General Roland's office, as best as Hayate could put it, was something of a museum display of his past achievements. This was almost completely controversial to the rather bland knobbed door he had for it. In fact, his office seemed to be one of the less advanced in the building, where as most other offices had the fancy high-tech TSAB doors. Roland simply thought the old style door had a more friendly look to it.
However, almost immediately when she came through the rather plain looking door, she was struck by the amazing amount of... knick-knacks he had strewn about. She was greated first by the large poster sized picture right behind his desk. It dipicted a large yellow shield with a diagonal black stripe going from the top left, towards the bottom right. In the upper right hand yellow space, a black, horse-head shaped sihloett was placed. It seemed somehow familliar. Along side it on each side, various other emblems could be seen. One arched ribbon read, in plain English lettering, "AIRBORNE" and had below it, another shield, but with a full color image of an eagle with a white head. Another was a solid black background with the gold outline of another arched ribbon, this one had the lettering for "RANGER" on it. Based on the way they were mounted on each side of the large wall scroll, they seemed to be very important for the General.
Below these, were something she more readily recognized, pictures. Seemed to be class pictures similar to the TSAB's basic training schools for mages, but they weren't of mages, but camoflauged soldiers. The first image had a rather youngish looking group, with a commander in a rather, interesting looking brown hat off to one side. Another was a similar image, but with a more weather-beaten looking group that somehow seemed to be extremely proud of themselves. On the opposite side, an image of a younger version of Roland sitting atop a large tan vehicle she recognized as a Tank. What kind, she couldn't identify, and wherever he was in that image, it seemed to be a dessert. The final picture of the group of four on the wall showed him, many years younger, wearing a dress uniform and decorated moderately well.
The wall to her right held a different museum of items. She recognized some kind of Earth firearm in a glass case mounted to the wall almost immediately, but it seemed unloaded. Next to it was another case holding a large helmet and the camoflauged uniform he'd been wearing in the pictures. It was neatly pressed, decorated, and displayed immaculately for any wandering eyes.
The desk, was another story... despite the low amount of paperwork, it became clear why the general hated it in the first place.
He sucked at it.
A large number of papers lay unsorted in a seemingly random stack, mixed with manilla folders that covered nearly every square inch of work space in a haphazzard manner she was glad Rein didn't have to see, save for a small spot where he would be working on whatever paper was most important. She noted several numbered pages of a document laying 'lost' to different corners of the desk and realized they belong to a seventy-two page report that he seemed to only have six pages of. The only other empty space on his desk seemed to one other display piece, a miniature model of the tank he was riding in the picture. It's 'gun' pointed towards the door, and whomever would be coming through it, as if guarding the dissaster.
To her left, Hayate noted the chaos continued, somewhat. Roland had a bookshelf, some shelves containing books she couldn't identify, and others fill with various knick-knacks she could only believe went with his 'set', ranging from odd pins to an assortment of TSAB, and non TSAB rank pins. This was immaculate in contrast to the filing cabinet along side it, the middle drawer half open and a disarray with one manilla folder sitting open on top, a paper about ready to drop to the floor. The top drawer was cracked open, and seemed to have it's own folder that looked like it hadn't gone in all the way and the general got fed up and tried to shut the drawer on it anyway.
All in all, it was as if Roland had been right in the middle of paperwork and simply dropped what he was doing to perform some other, 'more important' task on the base.
This, she had all taken in during the few minutes it took for the General to apologize for forgetting something, step out, and return with a data disk to place in the holographic computer console that seemed to rise up from the paperwork mess like a zombie from a grave.
"Comprehensive Performance Anallysis from the Maidens and Devices," he explained as he sat down in his chair (which squeaked awkwardly as he did so). Then he noted her apprehensive look at the sheets of white before him.
"Oh, sorry about the mess, paperwork's not my thing."
Obviously. Hayate had been around her knights so long, she could HEAR Vita making that comment offhandedly.
Roland continued unperterbed at her constant uncomfortable glances at the mess on the desk, bringing up the holographic screen of his console and fishing for the compiled summary the AI's had done of the test.
"According to Bloodberry's strategic compilation, the MADCAP performed well above the statistical break-even point of the combat trial by an order of magnitude. The statistical break-even point was that it would be able to handle large numbers of unintelligent or vastly inferior foes handily with a secondary precident of being able to evaid and survive higher level enemy units."
Hayate nodded, waiting for the General to continue.
"After affirmation of results with Cherry, and performance cross refferencing with Raising Heart and Bardiche on the manner, Bloodberry has concluded that EDI's performance in all tactical and strategic sectors to be of an ace level value. The combined summary quite clearly puts him on par with a well balanced Double S combat mage."
Roland waited for that to soak in, then continued his mini-brief.
"Strategic Planning, Tactical Evaluation, Reflexive Response, Preemptive measures," Roland Continued. "All vastly superior to any mage performance. Not surprising since EDI is a computer that can calculate thousands of combat scenerios in a second."
Hayate nodded, no argument there.
"Judgement, excelent. Compassion, I'm surprised this was ranked... but still. EDI temporarily suspended its mission to compete with Fate and then assisted her and Bardiche in breaking the speed record. Excelent level."
Roland flipped through a statistics point graph.
"Speed, more than any mage can handle save for what Fate displayed. Manueverability and Agility. Not as good as a combat mage, but there's a tradeoff for being an airframe. Brute Power, well, unlike linker cores, the MADCAP has a defined magical power system and has a set amount of magic it can burn through at any given time."
"So he's lacking in offensive power?" Hayate asked.
"Oh he's got plenty of power," Roland waved her response back. "Thing is, while the overall output and in general, the stamina of the system would outlast any mage, EDI lacks the burst power a top level artillery mage such as yourself can put out. Whatever he can do is limited to the power of his generator over the course of time. What that translates into is what we saw."
Roland hit a button and displayed EDI's assault on Fate.
"EDI could theoretically engage with mid level buster shots almost non-stop," Roland stated. "However, unlike say, the stunts Nanoha can pull with that experimental Blaster System, the MADCAP cannot gain a significant short term increase in raw power to deal with significant threats. Not without a core overhaul, and it's rather difficult to increase core output without increasing it's size."
"That makes his limits more or less well defined," Hayate nodded. "That makes his threat predictable, but at the same time..." she looked up, smiling. "A reliable and consistant platform."
"Yes," Roland nodded. "And Reliability is something mage forces can find rather difficult to maintain, seeing as our puny organic bodies constantly change."
"I remember when I was shooting down Jail's drones while Quatro was masking them with high level illusions," Hayate thought alloud. "I didn't have a problem taking them down, by the hundreds at some points, but the constant effort to stay on top of the numbers was taking its toll. Having some kind of assistance that would never get tired of dealing with them would have been a strong card to play, even more so later on."
Then Hayate looked up.
"But Jail in particular was learning from every move either of us made, and he proved it with his next offensive. What about Versatility."
Roland paged through the onscreen report.
"EDI is equipped with a basic combat package based off the most popular Mid-Childa combat mechanisms. He's got basic 'guns', so to speak, a pair of low power magical gatlings really. And he's equipped with two deployable combat systems that simplisticly duplicate the buster shot, and the multi sphere homing bullet system. However, he's got a rotary rack with eight slots for installation of mission specific elements. So there's six slots that can be used to hold anything from specialized sensor elements, to exotic or mission specific arms."
"What kind of arms?" Hayate asked. Roland's eyes darted to the screen.
"Anything."
"Anything?"
"Well," Roland sighed. "Anything that FITS. The rotary rack is designed to accept a wide range of both standard and non-standard equipment on it's locking clamps. So long as EDI knows the hookup and operational mechanisms of the installed equipment, if you can make the clamps hold it, EDI could use it."
"Does that include mass based weaponry?"
Roland did a double take, but understood the genuine concern underlying the rather loaded question.
"Yes, strap a bomb in that slot and EDI would be no different from a supersonic fighter bomber," the General nodded. "We did a test of that with the rack system. The rack can hold up to four thousand lbs of ordinance and still function effectively. Magical equipment generally doesn't get that heavy, so you can fill every slot. Real bombs though, the MADCAP could potentially carry two to four JDAMs."
"That brings me to another question," Hayate stated. Roland had a pretty good idea where this was going. "Why is it, out of all the TSAB, this facility has the authorization to for all intents and purposes, to play with banned mass weaponry, in what amounts to their own backyard?"
"Guts, Determination, and lots of WAAAGH!" Roland responded, looking off to the side.
"I'm serious!" Hayate crossed her arms.
"Okay," Roland shook his head. "I'll be fair about it. The short version is that I convinced the brass that the most effective use for the confiscated material destined for destruction at this facility was best put to use in a constructive manner. That the TSAB should not fall behind in the ways of mass weaponry, or risk falling victim to a situation in which they would be utterly unprepared to account for them in a large scale picture."
"Mid-Childa almost got destroyed by war one-hundred and fifty years ago," Hayate countered. "I don't see you convincing anyone, especially Regius who supervised you, that it would be a 'good idea' to let the weapons that nearly annihilated them become toys to some guy on a remote island... No offense of course."
"None taken," Roland nodded as if to say. 'Fair Enough.'
"But that's the abridged version, I never said it was easy. I had to pull facts, I had to pull experience, I had to pull favors and make trust calls. I had to compile a-three-hundred-page-report documenting what I wanted to do, why I wanted to do it, and the costs and benifits to the TSAB at large on almost every level. I had to do PAPERWORK."
Somehow, Hayate could see that as being a kind walk through Hell Itself for Roland.
"Not only that, but I had to provide a feasable scenario in which the TSAB's magical superiority could go from an advantage to a Liability. And as hard as that sounded, somehow, I got lucky."
Roland stood up, walked over to his bookshelf, and pulled one carefully placed binder from its spot. Opening it up, he pulled out six sheets of paper, obviously a summary of the details in the stacks of papers kept in the binder's rings, and handed them to Hayate.
The girl scanned them for several minutes. The General watched as her face went from scrutiny, to the apex of utter disbelief over the course of seven minutes and thirty seconds.
"This... THIS," Hayate began at last, her mouth partially open in a shocked gape as she tried to find the words to fit what she was thinking.
"Is utter, and complete, bullshit of the highest magnitude possible, yet still completely TRUE." Roland smirked. "I took the United States' overview of the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, and constructed a scenerio where in the Soviets got access to the most base of magical support just by capturing one Bureau mage, and snowballed the worst case scenario in details too well written to be made up. I played upon every strength the Soviets had at the time. Numbers, industry, ruthlessness. Yet in classic journalism style, I neglected to mention their abismal maintanance, failing economy, and poor morale amongst the people."
"And they BELIEVED this?" Hayate looked at the General shocked.
"Believed it?" Roland shook his head. "I could litterally identify the very moment Gais hit the number of thermonuclear warheads in the Russian stockpile. The guy went white as a sheet before asking me if that number was real."
"What did you tell him."
"The truth," Roland crossed his arms. "I cut the number in half in the report."
Hayate turned as white as Roland had remembered Regius.
"Not only that, but once Gias realized just how easily even a basic transport magic could put a nuke on an unprepared cruiser, or even in HQ itself, he started asking for countermeasure options to the transport magic and/or the actual weapon. I didn't have permission to do anything, but he wanted countermeasues, for the navy. Regius HATED the navy. I think it scared the guy shitless for a week."
"But the Soviet Union fell nearly twenty years ago," Hayate countered after a few seconds. Roland leaned back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head.
"You know that, I know that..." then he leaned forward and smirked. "They don't know that. Not to harp on the wonder that is the TSAB and what it's trying to do for mankind, but I'm a soldier, and those armchair commanders who run things are at best, rookies playing at politics when they've never actually been in a full scale war."
"But, Mid-chil-" Hayate began.
"Mid-childa nearly MADed itself to death a hundred and fifty years ago... and it scared them so much they threw their weapons down and shoved anything war-like away from themselves as hard as they could trying to forget. Trouble is, they've actually succeded to some extent, and it's DANGEROUS."
"And having weapons so easy a child could use them isn't?" Hayate asked.
"And a nine-year old with a built beam cannon isn't?" Roland counteracted. Hayate knew exactly who that stab was aimed at.
"I know it's flawed logic to say it," he continued before she could object. "But fluke or not, Nanoha was a child capable of demolishing buildings should she had wished it, and nothing short of full military action would have stopped her otherwise. With magic weapons, yes, no person is simply going to pick up a weapon and destroy worlds, but where do you draw the line at what is acceptable? A child abused by her biological mother sent around to be the violent but unwitting errend runner for a mad scheme that could potentially shatter realities? Or maybe the girl who accidently discovers an ancient artifact that runs out of control and nearly destroys a city as a side effect?"
Hayate went deathly quiet, glaring silently with every fiber of her being, suppressing that hostile feeling of having her own personal history used as ammo in an argument. Roland laced his fingers under his chin and learned on it, suddenly looking far older than he previously had.
"Happy endings these tails," he nodded solemnly. "Happy endings thanks, not to some bureaucratic bullshit about how Weapon X is Greater than five hundred weapon Ys and should be smushed the moment its seen, but because someone put their ass on the line to get the job done, for better, or for worse."
He paused, allowing Hayate time to respond, she remained cold silent, but the look in her eyes softened.
"All I know is this," he stated. "It doesn't matter if it's mass based, or magic based, easy or hard, young or old, weapon or no. If it's dangerous, it will kill. One in a hundred, or one in a thousand. It's simply a matter of when, and where... all it takes is One. One failure to adhere to safety policy, one madman with a scheme to play, one dissenter who thinks he's more important than everyone else.... and BAM. You kill one, you kill a hundred, you kill a hundred million. What are acceptable losses? Would you rather have to guess because policy makers decided it's too dangerous for the stuff you have to deal with to even exist? Or would you rather know exactly what that stuff can do, so you can know half the battle before it even starts, and defeat the enemy so quickly and thoroughly that it's not even worth calling a fight?"
Roland looked up, seeming to regain his composure.
"I'm not going to force you to change your mind, but I will ask you to think for yourself, just as I stated when you showed up. You are from the same planet I am. You know for a fact that while the very thing the TSAB fears can unleash horror... Just because it can, doesn't mean it has to. Even if it's a kid pushing a button... it still takes a kid to push the button. I would rather the people know the button could destroy the world, so someone knows to keep the child away from it. The alternative is a DeeDee... 'Oooo what does THIS button do?' and such."
Hayate looked down for a while as roland continued to stare, absentmindedly noting he had fallen into a meloncholy looking version of the Gendo Position. After about two minutes of complete silence, Hayate looked up again, seemingly almost sad.
"If only it were that easy to convince people..." she began.
"There would be no wars," the General looked solemly over his hands. "And the universe would be a far happier place for everyone." And then his uncharacteristicly soft gaze stiffended into the steel he had once before. "Until then... I have work to do."
And with a quick and purposeful motion, rose from his desk, sliding around the side somehow managing not to disturb the paperwork, and opened the door.
"Lt. Col Yagami, if you would please follow me..."
Crash felt like shooting himself. Ever since lunch, he'd had to play tour guide yet again for the Aces and their team. Only now he had no 'attractions' to distract them, and it felt like he was currently under a microscope. Nanoha and fate were talking quietly between themselves, chittering from time to time at some random comment, usually after pointing at him. Crash had also noticed, every few seconds, Nanoha would take a quick glance at him with a strange look in her eyes. For most guys, a pretty girl who can't stop looking at you would probably be the thing they practically begged for. But somehow, Crash knew this wasn't the case... He had a sixth sense for trouble. Being a walking murphy's law tends to do that to you.
Signum knew the look. It was the same kind of look instructors gave new recruits who showed massive promise. Said new recruits usually got the star treatment. And in combat training... that meant hell itself for the rookie. She watched him twitch involuntarily after spotting one of Nanoha's glances. He may not know what the look really meant, but his instincts knew. As far as Crash knew, Nanoha was a bloodthirsty predator eying a particularly top cut of meat. Not too far from the truth given how intensive Nanoha's training could get. Signum of course, saw the raw potential Crash had exhibited as well, and that made things even worse. She couldn't in good strategic sense, NOT back a reccomendation. And if Nanoha has her way (which she usually does, Signum learned that the hard way), Crash would be doing combat training with the forwards at RF6 in no more than two weeks. The poor guy probably doesn't even realize his doom.
And then there was Vita. Ever since lunch, Crash gave Vita an extra few feet of space. Obviously her reputation was out, and Crash was staying what he considered to be, 'outside of hammer range'. Signum knew Vita tended to be hot headed, but she also knew Vita wasn't as explosive as she let on. However between her reputation, caustic manner, and blunt threats of physical violence (reinforced with brash displays of Graf Eisen...), well... she couldn't really blame Crash for wanting to avoid the experience. After all, the kidnapping incident wasn't false, so there was SOME truth to the tails... plus Vita seemed to be so 'proud' of that one, Signum KNEW it was the first one divulged.
Then there was Fox. The girl was having a rather animated conversation with Vita... Getting along alot better than their first encounter. They were both smartaleks with big mouths, but Signum could only notice the complimentary way they managed to mesh. Vita was blunt, and had plenty of brute force to back it, but Fox had the wit and that holier than though temperment of superiority. Put them together and you have the beatdown of a lifetime, and then an equally sad gloating session.
The horror.
But then again, Fox was somewhat detatched from Vita, having only just met. Fox and Crash on the other hand. A very nice complementation. Fox had the attitude but was learning, and Crash had a reverse of the personality, but the raw grit, nack for combat (whether he liked it or not), and restraint.
It was almost like Fox was... No, not a girlfriend... She didn't quite fit the bill for surrogate little sister either. It was more like... like. Like a sidekick. They'd poke at each other with verbal jabs, but Crash was clearly the leader in terms of personality, and not just rank.
After lunch, the General had yanked Hayate off to his office to review the data with her, leaving Crash to play the job of tour guide again... but without any place to tour, they'd simply spent about twenty or thirty minutes 'hanging out' for lack of a better term, in the Day Room. The Day Room itself was little more than a miniaturized, and under enthusiastic recreation center. A big screen Television ocupied one wall, with a few couches and chairs centered on it. Some vending machines that dispensed drinks (Including a machine with lightning and magic circle artwork labeled POWERTHIRST. Rein was eying it constantly.) were stashed in a far corner. A couple of spare tables and some board games occupied the back of the room.
The remote was off limits to Crash for obvious reasons, so they were stuck watching some saga about a hyperactive blond girl, and her partner who seemed to die every other scene. Luckly, for Signum's own sanity, the stay was reletively short and the... unique entertainment of the blond girl's dialogue kept to one episode only.
Instead, Crash had opted to follow Fox to the test hanger, which required a few security checks before they were admitted to the section. Vita of course, wondered aloud if there was any place on this island that DIDN'T require a security screening. Fox supplied the answer quickly, and effectively.
"No."
Vita was moving towards responding about needing Security Clearance to use a bathroom when Hayate and Roland came up the corridor ahead of them. Upon seeing the entire group conveniently reassembled, he smirked.
"Enjoying your stay in Paradise?" he asked.
The girls shrugged. Roland took that as a yes and continued without hesitation.
"Well, I'm glad you're all here. It saves me the trouble of paging you over the PA system."
He motioned them over to a door leading into the hanger itself.
"We've reviewed the fight data, and I'm happy to say it's quite good. Plus I got the registration with the main database, and Fate over there officially holds the highest unsupported mage air speed record of all time."
There was a small round of applause from the group before the General intterupted them and turned to Fox.
"I think you're wanted inside," he stated. "Don said he has something for you to take a look at, so you might as well go in."
Fox nodded and opened the door, passing through before the General turned back, allowing it to shut on its springs.
"Now, before the rest of you head in there, I must say what you see is considered classified. We have EDI in there, but we also ha-"
"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Nobody knew exactly when or how Crash had transformed. But no sooner did it register that the voice on the other end of the screem was Fox's, did a heavy armored boot from the Olympian armor plow into the door, hitting with enough force to tear the hinges from the frame. The entire mess spun inwards violently before clanging into the ground somewhere in the room. Crash was right behind it, bringing the multiform rifle out and up to power before the battered door had struck the floor. In the darker expanse of the hanger, he was already cycling to nightvision and thermal imaging on his HUD before he finally took stock of the situation.
Despite the flashy entrance, Fox stood, mouth agape, staring at something in front of her. Lowering the rifle, Crash looked at it too, and fell dumbstruck. The MADCAP was one thing, but the amount of detail he was looking at... Crash felt like his every waking moment was taking a further turn for the odd. First the feeling of living a movie... now a Video Game. But there was no mistaking the mass of Triangular metal shapes in front of him.
"You're kidding me right?" he asked. "That... that's..." He knew the name, but seemed to have trouble forming the words in his own shock.
"It's an Arwing," Shamal supplied from behind him... The group had spilled in on his heals when he smashed the door in, so they were clustered around him. When she said that, all of them, including the General, looked at her as one.
"What?" she asked. "I like a game occaisionaly too you know."
"Well, is it real?" Vita asked. Fox still seemed to be stuck staring at it.
"OF COURSE it's real," Don suddenly announced, coming around one of the landing struts. "It took me a month to build."
"WHY do we have one built?" Crash asked, starting to twitch under his armor.
"Birthday gift," Roland supplied from the back of the group. Again, as one, everyone turned. He eyed them all briefly and then crossed his arms and looked at them all smugly.
"Fox's birthday was two weeks ago," he stated. "Don knew how much she liked flying the jets, and thought about building her one of her own to fly. A little flashy, but I thought it was okay. However, Cooper suggested the type of craft as a bit of a refference to her callsign and so he decided to build it as a full on starfighter. I suggested that to keep it a secret, we built it in here with the MADCAP so we could surprise her. So... well. SURPRISE."
Fox continued to gape, her head turning slowely to look at the General and then back to the aircraft, and then it began to register.
"You mean I get to fly this thing?" she asked.
Don crossed his arms and nodded. There was a brief pause as her shocked face turned into that of purest glee.
"OhmygodthankyouthisissoawesomeIcan'tbelieveI'mgoi ngtoflyanArwingYouguysarethebest!!!Thankyouthankyo urthankyouthankyouthankyousomuch!!!"
"Battery..." Crash began.
[PRIMED]
"I think we need a slow motion instant replay... Because I didn't catch any of that."
Roland laughed as Nanoha walked up to the silver and blue starfighter and ran her hand along the metal.
"How well do you think it will perform compared to its game counterpart?" she asked. Don wandered away from the fighter, noticing the remains of the door, but responded as he did so.
"Well, it's got pretty much the Mid-Childa equivilant to every system it should have based on the game. It's rolling performance can't be replicated... and that deflection roll just won't work... but it'll accellerate like a rocket compared to every other vehicle on this base, including the MADCAP, and it's actually pretty good as far as it's atmospheric aerodynamics go. It's fully pressurized too, so it can go into space and dimensional space like a true starfighter."
While Don shook his head at the wreckage of the door, Crash followed Nanoha over to the Arwing, and raised his own armored hand to mimic what she had done, but stopped short when he realized he couldn't really touch with it, and lowered it again.
"I wonder how well I can make this baby perform with those kind of parameters," he wondered aloud.
"You so much as put a fingerprint on that Arwing," Don suddenly spun around. "And I'll string you up by your toes in only your underwear and beat on your with Phobos and Deimos like one of those Earth culture dolls that spew candy! That fighter is for FOX, and you will NOT! TOUCH IT!"
"Noted," Crash took a step backwards. A moment later, he remembered he was still in his armor, and powered down.
"So can I give it a test run?" Fox asked. Like any kid getting a new toy, they wanted to start playing with it as soon as they knew it was there.
"Actually, not until Saturday," Roland stated with a solemn tone. "We have to run you through the startup procedures, control systems, emergency procedures if something goes wrong, a safety brief... Just like any aircraft. It's not just a toy... and we don't have time for all that today."
"Oh."
To a newcomer, it was as if the world had just ended for Fox. Nanoha hid a smile, even a mature child was still a child on some level.
"Consider it an advantage for your situation," a synthetic tone resonated through the hanger. They had forgotten that the MADCAP was in here too. In fact, in the arwing hype, they had completely failed to notice EDI parked directly along side the starfighter. The sleek arrowhead shaped drone was a dark color and blended well with the shadows despite the number of lights illuminating the hanger's work area.
"If you consider the weekday airspace requirements of the fighter wings, associate the burden of the AWACS flights and Abenobashi Air Traffic Control, you would have undue restrictions placed on your actions. On Saturday, you will have complete dominance of the local airspace to push the performance envolope of the Arwing to its fullest, and Air Traffic Control as well as the AWACS flights will have little trouble monitoring you and doing their jobs without hinderance."
Fox paused, then smiled.
"You're right," she stated. "Thanks."
"You are quite welcome," EDI responded.
"Not a bad piece of logical advice there," Crash aplauded. "So you can do other things besides calculate destruction probability."
"As long as my operational assignment is for the test units," EDI began. "I am part part of your squadron. As part of the squadron, it is my responsibility to take care of my wingmates, both in the air and on the ground, to the best of my abilities. As it is said, that is how a team acts."
"Bravo," Crash nodded, clapping. "Bravo and good show."
"Well, as was the good news from the test results," Roland cut in. "EDI ranked rather high on the compassion charts, so I'd say we're all in good hands... er, uh... wings."
-BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP!!!!-
Everyone froze on the spot as a hideously loud attention noise blaired over the PA... after a second or so, the familliar voice of Martin.
"Attention, Priority one: General Roland and all visiting Riot Force Six members, report to TICTOCC Immediately. Level three situation, I say again, level three situation. General Roland, Riot Force Six, report to TICTOCC immediately. Martin out."
When everyone turned to leave, Roland was half way to the door at a quick trot.
"Sitrep!" Roland barked the moment he came through the doors to the Test Operations Command Center. The MSM showed the global map of Mid-childa, but a new overlay with a pulsating red orb was highlighting a spot on one of the southern continents.
"New tasking orders for RF6 came in from HQ," Martin responded, even as the girls and Crash filed in quickly behind the General. "Level three situation, designated an investigative situation for the Lost Property Riot Force Six's jurisdiction."
"Brief us then," the General ordered.
"Yessir," Martin nodded. "Twenty minutes ago, HQ suddenly experienced a communications blackout with the main magical power plant just outside the city of Selene. At the fifteen minute mark, when no communications came in from local forces investigating the situation, HQ turned MIDSAT C on the area. Sensor equipment encountered something unusual. An area over ten kilometers across is being covered by a blanket effect Anti-magi-link field."
There was an audible murmur from the aces at that point.
"As such, this was considered a potential after-shock of sorts from the JS incident a few months ago. With that assumption made, RF6's ace unit is being dispatched," and he rolled his eyes. "Since they are closer than other special operations units at this time."
"Pft! CLOSER?!" Crash suddenly scoffed aloud. "HQ needs to get some concept of distance in normal space then rethink that assessment! You know what they say about people and assuming."
"Quite," Martin stated. "However these orders are authenticated. Ground Command is quite serious."
"When they care enough to send the very best," Crash rolled his eyes. Roland put his hand on his chin has he skimmed the tasking orders again, his brow furrowing as he did so.
"What City was that again?" Nanoha asked. Martin pointed up at the MSM, the red dot blinking ominously.
"Selene."
Nanoha's jaw nearly hit the floor. Something Fate admitted she never had really seen.
"SELENE?!" she asked incredulously. "That's on the other side of the planet. Even at our best speed, it'll take over twelve hours to get there by helicopter, and that's the best we can do short of a transfer!"
"Without a ship in orbit, that kind of Transfer's too tiring," Shamal frowned. "They can't expect us to get there quickly and be ready for a fight."
As if he'd only just heard Nanoha's last comment, Roland looked up.
"Other side of the planet?" he asked, as if it was somehow not a concern. Everyone looked at him. "I can get you there fast."
Nanoha looked to him in surprise, but quickly hid it with scrutiny. "Like, HOW fast?"
Even Crash, at the back of the room, crossed his arms and waited for the answer. The General seemed to have something up his sleeve. It was that smug 'I know something you don't know!' voice.
"How does thirty minutes sound?" Roland asked. Fate's head snapped around, and they all looked at the General like he was crazy.
"And how do you plan to do that?" the blond asked, clearly not believing it.
"I have my ways," Roland stated, now so fully smug it was disurbing. He then hardened his gaze and turned to his second.
"Hey Martin!"
"Sir?"
"Ready the Deep Sky for takeoff," he ordered. "We're going for a ride."
Nanoha and Fate blinked.
"Yes SIR!" Martin responded with enthusiasm. In the back of the room, Signum looked at Hayate.
"Deep..." she began.
"SKY?" Hayate finished.
As they shared a look, Crash's head snapped up, and he slapped his fist in his palm. Of COURSE!