Hello everyone. I want to give a quick heads up in the authors notes that this chapter will feature scenes of both lemon and rape, and will feature a certain, deplorable hate group spreading hate speech and bigotry, so be warned of the subject matter in question. If you are a reader who is either underage or draw issue with such content then it is recommended that you skip passed such scenes. I want to deliver a brief author tract in that some of such the subject matter in this chapter was difficult to write, but seeing as they are issues that occur in life and I have seen happen that it and other real life topics will be explored and touched upon in the story for narrative immersion and to explore how the Witches would react to such challenges like this in our world.

In addition, while I will be continuing with WR141, I am going to take a short break to begin working on a series of one shots and a short story involving the ten primary witches and two mauve shirt witches of the 78th Tame Witches Combined Reserve Squadron. There will be ten stories in total that will delve into the lives of the 78th, nine of which will show the girls just shortly being assigned to their respective unit together and the short story that takes place just before the events of WR141. It is long overdue for me to show the lives of these key supporting characters in WR141, seeing as they will be playing an every growing role within the story, and I hope that you guys enjoy experiencing their lives and journey's in both the one shots and in WR141 itself.

Lastly on the docket is that I didn't expect the chapter to be this long, even after promising to try as keep within a reasonable limit per chapter, it seems that the story got away from me. Hopefully I'll be able to keep things under control next time.

Once more unto the breach: the next chapter begins...

*Edit* Just a quick heads up to all my readers is that I took the liberty to edit chapters 15, 20,21,22,23 and 25 and have ret-conned Clotilda's rank from 1st Lieutenant to Captain due to the size of the 78th Tame Witches roster and how little sense it would make even as far as a witch is concerned for her to be in charge of the 78th with such a low rank, therefore it's required the change of Clotilda's rank into something remotely realistic.


Chapter 28

Tracking... Charlotte "Shirley" Yeager...

Affiliation... 501st Joint fighter Wing...

Location... 501st Witches Base Romagna...

Time: 09:33 hours, One day prior to Darya's assignment to Duty Desk...

"Charlotte Yeager: you're a Captain now! You have to act in a manner that's becoming of your rank! Show some discipline and professionalism already!" Gertrud barked at her.

'Trudy's at it again. Always had that standard regulation stick up her butt as always', she mused.

"If you only you spent sometime on your discipline as much as you tinker with your striker then I know you'd make an excellent officer, but that won't happen if you don't apply yourself."

The busty Liberion scoffed. "Oh, quit being such a stick in the mud already: I handle my job quite fine, thank you. Not every officer is the same Trudy, you should know that. Too much discipline makes you too rigid, so lighten up will you!"

"Unacceptable! I'm not budging on this until this sinks into that thick head, Liberion slacker!" Trude seemed much more adamant than normal. Well, Trudy was always stubborn, that was a given. "So are you going to start getting yourself in shape as an officer or do I need to take action to motivate you?"

"Oh please, you're in need of some leave, but I doubt you'd know how to take any: you'd likely use it to work in the admin desk or drill the girls or just go out fighting again. You ought to learn a thing or two from Hartmann, you might even learn to relax for once if you did."

Trudy's face drew into a snarl. "What did you say?!" she demanded, approaching Shirley and pressing herself close to the other girls face.

Shirley glared at her rival challengingly. "You heard me!" she shot back. Both girls had their foreheads pressed up to each other combatively. As the two rivals stared each other down with frustrated looks and growling Shirley felt a pain in her chest.

She missed these moments. She missed having to butt heads with her favorite rival. Doing this really took her back when she teased Trudy for being the straight-laced disciplined Karlslander that she and her squadmates had come to care for.

She missed Trudy...

Shirley's frustration soon faltered and gave way to a melancholy feeling, her voice started to waver. "Damn it Trudy! You always were a stubborn idiot: You almost got killed shortly after Yoshika joined our unit, you risked your life pushing yourself beyond the limit with the EitherJet Striker, then you hurt yourself crashing out on the battlefield and now you wind up in some other world facing who knows what by yourself and without any of us there to help you! Haven't you stopped to think for one damned second that you might take a risk you might not walk away from?! Haven't you stopped to think what would happen if you took one risk too many!?"

Gertrud looked surprised at this, blinking a bit, trying to take in this sudden declaration."S-shirley?"

She looked at the Karlslander with a look of sorrow. "Haven't you thought... how important you are to us, Barkhorn? How important you are to..." Shirley hesitated for a moment, then sighed, looking Trudy in the eyes. "Don't you ever realize how much it would hurt us if something happened to you, Trudy?"

Gertrud looked into the eyes of the Liberion Captain, stunned into silence. After a while of looking at her in surprise, Gertrud had a subtle look of warmth on her face. "Hey, Shirley?"

"Yeah, what?" Shirley asked with a guarded tone.

Gertrud's smile grew a bit wider, a light blush finding a way onto her cheeks. "Did you know... you have beautiful eyes?"

Shirley was silent for a minute as she took in what Trudy said to her. Did she just hear that right? "Huh? What are you talking about? Where did that come fro-" before she could finish her question Gertrud pressed herself up against Shirley's body and planted a kiss on her lips. Charlottes mind froze completely. 'W-wait a second, w-what's going on?! How the hell is this happening?! Why are you kissing me?!' Then the buxom girl had a moment of realization, further adding to her shock as Trudy's hands started to move towards her more intimate areas. 'Wait... why am I kissing back?! And why... does this... feel good?'

"GAH, WAIT A MINIUTE!" Shirley promptly bolted awake, papers scattered in every direction and were flung into the air. Looking around the commanders office of command she remembered that she had dozed off trying to sort through even more paper work involving status reports, requisition forms and duty rosters. Too much damn paper work to sort through to the point of reaching exhaustion. When that happened she needed a good ten minute power nap. After spending this long trying to handle running things on base her body was starting to feel the effects. "Geeze... it was just a dream."

Ever since Gertrud went missing Charlotte was worried about whether or not her squadmate was alright. This was a natural thing to worry about, who wouldn't worry about the fact that one of your friends had gone missing? But this was the first time she had ever had a dream like that... what was that about? Feeling her face warming up she sighed and mopped her face.

"That was so weird... what was up with that dream?" While Shirley had to concede that Trudy was a very pretty girl, that she hadn't really had much time for things like romance or intimacy, what with her dreams of achieving the speed of sound. Sure she got propositioned by boys and even a few girls sometimes. Come to think of it she was propositioned by both boys and girls a lot the more she thought about it, had two or three dates, but nothing steady and nothing beyond that. She was far too focused on her dreams to slow down and date people. Didn't even have much in terms of intimacy either; she was much too busy pursuing her goals in achieving new accomplishments in the realm of speed. She was "Glamorous Shirley" after all, the speed demon of the 501st.

But for the first time; she was having very intimate, erotic dreams about her rival. And for the life of her she didn't know why. Looking at the scattered stacks of paper she sighed, then looked to the stamp sitting on the table, cringing. How can anyone go through this much paper work: I already did ten stacks today? Ah well, at least I had a nap for a while... but why did I have a dream like that? Shirley shook her head. Probably shouldn't think about it too much, I should just get back to work and then check on the girls, see how their training is going. Before she could get back to work she suddenly noticed something. W-wait a minute... why do my panties feel wet?

She looked down at herself and noticed that her panties were a little moist. "Oh come on! Did that dream really get me this head up?! I mean this is Barkhorn we're talking about here!" Her face fell flat as she exhaled in annoyance. Although, she did have to admit... she did miss Barkhorn. But why is she having this sort of a reaction and this sudden weird feeling for Gertrud, especially now of all times. "Now I'll have to grab a fresh pair from my room." she sighed.

Tracking... Sgt. Marcus Burns...

Affiliation... 22nd SAS Regiment...

Location... London, United Kingdom...

Date: October 6th - 4:39:11

The truck was down, overturned and sliding on its side, grinding to a halt several meters away from the SAS blockade. The driver was riddled with enough Parabellum 9mm rounds from an assortment of MP5's belonging to the men of the SAS to look like Swiss cheese. Hour upon hour running the king house back at base every morning had paid off in the long run, as far as marksmanship was concerned at any rate.

The battle took him from Canary Wharf, a construction site, through the tube and finally ending at Westminster Station.

With the hostile truck down it now left one gnawing question in his mind...

Bravo 2-1 gave the order to cease fire and Redgrave gave the all clear. Wallcroft got on the radio to report in on their end. "Baseplate, the lorry's down. We're secure. What's the status on the others?" Thiers a pause, no response from the other end. Marcus found that worrying. Wallcroft spoke again over the radio, this time with a more pressing tone. "Baseplate, come in. Baseplate, where are the trucks?!" he demanded.

Sergeant Burns cringed. He hoped that events weren't going where he thought they were going. Before he could compete his thoughts and while Wallcroft continued to radio Baseplate for status on the trucks he noticed something as his gaze went to the rooftops. He could see a set of five objects, one smaller than the other moving though the dusk skies over London. They seemed black with red markings on them. "Oi, Wallcroft?"

Wallcroft turned to Burns in exasperation, the other SAS troopers now having their attention turn to the "What the bloody hell is it?"

Burns motions over to the objects in the sky. "Up there, I think I see something. Some sort of aircraft, I think... up at twelve o-clock."

Wallcroft looks to where Burns was motioning to, spotting the five aircraft. "The bloody hell... are those drones?"

"I'm not sure. Are they ours?"

"We're about to find out, I'm calling it in to be safe." Wallcroft got back on the radio to report the find to Baseplate. "Baseplate be advised, we have five unknown aircraft moving North-North-East from our position, possibly drones. Are they ours?" He paused, being met once again with silence. "Baseplate, come in! Do you copy?!"

After another bout of silence, Baseplate finally gives a response. "Sorry Bravo 6, we are still trying to get a location on the remaining trucks. Be advised we only have one drone confirmed ours in your airspace, are you certain it's not civilian air traffic?"

"I'm not sure Baseplate, but they're much too small to be civilian airliners or any other small manned aircraft. I say again, we may have possible enemy drones."

"We'll look into the aircraft and keep you posted on the locations of the other trucks, Bravo 6. We're sending one of our drones to investigate the craft. Standby for further orders."


Tracking... Lynette Bishop ...

Affiliation... 501st Joint Fighter Wing...

Location: 501st Joint Fighter Wing, Romagna...

Timeframe: 10:36 hours, One day prior to Darya's assignment to Duty Desk...

Status: Training Exercise Underway... Air Infantry Mock Battle has begun...

"Alright... we'll be starting the 3rd Mock Battle now. Everyone's ready, right? Yoshika will be facing Perrine and Alannah will be facing Brinda. Yoshika and Perrine, like before, will start first." Lynn looked about the four witches that Shirley instructed she would oversee the Mock Battle of. She had noticed recently that Yoshika had been acting differently as of late, although from what she was able to see of her friend she figured it was because Yoshika was probably getting more motivated to do her best. Although she was unsure just what was the cause for her to push herself so much.

But despite her recent enthusiasm, and having a strong start during the mock battle, it was apparent that Yoshika was still struggling somehow. When she flew she was struggling to keep her form while in flight, which left her open to Perrine's attacks. She had already taken a full burst of paint ammunition from the Gallien girl's training weapon twice already. Lynne was silently hoping that maybe this time her Yoshika will be able to take a win this next round.

"Okay, Mock Battle: Start!"

When she gave the signal and blew her whistle the four witches initiated the mock battle with their respective opponents. Yoshika was off with Perrine following close behind. Perrine was following on Yoshika's tail, making sure to keep the Fuso girl in her sights. While Yoshika was flying defensively Lynne could see her legs wobble, as if she were trying to maintain stability with her strikers. She attempted a hard right turn, but she wasn't turning quite as tight as she did earlier during the mock battle. Yoshika tried to follow up a small burst at Perrine, but the paint rounds went a few meters wide. Perrine used this opportunity to counter with a sharp left turn, the maneuver was much tighter then Yoshika's own turn, allowing her to get into a favorable position and fire. Each and every paint round managed to hit it's mark, marking Yoshika with orange splotches of paint.

At the sound of the whistle Yoshika and Perrine's mock battles were over: three wins for the Gallien of nobility, three losses for the Fuso healer. "The Match is over! Perrine win's again!" Even despite the cheery declaration, Lynne felt a great deal of concern for Yoshika, she had never seen her friend perform this poorly; even when she was in training. The Fuso girl also seemed much more exhausted than normal, but she couldn't help but wonder why that was. "You have three losses of out three Yoshika. That's not like you at all."

Perrine wore a very firm look as she gazed in annoyance at Yoshika. "You know; I'd appreciate it if you didn't hold back just because this is training." After a pause an accusatory look filled Perrine's eyes. "Or what? Are you simply refusing to take me seriously?!" she demanded.

Yoshika looked panicked gestured in negative in response. "No! I'm not holding back! I'm taking you seriously, I swear!" she replies in worried assurance.

Despite this Perrine still seemed unsatisfied, and proceeded to move back from Yoshika, it was clear she was frustrated with her squad mates lack luster performance, or at least so it seemed. Lynne sighed and turned to the next two witches for the upcoming Mock Battle; Alannah and Brinda. After getting to know them a bit, Lynne found the two girls to be very spirited young witches. The fifteen year old witch from Australis, Alannah, was a girl with short, dirty blond hair, shining brown eyes, an athletic body and an average sized bust for a girl her age. The familiar she had was a Campbell Albatross. As Lynne could observe in the time she had come know her, Alannah was a very tough, athletic tomboy, if perhaps a bit on the competitive side and just a little bit of a cheeky wisecracker.

Alannah turned to her small squad mate and gave a wide smile. "So, are you ready for our go next? Just because we're friends don't think that I'll hold back." She warns, brandishing the mock training variant of her Charlton Automatic Rifle with one hand.

The smallest witch of the 78th who hailed from Pali nods with a look of clear excitement, so much so that her face was positively glowing. Lynne would almost go as far as say her face was glowing as much as Yoshika's did whenever the two of them talked with each other. "Don't worry! I sure wont. And the same applies from me to you: I'm a Ghurkha after all." The thirteen year old retrieved the Bren Mark 1 mock training weapon from her back. "I'm ready when you are." The ears of her familiar, a Palese snow leopard, twitched in excitement from within her chestnut coloured, short hair.

"Same here." Alannah turned to Lynne and nods. "You can give the word to start if you want, we're both-." Alannah stops for a moment with a thoughtful look. "Actually, is it alright if I can make a request?"

Lynnette was perplexed by this. Curiosity got the better of her and Lynne decided to inquire into what it is the Australis witch wants. "Uh... I suppose so. What would you like to request, exactly?"

"Is it alright if Brinda and I can use our full magical abilities as well as our shields for this mock battle?"

Lynne gave a nod. "Well, I suppose that's alright if you really want to. It might be a good way to help in training with your magical control as well in the field. Aside from that it's the same rules as before." She blows her whistle, signifying the start of the Mock Battle.

Alannah was the first off like a shot. "Catch me if you can, Brinda!" Brinda just laughed as she pursued her fellow tame witch, jockeying for position to get Alannah in her sights.

No sooner did Alannah take off she activated her innate magical ability, with a light blue glow starting to envelop her body. At this her strikers roared as magic energy poured into her magic engine. However as the Australis performed a quick turn while rolling onto her side to rake Brinda with a volley, Lynne noticed that her Charlton Automatic Rifle was firing at a rate that was faster than normal for a weapon of that type.

That's strange... a magical ability that increases the speed of her striker and the rate of fire for her weapon. Lynne mused to herself.

Brinda managed to barely doge the incoming volley and proceeded to return that fire. However, Alannah was quick to react, juking hard left to avoid being hit. After a few minutes of both girls playing a game of cat and mouse with each other Alannah got into position behind Brinda. Brinda started to climb in altitude, but Alannah was fast approaching from her six o-clock. She fired a volley as Brinda rolled onto her back while climbing. Lynne then saw something amazing; it wasn't so much that Brinda stopped the incoming paint munitions, which did indeed happen: it was the fact that the projectiles seemed to be held in place in her shield. Even more amazing was that after about ten seconds of holding the projectiles the Ghurkha witch's shield momentarily intensified and then returned the rounds back at Alannah, though with a set of completely random trajectories. Alannah's shield managed to crash through the rounds that were set upon her general direction but she could see the Australis girl stagger a little, winded by the impact.

A shield control ability of this type... I haven't seen a shield used like this before. Lynne was impressed with these two witches inherent magic, the spells they used were belong to sub-categories to certain magic lineage that she had only heard of at best, or only now had become aware of. After some back and forth and aerobatics Alannah finally performed an inside loop. At the apex of the loop Alannah aimed her training weapon and fired a long, sustained burst, catching her smaller target flatfoot. Brinda was painted from head to her lower back with paint splotches from the training munitions. Lynne blew the whistle and raised her hand. "First Round goes to Alannah!" she declares with a smile.

Both girls regroup with Lynne, Perrine and Yoshika, with Brinda looking a little meek at her loss. Alannah looked to the small girl with a smile. "Oi, what's the matter? You did very well out there for the first round, why the long face?"

Brinda looked to the Australis girl as Yoshika wiped the paint off of the smaller girl with a towel. "I thought I'd be improving at this point by now... but I guess... I haven't made any progress at all. At this rate..." She trailed off. It was clear that the small girl was really trying to push herself, but was now fast losing heart. Lynne started to think the small Pali girl may have had self esteem issues much like Lynne herself had before Yoshika arrived.

Alannah gave a light chuckle. "Hey now, don't go thinking like that. You've been improving bit by bit each time. Hell you really made me work for my shots back there, so don't be too hard on yourself."

Brinda seemed to feel a little bit better at this. "Y-yeah. Yeah, I guess you're right. Thanks Alannah." she replies warmly, perhaps a bit quicker than it would have been for most people. Lynne figured Alannah's words to Brinda must have carried much more impact than normal.

"No problem."

Yoshika spoke to Alannah with a tone of curiosity. "Um... I was wondering what sort of magic you two were using during the Mock Battle? If your alright with me asking that is..."

Perrine had worn a look of guarded interest. "Yes, I was wondering that myself to be honest."

Alannah wore a grin as she explained with a great degree of pride about her magic. "Gladly! My magical ability is called : Super Overdrive. It's a sort of an Intrinsic magical ability that allows me to extend both the speed and endurance of not only my body but both my strikers and weapons. My Charlton can spit out twice as much lead for twice the time, I can fly the longest in the 78th and not only maintain but even push my top speed on my Spitfire a little bit thanks to the increase of speed output and endurance, heck..." She flexes her arm and places her other hand upon it with a squeeze. "Even my own physical being can not only push normal limits as far as witches are concerned but react faster than the other girls in my squad. Basically I provide the fast, heavy hitting in the Tame Witches. I used it earlier back during that battle in Venezia, used quite a bit of my magic against that wing of Laros-Kai."

Lynne's face was glowing in amazement at hearing the magical ability of the Australis girl. "Oh wow! That's really amazing!" Yoshika also was quite amazed at this girl's magic, her body tensed in excitement. Perrine, being Perrine, had a look of mild amusement.

Alannah shrugged. "Yeah, but the drawback is that if I use it for too long, not only does it eventually drain my magic reserves: I get dehydrated pretty fast. Last time I had to fight in a three hour long engagement and used my magic and wound up passing out in the middle of enemy territory. Not to mention both me, my strikers and my weapon were overheated and worn down enough to the point of being strained. If I kept firing my Charlton at that point I would have end up splitting the barrel or cooking off the ammunition. And my striker's magic engine output wound up getting dodgy as hell, I'll tell ya. And worst yet, my canteen was dry as a bone in the outback: not even a drop left. I need water to help keep cool and hydrated after expending myself to a degree like that, helps replenish my body and magic while I use my magic ability."

"How did you manage to survive such a harrowing ordeal?" Perrine asked with genuine surprise. Alannah silently turned to Brinda with a smile. Though she didn't say anything to or about her best friend the look on her face and in her eyes conveyed more than words ever could.

Brinda noticed and laughed nervously, her face taking a light blush. "That would be because of me. Believe it or not, at the time I was a Land Battle Witch in the 2nd Ghurkha rifles. I used an M3 Lee Land Battle Combat Leg type Striker with twin Cannons." the small girl explained.

"A land battle witch?" Perrine inquired.

"Yup, I signed on so I could help on the Malayan front. I served their for a little over a month, and I was pretty good at it."

"Two Cannons?! You could really carry all that?!" Yoshika exclaimed. It was likely she couldn't believe that someone so small could carry twin heavy cannons into battle like that. Lynne herself couldn't even comprehend it. She wondered how someone like Brinda could carry such a heavy weapon with the allotted ammo required to operate such a weapon.

Brinda giggled. "I know: a lot of the non-Pali witches I met were amazed by the fact I could carry both canons despite my size." After a pause, a look of shock crossed her. "I mean height! Height! Height!" she amends in a panic.

Yoshika blinked, a perplexed look crossing her face."Huh? Yeah, we know what you meant, I think."

Lynne nods. "Yeah, what did you mean if you didn't mean height?"

Brinda waved off the question in embarrassment, her face turning redder. "Nothing! Really, nothing, I swear!" Brinda sighed and continued. "Well at any rate, I had some water on me and I lent Alannah some and covered her until she was at least hydrated enough to fly again. In that time I had to use my Magic ability: "Shield of Return", to return Neuroi laser fire back at the enemy. It's more accurate for me to return laser fire then it is to return bullets and other human projectiles." She motioned to her striker unit on her legs, her hands traipsing over the steel body. "To be honest it was much easier to use my magic ability with my M3 combat legs then with my Hawk Hurricane here."

Perrine raised an eyebrow. "I see..." she stated simply.

Lynne couldn't help but wonder about something, having realized that Brinda was a Land Battle Witch, key word being was. "So why did you put in a transfer for Air Infantry anyways?" she asked. That was a detail that she wanted to see answered. It was uncommon for witches to transfer branches in the military, due to the need for retraining witches for service in different roles and to operate different strikers.

Brinda 's face fully turned as red as a beet at Lynne's question, but the look of nervousness she had gave way to a smile as her eyes darted for a moment over to the Australis witch. "I made... a very good friend that day. And... I wanted to help support her. That's why I cast off my Land Battle legs and became Air Infantry."

Lynne couldn't argue that. "I think I understand that all too well." Looking over at Yoshika she knew what the small witch from Pali meant about being close to your friends. It moved her to see this girl go to such lengths to fight alongside Alannah. Although, some part of her wondered if that was really the only reason. The way Brinda worded it made Lynne wonder...

Perrine groaned lightly. "Yes, yes this is all fascinating, really, but we still have finish the mock battle."

Alannah turned to Perrine with a cheeky look. "What's the matter four eyes? Too prim and bloody proper to enjoy a good story between matches?" She goaded.

Perrine was aghast. "Four eyes!? Why I never in my life ever heard of such a-!"

Lynne blinked in realization and interrupted. "Oh you're right! We're still not finished. Okay, second round, ready? Go!" At the sound of the whistle Alannah and Brinda took off, while Perrine was grumbling to herself. Having been grateful at meeting these people in her life, Lynne couldn't help but smile.


Tracking... Carmen Ramirez...

Affiliation...Hunter-2-1 75th Ranger Regiment...

Location: 501st Joint Fighter Wing, Romagna...

Time: 10:45 hours...

Carmen was sitting with her back up against the wall of the hanger. She and the other American troops have had a chance to collect themselves. With their time off some of them were either in respective gaggles talk about recent events, exercising and training, talking with some of the witches base personnel or in the case of Carmen, watch the Witches mock battle up in the sky. to a lot of the American men and women it was truly a surreal experience coming to the witches world. For most this would have been their first time here. There was a lot of culture shock running through the ranks.

Though she wasn't really paying much attention to the other Marines or the Rangers around her. Her thoughts kept on going back to the man she was in charge of leading, Kline... how she was responsible for him, her orders responsible for his death: a man she was in charge of leading in her fire team. This dead Marine only made her think back to the two people that were once in her life... lives of ones who she found precious and dear to her... and how in her pained, sorrowful dismay she had lost then to the flames of war. Her very first hook up before these two... she was quick, willing and more than happy to forget. Good riddance to bad rubbish. She silently huffed to herself. If she ever saw that bastard again it would be too soon.

Morgan was sitting right next to Carmen while she watched the witches, while at the same time musing over her thoughts, disassembling and cleaning the parts to his 240 Bravo. The damn thing was getting prone to jamming, so he figured the reason for this was because it required cleaning. After finishing with the firing assembly he noticed James, Laymen and Zander approaching, with Zander, much to his and Carmen's surprise, was walking completely under his own power, looking as surprised as they were.

As she was in her own little world beside him, Morgan spoke questioningly to James and Laymen, his finger pointed at Zander. "H-hey, wasn't he paralyzed a while ago? Should he really be walking around like that?"

Zander had a look of complete shock on his face as he took a seat with Laymen and James joining with them. "I was... I was paralyzed." he responds absently. "But then I... I just got... um... magicked back to health."

Morgan looked skeptical at hearing this. "You're shitting me." he responds flatly.

"It's true man, I saw that Miyafuji girl and that other kid... Erzsi, use some of that healing magic James told us about. Took them both a couple hours but they really fixed him up." Laymen insists. "Never in my entire life would I have believed it if I haven't seen it myself." After a moment he adds after some thought. "Though to be honest I'm still hung up over the whole "no pants" thing myself. Seriously, a bunch of kids that are of middle school and high school age's running around with no goddamn pants; what the hell kind of world is this place anyways?"

James just wears a passive look on his face and a matter of fact tone. "The girls are active duty witches: they need ease of access to don their strikers at a moment's notice so they pretty much can't wear pants so they can be ready when the call goes out."

Laymen looks to James in astonishment. "How the hell can you be so calm about this dude! We've got a bunch of underage minors parading around in their underwear! This worlds pretty much a pedophiles wet dream! How are you not be panicking?! This is a big deal!"

James shrugs. "I don't see how it is really." he says simply.

All the guys look to him with looks of open mouthed shock at this, followed closely by a set of dirty looks. "What are you saying... that you're getting off to this sort of shit, are you a damn perv or something?!" Zander demands.

James wears a look of awe filled bewilderment. "To be honest... I've been here for long enough that... I just stopped noticing it. The fact the girls are walking around, flying around or what have you without any pants just stopped registering to me. It's like you get desensitized to it or something. First time I saw the witches for myself it hit me like a fucking freight truck, but now: nothing. No freak outs, no libido acting up without permission; nada. You just get used to the fact that panties are worn openly... and apparently a lot of girls and young women worldwide who idolize witches also go without pants too; got to see that as well. It's all I can tell ya."

After a moment of uneasy silence Laymen hummed thoughtfully. "I don't know wither to find this awesome or horrifying." he remarks.

Morgan shakes his head in disbelief and turns to Carmen. "What do you think, Carmen?" he asks.

Her thoughts of her two long lost loves interrupted, Carmen turns to Morgan with confusion. "What do I think of what?" she asks.

"The Witches and this world of course! What else would I be talking about? They're completely bottomless." he responds, reassembling the receiver and firing pin of the 240.

"Weird... and very fucking distracting. That's all I can say really. But I think the more important thing we should more concerned with was that... fucking metal monster I dumped half of a 200 round box mag into. I was only able to stagger the damned thing... and those other laser shooting motherfuckers for that matter."

"Metal Monster? What are you tal-"

James interrupts. "Neuroi. You actually took a Neuroi head on, Carmen?"

Carmen nods. "Nearly took my head off with a laser, but yeah. I don't think I left much of a dent in it really. That girl: Angela. She managed to destroy the thing in one shot." Carmen felt worried about the witch that she had came to the rescue of. She heard how one of her squad mates, a girl named Fernandia, used some healing magic to help heal her. Still, those wounds looked pretty bad. She couldn't help but worry a little for the kid. "Her wounds were rough though. Just hope she isn't too bad."

James looks emphatically to Carmen. "Are you feeling alright, sis?" His voice held a tone of grave concern.

Carmen nods. "Yeah." she responds with a light tone.

"Are you sure?" he pressed, clearly sounding unconvinced.

"Yeah." Her tone and face dropped flatly at her brothers prying. What was he so damned worried about?

Her answer came by means of an ambiguous question. "You sure you don't want to talk about... you know... what happened back there."

It was at this point she knew where her brother was driving at: Kline's death. She sighs and gives a gloomy response. "...I fucked up. I cost Kline his life because of my damned orders for him to come along with me. If I just told him to hang back with you guys he'd still be alive." She sighed bitterly. "Damned Russian bastards. Not only that, they got a few civvies caught in the crossfire trying to kill us."

"Hey, I know it hurts, alright." Zander says, trying to reassure Carmen. "But he was doing his job, just like you were..." He trailed off for a moment and sighed. "But yeah... those civvies... they got caught up in our shit. At least we got most of them to safety and took out a good chunk of the Russian's that got ported in with us."

"Small blessing." Carmen scoffs.

James looks sympathetically at his sister and leans forward. He didn't want to see her beating herself up so much. "You did a good job sis... you managed to hold yourself and your fire-team together. You remember that. Take that feeling inside yourself and use it to pull you forward and the rest of your fire team. Use it to avenge the loss of one of your own, alright?"

Carmen was stunned by her brothers words. A smile crossed her a moment in amusement. She could always depend on her brother to help keep her grounded. "Yeah... you're right. Where'd you come up with that one anyways?"

James smirked. "Sarge taught me that one. A lot of what he said over time sunk in with me so... I guess that's why I'm able to keep squared away as well as I have."

Before Carmen could respond to this the sound of an aircraft engine 's drone approaches. Many of the American troops notice one of the witches descending to the ground by the hanger door, being greeted by a soldier wearing a Britannian uniform and carrying a pair of Jerry cans. The witch in question; a girl named Alannah, thanks the soldier and proceeded to take one of the Jerry cans, looking as though she were exhausted and sweating heavily. She unscrewed the cap of the Jerry can and upon placing her lips on the opening proceeded to tilt her head back with the jerry can and steadily down the water that was inside.

The American's watched with wide eyed shock as the Australis girl downs the large volume of water in one go. After finishing the first jerry can she lightly tosses it to the soldier, retrieves the second Jerry Can and repeats the process. Upon finishing she sighs contently and casts aside the second Jerry Can, now completely empty.

Carmen blinked. "How in the world are you able to drink that much fucking water in one sitting?!" she exclaims.

Alannah turns to her and shrugs with a flat look on her face. "I was thirsty." she replies. With that she initiated her strikers and began flying back into the sky. "Alright! Time for the third and final round!"

Carmen, the Ranger's and Marines could unanimously agree: this world, and these girls: were weird. But if there was one thing that Carmen did find to like about this world, it was the tough, pretty girl that she had came to the aid of. She really hoped that the young witch was healing up alright. The more she thought about this girl the more she found her face heating up. But then memories of old flames lost to war returned to her... she still wasn't sure... if her heart was ready quite yet...


Tracking... Sergeant Ian "Justice" Ward...

Affiliation...Team Viking, Delta Force...

Location... Holland Tunnel, New York...

Status: Approaching allied unit within former Russian held barricade, reports indicate an exchange of fire between American Regular Army Unit's and possible hostiles...

Time: 5:42:09...

This had to be the most insane thing that he ever had to go through. Just what the hell was his team supposed to be hunting down in here? The barricade set up by the Russian's was completely demolished, and the evidence they found seemed to indicate it wasn't American small arms responsible for it. Body parts, broken weapons and flattened sandbags were strewn about the outside of the Holland tunnel, large gashes were cut into the pavement.

He thought they were going after Russians, but as he inched forward with his squad with their night vision up he could see that the Russian's were already neutralized. And judging from the fact Russian vehicles and armor were in neatly cut pieces or bisected, dismembered body's or an occasional splatter upon the ground, walls and ceiling struck him as uncanny. Justice had seen some very messed up battles in his time in Delta, been to on ops from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia and Panama, but this was something entirely different. He started to wonder what the squad leader of Team Viking was thinking at right this moment. Were any of their guys still alive down here?

Justice looked over to Staff Sergeant Undertone, who aimed his M4A1 resting in his hands down the dark, yawning blackness of the tunnel, NVG's down over his eyes. "Anyone have eyes on hostiles?" he asked.

First Sergeant Patron responds in a hushed whisper. "Negative, no contact at our twelve. Looks clear."

"Alright, Coffin, Patron, Justice, move on me. Let's go find our boys are, see if they're doing alright doing. Let's go."

The four Delta Operators move silently through the dark passage of Holland Tunnel. There were quite a few tunnels in New York that run underneath the river, with Holland being one of them. Moving forward Justice noticed that scorch marks, burns, pockmarks and small craters pocketed the concrete walls, ceiling and even the asphalt. Amongst wreaked civilian cars and a few Russian military vehicles they came across a couple American Humvees sitting midway in the tunnel. Patron approached and checked the first heavily damaged vehicles interior for survivors.

Patron's exhaled in disappointment. "Damnit..." As he approached Justice saw the amount of damage: all five soldiers inside the Humvee were KIA, the man who served as the turret gunner had his head taken cleanly off and his body slumped between his buddies, or at least what was left of them. "Their gone sir." After doing a check of the other Humvee it was clear that they were completely wiped out. But there was still another four unaccounted for in this particular unit.

Coffin moved past the group and suddenly came to a stop. "Hey guys, come take a look at this."

"What'cha find Coffin?" Undertone turned to their auto rifleman and approached him, Justice and Patron following suite. What now stood before them was what seemed to appear to be a deep hole that descended into the ground at a 25 degree angle, looking as though... something... had buried into the earth through the pavement.

Justice examined the hole. "Okay... that looks new. What the hell could have made that?" he states flatly.

"We're about to find out..." Undertone slowly approached the mouth of this newly crafted cavern. He entered a couple feet in and turned to his men. "Put your game faces on and look sharp."

Patron made a throaty groan. "I know where this is going; I've seen this movie before man. We're about to have our faces eaten, I swear to god."

"Stay frosty and move." Undertone hissed.

The four Delta operators marched their way into the passage. Justice was quick to notice the fact the tunnel about five feet in seemed to be made of some strange, metallic substance. Felt quite cold to the touch as he ran his fingers momentarily across it. While descending down the tunnel the floor evened out and seemed to expand a little bit, they came across another three humvees but all that was left of them were burnt, blown out chassis. The only remote piece of human remains was a severed arm, some blood and gore spatter on the walls and a pair of helmets resting on the ground. The chamber then seemed to divide into several passages, a glow that was so faint that it barely even held back the darkness. In some passages it was pitch black.

"So, which way do we go?" Justice asked.

Undertone took a knee and examined the floor. He picked up a spent shell casing from a Browning .50 BMG and inspected it. "We follow the casings" He responds matter of factly. They follow the center passage that left a trail of shell casings on the floor of this passageway for a while before the passage way seemed to branched further. Undertone then stopped and brought his hand up in a "halt" gesture. "You hear that?" he asked his men.

Coffin blinked and scanned the area. "Hear what?"

Justice could hear it: the sound of three voices whimpering in terror. "Voices. Contact." he states plainly.

Patron's mouth shifts. "Survivors?"

Undertone motioned his men forward and the four of them slowly advanced. Justice really hoped that it was their guys, otherwise this was going to get very ugly, very fast. The last thing he wanted was fighting down here in this place. Once they reach the corner they could hear the sound of voices just on the other side of the wall, the light glow from a glow stick shining from the other side of the wall. Once the four of them stacked up, Undertone gave a look, gestured with his hand using military sign language, indicating to sweep and subdue whoever was around the corner. He then counted off silently with his hand. Three. Two. One. At his fist clenching the four men surge around the corner

Frightened gasps welcomed them and a pair of flashlights went to their faces. Justice was met with a sudden wash of light entering the optics of his night vision goggles as he kept his weapon trained on the three individuals, as well as a Humvee with a Mark19 that had seen better days, a part of the back of the vehicle seemed to be missing.

"W-w-w-who the fuck are-" One of the men speaks in surprise but then stops and recognizes Justice and his unit. "Oh thank fucking god, it's Delta."

"You the Army Regular guys that got sent down here?" Undertone questioned.

The man responds with some tired relief. "Y-yeah. Sergeant Paulson 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment. And these here are Specialist Braun and Private Mèng."

Justice had a good look at the three soldiers for himself. All three of them looked like they had gone through the wringer; Paulson's M16A3 was now laying on his lap at rest and looking emotionally drained, a couple packs filled with HEAT Rockets. Braun seemed more concerned with their surroundings, his eyes darting wildly in every direction, his M249 following him. Mèng meanwhile sat on the ground and looking at the floor, holding her M3 RAWS in her hands and shaking uncontrollably, her M4A1 slung over her shoulder.

"Are you the only ones down here?" Undertone asked.

"Only one's still alive." Paulson replies. "We were the only ones left after those damned..." Paulson flinched as if struck by something, seemingly haunted by a horrible memory. "S-sorry I...it was fucking horrible down here."

Coffin motions over at Mèng. "Is she a Ranger? What's her story?" Justice looked to the young women with a questioning look: he was also wondering what she was doing with the Regulars.

Paulson looks over at Mèng briefly and explains. "Her platoon got hit hard by Ivan and we managed to pick her and some of the survivors of her unit up while we were driving through their sector. But most of her squad bought it along with our own boys."

Justice looked to Paulson questioningly. "So what hit you guys? Who's responsible for this tunnel complex?"

Specialist Braun responds. "Not 'who' man: more like 'What'. We were hunting down a couple Russian squads straggling to slip out of here until one of those... damned freaky things walked in on us and dropped fucking lasers on our asses. Wiped out the Russians and most of us for that matter, but the Cap wanted us to hunt that fucking thing down. So we were sent into this damned tunnel network and... it was a fucking bloodbath."

Patron blinked. "Freaky things? Lasers? You keep talking about freaky things; what they hell are you talking about?" he asked worriedly.

Mèng spoke shakily, her body and her multi-role rocket weapon quaking. "So much screaming... all those lasers. Our guys either disappeared in light or just... went pop. We tried hitting them but... they kept coming. We could see them repair whatever damage we inflected on them. And that sound they make..." she clutched tightly to her weapon as tears started to fill her eyes. "It's like the sounds of hell... how can we fight and win against something like that?" Justice couldn't help but silently wonder what was so bad to spook this Ranger so severely.

After taking a while to absorb all this Undertone ventured a question. "Can we kill these things?" he asked.

"We killed three big ones and four smaller ones, but it killed over a third of our guys to do it." Paulson responds. "Not sure how exactly the best way to do it is but the RAWS is the only thing we have of even remote effectiveness, ran out of ammo for the Mark19 beating them back, that helped a little at least. Our other small arms don't do much against the bigger ones." He suddenly stands and gabs Undertone by his load bearing gear with a look of fear in his eyes. "But I'm telling ya, we take these things head on; were fucking dead. No way in hell you're going to make us do something as suicidal as that. "

Undertone spoke firmly to the Regular. "If these things are a threat then we can't just let them act with impunity. We've got to neutralize them-"

Paulson yelled hoarsely at the Delta Squad leader. "You haven't seen these things man! You haven't fought them! Thiers no way we can take these fucking things!"

"Yo, calm down!" Coffin pushed the soldier off his squad leader, trying to part them from each other. "Get your shit squared away!"

Then the sound of a low groan: one that didn't sound human, echoed through the passageways. The two soldiers tensed at this, and Mèng's head snapped to the direction of the sound, a horrified cry escaping her. Sounds of heavy clanking could be heard echoing through the passage way. The four delta operators glance at each other with foreboding looks.

"Sounds like they heard us. Get ready for contact." Undertone orders.

At this Patron turned to his Staff Sergeant. "Dude, that's a bad idea: I've seen enough horror movies to know how this is going to go down! I say we haul our asses the fuck out of here."

Justice looked down the passageway and saw what looked to be... something moving towards them. Whatever it was it was large, moved on four legs and had a large weapon mounted underneath it. The sound of what was akin to a whale being stabbed by a harpoon seemed to emanate from the direction of the unidentified contact, piercing his ears.

Mèng cried out in terror, trying to withdraw into a ball in onto herself. "THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE GOING TO KILL US!"

Patron was starting to panic. "Oh SHIT man! This is the part where the monsters kill every one of us!"

Undertone grabbed Mèng and forced her to her feet. "Get the RAWS up! Take cover by the Humvee and fire on my mark, everyone else prepare to engage!" He turned to Braun. "Hey have you got C4?!" he asked.

"In the Humvee." the Specialist replied.

"Grab it and give it to Justice here. Everyone else get prone and prepare to engage on my order!" The seven soldiers quickly took their positions as the hostile's start approaching. Once everyone was in their firing positions Justice sighted his target and waited for the word. Mèng took cover by the Humvee with Paulson beside her, ready and waiting to reload the RAWS. Once they got within effective range of the RAWS Undertone gave the order. "Light em up!"

With their weapons opening fire on the contacts the seven servicemen put as much lead as they could down range, rounds were clearly smacking into their targets but were not having much effect. Mèng fired the RAWS, the rocket hitting one of the walker like "things". The entity staggered after the impact, the explosion momentarily lighting up the passageway. In that instant they could see another two walkers and three airborne craft that look like they were out of some 1930's sci-fi novel. Looked like some sort of small patrolling squad Paulson loaded the RAWS as the others tried to open up. Another shot from the RAWS followed up but screamed passed the walker she was aiming at and instead smacked into another, one of its legs blowing off.

Justice noticed the first walker seemed to be... regenerating! That couldn't be possible! He could see that the entity simply continued moving forward as the damage it inflicted was being repaired steadily before his eyes. As he tried popping rounds into it with his battle rifle he couldn't help but wonder just what else could go sideways today? The answer came when a red glow started to emanate from a point on the wounded entity that was regenerating and fired a bright red bream of light. The beam consumed Coffin, the Delta Operator disappearing in a swath of light.

Justice called out for his fallen battle buddy. "Coffin!"

Patron bleated. "Holy shit man! He's dead! Coffin's KIA! What the fuck are these things?! They're like insane bug zappers from hell!"

Undertone gave the order to fall back as another laser came close to grazing him. "Everyone move! Move! Move! Fallback! Fallback!"

Braun opened up with his M249 while withdrawing on the run, muzzle flashes lighting up the corridor as other weapons fire joined his weapon. Mèng took off running while sobbing uncontrollably in fear and Paulson shouting every curse in the English language while popping a flare every fifty meters for illumination, with his rifle in one hand and the packs of rocket ammunition in the other, with the other remaining members of Viking Team. Occasionally they stopped momentarily to drop rounds downrange but due to what had to have been insanely thick armor and the regenerative abilities of these things they were only able to take down one of these metal monstrosities with a combination of a RAWS rocket followed up with an insanely lucky shot from Patron's FN40GL, the 40mm grenade impacting someplace inside the vehicle, causing it to explode in a brilliant explosion of shards.

Undertone pointed down the passageway. "This way, we've got to get to the surface!" he urged.

This continued for a while, the six troopers running and stopping occasionally to exchange fire with the hostile force. Justice didn't know how they were supposed to effectively fight these things, his mind reeling in panic. However while running, another laser fired went off and bisected Braun, the man screaming as he was cut in two. He screamed for a few seconds longer until his life slipped away from him.

Paulson stopped Mèng and forced her to take a knee. "Hold here!" Justice stopped alongside the pair and fired off a few rounds from his HK417, he had to empty the entire mag but his rounds managing to knock the retro looking airborne craft out of the air and onto the ground. He quickly reloaded his battle rifle and continued to fire his all his rounds off, this time at yet another airborne craft, which similarly was knocked out of the air. Unfortunately they still appeared functioning: the first he shot down, though damaged slowly started to fly up into the air.

"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" the young Ranger sobbed. Everyone else was dumping ammo like there was no tomorrow, but their rounds were doing very little against this hostile adversary.

Justice noticed a small gem of some sort inside the damaged craft that seemed to glow brightly. That looks important... Reloading another mag he dumps half of his 20 round magazine into the craft, each round aimed straight at the gem. It took some effort; a few rounds smacked into the armor around the gem but eventually a couple rounds struck the glowing gem and the craft exploded in a shower of shards.

Paulson reloads the RAWS that the young Ranger shouldered and spoke to her encouragingly, while Patron and Undertone passed them running. "It's okay, I'm right here. If you're dying I'll die right along with ya!" he promised. Once the tube was loaded he gave her a pat on the shoulder. "You're set! Hit em!" Mèng fires the RAWS, the rocket roaring from the tube and smacking squarely into one of the walkers, fouling its aim enough that the laser missed the two soldiers by mere inches, causing them both to bleat loudly.

Justice didn't know how but the walker explodes in a brilliant shower of shards. He wasn't sure just what the deal was with these things. He watched Paulson reload the RAWS for Mèng, but notices one of the craft charging forward. "Hey you two, let's get going!" The trio started running off after Undertone and Patron.

He heard Paulson's voice as they all continued to run. "Here take these, just in case." Justice turned to look at Paulson who was handing him one of the two packs of rockets.

The moment Justice reached out and took the satchel the last flying craft shot a long burst of laser projectiles into Paulson's back, three of said lasers cut clean through him. He grunted and stumbled, he tried to keep running but his legs buckled and he collapsed to the ground. He tried to crawl onward but his life left him quickly, his body slumped and he lay unmoving. Justice cursed and slung the satchel over his shoulder, doing a quick check he counted five rockets left in the satchel. Justice couldn't believe just how bad this was, he almost thought this was an insane nightmare, but heat from laser coming close to grazing his head told him otherwise.

He and the others kept running, only stopping for a few seconds for Justice and Mèng to team up together in operating the RAWS, with Patron and Undertone providing covering fire to distract the hostile "bug zappers from hell". After several meters more a laser seared off both of Undertones legs at the knees. The smell of burning flesh enters Justice's nostrils and his squad leaders screams filling his ears. Justice, Patron and Mèng gathered around the Delta Squad leader.

"Are you alright Staff Sergeant?!" The Delta operator asked.

"God damn it! Fuck!" Undertone looked first turned to Justice and grabbed his rigging. "Justice, you Patron and Mèng; you three make sure those damned fucking bastards don't get back to the surface. You seal them in here, keep em trapped for now until command can figure out how to kill em!"

Justice began trying to help his Squad Leader up. "I am not leaving without you Staff Sergeant! You're getting out of here with us!"

Undertone shoved he younger man away. "I'm dead weight, you go on without me; I'll hold em off."

Patron was incredulous. "Hold em off with what?! A fucking pea shooter!? Those things just killed Coffin and those other two guys! How the fuck will we supposed to-" Am errant laser takes off Patrons head, killing him mid sentence. Mèng cries out in panic while Justice curses repeatedly, another of his friends; dead.

"Son of a bitch!" Undertone hastily passes off the C4 to Justice and gives him his final orders, taking his dog tags off and handing them to Justice. "You two live ya hear me! Both of you get the fuck out of here! GO! MOVE! THAT'S AN ORDER! GO!"

Though he hesitates, Justice finally complies with the order to go on, with Mèng following close behind. The two of them continue as they hear the sounds of Undertone's M4A1 echoing through the passage. After several hundred meters the pair stop by the mouth of the entrance, with Mèng covering him with the RAWS. Justice quickly sets up the C4 by the mouth of the entrance as well as by a few supports around the Holland tunnel's walls, with hopes of either collapsing the concrete structure on top of the "Bug zappers" or perhaps even flooding the whole tunnel if need be. No sooner does he finish setting the C4 a pair of the metal monsters approach; a walker and one of the flying craft, leading another two walkers.

He goes up to Mèng with the detonator in hand and taps her shoulder. "Pop a round off on em and let's go! I'll blow it once we get clear!" No way he's going to let these bastards get away with what they've done to his squad. He's going to either bury them or drown them, either one was fine as long as they were dead.

Mèng fires off a round aimed at the walker but at the same time the flying craft jukes into the path of the rocket while firing a laser burst, exploding brilliantly, the shockwave stressing the walkers metal shell. The weapons fire stitches its way across Mèng's chest and leg and into Justices arm and shoulder. An intense pain burned into him as he felt his flesh parting and burning before the projectiles, as though he was just stuck with a branding iron. Both he and Mèng cry out painfully, and the Ranger's legs buckle. Justice tries to hold her up and starts trying to help her away from the mouth of the hell they were now leaving.

The sound of a monstrous, inhuman screech goes off behind them. They get about thirty meters away from the hole in the ground, one of the walkers stopping to at the mouth to fire a pair of lasers at their general direction, cutting past them and nearly killing them. No choice now. Justice pressed the detonator. The explosion goes off and obliterates the one walker and the craft, concrete catering and blasting rubble everywhere, the supports becoming weakened and water ominously starts to seep though the stress marks made from the blast. Another walker crawls up through the mouth of the tunnel system but the collapsing of the weakened concrete ceiling falls and buries the walker and fills the hole.

Justice pant's heavily as he struggles to carry the wounded Ranger using him as a human crutch. With Mèng limping painfully next to Justice he leads her out of the tunnel and towards the cover of a ruined building, the faint sound of the inhuman screech echoing the tunnel behind them, followed by the sudden rush of water. His squad... his battle brothers had fallen to this new... monstrous enemy. Hatred grew in his heart for these "things", and if he had any say in it, he was going to destroy every single last one of them.


Tracking... Moriz Glazkov...

Affiliation... Inner Circle...

Location...Somewhere south of Avezzano...

Time: 10:05 hours...

Screams from the room of the dilapidated house rang out painfully. The prisoners were stubborn, the wretched sons of dogs refusing to give any information to him or his men. It had been over seven hours of continual torture to his prisoners but as of yet they didn't break. As enjoyable as it was to see one of the men whimpering in pain and misery he knew that he had an objective he had to accomplish. As Moriz looked over the map his subordinates had found in an old jeep that those American Esq. soldiers he found very little adding up. The map had names of places in the world and even boundaries between the nations drastically changed. He found that the on the map Russia was dubbed Orussia. Just what the hell kind of a name was that: "Orussia?" It was just Russia with an "O" at the beginning? Who the hell would come up with such an uncreative name as that?

Regardless he knew that intelligence was going to be a key factor to his success or failure under Makarov's command. He had ordered his many of his men into scouting patrols to gather intelligence on their current geographic location some five hours ago. Before he could continue looking over a transmission came up over on his radio:

"Sir, this is Unit-4-1, we have something urgent to report."

Moriz grunted. "Report Sergeant, what are your findings?"

"We are reporting the discovery of a what appears to be a base located in Pescara. We are currently two miles out from its location, the men we have sent to get a closer look have just returned to with the total unit strength of this base... but..."

"A base then? What's the matter, what about this base is the issue?"

"Thiers roughly a small company of men ranging just over 100 personnel who..." The man hesitated for a moment then continued."Sir they bear weapons and uniforms from the 1940's, from various nations. There have also confirmed that... it also seems to be that there are a few children, young girls, on base and they seem to be underdressed; they wear uniforms but are walking around bottomless sir. No pants, trousers, skirts or shorts of any sort."

This was starting to become a very large puzzle, it was becoming difficult to try an piece together the mystery that was starting to unfold, why were these men donning vintage, surplus uniforms and antiquated weapons. Nothing about that even had begun to add up. The only thing that made any remote amount of sense was that there were young girls on this base that seemed to be without pants, skirts or shorts, from what was described to him. Moriz had the impression that these young girls were simply part of a "comfort battalion" for the men stationed at this military facility. With Makarov himself running a human trafficking operation to help ring in funds for his plans it was of no surprise.

While Makarov had run money laundering thanks to connections in Russian and Ukranian banking to clean money earned in drugs and weapons dealings through transfers to Cyprus, Lebanon, Saudi-Arabia and Syria, in addition to providing muscle and safe passage of the Russian section of the Herdin Trail from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to run drugs; it was Makarov's human trafficking that raked in the most profit for their cause, moving women tricked with promises of well paid jobs only to be forced into prostitution from the poorer parts of Eastern Europe to Western Europe for cliental across the European continent, the Persian Gulf and even underground buyers in the United States. Glazkov dabbled in some of these side ventures while serving in the Innercricle, but the one he enjoyed and participated in the most besides field operations was Makarov's human trafficking rings: a field he excelled at.

Quite a few times he was fortunate enough to "inspect" and even "sample" the merchandise. His hand slowly glides to his holstered FN Five Seven as he remembers with fondness of those times, recalling how he got to exert power, control and dominance over these young women in a way that brought him great pleasure and joy, he'd dare say it was almost much more so than actual intercourse. A few times he even found himself fortunate enough to have his fun with exceptionally young girls; his favored prizes.

Thoughts of this one girl in the Ukraine he brought back with him a few years ago, around seven at the time... she was around twelve years old now... he got to spend a lot of time with her whilst conducting his own personal "sessions" with her, and was his most treasured spoil of war. A rather beautiful, exotic child who had a beauty and look that he had never seen before or since; her hair long and of a pewter color, beautiful grey eyes and fair skin. Although he first thought to himself how much an exotic, one of a kind flower like this could be and have her virginity auctioned off for billions by the richest buyers in the deep underbellies of the world, he found that she was too desirable to part with or for any other person to have or her maiden hood taken. She was like the most rare, expensive, well aged wine or a new model of Lamborghini being the only type of it's line in existence ever manufactured. So instead of making a profit out of her, which would have been far beyond substantial, she would be his to covet... and this girls virginity his to take, not long after she was taken from her home all those years ago...

She was kept back securely at his own safe house that was established near Ust-ilmsk in Russia. He was hoping that he would be able to return from wherever this strange place was, so his "little comfort" could ease the stress of his long, tiring and dangerous days in the field. And more importantly, to enact his control and dominance over her...

His musings of his "little comfort" were interrupted when the man on the radio spoke questioningly to a comrade. "What? Are you sure?" Another brief exchange of words between the man and his squad mate pass and the man continues his report. "Sir, there's more: we have also confirmed a small platoon of American military personnel on the base with modern gear and weapons. They seem to be embedded with the personnel of this base."

"Are you sure of this?" he asked with a pressing tone.

"We are sure, sir."

Moriz drew an even breath. The if the American's he knew of were here... then it was his duty to hunt them all down. He decided that a raid under cover of dusk would be one of the better times to strike: he had the element of surprise and enough support from BTR's, and a single T-90 tank and heavy weapons to provide a means of crushing his sworn enemy, the decadent greed of American's who championed the evils of capitalism.

The tank itself was originally a part of a Russian Armored battalion that apparently wound up in this strange world from an assault in America. When they got here the tanks crew were lost, confused and stressed from having to escape from what appeared to them to be Venice, which seemed to be under attack by... something. This tank and its crew were on the move for a while before Glazkov and his men crossed paths with them and waved them down to talk with them. After speaking with them he had the idea that the tank could prove useful to their cause and asked the crew to join him and his men. The crew was highly suspicious of this and asked who he was and what unit he was in control of. Although Moriz tried to spin a yarn that he was a Russian Special Operations Unit, the crew was still hard-pressed to believe it. So he decided to take the expedient route and killed the crew and ordered three men who had prior tank experience from when they had served in the 4th Guards Kantemirovskaya Tank Division, an elite armored division in the Russian Ground Forces to operate the tank. The T-90 was a bit newer then the tanks they previously had driven, but they knew enough to operate it effectively.

Glazkov heard the sound of footsteps enter the door behind him, followed by the snapping of his subordinate coming to attention, awaiting to be addressed. He continued into the radio, ignoring the man behind him at the moment. "Very well then, fall back to the designated Checkpoint and await for reinforcement. If our enemy is here we shall converge upon them and destroy them, as well as any who calls them friend. С нами Бог." with the radio transmission complete He turned to the young Inner circle operator questioningly. "Well, what have you to report?"

The man responds with a salute. "Sir, we have used every method to try and break them, but they will not give us information on President Vorshevsky's route of escape or how many agents are still protecting him."

His mouth drew into a frown. "Then they are useless to us: knowledge that we cannot access will not grant us advantage. Liquidate and dispose of them. We have bigger problems to deal with, like figuring out a way to return to our mission of finding President Vorshevsky, he is vital to our plans . But equal importance is the destruction of our enemy. American's are also in this strange place... they must be eliminated, then we can move onward to finding our way home."

"And how do we do that, sir?"

Moriz smiles. "The people here are weak: the men we encountered were undisciplined and untrained for us, they fumbled for their weapons whereas we acted on highly trained reaction and focused instinct, and they use inferior weapons compared to our own. We are superior in force, training, weaponry and skill against any men they have on the base that had just been reported to me. We will dominate them though fear, and if they do not know it upon meeting us they will soon learn it, even if it is brokered through blood. They will help us because they must, or they will die." He then dismissed his subordinate with a final order. "Get the men ready: tell them to gather weapons, gear and whatever ammo we have, and to conserve ammunition once the order to engage has been given. Understood?"

"Understood sir!"

With that the young man leaves the room. Moriz takes the opportunity to gaze upon the map, looking over the topography so the base in question for the now upcoming raid. With the nearby hills it would be advantageous to place the BTR's and the one tank they had on that ridge line for fire support while the trucks and GAZ vehicles breach the compound in a fast assault. But first he would need to send in a team on ahead to beach the parameter and disrupt the enemy's assets and personnel. Mobility, concealment and timing was key to this mission.

After getting the first half of his plans established, the sound of a pistol discharging once, then twice can be heard a couple rooms down. Paying little mind to the report of the pistol, he moved on to the next phase of the plan.


Tracking... Sergeant Major Jenna Foster...

Affiliation...78th Tame Witches Combined Reserve Squadron...

Location... 501st Witches Base Romagna...

Time: 16:47 hours, One day prior to Darya's assignment to Duty Desk...

She moved with a bounce in her step and a bouquet of flowers in her hands behind her back, her face radiating with loving joy as she neared the post op ward. She was once again going to pay a visit to her beloved Orussian Snowflake. Each and every evening the Liberion Land Battle Witch had kept her punctual visits with her Orussian lover. Upon entering the post op she was met with Erin Taylor in a bed by one of the windows and currently sleeping with a content smile on her face, and of course, was the woman that Jenna had come to love, seemingly lost in thought.

Or at first glance it seemed as such. But before she could approach, Jenna studied her beloved from afar and saw that she looked troubled by something. Come to think of it she seemed like this for while now. Whatever was a ailing her lovers mind, Jenna would ensure that her Orussian Snowflake was happy.

Jenna smiles and glides flowingly over to her beloved. "And theirs my Orussian snowflake..." she says with a loving tone.

Darya looked up, the moment she saw Jenna a warm look entered her eyes. "My Liberion Flame!" When she was close enough to her, the little Orussian embraced her beloved, planting a kiss upon Jenna's cheek. After parting from the warm embrace Darya looks with a shine in her eyes. "Jenna, have you been doing alright? I've heard about the sortie you and the others had to head out for."

"Yeah, we had some Neuroi to deal with, not to mention some new arrivals. Had to help get those guys some rooms to bed down for the night. Quite a bit of them if I do say so."

"I see, it sounds like you were kept busy my love."

"I'll say, but it was nothing I couldn't handle." But her faces smile straightened and she wore a passive expression. "But that's not that important." Jenna took a seat on the bed and she reached out absently to Darya's left leg. "How about you: are you doing alright? Are you..." Jenna paused and looked at the place at the bed where Darya's legs lay when she didn't feel Darya's left leg. But then... she realized she wouldn't feel her lover's left leg anymore... it was gone. She noticed how the outline of her dearest Darya's legs were no longer matching up: from the look of the sheets covering her, one leg was shorter than the other. It was at this moment she felt suddenly wracked with guilt. Darya's injury had always haunted Jenna. She felt responsible for her. She had known Darya for a few years now, but now both of them had to adapt to the new reality of Darya's injury. It was clear that it will be a difficult road still ahead.

"Am I...?" Darya had a questioning look on her face, but she then saw where Jenna's eyes were focused on and looked down at her stump, which was at this moment covered by her bed sheets. Darya's face turned sorrowful and she spoke in a wavering voice. "Jenna... I'm sorry... I... I see how you look at me. I know it is difficult... to have to see me like this..."

Jenna had a look of panic on her face as she turned her gaze to Darya's eyes. "W-what do you mean?! Where is this coming from?!"

"I'm just... I'm just so afraid that... because of my injury: that my Liberion flame may not find me beautiful anymore! I don't want to lose you! I still want to be a part of your life, Jenna; please don't leave me!" the younger girl started to cry, her hands covering her face in sorrow.

Jenna then realized with horror why Darya was troubled the moment she walked in to see the bed ridden girl. Just how long had she held this fear: that she feared that Jenna might leave her due to being seen as unseemly or repulsive because of her missing leg? Jenna leaned forward with a desperate look on her face as she reached for one of her weeping lovers hands. "No, no! That's not true at all: You are beautiful Darya! You'll always... always will be beautiful to me." She then produced the bouquet from behind her back for her beloved. "I love you Darya. I can never say enough how much I love you and how important you are in my life. Without you my life is meaningless. Without you I am lost. Without you... I am nothing."

At first surprised by the bouquet Darya looked at her beloved Liberion with hesitation. "Do you... really mean that?"

Jenna nods. "I wouldn't leave you even if it meant if my staying by your side got me killed: I'd stay anyways. I'm sorry if I have been acting... well..." After some hesitation Jenna explained herself. "After you got hurt I just... felt so guilty... I allowed you to get hurt. I made a promise when we met that I would protect you and I failed you; I broke that promise." She tenderly placed her hand on Darya's stump. "But I swear: I'll never break it ever again." she declared solemnly.

"Jenna..." Darya tearfully gazed at the bouquet in surprise, then slowly took them, her face softened into relief, moved by Jenna's words. One flower in the arrangement caught her eye the most. "An Orussian Red lily... my favorite. How were you able to find one? It's hard to get a hold of an Orussian Red Lily outside of my homelands boarders."

Jenna smiled sheepishly. "Well, I had to really look long and hard for a shop that could import it in. When the man found out I was a witch, he really went out of his way to try and ship a couple in, even though I only needed the one, but he said it would be good for next time. I put in an order for it a month ago, and it finally arrived, I'm glad he was able to even find them. Even gave me a discount for next time I go to see him." She laughed a bit while remembering the shopkeeper. "He was a bit of a romantic that guy."

"And to think... I was foolish enough to fear that you'd leave me." Darya set aside the flowers on a nearby dresser and embraced Jenna once more. "My Liberion Flame, I am so happy... I'm so grateful to have you in my life. You make my heart take flight."

"And you give my heart strength to push forward, my Orussian Snowflake." Jenna gave her beloved a deep, passionate kiss that was soon returned. Both girls held tightly to each other, not wishing to be apart from each other, becoming lost in a sea of passion.

Darya then pulled Jenna unto the bed, laying back with her Liberion lover now on top of her. She gave her a passionate, beckoning look, her familiars features appearing. "Will you bed with me tonight, my love?"

Jenna's face let off a light blush and she smiled warmly, a light blue glow radiated from her body as her familiar came forth. The Liberion girl always found her Orussian lover to be so cute. "Anything for you Darya." With her hand caressing the little Orussian's face she wrapped her lips around Darya's mouth. Her little lover's injury may require time to adjust to, but that wasn't important. Was important was that they were sill together. Both girls loving hands soon found their way to intimate places on each other's bodies, gliding under cloth fibers and resting upon warm, soft anatomy with a gentle, loving touch...

Pushing up her lovers medical gown and exposing her body, Jenna went to work on her beloved Darya's small breasts, kissing and massaging them, electing soft moans of pleasure from the Orussian girl. After several minutes Jenna's right hand moved between Darya's legs and began massaging the smaller girls pussy. Darya gasped as the sudden wash of pleasure danced across her snatch. Each menstruation of her most sacred place was sending Darya into ecstasy.

"Jenna... right there. It feels so good."

Jenna gave her lover a soft smile. "What would you like me to do for you tonight, Darya? Would you like me to give an oral performance?"

Darya's hand reached for her beloved Liberion and caressed Jenna's face. "No, something different tonight." she responds with a breathless pant. "I want to be together with you; yours with mine."

Jenna gave a warm, broad smile to the women that her heart ached for. "You want to try tribadism for tonight?" At Darya nodding affirmatively with a blush, Jenna blushed in return. "It's been a while since we did that. But sure... if that's what you want, then I'm at your command my Orussian Snowflake."

It wasn't long before Jenna was out of her uniform completely and Darya's medical gown was cast aside, both girls bodies now exposed to each other. At her lovers request Jenna straddled her beloved Orussian, her womanhood pressed up against the smaller girl's own. As they looked into each other's eyes, both girls knew that there was no one else in the world they would rather be with at this moment then with each other. As Jenna slowly began to make love to Darya, she was overcome with emotion. There was nothing more precious in this life then her beloved Orussian Snowflake...

As Jenna was grinding against Darya waves of pleasure came to her. Her beloved Orussian's voice became husky as the two girls made love to each other. Jenna wanted to be close to her beloved. She wanted to bring her lover pleasure. One of Jenna's hands reached for Darya's breast as she felt her pussy tingle with that wonderful sensation that was building between her legs.

For the next hour and fifteen minutes the two girls touched, kissed, licked and grinded themselves into a sea of pleasure wrought by the love in their hearts that they had for each other, each thrust and gyration of their hips brought the two girls to a new step in ecstasy. Their juices started to run freely from their pussy's as their pleasure was building. Warmth was running from their cores to their extremities, sweat was glistening off of Darya's beautiful, porcelain white skin. Darya was the most beautiful girl in the world; Jenna knew that many people in love would have said that about their lovers, but she believed that none were more beautiful than her Orussian girlfriend.

Darya's voice came with a husky moan. "Jenna... Jenna, it... it feels so good. I love you. I love you, my Liberion flame!"

"Darya. I love you with all my heart." While still grinding with her smaller lover Jenna leaned forward and gave her beloved Darya a kiss that lasted for several minutes. Once the kiss ends Jenna could feel the familiar pressure within her building to its fast approaching plateau. "D-darya. I'm... I'm going to cum!"

Darya's eyes were half open by now, the small girl lost in the pleasure that was overwhelming her. "I can't take... much more... my love, cum with me."

"Darya..." Jena could feel the build up hitting its peak.

Darya's hands clutched at Jenna's wrists tightly, trying to pull Jenna even closer to her body, her voice crying out loudly in passion. "My Liberion flame. My Liberion flame! My Liberion flame!" When both girls reach their climax their bodies shuddered as the waves of orgasm rocked their nerves. Their minds swam drunkenly, their hearts beating at quickened tempos set by their love for each other. Jenna brought Darya upright and held the younger girl so as to be straddled by her. They both silently look at each other with warm, loving looks. They both kissed once more, a long, tender, loving kiss that reached deeply for each other. Once they parted Darya spoke warmly, a few tears rolling down her face. "I love you... my Libeiron flame."

Jenna smiled and hugged her beloved. "And I you, my Orussian Snowflake." The land battle witches hand slowly traveled to Darya's crotch and began to rub her pussy, electing a passionate gasp from her little Orussian. "Would you like to keep going, sweetheart?"

"Yes my dear Jenna: I want to make love to you some more. I want to feel your touch on me."

A sudden voice came from the corner of the post op ward, startling both girls. "You know that's the sixth time you guys woke me up with your love making session, right?"

Jenna's head snapped to the Faraway Lander's bed with a red blush. "Oh shit! Erin!"

"I wouldn't mind watching so much if it weren't for the fact that I'm trying to catch forty freaken winks here."

Darya's face turned extremely red from her forehead to her neck in embarrassment. "Y-you saw us!? For how long!?"

Erin smiled. "Would you get mad if I said: the whole time?" she asked cheekily. Both girls had a look of horror on their faces but then Erin sighed. "Hey, don't let me interrupt you, just try and keep the love making session quieter please, I want to be well rested for my trip back home to see my mom and dad. With my arm gone I've got my ticket home, so I want to make sure I have enough energy to meet my folks."

"R-right, s-sorry comrade Erin." Darya paused then ventured a question sternly. "You're not going to watch us the entire time, are you?! It was bad enough when Erzsi had been peeping on us from the bushes during our intimate moments."

Jenna sighs. "Yeah, she's a real pervert. Hate to think we might have another to deal with."

Erin brought the covers of her bed over her head and groaned. "I'm too tired tonight to watch you two fuck like tigers: I'm going to be sawing logs. Alright? So don't go comparing me to that perverted, Ostmarkian Medic."

Jenna sighs. "I guess... thanks." Jenna then looked empathetic to her comrade Land Battle Witch. "And Erin... I hope things turn out well for you. You were a damn good witch, you know that?"

After a moments silence Erin respond quietly. "...thanks... may not have been a great ride for me... but I'm glad at least it was with you guys... you both really are beautiful together. You know that? I wish the best for your two... so yeah... night."

Jenna couldn't help but feel moved by Erin's words, it felt a little rough having to see their friend go, but with an injury to the arm like that there was little to be done. But they were glad for her friendship, and that of the other 78th Tame witches. She turned to Darya with a look of passion. "Shall we continue, my beautiful Orussian?" she whispered into her lovers ear.

"Da." Came her reply. "After we're done for tonight, will you cuddle with me my love?"

"I was hoping you'd ask me that." Jenna gave Darya another kiss. Knowing them she knew they were going to be at this for another hour and a half. Not that she minded: it would be an hour and a half more with the women she loved. And she would treasure every second she held her beloved in her arms.


Tracking... Sergeant Erzsi Kalmar...

Affiliation... 78th Tame Witches Combined Reserve Squadron...

The two young witch lovers were so wrapped up in each other's loving presence that they didn't notice a particular burgundy headed pervert watching from the shadows around the door to the post op. The Ostmark witch already had a hand down her panties, already soaking wet from watching and masturbating to her squad mates love making session. There were three things Erzsi loved the most in life; the first was her dream of being a gifted Surgeon and witch of healing magic; wanting to bind the wounds and heal the ailments of others. The second was teasing people a little and making people happy, bring a little excitement to the lives of others. And finally there was, of course, her favourite pastime: anything involving sex.

It didn't matter if it was a man or a woman; so long as she got to share herself and be with an attractive looking, interesting person who treated her right in bed she didn't mind who it was with. Although she couldn't really do very much with the men; it took a lot of effort to even get to, as Clotilda put it, third base with guys, never mind that home plate which was pretty much off the table: military regulations would have insured that she and any guy who would've had intercourse with her were punished severely. So with that in mind she often refrained going that far, to keep from getting in serious trouble if nothing else. But it was better to get first, second and sometimes when she was lucky, third base than have nothing, and at least she could go through each and every "base" as it were with the girls. A lot of times Erzsi found herself in bed with a lot of girls, wither witch or non-witch. Apparently many of the people she was with thought her to be, as they put it "cute" and "energetic", definitions that Erzsi liked hearing.

As she watched her friends going at it, the red headed voyeur was smiling broadly with a red blush on her face."Those two are beautiful together. I can't believe I'm lucky enough to watch this." Erzsi's breath was ragged and her body was radiating warmth from her core and intimate regions. "Oh, heh, heh, looks like Darya just took the lead. You go girl, let's see a little fire beneath that snowy exterior." Erzsi's eyes gave a twinkle of excitement; this was by far the steamiest love making session she had seen from these two. And hopefully there would be more to come...


Tracking... Flying Officer Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen...

Affiliation... 501st Joint Fighter Wing, Strike Witches...

Location: Camp Shelby Hattiesburg, Mississippi...

Status: Two days prior to Darya's assignment to Duty Desk; Five seconds after rune transportation from New York...

Time: 6:11:03...

Eila and Sanya were walking hand in hand with each other while the Wing commander and the Major were currently trying to get information from the duty desk. Thinking about the meeting that took place and the depressing news that they had received. All that work, all that effort, all that hope; for nothing. Now what were they to do? Eila couldn't help but mull over her own thoughts as well as her the world she and the others were now in. As both she and Sanya crossed the base grounds of this strange world, Eila could see the eyes of the base personnel shifting towards them in confusion.

Man... what is up with these people? It's like they've never seen witches before. After a moment passes Eila had a realization. Well... I suppose they probably haven't. I guess they really don't have witches in this world. Still, it feels weird with people just looking at us like we're weirdo's or something. Eila drew Sanya a little closer to herself out of instinctual protectiveness. She really wasn't liking the fact their eyes kept falling on them.

As they kept walking passed the prying eyes falling on them they noticed a large colum of trucks and an assortment of other vehicles. Eila was amazed at just how many vehicles were rolling into the compound. As they watched the convoy roll past Minna and Mio walked together with Flight Lieutenant's Dominica Gentile and Jane Godfrey, who apparently were also portaled into this world and brought to Camp Shelby. It was a lot for all of them to absorb; such a strange and turbulent world they now found themselves in. The four girls met up with Elia and Sanya with both girls giving the two Liberion witches their salutations.

"So tell me Flight Lieutenant Gentile, what do you make of this world in the time you've been here." Minna asked the lackadaisical Liberion.

Dominica shrugged. "Kind of weird when I first heard of it. Actually being here is even weirder, ya know. Little surreal seeing some parts looking similar and different all at once, ya know."

Jane nodded. "But all at the same time it still is kind of... familiar. Sort of. Like even though we've left home, it feels almost like we sort of haven't."

Dominica looked to Jane. "That's exactly what I was thinking, right? Can't believe the Neuroi really dragged us here."

Mio looked rather sternly at the mention of the Neuroi. "So more came though here. Probably trying to raise a stronger garrison of units to engage us, no doubt. They already laid siege to our world, now they are fighting this world too."

Dominica looked skeptical. "They didn't seem like they were itching for a bout in the ring, if you know what I'm saying. Looked more like they just wanted to cut out and throw the game."

Eila raised an eyebrow. "You mean they were just running scared?"

"Maybe, if they weren't feeling yellow at least they wanted to regroup or something. Fighting looked like the last thing they wanted on their plate."

Minna looked thoughtful once this information was presented. "It's possible that they knew their numbers were small; it's feasible that they wanted to avoid direct engagement so they could regroup with any allied units and establish a beach head to increase their numbers in this world. Beyond that we can only guess what their plans entail."

Sanya looked the Wing Commander questioningly. "Mamm, is it true that the Colonel of the base wanted to talk to you about something?"

Minna nods affirmatively. "He got in touch with his countries commander and chief, the president of the United States of... America, I believe. I was there for the online conference and they decided that the Neuroi threat is dire enough that that it would be a good thing for both us and themselves if they arranged for new technologies, weapons, troops and R&D personnel to help us in our war with the Neuroi. They are currently mopping up what few Russian stragglers are left in their homeland and have plans to deploy a majority of their forces to commit to a counter offensive, but they recognize just how dire a threat the Neuroi pose: they cannot ignore it."

"I see." Sanya conceded simply.

"They say the Eastern Seaboard of the continent is secure, but that they are still trying to take back the Western Seaboard. It's being contested as we speak."

"Sounds like a lot of work on their hands." Mio mused.

Eila sighed. "That's good and all, but I just really hope that Krupke bastard doesn't decide to pay us another visit for some of this stuff. Having to meet him once was far more than enough."

Quite suddenly, they noticed a large amount of shouting at the end of the base where the convoy had came to a halt and the soldiers dismounting their vehicles. On that side was a place on the base that served to house a handful of displaced civilian's from the sounding states. It appeared that a group of around a dozen people were holding up signs and belting out things that the girls weren't able to hear quite well, but they were surrounded by many other civilians who were arguing with them. One solider seemed to be trying to advance upon the group combatively with the signs but was being held back by two of his comrades in arms.

Eila seemed to wonder what this was about and decided to investigate this odd development. "Come on, Sanya." she urges.

Dominica and Jane exchanged a momentary glance, but Dom then shrugged. "Why the hell not, may as well see what the heck all the commotion is about." Both girls follow after Eila and Sanya, with Jane waving to Minna and Mio.

The four witches approached the large gaggle that had formed around what appeared to be some sort of protesters. Many civilians crowded around the people with signs booing , jeering and arguing with the group. Most of the soldiers may have kept their distance from the two groups, but many of them had clear looks of rage in their eyes directed at the people with signs.

As they approached Eila noticed Dunn and Foley, who have been keeping some distance away from the group that had been causing the disturbance. "Foley? Dunn?!" she exclaimed.

Both men turn around and noticed the four girls approaching. Dunn's face lit up at recognising her. "Eila! Holy shit, how the hell did you get here?!" he asked in amazement.

"Erica's sister helped up get here, she refined the MAPPED technology. Thanks to that, we have an easier way to come and go from both our realities. Though she's still trying to mass produce more and work out some of the kinks in the design."

"Really, no fooling?" after a pause he poses a question. "Hey I gotta ask you; did James wind up back with you guys again or what?" he asked.

Eila blinked. "Huh? You mean he got ported back to our world?"

Foley nods. "That's right, happened a little over a day ago, give or take, along with some of our men. Not to mention that more Neuroi found their way into our country. Apparently it wasn't the only anomaly either. Things might be getting pretty unstable on that level or something."

"Damn... that's not good..." she sighed. Sanya clung tightly to Eila, a look of worry crossing her face.

"Our boys and the Neuroi kind of came to blows with each other, but our men had it pretty bad. Though Ivan did little better, so there's that at least." Foley then looked to the other two girls and cocked an eyebrow, not recognizing either of them. "And who might this be? I don't believe we ever met."

Jane nods and gives a nervous smile. "Ah! Right, how rude of us. We didn't introduce ourselves: I'm Jane T. Godfrey, and this is my wife, Dominica S. Gentile."

Dominica rests her arms behind her head with a passive look on her face. "Hey, how are you guys doing?"

"Wife?" Dunn turns to Foley, both of them exchanging a surprised look before the Corporal looks back to the two Liberion girls. "Your both a bit young to be married don't ya think? I mean granted your from another reality with different laws and everything ... but..."

Dominica wears an intense look. "I don't see what the problem is: I love Jane, Jane loves me. Why wouldn't we get married?" she asked flatly.

"Well..." Dunn seemed to think about it for a minute but he seemed to be less reserved. "I guess I don't have any real problem. I mean it's a rather serious deal here in our world, but if you two are happy together then hey, I got no beef." An uncomfortable look crossed his face when he turned to the group that was being confronted by civilians. "I'd just avoid letting people know about that around here, at least for the moment."

"What for?" Dominica demands. She followed Dunn's gaze and motions towards the group with signs. "Who the hell are those guys, anyway?"

Foley had a clear look of disgusted frustration on his face as he shook his head. "All you need know is that they are a damned embarrassment to our country. Girls, trust me when I say that it's best people from your world don't come near those damn idiots." He looked to Dom and Jane concern written on his face. "That goes double for you two lovely girls."

Eila saw that Dominica had a sharp glint in her eyes, clearly she wanted to get to the bottom of what this situation was or why they shouldn't let it be known that she and Jane are married to each other. She walked off to the group, with Jane hesitating for a brief moment but soon trailing after her beloved Dom. Eila and Sanya followed, despite some cautioning objections from Dunn, not to mention her magical foresight, while somewhat weak at the moment, was still predicting warnings that something unpleasant is about to happen. When the four witches got closer they could hear the one of the people with the signs speaking to a young man.

"The lord's good book says that for a man to lay with another man is a sin, and his soul be damned to burn in hell." Said the man with a pair of signs in both hands. "God is punishing this wicked country for its sins and the crime of allowing homosexuals to marry!"

The young man spoke with a furious passion in his voice against this inflammatory droning. "Do you even realize what the hell your even saying?! How does the Russian's invading our country and killing our people have ANYTHING to do with gay marriage and wither God approves of it or not?!"

"It's punishment for the sins of this country for going against the laws written in Leviticus! You're fag enabling will only doom yourself and the rest of this country, eliciting god's wrath while we faithful of his will shall find salvation! Gods hatred shall strike you down, and shall strike down other sinners, heathens and agents of evil!"

"Seriously? Leviticus? It's the same damn passage that says that it's a sin to eat shellfish and wear clothing with two different types of fabric and that anyone breaking those laws should be stoned to death! So I ask you: why the fuck aren't you boycotting red lobster or throwing away those clothes your wearing, which, judging from the brand have two kinds of fabric in them, you horses ass!?" A couple of the other people behind the younger man nod and raise their voices in agreement.

Even with that brief exchange, Eila was already quite frustrated with the older man with the signs, and from what she could see so was Flight Lieutenant Gentile. Eila approached with Sanya's hand in her own and Dom doing the same with Jane. "Excuse me, just what in the world is all this about?" she asked firmly.

The two men turned to look at the four girls, but the man with the signs spoke first. "Why are you four dressed so provocatively? Why aren't you wearing pants?" he asked in a tone that sounded almost like a demand for explanation.

The young man looked at the four of them with some surprise. "Uh... yeah, are you four alright?" the younger man sounded concerned in comparison.

The four girls looked to each other with confused, hesitant looks. They were in their uniforms, they couldn't understand what the guy meant when he seemed to be accusing them of wearing provocative clothing. Eila sighed and responds evenly. "We're fine, we don't wear pants because of certain circumstances, is it okay if someone could tell us what's going on here?"

The man with the signs studied the four girls with a judgmental look but responds. "We're using our first amendment rights to spread the lords message to those lost in sin. For the wicked evils of this country for enabling homosexuality and going against gods will they shall elect god's wrath and vengeance. He has already acted by sending the Russian's to take the soldiers out of this life for defending a sinful, immoral country and protecting those who have fallen from gods good graces and embraced the temptations of the devil!"

The looks of the three other witches ranged from shock to anger. Eila had a flat look on her face with both her eyebrows raised. After a moment of stunned silence she found her voice. "Where the hell do I even start..." she mutters in annoyance. At this point she was starting to wish she listened to that feeling she had earlier.

The solider being held back by his buddy tries to wrestle free and advance upon the man but is being forcefully dragged off to a safe enough distance. "You bastards keep screaming "thank god for IED's" and "thank god for dead soldiers" while my buddies are giving their very lives for this country and our people and even you! Who the fuck do you think you are, you damned ungrateful sons-a-bitches!? If it weren't for us you'd be mowed down by Russian AK's! I'll kick your fucking asses, every last one of you, ya Westborough Baptist fucks!" The soldier was dragged some distance and held back by his buddies as they tried to calm him down.

"Dude, it's not worth a week in the stockade! Besides we have standing orders that we can't hurt those bastards, and trust me I want to make them into human pretzels too, but think long term; alright?" one man said, trying to quell the other mans rage.

"I don't care! I'm going to plant my combat boot up their assess, god damn it!"

Eila may not have known what a "Westborough Baptist" was but so far she was finding them to be the worst people she has ever met in her entire life, save for Maloney and Krupke. At this distance she could see that the man and his cronies who seemed to be quoting something carried a pair of signs, each one read a hateful slogan worse than the last. Even more horrible it seemed that a lot of the saying were directed at people who were either in love with people of the same gender or in the case of Jane and Dom; people of the same gender who were married. Which in and of itself made no sense, and what's worse is they even decried the soldiers who fought for this country, their own countrymen; it wasn't like the two girls being in love and marrying each other was hurting anyone, so why did these people hate people like The Flight Lieutenant and her wife... or Eila and how she felt for Sanya. Why was it wrong? It couldn't be wrong.

No... it wasn't wrong...

These people were the ones who were wrong.

Before Eila could retort Dominica spoke with a firm tone. "So are you meaning to tell me you have a problem with my wife and I, just because we're married?" She planted her feet and adopted a combative stance. Eila could see she intended to fight this inane bigotry, even head on if she had to.

Jane tried to speak to Dom, trying to hold her beloved wife in check. "Honey, wait-"

The man with the signs and his fellow protesters were aghast. "Wife? Married!? You're both sinners! You're vileness will condemn you to hell! Not enough that you wear such immoral, lewd clothing but to do the devils work by sinning against his will!? You're bound to hell in a breadbasket!"

"What business is it of yours to dictate who I give my love to?" Dominica demands. "It's none of your damn business wither I'm married to my wife or not, so shut up and shove off!" A lot of the civilians that had grouped around were nodding and speaking in agreement.

The soldier being held back by his buddies stops struggling against his squad mates and nods his head with enthusiastic vigor. "Hooah! You tell that asshole what for!"

The man looked offended. "It's the law of god! And the law of the lord almighty is absolute!" The man then turned his eyes to Jane, who flinched at his sudden, sharp gaze and spoke accusingly to her. "And you chose to condemn yourself by choosing to marry this lewd, heathen sinner! You think god will look on you favorably when judgement day comes and your damnation is assured?! You're desires and lust are the work of the devil!"

Jane trembled at the horrid accusations and words that made no sense to her, her eyes started to turn misty as she tried to argue, suddenly overtaken by a rising impulse in the core of her very being. "I don't even know what you're talking about, but if you're saying its evil for me to love Dominica; then you're wrong!" She clutched tightly at Dom's arm and place her other hand over her heart as tears started to pool in her eyes. "My heart belongs to her and only her! I love Dom with every fiber of my being! Our love is no different if it were a man and a women who were in love! I married Dom so I could share my life with her!" The voices of many of those looking on, her fellow witches and even her beloved wife were silent in amazement as the young Liberion girl poured her very soul into her words and as tears threatened to overflow from her eyes. "My mother and father always told me: there is nothing more beautiful in this life then love, no matter what form it takes. When I brought Dom home to meet my parents and told them that we were engaged... other than our wedding, I have never seen them happier then that day. They told me they were so happy and proud that I found someone to share my life with! I love her. She loves me. And we'd fight and die for each other if we had to! I want to stay by her side, forever! And nothing you say will ever change how much I love my Dominica!"

Unlike everyone else, the man and his cronies were unmoved by such sentiment. "May gods wrath strike you and your families down and send all of you into the rotten, fiery pits of hell where eternal bonfire shall consume you, agent of evil!"

Jane flinched in a way that seemed as though she was just struck forcibly. The hateful words cut deeply into the Liberion girl, even though those words held no water. Tears began rolling down her face and she took off running, sobbing as her tears fell to the pavement behind her. Eila's stomach churned at seeing the poor girl looking so distraught. How could anybody be so dismissive and hateful of someone's feelings like that? She silently asked herself. Some part of Eila wondered fearfully if there were more people like these in this world.

"Jane!" Dom looked to her wife and called after her, she seemed about ready to run after the blond-haired girl but she stopped and looked with a seething glare at the man who spoke hatefully of both her and her beloved wing woman. "You made my wife cry... no one makes my wife cry... nobody. I'm going to give you the old one two out of the ballpark, you bastard."

The man stood smugly before Dom with an idiotic grin. "God's will protects me sinner. He shall smite you down before you even try to raise a hand against his chosen disciples!"

Dom glared a little more at the man and then promptly took off after her beloved wife. Elia was beside herself. How cruel and evil can these people be?! I've never seen anyone so bigoted in my entire life! And he's crazy enough to think he's not only right, but justified to treat people like that!? She fumed silently.

Before Eila could rebuff the man Sanya spoke from her side. "You said very hurtful and needlessly cruel things to the flight Lieutenants. You have no right to question the legitimacy or morality of their feelings for each other." the small girl said firmly.

The man and a woman next to him snapped to Sanya with looks of derision. "Another fag enabler. There's no salvation for this country, only destruction!" the woman spat.

Eila glared at the two people for giving such a horrid look to her beloved Sanya. She often times tried to keep people from looking at the women she had come to cherish, for fears that someone might want to steal her away. But the idea that someone might become hostile to the Orussian she... felt so strongly for... to do Sanya harm. There was no way in hell she was going to let these horrible people even catch a passing glance at her dearest squad mate. "Stop. Looking. At. Sanya like that..." the Suomus girl hissed through gritted teeth.

The bigoted man then sniffed. "And those two are in the military? God will take the breaths of those who serve the devils will." he spoke callously. "And the same will be for you for allowing such a crime! Love is between a man and a woman! Gay's are an abomination against nature!"

Sanya was becoming distressed and was also becoming teary eyed. That drove Eila to great offence. They were making Sanya... they were making the women she cared for cry! It was unforgiveable! She would never forgive them for doing such a horrible thing. Before she could act upon this sudden impulse to kick the ass of each of these people she felt a hand rest on her shoulder. She turned around to find Dunn looking at her with a concerned look, then his eyes looked to the man and he shoot a challenging gaze at him.

"Alright, I think that's about damned enough. Eila, Sanya, you two best seer clear these guys; a pair of good, decent young girls shouldn't be caught dead near garbage."

He slowly ushered Eila and Sanya away from the group but then the man shouted at him. "You are a solider of satin: repent and accept god as the righteous path of salvation or you will be rightfully cast down along side your brothers in uniform!"

At that Dunn wheeled around with a look of rage as his hand shot to his holstered sidearm, but he stopped before drawing it. A look of conflicted thought went through him for a moment, then he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, cursed raggedly and then continued to guide Eila and Sanya away from the group of hate mongers.

"Dunn, who the hell were those people?!" Eila demands angrily. "I've never seen anyone that frustrating and horrible in my life!"

Dunn sighs. "The Westborough Baptist Church, and believe me they are a fucking shitty bunch, I'll tell ya. I'm sorry you guys had to experience that... it's really a fucking embarrassment that our country even allows an organization like that to exist... damned nutty cult."

"Just what was their deal anyways? Why do they have a problem with Dominica and Jane getting married, or about girls loving other girls to such a degree?"

Dunn grimaces. "Yeah, the WBC is a group of people who tend to take a lot of religious teachings and use them as an excuse to hurt people. They picket the funerals of dead soldiers and victims of mass shootings and other tragedies because... well for reasons that the ass-hat stated himself. Never could understand it even if I lived to be a hundred."

Eila was completely shocked by this. "That's insane! Why the hell don't you do something about them, make them stop saying stuff like that! Why do you guys have to take that crap, especially when its directed at your fellow soldiers?!"

"Believe me kiddo, I want to. Hell I was..." Dunn hesitated, then sighed. "I almost did something stupid back their... damn those fuckers piss me off. But they have their first amendment rights, even though I think their fucking abusing it and that the clause against hate speech should be in effect stop them... but hell, everyone on base has standing orders to not confront them."

"But why not?! They shouldn't be allowed to say those things; those are just words of ignorant hatred made to hurt people!"

Dunn shrugs. "Orders from the brass." he sighs. "It's a PR issue: the US military can't afford to have its personnel assaulting civilians... even though in this case they are deserving of a hell of a lot more than that. I never understood why they feel the need to bully and harass people like that. Those bastards practically cheer when bad things happen to people that aren't deserving of it..."

Sanya looked up to Dunn with a tearful look. "Please tell me that... not all people in your world are like that... are they, Corporal?"

Dunn had a pained, guilty look on his face at Sanya's question. After a while it settles into an expression of disappointment. "A few... but not all. Those guys are just more noticeable because they make the most noise. They'd throw a shit-fit at the very idea of anybody loving or marrying someone of the same gender just because of what some old damn book may or not say about the matter."

Sanya started to sob quietly and begin quickly ran off. "Sanya!" Eila couldn't bear seeing Sanya so sad, she watched as the witch that made her heart ache for disappear into the base grounds amongst the bustle of bodies and vehicles. She turned to Dunn with a sharp glare, what he had told them had hurt Sanya. She made a low growl in frustration.

Dunn noticed this and deflated, sighing. "I'm sorry kid, the Sarge and I didn't want to see you girls exposed to shit like this.. but I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. Thiers a lot of ugly stuff in our world. But if you really want to know where I stand on the issue... to me: it doesn't matter who you love, so long as it's healthy, consenting and nobodies getting hurt, then everything else is just a trivial detail. I just hope you can believe that..."

Eila's hard look faltered, seeing that Dunn was being genuine. Come to think of it the fact she was mad at him was unwarranted. It wasn't his fault that those people said what they did, if anything he hated them as much as she did. "I... I know. I'm...I'm sorry for getting angry."

"Forget about it kid. I know the feeling, so no worries."

"I... I have to go find Sanya."

Dunn nods and give her his condolences, then she ran off to find Sanya. She still couldn't understand the logic that those horrid people were running on. So what if two girls loved each other or got married; who was to say that it was wrong, immoral or invalid? They had no right to claim such ridiculous nonsense. Eila knew that the feeling she had in her heart for Sanya wasn't wrong, or immoral or that it was somehow lesser or abhorrent; her feelings were real, and they were good.

She wanted to be part of Sanya's life. She wanted to be there to support her. To protect her. To... love her.

In that instant Eila knew that she felt that most precious, sacred emotion towards the girl he held her heart. And that man and his horrible cronies had the arrogance and the audacity to tell her how she should feel to her beloved Sanya?

After spending a half hour looking however she wasn't able to find Sanya anywhere. She started to get worried... where was she? Eventually she found Flight Lieutenant Gentile instead, glancing around with a look that was of passive worry while walking by a aircraft hanger close to the airfield. Eila waved her hand at her. "Flight Lieutenant, are you alright?!" she called as she approached.

Dominica's mouth hooked into a frown. "I've tried to find Jane but I can't find her. She must be hiding someplace." She crossed her arms as frustration settled on her. "Damned bastards really hurt her with what they said, I'm not going to take what they did to my wife laying down."

"I know, they did the same thing to Sanya and me. Not even the soldiers on this base are treated any better, the things they said to Dunn about him and his fellow soldiers... it was unforgiveable! We have to put a stop to this somehow."

Dom wore a confused look. "Why don't the grunts on base do something about it?" she asked.

Eila sighed and shook her head. "PR reasons or something like that, though they were still really pissed about them all the same."

"Hands tied behind their backs huh?"

"Pretty much..."

At that both girls quietly tried to think of a solution to deal with the problem they notice that there were five men that seemed to be part of an airfield fire and safety crew that were taking inventory of fire fighting gear. The two girls seemed a little interested and entered the hanger as the man in charge gave instructions to his subordinates, instructing each of them where each piece of equipment goes. They are both eventually noticed with a look of perplexity.

"Oh, hey there, are you two alright? Can I help you with anything?" he asked.

"Sorry if we're bothering you at all, but we were wondering if you had seen two of our... um... that is... our squad mates." Eila asks, although Dominica looked with a measure of confusion at first at Eila, but then wore a small smile, knowing and recognising what the Suomus girl was trying desperately to hide. Eila then gave a detailed description of both Sanya and Jane, although her description of Sanya was the most detailed of the two.

The man shook his head. "Not sure, I don't think they came around here, sorry. I'd help you look for them with ya, but I have these duties to attend to with my boys here."

Dominica frowned. "I see... thanks anyways. I just want to make sure that she was alright... those people from earlier were... harassing us."

One of the other men had an inquiring look on his face. "Someone giving you girls a hard time? Who was it?" he asked.

Eila had an uncomfortable look on her face. "It was those people... with the signs. They had a problem with the fact that..." Eila trailed off. She was hesitant in sharing the reasons that spurned the hate groups ire.

Although she hesitated a moment, a sudden wash of determined defiance crossed Dom as she spoke firmly. "They didn't like that I was married to the women that I wanted to spend my life with. And if I ever get the chance, I'll give them and anyone like them a piece of my mind for making my girl cry." she had a stern look in her eyes, almost challenging them to say something in ill will. Eila figured that Dom was thinking that everyone in this would be hostile towards herself and Jane.

The five men seemed to blink as looks of recognition settled on their features, they then looked to each other for a while. It wasn't long when the lead man gave a mild smirk. "Alright you guys, I think it's time we took a bit of a break for a bit and get to work on something I forgot to bring to the hanger here." he had an odd tone that Eila couldn't quite place.

The younger man of the group looked confused. "What could we have missed though? Aren't we supposed to finish up here first? What could be so important to leave this job unfinished?"

"I just realize we had to find and properly store some propwash." The man said with a grin.

The younger man squinted. "Propwash? But there's no such thi-" A man standing next to the younger man placed his hand on his shoulder and shot an urging look. After a moment the younger man's face light up in realization. "Oh right: the propwash! How could I forget!? While we're at it we might need to get some headlight fluid from supply while we're out."

"Smart thinking, let's go get it done then." The man's subordinates begin setting aside some of their equipment, leaving firehouses, strange tools and what seemed to be fire fighting protective suits and uniforms and left the hanger. As the lead man left the hanger he stood before the entrance and turned to the direction his comrades were marching then spoke aloud. "Gee, I hope nobody decides to take our fire hoses and decides to use them for a dastardly plot to soak a bunch of bigots or anything: imagine the paper work if we had to replace them!" With that he turned his head and gave the girls a quick wink and walked off.

Both girls blinked and tried to figure out exactly what just happened, but the actions of the five men suddenly clicked in their minds when their eyes rested upon the fire hoses. Eila shot a devious smile at Dominica, a brilliant idea coming to her. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked the Liberion.

Dominica smirked. "If anything your thinking is like what I'm thinking, then I know a good way to show them what happens when they mess with our girls."

Eila blinked as her face reddened. "W-wait, OUR girls?! W-what are you saying?!"

The older girl scoffed. "We'll you don't exactly hide how you feel about Flying Officer Litvyak, you don't have to be embarrassed about it. If anything it's kind of nice seeing the two of you together, you both make a cute couple." As she started to walk over to the firefighting gear she looked back at the Suomus girl. "So have you popped the question to her yet?"

Eila's face turned beet red as she chased after Dom. "Just what do you mean by that?!" she demanded.

Dominica laughed. "Well, what do you think I mean by that?" Eila's face got redder as the Liberion girl grabbed a pair of fire hoses. "Now grab the other hoses and a wrench; we're going to be show those idiots what happens when you say evil shit to a witches lover."


Tracking ... Wing Commander Minna Wilcke...

Affiliation... 501st Joint fighter Wing, Strike Witches...

Time: 6:21:08...

Minna was silent as she was silently contemplating the events that had transpired. With news from Flight Lieutenant Gentile the Neuroi's infiltration of this other world she recognized how dire the situation has now become. After spending sometime speaking to Colonel Hughes if nothing else was made clear is that their world may be able to help and get help from each other. If only they could get help in finding Barkhorn. Both Minna and Mio had been discussign these events at length, so really it was an overwhelming state of affairs.

"Never thought I'd see the day we'd be getting help from a whole other world. Seems almost like a strange dream, doesn't it." Mio mused aloud, trying to take in everything going on. She turned to Minna, noticing how unusually quiet she was. "Is everything alright?"

Minna nods. "Yes, I'm still taking this all in. Although I get the feeling that this world may need our help as well. From what we were told a sizable Neuroi force has infiltrated here."

Mio frowned. "It seems that we had failed in our objective to prevent them from establishing a beach head. Not only that, this world's laws of physics must operate differently from our own; it's difficult to use our magic here. Why is that?"

Minna considers this for a moment. "I'm not sure... but at least we have some ability to use our innate magical powers. I get the feeling it may just require some time getting used to and adjusting to this worlds laws of physics." She closed her eyes and focused her magical power, her familiar manifesting as she used her Three Dimensional Space Understanding Ability again. After a moment of using it to gauge her surroundings and the people in the area she speaks thoughtfully. "It's taking some time and effort, but it seems my magic is starting to be getting closer to full capability the more I exercise it. My range and the details of the people I'm detecting is getting better. Still not one hundred percent though, but it's better than it was when we first arrived here."

Mio looked down to her blade for a moment, then looked to Minna and lifted up her eye patch, her magic eye's purple glow glowing stronger then it was before, but was still not quite near its best. "My Magic Eye, Magan, is also getting back to its pervious strength. But it's taking a bit more time then I like." She turns her eye patch back down. "The bigger problem however, is that my Reppumaru is still not yet to standard, far below then what is normal for me. I still need to keep training."

"Just be sure not to over exert yourself Mio. Your for too important to our unit if you wound up doing something that ends up getting you hurt in the long run." Minna cautions with a tone of worry.

Mio just gave a small smile in response. knowing how much her Commander was worrying about her. "I know, I'll be sure to pace myself."

"Good... I get the feeling that this world will have its own brand of problems though..." she said thoughtfully, recalling the events that transpired a few minutes ago; she saw that when the four witches approached the loud group of protesters that both Jane and Sanya had run off in tears, with Dom looking quite enraged and Eila looking worried. She wondered just what those verbally abusive people had said to her subordinates. Before Minna could say anything else to Mio she notices Eila walking past while carrying a fire hose in her grasp. Watching as the Suomus girl passes them and several other soldiers. Foley and Dunn included who were looking on with perplexity. Minna looked from Elia approaching the people that her magic had categorized as "hostile"; the ones with the signs and saying rather inflammatory and bigoted things, then turned around and followed the length of the hose to see Dominica at the ready next to a fire hydrant and a wrench. "What are those two planning?" Minna asked.

Mio blinked. "They aren't really going to..." the Major then shouted at Eila. "What do you think you're doing Juutilainen?!"

Eila ignored the Major and planted her feet. "HEY, DOMINICIA! HIT IT!"

Dunn's face subtly lit up as he smirked. "This is going to be good: if you've got cameras, you better get 'em out." All that Foley could do was just shake his head in flat disbelief and just brace himself for the inevitable.

The Liberion flight Lieutenant gave a curt nod. "Roger that! Time to cool it, you damned bigots!" Dominica turned the wrench, upon doing so water rushed out of the hose and ploughed into the members of the WBC, bodies and signs were sent flying. A small quantity of Eila's magic served to augment the water pressure in the hose somewhat, sending the members of the WBC flying some twenty feet and into a set of portable outhouses. The water and flailing forms of the hate filled protesters knocked over the potable outhouses, causing the bigots to get covered in spilt human waste. Once Eila gave the signal Dominica cut the water. After a moment of silence, civilians and soldiers slowly started to give a round of applause followed by cheers at seeing a mutually detested hate group being utterly trounced and humiliated by two young girls.

Minna sighed, unsure what to feel about the fact two witches just turned a fire hose on a group of civilians, even though the civilians in question were highly, horribly unpleasant to put it frankly. It was at this point the man that confronted both girls earlier shakily got off the ground and approached Eila with a furious look. Dom trotted over to Eila and stood between the Suomus girl and the approaching cult member.

"Damned sinning heathen! How dare you raise your hands against gods true chosen disciples; who do you think you are!?"

The response came when Eila and Dominica called forth their familiars and a bright blue glow surrounded them. Minna could see that the summoning of the two girls familiars came easy to them this time. Every civilian, solider and even the members of the WBC looked at the two girls with shock. The man from the WBC that had been approaching them froze with a look of shock soon followed by fear.

Dominica responds matter of factly. "We're witches: soldiers gifted in magic that defend humanity from the Neuroi. Or in this case: hate filled, bigoted little homophobes like you. If you think the fire hose was bad... just wait until you see us use our magical abilities on you..."

The WBC man had a look of horror on his suddenly pale face. "W-w-w-w-witches?!" At this news he and his fellow hate mongers started to run in fear, most screaming in insane terror. The man who lead them cried in fear. "The agents of Satin are amongst us! The servants of evil will hex and curse our souls! Repent! Repent! JUDGMENT DAY IS AT HAND!"

Eila and Dominica gave each other looks of satisfaction at having dealt with the hate group, but now everyone was looking squarely at them in shock. They were both unsure now just how people would react to them with their familiars out. After a few moments a young man approaches, looking at both girls with surprise. Minna and Mio approach the two girls with stern looks.

Minna looked sternly at the two witches. "Ladies, would you care to explain your behavior just now?" she demands.

Eila stiffened, the fur of her familiars features becoming bristled. "M-m-mamm|! W-we were only trying to get those people to stop harassing everyone."

Minna frowns. "The way the situation was handled by the two of you reflects upon the uniforms of your homelands and your fellow witches. We are the first witches in this world; how do you think people will view us if they see you acting like that."

Dom had a bored look on her face. "Everyone seemed to approve of our actions, mamm."

Before Minna could respond the young man approaches closer to the four witches, looking at the girls with surprise on his face. "I'm sorry, but... are those... ears and tails?" he asked.

Eila looked up to her familiar's ears and pointed to them. "Yeah, they are our familiars."

"And you guys are witches; I mean... you really can use magic?"

Mio nods. "That's correct. These are powers that we are given at birth. And we have a duty to protect humanity from any threat that comes our way."

The man had a look of awe on his face at hearing this, looking at the four witches in amazement for a few minutes. He suddenly goes over to his two friends, another young man with a beard and a young woman while looking excited. "Guys, look at this! Real live, honest to god, magical girls in the flesh!"

The friend with the beard looked positively giddy, his eyes fixated on the four witches. "This is just like a show from my Anime library: this is a real once in a life time opportunity. You'd guys were awesome; I'd pay good money to see those guys getting hosed down like that! Hell, I'd go for a second viewing!"

The girl dug into her pocket and produced a small handheld device and held it to the four girls. "Amazing! Is it okay if I can take your picture with my smart phone?"

The girls were surprised at this, Dom's board look evaporated, overtaken by a look of amazement. "You mean you can take pictures... with a phone?!" the level of technological advancement in this world was incredible; the very concept of taking photographs with a phone was a mind-boggling concept. After allowing the girl to take a couple photos of them every other civi and soldier approached and began asking multiple questions about both the girls, their world and their fellow witches. They had never before been so overwhelmed by such a Q&A session like this before.

Dunn and Foley came up and then waved the civi's and their fellow service men off to give the girls some space to breath. Once that was done Foley shook his head. "You girls really left one hell of an impression, though It's likely brass will be on my ass about this."

Eila turned a little guilty; apparently this was going to become a PR issue. "S-sorry about that. I guess we did get too carried away."

Dunn laughed. "Oh hell no, don't apologize, especially not for those guys. They are university hated to the point where it's actually illegal for them to enter certain countries. If anything you guys would be hailed as heroic badassess. Those guys talk shit, they are full of shit; now they are covered in shit. That's one hell of a shit sandwich that they've got going on."

Foley shot Dunn a firm glare in response, prompting the corporal to be silent, then looked to the girls. "Feeling may be mutual, but I wouldn't advise pulling stunts like that again. For the record: I have to say that was damned reckless and unprofessional and if it happens again disciplinary action from those higher up in the chain of command will be likely." Both Eila and Dom deflate a little bit at that, but then Foley continues. "But off the record: I wish I could have done something as ballsy as you two did. Just try to restrain yourselves next time, I don't want to see you girls get into any serious trouble, Hooah?"

Minna turned to the two girls firmly. "When we return to base in our world you have to face reprimand. Eila, I expect you to pull double kitchen duty for your actions for the rest of the week. And Dom, I'll have to report to your commanding officer about your actions here today. Even though those people were in the wrong, the actions you took were not becoming of yourselves or your fellow witches. Is that understood girls?" Both of the girls nod and give answers in the affirmative. Hopefully now they wouldn't have to worry about any further confrontations with people like that. Or so she was hoping. Dominica and Eila looked to her, both girls seemed about to ask a question but she anticipated what it likely was. "I'm also guessing you're both wondering where Sanya and Jane are, is that correct?"

Eila was a little surprised, but nods. "Yes mamm...we haven't been able to find them after they ran off to."

Minna called forth her familiar and used her magical ability to pinpoint the locations of the missing girls. After a couple seconds of quiet focus she manages to find them. "They are both located by a section of tents by the motorpool. You'll find them there."

"R-really?!" Eila exclaimed in surprise. Dominica promptly takes off running to find her dear wife as Eila give her thanks to her commanding officer. "Mamm, thank you!" She then ran off to find Sanya, following the Liberion who was off at a full sprint.

Foley couldn't help but look impressed. "Mamm, for someone under twenty your by far the most squared away officer I have ever seen in all my years of military service. That right there was the work of a true OIC."

Minna wore a soft smile, even despite the earlier actions of the two lower ranked witches, she could tell that Sergeant Foley was earnestly impressed with her and the girls, despite many of the smaller details involved. "Thank you Sergeant; the duties of an officer may be challenging at times but that comes with the position. I have to be able to balance myself between using simple guidance and strict discipline. Punishments must be firm but fair, and rewards should also be handled in moderation."

"Spoken like a true officer." Foley says with a smile.

"I'll say." Dunn agrees.

Mio nods with a look of pride. "She's the Commander of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing. By far she is one of the best officers I've had the honor of serving under." She looked to her commander warmly. "And on top of that; she's a true friend. I'd follow her into whatever battlefield we were ordered to."

The young Wing Commander's smile widened at that. The words of praise meant a lot to her at this moment... but even despite knowing the earnestly of these words spoken and the fact this world may provide them with assistance in fighting the Neuroi, she still had a great deal of concern deep concern for Captain Barkhorn. Foley often told her that he'd be more than happy to help if her could, but of course he had his own orders and his own war to handle. Not to mention he was only a Sergeant himself, he had little sway over what he could or couldn't do. So far all she could do was just hope that the men of Task Force 141 kept her in good hands.


Tracking... Flying Officer Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen...

Affiliation... 501st Joint Fighter Wing, Strike Witches...

Time: 6:27:07...

Eila spotted the motorpool and made a beeline straight for it. The Wing commander said that both Sanya and Jane were around here. Her eyes darted wildly in every direction, searching everywhere for her squadmate. The thought of Sanya in tears was more than Eila could even stand. Dominica was following close behind, searching for her beloved wife. It wasn't long before the two younger girls were found, both of them taking shelter between a couple of tents and crates, crying a stream of tears at the earlier words of hate that had been directed at them.

"Sayna!" Eila rushed over to Sanya and gave her the biggest hug she could muster, trying to calm her friend down. "Hey, hey, it's okay Sanya. I'm right here, please don't cry."

Dom trotted up to Jane and placed her hand on her wife's shoulder. "Hey sweetheart, I was looking everywhere for you."

Jane looked up to Dom tearfully and sniffled. "Oh, Dom..." She leaped into the arms of her dearest wife as she was sobbing. "I can't believe they could say such horrible things Dom! How can what I feel for you possibly be so wrong? Love is good isn't it? Why do they find us so abhorrent?!"

Dom rubbed her sorrowful wife's back and stroked her head tenderly. "They're just close-minded, ignorant idiots Jane. Don't you listen to them. Pay them no mind... my loves only for you, my darling wife." She looked to Eila. "I'm going to take care of Jane for a while. You take care of Litvak, alright?"

Eila nods with a look of determination. "I intend to." As the Orussian and Sumoi girls head off to get sometime alone, Eila turned her attention back to Sanya. "Sanya... Sanya, are you alright?" She wanted to be with Sanya. She wanted to dry these tears in her eyes. She wanted to protect her. And she was going to...

Sanya had a look of anguish on her face. "Eila..." she drew a shaky breath. "Those people... they said such terrible things..."

"I know: they had no right to say any of those things. None at all. Back home it was normal for girls to find love with other girls. I mean: Jane and Dom are married. Those jerks don't know what they are talking about." She took Sanya's hand and spoke with a gentle tone. "But you don't have to worry about them saying mean things anymore. Okay, Sanya? I took care of them; Dom and I made sure they wouldn't bother anyone anymore, scared them off. I'll always be there to protect you"

Sanya sniffled. "Eila. Can I... ask you something?"

"Yes of course! You can ask me anything!"

"Eila... what do you think of me?" she asked hesitantly.

Eila blinked. "What do you mean?"

"You always touch other girls in our unit... why don't you do the same to me? Is it because... you don't look at me the same as you do the others? Do you only see me as... just a friend."

Realization came to Eila as Sanya spoke to her. This day was really starting to happen... and the Suomus girl was becoming nervous, a blush crossing her cheeks. "W-well. I... urm...t-that's... uh... I mean..." Eila caught herself. Why was she hesitating now of all times? She knew how she felt towards Sanya; why can't she just say it? No. I'm not going to hide it anymore! I'm not going to just try and hide my feelings behind an aloof mask. I know how I really feel about Sanya: it's about time I show it to her! Taking a deep breath, she finally found the strength; the strength to admit her true feelings. "S-sanya... I... I know we have known each other for a while now. And I am really grateful to be able to call you my friend. But if I'm being completely honest: the day we first met... I wanted to be something more than just a friend; I want to be a part of your life. I want to be there to support you, and to protect you. Sanya I... I love you. I love you with each and every inch of my heart. I didn't want my idle hands to hurt you Sanya; that's why I haven't dared... doing things like that to you, like I have with the other girls."

Sanya's eyes widened, her face blushing at Eila's confession. "E-eila. You... you really feel that way about me?" The Orussian girl looked to her squadmate in amazement.

Eila nods. "I do. Really I do! Sanya... will you... will you be my girlfriend?" A long moment of silence followed this confession. Eila didn't know what to think of this reaction. Was it good, or was it bad? What would Sanya say in response to all this. The suspense was killing the Suomus girl! Please Sanya... please let me give my heart to you. she begged silently. She started to despair; would Sanya say no, was she afraid, was she unsure? Eila didn't know... but perhaps some part of her... didn't want to know, out of fear. But their was no turning back now; she confessed her feelings, now would come the consequences of the confession.

The answer Eila was waiting for finally came in the formation of tears in Sanya's eyes. Her mouth slowly hooked up in a trembling smile, her hand moved to cover that smile, overwhelmed by the emotion that was shining through her face. "Eila... I had... always hoped... that you loved me. I'm so glad that you do..." Sanya took a shaky breath and moved towards her. "I would be so happy if I could... call you my girlfriend." Her face slowly inched towards Eila's own.

She gasped, her beloved Sanya was drawing closer to her. Was she really...? "Sanya... I..."

"I love you... Elila..."

Eila felt Sanya's lips press against her own, softy and tenderly enveloping her mouth as her mind went blank. Even as it was happening, she couldn't be sure she was really experiencing this. But as Sanya's moist, tender lips enveloped her and kissed her Eila then realized: this wasn't a dream. This was real. Both she and Sanya were really kissing. Eila began to return the kiss, her arms wrapping around Sanya. This felt good. This felt right. And she couldn't have felt more happy then she was feeling right now. She and Sanya, after all the years the two witches had known each other for; were finally girlfriends.

After kissing for a couple minutes of bliss, both girls part from each other, as Eila looks lovingly at her friend turned girlfirend. "Sanya, I love you. I... I can't believe this is really happening! I've always wanted to tell you how I felt for you but I...but now I feel so... happy."

"Me too... I want to share my heart with you Eila. I want to go through this life with you beside me."

Eila felt a sudden rush of excitement, a feeling of exuberance overtaking her. "I feel so excited that; I want to share this news with everyone!"

Sanya nods, giggling. "I want to share this with everybody too: I want to tell them about us."

"Yeah! But, who should we tell fir-" Eila looked over to a pair of tents close to the motorpool, remembering to have seen Dom and Jane headed in that direction earlier. "Oh! I know who we can start with first!" Pulling Sanya along behind her and laughing giddily the two girls approached the gap between the two tents, a set of crates. "Dominica! Jane! I have something wonderful to tell everyone: Snaya and I are-" Both Eila and Sanya's faces go from expressions of warm happiness to deep red in shock at the sight of Jane and Dom kissing deeply with each other in a heavy make out session, the tunics and undershirts of both girls uniforms were unbuttoned completely, exposing the two girls breasts to each other. Their hands groped with gentle, loving care at each other's chest, massaging each other lovingly.

Both girls proceed to shed their tunics and dress shirts, leaving them with only their panties. Dom was the first to glide her hand down Jane's body and into her panties, tenderly massaging her wife's womanhood. Jane was moaning while kissing her beloved Dom, her mouth trying to fully envelop her wife's own. Sweat began to slowly glisten from the smaller Liberion's body. Jane then reached for Dom's crotch and massaged her beloved wife's genitals.

At the moment both girls started to pull down each other's panties Eila and Sanya both bleated, promptly about faced and hurried off. "S-sorry! We'll come back and tell you later!" Eila hastily apologized.

Sanya closes her eyes and turns her head to the ground in embarrassment as she and Eila tried to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the two married witches of the 504th. "We're sorry!" she apologized.

Just as they were walking out of the motor pool a soldier was starting to head towards the vehicles, his eyes turned to the tents that Jane and Dom were hidden between, though it was clear had hadn't caught sight of the two girls. "H-hey, where are you going?" Eila asked shakily, still trying to get over seeing such an explicit display.

"Just need to take care of something over here is all." her responds, pointing at the tents behind the motor pool.

Eila and Sanya, quickly stand between the man and the motorpool with horrified looks. "No! You mustn't go over there!" they both plead.

The man blinked and raised his eyebrow questioningly. "Why not? What's going on over there?"

Eila began sweating bullets. "Urm... well...uh..." Did she really have to try and explain just what was happening back their? "T-trust us, it's in use and you don't want to be caught back there." She responds shakily, both she and Sanya trying to usher the man away from the motorpool. Hopefully once they get this man some distance away perhaps then they can share the happy news.


Tracking ... Flight Lieutenant Dominica S. Gentile...

Affiliation... 504st Joint fighter Wing, Ardor Witches...

Time: 6:34:01...

Dominica kept kissing Jane as their panties were slipped off each other. She could see how distraught her wife was from that earlier verbal abuse. She wasn't about to let those stupid, crazy, hate filled words hurt Jane like that. Seeing her wife so filled with pain in her heart... she wasn't going to let those words spoken bring tears to Jane's eyes; she would ease the hurt in her wife's heart. Her hands kept massaging Jane's vagina softly and tenderly, each menstruation brought her loving wife to new levels of ecstasy, her pussy growing wetter with each caress of the older girls fingers. Her other hand massaged Jane's soft, warm breast tenderly while the two girls started to become lost in a ever growing haze.

She parted her kiss to Jane and looked to her lovingly. "Are you alright, sweetheart?"

Her wife looked to her tearfully. "Dom... I don't care what anyone says. I love you. Only you."

"I know you do. And you know that I love you back, right?"

"I do... I do know that. I don't know why this is hurting so much..."

"It's okay, you've got me with you." Dominica took Jane by the hips and sat her down on a crate that was behind her small wife. She give her a kiss on the lips for a few moments, both girls pressing up against each other in loving passion. Dom worked her way down between Jane's legs as they parted before her, anticipating what the lackadaisical girl of subtle passion was about to do.

Dominica grasped Jane by her hips and pressed her mouth against her wife's sex. Jane gasped as a sudden rush of pleasure exploded from her most sacred nethers. Kissing Jane's entire pussy the brown haired Liberion could taste the sweet juices of her soul mate, her tongue dancing across the other girls vulva.

"D-dom..." the blond girl gasped, her head tilted back as a new surge of pleasure coursed through her body.

Dom made sure her wife felt as much pleasure as possible. She wanted to dry her wife's tears, and what better way to make her feel good then to make love to her? Dom felt Jane's hands grasp her head as she pleasured the other girls organ, taking in the taste of the younger Liberion girl. Each suck, each lick, each kiss elected moans and cries of pleasure. After a while Dom pulled back a bit from Jane's moist snatch and noticed her erect clitoris.

"Your clit looks cute, Jane." she states warmly, a hint of a smile on her pokerfaced expression.

"D-dom! Why are you talking about my- ah!~"

She went back to work on her wife, her teeth gently nipping at Jane's erect clit, then soon enveloping it with a kiss. The other girl cried out loudly in passion. Her eyes were half-closed, she was getting lost in a lust filled haze, the fog of love enveloping her. Hearing Jane's voice moaning in pleasure always made her wet: now was no different. Jane was starting to buck as she was kissing her clit, clearly the blond-haired girl was enjoying the feeling of having her love button kissed.

"It feels so good Dom! I'm going to... I'm going to... I'm... AH!" It wasn't long until Jane's body started to quake and shudder, finally reaching orgasm. After the pleasure filled rush subsided Dom gave her wife's clit one more long loving kiss, then licked her pussy before pulling away from her.

Dom then kissed Jane on the lips. "Feeling better?" she asked.

Jane panted lustfully and responds with a kiss of her own first upon Dom in an open-mouthed kiss, then by slowly kissing the nape of her neck. "Yes... now I want to return the favor..." From their she moved to Dom's left breast her lips wrapping around her nipple and sucking it gently, electing a grunt of pleasure from the girl with the Eagle familiar, a pleasing feeling dancing a jig on her nipple. This went on for a while until Dom noticed one of the covered trucks near the tents they hid between. Despite her mind getting a bit clouded from being stimulated she suddenly had an idea...

Dom picked Jane up again, the younger girl gasping a bit in mild surprise, but she wrapped her legs around the older girl for support and kissed her on the lips again. Upon parting the kiss Dom looked with loving intensity to her partner. "I've got an idea Jane." With Jane being held in her arms and her legs wrapped around her hips, Dom carried her wife over towards the truck.

"What idea are you thinking about Dom?" Jane then noticed where they were going with surprise and a blush on her face. "W-wait a minute! You don't mean for us to make love in the open again do you?! Don't you know how embarrassing it was doing such things in that Atrium two months ago?!"

Dom's face was a bit flat at this. "You didn't complain about it then. Besides: it was a little fun and exciting, wasn't it?"

Jane's face reddened further. "Well... maybe a little bit... " she admits timidly. Once they reach the truck she sets Jane unto the trucks bed behind the cab, then climbs up into the back of the truck with her loving wife. Once on her back Jane had a questioning look on her face. "So what exactly are we going to do?"

Dominica positioned herself on top of Jane, facing her vagina. "I'll make you feel good while you make me feel good, is that alright?" At that, Dominica begin to orally stimulate her wife's womanhood, a cry of pleasure escaping her. As she was doing this she felt Jane's hands wrap around her thighs and the sudden feeling of a moist tongue gliding across her snatch. She inhaled sharply as the sudden rush of pleasure burst forth. Both girls were busily at work performing cunniligus for each other, each lick, each kiss, every touch and prod of each other's womanly glory brought the pair into a state of warm, loving, hazy bliss. As Dom kept licking she started to insert one of her fingers into Jane's soaked pussy, trying to maximize the amount of pleasure the other girl would be feeling.

A cry from Jane sounded out in response to the digit entering her. Dom continued kissing and sucking the girl she loved. It wasn't long before the passionate, older Liberion felt a finger enter her vagina, causing her to gasp. In response, Dom added an extra digit into Jane's wet pussy in response, another cry of loving passion escaped the girl loudly. Both girls were at it for several minutes now, each menstruation, kiss , lick and massage and thrust of their fingers sent burst after burst of pleasure and warmth from their body's. It wasn't long until Dom felt a building pressure in her core, she was about to reach release. And judging from the sound of things; so was Jane.

Upon reaching climax both their bodies shuddered and quaked in pleasure, both girls riding a lust filled high. Once they finally came Dom slowly moved to her loving wife and caressed her face. Jane looked up to her beloved warmly. "Dom... that was wonderful..."

"Are you feeling better?" she asked.

Jane nods. "Yes... how do you feel? Did I do well enough?"

Dome smiled a little. "You did beautifully, sweetheart."

"I'm glad. Dom... I love you." Jane gave her beloved wife and lead wingman a kiss, trying to take in every part of her beloveds passion.

Dom pulled away and stroked the other girls head softly. "I love ya too hon." Dom then blinked when she remembered something. "Hey, I just realized: didn't you hear Eila earlier?"

Jane cocked her head in confusion. "I'm not sure. Did she and Sanya have something to say a moment ago?"

"Can't say for sure... I can't really remember, all I could hear was the sounds of us making love."

"I guess so..." Jane then had a look of realization. "Hey Dom: where are our clothes?"

Dom had a thoughtful look for a moment but then a frown formed on her face, followed by an annoyed grunt. "I think we left them by the tent. Hang on, I'll go get em."

As she started to step out of the truck Jane had a sudden, embarrassed smile on her face. "W-well don't be too long... I still want to do more with you. O-okay Dom?" To emphasize the point Jane's legs were spread widely, presenting her womanhood to her beloved wife, a deep blush crossing her face as her hand went to her vagina and she shyly started to touch herself provocatively.

Dominica's face turned slightly pink as she stared at Jane in such an amazingly sexy position and acting in such a titillating way while in the nude for about five seconds. Without a word she promptly ran for the tent to retrieve her and her wife's clothes. It looked like today would be another hot day for making love...


Tracking... Captain Clotilda Marwick...

Affiliation... 78th Tame Witches Combined Reserve Squadron...

Location... 501st Witches Base, Romagna...

Time: 19:11 hours...

Clotilda called in all the girls of the 78th and the 501st and started to address them. "Alright girls, that's it for training; bring it in! Form up and fall into formation." Once the girls assembled into their assorted ranks and files at ease before the Commanding officer of the 78th, Clotilda called the girls to attention then turned to face Shirley who stood before the assembled witches with a look of pride. At the same time the people from the other world looked on with mild interest. Clotilda then spoke to the Liberion Captain sharply. "Mamm, all witches are assembled and awaiting your address." she declared.

Shirley sheepishly shot a light grin towards the first Lieutenant. "Hey, hey take it easy already. We aren't all Karlsander's after all." At that Clotilda groaned lightly, but a light smile then crossed her and she gave a small nod in understanding. "Alright, relax, you can stand easy everyone." The girls awkwardly return to the position of ease and then stood at the relaxed position of easy, then she addressed the girls. "You girls have really put a lot of effort in today's training exercises. I can see that a lot of you have plenty of potential inside so be sure to give it your one hundred and ten percent. Some of you may still need a little extra time to hone your abilities and skills, but just worry about what you can do and let your squadmates handle the rest; we're a team after all. Also, be sure to pace yourselves, know where your limits are and try breaking them bit by bit instead of all at once; you don't want to hurt yourselves, alright?" After a pause Shirley gave a nod. "Well, that's it. You all have the rest of the day to yourselves before lights out, so enjoy yourselves and take some time to get relaxed for tomorrow. You're dismissed."

Once the girls were dismissed Clotilda approached Yeager with Ludwiga at her side. "So Captain, how have things been going." She asked her fellow Liberion.

Shirley wore a tired smile. "Tiring, but hey, I guess that just comes with the job. I had to put in some more requisitions through the forms and even over the phone for more supplies, our allotted unit budgets for supplies, and seeing if command has any new missions for us. So far it's business as usual; I can't see how Minna was able to keep this whole show running smoothly, I'm barely keeping pace as it is."

Clotilda smiled. "Well you're doing well enough, don't sell yourself short. It just takes a little time for adjusting. Believe me, I was in the same boat when I became an officer." she encouraged warmly.

"I suppose that's true." Shirley allowed. "Hey have you guys heard anything from the 3rd Land Battle Witches at all? I've been trying to get a hold of their forward Operation's base camp in central Gallia but so far I was only able to get a hold of them three days ago."

The Lieutenant looked thoughtful. "Oh yes, we Tame Witches had the chance to serve alongside them a few times. They are very good at what they do. If they haven't been able to be raised on the phone at this point, it's likely because they are out in the field in another heavy engagement or doing recon."

"Really? Should I try patching them through to them on a radio channel then?"

Clotilda shook her head. "Even if you did I doubt you'd be able to get a response back from them: the only time they would go dark this long is if they were behind enemy lines again for a protracted period of time."

"Is that right? So I guess they want to maintain radio silence?" Shirley mused.

Ludwiga places her hands on her hips and gives a light nod. "It's quite likely. But knowing that they are under the command of Samatha Walters; it shouldn't be anything to worry about, I think. The 3rd Land Battle Witches are fierce fighters against enemy Neuroi on the ground."

"Are you and the girls of the Iron witches friends or something?" Shirley asks with a genuine smile.

Clotilda shrugs. "Not quite; more like real good acquaintances really. We've known each other for a while, but we haven't gotten a lot of time to get to know each other much on a personal level. I'd like the opportunity to get to know them better..."

As the trio were walking they noticed that James was cautiously eyeing the Karlsland Soldier that was originally part of Krupke's guard detail but had put in for a transfer. Well, truthfully he was simply left behind by Ekkard Krupke. Ludwiga herself noticed the man and wore a guarded look. The soldier in question spoke to James with an urging tone, while this happened James's sister and fellow countrymen looked on with perplexity.

"Listen please, I... I just want to talk with you. Allow me a moment of your time."

James wore a guarded look, studying him carefully. "Are you going to give me a good reason as to why I should do that?"

The young Karlslander wore a look of guilt on his face. "Look I... I know you haven't reason to talk to me, what with how I acted towards you and your friends before, but I wish to make amends for it. Please let me explain myself."

Ludwiga, Shirley and Clotilda approached the pair with caution. Clotilda spoke with a questioning tone. "Is there a problem here, gentlemen? Does it require our intervention at all?" she asked.

James turned to the Lieutenants and shook his head. "No mamm, I'm alright." He turns back to the Karlsland soldier. "I don't get you man, first you go full fucking agro alongside your buddies on me and the other guys while giving the cold shoulder to the girls, you almost break my I-pod that set me back $200 US dollars, you want to get witches out of service and you wanted to help that damned General Krupke hang not only all the witches but your own sister out to dry? How exactly am I supposed to look at you with anything other than animosity, at best?" he asked of the man.

The young Karlslander tried to explain. "Yes, I did act in such a way and said a lot of things that I'm now regretting, but please understand that while my former commanding officer and old unit held disdain for them; I never hated witches. My own sister is a witch. By the Fatherland, I'm her brother! I love her. She's..." The young man, Cord Drescher, paused for a moment with a look of reservation, but then sighed and continued. "She's the only family I have left."

Ludwiga looked at Cord with a cold, emotionless look. "One of my father's men is now serving on this base? And he sought to end his own sisters military service?" She demanded flatly, the dull, damaged look in her eyes that seemed to unnerve the 501st and even the men and women from the other world took a hint of smouldering anger. "Who was responsible for making such a decision?"

"I'm not sure really. I think he was just left here and we haven't figured out what to do with him yet." Shirley responds with a shrug.

James looked to Ludwiga in surprise. "Wait... father?! You telling me your the daughter of that damned son of a bitch trying to dismantle witch units?!" he asked incredulously.

Ludwiga's mouth shifted into disgust. "Unfortunately." she responds with clear disdain. When she made eye contact with him, a look of guarded suspicion on her face and in her eyes James seemed to pull back from her with a look of perplexity. Then a look of recognition that Clotilda couldn't quite place settled on him and he simply adverted his gaze, looking somewhat subdued.

Cord blinked in surprise. "Ludwiga Krupke: the daughter of Ekkard Krupke." The look of dull anger in Ludwiga's eyes soon became directed at the other Karlslander, which made him shrink timidly. "Forgive me mamm, your fathers command was difficult for me to serve under. I faced a lot of hazing and harassment because of the fact my sister is a witch, so I had to put on a mask of sorts to deal with it easier."

Shirley crossed her arms while wearing a straight face. "So the whole thing about you being anti-witch was all just smoke and mirrors then; you didn't want to see witches get taken out of military service?"

Theirs an uncomfortable, long pause from the young man. "Actually to the last, yes...I did..." he confessed. He was met with a round of very hot glares from those around him, the three witches, Carmen and the other girls in uniform being the most heavy, but then he continued. "But not for the reasons you may think: Lea is the only family I have left, we both lost our parents during the fall of Karlsland. I saw a lot of horrors as our country fell to the enemy's hands. So many people were killed... and... well... seeing women getting harmed by the enemy's fire was... horrific to me. And once I was old enough to serve on the frontline at the minimum age required for military service I served on many battles on the European front. I saw a lot of bloody skirmishes and destroyed villages, and I didn't want to see my sister witnessing or experiencing such horrors herself. I feared that her innocence... even her very life, could be torn from her."

Carmen's mouth shifted. "Oh so your one of those guys huh: one of those kinds of men that think girls are fragile, delicate little wall flowers, can't handle the rigors of combat and are in need of protection?" she asked with mild sarcasm.

Cord shook his head. "I... it's just... war isn't a safe line of work for a women to be partaking in; you and other young women shouldn't have to face such horrors and expose yourselves to the dangers of the battlefield. It's a man's duty to put his life on the line to protect women and children from harm, and to make the ultimate sacrifice if need be while carrying out the duty of a soldier. You shouldn't have to be making such sacrifices."

Carmen sighed in annoyance. "Well unfortunately I beg to fucking differ." Cords mouth dropped at the harsh language the Marine uttered while she continues. "Hearing you talk just now: I know you're mister "old school, traditional, chivalrous, protect the women and children" type of guy but I have a little news for ya; I've been serving in the Corps for a little over three years. I've seen enough tours in the shittiest battlefields that you could possibly imagine. Even took a bullet or two doing my duty. And you know what: I did well at my job. I still do well in my job. And I fucking enjoy doing what I do, or at least I don't regret ever being a devil dog. Plenty of people back home saying: War isn't a profession for a women, heaven forbid our wives and daughters get killed overseas, women's lives are too valuable to risk sending into battle... bullshit. I have the right to choose for myself wither I should serve, fight, bleed or even face death for my country, I have the right to decide wither I can enlist in the first god damned place and receive the same opportunities that any of the guys have while I serve. And not just to some support roles either, I'm not satisfied with that shit: I want combat. I want to be where the metal meets the meat. I want to send a red, a Jihadist or any other bad guy of the week into the fucking grave. Hell I'd fight some of these metal alien fucks if you give me a big enough gun to shoot em with. I want to protect innocent life and take the bastardo's and monsters out. I have a right to be treated no better, or less than any man who wears a uniform, shoots a rifle, humps ammo or digs a fucking hole for either hiding in, sleeping in or shitting in. And I'm damn well not going to let anybody tell me otherwise or stand in my way. Are you understanding me?" After a pause and seeing everyone watching her in intent surprise she speaks in a more neutral tone. "I get it. You don't like seeing women getting hurt, you want to protect us. Which is certainly better then a lot of other guys who drew issue with women in military service. A real fucking gentlemen. Thanks, but you can save it. It's well meaning and all, but I'm a big girl. I can dish it out, and I can take it out in the battlespace. Same goes for every other girl in uniform; why do you think we signed up to begin with? All I need from a guy like you or any other guy is to just cover my six while I hit the bad guys from their twelve. And for your girls here in this world; more of the same. You're sisters a witch, she has her unit looking out for her. She made the choice to serve under her own free will, right? You're her brother, aren't you? Then be proud of her!"

Cord was stunned by this for a minute, but then he seemed to take a look of guilty resignation. "Yeah... yeah, I should be proud of her. I just can't help but worry for her safety. I thought best way to keep her safe was to keep her out of the war, out of service. But after the men of Hunter-2-1 spoke to me they made me see that... perhaps I was wrong in wanting to ensure my sister was removed from duty. But all the same, I can't help but fear for her and the other witches..."

James wore a thoughtful look for a minute, his eyes turning to the floor as his mouth shifted. "So that's the story then; you just an overly protective older brother worrying over his little sister." His eyes shift momentarily to Carmen for a few seconds before rolling his head and turning his gaze back to the ground. "I guess I know what that feels like." He then looked to Cord with a profound look. "But let me level with ya, one brother of a sister to another. Just be there for your sister, let her know you've got her back and actually go to bat for her. And above all, try and put a little trust in her training, her abilities and her unit. And try not to see her too much as a damsel to protect, because if I know my sister, and if yours is anything like mine then you'll just end up leaving the room horizontally on a stretcher."

Cord seemed to chuckle a bit at that. "Before she enlisted I would have disagreed that my little Lea would do something like that: she was always a very small, meek girl who spoke quietly and was easily frightened by things in life. But after enlisting as Air Infantry... that seems much more likely to happen. That old part of her isn't as prominent as before...she has grown quite stronger, not only in body, but in mind and will." His small smile then drooped into a frown of discomfort. "Although she now uses very unwomanly language. To hear little Lea use such harsh words like that..."

Clotilda nods. "Well, so long as things are settled here, let's be sure we don't have any issues that damage inter unit moral and effectiveness." No sooner did Clotilda finished speaking a sudden series of screams came from the striker hanger. Her head snaps into its direction. "That sounds like the girls, what's going on?"

Ludwiga is already off running as Shirley responds. "I have no clue. Come on, we should go check it out."

James shoulders his rifle with a sigh. "Just what the heck are those girls doing then?" he asked.

"No clue, but I'm coming with you guys." Carmen responds. Cord also offers to join, a look of protective worry crossed his face at hearing the girls screams.

The group is already starting to run towards the hanger, Shirley soon catches up to and passes Ludwiga with Clotilda, both Ramirez siblings and Cord following suit. Once at the hanger the group sees all the witches huddled around a particular area in the striker hanger, panicking.

"What happened?! What's wrong?!" Shirley asks once she enters the hanger.

The girls turn to the group with horrified looks and pale faces. Yoshika and Lucchini rush over to Shirley, with the young Romagnan leaping into the older girls arms. "Shirley, look!" Both girls point to the what had caused the girls to be wrought with horror. To the groups shock, they see a set of crates with a bloody pool on the ground, oozing from a pile of crates. Ludwiga approaches the blood stained floor and behind the crates with Clotilda joining her.

To Clotilda's horror she saw the bodies of two of the Mechanics laying in a pool of blood on the floor, their necks slit open, the life in their eyes butted out. "By the ether." She murmured. She drew back from the grisly scene and turned to the girls while James and Carmen drew close to have a look, the two siblings cursing at seeing the dead bodies. "Someone explain this! What the hell happened to these men!?" The CO of the 78th demands curtly. Even as she belted out her demand her stomach was twisting up into knots.

"W-we don't know, we just came in here and found them like this!" Lynette wailed, clutching to Yoshika for comfort. Yoshika clutched back at Lynne, both girls looking quite distraught.

"Who could have done such a monstrous thing!" Perrine demands angrily. The normally prim and proper Gallian was clearly shaken by seeing the two dead men. The other witches murmur shakily in agreement; this was a whole new scenario for them to deal with in their military service. Chocked sobs and wails escaped the younger, tender hearted girls, while the tougher witches of the 78th groaned weakly in disgust or murmured amongst themselves..

James drew a frown. "These guys had their throats slit, bled out completely. Looks like they have been dead for a bit. An hour, maybe two." he murmurs.

A land battle witch named Sydney Radley, a green haired, green eyed Warrant officer from Faraway Land with a stern look in her eyes spread her arms to guided the girls back. "Come on girl's let's get out of this hanger, leave this for the adults and the officers to take care of, is that clear?" It seemed as though she was trying to shield the girls from seeing more of the horrible sight of the blood and dead bodies. Her green eyed, green haired twin sister with six pigtails, Valerie, also helped in shielding the girls from sight of the dead mechanics.

Cord looked to the dead men with a look of outrage. "Who the hell could have been responsible for this?!" he demands.

"That's what I want to know." Clotilda states flatly. Turning to the Shirley she shoots a questioning look. "We should find whoever the culprit is who murdered these men. How do we start?"

Shirley shakily frowns. It was apparent the young Captain was rattled by seeing this sort of death. Seeing people getting killed by Neuroi was one thing, seeing what appeared to be two people murdered by another person was something the Liberion wasn't ready for. "This isn't the work of Neuroi; people did this. We have to find out who did killed these two."

After going over the potential, obvious suspects in her head Clotilda and questioning if it were some sort of dispute or other grim altercation of ill intent, she suddenly came to a disconcerting realization. "Although there is a slim possibility, I am unsure that it was any personnel on base as far as I know, and I know none of our girls would ever dream of doing something like this. Who does that leave us?" Clotilda asked, turning to James and Carmen.

Carmen looked at Clotilda with a look of anger. "What are you saying; that one of us or one of our guys did this?!" she demands.

Ludwiga silently cast a firm glare at Cord but he raised his hands fearfully. "It wasn't me either: I would never dream of committing such a vile crime!"

James however waved Carmen off. "Hey, hey, easy sis." He turns to the girls with a passive look. "I'll talk to Vaugn about this. If you want to question our guys about what happened then we'll comply with an investigation. I don't know if one of my guys would really pull shit like this but if it is I'll personally kick their ass for you." Carmen groans but remains silent.

Coming to a overall plan of dealing with this grim development and leaving the hanger the group made their way to the gaggle of American troops and passing the shaken witches, finding Sergeant Vaugn amongst them and filling him in on the whole situation. Upon hearing of what has happened he seemed genuinely surprised. "Two mechanic's were killed? Are you fucking serious?!" he asked.

"I'm afraid so. Has there been any suspicious activity from any of your guys?" Shirley asked.

"Not that I know of, but I sure as hell won't let some bastard dishonor my countries uniform like this if it is. I'll bring our guys onto the parade square and fill em in."

"Alright, thank you for cooperating."

"Hey, this is serious shit here. Of course I'd-"

Suddenly on the radio comms a voice spoke out from one of the Marines from James and Carmen's world. "H-hey Sergeant Vaugn. We've got a situation; I found one of our boys dead in a bush. He's got a single stab wound to the back of his neck, severed his spinal cord."

Red flags went up for Clotilda and the others at this point. Wait, one of their men was killed too? That doesn't add up... what is going on here? The witch Lieutenant thought to herself. Despite her confusion, she knew there was something up.

At this point James's face hooked into frown. "I don't like this; something stinks to high hell around here."

Vaugn nods. "I agree with ya Private." He turns to the Rangers and Marines that were currently gathered in a gaggle. "Alright, head counts; is everyone present and accounted for?" A quick head count is taken, each Marine and Ranger sounding off. After the head count was conducted as it was there was still one man still absent, to which Vaugn turns to Morgan in one of the smaller gaggles."Hey Morgan, do you know where Bossley is?"

"I think he's down over on the wall." he replays, pointing over at the stone fortress walls of the base. It wasn't long until Bossley was located by a tower on the walls of the base, talking with a Liberion sentry that was on duty.

Vaugn radios the man. "Hey private, fall in, there's been a situation." However there was no response. "Must have his radio off, Morgan can you go and get him over here." he asked the Ranger.

"Roger, I'll get him." Morgan starts off trotting over to get Bossley. Once he's half way there and he calls out, Bossley turns and waves at the Ranger. A sudden crack rings out and a pink mist spurts from Bossley's head, his body jerks and he pitches forward. His body falls from the wall and plummets to the ground below. While the soldiers of the other world quickly either hit the deck or scatter and take cover by any sort of solid cover the base personnel stair in slack-jawed surprise. The younger girls of both the 501st and the 78th bleat and scream in horror at seeing the Ranger getting killed, the older girls cursed and shouted explicative's. Clotilda and all the witches run back into the striker hanger for cover. Morgan ends up running to take cover by a Kubelwagen in the motorpool. "Shit! Where the hell did that come from?!" he shouted.

"That sounded like a fucking Dragunov!" Laymen shouts loudly from behind the cover of a tree. "Anyone have eyes on that Sniper?!"

Fitz takes a look around the corner of a wall, trying to scan the compound. "Negative I got no-" Another crack rings out, the round hitting the man in the throat. Blood started to flood his mouth and he gurgled weakly before dropping over dead. Then out rang the sound of an explosion, a tank shell hitting the base entrance, soon followed with bullets flying through the air. Another explosion ripped into one of the barracks of the base, punching a large hole in the masonry.

At this Clotilda knew she had to take action. "Captain Yeager! We're under attack! We have to defend the base!"

Shirley nods. "Yeah, we better get our strikers and weapons. Looks like we'll have to sortie."

A sudden explosion rocks the base, voices crying out as heavy caliber cannon fire and what sounded to the witches like flack arcing its way into the base grounds. A column of about seven jeep like vehicles, two armored eight wheeled vehicles, four trucks filled with soldiers and a tank crashed through the front gate.

"But those are people! We can't really shoot them: it' not right! It's not what we witches do!" Yoshika wailed. A few of the other girls nod and voiced their agreement in response. "I won't shoot another human being!" she put in firmly; even despite the fact she was trembling in fear it was clear that her morals and principles were unshakable.

"Yeah, I'm with Miyafuji on this one; I joined up as a Medic to protect people and mend their wounds, not blow them apart!" Erzsi, the pervert of Ostmark, protested firmly. Being a surgeon and a medic she, much like Yoshika, also valued human life, especially after having seen her hometown and homeland, Ostmark, fall to the Neuroi. She may have been able to aid in the evacuation of her hometown and saved a great many lives, she still saw a lot of death and bore witness to her hometown getting leveled by a vastly superior Neuroi force. She told Clotilda of this when she was asked about her home and what happened...

Ludwiga shot the two girls a firm, cold look. "If a person intends to put you and your comrades in his crosshairs and take both your lives then you must act without hesitation. If they act in hostility and intend to kill you and your squadmates then they are the enemy. See them as Neuroi instead of humans and act accordingly." she spoke with cold, firm detachment.

Many of the girls of both witch units look at her with horrified shock. The fact she would say such a thing about another human being was unprecedented. Even Clotilda blinked in surprise at what her second in command had just uttered, never hearing words quite like this from her 2IC. Ludwiga may have always had been cautious around mundane soldiers and warned the girls to always be on their guard around them, but something like this? The Liberion Captain was silent for a moment; could she really have to order her girls to do such a thing?

"How can you say that?!" Helene, Perrine, Yoshika, Lynette and Brinda demand of the Karlsland girl in shock. Erzsi meanwhile wore an uncomfortable look but said nothing.

Just then Jenna spoke up on the radio channal. "H-hey, what the hell's going on!? What the fucks with all this gun fire and explosions?!" she demands.

"We're under attack by hostile soldiers!" Helene responds in a panic, the young painter was clearly shaken by these horrifying developments.

"Oh shit! It's just Erin, Darya, myself a nurse and a two of the doctors in the post-op here! All I have is my .45! Mamm, can you send someone to help us out in case the bad guys decide to show up?"

Clotilda turned to one of the girls of the tame witches, a Hispanian witch and pointed to her. "Sergeant Ámbar Abilio, grab your weapon and go protect Jenna, Darya and the others in the post op, is that clear?"

"Y-yes mamm!" came a reply. The young air infantry witch with black hair and bangs that covered her right eye quickly retrieved her weapon, a Solothurn S18-1100 with scope and 20 round magazine, and ran off into the halls of the base, heading towards the post op.

Another voice speaks over the radio. "Hey, it's James. Be advised Carmen and I will make our way to the post op to provide your girl with an assist, how copy?"

"Understood, stay safe."

"Roger that. Yo sis, give me cover fire, I'll move into the base first, then give you cover fire, hooah?"

Carmen belts out a response. "Oorah bro."

Clotilda shook her head. They didn't have time to discuss anything else at this time: their base and mundane personnel were getting shot up! "We haven't time for any more distractions! We will have to use a display of force to get them to stand down and keep our soldiers from getting killed. Everyone: gather weapons and mount your strikers! MOVE!"

"You heard the girl, let's get our butts in gear!" Shirley urged.

As they began mounting their strikers and grabbing their weapons they could see the soldiers of the other world acting promptly in returning fire they were being given while their own soldiers were in a panic, though fortunately the American's gave encouragement and urging to motivate their base personnel to return fire. It was the first time in decades that man in their world raised its hand against other men; a very surreal experience. It seemed as though some of the hostile fire was coming from the base; did the human enemies from the other world infiltrate their base before the fist of reinforcements drove its way into their base grounds? A few of the strange, weird vehicles drove past the hanger, shooting up three mundane soldiers and killing them, their bodies turned into jelly from the heavy weapons fire.

As Clotilda and the other witches roared out of the hanger she could see the American's small arms returning enemy fire from the approaching hostile force. She noticed Cord running towards Morgan with the rangers machinegun in one hand and his MP40 in the other. Tossing the other man his weapon he quickly managed to shoot out the window of one of these stubby jeep like vehicles with mounted guns, killing the driver and quickly tossed a Stielhandgranate through the weakened window, followed by an explosion of the grenade after it landed inside, the concussion killing the men within.

Morgen looked to Cord with surprise, then to the damaged vehicle coming to a halt and back again. "Damn, that was a good throw dude." he said, pulling back and then pushing forward on the charging handle of what she had come to learn was called an "M240" machinegun.

Cord blinked. "I think that was just luck, to be honest." he responds.

"Well, either way, I'm not complaining."

The witches then quickly took up positions on the base grounds and in the sky, their weapons leveled and ready to fire at a moment's notice, although many of the girls were hoping they wouldn't have to. The enemy's small arms fire died down as the soldiers all looked at the girls with looks of shock. When the gunfire died down a bit Clotilda spoke authoritatively. "All hostile personnel: lay down your weapons and surrender immediately or you will be fired upon!" She hopped she wouldn't have to follow through on that threat.

After a moments silence a couple of the men spoke in dumbfounded or panicked Orussian, pointing at the girls in amazement. Some parts she didn't understand but she recognized one sentence that she could remember from serving with Orussian witches: "Open fire! Kill them all!"

Small arms fire started getting dumped upon not only the mundane soldiers but on the witches themselves. All the subordinate witches bleated and braced themselves, their shields raised and stopping bullets aimed at them with the intent of killing them. The land battle witches all froze up while air infantry witches quickly became mobile: they had never been fired upon humans before with killing intent and live ammunition. Clotilda saw a mundane Ranger take an errant round to the face and was killed instantly. A grenade tossed by the hostile Orusssian's exploded killing four of the base personnel. They hadn't heeded the order to surrender. They were still hell bent on killing people.

Ludwiga flew up alongside the commander of the 78th and looked with a firm, urging look. "Clotilda, what are your orders? Our girls have to defend themselves and the mundane soldiers."

After racking her brain trying to think of a alternative solution that just wouldn't come, Clotilda finally looked to her to her 2IC and spoke shakily. "...we have no choice. We must do what we must to defend ourselves, our comrades and this base. I take full responsibility for this order: all witches are to engage the hostile soldiers. We must defend this base and repel the enemy at all costs." She really gave the order: to stain the hands of herself and her fellow witches with the blood of human beings. Witches were born and trained to protect humanity... what she had just ordered her girls and herself to do was now running counter to everything a witch stood for.

Ludwiga, however, seemed to be unfazed by these orders, her expression blank and stoic. "Roger." As she began to descend to the ground to a strafing altitude she relayed the orders to the girls. "All witches be advised: our orders from Captain Marwick are that you're clear to engage the hostile soldiers. Defend your comrades and this base!"

Yoshika spoke in fearful protest. "NO! I WON'T KILL ANOTHER HUMAN BEING! I WONT!"

Olivia spoke in surprise. "Oh shit, this is real! We're getting fucking lit up by people shooting live rounds!"

Clotlilda had to lead by example, diving after her 2IC, she catches up to her and levels her Thompson. The sights of her weapon fell upon two hostile soldiers. Her hands shook, but at last she found the strength to squeeze the trigger. The .45 calibre rounds impacted the human targets, blood and organs blowing out the backs of both soldiers. Clotilda caught her breath: she really had just killed two men, the damage to their bodies made by the Magically augmented bullets was massive. It was the first time in five decades, perhaps even longer, that a witch had taken a human life.

At this the other witches of the 78th saw what their commander had done. Shakily they turn from the Captain to the men firing at them, the rounds of the hostiles impacting their shields as hectic firefights broke out around them. Men on all sides were getting killed or maimed by gunfire. They all leveled their weapons and the girls of the 501st took to higher altitudes to avoid shooting and getting shot at. The Tame Witches shuddered.

"NO! NO DON'T SHOOT THEM! WE HAVE TO MAKE THEM TO STOP ANOTHER WAY!" Yoshika pleaded.

Ludwiga then shouted in frustration. "All witches: Feuer frei!" she ordered, lighting up a group of the hostile men with her Machinegwehr 15, machinegun rounds tearing through the men's bodies, many of them getting gibed by the Karlslander's machinegun. She then turned to a truck full of soldiers and shouted: "Detonate!" The discharge of concentrated ether overturned the truck and knocked the men out of the vehicle and onto the tarmac only to be cut down by the mundane troops. At this Olivia was next to fire, her Browning M2 opening up on more hostile troops, she started to track dash around the base grounds while firing on the go. Eventually every other witch of the 78th, with great reluctance, opened fire on the enemy troops killing and wounding both the Americans and the base personnel, with Erzsi being the last witch of the 78th to open up, damaging one of the eight wheeled vehicles with her cannon.

Clotilda made a wide turn to make another straifing pass, as she did she saw the 501st in the sky, crouded together. It was clear that they were in shock.

"Oh no! This is horrible!" Lynne wailed, horrified at what she was seeing: witches were actually shooting and killing people, even though they were hostile and beligerant. Yoshika acctually started crying at seeing such a terrible thing unfolding, as she started to weep he striker suddenly faultered, causing her to belat loudly. Lynne caught her girl friend and looked to her with worry. "Are you alright Yoshika?"

"I...I don't know." The Fuso girl tearfuly admits in hesitation.

Lucchini then spoke, the M4A1 that she had been using and training with for a while in her right hand. "Shirley what do we do?!" she asked urgently.

Clotilda spoke in a shaky voice. "Captain, you girls are not doing anybody any good just flying in one spot! You're not just witches: you're soliders! Carry out your duties and return enemy fire!"

Shirley blinked as sweat was pouring from her brow. But after a moment of pause her face hardened. "Y-your right. This is a new enemy to face and they are killing people that we have to protect. We can't let them take this base or kill our soldiers."

"But Shirley...!" Lynne cried out in protest.

"Shirley, you can't! Please don't do it Shirley!" Yoshika pleased, tears streaming down her face.

"Hey, they aren't giving us a choice. Either we fight back or they'll end up killing everyone on this base. We can't let that happen." Her face then lightened at Yoshika. "You don't have to shoot if you don't want to. Just shield people from attacks or heal the wounded. Just do what you can, alright?"

Yoshika blinked in tearful surprise, after a moment of thought she finally nods. "O-okay. I... I want to protect everyone so I can... I can do that."

Clotilda then spoke. "So long as everyone does their part, just keep your focus! Now let's go! Engage!" As everyone then broke to tend to their duties on their besieged base grounds, with Shirley leading Lucchini on a strafing run on a set of windows of the main base where hostile fire was coming from, and hesitantly Perrine using Tonnere on a group of the hostile forces on the ground, Clotilda heard a horrible scream over her comm-link.


Tracking... Junior Sergeant Darya Abakumova...

Affiliation... 78th Tame Witches Combined Reserve Squadron...

Location... 501st Witches Base, Romagna. Base Post Op ward...

Time: 19:23 hours...

The sounds of gunfire tore through the hallway, the doctor standing adjacent to Air Infantry Sniper Ámbar Abilio, was getting shot up by small arms fire. Ámbar bleats while turning to the men who killed the doctor and raises her Solothurn at them. The nurse that was in the door frame tired to turn and run into the post op but a stray bullet caught her in the back and she collapsed to the floor. She started to try crawling away as the young witch tired to hold her ground.

"S-stay back!" the young witch's hands shook as she held her weapon at the men. She fired a round, but Darya couldn't be sure that the girl hit anyone. She was much too scared to care. Jenna stood in front of the Orussian girl with her Colt .45 drawn. Her Liberon Flame and this fellow witch were really going to risk their lives for her! Ámbar fired again while rounds impacted her shield. Suddenly the girl's body jerked forward as she cried out, her eyes going wide as a shocked, pained look settled on her face. As she stumbled forward Darya could see to her horror what had happened: one of the men had snuck up behind the young girl and plunged his rifle mounted bayonet into her body, the witches back exposed and unable to raise her shield from this unseen threat. Her large Anti-tank rifle slipped from her grasp and fell heavily to the floor. Darya screamed. As that happened another man surged into view and plunged a rifle mounted bayonet into the small girls heart. The young witches eye's turned lifeless and once the men slid the bayonets out of her body she crumpled to the floor.

Those men just killed her! Men had just KILLED a witch! Darya heard Jenna roar loudly in rage as she started to fire at the men with her Liberion pistol. She shot one of the men in the neck but the other rolled into the doorframe. Jenna then shouted a few colourful insults and curses at the men who had just murdered one of their comrades. She was met with a grenade rolling into the room in response, coming to rest by the injured nurses head, not too far from Jenna's feet.

"Oh shit! Grenade!" Jenna stood between Darya and the grenade. A loud detonation rang out, filling the room with a flash and explosion of shrapnel filling the room. The blast throws Jenna back into Darya's lap, her shield taking the full brunt of both the explosion and the shrapnel. Jenna looked clearly winded from the blast and dazed. The nurse who was on the floor was killed, her body reduced to a caved in, bloody, shrapnel ridden corpse. Darya reached for Jenna as she watches Erin get up out of her bed and reaching for a bedpan.

The men in the hall enter the post op, two men trailing behind one of the lead men and around five other men following close behind. Two of the men's rifles settle on a pair of cowering medical staff and gun the men down. The lead man of this squad spots Erin and fires at her, but her shield takes the brunt of the rounds easily. The one armed girl had a look of rage in her eyes as she held the bedpan in her hand. Once she was close enough to the men that had now looked at her with surprise, Erin splashed the man with the smelly liquid contents of her bedpan. The man shouted and cussed loudly in what sounded to Darya as Orussian, and was then promptly being beaten by Erin with her now empty bedpan. However the man then grabs Erin's arm with one hand and the other by her hair, drags her over to a window and upon grabbing her by her leg and arm throws her out the 3rd story window and onto the base grounds below.

This was horrible to the small Orussian. Strange men, speaking her countries language, were hurting and killing people! Then to her horror their eyes settled on her and Jenna. Taking Jenna and wrapping her arms around her the Orussian girl spoke to them fearfully to the men in her native language of Orussian. "No please! Please don't kill us!" She begged.

The men seemed to have a moment of pause after she spoke to them. They looked to her with questioning looks."You're a Russian?" One of the men asked.

"I'm an Orussian. Why are you doing this? What do you want from us?!" She responds to the man. She remembered that the two British men of the Task Force and the three men of Hunter-2-1 told her about the Russians from their world, a twisted parallel of her beloved mother land. If these men were Russian's then she had reason to rightfully fear them.

The man momentarily raised an eyebrow but then a scowl settled on his face. "We are soldiers of the Inner Circle. What we want is the American dogs and a means of returning home! We demand to know where we are...tell us and we will have no quarrel with you, little comrade."

Darya trembled as she clutched tightly to Jenna from behind. "I-I don't understand... w-why are you attacking us? W-why did you just kill that girl?!" Darya was quite afraid, these men had killed a witch and their comrades were killing other people outside. Why was this happening? She didn't know how all this could happen.

"She was a threat, so we neutralized the threat. Now answer our questions child We have no time for playing games of twenty questions."

Before Darya could respond Jenna spoke weakly. "Darya... whatever happens; you don't give these murdering bastards a thing."

One of the men spoke curtly at Jenna. "Shut up, American bitch! If you know what's good for you..."

"Liberion..." Jenna corrected.

The man blinked. "What?"

"I'm a Liberion. America is just an alternate counterpart of my country." she weakly stated.

The men looked at each other, exchanging glances as if saying they thought she was crazy. One of the men then turned angry, pulled back the charging handle of his weapon and aimed it at the Liberion witch. "Do you want to die for that crazy speaking tongue of yours, little Yankee harlot?!"

The smaller girl clutched tightly to and enveloped Jenna. "No, Please! Please! Please don't butt out my Liberion flame! Please...don't take my Jenna away from me..." she begged tearfully.

The men seemed to be in shock of this. After a moment that shock was then soon replaced by a dangerous anger and looks of killing intent. The man leading these brutish murderers spoke with ire in his voice. "A Russian siding with a greedy Capitalist pig?! That's a betrayal of the motherland!"

"And the way she speaks of this Yankee, it's sounds as though she's a young dyke!" Another man observes in disgust.

"We should kill them both!" A man with a strange shotgun cocked his weapon, a shotgun shell being ejected from the chamber threateningly.

Another man looked at Darya with a gut churning, perverted look. "No, leave the white haired traitor... let us teach her that her place is to serve a man!"

At that last comment Jenna's weary eyes hardened and focused solely on the last man to speak. "You won't lay a damned, dirty hand on my girlfriend!" The men leveled their weapons as Jenna's side arm snapped up at them. "IF YOU TOUCH MY ORUSSIAN SNOWFLAKE: I'LL KILL YOU!" However, before either party could open fire the sound of gunfire rang out and blood began to spatter from the Russians. Both girls seemed stunned as the bodies of then men crumpled to the ground. Only one man seemed to be alive, but heavily wounded.

Darya saw James and Carmen enter the post up. As the Russian man turned over with his pistol drawn Carmen emptied the remaining thirty rounds of the M249 into the man, his body getting shredded by the high-velocity 5.56mm rounds. As she reloaded her weapon, and then went to check on the downed witch, James looked to the two shaken girls.

"Are you two alright?" he asked worriedly.

Jenna's pistol hand came to rest on the bed, she wore a expression of relief on her face. "Relatively speaking, yeah." she responds with a sigh.

Carmen cursed bitterly and walked back over to James with a haunted look in her eyes. "She's gone James. Bastards impaled her with their bayonets."

James had a stunned look on his face and blinked. Then he exhaled sharply. "Damn it all, those fucking child murderers." James took this news very hard. Darya could see that he cared deeply for the girls safety, and seeing that one of the witches was now dead by the hands of these men was clearly disturbing him. He then looked to Darya, looking worried. "W-wait, they said there were three of you girls in here. Where's the other girl?" Darya had a tearful, look in her eyes as her lip trembled. She then turned silently to the broken window that Erin was thrown out of, to which James followed her gaze as a look of horror formed on his features. "Oh god no..." He rushed over to the window to see what the one armed girls condition was, although Darya was to afraid to even see what her status was.

"They... they threw her out the window..." Darya finally sobs out. She never felt so powerless before in her entire life.

James however turns from the window sill and back to Carmen with a urgent look. "Yo sis, have you got a flare on ya?"

She nods in response. "Hell yeah, but why?"

"Because she's still alive, I saw her stirring a little on the ground: I need to signal Yoshika and Erzsi to her location and patch her up!" Wordlessly Carmen reaches into one of her many pockets and Darya sees her produce a small, stubby orange pistol like devise and tosses it to James. Upon catching it the American Ranger sends a message over his radio. "Yoshika! Erzsi! The post op is secure and we have confirmed casualties. We have four medical staff KIA, one witch KIA and another one that's wounded! The wounded girls hurt bad, she was tossed out the window: find her under the red flare!" Once his message was complete he held the flare gun out the window sill and shot straight up into the air.

Darya looked worriedly to her beloved Jenna. "Jenna, are you... are you sure you're not hurt?" she asked tearfully.

Jenna nods as she looks to Darya. "Yeah, I'm fine. Are you?"

"Yes, I am." She then looks over to Ámbar as her tears started to flow freely. "They... they killed Ámbar. They killed... one of our firends..." Jenna's face twinged painfully at that and said nothing in response. Her hand then reached for the Orussian girl and her hand cradled her head. Darya meanwhile continued to weep; the world of the witches was now forever changed... blood of men had now stained their hands... and they now saw firsthand the horrors of men taking human life.

That was something Darya would never forget... no matter how hard she could try...


Tracking... Captain Charlotte "Shirley" Yeager...

Affiliation... 501st Joint fighter Wing, Strike Witches...

Time: 19:39 hours...

Shirley cursed as she strafed a truck that was trying to escape her, having heard the message James sent over on the radio. "I hear you James. Yoshika, Erzsi! One of our girls needs help. If you see that flare, get over there to help her out, you copy?" Both girls give an answer in the affirmative but Shirley frowned. This was bad: these guys actually managed to kill a witch and wound another? This was beyond unforgiveable in her mind. As Shirley moved to finish off the fleeing truck heavy calibre auto cannon fire smacked into her shield and winded her. One of the damned eight wheeled vehicles was shooting at her.

Lucchini was following some five meters behind her and spoke angrily at the men attacking the base. "Go away! All of you bastards leave us alone!" She fired the M4A1 in her hands and manage to tag a few of these "Russians" on the ground. Shirley may not have felt very good about all this, but their was little else that they could do.

As she made a long turn Shirley suddenly heard something screaming towards her followed by her feeling something heavy smack into her shield. A rocket! it shattered her shield and as she momentarily lost about fifteen feet of altitude she then felt the sting of small arms fire stitch their way into her torso. She crash landed onto the base grounds next to a wing of the primary keep of the base.

"Shirley!" Lucchini's voice cried out in panic over the radio and she descended to the downed Liberion girl. "Shirley, are you alright? Please don't die on us!" Shirley could only groan painfully in response.

"W-what, Shirley's been hit!?" Lynne asked in a panic.

"She's been shot! Shirley's been shot! Yoshika, please help save Shirley!" Lucchini pleaded.

"Oh no! Erzsi, please can you help Erin, I have to go help save Shirley!"

"No problem, you go help your squadmate, I'll take care of Erin."

No sooner did the exchange over radio ended a sudden explosion blows a hole in the side of the keep that Shirley and Lucchini were next to. Four men are sent flying from two stories up along with stones and mortar to the base grounds below.

Shirley looked up to see Erica clutching to her twin sister Ursula. "Erica?" She had barley seen the blond haired Karlslander leave her room in over a month!

"No one tries to hurt my sister!" Erica spoke sternly to the now injured men now laying on the ground in a broken heap. It seemed like the Karlsland ace had used Sturm on these guys.

However just when Shirely thought things couldn't get any more stressful, she heard Lucchini cry out in surprise. Turning around painfully as blood started to seep into her eyes she could see a man in a Tan Beret and another man to his right belt out orders to the men attacking the base. "All men be advised: I managed to capture a hostage: initiate full retreat, that's an order!" The man in the beret started to drag the smaller girl away. Ursula and Erica shouted at the two men and Erica herself drew her pistol and fired three rounds at them but automatic gunfire was returned and they both took cover.

Shirley flew into a panic, she slowly tried to crawl after the man, her arm reaching for the little Romagnan desperately as her blood was seeping out of her and onto the ground. "No... not Lucchini. Don't you dare take Lucchini! Let her go!" She turned to Ursula in a panic as the man handed the little girl off to his subordinate who got into a truck of men and how man himself got into jeep as the surviving men and vehicles all started to peal out of the base, their short lived raid finished. All Shirley could think of however was that these men had taken her young wingmate. "THEY TOOK LUCCHINI! THOSE MEN JUST TOOK LUCCHINI! SOMEONE GET HER BACK!"

It was then that James spoke over the radio. "Oh hell no! No way in hell their taking her! I'll go get her, the rest of you guys hold down the fort!"


Tracking ... Private James Ramirez...

Affiliation... Hunter-2-1, 75th Ranger Regiment...

Time: 19:56 hours...

James was running to the motor pool as fast as his legs could carry him. His mind raced as his lungs struggled to keep up with him. There was no way he would ever let monsters like this get their hands on Lucchini. Upon reaching the motor pool after three minutes of non-stop running from the post op, having his sister hold down that wing of the base just incase, some of the men that he recognized from earlier as motor pool mechanics noticed him with frustrated looks.

"You again?! What the damned hell do you want?! We remember what happened the last time you came to this motor pool." The lead mechanic spat in furstration. The stress of that earlier indiscretion and the base being besieged was clearly wearing the man ragged.

James looks to the men pleadingly. "I know, I know, I'm sorry about earlier but we haven't time for this! I need a jeep."

"A jeep, why in the world would we lend you a Jeep after what happened when you and your friends had to steal one at gunpoint?" another man demands.

"Because those bastards just kidnapped one of the witches! They took Lucchini with them!" he blurted out.

At this the men of the motorpool had horrified looks. "One of our cutie witches has been kidnapped by these murderous bastards?!" The lead mechanic exclaimed. He turned to the others in a panic, his attitude towards James had now changed promptly with knowledge that the lives of one of the girls was in danger. "Have we got a Jeep with a full tank of gas?" he asks firmly.

A third mechanic nods. "Yeah this one over there, full tank plus a full jerry can of petrol in the back." He quickly hands James the keys to the jeep in question and looks urgently at the Ranger. "Please, I beg you lad, bring our young maiden of the sky back to us!"

"I intend to, thanks for helping me."

"If it's for our girls then we'd give our very lives for them if we have to. Now quit standing around and go save her lad!"

James gave a curt nod, bolted over to the waiting jeep and leapt into it. Shoving the key into the ignition he started up the motor and put the vehicle in drive and took off. James drove across the base grounds and through the gate, hot on the tail of the men who had kidnapped the youngest member of the 501st. Sudden thoughts of Julieta came to his mind. He failed to be there to protect his younger sister; he was determined to do his damnedest to not fail Lucchini.


Tracking ... Ensign Francesca Lucchini...

Affiliation... 501st Joint fighter Wing, Strike Witches...

Location... Rivalta Countryside, West of Mantua...

Time: 20:33 hours...

As the truck rocked side to side Lucchini looked to each of the bad men again for the fourth time. Each of the six men in the back of the truck were keeping an eye on her for a while, but had now settled down, their attention on other things, their weird rifles were at rest in front of them. A few of these men had bruises and bloodied cuts adorning their faces lips, one man was clutching his side painfully and another his hand, which had bite marks on it. She noticed that one of the men had a grenade on his vest like armor. It was just sitting there, beckoning her; the pin within easy access. Though she hadn't tried to do something dangerous like this towards mundane soldiers or anyone really for that matter, she remembered what James and the others told them about men like this.

With a look of determination she held her breath, then in one quick motion reached forward and yanked the pin out of the grenade. The men sitting next to her immediately had tried to restrain her but she had already succeeded. A brief, metallic "ping" sounded as the man looked down at the now live explosive, his comrades sitting adjacent started to pull away from him as he quickly pulled the grenade from his webbing.

"Shit! Grenade!"

At this, an ensuing panic began. With her familiar appearing, Lucchini slipped out of the grasp of the men restraining her, leapt out of the truck and began to run as fast as she can. The men from the truck she had escaped were already bailed out of the vehicle and took cover on the ground in the prone position. Shouting and orders being barked were soon followed by an explosion. As she ran she felt bullets smack repeatedly into her shield. She didn't like having human bullets hit her shield, it didn't feel right to her. She had to force that feeling away and focus on running. She tried to look for a place to slip into and hide but so far she was finding nothing; no bushes, not forests. There was a short ditch, but that wouldn't do her any good.

All she could do was run. While she tried to keep putting as much distance between her captors and herself the "whoosh" and explosion of a rocket weapon went off behind her. Her shield took the brunt of the impact and the shockwave but it knocked her off her feet and winded her. As she slowly tried to shake herself back to her senses voices shouted out behind her, followed not long after by several hands gripping her arms. The "Russian" men were shouting angrily and handling the small girl roughly.

"Damned brat! That's the fifth time she's tried to escape!" One man snarls angrily.

Another man turned to the first and spoke with agreement. "Little freak is more trouble then she is worth. We should just kill her and be done with this."

"That's enough! Get her back in the truck, that's an order!" The man with the tan beret belted out an order to his disgruntled men. Lucchini didn't like this man: she had seen a few bad men before, but this one was a very bad man. A very, very bad man. He then pointed to one of the six men holding Lucchini down. "And handcuff her this time! Why didn't you idiots do that after her last four attempts at escaping?!"

"She kept biting us sir." One of the men responds; some jerk that was pinning Lucchini's head down with his knee. The small girl could feel hands, elbows, knees, feet and an entire man's body pinning her down. She struggled and kicked but she had a lot of weight pushing against her even with her magic augmenting her normal strength.

"Idiot! She may be some freak but she is still a child. Grow some balls and handcuff her!"

"Get off of me!" she demanded.

"Shut up!" One of the men spat angrily. The butt of a Rifle was pressed firmly into the back of Lucchini's neck, she could feel a painful pressure from the plastic-polymer stock pressing into her. Gritting her teeth in frustration and cursing the men out in Romagnan, handcuffs found their way onto her wrists, both hands behind her back and she was roughly ushered back to the truck, which was now filled with a black blast mark and some shrapnel covering the interior. Once loaded in the men kept their weapons on her at all times the rest of the way. With this much of her magic expended during her escape attempts she wanted to make sure she didn't waste what was left, so she remained patient, relatively speaking.

After another hour driving along with glares of anger directed at the small witch the truck once again came to a halt. The very bad man gave some orders to his men, having the convoy split up the first element sent on ahead for scouting. The rest were ordered to dismount with their young prisoner to head to a small house. Once again she was roughly ushered out of the truck and then escorted towards the building. She noticed that the grass seemed to be getting a little tall, as though the lawn went a few weeks without being mowed. She also noticed a large barn a hundred feet or more from the house in the back of the property.

The man with the tan beret knocked on the door with one of his men flanking him with a rifle. Two men flanked either side of Lucchini with rifles and a pair of men with machineguns stood behind them. One man with a sniper rifle and another with a rifle stood behind them in turn as the rest of the men that were left had been ordered to secure the parameter. After a moment of silence, another knock and everyone waiting the door opens. A kindly old man with a cane appeared at the door, but his smile falters a bit at seeing the large group of armed men at the door, a look of surprise and confusion upon him. His smile soon returns, however, and he speaks in a friendly tone towards the men.

"Ah, hello my friends. How can I help you gentlemen today?" he asked.

Mr Tan Beret looked to the old man with a look that Lucchini wasn't able to gauge. "Forgive me sir, but my men and I are in need of a favor." his voice asks with an oily feel to it.

"A favour then? Are you soldiers of some sort?" the man asks.

"In a matter of speaking. I'm sorry if we are causing too much trouble." The tone that he took made Francesca think that he didn't really mean what he said.

The old man didn't seem to notice and spoke with genuine sincerity. "I'm not sure if anything I have would be of much use to you but for any of our lads fighting on the front lines I'll gladly do what I can. What can I get for-" The man then noticed Lucchini and his face lit up. "Oh, why hello young one, aren't you a cute little girl."

Lucchini gave a subdued smile despite herself. "Thank you sir." A part of her wanted to warn the man about these scary people, some part of her was ready to blurt it out... but something deep inside her made her stay silent. She felt that being open with this information blatantly would have been a bad thing... she realized she needed to be subtle for once.

"Are you by chance a witch? You girls truly are our greatest hope in this war. You make sure you do your best and be careful, alright?" Lucchini nods in response but her smile evaporates and a look of worry crosses her. The man seems to notice this and can see that she had her hands cuffed behind her. "Have you been keeping out of trouble sweetheart?" Lucchini felt her body shrink and a worried expression filled her eyes, she gazed at the old man with a cautioning look, her eyes briefly darting to the men that surrounded her. The old man noticed this and turned to the men questioningly. "What has this sweet young child done to warrant handcuffs?" he asked.

"Just a precaution." Tan beret responds. "She is... how do you say... a handful..."

The man's friendly face turns somewhat guarded. "I see." he responds simply.

"About my question. Forgive me if this seems like much but I require the use of your domicile. I'd be appreciative if you allowed us access to it."

"My house? Why would you need my house?" The elderly man asked in surprise. "My dearly departed wife and I have lived here for many long years." After a moment a concerned look filled the elderly man. "Is it that the Neuroi are coming here? Do you need it for hiding or observation?"

The man raised an eyebrow. "Neuroi?"

"No? If it's not Neuroi then why would you need with my house. I cannot move from here. What little I have left of my belongings and that of my darling wife is here." After a pause the elderly man speaks again. "I can give you food and water if you need any. Perhaps some wine?" The man offers. "I can give you that should you need it."

"I'm afraid we need much more than that, old man."

"It's all I have to offer, I haven't anymore."

"Sir... I recommend you cooperate. My men and I are short of both time and patience." The man rested his hand on his pistol that was holstered at his side and grinned. "You can either give us access to this house or we can take it. And I have no problem with taking it if need be."

"What?! Take my house?! You can't do that!" The old man's eyes and face hardened at this. "I've never in my life seen and heard of such a thing! Just who-" A sudden realization crossed his face as his eyes darted to Lucchini, then back to the man. "What do you plan on doing with this young witch?" he asked slowly, his cane thumping on the wooden floor demandingly.

Tan beret looks to the man for a moment, then turns to his rifleman standing next to him and nods. The man's gaze shifts from tan beret to the old widower. The rifle in his hands snaps up to a hip firing position and proceeds to fire a five round burst, while the man in the tan beret unholstered his pistol and fired five rounds into the man, much to Lucchini's horror. Blood from the old man spurts out, his arms flailing as he falls backward into his home and his cane clattering to the wooden floor. He hits the ground with a heavy thud, blood spatters on the walls and starts to ooze onto the wooden floor from his body. He lay unmoving.

After a moment of horrified shock, staring at the now dead old man's shot up body, Lucchini turned angrily to the man in the tan beret. "You killed him! Why did you do that?! He was a good man, why did you kill him!? He didn't do anything to you!" she demanded.

"He had something I wanted and wasn't going to give it to me. So, I ensured that I would get what I want: with or without his consent."

Lucchini was incredulous. "That's you're reason?! Just because he wouldn't give you his house!? You monster! You murderer!" She tried to take a kick at the man but one of his cronies pulled her back, her foot missing her target by mere inches. "I'll kick your ass you bastard!"

The man with the beret ignored her and motioned into the building. "Get her inside." As he moved inside he stepped over the slain mans cooling body. "And someone get this old fools bones buried out back and clean up this mess. Don't need this idiot's rotted carcass and blood blocking the door."

Being ushered into the house Lucchini was forced into the living room as the guy in the tan beret and his men began looting the house of anything of worth. Food, drink, valuable possessions. Anything not nailed down and light enough found its way into the hands of these men. They're a bunch of murderers and thieves. I can't believe people like this can even exist! I thought only the mafia were bad, but these guys make them look like a bunch of school yard bullies. Lucchini thought bitterly. A worrisome thought came to her. Just how many people are like this in the other world? The image of the kindly old man's face kept replaying in her mind. She had seen death before up-close... but never before had she seen the death of one man at the hands of another. Her stomach twisted itself into knots. She started to wonder how James and the others could stand fighting in a world where this was happening 24/7. They surely would have gone mad; she knew she sure would have.

After sometime stewing in her own thoughts and the men started to settle down, the man who lead this pack of thugs with guns approached Lucchini with one man beside him holding a rifle at the ready. He spoke to her. "My name is Moriz Glazkov. I have questions for you, little girl. I would appreciate it if you provided me with the proper answers that I seek." Lucchini looked towards this man that she hated for a moment and then turned to the wall, not wanting anything to do with the man in question. "Not in the mood for talking? Well, well, that's no good. I realize that we may have... gotten off on the wrong foot... but..." he took a knee next to Lucchini and drew her face to him with his hand, turning her head to make her look at him. "That doesn't mean we cannot have a civilized discussion." Lucchini turned her head away from the man's grasp in disgust. He simply smirked and continued. "Besides, you saw what I did with the old man, you may want to be more co-operative, unless either you or any of your friends would like to meet similar fates."

Lucchini looked with shock at this man, not believing what she was hearing come out of his mouth. He was threatening to hurt... maybe even kill...her friends. This man truly was without limits. As strong and experienced as her fellow witches were something was gnawing inside her about this man and his subordinates. But she didn't want to give the man what he wanted... what could she do? After a moment's thought, she had an idea. "Can you un-cuff me? My arms are getting tired; if you do that then I'll probably tell you what you wanna know."

Glazkov smirked. "Do you really think I am that stupid?"

"I never said anything about you being stupid. My arms are tired. I promise I'll behave. I won't try anything to make you mad, okays?" she says sweetly. Come on ya sucker. Fall for it. She urged inwardly.

Glazkov clearly didn't seem to buy it, but a sly smirk found its way onto his face. It was the same smile that a snake would give before biting you. It made Lucchini shudder a little bit, but her determined face held firm. His hand slowly reached for her, his rough hand caressing the side of her face. The feel of him touching her made her cringe and she tried to pull away from him. And the ways his eyes looked when he was gazing at her: it's almost as though he saw her as some sort of prize, a trophy. Or something worse. He gave a light chuckle. "Such a pretty young child you are, I wonder... yes, I think you don't need these pigtails."

The man's hands then proceeded to undo her pigtails, much to her shock, confusion and frustration. "Hey! What do you think you're doing, you jerk?!" She demanded. She couldn't believe that this man was just doing whatever he wanted. She really was starting to hate him even more, and was really getting uncomfortable being touched by him.

After letting down her hair and casting aside her ribbons, he took a moment to look at her, his hand cupping her chin and forcing her to look at him. His hand then caressed her face. "Such a pretty face you have with your hair down..." he murmured to her, his hand running through her hair. Lucchini felt creeped out by this guy; he was acting weird, and that look in his eyes... she would almost say it was a pervy look that Eila had when she was mischievous about touching other girls. But there was a major difference between how Eila looked at other girls and how this man was looking at her.

The look in his eyes... it was a look of intent that wanted to hurt Lucchini. To dominate her. To do things that she probably wouldn't like. That she was nothing but a toy to play with and amuse himself. Him being this close to her and touching her; it made her feel sick... but she didn't know why... it just didn't feel right. The man at last talks to her with a serious tone. "I'll tell you what: you answer a couple questions, I'll un-cuff you. After that, you can help me with whatever other inquiries I might have and I might see to it that you go free. Provided, of course, your truthful. Does that sound good to you?"

Lucchini growled quietly; this jerk was smart, though he was still a weirdo. She had to be smarter. "Fine." she responds simply. For now she just had to make sure she stalled for time. At least until she could think of something else for a plan. Maybe find an opening if one shows up. "What do you want me to tell you?"

The man took a chair that was within reach of him and sat in it, looking to her with a calculating look. "What is your name?" he asked.

"I'm Ensign Francesca Lucchini of the 501st Joint fighter Wing: Strike Witches. Formerly Sovrana Aeronautica Romagniana 4th Air Unit."

The Russian man laughed in amusement at this. "Heh, that's funny. Did you hear that comrades: this little child is playing soldier." The men laughed at this, which really annoyed Lucchini. She didn't see how what she said was funny. He looked back to her and spoke with amusement. "Shouldn't a pretty little girl like you be playing with dolls?"

"I'm an Ensign of the Romagnan Air Force you idiot! If you don't believe me that's your problem."

His face straightens. "Alright then, I'll play along. Where exactly are we: the map my comrades and I have acquired makes no sense to us."

"You're in Romagna, my home country; and you guys aren't welcome here! Why don't you just go home or something before you get your butts kicked?"

Glazkov looked a little smug, amused by her outburst. "Oh, then your acting like a very poor host then. Keep that up and you might find yourself with some very unhappy guests." Her eyes looked intensely at him after the implied threat that he levied. She knew that if this man really wanted to, he would likely try and carry it out. So she kept silent. "Tell me, little girl. That old man, he said something about... what was the word? Neuroi? Tell me: who are the Neuroi?"

She looked flatly at the man as she explained. "The Neuroi are aliens that invaded our world. They already took over most of Europe, Orussia, and the Pacific. People have lost a lot to the Neuroi and the only effective way to fight them is with us witches." she responds.

The Russian man blinks as his men whisper quietly to each other. "Aliens? Is this some sort of joke?" Glazkov asks.

"No, it's the truth. I'm a witch: you saw my magic in action for yourself. You wanna keep putting your heads in the dirt and ignore me that's totally up to you. When you see a Neuroi laser your friends don't go crying to me about not giving you warning."

At this a lot of the reactions of the men were mixed. Some of them scoffed at this news and made clear their disbelief of this information. The others however, looked as though they were more believing about it; looks of stunned silence or hushed murmurs radiated through their ranks. The fact they were talking to a witch with real, honest to god magic was something that they couldn't really deny at least.

"Aliens? That is what you fight? You mean your country's don't make war with each other? Isn't there a nation with the most power or influence that yours would wish to covet?"

She shrugged. "I dunno about any of that other stuff, but our countries don't fight each other; we work together to fight the Neuroi. Why would we want to try and do something as stupid as fight each other for? We have Neuroi to fight: that's much more important to deal with than anything like that."

"I see..." After a thoughtful pause he motions to two men to cover the girl with rifles and for another to un-cuff the small girl. Upon his men doing so he then adds. "I've allowed you to have your hands free, but I warn you, any funny business or lies and they will be put back on, if not something worse. Be grateful that I've chosen to be... generous, with you..." he said with that sickening smile.

With her hands unbound Lucchini glanced at each of the men surrounding her with a frown. She still wasn't in a favorable position; two guys with guns trained on her. As talented as she was in the realm of magic she knew that she had to wait for the right moment. Any sooner or later would cost her dearly. Normally she would rush in with dynamic energy, but doing so right now would have been too dangerous.

Glazkov seemed unsure of what to make of the information he was given, but his face became rather stern. "Perhaps if making war with each other isn't something as important to you then perhaps it is to help our enemy?" he asked accusingly.

Lucchini had a look of confusion on her face. "What enemy?" she asked.

His smile fell flat as he motioned to a the man who first handcuffed Lucchini and held out his hand. The man took the M4A1 rifle she had used before and tossed it to him. After catching the rifle he held it at her. "This is an American weapon. It was used to take lives of my comrades and countrymen. And back on your base you had American's in your company. The American's are our enemy: anyone who sides with the American dogs are an enemy of ours. You see the dilemma here, do you not?"

"That's stupid! Why would just being friends with someone you don't like make us your enemy? That's like saying that you hate someone for liking Udon when you like pasta instead!"

Glazkov scoffed and cast the M4A1 at a man off to the side of the room, which was caught. "Silly girl. You think the American's are hero's or something, that they are without blood on their hands or sin on their souls? Or are you just ignorant of the truth?" he asks her. Lucchini didn't understand what this Russian was talking about. She got to talk with the men from the other world and heard of the things that have happened in that worlds history. And quite a bit of it was terrible. This guy was trying to paint himself and his men as the good guys. But she knew better.

The man then looked Lucchini up and down with a look she wasn't able to make out. His eyes wandered across her in a manner that, much to her revulsion, was pervy in the extreme, and not in the same way either she or Eila did when either of them groped other girls; this man seemed to be doing so with his horrible, icy gaze and a seemingly evil intent. "Tell me something: why is it your dressed that way, little girl?" he asked at last.

"It's my uniform." Lucchini responds matter of factly as the man had an amused look across his face. Seriously, is this guy really that dumb? She wondered silently. Or is he... don't tell me he likes me! Urgh, no way: that's gross! Forget this guy!

The man smiled at that. "More like half a uniform. Unless half a uniform is the uniform. Are you sure that fighting in battle isn't your only duty?" The men made light laughter that sent sickening chills up and down her spine. What was this guy talking about?

"What the hell do you mean, huh? I don't get it."

"Oh, I'm sure there must be a reason for you to be dressed in something so revealing." he mused softly. Before long however a man walks into the room calling for Glazkov about a transmission on the radio. He turns back to her for a moment. "I'll be back little girl. You behave until I return, Da?" he then turned to the rest of the men. "Watch her. If she misbehaves, subdue her, but do not kill. Is that clear?" At receiving an answer in the affirmative her stepped out of the room and out the front door of the house leaving her alone with his men, a few of which wandered off to adjacent rooms, leaving her with two guards a man going through the old man's belongings.

As Lucchini looked about the room she could see that she might have an opening. Each of the widows and a back door to the yard outside could make for a good escape. A few of the men were taking to each other in rooms adjacent, and the two men that were holding their rifles at her seemed to be relaxing a bit. The only other man in the room had his back to them. This would be her chance.

She turned to one man with a questioning look. "Hey, I'm thirsty; can I get some water?" she asked.

The man looked at her with a frown then speaks in Russian to his buddy standing next to him After the brief exchange the man reaches for his canteen, unscrews the lid and allows her to drink from it. She made sure that her mouth was completely full, not swallowing a drop: once she was sure she had enough and the man pulled the canteen away she spat half of the water into his face. She surged to her feet as the man fell back with water blinding him. The second man tried to grab her but also received the rest of the water in her mouth in his face as well, getting blinded like his buddy.

At this Lucchini started to run for the back door as the men in the room started to shout and chase after her. No sooner does she open and step out of the door, someone grabs her from behind and roughly drags her back into the house. She promptly stomped on his foot, electing a pained grunt and followed up with an elbow to the face, knocking him away and dazing him. The other men promptly rushed into the room, swarmed the small Romagnan and dragged her to the center of the room, one man closing the door. The men she spat water on had just finished wiping their faces, one of them ordering the others to restrain her. Several sharp slaps to the face came across the small girls cheeks, stinging her painfully with each strike, though she managed to trade blows with the men that had hit her and restrained her, the small girl not wanting to give an inch for them; she had managed in breaking one man's jaw, bruising the ribs of another and even biting a man in the ear so hard that she could taste blood in her mouth. One of the men mounting her took a good pair of kicks to his most vulnerable regions. One of them, a younger man at the back of the group, had a look of mild concern and eventually convinced his comrades to stop striking the small girl. They relented with great reluctance, sharp glares were directed at her for her defiant attempt.

Another man wearing tan and kaki combat gear, a headset radio, combat glasses, a crew-cut and stubble on his face shoved the younger man out of the way and looked over Lucchini with a expression of amusement. "You are a handful, aren't you, little bitch?" Lucchini's face still stung painfully from the blows, her right check felt the most tender, one of the men's strikes hitting the hardest. It felt as if she received a bit of a bruise. The man keeled down and looked her over. "The Captain has good eye when it comes to girls. I have feeling that you do more than fight on battlefront, seeing you dressed like that." His hand found its way to her thigh, resting heavily on her skin, squeezing hard enough to cause a little pain. "Why do you wear such lewd cloths... unless you are trying to seduce men? Is that it, little nympho?"

With a clear look of fear combined with rage Lucchini bought her foot up and planted it sharply upon his face, kicking him away from her. "Quit touching me you bastards! What the hell's wrong with you guys?!"

The man mopped his face, cursed and then chuckled. "You say you don't like being touched, and yet you wear such a thing. Running around in your panties, and yet you try and reject advances from men you seek to attract. You really are a cock-tease."

She didn't know what that meant but she did know that this guy didn't know what he was talking about. But this man... he had the same look in his eyes and body language as the man in the beret; that of a predator. "Why would I care about guys? I love boobies! And Shirley has the biggest boobs of all; they are beautiful, like she is!" She then speaks matter of factly. "Guys don't have boobs. Girl's do. You're not a girl with big boobs so I'm not interested."

The man looked baffled for a moment, as did some of the other men. The man then pulled down his combat glasses with a look of sudden amusement. "Well, well, well. It looks like we have a pretty, perverted young dyke, comrades." An evil, toothy smile formed on his lips as he took her wrist. She tried to pull away but he grabbed her by the collar of her uniform. "Perhaps I can show you the pleasures a man can bring you?"

The man's lips promptly ensnared Lucchini's own! A feeling of horrified shock ran though her body, a strangers slimy lips sucking upon her mouth. No sooner did the man start kissing her she promptly pulled back, spat in his face and then punched him in the jaw.

"Stop that! I don't want to kiss you, ya damn perv!" She couldn't believe the nerve of this guy. That bastard actually kissed me! What the hell!? She fumed silently. But besides getting madder than hell, she was actually starting to get scared.

The man pushed her to the ground and tried to pin her down, straddling her small form. "What's the matter, ya little muff chewing harlot? You don't like kissing? Well, okay then. Perhaps a pair of nice, strong hands on your body will make you feel good." His hands started groping at her body through her uniform, focused primarily on her chest. Weird sensations started to move through her nubs and chest, feelings that felt wrong and unwanted made her squirm. She cried out in protest but he continued to massage her though the fabric of her uniform. She tried to beat repeatedly on the man to get him off her but he was undeterred. A sudden strange feeling that of pleasure mixed with pain that she could feel from the man groping far too hard on her under developed breasts.

"Stop touching me you sicko! Get off! Get off me! Leave me alone!"

"Let's get this damn thing off and get a better look at ya." The man grabbed the center of Lucchini's uniform and pulled as hard as he could, the sound of buttons getting ripped apart cutting through the little Romagnan's ears. She bleated as her chest was exposed to this horrible man.

He started touching her buds as more weird feeling 's ran though her. As he was fondling her chest she felt... almost a strange feeling. Like her body felt good, her chest felt almost tingly... but she didn't like it. The man groped heavily at her small breasts, pain shooting through her as the man grabbed at her. A horrible man, a stranger... a human monster was groping her. He was touching her, and it felt utterly humiliating. Then a hand found its way between her legs.

She screeched in terror as the man's hand started to molest her through her panties. She felt a sudden wash of strange... pleasure from between her legs. But her mind was rattling against the physical pleasures of her body. She didn't want this man touching her. "NO! STOP!" She tried again to punch at the man but he batted her hand out of the way, followed up with another strike across the face. She cried out in pain as the man continued to intrude upon her most special place. Each stroke made Lucchini squirm and kick, when his other hand groped her breasts it was rough, hard, and painful. Lucchini's voice screamed again. "STOP!" Still gazing at Lucchini he started to undo the buttons to his pants. W-what is he doing?! What is he going to do!? Whatever it is: I don't want it! I don't!

Suddenly there was the sound of footsteps. Glazkov entered the room and spotted what his subordinate was doing. "Warrant Officer, what do you think you're doing? Just what is happening here?" he demanded evenly.

The subordinate turned slowly with a look of surprise. He made a shrug while looking rather tense. "Uh... she... she tried to escape sir. She claimed she wanted a drink and used the water we gave her to blind the men guarding her. She made a run for it but we got a hold of her and managed to subdue her. I just wanted to ensure she was properly punished, sir."

While this happened Lucchini quickly tried to hide and shield herself; she felt violated. She had some small relief that the man had stopped touching her, but a sickening feeling was working its way into the pit of her stomach; the gaze Glazkov briefly shot to her made her shudder. Glazkov moved towards the man, forced him to his feet by his shoulder, and then spoke to him slowly. "In case you have forgotten: she is my prisoner. As such, I will be first to partake in the spoils and charged with deciding her punishment. Only after when I'm done will I let the rest of you have a turn."

Lucchini's eyes shot out of her sockets and her face turned pale. "W-what!? Spoils?! Turns!?" They talked about her as though she were some trophy, or a ball to pass around. As though she wasn't even a person. Now she was getting frightened... thoughts of escape started flying through her mind like a whirlwind, spinning like a top.

The man spoke again in protest. "But sir: the last time we got a hold of a nice looking piece of tail we didn't even get to have a turn with her when you were through with her." Lucchini didn't know what he was talking about but she had the feeling she didn't want to know.

Glazkov responds. "I'll be sure to leave some of her left for you to enjoy once I'm through, don't you worry. Until then; you wait." He turned to the two of the men and points from them to Lucchini. "Get her clothes off, then cuff her again." he ordered.

At this Lucchini tried to run again. "NO!" She knew now they wanted to do weird, perverted things to her but a dozen hands reached for her and started to tear away her uniform, followed soon after by her panties; though she tried to keep herself clothed and decent, with so many hands reaching and with most of her magical reserves nearly exhausted from her escape attempts she was unable to stop the men from stripping her.

She had never felt so humiliated and ashamed in her entire life: not even when she accidently damaged and had to rebuild Shirley's striker unit, accidently setting off the base alarm, spending all the units funds on things other then what it was meant for and having to hold two full buckets of water as punishment combined made her feel so low. She was exposed to strange, horrible, perverted men. She was then turned over, held face down by five men roughly and her hands cuffed behind her back once again. After they turned her back around she was now facing Glazkov, her naked young body now exposed to him. Her legs snapped shut and an embarrassed, shamed look filled her as she sat facing the man who had captured her.

It was then Lucchini had a full view of Glazkov's horrid face: his cold, calculating brown eyes traipsed over her small form lustfully. His hair was cut short into a buzz-cut under his beret, and over his right eyebrow was a faded scar, as well as another on the left side of his neck, and by his features he seemed to be in his late thirties. If she were able to she would have given him her patented "Lucchini Kick" to the face. But instead she was now vulnerable before him. The young Russian man off to the side had a look of clear discomfort on his face for a fleeting moment but did nothing, his face settling back to neutrality, his eyes cast to the floor.

Glazkov cooed at Lucchini. "Such a beautiful little girl... the men on your base must really like you." As the man drew towards her she quickly tried to move away from him but due to her cuffed hands she was unable to escape him and was soon grasped. The man took her by the shoulders and his mouth enveloped hers in a rough kiss. Lucchini's eyes were wide with fear and one of his hands then groped at her right breast. As he pulled away from her, he spoke. "If you want this to feel good, then I suggest you don't resist. I'd hate to have to see further damage to such a beautiful, sexy little body." His hand caressed her bruised cheek, a sensation of pain bit at her face at the light touch to tender flesh and broken blood vessels under the skin, causing her to wince. "I would be saddened to see such a pretty little face marred further."

Lucchini let out a choked sob as tears started to fill her eyes. This wasn't happening. This wasn't really happening, was it? Even if it really was, she still couldn't believe it. I want to go home. I don't want to be here anymore. The small girl lamented silently. Thoughts of the other girls came to her mind, but the one who stuck out the most was Shirley. Her nice, loving smile, her flowing burnt orange head of hair, those friendly blue eyes... and her beautiful, large bust.

But more importantly of all: was Shirley's caring, loving heart. She was Lucchini's first real, true friend who the small girl saw as her surrogate mother figure. She wished and wanted for Shirley or anyone to save her but the thoughts of seeing her older friend... seeing her bleeding so much... her hair matted and her uniform soaked in the iron smelling red fluid that was draining from her body. The image of Shirley reaching out to her and her out to the Liberion girl... she was fearing the fate of her best, dearest friend.

"S-Shirley.. . help... help me..." Tears started to pool further in her eyes. She tried to fight them back; she didn't want this man to get satisfaction from seeing her crying. The man's hands were massaging her tiny bust, each stroke sent an involuntary cascade of pleasure. Then one hand started to glide down her body, deliberate and relentless, until rough hands then clasped at her most precious regions. All the while, her thoughts were of Shirley's smiling face. Please! Shirley! Somebody! HELP ME!

A sudden wave of pleasure rushed from her most intimate place and cascaded though her body. Her voice cried out in surprise and pleasure, she had never quite felt such a feeling. It felt nice to her body... but her mind was screaming in protest. Her mind railed against her body. Why does this feel good?! I don't... I don't want him to touch me there! He's touching my private place! She screamed for him to stop, her feet striking at him, but by now her magic was drained to the point of being unusable. She had no trump card. His hand continued to molest her womanly parts, her pussy getting wet from being stimulated. She had never felt so ashamed of herself...

"Whatever girl friend you have isn't going to save you, foolish little child. If you want to dress like a slut, you'll be treated as a slut. You and those other damned whores." Glazkov goaded.

"We have to dress like that!" Lucchini sobbed. "We can't use our strikers otherwise..." Why was he doing this? Why was he violating her? What did she do to deserve this? Thoughts of both her mother and Shirley flashed before her eyes. "Mama! Shirley! I want my mama! I want Shirley!"

Glazkov scoffed in response. "A likely story. At least try and think of something more creative and believable to say." His hands then went to Lucchini's crossed legs, his eyes darting to one of the men. "Hold down her shoulders." At this the man he ordered complied, pulling Lucchini down to the floor while at the same time Glazkov parted her legs. "Now then... time for a little taste of what's down here."

Lucchini bucked, trying to keep the man from looking at the most treasured place on her body. "No! No, don't look!" She was scared. She never knew that she could ever get this scared. The man's lips then enveloped Lucchini's snatch, a large burst of pleasure surged from her pussy and across every inch of her nervous system. Lucchini screamed, afraid of this sensation. She tried to kick at the man sucking on her but another set of hands from two other men came forward and held down her legs. She squirmed as much as she could but Glazkov didn't relinquish his hold of her. She could feel the horrible, slimy, evil intent radiating off this man; she wanted to escape him.

His tongue licked Lucchini's pussy repeatedly, each slimy, vile lick electing waves of unwanted pleasure through her body. Her mind was starting to strain painfully. Her voice kept crying out in bleats of fear, sobs of sorrow and involuntary moans of pleasure. Her body and her mind were in flux with each other, her heart churning with each and every emotion she could possibly feel, even a couple she never knew she was capable of. The man's mouth than went to a place between her legs that did something that made the deepest fear course through her soul: a small nub of her anatomy, a tiny, highly concentrated bundle of nerves exploded. Her clitoris was directly stimulated, her back arched as a sound was unleashed from her throat; the sound of a primal screech of terror mixed with a scream of pleasure, her body arched and then shuddered as an intense feeling enveloped her. Once the endless waves that racked her body were finished she started crying freely. She had never felt so humiliated and degraded. All she could silently ask was why?

She wondered if anyone would come and save her. Shirley was hurt badly by these horrible people, and mama? Mama was back home. The only other people who could save her were her other friends, maybe one of her fellow witches: Yoshika, Lynnette, Perrine or maybe one of the tame witches. She thought maybe even James and his friends might come save her, but she didn't know if anyone would come for her, or if they did wither they would find her. I don't... I don't want strangers touching me like this... I... I don't like this. It hurts... I ... I don't want these people doing these perverted things to me. I want my friends. I wonder if... if James or the others will come for me? Shirley's face appeared in her mind once more. I... I want Shirley...Shirley... I...I...

Glazkov hummed and eased up Lucchini's body to her face. "You tasted good, little slut. Perhaps you will make for a good means for my men and I to find... comfort, for a while." His middle finger nestled between her labia, a twinge of pleasure rocked through her nerves, a stifled whimper escaped her lips. "A pussy is a pussy after all, and my men are only human. They have their needs." he stated.

"W-w-why... why are you doing this to me?" She sobbed.

Glazkov ignored her question and proceeded to kiss her. She felt a little drained for a moment, but the thoughts of this man touching and kissing her and doing other perverted things to her again brought back all that rage. She bit down on his lip, a liquid iron taste of blood in her mouth once again. The man let loose a muffled curse and pulled back. Lucchini then kicked the men holding her legs loose and brought her feet into their heads, dazing them.

The man holding down her shoulders started to smack her around but Glazkov barked at him and the others. "Enough!" A scary, angry look crossed his face as he cast a glare in her direction. Lucchini tried to look defiant but what she had just gone through had rattled her, her body quivering fearfully and tears flowing down her face despite the hard look she tried to muster in her eyes. After touching his bitten lip, blood transferring to his finger and inspecting his superficial wound the frightening grin returned. Lucchini's lips trembled; she had come to fear that smile on his face. Her breath became caught in her lungs.

The man then did something that filled Lucchini with dread; as he approached her again he drew his pistol, then jabbed it into her temple. At this his men seemed to tense a little. The Warrant officer who first groped her spoke in nervous protest. "S-sir, you said we would have our turn with her!"

He spoke reassuringly to his subordinate, though his cold, cruel eyes never left Lucchini's own. "I'm not done. Don't worry though, I'll let you all have your turn with her."

"But sir, the last time we had a nice piece of tail back in the Urals and you brought your sidearm out we never did have a chance to do anything with the last girl!"

"I give you my assurances, Warrant Officer: I'll be sure there are no accidental discharges this time." he assured him.

The gun in Glazkov's grasp slowly eased its way from her temple, down her face and then placed firmly into her jugular. The pressure of cold steal could be felt by her carotid artery. Gun... Gun... Gun! He's holding a gun to me. He's holding a gun to me! What do I do?! I don't know what to do! The young girls mind was now racing instead of just spinning like a top. But it was a race to nowhere. Even as much of a prodigy as she was, if she had her magic she had to really concentrate to try and use her shield to block a bullet like this. But seeing as she had no magic in reserve, nothing would stop the bullet if it were fired. He's going to kill me! I don't want to die! Thoughts of her friends, both the girls of the 501st and of the men of Hunter-2-1. She didn't want to lose them. She didn't want to be lost to them. I can't die... I can't die like this! Her eyes still continued to spill tears as she shakily found her voice. "Please...please don't hurt me..." she pleaded.

Glazkov smirked. "What's the matter, your fiery spirit dampened? Not feeling so tough, little bitch?" He twisted the pistol around on the point of the small girls jugular, her face cringing in fear as the steel pressed into her. "Do you know what happens now?" Lucchini looked at the man with timid silence, giving no answer. Glazkov grinned toothily and scoffed. He squeezed the trigger. Lucchini flinched and cried out fearfully.

A click rang out.

The pistol was empty.

Glazkov looked to the pistol with a look of mock disappointment, as Lucchini started sobbing; her life just flashed before her eyes and she really thought she was going to die. She was being tortured by a cruel monster, who then spoke mockingly. "Oh, would you look at that; I'm out of rounds." His own men looked both irate and relived, though it was likely the relief was because they would still have the chance of doing terrible things to Lucchini after this... monster... was done with her. He ejected the empty pistol magazine and replaced it with a fresh one, the pistol making a frightening clacking sound as the slide was racked. "There we go, my tool is ready for you, little Ensign." Her eyes widened and locked onto the now loaded pistol. Her heart was beating at an insane tempo from inside her chest; adrenaline fueled fear that was now paralyzing her.

The young Russian man from before spoke. "Sir, that is too much, you cannot just use a loaded pistol on her! Besides, what if it goes off!?"

Glazkov's head snapped to the younger man. "She is my prisoner, and thus I will decided how she is to be handled." He raised his pistol at the man and spoke threateningly. "If you interfere or object to my command again it will be the last damn thing you'll ever do, am I clear?!" The young man tensed for a moment, then relented. A look of disgust filled his face as he moved further away from the gaggle. Glazkov turned to Lucchini and his voice then spoke firmly, his smile gone. "Don't. Move."

The pistol found its way back to her jugular, and then started to slowly ease its way down her body. Upon reaching her chest the pistol in Glazkov's grasp slowly circled her buds, first the left, then the right. Lucchini was racked with fear that reached levels she never thought she could feel. Not even fighting the Neuroi reached a level that was this scary for her. But then the pistol continued down her body, slowly, steadily. As this happened Glazkov spoke. "Did you know I used this very pistol on a lot of girls in my life? I put it to very good use, on many a pretty women and girl, even some as young as you, perhaps even younger. I call it "Cherry Popper"... it's a very fitting name if I do say so, given what I use it for." She didn't know what he was talking about at first, but then to her horror the pistol in question finally nestled itself between her legs. She was shaking violently in terror. It was at this point she believed she was in a nightmare.

The pistol's barrel rubbed around the lips of Lucchini's pussy. An ice cold shiver shot up and down her spine, but her pussy was once again getting stimulated. Her body was not reacting like she wanted it to, her special place, already moist from earlier intrusion upon the shores of her maidenhood, was getting wetter.

Glazkov chuckled. "Looks like your getting wetter. You must really be enjoying this, aren't you, ya lewd girl."

"N-n-n-n-no..." Lucchini stuttered out. Her voice cracked and tears were now flowing freely and uninhibited from her eyes and down her cheeks. How could he possibly think that I like this?! He's a crazy monster! she wept silently.

His pistol slid between the folds of Lucchni's pussy, the top of the pistols slide rubbing against her most sensitive area, her body moved in a wave as an unnatural pleasure washed across her, her juice covering the small weapon. He spoke mockingly. "Oh I think you are. You're liking this, aren't you: you keep saying no, but you're body is telling us a different story." He then spoke softly to her. "You want my pistol inside you, don't you? Would you like to have a little fun with Cherry Popper?"

Lucchini gasped in horror as her mind suddenly stopped. It took a brief moment for her to take in the weight of what he had just said to her. His voice, his words echoed in her mind. He wanted to put a pistol... a loaded pistol... inside her?! It was then, what Glazkov and his warrant officer had said to each other. About how they mentioned that the last time something like this happened there was an "accidental discharge". About how he called his pistol: "Cherry Popper." The pieces were falling into place. The sound of the pistol's cocking from before snapped into her mind and her face turned a white as a sheet.

Her eyes locked themselves upon the pistol and where it was pointing at, not trying to make eye contact with the eyes of what had to be the embodiment of pure evil itself. She slowly shook her head."No... no... no..."

Glazkov pointed the pistol's barrel at Lucchini's pussy, moving it around as he prodded at her snatch and even her clitoris until he found the opening to her vagina. The barrel slowly prodded a bit, then turned it so the slide could keep massaging her. "Are you still a virgin, little harlot? You seem to act much like one, I've seen a few in the past act much like you do now. You're in luck: I'll make you into a woman."

Lucchini shook her head violently from side to side. "NO! DON'T PUT IT INSIDE ME! PLEASE DON'T! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DONT! STOP! STOP!" He tightened his grip on his pistol as he began to smile widely. The young Russian man's disgust only grew as he started to go into the hallway. The rest of the men watched in silence. The pistol barrel started to point at her vaginal opening, then the opening of the gun prodded her pussy. Ensign Francesca Lucchini gave one final horrific, pleading cry for her beloved friends. "SHIRLEY! JAMES! SOMEBODY! ANYBODY! HELP ME! HELP ME!"


And so ends Chapter 28... one of the most difficult chapters I have had to write as a fanfic author.

I must confess that the scene involving Lucchini...was by far the most difficult scene I had to write. For reasons regarding narrative tone as well as research into the subject and trying to write such a scenario with the proper maturity that such a scene in literature demands. Such scenes are one of the greatest challenges that a writer must put to paper or word document, because of the fact it is a grim subject.

As another quick note as an author that I feel that I must say: is that the very nature and act of rape is something I find abhorrent. It harms and violates not only a person's body, but also their heart, mind and soul. It leaves deep scars and it's a vile crime that enrages me. But what really draws my ire is the few times I've seen such a subject portrayed in fiction that comes off as fetishized or makes light of the horrible, devastating effect this has on a person's well being. If there are further scenes in my story involving rape against the protagonist cast they will be treated with mature seriousness, solemn respect, and will NOT be portrayed in any way, shape or form in ways that are titillating, fetishistic or sexy. They will be shown as the horrible, depraved and deplorable, monstrous acts that they are. I feel I must set the record straight on this so that my intent as a writer is made clear. Those who have gone through rape are wounded, scarred and haunted by such trespasses, and that will be made clear when characters that have such events occur to them or have had such events in their back stories inflicted upon them appear in the story.

With that issue addressed, as always; I am forever grateful to my fans, readers and fellow writers and please be sure to leave a review or if you have questions about either my stories, the narrative elements, character growth and development or about writing in general I would be more then glad to hear from you. Let me know what elements of WR141 you like or don't like or find interesting and why these may be the case; I love to see what prompts a person's thoughts and feelings and why they are moved one way or another.

WR141 and other stories will be on the way. As always: stay frosty.