Chapter 10: Unearthing Secrets
Warning: There are some spoilers below. If you haven't read Red Prowling Devil and don't want to read the spoilers, I suggest you to have a read at the manga first.
After waiting for a few hours for the path of the return flight to be cleared, Natsumi, Miyuki, Shouji and the rest of the Japanese-American Joint Special Forces team finally arrived back to the current JSDF Headquarters at Hyakuri Air Base. During the time in which they had to wait, the air bases in Iruma and Yokota as well as the small cities of Joetsu, Myoko, Chikuma and Saku fell back under Japanese and American control. There was some little enemy resistance still fighting in Ueda and in some parts of the countryside's lowlands in the Saitama Prefecture, but everyone knew the fighting would soon be over by the following morning. Even though the JSDF and the American forces inflicted most casualties in the North Korean and Russian Ultranationalist ranks, the quickly organized local guerilla units in the countryside did not leave a single moment of rest for their enemies since the first day of the war. After the atrocities committed in the first days of the war, the North Korean troops paid a steep price for their actions with their blood at the hands of local guerrillas who mostly took no North Korean prisoners. For a long time, most people underrated the capabilities of the Japanese people to hold their ground against an enemy invasion only to be proven wrong now.
October 11, 2016 – 19:25
Japanese Self-Defense Forces Central Command
Hyakuri Air Base, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
While the debriefing was going on, Colonel Takahashi informed that the North Korean submarine disappeared from detection despite the satellite cover, the P-3 Orion maritime surveillance planes deployed by the US Navy and the Maritime Self-Defense Forces. Analysis of the picture taken by Miyuki during the raid at Satoshi Lee's safehouse revealed that the submarine was a Soviet-made Victor class nuclear attack submarine that was sold to North Korea by the Ultranationalists a couple of years ago. Designed to be very silent and to travel at high speeds, the submarine could now be anywhere and the only hope to find Lee relied on the intel recovered at the safehouse.
One question was still lingering in the minds of the people who participated in the assault on Lee's compound: how and why did the JASDF have a MiG-29 in their arsenal? General Tsukamoto only said that the MiG was bought by Japan from the Americans to be part of a local aggressor training squadron. However deep inside, Miyuki was not buying the explanation given to her as she felt there was something more to it. For the time being, she did not raise any more questions about the MiG as the debriefing ended. As Miyuki was about to leave the room, Colonel Takahashi stopped her for a second.
"Sergeant Kobayakawa."
"Yes, Colonel?"
"I spoke with Lieutenant Kinoshita. She accepted your request to have Officer Saga loaned to our military intelligence team working on the intel you brought. After a few verifications on her background and checkups on her medical condition, Miss Saga will receive all clearances to work at one of our workstations with full access to military computer resources by tomorrow morning before 10:00 AM."
"Thank you, Colonel! I really appreciate what you've done for us." Miyuki replied in satisfaction at the news that Saori will finally come to help deciphering the files.
"Sergeant... Don't worry about anything at the moment; combat operations will be over soon. Please take a rest; you all earned it after working so hard for the last few days."
"Thank you, Sir!" Miyuki finished.
Then Miyuki joined Natsumi and Shouji as they were looking to have supper at the base's cafeteria. Over there, they met Captain Miyuki Isurugi, Lieutenant Takuya Isurugi, but also Captain Arisa Mitaka and First Lieutenant Touya Kisaka. The JASDF officers invited the 3 on-loan police officers in JGSDF uniforms to have the meal with them and talk about what they did in their recent missions. However, when the Japanese-identified MiG-29 was mentioned later in the conversation, the JASDF officers were as surprised as Miyuki and co. were earlier.
"A MiG-29 Fulcrum with Japanese colors you say? Sorry, I can't remember having seen one." Captain Isurugi said.
"I know it sounds crazy, but that's what we all saw and that MiG saved our lives today." Miyuki replied before she went on. "General Tsukamoto said that the MiG-29 was bought from the Americans to be part of an aggressor training squadron, but I somehow feel there is more history behind that jet."
"We have a number of different jets flying with our aggressor squadron here in Hyakuri Air Base: F-15s, F-2s and a couple of old MiG-23s coming from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. However, I never saw a MiG-29 here. If the MiG was a part of that squadron, it wouldn't be painted with the same camouflage pattern as our F-35s' pattern. Still, that would be cool if we really have this fighter jet in our ranks. Even if the design is over 30 years old, it's still one of the best fighter jets in terms of speed at Mach 2.25, agility, turn performance and resistance at high-speed manoeuvres." Takuya added.
"Sorry if I am not yet an expert in fighter jet specs like you, Lieutenant Isurugi. I am more interested by how this plane arrived in Japan in the first place." Natsumi replied.
"Natsumi is right. Do you guys have an idea on how this MiG arrived in Japan?" Shouji asked.
"I can't tell for sure since there's nothing official, but I heard rumours saying that it could be linked to an incident that happened 14 years ago." Arisa said.
"What incident?" Miyuki asked Arisa who seem to perhaps know part of the story.
"At that time, long before we all thought about our careers, there was a live fire dogfight in broad daylight over Tokyo between an unmarked red-painted MiG-29 and one of our F-15s. It was originally supposed to be only a demonstration dogfight to test a then-new radar-deflecting paint on the F-15, but things got nasty when the F-15 opened fire first at the MiG. We discovered later that the pilot of the F-15 was bribed by a mercenary organization to kill the MiG-29's pilot." Arisa said.
"Oh yeah! I remember watching that once in the news when I was in junior high school. After only trying to dodge enemy fire over the city for a while, the MiG fired back only once at the F-15 but did not finish him after making some damage to the F-15's engine. The F-15's pilot died because the ejection system was sabotaged and the jet crashed in the river." Miyuki said as she remembered a few things about that incident.
"What happened to the MiG afterwards?" Natsumi asked.
"Apparently, we lost its signal on the radar when trying to escape. Official sources said that it was shot down somewhere in the countryside, but some people said that it landed here in Hyakuri before it was secretly transported piece by piece into an undisclosed location." Arisa replied.
"I'm surprised you didn't tell us that story before, Arisa." Touya said.
"Meh! That was a long time ago. I won't care too much about it unless I see a Japanese-identified MiG-29 with my own eyes. I'd love to fly that jet if I come across one of them; that would add to the list of fighter jets I had the chance to fly at least once after the F-15, the F-22 and the F-35."
"Perhaps they saved a few ones just as you wished. I'd love to have a closer look at the jet's systems and avionics; you never know." Takuya added.
"Well, if that MiG-29 is the same as the one that was seen over Tokyo many years ago and now flies for our air force, I guess I don't have to worry about it after all." Miyuki finished.
Some time after finishing supper later in the evening, Captain Isurugi, Takuya and Arisa were summoned by General Tsukamoto for a quick meeting in his office. It was quite unusual for the general to ask for them at this late time. "Why is the general summoning us now? I hope it is not about the rumoured stories I said about the MiG-29 from 14 years ago." Arisa said.
"I hope not either. It was just merely a rumour based on facts that already are of public knowledge." Captain Isurugi said.
"Perhaps the general will give us a special assignment which could get us promoted after that. After all, we kicked lots of enemy butts and saved a lot of our countrymen in the last few days." Takuya exclaimed with his usual enthusiasm.
"You sure know how to keep looking on the bright side of life as always, honey." Captain Isurugi said before she smiled at her husband.
Finally, the 3 JASDF officers arrived in General Tsukamoto's office where the general was waiting for them alongside a JASDF female officer in her mid-thirties, with brown hair, blue eyes and a few Caucasian traits. As the door in the office was closed, Captain Isurugi, Takuya and Arisa all took a seat before the General started. "Young ones, this is Major Naomi Nobira here. She was the one who recommended everyone from the 801st TTS to be transferred to Hyakuri 3 years ago. Major Nobira wants to discuss with you about a special assignment, but it will have to remain top secret if you accept to join in. I guess you know what top secret is."
"Yes, Sir. The kind of assignment where you get medals, but they send 'em to your relatives." Takuya said.
"Sir, it means an assignment where the chances of dying or failing are high, but the mission's objective holds a capital importance." Arisa said.
"It means that we train for something never done before and we go without knowing where we're going, Sir." Captain Isurugi added.
"Correct! On that basis, this mission is a very difficult one, it has never been done before and it might involve the future of our nation should we receive orders from the top to proceed. So, I will only ask this once: are you fully in this or not at all?" General Tsukamoto asked.
"I'm fully in, Sir." all 3 officers one by one replied to the top senior officer of their armed forces branch.
"Very good, people. I'll let Major Nobira give you the headlines before we let you have a good night of sleep and have you all back to work tomorrow. Naomi..." the general finished before she let the major speak.
"Thank you, Sir. Captain Miyuki Isurugi, Captain Arisa Mitaka, Lieutenant Takuya Isurugi... Have you ever wondered what it would be like to fly on a MiG-29?"
October 12, 2016 – 9:45
In the morning of October 12, exactly 6 days after the chemical bombing in Tokyo and the beginning of the Russian invasion, all combat operations in Japan ended as the very few remaining Russian Ultranationalist and North Korean troops finally surrendered to the Japanese and American forces. While the euphoria of the decisive victory took its grip on the Japanese people, the taste of defeat was a very bitter one for their enemies to swallow, especially for the North Korean Supreme Leader. Despite having won the campaign on the Japanese front, the Japanese and American commanders were not celebrating yet as the men responsible for this war were still at large, which meant that the retribution might come quicker than expected at any time.
In that same morning, a young female police officer received all final clearances to enter Hyakuri Air Base's operations center (OC) and start working with the people from military intelligence. Upon arrival at the base and dressed in typical JGSDF uniform, Saori was greeted by familiar faces.
"Saori!" Miyuki shouted.
"Miyuki-senpai! Natsumi-senpai! Lieutenant Toukairin! I was afraid I would not ever see you again. Everything went on so quickly that I even have a hard time realizing the war is already over." Saori said as she came to hug all her friends.
"It might be over in the current form, but I think it ain't over yet. That's why Miyuki got you here. So, how's your head?" Natsumi asked her former protégée.
"It's all right. I guess I am as tough as you, Natsumi-senpai." Saori replied before the 3 women laughed at the last phrase. After that, everyone walked towards the base's OC where Saori would soon start working with a few new colleagues for the time being. "So, what is this all about?"
"Just yesterday, we took part in a raid on a house by the sea in the Niigata Prefecture. It was the base of operations for the JRA terrorists who detonated the chemical bomb in Tokyo and helped the invading forces after that. Their top leader ran away, but we found a stockpile of encrypted data files and those are giving us a hard time decrypting them. They used a very sophisticated encryption algorithm on those files, and you're the only one I know who can identify cipher characteristics, replicate the algorithm, modify it into variants, and use it back and forth to encode or decode anything." Miyuki said.
"We don't know what those files contain, but it must be very important for the North Koreans to send out troops and choppers after us trying to destroy all evidence. Hopefully, it might tell us more about the man who caused all this war on our soil." Shouji added.
"Wow! It looks as realistically twisted as in a Tom Clancy novel, I'll tell you that."
"I know it's almost surreal, but that's what we're facing and I think this traitor has a contingency plan that we need to find out. I'll need you more than ever, Saori. Do you still feel up to the task?" Miyuki asked.
"You can count on me!"
After a walk for a few minutes, the group finally reached the OC where all activities involving military deployments, enemy forces around Japan, the situation on the European front, maritime and air traffic were monitored in real time. Colonel Takahashi was already on site to greet the newcomer on the team. "Officer Saga, I'm Colonel Takahashi, Director of Special Forces and acting supervisor of military intelligence activities."
"Nice to meet you, Sir. I will not disappoint you on duty, Sir!" Saori replied while saluting the colonel.
"Outstanding. I want to introduce you the 3 other people you'll be working with to decode the encrypted files: Lieutenant Setsuka Hino, Sergeant Ayane Mizuki and Sergeant Kaoru Mihara. Ladies, this is Miss Saori Saga; she'll be working with you as a specialist in decrypting the files." the colonel said as he introduced the 3 female soldiers working on the intel to Saori and vice-versa.
"Welcome on the team, Saori!" Setsuka said to Saori who bowed in return to show her appreciation.
"Miss Saga, I also added your friend Sergeant Kobayakawa on the team to guide you through the files as you work on decoding them." Colonel Takahashi added. "You have plenty to do for now, so I'll let you work on those files now. Miss Saga, you're assigned on workstation 3 in the room we prepared for the team to work in. Ladies, just give me a call if you find something major concerning Japan, the JRA leader or Russian President Boris Vorshevsky in there."
"Yes, Sir!"
And so, Saori joined the 4 women assigned with her on the data decryption team as she started looking at the files and studying the characteristics of the encryption algorithm as the first step which would hopefully allow them to find what information and what dark secrets those files were containing. Meanwhile, Natsumi and Shouji left to spend the day in all kinds of physical training around the base before they would pay another visit to Ken in the field hospital.
For a few hours, Saori looked at the encryption algorithm protecting the files and worked in finding a way to find the right way to decode it. It was indeed very sophisticated as Miyuki already told. Saori used her own entire repertoire of knowledge in computer programming trying to find a key, but to no avail. Then Saori also browsed through a few police cases of the past and through the files she kept about anything related to computer programming. Finally, Saori remembered something.
"Miyuki! I knew I already saw most components of that algorithm somewhere."
"Where?" Miyuki asked as all the women on the intelligence team gathered to listen.
"Just a month ago. It came from an employee at the MOD that I met once in a group blind date night organized by Yoriko. His name's Hideki Aizawa. Good-looking guy, he was working a lot in computer programming for his boss at the Ministry and that he was working on a very sophisticated encryption algorithm to protect communications for the military people and our government's VIPs."
"Where is he now? He could help us now." Kaoru asked.
"We won't have that chance... He was killed in a car accident less than a week later. He was such a good guy and I took a liking to him. We shared that common interest of computer programming and I wanted to meet him again out of work." Saori replied as Miyuki could feel some pain in her younger partner's voice.
"I'm really sorry, Saori."
"Then a short time after the supposed time of his death, I received an e-mail that came from him as if he programmed his own computer to send me an automatic posthumous message if he died. He only wrote that he could only trust me 'to use this key in order to save the future'. In the message, he put up the files in which the detailed plans of his algorithm were shown. It was something that I've never seen before; that algorithm was very well-executed work. After that, I learned that his apartment was burned to ashes, thus I since thought his death wasn't an accident."
"Do you mean that he discovered that the code he created was in fact designed to protect communications between the Japanese traitors and North Korea instead of the Japanese government systems?" Miyuki asked Saori.
"I think Aizawa discovered the extent of the conspiracy which would lead to this war, that he was unwillingly working for the enemy, and that he probably tried to warn me as the only person he could trust. If only I knew what he meant back then..."
And then Saori started crying as she wished she understood her male friend's message to avoid this war. Miyuki came to comfort her young partner. "I know how it's easy to tell ourselves how we could have done things better in the past. I've been there before, but I was also told that fate can give second chances. This is perhaps the second chance you are given to prevent another major disaster, to fulfill his final wish and honour his memory. I'm sure he'd tell you jump on this opportunity now if he was here with you."
Miyuki's last words reached Saori's heart as the young brunette stopped crying. Saori found a renewed strength to overcome her sudden grief. "And you're not alone in this, Saori! We're here to help you too. If you can help saving lives by getting this job done, his death won't be in vain after all." Sergeant Ayane Mizuki added with enthusiasm in the process of cheering Saori up, which it worked.
"Thanks guys! If those animals used my friend against our country, then I shall use their algorithm against them." Saori finished before she retrieved the files that she saved as a backup on her e-mail account since the last month. Once the files were retrieved, Saori started building the program which would be used later to decipher the encrypted files. Answers were about to be found.
October 12, 2016 – 17:21
Since the middle of the afternoon, Saori finally got the decryption program ready as the plans designed by the late Hideki Aizawa helped the intelligence team to build the decoding system. Among the files that were decoded, they were written in at least 7 different languages and it added to the long process of analyzing Lee's many secrets. Translating from Korean to Japanese was easy while translating from European languages took more time. While Saori was working on decrypting the files, Ayane and Kaoru helped translating the documents by using an advanced translation program. Meanwhile, Miyuki and Lieutenant Setsuka Hino were reading the translated contents on their computers.
"If I did not know better about Lee's actions, I would say the MOD really wasted such a real genius when it comes to foreign languages. This guy is able to read and speak Japanese, Korean, Russian, English, French, German and Spanish." Ayane said.
"It's mind-boggling indeed. Perhaps that's part of the reason why Vladimir Makarov worked with him in business together for almost 20 years." Miyuki added.
"When you look at it, he must have helped Makarov establishing a number of contacts in Spain, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom to make those chemical bombings happen. We have everything here: names, locations, anything that would help European intelligence agencies to find those lunatics." Setsuka replied.
"Do we have something about Lee's or President Vorshevsky's whereabouts?" Miyuki asked.
"I have nothing about President Vorshevsky's exact location in those files so far, but I read a few documents about recent troop deployments from Makarov's own private army to many different places in the middle of Eastern Siberia. Among the files, Eastern Siberia is repeated several times to be of vital importance. It's as if they are hiding something over there and want to increase security although nobody would normally launch an attack over there." Kaoru replied.
"Eastern Siberia... one of the most isolated areas on the planet and the region is a real jackpot for the mining industry. It would be the perfect place to hide a president after hijacking the presidential plane and kidnapping him." Miyuki said as she put a sticker note on the world map and on top of Eastern Siberia as a possible location. The world map was annotated with several notes about Lee's contacts with the Inner Circle and other terrorist cells in Europe.
Around one hour later, more files were decoded and translated. More contacts were identified and located in various places such as the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Indonesia and Pakistan. If Makarov and the rest of his Inner Circle were on the run, they would be able to move to many possible places with the number of contacts worldwide. As Miyuki read through the most recently translated files while Lieutenant Hino was taking a short break, she read another file which looked to be orders given to Satoshi Lee by the North Korean Central Command. Miyuki read that in case the Russian and North Korean invasion of Japan would fail, Lee and all the people from the JRA were to get on board of the Victor class submarine and fall back to the safehouse in the Sinpo area, in North Korea.
"Bloody hell!" Miyuki cursed as she borrowed one of Newcastle's typical expressions.
"What is it, Miyuki?" Saori asked.
"I know where Lee is right now. He's somewhere in the Sinpo area. Do you know what is there?"
"Yes! It's a fishing port city. Just one mile to the South, there's Mayang-do Island. Apparently, Mayang-do is their largest submarine base and it would be quite the place for a Victor class submarine to make a stop." Setsuka replied.
"But we can't send any troops over there, can we?" Kaoru asked.
"We are under a self-defense-only policy. However, the Americans could send troops if we provide them the intel in full detail." Miyuki replied.
"Such a shame! I wish we could get in there and launch a huge payload of cruise missiles on them after everything they did to our people." Ayane said as she was raging at the thought of the atrocities committed by KPA soldiers in her former hometown in Nagano.
"When the time is right, Ayane. When the time is right. We are soldiers and we'll fight only to hit where it hurts their massive armed forces the most if we have to, not against civilians. We are better than those bastards." Setsuka finished as she tried to comfort her friend.
Then Miyuki went to the next translated files and read through them. Suddenly, Miyuki's eyes widened and she dropped herself back into her chair with her hands holding her face. When Saori and the 3 military women saw the distraught Miyuki, they immediately came to her.
"Sergeant Kobayakawa... What's wrong? What's going on?" Setsuka asked.
"Call Colonel Takahashi and tell him to get here. We might have a huge problem."
"How huge is it?" Setsuka asked.
"Potentially thermonuclear." Miyuki finished with a low voice in disbelief. The last word prompted Saori and the 2 sergeants on the intelligence team to work faster on decoding the remaining files while Setsuka called Colonel Takahashi.
About what Miyuki just read, it was a message between Makarov and Lee which said that in case the ground invasion of Europe and Japan would fail, the use of nuclear weapons in a joint attack would be authorized at some point to destroy all American influence on those countries. The message also said that once Makarov's men capture President Vorshevsky's daughter, Alena, it won't be long until he gives up the launch codes. While Makarov would unleash nukes on Europe, Lee would puppet the DPRK's military command to fire nukes on Japan. For Japan alone, there was mention of ICBM strikes aimed towards Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo and Okinawa as "the necessary sacrifices to purge Japan from the American burden and allow Japan to expand itself just like before 1945."
October 12, 2016 – 18:31
Once Colonel Takahashi received the call from Lieutenant Hino, he immediately rushed towards the office where Miyuki and co. were working. He couldn't believe the nature of threat nor the extent of Lee's insanity as described in the documents. It was now a matter of a threat involving not only Japan, but also the rest of the free world.
"So, all this man wants is to destroy 4 Japanese cities including the nation's capital, the heart of our economy, the biggest city of the North and the main American military base in Japan because of his ideal for a Japan free of the American influence. Is that what you're telling me?" Colonel Takahashi asked.
"Yes indeed, Sir. This man's plan was always to find a way to kick out all forms of American influence in order to allow Japan to emerge into a remilitarized superpower even if it costs millions of lives. Right now, he's sitting in his safehouse somewhere in the Sinpo area." Miyuki said.
"Then why did he ally himself with North Korea to launch a powerful attack on the country if he was hoping Japan would radicalize itself and rise as a superpower?"
"Sir. In my humble opinion, I think he knows that the KPA would get weaker at some point and that the Japanese people would answer the country's call to defy the occupation forces towards a decisive victory. It's also our belief that Lee created this chaos on purpose so the Japanese people would reject their relationships with Western countries and prompt the arrival of an extremist government that would allow a full remilitarization to take revenge on North Korea. It was stated that Lee supplied North Korea with loads of cash from his smuggling operations and made solid relationships with their military commanders. It's possible that Lee bribed them to start the war and then give them a nice retirement bonus after the KPA falls apart." Setsuka replied.
"Lee sees Japan as a huge tinderbox and all he needs was to light the match that would lead into the rise of extremism at the expense of millions of lives on both sides. He tried with conventional warfare, but that step failed miserably since the enemy was pushed out in less than 6 days. Now, he's just waiting the signal from Makarov to launch a nuclear attack that would light that match and bring the people of Japan to burn all bridges with the West before retaliating against a weakened North Korea. And once the DPRK is destroyed, Makarov and Lee would use their contacts to negotiate a peace treaty between Russia and Japan before the Japanese extremist government would be allowed to conquer more Asian countries as long as there's no open war against Russia; hence the reference to pre-1945." Miyuki added.
"So Lee wants to see Japan conquering the lands that were under Japanese control during WWII, including China. But who in Japan right now would take advantage of such chaos except for the people working in military industries?" Colonel Takahashi asked.
"I have names in one of the most recently decoded files here: Councillors Ichiro Takeda, Takumi Kojima, Katsuo Sugai of the DPJ, Takeo Nakata and Noboru Misaki of the LDP." Ayane said.
"Takeda, Kojima and Nakata are on the defense committee. Sugai had shares in military industries and Misaki plans to become the next Prime Minister by adopting a more nationalist approach. These people don't care whether the next government would lean towards the left or towards the right as long as it embraces the ideal of Japan as an independent militarized superpower. They received money under Lee's promise of leading the new extremist government and making loads of money from remilitarization. We are about to find the exact numbers on how much money Lee gave them." Setsuka added.
Colonel Takahashi took a few moments to organize his thoughts about what was just said and then he remembered something. "Takeda, Kojima and Nakata had several meetings with Minister Fujimura about the MOD's budget. If they were bribed, that would explain why some 'projects' were allowed to go through with the recommendation seal of the MOD. What's even worse is that the 5 politicians have enough charisma to play on the people's emotions and bring down our current government if we don't act quickly." he said.
"I know that many people want North Korea to pay for the atrocities they committed and even reduce their country to rubbles if any. I don't think I'd ever forgive them for what happened, but I cannot allow a group of people using their own agenda to sacrifice so many innocent civilians on both sides and make money with the blood of the innocent." Miyuki said.
"I cannot and I won't allow it either, Sergeant Kobayakawa. If Lee was a soldier once in his life, he would perhaps understand that the duty of every soldier is to protect the innocent. Unfortunately he has never been a soldier and he has become the shameless bastard he is. We WILL protect the people against enemies from the outside or from the inside." Colonel Takahashi said.
"Thank you, Sir."
"Do you think you can enter the North Korean computer systems with that algorithm, Miss Saga?" the colonel asked.
"With some work and some hacking skills of my own, I'll be able to unearth their deepest secrets and find what we need in there without being detected." Saori replied.
"Thank you and great job, ladies! Find the exact coordinates on the North Korean nuclear warheads and on Lee's current position. The 5 politicians who got bribed by Lee will be put under house arrest after I send the information to the Ministry of Justice. I'll also inform General Tsukamoto and the Prime Minister so we can set up our anti-missile countermeasures. And if there's something new about Lee's exact location or anything which could help us neutralize their nuclear missiles, keep us updated. Dismiss!" Colonel Takahashi said.
"Yes, Sir!"
October 12, 2016 – 19:27
After the last files from the DSM were decoded, Saori immediately proceeded to transform Aizawa's algorithm into a mutating variant according to the late MOD programmer's plans. By creating a polymorphic variant based on Aizawa's original algorithm used by the enemy, Saori was expecting that the North Korean systems would recognize the algorithm user as a friendly after inputting the access code and password on the North Korean computer system. At the same time, it would also allow Saori to use other tricks to breach inside the system undetected.
"Yes! I'm in!" Saori exclaimed.
"You hacked in the North Korean government systems? What will happen if they manage to trace it here?" Miyuki asked.
"If the North Koreans had to use one of our people to create their protection barrier, it only shows one thing: North Koreans are slugheads in that domain. They will never detect me; nobody screws with Saori Saga." the young officer said before she typed something and sent the spike into their system. "Spiked them!"
"Saori, you're scary at times. What's next?" Miyuki asked.
"My program seizes the phone or optical cable line of whoever's tracing me and jams their modem so they can't hang up. Now, the hunted becomes the hunter. Let's start playing with the chemical weapon and fire alarms in all of their government buildings and send those government employees to take some fresh air." Saori replied.
All the way in North Korea, the alarms designed to detect fire and/or chemical gas went off in all civilian and military buildings owned by the DPRK government. Having hacked her way into a few camera feeds, Saori watched the scene hundreds of miles away as the night shift employees of the DPRK government were walking out towards the exits within minutes.
"Wow! That's really amazing." Setsuka said.
"This is only the appetizer part. Now, we have the main course on Pyongyang." Saori added while she proceeded to the next step. Within seconds, all the traffic control lights in Pyongyang went haywire while all the trains were paralyzed with all railway signals ordering the trains to stop. After that step was done, Saori proceeded to the next phase as she initiated a full takeover of their phone lines, cell phone networks and satellites. In just a few minutes, people could say that Saori was in total control of the North Korean capital from a computer, much to everyone's disbelief.
"What did you do to them?" Kaoru asked.
"I only applied the first 2 steps of the 3 required to make a fire sale, which is a 3-step attack on their national infrastructure. First, you take care of transportation systems. Second, you take over telecoms and financial bases." Saori answered.
"And what's the 3rd step?" Ayane asked.
"If you really want to know, it's about taking over control of utilities like gas, water, electricity and nuclear power plants. People call it a fire sale because everything must go out."
"I thought it was only a myth. How many people in Pyongyang would be affected if you proceed with step 3?" Miyuki asked as her eyes widened when looking at Saori.
"If I was a cold-blooded person, I could have a power on life and death over hundreds of thousands of people just by controlling water, electricity and nuclear... which I won't do as it is my duty as a soldier to protect the innocent."
"You're really scary indeed, Saori. Thanks for not being a terrorist." Miyuki said as she couldn't believe what her friend can and could do with just the right tools and a computer. A few minutes later, Saori took advantage of the confusion in the entire North Korean government body to finally enter the DPRK's military systems.
"I'm in their Ministry of Defense now. What are we looking for?"
"First, we have to know where the launching sites for their nuclear warheads are." Setsuka said first. Upon this demand, Saori screened through the system and she quickly found the actual location of the 14 nuclear warheads produced by the North Korean nuclear facilities.
"Most of those warheads are concentrated in the East and the Southeast of the country. It's as if they planned a long time ago to use them on either us, South Korea or the United States. Most of them are to be launched from silos, but a few of them are on giant launcher trucks" Saori described the intel she found on the nukes.
"Can you have the transponder frequency of those trucks so we can track them at all times?" Lieutenant Hino asked.
"Sure do!" Saori replied as she marked the coordinates of the warheads and the transponder frequencies on the ICBM trucks. "What's next?"
"We want to know about Satoshi Lee's exact location and about the list of military facilities around his position in the Sinpo area" Miyuki said.
"I'm on it!" Saori looked through the database for Lee's whereabouts and then found where the safehouse was. "He's on Mayang-do Island in a nice house located 20 meters from the base's control center on the North side of the island. The lucky bastard!"
"So, he's on an island, eh? What is the inventory of the military facilities in the area?" Setsuka asked.
"Apparently, there is an air base on the mainland just outside of Sinpo. They also have a non-nuclear cruise missile base on the island, patrol ships and coastal artillery. Submarines... They have a few Romeo class diesel subs, around 15 Sang-O class diesel subs, and one Victor class nuclear submarine at the docks. Hold it!" Saori said.
"What is it?" Miyuki asked.
"Apparently, the Russian Ultranationalists are sending an Oscar-II cruise missile submarine that will arrive in Mayang-do in late afternoon tomorrow." Saori said.
"What's an Oscar-II class submarine?" Kaoru asked.
"It's one of the largest submarine classes ever built. It has 24 cruise missiles on board and that's more than enough firepower to start a counterattack against our navy and the coastline. They're probably planning another attack soon." Setsuka answered.
"If I'm not mistaken, it's the same kind of submarine that the Americans hijacked during the Battle of New York to fire the cruise missiles against the Russian fleet and force the invasion forces to retreat. Is that it?" Miyuki asked.
"That's exactly the same kind of ship indeed. That could be really interesting if we can get this data to the Americans so they send a special ops team to infiltrate on board and use their cruise missiles against the enemy nukes. That wouldn't set off the nukes, but it would damage the nuclear missiles beyond repair." Setsuka replied while her idea seemed to be very appealing for a special ops mission.
"And if half of the team apprehends Lee and make him spill the beans on President Vorshevsky's whereabouts, our problems would be solved." Miyuki added before Setsuka nodded in agreement. Miyuki then turned to Saori: "I think we're done here. Did you copy everything from their database?"
"I did. I will log out now before they start raising suspicions about the possibility that some foreign government hacked in to steal military secrets."
"Okay, do it. Great job, Saori!" Miyuki replied as she gave a tap in Saori's back to congratulate her.
"Thanks! I can get back in there at any time I want if you need more information." Saori replied with a smile as she completed the logout without leaving any evidence of her forced entry.
"I think we can call the colonel now, Lieutenant." Miyuki said.
Immediately, Setsuka picked up the phone and asked for the SFG colonel. Once Colonel Takahashi got at the other end of the line, Setsuka announced the news: "Colonel. We found the exact coordinates on Lee's position and the nuclear missiles, and we also have plenty of things that could interest you."
'Thank you, Hideki! That was for you!' Saori thought as she successfully used her late friend's creation to unearth all the secrets in the North Korean military. In the next few hours, military satellites were deployed over the designated locations and consistently screened for any activity on the ground. At the same time, the JASDF set their MIM-104 Patriot anti-ballistic missiles ready to intercept around the cities while the Maritime Self-Defense Forces deployed the Aegis destroyers alongside the US Navy around Japan to hold a defensive position at the moment. At the same time behind the scenes, an audacious plan was about to see daylight.
Notes: Quite a very long chapter, I'll tell you that. I didn't expect there would be so much material and we'll need one more chapter before we proceed with the next mission. About previous chapters, I already corrected a few things as Ominae wrote. Sometimes, it's not easy to realize mistakes that were made unless you read it 3-4 times after it was published for a while. The concept of a posthumous e-mail sent automatically by a computer came from Death Note as that particular moment became a key moment in the series for those who watched it.
If you read the manga titled Red Prowling Devil by Toshimitsu Shimizu (the man who created 801st TTS Airbats), you already recognized Naomi O'Brian who is the pilot of the mysterious MiG-29. I was so captivated by the story that it gave me an idea to expand a few things in my story and add a new valuable ally. As you can guess, Nobira is the anagram for O'Brian.
In next chapter, we'll discover how Naomi arrived in the JASDF and the plan for the next attack will be ready although a few complications will arise. Also, the top MW universe character I promised to include in my story will make his first appearance and join forces with our protagonists all the way to the very end.