Broken Arrow

Nogi Park, Minato, Tokyo
June 15
12:05 AM

A bomb in my hands, one powerful enough to wipe this city off the map, some 14 million lives depended on my actions in the next few minutes, my family was only a few blocks away. This was a crucial moment, every move had to be focused exclusively on making sure it would not detonate in any way. My biggest problem was that I had no idea how to secure such a dangerous device because although I had experience with military explosives, this one was much more like a computer, I simply did not know what to do to deactivate the detonator. But one thing was certain in such a dangerous bomb, it had to have at least several detonation mechanisms, the most dangerous right now was a remote detonation, it was enough for someone to touch a button to kill us all. The first step was to leave the bomb isolated, but I couldn't tell which is the communication system at a glance, I needed Momo's help because she is the expert in this, but the threat is now, I can't wait for her to arrive and help. The next step was to use a signal jammer, a device that blocks all communications, but the one I had in my vest was not enough for high precision military instruments like the ones this bomb would have, I needed a military Electronic Warfare unit. The only one I could imagine having what I needed was my daughters, for it was in this very thing that they excelled, I quickly picked up the radio and called back to base.

"Mom"
"I need Kasumi here and now"
"I need a full signal jamming before I do anything else"

"Are you going to expose one of your daughters to danger to fix this?"
"Are you out of your mind?"

"IT'S A FUCKING NUCLEAR BOMB!"
"WE'RE ALREADY FUCKED!
"IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE IT IS, IF IT EXPLODES WE ALL DIE THE SAME WAY!"
"EITHER ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CITY OR NEXT TO THE BOMB"

"Dad"
"I can do it, I can block any communication signal in a radius of 5 kilometers"
"The problem is that I would also be cut off from my sister and Momo, which I assume you need her help"

"Right now I have bigger problems and it doesn't let me think straight"
"You are much smarter than me, I don't know how robots work but I'm sure you can do something that others can't"
"I trust you, my child"

"Sister"
"If we use analog communication like wired it should be impossible for the jammer to block our communication"
"One of us will still be able to provide support from here to communicate with the other out there"

"Searching"
"...."
"Ok, there is an old pay phone across the street"
"If we use it we could communicate by dial-up"
"But the maximum speed would be 56 kbps, communication would be greatly affected"

"Searching for secondary sources of analog connection"
"Fiber optic detected at a pharmacy, 50 meters from the park"
"Expected data loss, 54%."
"Cable connection available at all nearby locations"
"Expected data loss 74%."
"Dial-Up communication at 15 meters from dad"
"Expected data loss of 15%"
"I'm afraid Dial-Up is the best option for now"
"Time to search for alternatives exceeded"
"Kasumi unit, meet with dad and provide electronic warfare support"
"I keep looking for new alternatives, wait for communication for new possible solutions"

"All right go immediately Kasumi"
"I'm not going to mobilize any more units until the communications are disabled so as not to alert whoever it is that put that bomb there"
"The bomb squad will take 15 minutes to arrive, but I'm afraid they don't have the experience for something of this caliber and I don't think they'll let you anywhere near it Elise"
"Our best option is for you to get on with it while Momo tells you how to proceed"

"Yeah yeah, whatever"
"Just send someone, I'm already stressed about having this in my hands!"

I put the bomb back in the backpack and ran to Tamamo, who upon seeing me knew exactly how bad the situation was and followed me immediately. While Kasumi run to arrive, I needed to take care of my next step, I needed equipment with which to defuse the bomb, it was not an easy task, but my experience in the field was just what would help me to get it quickly. I took my gun and pointed it at the next car that passed by on the street, I fired a couple of shots, and the driver stopped the car and ran away. I ran to the trunk and shot the lock to open it quickly, I took the toolbox from the car, as it was the closest thing to a bomb kit. Kasumi came running to where we were and took several pictures of the bomb to send them to her sister and Momo before the communication shut down, then she ran to the public phone, which before taking it she spoke to us to let us know.

"Initiating countermeasures"
"Signal blocking activated"
"Communicating with Charlotte Unit via Dial-up established"
"Initiating high data saving mode"

I took out my phone to check its signal, but there was none, then my radio, only white noise, the signal had been cut, we were completely cut off for now. I still in the middle of the street took out the bomb to start checking it in more detail to see how it was working, I checked well but could not find anything peculiar, I was waiting for Momo's answer on what to do. The stress was getting to me, and if it wasn't for the fact that I already had white hair, I'm sure I would have the same color at this point.

And then something crazy happened again, two vans came out of a street at full speed, they opened their doors, a group of armed men, they were dressed in a strange way, military type but amateur, they seemed to be bought from a geek store and not from the army, they had masks of skulls, and their gloves their drawings were of skeleton hands, then I clicked what Tamamo said "something was left behind by a group of skeletons", the bomb was clearly related to these subjects. Their weapons unlike their clothes were real, they began to shoot indiscriminately at everyone present without fear of anything. The panic filled the streets, and the screams of the innocents terrified my ears. I knew who they were, but I didn't have to know either, there is something much more important now to take any risk, I shot at them without thinking about it. Unfortunately, their bulletproof vests were also really good.

"Tamamo, go and protect Kazumi!"

Upon hearing my instruction she quickly ran to her, who was still standing by the pay phone. She also threw her naginata to kill one of them.

Upon hearing my instruction she quickly ran to her, who was still standing next to the pay phone. I took the bomb and protected myself with one of the cars in the street. I fired several times but due to the angle it was very difficult to hit, I don't think I managed to hit anyone. I took the bomb and took cover with one of the cars in the street. I fired several times but due to the angle it was very difficult to hit, I don't think I managed to hit anyone. 

"Mother momo tells you to look for the communication system on the blue-chip."
"You should look for a 2 cm gray module"
"She says it looks like a small eraser" Kazumi shouted from across the street.

"I'm busy right now!"
"Give me a second!"

In another exchange of shots, I managed to kill one by chance while reloading his gun behind a small car door. But I was getting worried about the fact that he was getting closer and closer to me. Police sirens were approaching, alerted by the gunshots they came immediately to reestablish security, I was very sorry for them, they had just arrived at a party where they would have a very bad time. They had not yet gotten out of their vehicles when the group of skeletons opened fire on them, there were too many shots, the car was full of holes, no survivors in the first two patrol cars. A third one arrived from the other side of the street, close to where I was, due to a large number of cars in the place they had to leave them and started to walk forward, and immediately, the skeletons seeing the new opponent fired without thinking twice, the police responded, I kept looking, Tamamo kept fighting to keep the phone working.

Today was not my day, today was nobody's day.

I was in the middle of the crossfire between the two teams, the cops who were arriving more and more, and the skeletons who were trying to get close to me and steal the bomb. I reloaded my gun and shot one of the masked men who were quite close to me, then took the bomb and hid this time under the car I was using as cover. Still with the shots rattling around in various parts of my car I pulled out the kit and looked for the pliers and started looking for the communication module in the bomb.

"Darling, the white car, one is pointing at you" Tamamo shouted from the sidewalk.

I took my gun and immediately shot at the white car that was near mine. I fired several times, in one it seems that I hit one of his legs, which made him fall, as his head was at ground level I had it easy to shoot him and kill him, I emptied the magazine to be sure he would not get up, I reloaded my pistol and went back to look for the module.

My hands were shaking, it had been a long time since I was so nervous in a fight, the situation was really fucked up. I kept looking, I managed to find the blue board chip at one end of the bomb, now look for those stupid 2 centimeters of shit. I heard the police getting closer and closer to me, were they shooting at me too? 

!!!!

Yes, yes they were, it must have been because they had they saw me shooting me before and they think there is another skeleton man here where I am!

"Don't come any closer!"
"I have a bomb!"
"If you come any closer I will kill you!"
"Get away from me!"

The policemen did not listen to me, they were just as nervous as I was and did not want to take any risks. Unfortunately, I couldn't do it either, not with this bomb, I had to take the decision to also open fire on the cops to protect my position. One of them fell, I think he was dead, I didn't have time to check. The cops ignored me, they were just as nervous as I was and didn't want to take any risks. Unfortunately, I couldn't do it either, not with this bomb, I had to take the decision to also open fire on the cops to protect my position. I kept looking for the fucking shit module, I managed to find it in a part near the center, and I took the tweezers to take it out of there by force.

"Communication module is destroyed"  I yelled.

"Police! Freeze!"
"Surrender now and hand over your weapon"

"Get the fuck outta here!" I said as I fired without hesitation.

"Mother Momo says there is a second short radio communication module, it has to have an antenna, cut the cable to it and the receiver"
"Also the power supply, a small watch battery!"

"FFFUUUCCCCKKK!!!!" I took back the pins and started to check the bomb again.

Where the fuck was that thing? If she saw it from some pictures, it's probably not hidden, but where the hell is it?

More shots came and went, closer and closer to me, several hit the car in which I was hiding, my advantage was getting smaller. A body fell near me, it was a civilian, a woman dressed in a formal manner, I didn't know where she had come from but there was nothing I could do, she was already dead. I had to try not to be the next.

I followed exactly what  Kasumi told me and started trying to destroy the radio system of the bomb, while Tamamo was trying to get the skeleton men and the policeman away from Kasumi. My nerves went into overdrive, I could feel the weight of every second, my fingers were quickly running through the wires checking where they connected to, trying to figure out the bomb. Footsteps were heard from a couple of cars near me, with a free hand I reloaded the gun and shot towards where I had heard the noise, a body fell, I don't care whose, I went back to the bomb.

More vehicles arrived, again civilian vehicles, man vans, that was a bad sign. More people got out of them, they were neither cops nor skeleton men. This time they looked like common people, pretty common clothes, civilians maybe, but they were all wearing white tape, either on their heads or on their arms. They had strange weapons, they didn't seem to be military, they were all different, but I could see some of the mythical AK-47 among them, the terrorist weapon par excellence. As soon as they got off they also started shooting, their targets? Everyone, they shot at both the police and the skeleton men, who started shooting back. The whole thing was ridiculous, it didn't matter to me anymore, I would kill everyone who came near, easier, simpler.

"Kasumi what the hell is going on"
"This has become a free-for-all!" I said as I killed another white-ribboned civilian who approached.

"I have no idea!"
"I can't identify them due to lack of network access and connection priority with Charlotte"
"I can't send her high-quality images to identify them"
"...."
"Adelis says that by satellite image they came from a warehouse that the police was investigating"
"They could be the terrorists who attacked the base three months ago!"

"Morons, sons of a bitch"
"They will kill us all"

I used my gun again, killed someone else, I had already lost count. I put my last magazine, swallowed saliva, took the clamps, found the wires, cut them at the same time, noise near me, took the gun, aimed, fired, one more dead, noise on the other side, I went back to aim, shot, a metallic noise came from the gun, the slide of the gun was not in its normal position, that was not good, I had run out of ammunition in the middle of all this madness. I took a knife, threw it and managed to hit him, it didn't kill him but he was on the ground, a second later Tamamo's naginata fell on his chest, he tried to remove it but died trying. A strange noise came from the bomb, I got scared and turned to look why, Oh my, now that thing had a counter with numbers on it.

"God Damn It"  I exclaimed.

The bomb, not having a communication system, had entered its second safety measure for detonation, a final countdown, 15 minutes to the second sunrise today. I was completely mentally exhausted, I just wanted to get out of there, but I could not do it, the anxiety took over me, I could not stand it anymore, yellow water was running down my legs, fear was taking over me, I could not go on with this without going crazy, and that was the last thing I could let happen now because I would end up causing more damage than the bomb if I sent everything to hell. I had to focus, I had to keep going no matter what.

Someone was approaching my car, I took the bomb and put it back in the car, the man put his head down to look at me, I jumped on him and bit his throat, I rode him with all my strength, a cascade of blood came out of it. I got out of the car, grabbed the man's body as he was still dying, and threw him to one of the other skeleton men, then I jumped in behind. The skeleton man was frightened when he saw the corpse that he saw towards him, the impact threw him to the ground, I got to where he was, I put my thumbs in his eyes and pressed as hard as I could to get them out, the man screamed in agony, I raised his head and hit it against the ground several times until blood started to come out of the back of his head. I took his gun and two of his magazines and immediately fired at the cops who were the closest ones now. I don't know if I killed anyone but I did hit two of them, forcing them to take cover. The civilian idiots took advantage of this to their advance and tried to shoot Tamamo, who grabbed Kasumi in her arms and the two of them along a small concrete wall., I shot at them, they were quite disorganized, and it was easy, I killed three that were in the middle of the street without cover. One of them while dying turned back and fired his weapon, killing two more of his own team, what a bunch of morons.

I went back behind a car to check the bomb, had 7 minutes left, I took the pliers and started looking for the analog detonator, some kind of conventional explosive that would drive the red mercury to reach critical mass. The tube containing the red liquid was transparent, so it had to be injected into another part of the bomb containing it to reach the point of explosion, this had to happen at high velocity.

Wasn't this the same problem that happened to Rose with God's blood bomb?

What was it that she something missing at that time? It was something modern technological, difficult to produce, the Atlanteans didn't know it, something stupid like flerovium or something weird like that, no, that wasn't it.

The red mercury has no radiation!!!

So in order for it to detonate they had to make modifications, one of them must be a radioactive part! I can look for it with the keyring!

I quickly scanned my surroundings for more threats. The confrontation was still as intense as before. A gun could be heard somewhere, one son of a bitch has a machine gun, he started shooting all over the place indiscriminately. I felt two bites appear, one on my chest and one on my leg. I had received two shots, a large caliber because my bulletproof vest could not do anything against it, the damn machine gun had hit me. I couldn't keep my footing, I fell to the ground. I needed to treat the wound as soon as possible, but there was no time to do so,  I grabbed the key chain and started looking for which part of the bomb was emanating the most radiation. I had found it, on the other side there was a small piece that was clearly the source of all the radiation emitted by the bomb, near that there were a couple of wires and a small explosive hidden behind it, I had found the detonator. I pulled out the last knife I had and used it as a screwdriver, removed the foot a little and used the pliers to cut the wire from the exploder, then removed the fuze and finally the metal piece.

*beep*

The bomb had been deactivated.

I breathed a sigh of relief after learning that the bomb was no longer an immediate danger.

More gunfire came from another street. This time two MRAPs appeared, several soldiers came to join the party, and now the fourth group appeared, a crazy fucking madness. More gunfire came from another street. This time two MRAPs appeared, and several soldiers came to join the party, being now the fourth group to appear, a stupid madness. From one of them, Cedric came out and started shooting at the others, they did respect the policeman, who upon seeing them focused on the other two groups. 

"It was already fucking time boys!"
"You are damn late!"

While the shooting was going on, the alliance soldiers stood close to me to keep the others away, but even so, Tamamo and Kasumi let them pass between them and came toward me. My wife tried to treat my wounds but there was no time, we had to go on, we had to get out of here because with this bomb we could not take any risk.

"Let me go!"
"Just seal the wound with a talisman and help me get out of here!"
"We have to get to the port and mount the bomb on a Carrier Group  ship"
"They can keep the bomb completely safe!"

"Elise!"
"Your leg is not serious, but your chest is!
"The wound is still there"
"The bullet hasn't come out, it's still inside"
"Moving will hurt you more!"
"We have to take you to the hospital!"

"No!"
"We must go on!"
"I won't make it to the hospital anyway  if they still find a way to blow it up "

Among more of the cars that came, more of the police arrived, and among them, I noticed a very peculiar one because I had seen it several times before. I got up from there and ran towards it with the bomb in my backpack, Kazumi took my arm to help me walk while Tamamo protected us. I went as fast as I could to the car and opened the door, the girls that accompanied me got in with me. The driver of the car looked at me strangely, Inspector Yamamoto was trying to figure out what was going on.

"No time"
"Run south! To Yokosuka Dock!"
"We have to get out of here, NOW!"

The old man was confused to see me appear that way, he saw that I was hurt and the backpack I had, somehow he realized what was going on and didn't ask anything else, he put the car back in gear and got out of there, he accepts my request, we still had a very bumpy ride ahead.