This story is a remake of the first story I written. I had to delete it from some…personal reasons. But now, I decided to make it again and I hope it'll be better.

Chapter 1

,,War of the Future"

May 12, 1944

12:31

501st JFW Base, Folkestone

Day at the base was sunny and no clouds could be seen. By last two days, there was no Neuroi attacks, so there was no much to do by that time. Everyone was just taking care of their own affairs.

Barkhorn and Erica were just running another round around the base. Erica with difficulty kept up with Barkhorn.

"Come on, Hartman! Only 5 more laps left!"Barkhorn shouted to Erica.

"But…I…can't…"Erica murmured, before she collapsed on the ground.

Barkhorn stopped and approached her partner.

"I can't understand you. How could you be Karlsland Top Ace, if you can't run 10 laps?"she asked.

"Simple."Erica replied, heavy breathing."I'm not fan of physical things as you are".

Before Barkhorn could tell Erica, what she thinks about such explanation, alarms raged all around the base, signalizing the Neuroi appearance.

"Why today?"Erica groaned.

"Don't whine. Jest get up and let's go bring this down."Barkhorn ordered.

Erica, with reluctance, got up and the two quickly went to hangar, where the rest of team was already preparing for battle.

12:50

Over the English Channel

All Witches from 501st were in the air and ready to engage the Neuroi. The spoken one could already be seen in the distance.

"It seems that we have a Heavy Type there."Erica stated.

"I just hope we can deal with it quick."Yoshika said.

"From what I think, this don't seem to be that easy."Barkhorn joined the conversation.

Right then, they saw as Neuroi fire it's lasers.

"Shields!"Minna ordered.

Witches quickly activated their shields and deflected the lasers, before they him them.

"Open fire!"Sakamoto ordered.

Guns started to blaze and bullets hit Neuroi armor, making multiple holes in it. However, all of them quickly were quickly regenerated.

"Mio, where the core is?"Minna asked her 2iC.

Sakamoto lifted her eye patch and scanned the Neuroi with her Magic Eye. She moved from it's front to it's tail, but quickly returned to the middle of it and saw the red dot in form of core.

"It's in the same middle of it!"Sakamoto reported.

"All Witches, focus fire on the middle part of Neuroi!"Minna ordered.

Everyone changed their position and flew over the middle part of Neuroi. They were greeted by lasers, but managed to deflect it. Next, they opened fire and saw as bullets pierce through the upper part of it's armor. Soon, the red shine of core could be seen through cracks in it. After another series of bullets exposed the core.

"There it is!"Lynette said.

"Leave it to me!"Barkhorn said.

She aimed her MG42s at the core and fired. Bullets easily pierced the core, which shattered into pieces. Neuroi did the same not soon after.

Witches gathered under the rain of white crystal remnants of Neuroi.

"Is everyone okay?"Minna asked, when everyone was around her.

"Yeah. It could be worse."Shirley replied.

"The same here."Erica added.

During this conversation, Eila noticed a strange thing: a blue Neuroi shard. She looked at her squad. Nobody was paying attention at it, so she flew up to it.

Eila didn't knew why, but something forced her to touch it. It was so strong feeling, that she couldn't resist and touched the shard.

"No!"said Perrine, which noticed this.

Immediately, Suomus Witch pulled the hand back, when a blue beam fired out of shard and started to reflect from other white shards. Witches, surprised by this, turned in that side and saw the beam. It was first time they saw something like that and were amazed.

Only Barkhorn saw one detail. Minna was on beam's way. And beam itself was about to hit her.

"No!"Barkhorn shouted and rushed towards Minna.

She pushed her commander out of the way, right before beam hit Barkhorn.

There was a flash of light, which blinded the Witches for a second. When light and dazzle disappeared, everyone noticed that Barkhorn just evaporated. Only things that left, were her Strikers and MG42s, which started to fall to the sea. Shirley, Erica and Perrine quickly flew to catch them.

"No…"Eila whispered.

Before she orientated, Minna rammed her.

"It's your fault!"Minna shouted in Eila's face"Why you touched that shard?! Did someone wanted you to do it?!"

"I didn't…"Eila tried to protect herself.

But the quarrel was cut of by Sakamoto, which flew between the two.

"It's not a time for that!"she exclaimed"We don't bring Barkhorn back with quarrel. It can't be helpful".

Minna once again looked at Eila, which hung her head from sadness.

"You're right"Minna admitted"Strike Witches. Return to base".

With these words, Witches turned and flew to base.

Unknown date

Unknown time

Unknown location

Barkhorn's eyes slowly started to open. She was feeling the air hitting her face. Under her, she was seeing forest, with unnaturally high trees. And they were becoming bigger.

It was this moment, when Barkhorn orientated that she don't have her Strikers on and she's falling. She quickly covered her face with hands, right before she hit the tree branches. Fortunately, branches halted her and she didn't changed into stain on the ground. But she still felt pain.

"Fuck."she drawled through teeth.

She stood up and looked around. All of her field of view was filled with trees and rocks.

"Where the hell em I?"she asked herself"I better look for someone. Or maybe I find a way out of this forest".

She then went to search for someone in the forest. And she didn't noticed mysterious figure slowly moving from one tree to another behind her.

Later…

After long time of searching, Barkhorn still didn't found anyone or any way out of the forest. She was already tired of this.

"I'm gonna be crazy!"she exclaimed"If I don't find anyone in…"

Barkhorn's eyes then landed on a man standing between the trees. He was doing nothing, just standing there. She decided to talk to him.

"Finally someone. Can you show me how to exit this forest?"Barkhorn asked.

Man didn't replied.

"Hey, you. You even hear me?"

As she approached the man, he started to turn around. And when she saw his face, she almost screamed from shock.

He was all covered in blood, while skin from left side of his face was literally ripped off., showing everything under it. In the middle of his chest was a giant hole, through which his lungs and heart was seen.

"What is happening here?"Barkhorn asked herself.

In response, man suddenly jumped on her. With his mass, he pushed her towards a tree, when he collided with her. Next, he crawled up and opened his mouth, trying to bite Barkhorn's head. But she quickly activated her Super Strength, confident that she'll menage to push him back.

She was wrong.

Monster, because he couldn't be called man anymore, turned out to be more powerful, that it looked. He slowly closed his mouth to Barkhorn's face…

There was a shot. Few drops of blood landed on Witch's face, when monster stopped moving and collapsed on her. She quickly threw him from herself. Next, her eyes started to close, when she heard a voice:

"God, what are you doing here?"

Some time later…

Series of shots woke her up and her eyes again slowly started to open. She felt, that she's laying under the wall, with backs to it. After turning her head right, Barkhorn noticed that she's in some sort of cottage.

Another series of shots could be heard. Barkhorn turned her head again, to see a woman standing in front of window and firing from something resembling riffle.

The woman had long black hair and brown eyes. She was dressed in camouflage uniform with forest pattern and bulletproof vest. On her waist, she had a belt with magazines and grenades. It was strange for Barkhorn to see a woman in such equipment.

When woman reached another magazine to reload, she noticed that Barkhorn's awake.

"Hey, you."she said to Barkhorn"Can you use riffle?"

"Sure I can."Barkhorn immediately replied.

"Then take this RA4 and help me in pushing them back."the woman ordered.

She took second riffle, which was laying next to her, and threw it to Barkhorn. Witch caught the riffle and looked at it. She found some similarities with StG 44.

Barkhorn stood up and came to the window. There, she could see another group of monsters approaching the cottage. All of them looked like humans, but after the meeting that one earlier, she knew what to do with them.

She aimed her riffle at the group and fired together with woman. It wasn't been hard, because after two or three hits, these things were just dying. In the next five minutes, they killed around sixteen of them.

"Look out!"the woman exclaimed.

One of monsters somehow sneak to the side window on the wall, under which Barkhorn was sitting earlier. Witch quickly turned around and fired. Bullets made the monster's head explode. Next, she turned back to the window she was standing next to.

By next half-hour, another two, more numerous groups appeared. Sometimes, some of monsters managed to came close and grab woman or Barkhorn, but they dealt with them quickly.

When everything was over, the woman looked outside to see, if there's any other danger. Fortunately, she didn't spotted anymore of these things.

"Alright. Clear. Let's go to my hideout."the woman said to Barkhorn.

They exited the cottage and scanned the area once again. After stating they're safe for sure, they turned towards forest and entered it.

"Thanks for helping me."Barkhorn said to woman.

"No problem. These things already killed too many."woman replied.

"If I can ask, why are they looking like humans?"Barkhorn questioned.

"They might look like humans"woman stated"but they aren't. Not anymore".

This answer had to be enough.

"By the way, where are we?"she asked again.

"We're in the quarantine region of V-Lay Virus"woman explained.

"V-Lay Virus? Never heard of".

"Nothing strange. Media don't say anything about it".

After another moment of silence, Barkhorn spoke again:

"Who are you, if I can ask?"

"Colonel Jessica Richards, 11th Marines Regiment."woman, now named Jessica, replied."And you are…?"

"Captain Gertrude Barkhorn, 501st Joint Fighter Wing 'Strike Witches'."Barkhorn replied.

After she said that, Jessica stopped and turned around to face her. Next, she aimed her AR4 at her.

"Resistance…"she said, changing the fire mode on single shot"…or Holy Order?"

Barkhorn stood there, completely confused. Which was the good answer? Jessica really was ready to shoot her, if she says the wrong answer.

"And which are you?"she asked instead.

"Resistance."Jessica tightened her fist on the grip."Answer".

Karlslandic Witch sighed.

"Listen. Is this really a good time to fight? Isn't it'll be better, if we just try to get out of this together?"Barkhorn proposed.

Jessica scanned Barkhorn from down to up with her sight.

"Maybe you're right. But once we get to my hideout, you're gonna tell me everything."she replied.

"Whatever you wish."Barkhorn said.

They continued their way to Jessica's hideout. During this, Barkhorn was looking around, from time to time seeing another cottage or some rotting bodies laying there and there. Fortunately, they hadn't met anymore monster on the way.

Suddenly, Jessica asked unexpected question:

"You have any siblings?"

Barkhorn was completely surprised by this.

"Why is this interesting you?"she replied asking.

"You know. I just though that we need some subject, until we reach my hideout. And this was first thing to come into my head."Jessica explained.

"Well then. I have younger sister. Her name's Christiane. Usually I just call her Chris, like our parents were doing."the Witch said."But she's in coma for some time now".

"Sad to hear that."Jessica admitted."I have three: older sister and brother and younger brother. They're all in the military, like me".

"Really?"Barkhorn asked with surprise.

"Yeah. My sister Sandy is in Air Force. Older brother Jason is in armored corps. And my younger brother, Tim, is in Marines like me. Unfortunately, I don't see them very often".

"Why?"

"All of them were assigned to other fronts".

In that moment, Jessica hissed and quickly hid behind some concrete road block, on the edge of little cliff. Barkhorn did the same.

Not far from them, they could see a small house. Suddenly, whole building was covered in flames. Another monster started to exit the building. Although it looked like the ones from earlier, this one was burning.

Barkhorn smiled, seeing the burning thing, because this was something what these things deserved for. But, much to her surprise, flames just disappeared and showed monster's charred body. It simply walked away. On the way, it erupted with flames again.

"It seems like your hideout just got burned."Barkhorn stated, still terrified by monster's backfire ability.

Jessica only laughed.

"You think that I could leave my hideout in the open?"she asked and pointed a tree with red rag on it's branch."You see that red rag? Under it is entrance to my hideout. We need to move quietly, if we want to get through".

"Okay."Barkhorn simply replied.

Jessica jumped down the one meter high cliff, with Barkhorn following her. They were moving slowly, from one cover to another. In the meantime, some more backfire monsters appeared and stood on their way. Jessica killed some of them with knife, when they didn't were burning, clearing the way to hideout entrance.

Once they managed to reach it, Jessica opened entrance to underground bunker, where her hideout was.

Few minutes later…

Barkhorn was sitting at the table in the main room, while Jessica was looking for something in bag laying under the wall.

"What are you looking for?"the Karlslander asked.

"Something for you."Jessica replied."There it is".

From the bag, she took a pair of military camouflage pants and threw it to Barkhorn. Witch caught them and looked at Jessica.

"Better dress up. You can't walk only in your underwear."the woman explained.

Witch looked at the pants. There was one little problem with them.

"Aren't they little too big?"she asked.

"Just put them on. It's only thing you have to do."Jessica insisted.

Trude probably had no other choice. She started to put the pants on.

When she did it, pants suddenly started to change it's size and now, they were just ideal for her. She looked at Jessica, with awe.

"That…was unexpected."Trude admitted.

"That's why our uniform producers make them in one size. Resistance uniforms adjust to silhouette of the person wearing them."Jessica explained.

Witch just nodded her head.

"Now"Jessica said, sitting down at the table"we have some things to talk about".

"We surely do."Trude stated."I have first question. What date it is and where are we?".

Jessica gave a confused look to her.

"Surely strange first question"she stated"but I'll answer it. It's May 12, 2150 and we're on planet Feres V".

Trude was stunned by this answer. She expected anything, but not that she's in the future. And on different planet!

But one thing was good.

"At least, it means that Neuroi were defeated."she said with relief.

After hearing the term 'Neuroi', Jessica looked at her quizzically.

"Sorry, but what's Neuroi?"she asked.

This time, Barkhorn was the one to give confused look to Jessica.

"You don't know? I though that everyone heard of their attacks in 1914 and 1939."she stated.

Jessica looked at her with bigger puzzle.

"Eh, no. 1914 and 1939 are years, in which World War 1 and World War 2, the most devastating conflicts in human history, broke out."she said.

Trude though about it for a moment. A theory appeared in her head, but she hoped she's wrong.

"If we're on different planet…Give me a name of one of countries of Earth!"Trude asked.

"United States of America"Jessica immediately replied.

Witch was just sitting there. So, however. Her theory was right.

"It can't be true. It just…"She tried to force self to not believe, but it was worthless.

"Something's wrong?"Jessica questioned.

Barkhorn stretched back of her head and replied:

"Listen. I know it's hard to believe, but…I'm from different world".

"Really? If that's so, give me an evidence."Jessica crossed her arms.

At these words, Barkhorn activated her familiar. When German Pointer ears and tail appeared on her head and lower back, Jessica almost fell from chair from surprise.

"Okay, now I believe you."she said, with eyes still widened."But how?"

"I better start from the beginning."Barkhorn proposed.

She sat down and started to talk.

While she was doing it, Jessica's face was becoming more and more surprised, when she was receiving answers on her questions. After Barkhorn ended, she was trying to digest all of this.

"Wow. Witches, aliens during World War 2, Striker Units…Your universe surely is…specific."she summed.

"Yeah. But you don't have something like that here?"Barkhorn questioned.

Jessica shook her head.

"No. In our world, witches are often known as old ladies with pointed hats, black cats and flying on brooms."She then though."At least, the part with flying on brooms agrees".

"I don't know what is about these hats and cats, but yeah, brooms are true. However, as I said, Striker Units supplanted them."

Woman then stood up and said:

"Okay, listen. We're getting out of here tonight. Better let's go pack everything."

Trude then heard grumble in her stomach.

"Do you have something to eat here?"she asked.

"Yes I do. Kitchen is behind these door."She pointed at door in opposite of the room.

Barkhorn thanked Jessica with nod. She stood up and walked into the kitchen, where she found some loafs of bread and slices of ham.

"Normal sandwich is good too"Barkhorn stated in mind.

She took bread and ham and made herself a sandwich.

But before she could bite it, she noticed strange, thin, cylindrical object laying on the dresser. She didn't knew hwy, but something was telling her to touch it. She came up to it, put the sandwich down and took the object.

One she did it, she felt something resembling button on it. When she pressed it, the blue beam of energy came out of it. Barkhorn looked at it with awe.

"You like my sword, huh?"Jessica asked, standing in the door.

Barkhorn looked at her, precipitated from the trance, and again at beam.

"Surely it's interesting."Witch agreed."But it's a sword? I never saw anything like that."

"This thing was part of project aimed to create new type of white weapon, with blade made of pure energy. Unfortunately, the money ran out and project was abandoned."Jessica explained."Only twenty of them were made, with me having one."

"Sword created of pure energy? Doesn't sound too smart."Barkhorn stated, putting the sword down.

"Yeah. There were also experiments with telekinesis, but were abandoned too."Jessica ended."Let's now go. We need to pack ourselves".

"Can I just eat?"

Woman nodded her head, leaving, while Barkhorn returned to eating sandwich.

Few minutes later…

When Barkhorn ate the sandwich, she started to help Jessica with packing everything they needed. It was food, ammo and some medical things.

"Listen…What is Holy Order?"Barkhorn asked and after seeing Jessicas expression, added:"You know, that thing you asked when you wanted to know where I belong to."

Jessica looked down, with her expression changing into unpleasant one.

"As I said, I belong to Resistance. Holy Order is the thing we're fighting with."Jessica replied."But I start from the beginning."

She sighed and started talking:

"Everything started in year 2070, when colonial government on Mars declared independence. This event marked the start of Secession Wars. My grandfather fought in it as pilot. War lasted two years and ended with stalemate. Mars became independent and it's militias changed into organization known as Settlement Defense Front, or SetDef in short."

"So they were rebels?"Witch asked.

Jessica shook her head.

"They weren't rebels. By next almost 30 years, they were just sitting. It was true, they were attacking ships, introducing reigns of terror on planets they occupied…But they were still in peace with us. Until the year 2100."

"What happened then?"

"It was a year, in which they started full scale invasion of Earth. After many battles and many soldiers lost, we captured Mars and SDF High Council members, defeating SetDef once and for all. However, small portion of their fleet managed to sneak into Unknown Regions, the regions of Milky Way still not colonized. There, under the leadership of High Leader Broke, they started to rebuild and re-arm. We knew they return one day, but top brass was saying that we handle them easily."Jessica shook her head."How wrong they were."

She took her AR4 and checked ammo in it's magazine.

"SetDef returned, right?"Trude continued to ask.

"Yup. In 2130, now under the name of Holy Order, they launched an attack on one of Four Human Nations, and Earth's most important ally, the Federal Principality of Minenia. In just a week, they steamrolled over planet of Verdica VII. Now, after 20 years of war, they control majority of galaxy."Jessica ended.

"You didn't had anything to stop them? And Minenian military?"

"Minenia didn't had military. United Nations Expedition Corps, contractual military of Earth, was called only when it was needed and Minenians could join it, as UNEC stationed in Minenia too. Resistance is descendant of UNEC."

Witch was now thinking about everything she heard. She had few more questions, but Jessica said she'll answer them another time.

"Let's go."she said, putting the backpack on."We have to meet with our evac in the nearby town."

The two exited the hideout and turned to nearby town.

18:44

Hilley Town

Barkhorn and Jessica were already entering the town. What was most surprising for the Witch, was that the town looked a little like some town on Earth, but well. It was probably Earth's colony.

Witch looked around. Everywhere she could see dead bodies or blood stains. On some walls she also saw inscriptions painted with blood and saying 'Help us!' or 'Get out of here'.

"If this place is contaminated with this V-Lay Virus, why are you here?"Barkhorn asked.

"Me and my squad had to find daughter of one of Resistance founders. She was here on vacation, when the Virus started outbreak. Unfortunately, we found only her corpse."Jessica replied.

"And what about your squad?"

"Eaten or infected with virus."

A shiver came through Barkhorn's back. She didn't wish anyone to be changed or eaten by one of these things.

Suddenly, two dog-looking monsters ran out of nearby alley. Jessica quickly took them out with her riffle.

"That was close."she said.

"This Virus also affects animals?"Barkhorn asked, looking at dead dog monsters.

They looked like that one that attacked her before. Some of their skin literally dropped out, revealing some of their internal organs. Teeth were exposed, with both eyes misted.

"Yes. Unfortunately."Jessica replied.

On their way further, they met another two human-looking creatures, eating a body. Two quick shots in heads and the way was clear.

They then heard a sound of engines. When they looked up, they saw Resistance K-92 Skyhawk dropship flying over the town.

"Wow."Barkhorn said, after seeing it.

"That's our extraction. Let's go."Jessica said.

They approached next turn.

And immediately stopped behind it.

On a street behind the turn, was a giant cluster of Virus infected. Dropship was hovering over the town's square, with monsters approaching it.

"I didn't though about it."Jessica stated, biting her lip.

"About what?"

"About engines attracting all infected from nearby area."

"So what now?"

"I have one option."Jessica took her energy sword and activated it."Let's just slash through them."

Trude wanted to protest, but before she could say anything, Jessica rushed forward and landed inside of the cluster, cutting infected into pieces with her sword. Witch had no other choice, than join her.

"Welcome on the party!"woman exclaimed, slashing another infected in half.

"Just try to break through! This was all your idea after all!"Barkhorn shot back.

Right then, one of infected grabbed her by her neck. She tried to do something, but his grip was more and more stronger.

Then, a bullet hit it's head and he released the grip. Barkhorn looked in the direction, from which the bullet came from, and saw soldiers from dropship firing too.

"Okay, move!"Jessica shouted.

She cut the way through infected, letting the two to quickly run and jump into the dropship, which was now hovering over the square.

But one of infected caught up with them and grabbed Barkhorn's leg.

"Let go!"she shouted at him.

She kicked him in face, forcing him to let her go. Now, the dropship was flying towards the stratosphere.

19:09

Feres V's orbit

When ship was on the orbit, Barkhorn and Jessica sat on the bench attached to the wall.

"I have to admin. You did well out there."Jessica said, nodding her head.

"Thanks. You too."Barkhorn admitted.

"Seven years of military training and next four of officer training. I have enough experience."

Then, one of soldiers in the dropship, the one with helmet decorated with two red stripes, approached them.

"Colonel, good to see you. Is this the daughter of this founder?"he asked.

Jessica only shook her head.

"No. It's a longer story."she replied."Wanna listen?"

"Why not. We have two hours, before we reach the ships."second soldier, with blue stripes on helmet, said.

Woman then started to tell how it was. How she met Barkhorn, what was about her and why she was dressed in her uniform.

After hearing this, both soldiers took their goggles off and widened eyes.

"So. You're from alternate reality, where you fight aliens in World War 2. Witches are the last line of defense. And these Striker Units were used to make you more effective in battle, because brooms were outdated."first of soldiers summed.

"In short, yes."Trude said to him.

Soldier with blue stripes on helmet hit the one with reds in back of head.

"Told ya, Ivan. Multiverse is real!"he exclaimed victoriously.

"Yeah, yeah, okay. Whatever."Ivan replied.

"We're approaching fleet."pilot communicated.

Barkhorn looked at Jessica.

"If we're in space, what are the power of your fleet?"Witch asked.

"Task Force 03 consists of one Gen. Juan Salazar-class Heavy Cruiser, one Andromeda-class Aircraft Carrier, three Rio de Janeiro-class Assault Destroyers, five Chandelier-class Heavy Frigates and six Shneider-class corvettes."Jessica replied.

Karlslander nodded.

"Impressive, I must say."she said.

Ivan laughed.

"Wait until you see it."he said.

Witch stood up and looked through window-imitating screen on the dropship's door. Now, it changed into view of front camera and was showing the Resistance fleet. Her jaw almost dropped, seeing the group of ships on the screen.

"Which one is the one you stationing on?"she asked Jessica.

"It's RNS Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Heavy Cruiser. You know Eisenhower personally?"Jessica replied.

"No. But one of my squadron members was serving under his commands."

"Prepare for docking."pilot announced again.

Then, light in ship's transport part changed into red.

Few seconds later…

RNS Dwight D. Eisenhower load

Dropship landed in Cruiser's load and the four quickly left it.

Trude looked around. Whole place was filled with soldiers in Marines uniforms, trucks, cars and tanks. There also were two legged robots, carrying boxes and bigger projectiles.

"Honestly, I though that in the future, ground vehicles would…"she looked at Jessica"…levitate, or something."

"When you like some style, you keep with it. So. Cars have wheels, tanks have caterpillars."Jessica replied.

Barkhorn looked at ground vehicles. Some cars had machine guns on their roofs and tanks had reliefs on their guns and curved fronts of towers. Guns also looked to have bigger caliber that Tiger, for example.

"And what these tanks are?"Barkhorn asked.

"These are Challenger 6s, Leopards 5s and M5R Shwarzkopf. Main armor fists of Resistance."Jessica replied."Although, first tanks of these lines were developed back in 20th century."

Right then, one of bridge crew came up to them and said:

"Colonel Richards. Captain Eriksson wants to see you two on the bridge."

"Why?"Barkhorn asked, but Jessica quickly explained:

"While you was making yourself a sandwich back on the planet, I called captain and said him about you. I told him that you're from different world and you're a Witch."

Trude sighed.

"Let's move then."

They followed bridge crew member.

21:21

RNS Dwight D. Eisenhower Bridge

Jessica and Barkhorn, with accompany of Bridge crew member, entered the Bridge, where Barkhorn looked around. Everywhere were analysts, weapons controllers and flight controllers sitting at numerous consoles. In the middle, there was a holographic map of Milky Way divided in red and blue. But, as she predicted, red was dominating.

Captain Eriksson was a middle aged man in middle of his 50s, wearing navy blue Resistance Navy captain coat and white hat with white peak. His coat was decorated with medals and in his hand he cane. On his face, he had black beard and mustache, with some gray traces. His eyes had light blue shade.

"Jessica, good to see you. And your companion."he said, as the two stood in front of him."I guess that you're this 'Witch' Jessica told me about?"

"Yes, it's me."Barkhorn replied.

Eriksson nodded.

"I see."Then, he turned to Jessica again."What about Supreme General Qing's daughter?"
Jessica only shook her head.

"We didn't saved her, Sir."she replied.

Captain sighed.

"Okay then. Planet is lost anyways."Eriksson turned to one of weapons controllers."Open fire. We can't let the virus to spread on other planets. Let's raze everything with the ground."

Trude then raised her hand.

"I have question? Do you have any free cabin here? I'm, honestly, really tired by everything what happened today."she asked.

"Of course. First Officer Sammer!"Eriksson called his First Officer.

First Officer Egon Sammer was a young man, mainly in Barkhorn's age, with short brown hair and green eyes. He was dressed in navy blue uniform with his name on badge and First Officer straps on his shoulders.

Sammer stood next to Eriksson and saluted, when captain said:

"Please, lead this lady to one of free cabins. She needs to rest."

"Of course."Sammer replied."Please, follow me."

Two of them left the Bridge, while Eriksson looked at Jessica.

"Well then. I think, it's time for you to tell me the rest of what she told you."he stated.

"I think the same. But I must say, her world is really interesting."Jessica replied.

Next, she started to talk.

21:58

Deck 5

After over half an hour of walk, Sammer led Trude to deck five, where her cabin should be. She looked at him once more and asked, sort of casually:

"Where are you from?"

Sammer looked at her and replied.

"Oh, eh…I was born back on Earth, more precisely, in Berlin in Germany."

Barkhorn nodded.

"So Germany has to be this world Karlsland."she though.

Right then, she noticed that something, not someone, was about to pass by them in the corridor.

The thing was around over 2 meters high and slim, looked humanoid, had hands ended with three fingers, including thumb. Legs were bent doubly, while it's feet looked like birds claws, also with three fingers. To decorate this, thing had head resembling triangle, with long chin and two pairs of eyes. As clothes, it was dressed in composite armor with Resistance camouflage on it.

As Barkhorn and First Officer passed by it, Sammer and thing nodded to each other.

"Major Kir'Arlan."Sammer said.

"First Officer Sammer."Kir'Arlan replied in fluent English and walked away.

Trude watched it, until it disappeared behind the corner.

"What. Was. That?"she asked.

"Yeah, right. Captain told me what colonel Richards said to him."Sammer said, scratching back of his head."It was major Kir'Arlan, officer of former Nashini Republic Marines Corps. After Nashinians lost fight with Holy Order, their military integrated with Resistance, like other species."

"So he was alien?"

"Yup. Besides, me and Kir'Arlan play chess from time to time."

"Aliens playing chess."Barkhorn shook her head."You don't see it very often."

"Major is just fascinated in Human culture. His species was also one of first ones humanity made contact with."

They walked next few meters and stood in front of door.

"There it is."Sammer said.

He opened door and Barkhorn entered inside.

Room was not big. It had one bed, with night table next to it. There were some shelfs and a wardrobe. TV was hanging on the wall, with TV control laying on the night table.

"Sorry, but it's best we can afford. You know. We're few million light years away from Earth. There's a war. We're losing."Sammer explained."Almost all of Resistance budget goes for weaponry, so…"

"It's understandable."Trude stated."Can you now go? I want to undress."

She came up to bed and took her uniform off, when she noticed that Sammer's still standing in the door.

"Undress? You have something to dress to sleep?"he asked.

"No. I sleep naked, to not crumple my uniform."she replied.

Sammer's face immediately turned red.

"N-Naked?"Sammer asked.

"Yeah. Is something wrong?"

"No, no. I…I just go now."

When he walked away, Barkhorn undressed and opened wardrobe.

"Huh. At least, hangers look like always."Trude said to herself.

She hanged her uniform, bra and pants given to her by Jessica, entered bed and covered with quilt.

"Well. I must say, that this is interesting situation. I landed in alternate world, in the future and in the middle of war, on whom the fate o galaxy depends. If I return back to my world, I will had things to tell. I also have some more questions to Jessica."she though, before finally falling asleep.

But before it happened, she could hear the fire of ship cannons, bombarding the planet.

XXX

Okay, chapter 1 is over. I though about it for long time, and finally, there it is.

I also wanted to point out, that the story is loosely connected to story of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, as some of you probably noticed.

Now it's time for some explains:

-Feres V-forest planet in Feres System, know from it's meter, or even kilometer high trees. It was one of cleanest Human colonies, when it comes to air.

-Challenger 6-British tank, produced by Alvis Vickers since 2127.

-Leopard 5-German tank, produced by Kraus-Maffei Wegmann since 2145.

-M5R Shwarzkopf-American Main Battle Tank, produced by General Dynamics since 2131. The 'R' variant is model produced especially for Resistance.

-K-92 Skyhawk-dropship created as develop of Raven dropship, used during the UNSA-SDF War in 2100.

-AR4-American assault riffle produced by Steel Arms Fabrications for United States Army and as Resistance main infantry weapon.

When things are explained, I can say: see y'all in the next chapter!