“Helm, can we intercept the freighter in orbit?” you ask the helmsman on duty, who starts plotting possible burns to put the Nimbus on an intercept course with the freighter’s expected flight path.

“Tricky, sir,” is the reply you finally get. “Yeah, we can intercept, but the delta-v...”

“How bad?”

“240 meters per second.”

“Kaiser,” you swear quietly. The Nimbus would swing past the freighter at over eight hundred kilometres an hour, making the precise kind of shot needed to disable the ship’s engines without blowing it up entirely an unlikely prospect for the Augusto cannon. “We’ll save this for Plan B, then. Doctor, are the mages rated for high-altitude or orbital combat?”

Ship’s doctor Christina Claren shakes her head no and crosses her arms over her lab coat. “Only Ophelia, but as you’ve seen, she’s not exactly a shooter. She’ll need to catch up with the freighter, and a head start of two-forty delta-v is nothing to sneeze at, even for her.”

You take the bad news in stride. “I’ll take whatever we’ve got. Orbital intercept aside, that leaves sending the girls blind into the viper’s nest to disable the freighter before it gets airborne.”

“You’ve seen them in action,” Claren agrees, “none of them have faced a Serpent before, but they adapted.”

“Except Maserati,” you point out. “She nearly got herself killed, freezing up like that.”

“I’ve vectored the mages towards the camp at best speed,” Executive Officer Liera Harlaown announces. “Teleporter is hot and engines are ready to make the burn, sir, if you want to call anyone back, now’s the time.”

“Ohno and Renault will join in the camp assault, for certain. As for Ophelia and Maserati...”

Ophelia
>You need all the firepower you can get for the camp assault. She stays with the rest of the team.
>You need a trump card up your sleeve, and the Augusto cannon definitely ain’t it. Recall her back to the Nimbus for orbital intercept.

Maserati
>You need all the firepower you can get for the camp assault. She stays with the rest of the team.
>Her barrier jacket was nearly depleted against the Serpent. Pull her out of the fight to be safe.

>>45824717
>You need a trump card up your sleeve, and the Augusto cannon definitely ain’t it. Recall her back to the Nimbus for orbital intercept.
>You need all the firepower you can get for the camp assault. She stays with the rest of the team.

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>>45824591
>KCQ is on
>Screw it, Nanoha time anyways
>image
Anyways, I'm going to wait for some more votes.

>>45825294
yeah starting right now isn't the best idea also the lack of a twitter so people can't keep track of when you start is also realy not helping i only found it by sheer luck.

>>45824717
>>You need all the firepower you can get for the camp assault. She stays with the rest of the team.

>Her barrier jacket was nearly depleted against the Serpent. Pull her out of the fight to be safe.

>>45824717
Maserati

>You need all the firepower you can get for the camp assault. She stays with the rest of the team.
Ophelia
>You need a trump card up your sleeve, and the Augusto cannon definitely ain’t it. Recall her back to the Nimbus for orbital intercept.

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>>45825330
I can't do much about the time, but I can make a twitter at least for next time:
https://twitter.com/Nanoha_Quest

Also, last call for votes!

Callin' and postin'

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“Comms, give me a line to the camp.”

“Yes sir!” Communications (and as of recently, Gunnery) Officer Alexander Lowran crisply acknowledges and brings up an open channel. There is a moment of waiting during which you wonder whether they would even bother to answer, and then they do, on a voice-only channel.

You put on your Serious TSAB Officer voice. “Unknown ship, this is the TSL Nimbus. Stand down and disengage your engines. TSAB personnel are en route for customs inspection. Repeat, stand down and disengage your engines.”

The reply is immediate and to the point. “Fuck off, you facist pig.” Then the line is cut off.

The formalities completed, it’s time to play this out the hard way. You give your orders. “Ohno, Renault, Maserati, proceed to the camp. Your orders are to prevent the freighter from taking off, by force if necessary. You are authorized to suppress and arrest any suspect who tries to resist. Expected mass driver weapons and make sure your barrier jackets are up at all times.”

You receive a chorus of acknowledgement, and move on to your next command.

“Ophelia, prepare for return teleportation. I need you here.”

“Teleporter engaged,” Harlaown announces. “Ophelia’s on board, sir!”

“Very good. All hands to general stations. Execute the burn and bring us to intercept,” you order.

The call to general stations echoes down the Nimbus as the crew prepare for combat. “Better strap in, sir,” the helmsman announces. “We’re going to accelerate harder than the graviatrics can compensate.”

You take your seat in the captain’s chair on the bridge and strap in as the ship begins to shudder and groan under the strain of her realspace engines powering up. Her bulkheads rattle as the engines are brought to full power, the interior artificial gravity fighting the acceleration until its limits are exceeded, and then the surplus acceleration pushes you back in your chair fixing you in place while the Nimbus burns hard towards her new course.

“Skipper!” Ohno’s voice chirps in over the comm. On the bridge’s viewscreen, she’s in flight high above the deserts of Uninhabited World Number 117.

On another screen, Renault and Maserati are racing towards the smuggler’s camp at ground level, kicking up plumes of dust behind them.

“I’m reading you. Let’s hear it,” you acknowledge.

“I’ve got eyes on the camp. Transmitting now.” You receive a live video feed of the smugglers’ camp: a highly magnified view from the sky of a collection of prefabricated buildings huddled in the basin of a small crater. As in the image from the shot down drone, the blocky cargo freighter sits on a makeshift landing pad nearby, and a ring of missile launchers surround the camp. People run around like tiny ants, very few of them headed for the freighter, most of them taking up positions in a defensive perimeter.

“You sure these are arms smugglers? They look more like an army to me.” Ohno continues casually. She highlights a truck parked at the foot of the freighter’s open ramp, sporting an antenna farm pointed up into the sky. “Anyhow, that there radar truck’s lightning me up like a Christmas tree. Mind if I shoot first?”

>Go ahead and let Ohno shoot it with that long range beam of hers. And while she’s at it, she might as well take a potshot at the freighter too.
>Hold fire, if the freighter’s filled with illegal weapons, a stray shot can all too easily cause a catastrophic explosion destroying evidence and causing loss of life. There’re plenty of other targets to shoot from long range.
>There’s no time to stop and fire and be left behind. The Ground Mages need close air support and Ohno needs to keep moving forward to not fall behind them.
>There’s no need to challenge the air defense network. Ohno can drop to ground level and join up with the Ground Mages.

>>45826411
>Hold fire, if the freighter’s filled with illegal weapons, a stray shot can all too easily cause a catastrophic explosion destroying evidence and causing loss of life. There’re plenty of other targets to shoot from long range.

>>45826411
>>Hold fire, if the freighter’s filled with illegal weapons, a stray shot can all too easily cause a catastrophic explosion destroying evidence and causing loss of life. There’re plenty of other targets to shoot from long range.

>>45826411
>>Hold fire, if the freighter’s filled with illegal weapons, a stray shot can all too easily cause a catastrophic explosion destroying evidence and causing loss of life. There’re plenty of other targets to shoot from long range.

Calling the vote

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“Negative, Ohno. I need that freighter disabled and intact, not blown up in a million pieces. Provide support fire to Renault and Maserati,” you order.

The aerial mage clicks her tongue in disappointment, but complies with a reluctant “aye aye skip” .

You give orders to the Ground Mages as they approach the same dune in the sand where the drone was shot down. “Renault, take the lead. Maserati, stay close to Renault, relax and try to dodge any incoming fire this time round.”

“Of course I’m in the lead, who else?”

“Y-yes sir!”

The display shows four feeds at once on split screen: the camp, Ohno, Renault, and Maserati. Renault leads the pair of Ground Mages, her forearms and calves wrapped in gunmetal gray mechanized limbs, reminding you of – what’s the term for it? – mecha musume. Maserati follows behind and to the side to avoid the plumes of sand kicked up by Renault’s caterpillar tracked feet, riding a giant lizard, different from the one she lost against the Serpent, this one with forest green scales – just where does she get them from when you aren’t looking?

A pink beam of light lances through the edge of the camp, and Ohno whoops in victory as one of the missile launchers transforms into a smoking wreck. She shifts her aim to pick up another target...

“Multiple launch signatures!” one of the bridge crew shouts out. On the screen, the missile launchers are enveloped in fire as their deadly payloads ignite rockets and hurl themselves into the air. Seven tracks are plotted, rising high into the sky.

“Ohno here. They’re got three birds on me and four on the ground-pounders!”

>Dive for the deck! You’ll lose her video feed on the camp and her fire support, but it’s the safest choice.
>Dodge! Stay in the air and keep those pink beams of doom firing away.
>Shoot the radar truck! It must be guiding the missiles.

>>45828456
>>Shoot the radar truck! It must be guiding the missiles.

>>45828456
>Shoot the radar truck! It must be guiding the missiles.

>>45828456
>Shoot the radar truck! It must be guiding the missiles.

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Vote called!

>>45829410
Shit!!

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You get a sudden burst of inspiration – “Ohno! The radar truck – take it out, now!” It must be guiding the missiles, so taking it out would cut the Gordion knot, so to speak.

She stands her proverbial ground in the air as the missiles scatter into two clusters, three continuing their rise towards her position while the other four start to arc towards the Ground Mages below.

“Ten seconds to impact!” someone calls out on the bridge. All eyes are fixed on the screen showing Ohno as she lifts her rifle-shaped Intelligent Device to her shoulder and sights down at the radar truck in the distant camp. Nobody mentions the irony of a TSAB mage raiding a suspected smuggler hideout with her own device modelled like one of the illegal arms she is trying to stop.

She knows there isn’t enough time to charge another long range bombardment spell needed to rain down her signature pink beam of doom upon the offending truck.

So instead Ohno slides a brass-yellow cartridge into the breech of her Device and pulls a bolt back to lock the capsule of magical energy into the cartridge system.

A magical circle of mixed Midchildian and Belkan runes shimmers below her feet. Smaller circles hover in front of the barrel of her Device to focus and aim the discharge of energy.

Seven seconds to impact.

“Divine buster, extended rage,” she whispers, her voice deathly serious possibly for the first time since you met her. Then she fires, a ray of dark crimson leaving the business end of her Device and descending upon the truck’s like the wrath of an angry goddess. The vehicle’s rear half is sheared away and vaporized entirely, and the antenna farm on its back collapses in a mess of bent wires and broken rods.

Five seconds to impact.

Then the three missiles veer off course, away from Ohno, and the bridge collectively lets out a deep breath of relief.

“Waiiiiit!” Lowran’s voice cracks in panic. “They’re turning back inwards, three seconds to impact!”

The cheers that had begun are instantly cut short as the screen shows the missiles forming the corners of an equilateral triangle with Ohno smack dab in the middle of it. They angle inwards towards the helpless mage, who had used her time shooting a red herring instead of taking evasive action or preparing magical defences, coming at her to deliver their payloads of death from all sides.

Ohno’s voice chimes in one last time, peaceful and understanding. “I get it now, they’re active seeking missiles.”

The robotic feminine monotone of her Device adds, “Beehive Barrier.”

Then all three warheads explode, and the feed from Ohno turns to static.

>>45830637
And on this cliffhanger, we conclude the last story update for tonight!

So I got a couple of questions. First, do you like MC in a captain role, observing from a distance like in the story thus far, or would you prefer a MC out there on the front lines in the thick of it?

Second, do you want to have a vote in the last update of a thread, like I tried in the last thread, or just end without a vote, like in this thread?

Any other feedback would also be welcome. If the thread is locked, you can direct it towards the quest twitter at
https://twitter.com/Nanoha_Quest

>>45830832
Captain role

>>45830832
Captain role