Chapter 5: First Encounter and First Blood

Kill the humans...take the marked one...leave no witnesses...leave no evidence...the swarm demands it!

Charlotte Yeager was the first one to react to Sakamoto's orders, she squeezed the trigger on her Tommy Gun and aimed for three mechanical beasts below. She cringed when she saw the black and brown one fold back into their ball-like forms and roll off in the opposite directions but when the magically-enhanced bullets hit the green one in the middle she heard it actually cry out in pain. Well, it wasn't really crying out more of a startled mechanical screech as it stumbled backwards from the spray of hot copper in a futile attempt to take cover. She was about to reload until she noticed the machine shake its head in what appeared to be an attempt to steady itself before raising it arms up and releasing a stream of fluorescent green fluid. The women from Liberion let out a short yelp as she barely managed to get away from the fluid that hit the ground fizzling about as it ate through the grass and eroded the soil below.

"Watch out for that green one, it sprays acid!" She then quickly put in a fresh clip in her machine gun before firing at the creature again. Lucchini sped off after the dark metallic rolling mass, shooting short bursts from her machine gun in an attempt to slow it down. The creature however decided to lose her by grinding its rolling form into the dirt below, tossing topsoil and debris at the young girl as she fruitlessly tried to shield herself from the barrage.

Erica Hartmann and Eila chose to pursue the brown mechanical beast but they choose a much more cautious approach as they fired at the creature, they managed to hit the creature once or twice before it slid on the surface below and transformed back into its insectoid form. It then started to shoot small streams of sand and stones at the Ace of Karlsland and the pale witch of Suomus. Fortunately, they managed to dodge its shots before a rocket from a certain night witch hit the creature head on shattering it into dozens of large prefabricated pieces that were scattered across the landscape.

Eila gave smile and nod to her wingmate while Erica gave a toothy grin and a thumbs up.

"Nice shot, Sanya!"

"Thank you..." The Orussian girl said with a small smile.

Minna nodded to herself. One down, two to go. She then saw the black one rolling in her direction, she turned to Danniel who was obviously paralyzed in fear. The machine transformed as it came closer than she would have liked and then let out a roar. The young boy beside her fell onto his back and screamed out of fear as it came closer.

Minna gritted her teeth as she leveled her rifle at it. "Fahr zur Hölle!" The gunfire did do a bit of damage to the dark mechanical monster but instead of cowering in fear, it slapped the Wing Commander out of its way.

"Minna!" Mio dived down to assist her alongside Miyafuji. Unfortunately, this left Danniel alone with the beast...he screamed louder than he was able to, uncaring of whether or not he destroyed his voice doing so. The creature couldn't claim its prize because a blue magical shield slammed into its right side, the force of the collision tossing the creature into several trees. It stood up on unevenly in front of Gertrude Barkhorn, her face full of the same righteous fury that she had when she fought the Neuroi. The machine raised its weapon but the brunette grabbed it by said weapon and with her inhuman strength threw it into the air, she then saw that Perrine was close by.

"PERRINE!" The Gaillian Noble who was firing at the leaf-colored machine as Shirley strafed around it with suppressing fire turned her head to see the earth-colored insectoid flying through the air and instantly she knew what to do.

"Got it!" She sped towards it as magical energy bubbled within her, electricity sparked around her body as she came closer to it and with her shields at full power she built it up...

"TONNERE!"

And released it with a blast akin to a lightning strike crashing the being into earth with an explosion of energy. It let out a few distorted electrical warbles, a twitch of an arm and a leg before it went dead silent.

Despite being on the ground with a concussion, Minna felt a surge of pride rise through her body as her witches put up a hell of a fight against those monster...or was that Miyafuji's healing powers kicking in?

Nonetheless, she knew the leader of those beings would fall...she watched Shirley strafe around the beetle-like being as it tried to spray streams of acid at her with futility. Then Eila and Erica flew behind it and gave it a round of suppressive fire, provoking it into haphazardly letting out streams of corrosive fluid that missed the three witches. The Wing Commander turned her head towards Lynette who patiently waited for the moment to fire and when she found an opening, she squeezed the trigger and the bullet hit the green metallic monstrosity straight in its chest, disrupting the workflow of the cogs that kept it running...It fell forward as it used it arms to keep it from falling before Shirley released one final salvo from her Tommy gun causing the creature to give out a short screech as it finally collapsed.

They have eliminated our scouts...we must consider a new strategy...we have under-estimated them...but we will not do so again...for we are a swarm, we are eternal...

"Its over, Its finally over..." Minna muttered.

"Stay still, Minna. Just rest for now." Mio said to her. Minna nodded once at her old friend before turning her head to glance at Danniel. Said child was curled up with his knees to his chest with his head buried close by them, his arms wrapped around his legs and tears streaming out of his eyes. She tried to reach her hand out in a fruitless attempt to comfort him only for a jolt of pain to go through her body. 'Verdammt, I broke my arm!' She inwardly scolded herself for rushing ahead to fight that thing but before she could even lambast herself further she caught a glimpse of the red hair belonging to the speedster Charlotte Yeager. The Liberion women had effortlessly brought Danniel into her arms and began rubbing his back with the thumb of her right hand, whispering calming words into his ears as he cried into her chest.

Minna laid her head back down on the grass below her with a sigh. 'This isn't the end, this is just the beginning.'

It took half an hour for Gertrude Barkhorn to haul two mechanical corpses out of the rain, into the hangar, and onto two flatbeds. When the storm has passed, they would begin sifting through the patches of trees and grass for the fragments of the third machine. Once they were all together, they would be shipped to Ursula Hartmann, the head of striker unit research and Erica Hartmann's sister. Minna hoped that the brainiac of the Hartmann Twins would figure out whatever those things were and how they worked.

Speaking of Minna, said Wing Commander was in her officer with her left arm in a sling after that nasty bout with one of those things broke her arm. In the office was Sanya Litvyak and Mio Sakamoto who were explaining everything they found out about this new threat.

"So both of you were able to detect them?" Both witches gave a soft nod to the question.

"I could barely hear them moving under the ground with my magical antennae but when they surfaced I was able to hear them clearly...they sound like the beating of hearts made out of clockwork..."

"I see, what about you Mio?"

"I'm surprised that I was able to pick them up with my magical eye." The witch from fuso lifted her eyepatch up to reveal the purple-colored eye that seemed to faintly glow in the darkness. "When I saw them, they had a totally different signature from the Neuroi."

"How so?" Minna asked.

"A Neuroi's signature is easier to pick up because it has the same color as their cores. These...things had shapeless auras around them that look like the organs of a living being writhing about as if it were being eaten from the inside."

"And what about after we killed them?" Sanya quickly glanced to the window as lightning struck somewhere in the distance before turning back to her superior officer.

"They were absolutely silent..." Mio lowered her patch back down as she continued

"When they died, their aura disappeared with the exception of those pieces behind their glass casings."

Minna closed her eyes with a sigh, almost as if she was deep in thought.

"Thank you both for input. I'm sure it will be valuable in the future."

Mio and Sanya gave another nod.

"Is there anything else you need from us?"

"There is one thing, for the next few nights I want Mio flying with you and Eila for night patrol. Got it?"

Another set of nods.

"Alright then, both of you are dismissed."

Sanya thanked her before leaving the room while Mio stayed behind for the moment.

"So what now?"

Minna turned back to her old comrade with a small worried smile.

"We go about our business and if anymore of those things come by we'll stand our ground like we did a few hours ago."

Mio paused for a moment, taking in the answer and processing it before closing her eyes with a thoughtful expression on her face.

"And what about Danniel? Did you see how he acted around those things? He obviously has seen them before and I do think he may know about them than we do." This caused Minna's grin to fall.

"We'll take the issue with him slowly so we don't end up with a problem. Luckily, he'll tell us more since he seems to trust us. If worse comes to worse...we can take him to the council." Mio's eyes shot open in a flash upon hearing that statement before she paused for a second or two and then nodded with a hum of agreement.

"Very well then. I better get ready for tonight." She walked towards the door and opened it but before she set foot outside she heard Minna softly call for her name.

"Yes?"

"Be careful out there, okay?" Mio just let out a short chuckle.

"No promises."

Lynette Bishop was worried, but with everything that happened why wouldn't she be? Fighting the Neuroi was one thing, the arrival of Miyafuji Yoshika was another but sheltering a child and fighting those strange robotic abominations was in her mind definitely out of the ordinary! She felt- No, she knew that the latter two events were connected somehow but she couldn't figure out how. The only way she'd find out is by prying some information out of the two commanding officers which was totally unlikely considering her skittish personality.

She sighed to herself as she slowly started to make her way back to her room. She heard two voices behind the spare room. Odd. One of which obviously belonged to Shirley, the other sounded like Danniels. Curiously, she took a peak inside and she saw Danniel wearing similar pajamas that he wore last night only in a dark shade of green while his facial expression being a mix of exhaustion, fear, and sadness. Charlotte Yeager had a sad smile on her face but Lynette could tell from her eyes that she was frustrated.

"Come on, you need to get some sleep. I know that those...robots scared you and I don't blame you for that but you can't go a whole night without sleep!" Ah, so thats the problem. She wished she could help somehow...maybe she could intervene? Probably not the best idea.

"But Sanya can go a whole night without sleep, why can't I?!" Lynette would've snickered if it weren't for what happened a few hours ago. While Night Witches like Sanya were good at patrolling at night for a period of time they couldn't TOTALLY go without sleep. In the case of Sanya, she always ended up coming back to the base and falling asleep either in her bed or in a majority of cases...Eila's bed.

"She's a night witch, she was trained to do that. Besides, haven't you seen her fall asleep during the day?"

"Y-Yeah, but I don't think it really matters...does it?"

Lynette once again sighed to herself...she may not have a choice but to intervene at this point. Fortunately for her, she caught a glimpse of red hair in her peripheral vision which indicated that Minna had taken the initiative to do so instead.

"Hey, who is- Oh, Minna. I thought you were someone else, is there something I can do for you?" Minna just fanned her hand in front of her before dismissing the women from Liberion.

"Lynette, come here." Upon hearing that, the youngest sibling of the Bishop family half-walked, half-stumbled into the room facing a bug-eyed Danniel and a smiling Minna.

Before Lynette could say anything else, the wing commander by her side began to sing. It started with a soft hum from her lips with a slow rhythm to it but then did she began to softly let out the lyrics in the language of Fuso.

"Sora...aoi sora...

Tsubuyyaita...koe...

Anata no...yume wa ima...hoshi no sharin wo mawasu...

Watashi itsumo...doko ni mo inai...

Sou...kanjite..ita...

Sono hitmoi...shiru...made...wa...

Mune no katasumi...

Kakaeta tsuki ga...hitotsu aru dake,

Demon donna ni hosoi michi mo

Terasu you ni hikaru..."

Slowly Danniel waned as Minna continued to sing, slowly stroking the boys shoulder as his eyelids slowly slipped shut.

"Sotto hoshi-tachi ga...

Yubisashite-iru...

Anata no...Yuki saki wa...

Suishou no mori ni naru...

Watashi itsuka...kono te no hira de...

Anata no koto...

Subete kara mamoritai...

Atatakai yoru...

Mada chiisa na tsuki no sumu ie...

Demo anta ga...nemuru toki wa,

Yasahii akari tomosu no..."

Minna tilted her to the right in a gesture that Lynette quickly acknowledged...slowly bringing the blankets onto the boy as he continued to fall asleep to the beautiful voice of the Wing Commander.

"Mune no katasumi...

Kaketa tsuki ga...hitotsu aru dake,

Demo donna ni hosoi michi mi,

Terasu you ni...hikaru..."

When Minna finished the song, Danniel had fallen fast asleep...the only sound that could be heard was the soft sound of his breathing. Minna turned towards Lynette, raised her index finger with a 'shush', before gesturing for her to leave. The young women complied, as she quietly closed the door she watched Minna continue to stroke the boy with her right hand, the moonlight revealing her beautiful white nightgown.

Lynette let out a happy sigh to herself before her face turned into a sad smile as she walked into her bedroom. 'Even though we dealt with a new enemy today...we made it through in one piece...and there is always a light for us in the end...' As she slowly laid down in her bed, a worried frown wormed its way onto her face. 'But for how long will we be able to stand our ground...and how long will it be before the light starts to fade away?' That question echoed throughout her mind for the rest of the night even as she descended into her dreams.

Throughout the night, beneath a small island near Britannia...the new threat to mankind was steadily carving through the earth...uncaring of any minor damage that it brought to the land above. Minor quakes caused ripples around the island as more and more of the hive assembled to their base of operations. All the while one of the black machines, this one bearing silver shields, a silver faceplate, and silver feet watched its brethren work tirelessly from the shadows.

Wow, I finally finished this chapter after two months of zero updates. The fight scene was a bit shorter than I originally wanted it but...I'll try and make longer ones in the future. As for the scene with Minna singing...I used a song from another anime series (Can you guess which one its from?) because I couldn't see her singing the ED and/or OP themes of Strike Witches as a lullaby.