Okay, folks. The America Libre was a full success. Buenos Aires is again under Coalition and Chinese forces in South America are starting to brake.
Chris: And it's time to take back Europe!
Exactly. But first, we need some preparations. That's why you were sent to London.
Lynette: I'm happy to see London. I was really curious how it looks in your times.
Yoshika: Me too.
Good then. So let's start the story.
Chapter 9
,,Encounter at Isles"
August 2, 2022
07:33
London, England
It was a sunny and cloudless day in London. The city rebuild was going fast enough. Everywhere were walking people and soldiers. Also, the Royal Family returned from Australia. The liberation still had it's traces all over the place.
The Royal Marines BvS 10 stopped in the harbor and it's ramp started to open. Once it touched the ground, soldiers left the vehicle.
"Welcome to London, Lynn!"Chris said, when he and Lynette left the APC.
Lynette in awe watched at the giant skyscrapers. It was completely different than in the London from their world.
"Wow…"was everything Lynette could say.
"I know what you mean. London changed by all those years, since your times. It's called one of most modern metropolises in the world with reason"the boy said."And it's still hard to believe, that it was under Chinese control just few months ago".
The two suspended their weapons on their arms and looked around.
Except of 4th School Fleet School Carriers, there were also School Carriers of other Coalition members. Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and more ships were presented in the harbor.
"What are we supposed to do now?"the Witch asked.
"We have a whole week before the invasion of France. I can show you the city a little"Chris proposed."By the way. Since the Brave Witches arrived to our world, I haven't heard much about them. What are they doing?"
"They enlisted to the Military High Schools too"Lynette replied.
"Oh, really? Why?"
"Commander Minna talked with commander Rall. She somehow convinced her about this".
"And what they enlisted for?"
"Commander Rall enlisted to Bundeswehr Heavy Nitrosium Troopers, flight lieutenant Pokryshkin is in Spetznaz now, flying officer Krupinski and flight sergeant Rosmann are in Luftwaffe helicopter squadron now, pilot officer Lemare became a Field Medic, flight sergeant Katajainen, like captain Barkhorn, became a tank commander, but not whole brigade commander, pilot officer Naoe enlisted as a loader in tank, flight sergeant Sadako is in infantry, the same as sergeant Karibuchi"Lynette presented the Brave Witches enlist to MHSs.
"Why does Rosman and Krupinski enlisted to helicopter squadron?"he asked.
"Krupinski because she was amazed by the helicopters, and Rosman, because she want to have an eye for her. Krupinski is a little crazy"the Witch explained.
"Oh. Okay. Let's continue our trip now".
"You never been in London?"
"Now. I and James were born in Portsmouth. But I read a lot about the city. So I can tell you about some building not existing in your world".
Lynette nodded and together, they went for a trip.
07:59
ORP Cracow
Hisako was loading a boxes with humanitarian help on the back of the medical Humvee. Shirley was with her as well.
"Thanks that you helping me"Hisako said.
"No problem"the Liberion Witch replied.
She put another box filled with medicines on the back of car and clashed a sweat from her forehead.
"By the way, where do we have to take this?"Shirley asked.
"To the refugee camp in Whitechapel. You know, we have food, medicines and other such things"Hisako explained.
"That's why I hate war. It force many people to leave their homes and merchandise of whole life".
"I agree with you, Shirley. I always felt sorry for all those people who left their homes".
Hisako then loaded the last box on the back and closed the doors. Next, together with Shirley, they entered the cab. Hisako twisted the keys, and the engine started. Soon after, they were driving through London.
"Where did you learned driving?"Shirley asked.
"School gives special driving tests for every Second Year student. Of course, you can reject it, like Krystian did"the Japanese-Polish girl replied.
"Why?"
"He's afraid of sitting behind the wheel. I'm not".
Shirley nodded. Then, she asked one more thing:
"About those refugees…What about your family?"
Hisako sighed and replied:
"Together with Krystian's parents, they fled to Edmonton, where our sisters are studying. From time to time I call Hotaru, to know how they're doing".
"And how is it?"
"Pretty nice. Dad found a job in supermarket, although it's not something he studied for. And mum, she's helping as a waiter in restaurant. Granny Chizuru is, of course, sitting in home".
"And what were your parents doing before the war?"
"When mum and dad arrived to Poland, dad became an bookkeeper in big company. Mum couldn't work, because she was pregnant then. After she born Hotaru, she worked as a doctor in Proszowice Hospital. It was just few years after the fall of communism in Poland, and still the country was rising up it's economy".
"And Christian's parents?"
"They worked in Traf, a cooperative of vegetable producers".
"Oh".
The next few minutes passed them without any talk. But soon, Shirley again asked:
"Tell me. What does your sister look like?"
"I though you saw her on the photos. When you slept in my room on the Carrier"Hisako replied.
Shirley palmed her face.
"Oh, I remember. It was that girl, looking like an older you?"she asked.
"Exactly"Hisako said and stopped the car"There it is".
The refugee camp was formed of some white tents with red crosses painted on them. Some people were walking between the tents, children were running around and soldiers in blue helmets were watching over all of this.
Hisako and Shirley exited the car and started to unload the cargo.
"Who are those guys?"Shirley asked, pointing at the soldier in blue helmet.
"They're soldiers of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Or Blue Helmets in short"Hisako replied with smile."They're taking care of refugees and civilians in warzones and trying to keep peace in places where it's needed".
Shirley nodded her head, as the mark that she agree, and the two continued to unload the boxes.
08:35
Northolt Air Force Base
De Gaul, Shinigami and Jäger Squadrons were about to land in Northolt Air Base. When they did it, the planes taxed on the runways and to the hangars. The planes stopped in the buildings and the pilots came out of them.
"Welcome to UK! Our unsinkable aircraft carrier!"Florian said.
"We know. Remember, that in our world, we stationed on this carrier"Sakamoto noticed.
"Oh, right"the boy replied.
Witches looked around the base. When they still stationed in Britannia, they once visited Northolk to train new squadron of Witches. But the look of the base now, was something different than it was before.
"How good to be there again"Erica stated.
"Yeah. But this time, we don't fight Neuroi"Perrine noticed.
Then, she noticed a poster on the hangar wall. She came up to this and looked at it. It presented a burning French flag with a red star on it, laying on the ground. The inscription was saying: Burn the fake-France! Join the New Free France!.
"What is it?"she asked Laura.
The girl came up to her and explained:
"Let's say, that now, there are two Frances".
"Two Frances?"Erica asked, standing next to them.
"Yup. When Chinese took Paris and French Army was evacuated, Chinese made a deal with French Communist and Socialist party. That's how, the French Social-Communist Republic was created as a Chinese satellite states".
"So uncool"Erica stated.
"Exactly. And Chinese are giving them all weapons they captured in invasion of France"Laura added.
"Well. So it seems like soon, we have to encounter those Communist French guys"Sakamoto said.
After she said that, all pilots started to take their bags from the planes and went towards the pilots living quarters.
08:47
London Harbor
Rall and Pokryshkin were walking through the London harbor in their new uniforms. Since they joined the Military High Schools, they had to wear those combat uniforms. At the beginning, they felt strange in them, but after a short time they get used to them.
"It's almost three weeks since we landed there. It passed really quick"Pokryshkin said.
"True. I hope that we don't have to stay in this world for long. We still have Neuroi to defeat"Rall replied.
Aleksandra only nodded her head.
Then, they heard a sound of fog siren. They looked in it's direction and their jaws almost dropped from surprise.
There, in the harbor were four big ships. And not any ships. They were the Iowa-class battleships, the most powerful battleships created by Liberion Navy. Witches also saw some soldiers and Military Highs students standing in the harbor and looking at the battleships. Some were even waving to them.
"Very impressing view, 'em I right?"the voice behind Witches asked.
The two turned to see an blue-haired girl with ponytail, dressed in Japanese Self-Defense Force uniform. They knew that she was named Kozue.
"Yeah, it's true that it's impressive. But what are those battleships doing here?"Rall replied.
"They have to help us with landing in Normandy"Kozue said"Maybe it's true that they were actually an museums, but when Hawaii fell under Chinese control, US Defense Department ordered to pull the ships back to service".
"But aren't they a little old for modern war?"Aleksandra asked.
"Eh. During the Cold War, Iowa-class battleships went through many modifications, to counter Soviet Navy Kirov-class cruisers".
"What modifications?"Rall asked.
"They were equipped with Phalanx CIWS system and Tomahawk and Harpoon missiles launchers. These ships saw both World War 2, Korean War, Vietnam and 1st Gulf War. Really good combat history".
Right then, they saw Linchov coming in their direction. When the boy was already next to them, he he quickened his pace, turned his gaze and passed them.
"What's wrong with him?"Rall asked.
"I don't know. He never acted like this"Kozue replied.
Pokryshkin then lifted her hand.
"I think it's because of me"she said.
"What are you talking about?"Kozue asked.
The Orussian Witch sighed and explained:
"Maybe we're short in this world, since I joined this whole Spetznaz, he's always evading me. When we're passing in the corridor, he does exactly the same thing".
Kozue only shook her head as a mark for "I can't be helped with this".
09:02
Light Bite Restaurant
Using the time they had, Anton and Crystal decided to make a little date for themselves. They were sitting in restaurant and eating a spaghetti brought for them by waiter.
"Can you tell when we had a date last time?"Crystal asked.
Anton threw up his arms.
"I don't know. Maybe a week before the Witches arrived"he said.
Crystal chuckled and said:
"You just invented a new time calculating style".
"What do you mean?"
The girl eaten another thread of spaghetti and explained:
"BWA-Before the Witches Arrived. Maybe we actually start counting time as AWA-After the Witches Arrived".
Anton laughed.
"But it'll be hard to do this now. Remember that we also have a Brave Witches there"he said.
The two laughed again.
"I knew that I find you two there"the familiar voice said.
The two turned to see a girl dressed in French Army uniform. She had long, wavy black hair and green-gray eyes. On her neck, she had an necklace with red ruby and in her ears she had two earrings decorated with green diamonds.
After seeing her, Crystal immediately turned her gaze.
"Hi, Agustine"Crystal said with disgust.
"Hey, what is t? Aren't you happy to see me?"Agustine asked.
She came up to Crystal and wrapped her hand over her neck. Crystal immediately shook her hand off.
"I told you. Everything is over between us"she said.
"Ohhh. I know you're lying"Agustine said in sexy voice.
"You know that I'm sitting right here?"Anton said.
Agustine turned and looked at him with disgust.
"Shut up. I didn't asked you for comment"Agustine shot back to him.
Anton only growled.
Then, Maleroshka entered the restaurant. He noticed what is going on and came up to the three.
"Hey, you. Leave them alone"the boy ordered.
Agustine looked at him and snorted at him.
"Or else, what will you do to me?"she asked with no respect.
"Or else, me and my friends will take care of you"he replied.
"What friends?"
"This friends".
Maleroshka pointed behind him. Agustine looked there, and saw four other people. First of them was a boy with short brown hair and a little braid and blue eyes. He was dressed in Spanish Armed Forces uniform.
Two next were girls, more precisely twins. They had also wavy long black hair and green eyes. Both were wearing Portuguese Army Uniform.
And the fourth was also girl, but with dark brown hair and dark gray eyes. She was wearing an Dutch Army Uniform.
Seeing them, Agustine had to give up.
"Okay. You won this time"she said.
After that, she turned and walked away.
"Thanks, guys. And Maleroshka. I didn't knew that you know Javier, Carlotta, Camila and Nora"Anton said.
"Hehe. Fun fact. I met them for the first time in Drakensang Online"Maleroshka admitted.
"This web MMO RPG game?"Crystal wanted to make sure.
"Yup. We were playing together on every weekend. We all had different character classes, but we were making good team"Javier said.
"And who would guess that we met in real life"Camila added.
Crystal and Anton only nodded their heads.
"By the way, who was she?"Nora asked.
Crystal only sighed and replied:
"It was my…ex-girlfriend".
Everyone, except of Anton widened their eyes. They knew Crystal from some time, but they never suspected her of being homosexual.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. How is that possible? I though you're interested only in guys!"Javier exclaimed.
Then she blushed and said:
"You know. There was a time when I was interested in girls. But I met Anton and changed my mind".
Others just nodded their heads as a sign of agreement.
"Okay. Let's stop this subject and talk about other things"Carlotta suggested.
As she said that, everyone focused on talking about some other things.
09:34
London KFC
Lynette and Chris decided to do a little break in their trip around London. They took an table in London KFC and eat something. They ordered some chips and hamburgers and started to eat.
"I don't think I'll be able to sleep after something like that"Lynette said biting an hamburger.
"Nah. It won't be so bad. I'm eating fast food almost everyday and I can handle this"Chris stated.
"Maybe because you're get used to this?"the Witch proposed.
"Maybe"the boy replied.
Chris then looked at her. There was still one though in his head:
"Maybe I should tell her now? I won't be able to hide it for so long".
In addition to saying to Lynn what he wanted to say, Chris stood up.
"I must go to the toilet. Be right back"he said.
"Okay"Lynette replied.
Chris then went to the toilet. He entered and stood in front of a mirror. He took off his helmet and put it on the ground.
"Okay. Today, you'll say this to her. And there's no step back. Understood?"he quietly said to himself.
Once he said that, he put his helmet back and headed back to the doors.
But before he could do this, he heard a voice:
"Okay. Once the distraction will be done, we will do our part of plan, Chen. Understood?"
"Of course, colonel"second voice replied.
Chris right then noticed two pairs of boots in one of cabins. He came a little closer. But then, the doors opened to reveal two Asian men. They closed the doors and then noticed Chris.
By a few seconds, there was an silence. No one was brave enough to say anything. Finally, one of the Asians said:
"We…We can explain this".
"No. There is no need of this"Chris said.
"Really?"seconds man asked.
"Yeah. I just entered there. I don't mind what was happening there between you"he replied.
"Okay then. Good bye, officer"the first man said and they both exited the toilet.
Once this happened, Chris rushed out of the toiled and quickly sat down in front of Lynette. The Witch, a little surprised by this sudden event, pondered a little.
"Something's happened?"she asked.
"I just heard two Chinese talking about some distraction and their part of plan in the toilet"Chris replied with one breath.
"Wait, what?"Lynette asked, putting down the hamburger.
"I don't know. But I'm sure that it's not anything cool".
As he said that, their talk was cut off by an air raid siren.
"You think that this is the distraction?"Lynette asked.
"I think so"Chris replied"We need to find James".
The Britannian Witch nodded. They quickly paid for their meal and exited to look for James. They found him few minutes later, when he was directing the evacuation.
"Everybody to the underground! This is not a drill!"he said.
The two approached him and said:
"James! We need to tell you something!"
"It's not the best time, Chris. We need to get hid. There are bombers and fighters. We don't have much time"James replied.
"But…"Lynette tried to add something.
But James cut her off:
"No discussion! You tell me later! Now, let's go to the underground".
After these words, he just went to the underground. Chris and Lynette had no other choice than to follow him.
09:44
Northolt Air Base
The air sirens tore the air as pilots were rushing towards their planes to put on the fight on incoming planes.
"This day is going to be more and more fun"Henri said as he checked his aircraft instruments.
"I hope everyone in London will be alright"Laura said.
"Easy. The evacuation went good and everyone is hidden in the subway"Florian replied.
Then, the air controller voice sounded in the communicators:
"Enemy number consists of around 20 bombers and 80 fighters! All aircraft scramble and intercept immediately!"
The pilots put their helmets and closed the canopies. Then, taxied on the runway to scramble.
"Around 100 bogeys. It's gonna be an hard fight"Charles said.
"Question. How many aircraft we can put on fight?"Perrine questioned.
"With our squadrons? Around 32"Misaka replied.
Perrine only shook her head. It was only thing she managed to do, because all aircraft started to lift up into the air. After a short time, everyone was flying.
"Okay. Let's do it"Sakamoto said.
The aircraft turned and flew towards the enemy.
Few minutes later…
The planes have passed over the Thames River and now had a visual on the enemy formation.
"This is AWACS Sky Keeper. We identified enemy bombers as Tu-95 Bear and B-52 Stratofortress. For the fighters, we have MiG-29s, J-10s, J-14s, F-16s and Su-30s. Take them all out of the sky"Sky Keeper said.
"Copy that, Sky Keeper"Sakamoto replied.
"Don't let them to destroy London. I have sentimental memories about it"the AWACS added.
"Wait, Sky Keeper. Aren't you Japanese?"Erica asked.
"Yeas, I'm. But I was born and spent all of childhood in London before I joined JSDF High School. Now, to the fight".
"As you wish"Saddam said.
Then, he got an missile warning. He quickly dropped flares and flew up. Missiles hit the flares and exploded.
"Alright. Fire!"Charles ordered.
Both sides fired their missiles, both scoring some kills. Then, they collided with themselves.
Markus sat on F-16s tail and fired his gun. The bullets flew straight through the back stabilizer and shredded it into little pieces. Then, Luca flew from up and fired his gun at the wing, breaking it off the aircraft.
"Hell yeah, get wrecked!"Luca exclaimed.
"One down, 99 more to go"Florian noticed.
Erica and Sakamoto fired their missiles at J-10 destroying it. Perrine made a Barrel Roll to evade Chinese missile, then flew up and behind him. She then fired her gun and scored a gun kill.
"What about the bombers?"Perrine asked AWACS.
"Tu-95s eliminated intercepting party"Sky Keeper reported.
"By themselves? But how?"the Gallian Witch asked in disbelief.
"Bears are equipped in anti-air guns on it's tail. That's how"the AWACS explained.
Perrine only nodded as she turned towards the bombers. When she get there, she saw a carpet bombing formation ready to open the bomb bay.
But before they could do this, Perrine used her Thunder ability, which somehow permeated through the plexiglass of her cockpit. The lightnings flew straight towards the bombers, hitting five of them and making their bombs explode. The burning wrecks of the bombers started to fall down, while other members of De Gaull Squadron joined her.
"How'd you done that?"Saddam asked.
"It's my ability. But honestly, I hate using it"Perrine replied.
"Why?"Janette asked"Not that I'm interested".
"It really messes up my hair".
After hearing that, Janette laughed out loud.
"But how it came through the plexiglass?"Laura asked.
"I don't know. I discovered it on one training"Perrine explained.
"Okay, stop this. Let's finish the rest of bombers"Charles said.
He then noticed one thing.
"Where's Henri?"
"There"Laura replied, nodding her plane to the left.
Charles looked in this direction to see Henri's Raffale already firing it's gun at B-52. When he stroke the upper part of the bomber with the gun, he turned under it. There, he fired an Magic 2 missile straight into the bomb bay. The missile hit, causing the aircraft to explode, while Henri just flew to another bomber.
"Yeah. Let's just get to the work"Charles summed.
Meanwhile, Jäger Squadron was taking care of other fighters.
"This is Sky Keeper to Jäger 1. We detecting enemy Ace in the area. The Yellow Eleven"AWACS communicated to Florian.
"Copy that. I'll take care of him"the boy replied.
He turned and flew towards the enemy ace. Soon, he got visual on him and saw an F-16 with yellow 11 on it's tail. What was more interesting, the plane was still in paintings of Pakistani Air Force and had it's roundel and Pakistani crescent and stars. The only added thing was Chinese roundel under it's number.
"Heh. It's first time I see plane stolen by Chinese, but still having it's previous paintings"Florian stated.
"I have his files"Sky Keeper communicated"Chin Zuan Long. He's Uighur. He always liked to put the symbols of Islam on his plane. And was taking only aircraft hijacked from Islamic states. He already flew Iranian F-14, Saudi F-15 and Chinese J-11 with added Islam crescent. Just two days ago he changed his plane to Pakistani F-16. What most interesting, he never took the hijacked aircraft roundel off of it".
"Well. It's time to take this Islamist out of the sky. Fox 2!"
After he said that, he fired an IRIS-T missile. However, the enemy Ace dropped flares and the missile hit it. But Florian sat on his tail, firing his Mauser BK-27.
"Not so fast"the Yellow Eleven said.
He made an Immelman Turn to land on Florian's tail. He then fired an AIM-120 at the Typhoon. The missile didn't hit, but it exploded right under it.
"Oh-oh. It didn't went as easy as it should"Florian said to himself.
But then, the F-16 was struck by a gun fire from over him. The Falcon broke off from him. Then, Florian was joined by Erica.
"You're okay?"she asked.
"Yeah. I though that it'll be easier"Florian granted.
"The same was over Argentina"the Karlsland Witch reminded.
Florian had to admin right to her. It was actually the second time Erica saved him. First time was over Argentina, when they were establishing the air superiority over the country. Florian challenged another enemy Ace, the Purple Hundred Four. At first, Florian was wining, but then the Ace fooled him and almost shoot him down. But then, Erica showed up and used her Sturm that made the Ace lose control over the plane, while Erica shot him down.
"Sometimes I think about giving the command to you"he stated.
"Oh, you don't…"she tried to say.
But Florian cut her off:
"But I don't wanna do it".
Erica just sighed as she landed behind the Yellow Eleven and fired her's gun at him. The bullets flew through the back stabilizer and shredded it into pieces. The plane started to lower it's nose as it continued to go down.
"You can finish him, if you want Jetfire"Erica said to Florian, using his nickname.
"Yes, I want, Skydive"Florian replied, using her's.
As it turned out lately, the Jäger Squadron members were big fans of Aerialbots main squad from Transformers and had nicknames in form of their names. So, the Florian was Jetfire, Markus was Air Raid and Luca had nickname Breakaway. The dead member of the squadron, Konrad, had nickname Silverbolt. When Erica joined the squadron, the boys had to choose nickname for her. And when noticed that she liked to attack enemies from the top, they nicknamed Erica Skydive.
The boy then flew right behind the F-16 and fired his gun. The Ace ejected, just before the bullets pierced the fuel tank of the aircraft.
"Hah. At least I could do this, Skydive"he said.
In the meantime…
Underground
Chris and Lynette were sitting under the wall in underground station, while James and others were taking care of the civilians goods.
"I just wanted to warn him"Chris said.
"Eh. At least you tried, right?"Lynn replied.
Chris only nodded.
Right then, the whole station was shaken by explosion on the ground. Some people hugged each other more, while others just started to look around the station.
"If it continues like that, those wrecks finally will just break through the ceiling all the way here"someone said.
"No, this will not happen. Our pilots will take care of this"some Swiss soldiers tried to calm everyone down.
But it was welcomed with inconsistent shouts. Even more that they expected.
While this was happening, Chris was looking around. And finally, his sight stopped on two specific persons.
The two Chinese he saw in the toiled back in KFC.
He watched as the two make their way through the mob on the station, didn't bothered by anyone. Everyone was just to busy with arguing with soldiers.
The two jumped off the station, on the tracks and ran into the tunnel.
"You saw that?"Lynette asked.
"Yes"Chris replied and stood up"Let's go".
He wanted to go after them, but Lynette stopped him.
"What are you doing?"she asked.
"We'll do it on our own. Whatever they're planning, we need to stop them"the boy simply replied.
And he went after the two Chinese. Lynette had no other choice than to follow him. They jumped out of the station and entered the tunnel.
Back over London…
Sakamoto just scored another kill on enemy MiG-29, when AWACS cam on radio:
"Enemy threat is being more and more reduced. Only 69 enemies left. Continue it like that".
"You got it"Kotaro replied.
"Japanese in London. It's even more strange today than it would be during World War 2"one of British pilots said.
Then, an J-14 landed on his tail and fired it's gun on him. The bullets lightly struck it's tail, but not causing big damage.
"Can someone help me with him?"the pilot asked.
"As you wish!"Etsuko said.
Her plane dropped behind the J-14 and started to overwhelm it with her own gun. The wing of J-14 changed into pile of junk, which caused the plane to spin falling.
"Thanks, lady"the pilot said.
"No problem"Etsuko replied.
Then another Chinese J-10 fired missiles, destroying an Hungarian JAS 39 Gripen. The missiles hit the planes and destroyed them. Fortunately, pilots managed to bail out.
J-10 pilot didn't noticed Osamu's F-10 flying at him from the left. Osamu fired his gun. Bullets pierced through the plexiglass and parts of pilot's head shattered all around the cockpit of the aircraft.
While it was falling, Osamu noticed the SPA inscription on the aircraft's wing.
"We got PLA High School here"he communicated.
The SPA inscription was short for 'School Purpose Aircraft', the international sign of aircraft membership to Military High School.
But of course, those aircraft could be also used as battle force.
"So finally, we encounter some high schoolers from Chinese"Shinzo stated.
"You didn't encountered them earlier?"Sakamoto asked, shooting down MiG-29.
"By almost whole war we were fighting only Regular Army. PLA High Schools was mostly standing on the back"Misaka explained.
Sakamoto only nodded and continued fighting. She fired missiles at one of bombers, destroying the B-52 tail and aircraft started to fall down.
"Enemy threat neutralized to 45%. Half of bombers are down. Keep going like that"Sky Keeper said. But then, he got something new on radar"Wait a minute. I have some signals"he checked one more time to be sure"We've got UAVs incoming from France! They have escort of French Commune fighters!"
"Are those container launched UAVs?"Perrine asked.
"No. It's MQ-101"Sky Keeper replied.
Then, everyone just became speechless. Those drones shouldn't be here.
"Can you check one more time, please?"Charles asked.
"I don't have to. I'm 100% sure. It's them"Sky Keeper confirmed.
"It's not gonna be a night walk on the beach anymore"Florian stated.
First UAVs already appeared on the horizon, with accompaniment of French Commune Mirage 2000s and J-10s.
"Okay, let's do this!"Erica said.
Both sides fired it's missiles at each other, scoring few kills. Drones mixed with Coalition planes and started to fire their guns at them, scoring some kills.
"Those MQ-101 are really good"Perrine said.
"And the most interesting is that they shouldn't be here"Markus noticed.
"Why?"Erica questioned.
"Because we though that we detonated them when we left France"Luca replied.
He sat on the tail of MQ-101 and fired his gun. The UAV started to burn while falling down. And Luca was that lucky, that the drone hit French Commune Mirage 2000, which then hit another MQ-101.
"Woo-hoo! Triple kill!"Luca exclaimed.
"Breakaway, on your left!"Markus said.
Luca looked left and noticed Mirage 2000. He then hit the brakes and watched as Mirage 2000 passes him. When this happened, Luca fired his missile that chased the plane, until it disappeared in ball of fire.
"Fourfold kill!"he summed.
Misaka lined up with a Tu-95 bomber. She was evading it's tail turrets fire and when the good moment came, she fired her missile. The missile hit one of the engines on the right wing. She then fired her gun at the back stabilizer, which caused the plane to turn right.
The bomber then hit another Tu-95, which caused both their cargo to explode. The explosion also struck the underbelly of the B-52 which was flying a little over the Bear. Parts of Tu-95 pierced through the bomber bay doors and bombs exploded.
Rest of the bombers, seeing what just happened, turned back and started to leave the London airspace.
"Wow, Misaka, how'd you did that?"Laura asked.
"I just tried to destroy one of them. The rest was just an accident"Misaka replied.
"Did the rest of those bombers dropped the cargo?"Kotaro asked.
"No. From what I see, they just frightened and are now flying away as far as they can"Florian joked.
"Good. They were heading to our facility in upper London. There's a secret project created in cooperating between United States, Great Britain, Germany, Poland and Saudi Arabia"Sky keeper informed.
"And if you don't mind me asking. What kind of secret project is this?"Erica asked.
"If I tell you, this won't be a secret anymore"the AWACS replied.
Erica though for a moment and nodded.
"Yeah, it makes sense"she granted.
She then fired missile that hit and destroyed another UAV.
With Chris and Lynette…
Underground
Thanks to that the all trains were stopped because of the battle, the two could easily walk on the tracks, following the Chinese. On the way, they noticed the two men finding some bags laying next to the tracks. Hid behind the bend, Chris and Lynette saw as two Chinese opens the bags and take two QBZ-95 assault riffle with some magazines and additions. After this happened, the two continued their walk, followed by British soldiers.
"I knew that those two are not planning anything nice"Chris said.
"Yeah. But where are they going? How far are we from the station we been on?"Lynette replied with question.
"I don't know. But I fell like it would be already 4, maybe 4.5 kilometers. I can't tell you really clearly".
Then, Lynette hooked her leg on one of rail sill, making a sound of knocking.
"I heard something"said the voice in front of the tunnel.
"Get down!"Chris quickly ordered.
The two quickly laid down on the tracks. They did it right before the flashlight directed in their direction. It was over them by next few seconds, before second voice said:
"You probably overheard. Let's go. Others are probably waiting".
"Yeah. Maybe you're right".
The light then turned away and Lynette and Chris stood up again.
"That was close"the Witch stated.
"Yup. Better be more careful now"the boy replied.
After that, they continued to follow them. During the walk, Lynette turned to Chris:
"Listen. You seemed a little stressed in the restaurant".
"No. I was okay. Why do you think like this?"Chris replied.
"Cause you was sweating".
"It was because there was hot".
"No. there was actually really cold there".
Chris sighed.
"Okay. It was because…"
Before he ended, they both saw a light, coming from behind the next turn. They ran in this direction and once they exited the turn, Chris and Lynette saw that the light was coming out of an tunnel in the wall and tracks, turning in it.
"Strange. There shouldn't be any tunnel"Chris said.
"So? What we gonna do now?"Lynette asked.
"Of course, we go there".
And with these words, they entered into the tunnel. It was not long, but this, what they found on it's end, just stunned them.
"Oh, hell"Chris whispered.
In front of him and Lynette was a huge underground chamber, filled with around 20 Chinese, all welding riffles. In it's middle, they could see an old subway car. Some Chinese were entering the car and making something inside.
Chris and Lynette quickly hid behind some rubble next to the entrance.
"What is this place?"Lynette asked.
"I don't know. Maybe some old garage or…"Chris replied.
"Or station?"Lynette ended, pointing over her head.
Chris looked up and saw an plate with inscription "THE PARLIAMENT STATION".
"Oh. So it seems like this is what some politicians were using to get to the parliament. But what are they doing here?"Chris asked himself.
As per his words, one of Chinese, probably commander, said:
"Okay, let's say this again. We have to detonate this bomb here, under the parliament, to bring this all down. Thanks to this, Coalition on the Isles will be totally distracted and we'll be able to start another invasion".
"They want to destroy the parliament?"Lynette said in disbelief.
"It seems like it. We need to contact James"Chris stated.
Then, Chris saw in his head this what was to happen. He saw the exploding bomb and how the ground starts to fell apart under the parliament.
"Like in Sherlock"he whispered.
He turned on his radio and tried to contact James. But only thing he could hear was only static.
"Please, James. Answer".
In the meantime…
London airspace
The Spanish Eurofighter been hit by another series from MiG-29 gun. Next, Chinese aircraft fired missile, that ended the life of Spanish pilot.
But the Fulcrum's pilot haven't noticed Shinzo's F-10 as it dropped behind him. A short series from the Japanese plane gun and MiG was changed into the burning pieces.
"All aircraft and drones confirmed down. Great job everyone"Sky Keeper said.
"Good. Tell everyone that they can exit from the hideouts"Sakamoto ordered.
"Copy that. And, circle a little more, just in case they try to bring something again"Sky Keeper replied.
"On you order"Sakamoto said.
On the ground…
Everyone who entered the underground to protect themselves from the air raid already started to exiting. Although there was a lot of them, they were leaving the underground really fast.
James was one of soldiers directing this. When he counted that everyone left the underground, he decided to finally listen to Chris.
"Okay, what you wanted to tell me?"he asked his brother.
But then, James noticed that Chris was nowhere around here.
"Hey, where's Chris?"James asked himself.
Then, he heard static in his radio. He took it and asked:
"Who's there?"
"James? It's me, Chris"Chris's voice replied.
James sighed in relief.
"Chris, where are you and Lynette?".
After this, he heard a little nervous laugh.
"You don't like it. We're under the parliament"Chris replied.
Then, the worry left her place and was replaced by anger.
"What?! What are you doing there?!"the furious British exclaimed.
"Don't be angry. I can explain"Chris provided.
"I'm all ears".
"Remember this what I wanted to say you? In the KFC, where I was with Lynn, I overheard an talk between two Chinese. They were talking about some distraction, which I believe was this air attack. When we were in the underground, they used this little mess and entered the tunnel. We followed them and soon, they found two bags in which riffles were. Now, were in underground chamber filled with Chinese troops and trying to detonate a bomb under the building, to collapse it".
James just became speechless. Now, the anger was replaced with even bigger worry and fear.
"Wait there! I'm coming!"he shouted to the radio.
He turned it off and turned to Ellen and Eevi standing few meters away.
"Girls! I need your help!"James said, stopping next to the two.
"What do you need?"Eevi asked.
"Chris and Lynette are just trying to stop some Chinese terrorists from destroying the parliament! We need to help them!"
"Why you didn't spoke sooner?"Ellen asked"Let's move!"
"I'm going with you!"Yoshika said, stopping next to the three.
"Why?"James asked her.
"Lynn is my friend. And I can't left her"the Fusoan Witch explained.
James and two Finnish girls only nodded. They took their weapons, returned to the underground and directed towards the parliament.
Back with Chris and Lynette…
"Okay, everything's done"the boy said.
"So what are we gonna do now?"Lynette asked.
"Maybe we'll just slowly withdrew from here"Chris proposed.
But the fate didn't gave them such opportunity and they heard one of Chinese saying:
"There's Coalition here! Fire!"
The wave of bullets then hit the rubble. Chris and Lynette quickly laid down behind the pile to don't be hit.
"What do we do NOW?!"Lynn shouted.
"Try to survive!"Chris shouted back.
He then lifted his L85 over the pile of rubble and pressed the trigger, sending a short series into the Chinese. Because he was laying down, he didn't saw as the bullets hit two Chinese troops and the red mist appeared over their heads.
"Your turn"he said to Lynette.
The Witch leaned a little and looked through her riffle scope. She aimed at another Chinese and pulled the trigger. Next, she saw as his head just disappear. She then laid down again.
"This is gonna take a while"the Britannian Witch stated.
"Hey, can't you use you Ballistic Stabilization or your second power to to somehow take care of all of them?"Chris asked.
"Let me see".
She leaned again and used her Grant Magic Power. She pulled the trigger and bullet flew from the barrel, leaving an blue trace behind it. The bullet pierced through the body of four Chinese, before hitting the wall behind them.
"Nice shot. Only 12 left"Chris notted.
"I know"Lynette replied, dodging the bullet that flew over her head"Do you have any grenades?"
"No. As for today, I left every single of them at home"he replied.
"Se t up the bomb! Quick!"Chinese commander ordered.
Chris and Lynette leaned a little and saw an soldier running into the subway car.
"Damn it, we need to do this quick!"Chris exclaimed.
He then stood up and immediately pulled the trigger. His bullets flew through around five Chinese and Chris laid down again.
"Okay, on my mark. 3. 2. 1. Now!"Chris exclaimed.
They both stood up and fired at the remaining Chinese. In few seconds, the remaining Chinese troops fell on the ground, dead. After this, Chris took his gun from the holster and with Lynette they went to the subway car. Inside, they saw the last Chinese. Before he could took his QBZ-95, the hole after shot from Chris's gun appeared between his eyes.
"Let's now find this bomb"Chris said, putting the gun back to holster.
They didn't had to look for long, because they found the bomb mounted into the floor of the subway car. The timer was showing 3:19 and was going down.
"That didn't took long"Lynette stated"How do we take care of this?"
"Let me see"Chris said.
He then knelt next to the bomb. He looked at it from all directions and stated one thing.
"We don't disarm it".
"What?"Lynette asked in fear.
"This bomb is made of titanium. Probably all cables are inside, we won't open it with knives. And if we even be able to open it with usage of guns, we probably detonate around 35 kilograms of explosives"he explained.
Lynette was surprised by his knowledge.
"How'd you know this everything?"she asked.
"I was taking part in after class activities about bomb disarming. It was mainly for sappers, but I was going there too".
"So what we do with this?"
Chris looked around and his eyes landed on the doors to driver's cabin.
"Let's see if this thing is still ready to ride"he said.
He came up to the doors and opened them with one solid kick. He checked some things on the main panel and lifted the the fist in triumphal gesture.
"There's still some fuel. Can you help me, Lynn?"Chris turned to Lynette.
"What are you planing?"she asked him.
"I'm going to take this thing as far from the parliament as I can. As WE can"Chris replied, putting press on 'we'.
Lynette had no other choice but to agree. She switched some switches, according to Chris's orders, and managed to activate the car.
"Good. Now, take this out of here"he said.
The subway car started to drive back and soon, they were going through the tunnel.
Later…
After they drove few kilometers, the car started to getting slow, until it finally stopped. Chris tried to turn it on again, but couldn't. Then he looked at fuel level and noticed the problem.
"We're out of fuel"he said.
"Then maybe better let's go on foot"Lynette proposed.
"At least, we done everything we could".
He looked at the bomb again and saw that timer is showing 1:56 seconds. The two quickly started to run as fast as they could. But after they run few meters, Chris stopped. Then, he started coughing.
"Chris, what's happening?"worried Lynette asked.
"Why now?"Chris asked himself.
"Do you have your medicines?"
"Yes. But I have them in the back pocked. Can you help?"
Lynette then stood behind Chris and started to look for the medicines. She finally found it, but when she pulled them out, as for unlucky, they fell on the ground. Lynette bent down and took the package and gave it to Chris. The boy quickly opened it and swallowed the pill, wincing.
"I forgot how bitter are they without water"Chris stated.
"Let's go now"Lynette said.
But she then felt Chris's hand grabbing her arm.
"No. We lost too much time, Lynn. We won't escape the explosion radius"he said.
"You want to stay here? We can't! W maybe…"
"It's too late!"Chris exclaimed as loud as he could.
Lynette then looked at him. She saw nothing more than sadness in his eyes. He then sighed.
"Lynn. I wanted to tell you something. At least, before we landed here"Chris said.
"What?"
"Lynn. I…This started then when I saw you on our ship. I even tried to tell you by this time before America Libre. I was afraid that you'll reject. And because this wouldn't work"he then breathed in"Lynn. I love you".
The silence filled the air. The only sound they could hear was the bomb timer.
"Eh. I knew that…"Chris didn't ended.
Before he orientated, Lynette kissed him. Chris was totally confused by what just happened. But he reciprocated the kiss. Through next few seconds, they even forgot about the bomb.
Finally, they stopped and looked in their eyes.
"Chris. Me too…"
And the bomb exploded.
Around 2 kilometers away…
James, Ellen, Eevi and Yoshika continued their way towards the Chris and Lynette location, when they heard and explosion.
"Oh no"James said.
Before they even could orientate, they saw a flash of white-orange light behind the turn. Few seconds later, they felt a heat from fire.
"Incoming!"James announced.
Then, Yoshika stood in front of them, activating her shield. She did it right at time, because not soon, the giant wave of fire hit the shield and splitted up in two and bypassed them. Three soldiers, hidden behind Yoshika waited until the fire just disappear.
When this happened, Yoshika deactivated her shield and everyone looked at the blackened tunnel. Before someone could say anything, James rushed forward.
"Hey, wait for us!"Yoshika said as she, Ellen and Eevi rushed with him.
"Chris!"James shouted as he continued to run.
Back over London…
Shinigami, De Gaul and Jäger squadrons patrolled the city airspace. Suddenly, they saw a giant pile of fire belching from the street next to the parliament.
"Wow, have you seen that?!"Markus exclaimed.
"Of course we did. But what the hell was that?"Janette replied.
"I don't know, but I'm sure it's nothing nice"Sakamoto stated"Let's get back to base. Maybe there we will get some answers".
With these words, all aircraft turned and returned to base.
Two days later…
August 4, 2022
15:28
London Bridge Hospital, Room 23
Chris started to slowly open his eyes. He tried to move his left hand, but he immediately felt an piercing pain. He tried to move right, but with the same effect. When this didn't worked out, he just fully opened his eyes and looked around. He saw that he's in hospital's room and is lying on hospital bed. Next to his bed were drip and some medical devices.
"So. I just hope that I still have my legs"he though.
Then, the doors opened and James appeared in them. He looked at Chris and their eyes met. James started to shaking until he suddenly rushed towards Chris and hugged him.
"Damn it, Chris. Never do it to me anymore, understood?"James whispered with care in voice.
Then, Chris felt as his clothes starts to get wet on his arm. And felt something more than just tears of his brother.
"Nice…that you're…here. But I…can't…breath. And it…hurts!"Chris said.
James immediately stopped. He took a chair and sat next to the bed.
"It's all my fault. If I listened to you then, this wouldn't even happen"James said.
"It's not your fault. It was me who wanted to play a hero"Chris replied.
"No. I'm the one responsible for this. I should listen to you".
Chris only waved his hand. Again felling the pain.
"Let's just don't talk about it. How long I was sleeping?"Chris asked.
"Two days"James replied"Do you remember anything?"
"Yeah. I remember tracking two Chinese terrorists, firefight with them and the last thing I remember is a blue light"Chris replied.
"Blue light? Maybe this light had something to do with that you and Lynette didn't been burned down".
Chris then reminded something.
"What bout Lynn?!"he exclaimed.
"Easy, she's alright. Yoshika was with me when we found you and managed to heal her. She also tried to heal you, she was already tired after healing Lynette. That's how you landed here"James explained.
The boy only sighed with relief.
"At least I got something new on my wound count. Remember what you was always telling me? 'Wounds are like medal for soldier'"he said.
"Yeah. But remember that I took it from The Penguins of Madagascar"James replied.
And the two laughed.
Then, the doors opened again and another person walked through them. It was a girl, around 23 years old, with ginger hair tied in a ponytail and had the brown eyes, like the two. She was dressed in white shirt under the dark blue jacket, the knee-long skirt with the same color and black tights.
She came up to Chris and hugged him.
"I'm so happy you're okay, little brother. You can walk? Can you even speak?"she asked.
"Yes I can, Bella. Now stop! It hurts!"Chris replied.
Bella immediately stopped hugging him, took another chair and turned to James.
"Sorry that I'm late. You know, Glasgow is far from London. Besides, there were traffic jams. But when you called and told me what happened, I sat into car and driven here as fast as I could"Bella summarized."I also scored a lot of tickets for exceeding the speed limit".
"You don't have to apologize. You came here at better time than expected"James replied"Besides, I have another good news for you, Chris".
Chris then became a little puzzled.
"What do you mean by this?"both Chris and Bella asked.
"Queen Elizabeth learned about who stopped the Chinese from blowing the parliament into pieces. She want's to award you with the Victoria's Cross for this"James explained.
Chris then felt as his hands starts to shake. He never expected to get awarded like this. And from the queen herself.
The doors opened again and Lynette stepped into room. She noticed Bella and James and became nervous.
"I'm sorry. I didn't knew that someone's here"she said.
"Don't worry. We were just leaving"James said.
Bella looked at him with surprise. Before she could even resist, the two left Lynette and Chris alone.
"How are you?"Chris asked her.
"Good. And who was she?"Lynette asked pointing at the doors.
"It was our older sister Bella. She's actually our father daughter from his first marriage. She's at lawyer studies in Glasgow"Chris explained.
"Oh. She looked like she didn't wanted to leave"the Witch noticed.
"She's a little overprotective, that's all"then, one thing went on his mind"But how we survived?"
"Well. When you kissed me, my shield activated somehow. It didn't protected us in 100%, but enough to only get wounded"she explained.
Then, Lynette then hung her head and said:
"Listen…Is this what you told me in the underground…That you love me…it was true?"
Chris then felt as his face becomes red.
"Yes. It was true. I loved you then on London. That's why I wanted to ask you a question"he replied"Lynn. You want to be my girlfriend?"
In response, Lynette rapped her hands around Chris's neck and kissed him again. At the same time, James and Bella opened the doors, but when saw what was happening, they quickly left the room.
In the meantime, Chris and Lynette continued the kissing by next 5 minutes.
XXX
And another chapter is finally ready. I'm really sorry. You know, school.
Lynette: Hi.
Hi, Lynn. What do you need.
Lynette: Nothing. I'm just happy that I finally said it to him.
Yoshika: We're happy too.
Strike Witches: True.
Good that you're all happy.
Barkhorn: And what about this award ceremony?
It'll be in next chapter. Until then, see y'all!
Strike Witches: See ya!
Chris: Bye!