What lies behind us, Part 2
On the night of Sanyas Birthday, Olivia was scheduled to join the three witches on night patrol from midnight to sunrise. About two hours before the three Night witches sortied into the blackness Barkhorn was called to the Hangar to help Olivia with something. "So, what is it that you need help with Olivia?", Barkhorn asked as she strolled through the hangar towards the black plane.
Olivia walked around the wingtip now pointing at the missiles hanging under the aircraft "For the next mission I would like to remove some of the missiles, as they would only be deadweight. There are 24 installed, of which I'd like to deposit 16 here, only problem with that is the weight of each rocket, with each one weighing in at 500lb", she explained the situation at hand. "And that Barkhorn, is where you come into play", Olivia explained further, "you are going to help me get these missiles on the bed of the truck that stands over there in the corner".
„I've asked the Commander if these trucks could handle 4000kg of missiles on their backs and they apparently can do that". Olivia headed over to the Truck letting the ignition key rotate around her finger and then she moved the truck directly in front of the port-side wing with the loading area lined up under the wing. On the back of the truck there where some guide rails for the missiles to fit in.
"All right, I'm going to signal the jet to drop the missiles one after another and you catch the rear end, then were going to push them into the guiderails". Barkhorn activated her magical ability, physical super strength and Olivia whistled and the jet dropped the first missile into Trude's arms. They then had to repeat that process fifteen times and had to dismount the mounting rails. The entire procedure was done over in roughly fifteen minutes and the trucks loading area covered with a tarp as it was parked in a corner of the hangar. The mounting rails were laid right next to the truck in the corner.
„Ok Olivia, Eila, Sanya and Yoshika are about to pass just a few miles of the base. If you wanna catch them you should sortie now", Minna said as both her and Olivia were standing in the radar room, Minna was obviously about to head to sleep. The roar of the engines woke up almost everyone in the base. Well, Lucchini did not wake up even though she slept in the hangar, near one of the heaters. The roar then moved outside and accelerated into the distance as Olivias Jet took off.
„Oh, look who 's that ", Sanya said as she noticed Olivias jet approaching. „Good evening ladies how are y 'all doing? ", Olivia asked as she came up on Yoshikas left side with the engines just above idle. "I was just telling Eila and Sanya the meaning of this day, you see it's kinda special to me", Yoshika answered, "Today is my birthday, or rather today was my birthday. But I never really told anyone because it also it the anniversary of my father's death". "My condolences...", Sanya said and wanted to finish her sentence but was cut off by both Olivia and the sound that a neuroi made.
"We`ve got unwanted company", Olivia said just as the mimicked singing could be heard over the radio. As the singer neared the girls Sanya suddenly rose up about twenty meters above the others.
"Don't get too close. It's trying to get me", she said just as a twenty feet wide blood red laser beam cut through the clouds and disintegrated her left striker leg, not the leg beneath though. Luckily, she was catched by Eila and Yoshika, who brought her back to her senses. "You idiot. What did you think you were doing?", Eila said as she shook Sanya. "It's after me, please get away.", Sanya said.
"Sanya, tell me where that neuroi is hiding", Eila asked the witch that was being held by Yoshika. "I can't use my radar at the needed power because I would barbecue Sanya with the amount of power.", Olivia said as she turned her jet in a big circle around them and moved into a firing position behind and below them. "Don't worry about me, I can predict that neuroi's movements, so I'll be fine.", Eila continued calming down Sanya.
Even though the Neuroi tried to dodge the Missiles from Sanyas Fliegerhammer it did not succeed. Despite using its laser beams to stop them, it did not help, as Yoshika just raised a massive Shield.
The Neuroi was defeated almost as fast as it appeared. And now the sweet sound of a Piano was able to be heard across the surface of the earth. "Happy birthday you two", Olivia said as she turned away from the trio and flew the rest of her patrol controlling the Area between the port of Par de Calais, Antwerpen and the middle of the southern north sea. That part was without any events of notice.
A few days later in the early hours of the morning as Sanya came in from her nightly patrol she met Olivia in the hangar who was preparing her jet for a long flight. While everyone else was just waking up Olivia was making a massive lunch package, as she was leaving for a two day trip to Liberion to visit one of the best Ammo Producers to make the specific Ammo that her Jets twin M39 Machine cannons oh so loved. The two guns were using 20x102mm Casingless Ammo, meaning that the casing containing the gunpowder was being burned in the chamber.
Shirley gave Olivia the contacts of one of the best ammomakers in Liberion and so they began the talk about the very specific type of ammo for the M39's.
It was almost noon as Olivia started the engines of the now fully fuelled F-36 and began to fly westwards towards a small town near Lancaster in Pennsylvania there she would meet up with a friend of a friend of Shirley and they would go to the Ammo manufacturers.
Due to the design of the F-36 it's long range cruising speed was quite low, so the flight to Lancaster's McMillan AFB took almost ten hours, but since the weather on the north Atlantic was quite calm with the exception of one or two smaller storms, but generally nothing of note. The landing was, only for the ground staff, not an ordinary one, as none of the ground staff had ever seen a multirole fighter jet.
After Olivia got to the Hangar where her plane was stationed for two nights, she contacted the distant acquaintance of Shirley via Landline. Before she was able to leave the Base though she had to meet with the Base commander, General Gerald S. Spaatz.
A/N G. S. Spaatz is the younger brother (fictitious) to Carl A. Spaatz, who later lead the US Army Air Force from '46-'47
"General Spaatz, Sir. There is a visitor for you", his secretary announced as he knocked on the door. "Lead 'em in", General Spaatz said. "Good day, Sir", Olivia said as she walked into the Base commanders office, still wearing her black flight suit with a backpack over her shoulder. "Ah, you are the special visitor that European command has told me about. How come you are here in Pennsylvania and not on the frontlines.", he asked the young woman. "Visiting a local business to address the production of specific ammo. I came here with my jet and I'm running low on Ammo, so I asked around and since my guns don't use normal ammo only very few manufacturers answered", she answered. "Well that makes sense. You're also here to pick up the paperwork so you can get back on base, if I recall correctly", He said gesturing to a small folder containing about a dozen sheets of Paper.
As Olivia got of the base and was shuttled to the nearby factory where she met up with a few or the arms engineers and discussed the ammo thoroughly. It was not as easy as in the 21st Century to produce, but not impossible as the Resin and the oxidizer for the casing where known in 1944. The Powder for the shells was compressed and then molded into a layer of oxidizer rich Resin so that no brass cartridge would be needed.
After a few hours of brainstorming the final design stood, the shell would consist of a regular 20mm APHE round that is stacked upon a load of gunpowder that then is pumped wet with oxidizer resin. The entire process happens in an injection mold, that then is allowed to settle before being removed and measured.
After building the molds the entire production time until the first Ammo tapes could arrive in Britannia would be around four to six weeks as the big magazine boxes could be transported by ship or by plane.
Over night she slept in one of the currently unused barracks at McMillan AFB. She departed from the States in the late morning after eating breakfast in the officers mess and meeting the General a last time. She was asked by the general to transport some Mail back to the base in Dover. The flight back was just as uneventful as the first flight and she landed in the early hours of the morning at the same time as Sanya.
"Hi there Sanya, did anything interesting happen while I was gone?", Olivia asked the very tired looking night witch. Sanya yawned and told Olivia what had happened over the last two days, or at least what Eila had told her. Apparently Erika had misplaced some of her laundry which resulted in her "borrowing" a pair of panties from Lucchini without letting her know beforehand. And that resulted in a chain reaction of panty searching chaos.
"Seems like I did miss quite a thing", Olivia said to Sanya just as they were approaching the runway. "Well, I slept through the entire ordeal", Sanya commented. "Speaking about sleeping, Sanya. I should go and hit the hay", Olivia commented as she walked towards her room. Sanya yawned and answered: "Good Idea, I`m gonna do the same."
Olivia woke up to the smell of mixed vegetables being cooked in a wok just before noon. She fished the letters from the states out of her helmet and went into the briefing room where Sakamoto and Minna were. "I have Mail for you two, something about replacement parts and a letter about the supply of armaments and ammo. Oh, and something for Shirley as well." Sakamoto took the two letters Olivia handed them, gave one to Minna and opened the other. "Upcoming changes in the reordering process for armaments, their replacement parts and ammo.", Sakamoto read out loud
"Sorry, if my liberion is not perfect. Ah here it is: Due to urgent request by some frontline units, the catalogue of parts and supplies will have a few new types of ammunition added, the compatibility tests are currently running. This ammo will, for the time being, only be utilized by the special rifles that it was designed for. Further information regarding this ammunition will be sent out soon" Sakamoto put down the letter and turned over to Olivia.
"Is this about the ammo your guns use?", she asked. "Yup, 20mm APHE rounds with resin cartridges, thus more powder and without any material used for cartridge that could otherwise be used in bullets or other supplies. Plus the guns don`t need to eject a cartridge.", Olivia answered "That would develop a higher chamber temperature and -pressure meaning higher muzzle velocity and thus higher range. Quite a clever idea", Minna commented.
Olivia then left to find Shirley, who she first tried to find in the Hangar but to her surprise she wasn't there, but rather she was in the bath soaking in hot water up to just below her shoulders. "Oy, Shirley are you in here?", Olivia yelled into the fogged-up bathing hall. She heard some splashing and then the response. "Yeah, what is it?", the liberion girl answered. "I got some mail for you, I think I`ll put it in your basket and join you for a quick splash", Olivia said already beginning to undress. Moments later she came into the showering area of the bath with a towel over her arm and started showering.
While she was soaping up she turned around to Shirley and Lucchini who were lying in the hot water and just relaxing. "Oh, hi Lucchini, didn't see ya there.", Olivia said to the very small Romagnian witch. "The package you got is quite a bit thicker than a full-size Letter, so if I had to guess, I`d say that in there is some sort of Newspaper or Magazine", Olivia continued. "Yupp, that should be the newest Edition of the Bonneville Motor Magazine. Lotta new stuff that's coming out this fall.", Shirley said while beginning to grin from ear to ear.
Olivia continued to shower of the soap an then went into the hot water. "Thanks for building the connection between the arms manufacturer and me, the deal is standing and, in a few weeks or maybe a month, we should get some supplies specifically for my plane.", Olivia said as she sank into the hot water. "No problem there, they are an important manufacturer anyways and I happen to know someone, so it really wasn't that big of a deal.", Shirley answered.
A/N I am pumped for what will eventually happen and the character development along the way. See ya (hopefully) soon.