A Long Walk in the Dark - Arc 1

by Ghostrider21

After being fitted with an experimental drive system the crew of the Borealis is sent on a blind jump to another reality. Damage sustained leaves her lost and unable to return home. This is the story of her crew and her CO's mission to return them home. At all cost.

3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Where the Hell are We?

Hello again Ghostrider21 back up for another exciting chapter. This is where the crossover really begins and it's going to be fun. Two chapters in and I already have 199 views and I'm happy with that. As a programmer writing isn't exactly my forte, unless its code and then I'm quite good at it. Anyway I don't own Strike Witches or Stargate, my OCs are mine; you can't have then without asking. So just realized I double posted chapter 2 and nobody caught it. Sorry about this little issue everyone my fault. So you guys get a two for one; one chapter tonight and one tomorrow. Remember guys feel free to yell at me if I do that again. Now back to the studio…I mean story.

Previously

302 number 7 landed on the ship as the Borealis vanished in a blinding flash of light.

June 13, 1945 0900 Hours – 501st Joint Fighter Wing Base, Venezia

After recovering from the vision she jumped up. "I need to talk to the Commander now!" she thought as she bolted out of the room. By the time she made it to the end of the hall however the alarm went off causing her to slide to a halt. "Oh no the Neuroi!"

Date unknown 1900 Hours (ship time) – Borealis bridge, Low Earth Orbit

He groaned as he pulled himself off the deck, grabbing his head as he looked at the sorry state the bridge was in. Haze floated in the room, visible from the arcing conduits exposed overhead. The lights flickered on and off at random intervals increasing his already throbbing headache. The crew was strewn all over, hanging on consoles, laying on the deck and one unfortunate soul even partially out in the hallway. Looking at the crew he began seeing movement as they rolled and moaned from the surprisingly violent jump. A glance at the one function HUD showed nothing in orbit with them. He continued his observations until he was distracted by a blinking light.

"This is the Borealis go ahead," Colonel Vought radioed as he stood up.

"Sir it's good to hear your voice this is Reaper-1, we've been trying to contact you guys for the past 30 minutes." Reported one of the ships F-302 pilots, "We're still stuck outside if you want to let us in."

"Negative if you've still got O2 and ammo continue your patrol. We don't know who's here or what danger we could be in. Until we wake the crew you guys need to stay out there."

"Understood Sir, Reaper-1 out."

A groan caught his ears as cut his transmission causing him to spin around; Commander Ross was coming to. Walking over to his subordinate he grabbed his arm and helped pull him to his feet. "You ok Ross any brain damage? Hitting your head twice in one day can't be too good for you," he joked.

Ross just glared as the two of them went to helping the rest of the wakening crew. Vought helped Colonel Sokolov sit up, "You alright Sokolov, what's up with the arm?"

"Hет it's broken, and badly," he stated while grimacing.

"Alright then le-"

"Bridge this is engineering anybody alive up there?" the intercom squawked.

He made his way over to his chair, "We're a little worse for wear up here but we're still in one piece. That you Tom?" he inquired.

"Negative Sir Lt. Stanson and two others were killed in the attack, this is Ensign Decker. We're trying to get as many systems on right now as we can but we have a problem."

"What is it?"

"Sir, engine 1 is the only one functioning and judging from the telemetry were getting the ship is in a decaying orbit."

"Shit can this get any worse can it?" Vought thought to himself as the crew tried fixing what they could.

"Colonel we-we have another problem," one of the scientist stuttered out.

"You've got to be kidding me… Friday the 13th you are going to be the death of me." "What is it?"

"We're venting atmosphere."

2 Hours later

"Alright then ladies and gentlemen, here's the deal… the ship is in a decaying orbit and in two hours we will all be a little toasty." The assembled group looked at each other uneasily. "To make matters worse the damage we sustained pretty much removed the ventral shield emitter and we are venting atmosphere. Even if we could break orbit with only one engine, we would suffocate within four hours."

A hand raised, "Sir what about the Asgard core? Couldn't we just plug the leak and produce O2 that way?"

Vought sighed as he ran his hand down the back of his head, "The core's control interface was destroyed in the attack and the only thing that can activate it now is Serenity and she's offline until Evan wakes."

The group began to murmur as they tried to think up a solution. Vought looked around and found who he was looking for, one of the few red heads in the room, "Bale what do you think? You have any ideas?"

The murmuring stopped as 2nd Lieutenant Sarah Bale stood up, "Sir the only option I see is landing." Everyone looked at her as she continued, "Look I've done the calculations and if we keep our trajectory shallow, we have a 90% chance of surviving the landing; 95% if we land in the water even with only one engine. We know for a fact the cloak is still working because it activated itself like always and the 302s lost us for a few minutes. We can successfully hide down there but we need to do it soon, we get too low and we won't be able to correct our approach." She stated as she sat down.

Vought smiled as he looked at Ross who nodded, they had both come to the same conclusion. "Alright then Lieutenant plan the course and the burn data, you have an hour."

Bale nodded as she left the conference room.

Vought looked to the remaining crew, "Alright then, we have 75 minutes before we need to start our descent, get the ship secured and ready for reentry." As the remainder of the crew stood up to leave Vought activated his radio.

"Alright Reaper 1 take three others and go find us a landing location. Stay hidden and do NOT under any circumstance start a firefight. This ship is going to start burning up soon; our window appears to be Europe so find us a secluded location."

"Understood Sir, Reaper and Hydra flights will recon the area, Hunter and Knife flights will stay with the ship."

He keyed his radio, "Roger that Reaper that sounds good you're clear to break formation."

Outside the ship four of the 302s broke formation and began a sharp descent into the atmosphere.

Reaper 1 – Captain Carl "Edge" Grant, 25,000 ft. over the Atlantic

"Something's bugging me but I don't know what…" thought Grant as the 4 F-302s cut through the sky at 3500 mph. Grant and his wingman were running low CAP while Hydra flight took the high CAP at 40,000 ft.

"Hey Slim,"he called over the radio to Hydra 1, "You notice anything since we reentered? Something's been bugging me and I have no idea what it is, over."

"It wouldn't happen to be the shape of the continents would it? I noticed it too they're… off to some degree. We should check it when we get back into orbit."

Grant shook his head in wonder, their first trip and they had already discovered something different. Looking at his mapping radar he could see land on the very edge of the screen and a quick look out the canopy confirmed it. They were approaching Ireland.

Above him Hydra flight took formation and began scanning the ground that Reaper flight flew over. The mission was tedious but important. In orbit the Borealis repaired her long range receiver and paired up with the relay satellite she dropped, she was able to see every image the fighters recorded. With the scanning of Ireland showing no good places to hide, the fighters banked over and began hiding south with France on the horizon.

15 minutes later

The 302s had slowed down to prevent being detected by sound. Passing near Dover the pilots received their first signs of technology.

"Hey lead I'm picking up a radar, it isn't strong enough to paint me but still it's there, you getting it too?" called Reaper-2.

Grant looked at his threat receiver and sure enough, he was getting a signal, "Borealis you seeing this?" Grant waited for a response.

"Affirmative Reaper-1, judging by the frequency and power output I'd put the current technology level of the Earth around World War II. Keep your altitude over 35,000 to avoid any collisions or sightings, Borealis out."

"Copy all Borealis Reaper flight climbing to safe altitude." He called out as he signaled his wingman to climb. "Hydra, climb to Angels 50 and continue scanning, keep speed under Mach 2."

"Copy Reaper, initiating climb."

The 302s continued there southern scan, unbeknownst to them, they were about to make first contact.

Date unknown 2200 Hours (ship time)– Reaper-1 – Captain Carl "Edge" Grant, 35,000 ft. over the Mediterranean

After failing to find a location and the shrinking number of landing locations the flight of four cut over Spain and began scanning it and France with their sights set on Italy as they increased speed to over Mach 5.

Grant's radio came to life, "Reaper-1 this is the Borealis how copy, over?"

"Roger Borealis, send traffic," Grant responded.

"We think we found a landing location in the Med, you can stop your scanning."

"Roger Borealis, Reaper and Hydra RTB at this time;" a short pause filled the airwaves before the ship responded.

"Uh negative RTB at this time Reaper, standby for new orders."

"New orders huh, things are about to get interesting…" thought Grant while tightening his oxygen mask. By this point in time the 302s had begun flying over Italy streaking towards the Adriatic Sea.

"Wonder what these new orders are SHIT!" exclaimed Grant, his threat receiver bleated a warning as he yanked on his control stick, a ruby beam of light passing through where he was. "What the hell was that? -2 you see where that came from?"

"Uh yes but… I don't believe it."

Grant rolled over and looked back down to see what was going on. What he saw made his jaw drop in his mask. "Where the hell are their pants?!"

June 13, 1945 1100 Hours – 501st JFW, Skies of Venezia

"Damn it there's so many of them," thought Eila as she dodged a Neuroi, firing her MG 42 at it as she past it; her sustained fire finally ending it in a burst of white shards.

The 501st scrambled to intercept the unscheduled Neuroi attack and for the past hour had been battling it. The single Neuroi turned out be a large carrier type and it kept dispensing smaller ones. What should have been a short battle was turning for the worse as the Witches were quickly losing magic.

Eila dropped in altitude as her magic alerted her to a threat. She corkscrewed in the air as the Neuroi ignored her and made a beeline for Major Sakamoto. She raised her gun and pulled the trigger only for it to click. "Not now!" "Major look out," she called as she tried to clear the jam.

The major was scanning the carrier type for its core so that they could end the battle, "Damn it where is it." She growled as she continued to scan when she heard Eila call out. Spinning around she had no time to react as the small winged creature began charging its laser. "Not enough time," she calculated as she reached for her sword getting ready to take the hit. The Neuroi fired, only to slam into a large shield. The creature bleated in surprise before being destroyed by Lt. Hartmann.

"Thanks Miyafuji, nicely done."

Yoshika smiled and panted as dropped her shield, her magic reserves reaching the critical point. "Thanks Major I'm glad I helped."

The Major frowned as she looked at Miyafuji and the others around her. "We can't keep this up much longer; we'll run out of magic soon. We need to attack now!" "Hartmann, Barkhorn, Yeager form up we need to press an attack on the carrier; Bishop cover us."

"R-Roger that Ma'am I'll try my best," responded Lynette as she floated away from the battlefield, her Boys Anti-tank rifle at the ready. She sighted in on the major and her group as they fought their way towards the carrier type. She noticed Yoshika and Francesca hanging back looking visibly tired and this strengthened her; she was going to protect her friends.

Reaper-1 – Captain Carl "Edge" Grant, 35,000 ft. over the battle

"Borealis please advise over, these kids are getting their asses kicked!" Grant was visibly worried; after the initial shock of seeing a bunch of teenage girls flying around with propellers on their feet, wearing no pants and carrying heavy weapons, the orbiting fighters noticed that they were on their last legs. They could see the younger two of the group hanging back breathing heavily with one of the older girls protecting them. The four eldest of the group were making an impressive charge towards the enemy but years of experience told him that they weren't going to make it. He gripped his control stick with white knuckles while growling, they needed to make a move soon or these girls were going to die.

"Reaper-1 weapons free, eliminate the bandits and head to the following coordinates, we are beginning reentry."

Grant grinned as he snapped his visor down locking the coordinates for after the fight, "All flights we're cleared to engage take combat spacing."

"Two"

"Roger Hydra engaging."

The quartet of fighters went into trailing formations, rolled and nosed over towards the enemy targets, attack radars on.

"Tally-ho," Grant heard as they reached visual range of their targets. His radar beeping and growled as it locked onto the first target he could see, the carrier. "Reaper-1, Fox Three," he called as the AMRAAM leapt off the rail, streaking towards the target.

The missile screeched in at 4 times the speed of sound; its active seeker head locked firmly on the large alien. Within seconds the missile reached the target and detonated blowing a large hole in it causing it to screech in pain. He waited for his wingman to launch.

"Reaper-2 is gadget bent, extending," he heard from his wingman as he pulled up, "Shit this is not what we need. Hope Hydra does better." he thought as he formed up with his wingman for another pass.

Hydra-1- Captain Richard "Slim" Michaels

Michaels checked his weapons load noting he only had one missile left and half of his remaining gun ammo. He looked at his wingman hoping his beam weapons were functioning because besides those, he had no missiles remaining. He shrugged as he snapped his visor down; there was no way he could let these girls get hurt. Watching Reaper-1 hit the large target he switched to his railguns sighting in two of the smaller enemies as they stopped their attack on the girls and switched their attention to them.

He entered range, "Hydra-1, Guns, Guns, Guns," he called as he depressed the trigger, throwing hypersonic slugs downrange. His targets exploded into white shards as he pulled up, vortices forming from his wingtips as he slammed the throttle to max. "Splash two," he called while glancing to his right. He watched his wingman take a hit, shields shinning white.

"Hydra-2, Guns, Guns, Guns," his wingman called as he dove, twin beams of blue light stabbing out from the front of his fighter. The two streams of superheated plasma streaked down and punched through three of the bandits causing them to vanish just like their brethren, "Splash three." As he began to pull up the bandits finally retaliated throwing red beams back at them.

Both members of Hydra flight rolled and juked their nimble fighter across the sky; inertial dampeners struggling to keep up. When -2 took the hit he calmly shrugged it off, his shields taking it in stride as the beam dissipated. As Michaels and his wingman went extended for another go, Reaper flight began their next pass.

Reaper-1 – Captain Carl "Edge" Grant

"-2 what's your status," Grant inquired to his unfortunate wingman, besides his missiles, Reaper-2 was out of ammo.

"Three minutes for a reset Lead, orders?"

"Damn only one option then," he thought, "-2 take lead, launch boresight."

"Roger -1 taking lead, engaging," Reaper-2 called, pulling ahead. This time the hostiles were prepared for them; the smaller craft racing towards their fighters while the larger craft had turned to face them. It was at this point in time that Grant noticed that the hole he put in the large craft was almost completely gone. "It's healing itself!" he thought a knot forming in the pit of his stomach as he remembered the Replicators, the action was quite familiar.

As Reaper pressed the attack, the Neuroi committed themselves to the new threat; completely forgetting about the threat behind them.

501st JFW, Skies of Venezia

Mio and the others had stopped their attack when Reaper-1's attack damaged the carrier. Her and the others watched in fascination as the unknown aircraft attacked the Neuroi head on.

"Wow check out those aircraft they look pretty sweet," Captain Shirley Yeager stated as she began drooling. "Wonder if they would let me take a look at one… or maybe even fly one…" she giggled as her eyes began to glaze over.

Mio looked at her subordinate, "Captain Yeager how do you know they're aircraft, they could be a new type of Neuroi; we've seen them attack each other before."

"Nah ma'am their manned, you can tell by the way they maneuver; see that first pair," she indicated as Reaper flight pulled off and climbed. A loud shriek followed by the destruction of two of the small types caused them to turn around. "Look at those weapons, wow I want one of those…" she began before shaking her head, "Anyway see how they fly." She pointed at Hydra-2 as he fired destroying three of the small type. "They're good but they aren't perfect," she began as Hydra-1 pulled off early to dodge an attack. "If they were Neuroi they would be exactly the same distance from each other at all times, or they wouldn't fly in formation like that. Anyway ma'am shouldn't we attack now? I think they forgot about us," she asked pointing with her thumb over her shoulder.

Mio focused on them once again as the large type turned to face the fighters finally noticing something. "The core, I found it! Barkhorn, Yeager, Hartmann on me," she yelled as she ditched her gun and reached for her sword accelerating towards the carrier. Barkhorn and Yeager hot on her heels destroying the small types that remained behind, with Hartmann taking up the rear.

"Just a bit closer and this will end," she thought her sword shinning as she pumped as much of her magic as possible into it. Spinning around one final small type she entered range. "It's time to end this!" she yelled Reppumaru shinning white over her head. "REPPUZAN!" the large blade of energy bisecting the carrier; the core finally destroyed the remaining small types exploded ending the nearly two hour fight. "It is done," she thought while panting, the shards of the Neuroi falling all around her. She finally noticed somebody had been trying to contact her.

"Mio damn it what's your status, answer me!" Mio chuckled as she heard Minna's worried voice. Her chuckle turned into her loud, booming laugh as Minna continued to worry. "I'm fine, Commander, we're all fine. The fight just took a little longer than normal," she responded, her one visible eye twinkling. Her smile dropped, "we did have a little help though," she added while looking up at the orbiting fighters.

"Damn it Mio answer faster next time," she sobbed, "I thought we lost you." Her voice steeled before continuing, "What do you mean by help? Eila mentioned something about some aircraft assisting you, which unit are they with, I'd like to thank them."

"Which unit indeed, we have no idea what they even are." "Unknown Commander we don't recognize what they are or even the type of weapons they're using. They tore through the small types with ease and even managed to severely damage the large type. What was strange though was they didn't press their attack, they broke off and began picking off the small types."

"Interesting do they appear hostile?"

She looked up at the fighters again as the rest of the witches grouped up; Lucchini holding onto Yeager preventing her from flying up to them and Bishop squeezing the life out of Miyafuji. She shook her head happy Clostermann wasn't here otherwise she would never hear the end of it. Looking at the fighters she finally responded. "I don't think so commander, they assisted us and now it seems they are waiting for us to leave before moving on."

"Have you tried contacting them yet? We need to thank them and find out who they are with."

"No commander we haven't, I'll try to contact them now," she fiddled with her radio, "Attention unknown aircraft…"

Reaper-1 – Captain Carl "Edge" Grant

"Attention unknown aircraft this is Major Mio Sakamoto of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, we'd like to thank you for your assistance today; we couldn't have won without it, please respond over," Grant heard through his headset.

Since the fight had started, the Borealis had cracked the relatively non-existent encryption on the ladies radios and transmitted the codes to the 302s. They had been monitoring them ever since.

Grant looked down at them as the circled above. He identified the one speaking as the one that had cut the large bandit in half, with a freaking sword of all things. What the hell was going on? "Borealis please advise over."

He waited for a response, "Edge this is Crosshair," he stiffened as he realized who was speaking, "Go ahead and respond, we're going to have to make first contact sooner or later we might as well start with a good impression." He paused before continuing, "No names, no country, no rank, and no classified information; is that understood?"

"Copy all Crosshair," he took a deep breath before keying his transmitter, "We copy Major, this is… Edge, glad to be of assistance."

501st JFW, Skies of Venezia

"We copy Major; this is… Edge, glad to be of assistance."

The Witches continued to hover as they listened to their radios. Mio smiled before transmitting, "It's nice to finally meet you Edge; we've got a few questions for you and your wingmen if you don't mind following us back to our base. We can get these questions answered and can thank your command." As she waited for his response, another voice began transmitting.

"Hey Edge what kind of aircraft is that I've never seen anything like it before, you mind sharing anything about it? When you come back with us you mind letting me sit in the cockpit, maybe let me take it for a spin?"

Mio glared at Captain Yeager, "That was highly uncalled for Captain we don't know anything about these people."

Shirley rolled her eyes, "Major if they wanted to hurt us they would have done it by now. I'm just trying to start some small talk."

"Uh thanks for the offer major but we can't accept your request at this time, as for the other request; I can't share anything about it, no, and no sorry ma'am maybe next time."

"Ah man next time then huh Edge? I'll hold you to that."

The girls heard him chuckle before he continued, "I trust you'll try that." A pause before he continued, "Before we leave however…"

Mio raised an eyebrow at the amusement she detected in his voice before some movement caught her eye. One of the ships above them dropped into a steep dive headed straight for them. As the girls raised their weapons she held out her hand to stop them; just what was this man going to do?

Right before running into them the strange craft rolled inverted, pulled a hard bank, and flew directly over them, with no more than a meter of separation. The girls looked on in wonder as the masked pilot looked down on them and raise one hand in salute as he passed over. After passing over them the nimble craft flipped over once again and stood on its tail, fire spewing from its exhaust as it climbed straight up to regroup with the others. As the fighters grouped up they began to climb; the girls watched as they all wagged their wings before disappearing into the clouds; a sonic boom was heard as the unseen craft accelerated away.

Yeager climbed up into the clouds to watch them leave. "What do you see captain?" inquired Mio.

"They're gone major, I can't see anything."

"What an interesting group?" she smiled as she began to laugh, "What interesting men indeed."

"Um I don't know if this is right time to say this but I may have seen those ships in a vision…"

"WHAT!" all the girls turned to look at Eila as she shrugged with a nervous smile on her face.

June 14, 1945 1200 Hours – Unmarked Island, 250 miles off the coast of Rome

The entire crew assembled in jumper bay 2 waiting for the Colonel to begin his briefing of the situation.

Vought walked into the bay looking haggard, he still hadn't slept since they had arrived in this reality and the news he carried made him feel worse. He walked up to the makeshift podium as he gazed upon the men and women under his command.

"Ladies and gentlemen here is our situation. From what we've manged to gather the year is 1945 and unlike our world, all of Earth has united in a mission to fight the alien invaders known as the Neuroi." A screen flickered to life behind him showing an image of the Neuroi recorded by Hydra-1. "According to the reports we've intercepted conventional forces are practically useless against them. The only weapon humanity has against these invaders are groups of young women known as Witches with unknown abilities." The screen changed to show Major Sakamoto cutting the Neuroi in half.

He sighed before going on, "As most of you know," staring straight at the guilty party in question, "We have made first contact with a group known as the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, and we tracked their radio signals back to their base." The screen changed again showing the aerial view of a large castle. "While the group knows we exist, they have no idea who, or where we are. Based on the reports we've gathered the 501st has been the most successful of the fighter wings but this information is only based on what's in the region; we will be deploying a satellite soon to gather more data, anyway onward to ship status."

Vought pulled out a data pad as he went on, "We sustained substantial damage during the attack and lost a few key systems." A blown-up view of the ship appeared on the screen; damaged systems highlighted, "We have a major hull breach on deck 4, and have lost power to our defensive weapon systems. The ventral shield emitters are mostly destroyed and have one functioning engine. Until three hours ago the 302 bay was sealed shut by a stray energy blast and we left one 302 back home leaving us with 15 fighters." The Colonel had a sad look in his eyes as he continued again, "In the attack we lost five people including engineering head Lt. Tom Stanson." The crew lowered in heads in a moment of silence for their fallen comrades.

"Our primary goal is to get this ship fully operational and back into orbit; based on what we seen this creatures are unable to climb into space. We need to get up there as soon as possible. Crew dismissed."

As the crew stood up to begin exiting the door slid open revealing a heavily bandaged man as he limped into the bay glancing behind him; his short blond hair barely visible. He glanced forward as everyone gathered stared at him with interest; his eyes scanned the bay till he found who he was looking for. "Colonel," he yelled as he limped across the room.

Vought looked up to see Dr. Evan Lansby, the ships head scientist, moving towards him. "Lansby what the hell are you doing out of medical, I thought Pierce told you not to leave?"

Lansby adjusted his glasses as he came up to Vought and his staff, "It's important Colonel," he responded. Vought nodded and beckoned the Doctor to continue, "Sir…"

As the doctor finished his report the staff was rocked; Vought punched the wall angrily, "Damn it, stupid Friday the 13th…this isn't fair." The colonel slowly turned around and approached the podium again, the crew waiting silently for him to speak.

"Dr. Lansby has just updated me on the status of the ARD." He began the room dead silent as the crew stood waiting. "The drive is in one piece however…" he looked straight at them, "The nav computer memory was damaged; we have no idea how to get home."

Well ladies and gentlemen another chapter ready for deployment. I had fun writing this one, I hope you guys like it too. Anyway I've decided I'm going to try and update every Friday. Depending on my mood I might throw a chapter up early. Still need a beta or two. See you next time, Ghostrider21 signing off.