Bloodstained Rose

Chapter 8

Tetsu had never held the shadow transformation under such stress before. The few days of training with Rei and Nomad gave him some more confidence. After getting to one of the first hiding spots, he found himself struggling to keep his breath while reverting to normal. Looking back, he had to have travelled over a mile through the open field. The outside of the facility had only a handful of troops stationed at a few points, but nothing on the ground with eyes on him.

He dropped his pack to the ground, trying to his best to stay as silent as possible. The bright green camouflage texture had barely complimented the black yoroi. At this hour, wearing all black would not give him much of an edge as far as stealth went. He reached inside the pack to retrieve the first explosive before making one last sweep.

“Lazy Dog, this is Tetsu,” he whispered into the receiver tucked in his ear lobe. There was a sigh on the other end after following a brief pause.

“You’re Brown Fox, and you’re jumping the Lazy Dog,” Paxton’s voice buzzed back. “You end every transmission with over, over.”

“Planting the bomb, right.”

He had faintly remembered something about the importance of code words, and only started to feel nervous after a few more moments of silence.

“You don’t have long,” Paxton’s voice continued. “What do you see?”

He stared up towards the outside of the Alferov’s metallic surface, admiring its magnitude. This massive structure had been erected in a very short time. The outside of the facility contained several columns beneath the underside, suspending it off the ground to make way for the construction site beneath. Not many of the locals were present at the site given that the sun had barely been out for an hour now.

After another glance, he noticed a set of metal rings leading from the building towards the mountains down near the valley. Not able to piece it together, he just lifted his hand back up to the receiver, cupping it over top.

“There’s lots of pillars, rings, and those big machines.” Tetsu whispered.

“Alright, do you see an offset one up ahead?” Paxton asked.

Tetsu tiled his head out from between to the large metal girder he had taken shelter in to get a glance at the others. For another kilometer or so, there were a few more pillars perfectly aligned. At first glance, he had not been able to notice any irregularities. Keeping sharp, he looked around the corner to make sure there were no troops nearby. After moving around, he got another look at the pillar ahead, finally taking notice of one off centered. It not been completely obscured from the other angle.

“I see it up head.” He whispered again.

“That’s the one.”

Susumu kept the town secure—being the successor to the Tokugawa Dynasty, he would be expected to be able to rule. Aiga had been in turmoil with the conflict, leaving them with dwindling supplies. Before him, he had already devoured his supply of rations for the day. It had to be this way for now. Within a few weeks, the G.E.I. would be resolving the situation and ensuring the rest of the town had the necessities to survive the end of winter.

The men always reported to him every morning, and this one had not been any different. He would be expecting the field radio at any moment to finally light up with a quick “nothing to report” so he could return to the square. After gnawing an empty plastic container, he started to feel his stomach growling again. He quickly snapped his head back, flopping his messy, but flowing black hair back over his shoulders before finally walking over to the device.

“Let’s get a report in, over.” Susumu ordered after pulling the receiver up to his face. He pulled back, observing the black plastic surface on the device to ensure he had pressed down on the switch.

“Uh, saw somebody at the market in one of you-thing, over.” A voice buzzed back, following a long pause.

“Where were they going?”

“Oh, uh,” the man on the other end had gone silent for a moment, leaving Susumu starting to feel agitated. He was expecting Dmitri—the Guard Chief—to arrive soon. Before being able to return, the man on the other end continued, “The port, I think. They’re from Nojiri, over.”

He had already started to get that “gut feeling” as in something was amiss about the report. In the last week, there had not been any contact from Nojiri. The few G.E.I. forces left in the area had not dared to try and mobilize the newly recruited townsfolk for an offensive. Instead of replying, he lowered the receiver and placed his fingers to his mouth to let out a loud whistle to the few troops in earshot.

Almost as fast as he could even send the signal, one of his men had already scaled the side of the Tokugawa Castle before perching up in the open window. All the men under his command had in some way or another some type of connection with the Deep. Each would be able to travel anywhere in the city within minutes.

“Where’s Dmitri?” Susumu asked, almost growling as he spoke.

“Did he not come by?” the man replied, immediately causing Susumu to quickly jerk his head back at him.

“Where is he?”

“Should be here soon.”

“Get him, I have something to report.”

The man gave a quick pump of his fist before turning back and jumping off the edge towards the ground. With a quick burst of focus, he had been able to tap into the Deep just a few meters from the ground to slow his descent. Susumu placed the receiver back into the radio, taking notice of the other channels starting to light up. He pressed his thumb against one of the buttons and was greeted with Paxton’s flaring accent.

“Alright kid, keep talking, what do you see?” Paxton’s voice buzzed over the speaker. Susumu had been greeted with several strange accents in the last few weeks of the G.E.I. taking presence, so his initial thoughts were dismissive. Before clicking over to the next channel, he heard another voice—one that had sounded much more familiar.

“Lots of metal,” Tetsu’s voice spoke, quickly causing Susumu to freeze in place. “Is this where I plant it?”

“God,” Paxton let out a sigh as his voice buzzed through the receiver. “Yes.”

Tetsu’s voice was one he had been very familiar with—the same with the rest of the Nojuro family. A cold bead of sweat began to band its way down his forehead and into his eye, giving him a rush of panic. Shortly after, his panic started to fade into anger as he started to remember his deal with Tetsu that had yet been fulfilled. Hiro and the other men under his command never returned from the Hideo-Jin Dynasty, and he was stuck trying to train a new set of underlings.

“Somebody get Dmitri.” Susumu called out again.

Tetsu nested the first explosive between a set of loosely settled metal rods over at the top of the first pillar. The only thing keeping him from a fifty-foot drop was a shaky rung—one already struggling to keep his slender frame supported. As he reached up to finally engage the bomb, he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder from one of the straps starting to grind against his wound.

The pulse rifle from a week earlier had still regularly bothered him, but he grinded his teeth and flipped the toggle switch over. A red light began to flicker, giving him a quick rush. He started to make his way to the top of the pillar and towards one of the ledges. The large facility being suspended over the ground seemed more like a design flaw, but Tetsu could not question the structural integrity. After getting on top of the pillar, the surface beneath his feet started to rock back and forth.

“Oh shit,” Tetsu quickly gasped before reached out towards the railing on the walkway above him. On his back side, he could hear a loud click from inside of the pack which had caused more stress. He then reached towards the earpiece and said, “I got it, I’m moving.”

Instead of getting static or any confirmation, he was left with silence. The pictures from earlier had been mostly a foggy memory by now.

Go across the walkway, there’s another point up the way. Paxton’s voice continued to echo in his head, but he could barely remember the rest of the instructions.

“Across the deck, there’s another pillar, so you need some stealth, over.” Paxton’s voice buzzed through, finally putting him at ease. Tetsu sighed in relief before trying to pull himself away from the pillar. There was a force pinning him in place—something from inside of the pack keeping him from moving. Unbeknownst to him, a magnetic strip under one of the explosives had found itself stuck to the wall.

His first instinct was to try and pull himself free, but after a few pulls he started to hear the zipper on the back of the pack start to come open. After a few more attempts, the inside of the pouch flew open, sending one of the bombs tumbling down. His heart sank, but he did not hesitate to reach out towards it. In a quick stroke of luck, he barely grabbed hold of the explosive.

“Uh oh,” he muttered after realizing the flipped switch and blinked light on the side. Before going into a frenzy, he hesitantly flipped the toggle switch back in the opposite direction, causing the light to dim. “I’m moving again, over.”

Dmitri was driving solo in his UAZ towards the Tokugawa Castle with a cigar tucked in his cheek. The drive up had always felt like it was too short. With the number of troops dropping, he would normally find himself posted up at the Alferov for most of the day after the morning route. Vic had since left Aiga, and he was acting commander for now. Having to deal with Susumu and his men had been challenging to say the least, but he had to make sure everything was in order. The pressure was rising, the success of the Weapons Administration was resting on him.

He continued towards the castle, taking a moment to enjoy the air conditioning in the vehicle. It and heat had been a massive step up from being cramped in the Mobile Carrier with limited space. He thought once more of Nomad and his crew back in Nojiri, still feeling disappointed that the outpost had been lost. Once he pulled up to the front, one of Susumu’s troops was already in the process of trying to flag him down.

“Sir, the boss was looking for you!” the man exclaimed, causing Dmitri to flinch. Instead of trying to retaliate, he shook off the comment. He thought to himself, this is their town, not ours.

“You have radios,” He replied with his very Slavic accent, barely able to remain audible over the hum of the engine. “If you need to message me, you set channel three and call.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” the man returned. “There’s been a lot of activity this morning.”

Dmitri quickly opened the driver’s side door, leaving the vehicle running while he started to make his way up towards the front of the building. The man followed him inside and up through the main entrance. Near the opposite end and a few floors up, Susumu had been posted up on one of the balconies—parched over the radio like a hawk.

“What have you got for me?” Dmitri shouted over, trying to remain firm but not to come off as agitated.

“Channel four, there’s somebody familiar on the line.” Susumu called back.

“Why the hell didn’t you just radio me?” Dmitri started to fumble through the channel on his radio, instantly being greeted by Tetsu’s voice.

“I think that’s the second one, I don’t see the reactor anywhere.” Tetsu’s voice buzzed again.

“He is familiar, but I don’t know about the other guy.” Susumu shouted at him. Dmitri could feel his blood boiling at the thought of somebody already in his territory.

“Just shut up and move.” Paxton’s voice rang out from the receiver.

All at once, Dmitri’s face had started to flush as his hands shook. The accent was so radically different from what he had heard back in Kashmir, that he was quick to piece together what was happening.

“It won’t take me long to plant the last two.” Tetsu said finally, immediately causing Dmitri to panic.

“One of the patrols said that there were some troops from Nojiri that are heading towards the port, is that normal?” the man added, only for Dmitri to let out a stream of pure gibberish.

“We’re getting attacked, you imbeciles,” Dmitri shouted to him. It took him a moment to remember hearing the word ‘reactor’ and less time to deduce where the signal had come from. He turned back up to Susumu and pointed up to him, finally yelling, “Get to the facility and fucking destroy them.”