Chapter 7

The following day…

I strolled out of our dormitory, fully dressed.

It was 4:30, 1 hour our routine waking hour. We've agreed the previous night to meet at the tankery training grounds to introduce the new team, but before that, I have something I must do.

As I emerged into the morning, I felt something strange. My phone was acting in a weird way. Not the usual vibrating and beeping, when there are messages or missions, but in a quiet whirring sound like an alarm bell.

I pulled it out and checked the interface.

Emergency Call. Caller: God. Class of call: Crimson.

I don't need anyone to tell me something is seriously wrong.

"Hello, my lord. What brings you to call me?"

"An emergency situation." God said in a much less divine-sounding voice on the other end. "You will be encountering some emergency situations unrecorded in the original plot."

"What situations?"

"First one, Alisa's Rage. Second, Rebellion of the NKVD Leftists. Third, Kidnapping of KMM Kommandants. All of these are caused by boys entering tankery, and the last one will have to be faced off by you in person."

A chill went down my spine. None of these sound easy. Alisa was absolutely against boys in tankery, if Andrew had been correct. And if she decides to assault Oarai's campus just to get rid of us … NOT good. And the NKVD leftists will rebel. That sends out two messages: one, Katyusha probably isn't against boy participation, but two, some of her NKVD does. And someone will abduct Maho Nishizumi & Erika Itsumi? That's pretty nasty. Whoever's got that guts won't be easy to deal with, I presume.

"All right. When does the first happen?" I said, steeling my nerves.

God's reply nearly knocked me to the ground. "The middle of today's night."

"What!?"

"Yes. She plans to rid your entire boy team once and for all. The only person she won't order to be beaten up and shipped off to a secret concentration camp in her compound is Takashi, and that's because she wants to torture him to death slowly. But leave no mercy for the assailants. None are Saunders students, and they are all thugs and gangsters hired to do the job."

"How will they attack?"

"Originally it was supposed to be an amphibious attack, but seeing as you will doubtlessly have great difficulty in that, I have changed it to a glider-borne and paratrooper attack. Here is the intelligence you will need."

With that, a heavy leather briefcase appeared into my left hand.

"That is all I can do for you. Fight well."

And the call ended.

…

I was still soaked in anxiety when I met with Andrew at a large field next to the spot where he & his group landed.

Behind Miho's back, we've decided that the planes must be kept for the development of a future air force. The system, detecting my will, kindly offered an airfield with more than enough hangars, a set of runways big enough for heavy transport planes, and an antiair web consisting entirely of Futura weapons. It was rather expensive, but we managed to collect the money by getting everyone to pool in some credits. As for the location, the field is the only close area with big enough space.

"You ready?" Andrew clapped my back.

"Ready." I managed a smile, "let's do this."

And in a brilliant light, the field morphed into a concrete plain with a few artificial hills. The light moved and shifted shape, and structures rose from the land to become all the necessary facilities of an air base. Even better, as the light died, our planes (which had been towed behind the tank garages) shimmered into existence within the hangars, complete with equipment, potential attachments and all that you could want.

I grinned. "Amazing." And I pulled out my phone and called the History Buffs, namely Erwin.

"Soldat, it is 4:50! What?" Erwin's sleepy voice came through.

"A true general wakes up ahead of time. Anyway, go get your crew up, and get as many people who know about WWII planes as you can, and proceed to Landing Site. We've got a big surprise waiting."

And we sat down on a nearby bench, and started to look for, and buy, other necessary gear, such as flight suits and parachutes for pilots, mobile antiair trucks, logistics vehicles and others

…

"What could Louis be up to?"

This was the first question Riko Matsumato's crewmates asked for the day.

After the call from Louis ended, Riko was a bit confused, but reluctantly did as told. All the other girls grumbled and told her to get back to sleep, but woke at the mention of Louis.

"I suspect he wants to do something with those planes." Caesar spoke, "we do know he's a military guy, and the way he looked delighted at those planes yesterday night … you can figure out the rest."

"And what will we do about the part about-"

"I'll deal with that." Saemonza said, "my sister is the captain of the Oarai Flight Team, and they are absolutely fanatic about WWII planes. They use some American Peashooter fighters for training, in fact. They have about 160 people, boys and girls. That would definitely suit Louis's demands."

And on that happy note, everyone went off to work.

Forty minutes later…

I grinned at the sight of the History Buffs and the Oarai Flight Team members standing in lines, staring in a dumbfounded fashion at the new air base.

"So, what do you think?" I said cheerily.

"Jesus." The leader of the Flight Club, Kayomi Sogiama, Saemonza's sister, said in a small, stunned voice. "Are all these really ours, as you said?"

"Yes, of course." Andrew stated, "Oh, and considering how your Peashooters would be rather weak, we've decided to get you all a few more handy ones."

And he pointed to a nearby white board.

"Your U.S Air Division would be given 5 F4U Corsair fighters, 10 P51D Mustang fighters, 5 SBD Dauntless bombers, 4 P38 Lightning heavy fighters, 8 B-25 Mitchell medium bombers, 5 B-29 Superfortress and B-17 Flying Fortress strategic bombers, and 1 XP-55 Ascender jet- "

"That thing doesn't even function properly on the test runs." Some boy interrupted.

"Well, we've given a lot of other nicer planes to you. Anyway, your Luftwaffe Division will get 6 Me 262 jet fighters, 4 Bf-109 fighters, 4 Fw-190 fighters, 4 Me 410 fighters, 1 Me 163 rocket fighter, 8 Ju-87 Stuka dive-bombers, 5 Do-217 and 5 Ju-388 medium bombers, 5 Ju-920 and 5 He-177 strategic bombers and 5 Ar-234 jet bombers."

"Jeez, big arsenal. Thanks." The German team's officer muttered.

"Royal Air Force Division, 10 Mosquito fighters, 10 Supermarine Spitfire fighters, 10 Hawker Hurricanes, 5 Westland Welkin heavy fighters, 5 Hawker Typhoon fighter bombers, 5 TBF Avengers, 5 A-31 Vengeance fighters, 10 Lancaster strategic bombers, 5 Avro Manchester bombers, 5 Beaufort torpedo bombers, 5 A-20 Havoc bombers, and 5 B-26 Marauders."

"Imperial Japanese Air Force Division – why does this even exist – 10 A6M Zero fighters, 5 Ki-43 Hayabusa fighters, 5 Ki-27 fighters, 5 J2M fighters, 3 Ki-84 fighters, Type 99, B7A Ryusei, M6A Seiran, D4Y Suisei, G4M, Ki-67, and P1Y bombers, 2 of each model, and 7 B5N torpedo bombers."

"Wow. I've never even heard of some of these models." The girl dressed like an IJA muttered.

"Soviet Air Force Division – god, this air force is getting powerful – 10 Yak-3 and 10 Yak-9 fighters, 5 LA-5 planes, 10 Il-2 bombers, 5 LA-7 fighters, 5 Tu-2 bombers, 7 MiG-3 fighters, and 3 Pe-3 fighters."

"And let me see – ah, yes. That's all."

"Hey, no Italians were included." I noted.

Andrew just laughed. "Italian-made? I would rather trust Made in Japan. Besides, name a fight where the Italians aren't obsessed with their pizza?"

We both turned, and noticed the Flight Team staring at us with sincerely grateful expressions.

"Whoever you are, and wherever you got all these," Kayomi said, "thank you."

"Oh, don't get busy." I sighed, "I wouldn't do this without a reason."

Kayomi tensed instantly, "Then why?"

"Well, you see." My next sentence stunned everyone more than a 5000-kilo bomb, "our school would be attacked tonight. As the only pilots of Oarai, I hope that you would be able to do some fighting on the frontline. There's no backing out, because should we fail, our future would burn to the ground."