Magical Girl Pilot Nanoha

[jgkitarel]

Depends on how much we need to change Fate's style. In MGLN, she's a fragile speedster type, which against Kaiju is a big no-no. After all, if the Kaiju misses, things like local terrain, vehicles, fellow pilots and cities tend to get wrecked. If the Kaiju hits, the Gertie is wrecked and the pilot is severely injured or killed. The main thing is that any Gertie out there should be able to take at least one hit from anything short of an MS Killer with the pilot not getting seriously injured.

More than one hit may be another story, depending on the armor and armament. Melee and Defensive types pile on more armor for a reason.

Fate could be a good mid-close range pilot or support pilot. Even among specialist pilots, they usually have other skills besides their specialty.

[Wraith5]

Hmm... on the subject of "armor"... will the mechs have 'magic armor'? I mean, 'armor' like the barrier jackets in MGLN. Of course, the mech's barrier jacket wouldn't look like the regular ones (they wouldn't look like clothing), but would more resemble something like plate armor. I'm guessing that it would be something like the mech gets it's magic armor 'plates' in a way similar to how the pilots get their barrier jackets.

...I'm probably doing a bad job of explaining this...

In any event, don't all of the MS have some brand of magic shield? I certainly don't think it would be out of the question for the mechs to form a larger one, especially considering what they can do to the 'standard' magic.

[jgkitarel]

Aside from barriers and shields themselves, the Gerties defenses are heavily reliant on several thousand tons of actual physical armor. The sheer scale involved means that few mages actually have the raw power to create fully magical armor. Hayate can do it, The Red Devil can do it, Usagi can do it; Nanoha, Fate, The Wolkenritter and Harry can't.

Developments on subsequent Gerties since they were first fielded have allowed for Earth's scientists and engineers to create armor which is tougher, lighter and more magically conductive to allow the pilots a way of boosting their defenses better without exhausting themselves. Even the conventional armor of the original First Generation Gerties had some allowance for this. In an interesting development, it was a Dutch wizard who figured out how to inscribe specific runes into arrays that were proven mathematically sound, which allowed for the armor to be used as the base for defensive magic.

[Wraith5]

Okay, then, I'll try suggesting we take a page from Gundam SEED. What about giving the mechs some kind of reactive magic armor? Kind of like the Trans Phase Armor used by the Forbidden, Calamity, and Raider? (Rather than act as a constant power drain, the armor only activates when munitions strike the mobile suit, and it only activates in the area that got hit.)

[Phht]

Let's look at the criteria for being classed as an Offense pilot.

1. Magic/ability is geared more toward attack
2. Magic/ability is front line compatible
3. "Killer instinct" to close in and battle the enemy

Out of those, we know she has the first two covered. The question is whether she's aggressive enough to meet the last one. If not, she's Support and the moniker isn't an issue. If so, she's Offense and likely ought to have a Demon moniker (though we could always say it's Unique classed and leave it be). In all honesty, I don't think she has the necessary aggression. She didn't grow up in the same world as Nanoha and most of the MSO pilots. And given how she fought during MGLN, I'm thinking she doesn't quite have the aggression to be an Offense pilot. Yet, at least. I think this would be the main issue for most TSAB "raised" mages, with exceptions for ones like Runessa Magnus.

Fragility is not a restriction from being an offense pilot. Being a speedster means that her speed/mobility is much of her armor, rather than actual armor. Plus, she knows barrier/shield techniques that she can make use of to block attacks if necessary.

You could go with "Archangel" as a moniker.

She's good, but she's no Garrus.

--

Many magic users can cast or figure out how to cast a number of shields or barriers, depending on their 'school'. Senshi-type mages are least likely to be able to pop a shield/barrier up in a ride if they don't have that ability naturally (such as Saturn). MidChildan/Belkan mages have the various options available to those schools to learn and use. Magic users like Harry have the magic shields they know that can be used. And so forth.

On armor. All units have physical armor by default. The thickness/strength various depending on design type and generation (later generations make use of newer alloys that up strength for a given thickness without upping weight or what not). Beyond that, pilots can learn how to spread their magic throughout the mecha and reinforce the parts and armor, adding some additional armor strength to it. There's no visible difference between reinforced and not though.

The main thing when it comes to boosting effective armor strength via magic, is that the limits are a pilot's imagination, concentration/multi-tasking ability, and magic strength. A mecha-scale Barrier Jacket armor concept with substantial effective armor increase? As jg says, that's out of the reach of most pilots. And the ones that can do, are also generally smart enough to do it in a subtler fashion. Unless they're fans of Mass Effect and decide they want that "sweet holographic armor." Defense pilots are more likely to be able to boost their own effective armor higher than other pilots.

Mode Set kinda alters things. Visible armor configuration changes when it's activate, though the effective armor protection doesn't (or increases a bit). Going to higher forms of Mode Set can alter the thickness/strength of the physical armor, in addition to effective strength from the magic reinforcement. For example, White Devil in Sacred Mode gains physical armor and even more effective armor, but also gets a number of thrusters and what not added so that maneuverability is not affected. Flipside, Fate's Sonic Mode loses physical armor and slightly more decrease in effective armor, but the added thrusters/etc vastly ups her speed and mobility.

--

Incidentally, Nanoha can do the magically equivalent of the Blaster Bits from StrikerS when in her ride around the time of the Book of Darkness incident. Divine/Axel Shooter w/ Snip Shot keyword as base to form two or three mecha-scale energy balls that are powered up to AA-S strength. Can maneuver independently, and can do large volleys of human-scale attacks on up to expending its full power reserve in a single attack such as mecha-scale Divine Buster or Starlight Breaker.

--

Pilots and Going Rogue

Spoiler: show

If a (para)military organization isn't concerned about the possibility of personnel going rogue or the like, they're either supremely confident or naive. Unstated policy in the MSO was that in the event a pilot went rogue with their unit, other units would be deployed to capture the rogue. If a base decided to "go independent", the general idea would be to negate the stationed units before forcing the base itself to surrender. It was a point of debate among base personnel and pilots about match-ups and tactics for such events.

The practical application came up in 0060. A MSO base with its units were going to break away and aid in a coup against the German government. A non-supporter at the base leaked the warning to the rest of the organization and Red Devil was deployed. She managed to stealth in close enough that the base had little warning before she began breaching into the hanger area. Only a couple units managed to deploy against her, with the remaining rides totaled in their berths already. The deployed units did not fair well against the Red Devil in the confines of the hanger bay and were soon defeated. MSO security forces arrived soon after and the base surrendered under the blades of Red Devil. The pilots involved and many of the leaders/diehards of the attempted secession were "reassigned" to an Antarctica facility (prison~) for the remainder of their careers (~50 years). The remaining members that were convinced to participate were spread out and reassigned to bases far from there, and had to work harder to progress further. At that point, the rumor mills got going that the Devils were the internal enforcers in such matters, given the criteria for a moniker of that level. The threat of a Devil coming down on you was highly effective at keeping pilots within set boundaries, particularly after the Pluto Incident brought in White Devil. The fear decreased back down to pre-incident levels over the next few years.

Then the Book of Darkness incident threatened to cause a large scale mutiny within MSO. Naturally, it came as no surprise to many within the MSO that the organization was backing Nanoha's position. After all, if they went counter to her, she might go rogue to protect the Yagami girl. And there was a large chance that many to all of the pilots involved in that fight would join her, resulting in a significant chunk of the MSO's heavyweights being rogue. Taking them down would likely inflict massive casualties in the MSO's remaining pilot forces, and there would be concern that additional defections to the mutineers were likely. So in the interest of avoiding a mutiny and possible civil war, the MSO backed Nanoha's stance on things for the most part.

At some point between 0067 and 0069, rumors (oddly enough rumors and gossip-mongering are frequently secondary non-combat skills among pilots and base staff) flowed about regarding the possibility that Team Senshi was supposed to rule the planet at some point in the future whether the planet wanted it or not, and the ways they came to power were creative, varied, and sillier as time went out. Strangely, despite the power levels of Team Senshi, most people would put odds on White Devil soloing the entire team in such a situation. Most credited White Devil's creativity, multitasking skill, and brutality in combat as providing the edge against the team.

The rumors of Devils being anti-rogue enforcers eventually shifted to the "Horsemen" being the force. Nailing down when the rumor began was impossible, but likely occurred some time 0074-0075 once Hayate Yagami "re-earned" her moniker of Death after being busted back to trainee after her (first) Rookie Run in 0073. Around the same time as the "Horsemen" name started being tossed around and the previous rumor got started, the debate on who would take Team Senshi if necessary basically ended with the Horsemen being the definitive response force to such an event.

Pilots and Privacy

Spoiler: show

Given that the MSO has a number of underage pilots, the organization takes protecting their privacy seriously. Any pilot under the age of 15 is not mentioned by name in press releases and makes sure press/paparazzi do not discover the pilots' names or addresses or otherwise harass the kid. Pilots age 15-17 can, with parent/guardian permission, have the protections rescinded. Any pilot 18+ does not receive privacy protection by default, as the MSO considers them adults. Some pilots request the privacy protections continue after they turn 18, and the organization has no issue with doing so.

[jgkitarel]

The main issue with the speedster type is what I mentioned above. If the Kaiju misses, it's gonna tear up the scenery. Depending on where the engagement takes place, that might not be an issue. However, if it takes place near a populated area, which a fair amount do, then there is a problem with collateral damage.

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Fate would make a better support pilot than an offensive pilot, IMO. As you mentioned, Phht, she lacks the aggression. She is fully capable of using lethal force if the situation calls for it, but her very nature and personality does not incline her to being naturally aggressive. She's not alone in that regard, even among the Earthborn pilots. Of all the pilot candidates, only about 15-20% have the needed aggression to make effective offensive pilots, though some who lack that aggression are highly effective in Offensive Pilots in their own right.

Support pilots range from the generalists, to those who gather information, scouts, crowd control, sniping the Kaiju, et cetera. They fill a number of roles and are more numerous than the offensive and defensive specialists combined. This actually makes it harder for a Support Pilot to make a name for him/herself, which also means that their gaining a moniker is a bigger deal than among the offensive and defensive pilots.

One thing to keep in mind, though. Most pilots when they start going on combat missions, start in a support role. This helps serve to give neophyte pilots the needed experience and give the MSO a better read on the pilot him/herself. Being a Support Pilot does not mean that the pilot is ineffective in combat.

It should also be noted that offensive pilots are subject to frequent psychological evaluations, especially those who earn the Devil Moniker. The very traits which make them effective at their roles are also traits that the MSO likes to keep a wary eye on and they are not above benching a pilot for further screening to ensure that the pilot is not a danger to him/herself and others, officially. The real reason is that they don't want a complete sociopath in the cockpit.

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On the magic the MSO uses in general:

The way I see it, since Yuuno involved himself from the beginning, with Presea later providing a lot of data for the MSO (by way of apology, though that knowledge is confined to the highest levels of the MSO), most pilots within the MSO tend to use a hybrid system of magic. The school of magic they initially learned and then getting additions of Mid-Childan style magic thrown in for good measure. Even those who largely use the Mid-Childan style, such as Nanoha, learned bits and pieces from other schools.

Of course, anyone expecting someone from Earth using that style to play nice is in for a rude, if not potentially fatal, awakening. Most Earthborn mages using the Mid-Childan style of magic in combat have to consciously place in limiters to their spells to make them less lethal in situations where it is highly preferred to take the target alive. Of course, even the TSAB has a policy of returning the favor if the other side is actually trying to kill them, as the situation has escalated.

Defensive pilots, those who specialize in barriers and shields, train extensively to do so and have mastered it. They can get more results for less effort than most other types of mages, though there are exceptions. Then again, there are defensive pilots who can fight as well as a demon class offensive pilot.

[Phht]

Indeed. Speedsters are not the best solo units. But place them with a slower melee offense or a defense unit, and they can put their mobility to good effect.

Support pilots is the catch-all category. If you don't meet the criteria for Defense or Offense, you're Support. And a pilot can switch between categories over their career. There's probably been calls to better define Support and move some Offense stuff out to Offense subtypes, but not enough support to pursue. (As a note, I consider Saturn to be Defense. Sure she has powerful attacks, but she really does not want to use them, and she hasn't found a way to make use of her healing ability while in a ride. So that leaves her dropping Silence Walls and stopping everything in its tracks. Serenity, Mercury, Mars, and Neptune would be Support. Venus, Earth (Endymion/Tuxedo Mask), Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto are Offense.)

And oh god yes. It's always been kinda in my mind that Earth mages don't know how to pull their punches when it comes to spells. They're learning magic and coming up with new techniques in order to kill kaiju. Why the hell would they care about "nonlethal" settings? It's kinda like they learned how to use shotguns to defend their homes and TSAB's trying to teach them that you can in fact load bean bag shells, not just lethal shells.

[jgkitarel]

Not that the TSAB is above using lethal force themselves, but most times their role is as peacekeepers and military police. They have a clearly defined Rules of Engagement (RoE) which spells out when lethal force is authorized. It's a matter of roles and experience. The MSO is taking advice from the TSAB, though. After all, if the Kaiju threat does get handled, they have to change their roles.

On the other hand, the TSAB mages love having people who will use violence in reacting to threats on missions with a high chance of things going horribly wrong. The Huckbein wouldn't stand a chance in hell here.

[Wraith5]

You could go with "Archangel" as a moniker.

She's good, but she's no Garrus.

To be honest, I wasn't thinking Mass Effect so much as I was thinking Gundam SEED. The Archangel-class is described as "Mobile Assault Carrier" (correct me if I'm wrong), and while a carrier is intended to support the aircraft (or mobile suits, in this example), the Archangel-class is quite an effective offensive unit by itself. (I'm pretty sure the "LCAM" designation stands for "(something) Carrier Assault (something)," but I can't really remember...)

[jgkitarel]

The cultures of the two organizations are different enough to have interesting results. The vast majority of TSAB mages who undergo pilot training would be well suited to a number of support roles and the MSO has nothing against their mindset. Several years of contact and the development of joint training and operations environments have managed to get both organizations to work out ways to conduct operations together.

That doesn't mean that there aren't TSAB mages who would fit right in with the Offensive Pilots. You mentioned Runessa, Phht. I would disagree with that, as she would be benched for psychological reasons quickly. That lady has a serious chip on her shoulder with regards to the TSAB due to her experiences as a child soldier during the Orussian Civil War, not to mention the issues she would have from being a child soldier in the first place.

[Phht]

On the other hand, the TSAB mages love having people who will use violence in reacting to threats on missions with a high chance of things going horribly wrong. The Huckbein wouldn't stand a chance in hell here.

Who needs to worry about things like AMF fields when you're piloting 25,000 tons of awesome? Also, who needs to worry about AMF fields and the like when you can spam AAA-rank Divine Busters? ... I fear for Nanoha becoming a fan of Touhou games. Though Danmaku fights seem like an interesting concept to adapt for Pilot spars/fights....

That doesn't mean that there aren't TSAB mages who would fit right in with the Offensive Pilots. You mentioned Runessa, Phht. I would disagree with that, as she would be benched for psychological reasons quickly. That lady has a serious chip on her shoulder with regards to the TSAB due to her experiences as a child soldier during the Orussian Civil War, not to mention the issues she would have from being a child soldier in the first place.

I would make a comment about child soldiers, but piloting a giant mecha against kaiju is far different from a child soldier.

Part of what I was thinking that would allow her to fit in more is that it's noted that she "feels herself out of place in the placid administrated worlds." Earth is less placid than the administered worlds for one, and as it's still a Non-Administered World, she's not around TSAB all the time. Plus, Earth still uses "mass weaponry," which would help her fit in more given that her device doubles as a "live ammo gun."

I do have to wonder if the Mariage Incident gets short circuited in MGPN. Normally it occurs in 0078, and Tredia Graze dies in 0074, at which point Runessa Magnus decides to take over the plan. Runessa would've been near fatally injured and evac'ed from her home planet in 0069 some time. There's a time frame in there that she could end up avoiding the giant chip on her shoulder regarding TSAB, especially if she isn't taken in by Tredia's ideology.

--

I consider the magic system used by Earth to be a separate system from Midchildan and Belkan. Or at least the system used when in rides. A major identifier of this system is the lack of a magic circle for most spells, the ability to use spells from other systems without necessarily being a practitioner of that particular system, and no real theme regarding the system. It should be noted that the Senshi system of magic is considered separate from the Earth system, as Sailor Senshi are not limited to Earth and predate the existence of the Earth magic system. While there is debate within TSAB over whether it's one magic system or several, TSAB currently groups all magic systems native to Earth as the Earth magic system and lists subtypes to refer to specific 'schools' within the system, such as wand magic and ki users.

--

So, while flipping through the Nanoha wiki last night, I ended up on the Ace Combat wiki. I'm a big fan of Ace Combat Zero (The Belkan War~), and this idea kinda slipped into my head because of one location in the game (Belkan Priority One Strategic Airspace B7R, aka The Round Table).

Spoiler: show

Some things that come up in the course of figuring it out. The fall of the Silver Millennium is pre-Saint King Unification War. When it fell, I'm not sure, but it's likely mid to late Belkan Empire. At the time of the fall there was an uninhabited planet between Mars and Jupiter that survived the fall. Also, the Book of Darkness wasn't corrupted into that form until during the SK Unification War.

At some point near the end of the Empire, Belka established a military presence near the system and 'annexed' it, though all they cared about in the system was that one planet, because it had substantial resources in it. The destruction of Belka and collapse of the Empire caused a number of systems to break away and go independent, including a number in the region "near" Earth. As such, Belkan military was beefed up in the area as well. The independent governments banded together in a coalition to hold off the Belkan unification forces and frequent battles broke out over the uninhabited planet.

The master of the Tome of the Night Sky was one of the Belkan forces defending the area. The Belkan forces' superiority started crumbling when a new pair of coalition mages started showing up at the fights. They appeared to be MidChilan trained (as the coalition forces did not use the same magic circle as Midchila), though their weapons used a cartridge system like Belka had. One was fast and agile, getting referred to as Pixy. The other bounced between engaging close up and standing off with ranged attacks seeming at random, and ended up referred to as Cipher. The two encountered the Wolkenritter and their master several times, and had actually killed some of the Wolkenritter at least once. As Belkan superiority was eroded by the pair and the morale boosting that came in their wake, the Tome's master began working with other mages to tweak the Tome to increase its abilities so he could take down the duo.

In the next encounter with the Wolkenritter, their Master attempted to use the increased abilities against the pair. At this point, he discovered that the Tome had been corrupted by the efforts to modify it, and the defense program went wild. The Wolkenritter were reabsorbed, the Master trapped and drained completely, and the rampaging defense program shattered the planet. Luckily, fatalities from the rampage were light, as coalition forces began retreating at the first sign of things going wrong with the Tome, and the Belkan forces retreated as well on the orders of Signum just before she was deactivated by the Tome. The fate of the mage pair is unknown as, if they survived, they disappeared into history after the planet's destruction.

This could serve as a) potential plot hook for time travel if its ever decided to actually touch that, or b) simply a bit of history that causes some people to mistake Nanoha/Fate for the duo on first seeing/meeting them. Of course, the latter one would likely be limited to the Wolkenritter, as I don't think anyone else would still be alive from back then. Maybe a bit of a running joke about records from that area being found in the Infinity Library or the Saint Church, and photos of the pair (never showing the face) keeps getting "wow, if you were older, you'd really look a lot like her" comments.

[jgkitarel]

Who needs to worry about things like AMF fields when you're piloting 25,000 tons of awesome? Also, who needs to worry about AMF fields and the like when you can spam AAA-rank Divine Busters? ... I fear for Nanoha becoming a fan of Touhou games. Though Danmaku fights seem like an interesting concept to adapt for Pilot spars/fights....

Nanoha as a Touhou fan? Sounds hilarious, especially if she manages to spread it around the MSO.

I would make a comment about child soldiers, but piloting a giant mecha against kaiju is far different from a child soldier.

Part of what I was thinking that would allow her to fit in more is that it's noted that she "feels herself out of place in the placid administrated worlds." Earth is less placid than the administered worlds for one, and as it's still a Non-Administered World, she's not around TSAB all the time. Plus, Earth still uses "mass weaponry," which would help her fit in more given that her device doubles as a "live ammo gun."

I do have to wonder if the Mariage Incident gets short circuited in MGPN. Normally it occurs in 0078, and Tredia Graze dies in 0074, at which point Runessa Magnus decides to take over the plan. Runessa would've been near fatally injured and evac'ed from her home planet in 0069 some time. There's a time frame in there that she could end up avoiding the giant chip on her shoulder regarding TSAB, especially if she isn't taken in by Tredia's ideology.

In other words, we can make it so that the Orussian Civil War gets ended before that, or that she gets evac'ed by a joint MSO/TSAB task force. I would say that the Orussian's conduct of their civil war would really piss off the MSO personnel, to the point where the MSO sends in a task force to put an end to it, along with putting the leadership of both sides in it on trial for war crimes. The TSAB let them, even providing some assistance that was "off the record" in doing so. They were just as unhappy about it, but their own laws kept them from putting a stop to things outside of keeping the entire thing localized to one world.

Runessa would certainly fit in in this case, as she would be operating without Tredia's influence on her.

I consider the magic system used by Earth to be a separate system from Midchildan and Belkan. Or at least the system used when in rides. A major identifier of this system is the lack of a magic circle for most spells, the ability to use spells from other systems without necessarily being a practitioner of that particular system, and no real theme regarding the system. It should be noted that the Senshi system of magic is considered separate from the Earth system, as Sailor Senshi are not limited to Earth and predate the existence of the Earth magic system. While there is debate within TSAB over whether it's one magic system or several, TSAB currently groups all magic systems native to Earth as the Earth magic system and lists subtypes to refer to specific 'schools' within the system, such as wand magic and ki users.

Earth based magic isn't that formalized. Each different school represents different approaches and philosophical viewpoints on it, rather than a single system with separate schools of thought. In comparison to the Mid-Childan or Belkan systems, it is highly versatile, but at the cost of efficiency when it comes to high powered magic. Earth's mages don't even call it a single system and laugh at the TSAB's calling it a single system with several different "schools". The TSAB did so, more for the sake of easier classification.

It also doesn't help the TSAB's case when MSO mages and pilots cheerfully adopt aspects of the Mid-Childan and Belkan systems which make their jobs easier. The system used by the MSO is more of a hybrid system with little in the way of formal organization behind it which is composed of aspects of various schools of magic and different systems. Each mage brings in what they've learned and then adds to their own body of knowledge and somehow makes it work.

Of course, since MSO Pilots are piloting 25,000 tons of whoopass may have something to do with it.

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On your idea of tying in the Silver Millennium to the same period as Belka. How about we make it even older and steal a page from "White Devil of the Moon". The Silver Millennium was a contemporary of Al-Hazard (who's existence in the timeline is hard to place), with some limited contact with them. In this case, Al-Hazard is a human civilization which was founded by descendants who left Earth much earlier (Homo Sapiens has been around for 200,000 years, after all) and they stumbled upon the Silver Millennium while trying to search for their original world of origin.

Historical Context of the Silver Millennium:

Spoiler: show

The Silver Millennium was an ancient civilization which was heavily dependent on magic for it's entire existence. From records which were eventually recovered from what is now called the Lunar Ruins, it's existence has been placed from about circa 18,000 BCE to 14,000 BCE, when the civilization was destroyed by the invasion of the Dark Kingdom. Until the discovery of the Lunar Ruins, the very existence of it was often dismissed by the scholar community, only being believed by a small fringe of it.

The fall of the Silver Millennium and the various cultures on Earth led to a several thousand year long Dark Age before the survivors were able to begin rebuilding. Only returning to building something larger than a small village at around 9000 BCE. As it stands, there are no extant cities in existence which have been continuously inhabited since that era, though the oldest continuously inhabited city, Jubayl (Byblos) was built on the ruins of, and even used building materials from, the ancient port city of Ĝhbl (Ghubel). In fact, it's modern Arabic name is a transliteration of the Bronze Age name for the city.

The civilization is considered the main reason for the birth of many Mesopotamian myths and legends which were later found to be derived from some of the writings and languages which survived the fall. The last language descended from that era (EME.ĜIR, or Sumerian) has been effectively exinct since 2000 BCE on Earth when it was fully replaced by Akkadian, though it persisted as a classical written language until about 100 CE.

Since the discovery of the Lunar Ruins in 2014 (0074) and work by TSAB mages to make it possible to search them (not to mention giving the still unburied and well preserved bodies an appropriate burial), it has been determined that the Silver Millennium had an impact on many of the cultures and civilizations in Mesopotamia.

[Phht]

In other words, we can make it so that the Orussian Civil War gets ended before that, or that she gets evac'ed by a joint MSO/TSAB task force. I would say that the Orussian's conduct of their civil war would really piss off the MSO personnel, to the point where the MSO sends in a task force to put an end to it, along with putting the leadership of both sides in it on trial for war crimes. The TSAB let them, even providing some assistance that was "off the record" in doing so. They were just as unhappy about it, but their own laws kept them from putting a stop to things outside of keeping the entire thing localized to one world.

Runessa would certainly fit in in this case, as she would be operating without Tredia's influence on her.

Well, look at the time frame. She gets near fatally injured in 0069, when the BoD Incident occurs. This means there's no way to get a joint MSO/TSAB team involved. Next thing we know about her is that she takes over Tredia's plan in 0074 after his death. Then she gets arrested and plan foiled in 0078. We don't actually know when he got his claws into her except that he had by 0074. (How did Tredia and her get to know each other anyhow?)

If we give her a year to recover, it'd be 0070 or 0071 before she starts going to Mid-Childa school and eventually becoming an Enforcer trainee. It could be that instead of focusing on the injustice of the situation she grew up in on Orussia and slowly bringing her to Tredia's line of thinking, she gets interested in the whole MSO thing both while recovering and afterward. The MSO would probably be big in the news once the scandal breaks regarding the BoD Incident, and she'd be recovering from injuries during that time. Or things still go as usual, and she might end up working at JDS6 or RF6, where the MSO shrinks discover her issues, causing RF6 to deal with the Mariage Situation during the JS Incident. And she still ends up in prison.

Earth based magic isn't that formalized. Each different school represents different approaches and philosophical viewpoints on it, rather than a single system with separate schools of thought. In comparison to the Mid-Childan or Belkan systems, it is highly versatile, but at the cost of efficiency when it comes to high powered magic. Earth's mages don't even call it a single system and laugh at the TSAB's calling it a single system with several different "schools". The TSAB did so, more for the sake of easier classification.

Yeah, I was speaking of it from the TSAB point of view. Namely that trying to classify it as a single system is largely their way of going "fuck it, we're done with this shit!" I feel like many spell researchers and scientists tend to get reduced to either tears or frothing rage when trying to work on the Earth "system." So they clump it into one system, do subtypes to differentiate the various 'schools', and try to ignore it after that.

"You can't do that! Spells take massive amounts of mathematical calculations. Magic circles are direct visual displays of those calculations! This is why people have Devices and spells display magic circles!"
"Really? Well, Reducto. Huh, that target seems to disagree with you."
"Aasdfngnlasdjtlkdtkldsfm!"

On your idea of tying in the Silver Millennium to the same period as Belka. How about we make it even older and steal a page from "White Devil of the Moon". The Silver Millennium was a contemporary of Al-Hazard (who's existence in the timeline is hard to place), with some limited contact with them. In this case, Al-Hazard is a human civilization which was founded by descendants who left Earth much earlier (Homo Sapiens has been around for 200,000 years, after all) and they stumbled upon the Silver Millennium while trying to search for their original world of origin.

To be fair, I gave the approximate time frame it fell. I never mentioned how long it had stood by that point. Hm. The Warring Ages are guessed to have been from ~1000 years prior to a few hundred years prior. So if we place 0074 as 2014, then the Warring Ages would've likely started around 990-1020. So Al-Hazard would've been around ~15,000+ years? ... Unless by "stumbled upon the Silver Millennium" you mean its remains, in which case never mind! Or if you've extended the length of the Belkan Empire/Warring Ages, etc.

Other dates based on 0074 = 2014: 1920 would be the approximate point that the Saint King Unification War ended. Given that the SKUW went centuries, I'd probably place the start point around the 1600-1700s. The destruction of Belkan Priority One Strategic Resource Planet B7R would've likely been in the late 1700s or 1800s at the latest, with the loss of the world and the corruption of the Tome into the Book of Darkness starting to spell the end of the unification efforts. And speaking of bodies left in ruins... yeah, there are mage corpses scattered throughout the asteroid belt whose bodies couldn't be recovered during the fighting or prior to B7R's destruction. TSAB has had ships stop in once every year or two to scan sections to try to recover bodies since the bureau formed.

--

"Planet B7R" is considered a vital resource world for the Belkan Empire. It has high concentrations of the resources needed to create Armed and Unison Devices (also possibly WMDs). Unfortunately, this also makes it highly difficult to mine the resources. Most beings begin getting sick if they stay too long in the area without protection. As a result, it would require time and effort and focus to set up a mining operation on the world. Before they can do so, Belka is lost and the Empire fragments. With the Unification effort in progress, the Belkans cannot provide the time or focus to set it up, but refuse to let it fall into the hands of another government. B7R's destruction meant that a new survey would have to be done to see if enough resources survived the destruction to make asteroid mining worthwhile. As a result, Belka abandoned control of the system and moved the bulk of the forces stationed nearby to other tasks. Coalition forces didn't get to make a decision on the topic either, as some of the defending forces were shifted into offensive operations into Coalition territory. With the final collapse of the Belkan Empire and the shift toward Mid-Childan Device styles, the need for materials to build Armed Devices dropped substantially and easier to mine locations were used instead. The same could be said for Unison Devices, whose means of construction were all but lost by that point.

[jgkitarel]

Yeah, I was speaking of it from the TSAB point of view. Namely that trying to classify it as a single system is largely their way of going "fuck it, we're done with this shit!" I feel like many spell researchers and scientists tend to get reduced to either tears or frothing rage when trying to work on the Earth "system." So they clump it into one system, do subtypes to differentiate the various 'schools', and try to ignore it after that.

"You can't do that! Spells take massive amounts of mathematical calculations. Magic circles are direct visual displays of those calculations! This is why people have Devices and spells display magic circles!"
"Really? Well, Reducto. Huh, that target seems to disagree with you."
"Aasdfngnlasdjtlkdtkldsfm!"

You really want them to go into a frothing rage? Let Terran mages tinker with Al-Hazard era Lost Logia and get results. The main thing that the TSAB doesn't understand is that Terran mages have turned magic into an art form. True, it has some hard rules which are dangerous, extremely so, to violate, but their magic is much more natural in the sense that they approach it as an inherent gift which is meant to be used.

That doesn't mean that Terran mages can simply go around throwing high powered magic all over the place, however. They can do more with it, but at the cost of energy efficiency, since they usually don't have something which can assist them in properly regulating that power. Instead, they learn how to control their magic directly, even if they use some kind of focus, such as a wand.

To be fair, I gave the approximate time frame it fell. I never mentioned how long it had stood by that point. Hm. The Warring Ages are guessed to have been from ~1000 years prior to a few hundred years prior. So if we place 0074 as 2014, then the Warring Ages would've likely started around 990-1020. So Al-Hazard would've been around ~15,000+ years? ... Unless by "stumbled upon the Silver Millennium" you mean its remains, in which case never mind! Or if you've extended the length of the Belkan Empire/Warring Ages, etc.

No, Belka is much later than Al-Hazard. There isn't much about the histories involved in MGLN, so we have a lot of ways to fill in the blanks. In this case, Belka is relevant as it is the major power which immediately preceded the TSAB, which is still working on picking up the pieces nearly a century after being founded.

In Al-Hazard's case, the presence of a major power within the Sol System made them cautious and they instead worked through diplomacy, spying and trade, often all at once. Both knew of each other, but largely stayed out of the other's business, as neither desired a war with the other.

Other dates based on 0074 = 2014: 1920 would be the approximate point that the Saint King Unification War ended. Given that the SKUW went centuries, I'd probably place the start point around the 1600-1700s. The destruction of Belkan Priority One Strategic Resource Planet B7R would've likely been in the late 1700s or 1800s at the latest, with the loss of the world and the corruption of the Tome into the Book of Darkness starting to spell the end of the unification efforts. And speaking of bodies left in ruins... yeah, there are mage corpses scattered throughout the asteroid belt whose bodies couldn't be recovered during the fighting or prior to B7R's destruction. TSAB has had ships stop in once every year or two to scan sections to try to recover bodies since the bureau formed.

Something like a planet being destroyed in our own solar system would have been noticed, even back then. Telescopes did exist which allowed them to find planets past the Asteroid Belt, even if it was only to confirm something was there. Unless B7R was on a completely different orbital path off the plane of the Ecliptic which made it hard to find as Earth would have had to been in the right place at the right time to see it.

Keep in mind that gravitational forces, primarily from Jupiter, and a lack of materials kept a planet from forming in the Asteroid Belt in the first place. Even if it did exist, the gravitational effects it had would have still been apparent, even today, to modern astronomers.

[Phht]

Actually, to put them in a frothing rage, all you have to do is point them to the Book of Darkness... I mean, the Tome of the Night Sky. The thing rampages around for over a century and Earth fixes it when everyone else was trying to figure out how to kill it.

--

So, having pulled up the wikipedia page for Astronomy, we're having some time line revision. In the same vein, Hayate was 9 in A's, so I don't know why I said "canon age" and then went with 12. In any case, she was 12 in 0069 and is thus only 2 years younger than Nanoha instead of 4-5.

B7R destroyed by out of control Tome of the Night Sky, circa 740 CE. Wolkenritter consider this the first casualty of the Book of Darkness. This means that the life time of the Belkan Empire has expanded, because otherwise the Warring Ages would've started ~1000-1030 CE. I picked ~740 CE as it's earlier than the discovery of the Andromeda Galaxy (964 CE) and the SN 1006 supernova (1006 CE), and also likely predates any astronomical observatories. I'm currently placing the start of the Warring Ages as c 270 CE and the loss of Belka itself at c. 650 CE. B7R was annexed into the Empire 2 years earlier.

The reason I figured that Belka had some overlap with Al-Hazard is the mention in the Nanoha wiki entry for Belka: "Belka's scientific advances are attributed to technological outflow from Al-Hazard over 1000 years ago." I interpreted that as Al-Hazard was still around for the tech outflow.

• c. -16060 to -12060 - Reign of the Moon Kingdom, ending in its destruction at the hands of the invading Dark Kingdom that was sealed away for many millenium as a last minute fuck you from the Moon Kingdom. The "mythical" civilization of Al-Hazard is a contemporary to the Moon Kingdom.
• c. -1670 - Start of the Warring Ages and rapid expansion of the Belkan Empire beyond its planet.
• c. -1292 - B7R annexed into the Belkan Empire.
• c. -1290 - Belka is lost, Belkan Empire collapses. Saint King Unification War begins.
• c. -1200 - B7R destroyed by out of control Tome of the Night Sky.
• c. -0934 - Belka and its system is lost due to supernova during a battle with Galea.
• c. -0034 - Belkan Unification forces get in position to use the Book of Darkness in retaliation, resulting in the destruction of Galea near the end of the Saint King Unification War.
• c. -0020 - Saint King Unification War ends with the disappearance of the Saint's Cradle and the death of the last Saint King.
• 0000 - Start of the new Mid-Childan calendar. (1940 CE)
• 0074 - 2014 CE

--

I'll go with the claim that the reason there was a planet there in the face of known physics is due to the resources that are used to make Unison Devices and to a lesser extent Armed Devices. How much of the resources survived the destruction is unknown, given that Ancient Belkans would be the only ones to have a clue regarding what to look for (besides mocking the laws of physics), much less how to use it.

[jgkitarel]

Not bad, if still a little too far in the past for my comfort. It took me a second to realize that the c. XXXX was years before the MC Calendar. Simple math for the win.

Anyway, I would shorten the Saint King Unification War a bit more. Say lasting six to seven centuries, but more like the Hundred Years War in the fact that it was more a sequence of several wars which got lumped together. Also, Ixpellia was born, canonically, in 262 Old Calendar, 240 years before Belka was destroyed (it was destroyed in 462 OC).

From the Nanoha Wiki on the Mid-Childa New Calendar:

"The New Calendar (新暦 Shinreki) is the calendar adopted on Mid-Childa after the end of the Saint King Unification War, replacing the Old Calendar. It has since become a universal time scale in all TSAB-administrated worlds. Apparently, it uses the same month progression and lengths as the Gregorian calendar and it is therefore assumed that one Mid-Childan year corresponds to one Earth year in length."

The exact date, let alone the year, of Olivie's death was never established, but it is implied that it was at least a couple of centuries prior to the events of StrikerS.

The fact that the length of the year in the calendar system is the same as the solar calendar can be either incidental, or a holdover from knowledge that humanity's original homeworld had a year that long.

----

TSAB Reaction to Earth mages solving the problem with the Tome of the Night Sky.

Spoiler: show

"Are you telling me that the mages on Earth managed to fix what was wrong with the Book of Darkness?"

Lindy Harlaown understood the skepticism which was loaded in that question. She herself had a hard time believing it until she read the report and had her own personnel look over the data. "As a matter of fact, sir," she replied. "Yes, they did. We are still trying to figure out how, but a preliminary report done by Dr. Yuuno Scrya, who has been on Earth for the last fifteen years, indicated that they were able to look at it's source code and easily picked out what was wrong with it."

"And that was?"

She brought up a screen and displayed a summary of the data to the entire audience. "To them, it essentially looked like someone using one of their own computer programming languages, which they have many, slapped together a program on top of a runic array and overlain on a completely different operating system and then uploaded it without checking to see if the entire setup was even compatible. Unfortunately, it was not completely incompatible, or it would not have worked, but was instead just compatible enough to try and work, while steadily changing the parameters which resulted in a buffer overflow and crashed the system and resulted in a steadily increased corruption of the data every time it was rebooted.

"The researcher who explained it to one of my own technical specialists on the Arthra summed it up as an unintended effect which was made worse as the reincarnation aspect of the book meant that it could not be stopped unless someone was able to get into it with administrative access, which could only be granted to and, in a limited fashion by, the master of it during the brief time when it was fully active before the defense program overloaded the entire system. This, ironically, was a researcher who could not use magic who explained it. He said that he was used to having to explain their jargon in terms that the more logically inclined would understand.

"For their magically inclined researchers, they looked at it, basically said 'Well, that doesn't belong there.' and somehow removed it from the Book of Darkness." She sighed. "Keep in mind that Earth's magically inclined researchers have been able to figure out what several Lost Logia from Al-Hazard can do and safely operate them, even if they can't duplicate them and in many cases." She looked at the head of the TSAB's Research and Development Department. "I am fairly sure that Dr. Reinhard can tell you how much difficulty we have in investigating even the most minor of such."

The man nodded. "The admiral is correct, everyone. We recently had an Earth mage here from their Mahou Shoujo Organization and she was able to tell us in short order the use, purpose and how to operate several. She admits that she had a slight advantage there, as she is in possession of a Lost Logia herself which is from that era, though was developed by a different society." He shook his head. "Their approach to magic is different from ours, and you all remember my objections from just lumping it all into one system."

[Phht]

The exact date, let alone the year, of Olivie's death was never established, but it is implied that it was at least a couple of centuries prior to the events of StrikerS.

Actually, apparently in ViVid (chp 6) it was mentioned that it was ~100 years since Ingvalt failed to protect Olivie. Since ViVid is set in 0079, then it would be around 20 years prior to the new calendar that the war ended. But hm, I did mess up Ix's time frame, though I could say that her being in hibernation has no bearing on the use of Mariage against Saint King forces.

Something that is kinda annoying is that supposedly Belka was destroyed by a dimensional dislocation. But the Nanoha wiki also states that Belka was abandoned due to pollution. So I figured we use both options - Belka is abandoned due to pollution/nuclear winter, then later on the system itself is destroyed. The actual location of the system is lost, and the story is started that it vanished due to a dimensional dislocation (and is thus out there somewhere, waiting to be relocated).

Putting the destruction of Galea near the end of the war would be something that Olivie could point to as the war is getting completely out of hand and she has to stop it. Whether or not Ix is awake at the time or if Galea is even fighting Belkan forces anymore would be unimportant (though the answers would be sleeping and no longer participating in the fighting).

• c. -16060 to -12060 - Reign of the Moon Kingdom, ending in its destruction at the hands of the invading Dark Kingdom that was sealed away for many millenium as a last minute fuck you from the Moon Kingdom. The "mythical" civilization of Al-Hazard is a contemporary to the Moon Kingdom.
• c. -0467 - Start of the Warring Ages and rapid expansion of the Belkan Empire beyond its planet. (c. 1473)
• c. -0167 - B7R annexed into the Belkan Empire. (c. 1773)
• c. -0164 - Belka is lost, Belkan Empire collapses. Saint King Unification War begins. (c. 1776)
• c. -0156 - Belka and its system is lost due to supernova during a battle with Galea. (c. 1784)
• c. -0142 - B7R destroyed by out of control Tome of the Night Sky. (c. 1798)
• c. -0034 - Belkan Unification forces get in position to use the Book of Darkness in retaliation, resulting in the destruction of Galea near the end of the Saint King Unification War. (c. 1906)
• c. -0020 - Saint King Unification War ends with the disappearance of the Saint's Cradle and the death of the last Saint King. (c. 1920)
• 0000 - Start of the new Mid-Childan calendar. (1940 CE)
• 0074 - 2014 CE

B7R died where it did because the first Asteroid Belt objects were discovered in 1801 (Ceres) onward. So it had to have died before that point. And I think I took your "more like the Hundred Years War" too literally and shortened the SKUW. At least we have two extremes for possibilities now, worst case.

--

At some point I mentioned that old VCPs were turned into museum exhibits or simulators. Many of the obsolete simulators were modified to run off power instead of mostly magic. These modified simulators were given to various museums and so forth around the world. The Smithsonian has a Gen 1 and a Gen 2 simulator at an expansion from the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center. The UK has a simulator at the Imperial War Museum (or maybe Bovington... who would win the argument on what a ride counted as?). Kubinka in Russia received two simulators, as well as a new, larger location. The Canadian War Museum got one. The Tank Museum at Saumar, France got a separated add-on for MSO exhibits along with a simulator. So on. Others are made 'mobile exhibits' that travel around to various cities around the world.

The simulators only have sim data for units that used that model VCP. So Team Senshi would be available to pilot "as" in either, but someone that was only using Gen 3 VCPs would not appear. Unit White Devil does not appear in either simulator, though Gen 2 simulators do have "Unit Takamachi" profiles (because White Devil was using a Gen 3 VCP during the Pluto Incident). There are modifications so magic attacks can be selected verbally to activate and so forth. The part that's advertised is being able to "pilot" the simulators without needing to be a magic user, and not the part where the magic powered aspects are still operational as well. It's a good way to ID potential pilots out of the people that try out the simulator. And since it does still track/use the magic, magic users tend to get better scores from the simulator. Kids get to have fun playing with it, adults get to try out how it works, and when a Pilot steps in and uses their own sim profile out of the list... jaws drop.

[jgkitarel]

B7R died where it did because the first Asteroid Belt objects were discovered in 1801 (Ceres) onward. So it had to have died before that point. And I think I took your "more like the Hundred Years War" too literally and shortened the SKUW. At least we have two extremes for possibilities now, worst case.

It's more that we're stretching things. Now, we can keep it in the Sol System, but how about as a Kuiper Belt Object. Far enough out that it wouldn't have been noticed and perhaps Astronomers noted a flash of light that quickly faded and mistook for a nova? Or as a debris field on a radically different orbit which is why it hasn't been noticed yet?

A planet, and it would be a planet, would have been noticed unless it was on a radically different orbit off the plane of the ecliptic which would have made it hard to spot at the best of times unless Earth and it were in the right spot at the right times. Now, it's a debris field which Earth's astronomers haven't noticed or wrote off as false positives if they had.

--

Kids get to have fun playing with it, adults get to try out how it works, and when a Pilot steps in and uses their own sim profile out of the list... jaws drop.

Even more, many pilots love the opportunity to show off and so many do hop into one of these when they have the time and opportunity. Even better, the kids get a chance to meet a real pilot who shows them some "tricks" to use when they hop in.

[jgkitarel]

At some point I mentioned that old VCPs were turned into museum exhibits or simulators. Many of the obsolete simulators were modified to run off power instead of mostly magic. These modified simulators were given to various museums and so forth around the world. The Smithsonian has a Gen 1 and a Gen 2 simulator at an expansion from the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center. The UK has a simulator at the Imperial War Museum (or maybe Bovington... who would win the argument on what a ride counted as?). Kubinka in Russia received two simulators, as well as a new, larger location. The Canadian War Museum got one. The Tank Museum at Saumar, France got a separated add-on for MSO exhibits along with a simulator. So on. Others are made 'mobile exhibits' that travel around to various cities around the world.

The simulators only have sim data for units that used that model VCP. So Team Senshi would be available to pilot "as" in either, but someone that was only using Gen 3 VCPs would not appear. Unit White Devil does not appear in either simulator, though Gen 2 simulators do have "Unit Takamachi" profiles (because White Devil was using a Gen 3 VCP during the Pluto Incident). There are modifications so magic attacks can be selected verbally to activate and so forth. The part that's advertised is being able to "pilot" the simulators without needing to be a magic user, and not the part where the magic powered aspects are still operational as well. It's a good way to ID potential pilots out of the people that try out the simulator. And since it does still track/use the magic, magic users tend to get better scores from the simulator. Kids get to have fun playing with it, adults get to try out how it works, and when a Pilot steps in and uses their own sim profile out of the list... jaws drop.

The thing is, while many of the aspects outside of it being a simulator that works off of verbal commands for the general public to play with are not advertised, it's not exactly a secret that this allows the MSO to ID potential pilots. Interestingly enough, the entire thing is also a means for the MSO to look in on non-magical alternatives, some of which have begun to bear fruit. The FORTRESS system, resulting from these developments, is a defensive system that does not need a magical pilot to operate, but also suffers from several technical limitations.

(NOTE: Yes, this is a much more overt send up to the Jaegers in Pacific Rim)

In order to develop a system that can go toe to toe with a Kaiju without magic, they had to invest heavily into armor, which reduces the speed and maneuverability of the system due to weight concerns. Also, due to the fact that in order to get the responsiveness a pilot would need to have a direct mental link to the system, there have been significant feedback issues. These issues were resolved when one researcher, who had experience with the AIs within the core of a Gertie helped regulate the feedback by providing a simulated secondary mental network, proposed setting it up for two pilots to synch with the system. This had the benefit of taking the mental load off the non-magical pilot while still allowing them to cram in an AI to help, creating a three-way network that actually proved to be slightly more efficient that the setup with the Gerties.

The heavier armor and structure makes it very well suited for defensive roles, particularly in positions where rapid maneuverability is not required. It also has the advantage of having numerous hard points to affix weapon systems on it. While these systems are not as effective as magic in taking down a Kaiju, the sheer number of them which can be added, with the attendant firepower that is implied, makes it very easy for one of these to keep the attention of a Kaiju.

Due to the heavy costs involved (around US $50 billion for each), few have been developed as of 0075, but the systems which have been fielded have proven themselves on the battlefield, much to the surprise of many an MSO Pilot. Due to this, pilots of the FORTRESS System Mechs are given polite respect by Gertie Pilots, even if there are the beginnings of a strong rivalry brewing.

[jgkitarel]

Modes of Address Within the MSO:

Spoiler: show

Being a military organization, it should come as no surprise that the Mahou Shoujo Organization (MSO) has an entire series of customs, courtesies and protocols.

Modes of Address:

Like many military organizations, modes of address within the MSO follows many military traditions, predominantly those which had been established by NATO militaries. MSO members normally address each other by rank and family name. There are certain aspects which are different, however. Pilots and their support personnel, while members of the organization, have developed a culture where they address each other by position. Pilots get universally addressed as Pilot, with position indicators in use for chain of command purposes, mechanics get addressed as mechanic (with Junior or Senior added as prefixes to denote position and seniority as needed) and all medical personnel are addressed as Nurse or Doctor, regardless of rank to denote position.

Pilots: Pilot, Pilot Leader, Pilot Commander
Mechanics: Junior Mechanic, Mechanic, Senior Mechanic
Medical Personnel: Nurse, Assistant Doctor, Doctor

[Wraith5]

Pilots: Pilot, Pilot Leader, Pilot Commander

Wouldn't it flow a little better to refer to Pilot Leaders and Commanders as "Squadron Leaders" and "Combat Group Commanders" or something? Like all the MSs stationed in/assigned to one area, say, Western Europe, are referred to as a Squadron, and then the Squadrons assigned to a larger area, such as all of Europe, would be a "Combat Group." So you would have the Western Europe Squadron and the Europe Combat Group, or something like that.
Well, "Combat Group" is the best term I can come up with at the moment. I'm quite certain there is a better term I just can't remember.

[jgkitarel]

Ranks and modes of address can be different from actual positional title. The way the pilots and support personnel for them address each other has more in common with naval forces, though it is not the same.

[jgkitarel]

Ranks among Pilots:

Pilots are officers for the purpose of the nature of their jobs. Pilots under the age of eighteen can non rise higher than Captain, which led to the situation where you had cases such as Nanoha Takamachi and Harry Potter holding a rank that was considered under their level of experience and time of service due to their youth. Due to the nature of their roles and responsibilities, command positions are often higher rankingᶧ than what is traditional in most militaries.

Also, the ranking structure, though heavily influenced by NATO, particularly European military structures, there is a situation that is more under that the US would recognize. The Warrant Officer* is a junior pilot who has completed training, but has not gained the experience needed for senior ranking pilots to make the call on whether they can handle the responsibility. The average time a pilot spends as a Warrant Officer is around fifteen months before they're fully commissioned, though it is not unheard of for one to gain a commission within six months, the minimum time the MSO finds acceptable.

Pilot Ranks:

Spoiler: show

Warrant Officer
Lieutenant
Captain
Major
Lieutenant Colonel
Colonel**
Brigadier General***
Major General****

The ranks are more streamlined than is normal for conventional forces and the highest rank a serving pilot can achieve is Brigadier General. Higher promotion requires the pilot to be willing to be taken off pilot status, due to the commitments of time needed to handle the responsibilities and staff functions needed. As it is, there is only one serving Brigadier General as a pilot.

* Like the US, Warrant Officers are not senior enlisted personnel, but are not fully commissioned officers. Unlike the US, the commissioning does not make them Chief Warrant Officers, but actual Lieutennants.
** Colonel is the minimum rank to command a squadron of pilots and is usually the rank for the commander. Most areas of operations require only one squadron. The exception is the Paciffic, which has three (see below)
*** The only serving General Officer as a pilot is in command of the entire Pacific Theater. Brigadier General Takane Nogumo, based out of Tokyo, has the responsibility of coordinating operations over the theater of operations.
**** The commander of the entire MSO Pilot Corps is Major General Reinhard Heller. A former pilot who was taken off of pilot status in 0064 due to injuries. He has a knack for organization and accepted the request to take overall administrative control of the MSO Pilot Corps
ᶧ Pilot teams are usually headed by a lieutenant, squads are normally commanded by a captain, while the equivalent of a company is commanded by a major. Squadrons are commanded by colonels. The exception, Team Senshi, has the lowest ranking member as a captain, but is a full squad in it's own right.

[Phht]

So pilot candidates are WOs during training, then become LTs after graduating? I almost want to break it into WO1/2/... to denote phases of training for some reason. Not entirely sure why. Question: If you make LT and get forced to redo all your training again (as with Hayate), would you get demoted back to WO? And similarly, can someone be an Acting or Brevet rank higher than would be allowed due to age?

How does it correspond to the NATO OF scale? LT at OF-1 on up (with WO at OF(D) or whatever), or is WO at OF-1 and all the other ranks are technically one level higher than regular military counterparts?

--

The furthest I got on unit structure was Unit > Team (2+ Units) > [Base] (Teams permanently assigned to that facility) > central HQ. It pretty much meant that bases with permanently assigned Units/Teams were their own commands (which might have other facilities/outposts that lacked units reporting to them) that worked with adjacent bases to maintain coverage and reported back to central HQ. This is more like Unit > Team (2+ Units) > Squadron (1+ Teams, minimum 8-9 Units; normally commanded by a Colonel) > Wing/Combat Group (1+ Squads; regional level; normally commanded by a Brigadier General) > central HQ (Major General). Probably a better idea than mine.

Hm. If we have ~200 units world wide... How many squadrons are there? I'm figuring at least 10. Three for Pacific, one for Russia's arctic borders, one for Canada/Greenland/Alaska arctic borders, one for South Atlantic, one for North Atlantic, one for North Europe, one for Mediterranean, and one for Indian Ocean. With ten, that averages ~20-21 Units per squadron (with (squadron) Team Senshi being an exception at 10) and 4-10 teams in a squadron (5-man teams down to 2-man teams).

Team Senshi (squadron) would technically have Team Inner (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Serenity, Mars) and Team Outer (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto), each of which can be further broken down into 3-man and 2-man teams. Should the Asteroid Senshi join up, they'd likely be grouped as Team Asteroid (Ceres, Juno, Pallas, Vesta); though likely not, since according to SuperS they were sleeping in hibernation until ChibiMoon needed them as Guardians (of course, that entire timeline has been flubbed to hell due to kaiju before any time travel could occur...). The Asteroid Senshi, incidentally, are the best reason that B7R can't be what became the asteroid belt, so B7R would need to be in the Kuiper Belt or further out. Perhaps in the 48-55 AU range past the "Kuiper cliff", responsible for the relative lack of objects discovered in that range 'cause it cleared its orbit (and thus most of the objects discovered in that general range are debris from the planet).

--

Much like any plane in an air force, each Ride has a designated Crew Chief. They are responsible for all the repair/maintenance work for a Ride. There are generally no other specifically assigned personnel beyond them, and they pull personnel as needed from the various maintenance shops on the base to get the work done. If a Unit is TDY to a facility that lacks maintenance shops, the Crew Chief will form a maintenance unit to go with the Unit. They are typically referred to as "Chief" to denote their status from the regular mechanics.

[Tempest Kitsune]

Just to butt in here with a little military background, Chief Warrant Officers are a completely separate ranking system from normal officers. CWO are officers that started their careers as enlisted servicemen; and are unable to advance past CWO-5 rank, and start as CWO-2. Officers that went through the Academy start as Ensigns. Of course this is the Navy ranking system I'm referencing.