Back to the grind for Daniel (and war is definitely a grind), and not only does he have to look out for his adopted sister, but he has to look out for everyone else too (as the unit's second-in-command). No pressure, right? Anyhoo, on with the story!
When Daniel returned to Nederland, he was greeted with a telegram that had been sent to him while he was away. It was from the 504th Joint Fighter Wing, thanking him for the Saturnus care package. He was also greeted with a big hug from Yoshika, who expressed concern about the concussion and flu he had recently suffered from. He smiled and chuckled, saying, "I'm fine now, but I appreciate your concern for me." Yoshika still looked a bit down as she said, "This is my fault. If my magic was working right, you wouldn't have had to spend your vacation in bed." After reassuring Yoshika that it wasn't her fault, Daniel reported in to Minna.
About a month later, Minna got word that she was requested to meet up with Generals Patton and Bradley in Kiel, where they would discuss the initial stages of Operation Southwind to take back Berlin. While Trude and Erica escorted her, she also invited Daniel to go along, as promised earlier. Daniel was excited – he didn't get a chance to talk with the generals when they came to the base earlier, but he hoped he would get a chance to do so this time, even if it was only for a few moments.
When they landed, they were met with quite a sight. Although there were still some definite signs of battle from where the Neuroi had been, the port facilities were up and buzzing with activity! What seemed like an endless quantity of weapons and supplies were coming in for the operation – mostly from Liberion! "I remember learning about this period of history back home," Daniel explained, "when they got their war machine industry going, they could pump out weapons, gear, and other military necessities like nobody's business. And with no direct attacks to worry about, they could do it all the more quickly."
At that moment, a tank drove up beside them and stopped, and General Patton popped his head out of the top hatch. "Nice work getting Kiel back for us!" he exclaimed. The group then immediately saluted the general, with Minna stating, "Just doing our job, general." Patton chuckled and replied, "Don't be so modest!" He then noticed Daniel standing beside the Karlsland trio and addressed him, "Ah – you must be the Jedi knight I've heard so much about! It's nice to officially meet you!" Daniel was caught a bit by surprise, but quickly regained his composure while saluting. "Thank you, general. It's an honor to meet you as well!" Patton chuckled again before stating, "I'd love to stick around and chat, but we've got to get going if we're going to destroy the Neuroi!"
The four were surprised that the army was heading out already, as Minna asked how they planned to deal with the large Neuroi that they were sure to encounter. "With firepower!" Patton exclaimed with enthusiasm. "We can take them, no problem!" He then turned to the tank's driver and shouted, "Alright, then. Time to move out!" As the tank column drove away into the distance, Daniel stated, "Wow – he really is like he was described in the history books." As the trio was wondering how he was going to destroy a nest from the ground, they were greeted by Ursula, who had brought a few of her latest inventions to demonstrate and, hopefully, have tested in the field. A couple seemed useful, but others were, as Erica said, "weird."
They then saw a red flash in the sky before it came crashing down in a spot where the tank column had been heading. "The general – no!" shouted Minna, as they all raced towards the scene as fast as they could. Luckily, while the general was hurt, he would recover – and was loudly cursing the Neuroi all the while. It seemed that the Neuroi weren't going to make this operation so easy – they had fired high yield projectiles from the nest itself towards Kiel. While the first one didn't reach the city, it had hit four kilometers outside it. The next day, they got word that a second projectile had been launched – this time, it landed three kilometers outside the city. Now, they would have to find a way to stop the nest from firing these projectiles before they launched an assault on Berlin. This wouldn't be easy – due to the speed of the projectiles on approach, they would have to destroy them right as they were being fired, which meant getting close to Berlin somehow.
Luckily for the 501st, Ursula had just the thing for the situation – the ME-161 Comet – a new striker unit that would allow for immediate speeds comparable to the prototype jet striker without the problem of draining the user's energy. Minna volunteered to use the unit, as her Spatial Awareness ability made her the best able to carry out this mission. Her test run went flawlessly, and the unit worked perfectly. Although Minna was a bit more tired than usual afterwards, she insisted that it wasn't because of the unit.
The next day, Minna set out on the mission after the Neuroi had launched yet another attack, which struck two kilometers outside Kiel. In addition to herself, she brought Trude and Erica as backup, and Ursula as technical support. As such, she left Daniel in charge of the base while she was gone. "You can count on me – I'll make sure the place doesn't burn down while you're gone," Daniel said jokingly as he smiled at her in reassurance. Knowing that everything was in good hands, the Karlsland witches headed out, while the rest stayed behind and prayed for their success.
The next day, they got word that the mission was a success – the Neuroi nest's projectiles had all been destroyed and everyone was safe. That evening, as Daniel was doing paperwork in Minna's office, he received word from Shizuka that they had arrived. "However," she said, "she also said that she wanted you to wait here, and that she and everyone else would come to the office in a bit." Daniel noticed a slight blush on Shizuka's face as well as a hint of embarrassment in her emotions, though he couldn't imagine why. "Ooooo-kay?" he replied as he sat down again and waited. When Minna and the others arrived, everything seemed normal, though they were giving off the same feelings of embarrassment that Shizuka was giving off earlier, only stronger. This very much confused Daniel as he asked, "What was THAT all about?" Minna shook her head and replied, "Never mind that. Anyway, thanks for looking after things while we were gone."
A few weeks later, the time had finally come for Operation Southwind to begin. This would involve a fleet of bombers clearing the path by dropping special air bombs to clear the storm clouds surrounding the main Neuroi unit. Meanwhile, the witches would be hidden in one bomber, while Daniel (in his X-wing) would be hidden in another. Once the clouds were cleared, they would be simultaneously released to attack the main unit.
Initially, things seemed to be going smoothly. The air bombs did their job, and the 501st was dropped without so much as a shot coming from the Neuroi. When they spotted the main unit, they were all surprised at how small it was. Not only that, the core was just hanging out there like a juicy apple just ready to be picked. Daniel didn't like this. "This is WAY too easy," he warned over the comm. "There's got to be more to this than we're seeing. Keep your heads up and eyes open, everyone!"
While the unit was giving some resistance, it seemed like only a matter of time before the 501st would overwhelm it and destroy it. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, giant Neuroi walls fell from the sky and surrounded the main unit's position, encompassing half of Berlin. It got even worse as the walls began firing at them from all sides, not only on the witches, but on the bombers flying above. It was only thanks to Yoshika's massive shields that the damage was kept to a minimum. Once the main unit landed, a swarm of about a million little Neuroi drones flew out of it and joined in the attack. "Damn!" Daniel shouted, "I knew it was too good to be true. Look alive, everyone! We've got a real fight on our hands!"
The Neuroi were absolutely relentless in their attack, and soon it was clear that they couldn't win the battle. A withdrawal was ordered as multiple bombers were destroyed. Although Trude protested, Minna gave the orders forcefully, saying that their job was now to make sure as many of the remaining bombers as possible got back safely. Yoshika, on the other hand, was ordered to return to base to preserve her magic for the next attack, with Shizuka and Daniel ordered to make sure she went back without using any more of her magic.
Before long, however, the Neuroi drones were starting to overwhelm them, and Yoshika tried to help everyone, but Daniel and Shizuka blocked her path, ordering her back to base. "Your orders are to get back to base now!" shouted Shizuka. "Do you think I'm just going to leave you here like this?" Yoshika exclaimed. "Don't worry about us," Daniel replied, "We can take care of things here. Have faith in us – and have faith in your friends!" Yoshika finally accepted the orders and turned towards the retreating bombers, entering one of the bomber bays as she passed.
Soon after, the entire unit was engaged in a massive dogfight, with a Neuroi shaped like one of the bombers in the middle of it. Not only that, it was surrounded by self-destructing drones! As they were engaging, Daniel was able to get a contact signal on his sensor system. "Shizuka!" he shouted over the comm, "The core is on the bottom part – shoot there!" Shizuka acknowledged and moved towards the Neuroi bomber's underside. She soon was able to see where it was and attacked, exposing the core and destroying it in a matter of moments – right before she ran out of energy and had to be carried back to base by Shirley.
In the papers the next day, Hattori's kill was celebrated as front-page news. While the press tried to spin the battle as a success, everyone knew that they had a tough fight ahead to take out the nest. Worse, there was also concern about Yoshika's magic holding out during the battle, as her magic pressure was still not functioning properly – not to mention the fact that the operation was over budget, though Daniel felt that was the least of their worries. With Yoshika being considered vital to the operation, she was ordered not to use her magic until the coming battle.
However, this soon became easier said than done, as the Neuroi decided to launch a surprise attack on the allied position in Kiel. While the rest of the 501st launched to meet the Neuroi attack, Yoshika was ordered on standby with Major Sakamoto, who had joined the allied force in Kiel. Once again, the attacking Neuroi came with seemingly endless Neuroi drones, with a bomber shaped Neuroi in the center surrounded by self-destructing drones. At first, it seemed like they would be able to take this one down like the one in Berlin, but when Daniel and Shizuka flew beneath it, the core was nowhere to be seen. In addition, they couldn't communicate with the others due to some sort of chaff being deployed by the Neuroi. This also blocked Daniel's sensors from reading where the core was.
Daniel and Shizuka tried to retreat and regroup, but the Neuroi were able to hit Shizuka before she was out of range, causing her to lose consciousness and crash onto the Neuroi's left wing. At that point, the Neuroi set itself on a collision course for the base in Kiel, which would completely destroy the allied capability to attack Berlin – not to mention the loss of life that would ensue. As the other witches attempted to stop the Neuroi using their shields, they weren't having much luck. The next moment, however, Yoshika came from below and used her magic to produce a shield big enough to protect the base. This caused the small drones to split off and give Shirley an opening to get Hattori off the Neuroi bomber's wing. Once Shizuka was out of danger, the rest of the unit was able to use the full extent of their magic and destroy the Neuroi.
However, this came at a price, as Yoshika collapsed from having used all of her magic and crashed to the ground. While she would soon recover physically, she had no detectable magic within her. 'Damn it all!' Daniel thought. While he was glad that Yoshika had been able to save the day (yet again), he knew that Yoshika using her magic would come back to bite them all. The next moment, Shizuka also collapsed from her wounds, and out of exhaustion.
While both Yoshika and Shizuka were able to recover physically, it was even worse than Daniel thought regarding Yoshika's magic. She was completely drained, and she wouldn't be able to fly for at least a week, maybe ten days. He knew that he could probably help shorten that time estimate if he put Yoshika though his Jedi training, but he figured that it would only be able to cut it down to four or five days.
When Minna mentioned taking Yoshika to see allied command, Daniel volunteered to join them, telling Minna that he could offer his help in trying to convince the brass to hold off on the attack until Yoshika recovered. Minna agreed, and soon, the three of them were heading in a plane with Generals Patton and Bradley to the conference. There, Minna explained the situation to the generals. While Patton was initially worried about the ten-day estimate, he was somewhat placated when Daniel told him that he would provide special training that could cut her recovery time in half. However, Patton warned, "There's no guarantee. You'll have to convince the commanders to hold off – and I'm not sure they'll take that very well."
When they arrived at the conference and explained the situation, the other generals wouldn't even hear of postponing the mission, saying that the budget was already overspent as it was – at which Daniel slapped his forehead in frustration. Then, once the other generals started arguing about whose unit would now take the lead in the operation, Daniel had enough. This bickering was pointless, and they were more worried about the budget than the success of the mission!
He then spotted an ashtray on the table near where General Patton was seated. Using the Force, he lifted it off the table, and suspended it in midair. Once the generals noticed what was going on with the ashtray, Daniel shouted over the remaining bickering, "Hey, geniuses!" He then used the Force to send the ashtray against the wall hard, shattering it into many pieces. Everyone looked at him in stunned silence, though it did also get their attention, which is what Daniel was ultimately going for. "I'm going to say this once, and I'm going to say this slowly, so you guys can understand what I'm saying. It – Does – Not – Matter – How – Much – It – Costs! Nor does it matter WHO gets the glory! That is the LEAST of our worries here! All that matters is that this is successful, and if that means we have to delay it a few days to maximize the chances of success, then that's what we need to do! This war is for the survival of every man, woman, and child on Earth! Doesn't that mean anything to any of you?!"
The generals were still staring at him in stunned silence as he finally took a deep breath and realized the scene he had caused. He decided to wait outside in the hall and excused himself before he did something he would really regret. When he got out into the hallway, he was met by a familiar, yet unexpected voice. "Well, I never thought I would hear YOU raise your voice like that." He turned around, and there before him was Commander Rall and Hikari, along with Marshal von Manstein. He jumped in surprise at seeing them, and asked what they were doing there. Von Manstein explained that they were there for a briefing on the 502nd's role in Operation Southwind – that they would be attacking Neuroi positions just east of Berlin while the 501st was taking on the main unit.
"Are you alright?" asked Hikari, "I've never heard you that upset before." Daniel smiled and replied, "I'll be alright – just frustrated at dealing with a bunch of generals who are too blind in their own ambitions to do this thing properly." Rall and von Manstein chuckled at that as von Manstein replied, "I know the feeling. Unfortunately, it's something we all have to deal with." The next moment, Minna and Yoshika came out of the room. For a few minutes, Minna chatted with Rall while Daniel introduced Yoshika and Hikari to each other. They immediately began to chat each other up – first about what was going on in the room, and then Hikari thanking Yoshika for treating her sister the previous year. Soon after, Generals Patton and Bradley emerged from the room. "Good luck in there," Daniel said, "And give Sasha and everyone else my best when you get back."
After the Liberion generals and the Karlsland Field Marshal greeted and saluted each other, the 502nd contingent entered the room, and the group from the 501st headed back to the airstrip to be transported back to base. Along the way, Daniel tried to apologize for his actions. "Minna, general…I'm sorry for causing such a scene back there. I'm sure you think I was way out of line." Minna gave a surprisingly bright smile and said, "Don't worry about it. Actually, I think you shamed the other generals into granting our request. They not only ended up sticking with the 501st as the main air attack unit, but they agreed to hold off on the operation. Congratulations, major – you got your five days!" Patton was just laughing as he added, "Boy, you scared the living bejezzus out of them. I've never seen anything so ballsy in front of a group of generals like that in my life! You're all right in my book!"
Daniel sighed in relief – glad that he hadn't made the situation worse. However, he knew that he had now put the success of the operation onto his shoulders. As he turned to Yoshika, she gave him a look that said, "Don't worry, I'm ready for whatever you give me!" He smiled back as he began to prepare a training regimen in his head. They were definitely going to have to get creative if they were going to win this thing.
As you may have noticed, Daniel is generally a very patient man, except when it comes to BS. For that, he has a very low tolerance level. While he was able to get the delay they needed, will it be enough to get Yoshika back into fighting shape? Tune in for the next chapter…