Strike Witches: Unexpected Summoning

Chapter 2: The Battle of the Celtic Sea - First Contact

June 5th, 2027. Lavrentiya, New Canteria.

"You said what." Dimitri said to the lone female Junior Sergeant as she reads out a report filed in by the cleaning crews of the nearby coast guard station. "Yes. Your subsection of the 401st motorized squadron, which you called Squad 2, is unfortunately the only one still alive." The junior said in a sorrowful tone. "I see then." Dimitri said in a tone negligent of any despair or remorse. Rather, in a accepting tone, which blended in with the vibe he had as he was sitting on a log.

"How are you so calm about this, Warrant Officer!? More than 20 people died! And besides, you weren't so calm during your encounter with those UFOs!" The junior said, heavily disturbed by the calm tone Dimitri responded with. "People die left and right in this civil war, it is no expectation that even some may die outside the frontlines. However there are some who comfort people during their lasts moments. I am one of them." Dimitri simply stated as he sighed.

"So all of that was just a meaningless act?" The junior said in mild distress and confusion while also getting the point. "I had a good acting class while I was still in secondary school. And keep in mind I was 18 when the civil war started, not even graduating." Dimitri then said with a smirk full of complete and utter honesty, which only further disturbed the junior.

"You! So you just regard the loss of your comrades as something to weep about for a moment and then completely forget?" The junior said in an outrage, with Dimitri looking dead into her eyes in response with a menacing glare, setting the junior into her place. "My apologies, I didn't catch myself there." The junior said as she had lashed out at her superior.

"Listen up rookie." Dimitri said as the junior expected him to yell at her. "The loss of comrades is something to be sad about for you new timers, sure. However for war hardened veterans, it is just another addition to the sea of graves, or a corpse in the overworked morgues and sometimes unluckily, the sea. Hell, for some desperate outposts in the middle of fuck all Siberia, its a break for stone hard and cold rations. Point is, we aren't sad because this is common." Dimitri said calmly.

He then took a look left and saw Alex and Boris fighting each other, yelling out generally the most racist and sexist profanities to each other in the process. "Those two might die by some laser beam by another bogey. And as a veteran of this war, I've accepted that as fact." Dimitri said as he reached into one of his pockets for a box of cigarettes but didn't find any. "You have any cigarettes?" Dimitri asked as he reverted back to his normal self.

"I-uh, no. Apparently the manufacturing plants were too low on resources to even make actual cigarettes in a mass scale, so we have these tobacco chewing sticks." The junior said as she tossed one over to Dimitri. "Fuckin producers these days." Dimitri then said as he didn't like the look of the chewing stick. Despite it however, he decided to chew on it. "Huh. Its not actually that bad." Dimitri said as he continued chewing. "Anyways sir. Another message, well rather, order from Plasma Castle."

"Plasma Castle", Arnket, New Canterian Republic.

The facility was filled with the sounds of phones ringing, keyboards clacking, and the numerous somewhat-panicked conversations going on between the staff of Plasma Castle and the entire military infrastructure of New Canteria. And just to bear down on the worries of Plasma Castles staff, in front of them was a panel with 6 screens all showing the 108 unknown aircraft barreling down on them.

"How many active aircraft do we have confirmed to be alive as of now?" Grigori asked as he saw the state of the situation. "Around 89 have reported to be still flying and not affected by the red light earlier. As for the space force, only 17. Moving 20 aircraft from our lunar base would take too long." Daniel said after being talked to by a staff member about the pressing issue. "And that is just aircraft in general. Barely 30% are fighter aircraft."