JSDF Base at Arnus Hill, Strategy Room 3, March 31, 8:45 local
Captain Coady and the rest of his team sat groggily on one side of the table. The few of them that were full time military acted somewhat more alert.
Coady had a few cuts on his face from the Rk 95 he was given malfunctioning catastrophically at the firing range. Aside from the cuts he was alright and was given an AK chambered in 7.62x39 with a full length rail system, top cover with accessory rail on top, retractable stock, and an enhanced safety and magazine well. Max, the teams IDF soldier, passed Scott a coffee "Thanks, Max." "No problem, boss" His accent was noticable, but still very understandable. The Tankery commanders and Fleet Girls assigned to the combined recon team sat opposite their UN counterparts. Scott recognized everyone from their files, Miho and Maho, who were sisters, Erika, Maho's second in command Katyusha, Nonna, Katyusha's second in command, Darjeeling, Kei, and Anchovy, were the tankery commander. The Fleet Girls assigned to them were Kaga, a "carrier", Atago, a "heavy cruiser", Yamato, a "battleship", Inazuma, a "light destroyer", and and "Yuu" or U-511, a "submarine".
The Fleet Girls were going to be used essetially as walking artillery emplacements, Kaga could launch planes for aerial recon as well as attack and defense of the column. First Lieutenant Itami and Sergeant Major Kuwahara sat at the head of the table nearest Coady, with Yamato on the opposite side.
Scott sipped his coffee "Alright, we all know who we all are and our roles. Now we just need to get our orders." Itami sighed "Well, you're the ranking officer, shouldn't you have the orders?" "I may hold rank, but I believe our friend Kuwhahara has the most experience out of all of us." Kuwhahara smiled "Thank you, sir." the Sergrant Major stood and unfolded the papers in his hand "Our orders are as follows: Third Recon Team, Tankery teams, and U.N. squad are toadvance as far as possible into Imperial territory and entrench themselves. Reenforcements will then be dispatched to form an Forward Operating Base.
From there the Combined Recon Unit will attempt to locate the Impirial capital. End of orders." Kuwhahara passed the papers to Scott and sat back down. Coady looked at them, then passed them down the line "Well, now that we have that sorted out, we should discuss how we're going to line this vehicles up."
Katyusha, the commander of the Pravda Tankery team stood on her chair "Katyusha shall lead the advance!" This drew a few laughs, considering her stature. "Katyusha, please sit down." Darjeeling, the commander of the Saint Glorianna's Tankery team said gently. "Fine, but only because Katyusha chooses to sit!"
After she was seated again, Scott looked at the listings he had been given "Alright, we'll take Third Recon's vehicles, our Humvee, Technical and Ratel. I think we should have as few tanks as possible, I'd rather not have to abandon anything we can't afford to lose if it can be avoided. We'll take the Pz IV G, one of the M4A1's, a Tiger, a T-34 and the Churchill. Sound fair?" This drew nods of agreement. "Alright, now for seating arrangements. We have an open seat in the Humvee, and two in the Technical, and more than enough in the Ratel. I was thinking, the Fleet Girls could rotate who's in what vehicle as we go, we'll have to stop at night, for bathroom breaks, to refuel the tanks and so on." The Fleet Girls looked back and forth at eachother, then their "Flagship" Yamato spoke in a quiet, elegant manner "Yes, I believe that will work rather nicely." Itami clapped his hands together "Alright! No we're getting somewhere!" Scott smiled a little "Alright L-T, we've still got a bit to do before we actually leave. Weaponwise we have the MGs on the tanks, a 90 millimeter gun and a MAG 58 on the Ratel, a KORD on the Technical, a Lightweight Medium Machine Gun on the Humvee and our rifles,handguns and squad support weapons. For heavy weapons my team has an RPG-7v2, courtesy of our Russian friend, Ivan." Ivan politely nodded, he was the strong, silent type. The SDF should give us enough ammo and grenades to last us a good while. Food should also be a non-issue. But I'm worried the most about water and fuel, I'll see what we can do about purifier tablets to make water drinkable, but those tanks are gas guzzlers."
Miho spoke up "What about rounds for our main guns?" Scott shrugged "I'm looking into getting us a pair of Humvee transports, but until I get an answer we won't have the rounds for an extended confrontation." Miho nodded "I understand, thank you, Captain." Scott thought to himself for a moment. He really hadn't expected to be around girls for an extended period of time. This would be like High School all over again. "Okay, anyone else have anything to say?" He looked around the room at everyone, they all seemed content with the plan thus far. "Alright, we'll get the supplies we need, and move the vehicles to the assembly area. We'll leave in five days."
Atago and the other Fleet Girls listened intentley as the Americans talked about their past experiences, Captain Coady was of particular interest "My unit went active during the last three months of the war against ISIS. We racked up a serious body count, over 500 kills, and we only lost a half dozen guys out of the entire battalion." He looked at the table, Atago guessed he wasn't used to so many girls paying this much attention to him.
Atago was looking at the badges under his left lapel. Akatsuki spoke "Captain, what are those badges on your uniform?" "Oh these?" He pointed to each one as he explained "This one shows I graduated Airborne School, meaning I'm qualified in Static Line parachute drops, this one is Air Assault, which means I'm qualified to coduct sling loading and combat operations from helicopters. This last one is my Dive School badge, I'm qualified to use most SCUBA equipment in the US inventory, as well as underwater demolitions and combat." This drew many "oohs" and "aahs" from everyone in the room. Atago asked the next question "Captain, what do those curved patches on your arm mean?" He blushed a bit and pointed to them as he explained "This shows I graduated Ranger School, which was horrible. And this one is just another show that I'm Airborne qualified. I also went through Reconnassaince and Mountain Warfare training."
The U.N. team didn't look at all surprised. The Japanese, not so much. Sergeant Major Kuwhahara seemed the most surprised out of all of them "All due respect, Captain, but you don't seem the type to do any of that training." "I know, but here I am. To be honest, I didn't think I could do any of that stuff either, well except for the diving, I've got my civilian SCUBA certifications too."
Scott thought to himself, he, along with Iwata, were the most qualified people in the room to lead a combat operation deep into enemy territory. They were also the two laziest people in the room. But thankfully laziness doesn't matter when you're in a vehicle convoy.
"Well let's get our stuff ready to move." Everyone replied at once "Yes sir!"
JSDF Base at Arnus Hill, CRU Assembly Area, April 5, 5:00 local
The smell of exhaust mingled with the sound of engines in the early morning light. Scott sat in the front passenger seat of the HMMWV Ground Mobility Vehicle, the SpecOps variant. It lacks doors, but has an open bed in the back to carry extra supplies. Over the open doors on either side were rolled up camo nets, and the four soldier's packs were strapped onto the outside. Mitz sat in the drivers seat, drumming on the stearing wheel. Mane stood in the turret, his M60 at his feat while he loaded the .338 Lapua Magnum belt into the LWMMG. Haines sat in the rear drivers side seat, fiddling with his M240B. Coady was letting the Fleet Girls decide who would get to ride in the open air of the Humvee. Two more would ride in the back seat of the Technical in air-conditioned comfort, and the rest would ride in the Ratels cramped crew compartment. Haines whined from the backseat "Uncle Scott are we there yet?" "Aunti Mitz, can we stop for ice cream?" Mane chuckled. Max's voice crackled over the radio "Cap, the Gun Girls are here." Scott keyed his mic "Excellent, they can ride in any spots we have left." "Got it, out." Captain Coady had requested Galil, AK74, Sako, FAL and M14 as extra firepower. CRU had been ordered to explore a mountainous desert area, with small forrests, the girls would be in their element. The radio crackled again, this time it was Kirchner "Coady, they've decided Atago is gonna ride with you four, I'm sending her up now." Scott keyed his mic "A-alright, thanks." Christ, this will make things awkward, and possibly embarrassing. Scott pulled his rifles bolt back and switched the safety on, the notch built into it would hold the bolt open until the safety was switched off. He rocked a mag into the enhanced magwell and switched the safety off, the bolt ran forward with a satisfying clack. Scott clipped his sling to the AR style endplate attached to the stock adapter and switched the safety back on, cradling the rifle with the muzzle pointing out the door to his right. Atago walked up the column and sat in the open seat, albiet with some difficulty on account of her equipment. "Hello, Everyone!" Mane, Haines, and Mitz returned the greeting and returned to their tasks. "Hey, Atago." Scott keyed his mic "All Victors are Oscar Mike." Mitz switched gears and they drove out the gate and onto the road they would follow into the mountains.