An Expanding Threat

I named a few of the Fuso witches, and they are not canon, just so you know, and their personalities are made up as well.

I hope you will enjoy this chapter as well.


Chapter 7: Preparation

A cloudy morning arose, or perhaps it was more like past lunch when Gundula opened her sleepy eyes. She was lying there for a minute or so trying to wake up completely, which failed since she only became sleepier again. Realizing that, she unwillingly left her bed and got up on her not too stable legs. All her muscles were totally burned out since yesterday's flight.

She walked out to the living room were mostly everyone were sleeping, and most of them had not moved an inch. She took a quick look at the clock and saw that it was slightly past 13.30, and now she woke up quicker than any other alarm she had encountered before. In panic she quickly shook around Aleksandra to wake her up. It took about a minute to make her open her eyes and another minute to get her to understand what was going on.

They were really hungry since they have not been eating anything since midnight last night. And they had about 20 minutes until the meeting. Gundula quickly got dressed and took some bread from the basket in the kitchen and put butter on it. Aleksandra did the same and they quickly ran out the door to the building they landed outside earlier today. They were met by different guards than the ones yesterday and they saluted to the two witches with bed hair and a slice of bread in their mouths.

"You seem to have been in a hurry. I guess you woke up just a few minutes ago, am I right?" One of the guards asked and looked slightly amused.

Gundula and Aleksandra were panting as they stopped outside. "You… could say that. Is everybody… else here?" Gundula asked the guards back while panting a bit.

"Not yet. The tank squadrons commander and vice commander are not here yet. But the others have been here for about half an hour. They are on the 4th floor where the commander has his room. It's the first room to the right."

"Thank you!" Aleksandra and Gundula replied at the same time and went inside and went up the stairs slowly. They got to the fourth floor and took the first door to the right as they were told and knocked on the door.

"Welcome in." They heard and walked inside and were meet by eight people standing around a big table in the middle of the room with a big map over Russia. Marked in the middle of the map were supposedly the hive they are about to attack in 2 days. A man in his 40s walked up to Gundula and held out his hand and wore a great and solid smile.

Gundula took it and shook it with a just as genuine smile. "I am the lead commander of Operation Saturn, Dimitri Andropov. It is an honor to meet humanity's 3rd greatest ace. Welcome to our small town of Kusa." He said and then shook the hand of Aleksandra too and welcomed her as well. "Now we just have to wait for the tank squadron commanders."

The leaders of the tank squadron appeared only about 3 minutes after Gundula and Aleksandra, and by 13.57 the leaders were all gathered. Most of the ones in the room were middle-aged war veterans, although the commander and vice-commander of the Fuso witches were females as well, both of them slightly older than Gundula.

In front of them they each had a bunch of papers, a map and a pen to write down information on to later inform their squad about the plans.

Dimitri stepped forward and everyone in the room looked at him. "Now when we are all gathered we can finally get this plan on the way. I can introduce everyone to make it quicker and to make it easier to address each other if conflict appears." And he started to rabble up everyone's names in order.

"Now when we have that out of the way, we can proceed. You all got the information about our armament but some numbers were cut out so it was a little vague and also to know what we have to deal with. As you all got that we had 13 Orussian ISU-122 and 3 SU-14 SPG's. And for the tanks we got 55 IS-2 and 23 IS-3. As we got some trouble on the way here we only received 32 88 mm cannons. We were to get 33 more but due to a neuroi attack they were destroyed at the border to Orussia and Karlsland didn't have any more to spare, as they are widely used at the moment. As for our attack force, we got the 502nd JFW and witches from the Fuso army. From the 502nd we got 13 witches, and they got reinforcements with 2 witches from the 501st and 3 witches from the 504th JFW. And from the Fuso army, or more precisely the Fuso defense force we got 55 witches."

Gundula felt her head spin from all the numbers but she wrote it down since it were all vital information that she needed.

The commander took tone again after they had written everything down. "We had sent out scouts to check the situation and there is a humongous load of neuroi's in the center of the hive. There is fewer in the outskirts of the town where it is located and those ones are the first ones we will destroy as we enter the city."

He pointed on the map on what looked like a bridge. "Here on this high positioned bridge is where I want the biggest concentration of our tanks with 45 IS-2 and 15 IS-3 and I want 5 Fuso witches to protect them as good as they can. You can choose the ones as you like as you know them the best." He said to the Fuso witch commander and she nodded obediently. "From here we will get a long range barrage and with great range into the hive."

He then pointed at the map and a distance a little further in against the hive. "We have a ridge a little further in here. The rest of the tanks will gather here. 5 witches will protect these one as well. I would recommend witches with a bigger magic supply here. They will receive the most amounts of attacks." And once again he looked at the Fuso commander that nodded again.

"Behind the bigger tank position I want the SPG's. The ISU-122's in the front and the 3 SU-4's will be behind. 2 Fuso witches will protect them. And this marks as the first attack wave. We will try to get deeper with the anti-air cannons at the same time and we will draw the neuroi's attention with the tanks. We will use some back streets to move through with the 88's to keep them hidden. Also here i want 5 Fuso witches to protect them."

"Is everyone with me so far or is it any objections yet?" He asked and looked around. Everyone nodded while they were writing down on both paper and on their map.

"After 30 minutes with the first barrage we will refill the tanks ammunition and move in for the second attack. This one will be pretty far in and it will be the final attack before we send in the witches. This hill is where the whole tank squadron will be standing after they move. I want 7 more Fuso witches to assist them there. As the tanks have taken their position they will fire a flare to both gather attention and to tell the anti-air squad to pack up. After they have packed up they will fire a second flare and that will tell the main witch squad to move in."

The commander looked at Gundula. "This is where your squad comes in. Our scout got a look at the core of the hive. It was huge and if I remember correctly, the crystal had around 32 sides. But the explosive clay is needed to be put on all sides. The clay needed is about 40 kilos in total. We have the precaution to give you a little more with you if the number of sides would prove to be wrong. The fuse you will put in the clay will be set right before you fly away to blow after 40 minutes. Under our calculations it would take approximately 10 minutes in combat speed, not including being stopped by neuroi beams." Gundula and Aleksandra wrote down everything he said.

"The remaining 31 Fuso witches will protect them on their way there. As I asked beforehand, they are efficient with the standard MG 42, right?" He asked the Fuso commander who once again nodded. "They will fly around the 502nd and protect them from incoming fire and respond to shot the neuroi down as they approach. You will keep you weapons on you as well and each of you will carry 4 kilos of clay." He said to Gundula.

"As you are finished placing the clay you will get back in the same formation back to the starting point. The tank squadron will pull back as the witches have placed the clay. Be sure to alarm that so we don't fall behind on anything." He stopped speaking there to let them write down the information.

"This is the most basic structure of the plan. We should now discuss exactly how it will work, but I will tell who it will concern so you don't need to write it down if I don't say your names."

*Yawn* Eila slowly opened her eyes. She was still exhausted and her whole body was stiff as a rock. The beds were nice and soft but the flight yesterday that lasted for 20 long hours including breaks was a nightmare. Sure, she had been exhausted before but this took the price, and she was certain that the others felt the same. A quick look at the clock showed that it has just passed four. She was the third to have woken up after Fernandia and Georgette although Georgette still looked like she was half-asleep but she was at the very least standing up. Waltrud had taken a bed together with Luciana and Edytha, and how that happened she had no clue, since she thought that they all took separate beds except for Eila and Sanya. But knowing Waltrud, she would do anything to get her way so she probably carried one of them to the same bed, and considering how worn out everyone else is, she is impressed how she managed to do that. She even managed to strip them to their underwear without they noticed. Sanya has curled up next to Eila and in her sleep she had grabbed hold of Eila's jacket. She carefully made Sanya loosen her grip so she could stand up and stretch.

"Are you also feeling as agile as a brick wall right now?" Fernandia asked Eila with a grin as she heard Eila's limbs crack as she stretched.

"No, why do you... Ouch! ...think that?" Eila replied, and she sounded overly sarcastic and grinned back. "And to think that we will actually have to train today. They sure are sadistic to the bones. I wouldn't mind to rest at least for another day. Hope it doesn't keep up this way or else we won't be able to perform at our full potential at the real thing."

"We have to train today? Really? I didn't think she was serious." Fernandia's mood sunk and she fell backwards on the bed again. "I don't feel too good anymore. I will just sleep some more then. Good night." She said and got out of her clothes to her underwear, and went under her cover and lay her head on her pillow.

Eila went up to her bed. "You don't think it's better to wake up instead than going to training sleepy. I think it will work better, don't you think." She asked the tired Romagnan witch looking slightly mischievous.

"Nah, I take the latter choice. Enough nagging from Martina gets me going so no problem. She nags me about everything so I'm sure she finds something this time as well. So I can hopefully sleep another 2 more hours before the training."

Eila sighed and walked to the kitchen and started to rattle around in the fridge to check for what she had to cook with. She put the useful ingredients on the table as Georgette walked in.

"You want some help with the cooking?" She asked and rubbed her eyes slowly. She still had not woken up completely.

Eila smiled gently at her. "It would help very much. I am not that experienced in the kitchen so have you to help me out is reassuring. Can you make anything with these ingredients?"

Georgette looked at what Eila had put up on the table. "I don't know what a few things of this are. They have a few things that we use at the base. But what is this?" She asked and held up a small tin can with a picture of a fish on the outside and she was about to open it before Eila quickly stopped her.

"I don't think that you, I and anyone else in our room would appreciate if you opened it here. It is Surströmming, or Hapansilakka as we call it in Suomus, a fish from Baltland that smells horrible but taste rather good. I was about to go out and eat it but maybe you want to taste too?" Eila asked her.

"Sure, I have never had a chance to taste this. It's always interesting to taste new food." She replied.

They tasted it outside the building and it proved that Georgette really didn't like either the taste or the smell. They later finished making the food and by the time they were done, most of the unit had woken up. Sanya was still sleeping as the food was done so Eila had to wake her up. The even got Fernandia to wake up again after some arguing, but she agreed as her stomach growled for food.

Halfway into the served dinner, Gundula and Aleksandra walked in to the room and both fell simultaneously down on their beds and they both looked lifeless. Sadako took one of the additional bowls, filled it with soup and held it in front of Gundula. They could see that she could smell it and with a tired hand she took the bowl and sat up on the bed. She put away the stack of papers she held in her hand and started to eat. Sadako gave Aleksandra a bowl of soup as well, and it was a well-needed gift.

After everyone had finished the meal and the bowls and the rest were put away for now they gathered around the table again, and both Gundula and Aleksandra sat down and put their papers and the map on the table.

"The plan is in itself fairly simple, at least for our part. They don't have much information on what we will encounter deep in by the nest, just that it will be crowded by neuroi, as I guess you have already figured out. Basically, our mission is to fly from here into the core when the second flare is fired. We will have 31 Fuso army witches to protect us as we charge in. We will each carry approximately 4 kilos of clay, and fuses that will be set on 40 minutes, and we will set them before we fly to attack the core since we won't have the time to do it when we are there. Then it may take 15 to 20 minutes to get to the core at attack speed, and this time I did a slightly raw calculation including the possible density of neuroi we will face. They said that the core will have about 32 sides and 1 kilo of clay will be placed on each side. We got a few kilos more if it will have more sides and if we have more clay left we will place it as well. Then we will get out of there and hopefully that will take care of everything. Sanya and Luciana, This time you will have to abandon your specific weapons and you as well will have to use MG42 like the rest. They have a really huge stack of ammo in the warehouse and you will need a lot of ammo for this." Gundula inquired.

Sanya and Luciana nodded. The unit took a long look at the other squadron's positions and at Gundula's and Aleksandra's notes. "Seems like it will be a pain. Though I'm glad we don't have too much to do, although we have one of the most dangerous parts of all. I hope there won't be too many deaths." Waltrud said.

"The tank and 88 anti-air squadrons are in a dangerous position. They will have witches to protect them but they are inside the hive and have high risk of being wiped out. Even though they are volunteers wanting to protect their families and to do it for the country, I hope we can protect them as well." Aleksandra replied.

"By the way, when will the co-operative training begin with the Fuso witches? It should be rather soon, right?" Fernandia asked.

Gundula looked at the clock on the wall, and it was about 17.45 right now. "It should be in about 45 minutes from now. I hope all of you mostly have recovered from yesterday's flight. It will be a rather fierce training and we will have to master it by tomorrow. We did finish it by our unit alone and I think we can make it work tonight if you work hard. If you do it good and we master it tonight we can sleep longer tomorrow. We will have to train tomorrow again no matter how good we do, but you can sleep in longer depending on how you do."

Everybody shone up hearing the words "Sleep in longer". "We can do that? They really said that." Fernandia and Martina said at the same time. "Let's do our best, then." Fernandia continued.

"By the way, at what time will the operation start?" Edytha asked.

"The trucks will go at 12.00 and we will stand perfectly ready and done by 15.00. The tank-, artillery- and 88 mm squadrons will start their attack 16.00. We are scheduled to go in around 17.00. That is the plan but we just need to focus on seeing the second flare. We just need to stay vigilant." Gundula then said.

The discussion ran on and by 18.30 they were all at the meeting point, and watched the Fuso commander and vice-commander and the army of 55 witches behind, walk up to them. It was a rather mighty sight as they walked to them in a perfect formation.

"I hope this will go well, Fujita-san." Gundula said gently to the Fuso commander. "I suppose all your soldiers know what they're in for. And that they know the plan."

"Of course they are ready. They are in the top of the Fuso defense force. They knew what waited them when they joined the army. And yes, they know the plan. We finished it a week ago. And how about you? Are your team ready?" She replied arrogantly.

"They are ready. We finished it 2 days ago. Even though we are fewer than you we come from 3 different units. We had some problem adapting but now we are in sync. I hope this won't be a problem." Gundula responded back.

"Heh, if your team took this much time to finish even though you were from 3 different units, I don't have much faith in your team. I sure hope you won't be the cause of our possible death on the battlefield. Good luck! You are going to need it to keep up with us." She said and walked past Gundula and Fujita threw a nonchalant and unimpressed look at the improved 502nd.

After they walked past, Gundula walked up to the team and she looked slightly agitated. "I just can't stand that arrogant woman. Just show them how the 501st, 502nd and 504th work when we put our hearts into it. They may be in the top in the Fuso army but we are not worse than they are. You have improved during these weeks we have been training and we will show them that we can hold our own against them. So for this moment, as I have been saying for these past weeks, no improvisation or doing anything out of the plan."

"I just recognized some of the witches that walked by. Some of those were real troublemakers during my short time in the army. I can't imagine that they have gotten so much better." Naoe said and put her hand in her pocket again.

"People can change. But now let's just keep our minds on doing this right. Clear out your other thoughts and focus only on this."

The training started shortly after and the first 30 minutes were a mess. But to the surprise of Fujita, most of the problems came from the Fuso witches. Georgette came out of the timing in the beginning but adjusted it as she got the hang of it again. Waltrud were a little in front of her position but after a rant from Aleksandra she adjusted it as well. Aside from that there were just minor faults that were easily fixed.

The Fuso witches had much more problems. Just the sheer numbers of 55 witches in a steady formation were a big problem. Now, they weren't supposed to be 55 to protect the 502nd, but Fujita was planning to select the ones that will stay and protect the 502nd and who will protect the tanks, anti-air and artillery depending on how they did on this training session.

After 1 hour she had chosen the 31 that will follow Gundula's team. The follow-up from that was a rather flawless session from both teams. It seemed like Fujita held an eye on Eila who came out of all situations perfectly that were totally unpredictable without any wasted movements.

2 hours later they reached their first perfect maneuver that stretched over 10 minutes. They tried that again to see if it weren't a fluke. Second run went a little slower but it held nearly the same standard.

The sun had started to set as Fujita walked up to Gundula after the training session, while the unit was removing their equipment. "Commander Gundula! I request a duel between Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen against the best of my witches." She asked and got the attention from the whole 502nd, and especially Eila.

"So, you accept the talent of my witches after all. Then, what do you say, Eila? Will you put them in their place?" Gundula said loud enough to get an irritated glare from the Fuso commander.

Eila gave a Gundula a nod. "Sure, that might be fun." She replied and put on her striker unit and equipped her weapons again.

Fujita walked back to the other witches and after a while she walked alongside one of the witch that showed extraordinary skill during the session. She was rather tall and showed a strong confidence. Gundula walked alongside Eila to the start point.

"Just dodge as much as you can to tease her in the beginning, and then show her your real skill. The most usual duels are to get the other one to use their shields first. That should not be a problem for you." Gundula said and showed great confidence in Eila, as Eila nodded to Gundula's request.

As they met Eila and the other witch, that was named Takahashi Minori, shook hands in respect for each other. "As you probably had guessed, you two will fight until the other one have used their shield. And you will only use one magazine for your MG 42's. Understood?" Fujita asked the two.

They replied with a loud "Yes!" and backed off to a distance of 75 meters apart. The start signal was Fujita's handgun that was fired and both witches took off to the skies. Minori went directly for the target, and she held a rather impressive speed, not too much slower from Shirley back in Romagna. As she got really close Eila took of easily to the left and backed off a bit. Minori quickly turned around and fired at Eila, and Eila dived and went behind the closest building and sneaked around and came on behind Minori.

The Fuso witch heard Eila strikers from a couple of trees nearby and she fired a couple rounds. Eila then flew out of the trees and straight up in the air and lazily dodged bullets from Minori who followed Eila upwards. Eila then made a sharp turn which surprised Midori and she saw Eila coming straight for her. Just in the moment when they were about to crash into each other, Eila made a small maneuver and passed her and pointed her gun at her and fired a few rounds. With a quick instinctive turn Minori drew her shield.

After realizing her mistake she dropped her head and flew slowly to the ground. Eila did the same and she looked at Gundula who gave her a thumb up. They met down on the ground and Eila shook hands with Minori. Fujita walked over and gave Eila a handshake as well, which threw both Eila and Gundula off guard. Even most of the Fuso witches in the back looked surprised by Fujita's action.

"I must say that was really impressive. You are around the first to have beaten Minori in a straight up battle like this. And that in such a short time." Fujita said Eila.

"Well, my magic lies in foresight magic so I have never been shot down or even hit, so I don't know if this was a fair fight at all." Eila said and scratched her chin and she could see the surprise in Fujita's and Minori's eyes.

"Never once?" Fujita asked and her surprised expression was genuine. "That is truly impressive. I thought that every witch had been shot down at least once. You deserve credit for that. But I noticed you excellence when we were training and you followed the flow perfectly, never matter the situation."

"Oh, take away my magic and nearly everyone here would beat me. My flaw is that I rely too much on my magic so if I don't have it I'm boned. You are far more skilled than me, and you are too, Takahashi. So I can't say anything else than thanks for a great match." Eila said and bowed.

Minori and Fujita bowed as well and then they turned around and went back to the other. Gundula then turned to Eila and gave her a high five. "I never thought that she would complement another witch from another unit outside her own. But you did a great job. I'm glad she chose you. The worst opponent of any witch and neuroi." She then said with a smile.

They then started to walk back to the others. "You are exaggerating too much. But yeah, being unscratched is pretty cool, I must say." Eila said as she was greeted by Sanya who gave Eila a warm hug.

"You were really cool when you dived down at her and then when you fired at her." Sanya said and she looked at Eila with a big smile on her face. "I never doubted that you would win."

Eila got similar reactions from the other in the unit. They were happy as well to have put the arrogant commander in her place. They later returned to their building and they ate what they had left in the fridge, and Gundula informed Dimitri about the situation to give them more food. That night all the witches slept well and Sanya slept on Eila's chest which pleased Eila and made her sleep better as well as she held Sanya softly which put her at ease.

The following day they got to sleep in to about 12.00 when Nipa woke up when she heard someone knocking on the door. She got up and covered herself with the cover because it was a rather cold day and if it was a guy that stood by the door. When she opened the door there stood a girl in about Nipa's age, perhaps one or two year younger. She was wearing the Fuso army sigil on her chest piece, so she suspected that she most certainly was from the Fuso unit. She didn't look all too proud as their team looked yesterday. In fact she looked rather uncomfortable.

"Erhm, good morning to you. How can i help you?" Nipa asked and looked slightly nervous.

The Fuso witch fiddled with her fingers a bit before answering. "I-, I'm here to wake you up, a-, and could I speak to Pilot officer Juutilainen, please." She asked.

Nipa looked at her surprised at the request but smiled faintly. "Sure just hold on a minute. I'll go get her." She let the witch inside and let her stand just inside the door.

Nina then went in the room where Eila and Sanya were sleeping. She poked Eila on her cheek to wake her up. With a twitch she woke up and looked surprised at the other Suomus witch.

"You got a visitor, Eila. A witch from the Fuso team is here to see you, and she wanted to talk to you."

Eila looked weirdly at Nina as if she couldn't believe her. But she did put on her clothes and went to the door where the nervous witch was standing. The witch jumped a bit and looked around uncomfortably.

"You wanted to speak with me?" Eila asked calmly and as Nipa was supposed to wake everyone up, a crowd has begun to watch them.

"W-, would it b-, be too much to ask to speak outside." The witch asked and Eila could see that the witch was blushing fiercely.

"Sure, that is fine with me." Eila replied and they left the room and went outside to the street so no one could overhear them.

They stood there for a couple seconds since the Fuso witch didn't get out the words she wanted and Eila was nice enough to let her grasp her breath, but after a while she felt like she needed to break the ice a bit.

"How old are you and what's your name?" She asked gently and as softly as she could without sounding too forced.

The other witch looked in to her eyes. "Na-, Nanahara Tsubaki, 14 years old." She replied and then looked down to the ground.

Eila sighed quietly to not let the other witch hear her. "You know, I'm not trying to be pushy, but I think it will be easier if you speak out than holding it on." Eila said calmly and tried to calm her down.

Tsubaki took a long breath and closed her eyes. "I-, I really like you! You were so cool and awesome in yesterday's flight and I couldn't stop thinking about you since then! And you are really pretty as well. Would you please g-, go out with me!" She said boldly and she looked incredibly embarrassed about her confession. Even Eila was a little taken back.

Eila smiled to know she had an admirer, and Tsubaki was pretty cute, but Eila already had Sanya and she couldn't, nor wouldn't cheat on her, and to break up with her wasn't in her book at all.

She gave the younger girl a sad smile. "I'm glad that you have these feelings for me, and I would love to return them. But unfortunately I'm already in a relationship with the Orussian girl in our unit, Sanya Litvyak." She said and she could see the younger girl's enthusiasm disappear from her face and look down into the ground. "I'm really sorry." Eila then gave her a deep hug at least to cheer her up a bit. "But do your best on your training today and please survive tomorrow. And you're on the team to protect us, right? I'll be counting on you."

Tsubaki smiled at Eila's comment and she gave her a hug back. "I will! Please watch me!" She replied with a sad smile. Even though she already had considered that Eila had someone else, so she didn't take it as hard but a tear or two came down her cheeks at least. She then politely bowed and then she turned around and walked away while Eila waved at her while she walked behind a building and disappeared.

She then walked in to the room again and was met by almost the entire unit, and they eyes sparkled to know what they talked about. Eila sighted slightly and walked inside to the breakfast table.

"Come on, is it really that interesting?" She asked them and they nodded in unison. "She confessed to me since she apparently liked my battle yesterday with the other witch from Fuso." Eila explained and Sanya looked suspicious.

"So what did you say?" Martina asked.

Eila looked weirdly at her. "Are you kidding? I mean, really? Not to be rude, but did you ever really consider that I would choose someone else over Sanya? Sure she was pretty cute but not as cute as Sanya." She said and dragged Sanya down so Sanya then sat in her knee. "I actually gave her a hug since I didn't want her to be depressed so I think that was okay."

"You are so considerate." Nipa said a little sarcastically.

"That's rude. Were you just implying that I'm not considerate? I am very considerate, right, Sanya." Eila asked Sanya and rubbed her cheek a little. Sanya thought a little before she waved her head a little back and forth as she was considering what she would answer. "Oh, come on. I can't be that inconsiderate."

Everyone laughed at the scene in front of them and soon after they prepared breakfast. The breakfast went by fast and by 13.00 they were at the training grounds were the Fuso squad already where waiting. Eila saw Tsubaki through the crowd and gave her a smile, and got an equally bright smile back.

This training session went better than the last one. They sealed it perfectly on the second try, and it looked better than it did yesterday. Fortunately, Fujita were not as arrogant anymore since the 502nd were more capable than they looked. The session went on for a few hours and they sealed it all over again which proved that they would be able to perform it battle although they excluded some elements that might come up that they could not foresee.

By 19.00, after 6 hours of intense training and a few breaks they were done and mostly anyone, including the Fuso witches could barely stand up. Their muscles were sore but the important thing was that they now had their formation clear so it would ease up a bit during the charge tomorrow.

The evening flew by and they went to bed 21.00 to get as much sleep as possible in for the big day. Fernandia, Georgette and Sadako had some problems falling asleep but after a short while they succeeded. Naoe were punching something in her sleep and Waltrud took as much as she could get from a both Luciana and Edytha. Eila and Sanya fell asleep head to head and could both feel and hear each other's breath.

Hours passed by and by 08.00 the entire squad were wake with Naoe being up last. They prepared a big breakfast and used up everything they had in the fridge including the other can of horrible smelling Surströmming. Eila opened it outside the window to not get all of the smell inside the building, since even if she loved the taste, she hated the smell as much as everyone else.

So with the fridge empty and the beds neatly done, they put up the map and papers again to review everything that they had to keep an eye out for. The review of the plan took 2 hours to get everyone to remember their part but now it was burned into their minds. By 11.30 they checked to see if they forgotten everything they took with them here.

They went to the building where the commander and vice-commander were since that was where they were supposed to meet up. The Fuso squad had not yet arrived to the point, so the 502nd could get on their truck and wait for the Fuso squad. 10 minutes later the other witches appeared and got on the trucks. And by exactly 12.05 they got away.

It was a bumpy road since some of were mowed down due to Neuroi beams but the scenery were rather spectacular, with a wide and large bed of flowers in all colors and beautiful hills and landscapes. To the town where they were the operation was going to play out took one and a half hour to get to.

13.43 they arrived and the sky over them were covered by a dark and large cloud that spawned from the center of the hive. Even though it was august and it was rather hot when they left from Kusa, here it was rather chilly probably because it hasn't been sunlight here for a good while. The two squads jumped out of the truck and stretched out their arms and legs since they became rather stiff from sitting in the truck for one and a half hour.

The tanks, artillery and 88 mm cannons have already arrived and they were neatly and perfectly lined up and it was a spectacular view to see Orussia's newest and best tanks lined up so perfectly. The truck with the weapons and ammo arrived 15 minutes later and was transported to the biggest building in the town. The 502nd and the Fuso squad walked in and was meet with a really big crowd of men sitting around tables and standing in the corners gossiping or discussing the plans. They understood directly that this were the tank and artillery people. They were in all ages from 20 to 50 years old. And controlling 94 vehicles required about 500 people and of course everyone didn't fit in this building and then when they looked out again they saw a lot of men walking around in the town. Some working on the tanks, just talked or smoked.

The witches were positively greeted by the men, and most of them had not met witches before and some of them were really enthusiastic about it. Some even asked Gundula of her autograph, and you couldn't deny them for wanting a sign from humanities third ranked fighter ace of all time. They accepted their popularity until a bell rang and all soldiers rose from their seat and walked out the door. The bell was the alarm to gear up and start the tanks and prepare to move out. The witches watched the tanks start up and slowly began to roll out and 24 of the Fuso witches followed the tanks and artillery since they were to protect them.

An hour passed and the 502nd and the Fuso squad took place in the now empty dining hall with only a few people in the kitchen ready to make food to the soldiers and witches. The mood by the tables were rather gloomy, since even though they tried to think positively they couldn't get over the thought that many people and witches were probably going to die. And also the thought of that the grand battle were supposed to take place in about 15 minutes didn't stop them from becoming more nervous.

The when the clock were 14.55 heard an awfully lot of noises outside and men shouted and dragged things around since there were just 5 minutes left now and now the thought that their part were going to begin in one hour. The tense air spread and no one said a word for 20 minutes until the clock turned to 15.15 they left the building to check up on their equipment.

They each had their own rack with their own weapons next to the striker unit. Even though Sanya's Fliegerhammer and Luciana's anti-tank rifle stood in their rack, but they also got their own newly produced MG 42. Everybody picked up their weapons and checked them to see if dust or anything else had entered the barrel or to see if the fining mechanism worked as it should. When they were done checking them, the 502nd picked up 2 magazines each while the Fuso squad picked up 3 each as they were told. After that the people in the hangar helped to put all the striker units outside so they could fly away right from the get go. They also picked up a transponder that they placed in their ear. Aside from their squads there were a few other people talking thought their channel as well. From what they've heard they were apparently ready to notify them about the flare. The clock turned 15.50 and the witches wished everybody good luck to each other and Eila gave Sanya a deep and passionate kiss and a hug.

They got into their strikers and they grabbed a firm hold of their weapon and they were prepared to go. Even now in the face of the danger most of the 502nd and the Fuso squad managed to hold a determined face to make this go through but the air around were tense. From what you could hear from the radio was that everybody's breath pace were fast and rather inconsistent, and of course they were nervous, since some of them would probably meet their end in maybe a few minutes. As the 502nd were ready to go they were also ready set the fuse that will detonate the clay. Gundula were ready with her wrist watch to check the time until the fuse will set off.

They heard from the other voices in the radio to set the fuse for 40 minutes. When that was done in a few seconds they heard a final voice. "Witches, Take off!"

Chapter 7 End