Omake Chapter: The Coup.
1500hrs, 16 December 2013, "Top Secret" Medical Facility, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
" Any person subject to this code (chapter) who— (1) with intent to usurp or override lawful military authority, refuses, in concert with any other person, to obey orders or otherwise do his duty or creates any violence or disturbance is guilty of mutiny; (2) with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of lawful civil authority, creates, in concert with any other person, revolt, violence, or other disturbance against that authority is guilty of sedition…"Art. 94. (§ 894.) 2004 Mutiny or Sedition, United States Uniform Code of Military Justice.
"Wait, back up to the part about the nuclear weapons."
Luna and Artemis had gathered the three other SAILOR team members in the conference room. Lita and Raye were sitting in swivel chairs, with Raye annoyingly rocking back and forth until Lita stopped her, and Serena pacing about on the floor, asking most of the questions.
"There are two nuclear weapons in the United States," Luna said. "The Nakanishi Group plans to use them in order to decapitate the US leadership and the economy at the same time."
"One nuke for the leaders, one for the money," Serena said. "This is…"
"…unbelievable, I know." Artemis still couldn't believe it himself, but the facts were there.
"What are Amy and Mina doing about it?" Lita asked.
"They're getting some support in the American government to try to derail this entire thing. They can't stop everything, but they can at least try to stop the nuclear attacks."
"Nu-cli-arr," Artemis mocked, imitating former U.S. President George W. Bush. A glare from Luna quickly put an end to that.
"So, they're going to the US?" Serena said. She tapped the floor with her (prosthetic) left foot, nervous about what was going on.
"Yep. I just booked them a flight there and they should be…" Luna checked her tablet computer. "Looks like they're in Virginia right now, and are getting ready to assault the location of the WMD."
"Is there anyone backing them up?" Lita asked. She was worried about those two, and without any support…
"It's just them, for now." Luna noted the worried expression on Lita's face, and moved to reassure her. "Lita, they'll be fine. They'll be able to take down the WMD with no problems, I can assure you of it."
It wasn't much good, as the image of Amy and Mina being vaporized by a rising mushroom cloud was quickly flashing by in Lita's head.
It was Raye who asked the million dollar question.
"So, what do you want us to do about it?"
Luna closed her eyes and thought about what she was about to ask the three SAILOR members. It was sheer lunacy…but then again, this entire program had been crazy to begin with. There was no other way but to continue forward.
"I want you...I want you to take down the Nakanishi Group and help restore order to the Japanese government. Starting with taking over this facility."
There was a moment of stunned silence. The magnitude of the request was immense. But at last, they had a chance to form their own destiny.
"Sounds good to me." Lita couldn't stand being treated like a mere object any more.
"I'll do it too," Raye chirped in. "Better than doing nothing. Plus, if Amy and Mina are out there, putting their lives on the line, then it's time we'd better do the same."
That left just Serena.
"What do you think, Serena?" Luna asked. Four sets of eyes focused on the blonde girl, who was leaning against the table, in deep thought.
"Damn." This entire god-awful situation sucked all around, and she guessed that this would be probably the one where they would be less likely to lose everything. She looked up at the four other people in the room.
"Okay, I'm in. Let's take these guys down."
That brought smiles to everyone's faces. It was done.
"That's good," Luna nodded. "Serena, I'm going to be taking orders from you now, since you outrank me."
"Wait…I what?" Serena had to rack her mind for a second before realizing that yes, she did indeed have a rank. "Oh. That's right. What do you suggest we do?"
Luna's response was immediate. "We need to show the rest of the people here what's going on. We can't take this facility without the support of the medical and security staff."
"Do it," Serena unhesitatingly said. "What can we do?"
"You three stay here. I'll get the rest of people to come and see the video. Artemis, follow me."
Luna and Artemis ran out of the room, heading at full tilt toward Dr. Kobayashi's office.
In his office, Kobayashi was thinking about cutting out early and taking it easy for the next couple of days. He had expended a lot of political capital on getting the SAILOR team offline for a bit, and he figured that he needed to get things in order before he found his head on the metaphorical chopping block.
That was blissful thought was interrupted by Luna practically breaking down the door to his office on the fourth floor.
"Dr. Kobayashi, get Nurse Kuroi and Dr. Kawasaki," she gasped. In the background, Artemis was close behind, also gasping for breath. "In fact, get the entire research staff here and the security team. Now."
"Uh, hello," he replied, confused. "What for?"
"This is extremely important. You'll see."
"Okay, I'll just put an announcement over the PA system and…"
"NO!" Luna almost screamed. "I mean, no, don't do that. We need everyone except Colonel Iwasaki and Akamatsu."
That immediately raised red flags in Kobayashi's mind. "Why don't you want those two knowing about it?"
"They don't need to know right now," Luna tersely replied.
Iwasaki's recent threats and the PM's disowning of him weighed on Kobayashi's mind. Here he was again, without much support and capital to help him through rough times…well, it was time to take destiny into his own hands. Enough sitting back and watching.
"This better be good," he said to her, reaching for the phone on his desk and dialing Kawasaki. "Kawasaki? It's Kobayashi. I need you to get Nurse Kuroi and the rest of the research staff up to the…?" He looked at Luna for directions.
"The conference room on the second floor."
"The conference room on the second floor. No, do not tell Colonel Iwasaki or Akamatsu about this. All of them, yes, and make it snappy. This is important."
He hung up the phone, wondering if this was the right path to take. He didn't know what Luna was planning, but whatever it was, it probably involved a hostile takeover of this facility.
"Okay, call the security chief," Luna ordered.
Kobayashi picked up the receiver again and dialed the security desk.
"Chief of security," a gruff voice said. "Kuraudo Ooishi speaking."
"Ooishi, this is Kobayashi." He gripped the receiver tightly. "I need you to get all the security people to meet on the conference room on the second floor."
"Uh, why would you want me to do that?" Ooishi asked, not exactly pleased.
"This is extremely important," Kobayashi said. "Our lives might be at stake here."
"Look, if you need some protection, that's fine, I'll just chop over some officers from patrol and…"
"Kuraudo!" Kobayashi roared into the receiver. Luna and Artemis had never heard him get angry like that. "Get. Everyone. To. The. Conference. Room," he said slowly.
"Okay, fine. You mean, everyone available?"
"No, everyone. Pull everyone off of patrol. We need everyone."
"Kobayashi…"
"Just do it. And don't tell Akamatsu or Iwasaki."
"Uh…okay." He hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair, confused what was going on. Not telling Iwasaki or Akamatsu? Pulling all of the security off of patrol and to a meeting room? This was extremely suspicious, but Kobayashi didn't seem to be under duress; in fact, he seemed in charge, like he was supposed to be.
Fine, just this once. He reached for his radio, and made sure to block Akamatsu and Iwasaki from hearing the radio call.
"All units, all units, this is Big Bird 1. Recall immediately to base and prepare for immediate debriefing."
After cramming everyone into the conference room (about sixty people in all), Luna got in front of the room to make her announcement.
"I know that this might seem like an inconvenience, especially with everyone going home for the winter break, but this is extremely important. Bear with me for a couple minutes, and then you can make your decision."
She nodded to Artemis, who had set up the video to be projected onto the wall. He hit the play button.
There was complete silence as the video of the Nakanishi company officers plotted their evil plan out, their casual and blasé attitude toward human life shocking the medical personnel especially. They had spent their entire lives for the purpose of saving and preserving human life and now these idiots were going to kill thousands of people in the name of profit. Their actions even disgusted Kobayashi. He couldn't believe that he had been working for those people, especially so with Beryl, with her promises and money and sweet talk.
"Everyone, listen," Luna said to the group after the video had stopped playing. "What I'm about to ask you might sound radical, dangerous, and completely against what you've been trained or taught to do."
She paused for a moment, hoping that everyone in the group had already figured out what she was going to ask.
"I'm asking everyone to take over this facility from the government until the situation can be corrected."
There was a slight gasp from the audience, but for the most part, everyone kept their cool. Luna needed not to convince people of the rightness of their actions, but perhaps to push the ones leaning on the edge over. She closed for eyes for a second, then opened them back up and spoke to the people gathered.
"We obviously are working in the interests of the Nakanishi Group. This is unacceptable. We do not work for a corporation; we work for the great nation of Japan. The Japan that has suffered so much in the aftermath of the WWII, that we have paid for dearly; not only from the fiery wrath of nuclear warfare, but in terms of our dignity and reputation. The atrocities that we committed during that period still cloud our relationships with countries even to this day. We suffered from the decisions of uneducated and short-sighted people destroyed our economy in such a way that we have not been able to recover in the last twenty years. We suffered from disaster after disaster; Minamata, Niigata, Kobe, Aum Shinrikyo, and the Tohoku Earthquake. We all lost someone or know someone who lost someone in that disaster. But have we given up? Have we surrendered our dignity because our walls crumble and houses fall? We do not descend into anarchy and chaos at the first sign of disaster. We hold our ground. Shikata ga nai, is our statement. It cannot be helped. But this. This is something that we can do something about. These people think that they can gain money by stabbing people in the back, especially those who helped us in our time of need. They think that they can "help" us by making a profit from the suffering of others. People, that is not what I signed up for when I joined the JSDF. That is not what you did when you swore to do no harm. That is not what you did when you swore to uphold law and order in your towns and cities. I will not allow another tragedy to befall this nation if I have anything to do with it. We are still paying the consequences of people who led our nation to war against the Chinese, the British, the Russians, the Americans. And the consequences of that pale in comparison to what will happen if the Nakanishi Group goes through with their dastardly plan. For if they do, generation upon generations of our descendants will look up at us and say "They could have done something." But now, we can change what they say. They will say "They did do something. They stopped evil in its tracks."
Luna took a deep breath. She was exhausted from the long speech that she never intended to give; it just rolled off of her tongue, it seemed.
Artemis saw that she was completely worn out and stepped up to the plate.
"Let's put this to a vote," he suggested. He looked at Luna, who had just taken a seat; Serena gave it up to her, obviously impressed with her oratory skills. She nodded.
"All in favor of restoring order?" he asked the audience.
There were so many hands that Artemis lost count.
"All against?"
No hands.
"Then it's settled. We take back our government."
That brought a sigh of relief from the audience.
Luna sprang into action after the vote. There was no time to lose.
"Where are Col. Iwasaki and Akamatsu?" she asked the crowd. "Anyone?"
"Ma'am," one of the orderlies said. "They're both up in his office on the fifth floor."
"Okay, those two are the ones we have to worry about. Iwasaki can bring this entire thing down if he gets word out to the MoD or the Joint Chiefs."
"I can take some of the security personnel and detain him," Ooishi offered.
"That'll draw too much attention," Lita replied. "Me, Raye and Serena can take them down." Serena nodded at her, applauding her initiative; she had been thinking that exact same thing. Raye was just happy to take that asshole Iwasaki down.
If they had super soldiers at their command, then they might as well use them, Luna thought to herself.
"We need to move fast. Kuroi, get some sedatives from the medical lab and give them to Lita and Raye here."
"On it."
"Lita, Serena, Raye, go with her."
She didn't need to say much else. They sprinted out of the room.
"This should be enough to keep them down for some time," Kuroi said, filling two syringes with a sedative. She gave them to Lita and Raye, who gingerly held onto them. Lita hoped that she didn't accidentally inject herself with one…
"Let's do this," Serena said. "Raye, take the fire escape to the fifth floor so we can cut off and surround them."
Raye nodded. "Got it."
"Anything else I should do?" Kuroi asked.
"Yes," Serena replied. "Have the security team cut off all phone and internet access to the fifth floor and have two teams standing by on the fourth floor just in case things go south."
"Got it. Is there more?"
"I think that's it."
"I'm on it." Kuroi sprinted out of the room, adrenaline flowing through her veins. It was all quite exciting, really.
A few minutes later, everyone was in position. Serena and Lita were just coming out of the stairwell; they hid behind a corner and observed Iwasaki and Akamatsu come out of their office.
"Okay, I see them," Serena whispered over to Lita. "Are you ready for this?"
"Yeah."
Serena tapped on her HUD, which was a pair of glasses that she had been wearing earlier, and contacted Raye.
"Raye, are you in position?"
There was a moment of silence, then Raye responded.
"I'm in position, on your go."
"Alright, once we start talking to Iwasaki and Akamatsu, come out of the stairwell and yell at them or something."
"Roger that."
Serena had to make sure everything was in place before things went down. "Luna."
"All security teams are in position and the phone and internet connections have been shut off." Luna was on top of her game.
"Very good. Let's go."
Lita and Serena started walking down the hall, following Iwasaki and Akamatsu out of their office.
"…and it smelled kind of funky…oh, hello." Iwasaki glared at the two girls who were just down the hall.
"What are you doing here?"
Serena fidgeted where she stood. "Um…nothing."
"Nothing, huh?"
She blushed. "Sorry, we were just taking a walk, you know? Since we didn't decide to go to Hong Kong?"
"Yes, about that…" Iwasaki thought that was an incredibly bad idea, and it had been reported to him from Luna that they had run into some major problems getting the girls back from there. Something about delayed flights and some murder cases at the Mitsui branch down there…it was a mess, that's for sure.
"Of course. If you would excuse us," Iwasaki said to them.
"Hey Serena!" Raye yelled at the end of the hall. Iwasaki turned around to see who it was, but Akamatsu hesitated for a second. This was really fishy. He had not seen the girls together a lot, and with one girl in front gaining the attention of them, then with Serena and Lita to their backs…it was an ambush.
Too late though.
Lita delivered a kick to the groin that left Akamatsu doubled over in pain, unable to do much of anything. Raye was rushing in to detain him, so that just left Iwasaki.
He was backing up, trying to get away, but Lita tackled him American football style, and pinned him to the floor.
"Goddammit get off of me! That's an order!" He flailed about, which did as much damage as it sounded like.
"We don't take orders from you now," Lita hissed.
"That's right." From the corner of his eye, Iwasaki could see Serena holding a needle in her hand.
"Have a nice nap," she snarled at him. "Lita, hold this fucker down."
"With pleasure." Lita, with her left arm, pinned Iwasaki's left arm down on the ground. He grunted in pain and tried to resist, but she was just too strong.
Moving quickly, Serena found a nice fat vein and injected the tranquilizer into his system. Iwasaki was out in seconds, his head thumping quite loudly against the ground.
"Sweet dreams," Lita muttered. She let go of the rest of Iwasaki, which flopped to the ground with a thud.
"Serena, I've got Akamatsu under control here," Raye said. She had also given him a tranquilizer shot, and he was fast asleep on the floor.
Serena tapped on her HUD to report the good news to Luna.
"Luna, Iwasaki and Akamatsu have been detained, over."
"Good work, bring them to the medical isolation ward where you were first held."
"With pleasure."
Luna and Artemis immediately set up a command and control facility the much vaunted conference room and started to issue orders. The three SAILOR team members had dragged poor Akamatsu and Iwasaki to the isolation ward, and had much fun tossing them into the cells they had first been placed in. Now, they were listening to Luna bark out orders to make sure everything went smoothly.
"Ooishi, lock this entire place down and make sure that no one gets in or out until the situation is resolved. Dr. Kobayashi, collect the medical personnel in the basement and wait further instructions."
"What do we do then?" Kobayashi asked.
"I'm not quite sure, that's why I'm asking you to wait. It's mostly in the hands of the security personnel now, so we'll need you to rest up for the big battle that comes…"
He frowned at the prospect of a fight. "If there is such a battle, although with whom, I'm unsure of."
"Me too, Dr. Kobayashi," Luna said. "Me too."
Artemis was combing through the massive amount of data collected by the SAILOR team and the Nakanishi Group; this had been obtained by exploiting a contract that the JSDF had with the Nakanishi Group, and gaining access to some of their databases through JSDF connections.
"Luna, I'm not getting any critical information, but I think I have an idea where to get it."
"Where?"
"Well…it's kinda obvious. Their HQ in Tokyo."
Luna facepalmed herself. Of course! They would keep most of their sensitive and precious information there until they could transfer it to somewhere else and sanitize their Tokyo HQ.
"Serena, Raye, Lita," she said, turning to them. "How do you feel like going to Tokyo?"
"What for?" Lita asked.
Luna explained to them that information they might need pertaining to the Nakanishi Group would most likely, be at their headquarters.
"Right for the heart of the dragon, hmm?" Serena said, pondering the plan. "Sounds risky."
"I like it," Raye added.
"I don't think we have much choice," Lita said, "But we can't just stay here and twiddle our thumbs. We have to do something, and this sounds like the best option."
"Fine. Let's go to Tokyo then." Serena was anxious at the prospect of more fighting, but this was probably for the best.
Luna tapped some things on a tablet computer, making notes for the plan to succeed. "I'll have a car set up in the garage. Meet me there once you've equipped yourselves."
Thirty minutes later, the three SAILOR team members were assembled in the garage, packing lots of weapons which would have made even small armies quake. Their ride however…
"You have got to be shitting me," Raye said. Instead of a decent sized car, all there was a small Suzuki Kei-car for their use.
"I'm not riding that thing all the way to Tokyo," she bitched. "Can't we get something else?"
Luna shook her head. "No time. Iwasaki moved all of our larger vehicles to a JSDF base last week.
"Why can't we take a helicopter?"
"It'll take up too much time getting one here," Luna said, handing Lita some ammunition that she had brought up from the armory. "And it'll draw too much attention. I'm sorry, but this is the only way to do it without drawing too much attention."
"Why can't we…"
"Raye, please shut up," Serena glared. Raye glared at her, but complied.
"Are we all set?" Serena asked, checking her M4-CQB.
Everyone nodded.
"SAILOR team, good luck," Luna said, bowing to them.
"We'll be trying to back you up," Artemis added. "Hopefully, things will get better from here on out."
"Thanks guys." Raye, Lita and Serena piled into the car, weapons, gear and all. Raye turned the ignition key, and within a couple of seconds, the car had driven out of the garage and toward its destination in Tokyo.