—West Coast, Kuranaga area, Midchilda—

—Time-Space Administration GDF section six Headquarters Long Arch—

—October 28th 0076—

“Vivio! Vivio—mou!” Major Takamachi Nanoha paused in her search for her wayward daughter with an irritated sigh and an anxious glance at the clock.

Her little girl had unfortunately become very good at disappearing when she didn’t want to be found; the main residential building of what had, once, been the Sixth Mobile Division and was now referred to as Section Six was large enough to give her plenty of hiding spots, and her developing (and unbelievable, to be honest) magic potential had recently grown to the point where the little girl could manage basic levitation; nothing very impressive, but just enough to allow her to reach places that would otherwise have been out of reach… and opening up brand new hiding spots.

“Vivio! Come out!” she called out once again. At this rate, she and Fate would be late for the briefing! Hayate would probably forgive her, but it just wouldn’t do for a division leader like her be late, no matter the reason. She turned a corner, this one leading back to their room, and nearly ran into Fate, who looked as bedraggled as she felt.

“Anything?” she asked the blonde, who shook her head with a weary sigh.

“None. I don’t think we can wait any longer. We’ll be late even if we find her and bring her to school.”

“Hm…” Nanoha noised with a frown as the door to their room slid aside with slick ease. “I guess we’ll have to ask Shamal or Zaphira to take her—”

“NO!”

The exclamation was accompanied by an explosion of strawberry blonde hair as Vivio burst from under their bed—now why hadn’t she thought about that one—leapt over the banister and homed her way into her chest with an unstable semi-floating trajectory. The little girl hugged and clung to her clothes even as Nanoha’s arms closed around her, soothing her protesting weeps.

Although her growth could hardly be considered normal, Vivio had reached the biological (thus legal) age of six years old a few months ago, based on Shamal’s examinations. By Midchildan law, this meant she was obligated to start her education, and while neither she nor Fate had anything against the idea, her favorite and only little girl did.

She did not like to be sent in a chaotic environment full of kids whom she had every kind of trouble relating to. She did not like the other kids who made fun of her because of her eye colors, or the sensei who had to juggle the attention of over twenty hyperactive little tykes and thus had less time to spend on her alone. But mostly, she did not like to be separated from her mothers.

Nanoha shared a suffering look with Fate, who smiled and gently pried open the six years old (well, kind-of) fingers, took the little girl in her own arms and worked her magic to calm her down. Nanoha had always been impressed at how good her co-mother was at this; she herself was always a bit lost when the task of handling “their” child fell onto her, but Fate, in nothing but a few seconds, a few caresses and a few soothing sounds, did what would have taken her at least five minutes.

On the other hand, there was one thing she did pretty well and which Fate was completely hopeless at.

“Vivio, it’s bad to hide yourself like that! Look at you; you’re all dusty now…” Nanoha dusted the parts of Vivio’s clothes she could reach, all the while clicking her tongue. “And you’re making both Fate-mama and I late for work.”

“But mama…” the little girl mumbled into the fabric of Fate’s now dirty uniform, while said woman gave Nanoha a disapproving frown. Nanoha ignored it.

“No buts. We’re late now, so someone else than us is going to take you to school—Which wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t tried to hide,” she added when Vivio made a noise of protest.

“Zaphira said he’ll get her in a minute,” Fate told her telepathically, a Nanoha nodded nearly imperceptibly.

“Now finish getting ready, and Zaphira will come get you. Understand?”

“Mmmh,” her daughter replied with a childish scowl. Nanoha smiled and bent down to look at her in the eyes.

“And if you don’t hide, then we’ll eat out where you want this evening. Ok?” Let it not be said that she only used the stick.

A brilliant smile appeared on Vivio’s face, and she nodded energetically. “Uun!”

-

Fate changed her uniform top quickly and together they made a new record making it to the briefing room. Captain and division sub-commander Vita, as well as Sergeant and Squad Leader Teana Lanstar, were already there, alongside the rest of her squad, Private First Class Subaru Nakajima, Erio Mondial and Caro Ru Lushe. Their presence here was only possible thanks to the small size of Section six’s operations side; normally, Nanoha would have been the one to brief them, and not Hayate’s Aide-de-camp, First Lieutenant Reinforce Zwei. While she normally referred to them by their first name, hierarchy had to be respected—as far as practicality allowed, of course—during missions, from briefing to debriefing.

She was surprised to see the other occupants of the table, though; the first was a clear-haired woman with a serious expression and a uniform identifying her as an agent of section one, and the other was someone who was theoretically too high up the hierarchy (actual rank notwithstanding) to need to worry about simple briefings; Section Six’s commander and Nanoha’s old friend, Brigadier-General Yagami Hayate. As she sat down and Fate settled next to her, she expected a friendly admonition about her lateness from her superior, but the only reaction she got was a serious nod.

She frowned. Whatever was going to be said in this briefing, whatever their new task was, she knew it would be bad.

Then Hayate started speaking, and her suspicions were confirmed.

“One of our storehouses was hit yesterday.”

It was all that needed to be said to inform Nanoha and Fate of how bad the situation was.

The Time-Space Administration Bureau’s homeworld was Midchilda in everything but name; officially, the Bureau was not aligned with any political group in the multiverse. It was meant to be an independent police force to enforce interdimensionally agreed laws as much as possible, as well as maintain dimensional cohesion at all costs. However, the Bureau’s charter, unchangeable except with a ninety-five percent majority in the council (an impossibility, as politicos in Midchilda’s power boasted at least ten percent of the voting power at all times), forced them to, quote, “Realize the superiority of Midchildan magical research base and send any discovered, recovered or by any other means acquired artifacts it cannot reproduce on soils belonging to Midchilda for safekeeping and research”, unquote, with a few amendments keeping things such as Dimension-destroying bombs or other Things-That-Everyone-Agrees-Should-Be-Sealed-Off as far from the system as possible.

In other words, almost every Lost Logia found had to be moved and stored on Midchilda or one of its moons, and couldn’t even be researched in TSAB facilities. Nanoha still remembered the harsh legal battle that had played out to allow Hayate the right to keep the Tome of the Night Sky, ultimately leading to her being legally forced to stay on Midchilda most of the time, and ultimately to their current position as a section of the GDF as opposed to main branch.

The storehouses, massive fortresses of wear-resistant plastic-concrete and diamond alloy scattered in the most inaccessible possible spots, were the Bureau’s answer to that obligation. Their armor was, at the thinnest, made of at least four meters of plascrete, a material that was highly resistant to any kind of damage imaginable, and reinforced with massive diallium plates. Typically, several levels of checkpoints and traps, both passive and active, led to those walls, themselves protected by the most massive guns the Bureau could legally bring down on the planet (and often, a little more), as well as several layers of wards and barriers concealing them from distant sight. And they were always occupied by a full division, about three hundred highly trained C to A-class combat mages. Protecting the storehouses was one of the most important purposes of the GDF, hence why the majority of Section one's personnel was involved with them.

To put it simply, nothing short of a mechanized division with fleet support was supposed to be able to take down one of the Time-Space Administration Bureau’s storehouses, and nothing but an extremely shrewd character should be able to find them in the first place. And for a good reason, since the treasures they contained could cause more damage than anything else in the entire multiverse combined. If six jewel seeds activating simultaneously was enough to cause massive earthquakes and threaten dimensional cohesion, Nanoha didn’t want to imagine what would happen if sixty were triggered. It was a wonder why Midchilda wanted to have them on their planet; Nanoha knew that she would categorically refuse to keep any of them on or anywhere near Earth.

“How bad is it?” Fate asked.

“Very bad,” Hayate replied. “Rein?”

The little unison device saluted, though there was very little of her usual enthusiasm in the action. “Hai desu.” She cleared her throat and began. “At seventeen hundred and twelve yesterday, headquarters suddenly lost all contact with Storehouse 105 without receiving a single alert flag. Four hours later, Division 25 of Section 1 searched the facility, but found only two survivors hidden in an air vent. It seems some kind of gas weapon was used.”

Over three hundred men and women, probably closer to three hundred and thirty in all, Nanoha absentmindedly noted, numbed with shock. How in the world…

“What about the Lost Logia?” Vita asked. The look in her eyes told everyone she preferred not to think about the dead.

“Two of the stasis rooms were broken into and looted,” the unison device replied. “They took a bit of everything and left very little behind. It seems they weren’t looking for anything too specific, or didn’t know what they were looking for.”

“Ignorant mercenaries,” Fate mumbled. Her eyes were full of fury, though, and Nanoha felt her own anger sing in agreement.

“Or maybe just extremely gutsy thieves,” Vita suggested.

“Whatever they are, our mission is to catch the thieves and recover the Lost Logia before anything bad can happen,” Hayate said. “To help us, Major Nakajima has agreed to let us borrow one of his specialists, Doctor Asuna Marquette, forensics expert.”

“Pleased to meet you,” the fair-haired woman said pleasantly with a smile that didn’t reach her emerald eyes. Sounds of distracted acknowledgement answered her.

“General, if I can ask a question,” Teana suddenly put in, “it seems that this mission could be better accomplished by Section two’s investigators. Not to say that Section six is unable to do it, but shouldn’t an important mission like this be led by experts?”

Nanoha smiled at the good question, and noticed Vita did as well, if only to cover it quickly with a scowl.

“Seems obvious,” the diminutive red-head replied in her best ‘You should have thought about it yourself’ tone, “it’s the Lost Logia. Section two’s spooks are damn good, mind, but they don’t have the kinda battle line we’ve got. Wouldn’t say if it was only one or two, or even a handful, but those bastards filched a good dozen with that stunt.”

“Exactly,” Hayate confirmed. “Once caught, we, that is, me and most of Section two’s heads, believe the thieves will give whoever attacks them a very hard fight, much harder than what Section 2 or a mobile division could handle easily; Section 1 would have to mobilize a full battle division to fight them, and by the time they’d be ready, the thieves would probably have left already.

“There is also the possibility that the investigators themselves will stumble on these opponents. This is the kind of generalist, dangerous jobs this section was built for, and I expect you all to succeed. Any further questions?”

“Jus' one,” Vita said, “you want ‘em broken or mashed up?”

“Broken will do.”

“Gotcha.”

-

--

Teana Lanstar tried to remain as still as possible on the quivering seat of Section six’s primary helicopter. She would not make a move to embarrass herself, not in front of her superiors, not in front of her subordinates. She would not be caught fidgeting on her first mission as a Sergeant. She would not. So what if she felt like she had ants in her legs instead of muscles, or if she’d have preferred to run on a wing road and try to keep up instead of just sitting there inside the vehicle doing nothing but thinking about the many ways she could screw up on this mission? She. Would. Not. Fidget.

And it took everything she had to do just that.

Tension was high inside the helicopter. This was Section six’s first job as a section, and their first job after the Scaglietti incident, and a failure, especially one on the scale indicated by the amount of stolen Lost Logia, would be spectacularly bad for their reputation. But that, Teana felt, wasn’t what the others were worried about. And to be honest, it wasn’t what she was really worried about, either (well, except personal failure, that is).

The real problem came from the fact that, for the first time for any of them, they would be sent on a murder scene. And not just of a murder, but of a cold-blooded slaughter involving over three hundred souls. None of them had really met death in its violent variety, as far as she knew.

It was probably a testament to Captain—Major now, she reminded herself—Takamachi’s training that they were less worried about fighting those who had done this, even if they were armed with a bunch of highly dangerous artifacts, than of seeing the result of their attack.

“Not much longer now, get ready!” Sergeant Vice’s voice came clearly through the onboard PA system.

“Are we authorized for landing?” Nanoha asked.

“Yeah… took a while for them to ID us, though… well, that’s what they say at least; I think they were just lying on their asses ag—”

“That will be all, Vice-kun.” Nanoha’s voice was chiding.

“Roger that, Major.” Vice’s was completely unrepentant. Teana chuckled despite herself. Outside the window, the barely perceptible platform of Storehouse 105’s helipad drew itself like a tiny green mushroom over the endless green sea of Verde Mesa’s virgin coniferous forests.

--

Lyrical Girl Magical Girl Nanoha

Through Troubled Waters

Chapter 1: Insertion

--

“Come in,” came the command only an instant after Fate's soft knock had rung through the hallway.

Hayate’s office had not changed in the last year, except for a few minor cosmetic changes. It was still as large and quiet as before, although one of the window panes behind the large desk (not the smaller one belonging to Rein) had been faded away to let a warm autumnal breeze and the sounds of the headquarters through; Hayate, Fate knew, was proud of her section and, perhaps just a bit vainly, liked to be reminded of it. At the moment, though, she looked far more exhausted than prideful, although a small light returned to her face as soon as their eyes met.

“Fate-chan,” Hayate greeted with just the lightest sigh and complete disregard for protocol, “how did it go?”

“Mostly fine,” Fate replied, settling down in the chair she knew as the comfiest in front of Hayate's desk and putting her report on the desk, where it lay ignored. “Nanoha-chan is reviewing the video of the attack, Shamal and Marquette-sensei are probably looking at the first of the victims, and the Forwards… I mean, the Alpha-Stars squad is resting, but still good to go if something happens.”

A sour look appeared on the earthling’s face, and Fate knew what she was thinking. Perhaps it was a bit unbecoming of an officer of her rank, but Hayate couldn't bring herself not to care about her people on a personal level; her friend had a mothering instinct that could only rival her own, and hated the thought of difficult things happening to the people working under her, even more when she was directly (or indirectly) responsible. It was, however, something the earthling woman had to work around on her own, so Fate continued her report while the other woman brooded, “As for the dead, well… everything in the preliminary report is true, including the systematic disfiguration.”

“What about the survivors?” Hayate asked. “How are they?”

“Completely out of it. The station’s doctor said it was an “overdose of exotic chemicals”, and that they really should be left to flush it all out on their own. Their data is in there,” she pointed at her report on the desk, “but since you prefer to hear it directly from your people,” she smiled at the twitch of lips this brought on Hayate’s face, “I’ll say it out loud: Aya Strasse and Marie-Anne Gelande, both low-level third privates, one of them with six years of experience behind her, the other with eight, both heading out of the security room at the time of the incident. The Doctor believes they were exposed to weaker concentrations of the poison because of that, and Bardiche agrees.”

“The map of the air vents Raising Heart and I have deduced while within the facility indicates that the location of their discovery is particularly distant from the climate control area. The possibility is not null.” Bardiche explained.

“As for what’ll happen to them, well… if they’re not up in two weeks, they’ll be sent off to main HQ for treatment. Otherwise, they’ll be integrated with the new guards.”

“They’ll still work there? Isn’t it a bit cruel?”

“Security measures,” Fate replied, although she agreed with Hayate’s assessment. “The station’s location is already compromised, they don’t want to have more leaks than what they have now. Of course, that excludes the possibility of if they aren’t stable after this, in which case they’ll be sent to HQ anyway.”

“I see,” Hayate said, then frowned. “You said mostly? What went wrong?”

“Section two--that is, one of their inspectors came on the scene while we were finishing up and tried to raise a fuss... her name was... uh...”

“First Inspector Kelly Longhead, Second Section, Third Division,” Bardiche helpfully supplied.

Fate nodded her thanks and continued, “I think you can expect some trouble from that side.”

“Thanks for the heads up,” Hayate replied sourly and sighed wearily, for what sounded like the nth time.

“Is something wrong?” She asked worriedly, dropping protocol as well.

“What?” Hayate blinked, then seemed to realize Fate had seen her state--which, to be honest, anything with eyes would have. “Oh, no... well, yes. Maybe.”

She sighed again and pushed herself back into her chair with enough strength to make the cushioning matrix glitter momentarily.

“I received a message from Signum just a few minutes ago. Apparently those stubborn... people from Section one are going to try to make a fuss again during the next general meeting, and as little of a chance they have to make the President and the Council see things their way,” the latter was said with a wry grin which Fate returned; after the way Section six, Mobile Division Six at the time, had handled the Scaglietti incident, there was very little indeed that could be said to make those highly-ranked people who supported them retract the “promotion” the division had enjoyed. “I'll still have to be there and try not to give myself too much rope wanting to strangle them while they dig into my past and that of my kids. And your own, as well.”

“Mine?” Fate blinked.

“Oh yes, they just love you, and Nanoha too, to a lesser extent. After all, you are the adopted daughter of a retired Admiral from the old and noble Harlaown navy family, as well as the biological daughter of a criminal whose body was never recovered, and someone who made it among the ranks of the Bureau's Enforcers in record time despite that record." Fate nodded. Her outward expression did not so much as twitch. "As for Nanoha, her hands are cleaner, but not completely stainless, seeing how her messages to home, an undeveloped world, are completely uncensored and addressed to people who aren't connected to Midchilda at all; last time, they tried to bring up Alissa-chan's future ownership of her parents’ corporation as grounds to suspend Nanoha for breaking the Bureau’s non-interference decree.”

Fate snorted. Typical of them... besides, Earth did not even know about magic at all, so there was very little they could do even if Nanoha accidentally told them how to make, say, a matrix for a large-scale defensive spell. “So what's their plan this time?”

“Your brother's position as a high-ranking admiral, and accusations of nepotism,” Hayate replied simply.

Fate frowned. Chrono Harlaown's rise to Captainship had given birth to a few waves in the ever-shifting waters of the bureau’s dance of promotions, but he had quickly shown himself to be a capable captain for the Asura (then mostly obsolete and arguably an acceptable first ship for an untried captain); more than that, his family-bred talent (forged through spending more time on the bridge of a ship than planetside, she admitted) had been quickly recognized and had led to one of the fastest ascension to Admiralship ever seen, something that had definitely not been welcome quietly by those who were opposed to old navy families such as the Harlaowns.

However, those who would stand and claim Chrono did not have what it took to be an admiral were few and far between, as his scores put him among the Bureau’s top ten. So then, how would they use that against Section six? Hayate was a capable leader, and her rank was no surprise to anyone who knew how much the Bureau valued its high-ranking mages—few and far between as well, mages stronger than S-rank tended to be led to more comfortable, safer jobs as officers, and kept away from the fighting until they were really necessary, and Hayate was one of the Ground Forces’ extremely few SS rank mages. Nanoha and Fate, who had achieved their ranks through sheer fighting prowess more than magical power (though they had that in spades), were exceptions to the rule.

Her question must have shown on her face, because Hayate waved it away. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m not worried about what damage they can do to my position with that argument. The problem is that I wanted to bring up the possibility of expanding Section six—I see you remember what we talked about, and the problem about it.”

Fate nodded and repeated from memory, “Leading a one-division Section is fine for a Brigadier-General, but any bigger than that and it becomes a proper General’s job,” then she realized the problem, “and if they bring up the “problem” of quick promotions among the people you know…”

“Then their case becomes stronger if I get promoted after only three months as a BG, and I might end up weakening my base in the process.”

Fate sighed. This was why she hated politics.

Hayate smiled. “Yes, I hate them too,” she replied, then grinned at Fate’s startled face. “It just showed up on your face. So, enough doom and gloom; what about the Forwards? How did everything go with them?”

“Fine enough,” Fate said, deciding not to mention how the kids had been roped into carrying the first load of bodies to the helicopter’s storage area. “Vita is proving to be a very capable division captain, such as it is; she should be coming back with the last load and the backup squad anytime now… and of course she’ll be grouchy at being left with all the work.”

“Of course.” Hayate said with a small laugh.

“As for the others, well… no comments about them, except Teana. She was unusually quiet on the way back and…”

“And you’re worried she’s lost confidence in herself again?”

“Something like that,” Fate said, then added, “Of course, this is nothing a Section commander should be worried about,” with a pointed voice.

“Hmm,” Hayate’s voice was dismissive, and Fate resisted the urge to sigh. “What about Nanoha?”

“What about her?”

“Well, it is her first job as a division leader…”

Fate chuckled. “Same as ever. There was a bit of a snag with that that woman from Section two, but she handled that just fine.”

“By sending everything over to me,” Hayate accused.

“By sending everything over to you,” Fate confirmed with a pleasant smile. “Ganbare, General.”

“To the brig for your cheek, Enforcer. And that's Brigadier-General,” she corrected with an amused wry grin. “Then, you’re confident she’ll be a reliable leader for division one when it starts growing?”

Fate nodded in confirmation, knowing what Hayate’s misgivings were. “She didn’t take it upon herself to spare the kids the job of carrying the bodies. I’m guessing that means either she’s learning to delegate, or she’s getting lazy.”

The latter possibility was met with a snort from Fate’s superior. Of everyone in the section, Nanoha was the one most likely to be described as a workaholic. It was all Fate could do to convince her to sleep for six hours a night, and eight(!) on the weekends.

“I’m just glad she didn’t try to give them a shortcut,” Hayate joked. “I’ve got enough work on my hands already, I don’t need to deal with complaints from a division commander—of my pay grade, no less—unhappy about his brand-new Takamachi-style Skylight!”

“Nanoha isn’t that bad,” Fate protested.

Hayate grew an impish smirk. “Fate-chan, just because you're lovers doesn't mean you have to be blind to her faults.”

Fate grew crimson. “Wh—Wha…No! We’re…I mean…” she stammered awkwardly.

Hayate blinked, and Fate almost heard the gears rolling around inside her head. “Wait… are you saying… you’re saying you’re… not? I mean… I just…everyone just assumed…”

“We’re just friends,” Fate protested.

“Who sleep in the same bed?” Hayate pressed. “And I’ve seen what you wear to sleep.”

“It’s just a habit we got into when she was hurt. And I like silk.”

“Who take showers together?”

“Not very often—and it’s more convenient—”

“Who have a child together?”

“Vivio isn’t—I mean—”

“Who kiss in front of everyone during the inauguration party?”

“She was drunk!”

“You weren’t.”

Fate’s face took on a tomato hue, and Hayate smirked. “Ah ha, I see how it is… just friends, hmmm?”

“W-…Well…” Uh oh. Fate loved both of her friends (Nanoha a bit more, granted) but just as she wasn’t blind to Nanoha’s overachieving tendencies, she was also perfectly aware of Hayate’s bad habit of meddling. And the last thing she wanted was to have someone butting in on that situation!

“But I bet you—” There was a strident blip, and Hayate bit off an exclamation as an M2D appeared next to her.

“Hayate-chan,” came Reinforce’s voice, “I have the reports for this months’s fuel usage here, do you wish to hear it now or should I just upload it?”

“Upload it,” Hayate ordered. “I’ll read it later.”

“Hai desu!”

The vid window disappeared with a small blip, and Hayate turned back to her vict—subordinate. Unfortunately for her, Fate had taken the interruption as her cue, and had quickly moved across the room.

“I’m off to work out a bit, ma'am!” she said with a salute, then left before Hayate could say anything.

The brown-haired girl pouted lightly. But when she returned to her reports, her mind was already churning over possibilities, and a grin was slowly forming on her lips. Only her desk and furniture were there to hear the impish giggle that escaped her throat.

God bless, Fate.

--

The water running over her body was hot, a lot hotter than what she usually partook to, but she enjoyed the feeling, like a fire burning at the uncleanness she could still feel. Her skin was already pruned, and she was pretty sure the fog would never go away from the chromed shower head, but she didn’t care. All Teana wanted was to wash off the blood on her hands, the sweat in her hair, and most of all, the smell from everywhere, and forget what she and her squad—her friends—had had to do just a few hours earlier.

Privately, she knew she had no ground to complain. Orders were orders, and certainly carrying around seventy-five bodies—out of three hundred—from the storehouse’s hastily improvised “morgue” to the waiting helicopter wasn’t a job for the higher-ups. No, she should just be glad Captain Vita had volunteered to help them out, and be twice happy that Shamal-sensei had the ability to create portals with her device—just how many special abilities did section 6 have anyway?—and be infinitely glad said bodies had been sealed first.

Except for the one she was in, the dozen shower stalls that filled the women’s shower room were empty. Caro had taken a quick shower and left about… something like twenty minutes ago, (maybe?) leaving her alone with her thoughts.

She made a face at herself. Caro had barely reacted when she’d seen the bloodstains on her hands, but it had taken quite a bit of Teana’s self-control to stop her breakfast from seeing the light of day again. Subaru, lucky her, had been carrying the bodies by the trolley on her wing-roads and hadn’t touched any of them personally, and she couldn’t remember seeing Erio’s reaction.

“Vita, Teana, you and your squad will help Shamal and Marquette-sensei transport the bodies. I know it’s—”

“Understood,” Vita interrupted Nanoha-san’s apology before it could even start.

As for Vita-taichou, never mind touching them, the faux little girl hadn’t even flinched at the smell; just remembering the stench was enough to make Teana gag even now. Once again, she growled to herself, she’d been the weakest link.

Oh, she wasn’t surprised. She’d known it for a while now, that she was nowhere near as strong as her teammates, and that no amount of training would ever allow her to catch up to Subaru’s mechanical strength, Erio’s incredible speed or Caro’s rare skill. In terms of magic potential, she was the weakest, despite her rare aptitude with illusions. In terms of strength, she was the weakest. In terms of strategy, however, Nanoha had done her best to instill her with as much mental speed as possible, hence the reason why she was the official leader of the team of powerhouses that was the Lightning-Star Squad.

It galled her, however, that she had proved to be mentally weaker on this mission as well. As far as she was concerned, she had messed up. After all, wasn’t she the only one scalding herself under this ruddy shower? Hell, Subaru was still helping out the doctors, and here she was, brooding alone…

Then, and mostly, there was the way she’d frozen up in indecision when that Longhead woman had shown up—

-Shhh-

“Whoa, ‘s hot in here.”

Teana looked at the door and saw Vita-taichou’s tell-tale cardinal-red hair poking over the shower wall. The perpetually little girl walked down the row of stalls, stopping only when her eyes met with Teana’s. For a moment, it looked like she was wondering what she should say, before she finally entered the stall next to hers and turned on the water. Teana flinched to the other side as her overheated skin came in contact with the icy water that flowed out on the captain.

For a moment, neither spoke; Teana listened to the noises the little girl made as she cleaned herself, trying and failing to return into the thoughts that had been bothering her since her return.

Finally, Vita spoke. “So, what’re you boiling yourself for?”

“I’m… not. I like it that hot,” she lied, then cursed mentally; without her thoughts distracting her, the water spray was starting to get painful again, but after saying that, she couldn’t just cool it down without looking like an idiot…

Fortunately, or was it, Vita saw right through her. “Ain’t nice to lie, 'specially to your bosses,” she chided.

And with a sheepish expression, she stealthily moved the handle; the crimson glow inside the shower head shifted to a reddish purple, and the water grew cooler.

“Now, since you don’t look like you’re just gonna go and tell me what’s wrong, I’ll just have to guess, won’t I. You’re grossed out over the bodies.”

“I’m not,” She replied, and it was true, too; an hour after the fact, she was less disgusted at the coldness of the cadavers and their visible brain matter than at herself.

“Then what’s up? If you’re thinking of brooding as a hobby, then I’ll just have to show you more productive ways of distracting yourself. And I don’t mean writing crappy poetry ‘bout dying and stuff. Since Signum’s always busy, I need a sparring partner anyway—”

“It’s n—no wait, it isn’t nothing,” anything to avoid sparring with the hammer-happy red-head. Melee wasn’t her thing if she could help it, and there was no way she’d want to spar against someone who could go hand-to-hand against Subaru!

“Hm? Then what’s up?”

“It’s…” she sighed. Checkmated. “Captain, did I screw up?”

“Oh, I get it. So little miss self-esteem issues is back.” Excuse me for being realist, Tia bristled mentally. “So why d’you think you screwed up?”

Sharing her doubts brought them back, but somehow saying them out loud felt different from usual, as if she was throwing weights overboard instead of counting them aboard her own ship. Vita listened quietly while applying some shampoo to her sweat-soaked hair and washing it out.

“Let me ask you something,” Vita said when Tia was finished, even as she blindly reached for her towel to dry her eyes. “Did you throw up?”

“Well, no, I didn’t,” Teana mumbled, surreptitiously moving the towel closer to Vita’s searching hand.

The towel was found and her eyes were dried when she spoke again, looking at Teana’s face peeking over the shower wall. “How many people do you think would’ve?”

“…probably a lot.”

“Almost everyone, y’mean. Me? I’ve seen stuff quite a bit more awful than that in my life.” And Teana believed her; it was impossible to tell how old Vita was, but she certainly didn’t talk like a little girl... or did little girl things, ever. Well, except maybe in front of the commander.

“As for your troops, well… Erio looked pretty sick, and Caro’s seen worse working in the woods. As for Subaru, I ain’t even sure if she can throw up. And as for that woman, well…” Vita snickered, “it’s kinda funny, actually. I wanted to talk to you about that, to congratulate you about how you acted.”

“Huh?” But… she had screwed up, right? She’d just stood there like an idiot while that woman yelled and ordered her, not sure if she was supposed to obey her or Nanoha-san. Surely none of that was worth one of Vita-taichou’s rare praises!

“You might think you just stood there looking dumb, but I know quite a few people who would have just dropped everything and waited for their superiors to clear things up; but since you didn’t let anything go, they couldn’t butt into our business at all, can’t even claim they did.”

“B…But…”

“Sometimes, it’s a leader’s job to know when not to do anything and wait.” There was a metallic squeak and the torrent of cold water stopped. “You did fine, Sergeant Lanstar.”

And Vita grabbed her towel, slid it around herself, opened the door and left. A minute later, Tia shut off her shower too.

--

Long Arch’s scanning room was small for its stature as the only one of such rooms for an entire section, but then one could argue it was just the right size considering Section Six’s current effectives. It was mostly empty, though none of the room was wasted when maintenance time came around, with scanners of various types adorning the walls. None of them were in use at the moment, though, except one of those on the furthest side, a video analysis screen, in front of which Takamachi Nanoha sat.

To say she was watching the gruesome scene that developed on the screen in front of her would have been a lie. In truth, this would be the seventh time she would see more bits of what had happened throughout Storehouse 105 the previous afternoon; the attack had come swiftly and without warning, with the Lieutenant-Colonel Sikorsky’s assistants disposing their escorts with quiet precision blasts and unleashing the content of their suitcases—some kind of yellowish gas weapon—into the storehouse’s air supply and living quarters. Sikorsky herself had been in the security room at the time, with only two technicians and Brigadier-General Gutz.

A dozen mages in full body armor—most likely power suits, based on the ease they had at moving with all that weight on them—and carrying Midchildan-style attack devices had then erupted from the APC without caring about the gas and proceeded to secure the station, shooting every body they could find with a single blast in the face for some reason she could not understand; a handful could have just been simple hatred of the Bureau (God only knew how much of that existed!), but for all of them to inflict the same wound in every case meant… meant what exactly? It seemed like such a waste of time…

She sighed, looking at the freshly mangled body of a young man on the screen, recognizing a hallway she and Fate had walked through just a few hours earlier. The crimson stain of blood and brain matter was identical to what she had seen, although the body (and the brain bits) hadn’t been there anymore. Now that she had seen the face of the one whom the blood had belonged to, it only felt… less fake? It still felt a bit virtual to her somehow, but then she hadn’t personally seen any of the bodies.

Unlike the forwards.

She was secretly proud of how they’d handled themselves through that operation. She and Fate had flown with them on the way back, with only Vita-chan staying behind to make sure no one messed with anything important, and she’d been surprised at how normal they still looked. She had been a bit afraid that they were still too young and immature, that the forwards who’d come back with them would be quiet and traumatized, but they had come out of it just fine.

Privately, though, she berated herself. Preparing someone to meet death wasn’t fun, but it was needed, and through her focus on making them combat-capable, she had completely forgot about that. She did have the excuse that Mobile Division Six had been meant as an emergency intervention division, and that the Forwards’ main task would have then been correctly targeted by her training. In a way, she had not realized what Section Six’s change from a mobile division to an independent section had meant for the kids.

She sighed, then looked at the video. It was stopped, for some reason, at the very moment the thieves had entered and secured the stasis area. She blinked in confusion.

“I stopped the video when it appeared you were not paying attention,” Raising Heart informed her.

“Why… I was paying attention!”

“I stopped the video precisely three minutes and fifty-seven seconds ago.” If it was possible for an Intelligent Device to sound smug, then the little orb hanging from Nanoha’s neck did. Nanoha’s face took a color similar to her device.

“I… I mean… Oh, fine, I was distracted.” she sighed. “Did you detect anything out of what we’ve seen? I didn’t.”

“The files do not appear to have been tempered with, and none of the criminals seem to have revealed any details about themselves except Johanne Sikorsky, Isuzu Miata and Lancia Verisa. More reviewing might be productive, however.” She replied.

Although Intelligent Devices and Artificial Intelligences in general were asexual by design, it was common courtesy to refer to an AI by the sex they considered themselves to be, and most AIs, be they in devices or vehicles, chose voices that were either obviously male or female. This selection was fully in their control at the start of their existence, and came into play only when a new generation of AIs was to be designed; Nanoha allowed herself that old smile at the thought of Subaru and Teana’s reactions if they ever learned about exactly who were the “parents” of Mach Caliber, Cross Mirage and Ginga Nakajima’s Blitz Caliber.

“Hm… let’s continue this later, then.”

“Let’s.” Raising Heart agreed.

To Nanoha, it sounded like she was tired as well.

--

“It is me, milady.”

“Report.”

“There was a complication. I could not complete my mission.”

“…explain.”

Chapter 1: Insertion End

--

Yes, I know. Lots of characters, but most of those here are in for cameo appearances… most of them.

The M2D thing is a nod at Satashi and her Sixth Division series, which I consider to be definitely readable stuff.

Notes: Time-Space Administration Bureau Ground Defense Forces Sections

The sections, for the most part, mirror the structure of both the Main and Air branches of the TSAB. The only exception is Section 6, which is unique in purpose.

Section 1: The army, the bulk of the Ground Forces. Divisions are somewhere between one hundred to five hundred mages large, with the most common groups (Batallions, such as the one Genya Nakajima leads) being about three hundred strong, plus support and direction crew. Has plenty of specialized groups, such as five small “elite” mobile divisions built for quick mobilization, insertion and intervention. Yagami Hayate used to lead the sixth one within this section, even smaller and stronger than the others. Over 85 percent of the Ground Defense Force’s personnel belongs to this Section. There is an entire sub-section reserved for mages on Ship Duty, who despite technically belonging to the GDF end up under the command chain of the Main Branch. This allows the Main Branch to save a lot on training costs, as well as giving a way for the Ground Forces to expand their influence; a win-win deal as far as both otherwise separate organizations are concerned. Midchilda also approves of this, as the vast majority of the GDF is composed of Midchildans.

Section 2: This section handles criminal-level investigations; it acts more like a massive and organized detective force than a military section. Fate T. Hallaown did considerable work for them as a special investigator. Agents are often switched with the Main Branch’s Section 2, in either direction. There is no real separation between both; indeed, their respective leaders have been married for thirty-seven years.

Section 3: Administration, the equivalent of the Bureau of Personnel and Supplies in conventional armies. Although no one “canon” belongs to this section in the GDF, retired Admiral Lindy Harlaown works in section 3 of the Main Branch. This section includes the inspection divisions, and dubiously enjoys a reputation as mostly useless penpushers.

Section 4: Research and Development; the eggheads. While the Bureau forbids the use of mass-based weapons, this ban is not universally upheld, as there is an infinite number of worlds in the infinity of the interdimensional continuum. Therefore, it often finds itself researching those very weapons, although mostly to find means to defend against them. At present time, however, it has mostly caught up to Midchilda’s intrauniversal neighbors, and enjoys the same magitech lead Midchilda itself enjoys. As a result of Section 4’s work, the Bureau enjoys a comfortable technological superiority. Like section 2, Section 4 has no real separation between its Main, Air and Ground Defense forces.

(Note: Section 4 also includes all facilities involved in the building, repair and maintenance of the Bureau’s vehicles. In terms of size, it is the second largest Section. Practically every base employs a maintenance staff borrowed from it.)

Section 5: Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence. Very little is known about their activities, except that they are doing their jobs right. After all, very little is known about their activities.

Section 6: Newest section of the Ground Forces, used to be Section 1’s Sixth Mobile Division before its brilliant performance during the Scaglietti incident. An elite section meant to be able to handle any kind of work that comes its way, its divisions are meant as independent units to be sent against the toughest and most dangerous jobs. The section was mostly made, however, to allow its elite mages to be as powerful as they can be under Midchildan limit laws. Enjoys the best equipment, the best training, the best recruits and the highest priority… in theory at least, if one excludes the jealousy it has inevitably spawned, especially within Section 1.

Universal Section: This section is unusual as its agents, called Enforcers, are spread all over the range of the TSAB’s activities. Enforcers are entitled with making sure everyone, even their own commanders, follow the rules. A powerful elite section, its removal from service was attempted multiple times throughout the Bureau’s history, but the need of a police force overseeing a police the size of the Bureau was deemed (and indeed repeatedly proven) required. Fate T. Harlaown is Section six’s assigned Enforcer (despite the critics about favoritism this has inevitably created). This section has very close, though unofficial, ties to the St. Monarch’s Church.