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1"Crash" is a member of the TSAB's Experimental Systems Test (BEST) Force, which tests out new systems and disposes of mass-based weapons. The Aces are scheduled for a demonstration of the new Gadget Drone countermeasure, but there's more potential than just that around. Meanwhile, a catastrophic terrorist plot is brewing in the wings.
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3'''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5195743/1/MSLN_Test_Dummies MSLN Test Dummies]]''' ([[http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=129390 Less complete but Word Of God-containing SpaceBattles version here]]) by Admiral Tigerclaw (who would later go on to do ''Fanfic/SleepingWithTheGirls'') is a ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' fanfic taking place sometime after ''[=StrikerS=]''.
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5Be warned: May be divisive. Currently stands at 11 chapters, and is a DeadFic now as it has not been updated since March 2010.
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7!!This fanfic contains examples of the following:
8
9* ActionPrologue: The very first scene is Crash trying to survive a run-in with the Numbers.
10* ActionSurvivor: Crash is no Ace; his raw magic power is not even on par with the Forwards. He gets by with quick thinking and the assistance of his Device and tech-toys. Various characters note that the potential is there, but needs to be honed by proper training. [[spoiler: Which Lynn starts giving him.]]
11* AFatherToHisMen: Roland, most of the time. Probably exemplified by how he takes [[spoiler: Hayate's near-death at Zed's hands]] poorly.
12* AIIsACrapshoot: Supposedly defied by Cooper spending "two hundred hours on that ALONE!" and giving EDI "a full suite of philosophical and moral judgement to fall back upon".
13* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: [[spoiler: Sektor 21 mounts an attack on the BEST Force's base.]]
14* AntiMagic: Sektor 21 has wide-area AMF generators and Zed mounts his own. [[spoiler: So does Mr. Kage.]]
15* ArmchairMilitary: [[AuthorFilibuster Admiral Tigerclaw]] loves accusing the Bureau brass of being this.
16* AtomicFBomb: "This, was the biggest, most absurd CLUSTERFUCK I've seen in twenty years."\
17Nanoha suppressed a wince as he elevated his voice to emphasize… That word.
18* BadassBoast: EDI and Fox drop one after [[spoiler: blasting out of their hanger to take out the Sektor 21 attack force.]]
19--> '''Fox:''' "Mess with the B.E.S.T."
20--> '''EDI:''' "Die like the rest."
21* BadassBystander: Tre once ran afoul of a weatherman who was secretly a high-tier weather control mage.
22%%* BadassCape: Mr. Kage, definitely.
23* BadassUnintentional: Crash; although he's never had proper military combat training, it's pointed out at least twice that what he does everyday in testing is functionally identical.
24* BarehandedBladeBlock: Done by Admiral Mishima.
25* CaptainErsatz[=/=]{{Expy}}: Lots.
26** "Fox" has an in-universe noted resemblance to [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Asuka]].
27** Don is pretty much [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 The Engineer]].
28** Cooper is... [[WesternAnimation/MegasXLR Coop]].
29** EDI is... [[Film/{{Stealth}} EDI]]. Minus the AIIsACrapshoot, at least for now.
30** Zed is The Franchise/{{Terminator}}. Somewhat hilariously, Crash calls him a Franchise/{{Robocop}} reject in chapter eight.
31** [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} Aperture]] [[strike: Science]] [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} Systems and Gladdis]] need no introduction.
32** Abigail Granger is [[Anime/{{Grenadier}} Rushunda Tendo]].
33** Alexander Vladius Carrde is [[Manga/{{Hellsing}} Alucard]]. Also doubles as a StealthPun. [[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke Al Card]] anyone?[[/note]]
34** Admiral Kanemitsu Mishima is [[VideoGame/{{Tekken}} Heihachi]].
35** It should be noted that the author put most of his original characters up on a thread for such on the Animesuki forums, using various pictures to illustrate their appearance. In addition to the above, Crash is [[Manga/ThoseWhoHuntElves Junpei]] and Roland is ''Creator/JohnWayne''.
36** Lynn is [[Manga/AhMyGoddess Lind]].
37* CharacterFilibuster: Roland loves denigrating what he perceives as the flaws of the Bureau.
38* ClickHello: Crash does this to [[spoiler: Subaru during the training battle.]]
39%%* CoolMask[=/=]{{Malevolent Masked M|en}}an: Mr. Kage.
40* CoolPlane: Roland has a scrapped B-1B Lancer heavily modded into the sub-orbital transport Deep Sky. Of course, there's EDI and [[spoiler: Fox's Arwing]].
41* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler: Hayate]] underestimates what Zed can do and tries to take him on [[IdiotBall up close rather than call for backup]]. The results are predictable.
42* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: When [[spoiler: Crash's]] HeroicSafeMode kicks in, he ends up [[spoiler: burning through cartridges at a rate unhealthy even for stronger mages.]]
43* {{Defictionalization}}: In-universe, EDI and [[spoiler: Fox's Arwing]].
44* DontThinkFeel: [[spoiler: Lynn tries to teach Crash to do this in order to improve his combat skill.]] It seems to be working.
45* DopeSlap: Teana delivers one to Subaru after [[spoiler: Crash wakes up from the training battle, for getting in his way.]]
46* DynamicEntry: [[spoiler: Roland surprising the Forwards by flanking and shooting them.]] Followed later by [[spoiler: some Thanatos members]] doing the same.
47* FourStarBadass: He has not gone directly into combat yet, but MG Roland is a good shot and very sharp with a throwing knife. Admiral Mishima is also an example, with a side dish of OldMaster, starting off with a BarehandedBladeBlock against Mr. Kage. He makes a bit of banter, seemingly giving Mr. Kage some time to prepare, and then lands ten solid blows without the terrorist leader being able to defend where the latter had previously held the Aces off almost effortlessly.
48%%* {{Flanderization}}: A number of canon characters.
49* FunWithAcronyms:
50** Cooper has a robot called Multiple Engagement Guardian Automatic Sentinel, or [[WesternAnimation/MegasXLR MEGAS]].
51** The Magical Autonomous Drone, Combat Assault Platform, "MADCAP", otherwise referred to as Enhanced Device Intelligence "[[Film/{{Stealth}} EDI]]".
52** Mobility, Attack, Defense, Active Management System "MADAM".
53* GrenadeLauncher: One of the weapons Zed uses is a M79.
54* HeroicSafeMode: [[spoiler: Crash goes into this state after seeing Subaru with Combat Cyborg SupernaturalGoldEyes trying to smash down his barrier. He ends up burning through cartridges at an unhealthy rate, kicks the asses of the Forwards and manages to win even when Thanatos members join the Forwards in trying to pin him down.]]
55* {{Homage}}:
56** The discussion of the MH-1's capabilities is very similar to that of the ZF-1 from ''Film/TheFifthElement''.
57** Roland and a St. Hildes professor get into a discussion on government reform that is reminiscent of ''Anime/CodeGeass''.
58* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: "A pattern... Something he could sink his teeth into. These tactics, these plans they were all patterns of overlapping tricks and counter-tricks. A plan was made, the opponent would plan a counter, then he'd have to counter that counter, and the opponent was usually sitting at step three waiting to deal with the counter's counter. If he wanted to win this, he needed to be four moves ahead of the current game pieces."
59* InstantWinCondition: [[spoiler: In the training battle, Crash wins as long as he manages to scratch Nanoha. Which he eventually does.]]
60* TheJinx: Why Crash has his nickname.
61* JustHitHim: Subverted when Zed takes on [[spoiler: Hayate]]; although he knocks her around at first, he caps off with a NeckLift choke that nearly kills her. Played straight with [[spoiler: Crash's HeroicSafeMode in the training battle, as while he does combo various opponents, at no point does he simply pin anyone down and pummel the victim into Barrier Jacket dematerialisation.]]
62* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: The BEST Force handles mass weapon disposal. There's a scene where Crash warns Hayate that her Barrier Jacket won't stand up to 7.62 FMJ from an AK-pattern rifle. This is one of the things that determine your stand on this work. Despite that, this trope has been mostly [[AvertedTrope averted]] in-story as almost all of the fights have been using magic-based firepower and none of the dialouge has suggested anything more than 'Kinetic Weapons are Just as Good'.
63* LightningBruiser: Zed's speed, strength and resilience is incredible.
64** Crash himself while in his power armor is a seven foot tall 'walking tank' that can fly at Mach 3.
65* LoopholeAbuse: Roland makes use of the classified nature of Crash's armour to [[spoiler: have the screwed-up training battle erased from records.]]
66* MaleGaze: Crash instinctively takes a look at Abigail "Thanatos Three" Granger's "rather generous-" (sic) before forcing himself to look away. "Thinking about such things, especially in combat, only leads to trouble."
67* MegaManning: Battery has copied Vita's Iron Howl, while EDI has a superior Cooper-developed version called [[RedScare Iron Curtain]].
68%%* TheMole: [[spoiler: Logan]].
69* MoreDakka: [[spoiler: The fight against Mr. Kage ends with him teleporting away... and around 100 50 cal-armed goons surrounding and opening fire on the Aces.]] [[spoiler: And while that is going on, Roland has busted out an [[TankGoodness Abrams]].]]
70* MultiMeleeMaster: [[spoiler: Mr. Kage]] is this, which is perfectly complemented by his SwissArmyWeapon power. Nanoha notes that it is the reason why he is so difficult to fight.
71* NeckLift: Zed nearly kills [[spoiler: Hayate]] by choking her while doing this.
72* OhCrap: Mr. Kage visibly demonstrates surprise only twice in his fight with the Aces. Firstly, when [[spoiler: Lynn's strike shatters his projected staff.]] Secondly, when Admiral Mishima pulls a BarehandedBladeBlock on him.
73* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Crash's real name, Ford T. Daonau, was first revealed by AllThereInTheManual[=/=]WordOfGod and has almost never been used in the main story.
74* PastExperienceNightmare: [[spoiler: Crash frequently re-experiences the ActionPrologue as a nightmare.]]
75* PoweredArmor: Crash's Olympian Powered Armor Exoskeleton, which is described as looking rather like an American Footballer's. The author specifically referred to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GaGtCIsyjQ this video]].
76* RankScalesWithAsskicking: Mr. Kage, the apparent leader of Sektor 21, is also apparently the group's best fighter.
77* RazorWind: Admiral Mishima's final hit against Mr. Kage is not even a physical impact but the (mere) concussion of his punch. It still sends the terrorist flying.
78* RoboticReveal: Done to Zed.
79* RussianReversal: Roland makes such a joke when asked why EDI's exaggerated version of Iron Howl is called "Iron Curtain". Almost everyone present at the time, oddly including fellow Earthborn Hayate, fails to get it.
80* ShellShockedVeteran: Crash developed PTSD with regards to Combat Cyborgs after his run-in with the Numbers. [[spoiler: He gets better, but only after Subaru pushes him into HeroicSafeMode, where he trashes her.]]
81* ShoutOut: Tons, perhaps to the point of distraction. YMMV. An inexhaustive list:
82** The BEST Force aircraft include [[VideoGame/AceCombat AWACS Sky Eye and Thunderhead, as well as Wardog and Yellow Squadrons.]]
83** [[Film/TheDarkKnight Why so uptight?]]
84** [[VideoGame/StarFox Do a barrel roll!]]
85** [[WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged DODGE!!]]
86** An Engineer named [[Anime/SailorMoon Chiba]], who is mentioned discussing the armor-piercing properties of roses and hiding surveillance gear in top hats.
87* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The author uses "Tiana".
88* SwissArmyWeapon: [[spoiler: Mr. Kage can project the form of the weapon type needed. Demonstrated projections include daggers, swords, staffs and [[WhipSword flail whips]].]]
89* StealthHiBye: Done by Mr. Kage. Also done to Roland by someone who suspiciously resembles [[Manga/{{Hellsing}} Alucard]]. [[spoiler: Abigail "Thanatos Three" Granger]] appears with this, as opposed to the DynamicEntry of [[spoiler: her fellow Thanatos Enforcers.]]
90* SuperSpeed: EDI and the BEST Force's [=AIs=] work with Bardiche to take Fate's already high speeds to even greater heights.
91* TalkToTheFist: Mr. Kage [[spoiler: interrupts the prep of a Divine Buster with a thrown dagger, causing Nanoha to realise that she should not be drawing it out for so long.]]
92* TankGoodness: apparently Sektor 21 mooks and drones don't fare well againt [[spoiler: an M1 Abrams.]]
93* TeleportSpam: One of Battery's abilities.
94* TranquilFury: After the training battle, Roland goes into this. "With most people, [[UnstoppableRage their anger was worn on their sleeve.]] They were easy to read. It was easy to think and react to the situation. Roland, [Nanoha] realized at that moment, was the Quiet Type. The Quiet Type were very BAD. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard She would know, she was one of them. And she'd never really considered the possibility of having to answer to… well, herself. So in this situation, knowing how she would be reacting made her sweat run cold.]]"
95* YouAreAlreadyDead: Lynn says that if Gray had been serious, Signum would already have taken one InTheBack.

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