Disclaimer; I do not the Strike Witches franchise, characters or concept, I do own all OCs and concepts created by myself for the purpose of this story, this disclaimer covers every chapter that will be released for this story.

(A/N) Hello, Over Sky here this is my first ever Fan-fiction this is something I came up with on a whim and enjoyed writing, as it is my first I welcome any reviews and constructive comments to help improve the story

Warning; there will be some pairings and light fluff form the beginning

This story takes place after the events of the movie so Yoshika has regained her magic and has a new friend in Shizuka Hattori

I hope you enjoy :)

An Old Friend and a New Challenge

Chapter 1.

In the early morning skies over Belgica two night witches where flying in formation over the Rhine. To the west of the Rhine the sun was just starting to appear over the horizon bathing the Karlsland countryside in a warm autumn glow, to the east the Forests of Belgica was still in darkness, a low morning mist had formed giving them a look of enchantment, full of wonder and mystery. The silver haired Orussian witch closed her eyes and took in the beauty of the scenery around her. Sanya loved this time of day with the contrasts of colours in the sky and the mist lying low in the forest. It reminded her of her home in Orussia.

"Isn't this time of night just beautiful Eila".

The Suomus witch, who had been flying in formation just above Sanya, looked down to see those emerald eyes looking up at her full of wonder and amazement. Eila blushed slightly and replied in a rather distracted tone

"Uh?... oh y-yeah its lovely" the pale blonde witch looked away from the now slightly confused Sanya. Her cheeks still crimson tinted trying not to make prolonged eye contact with her best friend. Sanya had noticed that Eila had been very distracted all night and wasn't her usual carefree self, this made Sanya worry that something was wrong

"What's wrong Eila; you've been very distant all night is there something troubling you?" Sanya's soft voice was filled with worry and Eila could see that she was worried about her. Her emerald eyes showed a combination of worry and tiredness. They had been on patrol all night and had fought off two neuroi scouts that night so they were both drained of magic and energy, The Suomus girl didn't like seeing her Orussian princess worried, but she couldn't bring herself to tell her the truth.

"I'm fine Sanya, Just a little tired that's all. No need to..." Eila said trying to hid her true feelings from the Orussian but the sight of the Orussian's antenna turning form its usual light green to blood red had cut her off.

"Neuroi approaching from the east, 1000 meters and closing fast" Sanya said while looking in the direction of the detected Neuroi.

Now it was Eila's turn to look worried. She knew that neither of them had enough magic to fight this new intruder, before she could say anything Sanya throw up a shield to protect them both from the neuron's beam.

"Don't worry Eila, I've got you" Sanya said with a smile which made Eila feel all warm inside, but the feeling didn't last long as the neuroi, which resembled a large Liberion bomber launched another volley of beams towards the witches. Sanya's shield deflected most of the shots but one stray beam had struck Eila's left striker unit, "EILA NOOO" Sanya's shout was full of worry and terror as she saw that Eila's left leg was now completely bare and had blood running down it.

"I'm okay Sanya. it hit below the magical output dive and triggered the automatic ejection system" Eila's words where comforting but the felling didn't last both of them knew that if they didn't get any help right away then both of them would die.

"REPPUZAN!"

Both witches where taken back by the call from an unknown source, they both looked in awe as the neuroi was sliced in half by this unknown witch.

"That's Major Sakamoto's technique, the one that drained all of Yoshika's magic in th…" Sanya's words where cut short as the neuroi had fired off a final volley of beams at the girls just before its core was shattered like glass by the Reppuzan attack. Sanya's shields only just stopped the beams from hitting her and Eila, but with her magic almost completely drain they were both knocked back by force of the beam and the explosion form the destroyed neuroi. Eila watch in horror as Sanya fell unconscious due to fatigue and lack of sufficient magic. With her last ounces of strength and magic Eila caught the Orussian before she could fall any further, but now Eila was starting to feel like she was going to black out and indeed she was. As everything around her started to turn black she could hear a voice calling out to them, one that she hadn't heard before.

"Don't worry girls I got you" the last thing she remembered seeing was the figure of a witch dressed in a white uniform grabbing hold of them and a familiar blue and white eye patch.

"Major Sakamo…" Eila blacked out before she could finish her sentence.

Eila regained consciousness but only slightly. Her vision was rather blurry and could only make out a white figure below her, and then she heard something unusual, a voice but she couldn't make out everything that was being said.

"This is Lieutenant… St. Trond air base do you read me… I'm currently en-route now with…. Medical response…. Stand by on….." That was all Eila could make out before she passed out again.

St. Trond Air base

On the outer edges of the base a lone figure could be seen running through the trees doing various different exercises, push-ups, sit-ups, squat jumps, Major Mio Sakamoto was a creature of habit. She continued to do what she always had done in the early hours of the morning before the reveille sounded to wake all the witches up. Mio enjoyed this time of the morning she had the grounds of the base to herself. The only people she encountered where the few soldiers making their patrols of the base but there weren't many of them so she didn't really notice them. The raven haired Fusoian had finished doing some pull-ups on a tree branch and decided to take a small break before heading back to her dorm room.

"I may no longer have my magic but I must keep myself in top physical condition, there's no use in getting lazy just because my magic is gone" the Fusoian thought to herself as she took a gulp from her water canteen. "There's no sign of Miyafuji yet. She should have been here for early morning training 10 minutes ago. She must still be sleeping" an annoyed expression fell on the Majors face. She was happy for Yoshika that she somehow managed to revive her magic in their last large battle with the neuroi near the Border between Belgica and Karlsland, but she couldn't help but feel a little jealous as the only life she had known was that of a witch.

She started to reminisce about her past. As one of the 11 members of the 501st and of her time with the Fuso Navy's 12th Flying Corps, during the Fuso sea incident. When she first encountered the relentless neuroi, but the time she spent reminiscing about the most lately was her time with Dr Miyafuji and the early development stages of the striker unit. She wasn't the only witch that helped Dr Miyafuji with the striker's development. A small smile appeared on the Majors face as she remembered a face she hadn't seen for years. Just as the Major was getting lost in her memories she was interrupted by one of the night staff from the control room driving up to her rather quickly. When the vehicle came to a rather sudden stop the corporal addressed her in a rather panicky state.

"Major Sakamoto, we've just received word that Lieutenants Juutilainen and Litvyak are being rushed back and require medical attention".

Sakamoto retained her composure and gave a simple order to the rather worried corporal "right I'll go and meet them on the runway and see if I can find out what happened from the witch that's bringing them in, you go and wake Lieutenant Miyafuji and bring her to the medical wing, do you understand?" the small corporal confirmed that she understood the order and drove off to get the young witch from her quarters while Mio ran off in the direction of the hangers.

When Mio arrived at the Hanger she found that the injured party had already landed and where already on their way to the medical wing, when she asked the maintenance crew where the witch that brought them in was, the crew chief had a look of sheer confusion on his face and simply said "He went with them". The Major was a little taken back by the crew chiefs reply, there was only one man she knew of that it could be and ran off to the medical wing as fast as she could.