The witch of the commonwealth. Prologue.
Dimensional impact.
Thomas Glasswell groaned as his alarm clock rang. After several more seconds of horrible ringing he finally managed to hit the snooze button. He sat up and yawned and noted the time was 8:30 am. After several minutes of having an internal debate, on whether to stay in bed or go get ready for the morning the latter won out.
He climbed out of bed with no small amount of groaning and grabbed his glasses off an end table near his bed. His glasses were square lensed and colored dark red. He was near sighted and couldn't see much at all without them.
After grabbing a change of clothes from his dresser he entered the bathroom and took a quick shower, normally he would take a long one but he just didn't feel like it for some reason. After exiting the shower, he got dressed in a pair of sneakers, blue jeans, and a white t shirt.
He stopped in front of the mirror to look at his hair. It was dark brown and somewhat long, he'd probably need a hair cut in the future. His hair looked like a rats next, he quickly grabbed a brush and fixed it. Normally he didn't care much about his appearance he didn't like going outside much but his family was pushing him to be more active.
He did need a job, he was nineteen and unemployed and was very much considering going into robotics, a field that interested him greatly he wanted to be involved in either design or manufacturing.
His father and brother both thought he should join the military, his father was a veteran and his brother was a pilot, he flew one of those military helicopters, vertibirds, that was what they were called.
With America's war with China raging on his brother and father both thought he should sign up and serve his country, but Thomas could be honest with himself, he was a coward.
He always avoided conflict both verbal and physical, he'd been bullied through school and he simply took it despite his father and brother telling him to fight back. Thomas was too much of a coward to join his nation's military.
He loved America with every fiber of his being. He was proud of his country, when it annexed Canada in 2072 he was proud, when in 2074 America deployed its military to China and began to cut a swathe of destruction through it he was proud.
He felt ever more pride when in January 2077 it was declared that Alaska was reclaimed and the last communist forces were pushed out, they'd been defiling American soil since their invasion of the state in 2066.
Thomas walked into the kitchen and took note of the date on the calendar. October 23 2077. He noted the time was 9:30 am, he also noticed a note attached to the fridge.
Thomas, went out to breakfast with the ladies, should be back around 11:00 am. Ps, your father and brother went hiking, I have no idea when they'll be back. Love Mother. Oh and no girls over.
Thomas rolled his eyes, his mother knew full well he had no girlfriend in fact he didn't even know any girls, she just enjoyed teasing him, like the rest of his family.
He grabbed a bowl out of the clean side of the sink and then opened the pantry and grabbed a box of sugar bombs breakfast cereal. He quickly poured it into the bowl and then poured cold milk over that, he grabbed a spoon out of a drawer and then walked over to the TV and turned it on.
Almost as soon as he turned it on there was a mixture of anti-communist propaganda, a commercial asking people to buy war bonds and a recruitment video trying to get more people to join the military.
Thomas's thoughts drifted back to the state of the world. There was an energy shortage with oil being one of the most needed resources it was why China had invaded America in the first place back in 2066. In 2072 America declared the last supply of oil would be used only by it something Thomas was proud of.
America was the most powerful country in the world, it would only be a matter of time until they defeated China and annexed it into the U.S. Then America would probably deploy its military to Europe.
Back before Thomas was born the European commonwealth had invaded the Middle east because it had massively increased its oil prices. The United nations had done its best to keep the peace but its members began to abandon it and it eventually collapsed in 2052.
In 2066 the European Middle eastern war ended with the oil there all dried up, both sides were reduced to almost ruin, the minor nuclear exchange they launched against one another didn't help either. The European commonwealth dissolved into nation sates that began to fight each other for what little resources remained.
Thomas assumed once china was finished off the united states would deploy to Europe and put an end to the fighting and attempt to stabilize the region, and then probably annex it, the same with the Middle east too.
That would leave the only major threat to the United states as the Soviet Union, though Thomas doubted it would end up as war, they were on relatively good terms.
Still… America wouldn't come out without scars. Power armored units had been deployed to stop the riots going on and to help enforce the quarantine. There were food shortages across the country, as well as protests and riots about the war and energy shortages, to make matters worse some kind of plague was spreading around the country too. As a result, a lot of civilians had died, there were even soldiers defecting. Thomas knew he and his family were lucky just to have food to eat and electricity to use.
America was struggling as it never had before, but like in the civil war, world war one, and world war two it would emerge stronger than ever. Thomas glanced at the TV for a moment and noticed a news report was now on it, that was odd there was no news programs on this channel, did they interrupt it?
The reporter seemed in a stupor. "I, hold on we seemed to have lost contact with our affiliate station, one moment please." What could this be about? Thomas listened intently. The news reporter face seemed to change into shock.
"I… I… We have r… reports of nuclear detonations in New York and Pennsylvania. Oh my god…" "No…" Thomas muttered. That couldn't be possible… Nukes? China couldn't be that stupid… There was no way they'd use nukes they would be wiped out along with America…
The sound of a siren brought Thomas out of his thoughts, he ran to and then threw the front door open, outside was chaos. People were running and trying to stuff suitcases into their cars trunks. Thomas heard the sound or rotors, over head a vertibird flew a voice was soon broadcast from it.
"Residents of sanctuary hills, if you are registered, evacuate to Vault 111!" That's right the vault! Thomas's family was registered due his father's service in the military. Thomas and several others began to run for the vault which was up a hill about a two or three minute walk from sanctuary hills.
Thomas continued to run and stopped for just a moment as a man in a yellow trench coat ran down the hill yelling something about reporting this. Thomas continued to run and after a couple of seconds he arrived at a chain link fence gate.
Several people stood outside it while three soldiers stood behind it, one in a standard uniform holding a clipboard, the two behind him however wore massive suits of power armor, one carried a massive minigun while the other carried a laser rifle.
People were shouting to be let in while the officer told them only those registered would be allowed in. Thomas had to shove and push his way through the crowd but eventually made it to the officer.
"Hey! My name is Thomas Glasswell, my family is registered!" The officer scanned his clipboard for a moment before looking back up. "Alright go in, hurry!" Thomas moved past the soldiers and to the top of the hill.
Vault tech security personal were directing people. One of them noticed Thomas. "Hey! Get on the platform!" Thomas saw a group of people standing on the platform it was an odd circular gear shaped metal platform.
Thomas moved to the platform and saw a few neighbors standing on it, he then heard a baby cry. Thomas knew that cry, that same baby had spit up on him more than once when he was babysitting it. "Shaun?" Thomas asked. This caused the babies parents to turn around.
"Thomas!" It was Mr. and Mrs. Trinity. Nora Trinity and Lance Trinity, along with their infant son Shaun Trinity. Lance, like Thomas's father was a veteran it was how their family's knew each other.
"Where's the rest of my family?!" Thomas asked. "I don't know, I'm sure they're safe don't worry!" Lance said. "Is there really a nuclear attack?" Thomas asked.
Fate decided to answer that question, in the distance a nuclear explosion bloomed into existence, the blast wave kicked up everything it hit as it spread out. "Oh god send it down now!" He heard someone yell, presumably one of the vault tech personal.
The platform began to descend into the ground and Thomas took one last look behind him, even with all the dirt kicked up he could make out the form of the vertibird, which must have landed at some point. Then the elevator descended deeper into the ground and above them a large metal door closed.
Several people nervously spoke to themselves as the elevator completed its descent, Thomas didn't know many of them though he could see a few neighbors here and there. After the elevator finished descending a metal gate in front of it ascended.
Standing in front of everyone were two people, both wearing odd looking jumpsuits. The jumpsuits were dark blue with a gold yellow color around the collar and a large stripe of yellow going down from the collar, there appeared to be possibly leather cuffs at the beginning of the sleeves and they all seemed to be worn with brown shoes.
One of the men standing there had a vest of some kind over his jumpsuit, bullet proof maybe? Before long the unvested man began to speak. "People, it's going to be alright. Please calmly and in an orderly fashion proceed up the stairs."
Slowly people began to move up the stairs though a few stopped to question the man who only told them they were safe now. Before long Thomas, Lance, Nora and Shaun found themselves walking down a catwalk, eventually they arrived at an odd device that they all had to stop at.
"This one's clean." A man said as Thomas stepped through. Clean? Was it scanning for radiation? Afterwards they all stepped forward to a table where a woman was handing out those jumpsuits which were apparently called vaultsuits.
Thomas took his from the woman and looked it over, it had a large 111 on the back in yellow lettering the fabric felt soft as well. A man in a lab coat smiled at them. "Okay you four please follow me." He said addressing Lance, Thomas, Nora and Shaun.
After a few minutes of walking through the hallway and the scientist explaining a bit about how this vault was one of their most advanced facilities they arrived in a large room with metal pods.
The pods were square shaped with large doors above them that were currently open, nearby each pod was a control panel with several gauges and a large red lever on it.
"Alright." The scientist said with a smile. "Please put on your vaultsuits then step inside the pods, they'll decontaminate and depressurize you." Thomas looked around at everyone else who were already undressing.
He felt horribly embarrassed to be undressing in front of others, he wouldn't even do it in front of his family, but here he had no choice. Slowly he pulled his sneakers off, then his jeans and shirt, he quickly after figuring out how, slipped the suit on. It felt soft and warm but Thomas still felt exposed in it like everyone could see everything.
"Comfy aren't they?" The scientist said with a smile. "Now please step inside the pods." Thomas watched Lance step into his pod and then Nora step into hers while holding Shaun. Thomas slowly entered his own pod and slowly the door closed down from above.
This isn't so bad, Thomas thought. "Resident secure." "What the?" Thomas mumbled at hearing the slightly female sounding voice. Must be the vault's computer he decided. "Occupant vitals normal." "For now." Thomas mumbled. "Procedure complete, in, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."
Suddenly Thomas felt odd, tired and cold. "What's… happening…?" Thomas barely finished the sentence as the cyro pod froze him inside it, the other pods doing the same to their occupants.
While America, China, the Soviet Union and the rest of the world burned in radioactive fire, elsewhere in what could likely only be called another dimension an aerial battle was taking place.
Magic and heavy firepower clashed with regenerating armor and lasers, Gertrud Barkhorn and Erica Hartmann both flew toward the right attempting to get around one of the three Neuroi the 501st Joint fighter wing had engaged.
Earlier the 501st had been alerted to a wing of three large type Neuroi moving at high speeds. They weren't sure what the three Neuroi were up to and had quickly scrambled to intercept them. Upon engaging the Neuroi two of them had split themselves into several drones while the third had flown up into the clouds and was using them for cover while every once in a while firing through them.
Gertrud leveled her two MG-42s and opened fire cutting through several drones, a second later her wingman Erica hit the main Neuroi's core causing it as well as the remaining drones under its control to disintegrate into white glimmering shards.
Erica was forced to bring up her shield to block a laser from the clouds, the Neuroi in the clouds was proving to be a dangerous pest, as its lasers were hard to see until they burst through the clouds, and so far they hadn't been able to destroy it because every time they got close they'd be swarmed by the drones.
"Focus on the one controlling the drones, then we'll deal with the one in the clouds!" The 501st's wing commander, Minna Dietlinde Wilcke ordered. It didn't take long to destroy the final one controlling the drones, the witches' focused fire ensured that.
Gertrud and Erica began to hover. "Let's get the last one already, I want to go take a nap." Erica said with a yawn, before Gertrud could correct her on proper military discipline in a combat zone the final Neuroi decided to make its move.
It burst through the clouds directly above the two Karlsland witches, and quickly fired a laser from one of the red patches of its black hexagonal armor. Gertrud was forced to bring up her shield to block the laser. The Neuroi fired again and again as it dove, even as fire from the other witches penetrated its armor, though by some luck not its core.
Gertrud lowered her shield after blocking yet another laser fired by it, then she noticed something. The Neuroi was heading right for her, and quite quickly too. "Trude move!" Erica yelled. However, a laser from the cloud sniper forced Gertrud to bring up her shield, she kept her arms outstretched above her head to block the laser, this also prevented her from moving for a second or two.
And in those seconds the Neuroi stuck her shield, the large type Neuroi, bigger than any conventional aircraft struck her shield at high speeds. Under normal circumstances the shield would've shattered and Gertrud would've been killed instantly from the impact, however this didn't happen.
Instead a highly audible sound that almost sounded like glass shattering filled the witches' ears. A large cloud of smoke had seemingly appeared from nowhere and slowly began to dissipate revealing nothing, no Gertrud no, Neuroi, nothing. "T Trude?" Erica called out as the rest of the 501st came to a hover next to her.
Authors note.
Well here we go again I'm posting another story, this one has been bouncing around in my head for awhile now. I'll be honest I've never read or watched Strike witches but have seen videos and read some very good fanfictions, which is where this idea came from. I've done my best to get the characters right so I hope its all correct.
Also I know the main character looks a lot like the one in my other story but I just like that appearance and its also one of the most common, but don't worry they aren't the exact same though they do share a few things in common.
Anyways, feel free to leave a review and thanks for reading!
