"The Fall Of Rome"

Yoshika – I never thought I'd get to see the day that so much death would come... not from an enemy we knew, but with the humans who wanted nothing but everything for themselves.

And deaths from our side meant a lot to them, didn't it?

Earth 2...

City of Rome, Romagna, 1945...

More soldiers in defense for the city of Rome tried to intervene, but more reactionary squads from ATLAS just keep coming. Assault airships and drop pods were coming from that hole in the sky, and it will take a long while until it stops pouring down. And that would mean the total takeover of Rome... something most soldiers defending the city didn't accept. They only fought with tooth and nail. When usual tactics don't work, they even try to charge with a knife from behind, with some getting shot up, removing the arms and legs before dying out.

On ground level, Shirley, Francesca and Yoshika were experiencing what seems to be a massacre. For Yoshika, she could never forgive herself for being so helpless, but she's paralyzed in fear. Francesca soon was starting to break, seeing the reality sinking in that soldiers defending Rome were clearly no match for these invaders. Nothing is stopping these invaders from completely conquering the city. And it breaks her heart to even see it for her own eyes. Shirley even had to comfort her at a time like this while trying to keep quiet. Their cover might be good, but it's not always the safest one even if it's out of prying eyes.

"Captain Yeager!" Mio's voice came up from the earpiece Shirley wore. "Shirley, respond!"

"I'm here!" Shirley spoke just as she saw silhouettes of flying witches, with one being familiar to her... Mio Sakamoto herself who was flying in a striker unit. "Good thing you guys are getting close."

"Just keep holding out. Assuming you're still in that same house, you're still safe."

"Sure. We're here."

"The 504th Aerial is here to assist, but I'm not sure if they're gonna be enough as backup."

"Whoever Command will spare, let's just be glad they came. Do what you gotta do. We'll be here." Shirley sighs, now a little more relieved. "Besides our unit, looks like the 504th was called in to assist."

"Lynne..." Yoshika said that name after being silent for a long while now. Eventually, Yoshika was given an earpiece by Shirley before it was put on. Approaching the window, she could see Lynne was paired with Perrine Clostermann. Together with the rest of the unit, they were engaged with the huge airships in the sky. "Please... Be careful."

"TONNERRE!" Perrine uses a free hand to shoot out a straight bolt of lightning towards an airship's machine-gun port. Sensing that the voltage was so high that it could destroy the port, she figure that it could have killed the shooter as well. "Talk about overdoing it..."

"WATCH OUT!" Lynette covers Perrine with her shield after deflecting rockets and machine-gun fire from a passing aircraft. "Perrine...!"

Perrine didn't need to be told as she was already firing at the jet aircraft, eventually critically damaging its engines. "I'm as attentive as you want me to be, Lynette."

Minna's voice came to the radio. "Listen up! The 504th has arrived to assist! We're on equal footing, but not for long! Keep pushing them back!"

More explosions were seen all around the city on the perspective of the witches. Gunfire was more evident on some parts as ground resistance was weakening.

It was at least Francesca Lucchini who saw they were cheering for the arrival of the witches that she realized there was always a droplet of hope coming around. The couple who helped hide the three witches there watched as the battle ensues, both on the air and on the ground...

When Lucchini also remembered something about Yoshika telling Lynne to be careful, some hint of truth hit her. Why didn't these two hit their relationship deeper? She blushed the moment she remembered Lynne's chest size and how Yoshika loves big chests. Heck... Lucchini couldn't wait trying to grope Lynne's chest like how she does Shirley's. Sighing, she gets back to watching the situation unfold...

Irons – I'm beginning to be tired of these witches. At least some type of admiration can be placed on them. Still... they hinder progress. And we had to move forward.

Irons made sure to give his orders at the bridge of the Airship Atlas again, making up his mind. "Turn our fighters back and make sure they're well taken cared for. Bring out every anti-aircraft launcher or emplacement you boys can set up. And make sure our airships prepare to fire too. Target these witches with fragmentation and airburst rounds. Their resistance... stops now." Irons orders this and everyone on the bridge gets to work and issues orders. Infantry units on the ground had their own anti-air launchers with different ammunition to aid on the attack against the witches, while the Airship Atlas had cannons to shoot out those missiles. "Align those cannons towards where the witches are. When in range, you're cleared to open fire."

We've been holding back for far too long. Though we didn't suffer so many casualties on the ground, our fly boys need to be avenged.

"Add more airships to engage those witches. If we have to fire at a group at a time, so be it. I want them to not get back at us again." Irons said it and was serious about it. On his orders, he had other airships ready to fire cannons at witch engaging them directly.

As Minna was fighting with Hartmann and hears the 504th was planning to engage the airships by groups, something in her gut didn't feel right. "Junko, this is Wilcke! It's good to see you've arrived!"

"Glad to assist. I already relayed orders to engage the airships."

"What...? Don't engage directly-!" But Minna was too late. Several bangs from airship cannons were heard and missiles were flying right at the witches of the 504th. "No..."

And all MInna heard were actions of evading missiles from both the airships and other parts of the city. "It's a trap...! Junko, regroup!"

"Negative! We're taking multiple hits from all around the city...! No, take evasive action from those missiles from the ground! Do you hear me?!" Junko said that on the radio. And Minna assumed Junko was tapped to two frequencies at a time. "Shoot them out of the air! No! Nakajima! Suwa is down!"

And Minna was only hearing the 504th continuously getting shot at by airburst rounds and fragmentation rounds. It was just to blind the witches but also to hurt their internal organs. Minna realized Junko is losing her witches faster than she can give orders to them.

Minna grits her teeth as she scanning the horizon just a distance from the airships while being with Hartmann. "Junko, you're clearly taking casualties! Break away!"

Junko's communications are active but she isn't speaking for a reason. Radio chatter suggested that one of the witches, Patricia Schade, panicked on the losses suffered and began to retreat on her own. While Jane and Dominica had the same thought, the two weren't lucky and got caught in missile barrages before the two crashed as corpses attached burning strikers to the Earth. "Flight Lieutenant Takei Junko responding… The 504th has suffered heavy casualties… We're no longer combat-capable… 501st… May you fare better than we have…"

Hartmann heard the comms suddenly cut and she looked at Minna. "They've given up…"

Minna sighs. "Casualties mounting up to that many witches? This is just a battle of attrition now… So I can't blame them…"

"Minna, come in. This is Barkhorn." Trude called over the radio.

"Go ahead."

"Intercepted a radio transmission. Multiple infantry squads from the roads and as paratroopers were supposed to come in from the north but communications were lost. Last transmission they gave included being bombed and shot down."

"Confirmation?"

"Mio helped me out while swerving around the enemy and we confirmed it. It's a massacre."

"Damn it…" Minna muttered this to herself before the rest of the 501st were hearing sounds of morse code beeping into their earpieces. After a while, Minna was sure of it. The losses of the 501st and a major reinforcement from the north being destroyed was taken into account. "No… It can't end like this…"

Hartmann groans. "Already? Why are they telling us to retreat?"

"The losses are too great. This is clearly a battle of attrition now. We can't continue. Everyone, we're clearing out! Regroup on my position! Shirley, get ready for a pickup!" Minna said it before she started to look for a location that would be used as a pick-up point. "That park over there. Shirley, I'm sending you a reference point! Follow it to the location! You'll be heading to a park!"

"Copy! We're moving!" Shirley said it, and the sounds of her running were heard on the radio.

Shirley was making sure to keep Lucchini and Miyafuji active as they were moving away from the battle, having been told to head to the park as the pickup point. 'So the orders were clear, huh? This is gonna look bad… Everything with a loss like this is at stake now…' "This way!" Shirley said as she made a turn with Lucchini just behind her. "There!"

As for Duchess Maria, she was brought to the bridge of the Airship Atlas by Ghost himself. She refused to keep walking once she got there, but she didn't need to anymore. Ghost simply kicked her knees and forced her to kneel.

Ghost then looked at Irons who was interested to know Duchess Maria. "Good thing we had a good look on her image. She looked like a citizen out there. But anyway…"

"I believe you," Irons said it just before kneeling down and looking at Maria. He only looked at her without saying anything to her. And just as she expressed her displeasure with that glare.

Maria made the initiative to speak to him first. "You'll pay for this."

Irons delayed his speech as he smirked at her. "Perhaps. I think you and I will have an interesting talk. But I'll give you a cliffhanger. There were three times that your city was poised to be reinforced in case the likes of us arrive. And they were all repelled. Now in the way we take lives, I think you know how many losses you've had."

Maria opened her eyes wide and realized the magnitude of what she's lost. 'It can't be…! No…!'

Standing up to look at Ghost, he chuckles. "Good work. Now… Turn her in to be processed and have her under lock and key. Then take a break."

Ghost nods. "Debrief?"

"Just when you're ready." As Irons replied, he sees Ghost pick Maria up. She protests loudly as she was being taken away.

Shirley reached the park with Lucchini and Miyafuji. Hearing the native Romagnan cry as she realized the losses and the retreat order came was something Shirley should tolerate. A great loss for Romagna means this changes the game completely. With the Neuroi presence completely being ignored, the Allied Forces only had to think of this new enemy for a certain amount of time…

As for Miyafuji, she only had sadness in her eyes. She was helpless the whole time and could only sympathize with Lucchini who was crying.

Hearing a number of engines from above, Shirley could see Minna and the rest of the 501st were there. And Minna hovers down first followed by two more while reaching her hand out to them… Faces from a disconcerted Shirley, a sad Yoshika and an even lonelier Francesca who was crying only looked at their squadmates for comfort.

For 10 minutes they couldn't find any. But the three had no choice but to adapt as they abandon Romagna.

As the formation of the 501st flew away from Romagna, all the members were called on their radio earpieces by none other than Minna herself, who felt very unsettled with the news she's about to tell. "Listen up… There's something I need to tell you… The City Of Rome has fallen, and official orders came as we were doing that pick-up… We're not going back on our stationed base. It's considered off-limits to us by Command. We're moving south to Sicily..."

Meanwhile at an unknown location in the darkness, a single source of light was lighting up a table with two chairs across each other. There was one chair occupied as a seat… and was sat on by a blonde girl wearing glasses.

"Miss Hartmann," A man sitting across the girl called her out. "I'm sure by what happened, you understand how coincidental the methods are."

Ursula was looking down carefully at the papers presented to her… top secret in nature and not easily shown to just anybody. But she's looking at this with a fine-tooth comb, knowing most of the functions of the schematics presented to her. "Agent… You have to be crazy in even drafting something like this."

"Then let me rephrase it for you. You're here because you're considered one the best minds in magical instrumentation, including the improvements of all types of the striker unit."

"But what you're showing me is simply… bizarre. You're talking about cross-world travel… Using what?" Ursula asked, while adjusting her glasses.

The agent sighs. "Well that's a good question, is it?"