Youjo Senki: Falling is like Flying

IX

Tanya sat on the bed inside the command post of the 203rd Mage Battalion, or as it had been renamed by the Fürher himself, Waffenmagier Division Eins, WM 1, "Teufel Persönliche Scharfrichter". The Devils Private Executioners

The command post had been a rich families holiday home, they weren't present when the door had been kicked down, but it served as a decent enough headquarters. Currently, WM 1 was occupying a position North of the Dunkirk beachhead, where they would sortie to daily. Francios and Unified Kingdoms mage presence was limited, and they were split up quite well, so that nothing could ever take out more than two mages or so in one movement

Tanya didn't trust the Luftwaffe to deal a decisive blow to the Unified Kingdom forces, and had insisted on intervention by Mages, which was allowed tentatively. Tomorrow was an important day. Panzerschiff Graf Spee would return to port tomorrow, making a channel dash under support from the two battleships Gnisenau and Scharnhorst.

The familiar grip of the rifle filled her hand comfortably as Tanya stared out the window, reminiscing on her time aboard Graf Spee.

——————

The weather was miserable, it had been for days as Tanya stood on the Anton turret of the battleship Scharnhorst, sailing through the South Atlantic in an attempt to support the Graf Spee. All that was known was three unidentified cruisers had closed to gun range with Graf Spee and a battle had ensued.

Aboard Graf Spee, emergency repairs had been conducted, but the ship was running short on time. Soon she would be seized by the Montevideo government, which would not be good, and she would struggle to make it to a port further inland. Her mages had fought hard and yet, it was fruitless, she had few options.

Tanya glanced down at the map she was currently maintaining with her magic, staring at it and their reported position, using a simple locational spell. She herself was within range, but she wanted her men to be within range too, what point of having them to take shots for her if she didn't bring them along with her.

After what felt like hours, when in reality only half of one had passed, the 203 assembled on the foredeck of Scharnhorst, gently jumping upwards and speeding through the sky, shielding her face from the worst of the rain. The formation tore Sou by South West, moving faster than any ship ever could.

Now within 20 miles, Tanya took a deep breath, readying herself, before deploying a set of glide wings, designed for stealth mage strikes. One by one, the mages of the 203 followed suit, staring into the ocean below.

Placing binoculars to her eyes, Tanya saw it. A force of three cruisers sitting near the mouth of the River delta. A scowl came across her lips, dropping the binoculars, which remain around her neck, bitterly declaring; "So much for neutrality United Kingdom of Albion.."

A few of her men looked over but quickly discipline themselves as all rifles are raised and a unanimous click goes around the group as rifles are bolted. 5 miles out.

Magic could be used to boost radar return sure, however Tanya happened to know that there was no capacity for the Albion warships to detect a mage flying at 7, 000 meters in the air with little magic signature to betray their presence.

Tanya held her fist up, indicating for them to be ready. With the number of ships having been reported by the Graf Spee's captain, Tanya had drilled her squad vigorously on what to target.

Her hand dropped in a sweeping motion the moment that she passed 2.5 miles, magical signatures blazing to life around her as her own blossomed and drowned them all out. Her vision sharpened, her aim focused and she pulled the trigger twice.

Behind her, a wave of fire lanced out from the mages as flak shells began to lance up at them from the decks of the ships. Good AAA Tanya noted as she put on a burst of speed to avoid the accurate fire

Her gaze was transfixed on the shots she fired, watching as the bridge of the largest ship erupted in a ring of flame as the forward superstructure burned with a relentless inferno. Deliberately overloading her spell, the excess magic had become like Napalm, burning the waxed deck and wreathing the forward third of the ship in a thick cloud of black smoke.

The second shell was decidedly more impactful. A naval treaty between the wars had been signed, restricting warships size. As a result, most of the heavy cruisers were horrendously armoured for their name.

The large shot of energy punched clean through the armour underneath the super firing B turret of the heavy cruiser and seemingly did nothing, much to Tanya's dismay.

That dismay would vanish immediately, watching a brilliant gout of orange and yellow flame rocketed skywards, as the ammunition cooked off in the turret's magazine. However, she was incredibly disappointed the ship did not break apart, noting that the turrets roof had been blown off by another mage. Visha, damn it..

The light cruisers had a substantially worse and yet better time.

The one to the right of the heavy cruiser was doomed. A dozen spells had all slammed down onto the same spot underneath the ships funnel, the first destroying the armour on the deck and the follow up shots blowing apart the engine rooms.

Twin mushroom clouds burst out from the sides of the ship, orange balls of fire rapidly consuming the clouds as the ship loudly creaked, before snapping in two, bow and stern beginning to rise into the sky.

Her gaze shifted to the final ship, only to be met with the sight of a mage blade coming right for her face.