October 1, SY 2149
It felt lonely inside the walls of the Republic.
If you were to ask the Witch why it felt lonely here, she wouldn't have been able to articulate it well enough for you to understand what it was that was really eating at her.
She was surrounded by the most number of Eighty-Six she had ever seen in a particular place, and was given missions with people who were interesting and had downtime between those missions where she got to know them better. But that didn't mean that she didn't feel lonely. There was something eating at her, that made things feel that much worse being inside the walls. Maybe it was the fact that she was near constantly being asked for by the different Handlers under Captain Milizé's command. Or maybe it was the fact that she didn't have her Squadron, in much the same way her Familiars, or even the other squadrons that had made it into the walls did.
However, just because she and her Familiars were no longer a thirteen person contingent of Processors, didn't mean that their work was cut out for them.
There was still a lot that needed doing, scavenging for supplies, going out on patrols, bolstering defensive lines that were still holding back the Legion from advancing further into District Forty-Three.
But that didn't mean that she was expecting the call that she got from Captain Milizé — Bloody Regina — about redeploying VALKYRIE squadron away from the defensive lines, and towards the Eastern Front. Part of her mind was aware of how silly it seemed — having spent all that time walking from the Eastern Front's wards, to the Gran Mur, and then the day it took to find the other Processors under Bloody Regina's command here in the Republic's walls.
"Aerial, do you have a moment?" The silver-bell like voice chirped from the Para-RAID around her neck.
The Witch, not needing to take her eyes away from the view of the outside of her Juggernaut, continued to look forward as she responded. "Yeah, what can I do for you, Captain?"
"I have a special mission for you, and for some of the other Processors who are in their fourth and fifth years."
The Witch raised an unseen eyebrow at this. It wasn't unheard of, in the weeks since she and her Familiars had made it to the Forty-Third District and had met up with the other Processors under the direction of Bloody Regina — Captain Vladilena Milizé. The more proficient processors would be selected for special missions at the direction of "her Majesty" as Captain Milizé's personal squadron, BRÍSINGAMEN, called her. The Witch wasn't sure what she thought about that nickname, just that it was a nickname that the Captain didn't seem bothered by, and didn't make any attempts to dissuade the practice, even among Processors who hadn't been under her direct command prior to the Large Scale Offensive. The Witch, however, didn't call her that.
"We received intel from some Processors I dispatched to the Gran Mur, to operate the long-range observation towers there, and they discovered something… Unusual. I'd like for you and and VALKYRIE to return to the Capitol building. You'll receive a full briefing from Cyclops and myself once you return. I've already reached out to VALKYRIE's provisional combat commander and they're already on their way back from patrol and I have someone just a few blocks behind you on patrol, so you're free to come back."
"Understood, I'm on my way back now." The Witch said, and adjusted the direction Aerial was walking in.
"Thank you, meet me in the first conference room, and we'll get started once you're here." The resonance cut.
It wasn't a long walk back to the Capitol building. Where she quickly dismounted Aerial in one of the city garages-turned-Juggernaut Hangar, and then walked the half a block to the building where the first conference room was. The city had been quiet the last few weeks since she and her Familiars had arrived here. The Legion seemed rather occupied with something else, and were leaving them alone for the time being.
She walked along the street that had been turned into barricade after barricade, and caught glimpses inside buildings that had been turned into barracks, shelters, and kitchens alike. All for the purpose of trying their best to survive to see another day. They didn't know when the Legion might attack next, leaving anyone who wasn't an Eighty-Six on edge. The Alba civilians who huddled inside the barricades and in the shelters, as well as the Alba who volunteered for guard duty or any of the other duties that were needed, all seemed to jump at just about any shadow that moved. There had been a few friendly fire incidents in the last few weeks since she and her Familiars had arrived, and based on what The Witch had heard, it sounded like there was no malice in the incidents, just simple nerves. Those who had been injured were being treated the best they could, and had only suffered non-life-threatening wounds.
She meandered past one of the makeshift hospitals that was being used for the non-threatening injuries, and not for surgeries or anything like that, and was grateful that the only thing she heard was a baby crying, and the voice of its mother trying to calm it with a lullaby.
Ascending the steps of the Capitol building, she was not stopped by the Eighty-Six or the Republic military officers holding rifles. They all knew who she was by sight — the only Processor with her specific combination of being a Pyrope and Celesta — and they let her pass into the building. The only reason there was security at all was because there were worries about the Alba civilians possibly making their way to the make-shift armory inside, and using it to try and attack Eighty-Six. So far, nothing of the like had happened, but there were still worries about it. The Alba citizens weren't exactly friendly to their Colorata saviors, and were making that displeasure known.
The Witch walked into the building, the cooler air inside the building threatening to send a shiver down her spine, compared to walking in the late-summer evening warmth. She was in a large, circular atrium, that had branching hallways in each direction from the center point. She took the right-most hallway, and was almost immediately faced with a conference room that had been turned into a briefing room for Processors. Inside, there were faces familiar and not. The twelve of her Familiars, and then handfuls of other Processors of other Squadrons. Including those that she did recognize as being BRÍSINGAMEN, including the multicolored eyes of their squadron captain — Cyclops.
"Hey li'l Witch." Cyclops said with a grin as she entered.
"H-hello." The Witch responded, and moved to take one of the empty seats in this room.
Through the door, clicking of heels could be heard, and before long, Captain Milizé entered the room carrying a tablet, her Prussian blue and white uniform a stark contrast to that of the Eighty-Six's various colors and patterns on their uniform jackets.
"Are we all here?" The Blood-Stained Queen asked.
"Yes, your Majesty." Cyclops responded, standing up from her seat, and taking steps over towards where her commander stood, facing the rest of the Processors.
"Alright, we'll get started then." Milizé said, turning down the lights in the room, and switching on a projector that flashed to life, displaying a topological map of the terrain around the Gran Mur, and with another tap of a tablet, an overlay of the map of the country before the war. The Witch blinked, not recognizing many of the shapes on the map, but recognizing railroad track markings that snaked around hills, mountains, rivers and lakes. One of the railroad tracks was marked with a red X. "About an hour ago, our long-range scouts on the Gran Mur reported a disturbance of Eintagsfliege on the horizon of the Eastern front. Using the sniper-configuration Juggernauts, and optical sensors that are mounted on the Gran Mur, we resolved this distance to be at greater than two-hundred and fifty kilometers… Roughly 4 hours away by Juggernaut at max cruise output."
Someone raised their hand. "Are the Legion moving?"
"We weren't able to ascertain a movement direction at present. But this is within the range of the Ultra-Long-Range cannon that attacked us in the opening minutes of the Large-Scale Offensive, so it's likely that they are either relocating the weapon, or are concealing movements within the perimeter that the Eintagsfliege have established." Captain Milizé explained. "Either way, we're organizing a strike into the heart of Legion territory, to attempt to eliminate the Legion's Ultra-Long-Range cannon, and prevent any further strikes from occurring against the Republic."
Another Processor raised their hand. "Why haven't there been further Ultra-Long-Range attacks since the opening of the LSO?" The shorthand for the Large-Scale Offensive was common among the military and Processors, but wasn't typically used by the person giving the briefing.
"We don't know. We've not been able to witness, or received any other reports of strikes from this weapon against the Republic. It seems unlikely that it's simply reloading, so it may be damaged due to a misfire, or something of that nature… Although we suspect this is a railgun, rather than a conventional cannon, so at this point, we have no idea why it hasn't fired on us." The Captain responded. "We did initially estimate that the railgun's range is about four-hundred kilometers. So the outskirts of the Gran Mur are within firing distance, but the vast majority of the Republic's districts are not, the exceptions being the small settlements nearest to the Gran Mur that so far, seem abandoned based on reports from all the Processors who have made it into the walls."
There were murmurs among the Processors, some unsure why they had been summoned. The Witch, however, was putting two and two together, to figure out what there was a need for experienced Processors for.
"In essence, we're going to formulate a strike against the Legion's ultra-long-range weapon." Cyclops said, cutting over the mumbling and murmurs. "This isn't happening right away, but we expect it to be a long hike, so we've got a few days to prep before we head out."
The Witch raised her hand this time, and was promptly acknowledged by Captain Milizé — "Who is going to lead the unit that's assigned to this mission?"
"I am." The Captain responded. Someone chuckled. "That's not a joke."
"I believe you, ma'am. But how? You're not a Processor." The Witch commented, accurately.
"We've found an armored car that was in development in the fifty-second District. It should hold up to sustained Amaise and some Grauwolf fire. Anything more than that and we'll be in trouble, I suppose." The Captain said, smiling grimly.
"The simple answer is to not run into anything bigger than an Amaise, I suppose." One of the Familiars said, and someone swatted at them.
Cyclops chuckled. "There doesn't seem to be much Legion activity between us and where we assume the Ultra-Long-Range cannon is. At least that's what our scouts say. And as far as getting to the Gran Mur, we'll be moving along the same path that The Witch and her 'Familiars' took, it should barely take us a day to get to the Gran Mur, and then from there, a couple days to where we predict the cannon is."
"What about supplies?"
The Captain spoke up again. "We'll be moving with some M101 Barretts that were in production in the fifty-second district as well. We'll have more than enough guns."
"And about movement, again." The Witch spoke up. "Are we predicting it to be moving along the railroad tracks? Does that seem likely?"
"It does. But we wont know until we're practically on top of it." The Captain replied. "But once we're there, we'll be able to direct interception cannon fire, and proceed with a Juggernaut assault against it."
"Make sense?" Cyclops added.
"Yes, ma'am." The Witch responded, and the murmurs died down.
"With that, the briefing is over. Please prepare yourselves to leave in the next few days. We're hoping to have the movement information figured out by then through continuous tracking."
There were responses of 'yeah sure', and 'understood', as the Processors stood up from their seats, and started to disperse.
The Witch was one of the last people to leave. Watching as Cyclops and Captain Milizé talked in the front of the room, even as the Processors milled about and left the room behind. She closed her eyes and crossed her arms for a moment, and within that moment, promptly got the sense of someone standing nearby her. She opened her eyes, and looked up at the person standing above her.
It was Sabina.
"Do you think we'll be able to do this?" Sabina asked.
"We've got us thirteen, and a handful of other Processors, including BRÍSINGAMEN… If we don't run into Legion on our way to the cannon, we should be fine. If I had to guess, once we're inside the Eintagsfliege perimeter, we'll run into issues then. But at that point we'll almost be on top of it." The Witch explained, standing up and adjusting the sleeves on her uniform jacket, rolling the back to just before her elbows. Sabina took a step away as she did. "What about you? Feel up for another hike?"
Sabina didn't smile at the joke. "Not much choice if we want to make it through this."
"Fair."
October 11, SY 2149
She wasn't surprised, but was still disappointed when she first laid eyes on the Legion's ultra-long-range cannon. It had to have been massive to have the muzzle velocity and the range that Captain Milizé had predicted. But still, nothing could've prepared her for the monster that they had found in the center of the Eintagsfliege's perimeter. Hundreds of meters long, and who knew how high the elevation of the barrel was, for the height of the cenitpede-esque Legion unit, with two pairs of light blue wings, giving the unit the impression of both a butterfly, and a centipede at the same time. But it also confirmed suspicions that she had. That it was a railgun, and that it was completely mobile. Of course, watching the single, unknown, polished-bone colored unit attack that monstrosity by itself, made the scene all the more impossible to believe.
Within moments, after that bone-colored unit began its sprint towards the Legion, Captain Milizé had sized up the situation.
"All units!" She ordered over the Para-RAID. "Adjust your fire for the rotary cannons!"
The Witch flicked her eyes over the shape of the hull, quickly sighting in the rotary cannons that had begun to spin as that unknown unit sprinted towards it — preparing to fire at them.
"Fire!" Milizé ordered. The Witch, and the twenty other units in this expeditionary force, opened fire — their 57 millimeter smoothbore guns opening fire with APFSDS shells and High-Explosive Anti-Tank rounds alike. All crossing the distance from where they were huddled in the forest, to the Legion unit in the blink of an eye. Exploding against the armor, and setting off various panels of reactive armor, something that the Witch had never seen before — but in the same moment that the Processor's fire impacted, and the smoke cleared — some of the rotary cannons of that Legion unit had been damaged, or outright destroyed by the Eighty-Six. Many of the shots hadn't made much impact at all, or outright missed.
The Witch felt a twinge, if nothing else, of pride at the fact that the gun where she had zeroed her sights — had been destroyed.
Within moments, another burst of fire rained down against the Legion unit — this time from the sky. A burst of orange and reds as cluster munitions that had been directed at the order of Captain Milizé, rained down, destroying whatever wasn't hit by the Processor's volley.
"All units! Incendiary rounds are twenty seconds out! Fall back!" The Captain ordered, and the Witch pulled on the Control sticks of her Juggernaut, just in time to see the bone-colored retreat as well, still facing the Legion unit, as if the pilot of that bone-colored unknown had heard Milizé's order as well. The Witch didn't question it, simply moving back further into the forest, and watching as the mortar shells rained down onto the Legion Unit, first getting cut in the air, releasing its flammable payload, and then igniting it through simple sparks once that fuel rained down onto the unit. The machine flailed about, almost as if it were a real insect, having been caught on fire or having flown into the sparks of a bonfire and been ignited that way. It was an almost human-like response… Was this unit a Black Sheep? Or perhaps a Shepard?
Yet, neither that bone-colored unit, or the Legion moved towards one another in aggression as the Legion flailed about for just the few moments it took for The Witch to reposition. But that was all it took for the fuel to burn away, and the fires to extinguish themselves. The wings unfolded themselves in the Legion's panic to extinguish itself — unfurling into light-blue tendrils, that began to swing at the Bone-Colored unit, scraping at the ground in a fury, yet never coming quite close enough to actually harm that unit — who simply stood still as the tendrils tore at the ground in a fury.
As the tendrils tore at the ground, they grabbed at whatever fodder it could, and swinging back, would wind up, and then throw with precision towards the unknown unit. The pipes and even metal fragments from the railroad tracks it stood on, were tossed through the air at the machine standing still. Before long, the tendrils broke off, seemingly in a random direction, and it was only then, that the bone-colored unit began its dead sprint back at the Legion unit. Quickly attempting to clamber up the side of it.
"All units! Fire at the legs! Keep it from attacking!" The Captain ordered, and with a flick of the control sticks of her Juggernaut — the Witch squeezed the trigger, firing a shell at the legs of the massive hulk. She watched other tracers arc through the air, as they fired at the Legion unit.
The Eighty-Six's 57 millimeter shells gave that bone-colored attacker, the opening it needed. It shot what looked like wire anchors, and darted up the side of the Legion unit. Blue tendrils attacking it as it did. First the Witch could see what looked like one of the legs get sheered off — then one of its blades. But before long, at the apex of its jump over the railgun's base — the unit fired its wire anchors again, and pulled itself to a spot just behind the railgun — its barrel burrowing into a spot in the armor, and sparks shooting from one of the unit's legs as it anchored itself in place. And a moment later, a shower of smoke and sparks, as the pilot pulled the trigger.
In the tenth second — there was silence, the world didn't move.
In the seventh second — the tendrils of the Legion unit, slumped to the ground.
In the fifth second — the bone-colored unit on top of the Legion, look like it attempted to free itself, but wasn't able to.
In the third second — the Legion unit seemed to slump to the ground.
In the last second — the Witch wondered if they had won.
There was a teeth-rattling explosion, that shook the trees the Witch was hiding in, and threatened to blow her backwards with its shockwave as it rocketed through the air and across the ground. As she braced herself, she caught sight of the bone-colored unit, go spiraling through the air, in a direction that placed it generally towards where she was hidden in the forest.
In the five seconds since the Legion unit self-destructed — the Processors waited with baited breath for someone to give orders. But the Witch seemed to see it first — the armored car of Captain Milizé, racing from the forest, through the field of Eintagsfliege, and towards that now singed-bone colored unit. It stopped some meters away, just beneath the crest of the hill, and then The Witch saw the Captain quite literally jump out of the car, with a rifle slung over her shoulder, and ran through that field — disturbing the Eintagsfliege as she went — towards that unit that had destroyed the Legion unit.
There were shouts from the Processors — and The Witch saw that the Captain lifted her hand to her neck, and shut off her Para-RAID — letting their complaints go unheard.
"What the hell do we do?!" Someone shouted.
"Your Majesty!" Cyclops shouted, still trying to get her attention, despite knowing all too well that Lena had shut off her Para-RAID, and could no longer be resonated with. "Shit!" The Witch watched as Cyclops' unit began to dart out from the tree-line. The Witch promptly followed, and a quick check of Aerial's IFF range-finding system, showed that no one else was following, either too stunned, or too confused to follow.
It took several seconds before either Cyclops or The Witch began to crest the hill. And as they did — Lena did turn around her hand extended, ordering them to stop, and flicked on her Para-RAID. "Your Majesty!"
"I'm fine!" The Captain responded.
Cyclops clicked her tongue. "If something happens, make a run for it, my Queen! Without any protection, you'll just get in the way in a fight!"
"No. We don't know that something will happen." The Captain responded. But still, watching this scene play out, was something that made The Witch tense up as she approached that unit. All the while talking both over the Para-RAID and through the sensors of that other unit.
"…I am Captain Vladilena Milizé of the former Republic Defense Forces… And I will never run from this war!"