Wow, am I the first to comment on this?

The beginning was switching so fast it felt like vignettes, which I admit felt a bit jarring when the previous pieces flowed so much smoother. But the stories were still a lot of fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed them.

The ending was one -hell- of a rush! Best I've read in a long time. All I could do to not scream at my monitor when calling for backup failed, "Use the Force, Mio!!" The ramifications of being Force sensitive have not really hit the witches yet, I don't think.

SO looking forward to the next installment. Hard to not vibrate in my chair and hit the refresh button on the What's New page every ten minutes. XD

--------
this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu

>The beginning was switching so fast it felt like vignettes, which I
>admit felt a bit jarring when the previous pieces flowed so much
>smoother.

Well, sometimes you have to clean out the odd socks, y'know? :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>The beginning was switching so fast it felt like vignettes, which I
>>admit felt a bit jarring when the previous pieces flowed so much
>>smoother.
>
>Well, sometimes you have to clean out the odd socks, y'know? :)

I'm looking forward to when you clean out the old shirts and get us off this verdamt cliff you've left us on! :)

-Z
then again, I'm constantly looking forward to the next EPU release, regardless of what it is...

---
Remember kids: guns make you stupid, duct tape makes you smart.

>>>The beginning was switching so fast it felt like vignettes, which I
>>>admit felt a bit jarring when the previous pieces flowed so much
>>>smoother.
>>
>>Well, sometimes you have to clean out the odd socks, y'know? :)
>
>I'm looking forward to when you clean out the old shirts and get us
>off this verdamt cliff you've left us on! :)

Can't. Freaking. WAIT.

-- Slider Da Feral (NYAR!)

A very entertaining read, thank you! Looking forward to seeing where the plots go next . . . and am I sensing there's going to be a shift towards more espionage-type actions in the near future, with the situation in Monte Carlo, for example?

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

LAST EDITED ON Apr-20-15 AT 11:33 PM (EDT)
 
That was a lovely treat for my after dinner reading!

Oh man, I didn't think of that. Being fair to Mio if not me, it was never mentioned that the force could be used for telepathy on screen was it?

I was more concerned about the non-limited Me-262 going hell for leather towards the Rhine. Didn't some of the early jets have issues with the turbines running away and disintegrating if they were pushed too hard?

"The Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded."

I'm not sure about full-scale word/thought exchange, but sensing other beings, especially other Force users, is shown often enough.

Force telepathy was used in SotS, when Leonard found out Kei was alive. That or I completely misunderstood what was happening there.

>Force telepathy was used in SotS, when Leonard found out Kei was
>alive. That or I completely misunderstood what was happening there.

Well, sort of, I mean, more or less. Although that was Warriors of the Outer Rim, not Symphony of the Sword. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Ok, my fault for being unclear. What I was getting at is do any of the witches know that force telepathy is possible.

I have a sneaking suspicion there may be influences from at least one other current anime/manga going on here, especially with the Neuroi suit. I'll simply leave the initials 'WT' here and await confirmation, denial, or something along the lines of 'Not telling, nyah'.

LAST EDITED ON Apr-21-15 AT 01:31 AM (EDT)
 
>I'll simply leave the initials 'WT' here and await
>confirmation, denial, or something along the lines of 'Not telling,
>nyah'.

... Or possibly option 4: "Eh?"

--G.
"I'm not following you, Jonesy."
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

LAST EDITED ON Apr-21-15 AT 01:39 AM (EDT)
 
World Trigger - one of the characters has a Trigger that is remarkably similar in form and function to what Neuroi-chan did there.

I shall take this as a 'no, you're way off base, please try again later'. :)

>World Trigger - one of the characters has a Trigger that is
>remarkably similar in form and function to what Neuroi-chan did
>there.
>
>I shall take this as a 'no, you're way off base, please try again
>later'. :)

Yeah, never heard of it. I think I was sort of unconsciously referring to the dog-eared, yellow old index card in the back of my head somewhere that says, "Didn't Doug wear Warlock as a battle suit once in New Mutants? I could swear I saw that." :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>"Didn't Doug wear Warlock as a battle suit
>once in New Mutants? I could swear I saw that." :)

From what I remember of the comics Warlock and Doug merged several times before. Pretty neat idea at any rate.

Also, AWESOME episode, though I AM a bit annoyed by the cliffhanger... but then, that's the price for a good story, be-times. I'm content, though intensely curious as to what had Hannelore so upset; I mean, google translate can give me the broad strokes but I lack the subtext.

I have a guess. It's probably wrong, but... well, it fits the circumstances.

>
>Also, AWESOME episode, though I AM a bit annoyed by the cliffhanger...
>but then, that's the price for a good story, be-times. I'm content,
>though intensely curious as to what had Hannelore so upset; I mean,
>google translate can give me the broad strokes but I lack the subtext.
>

My guess is that Fritz was working up the nerve to propose when she went back to the front lines.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

>Yeah, never heard of it. I think I was sort of unconsciously
>referring to the dog-eared, yellow old index card in the back of my
>head somewhere that says, "Didn't Doug wear Warlock as a battle suit
>once in New Mutants? I could swear I saw that." :)

To be fair, if it makes even seasoned adventurers blink and go 'What?', odds are good Warlock's done it. It's part of his charm.

I'm going to add my agreement to looking forward to seeing just what that letter to Hannalore was about. I've really grown fond of her. The other bit I'm looking forward to is seeing Haywire get quite thoroughly yelled at for this stunt - Once Yoshika is satisfied she's properly recovered, I expect.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

>"Didn't Doug wear Warlock as a battle suit
>once in New Mutants? I could swear I saw that." :)
>
>--G.

More than once, in fact, and in more than one...I want to say configuration, but perhaps 'look' would be a better word, in that I can't say there was any difference between them beyond aesthetics.
But yes, he/they did that on several occations.
...!
Gott's Leetle Feesh in Trousers!

A few thoughts:

I was stuck on what they were doing at Los Alamos in WWII in real life and totally did not see the lightning guns coming; this makes a whole lot more sense (not having seen the source material at all, maybe a nuke would be a sensible thing to use on a Hive? but you wouldn't be delivering it by witch).

The Neuroi-chan subplot continues to intrigue. I may be reading a little too much Arpeggio of Blue Steel into the situation (since I have read those manga) but it seems like almost the same kind of thing going on: one of the AIs has decided to become more like its opponents in hopes of understanding them better. That doesn't necessarily mean it can be trusted, but fashioning itself into a flightsuit/backup propulsion unit for Yoshika does seem like a huge gesture of goodwill, at least.

I was surprised enough to see LeMay doing something constructive for a change that I went back to earlier installments to confirm it was the same person.

I'm finding myself a lot more worried about what was in that letter to von Hammer than I am about the combat cliffhanger, or Barkhorn's ability to use Hammer's striker unit. Is that weird?

>
>I'm finding myself a lot more worried about what was in that letter to
>von Hammer than I am about the combat cliffhanger, or Barkhorn's
>ability to use Hammer's striker unit. Is that weird?

No, you're just snapping at one of the many delicious bait laden hooks we placed in this episode.

>
>... Barkhorn's ability to use Hammer's striker unit.
>

The ability isn't all that weird. Any witch could use it.

Surviving the experience with even a shred of magical power, on the other hand, is a bit of a challenge. Let's hope Trude's time in Zauberschule gives her a backup option.

Peter Eng
--
(I'm inclined to think that von Hammer's interest in Zauberschule is based in part on her suspicion that she's tapped into the Force to keep going, and she's trying to find some way to confirm or deny the hypothesis.)

I should probably have written "ability to use Hammer's striker unit without getting herself killed in the process".

>>
>>... Barkhorn's ability to use Hammer's striker unit.
>>
>
>The ability isn't all that weird. Any witch could use it.
>
>Surviving the experience with even a shred of magical power, on the
>other hand, is a bit of a challenge. Let's hope Trude's time in
>Zauberschule gives her a backup option.
>
That's pretty much my take on Hannah's warning about "no limiter" as well. And I agree with the thought that RL-Gryph has 'put the gun on the mantle' so to speak, at least in regards to that possibility.

Said probability however, also begs the question of how is it that Hannah can handle her 262 given this situation; could it be that, as speculated elsewhere that perhaps Mio was NOT the first to make this breakthrough? Only time, and Gryph, can or will tell. And I hope you do choose to tell, the curiosity on that point is going to make it just that much harder to wait till the Hiatus is over myself!

Past that, I have to agree with Zwol; I also allowed myself to be distracted by RL-Los Alamos history. However, once you actually THINK about it, if there was any location doing research into turning Tesla's various brainchildren into working weapon prototypes, burying it in the rest of Project Manhattan (assuming that there even WAS a Manhattan Project in the Strike Witches Universe) makes perfect sense, at least to myself. I don't suppose you're willing to comment on this, G?

>I don't suppose you're willing to comment on this, G?

What would I say? I'm not actually sure what the question is...

--G.
"J.D. Salinger refused to comment on this story, so we asked Pierre Salinger, who said sure, he would comment, but he didn't even know J.D. Salinger; we said what the hell, forget it."
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>I don't suppose you're willing to comment on this, G?
>
>What would I say? I'm not actually sure what the question is...
>
>--G.
Understandable, as I did raise several potential ones; at least some of which could well have been answered if I'd been arsed to read the Annotations first.

In this case, it was a) if the Manhattan project existed at all in your strike witches universe, and b) if it was about developing atomic weapons if it existed at all.

>In this case, it was a) if the Manhattan project existed at all in
>your strike witches universe, and b) if it was about developing atomic
>weapons if it existed at all.

Oh.

No, I'm not willing to comment on either of those things.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>In this case, it was a) if the Manhattan project existed at all in
>>your strike witches universe, and b) if it was about developing atomic
>>weapons if it existed at all.
>
>Oh.
>
>No, I'm not willing to comment on either of those things.
>

Darn.

>I was surprised enough to see LeMay doing something constructive for a
>change that I went back to earlier installments to confirm it was the
>same person.

Well, he's only there because Eisenhower sent him, and we can be fairly certain that before giving him the assignment, Ike sat him down and said something along the lines of, "Curtis, can you please quit antagonizing the strategic assets? It's not too late to make you quartermaster general."

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>Well, he's only there because Eisenhower sent him, and we can be
>fairly certain that before giving him the assignment, Ike sat him down
>and said something along the lines of, "Curtis, can you please quit
>antagonizing the strategic assets? It's not too late to make you
>quartermaster general."

"...in Greenland."

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

>>Well, he's only there because Eisenhower sent him, and we can be
>>fairly certain that before giving him the assignment, Ike sat him down
>>and said something along the lines of, "Curtis, can you please quit
>>antagonizing the strategic assets? It's not too late to make you
>>quartermaster general."
>
>"...in Greenland."
>

What, there's no openings in Antarctica? :)

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

afssadgd Neuroi-chan to the rescue

Also: yessss, hmmm, whatever did just happen to von Hammer?

Also also: that bit with the tire change was magnificent. I am, in fact, now using this as characterization for Neuroi-chan.

I've made a small modification to one of the early scenes in this episode (the bit where Wilma and Ursula return to base after the first Ha 162 test flight). Early audio adopters will want to re-download Part 1.

Also, I've actually re-uploaded all the audio for OWaW with a slight change to the ID3 tags - with Episode 14 out, it's now known how many tracks are on "disc 1", so the "track X of Y" tags now reflect "... of 16". (When we resume after the hiatus, those will be "disc 2". Same applies to when it comes back, come to think of it.) Probably not worth redownloading them all unless you're as picky about curating your libraries as I am, but I thought I'd mention it while I was noting the other change.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I had a slightly different take: Neuroi-chan can't assimilate Yoshika (yet) because until the last episode of the canon, nobody has ever tried to use the healing ability against the Neuroi. I wonder what would happen if Yoshika DID use it on Neuroi-chan, would another witch pop out? What if Yoshika's healing ability was combined with a SWTOR Consular's healing abilities? What if both were copied by a Neuroi's naturally-fast regeneration? *Is a bad, bad, man.*

It'd be interesting to see what Our Esteemed Author will reveal as to what the Neuroi's deal is.

YOSHIKA looks around in puzzlement.

YOSHIKA
I haven't been to Britannia in a couple of years. There's a lot more security than I remember.

WRNS ENSIGN
(earnestly)
We have to make sure to guard against Neuroi infiltration.

NEUROI-CHAN
(nonplussed)
Neuroi do not infiltrate.

WRNS ENSIGN
Oh, Lt. Miyafuji, you need to check with the Air Chief Marshal if you want to keep your personal assistance robot with you while you're in London.

A beat.

NEUROI-CHAN
Neuroi do not intentionally infiltrate.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

*snrk*

Bahahahaha!

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu

>YOSHIKA looks around in puzzlement.
>
>YOSHIKA
>I haven't been to Britannia in a couple of years. There's a lot more
>security than I remember.
>
>WRNS ENSIGN
>(earnestly)
>We have to make sure to guard against Neuroi infiltration.
>
>NEUROI-CHAN
>(nonplussed)
>Neuroi do not infiltrate.
>
>WRNS ENSIGN
>Oh, Lt. Miyafuji, you need to check with the Air Chief Marshal if you
>want to keep your personal assistance robot with you while you're in
>London.
>
>A beat.
>
>NEUROI-CHAN
>Neuroi do not intentionally infiltrate.

If she starts asking "Does this unit have a soul?," I'm outta here!

yesssss do it

LAST EDITED ON Jan-09-17 AT 05:49 AM (EST)
 
Well, this is a fanart to completely different thing, but I think may work in the OWAW, in the possible future?

Context: Neuroi are black and presumed to heat well, it was a sunny day, picnic was planned, someone tried to use a laser to start a grill.

<|hueg image>
Yes, Neuroi-chan, it is.