Love Faraway
It's said that war never changes...
The Gulf Neuroi War had been raging for nearly a decade, with little end in sight. Humanity had made great strides in the 1940's to repel the mysterious alien invaders known as the Neuroi, but alas, the enemy recovered its lost numbers and territories, and their strength grew even more since that bygone era. Humanity also evolved and grew over time in the year of 1990; the weapons of war have changed. The use of magic has become more varied. And thanks to the advances of striker technology, not only were the Witches of the Gulf War able to keep up with the enemy, their life span as Combat witches was extended. In 1945, the jet engine was in its infancy, as was the Jet Strikers, which at the time severely drained a witch's energy. By the early nineties they had both been perfected, and they served to be deadlier tools compared to the reciprocating, prop driven engines of the early war.
Land combat had also seen a face lift. Conventional and Magical based weaponry had evolved in this day and age, with many nations developing designs to their own specifications. Time marches on, and technology grows and adapts.
This generation of young witches and soldiers were different in comparison to the witches and soldiers of old. They thrived in the information age, and the age of rapidly growing and adapting technology. In the past, magic was seen as a mystical and divine gift. Nowadays, it's seen as a utility or a martial skill to train and hone so it can be used effectively. It was an era of bottom lines and maximizing efficiency. War may have been a good business, but it was an expensive endeavour. And against the Neuroi, it was a costly one. Living in the world during this new age, the modern witch was quite a different mage in comparison to her predecessors.
The Gulf Neuroi war, as it would come to be called, raged fiercely as conventional soldiers and young witches did battle against Neuroi that had never been encountered before, who were smarter and stronger than their predecessors. While humanity held its own many saw the need to have an ace in the hole. Several Secret military weapon prototypes ranging from typical conventional arms to new striker prototypes were designed, constructed and fielded by several nations. Because of this progression in technology both conventional and magic, the "Gulf Neuroi War" ended with the enemy suppressed, though only barley, its numbers whittled down to crippling numbers once again. Though, like the last war, victory came at a price.
And so humanity entered what was thought to be an age of peace, even if it was somewhat a relative one. Without Neuroi to worry about fighting, humanity set its sights on its own goals and development as a culture. Governments of nations worldwide attended to their affairs as they saw fit. The United States of Liberion was the world's greatest super power, next to both Orussia and Brittania, their influence felt globally.
In the year 2001, 11th of September, humanity's world shook when Liberion found itself attacked by four large Neuroi that had struck at New York, claiming hundreds of lives. Witches at home dispatched these Neuroi quickly, but the damage had been done. The Neuroi were learning quickly, and started to incorporate tactics that its human opponents would themselves use, and their Numbers were up high enough to galvanise humanity to once again answer the call to arms. As a result, many Governments were fearful, with the Neruoi and with the troubles humanity would face with itself in the coming years.
And so, with humanity entering a new age of uncertainty and chaos, it had marched once more into the theatre of war against its familiar, enigmatic alien foe. Soldiers and witches answer the call to arms, nations sending their youth to best, once again, the invaders known as "Neuroi". It was now 2011, and the war still drags on...
It was midday. The desert sands were vast and blistering. The occasional dunes that dotted the arid environment crept along as a light breeze blew in the air, though it did little to make those, wither man or beast, cool in this harsh expanse. The heat had finally levelled out at 95 degrees Celsius as the sun set high up in the sky, cooking the Earth below it relentlessly.
There was a lone figure marching through the blazing heat of the desert. A young witch, a Captain around the age of 17, force marched as she was buffeted by sand the wind had blown up.
With each step she took, she felt her energy slowly drain. The young witch looked as tired as she felt, covered in sand, gun oil and grime, though her shining brown eyes held a grim determination. She was a Land Witch that hailed from Faraway land, and though her posture was slouched and her cat ears and tail drooped, she held her head proudly despite her fatigue. Her ears and tail had indication that her familiar was a North Liberion Short hair, the color and pattern they had was a sort of Stripped "Tabby" style. She wore the uniform of her homeland, a tunic that carried the Arid FADPAT* disruptive pattern, her captains bars pinned to her collar and she wore Boyshort style panties that had the same digital pattern as her tunic. A Liberion Marine Corp Style Lightweight Helmet rested over her short, messy brown hair, with a helmet cover that matched her tunics color pattern, and a pair of combat goggles resting atop it. Over her combat tunic she wore a magically supplemented 4100 Fragmentation Vest for protection from Neuroi attacks that made it past her magic shield, and over that she wore a Tactical vest.
While most Land Witches from her country mostly wore Strikers that were based on the Leopard I Main Battle Tank or a similar Faraway land vehicle, her striker was a newer, modified Leopard IIA4 Striker Unit. The sub-armour plates that had wrapped around the witches body had gear holding slots and a miniature multiple rocket system that she "skilfully acquired" through particular channels and had FedExed. A flag pendent mounted on her armoured backpack systems antenna flew her countries colors.
In her right hand she carried an Anti-Neuroi 50mm Smooth Bore "Big Gun"; well known for its power and accuracy, which fired Magically Enhanced, Depleted Uranium Armour piercing rounds. Her cannon had a targeting scope mounted on it for use at longer ranges and her striker possessed a weapons mount on her right thigh; she wore a tactical drop- leg holster that kept a P226 pistol and two spare pistol magazines, while on the left leg of her striker was a sheath for her combat knife. Her cannon was currently positioned on the quick-detach leg mount of her right striker, ready to use at a moment's notice.
Despite the fact she was armed to the teeth, the young captain was in no shape to find trouble. She was just in a battle, her squad having wandered into a Neuroi encampment while on patrol. She provided cover for her unit as they were retreating, staying behind so that her girls would be safe. The battle was a long and tedious one, but despite being out numbered without support, she held her own and survived. But now she was in a vulnerable state and she knew it. She hadn't the time to rest, to replenish her energy which was almost exhausted completely in battle. She had three mini rockets in reserve and was on the last full clip of AP rounds for her 50mm cannon. The pouches on her vest were empty, the rounds they had once carried were used in both the battle from before and in a brief skirmish a few minutes ago, leaving her with one last magazine in her cannon and her side arm and pistol mags. She couldn't use her magic for her striker to engage the treads for very long, and was forced to take step after tired, heavy step to conserve what little magic energy she had left. And she was alone. She tried to transmit a message over her ranger style headset radio, but she hadn't gotten any reply, figuring she was out of range from her squad or any other allied forces.
She found that the harsh desert sapped her energy, overheating her; the zephyr that was blowing was a warm one and did little to cool her down. She sweated heavily from under her uniform and gear. For three hours now she had walked and has come across nothing; no sign of friendly's, but neither that of hostiles, only the occasional dune, lizard or scorpion.
Reaching with her left hand for her Canteen, she unscrewed the cap and took a drink of what little water she had left. She felt the coolness running down her throat and into her stomach, and wished that she could continue until the canteen ran dry. But drinking too much would leave her with nothing left to help her function, to keep her hydrated. She needed to conserve the life giving resource that, like her weapons, was running low. Grudgingly, she screwed the cap back on and placed the canteen back in her load bearing gear. She sighed heavily.
"Fuck me..."
She muttered quietly to herself, cursing how dangerous a situation she was in. If the Neuroi didn't kill her, then the desert heat, dehydration and heat stroke would. Regardless, she needed to continue moving. She needed to find someone out here in this god forsaken desert. At this point, it didn't have to be a witch either; she could have been fine running into some Lewd and Roundy Liberion "Devil Dogs" tooling around in humvees for all she cared.
"Anything would be better then roasting in this god damn oven, eh."
Upon reaching what was her tenth dune, she groaned loudly as she proceeded to scale the side of it. Her striker's feet sank a foot into the loose sand that formed the dune, and climbing up the side proved to be exhausting. She panted heavily as she scaled the dune and once she reached the top; she finally stopped as she stood atop the mound of sand. Looking around her surroundings and scanning the horizon, the young Captain found something that made her feel some relief. About two hundred yards out, she could see a small "hardball" road that ran through the desert. It was a good sign: wherever there was a road, it would have to lead to civilization somewhere. Bonus points if the road was paved.
The Captain turned to the left flank of her strikers sub-armor and her eyes quickly scanned a pair of screens that were installed on it. The first was the targeting display for her Mini Missile system, and below that was her Blue Force Tracking Unit: A new computerized GPS mapping system that identified all friendly and enemy forces, and was capable of long range tracking. While the Blue Force Tracking system was still a prototype, it had shown great potential out in the field, and became a most sought after device by both witches and conventional military personnel. As her eyes scanned the Blue Force Tracker, she occasionally looked back up to the deserts horizon and back to the screen again, making sure she got her bearings.
"Hmmm..."
After seeming to get her bearings, she managed to deduce that this road would lead to the location of where the nearest friendly force was: a Joint Operations Camp with a Liberion Recon Marine unit reinforcing it that was dug in a few miles west. If she could link up with them, then she would be safe and would have a chance to rest and get back to her girls. Before she could get a chance to continue her journey, her eyes fell on her Blue Force Tracker one last time, and she saw something come up on the screen that made her freeze.
A group of red diamond blips appeared on screen towards her three and six o'clock, and the red blips on her six were moving fast. The captain was just a single, green circular blip on the screen, standing on a dune. There was only one reason that there would be five red fast movers and eight red blips steadily approaching her on her screen: She had enemy contact.
"Fuck!"
With her cat ears and tail perking up, she looked behind herself to eyeball the fast movers that were approaching. She could see five black dots at 12 o'clock high. Medium, fast attack types she figured.
"Just what I need: more bullshit!"
Immediately she slid down the other side of the dune in the direction of the paved road in the distance. She did so in time too; a long range beam attack cut through the top of the dune where she was just standing. She continued sliding until she reached the bottom, and began running again. She breathed heavily as she attempted to get some distance, but of course it was pointless, the fast movers would be on her in seconds. Knowing that she could never out run the approaching enemy, she spun on the heels of her land striker, and activated the mini missiles target lock. As the five medium air type Neuroi got into effective range, her targeting system began tracking three of the five bogeys and she got a good tone. Once her targets were locked, she fired her last three missiles.
Three trails of smoke crossed the sky as the missiles took wing towards the Neuroi. They flew at faster speeds compared to normal missiles, thanks both to the special rocket engines and a magic spell that enhanced speed, as conventional missiles were easy for Neuroi to shoot down if they are not caught flatfooted or attacked from behind. The Neuroi broke formation momentarily to try and doge the missiles, but one of them reacted a little late, and took a missile nearly head on, sustaining damage, but otherwise still able to fly. The other two missiles flew past the other two targeted Neuroi and tried to turn around and trail their targets. The Two Neuroi broke formation from the group and made a wide sweeping turn behind the missiles and destroyed them with a few well placed lasers.
The Captain took a glance at her Blue force Tracker, noting that the steadily approaching Neuroi that seemed to be land based types, were now in effective firing range. Before she could turn to face them, she was met with a beam attack that barely missed her, passing in front of her from her left flank. She blinked in surprise, a large gash in the ground that extended for about twenty feet from her left flank to right flank, just at her feet where the Neuroi laser had traveled just in front of her.
Holy shit! That was close!
She turned to face the enemy on the ground, and was met with another laser. It impacted her shield and she grunted from the brunt of the impact. She sighted the Neuroi that took a pot shot at her and returned fire with two shots with her cannon, the thunderous reports reverberating through the air. The Neuroi took the first round, the AP shell punching a hole into its hide and exposing its core. The second round connected soon after and destroyed the beast's weak point, killing the alien invader. If the Neuroi was a few yards closer, then she would have killed it in one well placed shot, the combination of Depleted Uranium and Magic being a powerful and deadly one, killing Neuroi with ease compared to the witches of old. The captain NEEDED to make her shots count, and maximize the amount of damage she could inflict with as little ammo as she had. The last thing she had once her Cannon ran empty was her sidearm with three full pistol clips and was "Condition One"; an extra round that she had chambered. But the pistol was extremely weak and inaccurate at long ranges like this, and the 9mm round, even if magically augmented, had very little penetrating or stopping power against anything larger then a small Neuroi or an already exposed Neuroi core. Even if she unloaded every single round of 9mm Parabellum she had, the best she could do with this effort was probably kill one, possibly two Neuroi this way.
The seven remaining ground types quickened their advance and began to unrelentlessly fire at the young witches location. At this hostile action, the young witch decided to close the gap and get up close and personal with her enemy, and maximize her cannons killing capabilities. She ran as fast as her legs would allow her, reaching a speed of fifteen kilometres. As she ran between the enemies beam groupings, she quickly glassed and sighted the nearest Neuroi and fired again. The single round she fired managed to find the hidden core, luckily, and that one shot killed the monster.
She took aim at yet another target, but as she fired, another beam impacted her shield, fouling her shot. The shot went a bit wide, and smacked into the Neuroi's right leg, crippling it momentarily. She fired another round, into the crippled target and exposed the core, and finished up with another round. But she berated herself for taking it down in three shots. She had a personal rule, especially applied in situations where ammo was low, like now; that whenever she fired upon a Neuroi, she would kill it with a minimum of one round or a maximum of two. No more than that, otherwise it would be wasting precious ammunition.
Another beam blasted past her, this time coming from the sky. She could see the five Fast Attack types in the air firing their beams as they strafed her, two of them even firing Neuroi missiles that exploded on either side of her. Her shield was slowly becoming drained and she was feeling overtaxed. Her magic was hitting dangerous, low levels.
Turning to face the airborne threats, she attempted to try something she had rarely done: attack an air unit with her cannon. Sighting the Air based Neuroi that she wounded earlier; she attempted to lead her target. She could clearly see that it had already begun repairing the damage it sustained. Taking a deep breath and exhaling gently, she squeezed the trigger, the thunderous boom of the cannon kicking up sand. The Neuroi jinked hard left, the AP round only grazing its target by a few centimeters. She kicked herself mentally as the airborne alien passed overhead. Another round wasted.
Yet another set of laser beam attacks from the five land-based Neuroi impacted the ground around her, kicking up a cloud of sand. She coughed having inhaled some of the fine grains that had been kicked up. She wiped her face of some sand in her eyes and tried to sight one of the targets on the ground. She fired at one of the Ground types on the far left of the enemy's flank, two rounds hitting and destroying the Neuroi. But the rounds of her cannon were dwindling. She wondered if these Neuroi were a pair of separate patrol units or survivors of the Neuroi Encampment she and her girls had wandered into. But it didn't really matter; the weakened, overpowered land witch was facing a losing battle.
A momentary look of frustration crossed her face as she silently contemplated her fate, the only certainty she felt was the fact that she was going to die. Her eyes soon began to become misty, a melancholy feeling growing in her heart as she felt a small feeling of desperation and hopelessness take hold. She closed her eyes and gave a shaky sigh, mentally preparing herself, before her eyes snapped back open and her gaze narrowed on the remaining land based Neuroi, defiance painted on her face. If she was going to die, she would die fighting on her feet. She was going to take as many of the enemy with her as she could.
Beams fired from the five air based Neuroi as they strafed her position, but she ignored them. She wasn't going to try and waste ammo trying to shoot a target she couldn't easily hit. She adopted a weaver stance and fired again at a far right Neuroi walker-tank on the outside flank, firing two rounds that found their mark. Its surviving comrades returned fire, their beam attacks crashing into the girls shield as they ceased advancing, holding their ground from a safe enough distance while still being able to provide accurate suppressive fire. She stumbled backwards as her footing became less stable from fatigue, just as an air type Neuroi fired at the ground in front of her. Her legs buckled and she was down on bended knee, panting heavily as sweat rolled down her forehead, winded from the attack. She tried forcing herself to stand. She did manage, though her legs showed signs of resistance in standing back up; it seemed as though the muscles and tendons in her legs were protesting as she re-adopted her weaver stance, despite the fact her legs were inside the strikers pocket dimension. Her vision soon became blurry. She was going past her limit and was running on fumes. She was down to four final rounds in her cannon, facing down the remaining four tank type Neuroi. She wanted to try and get within point blank range of them and take each one out with well placed shots, one for each, but she doubted she'd have the chance to get close enough, knowing that she'd get strafed by the Neuroi flying above her head, and buffeted by the ones on the ground. She was at the end of her rope, trapped in the enemy's kill box. She was surprised that her magic shield lasted for this long, even if she were a land witch. We're she an Air Witch her shield would have failed her long ago. Her shield held out for a while, but she doubted it would hold any longer, and even if she managed to get close and destroy the enemy on the ground, the enemy overhead would be left to circle her like vultures over a dying animal.
The wing of Neuroi in the air circled around and approached the young Captain from behind the Neuroi that were on the ground, and passed them overhead, approaching her from head on. The Wing leader of the air Neuroi charged its beam weapon, ready to strike a killing blow on the girl. She held fast. Weapon leveled at her enemy, awaiting the Neuroi's attack to expend her shield and cut her down in her last, futile act of defiance. But she regretted nothing, despite the fact that her life was about to end.
Before the Neuroi wing leader could fire, however, the creature seemed to be rocked and shaken by an attack, interrupting the creatures impending assault. A small object strafed the wing and damaged the five Neuroi, their attention to the Land Witch now shifted to the new contact. The stationary Neuroi on the ground paused their attacks, seemingly as surprised as their wounded comrades above them.
The Land Witch stared for a moment in surprise, before her eyes darted to the Blue Force Tracker's Screen. She saw a single blue circle, the high tech GPS device showing that the object was making a long, wide turn, to make another pass. The symbol inside the Circle indicated that of a lone witch: air infantry. It was at this point that she heard a voice crackle through on her head set radio.
"Hey down their! Lone Land Witch, Leopard class striker unit, are you alright?! Please respond!"
The Land Witch looked up in the sky towards the air witch that had come to her aide. She gave a weak, relived laugh as she responded to her unknown winged savoir.
"Oh man, am I ever glad to see you! I'm doing a hell of a lot better now with you here, eh!"
"I'll try and deal with these bastards in the air for you, will you be able to take those Neuroi down their?"
The Land Witch chuckled, somehow finding her second wind. "I may be running on my last legs and my ammos just about out, but I'll sure give it a shot. At least my chances are better."
"Okay, just be careful down their girlfriend. You copy?"
"Roger that. Same to you airmen!"
"Good luck, out."
"Out."
With that, the new witch that flew in the sky made a sharp left turn and advanced on the enemy wing. She levelled her weapon at the enemy wing and strafed them with machine gun fire, and killing the Neuroi that the land witch had wounded earlier. The surviving enemy fast movers began to peruse the new witch, and so began an intense dog fight.
Back on the ground, the young land witch felt her adrenaline pumping, and somehow she was starting to feel less tired. The heavy psychological weight she had felt before was slowly beginning to lift away, her moral was sky rocketing. She grinned in anticipation as the enemy ground Neuroi turned their attention back to her. Using the magic propulsion field, the feet of her striker snapped into a folded position and allowed the treads of her land striker to make contact with the ground. She began advancing at the enemy Neuroi, quickly reaching her full speed, the magic propulsion field reaching above a normal Lepord Tanks top speed. The Four Tank Neuroi fired a few volleys, but the land witch quickly dodged the incoming fire. Once she got within a short range firing distance, she retaliated, firing a shot at one of the Neuroi tanks. The Neuroi tank took the round, a hole blasted in the aliens hide, exposing the core. The land witch fired again, and destroyed the creature's exposed gem heart.
Three tangos. Two AP rounds left.
The Land witch then turned to another of the tank Neuroi and fired. Like before, the Neuroi's core was exposed, and she fired another AP round at the critical weak point. Her cannon was now empty, her Armour piercing ammunition spent. She placed the "Big Gun" mounted on her striker at ease, her primary weapon resting so that it wouldn't get in the way while she used alternative weapons. With a quick and fluid motion, the land witch drew her SIG226 from her leg holster, and charged towards the right flank of one of the two remaining land Neuroi. She leapt underneath the Neuroi and rolled onto her back. She aimed her side arm at the lumbering beast's underbelly and plugged five rounds into the Neuroi's honeycomb hide. But as she expected, the pistol did little against the thick hide of the alien, only penetrating several inches into its armoured hide, not far enough to reach the core of the beast. Had she her full magical strength, her pistol would of had more kick to it.
"Well, that was predictable." She sighed.
She then decided to try a different strategy. She aimed her pistol one handed at the other Neuroi and fired three rounds at it, attempting to draw its attention. The Neuroi turned in her direction as she lay underneath its companion. The adjacent Neuroi''s beam weapon began charging, and the land witch prepared herself.
Just when the adjacent Neuroi was firing, the land witch rolled out from under the Neuroi that she took cover underneath of. The Neuroi fried at its companion, severely damaging it and missing the young captain. The land witch then began using highly acrobatic moves that contrasted with her military training, though that training was at its peak form. As the second last land based Neuroi attempted to sight the young witch, she managed to dodge its attacks in a dance of cartwheels, summersaults and air flairs, coupled with ducking, weaving and other evasive manuvers, occasionally firing her pistol at the creature, mocking it, taunting it. During this time, the other Neuroi slowly began to try and repair its damage.
The witch flying in the sky managed to take down two more of the Air Neuroi, and was on the six of another, when she briefly looked towards the hard deck to ascertain the status of the land witch fighting below. When she did so, she saw the moves that the Land Witch was using, noticing the girl switching between military combat styles and another style that seemed akin to some sort of battle dance. She had heard of only one such witch that managed to utilize and switch between such styles of combat. Tales from those in the Infantry and Armored divisions of a Land Witch that was a bonified, hard as nails, battle dancing badass, or so the stories went. She turned back to the air based Neuroi that she was tailing and fired two of the AIM Sidewinder missiles that were mounted on her strikers wings. The missiles impacted the Neuroi and the annular blast-frag penetrated deep into the alien creatures hide and ravaging is core, completely vaporizing her target. She quickly scanned the sky for the final Neuroi, finally spotting it at five o'clock low, trying to bug out.
Oh no you don't. She thought quietly.
Readying her machine gun, she barrel rolled downwards at her enemy, kicking in her strikers afterburners. She fired her weapon in an extremely long burst at the Neuroi as she was spinning on her axis, the rounds forming a circular pattern as they impacted the Neuroi's hide, the alien groaning under the witches relentless fire, before she brought up her shield as she finally crashed through the Neuroi, taking out its core and killing it. She slowly began to climb up a little bit and levelled off; her spinning began to slow until she was finally in level flight.
The land witch could see the unknown air witch's moves in combat, and she could recognize the final attack that the girl used on the last Neuroi. Known by many in the armed forces there was an Air-Infantry witch whose signature move was exactly this; the attack manoeuvre known by so many was simply called "Death From Above". But before she had a chance to think further into this fact, the Neuroi she battled attempted to fire at her again. She dodged again, but only just. Crouching down, she drew her combat knife in her free hand and charged the Neuroi. Once she was adjacent to the alien she made a leg sweep attack and knocked a leg out from under her opponent, causing the creature to lose balance, following up with a stabbing motion into the Honeycomb hide of its limb, keeping the alien beast immobile. She then heard the Air witches voice on her radio.
"Sky's are clear. How's the situation on the ground."
"A bit busy; I managed to severely damage one, but its companion is keeping it covered. Interrogative, think you can take the companion unit providing cover while I neutralize the wounded unit before it's fully healed its damage?"
"Roger that. You might want to get out of my kill box...preparing to fire Joint Standoff weapon."
At that, the air infantry witch fired her payload, the munitions targeted at the Neuroi that was causing the land witch trouble.
"SOD Launched."
The land witch could see the Standoff Dispenser in flight in the air, headed in her direction. Of course she was standing next to its target, so she quickly back flipped out of the initial blast radius and withdrew a further distance on her treads backwards. How she was able to perform such acrobatics while fatigued was a mystery even to her, probably the adrenaline, or so she figured . The SOD cruised to its target and upon reaching close enough range, the armed BLU-97/B Combined Effects Bomblett separate from the main bomb. The main bomb punched a hole in the Neuroi's hide and the devastating sub-munitions filled the entire area the Neuroi stood and the ground around it with a deadly shower of shrapnel, which luckily found the Neuroi's exposed core, writing off yet another enemy, leaving the final, wounded Neuroi.
The Land witch turned to the final Neuroi and began to charge after it. The wounded alien blasted an attack at the witch that connected with her shield. The attack finally shattered the Captain's defences, her shield finally expended. She faltered for but a second in mid stride and her vision blackened for a moment, but she forced herself towards the wounded creature. She once again dived underneath the underbelly of the Neuroi and rolled onto her back, struggling to keep herself from blacking out while in mid kill. This time, however, she braced her upper body and dug her hands into the desert sand. She proceeded to kick the Neuroi with all her strength; for all that she was worth, the foot of her Striker Unit connecting with the front of the wounded Neuroi. Though doing this caused some damage to the Striker leg she kicked with, the leg was still operable, and the plan still succeeded.
The alien invader was knocked on its rear end and toppled onto its back, bleating loudly in its alien voice and struggling to try and right itself. The Land Witch shakily got to her feet with pistol and combat knife in hand and approached the incapacitated Neuroi. She crawled onto its now exposed belly and began to slash away at its hide with her knife, trying to locate its core. The magically enhanced blade made cutting the thick hide easy, though with each swipe the bright glow began to falter, and after a while she found the glowing red gem that served as the aliens heart.
The Captain licked her dry lips and flourished her combat knife, her eyes fixated on the aliens now exposed Achilles heel. She brought the small blade up over her head and brought it down onto the gem with a grunt. The knife embedded into the core, the blackened blade making a small crack as it dug into the surface of the gem, but it didn't shatter. The magic energy that surrounded the knifes blade was nothing more than a faint, weak glow, unable to fully penetrate the monsters gem heart. The alien monstrosity bleated in pained protest and almost seemingly in fear.
"Pretty stubborn, eh?" The captain mused to the creature quietly. "Well sorry, but I'm a hell lot more stubborn then you."
She brought her pistol to bear on the core with her knife still embedded in the gem, and fired the remainder of the rounds in the magazine into it. After much punishment, the core was finally destroyed; the Neuroi's body now an empty husk that laid still and quiet.
The land witch sighed tiredly and ejected the empty pistol mag, replacing it with a fresh one, she then holstered her pistol and sheathed her combat knife. She leapt off her enemy's dead shell, barley sticking the 3-point landing, when her feet found the ground her legs buckled, struggling to hold herself up. She panted heavily, completely beyond exhausted, her legs barley able to support her weight. She heard the sound of a jet engine approaching and looked up to see the source of the sound. What she saw she would remember for the rest of her life, for she finally got to see the Air Witch who saved her from certain death.
Before the Land Witch Captain was a beautiful young girl around 13 years of age. She had the most stunning Green eyes and short blond hair, though its length was a little longer then the hair of the Captains. The younger girl wore a Temperate Woodland FADPAT pattern tunic, with Lieutenants bars on the collar, and she too wore Boyshort style panties, though hers were a match for her tunic's Temperate Woodland FADPATpattern. She carried a Faraway Land Manufactured C6 GPMG machinegun, derived from the Belgica made FN MAG general purpose machine gun and Liberion M240 Medium Machine gun. The striker units she wore were F35 Lightning II Type Air Strikers, prototypes patterned after a prototype F35 Jet. Mounted on her strikers where the last of her sidewinder missiles, a Joint Dual Role Air Dominance Missile and her last Stand-Off Dispenser. The younger girl appeared to be wearing a HUD on her head that seemed to be a newer prototype, newer tech compared to the precursors that came out during the Gulf War. The young Lieutenant had a relived smile on her face, and while her brow was glistening a little due to sweat, she didn't seem short of breath. The younger girl happily addressed the older, tired girl.
"Few, I'm glad we managed to take care of that. Are you alright?"
The Land Witch Captain stared at the Lieutenant, mesmerized by the young beauty that stood before her, all the while blushing, though she wasn't sure that the other girl could tell or not, seeing as her face was quite dirty or though another possibility assumed was that the air witch simply thought the Captain exhausted from battle and heatstroke. The Captain finally stood straight and held her empty cannon at rest with both hands, and a straight but obviously fatigued face forming.
"Yeah Lieutenant, just tired is all."
The Lieutenant's smile disappeared once her eyes rested on the Land Witches collar, noticing the older girls Captain's Bars. A look of surprise over took the younger girl and she soon became apologetic, having addressed the Captain so informally earlier.
"Oh! C-captain! I'm sorry, I didn't address you properly."
The older girl tried to wave this away dismissively, unconcerned about formalities out in the field; and she soon became curious of why her savior was out in the desert, alone like she was without her unit. "No, no, there's no need...I was wondering, what you were doing out here on your own, Lieutenant?"
"It's my first solo mission mamm." The girl said simply. "I was tasked with scouting a Neuroi encampment for an Intel update so my Wing can make an assault, but when I got to the location, the place was levelled, though I noticed a few Neuroi elements heading north, and I figured someone might have done our job for us and tailed them."
The Captain turned to face southwards, from where she came, reflecting thoughtfully. "Huh, so that's it huh?"
"Pardon? I don't think I understand."
"Well...my squad was enroute to a rally point North East, but we wandered into the encampment and got in a firefight. My girls were getting hammered, so I stayed behind and covered them so they could retreat. Managed to do some damage, but I guess a few of their friends didn't like my handy work. As far as I know, it looks like they were gunning for only me, seeing as I fucked them up the most, and I was out here by myself."
The Lieutenant was in awe at the older girl's story, amazed that the older girl was able to route so many enemy units on her own. The young Air Infantry witch smiled in approval. "Well that explains it then."
The Captain eyed the Lieutenant up and down thoughtfully, placing her cannon back in position and crossing her arms. "You're a Faraway Land Witch too right? Where you from?"
The Lieutenant nods in response. "Yes mamm. Montreal Ontario."
"Montreal, eh?" the Captain mused. She sighed and drew her arm across her forehead, wiping the sweat from her brow. "I'd hate to ask but do you think you can do me a favor?"
A confused look crossed the younger girls face as she cocked her head in curiosity. "What can I do for you Captain?"
The Captain took off her Helmet revealing her beautiful brown hair and the ears of her familiar, then pointed to the sky with her hand and gestured upwards. "Hover above my head for a sec. I've been roasting for over three hours now."
The Lieutenant seemed unsure at first, but she shrugged and got into position just above the Captains head. The blast of air from the striker's jet engine served to cool the Land Witch, finally bringing down her body temperature. The Captain gave a contented sigh, occasionally tugging on her Tunic, allowing the air produced by the air striker to blow through her cloths and make contact with her skin.
"Ah, now that's the ticket, finally I can cool off a little. Looks like I owe ya twice over now." She reached for her canteen and unscrewed the cap. "I'm from Surrey Brittanish Columbia myself, but heck, it's good to meet with someone from back home." She stared at the canteen for a moment before she raised it up to the Lieutenant hovering above her head. "Here."
The Lieutenant looked down at the canteen in the Captains hand with a questioning look. "Are you sure? From what you've told me, you need more than I do."
"I insist Lieutenant, you gotta keep hydrated. Now go ahead, drink up."
The Lieutenant hesitantly reached for the canteen and took a quick drink. Once she had her fill, she exhaled deeply, feeling refreshed. She was about to pass the canteen back to the Captain when she noticed one of the screens on the Captains Leopard IIA4 Striker.
"No way! Is that what I think it is?!" she exclaimed, leaning forwards to get a better look at the rarely seen, high quality GPS system.
"Huh?" The Captain looked up to the young air witch and followed her gaze until it rested on the prototype GPS unit mounted in her striker. She chuckled a little bit in amusement. "Yep: Blue Force Tracker prototype. I managed to get it after some scrounging and saving up my service pay. It cost a lot of cash, but it was worth it. I'm rollen high tech, baby."
"Wow, so many people would give and do anything to try and get one of those! I mean damn, even with scrounging and saving a lot of money, how'd you possibly get it?"
The Captain gave a nervous laugh. "Well, I managed to convince a friend I have who works in supply for my unit convince the prototype manufacturers to allow me to use it for field testing."
The Lieutenant smiled wryly and handed back the Captains canteen, though when the older girl grabbed it, the Lieutenant didn't relinquish her hold.
"I guess it would have been easy for "Faraway Land's Battle Dancer" to acquire no doubt."
The Captain looked up to the younger girl with mild surprise, though she scoffed, her amusement growing. "Oh so you know my title then, eh? Should have expected nothing less from the "Blade of the North" and her trademark attack: "Death From Above."
This time it was the Lieutenants turn to be surprised. "Oh, so you noticed?" Her grip on the canteen slackened, allowing the captain to take it from her grasp.
"Not hard to miss a move like that with that last Neuroi you were dog fighting. I give ya props on that, it was a pretty bad ass move Lieutenant."
"Thank you, you're very good yourself, Captain."
The Captain took a drink of water from her canteen, finally finishing what little water she had left. She let the very last drop fall onto her tongue, and shook the canteen a little to see if there was any liquid left.
"Whelp, looks like that's the last of it." She placed the empty canteen back in her gear storage rig and turned to the Blue Force Tracker, pointing along the screen that showed the road and the allied unit that it would lead too. "Looks like if I follow the "Hardball" 50 miles west and travel about 120 miles or so north I'll be able to link up to that Camp and the Liberion unit, so I'm headed their and hopefully they can help me get back to my unit."
"I can provide escort for you, I wouldn't mind."
The Captain looked up to the "Blade of the North" hovering above her head, raising an eyebrow at the girls offer. "I'd appreciate it, but are you sure you don't want to return to your wing and report in to them. I wouldn't want to get you in trouble with your wing commander."
"I insist Captain! You're out of ammo, magic and water, and as strong as you are; you wouldn't last for long by yourself if you got ambushed."
"Heh, good point." The Captain placed the Helmet in her hand back on her head and secured the chin strap, before she gestured with her thumb westwards. "So, shall we get Oscar Mike, Lieutenant?"
"Roger, I'll lead."
Before the "Blade of the North" could charge ahead, the "Battle Dancer" of Faraway Land grabbed the younger girl by the jet striker, stopping her.
"Negative pilot, stay at my three O'clock alright?"
"Huh?"
"Can't hold a proper conversation when you're flying a hundred meters in the air and fifty yards in front of me, now can I?"
The Lieutenant blinked. "N-no mamm. I guess not."
The Captain laughed audibly as she shook her head in disbelief, the Blade of the North hovering beside her as she walked alongside the younger girl. "Damn, looks like that's a third time I owe ya. I gotta pay ya back somehow after all this."
The Lieutenant sheepishly waved her hand dismissively, humbly trying to decline any thought or offer of a reward. "N-not at all, mamm. You don't need to be keeping score of what I do for you; I'm just doing my job is all, and I'm more than happy to watch your six."
The Captains eyes flicked over to the girl slowly flying parallel to her as her face became serious. "I insist, Lieutenant. I owe you."
"You do?"
"Damn right I do. If you hadn't come along, those Neuroi fuckers would have Schwacked me. Not only that, you gave me a good cool down from the heat in this oversized sand box and are going out of your way to provide me with escort to a safe bastion, so I think it's only fair I repay the favour for something like that. Hell, I'll repay all three of em ten fold. You can hold me to that."
The Captain stopped momentarily and turned to face the Lieutenant. The Lieutenant also turned to face the Captain with a look of curiosity. The Captain saluted the younger girl, a tough, yet at the same time, friendly look crossing her facial features.
"I'm Briana by the way. Captain Briana Evans: 63rd Combined Armoured Battalion, Squad Leader and Battalion 2IC."
The Lieutenant smiled and returned the salute with enthusiasm. "Second Lieutenant René Third of the 305th Joint Fighter Wing, at your service Captain."
The two girls smiled at each other until Briana finally turned and made her way to the paved roadway, with René keeping pace with the Captain while flying just above the ground. Upon reaching the road, they followed it to their destination. Briana felt indebted to the Lieutenant that saved her life. She had now survived two fierce battles that nearly ended her life. She survived the Neuroi, and was now being escorted to safety by a beautiful angel, the "Blade of the North" no less.
Who'd have figured, eh? Briana thought quietly.
Authors Notes
*FADPAT = Faraway Land Army Disruptive Pattern battle dress uniform; computer-generated digital camouflage pattern currently used by Faraway Land Forces (FLF) and is designed to reduce the likelihood of detection by night vision devices. The basic uniform consists of a wide brim combat hat, helmet cover, T-shirt, tunic, trousers, fragmentation vest, and tactical vest. It was the first digital pattern introduced in the Faraway Land Forces. In development for the better part of a decade, the pattern comes in three varieties: Temperate Woodland (TW), Arid Region (AR), and Winter/Arctic (WA). The temperate woodland pattern became the standard issue for the Army in 2002, with the Air Force following suit in 2004. FADPAT is sometimes known as "relish cam" due to the colour pattern of the Temperate Woodland Colour variant.
*Hardball = Military Slang for a Paved Roadway.
*Blue Force Tracking = A GPS-enabled system that provides military commanders and forces with location information about friendly (and despite its name, also hostile) military forces. In NATO military symbology blue typically denotes friendly forces. The system provides a common picture of the location of friendly forces and therefore is referred to as the "Blue Force" tracker. Blue Force Tracking systems consist of a computer, used to display location information, a satellite terminal and satellite antenna, used to transmit location and other military data, a Global Positioning System receiver (to determine its own position), command-and-control software (to send and receive orders, and many other battlefield support functions), and mapping software, usually in the form of a geographic information system (GIS), that plots the BFT device on a map. The system displays the location of the host vehicle on the computer's terrain-map display, along with the locations of other platforms (friendly in blue, and enemy in red) in their respective locations. BFT can also be used to send and receive text and imagery messages, and Blue Force Tracking has a mechanism for reporting the locations of enemy forces and other battlefield conditions (for example, the location of mine fields, battlefield obstacles, bridges that are damaged, etc.).