Chapter 13: Reckoning
The nine members of the 8th Joint Strike Force met at Overton Park in Memphis, Tennessee, during their leave after D-Day. Nobody spoke of that day, however, as they tried to move on and enjoy their well-deserved leave. It was a bright sunny day in the park, as Roberta, Esther, Pauline, Thelma, Jamie, Samantha, Alice, Abigail, and Bridget were busy setting up a picnic in the soft green grass. Jamie brought some lovely ham sandwiches, Samantha brought about a pound of baby carrots, Esther baked fresh chocolate chip cookies, Pauline brought a quart of vanilla ice cream, and Alice brought refreshing lemon zinger tea in a thermos. The rest of the girls, Roberta, Thelma, Abigail, and Bridget went about spreading the blanket on the grass, and having a merry time doing it. As they sat down to enjoy the food, they began sharing stories of their lives before the 8th JSF was formed. Roberta, intrigued by this subject, began saying, "I remember back when I was in the 91st Heavy Bombardment Group…"
Alice looked at her incredulously, and asked, "You mean you weren't always part of the 8th?!"
"Of course not…" she said with a smile." The 8th is a joint strike group, made up of top bomber witches from different squadrons and bombing groups."
"Surely that can't be, I don't have much of a combat record…" Alice admitted as she hung her head slightly.
"Well you and Abigail must've shown some real potential to end up with us." Roberta giggled as Alice and Abigail perked up. "And you've proven yourselves quite a bit in combat. You two are quirky, but you make a great team. I remember back in my first couple of missions, nobody really payed attention to me. I was a rookie, like you, and at the time I didn't have a real call sign yet, only a name, rank, and serial number. It wasn't until maybe my thirteenth mission that people started noticing I was coming back consistently without a scratch, despite the heavy losses in the 91st. Even though our unit had the highest casualties of any bomb group, I was still doing my best no matter what. But when I reached my twenty-fourth mission, things started to heat up very quickly. You have to realize, that the typical tour of duty lasts twenty-five missions, after that you're allowed to go home, but very few even made it close to that. I remember being approached by a director named William Wyler, who said he wanted to film me completing my twenty-fifth mission and show it to the world, encouraging the bomber crews, encouraging young people to join the Air Force (it used to be the Army Air Corps.) and even urging civilians back home in Liberion to buy more war bonds and help support the war effort against the Neuroi."
"And did it work?" Abigail asked, curiously.
"You bet it did. I essentially became the role model for almost every young aspiring bomber witch ever since I completed my last mission. But even after that, I volunteered to keep serving, because my job isn't done until the Neuroi are nothing but smoking craters in the ground. I'll tell you this though, it wasn't just the AA and Neuroi fighters I was scared of that day over Wilhelmshaven, but also the combat cameramen in some of the other B-17's, who were filming the entire mission on May 18th, 1943. Had I made a mistake then, it would be seen on the big screen in front of millions of Liberions. Like what happened to Esther…" She turned to look at Esther momentarily, who blushed and tried to escape Roberta's calm gaze. "It's ok, that's what sisters are for…" Roberta smiled, trying to cheer her up.
"So… where was Esther during all of this?" A curious Alice inquired.
"Well, to be fair-" Roberta began.
"A-actually, I like to explain it myself…" Esther's quiet, quivering voice interrupted Roberta as everyone turned to look at her. She sat on one corner of the blanket, her eyes a bit misty, as she began explaining her past.
"W-well, I wasn't officially a part of the 91st, but I petitioned to be there so I could fight alongside my sister…" Esther admitted.
"Isn't that nearly impossible for relatives to be in the same unit?" Jamie pondered.
"I… May have talked to the right people… I wrote letters to the head of the operation, General Curtiss Lemay, and he also received letters from my unit's superiors, stating that my combat effectiveness was extremely low when I wasn't near Roberta… I could never focus, I couldn't shoot straight, and I could barely stay in the air, so when he heard my petition - and my fellow squad mates petitions - he reluctantly allowed me into the 91st, but not officially. ...I actually took heavy damage on that mission with Roberta, and she protected me until we could get to the target, drop our bombs, and then she practically carried me home in her arms… I could never repay her for what she did that day…" Her blushing intensified, as she turned away. Roberta on the other hand, went closer, sat down next to her, and hugged her tightly.
"R-Roberta?!" she said with surprise.
"Don't worry, I'll always protect you, my little sister…" Roberta smiled.
"R-Roberta…" Esther said as she began to cry on Roberta's shoulder, while Pauline coughed and asked if anyone else had a story to share.
Thelma slowly raised her hand, and began talking about her experiences in the Pacific.
"I remember back in the Pacific theater, when we had to stop a Neuroi uprising at Kure Naval Yard in Fuso. They were trying to destroy the battleship IFN Haruna, so we were tasked with killing the buggers before they could take it down. It wasn't easy though. I got hit by a Neuroi AAA gun, and fell into the port's cold waters… But I had to ditch my bomber units so I wouldn't sink, B-24D models at the time, and I swam to the dock where I just kept firing with my .50 cal, blasting them out of the sky, and picking them off of Haruna one by one. I must say they were quite desperate, cause when they realized they couldn't capture with me around, they tried to destroy it instead, another futile attempt. I took many random hits, until most of my clothing was burned off by laser fire. Or was it from my gun overheating…? Any who, we protected her to the end, and I was awarded quite heavily for that one."
Pauline, sitting next to Thelma, blushed heavily at the mental image of her best friend standing on the docks firing madly, her precious soft skin showing more than her clothes and singed by laser beams… She shook it off, though Thelma didn't seem to be embarrassed at all by her bold statement or by the group's opinion of her. Jamie spoke up and said, "You're quite a brave woman Thelma, most witches would just sit there and blush, trying to hide themselves instead of fighting. I'm proud to know you're in my group."
Thelma smiled warmly and thanked her, laughing softly, but at this point Pauline finally broke and turned away to hide her nosebleed, trying to wipe it off with a napkin. She faintly heard Alice and Abigail giggling softly, and cast them a stern glance which shut them up almost immediately.
"Well what about you two, Alice and Abigail? Got any good stories?" Jamie inquired.
"None that y'all haven't already heard or seen." Abigail responded in her sweet little Texas drawl.
"Same here, there's nothing we've been through that you haven't already been through." Alice explained with a shrug. But then she perked up and began, "Oh, but have I told you about what happened after my graduation from the academy?"
The rest of them shook their heads, admitting that they hadn't, and even Abigail hadn't heard about this yet.
"Well," she began. "After I graduated from the academy, I went back to my hometown in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I was there just in time to enjoy a small aerial competition that was being held at the regional airport. It wasn't that busy at the time, because of the war going on, but all the graduates of that year joined up to have flying competitions, and just have a great time celebrating. I recall a moment in particular, where I was testing out my new B-17G units, and flying above the airport, back and forth, just enjoying myself, when I spotted a young man with binoculars, who just kept staring at me and smiling every time I passed overhead. When I finally landed, he couldn't wait to meet me, but some of the superiors tried to drive him away. I was disgusted at this, and pushed my superiors aside as I spoke with him. Apparently he was a huge fan of mine, and came all the way across Liberion to meet me in person. I was quite flattered, so I gave him one of my pictures, signed it for him, and I also gave him a hug, at which point he essentially fainted from excitement. Although I thought he had passed out from the heat, so I called in the first aid team to take care of him while I went back to practicing. Oh yeah, I also met three other interesting bomber witches who came to compete: Stephanie Slavik, a B-17G, Lillian Prescott, a B-24A, and Natalya Melkin, an Orussian B-25J witch."
Samantha, mostly quiet this whole time, asked, "So how did you and Abigail meet?"
"Well, when we heard they needed more units up in Brittannia, I enlisted, surprisingly at the same time that Abigail did." Alice explained.
Here, Abigail spoke up, as she continued the explanation, "We actually met each other on the C-47 that took us across the pond, and after swapping stories from the academy, we soon became great friends."
"Well that's great." Jamie said. "Um… We pretty much already know Pauline's story… Is there anybody who hasn't spoken, other than Samantha?" She glanced around, and everybody had seemed to forget about Bridget, who merely scoffed as she blew on her hot tea. "Oh! Sorry Bridget, I almost forgot about you!"
"What a surprise." Bridget said sarcastically, as she took a sip of her lemon tea.
"Well gee, you don't have to be so hurt about it." Abigail remarked.
At this, Bridget choked on her hot tea, and after wiping her mouth off, began her speech. "You know, all this time I've been living at High Wycombe, practicing, waiting for the day that I would be accepted into a group like the Eighth. But day after day, I see everyone from old veterans to fresh recruits joining the Joint Strike Force, as I sit there and seethe in fury, like a pile of wasted talent."
"But Bridget… you have to-" Samantha began, only to be interrupted by Bridget.
"Don't 'But Bridget' me! I've wanted to join the Eighth ever since it was in the initiative stages, I was the first one to apply, and yet eight witches were processed in before they even looked at me and remembered who I was. I am a Brittanian by blood, I was raised on Brittanian soil my whole life, and then I get trampled on by a bunch of bloody Liberions who just walk right past me without a single ounce of shame! I'm tired of being overlooked all the time!" She finished with a loud scoff.
"Bridget… I'm sorry that you weren't first in line. But being first isn't all it's cracked up to be." Pauline said, attempting to comfort her. "Believe me. I was the first to test a weapon of mass destruction against the Neuroi. And though I should've been praised, I was criticized by my own people, the whole nation looked down on me, all the other nations were disgusted at the mention of me, and I myself was quite disappointed as well. Being first isn't all it's cracked up to be..."
"I don't think that's the best comparison, but thank you for trying Pauline." Bridget admitted, calming down.
"Well Samantha, you got anything to share?" Jamie said, trying to change the subject.
"Nothing that you don't already know, except hundreds of hours of patrol duty…" She said with a sigh.
"You sure? What was the most exciting thing that ever happened in your career before the Eighth?" Jamie asked.
"Well, one time I saw a whale in the channel…" Samantha said with a smile.
Everyone gave her a dumbfounded look, as she perked up and activated her mongoose familiar, her gray-blue eyes glowing with magic aura.
"Message intercepted from RAF High Wycombe. Eighth Joint Strike Force instructed to return to High Wycombe. The push for Berlin, Karlsland has begun. Will give more details upon return. Sincerely, Curtiss Lemay." Samantha said.
"Lemay? No way, I thought Eisenhower was still in charge of the campaign…" Jamie pondered.
"No. Eisenhower gives us target advisories that will benefit his land forces. Lemay is the commander of the day bombing effort, the supreme commander at that." replied Samantha promptly.
"Well girls, it's time to get back into action. You ready?" Jamie asked, packing everything back up. But when she looked up again, all of the girls already had their bomber units on and their guns out. "You girls… you amaze me sometimes…"
"We strive to make our commander proud!" Alice said, giggling slightly.
"All right then." Jamie said, getting her Mitchell units on. "Let's rock 'n roll!" she said as their magic circles and familiars deployed. There was a loud roar heard for miles through Overton Park and the rest of Memphis, as all nine witches started up their bomber units and rose into the sky of Tennessee, beginning the journey to the nearest Air Force base, where they would catch a C-47 back to High Wycombe and return to Brittania. "If they needed us back that badly, things must be really rough over there. Expect the worse, grit your teeth, and give it all ya got girls!" Jamie shouted over the radio.
"Yes ma'am!" The girls shouted in unison.
"Man I missed hearing that…" Jamie got misty eyed as the rest of them laughed and they flew off towards the nearest Air Force base.