History FanFic / InTheService

** The Huckebein find that shooting Combat Cyborgs is not an effective method of stopping someone with armor plate beneath the skin.

* DivideByZero: Steelheart's Deathblow function creates a small dimensional cataclysm. This is about as dangerous and uncontrollable as it sounds.

* TheAlcatraz: Orbital Penal Complexes. Prisoners are separated from direct human contact unless they require medical attention; conversations with guards, other prison staff, or visitors is by hologram. Each individual cell is a self-contained unit that has its own power, air recycling, and water recycling systems, as well as no actual physical entrance or exit; prisoners are teleported in and out, as is their food or any other physical object. At least one passage implies that the cells can also be depressurized and vented to space if the staff feel it necessary, and prisoners never know which of the walls of their cell lead to other cells, the main complex, or [[ContinuousDecompression hard vacuum]]. They are reserved for people who are considered to pose a continuing danger to the safety of others. Release is possible, usually after intensive therapy, but far from certain.
* TheAloner: Last Post Station is an Orbital Penal Complex on steroids, explicitly designed so that prisoners will never see another living being or hear their voice; they're knocked out with gas dispensers in their cell's air systems and then kept sedated if it's ever required to directly interact with them, and they're not permitted indirect interactions like holograms or even ''letters''. Last Post is kept as the ultimate option for people who cannot possibly be rehabilitated, so it is rare for someone sent there to not already be criminally insane, but the experience is implied to render most prisoners completely unable to function in time.
** Unlike the Orbital Penal Complexes, prisoners know which wall of their cell is the one facing the main complex because they can have a holographic projection of the outside of their cell at any time. This is done to demonstrate that Last Post, situated far out between a pair of galactic arms, is several thousand light-years from anything; it is ''literally'' as far from any bright and kind place as the Bureau can remove someone.

* ChekhovsGun: Reaching all the way back to the last few canon episodes, the Einherial installations that Jail's Numbers knocked out to clear the way for the Cradle are finally used.
* ChekhovsGunman: A number of them remain unfired.
** Quoth Tre: "Jail knows something."
** Drei, a magic-sealed Reinforce copy the Bureau found while trying to find out where the Rogue Wolkenritter came from.

** Combat Cyborgs take CombatPragmatist to a whole other level if lethal force has been authorized, as they take few chances. If you are still breathing and unsurrendered, you are a valid target for anything that can be done to you.

** It's noted a couple times that Combat Cyborgs have an inborn tendency to act like this trope applies to everyone [[ProperlyParanoid just to make sure]]; give a Combat Cyborg a blade and they will keep stabbing someone as long as that person is roughly vertical, often resulting in five or six wounds where only one was actually needed. At least a couple of Cyborgs mention how much they've struggled to "unlearn" this behavior.

* GenderIsNoObject: Inherited from the canon, but played way, way up. Characters used to Earthly militaries and the problems of gender integration there ask how the Bureau deals with such problems. They get blank stares; the Bureau inherited its GenderIsNoObject traditions from organizations that had them for hundreds or thousands of years. Integration problems don't ''happen'' anymore.
** One Earthborn character notes to a visitor from that planet that the Bureau regards gender discrimination as something akin to a mental illness.

** Levantine can be used to start fires. In a similar vein Agito makes a reference to lighting candles.

** The NuclearWeaponsTaboo is so strong that it's kept even the more astute characters from asking why New Belkan ships carry nuclear missiles but can't launch enough of them at one time to actually make a difference ship-to-ship. [[FridgeHorror The truth is their missile tubes are meant for planetary bombardment.]]

* PortalCut: Shamal's evil twins have developed this into an offensive art form, but she herself has been consistently reluctant to use it that way. Yuuno probably could as well, but has yet to demonstrate.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The early 2011 events of the Middle East protests and the Sendai Earthquake coupled with the threatened nuclear reactors just now happened under the TSAB's watch.
** The Bureau sends a single starship to the Korean Peninsula after Kim Jong Il's death with an express commitment to prevent a North Korean first strike. Another is noted to be monitoring the Syrian civil war.
* RedBaron: The Immortal Order, not knowing the names of their opponents, tag a number of the main characters in this fashion.
** Yuuno is "Touch of Death" for his preferred anti-IO tactic of using a touched-based teleportation to bury someone about 100 feet down.
** Chrono is "Insolent Fiend" after beating a Reinforce while insulting her.
** Nanoha is "Harsh Mercy" for the fact she will give them an opportunity to flee, but if they fail to take it then quickly destroy them.
** Sette is "Bladed Forest" for her Inherent Skill's ability to generate and control at a distance many blades.
** Samuel al-Faddil apparently is a divisive subject among them, as he has ''two'' nicknames. One is "Quiet of the Grave" for his habit of facing opponents in silence to the point that only his Device says the attack names, which is quite the opposite from most people in the original Nanoha shows. The other is apparently quite insulting; Sette, who learned the names from a prisoner, refuses to repeat it.

** Combat Cyborgs are "Gizmo" as a play on the already existent "Gadget" to describe Jail's other tools. The Bureau eventually classes units as "gizmo", "norm", and "cloud" for Combat Cyborgs, humans with no or only biological augmentation, and Wolkenritter. Flight-capable is indicated by an "-f".

** The Bureau, by contrast, uses the standard American salute.

* TeleFrag: Another offensive use of Shamal's and Yuuno's powers that they're reluctant to show off.
** Or were: Yuuno has apparently gotten over his reluctance.

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Both Shamal and Vita are very upset to discover they'll live on if Hayate dies.

** ItGotWorse: Signum straight-up lost it and strangled one of her twins to death. At least a half-dozen other characters call her out on why this was an intensely stupid thing to do.

** Tre is "Elusive Blade" for her exceptional speed even by Wolkenritter standards, while Sette is "Bladed Forest" for her Inherent Skill's ability to generate and control at a distance many blades.
** Samuel al-Faddil apparently is a divisive subject among them, as he has ''two'' nicknames. One is "Quiet of the Grave" for his habit of facing opponents in silence to the point that only his Device says the attack names, which is quite the opposite from most people in the original Nanoha shows. The other is apparently quite insulting and the IO-Signum he encounters refuses to use it.

!!Tropes include:

* WeHaveReserves: Rather brutally averted by the Bureau. They ''don't'' have reserves, both on a tactical and strategic scale. Tactically, losing any member of their anti-Wolkenritter team is crippling, as they cannot be replaced. Strategically, the Bureau has only three thousand flight mages and no way to replace serious casualties.

* TheAlcatraz: Orbital Penal Complexes. Prisoners are separated from direct human contact unless they require medical attention; conversations with guards, other prison staff, or visitors is by hologram. Each individual cell is a self-contained unit that has its own power, air recycling, and water recycling systems, as well as no actual physical entrance or exit; prisoners are teleported in and out, as is their food or any other physical object. At least one passage implies that the cells can also be depressurized and vented to space if the staff feel it necessary, and prisoners never knows which of the walls of their cell lead to other cells, the main complex, or [[ContinuousDecompression hard vacuum]]. They are reserved for people who are considered to pose a continuing danger to the safety of others. Release is possible, usually after intensive therapy, but far from certain.

* TheAlcatraz: Orbital Penal Complexes. Prisoners are separated from direct human contact unless they require medical attention; conversations with guards, other prison staff, or visitors is by hologram. Each individual cell is a self-contained unit that has its own power, air recycling, and water recycling systems, as well as no actual physical entrance or exit; prisoners are teleported in and out, as is their food or any other physical object. At least one passage implies that the cells can also be depressurized and vented to space if the staff feel it necessary, and prisoners never knows which of the walls of their cell lead to other cells, the main complex, or [[ContinousDecompression hard vacuum]]. They are reserved for people who are considered to pose a continuing danger to the safety of others. Release is possible, usually after intensive therapy, but far from certain.

** DisContinuityNod: [[spoiler: Sankt Kaiser Olivie doesn't know who Klaus Ingvault is.]]

* ChainsOfCommanding: Used in two different ways during the fourteenth chapter, with Chrono realizing he doesn't have a choice except to send his small force of flight mages on what could easily be a suicide mission, and Samuel holding his emotions in after his team is cut to pieces boarding the ''Invincible''.

** After the seal is broken, Drei is functionally immune to everything. She got run through with Arnage's Divider to break it, then blocked a second swing with her Barrier Jacket, even though that should be completely impossible. In Chapter 32, [[spoiler: her response to a squad of Church Knights from one faction who want to take Vivio is basically amusement. [[spoiler]]

** After the seal is broken, Drei is functionally immune to everything. She got run through with Arnage's divider to break it, then blocked a second swing with her Barrier Jacket, even though that should be completely impossible. In Chapter 32, [[spoiler: her response to a squad of Church Knights from one faction who want to take Vivio is basically amusement. spoiler]]

** After the seal is broken, Drei is functionally immune to everything. She got run through with Arnage's divider to break it, then blocked a second swing with her Barrier Jacket, even though that should be completely impossible. In Chapter 32, [[Spoiler: her response to a squad of Church Knights from one faction who want to take Vivio is basically amusement. spoiler]]

** Samuel usually acts as the ConsummateProfessional, believing strongly in duty and yet having no use for the concept of honor. Occasionally, however, someone or something will make him ''angry'', and then cheerfully murdering those responsible is a real possibility.

* CarFu: Mages may be resistant or even immune to the sort of guns found on a Bradley, but they go squish like anybody else.