Credit to Iaculus for the name of the Guardian Beast, also for making sure it tied in the the Nanoha theme naming.
Ghosts
The awkward thing about walking around Bureau Headquarters was that everyone knew her name and her face.
The Bureau had fought the Book of Darkness six times in its history, seven if you counted the incident on Earth. The first had been a minor skirmish, as the Bureau fought very differently from Belkans and the Wolkenritter had not been able to adapt fast enough. It had caused the Bureau to underestimate them.
The next one had cost ten million lives and only ended with fourteen Bureau cruisers executing a close saturation bombardment against a berserk defense program, followed up with an an Arc-en-Ciel blast when the defense program showed signs of life after the bombardment was done.
Every incident after that had resulted in a massive door-to-door room-to-room manhunt and the immediate deployment of an Arc-equipped ship just in case. Even so there'd been another bombardment once.
So everyone knew what Signum looked like. Many of them had an uncontrolled, instinctual reaction to her, flinching when they realized who they were looking at, swerving hard to get out of her way. Some combat mages would go for their Devices and stop themselves in mid-movement.
She was remembered. And it pleased her that she was remembered in this way. Praise and respect offered by an enemy could be employed as a tool of manipulation. The fear of one's enemies was never anything but genuine. Not that they were enemies now, but they had been fairly recently.
A Knight would never be loved. Their training saw to that, and it was not their purpose. But the fear of their enemies...that was to be savored.
"What the hell?" Amy asked of no one in particular. The files she was looking at had just gone squirrelly. She pointed her assistant at a wall panel. "Pull the exterior connections." All computers in the team area passed through this place before they connected to anything outside it, physical security making it easy to ensure information security.
It didn't work. And that was when Amy Linetta got mad.
Chrono came back to his team area to find the airtight door that marked the boundary between Rapier and the rest Bureau Headquarters had been wedged open. It technically didn't violate any regulation or order to do that. On a warship, it would have been different, because a warship needed to be able to go to a battle-ready condition instantly. But on a space station, the rules were a little more flexible. Still...
Amy was waiting for him, and he noted that the lights were flickering oddly in some of the rooms, and many of the doors were also wedged open. "Something happened," Chrono observed.
"The computer is a bit of a wreck." Amy said. "My fault."
Chrono's eyebrows went up. "Explain."
Amy tapped her fingers together, looking somewhat worried. "We had an intrusion. Breaking the hard connections didn't stop it. None of the standard security and encryption measures stopped it. So I went with my final backup plan. I scorched the entire system. Scrambled the file structure and file names and data, it was quicker than deep deletion. I've got my assistant deleting everything so we can reinstall."
Chrono sighed. "Vita: Guard duty. No entry. Linetta: I'll need that decision properly justified in writing. I assume you've got everybody crawling conduits looking for taps."
"Yes sir." Amy said. Addressing her as Linetta was standard for an on-the-record conversation; officer to officer, last names. "Even drafted the cooking staff into it." The team had its own mess and a couple people to staff it who nominally fell under the jurisdiction of their supply officer. It was viewed as a security matter, the mess people needed the same security checks everyone else did since they might overhear things, so they were formally attached to the team as an easy way of doing it.
"All right." Chrono said. "Let me know the moment you find something. Or if you don't find anything."
Amy consulted a tablet-like object she was carrying. "Still negative. I'll have a final outcome in an hour, sir."
Vita, Chrono sent telepathically, I mean it. I don't care what happens or if it's Admiral Lowran, you knock somebody out before you let them in or out. And get their names if they try.
With pleasure, sir! Vita responded, and from the cheerfulness in her reply probably meant it. Chrono was still surprised at how easily Vita had taken to military speech patterns, something that Shamal and even Signum still seemed to struggle with a bit.
"Shamal. You're the scrying export. Work with Linetta, find out what's been searched and if there's anywhere people can't get normally that you could help her look." Chrono gave that order verbally, because nothing in it was likely to offend and because Amy hearing it as well would clear up confusion for any possible board of inquiry. Chrono half-expected one.
"Boss," Durandel said. "Admiral Lowran requests deployment readiness. Shall I inform her combat team only?"
It never just sprinkles, Chrono thought, but instead dumps great buckets on you...
"Reporting as ordered Admiral." Chrono had already had Amy file a preliminary report that explained why Vita wasn't present, and referred the Admiral to it when she asked. He'd had to pull Shamal back; he couldn't take both of them off the line.
She nodded and continued the briefing."Thirty minutes ago the Alphard arrived off the Gruyen Shipyards as scheduled for a refit. She hasn't moved or communicated since. Rear Admiral Indira requested your team by name, as she doesn't have any Mage Teams available in the event boarding the ship is required. Go there, report to Indira, and do what she says." Leti Lowran laid out his mission calmly. "Dismissed."
"The Eppys," Bureau shorthand for Exploratory Probes, trashcan-sized bundles of sensors and transmitters designed to teleported into potentially hostile environments before you sent in anything less expendable, "showed the crew is around. Most of them are roughly at their stations, but don't appear conscious. They may not be alive." The update was provided by some helpful, unknown commander who had so far been their guide.
"Drop us in the engine room and get ready to triage." Chrono replied.
A moment later, they were in Alphard's engine room. It was simple expediency; at any one time this would be where the largest concentration of the crew were. Chrono looked around. The room was full. Every station had been manned. Not a maneuvering watch. General quarters? The ship's sensors and other emissions had not been a mode that suggested that. Docking stations? Probably not manned before arrival, but possible. Atmospheric maneuvering, also possible. Chrono's analysis took him but a moment.
Zafira's nose wrinkled. "Bowels evacuated. All or nearly all of them." You didn't have to be Zafira to smell it, either, though perhaps you did to get an accurate judgment of how many. None of the Wolkenritter looked particularly pleased to be there, and they were all surprised Chrono somehow kept his game face in spite of the smell.
Shamal was sweeping the compartment, Klarer Wind playing out a couple of strands of green light. They snapped back into the rings after a minute. "No vital signs."
"Zafira-" Signum begain.
"The positioning," the wolfman agreed. "It's not right."
"Not consistent," Signum said. "They did not simply drop dead."
Chrono didn't see it. But he had little reason to doubt the Wolkenritter. "Shamal. Scry one for injuries but don't disturb the body."
"Single cauterized wound..." Shamal froze, and a moment later the three of them formed foursquare with Chrono, facing outward in all directions. "Single cauterized wound up from the neck to the brain stem, disrupting autonomic nervous functions, death instantaneous."
"Everyone?" Chrono asked softly.
"I've checked two more. The direction inflicted from changes, the wound characteristics do not."
The compartment door opened, and the Wolkenritter abruptly formed a wall in front of Chrono before he could see who opened it. There was a clash of metal on metal, and he had brief image of a man who resembled Zafira, no sideburns, taller, hair black.
"Pull!" Zafira barked a moment later, and they were teleported out and back to the station because of the prearranged codeword.
"What in the hell was that?" Chrono demanded.
"Scirocco. Leibgarde des Kaisers, a Guardian Beast. We have fought before." Signum said.
"The Kaiser's personal guard. You are certain." Chrono was not really asking a question, simply putting things on the record. Durandel was recording for posterity, as most Devices did in the time during and around a mission.
"Very." Signum said. Zafira and Shamal nodded agreement. "Zafira pulled us out because..." Signum paused, considered, and decided to be forthright. Chrono wasn't like any other master they'd ever had, and hopefully his ego wouldn't bruise. "Scirocco would very likely have killed you had we stayed. Shamal as well. Together, Zafira and I could hold him at bay. But only without distractions. The ultimate outcome is not predictable even then."
Chrono absorbed the statement quietly. Then, after a few seconds, nodded. "All right." He looked over as Rear Admiral Indira entered the room. "Admiral. The Alphard is at least partially under the control of a Belkan-era combat construct. We never made it out of the engine room, but the black gang," the Navy slang for engine room crew, going back to long before starships, "are all KIA. I can't confirm the status of rest of the crew."
"How do we get it out?" Indira was to the point.
"It took a minute to get to the engine room. We can probably run it to the far end of the ship and retake control of primary systems from the bridge." Chrono said. "Trap him with fields."
"This may work. The Bureau engaged in major upgrades to their ability to contain prisoners following the destruction of the Hestia. If they can contain us, they can contain him." Signum placed slight emphasis on the him. "The problem is Scirocco is a proper Guardian Beast, he is not autonomous. He will be able to demanifest and remanifest at the mage or magical power source that is sustaining him."
"Only a temporary solution. We need him off the ship." Indira said.
Signum frowned. Zafira provided the answer however. "Attempt to teleport him, he'll teleport himself first. He was literally designed to defeat single Wolkenritter or stand off a pair of them. We were the worst case scenario, after all, so the Kaiser's personal guards had to beat us."
"There is another option," Shamal said softly. "We have the Book of the Night Sky..."
Chrono became deathly still for several seconds and turned to stare at Shamal. "Are you suggesting we take his Linker Core? Or attempt to trap him inside the Book? Are either of those possible?" His voice was very quiet. The Wolkenritter hadn't heard him speak like this before, and his having cut off the link left them without clues or cues.
"Yes." Shamal was quick to answer. They knew, at least, that hesitancy was not a trait Chrono considered useful.
"As the master of the Book, I am ordering you: neither of those things is to be attempted without my express verbal consent." Chrono's tone was considerably more harsh than normal. Shamal actually even cringed as though Chrono had struck her. They were used to his fairness, even kindness.
Chrono closed his eyes a moment and opened the link to the Wolkenritter long enough to apologize. "Is there any chance Scirocco can be talked down?"
"Perhaps if he saw anyone but us." Zafira replied.
Chrono had been afraid of that. The Wolkenritter's reputation as the nightmare scenario was bound to have the effect of escalating situations. "And no one else is likely to survive to speak to him." He looked to Admiral Indira. "I should point out that trapping someone inside the Book has proved to be a temporary measure in the past. I could also recall the last member of my combat team, but I expect that we would not manage to subdue the target without inflicting lethal injuries even so."
Admiral Indira nodded. "Bring in whoever you need. Try to talk him down. If you can't, take whatever measures are necessary to neutralize Scirocco and preserve the safety of your command. Try not to blow up the ship, but repairs are preferable to lives lost."
"Understood, Admiral." Chrono tapped his earpiece and waited for it to sync with the comm stations and teleport stations across the many lightyears and relays to Vita's position. "Vita. Tell Linetta to lock the door, and get out here." Vita's reply took a few moments to come back, and Chrono nodded. "Acknowledged." He turned to Admiral Indira. "Ten minutes Admiral."
"Talk him down if you can. If he doesn't start talking to you, or if he stops..." Chrono took a deep breath. He'd used lethal force before. He'd even killed; three people, to his knowledge. But he had never given orders that could result in someone's death before. And he wasn't so naive as to pretend a construct wasn't a life. He'd learned better from time spent with Arf. "If he won't talk or stops talking...Shamal, take his Linker Core." Chrono paused.
The Wolkenritter changed clothes. Their Barrier Jackets morphed and flowed, each of them becoming the black longcoat and black clothing of a Navy combat mage's Barrier Jacket. It was a calculated maneuver, Scirocco might recognize it, and the uniform granted them legitimacy to speak for those who had mandated it. Chrono gave them a long look and for just a moment the link was open.
He was proud. They could feel his pride, to see them in that uniform, in his uniform, and his pride to know that such as they were his team, that such as they would given to him, would follow him. Hayate had been their mother and shown pride as such. They had loved her for it. But in the backs of their minds remaind the knowledge that they were not children. They were warriors. And Chrono took pride in them as warriors.
With lives that had been devoid of such praise, it was intoxicating. Signum stood a little straighter as she outlined their plan. "Vita, myself, and Zafira will go to main embarkation. This is an L-class ship, we know the layout well, there is plenty of room in the main teleport staging area to have a battle and few critical systems to damage. Rein and Shamal will go to the bridge once Scirocco engages. It will be distant enough for safety."
Chrono nodded. "All right. Make it happen, Lieutenant."
And while the rest was not easy, it was straightforward and accomplished without any unexpected difficulty or serious injury.