REIWA JIGOKUHEN - Chaotic Disturbance of Reiwa Era

Chapter 23 - Plan B

Fussa City, Tokyo: Yokota Air Base

"THIS PLAN IS A JOKE!"

A videoconference of commanders of the United States Forces Japan. As soon as he read through the files shared there, Lieutenant General Knox, commander of the USMC's III Marine Expeditionary Force, turned red and enraged.

"You can't fucking tell us to kill our grandfathers and great-grandfathers by ourselves! Have they lost a screw in their collective head!?"

"Ray, calm down and listen to me."

"How can you be silent about this!?"

"Just calm down!"

Lieutenant General Fargo, the commander of USFJ, looked truly somber and pleaded in an angry voice as if he were about to shed a tear. The file that the four commanders were reading certainly contained horrifying details. Task Force 58, which would be soon approaching the Japanese mainland, would be attacked by USFJ's own aircraft.

Of course, the attack would be restrained and aimed at destroying only the fleet's aircraft operational capability. Even so, destroying the flight deck of an aircraft carrier at that time meant killing or wounding a large number of deck personnel, pilots, maintenance personnel, and others. In particular, the Independence-class, a small cruiser conversion, could be sunk by a single Harpoon missile. But even so, that approach would probably result in the lowest casualties.

"The SDF is planning to annihilate TF 58... and the Japanese government is getting in line."

"Why don't we just stop them!?"

"If that were possible, no one would have any trouble. The Japanese government has now centralized power under the guise of a time-space cataclysm and is furiously promoting economic control and war reparations. The man sitting at the center of it all is a man named Muto."

"That guy, the aide? That conniving bastard," Vice Admiral Trost of the Seventh Fleet frowned slightly. "I've talked to him a little bit at a symposium we hosted on maritime strategy research. How should I put it... he looks like a common sense politician, but his thought process is unique."

"Quite right. So now he's like the American Godzilla's enemy with his similar name, going around mentioning that he wants to sink every single ship in TF 58. And just a few minutes ago, he even took a preemptive jab at me."

"Then why don't you shut him up like Godzilla—I mean, by words."

"Of course, I tried... but he was tough. They are reading our internal situation. If you can move, then move, that's what they're saying."

Fargo, too expressed his frustration at the corners of his words and explained the details lethargically. After Muto had earlier asked for an understanding of the policy to annihilate Task Force 58, he also requested a report on the power self-sufficiency capabilities of each American military base. Judging from his very polite tone, it is clear that he is seriously concerned about their safety. But at the same time, he is the one who implicitly threatens to cut off their lifelines under the guise of adjusting the supply and demand of electricity.

"Well, to put it bluntly, we were being used."

"In movies like that, Godzilla usually loses in the first round," Lieutenant General Haddington of the Army I Corps sighed. "But he wins the second round and onward."

"But you say this is that proposed second round!"

"Lieutenant General Knox, think about it for a minute."

Trost complained, "We'll do it so we can minimize casualties... and by 'we' now, I mean only this mere 30.000-odd troops stationed in Japan."

"Did you get the wind knocked out of you by the disappearance of your carrier?"