The Lightning Country Saga: Act 2, Scene 3
On board the IAT Raiden’s Breath
Central Kaminari no Kuni, 300km from the Capitol City
...1425 hours
“Where. Is. The. Crown. Prince?!” growled the heavily-armored soldier to the writhing, struggling servant as he hoisted the man by the neck and slammed him against a bulkhead. Two other servants, bound and on their knees, heads pressed to the floor by the barrels of heavy bolters, whimpered and groaned.
“I don’t know!!” gasped the unfortunate man, whose face was streaked with crimson from multiple cuts to his scalp.
“He probably doesn’t. Reports say that the Prince vanished from the main conference room shortly before our operation started. He didn't go back to his quarters, which we raided first,” said another heavily-armored soldier standing nearby.
“Then what do we do with these?” asked the first soldier, tightening his grasp on the servant’s neck.
“Just dispose of them,” said the second, shrugging.
“Yes sir,” said the first, drawing a pistol bolter from the holster on his thigh. He pressed it to the servant’s gaunt chest and pulled the trigger. A fireworks explosion of crimson spattered across the wall, the man quickly went limp, and dropped to the ground, eyes still open. The two others started to shriek, only to be cut off by twin reports of heavy bolter fire that splattered their brains and skull fragments across the metal floor. Their prostrate bodies limply sagged against each other, joining their companion in lifelessness.
“Continue to sweep the area. We need to find the Prince before Count Seiji puts the engine into terminal overload.”
As four pairs of heavy boots now marched off, leaving bloody footprints in their wake, Shiranai vi Kaminari, Crown Prince of Lightning Country, finally let out the breath he’d been holding in this entire time. Slowly, he pushed the grating open on the ventilation duct he had taken refuge in alongside the two genin who had found him earlier, and pulled himself into the hallway.
Meanwhile
"Prologue" from the Space Marine OST
"Prologue" from the Space Marine OST
In the grim darkness of the far future, there was only war. A massive monitor setup that dominated the central logistics core, over which the Regent Commander made her office, now sprang to 8-bit life. Similarly, emergency monitors set up in the Raikage’s Office, in the Headmaster’s Office of the Academy, and the Medical Director of the Hospital all lit up as well. Three individuals now watched the proceedings from where they sat or stood.
Maps of Kaminari no Kuni now flashed across the screen each one narrowing focus to the central countryside, specifically a stretch of railroad track that led from Kumo to the Capitol City of Raiden’s Eye.
Screen 1 said:
Screen 2 said:
Office of the Medical Sennin
Aesculapium Curation Domus, Kumogakure
...1430 hours
A small buzz sounded at a computer, a small flashing red light beside it showing the importance. Kushin's headset went off as the emerge]ncy operator contacted him letting him know that the Pararescue squad were needed. The location was given, who was being affected notified and Kushin felt a rage build up in him. How dare someone feel they have the right to touch his asset.
His mind went into a spin of hateful thoughts. If Hinote and the few he's already assembled fail me then I will deal with this. Personally. The man will wish he'd never touched a Cloud Shinobi in his life for fear that that shinobi was tied to me in some way.
Office of the ANBU Sennin
Sileo Tempestas, Kumogakure
...1430 hours
The ANBU Sennin’s eyes snapped to the blazing monitors. Taking in the data spewing forth, her contingencies surfaced from thought and were swiftly translated into action.
She hailed the Vice Commander on a private channel. “You said ‘send Horo Danshi and the fire marshal. Everything will be fine!’” she snarled.
“Bring me everyone,” he sighed, wiping some crumbs from the side of his mouth.
“What do you mean, ‘everyone’?” asked the aide. Masao turned to him, a wild look in his face.
“E V E R Y O N E ! ! ! !”
Five minutes later
Piercing, soul-shredding alarms blared in the Sileo Tempestas as Rin’s commands were executed, sending the entire underground complex into a flurry of activity. At the same time, hydraulic elevators in the Torre Celeste began to churn their engines, slowly bringing up three Thunderhawk-class rapid glider transports to its top-floor airdock. These ships, that soared through the air via mixture of chakra power and the natural principle of lift, could be anywhere within a thousand-kilometer radius within twenty minutes, and were kept for extreme emergencies like this.
“I should’ve gone along with them,” growled Masao to himself, patting the straps and side-gussets of his ANBU cuirass to make sure nothing was loose or sticking out at a strange angle. “The moment I realized it was Horo Danshi on board that train I should’ve gotten on board and thrown his ass off the side of the mountain,” he said, shaking his head as he looked over his crossbolter magazines, ensuring that they were fully loaded and ready to feed into his shortened ST-15. Five point five six millimeter-diameter, forty-five millimeter-long, non-fletched armor-piercing explosive tip, thirty rounds to a magazine. One or thirty of them had Horo’s name on it, to be sure.
“Oh, we’re being supplemented by some of the newer trainees. Motomiya and Kogami. They’re to meet us at the Thunderhawks, along with the HRT and our medical support,” said Masao, offhandedly.
“You really like this being a joint operation?” asked Morishima as they stepped onto the elevators in the part of the Sileo that would take them directly to the top floor of the Torre. The Sileo’s reach extended to truly almost anywhere in the village, and if needed, ANBU could storm the Raikage’s office in a flash by using this same elevator.
“I’m fine with it. You forget that we cross-train occasionally with both of those other groups. The HRT boys carry themselves like they’re the most badass operators in existence, which is annoying, but they’ve done a few high profile missions themselves. A completely different type of shinobi than the Main Branchers on that train right now,” he remarked, holding his hand out to the special, chakra-activated panel that controlled access. This ensured that not just anyone – only senior officers – could access this very sensitive path to Hayata’s inner chambers. The elevator’s motors now whirred, sending the three of them with unexpected speed, rocketing toward the top of the tower. “Now, let’s see who the hell we were able to scrape up on such short notice...” he said as the doors opened to the windy top of Kumogakure.
As the group of ANBU stepped out on the roof of the Torre Celeste itself, Masao was pleasantly surprised to see that the Mednin and Main Branch had already assembled, going over their own briefing materials or checking weapons for function. At this level of the game, running late to an important mission like this due to otherwise charming reasons like not getting up on time and being forced to run to the assembly point with a piece of toast in one’s mouth was something best left to students and genin.
“Everyone listen up! My name is Takaki Masao, Vice Commander of the ANBU! I am in control of the overall mission!” he shouted to the assembled teams, his drill instructor voice honed from years of practice. “I’m going to start giving you the only briefing we have time for, so pay attention if you don’t want to end up dead, or worse, fail your mission!
“Personnel loyal to international terrorist and S-rank missing shinobi Hayata Makoro have hijacked the Imperial Armored Transport Raiden’s Breath and are attempting to kill or take hostage major elements of the government of Kaminari no Kuni, including the Crown Prince himself. Our mission is to intercept the train, board it, and secure the safety of the hostages. Any threats along the way are to be neutralized however you are not to waste time searching for or attempting to confront Hayata himself or his direct subordinate, Count Seiji.
The Raiden’s Breath itself is essentially a heavily-armored battleship that happens to ride on train track. It stretches approximately twenty railcars long and displaces up to fiteen thousand metric tons. Its armor is highly refined steel that can resist the direct impact of a Class A jutsu with minimal loss of structural integrity. It is armed with up to twelve 155mm turrets, twenty 127mm turrets, and dozens of smaller antivehicle and antipersonnel mounted arbalestillery emplacements. It is also capable of electrifying its own superstructure to repel boarding attempts. Makoro’s men have likely taken control of all or most of these defense systems and will be actively using them against us.
The forces loyal to Hayata appear to be a collection of highly-trained and extremely well-equipped fighters consisting of PMC veterans as well as potentially some of our own lesser-ranked missing shinobi. Current estimates of their strength number at approximately one hundred of them. Do not underestimate these guys.
There were four main branch shinobi already on board the train when it was hijacked. Two genin with no combat experience and their chuunin-level handler who is an idiot savant. The other chuunin on the mission is actually a…librarian and fire marshal. If you can, rendezvous with these assets on the ground and have them assist you, but don’t be surprised if they’ve all been killed already. Destroy their bodies in accordance with gene-theft prevention protocol and move on.”
He pointed now to the three gliders, each of them a far cry from the typical one-person hang-glider one might have imagined. Rather, each of the vehicles was as large as or larger than a typical chariot, with a wingspan of ten meters each direction, and could hold a team of up to four shinobi plus pilot. Launched from the top of the Torre Celeste, they could speed to the train’s location quickly and even overtake it. Of course, not having their own source of power or lift, one could not simply fly back to Kumo. It was an expensive and arduous proposition to cart one of these, often severely damaged from landing, back to the Torre, which was why they were almost never used.
“We will use these transports to overtake the Raiden’s Breath, which is currently traveling at a speed of sixty knots in the direction of the Capitol. Your pilots will attempt to approach the train from a high-altitude dive to minimize the chance of direct impact with ordinance and then hold steady enough for you to fastrope onto the train. Each branch will be assigned to one transport. The Imperial Army and Navy are standing by with assault gliders and ground forces of their own to provide a distraction to the enemy and divert their fire.
HRT! Your responsibility is to locate the grand conference room in car eighteen and secure the hostages. If any of them are missing, secure the ones already present and conduct search and rescue. ANBU! Your responsibility is to disable or destroy the main generator that powers the train’s weapons systems and propulsion. Pararescue! Your responsibility is to provide combat and medical support to the other teams and stabilize any wounded HVTs that you might encounter. You have been given clearance by your Sennin to perform emergency surgery in the field if necessary.”
“Vice Commander, I just received report that the Raikage has granted us departure clearance. We’re set to go,” said Morishima, listening to her headset. Masao now turned back to the groups of shinobi.
“Are we clear?! If so, then let’s all come back in one piece,” he said, following his ANBU onto their transport.
Screen 3 said:
Despite this thread’s location in the DTP on this forum, the actual deployment location that you are all in right now is the top of the Torre Celeste, from which you are to essentially take rapid glider transport to the Raiden’s Breath, which is barreling along at full speed toward the Capitol City under control of hijackers and potentially Makoro himself. Go ahead and post your leaving and we’ll resume in the outer village area. Note for the players already on the train from the previous mission, you do not have to post here, since this is really a village leaving thread. Not unless you want to!
3), Haruka stood attentively and listened to all he said. From his introduction, the mission already sounded harder than it should be; infiltrating an armored transport was beyond difficult. It seemed to just get worse as he began to describe what defenses were like. By the end of the description of the train, Haruka was left with in question in mind. "How the hell did forces even get on board in the first place?" In fact, her mouth hung slightly agape. Meanwhile, Tomomi's attitude was slowly getting worse just like the story. "Oh Haruka this sounds like so much fun! Promise I can come out for play time?" the inner personality pleaded. Haruka didn't humor her with a response but seriously began considering it. Based on the description, things were going to be dangerous and Tomomi was much more skilled in those situations. 
