The Madlands

Naha City, Okinawa, Ryukyus Islands Sea
July 30th
7:04 AM

My feet finally touched solid ground again, a great relief came. The mermaid who had been helping me still nervously kept pushing me further and further into the island's interior, until with a strong impulse we both flew off and landed in a pile of sand. I quickly touch my face, feeling all the hull around my head I look for the latches and remove them to free myself from the helmet finally. I continue to search my face for any sign or mark with a lot of anxiety.

"My face, my face!"
"Don't look at my face!"

"Cesar calm down!"
"It's all right!"
"Look, you're already on shore, you're already safe!"

I start to run back to the sea and throw as much water on my face as I can.

"I have to put out the fire!"
"It's still burning, it's burning very hot!"
"It won't stop burning!"

"Stop, wait!"
"It's all right! You are not on fire"
"We've been swimming in the sea for almost 10 minutes now."
"There's no fire, I assure you."
"Look you're even soaking wet, there's no fire anywhere!"

Hoping that the lie was true, I turned to look into the water to try to find my unpleasant reflection. Instead, I found Nanami's face holding her face like a shocked nervous wreck.

"That's Nanami, that's not my face!"

"Well yes, it's been that way for a while now, so I've been told."
"It's normal, calm down, relax"
"Take a deep breath, wait for a moment, and then exhale."
"Take it easy, everything is fine"

I do what she asks me to do, my mind starts to feel a little better, now I remember what happened and where I was now. My face makes an unpleasant grimace as I become aware of what I have just done, I feel ashamed of myself.

"I'm so sorry Levia, I didn't mean to act like that."
"I feel so embarrassed, I should have been thanking you and yet I acted so lost"

"Don't worry, nothing happened"
"It's not the first time I've seen you in panic attack mode"
"Are you better now?"

"Yes, yes, it's already over"
"...."
"Can I ask you why you were there?"
"That was dangerous, there was a whole battle right above you, at any moment a plane could fall on you, or even a stray shot!"

I talk to the mermaid as I quickly review where I was, trying to locate the beach where we were talking.

"Well, originally I was at the bottom of the sea when I started to see these devices falling one after the other"
"In one of them, I saw a man trapped so I helped him out too"
"Don't worry I made sure to knock him out with my tail right after"
"But then I became afraid that something similar would happen to you, so I kept an eye on what was going on"
"Shortly after this device, the GPS started to make a lot of noise and marked a specific place quite close instead of the ship with airplanes that it showed originally"
"And well, since your daughters are computers too and they do all that weird stuff I thought they were somehow looking for that place"
"Boy was I surprise I got it because when I got there nothing had happened yet, but a few seconds later it was your plane that fell just a few meters away from me"
"I went to check, I saw you in there and the rest you know"

I watched as a group of people arrived in a pickup truck, it was full of people, even in the back, something quite strange for the Japanese, as they love to follow the rules.

"Yes, most likely it was them"
"They probably calculated the speed and direction I was traveling and calculated the impact zone and then sent the coordinates to you so you could rescue me"
"Sounds like something they would do"

"Did something happen? you keep looking over there with concern"

"Those people over there, they're using Japanese Imperial flags"
"And they are using that pickup truck in a terrorist style as if it were a Technicals"
"I don't think it's good news." I said while looking for my handgun in my pockets.

"Seriously? really!?"

"Return to the sea"
"It is probably not safe to stay here either"
"Try to get back to the carrier"
"If you can't make it, come back here tomorrow night" I said as I crouched down to hide.

"All right, okay"
"I'll let the others know you're okay"
"Be careful"

I pushed the mermaid hard so that she fell back into the water.

With Levia out of here I began to pay more attention to what was going on. Another truck arrived with more men and it was carrying an integrated missile launcher, an old SSM-1 from the 80s, a Japanese mobile anti-ship weapon that had been completely replaced long ago, it was just something that the JSDF had completely stopped using, plus they were pointing it to the East, where the 5th fleet was. It didn't take a genius to see that these people were preparing big problems for later.

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As for me, I only had a pistol and two magazines with me. Those guys are just a couple of civilians with guns, they are not much of a problem, but they are quite a few people, I don't have enough bullets. I can probably kill those two in the brush with my knife, the one on top of the truck screaming is definitely their leader, I can kill the next one with the gun and if I'm lucky one more with the same magazine. That would leave me another 5 people and a magazine, if I move fast and I am careful with the shots I should be able to do the math, the only thing I need is for them to lose sight of me.

Ok, let's do it!

I start to move lying down slowly until I get closer to my two victims, I take my knife and I pounce on the first one, I insert my knife inside his neck while I cover his mouth so he doesn't make any noise and I quickly put him on the floor, his partner only realized what was happening, when he saw me he was about to scream, but I jumped and I repeated the process to shut him up and prevent him from raising the alarm. I got a little closer and took my time to aim better, an explanation, his inert body fell backward, and the others looked back at him, what a mistake, I took advantage of the moment and shot two more people before they went to take cover. They like a bunch of mindless thugs started shooting in my general direction in complete panic, not a single bullet passed even close to where I was. Seeing how low level of threat they were I took my empty magazine and threw it away to a plant to move it, the idiots went running to see if their enemy was there and I only spent half of my other magazine to finish them all off.

Okay, that was easy

The level of disorganization that the rebels have is too high, it seems that they don't even know very well who is on their own side, basically, they trust everything that has their flag. So I had an idea, if I took the truck with the missiles I could surely move with a little freedom through this place that seems to be under their control, and in case of being discovered, I could blow it up to create a distraction that would allow me to escape. Without thinking much more I took the rifle from the leader and got on the truck to head inland, toward the Kadena Air Base.

Although the road was really damaged due to the damage caused by the earthquake, the truck was able to get through it without any problems. While I was driving a noise flooded the cabin, it was coming from a rebel radio, their communications were not encrypted even though the radio had the ability to press a button, in it someone was talking about a beautiful foreign girl with a sniper rifle that had given them problems and that they had captured, I could not stop thinking about Xi'an, which was easy to notice her nationality, and which people as ultranationalist as the rebels surely detested. Worried about her, I set the truck in motion to the place they themselves said they were in.

What a horror I found when I arrived, first because several patrol cars let me pass, they did not notice a girl of meter thirty with fox ears driving? The second was because after stopping and going up to a collapsed building to look at what must have been a rebel base, I found a barbecue where there were people drinking and eating as if it were an indigenous tribe, with everything and a "Warlord" sitting in a chair with an imperial flag in the background and surrounded by several weapons. I was pinching myself not to laugh at what I was witnessing, I really could not believe that these people were the same ones that had given me so much trouble on Izena Island. Even worse was to see a makeshift jail they had and to see several people locked up in it, some in military uniforms, others civilians, all clearly western foreigners, the ones recognizable at a glance as someone blond, even some children as if they were capable of something. And nearby was Xi'an, tied up in chains near the "Warlord", because of course, as nationalistic as he is, he still has to think with his dick.

It was as if society had collapsed in a post-apocalyptic style in just a matter of days without a clear government being present.

I had to come up with a plan to rescue as many of these people as possible before we went further back in time and public executions began to appear. I could certainly use the type-88  truck to cause a distraction, the alliance soldiers will no doubt take the opportunity to grab a gun and fight to save as many civilians as they can, in the chaos I can get Xi'an out of there, but the problem will be the "Warlord" who will surely try to escape with the pretty girl he "hates" so much. I can certainly kill him, but all his followers will try to chase me, how can we escape? And as if they were answering my prayers, another SUV appeared and parked near the princess in distress with several rebels who left it on while they went to get something to eat. I didn't remember paying to enter to see the circus clowns.

I quickly returned to the truck, took my things, and set it on fire, which would give me enough time to get to the other side of the camp before it exploded. To avoid detection I walked inside the damaged buildings and watched a little longer waiting for my chance, the idiots didn't notice the smoke from the burning truck just a couple of meters away until it was too late.

I took care to find a good position and take aim with my rifle, the target was the "Warlord" who was drinking beer and shouting through a megaphone about something, he didn't know it but right now he had an angel of death stalking him, ready to take his soul when the time was right, he was already dead and he didn't know it, he was a dead man walking. A loud explosion was heard and a tremor shook the whole place, it was then that I took the opportunity to take the shot and kill him, shortly after, the loud explosion blew up parts of the truck itself, it started to fall and hurt several people, panicked people started to run and scream everywhere, some of the thugs ran to check the source of the explosion, not realizing that their leader was already on the ground dead with a hole in his head. Since I could still do a little more damage I killed two others, they were the guards of the jail, then I ran out of my hiding place to approach Xi'an. When she saw me she opened her eyes wide and said my name as a question, I shot the chains and gave her my gun to defend herself. But it was then that some rebels became aware of my presence and started to alert the others, my partner and I immediately took cover and started to shoot back, she asked for the rest of the plan and I told her that I didn't really have one, just to take the car and go to the car, I simply shot the lock from where we were and the door flew open, several soldiers ran out and took the weapons of the dead guards and joined us in the shooting.

Once again the rebels demonstrated their great efficiency and belief in their cause by withdrawing from the place when the shooting began to heat up and they began to suffer casualties from the soldiers who did not close their eyes when shooting. The soldiers came up to me to thank me for rescuing them and my bravery despite my young age, and although I was happy for someone finally recognizing my work, we didn't have time to talk, it was best to leave too before the enemy reinforcements arrived. One of them mentioned that Ryukyus University Hospital was a military base where we could regroup with the others, since we had several civilians with us and potential victims of the rebels we all decided to take several vehicles and make the trip together there.

On the trip, I asked Xi'an what had happened to her and how she had been captured. She told me that when we left she went out to look for the boat to get us all out of there, but as she didn't find one she came back but she didn't find us anywhere, something logical since we flew out of the island, so she came back with Cedric to help and try to get news from us. It seems that it was then when things got even more out of control when the rebels began to attack the base with force and managed to access one of the warehouses and steal everything that was in it, spreading in an uncontrolled fight throughout the island. Cedric, tired of all this, sent Xi'an to search and assassinate their leader to see if this would put an end to all this, but in the end, she was captured when she was discovered by mistake and a shootout broke out hours ago when I was fighting in the sky. t seems that having a nice body was the only thing that saved her because she herself did not understand how they left her alive even though she had killed several of those idiots before. 

A moment of tense apprehension when from among the ruins another soldier appeared with his rifle, it seemed that he was urging to steal our car to get a couple of wounded out of a collapsed building. What a surprise to suddenly hear Xi'an shouting Wilson to the soldier and he himself recognized her. We get out to help the wounded and put them in the vehicles and go all together to the hospice. It seems that this Wilson already knew me from before as he worked under my mother's command in the Tokyo office, so it's good to see another friendly face in the midst of all the ruckus.

When we arrived at the hospital, the place was being thoroughly remodeled, sandbags, guard towers, machine gun posts, and barbed wire, the last thing you want to see in a hospital. They were getting quite prepared in case they were the next ones to be attacked, needless to say, they got nervous at the sight of us and got their guns ready, but after Wilson came out to ask for help for the wounded the situation calmed down and several doctors came to help us, they thanked us for seeing more armed soldiers arriving to help protect the place. It was good to see that there was still electricity in the building after all the trouble we had gone through to repair the power plant. once inside and thanks to the help of Xi'an and Wilson they let me into the war room they had set up to hear what was going on.

The situation was still quite difficult for everyone. The first part was that communications on the island were down as the rebels had tried their best to destroy any signal towers and had managed to get several high-powered disruptors. The next thing was that the Imperial Wunderland Fleet was still expected to arrive in the area of operations tonight and the naval battle was likely to break out soon after. The Alliance troops have brought out the missile launchers to assist in the combat effort, but it was then that the rebels attacked the warehouse and stole several of the vehicles, which they are reconfiguring and deploying all over the island to attack the 5th Fleet, which explains the origin of the truck I found on the beach. Basically, there is a battle on the ground to capture and maintain control of these trucks with missile launchers to attack one of the two fleets of ships.

But I for one kept looking at the map, the carrier symbol of the enemy fleet, the idea of one of my crazy ideas was echoing in my head.

n the enemy fleet there were two enemy carriers, and at least one of those two ships had to have the secret of the portal that the Empire had. A machine that if it fell into our hands we could use to go out and find those sons of bitches and stop all this nonsense once and for all. The problem was that we had to enter an aircraft carrier and steal it, and what was worse, we didn't know which of the two had it, so it was a 50-50 chance of success. Not to mention getting to and entering a fucking enemy carrier full of people.

There was no way to carry out such a ridiculous plan. A plane or helicopter would be destroyed before it even got close, and a ship would have been spotted coming long before. Nor were there any personnel or people crazy enough to launch a suicide attack to attack an entire enemy stronghold.

But if such a feat could be accomplished we could capture the empire's portal machine and find out where they are coming from. And if we managed to launch the attack before the naval battle we could avoid major losses to the fifth fleet and refocus on restoring order to this poor island. The risk was worth it.

I gave my pilot's helmet to Xi'an to keep for me, as I would like to put it on the fireplace in my house. I'd go stretch my wings a little bit again.....

And steal a fucking aircraft carrier.