Prey World - Rebellion Beyond Read online

While Kohlhaas and Bäumer stayed in Mito, the Japanese prepared for the imminent attack of the GCF. Meanwhile, the archipelago of Okinawa was full of countless GCF soldiers and numerous tanks and airplanes. In the morning hours of 10th of August 2031, general Williams, the commander-in-chief of the southern invasion army, gave the order to start the assault.

  Heavily armed warships loaded the GCF soldiers, while the aircraft carriers of the international armed forces, transported a whole armada of bombers and jet fighters to the south coast of the Japan.

  As their first target, the GCF airforce had selected the coastal city of Kagoshima. It should be crushed without mercy. A bloody example which would open the gigantic land invasion of Japan with a fire inferno.

  It was around 6,00 o'clock in the morning, when hundreds of GCF bombers started from the aircraft carriers on the high sea and the air bases on Okinawa, in order to annihilate the still sleeping coastal city.

  Behind them, the morning sun glowingly rose from the water and covered the Japanese sea with a threatening, bloody red. This disastrous omen opened the coming day, because Kagoshima`s death knell had already been rung far away on the sea.

  The Japanese defense was surprised and overwhelmed with the situation. They had nothing to oppose the concentrated hate, overcoming their city. The bombers came like a malicious swarm of wasps, with the will to wipe out all life below them. Men and women awoke yawning and crept out of their beds, little children were brought to the school bus by their mothers after the breakfast, the streets of Kagoshima slowly filled with life.

  Suddenly, at 7.15 o'clock, the sirens howled and tore the people out of their tiredness. The first silhouettes of bomber squadrons appeared on the horizon, in order to fall downwards like steely raptors. The bloodbath began and a rain of chemical bombs gushed over the Japanese city. Kagoshima was executed.

  „Boom! Boom! Boom!“, it resounded from the districts in the direct proximity of the seacoast and a hellish, creeping barrage followed.

  The roaring of engines and the hissing of jet fighters filled the air, while death looked forward to a rich harvest. The strategically important port which was full of large centers of the Japanese food industry, was immediately razed to the ground by the devious air raid.

  Wild panic seized the helpless people of the burning city, while masses of civilians tried to escape from the blazing inferno. They ran into the metro tunnels or hid behind house walls or in cellars. Tens of thousands had not been able to flee from the brutal hammer blow of the GCF airforce and died in the burning ruins of their hometown.

  It resounded like the roar of a malicious war god, when the bomb carpets of the GCF jet fighters suffocated Kagoshima under fire and smoke. The glowing red walls of death sped through the devastated streets and wiped out all life in their way.

  The casaulties of the GCF were just minor on that day, because the Japanese were hit without warning by this cruel assault. But the total destruction of Kagoshima was only the starting shot for a much bigger conflict.

  It was a merciless and perfectly planned strike against the population, because the GCF pilots had the clear order to destroy not only the factories and food plants, but above all the houses of the people, in order to cause as much terror as possible. And the tactic was successful. The Japanese nation reacted on the slaughter of Kagoshima with confusion. Matsumoto seemed to be incapable of acting.

  When Kagoshima was erased and perished in an apocalyptic fire, also Thomas Baastfeldt, the Dutchman, lost his life. He had been brought to the south, as a soldier of a foreign division, and had helped during the bombardment with the evacuation of the civilian population. An aerial bomb hit him in the proximity of the city center and Baastfeldt was shred like a piece of paper. The young soldier was immediately dead and with him all the other civilians at this place.

  Baastfeldt died at 21 and was the first victim that Ivas gave to the battlegrounds of the Japanese war. Other cities on the island of Kyushu, in the south of Japan, were spared from bigger air raids on that day. As a start, the World Government obviously waited for a reaction of Matsumoto and the Japanese people after this brutal attack.

  When the GCF bombers stopped their merciless air strikes after several days, and returned to the aircraft carriers in the Pacific, Kagoshima looked as if it had been crushed by a giant boot.

  Over 150000 burned corpses were found in the ruins of the annihilated city. It was a massacre and moreover a sign. A sign, that showed the Japanese, what would come over them. An example of mass destruction and extermination - all in the name of the New World Order!

  Except for a few anti aircraft-guns, the Japanese had not had very much to defend themselves. The hadn`t been prepared for an attack like this, neither psychologically nor military.

  Furthermore, the few soldiers of the Japanese army had been busy enough with the evacuation of the population. Kagoshima had been destroyed pitylessly and the World Government had impressively proven, that it would take this war very seriously. One week later, some skycrapers in Tokyo were hit by missiles, then the attacks suddenly stopped.

  Meanwhile, the GCF troops had been concentrated at the borders of the rebellious island realm, while the high command had begun with the elaboration of new strategies and prepared the land invasion of the gigantic army.

  Matsumoto reacted on the destruction of Kagoshima with confusion. He had fallen again into a hole of deepest despair and Akira Mori and his other advisors could hardly help him. The Japanese president still wanted no military conflict deep inside, but he was realistic enough to see the facts.

  Now, he had to act. Now, the Japanese people, oscillating between dread and wrath, expected a reaction from their leader. Peace had become nothing but an illusion.

  Matsumoto`s death, the death of his entire high command, and of all, who had supported his rebellion was already decided by his enemies. The plan to destroy Japan had been approved by the influential gentlemen in the backrooms of world policy.

  So the president acted with desperate courage and convoked a great mass demonstration in Tokyo. Finally, hundreds of thousands came to the capital of Japan and welcomed him with a deafening jubilation.

  Meanwhile, Haruto Matsumoto appeared irate and bitter. His eyes resembled deep, dark holes and he bared his teeth like an angry wolf. Righteous wrath had seized his heart and he proclaimed:

  „My beloved people of the rising sun!

  I am a man of the peace! A man who wanted to build, instead of destroying. A man who wanted to heal, instead of striking further wounds into the body of the world. How often have I asked the World Government to let us live in peace? We just wanted to live as free people, just wanted to live the Japanese way of life. Is that too much to ask for?

  You are my witnesses. I have tried it. More than a dozen times, but they did not want to talk to me. They ignored us, laughed about us! I am a proud descendant of an old house of samurais and I have degraded myself in front of the Lodge Brothers to get peace for my homeland. I have implored them to let us live in freedom and peace, but they were silent and smiled coldly.

  It is their aim to bring us back on our knees, by force if necessary. We shall give them our manpower, our wealth, our money, our young men as mercenaries for the GCF – we shall give them the soul of Japan.

  We shall remain indebted by their banks and we shall continue to behave like lambs that can be exploited. „Hard measures“ they demand against us. „A due lesson“ they want to teach us, so that they can enslave us again.

  „Those Japanese will finally learn - through pain and agony!”, the Lodge Brothers tell the world. Now the time has come. Now they let us learn.

  Through agony, through bombs and through death. Those so called humanists, people friends and alleged liberators of the world!

  The destruction of Kagoshima made one thing clear for me: The godliest man can not live in peace if his evil neighbor wants a war.

  Now they even stated that we are the guilty ones of the attack on the Ch
inese city of Hangzhou, in order to finally have a reason to fight against us. They tell the people that I have arranged that massacre. „Japan wants to attack the sector China!“, they lie before the eyes of the world. They are the masters of lies, they are the real world plague!

  But, my brothers and sisters, the people of Japan have nothing to do with the attack on China. This is the work of the World Government, the work of those warmongers, those dirty hypocrites.

  Then, the World President cried his crocodile tears in front of the telecameras, but instigated the Chinese against us, at the same time. At present, they recruit them in masses for the GCF.

  Soon after the Hangzhou hoax, the Lodge Brothers prevailed and their seed of hate was blossoming. Meanwhile, we have seen their devil`s faces.

  Those men are driven by greed, hate, malice, bossiness, arrogance and atrocity. There is no limit to their hate against the nations of the world. I feel sorry for these madmen, but we will show them, that we are no sacrificial lambs!

  We shall be tortured and executed, as a warning to all other freedom-loving people around the world. We shall be swept away from our islands, as a bloody example for the remaining nations which don`t trust the World Government any longer, deep inside.

  People of Japan, now you must be strong like the great, old mountain. Be steadfast like „Mr. Fuji“ if earthquakes come and floods rise up. Remember our ancestors in these hours, the old knights of the Sengoku age. They have always been our idols, because they have never been afraid to die and have never lost their honor!

  Soldiers of Japan, fix your bayonets and load your guns! Embrace wife and child and march to this holy war for our fatherland! Man the tanks, the airplanes, the cannons and the trenches! Bring death upon this fiendish breed!

  We will give them not a single inch of Japan! Not the smallest island, we will leave them, before they haven`t soaked it with their blood! They want to destroy us? Our age-old nation and its culture? Then, they shall also pay the price for it! And the price will be high! It will be enormous! May they come, the slave hordes of the tyrants! Stand your ground, my brothers and sisters! Now, Japan strikes back!“

  The giant crowd raved after the words of Matsumoto as though it was shaken by a tornado. Thousands of young men who wore headbands with the Japanese flag shouted at the top of their lungs and raised their fists. Women screamed and applauded. Flags and banners were waved and the crowd sung the old and new national anthem of Japan. The folk of the rising sun took arms.

  However, the Japanese high command had not yet decided on which front the foreign volunteers should fight. Also the soldiers of the „Nihon no Yari“ unit had no idea, what was waiting for them.

  At the same time, the GCF army in the north of the Japanese archipelago was regrouped, in order to land on Hokkaido. The enemy had already concentrated bigger airforce squadrons on Kyushu, while the bombardments on Hokkaido only came punctually so far.

  The cities Wakkanai and Abashiri were attacked at first, and some industrial plants were destroyed. The GCF bomber fleet did not make a devastating strike like in the case of Kagoshima, because an enormous invasion force was waiting on the warships to attack the north of Japan. The World Government had recruited thousands of Chinese soldiers for the great assault on the coastal region.

  Two days still passed, necessary logistic preparations had to be done, then the warships brought the young men in great numbers from Sakhalin island and the Siberian port of Nakhodka towards Japan. The huge cargo boats and destroyers of the GCF armada prepared for the invasion. Hundreds of armored landing boats, chock-full of new recruited soldiers, slid into the dark-blue sea. They moved towards the beach and fastly dived under the water surface, when they were in range of the Japanese cannons. These boats looked like a swarm of sharks which was waiting to jump out of the water on their victims.

  When the landing boats reached the coast, they finally emerged and their metallic bellies opened immediately, in order to spit out innumerable GCF soldiers. The fight began.

  As soon as the first hatches opened, the soldiers jumped into the flat water, while a deadly barrage of gunfire came over them from the Japanese trenches. A terrible hail of projectiles drummed on the armored boats and the unfortunate men who came out from them.

  The first attackers were just perforated by countless bullets and their bleeding bodies staggered into the water. Bloody clouds colored the water surface and numerous following soldiers climbed over the corpses of their dead comrades.

  In the meantime, heavy cannon shells exploded among the storming soldiers, strewing the blood-soaked beach with craters and shredded bodies.

  It was a terrible slaughter and the landing army of the GCF suffered great losses within only a few minutes. But all this was part of the strategical plan of the high command, because the beach of Wakkanai had to be overrun by masses of recruits. The new Chinese soldiers seemed to be the ideal “human material” for this ungrateful task.

  Many of them probably really believed, that they were in the right. Nevertheless, in their eyes, Japan was responsible for the bioweapon attack on their homeland. But when they were mowed down in masses by machine gun salvos, all the military pathos seemed to be lost. Between the countless corpses, which covered the whole beach, the first invaders finally went flat and shot back at the Japanese. More and more of their comrades followed them and soon they were so legion, that even the furious fire hail of the defenders could not stop them anymore.

  While the landing boats brought more soldiers to the beach, the warships at sea suddenly opened a murderous bombardment. Within seconds, the salvos of their heavy on-board cannons plowed through the range behind the beach and tore some of the Japanese shelters to pieces.

  Sometimes, they also hit their own men. But even this was a part of the plan. The high command of the GCF knew, that there were enough reserves.

  The Japanese cannons answered for their part and tried to hit the warships, but the success was just moderate. Only two of the swimming fortresses could be seriously damaged. Matsumoto`s soldiers had entrenched themselves deeply in their bunkers and concrete shelters and their faces had become dark, furious grimaces. They bared their teeth like wild animals and the leaders of the platoons swore to hold their positions till death. But the bulk of GCF soldiers was just to big to drive it back.

  The attackers scurried over the corpses of their comrades and still came nearer. Their number appeared endless, mass over mass, too many for the few thousand Japanese who tried to hold the beach in front of Wakkanai.

  Finally, the fight lasted several hours and the heavy machine guns of the defenders went on to tear bloody gaps into the huge swarm of their enemies. Then the Chinese recruits had come close enough to start their counterattack. The threw grenades and burned the Japanese soldiers with flamethrowers.

  More and more jumped into the muddy emplacements of the defenders and struggled through the barbwire barricades, shooting and stabbing everything and everyone. Particularly the Chinese raged with a terrible thirst for revenge and killed every Japanese they could get. Two hours later, Matsumoto`s soldiers had been defeated after a brutal carnage. The GCF had conquered the beach.

  After the remaining soldiers had reached the land, the order to take Wakkanai was immediately given to them. Tanks and mobile cannons followed the infantry and were still unloaded en masse. A small part of the northern coast of the Japanese islands had already been conquered and now, an enormous army, flanked by tanks, marched towards the nearby city which had an important airport.

  In the ruins of Wakkanai, that the GCF airforce had already devastated, a large contingent of the Japanese army was waiting for the invaders. Tanks, artillery and masses of infantrymen lay in wait in the bombed-out streets. The Japanese swore to fight as courageously as their comrades who had given their lives in the battle for the beach. Furthermore, snipers lurked in the streets of the city center and were on the look-out for their victims. The slaughter at the landing bay had already ca
used heavy casualties for the GCF and now the warships had to bring further reinforcements. Wakkanai was waiting for the blood court in its streets.

  Kyushu, the southernmost of the four Japanese islands, was attacked in the meantime by a far greater invasion army under the command of general Williams.

  There were still some fights in the ruins of the large cities, particularly in Kumamoto and Fukuoka, but the most Japanese divisions had already been driven back to Honshu, the central island. Matsumoto had arranged a tactical retreat, in order to spare his troops against the superior enemy. Too many soldiers were fallen and currently there was no chance to hold Kyushu. Therefore, Matsumoto decided that it was more important to defend the center of Japan. The next target of the GCF was the neighboring island of Shikoku and, above all, the city of Kochi with its big industrial plants.

  If this attack was also successful, and the advance in the north was likewise quick, then it was valid to start the deadly blow against the densely populated area around the Japanese capital and to finally win the war.

  Matsumoto`s generals took therefore a great interest in the defense of Hokkaido. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers were waiting in Wakkanai and around the regional capital of Sapporo. Meanwhile, the heart of Japan, Tokyo, Yokohama and the other larger cities, were nonstop pumping weapons and ammunition through the country, in order to make a counterattack possible.

  But things looked black. At this time, the number of GCF soldiers, airplanes and war machines, invading the country, appeared endlessly. Something had to happen to safe Japan`s existence. Again, the poison of resignation crept into the hearts of the inhabitants of the renegate country, while the dark shadow at both ends of the archipelago continued to grow.

  In the south, on Shikoku island, the coastalnear cities of Uwajima and Matsuyama had already been conquered by the GCF. Meanwhile, the Japanese army was on a more or less ordered retreat.

  At the same time, a brutal trench warfare for every inch of land was raging on Hokkaido. Wakkanai could still be hold by the defenders and the soldiers went on to kill each other in the ruins of the city with murderous frenzy. It finally lasted until the middle of the next month - conquer and recapture, urban warfare, fight for every street. The advance of the GCF had been stopped by the fanatical resistance of the Japanese army, for now, and the casualties of the international force were increasing more and more. After a while, the high command of the GCF was flustered.

  Meanwhile, the soldiers killed each in the devastated streets of Wakkanai with bayonets, folding spades and combat knives, when they had no more ammunition. The world had not seen such a barbarian warfare since decades.

  Over 100000 GCF soldiers were already fallen during the battle for Wakkanai – and about 50000 Japanese. The defenders had the advantage of operating from well protected positions. Nevertheless, the international media just spoke about great victories and military triumphs, and showed only happy and successful soldiers.

  However, the bloody reality looked different. The houses of Wakkanai had already been razed to the ground and the noise of assault rifles, the clatter of heavy tanks and the screams of soldiers still resounded through the apocalyptic landscape.

  The Japanese, among them even women, defended every inch of their city with mad fanaticism and were not willing to give up. Not until the GCF artillery bombarded the city with chemical weapons. Only after this murderous hail of shells, the morale of the defenders was slowly fading away. The barrage with chemical bombs was finally the guarantor for the inglorious victory of the GCF.

  The international press did not mention the use of chemical weapons with one word and just glorified the slaughter of Wakkanai as a “great success for all peace-loving people”.

  General Takeuchi, a tough and stubborn man, who had commanded the defense of Wakkanai, instructed his soldiers, after some more bloody days, to withdraw to the hinterland. Soon after, he was sent to Sapporo by Matsumoto`s high command, in order to strengthen the enormous defense belt around the metropolis. Some of his soldiers had finally comitted harakiri, the ritual suicide in case of defeat, before their emplacements had fallen. However, only a few soldiers and civilians reached Sapporo alive.

  Exhausted and slowly demoralized GCF troops followed them and took Abashiri and Kitami which could not be defended anymore. Shortly afterwards, their advance stopped, because the decimated troops had to be reinforced and new soldiers were brought from the warships.

  The stubborn defense of Wakkanai had gained time for the Japanese and the staff of the GCF army had to admit itself, that they could not take Japan with a coup de main, although the operation in the south was still running according to plan.

  But Sapporo could not be eluded, because the metropolis was too important and blocked the entrance to the central island of Honshu like an adamant rock. Over one million Japanese soldiers had been positioned here, waiting in endless trenches and emplacements around the strategic aim. Behind them, a large part of the Japanese airforce and several divisions lay in wait, while modern anti-aircraft guns expected the GCF bombers.

  If the fight for Wakkanai had already been very bloodily, the attack on Sapporo would still become a much more terrible trench warfare. The metropolis with its 2.5 million inhabitants had to be besieged and starved out.

  This was, from the point of view of the invaders, no satisfying initial position, so that they nevertheless thought about the use of nuclear weapons against the densely populated area around Tokyo, in order to demoralize the Japanese. However, president Matsumoto threatened the World Government in a radio speech to reply every atomic bomb on Japan with own nuclear strikes against cities in North America, England or the Near East.

  “As long as one single Japanese is still alive to press the red button, we will also defend ourselves with nuclear weapons!”, warned Matsumoto.

  But the plan was soon rejected by the World Government, and the land invasion was continued with conventional weapons.

  In the more weakly defended south of Japan, the GCF was mostly successful. Kyushu and Shikoku had already been brought under control by the invasion army of general Williams. Only Kumamoto remained as a place of resistance, but in the long run, the Japanese were chanceless.

  Williams seemed to be very confident and said in an interview that Matsumoto was almost defeated. Soon after the conquest of the southern islands, the battle for Sapporo could be started. Now it was time to bleed the Japanese slowly to death. When Sapporo would have been taken too, the whole country could be crushed like a nut from both sides.

  But meanwhile the World Government had some problems to recruit new soldiers in China. Too many young Chinese had not come back home from the front and an increasing number of them just felt utilized by the GCF.

  Even the hate against Japan which had passionately burned after the attack on Hangzhou, had abated now and could not be stimulated anymore, despite of intensive war propaganda on television.

  Nevertheless, the armies of the Lodge Brothers were still legion, but now, more and more soldiers from other regions had to be carried to the front.

  A worldwide recruting campaign for the war against the allegedly „fascist regime of Matsumoto“ started. New soldiers were mustered, from North America to Africa. Thousands of young men were brought to the Asian battlegrounds – to die for the interests of the chosen few.

  President Matsumoto believed, if the war would continue for years, that there was no chance for his nation to hold the invaders back. But maybe the enemy propaganda which always seemed to be confident had just deceived him, because the casualties of the GCF were substantially higher than expected.

  Same was valid for the morale of his people that impressed Matsumoto once more. The 150 million Japanese had soon understood, what a defeat would mean for their country. More and more young men were volunteering for the front and flowed to the recruitment posts of the Japanese army. Perhaps, as the president hoped deep inside, the World Government was still not invincible. Anyhow,
the decrease of Chinese voluteers was a first partial success. Matsumoto did not lose his hope, although it was not too big.

  The Way to Sapporo