Standard disclaimers apply.
Author's Notes: This is Eriol's view on the Operation RAGE itself. His would be more detailed than that of Fujitaka's, since he IS an intelligence agent on assigment. I would also be including in this chapter the story of Eriol's life. Cheery, huh?
Oh, and yeah. Back Through Time, once more, is on a temporary hiatus. Now, don't be mad...my reasons are perfectly legit. The story has gone stale, and I decided to just revise the whole thing before I post again. You'll like the new BTT, I swear. Just give me more time and more leeway, and I promise that once I post it up updates will be weekly.
ASSASSIN by rei-chan
CHAPTER SIX: Operation RAGE: Eriol's Assignment
I maneuvered my blue Civic out of the Kinomoto garage and turned towards the tree-lined street, my mind a disorganized turmoil as I tried to shed some understanding to this case that I firsthandedly was hesitant to take. My laptop, which I had positioned on the passenger seat next to me, clacked and beeped like crazy, but my mind was too busy trying to comprehend the current situation to actually care. I couldn't help it.
For the very first time since I started working as a secret agent, I was unsure.
It wasn't because of the fact that my capabilities couldn't handle the pressure. I had been handpicked by the Director of the EIU himself to handle the assignment, saying with all confidence that I was just the man needed for the job. Any agent could have handled the mission just as efficiently as I would have, but not after receiving the formal mission orders did I actually find out why I was the EIU's unanimous choice to handle this case.
The much-feared Federation was most likely involved.
It was only a suspicion on the EIU's part. After all, no single person on this planet could ever produce a shred of evidence that would pin down the Federation to a crime. But the inner workings and the details concerning the 'deaths' of the members of the Kinomoto excavation team all but screamed that the Federation has had a few pairs of hands stained with the victims' blood. The assassinations were clean and swift, the trademark sign of a well-trained and cold-blooded hitman. It was only logical to assume that the killings were executed by several employed assassins working under a group of ex-military personnel and former special agents. The Japanese government, of course, had not been ruled out as a possible suspect. After all, they had tried every means to keep the abandoned operation secret in the past, and its discovery by Fujitaka's team could have triggered the parliament to act on silencing the group of individuals who had more or less found out about their previous destructive project. An agent I know has been sent to infiltrate the Japanese Bureau of Defense in the hopes of finding full proof evidence of their involvement, but, until now, the reports that the EIU had been receiving from him stated none.
The Federation of Assassins...
The same group hiding under the disguise of a business conglomerate operating various businesses and schools.
The same group that had placed me under its wing after my father allegedly entrusted me under their tutelege.
I obediently stopped at a red light, my mind alert but elsewhere, as I recalled how my life had been like in training school. Hard as it may seem to believe, the Federation's guise of a school is, in fact, half true. They do really operate normal elementary and secondary male boarding schools, and not every student is trained to be slayers. One may conclude that the schools were a convenient means for the Federation to be able to pick out the students--young boys--that were probable killers. My case had been no different. My father, a high-ranking political figure who detested me on sight, enrolled me in their school two months after my mother died. It is safe for me to assume that my bastard sire desired me to never show myself in front of his face again. Upon enrollment he had already presented the Federation with enough money to see me through high school, as well as leaving me a hefty bank account and a tightly worded reminder that if I ever needed any more money from him I knew the number at his office.
What prompted the Federation to actually pick me as a pontential assassin? The answer to this, I can only guess. It has always been believed that there exists a force of evil within each individual. To the naturally outspoken and rash, the evil within them is clearly visible through their actions. The Federation believed that children who possess the most serene characteristics hide within them the greatest amount of evil. With the proper motivation, this evil could be unleashed. When I was younger I usually kept to myself. I seldom participate in physical activities and games with boys my age. Instead, I spent most of my time reading, enhancing my musical skills, and practicing martial arts. I was also one of the very few students who treat their mentors with utmost respect.
In the Federation's view, I was the perfect candidate for a potential assassin.
I stepped on the brakes and motioned with my right hand for the old lady by the sidewalk to cross, my mind refusing to delve back to the time when I was first brought into the School. It wasn't horrible by any stretch of imagination. In fact, the experience that I had back then is still an integral part of my current lifestyle. It has shaped me into the person that I am now, and no matter how much I try to forget the past and put it all behind me, I can't. The past is a part of me.
The past is STILL me.
The skills that I have learned at the Federation school; my gun aim, which has been estimated to be at a 98% accuracy. My hacking skills, which I had already successfully used in breaking into the United State's Pentagon database when I was only nine years old. My mastery of three different martial arts. All these I still use in my present occupation. The only difference between myself and the other employed assassins of the Federation is the fact that I have dedicated my life into eradicating their twisted cause.
Not bothering to hide the self-accusing smirk that spread across my features, I turned towards the street heading downtown, not for the first time feeling the wave of intense gratitude sweep all over my body that I had been able to escape from the clutches and influence of the Federation.
It was a good thing that Kaho Mizuku aided me several days after I escaped. There had been another boy with me that time; Li Hao Shi, if I remember him correctly. I was separated from him after we had reached the nearest town, where several Federation agents caught up with us. I ran for hours on end, desperately looking for a safe place to hide out. I knew that shaking off the persistent force of the Federation was hard--the General(1) had eyes and ears everywhere to keep his precious pets from finding egress--but I was determined to escape.
I had to get away, or else I was dead.
Kaho Mizuki's vehicle was the first logical option. Picking the car door lock without setting off the alarm was a menial task. I took the time to look around furtively before clambering unto the backseat, careful not to disturb the various important-looking documents scattered on it. I tried waiting up for whoever it was who owned the vehicle to plead for sanctuary, but having gone through four days without food and rest was beginning to take its toll on me. I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I was in a comfortable bed in another country.
It was a couple of weeks later when I found out that she knew who I was. Kaho Mizuki was an EIU agent sent to validate the rumors of Federation-operated schools training young killers. My entrance in her life was enough proof for the EIU to nail the Federation in court. I went through an entire month of various cross-examinations and giving out testimonies. But a week before the first trial Kaho received a call from the Director with the distrubing news that her office, as well as the entire EIU database, was ransacked.
I became a full-time EIU agent five years after that.
Due to the highly advanced training I had received from the Federation, I quickly rose through the ranks and succeeded in my newfound profession. I was usually the first person called on to handle the most difficult of cases. That is why, regardless of my background as a former assassin-in-training, I was given the free reign on the Kinomoto assignment.
For two years Kinomoto Fujitaka's discovery of the Range Artillery Gunmetal Equipage--or simply known as Operation RAGE--has made the top news on every governmental agency around the world. Though kept as a secret from civilians, Operation RAGE has been known and classified as a certified weapon for mass destruction. During the time of its invention, the whole world had been on its toes, afraid to make any action that could very well shift the Japanese government's attention to them. Contrary to the released statement that Operation RAGE was simply a defensive weapon to be used against invaders and enemies 30 years ago, the true purpose of the operation was to expand the Japanese territory and conquer the nearby Korea(2). Being a country known to be highly-advanced in the field of technology, it was easy for the government to come up with a robotic design that could easily wipe out the whole island with a single blow. The design and engineering of the operation was conceptualized by a group of scientists known only to the government as the ThinkTank group(3), and for two years the work to assemble the operation progressed through their instruction and guidance.
Operation RAGE in its completion was truly a force to be reckoned with. I have seen pictures of it during a briefing and shuddered to think what a weapon like that in the hands of the largest group of killers in the world would be capable of. RAGE stood at exactly 84 feet. The mecha's armor is made up of a chemically engineered metallic alloy, ragium. This metal was so strong that it could even graze and chip the surface of a diamond(4). The whole operating system of the robot was controlled by a single microchip that sends and receives commands from a single mother computer through gamma rays that bounce off any satellite in outer space. The said chip was also solar powered, but the mecha's system was specifically designed to store solar energy during the day to enable it to function during the night. RAGE was also equipped with a high-powered beam cannon able to destroy anything and everything within a fifty-mile diameter. The beam comprises of a highly-specialized combination of beta and ultraviolet rays(5) that, when fired, goes through a bulit-in prism dome in the cannon which magnifies the attack. Beam sabres were also installed for added protection and both laser blades were capable of cutting through metals 18 meters thick. Stealth was the mecca's primary function, although the speed at which it moves is to be considered an asset as well. RAGE was designed to travel at 3,000 square miles in an unbelievable time of 30 minutes, and an atomic bomb has been installed within the system that would go off with a single push of a button on the mother system.
With these details in mind, one could very well safely state that it was a good thing that the ThinkTank group died in a plane crash believed--take note, BELIEVED--to be one rigged by the Federation two days before the scheduled test flight. If this hadn't happened and RAGE had been tested and the experiment declared successful, the Korea that we know now should have ceased to exist thirty years ago. Personally, I believe that the plane crash had been a smart move on the Federation's part, though their ulterior motive for eliminating the scientists still eludes me. It could have been a request from an outside party--a party that paid them enough money to feed an entire third world countr--to ensure that the test flight never happens, or it could have been a personal move on the Federation's part. Whatever the reason was, the death of the ThinkTank scientists lessened the complications associated with the operation.
And speaking of complications...
Another thing that has been bothering me regarding this case was the fact that I seem to be falling hopelessly under the charms of Kinomoto Fujitaka's only daughter. It wasn't intentional. My first outlined course of action was to be invisible. But after saving Sakura from a gang of would-be rapists my physical connection to the Kinomoto family flourished. We started going out, and this move gave me the access that I needed to move about the household without eliciting much suspicion from Fujitaka and his killers. During the first few months our relationship was built on the foundation of respect. I respected her femininity and her ideas. She respected my privacy and my ideas. It would have been the perfect situation any undercover agent could ever dream for, but not for me. My close proximity to Sakura has not only stirred feelings of physical attraction. It has also awakened in me the emotion that I in my early days at the Federation school was taught to first forget.
Love.
I love her now.
With this complication, my work has only tripled in its intricacy.
My laptop beeped once more, and I glanced down at it, noting with some sense of satisfaction the coded message that I had already penetrated the first of the five security stages of the Federation systems mainframe. This is good news.
The beep had not only alerted me of my hacking success, it has also reminded me to focus on the task at hand and ignore the pair of clear emerald eyes that suddenly flashed across my mind.
TBC
FOOTNOTES:
1. You might be wondering why I chose to call the over-all head of a large group of assassins as General. Lemme explain. Since the Federation thinks of itself as above the law, it just logically follows that they within their group have their own hierarchy of officials against the 'official' officials of the real world. Anyway, this will be expounded on in succeeding chapters.
2. Again, no factual basis for this one. I am recreating the history of Japan as I go along, so don't get your information mixed up.
3. Citations go to a GWING author. I'm sorry girl but I can remember the title of your story. Or your penname, for that matter. The idea of the ThinkTank group, however, is hers and not mine. So all credits should be bounced back. ^-^
4. Hmmm...if I remember my Geology class correctly, the diamond is the strongest mineral on the face of the fucking planet. No other substance could scratch its surface but another diamond. I made this comparison simply to point out the strength of my made-up alloy. *makes a face* Sorry if the name didn't sound at all scientific. I mean, I couldn't very well call my alloy Gundanium, could I?!
5. I'm no scientist so don't believe in this bullshit ok? From what I can remember beta is just simple light ray or something.
Author's Notes: This is Eriol's view on the Operation RAGE itself. His would be more detailed than that of Fujitaka's, since he IS an intelligence agent on assigment. I would also be including in this chapter the story of Eriol's life. Cheery, huh?
Oh, and yeah. Back Through Time, once more, is on a temporary hiatus. Now, don't be mad...my reasons are perfectly legit. The story has gone stale, and I decided to just revise the whole thing before I post again. You'll like the new BTT, I swear. Just give me more time and more leeway, and I promise that once I post it up updates will be weekly.
ASSASSIN by rei-chan
CHAPTER SIX: Operation RAGE: Eriol's Assignment
I maneuvered my blue Civic out of the Kinomoto garage and turned towards the tree-lined street, my mind a disorganized turmoil as I tried to shed some understanding to this case that I firsthandedly was hesitant to take. My laptop, which I had positioned on the passenger seat next to me, clacked and beeped like crazy, but my mind was too busy trying to comprehend the current situation to actually care. I couldn't help it.
For the very first time since I started working as a secret agent, I was unsure.
It wasn't because of the fact that my capabilities couldn't handle the pressure. I had been handpicked by the Director of the EIU himself to handle the assignment, saying with all confidence that I was just the man needed for the job. Any agent could have handled the mission just as efficiently as I would have, but not after receiving the formal mission orders did I actually find out why I was the EIU's unanimous choice to handle this case.
The much-feared Federation was most likely involved.
It was only a suspicion on the EIU's part. After all, no single person on this planet could ever produce a shred of evidence that would pin down the Federation to a crime. But the inner workings and the details concerning the 'deaths' of the members of the Kinomoto excavation team all but screamed that the Federation has had a few pairs of hands stained with the victims' blood. The assassinations were clean and swift, the trademark sign of a well-trained and cold-blooded hitman. It was only logical to assume that the killings were executed by several employed assassins working under a group of ex-military personnel and former special agents. The Japanese government, of course, had not been ruled out as a possible suspect. After all, they had tried every means to keep the abandoned operation secret in the past, and its discovery by Fujitaka's team could have triggered the parliament to act on silencing the group of individuals who had more or less found out about their previous destructive project. An agent I know has been sent to infiltrate the Japanese Bureau of Defense in the hopes of finding full proof evidence of their involvement, but, until now, the reports that the EIU had been receiving from him stated none.
The Federation of Assassins...
The same group hiding under the disguise of a business conglomerate operating various businesses and schools.
The same group that had placed me under its wing after my father allegedly entrusted me under their tutelege.
I obediently stopped at a red light, my mind alert but elsewhere, as I recalled how my life had been like in training school. Hard as it may seem to believe, the Federation's guise of a school is, in fact, half true. They do really operate normal elementary and secondary male boarding schools, and not every student is trained to be slayers. One may conclude that the schools were a convenient means for the Federation to be able to pick out the students--young boys--that were probable killers. My case had been no different. My father, a high-ranking political figure who detested me on sight, enrolled me in their school two months after my mother died. It is safe for me to assume that my bastard sire desired me to never show myself in front of his face again. Upon enrollment he had already presented the Federation with enough money to see me through high school, as well as leaving me a hefty bank account and a tightly worded reminder that if I ever needed any more money from him I knew the number at his office.
What prompted the Federation to actually pick me as a pontential assassin? The answer to this, I can only guess. It has always been believed that there exists a force of evil within each individual. To the naturally outspoken and rash, the evil within them is clearly visible through their actions. The Federation believed that children who possess the most serene characteristics hide within them the greatest amount of evil. With the proper motivation, this evil could be unleashed. When I was younger I usually kept to myself. I seldom participate in physical activities and games with boys my age. Instead, I spent most of my time reading, enhancing my musical skills, and practicing martial arts. I was also one of the very few students who treat their mentors with utmost respect.
In the Federation's view, I was the perfect candidate for a potential assassin.
I stepped on the brakes and motioned with my right hand for the old lady by the sidewalk to cross, my mind refusing to delve back to the time when I was first brought into the School. It wasn't horrible by any stretch of imagination. In fact, the experience that I had back then is still an integral part of my current lifestyle. It has shaped me into the person that I am now, and no matter how much I try to forget the past and put it all behind me, I can't. The past is a part of me.
The past is STILL me.
The skills that I have learned at the Federation school; my gun aim, which has been estimated to be at a 98% accuracy. My hacking skills, which I had already successfully used in breaking into the United State's Pentagon database when I was only nine years old. My mastery of three different martial arts. All these I still use in my present occupation. The only difference between myself and the other employed assassins of the Federation is the fact that I have dedicated my life into eradicating their twisted cause.
Not bothering to hide the self-accusing smirk that spread across my features, I turned towards the street heading downtown, not for the first time feeling the wave of intense gratitude sweep all over my body that I had been able to escape from the clutches and influence of the Federation.
It was a good thing that Kaho Mizuku aided me several days after I escaped. There had been another boy with me that time; Li Hao Shi, if I remember him correctly. I was separated from him after we had reached the nearest town, where several Federation agents caught up with us. I ran for hours on end, desperately looking for a safe place to hide out. I knew that shaking off the persistent force of the Federation was hard--the General(1) had eyes and ears everywhere to keep his precious pets from finding egress--but I was determined to escape.
I had to get away, or else I was dead.
Kaho Mizuki's vehicle was the first logical option. Picking the car door lock without setting off the alarm was a menial task. I took the time to look around furtively before clambering unto the backseat, careful not to disturb the various important-looking documents scattered on it. I tried waiting up for whoever it was who owned the vehicle to plead for sanctuary, but having gone through four days without food and rest was beginning to take its toll on me. I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I was in a comfortable bed in another country.
It was a couple of weeks later when I found out that she knew who I was. Kaho Mizuki was an EIU agent sent to validate the rumors of Federation-operated schools training young killers. My entrance in her life was enough proof for the EIU to nail the Federation in court. I went through an entire month of various cross-examinations and giving out testimonies. But a week before the first trial Kaho received a call from the Director with the distrubing news that her office, as well as the entire EIU database, was ransacked.
I became a full-time EIU agent five years after that.
Due to the highly advanced training I had received from the Federation, I quickly rose through the ranks and succeeded in my newfound profession. I was usually the first person called on to handle the most difficult of cases. That is why, regardless of my background as a former assassin-in-training, I was given the free reign on the Kinomoto assignment.
For two years Kinomoto Fujitaka's discovery of the Range Artillery Gunmetal Equipage--or simply known as Operation RAGE--has made the top news on every governmental agency around the world. Though kept as a secret from civilians, Operation RAGE has been known and classified as a certified weapon for mass destruction. During the time of its invention, the whole world had been on its toes, afraid to make any action that could very well shift the Japanese government's attention to them. Contrary to the released statement that Operation RAGE was simply a defensive weapon to be used against invaders and enemies 30 years ago, the true purpose of the operation was to expand the Japanese territory and conquer the nearby Korea(2). Being a country known to be highly-advanced in the field of technology, it was easy for the government to come up with a robotic design that could easily wipe out the whole island with a single blow. The design and engineering of the operation was conceptualized by a group of scientists known only to the government as the ThinkTank group(3), and for two years the work to assemble the operation progressed through their instruction and guidance.
Operation RAGE in its completion was truly a force to be reckoned with. I have seen pictures of it during a briefing and shuddered to think what a weapon like that in the hands of the largest group of killers in the world would be capable of. RAGE stood at exactly 84 feet. The mecha's armor is made up of a chemically engineered metallic alloy, ragium. This metal was so strong that it could even graze and chip the surface of a diamond(4). The whole operating system of the robot was controlled by a single microchip that sends and receives commands from a single mother computer through gamma rays that bounce off any satellite in outer space. The said chip was also solar powered, but the mecha's system was specifically designed to store solar energy during the day to enable it to function during the night. RAGE was also equipped with a high-powered beam cannon able to destroy anything and everything within a fifty-mile diameter. The beam comprises of a highly-specialized combination of beta and ultraviolet rays(5) that, when fired, goes through a bulit-in prism dome in the cannon which magnifies the attack. Beam sabres were also installed for added protection and both laser blades were capable of cutting through metals 18 meters thick. Stealth was the mecca's primary function, although the speed at which it moves is to be considered an asset as well. RAGE was designed to travel at 3,000 square miles in an unbelievable time of 30 minutes, and an atomic bomb has been installed within the system that would go off with a single push of a button on the mother system.
With these details in mind, one could very well safely state that it was a good thing that the ThinkTank group died in a plane crash believed--take note, BELIEVED--to be one rigged by the Federation two days before the scheduled test flight. If this hadn't happened and RAGE had been tested and the experiment declared successful, the Korea that we know now should have ceased to exist thirty years ago. Personally, I believe that the plane crash had been a smart move on the Federation's part, though their ulterior motive for eliminating the scientists still eludes me. It could have been a request from an outside party--a party that paid them enough money to feed an entire third world countr--to ensure that the test flight never happens, or it could have been a personal move on the Federation's part. Whatever the reason was, the death of the ThinkTank scientists lessened the complications associated with the operation.
And speaking of complications...
Another thing that has been bothering me regarding this case was the fact that I seem to be falling hopelessly under the charms of Kinomoto Fujitaka's only daughter. It wasn't intentional. My first outlined course of action was to be invisible. But after saving Sakura from a gang of would-be rapists my physical connection to the Kinomoto family flourished. We started going out, and this move gave me the access that I needed to move about the household without eliciting much suspicion from Fujitaka and his killers. During the first few months our relationship was built on the foundation of respect. I respected her femininity and her ideas. She respected my privacy and my ideas. It would have been the perfect situation any undercover agent could ever dream for, but not for me. My close proximity to Sakura has not only stirred feelings of physical attraction. It has also awakened in me the emotion that I in my early days at the Federation school was taught to first forget.
Love.
I love her now.
With this complication, my work has only tripled in its intricacy.
My laptop beeped once more, and I glanced down at it, noting with some sense of satisfaction the coded message that I had already penetrated the first of the five security stages of the Federation systems mainframe. This is good news.
The beep had not only alerted me of my hacking success, it has also reminded me to focus on the task at hand and ignore the pair of clear emerald eyes that suddenly flashed across my mind.
TBC
FOOTNOTES:
1. You might be wondering why I chose to call the over-all head of a large group of assassins as General. Lemme explain. Since the Federation thinks of itself as above the law, it just logically follows that they within their group have their own hierarchy of officials against the 'official' officials of the real world. Anyway, this will be expounded on in succeeding chapters.
2. Again, no factual basis for this one. I am recreating the history of Japan as I go along, so don't get your information mixed up.
3. Citations go to a GWING author. I'm sorry girl but I can remember the title of your story. Or your penname, for that matter. The idea of the ThinkTank group, however, is hers and not mine. So all credits should be bounced back. ^-^
4. Hmmm...if I remember my Geology class correctly, the diamond is the strongest mineral on the face of the fucking planet. No other substance could scratch its surface but another diamond. I made this comparison simply to point out the strength of my made-up alloy. *makes a face* Sorry if the name didn't sound at all scientific. I mean, I couldn't very well call my alloy Gundanium, could I?!
5. I'm no scientist so don't believe in this bullshit ok? From what I can remember beta is just simple light ray or something.