Hello, my loyal readers! For those of you who are wondering, yes, this is a very noticeable nod to the movie of the same name. There will be a couple of references made in this chapter – some fairly obvious, others a bit more subtle. I hope you all enjoy as Daniel and the witches come to the last hurdle, so to speak. Also, I don't own Strike Witches, or the movie Independence Day (or any sequels that have been made).
July 4, 1946
The next morning, Daniel awoke to the sunrise with Sasha still holding him and both of them still in their clothes from the night before. He slowly and gently began to get up and out of bed so as not to wake up Sasha just yet. As he stood by the window watching the sunrise, he began to reflect on everything he had been through since he had arrived in this world. He sighed as he continued to stare out the window, and he murmured to himself, "Two years." He then felt a pair of arms wrap around his midsection from behind, as Sasha had awakened and joined him. "What was that you just said?" asked Sasha. "I was thinking that it's been just over two years since I arrived in this world. Man, has it been that long already?" Sasha then kissed his cheek and said, "Well, don't dwell on it too much – we've still got an important job to do today." Daniel nodded in agreement as he returned the peck on the cheek, and the two of them started to get ready for the day ahead.
After breakfast, Daniel headed out with Minna and Rall, along with a couple of the other witches to see how the new fighter squadron was doing. This would be their first combat action as a unit, and it was a major battle. When they arrived, the 601st's hangar was buzzing with activity as everyone was getting ready for the coming battle. However, Daniel could also feel a lot of tension and anxiety amongst the members of the new squadron, as well as amongst the members of all of the units stationed at the Berlin base. He thought about what he could do to relieve some of these negative emotions when he got an idea. "Hey Shirley," he began to ask, "Is July 4th Independence Day in Liberion in this world?" Shirley replied, "It sure is! Oh, yeah! That's today, isn't it?"
With that information, Daniel asked Minna if he could use the comm system to broadcast something to the entire base, explaining that he wanted to give some words of encouragement to all of the personnel. She then led him to the radio room, where the comm system was located, and showed him how to work the radio so that it would broadcast throughout the base. Once he figured out the controls, he took a deep breath, turned on the system, and began to speak.
"Good morning, everyone," Daniel began, "This is major Daniel Horowitz of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing speaking. As you well know, in a couple of hours, you will all be joining several other military units composed of pilots and other soldiers from all over the world…and you will be engaging in the largest aerial battle in the history of humanity. Let me say that again – 'the history of humanity' – that phrase should have special meaning for all of us after everything we've been through over the last several years."
Daniel then prepared to get to the heart of the speech. "For those of you who are from Liberion, it is especially appropriate that today is the Fourth of July, and once again we are fighting for our freedom. This time, we're not fighting for freedom from tyranny or oppression, but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to exist." He then paused again before continuing, "And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will henceforth no longer be known as merely a Liberion holiday, but as the day the world stood up with one voice and said, 'We will not go quietly into the night. We will not go down without a fight.' Today…we celebrate…our Independence Day!" At that, even from within the radio room, he could hear a giant roar erupt from the hangar at his words. He smiled, his message having gotten through. "Good luck to all of you…and may the Force be with us," he concluded before turning off the system and heading back to the hangar where the rest of the witches were waiting.
As he was heading back to the witches' hangar, Sasha spoke to him softly so no one else could hear. "Tell me, did you get that speech from one of your movies?" she asked. He replied in a similar soft tone, "Well, I adlibbed a bit, but essentially, yeah." He then added in a whisper, "But there's no need for anyone else to know that, right?" Sasha giggled as she nodded in response.
A short while later, they received word from allied command to get underway, as the 501st, 502nd, and 601st Joint Fighter Wings took off as the joint fighter wing units from Sedan and Venezia did the same – all of them headed to the superhive above Vienna. Along the way, they were joined on the ground by the armored tank units, led by General Patton, tasked with clearing the way for the main assault as well as assisting however else possible. When they arrived, they had a hard time believing the size of the hive in front of them. Even the members of the 501st, who had fought the superhive over Venezia, tensed up at seeing it.
The ground units were the first to engage, as the tanks units, led by the newly restored Ratte, fired dozens of special HE rounds at the Neuroi nest. When the HE rounds hit the storm clouds surrounding the superhive, the clouds dispersed, leaving the main Neuroi unit without its cloud cover. Once this was taken care of, the bombers and the fighter escorts headed back to base, and the witches, along with the new fighter units engaged the Neuroi.
As the aerial units began their attack run, what seemed like thousands of Neuroi drones emerged from the main unit to thwart the allied attack. In addition, the main unit had a number of laser cannons of its own that it began firing at the attacking force. Now, it became a massive dogfight, as each side tried to gain supremacy. Thanks to the shield generators, the new fighters were able to hold their own and make a dent in destroying the Neuroi drones, though Daniel and the witches were making quicker work of it, having more combat experience in these situations.
Before long, the aerial forces had thinned out the number of Neuroi drones considerably, and there was a clear path to attacking the main unit. "Alright, everyone," Daniel stated through the comm, "I want the members of the 601st to join up with me now – we're going to make an attack run on the main unit." He was immediately inundated with "Yes, sir!" over the comm from the members of the 601st. As they gathered into formation, with Daniel at the vanguard, the witches of the 501st and 502nd continued to provide them cover from the drones, with Yoshika serving as their vanguard with her massive shield.
As the fighters flew towards the massive Neuroi structure in front of them, Daniel gave his instructions to the 601st. "Let's go in full throttle to keep any drones off our tails for a bit – and keep your shields up! We also need to look out for that thing's cannons," he said. They acknowledged the instructions, and followed him in for their attack run. When they got in firing range for their photon torpedoes, Daniel gave the order for everyone to fire, and everyone fired one of their torpedoes at the structure. Although the cannons were able to pick off a couple of the torpedoes, most of them were able to get through and score a direct hit on the main unit.
However, when the smoke cleared, there didn't appear to be any damage to the Neuroi at all. Daniel then ordered them to keep moving as he used his sensors to get a lock on the core and try again. A couple moments later, the sensors found its target, and Daniel ordered everyone to aim for the spot where the core was and fire again. They did so, and while most of them hit in the correct general area, it was still somewhat spread out, and the Neuroi armor held up with barely any indication of damage. They also got word from the other attack groups that their attacks had been met with similar results
"Damn!" Daniel shouted. "It looks like the Neuroi have seriously reinforced their armor – our torpedoes aren't causing any real damage!" From below, the armored units attempted to help by firing their own torpedoes, as well as the other anti-Neuroi weaponry they had, but weren't any more successful than the aerial fighters had been. "What do we do now?" Daniel heard Shirley ask over the comm. As Daniel began to think about that question, Mio provided an answer from wherever she was observing the battle. "I'm afraid we have no choice but to fall back, regroup, and rethink our attack strategy," she said. "What?! Retreat?! But we're so close!" shouted Trude. "Curse those Neuroi to hell!" added Patton. Mio then responded, "We don't have any choice! We don't have any weapons that can destroy the main unit!"
Having thought it over, Daniel then exclaimed, "Yes, we do! Or more precisely, I do!" Minna then asked, "What are you talking about, major? Your photon torpedoes didn't make a dent in that thing!" Daniel then replied, "I'm not talking about the torpedoes – at least not by themselves." Confused, Minna inquired, "Then what do you have in mind?" Daniel paused for a moment before responding, "I'm going to turn my fighter into a missile and ram it right where the core is!" Daniel could hear the gasps of horror through the comm system before he heard the various responses to that declaration. "No!" cried Yoshika. "What?!" shouted Hikari. "You're nuts!" exclaimed Trude. "Are you out of your mind?!" asked Meister Rossman. "And you called ME crazy?!" stated Mio. Daniel then heard Sasha's reply. "Don't do it! We can come up with a new plan later! It's not worth getting yourself killed!" she exclaimed in crying desperation.
Daniel then replied to everyone, "Please don't jump to conclusions. I have no intention of dying today, and I know this will work!" He then explained his plain in detail. The first thing he would do would be to set his laser cannons to build up their energy, which would cause them to overload if he didn't fire them. At the same time, he would aim his fighter right at the coordinates where the core was located and fly right at it at full throttle. He would then make sure that the timing of the overload and the impact were virtually simultaneous. Once he was close enough, he would drop his shields and make his remaining torpedoes active without launching, meaning their combined explosive yield would detonate once the fighter made impact with something. He would then eject from the fighter before the explosion. If he timed it right, he explained, the overload would occur about a second before impact, which would mean the energy discharge from the overload would be directed at the target and hit right before the fighter did. The combined energy, explosive power, and force from these factors should penetrate the armor and destroy the core.
"I admit, this will be tricky, and will require precise timing," he added. "This means that I'm going to need you all to cover my tail as I go in." After listening to all of this, Minna reluctantly agreed to the plan, as it was the only possibility that they had of winning this thing at the moment. In addition, Daniel was the only one with the ability to pull of something that required such precision. "What about the main unit's cannons?" she asked, "You'll be dodging them the whole way!" Daniel replied simply, "You just worry about the drones, I'll worry about the cannons!"
Just then, a lone Neuroi drone got through to Daniel undetected until the last moment. While he was able to avoid any major damage thanks to his shields, he took a direct hit, which caused his sensor systems to short out. Daniel momentarily panicked in his head – now he had no way of locking on to the core's coordinates again before he attacked! However, before he made any further decisions on whether or not to move forward with his plan, his mind provided him with some unexpected clarity, as he was able to sense the core's energy through the Force and determine where it was. While he had been somewhat surprised when he had done this before in his super-speed state, this was a completely unexpected development, though not one that was unwelcome. Now that he was able to determine where he needed to go, he entered the coordinates into the computer.
As Daniel prepared the X-wing for its final attack run, he set the internal display screen to display the countdown for both the cannon overload, and the time to impact the target coordinates side-by-side so he could line up the timing properly and take action to withdraw from the attack if need be. Once he started the energy buildup for his cannons, the left side of his screen began the countdown until they overloaded. He then pulled up the coordinates for the Neuroi core, aimed his fighter there, and started moving at full throttle, at which point the countdown to impact was displayed on the right side of the screen. After a few adjustments, he was able to get the timing where he wanted it – with the overload occurring about a second or two before the impact.
As Daniel moved towards the main Neuroi unit, he had to dodge a few laser shots, which required a few minor adjustments to get him back on target. As he got closer, he continued to use the Force to guide him along the safest path. However, the attacks intensified in frequency, and he began to wonder whether he would have to withdraw when he saw multiple torpedoes fired at the Neuroi. A few moments later, they hit the spots where the Neuroi had been firing from, destroying the laser cannons that were of immediate concern to him. "You're all clear now, major!" he heard one of the 601st pilots say, "Now destroy this thing so we can all go home!"
Daniel thanked the members of the 601st and continued toward the Neuroi. Once it seemed like the Neuroi wasn't able to cause any more direct problems for Daniel, the rest of the fighters veered off and Daniel began to get ready to execute his plan. When the overload countdown reached fifteen seconds, he dropped his shields, activated his remaining torpedoes, and hit the eject sequence, which blew the top hatch off and launched his seat straight up in the air, with Daniel secured tightly in the seat. A few moments later, the seat's parachute deployed, and Daniel watched as the X-wing's cannons overloaded, sending an energy discharge right to where the core was located. At nearly the same time, the fighter hit that same spot, and the explosive force caused the Neuroi's armor to first weaken, then shatter, revealing the core. Finally, the remaining part of the explosion caused the core to shatter and the Neuroi's body to be enveloped in a blinding light.
Moments later, the Neuroi exploded into a million shards, causing Daniel to raise his arms in triumph. "YES!" he shouted, before realizing that he was in a bit of trouble. He had miscalculated the resulting explosion by the Neuroi – specifically, the shock wave was bigger than he had expected, and it was heading right for him. 'Oh, crap!' he thought as he instinctively put his arms in front of his face to try to shield himself. However, the shock wave soon hit him, violently shaking his seat and his entire body. Moments after the shock wave hit, Daniel blacked out.
Well, it appears that Daniel is having his big moment in battle – saving the day and effectively ending the war with the Neuroi! But at what cost? Stay tuned for the next chapter to find out!