Endless Waltz

By: Daishi Prime

-22 – Hack the Planet-

Standing in the waiting area, arms crossed as she frowned at nothing, Szash was far less happy than she had any right to be. She had just successfully seized a major city – and a nation, for all intents and purposes. She had discovered a great deal about Al Hanthis' enemies, including the fact that they did not have the skills, confidence, or numbers to stand against her in open war. She had pulled a fast one on her enemies' most dangerous leader, and introduced an element of emotional instability into that leader's future plans. Not an hour gone, the Conclave had given her free rein to use the full resources of the Guard to bring about an end to the decades long rebellion, including an unprecedented freedom of deployment of the Guard, the Seed of Leviathan, and greater weapons. All in all, she was coming off what had to be one of the most successful weeks of her life.

Instead, she was feeling more pressure than ever, more nerves. Her people and Yosho's were still securing Cairo, but were already finding out some disturbing truths. Homeworld had billions of people on it, a ridiculous population concentration that the planet should not have been able to support without magic. She had at her disposal roughly a thousand Guard mages, another ten thousand or so Protectors , and maybe a quarter million trained adult mages that could be pressed into service, if she wanted to revert Al Hanthis to the sort of hyper-militarist society the Conclave had been created to end. The primitive local military forces were nothing, only their most indiscriminate weapons could hurt her troops and they would not use those easily. But there were millions of rebel mages, who lacked individual power but possessed the sort of fanatic hatred that resulted in insane casualties on all sides.

Those concerns were what lead her here, to the tightly secured waiting area near the very edge of the city's main platform. It was bare of decoration, plain metal walls and ceiling, floor covered with functional non-skid. Perched in the upper corners of the room were four compact turrets, just as undisguised – crude magic-accelerated projectile weapons specifically for containing what lurked beyond the blast door she had yet to approach.

The normal door, set in the side wall to the left of the blast door, slid open to admit Eri and Gali, who both looked at her, then shared a grin. "Master Adept," Eri said, "we have the first reports from the initial garrison force."

Glad of the distraction, Szash waved the two over, "Good news, I hope?"

"Mostly, ma'am," Gali answered. "Their reports are more detailed than those of the assault forces, naturally, but mostly track. The short version is, we have the city and, through the city, Egypt. There will be a refugee issue for a while, people trying to slip into other countries, especially military formations. But that should not be a sizable portion of the population, and will no doubt contain the most fractious individuals, thus removing a source of trouble."

"There is still some fighting in the warrens," Eri expanded, "apparently individual soldiers or militia troopers who won't admit they lost. Patrols are wrapping them up now. Other than the missing mages from the first wave, casualties are light, mostly younger mages who did not pay attention to their surroundings, and none of those are fatalities. The best piece of news is, we captured the airport intact. It has good land connections to the warehouse areas along the river and plenty of space for holding cargo or bringing in lighters. Once we're certain of site security, we can set up relay portals to simplify supplying Cairo and Al Hanthis even more. In fact, the force holding the airport should be ready to hand over to the Protectors by the end of this week. Some of Yosho's people are there now beginning familiarization."

"Excellent," Szash nodded "the sooner we can hand over to Yosho, the better. We don't have enough Guard to sit around holding the civilians' hands. What about future operations?"

"The first four strike teams of the second wave will be ready to go by Wednesday, but per your orders, we're holding them for training until Hong Kong," Gali said. "Though I would suggest we send the canal strike force sooner. Holding the Suez will give us long-range clout with the various governments, something to negotiate with to keep them out of Africa while we secure it. Master Inoz, one of the old pre-Void traders, has already approached several Conclave members about taking on the canal as a project, expanding it for larger vessels. It won't have long-term profitability, not once we integrate a real modern transport system, but until then, ships are still prime movers."

Szash turned it over for a few seconds, then nodded slowly, "Send the canal team... day after tomorrow, barring events. It's part of Egypt, so we can claim it outright without too much risk of outside intervention. What about the Hong Kong operation?"

"The strike force is mostly ready," Eri said slowly, frowning slightly, "but I'm still worried about its size. I understand this is not our primary focus, but I'm uncomfortable sending such a small force that far afield, even on a pure denial mission. I'd be more comfortable with a full company, ma'am."

"That's what the Seed are going along for," Szash said, then grimaced, "to be blunt, we can afford to lose the Seed if it goes wrong, we can't afford to lose a full company. Stick with two platoons, fifty mages should be plenty, so long as they aren't more of Esar's incompetents."

"Oh, the Five-oh-First are plenty good enough," Eri smiled at that, "I'm not worried there. I just..." she shrugged, "I'd be more comfortable with all of them, ma'am. Seed are nasty weapons, but they're limited by their excellence. Given the force limits, though, I've assigned the entire Five-oh-First to intensive simulator drills. I told them the two best platoons of their four will go to Hong Kong, so they should be giving their all. I'll pick the two platoons three days before we launch, give them a day off, then two days of intensive drill before launch."

"Sounds good," Szash agreed, "don't work them too hard, though. We'll need them at peak, if you push them too hard in the sims they'll come off edge."

"Yes ma'am," Eri chuckled a little. She had, many years ago, been the one to call Szash on that very mistake. "Are you still planning to lead the assault yourself, ma'am?"

"This one, probably the second one, as well," Szash told her. "For all their importance, the primary operations will be fairly straight-forward, even in the face of active resistance. The strike raids will be where everyone's attention is, where the most resistance is. My presence will lend credence to their threat, beyond the mere damage we inflict."

"It will also be where the best fighters and biggest challenges will be," Gali added.

Szash smirked at him, just a little, "Which only adds greater weight to the need for my presence. Five-oh-first only has three Master Adepts in it, and another four Masters. The rest are all Adepts. They've got the tactics, but an extra Master Adept can't hurt."

Both her aides gave her flat looks, and she figured Gali was going to complain, but the siren from the blast door cut him off. The blast door flashed, then the shields released and the heavy armored construct began rising into the ceiling. It was lifted by a simple telekinetic field, purely magic, rather than any number of more complicated and reliable methods, for beyond it lay the Seed of Leviathan.

A uniformed tech, in Protector uniform, stood beyond the door. "General? The first Alpha is reactivated, and ready for imprinting."

Szash grimaced distastefully, but nodded, "Lead on, journeyman."

It was not far to the reactivation bay, where two more techs were standing with a pair of Guard soldiers armed with specially made stun-batons. No magic in those, just primitive electrical currents and powerful chemical anesthetics. For most Seed, such precautions were rarely taken. For an Alpha, they were scandalously light.

The creature standing in the center of the bay was still dripping water after having the containment fluids washed off. It was huge, a quarter again larger than the standard Seed, correspondingly more massive, and Szash could feel its enhanced null-field pulling at her magic. An Alpha Seed, the smarter brethren of the standard versions, crafted to lead their fellows. In furtherance of keeping the dangerous creatures under control, Alphas had to be imprinted on specific officers that would issue them orders, otherwise they stood in place, lacking higher brain functions. A single cable lead out of the base of the creature's skull, patched into the city's control computers for initialization.

Szash studied it for a few moments, then sighed and stepped into arm's reach. Resting a bare hand in its open mouth, she stated, "Initialize, recognize Szash Freisan, commanding General of the Guard and Master Adept."

The Seed's tongue stirred, pressing into her palm, and she felt a distasteful shiver down her spine. She suppressed the reaction, especially the urge to rip her hand out of the Seed's mouth, as both responses would invite it to attack. Instead, as it sampled her DNA and processed her voice, she remained perfectly still, staring it in the eyes, willing it to obey.

The process took all of five seconds, then the Alpha stepped back, releasing her hand, and went to its knees, bowing its head to the floor. Her implants translated its response into audible speech, "DNA identification confirmed. Commanding General of the Guard recognized. Voice imprint registered. Linker core imprint registered. Alpha initialized. Awaiting orders."

"Obey Guard officers as me, recognize standard implant signals. Remain in containment facilities until dispatch to target. Mission objective is interdiction of mundane and non-magical combat forces. Prime command – do not injure any humans that are not armed and do not use magic. End order."

The Seed curled up slightly further, "By your command."

Taking a towel from the journeyman to wipe off her hand, Szash stepped out into the hall without another word. She could not get out of that room fast enough. Imprinting an Alpha was not precisely difficult, but... "Gods, I hate those things."

"They are just another weapon, ma'am," Eri chided her.

"That thing is smarter than my cat," Szash countered, stopping outside the next bay, "and nastier. It's not a weapon, it's a nightmare. If we had twice as many Guard as we do, I'd never have asked for clearance to deploy them. Those things just bother me."

"Some people react differently to the Seed," Gali said. "Unpredictable, who they disturb. Nothing to be ashamed of, ma'am."

"So long as it doesn't affect the job," Szash grimaced. "You know what bothers me the most about those things, though?"

"Ma'am?"

"Part of me wants to just turn them lose. Pick a city, unleash the Seed, let them raze it to ground in front of the entire world, then threaten to do the same elsewhere unless they all surrender."

"If we thought it would work, I would have suggested just that, ma'am," Eri offered. "I do have some issues about using the Seed, mostly given how hard they are to control in the field, but they are just weapons."

"Regardless, we're using them. Eri, make sure the rest of the initial wave are ready to go by sundown tomorrow," Szash ordered, staring at the next Alpha waiting for her. Technically, she could have had subordinates imprint the Alphas, but that would have felt like skirting her responsibilities. Whoever the Alpha was imprinted to was responsible for that Alpha's actions, and the actions of its subordinates. "I'm going to be stuck down here the rest of the day imprinting, but should have all four hundred Alphas done by deployment time. Let me know once the transport arrangements are made, or if you run into any problems you need my rank to solve."

Eri and Gali saluted and left leaving Szash to face the next Alpha. Steeling her nerves, she walked in, set her hand in its mouth, and repeated, "Initialize, recognize Szash Freisan, commanding General of the Guard and Master Adept."

00000

As evening settled on the valley the day after Cairo, Signum found Hayate in the strangest place – the mouth of the cave, a ways above the northern pass. The February before, the children had counter-attacked Li's assault from here, and the pass itself still bore the scars of that battle. The rocks leading from the pass to the cave were scarred and scoured from Noriko's Cascade, and the blast crater Laura's Positron Buster had left was plainly visible, soil blasted away to bare rock.

Approaching quietly, she asked, "Hayate-sama? Are you all right?"

Hayate looked over at her, then gave her a small smile. "Yes, Signum, I'm fine. Just thinking."

"Would you like to talk about it?"

Hayate chuckled slightly, "I'm not brooding again, Signum. I'm thinking."

"Apologies," Signum said, "but this is a fairly depressing spot to think."

"Do you really think so?"

"The children went to battle from here," Signum replied, "gave up some of their innocence and childhood."

"True," Hayate said, "but more importantly, they chose to do that. Oh, the battle was forced on them, but they chose to counter-attack instead of fleeing. That may not have been the proper choice, what they should have done in the legal sense, but I think they chose the better course. I'm not up here wondering why, I'm reminding myself what my kids can do, how strong they are. Also, I'm wondering what Szash's next move is going to be. She has more mages than we do, but not enough to really conquer the planet. Those offers she made were bad, but too clumsy to be a real espionage attempt. She's up to something. How are the children dealing with it?"

Signum settled into place next to Hayate, trying to find what Hayate saw in the pass. "Well, Laura and Chen-chi organized a lottery to see how they are going to 'chastise' Szash for her insults. Noriko's idea seems to be the most popular, trying her for 'inducement to treason'. Based on the children's nationalities, Toushiro figures they can have her charged in every country in the world. Laura is insisting that she will be the one to take on Szash. She doesn't trust the others not to go too far. Mostly it sounds like them being them. The only one that truly worries me is Natalia. She is taking Szash's offer rather badly."

"How so?" Hayate frowned, "I have been trying to keep an eye on her without pressuring her, but..."

"Hmm, Shamal is more aware of it than I am," Signum said, "she has been speaking with each of the students about this afternoon. I am not worried about Natalia accepting the offer, quite the opposite. The problem is, she is not joining in the plotting with the other children, but sitting off to one side, working on plans. Shamal and I fear she may give in to her anger and try something on her own. Shamal will discuss the matter in detail when you have time, but Natalia is the only worry I have there."

"I'll talk to Shamal in the morning," Hayate said, "about all of them. I'm not sure I like the idea of the kids trying to take on Szash single-handed, I want Nanoha and Yuuno facing her, they should be more than enough. What about our prisoners?"

"Hughes is looking for a place to put them," Signum answered. "Unfortunately, for the moment the only safe place is in the smaller workrooms here. Your bindings are solid, but they can be broken, and Hughes does not have any sealed cells available, not strong ones, at least. He will probably have to make them. Until then, except for Esar, we will hold the prisoners here. Noriko has left a message with her father, inquiring about the possibility of the Japanese government holding them, but he has not answered yet."

"And Esar?"

Signum hesitated on that question, knowing Hayate would not like the answer. "He remains at Tokyo University Hospital, sedated, with Vita guarding him. He will lose the arm, just below the elbow. There is nothing left alive below the elbow, nothing to take Shamal's healing. Other than that, he will heal normally in a few weeks. Shamal thinks she and Cid-chan may be able to trigger true regeneration, to re-grow the arm, but she is not sure."

"Tell her not to worry about him, at least not now," Hayate said, then sighed. "We have come to war, and that necessitates hard choices. We need her energies focused on keeping us healthy, not on prisoners who are otherwise stable. When Hughes finds a place for the prisoners, have Esar transferred with them."

"Noted," Signum replied. "There is some good news, however. Once Szash left, the children – the second-years, I should say – spent the rest of the day working on their devices. Allina and Niranjana are running the final tests over night, and the rest should be done in a few days, barring problems in the tests. The children will be fully able to defend themselves by the end of next week."

Hayate actually grimaced at that, "You and I both know that isn't what will happen, Signum. I chose my students well, and they won't stand for being left behind any more."

"They'll make us all proud, Hayate-sama," Signum said, resting a comforting hand on Hayate's shoulder. "They know the risks, and have all accepted them. They know their skills, they will soon know their limits. By the time we need them, they will be just as ready as you were, as ready as Nanoha was, when your times came. I won't say we have nothing to worry about, but they are as ready as it is humanly possible to make them."

"I know. I guess it just doesn't sit well. I'm going to have to speak with Lindy-san, about how she dealt with sending Chrono, Nanoha, and Fate out before she retired. Speaking of whom, any word?"

"She is still thinking it over," Signum answered. "She has not been practicing magic very much these past few years, and wants to be sure she hasn't forgotten anything."

Hayate laughed at that idea, "Lindy Hallaoun forget something? I'd sooner expect you to misplace Levantine. But I think I understand. She loves Uminari City, and wants to be certain it will be safe in her absence. She'll come, eventually."

"Eventually. Among other good news, Aignu let me know that a few more Enforcers have 'slipped past' the blockade. They should be here in the morning, bringing our total to thirteen, plus Nanoha, Fate, and Yuuno."

Hayate frowned at that, thoughtfully, then asked, "Do we know their ranks?"

"Mostly lower officers and enlisted again, the higher ranking Enforcers seem to think they can do more good trying to get the Bureau moving," Signum replied. "Apparently, High Command is receiving a record amount of protests from officers or all levels. This new batch, however, consists of one lieutenant, two more ensigns, and a pair of chief petty officers. All A or B rank."

"Hmmm, would you handle welcoming them, please? Make sure they're comfortable working under Reian. I know he's only an ensign, but I know him better than the others, and," she shrugged, "well, the boy deserves some recognition."

"Boy? He's a year or so older than you, Mistress."

Hayate blushed at that, "I know, but he's still... young. Like most of my kids. Which is another reason to leave him in charge of the volunteers – the kids already know him, at least a little, and he knows the Circles. If the newcomers were higher ranks, I'd have to let them lead the volunteers, but as it is... Reian stays in command."

"I'll make that clear," Signum agreed.

"I suppose now we should get back, I need to help Shamal with dinner."

"Cid-chan is up at the house tonight," Signum told her, then smiled slightly. "I think she does not quite believe us that none of us were injured."

Hayate chuckled at that, the girl had been trying to scan each of them ever since they returned from Cairo. "Probably. Still, let's get back. I need to talk to Aria and Lotte about testing Allina's and Niranjana's devices, and we all need to talk about classes. I'm thinking of having us all modify our lesson plans, shift to an ad hoc, more fluid schedule. We're going to be frequently distracted, especially me, and I don't want the children's education to suffer for it. Maybe combine the two years, somehow? We'll discuss it over dinner."

"That should prove interesting. Nanoha was inquiring if we wanted her help teaching during the down-times. She even hinted at tackling getting the Trio to actually work together."

Hayate actually shuddered at that, "Can you imagine her and Laura sparring? I don't think our insurance would cover it!"

"Yes it would," Signum chuckled. "The term is 'other acts of God', under natural disasters."

00000

Allina was perfectly well aware of how nervous Cid-chan had been before activating Hippocrates, and she remembered Noriko and Laura before their activation ceremonies. She could even understand their worries and sympathize. All devices were complicated machines, and hers and 'Jana's were experimental on top of that. But as far as activating the devices, Allina was anything but nervous. Aware of potential problems, yes, but not nervous.

What had her nervous was what would come after that, the test of capability and strength to prove the new device. The test itself was not even what bothered her. Rather it was the fact that, of the magic she knew, nothing was nearly as impressive as what Laura, Noriko, and Yussef had demonstrated the year before, or what Cid-chan had shown a few days previously. Everything Allina knew was computer related, and while she understood just how powerful Gatecrasher would be with an intelligent device driving it, it would be difficult to show that in class.

In her typical fashion, when a challenge got stuck in her head, she decided to fix it, however long it took. So the night of the battle of Cairo, she stayed up all night futzing with copies of her device programming, trying to plot out spells she would be comfortable with, or figure some way to use a device to hack into a computer, with no prior experience or guide. The fact that she had done the same thing the night before – translating Terran computer code into Midchildan programming – did not even occur to her. So she was staring at her screen, starting to seriously space out, and remembering for the third time that she was out of wakefulness-inducing sugar, when Niranjana sent her a message.

'Go to sleep, Allina-chan.'

She had to blink at it a few times for it to register. Then she looked at her clock – three twenty-two in the morning. So she sent back, 'Go to sleep yourself, 'Jana-chan. Big day tomorrow.'

'I'll go when you do.'

'Can't sleep, clown'll eat me,' Allina shot back, then felt guilty for some reason. 'Seriously, worrying at stuff, this helps distract me.'

'We will be fine THIS AFTERNOON,' 'Jana replied. 'Sleep now, you need it after last night.'

'How would you know?'

'Because you were up before me. As for now, I set an alarm to wake me, and sent the first message as a test. One you failed. Go to sleep.'

'But I'm awake now. If I try to go to bed, I'll just lay there and worry. Hey, I've got a new exploit I want to try on the World Bank, want to give it a run?'

There was a longer pause, and Allina could almost hear 'Jana sighing heavily. 'No, Allina, I am not interested in committing an international felony at three in the morning. I am going to sleep. After sending a note to Tai-yu-sensei. Go to sleep. I know you have to be out of pocky by now, so you are going to crash just before class starts, aren't you? Then where will you be when the activation time arrives? Go to sleep, Allina-chan.'

'But I'm up now.' Allina knew it was feeble protesting, but she had never liked being sent to bed, though it was nice that 'Jana cared.

'You are so stubborn. That's it, I'm waking up Cid-chan and telling her you're complaining about being too nervous to sleep. If you aren't in bed when she puts you out, you'll be very embarrassed in the morning.'

Then 'Jana did something Allina completely did not expect – she hacked Allina's computer. A series of windows flickered open, processed, and closed, ten or twenty in under a second. Allina saw just enough to recognize a BIOS hack, had enough time to squawk in outrage, and her computer shut itself down. It was followed less than a minute later by her PDA, leaving her sitting in darkness, shocked out of her gourd.

"My sister just rolled me," she muttered.

'You don't need to worry about tomorrow, Allina-chan,' Cid-chan whispered mentally, 'but I understand. Good night.'

The next thing Allina knew, someone was shaking her. Her neck and back hurt, and her arm was numb from elbow to fingers. It took her a bit to get her brain to boot up, and by then she was blinking up, wondering what Tai-yu-sensei was doing in her room, and who had turned the lights on.

"It's time to get up, Allina," Tai-yu told her, "you just have time to shower and dress before breakfast finishes."

Allina managed a brilliant, "Huh?"

"Time, Allina-chan," 'Jana told her from the doorway, "you need a shower."

"Time... gah! You! You hacked my desktop! And my PDA!"

'Jana frowned at her slightly. "I only powered them down, and set the reboot to a timer. They should be back on now."

"Who cares about that!" Energized by the memory, Allina could not help pouncing on 'Jana and wrapping her up in a hug, spinning the two of them about madly, "I'm so proud of you! My 'Jana snuck one past the master! We have to celebrate!"

"Later," Tai-yu said, "you have class, for which you need to be dressed, and I would recommend a shower first. Go on, off with you."

"I'll meet you in the cafeteria," 'Jana promised.

Throughout the day, 'Jana resisted all further attempts to celebrate her success, until finally Lotte-sensei's class came around. By that time, Allina was truly feeling the effects of having stayed up all night two nights in a row – most of two nights in a row – and was seriously dragging. Not enough to keep her from dragging 'Jana along to Lotte-sensei's class after Hayate-sensei finally let them go, but enough to be looking forward to lights-out. 'Jana protested, but only a little, more over Allina's man-handling her than the pace, so they were not the first ones there, Toushiro won that honor, then ruined his victory by waiting around to hold the door open for them.

Lotte and Aria were waiting, with both nascent devices in their cradles, and a pair of other devices, in storage mode, floating above stands of their own. Allina considered those for a second, then shrugged and went for the nearer device, checking it over quickly, as everyone else arrived.

"Allina-chan," 'Jana protested, "that's my device."

"Uh-huh," Allina muttered, not really paying attention, "last checks."

"That is my device," 'Jana repeated.

"Yeah. Check mine, please?"

'Jana muttered something, then strode over and to look over Allina's device, while someone else chuckled at them. It only took a minute to verify that the devices had taken no harm from their move, and then 'Jana took away any more delaying tactics. "We're ready, Lotte-sensei."

Lotte-sensei grinned at them, but her tail was going a mile a second, "Well, don't let me keep you. One of you go first, then the other, device and barrier jacket."

Allina started to tell 'Jana to go first, but her sister beat her too it, "Go ahead, Allina-chan." Polite enough, but followed up by a mental, 'You'll fall asleep if you have to wait for me to finish.'

Allina glared at her a second, but could not really remain angry, given that it was possibly true. So she stepped past 'Jana, gave her a playful little shove towards her own device, then turned back to her own. Reaching out a tendril of magic, she felt an instant response, an echo of her own power. It hesitated, floating out there just out of her reach, and she frowned. She thought it was supposed to do more than that, to begin reacting even as it showed her the activation command. But, since none was forthcoming from the device, she ordered, "Initialize Human Augmentation and Logical system, full system boot," the power reacted, flowing back into her merging, somehow, with her linker core, "access primary data-store, upload code packet," she had a weird feeling of vertigo in a storm, as raw information was suddenly pouring past her into the device, even as the glow flashed too bright to see, "authenticate, Allina Maricopa, Darth Acker."

"System boot complete," an oddly inflected male voice stated, as a weight settled on her left arm, "authentication verified. Good morning, Allina."

Her vision faded back to normal, and Allina could not help grinning down at her arm. Her device had settled into a sleek dark gray bracer, a screen on the back, and a cylindrical one-handed keyboard folded underneath. A two inch white crystal was set just next to the screen, by her elbow, glowing slightly. "Good morning, HAL," she answered, fingering the screen gently.

"Oh, crap," Laura called, "you designed it to hack devices, then named it HAL?! You're insane!"

Allina just laughed, still delighting in the feel of it. She could sense information, data-flow, coming from outside, accessed by HAL, and the sheer possibilities were intoxicating. Information, power in its truest form, was floating about her now, available for instant access, and she began to see why people were so afraid of hackers like herself. She could, with HAL's help, do almost anything...

"Allina," Lotte-sensei's voice interrupted, "you were supposed to call up your armor as well."

It took an effort to tear her attention away from the flood of data, and for a second, she just blinked at Lotte-sensei. Then she noticed 'Jana giving her a knowing smirk, and blushed in embarrassment. "Sorry, sensei. HAL, ICE."

"Yes, Allina," HAL replied, in his agreeably mellow voice that made Laura shiver. Power flowed over her from the bracer, leaving a lighter gray jumpsuit in its wake, under a gray jacket and shorts the same shade as the bracer. A matching bracer – sans screen and keyboard – appeared on her right arm, and similar boots replaced her shoes. The final touch was a head band with ear-buds and a boom-microphone, holding her hair out of the way.

"Barrier jacket up, sensei," Allina told her.

"Ice?"

"ICE," Allina corrected, "for Intrusion Countermeaures. Seems appropriate for my habits, ne?"

"Truly," Lotte-sensei agreed, prowling around her to poke and prod at various spots. Allina felt each touch, but at a remove, like through a heavy coat and lots of layers of clothes. The feeling was made stranger by the fact that she could see Lotte-sensei's finger pressing against her, apparently only a thin piece of spandex or cloth jacket between them. "All right, not bad, not bad. You'll have to explain why HAL bothers Laura so much, but that's for gossip later. For now," the cat-woman turned her predatory smirk on 'Jana, "It's time for someone else to step up."

00000

Niranjana had actually been rather enjoying watching Allina sweat the past few days. It was a little petty, and made her feel a little guilty as well, but the other girl deserved it. She had tried several times to get Allina alone and talk about how she felt, what they were, all the things Noriko had recommended. Instead, whenever they were not discussing their devices, Allina was obsessing over her latest side-project of getting into the World Bank.

More insulting, Allina had apparently said something to Ekavir, and he was now avoiding Niranjana. Not completely, and less successfully because she knew he still needed help in some areas, but he was trying to avoid her. Something about it made it clear to Niranjana that Allina was at fault for that. Despite how she felt about Allina, Niranjana was not about to let someone else go picking her friends.

She was not really mad at Allina, but she was enjoying watching the other girl discomfited. Despite that, the look of rapture on Allina's face as HAL stabilized and woke was just too true, and too cute, for frustration to win. It was obvious to Niranjana that the communications arrays worked as planned, at least basically, and Allina was reveling in the data stream.

Lotte's challenging grin failed to make her nervous, though. Niranjana had ample evidence that her design worked fine, after all, given Allina's success. So Niranjana merely rested a hand on her device's processor core, and uttered the short prayer she had chosen to activate the device. "Vidyaa gyaana pradaayinii, jaga mein gyaana prakaasha bharo moha aura ajnaana timira kaa jaga se naasha karo. Please aide my learning, Saraswati."

Cute as Allina's face had been when HAL woke, Niranjana was not prepared for the sheer torrent of data. As it was programmed to, even as the device imprinted her linker core, Saraswati accessed the workroom's monitoring computers. Through those it patched into the school's Yggdrasil network, then out to the entire internet. It was not, as she had half expected, flowing directly into her mind, but rather was there for the taking, at the speed of thought. Screens flickered in and out around her, showing data on her device, the school, the world, the movie 2001, Hindu religion, Allina, Al Hanthis… anything that popped into her mind during the few seconds Saraswati required to activate and calibrate itself. The sensation was almost enough for her to miss the feel of the device imprinting off her linker core.

When the data-stream slowed and the glow faded, Niranjana found Saraswati had settled into an odd pair of gloves, soft and flexible but covered in wires, and a pair of full-coverage wrap-around glasses tinted orange. She could feel some sort of metalwork coming off the ear-pieces to cover her cheeks, and more across her forehead, which proved to hold a small orange gemstone. She had to shake her head a few times, to reassure herself that everything would stay in place.

Lotte-sensei did not have to remind her to call her armor. Once she was sure the activation was complete, she requested, "Saraswati, Wards and Signs, please." There was no verbal response from her device, which worried her slightly, just a cascade of energies. When it cleared, her school uniform had been replaced by a deep blue Hindu festival dress, picked out with prayers to Saraswati in gold, all of it looking decidedly non-armor-ish.

"Very pretty, Niranjana," Lotte-sensei told her, inspecting Niranjana as she had Allina. "Seems effective too, though a little on the light side."

"I am not a warrior, sensei," Niranjana told her. "Saraswati is to help me control my magic and provide support to my programming efforts. This should suffice to protect me from any accidents, and to let me escape any battle."

Lotte-sensei nodded with that, "Understandable. Mean's you'll have to be quicker with the shields, if you do get caught in a fight. All the better, though, it fits you. Now, Hayate-sama has a test of her own for you, though from the frown on her face, you've already done part of it. Mistress?"

"Thank you, Lotte," Hayate said. "Girls, given what you were trying to accomplish with your devices, we decided on three initial tests, to establish a base-line of how your devices communicate with other systems, how vulnerable they and other devices will be. The first of them, you both seem to have done automatically, gaining outside access to the net from within the workroom."

"We worked out some programming that couldn't be safely loaded until the devices were initialized, Hayate-sensei," Allina explained. "Left the download packets on my Beowulf back home, then used the workroom's monitoring computers to establish a connection."

"You turned the monitors into a communications node?"

"They already are, Hayate-sensei," Niranjana said, "the sensors include maintenance links similar to those used in devices, for monitoring devices and testing the workroom systems themselves." Then she frowned, "Yggdrasil was not very well secured from this side, however."

Hayate shook her head, smiling slightly, "Yggdrasil recognized your devices, which are authorized to route through her to the school's network. All your devices are recognized by Yggdrasil, due to the continuous monitoring and testing during construction. So, that was supposed to be the second test. The first test is, can your devices communicate with each other?"

"That... is a good question, sensei," Niranjana said, sharing a glance with Allina. She did not know either. They shared a shrug, and turned to their new devices. As Allina began tapping at the screen on her bracer, Niranjana asked, "Saraswati, please list all external hosts."

Again her device did not give a verbal response, but generated a small screen. A cursor blinked for a moment, then the list filled, its contents surprising her enough that Allina answered first. "Yeah, sensei, we're connected. Not much data at the moment, just a carrier, essentially, but HAL's linked to Saraswati."

Hayate gave Niranjana a questioning look, "Niranjana?"

"Um... I am also showing full connection, but..." she trailed off, then sighed and began reading. "Host Yggdrasil, connection limited, authentication successful, student. Host Human Augmentation and Logical system, connection full, authentication successful, administrator. Host Sword of Light, connection refused, authentication failed. Host unknown, connection refused, authentication failed. There are nine more unknown hosts, all connection refused, authentication failed. I'm sorry, sensei, I didn't mean to try and access anyone else's devices."

"It's the wireless protocols we based the programming on," Allina reminded her, "automatically find and attempt to connect to all hosts in range." Then Allina frowned, "But how come HAL didn't give me... oh, he listed active connections, not hosts. We probably just need to work out how the protocols translated..."

"Allina-chan," Niranjana interrupted, "we can work on that later. We need to verify the cloud array works."

"'Kay, how?"

"Hayate-sensei?"

"You should be able to access several areas of the school network via Yggdrasil," Hayate told them, "I would like each of you to do so separately, bring up a specific document. I will name for you, and send it to each other. Whenever you are ready girls." 'Niranjana, I would like you to access Allina's PDA and bring up the paper she is working on for Shamal's biology unit.'

'Hai, sensei,' she replied mentally, then set to work. It was not precisely difficult, finding the requisite document. Allina's PDA was almost as familiar to her as her own, and she had just been in it the night before. Allina had made some improvements in its defenses, but hardly enough to make a difference. The only problem was, Allina did no writing on her school PDA, preferring the full-size keyboard of her desktop. Only when complete were they loaded to her PDA. The desktop was even easier, given it was where Allina left most of her personal programs and thus was quite familiar to Niranjana.

"Done, Hayate-sensei," Allina caroled, "Saraswati has the paper."

Niranjana was taking a little longer mostly due to curiosity. There was an immediacy to accessing the Net through her device that was strange, but not uncomfortable. Instead of reading a screen, or scanning a printout, the information was simply there, vaguely, in the back of her mind, until focusing on it woke a screen to display it. Even with the distraction, though, she noticed receipt of her own physics paper, and handed off Allina's paper as easily as she would have physically. "I am also finished, Hayate-sensei."

Allina blinked as a screen opened up next to her, then blanched, "Gah, 'Jana-chan! Where'd you find that?"

"On your computer, with your other homework," Niranjan said, confused.

Lotte-sensei leaned over Allina's shoulder as the girl tried to hide the screen, then chuckled, "That's due tomorrow, chibi-ko, you might want to put more on there than a title."

"I was planning to work on it tonight! It's just ten pages!"

"Regardless," Hayate interrupted, smiling slightly at Allina's antics, "that is the first test passed. So, on to the third test. You see the two dormant devices. I know we discussed your attempts to access a device, and while I am loathe to encourage you, I am even more concerned that someone else may have the same idea, especially with Al Hanthis' return. We have only a vague idea of how they achieve the greater magical effects they do, for they have shown nothing resembling a device. So, we have here a pair of the devices Admiral Aignu loaned us. Both have been partially activated, a maintenance and testing status where they have a minimal power reserve and their programming is live, but they are not tied to any linker core. Each of you is to attempt to gain access to one of these devices. We will see how far you get on a first try. Whenever you are ready."

00000

Allina expected the third test to be difficult. This was, to her knowledge, the first time someone had tried to forcibly access and control a device using another device. She figured that, with her custom programming, HAL would be better placed to attack than the dormant device was placed to defend itself. Sorting one of the dormant devices out of the crowd took a few seconds, but it had all the standard maintenance links in place.

Bringing up a screen for display, she swung the keyboard into position. HAL's keyboard was one she had seen, but never built, a one-handed cylinder with a number of clickers under each joint, different combinations generating different letters. Using it in place of a regular keyboard was more than a little strange, so she was much slower than she was used to, but HAL proved very forgiving. She accessed the dormant device's maintenance links, bluffing her way past the recognition protocols with an 'emergency system check', snitched from the standard Bureau maintenance manuals. The maintenance links opened, a connection formed... and she was promptly ejected. No warnings, no re-authentication requests, simply ejected from the device's systems.

Grumbling to herself, she had HAL resume trying a direct access, and brought up a second screen to study what had happened. It took her a few minutes, while screens flickered and flashed around 'Jana-chan, and silence reigned among her teachers and classmates. The results of HAL's repeated attempts soon clarified the issue, and she almost glared at Hayate-sensei. That's cheating, she thought. "'Jana-chan, they're hardened. Extra access protocols just after the maintenance links engage. Try to brute-force yours, I'll try an overflow."

"Brute-force is failing," Niranjana answered immediately, "Saraswati is having to spoof her identity already to repeat access attempts."

"Let's see how an overflow attack works," Allina replied. The concept was simple enough – flood the target access point with data until its memory buffers overloaded and it crashed. Simple in concept, but thirty seconds later the dormant device was still non-reactive. It had not severed the connection this time, but Allina could get no further.

Thinking it over, she decided to cheat a little, ''Jana-chan, lend me a hand? I've got a stable connection, see if you can trigger some sort of override, run every emergency code we could snitch while I hold the line open?'

'We are supposed to be doing this individually,' 'Jana-chan protested.

'Yeah, but what Hayate-sensei doesn't know won't hurt us,' Allina countered, 'I'll help you with yours.'

'That is cheating, Allina-chan.'

'So was hardening the devices without letting us see how an unhardened device works. Come on, 'Jana-chan, just this once? Please? I promise not to stay up all weekend this weekend.'

Niranjana sighed, shot her a dirty look, then side-stepped the issue. "Hayate-sensei, we will need quite a bit more time to study the issues, if we are going to subvert the defenses on these devices. Allina-chan has an idea that may work, but would require the two of us to cooperate. May we?"

Hayate thought it over for a minute, then nodded slowly, "go ahead."

Saraswati linked with HAL, and that was an odd feeling for Allina. The constant flow of data through HAL was suddenly echoed and then some, the echoes interacting and linking off one another. The effect was distracting enough that she barely noticed the bursts of code Niranjana sent into the dormant device. She was still distracted by the data-flow when Niranjana announced, "I have access, sensei, but very limited. The maintenance systems are apparently only capable of observation, not action. External repair of this device is impossible, it would have to be de-powered, reprogrammed, and possibly physically restructured."

"Mostly true," Hayate agreed, "and good job, I was not sure you would be able to breach the special access protocols. For all of your information," she turned to the class, "the changes Aria and Vita made to these two devices are now standard. You will all – even Cid-chan, Niranjana, and Allina – have to alter your devices along the same lines. It is minor, mostly a matter of programming, and will make device maintenance more difficult, but it will also protect you against attempts such as what you just witnessed. Niranjana and Allina are mostly trustworthy, but we cannot be sure the Al Hantheans cannot mimic what your classmates just did. My devices, and your teachers' devices, have already been modified."

"Ano, sensei?" Noriko held up a hand, "What about us?"

Aria answered that on, "I am afraid that, given the uniqueness of your devices, we are going to have to be extremely cautious about modifying Senbonzakura, Zulfiqar, and Paradox. While most of the changes are software, there are two physical alterations necessary to separate the maintenance links from control processes. They should not affect the three of you, but we still do not fully understand your bonds. We will test your devices, see if it can be done safely."

"If not," Hayate continued, "I'm sure Niranjana and Allina will be more than willing to help you develop counter-intrusion measures." She turned back to the two, giving them a larger smile, "if only to keep up to date with what the other side is doing."

Allina laughed outright at that, "Already ahead of you, Hayate-sensei. We've got a slew of ideas for counter-hacking."

"We do need to test them, however," Niranjana added.

"Only with the device user's permission," Hayate's smile faded into a frown. "I know this is going to sound harsh, girls, but you cannot, under any circumstances, attempt to access another device, not even a dormant one like these test devices, without the owner's permission. I know you want to see how much you can accomplish, but I cannot condone or allow attacks on a device."

"We won't, Hayate-sensei," Allina promised. "To be honest, I'm not really all that interested in hacking a device. It's just, they're the best defended computers around, so if I can crack one of those, like 'Jana-chan and I just did, I can crack anything! Like, I think I might be able to access the Shiva's systems without her crew noticing."

For some reason, Hayate looked more worried after she said that.

00000

Author's Note: I know this chapter didn't have enough 'action', but I'm saving it up. There's a little more set-up before Hong Kong happens (mostly getting everyone's devices up, and some political maneuvering with the Circles and Al Hanthis). The prayer Niranjana uses is an actual Hindu prayer to Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge (among other things), whom she named her device after. It translates to: O bestower of learning and skill, illumine the world with light of knowledge and dispel the darkness of ignorance and infatuation. Below are some quick definitions of the terms Niranjana and Allina used in their attempts to hack the dormant devices.

'Hosts': Any piece of hardware that shows up on a network. A fairly general term in networking, usually refers to actual computers (workstations, PCs, servers, etc), but can be used for routers and (in one case I saw) switches.

'Cloud Array': The last few years IBM has been pushing 'cloud computing' which uses processing power, memory, data, and programs from various physically scattered computers instead of a single machine. Google Docs is a basic form of cloud computing. The 'cloud array' in this case is using Saraswati and HAL to do joint processing. The document retrieval test did not demonstrate it, but the combined attack on the device did.

'Brute Force': a method of bypassing a computer's authentication by simply firing login IDs and passwords at it until one works. These attacks are why most computers these days have a three-attempt limit on passwords before locking an ID. A simple attack, simply defended against.

'Overflow': All network protocols rely on memory buffers, parts of the computer's memory set aside to hold incoming, outgoing, and in-process data. An overflow attack attempts to overload those buffers, causing the network protocols to error out (and thus miss unauthorized or inappropriate activity) or to crash outright.

'Spoof': When one computer claims to be another computer. Most frequently used at a fairly basic addressing level, spoofing is done to convince an attacked system that the attacker is a trusted system, thus lowering the attacked system's security.

00000

AceStarLeaf: Thank you for the compliment. Here's the next chapter, a little quicker this time. Thanks for reading!

CrimsonDX: All I will say about who the 'Dark Witch' and 'First Emperor' are is, they've already been introduced under different names. As for Hayate and Co coming out on top, are you certain? How often in history have the victors honored and respected the defeated? Even today, General Lee is one of the most respected military officers in US history, despite technically being a traitor. Rommel gets much the same treatment, as does Hannibal (the Carthaginian general, not the fictional murderer). As for Szash being a bitch, this is true, but there are reasons. The double-agent idea would be good, but those take time to set up properly, and while this will take a while 'in story', it won't take that long. Hayate did almost accidentally kill Esar, precisely because she was just as surprised at his lack of barrier jacket as you were. The floating shields that surrounded him are the Al Hanthis equivalent, but not as thorough. It's supposed to illustrate the differences between the Bureau approach to magic and the Al Hanthean's. The mobility of Al Hanthis is a major advantage, yes, but it can still only be in one place at a time, and moving it is not as easy as the Battle of Cairo makes it seem – remember, the city started about a day's drive south-west of Cairo, which isn't very far on a planetary scale. As for referring to Reinforce as a 'he', are you sure it was not a reference to Ensign Reian? I've caught myself confusing them, thanks to how Hayate refers to Reinfroce II in the first couple episodes of StrikerS still haven't gotten past episode five… sigh).

Tombadgerlock: The Guard in Cairo were Szash's sacrificial lambs. The Five-oh-First, on the other hand, are going to be rather more dangerous. As for the Emperor, please see my comment to CrimsonDX above:).

Skyforger: Please don't wear a hole in your floor, it might freak people out:). The group at Cairo was 'sub-par', but a real challenge will come up soon. That one's going to take a couple chapters to tell, but should be fun. The 400 was how many mages Desu (Yuuno's new device) counted in first scanning. Szash's real available numbers are recounted above – a little under 1,000 Guard mages trained for combat, and another 10,000 Protectors of less militant ability. Still, there are ways to conquer large numbers with small (Cortez and Pizaro, for particularly nasty examples). Szash and her aides hinted at the strategy above, it should be clearly detailed after Hong Kong.

pfeil: yes, to my embarrassment, you are right – it was supposed to be 'quantity has a quality all its own', which error has now been corrected. All I can say is, the backwards version I originally posted is my usual response when someone says the true quote. You'll be seeing more of the Sword of Light, as the battles progress, and if you liked the tactics in Cairo, what's coming should be even better.

Baughn: Last chapter was really difficult to write. I got ahead of myself, basically – I planned to have the Battle of Cairo, but didn't plan it out at all until I had to write it. Then I almost gave away too much in Szash's appearance. You are probably right about the too-long sentences, and I tried to simplify in this chapter. I tend to think in long sentences, though. Given the example you used, I probably would have broken the comment about Natalia into a separate sentence, and left the rest. As far as relative power level, do remember that only bits of StrikerS are applicable to the Deva series (it's AU as of the end of Nanoha As, so no Vivio). The Al Hanthean's have some distinct advantages, but most of them are in terms of artificial aids, such as the Jewel Seeds. The 'Sieretz Cannon' the Reveants attacked the city with, for instance, is a little shy of the Bureau's l'Arc-en-Ciel, when properly set up and powered (the Revenants did not have it properly anything). The thing is, from my perspective, the Bureau went in another direction with their magic development, so there are differences such as the Al Hanthean's shield-cloud versus the Bureau's barrier jackets. The shields are more efficient and can be layered and manipulated more easily, the jackets do not require any conscious maintenance on the wearer's part. There will be a few more such differences showing up as things go on. I'm not sure how cyborged out Subaru was, but from what I've heard, she was more cyborg than the Al Hantheans are. Again, more details on that will be revealed in-story. With Yellowstone, how do you know the Containment folks aren't the ones keeping the volcano from erupting? They may also be counting on such an eruption to destroy or permanently contain the stored artifacts, as well. I don't use Reinforce as a teacher for several reasons, mostly based on how uncertain I am of just how separate she is from Hayate. Remember, a Deva device and its wielder are one, in many ways. The 'new' Reinforce may very well be a subconscious projection of Hayate's, rather than a truly independent entity – I'm uncertain as of now which. The Al Hantheans could probably help Natalia with her eye, but the question is, would she trust anyone who threatened her brother? As far as Laura referring to herself as a paladin, it's not fully realized yet, but Laura's a romantic (in the literary sense) – she thinks in terms of the idealized meaning of a chivalrous defender, not the modern anti-Christian image of hateful monsters. And since when has Laura not been a loose cannon? Thanks for the review!

Kell Shock: You are correct, the 'north' should have been non-capitalized. There was another format error there as well (a one-space tab, of all the weird typos) which may have triggered OpenOffice's auto-formatting. I've been putting in references to series and movies I like, such as the 'Mister Morden' line, but not many people have noticed them yet. I generally put them in for my own amusement, more than anything else, though there's an overdoes in this chapter. As noted in last chapter's future-quote, the city itself won't move very often – it's harder to do than it appears. On the other hand, a thousand battle-mages is a formidable force, especially if they're better than Esar's troops. I do have some plans for how Al Hanthis will secure its territory, and how they will go about conquering the world – it's not as quick a process as most of you seem to be thinking, though. A simplified threat-assessment on Szash's part is above.

Jack Inqu: I'm glad you've enjoyed this series, thank for reading and for the review. Your predictions are interesting, but all I can say right now is, the second one (about Hayate & Co's showing) is true enough, and third one is partially true. There are some twists yet to come, on military and political fronts, that should throw your predictions back and forth (at least, I hope they will – I hate being predictable:).

MaZe-Pallas: You are correct about the quality/quantity quote in last chapter, it should have been the other way 'round. All fixed now. It may take me a while to post a chapter, but so far I've only failed to complete on story I've posted, and I still think about going back to that one if I can ever get inspiration again. Thanks for the review!

Advent000: The Battle of Cairo was meant to be a draw, due precisely to the reasons you mentioned. Both sides got something, but neither side got what they were really after. The future-quotes are both fun and aggravating. I like using them, because they give the story a sense of grandeur and historical impact. At the same time, I've had to play some very obvious games to keep from completely spoiling the plot, which is a pain. As far as who the Dark Witch is, your guess is off. The US media have pegged Laura with the moniker Black Witch, not Dark Witch, thanks to her armor and her refusal to put up with them, though the Dark Witch is one of Hayate's students.

A006: Thank you very much for the compliments, and for the review. I'll try to keep up the standard. As for your specific points, here you go... 1) The 'paladin' thing was spur of the moment on Laura's part, but will be more fully realized before Hong Kong. Remember, she's been looking for a way to reassure people (and herself) about her power. The 'paladin' comment is part of that, and she can manage to be precisely what she claimed – a defender of the weak and champion of justice. A paladin in the historical/chivalrous sense, not the D&D sense. 2) The problem with upgrading the Trio's devices is how they are linked to them. Any modifications must be done very carefully, lest a modification cause a negative reaction in the wielder. Most of the Trio's improved safety will come from training, not modifications. Also, you have seen Laura in a sort of Struggle Bind – the Circles' Gaia's Anchor works off the same principles, dialed up to eleven. Struggle Bind is powerful, but not unbreakable. 3) Cid-chan's primary ability (and all she's really interested in) is healing, so that's where her focus lies. You'll never see her throwing buster spells around, for instance. This chapter and the next two are for completion of the second year students' devices, though Rhys and Saeryn will be covered later (sometime after Hong Kong, not sure when, yet). Mariachi isn't going to be fighting while singing, but his powers will focus on music and sound. 4) Szash was mean, but she came across more vicious than she meant... mostly. Details on what she offered and why will be clarified in the next few chapters (a little of that happened above, too). As for Fate's opinion on Natalia's link to Precia, it's one of those things that 'has yet to come up'. Fate would probably let it slide, though – she's not one to be confrontational on personal issues, and Lindy's her mother now. 5) The first years were included partly for padding (to remind everyone that Hayate's running a full school, not just a special one-off class). They do have a part to play, however, and if you check the Side Stories you'll see the latest is on a first year. Just due to the nature of the plot, though, they will play a distinctly secondary and less-developed role. 6) Kriegsen diverting the Bureau is based on logic (from his point of view) – if the Bureau gets directly involved, the Al Hantheans can't do his dirty work and Takashi slips away again. His plans are still in play, but he plots more than he acts. 7) Suzuka and Arisa never picked up magic, so I don't have any plans to involve them (except maybe after it's all over. Frankly, given their lack of magic, involving them in the Second Terran Mage War would be criminal:). Lindy does have a part to play, but she will be support, as she was in the first Nanoha series. 8) Hayate is very much suited for one-on-one combat, but that was not what she was doing in Cairo. She single-handedly maintained a Bureau containment barrier, coordinated a wide-area battle, stopped Esar cold, and then kept him from dying of his wounds. But she does need a better idea of what she can do – the problem is Sara was almost obsessive about collecting and developing spells. If you've read the Side Story Oops, you have a fair description of what her spell library was like. Hayate could do nothing but study that library every day, all day, and even this long after inheriting the Sword of Light, she would still be studying. She isn't passive enough to do that, she needs to do things, to help people. 9) I have a plan for a duel between one of the newcomers and one of Hayate's students, but you'll have to wait and see for that. Whew, that was a long review! Hope you keep enjoying this!