to realize that Precia was looking curiously and somewhat cautiously at Bardiche, still in Device Form. With a thought, Fate banished the form and pocketed the yellow triangle, letting her Barrier Jacket fade along with her anger. She touched the glass lightly, seeing her fingers linger over her sister’s cheek. “I’m sorry, onee-chan, but I couldn’t get the other Jewel today.” She had expected her mother to exclaim in disappointment, but Precia was silent. Fate remembered her mother’s lightning. “…You saw her, didn’t you? When you were watching out for me.” At least her mother didn’t lie to her, like she sometimes did when Fate was little. “Yes.” “Did you hear her?” Fate asked, trying to keep herself calm and quiet. She didn’t want to sound like she was accusing her mother of anything, but her ache to know the truth wouldn’t permit her to let it go. Making sure to watch her mother’s face closely, Fate said, “That woman…that Enforcer. She…she called herself Fate Testarossa…and she called you Mother.” **O** Vivio straightened as Admiral Chrono Harlaown entered the debriefing room, his grim face lightening into a brief smile for Karel before he became serious again. “Please, everyone have a seat.” Most of them had been sitting already, and Vivio chose a seat next to Fate. She wanted to touch her mama’s sleeve, but they were still on duty at the moment. Vivio couldn’t shake the numb terror that had seized her heart when she had found her mother lying burned and still in a huge crater blasted into the street. Like a fool she had stared and cried until Karel had shot past her and started checking on the unconscious Fate’s vitals, yelling in relief that she was still alive. Fate looked up, and she patted Vivio’s hand wordlessly in reassurance. “Are you alright, Fate?” Chrono asked the moment he sat down, looking at his sister without hiding his worry. “I’m fine,” Fate answered, her voice edgy and distant. “That was a really bad hit.” “I’ve endured it before,” Fate said tersely, giving him a look that Vivio recognized as the let’s not talk about this in front of the kids look. Clearing his throat, Chrono turned to the rest of them. “Officer Cadet Karel Harlaown and Officer Cadet Vivio Takamachi, please give us your reports.” Red with pride and nerves, Karel started their report as Vivio kept staring at her mother’s face. For all the years that Vivio had been living with her Nanoha-mama and her Fate-mama, she had never seen her kind, gentle mother have that haunted, anguished ghost lurking in her eyes. Right then, despite trying to be brave like her new rank would demand…Vivio really wanted her Nanoha-mama to come and make things right again. The adults listened to Karel’s report, and Vivio obligingly added her input where she had been present instead of Karel. But really, the whole thing seemed kind of pointless—they hadn’t lost radio contact during the whole battle, and from the small facial tics Uncle Chrono made as Vivio described her mother’s double’s attacks, the adults clearly recognized all the attack spells themselves. Other than to give her and Karel experience making mission reports, Vivio couldn’t see why they wanted them to describe the weird young Fate at all. Were they hoping to figure out something else about the double? “Fate,” Chrono said, clearly getting tired of the formalities and dispensing with the titles for the sake of brevity, “Who do you think that girl is? She looks just like—” “—me,” Fate finished. “Like who I used to be, when you and Nanoha…first met me.” “Exactly. Did Precia Testarossa…clone Alicia again?” “She had to have,” Fate said quietly. “But that girl is different…she knew about Alicia-onee-san.” “Um,” Karel said hesitantly, confusion on his face. “Fate-mama didn’t know about Aunt Alicia until the end of the Jewel Seed Incident,” Vivio told him, also dispensing with the ranks. “But that Clone Fate did…so she must have had a different upbringing than Fate-mama did.” She turned to the adults. “But I thought that Precia Testarossa…died. She died during that battle in the Garden, when she tried to use the Jewel Seeds to go to Al-Hazard.” Even though Fate hadn’t liked telling her children any of the sad details about her life with Precia, she hadn’t hid anything from them either. The last time anyone had ever seen Precia and Alicia Testarossa was when they had fallen through the cracks between dimensions, trailing nine glittering Jewel Seeds in their wake. Vivio asked aloud, “How can Precia be alive?” “She got there.” “Fate?” Chrono said. The tall blonde ran her fingers over the holoscreen tablet in front of her, not even aware of her action. “She got there,” Fate repeated, her voice trembling. “To Al-Hazard.” “But she didn’t have enough Jewel Seeds,” Karel protested. Following in the footsteps of his extended family, he had chosen to specialize in Lost Logia, and under Yuuno’s tutelage he had unearthed a vast amount of knowledge about the old relics of ancient times. “She was short five Jewels…without a direction or proper power output, Precia should have been lost in dimensional limbo. How could she have reached Al-Hazard?” “She needed to get there.” Fate smiled slightly, still staring at the tabletop. “If you need something hard enough, you’ll find a way. Mother found a way. She had to, to save Alicia.” “But if she got there, why is Alicia still dead?” Vivio asked, belatedly realizing how crash that sounded. “I mean, why didn’t she manage to restore Alicia? Why go through the trouble to creating another clone, and giving her memories…it seems like a lot of trouble.” “Because you can’t bring the dead back to life,” Chrono said. Both Vivio and Fate flinched. “But I know that Mother won’t stop trying,” Fate said. She was playing with Bardiche in one hand, turning the golden triangle over and over in her fingers. “So she must be sending…that other Fate out to search for something that she thinks will resurrect Alicia-onee-san. Maybe a specific Jewel Seed, like how Lutecia had been searching for the right Relic to bring her mother back from her coma.” Reaching out, Fate clasped Vivio’s wrist warmly. “We know that implanting a Relic inside a human is possible.” That’s right, Vivio realized suddenly. She, Fate-mama and this new Fate…all of them were made from the same Project F. So it made them…family, in a way? Chrono grunted, rapping his fingers against the table. “How about the clone Fate’s familiar? Do you know it?” “She looked like Linith, Mother’s familiar who helped raise me and taught me magic,” Fate admitted. “But I don’t know if it’s really her. She…disappeared one day, when I was growing up, after she finished Bardiche for me.” She bit her lip, looking troubled. “It’s not hard, for Mother to make another familiar…that’s her specialty. I don’t know why she’d name her new one Linith too, unless…” “Unless?” “The clone could be me,” Fate suggested, theorizing aloud. “From another dimension or reality. Maybe that really was Linith, and that Fate was me but…aware of my Mother’s real plans?” “I don’t think so,” Vivio said, blushing a bit at actually contradicting her mother over an official case detail. “When I was fighting with her, her Bardiche was slightly different than yours, Fate-mama. It would say “Affirmative” instead of “Yes, sir”—like the software was different, even if it looked the same. And she seemed really careful to hide her face until you caught her, as if she knew how dangerous it would be to be recognized.” “We won’t know until we encounter her again,” Chrono said practically. He looked at Karel and Vivio. “Anyways, good work today, you two. You’re both off duty for the rest of the day.” Both Vivio and Karel rose and saluted, as that was clearly a dismissal. After filing out into the hall and shutting the door behind them, Karel scowled and gave Vivio a punch on the arm. “If you hadn’t spoken up at the end, they would have forgotten that we were there when they started talking about the really grown-up stuff,” he informed her, annoyed. “What else is there to say, that they haven’t already said?” Vivio countered with indignation. “Wondering if we can parley with the clone or not, and what Precia Testarossa might be up to.” Karel crossed his arms. “Assuming that she really did reach Al-Hazard and isn’t dead, there could be an unforeseen amount of power and new magic at Precia’s disposal. They’re probably going to talk about how much risk we can take meeting her in battle and stuff like that.” “Oh,” Vivio frowned. Around her cousin, she sometimes wished that he’d treat her less like a kid, and for a fleeting moment she wished that Kris wasn’t a bunny but something fiercesome, like Vita-sensei’s hammer or something. She stroked Kris’s soft stomach in silent apology for the disloyal thought. “But that clone—” She really didn’t like using that term. Vivio tilted her head, considering. “If Fate-mama can talk to the other Fate, then we’d be able to resolve everything, right? We don’t have to fight her.” “Regulations have become tighter over Lost Logia,” Karel informed her. “Especially after all the recent crises. I don’t think that we’ll be allowed to just let Precia and the clone Fate get away with dangerous uses of Lost Logia, unlike before.” Vivio shook her head, clenching her fists and feeling an iron core of resolve rising in her chest. “I can’t accept that,” she said, and only once the words were out of her mouth did Vivio realize how absolutely true they were. **O** “Are you sure about that?” Chrono asked again, clearly conflicted. Logically, Fate knew that he agreed, but as an older brother he couldn’t help but make an attempt to talk her out of her plan. “We could just as easily set it as a baited trap and capture her the moment she teleports in.” “But then we wouldn’t know how to get to where Mother is,” Fate answered again evenly. “This way we can capture my double and track down Mother, if she really is in Al-Hazard.” “All right, all right,” Chrono grumbled. “But I want the kids there too, in case you need backup.” “I don’t want to put them—” “They’ll be fine, Fate. Vivio did really well against the clone in the last fight. And besides, if she’s anything like you, she wouldn’t be fighting to kill, so they’re safe.” Fate sighed, standing up and moving over to the Claudia’s wall-length window, staring down on Ruwella, half-lit by the yellow sun hidden by the hull of the ship. The planet wasn’t as blue as Earth was, but the resemblance was close enough that memories of her time on the Asura after the Garden of Time had collapsed resurfaced again. It didn’t help that Fate had already been thinking of that part of her life. “…Alright then.” “Good.” Chrono rubbed his eyes wearily. It seemed to be a practiced motion for him. “God, I hope that Zetec can trace the dimensional coordinates fast enough, or else we’re going to be stuck with either giving up on arresting Precia or letting the clone go so that we can have a second shot at tracing her teleport.” Fate’s seriousness broke for an instant as she cracked a small smile. “I bet you’re wishing that you had brought Amy with you like she had asked, huh?” He sighed long-sufferingly. “Please don’t rub it in as well. I’m already kicking myself twice over for talking her out of it—she would have hooked onto Precia Testarossa’s magic traces and gotten us the exact coordinates before the lightening vanished.” A soft light crept into his determined eyes at the thought, easing his tense shoulders. Fate smiled again, although this time it wasn’t quite as happy. “Yes, that would have made things a lot easier.” Chrono eyed her again, leaning forward and bracing his elbows on his chair armrests, his attention focused on her. “Fate…are you sure you’re alright? I mean…” he coughed, “if you don’t want to talk to me, I can always call and ask—” “No!” Fate flinched at her own loud denial and lowered her voice. “You don’t have to call anyone. I’m fine.” She walked over to the door, tapping the door console. “I’m going to go take a shower. Call me if anything happens.” Chrono watched his sister leave, then got to his feet with a sigh. He may as well follow her example. His captain’s quarters were far more military-like than his mother’s had been, but even Chrono couldn’t resist putting up the roughly hand-scrawn family portraits that Liera had made when she was five, nor the rock collection that Karel had found and that Amy had helped him mount in glass cases for a Father’s Day present one year. He had a few more knick-knacks hidden away in a drawer, so that no one could call him sentimental if they happened to come into his room. Besides, Yuuno or Hayate wouldn’t let him hear the end of it if they saw his full collection of silly presents that he secretly kept to cheer him up on bad days. God knows that Amy already teased him enough about it, but at least she’d make up for the teasing right away. And on that note, Chrono called up a holoscreen and called home. “Chrono!” Amy’s cheerful face filled his screen. Time differences were always a bit unexpected, so Chrono could tell from the sound of the running tap and the kitchen in the background that Amy was washing the dishes. “I didn’t expect to hear from you until tomorrow!” Her eyes brightened. “Did Karel do well on his field mission?” “He did great,” Chrono said, leaning back into his chair. “Things went a little rougher than expected, but both he and Vivio performed well under the pressure.” Amy blinked, her gaze turning thoughtful even though she didn’t pause in her task, reminding Chrono all over again how much respect the bridge crew deserved since none of them were as stupid as most officers assumed they were. “Is something wrong? Do you need help?” Chrono very, very nearly asked her to come. But he couldn’t, because that would be hard on his young bridge crew, who would be humiliated at his lack of faith in them, and tough on his wife, who had made a choice to give up her job to stay at home so that he could go away on missions. However, he could do something else. “Yes, dear…can you call someone for me?” **O** “Fate.” “…What is it, Mother?” “You do believe what I told you, right?” “…” “Fate?” “I do.” “You…” “I believe you, Mother. I love you, and I know that you’ve always loved me too, even if I’m not Alicia. Even if you were slightly distant when I was little, it’s okay now for you to show it. And you do. I believe in you.” “That’s good…Very good.” **O** “Lightning-3, in position,” Vivio whispered into her comlink. “Lightning-2, ready,” Karel answered promptly, and Vivio could just barely see his blue hair peeking over the rooftop ledge where he was lying in a sniper’s position. “Lightning-1,” Fate’s soft voice came over the communications system, but Vivio also heard her mother say it aloud from where she was standing in the middle of the street in Vivio’s view. “Jewel Seed activating…now.” Jewel Seeds activate by the power of desire. It really didn’t take a genius to guess why Fate had volunteered to be the one to activate it this time. Vivio rubbed her knuckles nervously, wishing she had decided to use her Adult Mode. Nanoha had warned her against becoming dependent on the boosted power instead of learning to hone her skills, so Vivio was keeping that as a reserve strategy. Having Karel and Fate-mama for back-up would probably make using her adult form against the Fate clone overkill anyways, so she might as well get the practice in while she could. Vivio winced. She didn’t like thinking about that other Fate that way… Hm, she couldn’t think of anyone other than her Fate-mama as “Fate”, so the other Fate could be… “Fate-chan?” Vivio muttered to herself. She grinned. “Fate-chan.” She liked the sound of that. The eruption of wild magic had Vivio twitching, staring warily at the blue column that was blazing torrents of blue light into the sky. It was a good thing that they were in an abandoned part of the city and that Uncle Chrono had negotiated with the mayor to allow them to stage their operation there. Fate stood a few paces away from the Jewel Seed, readying Bardiche in Zamber form. One thing Vivio had to say about her Fate-mama, no matter what version of her—she was very efficient. Not two minutes after the Jewel Seed activation did they hear Zetec’s excited yell in their communications line. “She’s coming! Analyzing components—now!” Vivio expected a warm golden glow, like the teleport circles that Fate had shown her before. But instead, a portal tore through the fabric of space, sending a cold wind gusting down the street as a nauseating array of colours flared out from the hole. “Warning—dimensional anomaly detected.” Fate lifted one armoured forearm to her face, using Bardiche’s blade to block the wind and shield her eyes from the rampant magic. “I’m picking up multiple traces!” Zetec exclaimed. “Magic patterns consistent with Enforcer Harlaown…Precia Testarossa…and a Jewel Seed?!” “Sealing.” Bardiche intoned as Fate struck the activated Jewel Seed, turning the Lost Logia inert just as a gray mountain lion leapt out of the dimensional portal, followed by the younger Fate in her Barrier Jacket. Both of them tensed when they saw Fate holding the Jewel Seed in one armoured hand, watching them with a calm patience. “Bureau dog!” Linith snarled, her hackles up defensively. “Give us the Jewel, or we’ll make you regret it, whoever you are.” “Who are you?” Fate countered instead. She wasn’t quite using her Enforcer voice, but she definitely wasn’t being meek. “You’re not the Linith I grew up with.” “She isn’t?” the clone asked, mildly surprised. “But I remember her growing up…and I have your memories.” “You do?” Fate said hoarsely, her eyes widening. “Don’t talk to her, Fate!” Linith growled, starting to circle around to flank the Enforcer. “She’s a traitor!” The younger Fate looked conflicted, glancing back and forth between Linith and Fate. “Mother told me that she gave me your memories, so that I would know magic already. But I remember Linith—my Linith. So what do you mean?” “Fate!” “Wait, Linith,” clone Fate commanded, her eyes hungrily taking in as much as she could of her older self. Linith subsided, growls still rumbling in her throat as she eyed Fate closely, her narrowed eyes on the Jewel Seed that Fate still held. Vivio edged out a bit from behind the dumpster where she had been stationed, to give herself space to lunge if needed. The dimensional portal had closed, and Vivio hoped that Zetec had gotten enough readings to finish his analysis of the teleport so that they could follow behind them if the plan didn’t work. “The Linith who raised me disappeared after she gave me Bardiche,” Fate told her clone, the clear strains of grief still in her voice. “I think that Mother had made another familiar after…you came.” “I don’t remember Linith disappearing,” the younger Fate said thoughtfully, lowering her Bardiche slightly from her defensive position. “That might be when Mother awakened me, so all my memories after that are my own,” she said, a cheerful tone in her voice for figuring it out. “She told you that she had made you as a replacement for Alicia, gave you my memories…and you still forgive her?” The clone stiffened, her grip tightening on Bardiche. “She didn’t make me as a replacement!” Now, Vivio had to disagree with that—from an outsider’s point of view, it sounded a lot like Precia had made Fate-chan to replace Fate-mama. “Mother loves me just as much as she does Alicia-nee-san. Of course I forgive her. She’s my…she’s our mother!” “Was…is Mother kind to you?” Fate asked, also unconsciously lowering her guard. Vivio winced and tensed—this was not part of the plan. They were supposed to find out how Fate-chan and Linith were teleporting to Al-Hazard, then go and stop Precia—or failing that, to convince them to take her Fate-mama with them. Unless, this was how Fate-mama meant to trick those two into believing her sincerity? “Oh, yes,” her clone nodded, smiling a little sadly. “Mother told me how she hadn’t been as kind to you…” an edge entered that Fate’s voice, “…which is why you betrayed Mother and Alicia-nee-san for the TSAB.” Linith’s growl turned into a roar. Fate didn’t flinch. “I didn’t turn my back on Mother and Alicia.” Her deep eyes hardened with old pain. “Mother turned her back on me. And then it was too late for me to make amends…” She took a breath, closing her eyes briefly before opening them again. Holding out the Jewel Seed cupped in her palm, Fate said, “But now, after I saw you for the first time, Fate, I knew that I had a second chance.” Linith didn’t look nearly as persuaded, but the younger Fate’s face lit up in delight and fevered relief. “I told Mother she was wrong about you!” She cried, practically vibrating on the spot with joy. It was odd for Vivio to see—most of the childhood photos of Fate-mama that she’d seen, Fate had a more reserved happiness, as if still uncertain that she deserved it. But this Fate didn’t seem to have the same reservations. Vivio could tell that it had thrown Fate-mama off balance as well. The clone jumped/flew over and landed near Fate, grabbing her arm in a child’s excitement. “You do care about Alicia-nee-san!” "Let's move somewhere else," Linith suggested, her voice sounding pleasant but betrayed by the thick raised fur on her hackles. "The TSAB may be making their way here any minute. We can keep talking elsewhere." "Good idea," the younger Fate agreed, her reply coming a bit too hastily to sound impromptu. She held out one gloved hand. "Give me the Jewel Seed, please?" Vivio tensed, carefully placing her boot onto firmer ground without shifting the loose stones in the alleyway. While she and Karel were supposed to follow Fate-mama's lead, they had also been told to use their own judgement. If the clone Fate and Linith shifted to the side any more, Karel's line of fire would be blocked. If that happened, then Vivio would be the only one free to launch a surprise attack. Letting them get away with a Jewel Seed would be humiliating to Uncle Chrono and Fate-mama, and the trail would go cold. Fate seemed to have the same thought, but her mama's expression didn't change in the slightest. "Can I please hold onto it?" She ignored Linith's low growling. "I...I want to be able to give Mother something that would make her happy. I could never really make her proud before." It was an excellent lie, but to Vivio's disquiet the clone's hand remained outstretched. "I'll let you give it to Mother," the young Fate promised, a sympathetic smile on her lips. "But first..." Without hesitation, Fate handed the dormant Jewel Seed over, her gauntlet resting for a moment on her double's black glove. It was hard to read the look on her face. "I hope it's the one Mother wants." "No, the one Alicia-nee-san needs," the other Fate corrected, inspecting the Jewel with an apologetic glance, as if asking forgiveness for being cautiously suspicious. Probably Linith had instructed her to be wary of traps-- And right then, Vivio realized that she could no longer see Linith anywhere. "Don't give up the Jewel!" Zetec shouted, his voice ringing through Durandal and Sacred Heart right as Karel let out a choked yell as he was flung across the rooftop, his Device clattering out of reach. He yelled again, fighting, but Linith had seized the front of his Barrier Jacket and sprang, bringing both of them arcing off the building and into the ground with an earth-trembling landing. "FATE, RUN!" Linith roared, one long-clawed paw slamming the disarmed Karel into the pavement as she pinned her captive down on the street. “IT’S A TRAP!” "What—" "Lightning Bind!" Before Vivio could register what had happened, she found herself helplessly watching a stand off. Linith had Karel under her powerful paws, her fanged snout lowering to close over the back of his neck. In that half-physical, half-telepathic communication method of familiars, Linith snarled at Fate, "Let her go, or I'll kill him." Fate had one boot on her doppelganger's Device while her own Bardiche was levelled at the bound and struggling clone. Vivio expected her mother to use her stern Enforcer voice to order Linith to surrender, but she was surprised. "Wait, let's just talk this out, okay?" Fate said soothingly, keeping her voice as soft as her midnight tones whenever Vivio woke up from nightmares. They both saw Karel tense up, but bravely he didn't scream, even though Linith must have sunk her fangs into his neck. "Now." "Alright, alright," Fate answered, immediately stepping back and releasing her younger clone. Her gaze fluttered between Karel's prone form and Linith's eyes. Vivio took the opportunity to creep forward a few meters. Now that she was closer she could see a wildness in Linith's eyes that made her shiver. No wonder Fate hadn't debated the point--she knew about familiars and the lines they would cross for the sake of their masters or charges. "Fate, come here," Linith growled, her predator's stare still locked on her enemy, red-tinted drool dripping from her jaws. The clone snatched up her weapon and scrambled over to Linith, turning around once to look at Fate with wounded eyes. Then she looked away and put a hand on Linith's shoulder as if needing the comfort. "Banish your barrier jacket, and throw your Device over your shoulder now, or else I'll snap his neck." Fate hesitated, but seeing Linith's eyes narrow had her quietly comply, her Barrier Jacket dispelling in a wave of golden pixels that peeled away then vanished in the air. Bardiche spun over her shoulder, the bladed form shrinking into a yellow triangle before clattering somewhere behind the Enforcer. "I finished deciphering that transport spell—you need a Jewel Seed in order to cross to Al-Hazard!" Zetec's voice was frantic. "If you don't you'll be lost between dimensions!" Golden circles spread outwards from the clone, already partway through the teleportation. Linith was backing up towards her charge, her teeth still clamped around Karel's neck, the boy motionless—whether he was scared that she'd snap his spine even by accident, or unconscious or dead, Vivio couldn't tell. A cracking sound echoed down the street as the clone Fate finished her spell, an open portal tearing through the dimensions to open, glowing with runes and free energy at its edges. The blonde looked down at the Jewel Seed still in her hand, then looked up at Fate, her face darkly backlit by the portal. Something of anger, of hurt and of longing glinted in her red eyes as the wind from the portal whipped the ends of her black cape around her body, giving her a semblance of being the villain that Vivio knew she really wasn't. Linith inched back again, her focus only on Fate and not on the doppelganger, assuming her to be safely behind her, nor on Karel, who clearly didn't amount to anything but leverage in the familiar's mind. "Don't let them take him!" She heard Uncle Chrono yell, his voice wavering with a father's panic. "Sonic Shooter!” The young Fate threw up a shield as rainbow-coloured shots bombarded down on her and Linith, blasting chunks into the pavement and spraying black gravel upwards. Linith yowled as Vivio slammed her fist into her cheek, aiming for the muscles that controlled her jaws. The impact caused the mountain lion to release Karel, sending the boy tumbling limply onto the ground. "DIVINE BUSTER!" Vivio didn't pay any attention to where Linith had gone, her close contact Buster spell blasting the familiar across the street and through a wall. She never stopped moving from the instant that she had launched her bombardment spell as a distraction, coming in close to ambush Linith and free Karel before continuing on to her true target. She slammed bodily into the clone, seizing the other girl's wrist with both armoured gauntlets. There was no way the doppelganger could stop Vivio from wrenching the Jewel Seed out of her hands, caught off-guard and off-balance from the blitz attack. But Vivio had misjudged the strength of her attack. She had tackled the clone with enough force to drive both of them backwards, with the younger Fate providing no resistance from surprise. Their momentum carried them back further than Vivio had anticipated, and she only realized it when the ground suddenly vanished beneath them as they toppled head-first into the dimensional hole. Vivio saw red—streaks of light that zig-zagged around the portal...the inside of her enemy's cape...and her mother's wide, terrified eyes as the portal sealed shut behind them. Spoiler for Author's Note:
Those of you who noticed the fact that “Officer Takamachi’s” attacks in Chapter 1 were melee and not ranged hinted that something fishy was going on, congratulations! Also, for those who may have noticed that the Clone!Fate’s Bardiche responded with “Affirmative” rather than the iconic “Yes, sir!”…for fun, go look for all the other little clues!
I’m uncertain of what rank Vivio actually holds, as I don’t believe she’s actually part of the TSAB military in ViVid, but I took some liberty with her rank (and that of Karel Harlaown’s too) for the sake of preserving the twist in Chapter 1. Awesome job Laith, Justin Brett and Rising Dragon, for correctly guessing the twist in Chapter 1! You guys get a box of cookies each!
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
2011-02-19, 22:20
|
Link #29333 | |
|
"Hey, Isaac?"
Author
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Pennsylvania. It's sort of like a real state.
Age: 39
|
Quote:
Spoiler for Oooooh!:
Spoilering for safety.
Hee hee, an interesting plot, dc, as expected. I'll admit that I didn't foresee for a second the depths of what you were planning. Precia seems to be in a bad way; she must have found some kind of lost technology in Al Hazard, but apparently nothing to cure herself or Alicia. I can't help but wonder if she's actually learned her lesson, or she's just acting nice to Fate 2.0 in order to keep her more tightly under control? Evil Linith is scary. Gah! Vivio's fallen into the dimensional void! This could be either very good (If she manages to get through to grandma and/or her mama's young duplicate) or very bad (for obvious reasons). Looking forward to chapter three!
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
|
2011-02-19, 22:21
|
Link #29335 |
|
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Whittier, Southern CA
Age: 34
|
*Reads above chapter* OMGWTFBBQ
MAIN POINT: Rather than trying to cram it all down your throats at once with ff.net links, I'll just post my fic(s) here two or three at a time. Here's the Prologue and the first two chapters of Book 1: Spoiler for Book 0:
Slowly, Teana’s eyes opened as she regained consciousness, her body aching as her vision was filled by the ceiling of the infirmary. She sat up, and then closed her eyes as she remembered what had happened earlier that day. The mock battle. The White Devil. The humiliation and failure. She opened her eyes again, and emotion filled them: anger; betrayal; conviction, and grim understanding.
When Shamal came to check on Teana, her words died on her lips when she saw the hateful hardened glare in the teen’s eyes. Without saying a word, Teana pulled her pants on, grabbed Cross Mirage and stuffed him in her pocket, and walked out right past Shamal, the doctor too stunned by the vitriol she'd sensed to respond. When Teana returned to her & Subaru’s room, Teana brushed past her blue-haired roommate, ignoring her tired greeting, and flopped onto the bed. Subaru, figuring that the redhead needed her space, left her alone. Teana spent the next hour silently making and reaffirming decisions and opinions, seething with cold anger and hardening her convictions on what would be done. Subaru, having gone for a walk, missed the point where Teana barely managed to keep herself from screaming in raw fury at the top of her lungs. When the alarms began to sound, Teana, now possessing a calm surface barely holding back a raging wave of anger, silently changed to her uniform and headed out toward the hangar. Maybe, she surmised, smashing some of Scaglietti’s droids would prevent a blow-up. Unfortunately for all involved, this would not happen. “And Teana… you'll be taken off combat readiness for three weeks.” Signum and Subaru both noticed as Teana’s eyes shot wide open while her pupils shrunk, a twitch forming at her left eye. The girl's fists tightened, the nails digging into the flesh to the point where one pierced the flesh, causing a drop of blood to fall to the ground. Nanoha and Vita did not notice. “It’s for the best” Vita added, “considering… recent happenings.” *SNAP* That was the ‘sound’ of Teana losing it. Everyone sensed the sudden, raw surge of killing intent. Erio and Caro subconsciously clung lightly to each other and took a few steps away from the girl, while Friedrich hid behind his master’s back. “What you’re saying,” Teana replied in an eerily emotionless voice, “is that you can’t use someone who doesn’t blindly follow your orders.” Nanoha winced lightly as she realized that she was treading on thin ice. She carefully chose her next words. She chose wrong. “I-I mean… it’s common sense. You disobey my training, you go off on your own instead of following protocol, and…” The rest, in Teana’s ears, descended into unintelligible, as her mind could only hear “you are worthless to us”. “Shut up” she whispered. “Huh?” “I said… SHUT THE HELL UP!!” The resulting pulse of unrestrained magical power literally knocked Subaru, Erio, and Caro off their feet. Teana’s hair ribbons had been blown off, allowing her mid-back-length red-orange hair to hang free… only now, it was bushed out and standing on end. Teana’s eyes, showing the barest hint of tears, were filled with raw hatred that made Nanoha and Fate subconsciously take steps back, and her face was twisted into a feral grimace. The combined factors resulted in a look that would terrify any normal person, speaking of unleashed raw fury that promised to obliterate any who drew its ire. “I trusted you” Teana spoke, her voice wavering with barely-restrained emotion. “I trusted… that you would help me become stronger… that you would help me become something more than a C-rank weakling… that you would give me what I needed to bring honor and recognition to the Lanstar name… I was a fool to trust you. “You… I see it now… you were deliberately working to keep me weak! You, Fate, Yagami and her Knights, everyone! You wanted to build up my false hope just so you could watch me crash down! You all see me as a nuisance! A useless weakling! A nothing! You wanted to see me fail, just like my brother! To take the Lanstar name and drag it through the mud even more! “You lied to me! You said that with shooting magic, I could become something great! That I could make a name for myself, and silence those who looked down upon my brother and me! But it was all a lie! I threw myself into your training, gave it everything I had and more! All for nothing! My brother…Tīda was a fool. He tried to accomplish life with shooting magic, and look where it got him! The magic you and he taught me… is useless! He’s dead because he relied on it! I’m the weakest link in the entire Task Force 6 chain because I rely on it! I… “I…” she looked Nanoha straight in the eye, her enraged blue eyes meeting Nanoha's horrified ones. “…I… hate you…” These three words hit Nanoha like a magic-supercharged punch to the gut. To have a girl she considered her most promising student say these words and mean them… her hand clutched at her heart as she felt a pain completely unlike anything she’d ever experienced. Even being brought to the brink of death eight years ago didn’t hurt this bad. And the worst thing was that this wasn’t physical pain, which would fade with time. Her body wasn’t broken; her heart was. “I hate you… so much… that it makes me feel physically sick just looking at you…” Nanoha’s knees grew weak. Subaru stood in dumbstruck horror as Erio & Caro hid behind her, similarly affected. Vita and Fate were too stunned to do anything other than stand and stare. “So much… that every time I hear your fucking voice, I-” Through a combination of instinct and luck, Teana managed to barely dodge Signum’s surprise punch. The young woman was caught off-guard by her attack missing, and was promptly kneed in the gut and kicked away in the face. “I…” Teana continued after a few seconds, “have seen the truth. That my magic… is useless! That it will bring me nothing but pain and humiliation! To never affect my enemies with any more effect than a thrown pebble! I draw upon everything I have, and still fall short of ever even standing in the shadow of the power you all possess! It would’ve been better… if I’d never learned magic at all!” Before anyone could act, Teana lifted Cross Mirage in card form. “Activate the seal!” “Sir,” it responded, “are you certain of this decision?” “My decision is made, Mirage. Do it.” “Very well” Within seconds, a black pattern traced through the air, first tracing a black chain-esque pattern on each of her wrists, and then converging just below her neck. She winced as the seal took effect, forming a black seven-pointed star just below her neck, right where her Linker Core would be. Shamal, Vita, and Nanoha gasped as they realized what Teana had just done. “Linker Core Seal complete” Cross Mirage stated, “all magical capability excluding this unit’s innate low-level access has been sealed. Master can no longer channel magic so long as the seal remains.” The group was left stunned into horrified silence as the ramifications hit home. Subaru tried to speak her friend’s name, but the words died in her throat. Teana then spoke to her Device again. “Summon it” “Yes, sir” Two weeks ago, when Teana had gone hiking on the mountain outside Cranagan, and had stumbled upon that cave filled with a pictographic language she’d never seen before and yet somehow felt eerily familiar, she’d inadvertently activated an access point to a subspace chamber, which held an extraordinary discovery. Now, space-time warped and then split, and the group looked up in astonishment as a massive object filled the sky. It was 1,600 meters long, a bizarre mixture of sharp angles and organic curves, apparently composed of grey and dull-silver metal. Cross Mirage spoke: “Destroyer-class vessel has been retrieved from subspace storage. FTL drive on standby. Weapons systems and energy shields online. Teleportation grid ready. Spatial-Temporal coordinates uploaded.” “This vessel” Teana spoke, “is over 100,000 years old. I found it recently, lying dormant and yet in perfect condition, in a recent expedition. It is now my ship. The Starshot. “I am leaving Midchilda. I do not know where I will go, other than where fate takes me. None of you will ever see me again.” “So that’s it, then?!” Vita finally shouted, “You’re just running away? Instead of staying and listening to our reasons-” “I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!” Vita was left too indignant to articulate a response. “This is my final decision …Subaru… take care of yourself. I am sorry that I can no longer be with you.” “Tia… you can’t…” Subaru began to tear up as the realization that her best friend… her love… was leaving her. “I can. And I am. I’m sorry.” Teana then turned to the instructors. “If, by some random chance, I should ever decide to return here, know this: it will be only after I have become truly strong, achieved the power that I seek. And it will be only for the purpose of revenge against you all for conspiring to ruin my life. Until then… farewell.” Golden rings encircled Teana as the ship’s teleport grid homed in on her signature and whisked her away, up into the heart of the vessel. The ship rapidly began its exodus, climbing up through Midchilda’s atmosphere. In low orbit, an automated TSAB interdictor (unmanned) was incinerated by a massive bolt of superheated plasma fired by one of the ship’s cannons. The ship’s trans-dimensional slipstream space drive activated; reality warped, and the Starshot vanished through a blue-white rift in space-time. Back on the planet, Nanoha fell to her knees. Her most promising student had run out of patience, denounced her teachings, had come to believe Nanoha had been trying to hurt her, had renounced magic itself. Her beloved student, who was like a little sister to her, hated her with all her misguided heart, and now she would never see her again. She’d failed as an instructor. She’d failed as a sister. She’d failed Teana. Fate held her as she began to weep, as Shamal did likewise for Subaru. Spoiler for Book 1 Chapter 1:
CHAPTER 1 - TRANSIT:
Teana sighed as she stood up from the captain’s chair, which was currently redundant as the ship was on autopilot, and in slipstream space there were no enemies to worry about, and thus no need for a captain barking combat orders at subordinates (which Teana didn’t have, either… yet). She stalked down the empty halls, heading for her quarters about 10 minutes from the bridge, and as she walked she reflected on her newfound freedom, no longer a pawn of the TSAB Spec-Ops’ intricate plots to humiliate and demean her. She was free. So why did things still feel sorta wrong? Feeling strangely exhausted, Teana stripped nude and crawled into her bed, deciding that she… just needed… to rest her… eyes for a few… zzzzzz…. As Teana slept, the ship’s semi-sapient AI got to work. Recognizing its sole occupant and current owner as a member of the species chosen as Reclaimers, it scanned ahead to gauge the situation in its home dimension that the ship was currently en route to. Finding and deciphering records regarding a group of specially trained and altered Reclaimers, it picked out some of the internal enhancements possessed by these individuals, drew up data on a few of the enhancements held by shock troopers of the long-deceased military of its creators’ empire, and linked up with the AI currently in the Reclaimer’s possession, requesting and receiving data on Midchildan-style magic, and recognizing it as a descendant of its makers’ mages’ magic style. Picking out the enhancements deemed to be of necessity to its new owner, the Starshot’s AI teleported the sleeping girl to the med-bay. There, it anesthetized her, activated sterilization fields for surgical purposes, and went to work. All enhancements integrated successfully, the extraordinarily advanced medical tech that the Makers left behind ensured no scars or other marks of the procedure, and Teana was un-anesthetized and teleported, still asleep, back into her bed. A pair of Constructor drones flew up, grabbed hold of the bedsheet & blanket, and tucked her in before returning to their dormant storage. Teana groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. She turned her head and saw the digital clock on the wall: 8:25 AM. It had been 9:45 PM when she’d gone to sleep. After a few seconds of slight twitches and movements, she noticed that something felt… different. She sat up, the blanket and sheet pooling at her waist, and noticed the difference in the way her body responded to her mental command. As she pondered, she realized that her thoughts felt different as well, as if her brain had be re-wired by an electrician of greater skill than the one who first put the wires in. She raised her right hand to her face, and moved her arm around a little, surprised at how much quicker and smoother the motions seemed to be. She also felt the difference in her muscles, which felt stronger and more toned. She pushed the sheets down and got to her feet, immediately feeling slightly awkward, as if her body wasn’t quite working the way it used to be. She picked up her Device, currently in card form. “Mirage”, she asked, “what’s happened to me?” “The semi-sapient AI of this ship,” Cross Mirage replied, “saw fit to bestow certain internal enhancements to your body, due to the nature of certain potential foes in the realm we are currently headed to.” “Wait,” she stated, “are you saying I’m… what, a cyborg?” “Technically, yes,” Mirage replied, “but your enhancements are decades, if not centuries, more advanced than those of Mach Caliber’s owner. They are also fundamentally different in structure. Rather than replacing parts of your body entirely, as was done to her, your internal systems have been… added on to.” “What exactly are these add-ons? And what do they do?” Cross Mirage accessed the records, and replied “I shall break them down step by step. “First, a process called ‘carbide-ceramic ossification’. This is a grafting of a complex material to your skeletal structure. Your bones, master, are now essentially unbreakable. “Second is a complex nanotechnological enhancement to your muscles. They have been altered to increase density, decrease lactase recovery time, and overall increase strength. Also, whenever I am with you, I can channel magical energy through your muscles to further boost their performance, to superhuman levels on par with those of a group of super-soldiers found in the realm we are heading for.” Teana felt uneasy at the prospect of relying on magic for anything, but the prospect of super strength proved too good to pass up, so she let it slide. “Next is a process identified as ‘superconducting fibrification of neural dendrites’. The bioelectrical nerve transduction of your central nervous system has been replaced by shielded electronic transduction. Scans show your reflexes have acquired a 300% boost beyond human norm. Of course, before you sealed your core, magic granted you a 50% boost, but that still pales in comparison to your current state. Also, the procedure seems to have refined your speed, ease, & clearness of thought, and should theoretically provide a boost in raw intelligence.” This one threw her a bit. She tested it out, noticing that her body did indeed respond to her commands at a speed around six times that of what it did back before The Incident. This also explained why her mind felt sharper and quicker. “Continue” she said. “Most interesting”, Cross Mirage stated, “is a considerable amount of nanotech enhancement to your internal organs, master. Your digestive system is considerably more efficient, able to draw more nutrients from consumed food, and also capable of digesting tougher materials, though by no means capable of digesting things that a human body can’t digest at all in the first place – you cannot, say, live off of rocks, and you still require a balanced diet for maximum function. “Your immune system has received a nigh-extreme boost in efficiency. Your body’s ability to fight off pathogens has improved greatly, and nanobots in your body hold data on a staggering amount of harmful viruses and bacteria, and are programmed to identify, categorize, and eliminate any pathogens not yet in their collective databanks. “Your cardiovascular and respiratory systems have also undergone quite the change, master. Your heart and lungs have been heavily altered – in fact, 18% replaced by nanotech – to dramatically boost efficiency, and have been given limited self-repair capabilities. Your blood vessels have been reinforced, and in some placed replaced, by dedicated nanotechnological additions. Your blood’s ability to carry oxygen and dispose of carbon dioxide have been boosted as well, and the nanobots that patrol your bloodstream against pathogens are also programmed to assist in the repair of damaged or torn blood vessels, and the quickening of healing. “Considering the nature of these changes, the Starshot’s AI and I have agreed to deliberately prolong our trip through slipstream space by three days, to give you time to adjust to your new body, master.” Teana was thoroughly stunned. This sort of cyborg tech was beyond the TSAB’s dreams. After several seconds, she walked over to stand in front of the full-length mirror on the wall. That’s when she noticed two big changes that she’d been too distracted to notice earlier. Before, her breasts were a mid C-cup. She’d always felt a little jealous of Subaru’s assets, which sat on the border between C and D (not that she disliked staring at them, especially when they bounced about due to the hyperactivity of their owner, though she’d never admit that). Now, however, either as a side-effect, a fluke, or perhaps even a deliberate decision by the ship’s AI, her hands reached up to cup a pair of D-cup breasts, that looked like they were only half a centimeter away from E. For several seconds, she stared at her assets in the mirror, watching them sway lightly as she turned her upper body back and forth. She briefly considered ‘experimenting’ with them, but decided against it. Though Teana did not receive the libido-quashing thyroid implant common to Spartans, all the things on the teen’s mind meant that she was currently in no mood for self-gratification. …Not that she’d ever done that, really. …Okay, once. …Okay, eight times. All of them except her experimental first being accompanied by a fantasy involving Subaru. And three of them having Erio thrown into the mix, with the most recent one having Ginga and Caro join in as well. The fantasy of all four of them pleasuring her simultaneously while also having fun with each other had been… very nice… It was then that she noticed something else as well. She’d shaved down below three days ago, but now it looked even shorter. She reached down, ran a diagnosis with Mirage, and noticed there was no longer any hair down there at all. In fact, there was no longer any hair anywhere on her torso. Her stomach and lower back, formerly possessing a short, soft, near-invisible fuzz, were completely smooth. She still had the slight hair on her lower arms, but her armpits and her legs & feet were also now hairless. …Meh, she thought. She didn’t really care one way or the other (well, no longer having to shave her legs or privates was a definite plus). ‘Now then,’ she thought to herself, ‘I guess this is where I start adjusting.’ The next three days were spent discovering her body’s new capabilities, and seemed to pass quickly. Eventually, the Starshot neared its trans-dimensional destination. Space-time rippled and distorted, and a blue-white portal opened up and spat out the 1600-meter vessel. An orange K-type star shone its light on the star system, and the bridge display showed a blue-green planet. It was 15,273 kilometers in diameter, compared to the 12,742 kilometers of Earth or the 11,947 kilometers of Midchilda. Scans showed it to be a young world, 1.1 billion years of age compared to Midchilda’s 3.7 billion and Earth’s 4.5 billion. Closer scans revealed a fleet of armed starships around the body, with massive orbital cannons stationed at various geosynchronous orbital points. A few of these ships – grey & black, blocky in structure – cautiously began to approach the Starshot, which was broadcasting this new faction’s come-in-peace white-flag code. Teana read the name of the star system and planet as they appeared on screen. Epsilon Eridani. Reach. Spoiler for Book 1 Chapter 2:
CHAPTER 2 - INTEGRATION:
Epsilon Eridani System Reach SWORD Base March 2nd 2552 Dr. Catherine E. Halsey sighed as she sat back in her chair. The last week had been rather interesting, to say the least. Lanstar had quickly proven that she had no ill intent toward the UNSC, and had given some rather sketchy and space-filled explanations that were nonetheless extraordinarily enlightening. The existence of other realms had proven very intriguing, especially the existence of this ‘Time-Space Administration Bureau’. But Teana had refused to explain more. So her AI, Cross Mirage, did so instead. The existence and nature of magic was a huge surprise to the brass, and to Halsey herself. However, after only four days of studying, Halsey already had a solid grasp behind the properties of the mysterious energy force. Mirage had then explained the reasons why Teana had refused to elaborate further on magic and the TSAB: the girl’s rather ugly falling-out with her superiors (complete with audio transcripts), and her denouncement of magic (complete with in-depth data behind the construction and function of the self-applied seal currently on the teen’s Linker Core). The ONI personnel present had ordered all this data kept classified for the time being. Halsey had promptly disregarded this, informing her trusty AI Cortana (who would’ve found out anyway) and a few of her Spartans (John, Fred, Will, Kelly, & Linda) of the situation. Another surprise was what the ship’s AI had done to Teana. Some of the enhancements were straight out of the Spartan-II Program, and others were of a scale of nanotech that the UNSC was centuries from being able to achieve. What’s more, the ship had remotely scanned her Spartans’ armor, and crafted a MJOLNIR Mk. V-B suit customized for Teana, primarily of red plating with some orange thrown in, and a blue visor in the helmet. Teana was rapidly adjusting to the increases in physical capability the armor gave her. Afterward, the Starshot’s AI had promptly stated that it had business elsewhere and would be gone for several months, but would track Teana down when it was done. It had then jumped into Slipspace for parts unknown. After going over the magically-recorded fight that had led to Teana leaving Midchilda, as well as the Hotel Augusta and White Devil Incidents that led to it, Halsey and her friend Col. Urban Holland had both ordered a full psychiatric profiling of Teana Lanstar. What they got was a little disconcerting, but not at all unexpected. Teana’s self-esteem was practically nonexistent; she put up a brave façade, but the Augusta and White Devil Incidents had utterly destroyed her self-confidence. What Teana didn’t realize, but Halsey and John did, was that the Augusta Incident had been caused by improper training; this Takamachi girl hadn’t trained Lanstar properly for the type of situation she found herself in, and had seemingly refused Lanstar opportunity to experiment with new tactics other than what Takamachi herself came up – and coming up with your own plans, especially on the fly in an unfamiliar situation, was necessity for Special Ops like Teana. As for the White Devil Incident? A combination of Teana suffering a long-time-coming nervous breakdown which hindered her ability to think tactically, and Teana trying to take on, in one-on-one combat, a Spartan-equivalent one-girl-army prodigy. Teana was a person comparing herself to a titan, and came off feeling like an ant in comparison, whereas in actuality, she was not only slightly above average by TSAB standards, her magical abilities – had they not been sealed – would’ve made her an invaluable shock trooper for the UNSC. Missed opportunities. Hindsight is always 20/20. And her new Spartan enhancements meant that, with the proper training, she might still make a valuable asset for the UNSC. As Dr. Halsey re-read her copy of the report, a knock came from her door. “Enter” she stated, and the door slid open to reveal the green-armored form of one of her Spartans, still armor-clad from a previous group training exercise a half-hour ago. Though ‘outsiders’ wouldn’t notice it, the subtle body mannerisms and size/shape immediately told her it was John. “Ma-am,” Master Chief S-117 spoke, “Fred, Kelly, and I have finished going over some records regarding Lanstar’s training and the nature of Midchildan Shooting Magic.” “And,” Halsey replied, “What have you found?” “A lot, ma’am” he replied. “For starters, the combat style they were teaching her is rather ineffective as a direct combat technique. Lanstar’s personality and potential capabilities are better suited to the front lines, but they tried to shoehorn her into a support role instead, for some reason. On top of that, the shooting style of Midchildan magic seems to lack power. She would have to pour in everything she had just to knock a single opponent unconscious with it; she would not only be wasting time and effort, but the strain on her body could be quite unhealthy. Before her ship’s AI ‘upgraded’ her, her body was already on the way to a breakdown. “Second, whoever trained her did not do so correctly at all. According to records, TSAB Captain Takamachi specializes in bombardment-type magic – direct-fire artillery, basically. She was inexperienced in shooting-type magic, or at least not experienced enough to qualify to formally teach it to someone else. She also seems to have disregarded Lanstar’s psychological profile, trying to force the kid into a role that wasn’t right for her. She should’ve passed the girl on to someone else, someone better suited to training her.” “Not only that,” said Kelly-087, as she walked through the door, “but they were teachin’ her the wrong type of combat style to begin with. This kid isn’t meant to be a long-range specialist. I was just testing her a few hours ago, seeing what came easy to her, and she’s got tremendous potential as a close-up blade combat specialist. She got a hold of one of our ceremonial swords, and within 20 minutes it was like she’d had it for years. The kid’s practically a prodigy with a sword. …Don’t we have a few captured Covenant plasma swords lying around somewhere?” “I think that giving her plasma swords,” Halsey replied, “may be unnecessary. I’ve been studying her… Device, and its… his design seems highly modular. Cross Mirage can still access magic, and it may be possible to somehow create an energy blade mode for Mirage.” “One more thing, ma’am” Kelly continued. “Although she’s definitely got something going for her in melee, her skills with a gun aren’t too shabby, either. Perhaps if we could make some add-ons or more new modes for her Device, so that she could shoot things that actually do damage.” “I'll get Cortana and the boys in R&D to help me come up with something” Halsey stated. “Find her, and tell her about her capabilities, her lack of proper training, and ask if I can borrow Cross Mirage for a few days.” “Yes, ma’am” the two Spartans said simultaneously, and then turned to leave. Halsey got out her datapad. “Cortana?” she spoke into air. “Yes, doctor” the currently-disembodied voice replied. “Get to it.” “Yes, ma’am.” March 13th, 2552 Teana stood outside the R&D briefing room, wearing a dark grey suit that she’d been lent, as she pondered. The day after arriving at Reach, as soon as she was done being politely interrogated by ONI, she’d spent several hours going over the history of this realm. She’d been utterly horrified. Back in 2525, the galaxy-wide human population had been around 25.2 billion. Now, after 26 ½ years of war against the unstoppable, take-no-prisoners alien juggernaut that was the Covenant, humanity was down to around 9.3 billion, including the 700 million currently on Reach, and the 8.2 billion in the Sol System, mostly based on this realm’s UA97 – Earth. These people had never discovered magic, so instead they’d developed pure technology in ways that more than made up for it. Their soldiers were better trained than the average TSAB grunt, and their mass-based weapons tech could rival bombardment magic in destructiveness. Their starships didn’t have shields like the Bureau’s did, but they made up for it with their armaments – thermonuclear fusion warheads, and tremendous coilguns. The geosynchronous orbital cannons packed enough punch – 9.98 teratons per shot – to decimate any Bureau ship, shields and all, with a single shot. And keep going with enough force left over to take out another ship. And according to records, they were just as effective against Covenant ships, whose shields were slightly tougher than those of the TSAB’s warships. What was most amazing, though, were their artificial intelligence and medical tech. Their linear, or ‘dumb’, AIs could compete with the highest-capability Midchildan Intelligent Devices, and their adaptive, or ‘smart’, AIs could outdo a Unison Device without too much trouble. Their medical technology was decades ahead, as well. Biofoam had so much value that, were the TSAB to find out about it, they’d probably pay the UNSC millions for how to make it. And the ability to flash-clone cells, tissues, and even entire organs would completely revolutionize Bureau medicine. Even paralysis could be cured by clone-growing nerve cells, and cancer – already on its way out in Bureau society – had been more or less gone in the UNSC for over a century. The UNSC’s Office of Naval Intelligence utterly outclassed any intelligence agency the Bureau could offer. And where the TSAB had only existed in its currently state for about 75 years, the UNSC had over three centuries of experience under its belt. The only problem was that, for all its greatness, the UNSC was still outnumbered, outgunned, and out-motivated by the Covenant. At its prime, a quarter-century ago, the UNSC would’ve made the TSAB look nearly pathetic in comparison, but now, in its badly battered state, it was, though still brilliant, a shadow of its former glory. Even so, the UNSC’s general practice of choosing quality over quantity meant that humanity was putting up one hell of a fight. Thinking of the Covenant’s properties, Teana honestly doubted that the TSAB could’ve lasted as long as the UNSC had. Even whittled down, the UNSC Navy’s current total ship count of 467 was on par, capability-wise, with the TSAB’s 612. The last several days had been rather interesting for Teana. She’d quickly been informed how a lot of the blame for her past lackluster performance was improper training. She’d also been informed of her innate specialty, and had been practicing close-quarters. She’d also started learning “proper” gun-usage from Linda-058, who’d found the teen to be a startlingly quick learner. Already Linda was working on introducing Teana to sniping. Teana had been told about the tech-heads working on her Device, trying to come up with new modes. She felt a little skeptical, but for some reason, knowing that Dr. Halsey was working on the team put her at ease; the woman had a grandmotherly air that helped Teana to trust her. A door opened, and she was called in. Dr. Halsey sat at a table. On the table sat Cross Mirage, currently in card form. What was white was now light silver, and the red had a faint gold outline. A few technicians stood in the background. “What do you have for me, ma’am?” Teana asked, trying to sound as respectful as she could. “Our technicians and I have made several changes that I think you’ll appreciate” Halsey replied. An ‘ahem’ from the side caught her attention, and she looked at the small holo-projector sitting there. “Cortana helped, too, of course”. The AI smiled and nodded, satisfied. “Go ahead and activate it, please” Halsey stated. Teana walked over and picked up the card. “Greetings, master” he said, “glad to be at your side again.” Teana allowed herself to smile. Mirage had been her one constant companion and friend, always supporting her in every decision she made. Truth be told, she’d come to care for him as much as she did for Subaru and her own dearly departed brother. Things didn’t feel right without him with her. She mentally commanded Mirage to activate. In a flash of orange light, the Device transformed. Now in Teana’s hands sat a pistol, but it was different from Mirage’s old mode. This new form had a slightly longer barrel, and the barrel was not as bulky as the old one. The circle-with-x was a little smaller, and just in front of it, at the base of the barrel, on the right-hand side of the gun, was a slot. Teana recognized the cartridge ejection port of a mass-based weapon. She summoned the other gun in her left hand, and it was exactly the same except for having the ejection port on the left side. The breech-loading part was gone, though. “We’ve managed to set up a portal system, based on a technology found aboard the Starshot,” Halsey described, “linked to a subspace ammunition foundry aboard your ship. Essentially, these portals ensure that you will never run out of ammo, or even need to reload. Cross Mirage’s pistol form now fires UNSC-type projectiles – specifically, the .45-caliber Semi-Armor-Piercing High-Explosive bullets used in our M6 series of pistols. There is a 2x zoom function linked to your armor’s HUD. Now, Mode PR.” “Plasma Bolt Mode” Cross Mirage spoke, and its form shifted. While staying mostly the same, the barrel had again changed. Now, at the end, just inside a protective depression, a pair of small prongs connected a tiny blue constant spark. The shell ejector ports were gone, replaced by a set of currently-closed vents on both sides of each gun. “This is, essentially, the same type of weapon as the Covenant Type-25 Directed Energy Rifle, or plasma rifle. It fires bolts of superheated plasma on full auto. After 5 seconds of continuous fire, the gun will temporarily cease working, and the vents on the side will expel excess heat for about 4 seconds, after which the weapon can continue firing. Though we still don’t know how to replace the batteries that Covenant plasma weapons use, we don’t need to here. Mirage’s plasma bolt mode draws the hydrogen fluoride that it uses to create plasma from a series of storage tanks aboard your currently-MIA starship. These tanks are refueled by the ship’s own portal system, drawing the raw atomic materials from across space. How exactly it does this I am not certain. The point is, though, that you need never worry about running out of ammunition.” A metal plate hanging from wires descended from the ceiling nearby. Halsey nodded her head toward it. Teana aimed at the plate, and pulsed the triggers. Glowing blue bolts shot from her guns, impacting the metal plate and making it glow from heat. Sizzling metal could be heard. The plate rose, being sprayed with liquid nitrogen when it returned to its compartment. Teana nodded approvingly. “I should say,” Halsey said, “that though you strongly distrust magic at the moment, the technology that your ship’s ancient makers used in their teleportation seems to run partly off it. Considering that the ship was made using technology millennia ahead of ours, I believe it’s trustworthy”. Teana was uneasy, but accepted it. Whoever constructed the Starshot obviously knew what they were doing; the ship, though a destroyer, could probably trounce a TSAB battlecruiser. Especially with the ultra-powerful charged particle cannon she’d discovered (though not used); at full charge (which would take a minute to get to), the thing could probably chew through a Covenant assault carrier’s shields. And the turbolasers – like straight out of Star Wars – could do some damage, too. Sadly, her ship had up and vanished, though its low-grade AI had stated that it would return to her in eight months. “Next,” Halsey continued, “is a capability that was already in your Device, merely locked. We unlocked it and made our own changes to it. Mode R.” “Rifle Mode” Cross Mirage stated, as the two pistols transformed into orange light and shot together, merging into a single object. The object took form and then materialized, and Teana was holding a rifle, about 101 centimeters long, with a scope sitting atop it, in Cross Mirage’s characteristic colors, with the Device’s core (the orange gem with red outline and ‘x’) on the side, above the trigger. “This assault rifle can fire on single-shot, three-round burst, or full auto” a technician explained. “It uses 7.62-by-51mm Full Metal Jacket rounds, the same used in our MA5 series assault rifles and in our M392 Designated Marksman Rifle. In single-shot, with the scope, you should have a range of about 1,800 meters. The scope operates in 3x, and can see in standard or infrared. You can, er… ‘summon’ a silencer to the end of the barrel whenever you need to. Also, there are two underslung attachment options. Right now, that small attachment with the thin vertical opening is an energy bayonet. Try it!” Teana willed the Device to activate its attachment. An orange blade of superheated energy sprang to life, protruding about 15 centimeters past the end of the barrel. After a few seconds, she deactivated it. “The other attachment,” the man continued, “is a 40mm grenade launcher.” As he said this, Teana willed it, and in a muted flash of orange light, the bayonet generator was replaced by a slightly boxy attachment with a 4 centimeter wide hole in the front, underneath the gun’s barrel. “Now, if you would return your Device to pistol form,” Halsey picked up, “we can show you the last of the new modes.” Teana did so, holding a pistol in her right hand. “I think you’ll like this one, dear” she said. “We found Cross Mirage's original locked Mode 2 and replaced it with this one. Mode LS” “Set up,” Cross Mirage said, “Longsword Mode.” The gun transformed into semi-solid orange light, shifting shape in Teana’s hand. When it returned to physical form, it was a grip and guard, the handle about 18 centimeters long, and within a few seconds it sprang to life. Teana started in wonder as the object in her right hand projected a meter-long blade of red-orange energy, in the shape of the blade of a double-edged medieval Terran longsword. She was expecting it to feel light due to her newfound strength, but it felt as if the blade had no weight at all! “Does… does Spartan strength really make this much of a difference?” she wondered aloud. “It does,” Halsey replied, “but that’s not why the blade feels weightless. It feels weightless because it is weightless. The only mass you’ll notice is that of the handle. It’s… supercharged subatomic particles.” That didn’t make much sense, and Dr. Halsey knew it. Because it was a lie. But after talking with Cross Mirage himself, Halsey and Mirage had come to the agreement that letting Teana know that it was actually made of lethal-set superheated magical energy was a bad idea, due to Teana’s current distrust/dislike of magic. Apparently, her instructors had never told her that some magic – including energy-blade magic – could be set from ‘stun’ to ‘kill’, and it was unlikely that she would listen if told in her current mindset. For now, Mirage would keep the deception going, for his master’s sake. “And, this transformation can affect the other gun, as well. So yes, you can dual-wield.” Teana stared pensively at her new blade for a moment. Then she spoke. “Cross Mirage. Set Longsword Mode as default mode.” “Yes, sir. Longsword Mode set as default form.” Teana nodded, and then willed her Device to deactivate and return to card form. She slipped the card into her pocket. She then turned to Dr. Halsey and her crew, and bowed in thanks. Halsey, quite familiar with Japanese culture (and fluent in the language), returned it. April 18th 2552 It had been 18 days since Teana had been assigned to Noble Team as Noble-7. The rest of the squad had been informed of everything. Teana had, in the last month, made extraordinary progress. She had taken to UNSC protocol and tactics with surprising ease, and had rapidly honed her own skills. The rest of Noble Team had already gotten used to her, and seemed to already consider her to be truly part of the team. Carter had worked to instill proper team dynamics into her, which had been going much better than anticipated. Now, Teana didn’t feel like a weak link anymore, mostly because she had the same base capabilities as the rest and because she finally had her own unique special skills. Teana already had some leadership experience from her time in Task Force 6, and her newfound brainpower, her throwing herself into study & training, and her natural ability had all netted her a rank of Warrant Officer Grade 2. Not too bad, considering things (Emile: WO3; Jorge: WO5; Jun: WO4; Thom: LT; Kat: LCDR; Carter: CMDR). Kat and Emile had been a little bit cold at first, but they’d quickly gotten to know her. Teana had an unrelenting drive to succeed and impress, and now that her self-esteem was on the fast rise, she had a bottomless determination and bravery coming to the surface. Her intelligence endeared her to Kat, and her newfound courage earned Emile’s recognition; he often sparred with her, helping her hone her close-combat skills. Jun had taken to her fairly quickly. He’d continued where Linda had left off, helping the girl develop proper marksmanship and sniping skills, which she continued to develop rapidly at. Thom and Jorge got along with her the best, though. Thom quickly became like an older brother to her, helping her fit in with the team and also helping her training and her healthy psychological development. And Jorge was fast becoming like a father to her. He saw the youth and the hints of still-untainted innocence in the girl, and resolved to safeguard that, even as he helped her become a better soldier. Jorge was a proponent of ensuring that Teana retained a kind heart even as she became a hardened warrior in the future. He also took up teaching her Hungarian, which she was learning rather quickly. The Team’s last mission three days earlier had been Teana’s first encounter with the Covenant. She’d done quite well. Amongst other things, she’d single-handedly wiped out a hunting pack of Jackals led by a trio of Skirmishers, and had later punished a cocky red-armored Elite for underestimating her by literally disarming him. She’d then jammed a live grenade into the joints of his armor and then kicked him over the ledge they’d been fighting near. The grenade went off just as the thoroughly stunned Elite had fallen onto a passing Grunt pack that had stopped to watch the fight. The resulting secondary explosions as the Grunts’ methane tanks went up had been satisfying. The Elite’s red helmet had, against all odds, survived the blasts. Teana kept it as a trophy. No-one else minded… especially considering that Emile was carrying a new white Elite helmet to add to his collection. As the team headed back to base, Thom congratulated Teana on doing so well. Her helmet was off, so Teana’s ensuing bright smile was visible to all. Thom was so like Tīda that she couldn’t help but look up to him, and hearing his praise, followed shortly after by Jorge’s, made her truly happy. Surrounded by these six, she finally felt like she truly belonged. They were her family now. May 25th, 2552 Terris System Colony world Antioch Kat ran, her feet pounding the ground as her arm cradled the tactical nuke. All around her, men & women of the UNSC Marines ran, fought, and in many cases died. Fires choked the air with smoke, plasma bolts zipped past her, and explosions tore the ground. Teana ran at her side, shooting anything that so much as looked at Kat the wrong way. Kat looked down and keyed in the nuke’s activation code. Suddenly, there was a flash. Kat’s ears were ringing, and the world tumbled as she was sent flying through the air. When things stopped spinning, she looked through her cracked visor, and saw Teana lying nearby, dazed and with an injured leg. She also saw the nuke, still counting down, still grasped in her hand. She tried to lift the nuke, but noticed that her arm wasn’t responding, still clutching onto the device. Then she realized that the arm was no longer attached to the rest of her body. And then Thom was there, standing above them. He looked at Kat & Teana, looked at the bomb, and then bent over and pried it from a hand that had been Kat’s a minute ago. He met Teana’s eyes, and his visor depolarized, allowing him to give her a sad smile. He reached up and pulled his dog-tags free, placing them in the stunned teen’s hand. He gently patted her on the helmet, turned around, and took off, his jetpack rocketing him toward the hovering Covenant Battlecruiser that was preventing UNSC forces from evacuating. As he shot off, the two female Spartans watched in confusion and horror. Teana reached out toward him, panic creeping into her as she realized what he was doing. “Thom! Nii-san!!” Thom ran through the corridors, reaching a platform overlooking the main hangar. He looked at the nuke’s timer. 00:09. He reared back and tossed the warhead into the room. Then, he closed his eyes and smiled. Good luck, lil' sis The battlecruiser blossomed into flame. The earth-shaking roar of the explosions drowned out a young girl’s agonized cry of heartbroken sorrow. July 23rd 2552 Epsilon Eridani System Reach It had been 27 days since Noble Team had been stationed on Reach. Teana had been promoted to Warrant Officer Grade 3. She didn’t really care. The loss of Thom had hit everyone hard, but especially her. It had taken almost two weeks before Jorge could get her to approach some semblance of her old self. He didn’t blame her; she’d lost her big brother all over again. Kat now sported a mechanical right arm, to replace the one that had been blown off. She blamed herself for getting caught in the blast, which led to Thom’s death. Carter blamed himself for Thom’s death as well, for not being able to think up a back-up plan for in case the bomb carrier was to be disabled after the countdown had been started. Col. Holland had been trying, without success, to convince Carter that such a thing couldn’t really have been planned for. Reach was peaceful. Beautiful mountain ranges towered near Noble Team’s current base; a far cry from war-torn Antioch. The Covenant had only sent a single capital ship to assault the world. After the civilians and UNSC personnel successfully evacuated the planet, and having lost a warship, the Covenant decided that it wasn’t worth taking the time and effort to glass the planet. All the same, Antioch was still now devoid of human presence. It would not be re-settled until 2560. As Noble Team moved about their temporary base, their minds were all on the same thing: the announcement that tomorrow they would get a new Noble-6. “I hear this guy’s a hardcore Terminator” Jorge said, sitting at a table with Jun and Emile, “that he’s got the ‘hyper-lethal’ designation. No-one besides John has ever gotten that.” “Well, we’ll see if the new guy lives up to the hype” Jun replied. Elsewhere on the planet, the first seeds of serious trouble took root. |
|
|
|
|
2011-02-19, 22:39
|
Link #29338 | |
|
"Hey, Isaac?"
Author
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Pennsylvania. It's sort of like a real state.
Age: 39
|
Quote:
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
|
2011-02-19, 22:43
|
Link #29339 | |
|
Dark Energy
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: United States
|
Quote:
__________________
 |
|
|
|
|
|
2011-02-19, 22:50
|
Link #29340 | |
|
Even if it just for a bit
Author
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Cold Storage
Age: 32
|
Quote:
Why, why is time travel shenanigans never the answer. (Canon said so I know(And I would totally write but effort so...)) Also I kind of didn't get that it was Vivio instead or Nanoha 'till RD pointed that out. Also, also, how desperate can Precia be when she has to rehash her old plot. (Though to be fair she almost won except for telling Fate that she didn't love and the like.) At least it shows that she learns if a little late. Also, also, also, Vivio should really learn when her mother is not being emotional. Seriously she could have avoided that (So could Fate but it was a given she was going to screw up one wayor another.) Also (x4) chocolate cookies *eats.* Note to self: Rework fic idea that involves a similar escenario.
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Tags |
authorshipping, befriending, fanfiction, interactive fanfiction, nanoha  |
| Thread Tools | |
|
|
