Author's notes: This is kind of a stretch but I feel I can make it work. Cross over fic between Kanon and the video game SpecOps The Line. It will follow the events of the…er…sort of good ending to the game. None of the endings of The Line were actually good (happy) endings but then again that's what you get when you play a game based on a book titled HEART OF DARKNESS. About a year has passed since the events of Kanon (the anime). Enjoy and please review.
Yuichi Aizawa ate his sushi with a satisfied grin, it was delicious as always; his aunt was a wonderful cook. The whole family was together at the table, Yuichi, his aunt Akiko, his cousin Nayuki and their guest (who practically lived at the house anyway) Ayu. Ayu, who had woken up from a long coma the previous winter, had been walking and running on her own since late summer and now that she didn't need to be pushed around in a wheelchair by Yuichi anymore she came and went at as she pleased. Yuichi would often tease her and call her a freeloader but his aunt Akiko was always happy to have her and any other guests who happened by. Nayuki described her day at school and her track club practice afterwards before asking Ayu about her day. It was a normal ending to a normal day for Yuichi.
After dinner, Yuichi helped his aunt with the clean up before sitting on the couch and turning on the TV. He changed the channel to the news, interested to see what was happening elsewhere in the world. He had grown to love his now home city and the mountains surrounding it but never could get over the fact that it is not as open or elaborate as Tokyo and is despite having all the luxuries of city life it was still isolated in comparison to other cities in Japan. The news channel was just bringing up some breaking news; the news caster, a pretty lady with fine cleavage (which Yuichi couldn't help but snicker at), stated that the UN had confirmed that the cause of the massive sporadic sandstorms which had been plaguing Dubai for over a year, was global warming. Yuichi snorted a chuckle, the global warming theory was very widespread (especially in Japan) but he personally never found it very convincing. He knew better than to bother making a counter-point to it whenever someone in school brought it up but felt it was nothing more than a viewer magnet for news media.
"Watching something funny?" asked the gentle voice of Akiko from the kitchen. Yuichi was taken off guard; he hadn't intended to be loud.
"No, just the news," he replied. "The same general stories they always report, the end of the world by global warming and such." Akiko walked into the room and had a look at the TV herself. The news caster went on to explain that the storms mysteriously ended about six months ago and gave a recap of the story which had been the talk of all news media since midsummer. The American 33rd Infantry battalion had gone into Dubai before the worst of the storms hit in attempt to evacuate the city but the storms got worse and civilization lost all contact with the Dubai. After the storms soon after the storms vanished, the US Army sent a small detachment of soldiers into the city. The city was in ruins, the entire 33rd infantry had been whipped out and no civilians were found alive. Only one man had survived whatever happened inside the city, Captain Martin Walker. A photograph of Walker filled the TV screen, it had been taken by a photo journalist as he exited a plane in the US, he had given no public report about what exactly happened in Dubai but his face said it all. Yuichi, felt a cold rush over his body as he looked at the photo; the man was unshaven, his face cut and scratched in several places, the right side of his face looked as if it had been scorched by fire and hadn't healed well. What truly made Yuichi run cold were the man's eyes; they were cold and empty, they seemed lifeless. The screen cut back to the news caster and Yuichi shook off the cold feeling as best he could.
"The horror," said Akiko, who now stood beside the arm of the couch. Yuichi looked up to her in question. Akiko turned to him and saw the confusion on his face, she seemed like she was a bit shaken herself. "It must have been horrible for that poor man," she said, clearly she had caught onto the same notion Yuichi had. "All that death, and only he survived." Yuichi nodded and looked back to the screen uneasily. He fought hard to keep that cold feeling from rushing over him again.
The news caster explained that Walker's after action report to his superiors, which was made public by the US military soon after his return home, stated that after the 33rd was isolated inside the city, the soldiers declared martial law and tried to keep order and save as many civilians as they could. Some of the civilians felt they were being taken over and gathered weapons, forming an insurgency to fight the Americans. Captain Walker and a small team of Special Forces operators had been sent into the city to reestablish contact with the 33rd and inform the Army what had happened during the six months in which contact with Dubai had been lost. Shortly after Walker and his team arrived in the city, the insurgents destroyed the city water supply and made an all out attack on the American forces. The entire 33rd Infantry Battalion was whipped out as well as Walker's entire team. Most of the insurgents had been killed in the battle but the few who survived soon died of dehydration. Walker had been granted the Distinguished Service Cross (one of the highest awards, granted by the US Army) for his actions in Dubai and The UAE government was hard at work on rebuilding Dubai.
"Well, that was a fine mess," said Yuichi as the news caster went onto explain how global warming had caused the storms and how the UN was forming a committee to solve the problem. "Fat chance," Yuichi thought in response the part about the UN. The UN had a committee for everything and they all seemed to have better things to do than get things done. He recalled that just yesterday he had seen a van marked UN driving down the road toward the center of the city. He thought nothing of it at the time and little of it at the present. He felt a hand gently patting the top of his head and he looked up to see that it was Akiko.
"Don't worry Yuichi," she reassured him with a smile. "I'm certain nothing like that will ever happen here. Yuichi smiled back and nodded, the thought of massive sandstorms happening in the city had never occurred to Yuichi and, given the climate, sounded ridiculous. "I'm going to bed, don't stay up too late," his aunt said and left the room. Yuichi turned off the TV (glad to miss a boring weather forecast), stretched out on the couch and looked out the nearby window. The snow was really coming down, the city had been known for having cold winters but it was only mid November and the ground had been blanketed with snow for over a week. Yuichi sighed at the thought of having to shovel more snow in the morning. A faint whistling noise and a second glance to the window told him that the wind was picking up, in fact as he watched the wind blew the snow much faster. The walls in the room made a crackling noise; the wind was blowing very strong.
Yuichi was starting to grow concerned. He stood up from the couch and walked to the window for a better look. He looked out and saw the rest of the neighborhood through the mist of blowing snow flakes. All the trees were bending and stretching with the wind, Yuichi has seen video footage of hurricanes and typhoons, in which the trees bent and stretched just like the ones outside. He tried to get a look up wind but couldn't. He walked to the kitchen and looked out the window there. He saw the storm front moving in, it wasn't the first storm front he had ever seen but it was the first one to terrify him to the bone. A massive dark cloud stretched all across the mountain range and headed south; strait toward the city. The storm front seemed to envelope the entire sky, no sunlight could be seen and no break in the clouds. It was getting closer and closer by the second, at the base of the storm front Yuichi could see a mass of flowing white coming down the side of the mountain range toward the city, it was an avalanche.
Yuichi's eyes widened and he began to pant for breath, panic was hitting him hard. "Cut it out you idiot!" he thought. "You need to warn the girls and figure out what to do." The sound of someone thudding down the stairs snapped him back into reality. He turned and saw Ayu, dressed in her overcoat and mittens, standing in the hallway.
"I'm heading home Yuichi," called Ayu as she headed for the front door. "I'll see you after school tomorrow; we'll get some taiyaki together."
"Ayu, No!" Yuichi shouted and plowed into her as fast as he could run. Ayu gasped as he pinned her against the wall with a thud.
"Uhgoo!" Ayu whined her habitual exclamation (which Yuichi both teased and adored her for). "Yuichi what is the matter with you?" she asked, then she looked up into his eyes and saw the raw terror in them.
"Don't go out there," Yuichi half gasped-half whispered. "We need to wake up my aunt," he continued.
"But Yuichi, what's happening?" Ayu asked and was answered by a loud crash from the kitchen and a gust of frigid air. Ayu screamed and latched onto Yuichi's arm, Yuichi grasped her in his arms to; she took it as a sign of protection but he was just as frightened as she was. The two of them turned and walked toward the kitchen, a tree had been blown through the window and penetrated halfway through the room.
"Come on," he gasped and dragged Ayu upstairs with him to his aunts' bedroom. Nayuki was waiting for them at the top of the steps, no doubt awakened by the loud crash from the kitchen and Akiko opened her own door before Yuichi could knock.
"What was that noise?" asked Akiko.
"Aunt Akiko, the wind blew a tree through the kitchen window!" Yuichi answered, panting for breath.
"Are either of you hurt?" she asked, her face filled with concern.
"No, we're both fine," replied Yuichi. "But there's a very large storm heading our way and I saw snow coming down the mountain!"
"An avalanche?" Nayuki gasped and clasped both her hands over her mouth. She started trembling all over, the fact that the broken window down stairs was letting in ice cold wind had little to do with it. In an instant Akiko was at her daughter's side.
"Don't worry Nayuki," she said and stroked her hair. "Everything will be fine," she soothed. Yuichi, thought as quickly as he could.
"We all need to stay together," he started. "We need to dress warm and gather blankets before the storm hits. Aunt Akiko, your room has a phone in it; the land lines may go down but we have our cell phones just in case," another crash from a window downstairs cut him off and Ayu latched onto his arm again, tighter than ever. Yuichi remembered his own cell phone, which he had placed on the kitchen counter when he came home from school. "All of you stay up here, I left my cell down in the kitchen; I just need to grab it," he said and turned to the stairs. Ayu wouldn't let go of his arm. He twisted and jerked until she lost grip of him. "Wait here, I just need to grab it," he didn't give her time to answer. He darted down the stairs and into the kitchen. They all had cell phones but there was no guarantee which ones would work and which would be lost in the coming storm. He knew he may need it to call for help, and all his friends numbers were on his cell, the faces of all his friends flashed through his mind. He couldn't lose them.
Yuichi rounded the corner pushed his way past the tip of the tree and grabbed his cell from the counter. He turned to run back up the stairs but froze as he looked past the tree and out into the storm front, now so close he could see buildings being swallowed by the cloud of frozen darkness. The wind blew into his face with terrifying speed; the storm front was only seconds away. The wind suddenly spiked with enormous force, knocking Yuichi backwards into the wall. Before Yuichi blacked out he felt the piercing cold and heard Ayu crying out his name.
6 months later
Mission statement; US Army, Delta Force. Operation: Heart of Ice
On November 20, 2012, a massive snow storm hit the mountains north of Tokyo. The storm caused several avalanches which buried several towns and blocked others from the rest of the island. The storm itself never permanently dissipated, it continues to this day, forming a ring of storm clouds around the entire region. The storm rages for hours on end then dissipates into several smaller storms for a few hours then combines to form a whole again. The storm is nothing like anyone has ever seen before. UN scientists are blaming global warming. Whatever the cause this storm is remains active and a threat to Japan and the stability of the entire region. 3 months ago, a North Korean aircraft was spotted over the storm but soon vanished and the North Koreans deny it was ever there.
The first strike by the storm lasted for three days straight. After the storm dissipated the Japanese Ground Self Defense forced mobilized the 66th Infantry battalion and sent them to clear a path to the small city at the center of the storm region (here on referred to as Objective "Ice Heart"). The US Navy's Mobile Construction Battalion 6 mobilized and moved in with the 66th to help clear the roads and assist in the evacuation of any survivors. Colonel Kenji Ieyasu (commanding officer of the 66th infantry battalion) was in command of the joint task force, Captain Armstrong Scott (commanding officer of MCB 6) yielded to his Ieyasu's authority but maintained direct command of MCB-6. Col. Ieyasu confirmed over radio that the 66th and MCB- 6 had cleared a path to the city and were searching for survivors. Soon after his transmission the storm reemerged and all contact was lost. The path Ieyasu had cleared was buried in snow and no further radio contact was made. Flares have been spotted over the past six months and high altitude aircraft have captured footage of both Japanese and US forces on the ground, the 66th and MCB-6 are both still alive and trying desperately to make contact.
Since high altitude aircraft confirmed the survival of the joint task force, the US Air Force has been dropping supplies into the city to keep the task force and survivors alive. Helicopter rescue attempts have ended in failure; the storms are sporadic and unpredictable, two USAF and three JGSDF choppers have been downed by the storms, no survivors were found. Every construction crew sent to clear the path to the city has either been whipped out by storms or retreated in fear. The storm barrier has been thought to be impassible but twenty four hours ago, JGSDF military police found a lone USN sailor walking down the road toward Tokyo; he was wearing the uniform of MCB-6. He had suffered severe frost bite on his face and hands and had gunshot wounds in his left side and right arm. The sailor was barely conscious when the Japanese military police found him, the officer on the scene reported that the sailor gasped "Scott needs help, Ieyasu has gone," then lost consciousness and died.
A nine millimeter bullet was found in the sailors' side, it is unclear who shot him. Whatever his reasons, the man made what was essentially a suicidal journey through the storm barrier to deliver his message. Delta, your mission is to make your way through the storm barrier along with a team of JGSDF Special Forces Group and make contact with Scott and find out what has happened to Ieyasu. You will then establish radio contact with US forces outside Tokyo and assist the joint task force in any way you can until relief arrives. The Marine Corps has been experimenting with Extreme Weather Personnel Carriers (armored vehicles designed to stand in the face of the most extreme hurricanes and even burrow their way through ground and snow. Upon delta's report on the situation in Objective Ice Heart, the USMC Extreme Weather Evacuation Force (EWEF) will mobilize out of US FA Yokosuka and make their way up to the mountains to evacuate survivors of the city and the joint task force.
Captain Martin Walker will lead a seven man squad of Delta force and Captain Shinji Yamamoto will command two seven man teams of Japan's Special Forces Group. Yamamoto will be in overall command of the operation on the ground (in respect to the fact that this operation is taking place on Japanese soil). All Delta operators take note; Captain Walker has been cleared for duty and whatever allegations there may be about the performance of his duties in Dubai he is orders are to be obeyed without question. Refusal to obey orders from a any superior (including Japanese officers) will be punished at the very least with court martial for dereliction of duty, if not for desertion in the face of the enemy. Whether or not there is an enemy, is still unknown. We want to know what the hell has been going on in that city, your mission is to find out. You have your orders. Good luck and Godspeed.
Chief of Staff, United States Army.