White Wings of Freedom

Part 1

By Redzx6r2k2

As usual, all rights re: characters, etc. belong to Tatsunoko, these are only my own personal embellishments

He knew that he had not done a good job. Under his leadership, Galactor had not only managed to gain a foothold in his country, but had taken several key government and military positions. He hadn’t been able to prove it, but he knew it was true. And, he knew if he didn’t seek outside help soon, it would be too late. He knew he had to do this despite the fact it would prove to the world that he had been a weak and ineffective leader.

The president of Ankirastan leaned back in his plush leather chair in his office. The view outside the window was one of serene beauty; his country was dominated by several young mountain ranges, their sharp peaks now obscured by the low clouds of an approaching storm. There was more than one approaching storm, he thought ruefully. He ran a hand over his balding head. He knew he had to act, regardless of what it would do to him politically. His people had trusted him to make the right decisions for his country. Although he had made several mistakes, the right one in this instance was obvious.

He reached forward and snapped a toggle on the control panel of his desk. “Mr. Anwar, would you call General Matek in? I need to speak with him right away.”

“At once, Mr. President,” said the voice on the intercom.

“And then get me a secure line to the UN security council.”

“Yes, sir.”

President Ahmed buried his face in his hands. Although it might be his last official act, at least he knew this one would be the right one. There was more at stake than just his political future. It was the freedom of his people at risk and it had taken him far too long to realize how tenuous it was.

When Ken heard the soft beep from his wrist bracelet he was in the shower. It had been a long day at the airfield– after he flew the mail route over the outer islands he had to clear out one of the hangers for a new renter. It had been vacant for a while and was a mess. A hot shower and a couple of hours kicking back in front of the television watching the baseball game had sounded like a good idea.

He groaned and reached for the towel with one hand to wipe his eyes dry, with the other he shut off the water and reached for his bracelet.

“G1, here,” he answered into his communicator, the reluctance in his voice obvious. “Go ahead.”

“This is Nambu. Report to Crescent Base immediately.”

“On my way,” he sighed and stepped out of the shower. He had been in heaven but Hakase had managed to bring him right back down to Earth. Couldn’t Galactor just take the night off for once?

He hurriedly pulled his clothes on and grabbed for a piece of fruit as he headed out the door. Some dinner, he thought. Maybe there would be time to grab something at the base before they were deployed.

Berg Katse rapped his fingertips slowly on the console in front of him while the Ankiri sleeper agent gave his report. This operation had taken many years to get in place, many careful years of maneuvering the right people into the right positions, paying off those persons when necessary and arranging for the deposition of those that would not be bought. The country of Ankirastan was ripe for the taking.

On the surface, the country itself did not seem very valuable. It was one of the many small, young countries formed out of the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Middle Eastern wars decades ago. Like so many others, it had struggled for years, finally embracing democracy and developing a cohesive infrastructure and viable economy. It was neither a rich nor poor country, but because of its beautiful mountains it was very popular with winter tourists for skiing and the like, which brought in valuable outside currency.

Five years ago, however, Ankirastan had become much more important to the world. Previously undiscovered uranium deposits had been located in the western mountain ranges– deposits larger than any others known. Although accessing them was proving difficult due to the terrain, their potential could not be denied. And it was this that piqued the interest of Galactor and Berg Katse. It did not matter how difficult or dangerous it was to mine it. After all, slave labor was cheap.

“So, Katse-sama,” the agent was saying, “what do you think?”

“I think the President of this miserable little country has finally got some balls,” Katse sneered. “So, he contacted the UN security council for help at last, did he?”

The agent nodded. “The actual transmission was on a secure channel, but our agents in the presidential compound confirm the call was made.”

“Not that I am at all concerned about the UN forces,” Katse said standing and waving one hand dismissively, “but they might alert Nambu and Gatchaman. We must act now, before they have a chance to uncover our plans.”

“All is in readiness, Katse-sama,” the agent assured him. “We await your order.”

Katse turned away and folded his arms in front of his chest. “The order is given.”

“And if the UN or Kagaku Ninja Tai show up?”

Katse shrugged. “We will destroy any resistance. Your primary objective is seizing control of this miserable little country. At whatever cost. Galactor will deal with anyone else who interferes.”

“Yes, sir.” The agent bowed and left Katse’s chambers.

Katse tapped a button on a control panel along one wall. A section of wall behind his desk slid back, revealing an immense construction bay below him. The final preparations were being made to a new mecha, a powerful praying mantis shaped warship fitted with the latest of Galactor weapons. The initial testing had been impressive and for once he felt absolute confidence.

“Yes, Kagaku Ninja Tai,” he grumbled to himself, “come and see what I have made for you.” Even though the conquering of this nation would be infinitely easier if the KNT did not show, he would welcome the opportunity to eliminate what had become the bane of his existence.

Ken arrived at the mission briefing center at Crescent Base to find Joe already waiting. That was unusual. Joe was almost always the last to arrive; not just because he had the farthest to go but he never really let anyone dictate to him just how hurried he should be. Jinpei and Jun had signaled that they were on final approach and Ryu was on his way up from securing the Phoenix in its bay.

“How’d you get here so fast?” Ken asked.

“I was already here,” Joe answered. “I was checking out the sight alignment on my cablegun after they fixed it from our last mission. Never quite trust the techies to get it right.”

“Oh yeah,” Ken said, recalling the incident with a smile. “I forgot you almost destroyed it bashing in that Galactor’s helmet.”

Joe flopped down onto the couch. “It was effective. You weren’t getting anywhere through his body armor.”

“True enough.” He stretched and flexed his shoulders to ease the stiffness that was setting up in them from the day’s work. Sometimes he wondered how he could take on Galactor soldiers, battle powerful mecha and survive all they had to throw at him, yet be so stiff from just one day of cleaning out a hangar. Jinpei would tease him that he must be getting old, as if eighteen was old. But compared to a ten-year-old... And there were times, with all Ken and seen and done in his life already, that he did feel very old beyond his years.

The rest of the team arrived minutes later. Ryu, as always, looking like had just rolled out of bed; Jun looking perfect, also as usual and Jinpei with his boundless energy. The kid could stay in a scrap as tough as the rest of them and sleep sound as a baby almost immediately afterward. Ken envied that. He was always so keyed up emotionally and physically from a battle that he frequently had trouble sleeping the first night or so. Fortunately, he had been very successful in hiding it from the project psy-ops personnel. He hated psy-ops almost as much as he hated Galactor. Joe seemed to draw their attention away from him, much to Joe’s frustration and Ken’s relief. He envied the apparent ease with which Jinpei seemed to deal with the death and destruction they saw on a regular basis and Joe, well, nothing ever seemed to bother him. Cold, efficient, no remorse. Ken hoped he never became that hardened.

It was that apparent disconnection that concerned the medical staff about Joe. More than one evaluator was convinced Joe was just one step away from psychoses. Ken thought that was funny. Joe was probably the most in touch with his feelings, aside from Ryu. Without a doubt in his mind, Ryu was probably the most balanced of all of them; ruthless when he had to be, at other times, a total softy and the most successful at pursuing a “normal” life.

It wasn’t the fact that he had to kill on a regular basis that disturbed Ken, really. He had long ago learned to detatch himself as that was part of a “job”. And it wasn’t the death and destruction he saw wracked on innocent civilians by Galactor that bothered him– well, actually it did but not in a incapacitating way. He had learned to handle it the way a surgeon handles dealing with severely injured people. No, it was the knowledge that in every battle, it was his decisions that could mean life or death for his team, his family... Sometimes it was more responsibility than he felt he could tolerate.

More than once, Jun was his sounding board when he vented his frustrations; he figured that maybe the reason she understood was due to the fact that she had kept Jinpei alive on the streets for so long before Nambu took them in. Even though Ken and Joe had also lost their parents, there was never a time when they were truly on their own and Ryu was blessed with still having a family. As a child, Jun had been forced to grow up fast in order to keep herself and Jinpei alive. She was used to making decisions that determined if they were going to be able to eat or not or even stay alive. They had grown up without a safety net. Jun was the only person he ever really opened up to, and even that was a rare occasion.

At that moment Dr. Nambu came in, carrying with him a stack of folders and computer disks.

He looked a little tired to Ken but Nambu was always working. Vacations and days off just really weren’t in Nambu’s vocabulary. Sometimes he forgot those words were in theirs, however.

“Thank you for responding so quickly,” Nambu told them, setting the folders down on his desk.

“So what’s Galactor up to this time?” Joe grumbled.

Nambu activated the view screen behind his desk and brought up a map display. A small red dot flashed in one small country in the center of a large land mass on the left.

“That is Ankirastan,” Nambu told them.

“Yeah, I’ve heard of it,” Joe said. “Great skiing there.”

“It is a popular tourist destination,” Nambu agreed, “but that is not why we are interested in it.”

“Too bad,” Jinpei lamented. “I like skiing.”

Jun rapped him lightly on the head. “Be serious for once.”

Jinpei crossed his arms and feigned pouting.

“Recently,” Nambu went on, ignoring Jinpei, “a large uranium deposit was discovered in the mountain ranges in the west. They are by far the largest ever located.”

“And let me guess, Galactor is getting interested in them, too,” Ken said.

Nambu nodded. “Ankirastan has always been a nation friendly to us; we have had good diplomatic relations with them for decades. But the UN security council has been contacted by President Ahmed. He believes that several key government and military positions have been infiltrated by Galactor sympathizers and suspects a plot is underway to overthrow the government. If Galactor obtains control of that country, they will have unlimited access to the uranium there for weapons and energy supply. Unfortunately, the current leadership in Ankirastan is not terribly strong and President Ahmed has waited until the last minute to seek outside help.”

“But what can we do?” Jun asked. “This sounds like a political issue, at least right now.”

“The people of Ankirastan are not supportive of Galactor in general,” Nambu pointed out. “If the sympathizers can be revealed, public response will likely be sufficient to thwart Galactor’s plans. The president has asked for the UN’s help in uncovering the plot to topple his government and, in return, has promised full access to the uranium deposits and military base rights.”

“I gotta side with Jun,” Joe said. “We’re not exactly the diplomatic types.”

“Especially you,” Ryu said.

“The Ankiri would resent an outside force coming in and investigating their government openly,” Nambu told them. “We do not want in any way to shift public sympathy towards Galactor.” He laid out five folders in front of him, one for each team member. “Study these materials on Ankirastan. There is a review of their political system, a sociocultural synopsis and dossiers on all the key political and military leaders, in addition to the standard strategic strength assessments. Ken, I’ve arranged a meeting for you and Jun with the president for tomorrow afternoon. Details are in your mission briefing materials.”

“Just Ken and Jun?” Joe asked. “What are about the rest of us?”

“Face it, Joe,” Ryu said, “you are about as diplomatic as a bird missile.”

“Kuso...”

Jinpei giggled.

“And you’re not much better, Jinpei,” Ken said, rousing the boy’s hair playfully. “Ok, everybody review these materials,” he ordered them all. “We’ll assemble at oh-eight-hundred for a final briefing before we launch. I’m sure there’ll be plenty for everyone to do, even you, Joe.”

The others took that as the cue that Ken wanted to talk with Nambu privately and, without further discussion, left to retire to their quarters on base.

“So, how volatile is the situation we’re going into?” he asked Nambu.

“Very.” Nambu sat at his desk, resting his chin on steepled fingers. “The president has allowed this to go on for too long– we knew this was coming before he asked for help but due to the sovereign rights of the country, we could do nothing. We are certain that Galactor is planning a coup-d’etat very soon; we just don’t know who we can trust on the inside. President Ahmed is not strong enough to make the hard decision to have the traitors arrested openly. Many of the people he suspects are very popular politically right now. We will have to rely on the support of the population to remove them from their positions.”

“And you think that if we can ‘leak’ some incriminating evidence on them, the president will be protected and popular opinion will force the traitors from power.”

“Public opinion is a very fickle thing, Ken.”

“How strong of a foothold does Galactor have?”

Nambu shook his head. “We don’t know. The information that Ahmed has for us should help immensely. The reason the security council has decided to send you is, as you suggested, we would like to merely expose the Galactor agents and let the Ankiri deal with it themselves– it would be the best way to preserve national dignity and their trust in us. The people in this region have a very strong dislike for outsiders meddling in their affairs. If we sent in a formal military force or diplomatic corps to oversee things, there would be a lot of public resentment. ”

“So how did you arrange for us to meet with their president without raising suspicion?” Ken wanted to know.

“You and Jun are going under cover as family members of the prime minister of Japan. You are just on vacation and will be making a diplomatic courtesy call on behalf of your family.”

“Too bad we don’t have time to get in some skiing,” Ken joked, “just to keep up the image, of course.” He eyed the map of the country that Nambu had placed in his mission folder. “It looks like we could land the Phoenix here,” he pointed, “in the northern range, not far from the capitol city. Ryu could come in low enough to evade their radar and get close enough to provide tac support.”

Nambu produced a couple of passports and travel documents from his desk. He handed them out to Ken.

“I’ve arranged for you and Jun to fly in on a private jet from Kyoto straight to Ankirastan. You will be picked up at the airport by the president’s aide and taken straight to a private meeting with him. President Ahmed will give you in person what information he has– he refused to risk transmitting it or sending it by diplomatic courier.”

“We’ll get the information out,” Ken said confidently. “Hopefully, it will be what you need to expose Galactor.”

“Just be careful, Ken. The uranium deposits in this country are very important. It is vital that we prevent Galactor from exploiting them or give them another sympathetic country in which to establish a base.”

“In other words, Jun and I will be on our best behavior,” Ken assured him. He rapped the mission folder against an open hand. “For now, it looks like I have some work to do. Oh and before I forget, I was supposed to meet a new renter out at the airfield in the morning...”

“I’ll arrange for someone to take care of it for you,” Nambu promised.

Ken smiled in gratitude and left to start planning the details of the mission.

Nambu shook his head slightly. Sometimes he wondered if he had been correct in allowing the team to have off-base jobs; it was an additional strain in an already stressful life. It potentially exposed them to discovery by Galactor, as well. Many of the project staff had hotly voiced their objections when it was first suggested; at the time, Nambu argued that the five youths were people, not machines or property. To be well-adjusted, he pointed out, they needed to experience many of the same day to day struggles that everyone else did. But now, he wondered if they weren’t continually burning the candle at both ends.

Following the mission briefing the next morning, Joe, Jinpei and Ryu left with the GodPhoenix to the coordinates that Ken had specified. They weren’t happy about being assigned to wait in the middle of nowhere until Jun reminded them that the other option was to deal with the Ankiri diplomats. Joe had muttered something about that probably being as much fun as watching grass grow when he followed Ryu and Jinpei on board.

Ken and Jun took a civilian hovercraft from Crescent Base to Japan and then hopped on the shinkansen for Kyoto. They had covered their standard civilian clothing with that more befitting their personas and brought with them several packs of ski gear which, regrettably they weren’t going to get to use. An ISO driver met them at the train station to take them out to the airport where the prime minister’s private jet was waiting. Ken had used much of the early travel time to catch up on the sleep he didn’t have time for the night before. He had stayed up mst of the night studying the mission details. Jun used the five hours it took them to reach the airport to familiarize herself thoroughly with the mission details. By the time they arrived, she had a good understanding of what they were getting themselves into.

Ken had to consciously stop himself from turning left into the cockpit when he stepped into the passenger section of the Lear jet. Some habits are hard to break, he chuckled to himself. Jun stepped up the ramp behind him, nodding her approval of the rather plush interior.

“Now, this is what I call traveling,” Jun said happily. She flopped into a window seat near the front and reclined it back. “Much better than the shinkansen.”

“Don’t get too used to it,” Ken told her, taking the seat directly across. “I don’t think we could get Nambu to retrofit the Phoenix.”

“You never know,” Jun shot back with a glint in her eye. “I can be very persuasive when I want to.”

“How well I know.”

“Excuse me, sir, ma’am,” the cabin attendant said, “we are about to taxi for takeoff. Please fasten your seat belts. Can I get you anything to drink?”

Ken shook his head no.

“Water would be wonderful,” Jun said. “We didn’t have time for anything before catching the shinkansen here.”

The attendant nodded in acknowledgment. “We have a fully stocked galley on board. After we are airborne, I will bring you a list of selections.”

“Thank you,” Ken told her. “Can you tell me, how long is the flight to Ankirastan?”

“We are scheduled to arrive in about four hours, sir.”

“Thank you.”

After the attendant left, Jun stretched and made herself comfortable. “This is so much better than taking a commercial airline. I wonder how Hakase arranged it on such short notice?”

“Nambu has a lot of connections. It probably took a favor or two. Just don’t let it go to your head, okay? We are on a mission after all.”

“Yeah but we are supposed to be the prime minister’s niece and nephew on vacation,” she countered. “We have to look the part. You need to relax more, Ken. As for me, I think I will try to catch up on some sleep after we eat. It’s been a long day and you slept the whole way here.”

“You weren’t up all night working out the mission details,” he shot back. “I hope Nambu got someone to meet that new renter at their airfield or there’ll be hell to pay.”

“A new renter?” Jun asked quizzically. “Good, then maybe you can put some more money down on your tab at the Snack J.”

Ken felt the airplane gather itself as the pilot increased the engines to full thrust and the plane began to roll down the runway. Less than five minutes later they were airborne, piercing the thick clouds that had covered Kyoto and breaking through to clear sky. Smooth, Ken thought to himself, not like his little Cessna. The changes in engine power were barely noticeable in the cabin. And it was most definitely not like the G1, which exuded raw, barely restrained power.

The attendant returned with Jun’s water and a menu. “I’ll be back to check on you in a few minutes. Are you sure I can’t get you anything, sir?”

“No, really. Thank you.” He pulled out the mission materials from his carry-on bag and laid them out on the small table between Jun and himself. There was a lot of data here. He had committed most of it to memory but wanted to go over the floor plans of the presidential residence and the backgrounds on all the key players again. When he glanced back up, Jun already started on her lunch; for a moment he regretted not getting anything as his stomach rumbled.

Jun heard him and laughed lightly. “Sure you don’t want part of my sandwich?”

A soft beeping from his wrist communicator cut him off before he could answer. “G1 here, go ahead.”

“This is G2,” came Joe’s voice. “We’re in position, Ken. The Ankiri defense radar doesn’t seem to have detected us.”

“Excellent. We are scheduled to land in a little over three hours. I’ll contact you when we reach the president’s residence. Until then, try not to attract attention.”

“You know me, Ken. The unseen shadow...”

“Shut up, that’s my line. G1, out.”

Jun had finished her lunch and curled up in the seat. “Wake me when we get there.” She closed her eyes and within minutes was sound asleep. It was a skill learned early in training– sometimes you had to be able to sleep wherever and whenever; even just a half hour or so could make a major difference in alertness when on an extended deployment.

Ken paused from his mission review for a moment to observe her. She was so beautiful, so innocent-looking in sleep. No one would ever suspect that she could toss a Galactor soldier with one hand and not even look like she was trying. In a different time and place...

No, don’t even go there, he reprimanded himself. You are the leader of the Kagaku Ninja Tai and you have a job to do. Pursuing a relationship of any kind right now, especially with a team member, was absolutely a bad idea. Hakase had a one on one chat with him a while back about this. The chemistry between the two of them was obvious, even to Nambu. While Ken was headstrong enough to do pretty much as he wanted anyway, he knew in his heart that Nambu was right. Besides the potential ramifications on team cohesiveness, it was something that could also be exploited by Galactor.

Joe always teased him, told him he was as dense as lead to miss the attraction between himself and Jun. Ken did his best to play dumb, but he was far from that dense. He missed nothing. Didn’t Joe understand how hard it was for him to ignore his feelings for her? He did his best to refocus his attention on the documents in front of him. But being aboard a private jet, without a single visual reminder of Galactor or the war or Crescent Base– if he closed his eyes it was almost easy to believe that it was a different time and place.

He occasionally wondered what it would have been like, to just grow up like everyone else instead of spending most of his life being trained to be a human weapon. What it must be like to go to college and figure out what you wanted to do with your life instead of having it handed to you. Nambu had let them have some freedom, it wasn’t like they were in the military, all ten-hut and such nonsense. At Nambu’s insistence they had been allowed some semblance of a normal life but it wasn’t the same.

They had all made a voluntary choice to be Kagaku Ninja Tai, once they were old enough to understand. They all had their personal reasons for doing so. Once they made that choice, they were committed to a life of training, training and more training. While other kids their age were studying art or going out to the movies, they were studying martial arts, military strategy and ballistics. Always training to be better, faster and smarter than their adversaries. Subject to whatever medical and psychological testing the government decided was necessary for them to be molded into the weapons they had become. They weren’t really free and never would be, not as long as Galactor existed. And if Galactor ever found out their real identities, even what little freedom they had would be taken away.

He felt the plane bank steeply as they crossed over the snow covered mountain peaks and began a steep descent towards the capitol city of Ankirastan. They looked so serene and majestic; it was hard to imagine that Galactor could be here. As the jet descended, he could make out numerous ski lodges dotting the more popular slopes. Even though it was warm springtime in the lower elevations, in the high country it was still ski season.

Jun stirred as she sensed the jet preparing to land. “We there already?”

“Already? You snored for three hours.”

“I do not snore!” Jun protested. “Now, Jinpei on the other hand...” She sat up, straightened her hair and clothes and looked out her window. “It’s beautiful here.”

Ken returned his papers to his pack. “It’s hard to forget we’re not here on vacation.” He yawned to pop his ears as the plane circled down towards the final approach. “Hopefully, Joe, Jinpei and Ryu won’t forget they’re not on vacation, either.”

“You know Joe,” Jun teased, “he probably made Ryu land right outside some ski lodge next to the bunny slopes...”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”