--
Initial snippets
Spoiler: show
0068
The familiar appearance of the Garden of Time came into view as the teleport ended. She blinked. Mostly familiar, as she didn't recall some things being where they were when she left. And everything seemed... older? But that couldn't be, since she had only been gone maybe a couple of hours.
"Fate? Arf? You're back!" Fate only managed to be turn part way before she was wrapped in a hug. She looked up to find her mother. Why...? "It's been a long three years waiting for you to make it back. So much has changed...."
"Surely you're joking, Mother? Right? I caused the freighter with the Jewel Seeds to break up over that Non-Administered World like you wanted and came right back."
Precia sighed and pulled Fate back into the hug. "I wish I were. When you sabotaged the freighter, something happened. You and Arf were flung forward in time, the Jewel Seeds largely thrown backward in time, and the past has changed for that world. In a way, everything's changed."
–
It took some time to get Precia to actually speak on the changes, as she frequently apologized to Arf and Fate over how she had acted. Fate had some trouble adapting to the more loving and doting mother that replaced the familiar unhappy disciplinarian. But after a week, they finally managed to get her to elaborate on how things had changed. She brought up a map of Non-Administered World #97 on a screen.
"Everything starts with the freighter. When it came apart over Earth, something happened. I researched it for four years and haven't been able to determine anything on how it happened. Two results occurred – anything teleporting off the ship as the break-up started was thrown forward in time, while any cargo or people on the ship as the break-up progressed was randomly thrown back in time. Or fell free and landed on Earth without any time travel at all.”
Arf had to interject as something didn't add up. “Wait. How could you research it for four years if we were only thrown forward three years?”
Precia coughed. “Time shenanigans.”
“That makes no sense!”
“The ship was sabotaged three years ago. You two teleported off and took three years to make it back. The ship was thrown backwards one year and broke up. The cargo and researcher was thrown an additional ten plus years into the past.”
Arf blinked, but couldn't find an objection to that sequence of events.
“Right. The cargo – the Jewel Seeds – was largely contained to the area of the planet corresponding to the country of Japan, though at least a quarter of them landed elsewhere on the planet.” A part of the map was highlighted to note where the country was, then a number of creatures were displayed in sequence as she continued speaking. “They activated over time, mutating creatures, plants, even parts of the landscape into giant monsters that came to be referred to as kaiju, in reference to a genre of Japanese monster movie. And not all kaiju came from Jewel Seeds. When the first one appeared fourteen years ago near Tokyo in Japan, the military was slowly managing to deal with it, but a group of magic using girls showed up and displayed more effect against the creature. The difference in scale caused issues with the girls doing sufficient damage. After the third incident where magical girls provided key help in stopping the kaiju, countries started working on a way to better allow the girls to assist."
She paused to take a sip of water and brought up a number of images of various tech, progressing through different concepts as she spoke. "At this point I suspect that the archaeologist that was escorting the jewel seeds came forward to help. He probably provided assistance regarding magic channeling Devices that the countries began working to reverse engineer and modify to work in this situation. Japan made the first break-through with the Gertie power system that enabled a magical girl to channel her power into the system. When hooked up to sufficient power, the system actually enabled the magical girl to use her attack abilities at higher power and size without needing to be at the source. Within a year, the Russians and Chinese had created a mobile system to contain the Gertie, the Europeans had found a way to enable a magical girl's power into the system to charge and power the attacks without external power supplied, and the Americans provided a control system. Within another year they had managed to work out the kinks in the systems and teams of magical people began forming world-wide to deal with kaiju attacks."
Arf stared at the image, and turn an incredulous gaze to Precia. "They were given the Device concept and instead of making Devices, they made GIANT ROBOTS that make use of the Device concept?!"
–
Fate wandered through Uminari City, her home for at least the next few years. Arf had sent her off to explore rather that stay around to help move into their new home. Seeing a park, she sighed happily and made her way in. Given her life up to then, getting used to so many people being around would take a while and the respite was welcome.
After a short walk, she found the forest thinning out to show the sea. Down the seaside path a ways was a brown-haired girl about her age sitting on a bench watching the ocean. As she got close, the girl spoke. “Go away.”
Fate blinked. Had she wandered onto private property? “Um...?”
“I can sense you. Go away, rookie. I'm not going to give advice, stories, autographs, or anything else.”
“Huh?” Fate was now utterly confused. “Did I accidentally wander onto your property?”
The girl looked over at her and blinked. She looked past Fate down the path, then down the path the opposite direction, back to Fate in confusion, then settled on staring out at the ocean again. Fate was building up the courage to ask again when the girl spoke. “I apologize for my rudeness. I thought you were here about something else.”
“Rookie? Does that mean you're a Ma–” Fate cut herself off as the girl's gaze cut over to her. Instead she turned to the ocean view. Thinking things over, she turned back to the girl with a giggle. “I apologize for my own rudeness. It seems neither of us is doing well at first impressions, neh?”
A gesture of the head and a small smile had Fate walking over and sitting on the bench. “I'm Testarossa Fate.”
“Takamachi Nanoha. Nice to meet you.”
“Are you from around here? My guardian and I just moved here and she sent me to start learning the area while she finished getting everything moved in.”
The familiar appearance of the Garden of Time came into view as the teleport ended. She blinked. Mostly familiar, as she didn't recall some things being where they were when she left. And everything seemed... older? But that couldn't be, since she had only been gone maybe a couple of hours.
"Fate? Arf? You're back!" Fate only managed to be turn part way before she was wrapped in a hug. She looked up to find her mother. Why...? "It's been a long three years waiting for you to make it back. So much has changed...."
"Surely you're joking, Mother? Right? I caused the freighter with the Jewel Seeds to break up over that Non-Administered World like you wanted and came right back."
Precia sighed and pulled Fate back into the hug. "I wish I were. When you sabotaged the freighter, something happened. You and Arf were flung forward in time, the Jewel Seeds largely thrown backward in time, and the past has changed for that world. In a way, everything's changed."
–
It took some time to get Precia to actually speak on the changes, as she frequently apologized to Arf and Fate over how she had acted. Fate had some trouble adapting to the more loving and doting mother that replaced the familiar unhappy disciplinarian. But after a week, they finally managed to get her to elaborate on how things had changed. She brought up a map of Non-Administered World #97 on a screen.
"Everything starts with the freighter. When it came apart over Earth, something happened. I researched it for four years and haven't been able to determine anything on how it happened. Two results occurred – anything teleporting off the ship as the break-up started was thrown forward in time, while any cargo or people on the ship as the break-up progressed was randomly thrown back in time. Or fell free and landed on Earth without any time travel at all.”
Arf had to interject as something didn't add up. “Wait. How could you research it for four years if we were only thrown forward three years?”
Precia coughed. “Time shenanigans.”
“That makes no sense!”
“The ship was sabotaged three years ago. You two teleported off and took three years to make it back. The ship was thrown backwards one year and broke up. The cargo and researcher was thrown an additional ten plus years into the past.”
Arf blinked, but couldn't find an objection to that sequence of events.
“Right. The cargo – the Jewel Seeds – was largely contained to the area of the planet corresponding to the country of Japan, though at least a quarter of them landed elsewhere on the planet.” A part of the map was highlighted to note where the country was, then a number of creatures were displayed in sequence as she continued speaking. “They activated over time, mutating creatures, plants, even parts of the landscape into giant monsters that came to be referred to as kaiju, in reference to a genre of Japanese monster movie. And not all kaiju came from Jewel Seeds. When the first one appeared fourteen years ago near Tokyo in Japan, the military was slowly managing to deal with it, but a group of magic using girls showed up and displayed more effect against the creature. The difference in scale caused issues with the girls doing sufficient damage. After the third incident where magical girls provided key help in stopping the kaiju, countries started working on a way to better allow the girls to assist."
She paused to take a sip of water and brought up a number of images of various tech, progressing through different concepts as she spoke. "At this point I suspect that the archaeologist that was escorting the jewel seeds came forward to help. He probably provided assistance regarding magic channeling Devices that the countries began working to reverse engineer and modify to work in this situation. Japan made the first break-through with the Gertie power system that enabled a magical girl to channel her power into the system. When hooked up to sufficient power, the system actually enabled the magical girl to use her attack abilities at higher power and size without needing to be at the source. Within a year, the Russians and Chinese had created a mobile system to contain the Gertie, the Europeans had found a way to enable a magical girl's power into the system to charge and power the attacks without external power supplied, and the Americans provided a control system. Within another year they had managed to work out the kinks in the systems and teams of magical people began forming world-wide to deal with kaiju attacks."
Arf stared at the image, and turn an incredulous gaze to Precia. "They were given the Device concept and instead of making Devices, they made GIANT ROBOTS that make use of the Device concept?!"
–
Fate wandered through Uminari City, her home for at least the next few years. Arf had sent her off to explore rather that stay around to help move into their new home. Seeing a park, she sighed happily and made her way in. Given her life up to then, getting used to so many people being around would take a while and the respite was welcome.
After a short walk, she found the forest thinning out to show the sea. Down the seaside path a ways was a brown-haired girl about her age sitting on a bench watching the ocean. As she got close, the girl spoke. “Go away.”
Fate blinked. Had she wandered onto private property? “Um...?”
“I can sense you. Go away, rookie. I'm not going to give advice, stories, autographs, or anything else.”
“Huh?” Fate was now utterly confused. “Did I accidentally wander onto your property?”
The girl looked over at her and blinked. She looked past Fate down the path, then down the path the opposite direction, back to Fate in confusion, then settled on staring out at the ocean again. Fate was building up the courage to ask again when the girl spoke. “I apologize for my rudeness. I thought you were here about something else.”
“Rookie? Does that mean you're a Ma–” Fate cut herself off as the girl's gaze cut over to her. Instead she turned to the ocean view. Thinking things over, she turned back to the girl with a giggle. “I apologize for my own rudeness. It seems neither of us is doing well at first impressions, neh?”
A gesture of the head and a small smile had Fate walking over and sitting on the bench. “I'm Testarossa Fate.”
“Takamachi Nanoha. Nice to meet you.”
“Are you from around here? My guardian and I just moved here and she sent me to start learning the area while she finished getting everything moved in.”
Rough timeline (contains "spoilers")
Spoiler: show
- Pre-0054
- Jewel Seeds scattered back through time land on Earth, many in the area of Japan. They activate over time and mutate plants/animals/landscape into giant monsters.
- Other similar artifacts and so forth begin awakening to eventually form kaiju themselves.
- Actual giant monsters also disturbed by the jewel seed arrivals.
- 0054
- First Kaiju appears near Tokyo.
- After the third Kaiju attack stopped with major aid of magical people, an international effort to design and build systems to better enable them to defeat kaiju begins.
- 0055
- Nanoha is born. Official year of birth for Fate.
- First functional prototype of a “giant device” is fielded and ends up battling a kaiju, emerging victorious.
- 0056
- First production standard GDs are completed and the Mahou Shoujo organization officially forms.
- 0057
- First combat death occurs via mutual kill move in Africa. Lethal oversyncing determined to be a leading contributor to the death.
- Second combat death occurs in South America.
- 0059
- Third and fourth combat deaths occur in same engagement. Death 3 determined to be due to lethal oversyncing causing instant death in pilot when GD was decapitated. Death 4 followed within 15 minutes via self-destruct move after being too injured to be able to escape or stall until help arrived.
- Sync limiters added to all GD in the wake of the two deaths to prevent pilots from lethally oversyncing.
- 0062
- Fifth combat death occurs during team engagement of what is later designated a “MS Killer” kaiju. Official cause of death is crushed by a massive boulder that breached the cockpit of the heavily damaged GD.
- 0064
- Freighter breaks up over Earth, dumping its contents into space/orbit/atmosphere.
- Nanoha discovers Raising Heart and learns she's a magical girl. Nanoha becomes a Mahou Shoujo pilot soon after.
- 0065
- Freighter sabotaged, Fate and Arf stuck in transit.
- 0066
- Sixth combat death occurs from a 3v1 solo fight in South America. Afterward, discussion begins that ends with stopping the solo pilot rule. Sufficiently skilled solo pilots have the option to remain solo. Nanoha takes the offer to remain solo.
- Euro-American cartridge system project begins based on information provided regarding the Ancient Belkan cartridge system.
- 0067
- Combat death 7 occurs in northern Japan when Pluto is ambushed by four kaiju during a 1v1 engagement. Technically the pilot dies in the OR, but it's still considered a combat death.
- Nanoha Takamachi spontaneously generates sustained flight systems before teleporting from southern Japan to the battle site. She dispatches all five kaiju before personally teleporting Pluto and herself to the nearest MS base.
- Following the death, Nanoha retires. Rules are added to prevent new MS pilots below age 15.
- 0068
- Fate and Arf arrive at the Garden of Time after three years in transit. Discover time shenanigans occurred with the sabotage and the past being altered. Learn that Precia is terminal.
- Precia Testarossa dies.
- Fate and Arf move to Uminari City to live at Precia's request. Fate meets Nanoha and slowly becomes her friend.
- 0069
- Fate begins investigating White Devil in attempt to figure out how Nanoha performed the feats she did in 0067. She also begins modifying and upgrading the GD Precia designed and built for her.
- Fate and Nanoha meet Hayate via a shared friend.
- Pluto returns to the living.
- Late in the year, BoD filled due to actions of two TSAB familiars and Defense Program rampages.
- Nanoha attempts suicide via saving the world, saved by Pluto and Fate. Fight to contain the program eventually includes over two dozen MS from around the world.
- 0070
- Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate drop off the face of the planet for most of the year, “coincidentally” being out of contact during negotiations and related trial stuff over the BoD.
- 0071
- Nanoha returns to active duty.
Some terminology
Spoiler: show
Pilot – when used by MS and support units, refers to MS pilots by default. Other pilots are specified by craft type or generally using “conventional”.
Unit – designation for an MS and their mecha. Units can be given unique monikers, and the monikers can be used to refer to the pilot, the mecha, or the unit. Context is important to determine which.
Ace - (0056-0071) Pilot with 5 or more kills. Pilots with 25+ kills referred to as Ace of Aces. (0071- ) In addition to kill count requirements, requires pilots to display Mode Set capability. While officially there is no distinction between assisted vs unassisted/solo kills for Ace awarding, pilots generally rely on their solo kill count to determine ace status among each other. There has been a call from a number of pilots to move the redefined Ace to a new designation so as to keep the original requirements version for those that lack Mode Set capability. (There may be more types/designations of Aces that just these.)
Sortie – Any time a unit is deployed for the purpose of engaging a kaiju.
Engagement – Fight with one or more kaiju with one or more units, spans from shortly before battle starts to when the last kaiju in range is defeated (or the unit successfully disengages). An engagement generally covers a unit plus the kaiju its facing within a 20km radius. If another unit is within the radius and engaged at any point, it is considered a team engagement and the distance covered by the engagement includes the radius around the other unit.
Mahou Shoujo - Organization name for the group that fights the kaiju threat around the world, generally used to refer to the actual pilots. Despite it translating as "magical girl", there are male mages within which would technically be designated "Mahou Shounen." It's just that no one that matters cares enough to bother making a deal over it.
Gertie - Nickname for the system that enables a Mahou Shoujo to upscale their attacks to better battle kaiju. Using a mix of magical power from the user and an external power supply, the Gertie increases the size of the attack while preserving its relative strength. Which really means that Gertie-powered attacks pack a lot more punch than the normal versions of them.
Giant Device - One of a number of names for the mecha, none of which can be agreed on. "Giant Device" or "Gertie Device" are preferred by some because the abbreviation also covers many's first reaction comment on seeing one up close. Other general references to it include "mecha," "mech," "giant robot," and "ride." (Possible that each region has a different "official" name?)
Sync – Term representing how a pilot controls their ride. Higher sync means more accurate replication of movement and lower delay between pilot and machine. “0” indicates unsynced, while “100” represents the perfect sweet spot for syncing. Going over “100” is called oversyncing and allows negative feedback to the pilot ranging from feeling pain from damage received in mild cases to receiving bruises where the mecha is damaged in moderate cases to near perfect damage transference in 'lethal' cases.
Cartridge System - System that allows a pilot to pass through more magic at a time, officially introduced into the upgrade pool in late 0067. General limit is one cartridge in a sortie, or if time between engagements is long enough, one per engagement. Cartridge limit testing is performed to determine if a pilot is capable of using two cartridges in a short timespan without over channeling magic and literally burning themselves out.
Mode Set - Capability discovered in 0067 and revealed in 0069 that allows for a unit to temporarily alter the mecha and even generate new components.
Pilot Generation - There is significant debate among MS regarding what a generation is considered. Some contend that the First-generation pilots end once the Cartridge system was officially deployed in late 0067, while others say it ends when the Ace requirements were changed in 0071. A few pilots say that there are actually three or even four generations of pilots, and that the redefining of the Ace requirements to require Mode Set capability indicates the start of the newest generation. Those that claim four generations indicate pilots trained after the introduction of sync limiters are second-generation, while post-Cartridge pilots are third and post-Mode Set are fourth. Officially, MS Command does not have a stance regarding pilot generations.
Unit – designation for an MS and their mecha. Units can be given unique monikers, and the monikers can be used to refer to the pilot, the mecha, or the unit. Context is important to determine which.
Ace - (0056-0071) Pilot with 5 or more kills. Pilots with 25+ kills referred to as Ace of Aces. (0071- ) In addition to kill count requirements, requires pilots to display Mode Set capability. While officially there is no distinction between assisted vs unassisted/solo kills for Ace awarding, pilots generally rely on their solo kill count to determine ace status among each other. There has been a call from a number of pilots to move the redefined Ace to a new designation so as to keep the original requirements version for those that lack Mode Set capability. (There may be more types/designations of Aces that just these.)
Sortie – Any time a unit is deployed for the purpose of engaging a kaiju.
Engagement – Fight with one or more kaiju with one or more units, spans from shortly before battle starts to when the last kaiju in range is defeated (or the unit successfully disengages). An engagement generally covers a unit plus the kaiju its facing within a 20km radius. If another unit is within the radius and engaged at any point, it is considered a team engagement and the distance covered by the engagement includes the radius around the other unit.
Mahou Shoujo - Organization name for the group that fights the kaiju threat around the world, generally used to refer to the actual pilots. Despite it translating as "magical girl", there are male mages within which would technically be designated "Mahou Shounen." It's just that no one that matters cares enough to bother making a deal over it.
Gertie - Nickname for the system that enables a Mahou Shoujo to upscale their attacks to better battle kaiju. Using a mix of magical power from the user and an external power supply, the Gertie increases the size of the attack while preserving its relative strength. Which really means that Gertie-powered attacks pack a lot more punch than the normal versions of them.
Giant Device - One of a number of names for the mecha, none of which can be agreed on. "Giant Device" or "Gertie Device" are preferred by some because the abbreviation also covers many's first reaction comment on seeing one up close. Other general references to it include "mecha," "mech," "giant robot," and "ride." (Possible that each region has a different "official" name?)
Sync – Term representing how a pilot controls their ride. Higher sync means more accurate replication of movement and lower delay between pilot and machine. “0” indicates unsynced, while “100” represents the perfect sweet spot for syncing. Going over “100” is called oversyncing and allows negative feedback to the pilot ranging from feeling pain from damage received in mild cases to receiving bruises where the mecha is damaged in moderate cases to near perfect damage transference in 'lethal' cases.
Cartridge System - System that allows a pilot to pass through more magic at a time, officially introduced into the upgrade pool in late 0067. General limit is one cartridge in a sortie, or if time between engagements is long enough, one per engagement. Cartridge limit testing is performed to determine if a pilot is capable of using two cartridges in a short timespan without over channeling magic and literally burning themselves out.
Mode Set - Capability discovered in 0067 and revealed in 0069 that allows for a unit to temporarily alter the mecha and even generate new components.
Pilot Generation - There is significant debate among MS regarding what a generation is considered. Some contend that the First-generation pilots end once the Cartridge system was officially deployed in late 0067, while others say it ends when the Ace requirements were changed in 0071. A few pilots say that there are actually three or even four generations of pilots, and that the redefining of the Ace requirements to require Mode Set capability indicates the start of the newest generation. Those that claim four generations indicate pilots trained after the introduction of sync limiters are second-generation, while post-Cartridge pilots are third and post-Mode Set are fourth. Officially, MS Command does not have a stance regarding pilot generations.
Spoiler: show
Assigned by MS Command. Units do not operate with a moniker until one is assigned to it by command. Fandom likes to unofficially designate units that lack monikers, some of which are fairly accurate to the eventual official one. In general, the monikers also serve to determine chain of command among the pilots, as long as pilots keep up to date on such things and don't let their ego get in the way.
Some important "classes" of monikers
“Devil class” – Only two given in the history of the organization. Devils are apex predators in engagements. First was the Red Devil, while the second was the White Devil.
“Demon/Angel class” - Second in importance to the Devil class, Demon/Angel monikers generally separate the great from the merely good.
“Afterlife class” – Fairly general class, the overall ranking for certain monikers is equal or above the Demon/Angel class, but is generally fill the space below that class. (Ghosts, specters, reapers, etc)
"Royalty class" - Another fairly general class that at the upper end is roughly equal to a low Afterlife class.
Some important "classes" of monikers
“Devil class” – Only two given in the history of the organization. Devils are apex predators in engagements. First was the Red Devil, while the second was the White Devil.
“Demon/Angel class” - Second in importance to the Devil class, Demon/Angel monikers generally separate the great from the merely good.
“Afterlife class” – Fairly general class, the overall ranking for certain monikers is equal or above the Demon/Angel class, but is generally fill the space below that class. (Ghosts, specters, reapers, etc)
"Royalty class" - Another fairly general class that at the upper end is roughly equal to a low Afterlife class.
Spoiler: show
Usagi Tsukino - Support Pilot, Unit Serenity. Achieved first kaiju kill 0054. Leads MS Team Senshi. Assigned Japan North Base.
Kushina Uzumaki - Support Pilot, Unit Kurama. KIA due to self-destruct move, taking four kaiju with her (0059). Specialty: Chain binds.
Nanoha Takamachi - Offense Pilot, Unit White Devil. 22 Unassisted Kills (0064-0067). Teleported ~1400-1500km (roughly Kii Peninsula area in Kansai to somewhere between Wakkanai and Monbestu in nothern Hokkaido) in first Unit teleport (0067).
- Offense Pilot, Unit Red Devil. 26 Unassisted Kills (0056-0071). First-generation Ace of Aces.
Team Senshi - Consists of Units Mercury, Venus, Earth (TuxBoy/Endymion), Serenity (leader), Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. Pluto killed 0067, revived 0069. Initially fully based Japan North Base, currently split between Japan North and Japan Central bases. Career 109 kills (0056-0069) + 1 non-Unit kill.
Kushina Uzumaki - Support Pilot, Unit Kurama. KIA due to self-destruct move, taking four kaiju with her (0059). Specialty: Chain binds.
Nanoha Takamachi - Offense Pilot, Unit White Devil. 22 Unassisted Kills (0064-0067). Teleported ~1400-1500km (roughly Kii Peninsula area in Kansai to somewhere between Wakkanai and Monbestu in nothern Hokkaido) in first Unit teleport (0067).
- Offense Pilot, Unit Red Devil. 26 Unassisted Kills (0056-0071). First-generation Ace of Aces.
Team Senshi - Consists of Units Mercury, Venus, Earth (TuxBoy/Endymion), Serenity (leader), Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. Pluto killed 0067, revived 0069. Initially fully based Japan North Base, currently split between Japan North and Japan Central bases. Career 109 kills (0056-0069) + 1 non-Unit kill.
Spoiler: show
Uminari City - located SW of Tokyo in Shizuoka Prefecture. Roughly analogue to real world Fuji+Numazu. May also contain Mishima and Fujinomiya.
Japan North Base - MS base located in northern Honshu. Responsible for Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, and northern Chubu regions.
Japan Central Base - MS base located in central Honshu. Responsible for southern Chubu, Kanto, Kansai, eastern Chugoku, and eastern Shikoku regions.
Japan South Base - MS base located in Kyushu. Responsible for Kyushu, Shikoku, and Chugoku regions.
Garden of Time - location unknown. Fate's private retreat and testing area (0069-).
Japan North Base - MS base located in northern Honshu. Responsible for Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, and northern Chubu regions.
Japan Central Base - MS base located in central Honshu. Responsible for southern Chubu, Kanto, Kansai, eastern Chugoku, and eastern Shikoku regions.
Japan South Base - MS base located in Kyushu. Responsible for Kyushu, Shikoku, and Chugoku regions.
Garden of Time - location unknown. Fate's private retreat and testing area (0069-).
Other existing snippets
Spoiler: show
0071
The Mahou Shoujo looked over the congregated pilots mingling in one of the amphitheaters. She was annoyed. Many of the pilots were part of the vocal minority that thought their slightly greater than normal cartridge limit made them hot shit and the old timers like her should go ahead and leave the field with some dignity. Sadly, that group was slowly increasing in size because they were apparently too stupid to realize some key facts about the veterans and one veteran in particular.
One was that “retirement” or “inactive” meant a thing. You don't retire from piloting. You die, or get injured so field work is no longer possible, or you choose to move into a non-field position. Most new pilots in the last two or three years seemed to see the “retired” or “inactive” tag on one Takamacha, Nanoha after only three years of service and assumed it meant she wasn't that great, never bothering to look at her actual record.
The second was that veterans never referred to another pilot or their mecha by a fandom or unofficial designation. If they referred to someone as the White Devil, it wasn't because the fans called them it but because the unit had been given the moniker. More importantly, some monikers carry more weight than others. Veterans jokingly refer to them by classes, and the rarest was certainly the Devil class. Only one had received the designation in the first eight years of the organization, and it took three more years for a second to receive one. Two Devil monikers in fifteen years. The Red Devil and the White Devil.
The third was that you never disrespect someone with a higher kill count and length of service than you. Fifteen years of service and twenty-six unassisted kills. She was an Ace of Aces, but most rookies see the 15 years of service and write her off as past her prime. She already had to “chastise” a few rookies in field training spars to show that their egos were writing checks their skills couldn't cash. It was as if they didn't even recognize her. It was pathetic but the veterans didn't entirely mind, as any time one of them needed to cut an ego down to size was a chance for a betting pool on the fight. Though it looked like there was going to be a redefinition of "Ace" in the near future, and she didn't mind being a "first-generation Ace of Aces."
Out of the rest of the list, the most important was that the veterans had a good grasp on sensing a pilot's power level, and many could get a good indication of future potential. This meant that when veterans entered a room with each other, there was no need to establish a pecking order because they could all tell who was the top dog within seconds. And the top dog was finally entering the room. Many of the barking dogs saw her as a has been or weakling because she had been retired two years and technically inactive this last year. The blonde following was nearly as frightening power-wise as the White Devil, though her money was down for an official moniker involving “Reaper”. She had to admit that “Black Angel” wasn't a bad alternate, but “Reaper” better allowed for “Demon Duo” as a team name. Maybe she should make her way down and meet with Takamachi, one Devil to the other?
It looked like the meeting would have to wait, as some overinflated rookie decided to ask if the “has been” wanted to impart some advice to a future Ace. A quick check on her tablet revealed the rookie hadn't even finished all her certification stages yet, particularly the “sync limiter” calibration that normally came before cartridge limit testing. Oh dear, THIS lesson was going to be amazing, which seemed to be a thought shared by many of the veterans in hearing range of the request.
Ten minutes later, she had a good spot to view the training area used for calibration and limit testing of new pilots. She navigated through the system to the audio feed and tagged the channels between White Devil and the student, and White Devil and the grounds command center. The rookie was on the field already, and was making comments over the mech's speakers wondering what was taking the other person so long. A number of other pilots, rookies and veterans, were perched in her general area to watch.
Two mecha strode into view. The first caused several pilots to stiffen in surprise, which wasn't surprising since White Devil had synced with no one other than its master and thus was rather famous for that alone. The second mecha split off to deposit a trio of people in a safe spot nearby. Ah, paramedics. Yes, this would certainly be a memorable lesson.
“Alright, I know that your ride wasn't parked here this entire time, so you at least know the basics of syncing with your mecha. I want you to give me 100, or as close as possible.”
“I'll give you 110!” the rookie boasted.
“Give me 110 and I bust you off combat duty and back to the training nappies that you apparently didn't spend enough time in,” came the retort, to the amusement of many watching pilots.
The plain mecha was silent with its gaze at the ground. Finally the pilot spoke up. “Okay, I think I have it at 100.”
“Good. Look at me.” The Red Devil barely held in her laughter as the mecha looked up just in time to take a punch to the face and topple over.
“What the hell was that about? That fucking hurts!”
“That means you're oversynced. Dial it back a bit. If you can get the one-to-one movement ratio with near zero delay in response, then you're good to go. But if getting hit hurts, then you've gone a bit too far.”
The plain one stood up again and was silent for several second before looking at the White Devil and responding that she was ready. And when the fast punch came in, the rookie managed to pop her arms up in time to block the hit. “Gah! That stings! Need to dial it down again.”
The Red Devil shift the feed between command and instructor to mute and flipped on the speech to text for that channel while the trainee made her third and successfully non-oversynced try. Seeing the text scrolling by, she knew this was where the fun part occurred.
“Good, good. Now, I want you to sync as much as possible with your mecha.”
“But we were just working to get me not to oversync like that!”
“Trust me to have a good reason for this and do it.” The White Devil moved so it was behind and to the right of the plain mecha.
“Holy cow! This is amazing. … Where are you?” The pilot apparently noticed the pressure on her 'right arm', as the mech's head turned to look at it. Perfect timing to see the White Devil slam the forearm into its knee, snapping it and leaving it bent at an odd angle. Bits of sparking cable, pistons, tubes spewing fluid, structural beams could be seen sticking out. The window-rattling shriek of agony that resulted was nearly music to veteran ears.
Then one of them spoke up. “And that, kids, is why we have sync limiters installed. She was lethally oversynced when that arm broke. I imagine the condition of her arm looks something like that at the moment. Given the way it was broken and that it was done while lethally oversynced, I'm estimating at least a week will be needed to heal that. Hope it wasn't her dominant side.”
A few of the green-faced rookie pilots fled to find a place to empty their stomachs. One of the remaining ones was confused. “But, the sync limiter is always on to prevent that from happening! How...?”
The Red Devil coughed to get their attention. “This is why one should always be polite and respectful when asking for training or the like from a more senior pilot. Once both of you are on the field, the senior pilot is the instructor, the other is the student. And instructors can have command deactivate equipment on the student as needed for the lesson. One of the three the lesson has hopefully imparted. The second is the lesson itself on why you never, ever disengage that limiter without feeling it is absolutely necessary to do so.”
“And the third?”
“Do not ever look a Devil in the eye and insult them. They will make you pay for it sooner or later. Nanoha Takamachi holds the record for First Teleport, First Cross-Country Teleport, Most Engagements in One Day twice with three each, Most Kills in One Day at seven, and Most Kills in One Engagement at five. That was in her three years of service. Five of those six records were set in one day. Since she moved from retired to inactive, she's set the record for most cartridges loaded in a single engagement, during the extinction threat fight a year ago. I'm not sure of the exact count, but she had reached four by the time the first reinforcements arrived on scene to help. She had twenty-two kills in three years and for that third year was the only solo MS in the world to take the offer to remain so after the rules were changed to disallow such things.”
The blonde pilot from the watching mecha walked up. “A fourth lesson is that you should always be worried when the instructor bring paramedics along to the training.”
The Mahou Shoujo looked over the congregated pilots mingling in one of the amphitheaters. She was annoyed. Many of the pilots were part of the vocal minority that thought their slightly greater than normal cartridge limit made them hot shit and the old timers like her should go ahead and leave the field with some dignity. Sadly, that group was slowly increasing in size because they were apparently too stupid to realize some key facts about the veterans and one veteran in particular.
One was that “retirement” or “inactive” meant a thing. You don't retire from piloting. You die, or get injured so field work is no longer possible, or you choose to move into a non-field position. Most new pilots in the last two or three years seemed to see the “retired” or “inactive” tag on one Takamacha, Nanoha after only three years of service and assumed it meant she wasn't that great, never bothering to look at her actual record.
The second was that veterans never referred to another pilot or their mecha by a fandom or unofficial designation. If they referred to someone as the White Devil, it wasn't because the fans called them it but because the unit had been given the moniker. More importantly, some monikers carry more weight than others. Veterans jokingly refer to them by classes, and the rarest was certainly the Devil class. Only one had received the designation in the first eight years of the organization, and it took three more years for a second to receive one. Two Devil monikers in fifteen years. The Red Devil and the White Devil.
The third was that you never disrespect someone with a higher kill count and length of service than you. Fifteen years of service and twenty-six unassisted kills. She was an Ace of Aces, but most rookies see the 15 years of service and write her off as past her prime. She already had to “chastise” a few rookies in field training spars to show that their egos were writing checks their skills couldn't cash. It was as if they didn't even recognize her. It was pathetic but the veterans didn't entirely mind, as any time one of them needed to cut an ego down to size was a chance for a betting pool on the fight. Though it looked like there was going to be a redefinition of "Ace" in the near future, and she didn't mind being a "first-generation Ace of Aces."
Out of the rest of the list, the most important was that the veterans had a good grasp on sensing a pilot's power level, and many could get a good indication of future potential. This meant that when veterans entered a room with each other, there was no need to establish a pecking order because they could all tell who was the top dog within seconds. And the top dog was finally entering the room. Many of the barking dogs saw her as a has been or weakling because she had been retired two years and technically inactive this last year. The blonde following was nearly as frightening power-wise as the White Devil, though her money was down for an official moniker involving “Reaper”. She had to admit that “Black Angel” wasn't a bad alternate, but “Reaper” better allowed for “Demon Duo” as a team name. Maybe she should make her way down and meet with Takamachi, one Devil to the other?
It looked like the meeting would have to wait, as some overinflated rookie decided to ask if the “has been” wanted to impart some advice to a future Ace. A quick check on her tablet revealed the rookie hadn't even finished all her certification stages yet, particularly the “sync limiter” calibration that normally came before cartridge limit testing. Oh dear, THIS lesson was going to be amazing, which seemed to be a thought shared by many of the veterans in hearing range of the request.
Ten minutes later, she had a good spot to view the training area used for calibration and limit testing of new pilots. She navigated through the system to the audio feed and tagged the channels between White Devil and the student, and White Devil and the grounds command center. The rookie was on the field already, and was making comments over the mech's speakers wondering what was taking the other person so long. A number of other pilots, rookies and veterans, were perched in her general area to watch.
Two mecha strode into view. The first caused several pilots to stiffen in surprise, which wasn't surprising since White Devil had synced with no one other than its master and thus was rather famous for that alone. The second mecha split off to deposit a trio of people in a safe spot nearby. Ah, paramedics. Yes, this would certainly be a memorable lesson.
“Alright, I know that your ride wasn't parked here this entire time, so you at least know the basics of syncing with your mecha. I want you to give me 100, or as close as possible.”
“I'll give you 110!” the rookie boasted.
“Give me 110 and I bust you off combat duty and back to the training nappies that you apparently didn't spend enough time in,” came the retort, to the amusement of many watching pilots.
The plain mecha was silent with its gaze at the ground. Finally the pilot spoke up. “Okay, I think I have it at 100.”
“Good. Look at me.” The Red Devil barely held in her laughter as the mecha looked up just in time to take a punch to the face and topple over.
“What the hell was that about? That fucking hurts!”
“That means you're oversynced. Dial it back a bit. If you can get the one-to-one movement ratio with near zero delay in response, then you're good to go. But if getting hit hurts, then you've gone a bit too far.”
The plain one stood up again and was silent for several second before looking at the White Devil and responding that she was ready. And when the fast punch came in, the rookie managed to pop her arms up in time to block the hit. “Gah! That stings! Need to dial it down again.”
The Red Devil shift the feed between command and instructor to mute and flipped on the speech to text for that channel while the trainee made her third and successfully non-oversynced try. Seeing the text scrolling by, she knew this was where the fun part occurred.
“Good, good. Now, I want you to sync as much as possible with your mecha.”
“But we were just working to get me not to oversync like that!”
“Trust me to have a good reason for this and do it.” The White Devil moved so it was behind and to the right of the plain mecha.
“Holy cow! This is amazing. … Where are you?” The pilot apparently noticed the pressure on her 'right arm', as the mech's head turned to look at it. Perfect timing to see the White Devil slam the forearm into its knee, snapping it and leaving it bent at an odd angle. Bits of sparking cable, pistons, tubes spewing fluid, structural beams could be seen sticking out. The window-rattling shriek of agony that resulted was nearly music to veteran ears.
Then one of them spoke up. “And that, kids, is why we have sync limiters installed. She was lethally oversynced when that arm broke. I imagine the condition of her arm looks something like that at the moment. Given the way it was broken and that it was done while lethally oversynced, I'm estimating at least a week will be needed to heal that. Hope it wasn't her dominant side.”
A few of the green-faced rookie pilots fled to find a place to empty their stomachs. One of the remaining ones was confused. “But, the sync limiter is always on to prevent that from happening! How...?”
The Red Devil coughed to get their attention. “This is why one should always be polite and respectful when asking for training or the like from a more senior pilot. Once both of you are on the field, the senior pilot is the instructor, the other is the student. And instructors can have command deactivate equipment on the student as needed for the lesson. One of the three the lesson has hopefully imparted. The second is the lesson itself on why you never, ever disengage that limiter without feeling it is absolutely necessary to do so.”
“And the third?”
“Do not ever look a Devil in the eye and insult them. They will make you pay for it sooner or later. Nanoha Takamachi holds the record for First Teleport, First Cross-Country Teleport, Most Engagements in One Day twice with three each, Most Kills in One Day at seven, and Most Kills in One Engagement at five. That was in her three years of service. Five of those six records were set in one day. Since she moved from retired to inactive, she's set the record for most cartridges loaded in a single engagement, during the extinction threat fight a year ago. I'm not sure of the exact count, but she had reached four by the time the first reinforcements arrived on scene to help. She had twenty-two kills in three years and for that third year was the only solo MS in the world to take the offer to remain so after the rules were changed to disallow such things.”
The blonde pilot from the watching mecha walked up. “A fourth lesson is that you should always be worried when the instructor bring paramedics along to the training.”