Endless Waltz
By: Daishi Prime
-37 – Struggling Together-
Hughes got them a transit point, a store in Kirdasa, on Cairo's western edge. He told them nothing of how it came to be known to the Circles, or how it came to be empty, but Allison figured it had been a Circle mage's business, home, or both, and when Al Hanthis moved in, said mage had fled for less dangerous locales.
Allison was never certain why Hayate-sensei finally relented and let her undertake the first infiltration mission, especially not after Vita told her, at the overlook above the school's valley just as she was about to leave, that they had to take the usual trace spells and teleport lock off her. She knew she had performed well in the series of stealth tests and training, but so had Fate and one of the Volunteers, Morris, had been very close, close enough Allison thought her status as a student would put her behind them in the running. But four days before the US nuked the Atlantic, Hayate-sensei had told her she would be going, with Fate, Nanoha, and Takashi on stand-by.
After that had come a solid week of dedicated training, not interrupted even for the Americans' response to Al Hanthis' Seed. Vita or Signum-sensei was pushing her from dawn to dusk and beyond, mostly practicing on and around the campus, but also infiltrating several known Circle bases that had been warned of her coming. The most frightening of those had been against one of the new Black Dog teams, who had apparently not been informed of her presence in their assault exercise. The leader, Arlain, had taken it in stride, but Allison had been fairly sure some of his men had been about to shoot her once she 'scored' by tagging him with a thrown paintball.
The geography training – such as it was – covering everything they could map about Al Hanthis had been less thrilling, but more interesting. The city was built weird, to her eyes, with little to nothing in the way of 'streets' as she knew them, but small vehicle monorails that spiraled around buildings and leapt across gaps in a seemingly random array. The city was not so much built on levels, as formed into two shallow cones joined at the base, different towers merging at differing levels, each with differing heights, all built up over the main platform. The only regularity was the main platform itself, and the easily distinguished towers of the shield generators and the sparking crowns of the power generators. Those were her initial targets, finding out everything she could about the two types of generators' structures and security. The biggest problem with that objective, oddly enough, was not the unknown security, but the fact that they had no idea where the portal she would be using let out.
The actual infiltration plan was fairly convoluted, and seriously lacking in details on her escape route. Allison would use Takashi's teleport to the abandoned store Hughes provided. From there, she would walk about ten kilometers, getting as close to the Cairo airport as she could get, trying to blend in along the way. Only when she started running into serious Al Hanthis security would she back off, slip into the Cloak, and then ghost into the airport. She would get close to the portals and, when one opened for something going to Al Hanthis, she would dive through, hopefully just ahead of the cargo. From there the permutations and situational modifications multiplied with dizzying speed, depending on a frightening number of unknowns.
She had asked Yussef, in some of her limited free time during the preceding week, about walking through Cairo unnoticed. "You've got roughly the right skin color," he told her, "at least for someplace as old, over-populated, and international as Cairo, but your facial structure is all wrong, and your hair will stick out like the ditz on a rampage. Also, I seriously doubt anyone here has any clothes that would blend into the background in Cairo. Western clothes are fine, acceptable for tourists, but they attract attention, especially the areas you're going to be moving through initially. My suggestion? Get the drabbest, baggiest clothes you can find, and get a shawl, wrap it around your hair and your face, just leave your eyes uncovered. Egyptians still aren't all that insistent about women covering up, but enough women cover their faces that no one will notice. Manage that, and all you'll have to worry about is getting harassed for being a woman walking about alone, which you can probably handle quietly yourself."
The two Cairo experts Hughes had sent over – one American Allison suspected was CIA, and one Egyptian Circle mage who had been in the battle of Cairo – had basically confirmed Yussef's opinion, though both had been a little more specific. Allison had managed that, finding brown slacks and a loose beige blouse. Mercedes had produced a long wide white scarf that functioned well enough as a head-wrap. To Allison's surprise, Shamal had given her a long loose skirt, which would work better than the pants to blend in, and told her not to worry about bringing it back – it had been Cid-chan's, from before Shamal adopted her, a reminder of Cid-chan's life before. Allison almost could not bring herself to wear it. The outfit would not stand up to steady scrutiny, especially not by an Egyptian, but it should suffice for the Guard and Protectors.
The best part of the preparations, though, the part she was most looking forward to, was a small package Noriko had presented her with – thirty coins, every one of them silvery and polished bright, every one of them Russian. There was a note in it as well, from Natalia's grandmother, though no one had opened it before rolling it around the leather tube of coins and wrapping the whole thing in paper and string-ties. Allison was looking forward to seeing Natalia's face again, seeing the look on her face when she recognized the 'present'. It would be her own personal bit of vengeance, before letting Laura go on her hunt.
The day of the infiltration attempt Allison was extremely nervous, but once she was in the shop, she managed to calm down, mission-focus overcoming worries. It was do-or-die time, and worries took second-place to reviewing her contingency plans. Getting out of the store was simple enough, the back door let out onto a deserted alley just as advertised. From there, white scarf pulled carefully across her nose and mouth, Allison did her best to blend in with the foot traffic.
Despite her ragged heartbeat and paranoid attempts to watch everything around her at once, blending in proved simple. The crowds were thinner than she had expected, thinner than Yussef and Hughes' experts had warned her to expect. The traffic on the streets was even thinner, lending credence to the media reports of Cairo's population fleeing Al Hanthis' rule, as well as to reports of Al Hanthis' willingness to let people leave. The walk wound up taking three hours, as she had to find ways around two checkpoints and across the Nile.
Aside from the checkpoints, she saw Al Hantheans four times, three pairs of Protectors apparently on foot-patrol, and one Guard mage passing by overhead. Logically, she had more to fear from the Protectors, who, it was reported, had almost completely assumed control of Cairo's security, and were already incorporating the Cairo police. But she passed the Protector patrols without qualm, only to deliberately hide from the Guard mage. Her opinion of the Protectors was shaped by those Hayate-sensei had captured while attempting to defend Cairo, and she did not consider them an active threat, just something to avoid stumbling over. The Guard, however, had proven very dangerous over Hong Kong, and Allison had no desire to test them again under these circumstances.
Once she reached the airport, things became more interesting. While there were several smaller airports around Cairo, and those remained officially open to all regularly scheduled flights, the main airport had been shut down, its flights rerouted or canceled, and taken over by the Guard and Protectors. It had become Al-Hanthis central ground-station, with all traffic in and out of the city routed through it, except for the Seed. The only open gates and building entrances were covered by at least one Protector each, and there were already rudimentary ward structures up along the perimeter.
Allison dropped back a few buildings, behind an apparently unused warehouse. Once there, she woke Gallóglaigh, and brought up her armor. It felt strangely good to be back in her leathers, long knife in hand, but she moved immediately. Slight as it had been, an alert Protector or Guard could have detected the device waking and bringing up her barrier jacket, so she ghosted further around the building, flipping up the hood and pulling the tightly-woven netting up over her nose even as she vanished into the Cloak.
She took the fence at a run, trusting in her Cloak to get her past the wards. A little bit of a boost just when she jumped let her clear the fence, flipping once to make sure, and she landed in a crouch. Thirty seconds she waited there, watching, looking for any sign of a response or the wards triggering. When nothing happened, when there was no sign of incoming Guard or Protectors, she moved on, carefully.
It took her another hour to reach the portals, cautious movement punctuated by frequent pauses. There was less activity than the airport was designed for, but more activity than Allison was comfortable with, even in the now noon-time heat. Here, unlike in the city proper, she could see a large number of Al Hantheans who were not in Guard or Protector uniforms, civilians of various types, even a few native Egyptians. Any of them were too many for her comfort, though they showed no signs of noticing her presence.
Luck was with her when she reached the portals, as well. Of the now four installations set up, three were active and set up with shipments going in. Two were set up with a sort of conveyer system floating small crates through, while the third was sending through larger crates lifted one by one by a trio of mages. All of them, even the larger ones, were marked with various food labels, fruits and vegetables and the like, though some of the largest crates appeared to contain live plants.
The arrangement of portals had been altered slightly, with the four portals shifted to stand back to back in a square, so she could not approach them from an unoccupied rear. Instead, she maneuvered carefully amongst the floating and moving crates, carefully avoided the cargo-handlers loading crates into their queues, and the Protectors guarding each portal, then paused. She chose the portal handling the largest cargo, as it had the greatest pauses between transits, and thus the most time for her to get through. She could not see through it, though it appeared to be just a coruscating white field.
Things went wrong the instant she hit the threshold. There was a twisting, stretching sensation, then a flash of pain and shift in the pull. She flubbed her landing when the portal spit her out at an odd angle, tumbling and fetching up hard against a wall, and almost panicked as her Cloak and Leathers failed, leaving her momentarily exposed and vulnerable. She got both back up in under three seconds, but was still trapped.
The room was solidly walled, plain metal fronted by some fairly basic shields. They were not up to work-room levels, but tough enough to contain her for a few minutes, especially given her general issues with shields. Unlike Noah, she could not get a handle on a shield and find its weak points just from touching it, she would have to beat her way through them. The shields also did not incorporate any sort of teleport barrier, and were not strong enough to function as one themselves. She could sense such a barrier, weakly, but it was some distance from her. She found the door readily enough, as well as several points where she thought there were monitoring systems, but all were solidly behind the shields. So she focused on remaining as invisible as possible, drawing Gallóglaigh just in case, checking the cartridges stored in covered loops on her belt.
It was two minutes before someone started talking, beginning with Al Hanthean, then switching after a second to Arabic, then English, then scaling through more languages. They all said the same thing, and Allison thought it might be recorded, "Lay down any weapons, do not utilize any magic. You are under arrest for illegal entry of the city. Resistance will result in charges of espionage, which could result in your execution. Cooperate, and you will be well and fairly treated."
Yeah, well and fairly treated, she mentally muttered, just like the damn English.
It was another twenty minutes and two repetitions of the message cycling through the same languages, before something else happened. The door opened, revealing a Protector in his uniform, behind a personal shield. He looked around with a frown, just short of glaring, and said in Arabic, "You may as well come out. You can't get out of here, and eventually we will simply gas the chamber, knock you out, and you will be questioned and tried despite your resistance."
Allison almost laughed at that, but managed to contain herself. Instead, she ghosted closer, inspecting the Protector's shield as best she could, debating if she could blast her way through both room and personal shields, or through the room's shield and the wall. She would have to be fast, though, and something told her the Protector was prepared for that, expecting such an attack. So as he continued demanding her surrender, then that she reveal herself, she backed up across the room, preparing to wait for him to come in after her.
"So," he eventually wound down, "What do you say? Why not make it easy on yourself?"
An idea occurred to her, remembering the difficulty getting to grips with the Guard at Hong Kong, and how Toushiro had solved it. "What do I have to say?" She chuckled in anticipation, forming the spell carefully, doubting a normal teleport would work, but wondering… "I say… Hail Mary, full of grace."
He looked confused for a moment, then his eyes locked on her location as reality tore asunder behind her, and she leapt backwards, spinning as she moved. It was just as chilling as it had been every time she tried it, leaving her feeling like she had just walked over the South Pole, but it worked, beautifully. She came out of the nothingness behind him, even as he lunged forward to try… something that was probably futile and stupid. Gallóglaigh whipped around, cartridge discharging, and Allison poured all the energy into the blade.
Gallóglaigh crashed through his shield, and just like the Guard/Protectors over Cairo, he had no barrier jacket beneath it. The blade shed most of its energy on his shield, but still sliced his back from shoulder to hip, making him scream in pain, Gallóglaigh resetting for the thrust. Then Allison's free left hand latched onto the back of his head and she hit him with a spell Yuuno-sensei had taught them within days of his arrival, "Struggle Bind."
For a second, panting from the adrenalin, Allison stood over the fallen mage, eyes wide. She was partly surprised at her victory, but mostly surprised at how quickly she had gone for the kill. It was a toss up, in her mind, which instinct she would have followed through on, the binding she used, or the equally easy thrust from the rear. Gallóglaigh had been perfectly placed, after that slash, for an upward thrust between the third and fourth ribs on the left. Only the fact that continuing the slash's rotation brought her left hand around for the binding decided her, and that had been instinct.
"Laura may be on to something," she muttered, "she just might be on to something."
Then the alarms started screaming, and training took over again. She was still wrapped in the Cloak of Shades, and picked a direction at random to head down the hall outside the capture chamber. A cautious bit of probing showed the oddly structure teleport barrier she had sensed earlier completely enclosed her. As she teased out the details, part of her admired it as it allowed incoming teleports without interference, but blocked all those heading 'out'. Probably to keep it from interfering with the portals, she decided, which reasoning doesn't help me find a way out. Look for a door out, then find a matching wall with an air vent or something.
00000
Fort Knox was not what Yussef expected, not at all. He knew it was more than just a gold repository, but he also knew it as the US Army's Armor School, where tanks were tested and refit, and tankers were trained. He expected armories, tanks, shooting ranges, maneuver ranges, and a never-ending scent of gunpowder and jet fuel.
What he got instead was freezing gusts of wind, damp air, and a leaden sky, all of which made him glad of his armor. They appeared on a parade ground surrounded by barracks buildings, instead of the lawn by the main gate as he had planned. When the teleport cleared from around himself, Marcel, Toushiro, and Maunders, there were also a number of rather surprised looking men in uniform, most aiming a variety of side-arms at them, which made him very glad of Zulfiqar's weight on his back. Marcel and Toushiro, also in their armor with their devices slung, brought up shields around the four of them, and things paused there, though Yussef began to regret that Vita and Zafira were both busy making the rounds of the nuclear powers with Hayate-sensei.
Turning slightly to his left, Yussef asked, "You did tell them we were coming, didn't you?"
Maunders grunted once, then said, "Damn right I did – to the main gate. You don't just walk onto a military reservation, Al Khan, there are procedures."
"You gave me the coordinates," Yussef reminded her, scanning the crowd. He had a passing familiarity with US rank insignia, but Maunders found the ranking officer first.
"Left, eight-thirty," she told him, "tall brown-haired man in fatigues, Major."
Yussef nodded to her, found the man, and walked to the edge of the shield. "Boys, relax, but slowly. Fade the shields out."
Marcel was a little slower about it than Toushiro, but both lowered their shields. All three of them kept an eye on the soldiers surrounding them, hoping they would lower their weapons, but had no such luck. So he stood his ground until the shields faded completely, then saluted the officer, "Major, my apologies for our arrival, I'm afraid my teleport was a bit off. Would you or some of your men be available to escort us to the main gate?"
The major frowned at him a moment, then glanced at Maunders. "Sergeant?"
Maunders stepped up next to him, "We had teleport coordinates for the main gate, sir, but I understand it's not uncommon to be off. Colonel Walsh is expecting us over at the SOG."
The Major's frown shifted, going from confused to distasteful, "The Mutts. Sergeant Keiler, take your squad and escort Sergeant Maunders here and her guests over to Colonel Walsh's office, please."
'Keiler' and nine other men formed out of the crowd, which slowly dissipated. Yussef did not recognize any of the buildings they passed beyond the generic – barracks, offices, and so forth – but he got the distinct impression Keiler was taking them a long way around. Keiler and his men were also rather short on conversation, watching them more then the area around them, and Keiler 'showed them the way' from behind Yussef. The escort was almost as cold as the weather.
At one point Toushiro asked mentally, 'Gee, was it something I said?'
Yussef almost laughed, but managed to turn it into a cough. Marcel just rolled his eyes, 'No, Shiro, it was our fearless leader and his notoriously poor aim.'
'I'll have you know my aim is just fine, thank you,' Yussef replied.
"If you three don't mind," Maunders hissed at him, "that is just as rude as conversing in a foreign language in front of a host. Talk or keep it to yourself."
Their escort collectively gave her a strange look, while Yussef settled for copying Hayate-sensei's raised eyebrow. "Telepathy in hostile circumstances is a habit, and a good one. To be honest, I'm surprised you Circle mages don't use it. It's far more convenient and secure than the radios you all lug about."
"We don't use machines," Maunders shot back.
"You do now," Toushiro reminded her, earning himself a flat stare. He considered Maunders' look for a minute, then grinned and shrugged, "Signum-sensei does that better, but I guess that's why you're at the school, right?"
"Toushiro, that's enough," Yussef told him. "As for using machines, Sergeant, telepathy doesn't. Almost all of us were capable of it before we activated our devices."
Maunders shook her head, "It's still related, all of it. Yagami doesn't teach you safe forms of magic then throw the machines in on top of it, she teaches you all of it as a whole. That's the way things should be taught, but it means it's all part and parcel."
Yussef shrugged, "I won't object to a tactical advantage over the Revenants, but you're going to have to get over that."
"We're here," Keiler interrupted, "wait out here while I inform the Colonel."
'Out here' was a government-standard waiting room, AC unit silent in one window, a vague semblance of heat, beat-up old chairs in various shades of brown, and an empty desk by the door leading further in. Yussef considered it a moment, then shrugged, and directed Marcel and Toushiro with a pair of gestures. Marcel took up station by the door they entered by, Toushiro by the windows looking over another office building. Yussef took the wall opposite Colonel Walsh's office, and told Maunders, "If you object so to our use of telepathy to hold private conversations, I suggest you learn how to listen in on them. If you figure out how, feel free to share. Given that we are on foreign soil, with our presence here of questionable legality, and we're surrounded by Circle mages… you'll have to excuse our little slips."
Toushiro asked, 'Boss, you do realize we can eavesdrop on telepathy, right? We've done it to you, often enough.'
'Yup,' Yussef answered, 'but she doesn't know that. If they think they've got an advantage, they're less likely to go looking for another one. Pass the word to the boys, though, try not to let any of the lambs know we can do it.' 'Lambs' was the unofficial nickname Laura had pegged Maunders and her fellow Circle students with, short for 'sacrificial lambs', which all of the students figured the Circle students were. What they were being sacrificed for and why was up for debate, though.
Colonel Walsh kept them waiting a good half hour. Three Dogs arrived in that time, taking up their own waiting postures in a group watching Yussef. He recognized Arlain, Mahmoud, and Bogdanovich, from both Hong Kong and the failed Shanghai raid. None of them said a word, merely nodded a greeting to Maunders and took to staring at Yussef. Yussef stared right back, confident that the Dogs, at least, were no threat. Not until after Al Hanthis is dealt with, at least, he reminded himself.
The interesting thing about the Dogs, though, was that they were in uniforms. Field fatigues, yes, but not US or British, and the markings were not any service Yussef recognized. The fatigues were standard green and brown European colors, cut loose as always, festooned with pockets. They had no national flags, but each sported a name tag and unit patch – a black silhouette of three different canines, each with a Roman number in red on it.
When Walsh finally did have his aide send them in, Yussef's initial impression was 'unimpressed'. Walsh was fit enough to meet military requirements, if a little on the short side, but had the sort of softness Yussef associated with talkers, not soldiers. Watching the Dogs, and especially Maunders, as introductions were traded around, Yussef decided he was right, and Walsh was a paper-pusher in uniform.
Once introductions were done, Walsh got right to business, "Maunders, you said something about a strike plan for us to review?"
"More of an operational concept, sir," Maunders replied, "and it's not mine, it's his." She gestured at Yussef, who Walsh glanced at and then ignored. "I mentioned it to Arlain, and he expressed an interest in seeing the plan, so I scheduled this meeting. It's Al Khan's show, though."
Everyone turned to Yussef, and he shrugged, "I have a briefing planned out, gentlemen, but thought there would be more room – a briefing room, or an exercise field. Do you want to do this here?"
"We'll start here," Walsh said, "then move somewhere appropriate if your ideas warrant it."
Yussef nodded, then reached back and hefted Zulfiqar off his back. Setting the blade to floating in the air, a mental command brought up a smaller version of the holographic Al Hanthis he and the Myrmidons had been using for planning. "The simple fact is, this war revolves around Al Hanthis," he said. "However quickly they may be bringing North Africa to heel – and those poor bastards in the Cote d'Ivoire are proving they will bring it to heel – their power rests entirely on the city itself. So long as they can retreat within its shield, they are untouchable. So long as we cannot get through that shield, they can re-supply and reinforce at will. If we can take Al Hanthis the entire situation transforms from a war to a debate over who gets to oversee dismantling the city. If we can even seriously damage the city, they'll be forced to the negotiating table, and we can stop the fighting.
"The problem is how to damage the city without setting off the very cataclysm we're all terrified of. We have a small number of options for bringing the shield down, but they all involve unacceptable costs and or risks, mostly risks of a cascade dimensional dislocation. Everything destructive we've thought up carries inherent risk of such a cascade, given how many Lost Logia they have floating about in the city."
"If you're worried about nukes," Arlain began, but Yussef cut him off with a gesture.
"Nukes, tactical and strategic both, are now useless against Al Hanthis, unless they make another over-the-horizon attack, which London and New York will only qualify for in the final stages. If the US or UK wants to nuke their own city," he shrugged, "that's their option, but I'd recommend against it. Using nukes against Al Hanthis itself, while they would have a good chance of bringing down the shield, and a lesser chance of destroying the city without triggering a cascading dimensional dislocation, won't work. By now, thanks largely to the strike your Navy just made, Al Hanthis will have anti-missile defenses in place, and it is simply impossible to get a warhead close enough to the city to detonate, not using conventional means."
Walsh glared at him, "There's no way they could put together an ABMS this fast."
Yussef met Walsh's glare with one of his father's 'friendly' smiles – just friendly enough to make the contempt obvious. "They have an entire city floating in the air, Colonel. A city, and not a small one. One ringed with weapons emplacements. The largest is similar to the one used to first attack them after their arrival. The Bureau has records of similar weapons, they are one of the few forms of Lost Logia that is considered stable enough for general use – Class Four, Restricted. Non-Bureau governments are allowed to maintain small numbers as defensive weapons. Marcel?"
"The Saires Cannon," Marcel replied, a gesture bringing up a holographic representation of the weapon. "Masses one point five metric tons, in a frame four meters by two by two. Power demands are relatively low for the output, it is a very efficient weapon. Standard setting is one to five mega-joules delivered in a one-second beam. Rate of fire at that setting is fifty shots per minute. Range is visual out to five light-seconds, with accuracy of one meter per light-second, mostly due to gravitational and atmospheric effects on the beam. Accuracy in a purely space-borne engagement is one meter per two light-seconds, given standard targeting and compensation programming. Al Hanthis has at least fifty such weapons emplaced around the city's perimeter, and several buildings have doors or hatches significantly smaller their observed vehicles, which may conceal further weapons. They also have four to five hundred smaller fixed weapons we have not yet been able to identify, most co-located with the Saires cannons."
"Ballistic missiles, for all their speed and power, are actually rather slow weapons, Colonel," Yussef said. "Given the vagaries of targeting and guidance software, and the limitations of a ballistic flight path, you're looking at a minimum of fifteen to twenty minutes from launch to impact, and your missiles would be over the horizon for most of that. Bombers would be worse, once Al Hanthis learned to recognize them, and trust me, they're learning right now. Cruise missiles would be moderately more survivable, but we're still talking fractions of a percent chance of success."
Walsh huffed and leaned back, crossing his arms, "Can't say I'm surprised, you following in your teacher's footsteps."
Yussef shook his head, "Actually, Hayate-sensei and I disagree on the use of nuclear arms. She refuses to consider them at all. I refuse to use them stupidly. They're not the only weapon available, and to be honest, they're not entirely practical for this war. Oh, if Al Hanthis were as fanatical as the Revenants and pursuing a scorched-earth conquest policy, sure, I'd be falling all over myself to find a way to slip a few megaton-range warheads through that shield. As it is, though…" he shrugged.
Toushiro picked up, "We have two scenarios thought out for using tactical nukes. The first one we came up with is very risky, but if we can mitigate those risks, it's worth a shot. We may be able to slip someone or something through the shield on a one-way basis that may or may not be survivable for a human. A classmate has a method of drawing physical objects to her without transiting the space between, something that bypasses traditional teleport barriers. If she can figure out how to send something, and if it'll pass through that shield, we plan to plant a few bombs around the shield generators, try to bring enough of it down to allow a strike force in.
"The second is less pleasant, a forlorn hope tactic. Our most likely method of cracking the shield without destroying the planet would only be open briefly, long enough for one or two mages to dash through. Alternatively, we may be able to slip someone in through the portals they use to bring in supplies. This individual could theoretically take a nuke through with them, but it would be a one-way trip."
"It would also carry a high risk of causing a cascade dislocation, as would the first option, given our present knowledge of Al Hanthis' construction," Marcel added. "Neither is considered a high-probability mission, but if it is the only way to prevent an Al Hanthis victory, and the Bureau still refuses to intervene, we may consider it. Though, as Yussef mentioned, either scenario would require a way to gain Hayate-sensei's approval."
"Nukes have a place, but they're not the ideal weapon for this war," Yussef said. "It's too difficult to control them, they're too inflexible and indiscriminate. The Al Hantheans have committed enough atrocities, we don't need to commit any of our own unless we've exhausted all other options first. A mage strike, however, is very flexible, very controllable, and much more likely to give us a victory we can live with. Those are what most of our scenarios are built around, and what Maunders thinks you gentlemen can help me plan."
Yussef and the Myrmidons had hashed out variation upon variation of the original scenario he had given them just after Hong Kong. Most were some variation on the original – a variable number of mages got through the shield at a random point, and what they could best do to maximize their effectiveness before the Guard took them down. Yussef himself was partial to one of the more complicated plans, a variation on the New Delhi strike from the previous year.
To Yussef's surprise, once he began the actual briefing, the hostility from the Dogs and Walsh faded. It did not disappear completely, but it retreated thoroughly into the background. It took him a while to recognize what it was, given how rarely he had been on this end of a briefing and how close he and his Myrmidons were. These were professional soldiers studying a tactical problem, and it showed in their attention, the notes they took, and the questions they asked between each scenario.
When he wound down an hour and a half later, there was some shifting, then Walsh spoke first. "The biggest problem I see is still the shield. Your plans all rely on being able to create an opening in the shield to insert a strike force, then using that strike force to open a larger more permanent hole. But nothing talks of how to get through the shield."
"That is our largest hurdle," Marcel said, "and if we had a way around it, a way to get a serious strike force through, we would have gone in already. Takashi is working on it now that he is no longer keeping an eye on the Dogs, and so are several of our classmates and the Volunteers."
"We're aware of the limitation," Yussef said, "but we're also aware that someone has to have a plan for what to do once we can create an opening in that shield. One of my biggest objections to the Revenants initial strike on Al Hanthis, aside from the fact that they did it, was their complete lack of follow-through. They had nothing in place to either follow-up a successful strike, or mitigate they failure they got. I do not want us to be in the same position."
"You're not going to have enough people to do anything," Arlain said, shaking his head. "Oh, a small strike force like Hayate's crew – you, your teachers, the Volunteers, Maunders' fellow dark-siders – you could do some damage, but not enough before they swarmed you under. Just the Guard mages we've seen could match you for numbers, and there have to be more Guard, if they're seriously planning to hit two cities at once."
Toushiro snorted, "Yeah, but where do we find those mages? Wolfpacks won't have the range. We'd have to infiltrate the generating circles into Cairo to have them close enough to let the focus mages affect the battle, and once the opening in the shield was closed, those focus mages would be cut off from the wolfpack, leaving a bunch of unenhanced Circle mages. No offense, but there is no way individual Circle mages would be effective."
"Individual Circle mages," Mahmoud said wonderingly, "or individual Dogs?"
Arlain and Bogdanovich frowned at him, then after a second the frowns cleared and they nodded slowly. Walsh frowned as well, asking, "Would one platoon make a difference, even over-strength? I wasn't aware Hughes was going to start more than your eight squads."
"He's not," Arlain said, "but half of what makes us Black Dogs is not our magic, it's the ammo and the tactics."
"Tactics which conventional militaries already use," Bogdanovich added, "Spteznaz, SEALS, SAS."
"Still not enough," Arlain shook his head, "not to take an entire city, not even if we got every team, squad, and company in the world, which we wouldn't. Hell, half the SAS is on its way to the Congo now, looking to infiltrate north into conquered territory, and I hear the SEALS are doing the same."
"Would they have to be special forces," Yussef asked, "or could regular formations do? How much of this ammo of yours can you produce, and in what calibers?"
Arlain shrugged, "Hughes is still setting something up to mass-produce the ammo, but you'd have to ask him. As for calibers, any NATO standard, so far as I know."
"The Master that came up with the current version of the technique is setting up in one of the Army munitions plants," Maunders told him. "Last I heard a week ago, he had doubled his previous production, but was uncertain of increasing further. It requires an active mage at some specific spots in the process, and he's having staffing issues. I'll find out."
"Conventional forces, the Dogs ammo, that's fine," Yussef said, "but which forces, and how do we get them in there?"
They all stared at the hologram of the city for a time, then Arlain shook his head, "No armor, not in there. There might be corridors big enough, but any tanks we brought in would probably just get stuck in those parks. Sitting ducks, too."
"Infantry," Bogdanovich agreed, "Paratroopers, probably. Those lunatics are used to being cut off from support and fighting in close quarters with light weapons."
"Lunatics?" Mahmoud backhanded the Russian lightly on the shoulder, "You've got more jumps than anyone else in the Dogs, Ivan, including more combat jumps."
Bogdanovich waved that off, "Bah, I am Spetznaz, not a paratrooper. Those boys are lunatics. Me, I am simply efficient in reaching my assigned objectives."
"Paras would be good," Arlain said, "but I'd honestly have to say Marines, US or British, maybe both."
"Russian Marines are just as good," Bogdanovich protested. "Better, even, less boasting and preening."
Walsh shook his head, "Russians won't fly, not after that statement the other day." At Bogdanovich's frown he held up a hand, "What did the Premier say, Bogdanovich? Nothing, a whole boat-load of nothing. Some comments about 'all parties exercising restraint' and 'proper legal and diplomatic channels', and the usual diplomatic vapors. I haven't heard a public statement that meaningless since the State Department's last press conference on UN corruption. Add on top of that, what has been Russia's sole presence in this war to date?" He pointed at Yussef, then Marcel and Toushiro.
"The Russian," Yussef agreed, not snarling but still shifting the term into a curse.
"Do not call her that," Bogdanovich snapped back. "She is a traitor and a heretic twice over, she is not Russian."
Yussef nodded, "Sorry, but that's what Walsh meant. So far, Russia has been quiet, even about the Atlantic. The only thing 'Russian' anyone knows about is a traitor. Russian marines might help counter-balance that, but that would be something for higher-ups to decide if this ever becomes an actual ops plan."
"It will be by this time tomorrow," Walsh said. "Like you said, kid, strikes like this don't just happen. This is going to take serious planning at every level – where to train, who to train, when to go, what to bring, how to get it there, how to get it out if things go south…"
"The Chinese," Mahmoud said. "Their paratroopers are good, and they'll be all for getting some of their own back for Hong Kong."
Yussef considered that for a few moments, then nodded, "Colonel, if you've got someplace to put us up for the night, transferring everything I've got with me to your planning people will probably take the rest of the day and into tomorrow. You'll also need someone familiar with device-mage tactics for the planning, which would be the three of us. If Hayate-sensei agrees, would it be acceptable for us to remain here for a day or two?"
00000
Szash looked up when a chuckling Eri strolled into her office, and frowned. "What's got you in a good mood?"
Eri waved a data-pad, "Egg on the Lord Protector's face."
That perked Szash up – Yosho had been getting pushy in the Conclave in the few days since the loss of the Seed bound for New York and London. He had positioned himself as the 'voice of reason' in the debates over what to do now. He was most helpful on allocating resources to replace the lost Seed, and increasing their production priority enough to activate the larger, long-mothballed, main production facility, but had been pushing for an immediate expansion of the assault plan. That positioning, typical as it was of him, had put him in position to seriously needle her. He had not come out directly against any of her plans or suggestions, precisely, had even supported her resource requests, but he was plainly setting himself up to cut her off at the knees in the near future. Anything that embarrassed him, or even just let her have a laugh at his expense, was welcome.
"What happened?"
"Well, it's actually worrisome news," Eri admitted, "but it does include the fact that the Protectors screwed up by the numbers. There was an unauthorized transit through the Cairo portals shortly after noon today. The ground crew saw nothing and no one, but the detectors picked up the energy spike from an unscheduled transit, and automatically re-routed into one of the Protectors' secure receiving bays. They even got a few seconds of imagery of the intruder, a teenage girl that matches one of Hayate's students, who promptly disappeared again."
"Ohhh, that's not good," Szash said, humor fading as she leaned back, "the Caeghlin girl, right? Was she carrying anything?"
Eri nodded, "It was probably Caeghlin, yes, though the Protectors obviously don't know we know that. I only have a limited report, but it did not mention her carrying anything, and the one still image I have of her she does not appear to be carrying anything. She certainly was not carrying something bulky enough to be one of those warheads. Thing is, the Protector who had the duty decided he could handle one little girl all by his lonesome, and went down to talk her into surrendering."
Szash flinched at that, picturing the likely result. The Protectors, for all their pride and skill at law enforcement, were not really combatants, and once in the Void had not kept up what little combat training they had during the war. There had been precious few violent crimes in the city even before the rebels kicked off their civil war, and no one had resisted arrest – not seriously – since the city was lost in the Void. None of the Protectors who were not Guard had done anything to rectify that lack since the city returned to Homeworld, and Szash had deliberately gotten rid of most of those in Cairo. One of Hayate's child-soldiers would make mincemeat out of a lone Protector, especially someone low-ranked enough to be on routine guard duty. "Would it be gloating too much if we send a representative to his funeral?"
"He's not dead. She hurt him, though I haven't found out how badly yet, and left him in some sort of nullification binding spell, then vanished. Our estimates of her ability to disappear are off, by the way. We've had exactly one standard sensor pick her up – the detectors on the portal. I will say this, though… she's just as insane as the rest of them. She bypassed the secure receiving bay's shields by the simple expedient of teleporting out of the bay."
"Teleporting? Where too?" Szash blinked, eyes widening as one incredibly stupid possibility occurred to her, "don't tell me that idiot deactivated the containment center's shielding?"
Eri shook her head, "Caeghlin only went about eight meters, from inside the bay to the hallway outside. Used a strange one, too, from what my sources say, though again I don't have details on it yet."
Szash shuddered at that, visceral reaction making her skin crawl. Teleports below a range of about a kilometer became less and less accurate, as the initial and terminal points interfered with one another, with some horrific results possible. Teleporting eight meters was not necessarily a death sentence, but there were worse things than death. "Keep that in mind," Szash said, "if they're insane enough to do that in combat, or if they've got some sort of teleport that mitigates the close-range interference to make it safe for them, we're going to have to figure out how to do it ourselves, or how to counter it."
Eri nodded, and made a note on her pad. "Personally, I think they've found a way around the interference. Like I said, the girl apparently used a strange form of teleport, which I'm trying to get details on. Though I may have Galli ask, since he's working with that Protector Journeywoman on the subtle knife. Basically, they've surprised me enough times that I'm willing to bet on skill over insanity, at least among their mages."
"True enough. Get what you can on the new intrusion," Szash told her, "officially and unofficially. Any requests for assistance in tracking the intruder down?"
"Not the new one, no, just the subtle knife that commandeered the comms. It's early, though, she only just arrived in the city today, and Yosho may still think he has her contained in the tower."
"Likelihood of that?"
"Low," Eri estimated. "Caeghlin is an expert at stealth and stalking. Between the initial reports of this intrusion and Kriegsen's information, I would say she can give a Ghost a run for her money. If she's not out of the Tower already, she will be by sundown. There's too much traffic in and out of the Tower, and you know how the construction of these larger towers are. More holes than a fishing net."
"You've never even seen a fishing net," Szash complained.
"Neither have you, Ma'am," Eri said with a grin. "Analogy still works, though. She's out, poking around, looking for trouble to get in to. That's what worries me, to be honest. She can't be here for a strike, there's no way they have information on the city that detailed. She's here for one of two things, maybe both: Morisovitch, and recon."
"I'd bet on both," Szash said, leaning back in her chair and turning it over. "There's not much we can do about it, but pass an alert to all Guard – Caeghlin's description, our estimates of her capabilities, and orders to engage only with numerical superiority. Classify her as a Ghost Adept, and remind everyone that numerical superiority means just that – anyone who spots her is only to engage if there's someone else with them and she's alone. Pass on that the Protectors already have one casualty due to overconfidence, and remind everyone about the trouble we had at Hong Kong.
"While you're doing that, have Losius look into securing this tower. I don't want her sneaking out of the Protector's bailiwick and then causing some chaos in mine. Visual access only, I think, something that makes sure we can see everyone who enters the tower."
"If we pass on her description, Yosho will hear about it," Eri cautioned. "The initial alert doesn't have a description in them, I only ID'd her from a picture one of my people slipped me. He'll figure out we've got his info on Hayate."
"Probably." Szash shrugged, "he'll probably even realize we have the same data he does. But the question he will be left with is, how did we get it? Kriegsen? An agent of ours among the Protectors? A source among the locals? He'll spend at least some time chasing his own tail trying to find out, especially with this embarrassment to deal with. Also… very quietly, if you please, make sure that certain members of the Conclave become aware of the infiltration. Emphasize how successful it was, and how easy it would be for Caeghlin to bring in something like one of those warheads."
"We don't have the manpower to guard the portals," Eri said, "not if we're going to attack London and New York simultaneously and go after the Middle East."
"No, but we can make sure Yosho actually does guard them, and a little pressure on him in the Conclave will get him to back off his pressure on us. And if he brings up the question of where we got our information," Szash smiled in anticipation, "well, I'm sure mister Kriegsen is getting lonely up there in his penthouse."
00000
Laura stopped the twins with a hand on their shoulders, ignoring the gathered students, teachers, and Volunteers. Almost everyone had accepted Hayate-sensei's invitation to this particular class, turning what was becoming a school tradition into a full-blown ceremony. The only ones missing were the quartet off in America, Tai-Yu-sensei who preferred to take the watch, and the Circle Lambs (who had pointedly not been invited). Even the teachers out talking to various militaries had made it back for this.
Laura ignored all of them, however, as Saeryn and Rhys turned to give her a matching questioning look. She studied each face for a moment, then asked, "You two sure you're ready for this? We went kind of fast, especially this last month."
Saeryn frowned at her, "We are ready."
"More than ready," Rhys agreed, equally insulted.
Laura considered them a second more, reassuring herself they were being honest, and not hiding behind mere bravado. "You know you won't have to fight, won't be expected to. You're still kids."
Frowns turned into outright glares, and Rhys shrugged out of her grip a moment before Saeryn did. "We are Paladins, Sempai," they said in unison.
Laura chuckled, and ruffled their hair, which intensified their glares, feeling a mix of pride and worry and excited terror. I wonder if this is what Sensei feels like when I do something precocious, she wondered. "All right, all right," she said aloud, "just remember, it's going to feel strange, gloriously powerful, but it's your device. Keep it in hand, and it'll hand you the world."
"We understand, Sempai," Rhys said, smoothing her hair back into place.
"Then go ahead, girls," Laura told them, giving each a little push, "let's see how far we've come."
She followed the twins fully into the main workroom, securing the door with a thought, then followed them further. She gave Noriko a small wave, almost laughing at the bored expressions most of the second-years affected, with varying degrees of success, as they stood off to one side. The Volunteers looked the calmest, next to the teachers, most looking no more than slightly curious. It was the first-years who were the most visibly excited, whispering among themselves and as close to the complete but inactive devices as Lotte would let them get, just behind the teachers.
Laura stopped next to Signum as the twins listened to Lotte's last-minute instructions. She was feeling jittery, but not nervous, just excited. The twins were her pet project, just as she had been Sensei's last year, and the thought of finally, at long last, being able to really push them and see just how far they could go was just too thrilling.
Lotte finished, and the twins walked up to their devices, though not even Laura could tell the two constructions apart. The inactive devices were precisely the same, to a degree Lotte had told her was usually only seen in the mass-produced devices the Bureau issued. Each girl rested her hand on the clear central gem, and paused there a moment.
"Our mother has turned from us," they said in unison, "our father risks his life for us. We face the ancient enemies, the very demons of Hell itself, who broke the world once before and seek to do so again. Our own people fear and despise us. All the world seems to have risen against us." They paused a moment, the power they were channeling becoming visible in the gems and beginning to flow through the device components.
"So be it," they resumed, still in unison, it was in a harsher tone. "We are Twilight Paladins. We are the masters of our fate, the warriors and defenders of this new world. We shall descend upon our foes as a tempest upon the shore, and leave naught in our wake, save wrack and ruin!
"Temujin…
"Alexander…
"… Arise!"
Laura could not help giggling as white washed over both girls and their devices woke. Even Signum's telepathic, 'We need to talk about what you've been teaching them,' did not dampen her excitement. Yellow-white light washed over the twins, clearing in a moment to reveal two new figures.
They were even more identical than usual, not even mirrored simply 'the same'. Each was wearing a blindingly white suit, jacket trimmed in deep red, pants trimmed in dark blue. Long black hair floated free down their backs, and their faces were covered by blank white masks, flat at the hairline and coming to a sharp point at the chin. Each of them held in their right hand a short black staff, a half-meter four-centimeter thick rod, the last five or six centimeters yellow-white crystal, and the whole thing covered in fine silver filigree. Just below the crystals, spaced around the staff and almost hidden in the filigree, were four slots just sized for cartridges.
They turned to the crowd as one, then raised their devices. One spoke first, "Lotte-sensei, my Alexander."
The other twin had shifted elsewhere, though, saying simultaneously, "Sempai, my Temujin."
Laura started at that, surprised, then grinned and shook her head. "I get you two Friday afternoon, Ruin-chan. This is Lotte-sensei's show." Both girls stared at her a moment, and Laura was morally certain they were frowning at her. Then Saeryn touched Rhys' elbow, and the two of them turned back to Lotte.
Lotte flicked an ear and showed Laura a fang in a crooked grin, then told the twins, "Well, you appear to be wearing your armor already, or is there more?"
"This is our barrier jacket," Saeryn answered.
"We saw no reason not to bring them up," Rhys concluded.
"Ah, yes, over-achievers to the last," Lotte said, then frowned and lashed out, tapping Rhys' mask with one finger-tip. "What's with these?"
Rhys recoiled, shifting partly behind Saeryn automatically. It was Saeryn who explained, "The fewer who recognize us, the safer we and our family will be. The masks and altered hair color will allow others to assume what they will, and allow our parents to deny this if asked."
That actually made Lotte pause a moment, ears drooping. Then she shook her head and lashed out again, ruffling Saeryn's hair much like Laura often did. Saeryn reacted the same as always, jerking away with an insulted grumble, reaching up quickly to repair the damage.
"Don't be so morose," Lotte ordered them, "you'll be just as beautiful as Aria and I are once you've grown up a little more and you're cute enough now. You don't need to hide your cute little faces, or they'll freeze that way. For now, let's see what you've got, shall we?"
Laura's nerves peaked a little when the twins started through the series of tests Lotte had prepared for them, but Signum distracted her. 'Were you planning to take them with you to London?'
Laura's immediate reaction was to say 'yes', it would be all sorts of incredible to see Wrack and Ruin in action for real. But she hesitated, working past the excitement, and considering what the twins were doing at the moment. They were demonstrating their buster spells against monitored targets, and Laura was somewhat disappointed in how they were doing. There was too much power, too little control, and the bolts were ragged. That could have been due to the discrepancies between what they were used to and how a device worked, but it could be a sign of lack of practice or lack of focus.
So after a few seconds, Laura shook her head, 'I can't say yet, Sensei. They'll have to be up to your standards by the time we go, whenever that is. If they are, I'd love to take them along, but if they're not, they're not.'
'Good,' Signum said, 'you're learning. We'll see how they do today and tomorrow afternoon. Take them aside this afternoon to give them some pointers. After your class tomorrow, I'll test them while you spar with Kaemon in the training circle.'
'Sounds good, Sensei,' Laura agreed, mentally plotting out what to show the twins that afternoon and how to test them the next afternoon. She would have to push them, but not too hard. Laura was every well aware how easy it would be for her to overwhelm any of her classmates, and that would not be the point of testing the twins. Planning the next day's class, though, reminded her of something else. 'Sensei? Any word from Allison?'
Signum shook her head. 'No, other than that she made it in to Cairo safely. We won't know until she returns, or Al Hanthis somehow lets us know they have her. That is the problem with missions like these – for those of us left behind, all we can do is wait and hope.'
00000
Author's Note: Maunders' reference to 'SOG' is an anagram for Special Operations Group, where the Dogs liaise with the Army people at Fort Knox. ABMS is short for Anti-Ballistic Missile System. The twins' devices are named for the two of the greatest conquerors in history – Alexander the Great, and Temujin, a.k.a. Genghis Khan. Yes, I know, he's properly referred to as Genghis Khan, but Saeryn's too arrogant to use a proper form of address over a given name. Their barrier jackets and masks are based on Aria's and Lotte's disguises from A's, save the colors and the fact that their masks are featureless. Regarding nukes, Yussef's analysis above is essentially accurate – delivery systems designed to deal with modern non-mage targets on a strategic and tactical level are simply insufficient to penetrate Al Hanthis' defenses, much as pre-gunpowder castle walls could not stand up to cannon-fire. Such will be obvious to Szash and Al Hanthis with a minimal amount of research on publicly available information. Remember, Szash's order to 'sink them all' was a gut reaction – something she'll pursue, but not irrationally. As far as Hayate's reaction… I couldn't get it to turn out 'right'. Every scene I tried to write showing Hayate's reaction to the nukes ended up with her looking like a reactionary harpy. Her response is reactionary, but Hayate is never a 'harpy' and never that… out of control. I just couldn't get the scenes to work right.
00000
boomer sooner: I'm afraid I'm not going to do any scenes of Hayate's reaction, not directly. It'll be referenced again, but I could not get the scenes to work. As I mentioned above, each of the re-writes I ran through resulted in Hayate coming across like a raving harpy and irrational, which isn't her. Sure, she's not rational about nukes, but she's not as bad as my attempts at such a scene all turned out. For Eri, the Seed are simply another weapon, limited in use but controllable and with minimal side-effects. There's certainly nothing wrong with deploying them against an enemy, so of course it's rational – just as the Revenants were 'rational' in using that Seiretz/Saires Cannon against Al Hanthis in the first place. Nobody is entirely right here, or in the right.
Bad Habits: Al Hanthis' entire tech-base is built upon magic, not electricity and fire as the modern world's tech-base is. They simply never had a reason to develop something along the lines of a rocket or a nuclear warhead, when they had spells that could do the same. They understand the physics and have the concepts down, sure, but where we would use oxidizing chemicals and radioactive heavy metals, they use magic.
GeshronTyler: Szash does not so much expect Natalia to have specific information so much as 'more information'. We all know quite a lot about nuclear weapons, nuclear strategy, and nuclear doctrine, simply because we grew up with it. Szash and Al Hanthis did not, and while they have their own WMD, it functions along different lines with different strategies and tactics involved. Natalia will not be able to tell Szash things like yields and accuracies and ranges, but she can tell Al Hanthis about when a nuke is likely, who's likely to use one, and little tidbits like 'the US is the only nation to ever use a nuke outside of testing – you might want to reconsider pissing them off'. The internet is a primary source for Al Hanthis, of course, but pages on the web don't give a human feel to information and don't always explain things that are 'obvious'. As for locating submarines – every living thing has a linker core, which Al Hanthis can find. So, yes, they will have to do a mass-search, then filter out schools of fish, pods of whales, and the like. It will take time, but it is possible for Al Hanthis to find and sink every submarine in the world. Question is, upon seeing the scale of the worlds' nuclear arsenals and understanding things like 'Mutually Assured Destruction' and the old Soviet 'Dead Hand' protocols, will Szash bother? Probably not. Much of the searching could be done from the city (using conventional surveillance satellites and Hayate's monitoring Bureau-loaned platforms, ironically). As for taking out the weapons, Szash does not have the numbers of Guard necessary to wipe out the whole world's arsenal at one go, but she could get any single nation with a little Protector help. One Guard (even a Journeyman) could put paid to any ICBM silo in a matter of minutes, and the missiles are surprisingly vulnerable. SLBMs are more rugged, but even a boomer is vulnerable to a mage. It would take time, and it would leave Szash's strike teams vulnerable to counter-attacks by Hayate and her people, but it would be possible. The trick would be keeping other nuclear nations from seeing the attack, deciding they would be next, and pre-empting Szash. Submarines would be able to track Seed approaching, and Seed in the water get most of their speed from endurance (they can simply never stop, something a nuclear-powered submarine like a boomer can match). The Seed would be able to damage any ship they caught, but it would take time. If Seed could swarm a submarine in restricted waters, the boat would be in the position of a Blue Whale surrounded by Orcas – it's bigger and tough as all get-out, but it's less maneuverable and not properly armed for the fight. Where Seed would be most useful in hunting submarines is as hunting-hounds – driving the submarine to the mages who can sink it in seconds, before it can launch some sort of 'vengeance strike'. The problem with cruise missiles and aircraft attacking Al Hanthis is range – Al Hanthis does have the tracking and recognition capability to intercept warplanes, cruise missiles, and ICBMs/SLBMs. They would not necessarily be able to say what they were firing on, but they could engage any such target on an attack profile. A flight could try to sneak in by pretending to be civilian airliners, but once they turned in for the strike run, or deployed missile munitions, there would be perhaps five, six seconds before Al Hanthis engaged. I do have some ideas for using some of the US' more advanced conventional munitions against Al Hanthis' forces, though Rods From God won't be one of them (love the concept, but at this point it's more something Al Hanthis would have the capability to pull off, if only they could find a ZES Platform!).
Kell Shock: Actually, the ocean is one of the least damaging places to use a nuclear weapon, for much the same reason that an airburst is 'cleaner' than a ground-burst. A lot of the radioactive elements will get bound up with vaporized water and carried up into the upper atmosphere, getting spread out over a vastly larger area, thus reducing the concentrations below dangerous levels. In a ground-burst (and, to a lesser extent, an airburst) the radioactive elements bind to physical debris sucked up by the firestorm that does not vaporize and is not buoyant in atmosphere, and thus falls much faster in a much smaller area. There's also the current to keep in mind, which will also disperse the radiation over larger areas relatively quickly. Still, I would not recommend any deep-sea fishing off Portugal for a generation or so. As far as a Trident MIRV not having the yield of l'Arc-en-Ciel, sure – but what else comes close? With WMD on that scale, whether the weapon is at one end or the other is effectively meaningless, there's nothing else to compare except other WMD, and the level of destruction is horrible no matter how 'big' or 'small' the blast. That's why even small nukes remain WMD while something like the MOAB, even as large as it is, is just a bomb. You are perfectly correct about the US revealing more than they maybe should have, but that is a debate of strategy over tactics. Eventually, you have to use your 'trump card' or it might as well not exist at all. The US may have used theirs early, but look at Yussef's arguments above – where else would they have used one? London? New York? Allison could have gotten a nuke into Al Hanthis with her above infiltration, but that would have been a one-way trip, and would probably result in another Al Hazred Event, which is about a quarter of the reason Hayate hasn't suggested it (the other quarter being her refusal to use nukes, and the other half being her refusal to sacrifice one of her people like that). No one thought to use a nuke against the Seed headed to Hong Kong for two reasons – one, the Chinese did not have as accurate an estimate of the Seed pack's location, and two, the rest of the world (who did have that information) did not quite believe claims of the Seed's and Al Hanthis' capabilities.
MaZe-Pallas: Don't make the mistake of thinking that an initial reaction will translate into an operational plan. Szash's initial reaction was more about her character than about Al Hanthis' eventual actions. The ability to teleport is something of a game-breaker, but it's endemic to the setting (though I will admit, Takashi's teleport and the kids' use of teleportation is stretching the setting's use quite a bit). Do remember, though, that every major concentration of mages has a teleport barrier in place – Hayate's school, Al Hanthis, even come Circle sites have teleport barriers (there was one at New Delhi, remember?). It's a similar issue to satellite surveillance and Google Earth, only with more serious repercussions. I'll be honest – I had never heard the name/word 'Shamal' until I watched Nanoha. But remember how even common names can become (in)famous for a single person – admit it, one of the first people you think of on hearing 'Jack' is Jack the Ripper, isn't it? How about Adolf? Or Donner, if you're American? For someone like Sara, who studies Lost Logia extensively, 'Shamal' would be just as infamous as any of those, as the Book of Darkness was a 'repeat offender' – it always resurfaced, always with its four guardians. Also, while the Bureau has contact with Earth and is capable of communicating in any given Terran's native language, that doesn't necessarily mean they use the same names, so Shamal could be unique off-world, or have a completely different meaning. Shamal's name does fit with Cidela's past, though again, I didn't know that until long after I set it up.
MissGardenia: Al Hanthis can do a good job of sub-hunting, because they would not be limited to sonar and sonar-ranges. The Seed would not necessarily be useful, except possibly as 'hunting hounds', as subs can detect and avoid the Seed. ICBMs and SLBMs, used in a direct attack on Al Hanthis, would be a massive waste, worse even than the saturation bombing used in World War II. Smaller bombs and tactical strikes against the 'penny packets' of Seed would also be possible. Ground-interdiction for the forces moving over Europe towards London, would also be effective… if anyone can find them. Smaller size groups of Seed will be much harder to track down and localize to attack than the full-size packs sent after Hong Kong and nuked by the Americans. In terms of aircraft effectiveness, an F-22 would have a hard time, but would be somewhat more survivable than most fighters. It would face much the same issues tanks and anti-tank missiles have against Seed – the heavy munitions capable of penetrating a mage's defenses rely on active lock-on guidance, but the sources of their lock-on (heat and radar signature) are almost impossible to achieve against a human mage. Something like an Apache or a Lynx with a gun-pod and similar relative speed and agility would be more effective, but probably not very. A mage in flight is simply too maneuverable, too difficult a target, and too capable of replying. Say a Sidewinder with a sensitive enough sensor to lock on to a human-temperature target is developed and deployed. The F-22 carrying it will still have to struggle to keep the mage in the Sidewinder's line of sight long enough to achieve lock on, while within the Sidewinder's engagement range. That same mage is going to be maneuvering to avoid being locked, and spamming buster spells (which may be just as capable of seeking as a Sidewinder), and almost as dangerous to an aircraft (which can't carry much armor and stay airborne). Such a hypothetical aircraft/missile system could be magically protected, but at such effort that it would be more practical to simply send another mage. Basically, conventional weapon systems are better employed against the Seed than against mages. Parts of the above logic will play out in-story, as part of continuing efforts to defend against Al Hanthis, but you are unlikely to see a Battle of Britain equivalent.
Tombadgerlock: You're welcome for the update, but you're going to have to wait a little longer for any real dose of Nanoha. Probably until the battle of New York.
Baughn: Al Hanthis views its power generators as safe, stable, proven technology, no different than jet engines and nuclear reactors to us – so long as proper safety procedures are followed, there is no real danger, but when stupid and/or fanatical people mess with things they don't understand, of course there are problems. The power generators are actually safer than nuclear power plants, because their equivalent of 'spent fuel' is an already-worn-down, already-contained, easily-sealed dimensional dislocation You are correct that Eri's comments were incorrect, but remember, Al Hanthis has no experience with nuclear explosions – they've never needed them, not with l'Arc-en-Ciel available and cleaner.
Phily: The juxtaposition of Al Hanthis' view of nukes with the Circles' view of Al Hanthis is quite deliberate, for precisely the reason you mentioned – shades of grey. As for what's more dangerous, it's still a matter of perspective – Al Hanthis' power plants are perfectly safe, so long as proper protocols are followed and no one disables the containment systems then blows one sky high. A strike to wipe out a nation's nuclear arsenal would be possible, using the entire Guard and probably a good chunk of the Protectors in a single simultaneous strike against the target nation's entire arsenal. Well-executed diplomatic maneuvers could even keep other nations out of it until it's over, or keep them from retaliating. Personally, I'd estimate such a strike would take, once Al Hanthis has the target locations, somewhere around half an hour to an hour. While I know there are plans in place to react and counter-strike in that length of time, those plans are based on countering a nuclear strike, and the missiles themselves are aimed at targets all over the planet. Re-targeting missiles on Al Hanthis (beyond those probably already re-targeted) would take time, even after the counter-strike order was given. Al Hanthis' understanding of Terran nations is rather limited and colored by their own preconceptions, but a large part of that problem is the typical intelligence community issue – too much data, not enough people to figure out what that data means. Al Hanthis has access to the internet, and can get into almost any computer system they care to take the time to access, but how much can they trust that info (look at how reliable Wikipedia is, and most of us aren't worried about disinformation and counter-intelligence like Al Hanthis is). For instance, when the teams went into North Africa's capitals, they knew who they had to capture, what their positions and authority were, and where they were likely to be (homes, businesses, offices, etc). Confusion over what happened in Hong Kong is due to the different tech-bases between Al Hanthis and Terra. Hayate's Armageddon spell would be an absolute last-resort – if Al Hanthis is triggering a dimensional dislocation, she'll use the spell to try and stop it along the same theory as using dynamite to stop an oil-well fire. If she went after the city outside those circumstances, the probability is that the shield would absorb enough of the strike to keep the city from being destroyed outright, but not enough to keep from catastrophically damaging one or more power generators. The Dogs do have the ability to enhance ammunition, as mentioned above, and that ability is going to be expanded. Strong AI is definitely a possibility for Allina and Niranjana, but it's not something they are going to deliberately work on in-story more than they already have – HAL and Saraswati probably qualify, but they all have more pressing concerns. As for Nanoha borrowing Laura's bolt-drones, it's entirely possible, but mostly a matter of style. Remember, this whole series is built off the first two series, not StrikerS, and from what I've seen, I dislike StrikerS. Based on those, Nanoha is a ranged combatant specializing in sniping and bombardment, yes, but she relies on herself and Raging Heart (I know, I know, it's 'Raising', but 'Raging' fits Nanoha better, in my opinion). While the drones are impressive, I find her ability to unleash equivalent barrages strictly from herself and with much greater precision to be more impressive. Regarding the relative power of Armageddon versus nuclear warheads, you're half right. There are two differences between an area-effect spell and a bomb – time-release of energy, and controllability. A spell is much easier to control, to manipulate the 'blast' from an omni-directional release of uniform energy to something more focused but still wide-area (a disk or cone instead of a sphere). The big difference is time-release of energy. Any explosive generates and releases all its energy in a second or two, at most, with everything that follows from that being the energy generated disbursing itself. A spell can release its energy that fast, but can also sustain that energy release over several seconds or more. Armageddon, for instance, takes about ten minutes to build the spell structure, then generates an energy release lasting anywhere from sixty seconds to as long as Hayate can sustain it. Armageddon has a lower energy release rate than a nuke, but sustains that release over much more time, thus generating a much greater aggregate output. That same aggregate power over time is what would allow it to 'crack a planet's crust'. Think of it in terms of rocketry – take a rocket that can reach orbit carrying a multi-ton cargo. If you launch that rocket normally (a spell), the cargo reaches orbit just fine. If you blow it up on the pad (a nuke), at best a few random molecules of it will reach orbit. Armageddon would, at upper levels, have a horrendous impact on climate and the like. As for where Seed would fit under the Rules of War, it would depend upon the nation interpreting the rules. For the US, Seed are a biological weapon of mass destruction. So, yes, legally the US was well within its rights to use nukes on them.
Templar Prime: Yeah, one of the things that generally annoys me about nukes in fiction is how they're portrayed – useless horror weapons only a General Ripper would even think of using. The simple fact is, there are circumstances under which nuclear weapons are the most logical step – wiping out a concentrated force of high-armor magic-resistant targets in the middle of the Atlantic is one of the clearest. Signum's barrier jacket is actually lavender, I believe (it's not white), but good luck finding a Navy pilot that will admit knowing what 'lavender' means:). Regarding the number of blasts, I did mean 'fourth' (not forth, though), thanks for the note. A Trident II missile can carry up to eight warheads, each of which has a nominal yield of around 400-500 kilotons – but the US is currently limited by treaty to two warheads per Trident II, so two missiles, four warheads. The thing about Al Hanthis technology is, it is all built upon magic, just as our modern world is all built upon electricity and fire. It's a matter of direction of development – the Conclave of Masters, and the Warlords before them, developed a civilization built on magic, and never developed nukes or rockets, despite understanding the physics behind them. There was no reason to create a big one-use rocket that is going to convert expensive liquids and solids into noxious gasses, when a couple of spells can achieve the same effect in far less time (building a spell takes minutes, building a rocket takes years). Similarly for nukes, why create one big uncontrolled explosion, when you can achieve the more controllable and more efficient results from a spell? You are right that nations have exercised restraint in war, especially since 1945 – until 1945, worldwide casualty rates due to warfare were increasing every year to tens of millions, probably more (I don't remember the exact numbers or if the growth was geometric or exponential). After 1945 those same casualty rates dropped to a few million a year, and have stayed there ever since. But remember Vita's situation – surprised, Hayate was angry, and they were rushing off to confront (in Vita's mind) the Circles again. She wasn't in the mood to remember things like Korea, Vietnam, or Afghanistan. I'd have to go back and re-read to check on the first-year/second-year errors, but the current usage is correct – 'First Years' are the new kids, while the 'Second Years' are the students from Academy Blues. Sorry for the confusion.
Hignum: Regarding how famous the Wolkenritter are, there's a difference between seeing a woman standing on a stage at a press conference, and seeing her flying without visible means just after getting nuked. Reynolds probably would have recognized her, under calmer circumstances. Cidela will be back, it's just the how and when that is up for debate.
Nijiru: Eri's reaction is fairly accurate – by Al Hanthis' standards, the number of strategic nukes and the common doctrine for their use is insane. The old Davy Crockett (there was an insane idea) or Atomic Annie shells would actually concern Szash more, since those warheads are relatively small and light, and thus easy to smuggle into the city.
Alex: You are correct, a 'use it or lose it' scenario is possible, which any consideration of the situation will make obvious. Despite her initial reaction, Szash is not stupid, and will recognize that fact. There are still ways around that, though – the Guard could, once they localize a nation's ICBM launch sites and locate their boomers, mount a near-simultaneous strike. It would take a concerted effort of half and hour to an hour, but they could sink every boomer and destroy every ICBM in the launchers before any given nation could process through the launch protocols. Diplomats and negotiations would stand a fair chance of preventing other nations from retaliating.
PokemonJoe1: As Yussef explained above, the Navy's nuclear strike was tactically sound, strategically questionable. In the final analysis, though, it's one of the few ways nukes can be utilized in this war – any other use would include civilian casualties that would be unacceptable to any nation capable of delivering enough warheads to saturate Al Hanthis' defenses. The few nations that would accept wiping out Cairo, short of a 'use it or lose it' scenario, would not have enough warheads to get through Al Hanthis' defenses. Hayate's reaction to the nukes is based primarily on the fact that she is Japanese, but also on her training with the Bureau as, for all intents and purposes, an interstellar cop, both of which make WMD anathema. Mercedes' idea of having the first-years wolf-pack Didier is not a bad idea, except for the fact that no one really trusts the Circles. Now that the twins have their devices, that could change.
Psychic Sandwich: Not quite nuclear warfare, as that implies an exchange of nukes, not a single strike. A 'use it or lose it' situation is possible, depending on whether or not Szash realizes just how futile a 'conventional' nuclear strike against Al Hanthis would be, and decides to take the risk. Probably not likely, though, as nukes are only really dangerous to her field forces.
Derek Q: The Russians are facing a minor PR problem thanks to Natalia, but that is negligible. Their real problem at the moment is, what's in it for them to get in on the 'Allies' side? At the moment, Al Hanthis' campaign is a golden opportunity for them – their two biggest competitors (the US and China) are getting hammered, while Russia itself has so far only lost a small portion of the arms market (North Africa), which has already been replaced (by the rest of Africa, the Middle East, and whoever else is afraid of Al Hanthis). Russia has no reason to get involved yet, and every reason to pursue diplomatic accommodation with Al Hanthis. For an example of how that has worked in the past, I give you Chamberlain's and Stalin's separate pacts with Hitler. Sure, it may be short-sighted and dangerous, but studying history has proven to my satisfaction that nations are always short-sighted and self-absorbed, just like the people that run them. The Israelis will probably approach Japan about an alliance or accommodation, but that will have less to do with any fears of genocide (a family is different from a People – Blood Penance was wide in scope, yes, but not wide enough to qualify as genocide). Israel is going to be more concerned with the possibility of being conquered, but even with those concerns, Israel, like Russia, could come to an accommodation with Al Hanthis – Al Hanthis, after all, can apparently provide shields that will both stop missile and mortar fire and cover large areas, and may be able to provide the sort of 'bomb sniffers' that security experts have been dreaming about for decades. Israel could very well decide that some sort of commonwealth status that includes a massive security upgrade is worth it. I'm fully aware of the scale of this war, and just how much larger it is going to get. But don't forget, this war is being run, on both sides, by a relatively small number of people. Laura and her Paladins have a very specific role to play that is still unfolding – it won't be 'oh my God that's unbelievably huge', but it will be the sort of small, specific actions that make all the difference in the world.
Megaolix: While I will admit that individual scenes are often planned out as I write them, I have been planning the nuclear strike from last chapter since about the time I posted chapter four or five. Even before then I thought out a lot of the nuclear arms arguments Yussef raised above, and a few more I've mentioned in various replies or haven't noted yet. I won't promise that all my answers will satisfy everyone, but they are logical and make sense to me. I originally planned around sixty chapters for this story, and think I'll hit close to that mark at this point. Hong Kong came later than I originally intended, but Allina's intervention and Yussef's planning with the Dogs is happening sooner (relatively – it was originally outlined for around here, but a lot more chapters after Hong Kong than they've ended up being). The kids were chosen for mental flexibility and mental toughness, and I would argue that some of them have cracked – Natalia certainly has, Laura's entire personality is borderline (especially her obsession with power and responsibility). I haven't shown any of them falling apart in tears or running around in a panic because that's not in their natures, but they are having reactions – look at Allison above, and pay attention to what she does in the next chapter. I will freely admit that the Deva Magic is over-powered, which is one of the reasons so few characters have it. The only problem with Hayate researching spells out of the Tome of the Night Sky is that the Tome was sealed away by Nanoha and Fate at the end of As – not 'the security program', the entire Tome. Reinforce is a recreation of the Tome, not the Tome itself. According to As, nothing was left of the book but a little metal pendant, certainly nothing Hayate could have 'researched' spells out of. As for the Bureau, they're caught up in a diplomatic and bureaucratic furball. If you think having an organization as wide-ranging and powerful as the Bureau stand back and impotently watch as its own rules, standards, and reasons for existence are blatantly flouted – allow me to counter with the real world example of the United Nations: sixty years and counting, still utterly useless and getting worse by the day. Or the US and Iran's nuclear program – everyone and their brother realizes that letting Iran get a nuclear weapon means an end to what little stability the Middle East or South Asia have, but no one is doing anything about it. The Bureau is caught up in the same sort of stupidity. In fact, the Volunteers such as Reian are probably helping maintain the gridlock – 'there are already Bureau personnel on site, they can be relied on to keep things under control and keep the Bureau out of it, the Bureau itself has time to figure things out, etc, etc, ad nauseum'. It won't be pretty when the Bureau finally does work things out, though.