Post-Mission 'Desperate Assault on Sanc Kingdom'

[stardreadnought]

1. [The mission ended on a bittersweet note. And afterwards, you might run into a certain white-clad mage - now decked out in heavy looking gear - as she touches down on the deck. There's a serious look on her face.]

I'm sorry; inter-dimensional space has been rough lately, but I hurried back here as soon as I could.

I'm glad that everyone seems to be holding up since the last time we met, and while we're at it...I do have some good news to share...

---


2. [A while later in the hangar, Nanoha is holding a small holographic clipboard as she inspects the equipment she used in the mission: The Fortress and Strike Cannon. The individual parts are floating - occupying one of the mecha stations, and Raising Heart in its standby form is hovering just above her left shoulder.

If some of you couldn't tell already, this stuff is new even to Nanoha. That's also why she's inspecting it: to make sure it won't do anything she doesn't want it to. Her first impression?]

Mm...maybe they would have overdone it if they'd kept at this...

[And those are not words she just throws around. If you're curious, now's a good time to ask.]

Comments

[stardreadnought]

Mmm, how do I put this...I've had a feeling that I've seen the mechanism on this before.

[Nanoha glances down at the unit in question.]

CW-AEC02X Strike Cannon: a prototype designed to combat magic-neutralizing forces. It works by harnessing the user's mana and using that to create physical effects. These effects are still non-lethal, and the Strike Cannon achieves this by generating solid ammunition that it fires.

Does that sound familiar?

[the_innocent_blade]

Ahhhh...then they work like those then.

[Kurou was getting the picture here. He focuses for a moment and Nanoha would notice a surprising amount of magic coming the Sorcerer drop-out as he forms Cthugha and Ithaqua.]

Here.

[The twin pistols are handed over to Nanoha to examine.]

They're a bit more...up to date compared to the model that Azrad used, but they work on a similar concept.

[stardreadnought]

[Examine she does.]

It's as I thought...

So whoever it was must have had weapons like these, too.

[the_innocent_blade]

Mind filling me in on what you're thinking about?

[stardreadnought]

The enemies that this system was meant to take on were put out of action by a mystery group...or maybe a mystery person. The latter is what I think, because we would probably have noticed an entire group of people going about like that.

Actually, I never had the chance to meet these enemies in-person because of what happened, but they were supposedly pretty strong and used magic-neutralizing weapons. Our normal devices wouldn't have been able to do much without some tuning.

[the_innocent_blade]

Couldn't you have checked the magic left over or whatever to determine who or what it was that took out those enemies?

I mean if it was powerful enough to deal with something you'd have trouble with I would think it would've left something behind.

[stardreadnought]

That's exactly the problem. There was nothing of the sort left behind - no clues for us to follow.

It does make me wonder, though...

[the_innocent_blade]

Not a single trace left eh...

That raises a lot of questions.