Strike Witches Assault: Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Invasion From Above

Sakamoto jumped out of bed to the sound of an alarm, knocking Yoshika out of bed. "Stay here, I'll go see what's going on." And with that, Sakamoto ran upstairs, leaving a worried Yoshika down below.

"Captain Tanaka, what's going on?"

"I think you better see for yourself." He handed her some binoculars.

"All I see are some dark clouds."

"Exactly." He said. "That's ALL you see. No waves. No rain. No signs of wind." Then Sakamoto snapped.

"Damn it!" She threw the binoculars. "Not now!"

"Go suit up, I'll ready the ship." Sakamoto nodded, and headed back down. He grabbed the mic for the ship. "To all crew mates, all signs point to a Neuroi attack! Jim Sterlson, Prepare the turrets. All available pilots, get into an available plane. Sakamoto will guide you."

On her way down, she heard Yoshika crying in the corner of their room. "Yoshika, what's wrong?"

*Snob* "I'm... I'm scared. I'm not sure what the Neuroi are, but... I..." She merely hid her head within her beetle-positioned body.

"Look, the Neuroi are why you and I are here." Yoshika looked up. "But you don't need to fight them just yet." She patted Yoshika on the head. "Now, just remain calm. I'll be back."

Sakamoto put on the backpack. She pressed a button, causing it to squeeze itself to fit her figure, and wings spanned out of it's sides, making it a jet pack. Picking up a black box, she focused her magic into it - causing it to take the form of a giant cannon. Finally, she took an ear-piece out of her pockets, and placed it into her... well, ear. Pressing down into it, it turned into a head-set. "Captain Tanaka, this is Mio Sakamoto, ready for flight."

"I hear you, Sakamoto. I'll unlock the main elevator when the ships ready." He picked the mic back up, and said "All pilots have 3 minutes to get ready. Repeat. 3 minutes to deployment."

"Hey, Kyle!" The Liberion pilot turned his head to see a fellow pilot waving at him. "You can take my plane. Commander Sakamoto will need you up there more than me. Beside, I hear you've fought these thing before."

"Wait!" Kyle looked over that the plane. "Aren't you the captain?"

"Not this time, they need someone more experienced than me." He handed him his helmet and goggles. "I'm going to arm up and help the marksmen this time."

"Hang on, you're going to have to pass Sakamoto's room, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Can you do me a favor?"

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Yoshika, while no longer crying, was still nervous about, well, everything. "Hey, miss?" Yoshika looked up, "Are you Yoshika?"

"Yea, why?"

"Here." He handed her some goggles. "This is a gift from Kyle. It was his first ever set of goggles for flight." Yoshika took the goggles, and put them on.

Wow... they fit surprisingly well.

"Sorry, but I need to get up to the deck." Yoshika shook her head, and he headed off.

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Kyle entered his plane. After closing the cockpit, he buckled up, and began to flick two switches on the right side. After the two lights above them lit up, he grabbed the mic. "Listen, this is Kyle Yeaser. By your captain's request, I will be serving as your captain for today fight. First of all, roll call. I need all of you to flip your respondents switch." He saw, soon enough, that all nine other lights in a circle lit up. "Okay. Now, some protocol. Never fly into Neuroi clouds. They CAN and WILL possess the ship with us in them, and we're not having a civil flight wars." He gave a moment for questions. "Okay. Now, we are to focus on the Neuroi aircraft. We have other divisions to handle the rest, as well as anti-aircraft fire support from the rest of the fleet, any questions?." no questions came. "Okay, all Pilots report in!"

"34 standing by."

"35 standing by."

"36 standing by."

"37 standing by."

"38 standing by."

"39 standing by."

"40 standing by."

"Phoenix standing by."

"Blue Eagle standing by"

"Commander Kyle, standing by. All Pilots accounted for." He flicked the two switches down, followed by flicking one on the right. "Captain Tanaka, JFW 546 is ready to fly, waiting for Commander Sakamoto."

"Read you loud and Clear, 546. Getting the rest of the ship ready." Tanaka flicked a switch himself.

Sakamoto, in her little prep room, saw one red light turn on.

"Marksmen, are you ready?"

"This is Dan Alf, Yes - Marksmen are prepared for combat."

Sakamoto saw a second light turn on, with both lights now being yellow.

"Captain Tanaka, this is Mike Dilbert - Ground Soldiers are stationed on deck and ready for combat."

Sakamoto saw the last light turn on, all three were now green. "Okay Sakamoto, the Elevator is unlocked. You may enter when ready."

"Affirmative." Sakamoto stepped in, and was lifted up. Stepping out, the Elevator went back down. "This is Commander Sakamoto - Ready for deployment." Then, everything stopped. The Alarms stopped, the ocean was calm, no noise. Yoshika noticed this in the room. Sakamoto lifted her eye-patch, revealing her magic purple eye. "Okay, I can see the clouds better now..." Silence... "It's opening both towards and away from us - they know we're here."

The clouds started to head towards the ocean and they suddenly broke causing Sakamoto's eye to twitch in response. "Neuroi spotted: distance 4000 closing in fast."

"Sakamoto, what's out there?"

"I see one Type 12, A dropship, and several type 7 air crafts. It's going to be a rough one." Sakamoto, gripping her cannon, got in a running position. "JFW 546, prepare to launch!" She began running forward, with the wings blowing exhaust, allowing her to take off, with the JFW 546 following suit.

The tannoy then burst into life once more the captain started to speak "All units prepare to fire on my word and watch out for the fliers in the sky"

Sakamoto, keeping her eye out, was able to practically swim through the gaps of the Neuroi air crafts. "JFW, I'm leaving the type sevens to you. I'll handle the large one."

"We hear you." The JFW then committed to fighting the planes, but there were simply too many. Not that the JFW was getting shot down, but too many were approaching the ship... including the drop ship.

"Damn It!" The captain yelled. "Units, we have types 1-3 landing on the ship!"

Before anyone could blink, the turret exploded, leaving the ship open.

The Marksmen and the Ground Soldiers had an effective strategy: Marksmen shoot when they arrive to weaken the main body, with the ground Soldiers finishing it off. It would have been perfect, if not for the regenerative factor of the Neuroi.

The Captain, watching the whole ordeal break out, and about to open a bottle of wine, soon had a visitor. "This is Neuroi Officer 2365387-5786456." He turned around. "I've found the Ship leader - proceeding to terminate." The humanoid robot drew blades from its wrists, and lunged. The Captain, not being a fool, drew his sword, and engaged.

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Great... I can't seem to find it's weak point." Sakamoto continued to scan the giant carrier for it's core. "Where is it..."

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The Marksmen, while getting lucky here and there, couldn't seem to straight up kill any of them. The Ground Soldiers, armed with shotguns and machine guns, had better luck, if only just.

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Yoshika during all this, wasn't too keen on staying down in the room. but she had no choice she was much safer here than up on the deck where all of the fighting was taking place, but that changed at the sound of a ship crashing into the top of the ship. "No... I NEED to do something." Yoshika got up and ran to get a striker unit. "I may die if I go up there, but I can't live with myself hiding down here."

Yoshika, remembering how to get from their room the the supply room. "Okay. These things have to work some way." She put the pack on and, pressing a red button, had the backpack form to her figure. " to her side something caught her eye it was a large cannon and she thought to herself I need to defend myself somehow, but i- she tried to pick it up it simply wouldn't move off of the table. She tugged so hard that when she let go she ended up falling backwards onto her backside and after she got up and started to rub it she noticed two things: Striker Units are durable as hell (by her standard), and there's an elevator to her left. "That wasn't there before." Stepping into it, she was able to figure out that it had to lead upwards.

And it did. Oh boy it did. Yoshika stepped out into hell. The ship she saw as a clean paradise was now burning, smoking, and a ground for killing.

"AH, GET IT OFF ME!" She turned her head to see a soldier being clawed by an animal-like Neuroi. A second later, a fellow soldier shot it off her. She ran over to help him. A Neuroi tried to lunge at her, but a Marksman shot it through the core with it bursting into fragments before Yoshika could react or even notice it.

"Frank, you okay!?!?" No response. "Frank, don't you dare die here!"

"Hang on!" Yoshika managed to get there fast enough. "Let me help. I can fix him. At least a bit."

The man, named Chuck, (reluctantly) stepped aside to let her work. Okay, I need to keep blood flowing through the body. Her hands began to glow over his chest. Just repair the damage. Biology was your best subject, Yoshika. You can do this. You can do this.

"Hey kid..." The both looked down. "Am I dead?"

She smiled, saying "Sorry, not yet." She turned to Chuck. "I think you could carry him to a safer place."

"Bless you." Chuck said, trying to pick Frank up. Yoshika, activated the wings, knowing what to do next.

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The Type 12 Ship soon began to fire back at Sakamoto, right as she found the core. "Now, as to how to destroy it?" Sakamoto activated her magic shield, giving her some time to think.

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The two conflicting Captains were fighting, Neither allowing the other to land a blow. The captain then had an idea. He stopped attacking, let the Neuroi attack. "DIE, FLESH BAG!" The captain the activated what seemed to be a magic shield of his own, which caused the Neuroi to fly backwards. Not one to let the moment slip, he cut it's head open with his sword, and grabbed the bottle. Opening it up, he shoved it into the Neuroi's head before it could regenerate. this caused it to short circuit, which caused the core to explode.

Having a moment to breath, he looked down at the dial he was holding for his shield. "Ichiro..." He looked out to the rest of the ship to a happier sight of the chaos slowing down as the Ground Unit's got it under control.

"This is Phoenix, all type 7 Neuroi ships have been shot down, the dropship included."

"CAPTAIN!" Mike yelled, coming in. "We're finishing the last of them as we speak. We're throwing the corpses into the ocean just to be safe."

"Mh. Good. You missed the Neuroi Captain." The Captain pointed to the sparking corpse on the ground.

"You two fought."

The Captain, with a 'you dumbass' expression, said "No, we discussed the invasion over a bottle of wine. What the hell did you think we were doing" With Mike having a laugh, "Status report."

"Marksmen report no losses. We lost Jim in the turret explosion."

"Planes?"

"Ask them yourself.

Grabbing the radio, "All Pilot, report in right now!"

"34 standing by."

"35 standing by."

"36 standing by."

"37 standing by."

"38 standing by."

"39 standing by."

"40 standing by."

"Phoenix standing by."

"Blue Eagle standing by"

"... Commander Kyle?" Mike and Tanaka started to worry. "Commander Kyle?"

"This is Phoenix... Kyle Yeaser was shot down and crashed into the Ship. His plane exploded on impact."

"NO!" Mike yelled into the radio. "THAT WAS A NEUROI SHIP!"

"They were trying to take it over. He fought to the bitter end."

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The Neuroi lasers failed to break through Sakamoto's shield. "Hahaha! You'll need to do a lot better than that to beat me!" Then the lasers stopped, with a giant gun emerging out to attack. "Well, that's better." Sakamoto, careful to no longer be cocky, danced around the large cannon blasts. "Okay, first thing's first, create a hole." She fired in between shots at one target, after about a minute a hole formed. "Now, to land a blast." However, now all lasers focused on her. "Damn it!" Great, now I can't move. I need my shield up, but they're charging up for a blast already. I'm... probably done for..."

"Sakamoto!"

"Yoshika?" Just as the cannon went off, Yoshika got in the way. Closing her eye, awaiting the inevitable, she felt the presence of red light, but just for a minute. She opened her eyes to find Yoshika open an extra-large shield. How did she do that? I've only seen Minna pull something like that off. Yoshika, having the reality of her situation reach her, passed out into Sakamoto's arms.

"Sakamoto, I'm..."

"Shh..." Sakamoto hushed her. "You did fine."

*Flare Noise*

Sakamoto looked to find a hole in the Type 12 Ship, with it's armor having melted away., followed by a carbine shot shattering the core inside. "Officer Sakamoto!" Sakamoto turned her head to see two familiar faces. Shone... Perrine... nice to see you two... Sakamoto turned her head to Yoshika in her arms.

"Sakamoto, I'm sorry."

"What, why?"

"I stole a Striker Unit..."

"Hahaha... As far as you're concerned, you've earned it today."

"Hey, Shone?" The flyer turned to see Perrine "Who is that in Sakamoto's arms?"

"Another girl, if I had to guess." Shone turned to see a really pissed off Perrine.

"Yoshika..." Sakamoto smiled at the now sleeping Yoshika. "Let's get back to the ship..."