Davy Zou
Fabrication
Thunder Storm
Prelude
Year 2024, the Weather Control System was created. At first the Weather Control System was weak, only capable of causing small weather changes at local scale. It still helped a lot at relieving draughts and floods. The whole world was very happy with it. Soon, every country had their own Weather Control System.
One year after the creation of Weather Control.
Technology had made Weather Control more powerful. Now it can alter big weather systems such as hurricanes and thunderstorms. A college student wrote a program for the Weather Control System. She named it Thunderstorm. The program enables the Weather Control System to create a thunderstorm, a catastrophic one.
First test:
Sept 1st, 2025: the Japanese was the first to test their artificial thunderstorm, the test was successful, but the thunderstorm was created right on top of the research facilities. It destroyed the facilities as well as killing everybody within its perimeter. The Japanese upgraded the program so that the storm won't hit the facilities again, but before they could test it the program, the disk disappeared.
After realizing the power of artificial thunderstorms, all the countries rushed to created their own artificial thunderstorm.
Second test:
December 4th, 2025: American test failed. Due to over heating of Weather Control System, it exploded and took out half of Nevada.
Third test:
February 6th, 2026: Russian test failed. Flood happened alone the east coast of Russia.
And so on. Every country tried to create a controllable thunderstorm system, but they all failed. That is when countries and organizations started to look of the original disk that contained the upgraded thunderstorm program.
And this is where our story took place.
Present TimeThe weather was pleasant, ever since the invention of Weather Control, everybody had been quite happy. Drought could be relieved in a few days; and the Sahara Desert was now grassland. Especially Tokyo, its summer was not that hot anymore, nor was the winter so cold.
A young man walked down the streets of Tokyo. He was dressed in a Japanese high school uniform: black blazer, dark long pants, no tie. He had glasses, and an x-shaped scar on his left cheek. He walked upright, eyes forward, as if he had a goal in mind. The young man's name was Sagara Sousuke. He might look like a mere high school student, but he was much more. He was a trained solider, a mercenary for hire. His expertise was explosives and almost anything military. He was on his way to get his fifty- sixth job.
He walked into a dark alley; no one was there except for an old beggar. The beggar was wearing rags and holding out an empty metal pan. At first Sousuke paid no attention to the beggar, he was told to rendezvous with a person who would tell him his job. But after a while, nobody came. Just as he was about to leave, he noticed something odd about the beggar: the arm that was holding the empty pan was very muscular. Beggars don't have muscular arms, Sousuke thought to himself. Thinking that he had fallen into a trap, Sousuke immediately pulled out his trusted M4A1, pointed the gun at the beggar, then asked in a cold clear tone:
"Who are you?"
"Haha! Took you long enough to notice the arm, Sagara Sousuke," the old man cackled.
"You! You are the one I am suppose to meet?" replied a surprised Sousuke.
"Yes, young man, I am the one you are suppose to meet."
Sagara watched as the beggar stood up by himself and began taking off his make-up. The surprise on Sagara's face became even bigger as the man standing in front of him turned from an old beggar to a man in his thirties.
"Your job, will be to infiltrate the JSDF and steal a disk with the label of Toy-Box on it. Here is fifty thousand dollars in this suitcase; after you obtain the disk, an additional fifty thousand will be paid to you. What do you say?"
"First of all, one hundred thousand is not enough. I want ten thousand dollars to start the job, after I give you the disk, you will pay me one hundred and forty thousand dollars. Secondly, after the job, you will not try to contact me again unless it is another job. I will hold my silence."
"Done."
"Very well. Just a thought, who do I work for?"
"A3."
A3, the name struck Sagara hard. A3, the legendary terrorist group that was responsible for more than one hundred terrorist actions. It was rumoured that they had recently obtained a Weather Control System and was trying to find the program for an artificial thunderstorm. It was also rumoured, that they always kill the mercenaries they hire after the job is done. As much as Sagara Sousuke wanted to eat his words and refuse the job, he could not do so. In the world of mercenary, you cannot refuse the job once you have accepted it, especially when you knew who you are working for. The only exception from that rule was that you are already dead. There is always a second way, but... And Sagara doesn't want to die yet; he still had a sister to take care of.
"Fine, but the deal has just changed, you will not come after me again, for any reason at all, even if it is a job." Sagara said.
"Agreed. As long as we get what we want, you won't be troubled again. Oh, and to insure that, we kidnapped your sister, so when you give us the disk, you will also get you sister back."
Sousuke's face turned into anger when the man's words sank in. "How dare you touch my sister!" But before Sousuke could finish, the other man said: "Don't even think about quitting, or we will kill her. And I will even let you talk to her to prove we really have her." So, the man handed Sousuke a cell phone, but Sousuke declined. Such men do not bluff, besides, it would be a piece of cake to confirm where his sister is later, and if the man had lied, he would pay. Sousuke thought.
"No, I believe you. Fine, but make sure you treat her right, if I find out that my sister has been mistreated in any way, that include a missed meal. I will stuff all of A3 in a cannon and fire with three hundred pounds of explosives. Do I make myself clear?" He was practically yelling by now.
"A very frightening prospect, but don't worry, we don't mistreat our subjects without good reason, and we will not touch her unless she deserves it," said the A3 agent.
Two days later, he got information about the JSDF's building plan and security details, as well as a variety of arsenals that included a Glock-18, two M4A1s, one Leone 12 Gauge shotgun. For accessories, he got two HE grenades; a bazooka and a night vision goggles as well as a small package of C4. these weapons were concealed perfectly on him. He was finally ready to sneak into JSDF's building. On the third night, he did it.
The trip turned out to be relatively easy for Sousuke, by Sousuke's standard. Having studied the floor plan carefully, Sousuke concluded that the easiest way to get to the room housing the disk was to cause a distraction and then sneak in through the front door. So that's what he did. Sousuke planted the C4 at the power generator of the building. Then...
A loud explosion like a thunder shocked the entire building.
"What is going on?"
"What's happening?"
"Where is power?"
Frantic cries of men can be heard as everyone rushed to the former power generator. Along the way, they discovered several guards who were bonded and gagged, locked in a storage cabin. All of them had their uniforms stripped off. That was another part of Sousuke's plan: by making them all naked, he made the JSDF think that several people are present, while only one was actually at hand. It worked. Search parties were dispatched to look for the intruders, but none of them noticed the guard who walked in through the front door.
After two minutes of digging around the storage room, he found the disk that was labelled Toy-Box, and then proceeded to leave the building. But as all plans go, no plan ever goes according to plan, and what plan do go according to plan are traps. One of the JSDF guards suddenly saw Sousuke wearing his friend's uniform. The guard's friend was one of the people Sousuke locked in the storage cabin. Naturally when the guard saw his friend's uniform on someone else' body, the guard immediately knew the person standing there was not one of the guards.
"Catch him! He is the intruder in disguise!" the guard cried.
Sousuke, heard the cry and bolted for the door. The JSDF guards were well trained, seeing Sousuke run, they immediately chased after him and opened fire. The sound of gunfire ran through the building like a thunderbolt, alerting the entire building to the front door.
Upon exiting the building, Sousuke turned, and opened fire with his two M4A1s on the charging JSDF guards, killing all of them. Then he proceed to the other side of the building, where the foundation of the building was.
However, when Sousuke arrived, he found another group of JSDF guards waiting there. The guards opened fire the moment they saw Sousuke. It was sheer luck that only one bullet clipped Sousuke's shoulder. But Sousuke was the best mercenary and he pulled out his shotgun and began to pump the guards with bullets, three went down instantly, blood was spilled across ground while the rest dodged and ran for cover. That was all Sousuke needed, he pulled out his remaining C4, and then rigged it with the bazooka shells and grenades, timed it to sixty seconds, then threw it. The newly formed bomb landed exactly where it was intended, right beside the foundation stone. Then, Sousuke ran, ran and ran on.
One of the JSDF guards, seeing Sousuke throw something, ran to see what Sousuke threw. He was shocked to see a package of C4, along with two HE grenades, and several bazooka shells, rigged to explode. Then he knew no more. Sousuke was about one hundred meters away from the building when it exploded. The ground shook; the building tumbled down to earth, burying anyone else who might be unfortunate enough to be in the building at the time. But Sousuke did not pause to watch, he ran toward the pre-arranged motorbike, and rode away. Knowing that he had taken innocent lives again, and that destroying the building was the only way to cover up his traces.
Next day, the news was full of talk about how the JSDF building had been destroyed, but none of them came close to the truth. The most bizarre explanation was that alien invaders destroyed the building.
A week later, in the same alley, Sousuke and the A3 agent met again. This time, there was an addition to the meeting, Sousuke's sister.
"Sousuke!" the sister was overjoyed to see her brother once more.
"Well, Sousuke, you are five minutes late. But that doesn't mater. I have your sister, and one hundred forty thousand dollars, do you have the disk?" the man asked.
"Yes, but let my sister go first." Sousuke said coldly.
"No, but I can give you the money first." The man replied.
When Sousuke didn't respond, and just looked at the man coldly; the man gave up.
"Fine, here." He undid the bonds, and then pushed Sousuke's sister toward her brother. The sister ran toward his brother, and hugged her brother. They hugged together and cried.
"It's ok, sis. Brother is here to protect you." Sousuke said soothingly. "Did they treat you well?"
"Yes, they did." said the sister in tears.
"All of this is very touching, but I want my disk." The man said.
"Here." Sousuke threw the disk at the man. The disk clattered on the ground as it fell. The man scooped it up carefully examined the disk, then said, in his cold, clear voice, "Kill them."
The sister looked at the man, fear written across her face, and wondered if she was going to die? Her big brother was going to die? Meanwhile, Sousuke's facial expression was completely different. His face showed nothing, but there was a glint in his eye that unsettled the man greatly.
"Kill them!" the man said again, angry now. Isn't the guy I hired an expert? Why isn't he pulling the trigger?
"If you are trying to tell your former sniper to kill us. Give up." Sousuke said coldly.
"What do you mean by 'former'?" the man was very puzzled.
"I mean that he is dead." Replied Sousuke.
It was like one thousand thunderbolts hitting the same place at the same time, the shock of the news ran its course through the man. "Fine, you win, Sousuke. Here is your money, but I will get you next time." The man said angrily, took the disk, and then left the alley. He was so angry that on his way out, he did not hear Sousuke saying, "There won't be a next time."
"Big brother, is everything going to be all right now?" the sister asked.
"Yes sis. Everything will be fine."
And the two walked out of the shadow, back into sunlight again.
Else where. A3 headquarters.
The man from the alley was meeting the commander of A3, delivering the report of what had happened. The commander was overjoyed to learn that the mission was a success, that his organization can finally cause catastrophic thunderstorms, to do more harm. But as he popped the disk in to his computer, he noticed something did not seem right. The commander was even more shocked to see that when the console showed up on his computer screen, it was labelled as:
Self Destruction SequenceStatus: searching...found...activated
Estimated time to self-destruct: 10 seconds
Messages: 1
The commander clicked on the 1, and it showed a message from Sousuke:
I know that when I handed over the disk, I would die, so I decided to take a survey first, killed the sniper, than I came and see your man. By now you should have known, that this was not a weather control program, it was a self-destruct program. It seeks out any self-destruct system in the computer and activates it. Of course I know you had a SD system, if I can get JSDF's building plan, I can get yours. So see you in hell.
The commander sat there, dumb struck, then let out a long cry of anguish and anger. Then he knew no more.
A week later, the new media had another field day. The apparent mysterious destruction of A3 headquarters was famous. While many tried to guess what had happened; none of the guesses came close to the truth. And again somebody said that it happened because of alien invaders.
Credits and notes:
A3 and Sagara Sousuke are names from the Japanese animation called Full Metal Panic (produced by GONZO DIGIMATION). Sagara Sousuke was the hero in that animation while A3 was a terrorist group.
The idea of Weather Control is from Red Alert. I remembered thunderstorm from Red Alert and decided that this is a good idea.
Glock-18, M4A1, Leone 12 Gauge shotgun, HE grenades; a bazooka and a night vision goggles, and C4: names I got out of a game called Counter-Strike. Glock 18 is a pistol, M4A1 is a submachine gun, and Leone 12 Gauge is a shotgun, pumps out eight bullets with each shot. HE grenades are High Explosive grenades, and C4 is a high-powered explosive.
JSDF: Japanese Self Defence Force.
Who said computer games and animations aren't useful? Do not ask about how Sousuke could hide so many guns and still look like he carries nothing. I got the idea from watching Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu! (By Kyoto Animation).