Strike Witches: Worldwide Liberation
Orussia Arc
Chapter 25: The Night Rocket
"The Jet Striker has been perfected?" Kye asked. She was talking on the phone with Erica's sister, Ursula.
"Yes, ma'am." Ursula said. "Thanks to Dr. Miyafuji's return, we have made breakthroughs and designed several different types of Jet Strikers and have remedied the problem with the high magic consumption. Even so, the Jet Strikers will still consume more magic than the Reciprocating Strikers, just not to the same extreme as when Captain Barkhorn tested the prototype."
"I see." Kye said. "This is good news."
"I have sent several strikers to your base in St. Petersburg." Ursula said. "They should have arrived by this morning."
"Yes." Kye said. "We had a cargo plane arrive today. I haven't checked out the contents, but I can assume the strikers you sent are what arrived."
"Good." Ursula said. "These strikers are not prototypes, but if there are any problems with them, please let me know as soon as possible."
"Will do." Kye said.
"I sent one striker for each member of the 501st," Ursula said. "and one for each of the others on your base that are capable of using ultimates. I recommend not allowing anyone that cannot use an ultimate to pilot these new strikers. Also, there is one prototype for a second generation Jet Striker. It is completely up to you whether to allow anyone to pilot it, but I recommend only allowing a witch with exceptional magic power. I sent a list of who I think would be capable of testing it."
"Alright." Kye said. "Thank you, Ursula."
"Your welcome, Kye." Ursula said, before hanging up.
Kye hung up her phone and headed down to the hangar. Just as she thought, several Jet Strikers had just been unloaded and unboxed. The other witches of the 501st and the 31st along with the few guest witches had all gathered to see what the commotion was about. One of the crewmen handed Kye papers detailing the strikers.
"Excellent." Kye said. "There's a page detailing each striker. It seems the Jet Striker staff has taken into account all of our current Reciprocating Strikers and designed custom Jet Strikers based on them. Each striker appears to be named after the Reciprocating Striker it was designed from. For example, the striker built for Yoshika is the Tsukushi FJF-J7W Shinden. Give me a second to sort through these and I'll call out each of your strikers." She shifted through the several papers, skimming through to see who was getting what.
"I don't like this." Minna said. "The last time we had a Jet Striker, we had problems."
"These problems have been fixed." Kye said. "These are not prototypes."
"I still don't like it." Minna said.
"We'll definitely have to test them out ourselves to make sure they are up to expectations." Kye said. "Alright, here's a list of the strikers and who they are for. I already called out Yoshika's striker, so I'll start next on the list. Rei and I are getting Shinden strikers, too. For Minna, Erica, Eila, Hanna, and Raisa, there's the Messerschmitt KJF-BF109 K-4 Kurfurst. For Trude, there's the Flug-Wulf KJF-FW190 D-9 Wurger. For Mio and Ayaka, there's the Yamanishi JFJ-N1K5-J Shiden Kai. For Sanya, well this one is different, I'll come back to it. For Lucchini, there's the Farotte RJF-G.55S Strega. For Shirley, there's the LFJ-P51D Mustang. For Perrine, there's the Arsenal GJF-VG39bis. For Lynne, there's the Ultramarine Spitfire BJF-Mk22. For Keiko, there's the Kawasaki FJF-Ki61-I Hien. And for Takeko, there's the Nakajima FJF-Ki43 Hayabusa. Some of you didn't get the exact same thing, so don't be disappointed there."
"You mentioned Sanya is getting something different?" Eila said.
"Yes." Kye said. "It's a night mission specialized striker. It's not based on her current striker. It's the Yakovlev OJF-Yak25 Flashlight."
"That's a lot of strikers." Trude said.
"Indeed." Kye said. "If you noticed, there is one for every person here capable of an ultimate. There's one more here. It's a prototype. Ursula specifically told me to only allow witches with strong magic power to test it. With that being said, I'm not going to allow anyone to test it other than me, after looking over it's specifications."
"You sound worried." Mio said.
"I am." Kye said. "This prototype is the Lockheed F104 Starfighter. I didn't know there was a developer from Lockheed on the Jet Striker staff. The first generation jet strikers I listed that you all are going to fly have been clocked between one thousand and eleven hundred kilometers per hour each and can fly as high as fifteen thousand meters. This prototype is listed to have a max speed of twenty one hundred and twenty five kilometers per hour, or roughly Mach two. It's listed to have the same altitude performance as the first generation strikers."
"I want to test it!" Shirley said.
"I'm afraid not, Shirley." Kye said. "I'm going to test this one myself. If I deem it safe, I'll allow you to fly it later. Also, these strikers, not including the prototype, have only marginally higher magic consumption than the reciprocators you currently use. We'll train in them later. That's about it."
"Before everyone splits up, I need your attention." Mio said. "I need everyone to meet up in the briefing room in one hour. Due to recent events that I will explain in detail later, we are setting up a reinforced night patrol team. Be there." Mio turned around and left the hangar.
The other witches slowly split off over the next few minutes.
One hour later, just as Mio had instructed, all witches had entered the briefing room.
"Okay." Mio said. "We have received reports about the incident a few days ago with the night pilots from the 502nd. They say they were forced down by a high speed neuroi. This was supported by Sanya."
"Yes, ma'am." Sanya said. "The neuroi was far away from my patrol path, but I did detect it in the vicinity of Second Lieutenant Shimohara and Second Lieutenant Lemare."
"From the data I've gathered from Shimohara and Lemare yesterday at the 502nd base, I can conclude that this neuroi is extremely dangerous." Mio said. "The problem is, we cannot send very many witches on a night mission. We can only add up to three more witches to the night missions. In additional to Sanya and Eila, I'm assigning Yoshika since she has previous experience working with Sanya and Eila on night missions, and I'm assigning Shirley and Lucchini, both for their special magical abilities."
"What?" Lucchini said. "I have to be up all night now?"
"You sleep all day anyway." Mio said. "It won't hurt you to be up a few nights until this is taken care of."
Lucchini slumped down in her seat.
"These reinforcements will join the night missions tonight." Mio said. "I've already talked to Kye about this, and she has agreed to it. All five of you have permission to use your Jet Strikers in this missions if you so desire."
"That's right." Kye said. "You will not be without backup by the way. I will be on standby."
"Good." Mio said. "With that being said. You are dismissed."
Like clockwork, the witches vacated the briefing room.
Three nights in a row, the witches saw and heard nothing of the target neuroi, but on their fourth night, Sanya detected it.
"Inbound from ten o'clock." Sanya said.
"Roger." Shirley said. "Are you sure it's the same one?"
"Yes." Sanya said. "It's the same one I detected last week."
"I'm going to radio Kye real quick then and tell her to be alert in case we need her." Shirley said.
"No need, Shirley." Kye said. "I'm awake and am listening. Proceed with the attack."
"Yes, ma'am." Shirley said. She readied her gun, but the neuroi had already whizzed by. "What the..?"
"It's fast." Eila said. "Very fast. Watch out, it's coming back."
Shirley tried slowing it down with her speed altering ultimate, but could slow it down enough. "It's so fast. Eila, let's use our ultimates together."
"Roger." Eila said. She used her influence ultimate to try to stall it long enough for Shirley to halt it with her own ultimate.
"Got it." Shirley said.
Yoshika, Sanya, and Lucchini opened fire on it the neuroi before it broke free of Eila's and Shirley's control.
"Damn." Shirley said.
"I have an idea." Yoshika said. She drew her sword and poured magic into it. "I just learned this technique a few days ago, but I think I can pull it off. Try to slow it down as much as you can so I can get a clean shot."
The neuroi was on it's way back, and was headed directly for Yoshika. Eila and Shirley slowed it down some, but weren't able to fully stop it as they did last time. Yoshika swung her sword at it, discharging a high speed concentrated magic blast.
"Was that a Distant Cut?" Shirley asked.
"Yes." Yoshika said. "I only got it's tail end though. Kye would have destroyed it."
"Well, I'm not there." Kye said. "You have to do it."
Yoshika flew directly into the neuroi's path."
"It's like a rocket." Shirley said. "Both in looks and in flight. Yoshika, you'll be in a world of hurt if that thing hits you."
"It won't." Yoshika said. She swung her sword at the neuroi, grazing it's top side with another Distant Cut.
"I can fully detect it now." Sanya said. "Before, it was hazy. What did you do?"
"I don't know." Yoshika said. "It's moving a lot slower now though."
"I think I can destroy it with my ultimate now." Sanya said.
"Go for it, Sanya!" Eila said.
Sanya focused on the neuroi, watching every inch of it. In mere moments, the neuroi slowed down before completely stopping, then it exploded into white flakes.
"Wow." Yoshika said. "That was amazing."
Sanya was visibly exhausted after her performance.
"It took a lot out of her." Shirley said.
"Is the neuroi destroyed?" Kye asked.
"Yes." Sanya said, trying to catch her breath.
"Return to base." Kye said.
"But, ma'am. Our night patrol isn't over." Sanya said.
"It's fine." Kye said. "The major threat it out of the picture. I'll have the other night witches in the area swing around later to check your areas."
"Yes, ma'am." Sanya said.
"Good job, Sanya." Eila said.
Shirley, Lucchini, and Yoshika were visibly impressed, and Eila simply had a "I knew she was awesome." look on her face.
"Good job, everyone." Kye said. "Great teamwork. I'll see you all in the hangar."
