Summoning Our Country - NHS Kai

Chapter 18: Vodka and Soju

Note: This is rose. Clearing this up first, the topic of this chapter has long been planned and this chapter's release is merely coincidental as to what has transpired in Ukraine. Team Kai condemns the Russian aggression there. Lastly, most of the details mention here pertain to the events that occur during and immediately after the transfer, which are not consistent with the transfer arc that has been released. However, these details are accurate according to the rewrite of the earlier chapters, which are yet to be released, so stay tuned for that. That would be all.

Discord: https://discord.gg/p7NJppEjza

Cent. Calendar 19/04/1639, Kurilsk, Iturup, Kuril Islands, 6:45

The mask of dawn had already receded from the skies above as the sun to the east soaked the entirety of the heavens in somber blues and warm oranges. The sharp slopes of the slender, mountainous island housed familiar flora of far north species, with the dropping temperatures of September hailing the signs of approaching winter. It was 2021, and there was little to speak of in this far corner of the world, where blood spilled long ago refuses to disappear, frozen solid in the persistent frigidity of these Kuril islands, the lonely island chain separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the greater Pacific.

"Goddammit."

Things suddenly weren't so great, thought Sveta, short for Svetlana.

It had been a harrowing three hours. At approximately 3:25 in the morning, they lost communications with their command in Sakhalin and other military outposts throughout the eastern military district. After the local authorities declared an emergency and power was transferred to the highest military authority still present, they moved to secure every man, equipment, and supplies to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

It was now 6:45 in the morning. The sun was already up in the cloudless sky, bearing down its naked light on them with intense luminosity. With her quivering hands on the cold steel of her AK-74M, she followed her senior officer down the concrete harbor of the town of Kurilsk. At one end of the harbor was a white ship, at the bow of which was an open ramp lowered down.

Below the ship's imposing figure stood countless men in mottled green, wearing battle-ready gear and holding very real weapons. The patches on their arm indicated the unit they belonged to and under which flag they served: the 18th Machine Gun Artillery Division of the Russian Armed Forces. Some of them were running up the ramp in a column into the white ship, while a fraction of them stayed behind. From Sveta's perspective, she saw them in a heated conversation with people whose lower stature allowed them to be blocked in sight by the taller Russian soldiers. Getting closer to the ship, she started to make out the contents of their shouting.

"Stand back. We don't want to harm you!"

"You can't just illegally hold us! This is unforgivable!"

Recognizable words from her mother tongue crisscrossed with a language she also knew very well: Japanese. Their softer and coarser tone gave her an idea as to who they were dealing with, corroborated by the Japanese persons' wrinkly skin and shining white hair.

The senior officer she was following then turned around to face her, his alert yet visibly fatigued eyes looking straight down on her.

"The suspects we've encountered so far are just civilians, mostly elderly and children in high school. What we need is the ship's crew, the highest probable to be Japanese special forces. I need you to talk to them, understand what it is they're saying, and report back."

Swiftly twisting her right arm up to her forehead, encountering stiff resistance from her especially tight VKBO uniform, she saluted her officer before walking into the ship.