Setting
Narita is a massive, towering city on the eastern coast of the Shintenchi Continent, home to the capital of the Sato/Shintenchi Shogunate. This typical Taiyou city stands as a symbol of Taiyou development on this previously remote continent.
"Anata wa minami o kōgeki shita hito kara no tokushidesu. Anata wa watashi no mae ni kite, kanari no yūki o shimeshite imasu." She said, her voice calm, smooth even, yet it held the slightest hint of authoritarianism.
"Her most honorable shogun says that you are bold for coming here after attacking the south-lands, And that she accepts your humble offering of peace."
"Naze, anata wa koko ni kimashita ka?" She said, looking up to the courier.
"Why have you come here?" The Translator inquired.
Beneath it is city, city and water. The vessel turns towards the water, still falling. Three wings raise from it's head and it falls slower then. It slows and then stops, and opens, and within it come three sets of three, ships like teardrops that then fall before raising wings as well, and scattering. The vessel then closes, and sinks low to the water. The bottom opens again, and spins and then water rises and swirls around the ship, before turning clear and still. The light changes, and the vessel is gone, and not seen anymore.
The tears scatter across the world, three go to the city near the water, the others fade over horizon.
--
Chaos, that would be the word that described the activities within the ParaSOL Command and Control as the alien vessel began it's descent. General Naoto Itoh, commander of the Shogunate's Strategic military command brought his attention to the massive screen splayed out before him. His brows furrowed before he turned.
"Ready Anti-Ship defenses, I want missiles zeroed and locked."
"Alien vessel is falling like a rock, but it's starting to show signs of slowing." One of the Tactical officers reported.
---
In the mountains surrounding the city of Narita, several Shōri missile batteries swiveled to life, moving to zero in and garner a firing solution on the now slowing craft.
Radar lock by now was achieved, but the strange alien vessel was deploying what appeared to be smaller craft.
As these events played out, General Itoh scowled. "Do we still have telemetry of the alien vessel? Shoot the damn thing down!" He shouted, while his tactical officer protested. "It's too close to the city, by the time our missiles make contact, we could endanger civilian lives."
The General scowled, before he called out. "Scramble all aircraft at Narita Regional Air Command, I want whatever those strike craft shot down!"
With an abrupt nod, the Tactical officer turned, relaying the order.
---
At Narita Regional Air Command, a wing of Type 99 Hayabusa, or Cosmo Falcons were being prepped and ready for takeoff, a squadron of planes lined up at the runway, cleared and one by one they began to take off. Each Type 99 Cosmo Falcon was a well rounded fighter plane, capable of trans-atmospheric flight. The falcons were armed with six air to air missiles on triple-racks under each wing, as well as two nuclear-capable anti-ship missiles in the fuselage bays, six 30mm Autocannons in two groups mounted inside the wing fairings, and two 12.7mm Machineguns mounted in the nose.
Engines roared to life, while Type-0 Cosmo Zeroes on patrol diverted to close in on the alien craft. While it was following a single message was broadcast to it, and the Teardrop craft that began to enter Narita's airspace.
"Unidentified Alien Ship you are in a no-fly zone, identify yourselves immediately and divert course or you will be shot down."
Two Cosmo-Zeroes began to close in from afar on the Teardrop ships approaching Narita, each fighter craft was armed with four 7.62mm Machineguns, and six anti-air missiles mounted under the wings.
"Coming up from the rear, I've got bandits on my console." A pilot radioed.
As the large alien ship sank into the water, a single Shōri type 97 Anti-Ship missile crested over the Horizon, with radar lock it careened at hypersonic velocities towards the alien ship, aiming to impact it before it disappeared.
The tears streaked across the sky, and new ships approached. The tears turned and rushed towards the new ship, darting like flies, this way and that, before a sudden pop. Then they were gone, and where they were only fizz and bubbles remained, sparks of light danced and scattered. The other tears flew out over the city, until they too find a place they pop, and sparkle.
A few more moments, and then it is gone, and all is once again as it was.
Setting
0.00 INK
But nonetheless the merchant entered, for he had no other choice. The police would not help him, a lower class citizen, even worse, for he was not of pure taiyou decent. None of his fellow merchants would be able to do anything for him, and he had neither the skills nor the courage to partake of his dire mission himself.
So, into the seedy, ill favored bar he went, in search of someone, anyone, who would help him.
He slowly lifted his head, and down the glass of light blue liquid down his throat. "A merc cant find any work apparently! Nah, screw having a perfect resume, its like mercs in this age are not even needed anymore! I saved the damn earth! And what does that get me? Absolutely nothing!" He spoke to himself, his flash flushed by the extremely potent drink.
He shuddered when the room went absolutely silent, as all eyes fell upon the man many of the patrons of the bar realized probably had money on him at that very moment. Their hungry stares bore holes into him, and he began to wonder if they might murder him and take what they could from his corpse.
He stood up, ignoring the silence in the room. Russian wanted over the merchant and took a seat at his table, a grin on his face. "So, a job with pay huh. Well you came to the right place buddy, names Russian. Universes best mercenary, and that is no lie to make myself look big. Whatever job you have, I'll do it. Destroy a nation? Kill someone? Rescue some long lost lover? I have done it all. My prices depend on the job, bigger it is bigger pay, but for this day...I am willing to work with whatever money you can pay." The man spoke, extending his hand as a show of partnership.
He still shivered, and wrung the bottom of his shirt as he talked, but he was noticably more calm in the light.
He took a deep breath, paused a moment to gather his thoughts, and went forward. "I'm not a very wealthy businessman. I'm not a naturally born shintenchi citizen, and so I suffer from the usual prejudices that come with being a forigner in the market. But I've never been bothered by it. I make enough to get by. And when my daughter was born, I could not have been happier. That girl has been my pride and joy every day since me and her mother brought her home. For the past several years I've been raising her myself... though the term raising hardly fits, more than not she's been the one taking care of me"
He chuckled softly, a smile breaking out on his face, before worry set back in. "But... two weeks ago she left to get us bread and milk, and I haven't seen her since. Of course I went to the police, and all the proper channels, but I'm not nearly important enough to expect they'll actually put in the effort. THey may as well have told me they couldn't be bothered with it. That is why I... I am forced to ask for help from you, no offense."
"Alright then, first things first. I am going to need her usual path she takes to go buy groceries, access to her laptop or any electronic devices she might have back home. First off, I need to know if she was in contact with anyone, or if she received anything suspicious. For her path, I am going to sweep every trace of the path she takes. Investigate and find out what I find. Now, she was kidnapped two weeks ago so I am going to say this right now sir. It could be one year old with an ace team on the job and I would still track them down. I am not number one for nothing my good man. And yes, I am taking the job. I need the money, and some good karma while I am at it." The Mercanary laughed as he was prepared to go down the rabbit hole.
"Usually my daughter will walk towards the space port, near the market district, collect what she needs from the locals rather than from corporate run shops and stores. She'll often cut through side alleys to get to wherever she needs to get what she wants. Afterwards, usually she runs right back home to help me with the store. Because she was always so busy helping me, she was rarely talking with anyone else her own age, mind you though I didn't get too involved with her personal affairs, though she was always open about anything I asked. Up until she vanished, nothing was suspicious or off at all. And the only electronic device she had was her phone, which she took with her the day she vanished."
"You'll recognize her easily enough I think. The poor girl inherited my foreigners looks, though she has her mothers eyes. Her hair is a dark brown color, and she almost always has it tied back with a comb, studded with a simple folded origami flower she. She made it herself, and she's oh so proud of it. Aside from that, she has a locket her mother gave her. Of no value to anyone, but us, it's one of the only photos we have of her mother."
The merchant offered then, to take russian to his home where he could begin his work.
Seeing it empty had the merchant near in tears as he said. "here you are sir... I hope you can find something, and if theres anything that i can do to help, don't hesitate to let me know."
In less than a minute he cracked the code. "Wow...lame security. I know better security back in the old days! Jeeze...well...now we just trace this location and any recent calls and data usage and bingo! I have access to all her data on her phone. I'll try to trace it but dont hold your breath." He spoke as he began to gather message logs and put then on floating icons which hovered in the air. He also began to trace the phone but he was not holding his breath.
While he did this he grabbed a small device from his belt and dropped it onto the floor before it unfurled into some sort of drone. "Scan the room, gather DNA and whatever trace of whoever lived here and begin scanning on the galaxy wide net. Search all cemeras, ships, data entries and even trace the magical trails. Go on." Russian spoke as the drone went to work.
Of course if this was a normal kidnapping then he would have almost no problem looking for a single person. But if all results came up without any leads then he would have to dig much deeper, and he woukd no doubt be following a rabbit down a rabbit hole. But he was a mercanary, it was expected on him to risk his neck.
"Now lets see...for now lets see if she had any contact with any unknown person...gonna need your help if their number is unknown to you. Or their voice is unknown."
The merchants shoulders sagged, and he began to sob as he thought of his daughters fate. "I know I shouldn't hope for so much, but I cannot help praying that she comes home safe and sound."
It would be at that Russian would recieve the most unlikely of information. While the girls emails, texts, and phonecalls were all pretty standard for a girl her age, if a bit more responsible than one would expect from a teenager, the one thing Russian hadn't been holding out hope for was exactly what he recieved. His trace on her phone came back with a location, several hundred feet below the cities downtown area.
"I'll call you if I find anything, could be a secret demon living on the planet. Could be some weird secret stalker. Maybe even some god. Don't care much...Well, wish me luck I guess..." He shrugged as he began to head for the door of the house to get a move on.
The signal was weak, and it was obviously coming from underneath the city itself.
Simple, the sewers. He would begin his search in the underground portion of the city and find a route there. Looking around for a manhole cover, he hefted the heavy cover and descended down the ladder. Once inside the rather smelly sewers, he turned on a light on top of his wrist device which illuminated the area around him before scanning the walls for any trace of a clue. Seeing if the material behind the walls was hollow indicating a hole that was blocked up. Or perhaps a hidden tunnel.
The crack itself seemed relatively new, as though it had only formed within a few weeks or so, and it was strange in and of itself. The city was solidly built on a strong foundation, with a great many tunnels and secret passages going about the rock. There were no fault lines, no reason for an earthquake or similiar natural event to occur, and thus the formation of the crack was a mystery. Furthermore, closer inspection to the edges revealed that the stone was not broken apart at all, rather it seemed as though the surrounding rock simply crumbled apart.
He carefully slipped through the crack and shimmied his way through. If he got attacked her it was gonna be a bit tough to fight his way out.