Chapter L: Pawn takes Rook
0800hrs, 17 December 2013, "Top Secret" Medical Facility, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.
"This is where I live. This is me. I will not allow violence against this house." David Summer, Straw Dogs.
Luna walked quickly to where Dr. Koyabashi and Kawasaki were located, in the basement where most of the medical staff had congregated. Behind her, the two security officers from before and Artemis rolled a couple of carts worth of ammo and weapons leaving her and taking the elevator down to the basement. In all, there were about thirty or so medical personnel on duty at the time the PMC decided to attack. Most of the rest of them were home on holiday, and the other divisions of the SAILOR program (finance, transportation, etc) were located around the country. However, this very spot was the focus of the SAILOR team, where they rested, got medical treatment (obviously), and the brains and know-how about them resided in this very place. So, it was do or die time now, and it looked like they were going to have more the dying part. Luna's shoes clacked down the stairs while the elevator's bell sounded in the hallway where a short couple of months ago, Serena and company had dashed through, eager to eat their meals together.
Artemis and the security guards were already there, with Kobayashi and the rest of the medical personnel.
"How bad is it?" Kobayashi asked her.
"Very bad. We're about to be attacked by the PMC, and they have the only route out of here blocked off."
"What can we do? Can we fight?" That was against everything that had been taught to Kobayashi; First Do No harm. But how much harm had he done in the last couple of months, treating the girls, sending them out on missions, and using them as glorified attack dogs? But it had been decided earlier by vote that they should defend themselves. There was no other choice.
"If you want to," Luna said. "I'd prefer if you'd let the security force and I take care of the threats outside of the building, but if they get in…" She handed him a P220 pistol from the cart, and the rest of the medical staff lined up to receive their weapons.
"We can take it from here," one of the security guards told Luna. She nodded, and motioned to Artemis to follow her out.
"If anything else," she muttered to him as they walked away. "They can take the quick way out."
Artemis gulped when he heard that. He hoped that it didn't come down to that situation.
Luna and Artemis took up positions on the second floor of the Medical Facility, in a small office overlooking the entrance to the base. She held a Steyr AUG, a bullpup rifle equipped with a 3x scope on a rail sight. Artemis was carrying a P90, again, a bullpup PDW with the 5.7mm round, designed to penetrate body armor but small enough for use in cramped quarters. He fidgeted with the plastic-esque weapon; it didn't even feel like a "real" gun, with metal and wood furniture.
"Stop doing that," Luna admonished him.
"Sorry," he replied. But he just couldn't get a good feel for the weapon; he had cross-trained on weapons like these, and which allowed for both Luna and Artemis to use these weapons but again, it just didn't stick with him. And all the Howa rifles had been taken by the security force.
"You'll be fine," Luna said, after watching him fidget after awhile. She reached for the radio on her right shoulder. "This is Luna. Akamatsu, you in position?"
Akamatsu found himself a good line of fire on the top of the roof. "Yeah, I'm here," was the response.
"Keep a lookout for those vehicles. When you have a shot, take it. No theatrics here."
"Roger."
He was armed with a M24 sniper rifle, capable of reaching targets 800 meters out. The facility proper was located on the side of a mountain, hidden from view by foliage and if necessary, camouflage as well. There was a paved road leading from the nearby highway, and luckily for them, that was the route the PMC had to take to get to the medical facility. Unfortunately, from what Akamatsu counted, there were at least twenty to thirty Toyota Land Cruiser Prados snaking their way up the road to the facility. How they got so many personnel for that PMC, Akamatsu did not know...well, he actually did know. Even with all the work the JSDF did for Japan, it was still seen on the bottom rung of places to work, even if it was for the government. Government jobs were usually prized, but the JSDF was a reminder of the more militant days of Japan and as a consequence, people didn't really much care to be reminded of that again. Once people got out of the JSDF, they had a hard time finding jobs and such, making them easy pickings for a PMC. The promise of a huge pay increase, doing a familiar job, and benefits was more than enough to get people to sign the dotted line (or rather, stamp their family seals).
He readied his rifle, even though they were still a considerable amount of distance off.
"That's a lot of vehicles," Luna muttered. They could see the situation just as well as Akamatsu did, and it was not pretty.
"Did the security people plant those claymores along the road?" Artemis asked.
A loud boom echoed in the distance, answering his question. The lead SUV was rocked by several explosions; the claymore was meant to be an anti-personnel mine but the sheer amount of projectiles that it released when detonated, some 700 ball bearings per mine meant that it could be used against lightly armored vehicles as well. The lead vehicle was shattered by thousands of ball bearings, ensuring that no one inside survived.
"That's all the mines we have though," Luna muttered.
The next SUV simply drove around the now smoking and disabled vehicle and continued forward, unfazed. They drove faster now, seeing that they that could come under fire at any time now. Clearly, they weren't expecting much resistance but the claymore ambush set them on edge.
"Luna," the commander of the security forces said to her over the radio, "We're all ready here. As much as we'll ever be though."
"Understood," Luna replied. The most amount of contact that Luna, Artemis, or any of the SAILOR team had with the security people was when they occasionally did patrols of the facility, or had their IDs checked at the main gate. The commander of the security forces was a bald man in his fifties, ex-Tokyo Metropolitan officer with several anti-Yakuza operations under his belt. But in a down and out slug-fest with a large attacking force was something that they hadn't trained for at all. There were about thirty or so security people, armed with a variety of Howa Type 64 and 89 rifles, M16s, Steyr AUGs, P90s and whatever else they could get out of the armory at the moment. But they were still outnumbered by four or five to one, as indicated by the amount of SUVs coming up the hillside. At least they were well stocked with plenty of ammunition, but that was it. Most of the heavy weaponry had been sent back to JSDF facilities after training had finished with the SAILOR team, along with the explosives. It didn't make much sense to keep all that weaponry at the facility when it could be easily accessed at any JSDF base that the SAILOR team flew out of when they deployed on missions or could acquire on site.
Akamatsu saw that they were entering his effective range, and sighted in on one of the SUVs traversing up the road. He fired, but missed, the bullet skipping into the snow on the hillside.
"Damn." He retracted the bolt and chambered a new round. He took his time on this one, letting the crosshairs drift naturally toward the driver in the lead vehicle.
Akamatsu breathed in, steadied, and fired. The round flew straight and true…and did jack squat. The windshield was bullet resistant, of course. He did see the driver flinch though.
"Luna, I can't do shit here," he said over his radio, chambering another round.
"Go for the tires!"
Thanks, I was about to try for that, Akamatsu thought. He fired another round, popping the left front tire on the lead vehicle. It rolled to a stop, but the occupants stayed inside, afraid to draw more fire. Behind them, the SUVs were trying to speed up, wary of more ambushes and traps, but the road was somewhat slick making it very difficult to approach. Several of the vehicles stopped and pulled to the side, infantry dismounting from them. The SUVs continued forward, trying to draw fire so that the infantry could have time to get into position.
"I have enemy infantry dismounting five hundred meters from the entrance. They might try for a flanking maneuver, over."
"We see them," Luna replied, bringing her AUG to bear. Five hundred meters was a pretty tough distance to hit something from though... "All units, hold fire."
"Roger."
The infantry continued to advance forward, but it was apparent that they were not prepared at all for the environment they were fighting in. Many of them wore black fatigues, contrasting sharply with the snow on the ground, and they struggled to get through the snow that lay on the ground. Even a little bit of snow completely changed the game, with the water concentration soaking boots, sapping morale, and being tough to maneuver through (especially if an unit was not trained for winter warfare), and overall, being a complete pain.
"They're at four hundred meters," Akamatsu said. He saw some officers getting their men into position. Five squads of about nine soldiers apiece advanced through the snow, up the hill and toward the medical facility. A couple of platoons worth of soldiers still making their way up the mountain in the SUVs, so they had time to throw these guys back…if they survived at all.
"At three hundred meters, commence firing for all units. Akamatsu, take down their officers and try to disrupt their unit cohesion."
"Roger." Akamatsu laid into them, firing round after round at the leadership, taking down two men he supposed to be officers or NCOs, and causing the rest to go to ground. A couple of them fired errantly, but it was more of a gesture of defiance than actual shots meant to kill.
He jacked another round into the chamber and lined up the crosshairs on a squad leader, trying to move his men forward. The guy looked to be about his age, probably had served in the JSDF, maybe had a family and kids and was definitely well motivated. He probably took this job to put his kids into cram school, or maybe save up for their college education…hell, maybe he was just doing it to supplement his drinking habit, who knows?
Akamatsu pulled the trigger, sending the 7.62mm bullet into the man's head, right below his helmet. He fell back, dead.
At least the insurance policy would pay for something, Akamatsu darkly thought as he chambered another round.
"They're at three hundred!" Artemis yelled, eyeballing the distance.
"Open fire!" Luna screamed over the radio. She opened up with the AUG, sighting down the scope on an advancing squad. Two men flopped down, dead. The rest of the squad continued to push forward, shooting from the hip.
A couple of rooms down, some security officers opened up with a Type 62 GPMG, but its firing rate was hampered by their inexperience and awkward handling of the weapon. Sometimes they fired too long of a burst, sending all of the rounds flying over the heads of the advancing PMC, or just one round at a time, completely defeating the purpose of a machine gun.
"For crying out loud," Luna spat, listening to the sputtering fire of the machine gunners. She didn't have much training on that particular machine gun, but at least she knew how to fire one, unlike the security officers. Again, most of them were ex-police, either from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police or municipal police departments, with little training in heavy weapons.
"Dammit. Artemis, on me!" Luna and Artemis left the room they were staying in and rushed to the machine gun room.
"Guys, off of the machine gun!" Luna yelled at the two fumbling security guards. They turned around to look at her in disbelief, before several incoming rounds forced them off of the machine gun.
"Thanks," Artemis said. "Go to the second room to the left, and provide additional fire support." Both of the guards nodded and took their Howa Type 89 rifles with them.
Luna was already on the machine gun, taking aim at a mass of soldiers nearing the chain link fence that separated the forest outside from the rest of the facility. She depressed the trigger, sending a short burst through the fence and downing several of them. Artemis appeared by her side, and started to help feed the belt into the gun.
"Hey…hey! By the entrance!" Artemis pointed. Two SUVs had finally made it up the hill and were barreling toward the front gate. Luna adjusted the machine gun and held down the trigger, firing long bursts at the approaching SUVs. Bullets skipped off of the hood, smashed into the windshield, penetrated tires, and killed the engine block on one of them, forcing it to stop.
The men inside got out and hid behind the reinforced doors, firing their Howa Type 89s at them. More fire from the machine gun downed most all of them, and the other SUV backed up, trying to get away. It crashed into a tree, and no one got out of it after that.
But they still kept on coming. One of the PMC soldiers threw a satchel charge and blew a huge hole in the chain link fence, allowing them to cross the parking lot and to take up firing positions by a group of cars.
"Damn." Luna knew she should've yelled at the medical staff to move their cars. She saw Akamatsu's replacement BMW Z4 get riddled with bullets, and knew that he would be extremely pissed off at that fact. Maybe he could write it off as a work expense again.
Up on the roof, Akamatsu saw a squad of soldiers start to cross from the right side of the facility, headed toward the back of it.
"This Akamatsu, flanking maneuver on the right side of the building. I'm engaging."
"Shit," Luna said. They just didn't have the manpower or the skill to engage the flanking maneuver, and without any mobile units or air support it was going to be one man against nine.
"Here it goes," he muttered. The squad was moving in an echelon right formation, with squad leader at the front. He aimed for the last man in the formation, and fired.
There was so much gunfire going on that the report from his rifle was muffled by default. Coupled with the distance from the target, by the time the sound reached the general area that the squad was operating in, the soldier was already on the deck, felled by the lethal bullet.
The other soldiers didn't even notice that one of their own had fallen until Akamatsu fired a second shot, hitting a machine gunner and sent him tumbling down the hillside. Their squad leader wisened up and yelled for them to get a move on. From where Akamatsu was located, he could see them running toward the back entrance of the facility, which led to the basement.
If those guys get in there, the medical personnel won't stand a chance, he thought to himself. Trying to keep calm, he continued to fire, his rounds striking with deadly precision. Another soldier went down, presumably a fire team leader. The grenadier of that fire team took over, only to be felled by another shot from his rifle. Akamatsu then aimed at the squad leader, who was desperately trying to get to cover. Bang.
A round snapped by the leader's head, causing him to find cover. He yelled to the surviving members of the squad to lay down covering fire, and to leapfrog forward toward the entrance of the basement. The remaining machine gunner opened up with his FN Minimi, spitting out 5.56mm rounds at a rate of 800 per minute. Two of the other squad members ran forward, while the squad leader, the machine gunner, and a grenadier provided suppression.
Akamatsu had to duck and move to another part of the roof in order not to get shot, but also to get a better angle on these bastards. He moved about ten meters to his right, reloaded, and popped up again, this time, getting a clear bead on the team leader.
"Not this time," he smirked. The M24 fired, and the team leader's head exploded in a mass of bloody brains and bone. Akamatsu chambered another round and quickly took down the machine gunner. The grenadier, obviously panicking, fired off a grenade from his M203 launcher. The 40mm grenade was not properly aimed, and it detonated a couple of floors down, missing Akamatsu completely. A final shot from Akamatsu brought him down.
Noticing that he had only shot seven soldiers, Akamatsu quickly scanned the area. The other two were not to be seen.
Fuck. That meant they had gotten into the basement. He only hoped that the medical staff were as good at fighting than they were at medical work.
As the two soldiers were about to figure out, putting weapons in the hands of untrained, but very desperate people was going to be very detrimental to their health. As in, leads to their death, type of detriments.
One of them kicked in the door, which had a padlock on it but was shot off as the two soldiers approached.
"This is 2 Charlie 6, we're breaching the facility," he announced into his radio. "Be advised Checkmate Actual, our squad is down, and there's a sniper on the roof inflicting massive casualties."
"Understood 2 Charlie 6," Checkmate Actual replied. "Terminate all medical and security personnel, and secure all intel pertaining to program SAILOR. Out."
2 Charlie 6 pushed open another door, which lead to the hallway not a scant half hour ago, Luna had stood with the medical staff, handing out guns. But it was empty at this time.
"Three. Hey, three," he said to the other soldier. "Take the left, and check out that storage room over that."
"Roger." 3 Charlie 6 advanced, gun up, toward the room that they kept the VR and healing tanks in. He opened the door, and tossed a flashbang in.
The deafening roar and bright light stunned everyone, even 3 Charlie 6, who had been stupid enough to keep looking into the room after he had thrown the flashbang. 3 Charlie 6 recovered from his mistake however, and charged into the room, gun up.
2 Charlie 6 was moving down the hall toward the elevator when he saw 3 Charlie 6 get riddled by a hail of bullets. The Type III armor didn't mean much if you got shot in the face.
"Shit!" he cursed, and ran over to 3 Charlie 6. He was very dead.
"You bastards!" He tossed a grenade in, then decided it to be prudent to throw another in, just for good measure.
Kobayashi saw the grenade fly toward the VR and healing tanks, and had only enough time to scream out a warning.
"Everyone, get down!" The grenade detonated, completely wrecking the valuable equipment. Kobayashi only had another second before he saw another grenade tossed in, this time toward a group of orderlies who had taken cover near some boxes. It landed right near them and exploded.
Another soldier ran in, blazing away with his assault rifle.
From across the room, Kawasaki took aim with his P220 pistol, his hands shaking all the while. He fired three times, the gun jumping a bit higher each time he fired at the angry soldier.
2 Charlie 6 felt something hit his bullet resistant vest, and turned to face the threat on his left. It was then that he realized that there at least fifteen armed people in the room, and he had just turned his back to maybe four or five of them.
Nurse Kuroi, who was by Kobayashi, popped up and fired one shot into the vulnerable rear part of the body armor, penetrating it.
2 Charlie 6 felt a hot iron pierce his back. He went down, and felt more hot things poking their way through his body. There was no pain, just a sense of everything going dark.
Dammit, he thought. And I was so close to getting my honeymoon. Oh well.
2 Charlie 6 bled out on the floor, as several of the medical staff, following their duty, went over to see if they could save his life.
"He's gone," Kawasaki said, looking up at Nurse Kuroi, who was still holding the smoking P220 in her hands.
"How many people hurt?" Kobayashi yelled out. He saw three men down, their blood pooling on the floor.
Outside, Akamatsu had just finished off another soldier, and sent the rest of his squad running. It looked like they were pulling back, for now. It wouldn't be long before they came back.
"This is Akamatsu, the flanking force is down, but I think two got in facility."
"We just took care of them," Kobayashi's voice echoed somberly over the radio.
Luna didn't want to know what was going through that man's mind at the moment. "How many causalities?"
"Only three wounded."
"Understood, continue to hold, over."
"Roger. Kobayashi out."
"Akamatsu, continue your suppression of enemy forces, and let me know when they come back. If they come back."
"They will. Akamatsu out."
Luna took the break to reload the machine gun, with Artemis changing out the belt and feeding a fresh one into the chamber. She was startled to hear a noise behind her, and quickly turned around, unholstering a P226 and pointing it at the door.
It was only the Security Chief though. He was holding a Howa Type 64 and was dressed in a black uniform, with long sleeves and a braid on the left shoulder. His nametag said "Ooishi", a common source of jokes among the security personnel was to call his Detective Delicious, a pun on his name and plump figure.
"Chief, you gave me a scare," she said, holstering the pistol. "How are we holding up?"
"Not good," he replied, taking off his cap and wiping his brow. "Half of the security personnel are down, and three dead. I'm having some of the medical guys patch the wounded up, but we only have so much of that healing solution."
"Right…" Luna finished loading the machine gun.
"I don't know if we can hold off another wave of these guys," he said nervously to her. "I mean, I was never trained for this situation."
"Neither was I," Luna replied, sighing. "I'm just a comm officer."
"Could sure use those SAILOR units back here," he muttered. Luna probably should have admonished him, but there wasn't much point to that. A ripple of fire from the forest sent everyone back to their positions, hoping that help would come.
"Firing!" Luna depressed the trigger and sent a burst of fire zipping over the heads of some more attacking PMC troops.
Up above, seven UH-1s loaded with 1st Airborne Brigade troopers noticed the sound of heavy weapons fire.
"Fuck, those guys weren't kidding when they said they were under fire," the 1st Airborne commander said out loud.
"Colonel Takahashi," one of his staff officers said to him over the radio headsets; it was incredibly loud flying in the Huey, so they used the headsets to communicate with each other. "I just got word from Command; there's a series of terrorist attacks occurring across the world right now, and they want us to be on high alert."
Typical; intel and command were a couple of steps behind the game. "Did you ask them about the special forces unit here?"
"Yeah, I did. There's no unit operating here."
Takahashi looked at the staff officer. "You're sure?"
"Positive. All the SFG have been accounted for and are being deployed to deal with the current terrorist threat."
"Does command know the purpose of our excursion?"
"Yes, they said to continue to investigate."
"Tell them that there is massive gunfire emanating from the supposed SFG location and that we are investigating."
"Got it." The staff officer got on the radio and started to inform the rest of the group of the developing situation.
"Sir," the pilot of the helicopter said to Takahashi. His helicopter was assigned the callsign Super 61, taken from the pages of "Blackhawk Down." Takahashi didn't want to tell the pilot, but that helicopter had been shot down by an RPG, which started a long chain of events that led to the deaths of eighteen Americans and over a thousand Somalis. "There's a building, on the hillside over there."
Takahashi peered out the side of the helicopter, and saw large white building in the distance. A loud explosion suddenly echoed in the valley, with the fireball taking part of the roof of the main building off.
"Alright, hold up here until who we can figure out what the hell is going on he said to the pilot."
"Understood."
"Get me that 'Special Forces' unit on the radio."
Luna and Artemis ducked from the large explosion, fired from a Howa 84RR recoilless rifle.
"Goddammit, we're not going to be able to last like this!" Artemis yelled over the din.
"This is the 1st Airborne Brigade, we are on site and ready to deploy," someone said over the radio.
"Thank god!" Luna said. She picked up the receiver from the more powerful radio unit that was sitting near the machine gun. "This is 3 Alpha 6, we're in the large white building, need assistance and need it now!"
Takahashi heard the person who had called earlier over the radio, and responded to it.
"Hold on a second 3 Alpha 6, we know you're not a Special Forces Group, who the hell are you?"
Luna sighed and pressed the receiver to her head. She really didn't need this now, not when they were going to be overrun.
"1st Airborne, we work for a secret division of the Japanese government, and I would love to explain everything to you, but right now we need your help or else this PMC we're fighting against is going to wipe us out!"
"Did she say 'PMC'?" one of the staff officers asked. "The Nakanishi Group has one of those."
"Don't they run the security at our base in Chiba?" another pointed out.
"Great," Takahashi muttered. Things just got more complicated, and there was no easy solution to this problem. "Okay, 3 Alpha 6," he replied. "Mark your positions with green smoke and we'll come a get you."
"Uh…roger." Luna looked around for anything that might pass for smoke, but again, they didn't have much in the way of that ordinance.
"1st Airborne, we do not have smoke grenades, over."
"Shit." Takahashi facepalmed at that unfortunate piece of news. "Alright then, we're going in. Get that megaphone turned on; I'm going to stop all of this madness. Get moving."
The pilot of Super 61 moved the Huey forward, along with the other six in the formation.
"This is the 1st Airborne Brigade!" Takahashi yelled out over the PA system. "You are to cease fire immediately and to throw down..."
A ripple of gunfire from the forest put an end to any sort of chance of a peaceful resolution. Several bullets pinged off of the Huey, causing everyone inside to flinch.
"At least we know who the enemy is now," Takahashi said. "All units, engage hostile forces in the forest. The people in the white building are friendly, do not engage!" The helicopters started to dodge enemy fire, spreading out and started a holding pattern to attack the PMC in the forest.
"This is Lancer 62," one of the helicopter pilots said. "We're going to land your troops on the top of that building there with Lancer 63. How does that sound?"
"Roger. Lancer 62 and 63, approach the roof and get those troops in. Alpha 45 and Alpha 46, prepare to fast rope from helos and assist any defenders. Lancer 64 and Lancer 65, drop your chalks off on the roof after Lancer 62 and 63 do so, two at a time. Yankee 67 and 68, standby to deploy your troops at the entrance to the base, over."
"That's affirmative, we're going in."
Takahashi saw Lancer 62 and 63 swoop in from the south and quickly hover over the roof. His troops, Alpha 45 and 46, consisting of a squad each, dropped ropes and quickly slid down. Within thirty seconds, eighteen highly trained troopers were on the roof, weapons ready to go. The other two helicopters dropped their troops off on the roof as well, following the lead of Lancer 62 and 63.
"Yankee 67 and Yankee 68," the pilot of Super 61 said. "That's a lot of vehicles down there, take them out, over."
Yankee 67 and Yankee 68 swung back around and started their attack run on the line of SUVs parked on the winding road that lead up to the medical facility. Both were armed only with Type 62 GPMG machine guns on the doors, but it would be enough to disrupt operations. Plus, the troopers inside could shoot out (albeit inaccurately) at targets gunners on them opened up, strafing the line of vehicles. Bullets snapped against the modified, armor plated SUVs, but they sent people scattering.
"This is 61, I'm heading in for an attack run, over." Takahashi noted that they had rockets on the side of their helicopter. He vaguely remembered telling them that they needed some sort of heavy ordinance back at base.
Super 61 lined up for an attack run.
"Gotcha!" the pilot said. He pressed the fire button, and the rockets streamed out from pods on the side of the copter. Five SUVs blew up dramatically.
He breathed in deeply, relishing in the smell of smoke and burning fuel. "Damn, I love the smell of…rockets in the morning."
"Are you done?" Takahashi said to him.
"Uh, right."
That strike effectively broke the PMC, and they started to retreat down the hill, toward the highway, hoping to escape.
"Okay, they're running!" Yankee 64 reported.
Takahashi saw his chance to finally stop the battle. "Yankee 67 and 68, deploy your troops near the highway and cut them off. Don't kill anyone if you have to though."
"Roger."
The gunfire slowly died down as the 1st Airborne Brigade started to round up the PMC soldiers that had fled the area. She slumped down from the machine gun, exhausted by the fighting that had just occurred.
1st Airborne troopers stormed throughout the building, clearing out the place and making sure that they were disarming everyone. They might not be shooting at them, but they couldn't trust the people inside either, since they didn't know who they were.
A fire team got to the isolation rooms, and found that a recoilless rifle round had completely devastated the area.
"Oh jeez," one of the troopers said, looking at the remains of someone who had been in one of those rooms.
"That's gotta hurt," another one said. He reached for his radio. "This is 4 Romeo 6, we're inside, another casualty on second floor. Don't bother, he's in pieces, over."
"Roger. Continue operations."
The troopers finally got to Luna and Artemis' position.
"Sir, Ma'am, please step away from the machine gun, and place your sidearm on the floor," one of the troopers addressed.
They complied. Along with the security team and the medical staff, they were taken outside to be processed and to find out what exactly they did here.
As they walked outside, Luna looked up at the sky wrapped in an emergency blanket that the medical staff had provided her. The rising sun shown down on her, warming her tired and cold body, drenched in sweat from intense gunfire. Helicopters circled overhead, and she could see the 1st Airborne troopers rounding up the PMC soldiers. She did note that some of them were chatting casually with them, which made sense in some regard; many 1st Airborne troopers had served in the PMC after being forced out of the JSDF.
Again, Luna looked up at the sky, breathing in the cool, crisp air, smelling the freshness of the trees, mixed in with smell of cordite and smokeless powder.
It was going to be all right.
