They departed from New Tokyo early in the day. It was one of those bright mornings foreigners used to be uncomfortable with, the light emitted by the vigorous sun bouncing on the great ocean's waves and on the structures surfaces those tiny ants called humans were building everywhere they had a chance.
He gazed once again with nostalgia at this spectacle before entering in the hold of the Chimaera. Those mornings were always reminding him home.
As soon as he took place in the cockpit, a mocking voice made its way to him. "Can't believe you're still landed. Well, i shouldn't be surprised, after all. Men are so slow. If our forces were exclusively made of women, we would have cast those dirty Gallics out of Sirius sector. years ago already."
He let her go on, smiling slightly. There was always a point when she would grow tired. That point reacher, he said : "I'm doing the routine checks before taking out. You shouldn't take those safety measures lightly." "And what makes you think i did? Now come on. Hurry up. I want to see Admiral stupid demoting you to ensign so that you can become my slave again. I wonder what i would ask you first.."
"Not so fast, 'sunshine'." replied the officer as the Chimaera was taking off and getting to the planet low orbit. "Come on! I'm already near Shinjuku." "Did you even listen to me before you took off?" "Of course." "Then you do know we will gather with a flotilla coming from Honshu before heading to Kyushu, hmm?"
There was only silence on the secured line for a while. "Junko?" "I'm 99% sure you didn't tell me." "I did." "You didn't."
The man shrugged in his cockpit. "So let's rendez-vous near Shinagawa, miss '99%'."
Akashi was sitting near the display screens of the KDS-Honshu, viewing as all of the force was gathering by New Tokyo Jump Gate, preparing to jump
"Fleet captain to all ships, prepare to start jumping sequence on my signal!"
Weird He thought to himself I have the feeling I am forgetting something... And as he said it, the little furred beast sat on his chair, giving a slight roar.
"Why there you are Mr. Snuggles! Errr I mean, Haku-chan" He looked embarrassed on the other soldier at the bridge, realizing no one seemed to notice the arrival of the mighty beast nor his own comments, he went on
"Annnnddddd jump!"
The fleet went through New Tokyo without any trouble, slowly making the approach to Shinagawa
"This is Itto-Kaisa Akashi Haikiri to Ryoma Sakamoto-Sama, do you copy?"
The response came after a moment of silence. "Yes. Transmission received. I will be meeting you on battleship Nagumo as soon as you arrive. Do not dawdle."
The transmission ended abruptly. "Captain, two vessels are hailing us and requesting to integrate the formation." "Very well." replied Akashi after a nod. "Those are the ones we were waiting for. Assign a position to them and let's head to Kyushu system."
~~~
The two Chimaeras docked on Nagumo and they soon gathered. The woman shook her head to let her hair breath, and began to quietly tie them in a ponytail. "So. Here we are. I will be in the bar, doing my best to not give in to the numerous men who will inevitably try to hit on me. Go to your very important meeting. Enjoy." "I will. See you soon." simply replied the man.
That said, he headed to the briefing room he was waited in, leaving the officer where she was.
Ishikawa made his way to the briefing room and entered without hesitating.
The door opened with a hiss and he walked in to see the admiral staring at some screen.
Quickly, Sakamoto turned around and gave Ishikawa a short nod. "Welcome, Ishikawa-san. Good to see you safe and in good health."
The lower ranked officer gave a short bow. "Arigatou. It is good to see you as well."
"Now, I'm sure you're curious as to why I have brought you all here, but all in due time. I will wait for Haikiri-san to arrive before I begin."
Ishikawa nodded. "I understand."
Sakamoto tilted his head a bit, looking at him curiously. "However.. I would like to talk about your earlier mission. Your response was very curt."
Ishikawa bit his lower lip as he said that. "Indeed.. Well it.. hm."
He sighed. "Do you expect a full report?"
The admiral nodded. "Go ahead."
Ishikawa's face was showing exactly how uncomfortable he was. "Well... Not everything was going according to plan. I had to ... improvise a bit."
He took a quick look around the room. "Everything went well in the end however." He quickly added
"And you succeeded. You returned with the data." "Yes..." Ishikawa made a quick pause, wondering how he would put it. Eventually he said : "But.. I wasn't the one who gathered that data."
Sakamoto was considering the young man gravely, obviously trying to read through him. "I see. That's related to the fact two ships attacked Nagata's flag ship. Two instead of one." "Yes." "Who helped you? I told you to not let anyone into confidence."
The admiral was speaking in a quiet voice, yet it looked obvious he wasn't pleased.
"I didn't. I was followed as i was moving to Java Station." "By whom...?"
He remained silent, finally emitting a "hmm.." "Ishikawa?" "The Commander Sanada." "The Commander Sanada..." repeated Sakamoto. "I see."
He sighed. "Somehow, every time i hear from Sanada, it is about her thoughtless behaviour." "The Commander Sanada is a good officer. I will never hesitate to put my life into her hands." "Hmm..."
He studied the officer closely again. "I already warned you about getting too close and letting emotions dictate your actions."
As he wasn't replying, he asked. "So you allowed her to second you for that mission." "Not exactly.. She didn't actually leave me the choice." "Hmm..."
Akashi entered in the briefing room at that moment. "Ah well. Everyone is here now. We will discuss further about those circumstances at a later date."
He nodded to Akashi, who was observing the two officers and then added gravely : "We have more important matters to discuss. Gentlemen, i'm not going to to hide it; We are facing a critical situation."
Akashi entered the room, looking at both Sakamoto and Ishikawa, while the former looked a bit angry and the latter highly blushed. He wondered to himself whether it was related to commander Sanada
"Konbanwa Sakamoto-Sama, Ishikiawa-Sama."He made the slight bow, and quickly started to speak out
"I have prepared attack orders and thought-out formations and defensive grids against the Gallic army, we won't make the mistake of leashing out this time and attack from asteroid fields with light capitals and bombers..."
He stopped talking as Ryoma pointed him to the chair
"This meeting is not about the Gallics, as I said previously." Ryoma said in a certain tone.
While Akashi seemed to mildly-surprised and rose an eyebrow, it did not seem to be much of a surprise to Ishikawa.
"The matter is by far more serious, and concerns events that will be critical to both our own house and the human-kind"
Akashi rose from his chair, he heard this type of talk in the past - and he did not like it at all.
"I better stock up with a lot of food for Mr. Snuggles, this is going to take longer than I expected" He wondered to himself, as he thought about his little Tiger-trimmed companion.
"Is it about Outcasts or even... Blood Dragons?" asked Akashi. "Outcasts are still pushing against our defences and committing piracy wherever they roam, but they aren't that a threat. About Blood Dragons... Well... Fact is i didn't receive much reports about them. It is never good to not hear anything from your enemies... They must be preparing something." said thoughtfully the Admiral.
He finally added : "But they aren't my biggest concern right now." "Then? What is it, Sakamoto-sama? And why all this secrecy?"
Sakamoto massaged his forehead as if it was feverish, and after a moment of reflection : "Several weeks ago, i received a peculiar message giving me a rendez-vous in a dark street. I met there an officer -At least i believe he was; probably a member of the Tokkeitai- who warned me about our new head of the Navy, Nagata Yuri."
He gazed at the two men. Both were listening with a stony and undecipherable expression. "He said Nagata-san wasn't -himself- any more and insisted on his behaviour following the aborted operation in the Arch. He also reminded me Nagata did everything he could to limit the search i was leading in the Taus, when our former leader, Takahashi Mikako, disappeared with her escort."
Akashi was now slightly frowning. "What do you mean exactly but 'not being himself'?" "You do know aliens have a way to control humans... Either way, I didn't take that stranger's words as the truth but, i needed to ensure nothing was threatening Kusari. I called the troops who participated to the assault and made them being examined. Everybody was fine. Only one man was left to being checked." "The Admiral Nagata." "Precisely. Ishikawa was tasked with an undercover mission. He had to scan Nagata's flagship using a modified scanning device. For this to work, the flagship shields had to be disabled and some jamming components on the hull destroyed. The only way to do it was to send someone who would attack the flagship."
"You sent someone to attack your own brothers?" asked in a scornful tone Akashi while gazing at Ishikawa. "It was the only way to know if Nagata was indeed... Infected, without raising suspicion. We needed to keep the element of surprise in the event Nagata would be indeed infected."
"You cannot be serious." Finally said Akashi. "The Admiral Nagata? Infected? We would have known if such an improbable thing happened. You are bringing division in the Naval Forces ranks!" "Remember he has now the power allowing him to dodge any checking. And i couldn't let Nagata suspect someone would know his secret. If i did, i would be dead right now. And Kusari Naval Forces would still be controlled by a monstrosity." "I can't believe that." finally replied Akashi after a silence, looking suspiciously at Sakamoto while his hand was slowly getting closer to his holster.
The Admiral noticed his gesture and silently sighed before saying : "Nor could I. But the data collected leaves no doubt."
He handed him a large data pad. "The scientific lab sent it to me two days ago."
Ishikawa had silently observed the discussion. Being called to this weird briefing, he had already suspected that Sakamoto had found proof.
Still, it was quite devastating to hear that the head of the Naval Forces was indeed infected. The next weeks wouldn't be easy for all of them.
He sighed and walked over to the screen Sakamoto had looked at earlier. A starmap of Kusari was shown, he quickly glanced over it and then turned back to the two other officers.
"We have no choice." Sakamoto was looking at Haikiri with a grave expression. "And I need your help with this."
"The evidence leaves no doubt, but ... how?" Akashi still couldn't believe what he had just been told.
"He was infected when he took part in the failed mission to secure Heaven's Gate. He managed to remain undetected for quite a long time."
Akashi crossed his arms and stared at Sakamoto. "You should tell the Prime Minister of your suspicions then."
Sakamoto sighed. "I tried.. and I failed. This is why we must do this ourselves and strike from the shadows. This one time we have to be traitors.. to save Kusari."
"hmph. What are you planning to do? You could just very well use this to seize the power for yourself."