Patlabor Fan Fiction ❯ Personal Files ❯ Episode 22 ( Chapter 9 )

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Patlabor: Personal Files

An Episodic Patlabor Fanfic by David A. Tatum

Disclaimer: Insert legal junk here...



Episode 22: Prelude to War

April 30, 2000



"Gotoh! Call for you!" was an announcement often heard in the Academy halls
in the most recent session. Mahoko Gotoh was often seen with a brilliant
smile on her face for hours after such an announcement was made, and that
smile proved to be quite contagious. So, when the usual shout went up that
her uncle in the SV2 was calling for her, most passerbys couldn't help but
grin at the frantically sprinting girl darting over to the phones.



"Uncle Gotoh! Hi!" she cried into the reciever breathlessly. "I was
wondering if you'd manage to call today. How are things?"



"I always find time to check up on my favorite niece," came the reply.
"We've been rather busy these past few weeks, however."



"I think you've only mentioned it every day since you left," Mahoko
deadpanned. "So I don't know why that doesn't surprise me."



"How is Kanuka doing, by the way?" he replied, changing the subject.



"Professor Clancy? Well, she's toned down a bit since Lt. Kumagami left...
and trust me, it's helped a lot. She's still as tough as nails and she
still knows her stuff, but she's no longer quite so... outrageous... in her
lectures." Mahoko grinned, glancing around to make sure said professor
wasn't around. "Kumagami must have provoked her or something."



"It's a friendly rivalry," Gotoh noted. "That occasionally sparks less then
friendly behavior. I've told you about the unit vacation, right?"



"Yes!" Mahoko laughed. "Poor Officer Ohta! I can't believe they did that
to him."



"Have you been following the news, lately?" Gotoh asked when she finished
laughing.



An outside observer would have had a hard time noticing it on her face, but
Mahoko's smile froze the moment she heard that phrase.



"No, I'm afraid not," she replied, revealing nothing.



"Ah. Well, I suggest you talk to Kanuka about it -- there's something
she'll be interested in. Gomioka has been angling for a while to replace
Ohta with Seiroku. Well, he finally managed it this time -- Ohta screwed up
big time."



"When?" Mahoko asked again, visible strain in her voice.



"I suggest you talk to her today or tomorrow," Gotoh answered. "I doubt
it'll be news any more if you wait much longer than that. Ohta is upset,
but I expect we'll see what Mr. Seiroku is capable of very soon. I will
note that the rather busy period of activity we've had, recently, has been
absent these past twenty-four hours."



Mahoko swallowed nervously. "I'll talk to her right away."



"Good," Gotoh said. "I suppose I should let you go, now, huh?"



"Yeah," Mahoko said. "I... have things I need to do."



That day, Mahoko Gotoh's smiles didn't light up the hallways of the academy
as usual. Instead, a very troubled look filled her face, and a sense of
uneasiness went up among the cadets.



* * * * *



"Uncle Sake!" came the call from the foyer. Sakaki, fiddling with a
hydrolic line in one of the Type 96 labors parked in his house's courtyard,
sighed. He really wished that girl would drop that embarrassing nickname.



"What?" he called back gruffly.



"Someone here to see you from Special Vehicles."



"Is it Shige? Send him on back here...."



"It's not Shige," a different voice answered him. Sakaki, his face
partially hidden behind his mirror shades, raised an eyebrow. Managing a
stopping point on his work, he turned around.



"Officer Ohta?" he asked, letting his surprise just barely carry through in
his voice.



"Not 'officer' any more," Ohta sighed. "Gomioka has me on suspension, with
pay, 'pending an investigation' into my performance as a labor pilot. That
investigation has yet to be scheduled, so Gotoh didn't feel too bad about
asking me to deliver a package for him."



"Indeed," Sakaki mused, taking the package Ohta was carrying. There was a
letter strapped to the top, which he immediately started opening. "Did he
have any other messages?"



"Just that I was supposed to wait until you were ready to reply," Ohta said.



Sakaki scanned the letter and tensed. "Did he, now? Well, I don't think
I'll have a reply for him for a few days, but it looks as if he was
anticipating that. I think we'll have to find a room for you, here, for a
few days."



* * * * *



Shinobu shook her head as she spied the labor bay, seeing the same sight
once again. Entering the offices, she walked over to her fellow Captain
Gotoh.



"Excuse me, but you wouldn't happen to know why your entire unit is camped
out, asleep, under the feet of Alphonse again?" she asked. "They've been
doing that for the past two weeks, you know."



"They didn't consult me about it," Gotoh noted. "They seem to be having
fun, though."



"They didn't 'consult' you? Well, do you have any guesses?"



Gotoh shrugged, looking around. Gomioka was absent, but that was usually
the case. He'd grown increasingly anti-social, and his latest statement
benching Ohta and suspending him from the force was done without
explanation. Niether Shinobu nor Gotoh had been able to get the story out
of him, but from what Ohta and the other officers in Unit 3 were saying it
appeared as if there was once more a conflict between the two regarding his
taking the command car. Shinobu had been feeling more and more embarrassed
for having recommended him to be made captain, but it was too late for her
to do anything about it. Gomioka had gone over her head, straight to
Fukushima, and hadn't been showing his face around the office much at all.



"I have a few, but I don't know if I should mention them or not."



Shinobu raised an eyebrow, believing him to be talking about Noa and Asuma's
not-quite-as-secret-as-they'd-wish relationship, but she couldn't see how
the nightly parties could be involved in that.



"I know we officially avoid noticing certain things about the dynamics of
Unit 2 on purpose," Shinobu began, "But surely you could mention something,
unofficially, if you suspected it."



Gotoh blinked at her. "What are you talking about?"



"I assumed... ah, perhaps not. I'd like to know what it is you think
shouldn't be mentioned, in this case. I promise I won't discuss it with
anyone else, if you don't want me to."



The other captain sighed. "Well, I suppose I should let you in on it. I've
had some suspicions about certain things for a while." He unlocked a
cabinet in his desk and pulled out a file. Staring at it for a moment, he
sighed. "Here, take a look. I think you'll find it... enlightening."



Shinobu glanced through it. Mostly, it was the summaries of various crime
reports over the past several months. Most notable on it were her own
action against the theft of a large number of military labors and the
robbery of the Quartermaster's Corps. which Gomioka's unit had intervened
in. Attached to the later was a document she had yet to see -- the summary,
provided by Shinohara Heavy Industries, of the stolen property from their
government liason offices in that incident, as provided by Asuma.



Then there were some unofficial reports, as well -- Takeo Kumagami had given
him an off-the-record statement of her meeting with Richard Wong, which
Shinobu had only been mildly aware of. Highlighted on the document was a
claim by Mr. Wong that a former boss of Gotoh's was working on securing him
a pardon... something which struck a cord in her, as well.



Finally, there was a series of messages from Momoko Sakurayama, the
reporter. A possible exchange of sources, perhaps, as most of the messages
meant nothing to Shinobu but seemed to deal with an investigation Gotoh was
working on. However, one entry was highlighted. An entry which caused
Shinobu to gasp aloud.



"Why haven't I heard about this, before?" she asked. "This is big news,
especially for us, and it hasn't appeared at all in the press. If a
reporter had it, then--"



"There's been a gag order on certain pieces of news, recently. No
explanation. That's only one piece of information -- another is that Bud
Reynard has been, ah, removed from his school."



Shinobu's eyes narrowed. "So... what does all of this mean?"



"I'm afraid we're in for a bit of a situation... and soon. I sent Ohta
off-site, and Kanuka is in position with a working labor three from my unit.
I had plans to take care of Alphonse, but Noa and Asuma -- whether they
found out on their own, like I suspect, and took the initiative on their own
or whether there's some other reason they're camping out there -- are
dealing with it themselves."



"You've done nothing for MY unit," Shinobu noted wryly.



"I've made some arrangements, but there's nothing I can do for your people
specifically," Gotoh sighed. "I don't know them well enough. None of my
people went into your unit -- you're the only person who I could do anything
with, and I couldn't talk with you about it until today."



"Why not until today?" Shinobu asked.



Gotoh grimmaced. "Because today, the crime spree has stopped. Which means
things are going to start happening, and soon...."



* * * * *



There was a knock on the door, and Kanuka looked up. "Come in."



Mahoko Gotoh paused at the entrance before slowly walking into the office.
"Professor Clancy," she acknowledged, nodding her head respectfully as her
hands were full. "I... I've got something for you."



"Surely you haven't finished that research paper already? You simply must
stop finishing assignments so quickly -- you're making the rest of the
cadets look bad!" Kanuka teased.



Mahoko visibly relaxed. "Nothing so mundane, I'm afraid. Uncle -- er,
Captain Gotoh asked me to deliver something to you the moment he gave me a
certain coded message. I got that message today, and so here it is."



Kanuka raised an eyebrow as she accepted the parcel. "CAPTAIN Gotoh sent
this, eh? Hmm, I wonder..." With a quick perusal of the documents, her
face grew more and more grim. "Are you aware of the contents of this?"



"The gist of it, anyway," Mahoko admitted. "He let me know what it was all
about when he gave it to me."



Kanuka nodded. "Okay. Pass the word -- all trainees to the training
labors. We're going on a survivalist field trip for a few days."



* * * * *



May 1, 2000



"A May Day military labor drill?" complained Sergeant Chuuichi Iguchi of
JSDF Labor Team Falcon. Piloting one of the lightwieght Mitsubishi 'Simon'
scouting labors, Chuuichi wasn't exactly pleased to be engaged in exercises
after dark. Especially not when his labor had to go up against the much
heavier grade AV-99 Helldivers (the military varient of the Ingram) of Team
Raven.



"We have to keep in practice somehow," Raven team's Captain Fuwa coughed
back. She was in overall command of all four teams that day, and took it to
heart. "Now, gentlemen, to your labors."



The drill began fairly normally. Team Falcon in the Simons, Team Raven in
the Helldivers, Team Seagull in the submersible Amazons produced by Fuji
Heavy Industries, and the Kawasaki Bakers (the heavy eight-legged tank-like
labors based on the failed X-10 project to compete with the Russian
Doshka's) of Team Albatross all had successes in the drills. As usual, Team
Raven showed itself to be the best pilots in the best labors during the
one-on-one matches, but each team managed at least one victory in the team
competitions.



"Time out!" Chuuichi called, two hours into the drills.



All four teams paused in their actions. "Is there a problem, Sergeant?"
Fuwa asked.



"Recieving a report from Colonel Atsuo Tobe," Chuuichi explained. "He
reports that Team Sparrow, on guard patrol, has lost contact with home base.
He sent out Teams Condor and Heron to scout out the area, and lost contact
with them as well -- no explanation. He now asks that we investigate, but
be on our guard."



Captain Fuwa tensed. Three units, completely out of contact without any
warning? Just what was going on, anyway?



"Acknowledged. Team Falcon, set a perimeter. Team Albatross, extended
diamond formation. All other labors, close formation inside Team Albatross'
guard. We'll move in cautiously."



"Yes, ma'am!" came several replies at once.



As the well-trained unit it was, the sixteen JSDF military labors moved as a
unit, with efficiency and skill. Or rather, it did as long as Fuwa could
follow it -- once they entered the patrol area where the other labors had
disappeared, all of her sensors suddenly blanked out.



"Shit! I've lost all sensors. I'll have to fall back. Does anyone read
me?" She paused. "Oh, hell."



With a flick of a switch, her chair lifted out so that she'd at least have
some visibility as she moved. What she saw as she came up nearly made her
wish she didn't -- from the wreckage of labors, including the obsolescent
Type-97 Samsons and at least four other Hellfires, she could see that Teams
Sparrow, Heron, and Condor were all in pieces, literally, and it looked as
if Sergeant Chuuichi's Simon had been shredded. And doing the demolishing,
she could see, were two Doshka's, four Brochen's, and a labor she never
expected to see. The telltale black wings proved to belong to the Griffin.



"Oh... hell."



In the bloodshed that followed, all sixteen military labors -- including
Captain Fuwa's Hellfire -- were destroyed. One final act of defiance
managed to take down the last of the four Brochen's they faced, but the two
Doshka's and the Griffin were the real heavy firepower in the first place.



As Fuwa faded to unconsciousness in the wreckage of her broken labor, her
mental math told her that between the destruction of all seven teams of
military labors, almost one quarter of the entire JSDF contingent of labors
was lost. To only four enemy labors destroyed.



If this really was a war, like she thought, they were in big trouble.



* * * * *



"Boss! We've got a package for you!" the aide-de-campe for Hanafuji Yakuza
faction chief Naoya Fujioka cried. "No return address."



Naoya looked up. "Eh? Have the screeners checked it, yet?"



"Yes, we're fairly certain it's not a bomb, whatever it is. Pretty heavy,
though."



Naoya sighed. "Well, bring it here. Might as well see what's going on."



The package was about the size of a shoe box, and the postmark seemed to
indicate it came from the reclaimed lands which Babylon Project's phase one
experiments had made available for development, but other than that there
was nothing remarkable about the package. A letter was attached on the
outside, which Naoya promptly opened.



"Returning some things you gave me for safekeeping. Don't use them -- I'll
be by to reclaim them in time."



There was no signature, and the letter itself was typed giving no indication
as to who sent it. It was all quite mysterious, but nevertheless Naoya felt
like he should know what this package contained without having to open it.



Shrugging, he decided there were better uses of his time then solving
riddles when there was a much simpler way of getting his questions answered.
With a decisive rip, he tore open the package and lifted the lid of what
was, in fact, a shoe box wrapped with paper.



"Labor movement disks?" he muttered aloud, surprised. He pulled them out,
and sure enough, every single labor movement disk he had sent to the care of
SV2 and Captain Gotoh were in the package.



He had continued collecting labors, and now had about thirty labors, but he
always sent the movement disk straight to the police captain. His
collection, while constantly kept in working condition, were for show only.
He remembered how to drive them -- in fact, he secretly kept a single
movement disk for one of the farming labors just to keep in practice -- but
he certainly didn't need all thirty disks! Nor had he asked for them. He
looked at the letter again.



The word 'safekeeping' seemed to be a little bolder then most of the others
on the page. Emphasized slightly, as it were. That was very curious, now,
wasn't it?



Well, he actually liked the people of SV2. Anything he could do to help
them out would be a pleasure.



"Call in our labor maintenance team. Check all the batteries," he ordered
to his nearest flunky. "Make sure they're all fully charged from now on."



"Yes, boss!" the man cried, immediately running off.



Maybe he'd better up his personal training schedule a bit, as well.



* * * * *



Momoko Sakurayama hesitated. She and Captain Kiichi Gotoh had been secretly
exchanging information for months, now, and she'd seen much of what he had
about what was coming. Whenever she even tried to write about it, or to
comment on it during her TV gig, her superiors would nix the story, saying
that there wasn't enough proof (which was bullshit, in her opinion -- she
and many of the other reporters had published stories on much less data than
she'd had) or that 'it was a message the editors didn't want our
paper\television station to report.' Or, in other words, someone up top was
being pressured to keep the story quiet. By who was a real question she
wished she had an answer for, but she supposed it didn't matter anymore.
Given what she'd just heard from her contacts in the military, she wouldn't
be able to do anything about it before the story got too big for her editors
to continue to ignore it.



Thirty military labors, destroyed in minutes. And not just the older models
like the Samsons, but also a large number of Hellfires and Bakers -- the
backbone of the military's labor force -- and the brand new Simons and
Amazons as well. The Simons, the military's response to the high-speed
threat posed by the Griffon, were wiped out in a matter of moments -- they
were no match for the vehicle they were built to counter. Nothing else was
quick enough to fight it. The Griffon's appearance, itself, was
astounding -- one hadn't been seen since Noa Izumi's encounter in October of
1999. It was last seen self-destructing after a rather remarkable battle...
which no-one had on tape, but that was probably for the best. Gotoh had
explained his reasoning to her, and while she felt a LITTLE used, he had
given her a good story as compensation.



That was the channel through which they'd continued discussions. Ever since
she was 'discovered' and 'thrown off the base,' though, updates were harder
and harder to get to each other. Gotoh had given her one new tool to use in
gathering information, however -- the signal of an old wiretap a certain
Yakuza from the Daina group had used on the SV2 which had never been
removed. With it, she could hear any phone conversation going to and from
the headquarters, and thanks to that she had learned of his suspicions
already. The phone call to his niece was an obvious code -- he already knew
things were coming to a head. He probably didn't know quite how close
things were, however.



Just as she was about to call him, the crackling of a bit of static warned
her that someone was calling out from the SV2. Quickly, she switched the
audio of her wiretap's reciever from speaker to headphone, and decided to
listen in secretly.



"Hello?" a deep male voice she'd never heard before answered, obviously on
the other end.



"It's me," another voice, one she recognized as belonging to one of the new
rookies, answered. Suddenly, there was something in the background from
that end, and some sounds of shifting seemed to indicate the owner of the
voice was turning his head. "Oh, captain," the distant voice in SV2
headquarters answered. "Yeah, I'll get right on that after this call to my
grandparents. Yes, sir, I'll make it short. Thank you, sir!"



"Is he gone?" the deep male voice answered.



"Yeah, now he is. Look, I can't talk long. I've managed to do a
significant amount of sabatoge, and I've placed small explosives in various
locations. I even managed to find a scapegoat, although they'll discover
that he's innocent soon. The only labor I haven't been able to touch is
Alphonse -- er, Unit two labor one. For some reason, some of Unit Two came
up with the idea that the Ingram's feet would be a great place to hold some
kind of nightly party. All other heavy equipment outside of that labor and
my own Zero, which I'll have out of here tomorrow night, will be ruined by
the explosions. You can move in on the morning of the third."



"Good. We'll have someone standing by to guard your escape."



"I've gotta go, now -- the Captain's waiting for me, and I don't want to be
discovered. This'll be our last communication -- I'm taking the phones
off-line in ten minutes."



"Good luck. We've already had one major success -- the pride of the
military was already taken out, and the rest is in confusion. The Kanazawa
unit has already been wiped out without getting word out. The third will be
the last day any of us will have to work in secret, so don't worry too hard
about your cover."



Two clicks indicated the phones were hung up, but Momoko could only sit
there in shock.



'Kanazawa's been taken out? The military is being stopped? Why the hell
are they worried about SV2, anyway, if they can do THAT?' She paused. 'And
how am I going to get word to Captain Gotoh, now?'



Author's note:

The (new) labor names for the military labors mentioned above are a bit of
an in joke for me, but since they ARE an in-joke, I figure I should explain
them. 'Ingram' is the name of a major wholesale book distributor (one you
may not have heard of if you aren't in the industry, however). So, all the
new names ("Simons" for Simon and Schuster, "Amazons" for Amazon.com, and
"Bakers" for Baker and Taylor (the British-based equivalent of Ingram, I
believe)) are also major book distributors. The manufacturers all are, or
have in the past, built airplanes for the JSDF according to Janes All the
Worlds Aircraft 1997-98 (I have more recent copies, but this was the most
convenient one to reach).

-------------------------

Season Finale... No New Episodes Until next 'Season.' I'm not entirely sure
what I'll do to show this as a season break -- I make make major revisions
to older episodes (and maybe, finally, REPLACING the Lost Episode with a new
Episode 07) or I may finally write up one or two of the dozen or so OAVs
I've planned. Regardless, something's going to happen between now and
season 2. (Sorry, ladies and gentlemen -- that does mean more delays).
Urgh.

Next Episode: In the Season 2 Premeire for Patlabor: Personal Files, the
SV2 has to deal with the results of a traitor in their midst.

-------------------------
David A. Tatum
desaix@anifics.com
http://davecon.anifics.com