Being Brave

by Thorthemighty321

As the Neuroi War rages in Russia, rookie Karibuchi Hikari is assigned to the front to do her part. However, she will soon discover how brutal combat will be on the Eastern Front. A battlefield where witches die and are injured at alarming rates not seen anywhere else. With the odds stacked against her, Hikari will have to adapt quickly or become another victim to the Neuroi.

1. Chapter 1

AN: I don't own anything.

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March 15, 1943

Hikari felt excited, she was close to getting her certification for being a Runner Witch, a task that while it wasn't as glamorous as being a fighter witch or a ground attack witch, it was an important job. One that was admittedly vastly more dangerous than being a fighter witch and possibly more so than a ground attack witch. Not that she really cared, she had learned how vital her role was, entire battles and possibly campaigns could depend on her.

In fact this was her final test for being a runner, delivering a long distance message from Point A, in this case Saint Petersburg, to Point B, Narvik, as fast as possible without being interdicted by the Neuroi. That was the key and she had played it a little safe by going some forty kilometres out of her way instead of taking a straight shot to Narvik. Yes, it cost her a little bit of time, but not too much.

She looked over at her escort, every runner had one to two escorts. She only had one this time around, but looking at Miya, she couldn't help but wonder why her fellow Fusoan had volunteered to protect her. It was something that she didn't understand at all. Maybe it had to do with the navigation final?

She shuddered, just the thought of that squall and how it had blown up out of nowhere. How a microburst had torn Miya from the sky and how during her attempt to rescue her. Despite being in strikers and wearing multiple layers to help push her range further, she shuddered again.

"There's Sortavala, bearing one-five-zero, looks like eight miles." Miya called over the radio as they approached the city. It looked so weird this high up, she was used to relatively low altitude flying but for long distance flights, she had to fly very high. Much higher than she was used to and the winds that were up here were much different than anything else.

"I see it, have to admit," Hikari began as she rolled over on her back to look up at her escort, "I don't think I will ever be able to get used to flying this high up."

Miya gave her a look. "I don't think so either, but Hikari please be careful. The last time you tried to prove that you could do that trick you managed to hit a tree."

Hikari felt her cheeks colour. "Well I can't hit a tree, we're motoring along at seven thousand metres."

The reply from her escort was dry snort. "No, but I see a pair of Me 410s a few miles out that if you're not careful you might get hit by one of them." Miya replied dryly and at that she flipped over and quickly spotted the big Karlslandian fighter.

"Tally on the 410s, kami, those things are huge. What model do you think it is?" she asked of her escort, she knew that Miya's magic had something to do with vision.

"Judging by the exhaust and design of the bomb bay, I'd say B-2 with those massive 30mm cannons." Miya replied and Hikari blanched, they were looking at something that was insanely lethal and if those rumours about them putting witches who had been rendered ineligible for service with strikers for whatever reason in the back of certain 410s were accurate.

Hikari watched the big fighters as they continued their patrol route, that's when she noticed something about it. "Wait, there's four of them."

"Your right, must have been the angle. Hikari, I have to ask, have you heard the rumours?"

Wait, rumours? "No, I haven't. What are the rumours saying?" Hikari asked, confused as to what they were saying.

"They say that a big operation is planned, you should hear the rumours flying around and while you've been busy learning the ins and outs of your new strikers, I've been flying patrols and well, there's a build up happening." Miya said.

This was news to Hikari, she hadn't known that something like this was in the works. It seemed that her test as a runner was going to be coming much sooner than she thought it was. To be honest, she had hoped for at least a few weeks of shipping around status reports and the like. Not being tossed into the fire immediately. That honestly terrified her and more to the point, there was a reason why runner witches were always in high demand. The reason for that was because during operations, the Neuroi would specifically target runner witches, going so far as to have formations of fighters dedicated to the role; often heavy fighters with lots of firepower. It resulted in a witch position with immensely high turnover rates, during Barbarossa it approached nearly 65% in terms of casualties and nearly third of those had been WIAs.

Thus being a runner witch was immensely dangerous, but there was a reason for such a post existing. Most Russian and Fusoan units didn't have two-way radios or had people who knew how to operate radios. Thus you needed witches who were brave or as some called it, fool-hardy. You needed nerves of steel, a talent for endurance and sense of direction, along with the ability to make snap decisions, and a sort of unspoken requirement, a pair of brass balls, whatever those were.

After all, she didn't even have a machine gun, just a PPSh, a few magazines, strapped across her back was a message tube, secured in holster was Viery Pistol and she had standing orders if shot down that before seeing to her own escape that she was to open the message tube and fire the Viery Pistol inside, a combination wrist-watch/compass, and often a map which she would also have to destroy if shot down, the reason for this relative lightness was all in the name of speed. She didn't even have soft body armour that fighter witches often wore for the simple fact that it wasn't her job to tangle with Neuroi, no she would only fight if necessary.

"Not long till we go feet wet, I can't wait to get home and have a nice quick break." Hikari admitted, being a runner wasn't easy, it was taxing and in many ways they were actually treated better than most other witches in the military, simply because of the fact that any one of their sorties could be their last. Something that was much more likely than for most witches.

"Hai, you know it. This route with our strikers is usually a two day circuit. Doesn't make it any easier though, it's a long ass flight over difficult terrain. You go down in Baltland and you're not near Yggdrasil or civilization, you're screwed, no questions asked and that's not even counting what would happen if you went down in Neuroi territory." Miya said and Hikari had to suppress another whole body shudder despite her warm clothes. Baltic Sea Empire or Baltland, when you weren't near Yggdrasil or civilization, was one of the most inhospitable places on the entire planet. It wasn't surprising at all that if a pilot or witch went missing, particularly in winter, that they were probably screwed.

If there was any sort of fate that she dreaded, it was slowly dying of starvation or dehydration for while magic could do many things. It could prolong death by starving by at most a week and dehydration by only two or three additional days. That didn't even go into the other hazards in the Baltland, physical, magical, and spiritual. Of course, Northern Russia wasn't that much better to be frank what with all the demons and magical creatures that were around.

"Hikari, let's adjust our course, I am seeing Imperial Airforce witches in I-16s heading our way at three o'clock. Probably conscripts, I don't want to be near those in case something bad happens." Miya said and Hikari glanced over, sure enough there were the tiny forms of witches arching through the sky wearing really small strikers.

Just the knowledge that they were still conscript witch formations using the death trap that was the I-16 stung more than it should have. The I-16 had excellent manoeuvrability, agility, and acceleration, but its speed was rather lacking and its foci would have been excellent...for something in the early 1930s. Now? I-16s, even the Type-24s were little more than coffins. It was really easy to pity those girls since they often had expected life expectancy of only a couple of months on the frontlines.

"Looks like they're headed home." Hikari said, noting their direction of travel would take them close to an Aerodrome that was near the city. Still, if she knew the patrol schedules, if that patrol was heading home then maybe the 502nd JFW Patrol was nearby? It would be nice to see Takami again, really nice actually, ever since she'd started training she barely had a chance to see her older sister and now she wanted to do so.

"Agreed, they seem to be heading in that direction." Miya said as they approached the shore of Lake Ladoga.

Then there was a rising wail from below them. The few boats, barges, and small ships in the harbour below began accelerating as tiny figures raced across the decks of the two Artilleriefährprahm and the numerous Siebelfähre in the waters below. The rumble of their engines were quite audible.

"All aircraft and witches in the vicinity of Sortavala, coastal spotters have spotted an incoming air raid. Scramble and assist in the defense, for the Motherland!"

Hikari looked over at Miya terrified, she'd seen pictures and heard stories. But had never actually seen the Neuroi until now. The conscripts flew upwards with alarming speed as they broke off from their descent towards the Aerodrome, they were racing to combat altitude. Where was the enemy, where were they coming from? These questions whirled in Hikari's young mind as she frantically looked for the enemy.

"Above us!" Miya screamed in terror and Hikari looked up, shrieking down from the heavens wreathed in re-entry heat as they plunged down from the stratosphere came the Neuroi. Habus (or Steamsleds as the Yanks called them) by the look of them, big blocky aircraft that were roughly equal to a Heavy Fighter or Light Bomber and the Neuroi employed them in both roles.

---

Report - query?

Target - identification - verified? Identification - verification: TargetAlpha - human designation: Sortavala Harbor

Identification archived - priority - significant

Advisory: Hostileforce: Russian Imperial Airforce - Number: 25 (Estimate) - aircraft: fighter witches - Identification: HostileFWF1 - query: engage?

Advisory: Hostileforce: Russian Imperial Airforce - Number: 2 - aircraft: runner witches - Identification: HostileRWF1 - query: engage?

Advisory: Hostileforce: Karlslandian Airforce - Number: 4 - aircraft: Me410s - Identification: HostileKFF1 - query: engage?

Affirmative

EscortUnit 1 - Acknowledge

Target: HostileRWF1

Termination: maximumpriority

Target: HostileFWF1 - HostileKF1

Termination: highpriority

BomberUnit 1 - commence attack

Affirmative

---

Hikari gasped as the Neuroi formation broke apart with machine-like precision, five of the shapes wheeled in place and dove towards, maybe the railway station, as flak began reaching up. Explosions and tracers began tearing the sky apart and filling the air with black smoke and whirling steel. Another shape wheeled and screamed towards the conscripts at horrifying speed, its four plasma weapons glowed then discharged in unison with its rocket guns.

She could make out the shocked face of the lead witch that was targeted, her shield blazed as it tried to stop salvoes of plasma and kinetics. The first seven salvoes of heavy energy pulses along with rockets shattered upon the shield and then the next three scalped the witch's body at the chest, shearing it away from the rest of her torso in an explosion of blood and shattered bone. The conscripts scattered as the fox entered the hen house and almost immediately another witch was blasted out of the sky, her strikers coming apart amid an explosion of fire and flying shrapnel and the witch fell from the sky, the unfortunate girl's face was a textbook on terror with a hint of acceptance as she entered a gravedigger's spiral.

The other two Habus whirled and dove upon herself and Miya. "Hikari run!" Miya screamed as she snap rolled and raced up to engage.

Hikari slammed the throttles of her strikers to their metaphorical stops, the I-185 strikers and their massive M-71 radials howled with glee as they were let off the chain. Her speed spiked from cruising speed to fifty miles per hour above it in less than five seconds, the wind ripped at her face as she continued accelerating, arching over and manipulating the controls of the striker to put herself into a dive.

Behind her she could hear Miya's engines howling and her machine gun bellowing as the Neuroi answered in kind. She had to get out of here, she had to go faster.

The port in front of her erupted, a stick of bombs striking one of the keys and demolishing it and the equipment fire and smoke was hurled into the sky amid a maelstrom of shattered concrete. The blasts scattered soldiers, hurling some bodily and sending pieces of others flying through the air. "KAMI!" She shouted as more bombs landed, detonations viciously tearing apart a Siebelfähre, the ammunition for its 8.8cm Flak guns cooked off sending a holocaust of shattered metal and fire through the air, the shockwave slamming into her with such force that it felt like her bones rattled. A pale blue discus emblazoned with ancient runes flashed into life with a hiss and moments later there was clattering as shrapnel pinged off the solid mana field.

Flak fire continued to scythe upwards and a Habu missing its back third plunged into the river with a massive whump and sent a column of spray racing skywards and then with a flash of fire at its base, an even larger column of water was flung skywards as its bombload detonated. Tracers slashed down at her, the water erupting all around her as it happened.

Ahead of her another stick of bombs impacted and a Marinefährprahm exploded, a pressure wave bursting forth, a wall of white rapidly expanding outwards that slammed into her. The impact felt like she had flown right into a concrete wall without her shield to cushion the blow. The world flipped over, she went tumbling through the sky shrieking in terror as the sky and ground flashed before her eyes for at least a solid dozen times before a sensation screamed at her DANGER and she summoned her shield, an instant later with a bone jarring crash she was buried somewhere in a building.

Her vision swam with dots dancing in her eyes, she shook her head, trying to get the spots out of her eyes. Red fire slashed down through the building, energy bolts punching through the ceiling and floor, blasting apart furniture, radiators, and then there was the howl of a Neuroi engine, followed by the buzz of strikers, and the rattle of a human machine gun. "Hikari, get the fuck out of that building! The Habus are coming around for another attack run and they're going to level it!"

Hikari looked up and saw the hole she had made. She flung herself forward, strikers howling and blasted clear of the building. Moments later red fire and black smokey contrails impacted, the upper level came apart in a cataclysm of shattering masonry, splintering wood, great gouts of dust, and fire; seconds after that the building caved in on itself. With the radials for her strikers roaring she raced down the waterfront and she heard the rumbling tenor of a Neuroi Habu coming around to engage.

She spun onto her back and brought the PPSh up and fired a one second burst, fifteen rounds burned away in an instant as the gun let out a loud braaap as smokey tracers arched through the sky. The Habu shuddered and wobbled, its airframe visibly deforming under the hammering impacts, the craft broke off and climbed trailing smoke.

"Miya, I need altitude, I am climbing!" Hikari screamed and with engines howling, she climbed racing up through a thousand metres in a matter of seconds. The sky was filled with inky black fingers of smoke and malignant puffs of black as the remaining bombers lit their boosters and raced upwards into the sky, arching around to head back to Hive Grigori.

She looked in the direction of the conscripts and sighed, there had been nearly thirty of them in the sky. Now maybe a dozen remain airborne and she could tell from the looks upon their faces that the single Habu that had gone after them had bagged some, but she wouldn't be surprised if most of the losses had been due to collisions. Sighing again, she keyed her radio and effortlessly slipped into English. "Base One, this is Frost One, come in."

There was a pause and then Base One answered. "Base One here, we read you Frost One, go ahead, over."

"Base One, Sortavala just got hit by Neuroi light bombers and heavy fighters, they managed to hit a barge carrying ammunition and the thing exploded. We're looking at pretty major damage to the city and the port is pretty much gone. The fighter witch unit here suffered major casualties and I am only seeing two 410s."

There was a pause. "Affirmative Frost One, be advised, Gull Flight is inbound. Come on home."

Hikari cast a look back at the conscripts, one of whom seemed to be edging her way towards her. She nodded. "Affirmative Base One, let me find my escort and then we'll come home."

With that she scanned the skies, it wasn't particularly hard to find Miya, one of her strikers were trailing dark gray smoke and was thus carving an inky trail across the sky. Hikari formed back up with her as she kept an eye on the conscript that was edging towards them. "That was scary." Hikari admitted, mostly to herself as they finally went feet wet over Lake Ladoga.

Miya gave her a flat look, she had anger simmering in her eyes. "Hikari, I swear you need better situational awareness. You're lucky that exploding Marinefährprahm didn't kill you, same with that Sibel ferry. If you'd been paying attention better, you would have seen the Neuroi bombers going for the port and would have been able to pick a better path to bug out." she growled angrily.

Hikari held up her hands in surrender. "I got caught off guard by the appearance of the Neuroi, I thought that we were safe due to us being where we were."

Miya sighed. "I heard that the Neuroi had been using those sorts of attacks in Fuso, Vesperia, Britannia, and Amerrique for months now. Though that's probably been the first time that we've seen it here, so I can't really blame you either. To be frank, I don't think even if I had an escape plan in my head, I doubt that I would have remembered it." she admitted, looking at the chaos that had befallen Sortavala, at the thick plumes of writhing black smoke and the immense clouds of dust from destroyed buildings.

"Guess we got lucky then." Hikari admitted as she looked for that conscript witch that she had seen edging towards her after the chaos. "The conscripts got beaten up badly though."

Miya snorted. "I think most of them either bolted for the ground or were in mid-air collisions. But I saw that Habu shoot down at least four of them before they managed to shoot it down. The things by drone standards are just so fucking tough, they're like the P-47 of the Neuroi."

At that statement, Hikari couldn't help but nod. She'd heard the stories from her sister about just how lethal Habus were and how much of a pounding even from witches that they could take before dying. But it was another thing entirely to see it and experience it with her own eyes. She had put fifteen rounds from her SMG into one of the Habus and it had simply absorbed that punishment with alarming ease. She'd seen Neuroi Pricks or Larosi as the intel boys called them simply disintegrate from that sort of fire.

Hikari then glanced over her shoulder and sighed, the conscript that had been edging towards her after the air raid had occurred was now following them. The poor girl had probably gotten confused and was now following them.

---

Advisory: Bombdamageassessment - TargetAlpha is completely destroyed

Advisory: BomberUnit 1 - two subunits lost - one heavily damaged - two lightly damaged

Advisory: EscortUnit 1 - one subunit lost - one heavily damaged - one undamaged

Advisory: HostileFWF1 - five subunits destroyed - three subunits damaged - formation broken

Advisory: HostileKFF1 - two subunits destroyed - one subunit damaged - formation remains

Advisory: HostileRWF1 - both subunits undamaged - formation remains

PrimeUnit 1 - Acknowledge - StrikeForce 2 engage

Affirmative - PrimeUnit 1

Report - EscortUnit 2

Target: HostileRWF1 - query: priority?

Termination: maximumpriority

Affirmative - PrimeUnit 1

Engage - EscortUnit 2

Acknowledged - PrimeUnit 1

Report - BomberUnit 2

Target - identification - verified? Identification - verification: TargetBravo - human designation: Sortavala Aerodrome

Identification archived - priority - significant

Advisory: BomberUnit 2 subunits - ordnance priority - cratering bombs - cluster bombs

Acknowledge - PrimeUnit 1

StrikeUnit 2 - commence attack

Affirmative

---

Miya looked over her shoulder after Hikari told her about the Russian following them, the older Fusoan witch sighed. "Hikari, you keep going. I'll help this girl back to her base."

Something tickled Hikari's mind, something that had been said nearly a month and half ago regarding runners. "I think she needs to come with us, you know how the standing orders are with runners. If you see one without escort, you are to provide said escort to its destination or the limit of your fuel."

There was a pause and Miya frowned visibly. "Fair call," she looked at the witch, "identify yourself and fuel state." she barked.

The Russian held up her hands as she exclaimed in very broken English. "Trainee Bukina Raya Valerianovna ma'ams!" she said looking between the two Fusoan witches with wide eyes. There was something in her eyes, as if she had just realised something along the lines of: Oh Kami, what am I even doing?

"Okay Raya, how much fuel do you have?" Hikari asked warmly, doing her best to exude warmness as she got closer to the girl.

Raya paused and shook her head. "Enough to probably go nearly three hundred kilometres." she admitted.

Another shout over the radio caught their attention. "Second wave! Second wave inbound!"

Hikari's eyes snapped upwards and then her beautiful brown eyes widened in alarm. "SCATTER!" she shouted, eyeing no less than twelve Habus that were barreling down upon them. Already she could see the insidious glow of their energy weapons, wait, that wasn't the glow of a charging plasma cannon. That was the glow of the more common energy weapon that they had. Masers.

A sense screamed at her DANGER and her shield blazed to life, an instant later a set of nearly invisible ripples crashed into her shield and sweat beaded upon her brow.

She frantically looked around for the trainee, not conscript, but in many ways that was worse. Depending on training level, she would be naught but chaff for the Neuroi. It didn't take her long to find her, the radials in her strikers howled with glee as she flung herself around, keeping an eye on the two Habus that had it in for her.

Raya was in deep trouble, the Russian was throwing herself across the sky as a Habu relentlessly hounded her, spitting death from its masers and rocket guns sending insidious ripples and malevolent black contrails streaking towards the trainee. Her shield was blazing periodically as she frantically tried to bring her weapon, a DP-28, maybe, to bear against her opponent but the Habu was smart, the bastard was jinking to throw off the witch's aim.

Raya saw her heading her way and she briefly let her weapon hang across her front and she flashed hand signals. [Comrade runner, get out of here. I'll be fine.] she 'said' through those hand signals.

Hikari swore and replied with hand signals. [And let a helpless trainee die, my conscience won't allow for that.]

Raya flashed in return. [But, you're more important than me!]

It was something that Hikari decided to ignore as she pushed her strikers into WEP, a mixture of methanol and water was injected into the engine, boosting power by ten percent, she was thrown forward as her speed approached 650-kilometres per hour. A level of speed that couldn't be easily matched by early I-185s. She brought her PPSh up and sighted the Habu that was targeting Raya.

DANGER, the alert flashed in her mind and her shield flared, she could hear Neuroi explosive rockets detonating upon her shield with a hellish ringing noise like fireworks and slowly began to feel heat seeping through her shield. She was under fire from masers, a weapon that could eventually bake a witch through her shield.

In response she flung herself to the left and then to the right at varying intervals, doing solo flat scissors in order to throw the aim of the alien off, haemorrhaging air speed as she did so, there was a shrieking tenor and the Habu screamed by as it over shot. Hikari brought her SMG up and squeezed the trigger, the weapon roared for two seconds. The Habu visibly shook, the airframe twisted and deformed as pieces fell off, there was a flash of flame and the big Neuroi fighter went out of control, tumbling towards the surface of Lake Ladoga. It hit the water and the power core detonated in a muffled thunderclap of noise, throwing a column of water nearly fifty metres into the air.

"Splashed!" Hikari whooped excitedly over the radio, that was her first kill! She had just shot down a Neuroi!

A new voice broke in. "Gull flight, tally ho on nine Habus!" it was a familiar voice, one that Hikari recognized immediately. She looked around frantically and saw three shapes diving in on the Neuroi, one was wearing Shiden striker units, the other a Messerschmitt design of some type, and the other was using Shiden Kais. Her sister was here.

Miya screamed in pain and she spoke over the radio, her breathing ragged. "Gah, I am hit! I am hit! Left striker is on fire, ejecting it." there was a whump of noise, the sound of a striker ejecting, "I am done, sorry Frost One, looks like I am going for a swim. Be advised, the Habus that were after me are coming to you!"

Hikari remembered her training and with significant effort she squashed the urge to go racing after Miya and focused on the Habu that was targeting Raya. If she could shoot it down, then she could dive to the deck and focus upon getting out of here.

She focused on the trainee again, her weapon was bellowing at the Habu which had overshot but it was climbing and whirling through a loop, the tracers from Raya's DP-28 were falling just behind the heavy fighter. Hikari finally got a good look at the front of the Habu and was able to place the model, this was a Habu-IIID, armed with eight rocket guns of varying calibres, four Masers, and a Plasma Cannon. The fighter vaguely looked like a potato crossed with that of a pit viper's head with twin tails, albeit one that was the size of a G3M.

The Neuroi reached the apex of its loop, rolled over the top and dove. Its rocket guns immediately began discharging and Raya rolled away to evade the shots. Then the masers fired in sequence, ripples carved through the air and the trainee's shield blazed, it stopped the first few and then it shattered. Immediately afterwards a Maser shot smashed into Raya's face, were it not for her magical durability, she would have died then and there. But Hikari felt like throwing up as Raya's skin blistered and peeled, red leaking through in several places as one of her eyes, a barely visible white dot on her head from this distance burst asunder.

Raya tumbled as her hand flew up to cover her face, she was descending in an out of control spiral tumbling as she fell, another maser burst striking the Russian as she fell. Something came over Hikari, the navigation final from what seemed like a lifetime ago, that horrible squall, the microburst knocking Miya into the water and herself throwing the final just to save her rival's life. She wouldn't let another helpless trainee die today, not if she had anything to say about it. Hikari nosed over and dove, pushing her strikers as hard as she could. This was going to be close.

The Habu that had shot Raya had its back end ripped off in an explosion of gray and fire, the alien went out of control as moments later Takami blasted overhead heading towards the other Habus that had to have been racing to be engaging her. The younger Karibuchi knew that she had to get out of here after catching Raya.

---

Advisory: Escortunit 2 - subunits 2, 5, 6, and 9 deactivated

Advisory: Hostile - Identification: Human - Witch - Takami - Qualifier: Locator - Designation: HostileWTakami(Lo)

Advisory: Hostile - Identification: Human - Witch - Naoe - Qualifier: Puncher - Designation: HostileWNaoe(P)

Advisory: Hostile - Identification: Human - Witch - Nikka - Qualifier: Immortal - Designation: HostileWNikka(Im)

Query - HostileWTakami(Lo) - termination: maximumpriority - reprioritize?

Affirmative - EscortUnit 2 - Survival: Irrelevant

Acknowledged - CommandUnit 1

---

Lieutenant Karibuchi Takami, Imperial Fusoan Navy blasted over her younger sister at high speed as she raced to interdict the Neuroi Habus that were trying to kill her sister. She was the flight leader and thus had to make snap decisions and lead her girls effectively while also covering bases efficiently.

Thus her orders were quick and concise. "Nikka, I need you to find Frost Two, Naoe cover Frost One. I got the Habus!"

"Roger!" Nikka replied and the pitch of her strikers changed, she was peeling away to go after the downed witch.

"Be careful Takami." Naoe replied, she could tell that Naoe wasn't happy with the order. But she also knew that Naoe was a veteran of Barbarossa, the operation to relieve Saint Petersburg and that she knew how sideways something could go if the runner system got disrupted.

"I will be." Takami said and then she looked at the fighters, eight Habus were streaking towards them. Beyond the insidious ebony shapes she could see plumes of smoke rising over Sortavala. The Fusoan sighed, her best and most likely chance for buying Frost One, her sister, and Naoe enough time to extend out to the point where these Neuroi couldn't catch them was also the most risky. Attacks to the edges of the mob wouldn't pull enough away and as good as Naoe was, considering the durability of Habus, she would be hard-pressed against more than two, possibly three. Which meant it was time for some cat among pigeons type work here.

She adjusted her course, chambered her Solothurn S-18/100 20 mm anti-tank cannon, the weapon was massive and heavy. But moreover, it was powerful, the heavy rounds fired by this behemoth of a gun when using magic, could even pose a risk to some models of Neuroi tank and just about anything Pre-War that had been Neuroified barring vehicles like the KV-series and T-34s.

Takami breathed in and prayed briefly as she rocketed towards the merge. This was going to be hairy, she just knew it. She brought her rifle up and sighted the first Habu just as they opened fire at her with everything they had. Heat distortions, boiling crimson, and hundreds of rockets screamed towards her, it was bullet hell made manifest. Takami snorted as she thought how cute and raised her shield, twisting to the right on her x-axis like a corkscrew would when spun in a man's hand. With her shield blazing with white pinpricks as it absorbed fire, she sighted her first target and pulled the trigger.

The rifle bucked, fire blasted from the muzzle and the tracer smashed into the lead fighter, the SAP-T round drilling through the exterior like it was made of paper and detonating. The Habu barely flinched, swearing the Fusoan fired again and again. This time the Habu lost all control and began to enter a downwards frontflip as it plunged from the sky trailing fire.

Then the human and the aliens blasted past each other at a velocity whose closing velocity was approaching the speed of sound. As Takami wheeled around, she swore, the Neuroi formation had broken into two individual formations with parade-like precision and wheeled to the left and right respectively, oh this wasn't good. It was a simple enough but relatively easy tactic that, if pulled off right, could allow Steelwings to take on witches and not lose horribly.

The basic idea was to have two separate formations come in from two separate directions and attack near simultaneously since most witches couldn't summon multiple shields. It had first been developed by the Karlslandians during the Great War by Manfred von Richtofen, the Red Baron himself and proved to be horrifyingly effective in the first few months of use before counters were found other than run away and now the Neuroi were using it. The easiest was to wait until the enemy had committed and then do either diving or climbing turn towards one of the formations. But she was pretty confident that the Neuroi knew that which meant that they would probably come in a line abreast formation and thus if she did so too early then they could get snapshots. Which left her with one option. Counter attack.

There were eight Neuroi left, assuming that at worst each one required five shots to kill, she would need forty rounds to kill the entire formation. She had two magazines secured to her hips, with another strapped across her front plus one in the gun. She could kill if all of her shots hit, but even if she didn't, she could probably force them to disengage due to losses. Thus she had to make every shot count.

She twisted and brought her cannon to bear and stroked the trigger, flame blasted forth and the tracer smashed into one of the Neuroi, it shuddered from the blow but didn't fall. Exhaling, another shot blasted away, followed quickly by another. The Habu was streaming smoke and had an internal fire going, but with that sort of damage wouldn't kill a Neuroi immediately. She fired again, this time the tracer missed cleanly and Takami swore, then pulled the trigger again. The burning Neuroi almost immediately left the realm of controlled flight and started to plunge towards Lake Ladoga.

The fighters were starting to bring their noses around, she needed to choose a direction to go in order to disrupt their own. One formation only had three Habus and the other was still at full strength. If she went for the weaker one, she could probably survive but would then have to worry about four Habus having a chance of slotting into her six o'clock and that was something she didn't want.

Her choice made, she flung herself around and barreled towards the four Habus and hoped that she was making the right decision as she raced for another merge with the aliens. The Anti-Tank Rifle came up, it held ten rounds plus one in the chamber. She had already fired eight rounds, which meant she had three shots left before she needed to reload. Which meant that after this merge she would have to reload, a tricky process under combat conditions but she had become rather adept at it. Racing through the skies she brought her weapon up and exhaled, steadied her aim and watched the enemy as the sensation of danger surged through her and without thought she summoned her shield. An instant later, there was a series of staccato flashes as their masers discharged, followed almost immediately by their rocket guns and with a howling scream, their plasma cannons.

She could feel the heat from the masers sinking through her shield at an alarming rate, her skin starting to dry out from the sixteen energy weapons unleashing their fury upon her shield. They were baking her through her shield, which meant she would need to see Georgette after this encounter and would have to go through standard physicals and whatnot. She didn't mind seeing Georgette at all, but she hated the Physicals that had to come after.

Despite the enemy fire hammering upon her shield, she aimed and fired three times in rapid succession, one of the Habus belched fire and thick black smoke but it didn't fall. Dammit. She hit the magazine release, pulled the magazine out then dropped it.

Wham! Her ears rang, it felt like her head had been inside a bell that had just been rung, white hot needles were in her right arm and her right hand didn't feel right. She swept her gaze over and her jaw dropped, the other Neuroi group had brought their noses around much faster than she had expected them to. She frantically pulled the magazine in the right holder out and slammed it into the gun. An instant later their masers discharged, stuttering flashes rippled across the noses of the alien fighters.

Blood sprayed and her strikers, Chidori shrieked as metal melted in a flash, sending fractures across the surface and she could feel the maser blasts just missing her from the heat wash. A hand instinctively raced down to her side and it came away sticky and red. She'd been hit, but it wasn't that bad, she had survived getting struck by a fairly large high-velocity fragment during her deployment to the Libau Pocket, if she had survived that, she could survive this. She blasted through the merge and climbed with the intention of rolling over the top, to pounce upon the flight of three Habus.

As she went to rake the bolt, her heart dropped. She was missing two whole fingers and half of another one. That was it, her career was over. But dammit, if this was her last sortie then she would make it memorable. Takami pushed the thought of this being her last mission out of her mind and climbed, her side was screaming in agony and her strikers were roaring furiously but she could tell that one of them was damaged, possibly severely. As she pulled into the loop, she chanced a glance down her front. It was covered in small gashes and cuts, several of which were oozing blood. Okay, it wasn't as bad as she thought it was.

Takami finished climbing over the top and gaped, the formation with three Habus were climbing to meet her right now while the other formation had lit their boosters briefly and were now on a perch above her. The Fusoan could only swear viciously, the Neuroi had her trapped. No matter which way she went now, they would be able to line up shots and wounded as she was. If they got her in a crossfire, she doubted that she would be able to evade with enough skill to not get hit again. That left her only one option, run like hell.

"Nikka, I am disengaging towards Sortavala, probably going to end up on one of the islands near the mouth of the river!" She barked over the radio.

"Alright, I'll head to the city and if you're not there in ten minutes, I'll start searching the islands." the Soumi witch replied.

Nodding to herself, Takami then flung herself towards the smoke plumes that marked the location of Sortavala, plumes that had grown much thicker and now had the thick, pitch, black smoke indicative of burning fuel bunkers. Without thinking she pushed her battered strikers into War Emergency Power, the acceleration pushed down upon her head, compressing her torso, sending ripples of fiery agony sweeping through her body.

Takami didn't scream from the pain ripping through her torso. No she breathed in the pain, she used it to fuel her adrenaline and from that the energy which was driving her to survive this day. She threw a glance behind her as she raced towards safety, the Neuroi had apparently been flat footed by her decision to bolt. The formation of two Habus was slow and turning towards her, trying to accelerate to catch her. But the formation that had lit their boosters was now beginning to dive after her from their perch.

The Fusoan witch swore and put herself into a dive, she had enough of a lead, a few kilometres, that if she dove then she could probably reach Sortavala and the safety of its anti-aircraft guns before the Neuroi reached firing range. She hoped. The problem was that while witches were great at many things, diving wasn't one of them, they could weigh at most an honest to kami half tonne fully kitted out, Neuroi Habus, at least the ones that had been captured and torn apart for study, were believed to weigh around twenty tonnes. Which meant that Habus excelled at diving.

Come on, come on! Takami thought desperately as the shoreline began to inch into view an island outside the mouth of the river that Sortavala rested upon. There were scattered trees upon the rough hillside that rose out of the waters of Lake Ladoga. If she could get into the trees then there was no way in hell that the Neuroi would chase her and she would be home free.

That still left the fact that her career in the IFN was going to be over after this. But she would go across that bridge when everything came down to it, after this patrol was over. She threw a glance behind her, the Neuroi were gaining rapidly on her, using their heavier mass to their advantage. From here she could just make out the glow from charging plasma weapons.

Shit, not good. Takami threw herself frantically to the left and right as she forced herself to level out early and began to add random climbs and dives to her frantic juking. With a shrieking thunderclap, the first bolts of plasma hissed by and impacted the water below, great gouts of steam and near boiling water was flung upwards by the heat of the beams. More plasma streaked past her, occasionally passing so close that she had to summon a shield lest the heat literally cause her flesh to slide right off her bones if not outright explode from the heat wash. She'd seen that happen and the results were never pretty.

More bolts of red light streaked down around her, the crackling thunderclaps roaring in her ears. Her shield blazed with light as it deflected the plasma, but now invisible ripples were joining the plasma. Masers were firing upon her now, more steam was blasting upwards from the misses, she was maybe forty-five seconds from safety. In air combat, forty-five seconds was an eternity.

She twisted, pain shooting up her side as if there were a hundred knives buried in her cannon rifle was coming up against the Neuroi. Takami looked at the magazine and swore, there were rents in the magazine from Neuroi shrapnel, which meant this thing was useless. She hit the magazine release and discarded the magazine, the last thing she needed right now was a chamber explosion due to a bad round. She pulled out a fresh magazine and rammed it home, she sighted the first Habu just as they exploded in contrails as their rocket guns fired.

"Bring it!" she shouted and fired once, twice, three times in rapid succession, one of the fighters lurched, bleeding fire, its fuselage crumpled and torn but it stubbornly kept going. Rockets hammered upon her shield in an explosion of fire, shrapnel, and force that rang in her ears and shook her bones. She fired twice more, the rifle dug into her shoulder, sending more pain jolting down her side like steely knives as her muscles absorbed the forces.

The targeted fighter exploded in a multicoloured flash of light as her shot set off the power core. She threw a glance over her shoulder, she was maybe twenty seconds out from safety. She fired her weapon again, there were two Habus left, but they were throwing in evasions now and the shot was a clean miss. But then she saw that rapidly coming up behind the two Habus on her tail were the ones that she had caught flat footed. Still, she felt like she could make it!

Another salvo of plasma, masers, and rockets crashed against her shield, this time it shattered. The backlash and concussion from such an event sent her tumbling head over prop. She lost her grip on her rifle as she tumbled, the weapon hit the water that was maybe thirty metres below with a deep whump and a spall of white, vanishing from sight in an instant. The next thing Takami knew was that there was a loud wham and her vision was filled with fire, an instant later she screamed as the smashed remains of her strikers auto ejected, sending a sharp jolt of agony up her leg. Snarling, twisting her body and summoning her shield, a dangerous proposition so soon after a shield break, she did the equal to a belly flop at nearly 370-kilometres per hour, she skipped across the surface like a smooth stone would across a pond. Once, twice, three times, four, five, before on the sixth time she plunged into the water.

The landing was bad enough, the four degree centigrade water was worse, it felt like ten thousand katanas were slashing into her skin. Red filled her vision as blood from her wound entered the water. She thrashed and kicked, her head bursting above the surface, she took in a deep lungful of air before frantically looking around. The Habus that had been on her had over shot and were now beginning to come around and the ones that were behind them? Maybe a minute away before they could start shooting at her. She had one shot at this otherwise she was going to be shot dead in this fucking cold lake.

She broke into a powerful breaststroke, the motion was sending white hot agony coursing through her body. A lesser witch would have been screaming in agony by now, but if there was one thing that Takami knew, it was the phrase 'never give up, never surrender' and right now she was using that to her fullest. She was probably going to die here, but dammit it wouldn't be while she was swimming to shore, she figured that she would sell her life like any warrior of Fuso should. Spitting defiance at her enemy while on her feet and thus she swam, desperate to get to shore. She only had one weapon left, her prized Browning Hi-Power, she knew that most of the ammunition was probably already ruined but dammit she didn't care.

She looked over her shoulder as she swam frantically for shore, the Habus that had been a minute away were closer now, much closer. She was only a few metres away from the shoreline, she could feel the bottom of the lake scraping against her body. She stood and ran, her legs pumping, water coursed its way down her body and she moved to the shore, as the water cleared her ears and the wings of her familiar she could hear the rumbling tenor of the engines approaching.

She knew this was the end, she wouldn't be able to summon another shield that would be able to actually stop enemy fire for a couple of minutes, that was time she didn't have. Her twilight was upon her, she flipped open the catch on her holster, clicked the magazine release and flipped the magazine over. Water plattered onto the soaked ground before loading the drained magazine and racking the slide.

She could see their energy weapons glowing. I am sorry Hikari. Takami thought as she opened fire with the pistol in defiance, an instant later the Neuroi replied and she dove to the side in a desperate, possibly hopeless attempt to evade. But not fast enough, something caught her in the side with the sensation of being punched, the smell of charred flesh filled her nostrils as blinding pain went up her side and leg, then everything went mercifully black.

---

Report - Targetlist update - HostileWTakami(Lo) - Status: Terminated

Acknowledged

---

Hikari warily eyed Naoe as the shore of Lake Ladoga came into view, but she ignored that and focused on the tiny witch whose arms were firmly wrapped around her neck. Raya weighed maybe thirty kilos at most and yet she was still fairly strong. The Russian's face had been mangled by the Neuroi's maser shot; she was lucky that it hadn't blasted her skull apart.

"It's alright, I have you Raya, I won't drop you." Hikari said gently as she adjusted her grip on the trainee ever-so-slightly.

[It hurts.] Raya moaned in Russian, her face had been severely burned with the skin blistered, peeling, and bright red with blood leaking through various splits in her face and from her ruined eye socket.

"I know, I know. Once we get to Saint Petersburg, you'll be attended to by the healwitch that's there." Hikari said in a comforting voice.

"That witch is crazy for taking on a Habu with barely any training." Naoe said as she gazed upon the Russian that was hanging onto Hikari with everything she had.

Hikari shot the Fusoan a glare. "So you're saying that she's insane?"

Naoe held up her hands. "No, I am not. I am just saying that she's overly aggressive and probably not far along in her training."

Hikari had to resist the urge to growl at the JFW assigned witch and instead just redoubled her glare. She didn't like this girl at all, she was already getting under skin. Still, she knew that her sister was virtually invincible and that the Neuroi she was facing would be naught but wheat before the Scythe. Nothing could really stop her sister.

Raya's remaining eye suddenly snapped open and looked around then her eye locked on her and promptly teared up. "Y-you saved me, comrade runner." she whispered hoarsely.

"I did," Hikari said, smiling at her as a city started to come into view.

"But why? You know how orders regarding runners and the Neuroi are." Raya said in a whimper, clearly in a massive amount of pain.

Hikari smiled and used her thumb on her right hand to gently rub Raya's neck as she replied. "I rescued you simply because it was the right thing to do, you didn't deserve to die like you would have had I not rescued you."

Raya shivered and tightened her grip upon her. "Thank you," there was so much emotion in the Russian's statement and it touched the Fusoan's heart. It was something that Hikari knew that she would never forget.

On the horizon, she could see the distinct towering Cathedral Spire that marked out the Peter and Paul Fortress, home of the 502nd JFW and one of the primary centres for runners in this part of the theatre. The fortress itself dated back to the early 1700s and had served as the original citadel for Saint Petersburg, but in the 1780s, a witch coven had arrived in Saint Petersburg and thus it had become a Witch Hold.

Now, nearly two centuries later, the fortress served as not only the base for the 502nd JFW but as a vital nerve centre for the Russian, Soumish, Fusoan, Polish, and Karlslandian armies and barring the Karlslandians and to an extent the Poles, were dependent on runners in order for orders to go out. Moreover given the strategic importance of the inhabitants of this base, it had an above average concentration of healwitches and striker mechanics. Indeed, the Runners were in terms of strategic importance, more important than even the 502nd JFW. After all, witch wings were dime a dozen and while the 502nd was granted an elite formation, it was still only a witch wing.

However as Hikari had been discovering, being a runner was extremely dangerous and in some cases, a run could be outright suicidal, and sometimes were. But as she had learned, it resulted in a tight-knit community where no secrets were kept from each other. Said community was also a little crazy, but Hikari was beginning to assume that it came with the territory.

Naoe flew in front of her and pulled out a Very Pistol as they raced over the city. The Fortress ahead was growing more detailed as they did so. As they approached, she could hear the heavy roar of Ostmarkian 21cm artillery pieces and could see the smoke from the discharge as a battery went work, shooting at Neuroi targets nearly thirty kilometres away, probably at the fortifications along the coast that were holding up the advance and were to her knowledge, the big reason why they hadn't completely broken the siege.

With a hissing crack, the Very Pistol fired and a cherry red glob of light streaked into the sky and there was a pause of several seconds and then from the fortress came a green bolt of light that was also streaking into the sky. Naoe looked at her and nodded. "Alright, you're cleared to land Frost One." she said.

Hikari nodded and gingerly began to descend, being mindful of the black haired witch in her grip. But as she approached, she could see the thin line of pavement that etched out from the fortress. She could see Russian 85mm AA guns along with a mixture of 37mm and 57mm weapons that were near the runway for air defense.

The Fortress itself was a relatively intact beacon in the ruins of a mangled city, one that had been ravaged by nearly two years of constant, gruelling, siege warfare. Bombed out buildings, cratered streets, and partially down bridges dotted the landscape. It was a strange scene, one that was quite odd. But Hikari knew that the fortress had powerful magical wards defending it.

As she got lower, she could see tiny figures scurrying around near the hangar, she focused on them and frowned, medical personnel. She wasn't hurt, at least she was fairly sure that she wasn't. But Raya wasn't, at least she wasn't covered in the younger witch's blood, that was something she would never be able to get out of her head if that happened.

The trickiest part of flying Strikers was landing, mostly because it required simultaneously slowing down while coming up to a mostly vertical position and doing so at an angle. If you botched any of these, or Gods help you, all three, it would result in at minimum a very shaky landing or at worst a fatal crash. This was naturally complicated by Raya who was clinging to her front.

She pulled back on the throttle, dropped the flaps and lined up the runway. Hikari knew that she had to come in faster than usual due to Raya, whom with her webbing and equipment combined with her natural weight probably was pushing forty kilos at minimum, though it was probably more. This was in combination with her mass, her strikers, and her equipment, it made for easily the most difficult landing she had to do up to this point.

A hundred fifty metres off the ground, Hikari began to flare out, lifting her upper body so it was no longer parallel with the ground. This process continued throughout the landing until she was some thirty metres off ground, she now began the most difficult part, the final flare out. She had to go from forty-five degrees to roughly seventy-five degrees in relation to horizontal. If she mistimed this, at best she would stall and go for a swim in the Neva River and at worst she would pancake into the runway, demolishing the strikers and causing things to get rather fiery, then ensuing crash would then be a dice roll, she could either come out of it unscathed or break her neck and would have to be dragged away from her burning strikers. Which would have been unpleasant to say the least. This also didn't count into what would happen to Raya, she was already badly hurt.

Thus being as careful as she could be, she started the manoeuvre. The runway loomed, its perimeter was lined with red brick masonry, with the runway itself made from concrete that jutted out from the island that the fortress was located upon, which was also made from stone with a brick exterior with the exterior walls being mind bogglingly thick earthen embankments sheathed in several layers of brick. Plus there were the magical wards that surrounded the fortress, which had been layered on over the course of a century and half.

Engines howling, Hikari brought her legs down as a blazing runic circle flashed into existence beneath her, she chopped power and the bellow of her strikers changed to a low rumbling. Now on the ground, she could focus on taxiing towards the hangar that had been set aside for the runners.

As she pulled in, she was surprised to see that there were a couple of stretchers and medical personnel there. She hadn't even reached her striker stand before one of the medical teams dashed over. One of them was a witch who looked familiar enough, judging by the patch on her shoulder she was a member of the 502nd JFW and she spoke with an accent that Hikari couldn't place. "Flight Sergeant, place her on the stretcher!" the woman demanded as they wheeled the stretcher up, she had light blue eyes and was a brunette.

Hikari glanced at Raya and then back at the woman. She nodded and replied with "Hai, ma'am." and as gingerly as she could manage, she placed the Russian onto the stretcher. But unfortunately, it wasn't gentle enough. Raya cried out in pain and agony as she was placed upon the stretcher, her remaining emerald eye watering with tears.

Upon seeing the healwitch's eyes widen, Hikari glanced down and grimaced, her front was virtually covered in blood. "It's not mine." she admitted and the woman relaxed, but her gaze was still focused on her.

"You're still coming to the infirmary after you deliver your message." the woman said firmly as her hands began to glow and magic began to play across Raya's form. Immediately her shallow breathing began to improve, as did her colour. The woman looked to the stretcher bearers. "Let's get her to the infirmary!" she commanded and Hikari watched as Raya was wheeled away.

Naoe spoke up from behind her. "Don't mind Georgette, she takes her job as a healwitch very seriously and whatever you do, don't skip your post-mission medical checkup. She will drag you by the ear to the infirmary just to give you said checkup." her fellow Fusoan said in a tone that spoke from experience, it caused Hikari to give the abrasive witch a look.

Naoe spread her hands. "Your friend is in good hands, trust me."

Hikari nodded as she guided her striker into its stands, with a clang the securing arms clacked into place, She gripped the handrails that were behind her and with a grunt of exertion lifted herself out of her strikers then she swung herself back onto the platform. Her feet hit the wooden platform and as she did so, there was a flash of light as she unmerged with her familiar, a Fusoan Squirrel named Matsuda.

Exhaustion crashed into her and she had to grasp the handrails to remain upright. "Ugh." she groaned as it washed over her, she knew just from how she felt that she had probably over done it a little bit. "Overdid it again?" Matsuda asked cheekily.

"Yeah." Hikari gasped as she tried her best to not double over and grasp her knees. She shoved the exhaustion aside and stood up, she needed to deliver her message. A simple status report from a British Expeditionary Force that was landing in the Baltic Sea Empire with orders to head to Saint Petersburg with all due haste. She'd been ordered to deliver this message to General Zhukov for some reason, the man wasn't part of the Fusoan Armed Forces but the various runner witches usually ran messages for nearly everyone.

She quickly spotted an orderly wearing an Russian Imperial Army uniform and she strode over, having to stop herself from wincing as tendrils of fire seemed to go shooting up her back. "Flight Sergeant Karibuchi Hikari, runner, with a message for General Zhukov." she said.

The man nodded. "Follow me, comrade runner." he said and dashed off down a hallway and Hikari broke into a jog to follow, grimacing as pain went shooting up her back. It was like a hundred knives were carving into her back.

This part of the base was a tight winding maze that was rather confusing, but to her knowledge it was actually an intentional design. Finally they came to a door that was marked 'General Zhukov', her destination.

She knocked firmly and a voice spoke up. "Come." the voice was firm and commanding, taking in a deep breath, Hikari looked over at herself as briefly as she could. She knew that she wasn't looking her best, what with her front covered by dry blood and her shirt being surprisingly sweat stained, then there was the fact that she wasn't particularly sure that she could keep up a good posture.

"Excuse me." Hikari said and opened the door, the General's office was surprisingly spartan, the man behind the desk was surprisingly burly in build with an expression on his face that could be best described as serious. She came to attention as best as she could, but pain was still shooting up her back whenever she took a step or did something with her back muscles. She ignored though for now, she thought that she just did something funny to her back. "Flight Sergeant Karibuchi Hikari, runner, reporting sir."

Zhukov fixed her with a firm look. "As you were, comrade runner."

Hikari relaxed and pulled her message tube off her back and opened it. "I have a message from General Morgan of the British 4th Army, to be delivered to General Zhukov." she said stiffly, pulling out the message.

General Zhukov took it without a word and then promptly said. "Thank you comrade runner," and for a moment Hikari straightened to attention, more pain shooting up her spine. "Dismissed."

"Thank you sir." Hikari said and spun on her heel and walked out, the moment the door closed behind her, her posture slumped as fire shot up her back and she exhaled, causing more pain to go shooting up her back.

Right now she needed to find the infirmary and get checked over, she was certain that she had hurt her back in some manner. Probably when she got smacked into that building by that exploding naval barge. She hoped it wasn't too serious.

Matsuda rested upon her shoulder as she walked. "Feeling alright Hikari?" her familiar asked, as far as Hikari knew, Matsuda was practically ancient as far as familiars went.

"Not particularly, my back is really sore, I could use a shower and a change of clothes." Hikari admitted as she strode through the halls, being mindful of her familiar as she did so.

Matsuda chittered. "I agree, a shower and a change of clothes would help you feel better."

Hikari sighed as she walked. "After my checkup." she said, she wasn't really particularly looking forward to it.

"Something wrong?" Matsuda asked.

"I don't really like doctor visits."

In the end it took her nearly twenty minutes to find the infirmary and nearly walked into the healwitch, Georgette, from earlier. Her eyes lit up. "Ah, Flight Sergeant Karibuchi, I was just beginning to look for you, here for your checkup?" she asked, her English still colored by that odd accent.

"Yes ma'am, I think I hurt my back somehow." Hikari replied as she followed Georgette into the ward, the woman paused.

"What do you mean?" Georgette asked, turning to face her.

"Whenever I walk or twist my back, it feels like burning knives go shooting up it." Hikari admitted before adding "How's Raya?"

Georgette frowned. "Alright, follow me," she said and led her into the infirmary. It was surprisingly empty, there were a couple of beds occupied but not many. "Raya's damn lucky all things considered, we got the wound in her side patched up although she lost a lot of blood and she'll be getting a transfusion tomorrow, but my main concern is her head wound. One of her eyes is completely ruined, I am fairly sure we can fix that using healing magic but it'll be weeks at best before it's done."

Hikari nodded as she continued following Georgette until they came to an empty bed and she sat down, Matsuda leaped onto the bedside table. The healwitch closed the blinders around the bed and then reached under the bedside table and pulled out a bin, she quickly pulled out a crisp white gown out of it. "First things first, let's have you change." Georgette said and Hikari nodded.

Getting out of the webbing and peacoat wasn't particularly difficult, but it was all sticky and such from the dried blood when she put it on the bed, Georgette took the peacoat as well as the webbing and deposited it in the bin. "That's going to have to be disposed of." she muttered as she did so. Hikari had to agree, they had been effectively ruined by all the blood.

But getting out of her blouse was even more difficult, suppressing a snarl of pain as her chest and back flared in agony, she pulled the shirt off. Hikari was surprised, the blouse hadn't been ruined by blood, although it would probably need to be put through the cleaners. She then pulled on the snow white gown and buttoned its snaps shut.

Georgette frowned briefly. "Hikari, I want you to lay down on your stomach, I am going to check for any abnormalities in your back using my magic."

Hikari sighed but nodded and did so, as she laid down two things happened. First she heard the distinctive pop of a witch summoning her familiars and it felt like a dozen knives buried themselves into her chest. She hissed angrily in pain as it felt like her chest gave more than it should have, aching fire coursed through her chest. "Ack!" she cried out and suddenly it became a lot harder to breathe.

A moment later a gentle hand touched her back and Hikari yelped as she felt a pulse of magic go through her. "Okay, your back is going to have to wait. You got a broken sternum and several broken ribs and you just punctured a lung." She heard Georgette say and then felt a nice cool soothing mist wash over her as faint blue light suffused itself into her vision.

Almost immediately it became easier to breathe and the fire coursing through her chest receded with startlingly quickness. "Thanks Georgette." Hikari said as the soothing sensation of the healing magic working upon her body worked its way through her.

"No problem Hikari." Georgette said in a gentle voice.

"Georgette, I have to ask, where are you from?" Hikari asked, she wasn't sure where the healwitch was from.

"I am from Gallia, it's been… difficult admittedly. I don't know if my parents made it out of Gallia before it fell to the Neuroi, only the Lord himself knows how I managed to survive my own escape." Georgette said as her hands touched Hikari lower on her back and sent another pulse of magic through her, the soothing sensation worked its way down Hikari's back as Georgette gently shifted the positioning of her hands.

"What is it like in Gallia? I've never been there, probably never will be." Hikari asked as a dark thought crossed her mind, I certainly will never be there if I don't survive as a runner.

Georgette perked up. "It's a beautiful country, an old country in fact. One of the first to be fully unified in all of Europe, and the people there are some of the best you'll ever meet. I just hope that there's something left to go home too when the war ends." she said as she gingerly worked her healing magic through her back.

"Sounds amazing, Fuso is like that as well, it's just so beautiful and old, having been unified in 1588." Hikari replied and then she sighed in bliss as the healing magic began to undo the knots in her muscles. "This feels nice." she mused and suddenly she got the impression that Georgette was blushing.

The soft gentle hum of the healing magic continued to work. "Yeah, it's quite nice being a healwitch. Your less likely to get sent on suicide missions, healwitches are considered strategic assets, I am lucky that I am even allowed to see combat sorties as part of the 502nd." Georgette admitted as Hikari felt her touch her back again and send another pulse of healing magic rushing through her body.

"Really? I would have thought that since you're a healwitch, you would always be taking part in sorties as a combat medic." Hikari said, surprised that Georgette wasn't really allowed to take part in sorties.

"Hikari, healwitches are rather rare. Each one is incredibly valuable and there have been cases of healwitches bringing men back from the cusp of death. The loss of even a single healwitch is a major strategic blow to the war effort." Georgette said as she guided more magic into her body.

"That seems cruel, you joined the military to fight the Neuroi and yet you're being told that you can't." Hikari said, shocked that it could even be a thing, denying someone who had enlisted to fight the Neuroi only for the higher ups to bar them from doing that.

Hikari heard Georgette sigh. "In many ways it isn't, I flew sorties to cover the escape of battleships Richelieu and Jean Bart from Gallia and it was harrowing to say the least. I lost a fair few friends and that only went up after I was reassigned to the Normandie-Niemen." the Gallian witch said, there was a deep melancholy in her voice and a hint of hidden pain.

"I've never actually thought about it that way." Hikari said, finding herself being honestly surprised at the Gallian's remarks. In a strange way, it made a lot of sense, but she couldn't think about actually being told to not fight. But then again, while her job wasn't necessarily to fight the Neuroi, she took part in the war effort in her own way.

That's when another voice cut through the air, the accent was thicker and more authoritative. "Lieutenant, can I have a word with you?"

Hikari glanced over her shoulder and were it not for Georgette putting a firm hand on her, she would have turned over and came to attention as best as she possibly could, for there was Squadron Leader Gundula Rall of the 502nd Joint Fighter Wing. She didn't see Georgette make any sort of motion in response but she heard the Gallian reply with "Yes ma'am," before saying "Hikari, stay in that bed."

Hikari slumped into the bed and glanced at Matsuda. "What do you think this is about?" the Fusoan asked.

Matsuda chittered, "I don't really know."

That gave Hikari a sense of dread as she considered it, whenever a high ranking officer asked the doctor or nurse who was treating a soldier. It obviously meant bad things, but the question that she was trying to figure out was what would it mean? But whatever it was, it was obviously nothing good. "I have to agree, it isn't good at all."

In the end, Hikari got her answer when footsteps heralded the return of Georgette. Her expression was downcast. "Hikari," the Gallian started, her voice filled with emotion.

"Yes?" Hikari asked, a lump of dread forming in her stomach.

"C-can you please lay on your back for a moment?" Georgette asked, her voice stiff.

Hikari turned herself over, the pain from the motion wasn't fire that was ripping through her body, but more like a dull ache. "What's wrong?" she asked and Georgette visibly winced.

"I'll let the Squadron Leader explain." Georgette said before poking her head through the blinder and saying something.

Hikari straightened as best she could despite lying in a rather uncomfortable hospital bed as the Squadron Leader for one of the squadrons of the 502nd JFW, Gundula Rall, stepped in. One thing that stood out to Hikari was that the squadron leader was wearing a full dress uniform. The ball of dread in her stomach became an ice cold lump.

Gundula stood tall and proud, then she spoke. "Karibuchi Hikari?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am?" Hikari replied, her mind working on autopilot.

The squadron leader sighed. "It's with a heavy heart that I must inform you that earlier today Lieutenant Karibuchi Takami was severely wounded in action, engaging Neuroi fighters over Lake Ladoga," she paused then continued, "it's unlikely that she's going to survive emergency surgery and the night."

What...no, no, no. Her sister couldn't be severely wounded, it was impossible, she was one of the best witches she knew. "No, I," her mouth refused to work properly. It couldn't be, her sister couldn't be wounded that badly. Takami was unstoppable, how could?

Then she realised that Takami hadn't come into the infirmary to see her even though she should have been back by now and before she could stop herself, she began crying with tears spilling forth as she let out desolate sobs.

Two powerful arms wrapped around her and before she knew it, her face was being pressed into someone's shoulder and then singing. She heard someone singing in a language she had never heard before, the words were soft and gentle with a soothing tone as whoever was holding her began rocking her gently.

But that didn't matter, her sister could die. Why? Why had the war decided to try and take her sister away so suddenly? She remembered when Takami had come back from Libau and she said she'd been wounded there, but she hadn't seemed that badly hurt. The fact that she might die…oh Kami…that was a reality that she wasn't sure she was ready for.

That soft voice then said. "Takami's going to be alright,"

She pulled her face away from the shoulder she was crying into and peered into Georgette's face. "What do you mean? It's practically impossible for witch's to get severely wounded in action."

The Gallian smiled. "She'll be alright because I am going to call in favours, I have a few and I am going to be cashing them in. She'll survive, I promise you that. Besides," Georgette paused and Hikari was shocked to see tears shining in her eyes, "Takami is a member of the 502nd and practically a sister."

Hikari shot the Gallian an astonished look and Georgette smiled in melancholy. "Combat forges bonds that go deeper than blood. Takami wasn't family, nor was anyone else in the squadron related to each other, but after just a few weeks, the squadron started to feel like a family. Besides I owe Takami, she's saved my life on no less than three separate occasions and until now, I haven't had the chance to pay her back."

She couldn't help her sister, her big unstoppable sister. Now she was fighting for her life and death might win. Might actually claim her sister. This couldn't be happening, could it?

Hikari looked at Gundula who surprisingly, was still there and her expression was soft. "W-what sort of wounds did Takami suffer?" she asked.

Gundula grimaced, her eyes looked downcast. It was clear that it was bad. "She had one of her legs ripped open and took a plasma bolt full in the side. It's messy."

Hikari, her eyes brimming with tears, nodded. Just the knowledge of how badly wounded her sister was to an extent comforting. She knew that at Libau, Takami had been hit by a large piece of shrapnel that had laid her up for a couple of months. She was tough, if anyone could survive those wounds she could. Regardless, she prayed to the Kami, prayed for them to show mercy and let her sister live.

She was brought out of her prayer by Georgette saying something and a few moments later another witch walked into view. She was distinctively slavic in appearance, reminding her almost of that squadron leader that she'd seen Takami flying with. "You wanted to see me Pilot Officer Lemare?" she asked.

"I did Witch Surgeon Tsitsyanova, we have two witches who are going to be here for observation. Young Hikari here and Raya two beds over, I am going to be helping in Flight Lieutenant Karibuchi's emergency surgery and if I am going to make it in time, I need to get moving." Georgette said and Tsitsyanova nodded.

"I understand Pilot Officer, so you want me to watch the two of them?" The slavic witch asked and Georgette nodded.

"Alright, I'll do it, you better get going Pilot Officer, they'll probably be starting soon." Tsitsyanova said and with that, the Gallian left, her footsteps rapidly fading away.

A moment later the slavic witch turned to Hikari. "Hikari, is it? I am going to be keeping an eye on Raya personally, but I am going to be having my familiar keep an eye on you," the witch surgeon said and patted on her bed and a cat with green eyes and a light silvery shimmering coat leaped on the bed and started making herself comfortable.

"What's her name?" Hikari asked before a different question, one about Tsitsyanova's familiar came to mind.

The blonde hair witch smiled. "Her name is Dunya." and then she frowned as she noticed Hikari looking between her cat and a squirrel. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Hikari looked at the cat and then at the squirrel. "Dunya won't eat my familiar right?" she asked as her eyes flicked up to Matsuda who upon seeing the cat had leaped upon her head chittering in terror.

Tsitsyanova paused as a look of sheer amusement came over her features. "She won't, you primarily have to worry about Alexa hurting her if he decides to play with your familiar, he's Sasha's familiar, a Polar bear. But that's mostly because Alexa isn't really aware of his own size."

"Polar bear?" Hikari asked, not quite sure what that was.

"Big white bear." Tsitsyanova explained offhandedly.

Right, a big bear. It couldn't be that big right?

"Anyways," Tsitsyanova said, "you're going to be staying overnight. It's standard procedure for injuries, tomorrow you'll have a full physical and hopefully by the end of the week you'll be recertified for flying sorties."

Hikari groaned, a week in the infirmary, great, just fantastic. She hated infirmaries.

---

In the dark confines of his office, General Zhukov leaned back in his chair as he took a final drag on his cigarette before extinguishing it in the ashtray. He looked over the message with a grim expression on his face. Ever since Hive Grigori had dropped in the White Sea, they'd been forced to use the northern ports of Baltland to bring in supplies. While the railway in Narvik and Bodo was working full time in bringing men and supplies over, it seemed unlikely that the Britannian Fourth Army would actually arrive in Saint Petersburg in time to take part in Operation Polar Star. While the infantry, tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft firepower, and witches that said formation would have been bringing would have been useful, he would have to make do without them.

But the cost of getting this message had been simply too high. It was always too high whenever witches were killed in action, something that happened with a regularity that could be considered alarming to other parts of the world in this war. But for the Eastern European Front, it was nothing more than a regularity. Still, that didn't mean that the witch losses today in the air above Sortavala hurt. The unit that had been training there had been almost ready for deployment, now that Fighter Witch Regiment wouldn't be able to be deployed for several months. In not even thirty minutes, eight witches had been killed in action, five more wouldn't fly again, and six others would need months of recovery. The Regiment was effectively down two-thirds of its strength.

Then there was the loss that the 502nd Joint Guards Composite Witch Regiment had suffered today. One of the best Fusoan fighter witches in the world had been so severely wounded in action that, from what preliminary reports she had read, it was unlikely she would fly again. The loss of Flight Lieutenant Karibuchi Takami, so close to a major operation, was a major blow. He knew that morale would suffer because of it, primarily since Takami had been one of the few Fusoan fighter witches to survive the clusterfuck that had been the evacuation of the Libau Pocket.

Then there were the other losses today, they weren't as catastrophic as what had happened in Sortavala today. But they were still ugly by the standards of other theatres but for the Eastern European Theater it was just another day in the office. Three more witches had been badly wounded in a Air Assault sortie earlier today and needed the attentions of a healwitch to be back in fighting shape prior to the start of Polar Star, a fighter witch had been shotdown and her status was unknown, plus there was steelwing losses which amount to about a dozen or so aircraft of varying types, a minor battle with the Neuroi on the ground -which had resulted in said Air Assault sortie- had seen two tanks destroyed, three more damaged, about two dozen men killed, and about twice that wounded.

The man pulled up a form, loaded it into the typewriter and began typing away. Rescuing a falling witch was a dangerous proposition when you were also flying. He wouldn't let the display of airmanship that young Flight Sergeant Karibuchi Hikari had performed go unrewarded. Not to mention giving her another Wound Stripe, if anything the younger Karibuchi filled the image of a runner witch perfectly. Pushing on despite injuries, even life-threatening ones, taking inherently dangerous risks when the situation called for it, and simply not knowing the words 'give up' or 'quit'.

She was an excellent runner, if anything it would be a travesty to keep her running missions between Army Commands or Army to Corps Commands. No, a runner of her talent...he smiled. She needed to be, at minimum, running messages from Corps to Divisional Commands, maybe even Divisional to Regimental Commands. It was vastly more dangerous work, particularly runners from Divisional to Regimental Commands, since it required witches who could think more expertly and reliably on their feet. Even then, the average life expectancy for a witch in the role of a Divisional to Regimental Command Runner was only three months, some had made it to six months, one had even managed to survive for sixteen months before going missing on a routine flight carrying a message requesting a situation report.

A slight frown crossed the general's face as he considered what Flight Sergeant Karibuchi's assignment would be. He made his decision, the witch would be running messages from Corps to Divisional Commands. It was more dangerous than Army to Corps Command message running, but her talent and skill indicated that she would be well suited. Now came the issue of her escort, runners for messages between Army Commands and from Army to Corps Commands had one escort, witches running messages from Corp Commands to Division Commands typically had two escorts, and witches running messages from Divisional to Regimental Commands had four escorts.

He looked over the finalised plans for Operation Polar Star, Moscow was the objective. There was hundreds of kilometres of alien occupied territory between them and Hive Anna which had fealty over that city. If they destroyed Anna, then the massive four hundred fifty kilometre deep salient that threatened the Urals would collapse in on itself as the steady stream of supplies coming from the Hive and heading to the factorium nests that were building the Neuroi machines of war would dry up. Which would allow a counter attack to finally push them out of a position where they could threaten the cities and factories beyond the Ural Mountains.

---

AN: So this took me a while to figure out how to put together. It should be noted that the girls in Sortavala were caught at basically the absolute worst possible position to be in, even for witches. On the deck, virtually no room to manoeuvre, and with jackshit for energy and speed. Also, on Hikari not saluting, she's in the Navy. I don't know if OTL the IJN/JMSDF salutes in doors, but I know that the USN doesn't.