Notes:
- Tomoko is addressed by the masculine name of Tomohiro by her colleagues, just as Haruko goes by the male alias Haruhiko and Yaeko is Yaegiri.
- the relationship between the federal military (the Allied Forces) and the provincial military (the samurai clan) is explained in earlier chapters and an article on my profile page.
- ninjas are also called kage nin (shadow people) or shinobi (spy/spies).
Vocab:
anki – hidden weapon
In the recesses of the hangar of the Confederated Army Special Forces' mobile base, a black-clad company of shadow people sat in quiet anticipation. The ninjas watched silently as two of their comrades manipulated the enemy robot. Ninja hacker Kiseki was still inside the Raiden's head, inputting commands into its autopilot system.
A hundred feet away from the captured Raiden, a female ninja wearing an eye patch over her left eye was sitting cross-legged on the floor near the hangar's door. "Testing, testing!" The kunoichi Tomoko spoke into her laptop computer's microphone. Almost simultaneously, the previously inert Raiden responded, "Testing, testing!" in its own voice. The voice of Takeo.
"So far so good, Tomohiro-dono!" Ninja hacker Kiseki stepped away from the Raiden's head and jumped to the ground, landing as lightly as a cat. He called out to his comrade Tomoko. "Now move its limbs."
The kunoichi complied. The Raiden got to its feet.
"Turn on flight boosters, but not to full power!" Kiseki instructed. After the kunoichi punched a few keystrokes on the computer keyboard, the team of watching ninjas heard the hum of the Raiden's flight boosters.
"Now, how do you feel about flying this thing remotely?" Kiseki grinned as he walked over to the female commando.
The kunoichi raised her eyebrows as she replied. "I thought that is YOUR job, Kiseki-dono. You already set its autopilot path to Irakawa Castle's coordinates, DIDN'T you?!!!"
The kunoichi Tomoko's voice was raised just a little. Both ninja techies were feeling more than a little pressure in this high stakes operation. "Yes, I did!" Kiseki replied, peering over Tomoko's shoulder at the laptop screen. "But as for the finer details of motion, like responding to landing instructions from the Irakawa Castle's flight controllers, you'll have to direct it. I'll help you with system shortcuts whenever I can. But you're the driver."
"Working with low tech weapons is so much easier. Give me a shuriken and a sword anytime." The one-eyed kunoichi remarked.
The ninja man could understand his colleague's mixed feelings about fighting a war remotely. Tomohiro-dono could more than hold her own in open battle, but in an infiltration operation like this one, good peripheral vision was key to a field operative's safety and success. And Tomoko's peripheral vision was somewhat limited. Still, her situation was of her own choosing. The kunoichi had stubbornly refused to have a mechanical eye installed after the battle in which she lost her left eye.
"If we screw up, everyone is going to die." Tomoko said in a whisper so that their watching comrades at the back of the hangar could not hear her.
"Don't talk like that," Kiseki replied in as upbeat a voice as he could muster, although he too was feeling the battle stress. "You did a really great job remotely piloting both Raidens and Red Spiders in the simulation chamber."
"This is the real thing." The one-eyed ninja answered grimly. "And the virtual Raiden training program isn't very good because it was pieced together from random bits of technical specs we managed steal from the Allied Forces."
"You'll pull us through." Kiseki said encouragingly. "This is going to be a brilliant victory. They won't see us coming till we strike!"
At that moment, their commander and four colleagues re-entered the hangar. Tomoko called out her report to Major Tashiro Haruko.
"Our computer has complete control over the Raiden's speech, aural and mechanical functions. We are able to direct its operations remotely."
"Great job, guys!" Haruko addressed Kiseki and Tomoko briskly. "Now let's load the thing."
Tomoko remotely sat the Raiden back down on the floor, then she popped the hatch for its cargo compartment. As the huge door on the Raiden's back lifted, Major Tashiro Haruko barked at her waiting ninja team. "Everybody in!"
Captain Kouta wasted no time in jumping into the giant mecha. Then one black-clad shinobi after another emerged from the dark recesses of the hangar and leapt nimbly into the back compartment of the Raiden who was once an Allied Forces samurai named Takeo. Haruko spoke to Tomoko and Kiseki once more.
"Kiseki-dono and Tomohiro-dono, our lives are in your hands." The Confederated Army Special Forces commander bowed slightly. Then the tall mannish samurai turned and followed after her shinobi soldiers, leaping into the Raiden's cargo compartment right after the last ninja Yaeko had jumped in.
Tomoko hit the computer keys that closed the Raiden's hatch. Then, with Kiseki looking over her shoulder, she turned the flight boosters to full power.
--
In the Irakawa Castle command center…Colonel Shimada Kanbei heard his subordinate's status over the radio, "This is Lieutenant Colonel Ogami Tamuramaro reporting to Commander! The Red Spiders have been repelled. Squadron 2 returning to base! We downed five enemy units but their comrades retrieved them and are retreating north. Shuichi was shot down but we retrieved him. Takeo is missing-in-action."
"Thank you for your hard work!" Kanbei answered. Shichiroji and his two command center colleagues Shinji and Hideki exchanged looks of relief. Shichiroji spoke into the radio, "Tamuramaro-dono, send Shuichi-dono to Hangar 6 for repairs. Mechanics are on standby."
"Ryokai!" came the crisp response.
"Tamuramaro-dono says the Feddies are retreating north, eh?" Kanbei pondered. "I guess we successfully held off the aerial assault force on its way to attack Akashima Province, at least for a while. But they will try again. The question is when?"
"I wonder what happened to Takeo," Captain Shichiroji remarked. "I hope he is all right."
At that moment, his colleague Lieutenant Shinji, who had been monitoring the voice reports coming in from Irakawa Castle's air traffic control tower, spoke.
"Kanbei-sama, air traffic control reports a Raiden flying towards us, two miles behind the main force. It appears to be a little wobbly. I would guess that is Takeo."
Shichiroji took a look at the video feed from the castle's air traffic control tower's camera. As the straggling mecha came closer, Shichiroji said, "It's Takeo all right, by the unit number. He must be injured to be flying so slowly and unsteadily."
The aide turned to his colleague, "Shinji-dono, tell air traffic control to direct Takeo to Hangar 4. Have mechanics on standby for repairs."
"Yes, Shichiroji-dono," Shinji responded as he picked up the telephone.
--
Inside the back compartment of the Raiden who was once an Allied Forces samurai named Takeo…A company of ninjas stood shoulder to shoulder, back to back, with hardly any room between their bodies. In fact, there was hardly any room to breath in the cargo hold, and hardly enough air for the entire company. But these were shinobi, not common soldiers. Almost all of them had entered a meditative state to lower their metabolism so that they would consume less oxygen. All were in near-hibernation mode, except one.
"Are we there yet?" The youngest ninja Omitsu was asking for the third time. "The way Tomohiro-dono pilots this thing remotely is making me airsick."
"Are we there yet?!!!" Lieutenant Yaeko hissed. "You sound like a petulant child! Do you think we're your parents and this is an iron-ox carriage? You're a Confederated Army commando, for crying out loud!"
Meeting the glare of the elder ninja, the youngest shinobi fell silent.
Nobody was very comfortable in the cramped, un-cushioned quarters of the Raiden's cargo compartment. Captain Kouta was trying to adjust his position so that the blowpipe carried by the ninja in front of him wasn't hitting him in the face. But that was the least of his worries. The success of this risky infiltration operation was foremost on his mind. If Tomoko did not crash the Raiden and kill them all, that would be something to thank Heaven for. And even if they landed safely in the Allied Air Force base, there was the question of how much resistance they would encounter. Their plan was to avoid enemy resistance as far as possible by misdirecting the Allied samurai. Their spy within the castle would also do her part in eliminating some of the possible resistance.
--
29 minutes later, in the Irakawa Castle command center…Shinji received another voice report from the Mecha Support Department, which he promptly conveyed to his colleagues. "Hangar 4 staff reports that Takeo has returned and docked safely. They can't get a comprehensible sentence out of him because his speech is slurred. He said something about 'Enemy battleship behind…' and then he became unresponsive. They're trying to revive him right now. I think you might want to look into this."
Kanbei and Shichiroji exchanged grave looks. Did Takeo see something unusual while he was flying over the skies of Tosa? Was the Confederated Army sending a flying battleship to attack Irakawa Castle? The range of the Allied base's anti-aircraft weapons far exceeded the range of a Red Spider's cannons, but a Confederated battleship was another matter. It would be in their interests to know what model of battleship was approaching them, and how far away it was.
"Shichiroji, go to Hangar 4 and debrief Takeo!" Kanbei ordered. "We can't afford to waste any time! Let's hope the mechanics have revived Takeo by the time you get there."
"Yes, sir!" the blond replied as he rose from his seat.
To his other two subordinates, Kanbei said, "Activate all anti-aircraft systems. Monitor all radars. Tell everyone to be on full alert for a possible attack from the sky!"
"Yes, sir!" Hideki and Shinji answered snappily. Captain Sanou Hideki spoke into the intercom. "All hands to stations! Be on full alert for possible air raid! Squadron Commanders, prepare Raidens for scramble!"
The Allied soldiers in Irakawa Castle rushed to comply, focusing their attention on the foreboding sky.
Lieutenant Sugimoto Shinji turned to Kanbei after punching in a series of keys at the defense systems control panel. "Commander, I've switched all laser cannons to auto-fire mode. Any unidentified craft detected by radar will be targeted."
"Good!" Colonel Shimada said crisply. Depending on the model of the enemy battleship, a laser cannon might not be able to down it in one shot or even a few shots. But there was nothing he could do now except wait for Shichiroji and Takeo's report.
--
After receiving the alert from the command center about a possible air raid, Major Machida Mahiro headed towards Hangar 1, where Squadron 1's Raidens were housed. The officer, with two young samurai behind him, was racing down the hallway when he ran into the janitor Suzu. The woman with thinning hair was mopping the floor right outside the hangar's entrance.
Usually Major Machida would have a friendly greeting for the middle-aged servant whose warm manner caused many of the younger samurai to see her as an aunty. But the officer was not in the mood for chitchat today. He needed to brief Squadron 1's Raidens for an imminent assault by the enemy. So the samurai said sharply to the mousy lady. "This is NOT the time for cleaning! We need the hallways clear of all non-essential personnel! Now!"
The janitor bowed apologetically, but before she straightened her back, Major Machida had fallen to the ground – felled by a shuriken in his throat. His two followers barely detected the quick flick of Suzu's wrist before they too were downed – one with a throwing star in his neck and the other with another anki in his forehead.
The unremarkable-looking woman quickly went over to the corpse of Mahiro. Without delay, she picked up his sword and his cardkey. "My comrades should be coming out of hiding any second," the Confederated undercover operative thought. "I have to do my best to clear the coast for them. If any part of our team falters, our entire operation may fail. But not if I can help it. We've worked too long for this."
The ninja-disguised-as-janitor swiped the cardkey against the key reader for Hangar 1 and entered silently. Within seconds, the sound of sword slicing metal and the screams of giant mecha were heard within.
