Chapter 6: The Speed Of Sound and Darkness

The light waves of the morning sun peaked through the window of Miyafuji Yoshika's room, brightening the color of her green night robe as she continued to wiggle about in her sleep.

"Wait, what are you-" She whined as her hands tightly gripped her pillow.

"Y-You can't be serious! No!" She whimpered as her legs went inward and she flipped onto her side.

"Quit it, Lyn! Wow...They're so big!" Another whine, this one a little more than a whisper.

After that her eyelids flew open, and before she knew it the young girl from Fuso was falling face forward towards the floor with a sharp thump, distracting Mio from her training and startling Danniel as he was brushing his teeth.

"Is something the matter, Yoshika?" Lynette asked as she walked into the room, slightly confused as Miyafuji kicked her legs about before the fell forward in front of her with another loud thump.

"Yoshika, are you okay?!" The britannian girl asked worriedly as Yoshika rubbed her aching bottom.

"I just had a dream..." Miyafuji muttered.

"A dream?"

"Let me think...In it I think you and I-"

"You and I what?" It was an innocent question but Miyafuji's eyes weren't facing Lyn but were pointing straight towards her bosom as she blushed. Noticing that Lyn was still listening, she grabbed her covers and draped them over her head.

"Its nothing, nothing at all! I didn't see anything at all!"

Despite all this, Lynnette still managed to smile at her comrade in arms. Meanwhile, Danniel who had decided to peak into Miyafuji's room with his toothbrush still in use shrugged before heading back to his room to finish brushing his teeth. Besides, what could be so interesting about Miyafuji's dream anyhow?

"We're going to the beach?!" Miyafuji asked excitedly as the others sat down.

"Yes, tomorrow morning. We're going to the eastern shore of this island." Mio Sakamoto said quick to the point as the others, Danniel included listened.

"HURRAY! THE BEACH! SWIMMING IN THE OCEAN!" Danniel cringed in his seat for two reasons: The first being that Miyafuji was being way too loud, and the second was that he didn't like the beach.

"You guys don't like the beach?"

Danniel tried his best not to grimace as Lynette whispered to Miyafuji that it was for training, which Miyafuji asked quickly inquired about before Mio stood up.

"That is correct! We must be able to react to anything that may happen in battle! That includes the loss of flight while above the ocean! Which is why..." Danniel inwardly sighed to himself as the Squadron Leader continued on. He seriously wasn't going to enjoy it because of one tiny secret he kept from the 501st. He couldn't swim, he never learned how to.

He sighed to himself, seeing Lyn and Miyafuji leave the room. 'Well, as long as I don't get into the water I should be fine, right?' His thoughts were interrupted by what sounded like a loud thump or pop.

"What was that?" He asked worriedly, hoping that it wasn't another attack.

"Ah, must be Shirley again." Minna said, opening a back door that lead to a small deck outside. Curious, he decided to follow Minna, Mio, and Perrine to the deck. He could see Charlotte Yeager in her Striker Units with a small magical circle glowing underneath her while Lucchini, Miyafuji, and Lyn stood close by.

Odd. It didn't seem like she was going out on a combat run. He saw that Perrine was holding a large device with two large antennae sticking out from the front and a strap around the back of her neck.

He saw Lucchini make a quick pointing gesture forward as Shirley shot off like a bullet out of the barrel off the runway. His eyes widened as he raised his right hand over his eyes to get a better view until Mio handed him a pair of binoculars which he quickly took into his hands with a quick 'thank you' as he watched the red-headed Liberion speedster dart through the air.
"She shot up there fast!" Mio lowered her binoculars as she looked on, impressed at the speed that Shirley was going."1,000 meters high in 50 seconds! That's an unprecedented ascension rate, Major!" Danniel lowered his binoculars for a moment as he watched on with astonishment. "She really tuned it up well!" Minna exclaimed while Mio turned back with a stern expression."Now lets see how it fares..." Danniel shook his head and brought the binoculars back up to his eyes but he had trouble following Shirley's fast-moving shape in the air.

"Here goes, Merlin! Magic engine, full output!" Shirley yelled out as she felt the magic flowing through her veins and into her striker unit, not noticing the bright white trail she had left through the air behind her, she pulled her head back a bit but continued on as she turned back and darted past the end of the runway, blowing past Lyn, Lucchini, and Miyafuji.

"More! More!" She felt the adrenaline pumping through her chest but it still wasn't enough for her, she wanted to break the god damn sound barrier if it was the last thing she could do! She sighed to herself before decided to head back to the runway where she saw Lucchini and company waving at her.

"Shirley you set a new record!"

"That was incredible!"

"Amazing!"

After hearing that first bit of information she broke out into a smile before yelling out "Alright!". Unfortunately, she lost her balance and started falling on the three girls below her. She ended up in a heap with Miyafuji laying just above her bottom and her hands placed on her bosom, Lynette curled up to the right of her and Lucchini laying in front of her. Despite that and the fact that burning through all that magic gave her an appetite, she still had a big smile on her face.

"Whew! I'm starving!"

The next day...

"Yahoo!" That was the sound of cheering from both Shirley and Lucchini as they made the jump into the water, both wearing their respective swimsuits. A short distance away was Barkhorn, who was stroking her way through the water at a steady pace while her partner Erica was lazily dog paddling behind her. Sanya and Eila were sitting next to each other on the beach watching as Lyn and Miyafuji were struggling to swim with their striker units on, much to the displeasure of Minna and Mio. Perrine passed by the two younger recruits, muttering some insult under her breath. As for Danniel, he was hiding behind a tree near the beach side as he wondered whether or not to jump into the water or steer clear from it. A few moments later Minna announced that it was time for a break.

Erica and Gertrude emerged from the water at the same time in their matching black karlsland swimsuits, Lucchini sprung out of the water with a giggle with her hair all wet, Perrine casually walked onto the beach, while Lynette and Miyafuji came out panting as they carried their striker units in both of their arms.

"I...can't move anymore..." Miyafuji whined.

"Me neither..." Lynette whimpered in agreement.

"She said I'd get to have fun, too...Commander Minna's a liar..."

"You'll get used to it soon enough!" They both perked up to see Shirley standing over both of them with Danniel beside her giving both of them a look of sympathy.

"Shirley-San..."

The speed demon of Liberion raised her finger in a way that seemed to be almost informative.

"Besides, laying down like this..." She laid down on the sand with her hands behind her head.

"...isn't all that bad either." The two girls looked at each other before deciding to join her, flipping onto their backs on laying down bathing in the sun. Danniel raised his eyebrow in confusion that is until he heard Minna's voice.

"Danniel?"

"What is it?" He asked.

"I'm curious, why didn't you go into the water like everyone else?" He began to chuckle nervously.

"W-Well, I thought you were all training an-"

"That doesn't mean you can't try and swim too, you know."

"B-But..."

"But what?" Minna asked with a smile. The blonde gulped before standing up to whisper in her ear.

"I can't swim..." He said, turning his head downwards with an ashamed expression on his face. However, that all went away when he heard her giggle. He turned up to see her gaze at him with a sincere smile, patting him on the head.

"Why didn't you say so? You could've told us before hand and we would have understood." Minna made a mental note to remember that little fact if they were to engage those damn robots that attacked last time.

"In fact, if you want we could teach you how to swim."

"Really?" Danniel asked with a broad smile on his face.

"Of course, in fact we ca-"

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The wail of the sirens pierced through the ambiance of the seaside, Minna quickly ran to Mio who quickly relayed information about the incoming enemy.

"One enemy aircraft! It appears to have snuck in under our radar!"

Minna bit back a growl in her throat. "They're two days earlier than we expected again!"

"Whose going?" Mio asked.

"Shirley and the others have already sprung into action."

As Mio and Minna ran back to the base (with Danniel nervously trailing behind them) they caught a glimpse of Shirley heading into the air. When they reached the radio equipment nearby, they opened up communications with the Liberion speedster.

"Shirley, do you read me?!" Minna asked.

"Commander!" She replied.

"There's one enemy aircraft, an ultra-fast model. It's already made it inland." There was a short pause before she replied again.

"What's its course?"

"It's heading west-northwest of here-"

Mio went to a map of Europe and then started etching out its path.

"If it continues on its course it will hit..." Minna looked towards the map with Mio as she circled the capital of Britannia.

"London!"

"It's going to hit London, get ahead of it before its too late! Shirley, show it your speed!"

They heard a sharp "Roger!" as they prayed that she would reach the enemy and take it down before more lives were lost in the continuing war against the Neuroi.

"We're counting on you Shirley!"
They heard a whimper to the left of them and saw Lucchini, apparently worried about the welfare of her best friend or so they thought.

"I wonder if she adjusted it first..."

"What do you mean?" Mio asked, the young girl from Romagna oblivious to the consequences that might occur continued.

"Uhh, Last night I saw Shirley's Striker and-" She suddenly stopped when she realized that it wasn't the voice of one of her comrades but the voice of her commanding officers.

"I-It's nothing! Nothing at all!" She turned around only to meet Minna giving the pig-tailed girl a polite smile all the her hair overshadowed her eyes, a dark aura surrounding her. Danniel and even the stoic Sakamoto Mio shuddered when they felt the air around the wing commander turn cold.

"As you were saying, Ensign Francesca Lucchini?"
Lucchini gulped and slowly turned her head forward keep her gaze away from that deathly grin as sweat went down her face. Needless to say, it didn't really help after she received her punishment.

"*BZZT!* Lieutenant *KZZT!* At Once! *RZZZ!* Repeat *ZZZT!* Base at! *BZZT!* Heedless to the warnings from her communicator, she sped on the only thing that came to mind was the fact that she was going faster than usual. 'What's going on? My acceleration is rising! Is my engine just performing better than usual?!'

"*BZZT!* Lieutenant *KZZT!* At once!"

'It almost feels like...like it did back then!' Her mind burst with activity as the memory of her time at Bonneville salt flats rushed through her brain.

"Lieutenant, return to base now!"

Reliving the emotions of that moment in her life made her heart thump faster and faster! Speaking of speed, she had pooled all of her magic into her striker unit...

"GO!"

Then her magical shield hummed to life, the air around her seemed to rush past her like the tail of a comet and then with a loud boom of air she darted forward as if she were shot out of an artillery cannon! She opened her eyes to see the wind and sea below pass her at a rate she had never seen before in her life!

She had done it, she had broken the sound barrier.

"Incredible! This is really incredible! I did it! I really did it!"

"Do you read me, Lieutenant?! Respond!" Finally, the words of Mio Sakamoto reached her ears.

"I did it, Major! I broke the sound barrier!"

"STOP! You're going to run into the enemy!"

It only took a glance in front of her to confirm that her superior was right, and as the Neuroi approached her she pulled back and brought up all of the energy from her striker to her shields before she collided head on with it, piercing through its front, breaking through its core, and then streaking out of the other end. She would remain smiling despite being unconscious when Lyn and Miyafuji recovered her from a near deadly plunge into the sea. Although much to Lyn's displeasure, Miyafuji would also be toying with the redhead's breasts until they made it back to base.

Ursula Hartmann had been working her ass off as of late, mostly performing studies, research, and examinations of the mechanical remains the 501st had sent her. She was at the site of the now destroyed town of Neue Eutin and she had also read the report regarding the 501st's confrontation with these beasts which further compelled her to find out more about these monsters.

As the 501st had suspected, these machines definitely weren't man-made nor were they built recently. They were centuries old! Not only that but the components were extremely complex, being a combination of clockwork, pneumatics, hydraulics, and what may be an unknown branch of alchemy. The material that they were made out of was some type of semi-organic metal that she found could be melted down and reforged despite some difficulty in the process. But the most disturbing discovery she had made so far was regarding the organisms that were behind the transparent casings on the heads.

These creatures took on the shapes that were unnervingly reminiscent of a human-like face or a mask, they were obviously immobile but were made out of a solid substance similar to the exoskeleton of an insect or structures of coral. But the worse wasn't discovered until another researcher had decided to perform a dissection, because as soon as he brought down a scalpel to cut it open, he experienced horrifying and extremely painful auditory hallucinations before becoming near-catatonic. It was then that the smartest of the Hartmann twins had found out what caused him to be forced into near madness. These masks were essentially the equivalent of brains with what may be an EXTREMELY potent telepathic prowess.

This had prompted her to perform another investigation, this one delving into the more fantastical realms outside of science. She had delved into her books regarding creatures that were often associated with witchcraft and the occult. Contrary to belief, many of the entities mentioned in these books DID exist but were wiped out centuries ago, outside human realms, or were ravaged to near extinction when the Neuroi war began. She had originally thought that the machines were some sort of golem or homunculi, beings that could be created through magic or other branches there of such as alchemy. However, not only did the art of creating such creatures fell out of practice in the middle of the industrial revolution but it also was incompatible with the use of sufficiently advanced technology such as electronics, clockworks, or steamworks. Which meant she had met a dead end.

The only other possible way she'd be able to find more information about these beings would be to head seek permission from the Witch's Council to delve into the Archives Of Merlin, an ancient repository filled to the brim with information ranging from some obscure applications of magic to the history of witches to conflicts between man and other paranormal entities.

She'd start filing the request before she heads to bed.

Trevor Maloney was not in the greatest of moods at the moment. Why? First it started off with a word from his collaborators that progress on the warlock would be delayed due to a recent Neuroi attack on a supply line along the Atlantic. Second thing that made his life hell was the fact he had to cover up the death of an engineer who defected from the project. But what really took the cake was the report regarding the machines encountered by the 501st as well as their encounters possible links to the devastation of Neue Eutin.

Most likely the JFW would receive a slight increase in their funding, which meant that it would be harder to divert anymore money to the work on the Warlock. There were also concerns from a few of his researchers that these new enemies could take out the Warlock but he dismissed them mainly because a handful of engineers had said that the warlock was much more heavily armored than an average witch. Nonetheless, he ordered his men to arm the warlock with heavier weapons including armor-piercing rounds and heavy explosive rockets.

He wasn't going to let this project sink any further, not for this new threat, not for the Neuroi and sure as hell not for those damn witches!

"Sir?"

He broke out of his musings to see a younger officer with a file in his hand.

"What is it?"

"Its the documents you asked for, regarding the boy."

He raised an eyebrow at the man in front of him.

"What boy?"

"The boy thats under the custody of the 501st, the one who survived Neue Eutin, Sir."

Ah, he had nearly forgot about the child. He didn't care much for this child but after hearing that the 501st had taken him under their wings he had been curious as to why.

"Thank you, you're dismissed."

"Sir!" The officer gave a quick salute before leaving the room. Taking a deep sigh, the Air Marshall opened the folder containing information about the child. He didn't find anything new besides some information about his parents, more specifically the father. He apparently was a combat medic who was assisting a few witches during the evacuation of Gailia, but he was killed after saving an injured girl with magical capabilities. The mother was an unidentified Tank Witch, further investigations into her whereabouts or any living relatives turned up with nothing of interest.

He saw a report regarding a nightmare the boy but hadn't read over it until he saw another regarding his reaction to those machines he encountered a few days ago. There was obviously some sort of link between the boy and those machines, but at the moment he wouldn't delve any deeper into the subject. He was going to stand aside and continue with business as usual but if anything came up he wouldn't hesitate to take measures to make sure the boy stayed out of the hands of any other JFW.

After all, what would the witches do when the world witnesses the power of the first fully-armed warlock assault unit?

Time for a cliffhanger!

So yeah, I finally got this chapter done and over with after several months of writer's block. I hope you all enjoyed this latest chapter because this story will start straying away from the canon of Strike Witches in the next few chapters!

-VentXekart