dramadramaduck | [10 | video

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chrono harlaown

[10 | video | canon move]

Most of you seeing this, as Chrono appears on the screen against the cold background of space through a window, will register that he hasn't looked this angry since he's first appeared on the community. Regardless, he's here, and he's got a bone or three to pick. Throughout his upcoming speech, he's barely keeping the rage down, and failing spectacularly in places.

"Good day, community. I've got a few things on my mind, and if you're all right with it, I think I'm going to vent a little. Fair warning, there are some things in here that aren't pleasant, so if you don't listen to anything else I have to say, I've got one thing I want to touch on after all this - all of this is related to our current crisis, though, so if you don't mind... I have a story to tell. One that's about to shape Terran history, if a lot of things don't go very, very right.

"Anyway... I've learned a few things here at headquarters. I came back to fit our ship, the Asura, with a new weapon, as I mentioned before - the Arc-en-ciel, an antimatter cannon. I also had some questions to ask an admiral in service to the Bureau, hailing from Earth, Gil Graham. He was my mentor as I rose through the ranks, and his familiars were my combat trainers. I was counting on him to help me find my answers. I think he did more than I could have asked, or than I wanted. So... I want to tell you a story. About an artifact, and a family. And a little girl whose life was torn apart, in the name of dimensional space.

"First, the Lost Logia identified as the Book of Darkness. I need to thank Yuuno - he's found so much information in such a short time. The Book's original name was the Tome of the Night Sky, and it existed as a device to catalog and store spells from everyone that used it - in short, an encyclopedia of magic. Somewhere along the line, though, it mutated - into something that took a master, and channeled all their magic, and that of anyone else it can get its hands on, into destruction, and capturing any spells its victims knew for its library. It also has a strong regeneration function, so when it's destroyed, it comes back some time later. Wherever it's discovered, only pain and destruction await.

"Eleven years ago was the last time the Book was found. It had been subdued, and it was being transported back to headquarters for safekeeping by two ships. The Book was aboard the dimensional cruiser Hestia; something happened, though, and it began to take control of the ship's systems. The captain ordered all hands to evacuate, and there was a problem when the Book gained control of the firing mechanism for Hestia's Arc-en-ciel. The ship that escorted it, at Hestia's captain's request, fired its own Arc-en-ciel and destroyed the Book and the ship carrying it before tragedy could happen. The captain went down with the ship.

"The Hestia was captained... by my father, Clyde Harlaown. He never returned from that mission, and it's been my mother and I ever since. I..." Chrono stops; even after a decade, old wounds have been reopened and it's not easy for him to do this. "Sorry. I found out more about that incident today. The cruiser escorting Hestia was captained by now-Admiral Gil Graham, of Unadministrated World #97, locally known as Earth. To stop this tragedy from happening again, he began to set a plan into motion. First, he used his contacts to track down the Book when it returned to dimensional space; in the meantime, he began to siphon funds to begin construction of a new Device. The two tasks ran in parallel, and it wasn't until several years ago that he found the Book. He then searched for somewhere to put it on Earth, where he could keep an eye on it. He eventually found a young girl with no family, who would not be missed if - or when - something happened to her. He put the Book in this girl's care, leaving it to bide its time there. It passed unnoticed for years, until several months ago, when the Book awakened, and chose a new master for itself."

Here, Chrono's starting to get angry again. "The Master it chose was the girl whose room it slept in for years, unaware: Hayate Yagami, civilian citizen of Earth. To make the plan work, Graham had left the girl funds in a bank account in his own name, paid to her in regular intervals to keep her self-sufficient. Nobody bothered to investigate it - why would we wonder about Bureau officers sending money to their home worlds, Administrated or otherwise? So this continued, and this year, some months after the Garden of Time incident concluded and a certain civilian collaborator who I won't name, after the last time I blew her cover - but whom most of you know anyway - became a magical girl aligned with the Bureau. The Book of Darkness case has been trying at the best of times, but we've gotten through it up to now, thanks to the collaboration between our officers, stellar performances by our key players, and, frankly, sheer dumb luck. But that stops today. Today, we know the answers, and I'm going to take action. I'm not going to let my father's death be for nothing. I'm not... I'm not going to let this tragedy happen again!" He chokes up, stopping again. Almost a minute passes while he gets himself back in order, and when he does, he's all business.

"The Bureau is about to begin formal combat operations against the Book of Darkness on Unadminstrated World #97. While the terms are a little different, consider this a declaration of war. All available forces or allies are cleared for participation in combat operations, and... we're clear to use the Arc-en-ciel if we need to. We will not let what has happened to so many other worlds happen to this one. To that end, I've got a few declarations." Chrono's tone and vocabulary seem to shift into something more official; as it happens, there's a formal recorder picking this up for formal drafting of orders and documents.

"One. Effective immediately, Admiral Gil Graham is placed under arrest for conspiracy to cause a dimensional dislocation, manipulation of a restricted Lost Logia, the attempted murder of Hayate Yagami, and a number of other charges I will take the time to dig through Bureau regulations for when I don't have a crisis to fix. He will be tried by a military tribunal when time permits me to testify. While I wish I didn't have to do this, his position as my mentor and a close family friend will not save him from justice.

"Two. Effective immediately, the Time-Space Administration Bureau places Hayate Yagami of Unadministrated World #97 under protective custody and watch. We're going to place a permanent station there to enact such watch, until such time as she is able to defend herself. Said watch will be staffed by Bureau personnel to include myself, provisional clerk Fate Testarossa, civilian collaborator Yuuno Scrya, and, at her option, another civilian collaborator I will not name, but who knows very well who she is. A post will be constructed near the Uminari prefecture of Japan, to enact local protection more readily. Myself and my mother, Admiral Lindy Harlaown, are in charge of this watch; questions, concerns, and requests should be directed to either of us." His voice is hard as he moves on, and he's speaking in what can only be described as the tone of a commander leading his men to war.

"Three. The Asura will be returning to Terran space as soon as possible, in the interest of protecting Unadministrated World #97, locally known as Earth, from the known danger presented by the Lost Logia presently known as the Book of Darkness. Combat operations will be conducted as needed to protect the citizens of Earth. Support is being provided to forces participating in operations, and permission is granted for assets outside the Bureau to join combat operations. Operations are expected to conclude upon the destruction, termination, or other cessation of resistance of the Book of Darkness. The Device identified as Durandal has been seized from Admiral Gil Graham, at his request, and will be used in operations according to its design principles. The projected maximum duration of this operation is the end of the locally-observed calendar year. I am personally in charge of this operation; questions, concerns, and requests should be directed to myself, and will be answered as soon as possible, in the order they are received."

Chrono reaches for something offscreen; there's a click and a loud beep. Continuing in a less-severe voice, he adds, "I am doing the best I can to make sure that what happened last time - where I had to turn away help, as much as I wanted it - won't happen this time. If you can make a good-faith promise that you're not going to destroy the planet in the process of helping us save Hayate, you're in. Every resource I can bring together for this, I will have. I have lost too much to this damned book. I will not lose anyone else. If there are questions or concerns, I'll take them now; I've got a lot to do, but you all are the reason so much of this has been possible. I owe all of you a large debt, and if there's anything I can do to help you after this is all over, name it, and I'll see what I can do. In case I don't get to say it later, thank you for everything you've done for us.

"Hayate, if it wasn't clear - we should probably talk soon about what this all means. The rest of you... if you'd like to help, let me know. Thank you for your time." The feed clicks off without further comment.

And as a last thought before he returns to business, locked to Nanoha: "I mentioned you two or three times in there - when you get time, I'd like to discuss our battle plan."

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[Save some worlds, another gets threatened. A hero's work is never done!

Kirby still isn't sitting this one out however. He doesn't know about any of that stuff Chrono mentioned, but he needs help, and Kirby has a hunch that this incident is closer to him than he knows...

Kirby will pat himself.]

Eyo!

[Crap. He sounds really mad. Even with her Knights reassuring her that they'll take the blame, she knowingly withheld information for at least three months.

Well better late than never.]

You wanted to talk to me?

[A moment passes before Chrono gets his wits about him enough to reply.]

You're volunteering to help, then? It's going to be a hard fight. Are you certain this is what you want to do?

[Pshaw. Kirby ~~has no idea~~ has fought harder battles than this, he's sure of it! He nods.]

Okay. I'm... I'm ready now.

[ She knows that she probably wasn't all that, well, smart with the way she handled letting this happen in Tsubomi's post, but they did have more important things to worry about. ]

I did. Before anything else, I want to apologize. Our intention was never to force you into a corner like this, but... that's how it works, sometimes. As much as we want to protect, occasionally things just don't work out. I'm sorry it's come to this.

That said, I want to make sure you understand that we are not coming to arrest you, or take away your family, or anything like that - not if we can help it. Our objective is to find a way to neutralize the Book, if one exists. If not... we'll do whatever we can. I promise you that.

All right. First, know that we're going to do our level best to not have to fire the Arc-en-ciel anywhere near Uminari. We don't want to destroy the city, either.

That said... we know very little about what will happen. The only clue is that the Book has a very powerful defense program that activates when all the pages are full, and that's what we'll be fighting. You'll have to be prepared for anything. Understand?

You could have just asked honestly. Instead of using force, but I suppose I should have been talking to my family more.

Good, better not. Or i'll give you such a pinch.

Right. Honest conversation with the Wolkenritter and their mistress. That's a thing that's worked, historically. [Even the sarcasm-challenged Chrono manages this one.] Normally trying to talk gets us killed faster; then again, normally the master of the Book is even less likely to talk to us than the Knights.

I meant it, when I said we're going to protect you. Now, and in the future. I'm trying to work this as an excuse to put a permanent outpost here, too; maybe a Bureau presence here will stop anything silly from happening in the future.

Sure, and that's worked out for you how many times now? Not talking and beating people in the face? [She shakes her head.]

Well good on you then. So got any ideas? You said earlier that you want to wrap this up before New Years. It's seven days till Christmas now.

I've been trying to help Hayate all this time since I've known her. I'm not leaving her. I'll help any way I can.

Yeah. I do.

If only we could transport the book to someplace else before it ends up finished. Or keep it from being finished without killing Hayate-chan. I don't think the knights are going to stop if we can't do that.

I hope things don't go out of control. Well, any more so than they already are.

[That is the exact opposite of what she wants to happen! In fact, there might be a hack attempt on whatever device this is. Mir is very interested in the 'Arc-en-ciel'. And if one rogue hacker can control it...]

Edited 2013-10-15 01:41 (UTC)

Then I'll be counting on your help. I need all the willing people I can get, honestly.

As I recall... you have the ability to take on powers freely, right?

[You are correct good sir! Kirby nods again! ~~no demonstration needed; the fight with the Book will give Chrono all the proof he needs and then some~~]

Poyo!

It's really come to this hasn't it? I can't believe you guys were boiled in such a complete mess of intrigue. It's almost like it's out of a police drama or something.

Did... you need help? I mean, I can only offer offensive capabilities.

Okay. I'm not sure there's anything I can have on hand to help you, but if there's anything you need, let us know, okay?

[Chrono mentally runs through options - he's sure he's got a rubber mallet around here somewhere; there are no melee weapons on Bureau ships; what, if anything, would a standard Bureau Device do... maybe some kind of shooting-type power? He files the information away to consider later.]

There's been times we can't. When the last appearance of the Book killed my father, there was nothing we could do but shoot it - you can't parley with a possessed starship.

[He sighs.] Seven days... not long, especially considering I need to actually get the Asura back to Terran space first. The biggest variable is, unfortunately, you - when the Book's pages finally fill and it awakens fully, we don't know what will happen to you. But there's no way for us to do anything without the Book awakening.

I think the basis of our plan has to hinge on the fact that, at the end of the day, you are the Mistress of the Tome of the Night Sky - one way or another, it's still a Device, so there might be something you can do that we can't. We can't ask you to fight when it's your Device we might have to take up arms against, so that's your role: stay safe and try to find a way to shut it down from the inside.

If we move it somewhere else, it'll just move back - it's got plenty of teleport spells, and more than enough pages to power them. There's likely nothing we can do until the Book is finished. But there's nothing saying Hayate is lost the moment the Book's pages are filled... normally we'd have a fight on our hands first. During that fight is when our plan has to come together.

We only get one shot at this, and while the stakes aren't as high as they could be on a Bureau scale, well... I don't want to lose Hayate either. This case has been personal for me since they shot you down, and since I realized what we were dealing with. I've- we've come too far to just let them take her away from us now.

You have my thanks, Aqua. This is one of the biggest incidents we've dealt with in our history - it's one thing when the Book awakens on a backwater world with few to no inhabitants, it's another when it's on a world with billions of people and failure means we wipe out part of a country, or worse. That, and the fact that I can't act openly since there's no magic on this world... this has been stressful. I'll be glad to put this behind us, with Hayate's safe return as the icing on the cake.

Yeah, there's a lot of factors to set in. And I'm sorry about the previous.

[She blinks at that.] Tome of the Night Sky? That's what it's called? Everyone else just calls it the Book of Darkness, even the Wolkenritter. Maybe you're onto something...

They're likely to. It's the Book of Darkness. This single artifact has the power to purge worlds into atoms. There's no way we can keep it from exploding into an incident when it awakens. Hopefully we can get it contained, but...

[The Book is probably well-protected enough - Devices are magitechnology, after all - but the Asura's Arc-en-ciel... is another matter entirely. Of course, Chrono's not thinking about this; who'd want to take control of a weapon that could be the difference between life and death for billions of people?]

Well, I do work for an interdimensional police force... so that's not really surprising. But yes, this is the crux of the incident. It's all coming down to this.

If you're okay with the risks, then I won't stop you; I welcome any assistance that you can give. I'm not sure exactly what we're up against, but one can never have too many people.

It's okay... I'll be fine. I can work off the stress later, from all this. Right now, you're priority one. This entire case rests on you, Hayate, and we're going to do whatever it takes to see this resolved.

As for the Tome... yes, that's what our research found. "Book of Darkness" is a name it took some time after it was corrupted; if even the Wolkenritter call it that, then maybe something's happened, and they don't know what it was like before. The Knights "live" inside the book, between incidents, and from what we can tell they don't keep their memories from one appearance to the next. Perhaps whatever point they reset to between awakenings has been corrupted, and they've lost their memories of the Tome's true form?

Well for one to hit so close to home, it's pretty insane.

I'm okay. I'm willing to offer any aid I can give. We're friends after all.

Okay, I'll leave you to that.

Hmm... strange, the Wolkenritter don't remember so maybe you're right. They don't know any specifics, only that completing the book will make me happy. And yet, you guys say it'll destroy the world when it happens. This is really confusing, since it goes against everything they know, and follows everything you know.

That could be it really. If they're reset, then...

Then that tells us quite a bit. We need to find a way to fix the Tome of the Night Sky. And it'll have to be you that does it - you're its Mistress, so it'll only listen to you. That said... I'm not sure if there's anything to be done until it awakens. So we're going to be working on a time crunch.

All right, well I've got them to stop working against my orders, so hopefully that'll hold out for the time being. [For now anyhow. They were still hoping to get a chance to break those orders.]

What options do we have?

But it seems rather unlikely to be easily controllable or tractable when that happens. I'd offer to help if I could, but even with a worldhop, I'm stuck for the time being.

[Only a homicidal-no, a GENOCIDAL maniac. And Mir is known as the mother of viruses for a reason. So maybe, just maybe, she might be getting a feel for things right now, testing the waters before she goes all in on this.]

Edited 2013-10-15 20:29 (UTC)

[Kirby nods again! Don't worry, Chrono; even if you can't spare anything chances are the Book will give Kirby ~~lots of things~~ something to work with.]

...

I... I want to help her. Somehow. She looks up to me like a sister and...

Yeah... I guess... But you think there's some time before the defense program goes out of control? After it's finished, I mean.

And of course we're not going to let it take her away from us! But it could still cause a lot of damage on Earth, and if we have to use the Arc-en-ciel barriers won't do anything to stop the damage.

... But wait, teleporting the book might not do anything. But what if Hayate comes with it and us? That way we don't have to fight on a planet with life on it when the book gets completed? Is that something we might be able to do?

I understand. If fighting is how you can help, so be it; I've got a sinking feeling I'm going to need all the combat capacity I can muster, and if that means magical girls from other worlds, that's fine.

We'll keep her safe. You have my word.

That's true... you don't normally expect an intergalactic conspiracy to land on your doorstep. One way or another, I'm going to get to the bottom of this.

You have my thanks. I'm sure Hayate appreciates the sentiment, as well. I'll have more details as we get closer to the beginning of hostilities.

It really is nuts. But thanks, that's helpful at least.

Right. I'll let my mom know that I'm headed out in a couple of days to "stay with friends".

Not without its master's control and consent. The Book, from what we know, has very powerful safeguards against hacking and takeover. Part of the plan hinges on the Mistress of the Tome of the Night Sky - Hayate - being able to fix things.

I appreciate the offer, but you're right - I think you'll have to sit this one out.

[Sensible. Well, not the genocide part, but the testing the waters part. If Chrono weren't the law around these parts, he'd probably agree.]

Tricky. She may very well expire before she can do that.

I'll see if I can offer some long range or information-support maybe. But no promises.

[If Chrono had done his research, he might not be surprised when Mir does what she always does.]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[10 | video | canon move]

Now is as good a time as any for more shenanigans with Nanoha and company

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