Pacific War of 2017 (TG for Invite)

[The Union of British North America]

Victoria, UCT, UBNA
No. 16
Viceregal Emergency Bunker

"Minister Keller, thank you for such kind words. Our people are grieving for those lost to terrorism. We have several hundred families here in Victoria grieving for their loved ones, as as well as several hundred in Charleston. I am terribly sorry for what happened to the families at the German Embassy. Special Branch will investigate with your security services who are traveling to Victoria. We shall find these terrorists and their suppliers, for our Home Intelligence Department, no the entire Intelligence Community of the Union, is on the case. It would be very difficult for the Southern SOL, the group responsible according to testimony and evidence, to make or produce the sarin gas domestically, so a foreign supplier would be the one most likely, if not a foreign manufacturer here in the UBNA making it for the SOL.

As to this alleged Japanese connection, there was a Flight 713 from Hiroshima to Richmond with a stop in San Francisco. By now, the plane and its crew must have returned to Japan before the war broke out. And cooperation with the Japanese Pacific States would be impossible now as we are at war.

What would you recommend that we should do? Saying the Japanese did it would not help anyone really. The JPS will say it's our own propaganda, and we'll say they are denying the investigation and obstructing justice. Even if we could prove the JPS government was behind it, the JPS would either say it is propaganda, or perhaps give some terrible justification for it as they are a totalitarian state. The JPS would have to be planning this for months, if war was predicted at the time among the three superpowers by their high command. Either way, this would be a disaster that is a lose-lose situation for everyone. We are not able to prove a connection, to find closure for these families, and the JPS denying or taking the blame for it would not be in the JPS's interests. Perhaps there is a solution.

Perhaps the League of Latin America can lead an international team for this investigation, as they are still neutral, and part of the Non-Aligned Movement, and a leader of it. However, this investigation would spill over into the politics of this war. What are your thoughts on that, Minister?" asked David Ryan, Governor-General of North America.

While speaking with the German foreign minister, the GGNA signed a secret Order-in-Council for the military to deploy the micromachines over the area of the Occupied Provinces retaken by the military, in case the JPS decided to use nuclear, chemical, biological, or radiological weapons as their forces crumbled across the West Coast, in addition to the major cities of the UBNA. North American intelligence also suspected JPS involvement in the Charleston and Victoria attacks, though did not have enough evidence. But, to be safe, the civilians and soldiers in the Provinces under UBNA control and back home were to be protected from such weapons used by the JPS military and spies. These micromachines, the "North American Miracle" dubbed by the scientists working at the DARPA research base "Shadow Moses" in the North American Far North, was the answer to the use of WMDs, though had to be deployed before such usage for them to work. Radiation, and poisonous chemicals and biological agents would be consumed or neutralized by the micromachines, though the destructive power of nukes would still be there if nuclear weapons were used. So, the world would not end, but very shaken by these terrible weapons. The effects of a deterrence policy were now even more mitigated, as the three main superpowers developed non-nuclear weapons capable of great destruction, such as orbital kinetic bombardment. The UBNA's purified hydrogen bombs had a lot of destruction power, but as a fusion rather than a fission weapon, the usual high degree of radiation was not part of that package. That weapon lied in between traditional nuclear WMDs and and these weapons that less negative side effects for health.

However, everyone hoped WW3 was not right around the corner. Everyone hoped the war would end quickly.

Raleigh, Virginia Province
Union Maximum Security Prison
Observation Room 04

"The suspect says some fair haired guys gave them the weapons and gas, not Kempetai or IJRG." said Bateau, looking at the only major suspect Bateau and Bishop found in that downtown Charleston warehouse, Kevin Biggs, though the one-way window of the observation room. "That would be quite the twist, and not out of the realm of possibilities. The restored German Empire is not fascist like Nazi Germany, but still retained the unsavory diplomatic tactics of that era. The JPS doing this is not that likely, in my opinion, as they suffered from sarin gas attacks in the 1990s. True, they do have large amounts of chemical and biological weapons, and they do secretly support fascist states and non-state actors. But this is not the typical way the JPS would do foreign espionage and internal sabotage. They don't send a lot of spies to either superpower, from what HID says, and they had a policy of mild ignoring of the UBNA since the 1990s, given the improving of relations under GG Sir Martin at the time. An odd thing for a superpower worried about Western imperialism, to not watch every move of the other two. And these JPS operatives would need sometime to make connections to the SOL, and that would imply the JPS was planning this well in advance, perhaps as an act of retaliation for the UBNA going to war against them, which would mean the JPS would have been desiring to go to war for sometime. Have we just figured out the thinking of some JPS high official from some time ago, or are we overthinking how the JPS conducts foreign policy? And the SOL would be unlikely to work with the JPS as SOL is racist as hell." said Bishop.

"Always making long-winded explanations, Bishop?" asked Major General Asgill, coming from Victoria after finishing the report and investigation on the attack on the MPs the day before. "Though, I share your skepticism regarding the JPS connection. For example, the assassination of German Ambassador Henri Ziegler a few weeks ago was very suspicious to us, but we could not finish the investigation as German KSD, their "special security service", came to the embassy, to clean up any loose ends. Flannery, Stanley, Holiday, and I all agreed something fishy was going on there. There is a stronger case for JPS involvement in these attacks, though still somewhat fishy. But, we can't do any big moves now that the war has broken out. We would have to speak with the JPS, at some point in this investigation, but now that door has closed, perhaps forever. Though, the GGNA called me while I was on my way over here, saying getting the LLA doing the investigation would be the best course of action."

"Well, we'll see how Jerry will think about that. I heard about the attack on the German Embassy." said Bishop. "Yes, the entire government is upset at Special Branch, mostly at Division 5, which handles most domestic counter-terrorism investigations. I also got reprimanded briefly by the GG for Division 9's response as this happened in Victoria, though Division 6, which handles international crime and terrorism investigations will have to speak with the Germans now as it is now an international case. We'll need to solve this quickly, to prevent more lives from being lost." replied Asgill. "It's Division 9's responsibility to work out this JPS angle. Or this other angle of someone not JPS. I know, it all sounds like some online conspiracy theory, but we are the unit to investigate such things as our world is prone to that. Of course, all of these attacks and investigations, and the connections they have been searching, do suggest JPS. But we should make sure. Something like this would escalate the conflict. And we have a responsibility to be truthful on this."

Asgill's team came into the room, with Stanley analyzing Bigg through the one-way window and Flannery looking through his file. "All right, Stanley and Flannery, you got the next round of questioning for the suspect. Bishop and Bateau, head up to NYC as we got a tip from one of our informants in a SOL cell in New York Province that there is a suspicious truck coming up with some special cargo. That is probably related to the attacks. The truck would need to stop and hide from authorities at regular intervals, and some Southern SOL cells up north provide temporary safe houses. Take Killian's team and check out the place. Holiday is back in Victoria talking with her fellow Special Branch CSI teams in Charleston, learning more about the gas, explosives, and vehicles, and she'll provide you info on those things. I'll remain here for the interrogation of Biggs and then I'll see you in New York after you check out that SOL place. Good luck." ordered Asgill.

A long way from the truth for all of them, but they are starting their journey.

[New Decius]

Kaiserliche Außenministerium, Berlin
Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire

Keller mulled over the proposal regarding the LLA taking the lead on the investigation, it was an initially attractive political decision; having an unbiased party not involved in the current conflict take point. Then one looked deeper, as to public reaction, if the German government announced to the citizens the LLA was taking the lead in the investigation, the right-wing parties would have a field day. Though given the current anti-fascist stance the monarchist took, they were not nearly so right wing fanatic as their predecessors might have been. All the same, parliamentary elections were due to begin in the next month and news like that might cost the Zentrum (Conservatives) enough seats in the Reichstag that the DVP (Nationalist-Reactionary) could dissolve the coalition government in the new parliament and hold the majority unassisted. This would have to be handled carefully.

“Governor General, the public admission that another nation is taking lead on an investigation of an event where German lives have been lost, would be a political bomb for my government. Germany is not opposed to the LLA’s involvement but the situation must be handled carefully. For that I would like to recommend we bring the matter before a vote at the UNSC, certify it as an international effort investigating terrorist activity. If the Japanese abstain, veto, or oppose the move it may provide a clue and as both our nations are also permanent UNSC members we can jointly veto any opposition to the motion. We can put it forward to have the LLA or another unbiased party take lead in the effort and put it to a vote, though the Russian Federation must be excluded from the pool of third party candidates since they have an obvious bias against Germany, seeing as we own more than half of what used to be the USSR.”

“On another note Governor General, His Imperial Majesty, Kaiser Erwin, has a proposal for your government. In this rather fluid situation in the world, the balance of power is swinging rapidly and the threat to our very existence is greater than it ever has been. To this end he has proposed a joint political and military conference in Geneva or perhaps at the UN headquarters or perhaps the EC headquarters, to establish several objectives. Chiefly among them confirming several details surrounding the status of Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal so as to prevent any conflict in Europe. Also to clarify rules of restraint should any of our respective forces meet in the Pacific during the course of the conflict with the Japanese so as to prevent any casualties from such contact. In this meeting it would involve representatives of the German Empire, the European Community, North America, and the more powerful nations of the Commonwealth of Nations. Speaking on a more personal note, I believe that neither of us wants our children to wake up one morning to a mushroom cloud over Victoria or Berlin when it can be avoided and when we even have the chance to better relations between our nations.”

[The Union of British North America]

Victoria, UCT, UBNA
Viceregal Bunker, No. 16

"Yes, Minister. I agree that this should be handled delicately. So far, very few of the North American public suggest a connection between Japan and these attacks. The media in my country is saying that it an attack from a hate group and domestic terrorist organization trying to rile up ethnic hatred among the people of North America as we are currently at war with a country that this terrorist group would absolutely hate. Perhaps there is a JPS connection, as they are known to support right-wing authoritarian elements in other countries, in fact any group that could rile up internal strife. But we are not certain that there is a JPS connection. And of course any of our own investigations will be blasted as fabricated. Such is war. But justice will be found for these lost ones. I agree that the UNSC should have a vote on this. We'll present our evidence to them. This will involve the issue of the war, but at least we have a course of action that appeals to everyone.

I would be happy for His Imperial Majesty the Kaiser to meet with Her Majesty the Queen, and that we discuss the question of Western Europe. Would His Imperial Majesty be able to meet some time in the next couple weeks? I propose we do this meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, near the UN offices there. The UN will be definitely involved in this situation.

I'm afraid we should not delve into the issue of the war in which we both are fighting the same enemy too much. The offering of European troops is politely refused. Matter of national honor, you understand. These were Provinces occupied by an enemy force, and we had to concede them in order to win the rest of the Second World War. Now, the JPS must realize that we mean business. War crimes on that scale are not to be committed, and justice will be coming for those who did it. We went to war on the issue of human rights. If the JPS can do that at any time it wishes, what about the people across the Rockies, will they be protected from the whims of a dictator? They can ensure the pogroms don't reach North American residents there, but it goes to show how quick the JPS is willing to use fanaticism to justify atrocities. We both agree that Admiral Nagumo should be brought to justice. That he should be handed over to the UN. Perhaps the Shogun should resign and barred from public or military service, or turn herself in, as she is the ultimate responsible figure in the JPS military. She is responsible for watching over her military officers. It is a failure on her part that something on that scale happened. The Admiral and the crew of the Shokaku that did this atrocity will be handed over, as well as any other JPS military officer who committed a crime. For the disputed territories that we all share, let's have referendums on their statuses. They will be the most monitored elections in human history. For the Pacific Provinces, for Indonesia. Let the people vote on it. Let's work towards that. An armistice, with status referendums." said the Governor-General. "The JPS was open to the idea, and can be again. We are always open to that. Germany should support such a thing."

[New Decius]

Victoria, UCT, UBNA
Viceregal Bunker, No. 16

"Yes, Minister. I agree that this should be handled delicately. So far, very few of the North American public suggest a connection between Japan and these attacks. The media in my country is saying that it an attack from a hate group and domestic terrorist organization trying to rile up ethnic hatred among the people of North America as we are currently at war with a country that this terrorist group would absolutely hate. Perhaps there is a JPS connection, as they are known to support right-wing authoritarian elements in other countries, in fact any group that could rile up internal strife. But we are not certain that there is a JPS connection. And of course any of our own investigations will be blasted as fabricated. Such is war. But justice will be found for these lost ones. I agree that the UNSC should have a vote on this. We'll present our evidence to them. This will involve the issue of the war, but at least we have a course of action that appeals to everyone.

I would be happy for His Imperial Majesty the Kaiser to meet with Her Majesty the Queen, and that we discuss the question of Western Europe. Would His Imperial Majesty be able to meet some time in the next couple weeks? I propose we do this meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, near the UN offices there. The UN will be definitely involved in this situation.

I'm afraid we should not delve into the issue of the war in which we both are fighting the same enemy too much. The offering of European troops is politely refused. Matter of national honor, you understand. These were Provinces occupied by an enemy force, and we had to concede them in order to win the rest of the Second World War. Now, the JPS must realize that we mean business. War crimes on that scale are not to be committed, and justice will be coming for those who did it. We went to war on the issue of human rights. If the JPS can do that at any time it wishes, what about the people across the Rockies, will they be protected from the whims of a dictator? They can ensure the pogroms don't reach North American residents there, but it goes to show how quick the JPS is willing to use fanaticism to justify atrocities. We both agree that Admiral Nagumo should be brought to justice. That he should be handed over to the UN. Perhaps the Shogun should resign and barred from public or military service, or turn herself in, as she is the ultimate responsible figure in the JPS military. She is responsible for watching over her military officers. It is a failure on her part that something on that scale happened. The Admiral and the crew of the Shokaku that did this atrocity will be handed over, as well as any other JPS military officer who committed a crime. For the disputed territories that we all share, let's have referendums on their statuses. They will be the most monitored elections in human history. For the Pacific Provinces, for Indonesia. Let the people vote on it. Let's work towards that. An armistice, with status referendums." said the Governor-General. "The JPS was open to the idea, and can be again. We are always open to that. Germany should support such a thing."

Kaiserliche Außenministerium, Berlin

Keller cracked a small smile at Ryan’s talk of an armistice, an idea she herself had been pushing since the war started. It was rather hard to push the idea when the Kaiser and the OHL had their minds stuck on the images out of Rome and Moskau of a massive impact crater where most of a city used to be. Not to mention it was hard to convince General’s to seek peace when they were technically losing. Technically the Japanese offensive into Indochina had so far been halted and the Pacific forces were reorganizing, but technically Northern Vietnam was mostly in Japanese hands and they had near total dominance at sea.

“Governor General I myself have been trying to push for an armistice with the Japanese, but every time I bring it up, the Kaiser and the Reichstag and the OHL all have their minds on the images out of Rome and Moskau following the Japanese attack. Of massive impact areas where most of a city used to be, the fact that one of those attacks destroyed the Vatican and killed the Pope doesn’t help. 53% of German Christian’s and 45% of European Christian’s want the war to go to the very end. Also, I don’t know if you have this problem in North America with your generals in a war, its terribly hard to convince them to stand down and seek peace when one is losing. I can tell you privately that while German news sources are telling the truth that the Japanese offensive in Indochina has been halted, they omit the fact that the Japanese control most of Northern Vietnam and have dominance at sea. You may have also heard about the surrender of Hong Kong and Tsingtao. The OHL refuses to go to the negotiating table with the Japanese until the conditions are more favorable for us, a requirement that may cost many more lives yet. But I will certainly keep pushing.”

She turned back to the joint talks. “His Majesty is certainly welcome to talks in Geneva in several weeks. He looks forward to seeing Her Majesty again. I’m not sure if you know this, but the Kaiser is actually a distant cousin of the Queen, as he is related to Wilhelm II who was Queen Victoria’s grandson and also Queen Elizabeth II’s third or fourth cousin I believe. Now I believe all that’s left is some arrangements for said meeting which our aides can handle from this point, though I would stress that secrecy be a focal point of the meeting. I don’t mean backroom deal secrecy, I mean for security. The Abwehr and the Imperial Rocket Corps are mostly certain they’ve brought all of the Japanese satellites in orbit either down or offline but it doesn’t take long to launch a satellite. A slip of the tongue to a Japanese agent and one kinetic strike and both our nations could find their leadership decapitated. I doubt they would be so barbaric as to attack the Swiss, they’d make enemies of the neutralists if they did, but you never can tell.”

Just then Keller stopped for she heard a sound in her office, a faint beeping noise, getting more frequent by the minute. In confusion she asked. “Is there a beeping noise on your end Governor Gen-“

And then the bomb went off. The entire top four floors of the Foreign Ministry were engulfed in flames and smoke. Worse yet was the sarin gas now spreading through the building, the air force from the blast and the compact spaces pushing it throughout most of the building. The moment the bomb had gone off, the line to the Governor General had cut off, as the phone itself would have been vaporized by the blast. Over three thousand people worked in the Foreign Ministry at any particular day, and who knows how many were just killed by terrorists. All the Governor would have heard is an automated voice saying ”We are sorry, the number you have called has been disconnected. Please try again at a later time.”

Outside the air was thick with smokes, screams, and police sirens as the local stations sent out all available units to respond. The military guards at the building were panicking as well as they tried to get as many people out as they could, only to fall prey to the gas themselves. It didn’t take long for news of the gas to spread and the entire city of Berlin went into a panic; within hours the garrison had been mobilized to secure the city while the elite chemical specialists of the Kriminalpolizei prepared to act in tandem with the WMD unit of the Kaiserliche Armee to secure the Foreign Ministry. Rumors began flying about like wasps...it was the Pole’s, it was the Russian’s, it was the Communist’s, it was the Nazi’s. But the most common recurring rumor was...that it was the Japanese.

[The Union of British North America]

Victoria, UCT, UBNA
Viceregal Bunker, No.16

"Well, we could talk forever on the institutional differences between us on how influential the military leadership is in our countries. The Governor-General is a political but civilian position, and is only the Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty's North American Defense Force by right of office--being the personal representative of the Monarch in North America. The North American government and public sees the GGNA as the guardian of the Union but also as a politician, which can be conflicting in our democratic polity. And we have a strong tradition of the military deferring to the civilian government in policy creation. Though the military and the government do both see the war eye to eye, and desires a quick end to it. In Germany, the Kaiser is both head of state but also heavily involved in government, particularly foreign and defense policies. And being Emperor of the Germans means high expectations for the one who wears the crown.

I do remember that Her Majesty is a distant relative to His Imperial Majesty. They last met at La Citadelle in Quebec City a couple years ago. He and I were there to discuss trade, well me and you and our trade ministers. I took that the Kaiser didn't like to discuss economics, that he found it boring.

We'll have to have some public meetings in order to prevent the perception of nefarious schemes when we talk behind closed doors. But security is definitely an issue."

The Governor-General was looking around his office when Minister Keller asked about hearing a beeping noise. He jerked the phone from his ear when the explosion went off. "Dear God! What is going on?" he yelled. "Sir, we lost the connection to Berlin, it is a problem on their end." replied Sir Jordi as he walked into the room; he was listening in on the conversation, standard procedure when communicating with foreign governments. A few minutes later, the North American embassy in Berlin contacted No. 16. "Sir, Emerson called, saying there was a bomb explosion at the German Foreign Office. Increased security protocols have been implemented at our embassy, and it has been declared closed to most people--only our people and asylum seekers are allowed to enter, and even they would get a second security check before they can get through the gate."

"Does this mean the JPS is behind these attacks? It would make sense. There is nothing honorable in this conflict anymore. Honor has been thrown out now. The JPS have used their fanaticism and fascism to declare a holy war, and then massacred prisoners of war. And then we declared war on them, to have the idea of increased conflict and a two-front war to make them reconsider this war. They should be worried about this escalating, but they have been escalating it. Why? Don't they know doing these violations of the laws of war and international law will only escalate the conflict and make our countries want revenge? The Shogun made the stakes higher with her religious war declaration. This will be a total war. The JPS will wage it unless we can make it clear to the Emperor that the violence and fighting needs to end, and that enough have suffered. And in his report on the final meeting with Regent Takatsukasa, Ambassador Sir David Madison mentioned that the Regent threatened more massacres and crimes like that would take place. We will show to her that such acts will be responded with fury and vengeance. Sir Jordi, we will defeat this fascism, but we will make sure we permanently excise this fascism through rehabilitation, not have a Carthaginian Peace like Versailles. No doubt Germany wants to divide up the JPS union into independent countries to weaken them, but this would only encourage ultranationalism once again. Not just JPS fascism and militarism threatens democracy in the world, but also German militarism and imperialism."

New York City, New York Province
Queens Borough

"Both suspects have been placed in separate rooms at Rikers Island, and are being interrogated by Bishop and Bateau individually. We found them at the SOL safehouse, and the local Independence Party vice-chair was connected to the safehouse as well, sir." said Major Mira Kellian to Major General Asgill on a video conference call. "The vice-chair isn't related to this homeland security case, Division 1 will handle that. Tell Bishop and Bateau to contact me when they are done. I have an interesting development to investigate. What about the wired trucks?" replied Asgill from his office back in Victoria. The suspect at Raleigh Supermax that gave him some interesting information got Asgill calling in favors at Martin Roosevelt International Airport and the Home Ministry's Immigration and Customs Enforcement Asylum Office.

"EOD and CBRN response teams are on scene, and have successfully diffused one truck and are working on the other." said Kellian. "Good. Holiday is on her way there to transfer the evidence back to headquarters in Vicky. We counted three trucks when they left Charleston, so four trucks in total were used in these attacks. That would be all of them, and we stopped two from going off. Victoria is still closed off, and the local airports and seaports have been shut down temporarily as well. Holiday should be there in half an hour, head back to Vicky and I will give you your next assignment." said Asgill.

The favors Asgill called in were Asylum Office records on those from Germany, and access to the camera records from 6 months ago. Two German males, looking like military. Not a small list to look through, but the physical descriptions from the prisoner in Raleigh gave something that Bardsley could use. Asgill picked up his phone to call Bardsley at the recently established independent Signals Intelligence and Information Security Deparment (SIGIND). "I know this is a very difficult, as you have limited info on the descriptions of these two persons of interest. I have sent the files from the Asylum Office and the camera feeds from 6 months ago. The sketch artist gave me the renditions of what the Raleigh Supermax prisoner told him. Of course, the other two suspects at Rikers would provide another set of descriptions to the sketch artist, who is on his way right now. Judging by the fact that they might be spies, the most likely case is that they claimed political asylum. Search through those records and see if you can get a match. I'll provide more information later." said Asgill. "Yes, sir. This will take many hours, if not a few days. More complete descriptions will make the search faster."

Fort Meade, Maryland Province
SIGIND Building, right next door to the HID Building

"All of this new equipment, and we get to look for two German asylum seekers. But the Major General is curious about these two individuals. All right, Boroughs, let's get this done." said Bardsley to his fellow cyberbrained colleague and new addition to SIGIND's Dive Program, Brian Boroughs. "Right. With the Dive Program, we can comb through thousands of records quickly with our cyber-brains and this supercomputer. What would take a couple weeks will take only three days, though time is of the essence. Who knows if these POIs are about to leave the country." said Boroughs. "We'll find them quickly, if we have three brains on this." said Michael Potter as he walked in, who is the head of the Dive Program. "Bardsley, you are veteran of this kind of work and have been cyberized for some time now, and Boroughs, you are a specialist pattern recognition and detail detection. I'll help with processing power. With cyber-brains, we can find these two individuals in two days. And Asgill is ensuring that these German suspects are kept unaware that the two remaining trucks have been captured. He has friends in Special Branch's Public Information Office that is suggesting only one truck has been captured by authorities. We'll get them in cuffs soon." said Potter. The three began their work, the dive into government records and Martin Roosevelt International Airport's camera recordings from 6 months back forward.

[New Decius]

Embassy of the Union of British North America, Pariser Platz.2
Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia
German Empire

As it happened, just as the North American embassy was beginning its lockdown procedures, a certain asylum seaker had been waiting to enter the gates but was stopped by a guard so he could be identified and his request for asylum logged. One Piotr Obrzut, a young Polish man in his early twenties, looked up at the scene of confusion in the embassy courtyard within, and seemed to pull his heavy coat tighter around him. Some of the others in the line were curious as to his attire; it was a brisk day in Berlin but far from overcoat weather. Then chaos descended upon the area.

An armored half-track (The German military’s homeland reserve forces make use of unarmed but armored half-tracks as it opens up IFV’s and APC’s for use by frontline troops) pulled up into the square and soldiers in the blue-feldgrau camouflage of the Reserve Army quickly began disembarking and shouting at the civilian’s in the area, telling them to get away and clear the area. A moment later another half track pulled up and more troops arrived, with several police cruisers of the Ordnungspolizei arriving not half a minute later to finish securing the area. Most if the asylum seekers had fled in a blind panic, some believing they were being rounded up, but Piotr stayed where he was, now looking around at the perimeter of police and soldiers. One of the soldiers, an officer, grabbed a megaphone and spoke through it to the North American guards at the embassy. “Close the gates! Close the gates! Immediately!” And they went at it like a bullet, now leaving the officer to speak to Piotr. “Piotr Obrzut, raise your hands in the air and surrender immediately or we will shoot to kill! You are under arrest for charges including but not limited to treason, terrorism, murder...” then Piotr opened his coat, revealing several bricks of C4 wired up on his chest connected to a silver canister. “Shit! He’s got gas! Get on the ground now Obrzut! Get on the ground now! I’m not gonna ask again!”

Piotr raised his hand to reveal a trigger button in his fingers. Thankfully not a deadman’s switch which would have made a takedown nigh impossible since killing him would result in detonation. The young man looked around at everyone in the square, from the soldiers to the embassy guards, to the frightened civilians still left in the square. “The German Empire has sat on Poland for almost fifty-five years! An entire generation of Poles has been born not knowing what its like to live in a free and independent Poland!” There was irony in this as Piotr omitted the fact that prior to the German invasion, Poland was under a Soviet-backed Communist dictatorship. “Germans shove their culture in our faces! Or worse they try and convince us that Unionism and this idea of a single European nation is the greatest thing in the world! And the North American’s and their precious Commonwealth are happy to let Germany and its puppets sit on countless once free nations! They will all pay!”

Then he screamed out what were to be his last words. “Długa żywa święta Polska!” But before he could fire the trigger, a bullet from a police sniper took off his index finger and another slammed into his shoulder. “Go, Go, Go!” The soldiers rushed forward to detain him while others checked everyone in the square was alright...

Call to Governor General Ryan

Not but half an hour after the incident at the North American embassy, Governor General Ryan received another call from Berlin. Though this time it was from the OHL, the German Military High Command.

“Governor General Ryan, I’m not sure if you remember me, we only met a couple of times and each time several years apart. I am Lieutenant Colonel Gregor Schümel, the German military attaché to our embassy in Victoria. I had the luck to be in Berlin at the time of the attack as was my family, oddly enough its good luck my brother was hit by a car so I was not present when the gas attack happened. Berlin is in a state of terror right now, justifiably so with a gas attack on a government office and a very close call at the UBNA embassy. However I have some bad news that concerns the entire Commonwealth and the entire European Community.”

“Following extensive interrogation, along with chatter picked up by the Abwehr, we have discovered that a state actor is funding and backing a campaign of asymmetric warfare against both the Commonwealth and Europe. Following investigation we believe the select groups include the Syrian Democratic Front in the Italian Levant...” The SDF, contrary to its name, was far from a democratic force, they wanted to restore the authoritarian regime in Syria under the Baath party, and were responsible for a host of attacks on civilians across the Italian empire. “...the Slavic Liberation Army in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and German Russia...” The SLA, like their Russian Communist counterpart the New Red Army, had actual military equipment including armored vehicles and helicopters and had so far been responsible for over 20,000 civilian deaths. “...The Sons of Liberty in North America, the African Islamic Front in South Africa, and the Muslim League in India. So far we believe the gas has come from Iraqi stores so they are not being provided with sophisticated chemical weapons, merely crude Iraqi sarin gas. However we cannot confirm whether or not only the groups in Germany and North America were supplied with gas or they all were.”

“Your Excellency it is the German military’s belief that this is a long-term campaign aimed at terrorizing the populace, disrupting military and government operations and destabilize society. We already have acquired information regarding another gas attack to take place in Richmond, Virginia and another set to take place in Brussels in two days but unfortunately we haven’t been able to discover the delivery method. But you should be prepared for attacks soon to take place in South Africa and India.”

[The Union of British North America]

Victoria, UCT, UBNA
Viceregal Bunker, No.16

"Thank you for the intelligence, Lieutenant Colonel. I will relay this information to India's Intelligence Bureau and to South Africa's State Security Agency. And of course RNAMP Special Branch and the HID will investigate here in North America. A wave of terror right now, despite what is going on in Asia. Thank you again. Give my condolences to His Imperial Majesty." said Ryan. He put down the phone. His honorific title, "Your Excellency", was used by the German officer. That is used mainly used by some in the North American government, usually those apologizing or boot-licking to him, and used in formal state occasions and Commonwealth and foreign affairs, but "sir" and "Governor-General" were the most used in the UBNA by citizens and most government members , as the G-G didn't want to appear pompous and distant from his people (and Parliament would rarely say "Your Excellency" to his face). But those formalities was the protocol for the German Lieutenant Colonel. Ryan shook his head and then put the palms of his hands on his eyes, wondering when he and Her Excellency, Clara Ryan, Vicereine of North America (her title the same way as her husband's, depending on the situation), could leave the viceregal bunker (an adjective everyone had to use to distinguish the GGNA from the Provincial Governors). He got the report from RNAMP about the capture of the final two trucks that came out of Charleston, South Carolina Province. But now a terror threat in Richmond, Virginia Province.

Ryan picked up his phone, ordered the Commonwealth Defense Organization Intelligence Cooperation Initiative North American representatives in Mumbai and in Cape Town, respectively, to relay intelligence on terror threats in those countries. The UBNA, India, Australia, Nigeria, and South Africa were the major players in the Commonwealth, and contributed a lot to the CDO. Next, he called Major General Anthony Asgill directly, to his encrypted cellphone.

"Yes, sir. How may I help on the Richmond terror threat?" said Asgill when he answered the call. "How do you know about that?" asked Ryan. "Well, officers of Her Majesty's North American Mounted Police must be a step ahead of the political leadership of Her Majesty's North American Government, for efficiency and for laying out of a course of action. The call you received a few minutes ago from Lieutenant Colonel Schümel was just the formality given from one government to another. I have extra Division 9 officers on the scene, working with the local constabulary and the provincial police on combing through Richmond to find any terror threats, which we still primarily suspect is SOL. Given that the terrorist trucks have all been captured, I do say that it is all right for you and Mrs. Ryan to leave the Cavern (the nickname of the viceregal bunker), as the nation needs a leader. It has been two days, and the nation needs a leader who will stand outside and say that terrorism will be stopped. Of course, that is a job for your speechwriters." replied Asgill. "Thank you, Major General, for giving me permission to leave this ghastly basement until two days have passed. You did recommend that in the continuity of government procedure meeting a year ago." said Ryan. "Indeed sir. Give my regards to Mrs. Ryan." He hung up. Ryan was supposed to that. But Asgill was a weird but effective investigator.

Steps of Union Block, Parliament Hill, Victoria

"We need to crack down on these violent terrorists, those cowardly fiends who have no honor and no morals. Our nation needs to be strong against any and all threats! We need to make North America great once more!" said Senator Steven Armstrong, the elected Senator from Hanover Province. Several camera crews from the several major national broadcasting companies were recording his overly patriotic declaration that the "...Japanese Pacific States is part of the Axis of Evil, along with foreign terrorists and communism". Nino Vorona, the photojournalist from the Victoria Post, asked him a question that involved a correction to what Armstrong just said. "Senator, these terrorist attacks are suspected to be from the domestic hate and terror group, the Sons of Liberty. Their southern arm, particularly. Also, the Mounted Police have recently discovered that local Independence Party leadership in Queens, New York have been in bed with a SOL cell there. This was in connection to the foiling of the group's bombing plot in NYC by Special Branch."

"That is just another example of fake and un-North American news from the fibbing press. The Independence Party is not supporting, directly or indirectly, the Southern Sons of Liberty. And you forget that most Independence Party members come from the Northern SOL, a group dedicated to grassroots promotion of North American values. The Southern Sons are a violent group that promotes disorder, though some, I imagine, are good people. The SOL has many sides, but is not a terrorist group inherently. True some are...very rough in how they want North America to be, but are patriots nonetheless. Perhaps your Russian and Communist background is causing such un-North American bias, unsurprising since you come from that leftist rag, the Victoria Post." replied Armstrong. Vorona and Armstrong started exchanging heated words, with the cameras still recording. A spectacle for the evening news.

Hyacinth Amagi was standing far from the crowd of cameras, wearing black as she was in mourning for the death of her friends and colleagues that died near the Jefferson Parliamentary Office Building attack, though still could hear the heated exchange. "What a monster. And doing this half an hour before the memorial at the Union Cathedral. He has no class. He is a child. I can't believe he is being considered for the list." The list she was referring to was the ever-changing list of names of those who could be GGNA. While the GGNA was officially appointed by the Monarch of North America, Queen Elizabeth II, public and parliamentary support was necessary for the GGNA to take office. The GGNA could not be removed from office by parliament like a lot of heads of government, but losing the confidence of the House of Commons and Senate meant that the GGNA needed to change in order to get things done. The Queen rarely got involved in North American politics, as she was British and in exile from the Socialist Republic of Great Britain, though she would travel to London within the week, but that was now on hold due to the terrorist attacks. She would only appoint the G-G and leave him and Parliament to duke it out in governing the country. It was very rare for the GG to be dismissed by the Queen directly, but most GGNAs uphold the tradition of staying in office for no more than 10 years, with resignation letters the most common way to exit office.

Governor-General David Ryan is currently in the ambivalent area of the public and parliamentary opinion spectrum, as the war with the JPS has gone well so far but there was poor response and prevention of the recent terrorist attacks. Amagi was somewhat supportive of Ryan, except for the war declaration on the JPS. She voted against it, and so did a lot of MPs. The war declaration had a simple majority of support, though there were quite a number of abstentions and short speeches condemning the JPS for its atrocities. But a lot of Parliament and the GGNA thinks that the threat of a major war would force all parties to the table, a gamble that Ryan was apparently willing to take.

The Pentacle, Arlington County, UCT, UBNA

Kenneth Goulding was in the lowermost basement of the The Pentacle, the nickname of the North American Ministry of Defense. The building looked like a talisman with a pentagram that was trying to raise the dead to help staff the ever growing bureaucracy of the ministry. Conspiracy theorists thought the Devil was in corridors of the military-industrial complex of North America, and the Archbishop of Canterbury was not happy to see such a building in the city of the namesake of a devout woman. But Goulding was striking a Faustian bargain with his German contact here, who posed as a defense contractor that specialized in "intelligence gathering". The man here was working for the front company Desperado LLC, a PMC based out of Delaware Province. The man's name was "Samuel Brandon". "Yes, our politico doing his speech in front of Union Block is a good choice. A good portion of the Tories, and a growing section of the public like him. What do you think, Mr. Brandon?"

[Japan and Pacific States]

Area 13

Voss followed Yuuko closely and took a moment to prepare himself before explaining his situation. He did not doubt his new colleagues may still have some doubts as to how genuine a defector he was. “Director, I have chosen to defect because the KSD, who operate with even more shadowy and unsavory methods than the Gestapo could ever dream of, disappeared my son, his wife, and my infant grandson. My son was a soldier in the Kaiserliche Armee, assigned to put down a partisan revolt in Kiev. He got separated from his unit and witnessed one man tear fifty Russian’s to pieces, limb from limb. Two weeks later he and his family were vanished.” He was fighting back tears telling the story as he ground his teeth together. “I tell you this story so you may have no doubt as to my convictions regarding my defection. So as you may not doubt I want to see Germany burn for what it has done to my family.” He drew himself up, rejuvenated by some feeling of new confidence.

“Now to business. You see one of the key weapons of the German Empire’s counter-offensive will be the Abwehr’s cyber campaign. KaizerTech International, Germany’s largest and most successful technology firm, and the Rommel Institute have helped the Abwehr to develop next generation cyber warfare technology, designed to bring down an entire regions power grid if they so chose or even set nuclear reactors to meltdown. But the Abwehr is connected to the CENTNET or Central Network which the rest of the German government and the OHL are also connected on. This same network also currently connects to ODINS EYE the early warning missile defense system. Now the only way to access this system is from a German government or military computer, as far as anyone believes. There is another way.”

“Back in 2013, KaizerTech International, which develops most of Germany’s more advanced technology including for its War Frame project, was contracted by several Japanese firms to develop a cyber security program. This was a cover for a project the company did not want the German government finding out about. The actual project was to develop a sort of middle ground between War Frames and TSF’s which Japan would then be able to produce as a full counter to the German mech program and which KTI could gross billions selling to Iran, Iraq and other unsavory states. To my knowledge only a few prototypes were developed here in Japan before the project was shut down due to security concerns of a KSD investigation into KaizerTech. Now even if none of these prototypes ever became battle-ready, if they still exist and are in Japan, they may still be connected to the CENTNET. Through this Japan could breach Germany’s extensive cyber security defenses and hit back at the Abwehr or maybe repay them by blacking out the whole of Berlin or all of Prussia even. Its a long shot but it could work as a viable hit-back measure.”

He paused for a moment to catch his breath before continuing. “Now these prototypes might be sitting around collecting dust in a warehouse somewhere but if they can be activated then perhaps Japan can launch a counter-cyber attack on Germany right at the heart.”

“There is another weapon I must inform you of that Germany may soon deploy on the battlefield. I assume you’ve heard of a concept called a helicarrier?”

Area 13, Empire of Japanese Pacific States Northern Territory

"CENTNET... I had heard something like this from rumours from my sister but I didn't think she was being truthful about it... I'll have to ask Motoko about it later... In the meantime we have work to do." Yuuko continued down the corridor to a door on the other side guarded by two more vassal retainers, handing them her identification badge the left pressed it against a scanning pad implanted in the door and the doors opened, handing the badge back to Yuuko she'd re-clip it back to the pocket on her labcoat walking through the door with Voss to a large room with a glowing blue tube of sorts of which illuminated a small portion of the room, standing by it was Yashiro Kasumi, one of Yuuko's artificially created Espers from the former Soviet Union, looking directly to the tube as if fixated on it. "Don't mind her, what she's doing has bearings on Alternative IV.... The real game changer and counter we have to that large floating target you brought up earlier is this."

Yuuko turned on the lights on the otherside of the room away from the blue tube to show her most prized creation, the XG-70d Susanoo IV. "The culmination of my life's work, the XG-70d Susanoo IV, the first High-Maneuver Aeronautic Fortress. A sort of... Superweapon if you will... The second of four, the last two are currently being finished but the first of which I assume you've heard of... The EML-99X Induction Launcher had direct bearing on this weapon's creation, it looks like a more advanced, bulky tactical surface fighter but that is mainly due in part to it's features... A Kouzuki-Lechte Engine to give it power, and enough armaments to make Oppenheimer's statement of "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." Seem like a quote from a drunken homeless man... The EML-99X Magnetic Induction Launcher your country and the UBNA is no doubt familiar with from spies and other sources is but the TSF version of the weapon, the XG-70d carries eight, as well as two 2700mm Railguns, twelve 36mm chainguns, two Large VLS launchers, six Small VLS launchers, one Charged Particle Cannon, and lastly a type of shielding of which a number of people have died testing... The Rutherford Field, we needn't worry about anything so as long as the enemy doesn't get a hold of this.... But considering our base is only known to the Regents, and a very few members of the IJRG."

Japanese Occupied Hong Kong

General Hidehisa Onoda stood off to the side of a small procession of German staff officers of whom were allowed to bury their commander, Grand Admiral Johannes Horst of whom took his life after announcing the surrender of German forces in China, draped over his casket was the flag of the German Empire, though mostly battle scarred, the funeral itself was taking place in the courtyard of the former German headquarters with a large portion of German prisoners present, the weather had taken somewhat of a turn for the worst though it was visible to most Germans, the displeasure they felt having to surrender to the Japanese was almost universally felt by the surrendering Germans though no one spoke a word during the funeral except the German officers of whom gave their orders, the officers were allowed to give orders of which would've been normally given by Japanese officers to surrendering forces.

After the casket was lowered into it's final resting place, General Hidehisa took his place on a small stage with a podium speaking to the German prisoners. "Today you, our prisoners have lost a honourable man, one of whom has given an order in which your lives would be spared. Though to us, under normal circumstances surrendering would be a great dishonor of which calling you all soldiers would be out of the question afterwards, but you all as your commander had said have given everything, some of you have given limbs and a greater number, have given lives to fighting against us. You have earned your titles as soldiers, though our nations are enemies, we soldiers share a brotherhood. Each side, fights for what each of us believes in, some of us have no choice but to fight. Therefore. With your surrender, you have followed the last order of your superior officers, though it is a shameful one. ...Nonetheless. You have fought bravely. Now, you are the guests of the Imperial Japanese Army, you will be taken to camps in Manchuria, no men shall be separated from their units, and you shall receive humane treatment. Though in your captivity until the end of the war we expect full cooperation with our forces until the end when you shall be released and returned to your home in Europe."

After finishing his speech, General Hidehisa left the podium and walked to the former Grand Admiral's office of which was being converted to the Generals new office, the newly liberated territories in China would finally assimilate once again with the Chinese Prefectures under Japanese rule. Upon entering his office he was met by the Generals of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army and the Chinese Communist Red Army in China as well as a few other officers of the Imperial Japanese Army. "Thank you for meeting with me gentlemen, the recent months have been a trying time for us all.... But I wish to remind you, we are all committed to a fight beyond our ideologies, the fight for communism does not matter when Asia would become a footrest for the West, the fight for a nationalist, anti-communist China does not matter when it would become a footrest for the West. ....We, all of us here. Fight to secure Asia from all threats against her peoples, not just the Chinese, Manchurians, Koreans, Mongolians, Vietnamese, or otherwise starts with us. If we bicker then we don't stand a chance against the outside forces. We have no choice, despite our ideologies, creeds, or otherwise we must fight to keep Asia independent of the enemy. I hope this is a cause you all believe in as well and won't let ideological differences divide us in achieving."

Victoria, UBNA

Takeshi Kido sat on a park bench just near the Victoria headquarters of the Royal North American Mounted Police in a black three piece suit, long black coat, glasses and a fedora sat on the bench next to him, a briefcase sat on the ground by his leg, reading a newspaper he was one of the very few Japanese Imperial Royal Guard spies in North America, atleast that was true to his knowledge anyway. The IJRG had compartmentalised their spy rings, neither contacted each other unless absolutely necessary and none met with the same person more than once and was given any information beyond the need to know for their missions. Closing his newspaper and folding it up he looked to his watch lifting up his leather glove of which covered it. "It looks like it's time." He remarked to himself putting on his fedora he stood up and picked up his briefcase walking to the Royal North American Mounted Police Headquarters, quietly with stealth he managed to sneak past the guards inside the building and make his way to Major General Anthony Asgill's office entering quietly he put his briefcase down at the door shutting it behind him, walking to the desk he left an envelope of which contained a note specially written for the Major General, directly in plain view so it would be noticed instantly. Upon finishing his mission, Takeshi returned to the door picking up his briefcase and going back out the way he had came in silently without attracting any attention to himself.

Outside of Polo, Japanese Solomon Islands

Yui stood in the middle of a darkened room wearing her fortified suit holding a wooden Bokken at the ready with her eyes closed, quickly four others charged in around her armed with Bokkens themselves. Yui quickly reacted, disarming one and using him as a shield she then pushed him into another attacker before hitting one in the chest causing him to fall over, then another in the leg swooping him off his feet putting the edge of the Bokken to his throat and the last attacker charged Yui earning him a quick roundhouse kick to the side and hit in the face with the base of Yui's Bokken. Yui found herself standing in the same place she started in a smile donned on her face. "Excellent work gentlemen... But sloppy, very sloppy. Keep practicing, you might just be Imperial Army but you have potential to join the IJRG." Yui said carrying her Bokken to a rack putting it on the rack before leaving the room hearing the four men groaning in pain.

[The Union of British North America]

Victoria, UCT, UBNA
RNAMP Headquarters, Special Branch Suites, Division 9 Suite, Chief of Division 9's Office (Major General Anthony J. Asgill)

"...Yes, Stanley, I am going to get Killian with you and Flannery for the response unit. And we've raised the terrorism threat level to orange, so Division 5 should be able to provide you support, they know a lot about other groups like the Front de libération du Québec or and the growing Human Liberation Front that is in opposition to the increasing cyberization in society. We're helping Division 5 because of SOL and the sarin gas, something you don't see everyday with a slowly dying and myopic 'independence movement'..." said Asgill into his phone as he returned to his office to get an update from Bardsley in person. Signals Intelligence and Division 9 worked hand in hand, unofficially, and with Bardsley's program in particular as it provided the edge for Division 9 in its line of work.

Asgill sat down at his desk, and got the encrypted email from Bardsley on his progress. Bardsley will meet with him in person in about an hour to give a report in person. One of the Special Branch staffers brought Bardsley his next batch of papers to look through, mostly on HID's monitoring of particularly concerning growth in support for the Northern SOL, with membership rapidly increasing since a month ago. It has been one month since the demonstration at the JPS embassy in Victoria, and three weeks since the declaration of war, and two weeks since the first terrorist attacks in Charleston. While going through the SOL reports, Asgill noticed an envelope without any markings on it. "I hope it's not what I think it is..." said Asgill to himself. He hoped it wasn't anthrax, like that scare several years ago, when he was a First Lieutenant in RNAMP, assigned to UCT's Special Branch unit. SOL didn't claim responsibility, but it did scare George Sears, who was GGNA at the time, leading to an increase in anti-terrorism budgets. But, the letter had a familiarity to it, as well as a scent. The scent of a particular fragrance he remembered from some time ago. Cherry blossoms. There were trees that grew here in Victoria, close to the Wilberforce Memorial. But this was different, reminding him a time in his youth. His trip to Kagoshima, Japan when he was a senior in high school, shortly after the Australasia War. There he met nice people, good food, and a wonderful and beautiful girl. Haruko Kashiwagi. She wore the cherry blossom leaves in her hair, and the scent was one that was hard to forget. They became fast friends, because they both enjoyed poetry. Shakespeare and Shiki. They kept in contact with each other after he left back to North America, writing letters as they both went through university, but stopped writing when they both entered professional life. Asgill later went to RNAMP Officers' School, and became a Second Lieutenant when he graduated. Then he was assigned to Special Branch for his expertise and skills in counter-terrorism, counter-intelligence, and investigation into sensitive cases. He was surprised when he first met her again in a long time, back in 2005 during IJRG/RNAMP Special Branch joint counter-terrorism operations against the Pacific SOL. And then in 2014 during the assassination attempt on the JPS Trade Representative of the North American Colonies during the trade summit in Los Angeles. And just recently, less than a month ago, when dealing with a Pacific SOL terrorist in Japan, though was resolved by the time Asgill's team was waiting at the Honolulu Airport.

"What does she want?" he whispered to himself. He opened the envelope and read the letter. "All the way to Spokane? That is somewhat far from the frontline, according to the news reports of the NAA's advance west, but just enough in JPS territory to make it safe for a...meeting." Asgill knew of course why Kashiwagi wanted to meet. It was about the growing suspicion within the North American government and now within the UBNA public that the Japanese were behind in supplying the Southern SOL sarin gas. Asgill knew it was unlikely, as did the rest of his team, as they strongly suspected the Germans did this to push for the UBNA to go to full scale, fully committed war. The UBNA's war effort right now was geared towards more to force negotiations, which so far have not been forthcoming. And with the death of German Foreign Minister Keller, that was an increasingly fleeting prospect.

Asgill picked up the phone and called one of Division 9's counter-terrorism specialists that just got back from investigating the FLQ in Montreal. "Major Macmillan, this is Major General Asgill. I need you to cover me for next few hours. I am pursuing a lead into the SOL sarin gas truck attacks. I'll be away for a few days, and have to go undercover. Colonel Bishop will be back within three hours and tell him he's in command of everything until I get back. I need to keep the number of people in the know limited as we are worried about SOL learning about our moves." He got a "yessir" and hung up after thanking him. Asgill was known for going undercover when the case required it, as he liked to make arrests personally and learn things from the field--a break from the usual paperwork and politics back in Victoria. No one asked about where he was going, but that would be unnecessary as this was a usual thing he did, and he carried panic buttons in his left shoe at all times, though he would have to get back into UBNA territory that was not under NAA control before he could use them without suspicion.

He then got into his car and started the 11 hour drive to Chicago, Illinois Province and then switched cars for the drive to Regina, Washington Province. Hopefully, his friend in Regina can get him unmarked or false marked land transport so he could get close to the frontline. It would have been easier to do this if the war in the west was not happening. Then he would have to walk. Kashiwagi would understand why he took a long trek to Spokane, as she was able to get all the way to North America despite the West Coast being in the middle of war.

No. 16, The Oval Office

"My lord, what a dreadful two days in that hellhole." said Clara Ryan. "Now, now, dear. It was a security precaution. But now that has passed, and we are needed for the upcoming address to the nation, in front of the Houses of Parliament." said David Ryan. "Mon cherie, I will head to the Victoria Central Hospital to speak with victims. It is my duty as being married to the personal representative of the Queen." said Clara. "Of course. I'll be here. Sir Jordi will assist me." said Ryan. Clara left and Sir Jordi Maxwell walked in.

"Your Excellency. Her Majesty requests a report on the state of the capital of Her Union of the North American Dominions. By video conference call." said Sir Jordi. "All right. She needs to know that we got everything in control. We've had a communications blackout for too long." While Ryan did the conference call. Sir Jordi left to call Goulding on the the special plan he and Desperado were scheming.

The Pentacle, Arlington County, UCT, UBNA

"Yes, my dear friend. What is that 'family man' going to do next?" asked Goulding. "My dear friend. Our 'family man' is going to speak with Bess, and then probably spend time with you-know-who." said Sir Jordi. "My associate here will be pleased. And no doubt our politico will be as well." Goulding hung up and continued the conversation with the Desperado representative.

JPS-occupied Hong Kong

The Demon was hiding a few hundred meters away from the former German Administration HQ, now in civilian clothes. He got on the Codec to the rest of the team. "Looks like there won't be a massacre after all. Perhaps the IJA and the IJN have different institutional cultures. Anyway, Mika and Napoleon, you probably will stay here for intelligence gathering. The Octopus and I will be on station to assist you and on getting a route to India for extraction." He got several copies from Mika, Napoleon, and The Octopus.

He kept hidden as a couple of IJA soldiers ran past the alley he was in. He looked European, and could speak French because of his family origins from Quebec, and they spoke it at home, though he grew up in Washington Province. He had a good enough cover to avoid suspicion. He headed towards a public square where an IJA officer was giving a speech to a crowd of German and Chinese people. Some British were also there when he overheard their conversations on the IJA occupation. A repeat of WW2, they said.

Meanwhile The Octopus was busy doing recon on the IJA ground forces in the heart of the city. He looked like a German tourist. He thought of the ways he could impersonate people in order to get the four of them out of Hong Kong. IJA soldiers, German civilian administrators. He was trying to think of a plan to help the four of them get out of Hong Kong and cross through China to get to India. They would have to go through Myanmar, definitely. It would be a while until they all could figure out a plan.

[New Decius]

Area 13

Voss followed Yuuko closely and took a moment to prepare himself before explaining his situation. He did not doubt his new colleagues may still have some doubts as to how genuine a defector he was. “Director, I have chosen to defect because the KSD, who operate with even more shadowy and unsavory methods than the Gestapo could ever dream of, disappeared my son, his wife, and my infant grandson. My son was a soldier in the Kaiserliche Armee, assigned to put down a partisan revolt in Kiev. He got separated from his unit and witnessed one man tear fifty Russian’s to pieces, limb from limb. Two weeks later he and his family were vanished.” He was fighting back tears telling the story as he ground his teeth together. “I tell you this story so you may have no doubt as to my convictions regarding my defection. So as you may not doubt I want to see Germany burn for what it has done to my family.” He drew himself up, rejuvenated by some feeling of new confidence.

“Now to business. You see one of the key weapons of the German Empire’s counter-offensive will be the Abwehr’s cyber campaign. KaizerTech International, Germany’s largest and most successful technology firm, and the Rommel Institute have helped the Abwehr to develop next generation cyber warfare technology, designed to bring down an entire regions power grid if they so chose or even set nuclear reactors to meltdown. But the Abwehr is connected to the CENTNET or Central Network which the rest of the German government and the OHL are also connected on. This same network also currently connects to ODINS EYE the early warning missile defense system. Now the only way to access this system is from a German government or military computer, as far as anyone believes. There is another way.”

“Back in 2013, KaizerTech International, which develops most of Germany’s more advanced technology including for its War Frame project, was contracted by several Japanese firms to develop a cyber security program. This was a cover for a project the company did not want the German government finding out about. The actual project was to develop a sort of middle ground between War Frames and TSF’s which Japan would then be able to produce as a full counter to the German mech program and which KTI could gross billions selling to Iran, Iraq and other unsavory states. To my knowledge only a few prototypes were developed here in Japan before the project was shut down due to security concerns of a KSD investigation into KaizerTech. Now even if none of these prototypes ever became battle-ready, if they still exist and are in Japan, they may still be connected to the CENTNET. Through this Japan could breach Germany’s extensive cyber security defenses and hit back at the Abwehr or maybe repay them by blacking out the whole of Berlin or all of Prussia even. Its a long shot but it could work as a viable hit-back measure.”

He paused for a moment to catch his breath before continuing. “Now these prototypes might be sitting around collecting dust in a warehouse somewhere but if they can be activated then perhaps Japan can launch a counter-cyber attack on Germany right at the heart.”

“There is another weapon I must inform you of that Germany may soon deploy on the battlefield. I assume you’ve heard of a concept called a helicarrier?”

Area 13, Empire of Japanese Pacific States Northern Territory

"CENTNET... I had heard something like this from rumours from my sister but I didn't think she was being truthful about it... I'll have to ask Motoko about it later... In the meantime we have work to do." Yuuko continued down the corridor to a door on the other side guarded by two more vassal retainers, handing them her identification badge the left pressed it against a scanning pad implanted in the door and the doors opened, handing the badge back to Yuuko she'd re-clip it back to the pocket on her labcoat walking through the door with Voss to a large room with a glowing blue tube of sorts of which illuminated a small portion of the room, standing by it was Yashiro Kasumi, one of Yuuko's artificially created Espers from the former Soviet Union, looking directly to the tube as if fixated on it. "Don't mind her, what she's doing has bearings on Alternative IV.... The real game changer and counter we have to that large floating target you brought up earlier is this."

Yuuko turned on the lights on the otherside of the room away from the blue tube to show her most prized creation, the XG-70d Susanoo IV. "The culmination of my life's work, the XG-70d Susanoo IV, the first High-Maneuver Aeronautic Fortress. A sort of... Superweapon if you will... The second of four, the last two are currently being finished but the first of which I assume you've heard of... The EML-99X Induction Launcher had direct bearing on this weapon's creation, it looks like a more advanced, bulky tactical surface fighter but that is mainly due in part to it's features... A Kouzuki-Lechte Engine to give it power, and enough armaments to make Oppenheimer's statement of "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." Seem like a quote from a drunken homeless man... The EML-99X Magnetic Induction Launcher your country and the UBNA is no doubt familiar with from spies and other sources is but the TSF version of the weapon, the XG-70d carries eight, as well as two 2700mm Railguns, twelve 36mm chainguns, two Large VLS launchers, six Small VLS launchers, one Charged Particle Cannon, and lastly a type of shielding of which a number of people have died testing... The Rutherford Field, we needn't worry about anything so as long as the enemy doesn't get a hold of this.... But considering our base is only known to the Regents, and a very few members of the IJRG."

Japanese Occupied Hong Kong

General Hidehisa Onoda stood off to the side of a small procession of German staff officers of whom were allowed to bury their commander, Grand Admiral Johannes Horst of whom took his life after announcing the surrender of German forces in China, draped over his casket was the flag of the German Empire, though mostly battle scarred, the funeral itself was taking place in the courtyard of the former German headquarters with a large portion of German prisoners present, the weather had taken somewhat of a turn for the worst though it was visible to most Germans, the displeasure they felt having to surrender to the Japanese was almost universally felt by the surrendering Germans though no one spoke a word during the funeral except the German officers of whom gave their orders, the officers were allowed to give orders of which would've been normally given by Japanese officers to surrendering forces.

After the casket was lowered into it's final resting place, General Hidehisa took his place on a small stage with a podium speaking to the German prisoners. "Today you, our prisoners have lost a honourable man, one of whom has given an order in which your lives would be spared. Though to us, under normal circumstances surrendering would be a great dishonor of which calling you all soldiers would be out of the question afterwards, but you all as your commander had said have given everything, some of you have given limbs and a greater number, have given lives to fighting against us. You have earned your titles as soldiers, though our nations are enemies, we soldiers share a brotherhood. Each side, fights for what each of us believes in, some of us have no choice but to fight. Therefore. With your surrender, you have followed the last order of your superior officers, though it is a shameful one. ...Nonetheless. You have fought bravely. Now, you are the guests of the Imperial Japanese Army, you will be taken to camps in Manchuria, no men shall be separated from their units, and you shall receive humane treatment. Though in your captivity until the end of the war we expect full cooperation with our forces until the end when you shall be released and returned to your home in Europe."

After finishing his speech, General Hidehisa left the podium and walked to the former Grand Admiral's office of which was being converted to the Generals new office, the newly liberated territories in China would finally assimilate once again with the Chinese Prefectures under Japanese rule. Upon entering his office he was met by the Generals of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army and the Chinese Communist Red Army in China as well as a few other officers of the Imperial Japanese Army. "Thank you for meeting with me gentlemen, the recent months have been a trying time for us all.... But I wish to remind you, we are all committed to a fight beyond our ideologies, the fight for communism does not matter when Asia would become a footrest for the West, the fight for a nationalist, anti-communist China does not matter when it would become a footrest for the West. ....We, all of us here. Fight to secure Asia from all threats against her peoples, not just the Chinese, Manchurians, Koreans, Mongolians, Vietnamese, or otherwise starts with us. If we bicker then we don't stand a chance against the outside forces. We have no choice, despite our ideologies, creeds, or otherwise we must fight to keep Asia independent of the enemy. I hope this is a cause you all believe in as well and won't let ideological differences divide us in achieving."

Victoria, UBNA

Takeshi Kido sat on a park bench just near the Victoria headquarters of the Royal North American Mounted Police in a black three piece suit, long black coat, glasses and a fedora sat on the bench next to him, a briefcase sat on the ground by his leg, reading a newspaper he was one of the very few Japanese Imperial Royal Guard spies in North America, atleast that was true to his knowledge anyway. The IJRG had compartmentalised their spy rings, neither contacted each other unless absolutely necessary and none met with the same person more than once and was given any information beyond the need to know for their missions. Closing his newspaper and folding it up he looked to his watch lifting up his leather glove of which covered it. "It looks like it's time." He remarked to himself putting on his fedora he stood up and picked up his briefcase walking to the Royal North American Mounted Police Headquarters, quietly with stealth he managed to sneak past the guards inside the building and make his way to Major General Anthony Asgill's office entering quietly he put his briefcase down at the door shutting it behind him, walking to the desk he left an envelope of which contained a note specially written for the Major General, directly in plain view so it would be noticed instantly. Upon finishing his mission, Takeshi returned to the door picking up his briefcase and going back out the way he had came in silently without attracting any attention to himself.

Outside of Polo, Japanese Solomon Islands

Yui stood in the middle of a darkened room wearing her fortified suit holding a wooden Bokken at the ready with her eyes closed, quickly four others charged in around her armed with Bokkens themselves. Yui quickly reacted, disarming one and using him as a shield she then pushed him into another attacker before hitting one in the chest causing him to fall over, then another in the leg swooping him off his feet putting the edge of the Bokken to his throat and the last attacker charged Yui earning him a quick roundhouse kick to the side and hit in the face with the base of Yui's Bokken. Yui found herself standing in the same place she started in a smile donned on her face. "Excellent work gentlemen... But sloppy, very sloppy. Keep practicing, you might just be Imperial Army but you have potential to join the IJRG." Yui said carrying her Bokken to a rack putting it on the rack before leaving the room hearing the four men groaning in pain.

Area 13

Voss grimaced upon hearing Yuuko speak of the Rutherford Field and its value. “I am afraid that German scientists are already working hard at an energy based shielding system, the current project name being the Absolute Defense System. It was first proposed as a way of protecting deep space shuttles and the planned European space station Europa One, but as is obvious its usage then turned military. Most of the designs are for protecting German War Frames and armor, but I believe the helicarrier project has its own design as well. To my knowledge none have gone active yet though much of Germany’s military research is slowly shifting towards energy based weaponry. There are in fact several energy rifle prototypes about to go into mass production for the infantry forces. I imagine you know how that would shake up balance on a battlefield. Almost all conventional body armor and anti-small arms gear and quite a few conventional methods would be rendered useless. Penetrated by a bolt of energy moving ten times the speed of a bullet.”

He then admired the fortress itself. “This warship, or whatever classification you care to dote upon it, looks as though it could wipe out half an army corps within an hour without receiving hardly a scratch. Though I should bring up the concern thats its size, as you mentioned with the helicarrier does make it a bit of a floating target and there would of course have to be concerns of takeoff and landing. Presumably a special airbase would have to be constructed for the fortress to deploy from, and as soon as it is constructed it would not be long until it faced a bombing even more intense than did London during the Blitz. Unless it could be totally hidden, the Luftwaffe would make it a priority to prevent it from being operationally capable to takeoff.” He then appeared somewhat sheepish realizing he had only brought up the negative so far. “Forgive me, so many years in military intelligence tends to make a person look only at the negative side of things. It is a remarkable weapon though it does to me raise a question. How many can Japan feasibly build and sustain?”

“Japan is a large empire and a technologically advanced nation but your borders only extend so far and only so much of your territory has been properly industrialized. Forgive me but I know the figures, in the past you have had to readjust your industrialization program in China to account for the amount of farmland and agriculture needed to feed such a massive population. Germany outsourced most of its agricultural industry to its African territory and the conquered Ukraine and Russian provinces, along with holdings the markets of its continental puppets by the strings. Germany can feasibly arm and deploy and army of nearly twenty million with well over five hundred ships and thirty carriers in its fleet and start building a large fleet of as we shall term them airships, while maintaining a military satellite program, because it has the industry at home to do so. Not that Japan is not a modern industrial nation, but there is a huge gap in the home industry in Germany and its captive puppets than in the Home Islands. And the industry in the America’s may soon be lost to Japan if what I hear in the news is true.”

“Japan has fine soldiers, fine scientists, and fine spirit, but in the end it simply cannot outproduce the production of two enemies who each control almost half the globe either directly or through influence. At this point with the offensive into Indochina is halted, the best bet is to break as many European troops as possible and dig in before their counteroffensive starts. If that helicarrier goes active, the first zone its sent to will be Indochina, along with Germany’s best veteran divisions equipped with the latest weapons and vehicles. Its only a matter of time; Japan has the spirit and the heart to fight this war, its enemies have cold, cynical factories.”

“Though I have with me a design for a new type of anti-vehicle weapon you may find useful against the North American’s. Along with a former safehouse with several dozen prototypes of said weapon.” He produced his tablet yet again and brought up the design for Yuuko. A short but bulky sniper rifle, whose barrel was somewhat extended. “The Mk.5 LAP, Laser Armor Penetrator. Don’t let the name mislead you, it does fire a laser armor penetrator but it also fires an EMP charge along with it. The penetrator gets through a vehicles armor and the charge then disables the vehicle. Such a weapon could prove useful against the North American Gears could it not.”

SEAOC, 26 Miles South of Phu Ly
Norther Vietnam, German Indochina

Now that Germany and its European allies had had time to move troops and resources into position, time earned by the blood of the men holding Phu Ly up in front of them, the counterattack was almost ready. It had taken longer than anticipated due to first having to send several divisions into the jungles to root out the Vietnamese Communist partisans, though in that move some local support had been garnered. What the Japanese hadn’t gambled on was that much of Southern Indochina was rather Pro-European mostly because the more wealthy lived in Southern Vietnam and Cambodia while the majority of the Communists were in the North. When the Japanese hit Saigon, more than two hundred thousand Vietnamese and Cambodian’s volunteered for service in the Imperial German Army. Thus the OHL had been able to shift partisan hunting over to the local volunteer troops while they moved German, Italian, and Swedish troops into position for a counteroffensive.

With the Commonwealth declaration of war on Japan, the Indian Ocean was secured from Japanese raiders and submarines, allowing for troop shifts from Europe and Africa. Supreme European Allies Operations Command (SEAOC), had at its disposal 3 army groups, subdivided into six field armies for a total of close to half a million troops, under the overall command of Generalfeldmarschall Xavier Heuberger, with Brigadier Generale Amore Sorge of the Royal Italian Army and Generalmajor Joachim Rommel of the Imperial German Army as his seconds in command. Sorge had come up in the Italian Army as a legend of artillery while Rommel, like his grandfather before him, lead the German Africa Corps as regional commander of Northern Africa. The majority of the troops came from Germany, three field armies, while the Italian’s contributed two field armies and the Swedish the final field army. Additionally, the Imperial German Navy, with Italian support, had secured most of the coast of Indochina and was now conducting patrols into the South China Sea. Given that the Italian Navy still deployed a fair amount of battlecruisers and cruisers, they were running in raiding groups to disrupt Japanese supply lines from the Philippines to the front in Indochina.

Heuberger stood at a table, an old fashioned one with no holograms just a map (The fully equipped Regional Command HQ had been destroyed in Saigon), with almost twenty other officers around it in the command tent while around it there was the hustle and bustle of headquarters activity. On the map were pieces and figures all representing the positions of troops both European and Japanese as well as the movements said forces will make. “Gentlemen, we have before us the prospect of driving the Japanese troops from European territory, and I take no shame in revealing it is an endeavor I shall take great delight in carrying out.” There was a collective chuckle around the table. Heuberger was eighty-two years old and had started out his military career as a young man fighting in the German Civil War in 1957. He later served with distinction commanding the 17th Army during the Invasion of Poland and later in operations in the Ukraine. He was no amateur at the art of war. “Our enemy has been sensible enough to not overextend his supply lines, Japanese control of China makes that a hard thing to actual muddle up, and the cooperation with the Vietnamese Communist’s prevents his supply lines being raided. However, given that much of Southern China including Yunnan and Guangxi are largely agricultural, in Yunnan’s case mountainous as well, it does take them time to ship the more sophisticated of military equipment into Indochina. Helped along by out troops brilliant efforts fouling up the roads, rails, and airports during their retreat.” He then pointed on the map to Phu Ly, though he needn’t point it out; even from 26 miles away they could hear the artillery rumbling in the distance as both sides banged away at the city for all it was worth.

“The enemy has found himself stopped at Phu Ly and repulsed many times by the forces defending it. The Wenck Line stretching from the city’s South to the edge of the Laotian-Chinese border has also proved itself against multiple Japanese attacks. We suspect that the enemy has lost at least 25% of his initial forces and the remainder are very much tired and ravaged from repeated and failed offensives to take the city and breach our fortified line. We have also shot down a good many enemy aircraft over Indochina, not only on the battlefield but also those attempting raids in Cambodia and Southern Vietnam. Still the presence of yet more aircraft in Southern China brings us to phase one of Operation Hamlet.” He used a pointer to identify seven individual airbases. “The Luftwaffe has assembled 386 strategic bombers for use in this operation. At exactly zero hour of operational time, these bombers, divided into three groups, will take off to hit targets in Southern China and the Philippines; airbases, ports, military supply zones, communications outposts, and radar stations. As for the Japanese airbases and similar installations in China which they disguised so well as civilian locations, there is a solution for them as well. During the Japanese offensive, Luftwaffe high altitude recon drones made note of several of these bases and satellite recon found quite a few more. The Imperial Rocket Corps will use its orbital missile satellites to hit the nine sites we uncovered while knocking out most of what remains of Japan’s military and civilian satellite network.”

An obscure Colonel from Sweden then raised a point. “Are Germany’s satellites not equipped with nuclear arms? Surely you do not mean to say that Germany is going to hit Japan with nine tactical nuclear strikes?” Heuberger shook his head. “No, of course not. Five modules were brought down and rearmed with thermobaric warheads, which as we all know are a weapon particularly destructive against even fortified concrete positions. Mostly the sustained blast wave but also the aspect of sucking up all the nearby oxygen as well.” He sat down in the chair positioned behind him. “With the combination of missile strikes and bombing raids, we should be able to neutralize their air superiority and supply chain for some time. The presence of German bombers in China and the Philippines will also draw away surviving IJAF squadrons in those areas which would make them unavailable to help their comrades when Hamlet really begins.”

Sorge took over from there. “Phase Two. CAS aircraft and drones hit Japanese supply dumps and airfields within the Hanoi area while we start hitting their forces opposite the Wenck Line with massed artillery barrage. A priority target is the Japanese field command near Phu Ly and the supporting artillery in the city outskirts. The forces of Army Group A will move to probe the Japanese lines opposite the Wenck Line with light skirmishing attacks from infantry and light mechanized troops, tease them into thinking an attack will come from there, in the Northern sectors.” He then moved several submarine and carrier pieces into position. “The three carrier strike groups already in the South China Sea will move immediately to secure the Gulf of Tonkin while German and Italian cruise missile submarines hit Japanese positions on the Vietnamese coast, Hainan island, and the smaller islands in the South China Sea. The end result being to batter the enemy forces on multiple fronts, disorientate them as to where the actual blow will fall, and secure naval dominance.”

Now it was Rommel’s turn. “Phase Three. The ground offensive will begin with an armored spearhead just East of Phu Ly and another farther North. The end goal being to have the pincers meet just South of Hanoi, cutting off countless enemy troops and encircling them in a swiftly closing pocket. Mechanized troops will move in to sweep up enemy forces in the pocket as the pincers advance as well as move in to relieve the men who have been defending Phu Ly. Given the prior operations of the first two phases, along with the supplied artillery and air support, we expect the ground offensive to proceed with a 78% success rate.”

The same Colonel from Sweden them piped up. “What about the MANTIS system? The guns are still offline across Indochina, and supposing the Japanese manage to turn the ones in their occupied territory on? Those railguns would tear our ships near the coast and our aircraft apart, even given the limited number in Japanese occupied territory.” He wasn’t wrong. Given their capability, a battery of MANTIS guns could swat a squadron of fighters out of the sky or send a carrier group to the bottom with ease. One problem.

General Karl Schleicher, representative of the Abwehr, spoke up on the point. “The Japanese can’t use the guns because they need to be connected to a central supercomputer for the system to be operable. The only one in the entire region was the one in Saigon at the MANTIS control center which was destroyed by the kinetic strike. A new computer is on its way from Germany and should arrive in the next week or so, until then we can’t use our guns and they can’t use our guns. The computer won’t be here in time for the offensive which is set to start when?” They all turned to Heuberger.

The old man said only one word. “Tomorrow. Midnight.”

[Novaya Equestria]

Omsk, Omsk Oblast
Western Siberia, Russian Federation

Much was said of the German conquest of Western Russia (European Russia) years ago, as the Russian Federation - composed of Western Siberia - was expecting a conflict in the Pacific. In the Omsk Independence Hall, President Yuri Makarov, elected on September 11, 2014 and taking office on January 21, 2015, was having a meeting with military officers, both young and old officers - among them is the 23-year-old Admiral Borealis Norsoutha, a mysterious Japanese-Filipino-American (or Japanese-American with Filipino blood in his veins) from an alternate timeline with a weird and unusual taste for clothing. The youngest naval officer in the Russian Armed Forces and, supposedly, a graduate from a certain Russian naval academy, wearing a close-collared uniform with the three-stars rank, he was a Russian Navy admiral who had the ability to adjust his tactics and adapt to any situations, thus making him not only a Russian Navy commander but also a highly-capable Russian commander. Unfortunately, due to Russia not having a warm-water port, he was forced to take command of a field army (the aptly-named Siberian Army). Due to him being an Admiral, the Russians compared him to Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak, a Russian polar explorer, Imperial Russian Navy admiral and counterrevolutionary, only without the way Kolchak acts.

Staying silent like the man he was, President Makarov then turned his attention to Admiral Borealis Norsoutha and his chief of staff, Colonel General Angelika von Hindenburg. "Any reports of the Pacific Ocean?" President Makarov asked the young Admiral. "And now I've been stuck here with Angelika von Hindenburg and Erika Ludendorff ever since that... whatever it is, brought us here. Once I get back, I'll kill the guy who brought us here in this messed up world and murder him, but that's too immoral. If it's an anomaly, I'll still kill it." Admiral Borealis spoke mentally in his head, mentally, displeased as he's angry at whoever brought him and the two to the world. "Admiral. Admiral, snap out of it. Are you listening to me?" President Makarov said to the young Admiral, who replied, "Yes. Conflict's brewing there." President Makarov sighed. "Good, at least prepare yourselves for what is to come. Dismissed." Said Makarov, allowing the officers to leave. "General Angelika von Hindenburg, tell Erika Ludendorff to ready the troops, we'll be expecting a war between Germany and Japan, and we don't want to get caught in it." Admiral Borealis spoke. "Of course, Admiral. Of course." General Angelika said. "And I'm not sure if our guys got warped into this mess." Borealis' mind said as the two left for the Siberian Army HQ located next block to the Independence Hall.

[The Union of British North America]

RNADF/DARPA Testing and Design Facility "Shadow Moses"
Baffin Island, Hudsonia Province

Raiden and the two Sauer children were in a tilt-rotor that was beginning its descent to the landing pad of Shadow Moses. Shadow Moses, the Area 51 of the North American Arctic. The facility was on the Remote Peninsula, well away from any prying eyes of the native tribes who live this far north, or any hamlet or meteorological research base. There was also another child with them. The cheerful Sunny Emmerich was playing on a laptop, though was actually typing a code for reprogramming one of the unmanned vehicles at Shadow Moses. The Sauer children occasionally glanced at her, with Gertrude trying to calm her brother, who was shy. Gertrude tried to think of what to say to Sunny besides introductions, but she had very limited English language learning. French and Spanish she was also ignorant of as France and Spain were communist nations, and only people like her father would know those languages, but French and Spanish were two of the official languages of the UBNA. For the entire ride, Johann and Gertrude were quiet while Sunny hummed songs, mostly sequences of numbers. The two Sauer also pondered about her last name and her looks, a

The Osprey landed, and the rear door lowered to the ground. The children were wearing parkas given to them by CIND (Central Intelligence Department) when they landed in Montreal; a tiltrotor was waiting there for them when they got off the plane that got them out of Europe. A man with a bald head, glasses, a bolo tie, and a German accent came up to the children. "Guten tag, kinder. Ich bin Wilhelm Voigt. I am a scientist here, working on cybernetics." The Sauer children had mixed feelings about a strange man who could talk with them, but Johann expressed joy when seeing a wolf-looking cyborg coming up to them. "This is Wolfy. He is a dog-like or wolf-like quadruped that has a learning AI. He can speak as well. Speak, Fido, as you Americans say." ordered Voigt. "No data available for 'Speak, Fido, as you Americans say'." replied Blade "Wolfy" Wolf. "Uh...a work in progress." said Voigt, annoyed with the cybernetic dog's sarcasm.

"Herr Doktor, have you made new friends? You need to help me speak German. I want to know them better!" said Sunny. "Of course, frauline. But you need to meet with Dr. Emmerich before we can do that. He wants to speak with you on your project. And Raiden, Solid Snake wants to meet with you." said Voigt.

"Affirmative, Doktor." said Raiden, who started towards the sliding steel doors of Shadow Moses. Wilhelm Voigt grabbed the children by their hands, they comfortable with one of their fellow countrymen taking care of them. "Come, kinder. We have a lot here in store for fun and education."

Shadow Moses
DARPA Conference Room.

"Doctors Hunter, Inoue, and Cohen, please report to the conference room. We have a meeting today." said Dr. Hal "Otacon" Emmerich, chief researcher of Shadow Moses, over the intercom that connected to the aforementioned scientists' labs. He was gathering them for the meeting with the DARPA Chief, Donald Anderson. The conference room had a large table, with the DARPA chief sitting on one end of it, on the other side of the room from where Hal was. "Hal, I'm glad we made a lot of progress with the Kerykeion, quite the feat of nautical engineering." The Kerykeion, the namesake of the Kerykeion-class submersible battleship. "Indeed, sir. It is probably the largest ship in existence, at 640 meters in length. It also boasts top of the line electronic and information warfare capabilities, in addition to its conventional and nuclear armament and RAY units. Though, I hate the fact that we may have to use it." replied Hal. "With the three superpowers at war now, this may be the big one, where the chips are down, and we may have to make hard choices."

Chief Anderson was referring to the fact that the Kerykeion was the continuity of government contingency plan for Her Majesty's North American Government. In the case of mass use of weapons of mass destruction, the Governor-General along with the Cabinet, Privy Council, and Royal Family, would seek refuge in this vessel. "But, SOP should largely prevent us from dealing the first blow with WMDs." said Hal. He was referring to the "Sons of the Patriots", the battlefield control system used by the North American military for its forces to regulate and enhance their abilities. Right now, special forces units like the Rangers or NASAS were the current field testers of the project, and so far results proved promising. "Right. We have to worry about loose cannons in the JPS, Germany, or Russia. And to use the North American arsenal, the Governor-General needs to give his entire medical history to access it." "Sir, you are referring to the Arsenal Gear. That is also finishing reconstruction, but will still be sedentary for the time being. It is the current COG plan, but is basically a giant underwater base that could move, but it can't move on its own power yet. It is still recovering from the Manhattan Incident. But Admiral Ling and Fleet Admiral Downton, the only two who know of Kerykeion, think it should be used for North American naval strategy and Commonwealth defense." "And I agree with them, though I am just in charge of R&D. The GG is the one who decide how Kerykeion will be used. And so far he is on the fence between that and WMD deterrence."

The three scientists who were mentioned over the intercom entered the room for their boring meeting with the DARPA Chief. "Let's get started then." said Hal.

Australian Outback

8 months ago

Captain Yuuya Bridges of the North American Army was getting into his experimental vehicle's flight suit, a form-fitting uniform that accentuated his abdominal and pectoral muscles. First Lieutenant Kei Nagase of the Royal North American Air Force, who was a row of lockers over, was upset after she finished changing into her uniform. "This combat BDU is way too form-fitting." "You are right about that, Lieutenant." said Yuuya as he walked over to her. "Stop gawking, sir." said Kei. "Apologies. The JPS do have rather odd aesthetics when it comes to BDUs for pilots, though I am a tank man myself--Gears really." said Yuuya. "I know about you being a Gear runner. I'm Air Force. I prefer to fight in the skies, pierce them. But this new project is part of the North American military's goal of being able to fully challenge the JPS and Imperial Germany in case of full scale war, which may be happening soon." "Right, everyone thinks there is still time for negotiation, but so far nothing has happened. I doubt the JPS would negotiate with us. Those fascists would only negotiate if they could do it if their grand plan would allow it, the Germans too." "I didn't know you were a political man, sir." "I'm not really, but I really don't like the JPS way of statecraft. I guess that is most people in the Commonwealth. Both Imperial Germany and the Japanese Pacific States utilize secret police and are more than willing to bend the law when they feel like it."

The two emerged from the underground locker room of the semi-official Commonwealth Defense Organization air base in the Australian Outback, and out onto the airfield. Four mecha-looking giants were seen in the distance. Two other pilots of this experimental endeavor, Captain Marcus Snow of the Royal Australian Air Force, and Captain Tarisa Manandal of the Gurkha Brigade of North America, 1st Gear Detachment, were standing very close the units and talking. Captain Bridges and Lieutenant Nagase walked up to them. "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Commonwealth rebuttal to the Japanese Pacific States's Tactical Surface Fighter: our very own. Meet the TSF-23 Black Widow." said Major Salik "Omega" Gakhar of RNAAF as he walked up behind the group. The four pilots stood at attention and saluted the Major. "At ease. Given that a few Commonwealth countries declared war on the JPS, you represent these nations for this project. This has been in development for a very long time. These four here are the few we have developed so far. It is a near-certainty, war or not, that this would have begun the CDO's force modernization program. Though the Metal Gears are very advanced, particularly in utilizing cybernetics and synthetic-organic materials, The JPS have the edge in terms of aerial combat. Our fighters are able to engage them with lasers or EMLs, but they lack the armor. It takes more resources for us to match a flight of JPS TSFs. And Fritz and the Euros have huge force projection capabilities through their navy and armies. The Imperial German Navy could land thousands of troops by crossing the Channel. They could also land in North America, India, Australia, or in Nigeria or South Africa. We would deny them the opportunity to do so."

"Sir, I am a pilot, and I will defend the Dominion and the Commonwealth. For Queen and Country." said Kei Nagase. "Likewise, Australia is lost without the Commonwealth." said Marcus Snow. "I am loyal to Her Majesty, and will fight for her." said Tarisa Manandal. "Like a patriot, I will give my bit for Queen and Country." said Yuuya Bridges.

Present day, near the Solomon Islands

The flight of CDO TSFs made their way to attack the JPS TSFs on the Solomon Islands, using tactics gleaned from the few defectors from the JPS, and the spies in the JPS, as well as some of their own from years of piloting Gears or fighter craft.

[New Decius]

Nam Dinh, Southeast of Phu Ly
Japanese Occupied Vietnam

Nam Dinh, being less developed and less strategically important than Phu Ly, had held out for only three days before the garrison forces were ordered to retreat to reinforce the defense line reforming behind Phu Ly and stretching to the coast. Despite its lack of strategic importance to Germany, the Abwehr’s SIGINT and HUMINT assets on the ground had discovered that several of the Japanese commanders made their divisional headquarters at Nam Dinh including the officer in charge of coordinating their artillery. So Nam Dinh became a target for the initial operations of Case Red, the European counteroffensive.

Several figures pressed themselves against a building that might once have been a boutique, a grocers, or any other manner of business. Now it was just rubble. These figures were invisible in the dark of the night, with only the occasional moonlight glint off their weapons showing they existed at all, however these men were taking great pains to make those occasions as few as possible. A Japanese guard rounded the corner only to be swiftly pulled into the alley and silenced with a knife to the throat. The three moved quietly and with clear experience through the rubble towards the Japanese field command near the city center. Intel said that no less than three divisional commanders had made their headquarters here including their artillery commander. Similar operations were taking place in half a dozen other Vietnamese cities and towns behind enemy lines aimed at taking out enemy VIP’s and disrupting their chain of command. Other operations would be hitting Japanese radar stations near the front and their air defenses. It was vital that they all execute right on time or else a lot of good men were going to die. Well more so than will already.

In truth the KSK’s role in the counteroffensive will be almost entirely covert and struck from the record books. Not that Germany didn’t have pride in its special forces, the KSK were a major point of German pride, but it was imperative to keep local assets safe from discovery. After Indochina was once again under German control, it was all too likely the partisans would still be continuing their campaign; the more locals on Germany’s side the better.

Finally the three men had positioned themselves in the ruins of a flower shop with a view of the Japanese field command in the city center. “Wait for confirmation of targets.” One of them hissed as another nodded and began scanning the area. “Confirmed all three targets on site. We are clear for strike.” The first one came back then. “Operation goes into effect at exactly midnight. Five...four...three...two...one. Call in the eagles.” Then the third one got on his comm set to relay the strike coordinates. “Eagle 1-1 this is Gladius do you read.” ”Solid copy Gladius, Relay strike coordinates then evac the area.” “Sending coordinates via uplink now. Confirm.” ”Coordinates received confirmed. Evac the area Gladius. Strike in Five.”

The three men quickly made their way away from the town center as far as they could in five seconds, before they were drawn to look upwards at the sound of a plane soaring past. This was followed by a massive explosion where the enemy field command used to be and which engulfed their mobile radar unit as well. As the three were getting ready to move again, another message went across the secure channel. ”This is Goethe. Case Red is go. I repeat Case Red is go.”

So it begins.

Phu Ly, Northern Vietnam
Contested German/Japanese Indochina

Willi Dernen was roughly shaken awake, upon which motion his instinct was to pluck his combat knife from its spot next to his canteen and swipe towards his would be assailant. However, it was just Adam Pfaff, whom had dodged the knife swipe with now well tested instincts of his own, waking him up to see something outside. “Let me get my one hour before we go back to fighting damnit!” Before he could go snuggle back into his dreamless sleep, Adam kicked him and pointed up at the sky. Just as Willi was about to kill him, he saw what Adam did; planes. No those were strategic bombers, and fast ones too. He wasn’t in the Luftwaffe but he’d be willing to swear those were Hortens up there, maybe 378’s. German bombers were easy to know from those of other countries because the entire strategic bomber force was made up of swept-wing aircraft.

And there weren’t just a dozen or so of them, there seemed to be dozens up in the sky. Impressed as he was by that, while looking up at the sky he saw what looked to be nine or so bright lights shooting down from the heavens to come crashing to Earth somewhere off in the distance. Adam nudged him. “Reckon that was our boys up in space giving the Japs a little taste of their own medicine. They hit us from orbit and we hit right back.” Willi nodded and was about to say something when all of a sudden the entire world came to life in a whirlwind of thunder. Every man was on his feet and alert now but half of them were on the ground holding their ears from the deafening noise.

By the rumbling thunder it seemed as though every artillery piece in the Imperial German Army was going off right now, and then it all came crashing down in and around Phu Ly. Right on top of the Japanese.

---

The 4th Corps of the 7th Army was making its way into Phu Ly to reinforce the men who had been holding it so valiantly. The German troops were advancing against the Japanese under the cover of more than one thousand pieces of artillery both self-propelled and static, giving the infantry and light mechanized troops the opportunity to enter the city and start pushing the frontline forward again. The two divisions of armor were bypassing the city so as to encircle the Japanese forces within and crush them between the hammer and the anvil. The goal was to secure Phu Ly within two hours.

This was far from the only attack taking place at the moment. Alongside the strategic air raids on Japanese military installations in Southern China and the Philippines, the satellite-launched thermobaric missile strikes on the higher priority targets in Southern China, and the KSK operations, the close to half a million European troops were pushing the offensive along the whole front. Armored spearheads were forming pincers, one on the coast and one along the Northern border with China that were set to meet at Hanoi, thus trapping large numbers of Japanese troops. Artillery had opened up on the Japanese lines along the whole of the front while airstrikes hit enemy held airfields and supply dumps. With six field armies in play the roles were clearly defined; the three German armies (7th, 12th, and 9th) would conduct the blitzkrieg portion of the counteroffensive, forming the pincers and completing the encirclement, while the two Italian armies (3rd and 21st) moved up the center pushing the enemy forces back and towards the to-be completed trap. The sole Swedish army (5th) would mop up the pockets of Japanese forces behind the lines as the front moved forwards.

The size and scope of Case Red was comparative to that of the 1939 Invasion of Poland combined with the subsequent Invasion’s of France and the Low Countries in 1940. Its goal was to drive the Japanese Imperial Army from German soil.

Volkshalle, Berlin
Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire

The last time the Kaiser has spoken at the Volkshalle it had been to deliver his war speech and declare that Germany would never surrender. This time it was a subject he was much more happy to discuss. Once again the 150,000 person assembly hall was filled to the brim and then some with military officers, government officials, aristocrats, media outlets, and foreign dignitaries. All were hushed as the Kaiser was announced.

“Announcing His Imperial and Royal Majesty, Erwin Ludwig the First, Emperor of Germany, King of Prussia, and Protector of Europa.”

“Good morning to you all. The last time I spoke here at the center of our Imperial German Senate, it was in response to the blatant murder of almost ten million innocent people by the Japanese Empire. The Japanese had just declared war upon Germany and all Europa at that time and moved against Indochina where I am sad to say they did make progress. Including the capture of Hanoi, Hong Kong, and Tsingtao. However, as we have seen in the actions of the brave men defending the city of Phu Ly, who have been holding out against Japanese forces since shortly after the war began, the dark claw of tyranny will not be allowed to take hold of the innocent so long as there are those willing to fight against such a vile cause. Let us take a moment now to remember those who have died in the name of freedom and fatherland.” Short moment of silence.

“At precisely midnight, we started our counterattack in Indochina and in the Pacific. I can confirm reports that German, Italian, and Swedish forces have begun operations against Japanese troops in Northern Vietnam so far to great success it would seem. Shogun Meiya thought her soldiers would sweep all before them with ease, though she was already proven wrong in that regard when her forces repeatedly failed to take Phu Ly away from a much smaller force of European troops. Now she will get to see just how wrong she was. European forces will crash down upon their opponents like a tidal wave, wiping away all that stands in their way, without committing war crimes as the Japanese have shown they are no strangers to. Before we go further, I will declare this here and now. No breach of the Geneva Convention by European soldiers will be tolerated, and I expect any who disobey this order in a vain act of misguided vengeance to be punished to the maximum extent by their commander. Atrocities against Prisoners of War will not be tolerated, and unlike the Japanese we will remove from duty and subsequently prosecute any commander who orders such atrocities committed. May it also be known that no European soldier shall cross the border onto Chinese soil, this is a war of defense and we intend to keep it that way.”

“However, I will also let it be known that the European Community does not recognize Japanese rule over China and demands the full withdrawal of all IJA forces from the territory of the Republic of China. As of one hour ago I have officially signed into law an Imperial Edict relinquishing control of the territories of Hong Kong and Qingdao to the Kuomintang government of the legitimate Republic of China. The Shogun points to Germany as the demon of the world while ignoring the fact Japan has sat on China for almost a whole century now, suppressing Chinese independence alongside Korean, Mongolian, Tibetan, Burmese, and countless others. Here and now I state that if the Chinese people would have our aid, Europa is determined to restore an independent China; no unequal treaties, no territory for aid deals. European forces will not invade China but they will, if desired by the Chinese people, render aid strategically and logistically to a Chinese independence effort. The German Empire, as a permanent member of the UNSC, also will be moving to officially establish the Republic of China’s government-in exile as a full member of the United Nations and also invites the Kuomintang to send a representative to Europa for the establishment of diplomatic relations.”

“I told you all that by the end of this war we will have dismantled the Japanese Empire, and I meant it. Not by absorbing it into our own, but by liberating all those people’s who they have sat on for almost a hundred years now. By returning independence to those countries which they have denied such a right to for so long. To that end I have also decided that come the end of the war, referendums will be held in the German African territories, Poland, and the former USSR regarding greater autonomy within the European Community. Possibly even full independence referendums. So I give to you all one last message. Japan and its fascist tyranny will fall, Europa will not fall, not now and not ever. Long Live Europa!”

[Japan and Pacific States]

Area 13

Voss grimaced upon hearing Yuuko speak of the Rutherford Field and its value. “I am afraid that German scientists are already working hard at an energy based shielding system, the current project name being the Absolute Defense System. It was first proposed as a way of protecting deep space shuttles and the planned European space station Europa One, but as is obvious its usage then turned military. Most of the designs are for protecting German War Frames and armor, but I believe the helicarrier project has its own design as well. To my knowledge none have gone active yet though much of Germany’s military research is slowly shifting towards energy based weaponry. There are in fact several energy rifle prototypes about to go into mass production for the infantry forces. I imagine you know how that would shake up balance on a battlefield. Almost all conventional body armor and anti-small arms gear and quite a few conventional methods would be rendered useless. Penetrated by a bolt of energy moving ten times the speed of a bullet.”

He then admired the fortress itself. “This warship, or whatever classification you care to dote upon it, looks as though it could wipe out half an army corps within an hour without receiving hardly a scratch. Though I should bring up the concern thats its size, as you mentioned with the helicarrier does make it a bit of a floating target and there would of course have to be concerns of takeoff and landing. Presumably a special airbase would have to be constructed for the fortress to deploy from, and as soon as it is constructed it would not be long until it faced a bombing even more intense than did London during the Blitz. Unless it could be totally hidden, the Luftwaffe would make it a priority to prevent it from being operationally capable to takeoff.” He then appeared somewhat sheepish realizing he had only brought up the negative so far. “Forgive me, so many years in military intelligence tends to make a person look only at the negative side of things. It is a remarkable weapon though it does to me raise a question. How many can Japan feasibly build and sustain?”

“Japan is a large empire and a technologically advanced nation but your borders only extend so far and only so much of your territory has been properly industrialized. Forgive me but I know the figures, in the past you have had to readjust your industrialization program in China to account for the amount of farmland and agriculture needed to feed such a massive population. Germany outsourced most of its agricultural industry to its African territory and the conquered Ukraine and Russian provinces, along with holdings the markets of its continental puppets by the strings. Germany can feasibly arm and deploy and army of nearly twenty million with well over five hundred ships and thirty carriers in its fleet and start building a large fleet of as we shall term them airships, while maintaining a military satellite program, because it has the industry at home to do so. Not that Japan is not a modern industrial nation, but there is a huge gap in the home industry in Germany and its captive puppets than in the Home Islands. And the industry in the America’s may soon be lost to Japan if what I hear in the news is true.”

“Japan has fine soldiers, fine scientists, and fine spirit, but in the end it simply cannot outproduce the production of two enemies who each control almost half the globe either directly or through influence. At this point with the offensive into Indochina is halted, the best bet is to break as many European troops as possible and dig in before their counteroffensive starts. If that helicarrier goes active, the first zone its sent to will be Indochina, along with Germany’s best veteran divisions equipped with the latest weapons and vehicles. Its only a matter of time; Japan has the spirit and the heart to fight this war, its enemies have cold, cynical factories.”

“Though I have with me a design for a new type of anti-vehicle weapon you may find useful against the North American’s. Along with a former safehouse with several dozen prototypes of said weapon.” He produced his tablet yet again and brought up the design for Yuuko. A short but bulky sniper rifle, whose barrel was somewhat extended. “The Mk.5 LAP, Laser Armor Penetrator. Don’t let the name mislead you, it does fire a laser armor penetrator but it also fires an EMP charge along with it. The penetrator gets through a vehicles armor and the charge then disables the vehicle. Such a weapon could prove useful against the North American Gears could it not.”

SEAOC, 26 Miles South of Phu Ly
Norther Vietnam, German Indochina

Now that Germany and its European allies had had time to move troops and resources into position, time earned by the blood of the men holding Phu Ly up in front of them, the counterattack was almost ready. It had taken longer than anticipated due to first having to send several divisions into the jungles to root out the Vietnamese Communist partisans, though in that move some local support had been garnered. What the Japanese hadn’t gambled on was that much of Southern Indochina was rather Pro-European mostly because the more wealthy lived in Southern Vietnam and Cambodia while the majority of the Communists were in the North. When the Japanese hit Saigon, more than two hundred thousand Vietnamese and Cambodian’s volunteered for service in the Imperial German Army. Thus the OHL had been able to shift partisan hunting over to the local volunteer troops while they moved German, Italian, and Swedish troops into position for a counteroffensive.

With the Commonwealth declaration of war on Japan, the Indian Ocean was secured from Japanese raiders and submarines, allowing for troop shifts from Europe and Africa. Supreme European Allies Operations Command (SEAOC), had at its disposal 3 army groups, subdivided into six field armies for a total of close to half a million troops, under the overall command of Generalfeldmarschall Xavier Heuberger, with Brigadier Generale Amore Sorge of the Royal Italian Army and Generalmajor Joachim Rommel of the Imperial German Army as his seconds in command. Sorge had come up in the Italian Army as a legend of artillery while Rommel, like his grandfather before him, lead the German Africa Corps as regional commander of Northern Africa. The majority of the troops came from Germany, three field armies, while the Italian’s contributed two field armies and the Swedish the final field army. Additionally, the Imperial German Navy, with Italian support, had secured most of the coast of Indochina and was now conducting patrols into the South China Sea. Given that the Italian Navy still deployed a fair amount of battlecruisers and cruisers, they were running in raiding groups to disrupt Japanese supply lines from the Philippines to the front in Indochina.

Heuberger stood at a table, an old fashioned one with no holograms just a map (The fully equipped Regional Command HQ had been destroyed in Saigon), with almost twenty other officers around it in the command tent while around it there was the hustle and bustle of headquarters activity. On the map were pieces and figures all representing the positions of troops both European and Japanese as well as the movements said forces will make. “Gentlemen, we have before us the prospect of driving the Japanese troops from European territory, and I take no shame in revealing it is an endeavor I shall take great delight in carrying out.” There was a collective chuckle around the table. Heuberger was eighty-two years old and had started out his military career as a young man fighting in the German Civil War in 1957. He later served with distinction commanding the 17th Army during the Invasion of Poland and later in operations in the Ukraine. He was no amateur at the art of war. “Our enemy has been sensible enough to not overextend his supply lines, Japanese control of China makes that a hard thing to actual muddle up, and the cooperation with the Vietnamese Communist’s prevents his supply lines being raided. However, given that much of Southern China including Yunnan and Guangxi are largely agricultural, in Yunnan’s case mountainous as well, it does take them time to ship the more sophisticated of military equipment into Indochina. Helped along by out troops brilliant efforts fouling up the roads, rails, and airports during their retreat.” He then pointed on the map to Phu Ly, though he needn’t point it out; even from 26 miles away they could hear the artillery rumbling in the distance as both sides banged away at the city for all it was worth.

“The enemy has found himself stopped at Phu Ly and repulsed many times by the forces defending it. The Wenck Line stretching from the city’s South to the edge of the Laotian-Chinese border has also proved itself against multiple Japanese attacks. We suspect that the enemy has lost at least 25% of his initial forces and the remainder are very much tired and ravaged from repeated and failed offensives to take the city and breach our fortified line. We have also shot down a good many enemy aircraft over Indochina, not only on the battlefield but also those attempting raids in Cambodia and Southern Vietnam. Still the presence of yet more aircraft in Southern China brings us to phase one of Operation Hamlet.” He used a pointer to identify seven individual airbases. “The Luftwaffe has assembled 386 strategic bombers for use in this operation. At exactly zero hour of operational time, these bombers, divided into three groups, will take off to hit targets in Southern China and the Philippines; airbases, ports, military supply zones, communications outposts, and radar stations. As for the Japanese airbases and similar installations in China which they disguised so well as civilian locations, there is a solution for them as well. During the Japanese offensive, Luftwaffe high altitude recon drones made note of several of these bases and satellite recon found quite a few more. The Imperial Rocket Corps will use its orbital missile satellites to hit the nine sites we uncovered while knocking out most of what remains of Japan’s military and civilian satellite network.”

An obscure Colonel from Sweden then raised a point. “Are Germany’s satellites not equipped with nuclear arms? Surely you do not mean to say that Germany is going to hit Japan with nine tactical nuclear strikes?” Heuberger shook his head. “No, of course not. Five modules were brought down and rearmed with thermobaric warheads, which as we all know are a weapon particularly destructive against even fortified concrete positions. Mostly the sustained blast wave but also the aspect of sucking up all the nearby oxygen as well.” He sat down in the chair positioned behind him. “With the combination of missile strikes and bombing raids, we should be able to neutralize their air superiority and supply chain for some time. The presence of German bombers in China and the Philippines will also draw away surviving IJAF squadrons in those areas which would make them unavailable to help their comrades when Hamlet really begins.”

Sorge took over from there. “Phase Two. CAS aircraft and drones hit Japanese supply dumps and airfields within the Hanoi area while we start hitting their forces opposite the Wenck Line with massed artillery barrage. A priority target is the Japanese field command near Phu Ly and the supporting artillery in the city outskirts. The forces of Army Group A will move to probe the Japanese lines opposite the Wenck Line with light skirmishing attacks from infantry and light mechanized troops, tease them into thinking an attack will come from there, in the Northern sectors.” He then moved several submarine and carrier pieces into position. “The three carrier strike groups already in the South China Sea will move immediately to secure the Gulf of Tonkin while German and Italian cruise missile submarines hit Japanese positions on the Vietnamese coast, Hainan island, and the smaller islands in the South China Sea. The end result being to batter the enemy forces on multiple fronts, disorientate them as to where the actual blow will fall, and secure naval dominance.”

Now it was Rommel’s turn. “Phase Three. The ground offensive will begin with an armored spearhead just East of Phu Ly and another farther North. The end goal being to have the pincers meet just South of Hanoi, cutting off countless enemy troops and encircling them in a swiftly closing pocket. Mechanized troops will move in to sweep up enemy forces in the pocket as the pincers advance as well as move in to relieve the men who have been defending Phu Ly. Given the prior operations of the first two phases, along with the supplied artillery and air support, we expect the ground offensive to proceed with a 78% success rate.”

The same Colonel from Sweden them piped up. “What about the MANTIS system? The guns are still offline across Indochina, and supposing the Japanese manage to turn the ones in their occupied territory on? Those railguns would tear our ships near the coast and our aircraft apart, even given the limited number in Japanese occupied territory.” He wasn’t wrong. Given their capability, a battery of MANTIS guns could swat a squadron of fighters out of the sky or send a carrier group to the bottom with ease. One problem.

General Karl Schleicher, representative of the Abwehr, spoke up on the point. “The Japanese can’t use the guns because they need to be connected to a central supercomputer for the system to be operable. The only one in the entire region was the one in Saigon at the MANTIS control center which was destroyed by the kinetic strike. A new computer is on its way from Germany and should arrive in the next week or so, until then we can’t use our guns and they can’t use our guns. The computer won’t be here in time for the offensive which is set to start when?” They all turned to Heuberger.

The old man said only one word. “Tomorrow. Midnight.”

Nam Dinh, Southeast of Phu Ly
Japanese Occupied Vietnam

Nam Dinh, being less developed and less strategically important than Phu Ly, had held out for only three days before the garrison forces were ordered to retreat to reinforce the defense line reforming behind Phu Ly and stretching to the coast. Despite its lack of strategic importance to Germany, the Abwehr’s SIGINT and HUMINT assets on the ground had discovered that several of the Japanese commanders made their divisional headquarters at Nam Dinh including the officer in charge of coordinating their artillery. So Nam Dinh became a target for the initial operations of Case Red, the European counteroffensive.

Several figures pressed themselves against a building that might once have been a boutique, a grocers, or any other manner of business. Now it was just rubble. These figures were invisible in the dark of the night, with only the occasional moonlight glint off their weapons showing they existed at all, however these men were taking great pains to make those occasions as few as possible. A Japanese guard rounded the corner only to be swiftly pulled into the alley and silenced with a knife to the throat. The three moved quietly and with clear experience through the rubble towards the Japanese field command near the city center. Intel said that no less than three divisional commanders had made their headquarters here including their artillery commander. Similar operations were taking place in half a dozen other Vietnamese cities and towns behind enemy lines aimed at taking out enemy VIP’s and disrupting their chain of command. Other operations would be hitting Japanese radar stations near the front and their air defenses. It was vital that they all execute right on time or else a lot of good men were going to die. Well more so than will already.

In truth the KSK’s role in the counteroffensive will be almost entirely covert and struck from the record books. Not that Germany didn’t have pride in its special forces, the KSK were a major point of German pride, but it was imperative to keep local assets safe from discovery. After Indochina was once again under German control, it was all too likely the partisans would still be continuing their campaign; the more locals on Germany’s side the better.

Finally the three men had positioned themselves in the ruins of a flower shop with a view of the Japanese field command in the city center. “Wait for confirmation of targets.” One of them hissed as another nodded and began scanning the area. “Confirmed all three targets on site. We are clear for strike.” The first one came back then. “Operation goes into effect at exactly midnight. Five...four...three...two...one. Call in the eagles.” Then the third one got on his comm set to relay the strike coordinates. “Eagle 1-1 this is Gladius do you read.” ”Solid copy Gladius, Relay strike coordinates then evac the area.” “Sending coordinates via uplink now. Confirm.” ”Coordinates received confirmed. Evac the area Gladius. Strike in Five.”

The three men quickly made their way away from the town center as far as they could in five seconds, before they were drawn to look upwards at the sound of a plane soaring past. This was followed by a massive explosion where the enemy field command used to be and which engulfed their mobile radar unit as well. As the three were getting ready to move again, another message went across the secure channel. ”This is Goethe. Case Red is go. I repeat Case Red is go.”

So it begins.

Phu Ly, Northern Vietnam
Contested German/Japanese Indochina

Willi Dernen was roughly shaken awake, upon which motion his instinct was to pluck his combat knife from its spot next to his canteen and swipe towards his would be assailant. However, it was just Adam Pfaff, whom had dodged the knife swipe with now well tested instincts of his own, waking him up to see something outside. “Let me get my one hour before we go back to fighting damnit!” Before he could go snuggle back into his dreamless sleep, Adam kicked him and pointed up at the sky. Just as Willi was about to kill him, he saw what Adam did; planes. No those were strategic bombers, and fast ones too. He wasn’t in the Luftwaffe but he’d be willing to swear those were Hortens up there, maybe 378’s. German bombers were easy to know from those of other countries because the entire strategic bomber force was made up of swept-wing aircraft.

And there weren’t just a dozen or so of them, there seemed to be dozens up in the sky. Impressed as he was by that, while looking up at the sky he saw what looked to be nine or so bright lights shooting down from the heavens to come crashing to Earth somewhere off in the distance. Adam nudged him. “Reckon that was our boys up in space giving the Japs a little taste of their own medicine. They hit us from orbit and we hit right back.” Willi nodded and was about to say something when all of a sudden the entire world came to life in a whirlwind of thunder. Every man was on his feet and alert now but half of them were on the ground holding their ears from the deafening noise.

By the rumbling thunder it seemed as though every artillery piece in the Imperial German Army was going off right now, and then it all came crashing down in and around Phu Ly. Right on top of the Japanese.

---

The 4th Corps of the 7th Army was making its way into Phu Ly to reinforce the men who had been holding it so valiantly. The German troops were advancing against the Japanese under the cover of more than one thousand pieces of artillery both self-propelled and static, giving the infantry and light mechanized troops the opportunity to enter the city and start pushing the frontline forward again. The two divisions of armor were bypassing the city so as to encircle the Japanese forces within and crush them between the hammer and the anvil. The goal was to secure Phu Ly within two hours.

This was far from the only attack taking place at the moment. Alongside the strategic air raids on Japanese military installations in Southern China and the Philippines, the satellite-launched thermobaric missile strikes on the higher priority targets in Southern China, and the KSK operations, the close to half a million European troops were pushing the offensive along the whole front. Armored spearheads were forming pincers, one on the coast and one along the Northern border with China that were set to meet at Hanoi, thus trapping large numbers of Japanese troops. Artillery had opened up on the Japanese lines along the whole of the front while airstrikes hit enemy held airfields and supply dumps. With six field armies in play the roles were clearly defined; the three German armies (7th, 12th, and 9th) would conduct the blitzkrieg portion of the counteroffensive, forming the pincers and completing the encirclement, while the two Italian armies (3rd and 21st) moved up the center pushing the enemy forces back and towards the to-be completed trap. The sole Swedish army (5th) would mop up the pockets of Japanese forces behind the lines as the front moved forwards.

The size and scope of Case Red was comparative to that of the 1939 Invasion of Poland combined with the subsequent Invasion’s of France and the Low Countries in 1940. Its goal was to drive the Japanese Imperial Army from German soil.

Volkshalle, Berlin
Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire

The last time the Kaiser has spoken at the Volkshalle it had been to deliver his war speech and declare that Germany would never surrender. This time it was a subject he was much more happy to discuss. Once again the 150,000 person assembly hall was filled to the brim and then some with military officers, government officials, aristocrats, media outlets, and foreign dignitaries. All were hushed as the Kaiser was announced.

“Announcing His Imperial and Royal Majesty, Erwin Ludwig the First, Emperor of Germany, King of Prussia, and Protector of Europa.”

“Good morning to you all. The last time I spoke here at the center of our Imperial German Senate, it was in response to the blatant murder of almost ten million innocent people by the Japanese Empire. The Japanese had just declared war upon Germany and all Europa at that time and moved against Indochina where I am sad to say they did make progress. Including the capture of Hanoi, Hong Kong, and Tsingtao. However, as we have seen in the actions of the brave men defending the city of Phu Ly, who have been holding out against Japanese forces since shortly after the war began, the dark claw of tyranny will not be allowed to take hold of the innocent so long as there are those willing to fight against such a vile cause. Let us take a moment now to remember those who have died in the name of freedom and fatherland.” Short moment of silence.

“At precisely midnight, we started our counterattack in Indochina and in the Pacific. I can confirm reports that German, Italian, and Swedish forces have begun operations against Japanese troops in Northern Vietnam so far to great success it would seem. Shogun Meiya thought her soldiers would sweep all before them with ease, though she was already proven wrong in that regard when her forces repeatedly failed to take Phu Ly away from a much smaller force of European troops. Now she will get to see just how wrong she was. European forces will crash down upon their opponents like a tidal wave, wiping away all that stands in their way, without committing war crimes as the Japanese have shown they are no strangers to. Before we go further, I will declare this here and now. No breach of the Geneva Convention by European soldiers will be tolerated, and I expect any who disobey this order in a vain act of misguided vengeance to be punished to the maximum extent by their commander. Atrocities against Prisoners of War will not be tolerated, and unlike the Japanese we will remove from duty and subsequently prosecute any commander who orders such atrocities committed. May it also be known that no European soldier shall cross the border onto Chinese soil, this is a war of defense and we intend to keep it that way.”

“However, I will also let it be known that the European Community does not recognize Japanese rule over China and demands the full withdrawal of all IJA forces from the territory of the Republic of China. As of one hour ago I have officially signed into law an Imperial Edict relinquishing control of the territories of Hong Kong and Qingdao to the Kuomintang government of the legitimate Republic of China. The Shogun points to Germany as the demon of the world while ignoring the fact Japan has sat on China for almost a whole century now, suppressing Chinese independence alongside Korean, Mongolian, Tibetan, Burmese, and countless others. Here and now I state that if the Chinese people would have our aid, Europa is determined to restore an independent China; no unequal treaties, no territory for aid deals. European forces will not invade China but they will, if desired by the Chinese people, render aid strategically and logistically to a Chinese independence effort. The German Empire, as a permanent member of the UNSC, also will be moving to officially establish the Republic of China’s government-in exile as a full member of the United Nations and also invites the Kuomintang to send a representative to Europa for the establishment of diplomatic relations.”

“I told you all that by the end of this war we will have dismantled the Japanese Empire, and I meant it. Not by absorbing it into our own, but by liberating all those people’s who they have sat on for almost a hundred years now. By returning independence to those countries which they have denied such a right to for so long. To that end I have also decided that come the end of the war, referendums will be held in the German African territories, Poland, and the former USSR regarding greater autonomy within the European Community. Possibly even full independence referendums. So I give to you all one last message. Japan and its fascist tyranny will fall, Europa will not fall, not now and not ever. Long Live Europa!”

Area 13, Alternative IV Project Room

"So the Germans have also been working on shielding.... And energy based weaponry too? Of course I don't doubt they're running into problems when it comes to.... Powering these weapons and the shields, am I right?" Yuuko turned to Voss a smile donned on her face. "Wouldn't it be such a shame if these projects were set back.... Oh I don't know maybe one hundred years time? ...Maybe longer?" Kasumi entered the picture walking up next to Yuuko, looking to Voss then to Yuuko tugging at her sleeve. "Hmm? Yashiro?" Yuuko leaned down and Kasumi whispered into her ear. "Hmm... I see.... I see.. Okay. Thank you, tell her we'll be ready in a couple hours." Yuuko then stood up and sighed while Kasumi walked back to the blue object in the other part of the room of which looked to be some sort of strange organic storage tube. "Poor dear, she's been trapped in that jar for what she's explained, hundreds of years. We found her when excavating the site in the 1960s. ....Anyway I'll leave you to Cryska, she understands everything as I do and can give an easier briefing, answering all your questions, as for CENTNET, don't worry about it. A magician never reveals her secrets but they'll be getting a very rude wake up call... Both in Vietnam and across their satellite network.... Anyway I must get ready for surgery, what you'll be seeing soon will shadow the XG-70... Though it could be considered kind of minute I suppose... Hmm, well anyway Cryska! Please look after our guest!" Yuuko smiled and began to walk away waiving her hand while Cryska climbed down from the XG-70d's cockpit dressed in her fortified suit. "So you are the European then." She said rather unenthusiastically.

Thai Nguyen, Northern Japanese Occupied Vietnam

Major Jinguuji Marimo stood at her TSF's cockpit ensuring the final preparations were in order for her sortie, as were the other members of her squadron, Wardog Squadron was one of the only available TSF units in the area to respond to the European counter attack. "Major, Major!" General Ichiru Ayamine came running as quickly as he could, Major Jinguuji stood to attention and saluted him. "Sir! What can I do for you?" Quickly saluting the Major back before speaking. "The attack by the Europeans couldn't have come at a better time, lacking in any other qualified TSF pilots... Or pilots that could be trusted with the device, you shall use it for our counter attack. All of our assets will be focused on defending you. But the Europeans will also get a nasty surprise too. I'm not just talking about the weapon either.... Good luck Major, come back alive." Ayamine saluted the major and turned leaving her to her preparations.

Minutes after the initial preparations of her TSF, Marimo's TSF came to life, the usual when deactivate dull blue lights on the head turned on, glowing blue she'd pilot her TSF towards the door picking up her semi-usual loadout, except in this case she brought the weapon spoke of, the EML-99X, well atleast a second production model of the weapon. "Wardog Squadron, communications check, can anyone else hear me?" Marimo spoke over the IJA's encrypted TSF communication channels waiting for an answer of which she would get from those under her command, Lieutenant Tatsunami Hibiki (Wardog-2), Second Lieutenant Sendou Yuzuka (Wardog-3), Second Lieutenant Ellen Aice (Wardog-4), Second Lieutenant Miono Shizuku (Wardog-5). "Wardog-2 here, I read you loud and clear Wardog-1." Tatsunami reported his image coming up to the bottom left of Marimo's visual receptors. "Wardog-3 here, I copy you Wardog-1." Sendou reported, her image coming up right next to Tatsunami's. "Wardog-4 here, I read you as well Wardog-1." Ellen reported saluting Marimo, her image coming up next to Sendou. "Wardog-5 here, I hear you Wardog-1. We going to put some more westerners in the ground?" Miono reported as well as asking her question a smile on her face. "It's good to hear you all, as for your question Second Lieutenant, yes we will. And I have a new toy to help us with it, your objectives are to protect me at all costs, we'll also have air assets in support so fret not, it'll be a simple operation, our goal is to push the western invaders back down where they belong.... Or if we can help it out of Vietnam entirely, our support will of course be our Chinese allies, and the Vietnamese liberation army. We are to complete this mission by 1800 hours. Understood?!"

Each member of Wardog Squadron saluted the Major from their end before being interrupted by one of their Chinese allies in a Chinese made TSF of which was ironically produced and designed with help of the Japanese, the J-10 Tactical Surface Fighter. "I hate to but in but we have no time to waste." Captain Wu's image became visible to everyone, he was a young Chinese officer from the Chinese People's Liberation Army, those under his command were a mix of pilots from the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the Chinese National Revolutionary Army. Such flights were common nowadays with both brought closer together by the Japanese for the fight against the west in Asia. "Of course Captain, I assume you know the mission then." Marimo said to Wu over the communications. "Yes I do, and if that fancy toy of yours is as great as our intelligence believed it to be then I will defend you with my own life if necessary." Wu said before cutting the communications on his end.

Marimo couldn't help but smile, it was indeed an unlikely alliance, Imperialists, Nationalists, and Communists all united for one goal, the unifications of a free Asia. "Alright, all flights, Wardog-2 and Wardog-3 will be taking up lead flight, diamond formation around Wardog-1 until we get to the mission area then weapons free, engage the enemy as you see fit. But keep close, I hold the trump card to our victory. All units advance!" Marimo's TSF walked out to the tarmac following Wardog-2 and 3, waiting while they got set in the catapult, the catapult was designed to help TSFs get into the air quickly, already there was a large force above of Japanese, and Chinese aircraft the fight for supremacy in the air was already underway, it was up to Marimo to win the ground battle. And she would, or die trying.

Outside of Polo, Japanese Solomon Islands

Yui had finished cleaning herself off of the sweat that had started to roll down her figure, she spent her days as of late sparring with the local IJA pilots, walking from the showers back to the barracks she was wearing a OD-Green set of pants and a black sleeveless shirt, drying her hair off as she walked the lights on the corners of the corridors of the base started to glow red and an emergency alert siren started to sound. An enemy attack? Here? Impossible! ...Or so she thought for a moment or two before dropping her towel and immediately running to the barracks changing out of her shirt and pants to her fortified suit putting it on as quickly as she could she then grabbed her Katana out of her locker with her Type-91 carbine as well as her Minebea 9mm pistol.

As quick as she could she rushed to the hanger, the TSFs were already in the process of fueling up, the base's commander, Colonel Yashiro Hideki came over the base's communications systems for all to hear. "All TSFs are to scramble, enemy forces have been picked up on radar, UBNA from the looks of our forward observers, be careful they have a new weapon of which maybe their own domestically produced TSFs, Wipe them from the earth and return to base, that is an order." Yui smiled, the UBNA? So the brits were finally making their move on Japan... And Yui would have the honour of killing the first forces to come ashore.

Salt Lake City, Military Administration Zone of Disraeli, UBNA

Makabe Seijyurou sighed, standing off to the side in a back alley of the city, it was still in the process of being rebuilt. And already the frontline was encroaching on California. Furrowing his brow the young 17 year old looked to Takeshi Kido, a member of the Imperial Royal Guard's spy network in North America. "So that knock off of our Shogun is coming back and you want us to do what?" Seijyurou asked with an eyebrow raised he was still in his school uniform, he head heard before that the spies of the IJRG were giving the North Americans a run for their money in the departments of sabotage, though it was small scale stuff like taking armaments factories out of commission as well as runways and railways. "You heard me, I want you to get her alone and I will sedate her, the Shogun has special interest in this woman." Seijyurou's eyes widened before he looked to Kido, the Shogun herself taking an interest in a foreigner? ...This was unheard of but not unexpected, most of the cadets of whom were present for Hyacinth Amagi little "pop in" were confused and felt anger, at the woman, she looked like the Shogun, and to a degree from what Seijyurou saw somewhat even acted somewhat slightly like her, enough to cause him to be weary of the woman.

"And what would happen if we were to accomplish this mission?" Seijyurou asked crossing his arms. "There will be a weapons cache for you and anyone else you feel trustworthy so that you may become a thorn in the side of the enemy as I and your brother have." Seijyurou's eyes widened, his brother was taking part in this spying? But he head heard that he was an embassy guard. "My brother is really apart of our actions against the enemy here?" Seijyurou asked an eyebrow raised at Kido of whom nodded his head. "Understand I do not have any information beyond what I am absolutely needed to know. ....It is possible he is, it is possible he is not.... But eitherway such actions against the enemy will bring honour to your family and after the end of the war you shall be rewarded for your service to the Empire." Seijyurou bit his bottom lip he didn't want to do anything that would harm his family's reputation... So the idea of glory was a bit tempting... "Alright. I shall do it. You shall have Hyacinth Amagi should she come back." Kido smiled and extended his hand to Seijyurou of whom took it firmly. "Then it is an honour to be working with you on this matter, Makabe Seijyurou."

Outside of Spokane, Japanese Shinto Temple, UBNA

Kashiwagi Haruko smiled sitting in a secret, secluded area of the temple disguised as a Shinto Priest wearing the robes she also had the perfect papers to match her background, though those were kept hidden in her robes, she would wait for General Asgill, an old friend of hers to meet her there at the temple, she knew he knew she would be there and she just hoped she could trust him. She wanted to dispel any sort of accusations of Japanese involvement in the bombing earlier last month. Along with her papers she had a USB device of which she intended to give to Asgill, it contained a recorded message, she hoped that such a message would hold some weight, she was the commander of the IJRG on Mainland Japan, almost every intelligence service knew this so she kept secluded, kept no ties to anyone, not family, not any sort of friends... Except for this one person and even then they rarely communicated and when they did it was mostly official only.

[The Union of British North America]

Spokane, JPS-occupied Oregon Province (I'll make a map soon with the Provinces of the Union of British North America)
Main Shinto Temple of Spokane

Asgill opened the temple doors. The temple exterior looked a lot like the Shinto temples he saw when he visited Kagoshima during his high school trip. When he went inside, he found it empty. He had a terrible thought that if there were worshipers inside, they would run him out of the building. He was unsure if there were reprisals against the North American residents of the Occupied Provinces since the war declaration, but so far he hasn't heard of anything, but of course that could mean the worst has happened and there were cover-ups of such atrocities. He always hoped for the best, but his time in the army and as an inspector for the Mounted Police's Special Branch made him cynical.

It was surprisingly not that difficult to get from the front lines to Spokane. And he wasn't stopped by UBNA or JPS forces so far. I guess Spokane is not that important at the moment. He walked deeper into the temple, and then turned towards a room Kashiwagi specified in her letter. "Haruko, it's me, Anthony."

Haruko emerged from the room, and greeted Asgill somewhat friendly and somewhat professionally. "First, Haruko, I want to say that this is totally something you would do. You liked to hang out near the temple a lot when I was in Kagoshima all those years ago. I don't suppose we can do confession? I am an Anglo-Catholic, and my line of work has a lot of sins, and no doubt yours as well. Secondly, I want to say that my team and I have no doubt that the JPS were not behind the assassination of Henri Ziegler nor the recent series of terrorist attacks on the East Coast. I have my doubts about what is going on in Europe, damn German secret police. I hope you wouldn't do false flags in your country either. We all care about our own nation's security, but there are ethical and professional lines. Third, I am sad that we are now both technically enemies to each other. I wondered if there would be a time when we would fight again, like my father did. My grandfather fought in Europe during Second World War, in the Army. My father and I were also Army. He was in the Royal Rangers and I was a Runner in the Horse Guards' Gear Detachment. This state of affairs, it is unfortunate." Haruko motioned him to come sit in the secluded area. She prepared some hot tea, but of course none of them could stay long. She began explaining what she had in that brown paper bag: documents, a flash drive, and other things...

Salt Lake City, Military Administration Zone of Disraeli Province
Northern parts of the city.

After the successful and relatively peaceful taking of Salt Lake by the Fourth Territorial Army, the associated operation of Operation Sleeping Giant was implemented officially, though the two dozen agents were already in city by the end of the "battle" of Salt Lake. Operation Lullaby was in effect, and it was the UBNA's counter-insurgency operation against pro-JPS militia and insurgency groups that could, and would, spring up. But the Joint Chiefs of the Defense Force Staff (JCDFS), the main advisory committee on military operations to the Governor-General, proposed this unique plan several years ago. Hundreds of CIND field agents would live and work among the local populations of the Occupied Provinces, seek out and join insurgent groups, and learn about them so UBNA conventional and special forces could capture or neutralize them. These operatives were outfitted with nanotech-based Codec communication devices that allowed one to have real time burst communication, utilizing nanotech-based speech that made the one speaking into the receiver appear silent, the closest to "telepathic communication" humanity has come to. Given that any possible resistance would be land-based, they would have to work via encrypted messages they would send to other cells. The operatives would be able to quietly communicate to UBNA forces, and such groups would be over in a matter of days. Indeed, several plans with juicy bait were in store for the insurgents. The goals is to capture them, however. Most JPS citizens in the Occupied Provinces would be at best be neutral towards the UBNA, but at least if Lullaby's info warfare campaign utilized some of the strategies used by the "imperial enlightenment' education program to encourage the local JPS citizens to disavow the JPS resistance movement.

This is a long term plan, coupled with information and political warfare strategies to weaken such insurgent groups. By being cold, hungry, and constantly on the run with very little to show for it, they would be worn down overtime. Sure, the military ones could and probably would holdout for longer, but they wouldn't be much of big problem if popular support goes away for them.

And this is what Jun Ishida, a pharmacist for a small clinic in town and CIND operative, thought about as he took a stroll around the northern sectors of the city of Salt Lake, which was the most devastated part of the city from the battle, though the NAA's Royal Corps of Engineers got utilities up and running quickly. Food, water, and shelter were also up in abundance. The northern parts of the city didn't escape the battle, but most civilians in the city were evacuated west into the Salt Lake suburbs as the Fourth Territorial moved in and engaged the few TSFs that survived the UBNA's kinetic strikes against military targets in the Occupied Provinces.

Jun was born in Tokyo in 1985, but his parents, part of the largely banned liberal opposition, emigrated to JPS North America, and later to the UBNA. His teenage years were spent in New York, where he enrolled at Columbia to study medicine. He also enlisted in the New York Provincial Militia, and trained as a medic. He later joined the NAA Rangers and then NASAS and became a special operative, and later started working for CIND's Office of Special Actions (OSA). He was tasked to Salt Lake to learn about the medical services in the area, as well as any JPS big wigs in Salt Lake. But he was recently activated for Operation Lullaby. And he got a dossier on some locals to watch out for. One Makabe Seijyurou, a cadet in the local IRJG academy. Why Imperial and Royal in the same title still confuses most intelligence agencies, as an Emperor would be higher in any order of precedence.

Jun stopped at an alleyway opening and looked down the alley. He saw two figures, though he couldn't make them out as they were both wearing dark clothes and the alley was shaded this time of day. One was shorter than the other, and Jun figured the short person was like a sibling or perhaps the child of the taller person. They were talking, though, and in Japanese, though he couldn't hear what they were saying. He thought they were just staying there as they were waiting for the displaced persons residential tent areas outside the city to the east to continue setting up more tents.

As he was about to continue on his business, and the taller man wearing all black walked down the alley in the opposite direction, heading north. They didn't notice Jun. As Jun walked on, he thought about how he was supposed to link up with the local JPS resistance so he could infiltrate it.

RNAMP Headquarters, Victoria
Special Branch Floors, Division 9 Suite

"Hmm. I wonder why the Major General left to do undercover. He does a lot and I am worried about him." said Flannery. "He's tough, and he spent a lot of time in the military. Gear Runner for the GG's Horse Guards Gear Detachment, worked in the Defense Intelligence Department, worked in UCT's Special Branch office. He did undercover work a lot when he was a rook in Special Branch's Division 9. Now, he is in charge of it, and he is the only one who can keep our sensitive homeland security cases going smoothly. He prefers field work to the desk. This is normal. I know you are still unused to his way of doing things, Flannery, but what he does and what we all do make Division 9 work." said Stanley.

"Well, we took care of the main terrorist threats. New York, Richmond. And we got Moffet on the run now. I hear Division 5 is on his ass now somewhere in Cranmer Province. And now there are concerns about westbound trains." said Major Killian, head of Division 9's SWAT Team. "Probably JPS spies. That is what they would do, and they're easy targets. Perhaps that is where General Asgill went, to do some preliminary work before we go after them. Though we'll have to work with the NAA on this one heavily." said Flannery.

Bardsley walked into the common room of Division 9. "Everyone, I was given instructions to tell you who General Asgill asked me and my team to look for in relation to the terrorist's procurement of sarin gas." He closed the door, pulled out two manila folders, and placed them on the largest desk of the common room. Flannery, Stanley, and Killian looked through them. "Well, well. Germans. They like to infiltrate our country a lot don't they. During the World Wars, and now this one. We probably got our first batch of Jerries to catch." said Flannery. "Looks like they aren't far, they are in Atlanta. We'll go observe them, Flannery and I. Bateau and Bishop can support Asgill here." said Stanley. "I'll get some of my men to assist with the Mounties' Atlanta Branch SWAT to help you when you want to pick them up." said Killian.

"Yes, I'll keep digging into them, and see how far we can probe German IT." said Bardsley.

Near the JPS base in Northern Vietnam

The Silence was observing the bustling activity of the base, apparently getting ready for the counter-offensive against the German/EC forces a dozen miles south of them. Using her hi-powered binoculars, she saw the many heat signatures of the base personnel. She radioed to The Octopus via Codec, who was posing as an IJA TSF technician was in the TSF hanger. "Anything cool-looking in there?" she asked. "The TSFs are just like we though when we did some preliminary recon, nothing new but this giant gun they put onto one. The TSF flight is about to head to the tarmac. Imperial Japanese TSF pilots are working with Chinese Communist and Nationalist TSF pilots, very unusual, but given the choice between Japanese imperialism or German imperialism, they had to choose the 'lesser of two evils', something I hate. Apparently, Nanking and everything that happened was forgotten. It was put aside to ensure the regime that caused it would remain in power. I wish the Nationalists and Communists would fight against Imperial Japan like in World War 2. If the War in the Pacific turned out in our favor, then Imperial Japan would be done in like Nazi Germany." said The Octopus, very angry about this coalition to prop up a member's regime that killed thousands of people of the other coalition members.

"Well, what could be ways we could mess it up?" asked The Silence. "I have a plan. And I don't expect to come back alive from this. You'll find out what I did when you observe the battle." said the The Octopus, cutting the communication to The Silence.

Oh god, what are you doing, thought The Silence. She thought about going after him, but that would compromise both of them. She reluctantly headed to the battlefield, the EC-JPS frontline.

Just as the TSFs were lifting off, The Octopus thought about what he did to each of those TSFs, along with the big special gun they installed onto Major Jinguuji's TSF. A total, utter surprise for the JPS forces there. As well as for the General's plan, that would also be a failure for him as well...

Solomon Islands

Yuuya's flight of UBNA/CON TSFs picked up radar contact, and he almost pushed the button to see if he would get an IFF tone back, but remembered the only ones who would send TSFs their way would be the JPS. "All right, boys and girls, let's get down and dirty. They'll use their tried and true tactics, while we got something up our sleeves. Blow them out of the sky!"

They were only detected because the advanced stealth measures were turned off, so as to get a 'fairer' assessment of the CON TSFs, because of the high probability that the Black Widows would outmatch JPS TSFs if they were on and the flight took out the JPS opposition. Plus, one must not reveal to the enemy what all one can do. If anyone escaped from the Solomon Islands, they would only be able to tell that the UBNA has developed its own TSFs.

Their TSFs were designed for high maneuverability, close-combat, and heavy fire power, but were the same as JPS TSFs because they emphasized the same things. Though a ranged weapon was added to give them an edge. The UBNA has developed its own directed energy weapons, namely the Tactical Laser System, which can be mounted onto fighter jets and allow them to engage TSFs and devastate them relatively safely. TLS systems were added to these four Black Widows. Each TLS could fire a sustained beam for several seconds, wasting away any JPS anti-laser countermeasures, as well as possessing a swivel head for making turns and thus sweeping motions with the laser. Perhaps a bit overkill, but it would be able to be the spearhead for major operations against the JPS.

When the JPS TSF flight opened fire with their Assault Cannons, the UBNA TSF flight, codenamed Mage Squadron, all avoided each shot from the enemy. Mage Squadron returned fire, causing three of the enemy TSFs to explode, while the third was hit and crashed into the ocean. Mage Squadron continued towards the islands, and other JPS TSFs met similar fates. After about 20 minutes, the local IJA and IJN garrisons desperately were fruitlessly trying to shoot down the UBNA TSFs with their anti-air guns. The 32nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade's landing ships were reaching the shores of the islands, and Metal Gear RAYs were already on shore dealing with the IJA.

"This is all overkill. But I love it." said Marcus. "Affirmative. We did a lot of damage we couldn't normally do in fighter jets or in Metal Gears. How could we do all that?" asked Yuuya. "Got another contact, JPS but my gut is telling me this one is different." said Kei. "I got this one guys. Let's test out sword combat. I'm sure this one will want to do that, go down in a proper fight. I'll engage him and you avoid him if he tries to go after you." said Yuuya.

About a kilometer away, a golden TSF was standing on a cliff overlooking the interior of the island. Mage Squadron was on the opposite cliff.

"Let's do this, JPS lapdog." said Yuuya, recognizing the colors as a IJRG TSF.

[New Decius]

Outskirts of Phu Ly, Northern Vietnam
German/Japanese Disputed Indochina

Willi Dernen was smiling for the first time since right before Japan launched its offensive into Indochina. They were going forward again. For the first time since the start of the war, European forces were pushing back their Japanese opponents, though now those opponents also included Chinese forces, and with great success. The IV. Korps push into Phu Ly to relieve the battered 14,000 men still left after holding it for so long, had caught the Japanese troops who had been besieging Phu Ly completely off-guard. The artillery barrage and airstrikes took out most of the enemies artillery battery's which had been pummeling the city and its defenders while the mechanized attack through the city itself and the added push from the now inspired defenders all but shattered the Japanese line within the city itself. Willi had heard rumors that they had forced two divisions of Japanese infantry out of the city and now two divisions of German armor were about to close in on them. He only hoped they had this kind of success all across the line.

But how could they not? The European forces had several distinct advantages over their enemy. By including Chinese units in their order of battle, the Japanese had diluted their frontline forces which, while composed entirely of Japanese troops, had been made up solely of troops with top-notch first-world training, equipment, and experience. The Chinese were arguably less well-equipped, not as well trained or disciplined, and lacked the experience the Japanese and European forces would have. In contrast, their opponents being German and Italian regular army troops were better equipped, trained, and more experienced. The Swede's had the equipment and training though not the experience as they had no reason to have their regular army on constant deployment fighting partisans and neighbors, having no empire of their own. The European forces were also fresher than their opponents who had been trying to breach the German lines for some considerable time now without success, particular those troops who had been besieging Phu Ly. And now the European's were cleaving through the enemy lines like a warm knife through butter.

Willi was brought back to reality when his friend and comrade Adam Pfaff pulled him aside to avoid a volley of machine gun firing from a Japanese position inside a ruined house up ahead. "Stop daydreaming you bastard or you'll get yourself killed! And I don't want to have to tell your wife you died cause of stupidity!" They both took cover behind the ruins of a wall while the machine gun position kept chattering, trying to hold that line against the German offensive. The Japanese may have been falling back but they were stubborn in their retreat and making sure they could cause as much damage to the enemy as they could while they fell back. Adam got on the comms to the nearest artillery battery in range, a group of PzH 3000's (Basically imagine a PzH 2000 with a twin cannon and several mortars in the hull) two blocks away. "Come in Flatbow-7, Come in Flatbow-7 this is Broadsword-38, I repeat this is Broadsword-38! We require fire support at our location! Hostile MG holed up in ruins approximately...34 meters ahead of this position at 58 degrees North directional! Require immediate fire support to silence that position!" "Broadsword-38 this is Flatbow-7, commencing fire on enemy position. Single volley to neutralize enemy gun emplacement, report effective or no." Given the sound of cannon and gunfire already present it was impossible to tell the volley Flatbow-7 had fired though four PzH 3000's firing their dual barrel 155mm guns certainly made an effect.

The shells slammed down on the house the machine gun was in and the area around it, pulverizing it into dust. Willi lowered the goggles on his combat helmet to observe the after effect. Zooming in he could see the gnarled remains of the two heavy machine guns and their crews in the rubble. He nodded to Adam who radioed back. "Flatbow-7, Flatbow-7, this is Broadsword-38, fire support effective. Target is neutralized, I repeat neutralized. Thanks for the help you damned holy bastards!" "Broadsword-38, this is Flatbow-7. Can't let you infantry boys have all the fun. Can we?" Then another person came on the line, a rather strict one. "Flatbow-7, Broadsword-38, this is Decartes-17. Cease all non-regulation communications immediately." That made a note, in a number of ways. Decartes was the callsign for the command staff of the 91st Panzer Division, one of the two armored divisions forming the pincers that would encircle the Japanese forces trying to make their retreat from Phu Ly. The major point was that if they were close enough to ream out a couple infantry and artillery troopers, the encirclement couldn't be far behind. The battle was almost over.

The two soldiers of the 31st Infanterie Regiment got up and, alongside a dozen other comrades from their unit, advanced up the street passed the now disabled Japanese MG position. Then they immediately stopped and stared, shocked by what was directly in front of them. Towering over the ruins of a pair of IFV's and what looked like half a company of infantry, were two Japanese TSF's, for the life of him, Willi couldn't have said what type they were, all he knew was they were big, blue, and deadly. They had to be almost twenty meters at least, and he didn't know how many tons. Then they turned towards him and the other approaching soldiers, and he shat himself.

Before they could do anything however, there was a loud boom and then one of the TSF's was blown apart from the legs down, crashing to the ground in a heap. All eyes turned behind the soldiers to a pair of vehicles and accompanying infantry rumbling up the street. The shot had come from one of the two vehicle's, which were in fact War Frames. Willi thought they were Panzer Hummel Mk.X the standard artillery and fortification model for War Frame's for five years now, even if they were 7th Generation models and the current generation was 11th. However, they were way larger than any Panzer Hummel he had ever seen; those were about five meters tall and nine tons with 155mm cannons mounted where its arms should be, these looked to be about twelve meters tall and twenty tons and the cannons seemed a much heavier caliber. Then they both raised their arms as one and fired a volley of four that was aimed at the undamaged TSF. The four rounds ripped it to pieces.

A couple troopers with Panzerfaust 4's came up and took care of the legless TSF with what seemed practice ease. Willi couldn't help asking what the monster was. "What the hell is that!?" The trooper grinned when replying. "That my friend is the latest creation to come off the assembly line at Trondheim, specially for this offensive. They took the Panzer Hummel and made it better. Allow me to introduce the Panzer Festung Mark One, 11th Generation War Frame we originally planned to use against partisan revolts in Russia. Put enough armor on this beast that a battery of 205's could or 88's could bang away at it for a day and it could still fight afterwards. They mounted a pair of 188mm EM railgun's on them with these new auto-loaders and here we go, an armor busting machine." Before Willi could ask another question, the trooper went on. "You would think speed is a problem, but true while it has half the speed of our more mobile frontline assault Frames, its targeting system and armament can bring down the target before that target gets close enough to engage and even then there's a couple autocannons mounted on the hull."

Willi finally got a question in, the most basic one. "How many of these are there?" The trooper shrugged. "Not many right now, they got into mass production about eight months ago, I know not all of them are in Indochina right now, but feel lucky there were a couple in your neighborhood now." Then he got it, for all the good this beast of a machine could do, even without being as big as the enemy's TSF's and without flight, German industry had been focused on designing high maneuverability infantry mechs for so long designing these monsters must take some getting used to.

Just then command sent out a message on all frequencies of the divisions fighting in and around Phu Ly, both those of the remnants of the 37th Corps and those of the 4th Corps. "This is Goethe-01 to all units, this is Goethe-01 to all units. JPS commanders in the field have either surrendered or fled the battlefield. Phu Ly is secure along with the surrounding perimeter. We repeat, Phu Ly is secure along with the surrounding perimeter." That was central command of the 7th Army, and it was the call Willi and 14,000 others had been hoping to hear since they first became entrenched at Phu Ly. Though the sad truth was that whatever leave they got to recuperate and rest was likely to be limited to two days most and not far from the front so they could be redeployed where they were needed. They would be considered battle hardened veteran's even though most of them were still in their twenties and most of the actual older veteran's were dead now. They were officially valuable on a battlefield.

Given the choice of being a valuable piece to send into the front lines and being a less valuable reserve that rarely saw the enemy, Willi would gladly choose the latter. A man was neither a coward nor a fool if he never wanted to see a battlefield in his life again.

Victoria International Airport, Victoria
UCT, Union of British North America

The Abwehr Counter-terrorism team sent to North America to coordinate on the wave of asymmetric attacks in North America and Europe, was arriving in Victoria at present. An envoy from the office of Major General Anthony Asgill had been sent to both meet the German investigators and brief them on the latest updates. A private German government plane landed at a privately booked gate which the North American's had secured to ensure the safety of the European intelligence officers. However, when the plane began disembarking, a group of heavily armed men in combat gear were the first to exit, rather surprising to representative sent to meet the German's, and alarming the security officers nearby.

Then a group of men in the black uniforms of the Abwehr also disembarked, but were equally panicked. One of them, clearly the leader, approached the envoy. "I am Lieutenant Colonel Haden of the Abwehr, we are the counter-terrorism team sent to coordinate with your intelligence on investigating the terror attacks here and abroad. However, before we left we picked up the accompanying Diplomatic Security agents for a much more concerning reason." He pulled out a tablet and brought out a document showing an intelligence report and handed it to the envoy. "Chatter suggests a more than credible threat to members of the Kaiser's immediate family including his wife, children, and siblings. That includes his younger brother, Prince Hans-Wilhelm of Prussia, who is attending Georgetown University here. We are to secure him and prevent any harm coming to his person. For that we would like your assistance. We need North American security official's to take the Prince into protective custody, he is currently on the university campus though you have the Kaiser's permission to drag him away if necessary, he is known to be stubborn."

[Novaya Equestria]

The Hexagon, Omsk, Omsk Oblast
Western Siberia, Russian Federation

"We'll need to train our forces and our people in the art of guerrilla and defensive warfare. I suggest that we build outposts and camps for early warning and armed quick reaction and arm the people in order for them to form militias." Admiral Borealis Norsoutha said to President Makarov, showing off his details for protecting the Russian Federation. "But we'll need to inform the German Empire and the Japanese Empire first that the intention of building outposts near the borders and the equipping and training of militias is only for our safety, as we'll get involved in a war we do not wish to get caught at." Admiral Borealis added. "We'll also need to create plans and blueprints for the construction of buildings built for Western Siberian, tundra, forest, and winter conditions." He added.

"I see. Is there anything else?" Asked President Makarov. "We'll need to set up watchposts and small villages in order to build more homes and to prevent any forms of incursions. The terrain gives us the advantage, allowing us to ambush any enemy forces and defend any places. Outposts and camps will be built for company sized and battalion sized units, respectively. The camps will be built near train stations or formed from abandoned buildings that will need to be cleared out and purified. Any abandoned villages, towns and cities and ghost towns will need to be filled with civilians and military personnel. Anyone who owned mansions outside cities will allow troops to set up camp." Admiral Borealis spoke. "Then that settles it. Admiral, you are in charge of arming and training citizen militias. I hope your plan works. I'll have the Foreign Minister inform Germany and Japan about our intentions." Said Makarov.

[The Union of British North America]

Victoria, UCT, UBNA
Victoria International Airport, Terminal A, Gate 6

Colonel Carver Bushell of the Union Capital Territory's RNAMP Special Branch office and Major Winston Macmillan, from SB Division 9, met with the German security team. Officers from the Victoria Constabulary doing airport security and protection of the gate perimeter were surprised when they saw the several heavily armed and armored men rush out of the gate. The four Abwehr officers, however, were more calm and approached the two Mounties. That eased Bushell's tension. They work black suits, and looked like they could be Special Branch Mounties or CIND, but the European sartorial design would give them away very quickly.

"Yes, of course, Lieutenant Colonel Haden. My men will send a notice to the Georgetown university administration in order to find where His Imperial Highness is right now. You probably have a copy of his school schedule, but if he is stubborn as you say, he maybe cutting class. We should be more subtle in getting him to come along with us, as we don't want to tip off to the threats where he is. Major Macmillan here will inform Government House that you all have arrived here in Victoria. Please follow me to the motor pool. We have a...van for your security team there..." said Col. Bushell as they walked out of the airport and into a police motorcade on a side road just outside the building, away from the main roads. Heavily armed Germans would not sit well with the Territory locals nor the press who got tipped off to a German delegation here in Victoria. But Bushell at least knew how to avoid and mitigate dealings with the press, he was good at that. And many prominent MPs, Senators, Ministers, and even a former GGNA from a term or two ago were happy with his services.

The motorcade began its way towards Georgetown, one of the settlements in the Territory. Victoria International covered over half of East Alexandria County, and was a major source of employment in the Territory. Georgetown was in Washington County, named after the first Governor General of North America, George Washington. Bushell and Haden's teams in the convoy had to cross the Martin Roosevelt Bridge, one of the several bridges that connected the northern and southern banks of the River Potomac. Once on the northern side, they headed northwest towards Georgetown. "Lieutenant Colonel, is this your first trip to the North America, or to the New World at all?" asked Bushell, who was driving an unmarked Special Branch sedan prowler with the Lieutenant Colonel. The two were alone in the car so that they could formulate some guidelines for procedure as there would complications dealing with the university as well as with a German royal. Bushell felt Haden has been to the Americas at least once, but he felt that he has never been to the UBNA. The two engaged in small talk here and there, with Bushell pointing out several major landmarks they saw in the distance as they went up the Northern Bank Waterfront: Washington's Obelisk, the Victoria and Albert Memorial, the Wilberforce Memorial, the Disraeli Memorial, Union Block, Number 16, and the National Botanical Gardens, which had Japanese cherry blossoms blooming as well as Cornflowers, along with North America's national flower, the rose, and the national tree, the maple.

After about 15 minutes of driving and talking, the convoy stopped a block away from Georgetown University Hospital. Bushell got a phone call and answered it. He said thank you and hung up. "Lt. Colonel, HIM is currently not in his western philosophy class. But we got his dorm room address. I'm afraid the Kasier might be upset with the company he has chosen to be with at Georgetown." Said Bushell, referring to the party fraternity they were going to visit, and the difficulty with dealing with them, especially with a group of rowdy students. "I think we should not send in your...security team just yet. We are not sure that the Prince is at the dorm, and a group of heavily armed men charging into a frat house could make them all scatter, and that hinder our investigation and would be something that my government would not like to have on the tele, you understand. There are public places on campus, so perhaps you could have your men wear plain clothes and scour those areas for HIM."

Number 16
Victoria

"Tomorrow, sir, you have a meeting with the JCDSC on current operations in the Occupied Provinces. Also, we have made some communications to Berlin for that conference regarding the status of Western Europe. I believe they are hoping for next week a meeting, but given recent terrorist attacks that may be pushed back once again." said Sir Jordi Maxwell, the Chief of Staff to the Governor-General. "Our embassy is still closed, after that foiled bombing attempt. But Ambassador Emerson is still conveying our wishes and intentions to the German Foreign Office, or what's left of it."

"Damn it all. Terrorist attacks while we are at war? I guess those resistance groups in Europe are thinking they are being anti-imperialist by attacking the German government. But why us? Why are the Sons of Liberty attacking us? Do they want us to be hardliners in regards to Japan, or are they wanting to stoke hatred against the JPS? Are they trying to make the attacks look like Japanese ones? Or is the JPS behind these attacks? I find that idea unlikely. I think the SOL are getting some help from unsavory characters out of country." said David Ryan. "Sir Jordi, please get Division 9 to produce a summary of their findings to me on these terrorist attack. And have it ready for tomorrow's DSC meeting." ordered the GGNA. "Yes, Your Excellency." said Sir Jordi.

After leaving the Oval Room, the main working office of the GGNA, Sir Jordi sent a text to his Pentacle contact, to warn him of the GGNA's suspicion of foreign involvement in the SOL attacks. He also sent the GGNA's schedule for tomorrow.

The Pentacle, UCT
Underground basement

Kenneth Goulding looked at his phone, and looked at the GG's schedule. "Here, take this disposable phone. You pick a time to do it. I trust you would do everything to ensure our safety." he said to his German contact, a representative from Desperado, a front defense company specializing in robotics. "I think when he is in the Government House Gardens about to give a short remark on interprovincial unity is a good time to do it, as it would be televised across the nation. Then my job on 'strategic influence' would be much easier." said Goulding.

His German contact thanked him, got onto the elevator, and left the building. Goulding went to his office, in the same basement. This basement was his, and he had full control over who could come and leave, though Government House could override him at any time. But that would not be a problem, if he and his allies were able to get their preferred man in Number 16. Senator Armstrong would be very much in favor of Goulding's 'strategic influence' program.

"Let's see, if I can get access to the nanomachines' software, I can use them for my psychochemical procedure." he said to himself as he was waiting on the virus to hack into the Joint Services CBRN Response Program's network that controlled the nanomachines currently deployed in the atmospheres of the Occupied Provinces and in the UBNA. He stared at the computer screen. Almost there to full access. "No doubt most of everyone there has inhaled or ingested some of those nanomachines. Those devices are meant to counter any CBRN weapon used, preventing mass deaths. But if I can repurpose them, I can use them to nudge people in the right direction."

Goulding got onto another computer, looking at other plans he had for 'strategic influence' in Europe and in Asia. "Yes. She would do nicely for operations in Asia. My CIND friends will have great use for her."

[Japan and Pacific States]

Area 13, The War Room, Japanese Occupied Russian Far East

Regent Ikaruga Takatsugu stood along side two other Regents the Regent of the family of Saionji, and Kujou around a holographic map table that showed the situation of Japanese Forces around the world, It recently came in that the Solomon islands were under attack by the UBNA, meanwhile the Japanese counterattack against the Germans was already in full swing in Indochina, the frontline in North America finally stabilized itself and Japanese forces were putting up a hard defense against the UBNA of course this was due in part to Japans utilization of the Vector-Type Zero Autonomous Tank Walkers over TSFs to a large degree, Takatsugu held his chin while he watched inch by inch as the frontlines moved back and forth between Japan and Germany while the map's markers barely moved at all for the North America front. "We'll have to either commit to a crushing, decisive blow to The UBNA in order to force them out of the war or capitulate to use... Or perhaps... We could ease things on our front with Germany.." The latter was more of what he had in plan for Germany, but he knew that possibly if Japan were to commit to a large operation of which would crush UBNA forces it could very well backfire.

"Regent Ikaruga!" A Vassal Retainer of the IJRG entered the room, it was Maya Tsukuyomi, she quickly saluted the Regent of whom saluted her back. "What have you to report, Tsukuyomi?" Ikaruga crossed his arms waiting for her report. "The men have been gathered and they're waiting for their briefing, sir." Maya saluted once again and left the room. Ikaruga let out a sigh and turned to the two other Regents. "I'll be back later, hopefully the operations I have in mind will cripple the German Empire... Even just slightly." Ikaruga then left the war room, escorted by two Tozamas, leaving down the hall and to another level he entered a room and a large group of men stood in formation before him in almost full gear, save for their masks and helmets. "Gentlemen. You have been called into service for one purpose and one purpose only, to die for our empire. The Germans at this very moment are planning to attempt to gain on our technological achievements so that they may finally stand a chance against us. ...We cannot allows this to happen, you cannot allow this to happen. You mission is officially state sanctioned by the regency council and the Shogun herself. You will be inserted here." Ikaruga stopped and picked up a map pointer while a projection started up and illuminated the wall right beside him, he quickly pointed to a large dot on the map that was being projected. "This is Trondheim, the German empire's own version of our Area 13, once inside you will destroy any and all materials, research, and personnel attached to this area. Your main targets is a suspected helicarrier, a large vehicle of which can carry fighters and possibly bombers. And one Doctor Vivian Sarat, she is a KOS(Kill On Sight), none there shall be spared. Destroy whatever you can and if possible then escape... If not then do not allow yourselves to be captured. If at all possible we believe there should be a nuclear reactor in the depths of the facility. Cause it to overload that way if escape is not viable then we will have the guarantee you and the materials in your possession will not be captured. ...The Shogun has put a lot of funding into your creation, boys. Do not fail her."

The group of men before Regent Ikaruga then saluted him to which he saluted back and began leaving with both the Tozamas, the men of which he just spoke to were members of Project Wolf, a Japanese super soldier project of which was carried out in secret with genetic tampering as well as some slight cybernetic implants. The project itself was off the books, top secret, nobody knew about it except for the Shogun, the Regents, and very few Vassal Retainers of the IJRG. They were the best of which Japan had to offer, drawn from the IJA their records as well as any sort of evidence to their previous existences were destroyed. Any knowledge of their existence was a state secret. And now they would go through their first test, the destruction of Trondheim.

Spokane, JPS-occupied Oregon Province
Main Shinto Temple of Spokane

Kashiwagi smiled while she poured a cup of tea for Asgill. "Don't think too much of it. ...I had to meet you because I know what's going on, on your side of the lines. ..Your government blames the Shogunate for the terrorist attacks, in this bag is a USB drive as well as some papers, records of our biological and chemical weapons of which we have in our weapon's stocks in Japan, you'll find there's been no change from 1990 to now, on the flash drive there's a message recorded by me for your government explaining how the military and the Shogun operates.... You and I both know we wouldn't attack anything unless it had military value. As with our kinetic strikes, Saigon was attacked for it's key role in the operation of an advanced anti-air system, Moscow was attacked for it's key railroad system, Rome was attacked to kill off it's high command. We had to be sure of that target so we did indeed attack the king's palace there... It was regrettable but you and I both know the only way to keep such countries out of war is to cut their heads of government down... Of which has kept Italy out of the war thus far...." Kashiwagi picked up her tea cup and took a sip.

'It's regrettable that we find ourselves here... I had planned on retiring later in the year... If the Shogun would permit it of course." Kashiwagi smiled to Asgill. "We have to lead the world into a new peace... A peace of which cannot exist while the Germans pull strings behind our backs and pit us against each other... Your grandfather knows all too well the savagery of the Germans, they and their... Kaiser are not to be trusted. They would subjugate the world before peace would reign. The only way to end their threat to the world is to disarm them and prevent them from ever having the capability of going to war. You know as well as I, this war between our countries is pointless. The Shogun would put Admiral Nagumo on trial for his crimes but the war prevents that, he is an asset.. For as long as war continues, the Shogun wouldn't give up a single asset, no matter his or her crimes.. Especially a war such as this where people in Japan and in other places in Asia such as Korea and China see this war as a war of our survival. The Shogun herself isn't excluded from this. She sees the UBNA's war against us over the matter of the Shokaku as a western interventionist act in Japanese affairs, something she doesn't take lightly.... But at the same time so many lives have been lost, peace in the eyes of the Shogun would be impossible... Unless it were a peace that would be favourable to the Empire."

The frontlines between Japan and Germany, Vietnam.

Major Jinguuji's TSF had arrived finally to the frontlines with support from the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the Chinese National Revolutionary Army, her Wardog Squadron was tasked with supporting her while she was tasked with pushing the Germans back down the country with Japan's experimental weapon, the EML-99X. "Wardog-3, you're breaking formation, is something wrong?" Major Jinguuji asked over the TSF's communications to Wardog-3 of which was Sendou Yuzuka, she quickly responded, her image appearing to the bottom left of Major Jinguuji's vision. "I'm sorry ma'am, my jump units and the left leg of my TSF seem to not be working properly." Quickly Wardog-2 came up, Hibiki Tatsunami's image joined Sendou's at the bottom left of Major Jinguuji's vision. "This is Wardog-2 I can confirm. My jump units appear to not be working properly as well. But my TSF's right leg seems to be acting more sensitively than the other." Jinguuji didn't seem to happy about this. "I see, then Wardog-2 and 3 will fall back to the rear, Captain Wu, can you hear me?" Jinguuji asked over the communications to see Captain Wu join Hibiki and Sendou's at the bottom left of Major Jinguuji's vision. "I can hear you Wardog-1, what is it you require?" He asked to the Major waiting for a response. "Can you have two of your best take up for Wardog-2 and 3, their TSFs may have been sabotaged and might need to return to base. The operation must go on if we are to finally drive the Germans from Asia."

"Copy that, Wardog-1. I'll send Sheng and Li up to take over from Wardog-2 and 3." Captain Wu said before two others joined the group at the bottom of Jinguuji's vision. "Lieutenant Shang, Lieutenant Li, you both are to take over from Wardog-2 and 3, they'll have to return to base. Possible sabotage." Captain Wu said before disconnecting, his image disappearing along with Wardog-2 and 3's. "Alright you two, take up the front. I'll be right behind you. Keep the Germans off of me while the weapon is charging, afterwards when it's fully charged get back behind me." Jinguuji said before disconnecting, both the images of Lieutenant Shang and Li disappearing at the same time, Wardog-2 and 3 quickly switched places with the Lieutenants, they quickly took up the front plowing through the advancing troops firing their Assault canons at both infantry and vehicles, using the 120mm attached canon atop their 36mm ones while Major Jinguuji began charging the EML-99X

"This is strange... The weapon won't go above 85% power..." She said to herself before raising the flight on her communications. "The weapon is 85% charged, it won't go above it for some reason, we'll have to hope this works or the entire offensive is done here and now. Lieutenants Shang and Li, both of you get behind me I'll be firing, I don't want you all to get in the way." And sure enough just as she spoke, Shang and Li joined Major Jinguuji at her side. "Firing." She said one last time before a light started to project from the EML-99X towards the German/Swedish frontlines quickly expanding, flattening the area infront of Major Jinguuji the beam started to turn tanks and a large portion of the German's war frames into molten scrap metal. "Burn you western filth!" Major Jinguuji could hear over the open comms being yelled out in German, at this moment Japan proved, if Germany was to push, then they'd push back harder. "Ceasing fire! and returning to base, the 95th Tactical Armoured Regiment can handle the rest! Good work everyone!" And with that, Major Jinguuji's flight of TSFs would begin returning to base and the footage captured of the EML-99X's firing on German positions, turning both Germans and Swedes to dust and molten metal would spread throughout the world.

Kyoto, The Imperial Palace

Shogun Meiya had watched the Kaiser's address to his Volkshalle, she was indeed aggravated by it but with the incoming information of the Japanese/Allied counterattack proceeding as planned she couldn't help but feel somewhat smug and proud of her forces and the forces of her allies. A few hours after the first confirmation of German/Swede withdrawl back to their positions south of Hanoi, the Shogun arranged for a speech to be internationally broadcast to the world at the seat of Japan's "public" government, Meiya stood behind a set of large wooden doors, dressed in her usual white attire, a change from the usual IJRG uniform she would wear in public for such matters. The doors were opened by two IJRG Vassal Retainers and Meiya stepped through walking to a podium where a large group of press waited for her, their cameras already rolling. "Yesterday, the arrogant leader of Germany and it's puppet states in Europe had launched a large counterattack against Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese forces in Vietnam. I am happy to report this pitiful excuse of a counterattack has been put down and the IJA with it's Chinese and Vietnamese allies has successfully pushed the Germans back to their positions south of Hanoi. This was due in part to the brilliance of Director Kouzuki Yuuko and her years of devotion to the security of the free Asia. As many have already likely seen, the weapon in which made this all possible, the EML-99X has turned Germans and their Swedish pets to dust, their mighty war machines have been reduced to molten steel and iron. As I had said before when this war began, the enemy is indeed strong, he may hurl back our forces but we shall return again and again, indeed we have. The German Empire and it's criminals of which run it are nothing but thugs, murderers and thieves. I have personally spoken with one man, a man of whom defected to us because he has witnessed the crimes himself, first hand, he who has witnessed this first hand, one man who lost his son, his grandson and his daughter in law to these "men" if they can be called that. ..All to protect a state secret, I assure you should this man had been born Japanese, as well as his son, daughter in law and grandson, such a crime would've never been committed, but as I speak at this very moment the Germans would of course deny these facts.

Calling them insane hearsay from a "dictator", a "murderer". I am no more of a Dictator than their Kaiser is a lieutenant of god as they so acclaim. The German Empire and it's puppet states for as long as they stand against the march of an Asia demanding it's freedom from the west shall find themselves fighting until Japanese troops enter their towns, their cities, and their villages, and if so need be. Force a peace in which never again shall the Germans threaten another state, never again shall the Germans hold peoples blind of their oppression, never again shall the Germans force their will on others. The Germans started this war long ago, with their aggressions against Asia, against the world. It will be up to those of us, not blinded by their lies to put an end to their aggression. And so I know most watching this will ask, "What of the UBNA?" "What of their unprovoked attacks on us over a trivial matter such as the handing over of Admiral Nagumo." Believe me when I say I would hand him over but the position in which they have forced Japan, forced Asia into has left me no choice but to refuse any possibility of peace unless it were favourable to us all. Their attacks have shaken my trust in them and their leaders. I wouldn't trust them with my back to them as I did before.... Now there is another thing I wish to address, the UBNA and the German Empire, assert the absolutely insane notion that I or anyone in the Japanese government had authorized attacks of which took place in both countries, one after the other. I would never allow such attacks, firstly because there is no point to them, there was no military target, and secondly the first attack was carried out with a chemical weapon. I would never authorise the use of such a weapon unless it was in absolute desperation. And I am being truthful about it, which is more than I can say about Germany. Up to this very point and far into the future I will always be truthful about such matters, and I recognise there will be those of whom question this with their own questions.

"What about the kinetic strikes on Saigon, Moscow, and Rome?" I'm happy to explain those, those attacks were carried out inorder to cripple both the German and the Italian militaries, Sagion was the home of an advanced anti-aircraft defense system, and so it was attacked, Moscow was attacked for it's railway systems of which could be used to open up a front in the north, Rome was attacked for it being the home of the high command of Italy's armed forces, as any student of war knows, if you sever the chain of command to a country's military it is unable to fight, to organize it's fighting camp effectively. That was the purpose of these attacks. The attacks carried out in the UBNA and Germany were attacks carried out by spineless cowards, wishing to draw the war out, to put fear into the populations of both nations. I, the regency council, the government of the Japanese empire would never allow for such pointless attacks, for the reason of it being a waste of resources, I know that is a cruel reason but it is indeed the truth. Now, that is all I wished to address, thank you for your time. That is all." Meiya then left the stage back the way she came and the large wooden doors had shut behind her and she would leave hours later for Area 13 in the Japanese Occupied Far Eastern Russian territories.

Area 13, Japanese Occupied Far Eastern Territories

After the briefing of the members of Project Wolf, Regent Ikaruga was informed of the arrival of two HVTs from North America, Lea Gegranne, a former officer of the French Army, turned fascist resistance member and a North American Army defector named Ironside. Entering the interrogation room where both were put by the Tsukuyomi cousins, Ikragua smiled to Lea. "Major Gegranne, it's good to see you once again... Though I must apologise, the loss of France to those German bastards is a tragedy. But I assure you when the war comes to an end we shall have France free again and support your future government." Ikaruga took Lea's hand and kissed it before turning his attention to Ironside. "So you picked up a stray huh? ....He isn't the only one, have you met... I think his name was Erich Voss? The Kempetai brought him in earlier at the start of the war, he's apparently, or well he was a General in Germany's Abwehr... Anyway I'm getting ahead of myself, welcome, both of you to Area 13, Japan's own... Area 51 if you will." Lea smiled and looked to Ironside then back to Ikaruga. "Thank you Regent, it's an honour to be here. Thank you for saving me from those UBNA scumbags.... No offense cher." Lea sat back in her chair looking up to Regent Ikaruga when she said scumbags she thought Ironside would take offense to it... And quickly settled it there.

"Anyway, Miss Gegranne, would you mind working with Yuuko on a project we have going on? It's important and given your own background with some knowledge in technology I'd like to have her have all the help she can... As for you, mister Ironside, you've no need to concern yourself with anything. Your quarters are down the hall. Please refrain from attempting to contact anyone other than I or one of the Tsukuyomi cousins, you'll know them by their Vassal Retainer uniforms and their... Oddly coloured hair. That is all." Ikaruga then left with Gegranne to take her to Yuuko while Tsukuyomi Mana showed up immediately afterwards. "So.. You're the defector I'm supposed to watch over then."

Outside of Polo, Japanese Occupied Solomon Islands

Yui was.... Less than impressed to say the least, to her it appeared the UBNA simply reverse engineered a Shiranui.... Or possibly a Type 82 Zuikaku and made their own modifications to it. To add onto this she heard "Let's go JPS lapdog" over the open comms... They didn't have private communications? They've truly made a horrible knock off of a Japanese TSF so she'd figure she'd respond in kind. "Of course Yankee, Come and dance with the best, the Shogunate has to offer, or would you rather continue fighting the lowly, poorly trained soldiers of the IJA? Coward." Yui then gently jolted her right control stick to the right, the mechanical arm on her TSF's back raised itself up allowing her to take her Type-74 PB blade off with ease. She always carried two but she figured she'd make it an "even" fight. "Come now Yankee. Let us dance and prove who's the superior warrior."

[New Decius]

Area 13, The War Room, Japanese Occupied Russian Far East

Regent Ikaruga Takatsugu stood along side two other Regents the Regent of the family of Saionji, and Kujou around a holographic map table that showed the situation of Japanese Forces around the world, It recently came in that the Solomon islands were under attack by the UBNA, meanwhile the Japanese counterattack against the Germans was already in full swing in Indochina, the frontline in North America finally stabilized itself and Japanese forces were putting up a hard defense against the UBNA of course this was due in part to Japans utilization of the Vector-Type Zero Autonomous Tank Walkers over TSFs to a large degree, Takatsugu held his chin while he watched inch by inch as the frontlines moved back and forth between Japan and Germany while the map's markers barely moved at all for the North America front. "We'll have to either commit to a crushing, decisive blow to The UBNA in order to force them out of the war or capitulate to use... Or perhaps... We could ease things on our front with Germany.." The latter was more of what he had in plan for Germany, but he knew that possibly if Japan were to commit to a large operation of which would crush UBNA forces it could very well backfire.

"Regent Ikaruga!" A Vassal Retainer of the IJRG entered the room, it was Maya Tsukuyomi, she quickly saluted the Regent of whom saluted her back. "What have you to report, Tsukuyomi?" Ikaruga crossed his arms waiting for her report. "The men have been gathered and they're waiting for their briefing, sir." Maya saluted once again and left the room. Ikaruga let out a sigh and turned to the two other Regents. "I'll be back later, hopefully the operations I have in mind will cripple the German Empire... Even just slightly." Ikaruga then left the war room, escorted by two Tozamas, leaving down the hall and to another level he entered a room and a large group of men stood in formation before him in almost full gear, save for their masks and helmets. "Gentlemen. You have been called into service for one purpose and one purpose only, to die for our empire. The Germans at this very moment are planning to attempt to gain on our technological achievements so that they may finally stand a chance against us. ...We cannot allows this to happen, you cannot allow this to happen. You mission is officially state sanctioned by the regency council and the Shogun herself. You will be inserted here." Ikaruga stopped and picked up a map pointer while a projection started up and illuminated the wall right beside him, he quickly pointed to a large dot on the map that was being projected. "This is Trondheim, the German empire's own version of our Area 13, once inside you will destroy any and all materials, research, and personnel attached to this area. Your main targets is a suspected helicarrier, a large vehicle of which can carry fighters and possibly bombers. And one Doctor Vivian Sarat, she is a KOS(Kill On Sight), none there shall be spared. Destroy whatever you can and if possible then escape... If not then do not allow yourselves to be captured. If at all possible we believe there should be a nuclear reactor in the depths of the facility. Cause it to overload that way if escape is not viable then we will have the guarantee you and the materials in your possession will not be captured. ...The Shogun has put a lot of funding into your creation, boys. Do not fail her."

The group of men before Regent Ikaruga then saluted him to which he saluted back and began leaving with both the Tozamas, the men of which he just spoke to were members of Project Wolf, a Japanese super soldier project of which was carried out in secret with genetic tampering as well as some slight cybernetic implants. The project itself was off the books, top secret, nobody knew about it except for the Shogun, the Regents, and very few Vassal Retainers of the IJRG. They were the best of which Japan had to offer, drawn from the IJA their records as well as any sort of evidence to their previous existences were destroyed. Any knowledge of their existence was a state secret. And now they would go through their first test, the destruction of Trondheim.

Spokane, JPS-occupied Oregon Province
Main Shinto Temple of Spokane

Kashiwagi smiled while she poured a cup of tea for Asgill. "Don't think too much of it. ...I had to meet you because I know what's going on, on your side of the lines. ..Your government blames the Shogunate for the terrorist attacks, in this bag is a USB drive as well as some papers, records of our biological and chemical weapons of which we have in our weapon's stocks in Japan, you'll find there's been no change from 1990 to now, on the flash drive there's a message recorded by me for your government explaining how the military and the Shogun operates.... You and I both know we wouldn't attack anything unless it had military value. As with our kinetic strikes, Saigon was attacked for it's key role in the operation of an advanced anti-air system, Moscow was attacked for it's key railroad system, Rome was attacked to kill off it's high command. We had to be sure of that target so we did indeed attack the king's palace there... It was regrettable but you and I both know the only way to keep such countries out of war is to cut their heads of government down... Of which has kept Italy out of the war thus far...." Kashiwagi picked up her tea cup and took a sip.

'It's regrettable that we find ourselves here... I had planned on retiring later in the year... If the Shogun would permit it of course." Kashiwagi smiled to Asgill. "We have to lead the world into a new peace... A peace of which cannot exist while the Germans pull strings behind our backs and pit us against each other... Your grandfather knows all too well the savagery of the Germans, they and their... Kaiser are not to be trusted. They would subjugate the world before peace would reign. The only way to end their threat to the world is to disarm them and prevent them from ever having the capability of going to war. You know as well as I, this war between our countries is pointless. The Shogun would put Admiral Nagumo on trial for his crimes but the war prevents that, he is an asset.. For as long as war continues, the Shogun wouldn't give up a single asset, no matter his or her crimes.. Especially a war such as this where people in Japan and in other places in Asia such as Korea and China see this war as a war of our survival. The Shogun herself isn't excluded from this. She sees the UBNA's war against us over the matter of the Shokaku as a western interventionist act in Japanese affairs, something she doesn't take lightly.... But at the same time so many lives have been lost, peace in the eyes of the Shogun would be impossible... Unless it were a peace that would be favourable to the Empire."

The frontlines between Japan and Germany, Vietnam.

Major Jinguuji's TSF had arrived finally to the frontlines with support from the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the Chinese National Revolutionary Army, her Wardog Squadron was tasked with supporting her while she was tasked with pushing the Germans back down the country with Japan's experimental weapon, the EML-99X. "Wardog-3, you're breaking formation, is something wrong?" Major Jinguuji asked over the TSF's communications to Wardog-3 of which was Sendou Yuzuka, she quickly responded, her image appearing to the bottom left of Major Jinguuji's vision. "I'm sorry ma'am, my jump units and the left leg of my TSF seem to not be working properly." Quickly Wardog-2 came up, Hibiki Tatsunami's image joined Sendou's at the bottom left of Major Jinguuji's vision. "This is Wardog-2 I can confirm. My jump units appear to not be working properly as well. But my TSF's right leg seems to be acting more sensitively than the other." Jinguuji didn't seem to happy about this. "I see, then Wardog-2 and 3 will fall back to the rear, Captain Wu, can you hear me?" Jinguuji asked over the communications to see Captain Wu join Hibiki and Sendou's at the bottom left of Major Jinguuji's vision. "I can hear you Wardog-1, what is it you require?" He asked to the Major waiting for a response. "Can you have two of your best take up for Wardog-2 and 3, their TSFs may have been sabotaged and might need to return to base. The operation must go on if we are to finally drive the Germans from Asia."

"Copy that, Wardog-1. I'll send Sheng and Li up to take over from Wardog-2 and 3." Captain Wu said before two others joined the group at the bottom of Jinguuji's vision. "Lieutenant Shang, Lieutenant Li, you both are to take over from Wardog-2 and 3, they'll have to return to base. Possible sabotage." Captain Wu said before disconnecting, his image disappearing along with Wardog-2 and 3's. "Alright you two, take up the front. I'll be right behind you. Keep the Germans off of me while the weapon is charging, afterwards when it's fully charged get back behind me." Jinguuji said before disconnecting, both the images of Lieutenant Shang and Li disappearing at the same time, Wardog-2 and 3 quickly switched places with the Lieutenants, they quickly took up the front plowing through the advancing troops firing their Assault canons at both infantry and vehicles, using the 120mm attached canon atop their 36mm ones while Major Jinguuji began charging the EML-99X

"This is strange... The weapon won't go above 85% power..." She said to herself before raising the flight on her communications. "The weapon is 85% charged, it won't go above it for some reason, we'll have to hope this works or the entire offensive is done here and now. Lieutenants Shang and Li, both of you get behind me I'll be firing, I don't want you all to get in the way." And sure enough just as she spoke, Shang and Li joined Major Jinguuji at her side. "Firing." She said one last time before a light started to project from the EML-99X towards the German/Swedish frontlines quickly expanding, flattening the area infront of Major Jinguuji the beam started to turn tanks and a large portion of the German's war frames into molten scrap metal. "Burn you western filth!" Major Jinguuji could hear over the open comms being yelled out in German, at this moment Japan proved, if Germany was to push, then they'd push back harder. "Ceasing fire! and returning to base, the 95th Tactical Armoured Regiment can handle the rest! Good work everyone!" And with that, Major Jinguuji's flight of TSFs would begin returning to base and the footage captured of the EML-99X's firing on German positions, turning both Germans and Swedes to dust and molten metal would spread throughout the world.

Kyoto, The Imperial Palace

Shogun Meiya had watched the Kaiser's address to his Volkshalle, she was indeed aggravated by it but with the incoming information of the Japanese/Allied counterattack proceeding as planned she couldn't help but feel somewhat smug and proud of her forces and the forces of her allies. A few hours after the first confirmation of German/Swede withdrawl back to their positions south of Hanoi, the Shogun arranged for a speech to be internationally broadcast to the world at the seat of Japan's "public" government, Meiya stood behind a set of large wooden doors, dressed in her usual white attire, a change from the usual IJRG uniform she would wear in public for such matters. The doors were opened by two IJRG Vassal Retainers and Meiya stepped through walking to a podium where a large group of press waited for her, their cameras already rolling. "Yesterday, the arrogant leader of Germany and it's puppet states in Europe had launched a large counterattack against Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese forces in Vietnam. I am happy to report this pitiful excuse of a counterattack has been put down and the IJA with it's Chinese and Vietnamese allies has successfully pushed the Germans back to their positions south of Hanoi. This was due in part to the brilliance of Director Kouzuki Yuuko and her years of devotion to the security of the free Asia. As many have already likely seen, the weapon in which made this all possible, the EML-99X has turned Germans and their Swedish pets to dust, their mighty war machines have been reduced to molten steel and iron. As I had said before when this war began, the enemy is indeed strong, he may hurl back our forces but we shall return again and again, indeed we have. The German Empire and it's criminals of which run it are nothing but thugs, murderers and thieves. I have personally spoken with one man, a man of whom defected to us because he has witnessed the crimes himself, first hand, he who has witnessed this first hand, one man who lost his son, his grandson and his daughter in law to these "men" if they can be called that. ..All to protect a state secret, I assure you should this man had been born Japanese, as well as his son, daughter in law and grandson, such a crime would've never been committed, but as I speak at this very moment the Germans would of course deny these facts.

Calling them insane hearsay from a "dictator", a "murderer". I am no more of a Dictator than their Kaiser is a lieutenant of god as they so acclaim. The German Empire and it's puppet states for as long as they stand against the march of an Asia demanding it's freedom from the west shall find themselves fighting until Japanese troops enter their towns, their cities, and their villages, and if so need be. Force a peace in which never again shall the Germans threaten another state, never again shall the Germans hold peoples blind of their oppression, never again shall the Germans force their will on others. The Germans started this war long ago, with their aggressions against Asia, against the world. It will be up to those of us, not blinded by their lies to put an end to their aggression. And so I know most watching this will ask, "What of the UBNA?" "What of their unprovoked attacks on us over a trivial matter such as the handing over of Admiral Nagumo." Believe me when I say I would hand him over but the position in which they have forced Japan, forced Asia into has left me no choice but to refuse any possibility of peace unless it were favourable to us all. Their attacks have shaken my trust in them and their leaders. I wouldn't trust them with my back to them as I did before.... Now there is another thing I wish to address, the UBNA and the German Empire, assert the absolutely insane notion that I or anyone in the Japanese government had authorized attacks of which took place in both countries, one after the other. I would never allow such attacks, firstly because there is no point to them, there was no military target, and secondly the first attack was carried out with a chemical weapon. I would never authorise the use of such a weapon unless it was in absolute desperation. And I am being truthful about it, which is more than I can say about Germany. Up to this very point and far into the future I will always be truthful about such matters, and I recognise there will be those of whom question this with their own questions.

"What about the kinetic strikes on Saigon, Moscow, and Rome?" I'm happy to explain those, those attacks were carried out inorder to cripple both the German and the Italian militaries, Sagion was the home of an advanced anti-aircraft defense system, and so it was attacked, Moscow was attacked for it's railway systems of which could be used to open up a front in the north, Rome was attacked for it being the home of the high command of Italy's armed forces, as any student of war knows, if you sever the chain of command to a country's military it is unable to fight, to organize it's fighting camp effectively. That was the purpose of these attacks. The attacks carried out in the UBNA and Germany were attacks carried out by spineless cowards, wishing to draw the war out, to put fear into the populations of both nations. I, the regency council, the government of the Japanese empire would never allow for such pointless attacks, for the reason of it being a waste of resources, I know that is a cruel reason but it is indeed the truth. Now, that is all I wished to address, thank you for your time. That is all." Meiya then left the stage back the way she came and the large wooden doors had shut behind her and she would leave hours later for Area 13 in the Japanese Occupied Far Eastern Russian territories.

Area 13, Japanese Occupied Far Eastern Territories

After the briefing of the members of Project Wolf, Regent Ikaruga was informed of the arrival of two HVTs from North America, Lea Gegranne, a former officer of the French Army, turned fascist resistance member and a North American Army defector named Ironside. Entering the interrogation room where both were put by the Tsukuyomi cousins, Ikragua smiled to Lea. "Major Gegranne, it's good to see you once again... Though I must apologise, the loss of France to those German bastards is a tragedy. But I assure you when the war comes to an end we shall have France free again and support your future government." Ikaruga took Lea's hand and kissed it before turning his attention to Ironside. "So you picked up a stray huh? ....He isn't the only one, have you met... I think his name was Erich Voss? The Kempetai brought him in earlier at the start of the war, he's apparently, or well he was a General in Germany's Abwehr... Anyway I'm getting ahead of myself, welcome, both of you to Area 13, Japan's own... Area 51 if you will." Lea smiled and looked to Ironside then back to Ikaruga. "Thank you Regent, it's an honour to be here. Thank you for saving me from those UBNA scumbags.... No offense cher." Lea sat back in her chair looking up to Regent Ikaruga when she said scumbags she thought Ironside would take offense to it... And quickly settled it there.

"Anyway, Miss Gegranne, would you mind working with Yuuko on a project we have going on? It's important and given your own background with some knowledge in technology I'd like to have her have all the help she can... As for you, mister Ironside, you've no need to concern yourself with anything. Your quarters are down the hall. Please refrain from attempting to contact anyone other than I or one of the Tsukuyomi cousins, you'll know them by their Vassal Retainer uniforms and their... Oddly coloured hair. That is all." Ikaruga then left with Gegranne to take her to Yuuko while Tsukuyomi Mana showed up immediately afterwards. "So.. You're the defector I'm supposed to watch over then."

Outside of Polo, Japanese Occupied Solomon Islands

Yui was.... Less than impressed to say the least, to her it appeared the UBNA simply reverse engineered a Shiranui.... Or possibly a Type 82 Zuikaku and made their own modifications to it. To add onto this she heard "Let's go JPS lapdog" over the open comms... They didn't have private communications? They've truly made a horrible knock off of a Japanese TSF so she'd figure she'd respond in kind. "Of course Yankee, Come and dance with the best, the Shogunate has to offer, or would you rather continue fighting the lowly, poorly trained soldiers of the IJA? Coward." Yui then gently jolted her right control stick to the right, the mechanical arm on her TSF's back raised itself up allowing her to take her Type-74 PB blade off with ease. She always carried two but she figured she'd make it an "even" fight. "Come now Yankee. Let us dance and prove who's the superior warrior."

Frontline between European Community and Japan, Indochina
Northern Vietnam

The combined European counteroffensive had achieved most of its goals; they had relieved Phu Ly (Which had been under siege since the start of the war), recaptured a vast amount of Northern Vietnam, and encircled a large number of Japanese divisions (Estimate of encircled and neutralized enemy divisions was at 10-11) while suffering only 33% casualties on the whole offensive. However, due to a devastating Japanese counterattack South of Hanoi, European forces had not been able to close the pincers around Hanoi and so an estimated six enemy divisions managed to escape before the pincers did close and the European lines stabilized just South of Hanoi, putting the city in artillery range on much of the front.

Thanks to the opening phase of the offensive, most of the Japanese-held airbases they still controlled in Northern Vietnam, along with quite a few in Southern China, were burning from European airstrikes, sabotage, or satellite launched thermobaric missiles. The Luftwaffe had almost uncontested control of the skies of Indochina and the South China Sea, operating from airbases in Indochina and the now increased carrier presence in the SCS. Not to mention that Germany’s latest War Frame, the Panzerfestung (Armor Fortress), was capable of taking a beating from Japan’s latest TSF’s and dishing out one hell of a beating with its 188mm EM railguns mounted where its arms should be. Though few in number, only forty were deployed in Indochina and nine lost so far in the counteroffensive, they had proved themselves capable of taking out large numbers of Japanese armor and even groups of TSF’s. Other German War Frame classes, such as older 9th and 10th Generation models, were doing poorly against Japan’s TSF’s but still did well against regular armored forces (OOC: I don’t mean regular as in average but in the same way one might say regular infantry and militia infantry). The 11th Generation classes such as the Panzerfestung and Windhund were performing well in all categories.

All this Willi Dernen read in the frontline reports distributed to the men by their NCO’s as part of a morale campaign, while sitting in an honest to goodness trench, though much cleaner and more organized than Kaiser Wilhelm’s lads had in 1914, about 27 kilometers South of the city they were supposed to take by the end of the counteroffensive. Instead here they sat, while what seemed like tens of thousands of pieces of artillery and hundreds of aircraft banged away at Hanoi for all they were worth. More importantly, it was nice to have the shoe on the other foot for Willi and the 14,000 others who made it out of the Siege of Phu Ly alive, nice to have the enemy get a taste of hellfire instead of him.

Though Japanese TSF’s did still have a way of ruining ones day, like how that one with a fancy gun took out twenty-three War Frames and forty tanks, along with several hundred infantry in one go. Still they wouldn’t get away with that again, the Luftwaffe was devoting its CAS aircraft to bringing down any TSF’s they could find that got airborne while the level bombers did the working over job on Hanoi. Oh sure some Japanese TSF’s still manage to get flying and harass the European lines, but with enemy air superiority essentially gone, the Japanese were left almost unprotected from attacks by aircraft.

Still the war seemed to have ground down to a halt again, Willi knew that he and his pals wouldn’t be charging into Hanoi any time soon. The European commanders seemed content to wait the Japanese out by bombarding them into dust. Rumors were flying around that the MANTIS system would be back online soon, in a week or two maybe. Then those specialized railguns would get back into action, and Germany would have total air superiority in Indochina again. Not to mention the guns in Japanese held territory would come online too and start attacking their aircraft and TSF’s in their rear. The MANTIS guns were so large and fired a shell of such a high caliber that using them in an artillery role had seemed absurd; as a direct fire weapon they couldn’t be used for bombardment, but they could knock a silver pfenning out of the sky with ease and that was what made them so valuable.

As Willi was just stuffing the report away in his jacket pocket, Adam Pfaff came over and sat next to him on an adjacent crate. “You wanna hear something funny?” Willi shrugged. “The Shogun pretty much said we started this war and the strikes on Moskau, Saigon, and Rome were completely justified. And that their basically going to put us back in our pitiful Weimar era shell of weakness when their through with us.” Willi snorted. “Yeah, sure. By the look of things, their the ones in retreat on almost every front, not us. We’re going forward, well we were. But after we’ve pounded Hanoi flat, we’ll stamp out whatever resistance remains and push them all the way back into China. Then lets see what she has to say about Germany.” As a loyal German and a Protestant, Willi found it hard to ignore the unprovoked attack by kinetic strike on German soil, the murder of seven million people, and the death of His Holiness the Pope. By God and Kaiser, he would fight this war to its end.

[spoiler=UBNA]

Victoria, UCT, UBNA
Victoria International Airport, Terminal A, Gate 6

Colonel Carver Bushell of the Union Capital Territory's RNAMP Special Branch office and Major Winston Macmillan, from SB Division 9, met with the German security team. Officers from the Victoria Constabulary doing airport security and protection of the gate perimeter were surprised when they saw the several heavily armed and armored men rush out of the gate. The four Abwehr officers, however, were more calm and approached the two Mounties. That eased Bushell's tension. They work black suits, and looked like they could be Special Branch Mounties or CIND, but the European sartorial design would give them away very quickly.

"Yes, of course, Lieutenant Colonel Haden. My men will send a notice to the Georgetown university administration in order to find where His Imperial Highness is right now. You probably have a copy of his school schedule, but if he is stubborn as you say, he maybe cutting class. We should be more subtle in getting him to come along with us, as we don't want to tip off to the threats where he is. Major Macmillan here will inform Government House that you all have arrived here in Victoria. Please follow me to the motor pool. We have a...van for your security team there..." said Col. Bushell as they walked out of the airport and into a police motorcade on a side road just outside the building, away from the main roads. Heavily armed Germans would not sit well with the Territory locals nor the press who got tipped off to a German delegation here in Victoria. But Bushell at least knew how to avoid and mitigate dealings with the press, he was good at that. And many prominent MPs, Senators, Ministers, and even a former GGNA from a term or two ago were happy with his services.

The motorcade began its way towards Georgetown, one of the settlements in the Territory. Victoria International covered over half of East Alexandria County, and was a major source of employment in the Territory. Georgetown was in Washington County, named after the first Governor General of North America, George Washington. Bushell and Haden's teams in the convoy had to cross the Martin Roosevelt Bridge, one of the several bridges that connected the northern and southern banks of the River Potomac. Once on the northern side, they headed northwest towards Georgetown. "Lieutenant Colonel, is this your first trip to the North America, or to the New World at all?" asked Bushell, who was driving an unmarked Special Branch sedan prowler with the Lieutenant Colonel. The two were alone in the car so that they could formulate some guidelines for procedure as there would complications dealing with the university as well as with a German royal. Bushell felt Haden has been to the Americas at least once, but he felt that he has never been to the UBNA. The two engaged in small talk here and there, with Bushell pointing out several major landmarks they saw in the distance as they went up the Northern Bank Waterfront: Washington's Obelisk, the Victoria and Albert Memorial, the Wilberforce Memorial, the Disraeli Memorial, Union Block, Number 16, and the National Botanical Gardens, which had Japanese cherry blossoms blooming as well as Cornflowers, along with North America's national flower, the rose, and the national tree, the maple.

After about 15 minutes of driving and talking, the convoy stopped a block away from Georgetown University Hospital. Bushell got a phone call and answered it. He said thank you and hung up. "Lt. Colonel, HIM is currently not in his western philosophy class. But we got his dorm room address. I'm afraid the Kasier might be upset with the company he has chosen to be with at Georgetown." Said Bushell, referring to the party fraternity they were going to visit, and the difficulty with dealing with them, especially with a group of rowdy students. "I think we should not send in your...security team just yet. We are not sure that the Prince is at the dorm, and a group of heavily armed men charging into a frat house could make them all scatter, and that hinder our investigation and would be something that my government would not like to have on the tele, you understand. There are public places on campus, so perhaps you could have your men wear plain clothes and scour those areas for HIM."

Number 16
Victoria

"Tomorrow, sir, you have a meeting with the JCDSC on current operations in the Occupied Provinces. Also, we have made some communications to Berlin for that conference regarding the status of Western Europe. I believe they are hoping for next week a meeting, but given recent terrorist attacks that may be pushed back once again." said Sir Jordi Maxwell, the Chief of Staff to the Governor-General. "Our embassy is still closed, after that foiled bombing attempt. But Ambassador Emerson is still conveying our wishes and intentions to the German Foreign Office, or what's left of it."

"Damn it all. Terrorist attacks while we are at war? I guess those resistance groups in Europe are thinking they are being anti-imperialist by attacking the German government. But why us? Why are the Sons of Liberty attacking us? Do they want us to be hardliners in regards to Japan, or are they wanting to stoke hatred against the JPS? Are they trying to make the attacks look like Japanese ones? Or is the JPS behind these attacks? I find that idea unlikely. I think the SOL are getting some help from unsavory characters out of country." said David Ryan. "Sir Jordi, please get Division 9 to produce a summary of their findings to me on these terrorist attack. And have it ready for tomorrow's DSC meeting." ordered the GGNA. "Yes, Your Excellency." said Sir Jordi.

After leaving the Oval Room, the main working office of the GGNA, Sir Jordi sent a text to his Pentacle contact, to warn him of the GGNA's suspicion of foreign involvement in the SOL attacks. He also sent the GGNA's schedule for tomorrow.

The Pentacle, UCT
Underground basement

Kenneth Goulding looked at his phone, and looked at the GG's schedule. "Here, take this disposable phone. You pick a time to do it. I trust you would do everything to ensure our safety." he said to his German contact, a representative from Desperado, a front defense company specializing in robotics. "I think when he is in the Government House Gardens about to give a short remark on interprovincial unity is a good time to do it, as it would be televised across the nation. Then my job on 'strategic influence' would be much easier." said Goulding.

His German contact thanked him, got onto the elevator, and left the building. Goulding went to his office, in the same basement. This basement was his, and he had full control over who could come and leave, though Government House could override him at any time. But that would not be a problem, if he and his allies were able to get their preferred man in Number 16. Senator Armstrong would be very much in favor of Goulding's 'strategic influence' program.

"Let's see, if I can get access to the nanomachines' software, I can use them for my psychochemical procedure." he said to himself as he was waiting on the virus to hack into the Joint Services CBRN Response Program's network that controlled the nanomachines currently deployed in the atmospheres of the Occupied Provinces and in the UBNA. He stared at the computer screen. Almost there to full access. "No doubt most of everyone there has inhaled or ingested some of those nanomachines. Those devices are meant to counter any CBRN weapon used, preventing mass deaths. But if I can repurpose them, I can use them to nudge people in the right direction."

Goulding got onto another computer, looking at other plans he had for 'strategic influence' in Europe and in Asia. "Yes. She would do nicely for operations in Asia. My CIND friends will have great use for her."

Georgetown, UBNA

Oberstleutnant Harden then got an alert on his tablet, one which erased his calm and peaceful manner as quickly as the tidal waves which swept the fabled city of Atlantis into the sea. He turned to Bushell with panic written across his face. “I’m afraid we do not have time for a slow search Colonel. The threat level has just been raised from credible to imminent, as we speak His Imperial and Royal Majesty is being taken to a secure location along with other members of the Imperial Family. We are to secure Prince Hans Wilhelm on site, the Kaiser has given us authorization to render him unconscious if necessary. It is believed that an assailant armed with a knife with target His Royal Highness and-“ Haden stopped, for he had seen a figure walking across the campus over Bushell’s shoulder. A very certain figure.

Haden politely moved Bushell out of the way and then advanced quickly with one of his fellow officers in tow towards said blond haired young man, currently talking to a pretty young lady. Haden did not care who the Prince was talking to, merely they had found him. And Hans-Wilhelm saw the two officers of the Abwehr approaching and gave an excuse to send the girl away so he could speak with them, a scowl on his face. “Your Royal Highness! Thank God we’ve found you! You need to come with us immediately!” The Prince looked even angrier. “What is brother-sorry, His Majesty, angry I’ve skipped some of my classes-“ Haden cut him off abruptly. “Your Highness there is a credible threat against the Kaiser and his immediate family, including yourself. More than credible the threat is imminent. We have to move you to a secure location now.” That shut him up and stunned him at the same time. His first words being “And my nephew Franz, my sister Brunhild, the rest of my family?!”

Haden didn’t even attempt to calm him down, in fact each officer grabbed an arm and began frogmarching the Prince back over to where Bushell was. “They are being secured as well and you can be assured the Abwehr and Imperial German Army are doing their utmost to prevent any assassination taking place.” Finally they arrived back where Bushell and his aide were and Haden questioned him immediately. “You mentioned you have a secure location on hand? This is no longer a matter for slow and unglamorous sir. This is a matter for immediate action.”

Neuschwanstein Castle, Hohenschwangau
Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire

“But Your Royal Majesty, the threat level is more than credible, it is imminent. Though the evidence strongly argues that His Royal Highness, Prince Hans-Wilhelm, is the target, every member of His Imperial and Royal Majesty’s immediate family is considered threatened. We need you, along with your nephew His Imperial and Royal Highness Crown Prince Franz, to return with us to Munich where you can be taken to the Emergency Bunker there. It is the most secure location in all of Bavaria, the castle is far too exposed and isolated for proper support to be given in the event of an attack.” Oberstleutnant Günther Baum of the Kaiserliche Armee, stressed to Her Royal Majesty, Queen-consort Brunhild of Bavaria in the main foyer of the castle owned by the Germania dynasty in Bavaria. Her Majesty was quite adamant that both she, and her nephew the German Crown Prince, were perfectly safe because the castle was as well guarded as the Stadtschlosse in Berlin. The Lieutenant Colonel was running out of breath explaining over and over that it was at the Kaiser’s express orders she and his son be taken to a secure location.

“There is a regiment of infantry garrisoned here Oberstleutnant, along with well over fifty of my own security personnel as Queen-consort of Bavaria, coupled with the fifteen man detail my nephew sports, no one is getting in here with anything short of a battalion. There is a MANTIS emplacement in the forest along with a radar unit and additional anti-aircraft emplacements. Believe me when I say sir, that I and my nephew will be perfectly safe here and you can tell my brother to stop worrying so much and relax.”

It was looking to be a long argument going.

[The Union of British North America]

Georgetown University campus, Georgetown, UCT, UBNA

"Yes, Lieutenant Colonel. We can take him to RNAMP HQ, where we have some secure rooms for VIPs. Now, very few civilians have seen you secure His Imperial Highness, so we should be in the clear as we head to Victoria. Home Intelligence has updated me with the possible threats in the capital, and we are moving to secure the German Embassy complex exterior, the German consulate here in Victoria and in other cities. Let's head to the Sir John Hoover Building. I'll make sure you have additional security from the boys in red serge." said Colonel Bushell. "I'll also inform Government House. I think His Excellency, you-know-who, would like to speak with HIM, as a courtesy."


Area 13, JPS-occupied Russian Far East

That is Ikaruga, one of the Regents, thought The Psycho. His host Captain Derek Ironside, North American Army Intelligence Branch, was also familiar with him as well, judging by his memories of learning intimately the big names in the JPS Shogunate and Regency Council. He could be the next Shogun, if the JPS Emperor desired so after the current one kicked the bucket or resigned.

But The Psycho was not that interested in Ikaruga, that womanizer. He was more interested in the Shogun herself, the Emperor, and the child and Crown Princess they have together. It has been several days since Ironside died in England during the UBNA-led invasion of the Socialist Republic of Great Britain and The Psycho taking over his body in the precious few seconds he had to possess him. Ironside had received a "special" psychological endurance test before the UBNA op in Britain, but he didn't even know about that, he thought he was getting an ordinary psych eval for intelligence officers. Once at near death, the sniper's bullet less than inch from his heart, The Psycho, lying dormant in his psyche, took over, and ensured Ironside got back to the Provinces for his "defection" to the JPS. Those special nanomachines is what kept Ironside's body going, as well as letting The Psycho possess him easily.

He had the perfect cover, as everyone thought he was dead and that no one, except for those bastards who did the hypnotherapy on Ironside and the grafting of The Psycho's left arm onto Ironside all those years ago, knew what was really going on. To win this war against the JPS, this monster, a monster had to be created. He needed to know what the Shogun, the Emperor, and the Crown Princess thought, so he could influence them. The Psycho, before he became this grafted abomination, was a product of the Soviet ESP program from the 1980s, though escaped during that time and later became a speicalist for the RNAMP for investigating serial killers. He later joined the NASAS (North American Special Air Service) FOXHOUND unit, and participated in the Shadow Moses Incident, a rebellion against the UBNA government, though he didn't want to remember what transpired then and there. He wanted to focus on his mission here in JPS territory, behind enemy lines. He wanted to see how his "sisters" turned out, and to know the mind of the enemy.

"It's no offense, Major. We're all soldiers here who disagree with the current state of affairs. As we North Americans like to say, we love our people but hate our government. I just hate it enough to resort to treason to save the nation. I'm sure you have fellows in the former Metropole and in Quebec who would like to see an independent France again. I would like to see the UBNA end this fruitless war. I was and still opposed to the UBNA intervention in the Pacific Provinces--sorry, even I still refer to them as Provinces--and the rejection of invading communist France to liberate it and provide an independent state to challenge Germany and its domination of Europe. But, I digress, I'll leave you with Regent Ikaruga. Good day." He saluted, as she was a rank higher than him. He watched both of them leave.

He then turned to the person assigned to watch him. "Captain Derek William Ironside, North American Army, Intelligence Branch. I assume you want to get right down to business, to see what I can provide besides my philosophical reasons against the UBNA? I may not like the JPS way of governing, here in Asia and in the Western Provinces, but I do admire the order and the resistance to outside interference, especially the military kind. I can give you and your superiors information on UBNA doctrine, tactics, strategy, and weapon deployment." He held up a flash drive with his gloved left hand. "Hopefully, with this intel and the JPS providing the right example and statecraft, the UBNA and the rest of the Commonwealth will realize that this war is futile."

Solomon Islands

Yuuya heard sound reverberate through the cockpit, and saw that the light for the intercom on the TSF was turned on accidentally, and realized that the JPS TSF pilot heard him. "Dammit, took away my phrase's awesomeness. Anyway, let's do this, because we all...want to. Dammit." He accelerated towards the golden IJRG TSF, drawing his experimental "Melee Halberd", the XCIWS-2B, with a high-frequency modification on the top half of the blade so he could deliver heavily damaging piercing strikes and slashes, though it had to be charged for some time before he could use it. For now, it was just like that golden JPS TSF's blade, the Type-74 PB.

The golden TSF barely dodged him, and it almost got Yuuya in the back with its blade. He parried with his blade and tried to swipe at its legs, but it quickly recovered from the parry and blocked him. The two kept up the sword fight while the rest of Mage Squadron watched, with Kei Nagase worried, and she was the one who warned him about the golden TSF's recovery from the parry. "Watch out, he's swiping down from the top!" Nagase yelled into the private channel. She was surprised that Yuuya's taunt was over a live intercom of his TSF before the battle. "Damn it, they're too evenly matched, just like you and me in the Outback, when we practiced." she said on the channel. "Don't worry...this bastard is Royal Guard, they're tough." Yuuya relpied."

The moment came, where the notification that the charging of the HF section of the Halberd was complete and that he could use it. "Let's cut you up into little pieces." he cut his opponent's blade in half, and sliced the torso, almost hitting important electronics and machinery. The golden TSF and its pilot were still in the game though, and it proceeded to get its other blade attached to its back, but then jumped back about 200 feet when it saw the Royal North American Marines landing party coming up the beach to their location. Both Yuuya and the golden TSF pilot didn't pay attention to their radars. The golden TSF turned and proceeded to fly away, to still JPS-held territory. "Come back here you lapdog, you're not going back to your master! I"ll cut him up too!" he pursued the golden TSF. "Sir, command wants you and the rest of us to remain here. Sir? Sir!" said Nagase to no avail. Yuuya pursued after the golden TSF, the smug bastard of an oppressive regime. He followed the billowing cloud from the TSF. "At least you won't get very far, I got some of your fuel lines." he said to himself. He noticed that it was starting to lose altitude as well, and was going down. However, it turned on its backand fired its assault cannon as Yuuya flew past him above, hitting one Yuuya's engines. He didn't have his "Fortune" device on (which would normally cause small arms fire as well as assault cannon rounds to veer off course towards him) as he turned it off for the sword fight. His was losing control of his TSF, and couldn't eject either. He tried to fly the TSF down to a clearing but, he was losing altitude quickly. He crashed on his backside, making a huge skid mark in a small clearing. He was still alive though. "Well, shit. I'm either going to die in the jungle, get captured and die in a JPS POW camp, or be in prison after a court-martial if I get back to my friendlies." he said to himself as he crawled out of his crash. He looked up at the sky and saw another smoke cloud about two clicks north of him. "I can still get the bastard, or least make sure he died in that crash."

He took out his Arms Material Multipurpose Rifle System Model 5 (AM-MRS 5) carbine and Arms Material Delta-114 Combat Pistol Long Barrel Conversion, survival pack, a special canister, and the emergency transponder. He didn't bother activating the transponder as he knew it would be a while for pickup, and he still wanted to check out that golden TSF's crash site, which was not behind enemy lines but was in a quasi-neutral area between the CON and JPS lines. He activated the special canister, throwing it onto his TSF, which was quickly enveloped in a cloud of metallic archaea, which consumed the metals of the giant mecha, rendering it useless for study and retrieval by the enemy.

He started on his journey to the smoke trail of his enemy's crashed mecha.

[New Decius]

Strategische Verteidigungszentrale, Dresden
Kingdom of Saxony, German Empire
European Community

It was a normal day at the Strategic Defense Headquarters in Dresden, the command center of the MANTIS network which defended Europa against a WMD attack. Well all attacks save Kinetic, the designers of the guns hadn’t quite had such weapons in mind when developing the railgun system. All of the MANTIS guns, both 1 and 2 models, though controlled by an AI independent targeting system, were connected to the Dresden headquarters as well as a number of regional centers across the European Community, every one of the thousands of guns linked to central controls. This was the failsafe in the event the guns acquired a bad target (ie Neutrals or Allies) or went haywire, it also allowed the OHL notice if a foreign power was attempting to attack Europa conventionally or through a WMD. The MANTIS network was Europa’s ‘Iron Shield’.

All was well...at least until Obersoldat Ernst Romberg noticed something on his monitor. A MANTIS-1 emplacement in Bavaria had acquired a target, that shouldn’t be right. Most of the MANTIS-1 emplacement’s in areas such as Bavaria, in Southern Germany wouldn’t have a target to acquire unless that target got past the guns in a dozen other territories in all directions, though given no MANTIS guns were in German and Italian partitioned France yet an attacker could come from that direction. Still, the occupation forces would’ve been able to shoot it down with conventional means. He called for his section leader, Leutnant Frank Baer. “Leutnant Baer, I have a notice that an M1 in Bavaria has acquired a target.” Baer came over immediately, confusion written across his features as well. “Which gun is it?”

Romberg inspected further. “It appears to be the emplacement at Neuschwanstein Leutnant.” Baer told him to bring up the targeting camera on his monitor and so he did. And what they saw horrified them. Baer screamed for the commandant, Oberst Scholz. After his cries of bloody murder had attracted the attention of everyone in the room he had Romberg put it up on the main screen. Everyone else was just as horrified as they were. The MANTIS-1 emplacement was training its sights on Neuschwanstein Castle itself, and preparing to fire. Scholz screamed bloody murder himself. “What the Hell is going on!? Stop the gun!? Now!” Romberg and half a dozen others got on the task immediately only to find themselves locked out of the system. “How is this possible!? For Christ’s sake the Crown Prince is there right now!? If that gun fires the entire castle will be destroyed and everyone inside will be killed!? Shut it down! Now damnit!” But, no one could stop the gun, every attempt made ended in failure and they could all only watch in horror as the railgun finished prepping to fire and then unloaded a round on the castle’s lower South side. It was horrendous, the force of the blast literally blew apart the side of the mountain and the castle itself began to crumble from the bottom up, entire chunks falling down the side of the mountain with the torn apart pieces of rock that had once held up the structure.

Scholz had only two words. “My God.” Then it got worse. An aide shouted out that over three hundred other MANTIS-1 emplacements reported acquired targets, then five hundred, then eight hundred, within a minute and a half, over fourteen hundred of the railguns had reported acquired targets. Within moments, reports started to flood in of European warships in the English Channel being sunk by coastal MANTIS emplacements, military aircraft and passenger jets shot out of the sky. Not just in Germany either, but in Italy, Sweden, Hungary, Morocco, Israel, Tanzania, and Cameroon. Then worse news came in, the guns had sunk about a dozen Commonwealth warships in the Channel as well and indiscriminately targeted international planes alongside European ones. Within three minutes, tens of thousands would be dead.

The entire crisis lasted five minutes but that five minutes it took the best cyber security experts at the headquarters to force out the virus that had caused this mess, was enough time to kill over 50,000 people...

Georgetown University, Victoria

Just as Haden and Bushell and the Prince were about to make their exit, an urgent alert came through on Haden’s phone. “Good God. Lord have mercy on us all.” He lost all color in his face and the life seemed to drain out of him, but he still managed to get a message out. “His Royal Highness, Prince Hans-Wilhelm, Patron of the Free City of Danzig, is hereby appointed in the name of His Imperial and Royal Majesty, Kaiser Erwin Ludwig I, as the new German Ambassador to North America. It is required he speak with the Governor General and Her Majesty the Queen immediately.” Before he could explain further, a wall mounted television nearby playing an English-news broadcast from Argentina, suddenly shifted story and attracted the attention of all three men. A student had turned it up for the small crowd gathering to hear.

”...and we’re just receiving reports now of something occurring in the German Empire and its European allies. It seems the famed German MANTIS network, Europe supposed ‘Iron Shield’ has instead speared its European creators. We have received word that for the past five minutes, hundreds if not thousands of these weapons began firing on targets across Europe and some European African and Asian possessions. In the English Channel, French refugees in boats fleeing the German invasion of France, captured footage of these railgun weapons on the coast of the Low Countries, firing on both European and Commonwealth warships. We also have reports of hundreds of civilian aircraft shot down by these guns including European military aircraft. At this time casualties are expected in the tens of thousands with rumors circulating that Her Royal Majesty, Brunhilde of Bavaria is among the dead alongside her nephew and the Kaiser’s first-born son, His Imperial and Royal Highness Crown Prince Franz. No answer regarding the matter has yet come out of Berlin or any other European capital...”

At the news of the death of his sister and nephew, Prince Hans-Wilhelm went pale, and then promptly collapsed to the ground in a faint. Even Haden, so urgent and hurried mere moments before, could not bring himself to move an inch.

[The Union of British North America]

Georgetown, UCT, UBNA

"Dear God..." said Bushell. This was a major disaster. Tens of thousands dead, both European Community and Commonwealth of Nations. Military and civilian deaths, all caused by accidental or intentional malfunction, though Bushell himself as well as Haden strongly felt that it was not accidental. The heir to the German throne was among the dead, as well as other members of the family. It was quite possible that more of the German royal and imperial family were also dead, or perhaps missing if they was in the air at the time. "Your Royal Highness...yes, we should get you Government House immediately. I'll telephone a head. Since the Governor-General is the personal representative of the Crown, he can receive the Prince as an ambassador and do the accreditation." He then noticed that the Prince fainted. "Oh god, get an ambulance here on the double! We'll take HIM to the University Hospital, we can give him a different name when he is admitted. He needs medical attention, Lt. Colonel." said Bushell.

Government House will just have to wait for the new German Ambassador to North America.

Union Block, Victoria, UCT, UBNA

"Ma'am, you have that meeting with locals in Salt Lake again tomorrow, for the 'conduct of the war' committee. You will interview locals, North American and JPS, and even meet with students at schools again, including the recently reopened IJRG academy." said Charlie. "Yes, I know; it was pushed back because of the terror threats by a week. Know, I will get to see how the troops are conducting themselves and how the civilians are faring. And to get know the mind of those Imperial Japanese Royal Guard cadets, the most indoctrinated of them all. And they're young too, though our country tries to get recruits at that age too, with recruiters going to high schools for getting enlisted personnel and to get officers with the reserve officer cadet programs." said MP Hyacinth Amagi for Queens-New York. "But, with the use of such a devastating weapon in Vietnam, I imagine our government will sue for peace. To be honest, I don't even know why the Governor-General decided for the war declaration. It was almost out of the blue. I know that Senator Armstrong was willing to consider going to war to make the JPS negotiate in response to what the JPS did early in the war, which is what Ryan is now promoting. Why? Ryan was touted as a dove when he was made the designate."

The TV in her office which was showing a report on last night's Commons vote on military spending for the operations in the Occupied Provinces switched to the report on the devastating incident with Germany and the EC's Mantis system going haywire. Tens of thousands dead within minutes. "My god...so many deaths." said Amagi. She then sat down at a table of her office, and sat silently for a minute while she clasped her hands in prayer. She then got up and proceeded to the door to leave the building and go to her Victoria townhouse to pack for the trip to Salt Lake City.

Spokane, JPS-Occupied Oregon Province
Main Shinto Temple

Asgill and Kashiwagi enjoyed their tea together, reminiscing of their time in Kagoshima all those years ago, as well as working together professionally. Asgill recalled the time they had a big fiasco of putting together a short skit for the sister cities' visitation program at the end of the trip. Kashiwagi recollected the time they both fell into a creek when walking on the rails of a bridge while Asgill was showing off his mild acrobatic abilities.

"Remember when you...wait, did you hear something?" asked Asgill when he heard a soft but noticble sound coming from the main room of the temple. "I'll go see. Probably late afternoon worshipers, but I'll tell them it's closed because of sightings of UBNA aircraft near Spokane." said Haruko. She got up and left the room. Five seconds later, two thuds was what Asgill heard before he rushed out of the room, with his Walter P99 drawn, his undercover operations weapon that he brought with him in case things got heated. But as he left the room, he felt a wave of pain on the right side of his torso, as a bullet hit him. "Dammit." he said as he collapsed to the floor. He looked up at his assailants, holding his right side with his hands. Then he noticed Haruko was on the floor in a pool of her own blood, breathing heavily. "Haruko!" he shouted. Haruko turned her head and smiled to Asgill, mouthing the words 'I love you' as one of the men wearing a black trenchcoat and balclava shot her in the head with his silence pistol. "Consorting with the enemy is a capital crime, treason, Major General." said one of the shooters who was squatting next to him, gun in hand. "But we won't kill you directly. You'll burn in your own hell on earth. Failing to save your beloved, this enemy, you shall burn with her body in this building. She is the enemy, an enemy that seized our lands 70 years ago. Our leadership was weak then, and still is weak now. You meeting with the enemy indicates you are weak and not a patriot. We have no need of weak traitors like you. " The man removed his balaclava, revealing the face of a person Asgill met some time ago when he was in the Governor-General's Horse Guards Gear Detachment. Major Nelson Bragg. The last time they met, before Asgill joined the Mounted Police, Bragg said he was going into the Central Intelligence Department as a military attache, a polite term for saying he was joining the Special Activities Office of CIND.

"Let's set up this funeral pyre, boys." said Bragg. Four other operatives brought in gasoline tanks that were meant for refueling when you ran out of gas and were far away from a gas station. Given that most of the shrine was made of wood, it would not be long until the entire place would go up in flames. "See you in hell, Asgill. And I'll be taking these as well." yelled Bragg from the entrance of the shrine, smoking a cigar, to which he then threw at the puddle of gas 15 feet away. He had all of the information that Haruko gave Asgill to exonerate the JPS in the recent terrorist attacks. Gradually, more and more of the building started to smoke more and more.

Bragg and his men left the area shortly after, and about 20 minutes later came the sound of sirens of police, ambulances, and firetrucks.

[Japan and Pacific States]

Area 13, JPS-occupied Russian Far East

That is Ikaruga, one of the Regents, thought The Psycho. His host Captain Derek Ironside, North American Army Intelligence Branch, was also familiar with him as well, judging by his memories of learning intimately the big names in the JPS Shogunate and Regency Council. He could be the next Shogun, if the JPS Emperor desired so after the current one kicked the bucket or resigned.

But The Psycho was not that interested in Ikaruga, that womanizer. He was more interested in the Shogun herself, the Emperor, and the child and Crown Princess they have together. It has been several days since Ironside died in England during the UBNA-led invasion of the Socialist Republic of Great Britain and The Psycho taking over his body in the precious few seconds he had to possess him. Ironside had received a "special" psychological endurance test before the UBNA op in Britain, but he didn't even know about that, he thought he was getting an ordinary psych eval for intelligence officers. Once at near death, the sniper's bullet less than inch from his heart, The Psycho, lying dormant in his psyche, took over, and ensured Ironside got back to the Provinces for his "defection" to the JPS. Those special nanomachines is what kept Ironside's body going, as well as letting The Psycho possess him easily.

He had the perfect cover, as everyone thought he was dead and that no one, except for those bastards who did the hypnotherapy on Ironside and the grafting of The Psycho's left arm onto Ironside all those years ago, knew what was really going on. To win this war against the JPS, this monster, a monster had to be created. He needed to know what the Shogun, the Emperor, and the Crown Princess thought, so he could influence them. The Psycho, before he became this grafted abomination, was a product of the Soviet ESP program from the 1980s, though escaped during that time and later became a speicalist for the RNAMP for investigating serial killers. He later joined the NASAS (North American Special Air Service) FOXHOUND unit, and participated in the Shadow Moses Incident, a rebellion against the UBNA government, though he didn't want to remember what transpired then and there. He wanted to focus on his mission here in JPS territory, behind enemy lines. He wanted to see how his "sisters" turned out, and to know the mind of the enemy.

"It's no offense, Major. We're all soldiers here who disagree with the current state of affairs. As we North Americans like to say, we love our people but hate our government. I just hate it enough to resort to treason to save the nation. I'm sure you have fellows in the former Metropole and in Quebec who would like to see an independent France again. I would like to see the UBNA end this fruitless war. I was and still opposed to the UBNA intervention in the Pacific Provinces--sorry, even I still refer to them as Provinces--and the rejection of invading communist France to liberate it and provide an independent state to challenge Germany and its domination of Europe. But, I digress, I'll leave you with Regent Ikaruga. Good day." He saluted, as she was a rank higher than him. He watched both of them leave.

He then turned to the person assigned to watch him. "Captain Derek William Ironside, North American Army, Intelligence Branch. I assume you want to get right down to business, to see what I can provide besides my philosophical reasons against the UBNA? I may not like the JPS way of governing, here in Asia and in the Western Provinces, but I do admire the order and the resistance to outside interference, especially the military kind. I can give you and your superiors information on UBNA doctrine, tactics, strategy, and weapon deployment." He held up a flash drive with his gloved left hand. "Hopefully, with this intel and the JPS providing the right example and statecraft, the UBNA and the rest of the Commonwealth will realize that this war is futile."

Solomon Islands

Yuuya heard sound reverberate through the cockpit, and saw that the light for the intercom on the TSF was turned on accidentally, and realized that the JPS TSF pilot heard him. "Dammit, took away my phrase's awesomeness. Anyway, let's do this, because we all...want to. Dammit." He accelerated towards the golden IJRG TSF, drawing his experimental "Melee Halberd", the XCIWS-2B, with a high-frequency modification on the top half of the blade so he could deliver heavily damaging piercing strikes and slashes, though it had to be charged for some time before he could use it. For now, it was just like that golden JPS TSF's blade, the Type-74 PB.

The golden TSF barely dodged him, and it almost got Yuuya in the back with its blade. He parried with his blade and tried to swipe at its legs, but it quickly recovered from the parry and blocked him. The two kept up the sword fight while the rest of Mage Squadron watched, with Kei Nagase worried, and she was the one who warned him about the golden TSF's recovery from the parry. "Watch out, he's swiping down from the top!" Nagase yelled into the private channel. She was surprised that Yuuya's taunt was over a live intercom of his TSF before the battle. "Damn it, they're too evenly matched, just like you and me in the Outback, when we practiced." she said on the channel. "Don't worry...this bastard is Royal Guard, they're tough." Yuuya relpied."

The moment came, where the notification that the charging of the HF section of the Halberd was complete and that he could use it. "Let's cut you up into little pieces." he cut his opponent's blade in half, and sliced the torso, almost hitting important electronics and machinery. The golden TSF and its pilot were still in the game though, and it proceeded to get its other blade attached to its back, but then jumped back about 200 feet when it saw the Royal North American Marines landing party coming up the beach to their location. Both Yuuya and the golden TSF pilot didn't pay attention to their radars. The golden TSF turned and proceeded to fly away, to still JPS-held territory. "Come back here you lapdog, you're not going back to your master! I"ll cut him up too!" he pursued the golden TSF. "Sir, command wants you and the rest of us to remain here. Sir? Sir!" said Nagase to no avail. Yuuya pursued after the golden TSF, the smug bastard of an oppressive regime. He followed the billowing cloud from the TSF. "At least you won't get very far, I got some of your fuel lines." he said to himself. He noticed that it was starting to lose altitude as well, and was going down. However, it turned on its backand fired its assault cannon as Yuuya flew past him above, hitting one Yuuya's engines. He didn't have his "Fortune" device on (which would normally cause small arms fire as well as assault cannon rounds to veer off course towards him) as he turned it off for the sword fight. His was losing control of his TSF, and couldn't eject either. He tried to fly the TSF down to a clearing but, he was losing altitude quickly. He crashed on his backside, making a huge skid mark in a small clearing. He was still alive though. "Well, shit. I'm either going to die in the jungle, get captured and die in a JPS POW camp, or be in prison after a court-martial if I get back to my friendlies." he said to himself as he crawled out of his crash. He looked up at the sky and saw another smoke cloud about two clicks north of him. "I can still get the bastard, or least make sure he died in that crash."

He took out his Arms Material Multipurpose Rifle System Model 5 (AM-MRS 5) carbine and Arms Material Delta-114 Combat Pistol Long Barrel Conversion, survival pack, a special canister, and the emergency transponder. He didn't bother activating the transponder as he knew it would be a while for pickup, and he still wanted to check out that golden TSF's crash site, which was not behind enemy lines but was in a quasi-neutral area between the CON and JPS lines. He activated the special canister, throwing it onto his TSF, which was quickly enveloped in a cloud of metallic archaea, which consumed the metals of the giant mecha, rendering it useless for study and retrieval by the enemy.

He started on his journey to the smoke trail of his enemy's crashed mecha.
Union Block, Victoria, UCT, UBNA

"Ma'am, you have that meeting with locals in Salt Lake again tomorrow, for the 'conduct of the war' committee. You will interview locals, North American and JPS, and even meet with students at schools again, including the recently reopened IJRG academy." said Charlie. "Yes, I know; it was pushed back because of the terror threats by a week. Know, I will get to see how the troops are conducting themselves and how the civilians are faring. And to get know the mind of those Imperial Japanese Royal Guard cadets, the most indoctrinated of them all. And they're young too, though our country tries to get recruits at that age too, with recruiters going to high schools for getting enlisted personnel and to get officers with the reserve officer cadet programs." said MP Hyacinth Amagi for Queens-New York. "But, with the use of such a devastating weapon in Vietnam, I imagine our government will sue for peace. To be honest, I don't even know why the Governor-General decided for the war declaration. It was almost out of the blue. I know that Senator Armstrong was willing to consider going to war to make the JPS negotiate in response to what the JPS did early in the war, which is what Ryan is now promoting. Why? Ryan was touted as a dove when he was made the designate."

The TV in her office which was showing a report on last night's Commons vote on military spending for the operations in the Occupied Provinces switched to the report on the devastating incident with Germany and the EC's Mantis system going haywire. Tens of thousands dead within minutes. "My god...so many deaths." said Amagi. She then sat down at a table of her office, and sat silently for a minute while she clasped her hands in prayer. She then got up and proceeded to the door to leave the building and go to her Victoria townhouse to pack for the trip to Salt Lake City.

Spokane, JPS-Occupied Oregon Province
Main Shinto Temple

Asgill and Kashiwagi enjoyed their tea together, reminiscing of their time in Kagoshima all those years ago, as well as working together professionally. Asgill recalled the time they had a big fiasco of putting together a short skit for the sister cities' visitation program at the end of the trip. Kashiwagi recollected the time they both fell into a creek when walking on the rails of a bridge while Asgill was showing off his mild acrobatic abilities.

"Remember when you...wait, did you hear something?" asked Asgill when he heard a soft but noticble sound coming from the main room of the temple. "I'll go see. Probably late afternoon worshipers, but I'll tell them it's closed because of sightings of UBNA aircraft near Spokane." said Haruko. She got up and left the room. Five seconds later, two thuds was what Asgill heard before he rushed out of the room, with his Walter P99 drawn, his undercover operations weapon that he brought with him in case things got heated. But as he left the room, he felt a wave of pain on the right side of his torso, as a bullet hit him. "Dammit." he said as he collapsed to the floor. He looked up at his assailants, holding his right side with his hands. Then he noticed Haruko was on the floor in a pool of her own blood, breathing heavily. "Haruko!" he shouted. Haruko turned her head and smiled to Asgill, mouthing the words 'I love you' as one of the men wearing a black trenchcoat and balclava shot her in the head with his silence pistol. "Consorting with the enemy is a capital crime, treason, Major General." said one of the shooters who was squatting next to him, gun in hand. "But we won't kill you directly. You'll burn in your own hell on earth. Failing to save your beloved, this enemy, you shall burn with her body in this building. She is the enemy, an enemy that seized our lands 70 years ago. Our leadership was weak then, and still is weak now. You meeting with the enemy indicates you are weak and not a patriot. We have no need of weak traitors like you. " The man removed his balaclava, revealing the face of a person Asgill met some time ago when he was in the Governor-General's Horse Guards Gear Detachment. Major Nelson Bragg. The last time they met, before Asgill joined the Mounted Police, Bragg said he was going into the Central Intelligence Department as a military attache, a polite term for saying he was joining the Special Activities Office of CIND.

"Let's set up this funeral pyre, boys." said Bragg. Four other operatives brought in gasoline tanks that were meant for refueling when you ran out of gas and were far away from a gas station. Given that most of the shrine was made of wood, it would not be long until the entire place would go up in flames. "See you in hell, Asgill. And I'll be taking these as well." yelled Bragg from the entrance of the shrine, smoking a cigar, to which he then threw at the puddle of gas 15 feet away. He had all of the information that Haruko gave Asgill to exonerate the JPS in the recent terrorist attacks. Gradually, more and more of the building started to smoke more and more.

Bragg and his men left the area shortly after, and about 20 minutes later came the sound of sirens of police, ambulances, and firetrucks.

Area 13, Japanese Controlled Russian Far East

Tsukuyomi sighed and took the USB drive putting it in her pocket of her uniform. "I will have to give this to Regent Ikaruga, foreign intelligence is his department. Anyway, you will be sharing quarters with another defector. Erich Voss, he's closely working with Director Yuuko, I assume at this very moment he's probably assisting her. ...Anyway, come. You will have to be settled in and made aware of the rules and regulations. ...First rule, you cannot go surface side, it's mid winter and we don't have enough winter clothing for any extras other than the ones brought here for Alternative V and military personnel. Secondly, you will not be allowed to enter the command room. This rule extends to both defectors and the civilians brought here for the previously mentioned Alternative V plan. ....Communications with the outside are explicitly forbidden without permission from the Regency council, the Shogun, or the Emperor." Tsukuyomi turned and walked out of the room leaving the door open expecting Ironside to follow her.

"Like everyone else, you will receive three meals a day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The food is.... Lackluster, more so than you might expect but it was created by Director Yuuko to optimally allow the body to receive as much nutrients as is possible. Think of it sort of like those damned health foods the North Americans created for the civilian market, except not as visually appealing. ..... As for everything else, there are places of which you shouldn't go, or well it's more appropriate to say you can't go. Only certain personnel with proper clearance are allowed to go... And those lacking in the clearance will likely end up being stunned by the base's security system." Tsukuyomi continued while she walked down the long hallway, noticing Inia Sestina walk out with her sister Cryska.

"Miss Cryska, Miss Inia, do you know where sir Voss is?" Tsukuyomi asked while Cryska shrugged her shoulders. "He's in his quarters. He left after Director Yuuko said she was getting ready for surgery for the..." Cryska went silent when she noticed Ironside, picking up on his aura. ".... She said she'd be in surgery, she took Kasumi and the... Guest into the medical ward, would you please excuse us? Inia's hungry." Cryska gently took Inia's hand and started walking away towards a staircase while Tsukuyomi watched with an eyebrow raised. "That's strange, I've never seen that girl space out like that. ...Hmm. I wonder if everything's alright.... Well anyway, as I mentioned, rooms with clearance, this room of which Cryska and Inia left require the highest of clearance of which is only given to Director Yuuko, the key members of Alternative V, the Shogun, the Regents, and the Emperor. I'd suggest you refrain from attempting to enter as I said before. Now if you'll please follow me, I'll show you to your quarters..."

Outside of Polo, Japanese Controlled Solomon Islands

Yui took a couple deep breaths while she exited the cockpit of her crashed TSF, she held with her, her Type 91 carbine, her Minebea 9mm pistol was magnetically attached to the right hip of her fortified suit while her Katana hung in the same way off her left hip. Turning around she looked back to her TSF and sighed. "Damn it.... The American was better than I expected..." She pinched her nose and let out a loud sigh. "How troublesome..." Rolling her eyes she held her right arm up to her face, bringing her fortified suit's helmet down showing a sort of holographic pad through the helmet's visor giving her a few options on her TSF, opting for the self destruct while she got as far away as was considered safe for self destruction of the TSF, this would result in the total destruction of the TSF leaving everything mostly broken and in small pieces in a large explosion. "Good, that's dealt with now...." Yui's attention was drawn to a set of bushes opposite to her, there was a rustling, she flipped the safety off her rifle and let off a couple rounds in the direction of the bushes while she used a tree for cover. "That damn yankee pilot.... He's here." Yui was somewhat nervous about the situation, she had fought in a couple battles before, but those were while she was in her TSF, now? Now she was onfoot and possibly in enemy territory.

Salt Lake City, Military Administration Zone of Disraeli, UBNA

Makabe Seijyurou couldn't help but be nervous, the day was coming and coming soon in which he would have to play a part in a plan to kidnap a member of the UBNA's government, everything had to go exactly, according to plan, the area was already chosen, a small area outside of the IJRG academy, he did of course do everything as was ordered by Takeshi Kido, he did have some confidence though that the plan would go exactly as expected, the private meeting was to take place in an older part of the school, a part of which was built in the Showa era, in the late 40s after the end of the Asia-Pacific war in which Japan occupied western North America. It was mostly disused, he was just going over everything, already the body double was in place in a connecting room of which was kept darkened and locked, she was obviously trained by the IJRG, the Shogun herself had such body doubles of which were trained thoroughly in their duty. .....Seijyurou just hoped the higher powers above would allow everything to go as planned.

Kyoto, Imperial Japanese Military General Headquarters

Shogun Meiya watched the news with interest, in her eyes it was obviously a well orchestrated false flag.... Or as she thought it was, the German's most advanced anti-aircraft defense system just somehow turns against it's own handlers and takes out members of the German's Imperial family along with a large portion of civilians as well as military personnel with it. But she knew what was to come next, this would mean an escalation of the war. She sat in the Regency council chamber of the headquarters while she watched, hearing a knock at the doors directly infront of her, Meiya put the news on pause, sitting forward in her chair she clasped her hands together. "Come in!" Immediately afterwards the doors opened with three officers of the navy walking in, the head of the group was Admiral Genda, the overall commander of the Pacific fleet, to his right was Fleet Admiral Rei Nishimura and to Admiral Genda's left was Fleet Admiral Shizuka Nishimura, both women were twins, as well as grand daughters to another IJN admiral of whom died long ago but served the Shogunate during the Asia-Pacific War. "Ah. Admirals. Might I ask the purpose of this intrusion?"

Meiya asked with an eyebrow raised. Admiral Genda quickly spoke up. "Your majesty, as commander of the Imperial Navy, I'd like to ask permission to restore the honour of the IJN and allow Admirals Rei Nishimura and Shizuka Nishimura to execute Admiral Nagumo.... With your permission of course." Meiya sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, taking a deep breath, thinking for a few moments she finally brought her hand back down clasping her hands together again. "Alright, Admirals. You have my explicit permission to go ahead with this. ....Is there anything else?" Admiral Rei Nishimura stepped forward and bowed her head. "Your majesty... I'd like permission to hold the execution over national television. Surely this will get out to other nations that Nagumo's dishonour against the IJN... And you has been punished and perhaps we can end this war between US and the UBNA."

Meiya smiled and leaned to the left leaning on the arm rest of her chair. "I had already intended to allow it. You may proceed with the event as you see fit.... But you are all to join me at Area 13 afterwards... Kyoto will not be safe from retribution by the Germans." Meiya said as a warning while she got up and walked past the admirals leaving the room, she would be on her way to Area 13 with her staff and the more valuable officers of the Imperial Army and Navy. Area 13 would become the unofficial, secret capital of the Empire in which all military and civil orders would be given from up unto the final deployment of Alternative V when Japan and it's allies would leave earth. Though, when Meiya did mention retribution against Kyoto, it wouldn't be by the Germans or the UBNA but by the Shogun herself. Japan was to have a false flag operation of which would cause all of Asia as Japan controlled to be infuriated and taken over with a nationalistic ferver of which would be blamed solely on Germany and the EC.

[New Decius]

Oberste Heeresleitung, Berlin
Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
European Community

On the steps of the OHL, Germany’s military high command, a large crowd of reporters and television news crews were waiting to hear from a representative of the German General’s Staff regarding the recent MANTIS disaster. In the hours since the attack took place no one had been able to get a comment from anyone representing the Kaiser or the office of the German Chancellor, finally the German military was speaking on the recent events. After a long wait, finally an officer exited the building, escorted by several armed guards and two men carrying flagstaffs, one carried the Imperial standard of the German Empire and the other the eight star adorned blue flag of the European Community. However this was not the emissary the international and local press had been expecting.

Where they had all been expecting a neat, crisp, young but expressionless Generals Staff aide of likely a Captain’s rank, they instead got a rather different picture. A tall, slightly portly, gruff man in his early sixties and sporting a full silver mustache, and wearing the uniform of a Vizeadmiral (Vice-Admiral) of the Kaiserliche Marine, descended the steps to speak with the press. The dark blue, almost black, color of his uniform and his gruff features were clear signs he was a member of Germany’s submarine forces. Upon reaching the bottom of the steps, he cleared his throat and began to speak in a rough voice that told of many years of actual field command aboard said submarines, but with an authority to it that screamed aristocrat.

“I would open by saying good day to you all but as it is clearly not, let us dispense with the pleasantries, Ja? My name is Diethard Alphonse Stadtfeld zi Germania, Count of Bornholm and a Prince of the Kingdom of Prussia though I renounced that right many years ago now.” This sent a small ripple of surprise through most of the local European press and some of the international press as well. Kaiser Erwin’s grandfather, Kaiser Siegfried Mannheim II, was notorious for having had seventeen children from a number of different consorts, though he was more notorious for his almost Nazi-esque racial policies. The second-youngest of the seventeen children, Diethard had little chance of claiming the throne without his fathers favor or fifteen of his siblings dropping dead, he also was extremely outspoken in defying his fathers racial and expansionist policies, to the point of criticizing him in the Reichstag. At the age of seventeen, in an effort to escape the iron grip of the monarchy and the power struggle for the throne, Diethard had renounced his claim on the Prussian throne and the German one and enlisted in the submarine corps. He won great victories during the Battle of the Baltic and Battle of the Arctic in the Soviet-European War and remained a profound liberal speaker despite his continued military service. Normally the press would’ve expected a Centrist or Conservative to be delivering this kind of a message, not one of the nation’s most outspoken liberals.

“As the uncle of His Imperial and Royal Majesty, our beloved Erwin Ludwig I, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, and also a member of the German Generals Staff, I am of appropriate rank and clearance to speak with the world on this matter.” He cleared his throat. “Mere hours ago, nearly two thousand MANTIS-1 defense emplacements of the ODINSEYE strategic defense network, were hacked and used against civilian and military targets across Europe and the overseas territories. The attack lasted only five minutes but in that five minutes, the hackers succeeded in murdering approximately 50,000 people of varying nationalities and status as either military or civilian. Some of the hacked weapons also targeted European and Commonwealth warships in the English Channel. Among the victims of this brutal atrocity were my own niece, Brunhilde, and my three year old great nephew, Franz. You would know them better as the Queen-consort of Bavaria and the Crown Prince of Germany and Prussia respectively. However you think of them, know that they were the first targeted and the first killed to be followed by so many more innocents murdered by cowards and rats scurrying around in the shadows for fear the light with obliterate them.”

Now came the part they had all been waiting for. “Early evidence and investigation has revealed a number of links back to the Imperial Japanese government. A distinct Japanese rootkit used in previous cyber attacks on the German military and corporations during peacetime was discovered and we have substantial evidence this attack was orchestrated by the Japanese. Once again they strike at the innocent and will likely once again claim military targets alone were targeted. I ask that they give that same speech to the seven million souls dead in Moskau, Rome, and Saigon.”

Now reporters began hounding him with questions. One from Brazil hurled a rather blunt one at Diethard, and a rather foolish one. “Why has the Kaiser not yet given a response to these attacks?”

Diethard almost snarled but just fixed the man with a death glare. “Why, well because he is busy making arrangements to bury his infant son and younger sister. Something he can hardly get on with anyways given that neither of their bodies have yet been extracted from the ruins of Neuschwanstein Castle. Allow me to ask you this, were your own child and sibling killed in a terrorist attack, would their burial not be at the top of your mind.” That shut up the reporter from Brazil.

Then a reporter from Delhi posed the question Diethard had been waiting for. “What will be the German response to these attacks?”

“Our response? We will make them pay is our response. The Japanese presume to make war in a lawless fashion while we obey the laws of man set forth to govern war? No more! The gloves are off! No pity, No mercy! Before, my nephew the Kaiser spoke of Knight’s and Samurai and of honorable war. No such thing! And we shall prove it! We shall unleash all our might upon Japan and its Asian puppets dancing to their strings, every weapon will be utilized, every soldier will be expected to show them why Germany is to be feared in a conflict! No longer shall Japan sit back, content to strike our cities and our people from afar while we cannot do the same while obeying the laws of war! We shall unleash hellfire on their cities! Beijing will be leveled, Tokyo will be destroyed, and Kyoto will be wiped off the face of the Earth! We will show them the meaning of war, the meaning of fire and death! Germany shall be a dealer in thunder and death!”

After calming down, he had just one more message to the world. “The Japanese called on their Sun God to bless their war, well we too shall call upon the great God’s of old. By the God in Heaven or by the will of Wotan, we shall bring about a blizzard to freeze Japan to death.”

Unknown Location, Somewhere in the German Empire

Two dark figures watched the Count of Bornholm’s speech on the international news with mild interest. They were speaking on the topic with some manner of excitement.

Figure 1: “Our plans have worked out brilliantly. Not only is the Kaiser’s brat dead but we’ll escalate the war as well.”

Figure 2: “And the precious monarchy is humiliated that another nation took over its most secure and advanced defense system to launch so massive an attack. Another glorious blow against the filthy legacy left behind by those Valkyrie traitors. Had they not done as they had and murdered the Führer, we would have had the war won by 1946, in the East and the West.”

Figure 1: “Indeed, those gutless cowards thought our Reich would be overcome by the Allies and the Soviets and so they sold out their homeland for a bit of peace. How could they live with themselves afterwards?”

Figure 2: “Let us not think more of the past. The monarchy is not dead yet. There is still work to be done. They call us the blackshirted scum of history, worse than Reds. Well we will show them the error of their belief. By the end of this war, the people will follow us in revolution and throw out the monarchy and welcome us back as heroes.”

Figure 1: “Indeed and then the subhuman dogs that have flourished in the arms of the monarchy will know our vengeance. We will have retribution on all our enemies who have shoved us into the dirt since 1944. Like the bold men of the SS who stood their ground against the Valkyrie traitors, the Allies, and the Soviet’s in Bohemia in 1947, we shall strike back.”

The monitor turned off and the room was dark again as the two figures left to continue their plots.

Unknown Location, Project Alpha Base

Down a metal corridor, Hauptmann (Captain) Hans Günsche followed Dr. Hermann Geitzler, one of the chief scientists of the Biologically Warfare program that Project Alpha served as. Geitzler was also accompanied by several other scientists in lab coats to match but none of them as important as the man himself who had basically pioneered the super soldier division twenty years ago when he suggested his alternate method of creating the super soldier. Instead of enhancing human qualities like those comics and fantasy novels were written about, he had proposed giving humans the predatory qualities of an animal along with some other touches added on later. Though that had its issues as well, as the constant sound of feral roars and screams throughout the facility showcased, every method had its failures. Most of those failures would normally be gassed or killed after they first lost coherent thought and went feral, but some were kept around for further study. A wild weapon was still a weapon.

Right now Geitzler was on his way to see to the deployment of several of said feral failures, nicknamed Ghouls, onto special aircraft so they could be sent into the field. One of the lower ranking scientists, Hans didn’t even bother trying to remember his name, was protesting this. “But Doctor Geitzler, we have no way of controlling these Ghouls, they have no lucid thought left in their brains and they obey no command! They are just as likely to run off and go sleep in a forest for all the care they give!” Hans agreed with one point and part of another the scientist raised. One being that there was indeed no way of controlling or commanding Ghouls, the only way to move them around was with a long metal leash and shock collar and several escorting electric staffs. The half point was that they indeed had no lucid or coherent thought left in them, they were far more animal than human now though only a wild predatory animal at that.

Geitzler sighed, not annoyed, more in a superior way in that he knew the proper answer to said notion. He was the on whom had created all the current super soldier success stories from his method and the one who continued said experiments with the surviving Ghouls that hadn’t been success stories. Inside the walls of Project Alpha, he was essentially God, all that he created either lived or died by his reasoning or hands. “Ghouls have but one thought left in them, that thought is kill. They attack whatever living creature you put in front of them and that is their only purpose. We need not command them for what they are to do now. For their base nature of death will be what does the job here. Send a Ghoul into a populated area and they will kill everyone they can get their hands on before they are killed. No thoughts of mercy because their victim might be an infant or elderly or sick, no concern for its own wounds or the strength of its foes. Put simply, they are mindless, senseless killing machines.” The door ahead slid open and they now stood on a balcony overlooking a large hanger like area, inside which were three moderate sized black flying wing aircraft and a number of technicians and guards.

A soldier came up the staircase to the balcony and saluted Geitzler who nodded and he delivered his message. “Sir, Weapons 009, 377, and 981 are secured and ready for transport.” Geitzler gave his approval to load them onto the aircraft. Hans got a look at the three Ghouls being herded into hardened drop pods like the ones satellite crews use to return to Earth, which would then be hooked onto the aircraft. They all looked human enough though all three had elongated ears like those of a wolf and had fangs rather than normal teeth, they also had clawed hands. All three tried to take swipes at the men herding them into the pods with electric staffs. Not all Ghouls were like this, well all of them would take swipes at the guards. The ones with this much of an animal appearance meant the splicing had been far too heavy in the animal factor so they weren’t an animal just in the mind. Some Ghouls were so transformed the only thing keeping them from being entirely unhuman was their bipedal movement and thumbs. Others could appear entirely human aside from the lack of intelligent thought and sometimes were capable of being calm and complacent though most of them were gassed immediately. Geitzler had always said a calm but stupid weapon was a useless weapon.

Ghouls were far more vulnerable than their Werwolf success story brethren. Where hardly anything but tearing out the heart and brain of one of the Werwolf’s could kill them, Ghouls could be killed just by killing the heart. They did have some of the regenerative ability as the Werwolf but it worked at a much slower pace and was not as powerful. A Werwolf’s regenerative ability was powerful enough to regenerate an entire limb within a day and an organ in minutes while the Ghoul’s could only repair wounds in a sped up manner not replace limbs and organs. Though so long as the heart still beat, they would go on, no other wound would kill them. They would be murder in a population zone, absolute murder.

Geitzler had one final order for the soldier as the hanger doors opened up showing a blizzard outside, though given their location Hans guessed it was rare and surprising when the snow did stop falling. “The targets are Kyoto, Seoul, and Beijing. After these three have departed prepare another three weapons for transport.” Geitzler turned around and then remembered something. “And tell Dr. Begonyev that I want him to proceed with experiment 10089 which he proposed to me yesterday, I want minute by minute reports on its progress.” Then he noticed watching the blizzard outside with wandering interest. “Making sure our local weather is still as it should be Captain. As you can see, blizzards as normal here. Though our enemy may soon get a taste of such weather on the fighting front, an occurrence that would be far more beneficial to our forces than their’s. There is word that Project Delta has completed construction and testing of the Mark 3 CCS and will be ready to launch soon. If this is what is to happen soon, just picture it. Imagine the possibilities.” Hans did.

Japan had some cold climate territory in Russia but that was not year-round cold climate and Japan likely did not have many winter-combat ready units for the whole year. Germany however had swathes of territory that stayed snowed under for almost the whole year and dozens of units on garrison duty or field deployment in Norway and Russia who drilled year round with winter equipment and tactics. He pictured Indochina under five feet or more of snow, winter prepared and trained German forces vs unprepared Japanese troops. It would be an advance that would likely not stop till it reached into China.

Area 13

At the moment Erich Voss was catching some well-needed rest in his quarters, having not slept for at least the past week. He was contemplating everything that had happened since his defection and wondered if the conflict he was now part of had any end to it soon to come. The best answer he could think of was ‘not likely’, but he regretted nothing. He had regretted nothing since his family were disappeared by the KSD, he had nothing left to live for but revenge so why should he bear regrets. When Berlin and the KSD with it burned, he would be able to rest in peace at last. Until the German Empire fell, he would not die if he could help it, he would fight foes both mortal and otherwise, the woes of time as well if he could manage it. He was getting near his late sixties but his mind was still sharp as a blade, even if he would never be a field soldier again as he had been in his youth.

Deciding he had had enough rest, Voss took from his jacket hanging on a hook next to his bunk, a tablet. Booting it up he was met with a photo of himself holding his grandson Johann the day he had been born. It was taken in the hospital with his son Klaus standing next to him with a great big smile on his face and his daughter-in law Mary with an, albeit tired, smile on her own. One of the happiest days in his life next to his own wedding and the birth of Klaus. Erich’s own wife was twenty years dead from brain cancer. He reminded himself that it was for his family that he did everything.

He dived into the trove of files he had taken from the Abwehr prior to his defection, including some of the latest weapons designs about to go into field service. The latest energy rifle and EMP designs were small fish, and his new bosses likely already were considering Germany’s upcoming deployment of such weapons alongside Japan’s own designs of such weapons. What interested him was energy shielding and War Frames, and on that he caught something that peaked his interest, and might perhaps peak Director Yuuko’s interest. An infantry shield system called the Gryphon. Powered by a Helium-3 battery and projecting into a proper sized shield from a gauntlet projector, it could stop any caliber bullet fired at it or any object for that matter. Everything it caught was disintegrated on contact with the powerful laser surface. That could make things difficult on the Japanese infantry. It did seem that the shields could only be used for seven minutes at a time and needed a fifteen minute recharge. Not to mention something like this couldn’t be manufactured in such great numbers as small arms given its power source. Helium-3 was not in great abundance on the surface of the Earth, it was more readily found on Earth’s moon or gas giant planets, and while Germany did control the larger deposits of it in North Africa it would not waste it all on one shielding system. Helium-3 was a great energy source in very small quantities but Germany was researching its uses in a number of different fields and so would not devote the entire stockpile to one project.

He would have to bring this up to Director Yuuko at the next time he saw her.