'thoughts'
"speech:
START
"Do I really need to wear this?" Shirou asked, pulling at the sleeves of his rune-enscribed uniform. He tugged a little harder than necessary. He did his best to project a calm, professional facade, but the anger and hurt was still there. But not surprise. Rin had been pushing him away for months now.
"I know you are very impressive, Shirou, but I don't want you taking unnecessary risks. You're an important person" Tessa smiled.
"But we don't have enough Arm Slaves for all the soldiers. If I went without..." Shirou started, to be interrupted by Tessa's quiet voice,
"All the front line soldiers have an Arm slave. And you need the communications array that is inscribed into it to be effective in command" Tessa carefully forgot to mention that she had inscribed several broaches with the communications runes, and that Kalinin had issued those to the soldiers without Arm slaves.
"Fine" smiled Shirou, "And thank you for taking such good care of me"
He turned to the other soldiers mustering up in the exit bay, so he missed Tessa's face light up at those words.
The Exit Bay was a large room at the back of the Tuatha de Danaan that had doors that could whisk open in a split second. Currently, it was filled with soldiers and support staff, as well as a few curious observers, including a pair of business suited Chinese and one Kaname Chidori, who was stand close to Sousuke.
"Ok, people, this is how it's going to go down." Shirou had already briefed the officers, but a little pep talk never hurt "Tiwaz & Haglaz squads are going to deploy from the Tuatha de Danaan when it surfaces inside the rogue's bounded field. Urzu will come out through the Reality Marble gateway with me and attack the rogues from the rear as they move to engage Tiwaz & Haglaz. Any questions?"
"No, sir!" chorused a dozen voices. each squad was made up of 4 soldiers - three with the Arm Slaves, and one specialist (though Shirou was planning to increase the squad size, he was still short on manpower). Most of the Arm Slaves lived up to their names, being full sets of armor based on the American design. The were rather restrictive, but the extra speed and protection made them worth the inconvenience.
Sousuke and Shirou were the only ones in the Third Generation Arm Slaves developed by Tessa.
"Ok, It's our turn first," Shirou turned to inspect Sgt. Mao and the rest of Urzu squad. McAllen and Melissa Mao were slaved to their full armor, but they had enough practice with it so that they were still able to handle their rifles with ease. The rifles themselves were based on American M-16, but twice as heavy, designed to pierce magical armor even with conventional ammunition.
The specialist, Kurz Weber, was a sniper. On the other two squads, the specialists were magi trained by Shirou in combat.
Shirou took another look 'Where's Sousuke.. ah' The fourth member of the squad was delayed as Kaname leaned in to say something to him. Sousuke nodded and joined his teammates. He was carrying what looked like a minigun from a helicopter. It was almost as big as he was, but with the enhancement of the strength runes on his Arm slave, he handles it like it was made out of paper-mache.
"Let's go." Shirou and Urzu squad burst from the Danaan, and the submarine disappeared under the ground moments after.
"Weapons up!" yelled Sgt. Mao as Urzu squad raced for the rise.
On the Tuatha de Danaan, the atmosphere was tense as the magical vehicle approached the main insertion point.
"Surfacing in ten seconds" came a voice over the loud speakers, "9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 , 3, 2, 1, GO!"
the exit bay doors yanked open, and the two squads raced out, rifles at the ready.
"Clear!" yelled the deck officer as soon as the lst soldier was out.
"DIVING" came the voice over the loud speaker. The Danaan, which had breached the surface moments ago, disappeared from view again. The whole procedure had taken seconds, like a whale that had come up for air.
*KoM*KoM*
Urzu squad raced across the broken ground, heading for the ridge that Rin and Shirou had visited earlier. They quickly left Kurz behind.
As the Arm Slaves approached the top, Kurz kneeled down and took a shot past them. The specially made bullet ripped ahead of the squad, hitting the bounded field. The field rippled and tore like a sail in a storm, spilling an oil-slick field of light in all directions. I siren sounded, an ear piercing howl warning that the boundary field was compromised.
The Arm Slaves leaped through, followed by Kurz, who dropped to the ground and started to set up his rifle.
Shirou led the rest of the squad down into the Ravine. The enemy Arm Slaves were all under cover, firing at the other two Mithril squads. It looked like a stalemate - the Mithril soldiers were outnumbered, but had superior training, preventing the enemy units from circle around them.
This all changed when Urzu arrived. The Arm Slaves just dropped 60 feet straight down, landing before the enemy soldiers even noticed them. As the enemy AS started to panic and tried to fight in two directions at once, Sousuke and Shirou darted forward. Sousuke opened fire with his chain gun, tearing through several enemy units.
Shirou took the Arm Slaves that were on the edge, next to the headquarters building. As they spun to confront their new enemy, a pair of ragged looking Chinese broadswords flew, spinning through the air towards them. One of the arm slaves managed to deflect most of the attack, but the other wasn't so lucky, taking the falchion square in the chest. The overloaded projection ripped through the armor, spraying metal in all directions as it shattered under the strain.
The Arm Slave that had survived was just bringing up his assault rifle up when Shirou's Durandel cleaved clean through him. Shirou slammed viscously into the body and yanked Durandel clear. As he turned to look for a new target, a bullet slammed into is shoulder, spinning him around.
'Shit' Shirou spun around and dropped behind a jeep 'I've been letting my anger drive me. I need to pay more attention'. He checked his shoulder – the AS was intact, though his shoulder hurt 'That's going to leave a bruise'. "Trace on" He whispered and a bow and arrow materialized in is hands. He peered over the jeep – there was the arswipe that had shot him, darting behind a boulder. Shirou loaded the arrow with enough prana to 'break' it, and angled his bow up, arcing the arrow to land behind the rock that the enemy gunman was using for cover. When the arrow hit, it exploded like a hand grenade.
The villagers who had been doing the mining huddled against boulders and behind buildings, trying to stay out of the line of fire. Several of the braver ones made a run for it, down a dirt track that lead away from the mine.
The enemy Arm Slaves were having a bad time of it, as they were now caught in a crossfire from the Mithril units. One Arm Slave, apparently better trained than the rest, tried to circle behind Urzu squad, but Kurz dropped him before he could get very far.
As the enemy started to get more and more panicky, a rhythmic chanting sounded, and a black smoke poured forth from the headquarters building.
Shirou turned, projecting Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi. Swinging the Japanese broadsword, he sent a blast of fiery wind into the building. The black smoke recoiled, but did not disperse. 'Not good' "Megumi-san, Arthur, I need containment on the main building" Shirou broadcast to the Tiwaz and Haglaz specialists.
At the same time, rubble that was piled off to one side of the mining camp began to shift.
The two magi ran up, though Megumi was holding her arm stiffly where an arm slave had clipped her. "What have we got?" Arthur was an exceptionally talented first generation Magus, about Shirou's age, while Megumi was several years older, and was from a magical family, but her specialty was oriental paper magic, which got her laughed at in the Clocktower.
"Not certain, but it's manifesting as black smoke. I can... what the?!" Shirou was interrupted as three twenty foot tall figures made of solid rock slowly arose from what he had previously assumed was just mine tailings. "Tiwaz, Halgaz, finish the Arm Slaves. Urzu, form up on me - we have golems!" This was not good - golems were notoriously hard to stop. They didn't have any vulnerable spots. Just rock and more rock.
As Urzu squad ran up to assist Shirou, the two magi began to chant arias. a faint blue circle appeared around the building, slowing the black smoke. At the same time, an endless stream of strips of paper flew out of Megumi's hands, creating a barrier over the windows and doors
As the first golem turned to face Shirou, the Faker General projected a bow and a Caliburn that was twisted into an arrow shape. The rest of the soldiers were dodging the blows of the golems, firing ineffectually at them as they took cover.
As the golem reached out to crush Shirou, Caliburn, the Sword in the Stone, punched through its chest, leaving a jagged hole in it's wake.
"Concentrate fire on the middle golem!" called out Sousuke
Facing the other two golems, the Urzu Arm slaves shifted position to follow Sousuke order and opened fire, sending rock chips flying. Sousuke's minigun ripped large chunks from the golem that he was confronting. The impacts staggered it, With that much firpower raining down on it, the creature was having a hard time keeping its balance. It's strikes were slow, giving the soldiers time to get out of the way
The last golem was taking only minimal damage, That is until Kurz put a silver jacketed iron bullet that had been ensorcelled to break enchantments into it's back. The left arm of the golem turned back to regular sandstone. As the monster tried to raise it for an attack, the pressure on the now mundane material was too much, and the arm shattered in a spray of rock and sand.
The chanting from the building became louder and more emphatic, and then cut off all together. Meanwhile, Shirou had managed to chop the leg off of one golem, while Urzu was in the process of reducing another to rubble. the one Kurz had shot was still standing, but it was having trouble moving - it just twitched and repeated the same motions over and over, like a robot with a crashed program.
All of the enemy Arm Slaves were down, despite their fighting to the last man.
"Tiwaz, check the enemy soldiers - they are probably ensorcelled, so they may attack even if badly injured. Halgaz, give Urzu a hand.. Kurz, keep an eye out for anybody sneaking out of the big building.
Shirou turned to the Magus specialists. "How are you holding up"
"Pretty good", answered Megumi, "I have the enemy conjuration contained. You can take Arthur if you need him to do some scrying" Her papers had forced their way into the building, and were smothering the black smoke in layer upon layer.
Arthur glanced at Shirou, and at Shirou's nod, dropped his spell. Taking a deep breath, he started another Aria. "There's nobody alive in the building" he finally replied.
"Tessa, can the Danaan check for underground passageways leading away from the main building?"
"Checking", came the reply "Yeah, sonar shows that there is one that appears to run straight under the ridge in front of you and before opening up about 300 yards away. I am surfacing to intercept."
The rest was just clean up: many of the villagers were dazed, though Arthur claimed that it wasn't magical - just plain shock. The Mithril Arm Slaves finished off the golems, and made sure that they wouldn't reanimate.
"Ok, lets see what's inside the building" Shirou and Megumi went in cautiously. The building was typical of it's kind - the front half was offices, and the back was a large garage area for doing repair work.
The magi slowly worked their way through the offices. Desks were turned over, papers were scattered everywhere, and chunks of black smoke lay wrapped up like paper-mache balloons. All very calm, almost incongruously so.
When they made it into the garage section, it was a different matter - there was a definite thrum of power pervading the air. Sealed globules of black smoke were everywhere, and an especially large one floated in front of a back-hoe, pulsing with purple and green light.
"I think that's the source" Megumi pointed at it. The two magi made their way towards the pulsing mass, going through a maze of parked excavating equipment. They had just gone around a bulldozer when an extremely ugly 3 foot tall creature stepped out and plunged a sword through Megumi's stomach.
Before it could pull the sword back out, Shirou's falchion came down in a diagonal slash, cleaving it in two.
"We need a medic in the garage, stat! Arthur - I need back up - Megumi is down!" Shirou yelled as he conjured a red limed black spear. As he transformed it into an arrow, the paper containing the black smoke began to fray, becoming old and ragged looking.
Shirou raised his bow and aimed at the heart of the glowing mass. Just as the black smoke burst forth, Shirou whispered "Gae Bolg!" and shot the noble phantasm at the heart of the spell.
CLANG.
It hit something solid, and the black smoke stopped moving, instead hanging lackadaisically in the air, even thinning a little.
Clunk.
Something dropped to the ground.
Shirou bent down to render aid to Megumi. Moments later Arthur ran in, and started a healing aria, covering the woman in a blue light. When the medic arrived, he switched to another spell, or tried to, but he stumbled over the words in his fatigue and the blue light disappeared.
Shirou projected Rule Breaker, and taking careful aim, threw it at the object that had fallen to the ground. On contact, there was a flash of light, and the black smoke vanished, revealing a large bronze scarab.
"GOT HIM!" came Tessa's exuberant voice "We surfaced behind him, and before he could recover from the shock of seeing a submarine rising out of the ground, one of our snipers took him out."
The medic who was working on Megumi turned to Shirou "I've stabilized her, but we need to med evac her asap."
"Tessa, can you bring the Danaan up inside the ravine? We have wounded."
"Oh" Tessa' voice lost some of jubilation, "No, not soon - The Tuatha de Danaan needs to turn around. Do you have enough prana to bring them through the reality Marble?"
"I think so" Shirou was not 100% certain that he did, but he wasn't going to let Megumi or any of his soldiers die if he could help it. "Surface the Danaan, and I will open a doorway." He then turned to the medic, "get a stretcher"
Shirou touched the transmission rune on his collar "Anybody who needs a med evac, meet up in the garage area."
"I am the bone of my sword" Shirou concentrated, so that he wouldn't slur any of the words. Arthur caught his shoulder when he started to sway. With a finally mental push, the doorway opened.
Soon, two wounded soldiers and Megumi (with her carriers) departed through the Reality Marble. With a sigh, Shirou released the spell. He then turned back to Arthur, who had been doing a magic inspection of the area.
"Ok, so what is this thing?" Shirou poked the cadaver of the short humanoid with his toe. "It's definitely not human"
Arthur nodded, "It looks like a goblin or a kobald - it's not from our reality. "
"Well, that explains what the Sealing Designate was doing here - both of those are subterranean races. He must have been creating an ideal environment for opening a doorway to an alternate reality.
*KoM*KoM*
Kaname wasn't certain what to think. Her world had been turned upside down: first being attacked by zombies on the way home from school. Then having a submarine surface in a parking lot, and now one of her classmates turned out to be an elite special forces soldier fighting for some organization. She wasn't clear what the fighting was about, something about hostages or slave labor or something. It had been a very long day.
"Excuse me, is Sousuke ok?" Kaname asked the silver haired woman. She was the most approachable of all the people on the Tuatha de Danaan, and it looked like the action was calming down, so Kaname saw an opportunity to ask after her classmate, who was her only link to her old life.
"Yes, Sgt. Sagara is fine" Tessa smiled, though it wasn't her usual smile, looking somewhat forced, "But there have been some injuries, so please stand aside here so that we can get them to the med bay quickly." As Tessa finished speaking, a dull red glow spread up from a mage's circle inscribed in the floor, on one side of the Exit bay.
Four soldiers staggered in, two of them carrying a stretcher with a fifth figure lying on it.
Kaname watched them race by in a fog. It didn't seem real. Magic. People fighting. People dying. And she still didn't know why she was here.
*KoM*KoM*
It was the evening on the following day. The Sealing Designate's laboratory had been secured, and the Chinese observers had been let off.
Shirou, Kalinin, Tessa, Kaname and Sousuke were all sitting in a briefing room, though Shirou looked exhausted to the point of collapse - between the fighting and the use of his Reality Marble, every last drop of his prana had been wrung out of him. He was half slumped, supporting himself by leaning his elbows heavily on the table.
"Ok, so what have we got here?" he asked, pointing to the bronze scarab.
"Arthur and I checked over this Mystic Code. It has a lot of characteristics in common with the grimoire from Germany. If I didn't know better, I would say that somebody is manufacturing these and handing them out." Tessa replied. She was sitting at Shirou's right side, and was looking with concern at him 'He needs to get some rest. he's going to hurt himself'
"Kaname, does this scarab feel in any way familiar?' Tessa had briefed the high schooler on what had actually happened in Germany, so she knew as much as anybody else in the room, even if she didn't quite understand it.
"No, not really. But I keep getting this feeling, that I should pull on the scarab or something." Kaname glanced at Tessa, "Is that some sort of magic?"
"Yes, but more than that, you seem to have some connection to this" added Shirou.
"What IS this?" asked Kalinin, "It's starting to feel like we have come across something much bigger than a couple of magi gone bad. I wonder what the cult in Germany had been trying to accomplish"
Tessa shrugged, and replied, "I am not certain - there weren't enough clues. I'm sorry" She looked embarrassed not to be able to help more.
Kaname looked at the group of people assembled, 'they don't look like hardened mercenaries, well except Andrei Kalinin. Tessa looks too shy and demure to be an officer. And Shirou doesn't look much older, though he's a good leader. But they are Magi. who knows how old they are? Maybe they just make themselves look like teenagers, but they are actually really old?' Kaname looked visibly disturbed by that thought, she turned to Sousuke, who was sitting stiffly next to her, and whispered, "You aren't a magus, are you?"
"No, ma'am" he replied, "Are you ok, Chidori-san, you look pale" he added. The other conversations paused as attention turned to Kaname.
"I.. I'm fine. It's just a lot to take in. and, the idea of wizards walking around, maybe shopping at the same store as me.. it's just so. so" She was at a loss for words.
"But, Chidori-san," replied Sousuke, his eyebrows beetling in confusion "You are a magus yourself."
"What?"
"Oh, did I forget to mention that?" asked Tessa with a gasp, "You are welcome to stay and I will train you in the basics of magic" Shirou nodded agreement
"No, I want to go back home, I have to go to school!" Kaname pronounced forcefully.
"We can't guarantee your safety if you do so," Kalinin replied.
"I don't care! I can't handle any more of this!"
There was a pause as they processed that statement, before Sousuke interrupted the silence, "Shirou-san, I can continue on as Chidori-san's bodyguard. She will be reasonably safe that way."
Shirou sighed, 'I am too tired to deal with all this. but we can't keep the girl as a prisoner. And I can understand Sousuke's desire to protect.' Shirou gave a small smile, 'he's a hero-in-training, after all'
He paused to think, and then nodded to Sousuke "Ok, lets go with that."
"Are you certain we can afford to detach Sousuke for a long term project like this?" Asked Kalinin
"Mithril was founded to protect people. I think this exemplifies our mission pretty well." His words came out slurred from fatigue. "Let's call it a day. We can discuss the rest tomorrow" He stood up, wobbling, and if Tessa hadn't steadied him, would have tripped over his chair.
"I'll walk with you" She said quickly.
As the two walked out of the meeting room, Kaname ran up, "Um, Testarossa-san, uhm, about me being a mage.. is there any way I can come back and learn about that from you, maybe over summer break or something. I mean, I don't want to impose, but I really need to go home now.."
Shirou interrupted, "I can send Megumi to give you a crash course. She's going to be off her feet for a couple of months while she recovers, and this will help keep her from going stir crazy."
"Oh, ok. Thank you!" beamed Kaname, before heading back into the meeting room
"You are really are very good at helping people" Tessa smiled up at Shirou.
END
Next chapter, we will see Rin again, and get a peek into her cute little manipulative head. ie why did she dump Shirou
Also, a guest appearance by another Fate / Stay character.
As always, reviews are appreciated.
