Rune Troopers: Self-Defense Forces Adventure - Chapter 1: Dispatch of the Fleet (Part 2)

In Greek Mythology, Aegis was the most powerful shield bestowed by God Zeus to Goddess Athena who was skilled in warfare.

The Aegis class destroyer, Ibuki, was the world’s most powerful Aerial Defense vessel, equipped with a high-performance state-of-the-art radar and computer system called the Aegis System. 

The Aegis System enabled the destroyer to simultaneously track and intercept more than 200 targets at the same time.

It was the combat ship that best symbolizes the Self-Defense Forces’ and Japan’s exclusive defensive philosophy.

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On board the Japan Maritime SDF Aegis destroyer “Ibuki”, lunch was served at the same time after the announcement of the food distribution. 

With a full-load capacity of 10,000 tons and an overall length of 170 meters, the Ibuki was a large vessel even by global standards. So there were inevitably a large number of crew members on board.

Therefore, during meal times, the mess hall for the general crew and the department mess were very crowded.

On the other hand, the officers’ mess, where meals were served exclusively to the executive officers, was covered in a solemn atmosphere. This was the only place on the destroyer that gave one the impression of calm.

“Commander on deck!”

One of the officers shouted, and all the officers seated at the long table straightened their posture at once.

Then, a man quickly entered the officers’ mess as he sat down at the seat of honor.

The man wore a black uniform just like the other officers.

At first glance, he looked young.

However, it was only based on his appearance. In fact, the man was in his middle ages yet his body language remained sharp. With his back straight, he had more energy than most young people. 

Although he was small in stature, he possessed a dignity that did not bother him. Rather than dignity, it would be more accurate to describe him as a person with a dependable personality. 

However, he seemed like a good-natured man that could be found anywhere.

He was Vice Admiral Norio Kaburaki, the commander of this UN Peacekeeping Force Fleet.

“At ease, everyone”

“At ease!”

“Let’s eat quickly. Eat up everybody. Oh, it is Friday already? Are we having curry today?”

Seemingly serious at first, Kaburaki stopped the officer who had given the order.

According to him, there was no need to continue with the meaningless, formalized rules for too long.

Some of the officers smiled, as this was typical of him, while others were astonished at the lack of a coherent command.

“As usual, Commander Kaburaki.”

A cool voice echoed in the officers’ mess.

It belonged to Vice Commander Osamu Kato, the Chief of Staff of the Fleet Command and Staff Corps who was seated across from him.

Among the senior officers sitting in this room, he was a man of unusual demeanor.

He was famous for his non-framed oval glasses, which often reflected light, perhaps because of the angle. Due to that he could be recognized even on the deck from a distance. 

He had a childlike face that could have been mistaken for a high school student, and he stood out from his surroundings, which were full of fussy-looking people. 

He was not at all like a person who would have been “the Chief of Staff” in this era.

He was Commander Kaburaki’s right-hand man. That was why they were seated so close to each other at lunch.

“I’m the commander, so it’s all right,” Kaburaki said with a grin.

Kaburaki’s face was as animated as a boy’s as he smiled at the Vice-Commander.

He took a spoonful of curry, not daring to pay attention to the gazes of the people around him, who were mulling over various thoughts and feelings.

After a while, perhaps because everyone had turned their attention to lunch, one of the few pleasures on board the ship, no one was paying attention to Kaburaki, and the meal became more harmonious.

The only one to speak was Kato, the Chief of Staff, who was reporting to the Commander.

“According to the report from the meteorological team, the typhoon that occurred yesterday is expected to divert from its course.”

“Well, that’s a relief. What else?”

“No, nothing. Oh, I had a strange dream yesterday.”

“Dream ……?”

Kaburaki, trying to look as calm as possible, turned his head towards Kato.

“I don’t remember it well…… but there seemed to be a girl with wings on her back bleeding…….”

Everyone in the officer’s mess turned to look at the Vice-Commander in shock.

Kato, as expected, smiled bitterly to cover it up.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have talked about it during the meal.”

But Kaburaki did not let it slide.

“It’s strange, isn’t it?”

“What?”

“I saw it too. A dream in which a girl with wings was sacrificed….”

“Eh! Really?”

As if sincerely surprised, Kato rolled his curious eyes.

“Sacrifice …… Oh, I’m sure it was something like that,” Kaburaki groaned.

“A dream, a girl with wings, a sacrifice, and a subordinate who had the same dream? Commander, you must be tired.”

One of the medical officers interrupted his superior, who was talking in a bizarre manner.

“After all, it’s been an arduous schedule so far..” The Navigator of Ibuki joined in.

What they were trying to say was how rapidly the Fleet was deployed.

Why was the Fleet formed and what was its mission?

It all started six months ago, when the report arrived stating a series of terrorist attack on several UN facilities located at differen nations in the continent of Africa. 

Usually such an attack was a common sight in Africa.

However, this time there was a major difference. The rebels who carried out the attacks had utilized a series of Scud missiles and other ballistic missiles that they had smuggled in order to carry out indiscriminate attacks on cities.

In the interest of preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and long-range missile technology, the United Nations decided to deploy peacekeeping forces, led by the United States and EU. 

However, although the decision was made, governments feared the rise of failure like in the case of deployment of troops to Somalia in 1993, which resulted in numerous casualties due to a lack of manpower. 

This led to the US requesting for assistance from Japan.

The Japanese government believed that a successful interception of the rebel ballistic missiles would neutralize North Korea’s brinkmanship diplomacy card of using nuclear weapons and missiles. 

This would also go a long way toward rescuing the abductees.

With their interests aligned, it did not take them long in order to decide on a dispatch order for the Self-Defense Forces.

Despite fierce opposition from some opposition parties, the ruling party pushed through with public opinion on its side.

In addition, the government incorporated the state-of-the-art Aegis class destroyer “Ibuki” into its Fleet as a display to the world that Japan was capable of intercepting ballistic missiles. 

Furthermore, the government had always sought to solidify its position in the international community by deploying “boots on the ground” – the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force.

The phrase “humanitarian aid as a member of the United Nation” sounded good, but in the end, it was all politics and scoring points for those who were sitting in their plush chairs at the Ministry of Defense.

If the SDF should fail in any way, they would place the blame on the deployed troops on the frontlines and justify that they went against the order.

“Damn them all,” Thought Kaburaki, who had been in the field all his life.

“I don’t know if this mission would be a relief or a burden, but because there exists a possibility of being confronted with the worst-case scenario, we were well stocked with weapons and ammunition. Unprecedented  any of our previous overseas deployments.”

The two assault ships, as massive as light aircraft carriers, were loaded with GSDF vehicles, various equipment, tanks, combat helicopters, and ammunition.

In addition to the state-of-the-art Aegis destroyer Ibuki, the MSDF Fleet also had a warship with a 19,500-ton capacity known as the Helicopter Destroyer along with a large support ship loaded with supplies.

It was almost certain that this was a lineup specifically prepared for a battlefield.

Some politicians were happy to see the “World-Class Japanese Fleet,” but they had not organized the Fleet with such a carefree attitude.

Kaburaki, however, was not so pessimistic about the mission itself.

He liked the field. If he could, he would stay on the destroyer until retirement.

If there was no one to take the lead in the field, he would take the lead himself. That was Kaburaki’s belief. He was a member of the elite, but he was not expected to rise any higher in the ranks because of his personality.

“If Commander Kaburaki and I look normal, it’s more of a danger sign. The medical team must be careful.”

“Good.”

Kaburaki chided Kato who gave a teasing response to the Navigator.

…… He’s an odd one, too, isn’t he? Well, he was the youngest Gunnery Chief in history, but he was a problem child who shot back from his own ship, which was a virtual target in the exercise, and annihilated the opposing force, so it is only natural. 

Besides, it was none other than myself who pulled him out of his original squadron to become the Chief of Staff, so I can’t complain.

Kaburaki chuckled bitterly in his mind as he brought a bowl of traditional naval curry to his mouth, a dish that he could never get sick of no matter how much he ate.

After thirty years on the ship, the familiar taste calmed him down.

The present moment, when I am eating slowly like this, is very important to me. If war broke out where we are deployed, I would not be able to live my daily life like this.

Kaburaki was also ruminating over Kato’s words earlier while thinking about this.

A girl with wings on her …… back.

She seemed to be seeking something. Yes, very earnestly.

Before long, Kaburaki forgot about even eating curry and was trapped in his thoughts.

Just because someone else had the same dream did not mean anything would happen. Yet, for some reason, he felt a stirring in his chest. It might be a Commander’s intuition.

“So …… it’s you guys…….”

“What?”

I heard a girl’s voice.

For a moment, he wondered if he had heard something in his ears.

But soon, he looked up and was startled.

Kato was staring at a certain point with his mouth open, holding the spoon with the curry on it in the air.

Kaburaki also looked where he was staring. There stood a girl dressed in a light robe.

What?

She was standing on a long table, in the middle of the officers facing each other.

Am I dreaming?

Cold sweat trickled down his back.

The place was in an uproar. The members of the team stood up from their chairs with a clatter.

“Who the hell are you? How did you get into this ship?”

“Commander, please take cover!”

One of his men restrained him, but Kaburaki remained motionless, staring at the girl’s face.

“Ki, you are ……!”

He had seen her just yesterday.

The first time I saw her was in a dream.

The girl’s long, waist-length silver hair was peeking out through a thin white robe, and she had black tattoos with geometric patterns running all over her body.

On her back were large white wings.

She opened her eyes and said, “I had no choice but to leave this to you.”

When Kaburaki could not understand the meaning of her words, Kato asked her, “Entrust it to us? What do you mean?”

The girl’s kind eyes caught Kato, who seemed to be the only one who remained calm in this situation.

Then, facing Kato’s serious eyes, she muttered sadly, “I’m sorry.”

“Oh, hey!”

The girl meddled again, and Kaburaki, sensing something in the girl, quickly raised his voice.

At that moment, the light in the officer’s mess dimmed. But they did not go down.

“What in the world!”

Everyone in the room felt their backs break out in a sickening sweat.

The girl began to hum a strange melody in a small voice.

Then, a faint greenish glow appeared beneath her feet. There, something like a pattern seemed to be stirring.

Kato, next to Kaburaki, stared at the light.

“Magic circle ……?”

It looked much like something Kato had seen in a manga he enjoyed reading.

“What are you doing? Stop!”

One of the young officers went up to the table to stop her, probably thinking that a single unarmed girl would be enough to stop her.

“No!”

Kaburaki shouted, feeling a bad premonition.

The space in the officer was distorted.

Everyone thought it was an optical illusion or a terrorist attack by poison gas.

Then, a tar-like darkness overflowed from the patterns carved all over her body. It eroded the white tablecloth and quickly consumed the entire officer.

“Hi!”

The darkness extended to the ship’s officer, who was nearby, and enveloped him as it was.

“Whoa!”

“Get out of the way!…… Stop!”

The slimy darkness, moving as if it had a mind of its own, engulfed the fleeing officers.

It was truly a scene of screaming.

The darkness is eating me!

The deepest instincts of human beings made them terrified of the darkness.

“Oh my God! Help!”

Kato, who had failed to escape, also disappeared into the darkness with a scream.

Kaburaki, who remained in the officer’s room until the end, kept his distance from the darkness and calmly tried to resist as the Commander.

He must fulfill the mission assigned to him, the duty to protect his men

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He grabbed the communication phone on the wall by the entrance, “This is Commander  Kaburaki from the officer’s mess,……All hands …..evacuate……..”

He was about to order a general evacuation, but then darkness overtook him.

This officer’s mess was one of the larger rooms on the ship, but it was small as a general room. 

It wasn’t long before the darkness caught up with him.

“Repeat…… All personnel …… ku …….”

The darkness was not satisfied with just the officer’s mess; it reached out through the windows and exited to the outside. 

It was about to engulf the entire destroyer, nay, the fleet itself.

As darkness enveloped everything in sight, Kaburaki was about to relay the order to sink the “Ibuki” as a last resort.

However, as his consciousness faded, his grip on the destroyer’s communicator began to lose strength, and he was soon driven to the brink of despair…