Hey there. Welcome to my first story on the site.

I had been thinking about this story for some time, and while I had to fix a few things in order to have it make sense I liked where I'm going to head with this story. This is a toss-up between being based on canon and being an alternate version, but the only thing I can say is that this is going to explore a few areas that will expand the world of the Strike Witches universe, confirmed, assumed, or otherwise..

This will follow the storyline of the first season, with changes being made based on the actions of the main character. This means that at some point something major will change.

Oh, and one last thing: I do not own any characters except those I created.

Anyways, that's enough for the explanations. Enjoy.

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Chapter 1: Boat Combat

I'm not too sure how I got here.

Maybe I had been playing with fate a little too much. Maybe I was just being taught a lesson.

Either way, I can't be certain if I can even call myself human anymore.

Or, at least, not the normal sense.

Oh right…I think I should introduce myself first so that you don't think I'm just talking to myself. The name's Roland Sage. Lately, Sergeant Roland Sage.

It's a bit of a hard story to recreate, so I guess I'll keep it short: I never asked for all this to happen.

Trust me, it's a bit hard to tell you. I'm trying to wrap my head around that concept still.

The only thing I can tell you is that I was currently on some carrier called the Ascension. I think it's some sort of reference to a game, but the name escapes me.

Oh right. Enough with the side-stories.

Well, I had barely woken up and was sitting up as I rubbed my eyes. I hadn't been getting a lot of sleep: damn Neuroi keep on attacking, and every time I try to take a nap, I either get caught up in my thoughts of what's going to happen next or some Neuroi flies within threatening range.

I had to change out of my green fatigues and dark green shirt and into my military outfit, which looked a little funny to me: brown slacks and a brown military jacket covering a black collared shirt. My shoes weren't so bad: brown dress shoes.

As I was fixing my jacket, I heard a knock at the door that served as a barrier from the rest of the world.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Sergeant Sage?" I heard a feminine voice say. "You ready to train?"

"Uh, yeah. Hang on really fast."

I walked over to the door and opened it up to reveal a sight that you probably would blush at: standing there was a blond-haired girl wearing the same clothes as I did…with one major difference. Instead of having the slacks on, she had nothing covering her legs, showing quite plainly to the world that she had white panties on.

As usual, I blushed.

"Kayley," I said as I averted my gaze.

"Oh right," Kayley said as she realized my reason for turning away. "Sorry, but you're going to have to get used to it."

"You don't think I'm trying?"

To my amusement, she simply chuckled. "You're silly, Ground Witch."

After she said that, I turned to her, the blush still evident on my face. Why did she have to use that nickname for me?

Right, I need to fill you in: apparently I'm a rare type of being called a Witch, and I'm male to boot. That places me somewhere between rare and valuable. At least by this world's standards, I hope. According to the reports I heard about from Kayley, Witches were only occurring at about one in every thousand births. I'm not exactly sure of the count for them being male, but I think I can place the number at about three in every thousand Witches.

As for the nickname: I was originally in a boot camp for the military. The non-Witch portion, mind you. Anyways, after an accidental use of powers I didn't even know I had, I was sent here along with Kayley and Commander Hannah Ellios. Because of the fact that I had no experience in flight of any kind, I had to settle for gun training until Commander Ellios arrived from her current duty.

Hey, just because I didn't have any flight experience didn't mean that I couldn't fight alongside the others. I used a sniper rifle to fire at any Neuroi that came in our vicinity. Luckily, the Neuroi we had so far were rather weak, which was completely unlike them.

Sorry, but if they were really trying to destroy us all, they would have targeted the Ascension before the Witches in the air, being one currently.

Luckily, Kayley was qualified for giving me gun training, though she could only do it for handguns and certain guns, sniper rifles not being one of them. As a result, I usually had to practice on my own when I got bored.

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We had barely gotten onto the deck when the familiar sounds of an impending Neuroi attack rang across the ship.

I looked at Kayley and could do nothing but sigh.

"Another attack?" I asked.

"Let's go," Kayley said simply before running off in search of her Striker Unit.

"Wait!" I tried to stop her, but she was soon out of earshot.

Sighing, I raced to the same place she was heading: the hangar, which was where the weapons we used to fight were.

By the time I got to the weapons rack, Kayley had grabbed a Bren light machine gun and an M1917 revolver. I reached in and grabbed a Browning Automatic Rifle as well as a Browning HP (I assume the HP stands for Hand Pistol. Keyword: assume). Slinging the BAR on my back, I grabbed an Arisaka Type 97 sniper rifle and held that in my hands.

"You know the drill, right, Roland?" Kayley asked me.

"Yeah, lieutenant," I told her. "Stand on the deck and snipe. Evac all personnel if things don't work out well."

"Pretty much," was all she said before hopping into her Striker Unit and taking off down the runway.

There was one thing I hadn't quite understood: it was that the Witches, due to some sort of restriction in the Striker Unit, had to avoid wearing pants or anything that would make the devices' performance suffer. As a result, I, being a rather odd case to begin with already, had to deal with the fact that: a) I have two rather gorgeous teammates; and b) I have two girls that don't wear pants.

Then the scary notion came up: if I flew a Striker Unit, would I have to…?

Shaking it off my mind, I readied my Arisaka and took aim at the incoming Neuroi. Taking a deep breath, I set my right index finger on the trigger and lined up my shot carefully. Somewhere inside that thing was its core. If I could nail it in one shot…

BANG!

As I pulled the handle of the place where I had to insert another round toward me, I watched the round whiz past Kayley as she flew to fight the Neuroi. While I didn't hit the core, I managed to hit it at one of its auxiliary cannons, making it unable to hit Kayley with as many shots.

I set the round in the chamber and closed the chamber back up as I watched Kayley fly past a few lasers fired from the Neuroi. Luckily, I didn't get hit, though the Ascension wasn't so lucky: it suffered a hit to its hangar.

Dammit, of all times to worry about being hit…

I readied the rifle again and sighted down the barrel. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kayley erect a blue barrier that prevented the Neuroi's lasers from hitting her. However, she couldn't really attack it: the Neuroi's attacks were keeping her from firing because her magic was being drained to provide her defense.

Before I could fire another round, I saw a bunch of rounds slam into the Neuroi, and I turned my head to see a red-haired woman flying over the enemy, wearing the same thing as Kayley. In her hands was a BAR, which she was busy reloading.

Sadly, I couldn't tell her how grateful I was for seeing her because I didn't think about grabbing a headset. However, I could figure that she was telling Kayley to provide a distraction while she readied her magic.

I sighted back down the barrel and fired off a second round. This time I think I was close because I think Commander Ellios spotted something red.

As I set another round in the chamber, I couldn't help but look up, and I think I regretted it.

I saw that the Neuroi was charging up a burst of energy and aiming at Commander Ellios, who was unaware of where the Neuroi was aiming at.

"Commander, look out!" I shouted as loudly as I could. I fired off a round that barely zoomed past her.

As she turned to look at the path the bullet had taken, the Neuroi fired its weapon, and Commander Ellios couldn't protect herself fully. As her barrier went up, the Neuroi's beam proved to be too powerful for her weakened shield, and soon I saw Commander Ellios falling toward the deck of the Ascension.

"Commander Ellios!" I called out as I raced to where I thought she was going to land.

Luckily, she had enough energy left in her to fly in for a gentle landing as I dropped my Arisaka and caught her in my arms.

Instantly calling upon what training I had, I scanned her body for the damage she suffered. As I stood there with her breathing heavily in my arms, I felt the blood from her chest soak my jacket.

"Commander Ellios, you're going to make it, right?" I asked quickly as I tried to move us somewhere safe.

However, she set her arms behind my back and looked me right in the eyes.

"Sergeant…" she started rather weakly. "I don't think I'm going to make it…"

"What are you talking about? Of course you are!"

"Sage, I know you haven't seen death like this before, but…please….let me go…"

As soon as she said that, she fell against my chest, her breathing getting more and more shallow.

Where the hell's a doctor when you need one? I asked myself as Commander Hannah Ellios's breathing finally stopped.

I rested her body on the ground and slid off the Striker Unit she had been wearing. I was fighting the urge to cry, which was probably unmanly of me if I did.

I looked up at the Neuroi as a shot from it rocked the ship again. I wasn't too sure where the attack landed due to the fact that my attention was now on it. I then looked at my former commander and finally noticed a sort of bulge inside one of her breast pockets. How the hell I didn't feel it as she was against my chest was beyond me, but I reached in gingerly and quickly and pulled out one of those pineapple grenades the Liberion army members were using. As I held it in my right hand, I looked at the Neuroi and an idea popped into my head.

Standing up and sticking the grenade into my pocket, I undid the belt that held my slacks up as well as the button and zipper. As I was slipping the slacks off my legs to reveal gray boxers, one thought was dominant in my mind: I was going to fly up there, training or no training. I also had to take off my shoes and socks in case the device didn't work with them on.

I never managed to prop the Striker Unit on anything to make my life easier, so I had to settle for slipping my legs in while it was still lying on the ground. As I finally entered the Striker Unit, I felt a tingly sensation deep down…or maybe it was the pocket dimension thingy scanning my legs. I have no idea.

Anyways, as I was trying to stand up, some of the ship's crew members now recognized that I needed help getting up and ran over to me, giving me a hand in standing up straight.

"What are you doing, sergeant?" one of them asked.

I simply looked at the Neuroi.

"You'd best start evacing right now," I told them. "If this doesn't work, then at least you guys can still live." I pointed at the slacks, with the grenade still inside, and added, "Can you hand me that please?"

One of them did as I said and handed me the slacks. I grabbed the legs and tied it around my waist, making sure the grenade didn't slip out of the pocket. I then took the BAR I had on my back and held it in both hands.

I felt the Striker Unit kick to life, and soon I could feel the wind generated from the magic propellers fly past me as it flew to the skies. My shirt and jacket picked up the wind a little, but the articles of clothing fitted me rather well as they didn't flap a whole lot.

"Be sure to pull up when you reach the end," a crew member said as a final tip. "You'll hit the water if you don't."

I simply nodded and took off down the runway, my skin feeling the breeze as I raced down the runway. Taking heed to listen to the advice, I pulled up before the end and flew into the air.

So far, so good…

However, the Neuroi had now taken a liking to me, and I barely avoided a direct hit from one of its cannons.

I turned the Striker Unit around and looked at the Neuroi, thinking of how to approach it best.

Then, an idea hit me.

I flew in toward it, taking care to avoid the red bursts of energy coming right for me. Kayley may have gotten my plan, for she was busy trying to draw its attention while trying to defend the two of us.

I flew over her and aimed my rifle at the hull of the enemy ship, pulling the trigger quickly. I think I emptied the entire clip into the hull before I had to reload, which was impossible because I had the rifle for an emergency, not a combat situation. Sighing, I slung it back over and noticed that I made a good-sized hole in the hull, revealing the prize: the crystalline red Neuroi core.

Reaching into the pocket of the slacks and pulling out the grenade, I flew in carefully in case it caught wind of me and pulled the pin.

1…

I threw the grenade into the hole, and I think it landed in a groove near the core.

2…

I backed off quickly and flew away, determined to not find out if the grenade could go through the hull.

3…

4…

5…

BOOM!

I think the explosion caught Kayley by surprise, but she looked fine. As for the Neuroi…it had lost its core, so the enemy simply exploded in a burst of white snow-like substance.

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After the Neuroi was destroyed, I was congratulated for taking to the air despite having no experience, and we were soon setting course for a dock in Liberion for repairs.

However, while the crew were celebrating, I ws sitting inside my quarters, trying to make sense of what Commander Ellios told me.

Sage, I know you haven't seen death like this before, but...please...let me go...

I flipped the pin that was from the grenade inside my right hand. Somehow I didn't want to lose the last tie I could keep with the commander. I mean, I haven't known her that long, but I don't like death right now.

Then again, it was around World War Two right now, though it wasn't with humans: it was with a mysterious being known as the Neuroi.

From what I understand, the Neuroi came down and started attacking Earth, taking large amounts of land and converting into some sort of material for their use. Because of that, the countries' shapes were radically different from where I was from.

Right, I have to explain what I could remember: see, I'm not from around here...or even from this Earth. I was from one where the Neuroi only existed as part of an anime. I can't explain how I got here, but I am pretty sure that this is not a game. People have died in front of me.

Well, Commander Ellios was barely the first, but still...

I heard a knock on my door.

"Sergeant?" I heard Kayley ask as she opened the door a crack.

"Yeah, ma'am?" I asked her as I looked at her.

"Can I come in?"

"Sure, ma'am."

As she slipped inside, she decided to say something: "Can we talk informally? I know you're of a lower rank than I am, but I just want to talk."

"Okay then...Kayley."

I then noticed her right forearm, which had been bandaged up for some reason. "You okay, Kayley?"

"Hmm?" She moved her arm. "Right. I got grazed by a laser. The burn's not much, but...it still hurts like hell. What about you?"

"I'm fine. Just trying to get my mind off the battle. It's rather tough right now, so it'll take a while. So, what now?"

"Well, I've been reassigned to a group in Fuso. What about you?"

"Well, I guess with the commander dead I'll be returning to the base for the remainder of my time."

"I see...this is the last time we'll see each other, huh?"

"i guess so. Kayley, you've been a excellent Witch. Don't die out there."

"Roland...it's a dangerous time for a Witch in the battlefield, but...I'll try to live for your sake. You just learn how to use your magic better, and I hope the next team you're assigned to take care of you."

Kayley left the room, leaving me to my thoughts.

What's going to happen now? I asked myself. I mean, I don't have any idea why I'm even in this world in the first place. How long can I go before something goes wrong?

I shook my head. No matter what, I'm here. Why I was here remained a mystery for me, but I was going to try figuring it out.

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Thanks for reading it. Please read and respond.

Oh, and one last note: I'm not perfect at getting details right. If you see something that doesn't match something a character is like (or would say or do) or an event that occurred, let me know. I'm open to any corrections, comments, and critique you guys can think of.