The night is almost perfect, the stars are shining brightly in the sky and the moon is full, in the forest below there's not a sound other than the leave rustling in the wind. The air is warm and there's a nice cool gentle breeze, there's not a cloud in the sky making it the perfect night for flying. The sound of an engine soon fills the sky as a young night witch fly's just above the trees. She has short silver hair that sparkles in the moon light, eyes green like emeralds, she's wearing a black and white uniform with Orussia stars and black tights. Around her legs are the Mig 60 Striker Unit and in her hand is a Fliegerhammer, a multi-barrelled unguided rocket launcher. Just behind her another witch flies through the sky keeping pass with the first. This witch has white long hair, blue eyes and red cheeks' something's happened to embarrass her. She's wearing a blue Suomus uniform with a lighter coloured blue belt and bags around her waist. Her Striker unit is a Messerscharf Bf 109 K-4 and her weapon is a MG 42. They are Second lieutenant Aleksandra Vladimirovna Litvyak "Sanya" and Second lieutenant Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing the Strike Witches.

The fly through the sky cruising back towards their home base at St. Trond in the Kingdom of Belica, the base has become the home of the 501st as of two weeks ago when Minna reformed the 501st at the end of the Battle of the Bulge. The Neuroi nearly paused the frontline back to Britannia with that assault and left a lot of death and destruction in their path. The only good thing about that is the fact that Yoshika somehow came back from the brink of death and regained her magic. The Strike witches also got a new recruit Sergeant Hattori Shizuka, she's a quiet girl even though she's a bit too much like Barkhorn for everyone's liking and her fan girl attitude is starting to get on everyone's nerves.

"It's a beautiful night don't you think Sanya?" Eila asks as she nudges her friend with her elbow.

"Yes it is" Sanya answers with a small smile. "It's been peaceful too"

"Yeah there hasn't been a single Neuroi in sight since we beat" Eila replies raising her right fist in the air while her left holds her gun. "Maybe they've finally learned that they can't beat us"

"Hopefully that means the war will be over soon and I can find my parents" Sanya say's as her smile grow larger just thinking about her family.

"And I'll be there by your side as you search and look for them" Eila says giving Sanya a smile of her own smile.

Both of them stop talking as the base comes into view, it's a real fortress compared to the castles they been based in so far. The base has two runways with a large hanger on ever side of the main building, the main building is a large two layered fortress topped with large anti-aircraft guns. There are other smaller buildings around the base but neither of the two witches know what's inside them or cares.

As they begin to land something doesn't feel right, Eila tries but fails to get through to someone over the radio and most of the lights on the base are off, strange there's normally at least some lights left on somewhere. Even the runway lights have been switched off which gives both Eila and Sanya a really bad feeling as Minna always makes sure the runway lights have been left, Sakamoto would have made sure on her way to her morning training. Something is wrong here.

"Why aren't the lights on?" Sanya asks with concern in her voice. It hurts Eila whenever she sees or hears Sanya in pain or when she's worried about something.

"It's ok I'm sure it's just an electrical problem or something" Eila says trying to lessen her friend worry. "Just you wait, when we land will see people running around trying to fix the problem"

"Ok" Sanya replies with less concern and worry in her voice as the pair descend to land on the runway.

They land and head straight for the hanger to find it empty. No workers run round trying to fix something, Sakamoto isn't there to welcome them back like normal, Yoshika isn't up ever as she normally welcomes them back is well before running of to train with the Major and Perrine is nowhere in sight, strange she's normally stalking her precious Sakamoto like there's no tomorrow. Something else is wrong too, Shirley has rigged the hanger lights to turn on whenever someone enters the hanger but not even these lights come on forcing the witches to dismount in complete darkness.

"I guess no one's reported the problem" Eila says as she helps Sanya out of her Striker. "We should go tell Minna about this"

"I don't know if we should wake her up over there being no lights" Sanya replies clearly worried about Minna yelling at them.

"It could be a bigger problem than just the lights" Eila tells her. "If the power supplies the problem then there's no radio or radar for the base"

"Well ok f that's the case then let's go" Sanya says more confident that less fearful.

They walk through the dark corridor towards Minna's room on the top floor of the base feeling slightly unnerved by the darkness and quietness of the base. It's too quiet, even at this time when most peoples in bed you can hear footsteps and squeaks of the floor. This morning it's quiet, too quiet. They reach the Commanders bedroom without seeing any one or hearing anything other than their own footsteps or breathing along the way. Eila knocks on the door without a moment's hesitation but Sanya hides behind her friend as nervous butterflies filter around her stomach. Eila notices her nervousness and grabs her hand reassuring her that this is the right thing and they won't get yelled at by this one simple jester. Eila waits and knocks again with no answer, she knocks a third time still no answer and on her fourth knock the door swings open revealing a trashed room.

"What happened here?" Sanya asks in a voice filled with terror as she grips Eila's hand even tighter.

"I don't know" Eila answers as she looks around the room. Everything has been trashed, her bedding is all over the floor, her cloths too and there's no sight of Minna anywhere. "We should check her office"

Eila leads Sanya to the Commanders Office without giving her a chance to respond, she leads her with the hope that the Majors really just an untidy person like Erica. It's unlikely as she isn't lazy like Erica but it's the only thing that gives Eila hope that everything's ok. Sanya follows her without complaining still glued to Eila's hand. Sanya can feel something, sense it but she can't tell what it is. It's something Sanya hasn't sensed before, she doesn't know if it's dangerous or not or if it's just her imagination. For now she's decided not to tell Eila, if they fail to find Minna in her office then she'll tell her.

They reach Minna's office and finds it in no better shape than then Minna's room. Papers, books and furniture cover the floor and the broken glass of the window only adds to the mess. Minna's not here, there is no sign that she has been here recently. Now they no something is really wrong here, something has happened to the others and whatever it is it can't be good. It looks like the base has been ransacked like someone was looking for something. It wasn't the Neuroi as there is no scorch marks or fragments. It must be a human who did this, it happen before with Maloney being the last person to do it.

"We need to get to the next base can you still fly?" Eila says as she gasps the severity of the situation.

"No for long" Sanya answers and from looking in her sleepy eye's Eila knows that she won't be able to fly for long.

"We will head to the nearest base and report this" Eila tells Sanya as she leaves the office. "If we get engaged stick close to me and I'll dodge for us well you attack"

"Ok" Sanya says as they begin to walk back to the hanger. "Eila I sense something, I can't tell what it is but there defiantly something close by"

"Where is it?" Eila asks as she stops in her tracks and urns to face her friend. "Is it the cause of this?"

"I don't know" Sanya replies trying to see if she can locate or identify the object with the help of her magic. "I can't tell, I can only tell that it's close by"

"Ok let's get moving and report this so someone can investigate it before whatever it is you are sensing leaves" Eila says turning back around and continuing to walk towards the hanger.

They manage to take off into the rising sun without a problem. The problem starts when a metal disk flies in front of them. It transforms into a metal monster that grows several tails, for legs, claws and two long barrels. Before ever witch can react the disk thing fires an electric bolt into Sanya knocking her unconscious. Sanya falls to the ground but before she can reach it two smaller machines with a glowing blue eye and four fingers grab her and take her away. Eila tries to fallow but an electric bolt from the disk forces her to raise her shield for the second time in her life meaning she can only watch as Sanya is taking away.

"Sanya!" Eila screams as the machines carrying her precious Sanya behind the fortress out of sight.

Another bolt fires but and again she uses her shield to block, she must really be tied otherwise these attacks wouldn't have got near her. Whoever these machines are they seem to want to take everyone alive and most like are responsible for the base being empty. They probably caught the others and taken them to where ever they took Sanya. Sanya! Her name suddenly burns a red hot heat inside her that threatens to consume her with rage. Sanya she needs to save Sanya.

"Sanya!" Eila screams again as she charges the desk head on firing her MG 42 and screaming like a Berserker.

She dodges a blot as she charges and as she flies past the disk her bullets bouncing of the machine's metal body she turns quickly, fires a new burst of bullets putting ever last bullet into the disks back not letting up till her gun runs dry and the disk is smoking and sparking falling to earth. Eila watches the disk hit the ground with a loud thud even though Eila doesn't wait to see she knows from that sound that he machine has been destroyed. Eila flies round to the other side of the Fortress in search of her friend, I would say she as looking for the other witches is well but no she's only looking for Sanya.

She sees the two drones drag the sleeping Sanya into the back of a large disked shaped object that shouldn't be there. It has smooth grey sides with some kind of purple light covering the only entrance Eila can she. It's unlike anything Eila has seen before as the machines carry Sanya inside is almost drops down over the door and reminds Eila more of a curtain then a door. Eila can't help but stare, even as the object starts to float in the air, even as the object slowly start to drifter away grandly accelerating. It isn't until the object drifts about a hundred metres away that Eila reacts by pushing her Striker to the limit and reloading her gun.

She flies forward as fast as her Striker would take her in pursuit of the object but still she struggles to catch up. By the time she finally does catch up the energy to do so as well as from her night patrol mean's she's running on fumes but that doesn't stop her. Her red hot anger at the thought of Sanya being hurt by those things keeps her going well past her limits. She gets in range and fires a short burst at the object, her bullets bounce off of it without leaving a mark. The object returns fire sending a green glowing ball of light towards Eila, good thing that whoevers shot it was a terrible shot as with Eila's current status she probably wouldn't be able to dodge or block a thing coming at her. She fires another burst of lead into the machine again her bullets have no effect.

The object fires another green ball and again it misses, she fires another burst with the same effect and then another with no effect. The object continues to speed up starting and a blue portal begins to form in front of it and it slowly starts to wrap itself round the object. Eila knowing that her next attack will be her last chance to stop it. She fires every last bullet she has left into the object and she pushes her Striker to its limits and closes the distance. She gets as close as possible to the object, just barely a centimetre above it and gets wrapped up the blue portal around.

There's a flash of blue light that blinds Eila. As soon as Eila can see again she's falling from the sky, spiralling towards the ground. Her magic is depleted, she can't control her descent. All she can do is make small adjustments to guide herself down to the ground. She manages to crash land in a field at the edge of the woods unharmed. That's where she passes out with one though on her mind. Sanya is gone.