Chapter 5 Trusting others

“The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.” - General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.

10 December 1945

Den Helder 

10:38

Eila rubbed her eyes as she got up. Looking around, she turned to find Sanya still fast asleep and hugging her favorite pillow that was black and had red embroidered design on the side. The Suomus witch smiled, glad that her Orussian counterpart was back at base and had chosen to sleep in her bed. She remembered how Sanya had asked the night before if it was okay for her to sleep alongside her. Of course, Eila had said yes but her heart had skipped a beat at the request.

Leaning closer to Sanya, Eila watched Sanya as she continued to sleep peacefully. She had realized the night of Sanya’s sortie how lonely she got being grounded and not waking up to see Sanya in their room the next morning. Stretching her arms, Eila got out of bed and put on her uniform quietly so as to not wake Sanya. 

“Just for today, I’ll let you continue to sleep in my bed okay?” Eila thought as she opened the door. Stepping out into the hallway, the bright lights of the hallway contrasted against the dark room and Eia squinted her eyes as they adjusted. 

Heading down the hallway, Eila heard the sound of Striker Units coming closer. Running up to the closest window, she saw two witches not from her fighter wing approach and land on the runway. Heading out of the in a brisk jog, Eila managed to reach the hangar just as the two witches had finished parking their Striker Units. One of the witches had long blond hair and was dressed in a Karlsland uniform similar to Heidemaire, another night witch that Sanya often told Eila about. The other had short brown hair similar to Miyafuji and wore a white shirt with a purple hakama. 

The two witches noticed Eila and walked up to her. “506th Joint Fighter Wing Heinrike Prinzessin zu Sayn-Wittgenstein has arrived and is reporting to duty with my subordinate Kurodoa Kunika.” the Karlsand witch replied.

Eila simply looked confused, “Uh, wait aren’t you guys based in Sedan? That's a long way from here.”

“We have a joint mission with your fighter wing tonight. Heinrike sighed, “Didn't your wing commander tell you?”

In response, Eila stuck her tongue out at Heinrike that shocked the Karlsland night witch before she cracked her hands and attempted to attack Eila but Kunika restrained her superior.

“Squadron Leader, get a hold of yourself! We came here to help, not fight them!”

Before things escalated, Minna then came into the hangar.

“Nice to see you Prinzissen. Thanks for arriving for tonight’s mission.” Minna said greeting the two 506th witches

“Of course, witches always look after each other, especially if one is in need.” Heinrike said as she recomposed herself.

“Are we gonna make extra pay for this mission since we are serving with another fighter wing?” Kunika asked.

“Ugh, can you stop thinking about money for at least one day?” Heinrike moaned as she grabbed Kunika by the ear. “I just want to make sure I know what I need to do to earn my next pay check properly!” Kunika replied as she tried to get away. The two 506th witches continued to argue as both Minna and Eila watched with some interest. 

“Sorry about that, anyway when do you want to hold the briefing?

“At 13:00 hours, so feel free to rest up and grab some lunch before then in the mess hall. Miyafuji is cooking up some Fuso cuisine.”

Heinrike nodded while Kunika jumped for joy. The two witches headed off towards the mess hall leaving Minna and Eila in the hallway.

“Such polar opposites.” murmured Eila. 

“Sometimes that brings out the best in both people, just look at yourself and Sanya.” Minna replied as she walked off to help the mechanics with storing the Strikers leaving Eila to think about it. Minna was right, she and Sanya were opposites, she was open and energetic while Sanya was more taciturn and polite and yet they were an inseparable duo that cared for and looked after each other and while it was awkward at times, Eila really cared for Sanya and would do anything to protect her smile.

13:00

“Alright, let's get right to it.” Minna said as all the witches were seated, many having just finished eating their meals. “Tonight we will be participating in Operation Manna to resupply Barkhorn and DeBlanc until Operation Eclipse can commence to rescue her. Australias bombers will be conducting the drop with four separate flights. Three of the flights will drop fake cargo to confuse the Neuroi as to where both witches are. Miyafuji, Hattori, Litviyak, and Kuroda will be led by Prinzissen to escort the Allied bombers.”

On the projector screen behind her displayed a map around Hamburg with the planned routes of the various bombers displayed across the map. “You five will like up with the bombers over Bremen and escort them at high altitude to avoid ground fire.”

Switching to the next slide, it displayed pictures of both of the Neuroi witches with their alias written below that caused murmurs among all the witches with hints of fear apparent. Minna had already told them earlier about the Neuroi intention for both downed witches which had caused various emotions among the unit.

“Intel about the Screamer and Hammer are sparse but from recent combat reports, these two are not to be underestimated. Both are heavily armed and we don’t know if they have any hidden weapons up their sleeves. What we do know is that these two have the ability to appear as friendly witches or aircraft on radar. Countermeasures are being worked on for this but for now the only way to discern the ruse is through careful radar detection. The Liberion Army Air Force will be sending out a modified B-17 along for this mission to gather intelligence.”

“Eh, is it one of those Flying Fortress modified with radar? I heard some of them just got deployed to Britannia.” Shirley asked.

Minna nodded, “That is correct, it’s an initiative to try to get regular aircraft to be able to do radar picket duty and vector friendly aircraft to intercept. It’s a system they are calling Airborne Warning and Control System or AWACS for short.”

“Still can’t beat a witch’s radar.” Heinrike bluntly remarked.

“Very true.” Minna noted. “But we need to probe for as much intelligence about our opponent to be able to properly take them on. Any help from any of the branches is appreciated, having more people looking at a problem means different perspectives and new ideas.”

“So what time are we setting off for this mission Wing Commander Minna?” Shizuka asked.

“At 1815, the rendezvous with the bombers is at 1900. You will all be fitted with external fuel tanks for more endurance. Remember the priority is protecting the bombers, any final questions?” 

Kunuka raised her hand, “Any idea of who the crew of the radar equipped bomber will be?” 

Minna looked through her notes that she had on the table in front of her. “The airman you will be talking to mainly goes by the callsign Lighthouse. They forgot to include his real name in the notes they sent me so unfortunately I can’t help you there.”

“Huh, that’s a unique name to go by. I wonder how he got that nickname.” Yoshika asked.

“It could be a play on words, lighthouses are a beacon in a sense and these new aircraft sort of act like one.. Shirley replied. “So maybe the guy took that as his callsign.”

“That’s pretty clever if he did that.” Lynette said. “I wish I had a nickname or signature callsign like that.”

Yoshika smiled at Lynette, “We can work out a cool nickname for you Lynne! I’m sure there is one perfect for you!”

“I’ll help, that sounds like fun!” Kunika chimed in.

Minna clapped her hands together. “You can do that this afternoon, if no one has any questions, you are all dismissed.” 

The witches went about doing some different tasks as Heinrike went up to Minna to discuss some of the finer details of the operation as Yoshika, Lynette, Shizuka, Kunika, Sanya, and Eila stayed in the room and came up with potential nicknames for each other. For both Karlsland witches, they looked on with amusement at some of the terrible names offered up in the conversation. 

“You think they will all be able to work together well in tonight’s operation? It’s pretty crucial to make sure Barkhorn and DeBlanc get sufficient supplies to sustain themselves.” Heinrike asked Minna.

The red haired witch simply looked at the witches that were tasked for the mission tonight as they laughed and joked with each other and Minna simply smiled. “I have full confidence in their abilities and your ability to lead them no matter the odds.”

19:00

The six witches flew through the night sky in silence, the moon was at first quarter and visibility was excellent as the stars twinkled above the girls. Having arrived at the meet-up point a few minutes early, they flew a holding pattern and took in the sights of the calm night sky.

“It's a beautiful night eh Sanya?” Eila stated

“Yes it is.” Sanya replied as she looked at her Sumous counterpart. 

Heinrike meanwhile looked down at her watch impatiently, scanning the surroundings waiting for the expected bombers to arrive. 

“Why don’t you relax Squadron Leader, there is still time.” Kunika asked as she flew up next to Heinrike.

“They got 15 minutes or else they are putting tonight’s operation behind schedule. We’ll see if either the Liberions or Britannians will drop the ball. 

A few minutes later, the signature of a four engine bomber was picked up by both Heinrike and Sanya and soon the other witches heard the drone of the bomber’s engine as it approached them.

“Good evening everyone, this is the Airborne Early Warning assigned for this mission. My callsign is Lighthouse. Nice to meet you all.”

Coming closer, a silver coloured B-17G approached and joined up with the formation of witches. Looking at the Flying Fortress, the witches noted the bomber was a bit of a different design that what it normally looked like. It only had  top, chin, and rear mounted machine guns. What stood out the most was that in place of the bombardier nose position was an AN/APS 20 radar set.

Heinrike scoffed, “Don’t know why we need you, we have radar ourselves.”

“We’re here to provide an extra set of eyes, I may not be able to pinpoint the exact location of the enemy like you guys can; but command wants to make sure if these Neuroi can fool our IFF, to see if we can find a way to counter it. Besides, there are benefits of this job.”

“And that is?” retorted Heinrike.

“Watch this.” Lighthouse said. The witches watched the bomber in silence for a few minutes waiting to see what would happen. From their perspective, the bomber continued to fly in formation with them and nothing happened. The witches all looked at each other confused; as if they missed something.

“All right, how was that?” Lighthouse said triumphantly.

“Uh, smartass, nothing happened.” Heinrike retorted.

‘Well in the time you were watching, I got up, walked through the bomber, chatted with the pilots, then went to grab some Pelmeni I made for myself. I get hungry on overnight missions so I always pack some food. I'm saving it until we get to a lower altitude to eat it.”

“Oh! That sounds good! I’ll trade you one of the major’s cookies for some of whatever pelmeni is!” Kunika said excitedly as she took a cookie out of her pocket and waved it at the bomber’s port side window.

“You still carry food with you? I told you to stop doing that a month ago!” berated Heinrike as she tried to take the cookie out of her subordinate’s hand. Kunika maneuvered away as she played keep away. While this was happening Sanya flew closer to the bomber.

“Lighthouse, you know how to make pelmeni?” she asked softly.

“Huh? Yeah, I was born in St. Petersburg, my dad’s from there and my mom’s originally from Helsinki. Growing up, I loved going with my mom back to Helsinki to see the Northern Lights. When I was eight, we emigrated to the states. My mom taught me how to cook Orussian meals which were always great. When I was deployed to Europe, I sometimes try to buy some food from a market near the base so I could make meals to remind me of home.”

“Oh so your half Sumous and Orussian.” Eila noted.

“And a Liberion citizen officially, I took the citizenship test when I could.” Lighthouse added, “But I’m still an Orussian and Suomus person at heart. I wouldn’t have been able to exist if it weren't for my parents so I’ll always wear my multiple heritages with pride.”

The Orussian witch smiled at the story, “Did you visit St. Petersburg again before the Neuroi invaded?”

“Sadly no. My parents were going to for their wedding anniversary, but the Neuroi put a stop to those plans. I promised them I’d take them back to their hometown once we win this war.  How about your folks?”

Sanya listened and remembered her own parents and felt some sadness about not knowing where they were. Though she didn’t say anything, the Liberion understood based on the silence he got from the question he asked.

“Oh sorry... I uh… didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.” Lighthouse said nervously.

Sanya shook her head, “No, its fine, I know they are alive, it’s just I haven’t seen them for a long time.”

“You’ll see them again, I’m sure of it. Until then, do you have good memories of them?”

“I have a song my father created for me, do you all want to hear it?”

“I’d love to. I’m sure the rest of the crew would love to hear it as well.” Lighthouse said.

“I’m all ears.” Kunika chimed in.

“Sure.” Heinrike said.

Shizuka came closer to Yoshika, “Is Flying Officer Litvyak a good singer?”

Yoshika nodded, “Just listen.”

Sanya took a breath to clear her thoughts before she began singing her song. Everyone was quiet for the entire length of the song, the tune that Sanya sang having a nice medley that seemed to echo across the night sky.

“That was so good.” Kunika said as she wiped away some tears.

“I agree, that was the most beautiful thing I’ve heard, you’re a really talented singer.” commented Lighthouse.”

Sanya slightly blushed from all the attention, “Thanks.”

“пожаловать, было приятно поговорить с вами.” replied Lighthouse. Sanaya immediately brightened and smiled at the response as the other witches looked at each other in confusion as the man was speaking Orussian and none of the others were fluent in that language.

Eila flew in closer to the B-17 bomber, “Eh, don’t you get any funny ideas with Sanya.” she said in a somewhat confrontational tone.

“Ah you don’t have to worry about that, I know the rules. From the way you're acting while I was talking for the past three minutes, I take it you already claimed Sanya for your own?’ the Liberion replied in a sly tone.

Eila’s face immediately went red with embarrassment as she was not expecting that kind of question to be brought up in this setting. Sanya also blushed slightly as both witches didn’t immediately deny or confirm the claim. Before either could utter a response Lighthouse laughed and spoke again.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding, don’t get yourself in a twist.”

Eila mumbled something incoherent in response as she looked away trying to recover her composure. While this happened, Miyafuji came alongside Sanya.

“Uh, Sanya, what did Lighthouse say?” Mijyafiji asked.

Sanya smiled, “He said you’re welcome, it was nice to talk to you as well in Orussian.”

“Oh Squadron Leader, did you put some money for my fundraiser?” Kunika asked innocently.

The Karlsland witch groaned in response, “The last time you had such a fundraiser, Pilot Officer Bergendal turned it into a joke aimed at me!” 

“Aw come on, even just a penny would be appreciated.” Kunika pleaded. 

“I think I know why your commander is hesitant to give up her pennies.” Lighthouse said slyly.

“Wait, why?” the 506th Fuso witch asked interested.

“It’s because pennies are usually considered lucky so your squadron leader is hoarding all the pennies because she wants all the luck. Back me up on this Eila.” Lighthouse replied.

Eila grinned widely  as she realized where the Liberion was going with this conversation. “Yep, she doesn’t want to share any of the luck with you. She’s also jealous that you have more natural luck than her.”

“Oh, I understand now!” Kunika said before she turned towards Heirnike. “Why didn’t you tell me your luck was so bad?”

Heinrike at this point was seething in anger before she finally exploded, “Damn it Kuroda! I’m not hoarding the pennies because I have bad luck! They are pulling your leg! It was all a joke!”

At this point laughter could be heard coming from various crewmembers of the  Liberion bomber and Eila herself was snickering at the situation. The other witches looked on, unsure of how to react to the prank pulled at the 506th witches' expense.

“Damn you Lighthouse and Flying Officer Juutilainen.” Heinrike said, gritting through her teeth.

“It’s all for good fun Squadron Leader. You’re too wound up.” the Liberion responded.

Eila nodded in agreement, “Yeah, you're no fun if you can’t take a joke.”

“Wait just to be clear, Squadron Leader, if you're not hoarding those pennies, can you give them to me then?” Kunika asked somewhat pleadingly. Heinrike put a hand to her face as she groaned while the others just snickered at how gullible and somewhat simpleminded Kunika was. Just at that moment the group was then joined by the two Britannian Lancasters bombers that were to drop the supplies for Gertrud. The witches and their radar equipped B-17 reorganized to defend the two Britannian bombers who flew in a tight Vic formation with Sanya, Eilia, Yoshika, and Shizuka covering the left and Heinrike and Kunika handling coverage of anything on the right. The trip was uneventful as they headed north for the next hour. As they approached the supply drop point, the witches tenses up expecting the Neuroi to appear at any moment. 

“It’s quiet.” whispered Sanya.

“Too quiet” replied Eila as she continuously scanned the sky.

“Maybe the Neuroi decided to take the night off.” Kunika said optimistically.

“Outback 3 to Outback 1, we’ve delivered our decoy cargo unopposed, returning to base.” reported one of the other Autralias Lancaster bombers.

“Roger that. We are on final approach ourselves, bombardier, prepare to open the bomb bay.” the lead Lancaster pilot replied.

As the bomber prepared to release it’s cargo, Sanya and Heinrike began to sense something on their magic radar. 

“I’m starting to pick up interference on my radar. I can’t pinpoint the source.” Sanya stated.

“Same here.” Heinrike said as both Night Witches attempted to ascertain the threat.

“Radar set here is also going crazy, wait, that means …” Lighthouse began to report just as Sanya was the first to notice the threat as her antenna turned red. She levelled her Fliegerhammer at a set of clouds that were in front of them and ripple fired four rockets that disappeared into the clouds before the night sky turned orange and red as the rockets found a target. As the cloud dissipated, a humanoid Neuroi emerged with it’s right arm missing but was already beginning to regenerate it’s lost limb. 

“It’s the Screamer! Protect the bombers!” yelled Heinrike as she aimed her MG 151/20 cannon and fired a small burst at the humanoid Neuroi. The enemy dodged out of the cannon shell’s way as it unleashed a small volley of lasers from it’s two hands.

“About six Neuroi, bearing 003 and closing fast.” Lighthouse reported calmly as the battle began to unfold. 

Heinrike pointed at the four 501st witches, “You four, take out those contacts Lighthouse called out. Kurodoa and I will keep the Screamer away.”

The four witches nodded as they headed north, Closing in radiply, the three witches fired their weapons at the Neuroi drones and were all shot down before they had a chance to fire themselves. 

“More contacts, bearing 296...” Lighthouse began to report again before static began to interfere and anything he said became intelligible. As the three witches attempted to hail him over the intercom, Sanya detected more Neuroi drones and again fired her weapon, downing three of them. Two Neouri fighters with barrel shaped bodies and delta wings attempted to sneak around the trio, but Eila’s Foresight skill detected them and her MG 42 put an end to that threat promptly. 

“Miyafuji, Hattori, two more above!” said Sanya, detecting them with her Magic Antenna. Looking up, the two Fuso witches spotted them and Shizuka dispatched one of them with her Type 99 cannon. The surviving enemy attempted to outturn it’s opponent at high speed. However,  Yoshika’s Shinden Kai Striker Unit excelled at these high speed turns in the short term and she drew the lead on the Neuroi before turning it into white sparks against the dark sky.

“Thanks Sanya. Are there any more of them?”

Sanya closed her eyes and was silent for a moment as she concentrated on the skies. When she opened her eyes, she immediately flew west as her three friends raced to catch up.

“Sanya, what’s the rush?” Eila asked as she caught up to Sanya who had a look of determination on her face.

“The bombers are in danger, the Neuroi were drawing us away from the bombers.” 

Gaining altitude the four witches soon came upon the two Lancaster bombers as four Neuroi fighters were dancing around the two lumbering bombers. The Lancaster’s defensive armaments blazed away as opportunities presented themselves, attempting to keep the Neuroi at bay. One of the Lancaster’s engine number 4 was no longer operational and showed scorch marks from several near misses. 

Crackle over the radio was followed by a transmission from the lead Australias bomber can in clear, “Mayday, mayday, any witches out there. Neuroi are circling like a pack of wild dogs out for the kill. We aren’t going to be able to hold them for much longer.”

Getting ahead of the bomber, Miyafuiji activated her shield to deflect the laser fire, the blue shield shrugging off the several Neuroi laser bolts that attempted to target the cockpit of the bombers. As she did so Eila anticipated the direction the Neuroi would go and guiding Shizuka, both witches hosed them down with her machine gun. Any other Nueori that remained at a distance were dispatched by Sanya who hung above them and fired her rockets to drive the other enemies away. 

“Thanks for the save lassies. We were really in a jam there.” Outback 1’s pilot said with relief in his voice. 

“Where did Lighthouse go?” Sanya asked, realizing that one bomber was missing from the formation.

“Unknown, they suffered from damage and fell behind. Haven’t seen them since.” Outback 1 said. “I didn’t want to leave them behind but we needed to retain speed and maneuverability to stay alive. Haven’t seen the 506th either. We still need to drop the supplies, follow us in and then you can be free to search.” 

The four witches acknowledged and reformed up with the Lancasters resumed its course to drop it’s cargo on it’s designated position. The formation droned unopposed and made its way along the Autobahn as a reference point before banking slightly to the left. 

“Approaching the designated dropping point. Lets not keep those Squadron Leader Barkhorn waiting for our goods. Bombardier you’re up.” the Australis pilot stated.

The Lancasters held steady on a north-western direction as their bomb bays opened and on cue, released it’s cargo which was several sacks of various supplies for Gertrud to collect on the ground. The cargo’s parachutes opened after descending for a couple of seconds in freefall as expected and slowly floated down to Earth, the while silhouettes of the parachute blending in with the snow covered ground below. 

“Cargo away successfully.” the bombardier announced.

“I hope they both get those supplies.” Yoshika said out loud.

“I agree, but we need to find Prinzissen and Kuroda.” Eila noted. “Sanya, can you find them with your radar?

The Orussian witch shook her head, the Neuroi were interfering with getting an accurate distance and bearing on anything. It would be dangerous as there was a risk of accidentally colliding with friends or foe in the air and that could have catastrophic results.

Over the intercom, the witches heard some brief static before a voice came over, “Whew, Lighthouse to friendly units, how is the mission going?”

Sanya breathed a sigh of relief “The bombers delivered the supplies and are heading home. Where are you?”

“We were hiding in some clouds and heading to the North Sea, we should be home free.” Lighthouse responded.

“We need to find the 506th witches.” Sanya said as she remembered that the Liberion bomber also had a radar set. Realizing this, Sanya began to formulate a plan in her head.

“Lighthouse, can you adjust your settings to get a general bearing on the other witches as well?”

“Give me a second, let me adjust some settings … there; I can also get a general bearing on their location as well. I assume you want to do some triangulation with our two radar sets right?” Lighthouse said as he caught on to what Sanya’s plan was.

Sanya nodded as she slung her rocket launcher and took out a map of the area and a red pencil from her pocket, “We can try to triangulate the position to help narrow down the area to search.”

“Oh that’s clever!” Shizuka said.

“That’s Sanya for you.” Eila grinned.

Sanya simply nodded as she and Lighthouse swapped the bearing and range of where the other witches were and Sanya drew two arcs on the map that intersected on a single point of the map.

“They have to be there, let's go.” Sanya announced tapping her pencil on the location before grabbing her Fliegerhammar. “Follow me.” she said  as she led her friends in that general direction as fast as their Strikers would allow them to.

____________________________________________________________________________

Barely dodging the Screamer Neuroi’s shot, Heinrike swung her MG151 and pulled the trigger on the weapon’s pistol grip, letting loose a three round burst in response. The agile Screamer Neouri dodged the return fire who then quickly accelerated out of range. Before Heinrike could give chase the Hammer Neuroi dove in, nearly colliding with Heinrike. The Karlsland night witch gritted her teeth in frustration at the evasiveness and skill of these two Neouri. As the Hammer attempted to come around for another attack run, it was rocked by machine gun fire and veered off. Kunika came alongside to join Heinrike as the two witches took stock of what to do next.

“I still can’t make contact with the others!” Kunika stated.

“My radar is being jammed by those Neuroi so I can’t find where Sanya or the others are.” Heinrike replied as she tried to retain sight of the Neouri against the dark sky. Both witches went back to back to protect each other from getting shot at from behind as they glanced apprehensively at the various clouds that could be concealing their foe.

“Move!” Heinrike said as both witches moved in opposite directions as a laser bolt went between the two. The Hammer Neuroi emerged from it’s hiding spot and hovered in position as it unleashed volleys of laser fire as the two 506th witches stood their ground, activating their shields that deflected the barrage. As Kunika continued to hold a defensive stance, Heinrike took the opportunity to propel herself above the battle, aiming her sights and steadying her aim with the weapon’s secondary grip.

“Gotcha” the Karlsland witch though as she let off a long burst of Minengeschoß from her weapon. The Neuroi adversary shuttered under the volley of fire. But instead of disintegrating, the Neuroi did something unexpected. It used it’s quick acceleration to close the distance on Heinrike. Before she could react, the Neuroi brought one of it’s hands back as it glowed red and punched towards her face. Activating her shield, Heinrike eyes widened as the Neuroi’s hand easily shattered her shield and the Neuroi was now a meter from her face. Right before the Neuroi’s fist made impact, Kunika intervened, using her shield as a battering ram and ramming into her enemy.

The Neuroi, taken aback by the intervention, fires several point blank shots at Kunika with one of the shots grazing the witch’s shoulder. Ignoring the pain, Kunika continued to push her adversary back and the humanoid looking enemy backed up from it’s adversaries, showing some visible battle damage. The Neuroi proceeded to seemingly stare at the Fuso witch, who returned a glare of determination despite her injuries. 

Interrupting the standoff, several rockets streaked in, impacting the Neuroi. Both 506th witches soon found the source and watched their 501st counterparts dive in to turn the battle in their favor. The Neuroi seem to realize they it could not win, and rapidly headed north. 

“Good timing, thanks for coming to help us.” Kunika said as she held a hand over her wound.

“You’re hurt.” Sanya said worryingly. 

“I can heal you.” Miyafuji offered as she came closer.

The Fuso 506th witch smiled, “It’s fine, I can manage until we get back to base.” Heinrike nodded, “She is right, she can keep fighting, she’s tough. Let’s reunite with the bombers. Did the supplies get released?”

“Yup, we did that, and Sanya and Lighthouse worked together to find where you were. So thank them for reaching you guys in time.” Eila said.

Kunika smiled as she looked at Sanya, “I guess we owe you, how much of my night paycheck do I have to give you?”

Sanya looked a bit confused, “Uh, that's not necessary, I’m just glad you two are safe.”

“Squadron Leader Wittgenstein, Flying Officer Litvyak, I’ve got a set of six large aircraft between us, bearing 213, but my IFF is showing them as friendly.”

“That’s impossible, there are no other friendly units in the area. You must have made a mistake.” Henrike said as she tried to locate the threat at the given bearing. 

“I’ve double checked, the IFF is green but I don’t trust it because as you said, there are no other Allied aircraft in the area. On top of that, I can’t get in contact with them.” Lighthouse reported. As the debate continued, Sanya focused her radar to the east, initially her radar antennas stayed green seeming to indicate that whatever she was detecting was friendly. However, the signal that she was receiving from these mysterious aircraft did not exactly match the expected IFF response.  Slightly adjusting her antenna’s wavelength, the IFF signal she received no longer matched and as a result, her antenna turned red. 

“They are definitely enemy aircraft.” Sanya firmly announced to everyone.

“Follow me to intercept them.” Sanya said as the four witches formed a finger-four formation with Sanya and Heinrike taking point, using their radars to guide the other two witches into a proper intercept course. 

“Wait, I thought only the two Neuroi witches could change their radar signature return.” Shizuka noted as they flew towards the enemy. 

“Perhaps those two are the only ones that can do it but can project their powers on nearby Neuroi.” Heinrike theorized. 

“2,000 meters until intercept.” Sanya announced as the witches flew abreast of each other to form a firing line to provide each witch with a clear field of fire.

“1,000 meters until intercept.” Heinrike said as she readied her heavy cannon.

Approaching the witches from the other direction, four Neuroi bombers with forward swept wings escorted by the Screamer Neuroi quickly merged. The enemy bombers used their forward facing laser mounts to fire on the witches, all the witches except for Eila activated their shields in response. The witches responded with a fusillade of rockets and machine gun fire. Screaming past the Neuroi, the witches quickly reversed their direction and went after the enemy. 

Flying underneath the enemy formation and maneuvering around the rear mounted tail turret of the bombers, Heinrike unleashed a burst of cannon fire into the vulnerable underbelly, raking the entire fuselage as well as a podded engine mounted on the forward fuselage before pulling away unscathed. The damaged bomber slowed down and seizing the opportunity, Sanya loosed six rockets that streaked through the air and penetrated the armor of the Neuroi heavy bomber with one of the rockets striking the core.

On the right side of the formation, Yoshika and Shizuka dove in from above as three of the bombers opened up on them. Yoshika lead the way, using her stronger shields to tank the incoming fire as the two of them concentrated their fire on the Tail End Charlie bomber and destroyed it. The remaining four bombers in response, tight end their formation. The Screamer attempted to disrupt the witch’s attacks by trying to latch onto the tail of both Heinrike but bursts of MG 42 fire from both Eila and Kunika forces the enemy to break off it’s attack. Strangely, the Neuroi witch made the decision to bank away from the formation and exited the combat area.

“Is it leaving the bomber’s out to dry?” Shizuka asked, slightly confused as she watched it disappear into the night sky.

“Wait, look!” Kunika pointed at the bombers as each of their engines glowed red and the bombers increased their speed and began to climb away. 

“Damn, they're trying to get above our effective combat altitude, after them! Get into Formation Victor, Pilot Officer Hattori, on me!” Heinrike commanded as the six witches split themselves into two formations and applied full throttle to their Strikers to catch up with the enemy formation. Using her Fliegerhammer, Sanya launched another salvo that blew off one of the wings of the bombers. The crippled bomber then began to spiral out of control before Eila followed up and fired at the bomb bay with the bullets detonating the ordinance which destroyed the bomber but in the process releasing a red mist that the witches flew straight through.

“What the?” Shizuka asked as she flew clear of the mist and looked back as the crimson clouds drifted towards the ground.

Heinrike gritted her teeth as she realized the gravity of the situation. “Miasma gas, those bombers must be carrying bombs filled with that stuff. This stuff can kill people with only a few minutes of exposure. Lighthouse, the bombers are heading bearing 200, are there any important civilian or military targets in that direction?”

“Let me check my maps, standby.” Lighthouse replied as the witches heard him shuffle his papers and heard furious scribbling for a few seconds. “Shit, this is not good.” he muttered before addressing Heinrike, “Squadron Leader, if the bomber’s continue on this bearing, their target is likely Amsterdam.”

“So they are trying to cripple our main port, not on my watch.” Heinrike said before addressing the others, “We can’t let them pass at all cost. Once they climb above our service ceiling it's curtains for thousands of people in that city.”

The witches nodded as the severity of the situation sank in. What had begun as a simple escort mission now had turned to a race against the clock. Climbing to give chase, the witches fired their weapons when in effective range, leading their targets as best they could butthe high speed of their enemies initially made it difficult to gauge how much sufficient lead was needed. To add to the stress of the situation, Lighthouse’s gave an update on his bomber’s situation.

“Shit we got a Neuroi fighter on us. And we got a fire onboard! Gotta go off the air, turn those bombers into scrap!” he urged as the witches heard a carbon dioxide extinguisher being used a few seconds later before the transmission cut out.

“We can’t do anything for him, focus.” Heinrike said as she finally nailed a couple 20 mm rounds into the core of the Neuroi.

The Neuroi’s tail gun pods fired wildly into the night sky to try to shoot down the girls but the witches continued undeterred with Sanya loosing another rocket salvo but the bombers pulled an evasive maneuver by rolling steeply to the left and causing most of the missiles to miss but this temporarily mean they had to slow down which allowed the others to catch up. The witches seized the opportunity as Kunika took out one with a long burst of her machine gun. Shizuaka took aim at the lead bomber but the other remaining bomber in the formation suddenly veered in between the two and sacrificed itself in the process. The last bomber took this moment to build back up the speed to climb away from its pursuers as the witches watched helplessly.

“Damn it. We just needed a few more seconds.” Henrike shouted in frustration. The other witches looked dejected as well before Sanya spoke. “Don’t worry, Eila’s got this.”

“Wait where has Eila been this entire time?” Yoshika asked, realizing it had been a few minutes since she last saw her. Sanya just simply smiled in response as everyone heard machine gun fire ahead of them and the bomber turned to white dust. Flying to catch up, everyone saw Eila flying triumphantly and grinning.

“Last bomber destroyed.” Eila announced.

“Wait, you used your magic to anticipate the bomber’s flight path?” Kunika asked, astounded that Eila had anticipated the enemy’s plan.

Eila nodded, “Yep, I knew a tail chase would be difficult so while you kept them busy I flew ahead to intercept them and trap them.”

“You could have at least told us your plan and saved us the stress we had of seeing that last bomber almost get away.” Heinrike replied. Eila simply shrugged and grinned.

“I’m just glad everything turned out okay.” Shizuka said.

“Let’s return to base. We finished our mission here.” Heinrike announced.

“Wait, should we look for Lighthouse? He and his crew might still be in trouble.” Yoshika objected.

“He is not responding to my calls, we don’t even know where to start looking for them.” Heirnike said “Our orders from Minna were to return to base and not to loiter over this area for too long.” 

“We still have some energy to check for a few minutes, can we just take a look around to see if we can find them?” Sanya asked gently.

Heinrike considered the options in front of her, the Liberions bomber crew especially Lighthouse were in her eyes quite obnoxious, more so than any witch from the B-unit. However, she did have to give them credit for guiding the 501st to save them and helping to take out the bombers.   The Karlsland night witch sighed before she turned to the other witches who were waiting for her to make a decision, “We can try, if they are still in the area, it’s our duty to help them. Flying Officer Litivyak, take point with me to use our radars to sweep the area.” The witches agreed as they flew in a loose V formation and headed back east.

Propping one of his radar operators against the fuselage and administering morphine, Alexei made sure the injured man was secure before making his way through the bomber. His other radar operator had gone to go check on the tail gunner and had shouted that he was knocked out as well by shrapnel that had been caused by the Neuroi attacks but that the tail gunner’s flak helmet had likely saved his life. Reaching the cockpit, Alexei found his pilot as well as the co-pilot struggling with the yoke to keep the bomber level. The Neuroi had left them alone after they had gone over the North Sea but the bomber had taken severe damage. The Liberion heavy bomber had lost two of their engines and a fire that had occurred nearly suffocated everyone onboard. It was only thanks to Alexei and one of the radar operators who managed to grab on-board fire extinguishers and douse the fire in foam coupled with the pilot and co-pilot putting the bomber into a dive that put out the fire. But the damage was done and the holes let even more freezing air into the bomber

“How are we doing back there?” the pilot asked as he continued to have a tight grip on the controls. The controls were sluggish as the bomber lumbered through the air.

“Everyone’s still kicking Captain. Think we’ll make it back to Britannia?”

“It’s either that or attempting a crash landing in the ocean. I swear if we get back to base I’m gonna wring out command for forcing us to take out the spare bomber.” the pilot replied.

Alexei only nodded, the bomber that they were usually assigned to suddenly needed emergency maintenance that morning and the mechanics couldn’t get their original bomber ready in time so they had been forced to take one of the spare bombers tonight. For the crew, it was a bad omen to be forced to take a different aircraft into combat. Looking out the cockpit window, Alexei’s eyes initially didn’t see anything until he looked to their right and his jaw almost fell to the floor of the bomber.

“Captain! Bandit at one o’clock!” Alexei shouted as he grabbed his pilot’s shoulder to make sure he heard.

“What?” the pilot said as he jerked his control to the right and the alien craft passed over them. A few seconds later, the Screamer reappeared in front of the bomber and flew in front of their bomber and continued to maintain a course and speed to be just ahead of the bomber. The three men looked at each other, confused at the enemies actions and shocked at seeing their foe so close.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” the co-pilot said. 

“Gunners, what are you waiting for?” the pilot shouted to the top and chin turret gunner over the intercom.

“Guns are frozen shut Captain.” the top gunner reported. “Same here sir, the ground crew didn’t oil them properly.” the chin turret gunner also noted.  Alexei could hear his pilot swear under his breath, they had no way to fight back and now the deadly alien enemy was now flying with them. Alexei watched their enemy match their movement and continued to fly just ahead of them. Looking into his commander’s eyes he could see he was terrified of the enemy that was just off their nose. 

“Can you get in contact with the witches?”  the pilot asked as he continued to stare at the enemy in front of them.

“I’ll try, it might take a while to get power back though.”

“Do it, I’ll adjust our course back towards Karlsland cause I don’t know what that thing is doing, but I doubt it is going to let us go.” 

Alexei nodded as he shimmied his way back to his post as he felt the freezing cold ocean air coming through the various holes in the fuselage. Returning to his post, he looked at the radar equipment which was dark as the radar had been destroyed. Reaching for the radio, he grabbed the headset and spoke, “Lighthouse to 501st and 506th, requesting support. I repeat...”

“Contact, just ahead of us!” Sanya announced. “IFF says it’s a B-24 and is closing towards us.”

Heinrike smiled, “It has to be a Neuroi then because there are no Liberators operating in this area. Everyone hold here and wait for it to appear out of the cloud bank.” The witches all hovered in position and aimed their weapons at the thick clouds ahead of them anxiously waiting for the order to open fire. The tension was palpable as the girls had been on edge since combat had begun and they had had close calls all night. As everyone’s attention was focused on waiting for the order to fire, Eila felt that something didn’t feel right about the Neuroi’s actions. This special Neuroi wouldn’t be incompetent enough to just blunder it’s way straight towards their waiting guns. Deciding to confirm her suspicions, Eila closed her eyes and took a few seconds to use her Foresight to see a few seconds into the future. Opening her eyes wide suddenly, she realized there was something behind the Neuroi and the despicable manoeuvre it was about to pull on them.

“Wait, don't shoot!” Eila shouted as she flew ahead of everyone’s line of fire. The others looked confused as the Screamer zoomed past them and disappeared into another cloud bank. 

“What did you do that for!” Heirnike shouted, frustrated at being denied an opportunity to take out a valuable enemy target.

“Eila, why did you do that?” Sanya said miffed at the actions her long time compatriot just did in front of her.

“Because it was a trap, look who was behind it.” Eila pointed as a B-17 also came out of the cloud cover and headed straight at them. They were so close that the witches could see the pilot and co-pilot staring wide eyed at the sudden appearance of the witches to their front. The witches scattered out of the way as the bomber dipped below them to avoid a collision with them.

“Wait, that Neuroi was using the bomber to bait us to accidentally shoot our own bomber down?” Yoshika said in disbelief at nearly having fallen for that ruse.

Sanya turned to Eila and held her hand, “Nice catch Eila, sorry I doubted you there.”

Eila blushed slightly and was surprised at being able to hold hands with Sanya, “Eh… of course, I’m just glad everything turned out okay.”

“Damn, that was dirty and crafty. I will give them that.” Heinrike said as she flew next to the damaged B-17 and attempted to hail them. She finally got a response that came through weakly. 

“Good to see you girls, that Neuroi was flying in front of us and we were trying to find you guys so you could get rid of it. Didn’t realize we were being played like a damn fiddle that entire time.”

Heinrike nodded, “We’re also glad to see you as well, your aircraft looks pretty beat up. What is your plan from here on out?”

“Uh, I’ll put our pilot Charlie on the line.” Lighthouse responded before another male voice came over the radio. 

“We got two wounded that can’t bail out so we are gonna try to fly back to Britannia, its gonna be a slow journey though at our reduced cruising speed.” 

Yoshika, Sanya, Eila, Kunika, and Shizuka flew along the bomber assessing the damage, the Liberion bomber’s left horizontal stabilizer was completely shot off and only two of the engines were still operational. On the midsection of the fuselage, there was a gaping hole big enough for them to see inside where they say a young man wearing a thick brown Army Air Force jacket wearing a crush cap with his radio headset around his neck kneeling next to a shivering friend and rubbing his wounded friend’s shoulders in an attempt to keep him warm. The surrounding temperature was only a few degrees above freezing and for the witches, their magic protected them from the frigid environment but for normal airmen, they had no such ability. 

“If you guys need to go back to base I can understand.” Charlie replied. “We’ll make our ….”

“We aren’t leaving you.” Heinrike said in a firm commanding voice.

“Witches don’t abandon others in need, we’ll escort you until you find a suitable airfield to land.” Kunika added.

“How about landing at our base? It’s closer and the runway is long enough for you to land safely.” Yoshika added. 

The witches flew on both sides of the bomber’s cockpit and watched as the two pilots and the man they saw earlier warming his friend up discussing what the idea the witches were proposing. Finally the man with the radio headset spoke while looking at the witches.

“Lighthouse here, we’ll take your offer to help us get to Den Helder. From the bottom of our hearts… thank you so much.” 

The witches could tell that the man was choked by emotion and could actually see some tears forming at the corner of his eyes. For the girls, it was really touching to see the positive impact they had on others. Most of the time, they heard people on the ground cheering them on and it was rare to see such personal connections up close in the air. 

“Settle in everyone, we still got one more mission tonight to finish.” Heinrike encouraged as the witches formed a defensive formation around the lumbering bomber. The group formed up and headed slowly west towards the 501st base.

Den Helder 

21:19

Minna was on the tarmac of the airfield as her eyes were anxiously scanning the sky. She had brought alongside a portable radio set in a Willy Jeep in preparation to provide any last minute assistance. Perrine and Shirley were still in the barracks waking up Erica and Francesca. Hearing footsteps running up next to her, Minna saw Lynette still putting on her jacket. 

“Is there any update?” Lynette asked as she caught her breath.

Minna held up a hand as she began to hear the distinctive drone of piston engines and soon enough she observed six witches escorting a B-17. As they all descended, the witches peeled off as the four engine bomber lowered it’s landing gear and carefully managed it’s speed using the throttle and flaps to prevent from stalling as the wheels touched the ground and the bomber slowly rolled to a stop about ¾ of the way down the runway. Minna gestured to Lynette to jump into the Jeep as Minna drove the vehicle up to the bomber. The other witches had by now landed as well and were running up to the bomber as well to help however they could. The Liberion bomber crew had opened the hatches and were slowly making their way to the ground as it was still quite dark despite the lights positioned around the base. 

Giving a hand, Minna helped one of the crewmembers with carrying another wounded crew and laid him on the tarmac so that Yoshika could heal him. Thankfully, there were only two wounded crew members and their wounds were not too severe. Despite being in the air for over three hours, the six witches who participated in the operation were lending whatever aid was needed.

“Excellent work tonight, I can see why Rosalie put you in charge of the A unit.” Minna said, putting a hand on Heinrike’s shoulder. The Karlsland night witch smiled back, “It was a team effort, everyone gave it their all. Leaving anyone on the battlefield that needed help was never an option.” 

Soon afterward the other 501st witches arrived in a CCKW and they brought some blankets to the men who graciously accepted. 

“Really appreciate you girls for everything. Sorry if I ruined a good night's sleep for you all.” the pilot replied.

Minna smiled at the Liberion. “We are always ready to help others in need anywhere at any time, it’s pretty second nature to us.”

The Liberion smiled, “Well the joint collection of witches saved 10 guys on this mission and as a bonus… “ the Liberion airman grabbed his colleague who Sanya, Eila, Heinrike, Kunika, Yoshika, and Shizuka knew as Lighthouse by the collar.

“Alexei turned 21 today as well!”

The young flight lieutenant was taken aback for a second before he looked at his watch and realized what time it was. “Oh yeah, it's still 10th of December, I totally forgot about that until you mentioned that.”

“Oh so that’s your first name. We were wondering at our briefing what your actual name was.” Yoshika replied quickly.

“Yeah my full name is Alexei Petrov.” the Liberion said as he gave a proper introduction of himself.

“Wait, it's your birthday today and you didn’t bother to tell us?” Kunika asked.

“Uh, I didn’t want to mention that on the mission because I didn’t want to jinx it.” Alexei responded.

“Did you make a wish?” Yoshika asked.

Alexei scratched the back of his head as he pondered an answer, “Well, I was just hoping to survive the mission but I think I’m gonna change that. I just hope that you all can rescue your squadron mates behind enemy lines before Saturnus comes around. You girls deserve to celebrate the holidays with each other.”

“That’s so considerate of you.” Lynette said.

“с днем ​​рождения, маяк. ” Sanya said, giving a smile to Alexei.

“благодарю вас.” Alexei replied as he tipped his cap in response. The other witches and aircrew looked confused at the unfamiliar language unil Eila translated. 

“Sanya said happy birthday, and Lighthouse said thank you in response.”

“Wait what is the word of Lighthouse in Orussian?” Shizuka pondered. 

Sanya nodded, “маяк is the literal translation of Lighthouse in my native language.”

“Well, guess we learn something new everyday.” Perrine noted. The pilot let Alexei go as turned to Kunika, “Hey Kunika, here catch.” he said as he took something out of his pocket and threw a small metal object at her. Kunika caught it and her eyes glowed with excitement at what it was. 

“Thank you! Another penny for me!” Kunika said triumphantly as the others around her simply looked on trying to understand this girl’s affinity for money.

“Okay everyone how about we head into the barracks to relax, unfortunately we don’t have a cake to celebrate Flight Lieutenant Petrov’s birthday but I’m sure we can find something else to do.”

“I can brew some tea!” Lynette said enthusiastically.

“I actually can cook some food for you all, if you have some noodles, some beef, and broth I can whip up some beef stroganoff. Consider it a meal to both celebrate a successful mission and my birthday” Alexei volunteered. 

Minna nodded, “Sure, I’m sure that everyone returning from the mission is quite famished and could use a hearty meal.”

Sanya nodded in agreement, “I can help you with the cooking, Eila you want to help as well?”

“Of course.” Eila replied.

Everyone else was in favor of the idea as Lynette, Sanya, Eila, and Alexei headed back in the Jeep with Erica at the wheel while the others helped move the bomber off the runway and secured the Striker Units which took around 30 minutes before heading to the mess hall and kitchen. By the time they reached the building, the meal was almost ready and everyone couldn’t wait to dig in.