Operation Deep Impact
24 November 2016
01:42
Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean
JS Aphrodite, a Japanese destroyer class ship, anchored down in the middle of the sea. The whole sea was pitch black, with the only source of light being the ship. In the deck stood seven people, five of them wearing diving gear, and two of them wearing Japanese military uniforms. The uniform indicated the person to be a colonel. The other person was standing behind the colonel with a clipboard in hand and was wearing a sergeant uniform.
The colonel said, "Ok, for the record, give me an introduction. From left to right."
The man in the left most said, "First Lieutenant Philip Collins. Member of the 46th British SAS recon team. Specialising in area mapping."
The colonel said, "Next."
The man standing beside Collins said, "First Lieutenant Nikita Mickaelovich. Member of the 51st Spetsnaz Brigade and a demolitions expert."
"Next"
The man standing beside Nikita said, "Second Lieutenant Alejandro Vergas. Member of the 21st Tactical Diver's group. I specialise in underwater warfare."
"Next."
The woman standing next to him said, "Uhh, my name is Maria Kuroshima. I'm a meteoritist. Uhh, I'm sorry, I'm not a soldier." She was smiling awkwardly.
The colonel stopped her and said, "Next."
The last guy said, "Captain Rashed Chowdhury. Specialist of the 1st Bangladesh Navy SWADS. I too specialise in underwater warfare."
The colonel said, "Noted. All of you, welcome to the Seven Nation Army. I apologise for bringing all of you in the middle of the ocean like this without any prior briefing, but as it is a classified project, we couldn't take any chances. My name is Colonel Kouji Hiroyuki. I'm the battalion commander of the 41st JGSDF Infantry Unit."
Captain Rashed said, "Understandable. I assume you'll brief us now? This diving suit isn't the perfect outfit for this cold weather."
The colonel said, "Yes, I will now. As for the diving suit, what else would you be wearing for diving underwater?"
Rashed replied, "OK. Got it, continue."
The colonel took a binocular from the sergeant's hand and handed it to Rashed. He said, "Look east. At 94 degrees."
Captain Rashed took the binocular and looked. He saw a small Frigate anchored a few kilometres away.
Rashed handed the binoculars to Maria and looked back at the colonel. The colonel said, "Did you see the Frigate?"
Rashed nodded. Colonel Hiroyuki said, "That's an US Naval Frigate, which had been stolen by terrorists a few days ago and is containing a stolen meteor. Your job is to get the meteor back."
Lt. Mickaelovich said, "OK. But why are we taking orders from you?"
Colonel Kuroshima said, "As long as you're part of the SNA, you'll take my orders and act on them."
Lt. Collins said, "And what is this... SNA?"
Captain Rashed answered his question. He said, "A military coalition made of our countries. It's a secret for now. That's why it wasn't announced."
Collins replied, "Huh."
Colonel Hiroyuki said, "Enough chitchat. You know your mission. Now get ready. Captain Rashed Chowdhury would act as the field Commander. Ms. Kuroshima, I'm depending on you to differentiate the correct meteor from all the worthless rocks. Come on, come on. Move your asses. Operation Deep Impact commences at 0200."
Lt. Vargas said, "Tch. This colonel's kind of getting on my nerves."
Rashed said, "No use complaining. Let's get ready."
All of them wore their plate carriers and ammo pouches. A soldier came with two briefcases and put them on a table in front of them. The briefcases contained four silenced Glock 19s. All of them except Maria took one Glock each, inspected them and put them in their holsters strapped to their right thighs.
Once they were done, all four of them went down and reached the lower deck. They wore their oxygen cylinders and stood next to the water.
Rashed took out a laminated picture from inside of his vest and looked at it. It looked like a family photo. Rashed and a woman close to his age were standing beside each other with a small, three-four-year-old boy standing in front. The woman had another baby in her infant hands. All of them were smiling.
"What a cute family." Rashed looked back and saw Maria standing behind him, looking over his shoulder.
As Rashed looked back, Maria smiled at him. Rashed smiled back and said, "Thank you."
Maria asked, "Is this your family?"
Rashed replied, "Yeah. This is me. This was my wife. This boy in front is Sohel Chowdhury, my eldest son. And the girl sleeping on my wife's shoulder is my little daughter, Sarah."
Maria smiled and said, "Such a cute family. Wait, did you use past tense while talking about your wife?"
Rashed awkwardly smiled and said, "Uh, yeah. She died when Sarah was one year old in a car crash."
The smile on Maria's face faded as she said, "Oh, I'm so sorry."
Rashed replied, "Don't be. It's fine."
The colonel's coughing caught their attention, and they all looked in front. The colonel said, "Ok, soldiers. Listen up. Your task is simple. Infiltrate the boat, retrieve the meteor and get out. The meteor should be in the cargo vault at the backside of the ship, under the lower deck. Once you get to a safe distance, with the meteor, we'll fire at the frigate. Got it?"
All of them replied in sync, "Yes, sir."
The colonel smiled and said, "Operation Deep Impact is a go. May God help us all."
The colonel left the diving deck. Everyone put on their oxygen masks and dived underwater. With the help of a DPD (Diver Propultion Device), they reached the enemy ship in just a few minutes. The ship was totally dark. They silently climbed up on the ship from the starboard side.
Captain Rashed indicated Lt. Michaelovich and Lt. Collins to move left and search from that side and the rest to follow him.
As the two left for the left side, Captain Rashed, Lt. Vargas, and Maria slowly made their way through the right. As they were about to reach the main staircase, Captain Rashed spotted two armed soldiers guarding the staircase. Captain Rashed holstered his pitol and took out his knife. Lt. Vargas followed. Both of them made their way to the guards silently from the back. And in sync, they held the guards mouth with their left hand from their back and stabbed them in the neck with their right hand.
Once they were sure that the guards were dead, they slowly put their lifeless bodies to the ground.
They slowly went down the stairs and made their way to the cargo vault. Captain Rashed whispered in the radio, "Reached the cargo vault, going in now."
Lt. Mickaelovich said, "We've secured the staircase and standing guard. But something feels off. These guards, they're too well equipped to be terrorists."
Colonel Hiroyuki said, "Don't falter. They stole a whole ship. Their equipment shouldn't throw you off."
They went inside the cargo vault, and Captain Rashed said, "Ms. Kuroshima, please."
Maria started checking the boxes one by one and then stopped at one small box. It had a small rock. Maria said, "This rock, it's full of Rhenium."
Colonel Hiroyuki said, "That's the meteor. Take it and get back."
Captain Rashed replied, "Yes, sir."
They picked up the box and made their way up the staircase. They met up with Lt. Mickaelovich and Lt. Collins and went back to the starboard side deck. Just as they were about to jump, a bright light lit them up, and several people said together, "Freeze."
All of them put their hands up and turned around. They were surrounded by soldiers wearing US Marine uniforms. The marines were aiming their M4s at them. The Lieutenant in Charge of them came forward and said, "You're on board USS Badger. State your country of origin and your reason for infiltration."
Colonel Hiroyuki said, "Shite. Everyone, clench your teeth."
Just as he said that, a torpedo hit the frigate. Captain Rashed yelled, "Everyone, jump."
They jumped as 10-inch cannon shells from JS Aphrodite rained upon the USS Badger. Soon, there was nothing left of the ship.
The five of them swum back to JS Aphrodite and climbed back on board. As they got up, they saw Colonel Hiroyuki standing in front of them. Captain Rashed went ahead and grabbed Hiroyuki by his collar and asked with rage in his speech, "What's the meaning of this, colonel? You just made us steal from an American ship. That ship was not a stolen ship."
Colonel Hiroyuki took Rashed's hands off his collar as he smiled and said, "Do you know how precious that Rhenium is? Why should we give it away to those warmongering Americans? It'll be a lot better off in the hands of SNA."
"What? You're a lunatic. You killed that many soldiers just for a rock? SNA are supposed to be peacekeepers. This isn't the doing of any peacekeeper."
Hiroyuki smiled and said, "That's why this mission will be off the records. No one will ever find out about it."
A confused look dawned on Rashed's face as he said, "What?"
That's when he heard sounds of suppressed pistols followed by three loud thuds. He looked back and his eyes widened as he say the three lieutenants down on the ground and blood coming out of their bodies.
Before he could do anything, he heard another pistol firing sound followed by intense sharp pain in his back. He realized he had been shot. Hiroyuki kicked Rashed and he fell to the ground. He then went towards Maria, who was watching all of this unfold with horror in her face and said, "Come on, kid. Give me the meteor."
Rashed used all the power he had left in his body and stood up. He threw himself on Hiroyuki, making him fall and lose his pistol and said, "Ms. Kuroshima, run."
Maria didn't waste the chance and ran inside the ship.
Hiroyuki kicked Rashed off of him. Two soldiers had got close to Hiroyuki to help. He took one of their pistols and shot Rashed in the head before Rashed could even try to get up. Hiroyuki said, frustration in his voice, "What are you looking at? Go get the girl."
03:09
Kuroshima Residence, Chiba, Tokyo, Japan
Tatsuo Kuroshima was sleeping in his room when his phone buzzed. He sleepily picked up the call and said, "Tatsuo Kuroshima speaking, who's this?"
Tatsuo's sleep disappeared as he heard his daughter sobbing from the other side of the phone. He said, "Maria? What happened? Why are you crying?"
Maria tried to control her sobbing and said, "Dad, they're going to kill me. They… They killed everyone. They're going to kill me too. They…"
The call cut. Tatsuo tried calling her multiple times afterwards but the calls failed to connect.
03:35
JS Aphrodite, Somewhere in the pacific ocean.
Colonel Hiroyuki was standing in the deck with a serious look on his face. A soldier came to him and saluted before saying, "What do we do with the bodies, sir?"
Hiroyuki replied while looking at the sea, "Dump them in the ocean and mark them as MIA(Missing In Action)."
The soldier replied, "Yes, sir." And left.
Hiroyuki said as if he was trying to convince himself, "It's okay. It's all for the success of SNA."