*The story is entirely fictional, any resemblance to real event is purely accidental.
Episode 7: Unexpected visitors
Yokosuka naval base
“Oh, right, you discussed something with your sailors a few days ago on the lifeboat, can I know what it is?”
“Uhm… it’s a bit sensitive so… come with me.”
Those are the last sentences of a small chat in the morning between the captain of the Kaga and the captain of the Shokaku. The Kaga’s captain’s name is Akio, he’s a young man, around 27 with black hair, he used to be a fighter pilot before changing to a ship captain, he’s the youngest captain of the entire Japanese navy. The Shoukaku’s captain’s name is Eiko, he’s in his 50’s, he’s the greatest captain of the Japanese fleet, despite losing the Tenryu in the past and the Shokaku recently. During 23 years between the past and the current war, he with the Shokaku successfully did a lot of tasks and earned a lot of medals.
The two captains then goes to Eiko’s room, then Eiko sits down on his bed and Akio sits down on the couch.
Eiko: “So… don’t tell anyone about this okay? It is only between me and the people I share it with.”
Akio: “Okay, I got it.”
Eiko: “So, I want to change side.”
Akio: “Eh? Why?”
Eiko: “Wait… no, changing side will cause a lot of problems, we have to do something else…”
Akio: “…”
Eiko: “Maybe we can go meet the enemies by ourselves and ask them a few things to gather information.”
Akio: “Okay, but why do you want to do that exactly?”
Ekio: “The reason for that is, well, first off, I’ve came to Gensokyo two times and I lost both times. 23 years ago, Japan and Gensokyo had a war already, I came there in a ship known as the JN Tenryu, it was just a generic destroyer. However, when I arrived at the battlefield, I was only able to last for 5 minutes before the Kiev completely destroyed my ship. And now? Well, the history just repeated itself, just in a different ship.”
Akio: “Okay?”
Eiko: “…Also, have you noticed anything strange about our president?”
Akio: “Hmm? I don’t know, what is it?”
Eiko: “His speeches seem… repeated… they’re like the same speech and the same tone every time.”
“…”
Akio: “Now that you mentioned it… I did notice that…”
Eiko: “There’s more to it than you might think comrade. One time, there was a speech played on the speakers, it sounded normally until there was a part where there’s a clear transition between two words, like they were from different speeches. I suspected the entire speech was multiple ones combined and was tuned, but I still haven’t able to confirm it. The speech is never heard again after that.”
Akio: “Woah… so, the reason you want to those things earlier is to…”
Eiko: “I want to know the actual reason of this war. There’s a clear 23 years gap between the two wars so it makes no sense why this has to continue, at least for me.”
Akio: “… Now… What do you want to do in order to dig up the unknown?”
Eiko lowers his head, puts his hand on his chin. After a while, he finally looks back up.
Eiko: “I just have a plan for it, but it might be hard to actually do it…”
They continue to discuss and making their plan a long while afterwards.
A few days later, the Kaga is assigned to a patrol mission. It goes along side with multiple destroyers and frigates. The mission is to patrol the Pacific Ocean to search for any enemy ships or submarines around, and to also have a peek at Gensokyo to see what they’re up to. When the fleet is out at the sea, Eiko secretly order one of Kaga’s helicopters to take him straight to Gensokyo while all ships continue their patrol mission.
Pilot: “Sir, are you sure about this? This is risky. What are you trying to do?”
Eiko: “Just keep flying, everything will be alright. Also, connect with our enemy’s radio channel, I need to talk with them directly.”
*A few minutes later…
Communication officer: “Commander, we have an unknown channel connection request, the signal in coming from South.”
Fleet commander: “Spotter, can you scan for any visual?”
Spotter: “Yes sir!”
…
Spotter: “One unknown aircraft spotted, aircraft type: RAH-66 helicopter!”
Shtorm’s Captain: “RAH-66… it must be a Japanese one, can you see anything else other than it?”
Spotter: “No sir!”
Commander: “Alright, approve the request and let’s see what it want.”
Eiko: “Hello? Can you hear me?”
Commander: “Loud and clear. Please identify yourself.”
Eiko: “My name is Eiko, I was the captain of the Shokaku your aircrafts sunk a few days ago.”
Entire Shtorm’s crew: “!!”
Eiko: “No sweat, I’m not here for revenge, I’m here for information.”
Commander: “Information?”
Eiko: “After I lost the Shokaku and the fact that I also participated and lost in this war 23 years ago makes me think that this war is becoming meaningless.”
Masayoshi: “It already was 23 years ago.”
Eiko: “Huh?”
Masayoshi: “This is Masayoshi, I’m the keeper of this land, 23 years ago, Japan attacked us for no reason. Your president, Yamamoto was my friend, however, he was not heard or response to any of our messages during the past war. I still have no idea about this.”
Eiko: “Hmm… speaking of president Yamamoto, his speeches during this war feel repeated. It’s like the same phase all over again, just slightly tuned to make them feel different.”
Masayoshi and Shtorm’s captain: “What?”
Eiko: “I have a few recordings here, I personally made them just to confirm if my suspicion is true. I still haven’t able to compare them so I want to give them to you.”
Captain: “Wait, data transmission from that far will probably detectable from your country, we’ll send a helicopter out there for you, wait a bit.”
Eiko: “Alright.”
The coaxial-rotor of a helicopter with two massive jet engines starts spinning, the engines are connected with the rotor and also providing thrust for the helicopter to fly up to 800km/h, the aircraft is a KA-63 (formerly known as KA-XX). After the rotor has spun fast enough, the pilot increases the collective pitch and the helicopter takes off.
Pilot: “Deadly Vortex, taking off.”
Commander: “Alright, there’s no one beside that helicopter out there, however, be careful and keep your finger on the missile trigger.”
Pilot: “Roger that.”
After taking off, the KA-63 immediately increases its thrust and speeds straight to the RAH-66. When they’re close together, the KA-63 reduces the thrust to zero and the two helicopters hover side by side. Then Eiko connects his phone with the helicopter and data transmission starts. He sends 10 recordings, one of them is the long one that has an unedited transition.
Eiko: “Alright, that’s all.”
Commander: “Okay, what do you want to do.”
Eiko: “If you have able to find anything from these, let me know, I’m deciding which side to fight for.”
Masayoshi: “You’re going to change side?”
Eiko: “One day… not now. Well, thank you for at least welcoming me. Going to the enemy side alone is the riskiest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Oh, and just keep the result, I might return here soon”
Commander: “Alright, we will take a look at your recordings and report the results for you when you come back again.”
Afterwards, the RAH-66 returns back to the Kaga and the Japanese fleet finishes their patrol mission. The entire interaction is kept secret.
*RF Shtorm, 7pm
Sailor: “Commander, can you come to the control room a bit?”
*A few minutes later
Commander: “What is it?”
Sailor: “We just finished analyzing the recordings Eiko sent us this morning, look at the sound waves of those recordings.”
Commander: “Hmm… wait, they’re the same?”
Sailor: “Yes, but they sound different, they were tuned to sound like the president is speaking live.”
Commander: “What about the longest one?”
Sailor: “I’m just about to show you. Here, look closely.”
Commander: “… Wait, are those tiny empty spaces? There’s so many.”
Sailor: “It is what you think it is sir, this entire speech is basically like a Frankenstein, it’s multiple different ones combined and tuned. Aside from a clear unedited part, we found those small gaps that can’t be noticed while playing loudly on the speakers.”
Commander: “Also Masayoshi said that he wasn’t able to receive anything from Yamamoto during the war in the past… there might be a connection here...”
Radar operator: “Sir, the camouflaged cargo plane is being chased by 2 Japanese squadrons.”
Commander: “What the-… connect with SAAC immediately!”
A few minutes later, a slightly glowing green and white flying wing takes off from SAAC factory airport and flies straight out of Gensokyo. It’s Youmu.
Cargo pilot: “Guys? We’re being chased by 8 planes! They’re F-15Js”
Fleet commander: “Keep cool, support is on the way!”
After an anxious while, two cyan slashes flies across the sky, home at two enemies and completely destroy them. The enemies break away and spread out, Youmu flies by the cargo plane for the crew to see her and then straight at the enemy aircrafts to fight them. One by one, she takes down all of them, one of them is able to get behind her and chases her. However, Youmu does something that catches everyone by surprise: She pitches up to 30 degree, then her plane completely disintegrates into particles circling around her. Youmu then pulls her katana out, turns around and swings her sword, creating a massive magic slash that flies straight at the chasing aircraft, the slash splits the enemy craft in two before it explodes. Then she turns around, then the particles becomes the shape of a flying wing and her plane is reformed. The entire cargo crew is speechless about what they just witnessed. Youmu then flies along side with the cargo plane and escort it back to Gensokyo.
At Gensokyo, the cargos are unloaded from the aircraft. Sokolóv and Masayoshi come out to greet the crew and see the cargo. They’re now black metal boxes instead of wood because they’re special experimental weapons. The crates contain EMAAMs (Electromagnetic Air-to-Air missile), an airborne emp that disable enemy’s radars and weapons and one of them has the most important weapon of them all, it’s The Shredder energy machine gun, it can easily shreds open any solid object in the bullet’s path no matter the material.
Masayoshi: “You ordered all of this?”
Sokolóv: “Yes, if you’re curious, they’re for Reimu.”
Masayoshi: “Reimu?”
Sokolóv: “Yes, and we will upgrade her plane with those things next morning. We will also use some drones for her to get used to those weapons. After that, “The Plan” will begin.”
*Japan, Eiko’s room, 11pm.
Eiko: (Now that I think about it, there’s no live video about our president Yamamoto… He used to walk around the city and interacted his civilians 23 years ago… After the war, he has never been seen again till now…)
Eiko’s face becomes serious.
Eiko: (Can it be… the president has gone missing…?)
*To be continued…
@ToeTips