Ok so I have to say the popularity this story has gained has really flattered me. in fact so much so that i felt compelled to finish ch2 a week after the first one. anyway some quick production notes. for Mio and Yoshika i will refer to them in the english style of doing so, in other words first name first. I just learned their names that way lol i am werid that way. also i will be using call of duty gun logic as in Russians will be carrying non Russian weapons as well as Russian guns. Oh Btw i know i had the whole point of view things on just a few characters well i decided that i would give pretty much all of the witches a POV scene at a certain point but the four i marked POV in the character list will be the "main characters" who will be focused on the most. finally if their are any errors in the story grammer wise i aplogize i spend all day writing so i am a little tired. anyway without further delay here is chapter two
A World on Fire
Arcadia Virginia U.S.A.
Flying Officer Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen
17:45 Local Time
Eila had barely enough time to realize she was falling before she splashed into the cold water of a flowing river. Eila could hear the sounds of the other witches crashing into the river as well. Eila's weapons suddenly felt like it was ten times heavier than it should be and it was dragging her down like an anchor, she let go of the weapon and began to swim for the surface. She looked around to see if everyone else was alright, she saw that all of the witches including to her relief Sanya surface. She was about to say something when she felt something brush up against her. Eila turned around and saw to her horror a dozen human bodies were floating upstream towards her.
"Oh shit!" she shouted. The other witches turned and noticed the corpses as well. They scrambled out of the water and onto the shore line. The witches took a moment to catch their breath before speaking. Then Gertrud spoke to the group.
"I don't think the Neuroi did this." She told them with a haggard voice. They looked down to the corpses floating past them, they were civilians and it looks like they had been shot in the back by human weapons not Neuroi laser beams, which would have just vaporized them. Most of them were women and children some couldn't have been more than ten years old. Eila felt sick to her stomach at the sight of such evil; the way they were all shot it looked like they had been executed by a group of people, it wasn't a fight that was for sure anyway. Eila looked to Gertrud, she was still holding onto one of her MG42s but the barrel had been bent so it was effectively little more than a club. Gertrud finally seemed to notice her weapons state of disrepair and let out a frustrated growl and chucked the weapon into the water. It had appeared that in the fall all of the witches had lost their weapons to the river.
"Yeah it appears so; perhaps it could have been whoever those men are." Erica said as she pointed to the sky. The witches looked up they saw that the skies were filled by large aircraft with men parachuting from them. This is just like in my vision. Eila thought to herself.
"No it couldn't be, how could anyone do something like this is horrible it is inhuman it just has to be the Neuroi who did this!" Yoshika who was visibly shocked shouted to Erica.
"Enough we have to figure out what the hell is going to here!" Minna commanded to the group. Then Lynette spoke.
"Wait what happened to our striker units I don't remember landing in the water with them?" She asked everyone. Eila just realized it as well. She was missing her striker as well it had just plain disappeared.
"Yeah I didn't notice it either when we fell last I remember before falling was going into the Neuroi hive then being whipped around the next thing I knew I was falling into the river. But I know for sure that my striker didn't fall off in the Neuroi hive." Shirley told the group. Mio nodded, Eila noticed that she still had her sword making her the only armed member of the group.
"Yes that is about all I remember as well." Mio said then Eila felt Sanya brush up against her.
"Eila do you think we should tell the rest of the witches about our visions?" She asked her. Eila nodded
"Yeah but not right now let's figure out what the hell is going on first." She told her, Eila looked to Sanya who nodded.
"Alright let's do a magic check see if we can still use our powers." Minna told them; Mio was the first to act her familiar came out and she lifted her eye patch to reveal her magic eye; she stared up to the sky to look at the planes.
"Yeah my magic still works how about everyone else?" Mio asked everyone, and then Perrine pointed her hand out away from the group.
"TONNERRE!" Perrine shouted as a lightning bolt shot out of her fingers and struck a rock. "Yeah, my powers still work." She told everyone. One by one the witches tested their powers everyone's powers were still working but it seemed like they were working at half capacity for whatever reason. For example in the case of Eila having to drop her weapon, usually magic augmented her strength such that she could carry the heavy weapon but without that she had the strength of a normal woman of her age or perhaps a little more since it felt like she had still a little bit of magic still augmenting her strength. Then Minna spoke again, her wolf's ears and tail were out.
"Wait I sense people coming; everyone find a place to hide!" She ordered them. The witches noticed a destroyed two story house just down the way, they quickly sprinted to it. The house looked like a small bomb must have hit it or something because the roof had caved in and it was burning slightly. Eila and Sanya hid behind a wall with a slight crack in it so they could see outside. They peered out side. Suddenly the sound of an automatic cannon could be heard. An intact house across the street took several hits from the cannon blowing huge chunks of wood out of it and causing a fire to brew up. They saw the source of the cannon fire; it was a strange looking green painted eight wheeled vehicle equipped with a top mounted auto cannon. The cannon swiveled and fired at another house that was intact causing the same results as the first. Eila snarled, what purpose did they have attacking a defenseless home, this action seemed like it had no military objective other than to cause indiscriminate destruction. Then she saw a dozen armed men following behind the vehicle they wore some strange kind of camouflage that Eila had never seen before. It was some kind of jagged black, brown and red camo that seemed to let them blend in with the fiery scenery. Eila could see they were carrying the same types of weapons that she saw people carrying in her vision. At the rear of the group two soldiers with flamethrowers went house to house spewing flames into the damaged homes. Then to Eila's horror one of them started to approach in her direction. He raised his flamethrower and was about to fire when one of the other soldiers stopped him. He said something in Orussian to him, causing the man with the flamethrower to lower his weapon and begin to walk away with the rest of the group. After a few seconds it appeared that the coast was clear, so the witches stepped out of the house and into the backyard were they could converse. They all got in a group together Shirley was the last one out; she was walking to the group when she yelped.
"Ouch, fuck that hurts." She said as she held her hand on the side of her leg which had started to bleed. "Hey Yoshika do you mind using your healing magic on me? It seems that I cut myself on some jagged metal." She asked the fifteen year old Fusoan witch.
"Yeah of course." Yoshika walked over to Shirley and crouched down by Shirley's hurt leg. She began to use her magic to seal and disinfect the wound. The bright blue glow of the magical energy she used could probably be seen for quite some distance so it would be best if they started to move. "There, it is all healed up." Yoshika said with an innocent smile on her face.
"Thanks sweetie, hey guys I think we should probably find some better clothes and some shoes, it seems like there is a lot of jagged metal in this area and we are going to keep getting cut without some pants. Besides it is not like we have our strikers anymore so we don't really need to be in just our panties now." Shirley told to the group, Minna nodded and then spoke.
"Agreed but do you have any ideas as to where we might find some clothes? As it appears that whoever those men were they made a point of burning down all of the houses in this area." Minna asked Shirley, who then nodded.
"Yeah I was upstairs with Lucchini and we saw what looked like a shopping mall about a mile or so away to the west." Shirley told them. Francesca Lucchini who had been uncharacteristically quiet until now then spoke.
"Yeah and we might be able to find people there who will be able to tell us what exactly is going on here. Or at the very least it is probably a decent area to defend." Francesca stated.
"Alright then let's move out, I want to figure out what the hell is going on here." Minna told the group.
Arcadia Virginia U.S.A.
Flying Officer Erica Hartmann
18:02 Local Time
Erica was confused, well that was nothing new, a lot of the time she had her head in the clouds so to speak but this time she was paying attention as to what was going on but she still had no idea as to what the hell was happening, where were they? Why were a bunch of men speaking Orussian burning homes for no reason and why the hell did they end up here. After much debate Erica decided to ask for her friend and roommate's opinion. She walked up next to Trudy and started talking.
"Hey Trude I got a question for you." Erica stated the eighteen year old Karlslander looked to her.
"Yeah what is it?" Trude asked her. They were going through the backyards of people's houses in order to not be detected, sometimes to fences were broken other times they would have to hop over them, which usually resulted in some form of scrape related leg injury.
"I am not entirely sure to be honest. But clearly there is some kind of human on human war that is going on; not something unheard of even though it is rare. But the viciousness that these people are showing goes beyond just simple war. I think these people who are attacking really hate whoever they are attacking. But I don't know anything that anyone can do to warrant this kind of violence." Trudy stated to her, Erica thought for a moment, all of that seemed plausible. Erica wished Ursula was here though, she would be able to figure out what was going on or failing that she would figure out a way to get them the hell out of here.
"Yeah I guess but the weapons they are using I have never seen anything like them before how do you explain all of that?" Erica asked her. Trudy thought for a moment and then shrugged.
"That I don't have the answer for. But either way I am sure we fill find out." Just then the group came to end of the neighborhood. On the other side of the fence was just a field of some kind. Erica and some of the other witches peered through it. They saw on the other side some more of those strangely dressed soldiers, and they were guarding some civilians about a half dozen of them.
"Please we haven't done anything to you! Why are you doing this to us?" a young man of maybe about twenty said to his captors in Liberion accented Britannian. A soldier with a light blue beret with a face full of scars then spoke.
"Shut up Amerikanski!" he shouted as he hit the young man in the back of the head with his rifle. He then spoke in Orussian and his men raised their weapons and fired into the group of kneeling civilians. They fired and fired, their bullets impacting with bright red burst of blood and torn flesh from their victims. Lynne was about to scream when Minna quickly put her hand on her mouth and gave her the shush hand sign. Erica looked to the group, both Mio and Trudy looked like they were about to hop the fence and tear the Orussians limb from limb, Eila held Sanya's face against her chest shielding her from the massacre; both Yoshika and Shirley seemed too stunned to say anything. Finally Francesca and Perrine looked visibly disturbed by the scene. The soldiers, no murders they didn't deserve to call themselves soldiers, emptied their weapons and reloaded. The Orussian with the hat said something and the men began to casually walk away laughing and joking with each other as if they had just finished a sports game. Erica fumed at them, this was just brutality nothing more than sheer animalistic bloodlust. After a few moments, a shaken Minna spoke.
"Ok the way is clear let's move." She ordered them. They climbed the fence and began to head over to where the badly mutilated bodies were. It didn't feel right to just leave them to rot.
"Minna, are we really going to leave them here shouldn't we at least bury them." Erica asked her. Her auburn haired commander looked back to her with eyes filled with a combination of anger, fear and sorrow.
"Yeah, we are. I don't like it either but we are defenseless and in the open. We need to keep moving if we want any chance to survive here." Minna responded.
"What, after they died we can't do that to them they deserve better than what had happened to them. The least we can do is to give them a proper burial." Perrine stated.
"Minna is right we don't have time to bury them, we are exposed out here and we need to head towards that mall at least it will give us some cover to hide in." Major Sakamoto told everyone. Trudy didn't look satisfied with that answer.
"We should track down those pieces of shit and kill them is what we should do." Trudy stated to all who was listening. Major Sakamoto turned to her and then spoke.
"I know trust me I will personally see to it that those bastards pay for what they have done. But first we need to find the means to get revenge for those who have been killed. And more importantly we have to figure out what the hell is going on." Mio stated to the group. Eila nodded in agreement and so did some of the other witches.
"Alright people let's get a move on we don't have all day." Minna said to everyone. Then Shirley spoke.
"Hey Commander, I think I know where we are." She said to Commander Minna.
"Really where is that?" Minna asked her. Shirley then pointed to a sign that was near the street a few meters away from them.
"Apparently we are in Arcadia Virginia. That means that we are on the East Coast of the United States of Liberion." Shirley stated to the group. Suddenly the sky was alight with anti aircraft fire. A fresh series of alarms went off and in the distance more large planes were flying into the area.
"Alright let's move." Minna said and they began to head further west.
Arcadia Virginia U.S.A.
Flying Lieutenant Charlotte "Shirley" Yeager
18:35 Local Time
They were walking through the street towards their objective. It couldn't have been more than two or three blocks away but with all of the detours they have had to take it made the journey a lot longer than it should have been. Shirley had volunteered to take point for the group. She was lost in her thoughts; what she had seen was too much for her to just shrug off. She swore that one of the people who were killed looked at her right before he was shot. Shirley was no stranger to war she had been fighting the Neuroi for two and a half years but this was something different. Human on human violence was so rare the last war fought between people was about fifty or sixty years ago. Suddenly Mio came up to her and patted her on the shoulder.
"Hey Shirley, how are you holding up?" Mio asked her. The twenty year old Fusoan witch had been one of Shirley's close friends since she had joined to 501st. Shirley grimaced.
"I am pissed Mio. That back there was too much, for anyone to see they were gunned down like rabid dogs; hell we don't even do that to criminals in this country why would those assholes do it to some innocent civilians." Shirley confined to her superior. Mio nodded and frowned.
"I know I feel the same way. What they have done, it is unforgivable." Mio gritted her teeth, and by reflex reached for her sword.
"Yeah, Major these are my people, when I get the chance I am not going to show those bastards any mercy." Shirley told her.
"I don't blame you I feel the same way. Anyway I will take point now head back closer to the rear, and keep an eye on Francesca for me." Mio ordered her.
"Right. Hey Mio, thanks for talking with me." Shirley told her. Mio smiled back to her.
"Ah don't mention it; I know you would do the same for me old friend." Mio stated, Shirley smiled and started to slow down for a bit till she was side by side with Francesca.
"Hey how are you feeling?" Shirley asked her, Lucchini looked a little dazed but she snapped out of it.
"Oh haha I am fine don't worry about me." She said with a grin on her face. Shirley smirked.
"Alright if you say so just don't go spacing out on me alright." Shirley told her.
"Me, ah no I wouldn't do that. Besides how can I space out when I have those nice breasts of yours to look at!" she chirped as she quickly grabbed for Shirley's bosom and started messaging them.
"Ok, ok I get it your fine, now stop grabbing at me, or at least while we are walking." Shirley told her as she moved Francesca's hands away from her breasts. Francesca pouted
"Ah your no fun." She frowned just then they heard a loud explosion. The entire group turned around. One of the planes that had been dropping paratroopers had been hit by AAA and was falling to the ground. A few parachutes escaped the burning plane. Two of them were on fire and the third was alright. The paratrooper by coincidence landed a few dozen feet in front of them. He was struggling to get out of his parachute when he noticed them and began to fumble with his rifle to aim and fire at them. Just then Mio charged at him sword drawn. The Orussian raised his rifle but Mio was quicker, with a quick slash she cut off the barrel then as her momentum carried her past her target she stopped and stabbed her sword back into the man's back, the long blade pierced through the soldier's chest and Mio jerked it down through his stomach. Everyone was stunned that Mio so easily killed that man. She pulled the blade out from his body as blood gurgled from his mouth and he fell to the ground.
"You, you just killed that man." Yoshika stammered. Mio frowned as Mio flicked the blood from her blade.
"I know I did." Mio simply stated.
"But couldn't you have just wounded him or something you didn't have to kill him!" Yoshika retorted.
"Look Miyafuji we are in the middle of a war, it might not be ours but, here it is kill or be killed and we have to learn to accept that our we have no chance of survival. Besides you have all seen what they have done today; they have murdered innocent people and caused indiscriminate destruction on this defenseless town. As soldiers we have no choice but to defend these people or at the very least avenge their murders." Mio shot back to Yoshika who flinched at that last statement. Yoshika had always been a pacifist; she was even reluctant to shoot at the Neuroi at first. Minna then stepped beside Mio.
"She is right if we want to survive we may have to kill people in order to do so; I don't like it and I can imagine neither does Mio but it is the reality of the situation we are in. Sanya check his tags see what you can find.
"Yes Ma'am." Sanya said. The grey haired Orussian witch walked over to the paratrooper's corpse and examined it. She pulled out his dog tags and took a look at them. "Well he is for sure an Orussian although looking at the flag on his shoulder patch I would say that their flag has changed it looks like it is upside down for some reason."
"What unit is he from, any you recognize?" Minna asked her. Sanya read his tags.
"Says he is part of the 122nd Guards Airborne Division, that isn't a unit I recognize; wait hold on." She cradled his helmet and pointed to a symbol of a hammer and sickle in a red star on it. "Damn just what I was afraid of he is a communist." Sanya stated.
"He is what Sanya?" Minna said as she raised her eyebrow. Shirley was curious too she had never heard of a communist before.
"Communists are terrorists in Orussia, I am not surprised that you haven't heard of them before the Tsar didn't want the word to get out that there were people who opposed him. These crazy bastards tore up half the Orussian countryside trying to start a civil war. Hell if it wasn't for us witches they might have succeeded. Now the only question left is why are they here and how have they gotten enough power to launch an invasion of the U.S.L." Sanya informed them. Mio then spoke.
"That doesn't matter now we need to keep moving check him for any other weapons and let's get moving." She told her. Sanya nodded and pulled a pistol from a holster. Oddly enough it was a Colt M1911. Shirley walked over to Sanya.
"Hey I will take that after all I am trained to use that thing." She stated. Sanya nodded and handed the pistol over to her. Shirley racked the slide and flicked the safety switch on. Then Minna spoke.
"Alright ladies let's go." With that they all continued on their journey to the mall.
Fort Campbell U.S.A.
Sergeant Derek Westbrook "Frost"
19:00 Local Time
Sandman and Frost were standing by the front gate to the base. They were waiting for Grinch and Truck to return. They were not on base when the crisis had begun so they had to be recalled from their previous locations to the base in order to get suited up and ready to join the fray. They were both in their uniforms with all of their equipment ready. Frost had grabbed an FN SCAR-H with an ACOG scope and an under slung grenade launcher; additionally for backup he carried an FN Five Seven hand gun. Sandman on the other hand chose to carry his favorite weapon the HK416 assault rifle. They both carried an assortment of grenades both lethal and non-lethal like the flash bang grenade. The gate opened and Grinch was the first to appear. He was riding his custom Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Grinch wore standard biker clothing, camo pants, black t-shirt, combat boots and his arms were covered in tattoos. Grinch had told them prior to leaving that he had to do a brief undercover assignment posing as a member of the infamous Hell's Legion biker gang. Frost thought to himself that the grouchy southerner certainly looked the part. He parked his bike and got off it and began to walk towards them.
"Hey how is it going guys?" He asked them, as he shook both of their hands.
"Well the world is going to hell and we are all that stands in the way of total annihilation, so yeah it is a pretty standard Monday evening." Frost joked to Grinch who chuckled in response.
"Yeah looks like we have to go save the day again; go suit up and meet us back here we have to tell Truck what is happening." Sandman stated. Just then they began to hear some obnoxiously loud Gangster Rap. The gates swung open and a massive red Hummer H2 pulled through the gate. The engine stopped and Truck stepped out dressed in full combat gear.
"Yo man what's up?" Truck said as he pulled an extra Kevlar vest from his Hummer and tossed it to Grinch, who caught it one handed.
"Just waiting on you old friend." Sandman said as Truck went into the backseat of his vehicle and pulled out both an MK14 DMR and a MK46 saw. He walked over to Grinch and handed him the MK14.
"Thanks man, now all I need is my hat and I am set." He joked; just then Frost pulled out a baseball cap from one of his vest's compartments and handed it to Grinch. "Thanks Frost you're too good to me kid." He chuckled. Sandman rolled his eyes.
"Alright, alright enough screwing around let's head to the chopper, I'll explain the mission on the way there." Sandman said to them.
"Alright you're the boss man." Truck said as they began to head towards the hangers.
"So I got word from General Shepherd, it seems that some HVI with important intel got capped in Arcadia by some Russkies now it is up to us to go into a warzone track the fucker down and snatch the intel." Sandman informed them, Frost then spoke.
"What kind of resistance should we be expecting sir?" Frost asked his CO who smirked.
"Half the fucking Red Army." He said sarcastically, and then Grinch spoke.
"So are we going to be getting any support or are we doing this on our own again just like our last mission in Pakistan?" Grinch asked Sandman, who thought for a moment.
"Well we got some F-35s from Edwards AFB that have been deployed to the city; they will give us some CAS should things go down the toilet." Sandman told them, he looked to Truck to see if he had any questions.
"We there yet?" Truck joked, everyone smiled. It was kind of an inside joke for Delta Operators, it had to do with the long distances they usually had to travel with their missions and the crazy things they had to deal with when they got there.
"Soon my friends soon." Sandman replied as they got to the hanger and headed towards their transport. A powerful tilt rotor helicopter called the MV-22 Osprey. It was a fast and powerful chopper that was used by both the USMC and the JSOC. They stepped into the cargo bay and Sandman alerted the pilot that they were there. The chopper began to taxi out of the hanger. Truck tapped Frost on the shoulder.
"Hey man this time you are taking the AT-4 not me I've had to carry that shit halfway across Pakistan to many times." He told him and handed Frost the disposable anti-tank rocket. Frost nodded and slung the rocket across his shoulder.
"Yeah fair enough man." Frost responded. The aircraft began to lift off the ground and gained altitude. Grinch then looked over to him.
"Hey Frost I got to ask isn't it a little hot for you wearing that black ski mask?" Grinch asked him. Derek always wore his ski mask no matter what, he started wearing it after their first mission to capture Makarov; and since he started to wear it none of their missions had gone to shit.
"No man I am cool." Derek responded. Grinch chuckled. Frost thought to himself that in about an hour or two they would arrive at the combat zone and they would kick some serious Russian ass.
Arcadia Virginia U.S.A.
Flying Officer Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen
19:17 Local Time
They could hear the sounds of gunfire it was close. It was different from the gunfire they had heard earlier it sounded more like small arms rather than fire from AAA or vehicles. They approached a corner. Minna gave Eila the hand gesture to look around the corner. Eila nodded and looked she saw that three men in grey blocky camo were shooting it out with four or so Orussian troops. The three soldiers by the barricade had very accurate and precise rifle fire, they quickly dispatched two of the Orussian soldiers with headshots. The other two Orussians turned and began to retreat; one of them wasn't fast enough as he was shot in the back. Eila was about to approach the men when suddenly overhead was some strange looking plane it had a propeller on top of the fuselage and another propeller on the tail. A man leaned from an open doorway and fired a machine gun of some kind at the men cutting all three down in a blood soaked mess. Just then Eila made eye contact with the gunner; he raised his machine gun and pointed it at her.
"Shit run like hell!" Eila told the others as the aircraft rounded the corner so it could fire on them. The gunner opened fire his machine gun deafening even over the sound of the aircraft's engines. Bullets kicked up dirt by them as he narrowly missed them. Gertrud put up her shield to block some of the bullets that came near her; Minna did the same thing but she also ran close enough to Major Sakamoto to prevent bullets from hitting her as well. They ran through an alley way to avoid being shot, the plane was overhead trying to get a better angle on them. Then it swooped down and hovered in front of the alleyway's exit. Eila could see the gunner smile as he raised his machine gun to his shoulder to fire. Just then the aircraft exploded violently and crashed to the ground. Eila heard the roar of a jet's engine and a grey painted single engine fighter plane of some kind flew over them. Some kind of weapons bay on the underside of the aircraft opened up and a missile flew out heading for a distant transport plane dropping off paratroopers.
"Wow that was a close one." Erica stated with a laugh. Gertrud growled at that.
"Is everyone alright?" Major Sakamoto asked everyone.
"I am fine it is not like those brutish Orussians could actually hurt me even with that strange machine they were using." Perrine said. Just about everyone rolled their eyes.
"Alright good; Eila what did you see around the corner before we were attacked?" Mio asked her.
"Well I saw the mall and I saw at a barricade a few recently deceased Liberion troops shooting it out with Orussians." Eila told them.
"Right well let's get their weapons we need a little firepower to even the odds." Minna told them. The witches walked back to the barricade and found the fallen soldiers. Minna went up to one of the dead Liberions and picked up his rifle. Some strange futuristic looking gun with a fore grip and some kind of telescoping stock; Minna examined it then pulled a T shaped charging handle on the top of the rifle. Gertrud picked up an identical weapon from another dead Liberion. Finally Perrine picked up some kind of smaller submachine gun from the last dead soldier. "Shirley, check their tags find out who they were." Minna ordered Yeager, who nodded and went over to examine them. Mio gestured for Eila and Erica to follow her.
"Stay here Sanya I will be back in a few minutes." Eila told her. Sanya nodded and Eila hopped over the barricade. She headed over to one of the Orussian corpses, and picked up his weapon. It was some sort of carbine; it had a skeleton stock that flipped to the side and a shortened barrel. She pulled out the magazine and saw it carried thirty five rounds. She looked on the side of the gun and it had the Liberion letters "IMI" on it. Major Sakamoto grabbed some really strange looking gun; it looked like it was all stock with a top loading transparent magazine that fitted lengthwise on the gun. Finally Erica pulled off the last dead soldier another odd looking gun. It was very rounded looking and its magazine was in the back. It looked like it didn't have any sights on it. "Hey Erica what the hell is that?" Eila asked her pointing to the weird hump like thing on top of the gun.
"Not sure it is kind of like some kind of built in scope of some kind." Erica replied. Just then the rest of the witches came up to them. Minna and Gertrud were in front with their futuristic looking rifles.
"Alright people the mall is just a few meters away." She said as they all began to move forward. Just then Eila realized she should probably tell Commander Minna about her visions.
"Hey Commander Minna can I tell you something." Eila asked her. Minna looked to her and nodded.
"Hmm. Yeah if it is important go right ahead." Minna told her. They were now in a parking lot Gertrud and Erica were scanning side to side, rifles at the ready looking for any threats.
"Well when this first happened I didn't think anything of it but now that we are here I figured I might as well tell you. Yesterday I had some kind of strange vision; it was confusing something about an airport and a man in black who murdered people. Then there was this clock tower and it was ticking away as blood was falling on it. At first I thought it was some weird nightmare then when we were fighting the Neuroi over our base, I heard the ticking and that is when something compelled me to head into the hive. I just got this weird inexplicable feeling that told me that we needed to go into the hive or something really bad was going to happen." Eila told the commander who thought for a second.
"Yeah that is strange but how is this relevant to our situation?" Minna asked her.
"Well when we entered the hive right after we started spinning I had another vision. And it was of this the invasion or whatever the hell is going on here. Then I saw four men one of them was a Liberion and he told me that he was the only hope we had left. And he was using the same type of gun you are now, so I know he is connected to all of this." Eila told her as they walked through the mall's entrance.
"Ok well let's say that the visions were accurate how do you know we can trust this guy if we see him?" Minna asked her. Eila thought for a moment.
"I can't explain it but I just felt safe when he was there, the exact opposite of when I saw the man in black. I just know we can trust him I just can't tell you how I know this." Eila told her. Minna thought for a moment then nodded.
"Alright well if you see this guy then let me know and we will speak with him. Who knows maybe he can help us get home." Minna said. They walked towards a bulletin board with a map of the mall on it. "Hey Shirley would you recognize the name of a clothing store if you saw one?" Minna asked Charlotte.
"Yeah probably." Shirley said as she walked over to the board. She looked over the map then put her finger on a spot on it. "Do you see that? Marcy's it is a clothing store, that is pretty popular here. It is on the other side of the mall though. But this isn't a very big mall so it isn't that far of a walk." Shirley told them Minna nodded and then spoke.
"Ok everyone we're heading to the other side of the mall come on." She ordered everyone began to walk in that direction. After a few dozen meters Shirley then spoke.
"Hold on a second I will be back. I will meet you ladies there." Shirley said as she ran into a store. Mio cocked an eyebrow but Minna gestured for her to ignore it and they continued on. Eventually they got to Marcy's a rather large clothing store. They headed to the women's section and found some clothing and shoes. They began to change. Eila had been cut and scrapped up nearly a dozen times on the way here if it wasn't for Yoshika's healing magic she might have had some pretty nasty scars to deal with. Just then Shirley came back she was holding onto an Atlas and a calendar. She tossed the calendar in front of them. "Well it looks like we aren't in Kansas anymore ladies, look at the date." She said; they did as they were asked and saw that it was a 2016 calendar. Then it dawned on them they were more than seventy years in the future could the world have gone to shit so quickly since they left. Then Shirley put down the atlas. "If you think that is bad take a look at this." she pointed to the U.S. "Apparently this is an alternate world because this doesn't even look like the Liberion landmass and it isn't even called Liberion, it is some country called 'America'." They all looked at the atlas for their home country. Britannia was now the United Kingdom, Fuso was Japan, Karlsland was now the Federal Republic of German, Romagna was called Italy, Orussia was now the Russian Federation and finally Suomus was actually two countries Finland and Norway. Eila wasn't sure which country she was actually part of.
"I think it is safe to say that this is officially beyond weird." Francesca stated.
"Where did you even find this stuff Yeager?" Mio asked.
"Well that store that I stepped into it was actually a bookstore and I just looked for this stuff oh and before I forget, Eila here." Shirley tossed Eila a pack of cards. They were Tarot cards of all things. "I figured you might want to hold on to those things." Shirley stated.
"Thanks I will take a look at them shortly." Eila stated, and then Minna spoke.
"Alright people we will rest here for a while then we are going to get moving, we have no idea how long this place will be safe." Minna said they all nodded in agreement.
Arcadia Mall U.S.A.
Sergeant Lynette Bishop
20:32 Local Time
The day's events had been exhausting and traumatizing. They had walked for quite a while and even had to kill someone just to make it this far, and even worse than that they had seen so much death since they had gotten to this world. Yoshika was resting with her on some couch that they had found and dragged out so that it was with the rest of the girls. Minna and Mio were talking to each other as they looked out a window to guard against attackers. Eila was just across the room letting Sanya rest her head on her lap. Seeing the two of them together was a sweet diversion from the violence they had witnessed today. Lynette really wished she could have someone in her life that she could cuddle up to when things got rough like this. However the only person that she wanted to do that with, she was too afraid to ask. She didn't even know if that person felt the same way about her as she did about them. Lynette looked down on her pants they felt so weird, it had been so long since she had worn anything other than panties below her waist anything else just felt very strange to her. She looked over to Yoshika, who was curled up just staring off.
"Hey Yoshika." Lynette said. Yoshika looked up, at her.
"Yeah Lynne what's up?" She asked her.
"Do you think that we are going to make it home alive?" Lynette asked Yoshika, they had been friends for so long they didn't worry about voicing each other's doubts to one another.
"I don't know, I hope so, but I really just don't know." Yoshika replied with clear sadness in her voice.
Arcadia Mall U.S.A.
Flying Officer Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen
20:36 Local Time
Eila had Sanya in her lap, she was sound asleep. Eila ran her fingers through Sanya's soft grey hair and smiled. It was nice that they could enjoy a peaceful moment such as this. Eila decided to in her down time check out the new Tarot cards Shirley had given her. She pulled out the first card from the deck and examined it. The card was a stretching board being used by a walking skeleton facing up. It was a card that again she had never seen before but she knew a stretching board was something that people in the Middle Ages used to tortured people with. Then suddenly she felt like she was yanked out of her body.
Unknown
Flying Officer Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen
Unknown
She was again in a sea of darkness all there was in this black void was her and the bloodstained clock tower. She heard it ticking away then she saw a man chained to a metal bed frame. A man in combat gear with a skeleton patterned mask was standing over him.
"Where is he?" The skeleton man asked the bloodied prisoner. The prisoner spat blood in the face of the skeleton man. The skeleton man flipped a switch and electricity coursed through the man. He screamed like a banshee as he twisted and contorted. "Damn it Rojas where is Makarov!" The skeleton man once again asked him.
"I don't know, I just don't know, please I beg of you show mercy." The man called Rojas pleaded.
"Not good enough!" The Skeleton man said as he switched on the electricity again. After a few seconds he stopped, then Rojas began to speak.
"Ok I know someone who may know where he is. There is a man in a Russian Gulag; I don't know his name just his number Prisoner 627; he is the only man Makarov hates worse than Americans. If anyone knows where Makarov is it is 627." Rojas told the skeleton man.
"See that wasn't too hard now was it." The skeleton man said as he pulled out a pistol and put it to Rojas stomach and fired. Rojas wailed in agony and began to bleed profusely as the man with the skull mask walked off with a half dozen other black clad soldiers.
The soldiers disappeared and again she saw the clock tower. The hour hand shifted to three as blood continued to dip onto it.
Arcadia Mall U.S.A.
Flying Officer Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen
20:40 Local Time
"Come on Eila wake up!" Sanya shouted as she shook her.
"Huh what happened?" Eila asked Sanya. Eila could hear the sounds of one of those hovering planes coming. Sanya's familiar was out as well as the magical antennas.
"Russians they are going to attack the mall sweep it for survivors, which means us. Get ready." Sanya told her.
"Wait how do you know that is what they are going to do?" Eila asked her.
"I can hear their radio transmissions now, long story just get ready." Sanya told her. Suddenly Eila heard the sounds of breaking glass and she could see from out of the store's entranced about eight Russian troops roping down from the skylight. Eila readied her weapon and picked a target. The Russians began to search through the store. They had all entered the store when suddenly Major Sakamoto rolled out from between some of the isles. She fired her submachine gun in a long burst killing one of the Russians, the bullets tore through his torso and ripped off his left arm. The Russians whipped around to fire at her that is when Minna and Gertrud attack them from the front through some clothing racks, killing two of them. The Russians scattered firing in all directions. Eila fired a burst of fire from her carbine catching one in the side; he staggered a bit and fell to the ground. She lowered her weapon a bit then he propped himself up on his arm and aimed his rifle at her. Eila fired one more shot this one straight between his eyes, his head jerked back and the walls were showered in blood and brain matter. Eila lowered her weapon. She had just killed someone, it was in self defense but still she had taken another human life in anger. Just then she heard the sound of windows breaking and four more Russian soldiers broke in through one of the stores windows.
Arcadia Mall U.S.A.
Pilot Officer Francesca Luuchini
20:43 Local time
This sucked she was being attacked by half a dozen armed men and she didn't have any way to defend herself. She saw that at least the other witches were kicking ass. One of the Russians had gotten into a fist fight with Trudy. Trudy knocked the Russian's rifle away then summoned her familiar's power and punched the enemy soldier as hard as she could in the man's throat. He staggered back and Trudy raised her weapon and put two bullets in his chest. Perrine lunged at another nearby Russian and shouted
"TONNERRE!" lighting danced from her hands directly into the Russian. He shot back and hit the wall. Just then a Russian rounded the corner where she was hiding and raised his gun. Francesca quickly kicked the gun out of his hand smacked him hard in the stomach. His stomach was like punching metal. Way harder than a normal person's stomach should be. He took the opportunity to head but her forcing her to the ground. Francesca tried to crawl away. The Russian man smiled and pulled out a blade that had to be at least a third of a meter thick. He began to walk towards her when Francesca saw Shirley roll behind him grab his gun and fire a quick five round burst into his back. Francesca got blood on her face from the dead Russian.
"Hey are you alright Francesca?" Shirley asked lowering the rifle.
"Yeah I am ok thanks for saving me though." Francesca replied. Shirley walked over to the dead Russian and withdrew his sidearm. She tossed it to Francesca.
"Here take this for the next time you get in a fight with them." Shirley replied causally.
"Thanks." Francesca said, just then one of the walls facing the street burst open.
"Shit tank! Everyone out of the store let's set up an ambush position in the lobby by the bulletin board." They Rushed outside into the mall's corridors and headed towards the bulletin board. Gertrud tossed down a vending machine and hid behind it with Erica others hid in the stores or behind large potted plants then they waited.
Outside Arcadia Mall
Sergeant Derek Westbrook "Frost"
20:50 Local Time
They had tracked down where the man with the intel was. He was a Russian Airborne officer by the name of Dimitri. He along with some of his me were assaulting a mall for some reason and Metal team was about to attack them from the rear. About two dozen men and a Sprut-SD light tank were attacking the mall. Sandman gave the gesture for Frost to take out the tank and for Grinch to kill the heavy weapons trooper with the grenade launcher. Then He and Truck would provide suppressing fire for them as they pushed up on the officer. Sandman gave the countdown gesture. 1…2…3… Then Frost stepped out from cover and fired his AT-4 at the rear of the tank. The shaped charge warhead ripped into the lightly armored rear of the Sprut, causing it to erupt into a giant ball of flames. Frost dropped the AT rocket and pulled out his rifle he fired short controlled bursts into the enemy soldiers. The SCAR's powerful 7.62 rounds tore through their armor causing them to twist and be blown back by the firepower. Truck opened up with his MK46 causing the Russians to be chopped down like wheat before a scythe. Some of the Russians turned to face them a return fire. Bullets impacted the wall where Frost was hiding. He popped out quickly and leveled his weapon at a Russian soldier who was wielding a PKP LMG; he fired a single shot which went straight through the Russian's head, causing it to explode like a ripe melon being hit with a sledgehammer. Sandman fired his HK416 in quick three round bursts taking out two Russians. The area was for the most part clear when Frost saw that Dimitri and some of his men ran inside the mall. All of the Russian troops outside were now dead.
"Alright people move up let's take this fucker out!" Sandman said as they advanced into the building.
Arcadia Mall U.S.A.
Major Mio Sakamoto
20:55 Local Time
Mio was waiting for them to come rushing towards her. She had heard gunfire from outside, she wasn't sure what that was about but she didn't care she was going to personally kill all of these mother fuckers as soon as she saw them. These Russians had no honor they killed defenseless people just for the hell of it, for that she would show them no quarter, no mercy only a quick death. Six Russian troops came running towards them firing their weapons behind them as they ran for whatever reason.
"NOW!" Mio shouted the witches leaned out from cover and began to fire. The salvo of automatic weapons fire from their weapons tore through the first three Russians. One of them grabbed onto one of his comrades and used him as a shield; the man wore a blue beret and had a rifle in one hand and a brief case in the other for some reason. Mio aimed for him firing a dozen rounds into the man shield. One bullet hit the shield takers gun knocking it from his hands. He yelped. That was when Mio recognized him; it was Scarface the man who killed those people before. Scarface ducked inside of a store. Mio ran after him she personally was going to take his life. She ran into the store he did and saw him place a grey box on the wall. He then pressed a button on some kind of device causing the grey box to explode blowing a man sized hole in the wall. The explosion momentarily disorientated her, allowing Scarface to escape. She regained her composure and then she exited the mall and saw him running down the street he turned the corner. Mio followed him she turned the same corner he did and smiled as he had entered a dead end. Some kind of one way street, Scarface turned to her and grinned. He spoke in Britannian.
"Hey little girl that is a nice sword, why don't you say we make this an even fight and you use that and I will use this." He set down the brief case and pulled out a meat cleaver like blade. Mio tossed down her gun and drew her katana.
"Fine by me, that just means that you will just die slower." Mio replied. They got into a fighting stance Scarface inched closer to her. Scarface lashed out with his blade, Mio quickly side stepped it and slashed with her sword. He jumped back narrowly missing the blade. She then pressed the attack and swung diagonally trying to take off his left arm, her swing managed to connect just barely. She had cut his arm pretty badly but wasn't able to hack it off. He growled at her and swung his clever horizontally at her head so she ducked and swept her sword at his legs cutting off his left leg. He screamed as he fell to the ground. Then she stood over him and stabbed him through the heart with her blade. Just then the rest of the witches showed up.
"Mio are you alright!?" Minna asked her, clear panic was in her voice.
"Yeah I am ok. It seems he was trying to protect this though." She picked up the brief case. "I wonder what it could be." She thought aloud.
"That would be ours young lady, so drop It." a stern sounding Liberion voice said. She turned around to see four heavily armed men pointing weapons at them. The rest of the Witches raised their weapons at them.
Arcadia Virginia U.S.A.
Derek Westbrook "Frost"
21:00 Local Time
They were in of all things a Mexican standoff with a bunch of teenage girls. Now mind you these girls had a shitload of fire power. But still out of all the ways Frost could end up dead this had to be the strangest. The girls looked like they hailed from all over the world. Frost could see some that looked German, some that were French and at least two who were Japanese including the blood splattered chick with the samurai sword. Neither side said anything for a few moments.
"So who are you guys suppose to be?" a red haired girl said to them, she was an American judging by her accent. She pointed an AK-47 at them and she looked like she had already killed more than once today.
"U.S. Special Forces who are you?" Sandman told them. The red haired girl who looked somewhere between sixteen and eighteen again spoke.
"We aren't from around here." She simply stated.
"Look we just want to have that brief case, it has important intelligence in it that can turn the tide of this war, and if you are civilians we can evacuate you out of this warzone to a safe area." Sandman told them.
"Sir what do we do?" Frost asked Sandman.
"Just stay calm we will sort through this." Sandman replied. Then one of the girls, some extremely fair skinned blonde girl, jumped out between the two of them.
"Wait Minna he is the one from my vision!" She shouted, Frost was about to raise an eyebrow when a BTR rounded the corner and aimed at them. Suddenly before frost knew it the girls had rushed in front of Metal Team. The BTR began to fire and the girls put up some kind of bright blue shield that blocked the shells from hitting them. The red haired girl was in front of Frost and looked back to him; she suddenly had bunny ears and a tail for whatever reason.
"Like we said we are not from around here." She simply stated, Sandman then said over the Radio.
"Mustang 1 this is Metal 0-1 requesting immediate CAS lasing target now." Sandman unfazed by the bizarreness of the situation pulled out a SOFLAM and began to paint the BTR which was still firing in vain at them. After a few moments a glide bomb smacked into the BTR, blowing it into a million pieces. The area was now clear from any enemy activity. A Japanese looking woman in her twenties, (the one with the katana) approached Frost and handed him the intel.
"Here if you can get us to a safe location whatever is in this briefcase is yours." She told him. Frost noticed just like the bunny girl she had animal ears and a tail to, but in her case it appeared to be the ears and tails of a dog or something.
"What are you guys?" Was all Frost could ask. The red haired girl with the bunny ears then spoke with a sly grin.
"I guess you could call us witches." She said Frost couldn't help but chuckle a bit. They were like no witches he had ever seen before most of them seemed to have animal ears and tails, they looked more like characters from a Japanese anime than witches to him. After a few seconds Frost noticed that they were all wearing the top sections of various World War Two era military uniforms. Sandman then spoke.
"Alright we will get you to back to our base but we need an explanation as to who you are and who do you work for." Sandman said to them. Then an auburn haired German woman in her late teens spoke.
"Agreed but in return we need an explanation from you as to what the hell is going on here." She said; Frost looked at her, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that she was their leader. Frost noticed out of the corner of his eye that the blonde girl with the fair skin, the one who had said she had a vision of them was staring intensely at him. He looked in her direction and she turned away.
"Alright I understand." Sandman told them then he called for the extraction chopper.
Oh what shall happen next, bet you can't wait to find out. anyway some breif story notes, so not many people realize this but according to the strike witches wiki Shirley is actually friends with Mio and Minna, didn't really know that to be honest until i read that so i will potray them as being pretty good firends in this story. secondly the flags of lets say Fuso isn't the same as the Japanese flag in our world same thing goes for all of the other Flags. another story note according to offical canon the Russian Revolution never happened in the Strike Witches world so most people in that universe would not know what communism was. another note for those who want more scenes with Frost don't worry now that the two groups are together i will give him alot more scenes. Anyway i hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as i did writing it and please read and review as it will encouarge me to write faster.