March 14, 2010; 1803 local time; Okano district, Fukuchiyama, Japan
Keitaro squeezed the trigger, letting loose a short burst of fire into an approaching enemy. He heard the loud report of machine gun fire and saw red tracers fly from a friendly position.
"Shinji, concentrate your fire on the left flank. Keitaro, keep the heat on the right." Takashi shouted.
"Friendly reinforcements inbound coming from the right."
"Echo Three, approaching from the south. Urashima, cover their advance. Hikaru take up that flank."
Keitaro moved through the building to the other side. He smashed the window with the butt of his rifle and peered through. He saw enemy soldiers behind cover shooting at his comrades. He began firing his weapon in short bursts down on their positions. Several Chinese soldiers ducked as others redirected their fire towards Keitaro's window.
Keitaro ducked behind the wall, pulling out a grenade. He pulled the pin. "One . . . two . . ." He counted before throwing it. The explosive sailed through the air landing a few yards away. The Chinese soldiers ducked behind their cover as it exploded. This gave the reinforcements time to move forward and take cover. The firefight continued, with Keitaro moving to another window, attempting to flank the enemy position. He sprayed bullets down on the enemy, trying to give suppression fire for his fellow soldiers. An audible click came from his rifle as the firing pin struck an empty chamber.
Keitaro moved away from the window, crouching down and opening a pouch on his belt. There were six of such pouches, currently two of these where empty while another two held empty magazines. Keitaro checked the new magazine before loading it into his rifle. Forty rounds left, and no resupply in sight. . . Keitaro thought, switching from automatic fire to single shot. He moved to another window, opening it and starting to fire.
The Chinese began falling back as the reinforcements began advancing. "Echo three; this is Sergent Takashi, thanks for the assist. We need you to dig in and reinforce the right flank."
"Copy that." The platoon sergeant said into the radio before turning to his men. "Alright, I want a base of fire covering the alley. Set up the machine gun on the bottom floor of this building. I want three men in the building across from us, a marksman and our MANPADS(1) on the roof of this building here. I want three men on the roof over there for interlocking fire."
"Any chance you all have extra ammunition? I'm running low." Keitaro asked. One of the men opened a pouch, tossing him a full mag. "Thanks."
The men where soon deployed to their respective positions, they waited for the next assault.
"Sergeant, we have an enemy UAV at three o'clock high. Requesting permission to fire." A soldier said.
"Permission granted, take it down." Takashi said.
A man on the roof readied his missile launcher, "Locking on, firing" He said. A small missile exited the tube, tracked the target and impacted in a modestly spectacular fireball.
March 14, 2010 2054 local time; PLA Western Headquarters, Maizuru, Occupied Japan
Commander Xiong studied the map. Japan was putting up a bigger fight than originally estimated, something he did not expect from an army made up of mostly conscripts. Several of the battalions defending Maizuru had retreated to the mountains. Despite being thoroughly depleted, these forces proved to be a large thorn in his plans. During one of the actions he took trying to dislodge a force that had entrenched itself into the forests around Mt. Yoro, suffering heavy losses in order to secure the area.
He hoped that Japan's public opinion would turn towards peace. China could be drawn into a war of attrition, but Xiong felt that it would be far too costly in terms of men and material. What he needed was a restoration of the lost momentum, if he could take Kyoto and Osaka he could cut the enemy in half. The southern force would link up with him for the final push to Tokyo.
He needed to get this done quickly, the longer he waited, the better prepared his enemy would be and the greater the chance for other nations to get involved. Xiong was particularly worried about overt intervention from the United States. Uncle Sam's fingerprints could already be seen in this war. During the raids on the mountains, they had also discovered a foreigner among the dead, a man who was identified as a possible American. He had no identification on him to confirm, and most of the prisoners he interrogated gave him very little information to work with. According to them, he was a former green beret. The name they knew him by was Colonel Tanaka, no first name given.
Japan was getting outside help, which was fairly obvious. Xiong sighed; the dead foreigner was either Special Forces from any number of countries, or a private contractor who had probably served in Special Forces at some point. This man and others like him were probably training Japanese soldiers in insurgent tactics. The mountainous and forested terrain of rural Japan was perfect for guerrilla warfare. Trained in proper strategies, these bands of soldiers could seriously jeopardize his ability to hold captured territory across the islands.
Xiong once again surveyed the map. UAV reconnaissance had placed a weak spot in the Japanese lines at a crossroads marked on the map. His field commanders were already assembling troops and equipment for the next offensive. If successful, he could force the GDF out of the city, gaining a staging area for the push to Kyoto. It was also a perfect time to test the new combat UAV, a close copy of the American "Predator"; it was armed with guided air-to-ground missiles. The drone was safer to use and harder to detect than an attack helicopter, coupled with an aggressive push on the ground, it would make for a nasty surprise.
March 14, 2010; 2243 local time; Okano District, Fukuchiyama, Japan
Keitaro and the rest of his comrades waited. They were dangerously short on manpower, even with the reinforcements; there was barely a full platoon to hold this crossroads. They also had little ammunition, made worse by the slow rate at which supplies were getting to the front. Keitaro was catching a short nap; he had taken to sleeping whenever he could, not knowing when the next time would be.
He was violently awoken from his slumber by an explosion, part of a nearby building crumbled, trapping those inside under a pile of rubble.
"Incoming! Find cover!" Takashi shouted as Keitaro ran for cover, finding a fairly secure position inside an alleyway with Shinji.
"What in Kami's name was that?" Shinji asked.
"I don't know, and I don't want to find out." Keitaro said, switching off his rifle's safety.
"Watch the-" Takashi began shouting; he was interrupted by another explosion, causing him to duck and cover. "Watch the skies!"
Men on the roofs began looking upward as Keitaro and Shinji kept their gaze forward. "Contact, we have infantry coming up the alley!" Someone yelled
"Aircraft spotted! Sev-" The shouting was cut off by an explosion as another missile impacted the building the soldier was standing on, sending him hurling down to the street.
"Get that anti-air up." Takashi yelled out. Honda moved to a firing position with his MANPADS.
"Locking on. . . Locking on. . ." Honda said as his finger tightened around the trigger, releasing the missile.
"Contact, we have infantry moving in from the left. They're trying to flank our machine gun!" Someone over the radio shouted. Keitaro wanted to move in and help hold them off, but before he could, several bullets flew past his position.
"Contact, we are taking fire on the right flank." Shinji said in a panicked voice, he peeked over the rubble. "There are at least eighteen hostiles."
The radio operator was desperate as the attack continued, "This is echo two and three, we are taking casualties, request support."
"Mortar positions ready, awaiting coordinates. Supplies en route, ETA ten minutes."
"Copy that, coordinates at grid sector two, seven, Foxtrot. Fire for effect."
"Affirmative."
"Take cover, guys. We've got artillery incoming." The radio man shouted. Less than a minute later, shrieks of incoming rounds could be heard. The projectiles plunged at a high angle, striking streets, buildings, and roofs. The artillery briefly caused the enemy to take cover, but they were falling too far to do any real damage.
March 15, 2010; 0018 local time; Fukuchiyama, Japan
The fighting had gone on through the night, both flanks hit hard. Keitaro was getting tired, they all were. The two-time ronin was down to his last two magazines, setting the weapon to single-shot to preserve what few rounds he had left. The resupplies had come, but they didn't last long, the machine guns were out of ammunition and most men were also down to their last few mags, forced to go through the kits of their fallen friends.
Takashi was running out of options; counter-battery fire had largely suppressed or destroyed his artillery support, air support was elsewhere, and he barely had a full platoon left. In a decision that would haunt him for the rest of his life, he shouted, "All units fall back! Fall back!" Takashi ordered "Hiro, Masaki, Hikaru, pop some smoke!" The three men threw smoke grenades. As the white fumes began to fill the streets and alleyways, the men took it in turns to retreat and give suppressing fire. Keitaro fired a few rounds blindly into the smoke as he broke cover to retreat.
They headed south hoping to reach the relative safety of the forests and hills near the Shiotsu Pass. Keitaro and Shinji moved back covered by men behind them.
The fifty-eight men that had originally held the position at the beginning of the battle had now been reduced to merely thirteen able-bodied soldiers and six walking wounded. They moved as fast as they could, but they were tired, hungry, and only had a vague idea of where they were going.
As they retreated, they met others who were falling back as well; lines and strong points across the city were collapsing at a sickeningly fast rate. They continued making their way back, the dark forests approaching quickly. They made their way down the streets, taking it in turns to watch each other's back and keeping themselves well spaced apart. Over the radio they could hear panicked voices, some units were attempting to regroup, but many others were in complete disarray.
Over the course of the night, Keitaro's unit was joined by about forty three men with at least eighteen walking wounded; the eighty men were an amalgamation of at least four platoons, mostly from Echo company. Command of this group was given to the only commissioned officer present, Lt. Yoshida. As they reached Fukuchiyama Girls High School, they heard a message that was being broadcasted over the main military frequency. "Fukuchiyama Defense Command to all remaining units, regroup at FOB (2) Mercy."
"Mercy is about a mile behind this school. If we cut through the forest we should get there in less than an hour." Yamada said, "I want twenty men watching our front, and another twenty watching our back. I want our wounded in the middle. Takashi, take your squad and watch the front. Miamoto, cover our rear. Ueada, sweep the left. Morita, watch the right flank."
The men began making their way up the road into the forest.
(1) MANPADS: MAN Portable Air Defense System, an anti-air weapon designed to be carried and fired by one person.
(2)FOB: Forward Operating Base