Chapter 2 Divine Wind

“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.” - Sun Tzu

USS San Juan

North Sea

14:00

The CIC was in a frenzy as various sailors in the room tried to ascertain the developing situation to the east. Among them, Brett, who had donned a steel helmet, was on the phone trying to talk to his destroyer counterpart. 

“Captain Becton, what is your status?”

“We still have 30 Neuroi around us. We’ve lost contact with DeBlanc and CAP. One of our gun turrets is down. Rudder is jammed to port! Unable to maneuver!” came the reply as the boom of anti aircraft guns was heard along with the scream of Neuroi overhead was heard in the background. Then several shouts were heard by some of Laffey’s  sailors that made Brett’s blood run cold. 

“What the fuck was that?” one of the bridge crew shouted as the familiar shriek of a Neuroi was heard very close by. 

“It looks just like a witch! But damn it ain’t friendly!” shouted a lookout.

“Double check those IFF, those Neuroi have already fooled us once.” someone with a Britannian accent noted.

“Sounds like you are catching a lot. Will you abandon ship?” Brett inquired.

“No! I’ll never abandon ship as long as a single gun can fire.” the destroyer captain promptly replied with some indignation present in his voice. 

“Roger that.” Brett said as he internally cursed, the Neuroi were throwing everything against the destroyer and his light cruiser along with two accompanying destroyers were still 30 minutes away. 

“Contact Wilhelmshaven and see if they can get someone up here. Tell them we need more witches or fighters, whatever can get here the fastest.” the Liberion ordered.

As the other officers carried out the orders, Brett had a bad feeling about the situation, the only other time he had felt this sense of dreading uneasiness was exactly four years ago in 1941. His second in command seemed to echo this as he murmured something that only Brett heard.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

____________________________________________________________________________

Diving behind a nearby ditch, Jennifer clutched her weapon close to her as laser fire shrieked by. Taking a look, she looked back at the snow bank that she had crashed into that provided her a relatively soft landing. Raising her weapon, Jennifer fired off several rounds of her cannon causing the drones flying above her to back off. 

Taking stock of the situation, Jennifer could see that her options were limited. Her Striker seemed intact but the swarm of drones flying above would leave her too vulnerable in the process. Touching a finger to her intercom, all she heard was static. 

“No backup, surrounded by the enemy. This is not good.”

Peering up towards the lip of the ditch, Jennifer could see that one of the Neuroi that had shot her down was just hovering several hundred meters above the ground, simply watching it’s drone counterparts deal with her. It was probably waiting for her to run out of ammunition to make a final blow on her. Three drones broke formation and came directly at her. Aiming up at them, Jennifer fired off eight rounds that downed her opponents. 

Dodging right she tried to slide down an embankment and run but tripped and landed in the snow. Shivering from the cold, Jennifer turned to see several Neuroi infantry firing down on her and one of their shots grazed her left leg. 

Ignoring the pain, Jennifer kept running as she crouched behind a rock to check her damaged intercom. Through the heavy static, she could still hear a conversation that was occurring. 

“There are too many of them!” Bat 3 cried out.

“There all over I can’t shake…” another pilot said before his aircraft was hit. His screams caused Jennifer to tear off the intercom out of her ear as she couldn’t bear to hear it. After a few seconds, she gingerly put the intercom back into her ear. The pilot’s scream had ceased but that didn’t make Jennifer feel much better.

“Fuck! Neuroi are somehow jamming our signals, I can’t raise the fleet. Sitrep who is still alive?” Richard replied.

Only two more pilots replied which meant the other four were likely killed. For Jennifer, it pained her to know there were people dying and she could not help her. Additionally, she deduced that the Neuroi was probably launching an attack on the destroyer. She knew they would not be able to sustain a prolonged dogfight without assistance. She realized now that the Neuroi had drawn her away and caused her to crash land and unable to help her allies.

Suddenly, she had an idea and switched her intercom to a specific frequency. Before the intercom completely went dead, Jennifer managed to rattle off coordinates and get off a quick SOS as the Marine refocused on her own survival. However, by staying still for this period of time, it allowed the Neuori to catch up as they began to fire upon her, forcing her to run. The frigidness of the cold was getting to Jennifer as her body heat was being sapped. Exhausted from drudging through the snow, the Liberion witch finally collapsed as she heard the Neuroi catching up. However, someone grabbed her and dragged her into a nearby bush. Before her world went black, Jennifer could make out a witch in a Karsland uniform kneeling down right next to her helping to cover up her wound.

“Stay with me.” the figure said. 

Den Helder

14:20

In the medical ward, Sanya sat next to Erica’s bed as she watched over her blonde friend. Usually when the two witches were together, Erica was the one doing most of the talking but today, there was simply silence. Yoshika’s magic had healed most of Erica’s injuries and the doctor had reported that she would wake up after some rest. Sanya had volunteered to stay with Erica until she had sortie for her night patrol. Sanya looked out at a nearby window to see the sun was almost below the horizon, it’s light reflecting off the snow around the base. Looking away from the light, the Orussian witch heard a slight moan from the bed. Getting out of her chair, Sanya moved closer to the bed as Erica opened her eyes.

“Hartmann, how are you feeling?” Sanya said as she clasped one of Erica’s hand. 

“Hungryyyyyy.” Erica complained as Sanya smiled. No matter what befell her, Erica was always looking for food. Reaching into her pocket, Sanya produced a chocolate bar and handed it to Erica.

“Yay!” Erica said as she took the sweet and tore off the wrapper, eagerly eating the sugarly product. Sanya simply watched as her friend enjoyed her snack.

“Where is Minna and Trude?” Erica asked in between mouthfuls of chocolate. Sanya hesitated, initially unsure of what to say. Looking at Erica, Sanya knew she couldn’t try to hide what from Erica the nature of the situation.

“Umm, Minna’s in her office working with the general in the Hamburg area to rescue Barkhorn. Everyone else is having dinner now.”

Erica stopped chewing for a few seconds as she processed what Sanya had just told her. Her best friend was still out there on the battlefield and might be captured by the enemy.

“How is Minna holding up?” Erica asked.

Sanya sighed, “She’s a bit… all over the place, she’s trying to keep it together but it’s hard on her to almost lose you and Barkhorn. It’s like almost looking at Major Sakomoto all over again.”

Erica nodded, knowing exactly what Sanya was referencing. It tugged at her that her commander was suffering, “I’ll talk to her, don’t worry about it, I’ll be fine.”  Erica said to Sanya. 

The Orussian nodded, “I’m just glad you’re safe.” Erica smiled in response, “Thanks for looking after me, if you see Yoshika before me, thank her for healing me.”

Sanya acknowledged as she exited the ward and headed for the hangar. On the way, she noticed Minna coming up to her, though her face didn’t show it, Sanya could tell she was stressed.

“Sanya, I just got a request from the top, they need someone to help with an Allied warship in distress near Hamburg right now.”

Sanya looked surprised at the unexpected last minute mission change as she realized that the mission would take her near where Gertrud was shot down. Before she could ask, Minna continued to brief Sanya.

“I wanted to turn down the mission because Eila’s can’t sortie with you as her Striker is still in maintenance and the others are needed for local air sweeps. The mission came in as an urgent SOS.”

“Don’t worry Minna, I’ll be careful. Why don’t you go see Hartmann, she just woke up.” Sanya said to try to reassure Minna. The Karlsland witch looked surprised as before she smiled briefly.

“Sounds good, I know you can take care of yourself but I just want to tell you one thing.” Minna said as she looked at Sanya with a serious expression. “The two Neuroi witches are dangerous, watch out for the slimmer one, it’s smart and it toyed with me and Erica. Expect it to try the same tactics on you.”

“Understood, thank you for the information.” Sanya replied as she took in what her commander had just told her. There was an awkward silence between the two before Sanya decided to ask Minna a question.

“Is there any news about Barkhorn?”

“Yes, I’ll tell the others later but between us, some scouts in the area got in contact with Trude. I'm organizing a rescue mission for tomorrow. Just focus on the mission.” Minna said.

Sanya breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that one of her squadron mates was still alive behind enemy lines was reassuring and did make her feel better. With nothing else to discuss, Minna dismissed Sanya and headed for the medical ward. Sanya continued to the hangar where she found Eila waiting for her.

“Eila, what are you doing?” Sanya asked as she approached.

Eila looked a bit flustered as she faced her younger squadron mate. “I… I just wanted to see you off on your mission tonight.”

Sanya smiled, she knew Eila cared for her, sometimes a bit too much. Usually they would both sortie together for a mission like this but tonight it would be a solo mission by herself. Approaching closer to Eila, Sanya smiled, “You can keep in contact with me over the radio.”

Eila nodded as she fidgeted with her fingers, “I know that …” she began before she suddenly went to hug Sanya tightly. The Orussian was taken aback by her Sumoi counterpart’s action but didn’t resist. For a few seconds the two embraced. Finally releasing Sanya, Eila looked into Sanya’s light green eyes. 

“Good luck.” Eila whispered. Sanya nodded as she hopped into her Striker and took off into the night as Eila watched. As Sanya disappeared into the night sky, Eila reached into her pocket and pulled out a tarot card. She had decided to predict Sanya’s fortune to try to reassure herself of the outcome of Sanya’s sortie. She had been so nervous revealing the card that she had accidentally dropped it on the floor, when she picked it up, the card was the Tower, part of the Major Arcana deck. Since Eila had allowed the card to drop to the floor, there was no way to tell if the fortune was originally upright or reversed. The Tower card symbolized one theme, disaster.

North Sea

14:48

The ocean was quiet as Sanya made her way to the ships she was to escort. The cold air was nipping but Sanya brushed them off as she checked her weapon to help her focus. 

“I’ve got a job to do, I can get some rest when this mission is over.” 

Normally she could look to Eila for reassurance, her relaxed nature was one aspect Sanya could always count on even if the situation was grim. However, Sanya was alone and now she was thinking back to how Eila had acted strangely before she left. 

“Did she try to read my fortune tonight and predict something bad happening?” Sanya wondered. Closing her eyes for a second to refocus, Sanya refocused her attention on the task at hand.

“Eila, I promise I’ll come back.”

Using her magical radar, it hummed as it picked up a friendly radio frequency that meant she was close to her objective.

“This is Flying Officer Litvyak calling San Juan, do you read me?” Sanya said over the radio.

“Affirmative Flight Lieutenant, we read you loud and clear. Standby, we are dispatching some fighters to you.” responded San Juan’s radio operator.

Sanya acknowledged as she linked up with several Navy F4F Wildcats, F6F Hellcats, and Marine Corp F4U Corsairs. However, instead of immediately coming in close to her, they initially circled her from a distance. Finally, one of the Wildcats approached gingerly and flew alongside the Orussian witch.

“Sorry for us taking precautions, some new Neuroi attacked our fleet and was spoofing our IFF. Took down several of us before we figured out it’s ruse.” the Wildcat pilot replied. 

The Orussian witch was surprised as she wondered if the same Neuroi that took down Gertrud had just struck again. The flight proceeded towards the naval warships. Sanya was shocked at the sight as she flew in at low altitude to get a closer look. One of the destroyers was badly mangled, fire and smoke still raging on the stern end of the small warship as it lay dead in the water. Right beside it was a light cruiser with its main battery turrets still turned skyward in anticipation of engaging new threats. On the deck, Sanya could just make out some Liberion sailors manning the light anti-aircraft positions while others were meaning fire hoses to douse fires on the damaged destroyer as well as on the light cruiser which showed some light battle damage. Meanwhile, the other two destroyers were sailing around, forming a protective perimter.

“Captain Brett Wheeler to Flying Officer Litvyak, glad to have you overhead. We just managed to finish driving off the Neuroi about five minutes ago.” a male naval officer said over the radio.

“Sorry I could not get here sooner, looks like the destroyer might sink.”Sanya said.

“New Neuroi really carved us up badly. Laffey’s barely hanging in there but she ain’t dying on us tonight.” Brett replied.

“What exactly happened?” Sanya inquired. 

“Laffey got ambushed by around 50 Neuroi. CAP including Flight Lieutenant DeBlanc tried to intercept but the Neuroi concentrated all their attacks on the destroyer. But some of the enemy decided to deliberately ram into her. Her captain said they took six Neuroi crashing into them. Unfortunately, we lost contact with Flight Lieutenant DeBlanc, can’t make contact with her and no one knows where she went.”

“Her last message said she was facing some Neuroi that looks like a human. About 15 minutes later, San Juan said we had a friendly contact heading our way. We thought it was Jennifer because IFF said the contact was friendly … it was a damn Neuroi ambush, nearly took out the rest of my flight. Probably means Jennifer got shot down somewhere as well.” the Wildcat pilot said with clear frustration in his voice.

“Yep, saw the Neuroi, went after my ship when we arrived, managed to drive it off with some star shells but took some light damage in the process, that thing was fast, we could barely track it with our anti-aircraft systems. Thank goodness Marine Corp Corsairs arrived to save Laffey.” Brett noted.

“Sorry I could not get here sooner.” Sanya said.

“It’s not your fault. I should have ordered some more fighters for combat air patrol. Might have not lost a witch in the process.” Brett said somewhat bitterly.

“Wait, DeBlanc was the one who made the call for us to scramble to help you guys out. That’s how we got here on time. We only got your request for support once we were already in the air” a Marine pilot jumped in.

Everyone else stayed silent for a few seconds before the lead Wildcat pilot spoke. “You sure?”

“I’m 100 percent sure. We operated with her and her squadron mates back in the summer. There was a lot of static but I know that was her voice when she called us. I could hear her running so she must have crash landed.” the Marine pilot explained. 

“Well, we can’t get her signal now. I’ll have my radio operators keep trying. Let’s just reorganize and work out our overall damage. Flying Officer Litvyak, can you help provide top cover? Most of the fighters are low on ammunition and fuel. We just need to pick up the VIP and the wounded which should not take too long.”

“I can land and help out with providing first aid. I’ll fly around as long as I can before I do so.” Sanya suggested.

“That is very generous of you, we could use all the help we can get. Just let your commanding officer know. Got to contact Wing Commander Preddy myself, take responsibility for this disaster.” Brett explained.

Sanya was somewhat taken back by the naval officer's response, from what she had heard, it was hard to pin all the blame on the light cruiser captain. But she admired the man for owning up to his mistake. For the time being, Sanya focused on maintaining her patrol as she kept her eyes out for any Neuroi that would dare to come within range. 

____________________________________________________________________________

506th B-Unit Airbase

Dijon, Gallia

15:02

Geena made her way to the radio room, the Liberion shrugged off being awakened from a nap by one of the radio operators who said there was an urgent radio transmission for her from a navy captain. Deep down, Genna had a bad feeling about why he had to call her but held off judgment for the time being. Grabbing a spare headset, Geena cleared her throat.

“Wing Commander Preddy, what can I do for you Captain Wheeler?”

“Apologies for calling you but this news can’t wait. Flight Lieutenant DeBlanc was shot down while chasing down some new witch like Neuroi over Karlsland. From the information I have collected, she may still be alive but I can’t be 100% sure.” Brett said.

For a few seconds, there was silence on the line as Geena digested the news. To lose Jennifer again but this time to the Neuroi was a gut punch even for the seasoned veteran. Geena decided to ask for more details around what had happened. The Liberion captain provided a detailed account of what had happened as far as he knew with Geena jotting down notes in the process.

“I’m sorry for all this happening, I knew you needed to know as soon as …” Brett said before Geena cut in.

“No from what it seems, you did what you could. I appreciate you being open about everything that happened. I know of a few commanders who would have tried to sugar coat what you just told me.”

“You are unfortunately correct on that. I knew a few people who do that. Key word is knew.” Brett commented.  

The quote got a quick chuckle out of Geena before she continued. “VIP is still secure?”

“Affirmative, he was just transferred to my ship and we are going to make our way at full speed to Wilhelmshaven. I’m trying to get some resources to search for Flight Lieutenant DeBlanc but having no success.” 

Geena nodded, “Thank you Captain. Take care of yourself.” 

“Appreciate it, let me know if you need anything else.” Brett said as he signed off. Right after, Geena took off her headset and looked down at her right hand which was slightly trembling. She knew that Jennifer was tough but time was her worst enemy. Northern Karlsland was the 501st JFW’s area of operation so that was a good place to start. As Geena told the radio operators to prepare an urgent message to the 501st JFW base, she knew that she probably wasn’t going to get sleep tonight and she was not looking forward to having to break the news to the rest of the unit but she knew there was no avoiding it. Calling over the base’s PA system, she summoned the other two witches to the radio room.

“What's up Geena?” Carla asked before she saw the serious look on the Wing Commander’s face. 

Geena signalled for both witches to take a seat as she felt the news she was about to give was not going to go well. Marian and Carla gave each other worried looks before they complied and found a seat. 

“DeBlanc was shot down. I don’t know much about what happened and I am still working out the information. But it does sound like she is still alive.” 

“You are joking right Geena?” Carla asked nervously as she shifted uncomfortably in her chair. Geena maintained a stern face which was all that she needed to say. 

“Jenny…” Carla said before her eyes began to well up as she tried to struggle to find words. Geena walked over and hugged the distraught witch. For Marian, she simply sat there to let the news sink in.

“So what do we do now?” Marian finally asked with clear anger in her tone as she stood up.

“If you are thinking about flying over to try to find her, that is a negative. We have no idea where to start looking and what dangers there might be. The last thing I need is for you to be shot down as well.” Geena sternly said. Marian bit her lit, Geena was right, going now would be foolhardy and unfortunately the best course of action was to do nothing. Frustrated beyond belief, Marian stormed off. Geena would go and talk to her later but for the moment she focused her attention on Carla.

“Carla, look at me.” Geena said softly as the younger Liberion wiped away her tears.

“I know this is tough on all of us, but we will get through this just like last time. Jennfier is tough. She can handle herself. Until I hear more, keep staying strong and don’t lose hope. We’ll get her back.” Geena said to Carla to reassure the witch.

“Okay… I will. Thanks Genna.” said Carla with a weak smile. Geena as she took out a handkerchief and wiped off the remnants of tears on Carla’s face. 

“Go wash your face up. I need to go talk to Marian and make sure she hasn’t punched a wall again.” Geena said which caused Carla to giggle a bit. Searching around the bas for Marian, it didn’t take long for the brown haired Liberion Wing Commander to find her sitting in the hangar by herself. 

“This is my fault. I should have taken the mission instead.” Marian said as Geena took a seat right next to her. 

“Don’t say that. There is no way we could have known how things would have turned out. The outcome might have been the same except it would be you who would have been shot down instead.” Geena countered.

Marian looked into her commander’s eyes with a mixture of fear and uncertainty. The Marine Corp witch always liked to act tough but at that moment, she was lost, looking for reassurance in some form or another. Geena herself knew she had to balance helping her subordinates but also not giving them false hope. 

“I’ll do everything to get her back. We don’t leave witches behind, ever. I’m already trying to get the 501st to help with the search.” Geena said. Marian nodded as she took a deep breath to calm herself. 

“Thanks Geena, I don’t know what we would do without you.” Marian said as Geena patted her on the shoulder. Both witches then got up as a radio operator ran up with urgent news. 

“Madam, message from Wing Commander Wilcke, says they are already preparing for a rescue mission in the area for tomorrow.”

Geena gave a rare sign of a confused look on her face. She knew the Strike Witches were fast and efficient, but something the man had just said seemed off. 

“Wait, what do you mean they were already preparing to mount a rescue mission?”

“One of their witches was shot down this morning.” the radio operator said.

Geena scratched her chin, she had a hunch these two incidents were related but needed to ask one more clarifying question to confirm her suspicions. “Did they say she was shot down by a new Neuroi type?” 

“Yeah, the report said there were two of them. Apparently they look like witches.” the radio operator replied as he looked down at his notes.