Sakura's Last Chance in time

by Nighthawk Imac

When her magic is accidently relevaled to the world and eventfully begins World War 3. Sakura and her freinds must join up to change the past. Project Shelved until later notice, see profile page for details

3. Escape from the enemy

Sakura's Last Chance in Time

3rd Edition

By Isaac M. Zavelsky

Chapter 3: Escape from the enemy

The dark skies were filled will fire and smoke, the ground rumbled of gunfire and burning oil as the entire place burnt apart, the dark skies above provided cover for the silverly sleek bombers that flew over the burning damage. The streaming lines of night fire and missile trails fired into the distance. The tragic and hopeless fight without realization is the start of the end of this terrible darkness.

Location: Fort Dragon airbase, Federal States of America

Date: April 2nd, 2011.

Time: 19:50hrs

The rooms filled with light every time another bomb hit. The general was running blind in the room, trying to find a torch. When light was restored, everyone in the room was on ground coving their heads. The general regain his balance and got up; he looked around for a minute to see the people in the room. The four marine guards and the interrogator, and Tomoyo strapped to the table. Apparently Tomoyo was bleeding in her stomach, it didn't look like she was shot; merely a light blub fell and smashed onto her.

"What the hell are you waiting for, get your rifles and go investigate that"

The marine grabbed their guns and headed out the doorway, the interrogator inspected Tomoyo for a second, before he was grabbed by the arm.

"Forget her, she's dead, or dying, whatever the hell is; she's dead" The general holstered his gun and walked off with the interrogator. Everyone ran down the hallway with weapons drawn and filed out the door downstairs to the garage were a jeep would be waiting for the general. The general approached the office and looked out onto the airfield, it was littered with burning planes and wreaked anti-aircraft units, marines hopelessly tried to arm and get aircraft running, the sky was filled with tracer fire and the jets after-burners.

The general ran down to a jeep with his escort marines loading guns and missile launchers. All around the base barracks, the marines whom where half dressed; rushed into uniforms and ran out with whatever gun was loaded. The general arrived to the north end of the base where the flight control station, weapon storage and Helicopters were stored. As he got out, he saw marines putting on a jacket and then loading a gun with ammo. The general picked a rifle and fired it three times at the group ducked then looked and heard the general yelling at them as if they were animals,

"Listen you freaks, forget the uniform, just get your guns and fire at them, bloody sake! This base needs protection now!"

"Why is this happening, we had Radar station two clicks away, didn't we?" an air force Colonel spoke to the general "We had no warning"

They looked at the burning remains of the control tower. It had been blasted right to the ground, the cement reinforcements had been smashed apart and were scatted across a minor apron and yelled "This is another pearl harbour, in Japan!"

The marines stood and ran out into the cold weather outside, warmed by the senseless heat of the burning wreckages. The aircraft lined up were easy targets for the enemy doing strafing runs. Almost every plane in the base had been levelled, the hangers hadn't been hit, but they stuck out like sore thumbs. It only would take time before they got damaged.

Sakura ducked down onto the ground when a huge explosion rumbled the ground. There room was dark, but every time a bomb hit, blight light seared through the window and onto the young couple holding on to together. A much louder and closer bomb hit the ground, when Sakura realised Syaoran and ran to the door. She started banging it, screaming out the same thing,

"Stop it! Stop it!" Sakura screamed.

Syaoran picked Sakura up and shook her,

"Calm down Sakura-Chan! We are not hurt yet! Now help me move the mattress onto the ground" Sakura stared at Syaoran in disbelief for a second and then did as she was told. Sakura then moved it under the bed frame and proceeded with Syaoran to lie on the mattress on her stomach. Syaoran tuned and faced Syaoran and spoke

"Sakura-Chan, I'm sorry about that" Syaoran spoke,

Sakura finally came to her senses and turned over and stared at Syaoran for a minute, Sakura almost assured, then spoke as she put a hand over his back.

"Thank you Syaoran-kun" Sakura smiled,

Syaoran looked both confused and then realised what this entire situation could mean to them both. Sakura the continued,

"Everything will surely be alright" As Sakura spoke, another loud band forced Sakura and Syaoran to hit the mattress and wait for the cement dust to clear. Sakura held on to Syaoran tightly and hoped they never let go.

Tomoyo opened her eyes momentary, everything was fuzzy; the lights were flickering badly and heat had been restored to the room. Tomoyo could feel something on her arm squirming on the band. Suddenly a click snapped the belt off Tomoyo's hand. Tomoyo twitched her head towards it, and stopped when she met the end of a needle still lying on the table. Tomoyo breathed out sharply making a gasping whistle out of her mouth.

"Oh good, your awake" spoke a crocked voice. Tomoyo tried to see who it was; suddenly another click undid a leg strap. The sound of a body dragging around the table could be heard between the noises of gunfire in the distance. A minute later all the restraints the chest were undone. The noise of a body dragging went around Tomoyo's head and stopped. The sound of someone lifting up of the ground was met with the Colonel crawling up on his knees and leaning on the table.

"You, you're alive?" Tomoyo whispering, suddenly realizing she could speak again.

"Don't talk just yet" the Colonel lifted his upper body over the edge of the table and started to undo the chest strap. Eventually it came off and Tomoyo was free and able to move, The Colonel then pushed the needle of the table and letting it break on the floor. He then slowly drifted Tomoyo's frame slowly over the side and back down with him.

"Hang on, the might hurt a minute" the Colonel moved and brought Tomoyo on top of him and fell to the floor, Tomoyo had he fall cushioned by the Colonel, who started to drag her to the corner.

"Why are you doing this?" Tomoyo whispered. The Colonel didn't respond instead continuing to move with her until he rested against the mattress that was lying on an angle. He lay back and slowly moved Tomoyo off him to the side. He then grabbed the Needle in his pocket and prepared to inject it into Tomoyo.

"What's that?" Tomoyo scared that it was a poison,

"Penicillin, it should help you stabilize, for now"

The Colonel injected it into her arm; the cold watery substance shook vibrations into her bloodstream. The Colonel then produced a Small first add kit from the corner; it had somehow flew off the shelf when the bomb hit, and somehow ended up there. Tomoyo was very surprised how this person was treating her, or was it because he was definite against her dying. Tomoyo tried to rest and then noticed the bleeding in the Colonel's chest.

"You're bleeding, badly!" Tomoyo whispered in pain "you should've taken the medicine"

"No Tomoyo, it's more important that you survive this"

"Why?"

"Our future depends on it"

Tomoyo blinked and stared at him, it didn't make any sense in what he was saying. Tomoyo looked at herself for a minute, the bleeding had been pressurized by bandages and the penicillin was starting to take affect. Tomoyo laid back and did was best for her in the meantime,

"Tell me why? And I will tell you want to know"

Location: Fort Dragon airbase, Federal States of America

Date: April 1st, 2011.

Time: 20:00 hrs

Just outside the airbase perimeter fence; a small squad dressed head to toe in bluish black camouflage. The band had been waiting for a day for this to come. The soldiers creep in a long ditch following the road into the fort facility. Slowly the squad parked themselves and waited. The head of the group slowly waited for a radio transmission on there two-way.

"Major, are you in position…" spoke a husky voice on the other end.

"Yes sir, we are awaiting for the next signal, gate still intact and we need a strike, over?" returned a tired and burnt voice.

"Ok major, hold steady, air strike inbound five minutes"

The major was looking at the main gate to the airbase; heavy guarded and populated my troops looking at everything in the sky. The major crept back to his squad and started to speak quietly.

"Listen up squad, once the gate is clear, well will divine into three groups. First squad; the main building ahead is out target, intelligence informed us that Sakura and her friends are kept there" All the soldiers listened carefully to what the major was going to say next. As they did, they commenced the procedure of loading there automatic rifles and removed the safeties on a few explosives.

"Second squad, will be led by Sergeant major Mao" the leader pointed to women holing a Rifle. "your job is to blow up the ammo supplies here; I want this place out of commission."

The sergeant nodded and continued to check an explosive pack she'd brought. The major looked at the other two men next to her, one Italian and another Russian. The major then took note of something and contiuned

"Sergeant; if you come across a vehicle with no marines; commandeer it at any cost. If we need to escape, I would prefer we had as quick escape as possible"

As the Major spoke, the radio crackled,

"Major, our fighters are coming from the south, get cover"

"Right, you heard that! Take cover back there"

The squad moved back up to another ditch and waited for the attack. The gate guards heard the engines and started to rapid fire shots into the sky. The marines gave up shooting and started running to the shelters. Then it came, a stream block of fuel vapour strikes the gate and blew everything to dust the extensive fireball that engulfed everything that was moving, gun posts were incinerated or wreaked. The squad the came out of hiding and commenced there attack on the remaining marines, not surprised by the lack of resistance,

"Bombing them takes all the fun out of killing them" laughed a German sniper expert. He was then hit in the head by the man next to him; a Japanese solider who was carrying a battle rifle.

"The squad slipt up, Mao and his men ran to the right while the Major, and his three people sneaked around the barracks.

For the next ten minutes it was a constant fight of killing off unsuspecting marines. Some were still getting dressed into uniform. Some of them just ignoring the order and found some lousy excuse to hide. They continued forwards and around corners of buildings, occasionally getting into a gun fight with passing marines.

The General and his officers worked there way down to the Helicopter pads were 12 out of the 20 assault helicopters were destroyed. The bombing was still going on in the sky, but it was clear that it was dieing down. The general assumed only then the next move would be a ground assault. He ordered the remaining pilots to assemble immediately at the temporary command centre.

The airbase had probably manage to scramble at least one and a half dozen planes from been completely blown to pieces. The entire apron was scatted with burning wreckages and craters from once existing targets. Inside the command centre The General walked to a table map to see where to send his men. Absolutely now, he knew that his base would come under ground attack and assumed it would be to the west towards the Sea of Japan.

"From the sea of Japan?" a Colonel in the air force spoke; the Colonel was also the commander of the airbases helicopter complement, or what remained of it. "It's a logical choice for an attack route, but wouldn't they try to attack us from another angle?"

"No, the resistance movements are heavily undermanned to launch from sea, they'd need the landing base for the fighters and a transport plane. That leaves us with Korean airbases and maybe a Chinese airbase on the north end"

"Send all your helicopters to just above this area and the attacks them head on, all they should have are the British army's Chinooks and other long range helicopters"

"Sir, isn't that a major gamble?"

"Just do it"

The general followed the Colonel to the helicopter pads where the remaining pilots were briefed on patrol routes. The captain in charge paused as he saw the general approach and calmly stepped aside in fear of being killed.

"Captain, take a seat" The general grumbled

The Captain did as he was told and sat with the squadron.

"Maggots, The enemy are ready to take one final blow to us, the enemy we now assume is in the Sea of Japan and towards Russia, North Korea and China, most likely that the landing force is being despatched in transport helicopters to take the base, this force is going to come from the same direction as the fighters, towards the north west. I want all of you to go out towards the sea of the Japan and start a search and destroy mission of each and every one of those helicopters, do you understand?"

All the pilots, the Captain and some of the maintenance crew overhearing the speech knew even that was a military mistake, but they also knew that they could not doubt the general, in thought that they only thought that opinion.

"Sir! Yes Sir!" responded all of the squadron pilots.

"Good, now move out, double time"

The general called all of his officers left into a quick meeting in a hanger empty of planes. While it was used as ammo deport for marines and a triage ward for wounded. The general started,

"Men, I want all of you to listen carefully. It seems that we have no choice but to kill Sakura and her freaky gang before we expect the ground attack, it will only come to that if the attack starts goes towards the facilities at the southern end of the base. Also I have figured that there is a ground force already at the radar station, which was why no contact about the attack was made. Major, you assemble a transport helicopter and some heavy explosive experts to take back that radar base. You two Captains will assemble a squad and start a door by door search of the main facility. Understood?"

Everyone didn't really but still said "Yes Sir!"

Eventually the squad got to the main building and towards the motor pool underground. The major and his three comrades started to make their decent down the steep drive. They met twelve marines and a machine gun position stationed at the doorway.

"Forget you scumbags, prepare to die"

The fire fight lasted the better half of one second minute when the machine gun failed to fire. The Sergeant of the marines looked at themselves in embarrassment. The marines hurled the guns up and fired round after around at the attackers. The fight ended in less then five minutes thanks to the machine guns breaking down. One the fight had ended, the three men collected the weapons of the marines and threw them into a hummer not bullet riddled.

"Souske, you come with me" the major referred to Japanese solider who was carrying his assault rifle and another gun he took from a dead marine. He felt it important to carry another gun for back-up. The third man started work on repairing the machine gun while the other three prepared to enter the building.

"Souske, Weber; prepare yourselves. We need to move out in thirty seconds" The major turned to the third man, "Guard this point, and make sure nobody gets through"

"Yes sir"

Before the Major could even move, the radio crackled and hummed. The major went and picked up the receiver as everyone listened.

"Major, this is ground reinforcement is under engagement, repeat, the drop zone is no use, you'll have to find another way out. Landing engagement forces inbound twenty minutes to the airbase, we have contacted there commander to pick you up as well"

"Okay, my squad are separated at the southern end, and I have the fuel reservoir set to blow in less then twenty minutes"

"Over, move all squad and target package up to the northern end at the airbase's helicopter hanger."

"Understood, out" The major spoke as he turned the radio system off then turned to approach the other men, "Okay, new plan" the major fiddling with the end of his rifle "We have less then twenty minutes to safely get away from this base before those tanks detonate. There is enough fuel at this airbase to blow everything in a mile radius of this place to the ground. He need to be well gone by the time that thing goes off, everyone set the watches to ten minutes on my mark"

The soldiers get their watches and wait for a signal from the major; they waited until the major raised his hand and looked at his watch and a computer vox.

"Mark it" spoke the major.

A quick sound of electronic beeping sounded at the signal. The major looked up to the entrance of the inner facility and readied the rifle and faced the group again. "Remember men…" He started a hand pile as they all entered a pact "…for the future"

"For future" Spoke the entire group.

The major and two of his squad members charged down the hallway and towards the staircase.

The general felt accomplished; he had survived a air strike that damaged almost half the airbase, destroyed the ground unit that disabled their radar station, which now was in his control and was almost back to working usage. He was also about to hear the return of the helicopter attack group he had sent to destroy the invasion force, hopefully destroying every single one without any losses.

But the rest of the camp felt a different complexity, they survived an attack, and the radar would be operational, but the general ordered the radar station to concentrate its efforts to the north and west to look for fighters. Leaving the east and south approach completely unprotected from air strike or even ground attack. The entire base was slowly coming back to operational status, medic's were running up and down the barracks and first aid post conducting triage on the many wounded that still were coming in from the wreaked hangers.

The general started back to a canteen which had become a temporary command post. He had retrieved himself an automatic rifle and was not afraid to scare his own men with it. Inside the canteen the officers were relieving supplies and the injury toll when the general started to speak.

"What's the damage to us?" the general grumbled, pointing the gun at his requestion officers.

"Sir, we have maybe 6 short range fighter planes in the air, and maybe 3 more in the next hour. Every single aircraft in 1st, 4th, and 5th interceptor squadrons have been destroyed. The motor pool at the north end is a mess; we have only one tank left and 3 jeeps to use in any counter attack. The medics are complaining that we are running out of blood and penicillin for the injured troops. And the security in the southern end of the base is completely unknown; a report five minutes ago said that three unidentified individuals were heading towards our fuel tanks"

The general fired his gun in the air in anger, his reaction blowing a hole through the cafeteria roof, and temporarily scaring the troops.

"The enemy is here! You bastard! Sakura and her group are in the southern end"

"Sir, I've also noticed that of all the buildings that are on this base, the main building wasn't hit"

The general suddenly knew there was a reason for the air strike on only the north end and proceeded to the security commanders.

"Send an alert, every man to his station, now! We are under attack again; send as many people to search every building, every room pronto!"

"Yes sir!" two men spoke and ran to a phone box.

"What about Sakura?" spoke the officers?

"Kill her"

Meanwhile, Tomoyo was sitting down trying to relax her and past time; trying to distract herself from the pain in her stomach and trying to make the Colonel get distracted from the bullet wound. They traded stories, Tomoyo was still taking about her meting with Sakura.

"Accident, Sakura had did it by accident?"

"Yes, it wasn't like she wanted to be a Card Captor, but she fell in love with it for some reason. It was just after she caught Mirror I think" Tomoyo had regained some of her strength since she'd been saved by the Colonel that betrayed the orders. The Colonel had given her another dose of penicillin to stabilize her blood flow and keep her awake.

"In two years, you never told us that"

"Would you believe me then? Nobody has believed a thing we say so far, so why bother say something"

The Colonel slumped back for a minute and thought about it for a minute before coming up with an answer.

"Cause mankind forgot how to believe I suppose, a minor mistake led us into a war that destroyed our future"

"And what about our future? Even if I escape, where could I go? What you've told me doesn't give me a lot of hope"

"That's where you're wrong, there is still hope, but not in our present, our future can be changed though"

After some time had past, the entire base was alight with activity again. It was now quite obvious that the element of surprise was gone from the rescue unit sent to 'kidnap' Sakura and her friends. But somehow the commander in charge wasn't concerned about any attacks.

The major and his squad slowly crept up the stairwell towards the cell floor, after nailing the lone guard at the prison; the three men gathered the weapons they recovered from all the troops they killed. The major looked down the hallway towards the staircase which went up to the officer quarters. Slowly the men crept towards the intersection in the hallway, to the major's right it lead down another hallway, and directly towards a room that was left half opened. The major paused his move when the sound of a glass falling quietly shattered and echoed in the hallways. He kneeled down and sorted his rifle, he cleaned some of the grime his gun picked up in the previous gunfights and screwed in place the silencer extension.

"Souske, take this gun and approach that door" The major handing he Rifle over to him "Don't miss the target"

Quietly the major picks up a piece of broken pavement and throws it into the dark room. No response; without night vision goggles, Souske had to aim and shoot at the blink of an eye. The major crawled slowly to the right side of the doorway and Weber over to left; both had a good two metres behind Souske who was lined up against the door back lined against the wall. Souske breathed heavily as he grasped his rifle and prepared to smash the door open. He grabbed a bullet shell and dropped it. As it hit the ground, Souske turned and kicked the metal door in with his foot, the cartwheel rolled two metres, once up and kneeling down he sprayed the walls in front with 12mm hallow armour piercing shells. Weber who jumped to the exact opposite had landed on the left side of the door and almost opened fire when a young girl screamed.

"Hold fire" Weber yelled, Souske and the major who was at the door stopped shooting. The major retived a flashlight and looked for the source of the scream, most probably it was one of the female prisoners, hopefully it would be Sakura. The major stopped looked for the light switch. He eventually found the switch and turned the lights on. Only one of the filament lights was working; the other had fallen out of place and landed on the examination table. Souske then looked into the corner and noticed a young girl and another person, an American Colonel.

"Over here" Souske got up and walked over to the girl, keeping his rifle pointing at the other person. Weber and the Major moved in and noticed looked at them

"Who is she?" Weber asked,

"Tomoyo Daidouji"

Tomoyo had fainted when Weber had pointed a gun at her before, the Colonel left alive barely. If Weber did shoot; Tomoyo would've been hit instead of him, something of a human shield.

"She fainted, but she's okay for now" the Colonel speaking to the major,

"Shut up you idiot, throw her around in this prison" Weber yelled "Time we threw you around you ass!"

Weber pulled his rifle up and pointed it at the Colonel for a minute. He waited for the Colonel to speak again so he could shoot, as he did, Tomoyo finally regained energy

"Stop" Tomoyo regained herself for a minute "he was protecting me before"

Weber put down the rifle for a second, Souske picked up on this and moved over to inspect the Tomoyo's patched up wounds. They had been hastily put in to prevent bleeding, but it was good enough. Souske looked over to the Colonel,

"Where are the other prisoners?"

"Inside cells ten through thirteen, check them all"

Souske nodded Weber to go back and check the cells with the major. Weber understood the request and moved off out the door. With the heavy lock in place, Weber drew with his hand gun and shot three rounds into it; still the door wouldn't move, but it was unlocked now. Weber kicked the door in on cell ten; nobody inside.

"Nobody in Cell ten, liar!" Weber yelled back,

Sosuke pointed his rifle at the Colonel, if he was wrong about the next two, he'd die. Weber pointed at the door of Cell eleven His hand gun and aimed at the lock, but this time he decided to knock on the door first to check

"If anybody is inside, you better stand clear of the doorway"

Weber pulled his hand gun and shot three rounds again; then kicked the door in on cell eleven; this time, he was in some sort of luck, the be had been over turned and underneath was a teenage girl and boy.

"Two people! Major, I need you here"

The major walked down to the cell that Weber just kicked in; inside Weber had drawn his gun down and looked at the two teenagers standing up with their hands up. The major immediately recognised the persons.

"We Found Sakura and Syaoran; main targets acquired"

The major stepped forward to calm Sakura who was frightened out her skin, Syaoran held a position in front of Sakura and paused for a second. The major decided to speak and settle the calm Syaoran down.

"We are the rescue team" the Major spoke, he lent out his hand to Sakura.

For a straight minute nobody moved an inch, only the sound of Sakura's gasping breath could be heard. Sakura then nudged forward to Syaoran's side and extend her hand to the major's and shook hands.

"It's an honour to meet, Ms Sakura" Weber speaking "I'm checking out the other cells" Weber went from the cell and proceed with smashing cell number twelve's door in.

"Sosuke! I need the med kit!"

"Sir!" Sosuke replied,

Sakura and Syaoran walked with the major down into the integration room where Tomoyo was being cleaned up for transport. One the way to the room, Syaoran found a hand gun lying on the floor. He went to retrieve it, nobody seeing keep the gun. Sakura then stumbled, her eyesight catching her friend on the interrogators' table with a solider doing something.

"How is she, did she die?" Sakura slowly whispers, fearing the worst.

"Your friend is alive, just" the major putting it to her straight

"Alright" Sakura sighing; Sakura struggles to see her injured friend, but the major stops her form approaching. Syoaran goes to Sakura who starts crying. Not thinking straight, Syaoran explodes at him,

"What did you do!"

Without speaking, he points to the medic wrapping Tomoyo in bandages. Syaoran then calmed down Sakura who continue to cry. Then Weber yelled out from around the corner,

"We found them"

The major picks up his rifle and runs towards the last cell in a long line, Sakura yelps from behind. The major then goes back, picks up Sakura and carries her down to the cell. In a short row of broken doors and spent shells; in the very last cell was Rita and Naoko scared in the back corner of the room. Weber didn't approach them, but waited for Sakura and his commander to show up.

"Well, there they are sir" Weber noting. From inside the cell, Naoko catches a glimpse of Sakura being carried by the squad's commander, Naoko jumped up with Rita.

"Sakura-Chan!" Both yelped. After the very short reunion, Sakura, the major, Rita and Naoko walked back to the main torture room were the medic was ready to move Tomoyo out. Souske and Weber were now fixing the American up for transport; they figure that because of his efforts in the rescue, he might be useful.

"Well, we have everyone, now what? The only exit to this place is downstairs in the hummer"

"Hang on, we're one person short; Colonel, where is Chihura"

"She's dead"

The major thought about his last comment and tried to think of it better; five out of six wasn't too bad, but one less person felt like a failure. He shook it off his head and grabbed his gun; and preceded down the hallway the stairwell. He didn't hear any gunshots before therefore it should've been to hard getting back down to the hummer. Sakura was been carried by Syaoran who limped in time with Sakura, Tomoyo was being carried on Weber's back and Rita and Naoko stayed behind Souske.

Souske; a veteran combatant since the young age of eight, had been living in the disputed areas near Russia after the collapse of Soviet Union since birth. He had been working for his commander for two years before the war broke out, during the war, his skills were effective in various campaigns and helped turn the tide of the conflict temporally two years previously. He had been selected for this mission, along with his comrades Weber and Sergeant major Mao; they had been picked as they were the best when it came to finishing a job.

Souske had been frustrated at the pace he had to go, Rika and Naoko were too slow for him to move along. Suddenly all the stop watches beeped ten minutes to go.

"Major! Its ten minutes"

"I know, the real fight is about to begin"

After the alarmed was raised the general insured that he wanted to be the one that killed Sakura in a single shot, still with his gun in the holster. The general and his staff were making there way down to the main building when the familiar sound of helicopters hummed quietly.

"Goody, they have returned I hope" muttered the general.

An air force commander who was driving the jeep slowed down and eventually stopped in the middle of the marching ground halfway to the main building.

"Why have you stopped you idiot!" yelled the General

"Shut up and listen" returned the officer.

The general shuts up and waits and can hear the helicopters, but something was wrong with the noise, one thing was that they sounded like a twin rotor transport instead of the single rotor attack helicopters he deployed to destroy the suspected ground attackers and even worse; these helicopters sounded like they were approaching from the south-east instead of the north-west.

The general's radio screeched and yelped until he answered it.

"What's those helicopters', our enforcements?

"Negative General Sir! The invasion force is coming from the south! We have signatures of thirty Fighters from the north and two high energy signatures directly west. We are surrounded!"

The general ordered the jeep to turn around as he did a marine shouted out from behind.

"Up there , its coming towards us"

The general looked up towards the sky in the direction of the west, the two heat signatures were in view. Two long sleek missiles were just entering the atmosphere, the shape didn't indicate they were nuclear weapons, and the tip was rounded out. A parachute deployed from its rear and slowed the thing down. The general suddenly realised the object. It was the worse thing he could possibly have happen now. As he thought, the missiles realised two shell sides and split away, inside a thing jumped out and somersaulted three times before deploying a parachute itself. It was definitely the general's worst nightmare; the M9 Armour Slave unit.

An Armour Slave or AS the pilots knew them was simply a four storey high manned robot that had an assault rifle the size of a tank. They were a development of the war years on both American and Former Russian weapons manufacturers. They were rare, but extremely effective in combat. The Americans had developed an equally powerful TDV-3 Class deployed in western fronts of Europe and Africa. But the M9 were extremely more powerful and better durable then the American counterpart.

As a result, the Americas trusted AS's in groups bigger then five, any less and it was possible to lose a fight against only one M9. Only two thousand were ever built of the TDV-3. Half of which had been destroyed in battles. The deployments of these machines were considered valuable targets and serious weapons of war. The general knew now he was outgunned and going to worry about winning.

"Red alert to all personnel! Aircraft focus on the M9's"

"Were going to die" yelped a marine in the back. The general currishly answered the marine by shooting him in the arm.

In the garage, The Major inspected the handy work of the third person, fifteen more marines dead and several machine guns more. A hummer had been prepared to leave. After Souske made a quick trip up to the office and retrieved a box that the Colonel suggested on. Everyone clamored into the Hummer.

"Sakura, Syoaran, Tomoyo, I suggest you lie down on the floor" Naoko and Rika, please lie on the seat here. Souske, get that machine gun up there, Weber you back him. Corporal, take drive. The major sat in the passenger seat and aimed his rifle and started smashing out the windshield. "Drive Dimmit, Drive!"

The hummer raced out of the garage and turned the corner, outside marine search parties took notice of the hummer and started shooting at it. On the top hatch, Souske and Weber lifted their heads out with a mini gun and started shooting back. At the marines. The hummer was chased down the roadway towards and intersection; left towards the airbase and right towards the fuel deport and tanks.

"Sir, we need to get dear Sis", Weber yelled from the top,

"Corporal, make a right" the major looked back at the two and yelled back "Hang on, this might get rough!"

The hummer turned right and started to speed up, in front was two marine units charging from one side, Suddenly the hummer stopped outside the fuel deport and the corporal beeped the horn. A few seconds later, three people came out of a building, the female of the three, throwing a grenade into the building on the way out. The persons ran for the hummer. Mao led the men into the back to realise that her and her men had to jump into the hummer. Mao leaped in through the hummer door and crashed just to the left of Sakura; the two guys did the same, one unfittingly landing onto of Mao by accident. Knocking her out for a second, The hummer reverse when it was hit by a hail of bullets from behind, Souske has hit in the arm, grunting the pain, he turned around with the mini gun and fired back at them and shot up a oil barrel, exploding a entire building and the burning the marines shooting. The hummer turned around and started speeding down another road towards the helicopter pads. Souske looked down at his watch,

"Let's go, we have about three minutes before our ride comes here"

Behind them a violent explosion inside a building, rumbled to the ground. Sakura winched and looked over at Mao who was starting to regain consciousness.

"…or sooner, let's go!" the major commanded the driver.

The general was losing it, the airbase was in chaos and was about to come under attack from the heavy weapons on the enemy M9's. At the north end, already four of the helicopters had landed and the battle had begun. The fighting was at first a straight shootout and turned into all out trench warfare. The fight was starting to gain pace when the general arrived at the now former temporary command post that had established. An officer who had escaped the burning building ran directly to the general.

"Sir" the officer yelled as he still approached him "We got hit when that M9 landed!"

"Fighters, where are my fighters?" the General yelled.

"Sir, there are none available for duty, the airborne ones were shot down by nearby MIG 29's"

"Chance of survival?" the general asked.

"None, sir…we have lost the battle"

"But not the war, get somebody to go back to Sakura's cell, kill them all" The general ordered the half blind officer.

"That's not possible sir, Sakura and her group were reported on the move a few minutes ago"

The general was furious at the officer and made his response even clearer then before by shooting him in the head. The general went over to a bunker where a bunch of men were loading missile launchers to try fight the M9's.

"You twelve, you're coming with me" the general picked up a mini-gun and started to jog off towards the only undamaged part of northern end, the helicopter hangers. He had suspension that they left that undamaged, because they were going to pick up Sakura there where it was easily near a M9. On the other side of a compound of buildings, the hummer passed another bunker group of marines and was almost at the hangers. Mao was finally conscious and reached for a radio pack that the major gave her,

"Radio command, this is URZ 2, prepare for dust off in one minutes. All package minus one recovered, repeat, please prepare dust off team to meet at dust off point"

Mao looked over to Sakura who was staring back

"Ms Sakura I presume?"

The hummer stopped short of crashing into a wall. Souske and Weber jumped out of the top and walked down to the doorway that led to a hanger. Inside, nobody was around, it was empty of machines and personnel. Souske, Weber and Mao then went inside and cleared the area. The major exited the hummer carrying the box that the Colonel was intent on keeping. The corporal helped him out into the hanger space while Sakura and Syaoran limped behind. Naoko and Rika were both carried by Mao's other two squad members. They crouched down while Sosuke and Weber kept rifles ready to fire; Mao kept a gun on the door they exited.

Sakura and Syaoran looked out the hanger doors and saw a transport helicopter approaching. It was shooting machine guns over towards the building on its right. Sakura and her friends stood up and started running. Behind them a large door suddenly opened, behind them a squad of marines and the general.

"There they are! Kill them all!" the general yelled in a manic sense. Sakura, Syaoran and the others while, Souske, Weber and Mao, along with the other three troops returned fire. Helicopter wound forward the chin gun turret and pointed it to the inside of the hanger.

"DUCK!" the major jumping down coving Sakura. The Colonel was shot in the back and leaped to the ground; the corporal tried to retrieve him but was killed as well. Everyone ducked just in time as the chin gun on the helicopter fired. The helicopter fired a four barrelled fifty Cal machine gun at the front into the back of the hanger, enough firepower to decimate the marines and blow up the discussed hummer. The general ran away from the blast before he was incinerated in the occurring blast. The helicopter landed and the group forwarded towards it.

"That's the lot of them!" Weber yelled "Gets get the hell out of here!"

The general got up again got up and picked up his assault rifle. He ran full force and fired his weapon. The solders turned around and fired back; more marines came out the hanger backdoor and backed the general up with firepower. Another soldier defending Sakura was picked off, but the group made it, all that was left was Tomoyo and Rika. Sakura was almost thrown down into the helicopter by a soldier onboard; Syaoran helped Naoko on and stayed still as the soldier provided cover fire for their escape.

The general had her in his sight and fired, Tomoyo was only so much as an inch from freedom when she was shot in the back. Tomoyo collapsed onto the deck of the helicopter; Syoaran jumped to Tomoyo and dragged her into the helicopter. Sakura stood in disbelieve; Syaoran took it to his duty to extract revenge in a split second, grabbed a gun he had stolen before and emptied the gun on the general. The old bagger of a general fell down and died. The Major sat on the side and kept shooting until Weber dragged Mao, who had been wounded, were aboard.

"Taking off now" the pilot yelled from the cockpit. The helicopter turned around and lifted off, allowing a M9 to level the hangers finally. The blades on this machine lifted the helicopter up an away from the airbase, the view outside was a mess, burning wreckages and fireballs exploring around the northern end of the base. Syaoran fell back and then turned to see Souske performing first aid on Tomoyo. Mao and Weber closed the doorway as they left the fight.

"She's still alive, but we need to get the ship if we want her to live"

"What ship?" Sakura asked.

"Okay, can you give me a count on the timer" Sosuke asked.

"Its 21:00" spoke the pilot,

"Ok, we have about thirty minutes to get Tomoyo there, or she will die" Sakura chilled at the sound of that word.

"Please sir" Sakura cried to the pilots "please fly faster!"

Sakura turned around to Tomoyo; who Souske was quickly trying to contain the bleeding. Sakura could see for a second that Tomoyo wasn't awake; her chest was still moving though, slowly. Sakura clasped her hand and held on tightly.

"Please Tomoyo-Chan, don't leave me now. Not now, not ever."

Syaoran came to Sakura and calmed her down, he then took her away from that scene and helped her concentrate on something else like where they are headed; this question then came to mind and Syaoran asked.

"Where are we headed? Where are you taking us?"

"To sea my boy" spoke the major

The helicopter travelled off along towards the next apart of their long adventure.

Location: Somewhere off the eastern coast of Japan

Date: April 7th, 2011

Time: 21:15 hrs

Normally, the weather would be tremendous and extremely difficult to deal with, but for some apparent reason, it was a clear night. Sakura and Syaoran were at alone watching the scenery change. The question 'Where now?' seemed their favourite; Sakura pondered at the thought too much to see what was on the horizon and now below her.

"Teiwertz-14 to Commander of SSBN Konovalov, this is night express one; package is about to be delivered to the mail box" the pilot speaking on the radio.

The dark outline of a ship started to rise from the ocean. The ship was small from a distance but was big. Very big thing in fact it was a submarine; a massive boat designed to simply disappear and never be seen by the enemy. When The massive bulky submarine had surfaced, a light setup activated on its forward deck area.

"Commander SSBN Konovalov to Teiwertz-14; mail box is ready to receive mail" spoke a female's voice

"SSBN Konovalov, prepare emergency response medical, we have three wounded, one critical, request stretcher to flight deck" the major spoke into the microphone.

"Understood Teiwertz-14; stretcher will be on deck in fifteen seconds"

The wind was slightly stronger as the helicopter started to make its decent towards the ocean and towards the submarine. Sakura and Syaoran now knew that whatever that thing was, they were going aboard it. There luck had proven very well lately. The helicopter hovered over the vessel. Normally the procedure was to lower everyone by cable; they were going to land on the deck instead. The helicopter flew around the submarine once an approached to land on the flat deck in front of the conning tower. Sakura held on to a strap attached to the wall as the helicopter prepare to land on the front deck. The wind started to pick up as the helicopter started to land. The back set of wheels landed on the slippery deck, slowly the helicopter nosed downed onto the deck of this boat. Once the helicopter was on the deck, the crew of the submarine came running forward from the conning tower to secure the helicopter and retrieve the payload.

"Command wants Sakura and the entire squad below!" spoke the pilot to the sailor securing the nose wheel. "Stretcher is on its way"

"We have one wounded, serious; get her below now!" Souske yelled as a stretcher was lifted out of a side door on the conning tower.

Syaoran went off with Sakura While the major and the two other members of the squad moved Rita and Naoko with him off the helicopter and walked towards the conning tower. The massive waves splashed off the bow and came over the surface. The submarine had made slow so that the helicopter could safely land. This made the water do some strange things just off the bow. The massive after wake of the ship make the waves come from both bow and stern. Syaoran and his friends were quickly pointed in the right direction towards the conning tower. Sakura wanted to remain close to Tomoyo who now had close to ten minutes left; but headed downstairs with everyone else. Souske and the stretcher crew started to strap Tomoyo up into a stretcher and carry her off the helicopter and down to the conning tower. Weber and Mao were the last to leave the helicopter and immediately ran for the hatch. they tried to run along the deck towards the hatch.

Syaoran slowed climbed down the ladder towards the base Sakura just above her, once Syaoran had cleared it; he helped Sakura get off. Syaoran then suddenly realised a gash of blood on her back. Sakura then suddenly dropped down onto his waiting arms. Syaoran then yelled for someone to help him. A nearby officer came over and help Syaoran move Sakura to Sickbay.

The helicopter started to pick up more thrust as it attempted to take off from the deck and leave to where ever it was needed. It whirled even faster as the engine gave momentum and proved lift. The wind picked up and the noise roared across the deck and finally the massive mass of metal started to fly off. The officer blew his whistle and called all the other sailors back to the hatch. Rita was the last person down, having a last glimpse of the moon and the bow eject two geysers of water into the air and then the door shut.

The ladder led directly into an area near the control room of the submarine. Crewmen manned consoles blinking yellow and red lights, the room itself was dimly lit with blue lights through the room; the officers were looking through the periscope and at their new guests. Sakura was been moved with Tomoyo into the medical quarters ten meters aft of the ladder wells. As Syaoran and the officer carried Sakura to medical quarters; another man past him, he wasn't kind looking; instead he was tough looking. We wore the insignia for a Captain 1st Rank, although Syaoran couldn't see that.

"Where are we?" Sakura asked reawakening just outside.

"That's no important now Sakura-Chan, you're hurt badly" Syaoran spoke back. Sakura inspected her own wound, and then fainted at the sight of the blood. Syaoran felt her weight suddenly fall down, but was still holding on to her long enough to carry her on to a bed that was apparently next to Tomoyo. The three doctor in charge were taking Tomoyo's ripped clothes off and getting her ready for surgery. Syaoran waited and accidentally saw Tomoyo without a shirt, as her prison outfit had been removed. Behind Syaoran, Sakura was tugging on his shirt. Turning around, he saw Sakura waking up again, but in worse pain.

"Is Tomoyo-Chan getting treatment?"

"Yes, and I'm going to get you treated as well."

Syaoran turned to the three doctors and asked for help. One doctor turned around and went to Sakura's aid. After making and examination of the wound, he called the other doctors, for a second.

"I'll take of Sakura, you two take Tomoyo, but call me if you need help" the doctor explained his orders.

"Sir, can you save them both?" Syaoran asked.

"I'm sure that Sakura will pull through, but Tomoyo – we can only pray"

"Please save them both, I can't stand either of them dying now"

"I'll do my best" the doctor gave him some confidence.

Syaoran was moved out of the medical quarters by another officer and moved down towards another room a few doors down. It was a small room; it usual housed two junior officers. Rita and Naoko were already there lying down on the beds, Syaoran closed the door behind them and moved to the ground where he for the first time in a while he cried.

Back in the control room the captain was at his post, beside him was the women on the radio before, she handed him a paper reading out the events just occurring.

"Okay" The Captain nodding "Prepare to dive, full dive, 800ft displacement now, thirty degree on the bow plane"

"Aye sir" the female concurred "Dive, thirty degree on bow plane, course heading 037 north east, all ahead"

The submarine began its decent downwards at a quick rate. The dials on the submarine kept going up; speed and depth were important now. The captain of this boat knew how important he was to this entire mission, but didn't like the part he would play. He was pretty much a babysitter for a few days while he pitted his 30 years of experience in the old navy against a tide of American 688 and their newer 772-A/B attack submarines. But he was a man who had experience. Experience in hiding from he enemy, he knew the importance of these people and more importantly what they processed.

Captain 1st Rank Vladimir Tupolev was the best captain left in the Old Russian navy, or at least what remained of it. The captain was apart of a handful of survivors that escaped at Severodvinsk when the Americans used the shot cards emblem power to destroy the remaining delta class ballistic missile submarines at sea and later three nukes to level the entire base that was set up there at the start of the war. The captain was both very fond and very hateful towards Sakura. In that she let her enemies onto her and that she was the cause for this miserable existence that he and his crew had lived out.

Every man on his ship had been there for two years now. And they had been lucky, they escaped with there lives on more then one occasion as they were been hunted down. The captain had a special alliance with his men, they trusted his actions; his actions assured that they would live. Then this mission came; and so did the submarine, this old hulk was never meant to see daylight again, but this is one insurance policy the Russians had. The 'Konovalov' was part of a top secret project that would give the Russian navy some firepower in the near future if war broke out, apparently, they were of good use.

Built five years before the Berlin wall fell. When the Soviet Union eventually broke up, the KGB withheld her and supposable scuttled it. It actually was left in a bay, submerged in cold water. twenty years later this top secret submarine along with eleven others were secretly reactivated. Since then no American submarine has ever noticed them, which was why the Konovalov was picked to do this mission. It was a phantom submarine to America and it had a dam good captain at the helm.

But one thing that the Konovalov, a modified typhoon class missile submarine lacked; was a proper working silent drive system. This 'tunnel drive' was installed on all twelve of these secret submarines, of the twelve submarines only two actually worked. Fortunately Konovalov had a working system, but it was too slow to be effective for any length of time. The captain was going to basically run gamble everything and hope that it'd work for him. He had been given a diversion, a helicopter was force crashed in Japan; this plan would make American forces believe Sakura was dead, for the time being. Now it was up to him; he had to be assured that couldn't fail the mission that he had just started.

Location: SSBN Konovalov, Somewhere in the north pacific.

Date: Apirl 2nd, 2011

Time: 23:30 hrs

All the excitement on the Konovalov had died down an hour ago, since the ship was in silence mode; most of the ships company were asleep. The Captain resumed to his quarters and the control room was a quiet with no noise. Syaoran was sitting down in the officer's mess; waiting for news on Sakura and Tomoyo. He slowly sipped the coffee that the ship steward provided him. Syaoran has since changed into something that was more suited, it wasn't a prisoner outfit, instead it was a military outfit, Russian issued standard for a Lieutenant Commander in the navy or army. Syaoran was thinking for a moment about Tomoyo, how she got shot like that, and how he revenged her by shooting the general, also; he was the same guy that learned of coordinated his and Sakura's capture.

Meanwhile in medical quarters; Sakura was still out of it. Dr. Petrova saved her just as he promised Syaoran. They had removed the shrapnel that hit Sakura and patched her up; the doctor's only concern came when to that anaesthetic; seeing the doses were designed for a fully grown male adult, not a teenager girl. The doctor had decided to move Sakura to quarters to rest and pay attention to Tomoyo. The bullet was in an unfortunate position of hitting the side of Tomoyo's spine and then into the intestines. With the bullet removed and the damaged fixed to her insides, attention was payed to her spine. It appeared okay, but the doctor had his doubts. Blood and nerve pressure was pumping through the bodies legs. All they had in terms of problem was a lack of blood.

"Well, we tried to sir but her body doesn't have enough blood to maintain it"

"What's Tomoyo's blood type?" asked the chief doctor

"A" replied the surgeon.

"Sakura has A type blood" Spoke the other surgeon.

"No use, Sakura has only got enough for herself and they have been exposed to antibodies too much, and I doubt that any of the others have it"

"Well ask the crew; there are a hundred men of this tin can, one must have type A blood" spoke the first surgeon.

"Get the captain"

The chief surgeon and doctor walked out of the room and made a quick run down to the control room. It wasn't far; maybe twenty metres, not long enough to have to run down. The room was quiet; the crew had just changed to third watch and were preparing to go past a blockade of American 688 class attack submarines in the morning. The captain and 1st officer were at the map table plotting their next move; right now everyone was more concerned at the sonar contact board.

He wasn't going to receive the two alpha class attack submarine escorts for another twelve hours. In that time all he had was his Typhoon class's T-138 torpedos; they were the fastest torpedos invented, but at a cost of the payload. It would take about 3 torpedos to destroy a 588. In the meantime his stealthy slowness was all that protected him.

"Captain" whispered the Dr. Petrov,

"Yes Comrade Doctor"

"We have a slight problem, Albert, a big one"

The captain dropped his pencil and turned and looked at the doctor.

"What happened?" the captain asked calmly, hoping not to hear that Tomoyo and Sakura are both dead.

"It's Tomoyo, the bleeding…its very extensive, we can save her, but we don't any type 'A' blood to use"

The captain was on alert, but remained calm,

"What about the crew?"

"No, I don't trust what the crew do to their systems; their blood probably has vodka or drugs swirling around. Too much damage to there weak system"

"Any of the officers?" the 1st officer spoke,

"Probably the political officer, he's the only one I know that has type 'A' blood match" the doctor explained quietly "When did he sleep last?"

"He just went to his quarters"

"We'll get him up, come with me" the captain walked from the table and lead Dr. Petrov down a small step way towards the political officer's quarters. The narrow hallway was common in a submarine, even this size of submarine it was difficult to move around. The political officer was pretty much what a moral booster on a ship. In the old soviet days, the political officer was pretty much a teacher of socialist beliefs. But nowadays they are there to report all the good things that happen of these ships, whatever good can be found in it. Captain 2nd Class Yurevich Putin was the political officer onboard the Konovalov. He was a short man, no higher then 5' 5''; the man was easily approachable and liked to talk a lot about spirit and the true way. He signed up to the navy less then a week after the war broke out; he wasn't officer material so he became a political officer instead. First on the small attack boats then later on delta class missile boats, until eventually on a modified typhoon class missile boat.

"Comrade Yurevich, it's the captain" the captain knocked on his door for the third time.

"Oh, sir! My apologies comrade, what is the problem?" the political officer was heard speaking.

He eventually opened the door and let the captain speak,

"Comrade, what blood type are you?" clearly asked the captain in a low dull voice like he was interrogating him,

"I'm type A" the political officer spoke to his commander and the doctor, he then asked a question "What is so important that you need to wake me?"

"We might need you to give a bit. Have you been drinking?" Dr. Petrov asked

"Hey what? Sir, my blood is not for use!"

"Yuri, he need that blood for Tomoyo, she won't live if we don't get some blood in the next twenty minutes…"

"…Besides you're the political officer" the captain continued "you teach the crew all the time about being heroic. Now is time to prove it"

The political officer looked at the captain who by now expected him too. He got his jacket and followed the doctor and the Captain to the control room and aft to the medical quarters. The captain this time also came with the political officer, to insure he did it. What he and the doctor remembered to late was that Yuri hated the sight of blood to much, it made him faint.

"Well get that in Tomoyo and give me a call when she wakes up"

"Aye sir"

The Captain proceeded to move out of the medical quarters to return at his post in the control room, he took one last look at Yurevich sleeping on the other bed. Well at least now because of him, Tomoyo had a fighting chance. The doctors finally gave Tomoyo a good sum of blood back into her system. Warm Russian style blood would give her pail checks and skin some colour for now.

"Alight, clean her up and put her in with Sakura in the spare bunkroom"

"Yes comrade doctor"

The other two surgeons were cleaning up for the job well done and readied a stretcher for Tomoyo, they would get the political officer next. The doctor moved down the stretcher carefully, everyone quickly made a pathway for the mini stretcher and entered one of the two rooms the rescued were using to for sleep. The doctor knocked before entering, inside Sakura was still sleeping like a log.

"Ms Sakura" the doctor whispered, "are you awake?"

"Mmm…uh? What?" Sakura mumbled some words, still sleeping in her bunk. It was in fact Dr. Petrov; a small room in compassion to the other officers onboard. His room was four metres by maybe two and a half; the bed was inbuilt to the wall and could easily allow both Sakura and Tomoyo to sleep. The room otherwise had a suitable sized desk on the other wall, some small belongings that the doctor owned. It also was a comparably warmer room then outside in the hallway. The only annoyance was it had vents on the ceiling pumping the air in; the pump usually made a vibration if the ship sped above twenty knots.

The officer cabins had such luxuries in these most recent versions of alpha and typhoon class nuclear submarines. The possibly good thing about the navy was that it started to listen to its captains about the comfort level in the late 1980's; these of course made its way onto the secret fleet of submarines that later would provide resistance in the war.

The doctor lifted Tomoyo's relatively light frame over Sakura's sleeping body and laid her in together then tucked her and Sakura in under the thick wool blankets and left a fresh change of clothes. Dr. Petrov was once a father, who himself had a little girl called Natalie. She was no order then five when he was forced to join the Russian naval force. At which stage the world was into a full scale conflict with the uncontrollable American Federal Army.

About three months after Dr. Petrov joined the service, he learnt that his home and family in Kaliningrad which is just outside the capital was completely wiped off the map when Americans bombed Moscow into submission with there new hellfire bombs that integrated the fire card's power. They said that you could see smoke burning Moscow to the ground from Bryansk in the south west; the smoke covered the entire horizon to the North West.

All the Doctor Had left of his wife and only daughter was a picture when they visited him in a naval base. Those pictures were on his desk, faded and dusty. It showed how much was lost in this terrible war. Terrible enough this story was the same almost everywhere else where military men and women left their homes to run for the then safe Russian motherland. That was short lived; now it seamed that the best place to hide, was underwater in these old ships.

Location: SSBN Konovalov, somewhere in the north pacific

Date: Apirl 3rd, 2011

Time 01:50 hrs

While Sakura and Tomoyo rested from their wounds, Syaoran was still very much wide awake in the officer's mess, hoping that sometime soon or in the morning, if it wasn't already morning; that somebody would give him a decent explanation on where he was. Syaoran had already established the facts that he was onboard a submarine. But what country owned this steel shark, certainly not an American submarine for sure. Syaoran kept wondering about the facts and what lead the last three hours. Thirty-six hours ago he was with Sakura for the first time in two years, but in a cell in a prison in Sakura's hometown, almost thirty hours later he was in a small metal cabin two thirds the size of Sakura's cell, travelling at…Syaoran looked a like clock like depth gauge on the wall; one thousand feet below water.

Syaoran hated being small places for very long periods of time, but this was pushing it. Syaoran didn't take a bed; Rita and Naoko were already asleep when he was put in here. And seeing there were only two beds, obviously reserved for the other two junior surgeons on the ship, Syaoran didn't see a real need to wake either Naoko or Rita. So he sat in a chair next to the room's only desk. He was not really tired; just board of thinking. Suddenly the door opened; Syaoran went into defensive mode. Instead of a guard, a female naval officer walked in. She had Ash-brown in a long braid and soft grey eyes. The person was looking down at a report she was reading, unaware that Syaoran was inside. Followed behind her was another person Syaoran had see before, the sergeant major that was responsible or detonating the fuel tanks, Mao as she was known by the other two guys.

"Hey Tessa, it's that guy" The naval officer looked forward and saw Syaoran sitting down looking at them "Hey there"

Syaoran de-stiffened his attack pose, realising they had no means to harm him. Mao and the other person sat down and started to talk

"You're Syaoran Li, yes?" Mao started speaking "You are the famous boyfriend of the mistress"

Syaoran quirked his head at the sergeant, not something you'd expect to hear. The other person lowered her file holder and decided to speak. Syaoran then noticed the bandage on her right arm.

"How bad were the injuries; Madam?"

Mao looked at Syaoran, his serious tone and defensive nature was consistent with the amount of sleep he had.

"I don't think we have been formally introduced" the naval officer spoke "My name is Captain. Theresa Testarossa, my all my friends call me Tessa"

"Pleased to meet you Captain Testarossa-san" Syaoran bowing in respect to her.

"And I'm sergeant major Melissa Mao; you can call me by my first name, Syaoran-san"

"Pleased to meet you Sergeant Mao-san" Syaoran bowed "and thank you again for saving my friends"

"You're very polite considering your record, Syaoran-san" Theresa spoke "what are you doing in here?"

Syaoran didn't have a lot of excuses to play with; he didn't even know his way around the submarine. Dr. Petrov had told him to go this room under his request.

"I'm awaiting the outcome on the surgery on Tomoyo-Chan. I'm aware Sakura-Chan made it, but Tomoyo-Chan…I haven't heard from"

Theresa knew exactly what happened; whether she should tell Syaoran or not she wondered. She fiddled with her ponytail for a second and then spoke,

"Tomoyo-Chan's surgery was completed, but she had a lack of blood to continue pumping" Syaoran punched the table in and stood up

"You let her die!" Syaoran stood up and walked to the door.

"Syaoran-san!" Theresa spoke "Please listen"

Syaoran realised quickly how warm it was in the room when he stepped out of the door and into the narrow hallway; Melissa and Theresa got up and followed. Syaoran remembered the path to the medical bay and proceeded past without a sound; Syaoran unannounced walked down the hall to the control room. As before the control room was on third watch still the next change would be in one hour, at 0100 hours. The captain was in his cabin so only the senior officer and two other officers manning two of the six consoles stationed by other crew. In totalling there were about eight people in the room.

Syaoran walked past the control room and towards the medical bay. Syaoran had too see Tomoyo, even if she was dead, it was important. Theresa and Melissa passed through the control room. Syaoran opened the door and saw Tomoyo on the table like at the interrogation room back at the prison. On the left however was a unidentified naval officer.

"Blood transfusion, Mr. Syaoran" Dr. Petrov spun around on his chair "Tomoyo's luck that Captain Yurevich had type 'A' Blood"

Syaoran slumped on his body, relieved that Tomoyo wasn't dead. He approached Tomoyo's incapacitated body; he could've help but be saddened at her damaged state. Unlike Himself or Sakura, Tomoyo wasn't able to take intensive damage. Theresa and Melissa waited and watched Syaoran look on at his friend. Syaoran looked at Tomoyo's cold and pale face lying still and her eyes closed. Syaoran took her pulse, it was beating, slowly but enough to keep her alive. Syaoran lifted her sleeping body and hugged Tomoyo. It wasn't affecting the blood stream therefore not doing anything bad. Syaoran sat edged on the bed side hugging Tomoyo's unconscious body for two minutes before Theresa tapped him on the arm.

"You should let her collect the blood she needs" Theresa spoke "You'll get to see her again"

Syaoran nodded in agreement and laid Tomoyo's sleeping body down. Syaoran then spoke to her into her ear,

"Fight Tomoyo-Chan, Fight it, you have too"

Syaoran got up and walked out in a somber mood, quietly walking back to the officers' mess room; Melissa and Theresa followed Syaoran with great interest. Syaoran continued his original seating position at the tablet, both sleepy and annoyed. Melissa decided to ask him the question.

"Why were you so….lovely with Tomoyo-san back there?"

Syaoran flared with anger in his body for a few seconds. Melissa for a second thought that it was the wrong thing to say. He managed to calm himself inside before responding,

"Ever since our immediate capture, Sakura and myself have sworn to protect Tomoyo at every cost; her loss made her weak; and that didn't seem to change. We looked out for her in the prison back in Washington before we were transferred over to Tomoda's research lab. Went we were put into separation, we could only hope that Tomoyo would survive longer then us" Syaoran slumped back into the bench tired, "Tomoyo-Chan was my best friend next to Sakura-Chan, in cases from our card capturing days, Her safety counted more the Sakura's sometimes"

"Tomoyo-san doesn't have any magical powers, why did she come along?" Theresa the next question,

"Tomoyo-Chan didn't need powers to help us, she was as important to us on the field as she is now" Syaoran starting to get angry at their questions.

"Then you'll know that do don't mean harm to her" Theresa continued "in the meantime, let me show you around the ship"

"Oh boy, well if you don't mind, I'm going to get some sleep commander and I think I've had enough excitement today" Melissa got up and left the two alone.

"Firstly" Syaoran spoke "I want to know something"?

Theresa nodded approval to him asking a question.

"Who are you people and where are we going?"

Theresa responded, and answered "I myself haven't really much of a clue where we are but I can tell you know we are; you are aboard the 'Konovalov' a Russian built advanced typhoon class nuclear missile submarine, we are the commonwealth resistance, a group of nations that fled the war to the desolate areas of Russia to regroup and fight back"

Syaoran asked again. "Where are we?"

"I'm not sure myself" Theresa's renowned dumb attitude to answering simple questions "That I can tell you; come with me"

Theresa walked out of the officers mess cabin followed by Syaoran; Theresa walked forward to the main control room and towards the navigation table. At the table already was a junior officer marking the navigation points on map. The map itself was a map of the north western pacific region. On it was a black marker line showing the course the ship took to get off the coast of Japan. The commander gets his pen and points to a small X symbol not to far from the coast.

"Okay at 21:50, where we picked up from the helicopter was here" Theresa explained. "After we picked you up we headed due north east. At about 0100 we started to head towards the Bering Strait at 020"

He followed his pen along the line he had drawn when he was plotting the course. "Now its 02:23 hours and we are here." the commander marks the position with the pen.

"That's some distance in five hours" Syaoran commented "where are we headed?"

Theresa gets another map of the North Pole from a draw; she lays it out on top and gets it oriented, Theresa points on their current position on the map. "We follow the Russian north coast until the Kara sea region and then head south until we get to the port town of Tazovskiy."

It answered Syaoran's second, but it didn't answer the first quite as much. Syaoran then took glance around the interior of the Control room; it wasn't quite as relaxed as it would normally be in peace time. Crew were checking and double checking sonar readings. The two helms men were checking the bearing on the gauges and digital screen on top. Most importantly the officers on watch were looking at the threat indicator.

This piece of hardware wasn't a Russian tool, in fact the computer and this indicator were the only two instruments on the entire Konovalov that wasn't designed and built on these boats in the first place. The PACTOR computer system was a relic that was salvaged from the British Trafalgar Class attack boats when the United Kingdom and the remaining Europe ran to Russia for protection from the Federal American states.

The indicator boards were a mixture of British and German hardware designed. The German indicator boards originated on their Emko-200 class frigates. This hardware was completely vital on a submarine that was trying its best to avoid the fast attack boats of the American navy. But this hardware suffered from age. The computer could perform well, but on smaller and fast ships not something like the Konovalov, so of the ships reliance fell onto its crew; everyone in the control room had served on naval boats for years before war broke out.

Syaoran respected the fact that these quiet but productive people were working on his side, but why was the question that he couldn't answer. All these people from he heard were taking a massive risk stealing him and Sakura away from the Americans. He remembered how many helicopters that landed and the troops that fought to the death to allow Sakura and her friends to escape. There were what…five that said to of landed there the math was that twelve troops a helicopter plus the one original seven person squad that busted them out behind the American backs. Syaoran turned his attention back to the commander in charge of third watch.

"Can you answer any of my questions?" Syaoran asked quietly.

"I can, but I don't think your ready to comprehend, you won't like it. But ask away" Theresa being honest

"Is this a missile boat?"

Theresa was a little confused about the question. Of course he knew that it was a missile launching boat. Maybe to him a nuclear weapon is scarier then anything alive or anything him and Sakura experienced as there magicians or scourers. Theresa had one policy about answering questions; if you could show them, show them all the facts as well. Syaoran looked confused when she got up and walked down the ladder just outside.

"Hey, you coming?" the female commander spoke.

Syaoran jumps to his feets and catches up to him as they head down three full decks. He turned toward the bow of the ship and walked forward for almost forty meters. Around him was machinery that operated the tunnel drive. Turbines and steam hissed all around the two as they past through the heart of the Konovalov power plant, her reactor was in a separate sector aft of the control room and was the most powerful reactor type for her type of submarine. Syaoran was beginning to understand that this woman was a silent for the reason of responsibility he had.

The next room was virtually empty of anyone. This was partially because this room was left below freezing to lower the risk of any of missiles having internal combustion accidents. Syaoran looked on in gaze; no power could match a missile submarine. Missile bases could have more missiles but was a stationary target and was easy prey to bombers. Jet bomber planes were unable to deflect air attack. Submarines had the advantage of movement and more chances of survival.

"This is the missile room in the Konovalov; it can store twenty six submarine sub-orbital re-entry package ballistic missiles. Each missile can explode six separately guided MR-240 high yield warheads. We can launch more firepower then that's ever been realised in the history of war…before this one"

This took time for Syaoran to swallow. The compression of what a nuclear weapon looked like was in front of him, and then the thought that some of these destructive missiles had been realised.

"Thought this war, the Americans and us; the combined forces of Europe and Russia have launched two hundred low to high yield missiles and bombs" Theresa spoke. Theresa turned around and left the room, Syaoran would have nightmares thinking about it. But he asked a question, and he got an answer, he couldn't complain with that.

"You best return to your quarters Syaoran, dawn is soon and I think best you brief your friends"

Syaoran understood now the information he was told and agreed to his quarters. But he couldn't sleep knowing what this steel shark was capable of doing. But his question had never been answered; on who they were, Syaoran followed Theresa up to the control room and towards a room the end a corridor. Syaoran opened the door and to his surprise, Tomoyo and Sakura were lying down. Both incapacitated in a deep sleep unable to move.

Location: SSBN Konovalov, somewhere in the north pacific

Date: April 3rd, 2011

Time: 04:56 hrs

Third watch had concluded in the control room; but nobody had left there stations, first watch also where at there stations. Waiting on the other side of the Bering Strait was two of the fastest attack submarines in the Russian navy. Unfortunately, the two submarines were restricted to actually following the Konovalov all the way to Japan. Sending them south with the Konovalov would've raised some suspicious noses about their naval movements; the Americans would've responded by sending twenty odd 688's into the Konovalov's path. Already there were almost thirty 688's patrolling the area surrounding Japan, looking a phantom submarine that appeared on Sonar for ten minutes after the attack on the base. The Konovalov now running the silent drive; managed to slip past several 688's in its eight hour trip approach to the Bering Strait. In one such case, the Konovalov managed to get no less then thirty meters of a submarine traveling in the opposite direction.

The submarine was about to take an unusual measure; In the past, Russians used the deep submerge navigation maps they had on the submarines since the 1980's; this allowed any Russian submarine to pass the radar nets of American ES-03 patrol planes, and follow through the seabed rock canyons with incredible speed. The problem was that the underwater trenches was it put the submarine less then one hundred miles of the coast of Alaska for two thirds of the journey. A sonar watch station could detect a propeller noise if they decided to go above fifteen knots. The submarine although could dive the canyon that formed here, and virtually go undetected up to Wrangel Island, this is where the Russian escorts were waiting.

Inside Dr. Petrov's Cabin; Sakura was finally coming to. The room was still rather warm for a normally frosty cold steel cube. Once Sakura realised she was alive; she decided to take it slowly in waking up, already her mind was running at a million miles a second. Although Sakura's stomach felt like she sallowed lead or something; she was glad to still be alive. Sakura then suddenly remember about Tomoyo; Sakura tired to stain up and sit upright, but the energy wasn't there.

"Sakura-Chan, if it's Tomoyo-Chan you're worried about; she's right next to you" spoke a voice just above Sakura head to the right.

"Syaoran-kun, is that you?" Sakura whispered,

Syaoran got up from his seat and put himself into Sakura's eyesight. Sakura smiled momentarily; she then leaned over to her left and saw her friend lying next to her.

"Tomoyo-Chan?" Sakura whispered aloud, nudging her sleeping body,

Tomoyo remanded silent, not responding to Sakura's yelping. Syaoran stopped Sakura from trying to awake her again.

"Tomoyo-Chan is still under the influence of medicine" Syaoran explained to Sakura "She had suffered a fatal amount of blood loss in her transfer from the base to the medical quarters"

Sakura remember that she overheard something about her nerves and spine being damaged. Syaoran sat down on her bed and looked Sakura, unable to move on her own for a while. Syaoran lifted Sakura upright and embraced in a kiss for a moment. Sakura was both surprised and relived at the same time at Syaoran's momentary thinking. When they stopped; Syaoran and Sakura held on to each other, refusing to release from each other's grasp. Sakura felt closer to him more then never before. After sometime hold on gother, Syaoran laid Sakura back down to lest.

"What have you managed to find out? Assuming you have looked around" Sakura asked, with a better tone,

"We've somehow managed to get aboard a Russian missile boat called the Konovalov, which according the vice commander, is apart of a top secret navy that fight the Americans"

Sakura nodded understanding what he had said. Syaoran resumed sitting down at the chair beside Sakura; and started to drink his coca that he'd taken from the officers mess room. Syaoran remained quiet as Sakura quietly rested. Despite lying still awake; Sakura was thinking about what had happened in the last day.

"What do you think they want from us Syaoran-kun?"

"Our magical powers, what else? The Americans wanted it, what makes you think that whoever is in charge of these guys doesn't want the same?"

"They are taking care of us pretty well Syaoran-kun" Sakura sitting up on the bed and looking at Tomoyo. Tomoyo's medicine had worn off, but Syaoran decided to let Tomoyo awake on her own will.

"Whatever it is Syaoran-kun, until I'm well enough; you are my contact to this ships' commander" Sakura speaking seriously for a moment "I want to hear everything that they'd said to you.

As Sakura finished speaking, a knock came from the door. Syaoran got up and went to get it; he slowly opened the door and peered outside to see who it was. In the hallway; Theresa and the other solider known as Souske were standing and waiting for him to let them in.

"Captain Theresa Testarossa-san?" Syaoran opening the door fully "I'm sorry to let you wait"

"Its no problem, Syaoran-san" Theresa responded "I wanted to visit Sakura and Tomoyo if they are awake"

Syaoran to Sakura who was looking surprised at the sight of the lady commander who appeared as a friendly person for her age, and young, something that Sakura immediately picked up on. Theresa walked in followed by a Solider who closed the door behind him. Syaoran quickly brushed the seat off for the commander to sit on.

"Commander-san" Sakura kindly bowed to her. Theresa simple giggled,

"You are exactly like I thought you'd be, a girl as much kindness her gift" Theresa introduced herself "I'm Commander Theresa Testarossa, the vice commander of the Konovalov"

"Thank you for taking us aboard, Commander-sama"

"Tessa-Chan is okay, Sakura-san"

Sakura nodded and resumed to speak and shook her hand.

"Sakura-san, we have much to discuss, and very little time to discuss it in" Theresa started to answer all the questions that weren't answered before.