Author's Note: I'm glad to see that the first chapter of this story has been positively received. I will try to keep up the good work.
Chapter 2- Introductions
"So, Louise, what do you wish to know?" Saito asked, lying down on the top bunk, eyes staring up at the room's ceiling. It was a few seconds before he got a response.
"Where am I?" Louise finally asked.
"You are at the Magika Corps headquarters and training facility. Here, the best of Earth's mages are trained to become elite soldiers to combat the alien threat." Saito replied.
"So it's a school for magic?" The pink haired girl asked.
"That is only a small part of it, but yes. We are taught combat magic here, among other things."
"So you are a noble?"
"What makes you think that?"
"Isn't it obvious? You know magic! That makes you nobility!"
"Was your society ruled by some sort of king or queen, with land owning nobility beneath them having custody of the common citizen?" Saito asked.
"Of course!"
"Ah. So you came from a medieval-esque feudal society where the ruling class used their magic to keep the non-magical people in line. We had a society like that once, but it is long gone. There are no kings or nobles on Earth and its colonies."
"Then who governs the commoners? Don't tell me they rule themselves!"
"Before the war, our government was a republic. We elected representatives, and they ruled for a set period of time before being swapped out, but when the invasion happened, that government collapsed, and in its place the Directorate rose. The Directorate is composed of twelve chancellors, who are appointed for life or until the war and its immediate aftereffects have been overcome. The twelve have absolute power, so I guess you can call them kings, although should they screw things up too badly, they can still be traded out. They've done an admirable job keeping us in the war, but as soon as it's done, our economy's gonna be fucked in more ways than I can count. Hell, they aren't even paying us in the military, just handing us an IOU on the off chance that we'll live long enough to collect. Our economy is practically nonexistent by now, with almost all consumer good production halted and the stock exchange computers being converted into targeting devices. But we're still fighting. Had the old republic still been in power, they wouldn't have been able to get the worldwide defense grid approved, and would have continued to be split on the issue until an alien dreadnought came and nuked them off the face of the planet, but the Directorate just said to get it done, and presto! Now, the aliens can't get their big ships close enough to Earth without them getting blown to hell by the giant defense guns we've got up and running. So, to sum it up, the Directorate is the perfect government for wartime, but as soon as the war is over, they're gonna be out on their asses in no time flat." Saito explained.
"Why are you fighting the war in the first place? Why did the aliens come here?" Louise asked.
"To be honest, we don't quite know why they've suddenly appeared, but we do know that they're not gonna stop until every one of us is dead, or worse."
"How did the war start?"
"Well, if you want to know how the war started, you'll need a little bit of background history. In the year 2134, humanity established its first colony on Mars, the fourth planet in our system, having used magecraft to terraform the planet to suit our needs. Mars soon became an incredibly profitable mining colony, spiking interest in extrasolar colonization, or sending our colonists to other stars. By 2213, humanity had established four colonies outside the home system, them being Terra Nova, Eden, Haven, and Prospero. It was an age of prosperity, where mage and non-mage alike worked together to bring about a golden age for humanity. Then, in 2236, Prospero went silent. Being a small colony of less than one million people, it was assumed to be a problem with the planet's comm network." Saito paused briefly, before continuing.
"The Prospero incident, as it came to be known, was soon old news, and was soon out of the public's mindset. Then, two months later, Haven and Eden went silent, both within a day of each other. Ships were dispatched to all three dark planets in order to ascertain the problem. They never returned. It was a week later that we finally saw what the cause behind the events was, when Terra Nova, a colony of over 1.2 billion, sent out a flood of distress messages. Live footage of the woefully underequipped and outnumbered Terra Nova militia fighting against legions of aliens was among the messages sent. Terra Nova held out for three days before going dark. By then, the Earth fleet had already been cobbled together from mining vessels, cargo and passenger transports, and the few actual warships of the mothballed Earth fleet. Production of new military vessels was already underway, with many vessels still in fabrication being converted into warships. We thought that we might even be able to drive them from the system, but on August 8th, 2236, we saw just how outmatched we were. On that day, thousands of alien warships appeared in system, with Mars in their sights."
"In a move that sealed their fate, but likely ensured our continued survival, the Earth Republican Government refused to send the hastily assembled Earth fleet to relieve the besieged colony, instead choosing to concentrate on building up their own forces. However, the militarized and forewarned Mars colony successfully prevented the aliens from landing on their soil for an entire week, using improvised mass drivers to shoot down landing alien craft. Despite the improvised Mars fleet being completely annihilated within an hour, the mining world fought back alone for almost a month, using hastily modified mining lasers as field artillery and converted ore barges as airborne gun platforms. While all this was going on, the Republic was replaced by the Directorate, the older government being deemed inadequate by the people of Earth. The newly instated Directorate ramped up military production to an astounding degree at the expense of many civilian works, which were deemed unnecessary. Using the opportunity, they began construction of the Earth Defense grid, consisting of thousands of incredibly powerful focus cannons that could destroy even the alien dreadnoughts with a single shot, the massive cannons being placed strategically across the globe, with entire islands being created by thousands of earth mages to house the guns that would cover the oceans. With warships being built en masse and the defense grid taking shape, the Directorate then decided that it would be prudent to relieve Mars by the end of the month. The newly formed Fifth and Sixth fleets were dispatched to the besieged world, with the intent of driving the aliens from the planet's orbit. The resulting engagement almost became the greatest disaster in Earth military history."
"Outgunned and outnumbered, the two fleets were met with overwhelming resistance, the Sixth fleet's flagship being destroyed within minutes of the battle's start. The aliens easily outmatched us in terms of tactics, and were on the verge of destroying our fleet. However, salvation came from an unlikely source. As the Earth fleet was on the verge of cutting its losses and running, a flotilla of improvised warships exited FTL among the alien fleet. This was the remnants of the Terra Nova improvised warfleet, the colony having received a warning in the form of a ship that had fled from Prospero arriving in its system a day before the aliens hit Terra Nova. Using the warning to improvise their own fleet of warships while attempting to send a message to Earth, the message arriving too late. When the alien invasion hit, the Terra Nova colonial fleet was ordered to retreat from the colony and head to Earth rather than stay and fight. Exiting FTL in the middle of the alien formation with guns blazing, the attack caught the aliens completely by surprise, causing massive casualties. While the colonial fleet took extremely heavy losses, it allowed the remnants of the Fifth and Sixth fleets to land troops and vital supplies on Mars, while allowing the warships to establish a permanent foothold in Martian orbit, hastily converting Deimos, one of Mars's two tiny moons, into a fortress, clearing a corridor for further resupplying of the Mars militia, which allowed for a guerrilla war to be fought on Mars to this day. This victory was celebrated all over Earth, but the celebrations were not to last. Our defeat of the aliens convinced them to allocate additional resources to the war, allowing them to open up a second front. On September 2nd, 2236, a massive alien fleet appeared in Earth orbit, catching our own fleets completely by surprise. The incomplete defense grid was useless against the invading force, and the battle over Earth was lost within 3 days, the admirals ordering their few remaining ships to retreat into the atmosphere, where ground based installations could provide support against the relentless alien assault."
"The four hell months began afterward, with Alien capital ships prowling unopposed through the air, alien fighters bombing our cities, razing them to the ground. 4 billion people died during those four months alone, mostly civilian casualties. Then, in the January of 2237, the first gun of the defense grid came online, and the war changed once again, this time becoming a stalemate. Within a week of the first activation, over two hundred defense cannons were operational, enough to put a significant dent into the alien forces in orbit. The defense grid was fully online by the end of January, driving them from Earth orbit. With over one thousand giant focus cannons firing energy rays at 99% of light speed, everything within 5 light seconds of Earth became a killzone for the larger alien craft, which were unable to easily dodge the energy blasts. Currently, the majority of the alien fleet uses the moon to shield itself from the defense grid's cannons. It is likely that they have established permanent installations on the dark side of the moon as well. They are unable to send their bigger capital ships out from behind the moon due to our defense grid being easily able to destroy them, forcing them to rely on much smaller frigates and troopships to carry their soldiers down to Earth. However, the defense cannon sites have become battlegrounds, because if the aliens can capture or destroy even a small group of defense cannons, their fleet will once again be able to attack Earth without needing to worry about being blasted to pieces while still in space. We've been like this for twenty years now, neither side having a permanent advantage. That is the war's history in a nutshell. Any questions?" Saito finally finished his explanation.
"Yes. Why haven't you been able to rout the enemy from their emplacement behind your moon?" Louise asked.
"We lost far too many capital ships during the battle in Earth orbit, and we lack the facilities to build anything bigger than a frigate in bulk. All the orbital shipyards have been wrecked, and any attempt to build new ones or repair the hulks in orbit are met with massed attacks by alien frigates, making the construction of new shipyards impossible. Our current ships have undergone multiple refits, but we simply lack the facilities to build new ones." Saito replied. "Anything else?"
"Yes. What will happen to me now? Can you send me back home?" Louise asked, curiosity being replaced by desperation.
"I am afraid that until we know where to send you, we cannot do anything. While we have scans of the portal and will likely be able to eventually replicate it, it will not happen in the near future, and the Magika Corps will be unwilling to let you go now that you are my familiar. Any expedition into your world will be entirely for our benefit and not yours. We simply cannot afford to place your needs over the needs of the billions of people on Earth and Mars, and every member of the Magika Corps is enough to make a significant difference in our war effort. You are already an unofficial member of the Corps, and the paperwork is already being filled out to streamline your impression into the force. I'm sorry, but we will not be making plans to send you back home in the near future unless the benefits outweigh your loss." The words were spoken with a heavy tone as Saito watched the girl's face change, first to hope, then to despair, then breaking into tears as the final sentence was said.
"No, this can't be happening! This can't be happening!" Louise said, more to herself than to Saito. "Mother... Eleanor... Big sister Catt..." The quiet crying became full on sobs as the last name was uttered, the pink haired girl slowly sinking to her knees, her only hope of ever returning home crushed forever.
Suddenly, the girl looked up. "Send me back." She said.
"I'm afraid I can't do th-"
"I said, SEND ME BACK!" the girl shouted, tears streaming from her eyes. "I don't want to fight in your war! I just want to go home..." She trailed off, collapsing on the lower bunk. As the lights went out, indicating the day's end, Saito drifted off to sleep, listening to the girl in the bed below him sobbing herself into unconsciousness.
Saito awoke at exactly 5:00 AM, his internal alarm set to stimulate his brain into wakefullness at that precise moment. Leaping down from the top bunk, he landed on his feet, muffling the noise with Air magic. He saw Louise lying on the lower bunk, a frown on her sleeping face, tear tracks still visible on her cheeks.
"Wake up." Saito said, shaking her awake. As her eyes slowly flickered open, they scanned the room, focusing on Saito.
"It wasn't a dream..." Louise mumbled, looking all too ready to start crying once again.
"No it wasn't. Now, morning PT exercises start at 6. I want to be finished with breakfast by five thirty. Get your uniform on and grab your gear. Move it!" Saito shouted, spurring the girl into action. Quickly donning his own uniform, Saito turned to Louise, who had yet to start changing into her own.
"Do you want to miss breakfast? Get changed, or I'm leaving without you!" Saito shouted, causing her to jump briefly before donning her own uniform. Sprinting out the door, Saito and Louise navigated the maze of hallways, the latter following in the former's footsteps.
Finally, they arrived at their destination, the mess hall already full of trainees, their ages ranging from eighteen to as young as seven. By order of the directorate, all children were screened for magical potency at age 7, and those with a power of class 4 or higher were sent directly to the Magika Corps, the rest going to other magical or non-magical training facilities. Graduation came at age 18, and survivors were retired at age 28, being encouraged to raise large amounts of children, with rewards of property and hypothetical cash being offered for each additional child.
Saito was in his second-to-last year of training, being 17 years old, and thus already commanded a good deal of respect from the junior students. Many younger students made way for him and his familiar as they moved through the mess hall, obtained their bowls of processed nutrient paste, and sat down at one of the tables. Saito quickly gulped his down, the tasteless mush being the only food he had ever known at the academy. He noticed Louise tentatively poking at the blob with one of her utensils.
"What did you expect, a three course banquet? There's a war on, we have no time for luxuries like fresh food. Now eat up." He said. Louise obediently ate, a grimace present on her face.
Immediately after finishing their food, the pair made their way to a large receptacle in the side of the room, dropping off their plain white bowls for the servitors to clean.
"Let's go. PT exercises start soon." Saito said, motioning for his familiar to follow him, the small, pink haired girl walking after him.
Arriving early, Saito sat down on the floor of the giant underground gymnasium, copying the example of what few other students were present. The room rapidly filled over the course of the next few minutes, until, at precisely 6 AM, the drill sergeant strode in.
The entire class stood, rapidly arranging itself into orderly rows. Unlike the stereotypical enraged and screaming drill sergeants of old, Sergeant Blackstone simply gave the group a disapproving glance before speaking.
"Twelve laps. Thirty minutes. Now." The man spoke. The entire class sprinted towards the track, not intending to get on the sergeant's wrong side. They all remembered what happened to the last trainee who did.
After the second lap, Saito noticed a strange, rasping noise behind him. Turning his head without breaking a stride, he saw Louise, red faced and panting, drawing ragged breath after ragged breath. At first, Saito wondered why the girl was so out of shape. After all, an augmented trainee would have to have been subjected to significant muscular atrophy to be already out of breath at the second lap!
Then it struck him. Louise was unaugmented. Signalling for the sergeant, Saito kept running.
"Yes, trainee? What is it?" The sergeant asked, his voice barely audible over the running trainees but still carrying a severe tone.
"My familiar, the pink haired girl behind me, she is not augmented. Permission for her to cease the exercise?" He asked.
"Granted. Two more laps for you, trainee Hiraga." The sergeant said, before slowing down and ordering Louise to stop her running. Saito continued his own exercise, including the two punitive laps assigned to him. As he finally slowed down and allowed his burning muscles to stop working, he noticed an officer standing at the edge of the room.
"Trainee Hiraga. You and your familiar are ordered to come with me." The officer, a psion, spoke telepathically, his voice echoing in Saito's own mind. Psionics, a subclass of body magic, dealt with mental manipulation and was the only form of magic that the aliens could use. Telepathy, however, was not so much psionics as it was simply a use of body magic to cause eardrums to vibrate in very specific patterns.
"Louise, come with me." Saito said, gesturing to his familiar. The pair followed the officer out of the room, navigating the labyrinthine passageways of the facility until they arrived at a door that Saito recognized as the augmentics lab. Dealing with both cybernetic and genetic augmentations, the laboratory was constantly creating new magical and nonmagical modifications, the best body mages, genetic engineers, and cybernetic engineers working to create them.
After entering, the officer turned to the pair.
"Trainee Hiraga, wait here. Trainee Valliere, follow me."
"Valliere? Who is... oh." Saito wondered out loud, realizing that the psion had read the girl's mind.
"Come with me, trainee Valliere." The officer repeated, before turning, the girl following him.
Louise followed the tall man into a large, white room, lit by bright white lights and giving off an air of extreme sterility.
"Trainee Valliere. It has come to my attention that you have not undergone the standard augmentation process required for all Magika Corps members due to your nature as an extradimensional familiar. Am I correct in this?" The officer asked.
"Yes, it is." Louise replied, unnerved by how the man not only knew her last name, which she had not said once since she was summoned, but also seemed to know everything else about her.
"You shall address me and all other superior officers as 'Sir' or 'Ma'am' for the duration of your stay here, do I make myself clear?" The officer said.
"Yes, sir." Louise replied.
"Good. Now, you will now undergo the standard augmentation process. This will severely increase both your bodily and magical capabilities to the point where you are on a par with the other trainees. Once I leave, you are to remove any clothing you are wearing, including your bodysuit, and stand in the tank present on the wall. The operation will then commence. Understood?"
"Yes, sir." Louise did.
"Good. I'll leave you to it." The man walked out of the room, leaving Louise to do exactly as he had said. Her clothes neatly piled in a receptacle near the tank, she entered the tank itself, standing still, arms at her sides. Then, with a whirr, the glass around the tank slid together, encasing her inside the vessel. A yellowish gas quickly filled the tank, and Louise blacked out.
Louise's eyes slowly flickered open. She felt herself surrounded on all sides by wetness, the liquid surrounding her lapping around her bare skin. A mask covered her face, allowing her to breathe despite the fluid surrounding her on all sides.
A rushing noise suddenly filled her ears, the fluid in the tank slowly draining out. She shivered as cold air washed against her moist skin. Then, there came the spray of water as several nozzles directed the clear liquid around her, quickly washing away any trace of the green-yellow fluid she awoke in. This was followed seconds later by a blast of hot air, the water flash evaporating off her. The entire cleaning process took twenty seconds. Then, the glass walls of the tank slid open, and Louise collapsed out, landing on hands and knees, taking her first breath of semi-fresh air in three days.
"Get up Louise, and put some clothes on." The voice of Saito Hiraga sounded in her ears. With a newfound strength, Louise stood, before quickly donning the bodysuit and uniform of the Magika Corps trainees.
"Good work trainee Valliere. Now, let's put those augments to the test. The in-ear comms implant is already working, as you can hear me. Now, we'll test the physical augmentations. In the corner of the room, there are a series of weights. I want you to pick them up, starting with the two hundred kilogram one, and moving up until you are physically incapable of lifting any more."
Walking over to the corner, Louise began to lift the weights, until she finally stopped at the 1000 kilogram block.
"Good. Strength augmentations functioning within expected parameters. Now for the reflex augmentations. Stand still, and attempt to dodge the balls as they are thrown at you. Ready, begin."
Louise then leaped out of the way of a black ball, flung towards her out of a hidden shooter in the wall. She continued to leap, flip, cartweel, and in general fly out of the way of the incoming balls, the intensity of the barrage slowly increasing until finally she was hit.
"Reflex augmentations functioning within expected parameters. We won't be testing the self destruct system for obvious reasons, and the healing factor and organ redundancies have already been checked. Now for the magical augmentations. A network of magic circuits has been woven into your skin, to boost your magical potential and casting efficiency and control. Cast a spell, it doesn't matter which."
Louise complied, casting a fireball. As expected, the result was an explosion. What Louise did not expect, however, was a series of fine lines all over her arm glow a bright blue, followed by a massive gout of fire that sprang from her hand, leaving a black scorch mark on the wall.
"Excellent. Your partner will later explain to you the exact nuances of the augmentations, but for now, you are to report to the simulator room. Use your ocular implants to locate the sim-room, or just follow your partner. You are dismissed, trainee Valliere." The voice stopped talking, and a door slid open on the far wall. Saito Hiraga stood in the doorway, eyeing her critically.
"Are you allright?" He asked.
"I'm fine... I think. What did they do to me in there?" Louise asked.
"I can explain later. Right now, you are to come with me. While you were in surgery, the paperwork to make you an official member of the Magika Corps was completed. Due to your status as my familiar, you have been assigned to fill a recently vacant position in training squad 131, designation Warlord. Scans indicate that you are a class 5 power level mage, class 9 with augments, with an affinity for Aether magic, with a secondary affinity for fire and emotional magic, your prime weaknesses being in body and earth magic. This is acceptable, as our squad's previous Aether mage was confirmed KIA yesterday. Any questions?"
"What? Aether magic? Emotional? What are you talking about? There are only four elements, fire, water, air, and earth! There was once a fifth, void, but that has been long lost!"
"Fire, water, air, and earth are known as the basic elements of nature, and were the earliest magic elements to be discovered. Fire deals with the transfer of energy, as well as the mediation of chemical reactions. While fire is the most obvious form of this magic, this magic can also be used to cool objects down, or force a chemical reaction. In a way, Ice magic is actually a fusion of water and fire magic, with fire magic being used to remove thermal energy from the water in order to flash freeze it. Water, air, and earth magic, meanwhile, deal with the physical manipulation of the various states of matter. Water can manipulate any liquid, the most commonly used one being water, although there are some water mages that carry a supply of acids and poisons with them for combat use. Earth, meanwhile, works with solids. Anything that is solid at room temperature can be manipulated by an Earth mage, examples being most metals and solid compounds. Air, meanwhile, deals with gasses. If it's a gas at room temperature, air magic can manipulate it, regardless of its state at the moment. Are you with me so far?" Saito asked.
"I think I understand. But that still does not explain all those other strange elements!"
"I'm getting to that. For hundreds of years after magic was first discovered, it was believed that there were only the four elements that I have just described. However, during the early 1700s, it was found that a person's emotional state had a noticeable effect on their magic. Further study led to the discovery of what was then described as two new elements, classified as light and dark. These were supposedly determined by a person's natural emotional alignment, with what was then termed light being considered holy by some, while dark was destructive and difficult to control, leading to several 'witch hunts' where dark users were persecuted as evil mages. However, eventually it was realized that 'light' and 'dark' were actually much more closely related than was previously thought, to the point of them being almost like one element. While your emotional state has a constant effect on your magic, with foul dispositions generally resulting in far more destructive spells, raw emotion can be used to direct one's magic supply as well, the magic manifesting according to one's emotional state. For example, a foul tempered mage would tend to cast powerful explosions, while a benevolent, kind wizard would be able to use his force to both strengthen, heal, and defend his allies."
"But that would mean that I've been casting emotional magic this whole time!" Louise crowed, before beginning to laugh. "All this time, I thought I was nothing but a Zero, but Kirche, you have been proven wrong today!" The pink haired girl cried, cackling madly, unconsciously channeling magic into her words, her sub-dermal magic circuits lighting up, while a black mist slowly formed around her. Saito's hand passing in front of her face snapped her out of her reverie.
"Are you allright?" He asked.
"Fine, fine! Nothing wrong here!" Louise said in an all too bright and cheerful tone.
"Whatever you say. Anyway, soon after the light and dark elements were reclassified as emotional magic, a huge amount of research began on magic, a topic that people previously took for granted. Everyone wanted to discover the next new element, and Aether was discovered in 1902 by a trio of mages who were studying the 'Summon Familiar' spell, which was previously assumed to be emotional magic manifesting as an ideal partner for the mage. However, they discovered that creating a familiar through emotional magic was incredibly taxing in terms of magical power use, so much so that multiple mages were needed to summon even the most minute of familiars, and even that dispersed soon afterward, much unlike the easy to summon and maintain familiars used by mages. Their efforts eventually led to the discovery of both the Aetheric realm and the Aether element. The Aetheric realm seems to be a dimension composed almost entirely out of magical energy, which Aether mages bring into the world, using it to conjure various aetheric constructs to aid them, both in and out of combat. Finally, there is body magic, which was long thought to be a subset of Water magic. However, through experimentation, it was eventually reclassed as its own element, which is dedicated to manipulating biological matter. Anything alive, from the smallest plant to the largest animal, can be manipulated through body magic."
"Finally, there is the pseudo-element known as psionics. Body mages have a chance of possessing a certain gene, known as the psi-gene, which allows them to use their body magic to influence not only the body, but the mind as well. Psionics is the only form of magic that the aliens are known to possess, with certain alien combat morphs utilizing a combination of genetic engineering and cybernetic implants to use their own equivalent of psionic magics, although operating on entirely different principles than our own. Do you have any questions?"
"No."
"Good. We're almost at the sim-room. Once there, myself, along with the rest of Warlord squad, will evaluate your combat capabilities in a simulated combat environment. We'll be spending most of our time down in there, running combat simulations, with only our tenth year courses to interrupt our time there. Next year, though, we will be spending our entire year in there, preparing for the final examination, which will be a live combat op. Anyway, we're here now, so come inside and meet your teammates for the rest of your life here at the academy and beyond."
With those words, Saito walked through a large door that slid open as he approached, Louise following behind him, walking to meet the rest of Warlord squad.
A/N: And that's a wrap for this chapter. I hope you all read it, enjoy it, etc.
With regards to Louise seeming slightly OOC in this chapter, especially post augmentation, I have done so intentionally, and I shall reveal the reason behind this in a chapter or two, for those who have not figured it out by then. In addition, a rash of plot bunnies have spawned yet another twisted hellspawn of a story, namely a particularly dark (at least in my opinion) Harry Potter/Warhammer 40k crossover.
The first chapter of it will be out soon, and a poll will be up on my profile asking for whether I should continue it or not. With that in mind, enjoy the story.