Morning. Sanya staggers out of the hanger, through the base, and down the dormitory hall. Fumbling at the door knob, she loosens her tie. Closing the door softly behind her, she begins disrobing in the gloom: shoes, pants, skirt, tie, shirt, a trail of discarded clothes on the floor to lead Sanya and Eila out of the forest should they get lost. Reaching her destination, she tumbles into bed beside her beloved.
A thump in the bed brought Eila to the edge of consciousness. Out of habit she opened her eyes slightly, and began to say "just for tonight." Sanya green, green eyes, half open, were staring into her own.
"Good morning, Eila!" Sanya whispered huskily.
"Hey, good morning! How are you? How was patro... mmmphmmmmmm..."
Sanya planted a kiss on Eila. "I'm good. Happy."
Eila smiled. She had always enjoyed Sanya's Company when she flopped into bed with her. Now more so than ever. Eila kissed her back.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sleepy," Sanya apologized, rubbing her eyes.
"Don't worry," Eila replied, pulling the sheet over Sanya, kissing her shoulder along the way. "You just sleep."
Sanya nestled into place. "Be safe on patrol today," she cooed. "I'll be waiting for you."
Eila was about to say something in response, but Sanya had already faded to sleep. Instead, she smilingly collected the Orussian girl's clothes, folded them neatly, and put them on Sanya's chair at the seance table they used for writing, tea, and fortunetelling.
She met her patrol mates in the dining hall and was treated to Barkhorn's admonitions about eating a hearty breakfast for sufficient patrol energy. Entering the dining hall, Erica told Getrude what Eila was thinking: no one wanted a military lecture first thing in the morning. This set Barkhorn off on a rant about the proper etiquette for a Karlslander soldier, a rant Hartmann blissfully ignored as she wolfed down the breakfast Yoshika had prepared.
The sky was iron grey as they launched from the striker hanger. The witches formed into their teams, Barkhorn the patrol leader, Lynnette Bishop her wingman, Eila was second in command with Perrine as her wingman.
It had been slightly awkward when Minna had briefed them on their patrol mission that morning. Minna had been tense, sensing the complex emotions emanating from Perrine, and puzzled by Eila's lack of tension. The girls had no way of knowing, but Minna was struggling with her own emotions: joy at her upcoming nuptial, but a gnawing sorrow as well. She was already beginning to feel her powers wane. Unlike Mio, she was judiciously conserving her magical energy; she didn't want to lose them completely, and saw a use for them should the war with the mysterious, implacable aliens ever end.
It had actually been another witch who lived in her neighborhood who suggested the profession. The elder witch had been a healer by trade, selling charms, potions, and poultices, and performing greater acts of healing if there was no time to make it to a doctor or hospital.
"You can sense people's emotions, eh?" she had queried, examining the young Minna with squinting eyes. "A matchmaker is what you should become. Hone your skills and you'll be able to find anyone's 'happily ever after.' People will come from miles for your advice and opinions about whether a marriage should go through or not!"
Before the Neuroi had devastated Karlsland, before they had killed [INSERT NAME OF MINNA'S BOYFRIEND HERE] she had thought it was the greatest profession in the world. Helping others find happiness. . . Maybe it still was.
They were to Patrol 100 kilometers to the north and 100 kilometers to the south from their base along the Rhine, and were to note the place and location of any suspicious activities, or noticeable changes on the Karlsland side. The Belgica spotters had reported Neuroi activity on the Karlsland shore, but no attempt to cross. High command wanted to know why the Neuroi were deviating from their usual pattern. (666 words here)
It was late afternoon, there had been no sign of Neuroi activity. The Karlsland side of the river looked as devastated and unchanged as ever. villages reduced to craters, cities being reclaimed by nature. It was an expanse of green interrupted by the burnt skeletons of human civilization.
The patrol had just passed the furthest point of their southern loop and had turned back toward base when the phone in the control room rang. Minna answered, exchanged a few terse words with the soldier on the other end, then hung up.
"Forward observers in Karlsland report Nueroi activity in Sector D-15, confirmed by Belgica spotters," she said to Hartmann.
Hartmann leaned forward and adjusted the radar controls. "Got it, just a faint trace," she reported. She turned to the map table behind her and made a mark on the glass with a grease pen. Picking up a slide rule, she counted to ten as she watched the radar, then made quick calculations with the tool. She made another mark on the glass, and used the edge of the slide rule to draw a solid line depicting the Nueroi's current path according to her calculations, then dotted lines to show possible deviations. She then extended the original line to the end of the map.
"Target appears to be [Name of large city here]," she reported to Minna.
Minna pursed her lips and tapped them with her fingers while she thought quickly. She picked up the radio transmitter and called Barkhorn's patrol.
"Neuroi spotted in sector D-15," Minna's voiced buzzed tinnily in Barkhorn's ear. "heading South by South-West. You are to intercept in grid E-12."
"Yokai!" replied Barkhorn. The other witches had heard the same information. E-12 was a significant distance away; they would have to push themselves at maximum acceleration to intercept in time.
Beligcan anti-aircraft fire was already pounding the Nueroi as they entered sector E-12; the Nueroi pressed on, its beams strafing the ground, destroying swaths of forest, farmland, and gun emplacements. The anti-aircraft guns went silent as the witches flew into firing range.
The Neuroi resembled the blasphemous offspring of a drunken mating between a trilobite and a stingray. The surface was silky black mottled with red hexagons, with small black hexagons that resembled nothing so much as eyes.
Sensing a greater threat, the Nueroi veered toward the witches, sprouting multiple beams at the new arrivals. Eila, Barkhorn, and Perrine dodged the first salvo while Lynnette raised her shield to block a direct hit as she tried to set up her emplacement to provide long range fire support. She had to abandon finding a position from which to snipe as several more beams slammed into her shield.
Eila and Barkhorn swooped in to the target, raining hot slugs on the black and red ship while their wingmen provided covering fire. The shells slammed into the alien ship, kicking up silver shrapnel on impact, but the Nueroi appeared to take no damage. Lynnette scored a direct hit with her Boys Anti-tank rifle, blowing a cascade of silvery Nueroi shrapnel out the other side. The dust cleared, the Nueroi was unscratched.
"Kuso!" Barkhorn grunted. "This Neuroi regenerates faster than anything I've ever seen before!"
"Can you locate the core?" Minna asked from the control room.
"We can't even scratch it!"
Glowering down at the radio, Minna clenched her fists. This was bad - she and Hartmann were able to provide backup; Sanya should be rested enough to provide artillery support as well. That was only three additional witches. Shirley, Lucchini, and Miyafuji had just returned from training, their magic drained. Mio would gladly engage the invader from her biplane, but Minna had no intension to give her fiancee a chance to die gloriously, but vainly, in battle.
"I'm going to request air support from the Belgica Air-force," Minna informed Barkhorn.
"Negative," was the response. "Don't throw away good lives on meaningless gestur... Aw shiest! It's launching drones!"
Gritting her teeth, Minna made the decision.
"Hartmann, to the hanger in five minutes," she ordered. To Barkhorn, she said "Hartmann, Sanya, and I are coming in to reinforce you."
"Yokai!" replied Gertrude. Hartmann was already on the phone to the hanger ordering the ground crew to warm up the striker units.
Minna flicked the PA switch. "Major Sakamoto and Flight Officer Yeager to the control tower in two minutes! Flight Officer Litvyak to your striker! Scramble, scramble, scramble!"
Eila dove low and twisted, firing off a burst from her MG42 at the cluster of drone trailing her. Five bursts of silver dust rained down to the ground below.
"I'm running low on Ammo," she noted.
"Same here," volunteered Perrine.
"That makes all of us," affirmed Barkhorn. They had eliminated the first pack of drones, only to have another sortie exit the main unit. "I hope reinforcements arrive soon." She knew they were on their way, but seconds were more precious than gold.
The Neuroi fired off another volley of beams. Eila wove in between the red-hot lines of death, but the other witches had to throw up their shields, pushed back by the sheer force of energy on impact.
The drones looped around the shields, attempting to catch the witches by surprise. Eila took down two behind Perrine while Gertrude spun and destroyed the ones sneaking up behind her. At the edge of the battlefield, Lynnette was largely ignored.
"I have only one shot left," Lynnette piped in.
Barkhorn frowned. "Save it," she ordered. Lynne's weapon was the only thing that seemed to have any effect on the Nueroi, and even it appeared impotent against the black and red dreadnaught. Barkhorn feverishly calculated a three witch attack...
The Nueroi filled the sky with another volley of beams. Far below, the trees were sliced into even smaller pieces, a road was rendered impassable, and a small village church ceased to exist. The Nueroi had relentlessly pushed them from grid D-12 to B-9; it was almost within striking distance of its target.
"I'm down to my last clip," reported Perrine.
"Me too," chimed in Eila.
Barkhorn felt a gnawing dread in her stomach. They couldn't stop this Nueroi, it was too powerful. They failed. The Nueroi would destroy its target. More people would suffer Chris' fate... She had failed.
Barkhorn felt nauseous as she gave the order: "Witches, withdraw from battle. Orderly retreat to C-10."
Eila closed her eyes in fury. "Iyada!" she bellowed. "Perrine, on my lead."
Face a paroxysm of rage, Eila dove straight down. Without hesitation the Galian witch followed in formation behind her.
"Eila, what the hell are you doing?!" shouted Barkhorn.
Feinting retreat south, the Soumus witch suddenly climbed hard for the Nueroi's underbelly.
"We're two minutes out from your position," Minna's voice crackled over the radio. "Maintain your position until we arrive then retreat from the battle-field."
*Two minutes,* thought Barkhorn bitterly. *We'll be out of ammo by then and the city will be destroyed.*
Sweat beaded on Eila's forehead and upper lip. She wove in and out of the Neuroi beams, climbing to the top of the alien vessel. Perrine followed like an extension of herself. Several times Eila had to break away from the Neuroi only to move back in closer. She fired short bursts into the Nueroi, probing its surface. Relentlessly she dodged beams to get closer.
*What is she trying to do?* Perrine asked herself as they flew closer and closer to the glistening Neuroi. *Are all norther witches crazy?!" As Eila executed a corkscrew to avoid Neuroi beams and get closer at the same time, Perrine suddenly understood Eila's plan. Screwing up her determination even further, she prepared for the last dive.
Eila banked suddenly past red hexagons that sprouted multiple red beam. She doubled back and arrived just inches from the Alien.
Reaching down, she touched the Alien ship's surface with her fingers. It was cool to the touch, hard and smooth like glass - and completely frictionless. The material appeared to be hexagons within hexagons within hexagons. *What the hell is this stuff?!* she asked herself.
She suddenly banked up and away from the Neuroi.
Perrine acted immediate. Planting her palm solidly on the Neuroi, she channeled every last ounce of magic into her signature spell. "Tonneru!" she Shouted as lighting arced through her hand and across the surface of the alien machine.
The surface of the Neuroi exploded in cascade of shimmering silver shards. There, under the sloughing surface was the glowing, spinning, geometric core.
Barkhorn turned and shouted "Lynnette! Fire! Now!"
Lynne Bishop was ahead of her. The anti-tank rifle echoed its signature report. The anti-tank round sped to the enemy ship, given an extra push to the Britania witch.
The Neuroi's regeneration wasn't quick enough. Lynnette's bullet shattered the core. The Neuroi exploded into a shower of silvery shards.
From a distance Minna, Erica, and Sanya saw the Neuroi explode.
"Someone's falling," reported Sanya, her eyes closed to better focus her magical antenna. Indeed, Minna could see a tiny figure falling from under the Neuroi. All three sped towards the battlefield.
Perrine was falling.
The air whipped past her, tugging on her clothers, throwing her hair into disarray. Her body twisted as she fell, her muscles unable to move.
When she discharged her electric blast in the Neuroi, the shockwave of its exploding surface blasted her into the air. Moments later she heard the whine of Lynnette's anti-tank round and the odd glass chime sound of the Neuroi's core shattering.
Already dazed by the explosion, the concussion from the complete destruction of the Neuroi tossed her like a rag-doll into the air. She felt her strikers slipping off her limp body as she tumbled towards the ground. In her crazy spinning kolaedascope vision she saw the city, unscathed. Droplets of blood danced in front of her as fell. She felt numb, but happy. The city was safe. Safe.
She felt two arms wrap about her and a gentle upward motion. She tried to focus her eyes; a silver hair angel was peering into her eyes. Eila had swooped down to catch her, stop her fall. Her arms cradled Perrine under her legs and back, her face was a potrait of conflicting concern and victory.
"You did it!" she said fiercely. "You did it."
Perrine felt her strength rising. She wrapped her arms around Eila's neck, eyes filled with tears of joy.
Lynnette swooped in, grasped the two witches. "Sugoi!" she gushed. "You were marvelous, Perrine." Barkhorn glided in closer to her flight mates, keeping vigilant watch should another bogey appear suddenly.
Reinforcements arrived; Sanya began flying over to Eila before Minna stopped her, saying: "Sanya, is the sky clear?"
"H..hai," Sanya replied. Green magic-antennae appeared as she rotated slowly in the sky. "All clear," she reported.
"You can go," Minna told her simply. Sanya shouldered her Fliegerhammer and flew over to Eila.
As the Karlslanders drifted together, Minna asked "What happened here?"
Gertrude gave a brief report.
"That was reckless," Minna said crossly.
"And it's what she's been training to do," pointed out Erica.
"That's true," replied Minna, thoughtfully.
Hartmann broke away from the group and flew over to the other witches. Barkhorn looked at Minna, concerned. Minna, noticing, smiled and said "We can't let them celebrate alone, can we?"