Disclaimer: I do not own Strike Witches and all its characters. Only the OCs belong to me. The others should be given credits to their owners respectively


Chapter 5: Guardian.

She was surrounded by Neurois. Her striker's engine was shot open, exposing its mechanical parts. It was a miracle that it somehow continued to operate despite the damage. She had been having a vain hope of just landing on the ground, safe and sound, with her squadmates. But she simply and obviously couldn't.

Because her homeland was right behind her.

"There's no way I'm leaving you alone here onee-san!" A Britannian witch, her hands holding a Boys anti-armor rifle, shouted out, her eyes nearly in tears, as she watched the destruction of a church down below.

"You're not leaving me Lynne. It's just a temporary retreat. You need supplies, ammunitions. You can't fight without them you know." Wilma instantly placed her two arms onto her younger sister's, wearing an assuring but forced smile. She knew that only this could convince her to go.

"But what about you? Aren't you low on ammo as well?" Lynette asked.

"I'll be fine. I still have a belt of magazines here." She pointed at her belly. "Don't worry. Your onee-san can handle it!" Then she readjusted her leather cap, confidently (or rather pretending to be)

"Alright. Be safe, onee-san!" She finally flew away. That was the last time she ever saw her.

Wilma turned around, to see entire London bursting with explosions, with thousands of small and medium-sized Neurois engaging the relatively few witches that were still operational. She knew at that point, that this battle was hopeless.

But the thought of abandoning London did not cross her mind.

She would go down, dying along with it.

Wilma dashed forward, with her Bren machine gun held firmly in her hands. Noticing the attacking witch, the Neurois didn't miss the opportunity to open fire on her. With shields raised, she blocked the incoming lasers with ease, as she rained punishment on those who just laid a hand on her. Her ballistic stabilisation proved to be priceless to her during these times.

She passed the first screen of haunebu-type Neurois quickly, and then she engaged the medium blimp-type, which was relatively harder and tougher than small Neurois. Small Neurois' core are small and are placed firmly inside its tiny silhouette, so only a single hit to its can decimate it and tear it into pieces, but bigger Neurois have cores that are capable of regenerating themselves. A common way to defeat these types are to destroy its core, its central command of all actions.

She looked around as she picked her target: an isolated blimp who apparently had launched and directed their fighters too far away that it was laying vulnerable to enemy's sabotages.

Her first course of action was to empty a clip into it, firing randomly, focusing a bit on its centre, as the core is usually there.

After one, two, three and four magazines, the core finally exposed, and Wilma quickly reloaded and finish it off.

But soon after the kill, she realized her doom.

Out just a few kilometres away, a screen of smoke suddenly faded, revealing a gigantic battlecruiser looming. Its hull blazed a few times in red light, once every few minutes. It wasn't shooting rapidly like the other Neurois. That's the strange part.

That strange part is only a part of the battle tactics of supreme commander Alexander, and Wilma was going to learn it the hard and painful way.

As she tried to maneuver away, the cruiser suddenly charged a blinding red orb in front of it.

A huge laser zoomed in on her.

Wilma hastily and instinctively put up a shield, but it wasn't enough to stop its attack. The shield cracked the moment the laser came into contact, exploding and sending her spiralling down to the ground.

Words and cries could be faintly heard from her teammates, as they tried to reach out for her in desperation. All she registered was the dark blue colour of water.

She was shot down.


Inside the medium-sized Neuroi quarter, the young Alexander was sitting on the chair, his hand firmly holding a book, reading it, when he heard the girl lying on the nearby bed moaning in agony.

"Hmm."

His head jerked up.

"I-I"

He saw her body sweating.

"I don't want to die yet…"

Bad dreams huh?

After seeing her like it, he immediately went for the bed, and he shook her body. But as it somehow didn't work, he turned to shook the bed instead, violently.

"Ahhh!" She finally woke up. Her eyes filled with terror

"Rise and shine freeman." Alexander said, as he stopped the shaking.

"Where the hell am I?" It took her a few moments for her groggy vision to finally register that she is in a Neuroi's room, which is filled with all the signature red hexagons.

"You're in the Neuroi's personal quarter. You humans' hospital's infrastructure are too out-of-date for me to use."

"What happened?"

"You have hypothermia, but luckily it was only at stage 1. The thing that made your condition worsen so quickly was the fact that you were not given any food or drinks for the last two days."

She remained silent, as Alexander took a peek at her lying on the bed.

"So I placed you in our recovery chamber. You shouldn't have taken that long to wake up."

"Wait…" She interrupted him, while looking down on her body. She wasn't wearing her usual garments, but a black thermal clothes that tightly fitted onto her body.

"Where is my clothes?" She asked, suspiciously.

"It was torn, and not fitted to be placed in the chamber, so it was removed and replaced."

"H-How dare you!"

Her face suddenly flushed red, nothing different from a tomato, as she shouted impulsively. It is unknown if it is due to anger or embarrassment.

But to the contrary of the rash reaction of the young Britannian, Alexander simply turned around, calmly, facing her with a gaze that sees through everything.

"You misunderstand. It was my adjutant, Eris, who changed your clothes, not me. I wouldn't be such an indecent individual."

Upon hearing the name, which is obviously a female name, her sudden outburst died down. But the intense blush did not subside, even getting redder and redder every seconds. She kept her heads low to hide that.

Alexander simply didn't care, as he turned away

"Your condition has been normalized. You will be returning to your cell by today."

"The cell? No way! I'm not returning to that hellhole!" She shouted protests again. And once more, Alexander looked at her with the perceptive eyes that see through everything.

"It's not to worry. The guard that failed to treat you and your two friends adequately…is already terminated."

"T-Terminated?" The word struck her hard, despite it was the Neuroi that got the consequences.

"Or rather, his core was removed, devolved into a much smaller one. He's now having 'fun' with his new dart-type body." The explanation did ease her tension a bit, but still, just by disobeying…

"But isn't he your soldier? How can you treat your men like that?" Wilma then turned to criticize him.

Alexander chuckled slightly.

"Do you know the difference between a good and a bad soldier?"

"No."

"A good soldier disobeys, then takes responsibilities. Bad ones try to get away with it. This empire needs no soldiers like that."

"But that's cruel!"

"Then what sort of punishments do you think would be best suitable?" He replied, calmly, as opposed to Wilma's outburst.

He's right.

A devolution is nothing different from a demotion or discharge in her own army. But there, at least the soldiers are able to keep their own body. Here, a devolution means they will have their minds, their body changed permanently. Not to mention being transferred to a battlefield where you can easily serve as cannon fodders to the enemy. It's not what she is used to.

"I understand. I'm a visitor to your world. We share so many different viewpoints that none of us could get how we act to our own kinds. That's a regretful mark, but a common sense to us all." He started walking around the room again as he said.

"But nonetheless…" But he suddenly stopped. "You'll have to get used to it. Once my conquest is over, Earth will be part of the great Neuroi empire. Then, you'll have to live under its rules and regulations."

"Hmpph! Like we will let that happen!" She scoffed, staring deeply into his bloody-red eyes.

"You have to, like how I have to."

"Why do you have to when you are force imposing your own ideals on us?"

"To defeat an enemy you must know them." He said. "Not just strategies, tactics, but also culture, art, and most importantly…ideology."

That is studying the way people think, feel and act around others.

Including hers as well.

This conversation is a part of it.

"Now again, I will have to kindly ask you to return to your cell by today. I've already gone all the way to ask permission for you to use this quarter."

"Only if you promise to treat us better than what YOU did to us yesterday."

"Agreed." He quickly brought the argument to a close. Content, Wilma lied down on the bed, as she placed her arm on her forehead, sighing.

Also satisfied with what he had achieved, a good conversation, Alexander exited the room.

A few hours later, another guard escorted Wilma back to her cell.

"Bishop-san!" Her friends former anxiety and worriness subsided once the sight of her friend came into her.

"I was so worried about you! That damn scum! What did he do to you?!" The twin-tailed witch instantly bombarded Wilma with either questions and curses. In face of that, she only smiled.

"No, he didn't. In fact, he treated my yesterday's condition well."

"So you are well now?"

"Yes I am. Furthermore, he also promised to treat us better than last time."

"Really?" Cecelia made a face that perfectly fits the definition of surprise. "Maybe he isn't the bad guy after all."

"I wonder…But anyway, how about you two? Are you ok?" Wilma asked, with equal concerns

"We're fine. Yesterday that guy dropped us his coat so we used it as a blanket. It kept us warm enough to make it pass the night."

Relieved to her heart, Wilma gave the two of them a big bear hug, only to be returned by another one. The heart-warming sight would continue for another minute, as feelings of contentness after one good news coming after all the bad ones was too overwhelming. But unbeknownst to them, all of that, everything, was caught under the gaze of a certain figure.

Alexander, who was standing quietly in the shadow at the far end of the room, observed, expression unreadable. He watched them for a while, then proceeded to leave, his hands crossed behind his back, without a sound.

Walking up the stairs, he approached Eris, who was not far from there.

"Eris, status of the 7th Fleet?"

"Arrived and standing by for instructions. What about it?" She replied.

"Very good. I have a few...things to do."

"Hmm?" She asked curiously.


Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean

501st JFW's temporary base of operation.

In contrast, a sense defeat gloomed.

"I'm exhausted! I don't wanna move anymore!" Erica could feel her arms numbed, having spent all the strength and magic she had on firing her guns and dancing through beams and bullets.

"Shosan (Major). Are you alright now?" Perrine asked with great concern to her precious Fusan's samurai.

"I'm fine Perrine. But damn, that kick he gave to me." She rubbed her nape, which was stinging red like hell.

"On that topic." Gertrude interjoined. "The man on that blimp. Who is he?"

"Maybe a traitor within us?" Charlotte voiced out her opinion.

"No, I've read the profile of some important military personals and I cannot find anyone that young and look like what Trude saw." But Minna quickly denied that. "Also, I have looked into the relatively rare numbers of male witches, but with same results."

"So that means he is a Neuroi by birth."

"But he can be any of the lower ranks. I mean, the Neuroi can use whoever they wanted, right?" Yoshika said, with slight naivety.

"True, but to having some normal commoners commanding a Neuroi heavy fleet is unwise in any means." Minna said.

"I believe he is also the man who orchestrated the four attacks that costed us the entire Europe. For something that great, he can't be a low recruit among us." Mio added

"Then we can assume he is a Neuroi by birth. But with a human body?" Charlotte admitted, but then questioned.

"Could be. There are witch types, so why not human types?"

"Also, I heard a human type appeared somewhere before, but maybe it's just a rumor." Eila also joined, as she combed Sanya's hair.

"Let's just assume that." Minna said. "The higher ups are panicking over him now. They are considering budget cutting the witches to make up for the previous loss."

"Again?! We are the only one making results and that is how they treated us?!" Displeasure was written all over Mio's face. She couldn't bear hiding all of that after hearing so.

"Calm down, Mio. That's how warmongers are. If the Neurois hadn't showed up, we would be fighting each other by now."

"Just like the World War…I wonder if we could find someone more far-sighted than these people."

"Now, now Mio. You're over-judging. Not every generals and officers in the high command are like that. A few are relatively competent and respectable."

"Just stop this, won't you?" The Liberion witch chimed in forcefully, in spite of the difference in their ranks. "The most important subject right now is Lynette."

The gloom intensified immediately.

Yoshika and Sanya hung their heads low, while the others look troubled. They obviously didn't know what to do with her.

"She is still in there, refusing to get out. I'm still keeping my eyes on her, for any distress that may happen."

"Now we can just hope for something, or hope that she can overcome this herself."

Silence filled the room, as they silently prayed.

Suddenly…

An ear-splitting siren echoed with such intensity that it sent the girls on their feet immediately.

"Neuroi?!" Mio yelled through the deafening sound, with a slight tinge of nervousness and tiredness. Her magic has only just healed after the last disastrous battle.

"How can this be?!" Followed by Shirley.

"They initiated another attack already? Didn't they just conquer Britannia a few days ago?!" Trude shouted.

"The radar has detected a medium-sized Neuroi entering the east grid, at altitude around 15000 meters. They probably want to completely clear out our presence here." Minna listened to her radio, as she recited the report concisely.

"Just one aircraft? Then we don't need the entire squadron! Hartmann, Barkhorn, Shirley, Lucchini and Perrine, follow me!" Mio called out.

"Hai (Yes (ma'am'))!" They filed out instantly. 5 minutes later, the squadron Mio formed had taken to the sky. Yoshika, Lynette, Minna, Eila and Sanya are on the ground, tending the base.

"Do you think he is behind this attack?" Trude, who was at the head of the squadron, turned back to ask Sakamoto. Her reply was a growling shrug, indicating that there is no way she could know, just hopeful that it isn't.

But it is.

Far away from the base of the strike witches, outside of their detection range, a gigantic flying ship, about 1 kilometer long, 300 meters high and 500 meters wide, size bigger than even the largest Neuroi battlecruiser, but smaller than the Neuroi hive, with the shape of a modern computer mouse cursor, flattened on the top and the bottom, hovered firmly 3000 meters above the water level, in stealth mode, with Neuroi weaponry stationed everywhere on the ship. In simple terms, this is a miniature moving hive, capable of traveling in space, with enough battle stations to keep the entire enemy fleet busy for one entire day.

This is the latest and most deadly dreadnought-type Neuroi, but the most expensive one too. Only a few was built ever since its commission before the Neuroi's conquest on Earth. One of which, known for its godly name Aegis, was sent as a flagship of the Neuroi's 7th Fleet under the command of supreme general Alexander Kherol.

And now it has arrived to Earth, and hovered there, quietly.

On the upper part of the ship, several rooms existed.

"Sir, the unit you deployed has moved into position." The dreadnought reported, as it kept the location of each and every Neurois it possessed under its surveillance.

"Good, show me the hologram." Alexander gradually walked to his command chair, and sat down

"Yes sir." He immediately hologrammed the battlefield. Wearing a satisfied smile, he laid his back on his chair, taking a small sip of the heavy sugary mineral drinks he made.

"Alright witches. Your move." He smirked.


The rocket-shaped Neuroi has encountered the enemy.

"Enemy sighted! Attack!" Mio ordered, as the entire squadron of witches dived down onto its prey, an all-out attack

The Neuroi, surprised by being suddenly attacked from above, immediately returned fire, only to be bombarded with clips and clips of bullets.

At one point, the right flaperon of the Neuroi bursted white smoke, as the Neuroi itself fell slowly to the sea. A quick and easy victory for the witches. Almost too quickly and easily.

"That was too easy." Perrine also noticed how strange this was.

"This is strange. I couldn't seem to find its core." Mio remarked, her eyepatch lifted.

"Could this be a diversion?!"

A shocking hint.

"In that case, the base is in trouble!" Mio shouted in realization.

That the actual attacking Neuroi took a different route to the base, a rather longer but more stealthy route.


At Aegis's command room.

"The second half of the Neuroi has gotten through." Aegis reported, as Alexander furrowed his eyebrows one bit.

"How unexpected. I wouldn't have thought that they would fall for it so easily." But then relaxed, as it meant that he didn't have to order around much.

"Should we speed it up sir?" Asked the dreadnought.

"No, it would be unnecessary. They won't catch up with it."

Meanwhile, at the base

"Lynne-chan. It's me, Yoshika." She called out

Silence.

"Lynne-chan, open the door please."

Still silence.

"Lynne-chan, I know this is a great shock to you, to lose Britannia, to lose your family. But it's not yet over, we are still fighting."

Only a few could reach her, as she sat with her knees held tightly near her empty eyes. She didn't need those words of pitiness. She knew she was broken, and powerless. She needn't anyone to tell her that.

"I know…I'm not the one to talk. I haven't lost Fuso yet. But now if I am like you, I will."

That's bad consolidating.

"That is why I always keep my head high, and keep fighting, no matter what. That is why I want to be in the witches in the first place. I want to do what I can to help others, do what is in my capabilities, even if it isn't anything compared to what Barkhorn-san or Sakamoto-san does."

Head high, and helping others.

That is also Lynette's words when she enlisted.

It was years ago, during the good old days, when she was sill the old, cheerful Lynne.

Where did all of that go?

Only she didn't knew it until now.

"And…" Yoshika uttered. "If I can protect everyone…"

Like a match to a candle.

Protect.

A very simple words to say, but difficult to accomplish.

But nevertheless she said it. Just like how she said it years ago.

And now is she neglecting it?

Is she being irresponsible to her own words?

Lynette found herself standing up to her words, opening the door to her, for the first time since like…forever.

But Yoshika wasn't there.

Yet another siren echoed around the base.

"What is it commander?" Eila was rather surprised to be summoned to the briefing room, as she thought the Neuroi was already being taken care of.

"The Neuroi has broken through, for some reasons. The main squadron couldn't catch up with them, so we'll have to go. How is Sanya?" Minna replied.

"She is exhausted after her night patrol, so no good."

"Then you and I are the only one. Get ready."

"I want to come too commander!" Yoshika suddenly ran into the room, pleading, to the surprise of the young Minna.

"You can't, what about Lynne?" Minna said strictly

"She will be fine, I've talked to her."

"How are you so sure? You can't leave her alone back in the base like that."

"But I want to help!"

"We can handle it. You have to stay here to take care of her."

"It's alright commander." A British voice came from behind Yoshika suddenly. The three girls looked with a face full of astonishment, as they saw Lynette out of her room, with a face far different than what she had a few days ago.

"If I go with Yoshika-chan, then she won't need to tend me, right?"

"Lynne-chan…" Yoshika was touched to the heart by how her words touched her

Minna was also as content, as she ordered with a small smile.

"Prepare yourself in 90 seconds, the enemy is approaching."

"Yes ma'am!" They replied in unison

No longer than the time Minna requested did the remaining for witches take to the sky, finally reforming the usual 11 maidens that once dominated the eternal blue.

"There it is!" It didn't take long after they took off to encounter the enemy. It looked like a corncob, with small flaperons at the back. There a few short red trails could be seen, indicating an engine going at full speed.

"Eila, with me! You two, stay back and provide cover fire!" Minna commanded

"Hai!"

The two of them instantly soared, to a certain altitude, before opening fire.

But it didn't hit it.

It was too fast.

"It's too fast, we'll have to match its speed to hope landing a shot at it." Again, Minna ordered the Suomus.

"Hmm!" Eila complied

They did a C turn downwards as the Neuroi got near, catching it perfectly nearby, and rained a hail of bullets on it.

"They are on his tail." Alexander noted.

"Now do you need a speed up, sir?" The dreadnought asked again.

"Yes, please do."

The moment Alexander gave the order, the Neuroi suddenly detached itself, dropping half of its body flying at the witches. They dodged it with ease, but by doing so they had given it a chance to accelerate and escaped their hot-pursuit.

"There are still two to go."

"Do an arc drift. Avoid getting the trajectory directly straight in their line of fire." Alexander ordered, as he placed his drink down and went fully into his concentration mode.

Several kilometers away, the Neuroi started turning left, then suddenly a hard right, turning its hull diagonally from Lynne's Boy guns.

"Lynne! The enemy has broken through! You are our last hope!"

If only Minna hadn't said that

Lynette aimed her guns carefully and…

BOOM!

First shot.

Miss

BOOM!

Second shot.

Miss

BOOM!

Third shot

Same result

"It's too erratic! I can't follow it at all!" She panicked, as cold sweats formed on her two temples

"Lynne-chan! You can do it!"

"I can't!"

"Lynne-chan!" Yoshika suddenly grabbed her shoulder firmly. "The one that took away your homeland is right in front of you! Aim straight at it and fire!"

At the encouragement, Lynette could feel her heartbeat slowed down, but her eyes burning with anger.

After a few seconds, she readied herself again, with renewed determination, as she looked through the iron sight with one of her eyes, her vengeful eye. The eye that has seen her home country fell right in front of her.

'If I can predict the exact position it will turn its frontal hull right at me, I can get it!' She thought. 'Turning radius 10 degrees per second, wind speed 3, velocity…' All of its calculation she made in her head was for this one shot. One shot that will determine the fate of this battle.

Then, as if the instinct in her has broken off, she open fired, 5 consecutive shots, in 5 different directions.

As if using machinery calculation, the 5 bullets struck exactly where she wanted it to be. Three shots to its hull, bouncing it up, one struck directly in its core position, exposing it, and the last lethal one pierced through its most important part, the core, shattering it completely.

The Neuroi, with its core destroyed, was soon reduced to a pile of white particles, tinkling over the blue ocean.

"Lynne-san. You did it. Welcome back." Minna said, genuinely satisfied with her result.

"...Did I really do it?" The tense feeling soon released from her body like a water rushing out of an open floodgate.

"Yes Lynne-chan, you have protected us all."

She failed to protect her homeland, but she had succeeded to protect the most precious thing to her right now, her friends, her base.

And that is more than enough for her to repay her own debts.

"I did it! I did it! Thank you Yoshika-chan!" She instantly slammed her body into Yoshika's, with her arms held tightly to her Fusan friend.

The next moment was totally devoted to laughing and girlish giggling, as they hugged each other in mid-air and…in the water, as they fell into the ocean together, arms in arms.

Elsewhere.

"Sir, the deployed Neuroi vessel has been destroyed." Aegis reported according to what happened on the hologram.

"I can see that, Aegis." Alexander replied, in an unusually calm and composed manner.

"I think we have scouted them enough, shall I send more to attack?"

"No, that's enough for the day. We have a whole lot of time for another occasion. Now, let's return home."

"Yes sir."

The huge dreadnought, obeying without a doubt, still in stealth mode, began to lower its altitude while turning its massive hull, before sinking down into the sea. After reaching a certain depth, the ship began to move, silently like a ninja.

The door to the command room suddenly opened, as Alexander's favorite adjutant, came in.

"What is it Eris?" He asked

"You should have known this by now." She replied

"Oh, so they have arrived?"

"Precisely. They are currently waiting for you at London."

"Seems like I took my time here. But at least I find this whole experience to be very…entertaining." He smiled, a very strangely satisfied one.


Don't blame me but I like big characters to go with big stuffs. But because that dreadnought maybe a little bit OP if it is deployed, so you probably won't see it much in battle, but who knows. For now, it largely serves as Alexander's flagship and portable battle station and command center, since the hive is too stationary, so yeah. Since the Neuroi in this fic is a powerful space empire, so there is no reason why they wouldn't build a large dreadnought that can travel in space and fight. Inspired by the Imperial Executor-class super star destroyer in Star Wars

Some references:

This chapter is much based on the strike witches anime series episode 3, but with moderate changes to bring Lynette out of her depressions

Quotes:

"To defeat an enemy you must know them." Grand Admiral Thrawn in Star Wars Rebels. My favorite quotes about strategies so far. Alexander's next line is largely based off it.

"Aim straight at it and fire!" A reference to a Vietnamese hero during the Vietnam War who said this to encourage the morales of his AA battalions, who drove off the American aircrafts later that day.