Art of Love; Art of Death Chapter 4 (Nanoha Fic)

[Pale Wolf]

New thread for announcement purposes (and apologies for the wait!). Previous chapters, and if you want to read the whole fic in one thread, can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4269




Disclaimer: No copyright is mine, thus no copyrighted character is.

Art of Love; Art of Death

By Pale Wolf

Chapter Four

Genocide Countdown

---N====================>V---

12:05 Friday, June 16, 2017 CE
L2 Orbit, Earth's Moon

Around sixty thousand kilometers above the surface of the moon, sixteen shadows glinted silver.

Onboard, computers processed the tasks given to them. The calculation was completed almost instantly, and each ship came to a similar conclusion.

Maneuvering thrusters gave a long pulse, steadily swinging the ships' noses down, towards the moon - or rather, just slightly past it.

And then the main engines lit up, the ships shining brilliantly as the magical power imparted acceleration. Burning at slightly different rates, bringing some ships forward and others back, quickly stretching and reordering the formation. The four battleships at the center. Four cruisers in front. The remaining eight cruisers covering the rear flanks. All fanned up and down, providing a near-globe of defence around the main firepower.

They were approximately four hundred and fourty thousand kilometers from their target point, a firing position against Earth. It was a distance that the inhabitants of that world had taken three days to cross. With their mighty engines, and the cruisers slowing down to stay with the battleships, it would take them three hours.

If, at least, they travelled the entire distance through the three-dimensional Euclidean phase space humanity, their creators, was born to perceive and interact with. But their creators had found ways around those limits.

Without fanfare, with a simple circular plane dilating open in front of each ship and a gentle pulse of their engines, they slid into the - to human eyes - swirling indigo and darkness of the dimensional sea. Navigating through this eldritch space, they could arrive within minutes.

They wouldn't, though. They had been told to take their time, conserve resources, and leave the inhabitants of Tokyo one last hour. And then they would be above Tokyo, where Latoya had called them. In bombardment range.

They'd be at her side soon.

---N====================>V---

12:10 Friday, June 16, 2017 CE
Tokyo, Japan, Earth - Non-Administrated World #97
Sentoshi Mori, South Tower Fourteenth Block, Millennium City

Kanata hoped she had not forgotten anything... This was her very first time, and she did not want to give a bad impression... especially not to people around her age... She had plenty of time to mess everything up later.

"Um... so... that is everything... The design is mostly based on Buddhist architecture and landscaping... ... I already said that, didn't I...?" She just remembered she had opened up with this...

Vice was snickering. "Don't worry, no less interestin' than the first time."

Kanata's cheeks heated. She looked down, trying to use her now-long hair to hide her reaction - it had some benefits, at least...

Teana hummed. "I forgot to ask last time, but why is it based that way? I'm pretty new to the area and culture, so I'm not clear on a bit of this."

Kanata blinked, looking up. "Ah... okay, um..." She took a deep breath, turning a little to face both of them equally. "By the time Buddhism arrived in Japan, it was already syncretic, adapting and amalgamating to other religions and cultures, such as it did in India, China, Korea... Basically, it fit their religious doctrine into its own... It took three hundred years to fuse with Shinto, and even then it was never quite a complete fusion, but from then to 1868, the faiths were essentially practiced as one. So... Buddhist and Shinto building styles were essentially the same..."

Vice cocked his head. "1868?"

Teana jabbed him in the ribs. "Hundred-fifty years ago, it's 2017, remember?"

He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "Guess I'm a liiiiittle too forgetful, can't believe I forgot the year, damn that's embarrassin'..." His tone seemed... odd. Speaking a little bit too fast, yet he didn't actually sound embarrassed... more... nervous. He smelled nervous. And... oddly familiar. A touch of oil and machinery... just a little leather, as if from a seat...

Kanata flushed, jerking back. Had she been leaning forward and smelling him? Please don't let them have caught that... What am I doing...?

The three just traded wary looks... Vice and Teana seemed somehow nervous... and Kanata was just hoping they'd let her mistake slide...

Another moment passed.

Teana coughed into her hand, breaking the silence. "... What changed in 1868?"

"Ah! Um... that was the separation order, part of the Meiji Restoration..." A safe topic, thankfully...

"Buddhism was strongly connected to the Shogunate," Saiko's voice interrupted - Kanata blinked, turning to see the young woman coming up from the shrine's entrance, dressed in the black uniform of the local school. "The Tokugawa had a number of anti-Christian policies - you needed to associate yourself with a Buddhist temple to get a confirmation of not being Christian, or life was impossible. And by law, you owed the temple in question quite a sum of money. When the Shogunate went out, several of the restorationists tried to send the Buddhists out with them."

Kanata noted an oddly confused expression flitting across both Teana and Vice's faces, but decided not to pry - if they wanted clarification, they would ask for it, if she elaborated without being asked it would come off condescending, though in fairness that era's history was fairly convoluted - turning her attention to Saiko. "Saiko-san? I thought you were in school?" She hadn't realized Saiko's English was that good.

The older girl waved a hand shortly. "It grew boring."

Kanata blinked once more. "But... is it not important to..." She paused, shaking her head. "... never mind... sorry."

Saiko raised an eyebrow, stepping past the guests and up to Kanata. "I have learned what I need to know. My attendance is solely a social obligation." She laid a hand on Kanata's shoulder, adjusting her scarf with her free hand and nodding to Teana and Vice. "Tourists?"

Kanata nodded, but then realized she was assuming, and turned to them for confirmation.

Vice chuckled. "Yeah, pretty much. Right now, at least."

"We're on business in the area," Teana supplied. "Free time for the moment to find our way around."

"What business?" Saiko queried, gaze steady on them, unwavering. ... Was something bothering her?

Teana shook her head, hands upraised. "I'm afraid I'm not allowed to talk about it."

Saiko's hand tightened on Kanata's shoulder, a little painfully. "You are soldiers." She didn't even stop for the jolt of surprise from them, continuing, "I will not see violence near this shrine."

Kanata looked up at her, shaking her head. "Ah, no... they're just looking around..."

"Which is precisely my concern."

Teana took a deep breath, shaking her head. "... I don't even want to know how you figured out we were military, but I can guarantee what we're here for isn't aimed at getting violent, and shouldn't involve you. It's just an investigation, with permission from the government."

Saiko's eyes narrowed a little further, and her hand clenched slightly tighter, before she blinked, looking down at the hand and pulling it from Kanata's shoulder quickly, with a short, cryptic glance at the younger girl. She turned back to the soldiers. "... Very well."

Kanata sort of wanted to rub the pain out of her shoulder - she was tough, but Saiko had a grip like iron - but didn't really want to make the older girl feel guilty, so she turned her own attention on Vice and Teana to distract herself. "Um... it is the way you walk..." She gestured to their legs. "You were trained to use firearms, which reflects in your stance, and military drill - there is a uniformity to your movements that most people do not have..."

Vice tsked. "I knew those drill nights were gonna stick with me until I died. ... Wait, you caught it too?"

Kanata reddened a little. "Ah... well, it seemed intrusive to mention..."

Vice's palm rose to cover his face. "Worst. Secret agents. Ever."

Teana rolled her eyes. "We're not secret agents, Vice, and this isn't a secret mission."

"It should be! ... Yeah, okay, I'm done now."

"Thank you," Teana - and Kanata - stated simultaneously, before glancing at one another.

Saiko shook her head, turning her gaze to Kanata. "I'll give them the tour, if you want to prepare lunch."

"Ah! Um, you need not worry, Saiko-san, I already did."

A momentary irritation crossed Saiko's eyes. "I see."

"U... um, was there something I shouldn't have showed them...?" Kanata cast back in her memory, trying to think if she'd made a misstep with the religious rules anywhere... She'd remembered she wasn't supposed to let the general public inside the honden - where the 'kami' was supposed to be enshrined - and she hadn't showed them inside the residential... had she forgotten one?

"Doubtful," Saiko shook her head. "Well, they've seen around, they should head out now, right? K and L will be home soon and we need to get lunch ready."

Kanata blinked. ... Kaede and... Luka, she supposed? Why the letters? But she nodded. "Ah... yes, you're right." She turned to Vice and Teana. "I am sorry, but I'll need to prepare lunch for the priestess and the other tenants..." She bowed in apology... dammit, she'd done it with her hands at her sides again, like a boy. She was bad at this.

Vice chuckled, shaking his head. "Nah, don't worry about it. I can tell your sister doesn't much like us, and for what it's worth, ma'am, I'm sorry for whatever we did that ticked you off."

Kanata and Saiko blinked simultaneously, turning to face each other and blinking again. Sister? No, Kanata didn't have any siblings... though Saiko did look a little similar to her 'new body'...

At the moment they were eyeing each other, there was a sudden burst of music at Saiko's hip. The older girl jolted back, staring down in confusion at the ridiculously upbeat nineties pop emanating from her waistline, before she apparently remembered that she had a cellphone and extracted it from her pocket, flipping it open and pressing it to her ear. "Uh, yes?" She seemed much less cool and unflappable than usual over the phone, as if she wasn't really comfortable with it.

While she spoke, Kanata tapped her cheek. The music seemed familiar... ah, wait, wasn't that one of the opening themes for that old animated series...? Rurouni Kenshin, right? She'd never seen it herself, but a lot of the adults she'd known touted it as a classic. Perhaps Saiko was a fan? Rather conflicted with the 'strict and proper' image Kanata had had of her before, but it wasn't like people didn't have millions upon millions of different facets.

She shook her head, shaking off the thoughts. She could go over it later, right now there were still guests... "Um, I'm sorry, I'll lead you out. ... Sorry about the suddenness..."

Teana shook her head. "I don't mind. I'm a little used to anti-military sentiment, I'll admit. There really should be no harm to the area, though."

Not other than the monsters hunting people, at least... Hm. Kanata eyed Vice and Teana for a moment. She'd previously assumed that 'supernatural' meant the government didn't know about it, but that wasn't necessarily the case... was that what they were investigating? She needed to find some way to broach it... If she didn't, she supposed she'd probably run into them, so it wasn't critical, though. And if she weren't subtle enough about it and was wrong in this guess, she'd see herself remanded to psychiatric counselling. Might be best to stay safe

Kanata shook her head, again. Too much woolgathering. "Ah... no. It's not that, it's just that..." She trailed off because she didn't actually have an answer. "... it's not that," she finished, pathetically. Face red, she stepped down the path to the exit, beckoning for them to follow.

"I did say I don't mind," Teana noted. "You've been perfectly polite, and your older sister was..."

Vice coughed into a hand. "Not perfectly polite, but reasonably subtle in displaying her displeasure," he supplied.

Teana nodded. "We'll go with that."

"Um... good luck on your investigation..."

Teana blinked. "Ah, thanks. ... Hopefully it goes well." Something in her gaze indicated that it had a lot of room not to go well. That could be it...

... But argh, Kanata couldn't think of what to say. Too little time, her mind was racing too fast to lock down the words she needed to hint at the monsters without alienating them...

Oddly enough, she was saved by Saiko's voice from behind. "Do you two want lunch?"

Kanata blinked repeatedly, turning to face Saiko, as did Teana and Vice. Hadn't she been trying to shoo them off...? ... Had Kanata misunderstood...?

Saiko was flipping closed her cellphone, slipping it back into her pocket. "That was K. She and L apparently went off to some nice restaurant for their lunch on the spur of the moment. So we have some extra food, and I'd... like to apologize for my rudeness... earlier." She very nearly ground the last bit of that out between her teeth.

Vice paused, lips pursing slightly as he worded his next statement. "Uh... I don't know, you don't sound all that comfortable with-" He cut off at a look from Teana, and their gazes met.

Their 'staring silently into one another's eyes' phase continued on.

Kanata's cheeks reddened. Oh... Oh.

She hadn't realized they were... er. Together. They hadn't really touched or held hands or anything, but they seemed to be close enough to figure out what the other was thinking and communicate just through eye contact...

Finally, the uncomfortable silence ended as they stepped apart, facing Kanata and Saiko.

Teana spoke. "I wouldn't want to impose..." she began.

Saiko nodded. "I'm offering. ... I'll admit to being... uncomfortable. But that does not... excuse... my prior behaviour... The invitation is yours to... do with as you wish."

Kanata pressed her lips together. She wasn't the most perceptive in the world, but Saiko's lie was completely transparent... had Kaede bawled her out over the phone and made her do this?

Teana nodded. "All right, then. Thank you for your hospitality."

Vice coughed. "Uh... should we be bowing or anything?"

Saiko shook her head. "That's... not expected. Your introduction to our culture is negligible, if we told you 'bow' you'd either miss cues or overdo it to the point that the cultural mangling gets annoying."

"Ah... handy. Really should hit up some of the others for advice. So in the future we can hit that happy medium of 'appropriate'. The ignorant foreigner excuse only goes so far."

Saiko's eyebrow rose. "Yes, yes it does. I must say you're one of the least annoying foreigners I've met."

Teana chuckled. "I suppose that's a good place to be?"

"Yes. It is." Saiko beckoned with a hand. "Come, we'll get lunch ready in the residential building."

"Ah!" Kanata spoke up. "Saiko-san, I will cook."

Saiko blinked. "... You can cook?"

"Ah, um... acceptably... I asked for some groceries yesterday... so I could repay you for taking me in..." Ack, she hoped she wasn't making Teana and Vice uncomfortable by bringing up a semi-private topic like that... "I can at least make an improvement over instant food..."

Saiko paused, and then nodded. "All right then. I'll entertain the guests while you work."

Okay... at least this would give Kanata time to probe into their mission...

---N====================>V---

12:20 Friday, June 16, 2017 CE
Tokyo, Japan, Earth - Non-Administrated World #97
Honden, Sentoshi Mori, South Tower Fourteenth Block, Millennium City

Samantha Raine stepped through the mirror, emerging in the darkened, wood-panelled room. There was no light, but that hadn't stopped her for quite some time. Her eyes easily tracked through the darkness, and lay upon her Master/Mistress - the being was beyond such trivial things as gender, manifested as an elegant pool of darkness. Or at least, that was the way Samantha saw it - it looked different for everyone.

Samantha stepped a pace ahead, away from the jewelled mirror she had entered through, and lowered herself into a curtsy. "Master, you called me?"

Her Master gave a low, innocent chuckle - several voices speaking over one another simultaneously, a young girl, an elderly man, a boy, a woman... "You know, Samantha, I was given the most amusing new name today. Call me Calaritana."

Samantha bowed her head. "As you wish, Master Calaritana."

"I wished to inform you. It seems the Silver Ghosts survived the Fall as well."

Samantha couldn't control the hiss of breath. She had never encountered them directly, but she had heard stories. Terrifying stories.

The pool of darkness twisted into an upward curve and a pair of globes above - a smile. "It seems Latoya has continued to surprise us. She is as interesting as ever."

"The Silver Ghosts are coming?"

"Oh yes," her Master agreed. "Within the hour, at their current rate. Most likely, this city is their target. Knowing Latoya's methods, she means to ravage this city from the face of the Earth, and all of us within it."

Samantha shook her head. "Master Calaritana, we are not prepared to withstand a full assault from the Silver Ghosts. Let alone what that would do for secrecy..."

"It is not a concern. I would perhaps be threatened, so I will make myself absent before their arrival. You would do well to extract what other resources you possess from the city as well. The Takdis, we need not concern ourselves with. We have trillions and the ones in Tokyo are not under control."

Samantha nodded. "Understood. ... What about the Gatekeeper?"

The voices giggled. "You needn't worry. The Herald will protect the Gatekeeper. On this prepared land, the Herald cannot be destroyed, not even this early. Not even by the strength of the Silver Ghosts."

Samantha frowned, brushing her long blonde hair back from her face. "Master Calaritana, we are deep within the Neutral Zone. Even if a distress call went out immediately, and anyone responded, it would be hours, or days, before a relief fleet arrived. Couldn't the Silver Ghosts manage it, with that long with absolute orbital superiourity?"

The pool of black fluid swirled, bubbling up, with a few spouts arcing up. "Latoya could manage it within an hour. It's not a concern, she will not have that long. A Suvota fleet is approaching as well. They should arrive not far after Latoya. She won't have enough time to circumvent the Herald's defenses."

Samantha's jaw tightened. "The Suvota's interest in this world is going to throw everything off. The TSAB is already putting their fleet to readiness. That fleet could as well engage us as the Suvota."

The fluid formed into a smiley-face again. "It makes sense now. Latoya is moving. I'm sure this was her will."

Samantha's eyes narrowed. She doubted it, personally. The Silver Ghosts could not have assembled early enough to have gotten the contacts to do this... There had to be someone else moving against them. "... Should I warn the Dispossessed?" She changed the topic.

"They are useful, but in the end they are just accessories. If they can't manage it, they won't be much use anyway." There was a short burble, as if a shrug. "And if they die at this stage, that simply motivates the Herald."

Samantha nodded. "The rest of the city?"

"I haven't a clue what we'd do with them if they survived. Humans are only entertaining in small numbers."

"I agree. And I hope I am among that number, Master Calaritana."

"Oh yes. You're exquisite, little Samantha."

Samantha flushed. "You flatter me, Master."

"Not at all. I will be sure to keep you. I suppose there are benefits to the years we lost with the last candidate for Herald. You would not have been so amusing if we had advented nine years ago."

Samantha tsked. "Again, Master, if you allow me, we could punish the fools that stood in your way that time."

The voices giggled. "That will not be necessary. They are quite entertaining, themselves. ... But one thing."

"Master?"

"Takamachi. Entertaining though she is, she has an unfortunate habit of winning when all reason would dictate otherwise. She is present and weakened - I will require her to be removed before our advent. She could become as dangerous as Latoya - who cast us down at the height of our glory."

Samantha curtsied. "I will have it done, Master."

"Oh, and the Sovereign will be coming to continue his work in this land. After Latoya's business is done one way or the other, but do prepare for his arrival, and provide him with whatever he requires."

Samantha nodded. "I will."

"You are dismissed." The fluid formed a hand, making an exaggerated shooing motion. "Now, to work!"

Samantha brought her hand to her mouth to cover the giggle, before turning and stepping back to the mirror, her heels tapping against the wooden floor paneling.

---N====================>V---

12:30 Friday, June 16, 2017 CE
Tokyo, Japan, Earth - Non-Administrated World #97
Residence, Sentoshi Mori, South Tower Fourteenth Block, Millennium City

Teana glanced across the table at the 'Saiko' girl - apparently Kanata's older sister, and around her own age. "So, you're one of the... uh, 'mikos', here?"

"No s. The singular is the same as the plural," the girl corrected, elegantly bringing a teacup to her lips and sipping. Or rather, bowl, or at least that was what it looked like to Teana.

Teana, Vice, and Saiko stared at one another uncomfortably for a few more minutes, listening to the hiss of something cooking in the kitchen.

Vice's telepathic communication sounded in the back of Teana's head. 'I don't know how productive this's really been.'

'Hm. I have to agree. It felt like Saiko had something to hide, but my investigative skills aren't up to figuring it out. It's probably something for local authorities anyway.'

"You seem to have quite the mutual understanding," Saiko noted, lowering the tea-bowl-thing. "It's as if you can hear one anothers' thoughts."

Teana kept her face straight - though she needed to take a sip of tea to cover her expression for a moment, attempting and mostly failing to mimic Saiko's graceful motions.

Vice, however, jolted a bit. 'Can she pick up our telepathy?!'

Teana shrugged. 'Could just be a local saying. If she was, that probably confirmed it though.' And to Saiko, she spoke. "We've worked together for a little while. I guess we got used to each other."

At that, Saiko's lips curled slightly, into the first smile they'd yet seen on her. "Watch out for one another. Comrades cannot be replaced."

"That sounds pretty ominous," Vice noted. "Something gonna happen?"

"Something always happens," Saiko stated, evenly. "The world is not kind, and in the military, you are not subject only to your own errors in judgement."

Vice raised an eyebrow. "I thought you hated the military, but now it's sounding like you were in it."

"I was," Saiko agreed. "What you must understand is that however well-intentioned you and the people around you may be, the people you take orders from are not. The true believers are the first up against the wall, because they are always a danger to political and economic interests. Those who benefit from the status quo see dreamers and visionaries as a threat."

Teana's brow furrowed. She'd need to look into the history of this world and see what had happened... though, more likely a side project for her free time than anything she'd really have to investigate. And to be honest, considering the whole results of the JS Incident investigation last year, she couldn't really disagree. Except for one point. "They don't always win."

"If you have been fortunate enough to see anything that prompts such a belief, then I envy you." Saiko took another sip of tea.

The three remained silent for another short moment, before the younger girl's - Kanata's - voice came from the kitchen. "Um, lunch is ready..."

Saiko lowered her teacup and stood, smoothly striding over to the side room. "I'll assist her in getting it, as guests you can simply wait."

Teana and Vice glanced at each other. 'Starting to doubt that 'hiding something' assumption I had. I guess this might just be a waste of time.'

'Well, it's not like we had much else to do,' Vice pointed out. 'And hey, free lunch.'

Teana nodded agreeably, looking around. The place was rather nicely decorated. A few comfortably dark-blue walls, well-crafted furniture... on the whole, Teana'd call it 'classy'. Well-appointed and quite nice-looking, but the place didn't overdo it or go out of its way to spice things up or make ostentatious displays of wealth.

It wasn't too long before the dark-haired sisters stepped out of the kitchen, carrying plates piled with a medly of food. Teana's eyes widened as she caught the scent. She had no idea what any of that was, but it smelled good.

Kanata lowered the plates in her hands to the spaces in front of Teana and Vice, and stepped back, hands folded in front of her. Teana noted the hands shifting and clutching one another - the girl was seriously nervous.

Saiko lowered her own plates in front of two more seats, and glanced at Teana, clearing her throat. "She's standing so you can try it first. To cut off the parade of mistaken assumptions." Saiko gracefully returned to her own seat.

"Ah, that makes sense," Vice noted. "Thanks."

Teana looked down at the plate, picking up the knife and fork that Saiko had set there while Kanata cooked. At least the implements were familiar, even if the food itself was not. It was a well-stirred melange of different, finely-sliced parts - thin strips of some kind of white, spiced meat, circular slices of some kind of orange vegetable, little chunks of a vaguely yellowish peeled tuber, triangular slices of some kind of plant, and chopped bits of what looked like a type of mushroom. It smelled quite good, all mixed together to a roughly even composition.

"Um... I am afraid I do not have much experience in traditional-style cooking," Kanata apologized. "I am... largely self-taught. I... hope that is not a problem..."

"Ah, no, don't worry," Vice shook his head. "It looks real good. And huh... yours doesn't seem to have any meat in it?"

Kanata flushed, laying a hand on her folded top and squeezing the fabric around something she apparently wore under it. "Ah... Apostles' Fast is still another two weeks or so..."

Vice blinked. "Religious? Uh, I hope it's not offensive or anything that we're..."

"Ah, no! Fasting is between me and God, your own religious convictions are not for me to interfere with..."

"Now there's an enlightened attitude that could've saved everyone a whole lotta trouble," Vice noted, referencing an unpleasantly large proportion of the history of the worlds.

"Ah... I... try not to be troublesome..."

Around the same time, Teana slipped her fork in, schooled the food into place with the knife, and lifted it up to her mouth, chewing.

She finished chewing shortly, lowering the utensils and looking to Kanata. "You said you were 'acceptable'."

Kanata winced. "Ah... I'm sorry..."

Teana shook her head, taking another forkful. "'Acceptable' really doesn't cut it, this is spectacular. Wish I could cook like this, takeout's good but..."

"This is better," Vice agreed. "I, uh, assume you're allowed to sit down now?"

Kanata flushed, nodding, and moved up to the remaining seat with a similar fluid grace to Saiko. "It's... okay, then?"

"Better than," Vice declared. "Seriously, don't worry."

"Sit down and eat, Kanata," Saiko commanded. As the younger sister obeyed, Saiko turned her attention to the guests. "By the way, there is a rather large amount of extra, so if you require seconds, simply ask."

Teana nodded. "This looks like enough, but thank you, Saiko."

As Kanata and Saiko raised their own utensils...

A telepathic communication from Shari echoed in the back of Teana's head. 'Everyone! We have an emergency! Rendezvous at my location!' She gave off a magical pulse, indicating a lower floor of the arcology tower - where their long-term lodgings were to be.

Teana glanced at Vice. Was she having trouble setting up? It'd have to be some pretty major trouble...

Fate's voice came next. 'Calm down, Shari, what's wrong?'

'A fleet just jumped out of the dimensional sea, and they're approaching Earth!'

Teana blinked. 'Weren't we expecting the Strigon SPS to show up? It's early, but...'

'It's... not a Suvota fleet. I can't identify it. They have no IFF, the ships don't resemble any known classes... the closest comparison I can get is that four of the ships look like the Saint's Cradle!'

The knife and fork fell from Teana's hands, clattering against the plate.

Nanoha's response was a flat, deceptively calm 'What.'

There was a long pause, presumably as Shari ordered her thoughts. 'Sixteen ships total. Twelve on the 'slightly large for a cruiser' size. Four extremely large, the structure looks very similar to the Saint's Cradle, but the readings are nowhere near as energy-intense - still bigger than anything in the dimensional sea. I've calculated their vector, and they appear to be heading for an orbital position directly above this city.'

'Any communication from them?' Teana queried.

'No. There was a short burst as they came out of the dimensional sea, and nothing since.'

'All right. Teana, meet Nanoha and I at the top of the south tower, Millenium City.'

'Ah, I'm already here, actually, Fate.' She looked at Vice, gesturing for him to say something and distract their hosts, Kanata and Saiko were staring at her.

'All right, good. Who else is near that location?'

'That'd probably be me, ma'am,' Vice spoke up, glancing apologetically at Teana.

'Meet us there. We're going to need to entrust Vivio to your care.'

'Eh?'

'Nanoha, Teana, and I are going to need to fly up and see if we can establish communication with that fleet. Vice, we'll need you to take Vivio to a safe location - our headquarters seems ideal, but use your own judgement, just keep her safe.'

Vice nodded sharply. 'I will.'

'Shari, try get in contact with the local officials, inform them of the issue and see if you can get us permission to hail or negotiate. Once you have that permission, hail them. Continually, until you get a response, then patch me through.'

'Ah! Yes ma'am!'

'Two more tasks for you in our headquarters, delegate them as necessary. Number one, get a message off to the main office, and keep them updated. And number two, try track down where that initial communication went. They're talking to someone on this planet. I don't know who they are, but I want to. Fleets don't just appear out of nowhere.'

Teana nodded. 'I'll be on my way.' She looked up, tuning out the continuing discussions. "Ah... I'm sorry, I just realized we're late to meet up with our superiours..." She winced at the look on Kanata's face. "I'm really sorry, I didn't even think about it until just now..."

Vice shot her a look - no telepathy necessary to carry across the 'that's a pretty transparent lie' message.

Kanata swallowed. "Um... it's all right..." She stood. "I'll lead you out..."

The expression on Kanata's face made Teana felt like she'd kicked a small pet, or Subaru (much the same thing, really). "Thank you... I really don't like darting out all of a sudden like this..." Teana sighed. Really, there wasn't anything she was allowed to say. If she explained it, she'd be revealing magic, other dimensions, and more or less everything, explicitly against the orders of the local government. If she didn't, it just looked outright rude and insulting - like she and Vice had suddenly decided Kanata's hospitality was unsatisfactory and charged out with an admittedly-lame excuse.

Vice tsked, as he stood up as well. "There anything we can do to make it up?"

"Um... no, it's fine..."

It wasn't fine, really, but if she turned it down there wasn't much they could do. Teana sighed, standing.

Saiko simply watched as Kanata led Teana and Vice out, chin resting in her palm and a slim finger smoothly tapping her cheek in a perfect, metronomic rhythm. Her eyes were unreadable.

---N====================>V---

12:42 Friday, June 16, 2017 CE
Amur Oblast, Russian Federation, Earth - Non-Administrated World #97
Vostochny Cosmodrome

"... General, the oncoming fleet is still not responding to hails," Mladshiy Leytenant Mikhalkov reported, a worried note entering his voice.

General-Leytenant Viktor Sakharov bit down sharply. He turned to another of his subordinates - Leytenant Kaidan Alenko, young and fresh-faced as they came. "Call Valenski. Get him on the horn now. Have him use that fancy comm gear and call all the known powers, Suvota, Argene, TSAB, I don't care which. Fucking find the fuck out where the balls this fucking fleet came from." The last sentence being in the Mat dialect - only the use of a language where every word was a foul imprecation could properly convey his feelings at the moment.

Alenko jumped. "Ah, yes sir!" He skittered over to a nearby console, picking up a phone.

Viktor folded his arms across his chest, staring up at the sixteen signals approaching Earth, where their trajectories were displayed on the large screen at the front of the command center. He shook his head. "I've been saying it from day one and high command didn't listen. First dumbfuck that stations a fleet in orbit wins the planet. We've got almost nothing for self-defence."

The hulking Starshiy Leytenant Igor Khariton and his partner, Praporshcik Kira Agarkov, a small girl barely at legal military age with dyed-green hair tied back in a twist, stepped up to Viktor's side. "Are you certain that they are aggressive?" Khariton queried.

Viktor looked up at the man. Admittedly Viktor was fairly on the short and slim side himself, but Khariton was still fucking huge, and built like someone had strapped several slabs of beef onto a bear, then shaved it completely hairless. "Not sure sure, but come on. Look at it. That's four fuckhuge battleships, twelve heavy cruisers... assuming standard level of Outsider tech, that's enough firepower to mow through half the TSAB's Navigational Patrol Fleet, or almost anything on Earth. You don't mass that if you're not planning bullshit. Especially not in a backwater, which pride aside, we are."

Khariton nodded, folding his tree-trunk-like arms as well. "Do you have some hint who they are, boss?"

"Not a damn clue, which is making me even more skittish. We've run the damn things through all the warbooks we've scrounged up. There isn't even a resemblance. Suvota, Argene, Mid, Velka, Forien, Laturo, nothing even looks like it might've been designed by the same school of thought. Which means either this is someone obscure, or someone they don't know about. Either one bones us."

"Obscure, sir?" Agarkov queried. "Why would that be bad?"

"Obscure means small, which means this - which is already a fairly significant investment even for a big power - is a much larger proportion of their military force. If the TSA were at war footing, they could toss these around as heavy scouting forces, but a smaller, obscure power investing this much means business - they likely expect a return. And the refusal to communicate? Not good."

Khariton nodded. "It is ironic that they appear to be heading towards Japan. This is reminiscent of Perry's Black Ships."

"At this point, gunboat diplomacy, unequal treaties, and decades of exploitation are the best scenario running through my head. We've got almost nothing to fight with, if it comes to it."

Agarkov winced. "I've read about that history... Is this the end, sir? Of Earth's independence?"

Viktor's lip quirked up in a smirk. "Not necessarily. I said 'almost'." He raised his voice. "Prep the Vladivostok Pluto batteries, and funnel them targeting data on our incoming. Do not open fire, return fire only."

"Ah, sir!" Alenko looked up from his position at the phone. "Mister Valenski's on the line, he wants to talk to you."

Viktor nodded, stepping over to the phone and raising it to his ear. "Sakharov here."

"General, it's a pleasure to speak with you," the liason - Torlo Valenski - began. "I'd chat, but I have orders from the President."

Viktor nodded sharply, turning to keep an eye on the frontal display, and the inexorably approaching yellow dots. "Go ahead, Mister Valenski."

"You are not to engage the incoming fleet. I'm still attempting negotiations with the Outsider powers. And the ships are heading for Japan. Do not fire unless we are fired upon."

"That was my intention, Sir."

"And by 'we' I mean 'we'. Russia. Japan is a NATO ally, and it is their responsibility if it is attacked."

Viktor frowned. "Sir, it's an Outsider power. I do not see them caring where each of us drew our borders, and Japan couldn't have done anything to tick these guys off specially. It's random choice, they got unlucky but it's an attack on Earth, not NATO."

"We cannot afford a war here, Mister Sakharov! We have neither the technology nor the resources to face down such a power, and we need to stick with every last hope for peace. If that means Japan gets levelled, then at least Russia wasn't."

Viktor gritted his teeth, glaring down at the phone. "Sir, this command was established for extraterrestrial defence. Are you telling me the game plan is surrender? Then what's the purpose of even being here?"

Valenski took a slow, calming breath over the other end of the phone. "I gave you a direct order, Mister Sakharov. Passed to you from the President. I will not debate this. You may protest in the after-action debriefing, if you so choose." He hung up.

Viktor calmly lowered the phone. He really wanted to break it, but that wouldn't benefit anything. He looked up.

Everyone in the command center was looking to him.

... Wouldn't be right to betray their expectations, now would it?

He tossed his head, throwing his perennially overlong hair away from his eyes, and brought his hands up to adjust his uniform collar, straighten everything out. "I've received orders to leave Japan to burn," he began. "My own inclination is to retaliate in the event of any attack on Earth, but my orders say to defend Russia only. As such, I will hereby inform you that every further word coming out of my mouth is mutiny."

There was a long moment of staring.

"If we all get lucky, nobody has to act on them, and this all ends peacefully. If we don't, we've got two choices. Number one, flagrant and direct violation of orders - court martial offence." Viktor shrugged. "Don't need to lay that one out, right? Number two, this planet burns. We ain't in a position where we can afford factionalism. Stand together or hang separate." He looked around. "Anyone read the history of the Americas? Well we're the Indians. We, Earth. We've maybe got the strength to fend off outside domination. But only as a planet. No country can do it alone. Up to now, we've got lucky. The Outsiders we've met so far haven't been as cockishly imperialistic as we were." He nodded at the screen. "Looks like our luck's run out."

Lieutenant Mikhalkov swallowed, raising a hand like a schoolboy. Understandably nervous, kid had clocked in to work a few hours ago and now his boss was talking treason. Viktor pointed at him, and he lowered his hand. "U... uh... um... wh-what are you proposing, sir...?"

Viktor grinned. "I am proposing this command do what it was intended to do. Face down against any enemy of Earth. We can defend Russia first. I'm down for that, I like it too. But in the event of an attack on any nation within our regional umbrella, we retaliate. In this case, that means we prime Pluto, and return fire if that fleet makes any attack on Japan." He tugged his collar again. Damn thing was way too tight. "Someone's gotta set an example. Both to the Outsiders, and to each other. If an attack is made on Japan, Russia will help them. If an attack is made on Russia, America will help. There's no denying, we've got some ugly history. But history's history. It's over." Viktor made a slashing gesture with his hand. "Ended a long time ago. Someone's gotta take the first step - say 'I don't care what your ancestors did, you're my ally'. 'I don't care what disputes we have, you do not deserve having this happen to you.' We've been fucking staring at each other over nukes too damn long for too damn many stupid reasons. We ain't gonna be singin' Kumbaya, but it's time someone stood for what they thought was right instead of what benefits their country alone."

Viktor took a deep breath. "Okay. I've said my piece. I ain't gonna force you to follow my orders. That'd be no more right than letting Japan burn. If you don't want to do this - and make no mistake, it's a hell of a risk - then I'll do what I can myself. Can't say how much it'll be, but..." He shrugged. "As such, my last orders are to prepare Pluto. Fire it upon anyone who attacks Earth - Russia, Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam... ah, fuck, even China. You'll have until they attack to decide." He turned, striding out of the command center, leaving his subordinates staring behind him.

Alenko, Khariton, and Agarkov fell into step behind him, through the plain, military-appointed hall.

Sakharov laid a hand on his music player, in his pocket. And opened up the mind-to-mind, magic-powered communication that he really wasn't supposed to know. 'Everyone keeps rushing me... Time to get Falx ready to go. Plan's accelerated up to phase four.'

'Phase four, boss?' Khariton queried, almost laughing. 'You make it sound as if you are not making this up as you go along.'

Viktor did laugh. He'd made that whole speech up off the cuff. Hopefully it all held together, he'd sort of been going stream of consciousness. 'Come on, when people bone my plans this hard you're surprised I make 'em flexible? Whether or not my boys go through with the whole 'defend Earth as a whole' thing, I'm gonna have a man after my head by tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have a free planet tomorrow. If so, we move on to long-range plans, and fold our boys here into Falx if they demonstrate they're for Earth, not the government.'

'Pretty big if, sir,' Alenko noted. 'Or, sixteen pretty big ifs.'

'Yeah, well, that's what the Falx is for, ain't it? We'll engage independently of Space Defence if we have to. Take a position, low Earth orbit, and set up defences, give them an Oberth boot into their fucking teeth if they get all up in the kool-aid. May not be enough, but it's what we've got. It's what the planet's got. Up for it?'

'Yes sir!' all three responded simultaneously.

A moment later, four more telepathic 'voices' came. 'Igenis!'

Viktor grinned. For all the headaches, there was nothing to match commanding these troopers.

---N====================>V---

12:47 Friday, June 16, 2017 CE
High Orbit, Earth - Non-Administrated World #97

As Fate finished the transfer spell, the tower around them gave way to blackness, stars and the Earth hanging small below them.

Nanoha offered her a smile. 'We'll just have to talk to them quick and then we can get back to Vivio.' Mental communication, of course - they were sort of in space, the lack of atmosphere made talking... difficult. Their barrier jackets provided them the air, so strictly speaking they could talk, but nobody would hear it.

Fate nodded. 'I'm not comfortable with this, though. They haven't been responding to the hails of anyone on the planet... and as much as I don't want to get ahead of myself, those ships look very heavily armed.' Well, strictly speaking they couldn't actually see them - the ships were two hundred kilometers away, Fate had transfered them in well out of known weapon ranges and they'd fly the rest of the way. They were in detection range, and their Devices had fairly decent-quality scans, though.

Teana seemed to hum to herself noiselessly, stretching out with her scans. She and Nanoha probably had a much better sensor picture than Fate herself did, being shooter/scanner-types, but Bardiche wasn't registering a data feed, so she apparently wasn't missing anything.

'What are you thinking, Teana?' Fate asked, as she began to slowly accelerate towards the oncoming ships - Teana and Nanoha increased their speed along with her. While the current situation took priority, the whole purpose of an Enforcer apprenticeship was this - testing and practicing Teana's judgement, with someone more experienced to ensure any mistakes didn't wreak havoc.

Teana shook her head. 'Just bouncing a few ideas, trying to figure out what we might have on our hands.'

'I'd like to hear it, Teana-chan,' Nanoha requested, meeting their shared apprentice's eyes with her own wide, earnest, and innocent. That woman had some spectacular talents... 'I'm kind of really confused right now.'

Teana glanced at Fate for permission.

Fate nodded. May as well fill the few minutes until they made it there. Fate had a few theories of her own, but she'd rather wait until Teana had aired hers first - see what Teana was actually thinking before the girl heard her teacher's opinion.

Teana pursed her lips. 'Wasn't there a theory on the Saint's Cradle having been from Alhazred, before Velka? It could have been a modified version of one of their regular ship classes, and someone could have excavated a few of the ships in usable condition.' She shook her head. 'It could still be any of millions of groups, national, criminal, academic, but the excavated fleet idea would at least mean that it isn't someone who managed to hide an entire development project and shipyard. ... Again. Considering what we're here for, though, it could be step two of the Suvota weapons development, but the Cradle-alikes have me leaning towards the excavation theory.'

'That's my leading idea as well,' Fate noted. 'Which suggests whoever's doing it is trying to show off their new Logia fleet. Except, there's still the lack of communication...' She sighed, though only she could hear it. 'If they're showing off, I'd think they'd be broadcasting who they are. Absolute silence suggests they don't want to talk, they don't want to show anything... they just want to do something, and there aren't a lot of nice things you can do with a warfleet.'

'Huh... could it be someone from Earth?' Nanoha queried. At their looks, Nanoha shrugged. 'Earth isn't all united, it could be another country trying to attack Japan or somewhere nearby, or it could be them just bringing the ships in for a landing. It might not be another world with plans for Earth. Ah! This is with the Logia fleet idea, though. If the owners built it, Earth's definitely off the owners list.'

'I really hope not...' Fate pointed out. 'The TSAB doesn't have jurisdiction to stop Earth nations from blowing each other up. I mean, I will anyway, but I like this job and I don't really want to get court-martialed.'

'That's assuming we can stop it,' Teana stated. 'One ship the size of the Cradle took Mobile Section Six and about two thirds of the MAF to stop, these ones have just the three of us. I've gotten better since then, but not that much better. It'd definitely be preferable if they're open to negotiation.'

Nanoha nodded. 'If not... Teana, go Optic Hide and move as fast as you can while staying invisible. Does Cross Mirage still have the maps of the Cradle loaded?'

'Yes sir,' the Device responded.

Teana nodded as well. 'I memorized them too. Do you want me to try sneak onboard?'

'Only if negotiations fall through. Try get in the back way and break something important, me and Fate-chan can break in through the front.' Nanoha pumped her fist.

Fate's palm rose to meet her temple. Nanoha was way too confident, but that was pretty much the best plan they had if the ships were hostile and weren't willing to talk. The three of them were the sum total of the TSAB's military forces in the area. The Albion had left hours ago and would be hours getting back - and even then, the XV-class cruiser would have trouble against one of the twelve lighter ships, let alone the four heavyweights. '... Nanoha's right. Do it, we'll go on ahead. Don't break silence unless you think you need to, but listen in to us.' She suited action to words, increasing the flow of mana into her flight matrix and gently, smoothly increasing her acceleration up to around what Nanoha could do without straining herself - twenty meters a second per second or so. About twice the acceleration of an Earth-made fighter jet on afterburner.

Nanoha matched Fate's acceleration, as Teana - less expert at flight and going even slower due to the invisibility spell - fell behind, and vanished from both view and sensors. 'I can go at least another quarter over this, Fate-chan, seriously, you don't need to baby me.'

'Nanoha-chan, please, save it for when we need it. Don't push yourself too much!'

Nanoha grinned over at her. 'How many times have we had this conversation? Don't worry, Fate-chan, I'll be fine.'

'You'd better. If you go into traction again, I'm tying you to the bed.'

Nanoha's eyebrow rose.

Fate blinked - it took a moment before she caught up, and she flushed. 'The hospital bed! Mind out of the gutter, Nanoha!'

Nanoha's grin widened, and she looked ahead again. 'Eyes front, we're coming in range.'

Fate turned ahead as well, solidifying her grip on Bardiche. ... Yeah. She could see it now. Four times the massive, elegant cranked-arrowhead shape of the Saint's Cradle - though painted silver and crimson rather than the Cradle's gold, and with a simpler, less-sharp bow - and a few more dots around the four larger ships.

... Wait a minute. 'Nanoha, I'm scanning with sensors... there's no combat air patrol. Mages, drones... there's nothing.'

Nanoha shook her head. '... One mage.' She transferred the readout to Bardiche, and Fate saw. Pretty strong. Raw numbers were definitely up there.

Fate directed her mental voice towards it. 'This is the Time-Space Administration Bureau. And this is undeveloped space. I request an explanation of your presence.'

Moments passed in silence.

'You are encroaching upon the territorial space of Earth. Your presence is a violation of interdimensional law. The Time-Space Administration Bureau has committed to upholding that law.' Fate tried again.

More silence.

Just as Fate was about to try another query, a dozen spheres of brilliant white light formed around the mere dot that the mage was at this range, and simultaneously discharged into white lances of mana that tore through the space in front of Fate and Nanoha.

A warning shot. Fate ceased her acceleration, gesturing to Nanoha to do the same. They didn't 'stop', of course, motion was relative and they were still drifting towards the fleet - which was still accelerating towards them. Even at this rate they'd be on top of it within five minutes.

'You,' a telepathic voice noted, 'are encroaching on the fleet's perimeter.' It was a surprisingly young voice, feminine and light, but even in tone, unruffled.

'We are Enforcer Fate T. Hallaoun and Captain Nanoha Takamachi of the Time-Space Administration Bureau,' Fate opened up. At least negotiations had finally started. 'We have been authorized to negotiate on behalf of Earth. And we must ask the reason behind your intrusion.'

The mage drifted into view - Fate had Bardiche enhance the image so she could see it clearly.

... She couldn't be more than fourteen. Young and slim, with short, jaw-length lavender hair, messy but brushed away from her face and held back with a black ribbon tied in a bow. Clear blue eyes, and dressed in a black, white-frilled dress, a black lace glove on her left hand and a silver bracelet on her right. And no expression whatsoever on her face. Her eyes flicked between Nanoha and Fate. 'I am the Sword That Cleaves Evil, Latoya of the Silver Light.' She paused, perhaps as if expecting the name and title to be recognized.

Fate blinked slowly, glancing at Nanoha. Nanoha also shook her head, holding up her hands helplessly.

The girl stared at them incredulously for a long moment. Then she simply shook her head. 'Stand aside.'

'And allow you to do what?' Fate had to ask.

'What is necessary.'

Fate resisted the urge to palm her face again. Why did nobody just come out and say things...? Okay, so she was guilty of this too, but seriously.

'There are seven billion people behind us,' Nanoha took over, pointing at the frighteningly small-looking planet with Raging Heart. 'We can't just let you through. But if you say what you want, we might be able to give it to you.'

Latoya shook her head. 'You will not. I have explained it four hundred and ninety two times in situations like this, and not once have I been believed. It's not something people are ready to hear, and this is a bad situation to present it. But what I do, I do for those seven billion as well.'

'Why don't you try?' Nanoha asked, smiling and holding out her arms, as if to hug the small girl. 'Just one more time? I'm ready to believe you.'

'I have heard that one hundred and twenty-five times. You will not believe me. Not before it is too late for that world. Stand. Aside.' She raised her right arm, palm extended, to point at Nanoha and Fate, and the bracelet gleamed silver.

Fate narrowed her eyes, raising Bardiche. 'What you want is something unacceptable, isn't it?'

'Yes,' Latoya agreed. 'It is unacceptable. But it is the only option. I tried mercy, and billions more died. You will not understand, and you will not believe me, but this is the only way. Stand aside.'

Fate shook her head. Bardiche snapped out into scythe mode, the yellow energy blade appearing with an inaudible hiss. 'Stop the fleet.'

A pale ghost of a smile flitted across the girl's lips. 'That you refuse to stand aside is unfortunate, but it is a credit to you.' White lines traced themselves out underneath her, arcing and swirling into a beautiful pattern that took Fate a moment to recognize as some foreign lettered calligraphy. 'Lanza de la Constelacion.' Another round dozen spheres of white mana instantly formed in a ring around her. 'I will save that world, no matter the cost. Fire.' She snapped her hand down, and the twelve orbs of light transformed into beams of white light once more - this time, aimed directly at Fate and Nanoha. Not a warning shot this time.

Of course, the two of them had hardly been sitting around and standing, so they'd split apart, maneuvering out and letting the magical attacks fly through the space between them.

'What are you-' Nanoha began.

'Divine.' Raging Heart added, along with Bardiche's 'Plasma,' as Nanoha and Fate rapidly charged up their basic attacks - not burning cartridges just yet, the target was only a fourteen-year-old girl, though one with a good understanding of shooter spells.

'-talking about?!' Fate finished.

'Buster!' and 'Smasher!' the Devices finished, unleashing thick columns of pink, and lightning-converted yellow. Not quite at the same point, Fate targeted Latoya directly, Nanoha put her buster just a little behind - where an instinctive dodge would take her.

'Pulso de la Velocidad,' Latoya's bracelet commented in a rich masculine voice, and she blurred out of sight forward and to the left - towards Nanoha, as fast as Fate's Sonic Move. 'Espada.' It was hard to track, but it looked like a white energy blade had formed somewhere around her right arm.

Neither of them stopped to watch - Nanoha brought up her staff and reinforced it with a shield, and Fate set her scythe to swing and initiated a Sonic Move to catch up with Latoya.

The young girl blazed into Nanoha, swinging a light energy blade that seemed to be held at the extended fingertips of her right hand - and caught by Nanoha's upraised staff. 'Espada Dual.'

An instant later, Fate arrived behind them, applying another burst of Sonic Move to slow down even as she swung the scythe - as Latoya swung her left hand backward, catching the scythe blade on a second white mana blade at her left hand even as said blade appeared.

Nanoha grinned. 'Gotcha!' She didn't even need to call out Hoop Bind as the four pink binding rings appeared around Latoya, snapping shut.

And apparently Latoya didn't need to call out as a single white sphere formed above them, shooting a beam down a bare millimeter away from Latoya's back, and arced out towards Fate - slashing through the bind rings milliseconds before they closed, and freeing the girl.

Fate didn't get hurt, of course, putting a barrier around her left arm and blocking the slashing beam of light. It vanished shortly thereafter, tossing her back a little bit - she fired a plasma bolt into Latoya's back as she went, before pulling herself to a stop relative to the battle.

The plasma bolt hadn't hit - Latoya had offhandedly cut it apart with her left-hand blade, spinning around and bringing the blade, and the remnants of Fate's plasma bolt, down towards Nanoha's head.

Nanoha wasn't a specialist in close combat, but she hadn't been born to a swordsman for nothing, and easily brought her staff spinning up to catch the white energy blade.

Which exposed her to the second one - Latoya slammed her right-hand-blade home with a punching gesture, a thrust right to Nanoha's heart. It shouldn't have done anything, which was why Nanoha had blocked like that - they were in space, there was nothing to push off of, so the force of any straight-line thrust was basically cut in half, simply pushing them apart. An anemic thrust like that would be easily deflected by Nanoha's auto-barrier.

Except that with a report of 'Pared Estelar,' a wide diamond of white light lined with alien letters appeared behind Latoya - her own barrier, which she kicked off of to drive her blade home through Nanoha's Protection, the shield cracking and shattering into motes of pink light around her.

'Nanoha!' Fate cried as Nanoha went flying back, barely even paying attention as she fired a good half-dozen Plasma Lancer bolts into Latoya's back - which simply shattered against her shield.

'I'm okay!' she called. 'It only just brushed through my jacket.' Raging Heart sent a status report even as Nanoha herself stabilized, letting Fate see. It was a hit, Nanoha's white barrier jacket was torn, directly over the heart, and a few miniscule bubbles of blood floated out in the negligible gravity.

Fate gritted her teeth, Sonic Move-ing around Latoya, to come to Nanoha's drifting side, Bardiche already upraised defensively, setting up a series of trap binds for the young girl if she came after them. 'Two more centimeters and your heart would be cut in half, Nanoha.'

Nanoha grinned, waving a hand through the droplets of blood and scattering them away. 'Nah. At least ten more, she only got a centimeter or two.' She waved Raging Heart, adding a pink bubble of Protection around the drifting pair and tossing a few more magical traps on.

The purple-haired girl matched her velocity to Fate and Nanoha's drift, standing in space with her white blades held out to the sides, pointing 'downward' (technically speaking, if 'towards Earth' were 'down', they would be pointed off to the left, but they were pointing in the same direction as her feet). She seemed content to wait for them to confer, apparently preferring not to challenge the little fortress they were building. Or perhaps she simply didn't care as long as they weren't approaching the fleet.

Fate frowned. Still hard to tell whether Nanoha was really that confident, or if it was just bravado... but at this point, even assuming Nanoha would go to safety, there was nowhere safe to go. Earth was the fleet's target, and Vivio was in Tokyo. 'This is going to sound really stupid coming from me,' Fate noted, 'but that's no ordinary girl. Her magical strength is significantly above average, but beyond that, she knows how to fight - her spells come out fast and precise, and she even knows tricks for zero-gravity we were never taught and uses them smooth as instinct. She's trained, and well. Someone on this level at this age would normally be at least semi-known, and you haven't heard of her in your ace or trainer networks? We were practically the talk of the TSAB's trainers.'

Nanoha shook her head. 'Nothing. I can't even recognize the style, and I've seen seven hundred.' She exhaled. 'Going to need to go to Exceed Mode. Even in Aggressor Mode I'm not fast enough to keep up with her, I'll need the armour.' A pink light washed up her body from her boots, turning Nanoha's lighter miniskirted barrier jacket into the much more familiar-looking, heavier and bulkier Exceed Mode, and repairing the hole over her heart. Fate watched that area, but the white cloth didn't redden. Good, Nanoha hadn't been understating the injury - or at the least, had been able to heal it without issue. 'I'm more concerned that there's just one of her defending an entire fleet.' As she spoke, Raging Heart changed as well, the golden head coming together into a 'spear' as the staff switched to its own Exceed Mode - Axel Mode was better for quick processing and shooting, but if Latoya kept coming up into their faces, the spear would be critical.

Fate nodded, looking out over the large ships. They weren't really growing closer - Nanoha and Fate were floating to Earth at the same rate the ships were, so relatively they were all at a standstill. 'Ships that size... I'd expect hundreds of mages in defence. Unless...'

Nanoha grinned. 'They're mostly unmanned. This is a small operation, not a nation-level committment.'

'... Think she can handle it alone, then?'

'Maybe, but I'd prefer if you went ahead to help her.'

'Not happening, this 'Sword That Cleaves Evil' just about put another hole in you.'

'Heheh. I'm getting a collection.'

Fate just glowered at Nanoha.

Nanoha held up her hands. 'Okay, I get it. You want me to go ahead, then?'

Fate pursed her lips, before shaking her head. 'No, no way of knowing what they have in reserve. Teana's stealth is our best bet there. Stick together and hammer down Latoya, then move on to the ships.' She had Bardiche load a cartridge as he switched back to Assault Form, control ring and starter ball of electricity forming around her left hand as her golden rune array traced out underneath her. 'Trident...'

She didn't really need to say the plan, eleven years together had left Nanoha and Fate a seamless, well-oiled fighting machine.

Nanoha held up the Protection barrier long enough that the next dozen beams of light slammed into it, converging to an accuracy of centimeters, leaving hairline cracks in the barrier right in front of Fate's nose.

Fate whistled. Another round of that, like Latoya was charging up right now, would definitely connect. Fortunately, Fate had already finished preparing her attack and detonated a cartridge, creating a golden form circle in front of her, and slammed the ball of electricity into it. 'Smasher!' The three waves of golden lightning arced out, away from the array, and curving back towards each other at the purple-haired girl's position.

Not exactly at her position. One beam above, two below, boxing her in as tightly as could be, for Nanoha's rapidly-charged thirty-bolt Axel Shooter to flow around the still-pulsing columns of lightning - Fate was simply continuing to pump mana into the Smasher, keeping it going - and connect with Latoya.

Another burst of speed pulled Latoya out of the cage of magic - and that alone could not be understated, there was less than a half-meter of space at any one point for her to pass through, shooter bolts layered upon each other and a third bolt blocking the space right after any two, with nearly half the space around her occupied by the 'prongs' of the Trident Smasher, and yet she danced through it at what would be, in air, the speed of sound, rapidly pulling clear.

This was unexpected, but not unplanned-for, and Fate dropped the Smasher, letting Nanoha pursue Latoya with the shooter bolts - fanning them out again to try and cage her in, she'd demonstrated she could evade that once, but keeping it up while under assault was another matter.

For her part, Fate kicked up another Sonic Move, accelerating up to where Latoya was dancing between Nanoha's bolts and having Bardiche rapidly spin down to Zanber Form - extending the blade out even as she brought it up and around into the girl. Hopefully she'd be able to hold this back to nonlethal.

The lavender-haired girl brought both her white blades around to meet Fate's gold, catching it and halting it still, though her arms quaked to do it - no matter how skilled she might be, she was still a small girl and had a ways to go before she outmuscled Fate.

They held together in the clinch, Fate trying to push Bardiche through as Latoya struggled to hold it back - but more importantly, their motion had reduced to drifting, the girl unable to evade while she held off Bardiche. And while Nanoha's shooter bolts formed a halo around them.

The girl's eyes flickered around, tracking the shooter bolts as they came in. 'Lanza de la Constelacion!' And white spheres formed around her, erupting into beams of light that swept across the pink mana bolts, tearing them from the sky.

But even Nanoha had to pay attention to shoot down that many targets, that small and moving that fast. Which meant Latoya wasn't paying attention while Fate charged her left hand with electricity, pulled it off Bardiche's hilt, and slammed it into the dainty girl's nose, snapping her head back and forcing her white blades into a weaker position - allowing Bardiche to swing through as her guard broke. Bracing her feet against a shield spell all the while, of course - she'd never done such a maneuver before, but Latoya had just demonstrated how useful it was.

... Or perhaps she was paying attention. Her head had moved back with the blow more than Fate had pushed it - she'd been moving it to reduce the momentum - and her feet came up, covered in white barriers, and she stood on Bardiche's Zanber blade for a moment as she kicked away, leaving only droplets of blood from her broken nose.

And three white spheres of light, that pulsed even as Fate's eyes widened, lancing out into beams of light that converged on her left elbow, leaving a sick snapping sound through the bubble of air that kept Fate breathing.

Fate blocked out the pain - and oh boy, there was quite a lot of it - looking up for Latoya.

... Apparently her response to being injured wasn't to withdraw and tend the wounds, it was to come right back at her opponent.

Fate swung Bardiche Zanber up one-handed to block the attack. She'd have to convert it to Riot Form if she couldn't get her elbow healed fast...

---N====================>V---

[Pale Wolf]

---N====================>V---

12:57 Friday, June 16, 2017 CE
High Orbit, Earth - Non-Administrated World #97
Silver Ghost Battleship Siochaint

Teana gritted her teeth, ghosting through the wide, lightless, airless, gravityless halls of the massive ship. Like the Saint's Cradle there had been a relatively blind point on the upper rear, lacking the high-power offensive cannons - dropping her Hide for a moment and charging up a Starlight Breaker using the mana from the rear shields had punched a small hole for her ingress. Still not fully grasped, but she could at least use it at point-blank range against an essentially-immobile target.

It wasn't that the lack of light caused her any trouble - vision enhancement was easy enough, she could see as if it were daylight. She was just less than comforted by what she was hearing from Fate and Nanoha. She was starting to wonder if she and Fate were going to run into every single non-TSA ace in the dimensional sea before the end of the week.

But more importantly than that - or at least, more immediate - her floor plan was useless. The size of the corridors was reminiscent of the Saint's Cradle, but little else was - it was quite utilitarian, unlike the sumptuous hallways of the Cradle, and the routing was different. At this point, Teana was mapping it out as she went, with Cross Mirage keeping track of her location within the ship. She'd - if this worked out - need to do this three times more, and then figure out the cruisers.

Which there wasn't time for. There were mere minutes left until they hit atmosphere, and weapons range from these ships to Tokyo.

But panicking wouldn't get the job done, so Teana continued to move through the ship. The reactor should be around center mass. If this had been a mass-based ship, she could just destroy the engines at the back, but magical thrusters... they were just vents, a hole would do the job.

She'd have to destroy the prime mover at center mass. If it were anywhere near as backup-laden as the Cradle had been, that would just slow it down, but at this point slowing it down was a victory as well.

"... go away..."

Teana's head jerked to the source of the sound, but saw nothing but a flashing light along the wall. There was no air. How had she heard that?

She shook her head, floating closer to the flashing light... ah, it was a console of some sort next to a door, scrolling with foreign letters. The same set, again and again. She narrowed her eyes, casting back her memory for a moment. She recognized those characters...

Then pain, her eyes snapped shut, watering, as some unholy bright light flared up around her. Or, more accurately, someone had switched the lights on and her vision enhancement increased it to inhuman levels before it shut down automatically. As she reeled back, her Optic Hide fell, and she heard a hiss as the door next to the console opened.

She forced open her tear-filled eyes and switched Cross Mirage to Dagger Mode, swinging the orange blade up to catch the descending large metal sword. It sent her flying back to the opposite end of the hall, but it didn't cut her in half, so she'd call it a win.

Teana brought her left arm up, wiping the tears from her eyes and mentally triggering Cross Mirage to fill her left hand with another copy of the Device, in gun mode. She fired a short burst of shooter bolts in the vague direction of the sword-wielding gray shadow that had attacked her - not that the figure was particularly elusive, but her eyes hadn't really recovered yet.

She wasn't entirely sure what happened to the bolts, but she didn't hear a scream so she kicked away from the floor, 'upward' to whatever extent the word held meaning without gravity.

The gray was faster than her, though, and was already above her, sword swinging down. Teana blocked again with the blade in her right hand, but was still hammered back into the wall, and down into the floor.

She still fired a flurry of shooter bolts as a parting gift from her left hand, though. And she could see now - the 'gray shadow' was a young woman, perhaps Nanoha's age, with long white hair held in order by two red ribbons, blue eyes, dressed in a gray duster, a long-skirted black dress, and heavy boots. And of course, a rather oversized sword, not as large as Bardiche Zanber, but still larger than a material sword really should be, held easily in her dainty hands.

Five orange bolts of magic slammed into her expressionless face, without effect. It was like she was made of stone, except that actual stone would have shattered - she simply charged through, sword swinging down again.

Teana kicked off the wall, rolling forward under the woman, and kicked up, converting her left-hand gun into another blade and slashing up at the back of the woman's legs while her sword was high and to the front.

She must have had a field-type spell up along with her barrier jacket, like Lieutenant Signum's Panzergeist. Teana didn't much relish the thought of getting in close with a close-combat type, but if the woman's defence was anything like Signum's, her regular bolts would just wash off like water on a window - the Dagger Blade had a lot more concentrated power.

Normally, at least. Teana stared, the blades dimming and shrinking as they approached the woman's legs, leaking off little orange specks of mana that flowed towards the woman, slowing down to a halt before they even connected with the boots - her swing had simply run out of energy before even hitting, she couldn't push it any further through the field.

Then one boot rose, and stomped down onto Teana's shoulder, smashing her down to the floor again.

This, and the pain in Teana's back as she slammed into something, was really getting old, Teana decided. And brawling wasn't her mission anyway. So she kicked off the floor, flying back and into the air, out from under the woman as she slammed down, the sword buckling a crater into the deck plates, and rapidly wove Optic Hide, vanishing from sight and sensor, and adding an illusion of herself continuing upward as she slid herself back down.

The woman practically bounced off the floor, blade slashing up and carving straight through the illusionary Teana. She didn't even pause on realizing it was an illusion, simply manifesting a steel-gray diamond above herself, and kicking off it to bounce right back down to the floor, blade slashing through where Teana had descended to.

Teana stared, eyes wide, as the sword flashed by a centimeter in front of her nose, thanking her lucky stars she'd opted to back up as well.

She moved to her right as the woman lunged forward, thrusting the large sword like it was a spear - in fact, it had actually become a broad-headed spear for the moment she thrust it, before the handle shrunk and the blade grew again into a sword, the woman swinging it to her own right. Away from Teana.

Teana didn't allow herself a sigh of relief. Sure, no sound travelled without atmosphere, but frankly they were close enough that their air bubbles could be interfacing. She simply moved a little further back, as the woman continued a short series of pursuit slashes, further away from Teana. She stopped after the fifth, apparently having confirmed that Teana had gotten away.

Teana shook her head, moving away as quickly as she dared without breaking the Optic Hide. The woman was unbelievable. Not only did she have the skill with magic to hold up a field-type defence constantly as she moved in combat - something even Fate couldn't match Signum in - but the spell was like Starlight Breaker. After seeing what it had done to her dagger blades, she could identify it - it had been draining the excess mana from attacks, and using that to oppose the same attacks. Whether or not she was as good as Signum, Fate, or the other old heads of Section Six in overall magic, that white-haired, duster-clad woman was everyone's superiour in defensive spells.

Teana couldn't touch her with anything short of a buster-type attack, and she'd never get the charge time in these close quarters with the woman swinging that sword after her. And the Optic Hide wouldn't be able to conceal that level of charge, it would just make her visible again, at which point that woman would go chasing her with that sword once more.

It was fortunate she was here to break the ship, because she was very dubious on whether or not she could get through its guardian. If it came to it she'd do her best, but...

She ghosted away down the corridor, still trying to make her way towards the center of the ship.

---N====================>V---

13:00 Friday, June 16, 2017 CE
Low Orbit, Earth - Non-Administrated World #97

Nanoha looked back, worriedly. Earth was covering the entirety of their vision, Nanoha could feel air around her (the thinnest, uppermost layers of the atmosphere, but...), and they still hadn't heard from Teana. And she and Fate still couldn't get through Latoya.

It was unbelievable, and it would be embarrassing if they'd just been sloppy enough that a fourteen-year-old could fend them off, but they hadn't screwed up anywhere - the lavender-haired, black-dressed girl had simply continually risen to the occassion.

Fate was dueling her for the moment, trying to engage and push her heavier Zanber Blade through Latoya's short white blades - Latoya kept skipping off with her own burst-speed spell as soon as Fate's Sonic Move expired, so the battle looked like a murderous game of hopscotch, continually circling around an imaginary space in front of the oncoming fleet, interspersed with Fate's golden Plasma Lancer bolts, evaded by the younger girl so casually it barely merited mention.

Nanoha didn't like staying out of it, but she'd needed to catch her breath - whether or not she liked it, her dedication to work and use of the Blaster System had caught up with her, maybe not as much as Fate feared, but her endurance was still shot.

... And oddly enough, Latoya seemed to be less dangerous when only one of them was fighting her. Nanoha and Fate had only sustained their injuries - healed at least to 'functional' by Nanoha's magic - when the two of them pressed her as a pair. Now that Latoya was fighting only Fate, Nanoha had feared she'd have to get back in before too long, but Latoya was simply defending herself and leading the engagement all around the zone about fifty-three to fifty kilometers from the ships.

Nanoha frowned, shaking her head. 'Fate-chan, be careful! She's toying with us!' She'd only actually gotten violent when pressed. She wasn't attacking Fate alone because she could handle her - but for some reason, she didn't want to bring the fight to an end. ... Unless she didn't want to hurt them? But then why wouldn't she talk?

'Not so,' Latoya responded, casually catching the communique - clearly not as secure as Nanoha had hoped, though she supposed keeping it broad enough for Teana to catch didn't help. 'You two are incredible. Just two ansar landing a hit on me?' She shook her head, sending blood from her still-broken nose flying. 'It's been a long time. Even from my perspective. And never police. Never from a world at peace.'

'... What's wrong with police?' Fate pulled back. As long as they were talking, there was still a chance they'd get through to her... 'What's wrong with peace?'

'Nothing. But when you're at peace, you only have to fight to your hardest when someone breaks that peace. Just occassionally. When you're at war, you have to do your best for hours... days, years on end.' Latoya shook her head. 'Your talents are incredible, and your References match them. Given a few years, either of you could become me. I hope you do not have those years. Because they would not be happy ones.'

For just a moment, the young girl looked... ancient. Tired.

Nanoha frowned. '... How old are you?'

'Thirty-nine years old,' Latoya casually stated something insane. 'Or one thousand thirty-four,' because the first bit hadn't sounded crazy enough. 'Depending on your perspective.'

Nanoha and Fate traded looks across the distance of... about a kilometer at the moment - Nanoha was using visual enhancement to keep up with their expressions and movements. She was either insane, lying, or something unbelievable was going on.

Given their luck, Nanoha was casting bets for that last one. '... Where are you from?'

'The world of San Salvacion.' A quick check, and it failed to come up in Raging Heart's records. 'You wouldn't know it. I tried to go gentle. Because of my weakness, I had to destroy it.'

Nanoha paled. 'Destroy... a world?'

'The one unwilling to bear the sin may have a cleaner conscience, but remains responsible for those they could have saved, if they were ready to dirty their hands. Kill one to save ten. Kill a hundred to save a million. Kill a billion to save a trillion. The equation does not change.' The girl... or woman, or whatever she was... pointed at Earth with her right hand, the white blade still attached. Or rather, this close, she pointed directly at one island - Japan. 'Kill fourteen million to save seven billion.'

Fourteen million... Tokyo. Vivio was there.

'... You're insane,' Fate half-'muttered'.

'I'm a realist,' Latoya retorted.

'... We're not going to convince you, are we?' Nanoha had to ask, sighing. Every. Single. Time. 'You're not willing to stop and talk.' Did she have to shoot everyone until they sat down and talked their problems out?

'By all means, continue talking. We're about done, I've bought the minimum of time already.' The girl shrugged. 'Even if you got past me now, and even if you got through Raquel with just a breath, the fleet would be in range and open fire before you significantly damaged it.'

Nanoha gritted her teeth, bringing up Raging Heart. 'If you won't listen...' The Midchildan circle spun out beneath her in pink, as control rings formed around and in front of Raging Heart to stabilize the building sphere of pink-glowing mana. 'Divine.' Two cartridges detonated in Raging Heart's action - she was down to three.

'Then we'll just have to stop you the hard way!' Fate finished, crashing into Latoya again with her Zanber Blade driving through. The pair of them skidded to the right across the front of Nanoha's field of view, golden blade weakly held back by two white.

More importantly, the lavender-haired girl was held still. Nanoha sighted in, angling her spear to track the pair's movement, pushing it a hair further right to keep Fate out of the line of fire, and released, with a cry of 'Buster!'

The pink spear of light lanced out across the space of a kilometer, to smash down the young girl, as Fate held her in place.

Nanoha wasn't entirely clear on what happened until after the fact, it was lightning-fast and had happened very far away, with her Buster obscuring most of the view and the only real announcement being a report of 'Trampa de la Espada' from the masculine voice of the girl's Device.

The girl's white blades twisted, reforming into white mana ropes that coiled themselves around Bardiche's large mana blade, and the girl spun. Fate should've pulled away - maybe pulled Latoya out of the line of fire, but Latoya shouldn't be able to outmuscle her. Except that the girl somehow did it, for less than a second, arresting Fate's attempt to fly back, converting the momentum to spin her around, and dropping her in front of Nanoha's oncoming Divine Buster.

Fate, eyes wide, brought up a Round Shield, grunting as the pink beam impacted on her defences.

She weathered it, of course, Fate was far from fragile and Nanoha had cut off the beam as soon as she realized Fate was under it.

"Fate-chan!" Nanoha gritted her teeth and initiated a Flash Move, overcharging her flight spell and pushing herself across the remainder of the distance to where Latoya held Fate, forming a thin blade of mana at Raging Heart's tip while she went. ACS would get her there faster, but the time it took to initiate would take even more than crossing the mere kilometer's distance on her old standby - a comparative calculation that had flashed between her mind and Raging Heart in less than a second.

Four seconds later, she was there and slowed back down enough that she wouldn't just whip by uselessly - though by that time, Fate had managed to cut through the mana ropes pinning Bardiche, and spun around, slashing at Latoya.

Unsurprisingly, the girl flipped back out of the way, a sudden burst of speed skipping her back another two hundred meters in the space of a blink. Again, she stood calmly in space, awaiting Nanoha and Fate. With a chirp of 'Espada Dual' from the Device at her wrist, the girl reformatted her slashed-apart arm blades.

Nanoha tsked to herself, slowing down the rest of the way and taking up position next to Fate. '... Sorry, Fate-chan... are you okay?'

Fate nodded firmly. 'We can't afford this fight.' she changed the topic - whether or not Nanoha felt guilty about hitting her, she wouldn't press it. 'We're wearing her down, I think. But we don't have time.' She looked down, at Japan looming large below them.

Nanoha nodded. '... We have to take her down now. I'm going to Blaster.'

'No!'

'I have to, Fate-chan. I don't really want to ruin my body doing this, but Vivio-chan is more important.'

Fate gritted her teeth, taking a long, slow breath. 'No. We're not failing to overpower her, we're failing to hit her. I'll go Sonic and hold her still. You just get past her and take out those ships, Starlight Breaker and the Strike Flame are better for that task anyway. And no...!' she trailed off, probably realizing that Nanoha was going to use Blaster whatever she said. 'No further than Blaster One!'

Nanoha quirked a grin. 'I won't lie to you, Fate-chan, but I'll do my best not to go too far. And you don't go too far either! Sonic is nearly as stressful, and you used it just five days ago.'

'... That's the best I'm going to get...' Fate shook her head, holding out Bardiche Zanber as it spun down to the shorter-bladed, single-edged Riot Form. 'Overdrive. True Sonic Form.'

Bardiche detonated a cartridge, announcing the shift to 'Sonic Drive' as Fate glowed brilliant gold, purging the outermost layers of her Barrier Jacket and forming the rune array beneath her feet.

Latoya grinned, raising her arms, and the blades on them. 'A girl after my own heart. Give it everything, Fate Testarossa Hallaoun. I will stop you both.' The white calligraphy scrawled out underneath her.

Her Device spoke as well: 'Deseo des las Estrellas.' White mana forms, in the shape of fairy wings, swirled out at her back, and brilliant sparkles of white began slowly, lazily drifting in from the air around them.

Fate raised her head to lock eyes with Latoya. 'Riot Zanber,' Bardiche added, as it dropped a second, identical Riot Blade into Fate's waiting left hand.

'Taladro Espada,' retorted Latoya's Device, and the blades at her fingertips began spinning, starting to look more like drills than swords.

Both assumed the same stance - left blade held forward, right further back, protecting the face. All four blades pointed at their opponent.

Nanoha just shook her head. This was going to get messy... Whatever Latoya was doing, it looked like a collection-type spell.

Raging Heart detonated two cartridges - leaving her with just one in the current magazine - and extended six pink wings of mana from the golden head of the spear (two large and out to either side, the other four arranged at the corners, just slightly further back). 'ACS Standby.'

Nanoha's rune circle spun out underneath her. The problem was... whatever Latoya was doing, Fate could take care of herself better than all the people behind them could. 'ACS...' The wings destabilized as Nanoha overcharged them with mana. 'Drive!'

She accelerated, diving past, as Fate and Latoya both flickered out of sight and crashed into one another.

Ahead of her, the ships erupted with light, beams of purple as wide as Nanoha was tall blasting away from the glass globes that dotted the ships, and then snapping into another direction - towards her.

Not... enough.

At this range, snapping out to evade was easy, barely even threw a kink into her charge. There were hundreds of them, all targeted on her and all wide-area attacks, so complete evasion was impossible, but she got around the worst of it, and Protection kept the trailing edges from incinerating her.

ACS ran out just as she passed through the first wave. Nanoha instantly pumped another burst of mana into it, burning her last cartridge, and accelerated through another wave of anti-air fire, slapping another magazine in.

She couldn't accelerate any further - she was already closing at a rate of kilometers per second, any faster and she'd snap in half when she hit.

At this speed, evading the oncoming fire was practically a matter of twitching, a degree of difference would throw her dozens of meters away from her projected course within a split-second.

Though with this wide spread of attacks, even that wouldn't take her fully clear - she'd need to completely redirect and abandon her charge to do that, and that simply wasn't an option.

So it was up to fine, exacting motions, Nanoha's intuition and Raging Heart's blazingly-fast computer core bringing her to the calmest points in the storm of violet light and not a hair further.

She was still buffeted around, even they couldn't do perfect at this speed, but it was good enough.

Five seconds. Nanoha brought Raging Heart up, bracing her grip on it, and began her own collection spell. The silver ships were being very kind to provide her with this much excess mana.

Which she'd need. Violet calligraphy was forming at the sides of the four largest, Cradle-like ships - the cannons were preparing to fire in long-range mode. She couldn't destroy them this fast, but she might be able to disrupt the ship before it could fire.

That would cut the firepower down, at least. Reduce the damage. If Teana were able to get another... it would still be enough to kill millions, but millions less.

But Nanoha refused to give in to despair. She would still, at every step, do everything she could possibly think of. Miracles had to be made, not waited for.

---N====================>V---

13:05 Friday, June 16, 2017 CE
Colorado Springs, United States, Earth - Non-Administrated World #97
Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center

Major-General Cordell Briscoe couldn't entirely stop the twitching of his fingers as he spun from the main screen to face a juniour officer. "Do we have permission or not?" They were running out of time, the oncoming ships - still nonresponsive - were getting worryingly deep within Japan's orbital space. "If we don't fire within two minutes, they will be able to start a bombardment."

The young lieutenant shook his head, looking up from his screen. "No sir... the Japanese are waiting on confirmation of intent, they won't give us permission to open fire... Ah! Wait one!" He turned back to the screen, pressing his headphones a little closer into his ears. A moment later, he looked up and nodded. "Permission granted! Apparently the Japanese got a confirmation of intent from TSAB agents up-"

"Doesn't matter right now," Cordell noted, turning back to face the screen. Time to test out one of the toys they'd built in trying to catch up to the Outside. "Tell them to get anyone they have out of there. And initiate the firing sequence on Stonehenge Number Three."

Another officer nodded. "Stonehenge status confirmed. Weapon has surfaced and is on target."

A green confirmation square appeared on the map display, indicating the platform's position in the Pacific Ocean, off Japan's coast - and its two-thus-far siblings, off the east and west costs of North America. The other two didn't really have a firing angle, though, so it'd all be up to Number Three.

A bright red numeral ten appeared over the symbol for Stonehenge - the countdown began, and ticked down to nine.

Cordell gnawed at his lip. "They're loading MIRV rounds, correct?" Lordie. This was the biggest thing this subcommand had ever tackled. He'd fought before, commanded military operations, but this was the first time an Outsider had tossed a fleet this big at them.

"Yes sir. Stonehenge is reporting first round loaded and barrel opened."

"Then have 'em open fire."

"Order relayed and received, sir."

This had better do it.

The countdown reached zero, and the square indicating Stonehenge turned red.

"... What the hell just happened?!" It was reporting non-operable the moment it fired? What the hell had gone wrong?

The young officer shook his head. "It... that doesn't make sense! Stonehenge reports the shutter slammed closed while the round was still in the barrel! ... It's gone, sir. The whole front section of the weapon."

Cordell stared at the front display, face slack. Millions of people were about to die because of technical difficulties. "... Can they still fire?"

"... Sorry, sir. The barrel's taking on water. They're initiating damage control, but Number Three's out of the fight."

Cordell took a deep breath. "Reangle Number Two, and initiate firing procedures." It'd come out late, if it could even plow through that much atmosphere to the target, but that was better than the other option - nothing. "And make sure the shutter doesn't close this time. Have them block the fucking thing off manually."

There was nowhere near enough time. Realigning it, surfacing it, targeting and startup... combined with the need to confirm shutter status, it'd take at least ten minutes, and Cordell wasn't sure they had one.

The officer shook himself. "Right! Passing it on!"

And then they were out of time. The weak, black and white visuals they had of the approaching arrowhead-ships blossomed with light, dozens of beams pulsing out from a pair of the largest ships, and racing down, from orbit to Earth. The beams held steady, not trailing off and stopping.

"... I've lost contact with Japan," another officer reported, voice quiet. "I... it could be electromagnetic interference from the blast, all broadcasts from the entire island are gone and that couldn't have been enough to destroy it all... right...?"

Cordell closed his eyes, nodding. "... That's not enough for the whole country, and you're right, that level of magical firepower scrambles the radio waves. But at least a city or two are gone."

"... Sir, there's a counterattack coming."

Cordell blinked his eyes open, looking at the map. "From where? Stonehenge Two isn't ready to fire yet."

The images were already appearing on the electronic display. Missiles. Damn near a hundred of them, and large according to what the radar could pick up, emanating from a point above the Kuril Islands, to Japan's northwest. A high orbit, they were roaring down from space towards the ships, swirling and dancing among one another to foul up counterfire.

"What the hell...?"

The smaller ships clustered closer around the larger four (the two of which were still firing), and narrow beams of light rocketed out from them, unbelievably precise, carving missiles out of space. Not many, the missiles were approaching unnaturally fast and had some spectacular evasive protocols, but there were hits on the first wave.

Cordell bit his lip. The missiles had to be nuclear. One ought to do it, as long as one got through.

But good as the missiles were, swirling around the beams and constantly shifting angles... the targeting on the Outsider ships was better. In fact it was positively unnatural, the beams seemed to be actively outthinking the missiles, boxing each one in and hunting it down.

"... I... I didn't realize Outsider tech was that far ahead..." a voice whimpered from the back of the control room as the last missile was wiped off the radar.

Cordell didn't really have the heart to turn and chastise them. "... Either the TSAB's been understating their capabilities, or these guys are ahead of them."

The announcement of "Another wave!" wasn't necessary, as Cordell could see the yellow symbols for the missiles on the map display even as they rose from... Vladivostok. Near on a hundred this time.

"... the hell? Russia? Didn't their president say they weren't getting involved?" Cordell muttered.

"... I guess they changed their minds?" one of his subordinates suggested.

"That space-based platform has gotta be ten kinds of violation of the OST, but I am not complaining at this point," Cordell noted as another brace of missiles emerged from the space above the ships, swelling the numbers to a hundred fifty. "About time they decided to be the good guy."

The missiles seemed to be communicating with one another, weaving together to angle on the ships and coordinate their flight paths.

Even as the defensive batteries opened fire, carving a few missiles out of the air, another brace of fifty came from high in space.

"Okay, seriously, get me scans of that region. How the hell did they get that many missiles up there without the CIA catching it?"

"Well, it is the CIA, sir," someone commented - ah, Lieutenant Carter.

"... Point."

The missiles were still vanishing from the sky as they approached the ships, and another pack of fifty emerged.

"... Radar has nothing in that region except the missiles themselves, sir," Lieutenant Carter muttered. "Could be radar-stealthed. I'll try get a thermographic telescope image, but it'll take some time."

"Call it low-priority, we can spare the diplomatic incident with Russia for later. Right now, let's just... pray for Russia," Cordell muttered, staring in disbelief as he realized what he had just said.

Even as the missiles continued to approach and were shot down, the ships continued firing - the beams hadn't let up for a second, even after the initial pulse, even after they fell under attack...

"... What the hell are they trying to destroy? The bedrock? They must've blown through that at least a minute ago. Have they shifted angle any?"

Another lieutenant shook his head. "Uh, no sir. Not a degree. Same target point... looks like Tokyo."

The missiles continued their duel with the cruisers... and were inching ever-closer. The hundred from the ground were already gone, but the continuing pulses of fifty from space were reinforcing just a little bit more than the cruisers destroyed.

... At least, until one of the battleships joined in with its own defensive batteries, slowly rotating to face its bottom upwards - and apparently the majority of its cannons, given the sudden increase in beams coming from it. One of the ones that hadn't been firing at the ground. Its dozen or so topside cannons continued firing, engaging... something. One of the TSA agents?

Cordell swallowed. ... At least five hundred missiles had gone at those ships, and not one had even got within ten kilometers. They hadn't even slowed down to confront it.

He turned back to one of the operators. "Status on Stonehenge Two?" He doubted the nuclear warhead would get to the targets, but the kinetic impact could still do some damage.

The man shook himself. "Uh!" He looked down at his screen, attention having been diverted to watch the missile show. "... Uh, barrel has surfaced, startup is proceeding smoothly and a team's heading out to the shutters now."

Cordell sighed heavily. Too late for the target cities, but they could at least avenge them. And prevent the ships from hitting anyone else.

---N====================>V---

13:11 Friday, June 16, 2017 CE
Tokyo, Japan, Earth - Non-Administrated World #97
Sentoshi Mori, South Tower Fourteenth Block, Millennium City

Sara Lucchini had initiated a transfer home as soon as she saw the mana cannons roaring down from the sky. Hopefully that didn't break the masquerade and all, but... priorities.

She arrived home to the sound of screaming.

And the outside of the shrine was lit up, or perhaps lit 'down' - massive pale purple mana blasts were locked down, pressing against the tower, and interlocking diamond-shaped plates of solid black expanded out above the shrine, darkening the grounds. The black light in the shrine wards trailed back, into the residential building.

She followed the noise, and the thick tendrils of black, to the kitchen, where she found everyone - Kaede, Saiko, and Luka arranged worriedly around Kanata, who was rolling on the tiled floor and clutching her head, a long scream tearing forth from her lips. Her hair fluttered around her, as if she were caught in a wind or unbound by gravity, extending out into black strands that thickened out into tendrils and floated out the window to the shrine's wards - Sara couldn't actually tell where Kanata's dark hair ended and the black pool of her magic began.

There was a shattered, soapy plate next to her, and she was rolling over it, but that wasn't the cause of her pain, Sara knew - for one thing, she was regenerating the damage from the shards of plate almost instantly, her body simply shoving the sharp-edged ceramic out and slurping the blood back in.

Kaede nodded to Sara as she entered, speaking telepathically - would be hard to be heard over Kanata's screaming. 'Reconquista's initiated Full Close, but I don't think she's ready for this kind of power.'

'Why hasn't she let the bombardment through?' Saiko queried, frowning. 'She'd survive it at least, and without... this. Isn't that what Full Close is supposed to do, with or without her input? She could deflect this much easily, but she's trying to block it head-on.'

Luka shook his head. 'Normally. There's a subconscious block. She's amplifying the shrine spells to defend the whole tower. Doubt she has any idea what she's doing, but it's keeping everyone alive.' He brought up a finger. 'For now. Whether or not she can hold it up longer than they can, the tower foundations can't.'

Going by the screams of pain... Sara didn't think she could either.

Kaede nodded. 'We're going to need to get out of here.'

'I want to know why Raine didn't warn us,' Saiko noted. 'They have better detection abilities, they had to know.'

'That doesn't matter right now!' Sara yelled, growling. 'I'll do it! We can't take Kanata off the shrine or the defense goes down, but I can take care of the attack.'

Kaede frowned. 'I thought you didn't like using the Gatekeeper's power.'

Sara shook her head. 'I don't. Just hold me back if I go berserk. We don't have a lot of time to discuss this.' Kanata would survive as long as she stayed in the shrine, and they could get out and survive easily enough... but the older girl would remain screaming on the floor until the tower foundations cracked and everyone else died. Sara just didn't feel right leaving that to happen. She didn't know Kanata well, but she was nice.

Saiko nodded, kneeling down and lifting the still-writhing younger girl with ease. 'I'll take care of Kanata. You two hold back Sara.'

Sara grinned. 'The perfect dark knight, huh?' She kept grinning as Saiko extended her middle finger in Sara's general direction, otherwise ostentatiously ignoring her. 'All right, time to save the princess.' She whirled on herself, vanishing.

And reappearing above the shrine, looking up at the black-and-purple light show. Kaede and Luka appeared to either side of and behind her out of similar rips in reality, the roiling maw sealing behind them.

Sara closed her eyes and exhaled heavily, clasping her hands in prayer - to business immediately, no time to play around right now. "The night sky is filled with cries."

She really did hate doing this. "The human heart is filled with lies."

The itching as the marks of the contract crept down her arms, up her neck... "The contract... is it worth the price?"

Sara opened her eyes, holding back the building rage, the pulsing need to shatter the annoying meatsacks behind her so they'd stop distracting her. "The truth awaits beyond the gate."

She pulled her hands apart, and the fabric of space went with them, a gap of the pale, streaked green that lay underneath reality stretching up from her hands.

---N====================>V---

13:09 Friday, June 16, New Calendar Year 0076 (2017 CE)
Interdimensional Space
Suvota Compact Naval Service, Strigon Battlecruiser SX-005 Aigaion

"What in the name of all that is holy is going on there?" Planya had to ask, despite the short chastising look she received from Svetlaya.

Admiral Alaya, for her part, simply shook her head. "I have no idea. But ethics aside, we need that planet for Pluto supplies."

"I do not believe," Svetlaya pointed out, "that the Prime Minister intended for our cargo pickup to involve naval warfare."

Alaya shrugged. "Necessary prerequisite, and we can't get in touch to confirm with command. You know Pluto takes priority, Colonel."

Svetlaya sighed, looking at the tactical display. "I do. However, are you certain we can take on Alhazredian ships? We hold numerical superiourity, but not enough."

Planya turned to her teacher, eyes wide. "Wait... you recognize them?"

Svetlaya's staff whapped Planya upside the head. "I am not that old. Alhazred was gone long before I was born." She nodded at the ships. "But back then, we remembered where the Saint's Cradle came from for certain."

Alaya nodded, arms folding across her chest. "One Cradle-spec ship would be... well, we could probably do it, but not casually. Four... we're going to have to hope it was very significantly upgunned from the original model, because the other option is leaving the planet to burn. Besides, someone needs to face them first and transmit the data back to command."

Planya winced, but nodded as well. "... Even if we burn, the next group won't."

Svetlaya sighed, shaking her head and turning to walk from the bridge. "Come, Planya. We're getting close enough to launch the cossacks. With your permission, Admiral?"

The younger suvota nodded, waving a hand. "Shoot straight, fly crooked." The classic benediction of the Suvota Compact's air forces.

Planya turned, following her teacher through the ship's halls, mounted with paintings by the crew. She understood TSAB ships had transfer stations from the bridge, but the very idea boggled Planya's mind - putting an entrance to the ship right next to one of its most critical parts?

Besides, it didn't take more than two minutes - with navigational assist through the halls from the onboard computers - before they were at the transfer stations.

A mere flash later, and they were out in the swirling dimensional sea with a few dozen more cossacks - only a percentage of the ship complements could perform transfers on their own, the rest would have to disembark once the squadron reentered normal space.

Fortunately, Planya was among that number. She took up her place at Svetlaya's wing.

'Very well. Is everyone prepared?'

'Yes ma'am!' Planya, and the other cossacks, snapped out.

'Then we will drop into realspace. Our group is to perform initial reconnaissance in force. Confirm the situation 'on the ground' as it were, attack and disrupt where seems convenient. Nobody push it,' Svetlaya warned. 'Remember, we have twenty ships and five hundred cossacks behind us. None of you will be awarded for recklessness.'

Planya winced. That could have been directed at her...

'Go.'

Black disks formed in front of the cossacks - their gates back to reality. With a simple pulse, they slid through.

Emerging into reality.

Planya located the attacking Logia ships easily enough - they were erupting with a pale, lifeless purple light, a point defence stream the likes of which Planya had never seen, tearing apart a seemingly-neverending stream of missiles roaring in from above.

Svetlaya narrowed her eyes. 'They shouldn't have that many units of Pluto. Someone's been holding out on us.'

'... Bigger issue, the point defence on those ships is unnatural. A tenth of that missile barrage would've levelled a fleet,' Planya muttered.

The unit of cossacks continued closer together, taking in sensor data. The second thing that became apparent was that two of the ships were firing, straight down at the planet.

It should have been defenceless, but a visual enhancement zooming in indicated that there was a shield up over the three towers under assault that even the two battleships' cannons couldn't punch through.

Planya would have thought the other two ships would have joined in, but one wasn't firing, and the other seemed busy adding its main batteries to the point defence, flipped upside-down relative both to the other ships, and to the planet. ... And the lesser batteries on its dorsal hull seemed to be firing down, but shorter-ranged, and scattered... as if trying to hunt aerial targets.

Planya zoomed in on that location, and saw a white-clad Midchildan mage - a single one - sliding across the ship's shield, initiating speed bursts to get around the offensive fire, and drawing in specks of pink mana from the air.

A glance at the ventral hull revealed a long scar in the smooth silver plates - not major damage, but the idea that a single mage - that wasn't Svetlaya - had done even that much to such a large ship was disquieting.

'Hm, Hallaoun's here, but your friend isn't,' Svetlaya noted, as her Device Vyzhivanie passed the telemetry to Planya.

Planya gritted her teeth as she looked over the data. She didn't relish going up against Lanster again, so it was for the best. 'Looks like she's the distraction,' Planya noted, as she watched the lightning mage repeatedly interpose herself between the Midchildan mage and a flash of white.

Svetlaya pursed her lips. 'Doesn't look like she needs bailing out.'

Planya nodded. She was definitely on the short end, every time she and the white flash clashed, bubbles of blood erupted from Hallaoun - the price of the weakened barrier jacket of that 'Sonic' form of hers. But Hallaoun was able to hold it just the same - by focusing on defence and giving ground in centimeters, Hallaoun was able to keep herself intact, and keep the smaller mage from making it all the way.

Hallaoun would either run out of space or blood sooner or later, but it would hold for now. Besides, they weren't actually allies. Long-term, the Compact would be safer with someone who could put Svetlaya at risk dead or disabled.

Planya looked up and back. 'Ships are arriving.'

Sure enough, the disks into interdimensional space irised open, and the multi-hulled black-and-red ships smoothly slid through, letting the gates close behind them. A moment later, cossacks began pouring out, filling the space with their white Air Service uniforms.

'Colonel,' Admiral Alaya came through on a more private transmission. 'We're about to initiate an attack. Take a large unit of cossacks forward and try to exploit any gaps we make in the ships. I know it's not standard doctrine but they don't appear to have many mages, and it's the ships I'm worried about.'

Svetlaya nodded. 'Forward unit, Aigaion Red, Gold, Blue, and White, on me. We're hitting the ships,' she relayed, spinning out into a dive.

Planya kept up with her, and the rest of the unit caught up to the maneuver before too long. They accelerated a little less than maximum standard so the remaining four squadrons could catch up, and then moved up to maximum standard acceleration. A few - such as Planya - could certainly move faster, but that would string out the formation, and Planya at least had been recently educated in how bad an idea that could be.

And dozens of pulses of red light lanced out ahead of them - the main cannons of the battlecruisers, joining the swarm of purple light and missiles and the pink sparks around that one ship.

Purple calligraphy scrawled out over the tops of the ships, enunciating diamond-shaped defensive shields that caught the cannon blasts, flaring up brilliantly as they struggled to fend off the Suvota-reactor-powered weapons.

They could manage it, for now, but the shields were starting to fade. This might just be possible, if the Strigon battlecruisers could withstand the counterblow from those immense ships.

Except that the counterattack never came. The cruisers kept their focus on the missiles, as did that one battleship. One battleship remained silent. And the two live, firing battleships... didn't retaliate.

They remained pointed down, their weapon batteries continuing to pound against that one impossibly tough tower down on the planet's surface. Had the TSAB traded them defensive reactors for something?

... And what was so important to destroy that it took precedence over the oncoming battlegroup? That wasn't arrogance or dismissal, the shields were weakening, fast, they simply prioritized the ground target and the missiles over the Suvota ships, and at that point didn't have any weapons left likely to harm them. And they were right to prioritize the missiles, Planya knew - so what did that say about the patch of land they were trying to pound flat?

'I'm feeling a little insulted,' Alaya mused on the open channel. 'Pound their shields down. As long as they're not defending themselves, we'll take advantage. Redirect fire to the cruisers. Reduce that AA and Pluto becomes viable, either from Earth or from us.'

Upon her command, the next rain of crimson poured down over the twelve smaller ships, even as their batteries maintained focus on the seemingly-unending stream of missiles.

This was successful much faster. The diamond shields buckled almost instantly under the pounding from battlecruisers, giving way to the spherical auto-barriers, which also shattered under the first volley.

The ships weren't crippled, but they'd taken hits on their armour, and their shields were gone. The next volley would do it - or Planya, Svetlaya, and the seventy cossacks behind them and nearly in range.

Then... Planya frowned, looking down at the planet. 'Arc-en-Ciel readings,' she reported to Svetlaya, having her Device - an unintelligent mass-produced machine not really worthy of a name - pass the data on.

'They gave a superweapon to those people? At least we just gave magical instruction...' Svetlaya shook her head.

A split-second later, the pale-green... rip... arced up, slowly and elegantly, from the world under attack. It didn't overpower the cannons, even though it passed through them. It was more accurate to say that it devoured the cannons, as they simply vanished within the green space the weapon revealed, with a sound disquietingly like a slurp. A sound, in space, which was unsettling enough in and of itself.

It seemed as if the rip's calm, stately advance would devour all four ships as well, but the white mage turned from her battle with Hallaoun, pulling out... something. A young girl's voice screamed in telepathy - too disturbed to censor herself and keep it restrained. 'Get behind me, Fate!' The twelve arrowhead-shaped cruisers slipped into the space behind the battleships as well.

Hallaoun obeyed... technically, in that she took advantage of the black-clad girl's distraction to flash up behind her, slamming the two golden blades into her hands through the girl's lungs.

The girl didn't turn. She ignored Hallaoun and the blades sticking through her back and out her front, forming a long matrix of what looked like nearly a dozen diamond-shaped shield spells in front of the oncoming attack from the ground.

Apparently, Hallaoun read something in the girl's demeanour, or perhaps just now noticed the approaching Arc-en-Ciel, because she brought up the armour and white cape of her regular barrier jacket, pushing out a goodly number of the Midchildan circular shield to defend herself from the rather indiscriminate area weapon.

The pale green tear touched the first of the girl's white shields and, surprisingly, came to a stop. Then, it slammed shut, the closure and return of normal space starting at the bottom and working its way upward, towards Hallaoun and her opponent.

Planya remembered, at this point. The green spatial rip was the primary destructive mechanism of the Arc-en-Ciel, but it had a side effect that made it impossible to use for small area destruction. As the rift closed, the space reformatting around it created a massive energy burst, an explosion that could be expected to deal damage out to a radius of hundreds of kilometers.

Yet, there was no explosion at the lower ends as the space slid back into place - an explosion like that would have levelled the very target it was trying to protect. And the green was growing brighter at the top, and brighter...

The weapon was channelling the detonation, up to the top. Likely directionally, too, or the backblast would still reach the ground. Which was discounting the fact that the Arc-en-Ciel's rift was normally no wider than a few hundred meters - and that this rift was over a hundred kilometers long.

Planya's eyes widened, and she slapped up a concentric array of shields for herself, passing on the warning. As expected, Svetlaya was ahead of her, and seconds began to crawl as the woman put up the time-delay zone - granting the rest of the unit time to reinforce their shields as the jade-green rip in space inched shut.

Planya watched with bated breath as the last meters of green vanished in front of Hallaoun and her erstwhile opponent, shining bright as the sun.

And then the space was normal. The normal version generally extended a zone field around the explosive radius, to try and cut down on the collateral damage. This version didn't bother, pink light exploding in a cone directly in front of the two girls, erupting forward.

Planya lost track of what happened to the TSA mages and their opponent in the light show, though she didn't hold out much hope. The impulse was slamming into the battleships and scattering them like bowling pins - not penetrating their shields, but throwing them around just the same. There would be no way for a human, no matter how exceptional, to survive that at the detonation's point of origin.

At a hundred kilometers, the amount of blast wave that hit Planya and Svetlaya's battle group was comparatively minor - still enough to powder bones and snap necks even through their barrier jackets, but their defensive barriers made up enough of the difference, though they were still flung away, formation scattering.

Planya shook herself, stabilizing her flight easily enough, and watching as the last of the blast wave roiled casually off the Strigon ships - that far out, there was basically no power left to it.

She turned as the Alhazredian ships stabilized, turning away from the planet and the Suvota ships, and igniting their engines, starting a route that, a moment later, Planya's Device confirmed as an orbital slingshot around the planet. A withdrawal. Not a surprise, they were much worse off after that blast than Strigon was.

The Strigon ships lit their engines as well, powering after the Alhazredian. Clearly Admiral Alaya wanted to deal with these things now, while they were weakened.

The missiles had stopped too, with the blast, and hadn't resumed.

... What in the name of the Revolution had the TSAB developed the Arc-en-Ciel into now? That was... so far beyond its known specs it would sound like a parody, if Planya weren't still so terrified.

And her fear jumped up another notch as she detected three mages in close to the Alhazredian ships - the white TSA mage and Hallaoun converging on one point as they pursued, and the smaller, black-clad girl pulling away from them, a few white, gold, and pink potshots tossed at each other to little effect as they separated.

Hallaoun and her opponent had survived that. A blast that flung around battleships like a child's toys. At point-blank range.

Planya swallowed, and followed Svetlaya's lead as she brought their attack group ahead. They still had a job to do - disabling those ships.

---N====================>V---

13:12 Friday, June 16, 2017 CE
High Orbit, Earth - Non-Administrated World #97
Silver Ghost Battleship Siochaint

It felt like an eternity since Teana had reached the reactor room, but a check of the timer indicated it had only been five minutes. Teana had only gotten one hit in on the reactor before the white-haired woman burst in.

At which point, it wasn't unfair to call her 'screwed'. The woman didn't head in after her. She simply stood at the door - blocking it - and flung lances of steel into the room as Teana went invisible.

And kept flinging them, at apparently randomly-selected locations - most didn't come near Teana, but a few did.

To be honest, it seemed more like something to pass the time than anything else. The woman seemed content to keep Teana bottled up in the reactor chamber and unable to hit the reactor, while clouds of what Cross Mirage reported to be nerve gas pumped into the massive room.

The nerve gas wasn't too much of an issue, thankfully. With her barrier jacket up, Teana had some basic environmental protection, and it was pumping in slowly enough that she'd been able to analyze it and tune Cross Mirage's defences for it.

She could technically still attack the reactor, but the minimal amount of power she was able to channel while under Optic Hide... wouldn't even scratch the shield around it.

Of course, by now, she'd tried parking out behind the reactor, using it to shield her from the woman, but shortly afterward, the woman demonstrated that she was entirely capable of curving her shots around the reactor, and added that to her zone of attacks. Teana suspected she'd left it alone in the hopes that Teana would see it as a safe point and relax back there long enough for her to score a hit. She almost had.

Teana wasn't just sitting around here on the defensive, though. She simply couldn't engage without a plan - that woman's defences were too high for anything but her strongest spells to crack, so she needed to get an opportunity to launch them, and go into it with every angle covered.

So Teana had Cross Mirage in dual gun mode, both aimed at the woman as she maneuvered invisibly around the few attacks coming near her.

The target ring was already formed, her Phantom Blazer was basically ready to go. She just needed an opportunity.

If that woman in the duster lost focus for even a split-second, Teana could drop Optic Hide and charge up Phantom Blazer. It'd take only a moment, she just needed to be sure she got that moment. If she jumped the gun on this she'd have to start again from scratch.

She'd been expecting the woman to tire, or at least pause to catch her breath, at some point - she'd been shooting into the room for five minutes straight.

But her opportunity came when the ship itself jerked upward - internal stabilizers caught it before it threw everyone around too much, but Teana herself ended up about ten meters further down as the ship's keel jumped up underneath her. And the woman, on the floor, almost collapsed under the sudden impact.

It was basically a perfect shot, and Teana took it, going visible and funnelling mana into her bombardment spell, the laser sight forming and confirming her target location. She'd have loved to use the Starlight Breaker Nanoha had taught her, but aside from being unmastered, it was even slower to come out than Phantom Blazer.

As it was, the woman was standing again and had lept towards Teana, sword coming back as she flew threw the clouds of nerve gas.

'Phantom...' The ball of mana between Teana's guns swelled.

The woman was barely five meters away when Teana finished.

'Blazer!' She released it, into a carefully-focused column, point-blank range, directly into the woman's face. It was possible to miss at this range, but not for Teana Lanster.

The pillar of mana flung the woman down to the floor of the reactor chamber.

Teana took aim at the reactor, drawing in crimson particles of mana towards the newly-swelling ball between her guns - she hadn't even dispelled the targeting ring, using the same one from the Phantom Blazer. She needed to finish the job now, and Starlight Breaker was the best option for that.

'Teana, they're withdrawing under fire, if you can't stop the ship in a few seconds, get out of there!' came Nanoha's telepathic voice.

Teana nodded. 'I'm at the reactor, taking my second shot soon!'

That was around the point where the white-haired woman rose from the chamber floor, fast and perfectly-controlled, and barrelled into Teana's chest, sending her flying up to the chamber roof.

Teana crunched into it, leaving a few cracks in the metal wall, and possibly a few cracks in her much-abused spine, the Starlight Breaker falling apart as she stared incredulously.

She'd hit that woman right between the eyes with her best spell! Even if it hadn't gone through, the impact force should've snapped her neck!

And yet there she floated, face still impassive, with barely a small welt across the bridge of her nose. 'I will permit you to leave,' her telepathic message came. 'If you do not, I will smash you out through the hull.'

Teana peeled herself out of the reactor's roof, frowning to herself and brushing her hair back behind her head again. The idea of running with her tail between her legs didn't appeal to her. She wanted to prove she could take this woman down, she really did. And she could do it, in this reactor chamber Starlight Breaker would be unbelievably powerful, if she could figure out a way to get it off.

But it wasn't about that. It was about disabling the ship's reactor, and she wouldn't be able to do that while dueling this woman. They were already withdrawing from Earth, the battle was somehow won, and if Teana wasn't off the ship before they made their jump into the dimensional sea, she wasn't getting off. She simply didn't have time for a grudge match.

So Teana nodded sharply, zipping down to the entrance of the chamber.

The woman followed her, of course, calmly dogging her heels at a distance of five meters as Teana referenced the map she and Cross Mirage had assembled, making their way to the entrance/exit she'd carved at the back of the ship.

Again, it didn't take too long, but with the woman silently looming over her it seemed to take much longer, before Teana was out the back, floating freely in space once more.

She turned around to where the woman stood in the entryway. 'I will be arresting you if you come back.'

The woman smiled faintly. 'When we're done, I'll let you. Get out of here before Latoya activates the Silver Light. It's a pale imitation, but at this range you won't survive it.'

Teana wanted to ask dozens of questions, even more so about the obvious historical reference, but something about the melancholy expression on the woman's face suggested she wouldn't get an answer.

So she just shook her head, turning around, and jetted to where she was reading Nanoha and Fate's positions, where they appeared to be pounding on the outer hull of another ship.

It seemed they'd even gotten through the shields, as they were down to the armour. Nanoha looked more or less fine, if a little bruised. Fate, on the other hand... she had at least a dozen long lacerations in her body that looked like they ought to be dripping blood if Nanoha hadn't healed them just slightly, her legs were visibly broken and hanging limply, and her entire body was seared red, as if burnt.

Teana cringed as she floated up to them. 'Fate... what happened...?' She was a little bloodied herself, but Fate looked like she'd gone through a kitchen's cutlery drawer, meat tenderizer, and then the oven.

Fate shook her head. 'I'll cover it in the after-action, help us disable these ships-' She was cut off by a glowing white magical... drill... that slammed into her shield, driving her back and away from the ship.

Teana shifted her attention, tracking the source - the young, lavender-haired mage who'd stood in defence of the fleet. She looked an absolute horror. Her skin was just as burnt as Fate's - if not more so, her charred skin almost refused to move with the rest of her body, tearing slightly with every movement and seeping blood down over her body. Something like a quarter of her torso on either side, under the ribs, flapped uselessly, severed away and pouring blood down her limp legs. Her left arm was broken as well, twisted away with another white energy drill dangling uselessly from it. And her neck was cocked to the side - not a gesture, it was stuck there.

... She was dead. She had to be dead, and yet she was smiling, that same melancholy smile Teana's own opponent had worn.

Her right arm rose, and fanned out across her front, leaving nine diamond-shaped blue jewels in front of herself. And she began accelerating backward with them as she went - buying herself extra space.

Fate and Nanoha's eyes both widened. 'Jewel Seeds?!'

Teana gaped. Oh dear. She recognized the term herself. Hadn't there been a case eleven years ago about those things? And they'd turned up again with Scaglietti...

'That is your term for them, yes,' the girl responded. 'I would recommend you back away. When I make my wish on these - and I will - nothing in the area but my fleet and my partner will survive.' The Jewel Seeds glowed brighter, white streamers of light rushing from the girl's fingertips to the Lost Logia.

Fate swallowed. '... You're going to destroy the entire planet.'

The girl shook her head. 'The situation is not that bad yet. This is just to block the way after us. Your friends are faster, we can't get away without this.'

Teana glanced at Nanoha and Fate. '... Can we get them from her?'

Nanoha gnawed at her lip. '... Fate might be able to, but not in that condition. And if we rush her...'

Fate gritted her teeth. 'She might... 'slip'.'

Teana winced. 'And overcharge the Seeds? That'd be... destructive on a cosmic scale.'

The girl held out the silver bracelet Device at her left hand. 'Verdas, initiate Silver Light Terminal Activation Protocol.'

'Si,' the Device agreed. 'Los Terminales de Plata Preparon. Cifre la entrada.'

Teana couldn't catch what she transmitted to the Device - at this short range, and heavily encrypted, there was really no way to catch the signal.

'La Contrasena Acepto.'

'Terminal Serial One, Two, Four, limited activation.' The girl met the eyes of each of them with her own blue pair, blood dripping down her face. 'Last chance.'

'Get out of there!' Nanoha yelled, flying back, grudgingly followed by Fate and Teana - and, surprisingly, a flood of white-clad Suvota mages pulling away from the ships. Their own fleet, Teana now detected, kilometers away and approaching fast.

'Dimensional shear. Distort spatial structure.' Three Seeds pulsed brilliant white, and a wave of glowing silver rolled off them, filling the space around the retreating ships, rolling over them and wrapping around them, like a concealing blanket.

The fleet, and its guardian, were gone, leaving only the silver, kilometers-wide fissure in space.

---N====================>V---

Next: Chapter Five.

The one who tore down the world has returned.
In the wake of the sudden violence, the TSAB does not lack for angles to examine. And the Silver Ghosts have not given up after just one failure.

---N====================>V---

Author's Notes:
... Well, first of all, I apologize effusively for taking so long on this. One scene brutalized me with writer's block, sometimes I went two weeks before coming up with one sentence to add... Other times I wrote paragraphs then realized it felt wrong...
As usual, praise be to the prereaders, Sunshine Temple, Ellf, DCG, and Belgarion213.
Mild edits done to previous chapters, if you remember how things went you won't need them, but it's aimed at a general increase in quality and correcting a few errors I'd made.
Answers to my reviewers: Kknd2 has guessed perfectly where a lot of my names are borrowed from. I suppose the comment about the city's last hours has been answered adequately by the chapter itself
For clarification, Ace Combat is not actually canonical. I am just unimaginably bad with names.
Ironically, last chapter's title actually referred to a good thing.
Queensarrow: Most of my fics are at least theoretically continuable, though a lot of my older ones are... iffy. Or at least not fitting up to my current standards. They're Senshi is the oldest one likely to continue without severe modification. And my Ranma muse has been very, very slacking lately. Voices of the Revival may continue, but it will involve a fairly significant replotting and probably a redone first chapter - I originally created the plotline straight after A's since StrikerS wasn't out at the time, but at this point, there's not much reason not to include StrikerS.
Tabasc0: Thanks. And, the helicopter Vice showed Teana was the Mil Mi-24 Hind. I love it, personally, but since one of my friends' first reactions on seeing it was 'ye gods what is that monster', I figured alternate viewpoints should be represtented
I-En-Tee-Jay: Don't worry, it's not discontinued. It's simply... taking some time to work through.
GeshronTyler: Yup, Nanoha and the cast are quite justified in averting it, and it's a definite step forward in terms of foreign relations.
Nice to hear that you like Kanata, btw. (I make no comment on Kanata's romantic future, largely because she herself would rather not think on the matter )
Calaritana's... hm. Loki isn't a bad comparison, though there's another divine-ish being in a more modern mythology that was her basis. (Anything more would definitely count as spoilers)
The Gatekeeper... you'll see. I won't give a straight answer on the Dancer or the third one, but I will say that your guesses aren't bad ones and haven't been contradicted yet by anything brought up in-story
Vivio actually is somewhat connected, though the connection's a bit tangential.