Turning Points

by Silveus

In the future, Nanoha and Company lead the TSAB as they track down the most Powerful Lost Logia in existence, but how did things end up this way, story examines the turning points they lead to the largest Inter-dimensional conflict ever.

3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

September 22nd 2045

Corporal Joanne Gordon was fascinated by the concept of "Luck," There were ideas in the Magical Theories community that claimed that "Luck" was Probability Altering Field that people can instinctively create in themselves, to varying degrees of success. Others think that "Luck" involves using small fields subconsciously to make "Luck" happen, such as moving just slightly faster so that your hand grabs the coin while it is still heads up. Joanne has followed the reports and debate earnestly, because both options led to fascinating conclusions.

If people could use magic to alter probability instinctively, that that should also mean that with training they could learn to do it at command, the possibilities were endless. And if people are subconsciously forcing events to happen, that sheds light on the untapped potential of people everywhere.

With understanding and practice, with control, people could learn to reduce their "Bad Luck."

But there was another theory she was interested in, the idea that "Bad Luck," wasn't an aspect of luck at all. When a person has a bout of misfortune, it's actually a "Luck" face off with another person, and that person just had more or better "Luck" than the looser.

But an Even more obscure theory states that all luck is "Good Luck" because even when we don't "Win," the "Loss" that we get instead is actually better for you.

Joanne liked that last theory. It made it seem like some kind of cosmic force, fate perhaps, watches everyone and guides them towards the best outcomes.

So Joanne strongly believed that her current state of affairs was, contrary to what almost everyone else believed to be, was in fact, "Good Luck"

Over 10 years ago, Joanne has just finished primary school, and with her impressive magical powers, she was already ranked C- class with no training at age 18, she was considering a career with the Allied States Navy. It was even possible that she could become a Striker. But she was torn; she also had found a calling in magical research. She deeply enjoyed coming up with theories, refining them, and then trying to prove them.

So she had flipped a coin.

She eventually was accepted into one of the best universities on Oridian and majored in Theoretical Magic; she then went on to specialize in Theoretical Field Research. After she graduated at one of the top students in her class, she got an internship as a renowned research lab. Eventually her internship became full time employment and for 2 years she worked as a researcher along with some of the greatest minds in the Allied States. Life was a joy, everyday spent hypothesizing and theorizing, and then pitting those ideas against reality. She loved researching, but at the back of her mind, she always considered what it would be like to be a soldier instead; to instead deal with the practical side of magic instead of the theoretical.

So, three days ago, when it was discovered that a massive TSAB armada was approaching Oridian, and she was conscripted into the military, she kind of considered it to be, "Good Luck"

When she was drafted they had reevaluated her magic talents, and she had been ranked as B+ class. She was given the rank of Corporal and considered as a Striker. She was happy to get a chance to try the practical side of magic, and to make a difference in the here and now. And Joanne was proud to serve her country, she would be fighting to protect over 700 years of democracy and freedom; she just wished it was under, better circumstances.

Before she had been conscripted, the Allied State Navel forces had withdrawn from the planet, they were not strong enough to fight the TSAB, so rather than sacrifice themselves in a fruitless defense, they fell back to form up with other ASN forces. Unfortunately, all that left behind to defend Oridian was the automated defense network of weapons satellites in orbit. While the defense net was large and each satellite was equipped with a powerful long range medium cannon along with some point defense and a short range missile pod, in reality, they were no match against dedicated warships. They were designed to augment a defensive fleet, not operate on their own. They would likely do nothing to halt the TSAB's attack, which meant that when the ground battle happened, the TSAB would have complete orbital superiority, which Joanne reminder herself, they had had for all other ground invasions anyway. So in hindsight, it was probably better that the ships had retreated.

The speed of the TSAB advanced after they had halted their attacks at the end of August had caught the ASN command off guard. The ASN was falling back to only a few defensive positions at the absolute limits of their territory. They were giving up the less defendable positions to stall for time while they fortified their last few bases and waited for another nation to get their forces here to help. Joanne was no military strategist, but she had noticed a definite shift in policy after the Battle of Taleron, but the ASN press office had immediately released a statement saying that the defenders had fought valiantly, but ultimately had been destroyed while dealing significant damage to the TSAB fleet, and that the 6 Fleet Admirals, despite reports to the contrary, were not on the station when it was attacked.

So the strategy on Oridian was, "Survive until help arrives," and Joanne wasn't a big fan of it. But she had to admit that they seemed to be in a good position. The real problem was the complete lack of any intelligence on the TSAB's ground war capabilities. Once they enter orbit, they cover the planet in a scrambling field and blocked all outbound transmissions. For all the ASN knew, there were multiple planets still holding out against the TSAB forces.

In fact that scrambling field was one of the biggest problems that had to be dealt with. It will interfere with planet based communications, making contact between different forces impossible, and the ground based sensors would not be able to accurate view the TSAB forces in orbit.

Eventually command had settled on what was being called "The Turtle Defense Plan." All military forces would occupy 4 separate cities situated on opposite sides of the planet, this would force the TSAB to split up their forces and prevent them from using one massed attack. The cities were all in defendable location with some form of strategic value. The soldiers would dig in and fortify themselves as much as possible. Each force was given a few large scale Anti-ship ground based cannons, weapons platforms designed to attack capital ships in the upper altitudes, some heavy dome barriers, and a few large scale shield generators.

The idea was that the barriers and shields would defend against artillery bombardments, strike craft, and if the TSAB brought their ships planet side to assist their ground forces, the shields would hold them off long enough for the Anti-ship cannons to take them out. The TSAB forces would be forced to make a ground attack without any real support, and the Allied States forces could use their own artillery and planet based strike craft to hold them off.

After being briefed on this plan, Joanne had spotted a big weak point and had brought it up during the meeting. The plan offers no defense against an orbital bombardment by heavy weapons. The captain in charge of the meeting had laughed at her when she spoke up and promptly explained why an Orbital attack was not an issue.

During the last Lawful Use of Weapons in Warfare Summit back in 2036, it was reaffirmed that orbital bombardment of a planet was an A class War Crime, to orbitaly attack a civilized area increased that to a S class war crime. Since the first Lawful Use of Weapons in Warfare summit in 821, over 1200 year ago, there have been less than 10 incidents where a planet was attacked from orbit. Furthermore, attacking a planet from orbit caused catastrophic environmental damage, the planet would be uninhabitable for the next 10 to 20 years, and anything of value on the planet would be destroyed. It would actually be worse than trying to colonize and then terraform a new planet.

Not completely satisfied, but not wanting to be ostracized by the captain any longer, Joanne let the subject drop.

After the briefing Joanne had boarded a commercial airliner commandeered for military use, and flown down to the southern continent, to the resort city known as New Joy Harbors. As her aircraft circled the city, she could see its value as a "Last Stand" point. In addition to being known as a vacation hotspot, New Joy Harbors was also a major agriculture center; the city was surrounded by fields of grain. But more impressive, the entire city was built around a river delta, with the downtown section built into the artificially created islands on the delta. The section that the military would be occupying was essentially a series of built up islands connected by bridges and underground tunnel, even to a complete armature, the defensive potential was huge.

As her plane landed and Joanne stepped out into the warm tropical sun, she was taken aback by the jovial atmosphere, and the sheer number of people. She expected to see a crisp cut military operation, building fortifications, moving equipment, constructing bunkers, and such. And she did see all of that, but mixed in around it was an undeniable party atmosphere. People were coming and going from dance clubs and bars, restaurants were open to business and nearby shops were selling goods to soldiers and civilians alike, from a nearby park she could see a beach volleyball competition in the works while a large cook out was taking place next to it, all the while loudspeakers blared music.

And there were civilians everywhere. This place would become a battle field in as little as a few hours, and people were shopping, having parties and general having a good time, all the while an invasion of the planet was in the works.

An optimist would say that this shows the indomitable spirit of these people, that even in the face of possible death, they are determined to live their lives to the fullest. A pessimist would say that this shows the folly of these people, that they refuse to understand their situation.

Joanne wondered which she was.

Whichever she was, she knew that civilians should not be playing around like this, so she did what any normal person would do when faced with a quandary, and she asked someone else.

She went over to a Lieutenant who was directing the construction of an AA battery. He initially ignored her and when pressed, mentioned how busy he was, but when he saw she wore the uniform of a Striker, he quickly freed up some time.

The answer was something that in retrospect was actually obvious. Oridian had an estimated 27 billion people on it, there was no way that all of those people were going to evacuate in time, and even if they did there was no where to put that many refugees. Sure a lot had fled in the weeks before, and even more had left once the TSAB had renewed their attacks, but many more were left behind. Some of those that didn't make it off planet had moved to the country side, hiding in small villages and towns, or even hiding by themselves in the wilderness. Others had gone to the other major cities that would not be serving as defensive points, hoping that the TSAB would ignore them if they avoided the military. However a large portion of people, decided that they were safest within reach of the military, those people stayed in the suburbs around the cities, or in the case of New Joy Harbors, stayed in the sections of city on the riverbed. A few took that idea to the extreme and decided that they were safest within the military's control, and those people were on the islands.

Joanne made her way to where she was stationed, which on an ironic and slightly ominous note, was a grave yard. One of the easternmost islands, one that happened to have a great view of the harbor, was entirely devoted to a graveyard, or cemetery as is more proper. The cemetery is the main resting place for the people of New Joy Harbors; it contains thousands of resting places, mausoleums, crypts and family tombs.

The irony of defending billions of people from what was assumed a dead civilization while standing in a graveyard.

Also if things went poorly, she could also look for a nice resting place.

As she walked through the main gates of "Lori Vaughan Memorial Cemetery" she noticed that the military had done some "renovating." In the center of the cemetery was a large hill that could be seen from the entire island. The pictures advertising the place that she walked past had said it contained the grave of Lori Vaughan, now it contained a massive Barrier Array. Around it on the sides of the hill, 5 powerful portable generators were supplying it with power. The foundation for a sixth was still in the works while the un-deployed generator sat off to the side.

While she watched the workers building the foundation, she heard the loud sounds of machinery along with the creaking sounds of treads from behind one of the mausoleums. Stepping off of the cobblestone path, Joanne climbed up one of the smaller nearby hills to get a better look at the source of the noise.

Standing atop the hill, Joanne could see across the acres and acres of graveyard that was the Lori Vaughan Memorial Cemetery. She could see the source of the sounds, a massive multi story tracked vehicle. The vehicles was larger than her own house and she could see the tiny point defense guns on its sides and the barrier and shield arrays positioned around it, but most of its mass was a single giant cannon, it dominated the vehicle.

But more than that mobile Anti-Ship platform, Joanne could see the vastness of the military operation currently underway. As far as her eyes could see, she saw nothing but preparations for war, for death, for destruction. She saw tens of thousands of soldiers moving across the grassy hills, bunkers being built, trenches being dug, AA batteries and SAM sites, thousands of armored fighting vehicles, battalions of Mechanized combat forces, hundreds of stationary artillery guns, long range rocket launchers, drop-ships on landing pads, field hospitals, mess halls, barracks, sensor stations, backup generators, stocks of supplies, fuel trucks, piles ordinance. Every were she looked, she saw nothing but the preparations for a tragedy.

As the setting sun bathed the scene in an orange glow, Joanne Gordon had a moment of realization. She finally realized that she was not going to work like she would any other day, like she had only days ago. She would not be performing a job out here in this new place; she would be just a single part of a much larger machine, a cold and unfeeling entity that would clash against another like entity. She was not about to do great and valiant things, no such things would take place on these fields. She would fight and kill an enemy she knew nothing about, people she had never met. She would do this because she knew that if she didn't, they would do the same to her. She would not fight here for ideals or principals, not for honor or pride, not for the Allied States and her people, not even for the men and women fighting next to her; she would fight for herself, for her survival, she would fight and kill only to secure her next breath. War is not majestic, it is not to be sought after, it is to be avoided, to be feared. It is an atrocity, a blight upon civilization, the greatest evil.

As the sun sank deeper to towards the horizon, and the sky turned even deeper shades of red and orange, as the sun's rays glinted of the glass of nearby buildings, and as the entire scene was reflected off of the blue tropical waters of the harbor, Joanne thought of all the men and women out there. How many would die in the coming days? In the coming hours? How many had families that they wanted to see? Had jobs and careers to go back to? Had goals, hopes, and dreams? How many had futures? And how many would lose them? Loose what they found precious? How many would lose themselves to the coming calamity? As Corporal Joanne Gordon had these thoughts she began to cry, her tears marking their silent path down her cheeks and onto her uniform.

As her sobs overtook her, Joanne cried from fear and sorrow, she cried for all the men and women who would die, for their lost dreams and goals, for their lost futures, she cried for herself. Against the brilliant sight of the setting sun, awash in vibrant purples and magnificent reds and oranges, Joanne Gordon cried because it was the only thing she could do; a silent protest against the coming tragedy.

---

A little over 10 minutes later, after Joanne had calmed herself and regained her composure, and used a minor healing spell to removed the swelling and redness around her eyes, she continued her approach to the command post she was to report to. She was no longer inquisitive like she had been earlier, the festive attitude had left her, she solemnly marched forward without looking at her surroundings.

As she approached the main entrance to the mobile headquarters that commanded the entire island, four privates on guard duty crisply saluted her; she ignored them and walked past. She entered the building, and after spotting a secretary at an information desk, went over to report. The secretary, a Plertin, was using three of its tentacle arms to use a device interface, and his fourth was working on some repairs or modifications to a staff. As she stood in front of his desk, the Plertin stopped what he was doing and put down the staff, which he was clearly modifying, possibly illegally. Seeing Joanne eyeing the staff, the Plertin brought the subject up before Joanne could mention it.

"I am reducing its overall output and getting ready to link it to another staff. And I am aware that this is normally an illegal process, but under article 37 subsection 14 of the ASN regulations on magic based weapons to non-humans, Plertins are allowed to make these modifications."

Joanne responded curtly with a single word,

"Why?"

"You humans are awfully ethnocentric, you assume that if things work one way for you, they work that way for everyone else too. We Plertins can use each one of or arms independently, but we can only channel magic through one side. That means that when I try to use this staff in my upper right arm, and equal amount of magic comes out of the lower one, and is essentially wasted. We link two staffs together and use them at the same time to avoid the wasted mana."

"No, you misunderstood my question. Why are you doing the modification?"

"Oh, well this is just a basic staff, I can't afford my own personalized device, and I am not a high enough rank to be given one. So when I get deployed to a new spot, we usually are forced to return our current equipment and get new stuff at the new place, so my old staff pair is probably still on Corulus III, unless the TSAB did something with it when they invaded. But anyway, the upgrades are simple enough to do, but the calibration takes a really long time, and is specific to the user, so we are forced to do it ourselves. I really shouldn't be working on it while on duty, but the TSAB could be here any day and I need to get it finished before they arrive. At this rate I should get it done some time tomorrow morning."

Joanne was a little annoyed at how laid back he seemed. He could be dead at this time tomorrow, and he was joking about the coming battle. She didn't like his chatty happy go lucky attitude, and she didn't enjoy his remarks about humans, so she choose to ignore it.

She striated herself out and stood at attention.

"Corporal Joanne Gordon, reporting to Colonel Fursburg."

"Ah yes, ok then, let's see here."

The Plertin Chief Warrant Officer went back to the device interfaces and started bringing up files.

"Ok, well Colonel Fursburg is in charge of all forces on this island and the one to the west, and as such, he is way too busy to deal with all the newcomers. We having standing orders to direct all newcomers to one of the 1st lieutenants for a debriefing. Let me pull up your records and see which is your CO."

He continued manipulating the interfaces until he brought up her file. Joanne could see a picture of herself after she had finished her ranking examination.

"Hmm this can't be, it says your CO is Major Notoreal, but he is in command of the….. Oh wait; it says your part of the Striker Forces? Then it would make sense that he is your CO. Lucky you, he is kinda famous, being a Guardian Beast and using Belkan Strike Arts and all. Anyways, his office is through those doors and down the hall, past the staircase going down, second door on the right."

Despite her annoyance with the secretary, Joanne was still curious enough to ask.

"Guardian Beast? Strike Arts?"

"I guess most people don't know what those are, since Belkan magic is not used much anymore. Guardian Beasts are the Belkan versions of familiars, but they aren't bound to their creator. Supposedly Major Notoreal is over 300 years old and his creator has long since died. And Strike Arts are a Belkan style of martial arts based on hand to hand strikes. No grappling or anything like that. Almost no one uses it anymore; no one wants to get within punching distance of their enemies."

Joanne nodded her understanding and then left the secretary to his work and made her way to Major Notoreal's office. While the secretary was technically accurate in his directions, he had neglected a few important points, first that the staircase was located at almost the complete end of the hallway, and that it was an emergency staircase, one that was hidden behind a door. Eventually she found the staircase and then went into the second room on the right.

Joanne knocked and then opened the door and entered to find Major Notoreal having his lunch. The man's, or Guardian Beast's nature, was immediately obvious. His face was all angular and came to a point near his chin, his mouth was small and his lips were barely there. His eyes were perfectly circular and he seemed to have no eyelids, his entire body was long and lanky, but his arms seemed kind of short. But the most obvious signs of his less than normal nature were the sharp inch long talons coming from his thumb, index and middle fingers, and the feathers coming out of the back of his head.

As she walked up to his desk, the Major's head abruptly shot up. He stared at her so intently that for a moment she was caught off guard and just stood there. Now that he faced her she could see that he had an elaborate tattoo that ran from his forehead, down the sides of his face and down into his neck were they disappeared into his uniform.

In a deep rumbling voice, that didn't at all match his appearance, he asked a simple question.

"Who are you?"

Joanne was still out of her element, his appearance and movements had unnerved here, and his deep voice had only added to the effect.

"Um, Corporal Joanne Gordon, Sir, I, uh, was to report to Colonel Fursburg, but the secretary down the hall told me that I should, um, talk to you instead. He told me how to find you, sir."

"You are a Striker, Right?"

"Yes Sir"

"Ok, let me get your file."

The major stood up and took his lunch, which Joanne saw contained a simple sandwich and a side of pudding, and placed it off to the side on an end table. He then returned to his desk and brought up his devices display and navigated a few files for a second. Then without turning to look at her he addressed her again.

"Gordon, Joanne, Conscripted 83 hours ago, formerly a researcher at the Oridian Theoretical Field Labs in Golden Sun city. Ranked B+, but no real combat training, combat skills are rated at around B- to C+, No formal training, granted rank of corporal. Is this accurate?"

"Yes Sir"

"Alright, that's everything that your record says. Its less than thorough. Then what are your specialties?"

"Sir?"

"Strengths and weakness? Any unique skills? How do you plan on fighting here?"

Joanne was slightly unprepared for this line of questioning; she assumed that they would have already known that. She took a minute to organize her thoughts before responding.

"I specialized in theoretical and experimental Field research. In addition to most standard defensive and enhancing fields, I can also create a lot of non-standard fields that can-"

"Sorry to interrupt, but what is a 'Non-Standard' Field?"

"Um Non-standard fields are things that a normal mage would never learn. Primarily I can increase or decrease my resistance to specific types and wavelengths of energy. But other things are included, I can change the pigmentation of my skin, cause my body to become magnetic, increase or decrease my density, I can also shrink my body to about 1/3 of its original size."

Major Notoreal made some notes into the files before continuing his line of questioning.

"Those skills would be useful, but only in limited scenarios, but I assume you have a good grasp of the basics then. What about Barriers and Shields?"

"I can only make the most basic of shields; it was a skill that was completely un-necessary. Barriers I am much better with. I can make complete barriers of almost any shape that were ranked as B class. Just like with the fields, I can create Non-standard barriers."

More notes were added to her files.

"Ok, what about your attack abilities?"

"Beam attacks are the only thing I am good at, everything else was pretty bad, we never had to make any kind of attack magic back in the Research labs. My examiner told me that he thinks that since we always needed to control energy flow that I was naturally suited for beam attacks."

"Is there anything else you want to mention? Anything slightly more specific?"

"Um well it takes a lot of concentration so I can't do much of anything else, but I can place my fields on top of others."

The major looked up from the entry he was currently typing.

"You're an Enhancer?"

"A what?"

"Enhancers are mages that focus on support, but mostly on increasing their teammate's strength."

"Um then I guess that that would be me."

The Major went back to his displays and started going through data, he brought up a second display and looked over that before bringing up two more.

"This complicates things."

"Sir?"

"Well I was going to send you to point D, Captain Disanto has been asking for Striker support for a few days now. But if you're an enhancer we would be better served having you with other strikers. I have a squad of nine Strikers guarding the Barrier Array at point A, if I placed you there that would be the best, but then I won't have anything for Captain Disanto.

He looked through some reports for a second, before closing the entire display.

"I am sending you to point D for now, once I find someone better to replace you there, I will transfer you to point A, but that might take a little while to work out."

"Um sir, where is point D?"

"Ah yes, let me upload a map into your device, that will show you everything you need to know."

The bracelet on his left arm glowed a dark brown color, and a second later, the hairclip in Joanne's hair started to glow a light teal. As the glow died down, Major Notoreal stood up and went back over to the end table and retrieved his lunch.

"Well that will be all, Your Dismissed, Go get to Point D."

"Yes Sir"

---

Now finished, Joanne backed up and exited the Major's office, walked back down the hallway and past the Plertin secretary and left the building. Once she got outside she called up the tactical map that the Major had given her.

As the map activated, it called up a holographic display that showed the entire city, no it showed even more than that. Each island on the river delta was shown down to the smallest details, zooming in allowed her to see street signs, lamp posts, and even small advertisements. The surrounding riverbeds and ports were also shown. Even the suburbs and the fields that stretched for miles were shown in the same detail.

Joanne was completely unable to make sense of anything on a map of this scale, so she told her device to limit the area shown to only the island that contained the Lori Vaughan Memorial Cemetery. The map zoomed in and then began rendering itself in even greater detail. Now that it was focused on a specific point it was able to show the locations of machinery and people. She spotted the gate that she had entered, it was labeled as Defensive point H, defensive point D was further to the north and was right in front of one of the bridges that led to the riverside and then the suburbs. After following the path from Point D back to the command center a few times, Joanne was confident that she knew the way, and started off towards Point D.

A few minutes later, and with only needing to double check the map twice, Joanne finally arrived at secondary command center of point D, the former ground keeper's house. Unlike the main head quarters, this secondary one was slightly less established and a lot more frantic. People were running in and out of the building every few seconds, equipment was being brought in, and on the front porch, a small scale backup barrier array was being set up.

Joanne entered the building and began searching for Captain Disanto. Twice she was almost plowed over by other soldiers running errands. Everyone was so busy that she didn't even attempt to ask for help. Eventually she stumbled upon an older man who wore the insignia of captain.

The man in question stood in the back of what was once the living room, staring out the bay window towards the harbor. He just calmly stood there with his hands gently planted on the windowsill. He was about a half foot shorter than Joanne, and she was only average height, he was almost completely bald, and a quick glance at his arms reveled that they were both cybernetic replacements. As if he sense her presence behind him, he turned to face Joanne. After he lightly turned, he looked her up and down and then broke the silence.

"Who in da blazes are you?"

Joanne made herself a mental note; People who make the military into a career have unique personalities.

"Corporal Joanne Gordon, Reporting to captain Disanto, as ordered by Major Notoreal, Sir"

"The Eagle Man sent ya? Ya a Striker then?"

"Yes Sir"

"Good, dat's great. I was thinkin he might not come through fo me; still, he was pushin it awfully tight. So then-"

He was momentarily drowned out by a loud high-pitched whirling sound, one that Joanne recognized as the sound of a short range drop ship.

"Hold dat thought a sec."

Three Basalt Class short ranged dropships flew over the house; their engines rattled the windows and knocked stuff from the tables. The hovered over the garden in the front of the house for a second before opening their cargo hatches. The lead dropship released a short ranged heavy rocket launcher, while the other two each dropped three light towed railguns. After they had discharged their cargo, the dropships regained some altitude and flew back over the house, again knocking stuff around. After the whine from the dropship's engines had faded, some soldiers swarmed around the guns and rocket launcher and began moving them into position.

"Dat's great, I finally got da rest of dem guns. With you guys here all I am waitin on is dat armor, and some mech infantry. I really wanted an Ace or two, but a squad of Strikers will gotta do. So how many of ya are in da squad?"

"Um how many sir?"

"A full squad would be da best, but I would settle fo a half squad."

"Uhh, Sir, The Major only sent one person."

"One person? Like, only ya?"

"Yes Sir, The Major only sent me, but, he is planning on transferring me to point A within a day and is going to get you a replacement. He said I wouldn't be as useful here."

"Why in da blazes wouldn't ya be? Ya an idiot or something?"

"No sir, Major Notoreal says that since I am an Enhancer, that I wouldn't be of much use here, he wants me with other Strikers."

"Ha, an Enhancer, dat's rich. Tell me Corporal, What's out dat window?"

He gestured out the window he had been staring at before Joanne had arrived. She gazed out the window and found the view breathtaking. The sun was still setting but the radiant glowing orb was clearly reflected off of the blue waters. Across the river the sun glinted off the windows on the buildings, the entire scene sparkled in the red glow of the sunset.

"A Sunset?"

The captain just stared at her.

"I mean the harbor."

This time he sighed heavily.

"Are ya sho ya not an idiot?"

As he finished calling her an idiot again, he pointed out the window.

"I meant Dat."

Joanne looked to see what he was pointing at, but he was waving his hand around so she wasn't completely sure, but it looked like he was pointing at the buildings on the other side of the river.

"The river front?"

He sighed again, and then turned away from her and walked over to the window and planted his hands back on the windowsill.

"Dat's called, 'No Man's Land,' ya know why it's called dat? Its cause its No. Man's. Land. See, dem TSAB bastards are gonna use them buildings as cover and land their ships all da way over in da fields and da burbs. Once they get here, they gonna hafta cross dat, and we got almost no men in there, so we gonna meet them here on da banks and attack them as they come out. Ya understand?"

Yes Sir."

"No, ya don't. Ya don't get it at all. Dat bridge over there, dat's like da front door, da entire TSAB is gonna be comin across dat bridge and knockin on da door. This here is gonna be where most of da fighting goes down, so I need everything I can get to stop them from breakin down da door. Dat's why I was askin for some Aces, or a Squad of you Strikers. Now do ya understand?"

"Sir, Yes Sir."

"Now then, ya see my problem? I asked for Aces and I get a single Striker, I ask fo 30 Medium railguns, they gave me 20 Light railguns and a short range heavy rocket launcher. I ask for 10 pieces of armor, I got none so far, I ask for 400 pieces of mech infantry, they sent me 50. I aint vain, I know dat this is just one of many points that could get attacked, even on this island, but what they gave me, it aint enough."

He turned away from the window and walked up to Joanne.

"But, there aint nothing I can do about dat, so let's figure out what to do with ya."

The Captain walked over to a display and started pulling up some information, but this time Joanne was the first to speak.

"By sir, Major Notoreal said he was going to transfer me within a day. Rather than involve me in a formation and then take me out, wouldn't it be easier to just keep me on standby?"

Captain Disanto stopped what he was doing, and sat down on a nearby sofa.

"Easier? Yeah it would. But a half assed approach like that is what gets peopled killed. What if Notoreal doesn't find a replacement before the TSAB arrives? Or if he doesn't find one at all?"

"Well Command said that they expect the TSAB to make orbit tomorrow in the afternoon…"

"Yah, and Command said that they would get me the forces I asked fo, they sent me you instead. They also said that the TSAB would never make it past the Jinx Cluster; that went down 5 weeks ago, and now we got only a fraction of our territory left. I'll shift formations every hour if I hafta, now ya an Enhancer? Not a lot I can do with that, but I can figure out something."

He stood back up and walked over to the console he was at.

"Where were ya trained at anyways?"

"I learned basically everything I know at the Oridian Theoretical Field Labs back in Golden Sun City, it's in the Northern Hemisphere."

The Captain abruptly stopped what he was doing.

"Hold on just a sec. Ya were trained in a Lab? Why?"

Joanne shifted nervously, she wasn't sure exactly where this was going, but she sensed it was going to end poorly.

"I wasn't trained in the Labs, it's just where I learned everything."

"So where were ya trained? Ya know, basic training and such?"

"I was only recruited 3 days ago, they sent me strait here."

The captain stepped back from the console, placed his hands on his head, took a deep breath, and then yelled.

"SON OF A BITCH!"

Having not expected that particular response, Joanne stepped back from the angry officer.

"I handled it when they refused to give me field guns, I accepted that I couldn't get no dropships, I said NOTHING when I got only 50 out of the 400 mech infantry I asked fo, I let it slide when they delivered Light Railguns, I haven't mentioned the missing armor, but this is da last straw."

As he started yelling every one stopped what they were doing and slowly backed away. One of the lower ranked privates had the misfortune to bump into a table and knock a datapad to the ground. As the plastic screen clattered to the ground, the captain's eyes zeroed in on him.

"You, Private, Get Major Notoreal on da line, tell him it's an emergency, I wanna talk to em right now, right this second."

As the private in question started frantically trying to get through to the secretarial department at the main headquarters, Captain Disanto continued his rant.

"This, This is crap. First da fleet flees with its tail between its legs, but not before it scoops up every decent fighting force we have. No Assault tanks, why would we need them? They are only the STRONGEST piece of armor in da Allied States. All of da Aces are gone, almost all of da Strikers too. They took all of da large scale field artillery, but left us with these archaic mobile anti-ship platforms, ONLY because they took up too much space. PRIVATE, I am still waitin on this call, when's it gonna happin? Probably da same time I get da supplies I requested. I wanna know who is running this operation, who make these calls? I think command is runnin around in circles, sniffin each other's asses. In fact, who is running this entire war now? It certainly aint the Fleet Admirals. I served under Siato, that man was on top of things. No way that he'd a let things go like this, we lost over 90% of our territory and they still fallin back. Any old idiot can tell ya that this plan aint gonna work out for ya, someone needs to go tell them fools at Fleet Command that they're idiots. PRIVATE, call Fleet command and tell them they fools, and WHY AINT I TALKEN TO THAT EAGALE IDIOT? "

"Ummm, sir, the line is, um Major Notoreal is, umm-"

"Captain Disanto, I will pass on your message to fleet command, now what did you need of me?"

Behind the captain, on one of the displays he had left open, was the image of Major Notoreal, his face was expressionless. The room became deathly silent and all eyes were on the captain and the display. Captain Disanto first shot a death glare at the private, and then turned to the console, resized it to something smaller and then began his conversation without delay.

"Ah Major, sorry bout that little outburst there, ya just happened to be da last in a long string of people faillin me."

"This is in regards to the Striker I sent you then?"

"Yah, see I asked fo a squad, and unless the changed it up, a squad still has bout ten people in it, not one, which is what ya sent me."

"Yes I am aware that you requested a squad, however, I don't have that many to give you. You will have to make do with the one I managed to send."

"So ya sent me one, that's da best ya can do then? Ya take me fo a fool then? Let me tell ya, I do not have enough strength here to defend this position, if dem TSAB bastards hit me in force, my lines will break."

"I am also aware of that fact; we don't have enough forces to secure all of these islands completely. We have other teams on standby near the defensive points that can assist during an attack."

"Yah, and what if they don't make it in time? What if two points get hit at once? What if you guys have your head's to far up your ass to see what's going on?"

"Then you will defend that position to the best of your ability until support arrives, that's all there is to it. Captain, all I control are the deployment of strikers on these two islands, I can't do anything else for you. I sent you a Striker, the only one I had, that will have to do for now."

"Yah that's right, ya sent me an Enhancer. What am I gonna do with that? And she aint even been to basic trainin."

"As I told her, and I am sure she relayed to you, I will be transferring her out and sending you a more combat oriented replacement within a day."

" What if that don't happin? What if da TSAB gets her first?"

"Well that's highly-"

At that point the display went to static.

"Oh! Did he just disconnect on me?"

The private who had originally opened the line was still hiding in the corner of the room, but as it was his responsibility, he still spoke up.

"Um, no sir, the entire line went dead. I lost contact with Headquarters. And, I uh, can't re-establish the connection."

"Well some one betta tell me what's goin on here, we lose a relay station or somethin?"

Right as he finished speaking, a Chaaral with the rank of Sergeant came running into the room, Since he voice was too high pitched to be heard by most humanoids, he instead spoke through the mechanical voice of his device.

"SIR. ALL COMMUNICATIONS ARE DOWN. WE LOST THE CONNECTION WITH COMMAND. EVEN THE TACTICAL COMPUTERS CAN'T CONNECT TO THE SERVERS."

Captain Disanto walked over to the window and peered out at all of the soldiers frantically trying to reestablish communications. With his back still turned to his audience he began to laugh for a second, the harsh chuckle grated on Joanne's nerves.

"Har, har, woo that was a good laugh. Anyways, it seems like da TSAB got here ahead of schedule. "

He turned away from the window and began walking towards the door to the hallway, the assembled soldiers and engineers parted so he could pass.

"Now hopefully that orbital defense net will hold them long enough for command to figure out what's goin on, before they do something fun. The rest of ya, I want ya to your positions, everyone who isn't actively using a piece of equipment, I want you to help da engineers finish their preparations. Since we got no communications, I will move my HQ to da front porch. Everyone get movin."

After he finished speaking, the assembled soldiers ran out of the building and began doing their jobs. Some of them started powering up the Railguns, while others started getting into the bunkers and trenches that had been dug. Some went over and helped set up the portable generators and the barrier generators.

"Oh and one more thing, take that Sand Class light dropship and get a spotter team on one of those buildings, take some signal flares and an AA gun."

The private from before, looking utterly horrified, was once again forced to speak up.

"Um, but sir, those buildings have civilians in them. We're not supposed to deploy forces in those areas."

"Ah it's just a scouting team, no harm. Da AA gun is only for their defense. Dem buildings block our sight, and without no sensors we won't be able to tell what's goin on, so GET TO IT!"

The private, now completely terrified, scurry and ran from the room to follow his orders.

"And ya, da Striker, There is a hill to the side of da bridge, its gotta bench on it, I want you to stay there. It gives a good look across da river and keeps ya near da bridge."

And with that, Captain Disanto walked down the stairs and into the main foyer. From a floor above, Joanne could still hear him yelling orders.

---

Joanne made her way to the back of the room that they were in, through a door that led to the second floor veranda. She walked along the side of the house and then slowly descended the stairs. She spotted the hill that the Captain had mentioned and began moving towards it. Her head was mostly blank, she was walking in a daze, but in the deepest parts of her mind, a thought process was happening, one that she was desperately trying to avoid.

If the communication errors were really due to the TSAB's scrambling fields, than that meant that they were already in orbit. The defense net wouldn't hold them for long, soon they will make planet fall. Soon they will march through the fields and suburbs, soon they will make it to the city's outskirts and soon they will be at the bridge. Soon the fighting would break out, soon the battle would begin, soon Joanne would be forced to fight, all too soon. She thought, that after she had looked out over that hill, that she had resolved herself, had steeled herself. But she hadn't, she had no confidence. She was frightened. She wanted to flee, she didn't want to fight here, she wanted to be back in her research lab, sitting in the lounge while sipping a cappuccino with her colleagues while discussing the latest theories.

As she slowly plodded up to that hill with the bench, she knew that she still had options. She could flee back into the island, she could try to mix in with the civilians, she could jump into the waters, she could sprint across that bridge, she could hide, she could run, she could even turn herself over to the TSAB when they land. But while each step brought her closer to that dreaded hill, it also closed off her options.

She wasn't ready for this, she was unprepared. She needed to stop and think, to find a way out, but even though she knew this, she kept walking. She was losing time, she had to figure it out now, but she didn't know what to do.

As she rested her shaking hands across the back of the bench, she knew that she had run out of time, she could no longer flee. She would see this through to the end, but that thought brought no comfort to her.

Joanne was in the middle of trying to calm herself, again, when something strange happened. As far as the eye could see, for one split second, everything froze. The world was tinted a dark shade of gray, but it didn't interfere with vision. The hair on her arms stood on end and her skin crawled. He body became hot, so hot that she thought she was on fire, but she started to shiver, she couldn't hear, but she sensed a dull throb in the air around her. Then before she had even fully noticed that it had happened, the effect ended and she crumpled to the floor.

Joanne crawled over to the bench and tried to drag herself up to it, but her breath was ragged, her head throbbed, and she couldn't stop shaking, she felt like she had been electrocuted. She finally pulled herself up onto the bench and was able to look around, but every where she looked she saw people who looked the same as she felt. As the feeling slowly began to fade, somewhere from behind her a loudspeaker kicked on, and through it Captain Disanto's voice could be heard.

"OK BOYS AND GIRLS, DAT THERE WAS A HIGH INTENSITY SCAN, A REALLY HIGH ONE. AS FAR AS I CAN TELL, THEY HIT DA ENTIRE CITY, BURBS AND ALL, THEY KNOW EXACTLY WHERE EVERYTHING IS, SO THEY ARE GONNA BE COMMIN FOR US SOON, BEFORE WE CAN GET A CHANCE TO MOVE THINGS AROUND. SO GET TO YA POSITIONS ANG BE READY, ITS GONNA BE A LONG NIGHT."

As the echo of Captain Disanto's voice faded, Joanne realized she was able to stand, so she did. Once she was up she saw that almost everyone else was over the effects of the scan and were going about their tasks. Some were still setting up equipment and some were getting into trenches, but most of them, knowing that the TSAB wasn't here yet, just stood and watched. A group of 6 of them climbed up Joanne's hill to get a better look. As they walked up, Joanne could here parts of their conversation.

"That was some scan, huh?"

"Yeah man, I thought I was dying there. You know how they always say that repeated exposure to scanning magic can be harmful? I think we just proved that."

"Yeah man, I hope I can still have kids after this."

"I didn't know you could in the first place."

"Plus, he'd need to find a woman first, and that's not gonna happen."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Look dude, women go for one of three things, good looks, money, and personality, and that last one hasn't been proven. You got less money than I do, I have seen street signs with more personality than you, and let's not even mention your looks."

"Harsh"

"I think it's funny that he wasn't concerned about my statement."

"You know what, I aint going to let you borrow that movie now."

"Alrighty fine, my bad. You have more personality that a street sign, you happy?"

"yes, I mean no! you're not getting the movie."

"Fine, be that way."

"Oh hey, what's that over there on that building?"

"Hmmm? Which one, the one with the tower on the top?"

"No, the one to the left, it's a little smaller."

"Um the one with the water tank?"

"Yeah that's the one"

"Looks like a cannon maybe."

"I don't see anything."

"Probably a SAM site."

"Which building are we looking at?"

"You five are morons, it's a dropship, looks like Sand Class."

"You would know that."

"Yeah being obsessed with things that fly, like my 3 year old brother."

"I'm not obsessed, I am an engineer, it's my job."

"Whatever dude."

"Yo I got a question for you, when you're eating, does your momma make the airplane sound as she feeds you?"

They all laughed while the engineer just grumbled to himself.

Although Joanne didn't particularly want their company, she had to admit that their frivolous attitude was calming her nerves, she almost joined in on their laughter there. But, while it was true that they were calming her, that was only taking the top off of a mountain. She was wound so tight that she was afraid she might burst, she could barely even focus on their conversation.

"So….you guys think they'll hit here?"

"Not a chance, you see all those railguns the captain got?"

"Yeah, but those are only light railguns, I bet a Striker could block them with a shield"

Although Joanne wasn't a trained Striker, she knew that she wouldn't be able to block that.

"True, but a striker could just as easily dodge the stronger medium railguns"

She was also pretty sure that she couldn't dodge them either.

"Also, the mediums may have a range advantage, but they have a much slower rate of fire."

"Plus, they got the bridge rigged to explode, if the enemy gets enough armor and starts getting across, then BOOM, the bridge goes down."

"You know, I heard that they did that with the islands too."

"What?"

"Did what with the islands?"

"Who'd you here that from?"

"No wait, I heard that rumor too."

"What Rumor?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, if an island gets attacked and starts getting taken over, they can blow up the foundation and sink the island."

"What the hell, Really?"

"It makes sense, and it's a good idea."

"What if we are still on it?"

"Well I guess you would swim to another island."

"Yeah…. I don't think I like this idea."

"Aw man I can't swim, this sucks."

"I'm sure you probably won't drown, maybe."

"Hey guys, over there, are those dropships?"

Joanne followed the man's gaze and off into the distance, behind all of the buildings, she could sort of make out some objects that might have been drop ships. Joanne activated a eyesight enhancing field on herself and sure enough, the objects appeared to be dropships. She counted over 40 of them, but even with her enhancement, at this distance it was too hard to tell. But, they were approaching the islands at a high rate of speed.

"I can't tell, they might be birds or something."

"I don't see anything."

"What are you people looking at"

"Yo, lend me your binoculars."

One of the men started rummaging through his pack looking for the binoculars.

"Why would they be sending in dropships? That doesn't make sense."

"Yeah they would have to land some of their fleet to disembark enough forces to do anything."

"Maybe they are scouts? You know, they make sure that the landing site isn't an ambush."

"I still don't see anything."

"Yeah, seriously, how about you guys give us some direction?"

"You two suck, See that building over there, the circular one? Look a little to the right and then strait up."

"Not seeing anything."

"Dude, that buildings a cylinder, not a circle."

"Oh, now I see it."

"Me too, yeah those look like drop ships."

"You're an idiot."

"Shut up man, geometry wasn't my strong point"

"Man, my brother knows the difference between a circle and a cylinder, and he's three."

"You got a brother complex dude."

"You got a problem with my brother?"

"No, you're just way more into him than you should be."

"Alrighty you two, let's stop this before I get to haul one of you to the medical tents, for the 4th time, this week."

"Oh sweet, found the binoculars."

"Cool let me take a look."

"Get your own, I got first look."

"Whatever."

With his binoculars in hand the man now turned and looked towards the dropships, he made a humming sound and then handed them off to the engineer.

"Well they are dropships, that's for sure."

"So it's really a scouting team then?"

"Probably, Don't know what else they would be doing with them."

"What do you think mister flying thing fanatic?"

"Well they are definitely dropships, they couldn't be anything else, but I've never seen a dropship like them before."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well they are shaped oddly and they have only minimal maneuvering thrusters, they wouldn't be able to navigate anything but an open space. Also they have weird main engines, it looks like they are moving at top speed right now but an engine of that size would burn itself out if it kept this up."

"Maybe the TSAB got some new toys since they were seen last."

"Yeah, maybe they made an advancement in propulsion techniques."

"Or fuel."

"That's true, they could have a really high energy fuel source."

"It's still weird, those dropships have no windows or hatches that I can see, the entire thing is covered in armor. But it's all on the nose, like they expect to only be shot from the front side, that makes no sense."

"Hey I got a question."

"Yeah? What is it?"

"Well these drops ships are moving real fast, right?"

"Yeah"

"Ok and they don't have good maneuverability right?"

"From the looks of it, yeah."

"So then why are they coming right at us?"

After the man finished speaking, his five friends all turned to look at the rapidly approaching dropships, Joanne followed suit. He was right, these dropships were heading straight towards them. If his friend, the engineer, really knew what he was talking about and these dropships had awful maneuverability, then at this point they might not be able to turn away.

"So why do you think they are coming right at us?"

"Oh I know, maybe they are strike craft, you know, bombers. That would make sense wouldn't it?"

"I don't think our air defenses are weak enough that these guys would be able to get deep enough to hit anything important."

"Well, what do you think?"

They all turned to face the engineer, but he was still looking through the binoculars.

"They could be, I guess, but they don't look it. Bombers need some mobility and they don't have that, also I don't see any weapons or hatches that they could be hiding in. they look more like dropships, but they are still, well, weird. They are abnormally rounded, the bottom is usually flat to help it land."

"Oooo, you know what they remind me of?"

"Your momma?"

"Screw you."

"Ha-ha, alright, my bad, what do they remind you off?"

"Bastard. Anyway, you see them all the time on TV, aw man, what are they called again?"

"How would I know?"

"Yeah dude, that description was sorta lacking."

"Come on, they use them all the time in war movies, but no one uses them in the real world."

"Oh that helps."

"Shut up. They use them to ram capital ships, then the boarding party comes out and tries to take the ship over."

"Oh I know what you're talking about. Yeah your right, they are used in TV allot. No idea what they are called tho."

"They aren't a specific ship. They are usually a heavily armored dropship that carriers a striker force to destroy the enemy from the inside…"

"You don't think that that's what those are, do you?"

"If those are filled with striker squadrons that would be really bad."

"I think one of us needs to go report this to the command center."

Just then a large flare shot up from the command center, it alternated between flashing blue and yellow, Joanne had no idea what that meant.

"Well command obviously knows that they are dropships and coming towards us, but I think we need to mention that it might be a Striker Force."

The engineer with the binoculars suddenly leaned forward in an effort to get a better view, before cursing loudly.

"Aw shit, they just tapped their afterburners for a second."

"And that means?"

"They injected some extra fuel into the engines for a burst of speed. It burns through fuel crazy fast but if you just tap it you can get a speed boost without losing too much."

Behind them, again from the command center, a bright red flare shot up into the sky.

"That's the signal to attack"

After the flare reached its max height the loudspeaker went on again. Captain Disanto's voice rang out over the fields of the Lori Vaughan Memorial Cemetery.

"WE HAVE SOME TSAB DROPSHIPS ON FAST APPROACH COMING IN FROM DA EAST. THEY ARE PROBABLY FULL OF ELITE SHOCK TROOPERS OR EVEN STRIKERS AIMING TO DEAL SOME CRITICAL DAMAGE, BUT THEY AINT GONNA GET A CHANCE TO TRY, THEY AINT GONNA LAND ON ANY OF THESE ISLANDS, SHOOT THEM DOWN!"

All around Joanne, soldiers began running to the AA batteries and SAM sites and began bringing them online. But they were halted by Captain Disanto's voice.

"DO NOT FIRE ANY SURFACE TO AIR MISSILES, DA SCRAMBLING FIELD PREVENTS A TARGETING LOCK AT ANYTHING OTHER THAN POINT BLANK. WHEN THEY GET CLOSE USE HEAT SEEKING MISSILES."

"Oh look the dropships are splitting up."

Joanne pulled her eyes away from the preparations to attack and noticed that the dropships were in fact splitting up. Some of them were going to fly overhead while others headed towards the other islands, but three of them started to descend towards the cemetery's island.

"I wonder how many we will shoot down."

"Well unless they fly right over an AA gun they will be really hard to hit at that speed, but once they get to their targets they will slow down and that's when we will take them down."

"Oh check it out, one of them is gonna buzz past that building that had that scout dropship on it."

"I wonder if they have an AA gun."

"It would be cool if the first one down gets shot by someone from our regiment."

Joanne already knew that that dropship's crew was caring a heavy AA turret. Once that enemy dropship gets close it would defiantly go down. According to Joanne's analyst, that dropship would pass over the building in about ten seconds. She waited in silence, quieted by her own anticipation, if this went well she knew that she would draw confidence from it, but they would only have enough time to get of about 5 shots before it passed over their heads.. To her side the group of friends also stood silently and motionlessly.

About nine seconds later the group on the building opened fire, a light teal beam sliced out and ground into the armor on the underbelly of the dropship. A second beam cut into its nose while a third and fourth missed. The damage caused it to drop slightly and it was now on a collision course with the crew on the building, it was now do or die for them.

Finally the fifth beam lanced out strait into the dropship's starboard wing, sheering it off at the base. Now devoid of a wing, and with no stability, the dropship veered to its right and grazed the surface of the building, it shattered windows and tore apart the face of the building. Seeing it going down, a cheer rose up from the onlookers.

"WOOOOOOT!"

"EAT THAT"

"YEAH!"

"TEACH YOU TO INVADE THIS PLANET"

"THE FIRST OF MANY"

"HAHAHA DID YOU SEE THAT?"

While the assembled soldiers cheered its death, the dropship was not finished its crash. After it slid off of that building, it slammed into the roof of the building behind it. It bounced off after crushing a landing pad and then slammed into the corner of a third building.

"DAMN GOOD KILL"

"LOOK AT THAT"

"GIVE THOSE GUYS AN AWARD"

"NO WAY ANYONE SURVIVED THAT."

"THEY GOT THE FIRST KILL"

At that point, right as the last pieces of rubble were falling from the building, the smoldering crushed hulk of the dropship suddenly exploded. At its current distance, the red and orange flash was barely visible, but to Joanne, and any other mages, the small explosion was clear as day. The little red ball of fire shot out of the building, almost as if it were giant flare. Right as the explosion was exiting the crater, the building was wracked with its shockwave. The entire building shuddered, every window simultaneously exploded, massive cracks could be seen forming on the sides and foundation. Joanne wasn't an expert in this field, but it seemed unusually that an exploding dropship would cause that level of damage.

But Joanne was only able to explore that train of thought for a single moment, because as she watched the building begin to crumble and collapse due to the damage, her eyes lost track of the building. One second she could see the building, she could see the falling glass, the smoke, and even the slight distortion caused by the shockwave, and then all of a sudden, the entire scene was obscured by a blinding white light. Originating from crash site, the white sphere rapidly expanded, it covered the entire building along with some of the adjacent ones, and parts of the others. Then, before she could even blink, the brilliant ball of light disappeared, it just winked out of existence. Not even a second has passed since it had first appeared, and it was already gone, but it had left its mark, everything that it covered was also gone.

For one split second, even while she was seeing spots, Joanne was able to see the sight of the destruction. The white sphere, and everything it had covered, was gone, just removed from existence. Almost everything around the impact point was gone, some of the taller buildings were not completely enveloped, he upper floors of those buildings still sat motionless in mid air. Other buildings had had their sides gouged out, the cuts were perfectly smooth, as if a giant being had just reached down and scooped everything out of that space.

And then time continued to flow and gravity reasserted itself, the pieces of building that were left in the air plummeted to the ground while the other buildings began to tip over and collapse. Joanne watched as the building with the scouting team on it, now with almost half of its mass missing, began to sway and then crumble. The roof with the dropship tipped forward and then slid down the collapsing building before it was hidden by the dust and ruble of the destroyed buildings.

Over the distant rumbled of the collapsing building every one stood in a dumbfounded silence. After a moment someone spoke.

"Oh my god, wh-what was that?

"Th-those aren't dropships, they're missiles!"

"No that was a torpedo."

"They're launching torpedoes at us?"

"They can't do that."

"That's a war crime."

Joanne thought back to her conversation with the captain during the briefing. He had been so certain that an orbital bombardment was impossible, that there was no way that the TSAB would even think of it, but Joanne hadn't bought that. The TSAB had reappeared after 21 years, in that time there had been no contact with them, everyone had thought that they had destroyed themselves, fallen into a dimensional rift, gone the way of Al Hazard. And when they came back, they had immediately attacked every one. They lured people to their borders with a signal and then slaughtered the people gathered, even the civilians and media. The TSAB had made it obvious that they were not bound by the inter-dimensional laws that everyone else was. Assuming that they would abide by any form of warfare summit was completely foolish, but the Allied States had made that assumption, and it now appeared that Joanne and everyone else on Oridian would now have to deal with the consequences off that assumption.

Joanne suspected that every other ground battle had probably gone the same way, the defenders annihilated from orbit, killed without ever seeing the invaders. The TSAB's Scrambling Field would block all off-planet transmissions, there would be no way to inform the rest of the Allied States that all future invasions would end the same way, the ASN would be doomed to repeat this slaughter based on their flawed assumption.

And a slaughter it would be. That torpedo, which Joanne recognized from her work in the Research Labs, was a Clarity Torpedo, probably a light one, and assuming the others were the same type, the remaining thirty nine torpedoes would devastate the city. As far as anyone could tell, the TSAB's Clarity Torpedoes caused absolute destruction in a localized area, everything that was caught in the blast radius was destroyed without a trace, but outside of it, there was no real damage. But there was also no real defense against them, armor, shields, barriers, and defensive fields were completely useless, the only thing that could be done, was to avoid them. Joanne could tell, based off of the size of that first explosion, that the others would not completely destroy the city, but if they were targeted at key locations, say the command centers, generators, and barrier and shield arrays, they could cripple the city, when they did send their ground forces down, New Joy Harbors would not survive.

But any effort to deal with the approaching torpedoes wouldn't make it in time, they had just cleared the opposite water front and dropped low towards the surface of the water. Behind her, every command center, both on this island and the others, were frantically launching up red flares. Just as the torpedoes leveled out a few meters above the water, they hit their afterburners to full. Their sudden burst of speed created an explosion of water as they lurched towards the opposing bank.

As the torpedoes raced forward and cut trails into the water, the defenders got over their shock and a hail of AA fire arched out towards the incoming torpedoes. Hundreds of thousands of magical energy attacks tore through the air, the sky was alight with bolts of every color and hue imaginable. Mixed in with the energy attacks were mass based cannon slugs and missiles. The shockwaves left by the cannons, and the smoke trails from the missiles all combined into a scene that any other day would have been one of the most majestic and beautiful sights Joanne had ever seen, but today, right now, it meant nothing to her.

Even as the wall of AA fire hit the approaching torpedoes, even as one of them was blasted apart in midair and detonated, or another went down in the water, Joanne, and everyone else, could tell that it was too little too late.

One last torpedo went down into one of the connecting bridges, the bridge and part of the embankment were gone in a white flash, and then they were over the defensive perimeter. Joanne saw another torpedo get shot down and slam into some buildings on another island, but that was the least of her worries, four of the torpedoes were going heading towards the Lori Vaughan Memorial Cemetery, and one of them was heading straight towards her.

Everyone reacted differently to the impending demise, some of the soldiers frantically continued firing, even the ground forces attacked with their staffs, others turned and ran, some just cowered and hid, while others froze up and just stood there and watched. Joanne was of the latter.

So Joanne was still standing there, upright, when the torpedo, which was much larger than she had originally thought, passed right over her head. As the torpedo sailed harmlessly overhead, Joanne was greeted with a gentle breeze, and an overwhelming sense of relief. For a split second, Joanne experienced what is called an AIRF, or Autonomous Instant Reflex Field, or in laymen's terms, a moment of perfect clarity. The world seemed to move in slow motion, she could see the minute details of everything around her. She could see the torpedo, every section, every armor plate, every seam, ever bolt, she could see the air being pushed out of its way. The tree that she had been standing next to was now down by her feet, but she could still see it in the same detail as the torpedo, she saw were its branches were snapping and cracking, she saw the leaves being torn off, and she saw were the engine exhaust was beginning to ignite the drier branches.

It was only after the torpedo had left her field of view, and the tree had fallen below her, when all she could see was the sky as it turned from day into night, that Joanne realized she was falling, and that that gentle breeze she had felt was much more than just a breeze, that when the torpedo has flown over her she had been caught in its tailwind, it had literally lifted her off her feet and threw her backwards.

Her moment of AIRF ended when her calves hit the back of the bench and she tumbled backwards. She landed on the grass hill shoulders first and then rolled down until the ground leveled out at the bottom. She ended up sprawled out on her back at the bottom of the hill, covered in bruises and cuts, and gasping for air.

Joanne was a multi-tasker, as a researcher it was a vital skill, to be able to follow multiple things at once, to deal with the unexpected setbacks while still moving forward with the main project. So while she was currently on her back and sort of upside down in what appeared to be a flowerbed, Joanne was able to do a few things at once. First she was trying to regain her breath, as she had fallen, at some point she had bounced into something that had knocked the wind out of her. Second, she was performing a thorough and systematic check of her body, she could see and hear, both legs and arms were working, a scan showed that there were no internal injuries and that her Linker Core was fine. She did appear to have some minor burns on her face, and some of her hair had been scorched, but other than that she seemed to be fine.

And thirdly, she watched as the big white glowing sphere in the center of the island winked out of existence. Her sense of direction had never been that great, and she was more than a little out of it after having fallen down a cliff, but she was pretty sure that that torpedo had detonated near the island's headquarters. It was either aimed at that, or at that large scale barrier array that was nearby.

Of in the distance, Joanne could see more AA fire and then a few more giant white flashes. As the last of them died down, the AA fire slowed and then abruptly came to a stop, for a few seconds, while Joanne was still on her back, the only sounds that could be heard was the distant rumbling of collapsing buildings, and the sound of the waves as they broke across the island's foundation.

On the other islands, both the military, and any civilians that were there, were frantically trying to dig through the rumble to save any survivors, but here in the "Lori Vaughan Memorial Cemetery," no such rescue effort was underway. The cemetery contained only a few buildings, the largest of which was the three story command center, which may or may not exist any longer. The ASN was not completely sure how the TSAB's new Clarity Torpedoes worked, but all of their records and all evidence pointed to one fact, that nothing could survive within the blast radius. Whatever was caught there, was now gone, where people and buildings stood, there would now be nothing, there would be no one to rescue.

As Joanne went about standing up, she heard the loudspeaker come online again, it sounded like the voice of Captain Disanto, but it was horribly distorted and slurred, probably due to damage to the communication lines, or an effect of the scrambling field.

But as Joanne managed to partially stand, she was overcome by a wave of nausea and dizziness and fell to her knees. The captain's voice became even more distant as the world began to shake before her eyes and she began to lose consciousness. As the world faded to black around her, Joanne did the only thing she could do, she called on her device and activated her Barrier Jacket, hopefully the Barrier Jacket's inborn strengthening and regeneration fields would help her.

The hairclip that housed Joanne's device, a university graduation present from her parents, began to glow the same teal color as before. The hairclip grew into a silver plastic band that wrapped around her ear before ending as a display screen over her right eye. After the clip itself finished its transformation, the teal glow extended down and covered her entire body. The glow persisted for a few seconds and then slowly faded, when it had completely left, Joanne's military uniform was gone, and in its place was her Barrier Jacket. Her entire body, up to her neck, was now robed in a light teal colored silk like material. The silk material was skin tight, but attached to it were strips of the same silvery plastic material that her hair clip was made out of. The outfit was complimented with a plane white lab coat that was only buttoned half way up.

With her Barrier Jacket now activated, her device began casting various fields on herself. It dulled most of her pain receptors, began stabilizing and strengthen her body, and began doing light repairs.

Within moments the blackness in her vision had faded and the world was no longer spinning. She could now hear what Captain Disanto was yelling into the loudspeaker. Her bruisers were disappearing and the smaller cuts were closing themselves, while the larger gashes had the bleeding halted. Even the slight burns on her face had disappeared before she noticed.

The problem that had led her to almost black out, was unfortunately coming from the back of her head. As she probed the area with her fingertips she was jolted with a stab of intense pain before her device blocked it. Withdrawing her hand so that her device would have time to do some repairs, she saw that her fingers were covered with a layer of sticky blood. Now slightly concerned, she went back and explored the wound again, this time gently, and with a little more caution.

The results were, slightly disheartening. The blood came from a large gash behind her ear, she couldn't see it, but from the feel of it, her device was slowly closing the wound. The problematic part was, that even through the skin and hair, she could still feel the fracture in her skull. The crack was that big, but it was still a problem, and mending bone was something that was beyond her medical skills, and improperly healing bone could have lots of unfortunate side-effects, mainly it could kill her. Her device finished healing the cut and stopped the swelling, but she would have to find a medic or field hospital to do anything about the fracture, but at least it wouldn't hinder her in anyway. She couldn't feel the pain and all of the damage was fixed so she would be fine as long as nothing else made the wound worse.

Since she was now able to stand, she did and looked around. She had fallen down the side of the hill and was now in a valley of sorts between the hill she had been standing on and another. There was a paved path there so she walked out of the grass and stood on the gravel walkway. From where she stood, she could tell that the sun had almost completely set, the hill and the smoldering tree on top of it blocked her view of it, but she could still see part of the majestic vista from before, but it was darker, there were more purples and blue and less red and oranges. Behind her, the sky was dark, dusk had set in and soon it would be night.

While she did take note of the suns position, she was more focused on the small discovery she had made, the hill she had been standing on was not in fact a natural hill, but a raised earthen tomb. In front of her was an elaborate stone entrance decorated with what appeared to be bronze. On the archway over the door, written in an older dialect of Belkan were the words, "Drysko Family Tomb." On the other hill was a similar door, decorated with the same ornate bronze work, but this one was labeled as the "Final Resting Place of Corry Burns."

Despite everything else going on around her, Joanne was more than a little creeped out by being alone, surrounded by ancient tombs at nighttime, in a giant graveyard. The ancient stone doors were something right out of one of the horror visual novels that her mother had been so fond of.

So now with two reasons to leave, a need for a medic and a childhood fear to flee, Joanne decided to leave and find a less eerie locale.

It was funny how certain things in life remain constant. Just like when she was a child and frightened by the dark, the solution was always, go towards a brighter place. So, while humming to herself, Joanne turned from the entrance to Corry Burns' tomb and began following the path back to the center of the island; towards the bright orange glow of the sun.

After she had only taken a few steps, Joanne noticed something that caused her to stop. There was something wrong with the air around her; somehow it felt, denser, like she was walking through a layer of film. She felt actual resistance with each step she took, and she could smell the scent of ozone in the air.

The oddity with the air was certainly and issue, but what really caught Joanne's attention and caused her to pause, was the fact that she remembered experiencing something like this before.

The sense of smell is supposedly deeply ingrained into memory, so she should have been able to place it by scent, which technically she could, the issue was, she worked in a research lab; she smelt ozone every other day. It was the sticky sensation of the air pushing her down that she couldn't place. She must have felt it at the labs, that was the only place she would have experienced something like this, but no matter how hard she wracked her memory, she still drew a blank.

She was just about to give up on recalling what it was, when the situation developed further and helped jog her memory. A deafeningly loud crack shot out across the fields, along with a rumbling that reverberated throughout the ground.

Caught completely unprepared from the painfully loud noise, Joanne had jump backwards a half step just in time for the ground to shake, she lost her footing on the shaking cobblestone path, and for the second time in minutes, found herself sprawled out on her back.

As she landed, she struck her head on one of the larger stones, and almost immediately blacked out. If her device hadn't been currently focusing on the area, she might have, so instead her visions exploded into a white starscape, and she struggled to remain conscious.

Joanne's consciousness waxed in and out while her device went about doing its repairs again. After a while, Joanne discovered that she was able to link coherent thoughts together, and decided to try to open her eyes again. But before that, she checked in with her device, just to make sure she wasn't seriously injured. The AI in her device confirmed that her fall had made the concussion worse, but that nothing had changed with the fracture. Since her device was already keeping the effects of the concussion at bay, Joanne figured she would be fine for now, and opened her eyes.

This time, instead of the endless white expanse with smaller whiter dots in it, all Joanne could see was a rocking, multi-colored haze filled with flashing colorful balls and lines.

Slamming her eyes shut, Joanne decided that she wasn't quite ready to be moving. Having nothing better to do at the moment, she continued her memory recall of the weird sensation. A few months after she had started working at the research labs, an experiment had gone out of control. The specifics of the experiment were classified, but there were enough details to paint a broad picture. The device was part of a two way system, specifically the receiver that was designed to transport large amounts of raw energy over long distances. If it had worked, energy would be able to be transferred where it was needed when it was needed, reducing the need for magical reactors. Unfortunately the device did not work correctly, Joanne wasn't exactly sure what went wrong, but during the test, the device overloaded and exploded. The test had taken place in an underground bunker in one of the Lab's test fields, so no one was injured, but after the blast everyone had gathered to do a review. Joanne remembered the massive crater, almost a half kilometer across, how the space inside of it was distorted, how the massive amounts of energy had caused almost harmful amounts of ozone to form, and how the ambient energy caused the air to be compacted so much that it increased its density.

Now that she was beginning to connect the dots, Joanne jolted into a sitting position and snapped open her eyes; not because she had remembered that the only other time she had experienced these particular atmospheric conditions was in the immediate aftermath of a colossal magical explosion, but because another ear-splitting crack rang out and rebounded off of the hills, while a second tremor shot throughout the ground. The shaking stones underneath her irritated her already bad head injury and she lurched upward with a pained groan.

Now sitting upright with her eyes open, Joanne first fought off another wave of dizziness, once the world stopped tilting to its side; Joanne was treated to the same sight of the colorful haze with flashing spots and lines. She was about to give up and fall backwards and hopefully black out, but she remembered what she had just been thinking about and decided to give looking around another try.

This time, she started out looking at the ground. When she slowly opened up one eye, she could see the little pebbles around the larger pieces of cobble stone, her vision didn't seem to be blurred and everything seemed fine, but she did note that there was a weird colorful glow to the stones, and that they seemed to be moving, perhaps vibrating a bit. She considered to reasons as to why that would be happening, and she didn't like either of them.

Strait down, looking at the ground was working out for her, she also scanned around and was able to see the grass and a few flowers, unfortunately they also had the glow and the same shaking. Taking the next step, Joanne looked to her left, towards the Drysko tomb, the elaborate stone doorway was hidden behind part of the hill, but she could still see the path leading to it and the hill itself, but that glow was still there.

The idea that she was seriously injured and hallucinating was rapidly becoming less possible, which meant that the other, and worse option, was becoming more practical.

However, before Joanne was able to take the last step to confirm her suspicions, another loud crack echoed through the fields, followed in close succession by three more. The ground shook and rumbled so much that Joanne thought she was going to fall, even though she was already lying on her back. The shacking was so intense that she could do nothing but frantically grab at the ground in an effort to stabilize herself. Just as the rumbling began to die down, a fifth, much louder crack, originating from much closer than the others, rang out. Although her device automatically created a small barrier around her ear drums, Joanne still instinctively covered her ears, but both measures proved to be inadequate, Joanne felt a "Pop" within her left ear, followed by an intense wave of pain as her ear drum ruptured. As she cried out in pain and confusion, the shockwave shook her and she nearly blacked out again from her head injury.

A few seconds had passed and Joanne had regained her senses; she was still in extreme pain and still dazed, but she was able to function. She somehow found herself off to the side of the path, underneath a shrub in the flowerbeds. Her device was attempting to repair her ear and limit her pain receptors, while still maintaining the skull fracture and concussion, however it was not making as much progress as she would have liked. Her device almost certainly lacked the regenerative abilities to repair her ear, so she manually told it to stop trying and focus on administering more pain killers.

Once the pain stopped being overwhelming, Joanne crawled out from underneath the bush that she had found herself under. She attempted to stand but only managed to get up to one leg before her balance gave out and she dropped to her knees. Until her device stabilized her balance, she wouldn't be able to stand, but as she started to choke on the smoke and dust that the loud explosions had kicked up, she realized she wasn't going to be able to stay in the little valley between the hills.

A sudden gray glow from in-front of her caught her attention, but before she could look up, it had faded away. However when she turned her gaze skyward, she was treated to the same sight from before, the same multi-colored haze with the blinking spots and flashing lights. This time, Joanne knew it wasn't just an injury induced hallucination, but that each one of those lines and spots were ship mounted capital grade weapons. Each blinking spot was a massive of destructive energies, each flashing line a heavy beam weapon, and all of them were tearing the city apart. Joanne watched as a large light blue energy ball broke through the clouds and raced towards the ground, it shot down towards the center of the island, right after she lost sight of it, another earsplitting crack rang out and the ground began to tremble again.

As a gust of wind shot down the little valley and washed over her, something in Joanne's mind clicked. She had rationalized everything since she had been drafted, every thought had been designed to make her feel ok about being here, and fighting, but it was all lies. Maybe back when she had graduated she had what it took to be a soldier, but after her time in the research labs, whatever resolve and dedication she had, had been replaced. She was woefully unprepared for this, but she had tried her hardest to convince herself that she could handle it; but she was wrong.

Perhaps all soldiers felt like this when faced with an enemy, or perhaps it was a unique experience due to the TSAB, but faced with a rain of destruction falling from the sky, let loose from hundreds of warships beyond the clouds, Joanne decided that she no longer cared.

She could not stay here, she wouldn't be able to fight, no one would. All of the others would die, destroyed and killed from orbit. The torpedoes had likely been aimed at the barriers and the large scale anti-ship platforms, their plan from the start had been an orbital attack, and no one planet side had seen it coming, and they would all die for their oversight.

But Joanne decided she would survive, she would live, because she would not fight or oppose the TSAB. She would flee, jump into the water and swim out towards the ocean, then after the bombardment stopped, she would swim ashore and if the TSAB found her, she would surrender.

So she stood on shaking legs, still off-balance due to her ruptured ear drum, and made her way back down the path, past the two intricate stone tomb entrances and towards the railing that separated the island from the river. She stumbled forward and almost fell, but managed to right herself at the last second; she was just passing the two entrances when another loud crack burst out and the ground shook, this time she fell forward. She skidded to a stop on her knees, her barrier jacket preventing the scrapes that would come from such a fall. She stood back up, and half ran, half fell the remaining few feet to the railing, she slammed into it and was beginning to flip herself over it when she caught sight of the other side of the river.

The TSAB's attack was not limited to the islands were the military was stationed; they were bombarding the entire city, the islands that made up the delta, the riversides, and even back into the suburbs. Their scan should have shown that there were no weapons in those areas, that there was only civilians there, but they still attacked it.

Now, no longer having her view obscured by hills, Joanne was able to witness the full scale of what the TSAB was doing to the city.

All off the high-rise apartments and business, all of those skyscrapers had collapsed under the initial attack; the husks of the once mighty structures were sprawled out across the roads. But even in their death, the TSAB's weapons pounded them into dust. Great colored beams gouged out rivets into the earth while massive energy attacks exploded and left gaping craters. The bombardment was causing so much damage that the riverbed's foundation was giving way and slipping into the waters. Each explosion would kick up great dust clouds that would smother the any fires that would spring up, but then as another attack would come down, it would disperse the clouds and restart the fires. Through the breaks in the dust and smoke clouds, Joanne could see, that all the way to the horizon, the same orbital attacks raining down, not only was the TSAB attacking the city and the suburbs, but even the outlying farmlands were not spared.

In that moment, Joanne understood, just like every other member of the Allied States Military on all of the other contested planets had, that the TSAB was not interested in conquest, that they had no plans to subjected the Allied State's people, but that their goal was to eradicate them. What she was viewing was not a military operation, but an extermination of her people, of her government, of her culture, of everything she had ever known.

As she stood watching, as everything she could see was being destroyed, she knew that the Allied States had never stood a chance, that the scope of the TSAB's strength was beyond what they had thought. No one would come to Oridian's aid, because nothing and no one would remain. Their fleets were powerless in front of the TSAB armada, powerless to halt their advance, powerless to defend themselves.

Unable to continue watching the scene of destruction in front of her, Joanne bowed her head in despair. She wanted to cry, to in some way protest the hopelessness of the situation, but no tears came, she was hallow on the inside, she had nothing else left. She just stood, motionless while watching the ground in front of her, while the TSAB battered the city into dust.

And as a vibrant blue beam sliced through the clouds and slammed into the ground, Joanne Gordon, corporal of the ASN Strikers, former researcher of the Oridian Theoretical Research Labs, faded out of existence.

---

Chapter Glossary.

Theoretical Magic-

One of the most common fields in magical research, Theoretical Magic deals with the creation of new spells and magic devices.

Theoretical Field Research is a sub-section devoted to the creation of new types of fields.

Weapons Satellite-

Stationary weapons platforms, usually around a planet or like body. Weapons satellites are usually automated, but they can be controlled by a command center, either on the planet or also in space.

Satellites are usually armed with weaker weapons that don't have large power requirements, however, large amounts of them can be a potent defense and can greatly augment a defending fleet.

Scrambling Fields-

Scrambling fields block or hamper transmissions and sensors, some target specific types of transmissions or sensors, blocking data transmissions and radar, but not telepathy or inferred.

Scrambling Fields are devastating to an opponent that has no capacity to bypass them, however, almost all major military units have a built in LINE transmission system (Line Integrated Nano Emission), it creates an almost physical link between the two units that moves through the Dimensional lines, because the transmission doesn't travel through open space or random dimensional lines, Scrambling fields have a very limited ability to interfere.

There is no LINE transmission system for sensors, and a powerful scrambling field almost entirely blocks long range sensors and interferes with short range ones.

Note. The TSAB's new scrambling field does block the LINE system. It seems to fill the dimensional lines with static that hinders the movement of any signals, and teleportation. The field doesn't penetrate a ships shields so internal system work, but anything outside is hindered, however, with enough power a signal can be forced through the static for short distances, the larger the distance the more power required.

Lawful Use of Weapons in Warfare Summit-

An inter-dimensional arms treaty providing rules on what weapons can be used during war, and how. The summit bans weapons that inflict unnecessary pain, weapons that attack the targets mind, weapons that cause dimensional disturbances, any weapon with enough power to destroy an entire planet, and weapons that travel through the dimensional lines amongst other things. The reasons for the bans range from humane reasons to overall safety reasons.

The summit also lays rules for when weapons can be used and provides rules of engagement and things focused on environmental damage and civilian casualties.

Few notes.

Orbital attacks are strictly prohibited, the lowest grade, attacking military forces away from civilized area's is an A class war crime, and everyone involved with the attack is considered a willing participant and is tried, that includes the captions and bridge crews.

The TSAB's Arc-en-Ciel Cannon is banned due to its damage to the dimensional barriers and the ease of which it can cause dimensional disturbances. However the TSAB only equips a small amount of its fleet with the cannon and keeps them close to Naval Headquarters and only uses them in Lost Logia incidents, the cannon has never been used in war.

The summit does not govern what mages are allowed to do. This is due to the wording in the Summit's Charter; it specifically says weapons, which are designated as devices that have pre-set spells in them. Since mages create and cast their own spells, they are fundamentally different and are not controlled by the Summit's rules.

Anti-Ship Platform-

Large scale, usually mobile, platforms that provide planet based defense against enemy ships. Almost all are designed to target ships that are inside of the atmosphere. Firing at ships outside of the atmosphere grants a temporary break in the ban on orbital bombardment, allowing the ships to return fire.

Belkan Strike Arts-

An ancient Belkan combat style predating the more modern Belkan magic system that utilizes the cartridge system. Strike Arts are a hand to hand combat style focusing on strikes and has some grappling mixed in. It has almost no long or mid ranged attacks and focuses almost entirely on unarmed close range combat.

Enhancer-

Mages that focus on the strengthening of their allies instead of direct combat potential. Besides her summoning abilities, Caro would be an Enhancer.

Mech infantry-

Robotic infantry, Like Starwar's droids. Mech infantry can be relatively humanoid in shape and capacity, or can be as large as a small building. Some are mostly mindless and have limited abilities, while others are advanced and have near human mental abilities.