An Expanding threat

3 month since last chapter? Damn I'm slow at updating my fanfics.

Anyway, I hope you will enjoy this chapter.


Chapter 6: Move out

One week later the training was in full go. It was now the 16th of August and it was only 2 days left until Sanya's birthday. Sanya had now made great progress to replenish a big part of her magic. She would still get incredibly tired after a while of difficult maneuvers.

The training session for today was just to practice those difficult maneuvers. Sanya was proving to get most of her reflexes back as well which was pleasing to see. The witches from Romagna have also, as in the rumors, proven to be good at adapting to the situation. The group only had some few flaws, counting in that Waltrud and Naoe did still improvise whenever they got the chance, which have earned them a lot of punishments aside from cleaning and keeping the hangars organized. Eila, thanks to the predicting magic followed the plan accordingly. Georgette only had some problems with the timing.

"Good work today again. Georgette, train a little more on the timing since there are some small issues with that which you have to work on. Waltrud, you can help her." Gundula said.

"Does that mean I..." Waltrud replied in excited tone before she got cut off.

"No, you still have to finish the laundry, wash everything from breakfast, and tidy up in the kitchen. After that you can help her. And don't you even dare to teach her your and Naoe's improvising ridiculousness." Gundula said to a disappointed Waltrud who now sulked away to the kitchen. "And Sanya, you are doing great with your training to get you magic back, and your reflexes have improved as well. Really good job with that."

But overall a good exercise. So keep this up." Gundula finished and looked proud over the squad."

"Sanya, are you too tired to continue with your training." Eila asked and Sanya nodded in confirmation.

"Then why don't we ask Nipa and see if she wants to play some cards with us. We haven't played it since we came here. We can ask and see if Naoe want to join as well. How about that?" Eila asked again.

"That sounds good." Sanya replied in a quiet tone.

By lunchtime, Gundula entered the kitchen when everybody was eating. "Everyone, I received new information from headquarters about the operation. Apparently the weapon, or means of attack, we will use is a new and incredibly expensive explosive clay, but it is very powerful. It has been proven that a small amount of this clay could make a large type neuroi become a forgotten memory. Although this is nice and all, the problem is that we, the 502nd JFW, will have to place it on the core, which means we have to be as close as to be able to touch the core of the hive."

Fernandia held her hand up. "Stop, stop a minute. Why did they choose us to place the clay and why can't they come up with a way to shoot it? And do we have anything else that will support us aside from the witches from Fuso you talked about last week?"

Gundula nodded in her direction. "Good question, Fernandia. We will have a lot of ground cannons that consists of mostly Karlslands 88mm anti-air cannons, and tanks of the IS type will be the primary ones. We also got hold of 13 Orussian ISU-122 and 3 SU-14 self-propelled guns as well. These squadrons will shoot a long-range heavy barrage to lessen the Neuroi count even if just a little. And as for shooting the clay is one thing that they have tried to accomplish in an effective way. However, the clay has to be placed out in certain points for it to be fully effective against the core of a hive. As guns and cannons are not fully reliable in accuracy at those distances it could screw thing up quite bad and there is not too much of the clay as well so we can't just ask for more if we run out. And for the reason they choose us is because we live rather close to the hive as well as they seem to have faith in us since this mission is much more important than any other mission we have been tasked with before."

"Last week I told you about the other witches from Fuso that will join us in this operation we have now changed slightly. They are now going to exchange some of the Fuso witches to some other Orussian witches that are stationed closer to the Pacific ocean. And this is where they comes in to the picture. From the information we have, they will be about 30 of them all in all, so we will have plenty of protection but even so we will need to be on top alert. They are there to protect us while we are to place the clay. But this will be a one chance only so there will be no chance for screw ups and for no changes in plans. And Waltrud and Naoe, when we practice and faces single or a few Neuroi like the ones we meet here, we still make it out somehow okay. But this time you will face serious punishment by the higher-ups if you act on your own accord." Gundula said and looked at Waltrud and Naoe and they could tell from this look that this was truly serious.

"This is a fight that will hopefully be short and effective but I can't assure that we all may return alive. But I have faith in all of you, and that this operation will go well without fail and we will return here back in this base alive. And after lunch we will continue with the exercise as we still have some rough parts to polish before we are ready for the real thing, and I expect that you two will follow the plan accordingly." She finished and looked at Waltrud and Naoe during the very last part of the speech, to which they nodded.

The atmosphere during lunch fell and the happy discussion died down due to the mission talk. After the quiet lunch that continued, they all got ready for another sortie and stood fully geared up outside of the hangar with Aleksandra in the front of the others. "We will repeat the exercise that we have been through this past week and hope to have it fully functional by next week. I want you all to focus so we can get everything right at least once before we are done for today so we have a set example to follow. Let's fly!" Aleksandra said and they all took off to the usual exercise arena where everything were set up and ready to use and they stayed there until evening.

It was the same with the day after, and they practiced all the day through as well and came home late at evening.

It was now a beautiful warm and sunny morning on the 18th of August, which means it is Sanya's birthday. (Yoshika's too, if they were at the 501st base in Romagna.) Eila was set on waking up a little earlier than Sanya, and she did, and she can't remember if Sanya has ever woken up before Eila so she wouldn't expect things to be any different today. She sneakily woke up Naoe and Nipa quietly who were sleeping in the same room. They woke up and with light steppes the walked out of the room and closed the door. Apparently the others had already woken up a little before them but they were in the kitchen preparing the cake and Waltrud and Luciana were making the table ready. Gundula, Edytha, Martina and Fernandia were hanging up pretty decorations in the roof and some on the table.

"I thought you were going to be up a little sooner today but you slept in a bit I see. We have been up for about 30 minutes at least." Aleksandra said with a gentle smile as always.

As far as Eila can remember she had only seen Aleksandra been really, really angry two times. One time at Waltrud and Naoe as for an improvised maneuver that led to a crash between Aleksandra, Sadako, Waltrud and Edytha during an encounter with a few neuroi, and all their strikers ended up broken. Although Naoe weren't in the crash she was just as much in the wrong as Waltrud and she also broke her pair at the end of the battle. They got harsh punishments for a month since Aleksandra had to fix all their strikers which she didn't find all too amusing. The other time was during Nipa's punishment where she had to clean the hangar, and she somehow managed to tip over an iron beam which broke some of their equipment and went through a thin part of their wall in the hangar as well as it tipped over a barrel of oil that spilled all over the floor. It took both money and time to fix it and Nipa got even further punishment for it.

"Yeah, I planned to be up a little earlier but I just didn't wake up in time. Sanya didn't wake up at least. So how long until we are done here?" Eila asked.

"Hmm… I wouldn't think it would be that much longer. Sadako, how long until the cake is done?" She asked Sadako who was in charge of making the cake with the help of Georgette and Naoe although Naoe was so tired she was sitting on a chair with her head slammed onto the desk.

"Umm… I'm afraid that it will take another half an hour. We just finished it but we have to let it stand for a little while too." Sadako replied.

"Well, then we hope she can sleep a while more before we wake her up or if she wake up by herself. We can talk a bit before we wake her up but let's wait until 8. It's just 20 minutes until then so let's prepare as much as we can until then." Aleksandra said and both she and Eila went to help out with as much as they could until 8.

As the clock turned 8 Eila went to the room Sanya were sleeping in and slowly opened the door. As expected Sanya was still sleeping and she hasn't moved a bit in the time Eila and the other woke up so she still were lying curled up and Eila couldn't resist looking at her for a while until she remembered that the others were waiting or else she would like to look for a while longer.

She poked Sanya's cheek lightly and Sanya made some cute grunting noises since she apparently wanted to sleep some more. Eila nimbly removed the cover and she started to tickle Sanya and since Sanya was sensitive to that she started to laugh hysterically and she slowly opened her eyes, and it was then Eila stopped tickle her.

"Happy birthday Sanya." Eila said and threw herself over Sanya and hugged her. As Sanya was taken by surprise by her actions, but when Eila landed upon her with a thud, she broke a smile and hugged Eila back. "You want to grab something nice to eat?" Eila asked cheerfully.

Sanya nodded with a smile and followed Eila out of the room while holding her hand, they entered the nicely decorated kitchen which supposedly which now was empty much to both Eila's and Sanya's surprise. After standing there for a few seconds, everyone jumped out behind walls and sofas and the likes, which surprised the two witches.

"Happy 15th Birthday Sanya!" The yelled out in unison and Eila joined in as much as she managed in that short time. They all went up to Sanya as gave her a hug and ruffled her hair. After all that was over and they were all seated, Sadako brought the cake and put it in front of Sanya and to her delight, it was a strawberry cake, which Sanya loved and there were 15 small candles stuck in the cake, formed like a heart.

The cake went around the table and when they all got their piece they gave a cheer for Sanya again with their glasses and started to eat and talk a lot for a while until the cake were gone and their glasses were empty. Sadako, Eila and Luciana cleaned the table and they were done pretty fast with 3 people helping out.

"Unfortunately, we haven't gotten any presents due to our training but we can make up for that after the mission." Gundula said with a kind of sad smile but Sanya replied with a laugh.

"You don't really need to buy me anything. I am just more than happy enough now that you all congratulated me like this and that means more than anything for me. So you don't need to do that." Sanya replied.

"No, that won't do." Aleksandra cut in with a strong voice to everybody's surprise. "We have always done it that way to give everybody a present, and we won't stop with that now. So after the fight we will buy you something whether you like it or not." She said and gave Sanya an equal smile to her laugh.

Eila put a hand on Sanya's shoulder. "So there you have it. You will get one from me as well so it will be great when we get back." She said with a beaming smile as well.

Sanya looked down at her knees since everyone looked at her and she was really embarrassed. Then Aleksandra clapped her hands and got everyone's attention. "So, now, to not make Sanya any more uncomfortable how about we make a proper breakfast now and then do some fun outdoors activities since this is such nice weather today? Is that okay with everyone?" She asked and looked around to see if it were any objections.

Everybody shook their heads and in a short while there was a nice and filling breakfast prepared on the table, and when everybody has been seated the food was quickly disappearing. After a good 20 minutes, all of the breakfast was gone, and there was a table with witches who looked pleased by filling their stomachs.

The day continued with some volleyball and other sports and games. And by the evening the unit was completely exhausted when they were resting in the living room and just took a breather. Sanya was sitting in the lap of Eila and Sanya has almost fallen asleep since she has been the one who was most active during the day and the one who had most fun as well, and when Eila thought back at the smiles and laughs that Sanya had today she felt her whole body warm up since she don't think she could remember the last time she saw Sanya having that much fun. And she couldn't be happier than to see Sanya be that happy.

"I think we should make some dinner since I think some of us want to go to bed since some of us are rather sleepy from what I can see." Aleksandra said as she was sitting very lazily in the sofa as she was apparently very tired as well.

"Please! I am hungry but I don't have the strength to eat. Someone, please feed me and then carry me to the bed." Naoe said as she was lying flat one the floor, and she hadn't been moving an inch for the last 10 minutes.

"Sadako, do you have any strength left to make some dinner? I can help and perhaps someone else can help you too if that would be necessary." Aleksandra asked Sadako over the room as she was resting her head at Georgette's lap as Georgette has already fallen asleep.

"She yawned a little before answering. "I guess I can see if I manage, and I would appreciate your help." She replied and got up although a little reluctant to leaving Georgette's warm and comfortable lap.

After 20 minutes the dinner was served and the lot walked or crawled their way to the dinner table. Slowly but steadily they cleaned the table of food and after another short while they were done, which then followed by cleaning the table from dishes and the like.

And as the most of the squad went to bed after dinner a few stayed up for another while, like Waltrud that managed to get Luciana stay up a bit after Gundula went to bed to not keep any watch over what she might do.

For the next following days the training continued and they tried to pick up the pace a bit and since they managed to complete their formation during day 1 after Sanya's birthday they could train on follow each other's movements. Thus training as wingman begun shifting randomly between the witches and Waltrud showed exceptional teamwork together with Luciana which surprised mostly everyone, mostly Gundula and Aleksandra. Eila and Sanya were of course in perfect synch and Eila performed well with everyone due to her foresight magic. Sanya could follow Martina pretty well and Fernandia to an extent but the others were a little harder, especially Naoe who made a lot of difficult maneuvers that Sanya had problems to foresee. She also flew well together with most of the 502nd and there she flew best with Nipa.

The training continued for the remaining 2 days and proved to improve their teamwork very well and their trusts to each other were also raised to a new level.

The witches in the unit's sleep from the 21st to the 22nd of august were a rather nice one since they trained exceptionally hard to earn them a much better sleep at night which proved to be useful and it worked well as planned.

The morning on the 22nd Gundula walked in on each unit's member's rooms and were hitting two pan-lids together which made for a perfect, foolproof and annoying wake-up call at 8 AM that didn't fail to wake up everyone. The unit gathered together in the dining hall for a filling breakfast that would make for a long travel. After the meal they packed what they could in their backpacks that they would be carrying for their stay in a rather remote town, which took about half an hour to get down for everyone.

9.15 They had all gathered and stood fully equipped with striker units, weapons, backpacks and food rations outside the hangar around a table with a map over Russia.

"So, now we will make a flight from Petersburg which is here and our destination is over here, in the town of Kusa. I suspect that the other witches and officers are already there, so I hope we will be given a warm welcome. The flight will be long and of I have calculated this right we will be there at late evening, with a few breaks. Although, the possibility is rather high that we will meet a few neuroi since we are going closer to the hive, but we can only hope we get to Kusa safely and most hopefully without any injuries. But if we run into one I am to divide you all into different groups on two and two to further improve on teamwork. So stand together as I call your name. Waltrud and Luciana, Naoe and Edytha, Sanya and Martina, Eila and Georgette, Nikka and Fernandia and then finally Sadako and Aleksandra." And after she called together the team they stood by their teammate and they were fully ready to take off.

"Yesterday you trained together with each other and I put you together to make up for each other's weaknesses and put you with someone you don't usually fly together with. Remember what and how you did during the last days and this will probably go just fine. Don't rely on that someone will come to help and stall if a neuroi appear. Don't take what I say that we won't come and help if you encounter one, but we will cover a wide field of flight to clean the way of any neuroi we might encounter. We will cover a line of 10 miles and we will fly with a 2 mile spread between each group. Sanya and Martina will take the place in the middle due to Sanya's magic to sense neuroi if the get close. Any objections?" Gundula then asked and looked around but it looked like everyone got the orders and no objections seemed to popup.

"Good, then Sanya and Martina take the middle, Eila and Georgette take the left of them and Nikka and Fernandia take the right side. On the far right Naoe and Edytha will fly and to the far left I want Waltrud and Luciana. I will fly behind a short while behind Sanya and Martina. Now let fly!" She then said and all of them started to fly away and they took off took each designated position.

After a while of flight, all the groups have started their own conversations and laughed away. Waltrud and Luciana seemed to have the most connection as they constantly kept their conversation going. After 3 hours of flight they decided to take their first time to eat during their journey. And after filling up a bit and after 20 minutes Sanya looked at the direction they were going for.

"Sanya, do you sense anything? Is it a neuroi?" Gundula asked and looked with a questioning expression at Sanya.

"I feel three neuroi's a few miles in front of us and they are keeping a decent speed at the moment but they are slowly coming closer. I would guess that we will meet them in 30 minutes if we stay here." She replied.

"Okay, everyone. Finish what you are eating and get ready we will stay here for a short while more to rest up but when they are about 10 minutes from here we will engage them as we have practiced." Aleksandra said and quickly finished the bread she was eating and the others followed suit. "Sanya, can you please keep track on them for a while and notice us when they are rather close?" She then asked Sanya and Sanya nodded.

About 15 minutes passed and then Sanya stood up as well as the unit that were now fully packed and ready go. "Now they should be 10 minutes from here. I haven't sensed any abnormalities yet and I hope we won't meet any." Sanya said to the rest of the witches.

"Let's move out, gang!" Alexandra shouted and they took off to the sky in their trained formation.

As soon as they moved forward Sanya sensed some new movements from the neuroi's in front of them. "They are accelerating quickly. They… have… They've more than tripled their speed. We will meet them in about 2 minutes. I think they transformed as well."

"What the hell? Everyone, be ready with your shields, and prepare to engage in formation. Naoe and Waltrud, take the front and I won't accept any improvised maneuvers this time." Alexandra ordered and Naoe and Waltrud did as they were told.

Shortly after, 3 small dots appeared in the sky in front of them and they came against them in really high speed but their size didn't really change much as they closed in and soon they saw that all the three neuroi had the same form. Their shape was that of a pole or cylinder about 1 meter wide and roughly 10 meters long and sharp in the front which could impale anyone it would also got some sort of wing on each side which made it stretch to about 5 meters wide. It even got a horizontal and vertical stabilizer and what looked like a jet engine. And it went by them in a flash and then went to turn around for another run.

"Aleksandra? Don't they look awfully much like V-1 missiles?" Gundula asked.

"Now that you say it, I think you're right. Although they may be a bit longer but yeah, they strongly resemble V-1s."

"How are we supposed to hit them if they are this fast and thin?" Luciana asked as she shot after them as good as she could as they passed by.

"What else! We just have to chase after them and destroy them." Fernandia said as everyone followed her lead.

"Sanya, Nipa and Aleksandra, follow me!" Eila said and they followed after her. "I have a plan. But I need Sanya's Fliegerhammer and some extra firepower."

"What… is it?" Nipa asked as she tried to dodge incoming beams as well as shielding some of them.

"If I concentrate a little harder I can increase my foresight magic about 2 seconds longer than I usually do. And if I do that I can predict where to shoot them, but since they are faster than usual I can't chase them like I usually do. But if I predict where they will be a few seconds earlier and prepare where it will be when we shoot it, so if we do it with the Fliegerhammer we can deal a major blow to it, and if it slows down of the hit we can take it down with our weapons as well. We will just need some protection if you will be so nice and provide some."

"Of course! But this sound good. Then we trust your directives. Just tell us when to do our part." Aleksandra said as watched out for the neuroi.

Eila stayed just behind Sanya to direct her to the neuroi when it would appear. She was now concentrating for one of the neuroi to come into range while Aleksandra and Nipa were protecting them from incoming beams.

"Get ready, you two, one of them is incoming! Sanya, a little more to the left, up a tiny bit. 3, 2, 1, fire!" Eila screamed and Sanya's Fliegerhammer spitted out 4 rockets, and Eila helped tilting the Fliegerhammer so all of the 4 rockets would hit even while the target moved.

With some sort of painful scream the Neuroi slowed down as the rockets seemed to hit spot on. Eila, Aleksandra and Nipa followed suit after it and managed to catch up to it, if even just barely. With a roar, it started spitting out beams left and right to get rid of it pursuers. Eila dodged them with ease, while Aleksandra somewhat managed to avoid using her shield while Nipa apparently were the target and got the most after her.

They got around a bit to get some free time to spray it with bullets as they got to make it into a dogfight which made it easier for them. It went around going for a stationary target and went for Sanya, who were waiting with a smug smile on her face and pointed her Fliegerhammer to the incoming neuroi. She then released a short barrage of 3 rockets which once again made the neuroi cry out in pain and cancel its current trajectory and then the others got around it and after Sanya's third rocket they found the core. Eila closed in until she was at point blank range and a few bullets later the core shattered and one of the neuroi's were down.

"The core is behind a thick layer in the front of their bodies." Aleksandra said in the com-link so the others wouldn't have as much of a problem finding it.

"I'm almost out of bullets. Could anyone spare me some ammo?" Waltrud then said in the com-link after Aleksandra was finished with her information.

"Just how many bullets have you wasted? You got a MG42 for crying out loud. Have you hit anything at all?" Aleksandra asked and was genuinely surprised although slightly irritated as well for Waltrud's reckless way to spend bullets.

"Ehh, well, a few, but I did actually hit them as well, although they regenerated them almost directly after I hit them with a bullet." Waltrud said with a chuckle even now in the situation they were in.

Aleksandra sighed high enough so everyone could hear her over the com-link. "Fine, I lend you my side-arm then, and for god's sake, do not lose it. I want it back afterward. And in one piece as well." Aleksandra said and threw Waltrud her Nagant M1895 revolver as well as a couple of additional cartridges.

"I will not lose or get it destroyed, I can promise you that. Do you have any faith in me at all?" Waltrud replied and gave Aleksandra a firm smile, although Aleksandra didn't look as optimistic.

"I'm not so sure about it myself if I have any." She said quietly and went after Sanya, Eila and Nipa to the next target that Fernandia, Martina, Naoe and Edytha were after.

Trying the same setup as last time, Eila floated behind Sanya, while Nipa and Aleksandra protected their back. "Edytha and Naoe, cover out position on our left and right side. Fernandia and Martina, try to chase it over to over here if that is possible."

"That's easier said than done. But we will try our best. Let's go Martina. I want to get rid of this son of a bitch as soon as possible." Fernandia said and took off and tried to increase her speed as much as she could. After a good amount of dogfighting and struggle and a good amount of shielding incoming beams as well, they managed to get the neuroi on the right course against them.

The neuroi went first against Sanya and Eila who floated in wait for it. But with a quick maneuver it discarded its flight against the 2 witches and went for Edytha who were totally unprepared for its quick approach. "Edytha, dodge to the right and we'll see if we can do something! Try to get behind it after that!" Eila shouted at Edytha who tried to outmaneuver it, although a beam barely hit her arm and the neuroi itself scratched against her striker, but she managed to get away without any major damage.

"Edytha, are you alright?" Aleksandra yelled in fear of Edytha being so close to being pierced.

"I'm fine, my arm was hit but I can manage for now, I just want to finish this before I worry about it some more." She replied and went for a dogfight with the neuroi and kept up rather well with it even though it held an advantage due to its ridiculous speed.

"Fernandia, keep up with Edytha and chase it from behind. Nipa, you go with Martina and try to counter it from the opposite direction. Naoe, go around from the opposite direction to Eila and Sanya to lure it in here." Aleksandra ordered and the team scattered away, and she looked at the neuroi that Waltrud, Gundula and Luciana were fighting against and it looked like they got quite nice hits on it as the neuroi looked rather wounded.

The pincer attacked worked quite right on spot as it moved almost exactly as they predicted even though they were against a neuroi that went fire happy with its beams that went flying everywhere around it. Naoe were one of the key points to make it turn into the sights of Sanya's Fliegerhammer that was ready to be fired. The shots from Martina and Nipa's direction managed to peel of enough armor of the neuroi to make the core nearly visible. With the order to fire from Eila, Sanya freed 3 rockets at the neuroi and Aleksandra and Eila started shooting at the neuroi as well since it didn't needed much more to destroy it. With bullets flying at the hull of the neuroi more armor were peeled of and as soon as the rockets hit, neuroi pieces flew in all direction and they saw the neuroi turning white and then exploded to a firework of white crystals.

They made a quick dash to the final neuroi that was hunted by Waltrud who made a gracious loop and managed to perfect a diving maneuver that made her come out on top of the neuroi and with a single shot from the revolver she hit the core with unmatched accuracy, and made that neuroi shatter into a nice white explosion.

The unit gathered on the ground below the battlefield. "Damn, I don't think we have ever fought against neuroi who has been this fast before." Fernandia said as she lay down on the grass and took a long breather as well as taking a sip out of her water bottle.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. These one were quite annoying. I hope we won't meet more of them there or at least on the way to Kusa." Gundula said as she took a seat on a rock. "By the way, Waltrud, why can't you do these perfectly executed maneuvers on our training sessions and perhaps your destroyed striker count might decrease as well. And as for your sharpshooting skills with a revolver is great but you never show these talents on our sessions as well. Why?"

"The maneuvers are a pain to go through and I prefer to use them in pressed situations when I really need them and this was one of these situations. As for the shooting thing, I had to do it since I was rather careless with the MG42 and wasted all my ammo that resulted in nearly nothing. And when I got the revolver from Aleksandra and only like 15 rounds I had to use them carefully. It's much easier with the MG42 since then you don't have to focus as much as you need to otherwise."

Gundula and Aleksandra sighed. "For Christ sake Waltrud. Can't you take training seriously and as well as other neuroi battles and stop breaking strikers and we might be a little more efficient. And the 502nd will be better off financially as well since a big part of our budget goes on repairing the strikers. And I think you hold the record for most broken strikers." Gundula complained.

"For how long will we have this brake? If we are supposed to get to Kusa in time we should hurry up a little, I think." Luciana inquired.

"I guess you are right. We can take a break a little later if we should get tired. But before we take off, divide up ammunition between you all." Aleksandra said and since mostly everyone used MG42 that was the one that there were most trade with. Other weapons like Sanya's Fliegerhammer and Luciana's Anti-tank rifle stayed out of the trade since they had their own extra ammunition and they don't use ammunition in that large quantity as the MG42.

Soon after the trades, they took off in the groups they had formed before and set course for their goal. The luck was on their side after that as they didn't run into any other neuroi on the way. Also by keeping the stops to a minimum, they managed to reach Kusa by daybreak and literally almost fell dead on the ground as they landed at the meeting place in the middle of the town.

As they have landed outside the building of the leaders, Gundula gathered the last of her strength and did her best to not let the fatigue and exhaustion take over. She was tired and her body ached since she (or no one of the others in the unit, for that matter) clearly weren't used to fly over these kinds of distances over that short time span. But she was clearly ordered to report as soon as they arrived to let the higher-ups know that they were there to gather at the planning meeting that was planned for the coming day.

It was one of the tallest buildings in the vicinity at 8 stories high. Lights were only on at one room on the second floor and two rooms were lit on the fourth floor. She saluted the guards outside the building and they saluted back to her. "502nd Joint Fighter Wing reporting in. I'm the commanding officer Gundula Rall. I was ordered to report our arrival to the leaders as soon as we arrived." She said and kept a convincing stance as good as she could.

"We have awaited your arrival, and you are rather late, but the vice commander is already up and are waiting for you. Go up and report to him immediately. He is on the second floor, third door to the left." The male guard instructed her.

"I will. Thanks for the information." She said and saluted them again before walking inside though the door. She did as she were told and went up the stairs and on the second floor she knocked on the third door to the left.

"Come in, please." A voice said from the inside, and Gundula opened the door and went in and stood on the middle of the room before a man in his 50s.

"502nd Joint Fighter Wing reporting in. I'm commanding officer Gundula Rall." She said and saluted the man and waited for him to finish what he was writing in the book.

He closed the book and gave her a salute as well, and then both of them lowered their hands. "Welcome to Kusa, Commander Rall. I'm Mikhail Belousov, vice-commander of this operation. Nice to see that you made it here. But it is nearly 3 hour later than from what we were told. What is your excuse for this?"

"We were encountered with some fierce neuroi's on the way that slowed us down. They took a while to defeat and they depleted our magic to some degree which made us stop for a few more occasions. The rest of my unit and myself are totally taken by fatigue and need plenty of rest."

"We actually got some reports of a few neurois going in your direction. But with your units strength you should be able to handle 3 neurois without much problem, with the exception of new strikers now and then." He said with a smirk and a short laugh to his own joke. "But would you fill me in on details of these neurois if they managed to hold you up for so long, since they don't sound like the average neuroi?"

"The neurois we met were exceptionally fast and could outrun us if they wanted to, so with some great teamwork with the witches from the 501st, Flying officer Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen and Sanya Litvyak, we managed to quickly down 2 of them. The strength of their beams were of the average neuroi but their speed was unmatched. They also transformed when they sensed or noticed us. And it also seemed like the have a keen sense since they noticed us from 10 minutes away and then they closed that distance in 2 minutes after they transformed."

"They closed the distance in just 2 minutes from 10 minutes away when they used their normal speed? How did their forms look like after they transformed?" He asked and looked rather intrigued.

"Ehrm, they looked almost identical to a V-1 missile. It had the stabilizers and the jet engine and everything, it was just a bit longer than the usual V-1. Their armor was not that hard to penetrate and their core was behind a layer in the front about one meter inside."

"Hmm, this information is really good to know, and by the fact that you met three of them and none of them were drones might mean that it is likely that there are more of them. We can only hope that we won't be meeting more of them by their hive. The excuse is taken and accepted but you will have to take this up on the meeting tomorrow so we can prepare for the chance that we will meet them again. And by the concern about your fatigue, the meeting needs to be attended by you and your commander in battle, and I think I heard that you didn't were in command in battle."

"That's correct. Our commander in battle is Aleksandra Pokryshkin." She replied.

"That was the name." He mumbled to himself and wrote it down on a paper. "Anyway, the meeting will be attended by you two, the commanders over the Fuso witches, the tank squadron, the anti-air squadron, the self-propelled gun squadron and by us. The meeting was supposed to start at 12.00 but I think we can postpone it to 14.00 if I'm lucky so you can get some additional sleep and rest up some more. We can't have some commanders sleepwalking on the meeting and miss this vital information."

Gundula shone up when she heard that they could postpone the meeting by two hours. The needed the sleep and even those two hours would make a huge difference in their alertness during the meeting.

"Thank you very much sir! I greatly appreciate this." Gundula then replied and saluted again.

"Now go and rest so you are prepared for tomorrow. Let the others in your unit sleep as much as they need. Also we will take care of your striker units as well as your weapons. So leave them on the stand we have outside next to the truck. We are ordered to transport them to our hangar until tomorrow when we will have a united training with the witches from Fuso. Good night, commander of the 502nd JFW." He said before going back and started writing in the book again before looking up again. "Oh, and by the way, the 502nd are supposed to live in the third building to the right on the next block. The third floor is all yours. We have also made sure you will have all the food you will need and if you need more, just ask."

"Thank you very much, and good night or good morning on you then." She replied with a smile and she saw a small smile grow on his stiff face as well. She left the building and met up with the other members of the unit, who made their best effort to stay awake until Gundula came out of the building. Aleksandra slowly got up on her legs and she looked like she could collapse any minute but she managed to walk up to Gundula.

"What did they say?" She asked and rested her chin on Gundula's shoulder for standing support.

"We managed to get the meeting by two hours so it will now be held by 14.00. And we both have to attend. We will need our commanding officer in battle."

"If that is so can we please go to bed now? I'm so tired and can't stay awake for much longer. I'm not sure if I'm awake now or if I'm sleeping. Do you know? Aleksandra asked again and Gundula smiled faintly.

"You are awake, I'm sure of it. But if you want to sleep we just need to place our strikers and our weapons on the stand next to the truck over there." Gundula pointed at the truck where two soldiers were arguing about something. "They will then transport it to the hangar where they will store it until tomorrow."

Aleksandra turned around and picked up her strikers and weapons and she brought them to the stand, as did the others after Gundula instructed them to. The soldiers started to try flirting with most of them but when they noticed that they were more or less zombies by now they gave up pretty fast and drove away with the truck with the 502nd equipment to their hangar as they were tasked with.

Then the team followed Gundula to their building in a straight, but rather unorganized line. As they entered the building and got up to their room, each of them except Gundula fell asleep on closest empty bed without even bother to undress or anything first. She had the decency to at least undress before going to bed. But after she laid her head on the pillow, she also fell asleep in no time.

Chapter 6 End


Mikhail Belousov, or the vice-commander is just a random person and isn't a real person in the canon Strike Witches universe.
Most of the people with names you don't recognize (at least the males since I don't know of any males in Strike Witches) will most probably be used during this arc. Just to let you know.