Crossing Borders, a Youjo Senki/Strike Witches crossover

[BF110C4]

First of all, on the Land Striker I have been doing a bit of research and I found a bit irritating the approach the series took to their magical tank girl equivalent. For this fic I have been operating on the approach that the Striker units are machines that use magic to simulate the functions of planes or tanks or whatever, while the weaponry available to witches, aerial or otherwise, are mostly light machine guns, antitank rifles and the Fliegerhammer, a multiple rocket launcher that is just realistic enough for it to be designed as a conventional weapon based on a bazooka for someone with superhuman endurance. The few times those rules are broken, like with the 30mm dual cannons or the monstrous 50mm gun, the design is huge, cumbersome and is generally commented in universe about its size and firepower being an engineering challenge. Then we get to the Land Witches having miniature tank guns of 75mm the size of a submachine gun and the shape of the historical equivalent main gun of the RL counterpart. And contradicting that way the way the anime, and many of the derivative works treated weaponry. So therefore between the fact that we don't get to see Land Witches in the movie and main series, which are the licensed works that I have direct access, and the way it makes harder to use a common magic system compatible between SW and Youjo Senki I decided to have them use of conventional weapons, although with less weight restrictions due to they not needing to fly and having more stable fire platforms. Also, just like the completely fictional Fliegerhammer, the army reserves the right to design weapon systems operated only by witches or by conventional forces.

---

---

The mainstream design of the Liberion forces Land Witches is the M10 Land Striker Unit 'Wolverine', a rugged and reliable design made to be highly compatible with witches of most physical complexions and to minimize the use of magic, and the maintenance requirements. Even nations with their own more effective indigenous designs have imported the M10 as a way of increasing the recruitment of low powered witches that would otherwise be unable to operate a striker unit in combat conditions. The main disadvantages of the M10 are poor cross country mobility thanks to conservative land tracks, reduced ability to shift the magic distribution from mobility to shields, having to rely in the reinforcement of the Striker's armored skin on a greater measure than comparable designs and in general a low ceiling in performance for witches with larger than average magical pressure.

A well-supplied Liberion Witch Battalion has in average three M10 units per witch, one in use, one as a spare at company level and the third one in either reserve or being under maintenance, refurbished or upgraded in the battalion's mobile workshops and depots. It's not rare that during particularly challenging operations, spare strikers are lend to friendly units to replace material loses and keep momentum.

The M18 Land Striker Unit 'Hellcat' is a parallel design to the M10 Wolverine, faster and with a higher tolerance for magic channeling but less armored and lower battlefield endurance. The M18 with its excellent ground speed of 55mph is intended to dash in the open and scurry from cover to cover, all while dealing punishing damage to the Neuroi with its weapons and spells.

Any witch assigned to one of the Witch Mechanized Squadron or Marine Expeditionary Witch Companies can request an M18 instead of the general issue M10, as long as the magical pressure and magic reserves are enough for its continuous operation and a training course can be arranged for the witch in question, although less than fifth of the witches in the Army and Marines can keep up with the magic requirements without either a large magic pool available or the kind of efficient consumption that comes with experience which means that most of the Hellcat users are veterans between 15 and 18 years old with the outliers being particularly powerful recruits so in most units they are considered elite troops and assigned for the hunt of atypical Neuroi land units.

---

---

The Liberian Army Witch Command in Salem Massachusetts has established guidelines to the development and equipment of their Tank Witches aimed at maximizing their strategic mobility by streamlining the logistical footprint of the unit. As part of this policy, every general issued weapon must use the same ammunition as conventional units, so that they can depend on the supplies of local forces until their logistics can reach them.

The M7 is a liberian heavy bolt rifle that used the same munitions as the M3 37mm anti-tank gun. The gun was designed for the exclusive use of Land Witches, and while the three round magazine and the large shells force the rest of the squad to carry additional ammunition its HE round is enough to blow small clusters of light Neuroi while in the hands of a sharpshooter the AP can one shot a heavy Neuroi through the thick external skin to hit the core. The M8 commissioned by the Marines is an enlarged version of the M7 capable of fitting the longer Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft shells.

The main weapon for liberian Land Witches (and allied forces supplied by them) is the M2HBW2. This variant of the .50 machine gun has a quick change 24in barrel (in lieu of the longer 35.8in barrel used by conventional forces), a manual safety absent in the crew served weapon, a conventional stock, trigger array and an optional detachable bipod for its use as a personal weapon. The gun has been limited to a maximum rate of fire of 30 rounds per minute to increase control and decrease ammo expenditure, but many veterans fix it up to the full rpm of the regular crew served guns. Additionally, it has specialized lateral grips that can be hanged from the left or right arm of the liberian models of Land Striker for a firmer grip while sprinting. The weapon was offered to conventional airborne units as a lightweight heavy machine gun but it was rejected due to limited range of the shorter barrel and the troops attempts to fire from the bipod without a Land Striker, even witches with reinforcement magic lack the weight to fire the gun and not fall on their ass.

The M15 Multiple Rocket Launcher is widely criticized for being a rushed and inferior copy of the Fliegerhammer. After the offer from the New Karsland government for licensing the weapon, just like the Gallian, Romanian and Rus forces, fell through, the US Army Ordnance Department started an emergency project to design a substitute based on the infantry's bazooka launcher. The Bureau decided on four M1A1 tubes with the new trigger magneto sparker and improved aperture sights of the M9, drastically reducing the firepower compared to the original with the view of lightening it enough for its use as a crew served weapon and trying to standardize it as an universal multiple rocket launcher for witches, infantry and tactical bombers.

As with many other weapons made by committee without the input of the end users, the plans unraveled fast, with the Army Air Corps rejecting it for both the Strike Witches and use by fighters in ground attack roles (although retaining a few units to arm the L-4 Grasshopper light plane)due to the short range of the ground based system compared to the already available 3.5in rocket, as well as the unfortunate tendency of its ammunition to malfunction at extreme temperature changes such as the ones experienced from high altitude flight. The infantry on the other hand faced no technical issues, but rejected the weapon as too cumbersome, hard to aim and with too high profile compared to the bazooka. Other than small numbers used by the Marines the Land Witches are the sole users, with Joint Strike Wings running a grey market of Fliegerhammers and their licensed versions to the Air Corps regular witch squadrons. On use by the Tank Witches the M15 is considered a first strike weapon, with the procedure being to fire two AT shots aimed at any medium or heavy Neuroi and the remaining HE at a target of opportunity before dropping the launcher and using their main gun.

---

---

Shields have been an essential part of warfare and witches have long learned how to make full use of them. They are often used as focus for Shield Spells, and as a general rule those spells cover a greater area than when they're conjured barehanded, on the flipside they also give the mental image of immobility which disproportionately to its actual weight slows down the user and has a negative impact on flight magic, which is why they're seldom issued to striker units. Also with the proper materials they can be made extremely easy to Reinforce, so they provide a second protective layer between defensive spells and the final Land Striker armor. Shields come in three general sizes, basic buckers attached as standard to the left or right arm of the Striker to provide personal protection without restricting movement, 30in shields for widen area of spells, and 4 foot tower shields that provides maximum spread of magical protection as well as full coverage and density for physical armor but the disadvantage of being so massive that the user is limited to one handed weapons like pistols, shotguns or submachine guns.

Both albionese and gallian witches use variations of medieval kite shields, with some of their colonial forces having their own traditional styles, the romagnan witches are drilled in the use of elaborate Scutum shield walls and defensive formations, rus and karsland armies use the wooden round shield for improved channeling ability, while the liberian forces -without a proper shield tradition- have been using what the other nation's witches deride as heartless slabs of iron which are nonetheless very durable and with modern conveniences such as armored glass windows for greater visibility, with the E8 reinforced full coverage 'Jumbo' Shield made of modern composite materials designed to diffuse Neuroi beams up to a Heavy type secondary emitter.

The Karsland Queen Tiger Integral Shield deserves a special mention, being a marvel of engineering that miniaturizes many of the elements of the Striker unit providing a rationalized and standardized magic circle which can provide improved, autonomous protection even when hanging in the back of the user and being able to channel -and in some occasions empower- innate abilities through it. At the equivalent cost of two prewar Panzer IV Land Strikers for each shield, and in average twelve hours of maintenance per each hour of active use.

 

[BF110C4]

Gems and Magical Engineering


When Ada Lovelace expanded Babagge theoretical work on the Albionese Crown Sovereign Orb she was the first to point out the relationship between the Platinum-Selenium alloy of the body, and the mounted clusters of emeralds, rubies and sapphires surrounded by rose-cut diamonds, and single rows of pearls. Her examination and mapping of the cross on the top and the way magical energy interacted with the rose-cut diamonds and the sapphire and emerald on opposite sides of the center and with the pearls at the angles and at the end of each arm is considered the start of the mechanical magic revolution as well as the first scientifically written spell matrix.

From that moment forward an arm race started to analyze the remaining artifacts in the different national treasuries with diverse amounts of success. Artifacts such as the Gallian Tencendur which was emulated to create a short lived flying mechanical horse superseded by the practical combination of Levitation and Flow spells, while the fusian Yata no Kagami became the basis of the modern magic detection technology.

While there are still many mysteries to uncover in these artifacts two of the most understood factors are the metallurgy present in most of the artifacts of which there's a high correlation between magical and electric conductivity, although one that grows in complexity with the use of alloys; and the gemology, with a far more complex relationship with magical powers.

Magic absorption and retention, magic refractivity and dispersion, magically conductive inclusions and fractures are some of the factors that need to be taken into account for determining the usefulness in metaphysical engineering. Roughly a gram per ton extracted is considered to be capable of retaining magic to a practical degree, with evolving techniques gaining more spell efficiency and raising that particular threshold.

Once gems of the appropriate characteristics are selected the gem must be cut in order to make the optimal use of magical dispersion and refractivity, a process that is generally not compatible with commercial jewelry lapidary and gemcutting techniques and instead require to actively circulate magic through a gem in order to determine the optimal shape, a time consuming and error prone artisanal procedure that by necessity requires a mage cutter or a mage assistant to map the gem and has a high failure rate which partly accounts for the disproportionate high price of even the most simple magical tools.

Once cut the gem is fitted into the Computation Orb as it magic processing core, in the center of the gear train and substituting the oscillator in conventional clockwork, with gold, silver and selenium alloys being the materials of choice. As there are no cores of an standard size and shape the orbs have a generous clearance which with the right design allows to use different gems with similar coefficients of magical retention, but different refraction and dispersion profiles to get a comparable (although somewhat nuanced towards specific types of spells) performance in an Orb.

Once a crystalline or precious stone of the appropriate qualities has been properly cut and fitted to the clockwork a spell matrix is imprinted on the gem by a mage using a predefined pattern by emitting magic through a set of gold plates with engraved magic circles. The matrix is a series of magical pathways and patterns, some fixed and some that the user can alter, based on Lovelace's studies, it receives, accumulates and shapes the raw magical power channeled from the mage into an output capable of affecting the physical world, commonly known as a spell.

In addition gems tangentially connected to the core can be used to either expedite input or further shape output in defined ways without affecting the nature of the spells, and therefore not being considered an orb's core. The most common of these are 'Remembrance' jewels, gemstones from organic sources such as amber, pearl or jet which can record sounds, images or other forms of processed information by copying the sensory data from the mage, quite literally allowing to see through his eyes, hear through his ears and read his thoughts.

As for the output, requirements are as simple or as complex as the purpose of the spell. In most cases the spell travels from the clockwork mechanism, to the outer casing to the mage's body. In other cases specialized tools are required to direct the spell, these can be as varied as ritualistic magic circles, athames (used mostly as surgical tools by mage doctors), wands that have a direct, mechanical control of the output of spells and are often designed for high precision work (for example gem cutting ironically enough). For illusions spells most orbs incorporate a stained glass window in the shape of a gem in the frontal section of the computation orb. Despite its appearance, its characteristics are imbued by using metallic stains such as copper or silver in otherwise thick glass and are considered part of magical metallurgy studies rather than gemology