Here's the twenty third chapter, folks!
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Jostanos, B127, kazikamikaze24, guest, thank you for your reviews, folks!
* AN: This chapter hasn't been beta-read.
Disclaimer: "Harry Potter" and "Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha" belong to their respective owners. No profit is being made. The same goes for any other media that might be used as the sources of ideas and inspiration.
"speaking"
"telepathy"
「Devices speaking」
'thinking'
"spells"
Additional Disclaimer: The authors of this story in no way approve murder as a solution to interpersonal conflicts.
Power of Eclipse
Chapter XXIII: Missions
The week following Harry's practice fight against Captain Takamachi were spent on integrating him as best as possible into the Forwards of the Riot Force 6. This included a lot of team exercises, with him being a third member of the Team Lighting, as well as individual spars against the other Privates.
And thanks to all of the advantages Eclipse Factor gave him, especially now that he had a Divider, Harry managed to prove himself as the strongest fighter of the five. Subaru Nakaijma of the Team Stars came as a close second: between her apparently-superhuman strength and durability and surprisingly-potent Magic-amplified martial arts, she was an extremely-capable fighter. But so was he. And he could fly, however awfully, under his own power whereas she couldn't. Thus, their fights ended up as battles of attrition, and he held an advantage there.
On the other hand, Teana and, especially, Caro currently lacked any spells powerful enough to overcome his AMF. And as they specialized in Magical sniping and long-range support respectively, they essentially lost their spars the moment Harry got in melee range with them. And thanks to his Charge, he could do that with ease. Caro's pet dragon, Freid, was quite powerful and intelligent for a youngling it was, but ultimately unable to match even a semi-trained Mage.
Erio was an interesting case. The redhead could hit really hard with his spear-like Device, and he was very fast. At the same time his Barrier Jacket offered very little protection, to the point where one good hit would be enough to knock the boy down. And thanks to his Eclipse Factor, Harry could last long enough to get that one hit in.
Team exercises weren't going nearly as well for the Eclipse Driver, though. He wasn't very good at cooperating closely with others, unless they were Zero. And then there was the issue of his Anti-Magic Field interfering with Caro's support spells, negatively affecting the performance of Team Lightning. That was a rather big problem. And the Riot Force 6 commanders were aware of that.
In the end, it was decided that Harry and Zero would act as an independent team - still under command of Enforcer Testarossa or Lieutenant Signum when in the field - rather than as extra members of Team Lightning proper.
Which, quite honestly, suited the young Potter just fine.
He didn't have anything against either of them personally - not yet, at any rate - he just was someone way more comfortable working with Zero, his ever-loyal Reactor Plug, as his sole companion.
Another notable thing that happened during this time was a report from the team of researchers working on the drug to suppress or at least control the negative mental effects of the Eclipse Factor. Apparently, they were making some progress even if they weren't ready to make an experimental batch of the medicine just yet. And that was not just because the actual process of designing the drug was difficult. With Harry being the only known Driver around, it would have to be pushed into limited-scale production without proper clinical trials as those were simply impossible to organize at the moment.
It was still good news for Harry, even if the 'report' amounted to him being told to wait longer. At the very least it meant that the Bureau was actually upholding their end of the deal - unless, of course, all those scientific-looking diagrams and formulas within the document were just random nonsense.
~/ *** \~
It wasn't long before Riot Force 6 had their first actual combat deployment. It was an emergency one too. That day started pretty normally, but shortly before lunch Yagami received a call from her higher-ups and then Long Arch went on high alert with the support crew summoned to their stations within the command center while the combat personnel were sent straight to the landing pad where the transport helicopter was waiting for them.
They were already in flight when the details of the mission were finally explained. Apparently, a cargo train transporting a valuable Lost Logia relic was attacked by a force of hostile drones about an hour and a half away from Cranagan. Thus, their mission was to destroy the hostiles as well as to secure the relic and keep it safe until the train reaches its destination.
Of course, things weren't that simple. The drones that had boarded the train and were currently trying to steal the Lost Logia from its container aboard were not the only ones around. There also were several dozen flying drones - of the kind that never appeared in the training scenarios Harry and his fellow Forwards had gone through - escorting the train and making sure that the 'boarding party' wasn't disturbed until it finished its dirty deed.
Captain Takamachi went to deal with them and, judging by flashes of pink light and explosions, she was doing a pretty good job at it. Still, there were a lot of flying drones there so she was going to be busy for some time yet. Thus, the task of dealing with the drones inside the train fell to the Forwards and Reinforce Zwei, who would be playing the role of their tactical coordinator and support.
"Alright." The fairy-like Unison Device began, addressing the six privates in front of her. "The relic is supposed to be in the seventh car, near the middle of the train." A projected screen next to her helpfully highlighted the said car on the live image of the speeding train. "We will deploy in three groups. Team Starts and Team Lightning will enter the train from the front and the back and proceed towards the center, eliminating gadget drones as necessary."
"Alright." Subaru quipped.
"Meanwhile." Reinforce Zwei continued. "Private Potter, Zero and I will remain on the outside. Our job is to intercept possible enemy reinforcements, prevent enemy escape with the relic should they overcome the container's security, and provide support for teams Stars and Lightning as necessary."
Harry glanced at Zero, who was seated next to him. The silver-haired Reactor Plug nodded silently before initiating a Reaction with him. And as she did that, she also activated his Combat Protective Clothing out. The other Forwards took that as a signal to get ready for fighting as well.
And soon enough the helicopter was above the train, allowing the strike teams to deploy.
Harry went first, diving towards the middle car and using his limited ability to fly to break his fall before he crashed right through the roof. Reinforce Zwei flew gracefully after him a few moments later. And as neither of them could see any hostiles, the remaining Forwards were given a green light to deploy as well. Team Stars came first with Subaru carrying Teana on her back. They headed for the train's front using whatever Magic the purple-haired girl used to create roads in the sky. Team Lightning followed them out of the helicopter a few moments later, flying towards the back of the train on top of Caro's pet dragon.
Not half a minute later, both teams reported that they had successfully entered the train. Those were almost immediately followed by the reports about hostile drones trying to ambush them. Thankfully, those drones weren't numerous or strong enough to do anything more than slow them down.
Harry, of course, was itching for some action of his own. Just sitting there on the roof waiting for the moment some extra firepower was needed didn't really do enough to satisfy his Eclipse-induced battle-lust. Thankfully for him (and not very thankfully for the others) he needn't wait for a fight to come to him for long. Whoever was behind this attack on the train saw that the original group of the flying drones had been engaged - and was probably destroyed by now - by Captain Takamachi, so they sent in another one.
About two dozen of those same flying drones had appeared from behind a rocky outcropping and were now quickly closing in on the train. In response, Harry summoned the Bible of the Silver Cross and prepared to use its pages as Magical projectiles: while he could fly, he wasn't anywhere good enough at it to engage multiple enemies in an aerial battle. And he needed to protect Reinforce Zwei so that she could focus on her team coordination duties. So, long-range shoot-out was the way to go - even if that didn't feel anywhere as good as smashing enemies with his strikes directly.
He had to quickly swap the prepared 'spell' to a wall of pages to intercept a barrage from the drones as they turned out to have a far greater range than he had expected. Thankfully, their attacks weren't overwhelmingly strong, even in numbers, so his defense held. Then, as soon as the initial barrage was over, Harry swapped the pages back into Magical bullets and sent the whole lot of them after the drones.
Most of these shots missed and not all that actually hit drones were able to destroy them, but it was enough to disrupt their formation. And then, before either side could execute their next move, a new player joined the fray: a hail of golden Magical bullets signaled the arrival of Enforcer Testarossa.
"Good job." She called as she began pulling the flight of drones away from the train. "I'll take it over here." Harry let out an annoyed sigh - he was itching for some fighting at the moment - but didn't say anything to his commander.
And so things went back to the previous 'status quo' with him standing on top of the train, waiting for something requiring his intervention to happen.
It took some time for such an event to happen, even if in reality only maybe a couple of minutes had passed. The train was crossing a rather wide river when there was a small explosion in one of the rear cars. It wasn't powerful enough to derail the train or even cause anything more than a simple jolt, but it did blow a hole in the side doors. And a few moments later Erio was thrown out of that hole, presumably by whatever gadget drone he had been fighting when the explosion happened.
The red-haired boy couldn't fly under his own power, and mana-boosters in his spear-shaped device couldn't keep him afloat in the air either, but they were enough to steady him and slow his fall down enough for Caro - now on top of re-enlarged Freid the dragon - to safely catch him.
"Should I go in and continue their mission in their stead… Sergeant?" Harry asked the fairy-like Unison Device floating a couple of feet away from him.
"I suppose you should." Reinforce Zwei said. "Go."
Giving her a small nod, the Eclipse Driver hastily made his way to the car the Team Lightning had been turfed out from. He then paused for a moment to build up his mana in preparation for a possible fight before swinging over the edge of the roof and dashing inside.
There was no ambush waiting for him there, though. All that he could see inside the train car was a couple of deformed crates and heaps of scrap metal that once were gadget drones. Apparently, Caro had her dragon shred these machines before she dashed out to save her teammate.
Letting out a small sigh, Harry remained on high alert as he began threading towards the front of the train. He was quite close to the seventh car where the relic they were supposed to protect was located, so it wasn't unreasonable to believe that a significant portion of the drones would be in the adjacent cars.
His suspicions were proven to be rather correct when opening the door into the next car ahead had immediately resulted in a hail of Magical bullets fired at him by a group of five small-ish gadget drones floating near the center of a mostly-empty train car. They looked a lot like the ones TSAB - or, at the very least, Riot Force 6 - used for training exercises, but had additional cannons mounted on four mechanical 'tentacles'. The shots didn't appear to be especially powerful, but the sheer number of them could easily pose serious or even fatal danger to an unprepared mage.
Harry, thankfully, wasn't one. So he was able to duck into cover and his Anti-Magic Field and Combat Protective Clothing absorbed the few shots he failed to evade.
He waited for the drones to stop firing before leaving his cover and immediately Charging into them. And despite their enhanced offensive capabilities, these drones proved to be as fragile as the ones he had fought in the combat exercises. Three of them were immediately destroyed by the force of impact while the remaining two were sent crashing into the sides of the car, damaged but still operational. Harry quickly fixed that with a couple of well-placed shots from his Divider.
With no other drones in sight in this car, the green-eyed Eclipse Driver continued onwards.
The next train car had a number of small crates sitting in the corners and a large spherical gadget drone floating in the middle, obviously waiting for him. And just like the smaller ones he had fought shortly beforehand, this one was much more dangerous than the replicas he had to deal with during his training. Those most definitely didn't have that many high-power Magical cannons as a part of their arsenal.
And the gadget drone in front of him wasted no time bringing those to bear at him. Thankfully those took a few moments to charge their shots up, giving Harry enough time to move aside. Alas, that wasn't quite enough to completely avoid the cannonfire as the spells they used produced sizable energy explosions when they hit something.
A direct hit from something like that would hurt, a lot. And there wasn't enough space to completely evade the explosions. His defenses could keep him safe from that for a time, but they too had a limit. He needed to destroy - or, at least, disarm - the drone quickly, Harry thought. And so he Charged at his mechanical enemy, hoping to take out some of its side-cannons just like he did during his combat test.
Unfortunately for him, extra weapons weren't the only improvements his gadget drone had. Somehow, it was able to retreat its cannons under the protection of its armor, all in a brief moment it took Harry to cross the distance separating them. And thus his Charge attack did little more than scrape the drone's paint job. Then the damned thing ran an electric discharge across its outer shell. That wasn't even an actual spell, only its aftereffect, so the Eclipse Factor was far less effective in negating it.
The electric shock caused Harry to stumble a couple of steps backwards, nearly falling on his ass as he barely avoided tripping over his feet. It also put enough distance between him and the gadget drone for it to bring his cannons back out and try to shoot him again.
Thankfully, he was able to recover fast enough - not without some help from Zero - to roll aside and avoid the worst of the energy explosions the cannon shots produced. The drone immediately started charging the next volley up, but this time the young Potter was the first one to fire: using up all of the mana he had currently had stored in his Divider, he sent a spread of shots right into the cannons. The rather-delicate Magitech machinery inside those cannons didn't like it very much and, after shorting for a couple of seconds, exploded, seriously damaging the drone's side. And, more importantly, ensuring it didn't have an armored panel there anymore.
It was a weakness just begging to be exploited, and Harry happily obliged.
But as he Charged at the now-less-protected side of the gadget drone, Harry quickly discovered two things. First being that the damn machine had a second, inner, layer of armor that could successfully absorb the force of his 'attack'. And second: it had more weapons than just its side cannons and an electrified outer shell. Six pairs of mechanical tentacles - each tipped with a small Magitech cannon, just like it was the case with the smaller drones earlier - emerged from the back of the robot. And almost immediately started firing at him, forcing Harry to back off. Which, quite inconveniently, brought him back into the firing arc of the remaining side cannons.
And his Divider no longer had any mana stored in it to do something about those. Not that he had time to just stand there and aim his shots as the smaller cannons kept pressuring him with their attacks.
That is not to say that he was out of options here. He still had the Bible of the Silver Cross. And with some help from Zero he is able to utilize its pages for both defense and offense all at once with some forming a protective swarm around him while the rest were turned Magical bullets. The accuracy of the said bullets wasn't exactly great, but there were enough of them to render it a non-issue: once his barrage came to an end, the gadget drone no longer had any cannons left intact.
The gadget drone no longer has any means to attack him at range, but that doesn't mean it stops trying to take him out. It just switches to trying to run him over like a giant, electrified wrecking ball. It wasn't especially fast or hard to dodge, but… The drone was a big and heavy ball of metal that could wreck the entire train car. Or even cause a train derailment. With him, Team Stars, and the Relic they were supposed to protect, still inside. That would be a very bad thing.
Thus, he had to figure out a way to destroy this machine, and quickly.
Swiftly dodging out of the drone's way, Harry saw that it could only roll forward and needed to turn around - rather slowly - before it could try running him over again. And while it was doing so, the weak point created by the blown out armor panel was easily accessible for quite some time. A plan to abuse that immediately formed in Harry's head, though he'd need a bit more time before he could execute it as he was still re-charing his Divider's cannons.
Some thirty or so seconds and two more dodges later, the green-eyed Driver was finally ready to execute his plan. Once again dodging out of the drone's way, he waited for his robotic enemy to start turning around. Then once he had a clear shot at its 'weak point', he Charged straight at it. And while the drone's remaining armor had absorbed most of the impact, the weaker inner plating still got bent out of shape a little. Capitalizing on that, Harry struck the weakened plating with his Divider before firing all of the available shots into it.
That was enough to finally punch a small hole through the drone's armor. And Harry wasted no time stabbing his blade through that hole in hopes that it will damage something important within the gadget drone and make it shut down.
He succeeded. Well, mostly, as the stupid machine refused to just turn off peacefully and entered the self-destruct mode instead. It didn't explode immediately, but the couple of seconds of warning that Harry got wasn't enough to make a difference. That was barely enough time for him to summon a flimsy Magical shield. Not that it did much against the fiery inferno of an explosion that rocked the train car. Thankfully for everyone, though, the train managed to stay on the tracks and keep moving.
Being so close to the explosion, the young Driver ended up thrown against the wall, hard, and even his Combat Protective Clothing could do only so much against such an impact. His back and his head throbbed with pain and he could feel some blood soaking into his hair. He may also have blacked out for a moment or two there… Of course, Eclipse Factor could patch him up quickly, but that didn't mean his injuries didn't hurt.
"Is everything alright there, pr-... Harry?" Reinforce Zwei asked him over …whatever TSAB was using in place of personal radio sets.
"I'll manage." Harry replied as he pushed himself back onto his feet. "These big gadget drones can self-destruct." There was a brief pause, before Zwei replied.
"Noted. I'll pass this over to Team Stars. Zwei out."
Letting out a sigh, the young Eclipse Driver leaned back against the cool metal wall of the train car and waited for his regeneration to bring him back to full health. He was pretty close to where the Relic they were supposed to protect from drones was - it was either in the next car, or in the one after that - so a minute of rest shouldn't cause any big problems for him.
Once he felt mostly fine, Harry continued on his way. The next car was once again mostly empty, of both actual cargo and enemy drones: there were only three small ones there. And while they were a bit too spaced out to take them all out in one attack, it still took the green-eyed teen only a few moments to destroy them. The closest one was turned into scrap by his Charge while the remaining two fell to the Divider's cannon.
With nothing else to keep him there, Harry then proceeded towards the next train car. And as soon as he opened the door leading there, he saw things. First and foremost and a strange mechanical device the size of a large cupboard that was used to store and protect a metal briefcase that, undoubtedly, contained the Lost Logia Relic the Riot Force 6 was supposed to protect. And right next to it was another one of those big gadget drones, though it had its mechanical tentacles wielding what looked like a mix of hacking and lock-picking equipment rather than additional Magitech cannons. And Team Stars was already battling it.
"Divine Buster!" Subaru called out loudly as she used a bastardized, melee-version of Captain Takamachi's signature bombardment spell to cave the drone's frontal armor plate in. She then swiftly delivered another punch, not quite as devastating but still very powerful, to further damage the machine. She then quickly moved aside, allowing her partner to put a number of Magical bullets into the resultant hole. And whatever those bullets hit, it was certainly to trigger the drone's self-destruct mechanism. Except Subaru stepped in and ripped the detonator out, crushing it in her armored glove before it could cause any explosions.
"All gadget drones have been neutralized." Harry heard Teana report, probably to Reinforce Zwei. "We have the relic secured. Over."
"Good work." Came the voice of Enforcer Testarossa. "And congratulations on completing your first mission. Please stay with the Relic until the train arrives at its destination."
"Yes, Ma'am!"
~/ *** \~
The Forwards were given a few days off following their success in the relic protection mission. And Harry used this as an opportunity to spend some time with Sieglinde (and Victoria), before the Jeremiah heiress decides to wander away at the call of her Nomad's blood.
This, of course, included the two of them sparring against each other. And while the Eclipse Driver still lost every time, he felt like he was doing at least a little bit better now. His training under Captain Takamachi, Signum and Zafira was definitely paying off. Even if he still had about zero control over this genetic memory thing that the Jeremiah bloodline was known for.
But these days off passed quickly and then his life was back to the usual Riot Force 6 routine. For a short while, at least. Then, one afternoon, he was summoned by the commanding officer:
"You're here, private Potter. Good." Lt. Colonel Yagami said as Harry stepped into her office.
"Ma'am?" The green-eyed teen replied, having no idea why he was summoned. As far as he knew, he had done nothing wrong and his trainers had no complaints about his performance either. Well, none that would warrant bringing it up to the commanding officer.
"Please take a seat. This is probably going to be a long conversation." Hayate said while nodding towards one of the guest seats in her office. Once Harry was seated, she continued. "The Bureau's Main Office and the General Affairs Department wish to broaden the investigation of your connection to the Jeremiah bloodline. To this end, I'm being ordered to send you on a mission back to your home World with a view to trace the Jeremiah blood through your ancestry, hopefully all the way back to one of the MIA clan members mentioned in the journals young Miss Jeremiah lent us."
"I see…" Harry breathed out. While he liked to think that he wasn't stupid, investigatory work like the one they apparently wanted him to do definitely wasn't his forte.
"In addition to that." Hayate continued. "You will be tasked with deploying communication relays that would allow a connection to the TSAB information network from your World. You will be required to send to bi-weekly updates on the progress of your main mission." That sounded like a major pain in the ass, but the Eclipse Driver successfully suppressed his groan of annoyance.
"I take it, Zero will be coming with me, Ma'am?" He asked instead.
"Yes. She will be the only operative that can go with you on this mission. Riot Force 6 unfortunately can't spare any of its manpower for this side mission and neither does the General Affairs Department." Hayate replied. "That said, understanding the scope of the mission you're being given, the Bureau will give you the necessary material support." She paused for a moment, before continuing: "This includes a supply of mana cartridges and a deviceless discharger to use them; material wealth, most likely in the form of gold, that you should have no trouble using on non-Administered Worlds to help fund your investigation; the aforementioned communication beacons you; and, of course, the genetic data associated with the Jeremiah clan, including blood samples from Sieglinde. You may request additional gear and, if that is within reason, I do not see your request being denied."
That was a lot to think about and Harry stayed silent for a while before finally speaking up:
"When do I… when do we leave?" He asked.
"There is no set date for that that I know of, but you're expected to depart within the next ten days or so." Hayate replied.
"I see. I should have enough time to make sure I have everything I think I will need for this mission then." The Eclipse Driver said thoughtfully. After a few moments of silence, he asked: "Should I send my requests for additional equipment, should I need it, to you, Ma'am?"
"Yes." Lt. Colonel Yagami replied.
"Also, does it mean that while Zero and I are doing this investigation, we won't be taking part in the normal mission given to Riot Force 6?" Harry asked then.
"Yes, you will be exempted from normal missions when you're off Mid-Childa and, depending on what exactly you're doing at the moment, when on Mid-Childa as well. Of course, should a sufficiently-dire crisis situation arise, you may be recalled from your mission to assist with the fighting here." Hayate said. This was followed by a period of silence. "Any other questions?" She finally asked.
"No, not at the moment." He replied.
"Very well then." Hayate said then. "Dismissed."
"Yes, Ma'am." Harry replied. He then stood up and, after giving his commander a brief salute, hastily walked out of her office.
That's all, folks!
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