Chapter 3: Bloody Thursday
Natsumi narrating: On that Thursday, the longest and bloodiest day of infamy in the History of all Mankind was about to occur before our eyes. We all thought we were able to stop it from happening on home soil, but the man behind all of this master plan had aces in his sleeves and he was about to play them right under our noses on a worldwide scale.
October 6, 2016 – 6:20
Special Assault Team, Alpha squad
Oshiage Station, Sumida Ward, Tokyo
As her vision switched back and forth between pitch black and very blurry shapes, Natsumi was barely awake and trying to remember what just happened. All she could remember for now was that something hit her really hard and she wanted to fall asleep again. Suddenly, a voice kept calling her name.
"Natsumi! Natsumi! Natsumi!"
The brown-haired SAT operator opened her eyes as she heard the voice, allowing enough time for her blurry vision to be restored to normal. Once she was fully awake, she looked at the source of the voice... it was none other than her boyfriend and team leader. The second after, she came back to her senses realizing that she was in the tunnel on the Hanzomon Line, outside of the wrecked train car where she and her teammates were in that accident. At the end of the tunnel, the train wreck was burning as a result of the accident.
"Shouji… What just happened? How did I get here?"
"The train derailed after Miyuki and Saori tried to stop the terrorists. You fell unconscious, so I pulled you out of the train car. I also pulled Ayumi out; she broke her leg, but should be okay on anything else." Shouji said.
"I'll be fine… But I guess I'll have to wait for help here instead of following you." Ayumi said as she was sitting on the ground holding her leg.
"Hold on! Where are Miyuki and Saori? Have you seen them?" Natsumi asked worriedly before she started to look everywhere around her for her best friend's whereabouts. Miyuki's mini-patrol car was nowhere within her sight. As Natsumi's anxiety increased, she shouted her best friend's name hoping for an answer: "Miyuki!"
"Natsumi… Over here! I need help." a reply suddenly came from further in the tunnel; it was Miyuki and she was carrying Saori with her. The black-haired female traffic officer came out of the crash with a few minor cuts and a little bleeding. However, the one who got the worst of the accident was not Miyuki just as Natsumi was looking above her friend's shoulder. Saori was bleeding from the head and Miyuki had to move Saori's head carefully when she put her lying down on the ground.
"Where am I? My head is really getting dizzy… I can't see clearly." Saori said.
"Saori, please take a rest… What happened out there, Miyuki?" Natsumi asked.
"We went facing the train head on. Saori killed 2 guys, but we got shot at and the train collided with the back of my mini-patrol car. We were thrown against the wall in the tunnel and the car is a total wreck right now. Saori's vest absorbed the bullet hits, but she injured her head in the accident and she can't move parts of her body."
"Sergeant Kobayakawa… I want to check your partner for a second. Natsumi, help me move closer to her." Ayumi asked. Immediately, Natsumi helped Ayumi as the latter limped to get closer to Saori. The young female SAT operator also received training to be a field medic, and hence she could assess Saori's status.
"She can still talk, but she's bleeding from the right side of her head and her left limbs look to be paralyzed... It's probably an acute subdural hematoma. She needs to get to a hospital ASAP or she might not make it." Ayumi said.
"Oh no… We have to get to the surface now!" Natsumi said.
As the last words were said, Shouji re-established communications between the SAT operators and the base of operations as the static sound was now replaced by a familiar voice at the other end of the line: "Alpha 1, come in. Alpha 1, do you copy? What's your status?"
"Home 1, the train's crashed under Oshiage Station. Those bastards were using it for transport; no explosives on board. I have 2 injured officers down here, one of them in a very bad condition. Requesting you send a team down here and get her to a hospital ASAP." Shouji reported the situation.
"Roger that, Alpha 1. We'll send the paramedics to you along with the backup. Be advised, one of the trucks started moving in your direction and train service for the station has been interrupted to prevent any escape. Get to the surface and RV with Bravo 1." Colonel Takahashi said.
"Copy. Come on, Natsumi, Miyuki. We need to get to the surface, let's go!" Shouji said.
"But what about Saori? I can't leave her here like that." Miyuki protested.
"Don't worry, Sergeant Kobayakawa. I'll stay with her and make sure she's doing all right until help arrives. You go get help and stop the terrorists. Take my main weapon and my helmet; you'll need them if you meet hostiles on the way out and always keep the visor down." Ayumi said as she gave Miyuki her MP5 submachine gun and her protective head gear.
"Thanks... We will make sure to get you some help, we promise." Miyuki finished.
Immediately, Shouji, Natsumi and Miyuki moved up to the wrecked train and climbed on the train car which crashed on the station's platform. Inside the wreckage, 2 terrorists were already dead and Natsumi reached a bag of grenades from a dead enemy before she shared the M67 fragmentation grenades with Miyuki and Shouji to complement the flashbangs they already had. As they set foot on the platform, the police 3 officers heard Russian voices as a number of terrorists were still alive inside Oshiage Station.
"Russians!" Miyuki notified both her friends.
"Home 1, we got contact at Oshiage Station." Shouji notified.
"Copy, Alpha 1. Teams are en route. ETA 10 minutes." Colonel Takahashi replied.
"Tell them to double-time it, now!"
On the platform, the 3 police officers took cover behind the pillars and opened fire at the enemies ahead of them. Natsumi dropped the closest terrorist dead on the first salvo she fired with well-aimed shots to the torso and head. Miyuki's shots also hit another enemy straight to his head. The rest of the terrorists pushed back towards the escalator and went up to the upper floor.
"Come on, guys! Let's give these bastards our proper Japanese welcome!" Natsumi said.
The police officers followed the same path as the terrorists. As they reached the next level up, they faced a long hall where the enemies took cover behind all available corners before they opened fire. From the position the police officers were in, Shouji knew the next obstacle would not be easy to get past. Seconds after the gunfire started again, Miyuki felt a sudden impact hitting her at face level and she was pushed backwards as a result.
"Miyuki!" Natsumi shouted as she turned to inquire about her friend's status.
"Shoot! That was close. The bullet just hit the visor, I'm fine." Miyuki responded.
Natsumi sighed in relief as no damage was done. "Don't scare me like that again." she told her black-haired friend before she started firing back again.
"Home 1! Where's that backup?" Shouji asked Colonel Takahashi through his radio.
"Local police are arriving on scene. Bravo squad will be on station in 5 minutes."
"Damn it! Nothing takes 5 minutes! Speed it up!" Shouji replied with anger.
Knowing they cannot afford to remain pinned down for long, Shouji asked from both female officers: "On my go, provide me covering fire so I can toss a grenade." Both Natsumi and Miyuki gave a nod at Shouji's plan and on his signal, both women returned fire at the terrorists and allowed Shouji enough time to cook his grenade. At the right time, Shouji threw the grenade in the middle of the hall right in-between of the 2 corners where 2 terrorists were hiding and it killed them instantly. Within seconds, the police officers moved ahead to take cover behind corners and have a better shooting angle at the terrorists in the hall. As Miyuki this time killed another enemy while Natsumi threw a grenade ahead to flush enemies out, the 7 remaining hostiles moved up the escalator to the upper train platform.
"Up the stairs! Keep pushing! They are falling back!" Natsumi shouted as she rushed after the enemy followed by Shouji and Miyuki. Out of the blue, one terrorist jumped out of his hiding spot on top of the stairs as he tried to take advantage of the element of surprise. Unfortunately for the hostile, Natsumi and Shouji fired quickly to prevent him of firing first. Before the enemy died on the ground, he gave a small push on something towards the bottom of the stairs. As Natsumi heard metallic sounds rolling down the escalator moving closer towards her, she knew what the sounds were.
"Grenades!" she shouted before she turned to run down the stairs quickly this time. Shouji and Miyuki also turned back down and all 3 officers took cover. After the grenades exploded, Shouji took the lead up the escalator yelling in anger: "Bastards!"
On the upper train platform, the battle went on the same way as it happened on the lower train platform before. The terrorists tried to find some cover and hold their ground, but were quickly forced to move up the next escalator on the way to the card-reading gates after firing a few salvos.
"It's the last floor before they can reach the exit on the surface. Let's throw all our flash grenades at them!" Miyuki said.
"Good idea, Miyuki! This thing ends now!" Natsumi replied to her friend.
As the 3 police officers walked up the escalator and moved to take cover behind the pillars with the card-reading gates in sight, they armed their flash grenades before throwing them near the card-reading gates where the enemies were hiding. The following detonation blinded and deafened the terrorists as they became easy targets for Shouji, Natsumi and Miyuki. Four of the remaining 6 terrorists were gunned down while the last 2 ran towards the exit.
"Home 1! Where's that backup?" Shouji asked Colonel Takahashi once again.
"They are arriving on scene now."
The 3 police officers jumped over the card-reading gates and followed the remaining hostiles. As the terrorists were about to reach the exit, they immediately dropped their weapons when SAT reinforcements arrived and arrested them immediately.
"Hold your fire! Hold your fire! Nice timing, guys! All floors are clear, but we need you to send medics down in the Hanzomon Line tunnel immediately. We have an injured officer needing Priority 1 medical attention right now." Shouji told the SAT operator.
"We'll take care of it immediately. The truck is almost here, Lieutenant. You'd better get topside!" the SAT operator replied.
After Shouji let the paramedics go past him and inside the station, he, Natsumi and Miyuki all went up the stairs to the streets. Traffic officers from Bokuto Police Station and other districts in the Sumida Ward kept civilians away from the streets. Although they were busy at keeping civilians at some distance at the intersection of Asakusa Street and Yotsume Street, Ken, Yoriko and Aoi had the biggest feeling of astonishment in their lives when they looked back and saw their friends in combat gear running with submachine guns in hand towards the Southern part of the intersection.
"All teams, be advised. All buildings and sidewalks south of the intersection have been locked away of any civilian movement. The truck is coming your way and coming in hot." Phoenix 2-1, the codename of the MH-6 helicopter flying Lieutenant Nakamura and some of his men, notified before it landed on the street and dropped the operators as they set up a roadblock to intercept the truck. Even more police cars arrived to form a blockade and the SAT operators took position.
"Secure the area!" Lieutenant Nakamura ordered to his men.
"What's the situation?" Shouji asked his JGSDF counterpart as he arrived at the intersection.
"The truck will be here any second. We need to lock this road down now!"
Shouji nodded at Nakamura before he turned to Natsumi, Miyuki and the remaining available operators of Alpha squad who arrived on the scene. "Ladies… Everyone at the blockade! Stack up!" he ordered and immediately all of the officers under Toukairin's orders as well as Miyuki took position aiming down Yotsume Street to the South. Within seconds, the truck appeared on the street.
"There's the truck! Weapons free!" Shouji ordered.
"Aim for the driver!" Natsumi added.
All SAT and SFG operators fired their weapons at the truck. As Natsumi suggested to everyone, the shots were aimed at the driver who received a deadly rain of bullets within seconds. The truck then took a hard turn as the dying driver lost control of the vehicle before flipping over on its side and stopping a few meters short of the intersection.
"Hold your fire! Hold your fire! All clear?" Nakamura asked.
"Clear, boss!" Sergeant Suzuki replied.
"Bomb squad, it's up to you now. Come with us!" Shouji ordered.
The SAT and SFG operators surrounded the downed truck. At the same time, 2 officers of the bomb squad arrived alongside Shouji and Natsumi who opened the truck's doors. As the officers looked inside the truck, they saw an electronic device wired to a large amount of C4 and TNT explosives. The device was active as the clock was ticking.
"Everyone, clear the area! We'll work and get this thing safe." the bomb squad leader told to the SAT and SFG operators.
"Copy! Everyone move away from the truck!" Shouji ordered.
For a few minutes, seconds felt like minutes and minutes felt like hours for everyone who took cover behind the police cars in distance hoping the bomb would finally be disarmed. Natsumi was praying hard that the actions taken by her and her friends were not in vain, and that lives would be saved. Finally, the bomb squad leader stepped outside of the truck.
"All clear!" he notified on all police frequencies and sighs of relief were let out by everyone around.
"Home 1. Truck is down, the bomb has been disarmed. What's the status on the others?" Shouji asked Colonel Takahashi.
"Alpha 1. The trucks are heading towards the Chiyoda Ward. They are followed by our drones as we speak, local police units are running after them, bomb squads are ready for quick responses and SAT teams are setting up barricades around high-value targets in the city."
"Copy that, Home 1. Alpha 1, out."
A few minutes later, Miyuki was getting her small cuts treated by a paramedic. As she turned back, a stretcher was moved quickly through the station's B3 exit leading on Yotsume Street. Saori was carried on the stretcher by the paramedics towards the nearby ambulance and they immediately left for the hospital under the worried eyes of Natsumi, Miyuki and Shouji. Shortly after, it was Ayumi's turn to be carried on a stretcher out of the station.
"Natsumi! Sergeant Kobayakawa!" Ayumi shouted at the former Bokuto pair.
"Ayumi! How was Saori when the paramedics arrived?" Natsumi asked.
"Her condition remained mostly the same as it was earlier. They said she will make it through and fully recover. Don't worry; she's a really tough girl."
"I know she is. It's just that I never thought she would stand in the line of fire that early in her career as a policewoman. I've known her since she was in high school and the last thing I wanted to see was her flirting with death because I took the decision to stop that train." Miyuki said as she felt tears coming up in her eyes.
"I know how you feel, Miyuki. She was almost like a little sister for me as well. But remember how many times we tried to dissuade her from becoming a police officer, she always kept her eyes on her own objective and she got on top of all challenges she faced to be here today with a smile. Today, she did her job, she is still alive and she will make it through with a smile like she always did." Natsumi said to her friend.
"Miyuki, I'm not sure Saori would like to see the glum look on your face if she is here right now. After all, your combined action might have prevented a greater disaster from happening." Shouji added.
Miyuki wiped her tears at the words her friends just told her as she knew they were right. Saori knew the risks of being a police officer, but she always took on any challenge with a smile and she will keep on facing more challenges with the same contagiously upbeat attitude. "Thanks guys!"
"That's what friends are here for." Natsumi replied.
"You have the best friends you can ask for, Sergeant Kobayakawa. You are blessed." Ayumi added.
"Oh, Ayumi! Please call me Miyuki next time and thanks for the helmet. It saved my life down there."
Ayumi gave Miyuki a thumbs-up sign as she was loaded inside the ambulance. After the ambulance left for the hospital, Ken, Aoi and Yoriko joined their friends as they were replaced in the crowd control shifts around the Tokyo Sky Tree. They were not hallucinating when they saw Natsumi, Miyuki and Shouji taking a moment of rest wearing combat gear.
"Miyuki… are you all right?" Ken asked first.
"We took a few hits in that train chase, but we're fine." Miyuki replied.
"I'm really glad you're safe, Miyuki." Ken replied as he stepped forward and hugged Miyuki dearly. He was really worried about Miyuki when he heard about the train crash. For the first time in his life, Ken's fear of embarrassment around Miyuki was gone as the fear of losing her was now stronger than anything. Miyuki could feel the warmth of his heart and the sincerity of his feelings as her head was pressed against his chest. She couldn't find the right words to say as she looked up to him, but Ken's smile told her she didn't have to for now.
"I heard Saori got badly injured. Is she going to be okay?" Aoi asked Miyuki, who was still blushing after that hug.
"She's got banged up really hard, but they said she will make it through."
"Hey, Natsumi! I thought you and Toukairin were training in Narashino. How did you get here? What really happened out there? It looked like stuff we only see in American action movies, not something that could happen in real life in Japan." Yoriko asked.
"We received a tip in the middle of the night about a group of unknown enemies receiving a suspicious shipment from overseas, so we were sent alongside a few military units to investigate at the harbor. Things got messy, we got engaged in a firefight and we followed the terrorists on the metro. That's where Miyuki and Saori intervened before the train crashed at the station. After that, we went hunting down the remaining terrorists in the station before taking on that truck. They were planning on bombing the Tokyo Sky Tree complex and possibly more targets in Tokyo, the bastards... We also lost a good officer today in that mess."
"Damn... That's hard to believe someone would launch terrorist attacks in the city today. Do we know who those guys are and what they want?" Ken Nakajima asked.
"Among the few enemies we captured, we had Japanese and Russians involved. Detective Tokuno's Investigation Team is interrogating them right now." Shouji answered. With the communications channel with Camp Narashino still open, he was expecting news from Colonel Takahashi on the other trucks soon. Finally, he received a call from the base.
"Home 1 to Alpha 1. Come in, Alpha 1." the colonel called.
"Go ahead, Home 1."
"Be advised. Four of the 5 remaining trucks are stopped by SAT teams and we found explosive devices in each of them. Bomb squads disarmed all devices. The terrorists were looking to launch attacks on the National Diet building, the Tokyo Stock Exchange building, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police headquarters and the Imperial Palace before they were stopped dead by teams on scene."
"What about the last truck? Did you stop it or not?" Shouji asked.
"We lost our drone's camera feed for over 5 minutes for some unknown reason. The truck disappeared somewhere in Shinjuku before a police car spotted it 15 minutes after we lost the real-time feed. Local police stopped the truck and found nothing in there. We interrogated the driver and all he said was that he was asked to drive this truck as bait, but I don't trust him. Teams have just arrived and started investigating in the area. For security measures, the Imperial Family is being evacuated to Kyoto as we speak. The Prime Minister just ordered all National Diet activities to be suspended for the day. All elected representatives and councillors are to be evacuated with their families for the time this matter is solved. Even the Prime Minister's own family is being evacuated. The Prime Minister will still hold his meeting with the US ambassador later today, but the meeting has been moved to the United States Embassy. SAT teams in the area should be able to hold a better defensive position in case some lunatic would launch a suicide attack."
"Copy that, Home 1. Thanks for the update. Call me back if you find something. Alpha 1, out." Shouji finished.
"Let's hope this thing will be over soon." Natsumi told Shouji.
"I hope it too, Natsumi." Shouji said as he enlaced Natsumi looking for some comfort and warmth after such an exhausting morning.
Hours later, Ryo Matsuda was driving his delivery truck towards the Ministry of Defense building in Shinjuku. On the surface, Matsuda was a normal salaryman, single and in his late 30s delivering office furniture to the buildings of different companies and government bodies in Tokyo. However, the hidden story about Matsuda was that he's also a radical left-wing militant who hated everything about the Japanese capitalist government as he blamed the government for driving his parents towards suicide after his father was arrested when he was only a teenager. Matsuda's father was a member of the original Japanese Red Army who was involved in the kidnapping of 3 Japanese nationals in Europe by North Korean spies in the 1980s before he was arrested 20 years ago.
Matsuda arrived in front of the security gate on the Southern entrance of the Ministry's building. The security guard at the gate was surprised that delivery would come in this late in the day.
"What is it?" the security guard asked.
"I'm here to make a last minute delivery here. We received a call a couple of hours earlier that a number of color toner cartridges for the printers were missing in the delivery from this morning." Matsuda said.
"Let me check the log and see if this has been added on the schedule. I'll also take your ID card for verification."
"Go ahead. I have all the time to wait here." Matsuda replied and gave the security guard his ID card.
The security guard checked the log on his computer for entries concerning deliveries. It was normal procedure to make sure the delivery was scheduled as well as whether or not the driver was cleared to make his delivery with a valid ID with the employee's picture. When the security guard came out of his booth, the gate opened.
"You're clear to go, M. Matsuda."
"Thank you and have a nice day."
Matsuda drove his truck for some distance towards the main building. As he reached in front of the building, he stopped the truck right there. Security cameras saw that the truck stopped in front of the building where he was not supposed to. More guards were immediately dispatched to see what that was all about.
"Sir, I'll ask you to move your vehicle out of this area. You can't park it here." a security guard ordered Matsuda a few meters away.
"Father, Mother... This is for you. Death to all capitalists and death to the Emperor!" he shouted before he pressed a button on what looked to be a controller. In the next second, the truck disintegrated in a powerful explosion which blew away most windows as well as a huge chunk of the Ministry's main building collapsing upon the force of the blast. At the same time, a huge green cloud started spreading away from the center of the explosion. All people who got exposed to the quickly spreading chemical cloud died within minutes as the gas quickly reached their lungs.
It was 3:22 PM in Tokyo (6:22 GMT) when the chemical bomb exploded. Within minutes around the same time, London, Paris, Madrid, Brussels, Rome, Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague, Warsaw and Budapest all got struck with the same kind of chemical attacks. This worldwide coordinated attack was only the beginning of the event now entering in the annals of History as the infamous Bloody Thursday.