Chapter 4 tough and competent

“Failure is not an option.” - Gene Kranz in the movie Apollo 13

Wilhelmshaven

9 December 1945

11:24

Taking a deep breath, Minna made sure her uniform was in order before exiting the Ju-52. Putting up her hand to reduce the glare from the mid-morning sun. Looking across the tarmac, Minna saw the jeep that was supposed to take her to the briefing with two people waiting for her. As she began to walk over, she suddenly recognized one of the people waiting for her.

“Mio!” exclaimed Minna as she quickened her pace and embraced her former Squadron Leader. 

Mio smiled, “Good to see you Minna, I heard what happened and got here as fast as I could.”

Minna simply nodded, it had certainly been a stressful few days and having Mio by her side was certainly reassuring. Having served with the Fuso witch, who had been the previous Squadron Leader of the 501st, Minna knew that Mio brought strictness to the witches in the unit which had helped get the most potential out of everyone.

Both witches continued to embrace for a few more seconds before they headed to the jeep where Hijikata drove them into Emden. The town was quite bustling with troops moving around, and various checkpoints set up into the city. Near the center of town was a converted hotel with anti-aircraft positions on the roof and sentries posted outside. After checking through all that, Minna and Mio entered the brightly lit lobby of the building, decked out in red carpet. Looking around, there were several Karlsland and Farawayland soldiers organizing packages and filling out paperwork. The two witches proceeded to sit at one of the sofas to organize their notes and waited for their 506th counterparts to arrive. 

“How have things been on base?” Mio asked.

“Ever since we got confirmation that Trude is hiding in a safe location, morale is pretty high. Erica is pretty much fully recovered and so she can sortie for the next rescue mission. Sanya is at this meeting so I’m glad everyone is alive. But it’s been really stressful for me to manage all of it. Shirley has been stepping up in Trude’s absence to help me with base operations.”

Mio nodded, “That’s good. How are you handling everything?”

Minna paused before she took a deep breath, “I’m keeping it together but it’s tough. The Neuroi seemed to have brought out new type of witch-like models that are unlike anything we have seen. It will be difficult to mount a rescue operation with this type of opponent.”

“Indeed, but Barkhorn is tough.” Mio said as she put a hand on Minna’s shoulder. “But she and other witches pull through until we can get to them. I’ve been in communications with the Allied generals in this area, they are fully committed to this rescue mission.”

Minna smiled at her former Squadron Commander, remembering why she had been so fond of the retired Fuso witch. Touching Mio’s hand that was on her shoulder, Minna looked into Mios face for a few seconds. Out of the corner of her eye, Minna could see the 506th contingent preparing to enter the lobby. Rising to her feet, Minna went over to fellow Squadron Leader Rosalie de Hemricourt de Grunne to greet her and both witches embraced. 

“I’m sorry for the situation you’re in. It’s tough when subordinates are in danger and you can’t do anything at the moment.” Rosalie stated.

Minna nodded, remembering how the 506th commander had regaled the story of the espionage that almost derailed the formation of the newest Joint Fighter Wing by kidnapping one of their witches. Thankfully, the plot was foiled at the last minute but it had been a near run thing. 

“From the reports we got, the enemy was quite vicious in their tactics. Hopefully we can get more intel on the Neuroi that we can hammer down.” Wing Commander Genna Preddy added.

“Shall we all head to war room?” Mio asked. The other witches nodded and headed down the hallway past the sentries guarding the room. Entering the large room, the witches saw a large map of the area around Hamburg and there were various officers of various nationalities and ranks wearing different coloured uniforms. Huddled over the map on one side Minna recognized a Karlsland Generalmajor whom she recognized as Ernst Von Richter talking to Farawayland Lieutenant General Guy Simonds. On the other side of the table, three more men were standing around next to Sanya, one of the men was a Britannian officer in his Battle Dress uniform talking to a Liberion Rear Admiral dressed in a Service Dress Knaki. Standing next to the two was a Liberion naval officer dressed in his winter dress blue uniform with a blue cap who was jotting something down on a clipboard. Beside him was Sanya and Jennifer who noticed their superiors and waved. As the group approached the map, the conversation of the men went silent as they all settled around to begin the meeting. 

The Karlsland general started, “Alright, now that we are all here, let's start with the formalities, Myself and Lieutenant General Simonds are working together in regards to the ground forces in the area around Hamburg. We extend our apologies to Lieutenant Colonel Wilke, Lieutenant Colonel Pieper’s reckless attack without your support was rash and he and most of his Kampfgruppe paid the ultimate price, costing us the entire rescue mission.”

Minna nodded, “Your plan was solid General, it’s just your subordinates disobeyed them and took unnecessary risks. And we had some bad luck with the weather, hopefully we can succeed on the next attempt.” 

Minna had read the reports General Richter had sent and from what she had seen on the battlefield, Pieper’s overconfidence that he could pull off the first rescue mission without proper witch support was infuriating, but with him dead, there wasn’t much she could do. In addition, the amount of needless death of the men under Pieper’s command along with the casualties suffered by the men sent to rescue the survivors had to be taken into account. These men had been failed by their commanders and from what Minna found, it looked like it was for the goal of personal glory which she did not approve of.

General Richer nodded, “Agreed, first let's get a status update on how both witches are doing, Captain Wheeler?” 

“My radio operators have been keeping tabs with them every two hours during the day. So far they are safe, giving reports on general Neuroi movement in the area and generally staying hidden in the bunker, but they are running short on food and water.” the Liberion officer replied.

“Excellent, have her maintain the low-profile, I’ve been in contact with the Britannians and we have a plan to resupply them by air. The details have been worked out with the Wing Commanders over the radio.”

Minna and Rosalie both nodded, General Von Richter had spent the last two days diligently working with them to put together a resupply plan that would buy the Allied forces more time to mount a more substantial rescue operation. Though Von Richer did not show it physically, Minna could tell that the Karlsland general was likely quite exhausted from reorganizing the logistics and management of local forces to adapt to the situation. Minna herself had gotten little sleep as well and she suspected the same for Rosalie.

Continuing the meeting, General Von Richter asked for the Britannian Colonel to share pertinent intelligence that everyone in the room should be made aware of. All eyes turned towards the Britannian officer who identified himself as Andrew Campbell and then he put his briefcase on the table, opening it, Andrew laid out several photos that Minna recognized were that of the two Witch Neuroi that had caused all the trouble in the first place. The simple sight of these black brought Minna back the memory of Erica being blown out of the sky. Shaking the memory out of her mind for the moment, Minna continued to stare at the picture as the other officers slightly murmured at the sight of these said pictures. 

“I will be blunt, these two witch-like Neuroi are some of the most dangerous ever seen. From the combat records I’ve collected, these two Neurois have downed a total of around 87 Allied aircraft in one area of operation off the Baltic Sea. At first, it was thought that there was some new Neuroi nest in the area as the reason for the dogged defence. Therefore, the 502nd Joint Fighter Wing went to investigate and they have had several encounters with these two Neurois and the battle reports report disturbing behaviours that are rare to say the least.”

The witches looked at each other before Genna spoke, “The Neuroi aren’t particularly known for having a normal pattern of behaviour.”

Colonel Campbell in response took out a report written and signed by Flight Lieutenant Pokrshkin. “They even had nicknames for the two enemies based on the skills they have. The one that uses a high pitch scream to disorient it’s opponent is nicknamed Screamer. The other one, which seems to be the brute and muscle and enjoys close in combat was nicknamed Hammer. This was from a report a month ago. It states how these Neuroi seem to try to isolate witches in one on one combat, but it seems that the intention of these Neuroi was not to shoot down the Witch, but to capture them.”

The revelation stunned the entire room into silence and there were shocked faces on the witches in the room as they struggled to respond. For Minna, she tried to rack her brain for a reason but was coming up empty. 

“What purpose does the Neuroi want with capturing one of us? The only other time I’ve heard of the Neuroi capturing a Witch was with Giuseppina Cenni and that was for tactical information.” asked Geena.

“I’ve consulted with Commander Rall, and from what she guessed, the Neuroi are getting desperate, we’ve crossed the Rhine and the Neuroi know our general aim is for Berlin. The Neuroi are shifting their forces, including these two specialized units to face the larger threat to the West. We came to the feasible but uncomfortable idea that the Neuroi want to try to brainwash a Witch and turn her against us.”

“His theory makes sense.” Sanya chimed in, “The enemy seems to have found a way to spoof our radar sets to make it look like friendly aircraft. Both of them seem capable of this ability. I was nearly ambushed by one and the naval forces took many casualties due to this ploy.” 

Once again the other witches were shocked, somewhat in denial that such a proposition could be possible, but it made some sense. witches were the ace card for humanity against the Neuroi. It seemed that for the Neuroi, the best weapon to fight against a witch was to find a way to know all their movements, strategy, and how they fought. For Minna, imagining Gertrud being turned to fight for the Neuroi was unthinkable but she also knew that the Neuroi were ruthless and Minna could not imagine if Campbell’s hypothesis was correct what the Neuroi would do if they captured Gertrud. Looking over to Minna, Geena could see that the Karlsland Witch still wore a calm expression on her face but unseen to everyone else, her hands were trembling. Taking a deep breath and regaining her composure, 

“Thank you for the intelligence Colonel. Having a potential motive for the Neuroi in this area is giving us new light on this situation.” Minna calmly stated.

The Britannian colonel put his head down slightly, “I appreciate how you are taking this information as well as you did. I have to also extend an apology for not getting this intel to you sooner. I was sent back on a flight to deliver this news when we realized the Neuroi witches had moved their operations to the west. Rall’s plan was to warn all Joint Fighter Wings in the area but the Neuroi moved faster.”

“Well, then what is the plan to rescue our friends from enemy lines?” Heinrike asked.

General Richter nodded as he gestured toward the map that displayed the current unit disposition of ground forces in the area marked with blue blocks. On the map, there were several marks of potential Neuroi forces marked with red blocks. The Neuroi nest in the area was marked with an “X” and placed over the Elbe River just north of Hamburg. The frontlines were stencilled by a blue line along with this, the position of where the two down witches were hiding was designated by a blue flag.

“The closest ground forces are 20 kilometres away and the most direct route is that of the highway. The Neuroi seem to know this as they have placed most of their Neuroi spider tanks and infantry units to guard the route.”

“In addition, the only main armor we can bring to bear is the 2nd Armoured Brigade and the 116th Panzer Division. We augmented surviving Tiger and Panther tanks from the last attack to add more firepower. General Patton lent us some of his land witches to help us but it still won’t be enough for them to punch all the way to where the downed witches are.” added Lieutenant General Simonds.

“Therefore we devised a multi-pronged attack.” General Von Richter said as gestured at the map. “We took elements from the original operation that was planned to help liberate Hamburg and incorporated them into this current operation. Our attack was supposed to cover Patton’s left flank while he went for the city on the 20 of December. For this attack, the ground forces will launch an attack along the highway to draw away as many Neuroi ground forces as possible. While that is happening, we will have elements of the First Allied Airborne Army with the 1st Faraway Land Parachute Battalion, the 3rd Fallschirmjäger Parachute Division, and the 101st Airborne Division dropping near where Squadron Leader Barkhorn and Flight Lieutenant Deblanc are and link up with them to set up a perimeter.”

Minna listened to the plan and the mention of paratroopers brought up last year’s failure of Operation Market Garden. The massive airborne operation planned by General Montgomenry was aimed to have one thrust cross the Rhine but the operation had ended in failure, with thousands of paratroopers being decimated by the Neuroi in the town of Arnhem. Afterwards, the operation had been dubbed by some as, “a bridge too far”. However, this operation was on a much smaller scale and the airborne troops being used would not be fighting so far behind enemy lines as their counterparts in Market Garden.

“The 501st Joint Fighter Wings will provide support for the ground forces and draw as many Neuroi aircraft away from the transport aircraft. The 506th will also provide support but the Gallian government strongly argued against a full 506th deployment for this operation. It took some convincing with a lot of help from General Eisenhower but we got permission to use the full strength of both fighter wings for this operation.  Hopefully with the combined firepower, we can destroy two Neuroi witches.” Continued General Von Richter.

“A combined assault to overwhelm the Neuroi, with paratroopers as a rapid rescue force.” Rosaline thought out loud. 

General Von Richter smiled, “And that’s only two thirds of the forces we are planning to bring, originally this operation to take the port city was to have massive naval support. Unfortunately, most of the planned fleet carriers, battleships, infantry, and supplies on support ships under Admiral Halsey are stuck in Amsterdam with the port frozen over and heavy fog in the area. The weather reports say it won’t clear for the foreseeable future.”

“The storm front was reported to Admiral Halsey but at the time we underestimated the strength of this cold front. We still advised Halsey to set sail before the weather deteriorated but he elected to wait out the storm.” a weather officer stated.

“What’s done is done and we have to use the forces we have available now.” Von Richter stated, “Fortunately, there is a small naval task force off the coast right now under Rear Admiral Sprague that can help for this operation, he will deliver his part of the operation.” 

The older Liberion naval officer gestured towards the map where his task force was represented by several miniature ships on the large map in the centre of the conference room. 

“The light carriers attached to me carry spare Strikers that were meant in case any of your witches had their Strikers damaged in battle and needed new ones. The Liberion carrier deck crews with Major Sakamoto’s help put together a way to have one of the Wildcats be able to attach the Striker to the external pylons and deliver them to your down witch. Once both witches have reached where the paratroopers landed, the Wildcat can fly in, escorted by some witches to drop off the Strikers so your grounded witch can take to the air. In the meantime, our cruisers and destroyers will provide fire support.” 

Minna took in what the vice admiral was saying along with the rest of the operation. All this for the sake of a single witch, and in the process delaying an assault on a key naval port. It was nice to see how all these people in the room were all focused on the well-being of a person most had never met before.

As she thought about this, Sprague asked the Liberion captain, “Will your cruiser be able to rejoin the task force in time? We could use your anti-aircraft fire support for this upcoming effort.” 

The Liberion naval officer nodded, his eyes filled with a grim determination, “We’ll be ready. Two of the destroyers are still combat capable as well. Laffey is too severely damaged to be ready in time though. My men are already patching up the damage on the San Juan, we should be ready to set sail with the evening tide tomorrow. The sailors on board are itching to get back in the fight and get even for the mess the Neuroi have caused.” 

“Will there be enough Allied fighter-bomber support for the frontlines? We lost an awful lot of aircraft during our last operation.” a Karlsland air force officer noted.

“Valid point, we got a squadron of Liberion Marine Corp Corsairs for now. I have also been in contact with General Sheridan, he help get his friends in the Liberion Army Air Force to release several squadrons of P-47 Thunderbolts to supplement us for this operation.” Von Richter acknowledged. “He said he has already ordered the squadrons to airfields under our command so we’ll have the ground attack capabilities necessary.”

The room went silent as everyone waited to see if anyone had any further questions. Looking around the room and seeing that with all the details of the operation disseminated and no further questions from those in the meeting room, the Karlsland general spoke again, “Very well, you all have your detailed plans on your roles for this operation. As of this moment, Operation Eclipse is a go.”

With the meeting adjourned, the witches exited the room as they processed the information they had just received.

“Still can’t believe the Neuroi are trying to kidnap us for their own uses.” Heinrike muttered.

“They know they are losing the war. We are pushing them on all fronts and a desperate enemy is the most dangerous one.” Mio commented as they all walked back into the lobby of the building.

“What are your plans now? Heinrike asked.

“Minna, Genna, and I are going to talk with our downed friends.” Rosalie answered,

“Wait, how did you arrange that?” Henrike asked.

Before any of the senior witches could respond, the Liberian naval captain from the meeting approached them and introduced himself as Brett Wheeler before he stood at attention while Minna stared back in silence while the other witches looked at the awkward situation. 

“It’s been a while hasn’t it Wing Commander?” Brett said.

“Indeed, glad you helped arrange this.” Minna replied

“Of course, it’s the least I can do. If you are ready, I’ll take you to go talk with your downed subordinates.” Brett replied as he gestured towards the jeeps waiting outside.

Minna acknowledged as the other three commanding officers of the 506th and Mio joined her.

“I will meet you at the airport.” Sanya stated as they all exited the lobby. The naval captain hopped into a Willy jeep while the witches got into Hijika’s jeep. As the two jeeps drove down to the harbor, Rosalie pulled a bit closer to Minna, “You know him Minna? Because from the way he was talking to you it seems you two share a history.”

“It was a while ago, me, Trude, and Erica saved him and his crew from Neuroi near the start of the war.” Minna said as they arrived at their destination on the docks. On the pier side, the witches saw the Liberion light cruiser moored to the pier that was proudly flying the 52 star Liberion flag. On the deck, men could be spotted with welding torches, conducting repairs and replacing blown off armoured sheets as quickly as they could. Following the Liberion naval officer, everyone walked up to the gangway that connected the ship and the pier. Two Liberion sentries armed with M1 Garands stood around engaging in idle chatting. When they both saw who the group of people was approaching, the witches could see the shock and awe in their faces. The sentries stood at attention immediately and saluted as the group passed them in the gangway.

Making their way into the warship, just outside of the radio room, Brett told the witches to hold up while he went in to make sure everything was set. Looking around, Minna walked up to a nearby bulletin board encased in glass that was filled with various newspaper clippings of various battles that had happened throughout the war. What caught the Karlsland witch’s eye was a color drawing that appeared out of place and was dated 12th of December, 1941. Minna smiled as she put a hand up to the glass-covered bulletin board. 

“Okay, they are on the line.” Brett said as he held out headsets for the three witches. Mio and Heinrike decided to wait outside. They entered the radio room and put on the headset. The radio operator on duty nodded to both of them to indicate they could talk.

“Trude, Jennifer, you there?” Minna asked

“We are here Minna, it's really good to hear your voice.” Gertrud said, her voice coming clearly over the radio.

“Likewise” Minna replied as she noticed that Brett was signaling for the radio operator in the room to follow him as both men left the room and closed the door behind them to give the witches some privacy. 

“How is Erica doing?” Gertrud asked. Minna blinked for a second, Gertrud always referred to her wingman by her last name and rarely used Erica’s first name in conversation.

“She’s fine, ready to sortie and eager to get you back on base.” Minna replied.

“That’s good, listen Minna…” Gertrud said as her tone of voice become more serious, “Sorry about getting us all in this mess. I should have stuck with Hartmann during that dogfight. It’s my fault that things are in such turmoil right now.”

Minna shook her head, “You couldn’t have known things would turn out this way. I’m just glad you got away from the Neuroi’s grasp. Did Brett explain about the Neuroi’s potential plan if they capture you?”

There was silence on the other end as Minna bit her lower lip and waited for  response. She was still trying to process the idea of one of her subordinates being forced to turn against them. It was thought that made her shudder and nearly brought her to tears during the meeting.

“Yeah, he told me about it last night. I’ll be honest, I spent the next half an hour punching some of the walls.”

“You didn’t hurt yourself did you?” Minna asked worryingly.

“No, I used magic to shield my hands, I’m not going to risk breaking my hands out here.And Flight Lieutenant DeBlanc also held me back a bit.” Gertrud replied. 

Minna sighed, Gertrud was always the hardest on herself and this situation was no exception. The only difference was that she wasn’t physically there to comfort her. 

“Just focus on having both of you stay undetected. We just got out of a meeting planning the next rescue attempt. Don’t do anything foolhardy okay?” Genna commented.

“Don’t worry Geena, I’ll be fine, bit shaken but nothing I can’t handle. Just make sure Marian and Carla don’t go AWOL.” Jennifer said.

“You’re leg doing okay?” Rosalie asked.

“Yeah, the wound has healed mostly. I’m fully mobile.” Jennifer replied. 

“Make sure you two feed yourself.” Minna noted

“Will do, but we are down to candy bars and some old cans of food.” Gertrud joked.

“We’ll get you two something more sustainable, besides I thought you never really minded the flavour of the food you ate.” Minna teased.

“We do have some standards Minna.” Gertrud replied, which caused all the witches to burst out laughing.

“Alright, we will talk to you with the others once we get back to base. Stay safe you two” Minna said.

“Likewise.” Gertrud and Jennifer replied.

Taking off their headsets, all three witches breathed a sigh of relief. Hope was surging back into them as they were glad to hear how their subordinates were doing. The three exited the radio room where the radio operators were waiting.

“Where did Brett go?” Minna asked, noticing that the Liberion naval officer was present. 

“He is off getting us some drink. He said that we can walk around the ship in the meantime.” Mio replied.

“How about we head for the bridge and get some fresh air?” Heinrike proposed.

Minna nodded in response to the idea. “Let’s head to the bridge then.” Mio said, before she turned to the radio operator, “Tell your Captain to meet us at the bridge when he comes back.”

“Yes madam.” the radio operator said as he returned to his post.

The four witches went up to the bridge’s right wing and looked out towards the calm ocean and breathed in the fresh salty air. Looking around, on the other side of the dock were the destroyers Nubian and Haida being replenished. In one of the drydocks, the witches saw the severely damaged destroyer Laffey being worked over by Karlsland and Liberion dockworkers. From their perch, the witches were astounded by the amount of damage the small warship had taken with the entire stern half of the destroyer turned black from the ferocious fires that had raged and yet still despite it all, was afloat long enough for one of the destroyers to tow it to safety.  

“Wow, so that’s the kind of damages being hit by a suicide Neuroi is like.” Rosalie said upon looking at the battered destroyer. “I can’t imagine the shock of seeing a Neuroi coming straight at you intending to ram you.”

“Such desperate actions to try to stem the tide. The Neuroi truly have no limits as to how far they will go in the war.” Mio added. 

A small gust of wind blew by and as it did, Minna felt something at her feet. Looking down, Minna found a small picture smacking against her leg. Bending down to pick it up, Minna turned it over to see what was on it. The picture showed a 13 year old light brown haired witch dressed in a light green gray Liberion Army Air Force uniform smiling at the camera while hovering over the desert in a P-51D Striker. The girl also had an Liberion kestrel familiar. In one of the witches’ hands was an orange training M2 Browning machine gun while the other hand was waving directly at whoever was taking the photo. The photo was marked with the writing, “Eliza Moore, Class of 1945, to my brother Steve.”

“Seems like one of the sailors here has a younger sibling ready to join the fight.” Mio remarked. Minna nodded, as she wondered which of the sailors it belonged to. Looking back at the bridge, there were several men milling about doing mundane tasks and Minna was about to go and ask which one of them the picture belonged to when she overheard two of the sailors having a conversation.

“Dammit it where did it go?” a Liberion sailor remarked as all three witches watched him  pursue his pockets.

“You lost that picture again? Told you not to leave it out while on the bridge when the doors are open.” replied another sailor laughing.

“How about you stop laughing and help me find it?” retorted the sailor.

“Is this what you're looking for?” Minna interjected as she held up the photo. Upon this, the sailors' eyes lit up and approached the group, as he did the three witches could see he was a bit nervous.

“Uh, thanks, my sister knew I’m a bit of a klutz so she sent me two copies of this photo. I keep this one on me at all times as a sign of good luck.”

“No shame in admitting it. And besides, ease up a bit, you don’t have to be so tense around us.” Mio replied.

“Uh, yes madam.” the sailor said as he relaxed a bit and Minna handed him the photo.

“Thanks sorry for being a mess, it’s just that my younger sister is a really big fan of you and considers you her idol. She actually wanted to lead a Joint Fighter Wing like you.”

“Well I hope she is ready for a lot of paperwork.” Minna jokingly replied which caused the sailor to laugh a little.

“Yeah, I’m just glad she got to join up with the armed forces.’

“What do you mean?” Minna asked.

“Well she initially wanted to be a writer but when she discovered she had witch powers, she put that dream on hold to enlist. Our mother initially didn’t want her to go since she didn’t want potentially both of us in battle. Was having a heck of a time trying to convince her through my letters that Eliza would do fine. Captain actually chipped in to help convince my mom to let my sister join the army air force.” 

Minna smiled as she recalled when she discovered her own Witch powers and gave up her dreams of being a singer to join the fight against the Neuroi. It had been a long six years since then and there had been a lot of challenges and triumphs as a Commander of a Joint Fighter Wing. And it touched her that there were still girls out there that looked up to her and aspired to join the fight to help people they had never met.

“She is training right now in Arizona. She’s about to graduate from the academy there and I’m trying to think of a present to send her.”

Minna pondered what the sailor said for a moment. Looking back at the sailor, Minna gave another warm smile, “I think I can help you at that, can you hand me the picture and a pen?” Nodding, the sailor took a pen out of his pocket and handed it with the picture to Minna. Accepting both, Minna then signed the picture and wrote a little note that said, “Always be vigilant, look out for your squadron mates and you will go far.”

Handing the clipboard and the pen back to the sailor, he promptly saluted, a smile escaping his lips. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.” 

Minna shook her head as she handed the sailor his belongings and put a hand to her lips. “I never did.” 

Getting the message the sailor nodded, and saluted the trio of witches. As the sailor promptly began to head back into the bridge Minna decided to asked,

“What’s your position on this ship?”

“I’m one of the bridge crew talkers, served on this ship for the last two years.”

“You enjoy serving with Captain Wheeler that much?” inquired Minna.

“Yeah, he is a damn good Captain. Gotten the opportunity to serve on heavy cruisers and battleships, Captain even offered to help me put in the paperwork to transfer but I turned him down. Told him I'd prefer to stay on with him. I just like his style of leading us and he tried to get to know us. When he was our XO, I remembered how he surprised us when we first got aboard, he spent a lot of time with us and got to know most of us by our first names and some small facts about us within the first two weeks of us on the ship. Ate with us in the mess hall and always found time to chat with us. There are like 700 of us on this ship and we were impressed.”

Minna nodded as she listened, the man she had helped rescue a few years ago in the Atlantic had really taken her advice to heart, and had learned from those costly mistakes. And he seemed quite adept at managing the crew of this ship. 

“Hmm, a true leader that cares for those under their command. Quite commendable.” Sakomoto replied.

“Yeah, but he is still tough on us, especially when it comes to training. Has us prepared for nearly anything and to work with each other. All that training really did pay off thought, getting to serve on this ship has been a pretty good adventure. We first got to escort the carriers of the Mighty Witches and saw a lot of anti-aircraft duty there. Afterwards, we were assigned to the Mediterranean and did convoy escort to deliver supplies for the Storm Witches. Then we got called off of convoy duties to support the Venezian Navy with evacuating after Operation Trajanus. That was probably our toughest mission, I still remember the time we had to be on action station for 12 hours straight to complete the evacuation.”

“That operation was the worst, I nearly pissed myself at my station. Felt like my bladder was about to explode before we finally got the order to stand down.” shouted another sailor on the bridge.

“Hmm seems like you guys have seen it all.” Geena remarked as she stiffed a small laugh as a result of the other sailor’s remark.

“Yep, it’s the perks of being the crew of a light cruiser, we get thrown into the thick of it, rinse and repeat.” interrupted Brett as he held four cups of drinks that the witches wanted. The witches heartily accepted the drink as they took sips of their drinks, this being the first time today they had time to just relax.

“Sorry if the coffee is a bit strong for you two, I didn’t know how you two prefer them.” Brett said to Minna and Mio.

“It’s fine Captain, I actually prefer stronger drinks.” Minna replied as she let the drink warm her hands.

“Indeed you do, you were the only other member of the 501st to love the liver oil I brought to the base.”

“Wait liver oil?” Brett said with a slight sign of disgust on his face. He wasn’t the only one as the other witches and other sailors on the bridge looked at Mio as if she had gone crazy.

“It’s good for your eyes, trust me, I should bring some next time so you can try.”

“Uh, I kindly pass.” Brett replied, clearly not interested in the offer.

“I concur with the captain, I don’t think that will be necessary.” Rosalie seconded.

“If you say so, my offer stands though.” Mio said as she laughed.

“Oh I almost forgot, I’ve created a special channel for you and your witches to talk to your two witches. I just request it’s usage with the radio operator on duty and he’ll connect you to her. Signal should be stable and if you have any issues, just let me know and I'll let my technicians take a look.” Brett said.

Minna nodded “I plan to use it to have everyone have a few words with Trude this afternoon.”

“Same here as well.” Rosalie added.

“Sounds good, I’ll be here to make sure everything runs smoothly for that one.” Brett responded.

“No rest for the weary.” Rosalie said as she recognized the amount of work the Liberion captain was putting in from getting his ship ready to helping to direct the creation of a new radio channel for the witches.

Brett tipped his cap, “Yep, I like to keep myself busy. And besides, the amount of work I have to do probably pales in comparison to the amount of tasks you guys have in order to run a Joint Fighter Wing.”

“I feel I do more paperwork than actually fighting Neuroi.” Minna replied as she remembered how many documents were still sitting at her desk.

“Yep, same here.” Rosalie sighed.

“Well, let's cheers to bureaucratic paperwork, for always being there to be a pain in all our lives.” Brett said as his XO brought him a warm cup of tea. The witches all nodded as they all clinked their drinks together before taking sips of their warm refreshments. Everyone soon finished their drinks slowly and engaged in idle conversation. Afterwards, they made their way to the gangway as the witches prepared to return to their respective bases. Before stepping on the gangway, all the witches turned to salute Brett. The Liberion captain returned the salute. Heading back to the airport in their jeep, the witches looked back to see that Brett was back at work talking to a damage control officer about the status of the repairs.

“He seems like a genuinely caring commander, he’s a lot like you Minna.” Rosalie commented.

“Indeed, compared to other Liberions I’ve worked with, he is not as boisterous but still commands respect from his subordinates. Maybe he was inspired by the witch who rescued him.” Mio added as she eyes Minna.

“Mio…” Minna said slightly blushing at the complement. The other three witches simply smiled as the jeep sped down the main road. It didn’t take a detective to figure out that both of them had a deep caring relationship for each other.

506th A-Unit Airbase

Sedam, Gallia

14:38

The various 506th witches of both subunits had gathered as they waited in anticipation. Since Rosalie and Geena had told them that they would get to talk to Jennifer over the radio, there had been a sense of general excitement. They were just waiting to be patched into the call as soon as Gertrud made her routine check in. 

“San Juan to 506th. Switching to special frequency now. Return to this setting if there are any issues.” a male voice replied over the radio.

Rosalie spoke into the receiver, “Thanks Captain Wheeler, standing by.” 

“Hi everyone.” Jennifer said.

“You really got to stop getting in danger when you’re by yourself, it really makes the rest of us worry.” Marian said relieved to hear from her wingmate.

“It’s thanks to Squadron Leader Barkhorn, you should really thank her..” Jennifer replied 

Marian cracked her knuckles, “And they want to try to turn one of us. Those thieving monsters.”

Geena nodded, “We will get out change, and both units of the 506th will accompany the 501st in the rescue mission. We’ll be flying to the 501st base in a couple of days.”

“We’re getting to work with the Strike Witches?” Marian said, surprised at this news.

Carla gave a sly smile, “Excited to try and outrace Flight Lieutenant Yeager? Because if you do I feel like you’ll lose that competition.”

Marian shot a glare at Carla before grabbing her and putting her in a headlock and rubbing her knuckles into her head. “You don’t have any faith in me huh? Screw you Carla!”

Carla winced under the assault on her head as she tried get out of the Marine witch’s grasp but her grip was too tight.

“Come on guys. Leave it for another time.” Kunika pleaded.

“Ow! Ow! It was a joke! Please, I'm sorry!” Carla apologized profusely. Marian dutifully accepted the plea and released Carla.

Listening to the commotion, Jennifer simply smiled and laughed a little at her two friends.

“Hey, what’s so funny?” Marian asked as she noticed her fellow Marine Corp witch’s reaction.

“I was just thinking.” Jennifer replied, “It’s just nice to hear you guys still acting like you normally do. It made me really appreciate all the small events I shared with all of you in the A and B unit.”

Genna nodded in agreement, “Life is really fickle so you always have to take the opportunities given to you.”

“At least you have someone trapped with you this time to keep you company.” Carla said as she reorganized her ruffled hair.

“Don’t worry about the two Neuroi, we’ll turn that thing into scrap metal.” Heinrike added. 

“Alright, just be careful, they have a lot of tricks up their sleeves. It was good to hear all your voices again” Jennifer said. The rest of the 506th agreed and bid farewell as Captain Wheeler came back on.

“I appreciate all you are doing for us, Captain.” Geena replied.

“Of course, this channel will be open if anyone from your unit wants to talk to her. I swear December 7 is my bad omen day.” Brett replied.

“I can relate. They used to call me Unlucky Preddy because of a number of accidents I had. Sometimes life really wants to put you down.”

The rest of the witches looked confused to what Genna was referring to except for Isabelle, who caught on immediately.

“You were part of the Atlantic Fleet when they were ambushed weren’t you?’ Isabelle deduced.

“Yeah, that was a morning I’ll never forget. And it’s how I got to know about Minna, Gertrud, and Erica. If you want, I’ll tell you all about it, I still got time before the 501st is due to check in as well.” Brett offered.

“If you are offering I don’t see why not. I think it would be nice to learn a bit more about your background.” Geena said.

Den Helder

16:00

In the base’s radio room, all the 501st witches gathered there as they waited just like their 506th counterparts. Once Captain Wheeler came on and introduced himself, he switched the signal with the transmitter buzzing with some static before clearing up. For the witches, the wait seemed like an eternity before a familiar voice came over the radio.

“Hi guys, it’s good to hear from all of you again.”

“Barkhorn, how are you?” Yoshika asked first.

“Not bad, I’m relatively safe and found some supplies from a crashed Liberion bomber to live off of for the time being.” Gertrud replied reassuringly. 

“You enjoying the relative peace and quiet where we can’t pester you?” Shirley replied jokingly.

“At this point I miss dealing with your shenanigans. At least you don’t try to blow me up in the process.” Gertrud shot back.

Shirley grinned, “We miss you Barkhorn, it just doesn’t feel right without you here on base.”

“Shirley’s got that right, life around here feels incomplete without you helping around.” Francessa chimed in.

“True that, it’s boring without you yelling at me every morning.” Erica added.

“You recovered from your wounds?” Gertrud asked Erica.

“Yep, and still as lazy as ever. We’re glad you are okay.” Erica said to her wingmate.

“I’ll be here until you come back to get me. I have no intention of falling to the Neuroi here.”

“Just don’t go wild and try to take on all the Neuroi by yourself. Leave some fun for us.” Eila added half-jokingly.

Gertrud smirked,  “I won’t, I already messed up once and got myself here. I honestly would give anything for a warm bed and an actually good hot meal.”

“Once you are back I’ll make whatever you want.” Yoshika earnestly exclaimed.

“I appreciate it, Miyafuji. I’m gonna hold you to that.” Gertrud answered. “Okay, I need to sign off to conserve energy this bunker has. It was great to talk to you guys again.

All the 501st responded with a flurry of good-byes as Gertrud signed off. As the witches all smiled at being able to reconnect with one of their own, the Liberion naval officer came back on the line.

“Any issues with the signal strength?” he asked.

Minna shook her head, “It all went perfectly, thank you again for setting this up.”

“Thanks for giving us the chance to talk to Barkhorn Mr. Wheeler.” Yoshika added. 

“No sweat, all in a day’s work on my end.” Brett responded.

“Hey Brett, is Trude still a disciplinarian when talking to you guys?” Erica asked nonchalantly.

Brett chuckled a bit, “Yeah, she gives these meticulous daily reports of the amount of Neuroi in the area everyday without fail. My radio operators are complaining to me about the amount of paperwork they now file because of her.  I don’t know how you put up with that work ethic.”

“Simple, I ignore it. She yells at me everyday about everything so I’m used to it.” Erica said bluntly.

“That's one way of going about it I guess. Guess you’re still as carefree as ever.” Brett replied, taken aback at the straightforward nature of the Karlsland witch.

“Hold on, you know Erica?” Perrine inquired to Brett.

“Wait, your name sounds familiar.” Shirley replied as she racked her brain before she snapped her fingers. “Wait, you were one of the guys when the Atlantic Fleet was attacked five years ago!”

A few seconds of silence then followed before Brett was heard audibly sighing, “Yeah, I was serving on the USS Quincy, CA-39 when we were deployed in the Atlantic.”

“Wait, does that mean …” Lynette asked hesitantly.

“Yep, I was there for the Atlantic Fleet Massacre.” Brett said, finishing what the Britanian witch was saying.

“You don’t have to tell us the story if you don’t want to.” Minna said as she recognized that the topic was touchy for the Liberion captain.

“I already told Sanya this story so I don’t mind telling the rest of you guys. You can add your side of the story as well Wing Commander. Hope everyone is seated because this is gonna be a long story.” Brett said.

Flashback

USS Quincy

7 December 1941

07:40

“This is boring, wish a Neuroi would show up.” groaned the helmsman.

“In due time Hamilton, stop whining and focus on the task at hand.” replied Brett as the heavy cruiser sailed at around 16 knots. Their cruiser along with the sister ship, Vincennes were on the right flank of the task force. On the left side of the task force, were the other cruisers of Cruiser Division 7, the Tuscaloosa, along with the cruiser Wichita accompanied them. In between the cruiser screens was the main heavy hitters, Battleship Division 3, composed of the three New Mexico class battleships, New Mexico herself, along with her sisters, Mississippi, and Idaho. Additionally, Battleship Division 5, having the New York, Texas,, and Arkansas who had joined for some manoeuvre exercises before they would return to the states.   

“If we do see one of those things, those battlewagons will blow them back to the stone age!” the gunnery officer chimed in. 

Brett smiled, “Yeah, just be ready for when that time comes. ” They had only arrived in the area only a week ago. The naval brass were fearful that with Europe falling, a Neuroi might try to sneak across the Atlantic and attack Liberion. Therefore, they had been ordered to sail a few hundred miles west of Brest and be on station there. The men were in a relaxing mood, since their country wasn’t officially in the war and they believed that the Neuroi would only be a European problem. But for Brett, he didn’t see it that way, the alien menace never offered terms and what was to prevent them from finishing off the rest of Europe and then turning their sights on Liberion? They would join the war, Brett was sure of that and he was pretty sure the mighty navy he was a part of could take on any Neuroi. Much of mainland Europe had fallen and yet the Liberian public seemed somewhat indifferent to the chaos abroad.

“Wish we were deployed in the Pacific, I’d kill for some warm weather.” one of the sailors remarked as he zipped up his coat. Winters in the Atlantic were quite brutal and some of the younger sailors out of training were not yet used to the merciless weather in the area.

“Well, if you want, Pearl Harbor is a few thousand miles west of here, I can get you a small boat and you can start paddling there.” Brett replied as he pointed in the general direction. The other sailors laughed in response, today was shaping up to be quiet and uneventful and Brett always tried to break the boredom with some witty humour to add some more liveliness to the shift.

Hearing loud thumps to the east, Brett gazed out of the starboard window of the bridge as several bright flashes were seen on the horizon. Realizing he had left his binoculars in his cabin, Brett internally cursed at his mistake as he tried to discern what was happening. Gesturing for one of the men, he told him to get the captain onto the bridge. The men on the bridge watched as there were some more flashes of light before it subsided.

“What was that all about?” asked a nearby officer.

“Don’t know, maybe Blue found something to shoot?” replied a sailor.

“With Captain Bode? I wouldn’t be surprised if he accidentally shot at another friendly ship again.” joked the navigator as he returned to looking at his charts.

Brett thought for a few seconds, Bode was never the most popular captain out there and his strict nature and confrontational demeanour made him even less popular with his crew. But something in his gut was telling him that this situation was different. Just then, Captain Moore entered the bridge and assumed command and Brett reported the strange lights coming from the direction of some of their destroyers  that had stopped. Captain Moore listened to the report before taking out his binoculars and attempting to ascertain what happened. 

“Any contact with the Blue?” the captain asked as he continued to look out at the horizon.

Brett shook his head, “Negative sir, should we activate our radar? I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

Captain Moore thought for a moment before he nodded in agreement, “Get down to the radar room and pass the word to Richard.”

Heading off the bridge, Brett walked down the stairs. Re-entering the ship and navigating through the corridors, Brett entered the radar room where the man seemed bored, looking lazily at a book in his hands with his eyes half closed.

“Captain wants a radar sweep.” Brett said as he woke the man out of his slumber.

“Uh, sure thing, give me a few seconds” responded Richard, surprised at seeing an officer at this time of night. Scrambling to turn on his radar set and put his headphones on, Brett watched his radar operator stare at the screen as it booted up. As he did so, the radar operator's eyes went wide. 

“Holy…”

“What is it?” Brett asked as he leaned closer towards the radar screen, not being adept at deciphering what the radar said. Before the man could respond, the ship’s intercom cracked to life with the captain shouting.

“ALL HANDS MAN YOUR BATTLESTATIONS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL, REPEAT THIS IS NOT A…” 

The warning was cut short as the entire ship rocked as if an invisible force had just struck the ship hard, throwing Brett to the ground hard. Regaining his senses, he turned to the radar operator who was shouting something to him but over the din of the explosions, he couldn’t initially hear what the radar operator was saying. After a few seconds, his hearing came back and what the radar operator was frantically saying became clear. 

“Six massive Neuroi are overhead sir! They’re circling us!”

Still in somewhat disbelief, Brett acknowledged as he exited the room to the sight of commotion. Several men were racing attempting to rush to their posts in one direction while another set of men were heading in the other direction. Manoeuvring through the mess of men out onto the open deck Brett stood there as he took in the situation. Overhead, six large flying wing Neuroi, the size of several battleships and camouflage in their distinctive black and red color, unleashed their weapons on the fleet and unleashed several fighters at the same time. One of them circled over the Vincennes and the laser beam the Neuroi let out bisected the heavy cruiser near the aircraft facilities, detonating the flammable material there and creating a giant fireball that lit up the surrounding area as the fires burned fiercely. Tearing his gaze away from the carnage, Brett looked toward the bridge, which was smouldering from what seemed like a direct hit. Scrambling up the ladders leading the bridge, he briefly had to stop as one of the forward main battery turrets fired under local control which managed to take down one of the  fighters. Finally getting to the bridge, Brett recoiled at the sight. The entire bridge had been eviscerated into obscurity with some of the steel still glowing red from the laser fire it had come into contact with. The only remnants of any of the captain and the rest of the bridge crew being some blood spatters on the floor and walls. Turning away, Brett was met by the sight of two sailors standing there with terrified looks on their faces. 

“Sir, what are your orders?” one of them asked, ducking instinctively as another explosion rocked the ship.

Brett didn’t respond for a few seconds as he could hear various men screaming throughout the ship and more minor explosions went off. The fleet was being torn apart and they had already lost the battle. The Idaho was dead in the water as she began to go slowly down by the stern. The other heavy cruisers had managed to get some of their armaments to fire but were easily destroyed with Witchita having her keel broken and the ship splitting into two sections by a laser beam. To add to the carnage, one of the Neuroi capital ships then unleashed a beam at the battleship Mississippi, the shot cutting through the armour of the battleship and detonating the forward main magazines. The explosion blew apart the old battleship, probably killing over a 1,000 sailors in one fell swoop. The detonation lit up the sky and could be seen for miles around and threw the trio of men off their feet due to the concussion from the massive explosion.

“Sir! What do we do!” one of the sailors repeated as Brett helped the man to his feet.

Brtee took a few deep breaths to focus trying to collect his thoughts. They were in deep trouble, their navy completely at the mercy of their enemy and his notion of easily being able to take on the Neuroi shattered. They needed help and the Liberion officer made his decision.

“Man all available battlestations! Get me a status update on the damage control. Tell the central station I’m heading there to take command of the ship from there.”

“Where are you going now sir?” the sailors asked as they watched their most senior surviving commanding officer head down to the main deck as some of the ship’s secondaries and machine guns opened up on the Neuroi in an attempt to fight back.

“To the radio room to call for some backup!” Brett shouted back.

Hawkedge Base, Britannia

07:52

Minna sighed at the mountain of paperwork at her desk, she had been at it for a few hours and there was still so much to fill out. Yawning, she looked out her window at the morning sky, marveling at the beauty of the silence on the airfield. It reminded her of her time with Kurt back in Posnania which brought some sadness. So much had been lost in this war and she wasn’t alone in regard to suffering from the Neuroi onslaught. Everyone had lost someone in the retreat from mainland Europe and the situation was still grim even after the successful evacuation from Dunkirk. Refocusing on the paperwork in front of her, Minna continued to fill them out until she heard a series of rapid knocks from her office door.

“Enter.” Minna said as she wondered who needed her at this time of night.

The door entered and Getrud entered with Erica behind her, though she was visibly sleepy. 

“Minna, we just got word that Neuroi attacked a Liberion naval force. The Britannians received a distress signal asking for support.”

Minna rose from her desk at the report before reaching for the emergency phone on her desk. Though the Liberion was officially neutral in the conflict, Minna knew they couldn’t just stand by and watch people die.

“To all available witches, emergency scramble, I repeat emergency scramble.”

With the base alarms now blaring, Minna accompanied by Gertrud and Erica scrambled to their Striker Units waiting in the hangar. They were accompanied by five other Karlsland witches and all nine witches were in the air within three minutes. Flying over the Britannian coast, Minna’s intercom crackled to life.

“Captain, I’m patching you in with the Liberion navy unit in the area to give you an update on the status.” reported a male Britannian officer.

A few seconds later, another male voice was heard over all the witches’ radio. “This is Lieutenant Brett Wheeler, we got ambushed by two large typed Neuroi. They were last spotted heading east, bearing 037.” 

“This is Captain Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke, what is the status of the fleet?”

“All cruisers except for Tuscaloosa are burning and flooding uncontrollably. Battleships Arkansas and Idaho are sunk. We are abandoning ship at the moment. Take out those six Neuroi, they’re strafing our men in the water!” the Liberion naval officer shouted as in the background, the Karlsland witches could hear muffled explosions and men shouting. 

“You heard him, destroy or drive off Neuroi, then we will focus on getting help to the survivors.” Minna ordered. The other witches nodded as they readied their weapons for a fight. After another five minutes of flying, the fires in the distance illuminating against the low level cloud cover made the search for the Liberion ships easy. Coming into view, six massive Neuori aircraft and various fighters circled above as it shot at the surviving warships and sailors that had abandoned ship and gotten into lifeboats and rafts. This made it clear to the Karlsland witches, it was clear the Neuroi was planning to leave no survivors behind. As the witches prepared to dive in, one of the Neuroi adjusted it’s course towards them.

‘Incoming Neouri, break!” ordered Minna. The witches in the squadron obeyed as they scattered just in time as a laser bolt shreaked by and missed them. As Minna, accompanied by Gertrud and Erica climbed into the clouds, the offending Neuro appeared. The three witches levelled their MG 42 and fired, racking the Neuroi from stem to stern with 7.62 mm rounds, fragments flying off the Neuroi with every subsequent hit the witches hit. Signaling to Erica, the blonde Karlsland Witch moved in above the Neuroi, and diving down on the Neuroi, activated her Sturm ability as she went straight through the Neuroi, leaving a gaping hole in the left wing of the Neuroi and taking down several enemy fighters in the process. The Neuroi tried to dive away, while firing at its pursuers that were deflected by the witch’s magical shields. Distracted by the machine gun fire by Minna and Erica that conducted hit and run attacks, it did not notice Gertud speeding straight at it, the gunfire for her two machine guns raking the Neuroi and eventually exposing the core.

“It's all yours Minna!” shouted Gertrud as she zoomed by the Neuroi as it let out a shriek of seeming pain.

Minna nodded as she aimed her iron signs on the core and pulled the trigger. The tracers impacted the core which shattered into thousands of pieces. The rest of the Neuroi disintegrated with its core destroyed. Taking stock of the situation, Minna checked in with the other witches and they reported that they took down another Neuroi and that the rest were in retreat. Linking up with the rest of the squadron, they began to search for the survivors of the Liberion naval task force.

Arriving around the scene to take a closer look, the witches looked at the horrific sight in front of them. A Liberion battleship was dead in the water and listing to port, most of her superstructure was gone and there were several fires on board that the crew was desperately trying to douse. Another battleship had already turned turret but was still afloat. The remaining three battleships were in various states of damage but still afloat and moving under their own power Two other heavy cruisers were also still floating but were heavily damaged and low in the water, their crews already abandoning ship. Elsewhere, the heavy cruiser Tuscaloosa was still sailing around with no visible damage, being the only combat capable ship left in the fleet. Most of the remaining warships that had originally made up the force had already disappeared beneath the waves. On the battleship that had capsized, men desperately stayed on the upturned hull to avoid the freezing waters of the Atlantic until lifeboats could come in to pick them up. The only other sign of the fleet were the fiery oil slicks that marked where they had sunk. In their place, there were hundreds of men in the water, clinging to any floating debris or raft they could find.

Keying her radio, Minna remained calm as she called for nearby Allied warships to respond to her location. Heading down closer to where the survivors were, several noticed the witches and started to wave. Of the survivors, Minna noticed that one of the men on one of the rafts had a flare pistol in his hand and was dressed in an officer's uniform. As the man spoke, Minna recognized his voice as the same as the one that gave them the distress call.

“Thanks for the assist. We sure owe you one.”

“No problem, the Furutaka, and Kinugasa are on their way to pick you guys up. We’ll fly top cover until they arrive. “Enterprise said it’s dispatching fighters to help provide cover as well.”

“Appreciate it, we’ll gather as many of the survivors in this area in the meantime. We’re gonna head towards the Arkansas and take off as many of them before she goes under.”

Minna nodded as she signaled for the other witches to form a defensive air cover. As they hovered around, the witches watched as the Liberion officer continued to coordinate and gather survivors to his small flotilla. Flying over the upturned battleship, Gertrud looked to see Minna staring intently at the hull.

“Minna what’s wrong?” Gertrud asked.

“I can sense a few dozen sailors trapped in some of the compartments and the water level in them is rising.”

Gertrud looked at the Liberion battleship as it began to sink before she descended and came near the upturned hull where she heard someone banging on the hull. Several sailors were nearby looking on helplessly. None of them had any sort of cutting equipment and the ship would slip beneath the waves before anyone with proper resources could arrive.

But for Gertrud, she simply shouldered her two machine guns and balled her right fist until it glowed bright blue. 

“I suggest you guys move.” Gertrud said as the sailors realized what she was about to do and carefully moved out of the way as Gertrud propelled herself and delivered a solid punch into the  battleship’s armour to give the trapped sailors the message to stay back. Propelling herself back and winding back, Gertrud punched the hull at her full strength as the armour panel gave way with a giant crunching sound. The sailors trapped in chest deep water were taken aback initially by the violence of their rescue as one of the sailors, a sub lieutenant with a wrench in his hand, approached hesitantly as Gertrud extended a hand to him.

“Come on, the ship’s not gonna remain floating much longer.”

 The sub lieutenant nodded as he accepted the help, breathlessly thanking her for getting him and his shipmates out as he breathed in the cool Atlantic air. Ten more men piled out eagerly all of them, thanking the witch that saved them from what was likely a watery grave.

“A bit of a violent way to get them out but guess there is no alternative way.” Minna said as she flew alongside Gertrud. “The next group is 30 meters to the right, I can feel 15 sailors in there.” 

Gertrud nodded as she flew over and repeated the same method to get the sailors out. She repeated the procedure one more time before Minna told her that was the last remaining batch of survivors she could detect.

“32 survivors. They are really lucky.’ Erica replied as she counted the number of men that got out of the three holes Gertrud created. The unorthodox rescue came just in time as well as the battleship began to finally slip beneath the waves. The survivors had scrambled into the several lifeboats that came to pick them up along with the Tuscaloosa coming to aid as well. After another half hour, Allied warships appeared on the horizon to help take on the massive number of survivors still in lifeboats. 

As more warships arrived to help, Minna was ordered to return to base as a flight of Britannian witches would take over the role of combat air patrol. Signaling for the rest of her squadron to return to Britannia, they all continued to look behind them at the carnage of bodies, oil, and fire that lay in the ocean.

“You think this will get Liberion in the war?” asked one of the witches who was sickened by the chaos the Neuroi had caused.

“I would imagine so, they just lost an entire fleet this morning. If that doesn’t wake up the sleeping giant of a nation that the Neuroi are a threat to everyone, I don’t know what will.” replied another witch.

“We’ll see, it might not make a difference. “Gerturd said pessimistically.

Minna thought for a moment, Liberion was an industrial powerhouse, with vast resources, and potentially a large military force. Up to now, the nation had only been willing to send supplies via Lend Lease to the Allies but had stopped short of sending it’s military into the fight. The public there had been hesitant to fully commit to another war in Europe but after what happened tonight, that opinion might finally shift.

“We’ll likely find out soon, lets get back to base and get a proper debriefing.” Minna finally said.

The other witches acknowledged as they flew back to base. They only had to wait until that afternoon to get an answer on what Liberion’s response to the attack would be.

12 December 1941

18:29

Portsmouth, Britannia

Walking down the street, Brett took in the sights of the Britannian city, walking past a rack of newspapers with the headline, “Thousands enlist after day of infamy! Liberon promises full support to Allies!” Brett signed, he was all for joining the war but never imagined it would happen like this. The Neuroi were indiscriminate, not caring if the people they attacked were neutral or not. The alien menace had just stirred the hornet's nest in Liberion. People were outraged back at home by the unprovoked attack and the same day of the attack, his country had joined the war in Europe in earnest. Continuing to lazily walk, Brett was lost in thought, thinking back to the interview he had with the inquiry board members hat morning when he suddenly bumped into something as he rounded a corner. 

“Hey, watch it!” a female voice shouted.

“Oh sorry.” Brett said as he snapped back to reality. Looking at who he ran into, he suddenly realized that the brown haired girl wearing a Karlsland field cap and dressed in a gray uniform and giving him a stern look was one of the witches that he recalled seeing as part of the Jagdeschwader that destroyed the two Neuroi that decimated the fleet he had been a part of. The witch realized Brett’s rank from the uniform she was wearing suddenly snapped to attention.

“Sorry about that sir, I didn’t realize who I ran into.”

Brett smiled as he returned the salute. “It’s all good Flight Lieutenant, I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings so that is on me. If anything, I should be thanking you. You and your squadron mates really rescued us five days ago.”

The Karlsland witch simply nodded to Brett’s compliment, before she continued to look past him. Looking behind him, Brett tried to see what she was looking at but the street was pretty much empty. 

“Uh, what are you looking for?”

“My sub-lieutenant, she ran off and its such a pain to find her.”

“Want some assistance? I’m not up to anything at the moment.” Brett offered. 

The witch thought for a moment before she signed, “Well we can cover more ground that way. She has blonde hair and a black uniform, name is Hartmann.”

“Okay. I’ll start by the docks.” Brett said as the Karlsland witch and said she would join him at the docks. Looking around the docks, Brett took in the fresh air and the various ships in the harbour, silently wishing he could be out there to re-join the fight. But for now, he was relegated to finding a rogue witch in a Britannian city. Continuing his search, Brett couldn’t find Sub-Lieutenant Hartmann anywhere and as he was about to double back, he heard a familiar voice that caught his attention.   

“Hey Mr. Wheeler!” a young girl with brown hair and eyes said as she approached the Liberion captain 

Brett gave a wide smile as he knelt down to the girl’s height, “Hiya Ana, what is it?” 

Ana handed Brett a drawing she had made of her hometown that was quite well done for a ten year old. “I drew this for you as a present. You said you were going back to your country to join a new boat soon right? We wanted you to have something to remember us by”

Looking down at the drawing Brett held back some tears, life wasn’t going the best right now and this seemingly simple sign of appreciation really touched him. “It looks wonderful. Can I hang this up on the wall of my warship for the rest of the crew to admire as well?”

The girl nodded enthusiastically as Brett patted her on the head.

 “And even better! Our helpers said that some nice Britannian families are taking us in! I can finally have a real house again!” she said proudly.

“That’s wonderful, remember to always be generous to those people, One day you can hopefully see your house again but until then …” Brett said as he took out a piece of paper and wrote something on it and handed it to her. “This is the ship I’ll be on. It’s supposed to be a secret so don’t go telling everyone okay. You, Sofia and Walter can write to me when you want okay?” 

 Ana held the piece of paper for a second before putting it into her pocket and suddenly hugged him. Taken somewhat aback, Brett returned the hug. Looking back at Ana, Brett noticed the girl was about to cry. Taking out a handkerchief, Brett wiped away the tears forming in her eyes. “Don’t cry, you’ve made it this far. You’ve got a bright future ahead of you. Don’t ever forget where you’re from, even if you can’t go back yet. There are a lot of good people working hard, we'll beat the Neuroi back, just you wait.”

Ana nodded as her three other friends came up and all of them thanked Brett and told him how they would miss him. All four of them then gave a salute to Brett who returned the favor. The three children then ran back into the city and as they did, they ran past the Karlsland witch that Brett was helping.  

As Brett walked up to her to ask if she found anything, he noticed that the witch’s eyes seemed to follow Ana as they disappeared in the distance.

“Why did you tell them we were going to beat back the enemy?” she said in a low voice.

“Huh?” Brett replied slightly confused.

“You know as much as me that we are losing this war, giving them false hope is counter-productive.” she continued.

“We haven’t completely lost. We still have Britannia and the Liberion’s war industry is revving up to fully support the war. I hear that forces in Orussia are planning another massive counterattack to happen in a few...” Brett tried to say before he was cut off.

“It won’t be enough!” the witch yelled. “Mainland Europe is practically overrun and we are suffering defeats after defeat on all fronts. And so what if your country can resupply us? Your armed forces battle record is pitiful if the fleet you were a part of is anything to go by.” The witch continued with a fiery look in her eyes that told Brett whatever he had just said had clearly pissed her off.

“Hold on their Flight Lieutenant, I can understand your frustration at the situation but I won’t stand you insulting me and my sailors. Yes we made mistakes. I should have had the radar running. If I had, maybe it would have bought us some time to get ready. But in the end we were caught flat footed and paid the high price. But we’ll bounce back, we never make the same mistake twice.” Brett replied as he tried to keep calm after her insult.

The witch scoffed, “Neouri’s don’t let us survive to rectify a mistake on the battlefield. You’re lucky the Neuroi didn’t kill all of you.”

Brett was left speechless, he had been thanking her only a couple of minutes ago and now she was giving him an earful for no apparent reason. The brunette witch seemed to realize this as she reverted to the stern face Brett had seen when he first bumped into her. 

“Sorry about that Commander, that was unprofessional for me as a soldier to speak to a superior officer that way. If you would like to file a complaint with my commander, I will understand.”

Brett was thoroughly confused at the shift in demeanor of the witch, it was clear to him that she had probably lost someone during the Neuroi invasion and had lost hope in things going well in this war. Losing your country and possibly family and friends together would break anyone’s morale.

“It’s fine, I’ll let it slide this time. How about we go back to looking for Sub Lieutenant Hartmann.” Brett offered as he tried to change the subject. The witch looked at him for a second before she shook her head. “No, I’ll do it myself. I appreciate your offer of assistance.”

As she walked off, Brett just watched her as he continued to process what she had just said. She clearly needed someone to talk to, that much was clear. But Brett knew he was in no real position to help, he barely knew her and trying to get her to open up to him, a stranger was only going to bring trouble. Sighing, Brett went up to their pier railing and simply looked out into the ocean as the sun began to set, turning the war a bright orange and red. Lost in his thought, Brett felt a little sorry for himself. The Karlsland witch was right in some regards, he and the survivors were indeed lucky to have lived through their first calamitous battle. And the general war situation both in the West and East was certainly perilous and it seemed that there was so much to do and even with his country’s entry into the war, Brett sensed the armed forces were inadequate in facing this otherworldly menace if the attack on his former fleet was anything to go by.

“Don’t take Flight Lieutenant Barkhorn’s attack personally, she’s been like that especially when someone reminds her of Chris.”

Looking to his right, Brett noticed that Minna had joined him and was giving him a warm smile of confidence. She was the opposite of her subordinate in regards to personality and the sunset highlighted her elegance even more.

“Who is Chris?” Brett asked.

“She’s Trude’s younger sister. Barkhorn’s first name is Gertrud but we call her Trude for short Unfortunately Chris is currently in a coma and Trude feels responsible for her sister’s condition. That young girl who gave you that picture looks a lot like Chris.”

The context given suddenly made everything that happened make so much more sense to Brett. Her cold demeanour, the eying of Ana, and the outburst from Gertrud all had a trigger. She was clearly hurting on the inside and Brett felt sympathy for her despite the tirade she had unleashed on him.

“Your Flight Lieutenant did have some merit in her arguments though.” Brett said thinking back to what Gertrud had said about the navy’s performance. “The number of simple mistakes I made during the attack is long, overconfidence, lack of readiness, and poor damage control, it cost  my ship. And unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one who had the same mistake and it cost us nearly 3,000 men. And being one of the most senior surviving officers, it’s a lot of pressure on me to learn from all those mistakes and to fix them.”

“You’ll get a chance, I heard Admiral King you got promoted to Commander. Congratulations.” Minna continued as she looked out at the ocean. 

“Thanks.” Brett said as he touched the Commander insignia he still wore on his uniform, remembering the promotion order he got yesterday. “Not the circumstances I wanted to get this promotion but I’ll take it.”

Minna laughed lightly, “Or the top brass wanted to give you it as a reward for putting up with the inquiry and those claims made by one of the other captains at you.”

‘Oh don’t get me started on that.” Brett groaned as he remembered how he had to defend himself against Captain Bode’s claims of Brett being drunk while on duty which was totally false. After several lengthy interviews, the investigators cleared Brett of wrongdoing with one of the investigators quietly telling him that Bode was probably gonna lose his rank firstly for his gross incompetence during the battle and the hell he was raising to try to have others take the blame for the disaster. 

Looking down at the picture Ana drew, Brett could at least appreciate that there were some people in Europe that still had faith in him.

“How did you get to know her?” Minna asked as she looked at the picture as well.

Brett chuckled as he handed the picture over for Minna to see, “They originally came up begging for some food. They lived in the slums so they hadn’t eaten anything in a few days. Reminded me of kids I used to see suffering during the Great Economic Panic. So I decided to buy them some food to eat. And we just exchanged stories afterward and got to know each other. They were from Ostmark and evacuated when the Neuroi invaded. Unfortunately they got separated from their parents and eventually got here a few months ago.”

“This is a pretty nice drawing.” Minna said as she continued to look at it. “You said you're gonna put it up on your ship?”

“Absolutely.” Brett replied, “I want it to serve as a reminder to my crew that we are going to fight for people like her to get their homeland back. They may have different cultures or backgrounds, but they are humans at the end of the day. It’s why I joined the navy, to help others and maintain the peace. Also to see the world and have someone pay me to do it.” Brett added jokingly at the end. 

The red haired witch smiled, “Sounds a lot like why a lot of us fight. Up in the sky, there are no borders. Witches take that as a sense of pride because it’s our duty to help others.”

“Indeed, witches like you sure have the deck stacked against you. You gals give it your all to the Neuroi everyday but it seems the tide is against you guys.” Brett said sadly remembering what Gertrud had said.

“Well … I am working out something with the top brass.” Minna hinted.

Brett looked at her, interested in what she had to say as she continued. “It’s called a Joint Fighter Wing, it takes the best witches from the various Allied nations and puts them into an elite unit to combat the Neuroi. I submitted the idea and hopefully it gets approved by Air Marshal Dowding.”

Brett thought about what Minna said, a unit of the best witches worldwide sounded to him like a fantastic idea to create at this moment. The world needed something to put their hopes in and having a witch unit consisting of the best and brightest witches from various Allied nations would be a symbol of worldwide unity in the war against the Neorui. 

“If I were the brass, I’d approve this initiative in a heartbeat.” Brett said. “The only issues I can see are getting nations to give up their aces for this project. But hopefully they have the wherewithal to realize that the only way we beat the damn Neuroi is by combining forces together.”

“Indeed, and there is the politics of where we would be deployed if this formation is formed. There would be a lot of nations wanting the unit to benefit them without looking at the bigger picture.” Minna added. 

Brett had to agree on that front, countries want to solve their own issues even if it means others had to suffer. It was a reason Brett hated the political bureaucracy sometimes. When the system breaks down, self-interest often trumps the greater good unfortunately.

“Well fingers crossed, I hope your project goes through and if it does, I wish you the best of luck leading it to victory.” 

Minna smiled as she returned the drawing he had in her hands to Brett, “I appreciate your support Commander, and I wish you the best of luck at sea. What ship are they putting you in charge of?”

“CL-54 USS San Juan. The navy wanted me to be on another heavy cruiser but no position was open. I heard that the Atlanta-class was being redesigned to be an anti-aircraft platform and I believe that I’d rather have a lot of rapid fire guns to be able to take on airborne threats. So I asked the brass to let me be on one of those light cruisers. I’m heading back to the states in a few days with some of the survivors who want to join me to retrain. Honestly, I’m a bit nervous to be the XO with so much going on.”

“I think you’ll do fine. Just a word of advice, make sure to get to know your subordinates but keep a balance of discipline. And treasure every moment with them as precious, you never know when the Neuroi can take all that away.” Minna replied with a hint of sadness in her voice.

Brett felt there was something the witch was hiding but decided against asking. “Thanks, I’ll take what you said to heart. A ship isn’t a one man show, it takes everyone working together to keep it running. It will take some time to get my crew into any sort of fighting condition, we have a lot to learn but we will bounce back from this.”

“That’s the spirit.” Minna replied.

“Minna!” shouted someone as both turned to see the source to be a smaller blonde hair witch who ran up to them with a brown bag that looked to be filled with sweets.

“Erica? How much chocolate did you buy?” Minna asked her blonde counterpart as Brett realized that she was the one Gertrud was looking for earlier.

Erica gave a wide smile, “Just a little. We don’t get to have R&R. Wait, are you one of the guys we rescued a few days ago?” she said as she looked at the Liberion naval officer.

Brett nodded as the girl introduced herself, “Erica Hartmann, nice to meet you!”

“Nice to meet you as well, you know your superior officer is looking for you right?”

Erica smiled, “Ah don’t worry about her, Trude is always wound up about everything I do but I’m used to it.”

Minna chuckled lightly before returning her attention to Brett, “Hartmann and I should get going. We got to go find Trude and head back to base by sundown.”

Brett nodded, “Take care on the battlefield, don’t know if our paths will ever cross again, but thank you again for saving us. I hope I can replay you one day.” The Liberion officer then saluted the two Karlsland witches who returned the gesture in kind. As both witches headed back into the city to find their fellow compatriots, Brett watched and silently wishing them the best of luck for the future.

Return to present

“And that’s pretty much the story. Did I miss anything, Wing Commander?” Brett said as he was audibly heard taking a sip of some liquid, no doubt in order to help his parched throat after telling that long story. For most witches that had not heard the story before, they were enthralled at all the detail and were completely silent as they processed everything about this man’s past.

Minna shook her head, “No, that’s pretty much how I remember things going down.”

“Wow…  you went through a lot.” Yoshika said.

“I remember hearing the President’s declaration of war speech. It got a lot of people across the country fired up to join the war. Sounds like you didn’t need much motivation.” Shirley recalled.

“Yeah, now you know why I’m invested in making sure your downed counterpart gets back to you guys safely. I wouldn’t be here without Minna, Erica, and Gertrud taking down those Neuroi that night. My XO is also pretty invested in this mission as well, he was one of the sailors Gertrud busted out of the Arkansas that night. And what Gertrud told me about fighting the Neuroi, while it was delivered harshly, really stuck with me. It’s why I always drill into my sailors to work together and be prepared. Also taught my sailors to respect your adversary because complacency kills. ” Brett told the witches.

“So where are those refugees now?” Perrine asked.

“Last I heard from one of them was a few months ago in a letter, they’re still living in Britannia with some foster parents. Some of them are thinking of joining the service when they are old enough. Hopefully by the time they are that age their home country is liberated.”

“And you actually put up that picture on your ship?” Francesca asked.

“Yep, when I was aboard San Juan in mid 1942 I hung it just outside the radio room. A lot of the rookies when they were assigned to my ship always asked about it, telling the stories to others really helps me cope with the trauma of the attack. And now you girls know the story as well.” Brett said.

Now that I think about it, I remember a newspaper running an article about your ship defending against a massive Neuroi armada in the North Atlantic. That’s why your name sounded so familiar” Shirley noted.

“I was serving with the Mighty Witches then. I just got promoted to captain. That was in mid 1943, the witches took out a bunch of Neuroi attacking the fleet but one of the Nueori broke through to the carriers. So I ordered our ship to try to draw fire from the Enterprise. We took a few bad hits but we forced the enemy away from the carrier. Bought enough time for the witches to get back and destroy it.” Brett recalled.

“Saved by the bell yet again?” Erica joked.

Brett chuckled, “Wouldn’t have it any other way. At least we were shooting back more effectively that time.” Another voice came was heard talking to Brett, 

“Sir, preparing to cast off in 15 minutes.”

“Okay, I’ll be there in a few minutes. Make sure everything is in order on the bridge.”

“You heading back out to sea?” Shirley asked. 

“Indeed, it’s gonna be all hands on deck when the rescue operation commences. Wish I could stay to talk with you girls longer but maybe when this is all over you can meet face to face with me and my crew sometime.” Brett said.

Minna smiled, “Maybe, let's not get too ahead of ourselves.”

“I hope you have safe travels.” Sanya added.

“Much appreciated.” Brett said as he signed off. For the witches, their morale was much higher after that experience. They got to talk with Gertud and hear a pretty touching story from an Allied naval officer. 

“Wow Wing Commander Minna, I never knew you participated in that battle that caused Liberion to enter the war. I remember listening to the radio when they announced that specific Neuroi attack.” Shizuka reminisced.

“Indeed, it was … well a tough time for the Liberions. They had to take a large amount of casualties because of their military force’s inexperience with combat against the Neuroi. But to give them credit, they picked themselves up and adapted quickly.” Minna said as she looked at the clock hanging in the room. “It’s almost dinner time. Miyafuiji, Lynette, you should get started on preparing for that.” Both of the addressed witches nodded in agreement as they headed out of the room towards the kitchen as everyone else dispersed but this everyone seemed to have a bit of a spring in their step.