"General quarters, general quarters, all hands, man battle stations!" As the klaxon began to blare, Hikari jerked upright in bed. Elsewhere in the room, her flightmates were scrambling up, hastily pulling on uniforms. "All hands, man battle stations!"
"W-what's going on?" Hikari's voice shook with anxiety.
Elise gave a short, quiet laugh. "And why would any of us know more than you?"
"Good point..." Hikari followed the others out. Elise took the lead, the eldest's long legs carrying her through the carrier's corridors. Everywhere around them the ship was abuzz with frantic activity, gunners, aviators, damage control, and security personnel hurrying to their stations.
As they entered the hangar deck, Jeanette opened an intercom box. "This is Lieutenant Roy, bridge, what's going on?" Though Elise and Hikari couldn't hear the words spoken to her, they could see Jeanette's bespectacled face grow pale, and heard a muttered but heartfelt "merde!" as she slammed the handset down. "We've got to launch now! Multiple Neuroi are bearing down on us!"
Even as she slipped her legs into her striker, Elise couldn't hide her shock. "What?! How? Isn't the third fleet-"
"We don't know what happened to them," said Jeanette, dropping into her own striker and accepting her gun from a technician. "But Neuroi are here and we have to deal with them."
"Don't we need a plan?" Hikari sprouted the rounded ears and bushy tail of a fox squirrel as she activated her striker unit.
"Right now, the plan is get off this ship before they blow it up," Elise said, without looking at Jeanette. "We worry about the rest later."
Kicking their engines on at low power, the trio taxied to the elevator. The machinery groaned as it raised them to the flight deck, and Hikari couldn't help but wonder if it was an ill omen.
It had been frantic below deck, but out in the open, chaos reigned. Guns thundered, planes frantically launched, and crewman hurriedly dumped ordnance overboard. If the thinly-armored carriers were hit, the explosives would only worsen the situation.
Like shadows of death, four Neuroi approached out of the northern sky. Their diverse, often bizarre arrangements were hard for Hikari to even think of how to describe, especially against the numbing thought we're gonna die. The seventh fleet's already limited firepower had spread wide across the gulf last night, leaving only a dozen or so ships along the northern flank the Neuroi now advanced upon.
"What are you waiting for!?" The roar in their ears was the all too familiar voice of Lieutenant Barkhorn. Turning, the trio saw that Barkhorn was already strapped into her striker and ready to launch. The stern Karlslander came buzzing over. "We're launching immediately." She suited words to action, a glowing circle appearing below her on the ground as her striker unit revved up.
Smoke curled into the sky, a deliberate shroud raised from the smokestacks of the group's destroyers. But it could not obscure the rapid approach of the Neuroi, quickly closing to the comparatively limited range of their weapons. The task unit, a half-dozen small carriers and a similar number of destroyers and destroyer escorts had turned east and accelerated, but the carriers' maximum speed was pitifully slow.
The lead Neuroi opened fire. "MOVE!" screamed Barkhorn. Elise and Jeanette throttled up and barreled down the flight deck, but Hikari stood transfixed in fear by the beam. Darting over, Barkhorn grabbed her by the hand and kicked her own striker unit up to full speed. A red lance carved through the aft of the carrier, slicing off the rear-facing 5-inch gun, several dozen square feet of hull, and one of the ship's propellers.
Hikari's own striker accelerated, the girl still being pulled along by Barkhorn. The Neuroi fired again, slashing across the carrier in the diagonal. Ordnance and fuel exploded, rupturing the flight deck, punching out through the hull, pulverizing fighters and vaporizing crewman. Hikari and Lieutenant Barkhorn launched clear of the carrier's bow, and seconds later the ship was hit again. The remaining combustibles aboard exploded, the ship breaking up as it quickly sank.
Hikari's chest felt as if squeezed by a furious giant, her breaths coming with a great effort as she looked back upon the shattered Gambier Bay, utterly aghast.
Elise primed her machine gun and glanced down at the remaining twelve ships in the task group. "What the hell is the Johnston doing?" she wondered, seeing one of the destroyers make a hard left turn out of formation. It steamed straight toward the Neuroi, its five-inch guns spitting shells as fast as the crews could load them.
"The only thing any of us can do," Jeanette's tone was again the cold intensity with which she had spoken about saving other lands from the Neuroi's destructive touch. "Stand and fight. The ships can't outrun the Neuroi, and with the third fleet MIA..."
"We're the only thing between the Neuroi and the transports, the beachhead," Barkhorn said, gritting her teeth. Only now did the lieutenant relinquish Hikari's hand. "You okay?" she looked seriously over at Hikari, but then her features softened ever so slightly with what might even call a smile.
Her mouth so dry she thought she'd be unable to speak, Hikari nodded. "Good," Barkhorn continued. "We have draw their fire! Hikari, you're on my wing. Roy, Keyes, go, go, go!" Planes buzzed through the sky, naval aviators clawing their way skyward to engage the Neuroi threatening their brothers.
Barkhorn and Hikari entered impromptu formation with a group of Wildcat fighters circling skyward. They banked toward one of the lead Neuroi, which was even now setting its sights on the next carrier.
Motes of red light gathered near the Neuroi's prow, but a burst of machine gun fire and the impact of several wing-mounted rockets from the wildcats smashed into the firing point. The Neuroi's hull shattered into glasslike shards and the light faded, but the Neuroi was already preparing to fire again.
Barkhorn's twin machine guns roared to life, sounding more like buzzsaws than anything. Joining her projectiles hitting the Neuroi were the shots from Hikari's rifle, an M1E7, a variant of a standard battle rifle, meant for sniping.
Still working to regenerate from the first hole, the Neuroi was forced to shy away as more lead pulverized its hull. Red beams flashed from its sides, cutting through a wing of planes attempting to attack it from above. More beams slashed at the two witches, but Barkhorn quickly moved in front of Hikari and raised her shield, protecting them both. "Can you sense where its core is?"
"N-negative!" Hikari could sense that the Neuroi had a core and wasn't just a shell, but her sensory powers weren't optimized for this kind of work.
Slicing through another group of fighters, the Neuroi veered back toward the ships below. Smoke from the screening destroyers largely obscured the group, but the Neuroi could still fire half-blind and hope to hit something.
From two positions amidships, smoke and fire flared from the hull of the lone destroyer charging the Neuroi formation. At first, Hikari thought it must have been hit, but then she realized they were exhaust plumes from missile launches. The wire-guided projectiles arced skyward, blossoming brilliant orange on impact. Neuroi fragments sprayed everywhere as the alien flier's hull was pounded, and it gave a warbling wail of pain.
"There!" Barkhorn called, triggering her radio as well. Through the smoke, she could see the gleaming red core within the battered black hull. She opened fire, as did Hikari and Jeanette, while Elise covered the blonde from another Neuroi's beam. More of the Neuroi's shell was chipped away by the gunfire, and Barkhorn adjusted her aim, watching her rounds track closer and closer to the core.
Suddenly Hikari caught a glint of red out of the corner of her eye. Wordlessly, she ceased fire and barrel-rolled over Barkhorn. Her shield went up just in time, blocking the beams of a third Neuroi from frying both of them.
Barkhorn smiled, but it was one showing much teeth. "This isn't going to be easy," from her tone, it was hard to say how bothered by that fact she really was. "Sparrows," she said over the radio. "We have to stay mobile. Keep pressure up on the Neuroi, don't let them have so much as a second to focus on shooting the carriers."
The formation continued to steam eastward, the Neuroi gaining on them rapidly. The two destroyers still in formation turned about, veering away from their charges. The vessels were comparatively tiny to the Neuroi, but they were the biggest guns available, and their limited supply of Javelin wire-guided missiles were also potent.
In the confusion, the lead Neuroi's hull was quickly healing. A formation of Avenger bombers approached, releasing their single wire-guided missiles as they dove. Crimson lances played through the formation, detonating most of the planes and their recently-launched payloads. Of the few missiles that made it through, some missed, but the rest detonated against the hull and destroyed one of the weapon points.
Unfortunately, as ever the damage was not permanent. Within seconds, the weapon point was functional again. It built up a charge before sweeping a beam across the sky. The surviving avengers from that group lit like candles, burned out, and went dark, scattering debris toward the ocean below.
Swarmed by fighters, harassed by witches, and pounded by the destroyers, the Neuroi advance on the carriers was briefly stalled. But the quartet returned fire mercilessly, slicing through fighter formations, forcing witches to shield, and striking one of the destroyers amidships.
Smoke and fire erupted from the breach, and though the destroyer slowed, it did not disengage. Barkhorn banked sharply toward the Neuroi that had fired on the destroyer, Hikari following close on her wing. Bullets pounded across the invader's shell, fragging several weapon hardpoints and briefly exposing the core.
Seeing an opportunity, Hikari sighted on the core and fired, but narrowly missed it. A whine was heard as the Neuroi charged up to return fire, and the two witches briefly split, Hikari going high and Barkhorn breaking low. The beam sliced harmlessly between them, and with a mirrored corkscrew maneuver the witches reunited.
Barkhorn ejected the spent magazines from her machine guns. A deep frown creased her face as she slammed the new magazines home, knowing her limited ammunition supply wouldn't last long in this kind of fight. The same was true of her flightmates. "I'm going in close on the next pass," Barkhorn said, putting the safety on one of her machine guns. It would limit her firepower, but she'd be able to stay in the fight longer.
"Hai!" Hikari knew of the incredible strength Barkhorn's magic gave her. It went without saying Hikari would have to be ready to shield when they got that close. Perhaps if they were lucky, the other Neuroi would be unwilling to fire into their own midst.
Even as the third fleet continued to pound the two remaining Neuroi engaged to it, dismay and confusion rippled through the fleet at the news of the attack upon the seventh fleet. "Admiral!" barked Kyra, zipping sideways before gunning down several drones that had been closing on her. "We need to do something! The beachhead doesn't have a chance against a concentrated Neuroi attack with only the seventh fleet to guard it."
A voice that wasn't the third fleet's admiral came back over the radio. She thought it might be the flagship's captain. "Squadron Leader Evans, we can't turn our backs on the Neuroi engaging us now."
Kyra gave a growl that would have backed off her own familiar. "Shut your hole," she snarled. "And put the Admiral on, or so help me my next kill won't be a Neuroi!"
The officer hesitated. "Ah, the admiral is -" The radio was briefly broken up by a fuzz of static.
"Do you have something in mind, Evans?" Good, right person this time. "This is a pickle. If you witches winged south on your own, you'd be too exhausted to help by the time you arrived, and even our fastest ships couldn't carry you there in time."
"Taichou?" A slightly hesitant new voice crackled in over the frequency, one Kyra recognized as Megumi. "Rebecca has an idea!"
"What have you got, Kauffman?" asked the admiral.
Spinning, Kyra could see Rebecca joined with a formation of fighter aircraft, the blue-haired Karlslander blasting away at the leading edge of a Neuroi with her cannon. Even as she watched, the shell split open, and explosive shells shattered the core. With a keening wail, the Neuroi began breaking down into glimmering shards.
"The fleet has a number of V-2 rockets, does it not?" Rebecca said at last, breaking away and doing a celebratory barrel roll. She exchanged a high five with Luchini, the Romagnan doing a midair song and dance routine of jubilation.
"Yes, four of them, carried aboard one of our cruisers," said the admiral. "They have the range, but we have no way to target them. They can only follow a preset course, and besides, their warheads aren't powerful enough."
"I know," Rebecca suppressed a smile. "I'm not talking about shooting warheads at the Neuroi." Her voice quivered with excitement, and Kyra got a suspicion of where she was going. "We witches can use them to take us south."
The admiral was silent in apparent shock for several moments. "Using ballistic missiles as troop transports? That's insane."
"With Lieutenant Yeager's help, I can do the modifications inside half an hour. We just have to replace the warhead with a bracket system to attach to the witch's striker, and set their courses."
"Do it," Kyra said at once. "I'll take half the squadron southward. The rest will stay here to mop up the Neuroi and guard the third fleet against any more surprises. With your approval, admiral."
"Affirmative," the admiral said at once. "Kauffman, Yeager, return. Get to work. Whatever you need, you'll have it."
"Roger!" The two witches quickly broke away, their wingmen forming up with each other.
Kyra's earpiece chimed with a private communication. "Taichou?" It was Megumi again. "I wanna save them as badly as you do, but... no matter how soon we get there, it's going to be way too late..."
"Maybe we can't save them," Kyra said, her right hand curling into a fist. Those other witches were her responsibility, and that whole fleet was in danger because the third fleet had fallen for what was by now obviously a decoy. "But you can be damn sure we'll avenge them."
Elise fired the last of her under-wing rockets, blasting apart a Neuroi weapon point that had been about to fire on one of the wounded destroyers. The red-haired witch threw up a shield as another hardpoint fired on her, and she grinned as Jeanette fired on that one, likewise shattering it.
Despite the best efforts of the diverse aviators and the destroyers, another carrier had been hit. Fire poured from a gash in the deck, and the ship's already dismal flank speed was dropping. One of the destroyer escorts – hull number 413 – dropped speed and turned hard. Though half the tonnage and weaponry of a destroyer, it threw itself between the lead Neuroi and the battered carrier. Its three Javelins screamed skyward. Two were intercepted, but the third hit hard enough to blow the Neuroi off course. Its guns, 5-inch, 40mm, and 20mm all opened up, chipping away further at the Neuroi's shell.
One of the destroyers meanwhile was in dire straights. Already hit multiple times earlier in the battle, it was limping along in a slow turn when it was bracketed by two Neuroi. The destroyer's remaining guns thundered in valiant defiance, but the Neuroi were merciless. Their red beams slashed repeatedly at the ship, burning through its thin armor, slicing through weapons, and killing crew by the dozens. Fires blazed throughout the ship, too numerous to suppress, and those that could abandoned ship. Moments later the fires began to die out, only because the wrecked destroyer slipped beneath the waves.
"Damn it!" Barkhorn's curse lit up the radio, and she slammed her machine gun into the side of a Neuroi. Speeding up, she cleaved through one of the creature's smaller wings, and watched with grim satisfaction as it broke away. Hikari fired into the open breach, ripping open large holes in the Neuroi's shell, but the core remained elusive.
As Hikari slotted another clip into her rifle, she tried not to let the hopelessness of the situation eat at her. In the confusion of war, no one knew where the third fleet was. They'd just lost a destroyer, and most of the other ships had sustained at least some damage. Many of the planes supporting them had gone down. She just didn't see how any of them could survive this.
"Lieutenant Barkhorn!" Hikari called, feeling a looming presence. "We have incoming!"
"More Neuroi?"
"No, they're fighters! Wildcats and Avengers!"
Fresh formations of fighters dove into the fray, attacking with the sun at their backs. Machine guns chattered and rockets rippled through the air. Hikari's earpiece crackled, and she recognized the voice of the task unit's admiral. "We still haven't been able to raise the third fleet, but the other picket task units in the seventh have scrambled planes."
Some of the numb despair started to drain away from Hikari's belly. They had to keep fighting. Witches were the point of the spear against the Neuroi and the bulwark around humanity. Hikari rolled away from one Neuroi's shot, then shielded as another fired upon her. Her breaths were coming pants now, but adrenaline and magic were still managing to sustain her.
"Join up!" Barkhorn called to Jeanette and Elise. "That one Neuroi's core is on the back right corner. Let's take it out together. Two by two!" Barkhorn and Hikari took the lead on the attack run while Jeanette and Elise followed a short distance behind.
A flight of wildcats formed up alongside the witches, adding their firepower as the targeted assault on this Neuroi began. Ruby lances slashed through the air, but the witches skillfully slid through them. Even some of the regular fighters managed to duplicate that feat, but just as many were blown from the sky.
A steady diet of lead and rockets ripped open the Neuroi's hull, and Hikari was sure she got a few hits in on the Neuroi's exposed core. Though her bullets did not slay the invader, the follow-up barrage from Elise and Jeanette succeeded in shattering it. The Neuroi dropped toward the sea, but disintegrated before it ever got there.
The dull roar of many cheering and whooping voices reached the witches. Down below, the crews of the vessels that had witnessed the Neuroi fall through the swirling smoke reacted as though their team had just scored a home run.
Hikari heard it first, the piercing whine of a Neuroi charging its weapons. She looked to the side to see red light slash through the air, but it hadn't been directed at her. Horror dawned on Elise's face a second before the javelin of light slammed her from behind. Red light washed over the lieutenant's form, and when it cleared, she was gone.
"Elise!" cried Hikari, but as the Neuroi fired again she hastily raised her shield. A growl came low in her throat, rage mixing with grief. It was the first time she had seen a witch die in combat, and in that moment she vowed it would be the last.
Barkhorn bit back a curse as she likewise was forced to shield, and in an anger she pushed back against the oncoming beam. After a moment it dispersed, but she saw no sign of the flight lieutenant. "Roy, form up with us," said Barkhorn.
"Oui!" Jeanette with her heavy striker pulled into a climbing turn, and she slotted a new ammo box to the side of her gun as she joined formation. "This is my last reload." Her tone was slightly mournful.
"We're all low," said Barkhorn. "And unlike the fighters, we can't afford to break off and find a carrier in a different group to reload from." She feared that if they did, there would be no task unit to return to. "Stick together," she ordered Jeanette and Hikari. "I'm going in up close. I can do a lot of damage that way," a grin slashed across her face.
Jeanette nodded smartly. "We'll cover you as best we can."
The six witches still airborne from the Tigersharks dove toward the last remaining Neuroi. Lucchini, Hartmann, and Sendai spiraled around the outside of the formation, plowing the road. Drone after drone projected by the remaining Neuroi was blasted to powder.
The final Neuroi had an odd structure, a flat central disc formed its main body while two rotating assemblies protruded from its upper and lower surfaces. Each assembly was composed of four slowly revolving blades, spinning opposite each other. Each blade was tipped in a weapon hardpoint, while the drones poured from a bay in the Neuroi's center. Katie had pinpointed the core as being in the Neuroi's very center, and along with Kyra and Megumi dove toward it.
The Neuroi fired, and the core trio of witches scattered and dove. Megumi passed deliberately in front of the Neuroi as she went, the air rippling with her passage. The Neuroi failed to notice the odd heat mirage before it, and plowed right into the product of Megumi's magic. The air had been left chaotic in the witch's wake, enough to shake smaller aircraft to pieces and knock witches from the sky. A larger object like a Neuroi shook erratically, its aim thrown off and its speed dropping.
"Now!" barked Kyra, opening up on the Neuroi's center. Katie's own 20mm cannon punched holes in the Neuroi's shell, and Kyra spotted the core. With a burst of speed, the squadron leader rolled away from a Neuroi beam and then aimed at the core. She squeezed the trigger, and was rewarded with the sight of the core shattering under a sustained burst.
"Ha ha!" Megumi cheered and did a little victory dance with Luchini, the junior members of the unit jubilant in their victory.
"Admiral," Kyra said crisply into her radio. "This is Squadron Leader Evans. Looks like we're clear up here."
"Roger that," said the admiral. "The radar is clear, nothing up there but you witches and our flyboys." He was silent a moment. "Squadron leader, Kauffman and Yeager report that the V-2 modifications are complete. They're ready to launch."
Kyra paused, debating which of her witches would be best for this operation. With their opponents destroyed, the witches formed up, hovering together.
"Kyra!" Erica said at once. "I'm going!"
The squadron leader frowned at the Karlslander ace, surprised by the eagerness she displayed. "Right. Clark, Santamaria, you're coming with us too." At that, Megumi pouted. The unit often joked she had a thing for Kyra, though Kyra had never seen any evidence of it herself. "Kauffman will have command here. Hopefully it'll be uneventful."
The witches returned to the fleet, which had been steaming north to meet them. Rebecca stood on the cruiser's deck, one of its rear turrets replaced by the V-2 launch platform. Carefully the four witches were guided down into their rides. The missiles' tips had been replaced by metal cones with brackets that would secure the witches' striker units in place for the journey.
"Remember," Rebecca was saying as the last, Santamaria, was secured. "It'll be a wild ride. That high up you'll need your magic to breathe and protect you from the cold. You'll arrive approximately ten minutes from launch. Don't try and maneuver, and wait for it to decelerate before disengaging from it, you'll be going about three times the speed of sound at peak."
"Hard to believe we can get there that fast, huh?" Pascuala shook her head and double-checked to make sure her weapon was secure. "Ready."
"Ready," echoed Katie.
"Me too!" said Erica, her carefree expression becoming a mask of utter focus.
"Go." At Kyra's word, her rocket's engine ignited. Flaming exhaust sprayed from special vents on the ship that directed the heat and pressure safely to the vessel's flanks, and the witch shot skyward. One by one the others roared after her, arcing high into the Pacific sky.
Barkhorn screamed down toward one of the Neuroi menacing the seventh fleet. This one had a slender hull and no wings, slicing easily through the air and kept aloft by whatever mysterious power the Neuroi possessed. There was a slight pinch in the upper and lower hulls along the center line, giving it a vague figure-eight appearance. A small bump sat along the left hand side of the Neuroi's dorsal surface.
The Karlsland ace weaved through sheets of incoming fire, always a step ahead of the Neuroi. If Neuroi could feel frustration, there was no doubt that this one had to be.
Tracers lashed the Neuroi's side, coming from a flight of wildcats. The Neuroi ignored them and kept firing at Barkhorn, seeming to realize she was a greater threat even as its flank was perforated. Closing now, Barkhorn sighted on the nearest weapon hardpoint and fired, shattering it. Another beam built up its charge, but the Karlsander snapped off another burst and that one too turned to dust.
Pulling up, Barkhorn then skimmed the Neuroi's hull. She drew her second machine gun again, and swung both weapons with reckless abandon. The boon of magic hardened her to the strongest steel, and with her amplified strength she left a stretch of cracked and holed hull behind her. Inverting and pulling up, Barkhorn had the perfect shot at the stretch of weakened hull. Bullets tore into the Neuroi's battered shell, opening up a wide swathe down its back.
A piercing whine emanated from all around her, and Barkhorn saw several weapon hardpoints all around her charging up. She pushed her striker into a dive, and flew right into the still-healing chasm in the Neuroi's back. The weapons flashed harmlessly over its dorsal surface.
Now inside the Neuroi, Barkhorn had a clear shot at the invader's core. A meat-eating grin split Barkhorn's face and she squeezed her triggers. Dazzling light erupted around her as the Neuroi, its core shattered, disintegrated into dazzling snow.