Chapter 1 Hard Landing

Winter, 1945

The Second Neuroi War has been raging for over six years. The combined might of all the world’s military powers with the support of the witches have successfully liberated Gallia, Venezia, Belgica, the Neterlands, and parts of Orussia. On the Western Front, the Joint Fighter Wings have assisted Allied forces in finally crossing the Rhine River and begun liberating Karlsland from the grip of the alien menace. But the Neuroi are still far from defeated and will do what it takes to show humanity that a cornered enemy is the most dangerous enemy of all.

“Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened.” - General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Airspace east of the Rhine River near Remagen, Karlsland

2 December 1945

10:42

“Goose 4, watch your six! You’ve got three Neuroi on your…” shouted a P-47 pilot over the intercom before his warning was cut short as his aircraft exploded from a Neuroi laser shot. Peering up from his cockpit, Flight Lieutenant Matt Hartford looked in his cockpit rearview mirror and saw three black disk-shaped black Neuroi, each with four lasers positioned on the bottom half of the disks rapidly closing in. Jamming his control stick to the left and throttling back simultaneously, his Republican P-47D responded smartly as Matt’s pursuers overshot and screamed past him. However, the three Neuroi fighters continued to dive and fell upon another P-47 a few hundred feet below who already had two Neuroi’s on his tail. Before Matt could yell a warning, the three Neuroi unleashed volleys of lasers that eviscerated the hapless P-47 and it’s pilot in a terrific explosion.

Gritting his teeth, Matt could feel his blood boil, the ambushing Neuroi outnumbered his patrol at least five to one. Their mission had been to provide cover for General Hodges’ First Army which had just crossed the bridge at Remagen to make sure the Neuroi would not destroy the crossing. The dogfight was merely three minutes old and around six of Matt’s squadron were lost to no Neuroi killed. Readjusting his trajectory, Matt inverted his fighter and dove rapidly. Maneuvered his Liberion fighter-bomber onto the tail of one of the three enemy fighters, Matt lined up his G.G.S gun sights onto one of the alien craft and pulled the trigger with his eight M2 Browning machine guns barked to life and riddled the Neuroi with enough machine gun fire that a few lucky rounds impacted the Neuroi’s core causing the craft to explore into a shower of white sparks.

Diving past the other two Neuroi at full throttle, Matt quickly glimpsed behind him to check his rear and found neither alien craft was following him. Erring on the side of caution, Matt guided his fighter into a nearby cloud cover before keying his mic and speaking through his oxygen mask, “This is Goose 4, requesting assistance, is anyone out there? We are getting slaughtered out here!” The only response heard over the channel was static and Matt let out a grunt of frustration through his oxygen mask. His patrol needed help and it seemed no one was out there. Attempting to figure out his next move, Matt was about to repeat his message when his fighter cleared the cloud cover and he saw eight Neuroi disk-shaped fighters, Foo fighters, hovering above 200 yards ahead of him.

“Aw crap.” Matt thought about the impossible situation that presented itself in front of him. No matter where he turned, the Neuroi were going to eliminate him just like the majority of his squadron. Putting his left hand in front of his face in a vain attempt to protect himself, suddenly tracers began impacting the Neuroi fighters and they began to explode. From Matt’s 3 o’clock he saw a witch, dressed in a gray Karlsland uniform and dual-wielding MG 42s came in from a nearby cloud cover and easily shot down four Neuroi fighters, the other enemy fighters attempted to shoot her down but the brown-haired witch easily dodged their counterfire and turned herself around to bring her dual machine guns to bear and destroying her adversaries with relative ease. Following up behind her, another witch wearing a darker Karlsland uniform followed up, blazing away with her MG 42 before suddenly shouldering her machinegun. Perplexed, Matt watched as the witch flew straight at around 10 Neuroi aircraft and performed a high-speed barrel roll right past the enemy, seemingly channeling gusts of wind around her to shred the Neuroi into oblivion. The remaining Neuroi scattered in an attempt to flee but they were all intercepted as several more witches screamed into the fight, their weapons blazing away.

Matt was awestruck by the events transpiring ahead of him before a female voice interrupted his thoughts. “Goose 4, this is Wing Commander Wilcke. How do you read?”

Off his right wing, Matt saw a red-haired female Witch dressed in a green Karlsland uniform and wearing a Messerchaf Bf-109 K-4 striker in her hands and flying in formation with him.

“Affirmative Wing Commander, read you loud and clear. You gals are a godsend, thoughthought we were done for.” respond Matt, as he let out a sigh of relief.

The Wing Commander gave a sincere smile at Matt before speaking over her intercom.

“We will handle the rest of the Neuroi, have the survivors of your patrol head west.”

“Copy that, give it to em Wing Commander.” Matt said as he flashed a thumbs-up to Minna. The Karlsland witch nodded as she banked right and joined her squadron in the dogfight. After a few more minutes, Matt managed to form up with two other surviving P-47s as they all headed west. Against looking back at his rearview mirror, Matt watched in the distance as the witch's contrail intertwined and various explosions could be seen as more Neuroi were shot down.

“Damn, those witches are tearing those Neuroi up.” one of the other Liberion pilots stated over the intercom.

“Yeah, they got the Neuroi running with their tail between their legs. Hey Will, you have any idea which unit they’re a part of?” another pilot inquired.

Matt grinned under his oxygen mask as he spoke, “Yeah, got to talk to their CO, we got our asses saved by the legendary 501st.”

A few seconds of silence passed as the other pilots processed what Matt just said before the coms erupted with a flurry of voices.

“Wait, THE 501st?... The ones that liberated Gallia and Venezia!”

“Hot damn! Guess we were blessed to have the best aces in the world save our asses right Tom?”

“I think I caught some of them when they flew past my gun camera. Hope I did cause I don’t think the guys back on base won’t believe us otherwise.” Tom remarked.

The two other pilots continued naming off other accomplishments of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, Matt interrupted them, “All right guys, if I wanted a complete list of the accomplishments of that unit I would have asked. You guys can hero worship them more when we land.”

The other pilots begrudgingly acknowledged but not before Frank gave one more remark.

“Must be really nice to be nearly invincible. You think any of them have ever been shot down before?”

“Come on Frank, if they have been, the Neuroi that shot them down must be some monstrosity.” Tom responded.

Matt tried to ignore the conversation as he was continuously scanning the skies for potential enemies but the other pilot’s remark stuck in his mind. From all the reports he had read, the 501st witches had always emerged victorious with hundreds of kills to their credit. For the average human such as himself, they could take out some Neuroi, but never in the quantity the witches could. For one of the 501st witches to be shot down seemed unthinkable. Matt continued to be lost in his thoughts which was only interrupted by the sound of their Pratt & Whitney engines howling as their aircraft headed west over the snow-blanketed landscape.

501st Airbase

Den Helder, Nederland

7 December 1945

06:30

As morning sunlight began to illuminate the room, Gertrud yawned slightly as she began to wake up. Looking around the room, she noticed her roommate, Erica Hartmann on the floor, still fast asleep with a sheet covering her head as she lay among a clutter of her stuff strewn on the ground. Barkhorn sighedsighted slightly, Erica was an amazing Witch but when it came to the tidiness of her room, it left much to be desired.

“At least my Siegfried Line is still holding.” Gertrud thought as she rose from her bed, putting on her gray uniform, and adjusted her hair into two thin pigtails before she strolled over to a picture next to her bed. The picture was of herself in uniform while embracing her younger sister Chris back before the Neuroi invaded. Smiling, Gertrud reminisced about the last time she visited her younger sister and had brought her some local flowers for her as a souvenir based where she was currently stationed. As long as she was safe in Britannia, Gerturd could put her full attention to doing her duty as a Witch and liberating her homeland. Returning her attention to her sleeping roommate, Gertrud walked over to Erica’s side of the room.

“Oi Hartmann, wake up, we have a mission to prepare for.” Gertrud growled at Erica.

Erica grumbled before responding, “Mmm … ten more minutes …”

“No excuses, discipline is the first and second rule for a Karslander soldier.” Gertrud said as she gritted her teeth.

Ignoring Gertrud, Erica continued to doze under her sheets as she gave her muffled response.

“Don’t remind me, just give me forty more minutes.” Erica said annoyed at her roommate’s pestering.

Exasperated, Gertrud knew it would be futile to continue to argue with her squadronmate.

“Fine, I’m off to breakfast. You better get up soon or I’ll drag you out of bed.” Erica only acknowledged with a low groan.

Heading out into the hallway of the base, Gertrud could already smell the scent of breakfast being cooked up in the mess hall. Coming in the opposite direction of her was Sanya just back from her night patrol, her eyelids struggling to stay open. Despite this, Sanya managed a small wave to Gertrud as she passed by and Gertrud smiled and waved back. Upon entering the mess hall, Gertrud saw Miyafuji and Lynette preparing breakfast for the squadron members in the kitchen.

“Good morning Barkhorn!” said Yoshika cheerfully as she glanced over her shoulder while chopping some vegetables.

“Good morning Miyafuji, good morning Lynette.” Gertrud replied with a smile.

“You’re up early today.” Lynette stated as she poured a cup of tea for Gertrud.

Gertrud grinned, “Yeah, Hartmann, Minna, and I are flying a reconnaissance mission out towards Hamburg today, I got to make sure I get ready. Thought I would grab a good breakfast to eat before I have to force Hartmann to get up.”

Yoshika and Lynette smiled, knowing full well the persistent trouble of having to get Hartmann to wake up. As Gertrud continued to sip her tea, Yoshika brought over a plate of rice with two eggs which Gertrud heartily accepted. Yoshika was adept at cooking Fuso cuisine and Gertrud, though not concerned about the flavor of food, wasshe was growing quite fond of the Fuso food. As she chewed down on one of the eggs, Minna entered the hall, adjusting some errant strands of her red hair.

“Morning Minna.” said Gertrud after she finished her bite of food.

“Morning Trude.” replied Minna as she also greeted the other two witches and was given a cup of ginger tea from Lynette. Gertrud gave a slight scowl as she was not particular for the taste of food, ginger tea was too bitter for her but Minna didn’t mind, as she gladly took sips of the yellow tea.

“You prepared for the sortie later today?” Minna asked as she continued to take sips of tea.

Gertrud nodded, “Yeah, though I still don’t know why we have to do it. I thought the 506th’s was doing the reconnaissance today.”

Minna gave a gentle smile as she responded, “Rosaline’s unit had to intercept a sudden Neuroi raid and the only B unit available is on an escort mission nearby. It was a last-minute priority assignment. Besides, the Allied ground forces need reconnaissance for their upcoming operation we will be supporting.”

Gertrud simply sighed; she was eager to continue to beat back the Neuroi all the way to Berlin. Ever since the 501st had been reformed a few months ago, she had been eager to retake her homeland’s capital, but orders were orders. “That attack is happening in a few weeks right? Any details on how it will be carried out?”

Minna shook her head, “I’ll be flying out to Emden in two days to hear the full operation’s details but from what I’ve gleaned it’s a combined land and sea assault to open a new port for closer supply lines.”

Nodding Gertrud returned to continuing to eat her breakfast. It would be a while before such an assault on Berlin could be mounted. The Neuroi was giving the Allied forces lots of issues and even with the opening of the port of Antwerp, supplies were still struggling to reach the frontlines that now extended past the Rhine river.

As the two witches continued to eat, several of the other witches started to trickle in with Shirley and Lucchini came.

“Heya Trude!” Shirley said as she and Lucchini sat down at the other end of table, “

Gertrud shook her head, “Morning you two. Nice to see you two up this early.”

“Ah, me and Shirley are going to go build a snowman, it will be fun!” Lucchini said excitedly as she chowed down on some beans. Shirley gave a small head pat to her Romanga friend as she smiled. A few minutes later, to the surprise of everyone, Erica came trundling into the mess hall, dressed in her black uniform and slowly made her way to the table where Gertrud and Minna were.

“Oh my look who is waking up early today.” Minna stated as she gave a warm smile as Erica took her seat.

Gertrud nodded in approval, “See Hartmann, getting up early like a good soldier would.”

The blonde Witch turned towards Gertrud, “Eh, I only got up because I was really hungry today and I smelled sweets.” As if on cue, Lynette brought over some scone and Erica’s mood instantly lit up as she stared gleefully at the food. Gertrud sighed while Minna let out a tiny chuckle.

“She’s hopeless.” Gertrud muttered.

506th B-Unit Airbase

Dijon, Gallia

07:03

“Argh, I can’t figure this out.” Marian said in frustration as she threw her pencil across the room. She had been trying to solve a crossword puzzle and was really struggling to even fill even a few words.

“Which one are you stuck on?” Geena asked as she put away the crossword puzzle she was working on and came over to the other side of the table Marian was sitting at.

“What the heck kind of a hint is common but some bigwig like this has stolen some of it at times?” Marian said as she read the hint out loud.

Genna thought for a second before she took her own pencil out and wrote OVERLORD in the eight blank spaces available for the hint. Marian scratched her head in confusion. “How the heck did you figure that out?”

“It’s her speciality, she knows everything and sees everything.” Carla replied as she cracked open a new bottle of Cola and began happily drinking it. Genna just shrugged, she loved doing crosswords in her spare time and loved the problem solving these games offered. It had been quiet for the past few weeks for the Liberion witches of the B unit. With the frontlines now into Karlsland, the danger of Neuroi entering Gallian airspace was reduced by the day but Geena had everyone maintain daily flights to keep their skills sharp. But there was still quite a lot of downtime and the witches were looking for activities to pass the time.

While Marian continued to get help from Genna for her crossword puzzle, Carla went over to Jennifer who was fast asleep sitting at the table with them. “Hey Jennifer, you okay?”

“Huh?” Jennifer said as she stirred, and realized she had fallen asleep at the table. “Oh sorry, must have dozed off.”

“Don’t you have a mission later?” Carla said as she continued to take sips of her drink. Jennifer nodded.

“Yeah you even volunteered to do it.” Marian noted.

“I know.” Jennifer replied as she remembered how the mission only needed one witch and the Cajun witch had decided to take on the mission to avoid the others having an argument as to who would go.

“Who is this VIP and why is he so important?” Marian asked Genna.

“Can’t say, it’s classified even to me. Even the Liberion cruiser captain I talked to has no idea either.” Geena replied nonchalantly as she filled out another word on the crossword puzzle.

“Figures. High command and all their secrets they keep.” Marian muttered as she tried to solve the rest of the crossword puzzle.

“I’m sure they have their own reasons, I’m just glad we got there in time to rescue the entire crew. “ Jennifer said as she got up to go into the kitchen. There, she decided to brew some fresh warm coffee and brought out three cups of the warm caffeinated drink. One for herself, Geena, and Marian. Jennifer knew Carla was content with her soda as she returned to see the other witches around the table.

“You sure you're good?” Carla asked.

Jennifer shook her head. “I think I’m good. Besides, can’t leave Marian to try to solve this puzzle by herself. If I do, I think she might just blow a blood vessel.” In secret, Jennifer did want to get some sleep but she wanted to spend this rare downtime with her friends.

Marian chuckled at the joke, it was always nice to just hang out and just relax. For most of the past week, it was just training and patrolling the border while occasionally seeing action which was boring for the four witches. The four Liberions continued to converse and soon their conversation came upon the upcoming Saturnus Festival.

“So are we going to host a big party to ring in the new year? I’m down for going all out.” Carla said.

Geena nodded, “I’m planning with the A-Unit to have a celebration, we’re just trying to figure out where to host it.” The other witches knew it was difficult for their unit to even host even simple events as the unit consisted of two separate bases even though they were supposed to be a “Joint” Fighter Wing. However, while the two 506th units had been at each other’s throats, things were more amenable between everyone.

“Seriously, what is fuck is Red Indian on the Missouri?” Marina cursed as the others simply just smiled before they went to help her out.

USS San Juan

North Sea

09:25

Looking up from the papers he was holding, Captain Brett Wheeler stared at the vast desolate expanse of the frigid ocean. The air was much colder than what he was accustomed to when serving in the warmer waters of the Adriatic Sea but Brett didn’t mind the climate. In fact, he preferred the cold air rather than the humid conditions of the Adriatic Sea. Having left Britannia two days ago with a coalition of Allied warships, Brett gazed over the various ships in the fleet of Task Force 124.3, better known by their call sign, “Taffy 3” from his position on the left wing of the bridge of the light cruiser, USS San Juan. To his left, sailing in parallel were six Casablanca class escort carriers, the Fanshaw Bay, Chaplin Bay, White Plains, Kalinin Bay, Kitkun Bay, and Gambier Bay, were all laden with fighters, dive bombers, torpedo bombers, and spare Striker Units, and other machinery needed for the upcoming operation. To complete the naval force present, a loose ring of various destroyers consisting of Fletcher and Tribal, along with a few John C. Butler class destroyer escorts were vigilant, watching for any stray Neuroi that could approach.

“Would you like some hot tea Captain?” inquired Executive Officer Graham Reed as he approached dressed in a dark winter overcoat while holding two steaming cups of warm tea in each of his hands.

“Sure, thanks XO.” smiled Brett who felt the warmth of the cup through his gloved hands as he accepted one of the cups and took a sip of the warm liquid. Returning his gaze towards the other ships in the fleet, Brett’s mind wandered back to the orders he had opened after departing port. The instructions had been shocking even though Brett had somewhat anticipated Allied Command ordering such a thing.

“What are you reading there Captain?” inquired Graham as he sipped his cup of tea.

“Results of gunnery practice of our 40 mm gun crews. Riley’s crew still needs some work but other than that, I’d say you did a fine job in getting our AA boys ready XO.” Brett replied as he passed one of the papers to his executive officer.

Graham smiled, “Can’t take all the credit, you’ve been pushing them as always, from the looks of things, we should be ready as ever for the upcoming operation.”

Brett nodded, “Indeed, from what Admiral Nimitz and Admiral Ramsay told me, this incursion is pushing us closer to Berlin which scares me since it has the most fortified Neuroi nest in all of Europe.”

“At least we got our armor retrofitted which should help our survivability. Along with that, we are working with the Strike Witches. Guess we finally have a chance to work with them.” Graham reported optimistically as he took another sip of the warm tea that radiated visible heat in the frigid North Sea.

Brett nodded, his career throughout the war had allowed him to serve alongside several Joint Fighter Wings and every such experience had been a cooperative success. Not everyone shared Brett’s support for the witches as he recalled several heated debates he had had with some aristocratic Britannian officers when he tried to ask them as to why they were so against the foundation of the 506th Joint Fighter Wing. In his lengthy combat experience, the Joint Fighter Wings were the best weapons against the Neuroi and he never understood how some people were against the program due to their political or ideological stance.

Brett was still deep in thought when a third man then accompanied the two officers on the wing of the bridge and saluted. “Sir, new orders from Rear Admiral Sprague.” the sailor said. Brett returned the salute, then took the folded message and thanked the messenger who returned to his post after again saluting his captain. Glancing the orders, Brett turned to Graham, “Looks like we are detaching from the main force, we’ve got a downed VIP we need to rescue.”

Den Helder

09:40

Completing her preliminary checks, Gertrud slung both her loaded MG 42 machine guns underneath her shoulders as she watched the base’s mechanics make final checks to her Flak-Wulf FW 190 D-9 Striker Unit. To her left, Erica was in her Striker as well, she turned towards Gertrud, “Any idea of what present you are getting Minna?”

Gertrud turned to Erica as she thought of a response, the Saturnus Festival was fast approaching and she and Erica were planning to go to a nearby town to shop for presents to give to their friends. “I got a few ideas of what I am gonna get her. I’m also having more trouble thinking of a present for Miyafuji.”

Erica grinned, “Aw, you can’t think of a present for your other sister?”

Gertrud’s face turned red as she became flustered. “N… No, it’s just harder to find a present for some people, and it's not like that Hartmann!”

Erica lightly snickered as she watched her squadronmate’s response. Everyone knew Gertrud had a bit of a soft spot for little sister-like characters and Yoshika looking like Gertrud’s sister Chris was obvious. Gertrud bawled a fist and gritted as she continued to respond. “You are definitely getting another alarm clock as your present!”

“Aw you’re no fun Trude.” Erica said playfully as she returned to checking her equipment. Just then Minna came over and hopped into her Striker Unit and activated her witch familiar. Soon, the three Karlsland witches finally were ready for takeoff.

“Everything looks good?” Gertrud asked her commander.

Minna nodded, “Yes, I was with the mechanics, Eila’s Striker is malfunctioning and needs a complete overhaul.”

“So we are going to be down a witch for night duty?” Gertrud asked concerned that one of their squadronmates would be unable to sortie due to a mechanical malfunction.

“Potentially, but we still have Sanya so we should be fine.” Minna said confidently.

Off to the side of the hanger, Yoshika and Shizuka came over to watch them. For Gertrud, Shizuka was similar to herself, being a stickler to the rules and military discipline. Both had bonded over their military sense of duty and both had tried to team up to get Erica to be a better soldier with little success.

“Alright, everyone is all set, prepare to take off.” said Minna as the ground crew moved out of the way. Gertrud and Erica nodded as all three witches began their takeoff sequence as their Striker Units detached from the launch unit and accelerated out of the hangar.

“Good luck! Make sure to be back for lunch!” shouted Yoshika as the three witches took off into the bright blue sky above the airfield. Though Yoshika couldn’t see it, Gertrud was looking back smiling as she continued to climb into the sky.

Airspace north of Hamburg

11:45

The three Karsland witches flew across the sky on their approach to the Neuroi occupied Karlsland city, their contrails marking the path they took through the sky. Below them, they could see various dormant Neuroi ground forces, their positions silhouetted against the white snow. The Elbe River leading into the city was frozen over with ice completely clogging the waterway. As the continued flying Erica yawned as she continued to seem tired.

“Oi Hartmann, pay attention!” berated Gertrud as she flew closer to make sure Erica heard her.

“Eh, I am paying attention, but I’m hungry.” Erica replied as her stomach growled in agreement.

“Vigilant is important over enemy territory. The Neuroi could jump out at any moment.” berated Gertrud to Erica.

“I know, this is the thousandths time you’ve told me.” Erica replied.

“Well if you did it, then I wouldn't have to keep telling you!” retorted Gertud as she began to get frustrated yet again with her attitude.

Minna came over to her two compatriots, “Now, now, let’s get this reconnaissance done and head back. Seems that the port is frozen over. Just a few more positions to observe.”

“Understood.” replied the other two witches as they focus on the mission.

The three witches banked left and headed northwest, but unbeknownst to them, something on the ground was watching the three witches, and sent a silent signal to nearby Neuroi units. Gertrud watched as Minna suddenly glowed as she used her inherent magic to detect nearby movement.

“Incoming Neuroi, twenty small types to our right, fifteen small types in front of us, and seventeen small types below us.” Minna stated as she became serious.

Gertrud gave a fowl expression, “Guess the Neuroi are acknowledging our presence.” Minna nodded in response, as Gertud and Erica readied their machine guns.

“Now we can rack up our kill count.” said Gertrud.

“Let’s see who can get more this time.” Erica replied confidently as she gave Gertrud a grin.

Approaching quickly with the numerous Neuroi, the three witches dropped their auxiliary fuel tanks and charged in, their MG 42 machine guns blazing away. Once both sides had completed their pass, Gertrud and Erica banked left, their Striker Units howling at max power, picking out an isolated group of Neuroi, Gertrud leveled her twin MG 42 machine guns and pulled the triggers, downing several in the torrent of fire unleashed. To her left Erica did the same with her single MG 42. The two witches’ combined firepower decimated the group of Neuroi. Peering to her right, Gertrud could see Minna was being chased by several Neuroi who fired shots at her but all shots missed. In return, Minna swung herself around and returned fire with her Karlsland machine gun, downing several of her pursuers.

Refocusing on what was ahead of her, Gertrud noticed three Neuroi attempting to dive from above them at her one o’clock. In response, Gertrud halted her forward momentum and raised her shield which deflected the laser fire. As the Neuroi overshot, Gertrud turned the tables and dived onto their tail, downing all of them with three well-aimed bursts of her machine guns.

Looking around her to get a sense of her surroundings, Gertrud could see Erica pursuing four Neuroi among the sporadic cloud cover. As she prepared to rejoin the fight, an ear-splitting noise caused her to wince in pain. As she began to slowly recover from the din in her ears, a laser shot from her left nearly grazed her. Refocusing her attention Gertrud saw a humanoid witch-like Neuroi, similar to the one Yoshika had told her she had seen over Britannia, just hovering there. However, there was something different about this one, Gertrud could feel a tingling feeling going down her spine as the Neuroi seemed to be staring at her with intensity even though it had no eyes. Deciding to break the deadlock, Gertrud raised her two MG 42s and pulled the trigger on both weapons, but the Neuroi witch was faster, dodging the stream of bullets and diving towards the ground. Giving chase, Gertrud struggled to hit the agile target as the Neuroi proved a difficult moving target to keep track of. The enemy Neuroi then pulled up into the clouds, accelerating too fast for Gertrud’s Striker to catch up. Gertrud was about to reach for her intercom to call Erica to help when out of the corner of her left eye, she saw a dark shadow rapidly approaching from her six o’clock. Before she could react, the shadow disappeared behind a sudden flash of light that streaked straight at her face.

USS San Juan (CL-54)

12:01

Chewing on a cold turkey sandwich, Brett sat in his captain’s chair as the bridge crew manned their stations. Looking down at his watch, Brett had a small pang of worry as the destroyer Laffey, which Brett had detached to go ahead and pick up the survivors had not yet called in. As if in response to his thoughts, a messenger entered the bridge. “Sir, Captain Becton is on the TBS, he has an update for you.”

Brett nodded as he walked over to the TBS set on the bridge and picked it up to talk with the destroyer.

“Captain Wheeler to Captain Becton, what is your status?” Brett asked, eager to know if the rescue mission was a success.

“Sir, we got him, just finished picking up the Lancaster’s crew and the VIP. Heading to your location to rendezvous before we then set course to Wilhelmshaven.” Captain Becton replied.

“Excellent, we’ll be waiting.” Brett said as he signed off. Hanging up the TBS radio, Brett walked over to his XO who was scanning the horizon for any potential threats.

“That pilot sure has some skill to taxi on the ocean to get the Brits out of the combat zone.” Graham said.

Brett smiled, “Yeah, one hell of a story to tell his compatriots. Wonder who this VIP is, we are diverting a considerable amount of strength of Taffy 3 to get this man to safety.”

Graham simply shrugged, both men knew any conclusion they came to would be pure speculation. Both men could ascertain from the available information that whoever this intelligence officer was, he was a bit unlucky. Usually, flights from Orussia along this northern route encountered little Neuroi opposition. It was probably pure chance that an enemy scouting unit had stumbled upon the Britannian bomber and shot it down.

Still, Brett did find it strange that his vessel was detached alongside five destroyers to recover this man. Having destroyers should have been sufficient but attaching an anti-aircraft cruiser for this mission? It indicated to Brett that high command really wanted this VIP to be safe and weren't taking chances.

“What kind of intel are you carrying that is so valuable?” Brett pondered as he stood on the bridge as the light cruiser continued to plow ahead to rendezvous with the Laffey.

Airspace approaching Wilhelmshaven

12:04

Through her iron gun sights, Minna shot out the core of the last small Neuroi which exploded into a shower of white debris. Taking stock of the situation, Mina could not see any more enemies and while scanning the horizon she saw Erica approaching, however, Gertrud was not with her.

“Where is Trude?” Minna asked Erica.

Erica gave a confused look, “I thought she was with you.” Minna’s hand went to the intercom in her ear as she attempted to hail Gertrud, but received no response.

Beginning to get worried that the usually disciplined Gertrud was not responding, Minna decided to use her perception magic skill, which allowed her to identify all nearby air units. Snapping her attention to the north, having perceived two Neuroi and Gertud, but worryingly, she could not identify them and Gertud was not moving. Gesturing for Erica to follow her, the two raced north and only stopped when they approached the location Minna had pinpointed. Minna eyes widened at what lay in front of her, two Neuroi were hovering a mere 50 yards ahead of them, one with a slim human-like body with it’s face, mainly covered with white “hair” that went over where eyes would have been if it was a human. The other Neuroi witch was different with a black-like exoskeleton with a triangular-shaped head. What most shocked the two Karlsland witches was what the exoskeleton Neuroi held in it’s left hand. Gripped in it’s long red fingers, was Gertrud, bleeding heavily from the head, and unconscious.

While Erica was immobilized by the shock of the situation with her mouth agape, Minna suddenly snapped. “TRUDE!” cried Mina as she charged straight at the Neuroi that had her squadmate. Before she could reach them, one of the humanoid Neuroi emitted an ear-splitting scream that caused both Mina and Erica to recoil. Erica then saw that the Neuroi hold Gertrud aim its other hand, preparing to unleash a laser shot at Minna. Protectively, Erica grabbed Minna from behind and pulled her back. Before Mina could protest, the Neuroi fired and the shot shrieked through the air right where Mina would have been. Regaining their senses, both witches watched as dozens more of Neuroi parasite fighters came screaming in, letting off volleys of laser fire that the remaining two Karslander witches mostly dodged with the Witch’s shields absorbing the remaining volleys. Minna leveled her machine gun and blasted dozens of the drones, always keeping an eye on where the Neuroi holding Gertrud was. Erica evaded most of the incoming fire as well, easily dispatching the Neouri around her as well.

Propelling her Striker into overdrive, Mina prepared to blast the Neuroi witch with 7.62 mm rounds. However in her rage, she had neglected her situational awareness for a few seconds. Out of the corner of her left eye, Minna noticed three Neuroi drones on her left and two more on her right preparing to fire at her.

“Can’t dodge this attack.” thought Minna as she prepared to take the brunk of the damage as she didn’t have time to raise her shield. Suddenly, Minna felt a strong push from behind, surprised, she noticed that Erica had pushed her out of the way. Before Minna could react, the various drones fired, their red lasers mostly impacting Erica’s shield. However, some of the concentrated beams of light pierced the magical shield and impacted Erica’s left Striker and exploded.

“ERICA!’ screamed Minna as she watched her fall like a stone towards Earth. Diving down, Minna chased after her and rapidly closing the distance. Managing to race past Erica, Minna stretched out her arms and braced herself and caught Erica before she hit the ground.

Looking at Erica, Minna noticed that Erica was still breathing, though her body did show some bruises and she had bleeding coming from various injuries on her body.

“Erica.” whispered Minna as tears welled in her eyes. Hearing a sound above her, Minna turned to see more Neuroi drones converging on her position.

Wiping away her tears, Mina took stock of her situation. Low on magic, ammunition, and with one of her subordinates needing medical attention, she had no choice. With a heavy heart that she had not felt since the loss of Kurt, Minna raced south while carrying Erica in on her back. As she did so the Neuroi only gave a short chase before they broke off. Out of immediate danger, Minna keyed her intercom to give Den Helder an update.

12:14

Slowly opening her eyes, Gertrud felt a sharp pain in her head as she tried to ascertain what was happening, as she tried to move her right arm, she felt a tight grip and as she slowly looked up to see the source, Gertrud gasped slightly. She was staring at the Neuroi that had knocked her out. Slowly looking down as to not attract the Neuroi’s attention, Gertrud looked down at her Striker Unit, as it was still intact barring a few scratches and burn marks. Gritting her teeth, Gertrud put her free left hand into a fist, channeling whatever magic energy she had left, and activating her Striker Unit propelled herself at the triangular head of the exoskeleton like Neuroi and punched it as hard as she could.

Even with the magic she channeled into her fist, Gertrud could still feel a pang of pain in her left hand. The dazed Neuroi, with part of it’s head shredded, proceeded to let go of Gertrud, and using the opportunity, she boosted away from the Neuroi. Behind her, Gertrud could see the Neuroi slowly begin to regenerate the damaged part of it’s head, then proceeding to begin to unload multiple blasts of lasers at her. Jinking and dodging the various shots, Gertrud desperately flew as fast as she could, while speaking over the intercom.

“Oi, Minna, Erica, where are you?” Gertrud shouted in her intercom as she tried to find her counterparts. All she received was static, and as she attempted to contemplate an escape route, Gertrud scanned the sky, desperate to find either of her squadronmatessquadronmate but with no success.

“Okay, this is bad.” thought Gertrud as her shield deflected the fire behind her. Pitching up, Gertrud headed for some nearby clouds. Urging her Striker up, Gertrud suddenly saw a few Neuroi emerge from the cloud she was heading for, veering right, Gertrud dodged the laser fire from above but in the process, one of her Striker’s took a hit from the Neuroi from below and the unit immediately lost all power.

Unbalanced by the disbalance of power from her Striker Units, Gertrud began plunging towards the ground. With her magic waning, Gertrud noticed a nearby lake. Angling herself as best she could and using what remaining strength she had to form a shield in front of her, Gertrud closed her eyes and held her breath as she dove into the lake. Reopening her eyes as she felt the surrounding cold water biting into her, Gertrud shed her damaged Striker Unit and the witch continued to swim deeper into the pitch-black water, occasionally illuminated by laser bolts that struck the surface of the water. Finally reaching the bank of the lake, Gertrud shot up, taking a deep breath of fresh frigid air. Coughing out any water she inhaled, Gertrud glanced behind her to see if any Neuroi was behind her. She did notice that there were some Neuroi drones circling over where she had crashed into the lake.

“Got to get out of here.” thought Gertrud as she got to her feet and started to run into the nearby Karlsland forest and didn’t look back. Crawling through the thicket of bushes, Gertrud waited for a few tense minutes and the whole time, she could hear the drone of Neuroi aircraft passing overhead, no doubt looking for her. Once the enemy was gone Gertrud stood up and shivered. Without her magic, her soaked gray uniform could barely keep her body heat. Clearing the snow so she could take a seat on some bare dirt.

Thinking of what to do, Gertud remembered that friendly ground forces should be in the area. Switching frequencies on her intercom, she spoke, “This is Squadron Leader Barkorn to any friendly units, respond over.”

For several minutes, she repeated her message and every time all she received was static which began to frustrate her. About to give up, Gertrud thoughtthough she heard a voice coming through over the static. Trying to contain her excitement, she tried again and this time got a cohesive response from a male Karlander voice on the other end, “Who is on this frequency? Did no one teach you proper radio ed…”

Before, the voice on the other side could continue, Gertud interrupted him,

“This is Squadron Leader Barkorn of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, I’ve been shot down in area west of Hamburg and require some assistance back to friendly lines.”

The message was met with some initial silence before Gertrud heard some rapid conversation on the other end. Finally, another voice came back on the other side of the radio.

“Jawohl, Squadron Leader, this is Lieutenant Lengfeld of the 25th Panzergrenadier Regiment. We were scouting the area. I take it you were the one that is the source of the smoke we saw earlier?”

Gertrud responded, “Affirmative, I’m hiding in some thickets at the moment, don’t have the exact idea where I am.”

“Understood, we are trying to make our way to your last known location from the west.” the panzergrenadier replied.

Gertrud was about to relax when she remembered the hoarders of Neuroi in the area and eyes widened as she responded, “Do not approach the area! There are unknown witch Neuroi in the area and the area is crawling with regular Neuroi!”

“But Squadron Leader, we can’t just leave you out there.” protested the Karlsland officer, taken somewhat aback by the sudden change of tone in her voice.

Gertud stood up as she responded, “I’ll be fine, come back with enough forces to get to me and tell my Wing Commander that I’m alive!”

“Understood, uh … wait Klaus, Luca! What happened! Shchiese! Everyone, los, los! We are getting out of here! Let’s hope we can meet up with our Faraway counterparts.” For Gertrud, she heard the heavy breathing of the radio operator with several explosions and small arms fire echoing in the background.

Silently wishing the Karlsland troops the best of luck, Gertrud tried to remember from when she was in the air of any places she could seek cover. Suddenly, Gertrud remembered spotting a bunker near the town of Cuxhaven as she flew away from the Neuroi. However, Gertrud had no bearing as to where she was. To gain a sense of direction she needed to get higher. Spotting a nearby tree, Gertrud rubbed her hands together before starting, she started to climb, the bark biting into her exposed skin as she grabbed into various branches to hoist her up. As she got to around twenty feet from the ground, she steadied herself on a branch and began to scan the horizon. In the distance, she spotted the town which Gertrud judged was about a mile to her east.

“Okay.” thought Gertrud as she carefully lowered herself back down to Earth and then back onto the snow. Gertrud winces as her bare feet touched the cold snow yet again and she internally wished she was wearing the pair of socks Chris had sent her. Taking a deep breath, Gertud began walking towards the town.

Frontlines, along Bundesautobahn 27 south of Cuxhaven

12:25

The battlefield was quiet as the ad hoc force of tanks from Farawayland 2nd Armoured Brigade and the 116th Panzer Division crawled through the snow-covered ground, their track marks marking the path they took to reach this point. Behind the tanks, three Kangaroo armored personnel carriers and four Sd.Kfz. 251 halftracks loaded with infantry followed behind the tanks. Peering through his binoculars to survey the landscape, the lead tank commander sat atop his command cupola on his Sherman Firefly and gazed out at the Karlsland countryside to survey if any more Neuroi was present. Seeing none, his hand went to his tank’s radio and attempted to hail the Karlsland scouting troops that had sent them a distress call. Hearing no response, 1st Lieutenant David Graham took stock of the situation. Up to this point, he had already lost two Sherman tanks along with a Panzer IV to Neuroi ground forces. It took four tanks concentrating their fire on the Neuroi spider tanks to take it out and they had been lucky to only run into isolated alien units but David knew that it was only a matter of time before a mass of Neuroi would come after his combined tank force and decimated them with overwhelming numbers and firepower.

It was times like this that he wished command would provide land witches to give him the necessary strength to continue the search but with most of the Allied forces struggling to get logistics, land witch availability was suffering. His orders were to search for twenty minutes before returning. Over his headset, David heard a voice over the radio, “Lieutenant, time’s up, return to your original position.” David weighed his options, knowing the consequences of disobeying the order. On the other hand, he hated the idea of leaving soldiers to be simply slaughtered by Neuroi. “Ah screw it, I just need a few more minutes to find them.”

“Roger that, we are stuck in muddy terrain so we will be a bit slow returning.” David said over the radio held his breath, hoping his ruse would work.

“Understood, just get back here without getting anyone stranded in the mud.” came the response. David breathed a sigh of relief as he switched his radio frequency to one that only those tanks in his unit could hear.

“We are gonna search for a few more minutes, we were just a little slow getting back to base.”

The other tankers catching what their superior officer was saying acknowledged. As they did,

David saw movement out of the corner of his eye at the edge of a field. Rushing towards the tanks were a group of smaller Neuroi, about four feet tall on four thin legs holding up a red hexagon body.

“Incoming enemy infantry, waste those buggers!” David said over the radio as he grabbed the turret mounts M2 Browning machine gun and depressed the trigger, spewing lead downrange. The rest of the tanks followed suit, their assortment of co-axial and hull-mounted M1919 and MG 34 roared to life, the tracers arcing across the battlefield, the volume of fire spliced through the Neuroi infantry like a scythe. To ensure none of the Neuroi would survive the fusillade, some of the tanks added their main armament to the mix, the high explosive shells spewing shrapnel and dirt into the sky.

“Ceasefire! Ceasefire!” shouted David as the dust kicked up by the explosions obstructed his view. One by one, the other tanks complied and when the dust finally subsided, and all that was left of the Neuroi was white dust that fluttered in the air. Continuing their advance for the next few minutes, nothing further was encountered.

“Anyone got anything?” David said hopeful that his gamble would pay off.

“Negative sir, ain’t nothing but snow.’ replied one of the other Farawaylander tankers promptly.

David’s heart sank as the other tank commanders reported nothing. Suddenly one of the Panzer IV commanders came through the radio, “Achtung! I see movement in the low ground, 11 o’clock around 500 meters ahead of us!”

Several tank turrets began to rotate towards the potential target before a figure, wearing a gray winter overcoat rose up while he carried a badly wounded Faraway Land soldier on his shoulder. Realizing the figure was a Karlsland officer, David ordered the force to hold their fire as more men began to emerge from their hiding spot and made their way to the line of friendly tanks. Signaling the tanks to form a defensive perimeter around the men, the tanks obeyed and formed a circular defensive perimeter while the infantry that came along with them disembarked from their vehicles to treat the wounded scouts. Clambering down from his tank carefully so as to not let his beret drop onto the snow, David made his way to the gaggle of men at the center of the temporary perimeter. As he approached, one of the Karlsland soldiers got up, ignoring the medic trying to treat him and began hobbling towards David. The man had a deep wound on his right leg and his uniform was caked in mud, but David could see an expression of urgency on the officer’s face. The officer nearly tripped due to his injuries but David managed to steady him and wrapping his arm around the man.

“Thanks for getting to us in time, but we got a bigger problem.” the officer said through a raspy voice.

David was confused as surveyed the landscape for more threats and found none, “Slow down, what do you mean? What happened out there?”

The officer looked at David as he stuttered over his words, taking a deep breath and then speaking coherently. As he spoke, everyone within earshot immediately realized why the officer was so frantic. “The Neuroi shot down a Strike Witch behind enemy lines and she needs our help!”

Somewhere south of Cuxhaven

12:57

The silence was a nice sign for Gertrud as she climbed up a small embankment. It was the first sign of peace she had had since her dogfight with the Neuroi. Taking a knee to catch her breath, she scanned the nearby environment to try to locate the bunker. Gertrud rubbed her hands together to try to preserve what body heat she had left. Even with the sun above, it was still freezing and Gertrud knew she needed to find a shelter before nightfall. Gathering herself, she carefully walked down the embankment when Gertrud heard something from above. Thinking quickly, Gertrud instinctively ran under a nearby tree as several Neuroi aircraft with a barrel shaped body with two swept wings flew over here at low altitude. The Karlslander kept silent while internally cursing as she didn’t have a weapon and a Striker Unit to fight back. Once the Neuroi flew over, she quickly checked before she resumed her search and soon enough came across what she was looking for.

Though vegetation had grown over it, Gertrud could see the concrete structure was still intact. Walking around the bunker, she located the entrance and tugged on the steel door but it didn’t budge. Likely rusted shut after being abandoned for years, after setting the Liberion witch down, Gertrud summoned her inherent magical superstrength and gripping the side of the door, pried the jammed door open. Carefully entering the damp, dark bunker and setting down the injured Liberion against one of the walls, Gertrud kept one hand on the side of the bunker to keep a general sense of direction. Advancing deeper into the bunker, Gertrud, nearly tripped over something on the ground. Bending down to investigate, she picked up a small box shaped object, dusting it off, it turned out to be a clip on Karlsland flashlight. Turning the knob on the bottom of the flashlight all the way, the flashlight responded and shown a beam of light ahead of her. With a source of light to guide her, Gertrud ventured further into the bunker’s complex, and came across a pair of long black jump boots. Putting them on, it was a bit too small but it had a snug fit and it did protect her feet. Continuing on and attempting to find the generator for the bunker and finding a sign to guide her, Gertrud slowly went down a flight of stairs and showed the light around, discovering abandoned barrels of diesel fuel sitting around a massive generator. Setting the flashlight on a nearby shelf, Gertrud went up to the generator and signed.

Not being the most adept at complex machines, Gertrud remembered the time that Shirley had attempted to show her how to refuel a diesel Jeep engine. Unscrewing the cap off and lifting a partially filled barrel, Gertrud guided the barrel into the generator’s fuel storage. After repeating this process several times, Gertrud wiped off diesel stains onto her clothing. Looking at the various buttons and levers on the generator, finding what looked like the master handle, Gertrud held her breath and pulled the lever.

“Please work, please work.”

For a few seconds, nothing happened but then the generator started to run, and with that, the internal lighting of the bunker. Giving herself a small fistbump into the air to celebrate, Gertrud grabbed her flashlight and raced up the stairs to explore the rest of the bunker without hindrance. Coming up to a sign that said ‘Waffenkammer”, swinging the steel door open, Gertrud found several firearms that lay around discarded on the floor. Scavenging around, there were several Ka98k rifles, some more intact than others. While they were good weapons, Gertrud knew that she needed at least a semiautomatic weapon in case she ran into a Neuroi. Opening a weapons crate, Gertrud found an untouched MP 40 accompanied with spare machinery and five magazines. Taking out the weapon, Gertrud carefully checked the bolt and barrel of the submachine gun and found that this weapon had likely never been fired. Looking back at the crate, she saw that the date written on it was “1940”. Loading four of the loaded magazines into the front pockets of her uniform and then putting the final magazine in her MP 40 and reset the bolt.

“Okay, I’ve got some firepower, now to find a radio.”

Now armed, Gertrud slung her MP 40 strap over her shoulder and retraced her steps to close the bunker to ensure some Neuroi did not accidentally enter the bunker. Continuing the exploration of the complex, Gertrud finally found the radio room, going up to it and flipped several switches but nothing happened. When she tried to speak into the microphone, not even static was heard. Looking below the radio, she noticed several of the wires were cut, they looked like they could be spliced but she needed adhesive tape for that.

“Dang, guess I’ll look for some if I can.”

A growl from her stomach made her remember that she hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Gertrud sighed, wondering what food Yoshika had cooked back at base. Thinking this, her thoughts turned towards the rest of her squadronmates, wondering how well they would take it that she was behind enemy lines. It was only for a few hours and she was starting to miss them. Gathering herself together, she reassured herself with the fact that hopefully the Karlsland troops she contacted got word back to higher command and they mounted a rescue mission. She just had to take care of herself and this other witch. Gertrud had an idea of who she was since she recalled seeing her before. Reaching into her right pocket she pulled out a chocolate bar she always kept just in case for Hartmann. Taking off the wrapper, she snapped a piece off and chewed it, savoring it for as long as she could. Now with a secure location to hide, Getrud decided to get some sleep to regain some stamina. For herself, Gertrud grabbed some sheets to work as a pillow and layed in the other bed, staring at the concrete ceiling as she thought about the morning’s fight, but just utterly exhausted from everything, drifted off to take a nap.

______________________________________________________________________________

Den Helder

13:47

Seeing the airfield down below her, Minna let out a small sigh of relief. For around the last half hour, she had been carrying a mostly unconscious Erica on her back. Minna had constantly been talking to Erica to make sure she was still alive. The best response that Erica had given her was a few mumbles. But for the last five minutes, there had been no response.

“Almost there Erica, please don’t die on me like this!”

Slowly returning down to the base, she carefully readjusted the position Erica was on her back to make sure she didn’t fall. As she touched down onto the airfield, the rest of the 501st came racing towards them along with various base personnel. Gently parking her Stiker Unit onto a launch unit that the ground crew had placed out in the open, Minna saw Yoshika and some medical personnel carrying a stretcher race ahead of everyone else and approached her.

“How is Hartamann?” asked Yoshika worryingly as Minna gently laid Erica down on the stretcher.

“She’s still breathing and I’ve controlled what injuries I can.” Minna choked out as she watched Yoshika work her inherent healing magic that glowed blue around Erica. The head doctor on the base checked Erica for any life-threatening wounds and finding none on the surface, recommended they get a move on to the infirmary to get a closer look. Minna nodded as the base personnel carefully put Erica’s stretcher on a Willy Jeep that had driven up and Yoshika and the doctor hopped on as the driver gunned the engine towards the medical part of the base.

As the Jeep drove away, Perrine slowly approached Minna who had not moved to acknowledge the other. “Minna, are you all right?” the Gallian witch asked.

Minna tried to give a response, but as she tried, she looked at her hand as it was stained with Erica’s blood. Defeated from the morning’s event, Minna collapsed to her knees, feeling her world falling apart around her as Perrine rushed over to provide support for the Wing Commander as tears began to drop onto the concrete. The other witches came over to comfort their grief-stricken leader as the base crew that had gathered realized the gravity of the citation. Some of them simply lowered their heads, while others tried to hold back their own tears as everyone tried to process the morning's events.

______________________________________________________________________________

North Sea

13:50

Jennifer flew over the Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer as it made it’s way west. The afternoon was calm and the North Sea was being cooperative and being calm with excellent visibility.

“Flight Lieutenant, you receiving?” a male voice said.

“Loud and clear Captain Wheeler, what is it?” Jennifer replied.

“I got some friendly flighters to join you and help you out. Figured you could use some friend to help pass the time.” the Liberion responded.

Jennifer smiled, the Liberion cruiser captain had been in contact with her since she had arrived in the area. He didn’t have to send backup but Jennifer was thankful to have someone else to fly with. “Thank you sir. I got a pack of cards and been looking for someone to play with.”

The Liberion captain gave a small chuckle. “I’ll pass that along. Deal me in as well when we arrive.” After about another 20 minutes of flying her patrol, a male voice came over the witch’s intercom, “To Flight Lieutenant DeBlanc, this is Bat Leader, we will be joining you today. How are you doing? Sorry for the delay.”

Noticing that the friendly voice had a slightly Southern accent this prompted Jennifer to ask, “Bat Leader, are you from the South by chance?”

“Yeah, I’m from near Barksdale, you from those neck of the woods?” came the response.

“I’m from Lockport, don’t know if you know that place.” replied Jennifer as she formed up with the eight F6F Hellcats of Bat Squadron, all painted in dark navy blue color.

“Yeah, I know that place! I have a cousin that lives in Lockport. Small world!” Bat Leader responded excitedly.

Jennifer smiled as another member of Bat Squadron spoke with a somewhat Midwestern accent. “Our commander is pretty proud to be from the Bayou state. He never shuts his mouth about it, which is why we nicknamed him Pelican. Cause he can’t stop squawking.”

“Hey Bat 3! She didn’t need to know that!” retorted Bat Leader as Jennifer and the rest of the Bat squadron laughed.

“I’ll make you pay for it when we get back to the carrier Lewis. Anyway, Flight Lieut...”

“You can just call me by my first name to make it easier for you guys.” Jennifer said

“Sure thing, my first name is Richard, as I was asking, how are night operations for witches? Seen footage of Karlsland Night witches racking up kills in the dark. Seems damn good to have stellar radar considering the Neuroi are colored black against a black night sky.

Jennifer thought for a moment. “Yeah, it comes down to practice and persistence. My magic allows me to have my planned positioned indicator over my right eye like this.” As Jennifer pointed to her right eye which gave a faint circular green glow with a dot in the middle that a radar sweep operated on.

“That’s so cool.” replied one of the other Hellcat pilots.

“It’s like some sort of radar in front of your eyes that you can track while you fly.” chimed another pilot.

Jennifer blushed slightly, “It’s nothing too special. I’m a decent pilot, but compared to other witches. I don’t have an impressive combat record.”

“You gals don’t even have to fire a shot to make a difference.” Richard stated.

“What do you mean?” Jennifer asked, slightly confused.

“Well, like right now, you being here with us sure is boosting the morale of us in the air and those sailors down below. You gals give us hope.” replied Richard.

Before Jennifer could respond, one of the Hellcat pilots spoke, “Uh, is anyone else getting interference on their radio sets? Mine is starting to fritz out on me.”

Readjusting her radar, Jennifer noticed the same problem, her magic radar set was cutting in and out, preventing her from sending out radar waves to detect anything. Jennifer tried to fix her radar indicator as it seemed to be providing poor feedback of their surrounding area as well. A sudden high pitched scream came to their front that everyone jump. Looking ahead, all that she could see was a cloud cover, but for a split second, it gave off a red hue.

“Enemy attack, 50 Neuroi! 12 o’clock above, break!” Jennifer shouted.

“Fuck! They are showing friendly IFF, how is that possible?” Richard said as he and the other three Hellcats pilots stuck in pairs and employed the Thatch Weave as they became surrounded.