RECAP - Captain Reznov's Piranha Squad had managed to dispose the first Mutation bomb, whilst receiving reports a hostile skirmish around Akihabara in Tokyo. Upon arriving in the area, two fire teams were set off to scout for the hostiles. Cpt. Reznov's team manages to find three of the hostiles in a Maid Café, and pursue them aftermath a kidnapping incident. Meanwhile, Sgt. Petrenko's sniping location was compromised by two helicopters, which opened fire upon his sight.
CHAPTER 4 - THE NOVA HOSTILITY (PART 3)
1045 hours
Tokyo, Japan
9th July, 19XX
Corporal Yuzuru Otonashi
1st Squad, Afterlife Battlefront, 4th Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, Stealth Peace Army
Everything seemed a haze. I saw an incandescent light as I had looked up. There was a sudden shock and I was kind of feeling groggy. Before I had time to relax and wait for a recovery, a face had blocked my sight towards the light. The voice beckoned my deafened ears and blinding eyes.
"Get up, Yuzuru. Get up!" the voice shouted. My eyesight began to get clear. I saw her; Yuri was gazing right at my face, looking at me with her green eyes.
"Ah, my head hurts." I complained in pain. Things came back to me and I realised that I was being punched hard by one of the hostiles we had encountered. Speaking of which, what had happened to them?
"Good. Seems you'll be fine." Yuri looked at me, "Try to be more careful."
Instead of taking her advice, I was shocked to see the sight in the dark cubicle. There were three hostiles in the vicinity, all shot and dead. And there was Lt. Sanderson from Cpt. Reznov's Piranha Squad, interrogating the last one of the living hostiles. Before I could've listened to their talk, a large thud resounded through the silent room. The Lieutenant had grabbed his handgun and slammed its hard rear upon the hostile's face. The latter was all bloody from the beating he took from the Lieutenant.
"Reveal, you son of a bitch. Who are you working for?" Lt. Sanderson shouted at the hostile's face. Yuri mentioned that the latter was the commander of the hostile operation in Tokyo.
"Get that bloody mouth moving or have a bullet through your brain!" The Lieutenant shouted.
"I'll speak, I'll speak. Don't kill me!" the hostile was overwhelmed.
"Speak!"
"I work for the Nightshade Spetsnaz."
"Where do you produce these bombs? This roster you have it with you, it doesn't lie now does it? You must have a whole stock of these things piled up somewhere." Lt. Sanderson said.
"We… we have received the bombs from an unnamed alliance of the Spetsnaz. I'm simply acting upon the mission given to me by my commanders."
"And who the hell is your commander?"
"Cpt. Kumarin is in-charge of this operation. I haven't more information other than the plan with the bomb plantings."
"Yeah, you'll tell me the exact locations of these bombs."
1045 hours
Tokyo, Japan
9th July, 19XX
Corporal Joseph Allen
1st Piranha Squad, 5th Battalion, 2nd Rangers Regiment, Stealth Peace Army
"You'll be alright, Miss. It's alright now." Cpl. Tachibana had hugged the traumatized maid girl, who was kidnapped by the three hostiles from the café.
"Alright. We'll have to head out. It seems we have found the jackpot." I replied. Cpl. Tachibana had mentioned that she'll catch up to us as soon as she delivered the girl safely back to good custody.
"Alright. C'mon Pvt. Shiina. Let's go." I said. We had to move the hostiles with their limp legs.
We had arrived in the place of rendezvous and went underground through the stairs. It was an abandoned pub and was closed, until the hostiles had resumed business with their secret plans. Cpt. Reznov had arrived in the scene before us, and was in talk with the others. Pvt. Shiina and I had got to know of the details.
"I've reported to the other squads about the locations, Captain. Most of the bombs are in their vicinity, and said they could handle the situation. Seems this is the last one for us." explained Sgt. Nakamura.
Cpt. Reznov nodded and looked at the hostile commander, "Now I believe there must be a bomb in the area. Speak you scum!"
"It's below me." the hostile replied without hesitation.
Everyone was surprised. The Captain had kicked off the hostile and the chair.
"Don't let him move, Corporal." he told Cpl. Otonashi, "Roach, open the tile below."
The hostile commander didn't lie. There was a bomb found under the room, which was ticking.
"Shit, it has thirty minutes to blow!" Roach exclaimed, "Allen, get over here. We need to get this thing busted."
"Looks like I wasn't able to advance the timer." the hostile commander whispered to himself in anguish, "Damn."
Captain Reznov had heard the guy.
Roach and I began to work out the mutation bomb to disable it.
"Do you have more useful to say?" the Captain asked the commander hostile.
"I've told you all that I know." the latter panicked.
"Good. Come with me." Cpt. Reznov had taken the guy's custody and pulled him near the stairs.
"W… wait what are you doing?" the hostile began to panic. We knew of the hostile's fate. Roach gave no attention to the scene as he was worked up with the bomb. I for once, couldn't keep my ears off the event.
Sgt. Nakamura, Pvt. Shiina and Cpl. Otonashi had no clue of the next stage.
"Your work here is done." The Captain had pulled out his handgun and shot the hostile commander onto his head. The shot resounded through the small room, echoing through the stairs. A silence followed, with everyone shocked from the Captain's fury. The three hostiles we had brought in, were cowering from the Captain. Instead, the latter had turned around and spared them from their demise.
1050 hours
Tokyo, Japan
9th July, 19XX
Sergeant Dimitri Petrenko
1st Piranha Squad, 5th Battalion, 2nd Rangers Regiment, Stealth Peace Army
I was able to get out of trouble with some luck. Those guys meant business. I wondered how in the world those pilots had gotten sight of my location. I remembered using my Dragunov scope whilst pursuing the hostiles from the café. Today was one heck of a sunny day, and I guess my scope's reflection had given away my location from that height on the roof. Nonetheless, troubles weren't over the least. I got a report that Lt. Sanderson, a. k. a. Roach, was able to nab the commander of the hostile operations in the area. Damn effective work he had done amidst the crowd and madness in the city. Sgt. MacGregor had reported onto my previous enquiry that Sgt. Miller was heading for our area.
"You're finally here, Dimitri. Everything's ready." Sgt. MacGregor mentioned upon my arrival. Sgt. Nakamura's both squads were prepared to move.
"What about Sgt. Miller's arrival? These helicopters move fast and I can barely hear their engine rumble from here anymore." I said upon our disadvantage, "We could've used some transport, for damn's sake."
"Miller will be here, and he's arriving with a bomb disposal squad. Three vehicles are arriving." Sgt. MacGregor mentioned.
"Wait, let me make a request." I had connected my radio to Viktor.
"Yeah, Dimitri." The latter heard me loud and clear.
"Viktor, Sgt. Miller and a bomb disposal squad will arrive soon. But we'll need the vehicles to chase the helicopters." I said.
"We have found a bomb, Dimitri. But the situation should be under control." Viktor replied, "Looks like we won't get a ride for this one. Go hunt them."
"I appreciate the offer. We'll hunt the rest of them down." I replied.
"Listen, Dimitri. Try to find a Captain Kumarin in the hostile lookout. He is the commanding officer behind the bomb crisis in Tokyo. He might be around to see things through."
"Captain Kumarin, eh? Roger that."
Sgt. Miller and the bomb disposal squad had arrived at our position. I had briefed the disposal squad to meet up with the Captain.
"Alright, there's room for everyone." I verified upon the vehicle space, "Get in. We are awaiting a big fight ahead. Reload you weapons, check your gear. The objective's to annihilate the enemy militia from existence. We can't risk the JSDF or the local authorities to get clue of the crisis in the city. I want this clean. You all understand."
"Yes, sir!" Everyone agreed.
Sgt. Miller took the lead of the small convoy with his Toyota GX71, modified to provide a facilitated open roof for deployable weapons. Mac was in the same vehicle, ready with his M60 upon encounter. He was careful not to expose with the M60's deploy whilst within civilian view. As for me, I was inside the second car, along with Sgt. Nakamura's both squads. I was stationed alongside, Pvt. Yui Hinata and Pvt. Masami Iwasawa, both music partisans. They both had worn tank tops with ammo covering their torso. They seemed determined to go wild. Fine with me. I saw a tattoo on both of their arms, mentioning a certain 'GDM' in blocks.
"What does that mean?" I asked in curiosity.
"It's the name of our music band. It's called Girls Dead Monster. 'GDM' you see." Pvt. Yui said in jolly.
"Seems intense." I remarked upon the name.
"You have no idea." Pvt. Iwasawa replied with a mysterious grin. Seemed they had more of things in crypt under their female demeanours. These ladies meant business, I would believe.
"I want to ask you something. I have fought and journeyed along with a lot of troops. Within all of them, I find your affiliations interesting. The GDM and yeah, the Afterlife Battlefront. I'm interested more in the latter."
"The Afterlife Battlefront was a student rebel unit back in the days when we were dead." Pvt. Yui replied instant.
"Yui, you shouldn't mention that." Pvt. Iwasawa objected. I couldn't get the whole picture, but the latter was hesitant about the mention of death.
Could it be? A sudden thought had crossed my mind, and it did not seem a coincidence. It wasn't impossible. I had heard some rumours going on in the Battalion about 'reviving the dead' or so. Chyort, the best examples were in the Piranha Squad itself. Viktor Reznov, Joseph Allen, Gary Sanderson, and even me. All of us were dead and had a story of our own. Little we did mention of those lost past to else then to our mutual trusts, but I was wrong to believe that we were the only ones. I had to refer the news to Viktor and the rest of the squad. But not then, the city was at stake.
"Afterlife Battlefront is a Platoon under the 3rd Infantry Regiment. More like a civil surveillance Unit." explained Pvt. Iwasawa, "We are tasked to keep peace in Tokyo on behalf of the Stealth Peace Army; until things became quite hectic in the past year. Cpt. Masaki had our entire 5th Battalion getting involved into rescue operations a few times now. Seems the world has become turbulent."
"Yeah. But some people are stirring all the chaos. But who? That's yet a mystery we need to find." I said.
Our scout wasn't to be underestimated. Before the enemy could've ever realised of a faction to confront them in the hopes of their destruction, there was us, assembled upon the shores around Koto. The helicopters had landed on the beach and waited for the rest of the units to arrive.
"Don't shoot the pilots yet. They are mine." I was eager to top them with my Dragunov.
"You're being greedy, don't you think?" Pvt. Yui objected, "We can get the job done right now. Let's wreck the helicopters."
"We have to wait for the rest of the hostiles to show up. I saw them running towards the helicopters whilst I was on the roof. Their job was done, so they should be getting out of the city. That's what I think. If we kill the pilots, the others will get suspicious of no radio contact." I explained, "The rest are yours upon arrival. Don't let a single one escape."
As I was expecting, the hostiles began to show up one after the other.
"The svoloch are here." I reported on the radio. Everyone was stationed in their positions, ready to fire. As the hostiles tried to get onto the helicopter, I began my move.
Before they could've realised it, I had blown off the heads of the pilots.
"Open fire!" I ordered.
Mac was used to make an entry too often, and he was eager that day. Sgt. Miller had driven his Toyota GX71 into the beach, with Mac, spraying bullets upon the enemies. Once they had passed the helicopters, the two squads opened fire upon the rest.
It seemed that all the hostiles were being taken care of, until one of the helicopters had taken flight. I saw through my scope that one of them was yet alive and was taking control of the cockpit. But none of us had the need to fire. There he was; Mac had showed up and took the situation under his control. He held an RPG-7 on his shoulders. Sgt. Miller had brought in anti-armour supplies in his car back from the base.
"Hellfire!" Mac yelled his battle cry. The rocket was let loose and hit head on upon the ascending helicopter. The rudder rotor was torn apart and the helicopter lost control in circles.
"I'll make sure it's in smithereens." Mac reported on the radio. He reloaded the RPG-7 and released another shot. It hit the hull of the helicopter and exploded mid-air.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Pvt. Yui, who was with me.
"Dasvidaniya, you scum!" I shouted, "Looks like that was the last of them."
I had reported back to Viktor about the success.
"Good work, Dimitri. Really good work." he was glad with the report.
"But we have a problem, Viktor. There's yet one helicopter left behind but without a pilot. After the explosion of the other one, the police are sure to show up." I reported, "Mac can pilot the damn thing but where do we take it to. Also, we need to take care of the hostile bodies."
"I'll enquire Cpt. Masaki of any places of our interest to land. Let MacGregor handle the helicopter. Take Sgt. Nakamura's squads back to the base, Dimitri."
"What about the mutation bombs?"
"There were a total of six bombs in the roster, including ours. The rest are found and transported back to base by Sgt. Nakamura's other squads; Roach and Allen had disposed of the one we had a while back. Another bomb disposal squad had arrived upon my call, so it's done."
It seemed that way. The objectives were achieved in our favour, with the least resistance from our adversaries. We yet had to take care of the remaining helicopter and the dead bodies.
"Let's get ready with the take off, Mac." I told our heavy gunner.
"But I thought you were going back to base." Mac replied.
"Sgt. Miller's going to escort back the squads. Besides, some of them want to continue with the mission."
Mac looked beside me and found the troops.
"Ready for your orders, Sergeant!" Pvt. Yui bellowed. I couldn't help but feel amused upon Mac's surprised face. Pvt. Iwasawa, Pvt. Yui, and Pvt. Hideki Hinata had volunteered for the last objective.
"I've received an order from Cpt. Masaki, a moment back." I said.
"I see. So we have a safe zone for landings?" Mac asked.
"Yeah, he mentioned of letting us know as soon as possible, but we have this new objective to scout enemy ships in the open sea."
"Hmm, the hostiles' escape ships, I believe?"
"Yeah, we will be looking for frigates. We'll report its coordinates back to base and get the hell out of there."
"Frigates, huh? Can't risk getting close to them."
1235 hours
Off the shores from Tokyo, Japan
Sgt. Dimitri Petrenko
The shores were behind us. We couldn't identity Cpt. Kumarin from amongst the dead before our departure.
"Seems like he's on the ships." Viktor spoke on the radio upon my report, "We'll let Masaki handle the situation. Good luck."
I had removed my headset and looked around. Mac was handling pretty well with the helicopter. Perks of being a former SAS, I believe. I found Pvt. Yui to be arguing against Pvt. Hinata. Seemed they had some personal things going on.
"What's up with them?" I asked the quiet Pvt. Iwasawa.
"They're arguing over domestic stuff." the latter replied, "They are a married couple, you see."
"What?" I was shocked to hear that. It made sense when I thought hard; Yui Hinata and Hideki Hinata. I was forced to ask Pvt. Iwasawa about their motive to join the Stealth Peace Army.
"They could've led a safer life instead of the army." I whispered, in the hopes that the couple did not hear me.
"We all were a part of the Afterlife Battlefront from way back, even before it was a part of the Stealth Peace Army. We had an idealism to rebel against tyranny and oppression. It had given more meaning since our assignment under Cpt. Masaki. We are trying to prove our purpose, and for that, none of the members backed down upon the offer."
"I see." I couldn't reply more. They had reasons to be involved, to fight for peace.
After another hour of search, Mac had reported of a sighting.
"I have them on sight." he reported. I looked outside and found two frigates in the open sea.
"Alright, let me know the coordinates." I said, as I prepared to report back. We were off the last point on the mainland, away from the city of Miura. I had reported the coordinates to Cpt. Masaki, who was awaiting for reports in Tokyo.
"Good, we'll take care of things from there. Get back to the Tokyo Bay. There's a ship waiting for you to land on its deck." The Captain had given me the coordinates and asked to keep a lookout for the friendly ship.
"Brace yourselves!" Mac yelled. Heavy fire was being sprayed upon us from the enemy frigates. They seemed to find out about our motives and decided to drown us. I looked down my Dragunov and saw the crew aboard the ships. I recognised the missile batteries on the ships and knew that we couldn't get off far without their destruction. Mac seemed to know of the situation, and thought to attack on the batteries before anything else.
"There's no point running away, when they could blow us with those missiles." Mac made his point.
"Yeah, let's do this." I gave the order, "Open fire!"
Yui, Iwasawa and Hinata had grabbed their weapons and aimed for our target. I scoped through my Dragunov and aimed at the troops on board the vessels. Mac had rushed the helicopter against enemy fire and sprayed bullets from the deployed machine guns. We were fortunate to avoid any fatal hits within us lives and the helicopter itself. Pvt. Yui had got hold of Mac's M60 and provided suppressing fire from above.
"Hellfire!" Yui shouted upon her barrage.
"Hey! That's mine!" Mac yelled back at her. I took hold of the RPG-7 that Mac had brought in before departure. My first shot landed in a highly inaccurate location on the sea. The wind was getting on the way and at that distance, the RPG was bound to be off target. Based on the previous trajectory and the constant wind blowing in the same direction, I triggered my second rocket, aiming a few markings below. The shot followed a similar trajectory as to the previous, and hit one of the ship's hull.
"Alright, brace for another pass!" Mac shouted as he dived onto the enemy ships. He aimed for the same ship I had damaged with the RPG and released the machine guns. A large explosion was heard. The helicopter engines were hit and were smoking black. Mac managed to get some altitude away from the enemy fire. Upon surprise, another explosion shook the area but it was from below. Mac was able to disable the missile battery on that ship.
Without delay, I advised Mac to get out of there.
"Aye, roger that!" he replied. He pushed the throttle and the helicopter raced out of the ship's vicinity.
"Uh Sergeant, we've got trouble." Pvt. Iwasawa told me with a calm demeanour. I looked outside and found a barrage of missiles coming straight for us.
"Mac!" I shouted. He had realised the nightmare. Mac tried his best to avoid getting hit; missiles went past us one after the other. But we couldn't hold out for long. One of the missiles had managed to hit the tail rudder, swinging the helicopter out of control. We were nearing the sea water in mere moments.
"Bail out!" I shouted, "Bail out! Bail out! Jump!"
Every one of us had leaped out the failing helicopter. I was looking up as I was falling down and saw another missile hitting the bird. The sky turned into an inferno in front of my eyes. I had hit the water and fell deep inside, which avoided me from debris fatalities. But, debris did sink in from the explosion. I tried to get out of the mess.
"Yui! Yui, are you alright? Talk to me?" I had found Pvt. Hinata above the water, holding Pvt. Yui in his arms. The latter seemed to be unconscious from the shock. I had inspected her condition, and glad to find her without any fatalities.
"She'll be fine. I said, "Just don't let her take in water. Is your radio working?"
"It was damaged in the shock and fall." Pvt. Hinata replied. I looked around and saw the burning helicopter sinking into the sea. And there were those despicable frigates moving away from our location. We had soon found Pvt. Iwasawa along with Mac, the latter who was bleeding from a shrapnel debris.
"Ah damn!" he exclaimed, "Bloody missiles!"
"Are anyone of your radios working right now?" I asked the both of them.
"Mine should be working." Pvt. Iwasawa had handed me her equipments. I took the headphone and tried to contact the base in Tokyo.
"Alpha One, come in Alpha One. This is Alpha Three reporting for a rescue." I muttered into the speaker. The receiver crackled with noise and no response. I tried a few times to make contact, until an explosion shook up from afar. Mac had used his binoculars and saw one of the enemy ships sinking in the sea.
"It's the friendlies." He was able to locate ships from the Stealth Peace Army far away, "Artillery rockets. Take that you bastards!"
"Come on, we will need to get to the friendly ships." I said. We began to swim towards the incoming vessels. Everyone was tired from the day and we made little progress through the waters, and with our speed.
"Sergeant, the radio is receiving something." Pvt. Iwasawa mentioned. I took out the radio and listened.
"This is Alpha One. Alpha Three, do you copy?" the receiver bellowed.
"Roger that, Alpha One. Loud and clear." I replied with a victorious enthusiasm. It was Cpt. Reznov on the other side.
"Dimitri, is everything alright? Radio contacts were heard lost from your position." the Captain said.
"We are all alive, Viktor. We were attacked by the frigates before we could've escaped. The helicopter's destroyed and Mac's got a wound to his leg. We are in the waters adjacent to our crash site, and we can see some friendly ships at the distance." I reported.
"They are the 2nd Naval Force under the 3rd Stealth Task Group, of the Stealth Peace Army." Viktor mentioned, "I'll let them know of your situation."
"Da, appreciate that, Captain." I replied relieved.
A small ship was arriving towards our location. The rest of the 2nd Naval Force was involved in subduing the hostiles.
"You folks seem the Composite Unit mentioned by Captain Masaki." the commander of the ship asked upon the vessel's arrival in the vicinity.
"Yeah, we are them, alright. I'm Sergeant Dimitri Petrenko, nice to meet you." I greeted.
All of us were pulled aboard the ship. Mac was tended by a medic of his wounds. Pvt. Yui was taken to a cabin for her recuperation. Pvt. Hinata went along with her; Pvt. Iwasawa stayed behind on deck with me.
"So were they both sunk?" I asked the ship's commander of the enemy's situation.
"One of them was." he replied, the second ship was taken prisoner upon their arrival. Cpt. Kumarin was held prisoner on board, "We've heard you guys were responsible for the scout of those frigates. We highly appreciate your help."
"Yeah, no problem." I replied modest.
The small ship under the Lieutenant (the commander) was ordered to return back to Tokyo's shore. It was late in the afternoon when we were able to gaze our sights upon Tokyo's coast.
"Seems it was a hard day for your squad, Sergeant?" Pvt. Iwasawa asked.
"Yeah. It has been a while since there was mission of such importance." I mentioned, "But I guess this is simply the beginning."
"What do you mean?" Pvt. Iwasawa asked.
"After today's events, we are bound to face our new enemies in the days to come." I said.
TO BE CONTINUED…