Grand Witches v2

The Grand Witch Principle

The magic powers of Witches are a compound of four different factors.
Aptitude (APT), or plain "Magic Power", the measured extent of their natural magic power.
(Aptitude was chosen to make differentiating between the secondary factors MPR, MPC and MPT and the primary magic power easier in acronym.)
Magic Power Retention (MPR), which is the extent of which they can retain magical power. This primarily handles the speed of which their powers wane as their age increases. Additionally, this is also used to retain foreign magical power upon transmission.
Magic Power Capacity (MPC), a largely unexplored factor that in theory handles the upper limit of magical energy a single witch can endure before her body suffers overexposure breakdown. This only handles the theoretical maximum APT (Magic Power) a witch can reach through magic transmission.
Magic Power Transmission (MPT), a somewhat unexplored factor that determines how well a witch can pass magic energy to her unit or another witch. It directly affects how much magic power is lost in transit between the witch and the target.

As Witches age, their magic wanes, which is a known problem in the world and has not had a solution for hundreds of years. Most witches will have their magic wane completely by the age of 20 and many more still will be forced to retire from active service as a witch before this. This poses a large problem especially in the war against Neuroi.
This is both common sense and a problem that has had no solution for centuries. It is something that witches simply accept.
The main phenomena that causes magic power to wane is that the growth period of the individual ends and as such, magic energy fails to generate in a sufficient from within the body. Similar to how growth of the human body eventually halts and a very slow decaying process begins, magical power generation becomes less and less as this growth period comes to an end until it eventually ceases entirely.

(The world of the Grand Witches has minor differences to the traditional strike witches world. Differences begin below)

Experiments in the late 1939's, the "Witches Pandora" experiments, yielded no result and no solution was found to solve the issue of waning magic in witches nearing age 20.
In 1941, February, first signs of an alternative solution to the magic waning problem surfaced. An experiment was conducted in Fusou. The aim; to provide explosive magical power to witches by storing magic energy in a containment unit, siphoned through a modified magic engine. The results were disastrous; technology sufficiently advanced to contain enough magical energy to overcome transmission losses could not be built. However, during this experiment, one witch, name undisclosed, suffered magic energy flow back several times, the containment unit failing and all the magical energy slamming back into the witch. After each flow back incident, the following physical check up measured an increased APT but presumed that it was a temporary side effect of the flow back. Towards the final stages of the experiment, her APT had increased to more than twice its original value and would no longer decrease.
This witch was put subsequently under intense observation and even as her APT was supposed to degrade due to her age, it refused to fall. This brought into focus the theory of Beta-APT. The process was thought to function similar to vaccination. The body was bombarded with foreign magical energy and was forced to adapt to this energy. After enough exposure, the adapted body proceeded to generate this magical energy, which was functionally the same as their innate magical energy, by itself, separately from the growth process incurred generation of magical power. In simpler terms, the body had learned to create magical energy through adaptation.
A strict limitation was discovered however. The witch could not naturally increase its own APT. Theorizing that the flow back of magical energy overloaded the natural APT, the flow back was caused intentionally. In 1941, July, the witch died in a violent blast caused by what doctors dubbed Magic Overdose Poisoning. While the body could adapt to the foreign magical energy and create a second supply, the forceful method of adaptation caused severe cellular damage to the witch, which resulted in break down of the cells that contained her magical energy. Experiments were cancelled.

In 1941, December, experiments started again in Liberion in secret, this time with a different approach. The cause of the overdose poisoning was deemed to be the heavy mixing of many different sources of magical energy, which put too much stress on the cells of the receiving witch. Thus, a method was devised to limit the flow back to a singular other witch. Additionally, the containment unit itself was deemed unsavory and a hindrance because it would drastically increase magic transmission loss rates, making it nearly impossible for a single witch to generate enough magical energy within a containment unit to cause significant enough flow back with another witch to raise her APT. A solution was sought to bypass the containment unit itself and found in 1942, February. The "Linker". Initial models were crude, large and unwieldy, requiring both witches to be using modified striker units. The model still had extremely high transmission losses and further revisions were attempted. The highest transmission rate the mechanical version of the "Linker" ever obtained was 27%, which was still deemed far too low to be usable in a practical setting. The mechanical aspect was deemed impossible to solve with current technology and a different approach was sought. Until 1942, June, no other solution presented itself when two witches accidentally found an alternative way of transmission. After shock exposure to transmission technology in the earlier experiments in February, the witches cells had started an adaptation process that was then called the Linkage. After initial exposure, both witches, unbeknownst to themselves, became able to transmission magical energy through intimate contact. Transmission losses were completely unmodified by external sources, creating high retaining ratios. The single source of the foreign energy also created a low enough stress threshold for the witches to not suffer powerful adverse effects, albeit minor side effects were observed in subsequent years.

Subsequent experiments that started in August of 1942 revealed more details about this phenomena. Dozens of participant witches, largely witches in training, failed to achieve any notable results of transmission even after transmission shock therapy took hold and caused cell adaptation. The cause remained unknown until one Orussian guest researcher, Dr. Alexander Ramazov, discovered a common trait between all successful transmissions and all failed ones. All the successful ones were between witches that also maintained a romantic relationship between each other. From October to November of 1942, the cause of this was linked to hormonal differences in the bodies. Several relationships failed, causing the built up APT to wane rapidly. Additionally, if a pair was separated by more than roughly 66,200 meters, a similar effect took place but the APT repaired itself when brought back together. This repair did also take place in case of the relationship failing and remaining in close proximity.

Faced with the problematic issue of having a working solution to the waning magic issue but unbelievably constricting conditions to make that happen, subsequent experiments in December of 1942 were held only between select volunteer witches previously informed of the conditions to participate. 40 pairs participated and of those, 12 withstood with testing period that lasted until March 1943, returning in some cases with their APT matching their MPC, something completely unheard of previously.

These powerful witches were dubbed the "Grand Witches" as they would no longer be subject to the standard limitations of witches. The experiment was declared a success and detailed research into the Grand Witches begun in April, 1943. While minor side effects were found, the most glaring issue became apparent once the Grand Witches were sent into training. An inexperienced Witch could simply not handle the incredible magical powers bestowed upon her by being a Grand Witch. Thus, the proposed military plan was shifted from creating Grand Witches from recruits to promoting suitable existing, serving Witches to Grand Witches by submitting them to the now further developed transmission therapy. Before this plan could be put in motion, additional issues were discovered.
1) Low MPC, magical power capacity, was found to be the cause of mild cases of overflow poisoning. Once MPC was fully reached, any further transmission would dissipate into the body, acting like an aggressive virus. Thus a minimum MPC rate that was deemed safe was established for potential candidates. (2500% MPC)
Low MPT rates were deemed not viable in general. In cases where MPT was too low, the loss of magical energy incurred was too high to achieve sufficiently high APT without spending years and years, as transmitted energy is the APT of another witch and APT regenerates over time. The time the otherwise battle capable witch would spend on being out of magical energy was not too precious to consider those with very low MPT to be viable candidates. Thus the minimum MPT of 60% was established, 17% higher than the global average. Orussian and Suomish witches in particular proved to have very high MPT(82% and 87% national average respectively) while Fusou witches had the third lowest average MPT globally at only 39% average.
Low MPR rates were found to be dangerous similar to low MPC rates. If not enough of the transmitted energy could be retained and too much would dissipate into the body, it would cause overflow poisoning, almost identically to the effect of low MPC or a maxed out MPC. The minimum MPR rate deemed absolutely safe is 70%. Only Liberion witches average below this nationally(65%) while Gallian witches averaged the highest among all nations (99%).

With all these restrictions in place, efforts were made to make testing more accessible for deployed witches. MPC tests could be conducted through a standard striker unit and a small device which requires a blood sample of the target witch that will then be bombarded with magical energy siphoned from the striker unit. MPT can be measured by simply hooking another small device up to a regular striker unit and having the target witch use the unit. MPR tests are also done by bombarding blood with magic and have to be done subsequent to MPC tests. Degradation of magic within the blood over time is used to calculate MPR.

In 1943, October, a conference of military representatives from across the globe formed the Grand Witches Summit, imposing the restrictions on Grand Witch candidates as law in all participant countries. Additionally, due to the delicate nature of requiring a romantic relationship between witches, grand witches were granted the legal benefits of a married couple according to each country's laws. Similarly, adultery between witches became a heavily prosecuted crime as it would cause potentially as many as four Grand Witches to lose their powers, possibly permanently. As once their natural APT has decreased to zero, it remains impossible to become a Grand Witch again if the secondary APT also decreases to zero due to failure of the relationship. As such, opting for the Grand Witch promotion is often treated as a proposal. A witch cannot become a Grand Witch on her own and cannot sustain being a Grand Witch on her own.

In 1944, February, new observations about Grand Witches were released by the 1943 established Liberion research institute that dealt with Grand Witches matters, the Free Witches Global. Among observed side effects(found at the end of this document), more beneficial effects were disclosed as well. The primary observation made in all Grand Witches was the development of their innate magic as well as the general effects of a higher APT, such as stronger shields, capability of using specifically designed striker units too demanding for regular Witches and in the rare cases of exceptionally high APT, even special weaponry that uses magical energy itself to fire, similar to neuroi technology.

Neuroi were rapidly forced back after the advent of the Grand Witches. In November of 1944, only a few Neuroi hives and nests remained and victory for mankind seemed within reach. In December 1944, tragedy struck. The Caribbean Confederation was completely consumed and occupied by a new class of Neuroi Hive. Not a single soul survived the sudden formation and swift invasion of the Neuroi that happened seemingly overnight.
Within three days, The Mayan Federation of Liberion, Republic of Gran Columbia and parts of the Republic of the United States of Amazonas were overrun by Neuroi. Land based witcheshold the line in the United Aztec States, the Republic of the United States of Amazonas and the Republic of Tawatinsuyu.
The cause of this string of defeat humankind suffered was a new type of neuroi that closely resembled Fusou Witch Yoshika Miyafuji. Initial observations proved to be shocking for witches and armed forces around the world. This new type of "Witch Neuroi" would use neuroi technology in a completely new way. Instead of the attack beams the standard neuroi use, it would protect itself with that same technology against witches and enemy attacks. This defensive behavior itself is harmless but the Neuroi Witch became quickly classified as a "Queen" type, a new type that behaves similar to the Capital type but with a far more specialized purpose. Accompanied by numerous large-type neuroi, and in some cases heavy and ultra-heavy ones, these Queen types offset the fatal weakness of the core being responsible for structural integrity of the normal neuroi. The Queen type was observed, through magical eye abilities, of being made entirely of core material with only a very thin outer coating of metal. Transmitting this intense core power to its minion neuroi, the Queen type possess unprecedented danger as its defenses posed impenetrable even to battleship shells on direct impact and the minion neuroi requiring complete destruction of their physical form to destroy them as they no longer possess a core of their own. With Queen types observed around the world, the Grand Witches Summit put an emergency plan into action. By pulling from viable candidates from all over the world and coordinating with the witches, new Grand Witches were conscripted to combat the Queen Neuroi menace. Seven Joint Fighter Wings, the 561th to 567th, were formed by January 1995. While six of them were dispatched to target locations around the world, the 567th consisted of particularly elite witches and was sent with the aircraft carrier USS Purity to deal with the situation at the Caribbean Confederation, where at least two Queen types were observed to be present.