Chapter 4: The New Threat

The sound of Striker Units powering up echoed throughout the hangar as the joint fighter wing prepared for battle.

"What's the situation?" Mio asked as she jumped into her striker unit with her wingmate Perrine right behind her.

"Neuroi, a Large one...Its coming out of the clouds near Karlsland and Gailia." Mio looked toward Minna, her eyes had a hint of suspicion as she jumped into her own Striker Unit.

"Why now? Didn't we just destroy one a few days ago?" The image of Miyafuji Yoshika healing a bloodied Gertrude Barkhorn came to her mind all of a sudden, she inwardly shuddered.

"Of course we did, I don't know what is going on this time but we're going to find out!"

As soon as all eleven members of the 501st were armed and ready, Minna led them to the sky with their strikers buzzing through the air. Meanwhile, Danniel who was rubbing his sore buttocks outside managed to catch a glimpse of the Joint Fighter Wing heading off in formation to wherever they're needed. The only thing he was able to do was give them a wave and a yell of 'Good Luck!' as they faded off into the distance.

"Alright everyone, be on the look out for the target. Our correspondents from the Britannian military said that it was seen somewhere near this area." Mio scanned the area with here magic eye, so far not seeing anything but the clouds in front of her.

Gertrude Barkhorn's trigger finger was starting to itch. "Any idea, what we're going to be dealing with?"

"I don't know Barkhorn, but from what they said this one was taking damage."

"Who was firing at it?" Miyafuji asked with a bit of worry in her voice.

"Like I said, I don't-" Mio froze as her magic eye picked up the bright pink color of a Neuroi core. "Contact! Contact! I got a contact! Everyone move into firing positions!"

Minna's eyes narrowed significantly, for some reason she had a bad feeling about this. "Anyone have visual contact yet?"

"I-I think I can see it!" Yelled Miyafuji, she did see a patch of the black hexagonal plating that everyone was all too familiar with. She and Lynette went forward to scout ahead with Erica and Gertrude tailing behind them. That is until the two younger witches suddenly went into a grinding halt.

"Hey, why did you two sto-" Those words were caught in her throat as she breathed in the sight before them.

It was more than likely the Neuroi craft they were assigned to shoot down but from what they could see it was already a flying wreck. It was obvious that it was supposed to take a flying wing or manta ray-like shape but that appearance was almost unrecognizable as there was a luminescent green fluid trailing off from where one of wings would be while its other wing was severely crooked, its tail was visibly singed, scorch marks dotted the hull, and a gaping hole in its hull indicated where its glowing purple core could be found.

This earned a "Mein Gott." from Gertrude Barkhorn, a "Holy Shit!" from Erica Hartmann, and once they approached Perrine let out a "What in god's name?" while Mio uttered an obscenity from her lips.

"What the hell happened to it?!" To say that Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke was shocked would have been an understatement because she also had a very sharp sense of fear tingling up her spine. Charlotte Yeager, being the first to recover from the collective reverie decided to set things straight.

"I don't know but...it ain't natural...lets take this thing out!" The speed demon of the 501st streaked through the air with her wingmate Lucchini trailing behind her. They caught the alien's attention by opening fire at its nose. The craft released two beams of light, one of which missed the younger Romagnan girl while the other was blocked by Shirley's shield.

Sanya came from behind the craft, letting out a salvo of rockets from her Fliegerhammer that managed to widen the hole on the Neuroi craft, fully revealing the core as it tried to pull away from the witches pursuing it.

"I see the core!" After hearing this, Lynette Bishop leveled her anti-armor rifle and carefully aimed towards the gaping fissure in the craft. When the core was in her sights, she pulled the trigger and the magically-enhanced bullet hit home and shattered the core. The craft was still for a moment before it exploded into thousands of motes that dotted the sky. While everyone else celebrated their victory, Minna kept a stoic expression as the particles descended towards the water below.

'This was way too easy' she thought, 'Someone...or something managed to damage the hell out of that thing before we even encountered it. Now the Neuroi that attacked New Eutin was heavily damaged before it was shot down...Is it some sort of coincidence? No, it couldn't be. There is definitely a connection between these two attacks and it was the same thing that damaged this one. But why? The only person that managed to see everything was-' The color drained from the Wing Commander's face at the thought, 'Danniel...for some reason he managed to get out of their alive. If he was the only witness that would mean that whoever was behind this was...Oh, shit!'

"Everyone, back to the base! On the double!" Mio turned her attention to the red-haired Karlslander who recalled the others.

"What is it, Minna?"

"Don't you see, Major? Someone purposefully spurned this Neuroi towards us and then we had to leave Danniel behind! Whoever or whatever was responsible did this on purpose so we could chase after it."

Mio's eyes widened out of her sockets. "A fucking distraction..." She began cursing under her breath multiple times as she processed this revelation.

"That's right, we need to get back there now!" She tapped her communicator and flew forward with the others behind her. "All of you, get into formation and be ready for combat! I repeat, be ready for combat!" As they sped off back home, they barely even noticed the dark storm clouds rolling over the base.

Danniel sat on the windowsill in his room, idly watching the storm roll towards the base. He thought it was strange that a storm would be coming because it seemed to be clear for most of the day and it also looked oddly familiar...He subconsciously shrugged and continued to watch the dark cumulonimbus cloud inch its way closer into his line of sight. However, when he saw eleven familiar dots coming towards the base he scrambled out of his room and ran through the hallway, past the kitchen, and into the hangar where he saw Minna and Mio touch down with the others heading back into the hangar for a quick resupply run.

"Alright, once everyone has fresh ammo I want you all over here front and center!"

It only took at least three minutes before the others returned with fresh ammunition before hovering back out into the rain where Minna and Mio waited.

"Alright, everyone...We may be facing something totally different than the Neuroi, I don't want to go into all the details at the moment but I do know that the Neuroi we went after was a decoy." The other witches chattered with each other with uncertainty, apparently unsure whether to take this in stride or not but they instantly went silent when Minna gave them a quick glare that said 'This is serious business, damn it!'.

"Alright, I want to establish a defense this time rather than going on another chase in the air. Got it? Good. Mio, if you will please..." Mio took in the sight of the witches of the 501st JFW. They all had different emotions plastered on their faces ranging from nervousness to suspicion to the stoic expression of combat readiness. She spared a slight glance at Danniel who was watching everything from the hangar entrance before turning back to task at hand.

"Shirley and Lucchini, I want you both to patrol the front of the base for intruders. If you see anything out of the ordinary, shoot first and ask questions later."

"Got it!" Chimed Lucchini.

"No problem." Hummed Charlotte.

"Perrine and Yoshika, I need you both to patrol the back. Don't hesitate to defend yourselves if need be."

They both gave a synchronous "Yes ma'am!" before flying off to the back. 'At least they aren't at fighting each other this time.' Mio held back a dark chuckle at the thought.

"Eila and Erica, stay together but prepare to assist the others whenever needed!"

Erica gave a quick nod while Eila's eyes quickly caught the sight of Sanya who was idly waiting for her orders before getting tapped on the shoulder by the twin-tailed brunette from Karlsland.

"Hey, bring her back in one piece." Eila couldn't help but gave a light chuckle at that.

"No promises!" Then the Suomus with flew alongside one of the aces of Karlsland into the sky.

"Sanya and Lynette, you're with me. We need eyes and ears in the sky and we need them now."

Mio flew first before the other two followed her up to the tower, leaving behind Barkhorn, Minna and Danniel at the hangar.

"What about us?" The Karlslander asked, her hands, her fingers, her everything were aching for a fight with whoever or whatever this new enemy would be. Minna turned towards her long-time friend and then motioned Danniel to come forward which caused Barkhorn's face turn from stoic to puzzled for the moment before the Wing Commander spoke again.

"Simple, everyone else is in position to protect the base while you and I will be bodyguards for our special guest." Gertrude quickly turned towards the young boy who appear to be just as confused as she was. 'Why are we protecting a single civilian from harm? What is so important about this boy?' She shook her head and then cocked her MG131 and MG42. 'I guess I'm going to find out.'

A certain being below the Earth shuddered in restlessness, it had been watching the situation from afar and it had relayed its findings to the rest of its siblings. They did not pursue the interlopers...they continue to protect the marked one... Its curled up body twitched irregularly below the surface as if it were angry or enraged. But the truth is that it lacked emotions, individual will, and self-preservation much like its brothers and sisters. No matter...the marked one will be captured...if they interfere...they will be dealt with as needed...for we are the swarm...and we are eternal. Humanity is not.

"Major?" Mio turned to the ghostly appearance of Sanya whose Magical Antennae were pointed towards bridge.

"Sanya, what is it?"

"I hear...things..."

"What are they?"

Sanya eyes narrowed in confusion. "I don't know...but...they're coming this way!"

Mio lifted her iconic eye-patch to reveal her purple magical eye. She could see three faint spherical presences each with their own individual auras surrounding a sickly-colored orb that seemed to pulsate like a beating heart. The presences out from underneath the bridge to the shore of the island and they were rapidly making their way to punch through the surface.

"INCOMING! We got three hostiles! They're under the ground and their going to punch through!" The witches up front turned to face the front of the base. Shirley leveling the sights of her Thompson SMG towards the ground while Lucchini flipped the safety off her Thompson.

Barkhorn lifted her two machine guns and went in front of Minna and Danniel, as if she were shielding them both. Speaking of the Wing Commander, her right hand was gripping her MG-42 while she let Danniel lightly grip her left as if to comfort him for what is to come.

Before anyone else could let out a word of warning, something burst out of the ground scattering topsoil and dust before a green streak landed a few kilometers from Shirley and Lucchini.

Minna felt Danniel's hand stiffen in fear but before she could say anything, the dust settled and the 501st took in the sight of the object before them. It was an almost irregularly-shaped, mechanical sphere with a transparent 'front' that shielded a red object in the middle and two protrusions on the 'sides' of it. Said protrusions sprouted- No they unfolded from the sphere, taking the shape of short yet sturdy-looking limbs with shield-shaped protrusions that appeared to be claws in one way or another. Underneath those former protrusions was another set of limbs ending in what appeared to be feet with two toes on the front and two toes on the back. It slowly stood up on these legs, revealing that the rest of the sphere was a body of sorts, that is until its front end suddenly jolted forward with two gray-colored support beams that acted as a neck. Its head had two triangular glowing red objects that appeared to be eyes and two white shiny teeth.

The machine seemed to scan the area in front of it, taking in the sight of the witches, the base, and every little thing surrounding it before it let out a short animalistic roar into the storm covered heavens above. As soon as that happened, two more similar machines emerged from below, one that was brown like stone with forest green eyes, and another who was as black as the soil below their feet with bright-green eyes.

They let out their own feral roars before they began to steadily march towards the base in search of their pray. Mio snapped out of her reverie with a growl and a shake of her head before yelling two simple words.

"OPEN FIRE!"

And thus a new war for the 501st JFW had begun.

I HAVE RETURNED FROM THE GRAVE TO GIVE THE LIVING HAIRCUTS.

Sorry, TF2 Reference. Anyway, I've been busy for the past couple of weeks and I didn't get to finish this until now. Now that this semester is FINALLY over, I'll be posting new chapters up more frequently than usual. I'm also going to be working on another multi-chapter crossover story but I'm not going to release any major details about it.

I hope you all enjoyed this new chapter.

Cheers,

-Vent Xekart

PS: If anyone wants to know about the new crossover I'm working on, PM me and I'll give you guys some hints.