Chapter 2 "Artillery In The Distance"
The first thing the young lieutenant became aware of was a sense of motion. Then the sound of footsteps, and the rustling of dry leaves. The sun winked in and out, as if passing behind the clouds. Then the motion stopped, and the light was blotted out by a single large shadow.
Opening his eyes, he could see the Major Sakamoto standing over him. Her hand was beside her forehead, holding up her eye patch as she scanned the sky. She seemed to be looking very intently at something, but when he tried to follow her gaze, all he could see above them were the trees, with the clouds and sky beyond. So he looked at her leg instead. It rose up - up - impossibly white and gleaming, until it disappeared into her coat.
With a shock he realized that he could see her black panties, just inside her jacket.
"Ahh!", he started, making her look down, which frightened him even more.
"WAUGHH!" he shouted, sitting up with quite a start, until he realized that he had not been vaporized, or burned to a crisp. The Major's magic eye looked just like her other one, except that it was purple, and gave off a faint glow, made brighter by the shadows.
"Shh . . .", she cautioned, touching her finger to her lips, and then looked back toward the sky.
Beside them, he could see a trail along the forest floor, from where she had dragged him through the leaves, away from the side of the road.
The Major searched for several moments, then apparently satisfied with whatever she did or did not see, turned her attentions back to the ground.
"You'll be alright", she said, letting the eye patch down after studying him for several moments.
"But -"
"You don't have any major injuries."
"How can you -" he started to ask, but she pushed him down firmly.
"Wait here. I'll send help."
"But where are YOU going?"
The Major smiled, then let out a small chuckle. She tried to keep her laugh to a whisper, but for her, a whisper was something like a muffled gunshot.
"Oh - ho - ho!", she said, pointing at the sky. Before he could ask any more questions, she turned, and disappeared into the trees.
The car was sitting nosed down into a ditch that had been carved out by the Neuroi's beam weapon. Major Sakamoto lifted her eye patch, and examined it closely. She couldn't smell any gas, but she wanted to be sure. Seeing nothing, she let it back down again, then made her way around to the driver's side window. Reaching in carefully to avoid the broken glass, she took the keys out of the ignition, then went around to the trunk to retrieve her Strikers.
The A6M's were broken down into two segments for each leg. She assembled each one, standing them against the back bumper of the car, then reached for her rifle. The Type 99 aerial cannon was heavy without her magic, so she rested it on the ground. Then, using the edge of the trunk to lift herself up, she kicked off her shoes and plunged her bare feet and legs into the waiting Strikers.
A pair of black ears pricked up through the mass of her dark hair, accompanied by an unearthly sound as the tuft of a black tail emerged from beneath her coat. The blue light of a magic circle spread beneath her feet. She leaned away from the car, feeling herself held up by a cloud of magical power. Reaching to her side, she released her sword belt from her waist, and brought it up over her shoulder, so that her katana hung across her back. She put her hand up beside her head and gripped the hilt, feeling to make sure she could reach it easily if needed. Then she took hold of her rifle, now light as a feather, and draped the sling across her other shoulder, so that it hung under her arm.
The roar of the Strikers grew louder as she released more of her magic energy. It flowed down her hips and along her legs, making her feet tingle with the motion of the propellers. The magic circle grew beneath her, widening until it filled the road. When it had reached the trees on either side, she leaned forward, and was off.
It was going to be close. The forest road was narrow, and in no place ran in a straight line for very long. Already up ahead she could see the wall of trees looming nearer as the road bent off to the right. Keeping her magical output at its maximum, she arched her back, setting a very steep climb. The engines protested, struggling to carry her aloft.
"Just a little more!" the Major shouted, feeling the tip of her starboard side Striker unit kick against one of the upper most branches. There was a fierce snarling sound as the leaves shredded in the propeller. Then, a few feet more, and she was out of the trees, and into the sky.
It was always stunning, the sudden change from Earth to Heaven, and now even more so, with the setting sun filling the clouds with an orange glow, but the Major had little time for admiration. Putting out her right hand, she rolled into a sharp bank. At once she could feel herself begin to drop, as the thrust from her Strikers was split between making the turn and keeping her in the air, so she eased back, and scissored her legs to adjust for the angle. A climbing turn was dangerous at this altitude - she was high enough to kill her if she fell, but too low to have any time to recover from a stall. But it was a chance she had to take.
"This is Major Sakamoto to The Cauldron - Cauldron, do you copy, over?"
Silence.
The Major tapped her earpiece, then tried again.
"I repeat, this is Major Sakamoto to The Cauldron - Cauldron, do you copy, over?"
Still no reply.
"This isn't good", she thought, working the cocking handle of her rifle. "That Neuroi was headed towards the base . . ."
Yoshika listened as the siren filled the air. She should have been running, but opening her door to find the hall empty was something of a shock. For a moment she just stood there, listening to the sound that had come to define her existence. Everything else in her life - the training with Major Sakamoto, sharing the kitchen with Lynette, even fighting with Perrine - those things all existed in between moments like these. The sound of the siren stitched everything together, as it rose to fill the hall, filling in the space between everything, before falling off in a long, plaintive wail.
"Is it the Neuroi?" Lynette asked, opening her door. She was holding her sweater in one hand and her jacket in the other.
"Well of COURSE it is", Perrine said with her usual sense of annoyance. "Who ELSE would it be?" She was better prepared. Her jacket was already buttoned, and her scarf hung loosely around her neck. She had one end of it in her teeth, tying a knot as she ran.
And then the spell was broken, as everyone else poured into the hallway.
"Aw man - couldn't they have waited until after dinner?" Francesca groaned.
"Or at least until after my bath", Shirley said.
"Ladies", Commander Minna said sharply, seeing the general disorder "We don't want to keep the Neuroi waiting."
"Yes ma'am!"
Just then, Lieutenant Barkhorn burst out of her room, dragging Hartmann with her.
"Miyafuji!" Barkhorn shouted.
"Trudy no!" Erica protested, trying to restrain her.
"You've got help me!"
"Trudy, you're in no condition to fly -"
"I'll be fine if Yoshika uses her magic on me!"
Yoshika recoiled, uncertain of what she should say or do.
"I - uh -"
"Miyafuji will do no such thing!" the Commander cut her off sternly. "Lieutenant Barkhorn, you will return to your quarters - and STAY there. Hartmann is right - you're in no shape to go up."
"But -"
"THAT'S an order! Do I make myself understood?"
". . . yes Minne . . ."
"Very well. Hartman, escort her."
"Yes ma'am," Erica said, catching Barkhorn as she collapsed.
"Meet us in the hangar when you're finished."
"YES MA'AM!"
Commander Minna adjusted the sling of her MG 42 while the other witches fired their Strikers.
"Trudy's in no condition for combat", she thought, "Mio's away, and it's still too early for Sanya - damn the Neuroi and their perfect timing!"
"Commander?", Eila asked, seeing that the others were ready.
"All right ladies - initial reports show a small flight forming up over the coast of Gallia. Shirley, you're the fastest - I want you to engage them as far out as you can. Take Francesca with you. Erica and Perrine will follow, and use tactical strikes to destroy whatever gets through. Eila and I will establish an airborne command center to provide coordination and support.
'There's going to be a lot of them, and we're missing a top ace - I expect all of you to contribute twice as much to make up for it!"
"YES MA'AM!" the witches shouted in unison - well, almost in unison. There was one 'ma'am' slightly out of time with the others. Commander Minna looked at Yoshika, who was standing so rigidly that even the brown tuft of her tail stood at attention.
"Miyafuji", the Commander said, making her tremble.
"Yes ma'am!"
"I want you and Bishop to establish a defensive perimeter inside our line, in case anything gets through. Fly in formation gunship. Yoshika, you'll provide cover and an extra set of eyes for Lynette. Lynette-"
"Ma'am!"
"If anything looks like it might get through our net, I want you to take it out. We'll signal for fire support if we see something get by us. Call out when engaging your targets - use Sakamoto's model. We don't want to get hit by any friendly fire - especially not one of your armor piercing rounds!"
"Yes ma'am!"
"Good. Do you all understand your assignments?"
"YES MA'AM!"
"Excellent! Then I'll see you in the sky!"
The sirens sounded again as the witches formed up on the runway. Shirley and Francesca went first, as the Commander had ordered, followed by Erika and Perrine, and then the Commander herself and Eila. As she and Lynette were waiting, Yoshika looked over at the Thunder Strikers where they stood in the launch bay. She felt the glimmerings of an idea, but just then Lynette put her hand on her shoulder.
"Come on Yoshika, it's our turn. And besides, the Major's always telling us we're the most vulnerable when we're on the ground."
"Yeah, you're right . . .", Yoshika answered, looking back longingly.
"Get as much altitude as you can!" Minna's voice crackled over the radio. "We'll meet them just after they cross the Channel."
"Commander, are you able to get a reading?" Perrine asked.
"I'm picking up multiple waves. Mostly older craft - X-2's and X-3's, with a few heavier ships behind them - possibly X-10's, so be ready for surprises There seems to be a high altitude observation ship accompanying them - probably a reconnaissance craft. We're still waiting for visual confirmation. Shirley?"
"Not yet", the Liberian answered, "any second now."
Shirley's red hair wafted in the breeze, tangling in the sunset. With the sun behind her, it threw a deep shadow over her face. Looking down, she saw a faint glimmering above the clouds.
"There you are!", she chuckled, and doing a handstand in mid air, dove.
The Browning Automatic Rifle cycled slowly, making a 'chug-chug-chug' sound as it spat out the 30-.06 rounds, slinging the emptying casings to the side. The effect on the Neuroi was devastating - the first volley peeled away the metallic skin, the second blew away the honeycomb beneath, exposing the core, while the third round shattered it, leaving a huge, gaping hole where for a Neuroi what passed as its heart used to be. When she let off the trigger, she could see clean through to the sky on the other side.
"That's one!" she shouted, turning towards the Neuroi's wingmate. But the quick spray of the Browning stopped short, the slide locked back, the chamber open and smoking. If the BAR had a weakness, it was that it had never been fitted for a drum or belt feed. The 20 round box magazine was empty.
"Damnit!" Shirley shouted, drawing her Colt pistol. She began pumping .45s into the fleeing ship as fast as she could, only to watch each hole close one by one. The craft regenerated much too quickly for the pistol to keep up. By now the Neuroi realized that the volume of fire was greatly reduced. It ceased evasive actions, and began to turn, coming around for the attack.
The slide of the Colt locked back. It too was empty. Shirley turned with the Neuroi, knowing her only chance was to keep it out in front of her. She weighed her options. There was no time to reload her pistol or her rifle. In desperation, she reached for her Bowie knife.
"Shirley, use me!" a familiar voice crackled over the radio.
Looking over her shoulder, she saw Francesca smiling her usual toothy grin.
"Boy am I glad to see you!"
"Then you can pay me back with your share of Yoshika's dinner!"
"We'll just see about that.
"Either way, you'd better be fast - they're almost here!"
"Oh, you'll go fast all right", Shirley said, taking hold of Francesca's wrists, and engaging her Strikers' supercharged Merlin engines. "Careful what you wish for - here - you - GO!"
"Whee!" Francesca shouted as she went whizzing towards the oncoming Neuroi ship.
For Francesca, there was nothing but a whistling sound, and the blue blur of the sky moving past as a purple wave formed out in front. She hooked one canine fang over her lip as she concentrated on focusing all of her magic at a point directly ahead of her. The glimmering purple wall deepened, then grew, spreading out around her, and trailing out behind like the tail of a comet, its rearward edges occasionally shedding a fragment of excess magical power.
She squinted, fighting to keep her eyes focused on the Neuroi as the whole universe seemed to shake. Sensing the danger, the Neuroi fired it's beam weapon, but the purple bolt glanced off, the tremendous half moon energy wave acting like an enormous shield.
"It'll take more than that", Fran taunted, crossing her arms in front of her. She took hold of the inner edges of the purple wall, and straining, tore it apart.
There followed a sky shattering explosion. It caught the Neuroi full force, destroying everything but the core, which was left floating free, out in space. Shouldering her rifle, Francesca put a prolonged burst right through it's midst.
"Ha!", she said, triumphantly as the core shattered, showing her fang again. "That's why they call us witches!"
"Heh, - not bad for a couple of amateurs", Erica taunted over the radio, as two Neuroi settled in behind her, "But let me show you how this is REALLY done -"
Stretching out her hands, she took hold of the wind flowing past. Keeping her grip on the sky, she began to roll, up and over. It was the beginning of her dreaded Sturm technique. She continued her roll, bending the wind around her, until she became a sideways tornado. The two Neuroi, who had both followed her into the funnel thinking she would be easy pickings, now found the walls closing in around them. They tried their best to evade, but the space between them continued to shrink, until, caught in the whirlwind, they smashed together beneath her.
As Erica rolled over the top again , the air around her filled with wreckage and debris. One of the Neuroi had been fitted with a rotating piece, similar to the propeller on her own Striker. Erica watched it pass just in front of her face, while a second piece came darting so close it hit her jacket, and became lodged in her chest pocket.
"Whoa!" Erica shouted, flapping her coat wildly in a desperate attempt to shake out the piece of burning metal. "That was too close!"
"Hmph!" Perrine snorted, holding up her chin. She reached out a single slender finger, causing a bolt of lightning to fall from the clouds, consuming a Neuroi as it passed.
"How distasteful!"
"Not bad", Commander Minna observed, looking through her binoculars more out of habit than out of necessity. "Together the four of them have managed to take out the first two waves."
"Ma'am?" Eila asked, seeing an approaching Neuroi ship.
Without looking up, the Commander, put up her hand and raised a shield to catch the incoming beam.
"Eila?" she asked, still studying with her binoculars as the beam crackled all around them.
"On it!" Eila answered, turning into a rolling dive, pursuing the Neuroi down into the clouds.
"You're a fast one, aren't you?" she said coldly, watching it move to avoid her tracers, darting from side to side as they tracked harmlessly through the empty sky.
Concentrating her powers, she could begin to see a trail of after images form beside the Neuroi, showing all of the places it had been, and predicting all of the places it might be. She braced her rifle against her shoulder, and closed one of her frost blue eyes. Slowly and methodically, she fired several rounds, watching the patterns change each time the Neuroi turned to evade. At every change in course, new lines of possibility were created, while others closed off and disappeared.
"Ha!", she shouted, firing several shots in rapid succession, anticipating each move from the last. With each shot, the number of possibilities grew fewer and fewer.
"And checkmate," she said, putting a final burst through the place where she knew the Neuroi would inevitably be. The hail of bullets strafed the Neuroi in a neat line, shattering its core, and shearing off its left wing. The ship collapsed, folding up on itself as it fell from the sky.
"Hartmann, report?", Commander Minna asked.
"Heh heh heh - like shooting fish in a barrel", Erica chuckled. "Boy is Trudy ever going to be sorry she missed this!"
"Perrine?"
"Two more. At the risk of agreeing with Lieutenant Hartmann, I'd have to say the Neuroi are a bit off their game today."
"This is too easy . . ." the Commander thought to herself. "It's almost like they're GIVING us something to shoot at . . ."
Just then, a Neuroi flying in close formation suddenly broke away from its wing mates and made a bee line directly towards her.
Without so much as a thought, Minna leaned back and brought up her rifle. The purple beam crackled for a moment against the wall of her shield, and then there was a hellish screech from the MG 42 as she returned fire.
Minna watched in a daze. Whenever she used her rifle, it gave her a momentary shock. Her powers of Spatial Awareness meant that she knew the exact positions of every object in the sky at every moment. When she used the MG 42, its tremendous rate of fire put so many bullets in the air at once - the effect was dazzling. For a moment all of them hung suspended, as time seemed to stand still. Then everything snapped back to normal, and they went zinging towards the target. Because she knew the final positions and trajectories of each round right up until the moment they buried themselves into the Neuroi and became one with it, she could almost feel the impact.
The MG had done it's work. The Neuroi dropped amid a series of explosions, letting out a terrible sound that for all its alien qualities still sounded remarkably like a scream. Minna watched it fall, trailing bits of its shattered core. In the sunset, they sparkled like diamonds.
"They're like Witches in that respect", she thought to herself. "They're beautiful when they die . . ."
Her reflections were interrupted by a purple streak that came hurtling down from above, through the midst of the battlefield, on its way to the ground below. It was so large that it evaporated the clouds as it passed through them, leaving a vast blue chasm. For a moment it lighted on the ground, then began to move, carving it's way northward, severing a forest road.
"Where the hell did that beam come from!?"
"It came from the observation ship!" Perrine shouted. "Hasn't anyone been able to knock that thing down yet!?"
"No ma'am", Shirley replied. "Fran and I tried to make a run at it, but it was too far up, even for Merlin."
"Have Lynette use her long range attack! She'll need to gain as much altitude as possible before taking the shot. Miyafuji, cover her!"
"Yes ma'am!" Yoshika and Lynette shouted.
"I'm counting on the two of you!"
"Come on Lynette, the Commander said it was up to us!" Yoshika called, as they both leaned back into a steep climb. They rose higher and higher, up through the clouds, and then another layer of faint, hanging mist.
When they'd reached the limit of how far their Strikers could carry them, they throttled back, and sat floating in the air.
"It's so far away . . ." Yoshika said breathlessly, looking at the alien craft high above.
Lynette shouldered her rifle, then leaped to the side, forced to dodge as a beam from the Neuroi ship parted the air just in front of her.
"Sorry!" Yoshika apologized, moving forward and raising her shield to catch another incoming blast.
"Don't mention it!", Lynette said, shouldering her rifle again and taking aim. "I'm going to need a couple of moments to charge my shot. Can you hold out that long?"
"No problem!"
Lynette squinted, adjusting her aim, then began to concentrate all of her magical energy into the bullet held waiting in the rifle's chamber. As it took on her power, it began to glow, until the entire back half of her rifle emitted a faint purple gleam.
"Now!" Lynette shouted, breathing out as she pulled the trigger.
The explosion released the bullet from it's shell, mushrooming out as it engaged the rifled walls of barrel. The charged lead took hold of the spiral grooves, which imparted a spin as it left the muzzle. Yoshika watched as the purple streak tore out of the mouth of Lynette's rifle, hurtling upwards with a force that seemed utterly unstoppable. It flew farther and straighter than a shot from any normal marksman ever could.
"It's going to make it!" Yoshika thought.
But just as the Neuroi seemed on the verge of certain destruction, Yoshika watched as the purple light began to glimmer, then broke up in the upper reaches of the atmosphere, falling on the Neuroi as harmlessly as an errant ray from the setting sun.
"Report?" the Commander asked.
"It's no good - it's too high even for Lynette!"
"Bishop, you have to make the shot - no one else can!"
"Lynette, are you sure you can't get more range? My shield is holding up - I can buy us more time."
Lynette shook her head.
"I put everything I had into that one. It's just too - whoa!" she shouted, diving for cover as the Neuroi released another super massive blast.
Commander Minna studied it thoughtfully, letting her mind expand to take in the targets below.
"A road in Kennchester forest - telegraph lines at Hawkesby - portions of the power grid at Skye Park - none of these are strategic, or high value targets . . ." she thought, staring at the ship far away in the outer reaches of the sky. And then her mind was filled with a terrible thought.
"Commander, what is it?" Eila asked, seeing a shadow come over her face.
"I know it's target", she answered grimly. "It's heading for the Cauldron."
For a moment, all was silent.
"What should we do?" Perrine asked.
Eila watched the shadow on Minna's face darken.
" . . . Continue engaging targets. We don't want them to know we've guessed their plans. And we still have to protect London."
"Understood."
"Mio", she said to herself, "Where are you . . ?"
Yoshika and Lynette watched the setting sun. As the orange disc sank lower, the deepening shadows seemed to invade their mood.
"Grr - stupid Neuroi!" Yoshika shouted, seeing a ship out of the corner of her eye off to the side down below. She turned into a dive, intent on surprising it by gaining speed for altitude.
But from her vantage point, Lynette could see another Neuroi, following some ways behind. It was further back than usual, but from the way it was positioned, she could tell it was keeping formation with the lead ship.
"Yoshika, don't!" she shouted, trying to get her friend's attention. "It's a -"
The first Neuroi turned and broke, anticipating the attack.
" . . .trap . . ." Lynette said. Too late, Yoshika looked over her shoulder, and saw the second ship settling in behind her.
"Lynette, help!" she shouted, zigging and zagging from side to side as the purple beams flashed all around her.
"I can't get a clear shot! I don't want to risk hitting you!" she shouted, feeling sick from seeing her friend dance through her gun sights.
Yoshika tried to dive further in and effort to gain extra speed to outrun the Neuroi, and get far enough ahead to turn into it, but it was no good; the enemy ship continued to turn with her.
"Hurry!", she shouted, as one of the beams narrowly missed slicing off her ear.
"I'm trying!"
The Neuroi released a hail of beams. There was no time, not even to turn and raise a shield. She could both hear and feel them now - making the air crackle, and her hair singe. There was one just off her shoulder, then another, just by her neck, so close that though it didn't hit her, the super heated air burned her skin. Involuntarily she closed her eyes, grimacing with certainty that the next beam would pass right through her head.
"HYAHHH!"
A familiar, deafening cry filled her ears as it came through the radio. Major Sakamoto came diving, out of the setting sun, her aerial cannon blazing. The Neuroi turned, but had no time to evade. In her rage, the Major emptied the drum of the Type 99. The core shattered, but still she did not let up, putting every last round into the Neuroi, even after it had begun to fall.
"Major Sakamoto!" Yoshika shouted with admiration. But Sakamoto's words were harsh.
"MIYAFUJI! I thought I told you NEVER to give your back to an enemy!?"
"But - but - I didn't mean to - it happened so fast - I'm so sorry!" Yoshika pleaded, as her eyes began to tear up.
"Are you all right?" Sakamoto asked more softly.
"Yes . . ." Yoshika said, her face brightening.
"Then that's good enough", the Major said, making Yoshika's ears perk back up. Sakamoto turned, and settled into formation with the Commander.
"Mio! Boy am I glad to see you."
"What's our situation?"
"Not good. We've got an extremely high altitude Neuroi ship mounting a beam weapon powerful enough to cut through an entire city block, and all indications are that it's targeting The Cauldron."
"I see", the Major said grimly, lifting her eye patch to gaze up at the ship so far away.
"Can you locate the core?"
The Major squinted.
"Gyah!"
"What is it?"
"It's a moving core type!"
Minna frowned.
"Not that it matters at this point. We don't have anything operational that can reach that high."
"Leave that to me. Eila, it's far, but can you sense the core for me?"
Eila closed her eyes, focusing first on the Neuroi ship, and then on the Major, seeing what she was about to see.
"It has a very complicated pattern. I'll need time to study it."
"You've got five minutes."
"I get it!" Yoshika beamed. "You're going to have Eila predict where the core's going to be, and then time your shot with her magic!"
"Something like that", the Major said, reaching over her shoulder and drawing her sword. "But I won't be taking a shot. I plan on getting much closer."
"But how?" the Commander asked. "All of the boosters we have were used up in a previous mission. We don't have any left, and our conventional Strikers can't fly that high."
Sakamoto studied the wave pattern along her sword's edge for a moment, then returned it to her sheath.
"No, they don't. But the Thunder Strikers do."
"Ma'am - you can't" the guards shouted, as Sakamoto ran across the hanger floor and up the stairs to launch bay. "It's against regulations!"
"REGULATIONS BE DAMNED!" she shouted, leaping from the platform. As she jumped, she sent one shoe flying off to either side, then plunged her feet and legs into the waiting Strikers.
At once the Thunder Strikers roared to life. The effect was immediate - Sakamoto arched her back, straining as her eyes opened wider and her tail stood on end. It was as if she could feel her very life flowing out through her feet.
"Mio, are you alright?" the Commander's voice crackled in the radio.
". . . I'll be fine."
"Everyone, support the Major in her attack!"
"YES MA'AM!"
"Lynette, lay down some suppressive fire! Yoshika, cover her!"
"Yes ma'am!"
Lynette took aim, then loosed all five rounds from her Boyds anti-tank rifle, working the bolt in rapid succession as she sent each shot along the route the Major would take.
"Got it!" Yoshika shouted, raising a shield over them both as the Neuroi returned fire.
"Erica, Perrine, clear a path!"
"Ma'am!" Erica answered, turning herself into a human tornado that swept all of the nearby ships aside, as Perrine set the clouds alight with a sudden storm.
"Francesca and Shirley - do whatever you can!"
"Yes ma'am!" Shirley said, taking hold of Francesca, and tossing her headlong into the clouds, clearing their upper reaches of any remaining Neuroi ships.
Looking down, Shirley could see the Major rising like a speeding bullet. Putting her arms at her sides, she opened the throttle, engaging both stages of the Merlin's super chargers. For a moment, she and the Major flew in formation together, before the massive speed of the Thunder Striker sent Sakamoto roaring out ahead.
"Yahoo!"
"Eila?" Sakamoto asked calmly , grimacing against the wind.
"I can almost see it - there! It's going to be in the starboard side, in the tail!"
But as Eila was making her predictions, the Neuroi had been making some calculations of its own. It took in the motions of each of the small figures as they darted back and forth among the clouds, as well as the lone white figure rising from below. Charging it's beam, it sent a solid purple streak down towards the ground.
"Oh no you don't!"
Without making any effort to evade, the Major drew her sword, and flew directly into the attack. As she stabbed into the purple bolt, the swords tip acted as a prism, making the beam spray out all around her.
"H-Y-A-A-A-A-A-H-H-H-H-H-H-H !"
There was a sense of brief resistance as the sword met with the ship's outer skin.
Then the strange, honeycombed texture that the insides of the Neuroi are made of.
And then a tingling, like the breaking of glass, as the sword's tip passed through the core.
And then all of these same sensations again, this time in reverse.
In the instant it took to comprehend it, the moment was over. Throttling back, Major Sakamoto looked over her shoulder, seeing a sharp line through the body of the Neuroi rimmed with explosions, marking the path where her sword had been. Slowly it began to nose over, rolling headlong into a fatal dive.
"She got it!" Lynette and Yoshika shouted.
"Woo-hoo!"
The Major Sakamoto examined the edge of her sword, then returned it to its sheath. She took one more look at the vanquished Neuroi. The trailing bits of the shattered core glimmered like frost on a winter night. Then she turned her eyes to the setting sun. The sky was almost dark now, the orange disc has almost disappeared below the horizon.
"A witch's powers don't last forever", she thought. And then a smile crossed her face, and the beginnings of an idea. "I've been spending entirely too much time around Miyafuji", she said to herself, as she settled into a turning dive. With only a slight bit of encouragement, the Thunder Strikers roared, filling the sky with a sonic boom.
The unexpected rumble made all of the witches look up, and cheer.
"YAHOO!" Shirley shouted her approval, as Yoshika and Lynette hollered and waved.
"Witches, this is your Commander speaking", Minna's voice came through clearly on the radio, "The remaining Neuroi have broken off. Return to base!"
Commander Minna sat in her study, sipping her coffee. It was a habit she'd picked up from Shirley, though she'd taken to having it in the evenings, after dinner, in the Continental fashion, rather than in the morning, as the Liberians do. She liked it better than the Britanian tea. It was coarse and rough. The coffee on the base always seemed to have a flavor that was something like used motor oil. It suited her just fine - though she did occasionally soften it with a bit of sugar, or perhaps a few drops of cream.
She was drinking from a particularly fine piece of Wedgewood - part of an old set. It was what the maids had brought; the Commander herself had little time or interest for such things, though she did admire the sense of workmanship.
"Perrine probably knows a great deal about this sort of thing", she thought to herself. "Or maybe Lynette. She does have a hint of the domestic . . ."
The walls of the cup were so thin, and the porcelain had a depth to its sheen that subtly belied its pale white color.
"Such is the ludicrousity of war", she thought to herself, that she could sit here in her study, with its wood panel walls and the soft glow of the lamps, and drink coffee out of fine china, so far removed from the roar of engines and the flashing Neuroi beams from earlier that day.
She kept her study in a mild state of disarray. Nothing so drastic as to be called a mess - it was just that her power of Spatial Awareness meant that she could feel every inch of the room at all times. It started to wear on her if things were too neat and rigid. She found a bit of clutter more relaxing.
"Mio, you're so lucky", she thought to herself. "It must be nice to cover your magic eye for a while, and turn off your gift."
Her own gift was never off. Without looking, she knew the exact position of the pitcher and the cup as she poured the cream. Without wanting to know, she knew the exact position of each white drop as it disappeared beneath the surface, blending out into a tangled blur, like the con trails of a developing dog fight.
At night, sometimes she woke up, feeling the walls of her room.
Could Mio really shut it all out just by covering her magic eye?
"Or maybe she just pretends", Minna thought.
To pretend not to see - that was something she knew a great deal about.
Maybe Mio could see right through the eye patch.
A portable typewriter stood at one corner of the desk - she was aware of THAT at all times, too. It was a clever contraption, made for stenographers and journalists. Everything fit into one little box, so that it could go anywhere. But that was the problem - it DID go anywhere. It followed her - into meetings, in the car, in her bedroom, and on leave. Twice now she had tried to forget it, once in a car, and once on a train, but both times it had been remembered, first by Mio, and then by Erica - drat them for being so conscientious.
"I suppose there's nothing else for it", she thought, and so, with a sigh, Commander Minna, who had never once surrendered in the field, admitted defeat, and put her hands on the keys.
The halting sound of the key strokes had a broken rhythm to it that was almost musical, and would not have been disagreeable, had it not reminded her faintly of the sounds of far off machine gun fire, or artillery in the distance.
" . . . so far, the Neuroi's campaigns against Britannia have been relatively inconsistent. Whether this represents a lack of strategic focus, disagreement within the Neuroi command, or a series of probing events is uncertain. Our knowledge of Neuroi thought processes, and their command and control structure, is much too limited to make these kinds of assumptions . . .
" . . . from the attack on Poland through the fall of Gallia, the Neuroi enjoyed spectacular success, which caused some to fear that the Neuroi may be invulnerable. Similar gains in the Pacific, and the stunning attack on United States of Liberion bolstered this image. However, during this time, the air arm of the Neuroi forces was working in a close ground support role. The goal of operation Sea Lion, however, seems to have been to establish air superiority in preparation for a cross Channel amphibious invasion . . .
" . . . until now, the Neuroi have used a variety of tactics, including open raids, and small scale attacks on diverse targets, including coastal installations, shipping yards, air bases, and major cities, in an apparent terror campaign. They do not seem to appreciate the importance of the Chain Home system, or integrated air defense. Most of their efforts involved light to medium bombing, and lacked a strategic focus . . ."
She was still typing when a car pulled up in the circle out front. She both sensed and heard the car door being opened, and closed, then the opening of the front door, and the footsteps in the hall. A familiar presence filled the doorway of the study.
"How was your trip?" she asked, without looking up.
The question caught Mio off guard, catching her just as she was about to speak. For a moment she did not know what to say. Then she broke out into her usual laugh.
"Oh - ho - ho! No one will ever be able to sneak up on you."
"Sneaking isn't something you would do. You prefer the direct approach."
"I suppose you're right. The trip was terrible. I hate long car rides. But it was good to see the men from Fuso again."
In the soft light, Mio's white coat picked up the yellow glow of the lamps. She held her sword in her left hand. She had always kept it with her, but ever since she'd lost the ability to generate a shield, she seemed to hold it even closer, rarely letting it be outside of physical contact with some part of her body.
"I didn't know you wore spectacles?"
"I don't", Minna said, taking off her reading glasses "Or at least I didn't, until Command started insisting on such detailed reports of every single thing. At this rate, I think I'm just one report away from needing bifocals . . ." She set her glasses on the table, and rubbed her eyes. "
"Maybe they'll give you a purple heart . . ." Mio joked amiably.
"Only if they get worse during combat."
"Oh - ho - ho!" Mio laughed again. "You never got to tell me how this morning's test flight went?"
"Not nearly as exciting as your flight this afternoon," Minna chuckled. "The Thunder Striker has some of the same problems of energy consumption as the Violet Lightning. But they're much more manageable. And the vertical take off and landing presents interesting possibilities - in time they might be able to do away with air fields all together. There are adjustments, of course. But I really think we might be seeing the future."
"The future", Mio considered, looking at the papers on the desk. A brown leather portfolio caught her eye. It was a very expensive item, with gold lettering, and brass bolsters at each corner. The pages inside were all printed on thick, high quality parchment paper.
"LAND", she read aloud. "Life After the Neuroi Defeat . . ."
"It's a propaganda campaign. Command is very excited about it. They think it will boost civilian morale for the war effort to imagine how a world without the Neuroi might be. They're planning to hold expos in Britania, as well as Liberion and Fuso."
Mio flipped through the pages, filled with rosy illustrations of smiling people in a variety of settings, designed to show the advances that would theoretically come from the development of the technology used to fight the Neuroi. There were depictions of homes and schools and factories, all perfectly neat and clean, and filled with various modern gadgetry, some real, some imagined. One scene showed a utopian cityscape, with tall, orderly buildings, and massive park lined freeways, complete with three vertical lanes of flying cars.
"Seems a bit optimistic", she said candidly.
Minna got up from her chair, and turned to look out the window. The night air was cool and damp, bringing up a wonderful smell from the old wooden sash. She could feel a hint of chill through the panes of glass.
Outside, the lights were beginning to go out. Things were better now. There was radar, and Sanya could even detect the Neuroi's movements on the other side of the Channel. It had improved to the point that when no special alerts were in effect, Strategic Air Command allowed a one hour grace period after sunset. But after that there still came the nightly black out. Minna watched the lights wink out, one by one.
"We've been fighting for so long . . ." she said, watching an elderly gentleman in an old cottage engaged in the act of physically putting out an oil lamp. It was a rare sight these days, though at one time it must have been very common.
"A world without the Neuroi . . . Do you really think it's possible . . ?"
Mio turned to face the window, the blue light frosting her face.
"I don't know . . ."
BONUS !
Omake # 1 "Alphabet Soup"
Commander Minne: . . .and that concludes today's briefing. Ladies, any other business?
Trudy: Yes, I'd like to propose we amend our radio communications guidelines to replace the term "Time In Theater" to "Time Over Target".
Commander Minne: I'm not opposed, but is there a particular reason for the suggested change?
Trudy: It's a question of acronyms, ma'am.
Commander Minne: Acronyms?
Trudy: Ahem - abbreviations. Would you really like us to be calling out regarding our TITs over the radio?
All: (general chuckle)
Commander Minne: I can see your point . . .
Francesca: (laughing hysterically) I can see it now - "Eagle to Nest, this is Officer Lucchini reporting in . . ."
Commander Minne: Fran -
Francesca: ". . . Yeager and Clostermann are with me, and the objective is in sight . . ."
Commander Minne: (more sternly) Francesca -
Francesca: ". . . and we've got seven TITS over the target!"
Commander Minne: PILOT OFFICER FRANCESCA LUCCHINI !
Mio: Wait - how do you get seven breasts from three girls?
Yeager: Yeah - it's an odd number.
Commander Minne: (sighs in defeat) . . . . .
Francesca: Easy! Shirley's are so big, they each count for two, so that makes four. And mine make five and six. But Perrine's are so small, you have to add both of them together just to get one -
Perrine: WHY YOU DIRTY LITTLE -
Francesca: (while running) Heh heh heh heh, next time on "Stars In Another Sky", we get to see what Perrine does on her day off. I'll bet it's something dirty -
Perrine: LUCCHINI !
Commander Minne: . . .dismissed.