Title: Magic and Plasma (Not final)

Crossover universes: XCOM: Enemy Within and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha

Main characters cast:
XCOM: Commander Bradford, Shiro Takamachi
MGLN: Lindy Harlaown

Short summary:
When the Jewel Seeds end up on Earth nearly twenty years after the war with the Ethereal invaders they open the doors to the wide cosmos... And a huge can of headaches for those that believed themselves to be the biggest fish around. TSAB, meet XCOM. Play nice... If you can.

These are just loose scenes, in more or less chronological order.


"Raising Heart!"

"Set up!"

Those were the words that signalled a new beginning for Nanoha Takamachi. A beginning that would lead her to becoming the White Devil, the top ace of the Time and Space Administration Bureau who would prevent no less than three magical crises on Earth and Mid-Childa.

But that was another world, another universe entirely...

For in tnis universe what would have been Nanoha's first battle was interrupted by the sound of engines and the appearance of a massive VTOL aircraft.

The young girl recognized it immediately... It was a sight that everyone on Earth knew. A sight that put every human who deserved that title to ease.

An XCOM Skyranger...

The battle that followed after the six XCOM soldiers' disembarked from the dropship was anticlimatic. The beast went down after just a couple of shots from a Plasma rifle. So unlike the great firefights she saw in the documentaries and dramas about the War with the Ethereals...

Still, Nanoha was relieved by that. It meant that she wasn't going to have to fight the thing by herself.

Unfortunately, that also meant that she was surrounded by half a dozen XCOM soldiers

Doing the smart thing (and ignoring the ferret's frantic telepathic shouts) she dropped Raising Heart and let herself be taken into custody...


"Alright little guy..." Akane Kaede, chief of security in the Japanese XCOM base said as she put her palms on the table in the interrogation room and leaned forward. The target of her attention, a "telepathic ferret", as the Takamachi girl had called it, was placed in a cage and looking up at her. A casual observer would probably think that it was a simple animal.

The Psionic woman knew better. She could feel the intelligence inside the animal and there was no way she would think of it as anything but a threat.

"I know you're more than what you appear to be. So drop the pretenses and talk to me." She waited for a few seconds, watching the ferret as it continued with the charade.

"Alright then, I guess I'll leave you to the scientists." Akane pushed herself away from the table and turned around to leave. "I'm sure that they'll have a lot of fun cutting you open and seeing what makes you thick. I heard that they're going to reconstruct the old Alien Interrogation chamber so that they could poke your brain before that and see just what do you have in your head..."

The frantic chirping and telepahic push she felt on her mind that carried calls for her to wait made her smirk. It was easy to scare an alien that actually understood what you said...


"Thank you for coming, Takamachi." The Lieutenant-Commander in charge of XCOM's Japanese base said.

"Please, Kotone, just tell me what happened." Shiro Takamachi, retired Major of XCOM asked with worry evident both in his voice and on his plasma-scarred face. Less than an hour ago he had been called to the base he used to serve in during the War, without any explanation past "Your daughter is here".

"We're not exactly sure ourselves..." The L-C sighed. "First, let me reassure you that your daughter is safe. So far she has only been questioned and she has cooperated excellently... Your influence, perhaps?"

"Our society at large." Shiro replied. "Children nowadays look at us as heroes, saviors of the world."

"Aren't we just that?" Kotone asked, pausing to turn to his friend. "It was our efforts that saved Earth from the Ethereals. Brave men and women from all over the world that fought the aliens and succeeded in driving them off. And you were one of them, Shiro. You had... What? Twenty confirmed kills?"

"Twenty-eight before that Muton Elite got me." Shiro put a hand to the scarred left side of his face. The two men stood in silence for a few seconds as they remembered the horrors of the War...

"We got sidetracked." Shiro finally said. "Why is my daughter here? Did she turn out to be a Psionic or something?"

"She..." Kotone hesitated as he tried to think of how to explain the situation to one of his oldest friends and former comrade-in-arms. "She was caught on site with a new type of alien." Ignoring the horrified look on Shiro's face he continued: "A telepathic ferret, or so she and the chief of security claim."

"New infiltration unit?" Shiro asked as the two continued their trek through the base's corridors.

"Unknown. We're still interrogating it. Too bad we decommissioned our Interrogation chamber..."

"And Nanoha?"

"She's fine. We examined her, both physically and mentally." Kotone reassured Shiro again.

"When can I see her?"

"Right now, actually. This way." He waved Shiro deeper in the bowels of the XCOM base...


"Gentlemen, this new information is most disconcerting."

"Do you really believe this? A whole alien nation, spanning hundreds of planets and using an energy they call... Magic?"

"You forget the Psionics that both the aliens and Humanity possess. The first time those abilities were displayed in the field our operatives called it 'Magic'."

"Doctor Vahlen gave us a solid scientific theory behind the phenomenon."

"And the captured alien gave us a basic scientific theory behind their 'Magic'."

"Gentlemen, I would suggest that we postpone this discussion until Doctor Vahlen finishes her research on the subject."

"Vahlen's back in XCOM?"

"Of course. Both she and Shen jumped at the chance to pick apart more alien technology and sciences."

"This is all good, but we haven't addressed the main issue yet. Just how is it that all the aliens in that nations are... Humans?"

"I believe that we have all been avoiding that question."

"There is no answer to that question yet. Our only subject claims that he has no idea, and the Psionics that interrogated him confirmed that he was telling the truth."

"Gentlemen, I believe that we lack the necessary information to make a conclussion in this meeting. I would suggest that we wait until we have established contact with this 'Time and Space Administration Bureau' before we try to speculate on the genetics. For now I would like to put a proposal. I suggest that we increase the funding to the XCOM project. We should also prioritize the study of the alien devices we recovered, as well as the information gained from the captured alien."

"Proposal has been voted on and accepted."

"Excellent. I will inform Commander Bradford on our decision. If there are no more topics to be discussed then this meeting is concluded."


Bradford watched one of the base's screens which showed the spherical portion of the Hyperwave Relay Station spin faster. He remembered how more than ten years ago they captured the alien communication device and used it to detect the UFOs.

And now they were going to use it to find more alien artifacts... Doctor Vahlen had outdone herself, as usual, and discovered a unique energy pattern belonging to the Jewel Seed they had in their possession.

"Upgrades complete." A technitian reported.

"Initiating scan."

Bradford turned his attention to the hologlobe, the represtentation of Earth and surrounding space flickering occasionally.

"We're receiving new data."

A wave passed through the hologlobe as the new readings were added and it refreshed. A cluster of dots lit up and Bradford leaned against the safety railing.

"How convenient..." He muttered as the operators rotated the globe. "At least they're all in one area. But why Japan?"


Fate Testaserossa frowned. There was supposed to be a Jewel Seed here... Instead she found an empty field.

At least that's what she thought. Unfortunately she was far from the truth... And the girl didn't realize it before she was hit with enough electricity to bypass her Barrier Jacket's protections and leave her an unconscious, twitching heap on the ground.

"X-ray's tagged and bagged." The Ghost armor-clad soldier reported as he lowered the Arc thrower. "Tell Vahlen we've got a live one..."


The blaring alarm did something that hadn't happened in ten years... It made every XCOM soldier, scientist, engineer and other miscellaneous personnel in the base freeze in disbelief. They all knew what the alarm meant...

And they all hoped it was false.

"Unidentified flying object detected. All personnel, report to your stations. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill. Unidentified flying object..."

The voice that accompanied the alarm crushed that hope. But it also actedas a trigger, prompting everyone to spring into action.

Aliens were in orbit around Earth again... XCOM needed to prepare for their arrival.

The last time Bradford ran like this was eleven years ago, when the aliens attacked the central base in the United States. And he might have beat his record this time... Skidding to a stop in the Operations room he fought to regain his breath.

"Sir, we have a UFO in orbit above Japan." One of the radar operators reported without waiting for the Commander's prompting. "The Hyperwave Relay doesn't recognize the type, but the readings show that it's using energy similar to the one from the Jewel Seeds we recovered in Japan."

Bradford's mind raced at this new information. Unknown type of UFO, using the so-called 'magical' energy... He could bet his entire year's salary that the ship belonged to the TSAB or a similar organisation.

"Have they tried to contact us?" He asked and the operator shook his head.

"No, sir. So far they are only staying in geostationary orbit."

"Sir, we have requests for permission to scramble Interceptors and Firestorms from all over the globe." Another operator reported.

"Denied." Bradford quickly replied. "Tell them to hold back until I give the order or the alien ship tries anything." The operator nodded, turning around to transmit the orders to the Japan base.

"Redirect a satelite and give me a visual of the ship. Try to establish a communication channel." Bradford continued, ignoring the looks he got for that sentence. If these were TSAB personnel they might be willing to talk instead of just shoot as the Ethereals did.

"We have visual. Putting it on screen." All attention was directed to said screen and the image on it.

"This is definitely different than the Ethereal vessels."

"We have established an audio channel." The whole chamber quieted at the announcement. The veterans had flashbacks to the various vital points in the War. The first downed UFO, the alien base raid, the Exalt HQ raid, the first field deployment of various new technologies that made XCOM victorious...

"Patch me through." Bradford waited until the operator turned around and nodded.

"Unknown ship in orbit, this is Commander Bradford, commanding officer of the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit, Earth's defense force. Identify yourself and state your intentions. Failure to comply will be considered a show of hostility and we will reply with force."

The command chamber was silent as seconds trickled in. Bradford looked around, glancing over the various screens and taking in the information on them with ease born from years of practice. All bases had reported ready to launch fighters at a moment's notice and their strike teams were ready to be deployed. The whole hemisphere had anything capable of reaching that altitude pointed at the ship, including enough ICBMs to oblitherate the Eurasian landmass.

Some people might call it overkill. XCOM didn't know the meaning of that word, instead calling it insurance.

"This is Admiral Lindy Harlaown of the Time and Space Administration Bureau, commander of the TSABSS Arthra. We come in peace..." That line drew some snickers from the people in the chamber.

"Acknowledged, Admiral Harlaown. Please state your intentions."

"We are here on a retrieval mission, searching for artifacts of great value and danger. I'd prefer to give you any further details in person." Bradford had a good idea of the artifacts she was talking about... The Jewel Seeds that were in XCOM's possession.

"I believe that we can arrange a meeting. We will transmit a flight path and coordinates for a shuttle shortly." Of course, the place of meeting will be wide open, with no cover for the enemy and plenty of cover for Ghost armor-equipped soldiers to lay down fire from in case things went bad...

"I'm afraid that we do not have any shuttles, Commander." That paused his train of thought... "We can teleport to coordinates of your convenience if you so desire."

Bradford grimaced. Teleportation... That opened many options for the potential enemy to attack... And even one option was too many for XCOM. He could only hope that the anti-magic field that Vahlen was in the middle of developing would be able to keep the TSAB teleports out...

"We'll keep that in mind. Please maintain your current orbit. Deviations will not be tollerated." Bradford reminded them. He needed to show the TSAB that he would listen to them, but he won't be pushed around...


"With all due respect, Admiral..." Bradford began. "This ship is primarily a threat to Earth. I would prefer it if you allow us to take care of it. If you really want to help us then I wouldn't mind it if you help our soldiers board it."

Lindy thought over the proposal for a few seconds. The Commander was right, this was primarily Earth's problem... But he must have realized that he was sending his soldiers out to die! After all, for all their technology this Extraterrestrial Combat Unit lacked the magic power and science to counter Testaserossa's golems and any other weapons she had.

"It would ease my conscience if I sent at least a few battlemages in along with your forces, to counter any harmful magic."

"That would be unneeded." Bradford said, starting to seriously irk her. "They would only be a hindrance." That did it. Lindy was a patient woman, but the man had been gritting on her nerves for the last month, stopping her from doing her duty as an officer of TSAB and she was sick of it. She was going to allow the foolish action, but she would monitor his men and pull them out when things went bad for them.

"Very well. I'll prepare the telleportation chamber to receive your troops. Arthra out."

Bradford smiled. It was clear that the woman didn't take them seriously... But her opinion would change soon...

"Strike Teams One through Four, report for mission briefing. I repeat, Strike Teams One through Four, report for mission briefing."

It was time for the XCOM veterans to take to the field again and show the aliens just what was Earth capable of...


Admiral Lindy Harlaown stood in front of the commanding committee. She was called to deliver her report of the newest player on the interstellar field, the combat forces of Unadministered Planet 93, or Earth.

"My initial assessment of their capabilities has been wrong." Lindy stated. "At first I believed them a small threat, but after witnessing their actions on board the Garden of Time... I believe they're a serious threat."

"Admiral Harlaown, you mean to tell us that the armed forces of a single planet, one with limited space flight capabilities and little to no understanding of magic, is a serious threat to the Bureau?" One of the men asked with a raised eyebrow. "Surely you jest!"

"No, sir. If anything, I'm underestimating their capabilities..."

"Please explain, Admiral." Another man calmly requested.

"When I agreed to allow the organisation known as XCOM usage of the Arthra's teleporters I believed that I would have to call upon the battlemages under my command to assist them. I was mistaken. The twenty-four men and women that made the four Strike Teams were equipped with technology unlike anything I met during my career. I had seen examples of it during my visits to the planet's surface, but i hadn't witnessed it in action..." Lindy paused for a few seconds, recalling the events in her mind before continuing:

"As soon as the soldiers were deployed inside the Garden they used some kind of device to mask themselves from scrying. We didn't see a hint of their passing before they encountered the first guards inside the ship. The Golems didn't know what was happening before the soldiers struck, catching them in a crossfire from a number of vantage points. We were able to witness the rest of the combat and the recordings have been sent to you... Sir, the way they fought, it was ruthless and efficient beyond anything I've seen. Even trained Mages would have had trouble with the numbers that these soldiers mowed through with ease. And in the end they managed to capture the culpit behind this, without any casualties among their numbers..."

It was an abridged version of what happened, but there was a part of her that still refused to believe it. The rest of the story was in the reports she had filed... Though she had omitted a few details.

Like how one of the soldiers, a heavily scarred woman that carried one of the biggest and deadliest weapons she had seen in a human's hands, had remarked that this was the easiest boarding she ever did.

"I see..." The man from earlier said as he reviewed several moments from the footage.

"With all due respect, sir, but I don't believe that any demands for demilitarization will be met with a positive response." Lindy interrupted the discussion.

"What makes you think that, Admiral?"

"The planet's recent history, sir. I was given access to some public information, and I discovered that these people have a reason to be this militant." She said, trying not to scoff at the man. He would have known this if he had read her previous reports... And he wasn't the only one who didn't read them, as she had the attention of everyone in the room.

"Their planet was attacked by a hostile alien race just over ten years ago." She continued without prompting. "The organisation, XCOM, fought and drove them off. They're regarded as heroes by the general populace, 'Defenders of Humanity', as some call them. Asking for them to surrender what they believe keeps them safe will only alienate them."

"You have a point, Admiral." The man admitted. "The best course of action would be to work with these XCOM, guide them to becoming more... civilized. Thank you for your time, Admiral." The man nodded. "We will discuss this issue, as well as the others you brought to our attention. You are dismissed."

They had a lot to discuss... Starting with the issue of the custody of Precia Testaserossa, as well as the Garden of Eden... XCOM demanded for one of them to be handed over to them, citing various legal arguments...


Author's Note:

These are just scenes of this idea, showing the entire plot of the first anime as set in my view of the XCOM universe. I'm not sure what inspired me to write this in one sleepless night...

As usual with my crossovers, I add elements from one franchise and put them into the other before following the canon plot more or less losely up to a point. Then I completely derail the canon...

In this instance, you don't have underage girls fighting monsters and between themselves using magic. You have XCOM meeting TSAB and derailing everything. I personally believe that they would gather the Jewel Seeds quickly and study them, as well as Raising Heart and anything else they capture. The First Contact with TSAB would be tense, as I showed, and the following political maneuvering would be... Well, potentially disastrous might be a good term for it.

As you can see, the plot of the normal anime goes on quickly enough and ends more or less as in canon. The plot of A's would be drastically changed, maybe ending with the Wolkenritter becoming part of XCOM in exchange for Hayate being healed and the Book of Darkness getting its software debugged by Chen. As for StrikerS... Well, you can scratch that one out completely, since Nanoha won't be joining the TSAB. The spaceship might make an appearance though...

Replacing those would be the development of Earth and TSAB relations, the development of magical technology (and magical counters) for XCOM, things like that.

Maybe even the reappearance of the Ethereals and EXALT, which will make things very, very interesting. Especially for the TSAB, since I can guarantee you that it won't be Earth that's attacked... First, at least.

And here are a few possible new technologies for XCOM:

Magic Nullifying Field emitter: disrupt magic fields in their area of effect.

-Null grenades: disposable small-range MNF emitter.

Transporter platforms: allow for instantaneous point-to-point travel.

Magic power generators: take ambient mana and convert it into power. Can power magical devices, allowing them to work for non-mages.

-Mage module: an ofshoot of the Magic power generator that works as a battery for Mages, allowing them access to a greater Mana pool.

Barrier devices: extra layer of protection, like Nanofiber vest and Chitin plating.

Magic labs: allows testing of XCOM personnel for a Linker Core. Acts like the Psi labs.

-Warlock division: XCOM's Mages.

XCOM-made Devices would be simple and easy to produce in the beginning, without any limiters installed or at least they won't be used much. XCOM rarely goes "non-lethal", after all. Then they will be moving on to more powerful and personalized ones.