Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Riot Force 6
Chapter XI Second Mission
This was always the hard part: getting the mission to finish, mostly according to plan. If there was something she had learned in her long standing career with the TSAB, was that nothing ever went according to plan. Therefore, all she could do was make sure that every knew what they were doing, make sure everyone’s gear was in working order, and set them free to do their part of their plan. And hopefully not screw it up.
“Alright, everyone remember the plan?” Keroko asked, after she had made sure everyone had touched down without a problem and had finished expecting their gear to ensure operation. Everyone nodded in response, waiting for the signal to go.
“Alright then, everyone to your places, and wait for my signal,” Keroko ordered. With all of them nodding in confirmation, Keroko nodded for all the senior mages to start following her, leaving the battle platoon, RF6, and the Belkarangers to their own devices.
Taking a moment to get her bearings, Tiana surveyed the land. In terms of whether conditions, she was thankful that there was some descent cloud coverage. At least it would be able to cover their approach until it was too late; especially with the direction their shadows would have been cast. Mostly greenery, but she knew the actual excavation site was in a rocky area. Glancing in the direction, she saw the area they had to proceed to: a hill that would overlook the excavation site, and allowed them an easy point to flank them and catch them by surprised.
Taking a deep breath, Tiana turned her attention towards everyone, and assumed command. “Alright guys, let’s get going. We’ll need to set up quickly before they can get away.” Unfortunately, trouble had already reared its ugly head.
“We’re aware of our orders,” the platoon commander pointed out, stepping up into Tiana’s face. “And quite frankly, I don’t think a GIRL should be giving orders at all.”
“Excuse me?!” Tiana responded indignantly, raising an eyebrow. If there was one thing she would never allow, it was to let someone walk all over her.
“Now you see here-”
“Lieutenant, stand down,” Ryoutaro firmly stated coming in front of the lieutenant and cutting of Tiana before she could say anything.
“With all due respect,” the lieutenant snidely stated, “this does not involve a civilian collaborator.” Shoving Ryoutaro aside, he moved to continue his tirade on Tiana, only to have someone grab him from behind, and throw him onto his back.
“I’m not a civilian collaborator,” Ryoutaro replied. Reaching into his pocket, Ryoutaro pulled out a wallet, and presented his ID, much to the surprise and horror of the platoon commander. “I am Captain Nogami Ryoutaro of Division 66 NERV, and I’m ordering you to return to ship Lieutenant.”
“What?! Why are you sending me back up?” he demanded, coming up to his feet.
“For inappropriate behaviour unbecoming an officer towards a subordinate and a civilian,” Ryoutaro firmly stated, answering the lieutenant’s question.
“What?! But you said you weren’t-”
“Lieutenant,” Ryoutaro stated, cutting him off. “Return to ship immediately.” With each word, Ryoutaro drove a nail deeper and deeper into his ego, showing no signs of relenting. “I will be speaking to the ship captain, and your platoon commander.” For a moment, the Lieutenant just stared at Ryoutaro, mouth opening and closing, much like a fish. Were the situation any different, most were sure they would have laughed at the ridiculous sight.
“Lieutenant,” he repeated, not standing for the junior officer’s behaviour.
“Yes sir,” the lieutenant growled, calling up the Rakshasa to recall him.
While all this had happened, everyone, save for the Belkarangers, watched as Ryoutaro handled the troublesome officer with little difficulty, exercising his rank just enough to control the officer, and put the situation back into normal flow of things. Among them, Tiana watched in surprise and awe at how Ryoutaro had remained calm, cool, and collected during the entire exchange, saying no more than what was necessary in order to maintain control of the situation.
When the lieutenant disappeared, Ryoutaro turned his attention towards the platoon that had remained. “I will take command of this unit for the duration of this mission. If any of you feel that you should not partake in this mission, please return to the ship.” For a moment, they watched as the 5 sergeants’ converse among one another discussing what they should do for the mission.
Glancing around, Rue noted how Mayura was practically beaming towards her husband. Rue let a wry grin slip past her lips. She supposed that was only natural, especially if one is able to see one’s spouse act so cool, with a mighty air of confidence and command.
“We’ll follow you sir,” the platoon sergeant declared, snapping to attention, saluting Ryoutaro. “For the duration of this mission, we are under your command.”
“Thank you,” Ryoutaro replied returning the salute.
Stepping up towards Ryoutaro, Tiana let out a sigh and said, “I suppose I turn command over to you, Captain.” Ryoutaro suddenly became a bit unnerved by the fact that Tiana’s resignation of command of the mission. If anything, his sudden step-up may have discouraged the girl from the command position, especially when he had just stripped down an officer, and had effectively taken command of the platoon.
Thinking fast, Ryoutaro came up with an idea, he hope would work out and be able to boost her moral. “How about I observe you, and evaluate you?”
Tiana’s face lit up immediately as she snapped to attention. “I’ll do my best.” Ryoutaro immediately returned the salute, and watched as Tiana reassumed command, her spirits already lifted. “Alright guys…let’s move out.” Everyone nodded in affirmation and followed her order. Along the way, everyone began to gear up as devices were primed and ready for activation.
Arriving at their checkpoint in a timely fashion, Tiana coordinated with the all the squad commanders and had everyone fan out in such a manner that when the signal was given, they would be able to cover as much ground as they could when the enemy line was stormed. However, due to the way the base had been laid out, there was going to be a huge issue with getting everything covered. However, as long as the objective was achieved, she could live with that.
“Everyone, activate your devices,” Tiana ordered everyone, activating Cross Mirage as her barrier jacket formed and her twin-pistol device formed in her hands.
“Quietly,” Ryoutaro added in, knowing how much the Belkarangers loved their theatrics. Asagi immediately expressed her displeasure, and opted to simply have her device on standby for when they could actually do their thing. Likewise, Mayura and Julie followed suit. Immediately, Stars, Lighting, and Hammer activated their devices as well.
‘Major Keroko, we’re ready,’ Tiana messaged.
‘Alright get ready, because it looks like they just got it out,’ Keroko replied.
Glancing down, Tiana watched as miners immerged from the mouth of the tomb, carrying some sort of box in their hands. ‘I understand.’
“Ne, Hayato,” Asagi whispered towards Hayato, nudging him as she had her device deploy her Survibuster.
“What?” he replied back to see Asagi point down towards the base. Glancing down, Hayato noticed some machinery partially hidden in one of the tents. Looking back at her, Hayato raised an eyebrow, asking what she had in mind.
“You think we can blow those up?” she asked, as she altered the output of her weapon.
“Probably,” he warily answered, unsure if it was a good idea to do something behind their back. “But shouldn’t we ask for permission?”
“Ryoutaro trusts me,” she replied back easily. “Besides, we’ll do it when we rush.” Hayato mulled it over for a moment. On one hand, it would add additional confusion if they blew up their gear, but then there was the issue that it would be against orders, and that they may, or may not blow something up that was meant to stay intact. However, he finally sighed and acquiesced, and pulled out his device, and began to charge.
Above, Keroko watched as Nanoha, Fate, and Farukon stood ready with Axel Shooter, Plasma Lancer, and Blowback Pierce respectively while Signum and Vita were crouched, ready to leap into the action. Charging her own Blast Lancer, Keroko took one last glance down below, watching as they placed the target Lost Logia in one of the tents.
‘Get ready,’ she ordered over the link. Nodding towards the three, the plan was set in motion. Leaping over their hiding place, all four unleashed their attacks.
From below surprised mercenaries watched in bewilderment as bolts of pink, yellow, and red heavily bombarded their campsite in an almighty bang, scattering equipment, personal gear, and the like, as a red beam cut through a section of the sleeping area, impacting the ground, tearing apart earth and rock in its wake, exploding, creating a shockwave of dust and encompassed the area.
“That’s it,” Asagi exclaimed, getting up and letting her shot fire.
Also bounding up, Hayato lined up his shot. “Strike shot!” he bellowed, a large bolt of magical energy was fired from his device. He watched as their shots flew in together before striking the machines within, as they exploded with an earth shattering explosion.
“Nice-AWW FUCK!” Hayato screamed.
Glancing back, Asagi watched as the device in Hayato’s hand exploded, throwing him back as pieces of metal zipped past everyone. Cursing herself, Asagi told them to just go ahead and headed over to Hayato, clutching his hand cursing loudly in between his groans of pain. Approaching him, Asagi could see that he was in a tremendous amount of pain. Whatever the explosion had done, it had done more than just burn his hand. Kneeling down next to him, she could see that there was some shrapnel in his face, along with a few cuts on his arms.
“Bloody hell,” he groaned, trying to keep himself from screaming in pain.
Reaching for his hand, Asagi suddenly found herself pushed aside as Rue took it in hers as her hands started to glow yellow. Silently cursing herself, she hoped that he wasn’t too badly hurt. Looking around, she found a few solid remains of the device. Carefully picking it up and making sure it was cool before she did, Asagi called up her device and had it store the remains away. Maybe she could do something about the device later.
“How’s that?” Rue asked, drawing Asagi’s attention.
“I can at least feel my hand,” he muttered. Despite the pain he was in, it had lessened dramatically. Unfortunately, there was no way that he would be able to use his right hand for some time.
“Asagi,” Rue called out, “you have anything I can use to bandage his hand?”
Reaching into a small first aid kit attached to her leg, Asagi quickly pulled some cream, a gauze pad, and some tape, and immediately got down next to Rue and helped her bandage Hayato’s hand.
“Just lovely,” he muttered. “Absolutely lovely.”
“Hey it could’ve been worse,” Asagi pointed out, applying the cream to his hand while Rue extracted whatever pieces of shrapnel she could.
“I suppose,” Hayato muttered.
Down below, chaos ensued as mercenaries scrambled for their lives, while excavators panicked, caught in the cacophony of battle as they tried to sort themselves out. Bewilderment ran rampant among their numbers, as RF6 Strike Force stormed through the camp. The seconds rapidly flew by as spells were unleashed, weapons clashed, and mercenaries were incapacitated and summarily placed in binding spells.
The excavators fled, while others attempted to get to the excavated Lost Logia, only to be caught and placed in a binding spell where they were forced to wait with those who had been captured.
“What an idiot,” Syn grumbled, easily blocking a punch thrown at her. Grabbing a hold of the offender, she threw him easily over her shoulder before kicking him hard in abdomen, sending him skidding towards the group of prisoners. Seeing that a squad was placing binding spells on him, Syn continued on.
“I mean really, having his device explode on him like that,” she continued to rant, as she beat up a hapless miner, and backhanded a mercenary who had attempted to attack her. “How dense can you get? He KNEW there was a mission, and what does he do?” Drawing on her pent up rage, Syn threw a wild haymaker into another person’s face, sending him flying back, as he howled in pain. “What kind of an idiot does that?!”
“Syn, aren’t you being a bit unreasonable?” Vivio asked, ducking underneath a spell before getting inside the attacker’s defence and knocking him out. “He takes good care of them. It was an accident.”
“An accident that’ll leave his gun hand useless for a while,” Syn retorted, easily throwing up a shield to block a few magic strikes before boosting towards them and winding the two of them. “And what is this? Shouldn’t this be harder?”
“It would be if they weren’t so confused,” a familiar voice replied. Behind, Farukon stood there with Gerhard in hand. “That was the reason why you waited.” Flipping Gerhard so he was holding just below the ammo box, Farukon swung out the pole, catching someone in the face. Immediately swinging the pole downwards, he struck the poor hapless soul in the groin, and then placed binds on him and moved on.
“Just don’t get yourselves killed, girls,” he warned and moved on.
“REVOLVER SHOOT!” Subaru bellowed as she barrelled through enemy lies. Trailing after her bolt, Subaru effortlessly weaved through the enemy, tripping, punching, blocking, and other similar acts of combat as she cleared through enemy lines, knocking them all clear off their feet.
Behind, Tiana fired shot after shot bombarding whatever survived Subaru’s wake.
Ahead, the two Belkarangers ranged on forward. Their Surviblades drawn, they easily ran through taking out any and all opposition that stood in their way. Any of the excavators caught in their path were quickly dispatched and tied down for later pick up. Making their way towards the tent the Lost Logia was stored; they continued to run through anyone and anything that stood in their way.
“Well that completely killed our usual routine,” Mayura sighed as she easily blocked and knocked out a mage.
“It cannot be helped,” Julie quietly responded as she effortlessly dispatched 4 of the mercenaries with little to no effort. “Hayato-san had been injured.”
“I guess not,” she sighed. Ducking under a few more spells, Mayura lashed out against several mercenaries taking them down quickly.
“Well this was lame,” Vita grumbled, landing in front of the tent with Signum. “They could’ve put up a better fight.”
“It was unfortunate we could not exercise proper punishment,” agreed Signum, walking through the tent entrance. “However, the justice system will do the rest.”
“I think we should introduce them to OUR justice,” Vita angrily growled. “I mean, come on! They broke into a Belkan Tomb!”
“A grave mistake on their part, but we can take consolation, it was only a treasure tomb,” said Signum, picking up the case.
“What?”
“That tomb was build specifically to contain this,” Signum explained, indicating to the container in her hand.
“What is it exactly?” Vita asked, raising an eyebrow.
“We will examine its contents, once everything else is secured,” Signum simply said, before letting everyone know that the target had been secured.
‘Tell Vita to head out and secure everyone,’ Keroko ordered. ‘Guard that Logic until we sort this out.’
‘Understood,’ Signum replied, and then turned her attention to Vita. “You may vent as you please. Just refrain from killing them.”
“You’re no fun,” Vita scoffed, shouldering Graf Eisen over her shoulder. “I swear I can never have any fun.” Storming out, she immediately took flight, barrelling herself straight into a group of stragglers as they tried to run for it. Caught unaware, Vita unearthed a mighty war cry as Graf Eisen spun in a blaze of firing, having transformed into its Rocket Form. Spinning at full speed, Vita made short work as the storm that was her anger sent all into the air, having been rendered unconscious from her assault.
“You could at least fight back,” Vita growled. Glancing around, there was hardly anything for her to do left. Most of them had been dealt with in the initial assault before anyone had moved in, and even then, the Forwards, and the Belkarangers had cleaned up most of the mess that the excavators and mercenaries had laid out, leaving her to roam about. And unfortunately, roaming meant that she had nothing better to do than let her thoughts run wild.
‘Alright, everyone round up the prisoners, and gather them by the main tent,’ Keroko ordered everyone as she slung over two unconscious bodies over her shoulders. ‘Mission accomplished.’
“Aww,” Asagi whined, as she placed a bind upon a straggler. “Just when we were getting in on the action.” Hayato could only laugh sheepishly at her as he watched her mumble under her breath, slinging the bound prisoner over her shoulder, and started to head over to the rendezvous point. He couldn’t blame her though. She had stayed behind to help Rue heal his hand, but even then, he still needed to get it checked out by doctors and have it properly dealt with before anyone could say that he was okay. If anything, the nerves could’ve been damaged worse than anyone was aware of.
“At least we took out a couple,” said Hayato, disengaging his device, and holstering it.
“Still,” Asagi grumbled, trying to counter his comment. “I wanted some action.”
“Only because Nogami-san said that you couldn’t do your little show,” Rue sighed, retightening the hair tie that kept her hair in a high ponytail. Asagi said nothing, save for puffing her cheeks in defiance against Rue’s statement, saying that she was wrong or something of the like. Hayato and Rue simply smiled in amusement at her immaturity, but made no comment towards it as the three of them progressed towards the designated meeting point.
“So uh…how’s your hand?” Asagi sheepishly asked. Although she wasn’t showing much of it, Rue noted that Asagi felt bad towards Hayato. If anything, she wanted to somehow pay back Hayato for the fact his device exploded on him.
“It doesn’t hurt that much,” he answered, glancing down at his right hand. “At least I still have feeling.”
“That’s good,” she happily chimed, lightly patting his shoulder.
“Yeah…but that means I have to go back to drawing board,” Hayato sighed tiredly. “Months work, once again forced to be revised.”
“How long have you been working on this?” Asagi asked.
“Give or take about a couple years,” he woefully sighed. It was clear that this setback was disappointing him a lot more than he was letting on. “My brother and sister are going to flip when they found out one of the devices blew.”
“That bad of a moral crush?” Rue asked, raising an eyebrow at the melancholic attitude.
“You could say that,” he sighed. If anything, he had the shoulders and stance of one who had been slapped and stomped on, and then left to wallow in defeat and sufferance. The only other possibility was that he and his siblings had put a tremendous amount of time, work, and effort into designing their combat style and weaponry. But with the fact they were now being put into heavy practical applications, and it’s tearing all of their work piece by piece, Rue surmised that it was starting to affect his moral and belief in his battle style.
“Hey, what’s with the mood,” Rue chastised, her voice clearly indicating her annoyance. “Don’t you go wallowing your in your misery and self pity! In fact, why the hell are you worrying about the fact that you having to redesign your device, when the damn thing exploded right in your hand?! Don’t you have parents and siblings who are going to freak out when you tell them that your device exploded while you were on mission?” Hayato simply raised an eyebrow.
Knowing that her words were starting to take hold, she pressed on. “I mean think about it: What will your parents say when they find out you have hurt yourself while you were out here in the field? Naturally, they’re going to do the parental thing, and worry about you, asking you if you’re okay and not, while you’re trying to convince them that you are.
“And as for your siblings, wouldn’t it be good for yours, and their peace of mind that you all know that your present design could potentially explode, on top of the fact all you got was a few cuts and only burned your hand? I would personally be glad that I found a dangerous flaw in my design, and try to fix it as soon as possible so that no one else gets hurt. In fact, I’d say that you’re lucky you’re only a C-Rank mage right now. Otherwise, the amount of power you could place into one cartridge and times that by 15, the results would have been disastrous.”
“I suppose when you look at it that way,” he began.
“When you look at it that way,” cut in Rue, “you’ll see that you were lucky that your device exploded now, rather than maybe a few months down the road when you are much stronger as a mage, which would mean that you would be charging your cartridges at higher levels, resulting in a much more dangerous explosion if your cartridges were to somehow lose containment.”
“Wow, quite the pep-talker,” Asagi commented.
Rue simply shrugged in reply. “It’s what I do as a squad 2IC. I mean it is part of my duty to make sure that the health of my squad mates, physically and emotionally, are all in top condition.”
Conceding the point, Asagi nodded and said, “True, very true.” Rue simply smiled, pleased that her point was made. Hayato for his part simply smiled in amusement. There wasn’t much left to do in any case, so the three of them took their time approaching the meeting point.
“Oi, get your rears in gear,” Farukon called out as they came into his sight.
“Yes sir,” Hayato and Rue responded. Reacting accordingly, the three of them jogged over towards the table that had been set up, where atop it laid the sealed Logia. Gathered around was everyone, save for two squads from the platoon, who had been left with guard duty.
“The hell happened to your hand?” Vita pointedly asked, indicating to Hayato’s bandaged hand with Graf Eisen.
“Just…just a little explosion,” Hayato sheepishly answered, suddenly wishing that he could just hide behind a building until she was gone. He had heard a lot about Vita and her foul temper, and already he did not want to be under her gaze as he was now. He was most definitely feeling the power of her gaze, and wanted to get out of it as soon as possible.
“Explosion?” Nanoha asked, raising an eyebrow. “What happened?”
“Well…my device sort of exploded…”
“Exploded?!” Hayato winced under the full weight and surprise from the senior officers. He had been expecting this, but not as badly. Their faces clearly displayed shock and surprise.
“How?” Farukon asked.
“Well…the thing is…”
“I had asked him to use a small buster spell against this target,” said Asagi, stepping up and drawing attention to herself. “The amount of power he had used overloaded his device, which caused it to explode.”
“Asagi,” Hayato mumbled, a bit surprised that Asagi had stepped and spoke for him like that.
“What?” Asagi asked, looking over at Hayato with a wide grin on her face. “You think all that mumbling was going to get us anywhere?” Hayato returned a sheepish smile towards her, subconsciously nursing his burned hand.
Farukon let out an exhausted sigh. “Just make sure you get that checked out first thing.”
“Yes sir,” Hayato quietly answered.
“With that aside,” Keroko pointedly said, turning her attention to the pink haired warrior, “what have we got?”
“A weapon.”
“Excuse me?” Keroko asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Intel was incorrect,” Signum answered, whipping off dust off the top of the case. In her hand, she held an old box. It was generally nondescript, if it were not for the top of the box. Decorating the top, heavily faded artwork covered it, depicting a mighty green dragon soaring in the skies. In its hand was a dagger of some sorts, and a shield with five dots that formed a pentagon shape. And adorned on its chest: a triangular golden breastplate. And below the image, cursive Belkan text had been scrawled upon it. Despite the number of years it had most likely been kept within the tomb, it was the only thing that still stood strong, unfazed by the test of time.
Lightly tracing her hand across the Belkan inscription scrawled atop the lid, she read.
“Darkness rises
Darkness falls
Within the dragon sleeps
When called upon, the dragon wakes
Melody of peace
Melody of kindness
Melody of purity
Melody of truth
United the soul
Unleash the dragon”
“Umm…Signum,” said Keroko, drawing the woman’s attention.
“Yes?” she responded, looking up to see the confused expression on everyone’s face. “What’s wrong?”
“You were…speaking in Belkan,” Nanoha answered, an awkward chuckle leaving her throat.
“Oh…I apologize…” Signum answered as red lightly stained her cheeks, and proceeded to translate the text into Mid-Childan.
“Better,” Keroko muttered. “So…what’s inside?”
Nodding, Signum ran her hand along the container, looking for a means to open it. For a minute, she carefully examined the container, running her hand along every square inch, making she had covered everything, eliminating all possibilities. When finally sure she had covered everything, Signum let out a disappointed sigh, placing the box back down.
“What’s wrong?” Vita asked, wondering why the Sword Knight was stalling.
“It seems to be completely sealed,” she pointed out. “It seems that there is a requirement to open the box, but I am unsure of what.”
“A requirement?” Nanoha asked, in which Signum nodded in response.
“It is possible that it is some sort of special device that will only activate in the presence of something that will activate it.”
“Well who or whatever that’s needed, I’m guessing the only way to open it is to break it?” Vita mumbled, hefting Graf Eisen over her shoulder. Signum nodded, but gave her a pointed stare, that told her not to even attempt to deface the Lost Logia with her hammer.
“Well…I guess we’ll have to sit tight for a while,” Keroko sighed, glancing over to Farukon. “How long do you think the second ship will arrive?”
“At most two days,” Farukon answered, deactivating Gerhard returning it to storage mode, leaving him in his combat fatigues. Everyone began to quickly follow suit, and soon everyone was standing either in battle fatigues, or in their standard uniforms.
Farukon then turned his attention over to his team. “Go back up to the ship. You’ve done well.”
“Yes sir,” the four of them replied.
“And make sure you get your hand checked out first thing,” Farukon added, while Rue was calling up the Rakshasa for teleportation.
“Yes sir,” he sighed, nursing his hand.
“Oi Rue, mind if you ask them to teleport us up as well?” Asagi asked, to which the former simply amended her request for 7 people to be teleported. No one questioned why the Belkarangers were going up. After all, they were simply only contracted to assist with securing the Logia. It was for all intents and purposes completed, and they were now only aboard to escort it back.
“Well, not bad for a days work, wouldn’t you agree?” Keroko happily quipped. Everyone chuckled at her optimistic look.
“Yup,” Nanoha happily agreed, wrapping an arm around her sister. “Not bad at all.”
2008-05-07, 13:20
Author
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