Zaida Insurrection (MT/PMT/FanT|Closed)

[Kassaran]

Off the Northeastern coast of Zaida
Zaiden Kriegsflotte
Operation Insel Donner

["Well it certainly isn't a big fleet,"] said a Witch of the Karlslandisches Marine, from the Leopold I.

["Plenty big enough,"] said a Sea Caballero pilot, replying in the same language the Witch had spoken in, which is Polish.

This was only half true. It was actually a rather sizable fleet, it simply wasn't overwhelmingly large. And, unusual for Karlslandic landing operations, there weren't any battleships.

The vessels of Karlsland's military response to the Zaida Insurrection were in an assault chevron formation, with the San Antonio-class amphibious ships leading the charge, flanked by two Wilhelm Maybach-class destroyers and two Holger Danske-class frigates. Behind them were the flagships, the Otto I-class carriers Konrad der Altere and Leopold I. Trailing the charge were the four Bremen-class frigates. The class was rapidly approaching its retirement, and most were slated to be sold to Brazil, scrapped, or made into tourist attractions for the towns they were named after. Drydocked, of course.

Operation Insel Donner it was to be called: Island Thunder. A fitting name for the method they planned on using: Hammer the structural defenses, obtain air superiority at the earliest opportunity, and then shock the Zaidan insurrectionists into the ground.

And maybe do a bit of land-shopping while we're at it, one Lieutenant Ursula Szombathy thought sardonically. Alas, such things were not under her control. The only two things under her control at that point were her flight path and her obedience to her orders. She was 'leading' the charge, in order to inform the Dergarians of the Karlsland Fleet's arrival.

She sighed, briefly looking back to the pair of Sea Caballeros behind her.

"Guess now's as good a time as any," she said. Her 'Magical Ability', sonic jamming, was usually used only to block wireless transmissions by simply filling the waves with white noise. However, it was more than capable of sending transmissions on its own. Her body glowed a pale blue as her Hirschweigh antennae materialized, a pale blue to indicate a solid transmission.

"To the Dergarian Forces of Zaida, this is Lieutenant Ursula Szombathy of the SMS Konrad der Altere and the Karlslandic Zaidan Force. Can you see us? We should be in visual range now, if not shortly. We request permission to set up a beachhead near or adjacent to yours. Our bombers should be close to No Le by now."

Kassaran Naval Corps 3^rd Echelon
Naval Task Group Zaida-Prasath 3-1
Ground Force Beachhead, Prasath Island, Minroz-Controlled Zaida

It had been relatively slow the past few days, the attacks utilizing Sarin gas had come as an ugly reminder as to the determination of the enemy to succeed in his goal, but now something else was afoot, and the Kassarans were becoming all the more agitated as the presence of new coalition forces using what appeared to be sorcery were beginning to show, and on top of it all, it was being revealed that there were certainly some things not right with the minrozians currently on-station as it were. Now something new was happening as Orbital observation and naval imaging sensors were beginning to pick up the presence of two other fleets, suddenly arriving within similar amounts of time and possessing seemingly strong ground force transports. Already the communications tent was abuzz as something began to come through over the communications channels on scattered frequencies matching none of the identified coalition frequencies bar one, the Dergarians.

Already the Fleet Admiral was pulling his vessels into high alert, and with their main rail guns powered up to counter any inbound projectiles detected or aircraft of unknown (deemed as hostile once they have entered the fifty kilometer kill-zone) intent and across the harbor of Prasath, the carriers were abuzz with activity. On the deck of the newly arrived Retribution Class Heavy Assault Carrier, a flight of four sleek black PS-21 Raven Strategic Air Interceptors were on the decks, their engines spinning up and emitting heatwaves which could be seen visibly from at least a kilometer away distorting the air behind them. It was an awesome sight, and an incredibly intimidating one seeing how they had been faring so far in combat against the enemy. Multiple hostile kills reported for the price of one heavily damaged Raven which had to make an emergency landing, but was now back on thttp://forum.nationstates.net/viewforum.php?f=5he roster and being cleared not two weeks after for active duty.

However these weren't just any PS-21's, but rather, the insignia of the 3^rd Home Island Fleet emblazoned upon the vertical stabilizers revealed a thrilling fact. These pilots were aces of the fleet, and had trained most of their life to fly the PS-21 not in it's original role as a high-speed interceptor, but rather a dog-fighter. Indeed, while many looked on at the large heavy fighter in amazement at the sheer size, they usually expected her to go up and forward excessively fast, but as the skilled pilots already deployed in the sparing amount present, had revealed to the Zaidans and the Coalition Forces, it proved to be highly agile and rugged giving it a formidable reputation in the air against any foe. On top of it all, fleet insignia were generally only allowed to be administered to a pilot's steed when they'd received an Air-Wing Commendation Award signifying their status as an ace. Indeed, scrawled under each insignia were gilded victory marks each in the shape of a dagger, and gleaming in the sunlight, they numbered between the four craft as being in excess of thirty, with no less than six kills a plane.

On the flight deck, the crew chiefs finished their inspections of the mighty aircraft and allowed the pilots to mount their steeds of war, and each doing so revealed that even their flight suits bore the symbols of air combat specialists who'd taken part in the first significant engagement of the Kassaran Confederacy in modern times. The Massacre of the IFC, the air battle that took part over a now gone alliance headquarters the Kassarans had been instrumental in protecting during the massacre. Though arriving too late to stop the first wave of bombers from hitting the city, Kassaran fighters had been deployed and within minutes they had engaged retreating enemy forces and cut off the lanes of attack for still inbound enemy bombers. The amount of friendly fighters lost were three, all due to technical complications that arose when a nearby storm rolled in over the carrier fleet forcing them to land in bad weather. The amount of fallen enemy bombers numbered just over one-hundred and enemy fighters killed were confirmed at fifty-two with nine probables. Indeed these were among the best of the Naval Air Corps, but knowing that no place was safe in respect to status, they were still going to be watched carefully on their approach to the nearest of the two fleets, the one containing the so-called sorcerers and their troops.

The harbor filled with the sound of thunder as magnetic launch guide-rails slung each PS-21 across the deck of the Heavy Assault Carrier and to launch speed over the ocean, resulting in each fighter nosing up sharply and peeling away from the ground with such frightening speed, one would think they were looking at a sped-up film. Loud cracks resounded throughout the air as each hit their cruising speed of Mach 3 within forty seconds of liftoff and soon all that remained of them were massive contrails left by the atmospheric friction on the edges of their wings. Inside the ground control structures, controllers and operators stood by watching their screens and holo-spreads looking for the slightest amounts of trouble in the Ravens as they did their turn at about fifty kilometers out and flew back over the harbor en route for the inbound unknown fleet. The roaring of their engines afforded the room to spare a moment in reverence of the power they signified, and even though by the time the sound reached them the fighters were long gone, it was an incredible sight to behold as the very walls of the temporary building shook.

Inside the main communications tent, the Major on-duty was already relaying a fast and frantic message to the unknown fleet, attempting to assess the situation and divine whether or not to allow the pilots inbound to engage when they reached the target solution. The opposite fleet would only have ten minutes to respond until that happened, so he hoped dearly that they'd reply, lest they reveal themselves as allies only after the engagement order had been given. Sending the signal out on all available channels not caring as to who received it only hoping for it to reach its intended sender, the Major sat back and waited for the response.

To the Unknown Naval Forces inbound for the Northeastern Coastline of Zaida, we request that you immediately identify yourselves, your nationality, and intention lest we open fire and injure you without due cause. You have ten minutes to respond, failure to comply releases the Kassaran Naval Forces of the 3^rd Home Isles Fleet 3^rd Echelon assigned in this Area of Engagement of all responsibility herein of damage to personnel, property (public and private) and general loss of life.

[Dergaria]

Rex along his march though still near the coast did not expect the ships to transfer the hail to him instead of dealing with the hail themselves, he still quickly replied once he looked around for any form of military ship. "Lieutenant, this is Dergarian Intelligence Operative Rex. Permission granted, proceed just beside our formation to establish any form of FOB you may desire for our combat forces are already landed and moving to fulfill their directives. I myself shall continue with my force onward to No Le to complete our operational objectives, you may speak with one of the MI aboard the DRF Paranoia for more details if you so wish."

Meanwhile with the comms buzzing over the engagement that was currently occurring between some Cerberus troops and some of the rebels a hail came to Commander Johnson from one Sergeant Gabriel Johnson of the Mobile Infantry aboard the DRF Paranoia. (Yes their channels are connected, Dergarian and Cerberus Industries have worked side by side for many years in their pasts.) " hey uh, guys seems that you are all having some fun without us. Whats happening out there, and should we come? "

[Cerberus Industries]

A Purger Commissar responded to the call. They heard the battle raging on, flames being birthed, men screaming of pain, and the hail of gun fire. The man seemed pretty calm however as he seemed to talk with a bit of disdain. "Yes we are having loads of fun. You are welcomed to join us and the General encourages helping our battle group to speed this process of cleaning the muck up. We took initial casualties but their surprise attack has but all been thwarted."

[Allanea]

Bejat City

“Magical, eh?” - Azaryan grinned. “What is more magical than the Blaken Island First Battalion?”

He raised his hand, and began uttering orders to his men. Most began to fall back now, as they were unprepared for the new struggle - but the First Battalion moved forwards, their vehicles taking up the usual formations needed for city fighting - one APC rolling down one side of the street, the other moving on the other side, staying slightly behind to protect the other with its fire, both vehicles staying off the sidewalk to avoid simply having Molotov cocktails dropped down on their roofs.

And of course, the Blaken Island infantry walked or trotted behind the vehicles, their rifles held at the ready. The men wore no protective gear, no gas masks and no HAZMAT suits. It was as if they were completely unaware of the damage that sarin would do to their bodies had they inhaled it - or, as was actually the case, as if they did not have to breathe.

“Forward! Go, go, go!” - the heavy boots tapped rhythmically on the ground as the troops trotted forward. No, the men did not fear sarin nor did they fear death - having died a long time ago. But their dessiccated flesh continued to grip weapons, their dry lips were pulled back around their yellowish teeth in grins of anticipation.

The Blaken Islanders’ training, their whole ideology taught them that violence was permissible, even desirable, if it was directed towards slavers. They would be allowed - encouraged, even - to live out the violent urges within their bodies if it was for a good cause. Among the good causes was protecting innocents and punishing slavers, and this was why the undead warriors were here.

This was why all the Blaken Islanders were here, really. The undead merely got to play a leading role in the spectacle that was now unfolding.

[Rupudska]

*snip*

The response was immediate and, much like that of the Kassaran's, probably excessive. Within seconds, the squadron of PS-21s were painted by the fleet's array of radars. RIM-116s, TRS-3D and SPS-48 search radars, MR/M MAESA and APAR tracking radars, and their likes. Nothing was fired, nor were the PS-21s locked onto, the fleet was merely letting them know that they were there, and would blow them out of the sky if they tried to attack.

Ursula Szombathy herself contributed to the effort, by changing to a merge-with course of the PS-21s. She wasn't going to shoot them down, she was simply going to move in for identification purposes.

Again, she sent an identification message, this time on frequencies the Kassaran forces were known to use.

"To the Kassaran Naval Forces of the 3^rd Home Island Fleet, this is Lieutenant Ursula Szombathy of the Karlslandic Naval Forces of the Indian Ocean Fleet. I am assigned to said fleet, and our purposes in these waters are to establish a beach-head near that of the Dergarian forces, to assist same and allies in the destruction of the Zaidan slaver rebellion. Please order your incoming flight of interceptors to deactivate their attack radar or return to base."

[Minroz]

-snip-

Indeed the attack has been thwarted! Suffering under heavy casualties, the surviving rebels have finally turned tail and retreated to Ja Hat in order to regroup and preparing for defenses. Another victory for the coalition and the anguished defeat for the rebels!

A Minrozian fleet of attack helicopters and VTOL transports flew passed-by over the Cerberus troops. This time it’s the Minrozians taking the lead. Behind the Cerberus ground forces are the large column of Imperial troops, all of them are armed to the teeth. They came from Bo Khet. Clearly, the Minrozian forces are now going on the offensive, instead of defending their strongholds. With the influx of reinforcements and efficient logistics, it’s not much of the issue. The real issue is putting down the stubborn slaver rebels.

---

Lau Tan airbase, Koh Island

Wanting to take a casual stroll, General Yuelan Taichari is walking alongside one of the base runway. And it’s night-time now. She wanted a little break from her duties (and avoiding paperwork, she left it to her poor assistants to work them out because Yuelan is lazy when it comes to paperwork). Observing her surroundings in which is the Lau Tan airbase, bustling with activities of military personnel, be it Minrozians, Kassarans and Zaidan loyalists. It’s clear they’re busy with their assigned duties. She saw a lot of things happen when upon her arrival at Lau Tan. From what Yuelan sees, it’s another day on the job and it’s not her first time seeing one in action, thanks to her genetic-modified age.

Breathing a sigh, Yuelan opened up a canteen of vodka and took a sip. It’s always her favourite occasion, at home and at work.

All of sudden, the klaxon blared out its siren! Enemy attack! Zaidan witches (about two) have appeared onto the base radar, approaching at high speed! The personnel of Lau Tan air base have scrambled themselves to their position, anticipating their aerial foes. Anti-air defenses, automated or manned, missiles or bullets otherwise are all primed to take on the enemy witches. However…unfortunately for the Minrozians and their allies, it’s too late. The Zaidan witches fired EMP missiles into the air and exploded! Disabling most electronic equipments of both Minrozians and Kassarans alike, proverbially blinding them especially their Anti-Air defenses. Save for the few who tried to fight back but the enemy is too fast for their trackers or their sights, needless to say they’re shooting blindly into the air, hoping they hit the targets.

The enemy strike witches split-up and began their individual strafing run with their miniguns, adding with their missiles for the effect. Their targets are the Minrozian bombers and Kassaran PS-21s parking at the runways. They succeed. The parked bombers exploded like series of fire-works display! As for the Kassaran, most of their aircrafts which parked outside are destroyed or damaged beyond repair.

“What the-!” Yuelan yelped before ducked for nearby cover. She nearly got hit by the enemy bullet from above. One Zaidan witch swooped above her like a sonic-boom. The force threw her hat off onto ground like a strong wind.

“Khumaak’s Void! Damn those bitches!” She cursed, peeking her head out from the cover.

The Zaidans have made their clean get-away as they disappeared into the dark clouds before any Imperial witches or allied fighters scrambled into pursuit.

This surprise attack by just two Zaidan witches had astonished everyone of their wits at the base. Remarkably, no one got killed; only those near the aircrafts were severely injured and helped by their comrades who immediately rushed them to the medical wing to be treated. Others tried to put out the fires from the damages and explosions. Meanwhile servicemen of their respective armed forces salvaged the valuable tidbits of the destroyed machinery for future use. And they’re not the only ones; the bases at Doi Bai, Phka and Ngipaw are also suffered casualties but just like Lau Tan only the bombers are destroyed and their crew happens to be safe in their barracks. At very least the bomber crews and the Kassaran pilots are lucky to be alive because they’re having a break at the barracks.

“Ye gods, cat boy (Tao Yang) is definitely not going to be happy about this.” Yuelan mused out her thoughts. Although she’ll liked to see Tao Yang’s face when he heard his precious bomber fleets are destroyed. She knew he’s quite fond of any strategies which involved bombings. Dusting her officer peak cap and putting it back on her head, the woman general then turned to rush to help out fixing the mess in Lau Tan.

---

Imperial Central Command of Zaida, Prasath, Prasath Island

“Thank Apghi for His Blessings~” Tao Yang sipped his tea, watching his personal holo-screen of the battlefield.

As usual General Tao Yang is quite happy with the progress of his troops and his allies – reclaiming Zaida, step-by-step. Admiral Paek, the commander of the Imperial naval forces in Zaida is busy distributing logistics to the needy ground troops at the same time providing air support for the allies. With the arrival of Karlslanders, the situation looked like it’s going well for the Minrozians.

With the surge of pride, Tao Yang curled up an evil smile. He relished in the oblivion of his Emperor’s enemies. Now he’s enjoying a cup of tea befits of his aristocratic origin.

However, souring his mood, once he heard reports about the destruction of his precious bomber fleets in Doi Bai, Phka, Ngipaw and finally Lau Tan. Not to mention the Nachfolgians entering the frey, arriving in Rangoon, the neko commander immediately threw into fits of tantrums – tossing his tea at the corner to express his outrage. In other words, he’s real pissed off and he blamed it all on the ‘incompetence’ of his men. Although Tao Yang didn’t really means it at the last part. But his raging outburst scare off the staff in his command room and none dared tried to stop him lest risking his wrath brought upon them.

After finishing his tirade and calming himself down, once again Tao Yang decided to request Zhongyang repeatedly for direct access towards the more powerful arsenals available in the Minrozian military, perhaps more of them at his leisure. The Imperial cabinet, wanting to make the quick end to the Zaidan rebellion have finally decided to accept his request (plus Nachfolgia’s involvement in Zaida’s theatre). Once Tao Yang received what he wants for his operations, the enemies of the Middle Kingdom are going to be in deep trouble than they can bargain for.

“It’ll be blasphemous to think these foreign devils will ever defeat the Middle Kingdom. If so, they’ll meet their end to the void. Just you wait, heeheehee~” The General sneered arrogantly. Surprises he’ll give, he will!

For now, he’ll try to make do without the bombers. In his mind, at least he got artilleries and cooperative allies.

[Cerberus Industries]

The Cerberus troops were a little slow at regrouping. Advance medical equipment was dragged out from the bellies of some of the ATV's. Some could not be saved but many were even with grave wounds. They would not be able to fight until proper equipment treated them but they would at the least not suffer extremely from the wounds or die by them. The equipment of the destroyed vehicles was similarly salvaged and some vehicles with quick and proper repairs were able to groan forward. The Cerberus troops indeed however treated their allies well with respect forming up to bolster their offensive after heavy readjustment and a bit of a lag behind the machines they were in heart caught up to them.

General Johnson sighed as he sat upon the back of a T-90 looking over a PA as did a purge commissar on each side of him. Roughly 200 hundred casualties....and several vehicles that could not be repaired. He was annoyed to say the least. It was being estimated that after their campaign to separate the land mass in half the weapon testing for the new products would be over and the weapons they labored over to create for their true military would hopefully arrive by Osiris transports....He hoped. A purge alone up in the same monotone voice they always possessed. "Sir, we can not expect renewed adjustments in men and weapons if the Degarians complete their usual objectives, it will be deemed an unfit zone and we'll be stuck with what we have." Johnson groaned behind his helm, it was true....If something like what happened in Seralia occured, the Colgate would leave them their alone until the conflict ended. "Great, tell the boys to keep pace and if the citizenry put up a fight, detain but not kill, no need to repeat history besides we need the morale." 'Yes sir.'

[Kassaran]

Lau Tan airbase, Koh Island

Wanting to take a casual stroll, General Yuelan Taichari is walking alongside one of the base runway. And it’s night-time now. She wanted a little break from her duties (and avoiding paperwork, she left it to her poor assistants to work them out because Yuelan is lazy when it comes to paperwork). Observing her surroundings in which is the Lau Tan airbase, bustling with activities of military personnel, be it Minrozians, Kassarans and Zaidan loyalists. It’s clear they’re busy with their assigned duties. She saw a lot of things happen when upon her arrival at Lau Tan. From what Yuelan sees, it’s another day on the job and it’s not her first time seeing one in action, thanks to her genetic-modified age.

Breathing a sigh, Yuelan opened up a canteen of vodka and took a sip. It’s always her favourite occasion, at home and at work.

All of sudden, the klaxon blared out its siren! Enemy attack! Zaidan witches (about two) have appeared onto the base radar, approaching at high speed! The personnel of Lau Tan air base have scrambled themselves to their position, anticipating their aerial foes. Anti-air defenses, automated or manned, missiles or bullets otherwise are all primed to take on the enemy witches. However…unfortunately for the Minrozians and their allies, it’s too late. The Zaidan witches fired EMP missiles into the air and exploded! Disabling most electronic equipments of both Minrozians and Kassarans alike, proverbially blinding them especially their Anti-Air defenses. Save for the few who tried to fight back but the enemy is too fast for their trackers or their sights, needless to say they’re shooting blindly into the air, hoping they hit the targets.

The enemy strike witches split-up and began their individual strafing run with their miniguns, adding with their missiles for the effect. Their targets are the Minrozian bombers and Kassaran PS-21s parking at the runways. They succeed. The parked bombers exploded like series of fire-works display! As for the Kassaran, most of their aircrafts which parked outside are destroyed or damaged beyond repair.

“What the-!” Yuelan yelped before ducked for nearby cover. She nearly got hit by the enemy bullet from above. One Zaidan witch swooped above her like a sonic-boom. The force threw her hat off onto ground like a strong wind.

“Khumaak’s Void! Damn those bitches!” She cursed, peeking her head out from the cover.

The Zaidans have made their clean get-away as they disappeared into the dark clouds before any Imperial witches or allied fighters scrambled into pursuit.

This surprise attack by just two Zaidan witches had astonished everyone of their wits at the base. Remarkably, no one got killed; only those near the aircrafts were severely injured and helped by their comrades who immediately rushed them to the medical wing to be treated. Others tried to put out the fires from the damages and explosions. Meanwhile servicemen of their respective armed forces salvaged the valuable tidbits of the destroyed machinery for future use. And they’re not the only ones; the bases at Doi Bai, Phka and Ngipaw are also suffered casualties but just like Lau Tan only the bombers are destroyed and their crew happens to be safe in their barracks. At very least the bomber crews and the Kassaran pilots are lucky to be alive because they’re having a break at the barracks.

“Ye gods, cat boy (Tao Yang) is definitely not going to be happy about this.” Yuelan mused out her thoughts. Although she’ll liked to see Tao Yang’s face when he heard his precious bomber fleets are destroyed. She knew he’s quite fond of any strategies which involved bombings. Dusting her officer peak cap and putting it back on her head, the woman general then turned to rush to help out fixing the mess in Lau Tan.

Kassaran Naval Corps
Third Home Fleet; Third Echelon; Task Group Minroz-Prasath
Aboard the Capital Warcruiser KSV
Outside it was chaos as news of the attack reached Prasath, but inside the command center of the Kassaran main battlecruiser, the bridge was eerily silent. Several officers were standing around a massive holographic projection taking notes on their crystal datapads. They had all just bore witness to the destruction of two of the eight PS-21's they had been given, and they were quite upset over the loss, but couldn't afford to break bearing. Suddenly the door to the bridge slides open and the room grows noticeably darker, for now the Admiral, whom has been ferried back to his ship, is quite visibly ticked. Turning to the table, he begins to bark the orders that send the bridge into a flurry of activity," Commander! Get me the radar readouts and cloud-penetrating scans of the skies, track those bitches! Lieutenants, recall our Ace Flight, have them run in pursuit, have them engage as soon as they are within a combat range of thirteen hundred meters, let them know what they are up against. Captain, get our boat moving, get us onto the water, inform the fleet to also begin the undocking process and to pull back to a safe range, we need to ensure a more suitable air cover! Copy?"

Indeed they had been caught during a change of guard, and although only vehicles on the ground had been destroyed (this also included several VTOL gunships which were of less importance understandably), they needed to step up protection then of not only said vehicles as they came in to land, but also the fleet. Had the witches been using anti-shipping missiles, that could have proved very bad for the Kassaran fleet. Spinning up emergency defense cannons and railguns, the fleet comes alive, the strike witches are still being tracked as they make their escape, and though a clean get-away from troops at Koh, four fighters were already in the air and have now been given the order to divert and engage.

Across the harbor for Prasath, though Koh had been the island attacked, it gave them all the information they needed, and outside the hangars for the Kassarans on the Minrozian fortress installation, the fighters are being drawn into their bunkers. Overhead, a small patrol of Peregrine Rapid Deployment Gunships buzzes, waiting for the witches, if they so choose, to return.

---

Kassaran Naval Air Corps
3-3 Echelon; Kassaran "Ace" Flight
It couldn't have traveled any faster, a short brief message across the visors of the pilots informing them they had been spotted and that all eyes were quite literally on them, but now another flashed on their headsets and they were visibly shaken, something had hit and destroyed most of the aircraft at Koh including the two PS-21's present. Flipping over almost instantly, facing backwards even as they kept drifting forwards, they engaged super-cruise and soon came to a stop in the skies before blasting off at about Mach 3.8 in the opposite direction. Bearing down on the radar contacts deemed to be the Zaidan Strike Witches, they closed the distance within minutes until suddenly their sensors began to pickup the foreign flying objects. They however needed the target solution, and thus the forward two fixed weapons as the rear guard pulled up and away from the pack to fly top cover, scanning for any signs of other inbound Strike Witches.

Indeed the Kassarans were pissed, and the witches now fleeing after their little victory were now being tracked by perhaps some of the most dangerous pilots in the Kassaran Naval Air Corps, and they had the aircraft and the kill count to prove it. Though none of them had faced a strike witch before, it became obvious to them that they were in for the fight of their lives and hoping to close the distance before the witches could notice, they moved in for the kill flying at just over three times the speed of sound when suddenly the radar went cold and contact was lost. Instinctively pulling up and out of the cloud cover to get his bearings, the fighters maneuver up and into safety, somewhat perplexed, but also annoyed at having lost their quarry.

[Nachfolgia]

The beach in northern coast of Zaida had become extremely active in the past couple hours. Thousands of troops from CVBG Krupfer were landing on the beach from hundreds of landing craft and were quickly establishing a beachhead. Supply crew and heavy equipment were off loading thousands of supply crates onto a portion of the beach. Each crate was marked with the Nachfolgian eagle and was color coded to identify the contents. Green was food items, blue was water, red was utilities, orange was tools, and Black was ammunition. All through out the beach, Engineers were digging trenches, setting up C-wire, and building temporary building for medical, troop housing, and command, Motor T lots.

Hundreds of Leopard 2 tanks, Marder 1's, TPz Fuchs, and various other vehicles were driving onto the sand and going to their designated lots. They all had woodland tricolor camouflage and were marked with the Iron cross and the sig runes of the Waffen-SS. Some of the tanks and APCs were heading off the beach along with hundreds of SS Soldats on the push inland. The vehicles that weren't in the first push inland were getting worked on by the crews and fitted with ammo as they waited their turn to get into the fight. The 26th SS panzer division had finally begun their conquest of Zaida. The 3rd Kriegsflotte were positioned off shore to protect the invading force by sea as well as transporting troops to other parts of the island to establish a second front. Overhead, air patrols were roaming the sky for enemy threats as well as to provide close air support for the soldiers.

Small town outside Nachfolgian beachhead

[" Attention, Attention...all residents are to assemble in the town square immediately! I repeat, all residents are to assemble in the town square immediately!"] a voiced blared in Chinese from a loud speaker attached to an APC as it rolled through town.

SS Soldats in full battle gear were going from house to house rounding up all the residents. Many of the Soldats were very aggressive in the way they conducted the round up. Many were shouting at the Zaidan citizens and shoving them to move faster. One Soldat telling one woman to get out of her house as she was cooking dinner. The woman was trying her best to explain to him that she was going as fast as she can. The Soldat got pissed and knocked over the pot of stew off the counter before shoving her from the house. Several people who had resisted the home invasion had got a butt stock to the fast before being dragged out.

In the town square, the entire town were put into two groups. One group had all the women, children, and the elderly and the other had the men ranging in age from 16 to 45. Several Soldat and vehicles were positioned around the town square, keeping a close eye on the crowd. A MOWAG Eagle pulled into the town square and stopped in front of the crowd. The front passenger door opened and an officer got out. He wore full combat gear, but his sleeves were rolled up and we wore an officer's field cap. The officer walked up to the group as two Soldats walked up behind him. The tall blonde officer looked the group for a couple of moments before speaking.

[" Good evening, my name is Sturmbannführer Erik Von Kempf of the Obersterfuhrurin's 26th SS panzer division. By order of Gruppenfuhrur Heinrich Kroener, commanding general of the 26th SS panzer division, this town is now the property of the Waffen-SS. Every resident is to vacate their homes and proceed to designate living areas. This town is to be turned into a forward operating base to further the Reich's military actions in this region."] The officer said in Chinese.

The townspeople became unsettled by the announcement and many muttered to themselves. One man, a short middle aged man with a goatee, walking out of the crowd towards the officer. The two Soldats who were next to the officer reacted and pointed their G36s at the man. The officer waved them off and took a step towards the man.

[" This is an outrage! You can't do this. These are our homes, our lives. You have no jurisdiction in this country."] The man yelled at the officer that towered over him.

[" I can and I am."] The officer smirked as he slowly drew his Luger. [" Now, I'm only going to say this once. Evacuate the town immediately or harsh consequences will arise."] The officer said as he motioned to his men. The Soldats in the square pointed their weapons at the crowd. With no other choice the crowd of women, children and the elderly were herded into trucks. The officer then walked over to the remaining crowd of young men.

[" Gentleman, you have been given the glorious opportunity to serve the Obersterfuhrurin and the Reich by serving in the Auslander Truppe in the newly formed Zaidan brigade. Consider this a great honor, you'll be serving your country."] The officer said before walking off. The Zaidan men were moved into a different set of trucks.

[Minroz]

-snip-

As the Dergarians moved on, a former Minrozian garrison base has appeared in their sight except it’s now being occupied by the rebels. It was taken by the Zaidans during the early stages of the uprising. They looted anything valuable and captured weapons stored in the base armoury in order to be used against their Minrozian overlords.

When they saw the Dergarians heading into their direction, the rebels have set-up their defensive positions and built make-shift barricades, blocking the entry of what’s used to be the Minrozian garrison. Their mortar teams ineptly fired their shells at the Dergarians. As usual, the Zaidans will be doing their spray & pay again when fighting.

What will the Dergarians do next?

---

-snip-

Suburbs of Bejat city

It seems Tao Yang doesn’t need anything destructive, nor sheer numbers to retake Bejat after all. He already got some help from the Guoanbu for the job.

Panicked by the sight of the undead, Zaidan rebels have decided to retreated back to their well-defended positions. It’s obvious they didn’t expect to fight the ghoulish creatures, armed with guns and fight like humans. The rebel forces fought in vain trying to push away the Blackenite forces from breaking in their lines.

Mulay appeared inside the alley and watched the carnage unleashed exchanged between the rebels and her Blakenite allies. And this carnage is in her allies’ favour. She was quite amused by the tenacity of the enemy insurgents against hopeless odds. Come to think of it, she thought, Mulay didn’t believe the rebels will win since they’re technically outgunned in terms of technology, magic or otherwise. And the Blackenites made the job much easy for her by distracting many of the Zaidan defenders.

“Heh, another day on the job.” She mused. Looking around, Mulay jumped up to the rooftops and then jump again to the another. She was planning to destroy the enemy artilleries which contained Sarin gases. So the imperial troops can go inside the city unimpeded. Using her wristwatch gadget, the vampire agent scanned the area. After founding the said artilleries, she turned invisible.

At one artillery site, a group of rebels are taking the break, indifferent to the dangers of the frontlines where most of their comrades are fighting at. As one is smoking his cigar, suddenly, a steel sword plunged through his heart from behind! Shocking his comrades witlessly, the body slumped to the ground. Another tried to raise his AKM, his head split open like a bursting watermelon. As the artillery guards panic, they shoot their guns everywhere hoping they hit something. Unfortunately for them, Mulay appeared in their centre, duel-wielding her pistols. In few seconds, she killed them all like one of the Hong Kong action movies.

“All too easy~” Mulay chirped. Dusting her clothes, she wandered towards the artillery and then placed the C4 charge on it. Once she teleport using her magic spell, the charge explodes – destroying the artilery!

“Colonel (Azaryan), how’re things going on your side?” She asked through the radio. It sounded like Mulay is teasing. “Me, I’m destroying the arties where they store these horrible Sarin gas. I’m such a naughty girl am I?”

Back to Maj. Rani Subroto

“Mashallah~” Rani utters in awe.

The bespectacled brunette is watching Bejat city becoming a battlefield. Sensing the chance, she realised Mulay is destroying the enemy Sarin artilleries while Azaryan’s zombie troops are distracting the defenders. Without hesitation, she ordered her troops to moved-in to secure the city. And so they did but managed to take the city southern suburbs.

More Minrozians troops, hundreds-strong, coming in from the south has yet arrived to help. The Imperial Army pushed in the southern parts of Bejat. A repeated history since the Minrozian invasion of Zaida, ironically Bejat is one of the first cities taken during the Zaidan War.

---

-Kassaran Naval Air Corps 3-3 Echelon; Kassaran "Ace" Flight-

52nd Strike Witches Squadron “Ulaan”

Suddenly Ace Flight’s radar had picked up something again, about six dots to be precise. This time it’s behind them. Anyone can suspect they’re the enemy witches they’re looking for. Luckily for them, these dots are marked as friendly. Six Minrozian witches emerged out of the clouds behind the Kassaran PS-21s. All of them are wearing their crimson-coloured Su-35s striker packs and four of them are armed with PKHs and two SAAT8 Stiletto missile launchers.

“Attention Allied aircrafts! This is Lieutenant-Colonel Xia Mingyu of the 52nd Strike Witches Squadron ‘Ulaan’ reporting. State your purpose?” Their leader, a black-haired and hazel-eyed twenty-year old girl, spoke with professionalism. It might surprise anyone who’re not used to Strike Witches or at least young teenagers who’re trained to be professional soldiers.

Regarding her witch squadron Ulaan, Xia Mingyu along with her subordinates are full-fledged aces. They’re famed as ‘fighter-killers’ because of their high kill-counts of destroying aerial foes, mostly enemy witches and fighter aircrafts. And their families’ warrior backgrounds like most of their peers. Funny thing is their call-sign ‘Ulaan’ is Mongolian for red. In other words, the Ulaan Strike Witches Squadron, befitting the spirit of its name, are not to be underestimated in battle and their hardened combat experience will proved it.

Mingyu continued, “Our mission is to hunt the enemy witches responsible for the carnage in Koh and our Southern Bases, on order of His Excellency General Tao Yang. I presumed you’re hunting them too.”

---

-snip-

Outskirts of Ja Hat

The Minrozian and their Cerberus allies have arrived, hours ago. On orders from their superiors, they’re to wait until ordered otherwise. It’s obvious the Imperials want to take Ja Hat and now they’re waiting. The Minrozians have brought over a force of mechanized regiments, tanks, Yeman mech platoons and the two dreaded Ao-class Siege walkers behind them. Truly overkill for taking a single city and some Minrozian officers are left wondering whether it’s a good thing. Since the certain neko general they feared, they’ll carry out his orders as usual.

Colonel Pai Zhao, commander of these forces, cleared his throat and began announcing his demands via the radio to his enemy counterpart. Its standard procedure of his military to offer surrender before his men stormed the city. No one knows how he feels, but Pai Zhao is your typical officer who’s just doing his job.

“Attention rebels of the so-called Zaidan resistance! You are beaten, lay down your arms and surrender to the Celestial Army, representatives of His Divine Majesty the Emperor! I repeat, lay down your arms and surrender or I will stormed the city of Ja Hat and send your lives into afterlife!”

He waited. Pai Zhao repeated his offers for the rebels of the city to surrender once again. And still silence. Finally the Colonel took that as a no. Following his command to storm the city, the Imperial forces mobilised when the Ao-class fired its volley of rockets, raining down deaths upon their enemies. The Minrozian troops have entered Ja Hat and now taking its fight to urban street-fights. Of course, with support of their Siege Walkers to keep the rebel heads’ down.

---

-snip-

From afar on top of the cliffs, a Apsara two-woman team was observing the events of the town, using their high-tech binoculars. Befitting their profession as elite infiltrators and assassins, they’re sent into deep enemy lines particularly the rebel territories to collect Intel for High Command. At the same time hunting for leaders of the Zaidan rebellion. However, the two Apsara agents happen to stumbled across the Nachfolgian take-over of the innocent town.

“Sting one, orders?” One of the two asked, lowering her binoculars.

“There’s nothing we can do for them.” She said without emotions.

After brief silence, the Apsara infiltrator nodded her head understandingly. The two women may looked heartless on the outside, deep down they’re outraged to see the enemy forcing the poor townsfolk to work for their own ends. And they knew

Wordlessly, they disappeared back to the friendly lines to report. Whatever injustices the Nachfolgians have committed against the locals – who’re now technically subjects of the Middle Kingdom. They will be avenged soon.

---

Seas of Koh Gulf

General Tao Yang’s response to the Nachfolgian interference, he sent a combined aerial force of A-10 Thunderbolt squadron and two flights of Su-35 witches complimented with five squadrons of MiG-35 fighters as their escorts. They all come from Lau Tan air-base. Among the ones who survived the surprise Zaidan attack. His plan for them is simple – destroying the Nachfolgian forces.

However they may be well-trained and highly-equipped but most of them are inexperienced and have never seen combat. But their determination to fight for their country and faith in their Son-of-Heaven makes up for it.

Flying across the seas east of the Zaidan archipelago, they’re more than prepared and confident enough to attack the Nachfolgian forces. After all, these young bloods truly believed their Army is invincible.

“Alright brothers and sisters!” bellowed on the radio is Colonel Tang Jiaying, a 19-year old commander of this strike-force. Her voice is brimming with excitement and eager to fight. “This is all we have been waiting for, no more sitting around like dumb ducks! We’ll show the Nachfolgian devils the Hammer of His Majesty’s Justice, time for us to put them into their place. Can’t trust these honourless barbarians, isn’t that right, my sky brothers?”

“Ha! Without a doubt, sister! Fairy or not, I’m with you as a comrade-in-arms.” Colonel Mon Weisheng, the older man, commander of his MiG-35s, replied in the jovial manner.

“Same here.” Lieutenant-Colonel Jim Shing, the eldest of the three affirmed. “Although I don’t like to take all the glory from our ground brothers.”

Jiaying smirked, “Either way, these pesky pinkskins will soon regret stepping foot on our turf. Let’s send these devils packing!”

“Hell Yeah! Ten Thousand Years for the Emperor!” Weisheng boomed.

“Ten Thousand Years!” The pilots and strike witches chanted, deeply revering their Emperor like every Minrozians. The strike force of A-10 Thunderbolt squadron, two flights of Su-35 witches and five squadrons of MiG-35 fighters are skimming alongside the eastern coast of North-East Zaida, now searching for the Nachfolgians.

Once in sight, they’ll swoop in to attack. Unknown to them, it's not going to go as they plan.

[Cerberus Industries]

The Cerberus troops seemed to truly change once they entered urban combat. They were more lively like up until that point they had been sluggish. Small bursts of combat or long drawn out battles in cover just being in a place they were used to they seemed at home. Not to mention this is where the purges shined. They weren't monster....just selective. Any non combatants would be sent back behind the push to the small Cerberus FOB, where wounded, badly damaged vehicles (plus the respective engineers trying to repair them) and the respective commanders were the only men there. They were much kinder than that of the men on the front lines against the enemy rebels, giving them food, clothing and medical attention, after a brief search and question of course for all that were physically stable.

Back on the front lines however the darker side of Cerberus shone. Three purges had been able to get to a building held by the rebels after some heavy suppression by their comrades. They armed a charge on the side of the building covering each other before blasting the decent sized hole. They only pushed the ends of their flamethrowers in however letting loose a horrible torrent of flame even melting the sides of the hole for a smoother surface. This flame spread quickly leaving the small group two options, burn alive, or jump into a turkey shoot. Other such acts just as terrible were occuring where ever these soldiers of death went but yet they still showed mercy to those who surrendered and to the innocents of the city.

[Dergaria]

Many MI troopers not lucky enough to be behind an Abrams or fast enough to get to decent cover fell quickly some firing off their weapons at the enemy as they fell. As for the rest of the force seeing that this position was not an objective and was actively firing on them decided that not much time could be allocated to this engagement, therefore one radio man who happened to be behind a tank once the fire starting quickly radioed in to the small fleet in the cove nearby for some support and an overall shelling of the position based on the estimated distance from the target which caused many of the first barraged to miss completely. The tanks made a line formation being much more spread out since the mortars could cause damage to the tanks, still they performed a shelling of their own upon the position while trying to provide some cover for the infantry though many of them found themselves laying on the ground firing at anything moving on that side of the engagement doing just as they were taught which was not to discriminate between male or female, young or old, or even rank. Some found this to be somewhat difficult since the range of physiological archetypes inside the MI was much larger in the MI than the DIF.

[Nachfolgia]

Koh Gulf


[" Attention, enemy air attack!!!"]

Someone yelled out from one of the vehicles in the convoy as the first rounds from Minrozian A-10s hit the front of the convoy, engulfing two Leopard 2 tanks. Soldats dismounted their trucks as quickly as possible, trying to find cover in the field and tree line. Several vehicles were hit by incoming 20mm cannon fire and missiles as the enemy A-10s screamed over head. Dust and debris filled the air as the rounds impacted the ground and the convoy. Two Marder Roland anti aircraft vehicles broke from the convoy and moved into the field. Their targeting systems locked into the enemy aircraft and fired their SAM missiles. Smoke filled the air from the burning convoy, enough to be seen for miles.

Skies above Koh Gulf

A thirteen plane patrol was flying over the bay. The planes, SU-47, were black in color and had Nachfolgian and SS markings. The image of the formation was a stark contrast to the clear blue skies above. In the cockpit of the the lead plane, the pilot looked down at his radar as it gave a warning tone. His radar showed several blips south east of the formation's location and were staying in that general area. It also showed a couple small red blips from the build in Magic Indication Radar (MIR), a new addition to the standard radar, able to pick out magic signatures amongst the back ground.

["Attention Ritter squadron, this is Ritter 1. There are several signatures, both normal and magic, on radar. Heading southeast, coordinates 45677854. They are definately the enemy. We are to engage the enemy and glory to the Reich. These sub-humans are no match for the power and military superiority of the Waffen-SS. We carry the will of the Gods and the ancestors, their essence gives us power and meaning. We are the extended arm of the Obetsterfuhrurin, we will not let her and our people down. We bow to no one. Loyalty to the end!!"]

[" We give our lives to Nachfolgia"] The squadron said in unison over the radio. The formation turned in another direction, heading for the enemy planes, firing off flares as they did so.

Elsewhere in the skies above Zaida, thirteen figures were flying in formation, these black dots were the JG 63w, Nachfolgia's first ever MSF (Magic Supported Flight) fighter unit. Unlike other country's witches who acted like normal every day teenage girls, the JG 63w, or " Death Angels" as they were called, were trained only to obey every order without question and execute with swift effectiveness, practically breed for combat. In the facility where the Death Angels were formed, a secret underground Lab in the middle of Nachfolgia, the witches underwent terrible tests and exercises to become witches. Since the technology wasn't perfected and only existed in theory along with the Reich's view of magic and underfunding, many magically adept subjects died during the creation of JG 63w Those that survived, thirteen total, did not leave that facility unscathed, almost all of them have scars, whether physical or mental.

True to the Reich's nature of Military superiority and showing off, The Death Angels were sporting some very high tech equipment. Every one of them was wearing a high tech armor system that covered their entire body all the way to their strikers. The armor was heavily plated near vital areas like the chest and neck and had thin articulating armor plates around the joints to give full mobility. The armor was also thick around the forearms and hands where the weapon systems were housed, depending on what the witch's specialty was. The helmet was fully armored with a variety of different capabilities, like target finder, inferred, night vision, and range finder. All of the armor systems looked the same except the helmets, which were shaped to accommodate their familiar's ears. All in all, the Death Angel's armor somewhat resembled a Neuroi witch.

Several blips came up on the radar in the lead witch's head set, showing several normal and magical signatures.

[" Alright ladies, it's time to get to work. We have several targets to the south. Let's show them why we're called Death Angels. Loyalty to the end."] The lead witch said over the radio.

[" We give our lives to Nachfolgia."] the rest of the witches said in unison as they headed off into the direction of the enemy.

Amongst the smoke of the burning convoy, the Minrozian A-10 pilots and witches continued their attack. Three A-10s did another strafing attack on the convoy, kicking up more dust and smoke. As they pulled out of the attack, two missiles streamed in from nowhere and destroyed two of the A-10s, the third one evaded the exploding debris of his fallen comrades. Off in the distance, the Nachfolgian planes fired another volley of missiles before screaming in and merging with the Minrozian planes. The skies quickly became chaotic as planes were getting shot out the the air one by one. The Minrozian A-10s, which specialized in air to ground attacks were no match for the air to air specialty of the Nachfolgian SU-47s. The A-10s were dropping like flies. If it weren't for the Minrozian witches that accompanied them, they would be killed a lot faster. The witches were giving the Nachfolgian pilots a hell of a fight.

One Nachfolgian pilot was trying his best to shake one of the Minrozian witches. The witch was matching the plane movement, no matter which way he banked the witch was right on his tail. The witch targeted the plane and fired her machine gun at the plane's engine. The rounds impacted a magic barrier that suddenly appeared and bounced off. The witch suddenly looked to her left and dodged the bullets that whizzed by her. The bullets came from a Death Angel that was now engaging in a dog fight with the Minrozian witch she just fired at. With the Death Angels now in the dog fight, the battle was quickly going against the Minrozians. A couple of witches had already fell to the new coming Death Angels. One Death Angel flew towards an A-10 who was also flying towards her. The Minrozian pilot fired his 20mm cannon at the seemingly easy target. The witch activated her magical barrier as she continued her flight path, the rounds exploding off of the barrier, causing her no harm. As she got close, the Death Angel activated her blades that were in the weapons gauntlets on her arms. The Witch swung her blades and cut off the wing of the A-10. The pilot quickly ejected and pulled his parachute. The Death Angel saw the ejection and quickly banked around and cut the cords of his parachute. The pilot screamed as he plummeted to the ground. What the witch did seemed to be a common practice among the Death Angels. Now with the Minrozian witches now dealing with the Death Angels, the Minrozian pilots had no way of dealing with the experienced SS pilots. This dog fight was now quickly turning into a massacre.

[Austria-Bohemia-Hungary]

I. Division/Feldartillerieregiment Nr. 28 - Shyp Bak Airport

The ranging battery of the No. 1 Division had already with Babenberg's Advanced Hawkeye assets pinpointed the approach of a number of BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers setting up on the outskirts of the city. The fire data was thus already logged when Colonel Longzhi's fire support request filtered through, it was mostly perfunctory changing the direction and elevation of their 32 M777 field howitzers scattered around the battlefield against the incoming threat. Orders were given for three rounds of Excalibur and 3 conventional rounds each against the launch vehicles and their resupply elements, and with six bangs in under a minute the fire mission of 192 shells were sent, and the four gun batteries of the first Division wasted no time in returning to shelling the attacking infantry striking their own leading units.

---

Unternehmungsgruppe „Feierabend“ - Off the coast of Shyp Bak City
Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame:
All their attempts to bend thee down, will but arouse thy generous flame;
But work their woe, and thy renown.
Rule Britannia! Britannia rule the waves
Britons never, ever, ever shall be slaves.
Rule Britannia! Britannia rule the waves.
Britons never, ever, ever shall be slaves.

Viceadmiral Hannelore Feierabend's Operations Group have been sitting mostly idle now on the coast for a week or more, occasionally sending air strikes against the Zaidan rebels and providing round the clock AWACS support from her single carrier. There seemed to be no valid threat to her fleet in this area of the theatre, but that was changing fast today with the appearance of firstly the Zaidan Witches, the threat of which the Operations Group was not so well adapted against with its complement of conventional air superiority and multirole fighters, their advantage however lies in the vast arrays of VHF-, and L-band radars - used to locate stealth aircraft similar in size to Witches on a radar screen, and the airborne radar stations orbiting three locations from their carrier covering thousands of miles of ocean and land. The second threat came from what the Hawkeye MAEW&C.Mk.4 crews orbiting north of Zaida classified as a Nachfolgian carrier battlegroup, a juicy target for Feierabend-Group's three Laudon-class ships-of-the-line and their 192 Pr-601A Spartiates. Subsequently Viceadmiral Feierabend, having spied another chance to blow their old Association of Conceitedness and Arrogance friends once more to kingdom come detached her Laudons and four destroyers to her deputy Kontreadmiral Fassifern to welcome the Nachfolgians to Zaida.

[Kassaran]

52nd Strike Witches Squadron “Ulaan”

Suddenly Ace Flight’s radar had picked up something again, about six dots to be precise. This time it’s behind them. Anyone can suspect they’re the enemy witches they’re looking for. Luckily for them, these dots are marked as friendly. Six Minrozian witches emerged out of the clouds behind the Kassaran PS-21s. All of them are wearing their crimson-coloured Su-35s striker packs and four of them are armed with PKHs and two SAAT8 Stiletto missile launchers.

“Attention Allied aircrafts! This is Lieutenant-Colonel Xia Mingyu of the 52nd Strike Witches Squadron ‘Ulaan’ reporting. State your purpose?” Their leader, a black-haired and hazel-eyed twenty-year old girl, spoke with professionalism. It might surprise anyone who’re not used to Strike Witches or at least young teenagers who’re trained to be professional soldiers.

Regarding her witch squadron Ulaan, Xia Mingyu along with her subordinates are full-fledged aces. They’re famed as ‘fighter-killers’ because of their high kill-counts of destroying aerial foes, mostly enemy witches and fighter aircrafts. And their families’ warrior backgrounds like most of their peers. Funny thing is their call-sign ‘Ulaan’ is Mongolian for red. In other words, the Ulaan Strike Witches Squadron, befitting the spirit of its name, are not to be underestimated in battle and their hardened combat experience will proved it.

Mingyu continued, “Our mission is to hunt the enemy witches responsible for the carnage in Koh and our Southern Bases, on order of His Excellency General Tao Yang. I presumed you’re hunting them too.”

Kassaran Naval Air Corps
3-3 Echelon; Kassaran "Ace" Flight
Oen could almost see the surprise register in the sudden jerking movement of the lead PS-21's as the radar registered the allied witches, and yet they also showed remarkable calm, they'd never fought witches before, but as far as they were concerned, they were humans, just the same as them, and i they were indeed human, then they could die. However, even as they began to thumb for the weapon's backfire switch, the sound of the witch's voice came through their receivers and they finally identified the squadron and "waggling" their wing-tips, the two massive fighters fell into formation just to the right of the 52^nd.

Speaking into his microphone, the lead pilot of the fight spoke, and his voice betrayed his age, which was surprising as it came through, for it sounded much younger than most pilots, and indeed, this "ace' had been given his title at the age of 18 during the Coloran Conflicts, and now, seeing as how just under eight years had passed, he was twenty-six, and while most would expect the grizzled voice of a veteran to respond to the witch's hail, the Captain was calm, cool, and definitely not grizzled in his clipped accent as he spoke," This is Ace Lead to 'Ulaan' lead Low-tenant-Cyunel Ming-yew, I copy your last loud and clear, indeed we are pursuing the witches from Koh, and are en route for a firing solution."

It was almost to punctuate this that the wingman of the lead Raven Strike Fighter began to flare his main engine exhaust in a pulsing pattern" Tat'd be my boy Low-tenant Dulis, I'm Captain Valew, and it appears we have a targeting solution, if you'd prefer we can hold an additional twelve seconds to let your systems kick in if they haven't for you already, but if not, we need to take the opportunity while it's still here, these bitches are traveling fast as all hell and we're just barely keeping lock as is at this pace. Our missiles are locked though, just give the words and you have the combined munitions of us getting dropped into the skies next to yours. Hopefully in the resulting Charlie-Foxtrot we can manage to hit one of those little sorceresses. On the other hand, we do have top cover if needed during a potential dogfight, but where they are exactly we have no idea at the moment."

With this the familiar crackle of the massive engines of the PS-21 broke through the comm chatter as overhead the two Ravens flying top-cover moved to also gain weapons lock, riding their throttle almost to the fullest extent.

[Minroz]

-snip-

Zaidan forces - at least the determined rebels in the city did not surrendered. The combined Minrozian-Cerberus forces pushed inside the city like a rushing flood of the waters. Crushing their opposition, left and right, their superior training and equipments prevailed over their insurgent opponents.

In the matter of minutes and losing many of their strategic grounds, the Zaidan forces have had enough and decided to retreat, abandoning the city in the process. Like hares, they fled into the rural countryside of Koh Ker province. In the next matter of minutes, Ja Hat is finally back into Minrozian control.

---

-snip-

The rebels kept fighting as usual. They never give up. But few of their mortar positions are gone, thanks to the counter-attack of Dergarians. The Zaidan’s stubborn but messy defences of machine-gun nests and ambushers tried to keep the Dergarians at bay until…

Two Minrozian large UAV bombers suddenly swooped in and dropped its payload onto the pitiful rebels. In other words, carpet-bombing! And the Dergarians are pretty lucky not to get hit! These bombers didn’t come from Lau Tan Air-base; they come from the Imperial carrier battle-group (the one commanded by Admiral Paek) which just arrived as reinforcements at the early stage of Zaidan rebellion.

Now the Zaidan rebels at the former Minrozian garrison base had lost more than the half of their fighting strength and most are being shell-shocked, thanks to the UAV bombers earlier. Now this battle is in Dergarian’s favour.

---

-snip-

Skies of Koh Gulf

Indeed, it is the massacre. Compared to the Nachfolgians, the Minrozians - witches and pilots alike are just fresh meat in spite their superior numbers. They all never thought it turns out like this. The Imperial MiG-35 squadrons struggled to chase down their Nachfolgian fighters with little success and lost six fighters in the process. For them, it’s a nightmare coming true; they got the taste of real aerial battles.

“What the!” Jim Shing catches his breath, he manoeuvre his plane away from the dogfighting zone and the same time avoiding the enemy SAM from the ground.

“Dear gods~” Jiaying gasped in horror, watching her plane comrades get destroyed by enemy Su-47s and witches, one by one. She can hear on the radio that her comrades-in-arms for panicking.

Something boiled in her blood, something made her time stop. It’s rage, pure rage, she never felt this angry in her life. She realised she was enraged by the loss of her comrades and now Tang Jiaying wants to avenge them.

“Khumaak’s Void!” Weisheng cursed. “Pull yourselves people and fess up or we’re done for! Don’t let the devils walked over us.”

“But these barbarians seemed to be better equipped than us!” His second-in-command

“Calm down! It doesn’t matter, we have numbers. Remember our duty!” The lead MiG-35 pilot is trying to rally his comrades back into the fight. It worked for most part, only to getting rid of their panic from controlling their senses.

“As much as I want to fight alongside y’all, I’m out of here. My ride isn’t equipped to deal with fighters. I need some escorts.” Jim Shing let Weisheng know. He and his remaining two A-10s turned tail and retreat back to Lau Tan. Acknowledging his request, Weisheng ordered one of his squadron to accompany Jim Shing’s men back to the base. Now this leaves him and his remaining MiG-35s and Jiaying’s witches.

“Colonel Tang, you okay?” Weisheng asked his witch counterpart, sounding concern.

“I’m fine, just angry.” She hissed, gripping her machine-gun, glaring at the enemy ‘Death angel’ from afar.

“Good to hear! Brothers and sisters! Do not fear the Nachfolgian devils. They may take our lives here, but they’ll not defeat the Middle Kingdom! Ten Thousand Years for the Emperor!”

“Ten Thousand Years!!!” They chanted.

The Minrozian fighters and witches alike managed to reform into organised formations and flew back into the fight. If their skills aren’t good enough to fight their Nachfolgian adversaries, maybe the legendary determination of the Minrozians will compensate.

Yelling like madmen, the now fanatical Minrozian witches go after the Death Angels, firing their missiles first and then switch to their machineguns. For more offense-minded witches, they conjured their varied range spells including fireballs, crackling beams of lightning strikes and lasers.

Weisheng’s MiG flew behind Ritter-1 and engaged into one-to-one dogfight as if it’s like a duel between two warriors but with planes, armed with bullets and missiles. Who will win?

[Cerberus Industries]

The Cerberus troops took time to recollect themselves. Many were working as emergency crews now while others ran hunting parties to clear on the city and the fringes around it. They were mainly an engineer group anyways and they did make short work of any obstacles caused by destruction. They treated the people fairly well actually though they did confiscate vehicles to be returned with additional funds for the use of these vehicles mainly as fast reports like that of ambulances or the like and as patrol cars. The soldiers never seemed to talk and only when one of the minrozian civilians or soldiers spoke to them.

It became evident however that they were simply using rather advanced communications that were used for short range and long range communications with many various channels as well. General Johnson sighed as he rubbed a temple drinking some hot coffee as he listened ad read reports in his little HQ. Making sure the city was okay might very well take longer than the battle itself. Being kind was a good thing but it was also the issue of morale. These soldiers lived in a very controlled and civilized nation with barely any chaos, they were warriors from a utopia to some degree, their kind hearts and gentle souls were only formed into killing machines with rigorous training and medical procedures of their nation. Johnson just sighed again and mumbled something to his two purger commissars before they saluted and ran off in opposite directions.

[Minroz]

-snip-

Shyp bak city

With enemy rocket artilleries gone, there’s no more reason for the rebels to push on to take the city for themselves. After suffering even more fatal casualties and the arrival of Minrozian reinforcements via the coastal landings from the south, the remainder of the Zaidan fighting force withdraw from the city suburbs. Like the herd of frightened lambs, they ran away into their territories as their numbers were mowed down by the Minrozian-Austrian airstrikes in the process. Watching them retreat, the Minrozian defenders of the city whooped and cheer, celebrating their victory.

Longzhi, standing on what’s used to be a five-story parking lot with his command staff, smiled, feeling the surge of pride for his men. But felt genuine remorse for those who’ve fallen under his command. The one thing he hated the most is to accept their inevitable deaths and reporting it to their grieving loved ones. High Command may accept these losses, but to him, it’s unacceptable. It’s the same since Khaydaristan and Heljmenistan all over.

“Ye gods, a lot of good souls have to die.” He thought grimly. A fleet of helicopters flew over his head. Longzhi knew what these helis are heading to. They’re heading into rebel lands. It’s no brainer that the ruthless general Tao Yang isn’t shy from using ‘overkill’ tactics to put a nation-wide rebellion down.

---

-snip-

She flew next to the lead PS-21 fighter.

“Copy that, Ace Lead, many thanks for your generous offer.” Mingyu professionally replied, but she sounds like she’s relieved. “Well, Captain Valew, you’re not the only one who didn’t know where the rebel witches are. According to our Intel, the same witches who did attack our bases to the South should be nearby by now. So far we haven’t of course. So we keep searching, over.”

Suddenly, Captain You Jen’er, her second-in-command and radar witch of the squadron reported. [“Zhongxiao! I got two bogeys dead ahead, one o’clock!”]

[“Is it Zaidan?”] Mingyu questioned.

[“Affirmitive.”] Jen’er answered.

“Ace Lead, my wingman has found what we’re looking for. Only Two contacts. Follow our lead.” She instructed her Kassaran allies.

Beckoning her squadron, they flew into the direction where Jen’er points out. Above and going through the clouds, the Ulaan Squadron have spotted the Zaidan F-22 witches. The rebel witches didn’t seem to notice them. Gripping her gun, Mingyu signalled her girls to swoop down from above. Two of her witches fired their homing missiles!

Now getting their Zaidan opponents’ attention, they dodged in acrobatic manner however letting missiles whizzed-by. But two of the Ulaan witches sprayed her gun at the Zaidan, while some of her other fellow Minrozians are chasing the other enemy witch.

“Ace Lead, don’t let them get away if they stray away from our sights! I repeat don’t let them get away or we lose this chance!” Mingyu informed her Kassaran counterpart. She flies up and then down, pouncing like cat, true to her tiger familiar, increasing the speed of her striker packs to catch up with the enemy F-22s witch.

This is like cat and mice chase. But only a bunch of cats chasing two fast mice.

[Kassaran]

She flew next to the lead PS-21 fighter.

“Copy that, Ace Lead, many thanks for your generous offer.” Mingyu professionally replied, but she sounds like she’s relieved. “Well, Captain Valew, you’re not the only one who didn’t know where the rebel witches are. According to our Intel, the same witches who did attack our bases to the South should be nearby by now. So far we haven’t of course. So we keep searching, over.”

Suddenly, Captain You Jen’er, her second-in-command and radar witch of the squadron reported. [“Zhongxiao! I got two bogeys dead ahead, one o’clock!”]

[“Is it Zaidan?”] Mingyu questioned.

[“Affirmitive.”] Jen’er answered.

“Ace Lead, my wingman has found what we’re looking for. Only Two contacts. Follow our lead.” She instructed her Kassaran allies.

Beckoning her squadron, they flew into the direction where Jen’er points out. Above and going through the clouds, the Ulaan Squadron have spotted the Zaidan F-22 witches. The rebel witches didn’t seem to notice them. Gripping her gun, Mingyu signalled her girls to swoop down from above. Two of her witches fired their homing missiles!

Now getting their Zaidan opponents’ attention, they dodged in acrobatic manner however letting missiles whizzed-by. But two of the Ulaan witches sprayed her gun at the Zaidan, while some of her other fellow Minrozians are chasing the other enemy witch.

“Ace Lead, don’t let them get away if they stray away from our sights! I repeat don’t let them get away or we lose this chance!” Mingyu informed her Kassaran counterpart. She flies up and then down, pouncing like cat, true to her tiger familiar, increasing the speed of her striker packs to catch up with the enemy F-22s witch.

This is like cat and mice chase. But only a bunch of cats chasing two fast mice.

Kassaran Naval Air Corps
3-3Echelon; Kassaran "Ace" Flight
The fighters didn't have to be told twice as like demons from hell they opened up their additional air intakes along the sides of the fuselage, allowing more air to slip in and compress to be fired out, and with a mighty howl they pushed open their throttles and engaged in the massive dogfight, and screaming in from overhead, vents wailing like banshees came the last two PS-21's in the formation, using their height and thus energy advantage in the dogfight to have closed the distance in the approach. Being closer to their target, an incredible crack can be heard as their rail-slung homing missiles engage, flying out of the fuselage at an odd angle along the release port, to start-up and fly out towards the tail of the F-22 witch. A massive thundering in the sky, now apparent to all above and below as the engines work against, but also for, the element of surprise. Wrapping miles and miles out, the sound engulfs the countryside below, echoing off of the hills and buildings and trees and everything it finds purchase in, and it compounds as the sound remains, great and majestic.

Meanwhile, the PS-21's massive electronic warfare sensor suite is hard at works attempting to enter the more computerized parts of the F-22 Witch, utilizing multiple pulse EMP devices at close intervals designed to interfere with the inherent design instability the F-22 so dearly loves to use for it's agility, but hates when it comes down to a fight. Hundreds of years of Kassaran war power and history all seeming to eclipse in this moment as the four PS-21's now on the tail of the witch engage, moving one behind the other and off to a side to avoid having each move into the other's lines of fire. They've done this before, and they have perfected what happens next as suddenly they slip open all of their weapons's ports and climb suddenly, the maneuver seeming to slow them to a stall as suddenly the four massive planes hang in mid-air, moving actually at a relative speed just over that of Mach 1. Their wings vibrate madly as though some invisible giant is shaking the fighters and vapor forms around the bodies as they push the limits of their structural integrity, but the Kassaran air-frame holds strong and gives them what they need, separation from the F-22, as they now seemingly pirouette in midair and go inverted, appearing to raise their noses towards the ground, and to track the lower in altitude fleeing F-22. With another mighty and tremendous crack, four smoke trails suddenly appear in the air, flying towards the F-22 at incredible speeds.

They have found a target which has been designated by electronic pulses and visual line-of-sight sensors, and with the cloud cover no longer offering cover as the trail of the fighters have pushed the clouds around and manipulated them enough for the missiles to determine where the fleeing fighter is located. They are hot on the trail now, the pinnacle of missile technology, the half-million dollar Serpentine Anti-Aircraft Burst missile. Not only are these missiles designed not to truly hit their target, but rather are they designed to detonate above and behind an enemy aircraft, the rapidly expanding air from the missile at the point of detonation being well into Mach 3 and the shrapnel perhaps flying slightly slower and as the missiles gain ground, their AOE becomes more and more potent. Following from a now-safe distance behind the F-22, continuing to paint it for the approaching Serpentine AA-B missiles, the fighters engage in locking on additional missiles designed to track the strange form of radiation that currently is emanating from the strike witches however back at ground command, the missiles' targeting systems are also collecting data on a previously unseen power-type, and the Kassaran handlers are desperately trying to monitor the flow of radiation pouring off of the strike witch to see what could possibly be making such strange pulses.

[Minroz]

-snip-

52nd Strike Witches Squadron

The Zaidan witch is hit by the Kassaran’s missile...almost, lucky for her. She dodged it! Unfortunately she didn’t activate her magical barrier in time as few shrapnels flew from the PS-21’s missile and lodged it onto her back. Hissing in pain, she brings her minigun to bear towards the Kassaran squadron and shoots it full-throttle, hoping she’ll kill them in one swoop just like she did at Lau Tan airbase.

Her comrade meanwhile is chased by three members of the Ulaan Strike Witch squadron led by Jen’er. Noticing the trouble of her partner, the second Zaidan witch fired her homing missile at one of the Kassaran jets and then barrel-roll to the left with her Minrozian pursuers following.

Back to Mingyu and two of her witches, they got their target – the one who’s now firing her minigun in the sights of their scopes. They let off streams of bullets and two missiles at the Zaidan rebel.

It’s too late for their prey to react. Bandit down as the rebel is shredded from behind.

Watching the Zaidan witch’s dead body (at least what remains) falling down like raining tears to the ocean below, Mingyu pressed her communications earpiece.

[“Ulaan-2, what’s your status?”] She asked her wingman.

[“Still pursuing, bogey seems to be running away.”] Jen’er replied.

[“Keep at it, don’t lose her.”] The Ulaan leader instructed.

[“Yes Zhongxiao (Lieutenant-colonel)!”]

“This is Ulaan-1! Let’s go after the last one. If we’re lucky, we might find more of them on our way.” She informed her Kassaran counterpart via the radio. Mingyu and her witches then dived down to pursue their last target.

---

Edges of Wnur Desert

Led by General Yuelan Taichari, a force of several Minrozian armoured companies (including the mecha Mogols) coming from the south have been assembled! They’re all lining up along the borders of Wnur desert, the most barren region of Zaida, now dotted with concealed rebel bases. It’s clear they’re ready to move in. General Tao Yang’s plan is to ‘steamroll’ the desert with his mechanised infantry forces to flush them out with the support of mainland reinforcements.

With the southern provinces of Zaida under Coalition’s control, now the lands of Wnur desert is next on their list. Mentioning the fact it’s all the remaining rebels from Indrapura have fled to and the neko general will stop at nothing to eradicate these separatists.

However, it’s not going to be simple. Due to the fact, Wnur desert is rich in petroleum and natural gases, dotted with infrastructures built for them including refineries and oil rigs. These facilities if encountered are not to be destroyed and expected to be captured under the Minrozian flag, orders from Zhongyang.

Unfortunately, some of these industrial complexes are occupied by the rebels as their base of operations. It seems the coalition have to take things a hard way by not being ‘destructive’. Much to Tao Yang’s dismay, he reluctantly accepted the order for not damaging the oil facilities. On the bright side, there’re rebel troops crawling around the desert for his troops to

Now the Imperial armoured forces are waiting for their Kassaran and Zaidan allies to catch up with them. Till then they’re ready to take Wnur back under the Middle Kingdom’s control.

[Kassaran]

-snip-

Kassaran Naval Air Corps
3-3 Echelon; Kassaran "Ace" Flight
The missile from the Zaidan witch disengaged, but here came the beauty of Kassaran technology. Holding back at a distance of just over a kilometer, the maneuver of not only the first, but also the second witch, tipped off the pilots in the massive fighters behind. While perhaps thought to be lumbering beasts on the ground, they were anything but an easy target and with the launch of the single homing missile detected, bolts along the side of the craft braced for impact, waiting t eject the pilot if the air-frame became critically damaged while inside the aircraft's electronics went into overdrive, pumping out a massive wave of thermal radiation as the nose-mounted anti-missile laser system engaged the tracking hub of the missile. While the violent movements of the pilot weren't making things easy on the craft and it's computers, the laser flew through the air and contact was read by the system and within mere thousands of a second, they were already hard at work attempting to "spoof" the missile systems into shutting down and becoming useless. Meanwhile, into the fray behind the second witch now fleeing, the Kassaran "Raven" fighters are opening up their throttles to catch up, yet they also are making note of where the Zaidan witch fell, making sure to drop over the approximate crash zone three unmarked payloads. Below in the jungle, the payloads crashed into the area where the witch was thought to have crashed, and like a cloud of fog, suddenly the clearing they had set up in filled with a nerve-toxin designed to incapacitate those affected. If the witch is somehow still alive, or mostly intact down below, the beacons on the devices dropped will soon allow for a Kassaran recovery team to make their way there to recover this strange and foreign new technology.

[Nachfolgia]

Skies over Koh

The SS pilots and Death Angels engaged the Minrozian formation in sweeping attacks, firing Active Radar-guidance missiles and 20mm cannons. It was a fatal move on the Minrozian's part to fly in formation. It made it very difficult to maneuver to evade the incoming fire. If one pilot tried to move to the right or left of him, he would slam into one of his comrades and both would go down. Plus, the debris from an exploding plane at that close proximity would damage the planes around it. As the Nachfolgians attacked the Minrozians, ripping holes in the formation, the Death Angels dealt with the enemy witches. The Death Angels flew at tremendous speed as they returned fire on the now death crazed Minrozian witches.

Ludwiga von Xylander, the Death Angel's platoon sergeant, engaged one of the Minrozian witches as they flew in a cork screw. The two fired laser after laser at each other as they tried to get a good shot at each over. A few times, the Minrozian almost got a direct hit on Ludwiga, but her quick speed only resulted in a grazing hit which scorched the outside of her flight suit. After several seconds of maneuvering in the cork screw, Ludwiga and the Minrozian flew next to each over. " Not bad, but it's time for you to die bitch." Ludwiga said through her helmet as she pointed her arm cannon at the witch.

Another Death Angel, Helma von Mercy, was being chased by two Minrozian witches. The two Minrozians used their magic to attack Helma with fireballs and lightning. Helma looked behind her to see the attacks coming towards her. She conjured up a barrier just before the fireballs and lightning reached her. The attacks made contact with the magic barrier, causing a violent explosion. Helma flipped over on her back and aimed her arm cannons loaded with 20mm rounds and fired, sending a volley of lead at the two witches.

Elsewhere in the fray, Ritter 1 was engaged in a deadly dog fight with the lead Minrozian MIG. Despite his slower speed, Ritter 1 believed his superior maneuverability and range will allow him to move around to get a better shot. The elite SS pilot maneuvered his SU-47 left and right to try and shake the Minrozian. "[ Shit...this subhuman doesn't know when to quit. If he wants to die so badly, I'll gladly send him to whatever heathen god he worships.]" Ritter 1 said through his flight helmet as he turned his dead to see where the Minrozian was. Suddenly, another SS pilot designated Ritter 4, entered the dog fight behind the Minrozian. "[ Ritter 1, this is Ritter 4. I'm behind the Minrozian, hang in there.]" Ritter 4 said over the radio. Ritter 4 followed the moves of the Minrozian as he tried to get a lock. Eventually, Ritter 4 finally got a tone and immediately fired a missile at the Minrozian.

[Wolfenium]

Outside the palace's security cordon, Khon Pa, Minrozian-held capital of Zaida

'Miyu... Miyu... Let's go find the Black Waygate, Miyu!...'

Awaking in a startle, a lone girl, about fifteen, could not help but stare out into the skies over Khon Pa. A pale, fairskinned East Asian with ink black, shoulder-length hair and a blood red eye beside another hidden one, the girl was a direct contrast to an elderly goat herder sleeping at a lotus position beside her. With wispy white hair and beard, wrinkled beige skin and bony limbs, it was hard not to guess that he was not related to her by blood. Still, anyone who questioned them would get the same answer from the duo - that the girl was his adopted granddaughter, and the herder was simply trying to live his life away from the chaotic war.

Dressed in local garb, the girl looked around at the thick security presence surrounding the palace in the distance. Undoubtedly, the Queen residing within was of key importance to Minroz in ensuring Zaida's integration and modernization into their vast empire. It was one reason why the despotic prince wanted her dead or captured, in order to eliminate what credibility the occupiers had against him. Granted, Minroz, for all its faults, felt like the lesser evil to her. For Pol-orp to win was to allow the islands to descend back to a state of barbarism far more common in ancient times. However, her own feelings have no place in her master's greater plans. While victory did not appear a priority to the mercenary Arjen Reijner, it was what he was employed for, and he was keen to achieve it, if it helped to shut the prince up.

'Not again..." she thought, grasping her head in a slight sensation of pain, 'why do I keep getting these dreams? I must be apart from Master for too long. I have to hurry...'

However, before she could think through of her next course of action, a slight grunt uttered from beside her. Shuffling his limbs as he began to stand, the elderly herder called out, "Sandar?... Sandar?..."

Snapping out of her thoughts, 'Sandar' quickly rushed to the side of the elder, carefully pulling him to his feet as she asked, "yes, grandfather?"

Patting her hands over his own as his sightless eyes peered at the almost blank scenery, the elder asked, "how long do you think we can go back to the farm, Sandar?..."

Feeling a bit guilty, the girl merely responded, "I... I don't know... The Prince's forces are on the run... I'm sure peace would be restored... soon..."

"I see..." the old man spoke slowly, sounding a bit disappointed, "it's like choosing between a desert and a mountain summit. Neither is a nice place to live in. I don't understand these politicians at all. Why can't these foreigners just leave us alone after they toppled that tyrant?"

"M-Me neither, grandfather..." the girl said, growing more despondent, her guilt tugging at her deception of the elderly herder. She was not sure how long she could pretend any more. She did not to delude him with the idea that his long dead granddaughter, Sandar, was alive and well, much less saddle him with the uncomfortable task of hiding a Zaidan-aligned spy in his company. But she saw no way of escaping Arjen's watch or grip. He had tampered with her body, and if she tried to run or kill him, Arjen would break her in a heartbeat.

"Look... sir..." she grudgedly admitted, "I'm not... I don't think I can be... Sand-"

But before she could finish her sentence, the elder quietly placed his hand on her lips, a wrinkled smile on his face as he answered, "I know... It doesn't matter. You're not the Sandar I know, yes... But I wish I had another granddaughter like you... She would have liked a n elder sister..."

Pausing a bit, the girl was not sure how to react to the news. Blushing a bit, her thoughts grew heavy on her mind. To her surprise, the cataract-afflicted herder quietly rubbed his hands over her cheeks. She did not realize it at first, but he was wiping away her tears, slowly trickling down her face to the floor. It was a warmth she never felt for a long time, but one she found strangely familiar. It was a stark contrast to the abuse she suffered at her master's hands, one which robbed her of her free will and memories. The one matter she dreaded most was returning back to report to Arjen. She was sure he would wipe her memories again, and she would return back to the cold, robotic killer she had been designed to be.

But before she could muse any longer, the old herder suddenly slumped on her body. Her face growing white as a sheet, her eye trembled as it gazed down at the elder lying on her. She could not feel much of a pulse, or his breath grew weaker and weaker. It was obvious what was going on. The herder was dying, passing out in exhaustion at the arms of a fake granddaughter he wished he had adopted for real.

"No..." she blurted in distress, "don't... please... Don't leave me... Grandfather... Grandfather!... Someone," she screamed in horror, reason melting away from her usually calculative mind, "anyone! Somebody help! Please!... Anyone!..."

For once, Rei saw herself as a herder's granddaughter. Not a spy for a rogue scientist, or a cyborg infiltrator or killer. For once, she had wished she was born to the old man's family. For all the troubles and hardship he would have gone through in rural Zaida, she felt nothing would have compared to her own horrific nightmares.

[Minroz]

-snip-

52nd Strike Witches Squadron

The Ulaan witches kept chasing the last rebel witch. Again, it’s like a game of cat and mouse. Firing their combination of missiles and bullets, they got the Zaidan on the run. Part of Mingyu’s mind wanted to capture the rebel alive for intelligence reasons. On the other hand, she’s guessing the enemy witch is trying to get back to the other fellow F-22s. However, her mission is to hunt them down, and this means she’s free to kill them with impunity.

However, her radar is detecting twelve Zaidan MiG-21s coming towards her squadron’s positions. Frowning at the information, Mingyu is wondering how the hell the rebels managed to acquire such hardwares and remained hidden from Imperial satellite scans. She dismissed the thought and focusing on chasing the last Zaidan witch.

“Kassaran fighters, would you kindly get the enemy bogeys off our backs? My girls need to take down the enemy witch.” Mingyu requested, pressing her comm. ear-piece.

---

-snip-

Staring down defiantly at Ludiwiga’s weapons, Colonel Tang Jiaying tossed away her emptied machine-gun in response.

“That’s my line, gwailo!” She howled, throttling her striker thrusters forward. Catching her Nach opponent off-guard, the Minrozian witch activated her magic barrier and slammed herself into the Death Angel like a bowling ball. Then Jiaying bring her left- hand up and tried strangling Ludwiga’s neck. In her remaining hand, she brought out a knife and jabbed it into the Death Angel’s area in which she thinks is the weakest spot.

“This is for my comrades-in-arms!” Jiaying hissed darkly. “May Khumaak, God of the underworld send you to the Void.”

The two Minrozian witches, who’re chasing Helma von Mercy, lieutenant Niu You and Bao Quan, activated their magical barriers in time, protecting themselves from the Nachfolgian bullets unscathed. Though the impact made them feel a bit disoriented but they’re okay. Nevertheless it ticked them off even more, feeling the resolve to take their Nachfolgian prey down.

“Eat this, bitch!” Bao Quan taunts as she conjured her lightning strikes at Helma. While her wingmate Niu You rushes in like a maddened berserker, holding in her hands is the summoned flame sword the length of the tall tree. Swinging her flame sword high, Niu You was intent to cut Helma down like a kitchen cutting the melted butter.

Back to Colonel Mon Wiesheng, he cursed when the Nachfolgian missile is targeting his MiG-35. Reacting, his fighter plane somersaulted, firing off his last flares causing the enemy missile to miss him. In the ironic twist, Wiesheng now is chasing Ritter 4 instead because the Minrozian MiG is right behind him after the former’s somersault stunt.

“Goodbye.” He smirked behind the mask. As soon as his targeting system locked-on at Ritter 4, his finger pressed the trigger immediately firing a missile.

Appearing on the radars of the Nachfolgian aerial combatants, more bogeys registered as Minrozians are heading towards their positions. Beyond the horizon of the aerial battles over Koh gulf, two squadrons of Minrozian Su-35s and two squadrons of MiG-35 witches have come into the Nachfolgians’ view. This means more Imperial reinforcements have arrive to assist their comrades and they’re only few miles away.

“This is Colonel Zai Gun’s Squadron, we’re on our way.” Their leader announced.

“Hang in there, sisters!” announced Colonel Jai Fuyin, leader of the MiG witches’ reinforcements.

---

"No..." she blurted in distress, "don't... please... Don't leave me... Grandfather... [b]Grandfather!... Someone," she screamed in horror, reason melting away from her usually calculative mind, "anyone! Somebody help! Please!... Anyone!..."

For once, Rei saw herself as a herder's granddaughter. Not a spy for a rogue scientist, or a cyborg infiltrator or killer. For once, she had wished she was born to the old man's family. For all the troubles and hardship he would have gone through in rural Zaida, she felt nothing would have compared to her own horrific nightmares.

Hearing the girl’s plea, several members of the ZDF came rushing in to her positions. Unlike their rebel peers, they’re professional soldiers who wanted to serve their country and queen in spite of their resentments towards their Minrozian overlords.

“What happen here, girl?” One asked. “Is he your relative?”

Another checked the old man’s pulse. “He’s breathing, sir!”

This shocked his comrades. Their leader who happens to be the commander of the nearby security cordon barked orders to two of his men to carry the old man’s body carefully. They knew the local hospitals in the city are already full due to the early conflicts.

There’s one available and that’s in Khon Pa Royal Palace! The ZDF men rushed inside the palace infirmary where the doctor tried their best in resuscitating Rei’s ‘grandfather’ from passing away. Unfortunately for them, they’re not aware it’s the rebel plan to infiltrate the Palace.

Observing from the rooftop of the abandoned apartment, Agent Godfrey lowered his binoculars with the victorious expression. He’s been watching the whole thing. Part of him felt sorry for Rei, he heard foul rumours regarding Arjen and he didn’t like it at all. He had enough psychos to deal with and Godfrey will have to answer to Ericopolis back home in his homeworld. The Omakan once suspected the Dutch-Sumizunan to be a creep and his instincts has proven true…in a way. But it’s not his job to question that, Godfrey’s mission is stir-up trouble in Zaida for the Minrozians, that’s it. Now he’s leading a team to kidnap the Zaidan queen and her little sister, on orders of Prince Pol-orp.

“Jesus Christ, Arjen’s Cyborg killers are fragile beings after all, contrary to what he says. Oh well, it’s pretty sad this archipelago has to go down. But it’s all in good business for the Confederacy.” Godfrey muttered. The Omaskan is lamenting a fact that Zaida is just only a sacrificial pawn in their Cold War game against the Asiatic giant to the north - Minroz.

Turning heels, he then walked back downstairs. He’s going to prepare his team for Palace infiltration.

[Cerberus Industries]

The city of Ja Hat, the soldiers of Cerberus had long since restored some form of order and stability there leaving the rest to the Minrozians. The war machine was slightly battered but was otherwise near full operations. Morale was high especially with the fact that there was a high possibility they were all going to be rotated out after the siege of Gar Phek for the actual military and not these weapon tests. The troops said their goodbyes to any of the civilians they might have bonded with during their period of help. Any destroyed vehicle or ones lacking any owner were scrapped and used as repairs and additional armor for the vehicles and even to make some shields as well.

The troops were on the road again adjusting their formations in response to that of the last attack. They waved off the people and the city of Ja Hat. These soldiers had great ingenuity and had even put some scrap metal here or there on their gear to prevent wounds from the next machete charge, these rebels they were not used to. The Seralian conflict had been much more of a professional standard and they weren't even here in mass or to occupy. General Johnson just grunted as he looked over his PDA in the back of one of the ATVs looking over the movements and hints. The Dergarians were taking so long and the Minrozians might not even be able to join them next time. They'd have to clean out some of the country side first before even thinking of leaving the city, so off they went looking for where these rebels were holding up but they'd never look for long before heading to Gar Phek, they had a deadline.