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I would like to thank the people who own the rights to School Rumble and Bleach for not suing me.
Updated January 12, 2008: Three more chapters to edit before I get back to writing chapter 31. I'm not sure that chapter 14 came out the way I wanted them to.
Chapter 14: Strengthening Ties
"When the metal meet the meat
Each other is all you got"
A scene from the movie We Were Soldiers
1341 Hours; June 30th, 2010; some town on the Kitan Strait; the Wakayama Prefecture, Japan
The 27th Infantry Battalion: Dogwood Company, Echo Company, and Foxglove Company, were assembled in a town east of the city of Osaka on the edge of the Kitan Strait which separated Awaji Island and Honshu.
Joining them was Item Company of the US 3rd Marine Battalion and Kite Company of the Japanese 8th Marine Battalion. Due to weather reports of a storm coming out of the Pacific and heading west into the Seto Inland Sea, Operation: Red Water would have to be pushed ahead of schedule from July 1st instead of the 2nd.
Unfortunately, on such short notice only 12 of the 16 hovercraft and 32 of the 40 MH-53EJ Super Stallions were ready for the operation. They were promised, however, that two companies of German artillery and one company of rocket artillery was available plus a few squadrons of German fighters and fighter-bombers. In addition USMC aviators and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces were also going to support the attack.
Major Daijin in a school lecture hall of an abandoned town and was giving her officers and NCOs (non-commissioned officers) a final briefing on the operation before it was launched tomorrow. "Command is worried that the flotation aids won't keep our Type 73 APCs from capsizing in a storm so we have to go before the storm hits Japan."
"Why not after?" asked a Lieutenant in Hollow Company.
"We don't know how long it will take for the storm to pass or how long it will take for the currents it will stir up to die down, so command would prefer now over later."
"What about our support from the Germany Army?" asked Captain Watsuki Shin, leader of Foxglove Company.
"They have two companies of their Panzerhaubitze 2000s and one company of their Mars (1) rocket launchers. The Panzerhaubitze firers a 155mm shell about 30km and is pretty accurate. The Mars firers about 12 unguided missiles over a range of about 300km, but they're not as accurate. For air support the Maritime Forces will have the Shimokita amphibious assault ship and the destroyers Shirane and Kurama of the 2nd Escort Fleet off shore. In addition the Luftwaffe has an air battalion of Tornado IDS fighter-bombers ready to support our attack," Major Daijin was listing all the support for the operation.
"But ma'am… its great and all that NATO is giving us all this support, but we can't speak German," said a sergeant in Dogwood Company.
"That may be true, but my squad's radioman has been learning a little German and I read that many communication crews are expected to learn English. We have people that can speak English," said Asou. Everyone turned to stare at the Staff Sergeant in surprise.
"Well… it's true," he said a little defensively. "And maybe some of the American Marines speak German."
Major Daijin smiled a little at the sergeant, impressed by his little speech. 'Still, these language barriers and supply and all the other problems would be so much easier if we were better trained to work with NATO soldiers,' she thought.
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1315 Hours Hours; June 29th, 2010; the Prime Minister's Office; Tokyo, Japan
Japanese Prime Minister Aokami was waiting by his phone in his office. He and the Diet (2) had agreed on a motion to apply to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He'd sent their request to NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium and he was now waiting for a response. He knew that joining NATO would mean that Japan would have to take a much more active roll in global conflicts than they had done in the past, but being in NATO would mean that the Americans and European Union cannot turn tail and run. It would also give his nation a lot more voice in how the defense of his nation would be conducted, cut a lot of red tape, and maybe even give the Japanese Self-Defense Forces better equipment from they allies. Really, joining NATO at this point could only improve the current situation.
The problem was that NATO may reject Japan's request. Traditionally only European and North American nations joined, plus the fact Japan was at war would mean that the rest of NATO would have to send soldiers they weren't willing to commit.
His phone rang making him jump. The snapped the phone up and answered nervously, "Mushi, Mushi (hello)?"
"Hello?" asked a voice in English with a German accent.
"This is Prime Minister Aokami, who may I asked is calling?"
"This is General Erwin Kautz, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Committee General."
"Yes?" Aokami asked half hopeful, half dreading.
"Most nations of NATO agreed that letting Japan in would mean a lot of hardship for us," General Kautz told the Prime Minister.
"I see, thank you," he said disappoint.
"But, despite that we agreed that it would be beneficial in the long run to have a member in that area of the world."
"Uh… thank you, I will inform my ministers immediately."
In his office in Brussels, German General/NATO Committee General Erwin Kautz set down his phone. 'The world sure has change,' he thought. In the past, NATO was only North American and European nations and only the Americans sat on the Committee with a couple of British. Now Germans, Turks, and Canadians were sitting not only sitting on the Committee; last few Committee Commanders had even been Germans. And now a nation as far away from Europe as possible was joining.
He'd meant what he said. Sending more German, British, Canadian, Turkish, French, and American soldiers to Japan and now Italian, Greek, Belgian, Dutch, Albanian, Austrian and Danish soldiers too, would be a hardship and upset a lot of people. But, with the Japanese as a member, they would have a much greater presence in the Pacific. The world was stable at the moment, but if the peace didn't last, Japan could provide a useful ally in the Far East. In the past the only allies in that area of the world had been the Republic of China (Taiwan), Republic of (South) Korean and the Federation of Japan, all other nations were either neutral, only occasionally helped NATO, or sided with the Soviets.
Kautz put picked up some paper work and began to review it. It was about the equipment and numbers of the Japanese Federal Self-Defense Forces. They had over 50 surface ships in the Maritime Forces, larger than the most the NATO navies.
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1000 Hours; June 30h, 2010; a conference room, Japanese Federal Self-Defense Forces Central HQ, Tokyo Prefecture; Tokyo, Federation of Japan
The NATO commanders had assembled in a conference room in the Japanese Self-Defense Forces Central Headquarters in Tokyo. This particular room hadn't been used in over a year and despite cleaning crews' best efforts, the room still had a dusty unused smell. On the bright side, the room wasn't being used for anything, was well equipped for meetings and briefings and was now designated NATO's Far East HQ. New facilities were being built in Tokyo and the neighboring port city Yokohama.
It was a very spacious room with a dark blue carpet, white walls and ceilings, a few long tables in the middle, and a large monitor and platform stood at one end of the room. On the walls were the United States of America's star spangled banner, the United Kingdom's Union Jack, the Royal Canadian Commonwealth's maple leaf flag, the Republic of France's blue, white, and red flag, the Federal Republic of Germany's black, yellow, and red flag, and the Republic of Turkey's crescent moon and star flag. Additional space was left for the flags of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Republic of Austria, the Italian Republic, the Hellenic Republic (Greece), the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Holland), and recent member of NATO, the Republic of Albania.
The Japanese white flag with the red circle, which represented the rising sun, hung on the wall with her new allies. Above the monitor hung the navy blue flag with a large white compass rose, it hung proudly above all other flags in the room, which as natural since it was the flag of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Commanders of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, the German, British, Canadian, French, and Turkish Expeditionary Forces, and the US's Western Pacific Group sat around the tables in the room. They were preparing to discuss Japan's entry into NATO and hoping to straighten out how the war would be conducted. The Generals and Admirals who didn't speak English had headphones on to which as translator would speak into.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, let us be the first to welcome you to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization," said General O'Grady.
There was a pause while the some of the Japanese commanders waited for the translation before they thanked General O'Grady.
"About your military, since your command structure is based off the US's, there shouldn't be any problems there. You should have your soldiers become familiar with NATO uniforms, ranks, ships, vehicles, tanks, planes, and equipment. It would also be encouraged that you soldiers can recognize Warsaw Pack (3) equipment too. We have pamphlets on all that that we can give to your soldiers once it's translated into your language. Having people that can speak English is very important to avoid communication barriers, like the one's that our plaguing our soldiers now," he said. The Japanese nodded.
"Also, as a member of NATO, it is expected that you share some of your bases with your fellow members in times of crisis. Also we feel it would be best that the US continue taking command of the situation here," he said. "I think that will cover the basics for now. We'll just hand you these to read over."
US soldiers handed handbooks and binders with the NATO insignia on the covers. They were all in Romanji (Latin characters) so that they could use the exact spellings of non-Japanese words instead of using rough translations with katakana, hiragana, and kanji.
As the Americans, Canadians, and Europeans were getting up to leave, Admiral Mizuryū Chidori commander of the Japanese Federal Maritime Self-Defense Forces spoke up, "Hold on a second, we have a few things we'd like to say too."
The American, Canadians, and EU (European Union) looked up in surprised; they didn't expect the Japanese to have anything to say, but Admiral Mizuryū was determined to make sure that the other NATO member didn't walked all over 'the new guys on the block'.
"We first, would like to remind you that this is our country," she said as they sat down still looking shocked. "We expect you to respect your hosts. We understand and accept that the US is more experienced and were willing to follow your lead. But, we feel our forces could use access to some NATO equipment for our own use."
"Like?" asked a British General.
"We have a large fleet of aging UH-1 Hueys. We would like it if the US would provide better models like the SH-60 Sea Hawk, we have some, but we could use more. Our government is willing to pay for these helicopters, but we need them made available to our nation. In addition we our conducting an amphibious operation tomorrow and my collogues in the Ground Forces says their troops lack the proper amphibious transport. In fact, we have a list of equipment we feel could improve the performance of our forces," she said handing General O'Grady a list in English for him. It listed a piece of equipment, the nation that makes it, and what purpose the Japanese wanted it for. It was well laid out and seemed reasonable to O'Grady's perspective, but he knew the political red tape would delay these requests until either the equipment of obsolete or the Japanese built their own.
"Also, the Maritime Forces our thinking of building an aircraft carrier," said Admiral Mizuryū. The other Maritime Forces officers nodded. Mizuryū pressed a few keys on a laptop and the schematics of an aircraft carrier that looked just like the future CVN-21 aircraft carrier. Like the CVN-21 it had an angled flight-deck, two sets of twin catapults to launch planes, structures and elevators to the sides, three Mk. 29 Sea Sparrow SAMs, and four 20mm Phalanx gatling guns. The differences were that the carrier was larger than the CVN-21, held more aircraft and had a more advance CIC (command information control). The title at the top said it was called the Sutsuru (Crane's Nest) Class aircraft carrier.
"As you can see, this will be a larger carrier than yours since we're only going to build one for now. We also intend to make this flagship of our navy and made sure that it has adequate equipment to command an entire fleet, which is what the CIC is for," added Admiral Mizuryū. "We would like the US's help in building this carrier since we currently lack the facilities to build a carrier and the US has built numerous carriers over the years. We have more warship designs, but we'll hold off on that for now."
O'Grady turned to face Admiral Samuel Benson, who was the commander of the US 7th Fleet and bore a striking resemblance to Colin Powell; complete with the glasses. O'Grady looked to him for an answer to the Japanese request. Benson's fleet had been assigned to Japan since the end of World War II; he had been in command for the last decade he knew the Japanese Maritime Forces wants and needs like the back of his hand.
"Well?" whispered O'Grady.
"Well, it would benefit both them and us. We'll have to hammer out the details, but we could have it built down at the production yards area Bremerton (6). However, it would give Japan a lot more fighting strength and give them offensive power which could be helpful in the future," Benson whisper back to O'Grady.
O'Grady nodded and turned to face Mizuyryū, "We'll have to talk with our government about that one, but we'll try and make it happen."
"Thank you, that is all we ask."
O'Grady left the conference room noticing that he had more pamphlets than he came in with. He couldn't, but laugh at the irony. He also realized that that was the first time he'd laughed in almost two months, roughly the day the war started.
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1800 Hours; June 30th, 2010, someone's basement/Roanoke Team's HQ; Awaji Island, Japan
"Yo, Jason, I got an e-mail from Western Pacific SOCOM," said Lt. Colonel Shinhachi to his second-in-command Captain Jason Maiwald.
"So, I get them all the time. They're probably a recruiting e-mail and offering money to join and then go to college again or something," said stirring some soup in his coffee cup.
"Nope, not this time. Apparently the Japanese joined NATO," he said.
"Cool," said Maiwald indifferently.
"Hey, got another e-mail," said Shinhachi.
"If it's that thing about a $1 millions, I think I already won," he said with a sarcastic grin. "Or is it those K&H G-416 carbines we requested back when we were still in Afghanistan?"
"No, but I need to ask about those carbines. It's from my contact in western China."
"Really?" said Maiwald with his first real sign of interest. "Is it in response to our e-mail?" They had sent e-mails to field agents to find anything on the missing Soviet 43rd Armored Division that had deserted the Red Army.
"Yup, they intercepted some kind of memo, but it's in some kind of code."
Maiwald pulled up his chair next to Shinhachi to see the laptops screen better, "Comrades, we will claim Hrothgar's great Heorot and defend it from the monster Grendel… isn't Grendel the monster from Beowulf?"
"Yeah… okay, let's think back to 12th grade English," said Shinhachi.
Maiwald rubbed his chin and said, "Hrothgar was a Danish king… and Heorot was a mead hall he built. The greatest mead hall ever, right?"
"Yeah…," said Shinhachi thinking back to what he was taught in high school. "Yeah, and Grendel was the monster who came because the noise from the celebrations of Heorot's completion disturbed him. But Grendel lust for blood couldn't be satisfied and he continued to attack. He was supposed to be mankind's enemy."
"So, we're Grendel?" asked Maiwald.
"No… I think the EU is Grendel, cause after Beowulf killed Grendel, Grendel's mother attacked Beowulf," he said.
"So we're the mother of the enemy of mankind? Well, knowing the older generation Soviet's, that would be right. Heh, who would have thought reading Beowulf would be important?" Maiwald said with a snort.
"What? You didn't believe Ms. Brigitte when she said that it would very important in the future?" Shinhachi asked with a grin. Maiwald laughed at the memory of their old English teacher lecturing then on the importance of literature. That was a few weeks before they graduated high school and then signed on to the military to pay for college. They been e-mailing their school work to their professors when the war started, which had been hard because being in the Delta Force and fighting in the middle of nowhere they didn't always have access to the internet. Of course being June, school wasn't in and wouldn't start until early September.
"You remember how bad the movie was?"
"Yeah, probably the worst fucking movie we ever saw."
"So let's recap, they are going to protect Heorot, which is probably Moscow or maybe even all of USSR. Hrothgar is probably one of the old Stalinists (4), maybe Stalin himself. Grendel is probably something to due with NATO and they are going to claim Heorot to protect it from us… that sounds like it add up to a coup d'état (5)," Maiwald realizing the magnitude of the situation.
"We have no concrete proof," said Shinhachi slowly. "But, hopefully they value our opinions enough to investigate."
Shinhachi sent an e-mail with their conclusions to the analytical division in Washington DC.
"I hope they can settle this business… so what about tomorrow?" asked Maiwald.
"Well, I sent Johnson's and Hernandez's teams to check on the Commie's movements, but they don't seem to suspect anything," said Shinhachi.
"So everything goes as planned. We clear out enemy communications, disrupted their movements, and then link up with the Japanese?"
"Yup."
They sat discussing things that could go wrong when Operation: Red Water was launched and how to avoid disaster.
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2219 Hours; June 30th, 2010; assemble area for Operation: Red Water; Wakayama Prefecture, Japan
Asou was reading the Li's Family Guide to Survival. Although the book wasn't meant a military handbook, it did provide useful information on how to use the terrain for cover and concealment, and how number of techniques on how to identify traps and how to set his own.
They were inside a school that had been abandoned when the North Koreans landed across the strait. Everyone had been ordered to keep a low profile and stay indoors so not to alert the PKA that they were in the vicinity. 5th squad had cleared the desks and chairs in a classroom and rolled out compact military issue sleeping bags. They all had checked to weapons to ensure they were in working order and wouldn't jam in battle. Now some of the soldiers were either sleeping or doing some quiet activity.
Kaoji had found that the computer left at the teacher's desk still had internet access. He was checking current event. "Hey," he called out.
Harima, Hanai, Ikuro, Kurosaki, and Ishida, the only other people awake other than Asou, look up.
"It says that we're part of NATO now," he said.
"So what does that do for us?" asked Harima.
"It would mean that the Americans and Europeans can't back out of the war and are obligated to defend fellow NATO members," said Ishida knowledgeably. "Plus, it would eliminate many of the coordination problems that have been plaguing us since the war started. Also we might be able to get all kinds of equipment that isn't normally available to us."
"Mmm… that would be nice," said Hanai, thinking about how they had to relay on NATO support.
"Hai, but that won't help us tomorrow," said Asou. "Let's get some sleep."
They climbed into their bags and slowly went to sleep.
Well, I'm tired and I don't have a lot to say for now. Please review; it's all I ask of you.
Updated January 12, 2008: Almost done. Three more to go.
Respectfully
J. H. Kamiya
Appendix
1. The Mars is the name the Germans call the M270 MLRS self-propelled rocket artillery.
2. I think I forgot to say this before, but the Diet is the name of the Japanese Parliament.
3. The Warsaw Pack was an alliance lead by the Soviet Union, consisting of the Eastern European nations and some of Central Asia and closely allied with East Asian nations like China. They were NATO's main opponent during the Cold War.
4. A Stalinist is someone who follows the ideals and concepts of the second premier of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin. If you care the real leaders of the USSR were Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Georgy Malenkov, Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, Konstantin Chernenko, and Mikhail Gorbachev, all in that order (some were not premiers, but held similar ranks).
5. A coup d'état (pronounced ku-day-ta) is French for 'a blow to the state'. It is often used in English as a noun meaning a revolt or more specifically a mutiny. It often is a group of government officials or soldiers overthrowing the government leaders and taking it for them self's. People often say coup for short.
6. Bremerton which is across the inland sea from Seattle and Tacoma. It's home of the Puget Sound Navel Yard, a major construction yard of US warships and houses a large submarine pen.