An Expanding Threat

Well, here is the second chapter for today. The fifth chapter is probably someway
around halfway done by paper, so it shouldn't take too long to have it done.

Now Please Enjoy Chapter 4!


Chapter 4: Air Superiority

It was an amazing beautiful morning when the wake-up call rang out through the base, and life quickly started to appear in the halls. The ones that didn't appear outside before Mio was Eila and Sanya, but Sanya was of course excused. "Okay, did anyone meet Eila in the hall?" Mio asked, looking around.

Everyone shook their head. Mio sighted faintly. "I'll go and wake her up. As warm-up exercise you'll run 3 laps around the base." She said and left for Eila's room.

As she reached Eila's room, she opened and walked up to the bed and saw Sanya cling on to Eila's stomach and saw Eila looking really peaceful, and considering her sleep deprivation the last days, Mio was pretty relieved that now that Sanya was back, Eila could also go back to her usual demeanor.

Deciding that she'll be excused from this morning exercise because they looked pretty adorable, and for the fact that Eila was actually sleeping. She returned back to the exercise field when Shirley and Trude ran past the goal for their second lap as the other was a while after them.

Eila woke up a while after and found Sanya cling on to her stomach and was in the same position as she was when they went to sleep. At least now she could see her sleeping face and Eila carefully moved Sanya up a bit so her sleeping face was right in front of Eila who couldn't stop staring at the sleeping, cute 14-year old witch.

When she tried to go back to sleep, she heard Mio's faint voice through the window. Out of curiosity she looked out the window and saw the rest of the unit stretching at the moment. "Damn it, I overslept. I totally gonna get it now." She said to herself and quickly got dressed and hurried out the door.

In the hall she met another white-haired person that she didn't recognize and Eila stopped in her tracks. "Ah, excuse me, but who are you?" She asked the person in front of her.

"Oh, I believe we haven't met. I am Heidemarie W. Schnaufer, a night witch sent here from Karlsland. I was contacted but Commander Minna that Sanya was hurt in battle a few days ago, so I came here to take her place for a while and I want to meet her when I can." She replied in a pretty quiet, shy voice.

"I see, well I think it's great that we have another night witch for now. Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen, from Suomus. But are you a close acquaintance of Sanya perhaps?"

"I haven't met her personally but we have communicated a few times when we are out on night flight, so I wanted to meet her personally and talk to her." Heidemarie said.

"I would love to introduce you to each other but she is still sleeping at the moment, but I'm sure she'll wake up in a short while, or otherwise I am still going to wake her up in time for breakfast." Eila replied to her.

"I see. Well then I look forward to meet her by breakfast then. Good bye for now then." She said with a faint smile and gave her a small bow when she walked away.

Eila the hurried out to the exercise ground and got up beside Mio. "I'm so sorry that I'm late." Eila said while panting since the running there.

"Eila? So you came anyway. I left you sleeping since you looked so peaceful sleeping and since your recent sleep deprivation, I thought I could be a little nice to let you sleep in despite what I said yesterday. Well, now that you are here anyway, you can join the others while they are going to run around the base before going inside to have breakfast." Mio said and looked like she was in quite a good mood today.

Eila did as she was told and quickly ran up next to the others and ended the running course just behind Shirley and Trude.

On the way back to the base for breakfast, Eila complained to Erica for telling Sanya about the kiss in the infirmary.

While the other was preparing the breakfast Eila went up to wake up Sanya and notifying Heidemarie that Sanya had woken up.

During the breakfast Sanya and Heidemarie was talking to each other most of the time of the breakfast much to Eila displeasure.

"Mio? Can I talk to you for a bit?" Minna said as she walked into the kitchen with a paper in her hand and it looked like it was pretty serious. Mio quickly left her seat and walked out of the room with Minna.

"I wonder what that is all about." Trude said looking at Erica with a wondering look.

"Knowing Minna I guess it is about a mission plan or something. She always gets too worked up about all this. I guess this is one of those times." Erica said with a quite monotone voice as she took the last bite of the piece of bread she had.

After a short while Mio and Minna returned. "After the breakfast I want everyone to meet in the meeting room." Mio said.

"Eeeh, but I want to play outside." Lucchini pouted and lost all her built up energy.

"You may have time for that after this meeting, but this is a very important matter." Mio continued and then she and Minna sat down again by the table to continue with the breakfast.

When the breakfast was over all of the witches was seated in the meeting room and the blackboard in front was featuring a picture with what could be a neuroi. Minna and Mio entered the room after everyone.

"We got a transmission earlier today regarding an approaching Neuroi that is approaching our base and left Gallia a while ago. By their calculation it was estimated that it will arrive at our base around 12 AM tomorrow." Minna said.

"So is it something special about this since we rarely talk specifically about a neuroi when we are in this room, right?" Trude asked.

"Yes, that is correct." Mio took tone now. "This will be a tough neuroi to take down. This one is flying at an altitude of about 20 000 meter above ground. Being a high-altitude neuroi, it is however more dangerous than the one that Eila and Sanya took down just about 2 months ago. That one moved pretty slow and only used drones that got shot down by one bullet. Minna, will do take more details?" Mio asked her.

"Yes. This neuroi attack using an immensely powerful beam to attack with, but however, being shot from that height it loses some of its punch when it has traveled 20 000 meter. So when we are going to strike it we will have to avoid it at all cost since our shield might be useless against this firepower. So for this mission we need co-operation between Eila and Trude."

"Ehh?" Eila said surprised at that announcement. "Me?"

"Your magic to see into the future will be vital in this operation. Just let me explain the plan. As I said we need you Eila, for your magic of looking into the future and we will need Trude for her strength. I will have to apologize to both of you two, since you will be using some dangerous equipment so I am really sorry but you will need it." Minna said with an apologizing tone.

"What equipment are we talking about Minna?" Trude cut in.

"Both of you are going to use the prototype Jet Strikers that you have been using before." Minna said slightly depressed.

Both Trude's and Eila's eyes opened wide in response to what Minna said. "Are you sure we need them?" Eila asked to be sure.

"I'm afraid so. I would be relieved if we could avoid using them but we really do need them. You will attack in a formation that Trude will keep the lead and Eila will be close behind." She showed on the blackboard. "Trude's strength will be need since we will have to use the same weapons that came with the Jet Strikers last time. We need to take this neuroi down fast so heavy guns are necessary. And Eila will keep herself behind Trude, so if you see that a beam is coming, tell Trude to which direction she should dodge." She said and looked at Eila. "And the Jet Strikers is really needed since the usual strikers does not normally exceed up to more than 10 000 meter up in the air, and you need them for quick dodging. You will have to get lots of sleep tonight and make sure to eat well before the mission. Karlsland fortunately had 2 prototypes of the Jet Strikers and we will receive them late tonight." Minna said and looked pretty sad as it looked like she was apologizing again.

Mio looked at Minna for a bit before took over the last words from there. "Everyone, dismissed." She then went and put her hand on her shoulder to help her calm down.

Afterwards most of the witches went up to Minna to cheer her up a little before leaving the room. Since it was a nice day outside, Lucchini and Shirley suggested that going to the beach would solve all the problems and sad things for now.

Spending most of the day playing at the beach and then evening fell over Romagna. From inside the living room where most of them were, reading, relaxing or playing with cards, they could all hear a plane coming in.

"That's probably the Jet Strikers that is here." Minna said and rose from the sofa and walked from the door, with Eila and Trude behind since they were going to fly them. "Erica, you're not coming?" Minna then asked. "Ursula is delivering them personally and you haven't met her since she came and picked up what was left of the other Jet Striker."

"Ursula is here? Then I'm coming to." She replied and she rose from the sofa as well and began walking out with the rest.

They arrived outside the base when the personnel were unloading the two pairs of Jet Strikers from the cargo hold of the plane. "Nice to meet you again, Ursula. We're happy that you could arrive here on such short notice, and that you can help us with these strikers again." Minna said with a smile when they met.

"Nice to meet you all again, and yes, it was really fortunate that we had two prototypes ready. We have tried to fix the flaw it had last time but we haven't tested them enough yet, so I'm not sure if it will be as dangerous as the last time, but I hope nothing will go wrong." Ursula replied.

When the strikers and the added equipment had been loaded into the hangar Eila and Barkhorn could inspect them and it was the same weapons as the last time.

As it then became rather late both Barkhorn and Eila went to bed earlier than the others, Sanya wanted to go to bed the same time as Eila, which Eila didn't had any objections against.

The night went by peacefully and about 8 pm Eila woke up next to Sanya who ones again had a just as adorable sleeping face as yesterday and she resist of giving Sanya a wake-up kiss.

As Eila hoped, Sanya woke up. "Good morning, Eila. Could I get one more? I'm still not really awake." She said with a smile on her lips.

And sure enough, unable to withstand that smile, she engaged in a deep and passionate kiss which stimulated Eila as much to make her ears and tail come out. Sanya's body reacted likewise and her ears and tail came out as well. She responded with a just as intense hug and held Eila close to her.

"Sanya, you are so beautiful." Eila said after the kiss ended. "B- but that last kiss… I want to continue with it." She then said and looked at Sanya who just giggled at Eila's reaction.

She slowly closed in on Sanya and closed the gap between their lips. Again, both Eila and Sanya felt the surge of pleasure run through their bodies. Eila's left hand instinctively moved under Sanya's bra which made Sanya's body tremble slightly. Her hand didn't stop and she carefully caressed her left breast and Sanya's body continued to tremble.

Sanya broke away from the kiss when Eila also used her right hand to play with Sanya's right breast as well. Eila continued to Sanya's ear. "I love you Sanya. I love you more than anything else in this world." She then nibbled a little playfully on the ear and then slowly moved down kissing her neck all the way down to her collarbones.

Eila looked the beautiful white-haired witch in the eyes if it was okay to continue any further. With a faint nod from Sanya, Eila slowly made her way to Sanya's cleavage. Eila was now on top of Sanya and without further warning Trude opened the door.

"Are you up yet, Ei… la?" She stood dumbfounded in the doorway and looked at them with a shocked expression and she got the same expression back from Eila with her eyes wide open.

"A-, A- At least knock before enter another ones room." Eila said and quickly pulled the cover over both her and Sanya so Trude only could see Eila's eyes.

"Ah… W- W- What were you two doing? To do something this shameful in the morning when we have an important mission in just a few hours." Trude said with a lecturing but hesitant voice while blushing pretty hard.

Eila then sat up and she had a pretty irritated expression on her face and looked Trude deep in her eyes. "That is exactly why we are doing this. What if something happen when we are doing this mission? I bet you haven't forgotten what happened to Sanya just a few days ago. Something like that could happen to any one of us or maybe even worse. And I want to be really close to Sanya before I go out on this mission. Have you ever even heard of the word love, or have your love for rules overwritten any romantic feelings against human beings?" Eila was talking as she walked from the bed and up to Trude who now looked like she was quite uncomfortable and pressed into a corner as she wasn't prepared that Eila would take this forceful approach.

"I- I do what know what love is but what you two w-were doing is just too shameful."

"No, it isn't the slightest. It is perfectly normal to do things like this when you are in love and the only reason why you think it is shameful is that you probably have never experienced love for anyone." She walked over to the bed and the turned around one last time before crawling down under the cover next to Sanya again. "Next time you try to lecture about anything I suggest that you have any experience in that topic first." She said and crawled back and cuddled up to Sanya.

The sight made Trude's heart ache and she left the room quietly and the closed the door behind her and leaned against it, closed her eyes and sighed pretty loudly.

"What are you sighing to much about, Trude?" Erica said, as she had sneakily walked up to Trude and was now standing and now had her own face about 10 cm from Trude's troubled face.

Trude was surprised by Erica's quiet approach and jumped a little and when she saw how close Erica's carefree smiling face was, she felt her cheeks warm up a little.

"Ehh, w- well, I was scolded by Eila for various reasons. And I guess I can't say anything against it since I guess all things that she said about me was pretty much correct." She said and looked down to the floor as she looked pretty taken.

Erica reminded herself that she has not seen Trude like this many times. The one that she can remember most clearly was when Chris was injured, although that was a far worse case. Thinking that she could ease up Trude's mood a little, she reached over Trude's shoulders and gave her a firm hug. Expecting Trude to shove her away in embarrassment as she usually does, this time she accepted the hug and hugged back, which surprised Erica.

"Trude?" Erica asked, sounding a little confused. "Are you really okay?"

Trude also rested her head against Erica's shoulder and Erica could feel Trude's stiffness disappear and could relax in her arms.

After 30 seconds they broke the hug and Trude's mood eased up and she even grew a smile that made Erica grew an equally big smile. "Thanks. Now I feel a lot better."

"Then I am glad that I could help with anything and I would do anything to help you in the mission later. But let's go down and have breakfast."

The clock was 11 AM and the unit was all gathered in the main hangar. They were all standing in a half-circle around Minna, Mio and Ursula.

"Everyone, all witches are supposed to fly as low as possible to the ocean while Eila and Trude attacks the target. And to the attack-team, if you notice or feel any abnormalities in the Jet Strikers, cut off from it so we can refrain to let it run out of control again. I won't let you two risk it." Minna said in an order-like voice.

The Jet Striker was loaded outside to minimize the time they would be in the air no matter how small.

The unit used the final 10 minutes of wishing good luck to the attack-team and Eila got a good luck-kiss from Sanya.

They both equipped themselves with their respective weapons. Trude armed herself with the heavy 50 mm cannon with a high ammunition count while Eila was equipped with her usual armaments of her MG-42 and her Soumi M1931 submachine gun.

When all witches had equipped their own striker units and was in flight already, while Trude and Eila were in the Jet Strikers that was still placed in the loader. Minna contacted the attack-team through the transponder.

"The target is approaching in a high speed. Are you both ready?"

"Yes, ma'am." They both replied in a confident and steady voice. They were in start position and were ready to shoot away at any given moment.

The transponder sparked and Minna's voice was heard. "Attack-team, Take-off!"

Both witches quickly rose in the sky and after just a few seconds, they passed 10 000 meters in altitude. Eila held her position slightly behind Trude and they could identify the target soon enough. When they were inside the range of 5000 meters from the neuroi, the first wave of attacks started raining down on them and Eila was quick as usual with the uptake on predicting its attacks.

"Left, right, up, further up, dive…!" Eila said and both evaded the beams if ever so close. Eila's heart was beating pretty fast as the beams passed by and she could even feel the heat from the slightly bigger and more concentrated beams than from the weaker neuroi's they have encountered.

3000 meters away from the target Trude fired the first 50 mm shell at the neuroi. And from that distance they could not make sure if that shell did hit or miss the target. Coming in even a little bit closer, the beams that were fired against them increased in ferocity.

Eila could feel her senses tire out a little. Usually she wouldn't have to dodge this many beams by herself, and also by this occasion when she had to direct Trude to dodge and use a Jet Striker that was more magic consuming that the usual striker unit she use.

"Do you think we… left… can hurry this up a little? My… far right! …senses are becoming a little dull." Eila said and as she sounded pretty tired.

"Try to be a little bolder in your dodging so we might create an opening so might get some free space without having to dodge so we just can charge." Trude said with her focus straight forward and she showed no signs of being tired yet.

When they were close to 2000 meters away Trude fired another shot at the neuroi. This time they could see the little damage they have done. "Only a scratch? How tough armor does this one have?"

"We need to get even closer, Eila. We have to increase our speed a bit. We have to go in to at least 1000 meters. Try to keep up." Trude increased her speed slowly to not get too far away from Eila too fast.

Dodging wildly in a high speed they came into a quite clean view for point blank shooting and Trude steadily lifted the 50 mm cannon and fired away a quite a few shells before it was time to dodge again.

They could now at least see the damage pretty clearly. The armor was incredibly hard and it took 4 and maybe 5 shells just to get though. The inside of the neuroi on the other hand was ridiculously fragile and it looked like a big part inside of it already shattered by the one shell that came through.

"Eila, just a final push to come into close quarters combat and to destroy its inside where the core probably is."

They both pushed the strikers to the limit to engage in a quick and swift fashion. While Eila continuously shouted directions in response to the neuroi's fierce attack pattern, Trude was in full go to put up a barrage of cannon shells to smash against the tough armor.

They closed the gap in a moment and when Trude has opened a big enough hole, she dropped the 50 mm cannon. "50 mm cannon coming down!" She said through the transponder. "Eila, please hand me the MG42."

When she was handed the MG42 they flew through the hole they had made through the neuroi. "Let's bring it down before I pass out." Eila said and pulled the trigger to start tearing the neuroi down from the inside out.

After shooting for a few seconds, Trude tore down the last that covered the core from being visible. And after a few more rounds the core shattered and the neuroi turned into an explosion of white crystals.

"Releasing the jet strikers!" Both Eila and Trude said through the transponder and let go of the jet strikers and they began to fall themselves.

Eila began to feel sleepy by a consumption of magic that she was not used to. After falling a bit she was met by Shirley who picked her up in midair, and Trude was picked up by Minna and Erica.

Everyone returned back to the hangar to celebrate a successful victory. Eila and Trude got a lot of praise for taking down that powerful neuroi with that dangerous and mighty equipment.

"Everyone, because of this I suggest we make some great food to celebrate and to restore their energy. Do any of you two have any requests?" Yoshika asked looking at both Eila and Trude.

"I think we can ask Eila for today. After all, it is thanks to her that I am alive. There were moments that I wouldn't have been able to dodge some of the neuroi's beams, and I don't think anyone could do that without her help. If anyone should be celebrated it is Eila." Trude said and looked at Eila and gave her a wide smile.

Eila gave a tired but genuine smile back at Trude and then rose from her sitting position but it looked like she had some problems standing up without some extra effort. "Thank you, but you can decide. I'm gonna go and lie down for a bit. It seems like that striker consumed a little more magic than I thought when I was flying. But I'll see you all a little later." Eila said and walked away a little awkwardly leaning on Sanya this once.

"Let me help!" Trude said walking up next to Eila and helped her by lending a shoulder.

"Oh… thank you again! I'm not meaning to be rude but you seem to be a little extra nice. Why?" Eila then asked, looking a little surprised.

"It's just that I'm sorry for what I have said to you earlier and how good you instructed me to dodge, just now in the battle. So I'm just thankful how you did." Trude replied with a gentle smile.

She helped Eila into her and Sanya's room and let Sanya handle the rest to not intrude too much on their privacy. "Just have a good long rest to fill up your strength." She said before she left the room.

Sanya helped Eila into the bed and crawled down beside her and held Eila tight against her chest which calmed down her beige-haired partner. "My own hero." Sanya said as in like a whisper and began to stroke through Eila hair.

Eila giggled at Sanya's praise. "Nah, I'm nothing as grand as a hero, but thank you darling." She replied with another giggle and reached around Sanya's stomach in a hug until she fell asleep.


Chapter 4 End