[X] Thank Hayate for trying, but it seems we'll have to work out a schedule with Alph.
- [X] Time-skip:
- - [X] Mission.
You sit for a minute, trying to come up with something - with something fair, anyway - but nothing comes to mind. You sigh and shake your head. "I can't think of any way to make it work, either. Everything that comes to mind is too disruptive for one or the other of us." You sigh again, then smile at Hayate. "Thank you for trying to help, and thank Zafira for being willing to entertain the possibility." Hayate smiles back awkwardly.
"I'm sorry we couldn't be more helpful. Maybe in a few weeks we'll both have stable schedules again!" She laughs hollowly and scratches the back of her head, but her eyes sweep toward Fate.
"Well, I'll see if Alph is willing to be a training partner for Satsuki for the time being. Maybe I can get a car for personal use while I'm here, since it won't be too long before I go back home." You shake yourself and pretend you don't see Hayate's shocked/amused expression. "Anyway, enjoy yourselves - snacks, music, whatever. And maybe see Fate before you go, too." Hayate nods.
"We will, thank you." She elbows Vita, but the red-headed knight grumbles something unintelligible and refuses to look at you. Hayate gives you a pleading look, but you simply smile mischievously.
"Oh, children. I'm sure she'll grow up someday." You spin and float toward the piano to replace your clone, but you hear Hayate giggling and Vita sputtering in outrage as you leave. So satisfying ….
Almost a week passes. Fate turns to work to keep busy - paperwork, mostly, for herself and her unit, and when she can get away with it she helps with the base paperwork as well. You pay attention to what she does, so if you have to you can help out, but most of the day you spend with the piano, practicing and just playing. Despite her initial strong showing after the concert, something seems to darkened Fate's mood - even after a visit by Nanoha, you occasionally find her staring uncomfortably at you, although she apologizes when you ask her about it.
Satsuki progresses well, too. Your lessons for her are shorter, not because you have less to teach her, but because she has more to occupy herself now besides serving you. You set up a game of Stormwrack and the eight of you spend an hour or two after dinner progressing. Satsuki occasionally has good ideas, but she doesn't present them very well and gives in too easily, so your lessons focus on correcting that, teaching her about logical arguments and pitfalls to avoid. She also starts training with Alph, who seems to like Satsuki, even if she's still ambivalent about you - and since you can handle teaching her the forms and stances well enough, and Alph handles contact sparring and getting her used to using the techniques you're teaching, it works pretty well.
The most interesting thing happens when you walk into the cafeteria one day to find everyone else watching something on a screen. It turns out to be part of the trial of the man who had been using Carmilla and Tool - a dull, homely man. If he were a woman you might call him frumpish or dowdy, but as it is you can simply say that he isn't ugly, despite his thinning brown hair and advancing age. You cock your head as he explains himself.
"No, not kidnapped. If the Saint Church had merely kidnapped my wife, I wouldn't have been so upset. But they stole her from me, and that is why I've been punishing them." He says it matter-of-factly, and the interviewer rubs one eye tiredly.
"I don't think I understand the difference. Could you explain what, exactly, happened?" Trabant smiles calmly and nods.
"Of course! You see, Lily and I had been happily married for nineteen years, seven months. She had always been interested in the Church, and because I loved her, I let her go whenever she wanted. Of course, they had been poisoning her against me - one day, she walked up to the house and rang the bell. I answered it, of course, and she was there with two people from the Church. She slapped me, then, and told me that she despised me and had ever since the first time we'd met. She told me that she was leaving and never coming back, and that we would never see each other again." He sighs and shakes his head. "I was sad, of course, that she had fallen for whatever scheme they had concocted, but I resolved myself to rescue her from her captivity. Fortunately, it wasn't long after that that I found out about Tool, and once I had my first one under control it was a simple matter for her to obliterate that church and take Lily to my new home - but even then Lily refused to cooperate. No matter what I did to her, she wouldn't accept me. After the third time she tried running away, I broke her legs and put her back in her room. The next morning, she was dead. She'd managed to tear one of her legs off and driven it through the dresser, then slammed her head into it over and over until she died. I think it took her four or five piercings before she managed to inflict lethal damage on herself. And it was all the fault of the Church, so I decided to punish them. Well, and Tool, of course, since she was supposed to make sure that Lily was alright." You shake your head and wonder, again, why Mid-Childa doesn't have a death penalty. Considering the man's lack of remorse and emotion, as well as Carmilla's fear of disappointing him and what happened to Tool, it's pretty obvious that Trabant isn't capable of cooperating with a normal society - he's far too self-centered. Fate shudders and keeps her eyes screwed shut, but Alph is even more obviously outraged. Even Nove seems shocked and horrified by Trabant's story. It wouldn't be a good idea to tell them, of course, but if you ever find yourself in a position where you can kill him, you'll make it happen. Not likely, but ….
Two days later Fate interrupts your piano-playing shortly after noon. "Flandre, we have to go. Emergency mission from headquarters." You frown at her - she's in her combat uniform already.
"Satsuki -" She shakes her head.
"Not this time. I'll teleport us to a warship, and we'll head right to the target. It should be in the day, local time, when we arrive, anyway." Scowling, you nod. You put away the few things you had out and write a quick note for your servant, leaving it on the piano, and walk up to Fate. A magic circle appears beneath your feet, and after a short chant from Fate, you appear in another ship, just as promised. You follow Fate into a meeting room; one of the walls has a series of images showing some sort of facility that looks like it's been built into a mountain. Several people - unfamiliar, of course - are looking at those images or similar ones on screens. Another wall has the images of five people - two men, three women.
"Enforcer." A woman nods to Fate before glancing at you. You grin and she frowns before shaking herself and turning back to Fate. "We don't have a complete floorplan, of course, but it looks similar to a lot of space-based civilian labs, so it's probably got a similar layout. We've found what look like entrances on the mountainside - the roads helped - but the weirdest thing is this central column. Looks like it goes right to the generators, so it could just be a venting system, but it's pretty extravagant if that's the case. Could also be a hangar or just an emergency escape, but -" Fate nods and waves a hand, cutting her off.
"We know where the targets are?" A man sitting at the table nods without looking up. He taps something at a screen and a section of the facility flashes red. It does have easy access to one of the presumed entrances on the mountainside.
"They should be in this area. … Well, we hope. This could still be a mistake in our information." He scowls and shudders. You look around until you notice Fate watching you.
"Flandre. This mission … those five cannot escape. None of them. Headquarters would like them captured, but there won't be any problems if they die." Her voice is very quiet, and she looks quite distressed … but that must be why you're here. You study the base layout more closely. "They're involved, among other things, in recreating Doctor Scaglietti's Gadget Drones and in AMF, so the whole base is going to have a very heavy effect." The man at the table nods again.
"And our computer worm is probably going to be found sooner than later, so the plan is to come out right over the planet, send you as close to the base as we can, and let you do what you want. The targets have priority, of course - but none of them are mages themselves, so if you take out the base generator then they won't be able to transfer out and it should be easier to operate, since the primary AMF will be gone." You glance at Fate - but she really doesn't look like she wants to be part of this. And if you just have to kill five people, do you really need help?
What do you do?
[ ] Go alone, Generator shaft.
- [ ] Hit the generator first.
- [ ] Hit the targets first.
- - [ ] Kill them.
- - [ ] Try to take them captive.
[ ] Go alone, attack the door.
- [ ] Try to take them captive.
- [ ] Kill them.
[ ] You take the Generator shaft, Fate attacks the door.
[ ] You attack the door, Fate takes the Generator shaft.
- [ ] Try to take them captive.
- [ ] Kill them.
[ ] Other?
DM Note: So I'm tired, and I'm not sure how well I'm describing the mission. From what Flan can see, the mountainside door is more heavily protected than the Generator shaft, but once actually inside it's a lot easier to get to the targets before they scatter or escape.
YOU DO HAVE SOME TIME, so if you want to have Flan ask a bunch of questions about the base/targets/whatever instead of just jumping straight to the assault, that can happen, too. Anyway. I'm going to sleep.
(PS: If you had gone to see Lulu, Vita and Hayate would be taking this mission instead.)
