Neuroi. The enemy of humanity. The invader. Has been defeated.
A remarkable victory for all. Worthy of praise that could sing for generation after generation.
A happy end to everyone.
Then again…
A happy end…isn't always permanent.
It was all good and then. We rebuilt from the crumble of the old. Brick by brick. New foundation for the new civilization. Technology and science developed, catching up to its time.
As time went by and life moved on.
Things…many things were changed along the way.
The people. The mind. Politics. Ideology.
Small countries united and became some big nation. Some big nation was tore apart and turned into smaller ones.
Names of countries changed. Territory lines were redrawn on the map.
And here is a question for you.
When the enemy of humanity was gone, no longer to look forward to.
The weapons we built.
The men with patriotic hearts we recruited.
The magic power of Witches.
Whom do we use them on?
You have the answer?
Yup, right among ourselves.
Human versus Human. Just like in those old history books.
And we're pretty amazed of how we were very, very good at it.
But the war did not start on by a decision of a dictatorship ruler or the first drop of blood from some assassination.
It was from the skies, the vast dark blue skies that my great grandma and her sister-in-arms had flew in there, side by side to fight the Neuroi.
Ulysses. We called it. A large asteroid that would hit our Earth in its own course. It was the end to mankind, many said. But of course, we didn't twiddle our thumbs around to wait for that imminent doom.
Like fighting the Neuroi, we're stubborn after all, and was quickly to find a way to fight it.
Every nation across the globe poured every available resources they have into building giant defensive weapon network, Stonehenge.
Towering, massive rail guns. They're capable of destroying the asteroids.
And they are energy suckers. They would swallow battery after battery like a baby.
If not thanks to the Witches and their magical power. It would be impossible for the Stonehenge to be completed.
There were four Stonehenges facilities set up across the Earth. One in China. One in Western Europe. One in Liberion, and the last one in South Africa.
The year was 1999 when Ulysses was coming close to Earth's orbit. Stonehenge has done its purpose like it should, but…Ulysses has one more trick up its sleeve.
Following the destroyed asteroid, hundreds fragments of it were soon raining down upon the Earth.
It was then. The spark of war was ignited.
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Oceania Continent – Coral Islands / / 21° 53' 2'' S 166° 8' 28'' E
1405hrs. August 14th, 2019
When she was a little girl, she always thought that blue sky above her was always so vast. And nothing, nothing can't taint its beautiful color…until now.
Flying high with altitude 1000 meters, she saw multiple columns of dense black smokes rising up from the burning facilities, destroyed military vehicles and planes.
Radioed voices were scrambled all over along with statics within headsets she was wearing.
Pity, was what she mentally could give to those soldiers below, who in fact was her enemy, only for momentary.
Then again, she couldn't afford such luxury thought at this moment since she was in the mid of pursuing one enemy.
"Haah…haah…hahh…"
The chase was on, she initially assumed that she was the hunter, she was, after all, her familiar was a wolf, hence explaining why she was having a pair of wolf ears on her head and a tail sticking out. When she moved in to intercept it, and somehow, instantly, in just a blink of an eye, she found herself was on the receiving end of it. The hunter has become the hunted.
This was just her fifth sortie, but she had downed a good number of enemy aircraft. She was confident about her skill, no one can defeat her, when she has a magic power of a Witch and her Striker Unit, a so-called broomstick which had helped the Witches to fight the Neuroi back in the last two wars.
When technology was developing, so did the Striker Unit. Clapped around her bare legs was a third generation Striker Unit: MiG-21, a similar build with same features from Orussia MiG-21 fighter jet.
Besides her Strikers, in her hands, they carried a Degtyaryov hand-held machinegun, a weapon belonged to her grandma whom had used it to against the Neuroi. She often wondered if it would dishearten or anger grandma once she learned that her granddaughter was using it to take…lives, human lives and Witches who were not her friendlies in this war, a war that no longer has any Neuroi present.
Her mission today was to escort the bombers to deliver their payload onto a Liberion's air base set up on an island near to Australis.
Her mission was simple…hah, how simple always invited complications.
Before the first wave of bombers could have reach to their target, they're already downed by enemy reinforcement, and these enemies were no greenhorns. They're good. Not just the pilots, but the Witches as well.
With visual alone, she confirmed that one enemy witch had downed three Tu-95 bombers all by herself without anyone help.
Such performance was not often seen from those greedy capitalists, perhaps they're belonged to ARRF (Allied Rapid Reaction Forces).
That witch is good, she mentally thought. Let's how good she is when she faces me.
With a fast beating heart, she directed her magic energy into her Striker's thrusters, bringing her to move in high speed, onward to the enemy witch.
She had some good experience in a dog fight. No fighter plane could have out maneuver her in air combat, she even downed two Liberion witches back in her previous sorties. However, she soon realized that she may had chewed more than she could.
It was fast, and nimble. Every shot she fired, the flying witch successfully evaded them all at ease. Catching a glimpse of that enemy Witch, she was equipped a dark blue-colored Striker Unit F-4 Phantom II and a…blue ribbon on the back of her head.
Descending herself down to a section of the island where the anti-air guns were reduced to scrapped metals, the Witch aimed her gun from right to left.
Where is she?
The target was not in her vision.
"Where is she…?"
Suddenly, a cold shiver run through her entire back.
Behind me!
The Witch turned herself in a 180 degree along with a spray of 7.62x39mm rounds from her light machine gun as she deployed her magical shield. Once the gun's barrel was cooled down, there was no one.
But she was there, the Witch thought. A certain dreadful feel was building up inside her chest.
Among the distant roars of planes' engines all mixed in, there's a sound of cannon cried out sharply, as calibers were whistling, indicating that they're coming toward her!
Quick on her feet, the Witch deployed her shield, successfully stopping the projectiles sent from the fighter, the same one began to make the fast approaching toward her.
It's coming right at me!
The attack didn't stop there, a dark blue-colored F-4 swooped down like a hawk, sending two missiles from its wings.
"Not so fast!" She cried out as she put up her shield once more, stopping the missiles head on. Violent explosion promptly occurred. As soon as the dense smoke and fire were dismissed away, the Witch was remained unharmed.
Just when she put up her machine gun to splash that flying F4…
A crispy gunshot. Even though she was in the middle of an air battle, yet it so loud and so close to her location.
Slowly, she turned her head to her right, only to see there was a Witch, holding a battle rifle called FAL. She could see there was a faint smoke coming out from its barrel.
She then felt light headed, she wondered why. She placed her hand on the head, finding there was a red liquid stained on her glove.
Blood? Was it blood coming down from her head?
…yes, it was indeed.
For some reason, her mind started to review all those moments briefly, the moment when she was an innocent child, when she first discovered her Witch power, when she enlisted into the army, to fight for her country, her father's face, her mother's face, her grandma's face and her friends…
Before the blackness took over her consciousness, she registered two things or just one thing.
That blue-colored craft and the silver-haired Witch, they're both bearing a same emblem on their tail, like an infinity symbol…no…it was…a blue ribbon…just like that Witch was wearing it on her head.
Soon, the Striker's running engine supplied by the Witch's power was soon stopped, rendering her to free fall like a rock, straight down to the portion of the island below, allowing the lush green land to consume her.
"Bandit is down." The silver-haired witch wearing blue ribbon announced her kill to AWASC.
« Copy that, Mobius 2. Do you have any visual on the chute? »
"Negative. Enemy is KIA."
Her diamond blue eyes still kept on the last known location where the enemy witch had felled. She couldn't see the body, but it was there.
Naturally, no one could have survive such fall, not even the witch.
« Bandit confirmed at vector 3-5-0. » AWASC updated the battle situation. « Allenfort Air Base is on the nose. »
« This is Allenfort. We're under attack! The runway and facilities are hit! » The voice cried out hysterically along with the ringing siren in the background.
« Mobius team, intercept them. »
The order was soon responded from the said team.
« This is Mobius 1. Copy. » replied the blue-colored F4.
"Mobius 2…Copy."
« Still alive there, sis? » asked Mobius 1.
"Yeah, no need to worry, bro."
« Copy that. » He chuckled.
Cocking the weapon in her hand, Mobius 2 soon directed her power into her Striker, having her to fly straight into the heat of on-going air battle.
Gaining on a Tu-95 bomber flying on low altitude, Mobius 2 aimed her battle rifle through its iron sight toward the crew's cock pit and opened fire.
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