A/N: This is a work of fiction. All characters belong to their respective owners.

Chapter 9: Dance of the Vampires

August 13, 1991

1100 Hours

Task Force Leviathan, UNFS Kestrel

To say that Elisa was lost in thought was an understatement, she was sitting in her seat on the bridge, just staring out into space while everyone else on the bridge was wondering what had caused her to be in this state. Sure, they somehow got sent to another world and are now involved in a war between a group of aliens.

If this didn't sound like some sort of bad fanfiction, then many did not know what it is.

Meanwhile, Elisa was lost in thought. While she can at least understand the situation that the fleet was currently in, she still just can't believe it. Regardless, she needs to focus on this meetup and judging from some of the looks that the bridge crew is giving her, she needs to first start being herself again.

"Quartermaster, what is our ETA for the meetup?" Elisa asked.

The quartermaster, Petty Officer 2nd Class Kevin Yuanshi from Taiwan, answered, "Ma'am, we are about 500 nautical miles away from the meetup."

"So we are still out of range. I do not want to risk turning our air search radar on since that will probably get some unwanted attention. Continue on course," Elisa ordered.

"Yes, ma'am," Elisa then turned to her OPs enlisted sailor, "Contact the whole fleet and tell everyone to keep their radars off. I do not want another attack on us."

Once she got a "Roger" from OPs, she got out of her chair.

"I will be in CIC. Lieutenant Johan, you have the bridge," Elisa ordered.

"Got it ma'am," Johan replied back. She then left the bridge and made her way to the CIC. As she was making her way to the CIC she walked past one of the witches, who looked lost.

"Can I help you with anything?" Elisa asked the witch. Surprised, the witch jumped a bit and then upon realizing that she was talking to Elisa straightened up and saluted.

"Ma'am! Um… well, I was looking for the way to the hangar but I got lost," Elisa couldn't blame the girl. Since the Kestrel is based on the Nimitz-class carrier design, it is a lot bigger that she would be used to.

"I can help you get there. I was just heading there myself," Elisa offered with a smile.

"Oh….um, well in that case, thank you ma'am." The two then proceeded to the hangar. As they were climbing down a flight of stairs, Elisa thought that now would be a good time to get to know these witches since she only knew the names of the witches who spoke up during the debrief the other day.

"Can I get your name? I don't think we were probably introduced," Elisa asked the witch.

"Ah. My apologies! I am Seaman Yua Suzuki," Yua replied. Elisa could tell how nervous the girl was from the slight shaking and how she practically yelled her response.

"No need to be so nervous. I may be the skipper of this carrier but I am still human," Elisa replied calmly, trying to get the girl down.

"Um, sorry ma'am! I-I mean…." Yua stuttered, causing Elisa to chuckle lightly.

"You can just call me skipper or Hanako-san. I was never really formal with my speech before I joined the military," Elisa replied.

"Ok ma- I mean Hannako-san," Yua replied, this time smiling. Elisa could practically see the sunshine and rainbows coming off the girl. The two continued to make small talk as they headed towards the hangar. Elisa learned that Yua was from Sendai and that her family runs a sweet shop. Elisa also learned that Yua is still relatively new to the squadron, having joined around the same time as Shino.

'It still rubs me the wrong way to see girls this young fighting,' Elisa thought. Girls this young should be more focused on being kids and not having to fight aliens. But, given what she has seen about these aliens and the way their weapons seem to work (in a sense), then Elisa can understand why humanity had to resort to this. With their backs against the wall and their weapons not doing much, these witches with their magic were able to fight back and turn the tide. Add on that these girls also do so without hesitation, makes Elisa respect them even more.

The two finally reach the hangar and upon entering the hangar, Elisa can see that it was business as usual. Minus the hole in the hangar that is in the process of being repaired, everyone else was doing their jobs. Elisa saw the person she was supposed to meet and turned to Yua.

"Well, this is where we split off. It was nice getting to know you, Seamen Suzuki," Elisa said.

"It was a pleasure for you as well Hanako-san,"Yua replied, bowing, "I hope that we get the chance to speak again."

They said their goodbyes and Elisa made her way towards the person she was here for. The person in question was Master Chief Petty Officer Andre Santiago, a Spaniard who joined the task force during the war.

"Chief, how are things right now?" Andre looked up from the clipboard he was looking at.

"Everything seems to be going smoothly. Repairs are still ongoing as you can tell but everything else is going well. Actually, there is one issue…" His eyes shifted to a corner of the hangar. In this corner, it was where they were currently holding the striker units for the witches. Both Andre and Elisa walked over to them. Elisa took a look over one of them, a F-14AF from what the witches told her.

"I have to say, these things are something. We took a look inside and it is something that I have not seen before. They pretty much resemble the Tomcats, just that the entire fuselage is the engine. You can see here is where their legs go and it is automatically connected to their engines. Then their magic is then flowed from their body to the engine to start it. How long they stay in the air depends on how much stamina they have since using their magic drains them," Andre said. Elisa took a look around one of the striker units and was intrigued. It looked like a F-14 cut right down the middle, it even has pylons for missiles, bombs and drop tanks. She then turned her attention to the Hawkeye.

"This one confuses us the most. From the witch, I believe her name is Kakizaki, it is a prop-driven unit so she doesn't have to use a lot of her magic but most of that magic is used for her to use the radar," Andre then pointed to the Hawkeye radar dome that was made out to be like a backpack.

"She says that thing is made with the same parts from the actual Hawkeye dome but with fewer and small parts. She showed us this tablet that kind of acts like her main operating system and I have to say for something built in the later 80s, it is pretty high tech. I would even say something close to what we can make," Andre said. He went to a nearby table, picked up the tablet and then handed it over to Elisa.

Elisa looked over the tablet and it looks similar to some tablets that she has seen before, albeit this one looks more primitive with carrying handles on the side and top. It isn't a touch screen, so there are dials and switches to adjust the range and to maybe clear up and interference. It feels more analog than digital, causing Elisa to reminisce from time as a kid messing around with a ham radio her friend had.

"While this is not something I would say being close to what we make, I do have to admit that this is pretty advanced for 80-90s tech," Elisa noted, she then handed the tablet back to Andre.

"Even so, this is something that would be pretty hard to make for us back in the late 80s and 90s," Andre commented.

Elisa nodded and decided that they should move on by asking, "How about their weapons? I assume it is easier for us to help them in that area."

"Firearms are a lot easier to maintain and make parts for than jets, I agree. Their ammo is similar, 5.56 and 7.62, but in regards to actual parts, might be a small challenge since some of their weapons just do not exist in our world. For example," Andre walked over to the table and picked up one of the carbines, "This is a Type-89 carbine variant. They gave it a 10in barrel and a folding buttstock that you would find on the para version."

Elisa grabbed the rifle and gave it a look around. It really is just a carbine version of Type-89.

"Kind of wonder why we never made a version like this. The lightweight might have solved the handling problems that plagued the 89," Elisa commented. The one problem with the Type 89 was that it was a bit of a hassle to reload the Type-89 as you would have to pull the charging handle back every time you reloaded, as compared with the M16 series where you have the bolt catch, making it easier to reload fast

"Well, I do have to admit that it is easier to reload it but it is still a Type-89, meaning we have parts for it, but with the Type-64s and their machine guns, we will need to see their official specs to really have any chance in making parts for."

"We should be meeting up with their fleet today. Once we meet up, we can discuss any cooperation in parts. However, we will not repeat NOT, give them any information on more advanced systems. I rather not have them begin an arms race when these aliens are gone," Elisa knew that if these nations had any plans for their stealth or advanced technology, assuming they aren't themselves developing it, then this could spiral into a Cold War.

"Anything else that I need to know?" Elisa asked.

"As of now, no. We are prepping Crane Squadron for launch. Dragon squadron should be on deck and launching now," No sooner did Andre say that, Elisa could hear the catapult on the flight deck roar.

"Alright, they should be taking CAP over from Wasp. Hopefully, we don't run into any more surprises."


FMDF CVN-01 Yoryu

1215 Hours

"Ma'am, we are detecting unknown contacts approaching from the east. They are not responding to our IFF," Vice Admiral Mio Hijikata got out of her seat and went towards the radar. While she may be 66 years old, thanks to her training when she was a witch, she can still keep up being an officer. However, this will be her last fight as she would like to spend the rest of her life with her husband and since her daughter is currently a witch herself, Mio can finally retire and be at peace. However, those thoughts will have to wait as she takes a look at the radar. Sure enough, on the outskirts of their maximum radar range there were blips but they were appearing and disappearing.

"Could they be a type of Neuroi we haven't seen yet?" Mio asked.

"At this time, we can't be sure. However, it could be those people that Commander Kakizaki told us about," Mio squinted her eyes. The report they got from Kakizaki the other day explained that the people they were with had advanced technology and that they were friendly. However, they could just be doing that to trick them. Mio has already seen the bad side of humanity.

"Try to contact those unknown contacts. If they do not respond, send a few of our Tomcats to intercept. If they are Neuroi, wipe them out," Mio stated firmly to her XO.

"Aye ma'am," the XO then went over to the radio and began to transmit.

"Unidentified aircraft, this is carrier Yoryu of the Fuso Maritime Self Defense Force. State your affiliation and mission or we will shoot you down," After a few minutes of silence, there was a response.

"Yoryu, this is Wedgetail 1 of Wedgetail Squadron based on the Vulture. Kind of surprised that you were able to know we were here," A person with an Australis accent replied over the radio.

Mio went over to the radio, picked up the receiver, and replied back, "This is Vice Admiral Mio Hijikata of the Fuso Imperial Navy Expeditionary Force. I am to assume you are from that fleet that took in my witches."

"That would be it, ma'am. We were ordered to meet your fleet but since your fleet is not matched to our IFF, we had to be careful about revealing ourselves since we didn't know if you were those aliens or not."

"Do you mean the Neuroi?"

"That would be them. Sorry, we still do not fully know this world yet. Um, standby ma'am. My boss wants to speak with you." After a few more minutes there was a different voice that replied back.

"This is Admiral Anderson of Task Force Leviathan. Am I speaking with Vice Admiral Hijikata?"

"Yes, this is Vice Admiral Hijikata," Mio replied back, relaxing a bit as she did not sense any malice in the voice over the radio.

"Greetings ma'am. I see you have met our fighters. We are currently about 400 nautical miles from your position. I recommend that we meet halfway. That way we can cover each other in case of another attack."

"Another attack?" Mio asked.

"We were attacked by the aliens you call Neuroi when we arrived. We took some damage but nothing too serious. Still, I believe it is best that we link up so that we can have an increase in SAM coverage."

That made sense to Mio. Ever since the Second Neuroi War, the Neuroi have gotten smarter and faster. That is why humanity also advanced in tech to develop missiles and jet strikers. But that also meant the Neuroi also had to develop. Their missiles and new versions copied humanity's weapons and fought back against the development of humanity. Mio had to admit that they are learning at a faster rate than anticipated and humanity was pushed back a bit before they were able to regain the initiative back.

"Admiral Anderson, I agree with your assessment and I will order my fleet to meet yours. However, given that I have no clue or idea on who you are and your intentions, can I have your assurance that there will be no hostile actions towards my sailors?" Everyone on the bridge looked over at her with surprise for a bit and then focused back to their work. While a majority of people were supportive of the witches, there was still a minority that wanted them to be disbanded all together and have only mundane soldiers take over the fighting. The Witch Scare in the 50s, the hardliners pushed in the early 70s, all attempts were squashed thanks to strong lobbying from those who believed in the witches as well as public support for them was still strong.

"Ma'am, you have my word that we have no hostile intention towards your fleet. You see, we do not know much about this world so what we would like to do is be surrounded by people we can trust. The witches from your fleet say that we can trust you and so I am placing my trust on you," Mio was taken aback by the bold statement. From her experience, a lot of people would be more reserved or closed off to make sure that no one knows what they are planning. However, Anderson was not the case. He was open and even placed his complete trust in her. Not something that a lot of people would do.

"Very well then. Please relay your coordinates to us and we will meet you halfway," Mio replied as she handed the radio back to the radio operator. She then went back to her seat and closed her eyes.

'What strange turn of events this has been. When they asked me to lead the fleet to support the Kingdom, I did not expect to encounter a fleet from another world. Well, we can use the extra ships since the Liberion fleet had to move away for re-arming and refueling.' The other day, the Liberion Navy task force left their position temporarily to rearm and resupply. So, it had only been Mio and her fleet operating in these waters, launching witches and jets to support the troops currently fighting in Abu Dhabi and holding on to the front they had established there. The troops barely survived a counter-attack on the 10th and with additional reinforcements coming in from Fuso, Liberion, and Australis and Kiwiland, there is hope now that they will hold long enough for the forces that are in the Sinai to push forward and expand their front.

But, as Mio has learned in her career, you can't always rely on miracles.


It has a mission that it can not fail.

Humanity was reinforcing their weak lines with reinforcements but that will stop them from taking over this area. While they have had setbacks, now is the time for the humans to learn another painful lesson.

It was flying at high altitude, flanked by others that if a human saw looked a lot like TU-160 bombers while it was surrounded by escorts. Their mission: attack the human fleet that is off shore of the continent and overwhelm their defenses with missiles. This way, they will not be able to support the ground forces that they have on the continent as the Neuroi assault them in the next few days.

Right now, other units were attacking other airfields and making sure that no one can intercept or report on this bomber group. And there is a good reason why this was important.

They were going to launch a surprise on the humans.


Off the coast of the Kingdom of Jazira

SS-578 Hamashio

Since the start of the conflict, intelligence gathering for the Allied Forces has been difficult to say the least. In most cases, the word of a Bedouin was more accurate than what satellites or recon planes can report. So, in response, Liberion and Fuso have sent some of their submarines that are designed to listen and intercept any Neuroi transmissions that might be emitted and to report them.

In the past, this was almost impossible since the technology during those times made it difficult to listen in as well as really decipher what was happening. However, improvements in radar as well as signal gathering has allowed humanity to at least know where a raid or attack was generally going to come from and from their alert the local forces so that they can be prepared for the attack.

Right now, the Fuso submarine Hamashio, which was upgraded to house numerous listening devices and upgraded to run silently to hide itself, was monitoring the coastline. Over the radio, there were reports of a raid that was happening on the surrounding allied bases.

"You think you can clean up that signal?" One of the intelligent officers said to the person operating the radio.

"It is hard, the Neuroi are hitting multiple bases at once, it could be that they might try another attack," The operator said.

"Hm, this is odd. They launched a big attack a few days ago, normally they need a few days to recharge their supply, why attack now?" The officer mused to himself. Normally, the Neuroi would attack and then retreat for about a week before resuming their offensive. This way, they can recharge and prepare for the next attack or to wait and cause significant casualties on the humans when they launch their offensive.

As he was musing over this, he saw a hand raised from the radar operator. He walked over to the person.

"What is seamen?"

"Sir, I am detecting a large formation heading towards the coast. It seems like they are using the confusion from the raid to sneak past the air defenses." The officer looked at her monitor and sure enough, there was a large formation that was using the attacks to slip past.

"What is their heading?" The officer asked.

"Bearing 215, heading east at Angels 30," The operator reported after doing some calculations.

"That would mean that…." The officer did not finish that sentence as he realized where the enemy was headed.

He didn't waste any time reaching for the phone.


"Ma'am, we just received a transmission. There seems to be an enemy formation heading towards us," that caused Mio to look up from a report she just got.

"Where?" Mio asked immediately.

"One of our picket subs reported that they saw an enemy formation heading in our direction. Our radar has not picked them up yet but they should be approaching us soon given their speed."

"What is their bearing?"

"Their bearing is 215, Angels 30," Mio then looked over to the CAG, who then reached over to the radio.

"Recall all of the CAP aircraft and launch the plus fives. Set up two Tomcats and a Hummer on plus five. Once all CAP aircraft are back, turn them around. Reserve one catapult for the tankers," He then looked over to Mio, "Ma'am, I propose putting up another pair of Tomcats and a Hummer up ASAP. Next, I want to place all of our fighters on plus-five. Within the next hour, we launch all of our fighters with tanker support. We will meet them when they are 200 miles out and kick their ass."

"Very well. I want you to alert Admiral Anderson as well. I want him to know of this coming attack as well. With our combined strength, we should be able to protect the fleet with our combined air wings," Mio ordered.

"Yes, ma'am," As one of the members on the bridge went over on the radio to send the message, Mio took a deep breath.

"I have a bad feeling about this."


"Anything on our scopes?"

"Negative, it seems like the enemy is still out of range, we will need someone to confirm their location but I say we still send some fighters up," Elisa frowned. They had gotten a call from Admiral Hijikata that they were tipped off of an incoming raid that was heading towards them. However, they only have their Hawkeye radar to go off of and these contacts are not in range yet.

Elisa then looked over to her CAG, Commander Jacob Emerson.

"Well commander, what do you think?"

"I suggest we throw some fighters with the Fuso task force to engage this attack force but I recommend that we have some of our fighters protect our fleet and theirs just in case of any leaks," Elisa thought about it. They were still around 20 minutes away from the Fuso fleet and they can see the ships on the horizon, this means that they will be able to cover each other.

"Ok, let's get this welcome wagon rolling,"

"Yes, ma'am," Jacob then went over to the intercom to issue the orders.


"ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ENEMY FORCES DETECTED! ALL AIRCRAFT LAUNCH!" Yuna was attaching her oxygen mask onto her face as the intercom rang out. She then closed the canopy on her Lightning, it sealed the moment it closed.

"This is Dragon 1 to Starbase, am I cleared?" Her fighter was already in position on catapult 1. Next to her was her wingman, also at the ready.

"Dragon 1, you have permission to launch! The witches will be using catapult 3 and 4 to launch," Yuna looked over her shoulder to see two of the witches getting ready. It was discovered that the striker units that the witches had were compatible with their catapult system. This made launching them easier since they wouldn't have to use too much magic to hover and then fly off the carrier.

"Roger Starbase, Dragon 1 launching!" Yuna then looked over at one of the yellow shirts. He gave her a thumbs-up, which Yuna returned with her own thumbs up. She grabbed a hold of the grip that was on the cockpit. She then felt her fighter lurch as the electromagnetic catapult launched her into the air. Once her Lightning made it off the carrier, she grabbed onto the stick and pulled it towards her. The fighter began to climb and Yuna made a left to start to maintain a holding pattern until her wingman could join her.

She looked below to see fighters flying off the other two carriers as well as from the assault ships. Since the fleet consisted of pilots and crews from different countries, there really wasn't a standard in what aircraft was used so instead, it was decided that each carrier was assigned a certain type of aircraft so that it would ease logistics. So, the carriers were set up in this way: the Kestrel will hold American and Russian aircraft, the Albatross will host mainly European naval aircraft, and the Vulture will have strictly American aircraft.

This setup allowed for multiple nations to be a part of the taskforce as many countries operated these aircraft, thus fixing the issue from the early war years of pilot attrition rates being bad.

Yuna looked over her shoulder to see that the rest of her squadron had taken off the carrier and was now getting into formation behind her.

"This is Dragon 1, all Dragon flights are up."

"Roger Dragon 1, you are to proceed to heading 315. One of the Hawkeyes just detected unknown contacts from that direction."

"Understood," Yuna replied curtly and then addressed her squad mates, "We are going to adjust our heading to 315." Once she got affirmatives from everyone, she led her squadron towards the destination of the enemy contacts.


"Um, are you sure that this will work? I mean, it did clamp but I am worried that it may be a bit unstable," Akiko looked over to the deck crew and gave him a nod.

"Don't worry. This should be fine," The crewmember looked at the catapult again. The striker unit, which to him looked like a F-14, was attached to the catapult but since it was still different from a normal jet, the thought of the striker unit coming loose was on his mind. However, he had to trust the witch since she is probably more used to this than him.

"Alright ma'am, good luck up there," He then ran to his position to get ready for the launch. Akiko then took a deep breath and looked forward. Since the alarm rang, she along with her witches wanted to sortie to help but since a good majority of the fighters were being sent to intercept the Neuroi, she along with Watanabe, Shino and Kaida were launching while the rest were on standby. Before her, there was one of those new fighters that launched first and now here she was about to launch and did so in a rather quick fashion. She glanced to her right to see Shino and Watanabe on the other two catapults, sorting some things out before launching.

'I hope I didn't make a mistake with this,' Akiko thought. For this mission, she had paired Watanabe and Shino together, which resulted in an argument from both. She was able to stop it, thanks to her rank, and her idea is that she hoped that by pairing the two together with the thinking that they would stop their bickering and Watanabe look at Shino in a different view.

She is now wondering if that would happen or not.

Akiko then shook her head. Now was not the time to worry about that. She refocused herself as she saw one of the deck crews give her a thumbs up. She nodded in the affirmative and then she felt something she hadn't felt before. Instead of the sound of steam building up, she instead heard more of whine and then she felt her hair on her arm rise, mostly due to the electric currents in the air. The deck crew then took a knee and pointed forward. She then readied herself as she counted to three and increased the thrust on her striker engines and then the catapult launched. She was actually surprised at how the catapult launched her fast down the carrier. Soon, she was off the carrier and she accelerated up. She retracted her landing gear and turned her head around. She was surprised to see that there was no smoke that a steam catapult would usually give off. She then got into hovering mode as she waited for the other two to launch and Kaida to get ready to launch from the catapult she just launched off of.

She watched in amazement as she saw Watanabe and Shino both launch from the carrier and just like her, there was no smoke emitted from the catapult. They both accelerated up to her, Akiko saw that Shino had a shocked expression while Watanabe had a rare surprised look.

"That was….. Something else," Watanabe said as they reached Akiko's altitude.

"I felt this weird sensation when they were launching us," Shino exclaimed.

"To think that this would be future technology," When they were told that this fleet was from the future, she had a general idea of what kind of technology would be like but to actually experience it was something else entirely. Once Kaida launched and met with them, also surprised by her launch, Akiko pressed her headset.

"This is Vanguard 1, my flight is in the air. Requesting tasking."

"Vanguard 1, this is Darkstar. Your flight will be performing CAP. If there are any leakers, we will need your flight to intercept them. We are still trying to get your signatures lined up with our systems so it would be best if you all are on CAP so that our radar and sensors can get used to your signatures."

"Understood Darkstar, Vanguard 1 out."


The response the humans have sent this time was a lot different than the one was recorded during the last battle. Instead of the lukewarm response of a few fighters and two witches, now they were sending in about 50ish fighter jets. The Neuroi strike group leader noticed, however, that there were no witch signatures coming to greet them. Were the humans being conservative with how to deploy their witches? This was a difference from what its brethren have reported in the past. Perhaps, this group of humans were inexperienced.

Well, that was going to be their mistake.

The group leader sent out the signal and soon, a part of their body detached from each Neuroi. These Neuroi, while smaller than the main body, started to emit the same signal as the main body, in a way not to alert the humans of the change. The shape of the smaller Neuroi was similar to the Orussian KRM-2 Kelt drone missiles.

As these drones along with the drone escorts continued on their route, the rest of the main Neuroi attack force then suddenly began to disappear from site one by one, activating their new feature: cloaking.


"Enemy contacts spotted! I am counting 100 contacts approaching, some of them may be escorts," Yuna heard over the radio. Along with Yuna and her squadron, there was Crane Squadron, a F-14DF squadron, Mako Squadron, Wasp Squadron, Viking Squadron made up of SU-33s, Behemoth Squadron made up of F/A-18Fs and finally Phantom Squadron which flew EA-18G Growlers for jamming. All in all, 125 fighters and jamming aircraft were about to engage an alien force of 100.

"Do we know anything about their capabilities?" Someone said over the radio.

"From what the witches have told us, the Neuroi are capable of firing lasers as well as fire heat-seeking and radar-guided missiles. They vary in size from the smaller drones to larger units and may take a few missiles to kill," Darkstar replied over the radio. Yuna frowned through her oxygen mask.

"We don't have an infinite number of missiles here, Darkstar," Yuna commented.

"Do not worry Dragon 1, the Tomcat's Phoenixes should be enough to take out the bombers while AMRAAMs will be enough to deal with the drones," Yuna had this feeling it wasn't going to be that easy but she held her tongue as another voice chimed in.

"I got radar contact! Enemy contacts are now in range," Yuna looked at her radar and sure enough, she saw red blips appearing.

"All aircraft, once they are in your range, you are weapons free," Darkstar stated.

Yuna checked her radar and it looks like one of the drones were in range of her AMRAAMs. She took a deep breath and stated, "This is Dragon 1, engaging!"


"Our fighters are engaging the enemy force now," Anderson heard one of the CIC operators report. He was looking at the big screen as the operators were tracking the air battle. From what he can see, their fighters were now firing their missiles onto the enemy group. Anderson saw that some of the specs were maneuvering to avoid the missiles but a few of them were not doing anything at all. They were just continuing on their path.

"Now that is a bit odd. Are those their bombers per chance?" Anderson asked one of the operators.

"We are unsure sir. We would need the fighters to get visual confirmation for us to know for sure," Anderson rubbed his beard. Normally, even with bombers, they will attempt some sort of evasive action to avoid the missiles. But not here. Some of them were also hit and they were being taken down.

Rather quickly to Anderson's taste.

"If I remember correctly, didn't those witches say that it sometimes takes multiple missiles to take out a bomber?" Anderson asked one of the intel officers in the room.

"That is correct. Since there are Neuroi types that resemble bombers or have a shape of their own, it sometimes require multiple missiles to take them down."

"Then don't you find it odd that those alien units are going down rather easily?"

"Well, they could be just sending smaller units to test us?" Though the intel officer was unsure with their own response.

"I am getting a bad feeling about this. Have all ships increase the strength on their radars. I have a feeling that these aliens are up to something."


Aboard the USS Shiloh, one of the CIC operators was working on her station. She, like many others on the other ships, were observing the air battle that was happening far away from the ships. From the operator's viewpoint, it looked like your textbook fight. Their fighters were engaging at their maximum range to hit as many targets as they could before they reached the fleet. So far, things have been going well for them.

Almost too well.

These aliens, as they were briefed on, were intelligent and yet this attack looks like they were coming in dumb. And she was not the only one thinking that way.

"This doesn't seem right. They are coming in with a few escorts and their own bombers are not really doing anything to evade the missiles," Her CO said out loud. The operator nodded her head and looked at her scope again. She wasn't seeing anything else except the air battle.

"Hmmm, let's see. If we just increase the power a bit," The operator muttered as she turned up the power of her screen. Once she did that, the radar suddenly registered a few blips to the south and then it disappeared.

"Sir, I just got a few contacts to the south but they just disappeared," The operator reported. That got everyone's attention.

"Where exactly?" The officer asked as he made his way over to her monitor.

"Bearing 319, one five zero miles. I got only 3 contacts before it disappeared," The CO's anxiety shot up. That was south of the fleet and far away from where their fighters are now.

"Better contact the Kestrel and report this,"


"Ma'am, the Shiloh just reported that they got 3 radar contacts at bearing 319 before it disappeared," Elisa's head shot up.

"Say that again?"

"The Shiloh is reporting that they got something to our south but I am not seeing anything," Elisa made her way to the radar and looked herself. Sure enough, she was not seeing anything but she could not shake off this uneasy feeling."

"I don't like this," Elisa thought about it before finally deciding, "Order all ships to illuminate their radars! If there is something out there, we should be able to get it!"


The mission leader saw an increase in radar activity from the human fleet. It also saw frequencies that it had never seen before as well. It then ordered its brethren to activate their own sensors as well to make sure they can target all the human ships.

They do not want to miss even one.


"Radar contact! New designation, Raid 2-"

"What?" Anderson stated, surprised. It was then that he heard a call from the fighters.

"Starbase, this is Crane Lead. I have visual on the target," It took a few seconds before the reply came back, this time in disgust and horror, "Be advised, we are not engaging any enemy bombers! These must only be drones and Kelt missiles! Repeat, we have been shooting at drones and Kelt missiles!"

"Raid 2 consists of fifty-five contacts bearing 319, range one two zero miles. We have what seems to be a Big Bulge radar tracking the whole fleet!" Someone in the CIC reported.

Anderson grimaced, "These aliens are a crafty bunch."

The group tactical officer's hand shook as she thumbed the microphone, "Air warning red! Weapons free! Threat axis is three one nine. All ships turn as necessary to unmask batteries!" All of the fleet's main long-range interceptors, the Tomcats and Flankers, were engaging in the diversion, leaving only the witches and two F-35C Lightning squadrons, Fenrir and Wedgetail, who just finished mid-air refueling to intercept them. However, it was too late now.


The attack leader saw the radars of the human ships light up all at once, detecting a familiar radar reading of that of the Liberion's Ticonderoga-class cruisers. That must mean that the carriers were also close this time. It sent a signal to its compatriots and soon about 100 anti-ship missiles, modeled after the Orussian's AS-6 Kingfish missiles, left their bomb bays and speed off towards the human fleet. Once all of the missiles were shot, the Neuroi all turned back to where they came and tried to flee.


"Vampire! Vampire! We have multiple incoming missiles! Weapons Free!" The CIC talker in the Anzio yelled out. The weapons officer immediately ordered the AEGIS system to go automatic. When it was designed, the AEGIS system was built to deal with this huge wave of missiles. Using updated technology and upgrades, the AEGIS would identify which missile is dangerous on priority and then engage. The TLS covers popped open and were ready to fire. However there was only one problem: the Anzio and her sister ships only carried about 80 missiles to engage this kind of threat, and there were about one hundred missiles heading their way.

"Hard left rudder now!" Elisa ordered. The carrier made the hard turn, to position it so that it can engage with its own missiles. The carrier's escorts, the HMS Daring and USS Mahan also turned to get ready to engage.

Elisa saw from the bridge the Anzio began to fire its missiles, along with her sister ships. With a more up to date system when compared to the older twin vertical launchers, the Anzio and the other cruisers can fire on average on a missile in a few seconds. In about 3 minutes, her magazines were empty, emerging from a white cloud from the launches. Her sister ships were also in the same state, expending their magazines.

The SAMs raced to the enemy missiles, but like before, these enemy missiles maneuvered to evade the SAMs. Once the SAMs were within one hundred fifty yards from their target, they denoted. The AEGIS system did its job, taking out fifty percent of the enemy missiles. Now there were only fifty missiles targeting the fleet.

The other ships were now firing their own missiles, covering the fleet in smoke. Like the missiles before it, the enemy missiles began maneuvering against the SAMs. Soon the number of missiles began to drop: fifty went down to thirty, thirty went down to twenty-Five but it was not going down fast enough. The AEGIS system did not compute that a normal missile would do evasive maneuvers, making tracking the missiles a lot harder.

After all was done, twenty missiles were left, with three targeting the Kestrel.

Now ships were shooting chaff and flares into the air, in an attempt to confuse the missiles but only two took the bait, now there were eighteen missiles targeting ships. Now, the CIWS began engaging, its gatling guns firing 20mm rounds in an attempt to shoot down the missiles.

Elisa watched as one was able to shoot one missile down, with the last two heading towards the front of the carrier, the CIWS in that area could not choose between the two missiles and as a result, went into Reset Mode, not engaging either.

"Everyone, brace for impact!" Elisa yelled as she grabbed onto the railing. Soon, her vision was blinded by a huge explosion as she shielded her eyes.

And here we are! Sorry for the late upload, life and writer's block hit hard when writing this chapter. In the next one, we will find out the fate of the task force. Until next time, stay safe!