2016-12-10: The Big Raid

[robkelk]

The Big Raid
by Rob Kelk

Prologue

Kemptville, Ontario, Canada
December 10, 2016
5:07 pm ET


Two rather large people caught her attention as she left the coffee shop by the back door. "Hey, you!"

She turned to face them. "Do you have some business with me?"

"Yeah. We'd appreciate it if you were to stay in Kemptville for all of next week."

"Think of it as a ... personal favour."

"Why would I want to do you any favours?" She pulled a mirror out of her purse and primped, hoping they'd take the hint.

"Because it'd be very bad for you if you don't do what we say."

The one who wasn't talking grabbed at the mirror, but she spun it around to keep it out of his reach ... and to catch a reflection of his face in the glass.

What she saw wasn't human. They hadn't taken the hint, but they had taken the bait. "I don't do favours for your sort. I kill things like you. Deep Submerge!" Michiru caught both trolls in the same blast, destroying them utterly.

A moment later, a car pulled into the parking lot. "Sorry I'm late! Why do you have the Deep Aqua Mirror out?"

"Oh, I just had to deal with a couple of Unseelie."

"Again?" Haruka asked while Michiru got into the car. "We really need to do something about them. We're getting lazy, always waiting for them to make the first move."

"Usagi said she and her friends were working on a plan for that."

"We really need to do something about them before Usagi tries to be friends with them."

"When I mentioned that to her last week, she said something about a different kind of befriending."

"I wonder what she meant by that?"

"Who knows?"

---

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
December 11, 2016
11:55 am ET


"We have a problem." Rob scowled as he sat down for lunch.

Mikoto looked up. "A problem? What is it?"

Rob almost made the Airplane! joke, but "a source of irritation or vexation" was what was important right now. "I just got an email from someone I used to work with. Her husband does design work for Haruka's race team, and he mentioned that Haruka's looking at making a raid against the Unseelie."

"I thought we were supposed to be keeping our existence secret," Mii muttered to nobody in particular.

"We're planning a raid, too, once it warms up in the spring," Makoto replied while carrying a platter of salmon fillets in from the kitchen. "Assuming we're still here then."

"Uranus wants to make the raid before Christmas."

Mii sighed. "Is there any way we can rein her in?"

Usagi shook her head. "She's not somebody who's used to taking orders. Neither is Michiru." Turning to Mii, she added, "Which is probably why Rob-oji's past coworker and her husband know about them – she might have told them."

"Do they know where the Unseelie are?"

"I don't know, Kazari. We know, or at least Jacky and Kate know, but have any of the Sidhe told Michiru?"

"If they have," Rei answered, "then we don't have a lot of time to figure out how to stop them from going in and getting themselves killed."

"They're Sailor Senshi, Niiko Misaka points out. Would they really be at risk, Niiko Misaka asks in continuation."

"They might," Mamoru replied. "It took all six of us plus Railgun to take down a single giant, and I was injured in the process."

"And from what the books say," Rob added, "we can't assume that there's only one giant in their lair."

"Too bad we don't have a military strike force that we could send against the Unseelie right now."

Rob raised one eyebrow. "Rui-chan, have you forgotten the MITHRIL strike force in Adelaide?"

Ruiko grinned sheepishly and and put one hand behind her head. "Ah-heh-heh. Yeah, I did."

Makoto cleared her throat. "Eat now, strategize later. The fish is getting cold."

Rob nodded. "Agreed. Besides, we want Haruka, Michiru, Tessa, Jacky, and Kate here for this. I'll call them after lunch."

"Invite them over for supper," Usagi suggested.

---

We're Putting the Team Together!


Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
December 13, 2016
4:15PM ET


Sailor Neptune looked up from the maps that Jacky and Kate had drawn for Usagi and Rob a day earlier. "These aren't very good."

Rob nodded. "What did you expect from a map based on imperfectly-remembered experiences from a year ago? Kazari has been running some experiments with some tech that Washuu-chan gave her at Halloween, and if she's happy with the test results, we'll make some better maps."

"Good. Next, I'd like to go over the list you've put together, and see who we can and can't work with."

"I'm sure you would, but don't you have a rede to lead tonight? I'd think it would make more sense for you to go get some sleep."

"I'm still young – I can stay up all night."

Rob deliberately ignored the implication in her comment. "Suit yourself, Michiru. Do you want a coffee or something?"

"I want to get this over with so we can start the attack," Haruka replied.

Rob shook his head. "Not until everyone's here. I promised Usagi she could sit in on these planning meetings."

Haruka made a face, something of a mix of cross and upset. "Why? She isn't the best tactical planner in the group."

Rob nodded. "That's exactly why. She needs to learn. So do I, for that matter." Just then, there was a knock at the common room's door. "And here's the other people I'm expecting," Rob continued as he got up, walked over to the door, and opened it. "Welcome to Ottawa, Captain, Sergeant."

"Thank you for inviting me to take part in this operation, Mr. Donaldson," replied a gray-haired teenage woman with a hint of a Boston Brahmin accent. A black-haired woman stood behind her; both were wearing uniforms that Haruka and Michiru didn't recognize.

"Who are you?" Haruka asked.

Rob tapped his own head lightly in an 'oops' fashion. "Where are my manners? Haruka Ten'oh, Michiru Kaioh, this is Captain Teresa Testarossa, commanding officer of MITHRIL's submersible carrier Tuatha De Danaan, and Sergeant Melissa Mao of the ground forces attached to the Tuatha De Danaan."

"My friends call me Tessa." She bowed to Haruka and Michiru, who bowed in return. "And I would very much like it if you would consider me to be your friend, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune."

Haruka nodded. "So we all know each other now. What's a submarine captain doing here?"

Before Tessa could reply, Rob said, "I've asked her, as an experienced military commander, to take charge of our mission. If things go well here, Lord Phantomhive will consider placing Tessa in charge of all multi-residence military and paramilitary operations."

"And I accepted," said Teresa. "Although at this point, my captaincy is a technicality; without MITHRIL or my boat, there’s not much point to the title. However, my expertise is still valid."

Haruka frowned. "I'll make my question more clear. What qualifies a submarine captain to take charge of a ground attack?"

(Rob was getting annoyed over Haruka's attitude, but he kept it to himself for the moment. Tessa was old enough and skilled enough to take care of herself.)

"Ms. Ten'oh, I am not just a submarine skipper. I command covert amphibious assault forces of mixed units that include ground troops, assault aircraft, and machines that you might call 'mecha'. I have commanded many ground operations in the past, most of them similar in type to the one we are planning to undertake."

"I can show you the anime of some of those missions, if you'd like," added Rob. With a bit of annoyance he was feeling slipping into his speech, he added, "Just like I can show Ms. Testarossa anime footage of your actions against the Witches 5."

Tessa and Haruka both quickly replied, "That won't be necessary" – Tessa in a mater-of-fact tone, Haruka is a slightly-annoyed tone. Tessa continued, "I think that I can work with Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, if they're willing to work with everyone else."

"As long as you don't try to tell us what to do when we're on the spot and you aren't," replied Haruka.

Rob's patience reached its end. "If you aren't willing to follow orders, you're out and we do this without you."

"That is quite enough, both of you," Tessa said sternly.

Once everyone was looking at her instead of each other, she continued. "First, Mr. Donaldson, while I acknowledge that you are the residence manager in charge in this area and I appreciate the advice you give me in that capacity, you have asked me to take overall command of this operation and thus it is my decision who will and will not take part in it."

"Understood," he replied. Tessa noted that he didn't agree to her statement, just that he heard it, but let that slide for the moment.

Tessa turned her attention from Rob to Haruka, who was smiling at the man being taken down a peg. "That said, Ms. Ten'oh, you and Ms. Kaioh have a reputation of failing to cooperate with people whom an outside observer would expect to be your allies, going so far as to challenge Sailor Moon to combat because you didn't believe she was Serenity despite all of the evidence to the contrary. At least you waited until after Pharaoh 90 was defeated; if you had raised your hand against your commander during a mission, I would have dismissed you from this operation immediately."

"That sounds like you've already watched the anime," Rob murmured.

Haruka wasn't smiling any more. "We needed to know that she was strong enough to make the hard decisions!"

Melissa glared at the taller blonde. "That's not your call to make, Ten'oh. Sailor Moon's in command of your unit. It's her job to give the orders and it's your job to follow them, unless the orders are unlawful. And if your unit is going to be fighting beside my unit, then I need to know that you are willing to carry out our commander's orders unless those orders are unlawful. Do I make myself clear?"

Neither Haruka nor Michiru answered immediately.

Tessa pointedly said, "Sergeant Mao said 'Do I make myself clear?' Don't make us ask a third time."

"You make yourself clear," Michiru replied.

"Thank you, Ms. Kaioh. Do you agree to her condition?"

"I do."

"Ms. Ten'oh, do you agree to her condition?"

"Yes," she replied, reluctantly. "But I want to know who else will be involved in this raid."

"That's fair," Rob replied, knowing that despite the way Melissa had phrased her speech very few of the people involved were actually military or paramilitary and thus couldn't be counted on to behave the same way. "We're already planning to draw up the list today, and I don't mind you taking part in that meeting."

Just then, the common room's door opened. "Sorry I'm late! The school bus had some trouble. Oh, hi Haruka, hi Michiru, hi Tessa! Did I miss anything?"

"Come on in, Usagi," Rob said. "Hi Makoto. And all you missed was us exchanging ... pleasantries."

Both girls had a good idea what Rob was talking about – they both winced. Then Makoto headed for the kitchen as everyone else sat down around the big table, where everyone could see the big-screen monitor that was displaying a crude map of the Unseelie stronghold as best as Jacky and Kate could remember it. Only Usagi didn't notice that Tessa and Haruka sat at opposite ends of the table.

In the kitchen, Makoto did her best to listen in on the conversation going on one room over, while she made a snack for everyone else... but nobody was speaking loudly enough for her to overhear them. But finally the coffee and sandwiches were ready. Bringing in a tray, she heard Tessa saying, "No, Usagi."

"Their abilities would be very useful."

"They have no real combat experience, and they're children. We're not going to involve Sakura and Shaoran in this."

"But you'll involve Nanoha and Fate."

"They already have combat experience."

Makoto smiled and put the tray down on the table, being careful not to move any of the papers or computers already there but deliberately getting in the way of the big monitor. "Coffee, anyone?"

"Thanks, Mako-chan!" Usagi answered.

"Yes, than you, Ms. Kino," Tessa added. "But we do need to see the screen that's behind you."

Makoto took the hint. "I'll just leave this here, then."

Tessa turned back to Usagi. "We aren't involving Sakura and Shaoran for the same reason we aren't involving River."

"Oh. I guess we should protect them, too."

Rob nodded as Makoto left the common room.

---

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
December 13, 2016
6:41PM ET


Michiru had left a half-hour ago to lead her second rede. Rob had sent everybody else who wasn't part of the planning group to the closest pizza place that had tables – which happened to be one of the better pizza places in town. He, Usagi, Haruka, Tessa, Melissa Mao, Mii, Hyoga, and Kazari were the only ones left in the common room – and they had covered every table with notes, except for one table with two extra-large pizzas and a dozen sodas.

Mii was two slices ahead of everyone else. "Unless you're going to rent a bus, we need some teleportation ability that has a longer range and a higher weight limit than what Kuroko can manage."

Tessa smiled. "I know just the person, if he's willing. Yuuno Scrya is an excellent teleporter."

Rob whistled. "If he'll agree, he's perfect."

The others asked in unison, "Who's Yuuno Scrya?"

"Yuuno Scrya, from Nanoha and Fate's home univ- ah, reality," replied Rob, catching himself as to what the correct term was just as he was making the mistake, "is possibly the most skilled teleport-mage in existence."

"Would he be willing to help us?" Tessa asked.

"There's only one way to find out," Rob replied.

Kazari nodded, turned to her computer, and launched her videoconferencing program. As she explained to Yuuno what they were planning, the others continued reviewing the list.

Eventually, Rob proposed including sending all of the Sailor Senshi in with the reinforcing team that would be sent in after the first team was captured. Amazingly, this suggestion was met with opposition.

"Setsuna can't go."

Haruka looked at Usagi in surprise. "Why not?"

"She's still recovering from being deposited into this reality."

Rob added, "Apparently, the connection between this refuge that we're all in and the Door to Space-Time is blocked. Setsuna's powers, at least at the moment, are severely curtailed."

"How do you know about that?" Haruka demanded.

Usagi replied before Rob could. "First, we're all anime characters here. Michiru told me that you already knew that. The Door to Space-Time was mentioned in the show. Second, Donaldson-san is the only person in this building, and possibly in this city, who can contact the megami on a moment's notice and request their help. He needs to know what sort of help to request, which means he needs to know our state secrets."

"I still think we don't need to involve outsiders in these things," Haruka muttered.

Mii looked cross. "That sounds to me suspiciously like not being willing to be a team pl-"

Tessa cut her off before Mii could burn that bridge. "Ms. Konori," she said sternly, "I will be the judge of that." She turned to Haruka. "Sailor Uranus, Queen Serenity has already told you that Mr. Donaldson needs to know. Your commanding officer even gave you an explanation why, which she did not need to do."

Haruka knew that it was time to make a tactical retreat. "Oh, very well. What about Sailor Saturn?"

"We aren't including her for the same reason we aren't including Kinomoto-san," Hyoga replied. "We really should do what we can to preserve what innocence that they have left for a while, despite what Hotaru went through in your canon."

Melissa nodded. "Right. We fight so they don't have to."

Some decisions were made without discussion. Others decisions took some persuading, around slices of pizza and cans of soda. But, eventually, the lists of who was going into the stronghold when were completed.

At that point, Tessa asked, "Now, who do we want to have in reserve?"

Usagi looked puzzled. "Reserve?"

"Forces that we can deploy wherever they're needed, to exploit an enemy's weakness or get rid of our own," Tessa explained.

"I keep telling you about the idea of reserves after every fight the Senshi get into here," added Mii as she grabbed another slice of pizza.

Usagi smiled in understanding. "Oh, that! Maybe Mikoto's sisters would be interested."

Mii nodded – Usagi had made a good suggestion, and needed to be encouraged to make more of them. "Good idea. Let's ask all of them to take part."

"Except for Last Order. If Sakura Kinomoto and Hotaru Tomoe are too young, then so is she," Rob pointed out. After a quick beat, he added, "And so is Chibiusa."

---

Highway 416, between Ottawa and Kemptville, Ontario, Canada
December 14, 2016
8:08AM ET


"What an asshole."

"Which one?" Michiru asked with a yawn – she'd been up all night leading her second rede, after all.

"Konori, Donaldson, and Testarossa, but Testarossa in particular. What gives her the right to lecture us when she's never fought a daimon, or a ..." She finally remembered the name, "a sluagh, or anything else that isn't human?"

"You told me that it isn't good to get so worked up while you're driving. And Usagi likes them."

"Our neo-princess likes everybody. That doesn't mean I have to."

"Oh, I agree. As long as you like me, and I like you, it doesn't really matter who else likes who else, does it?"

"You and me against the world? I can live with that."

---

I Spy, with My Eye in the Sky...


Kemptville, Ontario, Canada
December 16, 2016
7:37PM ET


When Washuu-chan said "extended range," she wasn't kidding, Kazari mused as she looked at her computer display. The "Hatsuhara" drone that she received as a Halloween gift was still transmitting clearly to her laptop, despite being 100 kilometres away. Whatever the drone was using for communication, it wasn't Bluetooth.

She sipped at her coffee (and made a mental note to buy some of the house blend before leaving the coffee shop) as the data kept coming in – ground-penetrating radar providing a three-dimensional map of the cave system that wasn't on any of the local maps, paralleling the Madawaska River, and thermal imaging showing where the underground heat sources were. Probably Unseelie cooking fires, she thought. They aren't warm enough to be anything else. Washuu-chan's instruments are so far in advance of anything I could buy. I must remember to thank her. Again.

She switched to visible light and zoomed in on one tunnel that abruptly ended near the surface. "That's definitely an entrance," she said as Michiru looked over her shoulder.

"There are at least two ... what are those? ... walking toward it."

Kazari zoomed in closer. "The two on the outside match Usagi's description of sluagh. Jacky called them elfs who were killed but didn't die. The one in the middle..." She couldn't continue. It was obvious that the third one was human, and not present by choice.

I hope we can rescue her during the raid tomorrow, thought Kazari.

I hope they give her a quick death before they eat her, thought Michiru.

Just then, Rob walked into the coffee shop, looked around, and walked over to Kazari and Michiru. "I've finished my grocery shopping," he announced. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"I'm just saving it off now," Kazari replied. "Give me ... three minutes to finish."

"That's long enough for me to get a coffee to take out."

"Would you get me a bag of the house blend, please?" She sent the recall command to her drone – by the time it would return to her, they'd be halfway back to Ottawa – and saved a copy of the data on a USB dongle that she passed to Michiru. Kazari was ready to leave by the time Rob had his coffee brewed and her coffee bagged.

Later, when they'd pulled over so Kazari could retrieve her drone from the car's roof, Rob asked, "Are you sure it was a good idea to give them a copy of what you mapped out?"

Kazari smiled. "If they can decode the encryption before we start the raid tomorrow morning, I'll be very impressed. I used MITHRIL's encryption routines to protect it from prying eyes."

"Not your own?"

"Tessa gave me hers for this operation; it would have been rude not to use them. After all, she's in charge." After a moment, she added, "And I'll use the same encryption when I email the data to her tonight."

Rob noticed the flatness of Kazari's answer. "What are you not telling me about MITHRIL's codes?"

After a moment, she replied, "They're fifteen years old."

"Ah. And you're worried that she's using something like SHA-1 instead of SHA-3."

"Neither MITHRIL nor Academy City use those exact hash functions," Kazari replied quickly. "But... yes, I'm worried that encryption that old might already be broken."

Rob sighed deeply (in agreement), then asked, "What are you doing about it?"

"HAL and I are working on cracking her encryption. If we can, we'll stop using it."

---

8:21PM ET

"We have some good news and some bad news, Bonnie."

"May as well start with the good news, Haruka," Bonnie Barstow replied.

"Our friends have found the lair of those... things that attacked us the day after we met. We're planning a raid."

Bonnie nodded. "And that means the bad news is you won't be living here for much longer. It's been good having neighbours again even if it was only for a couple of months. Are you leaving the team?"

"What? No, you're a great group to work with."

"Thanks. Will you stay at least until the end of the month?"

Michiru smiled. "We will need a couple of days to pack."

---

Syracuse, NY, USA
December 16, 2016
11:33PM ET


"Somebody's using a MITHRIL code!"

Leonard looked up, then looked at Gates. "Where?" He already had a suspicion as to where one end of the transmission was located, but he wasn't about to let Gates know that.

"Patience, dear boy, patience – it takes time to run an IP trace on this antiquated hardware. No AI at all – how do they cope? Ah, here it is: the source is Ottawa. The big one. In Canada. The destination is ... Adelaide, in Australia. Oh, this code's easy to break. We just have to use your libraries. Pretty obvious it's your sister's private code."

Leonard smiled as he gave orders to deploy covert agents to both ends of the intercepted data stream. It looked like AMALGAM finally had something worthwhile to do.

---

The Plan


Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
December 17, 2016
7:44 am ET


Teresa took the stage. Instead of her uniform, she was wearing a white skirt and jacket over a navy-blue blouse, along with her signature navy-blue hair ribbon. She'd added a pair of zero-prescription glasses with rectangular frames, making her look a half-decade older than she actually was. Considering some of the people in the assembled force, she needed to look as mature as possible.

Unfortunately for her plan, her outfit also made her look more desirable to exactly the same people. It took Mamoru and Sousuke three minutes to quiet down the more... "appreciative" men in the room.

Tessa did her best to conceal her annoyance. "For those of you who seem to have forgotten why we're here today, the Unseelie in this part of the world are a clear and present danger to the surrounding towns and cities, including this one. We need to teach them that attacking us leads to retaliation. Intelligence -" (Kazari Uiharu nodded in acknowledgment.) "- has gathered sensor readings consistent with a large number of opposing forces at the identified Unseelie base, which we will refer to by the name of the closest civilian settlement, Calabogie.

"Intel has not detected active sensors at Calabogie. However, our consultants tell us that the opposing force uses magic, not technology." (Kate Crackernuts waved to the group.) "Thus, we will assume that they know who we are and what we can do, and use encrypted communications to keep a communications advantage as per standard operating procedure. Communicators of MITHRIL grade will be issued to all personnel taking part in this operation. This gear is to be returned to quartermaster at the end of the operation." (At the side of the stage, Washuu waved at everyone.)

"The operation is primarily a hostage rescue. Get in, rescue any surviving hostages, do the maximum amount of damage in the minimum amount of time, and get out.

"Stage one: The advanced unit will make themselves conspicuous near but not at the entry, and allow themselves to be captured. It is the advanced unit's job to be taken inside the Calabogie base and activate a beacon in a location that can be secured easily. All members of the advanced unit will have paranormal abilities that can be used to defend themselves, but will not be drawn from the pool of espers and mages known to the opposing force.

"Stage two: The reinforcement unit will be teleported in to the beacon, where they will join forces with the advanced unit. Both teams are to rescue any hostages that they might encounter, and wreak havoc throughout the enemy base. Ideally, we will leave no opposing forces conscious.

"Simultaneously, the artillery support unit will enter the Calabogie base through the same entrance that the advance unit was taken through, and will also wreak havoc throughout the enemy base." Ryoko grinned at that – it had been a while since she'd last had the opportunity to cut loose. Tessa pretended to not notice.

"Stage three: Command post will give the signal to evacuate, at which point the deployed units will make their way out of the Calabogie base by the fastest means possible consistent with operational secrecy.

"The reserve unit will remain in reserve unless the command post deems it necessary for the deployed units to make a tactical retreat, at which point the reserve unit will be deployed to rescue the previously-deployed units.

"Are there any questions?"

"Yeah," Jayne asked. "You want us – the reserves – to sit on our asses and wait for the girls to fuck up. Why not just send us in to start with?"

"If all we were doing was a raid, we would. However, you have no ability to discern possible hostages from enemies that can assume human form, and your weapons do not have a stun setting. Any mistake you might make would likely be fatal for somebody."

"So?"

"Possibly for you."

"Oh."

"So we aren't actually killing any of the Unseelie?" Haruka asked.

"I would prefer to carry out this operation with a minimum loss of life. We will also be giving Usagi the chance to use her Moon Healing Escalation ability to rescue fae who have been corrupted to the opposing side. The local experts have informed me that some of the fae races can be brainwashed into joining the Horde; we should at least try to let these fae re-join the Host. In the best case, Sailor Moon will undo the conditioning of everyone who was brainwashed into joining the Unseelie, and those fae will make their escape after we withdraw. However, there is always the possibility that command might authorize the use of lethal force."

At the side of the stage, Mii Konori stood up. "Speaking for the local resident manager, I concur with Captain Testarossa. It is our job to save lives, not to take them. But that also means that your lives are just as important as everyone else's. If it comes down to a situation where somebody is going to die and that somebody is either you or your opponent, then I would much prefer that you be the one who lives. If something goes wrong and you have to kill someone, we can discuss that during the mission debriefing."

As Mii sat down, Mal Reynolds stood up. "And don't forget that the phrase 'a fate worse than death' exists for a reason. If you can't save somebody, it just might be kinder to shoot him yourself. I've been there, and I've done that. Most o' these things are no better than the Reavers from my universe, so be prepared to act accordingly. And if you have trouble livin' with yourself after the fact, that's what Shepherd Book and Doc Shea are here to help you work through. Am I clear?"

"Like crystal," Usagi replied.

Shirou raised his hand. "What if the advance unit is attacked with lethal force instead of taken prisoner?"

Tessa frowned for a brief moment as she replied, "In that case, use of lethal force in response is authorized, and we will break off the operation. Are there any further questions?" Seeing a raised a hand, she continued, "Yes, Ms. Kino."

Sailor Jupiter stood up. "The briefing notes said that there is a chance of us going up against giants during this operation. Why aren't we sending in your Arm Slaves?"

Tessa sighed. "Sgt. Sagara, answer the question, please."

Sousuke stood to attention. "Ma'am, yes ma'am. According to the briefing notes compiled by the local experts, the possibility of encountering multiple giants is higher than the possibility of encountering one giant. There were three giants present in the caverns the last time the local experts were in the stronghold. There's no guarantee that there won't be more now. And while Uruz 2, Uruz 6, and Uruz 7 could fight giants one-to-one, it is certain that there will also be infantry-sized opposing forces present that we could not deal with while engaged in combat with forces our size or larger."

"And a fighting vehicle can be taken out by somebody your size, if she has an anti-tank missile or something similar," added Mal, seeing the look of confusion on Makoto's face.

"Exactly," Tessa concluded. "Unless there are only giants in the Unseelie complex, ordering Arm Slaves in would potentially be the same as ordering their pilots to suicide. However, we will deploy the Arbalest in the reserve unit, with ECS functioning at all times." She waited for a moment, then repeated, "Are there any more questions?" After looking around the room, she continued, "No? Then report to the quartermaster, who will issue communicators to you and open a portal to the van that Mr. Donaldson has driven to the staging point. You leave at 8 am sharp."

---

Calabogie, Ontario, Canada
December 17, 2016
7:52 am ET


Rob parked at the side of the road, close to but not within line-of-sight of the Unseelie stronghold. "Well, here we are. Later than I wanted, but still before we needed to be here."

"Just barely," Jacky replied. "You're not going to make me go back in there, are you?"

Rob shook his head. "No, we need you out here, staffing one of the communications stations. Speaking of which, could you help me get them all running, please?" He pulled the keys out of the van's ignition and headed for the battery bank at the back of the van, to double-check that everything was plugged in and working properly. After six minutes of activity, he switched on the last communicator and spoke into it. "Goalkeeper, Polar Bear. Final comms check."

"Polar Bear, Goalkeeper. Comms are good," replied Kazari's voice.

"Home Base, Polar Bear. Advance base is ready. You may teleport when ready."

Back in Ottawa, Tessa spoke into her microphone. "All units, Home Base. Headquarters authorizes commencement of Stage One."

Neither Rob nor Jacky noticed the panel truck on the other side of the river... or its high-gain antenna pointed at their van.

---

---

Tune in next week, when The Plan Makes Contact with the Enemy

[Norgarth]

Teresa took the stage. Instead of her uniform, she was wearing <a href="https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/174061">a white skirt and jacket over a navy-blue blouse, along with her signature navy-blue hair ribbon. She'd added a pair of zero-prescription glasses with rectangular frames</a>, making her look a half-decade older than she actually was. Considering some of the people in the assembled force, she needed to look as mature as possible.

looks like you have some rogue code in there

[robkelk]

Fixed.

[robkelk]

The Plan Makes Contact with the Enemy

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
December 17, 2016
8:00 am ET

As the comms chatter from everybody carrying out a final check before deploying started to come in, Tessa turned to Kate and asked, "How many giants are you expecting us to find?"

"If they're from the same time that Jacky and I are, just Gyre the Younger," Kate replied. "Jacky killed Gyre the Elder the only time we were there."

"If they're from the same time as you. There's no guarantee of that."

"Surely somebody would have noticed if they'd been here all along... but, no, Jemi's band mates never noticed that they weren't here all along, did they? If we're up against the next generation of the Horde, there could be two or three giants in there."


Calabogie, Ontario, Canada
December 17, 2016
8:02 am ET

"Remember the last time we were here?" Haruka asked as other members of the strike force teleported in behind her.

Michiru looked around. "This doesn't look familiar."

"Not right here, no. But we revealed our Senshi identities to Bonnie just on the other side of the river, past that panel truck over there."

"Is that where we are?" Michiru looked at the truck for a moment. Finally, she said, "That truck's spying on us, you know."

"Why would they be here for us?" Mikoto Misaka asked. "They're probably spying on the Horde, If they already know enough about the supernatural to keep an eye on it, then let them look. We want word to get around about what we're going to do here, right?" (She was an electrokinetic, not a precog; later, she'd regret making that statement.)

As more people teleported in, the operators in the panel truck noticed and noted an alarm on their cameras. The team leader picked up his radio and reported a UV source consistent with an Arm Slave using an Electronic Concealment System.

The orders relayed back from AMALGAM headquarters were to continue monitoring, and to expect a truck within two hours.


Calabogie, Ontario, Canada
December 17, 2016
8:11 am ET

A group of teens and young adults were making their way on cross-country skis - slowly, due to the lack of decent snow cover so early in the season - across rolling fields. They seemed to have no concern as to who might be watching them.

"I am impressed," Saber commented. "The Norsemen who came up with this mode of travel should be rewarded."

"If they were Nordic people," replied Shirou Emiya.

"It is called 'Nordic skiing'," Rin Tohsaka commented.

"And guinea pigs are rodents from the Andes," Alph pointed out. "You can't always trust a name."

Archer grinned. "I think this particular name is trustworthy. The sport can be traced back to Swedish and Norwegian infantry maneuvers."

"As fascinating as this is," Fate Testarossa said while stifling a yawn - it was still early in the morning, and she had been using muscles that she didn't even realize she had - "is discussing it here really the best use of our time?"

"It's this or wonder again when they're going to notice us," pointed out Sakura Matou. Her Servant, Rider, nodded in agreement.

"Oh, they've already noticed us, Matou-san. Didn't you see them pointing at our group?" asked Nanoha Takamachi.

Meanwhile, the "them" in question were reporting to their superiors. "There's a bunch of humans out near the front entrance!"

"What, really? How many, and how old, and are any of them from that building nobody's been able to defeat in the last two months?"

"I see eight, and I think only two of them are older than teenage. And I don't think any of them are from that group."

"Go get them, then. We need more snacks for the buffet next week."

"Yum, lady fingers. And lady toes." If the troll had a moustache, he'd have been twirling it.

The guards were so intent on the small group that was nearly at their front doorstep that they completely missed seeing the larger group teleporting in beside the van parked up the road.


Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
December 17, 2016
8:32 am ET

Kazari spoke into her headset's microphone without looking up from her laptop. "Twintails, Goalkeeper. Stars 1 has turned on the beacon. Here are the coordinates."

Kuroko had chosen a communicator with a head's-up display that bore more than a passing resemblance to a DBZ scouter. Kazari transmitted a string of numbers that didn't correspond to any latitude-and-longitude system used anywhere outside of Academy City to that display, then heard over her own headset, "Goalkeeper, Twintails. Got it."

Tessa spoke into her microphone. "All units, Home Base. Headquarters authorizes commencement of Stage Two."


Calabogie, Ontario, Canada
Same time

At that, Kuroko put her hands on Mikoto and Usagi's shoulders and teleported them in directly over the beacon in the center of the room, then waited a half minute and followed them in, bringing Sailor Jupiter along for the ride. What she saw was everyone in the advanced team hugging the walls and Rin finishing casting what Kuroko assumed was a defensive spell. "This is not what we expected."

"It is a holding cell," Saber replied. "They aren't usually luxurious or spacious."

While Nanoha and Fate manifested their Barrier Jackets and extended their Intelligent Devices, Mikoto looked around. She saw nothing in the way of artificial electrical flows in the area other than what the displacees had brought in with them.

"We needed 'spacious'. There's no way that I can bring everybody in. Who's next?"

"The heavy hitters," Usagi replied.

"Right." Kuroko teleported out, then Uranus and Neptune appeared a moment later. "Moon, Twintails. It's too crowded in there for me to send anybody else in safely," announced Kuroko over the communications link.

"Time for us to break out of jail, then. Twintails, Moon. Once we're out, send in Mars, Venus, Tuxedo, and Mercury, in that order." Then she turned to the others in the cell. "Like the hockey players say in Canada, elbows up, everybody."




Any member of the Horde who wasn't already awake was startled into consciousness by the explosion that ripped open one of the dungeon cells.


Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Same time

Washuu caught Teresa's attention, and showed her a screen. As soon as Teresa had finished reading the report, she switched on her own microphone. "All Units, Home Base. That explosion was detected in Ottawa. You're near a fault line, so the government is explaining it as a magnitude 3 earthquake. Exercise caution when using your more powerful attacks. Home Base out."


Calabogie, Ontario, Canada
Same time

Fate turned to Nanoha - who was red with embarrassment - and said, "I guess you can't use Starlight Breaker."

"I guess not. And there's so much loose magic here already, too. It would have been perfect if we found any giants. I'll just have to stay with Divine Buster."

"I understand, my master," Raising Heart acknowledged.

"We're losing the element of surprise, people," Sailor Uranus commented. "Split up, spread out, and make our opposition panic!"

They did so.




They rounded a corner and saw a human. One human. A teenage girl, by the looks of it. No weapons, no explosives, no nothing. Just a girl.

This is why they were pulled off of tunnel-digging duty and sent to contain or capture an intruder?

Somebody was going to get an ear-full from the shift boss - who decided to make things quick so that he could get things over with and get back to work. He grabbed a large rock and threw it with all of his might at her head.

It hit the wall.

"Oh, coprolite. How did I miss?"

The girl turned to face them. "Oh, hello. Did you want my attention?"

"No, kid, we want to kill you," one of the other dwarfs in the team said while pulling a gun on her. She just stood there - in shock, maybe; none of them knew how to read a human's subtler reactions - as he aimed and fired.

The bullet bounced off the air in front of her face, ricocheted off the wall, bounced off the roof, and hit the shift boss's boot. It didn't penetrate the leather.

The sheer improbability of the bullet's path made everybody stop and stare for a moment - including the girl.

The shift boss recovered before anyone else. "No more ranged attacks! She's got a reflection charm going!"

"Since when do humans --?"

"Maybe a hob gave it to her! Just dogpile on her!"

The closest three dwarfs rushed her, tackling her at the knees and forcing her down. "Jump on her, guys!"

Instead of putting up a fight, she just smiled. "I don't think so."

Then there was a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder.

The girl was unharmed. The dwarfs that had attacked her were either dazed or out cold.

The shift boss - the only dwarf within ten meters who was still able to form a coherent thought - backed away. They weren't paying him enough to put up with this kind of schist! But he needed some time to get clear of this ... monster. "What are you?"

As the girl stood up, she replied, "They call me Railgun."

"Railgun? From Ottawa?"

Her smile turned into a grin. "You've heard of me!"

"Er... Could we just go our separate ways? Live and let live, and all that?" It was worth a try - she was supposed to have morals.

"Well... I'd like to do that... but you did attack me from behind." She stepped forward quickly and just barely touched him with two fingertips. Then there was another thunder-crack.

As Mikoto watched the last dwarf fall unconscious, she wondered why she didn't use her stungun-style attack more often. Then she remembered that she usually fought espers, not normal people. Well, it was a useful attack today.




A sluagh came flying through the air, hitting the wall at the T-junction just ahead and falling flat on its face.

The troll who saw this as he was approaching the same junction might not have been the brightest guy in the caverns, but he knew enough to avoid going up in a fair fight against whoever could do that to a sluagh. He merged into the tunnel wall and let them approach.

There were two of them - kids, a blonde and a brunette, with a dog or wolf or something. He recognized those two - they were in the group that they'd captured less than an hour ago - but they'd changed clothes and were carrying staffs now.

Mages. They were sodding mages.

But he knew how to handle mages. They were all spell, no fist. And he was all fist.

He let them pass, then stepped out of the rock wall and backhanded the blonde into the other wall.

She... didn't fall down.

"Uh-oh."

The blonde just asked quietly, "Was that supposed to hurt? My own mother used to hit me harder than that."

Then he noticed that the brunette hadn't run away. She almost ignored him while she asked the blonde, "Do you want me to help, Fate?"

Fate shook her head. "I think I can handle him on my own. You go on ahead, Nanoha. You too, Arph," she added, speaking to the dog - probably her familiar. Then she said, "Bardiche, Assault Form."

"Yes, sir," her sodding staff answered her and transformed into a pole-axe!

What the bog kind of mage was she?

But he didn't have time to think about that.

Two seconds later, he discovered the hard way that the axe was sharp.




He'd been having misgivings about joining the Horde for a while now. But everybody else was doing it. And, unlike peer pressure among humans, if your friends joined the Horde and you didn't, you'd very quickly end up dead.

He didn't want to end up dead. But he didn't want to hurt anyone, either. which was why he was alone. Guarding cows. They could trust him to guard cows, but they weren't going to trust him guarding humans.

Then he heard the commotion. He knew he wouldn't get any help from his fellow trolls. One against ... how many? Did it matter? What mattered what that he didn't want to die. He ran - away from the commotion.

He rounded a corner... and stopped. There were three girls there - all dressed like the girls who'd killed a giant in Ottawa a month ago. He did the only thing he could think of to do.

He dropped to his knees and started begging for his life. "Please don't kill me! I'll do anything you ask. Anything! Just let me live! Please!"

Because he was pleading, he didn't notice the one in the middle of the group holding a hand up to the headset she was wearing. "Jack, Moon. Do trolls usually beg for mercy? ... Jack, Moon. They can? Thank you. Out." But he did notice when she let go of her headset and reached out to him, in a welcoming gesture. "Will you renounce the Horde?"

"Yes! I'd be happy to! I never really wanted to join in the first place."

"Then be ready. If that's what you truly want, then this won't hurt you." The two others who were with Moon moved to cover the entrances to the tunnel they were in, while Moon gestured with the wand she was carrying. "Moon Healing Escalation!"

A light from the wand surrounded him, and he felt... at peace. Calm. As if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He found himself saying "refresh"... and then it was over.

Then he realized who she was. "Thank you, Ms. Moon. It's an honour to meet you. But ... I don't know if I can get out of here now without somebody killing me."

"Leave that to us," replied Moon as she reached for her headset - no, a switch on her headset - once again. "Twintails, Moon. Evac required at my location. Sending coordinates now."

A moment later, Kutoko teleported in. "Is somebody hurt?"

"No, ma'am," replied the troll. "But I'm sure I'll be attacked if I try to walk out of here."

Kuroko looked over to Usagi, who simply said, "He's been refreshed."

"Right. Mr. Troll, have you ever teleported before?"

"No, Ms. Human."

"Then today's your lucky day. You get to do something new!"

Two minutes later, Kuroko had handed the troll off to Yuuno, who had teleported him to Adelaide, where he was sitting down to have a very informative discussion with Mao and Kurz about the layout of the Horde's cavern system.

Back in Calabogie, Kuroko turned to Usagi. "That's what, three that you've convinced to change sides?"

The taller of the other two Sailor Senshi giggled. "He didn't need much convincing," Makoto replied.

"I actually felt sorry for him," added Ami.




Out in the van that was serving as advance base, Rob and Jacky smiled. One more rescue.

Out in the panel truck, the AMALGAM agents took notes.




"Space Sword Blaster!"

"Deep Submerge!"

A dozen opponents dropped as one.

As they checked their foes for any signs that they might be human, Uranus muttered, "What is the point to letting them live? It isn't as if any of them are going to suddenly change sides."

"They're just grunts," replied Neptune. "Why not save our energy for the big foes?"

"I suppose. But we're leaving them alive behind us. It's bad tactics." She thumbed her communicator's talk switch. "Headquarters, Uranus. Proceeding to mission objective three."

"Uranus, Deep Eyes," Mii replied over the comms. "Acknowledged."




Sakura Matou was stumbling around in the near-dark. Her flashlight had stopped working after she hit a ... something ... over the head with it while she and Rider were exercising a tactical retreat from a group of some sort of dwarves. And then she'd become separated from her Servant and the rest of the people that she'd been working with.

At least I'm not being attacked. The thought gave her some comfort... until she saw a cloaked person up ahead. No, a person with a cape, not a cloak. And a top hat. And blood stains. She rushed over to him. "Are you all right?"

"Lost..." he gasped. "Separated... Don't know... where they are..."

"We're together now. Let's go find the others."

"All right. Lead ... the way."

Sakura looked him over quickly - and saw a lot of blood. "Are you sure you can walk?"

"Can't stay ... here."

"I guess not." She turned to start walking toward the closest tunnel entrance... and stopped as a claw ran her through the chest.

"Silly human," said the sluagh without gasping as it shed the appearance of Tuxedo Mask and grinned at the sight of her blood leaking out of her wound.

I'm so stupid! she thought. We knew they have illusionists! But she kept her thoughts to herself as she cast a spell through the claw in her chest.

The sluagh screamed... then was silent forever more.

She knew she was in trouble - she had disobeyed orders. But then she remembered the part of the briefing about her life being as important as the enemy's. And then she realized how much blood was running from her wound now that there wasn't a claw in it to act as a block. She switched on her communicator. "Anyone, Violet. I'm hurt."

The gods must have been smiling on her; her call was answered right away. "Violet, Twintails. Where are you?"

"Twin ... tails, ... Violet. Don't ... know." She was hurt worse than she thought.

As she lost consciousness, she heard over her headset, "Goalkeeper, Twintails. Find Violet for me, now! Sawbones, Twintails. Prep for wounded."


Calabogie, Ontario, Canada
Same time

They heard crying coming from down a dark corridor. "We have to check it out," Sailor Jupiter insisted. Ami and Usagi didn't answer; they just followed Makoto's lead.

Once they were close enough for their lights to show the end of the passage, they saw a small, sad girl - who saw them at the same time. "Do you know where my mommy is?"

Usagi's heart went out to her. "I don't know, but maybe we can help find her. What are you doing here, alone, in the dark?"

"Bad people took me and mommy away from daddy. They took us here. I ran away."

"Let's go see whether we can find your mother," Makoto suggested as she reached out to the girl.

"Jupiter! Moon! Stop!" They both turned to look at Ami... who shouted "Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"

The blast hit the girl square in the chest. As she fell over, her appearance changed to something inhuman... and familiar to Usagi. "That's... Mercury, how did you know she was a sluagh?"

It was only then that the others noticed that Ami was wearing her reading glasses. "I accepted some divine assistance. Where are your glasses?"

Neither of the other Senshi could meet her gaze. Finally, Makoto answered, "At home."

Ami sighed. "Maybe I'd better take the lead from now on."




She'd taken a wrong turn somewhere and had been separated from her Master and the rest of her team. And sound echoed in the caverns, as well - she could hear Divine Busters and Shiny Aqua Illusions and electric arcs and the louder of her companions' Noble Phantasms, but she couldn't tell what directions they were coming from. That wouldn't have been so bad - they were likely to find her eventually - except that one of the enemy had found her first.

The troll had taken her by surprise, and got her in an arm lock before she could do anything. "Oh, you're a pretty one!" he gloated while leering at her from head to toe. "Think I'll have my way with you before I kill you. Season the meat." He chuckled. "If I'm going to do that, I want to see the terror on your face."

As he reached for her glasses with his free hand, she whispered, "no ... don't ..."

But it was too late. He looked her straight in the eyes.

It was the last thing he ever did.

Rider - Medusa - squirmed free of the paralyzed enemy, then pried her glasses from its unmoving fingers. As she covered her eyes again, Archer ran into the room, stopping too late to avoid hitting the troll and knocking it into a spike on the wall. "Ew..." Then he sighed. "Oh, well - the fortunes of war. I'll call it in for you."

"Thank you," she replied quietly. "I did try to warn him."




"Fe fi fo fum!"

"'Fe fi fo fum'? I hate cliches!" She backhanded the other giant, casually sending him flying into the wall.

Said giant shook his head as if to clear a concussion, then said, "Hey, ease off, Advil."

"That's Avril!"

From where they were watching, Minako leaned over to Kuroko and whispered, "These two are worse than Tomo."

"You're sure?"

"At least Tomo is original."

"Sometimes."

"I'll bet this 'Tom O.' guy is more observant than you are, too," came a raspy voice from directly behind them.

"Aw, fudge," muttered Minako as she and Kuroko turned around and raised their hands in surrender. "We fell for a distraction."

The troll who had discovered them grabbed Kuroko roughly by the shoulder... and disappeared. Kuroko followed the forced teleport with one word: "Run!"

As they raced to get reinforcements, Minako asked, "Where did you send whoever that was?"

"Since we're being unoriginal, five hundred turbo-miles due up." They ducked into an alcove, where Kuroko thumbed her headset's talk switch. "Headquarters, Twintails. Two giants located, 12.7 meters south-southwest of current location."

"Twintails, Goalkeeper. Acknowledged," replied Kazari's voice in Kuroko's ear. "Can you hold out for 25 seconds?"

"Goalkeeper, Twintails. Affirmative."

The headset went quiet for 24 seconds, then Ryoko teleported into the giants' room. Kazari added over Kuroko's headset "Twintails, Goalkeeper. Devil Caller will take care of the giants. Continue to your next mission objective if you can."

Minako tapped Kuroko on the shoulder, then pointed at what looked like a passage on the far side of the chamber. Kuroko nodded. "Goalkeeper, Twintails. Affirmative. Also, one hostile teleported 85 meters up from my current position."

Instead of Kazari, it was Tessa who replied. "Twintails, Home Base. We noticed. Ferret has already recovered the troll and we are interrogating him. New orders: Avoid obvious actions that might show up on weather radar."

Kuroko grimaced. "Home Base, Twintails acknowledges. No calling attention to ourselves."

"Twintails, Home Base. Proceed. Out."

Ryoko's energy blasts were so bright in the gloom of the cavern that Minako and Kuroko had to shield their eyes when they teleported past the fight.




Rei saw a light in the tunnel ahead of her and Mamoru. She quickly checked the place where she kept things that she didn't want to lose, and confirmed that she had run out of ofuda. She then adjusted the glasses that Skuld had given her so that they wouldn't fall off her nose.

They approached the light at the end of the tunnel, quietly and carefully. But before they reached the person who was carrying that light, he asked, "Are you part of the liberating forces?"

"We are," replied Mamoru. "Do you need help escaping this place?"

"Later," he replied. At this point, Rei and Mamoru were close enough to see the pointed ears on the elf. "There's a group of people this way -" he gestured farther down the tunnel "- who I can't get to, and I'm not leaving without them."

"How many?" asked Rei.

"I'm not sure. At least three. They're locked in."

"Let's not attract any more attention than we need to," Mamoru suggested before holding one finger up to his own lips. The other two took the hint and started walking in silence, Rei and Mamoru listening to the action reports that their teammates were sending. There were still isolated pockets of resistance, including not one but two giants, but the tide had turned in their favour overall. And they couldn't help but worry when they heard explosions from the throne room.

Then they stopped hearing explosions. A long moment later, the call came over their communicators: "All units, Home Base. Primary targets have been neutralized. Headquarters authorizes commencement of Stage Three. Withdraw under fire if necessary."

Not now! "Home Base, Mars. Tuxedo and I are engaged in a rescue operation."

"Mars, Home Base. Continue the rescue. Twintails, Home Base. Abort your withdrawal and link up with Mars and Tuxedo."

Then, after a moment, Kazari asked, "Mars, Goalkeeper. How many people are you rescuing?"

"Goalkeeper, Mars. We don't know yet."

Almost immediately, Tessa said, "Reserve units, Home Base. Stand by to deploy for hostage retrieval."

Kuroko teleported in behind Rei while the reserves were acknowledging the new order. "Sorry I'm late. What's the situation? And who is this?"

"He's our guide to where some prisoners are being held," Rei replied as said guide stopped in front of a padlocked door.

"And this is as far as I can take you, unless you can do something about that lock," the elf added.

"Thank you. If you've never been on the other side of this door, then I'd suggest you make your way to safety now," Kuroko said while examining the lock.

The elf shook his head once. "There are prisoners in there, and I already told your friends that I'm not leaving without them."

"An admirable moral position," Kuroko replied. Then she narrowed her eyes. "Will you be leaving with them?"

In reply, the elf lunged at them, both hands glowing with eldritch power.

Rei pushed Kuroko to one side while Mamoru used his cane in a stop-thrust manoeuvre, hitting the elf in the gut.

As the elf doubled over, Mamoru pushed him to the floor while he asked Kuroko, "How did you know?"

"I didn't. I did remember that the Wise Woman told us some people were part of the Horde by choice, and I didn't want to take any chances. Be careful where you step." Mamoru and Rei looked down to see the stone of the floor dissolving where the elf's hands were touching it. "It's a shame that our clairvoyant is still in Ottawa," Kuroko continued while teleporting the hinges off of the door.

"Why?" Rei asked.

"If she was here, she could tell us how many people are waiting in ambush on the other side of this door," Kuroko replied while simply teleporting the lock off of the door (and into the puddle of dissolved stone, which immediately started eating away at the lock).

"You're sure there's an ambush?"

"No, but if there is and we aren't ready for it, they could kill us."

Mamoru nodded in agreement. "So we assume there's an ambush. Is everyone ready?" he asked while readying a rose.

Kuroko reached for the spikes that she still had in her pocket. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

"Right," Rei answered before kicking open the door.

The door went flying into the room behind it, hitting a troll square in the chest and pushing him into the far wall.

Kuroko immediately teleported into the room ... to discover that the troll was the only one guarding the door. "Well, that was anticlimactic." Then she was hit from behind. "Or not. That was stupid of me," she said as she fell face-first to the floor.

"Mars Flame Sniper!" Rei quickly took out the dwarf that had hit Kuroko, while Mamoru hit the dwarf beside him with his rose, forcing him to drop his weapon. Rei followed up with a run and a Sailor Kick, knocking out the last opponent in the room.

Mamoru rushed over to Kuroko. "Are you still conscious?" he asked while bending down to give her a closer look.

"My back hurts... and I can't feel my legs. I think I'm going back into that wheelchair again."

He took her hand in his own, being careful not to move her arm. "We'll get you out of here, I promise." Then, with his other hand, he thumbed the switch on his communicator. "Headquarters, Tuxedo. Twintails is down. We need medevac at our location - sending coordinates now."

Their communicators went silent for a moment, as everyone realized that not only was one of their teammates hurt, but also that that teammate was the only person on the team that could teleport somebody else with no delay. Then the only comms traffic was from headquarters and the advance post.

"Tuxedo, Goalkeeper. Understood."

"Tuxedo and Mars, Home Base. Stay with Twintails. Forward base, Home Base. Carry out the medical evacuation."

"Home Base, Polar Bear. Deploying Serenity and his team for medevac. Goalkeeper, Polar Bear. Can you route Mercury to Tuxedo's location?"

"Polar Bear and Mercury, Deep Eyes," Mii's voice came over the comms. "Goalkeeper is now offline. Routing course information to Mercury now."

Mamoru could picture Kazari's condition after hearing one of her closest friends was a casualty. "Headquarters, Tuxedo. Will comply." He switched off his microphone, and added, "And now we wait."

"We still have work to do," Rei replied with a shaky voice. "This room was ... obviously their kitchen."

Mamoru let go of Kuroko's hand, stood up, and looked around - to see a pile of bones in one corner of the room. "Can you ..." he started.

Rei thought for a moment. "Maybe. I'm a miko, not a kannushi; I haven't had the training."

"You're also Sailor Mars," Kuroko said weakly. "That has to count for something."

Rei turned to Kuroko, surprise at the esper's non-rationalist comment obvious on her face. "I never thought of that before." Then, after a moment, she added, "But you're right. I'm remembering something from the Silver Millennium." As Rei ceremonially walked over to the pile of bones, Mamoru took a look around the room and noticed another door - with another padlock. He concentrated on the padlock so that he wouldn't focus on Sailor Mars's words that he could almost understand. Then he stepped back a few paces and threw another rose, splitting the lock in two.

Just before he was about to open the door, a green light filled the room for a moment, dissipating to reveal Mal, Zoe, and Jayne, the latter carrying a stretcher. He took one look and immediately dropped the stretcher beside Kuroko. This caught Rei's attention - she turned, took in the situation, and muttered, "Be a little gentler, will you?"

"Sorry," Jayne answered grudgingly as Ami ran into the room. She immediately took charge of Kuroko's care, performing what first aid she could and making sure it was safe to move her friend onto the stretcher.

While she did that, Mamoru and Mal turned their attention to the door that was no longer locked. "You broke the lock with a rose."

"I did."

"You broke the lock. With a rose. Wǒ kào."

From the other side of the door, they heard a female voice say, "Mind your language..." before trailing off.

"Sorry, miss," Mal replied as he lifted the door's latch. He then held three fingers up where Mamoru could see them, then two, then one, then pushed the door open... to reveal three people chained to the far wall.

"Are you all right?" Mal asked.

One of the three - the only male - didn't answer. The younger of the other two replied, "I am well enough for somebody who is confined. This young woman," she gestured as well as she could to the other prisoner, "needs more care than I can give her."

"They... they tried to make me eat... don't make me say it..."

Mal took a closer look at the woman, saw that he left arm ended in a bloody stump near the shoulder, and realized just what they had tried to make her eat. "It's all right now. Nobody's gonna make you do anything you don't want to do." Then he then turned to the younger female - a teenager, maybe? "She'll get it once we get you out of here, I promise. What about him?" He gestured to the other prisoner, who seemed to be older than the girl he was speaking with and younger than Mamoru.

The boy answered before she could. "I'm just tired..."

"You are exhausted," the girl countered. "You kept defending me, and..." Her resolve broke, and she started crying. "Touma, please don't die on me!"

"Nobody's dying, not if we can help it," Mamoru announced from where he was standing, half-hidden by the open door. "Let's see whether these will get you out of those chains," he added while holding up a ring of keys.

"Where'd you find those?"

"On a hook on the back of the door," Mamoru told Mal as he tossed the keyring over.

"Psychological torture. These Unseelie are worse than the gorram Reavers." Mal tried one key, then another, which unlocked the chain holding the traumatized woman. He proceeded to release the others, helping the boy stand and steadying him once he was on his feet.

The women walked on their own - unsteadily - to the doorway. The boy took two steps and collapsed.

Mal shouted through the doorway, "Jayne! Give me a hand with this guy."

It only took a minute for Jayne to grab the boy and carry him out piggyback-style. "I don't think I can carry this kid and the stretcher."

That caused Kuroko to look up from the stretcher. Her eyes widened when she saw who Jayne was carrying. "Of all the monsters I expected to find here, I never thought I'd see a troglodyte."

"Who are you callin' a troglodyte?" Jayne asked angrily.

"The boy you're carrying on your back," Kuroko replied.

"Oh. Okay." Jayne thought for a short moment, then turned to his companions. "Mal, what's a troglodyte?"

Before he could answer, Kuroko added, "I'm not finished. We can't teleport him out - somebody needs to get him through the tunnels the hard way. Aargh!" She finished as her pain overwhelmed her.

Ami immediately kneeled at Kuroko's side. "What's wrong?"

"My legs hurt..."

"That's a good sign - that means the nerves are still intact. We can fix you up."

Rei nodded in relief and switched her mic on. "Ferret, Mars. We need a teleport out from this location to Sawbones. Two wounded, including Twintails. However, Twintails tells us that one of the hostages cannot be teleported. That hostage, Mercury, ..." She looked at Jayne.

"I didn't expect to need a callsign."

Rei gave him The Look, then had an idea. "Sorry. That hostage, Mercury, the Hero of Canton, and I will be evacuating on foot."

"Aw, why'd you have to pick that?" Jayne complained as he headed back into the room he had just left, followed by Rei and Ami.

"It was all I could think of," Rei replied as Yuuno teleported the others out. Once the glow of the teleport spell had completely faded, they headed out to the corridor. "Let's get out of here. Headquarters, Mars. Requesting a route on foot from our current location to the nearest exit. Please transmit to both me and Mercury."

"Mars, Deep Eyes," came Mii's reply over the comms. "Transmitting now. And good luck."




And so the last of the assault team made their way out of the caverns, using more or less stealth.

Finally, Sailors Mercury and Mars, Jayne Cobb, and the person they had liberated, made their way to the exit.

At a run. With Mercury pointing behind herself and shouting "Shabon Spray Freezing!"

"We've got a giant chasin' us!" Jayne yelled.

At that cry, everyone prepared to counter-attack; there was no way that a giant's presence could be hidden in the mid-morning light, with Nanoha readying Raising Heart to launch a Divine Buster and Sailor Uranus preparing to launch a World Shaking at the foe.

Mercury's icy fog cloud slowed the giant down just enough for Jayne to get behind the defensive line. But it wasn't enough to stop the giant altogether. Bruised, bloodied, scorched from Ryoko's energy blasts, and with one arm broken, the giant filled the entryway to the Unseelie's stronghold.

Minako took one look at her, and shouted, "Hey, it's Advil!"

"That's Avril!" the giant answered, turning her attention to Sailor Venus... which meant she didn't notice the ground shaking rhythmically until she was punched in the gut by an invisible opponent.

As the giant collapsed, Rob grinned. "Uruz 7, Polar Bear. Good work. Please make sure your opponent is immobilized."

"Polar Bear, Uruz 7. Affirmative. Opponent is immobilized," came Sousuke's reply from the cockpit of the still-cloaked Arbalest.

And, except for the wounded, there was nothing left but to go home.

Except for the wounded...

---

Epilogue

Calabogie, Ontario, Canada
December 17, 2016
9:57 am ET

A container truck pulled up, just across the river from the observation van. There was no need for the truck's occupants to speak with the observers in the van - they had been receiving regular reports all morning.

The passenger in the truck's cab stepped out, went to the back of the truck, and opened the doors. All he said was, "My sister is too soft. Get in there, you know what to do."

A half dozen self-piloted mecha got out of the back of the truck and walked into the stronghold, through the front entrance, to discover dozens of unconscious beings - trolls, sluagh, giants, dwarves, and others.

Ten minutes later, the Alastors came back out ... to reload.


Rob Donaldson's office, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
December 17, 2016
2:04 pm ET

"I'm not going to force you to live with us here in Ottawa, Mr. Kamijo and Ms. Index. If you want to go somewhere else, we can arrange that - I know people in Montreal, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles who could help out if you want to live in a really big city, and I also know about a place in the middle of nowhere that's run by a friend of mine, if you want to get away from it all."

"Know anybody in Tokyo?" the teenage boy asked.

"Sorry, no. There's a language barrier there for me. And there's no guarantees that you'd know anybody in our Tokyo if you went - this world doesn't have an Academy City."

"But it does have a Roman Orthodox church. I can see the spire on the building right over there." Index pointed out the window while frowning.

Rob sighed. "Ms. Index, that's the Roman Catholic church. This really isn't your world, even if there are a very small number of people who you know living here."

"You sure? Index and I just spent three days being held prisoner by some people who can look like other people."

"Yes, I'm sure," Rob replied. "In fact, there's one person waiting outside to verify your identity for us." He raised his voice and continued, "You can come in now!"

The door opened, and Mikoto rushed in. "It's about time! Where is -" Seeing Touma, her tone changed as she gave him a hug. "Oh. I... I actually missed you."

Touma frowned. "Zapper wouldn't act like that."

"Oh, I wouldn't, would I? Maybe you don't know everything about me!" She let go of Touma and took a step back. "I was worried about you!" she added, punctuating her pronouncement with an electricity bolt launched straight at him.

He reflexively raised his right hand to intercept the blast, dissipating it into nothingness. "Okay, that's Zapper."

"And that's definitely Kamijo," Mikoto added. "I don't need anything else for Christmas now, Rob-oji - I just got a better present than anything anyone could buy me."

Rob grinned - any day that one of his tenants was that happy was a good day. "Mikoto-chan, how about you take Ms. Index over to the apartment that Maika's fixing up for her and Touma-kun? And let her meet some of her new neighbours."

"Maika's here?" Touma and Index asked in unison.

Rob nodded. "That's right. Are you still thinking of living somewhere else?"

"Don't you dare!"

Touma smiled... slightly. "You heard Zapper. We're staying here."

"Then I have some paperwork for you to fill out, just to make things nice and legal. I only need Mr. Kamijo for that; you girls go on ahead. Kazari-chan might even be back from the mall with a change of clothes for Ms. Index by now."

"But -"

Mikoto interrupted Index. "Rob-oji is kicking us out. Let's go. And you can ask me questions today without distracting me from a fight for my own life."

After he was certain that the office door was closed behind the departing girls, Rob turned to Touma. "I'll need to get you to fill out an occupancy agreement, and we'll make a list of official documentation that you and Ms. Index need - birth certificates, health cards, that sort of thing."

"How much is this going to cost us? Or, rather, me?"

"Nothing. We have backers paying for all of that. I know that nothing good ever happens to you - call it Index's luck or Railgun's luck instead of your own, if that makes you feel any better. Oh, and there's one more thing, that you can call my luck."

Touma looked at Rob suspiciously. "You know more about me than you let slip while Index was here."

"I do. And that's because the three of you are the lead characters in a couple of novel series that have been turned into anime, and I've shown some of that anime to Mikoto-san to prove to her that she was in a different universe. That's where my luck kicks in - I did not show her episode 4, where you lost your memory."

"Oh, good - thank you. I've been keeping it secret... wait. Episode four?"

Rob grinned. "You figured that one out quickly. Want to see the first few episodes and get a few of your memories back?"


Washuu's Lab, Vancouver, BC, Canada
December 17, 2016
11:56 am PT

"Now try making a fist."

The woman who Washuu spoke to did so. And did so. "It's working! Thank you so much! I don't know how I could have explained losing an arm when I was missing for only a day."

Both Washuu and Simon smiled at the last of the people that they had rescued. "Think nothing of it, miss," Simon replied. "And you don't need to pay us anything for the replacement arm," he added as she reached for her purse.

"You're sure? OHIP doesn't cover anything this fancy. The skin colour even matches my own exactly."

Washuu grinned. "Hey, I put that together with parts I had lying around! Don't worry about it! Now, head through that door and Ms. Shirai - the girl in the wheelchair - will help you figure out what you're going to tell people when they ask why you've been missing overnight." She gestured toward the portal door that lead to Ottawa.

After the woman had left, Washuu turned to Simon and asked, "What's an oh-hip?"

He looked puzzled for a moment, then remembered where he'd heard the term before. "A few of the doctors that I met in Florida mentioned that to me. It's a health insurance plan that one of the governments in Canada runs. I've got a question for you, now. I thought we were going to either force-grow replacements or use off-the-shelf parts for the replacement limbs. Did you really use your own technology in that arm?"

Washuu looked grim as she replied. "I had to. Force-growing a flesh and blood arm would have taken too long, and I couldn't find enough tech for our needs anywhere in North America; somebody's been buying up all the local prosthetic tech. And HAL can't figure out who, or why."

"Why would that be a prob- Oh. Robot displacees that we don't know about?"

"Robot, cyborg, or both, if my guess is right. I'll tell Tessa when I give her the bill for all the prosthetic parts that I was able to buy. But that isn't important right now. What is important is our other patient: Sakura Matou."

"I agree. Have you ever seen a parasite infestation like the one in her body?"


Kemptville, Ontario, Canada
December 17, 2016
4:57 pm ET

They were sharing a quiet moment at the coffee shop where Michiru worked... or, rather, where Michiru had just given her two-weeks notice.

"I still think it was a mistake to leave them like that. As long as they're still alive, Bonnie's life is in danger."

"We can always go back, now that we know where they are," Michiru replied to her girlfriend's complaint.

Haruka smiled. "That's true. We'd have to prepare for it, though."

"Oh, there's no need for that," an impeccably-dressed tall white-haired young man said from the next table over. "My apologies; I couldn't help but overhear you."

"Who the hell are you?" Haruka snarled at the eavesdropper.

"My friends call me Leonard." He nodded politely to Haruka and Michiru. "And I would very much like it if you would consider me to be your friend, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune."