Chapter 7: Operation Dawnbreaker Pt. II
0553hrs
Harbor Facility
XX-09-2036
As the vapor thins, the humanoid figure slightly shorter than Jackal begins to reveal itself. A tranquil cool began to irradiate into the white room. In place of the vapor was a girl resembling a doll with breathtaking features. Long, glamorous white hair which extends to her waist and adorned with two black long curved mechanical white tipped ornaments. An unbound short white dress covers her slim figure and reaches to the top of her thighs patterned with two double bordered blue trims. Pale velvet lips, white eyebrows, and a featureless nose adorn her pale cheeks. Similar to Fubuki, straight white bangs covers over her forehead and a pair symmetrical white payots were held together by two thin red ties. A solid red necktie secures her navy blue collar in place. Black gloves with three fingerless sleeves adorned with the same navy blue and white contrasting patterning as her neck collar. Her modest legs were covered by a pair of black pantyhose, attached with a set of black anklets with sharpened white edges, and completed with a pair of black loafers lined with white soles.
"Wow, now that's a stellar presentation where I least expected," Jackal commented with a smirk while the pair of entrance steel doors were struck off the hinges and into the large outer room. Two black figures began to rush through the destroyed doorway. The eyes of the girl began to struggle before quickly opening. Two explosions followed suit as the two black figures passed through the lasers while the two while of two of markers on his arm-mounted computers vanish. Turning his face halfway to observe his pursuers a familiar set of hazing blue eyes emerged from the smoke, a black one-piece dress, midnight black treads, and tied together with a dark blue necktie and glowing skull ornament greeted the two.
"You…!" a familiar echoing voice and scornful expression greeted Jackal.
The untouched figure of the girl began to topple forward from the tremors of the explosions and caught by Jackal who quickly lunged forward. However, the girl began to push forward and pressed Jackal down to the ground. Immediately after a projectile crashed through the window and ruptured the stasis pod causing an eruption of cryo fluids and nitrogen.
"Nhnn...go! Marshall! This is Jackal, requesting immediate extraction, the rooftop of the AO**!" Jackal shouted with a fierce expression.
-"Roger. I will require the assistance of a signal."
A long silvery pole with a sharpened spiked tip and a black tsuka-ito** wrapped handle at the opposite end fell onto the back of the girl from the rupture, slid off her back, and struck the ground with a resonating clank from the tremors of the explosions. Two narrow rhombi shaped blades, one pair shorter than the other were welded on the sharpened side of the pole with the shorter set of blades closer to the end of the pole. The pair of blades were also abnormally concentrically aligned with the body of the pole with the flat faces facing towards the direction pointed out by the pole.
"You'll get your signal, dontcha worry!"
Lifting her body onto his left shoulder, slinging his rifle onto his back, and grabbed the pole with his spare right arm. The pair then rushed through the secret door as their enemies continued to pursue them. As the last of the two to pass through the door, he notices a large red button on the side of the wall next to the door. He then runs back and slams on it with the bottom of his fist, causing the door to shut with a thud. Jackal then kneeled on one knee while switching the white-haired girl onto his right shoulder and hyperventilated. Fubuki looked back at Jackal.
"I'm fine, keep going and make sure no one is blocking our way."
-"Yes!"
The pounding of the door behind rang through his ears. Adrenaline began to circulate through his pulsating veins. Sweat leaked from his pores and into his balaclava and gloves, while his breaths begin to fog up his holographic goggles. He rustled through his pouch once more and retrieved a syringe with a pale yellow fluid inside, thrust the needle tip into his thigh, and emptied the contents of the syringe.
'One! Two! Three!' Slamming open his eyelids, he stands up forcefully and sprinted up the concrete stairs. As Jackal ran ferociously, the head of the white-haired girl began to shake and bounce on his shoulder. Her vision was blurry and narrow from her half-open eyelids.
"Nhnnn...hoos ere...ou?" The white-haired girl asked in Japanese.
-"What? Fubuki what did she just say?"
"Err, I am not sure…" Fubuki responds with an unsure tone.
A loud boom and the sound of dented metal came from below them.
At the top of the stairs was a steel ladder three meters tall and connected to the metal hatch at the top.
"Climb up and shove open that hatch! Go!"
Unlike Jackal who had a sling with his rifle, Fubuki thought for a moment before deciding to climb the ladder with her right hand holding her rifle. Despite her pushing on the hatch, the hatch would not budge.
"Come on!" Jackal yelled as the door below was blasted open and slammed into the end of the staircase. Fubuki then headbutted the hatch, surprised from Jackal's yell. The whole hatch flew into the air as Fubuki climbed through the opening. Removing a plastic router like object with multiple antennae from his back waist pouch, he slapped it into place on the wall beside him, causing it to stick to the back of the wall. Just as his pursuers made the turn on the staircase and made eye contact, he deployed the device. Suddenly a powerful electronic feedback pulse stunned his pursuers and caused Fubuki to fall to the ground in pain.
'What!? What is this?' Fubuki thought as she clasped her ears as the piercing pain in her fell herself on all fours. The girl on the treads only leaned towards the wall with one hand clasping her right ear while looking at Jackal with spiteful eyes and a threatening snarl.
Behind the girl with treads instead of legs, behind her was another girl in black attire. However, she had long black hair reaching down to her knees, gothic leather short sleeve top and pants, black dress shoes, and most noticeably a pair of twin gun turrets on top of her shoulders. Despite being stunned by the feedback pulse, she slowly began to shrug off the effects. Unfortunately, it was too late as a spear came flying past the girl with the treads dodged to towards the wall. With a loud thunk, the spear tip struck but could not pierce her lower neck however the momentum disrupted her balance causing her to fall off the staircase and struck the wall behind her with a crash, denting the concrete wall behind her. Jackal quickly turned back, climbed onto the ladder steps, began to leap up the steps, jumped through the hatch opening, and reached a maximum height of one meter in the air. Dropping the white haired girl on to the ground, he typed into his arm-mounted computer once more.
The screen displayed [Location Marked] on top of an electronic map amongst the sound of blades cutting through the air.
The router like device began to fritz and sparks before shorting out with a black fume. Soon the pain in Fubuki's ears subsided and she slowly.
"Come on girl! Get up! We're leaving!" Jackal says as he withdraws the last grey explosive device from his near-empty back waist pouch and pressed the indented button, priming the charge. He then rolls it underhanded towards the ladder hole. As the girl with treads manages to climb up the ladder, an explosive surprise tumbles her off the roof, leaving behind a mild trailing scream. Shouts and steps of chaos encircle the grounds of the harbor upon the sudden explosion.
"Marshall will swing by so you need to hop onto the heli cause he ain't landing any closer than that."
-"Ah, yes!" Fubuki responded as Jackal pulled her hand, surprised her head turned to the side.
Suddenly the tension on Fubuki's hand loosened and a splash of water struck Jackal's face from behind. Looking back, he discovers the water was not indeed water but a burst of black fluid. The same black fluid that overflowed out of the mouth of Fubuki. Her body lurched forward despite her right hand being dragged by Jackal. He also discovers the center of her uniform protrude outward in a circular pointed shape while a large black stain began to grow rapidly in contrast to her white uniform. The vest pierced through and Jackal's rifle which was carried by her was snapped in two while her scavenged rifle slung on her left hip slapped the ground as it fell. Her legs moved forward a step before collapsing.
"Ja...kal...san." She garbles through the eruption of black fluid through her mouth as she falls forward towards the ground. As she falls a black barrel puffs with smoke behind her as Jackal glances backward.
"Move and you will end up like her." The dark haired pale skinned woman with four barrel mounted turrets on shoulders said as she aimed her turrets at Jackal who sneakily tapped a button on his wrist computer.
-"Easy, easy." Placing the white-haired girl down in front of him as well, however using her body to hide his hand movements.
"Fire zone confirmed. Danger close." A calm voice sounds from Jackal's headset.
-"Understood," Jackal responds to both parties simultaneously with a loud voice
In a split second the woman looked towards the sky as numerous rockets fly above her head and attempted to block them with her arms. A row of fiery eruptions filled the roof with ash, metal, and smoke. Despite covering his face and vital body parts, he observed the black haired woman launched through the smoke and off the roof. Crashing into a steel shipping container on the ground causing it to collapse inwards on itself. Her arms caked with ash and smoke and she rose a burning glare towards her opponent. The chaos below soon focused their attention on the roof and the approaching helicopter from above. Marshall's helicopter dove in quickly towards the roof letting loose a barrage of rockets and bullets.
"Marshall I have an emergency situation, request landing for medivac."
-"Understood."
Marshall hovered the helicopter in place while Jackal struggled to place the Fubuki and securing her body along with the white-haired girl with the seatbelt.
"Right, let's hightail it towards the island," Jackal commanded as he readies Fubuki's rifle and quickly peers through the iron sights as he sat on the weapons hardpoint. As they take off from the roof, Jackal opens fire with bursts of three to five rounds, striking down three of the many men returning fire at them as they strafe right inland. Among the various flashes of gunfire and ricochets of bullets on their helicopter, he noticed one of his opponents on the roof with their azure glowing features. Suddenly a huge flash hid away the glow leaving behind Jackal alarmed.
"Evasive maneuvers!" Jackal screamed.
In response, the helicopter twisted to the left as a two cannon rounds sliced through the air beside them.
"Ok, ok…and a major fuck you too!" Jackal replies with a middle finger as he catches his breath and recovers after being pushed back towards the helicopter as it performs its maneuvers.
"Make a right for the sea here," Jackal commanded as he leaned back into the side of the helicopter. He removed his balaclava and helmet and placed it at the feet of the two girls. His hair unkempt and face riddled with beads of sweat.
"Nhggg…" A spike of pain hits his legs and arms causing him to drop his rifle, which was caught by his sling. He rubs his forearms as they trembled with pain. The high winds create a feeling of refreshment as the morning sun begins to rise above the horizon. Jackal withdraws with albeit difficulty the magazine from Fubuki's rifle to inspect the remaining capacity of bullets, peering through a small slit on the black polymer magazine it only contained three rounds. He tried to replace the old magazine with his own magazines but it would not fit into the feed well. He glanced inside at the two girls, he then removed an undamaged magazine from Fubuki's ammo vest and threw the near-empty magazine into the ocean. He then pulled back the bolt peering at the chambered bullet sliding back as he tilted the rifle upwards and releasing the bolt with a loud slam. He repeated the movement of the bolt twenty times as before slinging his weapon and withdrawing his hip flask and taking a long sip.
"What happened to the girl?" Marshall asked Jackal.
-"Shot...by what exactly I still don't know. The bitch also snapped my new rifle too of all things. On the first day too!"
"Will she survive? And who is the white-haired girl?"
-"Well as long as that round stays in there and stops whatever is leaking out of her. I can't perform proper first aid here, and the fact that I'm not even sure if there is a doctor or scientist who is qualified to perform surgery on her. And the white-haired? From the looks of things seems like an associate of hers. She, on the other hand, was in a semi-conscious state when we took her out of a black container like the one we extracted yesterday."
A static response sounded from Jackal and Marshall's intercoms.
"-s…-oss…-oss…"
-"Legion, SITREP**."
"-We...ouldt...et...ackag...urrent...questing...assist…" A static response from the radio.
-"Shit, they're too far out still," Jackal whispered to himself.
-"Mark your position, we're on our way."
-"Marshall, how long will it take to reach them at top speed?"
"Ten minutes."
-"Serious?" Jackal doubted as Marshall responded with an mmm.
Jackal checked over the two girls who laid unconscious beside Marshall. He then takes another swig from his hip flask before releasing an exhale with the smell of alcohol in the morning glow.
Three digits on a blue digital display were undergone a rapid countdown. Splashes of water continuously beat the sea as light blue tracers tread through the air and into the sea. The sound of a muffled barrel resonates with the gasoline motor driving through the sea. Occasionally the blue tracers would strike a hard black metal surface bobbing through the sea. A LSAT machine gun sat deployed and rapidly dispensing bullets through its attached suppressor. Operating the machine gun was none other than Legion.
"Can't you idiots make this thing go faster?" Legion bellowed as ten black metal bodies slowly catch up to them.
-"It's already at max spe-!"
Just as one of the mercenaries responds, a small explosion sounds off and a metal projectile tears off the right side of his body showering the two with blood. Legion quickly kicks the remains of the man off the boat and wipes his face clean of blood before continuing to fire at his pursuers.
"Dammit…!" Legion muttered as he glanced on his ammo counter on his box as it counts down at top speed.
"'T'en star swervin'! We take nother hit like dat were done for!" Legion ordered.
As the RHIB boat swerves through the waters. Barrages of the same projectiles from before land in the water near the boat.
"Oi, Jackass were's your sorry asses at?"
-"Facking ey quit being so noisy will ya!?" A clear response comes through his communicator this time unlike before. The rattling of a pair of cannons suddenly intrudes on Legion's ears. A storm of metal rains from above, shredding the waters and the respective black bodies pursuing Legion's party. Legion looks behind and above, to his surprise he sees a helicopter two hundred meters away releasing a storm of bullets. Three of the black bodied objects were struck repeatedly with high explosive .50 BMG bullets cracking their bodies, causing an explosion of black fluids and jagged metal to fly out in various directions. In retaliation, the black bodied, sharp-eyed, bullet-headed beings aimed their mouth emplaced guns towards the helicopter. Anticipating this action, the helicopter erratically changed its collective, evading the high caliber rounds flying towards them with ease. Following the evasive maneuvers, the helicopter resumes its distant harassment and destruction of the black bodied beings. One of the creatures exploded near the RHIB boat, splattering its innards and black bodily fluids on the passengers.
"Oooof…" A piece of metal shrapnel broken off from the explosion crashed into the topside Legion's helmet, knocking him off balance, and causing him to fall on his back.
"Ey, get yer ass up. Either move out of the firing range or stay and get shot." Jackal commands through his communicator.
Noticing their target is trying to escape the black bodied creatures continued to chase after Legion's RHIB boat.
"Excellentente. Marshall? Sen'em to the abyss." Jackal says as he withdraws his hip flask once more as the helicopter dove in, guns blazing. Two trails of water splashes quickly catch up to the black creatures and split their bodies open with explosions. As the helicopter draws closers to the last two creatures, they turn back to observe the events transpired behind them. Before they can return fire to the helicopter, two pairs of Zuni rockets crashed into their face with explosions mirroring the sunrise.
"Ahhhhhh, that hits the spot." Jackal exhales deeply as he screws on the cap back on the hip flask.
-"Oi, Jackass wen were you going to tell me you were gonna use us as bait?"
"Calm your man tiddies, you didn't die."
-"Yaaa still used us as bait."
"But did you die?"
-"Oi I-."
"If you didn't die then you're fine, plus you're wasting my time right now. I gotta schedule to keep."
-"Time mah ass, when have ya ev-"
"The girl's dying, I would like to have some silence as to think what do with her."
-"Ya save er life duh. What else are ya suppose to do?"
"Gee, thanks for the fantastic solution. I barely know who or what she is...still. I doubt I know of any doctors that can fix a girl whose blood is black."
A sudden silence with only the ocean wind and the spinning of helicopter blades could be heard between the two.
-"What got er?"
"From my perspective, it seemed like a forty-five, a forty-five millimeter round. It's still embedded in her chest if you want me to take a picture of it."
-"Yah no thanks, I think I'll avoid pedophilia on my bingo book thank ya very much."
"Wow, another five dollar word. You're on a roll today."
-"I'mma shoot ya one of these days."
-"And why did you say still?"
"In that harbor facility, I found a left behind message depicting about these girls or shipgirls as they like to call them."
-"Wha-"
"Lemme finish, they seemed to be able to move as fast as a speedboat on water and capable of wielding high caliber guns. Probably bigger than what Fubuki was shot with. How they are able to be beyond me."
-"Are ya serious? Do ya know how ridiculous ya sound right now?"
"The girl is bleeding black blood Stevie I wonder. She's already beyond what we can comprehend at this point. Right now just focus on returning back to the house and stop the bleeding before she takes a nosedive for the afterlife."
-"I swear, I still can't get how ya managed to stay so cold when someone is bleedin' out right beside ya."
"It's not like we're doctors or even equipped with medical equipment to fix her. Plus you go crazy situations like these you gonna make bad judgments. Now if you don't mind I'm gonna take a nap, see ya back at the house."
1424hrs
Safehouse
XX-09-2036
The late afternoon rays of the sun illuminate the second floor of the safehouse. The soft rustles of the green and yellowed leaves flying off entered through the window, dancing with the curtains. Creaking of bed springs and the noise of grunts echo through the wooden bedroom. A yellow three-leaved leaf flies through the window and landed on the nose of a sleeping girl. The same white-haired girl laid on her back facing the orange-brown log ceiling. Unchanged from her white dress, blue neckerchief, red tie, black pantyhose, and two teardrop mechanical devices hung from the top of her head.
"Nhnnggnn..."
Slowly opening her tensed eyelids, her blurred vision slowly cleared up.
The words 'Commencing boot up sequence...' appeared in the middle of her vision and dissolved into countless pixels.
'Initializing physical status module' A small full body icon with segmented limbs formed and shifted to the bottom left.
'Initializing digital bearing system' A small rectangular miniature map appeared along with a rotational milrads directional system**.
'Initializing auxiliary supply gauge.'
'Error, auxiliary rigging not detected!'
'Warning fuel reserves at 25%!'
'Motion sensors detected. Initializing sequence.'
'Boot up sequence complete.'
Her orange-red eyes blink twice before pulling up her hands to her view. Slowly rising out of the bed and shifts her feet onto the laminated wood floor, she opens the bedroom door. The polished wood house was laid out with ceramic plates, wet clothing, battle gear on the tables and floor. The silence of the house could be felt with her every step created an echo from the walls. Scanning the room with her amber eyes, she could not perceive other lifeforms. Walking up to the front of the door, she saw her black loafers placed in a sloppy fashion. She then puts them on, opens the door, and heads outside into the golden sunlight. She was greeted with the rustles of the leaves and a gentle breeze, however, she could not detect any other sounds of animals or insects. She spies a young man beside a shed.
Sitting on the floor beside the garage door was Jackal. His head leaned back towards the sky and eyes closed. She approached him with a curious walking pace and stands before him covering him with her shadow.
"Can I help you?" He spoke with his eyes closed causing her to flinch slightly from his question.
She reflexes with a jolt and asks.
-"Were...are...w-we?"
"A farm," Jackal replies in Japanese.
-"Where's Fubuki?" The girl asked in Japanese.
"She's tired and is sleeping."
-"You're lying." She replied with a glare.
Jackal promptly opened his gaze just as the girl thrust her hand onto his throat, shoving up his body upwards along the wall.
"Urghh…you're...pretty...good…" Jackal chokes as he struggles to free her arm from his throat while his feet dangled a foot above the ground.
-"Tell where she is!" The girl continues to demand.
Breaking the deadlock was a muffled scream of pain penetrating through the wooden walls. In reflex the girl rips open a hole with the handle from the wooden doors, dropping Jackal to the ground in the meantime. Looking around within the arrays of tools, vehicles, and spare parts laid in a disorderly fashion she stares at a particular spot for a few seconds. She then begins to pound on that particular spot with her foot, causing an echoing rumble across the shed. Slowly the cement within that spot began to groan under the pressure of her attacks, however, the floor began to sink in slowly and open into a hidden staircase into the ground. She looks to the side and saw Jackal who pressed a switch. After shooting him a glance, she bolted down the concrete stairs. Jackal leans on a table and downs a sip from his hip flask. He then chokes a bit before placing it back into his pocket and heading the concrete stairs as well. On a white-clothed cushioned table, Fubuki laid on the table, limbs strapped down. Her expression crunched in pain, eyes closed, and beads of sweat flowing down from her forehead. A metal cart laid out with various tools such as a scalpel, two sets of tweezers, and a pair of scissors shining cleanly from a high-intensity white work light attached to a gas generator. Marshall and Legion stood on each side of the table with face masks and white aprons stained with the same black fluid leaking out of Fubuki's lower chest. Their faces turn in surprise towards the appearance of a silvery white-haired girl.
"What are you doing!" She yells out in Japanese as she pushes aside Legion.
-"Hey now, you-" Legion begins until he glimpses over Jackal who was strolling in after her.
Jackal then gives him a nod and asks "you two want to take five?" to the two men.
"Fine by me," Legion says as he removes his face mask and apron.
"Wha...how...Fubuki...?"
The white-haired girl pounced towards Jackal with her fist held ready, however, Jackal pushed aside her fist and spun swiftly on his left foot. Hip flask in hand, he shoves her back as she passes by. Keeping hold of her right hand with his left, he spins her towards his right foot and sweeps her legs causing her to fall over with Jackal leaning his weight backward. Finally Jackal falls on top of her backside while pinning her limbs apart, however, she manages to get up through sheer strength and throws Jackal off her back. Both quickly recovering to their feet, she attempts to go after Jackal before realizing he was holding Fubuki's head at gunpoint.
"Don't you dare..!" She says as she grits her teeth.
-"Then don't assault me."
"I'm sure some introductions are in order. I am Jackal, and you are?"
-"None of your business."
Jackal fires his pistol.
-"Don't-..!" The white-haired girl shouted at Jackal before noticing the bullet flew through Fubuki's hair.
-"My name is...Murakumo." The white-haired girl muttered as she grits her teeth.
"You want to say that again?"
-"It's Murakumo, you idiot!"
"Alright Murakumo, where are from? Tokyo? Kyoto? Maybe Nagano?"
-"Yokohama."
"Huh, what are you?"
-"..." Murakumo stares at Jackal with bewilderment.
-"How in world did you get a Kanmusu without knowing what we are?"
"Gee if you girls came with an instruction manual, maybe we wouldn't be having this discussion," Jackal says to himself.
-"Hmpf, it sounds as if you took unauthorized command of a kanmusu." Murakumo sneers as she overhears.
"Nice you can speak English as well, then I can drop the friendly Japanese as well."
-"Maybe it is because of your mediocre Japanese that you cannot speak it in any other way than from a dictionary. Gaijin"
"You finished with your mean comments? Because I'd like to get this what are you thing conversation moving along." Jackal remarks with a roll of his eyes.
-"Hmpf, if you must know. I will educate you then."
**AO = Area of Operations
**Tsuka-Ito pattern is a diamond patterned weave commonly made into handles of swords such as katanas and wakizashis of the Japanese culture. You're asking why? Well, the Japanese ship girls should have culture aesthetics should they not? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
**SITREP = situation report acronym. I don't think I need to explain what an acronym is or its purpose?
**Milrad directional system = A glorified *cough* advanced directional system that uses a smaller incremental of units with either a 360 degree version or a 7200 mils version. It is considerably more accurate than a standard cardinal system with north, west, south, east. Used primarily with orientation, creating directions, pinpointing targets for fire support.