Episode 1: Captured and Liberated

Part 3: Ankokuwa Rising!

Date: Friday January 30th, 2004

Time: 7:00 pm

Place: Ankokuwa Headquarters, Tokyo, in the Assembly Room...

Giman Uirusu smiled in satisfaction at the crowd of loyal soldiers assembled before him. At least 100 loyal, valiant men stood at attention in the room, all dressed in the standard Ankokuwa uniform, a light grey suit with a dark red "A" emblazoned on the chest. "Is everything set?" he whispered over to Kobu, his assistant and second-in-command, who was currently standing beside him.

"Everything is set, sir." Kobu replied.

"Excellent. Then we shall begin." Giman stated, grabbing his pointer and military whip and proceeding over to the projection screen attached to the wall behind him. Kobu went over to the projection booth and manned it, as he was doing projection for Giman at this "meeting".

"Attention!" Giman yelled out in his military voice, a commanding boom that quickly caused the 100 men assembled before him to look straight at him and keep their gaze fixed there.

With attention now firmly focused on him, Giman started his "meeting": "Men, as I am sure you are aware of by now, 'Operation Download' was a complete success, recovering all of the target data. However, as had possibly been feared from the very beginning, a preliminary analysis shows that processing the data and production of the results would take computing power far beyond what our current network is capable of in order to be militarily useful. Because of this, we are proceeding on schedule with 'Operation Hijack'."

Kobu pressed a button in the projection booth and a picture of Fuji TV station appeared on the screen behind Giman. Giman continued on: "This TV station is 'target' for the operation. According to our inside sources, six students from the University of Odaiba will be at 'target' tomorrow during 10:00, to take a tour of the station as part of their studies to be journalistic majors. Our objective is to take 'target' with the students inside and hold them as hostages, trading them for the University of Odaiba's supercomputer, which will provide us with the needed computing power to effectively make use of the data we have taken."

Kobu pressed another button in the booth and what looked like a battle plan came up on the screen. Giman continued giving out information: "Most of our forces already have their orders concerning this operation, but I have chosen you 100 for an important, special task. This very night, you are to fully equip for battle and rendezvous with two of the trucks responsible for delivering the food and drink in the vending machines for that building. With help from drivers we have already bribed to help us, you will be smuggled into the building via those trucks. Once in the building, you are to wait for a signal."

Kobu again pressed a button in the booth and the screen changed to that of another battle plan-like drawing. Giman kept on going: "Sometime shortly before 10:00 tomorrow, two helicopters disguised as Fuji TV helicopters will arrive at 'target', followed a few minutes afterwards by our transport Chinook. The first two helicopters will surprise the security and drop off an initial wave of troops on the building, who will then begin to work their way down the building towards the students, assisted by the troops in the transport. When those helicopters arrive, you will receive signal pattern Alpha on your transmitters. When you receive that signal, you are to break out of the cover the trucks have provided and work your way up towards the hostages, making sure to secure the building from police entry in the process. You are to shoot anything and everything that stands in the way of your progress, and as quickly as possible neutralize the building security forces by finding and destroying their center of command as you work your way up."

The screen went blank. Giman looked down sternly at the audience. "I expect every man to do his duty. If we are successful, this will be the first step toward domination of the world!" he concluded his speech with. He then raised up his right arm, hand in a fist, and saluted towards his men in manner similar to the Nazi salute. "Hail to the Ankokuwas!" he proclaimed. He nodded in satisfaction with the loud reply by his men of the phrase, also accompanied by the same salute.

"You are dismissed. Please report to the Main Armory to arm and equip for the mission. Long live the Ankokuwas!" Giman said as a dismissal, again doing the salute as he said the last sentence. The men saluted in reply, then systematically began to march out of the room, the sound of the marching boots both music to Giman's ears and an ominous sound to any others that heard it...

Giman turned to Kobu. "Things are going well, I believe. Please make sure the support division begins prep work on the transport and both surprise helicopters as soon as possible." he ordered with a satisfied look on his face.

"Yes sir." Kobu heartily replied. He then ran over to a phone and picked up the receiver. Within the building was a special, military style telephone network that ran throughout the building. Kobu dialed the internal extension for Air Control, and as soon as he heard someone greet him on the other end ("What does the commander wish?") he said into the phone "Phase 1 Operation Hijack is condition 'Go'. Prep 'jack-in-the-boxes' and 'transport' for morning attack. Have all weapons in working condition and fully loaded, and stock both extra fuel and ammunition onboard. We need to be as self-sufficient as possible for this attack; we cannot afford to run out of supply in the heat of battle. Is that clear?"

Kobu got the affirmative from the officer who had answered the phone, and he hung up, passing on the affirmative to Giman. Kobu was many things, but a "flunkie" or the stereotypical dim-witted assistant he wasn't. Giman knew he could count on Kobu to fill in the details for the orders he gave so that they could be comprehensive and clear enough for his men to follow out properly.

"Excellent, excellent."Giman said again through that evil grin. Unbeknown to the rest of the world, the machinery of war was already being brought up to speed; its objective... conquest!

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Date: Saturday January 31st, 2004

Time: 9:50am

Place: Fuji TV Station

Hiroaki Ishida, father of Yamato "Matt" Ishida, looked over in disbelief at the desk of two of his co-workers, one a chronic worrywart, the other always buried in listening to self-encouragement tapes. "Come on guys! Those students are going to be here any minute now, and the way your desks look right now won't help our image one bit!" he exclaimed.

The worrywart, who was hastily shoving papers into drawers in an effort to clear off his desk, indignantly and loudly replied "Well don't look at me! He's not doing anything!", pointing to the other co-worker as he talked.

Hiroaki turned to that co-worker, who was carefully filing away papers on his desk into various drawers, his placidness added to by one of the self-encouragement tapes he was listening to. "He's doing his job." Hiroaki replied to the worrywart. "Just more carefully than you are."

The worrywart shot out a severely indignant look before continuing to jam papers into wherever he could find to fit them. Hiroaki looked over annoyed at the wall clock hanging from a nearby wall, then volunteered to help with his co-worker's desk (as Hiroaki's own desk was already neat and tidy, something he made a point to maintain, sometimes to the derision of his co-workers).

As he picked up a stack of papers and began organizing them, he vaguely noticed two helicopters approaching the building from a window. He looked up confused; "That's weird, we didn't send out two helicopters anywhere." he said to himself.

"I'll be right back." he said out loud to his co-workers as he went over to a wall phone and dialed an internal extension. In response, the two co-workers looked up at him and glimpsed the copters in their peripheral vision. They immediately turned and went over to the window in fascination, the co-worker who had been listening to his tapes turning them off and taking off his headphones.

Hiroaki spoke into the phone: "Get me air control division please?" he said to the operator. He was quickly patched through, and the person on the other end answered. "Air control division, what can we do for you?"

"Yes, I have a question." Hiroaki calmly stated. "Did someone send out two choppers earlier this morning?"

The person on the other end murmured to himself as he looked over his notes (indicated by rustling sounds heard on the phone), then said "I don't believe so. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I've spotted two helicopters coming towards the building, and they have the right shape to be ours. Could you check it out?"

The person on the air control end put the phone down for a minute (apparently to confer with whoever else was there at the time about Hiroaki's request), then picked it back up and spoke into it. "We'll send security to check it out right now. Someone high in the company may have dispatched those copters without having felt the need to tell us, but we'll figure out what's going on. For now, all I can say is that to ignore those helicopters and get back to your assignment."

"All right, thanks." Hiroaki replied just before hanging up the phone. He went over to the window beside his co-workers and stared out toward the rapidly-approaching helicopters with confusion and worry. They were now close enough that he could see the markings on the helicopters, which to him certainly matched the paintjob to all Fuji TV aerial reporting helicopters. This only added to his confusion, and he just stared at the copters as they approached ever closer to the TV station...

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Meanwhile, aboard those helicopters...

Of course, as you may have guessed, these were not Fuji TV helicopters at all, but rather well-designed fakes. The Ankokuwas had found and repaired two old helicopters of the same type that Fuji TV used, then deliberately painted them to look like Fuji TV helicopters, even from a close distance. These choppers were not full of reporters and cameramen, but Ankokuwa soldiers and sharpshooters intended to weaken the building's security and obtain a foothold in preparation for the arrival of the main Chinook armored transport which was just out of visual range behind them.

"Uhh... Alpha-One-Niner, state the purpose of your dispatch and why it was not logged in the dispatch records book as per company protocol?" the radio on the left helicopter (which was slightly ahead of the other one and thus presumed to be the lead copter) blared out. The left helicopter's pilot, a former military pilot now working for the Ankokuwas, responded using a name of pilot that was on duty that day and with a pre-conceived cover story about needing a hasty test flight in advance of the later demonstration of those choppers to the university students.

"Well, just make sure you log your trip in the records after you've landed. I'll call off security." the control person stated through the radio.

"Thank you very much." the front copter's pilot replied in an insidious tone, then shut off his radio before the control person could send out a reply. He immediately picked up a walkie-talkie which allow him to communicate between the two copters as well as the Chinook behind them and said into it "This is Alpha Copter. Entry to 'target' is confirmed. Status reports on Beta and Chinook?"

Both reported ready for battle. "Then we are status 'go'. Engage target with attack plan 'Hijack'. Will transmit Alpha Code to ground forces once engaged." the pilot replied to both of them as both copters descended to land on the Fuji TV helicopter pad.

The attack... was beginning.

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The few confused envoys that met the helicopters as they landed on the pad were given a horrifying surprise as, instead of the expected mechanics or executives they expected to emerge, Ankokuwa military men in uniform and armed to the teeth with machine guns and hand grenades leapt out of the helicopter and began firing bullets all over the place. The helicopters quickly took off again, each keeping a pilot and two sharpshooters on board. The sharpshooters began to pick off people who were fleeing from the soldiers and their rapid-fire guns. Several took refuge in the skyline-making sphere, but were quickly followed in and destroyed by several hand grenades thrown through the windows into the sphere. These grenades also blew apart both the weather station and a humble memorial shrine inside the sphere...

Any attempt to call security forces was stopped by the ruthlessness of the soldiers' gun fire, and security was only alerted to the trouble by the fleeing panic of people and the gunfire. Security made a valiant attempt to resist, but the hail of bullets quickly either cut them down or forced them onto the defensive mode of covering the evacuation of the personnel present.

The pilot of the "Alpha" helicopter, satisfied by the progress of the soldiers fighting below him, flipped a switch inside the helicopter, which began to pulse broadcast a code to a receiver far below him...

Inside those two food-delivery trucks in the basement below the building, the same code began beeping through a special receiver. The soldiers inside, who had spent the night crammed into the trucks and took only short periods of sleep, responded on this receiver by reversing the code order, which was to be their equivalent of "acknowledged." As soon as this was done, the soldiers open the trucks from the inside and poured out into the basement. The few security guards down there, already distracted by the chatter resulting from the attack above, were completely taken by surprise when this new force exposed itself and were quickly taken out of commission by the bullets of the soldiers. The soldiers then quickly spread upward and outward, shooting down anything that refused to get out of the way of their progress.

As Giman had hoped, he had caught those inside between two attack forces which would soon take complete control of the building...

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Hiroaki and the two very different co-workers he worked closely with first became aware of the attack (which started a couple floors above them) through muffled gunshots and screams, which snapped their attention away from wondering what the helicopters were about, quickly followed by a small crowd of panicked people from the floors above, rapidly fleeing the advancing soldiers. A now-alarmed Hiroaki managed to pull aside a young female secretary to get her to explain what was going on.

Breathless and panicked, she managed to barely get out the following sentences: "There's... soldiers... with machine guns...coming this way fast! I think... they were... from the helicopters... they're shooting... everybody... don't know... why... Get out of here NOW!" She immediately tore away from Hiroaki's grasp, and his worrywort co-worker quickly panicked as well and followed her out. His other co-worker quickly ran to his desk and grabbed his stash of cassette tapes before fleeing also. Hiroaki himself did the only sensible thing he could and triggered the fire alarm, hoping that it would encourage an orderly evacuation of the building and get authorities there quickly (he, of course, did not know of the troops coming up from below, who had by this point already sealed off the entrances, preventing anyone from getting in or out).

He then ducked behind a desk as the machine gun fire, countered by the occasional pistol shot reply from the guns of the defending security forces, got louder and louder. "What are those soldiers doing? Why are they here now?" he asked himself. The only answer he could think of was...

"The students!" he gasped, clamping a hand in front of his mouth just in time to prevent him from saying it out loud. As he later saw was the truth, he guessed that the soldiers, under whatever loyalty, were after the University of Odaiba students. He also realized that he was the only one who still was calm enough to warn them!

Heart racing, he jumped to his feet when heard glass shattering on the other side of the room. He turned to see two security guards at that end of the room, firing their pistols against what he presumed some soldiers who were coming down the corridor toward the room. One of the guards noticed him standing and watching and yelled over the gunfire to get out of the room just seconds before he was knocked down by a bullet from the soldiers. Hiroaki quickly responded to this and began running for the door which would take him downward, in the direction the students would be coming from in their tour.

As he ran for the door, he turned back to see the remaining security guard fire until his weapon ran out of bullets, then be hit as he lunged for his downed partner's pistol, which still had a round or two in it. Shortly afterwards, several soldiers stormed into the room and rushed down it, firing several rounds towards Hiroaki that forced him to hit the floor in order to avoid the bullets. He quickly scrambled back to his feet and zoomed down the stairs, heart in his throat as he heard one or two guys shout "Get him!" and fire rounds that blasted bits out of the wall behind him as he ran. The only despairing thoughts in his head were that of his family: his son and the partner he had which he yet hoped could rescue him as well as the woman and other son that he had painfully left behind which he hoped too might rescue him...

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Meanwhile, the University of Odaiba group was also caught in the chaos. In the middle of the building when the attack began, they were not immediately affected by the groups of fleeing people, but the fire alarm triggered by Hiroaki did affect them, and despite the panicked security around them the professor leading the students on the tour began to quickly and carefully retreat back to ground level. However, several times potential escape routes were closed of by security guards warning them away from using that route because of approaching soldiers. Because of this and the elevators being too risky to use (stray bullets had damaged electrical systems, making shorts and fires very real possibilities and necessitating shut down of elevator systems) they found themselves trapped on a floor, unable to go down but too afraid to go back up.

Hiroaki found them in this mortally scared condition, cowering behind a desk near the main control room. Still pursued by the soldiers, he burst into their room and immediately noticed the group. Breathlessly he shouted "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!? THE SOLDIERS ARE AFTER YOU, AND THEY'RE RIGHT BEHIND ME! GET OUT OF THIS ROOM!"

"We can't get out of here! All the escape routes are blocked off!" a student desperately yelled back.

"What do you mean?!?" Hiroaki incredulously yelled.

"Security said that there are soldiers coming up from ground level as well! We're trapped!"

Hiroaki had only a moment to realized he and the group were screwed badly before machine gun fire caused him to duck and roll down toward where the university group was hiding. Moments later, three Ankokuwa soldiers burst into the room, looking for him and the group. Spreading out, one soldier quickly found the group's hiding place and ordered them out. Not wanting to be killed, Hiroaki and the university group quickly surrendered to the soldiers. The three soldiers marched the group away toward what Hiroaki knew was the main broadcast control room, hands in the air and gun barrels pushed into backs.

As they were marched toward the room, the building intercom came on with a macabre announcement made by one of the soldiers: "This is a member of the great Ankokuwa army speaking. Me and some of my comrades have taken over the building's security center. All security personnel are to surrender to Ankokuwa forces immediately and proceed to the security center for detention. Long live the Ankokuwas!"

The already-powerful grip of despair tightened even harder around the group, and the soldiers smiled and chuckled deprecatingly toward their prisoners. Hiroaki could see several students fighting off the desire to scream in utter despair, and he himself could only think of names and in fading strength as he was marched onward: "Matt... Gabumon... T.K... Nancy..."

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Meanwhile on the helicopter landing pad...

The Chinook landed on the pad, flanked by the still-hovering surprise helicopters. It quickly unloaded its load of support troops intended to secure the building from police attack., but left on board Giman Uirusu, Kobu and several soldiers guarding a large metal egg-shaped device.

Kobu excitedly approached Giman, yelling to be heard over the roar of the rotors of the helicopters and Chinook. "Master, they have taken the building's security center! The building security is surrendering!"

"Excellent!" Giman yelled back. "Secure the building from police attack. Post guards at every building entrance, and keep the copters and Chinook on standby in case police helicopters come by!" Kobu saluted and ran to the radio to give out orders.

While Kobu did that, Giman went over to the soldiers guarding the egg-shaped device and used hand motions to order them to pick the device up and then follow him out of the Chinook. The soldiers did this, and Giman looked over with satisfaction at the results of his attack scattered and smoldering around him as he led them down into the building...

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Time: 10:30 am

Hiroaki looked down with a defeated, despairing look. He had hoped Matt and his friend would've come by now and rescued them all, but perhaps he was expecting too much of them. In a kneel alongside the students with the soldiers' guns pointed toward their heads, all that could be done was hope.

Suddenly a door on the far end of the room opened, and in strolled an impressive looking man followed by four more soldiers carrying what looked like a large metal egg with a keypad and LCD readout attached to one side. Hiroaki was quickly forced to his feet by the soldiers and pushed toward the center of the room, followed by the students and their professor.

He watched as the impressive-looking man ordered the soldiers to set down the metal egg in the center of the room, and then each student was forced to sit down by the egg by the soldiers. The hands and feet of each student were bound together with heavy-duty rope, and then each student was tied to the other with more of that rope around their waists. This was done to the students so that they made a circle around the egg, in which the professor and Hiroaki was quickly added. As Hiroaki was bound, he asked the impressive man who he was and why he was doing all this.

"Why, my good friend, I am Giman Uirusu." the man replied with undertones of malevolence. "And I want something the college those students go to has. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I would let you go, but it is obvious you knew too much about my plan, so here you will stay."

"You know the police will not let the college negotiate with scumbags like you who hold people hostage!" Hiroaki replied in brazen but ultimately futile defiance.

Giman evilly smiled. "I'm sure they'll be willing to negotiate once they know what the terms I am offering are." he said.

"And what does that mean? What are you going to do with us?!"

"Would you rather die now?" Giman asked, quickly followed by a soldier placing the end of his machine gun's barrel on Hiroaki's head.

Hiroaki paused for a fear-soaked moment, then said no.

"Your cooperation is appreciated." Giman stated. He then ordered a soldier to gag each member of the group. As they were being gagged, Giman ordered another soldier to find a working broadcast camera and bring it to the room.

"Don't worry all of you." Giman somewhat mockingly reassured the hostages. "The broadcast will show the world how much the university values its students relative to its computers."

"Computers?...!" Hiroaki replied just before he was gagged.

"Tsk tsk, I think someone is thinking too much." Giman deprecatingly replied out loud, then whispered to a soldier that he was to shoot Hiroaki if he tried to escape or figured out too much about the plan.

Hiroaki quietly sighed behind the gag as a soldier was posted beside the group and other soldiers guarded the doors in and out of the room. Giman went out one door with a soldier to find a working broadcast camera and studio, and all Hiroaki figured he and the student group could do was sit and wait for whatever Giman was going to do next...

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While all this was going on, ordinary life in the city of Odaiba was being affected as well. As a result of the invasion, several channels broadcast by the station suddenly went off the air (due to accidental damage by Ankokuwa guns) and other live programs were rudely cut off when the Ankokuwas attacked the station, either through invasion of the studios or the triggering of the fire alarm; naturally this confused and dismayed anyone who was watching those programs at the time. Other TV stations quickly got word of the attack and sent news choppers of their own, much to Giman's satisfaction.

These other TV stations quickly began broadcasting live coverage of the invasion and takeover from their own helicopters, which made both Odaiba and the DigiDestined aware of the Ankokuwa attack. Everyone was riveted to TV screens as newscasters repeated what little they knew: "Some unknown but powerful organization has taken over the Fuji TV building for a purpose as yet unknown. Many broadcasts by that station have been stopped by the attack, though damage to the building itself appears minimal. Causalities are as yet unknown, and preliminary reports suggest that hostages are being held somewhere inside the building, perhaps related to this organization's unknown reason for attacking. Police are converging on the building, but extensive defense by the assailants will make any attempt to retake the building hard and costly. Until we get word from the assailants, which they might be preparing to do right now, this situation is at a tense standoff."

Amongst those hearing those words were Yamato "Matt" Ishida and Gabumon, who had been watching some Saturday morning shows on the TV when the news cut in about the TV station attack. It was like this for each and every one of the DigiDestined, and all of that special group were riveted to a TV screen waiting for news about Matt's dad and the intentions of this rising organization...

The Ankokuwas have struck, and will quickly deliver their ultimatum for advancing their plans of conquest. With Matt's dad amongst the hostages, will the DigiDestined and the DDLA engage in battle against this militarized and ruthless foe?! Find out in Part 4, "Counteroffensive!"