In this chapter, Daniel will get his first taste of command in battle, as well as a dose of the dangers and emotional toll war can take on a person. I hope you all enjoy!
Eila and Sanya ended up staying with the 502nd through New Year's Day, during which time multiple shenanigans ensued. This included a briefing session on battle tactics that Sasha had Eila lead, though Daniel ended up having to translate Eila's unique lingo to everyone else present. "You can actually understand what she's saying?" Sasha asked in amazement. Daniel just grinned and replied, "When you're around someone for several months, you tend to pick up on some of their quirks."
When it came time for Eila and Sanya to leave, everyone was sad to see them go – especially Sanya, who had made quite an impression on everyone there. This led to a few…uncomfortable situations for Sanya, and while several members of the 502nd begged her to stay, she could not. After Eila and Sanya left, the 502nd got back to the task of pushing the Neuroi back and reopening their main supply lines.
After a few weeks, the operation was succeeding, and the 502nd was beginning to receive regular supplies again. One day, Daniel was called in to Commander Rall's office, where she, along with Sasha, Rossman, and Krupinski were present. "Do you know anything about this?" Rall asked as she handed Daniel a black and white photograph. Daniel was momentarily surprised when he saw it was of the Warlock – something he had hoped he would never have to even think about again.
"Yes – the Warlock. This is the thing me and the rest of the 501st had to fight when we were liberating Gallia a few months ago," Daniel replied. Rall then explained that they had received the pictures in the form of microfilm that Hartmann had managed to smuggle to Krupinski inside a box of macarons. "It looks like some genius thought it would take a Neuroi to beat a Neuroi. We could have told them that wasn't the case," Rall said.
Daniel then shook his head, half in agreement with Rall, and half in a state of incredulity, as he remembered the whole incident. "That so-called genius even had a name. Trevor Maloney – a chauvinistic fool of an air force general." Daniel then went on to describe the whole incident, leaving the witches in the room with a bit of concern. "I can't say I'm surprised that the details of this incident were kept from you. The whole thing was an absolute mess – and would have been worse if the 501st hadn't stuck around to clean it up. It was a real embarrassment for allied command."
After Daniel had provided the details, Rall commented that it did prove that the Neuroi could be beaten, and that there was hope for ultimate victory. It was then that she revealed that the military's newest trump card was to be delivered to Orussia soon through the newly reopened supply route to the north.
Later, Rall briefed the rest of the 502nd on the upcoming mission to secure the new weapon at the northern port of Murmansk. She assigned Krupinski to lead the mission, and Krupinski then chose Kanno, Nipa, and Hikari to accompany her. She seemed especially motivated once she was handed a photo of the witch that was assigned to escort the weapon from Britannia.
Once the team was off on their mission, there was nothing much everyone else could do except wait for word on the success of the mission. As such, Daniel and Sasha decided to take advantage of the extra time they had by spending some quality time together, much of which included alone time in one of their rooms and watching movies together on Daniel's laptop. His personal collection included the Star Trek reboot movies (starring Chris Pine as Captain Kirk) and the anime feature Your Name, among many others. He even showed her the Bruce Springsteen - Live in Barcelona special to let her see why he liked his music so much. At the end, while it was still a bit of an unusual style to her, she had to admit that it did give her a rush of adrenaline, like Daniel said it would.
They spent the multiple evenings and nights cuddled together (clothing on, of course, except for jackets and shoes) watching the various selections Daniel had downloaded. He even offered refreshments in the form of a bottle of his yuzu ramune, which didn't turn out to be to Sasha's taste. She didn't hate it, per se, it just wasn't her favorite flavor. Still, she appreciated the thought. 'It's almost like we're out on a date,' Daniel thought to himself as he smiled and pulled Sasha closer to him. At the same time, she leaned her head onto his shoulder, as the two of them just enjoyed the movies and each other's warmth.
The mission ended successfully, although not without incident, as a particularly pesky Neuroi gave them quite a bit of trouble before they destroyed it. Before that happened, it was able to get off a shot that caused Krupinski to break her leg (as well as her striker unit) and end up in the hospital. She would definitely be out of commission for several weeks, at least. However, with Krupinski still being Krupinski, Kanno had to really suppress the urge to punch her.
A few weeks later, just as it seemed like the northern armies were about ready for a full-on offensive against the Neuroi nest designated Grigori, a new Neuroi appeared that caused everything to come to a halt. Not only was it very large, but it was powerful enough that it could potentially cut off the supply lines again just by itself.
As the entire 502nd (minus Krupinski and Commander Rall) took off to meet this Neuroi in battle, Kanno, having been recently promoted to lieutenant, was particularly anxious to take it on. When they arrived at the Neuroi's position, however, it quickly became clear that this mission would be a very difficult one, as they were met by what had to be at least a few dozen laser beams coming at them from every angle of the Neuroi's front. 'It's like a damn hornet's nest,' Daniel thought, as he struggled to keep his shields up in the barrage.
In the middle of this, Rossman was able to figure out that the Neuroi was, in fact, protecting the portion in the back – probably where the core was located. This presumption was confirmed when Rossman fired a couple of rockets at the back portion, exposing the core. At this, Kanno attempted to get to where the core was by dodging the Neuroi's frontal attacks. Sasha tried to get her to hold off until they came up with a plan, but Kanno was intent on taking it out on her own. While she seemed to be succeeding at first, she was eventually caught out of position. Just when it looked like she would get hit straight on, Sasha came up and shielded Kanno from damage, which caused significant damage to her striker and herself, as he started to fall out of the sky.
At that, Daniel's heart froze, and although Kanno was able to catch her well before she hit the ground, he knew the injuries were serious as the unit retreated back to base. Once there, Georgette was immediately by Sasha's side with her healing magic as Sasha was wheeled into the emergency room for treatment. It took everything Daniel had to not break down at that point, though he did pray to every deity he could think of for Sasha's well-being.
Kanno wasn't doing much better, blaming herself for what happened to Sasha as they both kept vigil by her bed. Daniel refused to blame Kanno, however, as he believed that this had all happened in the course of battle and couldn't have been avoided. Kanno had been doing what she thought was best for the mission's success and so had Sasha, and he didn't think either one was at fault for what happened. Although the doctors said that she would be alright, Daniel still wanted to be there when Sasha woke up.
When she did, it was to the immense relief of everyone present, which included Daniel, Kanno, and Hikari. As Kanno and Sasha each tried to take the blame for what happened, Daniel interjected by saying, "Enough! Neither of you were at fault. It's one of those things that just happens in a battle like that. We know the risks we take here on the front lines."
He then turned to Sasha, who had her head bandaged, and continued, "That being said, I am so happy that you're going to be alright, Sasha. I don't know what I would do otherwise." He then leaned in and gave her a gentle hug, making sure to avoid the areas where she had been injured.
The next day, Commander Rall again briefed the team on the situation at hand, emphasizing how critical it was to successfully complete the mission – a task made more difficult now with the absence of both Krupinski AND Sasha. She decided to divide the jobs of distracting the Neuroi and actually taking out the core between the unit members, with Rossman, Shimohara, and Georgette acting as the decoys, while Hikari, Kanno, and Nipa would then swoop in from behind and take out the core.
Rall then turned to Daniel and said, "Captain, as the highest-ranking officer, YOU will be commanding the mission out there." Daniel's eyes widened briefly, having momentarily forgotten that he was indeed the highest-ranking officer left who would be flying the mission. However, he quickly calmed himself and replied with a simple "yes, ma'am."
Before the mission began, he went to visit Sasha in the infirmary, and let her know about what was going on. She didn't seem too worried, and said that she had faith in Daniel's ability to lead the rest of the unit. He smiled and gave Sasha a peck on her cheek before saying, "Wish me luck. I promise that I'll make you proud!" With that he left the infirmary and headed to the hangar.
As the unit approached the Neuroi's position, Daniel directed the teams to their positions. As for himself, he would be providing support to the decoy team to better ensure the success of the attack team (providing another target to pay attention to). If needed, he would then provide assistance to the attack team. As the decoy team began their assault, the Neuroi opened up its hornet's nest fire once again as the attack team made its move.
However, just as it seemed the plan would work, and the attack team was in position to deliver its own assault, the Neuroi suddenly stopped its attack and split into three different pieces. The piece that had the core then transformed its shape, making it impossible to determine where the core was. Unfortunately, Daniel was unable to help on that point, as he was STILL trying to program a Neuroi core's energy pattern into his fighter's sensor recognition system. This was a major problem, as the unit members were running out of ammo, with no way of easily determining where the core was, and now everyone was under attack from the barrage of laser fire.
At hearing the situation, Commander Rall was about to order a retreat when Hikari quipped that she could find the core using something she called her 'Contact Eye' technique, which involved her getting up to the Neuroi and making physical contact with it, which allowed her to see the exact location of the core. Kanno yelled that the technique was so dangerous that it was useless while Hikari argued that she could make it work.
"What do you think, battle commander – it's your call," Daniel heard Commander Rall state over the comm. She was right. As battle commander, HE was the one responsible for the actions of everyone else on the battlefield. He was the one who ultimately had the decision to make. While Hikari's idea sounded very dangerous, he knew that they couldn't afford to give up this ground to the Neuroi. If they did, the supply lines would be cut off again, and after everything they had been through to get them back the first time, morale would plummet.
Daniel closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He knew that he had to put his confidence in his student's ability to get the job done – if SHE was confident enough to pull it off. "Hikari," he began, "how sure are you that you can pull this off?" Hikari immediately replied, "Give me a chance. I WILL make this work." Daniel couldn't help but smile a bit at her confidence. "Then do it," he said.
Kanno tried to protest against the idea, but Daniel immediately cut her off, saying, "Look, we don't have a choice here! We cannot afford to lose our supply lines again, so unless you have a better idea, this is what we're going with!" Kanno begrudgingly acknowledged the order and began to lead Hiakri and Nipa toward the Neuroi. "I'll continue to help the decoy team take some of the heat off you. If you need extra firepower, let me know and I'll back you up," Daniel added.
While the attack team was met with resistance, it wasn't particularly heavy. However, at one point, Daniel noticed that Kanno had stopped her attack movement, something that was definitely not like her. He was about to radio her when he saw Hikari come up to her and start to really get in her face, something that was very unusual for her. He couldn't hear what they were talking about, but after a couple minutes, something seemed to snap Kanno out of it, as she head-butted Hikari on her forehead and then smiled that 'I'm going to kick some serious ass' smile of hers before leading the attack run once again.
Within a minute, the team had gotten close to the Neuroi – close enough so that Hikari could make her move to make physical contact with the Neuroi. Thanks to the cover she received, she was able to get her palm squarely on it. At that moment, her eyes glowed orange, and she indicated the core's location by firing on the Neuroi and exposing the core.
Now it was Kanno's turn, as she concentrated much of her magic power in her right glove, and came barreling downward towards the exposed core. The Neuroi tried to resist, but there was no stopping Kanno at this point. She went straight through the Neuroi where the core was, destroying the core, and the rest of the body in the process.
As Kanno, Hikari, and Nipa were celebrating a job well done, it seemed that Kanno had finally accepted Hikari as a legitimate team member, though she tried to deny it. Suddenly, they all heard sputtering in their striker units. The next thing they knew, the units gave out on them, and they began to fall to the earth below.
When they got back to the hangar, they were met by a very angry Sasha, who was now well enough to get out of bed, and be up and about. As per usual, Sasha gave all three of them kneeling punishment for breaking their units. Krupinski, who was also up (though still in a cast), then commented that Hikari was now a certified member of the 502nd, and a Break Witch to boot. Hikari started to celebrate at the comment when Sasha interjected, "Being a Break Witch is NOT something to cheer about!"
Sasha then turned to Krupinski and said, "Get down there! You're taking kneeling punishment, too!" As Krupinski protested, Daniel tried to intervene by saying, "To be fair, I think Hikari was actually celebrating being considered a member of the 502nd more so than being a Break Witch." Sasha then turned to him with a VERY annoyed look on her face and asked in a warning tone, "Do you want to join them?"
Daniel briefly thought about teasing her a bit just to lighten the mood, but quickly thought better of it as he held his hands up in surrender and back up a few steps. As he backed up, Commander Rall came up to him, put her hand on his shoulder, and said, "Good job out there, captain. Not bad for your first command experience." Daniel smiled nervously and replied, "Thanks. Tell me – does it get any easier?" Rall just smiled, shook her head, and said, "Nope."
So Daniel's first mission in command of the group is a success! Definitely NOT how he wanted to get his first command, but you can't always choose that. Besides, this will be good experience for later on.
I also want to recognize three legendary people who have sadly passed away over the past week:
Nichelle Nichols - Uhura from the original Star Trek cast; NASA recruiter; Civil Rights Activist
Bill Russell - 11-time NBA Champion (Boston Celtics); NBA Hall of Famer; Civil Rights Activist
Vin Scully - Hall of Fame broadcaster for the Los Angeles Dodgers; the 'Voice of the Dodgers' for 67 years; widely considered to be the best baseball broadcaster to ever live; all-around great storyteller and human being
You all made the world a better place to live, and the word is that much richer for having had you in it. Now, it is that much poorer for losing you. R.I.P.