All Along the Watchtower - a Modern Strike Witches Quest

Zoosmell · Mar 6, 2016

ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER
A Modern-Era Strike Witches quest, by Zoosmell

[cool image by Cyber aka Cyber Knight]
updates every two days or w/e

In AD 2001, war was beginning.

Okay, perhaps what would be later called the Third Neuroi War did not begin in 2001, but every inferno has a spark, and the 3NW's happened on the 23rd of June, 2001. Numerous sightings of Neuroi had been claimed prior to then. 108 to be exact, though each and every one of them had been debunked thoroughly.

Skepticism had developed to the point that on the morning of that particular June 23rd, when an AV-8J Harrier II+ from the Imperial Fuso Navy helicopter carrier Zuiho reported a 'large black object' to the east, it was dismissed as the shadow from a nearby thundercloud, and later as an experimental aircraft.

It was neither of course, but the Imperial military didn't want to start a panic. The pilot soon found out, and was silenced with a nice fat paycheck and an early retirement paid by the government.

Meanwhile the world spun on. North and South China continued to not blink at each other from across the borders on either side of Shanghai, and Hindustan and Indoscythia continued to not blink at each other throughout the Kashmir. The Osman Empire continued to flirt with balkanization without actually ~~doing~~ admitting it. Gallia and Britannia continued to maintain a reasonable grip on the colonies they had left, and Karlsland and the Netherlands continued to maintain strong grips on theirs. Meanwhile Hispania lost all pretense of having a grip on anything at all as it proceeded to lose control over a third of its Saharan colony, suffered an economic implosion, then bounced back. Goreo developed its first nuclear weapon, spooking North China into rushing production of the J-20, which spooked Goreo, Fuso, and South China into rushing development of their own stealth fighters.

On August 11 of 2010, a series of UFO sightings were reported during a particularly intense night storm off the Horn of Africa. A Baltland destroyer, on patrol in the region as part of a joint European/Hindustani/Osman/Persian effort to curtail piracy in the region, reported taking damage from what was described as a 'reddish' lightning strike.

Eight months later, a similar thing happened in the Gulf of Guinea, only this time it was a Britannian oil tanker leaving port in Lagos that was struck - causing a sizable oil spill in the process.

Six months later, another UFO sighting in a storm at night with red lightning, this time over the increasingly unstable Syrian region of Osmania. Only this time there were pictures - pictures of a huge, black, lozenge shaped thing. Some people saw hexagonal patterning on its surface, some did not. It circulated widely on the internet either way. Afterwards, however, there were no sightings of anything remotely UFO-like in the world, aside from your typical flying saucer - but even reports of those dropped sharply after this event.

The world continued. Amazonas developed its own nuclear weapon in the Southern Hemisphere autumn of 2012. Despite the Sultan's insistence that the Syrian issue and the Arab Spring would be controlled, it was not, and eventually even he was forced to allow outside help - mostly from Orussia, Liberion, Gallia, Karlsland, and Persia, in that order. Britannia offered some help, but its forces were (and still are) split dealing with insurgency in the Gulf of Guinea and civil uprisings in Burma (or 'Myanmar', by those that recognize its independence declared in 1962).

A fourth 'UFO' sighting was reported by a fishing vessel in the South Pacific, roughly halfway between Fusoan Micronesia and Hawaii. Orussia sent out out the cruiser Varyag along with two Udaloy-II class destroyers, which were at the time enroute to the Mediterranean to assist Orussian forces in the area - they were less than a day away from the sighting at the time.

Three days later, the Varyag limped into Pearl Harbor with half its bow missing.

With a temporary truce in place in which the powers of the Pacific and East Asia promised not to blast each other off the face of the Earth in place, a task force has been set out, this time with witches, just in case. Virtually every country that isn't landlocked has sent either ships or personnel, and even more have sent witches in a massive fleet, spearheaded by CVN-77 USS Charlotte E. Yeager, which is coincidentally named after the current President of Liberion. (It was named while she was still a senator.)

Which is also the ship that you and many other witches are currently on, on this fine day in the South Pacific on March the 11th, 2016.

You are...

[ ]Ruya

Sixteen-year-old captain in the Liberion Air Force, the first witch in your family in two generations. Grew up in one of the less well-off parts of Seattle, though you joined the LAF out of genuine interest in becoming a witch, not out of need for money - your family wasn't that badly off. Passed training in Colorado Springs with flying colors, though trainers were a bit concerned about your aggressive fighting style. You were then assigned to the semi-infamous 7th Witch Squadron, itself known for its aggressive fighting style. And helping Groom Lake test out a lot of new technologies when they're short on witches.
You've done pretty well for yourself so far. Even if you've never gotten to do what the Raptor was designed to (destroy air targets), there's something to be said about mowing down targets with a lightweight gatling cannon.

Full Name: Ruya el-Amin
Ability: Superstrength - Self-explanatory.
Striker Unit: F-22A Raptor
Armament: XM301 gatling cannon, various missiles, bombs, and grenades
Familiar: Golden Eagle
Religion: Non-denominational Islam
Appearance: A pale coppery skin tone with typically Arab features. Claims to be pureblooded Arab, but her green eyes and blonde hair indicate that is a lie. Solidly (though not largely) built, 5'7" (that's 170 cm) and 135 lbs (that's 61.2 kg). Somewhat muscular, though since she's only 16 it's not super impressive. Wears her hair in a ponytail that extends to about halfway down her back - the maximum allowed by LAF regulations.
Last Deployment:
[ ] Syria
[ ] Siamro
[ ] Afghanistan

[ ]Louise

Fifteen year old flying officer in the Royal Air Force. If your blood was any bluer, you'd be a crustacean. That's what happens when you're the youngest daughter of the Duke of Norfolk. You just have that kind of money. Your Ability manifested itself unusually early at the age of nine. You was promptly sent to a private military academy, then to Her Majesty's Royal Air Force. You've proven to be a good officer and witch so far, but you suspect that daddy has been pulling strings to keep you out of any serious danger. Which is part of why you requested to be in this task force - if there are no Neuroi, there are no Neuroi, but if there are Neuroi, then nothing daddy can do will ever keep you safe from them, so you may as well face them now.

Full Name: Lady Louise Fitzalan-Howard
Ability: Kinetic Supercharging - You can convert the potential energy of yourself and objects within a 5 meter radius of your center of mass into kinetic energy. You can also redirect the kinetic energy of an object you come in contact with, and delay the release of kinetic energy - but only for a few seconds.
Striker Unit: BAe Replica GR.1
Armament: L11A1 heavy machine gun, various missiles, bombs, and grenades
Familiar: Stoat
Religion: Anglican
Appearance: White, with just the slightest hint of color in your skin from working outside so much. Blonde hair kept shoulder-length with a cut sloping downwards at the front. Red eyes imply you may be an albino, though this is clearly not the case due to the aforementioned slight tan. Slenderly built, with a movie-star-esque face. 132 lbs (60 kg) and 5"10' (178 cm).
Last Deployment:
[ ] Syria
[ ] Burma
[ ] Nigeria
[ ] Write-in

[ ]Klavdia

Thirteen year old junior lieutenant in the Orussian Air Force, from Volgograd. Though you are young, blood of the heroes of the Motherland flows through your veins - your grandmother and great-grandmothers served in the Neuroi Wars, your grandfather and grandmother fought under the red banner in the Orussian Revolution, and your father saw action in Afghanistan. As to what you think of communism? Orussia was great under it, its people were served poorly by it. You were tested for magic ability just like any other young Orussian and was found capable. You considered the question as to whether you wanted to serve Orussia stupid, as the answer was obvious. You haven't been in the air long, but news of the Varyag Incident got your attention well enough anyway.

Full Name: Клавдии 'Клавы' Ильинична Федченко [Klavdia 'Klava' Ilyinichna Fedchenko]
Ability: Concave Shields - Exactly what it says on the tin. Your shields are slightly concave. As a result, instead of directing Neuroi lasers aimed at you around yourself, they get bounced back. You can control the angle of concavity to focus them into a tight, powerful beam.
[ ] Write-in
Striker Unit: Sukhoi Su-24M2
Armament: Kord heavy machine gun, various missiles, bombs, and grenades
Familiar: Rough-legged buzzard
Religion: Atheist
Appearance: At 5'3" (160 cm) and 119 pounds (53 kg), you're not exactly imposing, even with your exercise training regimen. Pale skin, pale hair, pale blue eyes. You have a small vertical scar under your right eye from when you tripped and fell at a young age. Don't ask about figure, because you don't have one besides generic young teenager. Good news? Puberty is going to hit you like a truck. Bad news? It won't happen for three years, and you don't even know it will yet.
Last Deployment: This is actually your first. You're excited, and the thought of your first engagement involving Neuroi scares you. But it also fills you with DETERMINATION.

[ ]Tomoe

Seventeen year old lieutenant in the Imperial Fuso Navy, from Nanto, the 'capital' of the South Sea Island, or at least the largest city there. Your life was decidedly average for a Fusoan girl living on the tropical SSI. You had a few friends or relatives in the Imperial Fusoan Navy, possibly even a few acquaintances from the Liberion naval base in the northeastern end of the island. Witches aren't exactly common in your family, but they're very common in your town, and it wasn't too surprising when you became one. Against your better judgement you joined the Navy instead of the Air Force. You mostly joined so you could see things besides the SSI. You do, but seeing nothing but sea and islands for the past five years has started to get a bit old.

Full Name: Tomoe Nomura [野村巴]
Ability: Reactive Shielding - You can cause things that come in contact with your shields to explode.
[ ] Write-in
Striker Unit: Lockheed Martin F-35C
Armament: FIM-92 Stinger, Howa Type 89F, various missiles and grenades
Familiar: Black Cat
Religion:
[ ] Atheist
[ ] Write-in
Appearance: Per your heritage and background, you have an excellent tan, making you look almost Amazonian. Adding to the illusion is your unusual height (6'/183 cm) and muscular build - if you grew your hair out, you would look a lot like Nagato from the popular web game Kantai Collection.
Last Deployment: [ ]'Deployment' is a rather grandiose term for patrolling the East China Sea, don't you think?
[ ] Write-in

[ ]Write in

[OOC: This is the part that is why this is technically AU. Mainly because the official Strike Witches timeline is a mess. It's close to the official, but still different.]

[OOC: Warning. Long timeline is looooong. It will probably be made into a separate post.

044 BC: Caesar escapes from an assassination crisis
027 BC: Caesar receives the title of Augustus
004 BC: Octavianus receives the title of Augustus
0000 AD: Augustus revises the Julian calendar
0066 AD: Neuroi emerge in Judea
0070 AD: Jerusalem sieged by Neuroi, Solomon's Temple destroyed
0073 AD: Last remnants of Judean emergence destroyed at Masada
0079 AD: Neuroi emerge in Pompeii shortly before eruption of Vesuvius, they and Pompeii destroyed; Australian Aboriginals wiped out in northwestern Australis
0226 AD: Sassanid Empire established
0293 AD: The Imperial Tetrarchy of Diocletianus
0313 AD: Edict of Milan - Christianity decriminalized in the Roman Empire
0375 AD: Escaping the pressure from the East, the Germanic people seek asylum in the domains of the Roman Empire
0380 AD: Edict of Thessalonica - Christianity made state religion of the Roman Empire, ensuring its spread
0395 AD: Roman Empire split into East and West
0476 AD: Western Roman Empire collapses
0481 AD: Clovis I crowned king of the Franks, Frankish Empire founded
0525 AD: AD system devised
0527 AD: Justinian I crowned king of the Byzantine Empire
0613 AD: Muhammad begins preaching the earliest form of Islam in Mecca
0660 AD: Neuroi appear with great frequency in the Middle East
0663 AD: Neuroi and inhabitants of southeastern Arabia wiped out, along with most of the Persian Gulf Coast on the Sassanid side
0768 AD: Karl I (Charlemange) declared king of the Franks, Carolingian Empire founded
0843 AD: Frankish Empire broken up by Treaty of Verdun, predecessor states of modern-day Karlsland (East Francia) and Gallia (West Francia) founded
0862 AD: Foundation of the Kingdom of Novgorod by Rurik the Great
0882 AD: Kingdom of Novgorod expands south along the Dneipr, becoming Kievan Rus'
0962 AD: Pope John XII crowns Otto I Emperor of the Romans, foundation of the Holy Roman Empire
0987 AD: Hugh Capet crowned King of the Franks, first king of Gallia
1038 AD: Establishment of the Seljuk Dynasty
1066 AD: William the Conqueror conquers Britannia
1096 AD: First Crusade, simultaneous small outbreaks of Neuroi throughout the Levant
1190 AD: Establishment of the Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem (Teutonic Knights)
1206 AD: Temujin declared Genghis Khan of the Mongols, start of the Mongol Conquests
1211 AD: Mongol Empire begins 23-year campaign to conquer Jin China
1218 AD: Mongol Empire declares war on Khwarazmian Dynasty
1220 AD: Mongol war with Khwarazmia interrupted by large Neuroi outbreak, Khwarazmian Empire collapses
1224 AD: Kievan Rus' briefly allies with Mongol Empire to deal with largest Neuroi outbreak in history up to that point
1240 AD: Kievan Rus' collapses
1241 AD: Eastern European Neuroi outbreak spreads to Poland, Hungary, Dacia, eastern Karlsland, Goreo falls to the Mongols
1242 AD: Hansa Alliance formed
1245 AD: Mongols vassalize Anatolia
1257 AD: Mongols attempt first of three invasions of Vietnam, all fail
1274 AD: Mongols attempt invasion of Fuso
1280 AD: Mongols control all of China
1281 AD: Mongols again attempt invasion of Fuso
1294 AD: Mongol Empire fractures into four
1337 AD: Start of the Hundred Years' War between England and Gallia
1453 AD: End of the Hundred Years' War
1455 AD: Start of the War of the Roses
1480 AD: Grand Duchy of Moscow declares its independence from the Mongol Empire
1487 AD: End of the War of the Roses
1488 AD: Bartolomeu Dias discovers the Cape of Good Hope
1492 AD: Columbus lands in the Bahamas, discovers the New World
1498 AD: Vasco da Gama discovers sea route to India
1519 AD: Magellan circumnavigates the globe; Hispania begins conquest of Aztec Empire
1521 AD: Hispania conquers Aztec Empire
1532 AD: Hispania begins conquest of Inca Empire
1542 AD: Viceroyalty of Peru founded
1549 AD: Viceroyalty of New Spain founded
1572 AD: Last remnants of Inca resistance crushed
1582 AD: Oda Nobunga escapes to the west and joins Hideyoshi's army
1585 AD: England establishes the Colony of Roanoke, which vanishes 5 years later
1588 AD: Fuso unifies; Hispanic Armada destroyed, marking the beginning of the end of Hispania's status as a superpower
1596 AD: Dutch ships arrive in Indonesia
1602 AD: Dutch East India company founded, Netherlands begins conquest of Indonesia assisted by Fuso mercenaries; clashes repeatedly with the (English) East India Company
1607 AD: English settlers make landfall on James River in North America, first successful English colony in the New World
1620 AD: A warrior company of Fuso founds Mizuho on the North American continent near present-day Vancouver; Plymouth Colony founded near present-day Boston
1642 AD: English Civil War begins
1648 AD: English Civil War ends, Common-Wealth of Great Britain founded
1660 AD: Commonwealth of Great Britain collapses, England and Scotland return to monarchy
1661 AD: Louis XIV becomes absolute monarch of Gallia
1676 AD: First Anglo-Fusoan War
1683 AD: Second Anglo-Fusoan War
1699 AD: Anglo-Fusoan Alliance formed
1707 AD: England and Scotland unite into the United Kingdom of Great Britannia
1756 AD: Seven Years' War begins
1763 AD: Treaty of Paris, Seven Years' War ends
1765 AD: Industrial Revolution begins, James Watt develops early modern steam engine
1768 AD: Mage's Revolution begins, James Watt accidentally discovers technique to amplify magical power via a steam engine
1775 AD: Liberion Revolutionary War begins
1776 AD: Liberion declares independence from Britannia
1789 AD: George Washington declared president of the United States of Liberion; Gallian Revolution begins
1803 AD: Napoleon enthroned Emperor of Gallia; beginning of Napoleonic Wars - Neuroi appear sporadically throughout war, especially in Crimea
1815 AD: Napoleonic Wars end, Karlsland is given Sumatra, New Guinea, and several other islands in Indonesia controlled indirectly by Gallia
1817 AD: Netherlands declares independence from Gallia, demands and is refused its Indonesian territories back, Dutch-Karlslandic War begins
1820 AD: Dutch-Karlslandic War ends with borders status quo ante bellum, Netherlands granted free use of Karlslandic ports in Sumatra
1830 AD: July Revolution in Gallia
1853 AD: Large-scale Neuroi emergence in Crimea
1861 AD: Liberion Civil War begins
1865 AD: Liberion Civil War ends, Confederate States of Liberion cease to exist, slavery banned in Liberion
1866 AD: War of Karlslandic Succession
1869 AD: Suez Canal opened
1870 AD: Karlsland-Gallian War
1871 AD: Establishment of the Karlsland Empire
1903 AD: Wright Sisters in Liberion invent aeroplane
1904 AD: Outbreak of Neuroi to the north of Karafuto Island
1909 AD: Backpack-style Striker units developed in Gallia
1912 AD: Imperial China collapses, Tibet declares independence, Republic of China founded
1914 AD: Largest outbreak of Neuroi up to that point occurs throughout Europe, First Neuroi War begins
1917 AD: Bolshevik Uprising occurs in Orussia, Orussia pulls out of First Neuroi War, communism banned in Orussian Empire
1918 AD: First Neuroi War ends
1920 AD: League of Nations forms
1922 AD: Republic of Ireland forms
1927 AD: Chinese Civil War begins
1929 AD: Great Depression begins
1936 AD: Modern-style Striker units developed in Britannia
1937 AD: Fuso Sea Incident
1938 AD: Mass-production of Striker units begins in most nations
1939 AD: Largest outbreak of Neuroi in recorded history begins in eastern Karlsland, Second Neuroi War begins
- September 1: Neuroi first sighted in Ostmark, start of Second Neuroi War
- October 33: League of Nations authorizes formation of the 50X squadrons, composed of Witches from around the world
1940 AD: Small Bifrost begins, Karlslandic evacuation of royal family and upper government, Karlsland purchases several thousand square kilometers of territory in Patagonia
1941 AD:
- January: Operation Great Bifrost begins, Karlsland evacuates all non-military citizens to Neukarlsland
- June: Operation Barbarossa, Typhoon begin, most of Orussia west of the Urals controlled by Neuroi
- September: Neuroi surround Saint Petersburg, remain in area until hive is destroyed in 1944
1942 AD:
- August 26: Battle of Tsaritsyn begins, lasts until February of 1943, costliest battle of Second Neuroi War
- August 30: Battle of el-Alamein, turning point in North African campaign of Second Neuroi War
1943 AD: First test flight of Me-262 Striker units
1944 AD: First non-hostile Neuroi encountered in English Channel, Neuroi eliminated from most of Gallia by 501st JFW
1945 AD:
- Spring: Massive Neuroi hive appears above Romagna, 504th JFW taken out of action, 501st JFW reformed
- July 16: Liberion tests first nuclear weapon, Trinity
- July 28: Neuroi eliminated from Romagna, 501st JFW again disbanded
1946 AD:
- May: Neuroi eliminated from Karlsland, Orussia
- June: Enormous Neuroi hive appears off southern coast of Fuso
- December 26: After continuous siege against South Fuso hive fails, Fuso grants Liberion permission to use nuclear bomb on the hive
- December 31: South Fuso hive destroyed by Little Boy, first and only use of nuclear weapons in combat, Second Neuroi War ends
1947:
- January 8: Liberion join League of Nations
- February 10: Cyrenacia declares independence from Romagna
- March 3: Tsar of Orussia assassinated, start of Orussian Civil War
- August 11: Poland declares independence from Orussia
- August 15: As per treaty signed during Second Neuroi War, Hindustan and Indoscythia granted independence from Britannia.
- October 14: Charlotte Elwood Yeager proves by demonstration that it is possible to survive while flying at and beyond the sound barrier.
- November 29: Fuso launches attacks on People's Liberation Army of China
1948:
- January 30: Gandhi assassinated
- Apartheid begins in South Africa
1949:
- October 1: Mao Zedong declares People's Republic of China
- September 22: Republic of China begins Siege of Shanghai, assisted by Fuso Imperial Navy
1950:
- January 3: Orussian Civil War ends, Orussia declares itself the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
- May 1: Chinese Civil War ends
- June 25: Republic of Goreo declares independence from PRC, Korean War begins
- August 29: USSR tests first non-Liberion nuclear bomb, RDS-1
1951: First color television broadcast
1952: Jonas Salk develops polio vaccine
- February 6: Princess Elizabeth II becomes Queen of Britannia
- June 6: Communists overthrow Mongolian government
- October 3: Britannia tests 'Hurricane', their first nuclear bomb
- November 1: Liberion tests 'Ivy Mike', first thermonuclear bomb
1953:
- February 28: DNA discovered
- March 5: Stalin dies
- July 27: People's Republic of China formally recognizes independence of the Republic of Goreo, Korean War ends
1954:
- January 21: USS Nautilus (SSN-571) ,the first nuclear submarine, is launched
- February 23: Salk vaccine first administered in Pittsburgh
- May 17: Brown vs. Board of Education rules segregation unconstitutional in Liberion
- November 1: Numidian War for Independence begins
1955:
- May 14: Warsaw Pact formed between USSR, Dacia, Moesia, Mongolia, and PR China
- August 18: NATO formed between Liberion, Britannia, Gallia, Faraway Land, Belgica, the Netherlands, Hispania, and Karlsland
1956:
- January 1: Republic of Nubia declares independence from Britannic Egypt
- October 29 - 7 November: Osman Empire briefly occupies Suez Canal
1957: USSR launches Sputnik, first artificial satellite
1958:
- Great Leap Forward begins
- October 1: NASA founded
- October 4: Fifth Gallian Republic created
1959: Antarctica declared international nature preserve
- July: Castro declared president of Cuba
1960:
- February 13: Gallia tests their first nuclear weapon 'Gerboise Bleue'
- May 16: Laser invented
- September 3: Neukarlsland renamed Karlslandic Patagonia
- November 28: Islamic Republic of Mauritania declares independence from both Numidia and Gallia
1961:
- April 12: USSR launches first man into space, Yuri Gagarin
- April 17: Liberion orchestrates Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, fails to provide air support due to miscommunication, invasion fails
- May 25: Liberion president John F. Kennedy declares intent to land a man on the moon by end of decade
1962: Cuban Missile Crisis
1963:
- June 16: Valentina Tereshkova becomes first woman in space
- August 28: Martin Luther King, Jr. makes his 'I Have A Dream' speech
- November 22: JFK assassinated
1964:
- June 12: Nelson Mandela sentenced to life in prison
- July 2: Liberion passes Civil Rights Act, making it illegal to discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
- October 14: North China tests their first nuclear weapon '596'
1965:
- January 23: With assistance from Liberion, South China tests their first nuclear weapon, 'Guan Yu'
- February 21: Malcom X assassinatd
- March 8: Liberion sends troops to South Vietnam, beginning of Liberion's involvement in the Vietnam War
1966: Mao Zedong launches Cultural Revolution
1967:
- March 9: Stalin's daughter defects to Ostmark
- June 22: Romagna, Venezia join NATO
- November 9: Fuso develops nuclear weapon 'Type 001'
- December 17: Prime Minister of Australis disappears
1968:
- January 30: Tet Offensive begins
- March 16: My Lai massacre
- April 4: Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated
- June 5: Robert Kennedy assassinated
1969:
- July 20: Liberion puts man on Moon
- August 15-18: Woodstock Festival
1970:
- Beatles disband
- August 6: Karlsland tests its first nuclear weapon 'Osiris'
- August 19: Ostmark tests its first nuclear weapon 'Prometheus'
1971: Britannia switches to decimal currency
1972: Terrorist attack the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich
1973:
- January 3: South Africa and Osman Empire simultaneously test their jointly developed nuclear weapon, 'Saladin-1'
- January 22: Roe v. Wade legalizes abortion in Liberion
- May 14: Skylab launched, world's first space station
- August 29: Nixon promises success in Vietnam after 'One Good Year'
1974:
- May 18: Hindustan tests 'Smiling Buddha', their first nuclear device
- August 9: Nixon resigns amid Watergate scandal
- December 31: North Vietnam surrenders
1975:
- April 13: Lebanese Uprising begins in Osman Empire
- Khmer Rouge takes over southwestern Vietnam, Cambodian Genocide begins
1976: Soweto Uprising, Ebola first appears in Sudan and Zaire
1977:
- May 25: Star Wars released
- August 6: Uprisings spread across Indonesia, start of Indonesian War
1978: Jonestown Massacre
1979:
- Persian Civil War begins
- July 16: Saddam Hussein takes over Mesopotamian Province of Persia, declares its (unrecognized) independence
1980:
- May 18: Mount St. Helens erupts in northwestern Liberion, reports of Neuroi in the ash clouds quickly dismissed
- May 22: Pac-Man released in Fuso
1981:
- March 30: Assassination attempt made on Liberion president Ronald Reagan
- May 13: Assassination attempt made on Pope John Paul II
- July 3: AIDS identified, initially deemed by press as 'Gay-related immune deficiency'
- July 21: Prince Charles of Britannia marries Lady Diana Spencer
- August 12: IBM releases the Personal Computer (PC)
1982: Patagonia invades and is repelled from Falkland Islands
1983:
- Famine rocks Abyssinia, 400,000 die in later estimates
- April 18: Beirut bombing
- June 18: Sally Ride becomes first Liberion woman in space
- July 11: Azteca tests 'Painal', their first nuclear device
- September 1: USSR shoots down Gorean Airlines Flight 007
- November 3: Baltland joins NATO
- December 9: Indonesian Wars end, Karlslandic Sumatra, Dutch Java, Dutch Borneo granted semi-autonomy
1984: Indira Gandhi assassinated by her own bodyguards
1985:
- Gorbachev calls for Glasnost and Perestroika
- April 15: Wreck of RMS Titanic discovered in north Atlantic Ocean
- May: Hole discovered in ozone layer above Antarctica
- June 14: TWA Flight 847 hijacked
- July 10: Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior sunk by Gallian special operatives
1986:
- January 28: Space Shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after takeoff
- April 15: Liberion bombs Cyrenacia in attempt to kill Cyrenacian dictator Muammar Gaddafi
- April 26: Chernobyl nuclear reactor destabilizes
1987: Colin Pitchfork becomes first criminal arrested via DNA testing
1988:
- June 11: Mana signature matching invented in Australis
- December 21: Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland in 'unknown' circumstances
1989: Exxon Valdez spills oil in Alaska Bay, Tiananmen Square Massacre
1990:
- February 11: Nelson Mandela freed
- April 24: Hubble Space Telescope launched
- 2-4 August: Mesopotamia attacks and invades portion of Osman Empire
1991:
- January 17 - February 28: Joint Osman-Liberion-NATO effort repels Mesopotamian forces
- June 15: Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Philippines
- November 7: Magic Johnson announces he has HIV
- December 26: USSR collapses
1992:
- Cold War ends
- January 23: Suomus, Viru, Lethia, Lietuva join NATO
1993: World Trade Center bombed
1994:
- Apartheid ends in South Africa
- Rwandan Genocide in Karlslandic Tanzania
- May 6: Channel Tunnel between Britannia and Gallia opened
1995:
- March 20: Sarin gas released in Tokyo subway by the Aum Shinrikyo cult
- April 19: Oklahoma City bombing
1996: First cloned animal born
1997: Princess Diana killed in car accident
1998: Liberion president Bill Clinton impeached, then acquitted, Indoscythia tests Chaga-I, their first nuclear weapon
1999: Serbian Uprising in Ostmark quelled by NATO and Ostmark coalition
2000:
- May 9: Ostmark joins NATO
- August 12: Orussian submarine Kursk sinks
2001:
- Orussian space station Mir deemed unsalvageable, deorbited
- September 11: 2 of 4 planes hijacked by al-Qaeda intercepted by civilian witches in New York City and forced to land, third makes crash landing in western Pennsylvania, fourth crashes into Pentagon
- October 7: Liberion invades Afghanistan in order to eliminate Taliban
- November 10: iPod released
2002: Jemaah Islamiyah, an Islamic extremist group, detonates three bombs in Bali
2003:
- February 1: Space Shuttle Columbia burns up in reentry
- March 20: Liberion cooperates with Persia and Osmania, starts liberation of Mesopotamia
2004:
- March 11: Madrid bombing
- June 21: First privately funded space flight
- December 26: Earthquake off the coast of Sumatra leaves 230,000 dead
2005:
- Hurricane Katrina devastates New Orleans
- July 7: Suicide bombers kill 56, injure 700 in London
2006:
- Crude oil production slows
- August 24: Pluto demoted to 'dwarf planet'
- October 9: Goreo tests first nuclear device 'Tangun-1'
2007:
- Global economic downturn
- June 29: Apple releases iPhone, first successful smartphone
- November 9: IJN Yamato officially retired, docked in Tokyo Harbor as museum ship
2009:
- Liberion elects first African-Liberion president
- January: First commercial 3D printer
- September: Water discovered on moon
- November: Gorean scientists develop non-fossil-fuel based plastic
2010:
- January 12: Earthquacke rocks Caribbean island of San Domingo
- March 26: ROKS Cheonan sinks under unknown circumstances
- April 14: Eyjafjallajökull erupts, disrupting air traffic in Europe
- July 25: WikiLeaks releases 90,000 Liberion internal reports involving the War in Afghanistan, the first of two major leaks that year
- August 11: Numerous UFO sightings reported off coast of South Africa
2011:
- January 14: Gallian Tunisia overthrows governor, start of Tunisian Uprising and Arab Spring. Gallia grants them semi-autonomy 4 months later.
- March 11: 9.0 magnitude earthquake rocks northern Fuso
- March 15: Syria declares (unrecognized) independence from Osman Empire, start of Syrian Civil War
- April 9: Additional UFO sightings reported off coast of Britannic Nigeria
- May 1: Osama bin Laden declared dead by Liberion president
- July 12: South Nubia declares independence from Nubia, joins LoN 2 weeks later
- August 28: Cyrenacian rebels overthrow Gaddafi, declare new government
- September 17: Occupy movement starts in Liberion
- October 23: More UFOs sighted over Syria
2012:
- March 11: Amazonas tests their first nuclear weapon, 'Mantiquiera-1'
- March 22: President of Gao ousted in a coup d'etat
- July 4: CERN announces discovery of the higgs-boson
- October 24-30: Hurricane Sandy scours northeastern Liberion coast
- November: Liberion president Barrack Obama loses reelection to Republican candidate Charlotte E. Yeager
2013:
- January 11: Gallia begins five-month intervention in Gao
- February 15: A meteor explodes over Orussian city of Chelyabinsk
- February 28: Benedict XVI resigns as Pope
- April 15: Boston Marathon bombings
- June 6: Edward Snowden leaks information on Liberion mass surveillance program
- August 21: Osman Empire uses chemical weapons in Syria
- August 23: Liberion pulls support from Osman Empire in Syrian Civil War, begins assisting FSA - Gallia, Britannia soon follow
- November 3: Osman Empire begins to allow outside assistance in Syrian Civil War from Orussia
2014:
- February: Ebola outbreak in West Africa
- March 8: Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 vanishes
- March 21: Orussia declares its annexation of Crimea
- May 6: Liberion begins monetary support of Free Syrian Army
- June 5: The Islamic State begins an offensive throughout eastern Syria and northern Mesopotamia province
- July 17: Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is accidentally shot down by a Ukrainian witch, killing all on board. The witch later commits suicide.
- August 8: Liberion begins air campaign against ISIS
2015:
- January 3-7: A series of massacres by Boko Haram kills 2,000 in West Africa
- March 12: ISIS and Boko Haram announce an alliance
- April 25: Magnitude 7.8 earthquake kills over 9 thousand in Nepal, Tibet
- June 2: After an FBI-led investigation, FIFA president resigns
- July 14: NASA probe takes pictures of Pluto
- August 5: Debris of MH370 found on Réunion
- September 28: Water discovered on Mars
- September 30: Orussia begins air strikes against ISIS and FSA in support of Osman forces
- November 7: North and South China presidents meet for first time
- December 22: SpaceX vertically lands a rocket
2016:
- February 29: Another UFO sighting is reported in the South Pacific, Orussian cruiser Varyag sent to investigate with 2 destroyer escorts
- March 3: Orussian cruiser Varyag enters Pearl Harbor with severe damage

World map (edited by me)
Blank map (Also me)
Map of states with nukes (Still me)
Map of known Neuroi hive locations (Dark red is confirmed hive locations, light red is general Neuroi sightings)

[OOC: May make more maps later, or sooner if I'm feeling particularly masochistic]

Zoosmell · Mar 6, 2016

Dramatis Personae:
Player Character:

Thirteen year old junior lieutenant in the Orussian Air Force, from Volgograd. Though you are young, blood of the heroes of the Motherland flows through your veins - your grandmother and great-grandmothers served in the Neuroi Wars, your grandfather and grandmother fought under the red banner in the Orussian Revolution, and your father saw action in Afghanistan. As to what you think of communism? Orussia was great under it, its people were served poorly by it. You were tested for magic ability just like any other young Orussian and was found capable. You considered the question as to whether you wanted to serve Orussia stupid, as the answer was obvious. You haven't been in the air long, but news of the Varyag Incident got your attention well enough anyway.

Full Name: Клавдии 'Клавы' Ильинична Федченко [Klavdia 'Klava' Ilyinichna Fedchenko]
Ability: Concave Shields - Exactly what it says on the tin. Klava's shields are slightly concave. As a result, instead of directing lasers that strike the shield around it, they are reflected back. She can control the angle to focus the reflection into a tight beam.
Striker Unit: Sukhoi Su-35S - Grey Orussian-style patchwork camouflage on top, with yellow wing bars and underside. Feels nimbler than a standard pair of Su-35S.
Armament: Kord heavy machine gun, various missiles, bombs, and grenades
Familiar: Rough-legged buzzard
Religion: Atheist
Appearance: 5'3" (160 cm) and 119 lbs (53 kg). Pale skin, pale blondish-white hair, pale blue eyes. Small vertical scar under right eye from fall injury at young age. More physically fit than the average thirteen-year-old girl, but otherwise nothing about her figure that would stand out.
Last Deployment: None, this is your first.
Current loadout:
Kills: (Air|Land|Infantry|Sea) 35|2|0|2

Major Characters:

Sixteen-year-old captain in the Liberion Air Force, the first witch in her family in two generations. Grew up in one of the less well-off parts of Seattle, though she joined the LAF out of genuine interest in becoming a witch, not out of need for money - her family wasn't that badly off. Passed training in Colorado Springs with flying colors, though trainers were a bit concerned about her aggressive fighting style. She was then assigned to the semi-infamous 7th Witch Squadron, itself known for its aggressive fighting style. And helping Groom Lake test out a lot of new technologies when they're short on witches.
She's done pretty well for yourself so far. Even if you've never gotten to do what the Raptor was designed to (destroy air targets), there's something to be said about mowing down targets with a lightweight gatling cannon.

Full Name: Ruya el-Amin
Ability: Superstrength - Self-explanatory.
Striker Unit: F-22A Raptor
Armament: XM301 gatling cannon, various missiles, bombs, and grenades
Familiar: Golden Eagle
Religion: Non-denominational Islam
Appearance: A pale coppery skin tone with typically Arab features. Claims to be pureblooded Arab, but her green eyes and blonde hair indicate that is a lie. Solidly (though not largely) built, 5'7" (that's 170 cm) and 135 lbs (that's 61.2 kg). Somewhat muscular, though since she's only 16 it's not super impressive. Wears her hair in a ponytail that extends to about halfway down her back - the maximum allowed by LAF regulations.
Last Deployment: Syria
Current loadout:
Kills: (Air|Land|Infantry|Sea) 14|7|23|0

Elizabeth Silverstein. Eighteen year old lieutenant colonel in the Liberion Air Force, from New York City. Ruya's commanding officer. Her mother was a witch, her mother was a witch, her mother was a witch, etc etc, witches have been in her family since before they immigrated to Liberion. Perhaps it's in her veins, or perhaps she just fell into it out of family history. But that matters little, because she excels at being a witch - almost too well, even. While Ruya's fighting style is aggressive, Eli's style is outright brutal, preferring to get up close and personal with her targets. She hasn't gotten in trouble for this... yet. She's the main reason Ruya and the 7th are here in the first place. She can be... 'convincing' when she wants to be. 'Empress' truly is an apt call sign for her. Homosexual, openly so, but doesn't bring it up unless asked about it. Political opinions are remarkably conservative.

Full Name: Elizabeth Silverstein
Ability: IFF Shields - Eli can selectively control what can or cannot pass through her shield, ranging from certain materials to certain frequencies of light.
Strikers: F-22A Raptor
Armament: 2x M100.3 custom autocannons - 20mm autocannons based off of the XM301 but single barrel. She officially asked for them so that she could fire in multiple directions. Really she just wanted something she could put a bayonet on. They both utilize belt-in-box magazines with capacities from 100 to 250 rounds. And of course she uses various missiles, bombs, and grenades as the situation demands.
Familiar: Wolverine
Religion: Reform Judaism
Appearance: Looks remarkably like Kaoru Tanamachi, but a cup size higher. An inch shorter than Ruya at 5'6" (168 cm) and 133 lbs (60.3 kg). Keeps her hair short.
Last Deployment: Syria
Current Loadout: N/A
Theme: 'I Want You' by Teddyloid
Kills: (Air|Land|Infantry|Sea) 17|16|176|0

Fifteen year old flying officer in the Royal Air Force. If your blood was any bluer, you'd be a crustacean. That's what happens when you're the youngest daughter of the Duke of Norfolk. You just have that kind of money. Your Ability manifested itself unusually early at the age of nine. You was promptly sent to a private military academy, then to Her Majesty's Royal Air Force. You've proven to be a good officer and witch so far, but you suspect that daddy has been pulling strings to keep you out of any serious danger. Which is part of why you requested to be in this task force - if there are no Neuroi, there are no Neuroi, but if there are Neuroi, then nothing daddy can do will ever keep you safe from them, so you may as well face them now.

Full Name: Lady Louise Fitzalan-Howard
Ability: Kinetic Supercharging - You can convert the potential energy of yourself and objects within a 5 meter radius of your center of mass into kinetic energy. You can also redirect the kinetic energy of an object you come in contact with, and delay the release of kinetic energy - but only for a few seconds.
Striker Unit: BAe Replica GR.1
Armament: L111A1 heavy machine gun, various missiles, bombs, and grenades
Familiar: Stoat
Religion: Anglican
Appearance: White, with just the slightest hint of color in your skin from working outside so much. Blonde hair kept shoulder-length with a cut sloping downwards at the front. Red eyes imply you may be an albino, though this is clearly not the case due to the aforementioned slight tan. Slenderly built, with a movie-star-esque face. 132 lbs (60 kg) and 5"10' (178 cm).
Last Deployment: Burma
Current Loadout:
Kills: (Air|Land|Infantry|Sea) 18|31|113|2

Seventeen year old lieutenant in the Imperial Fuso Navy, from Nanto, the 'capital' of the South Sea Island, or at least the largest city there. Your life was decidedly average for a Fusoan girl living on the tropical SSI. You had a few friends or relatives in the Imperial Fusoan Navy, possibly even a few acquaintances from the Liberion naval base in the northeastern end of the island. Witches aren't exactly common in your family, but they're very common in your town, and it wasn't too surprising when you became one. Against your better judgement you joined the Navy instead of the Air Force. You mostly joined so you could see things besides the SSI. You do, but seeing nothing but sea and islands for the past five years has started to get a bit old.

Full Name: Tomoe Nomura [野村巴]
Ability: Reactive Shielding - You can cause things that come in contact with your shields to explode.
Striker Unit: Lockheed Martin F-35C
Armament: FIM-92 Stinger, Howa Type 89F, various missiles and grenades
Familiar: Black Cat
Religion: Atheist
Appearance: Per your heritage and background, you have an excellent tan, making you look almost Amazonian. Adding to the illusion is your unusual height (6'/183 cm) and muscular build - if you grew your hair out, you would look a lot like Nagato from the popular web game Kantai Collection.
Last Deployment: East China Sea
Current Loadout: N/A
Kills: (Air|Land|Infantry|Sea) 2|3|0|1

Seventeen-year-old sergeant from Romagna. Born to an upper-class family in southern Romagna, though not a noble family. Longed to be an opera singer, however her first genuine test of her abilities came (unknown to her or her family) 22 hours after her Magical Ability developed. She considers herself very lucky that her family didn't have to pay for the extensive damage done to the opera house. Patriotic spirit drove her to choose the Royal Romagnan Air Force, where she reached sergeant through a combination of tenacity, innate flight skill, and a short temper.
Character originally by Antigone
Full Name: Matilde Silvestri
Ability: Vocal Augmentation - Capable of amplifying her voice to lethal or even metal-shattering levels.
Striker Unit: Eurofighter Typhoon
Armament: Browning M2
Familiar: Italian Wolf
Religion: Catholic
Appearance: Conventionally attractive, though not to stand-out levels. Light brownish hair cut to shoulder-length, slightly wavy. Hazel eyes.
Last Deployment: Gao
Current Loadout:
Kills: (Air|Land|Infantry|Sea) 14|13|117|2

Seventeen-year-old first lieutenant from Karlsland. Born of a noble couple whose marriage was arranged (in a dubiously moral way) and doomed from the start. Her mother, Elise Gräfin von Lohenstein, was from a long line of witches, who had magic in their family tree as far back as records went. Her father, Erwein Wenzel Graf von Wiedensahl, was from an ancient Christian family which had a... less-than-stellar opinion of magic. Both families had long histories of service to Karlsland and its people, both in the military and in charity. Failure to produce a male heir (Ironic since Karlsland's own royal family is absolute primogenitive), first with Hermina in 1999 and then Wilhelmina in 2002, quickly tore the family apart, and shortly after Wilhelmina's birth the parents had their first of several fights, which Erwein lost. The status quo held for a while, until Hermina entered witch training. A second fight occurred, which Erwein again lost, this one managing to rouse the police's attention (though no arrests were made). Many more followed, with Erwein growing more unstable and more abusive towards his daughters by the day. Elise being diagnosed and quickly dying of cancer was the last straw. Erwein became vicious enough that not all the blue blood in the world would keep the Reichspolizei away. He was arrested and his custody rights revoked, with Wilhelmina going to a boarding school in the Harz mountains and Hermina going to the Luftwaffe, where she has performed outstandingly since.
Character originally by AEIOU
Full Name: Hermina Julia Luise Mathilda Reichsgräfin Mollinary von Lohenstein-Neckarwald
Ability: Healing - Self-explanatory. Hermina's healing ability is strong, but not unusually so.
Striker Unit: Messerschmitt Me 535
Armament: MG-131
Familiar: Eastern Screech Owl
Religion: TBAL
Appearance: Remarkably like Sarah Bolger. A few centimeters taller, however.
Last Deployment: Syria

Nineteen-year-old airman first class from Venezia. A very driven girl whose time as a witch was running out already when the war began, but oddly her mana reserves refused to quit - whether due to some genetic malfunction or sheer willpower, it's hard to say. An orphan - she claims due to a gas explosion that claimed the life of her parents, but there's no solid evidence that she is related to any of the victims of any gas explosions in 1997. Her interests are a bit of a contradiction: she likes the high culture of opera and wine, but also enjoys fighting, hard drinking, and watches Kamen Rider religiously. Has been transferred frequently, despite her unshakable loyalty and mostly due to her equally unshakable trueness to her desires.

Name: Maria Lucinda
Ability: Superstrength
Striker Unit: Fairchild-Republic A-10K Super Thunderbolt
Armament: Fliegerpresslufthammer-4
Familiar: House mouse
Religion: Romagnan Catholicism
Appearance: Looks almost five years younger than she is. Small and mousy, a mere 155 centimeters tall and 42 kg. Blonde, short hair kept at shoulder length and green eyes.
Last Deployment: Syria

Standard SV rules apply. Remember that the Player Character is not of legal age and therefore for hug. No lewdness, at least nothing involving her.

Factos:
Missiles work much the same way shipfu aircraft work in Kantai Collection. They start out small enough to fit on the pylons of the Striker in question, then quickly grow to their normal size, because magical. With the exception of the guns of earlier anti-air and interceptor models, guns meant for witch use are given the same treatment, and their bullets pack the punch of guns several times their size. There are exceptions of course - the M301 and other firearms that use aviation-gun-size bullets do not receive this treatment as it is not necessary.

Most stealth-aircraft-based Strikers have built-in, self-generated 'stealth shielding'.

Some Strikers have internal weapons bays that function similarly to the leg inserts of tank Striker units - in that they're holes to a pocket dimension. However, for internal weapons bays they function more like a limited-capacity hammerspace, allowing them to carry full-size munitions so long as it fits in the hole.

Zoosmell · Mar 6, 2016

Even more extra things to go here if I need them to maybe.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA No MORE MECHANICS!

Enemy Menagerie:

This is a list of enemies, enemy types, and bosses.

Aircraft:

Fighters are fast, nimble aircraft designed primarily to destroy other aircraft. Or witches.

Light Fighter:

Standard Neuroi light fighter.

The Neuroi's favorite toy besides cubes, judging purely by production numbers. Averagely armored, average attack, but nimble as hell. Thankfully they're smol enough that a hit from a big enough missile will vaporize them.

Medium Fighter:

Standard Neuroi medium fighter.
Faster than a speeding light fighter, able to dodge small missiles in a single Cobra, it is the medium fighter. A bit more heavily armored (and therefore less nimble) than the Light Fighter, but still annoyingly swift. Still kinda flimsy, but not nearly as flimsy.

Light Interceptor:

Standard Neuroi light interceptor.

Smol, like the light fighter, but not quite as nimble. Instead it trades that for pure speed, which it normally uses to turn tail and run like a bitch when faced with anything capable of shooting back. Smart, and rather resistant to jamming.

Medium Interceptor:

Standard Neuroi medium interceptor.
Faster than the Light Interceptor, but not nearly as good at turning. Bounces like almost nothing else besides the Heavy Fighters and Interceptors, though. You'll need strong jamming to fool its... whatever its radar equivalent is.

Large, slow aircraft capable of dealing tremendous damage to land targets.

Advanced Strategic Bomber:

An enormous Neuroi bomber.
Fucking huge. Fucking agile for something so big, though still handles like a winged schoolbus. Heavily armored, too. Its main weapons are a trio of laser rings capable of doing astronomical amounts of damage. Anything with wings that gets hit by them tends to evaporate, as do most small ships. Mercifully they take a while to charge. It also has a number of somewhat weaker lasers that still pack a mighty punch, but fire faster. It also has a number of defensive lasers that, while not terribly strong, are fast as hell. It's big, so finding the core takes actual work without someone with magic eyes.

Oh, and it can turn machines into Neuroi.

Heavy bomber:

Standard Neuroi heavy bomber.
Great big flying wing that is surprisingly nimble for its size, but still sluggish by Neuroi standards. Other than being more lightly armored, a bit slower, and lacking the huge laser rings, it's a lot like the Advanced Strategic Bomber, though it also has fewer defensive lasers.

Medium bomber:

Standard Neuroi medium bomber.

Smaller and nimbler than the bigger bombers, it lacks defensive weapons of any sort.

Attacker/Light Bomber:

Standard Neuroi attacker.
An angry Interceptor with big engines and big lasers that do damage bigly. Looks like someone sanded an SR-71.

Jammer.

A Heavy Bomber but without the big lasers, instead it has a big jammer. Rather pathetic when they're on their own, but dangerous when they have friends.

Cube

A cube with a volume of 1 cubic meter. A standard Neuroi drone. Has two lasers. Fast as hell, but dumb as shit and incredibly weak. Their sole advantage is the fact that there are usually dozens in the same area.

Neuroi Heavy AA Gunship

A massive, ungainly craft that looks remarkably like a futuristic minivan with stubby wings on top at the front, middle, and rear end with what appear to be Neuroi tilt jets. A large red circular patch on the front fires its heavy laser, mostly used for clearing out clusters of small enemies due to its average accuracy, though it packs enough punch to do serious damage to almost anything. Its frontal laser is almost as nasty as a strategic bombers, but its highly accurate AA lasers are the most dangerous part. Not helping is the thick armor that coats most of it - except for the areas around the AA lasers, and the wing joints. It also rapidly regenerates.

Land vehicles:

Anti-Air Artillery Type 1:

Standard Neuroi anti-air artillery.

Not much of a threat unless there are a lot of them due to their weak armor. Shoot the legs. Weak against anything not in the air, but packs a punch against air targets.

Neuroi AAA Type 2:

Standard Neuroi SAM.
Surprisingly, it does shoot lasers. And missiles, which also shoot lasers. Still kinda wimpy against anything on the ground. Shoot the legs.

Light Tank:

Standard Neuroi light tank.

Surprisingly nimble. Can actually shoot at air targets. Bulletproof except against anti-tank cannons. Packs a punch, though it's still a light tank so don't expect much.

Medium Tank:

Standard Neuroi medium tank.
Rolls d50 for Dodge.
Rolls d200 for Armor, ignores Gun damage except from Anti-Tank guns
Rolls d200 for Damage and Accuracy from main cannon, d100 from rotary cannon, grenade launcher.
Rolls d200 for Accuracy from laser cannon, d100 for Damage
Cannot attack aerial targets with its cannon unless they get low and slow enough.

Drill Tank:

Drill tank.
Does whatever a drill tank does.
Rolls d200 for Armor, ignores Gun damage except from Anti-Tank guns
While underground, ignores all damage rolls except from bunker-busters and KEPs.
Can Ram, does d200 damage when it does so
Cannot attack aerial targets at all, unless on a slope.

Neuroi stealth tank.
Rolls d100 for Dodge
Rolls d150 for Armor, Damage, ignores Gun damage except from Anti-Tank guns
Rolls d200 for Accuracy from its singular turret
Can attack Aerial targets
Optical Camouflage: Once per 2 rounds of combat, can change a Dodge roll to 95 at the start of combat and is effectively 'invisible' until the 95 is beaten or it attacks. If the Dodge roll is beaten, the Optical Camouflage fails and the stealth tank must wait 2 rounds to activate again, regardless of whether the Armor roll was beaten or not.

Scout Tankette

Eight-legged tank about the size of a Honda S660.
Does whatever a spider tank does.
Rolls d100 + d20 for Dodge, Accuracy.
Rolls d50 for Armor, Damage.
Small - Certain weapons can destroy it in one hit.
White Flash - Reduces target's Accuracy by d50 for 1 post.

Not much of a threat. They're fast as hell though and record everything they see.

You can posty now.

Zoosmell · Mar 8, 2016

[><]Klavdia

Your name is Klavdia Ilyinichna Fedchenko, and your friends call you 'Klava'. You fly the latest update of the Sukhoi Su-24, the Su-24M2 'Gefest' Striker units, with the goggle HUDs, modern missiles and everything. Pity you can't use full-size ones though - Fitters don't have the fancy weapon bays that more modern Striker units (and fighter jets) have.

Not that you're complaining.

Or talking at all really.

You're sleeping right now. It's early in the morning, very early, a time when most (even on a carrier) are asleep. A good thing - life aboard a carrier is a noisy life, something you've realized and come to terms with - and it's only been one day! Strikers are loud enough, you're used to the roar of a mana-fueled jet by now. But Hornets, Lightnings, and Ospreys are downright deafening without ear protection.

Correction - you should be sleeping. While you usually sleep like a corpse, excitement about the coming day has caused you to awaken before your alarm, set for six o'clock. You're supposed to be within flight range of whatever attacked the Varyag today - the League of Nations is a stage beyond deep concern. That's why they're sending carriers. While you are Orussian, you are on the Liberion carrier Charlotte E. Yeager - it will be joined later today by the Orussian carrier Ulyanovsk and the Fuso carrier Kaga. The HMS Illustrious is already here, but it is serving as a helicopter carrier - most of the helicopters from the Yeager were moved to it to make room for more witches, such as yourself. The Britannians had wanted to send the Queen Elizabeth, but she just wasn't ready yet.

The others in your room are likely still sleeping, but they probably would not mind if you got out early. So you do - you get up, make your bed, take a quick shower (Showers aboard the Ulyanovsk are mercifully quiet) and get dressed.

It is now 5:55.

What will you do?

[ ] Get breakfast

[ ] Go to the hangars

[ ] Go topside

[ ] Go to the library
-[ ] Books
-[ ] Internet

[ ] Write-in

Zoosmell · Mar 9, 2016

[><] Breakfast

Your stomach grumbles like a proper tank's diesel engine. While it'd be nice to do some exploring, with your daily routine out of the way, the first and most important thing you need is food.

Lucky you, you are on the world's largest operational class of aircraft carriers, and the latest in the bunch. The USS Charlotte E. Yeager has seven galleys.

You head for the nearest one, which happens to be the main one. It's a little after six, so it's not at capacity yet, but it's clear that it's getting there - and there's a good chance that there might be more people than they can handle.

Do Liberion carriers have extra chairs in their galleys? you ask yourself.

There is an incredible amount of food, all of it of the breakfast variety. Pancakes, bacon, sausages, french toast, eggs, omelettes, some weird eggy-sausage looking cake thing that a label informs you is egg casserole... Almost everything within reason that you would expect a Liberion to eat for breakfast is there. And the day's menu indicates that the amount of food is not only standard, but will increase for lunch and dinner. There's even going to be an 'aircraft carrier cake' for dessert.

This is absolutely obscene.

You are passed on the way to the line by a blonde, Arab-looking Witch in an LAF uniform. She piles her plate with eggs and french toast, then gets into a small 'discussion' with the chef behind the counter.

"Sriracha? Really? Millions a year for food and all you have for hot sauce is Sriracha?"

"It's pretty spicy, miss..."

"Yeah, spicy for babies. I looked at the menu when I came here. You must have misheard me - I do not want 'pretty spicy'. I want 'the spiciest sauce you have.' As in 'something with a warning label.' I want something that will peel the deck off this ship."

"Captain el-Amin, wouldn't you want something a bit less.... potent... to start your day?"

As you walk up to the food line, the captain looks at the poor chef like he had suddenly grown an extra head.

"That's a no, I suppose." He pulls out a black bottle of something with a warning label and drizzles it over el-Amin's plate. You don't need that specific Ability to Detect the Evil coming out of the reddish-brown fluid. But the Liberion simply grins and walks away.

Absolutely obscene.

As you go down the line, you decide to get:

[ ] Pancakes

[ ] Waffles

[ ] Scrambled Eggs and Bacon

[ ] French toast

[ ] Write-in

Once you get your food, you decide to look for a place to sit. There are plenty of places left, but they're filling up fast. Looking around you spot several places open - most witches are sitting with people from their own country, but some are branching out.

There's one rather tall Fusoan witch with a rich tan sitting with Karlslanders, Dutch, and Australins - probably from that huge island in the middle of the Pacific. It would explain the tan, and why she would be hanging out with Karlslanders, Dutch, and Australins.

In another part of the cafeteria, a Britannian witch sits alone, though there are a number of people sitting near her - for some reason, none dare to sit next to her - is she sick? She doesn't look sick. Perhaps they're just afraid of her.

Not far from the kitchen line, you spot el-Amin sitting among a rather motley group of witches, all Liberion themselves. They're noisy, and you're pretty sure that just being in the presence of that sauce would set normal people on fire. Those witches around her are not on fire, so clearly they are not normal.

Still, you could always fall back and just sit with your fellow Orussians. You haven't been in the Air Force long but you still sorta know most of your squadmates sorta.

Or you could just sit alone, if even that fails.

[ ] Sit with the Fusoan

[ ] Sit with the Britannian

[ ] Sit with el-Amin

[ ] Sit with your fellow Orussians

[ ] Sit by yourself

[ ] Write-in

Orm Embar · Mar 10, 2016

official staff communication The conjunction of certain parts of the Strike Witches setting and a thirteen year old protagonist produce the potential for unpleasantness. Please enjoy the quest, but be mindful of the direction it and the associated discussion take.

Zoosmell · Mar 11, 2016

[><] Pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon
[><] Sit with Orussians
‒ [><] Glare at Captain el-Amin as you fail eating your ruined food

Logic dictates that you should eat healthy - a healthy meal makes a healthy witch after all, and a healthy witch is a happy witch. It would thus logically be wise to only eat what the chefs recommend you to eat, and only in the amounts they recommend you to.

Logic can go count trees in Siberia. The demons of your stomach demand a sacrifice.

You pile your plate high with equal portions of bacon, eggs, sausage, and pancakes. There is no way in hell you will be able to eat all of this. You don't care. You flew onto this carrier, so you have a lot of burnt calories you need to make back up.

As you turn away from the counter, a grin consumes your face. And a thought pervades your mind. You turn around and turn to the chef who talked with el-Amin, who is now putting the bottle of hot sauce away.

"I would like some of that as well," you say in a light (to an Orussian) Tsaritsyn accent.

He stares at you.

He stares at el-Amin.

He stares at you again.

He stares through you, then shrugs and puts a few drops of the stuff on your eggs, giving you a look that indicates he does not believe himself to be paid enough to deal with this. Your eggs are now rather solidly drizzled in the stuff, which seems to be almost emitting a pale blue glow. It honestly would not surprise you if it was radioactive.

You sit down with the rest of your squadmates, occasionally stealing a glance at el-Amin. Her face is turning a bit red, but otherwise she doesn't seem to be having any trouble with her food.

If a Liberion can handle it, so can you. You take a forkful of eggs, the one with the most sauce in it, and shove it in your moufsanovnsaohgreafidsnaviafdvnsfdj ofajsf sjaifjaobnsapsfjafiodsnfoinajfJOFJDSIJOSD
KSFSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Sweet, cooling milk saves you from a possible tongue amputation.

Father was right. There is something wrong with Liberions. Captain el-Amin apparently noticed your comical reaction to the sauce and is trying hard not to laugh at your plight.

The witch sitting next to you puts a bit of the egg in her mouth (rude!) and has a similar reaction, proceeding to shout about Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and every saint she can think of.

Eventually the two of you regain sensation in your tongues. You still have time before breakfast is over.

What shall you talk about?

Pick any two:

[ ] Orussia
[ ] Being a witch
[ ] The mission
[ ] The carrier
-[ ] The food
-- [ ] The hell liquid you put on your eggs
[ ] Write-in

Zoosmell · Mar 12, 2016

[><] The carrier

You give up on the eggs entirely. They are a lost cause. Sure you can still eat them, but like discussing politics in Syria you'd rather not.

Instead, you move on to your pancakes. Delicious, sweet, and fluffy pancakes. It's easy to forget that they're effectively mass produced, or that their ingredients probably came premixed to save the Liberion Navy a few dollars a pound. Or that the maple syrup may very well not be maple syrup at all - though you can't really tell.

"So," you begin.

"This carrier..."

"Is huge?" a lieutenant in your squadron finishes for you.

"Yes. I think it's even bigger than the Ulyanovsk." Unsurprising. The Ulyanovsk-class is only about the size of the Kitty Hawks, a substantially older Liberion carrier class - the Nimitz-class that replaced them was almost twenty thousand tons larger, as the Liberions believed that bigger was always better for carriers. You believe they may be right.

"It's too big," a girl from a rich district of Moscow complains. "My bunk is all the way at the front, and I have to walk all the way to the hangars in the back just to get to my PAK FA Strikers..."

"Baby! You have to walk to your hangars back at our own base anyway!"

You roll your eyes at the two and slip another bite in as the conversation carries on.

"I'm not sure if they'll make us use the catapults or just have us launch straight up," you say. You hope it's the former. The catapults scare you, but at the same time you can't help but feel excited about the thought of being shot forward at 270 kilometers per hour.

"I wish they had a ski ramp," an Orussian Navy witch says. "The Potemkin and Ulyanovsk both have ski ramps, and so does the Admiral Kuznetov."

"Da. But Liberion carriers don't need ski ramps, because they have stronger catapults," you point out.

"You've never taken off from a carrier before. It's a lot smoother taking off with Strikers from a ski ramp than it is from a catapult."

Considering you have never done either, you aren't sure what to say. Most carriers designed to primarily carry witches have ski ramps, so the navy witch may have a point. There's always vertical takeoffs, but those are tricky with jet Strikers - it's much easier going down than up.

Eventually though, breakfast ends, and you mostly have the next few hours for yourself, as you're not scheduled to go up until the battle group gets within launching range.

What will you do with your time?

[ ] Go to the hangar

[ ] Go to the library
-[ ] Books
-[ ] Internet
--[ ] SV
[ ] Go topside

[ ] Practice your magic

[ ] Nothing (skip to launch)

[ ] Write in

Zoosmell · Mar 13, 2016

[><] Go to the hangar

With breakfast out of the way, you decide to go to the hangar.

While not nearly as loud as the deck, the hangar is still loud. The noises are different though - the flight deck is full of the hiss of the catapults, the roar of the ocean, and the whine of jet engines. The hangar has none of those; instead it has the thumps and shudders of planes taking off and landing, the noise of the elevators, and the sound of crews working on aircraft and Striker units.

The old notions that male crews and female witches should avoid each other has long been worn away by time. Sure, there are some older, more conservative crews that think they should at least try, but they are mostly in air forces and armies. On a carrier (or any ship with witches really), there simply isn't enough room for the two groups to avoid each other. Not even on a behemoth like the Yeager.

It doesn't help the 'situation' that the hangar has a lot more witches than normal. The carriers that will be arriving later in the day will alleviate the problem somewhat, but they're also bringing more witches, so they won't alleviate it much.

Your own Strikers are stored on the port wall of the hangar bay, mounted on a cradle just like any other. These cradles are much more compact than the ones seen in the Second Neuroi War, they also weigh less for easier transport. In addition to the supporting arms, restraining bar, and ladder of 2NW cradles, they also feature a built-in diagnostic computer that can plug in directly to the Strikers' computers.

You pat the stubby swing wing of your left Striker unit as you lean against its cradle. The Su-24 may not be the newest model unit, and it may not even be the one you had wanted - you were hoping for the much newer Su-34s - but it was good. Its sizable radar system (for a Striker) gave it excellent detection range and let it strike far and strike hard.

Not that you've used that ability... yet. Technically. No combat experience means you've never tried it against targets that could have even tried to shoot back. Just brightly colored training targets. Some were 'camouflaged' to look like Liberion tanks, or Ukrainian tanks, or Karlslandic tanks, or Osman tanks... you get a feeling that your commanding officer really didn't like tanks.

You spend the better part of an hour just observing the witches, pilots, and crews move about the hangar. At the end of the hour, the captain announces over the speaker that they are now within flight range of the place where the Varyag's crew states it was attacked.

You'll be going up shortly with an SH-60 and another witch. The helicopter will drop sonobuoys while you and the other witch take turns scouting ahead and around the helicopter. The other will stick close in case the scouting witch misses anything.

Besides Aphids, you will also carry:

[ ] More missiles
[ ] Rocket pods
[ ] Bombs

You will also carry:

[ ] Fragmentation grenades
[ ] High-explosive grenades

I know I said in an earlier post that Strikers do not carry full-size missiles. But I feel like retconning that and making it so that they do, they're just smaller when mounted on a Striker because magic. Or I could just have them still be smaller, but have the same power as a full-size, also because magic.

[ ] Unshrinking weapons
[ ] Smaller missiles with equal power to full size weapons

Zoosmell · Mar 14, 2016

[><] More missiles
[><] Fragmentation grenades

You have training for long-range weaponry. You may as well use it, you think to yourself, as you choose a loadout consisting solely of missiles. And since your Strikers are upgraded, you decide to forego the Aphids for something more modern.

Loadout:

1x Kord 6P50 heavy machine gun, 12.7 mm, 3x 50-round belts
2x Vympel R-73K (AA-11 Archon-W) mana-emission homing air-to-air missile
2x Vympel Kh-29L (AS-14 Kedge-A) semi-active laser homing air-to-surface missile

Good enough. The R-73Ks will let you target any hostile magical thing that may be in the air- you strongly suggest that something magical is the cause of this. Could be witches. Could be top secret Liberion or North Chinese experiments.

Or it could be Neuroi, you think to yourself as you slide into your Strikers. The wings of your familiar fold out and up above your ears, and its tail pushes out from just beneath your shirt. It feels good to use magic. Like tapping into a new level of power - bad analogy since that's basically what it is, but there aren't very many good analogies that don't sound wrong.

You slid forward as the landing gear popped out (activated by your mind informing the Strikers' computers you wanted them out), then downward as the cradle released you onto the hangar floor. You put on your monocle HUD-communicator and listened into the radio chatter after tuning into the correct channel. From the sound of things, the helicopter you would be escorting was already on deck and about to take off.

It's almost time. You roll towards the elevator, just barely getting on it on time for it to go up. You look to your left to smile at your wingma-

It's the Liberion captain.

"Что ебать?!" ("What the fuck?")

el-Amin seems just as surprised as you do, at least for a moment. When the moment passes, she shrugs.

"Not exactly normal for them to use witches from two different nations on a simple escort run like this, but I'm not going to complain. No harm in it at least."

Not exactly normal indeed! You attempt to say something to point out just how not-normal it is for Orussians and Liberions to be sent out together on something so mundane, but you decide against it.

The elevator starts with a jolt, and you are soon on the deck.

"So before we take off," Ruya says as she rolls off of the elevator's edge onto the deck proper, "we should probably decide who scouts ahead first. And I have just the way to do that."

She pulls out a quarter and tosses it high into the air, at an angle so that it doesn't fall off the deck.

"Heads or tails? Right call gets first scouting turn."

[ ] Heads
[ ] Tails

Regardless of the outcome, Ruya seems satisfied.

"Come on, we'd better take off, don't want to keep the chopper waiting."

How will you?

[ ] Vertical takeoff. Show off your thrust to weight ratio and flying skill!
[ ] Catapult takeoff. Experience the thrill of being shot forward!
[ ] Straight-line takeoff. Your Strikers can manage this, so long as you start at the back of the deck and take off at the edge.

All Along the Watchtower - a Modern Strike Witches Quest

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