Tattered Journal - Entry 5


There's nothing more satisfying than a successful op. Yet again the Quincy were unable to set up a base in the Menos Forest. Maybe this time they'll get it through their thick skulls that it isn't a feasible strategy, but pattern recognition hasn't been a strong suit for them recently.

The plan was fairly simple. The main force of 40 Commandos would set up a killzone about half a kilometer from the base. We had an arrancar come with us on this op. A bit abnormal, but she had an important role to play. Her name was Loly Aivirrne; a bit of a hot-head, but also vindictive as fuck, and willing to channel that hate at the Quincy, so she was actually pretty cooperative. Her job was to gather a pack of Gillian and direct them into the area we were set up around, in order to draw the Quincy over, thinking they were defending the base.

It worked to perfection, about half the Quincy moved forward out of the main defenses to meet the Menos, and as soon as they were drawn in, our guys jumped 'em. Our team is made of men and women that would be seated officers otherwise, so most of 'em have Shikai, and skilled in Kidō, so despite being outnumbered, the soldat formation was completely dismantled. Our casualty rate was 20 - 1, losing 2 men vs their 200.

Aivirrne was even able to get the Gillians to provide fire support with ceros; at least the cooperative ones. Most were killed by Quincy arrows, but every shot fired at a Menos was one not being fired at a shinigami, which is exactly what they're there for.

At the same time this was happening, my job was infiltrating the main camp. The goal was simple. Kill the Kommodore. Once the snake's head was cut off, the body would flounder. The reiatsu concealing cloak provided by R&D let me move without alerting them at all. It helped that the camp was in chaos, because of the attack. They were assembling another squad to reinforce the first out in the forest, and the sounds of conflict were only drawing more hollows to the area.

The Kommodore and the Unteroffizier directly under him were situated in a tent in the middle of the encampment. The plan required him to come out into the open. I jumped down from the trees to land in the camp. Most of the soldat had moved to the perimeter of the camp to ward off the encroaching hollows, so it was feasible to move on the ground as long as I stuck to the shadows. A few soldat were unlucky enough to be in my way, it wasn't too hard to get behind them, pull them back into the shadows and slit their throats.

I was able to make it to the back side of the tent the Kommodore was located in, and before making my move I overheard a worrying little piece of information. The main force of the Wandenreich had moved forward further than we thought. Apparently they've already crossed the massive canyon known as the Abyssal Scar. Their movement was much quicker than we expected, but there really wasn't time to dwell on it, as I had a job to do.

They had supply boxes stacked to the side of the tent, so I was able to work around the right side. From there it was showtime. I was able to get right up to the side, just outside the field of view of the two guards standing guard to the sides of the entrance, and casted Bakudō #21: Sekienton. The Bakudō created a thick cloud of red smoke that expanded outward to cover my movements. As soon as I started channeling a Kidō, the cloak wouldn't hide me anymore, and the smoke cloud wouldn't last forever, so I needed to work fast.

Before they even registered what was happening, I spun around the side of the tent and decapitated the guard closest to me, then in the same motion, pushed past the entrance of the tent and impaled the guard on the other side while he turned to face me. There were three people in the tent, the Kommodore, the Unteroffizier, and a woman, likely just a Gefreiter. The woman had her back to the entrance when I started, and when I jumped into the tent, she was starting to materialize her bow. Either she didn't possess Blut Vene, or didn't react in time, because I was able to target the hand she had her Cross on and cleanly sever it just below the elbow.

Unfortunately the Unteroffizier did, and deflected my strike with his forearm, a second later striking forward with a Blut Arterie enhanced fist. I had already anticipated this. It's a reaction move that Quincy do, one that is almost automatic for them, which makes it easy to read and exploit. I crouched and ducked forward, his fist passed to the left of my head, and I pushed my Zanpakutō up, stabbing through his armpit, almost horizontally.

By this point the Kommodore had reacted and materialized his bow, letting loose a Licht Regen. I pushed the body of the man I just killed in front of me and used him as a shield, as I used Shunpo to propel myself out of the tent.

The smoke was clearing up, and the Kommodore followed me outside. That was checkmate. Before he could utter a word, a deafening crack, like the snapping of a whip rang through the air, followed a split-second later by a muffled thump from out in the distance. There wasn't a spectacular explosion, just a thud as something impacted the ground a few meters behind the Kommodore causing a spray of sand. He stumbled back, as red dyed his white uniform right above where his heart was.

At that moment, everyone froze, and in that second a garganta ripped open right next to me, and I was able to Shunpo through. Aivirrne closed it before any Quincy could react in time to reach.

From leaving the tent, to closing the garganta, it all took place within the span of about 6 seconds.

A clean op. It has been a couple days, and intel has confirmed that the heavy losses and death of the Kommodore has forced the Quincy to retreat from the Forest. We suffered casualties of 2 dead, 4 injured. It's always unfortunate to suffer losses, but it was still a massive victory for our side, something we don't see a lot of these days.

I can't finish without talking about the key to this operation. Captain Soifon's new toy. We thought she was crazy when she made the changes to our plan to have her deal the finishing blow. And only needed one infiltrator to draw the enemy out into the open? She positioned herself on the roof of the Forest looking down on the camp from almost a kilometer away. Pure madness.

I can't argue with the results though. I'm giving the team a short leave after that mission, they deserve it. I'd wager we have a bit of time before the Quincy so much as look at the Forest again. However, when they do, we'll be ready.

.

CDR Ashido Kanō

GJDMC, 11th Division

July 21, 2004


Author's Notes:

Part 2 of Ashido's journal, I think this is the first one to actually give a direct account of action, so hopefully it came through well. If you couldn't tell, the main inspiration for the fighting style was the game Sekiro. I love that game.

Just in case it needs clarification, the Kommodore did not have Blut Vene active when he was shot, there's no way he would have anticipated something like that.

I did my best to describe it, but I really can't do it justice, so if you actually want to hear what it sounds like to be down range from a .50 cal, I direct you to this video by the Youtube channel Garand Thumb. The video is "What Does It Sound Like To Get Shot At? Bullet Sounds Near & Far" The timestamp for 500m is 13:36. For 1000m (the range it is in this chapter) the timestamp is 18:00. The shot at 18:05 is the one that I used as direct reference, where you hear the report almost a full second after the supersonic crack.

Thanks for reading!