Authors Note: Thank you everyone for your patience. I'm not good with long intros, so here is the sequel/continuation of Simple Intentions and the start of the main storyline. Please enjoy.

Chapter 1: Briefing

Long-range teleportation is a rather interesting process. From the outside, it just looks like someone is being warped to a faraway location. The actual process is a bit more complicated. It wasn't something Nanoha Takamachi liked to think about.

According to Vita and several others she had talked to, the process involved breaking down a person's being into data, moving that data to another point in space, and then reconstructing the data into the person being sent. All she knows is that she became violently ill the first time she was warped.

Being told that a lot of other people become ill as well didn't ease her mind.

Nevertheless, Nanoha managed to force down her queasiness as her body came into being. The usual feeling of weightlessness accompanying the warp before her feet hit the ground certainly didn't help.

Blinking away the light in her eyes, Nanoha stepped out of the teleportation pod and onto the deck.

"Attention!" A voice to her left drew her attention. Turning towards the voice she saw a group of six people, four male and two female, standing at attention. A quick glance to her side showed several bridge attendants saluting her as well.

"Welcome aboard Captain Takamachi." A new voice brought her back to the center of the bridge. In the center of everything stood a man in a white officers uniform, the grey hairs poking out from under his hat and around his face, as well as the numerous medals decorating his uniform, showing his years of experience.

Nanoha quickly turned on her heels and saluted the veteran. "General Dawson, it's an honor. And thank you again for allowing us to come aboard the Augustine."

Dawson let out a gruff laugh. "Nonsense. I should be thanking you. It's not everyday that the Ace of Aces comes aboard a small ship like this." It was technically true. Nanoha hadn't been on many L class ships since the Athura, and most of the time it was so she could make jumps to larger ships.

"Please, make yourself at home." He waited for Nanoha to drop her salute before continuing. "We should be arriving at our destination in thirty hours."

With a light bow, Nanoha thanked the general and turned towards the group that saluted her earlier. A smile made its way onto her face as she recognized the man in the middle of the group.

The man in question snapped to attention as she walked up to him, followed shortly by the rest of his group. "Captain Takamachi. Thank you for coming on such short notice."

Sighing to herself, Nanoha quickly saluted back before addressing him. "It's good to see you again Roland. Congratulations on making Lieutenant." Before he could answer she continued. "I didn't have much time to look over the mission, so I will be expecting a full briefing." Receiving a quick nod, she started towards the door.

Without another word, Roland and the rest of his team followed her.

Roland North was a cadet she had trained three years ago, who had risen quickly to the rack of Lieutenant. She recalled him being rather good with a sword as well as being rather skilled at immobilization spells. Nanoha found herself smiling. A teacher always felt good knowing their students were able to succeed, and Nanoha was no different.

"So then, what's the situation?"

Nanoha sat down on one of the couch in the lounge, temporarily abandoned except for Roland's team and herself. Looking over Roland's shoulder, she could see the rest of the group spread out behind him. One of the men on the team, Tom she believed, shifted in his seat. The man next to him however, looked almost bored.

They're either nervous or too inexperienced to realize they are. Great. Looking at the other two men, she saw similar expressions covering their faces. Turning her attention to the two girls gave her a different sight. The redheaded girl, Alice, was staring at Nanoha as though she was some amazing treasure. The blond however, was staring off into space… except when she would glance over at Nanoha only to quickly look away and blush.

"We've received reports of multiple unusual magical signatures in a remote dimension. The planet the signatures are coming was believed to be a Type-C planet, however recent observation has shown it to actually be a Type-A planet."

Nanoha was pulled out of her musings at this news. Type-C is a designation given to a planet that has no recordable magical presence or mana, but still houses a significant population. In her own terms, an Earth-like planet. A Type-A planet on the other hand, is one that not only has a large mana presence, but one with a large population of magic users as well. For a planet to change classifications that quickly was definitely surprising.

Roland continued with his report. "What's more, the magical signatures are not only different in origin from the general magical population, but are many times greater in rank as well."

"Wait." Nanoha held up her hand to stop Roland from continuing. "First, when you say 'different in origin', what do you mean? Do you mean that these new magical signatures don't use the same system as the planet they are on?" A nod from the young Lieutenant confirmed her fears. "Wonderful. So that means we're dealing with a group of mages that set up shop on another planet."

The Ace leaned back against the couch and brought a hand to her head. This is going to be fun. She had seen cases like this pop up from time to time. Some mage would find a way to another planet, either through magical means or were aided by another mage, and would try to take control or gain power. In these cases, it was usually easy to spot the offending mage, since their magic system would be different from that of the general population.

However, that brought up her next question. "Roland? How is it that a Type-C planet is suddenly reclassified as a Type-A planet? What kind of errors did the investigation team make that they overlooked such a large magical society?"

Roland, to his credit, only flinched slightly at Nanoha's tone. Not to his credit however, he fumbled around with the holo-screen in his hands as he tried to look for the information he needed. "W-well… the reason for that is…"

"The reason is that the investigation team didn't detect it at first."

Nanoha jumped at the familiar voice. Turning towards the door she saw a young man wearing a green suit with blond hair fix his glasses and smile at her.

"Yunno-kun?" She quickly stopped herself from getting up and running over to hug him. There would be time for that later. "You're here too?"

Yunno laughed as he made his way over to one of the tables. "Yes actually. I was asked to help with deciphering the magical system used on this planet."

Nanoha groaned inwardly as she realized she had inadvertently accused her longtime friend of not doing his job properly. "I see." She coughed into her hand to hide her embarrassment. "And what exactly did you find?"

"I'm glad you asked actually." He nodded towards the squad behind him. "I'd actually like to speak to you about that. There are some things I think you should know before heading off."

Nanoha raised an eyebrow at him. She didn't quite understand why he couldn't say whatever it was in front of everyone, but she knew better than to question the librarian at this point.

With a nod, she dismissed the squad and asked that they leave. Ignoring the groan from Alice and a couple of the guys, she watched as everyone left the lounge and the door shut behind them.

"Now then-."

Yunno didn't get to finish as he was tackled into a hug.

"Nyahaha. It's good to see you again Yunno-kun. It's been way too long."

Yunno simply sighed and returned the hug. "It's good to see you too Nanoha."

"And that's the story." Closing the book in his hand, the blond librarian looked up to see his friend crouched over the table deep in thought.

It was certainly a lot to take in. Not only had finding out about a rather large magical society been a shock, but also learning that there was archived information about this planet was an even bigger shock.

For once, Yunno had to question just how much information was stored in the Infinite Library. Along with information gained from ancient texts, the library had recently started gathering information from other worlds. It seemed that among the thousands of populated worlds out there, that were currently known, there were some that just contained mass amounts of information. These particular worlds have since been called "Archive Planets".

Yunno cast his eyes over the various books and papers covering the table in front of him. Each of those books contained some information about the planet they were headed to. The only difficulty was picking the relevant information out of the story within these comics.

"Magic Circuits, huh?" Nanoha's question brought him out of his thoughts. "That's what this system is called?"

"Uh, yes, that's right." Yunno pushed his glasses closer to his eyes and picked up one of the papers scattered across the table. "This planets mages use a system of magic wherein they take mana into their bodies and shape it through the use of these circuits. You can almost think of them as bundles of nerves."

Seeing Nanoha grimace, he couldn't help but chuckle. "Yes, it does seem a bit dangerous, but from what little we've seen, it seems to be an effective form of magic." Judging by Nanoha's expression, she didn't quite agree. Yunno continued, "This also explains why we were unable to notice this planet's mage population."

"Because their magic is shaped internally and applied directly to the environment. Right?"

"Exactly. At least from what we've seen." He spared a quick glance at one of the papers on the table. Judging by some of the pictures, the mages of this planet could probably keep pace with ancient Belkan mages or knights. The thought was a bit frightening.

"And? The other magical signature?"

Shaking his head, Yunno pushed those thoughts out of his mind. "Right. We've only just made the connection, but the magical signatures that called you out here are extremely similar to another magical signature discovered recently." Yunno turned away from the table. "We have Fate and Signum to thank for that information. The reports they've sent back so far have been very useful for our investigation."

He couldn't help sighing under his breath. He knew there was something between the two of them; he just didn't know what that something was. So, he turned away so as not to see her reaction to the mention of Fate's name. He thought it would be easier to work up his courage that way.

"So, all of these mangas are important for your research huh?" Confused by the sudden change in topic, Yunno turned back towards the table to see Nanoha holding up a book with an unreadable expression covering her face. "Even things like this?"

Yunno paled. The book Nanoha was holding showed a blonde woman in a rather revealing white dress being held by another woman in a concealing purple robe. Embarrassed, Yunno quickly looked away.

"T-t-that w-was just p-part of what was s-sent over." He was practically shaking. Of all the things could be sent as research material, why did something like that have to be sent over. He would have to have a long talk with his assistant once he got back.

"So… you're into this kind of stuff?"

"W-what? N-no that's… Arf sent over everything."

"Ehh? Now you're blaming Arf-san? That's too cruel Yunno-kun." Nanoha puffed out her cheeks in an attempt to look angry.

Accepting his defeat, Yunno dropped his head in shame. "Don't tease me like that Nanoha." Nanoha's laughter was all he needed to know she was joking.

Well. There goes that chance. Straightening himself out, Yunno looked over to see Nanoha studying the various books in front of her. He coughed to get her attention.

"Anyway, we unfortunately don't have much information about these so-called 'Youkai', so we'll have to play things by ear." Nanoha nodded. "I'll let you know if anything is sent over from the library. Until then…" Yunno motioned towards the door to the lounge. "You should go and meet with everyone."

Nodding her assent, Nanoha stood and started for the door. She seemed to be returning to what everyone affectionately called 'work-mode Nanoha'.

However, before she reached the door, Yunno called out to her.

"Nanoha." She jumped a bit in surprise. "I know this is a strange time but," Yunno scratched his cheek. "I was wondering if you would like to, maybe, meet up once we get back home. You know, grab some dinner together, or something."

Nanoha jumped at the sudden question and turned away, her cheeks red in embarrassment. He didn't blame her. It wasn't everyday that one of your oldest friends asks you out.

"Yunno-kun." He turned back towards her, eager for her response. "Sorry," only for his mind to blank. "I already have a date set for when I get back." It felt like the world had just ended.

He could only sigh in resignation. It seemed Fate had made her move before he did. "I see.

Yunno lowered his head. He could already hear her next words before she said them.

"Umm. I mean, I can't do anything when we get back." The brown haired ace scratched her cheek in embarrassment. "B-but, maybe the day after…?"

She was cut off by Yunno shaking his head. "It's fine Nanoha. Thanks."

"But…"

Yunno waved her off. "I said it's fine Nanoha." He walked over to her. "Any more and she'll get jealous."

He didn't think it was possible for her face to get any redder. "Eh? Wait how did you…?"

The librarian couldn't help but laugh at how flustered she was. If he had to find a silver lining to his bad timing, it was getting to see the famous Ace of Aces flounder around in embarrassment.

"Honestly, you really aren't the best at keeping secrets." He turned her towards the door and gave her a push. "Go and get yourself ready for the mission. The sooner this is done, the sooner you can go on your date. Right?"

Nanoha pouted over her shoulder. Uttering a sincere apology, the ace took a deep breath to calm herself and stepped through the sliding door. She was stopped five steps later as half the occupants of the ship mobbed her for an autograph.

"Attention".

At her command, the six soldiers in front of her snapped to attention. She looked over them seeing some of the nervousness from before fading away. Everyone in the teleportation room was quiet, either surprised by the sudden command, or eagerly listening to the famous captain.

"We've arrived at our destination. Our mission is as follows."

A holo-screen appeared in front of Nanoha to show an overhead view of a city. "This is our target." The screen changed to show a large circle that surrounded a small part of the city itself but surrounded all the neighboring towns. "This circle represents a powerful magical field. Surveillance has shown that this field has cut off all communication between those in the city and those outside."

Nanoha scanned the soldiers in front of her, making sure they were still with her so far.

"Due to the unknown origins of the field, it is impossible to tell whether it was made by this planet's mages, or by the Youkai, the owners of the large magical signatures." Several heads nodded in understanding. "Therefore, our mission is twofold. First, we are to infiltrate the magical field and survey the situation inside. Yunno-ku-, I mean, Chief Librarian Yunno Scrya, has assured me that we will be able to pass through the field." She looked to the side to see her friend smile his confirmation. "Second, we are to determine the offending party responsible for the barrier, and aid those in need. After that, we can deal with the party responsible."

"According to the information we've obtained, the mages of this planet are not flight-capable. Therefore, everyone will be grounded unless absolutely necessary."

A small groan from Alice drew her eyes. The offending girl quickly straightened up under Nanoha's stern gaze. "Remember, we are not Enforcers. Our mission is to help those in distress and keep them safe no matter what the situation is. Is that understood?"

A loud chorus of confirmation rang through the hall. Nodding to herself, Nanoha lightly touched the red jewel handing around her neck. In a flash, she felt the familiar sensation of her white and blue Barrier Jacket covering her as well as the magical field it granted. Opening her hand slightly, she could feel her device, Raising Heart, form in her palm.

Looking up, she could see her unit suiting up in similar flashes of light. A weight on her staff caught her attention in time for her to see a brown ferret run up her arm and sit on her shoulder. Nanoha couldn't stop the smile that formed on her lips as memories from the past suddenly surfaced.

Seeing everyone ready, she nodded to the operator behind her and closed her eyes. A few seconds later, the uncomfortable weightlessness returned.

Opening her eyes again, the captain was greeted with the sight of a line of trees with a large black dome looming in the distance. Pushing down the nausea caused by warping, Nanoha ran forward, with the sounds of her unit close behind her.

The mission had begun and her target was right in front of her. Setting up a barrier, and without a second thought, Captain Nanoha Takamachi jumped into the field surrounding Fuyuki City.

Author's Note: Thank you for reading.

Now, I would like to say that I do not know much of anything in regards to military protocol. I'm mainly just going off of popular media. With that said, I would greatly appreciate any feedback in that regard. Not only will greater accuracy make the story better, but it will help me get better as well.

Once again, thank you for reading.

Solknight371st