Playing the Part
Kansai Region, Japan
5 AE(After Entrance) 1st Day of Operation Raccoon
Local Time 10:30 PM
The local beach was a picturesque place of total serenity. Located in a rocky cove was small piece of undisturbed nature as waves slowly washed upon the surf and white sand that felt warm to the touch and sparkled in the full moon inhabited the place.
A pattern of heavy breathing disturbed the peace as Higgins dragged his gear up on to the shore. Joining him where his two other squad mates who were also like wisely breathing heavily.
"We need to form a defensive perimeter so that the others can switch out of their scuba gear." Claudia uttered in between breaths. "Davey you cover the left, Higgins you get the right and I'll take the front," she ordered.
Sighing Higgins dropped his pack and hobbled over to the right ridge of the cove with his m4. As he walked his suit made an audible squishing noise. He trudged up ridge to the top of the ridge and placed himself looking over the rest of the unblemished coastline.
'I hope we don't run into anything during these first couple hours, I hope we get to sleep soon. Jesus! I forgot my deodorant, we are probably going to be out here for 2 weeks so I might as well get used to smelling bad.' Higgins thought to himself as he heard the others come ashore and begin zipping themselves out of their suites. He kept guard, as the others changed.
"Second squad take first squads position so they can change." Captain Churchill ordered. Higgins waited for Alphonso to start climbing up the ridge before Higgins began to head down.
"How's the air up there? You seem to be enjoying it" Alphonso said in joking tone as he passed Higgins. Higgins wondered what he was talking about before realizing he was still taking deep breaths. He felt his face exploded with heat as he hobbled down the ridge. He returned to his backpack and began to take off his suit. He had worn his BDU under his suit. The time consuming task was packing the suit in his pack and putting away his rebreather.
By the time he packed everything the rest of squad 1 was waiting at the top of the ridge. He rushed up the hill to meet up with his squad. Where Captain Churchill was addressing Claudia.
"Alright Lieutenant Claudia we are going to want to proceed inland about 10 miles before we start heading towards the Kanto Region. We will only travel by night, we will sleep in the day and we should be done with this. The CIA team will take point your squad will follow, then we will hold up the rear. Any questions?"
"None, Captain." She responded.
"Hey LT" Higgins had begun to say before he clamped his hand over his mouth. He hadn't meant to call her by a nickname. His face flushed.
"Hahaha, you crack me up Higgins you can call me by a nickname I don't have a problem with it." Claudia answered in jovial fashion.
"Alright, anyway should I keep my sidearm in pack so I don't make as much noise or should I keep it out incase of emergencies?" He asked his face still slightly flushed, he hoped it was too dark for her to see it. The embarrassment would have been unbearable.
"Yeah, keep it out. We aren't the stealthiest bunch so it's better to be prepared to defend yourself. We actually better start moving so we can catch up to those CIA kids. You take the front and Davey and I will take the sides. " She said to Higgins gesturing him to start walking which he did.
"Davey get over here! We are taking the sides and Higgins is leading." He heard behind him. He sighed to himself; they were definitely not the stealthiest of groups.
The groups soon left the beach behind and began traveling over many small hills and through many valleys. There was a sense of absolute serenity within the landscape. The trees rustled when cool breezes disturbed them, frogs and insects adding to ambience. The trickling of small streams could be sometimes heard as they traversed through valleys.
Higgins soon became aware of how his squad mates had been and he looked back while he walked. There will still there checking off their directions, their faces held an almost sleepy expression. Looking forward he continued trudging forward.
They continued to walk unhindered for what felt like hours until he spotted a path of road that cut their path in half. As they approached Higgins could see the CIA team crouching behind a set of thick brush.
"Claudia, Davey, it looks like the CIA team is hiding from something on the other side of the road. What should we do?" He whispered back to his squad mates.
"How about we approach and see what they are hiding from" Claudia said. The group crouched down and walked slowly as they approach the CIA kids.
"Maybe they are just waiting for the ice cream truck to pass by," Davey suggested as they walked. They took an agonizingly long time to edge up to they were camped out.
"What are we doing? Why are we waiting here?" Higgins asked in softness voice that he could manage.
"We saw a vehicle patrolling the road ahead, and we want to get a better look at it. It looked like it was a humanoid robot, or a car with a huge statue on it. It should be coming around soon so be quiet." Alexis whispered to him. The two stood silent as they waited for the vehicle to come by their location. Higgins noticed that Dax had a Anti-Tank rocket launcher. It was a fire and throwaway at AT4. It seemed a little over kill for what they were doing, but he shrugged it off and continued to wait.
The lights of the vehicle began to illuminate the road as it approached. As the vehicle approached, Higgins began to start to make out what it was. It looked like a giant mechanical human. He noticed that there were wheels in the back where it propelled itself.
"Hey guys, what are you all doing?" A voice behind them startled the group. It was Dizzy, Alphonso, and Captain Churchill.
The vehicle stopped and turned towards Dizzy and her group.
"Die rebel scum!" The machine yelled as it tuned its self towards them and began rushing up the hill firing a large cannon having missed the rest of the squad.
Higgins acting on instinct dropped his M4 and began attempting to yank the AT4 of off Dax's back. There was a strap preventing him from fully gaining control of it as it was wedged against Dax's back. He had to save his friends, if he didn't take out the vehicle it could probably kill the rest of them. He gave a mighty yell as he pulled with all his might and the strap ripped in half. He fell back with the weapon in hand. It second before he realize what he had done, he spun around and aimed the rocket launcher at the vehicle. The biggest target he could see was a protruding rectangular shape out of the back of the craft. He aimed for that and fired.
There was a surprising little amount of recoil as the rocket left the tube and sailed towards the knightmare. The rocket connected and the shaped charge warhead detonated sending a jet of molten copper through the armor and killing the pilot.
An eerie silence fell upon the battlefield for a moment.
"Get some pictures of that thing quickly, we are going to have to leg it soon. There will probably be reinforcements to this area soon." Wilson yelled to the rest of the operation. Higgins just stood not realizing what had happened as the rest of the CIA ran to get pictures of the vehicle. Once they finished Dax came and tapped Higgins on his shoulder to wake him up.
"Good job, we have to run. I'd rather not be capture and I bet you would not as well. So lets follow Wilson he knows where the cave is." Dax said to Higgins.
"Follow me guys we have to run it!" Wilson yelled as he took off running, the rest of the squad following.
Higgins couldn't focus on anything else expect on how he had to run as fast as he could. His legs began to ache, but he ignored the pain and followed Wilson. The kid was crazy fast for his build. He looked behind to see, he felt a huge sense of relief when he saw the rest of the squad running behind him. They continued to run for 20 minutes before Wilson stopped them. They had arrived near an entrance to cave.
"Head inside and get some sleep. Its almost 4 o'clock, we will start moving tomorrow at nightfall. I'll use some CIA special camouflage to disguise the entrance so no one will need to stand guard. Now head inside." He ordered as he walked inside, set his pack down, and began looking inside his pack.
Higgins was exhausted, he walked inside the cave, found a flat area, and set down his sleeping bag. He crawled inside and fell asleep instantly.
Ashford Academy, Japan
6 AE
Local Time 9:00 AM
Lelouch groaned to himself as sunlight penetrated his mind and fell upon his face. He rose grumpily and prepared himself for the day. The whole school had been off for a week for mourning over the lost fleet for a week. This was the last day of mourning for the fleet.
The reaction of the loss of the fleet was an unexpected anger at the deceased commander. There was a bit of flag waving patriotism, but mostly anger. People were angry that 30,000 men had perished for nothing.
"Hey Lelouch are you ready we have a student council meeting to be at in 20 minutes and Milly told me to come get you so you couldn't slink out of the meeting" Rivalz voice permeated through the door.
"Yeah, sure I will be out in just a minute." He answered back as he finished putting on his shoes before he opened the door and began to walk with Rivalz to their meeting room.
"Man this whole mess has spiraled out of control, I heard on the radio that another captain was executed for collaborating with the enemy. 7 kids who go to the school have lost their fathers. This is a total disaster." Rivalz said discontentedly. Lelouch hardly ever saw this side of him.
"Lets hurry, Milly is probably going to chew us out for something or another." Lelouch said as he beckoned Rivalz to follow him into a light jog. They quickly arrived at the student council room where everyone else was seated around a table.
"Jees guys, I said be here early anyway sit down we have a lot to discuss." Milly ordered in a semi-authoritarian tone. Lelouch and Rivalz sat down in the two nearest open chairs.
"Alright, this student council meeting has officially begun. The first thing on the agenda is that; there will councilors standing by in the library to help those who are emotionally shocked by these events. Next, with the executions in the naval court the students who have lost parents in this situation has risen to 14 students, they will need round the clock support and counseling. Finally we need to discuss how we will get ready to prepare a movement to donate to a charity that has been set up for the widows of the disaster." Milly read off a piece of paper
"I think we should have penny jars in every classroom for the donation fund" Shirley suggested.
"Good idea Shirley" Milly said back
'This is going to be a long day' Lelouch thought to himself as he zoned out of the conversation.
Kansai Region, Japan
7 AE 3rd Day of Operation Raccoon
Local Time 7:30 PM
Wilson sighed. The last night had been a boring slog through hills and mountains without anything interesting happening. Today they were leaving at dusk as they had a lot of ground to cover, as their next stop would be on the edge of the industrial sector according to their map. The maps they had were useless for determining man-made effects and buildings, but they were good for geography. They had to hope that the same cities were in the roughly the same places due to other reasons. These reasons included availability to resources and proximity to coastlines.
"Wilson get over here we have a plan to go over." Mina said breaking Wilson out of his thoughts.
"Ok, so what's the plan we have agreed on that I wasn't listening to" Wilson said as he walked to circle that had formed inside of the caves they had stayed in.
"Well we plan to head into the area with the highest likelihood of having either some abandoned buildings we could hole up for the rest of our trip or it will be a commercial sector and we can be preparing for the heist." Mina explained as she began to roll up the maps and place them in here pack.
"If you see a target of opportunity consult me before you attack unless you are either spotted or attacked first." Wilson said as he grabbed a map from the ground and began to store it in his pack. He soon began to also take down the camouflage and stuff it into his bag.
"Lets hurry up! We have a lot of miles to cover tonight and I hope we can sleep in real building soon. It won't look so ghetto I hope when we are actually sleeping in real building." Wilson said as he waited for everyone to finish packing up.
"Lets go!" Mina yelled with excitement.
'Oh god this is going to be a long walk' Wilson thought to himself before he gestured for them to move out as he started walking in the lead as the group broke up into their squad and they began to hike through the thickening brush. The hills began to flatten out, and the brush had begun thin.
He had been only walking for what seemed like a good 2 hours before he began to hear cries for help. He signaled for everyone to halt and he crouched down.
'If we find the source of the cries we could maybe gather some info from either hiker who have a map or some other military force. There is a chance we could run into a force 5 times our size and be overrun, but if we have accurate maps we could navigate with impunity. Lets go for the maps.' Wilson thought to himself as the rest of his restless squad mates waited behind him.
"Change of plans we are going to go see what all that commotion is. Keep down and keep quiet. Pass that message on to the 2 back squads." Wilson said as he began to walk towards the source of the sound. He methodically walked towards the noise, for he didn't want to be noticed. He walked for 20 minutes making steady progress, however the noise had died down. He started checking for landmarks that would bring the squad back to their path.
CRACK! A resounding crack of rifles echoed throughout the forest. Wilson instinctively dived to the ground. He checked around to see if he could get an idea where the shot had originated. A sudden quietness had permeated the forest before the crack, but now screams and cries could be heard again nearly right in front of them. He realized that the bullets weren't meant for them, but the people in front of them.
He crawled forward until he came to a ridge that overlooked a gulley. He spotted 7 armed troops and a line of people standing with blindfolds over their heads. They were executing these people!
"Squad 1 fix your bayonets and prepare to rush down the ridge and get them, Squad 2 get up here and help us by raining the enemy with fire." Wilson ordered in a clam voice. The members of the squads hurried to get into position as Wilson set down his pack and began to aim his G36 at the Officer who commanded the firing squad.
Quickly looking around he saw that the other two squads were in position. He returned to his gun, doubling checking the optics; he took a whistle from his neck and put in his mouth.
"Prepare to Fire!" The officer yelled as he raised his sword. Wilson smiled it would be last thing he ever said. He squeezed his trigger finger and blew his whistle.
A red mist exploded behind the officers head as a crack resonated through the valley. The other CIA and Squad 2 members opened fire and peppered the remaining soldiers. He joined them and began to fire at the
Kansai Region, Japan
7 AE 3rd Day of Operation Raccoon
Local Time 9:30 PM
The crack of a rifle bullet echoed through the valley.
"FOLLOW ME!" Claudia yelled as she stood up and began to charge down the hill with her gun and her bayonet. Higgins stood up and began to run down the hill as he followed Claudia.
He began to yell he didn't know why, but it felt like the right thing to do in the situation. Soon after he started to yell he heard Davey's voice behind him begin to yell as well. They continued to run down the hill as a cascade of bullets enveloped the valley.
They soon reached the bottom of the valley and hid behind a tree line. Only 3 soldiers remained standing the rest had either been killed or grievously wounded from a hail of bullets from the top ridge.
CRACK! Claudia took a shot at another enemy soldier and hit him square in the head. Behind him a cloud of red flew out of his head as he collapsed to the ground. Higgins scanned the valley and picked out a target, one of the few remaining soldiers had taken a blindfolded man hostage and now faced the ridge threatening to shoot him if they didn't stop firing.
The cracks of rifles from the ridge ceased, the prisoners continued to scream in terror and confusion. Higgins saw that the hostage taker had him in his blindside. He would be an easy picking.
Higgins ran from the tree line and kept his rifle pointed towards the soldier's gut. He quickly closed the distance between him and the hostage taker. Planting his foot he gave a great yell as he shoved his bayonet into the unarmored side of soldier. The soldier loosened his grip on the hostage and began to fall towards Higgins. Higgins fired 3 rounds into the falling body of soldier, the recoil of the rounds kicked the gun out of the mans side. As the man fell dying he fired his pistol at Higgins. The shot was too far left and grazed a strap of his backpack, cutting the strap. The soldier fell to the ground dead.
Crack! A final shot originating from the tree line killed the last soldier who had begun to flee.
They had won the day. He looked up at the ridge to see the others start walking down into the valley. Looking back around the carnage he realized they had a hell of a mess to clean up.
Kansai Region, Japan
7 AE 3rd Day of Operation Raccoon
Local Time 10:20 PM
Wilson sighed to himself. They had just finished sorting out everything with those who were being captured and they had learned a lot; everything about Britannia, knightmares, and the current state of the world. He felt conflicted about how should react to these revelations. He was sad that the country he had grown up in and trained to protect no longer existed, but on the other hand he felt he should feel an immense sense of anger. Those Britannian bastards had taken his country and destroyed it.
Looking around he saw a similar sense of conflicted thoughts within the other members of the team. They all sat in a deafening silence that had blanketed the valley.
'They are probably thinking the same thing as me, but now if we don't move soon and the execution troops don't return then they will send a search party. They would probably out number us in material and bodies. We need to get going now! I have to reaffirm moral now no matter what! Wait I have an idea!' He thought to himself.
Wilson stood up and walked to center of the general area and pulled out his knife.
"I make this oath to continue fighting until the homeland I know and love is restored!" He yelled out as with his knife he made a small incision in to the palm of his left hand and let the blood drip to ground. He hoped someone else would join him it would get the ball rolling.
"I will continue to fight until I can live peacefully in a Oregon winter cabin." Davey said as he walked up to were Wilson had let his blood drip on the ground. He pulled out his own knife and cut his hand and let the blood drip to the ground.
"I will fight until I can raise the stars and strips on my land" Alphonso said performing the act with his own knife.
"I will fight until I can live ski peacefully in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado." Claudia said joining the circle that was forming around the patch; she performed the act with her own knife.
"I will fight until I can return to live in the great state of Maine!" Dizzy said joining the circle and cutting her own hand with her knife and allowing the blood to drip on the ground.
"I will fight until I can see my great nation rebuilt!" Captain Churchill said as he joined the circle and cut his hand as well.
Higgins gulped. It was time for him to make his oath. He stood up and joined the circle. The faces of everyone shone in light of the full moon. He made eye contact with every single person in that circle.
"I will fight until I can return to Iowa and then travel the great nation of The United States!" He said as he pulled out his knife and made a cut into his hand. There was a small bit of pain as he cut into his hand, but he ignored it. He finished the cut and let the blood drip into the patch of where everyone else's blood had fallen.
"I will fight until all my comrades can live safely and I can design in peace!" Dax said as he joined them. He cut his hand and let the blood fall into the patch.
"I will fight until we are victorious against the enemy who has taken our home!" Mina said as she joined and cut her hand and let the blood the dip on to the patch of ground.
"I will fight for my freedom!" Alexis said as she joined the group and cut her hand and let the blood fall to the ground.
Higgins had never seen such an event happen before and he didn't know how to react so he just listened as the others stood.
"Now we must begin our fight. According to these maps and accounts from the locals there is an abandoned industrial sector and a rich boarding school near bye with a reputation to be very kind and companionate to those of Britannian origin. Britannia's are characterized as mostly Anglo Caucasians, so we should be accepted and brought in to be cared. I'll assume they will have access to the Internet so we could have Alexis look around and see how we could interface with their communications. Dax and Mina will perform other task to aid our stay here so we can get this mission over. Tonight we will head to the school, which is 10 miles away, and stage a scene where Alexis and I will hopefully have to become victims of a traumatic even that we cannot remember. Now lets move out we have a lot of ground to cover and much to do so we can be ready for the morning and the next phase of our mission" Wilson said as he stood up and began to walk towards the next waypoint which was on hill that would overlook Ashford Academy.
The rest of the squad followed them to the hill that overlooked Ashford Academy. Wilson ordered that Dax and Mina accompany Captain Churchill who had been given the map and the instructions to head to the abandoned factory and set up shop. Wilson had said they would contact the others when they had adequate communications. As he watched the group depart he turned to Alexis who had stayed with him.
"Alright were going to pushing the hurt child card here so we should probably hide our gear somewhere accessible." He said to her.
"Over there" She said pointing to a huge bush that had a dirt patch under it.
"Nice one lets go there and get ready," He said. They walked to the bush and took turns using a tree to change into civilian clothes, specifically t-shirts, shorts and jeans.
"I'll be the one that is hurt really badly so hold my knife while I get some I-67 out to inject." He said as he gave her his knife and began to rustle through his bag. I-67 was a CIA drug specifically to create symptoms and thin blood to give the impression of a person being injured and sick. He soon found a vial filled with a clear liquid, he also took out syringe. He quickly filled up it up with the clear liquid.
"This is going to hurt, but hopefully it will be worth it." He said to himself before he stuck himself with the needle. He gritted his teeth as he inject the fluid, it made his veins feel as if they were being lit on fire.
"Alright I need you to hit me very hard with the knife and apply some cuts preferably on the knee, arms and chest. I can't move so you need to be quick about this, and bury the packs. Please leave my beautiful face alone." He said in rhy tone to Alexis who just sighed.
"You always have been one who likes to play the victim, maybe because you don't like big kid work." She said jokingly. Before he could respond proceeded to hit him in the head with the butt of knife.
"Damnit Alexis, I am supposed to be alive after this"
"Oops my mistake" she responded in sarcastic tone before cutting him on his left arm, right leg, and near his stomach.
Wilson felt the wounds bleed voraciously, and staying conscious was a heavy chore. He began to fell rain fall as he vision began to close in, he hoped Alexis had buried the gear deep enough so it wouldn't be water logged. His vision had closed in by the time he had felt Alexis pick him up and began to hobble. He hoped it would work. He lost consciousness soon afterwards
Ashford Academy, Japan
7 AE 3rd Day of Operation Raccoon
Local Time 12:40 PM
Lelouch had been peacefully sleeping in his room before he had awoken hearing a scream come from downstairs. He jumped out of bed and rushed downstairs.
'What had happened? Had his identity been found out and imperial had come to dispose of him and Nunnally. No impossible! He had taken so many precautions.' Lelouch arrived at the main entranceway to Sayoko staring at whatever was outside of the door. He ran down the stairs and up to the door before he saw what it was.
It was a girl with golden blonde hair standing while a boy with dark blond hair was slumped over her. He could see blood leaking out of cuts on the boy's body. The girl turned her attention to
"Please help him" she said in a begging voice before. She collapsed under the boys weight and hit the ground with a sickening thud.
Lelouch didn't for a second as he was just held up in the horror of the event before he snapped back to reality.
"Sayoko, call the in school nurse and get that girl into one of our beds so we can treat him. I'll put the boy into a bed so the nurse can treat him" Lelouch order as he went to grab the boy who was lying over the collapsed form of the girl. He struggled to the fallen boy, as he was heavier that he looked, but he managed to get him over his shoulder. Lelouch quickly brought the boy to a bed and placed him down on bed. He then began to treat some of the injuries.
"Master Lelouch, the nurse is here to take care of the boy and I have placed the girl in her own bed, she fell asleep soon after. I suggest you go tell Nunnally what happened and then go to sleep yourself we have a big day tomorrow to try and sort out all of this." She said to him as he had almost finished treating the boy's wounds.
"Alright thank you Sayoko" He said as he walked out of the room and head to Nunnally's room. He quietly opened the door to see if she had woken up from the commotion.
"Lelouch. Did something bad happen?" She asked confirming that she had woken up.
"No, someone just needed help that's all. Everything will be fine in the morning now go back to sleep" He said as he closed the door and walked to his own room. He was exhausted, but he could probably skip school for this so he could rest all he wanted. He slowly lay down and before he knew it he had fallen asleep.
Authors notes
Thank you for all reading and firstly I would like to apologize for the time this chapter took to compose. I have been very busy and have been trying to fit in time to work on this when I got the chance. I have been trying to flesh out character more, as the situations have now permitted some of their traits to show before they will begin to grow. If you see any grievous errors please either message me or shoot me a review to let me know so I could fix them. Also I am thinking of placing character Bios at the end of chapter, let me know if you think this would be a nice edition.