Infinite Strike Witches Chapter One

Ichika Orimura let loose a primal roar of victory as Yukihira connected with the body of the Silver Gospel at full power. Traveling at close to full speed Byakushki Setsura smashed the Gospel out of the air and plowed both of them into a nearby beach. As the massive cloud of sand dissipated the five girls that had fought alongside flew up.

"Is it over?" asked Charlotte as she supported a mildly shaky Rin.

"Did we win?" said Laura at the same time as she and Cecilia leaned against each other.

"I believe so," answered Houki.

Ichika meanwhile was just standing up from the impact. Glancing down he saw that there was a cut in the drone's armor. As he stood something dark and liquid started welling from the wound. Curious as to what it could be Ichika sheathed his sword and kneeled down. Laying both hands on the Gospel he scooped up a little with his finger and brought it closer. As he brought it to his face he saw that it was red.

"I thi...," Ichika started to exclaim but was cut off by a tremendous flash and a ball of light that came from the Gospel.

Back in the command center Maya Yamada and Chifuyu Orimura stared at the satellite projection on the screen. One second there had been seven IS's clustered together, the next there was a flash and they were all gone. Chifuyu recovered first and turned to face the third occupant of the room.

"What in the world just happened?" she demanded in a voice that was part angry, part questioning and completely worried.

For quite possibly the first time in her life since she had learned to speak Tabane Shinonono was completely silent as she too stared at the screen. Then three words that had never come out of her mouth before emerged, "I don't know" she said in a stunned quiet voice

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Major Mio Sakamoto was up and running towards the hangar before she consciously realized that the Akagi's general quarters alarm had gone off. She had just given Miyafugi her own earpiece and as her brain caught up she was mildly concerned about leaving her alone but she didn't have time to worry about her now.

Ducking through the final hatch she sprinted to her Striker Unit and quickly climbed up and into them. Before she'd even fully climbed in the elevator she was on had started rising. Grabbing her Type 99 machine gun and making sure her sword was in place she started the Striker as the elevator finally reached the Akagi's flight deck.

The Akagi was off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula and had been steaming north towards Portsmouth for repair and upgrades along with her sister carrier Kaga and the battleship Nagato along with their escort of three light cruisers and twelve destroyers. Now the battle group was taking evasive action and the carriers were turning into the wind to let them launch their fighters.

As the last of the ready Zero's thundered off the deck Sakamoto moved forward as fast as she could and lined up on the centerline. "This is Major Sakamoto requesting permission for takeoff," she hollered over the starting engines and the roar of the wind.

"Permission granted Major," came the relatively calm voice of flight control, "Be advised enemy force consists of one dreadnaught and supporting light units. It appears to have just finished entering the atmosphere."

Sakamoto had thundered down the flight deck before granted had finished coming out of the controllers mouth but still had the presence of mind to grunt an affirmative as she thundered after the eight Zero's that were already in the air.

"This is Major Sakamoto," she said as she took the center slot in the formation, "standard drill men. Keep the small fry off me while I deal with the dreadnaught." A chorus of affirmatives followed her orders and that was it as they reached firing range of the swarm of enemy fighters.

The Zero's broke off in pairs and went after the Martian fighters that were mostly wings with pipes sticking out the end. Sakamoto just raised her shield and plowed through, taking shots at the fighters as she went. Two seconds later five of the Martian craft were down and one of the Zero's was trailing smoke. Sakamoto's shield had clipped one of the Martians wings and she straightened out her path as she headed for the dreadnaught.

Raising her eyepatch she looked for the dreadnaught's energy core. Several years of fighting had showed that the best way to take out the aerial DN's was to take out the energy system that kept them in the air. But each DN seemed to be built differently and the cores were never in the same spot.

This one's seemed to be above and forward and she closed fast to minimize her exposure to its fire, spiraling to dodge as much of it as possible. As she entered range she opened up with her Type 99. Despite its heavy armor, her magic empowered bullets still did a decent amount of damage. But as she blew past she knew that she would have to hit it harder to take it out.

Making a tight turn she headed back towards the dreadnaught, planning to strafe its engines on her return pass. But she immediately had to bank away as she felt her shield heating up. That meant the DN was using a maser on her and those were bad news. Witches shields were good for stopping physical matter but the heat generated by a maser could still get through and fry her if it had enough time, which she wasn't going to give it.

Diving down out of the masers path she risked a glimpse of the rest of the battle. Several more of the roughly twenty or so Martian fighters had been shot down but so had one of the Zeros. Looking back up she managed to dodge a barrage of the small spinning rockets the Martians liked to use. Shooting out in front she took a barrage of kinetic projectiles on her shield as she skewed around. Staggering back on course she again unleashed a barrage of 50. Caliber rounds at the dreadnaughts core area.

This time she caught a couple of rockets and staggered hard through the air throwing off her aim. As she flew by again she swore she saw the core exposed but the DN was still in the air. Just as she cleared the end of the DN she was hit again and she started losing speed and altitude. Looking back one of her strikers was smoking and the other was on fire. Attempting to gain altitude she quickly realized that it wasn't going to happen. It was all she could do to keep up a decent shield to keep her from getting hit again. "This is Sakamoto," she radioed, "I'm hit and going down."

Ditching the on fire striker she tried her best to keep from falling to far out of control with her remaining leg unit. That was easier said than done as the Martian DN kept up a rain of fire in her direction. Cursing fate Sakamoto started falling out of the sky, "One more Witch," she thought, "One more Witch and we could've taken it. Now it's luck if the fighters can get it or not."

Glancing over she saw that the Martians were down to about eight fighters but there were only two zero's left. The others were still about a minute away minimum. Even if they did get the Dreadnaught it would shred them in return. Closing her eyes she spoke softly, "Sorry Mina, I guess you'll have to get along without me."

Opening her eyes she saw the Dreadnaught looming still spitting fire on her increasingly weakened shield. As the next barrage hit her damaged striker finally gave out. She started falling like a brick. Drawing her sword she prepared to go out like a warrior. That was when the flash came.

OOC: Thanks for reading my first ever published story! I realize its short but I plan on keeping this up. Reviews are asked for and appreciated. Constructive criticism is a great help. Flames are used for Cheeseburgers. Thanks!

Edit: I forgot the disclaimer! I do not own Strike Witches or Infinite Stratos. If you thought I did go get your head checked.