You're Under Arrest Fan Fiction ❯ The Siege ❯ First Blood ( Chapter 5 )

The Siege

Chapter 5: First Blood

By JagdPanther

Miyuki glanced at the clock in the lower-right corner of the laptop's screen. `A little past one. I should've been starting patrol soon, but I guess that won't be happening.' She continued to type away. What she was typing was reports containing information about the civilians being held downstairs, status of supplies, status of wounded, and many other vital pieces of information. The report would be sent by the American's advanced radio units to the rest of the police force outside the Ward and the Japanese government. A technology junkie, Miyuki marveled at the small, but extremely versatile radio system the Americans used. Able to uplink to military satellites quickly, it could send anything around the world in milliseconds. In addition to containing powerful internal encryption software for standard radio work, it acted like a satellite modem, sending and receiving images, text documents, and several other things under the same encryption. The Marines had brought several more so Arleigh had Ryker turn the encryption down on one radio so the police to communicate with the outside world.

Across the operations center, Arleigh was screaming into a radio handset. "No, damnit! I don't have time for that crap! I need air support, I need naval gunfire support, I need armor, I need everything! Hurry the hell up! I don't have all day! Delta Five-One out." He threw the handset at the door, but the coiled cord going to the actual radio reversed it and sent it at Arleigh's crotch. "OW! Mother of God…" The man hopped around the room, holding his private area. "Now the damn radio wants to kill me. What a quality day this has been, oh, yes."

Arizuka smiled at the detective's mishap. "So, if this is a massive terrorist attack, why haven't we seen anything more than a few soldiers in the past hour? Who were easily routed, I might add. They could be falling back, getting on that train, and running away. Wouldn't that make you feel stupid?"

"Superintendent, I have no time for your condescending crap right now. The reason that we haven't been attacked in a while is because the enemy is retasking its main force to help unload the military equipment it just hijacked. Don't worry, those attacks will come as soon as they're finished getting the crap off the train cars. That's when the real fun starts. Massive waves of infantry, tanks blowing holes in the building, APCs running right over the crappy walls around this place and disembarking troops right on our doorstep, rockets zipping by, bullets tearing up windows and walls, people dying, oh, don't worry, it'll start soon enough. But I can't be bothered with imagining the slaughter right now, because I'm too damn busy trying to save our asses. If the Japanese government would give my superiors authorization, then I could start using air support to beat back the enemy, armor could punch through to us and we could evacuate the civilians, and so on. But no, I'm arguing with you right now so go away, thank you."

Surai was smiling at the exchange. "You'd make a great Marine, Rivera. Too bad you're in the Army."

"Thanks a lot, Captain."

"No problem."

Miyuki finished typing and sent the documents away to headquarters and the capitol district. "Inspector Kinoshita?"

"Yes, Kobayakowa?"

"Do you suppose that the government will help us soon? From the way Arleigh is acting the situation looks pretty dire."

Kaoruko gazed over at the flustered Lieutenant and then returned his eyes to Miyuki. "I sure hope so. But I don't think they can do much. If they provide troops, how are we supposed to tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys? They'll both be using Japanese equipment. We could end up shooting at the wrong people."

"True. But they have to do something. Even if it is just giving the Americans more freedom to work. I'm very worried about all the civilians in the Sumida Ward. They're completely unprotected. Even the civilians we have here, tiny in numbers compared to the ones out there, aren't very safe. And what if we get people who are wounded so badly that they need to be evacuated to proper medical facilities? We have no way of doing that."

"I know."

Arleigh walked over at that point. "Stupid politicians. Crying and moaning over collateral damage and civilians casualties that might arise due to the support I want. They are just not understanding how much more there will be if the terrorists go on unchecked. Anyway, that was to no one in particular. Thinking aloud. Okay, did you send that report out?"

"Yes."

"Good. There's not much more you can do for now, sorry. Go get some food or some rest. You're going to need a lot of rest."

"Okay."

Arleigh checked his watch as he returned to the maps. "Right, 1:12 PM. The train came into the district over an hour ago. Enough equipment to level this place should already be unloaded. Ryker, as soon as command comes back up with a reply to my support request, you get me, no matter what I'm doing."

"Roger that."

He motioned next to his second in command, Anderson. "Jake, go distribute the half of the AT4s to the D-boys [slang for Delta operators]. Okay, next the Marines. Captain?"

"Yes?"

"My guys are pretty much set once they get their AT4s. Not much else they can do. I've ordered my HMMWV gunners to assume the driver's controls as soon as armor makes a break for the station to save the trucks. If its just infantry, they are going to continue to man the guns, but if armor shows up, then they get the hell out of there. How about your guys?"

"Same thing. I don't want risk losing our fifties and grenade launchers to the tanks so they are going to move. Some of the officers opened up the motor pool so we can stash the HMMWVs if things get hairy. Then they'll fall back inside and take up fortified positions."

"Okay, I guess that settles it for now. Back to trying to get support."

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Downstairs in the cafeteria, Natsumi, Aoi, Miyuki, and Yoriko sat together talking over what might come later.

"I just don't understand how an entire brigade of Japanese soldiers can turn on their country like this. How can they kill their own countrymen?" Aoi nibbled at some bread while she spoke.

"That doesn't make any sense to me, either. If it weren't true, they wouldn't have told us. Not something like that." Natsumi likewise was eating a little.

Miyuki just stared at the ceiling. "That's not too far-fetched. It's not unprecedented. Do you know how World War II actually ended?"

Yoriko replied, "Well of course. Every Japanese citizen knows that the Americans dropped the Atomic bombs on us and we eventually surrendered."

The black-haired officer shook her head. "No, not really, actually. The decision to surrender was made on the day prior to its announcement, which the Americans call "Victory in Japan Day," August 15th. On the 14th of August, Hirohito decided to surrender. His cabinet was astonished, and a little hurt. They expected the War to go on because surrender was so dishonorable and Japan had never done so. Well, the Japanese military was royally pissed off. One officer, a Major Hatanaka, started a rebellion. He eventually enlisted the aide of a couple thousand soldiers to capture the Imperial palace, specifically the Emperor, and stop him from recording the surrender message, or, if it was too late to do that, stop it from being played. The soldiers followed his orders, and were more than willing to kill any of their countrymen that got in their way. Hatanaka himself executed the commanding officer of the Palace's guards because he wouldn't help the revolting men. Thankfully for the world, the revolt failed because of an American bombing raid. Everyone thought the planes were coming to drop another Atomic bomb on Tokyo, but they weren't. Because of the blackout caused by the planes flying by the city to their target in Akita, Japan, they revolt failed and the Emperor's message went out. And that's how World War II ended."

"Wow, where did you learn that, Miyuki?" Yoriko was a bit amazed.

"Oh, Arleigh told me. And I read two books on it after he told me, one Japanese and one American, both saying the same thing. Anyway, so you see, the Japanese military has gone against its own country in the past. Now, Natsumi said that JGSDF reported that the commander went rogue, along with his men. So it is possible that the commander has been tainted by something that has caused him to fall in with the terrorists. We're all Japanese, so we know that we're all very protective of our homeland. A lot of terrorist groups have agendas that they claim are designed to protect something dear to them. This group may have infiltrated the military at different levels within this brigade and convinced the soldiers that something here was a severe threat to the existence of Japan. Brainwashing, false information, bribery, whatever the case, these soldiers are prepared to kill their own countrymen. And that, quite frankly, scares me. A lot."

Natsumi nodded. "I agree with you. As for me, above being Japanese, I'm a human being. And if someone wants to try and kill me, I have no problems with defending my life and the lives of my friends, even if I have to kill that person or persons, even if they are Japanese. They've already killed civilians, so I see no point in giving them doubt now."

The other three women nodded, even Yoriko, who spoke next. "Well, Arleigh told us all to get some sleep, so I'm going to go do just that."

Aoi followed her from the table. "Sounds good to me. At least I'll have some peace and quiet away from all this commotion for awhile."

That left the pair sitting together at the table. "Never in a million years did I think something like this could happen in our city, Miyuki. We were separated from each other for so a year doing other things around the precinct, and then we come back and all the crap starts happening. Our first week back we find all these weapons, get kidnapped, then rescued by someone who had just disappeared from Japan four months earlier. After that we found more weapons. Now, there's this. We work so hard every day to protect this place and look what's happened. I can't help but think that there was something more I could've done to help prevent this. Maybe if we had found more of the weapons, of the warehouses where all those trucks were kept or built, maybe we could've scared them into thinking it wouldn't have worked and they'd would have abandoned their plan."

Miyuki sighed. "Natsumi, you know that they would've tried again. There was nothing we could have to done to prevent or even stall something this huge. We're going to do everything possible to help defeat this, though, that's for sure. I'll take up a rifle if I have to, if that means that someone who I don't even know gets a chance to live longer because the terrorist scum who would've killed them, got killed by me first."

"Well, not if Arleigh has anything to say about it. He'll probably keep us down here the whole time."

"Well he'll just have to deal with us."

"Is it just me, or do we keep coming back to whether or not he's going to let us do anything?"

"No, we keep coming back to it."

"Okay, just wanted to make sure."

"Right."

Natsumi checked her watch. "It's only 1:30. I doubt those two will be getting much sleep. The troops will probably attack soon. I'm going to bring some food and water ready the rest of the police defending the building. Coming?"

"Right behind you." Miyuki finished a cup of water and tossed it into a trashcan.

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Arleigh yawned and looked at his watch. "It's only 1:30. Well, I've got time. Might as well work on my rifle." He set to work attaching the M203 40mm grenade launcher to his Colt M4A1 compact assault rifle. "If the enemy gets so close that I need the MasterKey shotgun I have, then, well, we're all pretty much going to hell." The operation was simple. Just remove the heat-shield panels from around the barrel, slide the launcher onto the rifle, secure it to the muzzle and housing, and attach the sight to the top plate of the barrel. It was done in a few minutes. Arleigh loaded a grenade and put the rest into empty pouches on his utility belt. After yawning again, he shouldered the weapon. "Jeez, I can't be getting sleepy now. I need sugar." Breaking out a candy bar from his pack, he sat down to think things over. `Okay, here's the deal. We've got enemy armor units being unloaded. If I had authorization, I'd launch a preemptive strike, but I don't so I have to sit here and wait for everyone to get killed. Next, I'll have to get some of my guys up on the roof with sniper rifles. This is a pretty tall building, and the roof isn't succeeded by many buildings around it, so they should be relatively safe.' "Anderson!"

"Yeah?"

"Have Smith and Morris get two of the sniper rifles from the ammo dump and take up overwatch on the roof. Place them at the two northerly corners of the roof."

"Roger that."

Arleigh took another bite from the bar and leaned back in the chair. `Okay, now where was I? Right, now, the cops and the civilians are my next priority. I need to get them the hell out of here. Civilians first, I guess. Right now I'm strapped for men so I'll need a large portion of the men to stay behind and defend the station until more reinforcements arrive. I'll probably have to evacuate the out by air. I don't think it would be a good idea to have the pickups occur on the roof. Too high profile. A tank far enough away with a clear line of sight can elevate the barrel enough to knock off the chopper. I'll have to have them land either in front, which is probably suicide, or by the motor pool area. The SOAR boys can probably fit their MH-60s into the space between the garages and the station. It would take forever using the MH-6s and, besides, the civilians probably wouldn't like being strapped to those damn benches on the sides of the bird. Thank God it's Sunday or there'd be far more civilians here. That's just about the only thing good so far. Why am I even thinking about this? This is supposing I even get air support. Wonderful. I didn't even think about that part of the evacuation. Yeah, completely forget how the choppers are going to get here. Smart.'

Surai walked over. "Lieutenant. A minute of your time, please?"

Arleigh rested the chair back down on the floor. "Yes, sir."

"I just wanted to go over with you the plans for defending this place against attack. Now, I have my men all around the building on every level with windows above this floor. Anything below and they can't see the road over the trees along the perimeter. Now, how do you plan to go about armor attacks outside the wall?"

Arleigh scratched at his chin. "Pretty much, I don't have a solid plan. This building offers us extremely limited options. Now, if we had more men I'd be sending them across the road right now to occupy other buildings to give us the advantage of high ground all around our main strongpoint, being the station. As for armor, we can't really take them on at ground level. Not that I'd want to, anyway. Any attack from armor will have to be dealt with from the upper levels. Well, not really. I've had some of the police bring up some ladders from the basement and had them set up along the walls at different points. My last-ditch-effort plan is to send men over the wall with anti-tank equipment, and surprise the armor at ground level with attacks on their flanks and rear. However, that is extremely risky and basically suicidal if the armor has infantry with it. That is why I've got two snipers on the roof. By the way, can you spare any of your better marksmen to snipe from the roof or from a high level? In the ammo trailer my guys brought we have about ten M24 7.62mm bolt-action sniper rifles, basically the same as the M40 you Marines use. Two of them are being used by my snipers right now, and I've got our only Designated Marksman Rifle." He tapped his MSG-90A1 resting against the wall behind him.

"Yeah, I can spare a couple. I heard what you did with your two guys. Want me to have them cover two different directions?"

"Please, sir."

"Okay, I'll get that order out right away." Surai did so, making his company's executive officer carry out the order. "Anyway, I'm pretty sure that's all we can do unless we get support. Are we authorized to use those mortars I brought? As near as I can assess, we're only allowed to use direct-fire weapons inside the perimeter or within reasonable distance from the perimeter to defend ourselves."

"No, we're not and yeah, that's pretty much all we can do."

"Great. Well, I guess that's it for now."

"Affirmative, sir. Time for the U.S. Military motto. `Let's hurry up and wait.'"

"I hear that, Rivera, I hear that." Surai laughed as he left the room.

`Back to thinking. Okay, that's settled a few things. Now for the issue of the generators. One major thing I need is more fuel for them. If I recall correctly from the only time we had to use them when I was stationed here, we have enough fuel for one day of continuous operation at 50% capacity. Well, we're living without air conditioning, I guess. And I'll have them turn off the circuits supplying power to non-essential areas. That will be a very high priority if and when I get air support. Thankfully they use standard diesel fuel. Plus, we've got enough refills to keep the generators running for three days. I think. I hope. Fuel shouldn't be hard to come by in a pinch, though. There's bound to be some diesel vehicles outside the perimeter intact that I can bring in and siphon their load out of. Plus, I have ten diesel-driven 2.5-ton trucks the Marines used to get here. I can take some of their fuel. Okay, next issue. Hmm. What next?' Arleigh stood and made his way to the bathroom. `Ah, nothing like thinking while using the head facilities.'

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"Yeah, we're pretty much playing the waiting game." The chief fished a cigarette out of the container.

Tokuno turned down a cigarette offer and continued to scan the area around the service entrance of the station. "Never thought it would be this big. I figured it was just gun running, not some major terrorist action."

"I don't think anyone thought it would be this."

"The place has gone to hell real fast."

"I wonder how long we'll be here. Hopefully the government or the Americans will mount some kind of rescue operation. It's only a matter of time before these guys attack and overrun our little defense right here."

"Depends on how willing the government is to let more American soldiers operate in the area. I find it hard to believe that Arleigh or any of these guys had prior authorization. They responded way too quickly. We can probably get people out by helicopter, but we'd have to protect them well. There's no telling how many enemy soldiers will occupy the buildings surrounding us. One helicopter lands, and poof. They hit it." He took a drag from the cigarette and blew the smoke out.

"Real possibility there. Anyway, I wish we had more help back here. If they attack from the front and can't get through, they'll move back here and attack at our weakest point. I hope Arleigh realizes that."

"I don't think he could do much about it. Not nearly enough weapons to deal with attacks on all sides."

"People will have to be moved around, then."

"I guess so."

Something nagged at the back of the Chief's mind. He just couldn't shake that this attack had something to do with the program. `How would they even know about it? Impossible.'

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"Alright, Lieutenant. Here are our defenses so far. We've got 165 Marines, 12 Delta operators including you, and about 104 police officers of various departments using captured weapons and weapons we keep here in the station. There are some more weapons left and some police, so I don't know if they'll be taking up positions, too." Kinoshita had returned from a task that Arleigh had assigned her to check on the manpower in the station.

Arleigh had just ordered Miyuki to go down and shut down electricity to certain parts of the station so the Mitsubishi industrial generators in the basement wouldn't waste fuel. Now he was listening to Kaoruko's report. "Okay, that gives us a grand total of 281 personnel in combat positions right now against at least five thousand enemy soldiers. How grand this all is. Right, very well. When Kobayakowa comes back, tell her I need to see her. And you, too. But wait until she gets back."

A few minutes later, the three convened. "Alright, here's the deal. When the big stuff starts, I'm going to need all the Marines I can spare. Now, that means I'll have to shift them off of some vital tasks. You're the two most technology-oriented people I've got, so here's what you'll be doing." He took them to a set of laptops hooked up to the radios. "Okay, these two are being used as mediums for photos of the Ward. You won't be talking directly with any outside commands, but you'll be receiving their photos. Captain Surai will be running the Tactical Operations Center during combat; I'll be directing the fight from the front lines, so to speak, even though the front is just outside the door. When photos come in, you're going to need to send them to his terminal over there. It's Network PC #1. You're #2 and #3 on the chain. Now, when we get out of this mess, you can't say a damn word to anyone about this. I'm basically committing an offense that can warrant a court-martial. These photos, coming from satellites in orbit and reconnaissance flights circling overhead, are very deeply classified unless an authority above says they can be shown to people without proper authorization, and you two aren't even in the military, let alone not even American, so you know that's unacceptable. Just send them straight away to Surai and he'll put them to good use. Got it?"

Both acknowledged him.

"Good, that settles that. That'll be all for now."

Ryker, sitting at a radio, looked up in surprise. "Lieutenant! Command wants to talk to you. I think it's about the support."

Arleigh smiled and ran over. "Great!" He grabbed the handset. "Delta Five-One, here. Go ahead, over."

"Rivera, this is General Walker at Camp Zama. The line is secure, yes? Over."

"Yes, General."

"Good. The Japanese government and the U.S. State Department and Department of Defense have reached an agreement. You're going to get your support. First, your air support. Unfortunately, fixed-wing craft were not authorized. So the Navy and Air Force will not be allowed to provide cover, but you will continue to receive digital recon photos from Navy F-14 Tomcats flying over. However, rotary wing craft are allowed. So the Army's 25th Division and the Marine's 3rd MEF are supplying their anti-tank Apache and Cobra gunships. Granted, the risks to choppers are far greater, but they are more accurate up close. The government does not want an errant bomb from a plane hitting civilians. The 160th SOAR and the rest of the 25th's Aviation Brigade have been retasked to help you. You can start calling in supply runs and I'd assume you want to evacuate civilians. Next, your request for naval gunfire has been approved on one condition. You must use a laser-designator. There are two Arleigh Burke-Class Destroyers off the coast right now awaiting fire missions. A third will be on station around 0300 Hours in the morning. They are all equipped with ERGM [Extended-Range-Guided-Munition] and will accept laser sights. Also, you are authorized to use your mortars for defensive purposes only. Third, your armor support. In an effort to protect their own military forces, the Japanese are only using JGSDF units to guard the bridges. They don't want their units being misidentified as enemy vehicles by us. So, you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see friendly armor. The 25th's cavalry battalion is preparing now, about 75% here from Torii Station. They'll head out once everything is here, which will be sometime in the morning. The Marines are also providing some tanks. I'm sending you a full report now. Are you prepared to receive? Over."

"Roger that, sir. You have my modem frequency. Over."

"Okay, Lieutenant. If you need authorization for something, you give me a call, son. The rest of your requests will go through the units on the list from now on. Good luck to you. Walker out."

Arleigh immediately checked the laptop to his left now showing the full list of units and services at his disposal. "Captain, the Lord just smiled upon us. Basically everything we asked for has been authorized. We're only missing fixed-wing air support, and I think we can do without that for now. Other than that, we are in the money. Look at all this stuff."

"Ooh-rah! That's good stuff."

"Okay, have your mortar crews lock in their fields of fire. They've been given the go-ahead to fire in defense of the station. I'm going to call up the destroyers and let them know we're going to need them. I've got two laser-designation units in my trailer. Did you bring any?"

"Yeah, I've got one. I'll have one of my guys get it."

"This is all good news?" asked Miyuki. Kinoshita and her were still standing there.

"Very good news, girls. We just might have a chance now." Arleigh smiled and told them to take a break. Next he had Ryker call in to the U.S.S. Chaffee, DDG 90 and the U.S.S. Farragut, DDG 99, two U.S. Navy Guided-Missile-Destroyers tooling around off the coast of Japan, ready to fire their 125mm naval cannons in support of Arleigh and the defenders. "Ryker, call up the SOAR boys. I want to start evacuation of civilians immediately. I need supplies, too. Get their commander on the line. Then we'll call the 25th Division's Aviation Brigade and see about getting some Apache's in here. They'll be doing supply and evacuation, too. And the Marines, I guess, are chipping in. But let the Captain handle that, since he's a Marine and all."

That took about twenty minutes. The first resupply/evacuation chopper was spinning up on the pad now at Tokyo's primary airport, which the Americans had secured use of in an unfinished and unoccupied section. It was now 2:16 in the afternoon. Arleigh excused himself from the TOC and went downstairs to locate people. Within five minutes he had gathered Miyuki, Natsumi, Aoi, Yoriko, and Ken in the hallway by the sleeping quarters.

"As soon as all the civilians that are here are gone, I'm going to start evacuating the police. The 25th Infantry Division has been kind enough to deploy another two companies of soldiers ahead of its tanks. They should be landing here within the next three hours. At that time, I will have no need for any non-U.S. military personnel. That means you five are out of here. I've already spoken to the Chief and he will be staying at the station. I've given him special permission. Arizuka is fuming and wants out of here so I'm getting him out right now just to keep him from pissing me off. Tokuno and his detectives are going to be on last flight of police out. That means Traffic and everyone else is going out before then. Now, you five are the five best friends I have ever had. I am not seeing you get hurt or killed. So, make your decisions. You've got time before I start getting rid of the police. I'll check back with you in a couple hours." He spun around and headed back upstairs.

"Well, I guess the time to leave is approaching. I'm not leaving if Miyuki isn't leaving." Everyone knew Ken would say that.

"You'll be staying, then, because I'm not leaving. I've got a job to do for Arleigh. So does Inspector Kinoshita." Miyuki conveniently forgot that the Americans on their way to the station would take over her duty that Arleigh had tasked her with earlier, monitoring the photo system.

"No way. I'm not leaving." Natsumi wasn't leaving her best friend.

The three staying turned to Aoi and Yoriko.

"I'm staying if you all are."

"So am I."

Natsumi laughed. "Well, I guess that settles it, then. He came down here to tell us that for nothing. We'd already made up our minds to begin with."

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Upstairs, a Lance Corporal of the Surai's company was leaning against the wall outside the station. He had just finished setting his 81mm mortar to the pre-determined coordinates Arleigh and the Captain had come up with.

"Hey, Mike, what's that sound?"

"Sounds like…. Tank treads. Oh, God. Lieutenant!"

This Lieutenant wasn't Arleigh, but a Marine Lieutenant in command of the heavy-weapons platoon in the company. "Yeah, Mike, what is it?"

"You hear that? Tanks."

He listened carefully. "Damnit! Give me the radio!" He quickly grabbed the handset from his RTO. "Alpha Six, this is Alpha Four-Six! Tanks! Tanks! Northeast! Over!"

Inside, Surai almost choked up his heart. "Four-Six, Six! Are you absolutely sure? You're on ground level, right? Over."

"Four-Six. Yes, but I'm sure. All my guys can hear them."

Natsumi and Miyuki were walking along the 4th floor corridor when from down the hall, a Marine Sergeant jumped up and yelled "Tanks! Eleven o'clock!"

The women hit the rushed to the broken windows and looked out with the Marines. There they were. Two Type-90 tanks and two Type-89 Armored Personnel Carriers, each carrying seven soldiers. These units were not crewed by rogue JGSDF soldiers, obviously. They had no concept of urban armor warfare tactics. All four were crewed by terrorists, which was apparently when Natsumi noticed a flag flying from the lead Type-89, bearing the crest seen on the documents recovered earlier. Just as this thought crossed her mind, a Marine grabbed her around the stomach and ripped her and Miyuki back down onto the floor. Several 35-mm rounds from the APC stippled across the wall behind where the girls had been standing. They had completely failed to notice the Marines having hit the ground long before they were pulled down.

"Incoming! Take cover! Corporal, get your anti-tank rockets ready!" The Marine Gunnery Sergeant who had spotted the tanks grabbed a younger soldier by the arm and told him to move farther down the corridor to get a better shot at the advancing armor.

Upstairs, Arleigh and Surai were on the floor yelling into radio handsets, informing their command and their support that they were under attack. The supply choppers were called off and the attack gunships called in. Two AH-64-D Longbow Apaches from the 25th ID's 3rd/4th Cavalry were dispatched for support. Arleigh had Anderson start setting up a laser-designator for the naval artillery. The door to the TOC swung open and two Marines carried a wounded comrade in.

Arleigh swore. "Ah, hell, I didn't even set up an aid station yet! I have no clue where to put wounded and dead!"

Surai looked over from where he was prone on the floor. Everyone was. It was natural reaction for military men to do so when someone yelled "Incoming!" He shook his head and replied, "I have no idea, either."

"Crap. Uh, bring them to the briefing room. Set up in there! If that fills up, use the adjoining conference rooms. They're empty. Every floor has two conference rooms for the various departments. They're all right on top of each other, three doors down from the elevators on each floor! Move it!"

Miyuki crawled in the door, the sound of more 35mm rounds hitting the side of the building followed her in. Kinoshita was already sitting against the wall typing away at a laptop. "Arleigh! Your commander just sent in some photos. A little late, I guess. There's a note attached to it saying that armor is closing in."

"You're damn right that's late, Kaoruko. Miyuki! Where's Natsumi and everyone else?"

"Natsumi is helping with a wounded Marine. I have no idea what anyone else is doing, sorry!"

"Ah, crap. All right, stay down you two! And keep those reconnaissance photos coming. Captain! You have command of the TOC. I'm going outside to organize the fight. Ryker, get the radio on your back and come with me. You're my RTO."

Both men acknowledged.

As he crawled out the door, an explosion occurred outside followed by the whoops of a lot of Marines.

"Yes! One APC down!" yelled a Marine.

The tanks weren't firing their 120mm cannons, to Arleigh's surprise. `They've got to be here for a reason.'

Arleigh barked over his personal com-unit. "Get the HMMWVs out of the way, Deltas! And take out those damn tanks!" He crawled down the hall to Natsumi, who was helping drag one of the men towards the briefing room on the other side of the building. "Natsumi! Stay the hell down!"

"I know! I know!"

Another explosion marked the death of one of the tanks. `Only the APCs are firing. What's going on here?'

Arleigh slowly rose to his knee at the left-hand corner in the hall and peered around the wall and out where a window had once been. The last APC was disembarking its soldiers. The other tank was just sitting there, its gun barrel not even pointing at the station. `What the hell?' He clicked his com unit again. "Anderson, you ready to fire on that tank?"

"Yes, sir. I have a shot at the roof."

"Take it." Another explosion. "Is it dead?"

"Yes, sir. It didn't even try to aim at the building."

"I know, something is wrong." Arleigh leaned around the corner once more and saw the APC retreat down the street and out of sight while the soldiers covered it. "What the hell was that all about? Sending four armor units and we got three? You've got to be kidding me. If that is how the rest of this is going to be, I should fly out on the chopper and let y'all take care of the rest."

"I don't get it, either. And those were terrorists. The soldiers who got out weren't Japanese soldiers. And those tanks were flying flags with the terrorist crest on them."

"I noticed. Maybe we can expect more from the real soldiers." He grabbed the handset from Ryker. "Delta Five-One to all defending units, take care of your wounded and consolidate positions. Good job, guys."

"Five-One, Alpha Six." That was Surai.

"Go ahead, sir."

"Latest photos show large group of infantry and APCs heading this way. Numbers about 250 or so troops, followed by five or six APCs. That might've been their advance party. The units look like genuine JGSDF, not the terrorists. Over. "

"Roger that. Thanks." He replaced the handset. "Well, I've got a few wounded already. Took out a few technicals and now an APC and two tanks. First blood."

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