Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Character Creation and Discussion

[Jimmy C]

Originally Posted by Kagerou

...aren't Riot Blade and Riot Zamber the same thing?

No, they're not. Riot Blade is available in Zamber mode, limiter level 2. Riot Zamber is her Limit Break, all limiters released + full drive mode. Not something she'd use unless the situation is very desperate.

[arkhangelsk]

Originally Posted by Comartemis

That's what's great about being a hybrid mage; you don't have to outdo someone else's strength, just target their weakness. Tear snipers apart in melee, and blast tanks from a distance. That's how Rico goes from AA+ to S+ with his unison; he knows enough about fighting to target his enemy's weaknesses, making him as great a threat as someone with a good deal more power than he has.

The problem is this. The enemy also knows his weakness. Thus, he can also choose to DENY you the advantage, thus forcing you to fight his strength with your uh, non-strength.

I'm thinking I might have to turn Rico into a ranged specialist with merely passable melee skills; I've got a ton of cool ideas for Nova's shooting spells, but the control required for some of these spells would demand a ranged specialist and a unison device; for instance, Rico's answer to Starlight Breaker is a mass-fire shooting spell, a Macross Magic Missile Massacre. Picture Reinforce's Photon Lancer Genocide Shift coupled with homing capabilities provided by the "lock-on" spell I used with Rena. Thoughts?

Oh, great. So now, you just assume the extra complexity of adding homing heads to >100 rounds is zero? The "magic missile massacre" had better take two minutes or so to charge while you painstakingly program in guidance heads.

The difference being that you can't deflect bullets with muskets and bows. Melee devices vs ranged attacks? That's another story entirely.

It makes it better but you still lose. The guy with range tends to have the initiative. Given similar overall abilities, he can keep distance and attrit you to nothing.

Originally Posted by Wild Goose

Recheck your spells. Photon Lancer: Execution Shift was one of AAA-ranked Fate's spells.

That's Photon Lancer: Phalanx Shift. Execution Shift is for Stinger Blades.

Originally Posted by Comartemis

....oh. My bad, I'm thinking of Stinger Blade: Execution Shift. Yeah, that's much more reasonable. I maintain the homing spells, however, on the grounds that spells/programs should be able to be programmed to follow one or more predesignated targets. Heck, they should be able to follow some basic roboteching programming at the same time.

Yes, certainly. But you'll need many extra lines to do so. and you'll need to input them for each round if you want independent homing.

Oh, and to fair to Chrono, he does beat Fate most of the time in exercises according to the manga. Of course, the fight in the manga also implies that period is coming to an end.

[Kha]

Originally Posted by Kagerou

Okay, I wasn't sure if I got Kha correct in that scene because I've never seen more than paragraphs written about him. Thanks though ^^;

Most of it was alright, but at some points, Kha felt a lot more talkative than I imagined. Like, he doesn't partake in banter, but speaks short and to the point. So instead of "ready to go?" he might say "we must leave now."

But then again, 8 years turned him from a Setsuna-esque person to a stern-Shirou person, so anything could happen in the next 8, since his change in tone was partly due to his frequent practice from giving sermons.

He uses thespian English at times, and that's because of his strict Old Belka upbringing being translated into Engrish, so the "return to the mortal coil!" declaration was very in character.

I don't blame you; I should write more... ><

Originally Posted by Wild Goose

Don't forget this is a magical girl show. In Nanoverse, the guys < girls all the time. Besides, the focus is on nanoha and fate, so it's no wonder Chrono doesn't really seem that badass or gets time to shine.

I will fix that... to some extent.

Originally Posted by Jimmy C

No, they're not. Riot Blade is available in Zamber mode, limiter level 2. Riot Zamber is her Limit Break, all limiters released + full drive mode. Not something she'd use unless the situation is very desperate.

Based on my research, it's Riot Zamber and Riot Zamber II. No Riot Blade.

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by Tk3997

Always have a plan B...

Kane generally has an entire alfabet of plans.

Originally Posted by Tk3997

*leans back in his chair and smirks smugly*

Hey, if you're right, you're right. *shrugs* I'm not going to argue a point when canon blatantly contradicts me.

Originally Posted by Tk3997

Well I thought maybe she just got dropped on her head allot as a child or something, would explain the mood swings too.

No, she just got a nice visit from the most powerfull dragon in Warcaft lore.

Originally Posted by Tk3997

Though sometimes I think I can get into excess planning myself I’m always thinking about “What if…” and running through what I’d do in a whole mess of scenarios. Then though I’ll sometimes spend so much time pondering what to do I miss my chance. On the plus side this constant thinking ahead often means I’m reading with snide biting quips when the opportunity present itself.

This can sometimes come through in my writing I think where I can sometimes go so in-depth describing the how’s and whys of my combat that it starts to sound like I’m lecturing on tactics instead of writing a battle scene. Sometimes I’ve even been tempted to include scenes that have no point BUT to give a character and excuse to babble on about military tactics. It takes allot of effort to control those impulses. Sometimes I’ll find myself writing thousand plus word essays about the hows and why of combat and tactics… just for fun. Doing that can also help me want to ramble less about in the story itself.

For instance... this is what I did this afternoon see that entire section on "Tactics"? Yeah I typed all of that in like an hour or two.

Hmm, I don't really have that problem. Then again, I tend to plan before I write to the point where most crack will have vanished by the time I start writing.

Originally Posted by Tk3997

This all could be part of why I like Tesla...

Note to self: Tk likes girls who can strategize.

Originally Posted by Tk3997

We'll see which is more powerful your patience or my laziness.

My patience. Trust me.

Originally Posted by Kha

...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh?!

Don't get me wrong; I'm not surprised by the Trap; I'm surprised that Uomo looks like Fate... >.>

Originally Posted by USB500

Returning from my weekend hiatus and I found some interesting posts. I was really, TERRIBLY, shocked to see Uomo because honestly (and to tell you the truth) I never saw or noticed her.. I mean, his arrival in Outer Cadia. Awesome trap is really awesome, though why Fate's face?

Originally Posted by tshouryuu

Nice another Trap... but why the heck does he looks so female and looks so much Fate?

Hmm, I'd hoped I'd slip through this one. Oh well.

Anyway, the answer lies in the source of these images, Tachibana Saki from Snow Sakura. I tried to mess with the source hair color, but in the end, nothing but blonde worked for me. I kept the black ribbons purpousely (black ribbons tend to be a recurring feat in my characters).

To make it clear though: There is no connection between him and Fate. They just happen to share the same hair color.

[QUOTE=Kha;1532900]And the mention of Brotherhood of NOD... I've always used Imperial Belka Army, but we already have thiny-disguised GDI; this works just fine! [/qoute]

I figured that the Belka Army wouldn't be particularely evil. Plus, the brotherhood is a religious organisation... splinter faction of the Saint Church much?

Originally Posted by Kha

Everything else works fine, now to figure out how things end for StrikerS don't we?

Yes, we do.

Originally Posted by Kha

Last surprise is how there was no mention of LEGION here... Gosh am I guessing another thing wrong...?

I did mention Legion, just not as constantly. Re-read the start of Uomo's history.

Originally Posted by Kha

This is mostly IRC spoilers, but I can say the Spawn have technology.

Still not computing. In fact, Spawn + Technollogy is computing even less.

Originally Posted by USB500

And... did I smell Kyou/Ryou-esque hot yuri twincest action intimate sisterly love?

*runs from Tomoya*

Satashi already wrote a Nanoha/Keroko lemon, actually.

Originally Posted by Comartemis

The C-kid's worthless maneuver that even Zafira could block? Why don't you castrate the guy while you're at it?

You mean "The AAA+-kid's awesome maneuver that even Zafira had a hard time blocking." Zafira is a defensive specialist, the fact that Chrono even got through already shows how powerfull the attack is.

Originally Posted by Comartemis

....oh. My bad, I'm thinking of Stinger Blade: Execution Shift. Yeah, that's much more reasonable. I maintain the homing spells, however, on the grounds that spells/programs should be able to be programmed to follow one or more predesignated targets. Heck, they should be able to follow some basic roboteching programming at the same time.

Canon proves you wrong, though. Take a look at the Vita/Nanoha fight after the upgrade, as soon as Nanoha shoots her Axel Shooter, Vita says 'you can't control that many shots at once' now, if there was a chance that the spell was auto-homing, Vita wouldn't have said this now would she? Also, there are many spells in Fate's spellbook that are not homing. Plasma Lancer for example only has a 'turn' abillity (commanded by Fate).

Canon seems to prove that there is no such thing as a homing shot, only shots that can be controlled by the user.

Originally Posted by arkhangelsk

The problem is this. The enemy also knows his weakness. Thus, he can also choose to DENY you the advantage, thus forcing you to fight his strength with your uh, non-strength.

And that's where the balance is when making versatile characters.

Originally Posted by Jimmy C

No, they're not. Riot Blade is available in Zamber mode, limiter level 2. Riot Zamber is her Limit Break, all limiters released + full drive mode. Not something she'd use unless the situation is very desperate.

Overdrive, not Limit Break.

Originally Posted by Kha

Based on my research, it's Riot Zamber and Riot Zamber II. No Riot Blade.

Then you need to re-check your sources, Kha. Bardiche blatantly says 'Riot Blade' when activated.

[Kyral]

Originally Posted by Keroko

Type-0 Sentoukijin

Rebuilt of Uomo

It's a TRAP!
And one thing I had to correct!

Spoiler for One thing:

• Eiserner Dolch: ‘Iron Dagger’

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by Kyral

It's a TRAP!
And one thing I had to correct!

Spoiler for One thing:

• Eiserner Dolch: ‘Iron Dagger’

Fortunately, that was a spelling error rather then a translation error. Looks like my German isn't that rusty after all. :3

[Kha]

Originally Posted by Keroko

Hmm, I'd hoped I'd slip through this one. Oh well.

Anyway, the answer lies in the source of these images, Tachibana Saki from Snow Sakura. I tried to mess with the source hair color, but in the end, nothing but blonde worked for me. I kept the black ribbons purpousely (black ribbons tend to be a recurring feat in my characters).

To make it clear though: There is no connection between him and Fate. They just happen to share the same hair color.

Didn't trigger anything, other than the Fate resemblance.

Originally Posted by Keroko

I figured that the Belka Army wouldn't be particularely evil. Plus, the brotherhood is a religious organisation... splinter faction of the Saint Church much?

The IBA was the splinter faction of the Belka refugees who went on to found the Saint Church, and Skane was the founder of the Brotherhood. With one of his pursuits being the cleansing of the Midchilda infidels and to unseat the TSAB that has invaded the holy grounds of Ancient Belka, you can see why his cult got the boot. This is of course amongst other aims of the Brotherhood, like heralding the promise of Tronium. :3

That also means Skane has been technically been alive for centuries, but like his other counterpart, no one knows for sure.

Anyway, I've dropped the name IBA for Brotherhood. There is no denying the One Vision, One Purpose of .

Originally Posted by Keroko

I did mention Legion, just not as constantly. Re-read the start of Uomo's history.

...argh. ><

Originally Posted by Keroko

Still not computing. In fact, Spawn + Technollogy is computing even less.

Spoilers from the Horse's mouth cannot be denied, only verified in time.

Originally Posted by Keroko

Canon proves you wrong, though. Take a look at the Vita/Nanoha fight after the upgrade, as soon as Nanoha shoots her Axel Shooter, Vita says 'you can't control that many shots at once' now, if there was a chance that the spell was auto-homing, Vita wouldn't have said this now would she? Also, there are many spells in Fate's spellbook that are not homing. Plasma Lancer for example only has a 'turn' abillity (commanded by Fate).

Canon seems to prove that there is no such thing as a homing shot, only shots that can be controlled by the user.

But what's stopping us from creating a homing spell? I feel that its just needing to implement "heat-seeking" into the spell program.

Originally Posted by Keroko

Then you need to re-check your sources, Kha. Bardiche blatantly says 'Riot Blade' when activated.

Wiki jerked me AGAIN.

[Tk3997]

Originally Posted by Keroko

Kane generally has an entire alfabet of plans.

Well maybe sometimes, but others he seems to be making it up as he goes along... early in Kane Wrath I saw allot more "okay we'll try this shit, it might work" then I did any kind of master plan.

Hey, if you're right, you're right. *shrugs* I'm not going to argue a point when canon blatantly contradicts me.

I was just being a bastard anyway.

No, she just got a nice visit from the most powerfull dragon in Warcaft lore.

I do know her back story again being a jackass.

Hmm, I don't really have that problem. Then again, I tend to plan before I write to the point where most crack will have vanished by the time I start writing.

This isn't really crack so much as a habit of rabbling beyond the point the average reader will care when it comes to military tactics. Basically sometimes I find myself having to trim and edit when I realize I've inserted a 500 word mini essay on some aspect of military strategy that really adds little to the flow or the plot. Sort of like a penchant for tactical techno-babble, tacto-babble perhaps?

For instance I once wrote about some guys setting up an ambush and suddenly found I had the commander doing a hundreds of words long mental monologue about why and how he was setting up his machine guns for maximum effectiveness (which thinking about it logically he'd have no reason to do as he'd KNOW all this already) . I was also taking about shit like enfilade, beat zones, grazing and plunging fire and realized that non Mil-otaku were going to need a damn dictionary to even try and figure it out even if they read it when really "he order the machine guns positioned for maximum effect when the trap was sprung." or something only slightly more involved would have sufficed.

Note to self: Tk likes girls who can strategize.

Correction: TK likes girls that are intelligent and level headed.

My patience. Trust me.

We'll see.

Canon proves you wrong, though. Take a look at the Vita/Nanoha fight after the upgrade, as soon as Nanoha shoots her Axel Shooter, Vita says 'you can't control that many shots at once' now, if there was a chance that the spell was auto-homing, Vita wouldn't have said this now would she? Also, there are many spells in Fate's spellbook that are not homing. Plasma Lancer for example only has a 'turn' abillity (commanded by Fate).

Canon seems to prove that there is no such thing as a homing shot, only shots that can be controlled by the user.

Acutally one could twist this to allow homing shots (which I personally don’t mind and indeed support, no human is going to be able to command guide a half dozen projectiles IMO they have trouble with one missile IRL.) Basically just because a weapon “homes” doesn’t mean an infinite number can be deployed and just because its being “guided” dose not mean the user is directly controlling it. Nor IMO should we use ONE example of a guided spell and assume ALL most operate on the same principle this is like seeing one type of missile and assuming they all work exactly the same.

On that not once more I shall venture into the arena of modern air combat for an analogy. Don't look at me like that! They bring these on themselves with all their damn talk about "Air Forces" and "aces "!

Ever heard of a semi-active guided missile? Basiclly this is a missile that homes in on a signal projected on the target by the firer this is normally radar or laser based. Anyway the weapon will home in on the signal being projected onto the target and follow that signal around to the best of its ability. The problem is that normally you can only designate one target at a time if you only have one radar/laser since the weapons are specially keyed home in on one specific signal.

Unfortunately you can’t really get around this as if they aren’t keyed in like so they might fly off and chase any errant signal they see and counter measures could easily decoy them. Anyway the problem with this though is that these missiles are keyed to his highly specific signal and will only chase that signal. So if you only have say one radar/laser you can only guide one missile. This is why older ships often mounted a bunch of seemingly redundant radars and why when fighter radar sets began being able to target multiple enemies simultaneously it was consider a big deal.

So assuming Nanoha’s bolts where semi-active in nature and assuming most such spells are it’s likely that Vita simply assumed she wouldn’t have enough radars or “channels“ to illuminate her intended target for all the shots she’d just fired. Obviously she was wrong and Nanoha’s “avionics” where more capable then she thought. Basiclly under this scheme the mage isn’t directly the bolts himself he’s illuminating the target with a distinct signal the bolts are homing on it. This probably still requires focuses and energy and managing a number of signals at once for multiple shots would still take effort, but at least it seems humanly possible with a bit of assistance from a good device.

Of coruse if the shots can home on one sort of energy transmitted by the mage the question then becomes why can’t they home in on other sorts of energy? The answer of course is that there is not good reason they can’t. But wait you say! Why use semi-active homing at all if fire-and-forget is possible well I was getting to that good sir!

Semi-active homing has several advantages over other methods the first is that one of its weakness is acutally also a strength the missile ONLY homes on a very discreet signal and ignores others. This makes it very hard to jam as it merely has to follow one clear and strong signal transmitted by a (hopefully) power transmitter (the mage). This would make much to harder to decoy. (But possibly easier to dodge if you can get out of the beam that’s illuminating you or get into cover that blocks it).

Semi-active weapons tend to have longer ranges then many fire and forget weapons the reason being that they’re target is being illuminated by a larger and powerful transmitter where as a fire and forget weapon must rely on a much smaller transmitter or seeker crammed into the weapon itself. This is why modern long range fire and forget weapons aren’t truly such at anything besides short ranges and at longer ranges they still need guidance from the launcher until they close in and can engage there seekers for terminal guidance.

Semi-active weapons are more accurate and easier to control to some extent when a fire and forget weapon enters its terminal phase it becomes a menace to anything in the target area. Most of them aren’t smart enough to tell a friendly tank form an enemy one and the same goes for aircraft as such if they can’t find the intended target the have a nasty habit of attacking anything in the area that looks like the target… In a swirling aerial melee this has the potential for disaster written all over it. In fact there even a radio call used to inform others in the area when a missile enters autonomous self guidance: “Pitbull” I leave it you to decide why the call is named after a dog breed renowned in popular culture for indiscriminate aggression… Again though the Semi-Active weapon only wants to find its one discreet signal and follow it so assuming you aren’t actively painting a friendly unit for the missile the friendly fire risk in a cluttered sky is much reduced and if it loses the signal it normally just streaks off into the blue rather then roaming around looking for targets.

Of coruse other sorts of fire and forget guidance have there place particularly at short range or when only enemy units are in the kill zone.

I also like this set up as it opens up and entire new area of battle beyond simply defense, offense, speed a sort of magical electronic warfare with jamming, counter jamming, and different sorts of seemingly similar spells for different situations. It makes the entire affair allot more tactical and less “charge and wail on each other, stronger guy wins”, IMO.

Of coruse I like my combat deep and complex with many intricacies to exploit and use IMO it makes for a richer more cerebral battle. Something which is particularly import in prose were lacking impressive visuals to rely on a mentally stimulating and interesting combat doctrine and tactics can make combat considerably more interesting. Sure in animations just having Nanoha overpower her foes in a orgy of pyrotechnic destruction can actually be pretty satisfying, but there are only so many ways to write “she fires a huge beam and blasts the enemy” before it seems a tad stall and you find yourself wishing for something a bit deeper.

That my opinion anyway take my tactical ramblings as you will.

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by Kha

Didn't trigger anything, other than the Fate resemblance.

Whew.

Originally Posted by Kha

The IBA was the splinter faction of the Belka refugees who went on to found the Saint Church, and Skane was the founder of the Brotherhood. With one of his pursuits being the cleansing of the Midchilda infidels and to unseat the TSAB that has invaded the holy grounds of Ancient Belka, you can see why his cult got the boot. This is of course amongst other aims of the Brotherhood, like heralding the promise of Tronium. :3

I'm going to need more data on Tronium.

Originally Posted by Kha

That also means Skane has been technically been alive for centuries, but like his other counterpart, no one knows for sure.

There are various ways to go about this, but using a variant of the Artificial Mage excuse seems the most reasonable for now.

Originally Posted by Kha

Spoilers from the Horse's mouth cannot be denied, only verified in time.

Still, what on earth would Skane want a race hell-bent on destruction for?

Originally Posted by Kha

Wiki jerked me AGAIN.

I fixed the entry, but you should rely on episodes first, Wiki second.

Originally Posted by Tk3997

Well maybe sometimes, but others he seems to be making it up as he goes along... early in Kane Wrath I saw allot more "okay we'll try this shit, it might work" then I did any kind of master plan.

Really? The capture of Brother Marcius was part of a greater plan. Kane needed a figurehead to keep NOD together while he remained undercover.

Originally Posted by Tk3997

I was just being a bastard anyway.

I do know her back story again being a jackass.

Bastard.

Originally Posted by Tk3997

This isn't really crack so much as a habit of rabbling beyond the point the average reader will care when it comes to military tactics. Basically sometimes I find myself having to trim and edit when I realize I've inserted a 500 word mini essay on some aspect of military strategy that really adds little to the flow or the plot. Sort of like a penchant for tactical techno-babble, tacto-babble perhaps?

For instance I once wrote about some guys setting up an ambush and suddenly found I had the commander doing a hundreds of words long mental monologue about why and how he was setting up his machine guns for maximum effectiveness (which thinking about it logically he'd have no reason to do as he'd KNOW all this already) . I was also taking about shit like enfilade, beat zones, grazing and plunging fire and realized that non Mil-otaku were going to need a damn dictionary to even try and figure it out even if they read it when really "he order the machine guns positioned for maximum effect when the trap was sprung." or something only slightly more involved would have sufficed.

So when some people have the urge to use Japanese, you have the urge to ramble on millitairy stuff?

Originally Posted by Tk3997

Correction: TK likes girls that are intelligent and level headed.

Noted.

Originally Posted by Tk3997

Acutally one could twist this to allow homing shots (which I personally don’t mind and indeed support, no human is going to be able to command guide a half dozen projectiles IMO they have trouble with one missile IRL.) Basically just because a weapon “homes” doesn’t mean an infinite number can be deployed and just because its being “guided” dose not mean the user is directly controlling it. Nor IMO should we use ONE example of a guided spell and assume ALL most operate on the same principle this is like seeing one type of missile and assuming they all work exactly the same.

Name me one spell that had homing abillities. Vita's Schwalbe Fliegen? Controlled. Nanoha's Axel Shooter? Controlled. Fate's Plasma Lancer? Controlled, and limited at that. Teana's Crossfire? Controlled.

So far I've seen zero homing attacks. The fact that Raising Heart actually asked for control rather then simply sending them off towards Vita only solidifies this.

Originally Posted by Tk3997

On that not once more I shall venture into the arena of modern air combat for an analogy. Don't look at me like that! They bring these on themselves with all their damn talk about "Air Forces" and "aces "!

Hai hai, bring it on.

Originally Posted by Tk3997

Ever heard of a semi-active guided missile? Basiclly this is a missile that homes in on a signal projected on the target by the firer this is normally radar or laser based. Anyway the weapon will home in on the signal being projected onto the target and follow that signal around to the best of its ability. The problem is that normally you can only designate one target at a time if you only have one radar/laser since the weapons are specially keyed home in on one specific signal.

Unfortunately you can’t really get around this as if they aren’t keyed in like so they might fly off and chase any errant signal they see and counter measures could easily decoy them. Anyway the problem with this though is that these missiles are keyed to his highly specific signal and will only chase that signal. So if you only have say one radar/laser you can only guide one missile. This is why older ships often mounted a bunch of seemingly redundant radars and why when fighter radar sets began being able to target multiple enemies simultaneously it was consider a big deal.

So assuming Nanoha’s bolts where semi-active in nature and assuming most such spells are it’s likely that Vita simply assumed she wouldn’t have enough radars or “channels“ to illuminate her intended target for all the shots she’d just fired. Obviously she was wrong and Nanoha’s “avionics” where more capable then she thought. Basiclly under this scheme the mage isn’t directly the bolts himself he’s illuminating the target with a distinct signal the bolts are homing on it. This probably still requires focuses and energy and managing a number of signals at once for multiple shots would still take effort, but at least it seems humanly possible with a bit of assistance from a good device.

The flaw in this analogy is that mages are perfectly capable of adjusting their shots course. It's not simply 'target paint, and let the bolt fly' they can actually make the bolts twist and turn. This analogy would be more accurate for Fate's Plasma Lancer.

Originally Posted by Tk3997

Of coruse if the shots can home on one sort of energy transmitted by the mage the question then becomes why can’t they home in on other sorts of energy? The answer of course is that there is not good reason they can’t. But wait you say! Why use semi-active homing at all if fire-and-forget is possible well I was getting to that good sir!

Semi-active homing has several advantages over other methods the first is that one of its weakness is acutally also a strength the missile ONLY homes on a very discreet signal and ignores others. This makes it very hard to jam as it merely has to follow one clear and strong signal transmitted by a (hopefully) power transmitter (the mage). This would make much to harder to decoy. (But possibly easier to dodge if you can get out of the beam that’s illuminating you or get into cover that blocks it).

Semi-active weapons tend to have longer ranges then many fire and forget weapons the reason being that they’re target is being illuminated by a larger and powerful transmitter where as a fire and forget weapon must rely on a much smaller transmitter or seeker crammed into the weapon itself. This is why modern long range fire and forget weapons aren’t truly such at anything besides short ranges and at longer ranges they still need guidance from the launcher until they close in and can engage there seekers for terminal guidance.

Semi-active weapons are more accurate and easier to control to some extent when a fire and forget weapon enters its terminal phase it becomes a menace to anything in the target area. Most of them aren’t smart enough to tell a friendly tank form an enemy one and the same goes for aircraft as such if they can’t find the intended target the have a nasty habit of attacking anything in the area that looks like the target… In a swirling aerial melee this has the potential for disaster written all over it. In fact there even a radio call used to inform others in the area when a missile enters autonomous self guidance: “Pitbull” I leave it you to decide why the call is named after a dog breed renowned in popular culture for indiscriminate aggression… Again though the Semi-Active weapon only wants to find its one discreet signal and follow it so assuming you aren’t actively painting a friendly unit for the missile the friendly fire risk in a cluttered sky is much reduced and if it loses the signal it normally just streaks off into the blue rather then roaming around looking for targets.

Of coruse other sorts of fire and forget guidance have there place particularly at short range or when only enemy units are in the kill zone.

So semi-active weaponry is used because full-auto is hazardous in dogfights. Correct?

Originally Posted by Tk3997

I also like this set up as it opens up and entire new area of battle beyond simply defense, offense, speed a sort of magical electronic warfare with jamming, counter jamming, and different sorts of seemingly similar spells for different situations. It makes the entire affair allot more tactical and less “charge and wail on each other, stronger guy wins”, IMO.

If you reduce Nanoha-combat in your writing to this, then obviously your tactical vison is lacking. There are so many ways to ignore the electronical jibber-jabber and still have a great battle from a tactical point of view.

Originally Posted by Tk3997

Of coruse I like my combat deep and complex with many intricacies to exploit and use IMO it makes for a richer more cerebral battle. Something which is particularly import in prose were lacking impressive visuals to rely on a mentally stimulating and interesting combat doctrine and tactics can make combat considerably more interesting. Sure in animations just having Nanoha overpower her foes in a orgy of pyrotechnic destruction can actually be pretty satisfying, but there are only so many ways to write “she fires a huge beam and blasts the enemy” before it seems a tad stall and you find yourself wishing for something a bit deeper.

That my opinion anyway take my tactical ramblings as you will.

In my experience, too much technobable leaves people who aren't veterans in that sort of stuff in the dust and turns the combat stall before it has even propperly begun. Electronical warfare in Nanoha is virtually unsuported, the only thing that even came close to that was Jail's attack on the TSAB, and that was more on the scale of 'hack into the main system and throw their leading abillities into chaos' not stretching as far as personal fights.

But I digress, show me what an electronical battle in Nanohaverse is like, then I will see what its like.

[Kha]

Originally Posted by Keroko

Whew.

Have some faith.

Originally Posted by Keroko

I'm going to need more data on Tronium.

A hi-energy substance that absorbs mana from around itself and grows. Precia was experimenting on these when her experiment blew up. It warps things around it, and is incompatible to life. However, the lucky few who survive might come away mutated, and only the luckiest make it with their sanity intact...

More details being hammered out, but drawing inspiration from the novel, the color of low-grade Tronium is yellow.

Originally Posted by Keroko

There are various ways to go about this, but using a variant of the Artificial Mage excuse seems the most reasonable for now.

I'd go with all the hints from C&C Renegade, and the fact that Kane was around since Red Alert (the unnamed Soviet advisor) as enough. I'm leaving the details for the techtrolls to puzzle over.

Originally Posted by Keroko

Still, what on earth would Skane want a race hell-bent on destruction for?

Paraphrasing him from Kane's Wrath: "To clear the way for our ascension, as only the Chosen few will find the Promised Land."

In exact words, I have no idea, but the idea of gaining access to the Alhazredian technology they bring seems to be the linking point to that statement.

Originally Posted by Keroko

Really? The capture of Brother Marcius was part of a greater plan. Kane needed a figurehead to keep NOD together while he remained undercover.

Though I've absolutely no idea where he's going after achieving what he achieved at End of KW... And that is making progress on our side harder...

Originally Posted by Keroko

Name me one spell that had homing abillities. Vita's Schwalbe Fliegen? Controlled. Nanoha's Axel Shooter? Controlled. Fate's Plasma Lancer? Controlled, and limited at that. Teana's Crossfire? Controlled.

So far I've seen zero homing attacks. The fact that Raising Heart actually asked for control rather then simply sending them off towards Vita only solidifies this.

How about a suicidal device that is functionally like a Protoss Scarab?

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by Kha

Have some faith.

Oh, I do have faith, but I still get bit nervous whenever yu mention Fate.

Originally Posted by Kha

A hi-energy substance that absorbs mana from around itself and grows. Precia was experimenting on these when her experiment blew up.

Tiberium, but mana instead of carbon?

Originally Posted by Kha

I'd go with all the hints from C&C Renegade, and the fact that Kane was around since Red Alert (the unnamed Soviet advisor) as enough. I'm leaving the details for the techtrolls to puzzle over.

A variant of Project F should suffice.

Originally Posted by Kha

Paraphrasing him from Kane's Wrath: "To clear the way for our ascension, as only the Chosen few will find the Promised Land."

In exact words, I have no idea, but the idea of gaining access to the Alhazredian technology they bring seems to be the linking point to that statement.

Wait, now the Spawn bring Al Hazardian technollogy with them? I definetely need more info.

Originally Posted by Kha

Though I've absolutely no idea where he's going after achieving what he achieved at End of KW... And that is making progress on our side harder...

With LEGION conected to the Scrin's systems, anything is possible.

Originally Posted by Kha

How about a suicidal device that is functionally like a Protoss Scarab?

Hmm, that sounds doable.

[Comartemis]

Oh, great. So now, you just assume the extra complexity of adding homing heads to >100 rounds is zero?

Yep, especially with a unison device assisting with fire control.

The "magic missile massacre" had better take two minutes or so to charge while you painstakingly program in guidance heads.

Without Nova? Sure. With her? 15-20 seconds, tops.

Yes, certainly. But you'll need many extra lines to do so. and you'll need to input them for each round if you want independent homing.

No, you'll many extra lines in one round, which serves as the template for 99 others.

Canon seems to prove that there is no such thing as a homing shot, only shots that can be controlled by the user.

I don't buy it. Nanoha's attacks are mentally-controlled because of the incredible degree of control over the rounds that grants. Stunts like making the spell circle around behind Vita wouldn't be possible if the rounds behave like guided missiles.

Name me one spell that had homing abillities.

Ahem.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Shoot Barret: Barret F - A variation of the basic Shoot Barret, it creates an explosive, homing magic bullet that locks at the target heat signature. Its greatest advantage over other guided shooting spells is its ability of automatically pursue of the target, leaving the caster free to perform another action.

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by Comartemis

Ahem.

*wiki quote*

Touche.

Originally Posted by Comartemis

Yep, especially with a unison device assisting with fire control.

You asume that Reinforce I is the standard for Unision Devices. She's not. Reinforce I was a Lost Logia, major difference.

Originally Posted by Comartemis

Without Nova? Sure. With her? 15-20 seconds, tops.

So an undogable and virtually unblockable attack with only 20 seconds charge? Please tell me you're joking.

Originally Posted by Comartemis

No, you'll many extra lines in one round, which serves as the template for 99 others.

But you still have to form those round. You can't make one snowball and expect all the other snowballs to form themselves.

Originally Posted by Comartemis

I don't buy it. Nanoha's attacks are mentally-controlled because of the incredible degree of control over the rounds that grants. Stunts like making the spell circle around behind Vita wouldn't be possible if the rounds behave like guided missiles.

Which supports my case, while you proved that homing attacks are possible, many of the attacks we see are not homing..

[Tk3997]

Originally Posted by Keroko

Still, what on earth would Skane want a race hell-bent on destruction for?

What indeed he wants to rule the world not destroy it.

Really? The capture of Brother Marcius was part of a greater plan. Kane needed a figurehead to keep NOD together while he remained undercover.

Yeah and I'm sure he planned for GDI to fuck over Marcius and have him turn on him. He needed a figure head indeed and he got lucky and a good one appeared and he exploited it, but to say he somehow planned that is a stretch IMO. Later in the campaign yeah he was clearly in control, but at first it was pretty clear to me at least that his plan was off the rails and he was fighting to get it back on.

I don't buy into any mystic bullshit with Kane he's one clever bastard and probably not quite human no doubt, but he's not infallible and everything DOESN'T always go as he plans. (Unless you think losing multiples wars against his main rival and having his organization splinter into bloody civil war repeatedly is part of his grand plan and if you buy that I've got a lovely bridge I think you might be interested in...)

Bastard.

Hey everyone loves bastards even if they won't admit.

So when some people have the urge to use Japanese, you have the urge to ramble on millitairy stuff?

Seems like and other often seem to feel the urge to invent really bad science to support there nonsense or compelled to insert pointlessly over the top angst into everything.

Name me one spell that had homing abillities. Vita's Schwalbe Fliegen? Controlled. Nanoha's Axel Shooter? Controlled. Fate's Plasma Lancer? Controlled, and limited at that. Teana's Crossfire? Controlled.

I acutally seem to recall one of Teana's spells being said to be homing and fire and forget, but I can't recall which and frankly I don't see how you can so easily class these as "controlled". Given that the mechanism of control in both cases is totally invisible and all in the electronics, for instance one of these is optically tracked to the target by the gunner, one is fire and forget can you tell which just by watching them fired?

Spoiler for Vids:

Basically all we can say IMO is that they're guided somehow and some of them appear to be able to take mid course guidance updates.

So far I've seen zero homing attacks. The fact that Raising Heart actually asked for control rather then simply sending them off towards Vita only solidifies this.

That could be a safely thing more then anything, a fighter jet can't lock on and fire missiles without the pilots input either and he has to select and ID the targets before the missiles can be fired. The again Mach Caliber was able to seemingly acutally physically control her master so what devices can and can't do seems rather hard to pin down.

The flaw in this analogy is that mages are perfectly capable of adjusting their shots course. It's not simply 'target paint, and let the bolt fly' they can actually make the bolts twist and turn. This analogy would be more accurate for Fate's Plasma Lancer.

This isn't out of the question either in this set up many modern missiles can also have there homing overridden and there course altered mid flight via datalink if the situation demands it. This isn't a debate about the bolts being able to be controlled if need be that's clearly possible, but controlling a dozen or more in combat and guiding them onto a comparatively tiny target quite possibly maneuvering at hundreds of miles an hour ISN'T. Humans simply cannot multi-task like that and it's why air to air rockets never became viable until they became automated.

There WERE various schemes involving radio controlled and even wire guided rockets steered by joy sticks and such around the end of WWII, but they were extremely impractical against anything that wasn't basiclly stationary and a human bombardier could only vaugely guide one at a time. Just try it yourself in say Battlefield 2 with the TV missiles hitting a person on the ground with one of them is extremely hard and you acutally get a view from INSIDE the missile imgine trying to do it stuck looking at the contrail from the helicopter as it streaks away toward that little speck off in the distance!

No a human simply cannot manage multiple shots in this manner it's simply beyond there capability even with total concentration never mind trying to do it will keeping track of what happening around them. IMO this then forces us to say the bolts are guided or home in some manner besides command line of sight. So if these bolts are being independently guided to some extent them homing on a signal as directed by the mage is the most likely answer to most of what we see.

So semi-active weaponry is used because full-auto is hazardous in dogfights. Correct?

And becasue it's normally longer ranged, harder to fool, and more precise in air to ground operations in most cases. (You can fly a laser guided bomb through a specific window on a building for instance, JDAM a fire and forget weapon could probably hit the building or land in the yard next to it, most of the time). It's also possible that since mages are targeting other humans a fire and forget bolt might go after ANY human in the area making it an extreme risk if civilians are anywhere near the combat zone.

If you reduce Nanoha-combat in your writing to this, then obviously your tactical vison is lacking. There are so many ways to ignore the electronical jibber-jabber and still have a great battle from a tactical point of view.

Name them, and it has to be ranged only no melee since that's what this is about for me at least. I notice this allot most battles in the OC seems to end up as a melee fight of some kind in the end. You wanna know why that is IMO? Because Nanoha ranged combat IS boring and uninspired in many aspects and largely boils down to just tanking hits until you can CHARGE UP YA LAZER!!!

Writing melee battles you can easily discuss the combats skill, tactics, and weapon choice of the fighters and they can be made pretty interesting and tense we see that all the time in the OC, but Nanoha ranged combat? It always seems to boil down to “exchange rounds of beam fire, bigger gun (mage) wins” it’s sorely lacking in details and depth to make it interesting to write and that comes through in the lack of ranged battles and the IMO frankly lopsided preferences for melee OCs we see here, or at least OC with some melee skills. IMO people just instinctively realize that ultimately while Nanoha blasting stuff with Busters is cool it’s also a bit boring after awhile and find it easier to write interesting battles with melee fighters.

I've noticed this myself I've found it markedly easier to write interesting battles with my CC oriented OCs then my ranged ones. Whenever I use the later it often seems to in my attempt to make the fight acutally interesting I'm often forced to have them fight in unrealistic or silly ways. (getting close to the enemy or trading punches and kicks and such).

IMO this is due to a lack of complexity in Nanoha ranged battle as often seen in canon and portrayed in fics. Too much complexity IS bad, but not enough is even worse an overly complex system can still be at least a bit interesting and you can just glance over passages if they get too complicated, but an overly simplistic one? That’s really unsalvageable unless the reader is very creative and inserts his own detail to try and flesh it out.

It’s a similar problem to say video game balance in someways too much complexity bogs things down and turns a player off, too little leads to a lack of depth and the players quickly becomes bored with it. Nailing that sweet spot is no easy task and indeed it tends to vary with the person, but IMO as of now Nanoha ranged battle isn’t near that zone at all being in well into the “too simplistic” area. Teana was an improvement using stealth and tactics instead of simply blasting away as most ranged mages had in the past, but I think it can be taken further and made better still with just a bit more complexity and a few new elements and made into something as interesting to write about as magical melee already is.

In my experience, too much technobable leaves people who aren't veterans in that sort of stuff in the dust and turns the combat stall before it has even propperly begun. Electronical warfare in Nanoha is virtually unsuported, the only thing that even came close to that was Jail's attack on the TSAB, and that was more on the scale of 'hack into the main system and throw their leading abillities into chaos' not stretching as far as personal fights.

It shows proof of concept IMO this is another thing I liked in StrikerS it started expanding the depth of Nanoha combat away from "Who's the baddest magical girl?!" to a more tactical approach (if often executed in a bumbling manner) with the possibility for some interesting and new battle tactics and additional depth. Something beyond just all out brawls that basiclly more resembled a series of duels then an actual battle and where "tactics" and "strategy" often seemed to boil down to dicking around for a few minutes then blasting the other guy with your "Das Uber Spell".

But I digress, show me what an electronical battle in Nanohaverse is like, then I will see what its like.

I intend to start introducing aspects of it into the first major battle I have planned for my fic in Chapter 3. (which is already in progress). It's also not going to be like this will take over completely or something but it will be a factor. Another thing to consider and another area of strategy that goes into combat of the ranged aerial kind in particular.

Basically I find the Mid style in Nanoha a tad bland I think a big reason so many OCs avoid it and make new systems or go Belkan is becasue Mid just seems a tad pedestrian compared to all those cool Belkan armed devices or your own personal magic system. I'm not bashing guys that go that route, but I want to try and make Mid as complex and interesting as Belkan and custom styles in my fic and to be about something besides just focusing on range, since frankly quite a few Belkans and other styles also have good ranged attacks.

Basically as of now I don't feel like skill plays a big enough role in Mid type combat and that it's too focused on raw power. I want to try and inject complications and such that make it a bit less about random overpowered beam spam and a bit more about skill and experience.

[Comartemis]

You asume that Reinforce I is the standard for Unision Devices. She's not. Reinforce I was a Lost Logia, major difference.

I assume nothing. Unison devices are said in canon to increase the user's control over their own magic. Given that UDs and mages have separate consciousnesses, I think it's a viable option to have the mage and the device split their attentions into two courses of action; say for instance, Nova programs the spells while Rico forms them, or Nova controls the spells in flight while Rico dodges around and engages in melee. At the upper end of this spectrum, you could even have them form and fire two spells at once, though you wouldn't get the benefits of the unison for either of them.

So an undogable and virtually unblockable attack with only 20 seconds charge? Please tell me you're joking.

Oh, it's perfectly dodgeable; it's called using the terrain. These things explode on impact, just put a building between yourself and the spell. Also, make a note: Rico will usually make these things follow his target's magic signature. Firing off a high-level spell like an Excelion Buster would project that signature away from the target, effectively acting as a flare that will divert most of the group away from the intended target. Most, mind you, not all of them.

[Kha]

Originally Posted by Keroko

Oh, I do have faith, but I still get bit nervous whenever yu mention Fate.

Well I err...

Originally Posted by Keroko

Tiberium, but mana instead of carbon?

Something like that.

Btw, I was also thinking, on the energy scale, that Tronium is an even more potent Relic-like crystal, but too unstable and damaging to be used like a Relic. I wonder if there's any problem with this?

Originally Posted by Keroko

A variant of Project F should suffice.

Originally Posted by Keroko

Wait, now the Spawn bring Al Hazardian technollogy with them? I definetely need more info.

We'll see.

Originally Posted by Keroko

With LEGION conected to the Scrin's systems, anything is possible.

Which begs the question "what the heck is out there?!"

Originally Posted by Keroko

Hmm, that sounds doable.

Okay here's another piece of tech I might use somewhere...

[Evangelion Xgouki]

Time for a

WEEKEND BACKLOG IMPACT

Originally Posted by ghazghkull

Nice. I like it :3

*Trips Shamsel before leaving him to Ryoutaro's wrath*

That wasn't very nice

Originally Posted by Kha

I agree.

*starts summoning Mayura*

...you just want some yuri, don't you?

Originally Posted by Comartemis

More character porting ideas!

--Rosette Christopher (Chrono Crusade), maiden of the Saint Church, and Chrono, her faithful Unison device
--Lagoon Company (Black Lagoon), a group of interdimensional "delivery agents" who work in the wild sectors beyond the TSAB's reach.
--The Rozen Maiden (Rozen Maiden), seven unison devices constructed by a legendary device meister during the closing days of the Belkan/Mid-Childan war.

Less porting and more writing!

Originally Posted by Tormenk

Nice little piece of backstory.

Thanks

Originally Posted by Kagerou

Alright, this is what I have for my Nanoha RPG for now.

Things I need help with:
Class Abilities
More Type A and Type B abilities
Anything else

They call themselves wizards, knights, duskblades, warriors, and sorcerors. Priests, Mercenaries, Ship Captains, and Summoners, these people are all united by one thing: the ability to manipulate and wield the power of magic. Using their Linker Cores, the source of their magic, and their Devices, the focus of their casting, these people come from all walks of life and are bound to their magic. Whether they use it for honor, for justice, personal gain, or cruelty, magic is their calling. These are Linker Mages.

*snip*

A DnD conversion, huh? Never played so I'm a bit lost reading this but it still sounds interesting.

Originally Posted by LoweGear

And continuing from the last chapter...

Belkarangers Task One, Hajimarimasu!

Spoiler for Part One:

*snip*

Nice . And it looks like a new char has arrived

Originally Posted by Kha

...>.>...

...

...<.<...

...

*drops package*

STEEL TALONS

Spoiler for STEEL TALONS:

*snip*

...

*RUNS AT EPIC FLYING SPEED*

The Steel Talons and some SCII units?

KKKKKKHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!! !

Originally Posted by Fuyu no Sora

Ooookkaaayyyyy......

I missed a lot of good stuff apparently ^^;

Good to see this thread didn't go and die though, seeing the pace it had been having ^^

And I'm finally back from my forced break! (stupid exams..*grumblecursegrumble*)

Curse exams -_-

Yay! Welcome back. Hope you did well on those exams

Originally Posted by Nightengale

Kay, I'm finally back... somewhat.

Okay, for some reason Notepad screws up the formatting and text once it crosses 500 kb of text.

So, mind linking me to the new stuffs over the past week?

Weee~ Another returns to the crack

Originally Posted by Liingo

Haven't read the first part of this but it's looking good

And Bride Carry position? >.> Does this mean some action later on



*runs*

Oh, there's a lot more crack to come in Ghaz's fic with the Rangers. A lot more...

*RUNS*

Originally Posted by Wild Goose

This is non serious crack and is written to amuse myself. I need to laugh before I go back to the funeral parlor.

Spoiler:

*snip*

Right, totally non-canon, and is just for cracklulz and Variable Formation and Neppu! Shippu! CYBUSTER.

Crack is good crack
I'm sure Yuuno will convert to their GAR ways soon enough

Originally Posted by Kha

[RP mode on]

I tried to conduct an intervention at the IRC, and got kicked for it. Such is the EVIL that is the IRC.

LIES! BLASPHEMIES! DESECRATIONS IN THE NAME OF A PUNY DAEMON!

I /spit at you Cultists! Never again shall we speak in kindness. YOU SHALL BE PURGED!!!

[/RP mode off]



Thanks for giving me something to post about.

You're welcome

Originally Posted by Kha

--PURGED!!!



*runs*

>_>

I didn't see a Shaman around here...

*Blinks and RUNS*

Originally Posted by Kagerou

Spoiler for MSLN Alpha Episode 3, Scene IV:

*snip*

Well that was fun

Weeee~ Another Alpha chapter . And thus light has been shed upon the prophecy. Going to be interesting to see what happens, especially with Vivio also involved in their coming. And I see Shamsel got a few promotions

Originally Posted by Keroko

Type-0 Sentoukijin

Rebuilt of Uomo

Spoiler for Uomo:

*snip*

Another EPIC trap from the trap master himself.

And NOD? HERE? About time

And to steal a bit from Mortal Kombat...

FLAWLESS INTEGRATION

Originally Posted by Keroko

Try using Firefox tabbed browsing, works fine for me.

That's how I reply

[aldw]

I am interested in writing up a character for a storyline dealing with the aftermath of the TSAB council power vacuum and bureaucratic fighting, if it hasn't be touched upon yet. If it could complement the stories written here, that'd be great.

[ghazghkull]

Originally Posted by aldw

I am interested in writing up a character for a storyline dealing with the aftermath of the TSAB council power vacuum and bureaucratic fighting, if it hasn't be touched upon yet. If it could complement the stories written here, that'd be great.

Well if you think you can contribute to the story, go right ahead :3

The more the merrier. And yes, that's a topic that hasn't been touched, so we look forward to see what you can come up with

[Aaron008R]

... I missed this place...
So many memories... So many fun and learning experiences...
So much profiles, so much stories, so much BLUECHEESIUM, EPICSIUM, SWEETCHEESIUM, etc...
Kono kanji… Tokimekuze!!! (This feeling... How exciting!!!)
It's good to be back.

And as a comeback performance, I present you...

~ Yagami Hayate ~
Ver. GenerationS

Basic Stats:

Spoiler for Basic stats:

Name: Yagami Hayate
Nickname: Hayate-chan, Mistress of the Night Sky
Callsign: Long Arch Zero
Gender: Female
Age: 21 (2 years after StrikerS)
Birthday: June 4, 1996 AD/MC 0056
Occupation/s: Riot Force Six Unit Commander (2 years ago), TSAB Special Investigations Officer (current)
Rankings: Registered mage ranking: Old Belka Zauber Ritter - SS Composite
Height: She’s really short for her age… ()
Weight: ??? <~(Vita said she was heavy, but then said it was a lie. >_<)
Eyes: Blue (Electric Blue during Unison)
Hair: Brown (Pale Blonde during Unison), shoulder length with two yellow clips and a red cross clip on the left
Magic style: Ancient Belka
Magic Color: White
Usual wear: Her TSAB uniform
Specialization: Rear Supporter, Ultra-Long Range Bombardment Magic
Devices:

• Schwertkreuz (Staff/Armed Device)
• Tome of the Night Sky/Tiara (Tome/A.I./Storage Medium)
• Reinforce Zwei (Unison Device)

Theme Song: Haruka Naru Ishi (Meister des Nachthimmeis)~Theme of HAYATE~

Seiyuu:

• Hayate = Kana Ueda
• Reinforce = Sanae Kobayashi
• Reinforce II = Yukana

PROFILE:

Spoiler for Entire Profile:

Spoiler for Profile: Onset:

Profile: Yagami Hayate… one of the four people who make up the well-renowned Four Aces of the TSAB, known for their incredible talent and power even from such a young age. She is also known as the Mistress of the Night Sky and the according Mistress of the Wolkenritter. She speaks in a strong Kansai dialect.

Hayate is a cute, kind-hearted orphan in a wheelchair who is actually the mistress of the Book of Darkness and the Wolkenritter but is unaware that they are causing harm to other people.

Hayate's magic works slightly differently than that of Fate or Nanoha, in the fact that the closest thing she has to "familiars" are the Wolkenritter and her "weapon" is the Book of Darkness. She uses a mix of the Mid-childa and Belka styles, but in the manga, identifies herself more with the Belka side.

Hayate in A’s:

Spoiler for Hayate in A's:

Her story officially begins during Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s. She used to be a wheelchair-bound orphan, the reason as to why her legs were paralyzed being unknown, even baffling professional neurologists. She was also an orphan, getting her living expenses from someone (who turns out to be the then TSA Naval Forces Admiral: Gil Graham) who claimed to be a friend of her parents. (It should be noted that she was already an excellent cook at her age.)

One fateful night, the Book of Darkness, then known as one of the most fearsome Lost Logia in TSAB’s entire history, activated in her room, revealing her to be its new host and prospective Meister. Consequently, this also made her the master of the Wolkenritter, who were then a most-feared band of extremely powerful magical warriors who appeared once every ten years to gather the Linker Cores of several victims to fill up the pages of the Book of Darkness.

However, unlike the previous masters of the Book, Hayate never desired for power. Rather, she was already delighted by the presence of the Wolkenritter, for she never had to be alone anymore. As such, she treated the then-befuddled Knights as her family, even stating that they were her distant relatives to other people. This and the fact that she even forbade the gathering of power for the cursed Tome in fear of harming everyone soon reached the battle-worn Wolkenritter’s hearts (especially Vita, who all too soon became extremely devoted to her), making them decide to settle down and live a life as a peaceful family with the Mistress that they quickly learned to love. During these times, Hayate also befriends Suzuka Tsukimura, one of Takamachi Nanoha’s best friends.

But alas, these peaceful days were not to last. Upon the passing of several more days and symptoms of extreme pain for Hayate, the Wolkenritter discovered that the Tome (which was also revealed to be the source of her paralysis) was automatically draining her Linker Core because of the lack of sustenance of other such Linker Cores. Soon, Hayate would be completely drained and she would suffer a long and painful death. The Wolkenritter, despite of their Mistress’ wishes, resolutely set out to gather Linker Cores in secret, at least this time not killing any innocent people to honor her wish of not harming people to an extent.

This is when the Wolkenritter meets the sisters Nanoha and Keroko Takamachi and Fate Testarossa; who were assigned with the protection of the victims and the defeat and capture of the Wolkenritter, sparking off the long and arduous conflicts that abound throughout A’s. It turns out that the completion of the Book of Darkness, once completed, may stop sapping Hayate’s Linker Core for pages, but that does not mean that it will stop hurting her or undo its damage. In fact, the master of the Book dies upon its completion However, this information, despite being knowledge to the TSAB, was unfortunately never revealed to the Wolkenritter. Just before said completion, Suzuka brings Hayate some friends in the hospital as the Wolkenritter are there... Nanoha and Fate. The warring groups recognize each other and their shared wish at once, and meet on the roof of the hospital. Nanoha and Fate try to tell the Wolkenritter about what will happen to Hayate, but their confrontation is cut short by both the interference of two masked men and the completion of the Book of Darkness with the Linker Cores of the Wolkenritter themselves.

The masked men are actually women/familiars, Lieze Aria and Lotte, who trap Nanoha and Fate and pose as them as they bring Hayate up to the roof and reveal that she can not be cured if the Book is finished, pretending that Nanoha and Fate killed the Wolkenritter. Hayate screams in horror for all of this to stop and is taken over by the will of the Book of Darkness, becoming the fearsome possessed woman inside of it just as the real duo escapes their prison. As Nanoha and Fate fight her to no avail, Chrono Harlaown, who manages to capture the twin familiars, confronts Graham as to why Alia and Lotte had done this. The old man reveals that he sent them, and also that he was Hayate's benefactor, not a friend of her father's. Graham had known all along whom the mistress of the Book was, and he wanted to at least give the innocent Hayate some happiness before he was forced to seal her away in another dimension with her book. Chrono asserts that Hayate does not deserve this fate and that there is another way.

Nanoha and Fate attempt to attack Hayate as she has fused with the power of the Book, but to no avail. They even attempt to communicate with her, telling her that she was tricked, but she cries and, as the Book, says that she is only carrying out the wishes of Hayate. The Book claims that Hayate, losing her friends, has been driven to near-madness in much the same manner as Precia Testarossa had at the death of Alicia prior to the first season. The girls try again, but the Book says that she is simply a tool and will not last long, but must carry out her master's wishes. She absorbs Fate into a dream from which she will never want to wake and reveals that Hayate is in much the same sort of dream. In the middle of this, Hayate, inside a void in the Book's separate dimension, opens her eyes, but the Book tells her to go back to sleep and escape the tragic reality. She could stay with her friends forever, but it would not be real... Hayate cries out that she did not want this at all.

Absorbing the knowledge of the Book of Darkness, she realizes the truth of everything that has been going on behind her back, the innocence of Nanoha and Fate and the sadness of the Wolkenritter. That cannot be forgotten, Hayate asserts. She is the mistress, and the Book has to do what she says. She takes control of her body again so that Nanoha can disable it and gives the Book a new name, "Reinforce". Hayate reprograms the entire Book, but something still remains inside that wants to continue its path of destruction and pain. She identifies it as a corrupted automatic defense program and that it caused the evil aspect of the Book in the first place. Nanoha, Fate, Hayate, Reinforce, Chrono, Arf and Yūno meet up inside the Book's pocket dimension, along with Signum, Shamal, Vita and Zafira, whom Hayate restores to life. They team up and, pooling all of their power, defeat the viral creature. Reinforce believes that she has to be destroyed for the virus never to return, but Hayate refuses to let her go. Stating that she will always be with Hayate, Reinforce deletes herself, leaving behind the pendant of Schwertkreuz and some parts of her power to Hayate.

In an epilogue-taking place six years later, Hayate is older, able-bodied, still living with the Wolkenritter, and working for the TSAB along with Fate and Nanoha.

Hayate in A’s to StrikerS:

Spoiler for Hayate in A's to StrikerS:

In the epilogue issue of the A's manga series, stated as being five months after the conclusion of the A's anime, Hayate is depicted as having enrolled as a cadet in the Special Investigations Unit of the TSAB. The Wolkenritter have been allowed to remain with Hayate—she explains that this is because Admiral Leti believes they possess greater potential as a single unit as opposed to being deployed individually.

Six Years later, the four Aces have already settled into their respective careers in TSAB (with Hayate no longer paralyzed). Hayate’s being a Special Investigator with regards to Lost Logia. During a supposed vacation of the four Aces, a fire breaks out in Mid-Childa’s Coastal Sector, set off by another type of Lost Logia collectively called Relics. The rescue operation spearheaded by Hayate is ultimately a success. This incident motivated Hayate to push forward her aspiration of having her own unit to deal quickly with such cases as these to avoid unnecessary losses to everyone. She timidly requested her fellow Aces to help her, but insisted that they’re not obligated to do so. The three other Aces not only accepted, but also encouraged her to a great degree about obtaining her goal.

This is also the period where she meets and gets to know several other people. Among these are Carym Gracia and the Saint Church, where she is unofficially accepted as the youngest sibling of the three last practitioners of Ancient Belka, her, Carym and Verossa Acous. This is also when the replacement unison Device to the first Reinforce is born, Reinforce Zwei.

This is also when she meets the enigmatic Magitech researcher, Aurion Dauer, whom she would later come to regard as a parent figure, someone who she could ask for advice and such.

Hayate in StrikerS:

Spoiler for Hayate in StrikerS:

Fast forward to ten years into the future, Hayate, now a famous mage and Special Investigations Officer has finally set up the Lost Logia Investigation and Sequestering Unit: Riot Force 6. Hayate’s power is reduced to rank A due to administrative reasons.

Several weeks passes with relatively little trouble; and Hayate continues to lead the unit diligently. Thru these times, RF6 has been hot on the track of the Interdimensional Criminal, Jail Scaglietti and the relic smuggling cases. It is also revealed later that the real reason of existence of RF6 was the prevention of the prophecy of Saint Church’s governing ruler, Carym Gracia, which fortoled a great tragedy to happen in the near future.

It was not until the first clash against the Summoner, Lutecia Alpine, several Sentoukijin and a gamut of aerial drones that Hayate finally steps up from her Commander’s Seat and takes to the sky (her limiter was released to rank S by Chrono), leading the charge against the enemies and apparently winning the day despite the lack of enemy captives. They obtain custody over the mysterious girl, Vivio.

Things begun to run downhill from there, as she and her unit was put under the scrutiny of the extremely opinionated (and also notably suspicious) Brigadier General of the TSA GF, Regius Gaiz; who considered her still a criminal and was fervent to quell her actions under his jurisdiction. RF6 was able to pass the initial inspections without a hitch. However the lines of internal conflict were drawn between Hayate and Regius, with both parties suspicious of each other’s activities.

MC 075 11-12th September, during the grand meeting at TSA Ground Forces, Jail Scaglietti strikes with an excellently-executed ambush that eventually leaves the Ground Forces and the RF6 HQ in shambles. Several injuries were sustained in the one-sided clash. But the victor was clear. Vivio and Ginga Nakajima were taken by the enemy. Almost everyone of Hayate’s entire unit was severely injured, both in body and mind. Hayate, despite showing a brave front against the crushing defeat, was severely shaken from her first ever major failure in such a critical operation as a TSAB Commander.

Carym was afraid that they were unable to prevent the prophecy from coming to pass, but Hayate, refusing to give in, requested to recommission the soon-to-be-scrapped Arthra as their temporary base of operations in order to lead a charge to hunt down and arrest jail Scaglietti for good. However, Scaglietti was several steps ahead, unleashing the ultimate superweapon of Ancient Belka, The Saint’s Cradle; a battleship that possessed so much power that no single mage or groups of mages, no matter how powerful could defeat, so much power that given the right position, it could face off against the entire TSAB Fleet and do Cross-Dimensional attacks of incredibly destructive magnitude. Hayate, in order to delay the Cradle’s ascent to its ideal position, led pretty several entire squadrons of the flight-capable mages available then to face of against the nigh-infinite number of gadget Drones released by the Cradle as Nanoha, Fate, Keroko, Vita, Signum, Rein, Tesla, Shamal, Zafira and the Forwards went on their separate positions to address to the crises.

The battle of attrition went on for hours to seemingly no avail until Hayate could no longer wait and decides to go inside the Cradle herself to help Vita, Keroko and Nanoha. She enters Unison with Reinforce Zwei (who just arrived), and charges inside the Cradle with the entirety of her individual power; managing to save Vita from the brink of death and watching as the primary reactor of the Cradle blow up due to Vita’s successful efforts. Afterwards, she proceeded to Nanoha’s location, laying waist to all opposition that came her way. Just as she arrived, Nanoha and Keroko had finally managed to retrieve Vivio. However, just when all was seemingly won, the Cradle activated its emergency ‘Sleep’ mode, triggering the supposedly complete cancellation of magical links inside the Cradle, subsequently rendering the three Aces completely powerless.

Hayate, despite Keroko’s misgivings, retrieved the unconscious Quattro from beneath the Throne Room of the Cradle before issuing a retreat by foot as Rein confirmed the futility of any magic and transmission inside the overpowered AMF. Unfortunately the Cradle activated its auto-repair function, locking them helpless inside the Throne Room before they could escape. Just when all hope was seemingly lost, Subaru Nakajima (who was capable of fighting inside any sort of AMF due to being a Sentoukijin herself), accompanied by Teana Lanster, arrives in time to rescue all of them before the Cradle finally reached orbit to be blasted by a barrage of the Magic Cannons of Chrono Harlaown’s XV Assault Cruiser Fleet. Hayate is shown to be sympathetic of the assassinated Regius Gaiz, as she too, had lost many things and was desperate to protect, ending up overdoing it.

Despite the miraculous victory, Hayate felt that she did not deserve the credit, attributing her victory to her staff, particularly her Aces and Strikers. She decides to return to being a Special Investigator despite being now sought by several command posts by the TSAB for her feats. She never told anyone, but she was partially afraid of leading again. Genya Nakajima, her mentor in Command, offers her sound career advice and tells her that she still had more opportunities in the future. And Aurion, with surgical precision, proceeds to expertly address her terribly hurt self-esteem and accumulated self-doubt (or at least, helped her not let these worries be the thing that prevailed in her mind). He made a deal with her; where she should try out more things, regardless of what they were and he would help her in any way that he could after a year or so. Hayate, thanks to the lengthy conversation with him was now more clear-headed and positive, and accepts the deal. She also for the first time fondly calls Aurion ‘Otou-san’ (meaning ‘Father’); much to the older man’s apparent astonishment.

Six months later, Hayate officially dissolves RF6, its purpose having been served. Having a better resolve, Hayate sets out to better herself as a commander, as a mage and as a person, clueless as to what the future held.

Two years later, during MC 077… One of the greatest ever adventures of Hayate and her friends; testing their courage, faith, and the very foundation of their existences is about to be set in motion…

~And so StrikerS has ended… And GenerationS, begins…~

Hayate in GenerationS:

Spoiler for Hayate in GenerationS:

Hayate has come a long way since her crestfallen state at the end of StrikerS. True to her deal with Aurion, she has started to try several other applications of her powers for better survivability in combat, as well as studying better tactics to make a better rear supporter and commander (with significant help from Tesla). Chrono soon announces a mission where Hayate and her Knights are needed. It was about a Lost Logia investigation in the far-off planet called Duraxyll 2. Apparently, Aurion was also assigned to the mission as well for research purposes, a fact that delighted Hayate (and annoyed Vita) greatly. He later takes her devices from her for a short while to complete his end of the bargain, upgrading her devices. The result is a new hi-spec Administrative Artificial Intelligence for the Tome of the Night Sky, which he named Tiara. It should be noted that Hayate and the Knights felt that the name was vaguely familiar, but Aurion merely waved it off as coincidence. She clashes against Aurion in a majorly one-sided mock battle (Aurion was apparently just playing with her) to test out her upgraded devices to some admirable results. A few days later, they embark on a mission towards the aforementioned planet, not knowing that most testing times awaited them…

Personality and Psychological Development:

Spoiler for Personality and Psychological Development:

Hayate is a very kind and pure hearted person. She also sports a will that does not back down even at the gravest of threats, as well as unbreakable loyalty to the people important to her. As an orphan, she valued anything that she considered as family, as seen with the Wolkenritter. Despite her paralysis in her childhood, Hayate never blamed anyone or hated her body because of the plight but rather strove on cheerfully. As the master of the Wolkenritter, she had forbid them to gather Linker Cores, stating that would cause trouble for everyone. She was content to live the rest of her life with her newly acquired family. Incidentally, she also said that she won’t die so easily now that there were people with her. When the Wolkenritter was seemingly killed by the fake Nanoha and Fate in front of her, Hayate flew into a state of near-madness and temporarily overwhelmed by the desire for revenge. However, Hayate’s pureness of heart and unusually strong force of will would put a stop to Reinforce’s rampage and regain control over her body.

Hayate was stricken badly by the decision of the first Reinforce to sacrifice herself to save her. This led to the development of a minor guilt and martyr complexes in Hayate’s mind. From what is seen in several instances during StrikerS and other media after A’s Hayate more often than not blames herself a lot, such as citing that she was selfish, etc. At one point in the StrikerS animation, she is shown to be prepared to use her life for the purpose of preventing the same pain that happened to her from happening to others. This would continue until the end of StrikerS, where Hayate finally realizes the dangers of her desperation to protect.

In the course of StrikerS, Hayate has shown many admirable and not-so-admirable traits as a leader. For one, she was very devoted and diligent about her work. She was prepared to lead herself when necessary, and was able to make good snap-decisions on several occasions. However, she also has a slightly defeatist personality (as shown when she says that it would be their loss if the enemy got to her in a close range encounter) when it comes to her own individual skills as a mage. She had an unhealthy level of trust in her Knights, knowing that they would protect her during battle, cumulating in the disturbing lack of any sort of any range combat training outside Hayate’s area of specialty. Despite her SS rank, her abilities in combat without Unison were glaringly low, making her almost helpless if faced with an enemy that can bring the fight closer to home. Additionally, she (as well the other Aces to an extent) has shown a level of overconfidence about victory, leading to the crushing defeat at the face of the September 12 Terrorist attack orchestrated by Jail Scaglietti. This failure didn’t make Hayate’s determination to succeed falter, but it caused a small amount of self-doubt to start eating away at her from the inside. This feeling was severely strengthened by the climax of StrikerS, where Hayate was ultimately (in her eyes) another burden who wasn’t able to do much during the final battle. It was at this point that several characters would witness her almost constant self-depreciating remarks and monologues of being a failure, a fact that severely bothered those concerned with her.

Thanks to a number of people, namely her friends, Genya, Aurion (to a great degree) and some others, she is able to eventually overcome her depression and come thru as a stronger and wiser person.

On a much lighter note, Hayate has shown several other notable traits in the course of her growth. One such trait is her tendency to commit ‘sekuhara’ (sexual harassment) on other females (actually, it’s just friendly skinship. But heck, she STILL feels them up!). This started as an innocent fascination on lager ‘assets’ during her youth (Shamal, Signum and Reinforce were not saved from this). However, it has developed into somewhat of an odd trait for her as she grew up. As revealed in a Sound Stage, she had actually sekuhara’d the female bridge bunnies of Long Arch and also expressed her disappointment of not being able to do so with the female Forwards.

Knight Armor:

Spoiler for Knight Armor:

Her costume consists of a black and white battle jacket over a black minidress with gold accents, a black cape that was bound around her waist, a white balmoral, and three pairs of black wings. As she does not use the Mid-Childa magic system, it is not called a Barrier Jacket, but the purpose is largely the same. Hayate simply refers to this as her "armor (甲冑 kacchū)".

LOST LOGIA PROFILE:

Spoiler for LOST LOGIA PROFILE:

The Book of Darkness

Spoiler for The Book of Darkness:

The Book of Darkness (闇の書, Yami no sho), or Buch der Dunkelheit, is a Lost Logia that has been around for centuries. As a Belkan device, it speaks German. The Wolkenritter, Vita, Signum, Shamal and Zafira, seek to complete its 666 pages to save their mistress, but Nanoha and Fate oppose their absorbing innocents to do so.

It turns out that the Book has been completed once every few decades, killed its master rather than reviving him or her, and wiped the minds of the Wolkenritter of what it has done. However, it was originally a benevolent book called the Yaten no Sho/Yaten no Madosho, but was corrupted by its own automatic defence program. In the 5-episode climax, the Book is completed by the two "masked men" with the Wolkenritter's own Linker Cores and fused with its mistress Hayate, becoming a frightening, vengeful woman who exists only to wreak destruction on the world and then kill Hayate. The Book almost destroys Uminari City, absorbs Fate into "a dream from which she will never want to wake," and corners Nanoha when Hayate finally takes control of her body again.

Reinforce (リインフォース Rīnfōsu)

Spoiler for Reinforce:

Reinforce is a Unison Device, and the master program of the Book of Darkness. When the book was completed in episode 10, she merged with Hayate but largely was in control until Hayate reiterated her position as the device's master. Hayate, when she separated the viral defensive program from the rest of the Book and turns the spirit into a more normal-looking version of her familiar form, gives her the name Reinforce and takes her on as a partner. Reinforce's special attack is Ragnarok. As when she was a Tome, Reinforce was shown to be very affectionate with Hayate, oftentimes floating towards her Mistress and rubbing against her cheek. She also held several conversations with their Meister in her dreams, deepening the bond between them and increasing her anguish at the knowledge that she was slowly killing and would eventually kill Hayate because of the corruption of the Tome of the Night Sky.

During the Final Battle ins A's, Hayate, inside a void in the Book's separate dimension, opens her eyes, but the Book tells her to go back to sleep and escape the tragic reality. She could stay with her friends forever, but it would not be real... Hayate cries out that she did not want this at all. Absorbing the knowledge of the Book of Darkness, she realizes the truth of everything that has been going on behind her back, the innocence of Nanoha and Fate and the sadness of the Wolkenritter. That cannot be forgotten, Hayate asserts. She is the mistress, and the Book has to do what she says. Just as the Book has Nanoha cornered, Hayate takes control of her body again so that Nanoha can disable it and Hayate gives the Book a new name, "Reinforce".

Hayate reprograms the entire Book, but something still remains inside that wants to continue its path of destruction and pain. She identifies it as a corrupted automatic defence program and says that it caused the evil aspect of the Book in the first place. Reinforce frees Hayate and becomes her partner. Nanoha, Fate, Hayate, Reinforce, Chrono, Arf and Yūno meet up inside the Book's pocket dimension, along with Signum, Shamal, Vita and Zafira, whom Hayate restores to life. Reinforce and Hayate uses Unison Mode to transform into one powerful being that uses the Mid-childa aptitude and the Belka technology that both possess. The group teams up and, pooling all of their power, defeats the viral creature. Reinforce believes that she has to be destroyed for the virus never to return, and approaches Nanoha and Fate to do so, but Hayate refuses to let her go. She asks Hayate one request to give the new container a new title, "The Blessed Wind", stating that she will always be with Hayate through the Knights and the new container. Reinforce then turns into a small form of the Schwertkreuz.

DEVICES: Hayate has three devices at her possession. They will be discussed in detail as follows.

Spoiler for DEVICES:

Schwertkreuz (シュベルトクロイツ Shuberutokuroitsu)

Spoiler for Schwertkreuz:

Hayate's device, also called the "Sword Cross (剣十字 Kenjūji)", a staff that is used in unleashing her powerful spells; it is classified as an Armed Device despite its principal function. Despite being blatantly named “Sword Cross”, Hayate does not have a very high proficiency at all in using this as a melee weapon. It was the pendant left behind when the first Reinforce deleted herself to assure Hayate’s safety, this device has gone thru numerous internal remodeling and retooling to better adapt to Hayate’s unique variety of magic. In the manga, it is shown to be already remodeled 8 times, and as of StrikerS, it is shown to have an installed Sighting Support System connected with RF6 HQ, with additional adjustable levels of the synchro-errors for Hayate’s easier ultra-long range targeting (courtesy of the Long Arch staff) without Unison with Rein. As of GenerationS, it will have a further upgrade internally, as well as having a link with the new Tome of the Night Sky’s AI, Tiara.

Tome of the Night Sky (Yaten no Sho) / Tiara: Tome Storage Medium / A.I.

Spoiler for Tome of the Night Sky / Tiara:

Hayate built this device as a replacement for the destroyed Tome of the Night Sky; it is a storage medium for her spells. Upon the acquisition of the tome, she was never shown casting a spell without this , also shown to be kept inside her body when not in used and summoned accordingly. This may give to the allusion that this device is indeed more along the lines of the original Lost Logia more than being simply a device. When asked, Hayate does say that she already considers this book as a part of her.

In GenerationS, the device gets an upgrade, namely the new Administrative AI and high-speed spell-processor that Aurion (who upgraded the devices) named as ‘Tiara’. ‘Her’ voice is similar to what it had during the first Reinforce’s time of existence. Hayate took this as a sign of cruel sentimentality from Aurion, but appreciated in nonetheless, actually embracing the tome emotionally a few moments after the introduction.

Tiara is still a relatively new Artificial Intelligence, so Hayate, with some help from Reinforce Zwei frequently run updates on her memory and programming schematics for better synchronization. Also, as a benefit of being a state-of-the-art prototype advanced processing AI, she is able of impressively speedy and sometimes even autonomous spell-processing for Hayate, helping the Mistress of the Night Sky in her problems with handling her logically slow mana processing speed to a certain degree.

Additionally, there is also a new prototype system Aurion installed in Tiara. It is called the aptly-named ‘Bookmark System’, which is explained by the capability of Tiara to individually process (though it tends to be slow) and manufacture ‘Spell Bookmarks’, which is intrinsically similar to the functions of the Lieze Twins’ spell cards shown in A’s. This allows Hayate to bring a limited amount of pre-cast spells stored in cards. The normal limit is 10 cards, which gets lower the more powerful the spell loaded in a particular card (since the cards are still linked with Tiara, and subsequently, Hayate). With this, Hayate is able to adapt some more to her ineptness in quick spell-processing.

Upon inception, Hayate has diligently bonded with her new AI-enabled Storage Device. With Reinforce Zwei’s assistance, she was able to raise her synch and control rate with Tiara to almost perfect within a week. She has become quite fond of the book, holding conversations with the new AI’s at several instances. Even Rein has been shown to show a fondness for the tome, calling it ‘Tiara-chan’.

Reinforce II (Zwei) (リインフォースII Rīnfōsu Tsuvai): Unison Device

Spoiler for Reinforce Zwei:

In an epilogue that bridges the gap between A's and StrikerS, Reinforce is revealed to not have disappeared completely. A new Reinforce created from the remains of the first. Known as Reinforce II (pronounced as ‘Zwei’; which means ‘Two’ in German). She is much smaller than her predecessor (About only six inches in height) but still allows the normal functions of a unison device.

Reinforce II (simply called Rein by Hayate) is Hayate's unison device in the A's epilogue and StrikerS series. She is also known as a "control device (管制デバイス kansei debaisu)", meaning that she helps Hayate organize and control her magic abilities. This function may be comparable to the AI programmed into the intelligent devices Raising Heart and Bardiche, but Reinforce II also has the heart and will characteristic of the Wolkenritter.

Reinforce II is a smaller version of Reinforce that has been accepted as a member of Hayate's task force in the Time-Space Administration Bureau; she even wears the uniform. She can be summoned as a hologram from the Schwertkreuz, and is later showed to have a very solid and ‘living’ form as well later.

Reinforce II (pronounced "Zwei") is apparently solid, and needs to eat and sleep daily; she has a "room" of sorts in Hayate's bag. She holds the rank of Sergeant Major and serves as Hayate's SNCO/ Chief of Staff in Lost Property Management Division 6. She is also revealed to be capable of taking the size of a human child, but she has trouble with using magic and flying in this form.

In the anime, she is shown capable of unifying with other Wolkenritter members (Vita and Signum) to boost them in battle, although because of their incompatibility, their union is not as good as Hayate's. When unifying with them, their clothes change its color to white.

When not in Unison Mode with Hayate or the other Wolkenritter, Reinforce II uses a blue book called the Book of the Azure Sky (蒼天の書, Sōten no sho) and appears to specialize in ice-based magic… when she actually enters Unison Mode with Hayate, the Mistress of the Night’s Sky’s hair and eye color changes to pale blonde and electric blue, respectively. Also, her performance overall is boosted to a very significant degree, Rein helping her handle her overabundant mana and raise her magic processing speed, as well as making her targeting even at extremely long ranges deathly accurate. This makes Hayate a frighteningly powerful force to reckon with.

Rein is extremely attached to Hayate, who served as her mother-figure throughout her years of existence. She was at first very formal and addressed Hayate accordingly as ‘Meister Hayate’, needed a good part of four years to get over it and call her Hayate-chan.

Fighting Style:

Spoiler for Fighting Style:

Hayate’s role in combat is a rear supporter with extremely powerful ultra-long range bombardment spells. Her rare skill and sheer amount of mana makes her one of the most powerful mages the TSAB has ever known. However, her amount of mana is so large that it has got to the point that it severely messes up her capabilities in processing and multi-tasking using magic. As such, her capabilities of casting spells is more or less effectively limited to forming a spell array and firing away while leaving the protection to others, most usually her Knights. Also, it is shown that despite her capability of high-speed flight, her agility is lacking.

It would have been fine and all, but there is a noticeable and slightly distressing lack of initiative to do compensatory combat training on her part, leaving her already open defenses too open for comfort when viewed at a tactical standpoint. This mistake is finally being rectified somewhat as of the end of StrikerS…

During Unison, her capabilities increased dramatically and her weakness in mana processing is lowered to a great degree as well, turning her into a very powerful mage capable of handling masses of simple enemies at closer ranges. However, this does not cover her lack of capabilities in dealing with closer ranges in general.

SPELLS:

Spoiler for SPELLS:

Offensive Spells:

Spoiler for Offensive Spells:

Atem des Eis - An ice magic attack, creating four icy-blue cubes that shoot against targets, creating a wide area freezing effect. In StrikerS episode 2 (flashback), it is used to put out the fire. It was classified as an S-Class technique and even Hayate admitted she cannot fully control it.

Diabolic Emission - This Area-of-Effect type magic attack creates a dark-colored globe of concentrated magic that progressively expands, thus destroying everything in its way. Originally used by the first Reinforce near the end of A's, during episode 12 of StrikerS, Hayate is shown also to be capable of using this spell.

Hræsvelgr - Hayate conjures multiple Mid-Childan sigils in front of her and use them to fire powerful energy beams. Once the beams reach a designated area, their energy compacts itself and explodes. This spell can be used to take down multiple enemies in different and distant locations. Though this is a Ancient Belkan spell, the Midchildan magical sigil was used in episode 11 & 12. This is believed to be an effect of the Long Arch team's control over its aiming.

Mistilteinn - Hayate's first attack in A's, an area of effect that rains down seven light spears on her target and petrifies it.

Celestial Emission - Considered as a sister-spell to Diabolic Emission. This expanding sphere of pure white energy expels; or rather, directly damages the area hit instead of consuming it like what Diabolic Emission seems to do. To put it simply, it is akin to slow-moving concentrated explosion. To better illustrate, think of a Hraesvelgr shot that expands slower like Diabolic Emission but offers more power.

Pandemonium Zone - The earth surface is damaged, causing the several broken rock formations and other things present to be swept up in a small tornado.

Balmung - A massive sword that is several times larger than a human is created. This is controlled by Hayate.

Valkyric Buster - Despite the name, this is not a buster spell, per se. This was a spell formulated by Hayate for her relatively slow spellcasting and lack of mid-extremity attack spells. At first, Hayate chants the incantations, a Belka sigil forming underneath her. From the three points of the Belkan Triangle, three luminescent orbs of energy rise. These are then used by Hayate as automatic remote attack units that are capable of firing off powerful Buster-class shots each.

Annihilation Lightning – An AoE spell that drops several columns of incredibly powerful lightning over an area. It is shown to be capable of destroying magical barriers that cover a large region with ease.

Bloody Dagger/Blutiger Dolch – A spell where Hayate surrounds herself, OR the enemy with several crimson crystal daggers; these are then fired at an enemy at incredible speeds, usually rendering last minute-dodging impossible for most.

Schwarze Wirkung (Black Impact) – Black Energy gathers at Hayate’s fist o Schwertkreuz’s tip, then she charges at the enemy and delivers a very powerful melee strike.

Ragnarok - Hayate's final attack in A's, in the same area of strength as Nanoha's Starlight Breaker and Fate's Plasma Zanber Breaker. A triple buster, firing at the three tip points of the Belkan Triangle.

Defensive Spells:

Spoiler for Defense Spells:

Panzer Schild (Tank Shield) — Blocks all magical attacks coming from one direction with a triangular magic shield, much like Fate's or Nanoha's Round Shield.

Panzer Geist (Tank Spirit) — Creates a defensive aura, which surrounds Hayate.

Calamity Wall: Calamity Wall is an autonomous defense that doesn’t need any further sustenance after being released; giving her a chance for casting other spells inside, though it takes a considerable amount of energy to use.

Absolute Protection: Baldur Field: A prototype spell developed by Aurion specifically for Hayate’s use. This is a very powerful field protection field that forcefully negates any field effects (such as AMF) on top of a potent barrier against attacks by using Hayate’s incredibly high amount of mana in making a specialized negation effect against any other type of fields as well as erecting a defensive barrier. This spell is currently only available to Hayate because only she can power such an intensely high energy-drain spell. Aurion claims that this field in its compacted and maximum output can even counteract against an incredibly dense concentration of Anti-Magilink pulses (like that of the Saint Cradle of Ancient Belka’s AMF that trapped Hayate and Nanoha inside) as long as Hayate’s mana reserves hold. Nevertheless, not even Hayate can possibly hold this type of field for any longer than a few minutes until she completely runs out of energy.

Other Spells:

Das Gefangnis die Magie (Magical Prison) — A near-impenetrable dome surrounding a vast area, entrapping all inside. This dome also disables telepathic communication as well as visual display with any outside the barrier.


Other People’s Spells: Owing to the nature of the late Tome of the Night Sky, Hayate still retains the natural and absorbed spells of the Book of Darkness, and is also capable of learning more spells from others if it is ‘uploaded’ to her Tome.

Spoiler for Other Spells:

Blitzschlag (Lightning Stroke) – A spell copied from Tesla; these are small, yet powerfully concentrated bolts of lightning that are highly fast and accurate.

Eisengeheul (Iron Howl) – This is originally Vita’s spell. Hayate gathers pulsing red and white energy explodes it with Schwertkreuz, creating a shockwave of spinning white winds around her. It is used as a distraction, the winds and noise being enough to chase birds out of their trees and catch the opponent off guard.

Photon Lancer - Genocide Shift: A far superior version to Fate’s Photon Lancer - Phalanx Shift spell, this involves her preparing several hundred spears of electricity and hurtling them all at once at targets. This spell is insanely hard to dodge.

Sprite Zamber - A spell copied from Fate when she was absorbed by the Book of Darkness. This is a spell used for obliterating illusion, imprisonment and field spells. In Hayate’s case, the ‘Zamber’ part only springs from the tip of Schwertkreuz for only a few seconds.

Excelion Buster - A spell Hayate was able to ‘borrow’ from Nanoha. This involves gathering an enormous amount of pink energy and shooting it at one direction. Hayate has been shown to be capable of doing this with Tiara’s Bookmark System.

Part 2 in next post.