Chapter 3: The ill-fated fleet.
Somewhere in the Atlantic, 0800.
A fleet, consisting of three Gallian battleships, three light cruisers and five destroyers were heading towards Liberion's port Baltimore, with the hope of catching up with the rest of their allies' remnants. They were once under command of a puppet state Gallian government established by the Neurois, but they disobeyed orders and decided to side with free Gallia instead. Little did they know that their allies were also turning their back on them.
"Over there sir, over there! Those ships!" A naval ensign on the flagship warned his captain of the oncoming fleet.
"Relax, those are the Britannian ships coming to escort us back to Liberion. Prepare to hail them as they come near.
The naval ensign saluted as he complied. But as he looked at them, something is definitely strange.
"Mio." Minna addressed her squadmate.
"Yes. Please forgive us this time. Prepare for combat!" Mio prayed for forgiveness, as the 501st started their Strikers. After a few seconds, all of the 501st, except for Lynette, who was allowed to stay back at base because of the emotional trauma, were already in the air. At the same times, 5 battleships and 6 cruisers started turning their main guns towards the Gallian Fleet.
"What has this world become? We haven't finished fighting the Neuroi and yet we are fighting our own ally." Charlotte shook her head as she accelerated to her companion.
"Top brass…They only care about their own well-beings" Trude's hands clenched tightly onto her dual MG34, spoke with anger.
"Don't say that. Not all of the top brass are like that. They must have a reason when they decided on something this trivial." Minna corrected her speech.
"But I have a very bad feeling about this mission." It was the Suomus witch, Eila, who spoke out, one of her hands holding a tarot card.
"The moment our ships opened fire, we will immediately come in." Said Minna.
A couple of minutes later, the carnage begins.
The ships of the Royal Navy roared their guns simultaneously, exploding out into a fiery inferno, as shells pounded onto the Gallian Fleet's position, followed by Karlsland's ship, then Liberion's ships
One destroyer was immediately set on fire. A cruiser's rudder was destroyed, and couldn't navigate itself.
"What the hell are they doing?! Why are they attacking us?!"
"Friendly fire! Signal them!"
But to no avail.
The attacks were still as relentless and merciless as ever.
"They're not responding to us!"
"They leave us no choice! Return fire!" The captain shouted.
That was his last words, for he was shot dead, along with a few officers, by a barrage of machine gun fire that pierced through the windows of the ship.
"What the hell is going on?!"
"Sanya-san, please target the front turret of that destroyer. It is where their ammunition bay is located." Perrine called out as she pointed. It was her homeland's ship design, so she knew perfectly clear the layouts of it.
"Hmm." Sanya nodded as she carefully aimed, firing four rockets from her Fliegerfaust, all hitting the same spot.
The destroyer, with its ammo rack critically damaged, blew up instantly, sending hundreds of its crewmen into the sea.
Another few hundred deaths, for nothing
The Gallian witch was hard-pressed not to wince at the sight, her eyes shutting tightly. That is to be expected anyway. Seeing her fellow countrymen perish is like a part of her dying. And now seeing her ally and friends killing them, what could possibly more painful than that.
The Gallian fleet's retaliated, with the firepower matching the strength of its peers. A few Britannian ships were struck by the shells from the Gallian fleet, but did not cause enough damage to cause a null in the fighting. Anti-air shells started flying at the witches, but their shields were too strong to break through.
Soon, one by one, the Gallian ships, being overwhelmed with numbers, firepower and air supremacy, was slowly disabled by the combined fleet's vessels. One battleship was sunken while the other two were crippled. The destroyers suffered a more terrible fate. 3 were completely destroyed, the rest were disabled, damaged, and was unable to carry out the fight. The number of deaths couldn't be summarized in exact numbers, but if they could, no one would want to know.
But the carnage didn't end there.
The battle has only just begun.
A few kilometers North East of the battle.
"Sir, that cloud of dust." The Neuroi battlecruiser reported to his superior, Alexander, who was standing on top of a large zeppelin-like Neuroi.
He 'zoomed' his vision in the place he was indicating. Gunfire were seen from both side's vessels.
"Are they fighting each other? That's the lowest stoop that I have ever seen. Well, that's good for us actually."
Alexander immediately 'waved' his hand, as a form of signal. The fleet immediately formed into a formation that resembled the letter 'T', with two battlecruisers at the front, and a zeppelin at the back.
"Ready the cannons."
Sanya gasped all of a sudden.
"I've detected a group of something extremely large heading towards us from the North East" She said.
"What?!" Mio responded, shocked, as she lifted her eyepatch, staring in the distances.
Her face paled instantly.
"NEUROI!"
"What the?!"
"What?!"
"That can't be!"
But it's the truth. A heavy fleet of airborne Neurois slowly materialized behind the dispersing morning fog, and are closing in their distance with them. Or rather, closing the door of their hope of living.
"Witches of the 501st, into formation!" Minna delivered a hasty order to the witches.
"All ships, move out!" The captain of the combined fleet's flagship shouted out, as they all turned in his indicated direction.
"Full starboard salvo. Fire!"
The guns roared out again, this time at a much higher angle. The shells slammed onto the hull of the battlecruisers, cratering the ship. But after a few seconds, the hull instantly repaired itself, rendering those attacks useless.
"Return fire!" The battlecruiser that just got shot immediately retaliated.
"Hold on. Hold your fire." But it was stopped by Alexander, with a mild and delicate voice.
"What? Why?" It was confused and irritated.
"Do not spam your beams immediately. The witches are able to block our lasers. Concentrate those energies towards charging our main cannons. They'll never see it coming." The Neuroi commander detailed, with conciseness.
"Yes sir."
The combined fleet has already finished their first salvo, and is now firing at their will. But they were just scraping paints.
"Charges complete sir, ready to fire." The first battlecruiser reported, as one huge barrel appeared below their hull.
"Ready to blow them to bits sir." The second one followed suit.
"Main guns, 20 degrees depression. Pick your own target, fire at my command." He ordered back, calmly, as the cruisers signaled complying messages.
The witches were confused why they weren't firing, but decided to wait for them to come, in order not to leave their own fleet, a target to protect, isolated.
The Suomus witch soon knew the reason.
"Miyafuji! Abunai! (Watch out!)" She cried out as her eyes widened in terror
"Fire…"
The next thing Yoshika registered, was her dodging to the left instinctively, and a huge laser beam zooming towards her at breakneck speed. She managed to raise her shield, blocking it, for a second. It only served as her split moment to escape the scythe of death. The shield soon cracked, but luckily, she managed to get out of the line of fire.
The beam rammed onto a Karlsland's heavy cruiser, blowing it up to bits.
"Arrghhh!" She groaned in pain as she clenched her arm tightly. It seemed that the beam didn't miss her completely.
"Miyafuji!"
Stunned, shocked and terrified, they were unable to stop the second beam. Thankfully, the battlecruiser decided not to attack the witches. But instead, a lone, unprotected battleship was its target.
The beam cut through the ship's main body like scissors cutting through papers. The huge battleship was reduced to rubble in a gigantic explosion. From the place the beam penetrated, an enormous mushroom cloud appeared, seeable from several hundred miles away.
"There's no way we'll win against those monsters!" A shocked naval cadet shouted in despair.
"Do not falter!" Their captains tried to give a boost to their morale, but to no avail.
"Full port side! Fire!" The flagship's captain, also the commander of the combined fleet, shouted, as machine guns and cannons spoke countless of bangs and booms. The shells, again, hit their targets, but didn't do much damage whatsoever.
"Fire as she bears!" Yet another barrages, but no results.
Without the agility and flexibility of the witches, the ships couldn't do anything.
"They are already discouraged from our firepower." Alexander noted, with much confidence. "Ready the pincer formation."
"Right! 15 degrees!" The battlecruiser to the right side reported.
"Left! 15 degrees!" The other said the opposite.
"Ready the hangar bays!" The two vessels 'shouted' in unison.
Almost simultaneously, the two battlecruisers at the front spread out, opening a clear line of fire for the zeppelin, which was following closely behind the two cruisers. Its heavily armored shell slowly opened, rolling up onto the top, revealing over 300 haunebu-type and dart-type Neurois within it. The hulls of the battlecruisers also opened, its underling Neurois on perfect standby for battle.
"Orders sir?!" The vice-captain yelled to his captain, as he saw his entire fleet are on the course of being caught between the blades of a guillotine.
"S-Send in the witches." He stuttered, as he knew at that moment, he had fucked up hard.
"But they are flying too closely together! Sending the witches in would be suicide!" The vice-captain protested.
"Just do it!" But it was met with a fiery but desperate retaliation.
The vice-captain stared in disbelief as he witnessed the first time his captain getting angry. Reluctantly, he gave the order.
"Witches of the 501st JFW, you are free to engage the enemy."
"Finally! Yes!" Gertrude shouted with slight relief as she dashed away
"Barkhorn! Don't get reckless!" Mio immediately followed, which is followed by another, then another, until there is a squadron of witches charging at the tight Neuroi formation, ready to drop terrors on the fleet behind them.
Gertrude was the first to reach the Neuroi formation, above just a few meters. She witnessed a tiny, human-like silhouette, standing straightly on top of the Neuroi zeppelin, its arms extended in command of something.
For a split second, their eyes met. His blood-red eyes glared at her, as cold and as piercing as a thousand needles, as if he knew all along that she was coming, and his death note is ready to write her name in it
She could feel her body temperature plummet, as a hellish smile crossed his face.
"Incoming enemy air units! 12 o' clock! Witch type!"
"Rapid blasters. Fire." Alexander called, as dozens of red hexagons mounted on top of the cruisers and zeppelins opened fire at the same time. Multiple red beams vomited from those hexagons were sent flying at the Karlslander.
Gertrude holstered one of her guns, then hastily put up a shield, blocking the oncoming lasers.
While she was distracting the Neuroi's firing, the rest of the witches barged in, opening fire their own personal weapons, swarming around the Neuroi fleet.
They waited for this exact moment.
"Fighters, release all your firepower. The dogfight shall begin."
It was the beginning of a nightmare for the combatants.
Only a few minutes later that the eyes of the witches opened as wide as their mouth, which is barely restrained from dropping at the scene in front of them. Nearly 1000 Neurois were painting the bright blue sky black, as beams flew vertically, horizontally and diagonally everywhere. And the witches were caught in the middle. It is a fish in a barrel, and the Neurois are the shooters with machine guns.
"Huurrgghh!" Charlotte gave a cry, as she opened her shield, blocking 3 incoming beams. Just a few hundred beams to go.
"There are so many. I couldn't concentrate on anything!" Her partner, Lucchini, had a huge problem trying to concentrate her special power.
"Evasive maneuver. Try to regroup outside their firing range. Most of their firepower originate from those two ultra-heavy battlecruisers, so as long as we can leave their scope, we can organize a counter attack." Minna calmly commanded.
The witches instantly soared, their altitude increasing at an amazing rate. They were followed by a torrent of Neuroi drones, but was shot down before they could open fire. And soon enough, Alexander called off the pursue.
"They'll come to us eventually. Divert your energies to the upper guns. Drones, crush those puny ships."
The drones immediately changed their courses.
"They are attacking the fleet instead?!"
"Barkhorn, tell the captain to disengage immediately! We cannot take three ultra-heavy types at the same time." Minna ordered. "Mio, look for the core of these three ships. We have to, at least, take one of them out right here."
"Roger." Mio lifted her eyepatch and gazed down upon the Neuroi pack. Her fovea appeared three red polyhedrons, two in the middle of the two battlecruisers, and the other one…inside a young man standing on top of the blimp.
"What?!" She exclaimed loudly.
"What is it, Mio?"
"I've found the three cores, but the core of the zeppelin is not within it. There is someone standing on it, and that core is inside him."
"Inside?" Minna activated her ability as well. "It really is inside of him. But who the hell is he?"
"It must be the human that we are talking about…wait…but he has a core inside of him. That makes him a Neuroi. But there is no Neuroi that can take the full shape of a human body…God! It's so confusing!"
"This isn't the time to consider that. The core is inside him. That means if we take him out, we'll destroy their entire zeppelin."
"Witches! Your target is the human-like creature on top of the zeppelin. It might be their commander. Take him out, and their advances will halt!"
"Hai!" The witches yelled in complete unison, as they began the magnificent dive towards their target.
Death from above, like an eagle aiming for its preys, they opened fire, guns blazing into the ship's hull, tearing off their exterior like a knife scraping a fish's scale.
Looks like I'm compromised.
"Prepare the anti-air cannons. Cruiser 1, fire at my command, at once. Cruiser 2, wait 3 seconds and then fire, in short burst." Alexander commanded.
"Roger."
"Roger!"
Let's see how well you respond, witches.
"Hmph!" As the first barrages of beams flew towards them, Yoshika quickly deployed a gigantic shield that neutralized all the oncoming lasers, allowing her teammates to pass through.
Then comes the second wave.
It all came down to the witch's agility. It was fairly easy for Eila, since she was able to see the future, but for the others, because of the un-Neuroi-like firing pattern, it was like writing with your left hand while you are right-handed. Alexander's unorthodox firing pattern kept the witches guessing and it was extremely difficult to know what was coming until the Neurois had already taken the shot. All because of their endless unresourceful encounters with the same Neurois and the same battle tactics all over and over again, making these girls less adaptable to sudden changes. It proved to be fatal in these kind of situation, when facing against smart opponents like Alexander.
But still, they were able to fire down on the zeppelins, which was more or less, accurate enough to hit the young Neuroi down there. However, more is needed to kill him.
Eila, with her superior evasive skills, was the first to encounter the zeppelins, or rather Alexander. The first thing she did was unloading her entire clip onto his position.
Not bad.
The bullets were intriguing and quite painful, but because they were spread out, so his regenerative ability patched it up quickly.
Alexander's palm heated up in an instant as a response. Three beams were fired, straight to her. His expectations were betrayed as she dodged it with ease, even though they were behind her.
The moment he turned his back around was the moment he was bombarded with dozens of shells from the eye-patched Fusan, exposing his core through his thick coat.
"Mio! Finish him off!"
Mio immediately discarded her gun, and unsheathed her sword.
Raising it to above her head, she gave a long and deafening roar, as the sword glowed, brightly, blue-lighted, with intense energy that could blast any small Neuroi in its way.
"REPPUZAN!"
That intense energy, is coming down at the Neuroi at lightning speed, now only a few hundred meters from his exposed core, ready to bisect him into pieces.
Under one hundred.
Then fifty.
Ten meters.
But…
Fun time is over.
…it didn't kill him, as it didn't even hit him
By a split second, from his crouched position, he jumped to his right. The arc slashed on where he had been just half a second ago. The intense magic on the sword left a massive ploughing mark on the airship's shell that extended from the middle of it towards the upper flaperron, sending white Neuroi particles everywhere.
The following second, he was already standing, his right foot stomped onto Mio's blade. His back, his coat and his zeppelin gradually rematerialized, returning to their normal state.
The next thing the Major registered, was an painful earth-splitting axe kick from the human-like Neuroi to her nape.
"Shosan! (Major!)" Perrine screamed out in horrors as she watched her Major being neutralized, helplessly.
"Argghh!" She groaned in pain, coughing repeatedly, as she noticed her sword being taken by Alexander, who held it with his two hands. With interested eyes, he looked down on the Fusan witch, patiently waited for her to regain her senses before speaking, in a human voice.
"What is that technique that you just used? It looks interesting."
"Wha…W-" She spoke, panting heavily. "What the hell are you? How are you able to possess both a Neuroi core and a human body?"
"Me? It is…a long story. It's not explanatory in this kind of situation, when your friends could rush in for the rescue at any moment." He replied, calmly looking at the swarming witches. "For now, imagine and speculate all you could think of. The answer lies somewhere within it."
She was truly shocked, at how the man was able to converse so fluently with her.
Being able to talk human languages, he must be human.
But she saw it for her own eyes, the others saw it as well, the unmistakable red polyhedron Neuroi core inside his back. And the signature red hexagon patterns, and regenerative ability.
He can't be human.
Then he must be a Neuroi.
But there is no Neuroi that can play the role of a human being.
But it can't be.
But…
What the hell is going on?!
She asked herself.
Who is this man standing in front of her?
"You'll never hurt the Major! Tonnerre!"
Suddenly, a wave of electrical surge went through the entire ship, taking Alexander by surprise, sending a shock through his entire body. For the Major, she thankfully wasn't affected, due to her magic.
He was shocked for a few seconds, crouched again, immobilized, but soon stood up, unharmed.
Despite under fire from the Gallian's Bren light machine gun, Alexander looked up at her, as calm as a cucumber.
Then to the Major, his hand changing the grip on her sword.
His eyes said it all.
"Let me deduce. Your sword technique relies on focusing your magic at the point of the blade, to perform a powerful slash. So in our way of doing it, it kind of works like…this."
He held the blade with one hand, the handle forty-five degrees pointing upwards, the blade placed against his waist, firmly.
With only sheer determination, his inner energies began to flow.
The blade radiated with intense heat.
His hand trembled under pressure
It's overflowing.
The blade.
It's stark and overwhelming.
Its power calls
At one point, the sword burst into a red flame, burning fiercely and gracefully on the silver blade.
"That is!"
"Mio's Reppuzan?!"
The witches of the 501st could only look in shock and horrors as the legendary and trademark sword technique of the Fusan being recreated in front of their eyes, by a mysterious talking creature, who saw it only once in his entire life.
Just who the hell is this guy?
"Rep-pu-zan."
Following the cold voice, was a merciless swing, sending the titanic amount of energy saved up in his sword into a huge red arc, flying dangerously quickly at the witches; particularly Perrine.
"What is this?!"
She doesn't even have enough time to raise her shield.
Perrine H. Clostermann, one of the veteran witches who had survived countless battle, is on the verge of perishing, by an allied technique being copy-catted by some nobody.
She closed her eyes tightly, unable to resist the attack, accepting her imminent doom.
But fortunately, fate has spared her this time.
"Kyahhhh!" Another heroic shielding from Yoshika, who is still wounded from the earlier battles. Her gigantic and powerful shield, once again, cracked under the powerful gale slash. The intense pressure sent Yoshika crashing onto the stunned Perrine behind her. Miraculously, they were both unharmed.
"Miyafuji-san?! Are you alright?!" Contrary to her usual jealous behavior towards Yoshika, Perrine was seriously concerned about her squadmate.
"I'm fine, I'm just…a little tired." She could only mutter, as the vitality in her eyes soon faded, as she collapsed in Perrine's arms.
One less witches to be dealt with.
"Yoshika-chan! You'll not hurt her!" Even the usually reserved Sanya had to utter a toughened voice. She flew to a position 50 meters from Alexander, and launched her rockets.
The four rockets blew up when they made contact with the zeppelin's shell, one directly hitting Alexander in his shoulder, creating a huge black smoke screen that blinded everyone, both inside and outside the smoke.
For a few minutes, there was a lull in the fighting, because of the fact that Sakamoto was stuck inside it, and they could not register each other's position, and Alexander's.
But as they cleared up, the battle immediately turned decisive.
A flash suddenly appeared in the middle of the fog, a tiny point reflecting the sunlight into Sanya's eyes.
And comes the Reppumaru, zooming at her at incredible speed.
Her only reaction was a gasp.
Then the sword punched through her…left striker.
Through the propeller region, the sword was stuck tightly in her striker, crippling her entire left engine. She immediately toppled, almost dropping her rocket launcher onto the ocean. Now she can only use her right striker for movements, which makes her incredibly vulnerable, as thousands of beams are instantly and relentlessly flung towards her.
"Sanya-chan! Commander! We can't continue on like this!" Eila shouted in great anxiety.
"All units, fall back!" Minna finalized the decisive order. Continuing the fight would be suicidal, as some of the witches are now unlikely to fight properly.
One by one, the witches started to retreat, pursued by hundreds of smaller Neurois. Sanya, supported by Eila, were the first to land on the Britannian carrier. Then Charlotte and Lucchini. Then Perrine, carrying Yoshika on her back. Gertrude and Erica retreated afterwards. Then finally, Minna and Mio fell back to the carrier, as the fleet turned away, at maximum speed.
"Sir, they are getting away!" One battlecruiser reported to Alexander.
"Wait a second. Let me regenerate" Alexander replied, as he clutched onto his left shoulder, his arm missing.
He started converting his energies into it, trying to materialize another arm.
But somehow, it didn't have the effect that he had expected.
It only comes down to only one conclusion.
Exhaustion.
"On second thought, no."
"Huh?" Said the confused cruiser
"That sword has drained all my energy. By only a strike. Such enormous power. And yet that witch uses it without strain." Alexander complimented, as he panted heavily. "She is truly a strong individual. May we meet again."
"Do you need towing sir?"
"Yes, please do."
"It is a pity. I was eager to kill these witches." The second cruiser spoke.
"Oh, it's not too worrying." Alexander said, his blood-red eyes gazing down onto the disabled Gallian fleet.
"The once most concerning problem, is now one of our valuable assets."
Ok, there may be a bit of a confusion here. From what I have read, the Reppuzan only uses magic from the witches, not like in Alexander's case, which he uses his own energies for it. Well, this is a mistake on my part, so I think you'll have to assume that the Neuroi's energy is the same as witches' magics. I'll probably go with that as well.
Stay tune for more chapters
