3307-April-15-2003Z Meiji Shogunate, Saitama system, Kawaguchi, industrial district 654The service tunnel was poorly lit, but that made it easier not to notice the variety of things that scurried out to the way of the three sanitation technicians walking its length. Team Charlie Plus had been on Kawaguchi for months on orders from Commander Wadey to find anything they could on General Fujiwara and the political situation within the Shogunate. They finally had what they had been looking for and once they transmitted the data they had every intention of disappearing.
"Got to love worlds where they take the caste system seriously." Cobol rumbled.
"Why's that?" Klone quipped, "They seem even more oppressive than the other Shogunate worlds and a lot more restrictive. The penalties for getting caught are a lot worse also."
Cobol almost laughed, "Oh they are, but there is always an invisible caste, one so low on the totem pole even its own members don't pay themselves much attention. If you know how to dress, the right accent to speak with and the proper forms of groveling, you're practically invisible in plain sight."
"Shh, we're coming to the end of the tunnel" Fortran reprimanded the other two.
"Ma'am," was the only sound the other two made.
The access hatch opened into a dark alley, rain drizzled down pipes and cross supports from an unseen sky a hundred stories above. Three sanitation technicians helped pull their gear from the tunnel settled it onto their back packs. Once that was done they sealed the hatch, locked it and began to trudge towards home, shoulders slumped and eyes down caste.
They were approaching the drab concrete dormitories next to the Gaijin compound that was part of the gateway district, when three well dressed individuals stepped in front of them. The team immediately stopped and huddled against the wall to clear as much of the narrow walk way as possible. With all eyes down and head bowed low, one quietly mumbled apologies for taking up too much space.
"Oh well done." One of the well dressed men clapped, "Your performance is quite good, I'd believe you if it wasn't for the tech you've hidden amongst your gear. Hand over the data you've stolen and things will go much better for you." His eyes sparkled and glowed as he spoke, and the woman and larger man with him stepped towards the three sanitation technicians
"Damn borgs," Cobol said, and turned to Klone "I guess we better give it to them."
"Whatever you say boss," Klone pulled a tube from his back pack and sprayed the well dressed three with sewage while he pulled a needle pistol from a cargo pocket with his other hand.
The team backed up and spread out to make it harder for all of them to be hit at once. Cobol was already firing at the large man and realized the quite needlers were not going to do the job. The ferrite darts didn't seem to faze the brute at all as he pulled a short barreled flechette gun from beneath his coat.
Fortran ducked behind a dumpster, pulled a pair of wires from a pouch and plugged them into sockets behind each of her ears. She recorded the fight as she encrypted the data, packaged it and prepped it to be transmitted as a data burst. She hated not backing up her team but the mission was priority.
Klone fired his needler into the well dressed woman's face, only to watch the ferrite dart slice through her pseudo flesh cheek and ricochet off of something other than bone and into the alley wall. He had wondered why the woman had brought a sword to a gun fight, now he knew. The vibroblade she drew and swung took Klones head off in one smooth motion as she began to move toward Cobol.
The brute fired a volley of flechettes which hit Cobal in the belly and tossed him to the ground a bloodied mess. Cobol coughed blood as he raised a pocket plasma pistol off hand and blew a hole through the torso of the brute. The sword woman then cut his hand off with the spent plasma pistol in it. Before she could redirect the sword to his other had he shot himself in the temple with his needler.
"For the sake of the Emperor keep at least one of them alive." Said the spokesman as he tried to wipe himself clean.
Fortran heard this, she had already transmitted all the data and wiped the external drive there was only one thing left to do. She felt herself being grabbed and pulled to her feet. Fortran made sure to look at everything, saw the sword woman holding her, her dead team lying in the alley along with the holed cyborg and the man that seemed to be in charge.
"Was that all really necessary?" The spokesman looked at Fortran and shook his head, "Now will you give me the stolen data or will we have to do this the hard way?"
Fortran only smiled as she said, "Format Cee." and her head exploded.
3307-April-15-2047Z Meiji Shogunate, Saitama system, Kawaguchi, Gateway District 357, Gaijin compound
The rented motel was designed for visiting Ronin units as such the décor was an unusual mix of cultures and it looked like it had been added to and detracted from by prior renters. But the lounge had plenty of background noise as well as the music and the techs were pretty sure it was not bugged. Captain Mora was enjoying a meal when he saw the lieutenant coming with a data pad and business face on. The Captain hoped he would be able to finish his meal after he heard what was to come.
"Sir, the technicians recorded an encrypted burst transmission on the emergency frequency." Lieutenant Ouragos frowned has he looked at the data pad, "Followed by the clear text 'team wet drives all clean', does this mean anything to you?"
Captain Mora sighed, "It means team Charlie plus completed their mission but will not be returning with us. It also means that we are done with R&R and need to head back to the battalion."
"I'll recall all the pilots immediately." Ouragos saluted.
Mora stopped him, "No, just let the section leaders know in the morning. I don't want to be the first mercenary unit through the gateway after what probably just happened. Let everyone know we're going to Yomi Reefs and then Rizpah on our way back so the mecha can be properly prepped."
"Very well sir," Ouragos left.
About an hour later Captain Mora wandered into the hanger bay and approached the senior technician standing next to his mecha. "McEth, what do you have?"
Senior tech McEth linked her pad up to the Neiro's computer, "Well sir there was two layers of encryption the outer most revealed a video file here I'll show you."
Mora nodded after watching the fight in the alley. "Glad you showed me that here rather than letting me find out when I was linked into my mecha."
McEth nodded, "Thought you might feel that way, that was bad, any idea who the suits are?"
"Two ideas, if we're lucky they are local Yakuza," Mora replied and then paused.
"And if we're not lucky?" McEth asked.
Mora sighed, "If we're not lucky they are Himitsukei. What about the second layer of encryption?"
McEth, shook her head, "it's level S4, which means we don't have the computer power to open it here and now. To be really honest I'm not sure I want to anyway. So we either take it back to Commander Wadey at Battalion HQ, or RND Corps Command, or all the way back to Caissa and let the Intelligence Corps have it. What's the Himitsukei? I've never heard of them."
"Not a surprise they are not known outside of the Shogunate and most here either don't believe they exist or are afraid to talk about them." Captain Mora explained, "They are the Imperial Secret Police, as far as we can tell they report to themselves and the Emperor, neither the Shogun nor any of the Daimyos have any control over them, the royal family might not even know about them. The Intelligence Corps figured out their existence a while back but details are sketchy, they aren't warrior caste or Yakuza through they will manipulate and use both, so they have no social restriction on how they do things. They also have access to the best technology within the Shogunate, hopefully we won't have to deal with any of them."
3307-April-16-1543Z Meiji Shogunate, Saitama system, Kawaguchi, gateway 357
A group of 24 Hoplites and a single Neiro stood in formation waiting to step onto the gateway, with a cluster of technicians hover trucks just behind them. On one shoulder they all bore the crest of the RND Corps, on the other shoulder the 111th Baconators emblem was painted over prior regimental markings on the oldest Hoplites this included the 99th, the 82nd and the 64th unit logos. On the back of each Hoplite was a greek letter Alpha through Omega.
Captain Mora was brought back from his thoughts as his radio spoke up with an accent less female voice, "Gateway Control to Captain Mora, you and your unit are cleared to access the gateway. Please state destination and if you need a niode guide?"
"Thank you Gateway control, destination Yomi Reefs, negative on the guide we have addressed niodes." Captain Mora acknowledged and began moving his Niero towards the gateway, the company of Hoplites and tech trucks followed him. With the formalities out of the way captain Mora decided to probe a little. "Thank you for letting us stay, you have a very nice world here, with good R&R facilities. Too bad we can only afford to rent them for so long before we have to get back to work. Do you mind telling me why we had to wait all afternoon before we could use the gateway?"
The controller seemed a bit guarded, "First tell me why a company of RND mecha was on R&R here instead of fighting for glory and honor in the Clan Wars?"
"Wish we were there actually," Mora laughed casually, "but we aren't needed, due to the rules of engagement this Clan War they didn't need a company with a 25 ton Max specialty."
"Oh," The controller paused for a moment and then almost whispered as if afraid what she was about to say might be a secret. "The gateway was temporarily closed by Imperial order. They did not tell us why but a special police unit needed to use the gateway for a couple of hours for a emergency response drill."
"I'm glad it was just a drill, may the Emperor live forever." Captain Mora replied as all of his unit found there places on the gateway. As the gateway powered up to take them to Yomi Reefs he felt a twinge of guilt and hoped the other mercenaries that had left before him kept the Imperial Secret Police busy for a good long time. Hopefully by staying casual and following a normal mercenary route out of the Shogunate they wouldn't draw any attention to themselves. He really didn't want to have to fight Himitsukei stealth mecha before he made it back to the Battalion and the rest of the 111th Baconators regiment.
Submitted by Sean Wadey # 356597