I don't have any copyright or ownership claims to Strike Witches, XCOM, or any of its deriatives and mods.
Ever since the first Neuroi emergences in ancient history, the Witches have served as humanity's sword and shield.
Their powers allowed them, and them alone, to stand up against the red and black tides that would have otherwise devoured humanity.
But what of other threats?
If a threat appeared that surpassed even the world's Witches, who would stand up for humanity then?
In December, 1942, an alien craft, the first of many, appeared in Earth orbit.
When it entered the atmosphere over Suomus, Allied forces believed it to be a Neuroi.
A local Witch squadron was mobilized to eliminate it.
The sole survivor reported that it was most emphatically NOT a Neuroi.
She brought reports of craft that were much tougher than they should have been, and green bolts of energy that pierced their shields with one hit.
A ground recon squad, purely conventional in composition, was sent to investigate it after it landed.
There were only two survivors, but they managed to clear out the UFO and neutralize its occupants.
Thus, the 115th Experimental Combat Unit was formed, to research and fight against this new alien threat.
For two years, the Unit stayed inactive, waiting and watching for further signs of the threat.
In the February of 1944, alien starships began to appear in high Earth orbit.
Reports began to trickle in, of strange events: rumors of abductions, disappearances, paranormal and unattributable occurences began to spread.
The squadrons on the front lines found themselves beset by a foe that seemed to surpass even the toughest Neuroi.
There was one success, however, against the new enemy.
On the first day of March, a lone interceptor, bearing the markings of the "115th Experimental Fighter Squadron", shot down a small scout craft.
The 115th X-COM Unit now found itself on the front lines against an enemy unknown.
This is their story.
Vigilance in the Shadows
Chapter 1: Operation "Vengeful Inspiration"
[Yokosuka, Fuso]
[May 5, 1944]
Those with power are always led to where it is needed the most.
The words rang inside of Yoshika Miyafuji's head like an incessant bell.
She was needed?
But... if she became a Witch... then she'd be part of that awful war!
...Not in a million years, she wouldn-
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*CRASH*
"Huh? What was that?"
Getting up and walking around, she could see lights, flashes in the distance.
An eerie, sickly fog or mist seemed to be drifting towards the clinic.
Hearing footsteps in the hallways, she took a peek outside her room.
It was her mom, with a flashlight in her hand.
"Oh, Yoshika. Were you awakened by the noise as well?", she asked. Yoshika nodded.
"Well, wait right here. I'll go take a look outside. I'd heard strange rumors about things going on during nighttime, but for it to happen so close to our home..."
"Nonsense. It's probably just a tree falling or somesuch...", Yoshika's grandmother interjected, coming from the other end of the hallway.
"...but nonetheless, we should go check outside. Someone could need help."
The three of them stepped out into the night, with Yoshika's grandmother leading the way.
A small patch of movement to their left, a bright green light, and-
The six members of Strike-One rattled and jostled in the Skyranger's alien alloy seats as the pilot flew ever lower, approaching their destination.
Commander Shiro Nakamoto stood towards the rear of the craft, by the raised exit ramp. He held onto a handle, hastily welded to the Skyranger's ceiling, and briefed the team.
"We've been tracking this Abductor on radar for a while now; it's been flying low and slow, and we all know what that means.
"It appears to have touched down by a small magical clinic, on a lightly forested mountainside.
"This is an anti-abduction operation; We're to sweep and clear the area."
At 2258 hours local time, The Skyranger touched down on a dirt road, just down the road from the Miyafuji Clinic.
"Go! Clear the Skyranger!"
Her grandmother crumpled to the ground where she stood. Yoshika could smell something burning, like cooking pork fat.
She froze where she stood. She couldn't understand; what, how, why, what? Everything seemed to be moving too fast-
Her mother grabbed her and pushed her back into the house.
She was saying something, but it didn't quite register to Yoshika. Something about... going? Hiding? She pushed Yoshika again, into the hallway.
Yoshika's own feet did the rest, carrying her, somehow, through her house, into her room.
She needed safety, shelter. A hiding spot.
The corner could work, anything could work, she just needed to hide.
She curled up, covered her ears, and tried not to think about the agonized screams coming from the hallway.
Shiro took point.
Running past a dead Sectoid, diving for the ground behind some bushes, he popped up and took a glance around, keeping forward overwatch for the team.
A brief grey blur of motion, and a flash of large, yellow eyes prompted a quick burst from the rifle.
A Sectoid fell, equally yellow blood spurting from bullet wounds to its head and torso.
Ahead from him and slightly to the left was the half-open entrance to the Miyafuji Clinic, obviously damaged by plasma fire.
He moved up, directly across from the half-open entrance gate, looking into the clinic grounds.
By the crumbling walls to his left he could see a short, brown blob of hair- Lieutenant Petra Lorenz, with a shotgun in her hands.
Just behind her was Lt. Blanc Clostermann, also toting a shotgun.
A few seconds later, the rest of the team joined them.
Lieutenant Mikhail Ivanov was already set up by the entrance gate, peering into the Clinic's courtyard, steadying his rocket launcher.
Lieutenant Saya Sasaki was right behind him, lightly fidgeting with a grenade's pin.
Major Ricardo Fernandes was to Shiro's right, light machine gun set up and at the ready.
Shiro looked at the members of his team.
"Lorenz, Blanc, and I will breach the building.
"Sasaki, Ivanov. Follow behind us.
"Ricardo: Watch our backs out here, okay?"
They heard a loud, piercing scream from within the building.
"No time to waste, let's go!"
The three operatives within the house divided it into two halves to be searched separately.
Lorenz and Blanc took the right side, by the kitchen and the main clinic office.
Shiro took the left side, into a hallway that presumably led to the bedrooms.
He stepped over the slightly plasma-burnt corpse of a middle-aged woman and crept up to a turn in the hallway.
He froze- sounds were coming from further inside.
Quietly reloading his rifle, he slipped further into the house.
He pressed himself up against the left wall, next to a conspicuously half-open sliding door.
He could hear inside... sniffling? He stepped inside the room, floorboards creaking as he did so.
He heard a quiet gasp from his right. Turning in that direction, his gun-mounted light shone upon a small girl, looking for all the world like a deer in headlights.
Yoshika froze.
It didn't work. Her hiding didn't work, and now she was going to die here.
She closed her eyes, and sliently pleaded for her mom, her grandma, anyone to find her...
She felt a tapping on her shoulder. Slowly, she opened her eyes again.
She recoiled slightly when she found a man in a strange blue vest crouched less than a few feet away from her.
"Miss? Can you understand me? Miss?"
Hesitantly, she nodded.
"Okay, good. We're going to get you out of here. Follow me. Quietly."
Suddenly, she could hear gunshots from the other side of the house.
Blanc was pinned down. Four of the Sectoid bastards had blown out one of the house's walls with plasma fire, taking cover behind the trees outside.
Major Fernandes, directly to her left, had, in return, pinned down what seemed to be the leader of the group with constant fire from his LMG.
To her right, she could see Lorenz, who did a couple of stretching motions behind her cover, then leapt out of cover and dashed to a position further up, towards a large rock.
Thin green streams flew towards her from seemingly every direction; she deftly ducked, weaved, and dived past all of them, sliding behind the rock without so much as a scratch.
While the aliens were distracted with Lorenz, Ivanov took the opportunity to move up, just behind the rest of the team and in the doorway to the partially-destroyed examination room.
He leaned against the thin walls with trepidation; this cover wouldn't do much good if he were to get shot at, but at least it concealed him.
Quickly retrieving his rocket launcher from its mount on his back, he slid it to full extension, pulled and loaded a rocket from his hip, and kneeled.
He brought the launcher up, took careful aim at the ground between an occupied cluster of trees, and-
Yoshika watched the man peek out from behind the corner for a split second, before turning to her and nodding.
"Okay. You go on ahead. Take cover behind the kitchen counter by the far wall."
He moved back to let Yoshika take a look.
Through the walls of the house, she could see more bright green lights, and more frequent yellow-orange ones.
A large Orussian man seemed to be moving up to the same wall of the house as her, with a large tube on his back.
She felt a light push on her back, and she scrambled around the corner and to the far wall, with the man in blue right behind her.
As she caught her breath, Yoshika heard a distinctly Orussian voice yelling, "ROCKETS AWAY!".
Not a second later a large explosion seemed to rock the building.
Leaning and crouching against the doorway, Shiro peered into the room ahead.
Past the destroyed wall, he could see that the rocket blast had cleared out two of the invaders ahead, and left one dazed in the open.
Blanc, with a grin, cocked her shotgun, and leaped over her cover, racing directly towards the uncovered alien.
In one swift motion she brought her shotgun to bear, took less than careful aim, and fired it, blowing the unfortunate alien's skull wide open.
That left the problem of the one remaining Sectoid, the leader.
Shiro could see the leader take careful aim even through the suppression fire, and fire a burst of plasma that hit Major Fernandes squarely in the chest.
He flew back, collapsing in a heap just behind the overturned bed that served as his cover.
Shiro swallowed his concern for his friend and peered through the sights of his rifle, firing a quick burst.
The leader recoiled, obviously hit, but continued to stand- Shiro had merely clipped him.
Nonetheless, Shiro saw something move just behind the Sectoid- a humanoid form.
It brought something to bear, with a brief glint of white reflected light.
Sasaki, unseen until now, brought her own, special weapon up to meet the Sectoid just in front of her.
She powered on the Arc Thrower, and with a firm squeeze of the trigger, shocked the last invader into unconsciousness.
With a wave to the team, she yelled out, "Capture confirmed!"
Shiro gave a brief thumbs-up back towards her, and then immediately turned to the pressing matter of Major Fernandez.
Ricardo seemed to be bleeding heavily from several wounds on his chest, and most of the flesh on the front of his torso seemed to be heavily burnt.
The team almost got to work immediately- Shiro pulled out the first aid kit strapped to his back, and the team crowded around Ricardo.
Before they could do anything, however, someone pushed them aside- the girl.
Nothing seemed to make sense anymore to Yoshika.
Everything was so surreal; it felt almost dreamlike.
She had been transported from her quiet, peaceful life to what seemed to be a warzone.
It all seemed to rush past her in a blaze, sights and sounds and awful smells-
-but even though everything seemed strange and unfamiliar and terrifying...
...she knew one thing. She knew how to heal people.
And someone needed her help, urgently.
She raced past the doorway and into the crowd of people, pushing them aside.
She immediately began to loose her magic, a blue glow enveloping the fallen man.
Blood vessels resealed themselves, wounds knitted themselves back together, burnt skin was made like new again.
He was going to live; he had to live.
She poured everything she had into her magic, the growing darkess in the edges of her vision not even registering to her.
He had to live. He had to live. He had to live. He had to live. He had to live.
He had to live.
He.. had.. to-
Yoshika blacked out, falling onto a fully-healed Ricardo Fernandez.
Strike-One watched in stunned silence as the young girl, obviously magical, seemed to make Fernandez' wounds fade away.
Shortly after his wounds had healed completely, the girl fell unconscious, causing most of the team to start in surprise.
Her soft breathing put most of their worries to rest, however.
Shiro simply scooped her up and carried her to the Skyranger.
Thirty minutes after midnight, the Skyranger took off for the 115th Experimental Combat Unit's headquarters in Brittania.
End Chapter 1
[Mission Summary: Operation "Vengeful Inspiration"]
Alien Combatants Killed:
5x "Sectoid"
Alien Artifacts Recovered:
1x Sectoid Captive
1x Alien Plasma Pistol
Weapon Fragments
Miscellaneous:
Civillian Recovered: Yoshika Miyafuji
The alien abduction attempt in Yokosuka was stopped successfully.
The rescued civllian, Yoshika Miyafuji, appears to be a witch with tremendous healing ability;
recruiting her into the 115th X-COM could increase combat survival rates dramatically.