To begin I would like to start by saying that I write these fun stories out of respect for the great pilot. His skills in combat far surpass any other who has ever lived and I believe will last far past when even I am gone. Many will not learn of the great battles he won and skills he used to earn his 352 victories in battle. I wish to pass on some of these great stories to the reader because... there just so good! I have chosen to do it through his animated character Erica Hartmann to give the reader a more entertaining view on his life. Although I knew as Erich before Erica I enjoy the character (in fact she is probably my favorite in the series) and have always wanted to write a story like this. although the character has changed I am attempting to keep the stories as close to his life as possible (other than the fact that he is a girl now) but at the same time adding some substance to the story to make it more entertaining and run like a good long story instead of a small excerpt . I hope you enjoy these stories as much as I enjoyed the originals.

The Glider Gang

In the early years of her life, not far before joining the Karalsland Air Force but Long before the Strike Witches, Erica was always a skilled pilot. This could be attributed to her mother who chose to pilot aircraft over being a common house wife. In the sleepy little town of Weil im Schonbuch Erica would spend the weekends with her mother and sister flying high in the sky. When she was still very young she fashioned a glider out of bamboo and sheets in attempts of advancing her skills. She took it to the roof of her home and attempted to fly but it quickly crashed to the ground. She was still a long way from her striker but the gliders where it all started.

When Erica had become a bit older she and her twin sister Ursula joined the local glider club. Their mother was the instructor of children who flew the gliders in the fields. The club had two gliders that took eight people to allow it to take off. They would pull them on long elastic ropes until it began to lift off the ground and the pilot could fly it over the hills. Then when they landed the group would pull the Glider back up the hill and a new pilot would take command.

"Erica It's your turn" Said a little blond girl with glasses. This was Erica's sister Ursula. The usually quiet girl who liked to read her books she enjoyed watching her sister fly. She knew that Erica had a skill that many other pilots could only wish to have. Just by watching her sister glide she could see it.

"Alright" Erica said letting go of the rope and running over to the cockpit of the glider. The Boys and girls of the glider club pick up the rope and begin to pull the glider down the hill. As they start to pick up speed the glider begins to lift off the ground. The group gives it one last big pull and Erica is up in the air. The glider soars over the field gracefully. It slowly tilts from side to side as control's its flight. When she is in the air she gets a new feeling that she could never get on the ground. She feels so free.

"You sister is amazing" a boy says to Ursula as they watch Erica glide over the sea of grass.

"Yeah... She is a great pilot" Ursula responds as the plane touches down on the ground and Erica gets out.

"Alright who's next?" she says

Later that night

The glider gang spent a lot of time together outside of their club. Inside of the town the children would normally stay with a leader who they believed was strong and could guide them. The leader of the glider gang was Erica. She was the most skilled and the toughest one in the group. Ursula would often use her sister's toughness to turn away bullies that would try to beat her up at school. She would just tell them that if Erica found out about this they would be in for a beating and that normally scare them away. Erica wasn't a bully herself but would defend her friends if she felt they were in trouble. She also enjoyed being the leader of her own gang. There were many gangs inside of this quiet town but the glider gangs true enemies were the biker gang. They were the opposites of each other and felt that land and air had to be rivals.

Ursula and Jonathan, a boy who was part of the gang, walked home together after getting out of a movie. The two were good friends and some may even suspect that Jonathan was fond of Ursula even if they were still very young. Jonathan enjoyed her company and Ursula his. He liked to close to her every chance he got whether it be sitting next to her at the movies or pulling the glider with her. He always wants to be alone with her because he always wants to confess to the shy girl. She shares these feelings towards him to but her shy personality stops her from acting on it. The two trailed a few blocks behind the rest of the gang. They had all gone to see a film together but Jonathan and Ursula had fallen behind on the walk. They did not worry because they knew the way home and Enjoyed talking to each other.

"That was a lot of fun right Ursula" Jonathan says as Ursula smiles to him and responds.

"Yeah. It was great. It was nice to go out with everyone and see a movie" She said

"It was nice to see a movie with you... It was fun" Jonathan said as they both blushed a bit.

"y-yeah... it was nice to see whops" Ursula said as she tripped on a cracked piece of sidewalk and fell to her hands. When she hit the ground her glasses fell off.

"Ah! Ursula are you alright" Jonathan said helping her back up.

"Yeah I'm fine. The only thing hurt is my pride" she said laughing

"I guess. Here are your glasses" Jonathan said as he picked up her glasses off the ground and put them on her.

"Oh... thanks" she said blushing. She tries to cover her face so Jonathan doesn't see.

"Isn't that cute boys a couple of love birds" Ursula hears from behind her. She breaks her focus on Jonathan and looks around to see that a large group of boys had suddenly appeared around them. These boys were part of the Bicycle gang. They were waiting in the ally for the gliders but decided there were too many to jump so they backed out on their plan. They were all about to go home when they noticed Ursula and Jonathan had strayed far behind the group. They were the perfect targets.

"Come here you Glider geeks" one of the boys says as he grabs Ursula's wrist.

"Hay let go! You're hurting me!" She said as she used her other hand to smack the boy across the face. The boy stumbles back into a pile of trash cans and falls on his rear. Two other boys grab Ursula and restrain her.

"Hay! Let go of her!" Jonathan says as he starts to punch one of the boys but he too is quickly restrained.

"Jeez... these two put up more of a fight than I expected." One of the boys says getting up from the trash cans.

"Let's get them back to the hideout." The leader of the group said as the pull the two down the street.

Little did the bikers know that their actions were being watched by another Glider. From the shadows the youngest member of the group, Anthony, watches in horror as the two are taken was on his way back to catch them up with the rest of the group. Thinking quickly he quietly follows the group to find where they are taking his leaders sister. The boy traces them all the way back to an old barn on the edge of town. They pull the two in and lock the door with a plank of wood. Anthony turns around and runs back to the gang.

"Alright tie them up to those support beams" the leader said

The boys force Ursula and Jonathan up against a pole and tie them together. The ropes are pulled tight around their waists and hands. Ursula cringes a bit from the pain as a tear begins to run down her cheek.

"Hay. Ursula it's alright. Well get out of this" Jonathan says when he notices she is crying.

"No it's not that. The ropes are burning my wrists." She said

"Yeah... me to. You just need to hold out a bit." he said as one of the boys walks over to him and punches him in the stomach.

"Let's make an example out of these two. Show Hartmann and the gliders whose boss" he says punching Jonathan again. After this Jonathan coughs and gags after having the wind knocked out of him. The boy begins to laugh. Jonathan uses his freed legs to kick the boy in the shin. The kid falls to the ground in pain and Ursula kicks him in the head knocking him back.

"You're going to be in allot more trouble when my sister gets here" Ursula said.

"You bitch!" another boy said as he walked over to her and grabbed her blond hair and started to tug on it.

"Hay! I kicked him first! You started with me! Finish what you start!" Jonathan screamed and the boy let go of Ursula.

"Jonathan no!" Ursula shouts

"Alright" taking a step over to Jonathan who was still tied down next to Ursula. "Let's mess up Romeo before we get Juliet"

"Its fine Ursula I" he started before being silenced by a fist to the face. Jonathan turns to the side and spits the blood from his mouth. Ursula starts to weep watching this happen to him.

...

Anthony runs down the street as the sun begins to end its set. It is starting to become dark as he rushes through the back door of an abandon barber shop. He runs down the steps to the basement. The room was filled with boys and girls from the glider gang. It was well-lit for being an abandon building. The walls were covered in photos from gliders to popular musicians at the time like Max Raabe and Richard Forst. Some of the kids sit on shelves and chairs around the room and read books or tell stories to each other. In the middle of the room Erica is playing cards with some of the other kids. Erica throws her cards down on the table.

"That's another full house!" she says as all the other kids groan and shout seeing she had won another hand.

"She must be cheating" a blond-haired girl says throwing her cards into the middle of the table.

"I never cheat. I'm just lucky." she says winking to her friends and shuffling the cards.

Anthony swings open the doors to the safe house and runs in.

"The Bicycle Gang has Ursula and Jonathan!- They've got him in the old barn and they're going to beat them up!" Erica drops the cards to the ground when she hears this and is struck silent. Everyone is quiet.

Erica jumps up from her chair and rushes out the door. The chair tilts and falls to the ground a few seconds after she is out the door.

"Erica! Wait up!" Anthony said rushing after her followed by the rest of the gang.

Erica sprints down the road far faster than the rest could passably follow. She reaches the barn minutes before the others will arrive. Without stopping to catch her breath or think of a plan she rushes strait for the barn. She hits the doors full tilt and smashes them open. The boys in the barn were still beating on Jonathan when they were surprised to see Erica had smashed her way in. She was now confronting the large Bicycle gang on her own. There were fourteen of them and only one of her. The odds were not in her favor. Erica needed to think fast if she was going to rescue her sister.

She looks to the side and quickly picks up a Jack handle from the barn floor and started to swing it at the boys.

"Get out! Get out! All of you! Before I whack you with this!" Erica said as her blue eyes burned with a frightening fearlessness. She advanced towards the boys swinging the jack in a long arch. The boys bolt for the doors and windows of the barn fearing for their lives. They did not want to cross paths with Hartmann.

Erica breaths heavily as she lowers the jack seeing all the boys had run. She takes a moment to catch her breath and drops the jack. She walks over to the two and begins to untie them.

"Are you alright Ursula? They didn't hurt you did they?" Erica asked as the rope let loose and fell to the ground along with Jonathan. He was now unconscious from the pain he was put through.

"I'm fine" she said as she rushed to Jonathan's aid. "If it weren't for Jonathan I would have ended up allot worst" she said she lay his battered head in her lap. She pulled a cloth from her pocket and began to wipe the blood from his mouth when his eyes began to open.

"Ursula... what happened" he asked

"Oh thank goodness you're awake. Erica rescued us." she said as a tear came to her eye as she looked down at her hurt friend.

"Thanks for protecting my sister John." Erica said helping him up and putting his arm around her shoulder to balance him. Ursula puts his arm around her on the other side to help move him. "The least I could do is get you fixed up" She says smiling to the boy as they help him out of the barn.

"I think I remember enough from dads books to help him" Ursula says smiling to Jonathan.

"Thanks Erica... you're a great leader" Jonathan says limping along beside them.

"Aww stop. You're going to make me blush. I'm just doing it to protect you guys" She said with a smile as they walked back to their house.

...

Jonathan lay on Ursula's bed as she dabbed at his wounds with a cloth covered in rubbing alcohol to disinfect the wounds. He cringes a bit every time she starts with a new one.

"Are you going to fight me the whole way or are you going to let me help you" Ursula said

"I think you're hurting me more than the bikers" he joked as she put a bandage on his forehead.

"Well I'm sorry I'm not a doctor. My dad is away on business" Ursula pointed out. Their father was a doctor who spent allot of his early career in Fuso. He returned to Karalsland when Erica and Ursula were very young but he still had to make house calls every now and again outside of town.

"I don't mind the pain as much. As long as I was able to protect you" Jonathan whispered very tired from today's events.

"I am very grateful for what you did..." Ursula said

"I'm sure any smart boy would lay himself down for a pretty girl like you" Jonathan said

"No... You're the only boy who is crazy enough to put himself at risk for me... did you call me..." She said as Jonathan's face turns red.

"Oh... I meant... uh... smart... and" he tried to change what he said as Ursula quieted him with a kiss on the lips. The two close their eyes and enjoy the moment.

"I hope that makes up for the pain I put you through" Ursula said as she holds his hand.

"I'm fine now that were alone together" he said making Ursula smile.

Outside the house Erica sits on the roof and watches the stars. The burning intensity that she felt today had been a first of many that she would feel in her life. The struggle to protect others would become her mission in life when she would soon join the air force. Although she is only thirteen and does not realize that she would dawn that expression of fearsome anger in her blue eyes once again when she pilots her striker against the neuroi.

...

Well that's the first story. There will be many more to come. This is one of my favorite stories about Hartmann because he saved his brother (Alfred) from the bikers all by himself. It translated well to the SW universe even though I added a bit to give it some originality instead of retelling the story itself. Tell me what you think in the comments.