Chapter XII: Guns of the Patriots.
0700hrs, 23 July 2013, "Top Secret" Medical Facility, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.
"To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties." Jean Jacques Rousseau, On the Social Contract.
"Nipah, motherfucker." Rika Furude, Higurashi Parody Fandub
In the two weeks following the surgery, things has progressed at breakneck speed. In an hour, they had learned how to assemble and dissemble Howa Type 64s and 89s, M16A4s, M4A1s, AK47s, AK74s, AKMs, PK and PKM machine guns, M60s, M240s, M249s, FN-FALs, L85s, G36s, MP5s…the list went on and on. In a day, they had learned how to fire all the weapons and had started using basic infantry tactics on a kill house that had been set up by Akamatsu. The best time he had in clearing out (with a team, of course) the place was one minute, twenty seconds. They did it in fifty.
In a week, the girls had memorized the entirety of the US Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual and were working on advanced tactics, from clearing a house with multiple entry points, lock picking, pickpocketing, disabling a tank with improvised explosives, precision sniping, aggressive driving tactics, calling in airstrikes and artillery strikes, use of crew-served weapons, use of explosives, and use of said artillery. They had learned first aid, and then advanced medical care, even practicing some limited surgery and incisions on some dummies such as tracheotomies, removal of foreign objects from the body and the severing of afflicted limbs (this freaked Lita and Serena out, so they didn't do that). Amy was especially good at this part.
In two weeks, they had learned the use of anti-tank weaponry, police and military rules of engagement (for all different situations), analysis of intelligence, tailing cars, planting bugs, social engineering, several branches of political philosophy from the Democratic, Monarchic, Socialist, Autocratic, and Authoritative perspective, including (but not limited to), John Stuart Mill, John Locke, Adam Smith, Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Edmund Burke, Emma Goldman, and others. Foreign languages were still hard though, and everyone struggled through even the most basic of English phrases. The one person who had the least amount of trouble, was surprisingly, Mina. Amy was close behind, but Mina seemed to fluently speak it in no time, chatting incessantly with some person in America that she randomly called up one day. Despite the standardized curriculum, her English was the British type, rather than the Americanized variant that Amy spoke, leading to some confusion over whether "to table" something at meeting. Mina insisted that the new menu items on the cafeteria menu needed to be tabled immediately, where Amy thought that they shouldn't be tabled at all. It was only after a search on the internet pointed out that both Mina and Amy were correct in their thinking, just that they were using different definitions for the same word.
The girls had begun to specialize as well, with each team member taking on different roles in the combat unit.
Raye had picked up a flamethrower used in the Vietnam War and had almost burned down the practice range that Akamatsu had set up outside (the burning was passed off as a small brush fire). Laughing with glee, she then proceeded to torch two hundred square meters of forest, to which she was admonished harshly (this was barely passed off as a brush fire…again). After that, she was told to put the flamethrower away and to only use when ordered. She then proceeded to (out of boredom) 1. Blow up Akamatsu's prized BMW with a claymore 2. Destroy a ski cabin at the resort down the road from them with an AT4 and 3. Cause an avalanche on the nearby mountain by detonating some C4 by accident. They gave the flamethrower back.
Lita became the only person to use less than lethal weaponry, carrying a Taser around for those snatch and grab missions, or in case they just didn't want to kill someone ("Why would you not want to do that?" asked Raye.) She learned martial arts from Youtube, focusing mostly on Krav Magra in taking down targets and unarmed combat. This lead to Akamatsu being tossed around like a rag doll during CQB training, until he could no longer get up and fight and many a comparison to Full Metal Alchemist ("But it's my left arm, not my right!" she protested). She also had a ballistic shield when needed, as she was the first one in when breaching a room.
Amy, as always, was the brains of the group. She had very little weaponry (although she did know how to use assault rifles and such), but carried a small recon drone (a RQ-11 Raven), a Toughbook, and other technological devices that would aid in their fight in both cyberspace and in the field. And with computers, came the ability to manipulate data and to compromise data security. At first, she learned Linux, starting with Ubuntu and Debian, moving to Redhat and other Linux based server operating systems. Command line was easy, starting with the commands man, touch, mkdir, kill, adduser, sudo, su, passwd, ls, ls-l, cd, ps, ps-l and then moving to looking at specific programs within in the Linux system to manipulate. Hacking merely consists of the right tools (most of them as freeware), a lot of patience, and the willingness to break into a system. In two days, she successfully broke into the JSDF's database regarding North Korea and China, the Chinese Defense Minister's private email account, and the US Ambassador's communiques with Washington.
Mina was the suave one. Getting into or out of a situation was just the right word here, an ego stroke there, looking like someone who was completely lost, and you had money, passwords, data, you name it. One day after training, she was bored. So she called the secretary at Kantei, asking for the Prime Minister. She posed as an "external" contact of the PM, and eventually cajoled her way to the Chief of Staff. She sobbed to the COS that she was the daughter of a certain DPJ member and that she needed to talk to him after some "domestic" trouble. Finally, the PM came on the line and Mina told him who she was, much to his surprise (he remembered who she was). They ended up talking about baseball for ten minutes or so, then she said goodbye and hung up.
Serena was the all-rounder. Not as tech savvy as Amy, not as CQB focused as Lita, definitely not as suave as Mina, and not as violent as Raye. But she was the person that coordinated everyone, getting the info from Amy and Mina, softening up the enemy with Raye and closing in with Lita. Working tandem, they were able (in theory) to defeat a force ten, twenty, thirty, possibly up to one hundred times their size by defeating them in detail, using mobility to nullify the strength in numbers, and just having more technology available to kill more things. That was the entire point of SAILOR; operate with tactical impunity and get the job done.
It was at this point that the JSDF brass were becoming involved. Since SAILOR had progressed so fast, they were impressed by the project and had come down to the medical facility where they were training. Officially, this was a JSDF owned area, so the explosions could be forgiven…mostly. There was some stuff (i.e, Raye) that had to be covered up, but for the most part, the locals left them alone. Memories of the 2011 tsunami still in their minds, they didn't want to get on the bad side of the JSDF. Today, General Ishimura, Chief of Staff for the Air Self Defense Force, came down for a little visit. He pulled up in a limousine outside the facility, surrounded by several Jeeps and SUVs. The three "Ks" were there to greet him.
"General Ishimura," Kobayashi said to him, bowing politely as Ishimura got out of the limousine. "We were not expecting you today."
General Ishimura curtly bowed back; he was higher ranking after all. But he did owe the famous doctor in front of him some respect. "I heard the progress from a…contact (read, Akamatsu). I want to see them for myself."
"Of course, General," Kobayashi responded.
The four of them walked through the facility, with Dr. Kobayashi pointing out all of the trapping of this medical facility.
"This here is our dining hall," he pointed out.
"Looks quite big for just five people," Ishimura said to him.
"There are other people here, General," Nurse Kuroi interrupted. Kawasaki gave her a dirty look, but the General was intrigued.
"What other personnel are there here?"
"Well, there's about thirty or so medical staff, from orderlies who also double as janitors, nurses such as myself, and doctors. In addition, there's about forty or so security personnel around here," she stated.
"That seems like a lot of security for a small place such as this."
"We need to keep prying eyes out," was the response from Kuroi.
"It's a prudent, and necessary step, General," Dr. Kawasaki interrupted.
"I wasn't questioning the need for the security force," Ishimura said back. "I'm sure such steps are needed for a project as secret as this one."
"Anyway…I don't know the specifics on the security people here," Kuroi was hesitant now. "…who's the head of security here?"
Kobayashi had the answer. "It's Kuraudo Ooishi. He's a former Tokyo Met officer, with some anti-Yakuza operations under his belt."
"Most of the security people from the Met?" the General asked.
"Some. A lot of them are ex-local or state police officers. That's all we need."
"No JSDF?"
"Sorry General," Kobayashi said sheepishly. "They keep getting picked up by the PMCs and all of those companies. We just can't compete with them, so we're stuck with what we get. We can't use official security forces, or companies, so we have to do almost everything in house."
General Ishimura shrugged. "Well, at least you have a good sized budget."
"Very much so," Kobayashi replied. "Anyway, shall we continue to the kill house?"
They walked down to the kill house that Akamatsu was resetting…again after the girls had blasted through it.
"Mr. Akamatsu," Kobayashi said. "How did the girls do today on the course?"
Akamatsu rolled his eyes. "They're down to forty five seconds, the entire house." The kill house was nothing more than a bunch of tires placed so that they formed simulated rooms, in which targets (or innocent civilians) could be places. It was the job of the entry team to clear out the entire building. The layout of the building was pretty simple; the team would go through basically a loop anticlockwise around a simulated house, with several rooms and hallways to be cleared out.
Some teams took longer than others, while every time that the girls went to the kill house, they set a new record.
"Impressive," Ishimura said. "Can we see them in action?"
"Of course." Kobayashi sent Nurse Kuroi to get the girls, who were finishing up breakfast. They came back down in five minutes, wondering what was going on.
"Hey, doctor person," Serena said to Kobayashi. "Why are we back down here? We just did this kill house."
"Well, do it again," Akamatsu snapped. "This is General Ishimura, Chief of Staff for the Air Self Defense Force. He was interested in your progress, and I think it would be better for all of us if you ran the course again."
Serena glared at Akamatsu. "Fine, we'll run the course again."
A couple minutes later, they were all suited up and ready to go. Lita was in first, with the ballistic shield and the Glock 19 from before, with a MP5A3 slung behind her. Raye was right behind her, with a M4A1 carbine and a shortened Mossburg 500 shotgun slung over her shoulder. Amy also had that Glock 19, with a tactical vest. Mina carried a compact MP5-PDW, and Serena brought up the rear with a M4 Carbine Close Quarters Battle Receiver, a very compact and shortened down version of the M4A1 (yes, such a thing is possible).
They stacked up at the entrance to the kill house. Lita and Raye were on the left side of the entrance, and Amy, Mina and Serena were on the right side.
"Okay, ready?" Akamatsu yelled. He had a stopwatch in hand, ready to begin.
"Yeah, we're ready," Lita replied.
"And…go!"
Amy tossed in a flashbang, which detonated. Lita and Raye shuffled in the entrance and cleared the left side of the room. Right behind them, Amy and Mina cleared the right side. No targets.
"Clear!" Lita yelled.
"Clear!" Mina said.
"Next area guys," Serena ordered. Again, Amy tossed a flashbang in the hallway and they charged in. This time, there were targets that popped up. Two civilian, two hostiles.
"Contact!" Raye snapped her M4 up and looked down the red dot sight. Bang. Bang. Two headshots. Two scared shitless civilians.
In this hallway, there were three rooms, two on the left and one on the right (this was excluding the room they had just come out of). Quickly moving, the team split up, with Lita and Raye taking the rooms on the left and the rest of the team on the right.
"Go!" Serena, again, ordered. Two flashbangs, and then the two elements barged in their designated rooms.
The rooms on the left were connected with each other, which made it somewhat easier to keep moving. Lita went in first, of course, and snapped two shots off at a target on the right. Raye took down two more on the left.
"Nice work," she commented on Lita's shooting. "Next room."
There were two civilians and four hostiles in this one. No problem. Eight shots later, the tangos all had holes in them.
"Clear!"
On the right, there were a shit ton of targets. The room was supposed to represent a kitchen or something like that. Five hostiles, but no civvies. Amy took aim…one…two…three shots. Two targets.
Mina switched to burst and depressed the trigger twice. Six shots. Three Targets.
"Clear!"
The rest of the kill house was secured in no time.
At the end of the kill house, the girls piled out in a "V" formation, weapons on safe and unloaded.
"How did we do?" Serena asked. She was sweating, from the exertion, yes, but from also nervousness about being watched by some of the top brass in JSDF.
"Well, you did it in…" Akamatsu deliberately paused for dramatic tension but continued when General Ishimura shot him a glare.
"…forty…flat."
There was a gasp from everyone. "Forty seconds!" Lita exclaimed. "That's five better than we did earlier this morning!"
"God, we're just that good," Raye said with a smirk.
"How about that," Serena said to Akamatsu, who looked away.
"What was their time last week?" Ishimura asked Akamatsu.
"It was…" he sighed. "It was fifty seconds."
"So in the course of a week, they've beaten your time by thirty seconds, and then moved their lead up by ten. This progress is remarkable."
"Yes sir," was the only reply Akamatsu could give the General.
"I think that this program is coming along swimmingly," the General continued. "I'm so glad you've been training them well." He clapped Akamatsu on the back. Unfortunately, he was still sore from the beating that Lita gave him, and he winced at the General's compliment.
After the kill house, Ishimura met them all in the large conference room for the debriefing.
"Girls, I am very impressed by the progress you have made here," he said. "I think that after just a little bit more training, we can release you into the real world, to do some good."
He turned to the three "Ks". "Doctors, Nurse. I am very impressed by the way you have handled yourselves here, especially when it came to mending these fine people."
"Thank you General," Kawasaki said, bowing.
"Well, with that, I think we have one more thing to clear up before starting in on the most intense part of training," Ishimura said.
"What would that be?" Serena asked.
"It's kind of a silly thing, but since you're going to be out in the field, we can't call you by your real names. Therefore, we use callsigns to refer to people and objectives to simplify the mission logistics and communication." " I was thinking…well…what kind of callsign would you like use?" General Ishimura asked. "It should be SAILOR, which is this program, with a suffix attached to it. It would only be right to have you come up with your own designation."
Everyone thought about it for a second.
Amy had remembered from a book she had been reading about astrology, and the power that each planet represented. The Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter.
"Why not Earth?" Ishimura asked.
She shrugged. "Just because. Kind of obvious…it gives it a more exotic feel."
"Okay then…who's who?"
Amy thought for a second. "Well, I'm kind of like Mercury; curious, inquisitive, and I like to take things apart and put them back together again. Serena is like the Moon, "Emotional." Serena rolled her eyes, but it was true. "But caring, feeling, looking out for others, making sure everything is okay."
That's true, SAILOR Moon thought.
"What about me?" Raye asked.
"You're Mars, hands down. Fiery, confident, aggressive, energy, and strength. Lita, I'm to getting you."
Lita looked at her, with a smile. "You would be Jupiter. Growth…" Everyone laughed at that. She was tall, and…well…."talented" in more ways than one. "Expansion, prosperity and good fortune."
"That's me, of course." SAILOR Jupiter beamed with pride.
Mina was last, but not least. "Well, knowing you and your, well, escapades…" Mina blushed. She had a new boyfriend every week it seemed like when they were still in school. "You're Venus. Passion, love, feelings, affections, understanding of other people, and communication with others." Mina nodded in approval.
"So, that will be your callsigns then," General Ishimura said. Not the ones I would have come up with, but they will have to do. "SAILOR Moon, SAILOR Mars, SAILOR Mercury, SAILOR Jupiter, and SAILOR Venus."
"Present and accounted for," Mercury said. All of the SAILORs came to attention, and saluted smartly. General Ishimura returned the salute.
"Okay girls, time for your first training mission," Kawasaki interrupted. Ishimura glared at him. "I mean, all SAILOR units are to report for training," he stuttered.
All the members of SAILOR-SF were assembled and ready for their first training mission, which was remarkable considering the state they had been in only two months ago. Their broken bodies healed, limbs replaced, intelligence increased, and the sheer variety of skills that had been learned. It was beyond a miracle what had happened here, at the "Top Secret" Medical Facility.
They were taken downstairs to the basement ("Again?" Mina complained), where they led to the same room that they had undergone the fluid treatment. Instead of being filled with medical equipment however, the room had completely changed from the last time they had seen it.
"What are these things?" Amy asked. They were like the ones that they had undergone the fluid treatment, but instead of liquid, there was much more equipment there. Huge servers, mainframes and assorted electronic equipment led up to the chambers, now with swing-out doors. Inside of the containers was a small seat, with wires and tubes everywhere.
"These are the VR simulators," Kobayashi said. "Virtual Reality. We can do some of the more advanced stuff in here. You'll be better prepared for combat after you use these things."
"I don't know…" Amy was skeptical. "Maybe I've played too many video games, but I don't like where this heading."
"Oh come on," Kawasaki said. "This is nothing like the MGS series."
"Or Heavy Rain," Mina added. Everyone looked at her.
"You played Heavy Rain?" Amy asked, disbelieving. "I didn't think you had the patience."
"Well, I did. It was a big shock when I found that the Origami killer was…"
"Shut up Mina," Raye hissed. "Spoilers."
"Right…" Kawasaki continued. "Anyway, it's safe. Really, I've done it before, and it's really cool."
"Oh, if you've done it, then we're okay," Serena said, somewhat sarcastically. "Fine, I call center one."
After a quick argument among the SAILORs about which chamber belonged to whom, they climbed in and fastened the straps on the seats. The techs and orderlies then attached monitoring equipment to them, just in case something when wrong. They then set about prepping the girls for the simulation, which took about thirty minutes since this was their first time in the machines.
"Ready?" Kawasaki asked.
"Ready," came the reply from everyone.
Dr. Kawasaki nodded to a tech, who activated the sequence to start the simulation. The lids closed, and the girls saw darkness.