OK, sorry for the delay. Getting this into any sort of shape was a nightmare, and I'm still not happy with it. But it gets me to the end of the first 'chapter', so to speak, and lets me move on to hopefully new bits of story.
Fate observed the Mobian Lieutenant (Leftenant being a pronunciation difference the existing language pack understood) as she put on data-glasses and read the holowindows’ details.
“Interesting.” The Mobian reached out and ‘touched’ the file belonging to the sniper. “This will be an interesting first interrogation.”
“Please explain why?” Signum asked, probably still maintaining contact with Agito and Hayate.
“She was not…augmented…by this Eclipse virus of yours.” The Lieutenant hade quickly read the file on the virus, which made Shamal’s theory about her medical training more pronounced but a bit incongruous when added to her investigatory skills. Maybe she was a military police officer with forensic training? “That implies that she was the controller for the group.”
“Explain please.” Fate asked.
“Nazis, of all types, have institutionalised notions of racial purity. Giving these abilities to those of pure genealogy is one thing, but they want the traits to be naturally occurring so they can strengthen the traits.”
“Sounds very much like the rulers of Ancient Belka.” Signum noted.
“I doubt they would find it more efficient to surgically graft a recalcitrant world-jumper to a control system just so they didn’t lose the resources put into them.” Eve said, zooming in on the sniper’s shoulder to look at the markings.
“You’d be surprised.” Signum said simply.
***
“And that covers the generalities of Time Nazis.” Colin manipulated the holograms again, ‘stacking’ the files to one ‘side’. “We’ve encountered four different groups so far, and none of them are what we’d consider good neighbours. Fortunately, they hate each other more than they hate us so they’re a self-limiting problem.”
Sitting on the other side of the table, Yuuno looked decidedly pale. Hayate didn’t look much better. Colin didn’t blame them. The little redheaded fairy was made of sterner stuff than the light-blue haired one, and was frowning thoughtfully.
“So, if there are people who can naturally transfer between worlds, does that mean there are creatures that can do the same?”
“Yep.” Colin replied. “Given that most of the time it’s an extension of their teleporting abilities, it’s a bit tricky to track them. None of the ones we do track seem to go far from their home world.”
Hayate had pulled herself together.
“Any more bad news Captain?” She asked with the tone of voice that suggested she knew she wasn’t going to like what he had to say.
Colin ‘slid’ out another set of files.
“This is the Domination of the Draka.”
***
Obersturmführer Gerwine Schaefer sat at the desk in the room, waiting for someone who could speak real German to arrive. Not that she’d tell them anything bar name, rank, and serial number.
The door finally opened to reveal the red-eyed blonde from the first attempt at communication. She was wearing some communication device in her ear this time, and followed by another blonde in a different uniform. This one was slightly taller, and had purple eyes. Another degenerate then.
“Greetings Obersturmführer.” The purple eyed blonde said calmly in German. “I can imagine you have questions, and so do we.” She passed another of the communication devices across the desk to her as they sat down. “This will make things easier. It’s a translator.”
Schaefer looked at it, looked at the other blonde, then reluctantly put the device to her ear.
“Gerwine Schaefer, Obersturmführer, 55923.” She said.
“The problem Obersturmführer,” The taller blonde told her in the same calm tone of voice, “is that neither of our powers have any agreement with your government. Thus, name rank and serial number will not help you here. The Draka will also not like you for stealing one of their wormhole generators.”
“It was rather loud.” The other blonde commented.
The slight delay for the translator allowed Schaefer to recognise it working, unlike the effect the first blonde had. She also recognised that the purple-eyed blonde knew a lot about the Gruppe. She realised that she’d landed in the middle of a joint operation between two crossworld powers, and that her squad’s actions had been ill-advised. That trottle Kurtz, jumping in like that.
“You’ll be pleased to know the Mule has been transferred off ship to proper medical facilities on one of our worlds.” She continued, and Schaefer’s stomach dropped further.
~ She is getting rather agitated. ~ Fate sent. Bardiche translated the telepathy, converted it to a short range radio transmission and sent it to Eve’s omnitool.
[That was rather the point.] Eve replied, typing the response on her leg via her hair under the desk. [Time to be polite.]
Fate smiled brightly.
“I am Enforcer Harlaown of the Time-Space Administration Bureau. My colleague is Lieutenant Mizuhara of the Mobius Group’s Scout Division.”
Schaefer kept herself from reacting. She’d heard of Mobius, but the Time-Space Administration Bureau? Its very name was ominous enough, but partnered with Mobius? And what was that about Draka wormholes?
***
Colin sat in the meeting room, organising files on the holodisplay as the redhead fairy (Agito he thought) looked on. The other Beebees had looked fairly peaky and had to leave the room. Honestly he didn’t blame them. There was a reason why threat training was stage-managed so much, with scores of Shrinks on standby. While the Nazis and Snakes were a bit dark for the nice-nice Bureau, getting them together without prep could be a bit much. And he hadn’t even started on the crazy stuff.
Infinity and Centrum would be a bit more their speed for now then.
***
Fate was frowning thoughtfully as she led Eve back to her office.
“Problems?” Eve asked.
“Trying to tie things together. Occupational hazard.” The red-eyed blonde shrugged. “From what information we have, it is unlikely our targets and the Nazi forces will ally.”
“Unlikely is not impossible.” Eve warned. “Nothing truly is.”
“Very true.” Fate agreed.
***
Yuuno ‘dug’ through the files, ‘copying’ them six at a time as Hayate frowned.
“So.” She said finally. “What is it you want?”
“Me?” Colin raised an eyebrow. “Get back to my retirement, but that ain’t likely. You probably meant the Bosses though. Formal relations would be nice, but we both know diplomacy takes time. Mostly it’s opening official channels.”
“Mostly?” Hayate asked.
“Mostly.” Colin agreed. “I’m um-ing and ah-ing on the rest, figure you want to take everything in and get to know us better before we discuss that. Gotta be careful about all those broken pieces of world view.”
“Man’s got a point.” Agito agreed.
“True.” Hayate sighed, slumping as the tension drained out of her. Then she perked up. “So, how would you rate Nanoha’s kiss?”
Yuuno snorted and rolled his eyes, but didn’t stop his archiving.
“A gentleman never kisses and tells.” Colin replied.
“Moo, you’re no fun.” Hayate pouted.
***
Official reply safely packed into his backpack, Colin waited by the ship’s teleporter platform for Eve to turn up. All in all, about what he’d expected for a ‘welcome to the big multiverse’ session.
“Everything OK Mizuhara?” He asked as the purple-eyed blonde turned up.
“Yes Sir.” She replied, then turned to the pink-haired escort. “Thank you for your assistance Dame Signum.”
Colin raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.
“Thank you for yours Lieutenant, Captain.” Dame Signum returned. “The information you have shared will save lives.”
“Always a good thing.” Colin agreed. “Thanks for the hospitality, but we’ve got to get going.” He smiled wryly. “Priority delivery for this postman, y’know.”
“Indeed.” Signum nodded.
As the platform lit up and caused yet another headache, all Colin wanted was a nice not bath to relax in.
Fate observed the Mobian Lieutenant (Leftenant being a pronunciation difference the existing language pack understood) as she put on data-glasses and read the holowindows’ details.
“Interesting.” The Mobian reached out and ‘touched’ the file belonging to the sniper. “This will be an interesting first interrogation.”
“Please explain why?” Signum asked, probably still maintaining contact with Agito and Hayate.
“She was not…augmented…by this Eclipse virus of yours.” The Lieutenant hade quickly read the file on the virus, which made Shamal’s theory about her medical training more pronounced but a bit incongruous when added to her investigatory skills. Maybe she was a military police officer with forensic training? “That implies that she was the controller for the group.”
“Explain please.” Fate asked.
“Nazis, of all types, have institutionalised notions of racial purity. Giving these abilities to those of pure genealogy is one thing, but they want the traits to be naturally occurring so they can strengthen the traits.”
“Sounds very much like the rulers of Ancient Belka.” Signum noted.
“I doubt they would find it more efficient to surgically graft a recalcitrant world-jumper to a control system just so they didn’t lose the resources put into them.” Eve said, zooming in on the sniper’s shoulder to look at the markings.
“You’d be surprised.” Signum said simply.
***
“And that covers the generalities of Time Nazis.” Colin manipulated the holograms again, ‘stacking’ the files to one ‘side’. “We’ve encountered four different groups so far, and none of them are what we’d consider good neighbours. Fortunately, they hate each other more than they hate us so they’re a self-limiting problem.”
Sitting on the other side of the table, Yuuno looked decidedly pale. Hayate didn’t look much better. Colin didn’t blame them. The little redheaded fairy was made of sterner stuff than the light-blue haired one, and was frowning thoughtfully.
“So, if there are people who can naturally transfer between worlds, does that mean there are creatures that can do the same?”
“Yep.” Colin replied. “Given that most of the time it’s an extension of their teleporting abilities, it’s a bit tricky to track them. None of the ones we do track seem to go far from their home world.”
Hayate had pulled herself together.
“Any more bad news Captain?” She asked with the tone of voice that suggested she knew she wasn’t going to like what he had to say.
Colin ‘slid’ out another set of files.
“This is the Domination of the Draka.”
***
Obersturmführer Gerwine Schaefer sat at the desk in the room, waiting for someone who could speak real German to arrive. Not that she’d tell them anything bar name, rank, and serial number.
The door finally opened to reveal the red-eyed blonde from the first attempt at communication. She was wearing some communication device in her ear this time, and followed by another blonde in a different uniform. This one was slightly taller, and had purple eyes. Another degenerate then.
“Greetings Obersturmführer.” The purple eyed blonde said calmly in German. “I can imagine you have questions, and so do we.” She passed another of the communication devices across the desk to her as they sat down. “This will make things easier. It’s a translator.”
Schaefer looked at it, looked at the other blonde, then reluctantly put the device to her ear.
“Gerwine Schaefer, Obersturmführer, 55923.” She said.
“The problem Obersturmführer,” The taller blonde told her in the same calm tone of voice, “is that neither of our powers have any agreement with your government. Thus, name rank and serial number will not help you here. The Draka will also not like you for stealing one of their wormhole generators.”
“It was rather loud.” The other blonde commented.
The slight delay for the translator allowed Schaefer to recognise it working, unlike the effect the first blonde had. She also recognised that the purple-eyed blonde knew a lot about the Gruppe. She realised that she’d landed in the middle of a joint operation between two crossworld powers, and that her squad’s actions had been ill-advised. That trottle Kurtz, jumping in like that.
“You’ll be pleased to know the Mule has been transferred off ship to proper medical facilities on one of our worlds.” She continued, and Schaefer’s stomach dropped further.
~ She is getting rather agitated. ~ Fate sent. Bardiche translated the telepathy, converted it to a short range radio transmission and sent it to Eve’s omnitool.
[That was rather the point.] Eve replied, typing the response on her leg via her hair under the desk. [Time to be polite.]
Fate smiled brightly.
“I am Enforcer Harlaown of the Time-Space Administration Bureau. My colleague is Lieutenant Mizuhara of the Mobius Group’s Scout Division.”
Schaefer kept herself from reacting. She’d heard of Mobius, but the Time-Space Administration Bureau? Its very name was ominous enough, but partnered with Mobius? And what was that about Draka wormholes?
***
Colin sat in the meeting room, organising files on the holodisplay as the redhead fairy (Agito he thought) looked on. The other Beebees had looked fairly peaky and had to leave the room. Honestly he didn’t blame them. There was a reason why threat training was stage-managed so much, with scores of Shrinks on standby. While the Nazis and Snakes were a bit dark for the nice-nice Bureau, getting them together without prep could be a bit much. And he hadn’t even started on the crazy stuff.
Infinity and Centrum would be a bit more their speed for now then.
***
Fate was frowning thoughtfully as she led Eve back to her office.
“Problems?” Eve asked.
“Trying to tie things together. Occupational hazard.” The red-eyed blonde shrugged. “From what information we have, it is unlikely our targets and the Nazi forces will ally.”
“Unlikely is not impossible.” Eve warned. “Nothing truly is.”
“Very true.” Fate agreed.
***
Yuuno ‘dug’ through the files, ‘copying’ them six at a time as Hayate frowned.
“So.” She said finally. “What is it you want?”
“Me?” Colin raised an eyebrow. “Get back to my retirement, but that ain’t likely. You probably meant the Bosses though. Formal relations would be nice, but we both know diplomacy takes time. Mostly it’s opening official channels.”
“Mostly?” Hayate asked.
“Mostly.” Colin agreed. “I’m um-ing and ah-ing on the rest, figure you want to take everything in and get to know us better before we discuss that. Gotta be careful about all those broken pieces of world view.”
“Man’s got a point.” Agito agreed.
“True.” Hayate sighed, slumping as the tension drained out of her. Then she perked up. “So, how would you rate Nanoha’s kiss?”
Yuuno snorted and rolled his eyes, but didn’t stop his archiving.
“A gentleman never kisses and tells.” Colin replied.
“Moo, you’re no fun.” Hayate pouted.
***
Official reply safely packed into his backpack, Colin waited by the ship’s teleporter platform for Eve to turn up. All in all, about what he’d expected for a ‘welcome to the big multiverse’ session.
“Everything OK Mizuhara?” He asked as the purple-eyed blonde turned up.
“Yes Sir.” She replied, then turned to the pink-haired escort. “Thank you for your assistance Dame Signum.”
Colin raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.
“Thank you for yours Lieutenant, Captain.” Dame Signum returned. “The information you have shared will save lives.”
“Always a good thing.” Colin agreed. “Thanks for the hospitality, but we’ve got to get going.” He smiled wryly. “Priority delivery for this postman, y’know.”
“Indeed.” Signum nodded.
As the platform lit up and caused yet another headache, all Colin wanted was a nice not bath to relax in.