Chapter 16: Opportunity

It wasn't.

Jon felt them slowing down, but didn't have to address it. Riley barked into the line before he could, "Paul!"

"It's at full power!" came Paul's reply. "My instruments say that we should be going at full speed!"

"We're barely crawling!" Riley said.

Naomi had risen and was looking at one of the view screens, typing quickly as she changed the view on it a few times. She was frowning. "Something…" she trailed off, then she made a few more keystrokes before sending an image to the primary screen int he com room. Jon looked at it, and then squinted. Was that dimensional space… folding?

Suddenly his eyes widened and he cursed in as many ways as he could think of.

"Captain?" Riley asked after he finished his outburst.

Jon tossed in one more curse for good measure. "They're using something to keep us from getting too far away." Naomi nodded beside him.

"Earth… maybe it's gravity-based?" Paul mused.

"It doesn't matter what they're using," Wendy said from her corner, her voice uncharacteristically grave. "We have to do something about it." She started to undo her restraints.

Jon turned to Ifil, who shook his head. Jon nodded. "Paul, Riley, and Ifil are staying here. Wendy, Naomi, and I are going to have to make an attempt to board them and—"

"Captain, do you think that's the right move?" Riley said, dubious. "We might be able to do something about it without risking two very precise teleports."

"Naomi can make the teleports," Jon said, getting a reassuring nod from Naomi. "And I don't feel all that confident about getting into a dogfight with a ship that has enough control of an element to cause something like this."

"You don't know what you need to destroy while you're there, though—" Riley objected.

"This is the right move," Wendy said.

"There's a Master and Servant! There's an Agent! The three of you can't take on the three of them alone!"

"The Master was injured, and hopefully the Agent spent a lot of his mana fighting earlier. If we're going to have a chance, we're going to have to go now. Riley, stay mobile as much as you can. Paul, stamina over speed until we get back. Ifil…" Jon trailed off. He didn't want to give this command.

"There's no choice, Captain," Ifil said. "We have to do it, and I'm too injured to go with you. We have to buy time somehow, particularly when we don't know what this… weapon will and won't let us do."

There was a pronounced silence, which Jon finally filled with a sigh. "Fine. Naomi, get started. Get us as close to the engine as you can."

Naomi nodded and started the process.

Jon closed his eyes and readied himself. "Mil! Startup!"

Red light alternated with white on the bridge, with the ALERT indicator blinking on several screens. "Contact! The other ship has come around! It seems to be chasing the first!"

Shari made a sound of pure disbelief. "Is… is that elemental?"

"Can you confirm which ship is the one containing the group that we have been working with so far?" Admiral Tiran asked, casting a glance back at Fate before looking at the viewport in front of them again.

Fate nodded, and then quickly highlighted the Silver Blur, and labeled it as such. "Admiral, this seems to be an issue between the two of them. I recommend not getting involved."

The admiral stared at the screen as the ships got closer — and more importantly, as the projectiles got closer. Finally, he said, "Helm, prepare for immediate departure on my word, or evasive action as you deem necessary. Let me know when ready. Communication, I need a broad spectrum outgoing message: cease all fire immediately."

"Ready right now, Admiral!" came the immediate call from the helm. Shari and the on-ship communications officer were typing furiously before the officer said, "Ready to send. I'll send it on all of the TSAB approved frequencies, Fineio, you have the frequencies that… they might use?"

"On it!" Shari said. "Go ahead and send yours, mine will be out in a moment." And moments later it was done.

The Silver Blur started to slow down, but the other ship seemed to not be affected at all, still firing projectiles that were starting to get uncomfortably close. The admiral apparently thought it was close enough. "We're leaving. Helm! Retreat at once."

Fate felt the familiar kick as the Dimensional Ship Hermes engaged the engine to the propellant… but it slowed down almost immediately. "Status report?" the admiral barked.

"I don't know what's preventing us from moving, but the engines are engaged at full back toward the nearest point in TSAB space!" the helm reported.

Fate frowned. That wasn't something she would be able to help with. She looked over at Shari, who was white as a ghost. Fate's eyebrows rocketed into her hairline. "Shari," she said quietly, "what has you so worried?"

But Shari answered with a report to the admiral. "Admiral, it appears that the unknown ship is attempting to capture the Silver Blur in a wide — very wide — angle tractor beam. We appear to be caught in it as well—" she cut off as the ship was struck with one of the projectiles, causing a rumbling below them, and a slight jerk in their seats.

"Indirect impact to the lower hull on starboard bow! Fully mitigated by defenses!"

Fate cringed. Of course they were hit by stray fire. Of course. What she wouldn't give for Hayate or Chrono to be there.

But the commanding officer present was Admiral Tiran. Fate was nominally second-in-command for certain situations! That didn't really make her feel any better about the way that the event had gone south. The admiral barked out orders. "Helm, take us out of the line of fire as much as you can. Engineering, deploy battle conditions and prepare to charge the Arc-en-Ciel. Enforcers! Is there anything we can do about the tractor beam you were talking about?"

Shari bit her lip. "I… I don't know. Sir."

Fate started, an idea hitting her like a car accident. "Would it help to be on their ship?" she asked.

"Are you suggesting a boarding action, Enforcer?" the admiral asked.

"I'm bringing it up as an option, sir," Fate said, still looking at Shari, who was still chewing on her lip as she stared at her screen.

Finally Shari slowly nodded — as another impact shook the ship — and said, "I think I could at least identify it for you. We'd probably have to destroy it though; I don't think I'd be able to safely shut it down."

"Helm! How are those evasive maneuvers coming?" the admiral asked.

"It would be better if they weren't firing at us now, sir!"

Admiral Tiran turned back to the corner where Shari and Fate were sitting. "I don't want to fire the Arc-en-Ciel; at this angle there's too much of a likelihood of affecting the world. It seems like the boarding action is our best bet. How soon can you three deploy?"

"Sixty seconds, sir," Fate said, calling up a window down to where Teana was resting. "Prepare to deploy immediately." She shut the window immediately after Teana smoothly rose to her feet and saluted in one motion.

"I need accurate coordinates and heading of that ship!" Shari called down the bridge as she prepped the teleportation. Fate calmly locked her console and stood before walking over to the teleportation pad in the back of the bridge.

"Bardiche, Set Up."

"Yes, Sir. Set Up: Assault Form." The familiar weight of her barrier jacket replaced her on-ship uniform, and stood in an easy ready pose. Thirty seconds later, Teana arrived, barely winded, fully set up.

Ten further seconds and Shari hit a few buttons with finality. "We're ready for teleportation. Keep the lock on there!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Shari hurried over to the other two, pulling out her own personal device. "Are you sure you need to come?" Fate asked quietly. "There is likely to be significant resistance, and I can always send pictures back —"

"We're having trouble getting visual into the enemy ship," Shari replied at the same volume. "I don't want to risk you being in there without any ability to communicate quickly. Plus Bardiche helped me out with a panic retreat into my storage device."

"Get Set." Fate couldn't help but crack a bit of a smile at her device. Of course he did.

The three of them stood in formation; Fate in front with Teana to her left, and Shari behind the two of them. Fate looked up at the admiral, who had turned his chair around. "Ready for deployment, Admiral."

"Deploy, deploy, deploy."

"Coordinates… set! Engaged!"

Fate felt the world around her spin and then suddenly change.

Thankfully, Jon, Naomi, and Wendy appeared in what was apparently a galley kitchen. There was only one soldier there, and his surprise was plenty for Naomi to have him down and out before even Wendy had brought her PMD to bear. John peeked around the corner into the hallway, but didn't see anyone. "So we're in," he said with barely any volume. "Do you have any idea what we should go for?"

"If the elemental engine is what is letting them do all of this," Wendy said at the same volume, "then disabling that will be enough, plus—"

"—they won't be able to follow," Jon finished. "We'll go with that. Do you know which way is to the engine, Naomi?"

Naomi pointed.

Jon nodded to the both of them. "Let's move."

Naomi ran ahead of the others, somehow not making any noise on the metal floors. Wendy was almost able to keep up, but Jon had to move much more slowly in order to not make any appreciable noise. Not that it mattered. With the ship on such high alert, it was really only a matter of time until they were discovered. And as the extremely tense seconds passed, Jon got a feeling of foreboding. It only took the three of them three minutes to enter the engine room. But, of course, waiting for them there was the Master and Servant. Jon muttered his very favorite swear under his breath. Talk about worst-case scenarios.

The Master had the creepiest grin on his face possible, and a very image-jarring bandage where Enforcer Harlaown's blow had gotten him. The Servant jumped into action immediately, sliding forward at incredible speed and calling her Nightblade into existence in the same smooth motion that Jon had seen plenty of times. And Naomi met her stride for stride before the pair of disparate blades met in an impossible to ignore crackle and shower of black and white sparks. Jon brought his own PMD to bear as Wendy charged forward, firing three shots he knew would do no more than inconvenience the man to at least keep him from being able to solely focus on Wendy's attack. Unfortunately, he seemed perfectly able to parry away Wendy's charging strike, and then the counterattack was enough that Wendy took a hit on the shoulder. It didn't seem to get through her Barrier Clothing, but it certainly wasn't a good sign. "Snipe." Jon could take a moment to line up his shots just so, to at least give Wendy a fighting chance.

That's when he heard the noise behind him.

A quick glance confirmed his worst fear: the Agent had entered the engine room and shut the door behind him. "I'm going to enjoy this, Harlian," the Agent said, licking his lips and pulling out his own PMD. Jon turned and backed up to a wall so that he could see both the Agent and the Master. Without sniper support, Wendy was not sufficient to face off against a Master. And there was no one else to deal with the Agent, since Naomi and the Servant were canceling each other out as usual. He would just have to work with what he had. "Wendy! If you have anything to spend, spend it!" he called, pulling his weapon back and forming the bayonet just in time to parry away the quick charging attack from the Agent.

Turning, firing, then turning back to parry, and jumping or sliding to his next position was tiring. He couldn't save anything for later, he or Wendy had to take one of the opponents down immediately, or he was going to quickly tire. He was honestly surprised when he and the Agent passed by the Servant and Naomi fighting that he had been keeping it up long enough to cross the engine room. But of course, that's when his luck ran out. He was a hint too slow coming back around to the Agent to parry his blow, and didn't realize that the Agent hadn't been aiming for a strike on Jon's body or Barrier Clothing or whatnot. He was aiming for Mil.

A loud crack sounded and Mil was wrested from Jon's hands. The Agent's grin somehow got wider as he pulled his PMD up into an overhead swing that would probably cleave Jon in two. Jon closed his eyes as the weapon started its downward fall. At least his end would be quick.

But another noise immediately caused Jon's eyes to fly right back open to see Enforcer Lanster blocking the sickle-like magical blade with a pair of her own orange dagger blades crossed in front of her. She grunted as she pushed the Agent back and then slashed to get further space. "I wasn't expecting to see you here, Harlian!" she said, a bit of a grin on the look she shot him.

"Harlian, where'd you get these three chickies?" the Agent asked. He had stepped back to regard the newcomer Enforcer. A quick glance confirmed that Fate was also there… and was that their engineer? Odd. Jon slowly reached down to pick up his PMD. "You always seemed to need girls, but this is getting ridiculous," the Agent continued.

Jon blinked. Had he encountered this Agent before? They all ran too much together in his head. "They're not in my crew."

"If they're not in your crew, why are they helping you?" The Agent leered. "You always knew how to pick 'em."

What the…

"You have fired on a TSAB vessel," Enforcer Harlaown intoned, taking control of the conversation, "As we would prefer to not obliterate you with our ship's weapons, we have boarded you in accordance with our laws."

"Your laws don't mean squat in Alliance dimensional space, chickie," the Agent replied. "But if it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get!" And then he charged, right at the engineer. Jon would never get there in time.

Fate interrupted him before he had even gotten halfway, the golden scythe blade of hers meeting his own blade in a sudden panicked swipe. The Agent jumped back, and Fate pointed her PMD at him. The PMD spoke, and then became a large sword that Fate added her other hand to the hilt. "Shall I take this one, Harlian? You said these 'Agents' were Enforcer equivalents."

Once he confirmed Jon fired some shots at the Master to keep him away from Wendy while she breathed heavily and then thought for a moment. The elder of the two Enforcers was good enough to bring the Master to heel rather quickly. "Can I have your partner for help on the Pair?"

Fate shook her head. "Not in full. Her primary duty will be to protect Shari."

"Fire support?"

"I can do that!" Enforcer Lanster said.

"Gun Mode."

Jon nodded. "Keep him hopping. You don't need to hit him; just make sure you and Wendy keep him from interfering with your partner or me." And then he turned his attention to Naomi's duel, which had continued completely unabated during all of the discussion around them and sighted up. He didn't know when he would be able to get a chance. He only knew what to look for. A long-standing plan that he and Naomi had come up with gave him a possible shot. But as much as Wendy and the Enforcer could keep the Master out of it, he was probably only going to get one shot at this.

So he waited.

Gold met Silver repeatedly, three clashes before separating, and then coming together again for two more. After getting over his surprise at Fate's speed, the 'Agent' seemed to settle into a battle lust of some sort, and started to show his abilities. He used very little finesse; he apparently had the power that he didn't have to care about a lot, but he didn't take chances with Bardiche. Perhaps he knew of the injury she had inflicted on the 'Master' previously. It didn't matter; it only meant that she was being taken seriously.

Or so she thought.

"What's a bird like you doing fighting us?" he said, and Fate got a clean look at his leer before she pivoted decisively to the left and could no longer see the front of her adversary. The Agent was able to bring his weapon to block Fate's follow up attack somehow and even chuckled. "I do like a feisty one, so it's not like I mind you can fight."

So, not that serious at all. Fate continued to feel out the man's strength, but it didn't seem like she was getting a good idea of his skill, since it was clear that his primary goal was to leer at her every time their blades came together. "I am an Enforcer with the Time Space—"

"I'm not interested in your fake identity, lass," her opponent cut her off both with words and with a swipe at her head. Bardiche met the attack easily, but it did prevent Fate from pressing him with a stronger offense. "I've heard it all. What I haven't seen before, though, is a woman like you knowing how to fight."

"Interesting," Fate replied, feeling her features harden. "Of the five women fighting in this room, I do believe you've seen three of them fight before."

"Servants don't count, they're not even human," the Agent said flippantly. "And Harlian's bitch is well known. And well known to be completely off her rocker. But you seem sane." He made a show of glancing down at Fate's chest. "And certainly more than she."

It was difficult for Fate not to roll her eyes, but she managed. "So you don't actually care where I come from, and who I represent."

"I told you, your lies—"

"You keep assuming I'm lying."

"All women lie; it's as easy as breathing. I'm just hoping to get a bit of truth out of you."

"How pathetic," Fate said.

"Hmph. We'll see what you can do, then, chickidee," the Agent said, and pressed a… slow attack. "I want to see you broken before I make you regret your choices here." Fate continued to easily block his attacks. Was this really all that he was capable of? No, there was no way, given Harlian's accurate assessments of everything she had been able to confirm so far, and the fact that the Agent had managed to defeat Harlian but for Teana's timely intervention. Well, if he wasn't going to take her seriously, then she would only probe him for a bit - lull him a bit further - and then take him out.

The Agent continued to press his less than fully serious attack on her as she went with the very basic of basic blocks without countering except in the largest of holes, and only enough that she knew that he'd be able to block in turn. She could hear Nanoha's voice chastising her technique in her head, even if she would probably approve of the feint that Fate was planning.

Suddenly, he pressed his attack faster and Fate was forced to reveal a bit more of her competency in swinging Bardiche around to prevent his own Device from cutting into her gut. The Agent let out a gutteral laugh. "That's more like it, girl. I do want you to make it interesting. That will make it all the more sweet when I am able to cut you down and make you my own!" And the device moved just a bit too far out of the way on his back swing.

There it was.

Fate narrowed her eyes. Bardiche, as was his pattern, read her intentions instantly, and shifted forms. She jumped, powering the jump with her flight so that she cleared her enemy's height to jump right over him, and swung down with the sword-like golden blade and struck true. The Agent crumpled, with a satisfyingly shocked look on his face, overwhelmed by the magical power in Bardiche. Bardiche shifted back into Assault Form as Fate landed and checked to make sure that the Agent was down for the count.

This was it. This was the opportunity that he and Naomi had been looking for ever since they had met. The very thing that drove Naomi's own wishes beyond her loyalty and gratefulness to Jon. The problem was that there was no way to know where the mechanism was.

Naomi and Jon had managed to find a few Master and Servant pairs in their travels, but generally hadn't gotten all that close. But what they had gleaned was obvious: none of them were wearing anything on their wrists. The Servant that was locked in single combat with Naomi was no exception. Just the tunic that they all wore. Was the item under the tunic somewhere? Perhaps, but he wasn't about to get enough time to strip search the girl. Ignoring the fact that Harlaown and her crew would likely chastise him at best, and he would lose his best allies in this situation at worst, that option was probably not possible in the first place even with all of the help he had. So he had two possible avenues: He could either manage to kill the Master and see if that would be sufficient to free the Servant from his clutches, or he could wait and watch for something to be out of place just a little bit and take the shot.

Both options had merit. Killing the Master was particularly tempting in this case because he didn't think there would be another time where the Master was both wounded and had no place to retreat to. That plus the additional firepower of Enforcer Lanster was enough for Jon to seriously contemptlate the option.

But in the end, it just wasn't his style. A little move here, a lift of a wallet there, some social engineering there. His team could fight, yes, but sometimes the best tools were the subtle ones, like a single well-placed shot. Something that would be so sudden that if he did it right, there would be nothing that the Master would be able to do about it.

Jon held Mil such that he was aiming at the Master, but kept his finger outside of the trigger guard. While he absolutely could and would take potshots, that's what he had asked Enforcer Lanster to do, and she was doing it exactly the way he wanted her to. While keeping her charge - the engineer, who was still doing something to the engine - covered, Lanster kept firing magical shots at the Master aimed merely at keeping him from focusing entirely on Wendy. Wendy took full advantage of this to keep up with the Master's quick movements, but the result looked merely like a stalemate. Probably not something that would last forever. He couldn't just let this fight continue forever. He had to find something.

And suddenly, it opened right up to him.

The Master parried away one of Wendy's strikes with a furious look and a dismissive gesture, and then brought his other hand around for an attacking strike away from the Enforcer, giving Lanster no clear shot. Jon had one, but it looked like the two Swordswomen were passing in front of him such that the shot might go through Naomi. But that wasn't the only way he could shoot quickly. "Naomi!" he shouted, just as he adjusted his aim and fired.

"Snipe."

Naomi, as if she had read his mind, shifted just in the way he wanted her to, basically asking her opponent to aggressively press the attack further. The Servant complied, pushing her sword through the gap and opening a shallow gash in Naomi's side before she was able to knock the midnight blade away. But this success required the Servant to put her body in the way of Jon's shot instead of Naomi's. Jon's shot went right through the Autoguard from the Servant's special PMD and pierced through her shoulder. But that wasn't the true success of the shot — that was saved for the fact that the Master didn't realize that the trajectory changed slightly from going through the Servant's body at an angle, going from a gut shot to snapping his wrist in two.

The Master's mouth opened in what probably would be a scream of pain in a normal person, but no noise emitted from his throat. The distraction was plenty for Wendy to press he own attack and slice off the man's other hand, but Jon's attention went instead to the Servant, who had stiffened, and clearly not because of the injury she had. She blinked, staring at Naomi, and if Jon hadn't been looking for it, he realized that the color of her blade had faded just slightly from midnight black to matte black.

Naomi dismissed the blade from her PMD and threw her arms around the Servant, who accepted her hug with her own dismissal. Jon's hearing was just keen enough to catch the Servant's question. "Where am I?"

"Come with me, and I'll tell you everything," Naomi quickly muttered, and the Servant nodded.

Jon glanced at the Master, who was out prone. Wendy looked up when she noticed that Jon was looking. She shrugged. Jon, however, kept his eyes roving. The Enforcers and their engineer were still tinkering on the engine, though Lanster was keeping an eye on the… former… Servant just in case. "Uh, Harlian?" Lanster said. "Is… that normal?"

"Nothing is really normal when it comes to Masters and Servants," Jon said, "but Naomi and I have some experience with them. By all means, don't lower your guard yet. I don't think we're out of the woods quite yet."

"Ah, you always were a tough cockroach to squish, Harlian," came the expected voice.

"Horace. I always knew you didn't like me, you know," Jon said, glancing up at the message screen that somehow held Horace's ulgy mug.

"If you knew, then why did you ever take my jobs?"

"Your money is as good as anyone else's in keeping me in the black. Why else does anyone take any job?"

There was a moment of silence as Horace's unimpressed look held, and then gave as Horace shook his head. "I always knew you were crazy." There was a click from the door to the engine room. Wendy and Jon exchanged looks before looking at Horace. "I don't need to come in there to kill you." A hissing sound came from the engine itself, causing Jon to spin around. Some sort of smoke was coming from the engine. He felt himself tense. How was he going to get out of this one, again?

"Got it!" the engineer cried, apparently oblivious to the conversation that was happening behind her. "We're going to have to destroy it, though."

"What?!" Horace cried.

"We're going to have to be ready to leave immediately," the engineer continued, looking at Harlaown. She spared a glance for Jon. "Get ready to get out of here, if you can."

He didn't have to be told twice. "Naomi! Wendy! To me! Naomi, prepare teleport!"

"You can't escape! All outgoing teleports are being blocked; unless you'd rather die out in the vacuum in multiple pieces, you're going to have to remain right where you are," Horace growled.

"The block is coming from the engine itself," the engineer said. "Fate, do it like this on the count of three, and I'll pull this and it should, ah, explode."

Horace's face was getting redder and redder, but Jon didn't think that their position was much better than his. "Naomi…"

"It will be fine," Naomi said. He hoped so.

"Go as soon as you see the spark, okay?" the engineer said, and seemed to be satisfied with Naomi's nod. "Okay, three, two, one…"

"NO!"

"Go!"

Jon closed his eyes.