The Red Hand

Chapter 89.5 –  And So the Self Defense Force Fights On!

A few minutes earlier.

*PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *ZAP* *ZAP* *ZAP*

"Why do we always get the fun jobs?!?" Ishizawa complained as she and her squad took fire from the puppet army. "This was supposed to be a chance for us to catch our breath after running across the country, but nooo. Now we're fighting robots in the middle of Nagoya!" She groaned as she ducked to avoid fire.

Captain Yomigawa's team was in Nagoya when Libra's attack began. They'd been waiting in a military base in Okazaki when the attack started and were sent out to slow the advancing forces along with other military units.

"We need to fall back!" Yomigawa yelled over comms. "Move back to the next street corner. We'll use the K-Rails as cover. This will be the last retreat. The block after that has the school, and the evacuation isn't complete!" He said, giving covering fire for Toya, who bounced between cars.

*PEW* *PEW* *PEW**PEW* *PEW* *PEW*

"Holy shit!" Toya moved between cover. Barely dodging a magical round that melted straight through a car door next to him. "What the hell kind of weapons are these?!?"

"Hell, if I know!" Inugami moved back up the street, jumping behind a concrete barrier. "Just don't get hit! Our vests won't do shit versus those rounds!" He opened fire, dropping a puppet.

"Captain, where the hell is our support?!?" Ishizawa yelled. "We can't hold back this many with just the four of us!" She ducked avoiding a blast before returning fire.

"I've put in a call for air support, but it's going to be a bit." Yomigawa groaned. "We weren't expecting this at all, so nothing was on standby." He fired a grenade taking down a few puppets. "We need to hold this position until we get back up. I've put out a priority call for anything, so until then, keep your head down and try to stay alive. Our weapons can damage these things, but we lack the ammunition to stop this many." He said as Ishizawa retreated next to him, barely avoiding fire.

"Don't we have the RRT for this shit?!?" Ishigama exclaimed. "Where the hell are they?"

"Superbia is currently engaged with these things in Gifa. Besides, her job is to handle the Libra members, reports say several agents have been spotted already. She won't have time to help us." An explosion went off right in front of the barrier Yomigawa was behind as several rounds hit the concrete.

"What about the rest?" Toya asked.

"Negative. Superbia is the only member in Nagoya. The rest will likely come, but they're hours away." Yomigawa explained. "This will require the military to handle 90% of the legwork."

"We don't have hours!" Inugami yelled. "We've got maybe twenty minutes before these things reach the school, at best!" He fired another grenade taking down more puppets.

*PEW* *PEW* *PEW**PEW* *PEW* *PEW*

"There's so goddam many of them!" Ishizawa complained as she fired off a few more rounds. "Any ETA on support? Anything?"

"Command said to hold tight. But gave no time." Yomigawa sighed.

{It better be soon, or all those kids are going to die. Fuck!} (Yomigawa)

*CRACKLE*

The radio made some noise.

"This is command. We've got two additional squads moving into position. ETA ten minutes." The radio operation explained.

"What about air support? Heavy equipment?" Yomigawa asked as blasts flew overhead.

"Negative," The radio operator replied. "Command has denied requests for heavy ordinance to be used within the urban area. Too much risk for civilian casualties."

"If they don't deploy that stuff, the casualties will be a hell of a lot higher!" Ishizawa yelled at the man. "You tell your higher-ups to send us close air support! Now! Unless you want a bunch of kids to die and to lose and an entire division!"

"I will pass along the request and explain the urgency, but I doubt their mind will change. For now, make do with infantry squads. Over." The radio operator clicked off.

"Son of a bitch!" Ishizawa yelled. "If they don't send in heavy weapons, the entire city is going to be wiped out!"

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

A massive explosion rang out across the city. From where they were, they could see a massive fireball in the sky. A moment later, they were hit with a shockwave that nearly knocked them over.

"What the hell was that?!?" Toya asked as he looked at the smoke in the sky. "Did someone drop heavy ordinance?!?"

"That was way too big to be some kind of explosive of ours." Inugami blasted a few puppets. "Did the Americans use their satellite?"

"Hell if I know, that blast disrupted comms. Command isn't responding." Yomigawa sighed. "Just keep these things back!"

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

*PEW* *PEW* *PEW**PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW* *PEW*

Yomigawa's squad continued their firefight with the puppets, which slowly got closer to their position. If something didn't change soon they'd have to fall back to the school itself and that would be bad.

"Where are those other squads?!?" Toya called out.

"No idea, just focus on killing these things." Yomigawa ducked, avoiding a shot before returning more of his own.

*BOOM*

Another explosion went off. This time it was a nearby building to their left. The front portion collapsed, and puppets began to pour out onto the street.

"Shit, they're flanking us!" Inugami fired a grenade at the puppets.

"Move back!" Yomigawa called out, but as he tried to move he took a blast to the shoulder, badly wounding him.

"Captain!" Ishizawa who was next to him, grabbed him as he stumbled and tried to pull him into cover. "Shit!"

The three of them regrouped and slowly moved back up the street. There was little cover, and with the injured Yomigawa, moving much more would be hard.

"Aw, this hurts like hell." Yomigawa laughed as he was placed against a car.

"Don't talk, you idiot." Ishizawa hastily tried to dress his wounds. "I don't have the kit for such bad burns, so just deal with it for now. It looks like the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been." His shoulder was burned and bleeding, but the damage wasn't fatal.

"They're gonna be on us any second!" Inugami said. "Where are those other squads?!? We're going to be wiped out!" As he said this, several explosions hit the puppets as they marched up the street and gunfire erupted from the tops of the buildings.

"Sorry, we're late Yomigawa. We got held up by some other attackers en route." Captain Ashizami said over the radio.

"Your not late, your right on time." Yomigawa laughed, causing himself some pain. "Ow."

"Don't move!" Ishizawa yelled. "About god damn time Ashizami. One more minute and you'd be reporting us back as K.I.A!"

"So you're telling me if I'd just waited a bit longer, I wouldn't have to hear you complain anymore? Damn." Ashizami cracked a joke, and Toya and Inugami laughed.

"We need to get Yomigawa to a medic. Leaving burns untreated is a very bad idea." Ishizawa said as she finished bandaging him. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah," Yomigawa slowly stood up. "Burns like hell, but I can still move on my own." The second and third squads made quick work of the puppets from their positions on the rooftops.

"You four retreat to points 45-98. Get Yomigawa to medical and restock on ammunition. We'll hold here." Ashizami said.

"Rodger that," Yomigawa said, and the four started walking to the rear area point to get medical attention. As they walked up the street, they saw Superbia and Hishya jump across the gap between the buildings. They were moving east, very quickly, and they only barely saw them before they disappeared.

"Well, there's your superheroes." Inugami joked. "But two of them? I thought Superbia was the only one in Nagoya?"

"Yeah, and wasn't the other one that Hishya girl?" Toya said.

"No clue. Command hasn't said anything." Yomigawa said. "But if she's here to help, that's fine by me." He figured the more superpowered back up the better for something like this.

"They're probably going to fight the elf command said was in the area," Ishizawa said as she tried to contact command for more info. "Better they fight one of those freaks than us." She figured fighting a Libra member on their own wouldn't go well.

Yomigawa squad returned to the small forward base set up near the school, and the Captain was taken to have his injuries addressed. They weren't as bad as initially thought, but he would be taken out of action for now.

Toya, Ishizawa, and Inugami stood in front of the tent and watched as other soldiers ran around frantically issuing orders and moving injured people to get treatment.

"This is a fucking mess," Toya said. "We can't even stop an attack by a hostile army on our own soil." He was pissed, Nagoya was his hometown, and he knew a lot of people who lived there.

"We're fighting fantasy characters. What the hell do you expect?" Inugami sighed. "The JSDF's not meant to handle something like that. We're lucky we've got a few on our side, otherwise, this shit would have gone south immediately."

"Yeah, but it's not enough." Ishizawa shook her head. "We've got like seven against nearly thirty. Even with higher grade munitions from the States, beating them is gonna be a bitch."

In the distance, they could hear loud bangs, similar to a sonic boom. It was clear that some kind of epic clash was unfolding, and they were glad to be far away from the source.

{Are we going to be able to win this? And even if we do... will there even be anything left of Japan after?} (Ishizawa)

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