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Post by Cricket on Mar 23, 2012 22:45:49 GMT -5
Alfred could feel the American people's shock. His president's powerful words were grave, the heavy silence hanging in the air before the man continued.
"A date which will live in infamy."
It brought chills. To think a speech could have that effect after a solid two hundred years of them. Alfred shuddered, but forced his eyes straight, not willing to display his own discomfort. The men watching certainly weren't bothering with such formalities, shifting in their chairs with expressions that screamed unease.
Six minutes later, the speech ended. They were on a tight schedule, with the impending declaration of war being voted on in Senate. He'd be surprised if anyone in either the Senate or the House voted against it, and in less than an hour he was packing his supplies to head to the Philippines.
They'd already been attacked, of course. Everyone thought the Japanese would target the Philippines before anything else, but it was a solid eight hours later with a interlude by England declaring war on them. On the hour of US being attacked, Churchill had said. On the hour, indeed.
He threw his stuff together, being ushered through the doors at around the same time Roosevelt was signing the declaration. Not necessary at this point, but certainly profound. He threw his stuff in the back of the small one-person plane and crawled into the cockpit. He knew it had been checked time and time again, but in his paranoid state, he did the few necessary glances to see if it'd get him there.
This was one of the few times he hated flying. Up until this moment, with nothing but the ocean to look at beneath him, he
He'd only been there since September, so there was really not much to be said. Three months wasn't a lot in comparison to some of the other troops around him, discussing initial impressions and things they learned from the Filipinos. He hadn't even had enough time away from the camp to pay attention to the natives, though he reveled in their relations. The British were never that fortunate with their commonwealth.
He'd come to the Philippines with the 19th Bombardment Group. They were just kids, really, and when they looked at him he could tell they weren't sure how he managed to gain his respected status at such a young age. Hell, he looked younger than most of them.
And he was respected. General Douglas MacArthur certainly didn't have time to talk to every nineteen year old that stumbled into camp that day reinforcements came. In fact, Alfred would be surprised if he found interest in any of the scrawny Army Air Force soldiers in those six squadrons. He could read their jealousy. But it wasn't like he could explain he'd been alive to fight in not only WWI, but every war the United States was involved in before that.
For the most part, all was fine. He'd been sent here because the US was expecting the Philippines to be attacked first. Of course, if the peace negotiations didn't bare fruit. That was, until word came about Pearl Harbor.
Everyone was shocked. Douglas was angry. Alfred snapped at him when he questioned the lack of orders to attack Formosa. He was questioning it himself, but he knew when the General got in that mindset, it was hard to get him out without an unordered attack on something. They couldn't afford that right now, even though he was positive all peace negotiations were off.
Word came in directly after that the President of the United States had declared war. Churchill followed immediately after. On the hour of attack on the US, he had promised. On the hour, indeed.
Before the orders were given, he had a few of the non-green pilots went to ready B-17's. There weren't enough, but he told them there were. He told them he'd heard from their leaders that they were all capable of this. They were the best of the best, and that's why they'd be chosen for this, and since he was friends with MacArthur, they believed him, and for the first time, he was glad for their naivety.
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Post by Kai on Mar 23, 2012 23:33:02 GMT -5
He stood before the silhouetted man in stoic silence, mouth set in a small frown and his brown eyes hard. He held his arms folded behind his back, waiting for the man to speak; almost dreading the words he would hear. "Your orders are simple. Attack the coordinates in that file on the desk. Leave nothing standing." With a curt nod, Kiku scooped the file off the desk and left the dark room in a curt walk- and as soon as he was in the hallway he snapped the file open and began to read the contents.
He figured as much; he was to fly to Formosa and rally a squadron of planes to bomb an American base on the Philippines. He would only have a few hours to get there and rally them; America will need to vote on a declaration of war and then spend who knows how long with the paperwork required for attack. He should have a few hours at least.
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As soon as he touched down at the base, he barked out orders for a squadron to get ready and ready now. They needed to be en route to the target in a matter of minutes if they hoped to do any damage. Soldiers scurried; that tone was not foreign to them.
They flew in glorious perfect formation (a further snub to the soldiers they were about to decimate, he supposed). As the base was slowly coming into view Kiku snapped the radio on and gave final orders. Just to be sure everyone was aware of the mission.
"Hit the planes on the ground first. Do not let them take off. Second sweep for the buildings. Any further sweeps will be for human targets, civilian or otherwise. Leave no plane whole, no building standing." he crackled the channel shut, and nodded his head at the pilot. They lowered altitude and went in for their strike.
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Post by Cricket on Mar 24, 2012 0:48:18 GMT -5
The engines of a plane was not to be unexpected, after all they had been working on planes for the last few hours. Alfred had managed to keep his mind off Pearl Harbor, but as the work grew repetitive, he was left with room to think.
Damn the Japanese. It wasn't like unannounced attacks were a new concept from them, but that didn't make his blood boil any less thinking about it.They hadn't even ended the peace negotiations yet, their attack was completely uncalled for. If he had his hands on Kiku right now, he doubted his mind would take the usual detour to consider what was right before repaying him.
He didn't know how big of an attack it was, either. They'd only been told of the attack, and the declaration of war, not how many casualties.The lack of knowledge ate at him as he studied the engine of his second B-17. News that everyone- all the people, planes, ships, submarines- everything had been decimated... He'd rather that than this unsettling discomfort sitting heavily in his chest.
The engines of planes grew closer, and suddenly there were yells, He turned his head quickly to see his men running back and pointing, throwing themselves in the few ditches that had been dug up in advance. Many Filipino men were scattering off elsewhere, clearly seeing that there was no use in attempting to fight planes on the ground. He hated them for disappearing when the Americans who were fighting for them were being shot down so rapidly.
Cursing, he left the engine slide open, knowing the planes would be a prime target. There would be no time to get in one and face them, and he certainly couldn't do it alone. He threw himself towards the hangars and into one of the ditches, landing on another soldier who cried out in surprise before pushing more firmly into the corner.
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Post by Kai on Mar 24, 2012 1:15:16 GMT -5
It didn't surprise him much, but he still quirked a brow a little at the figures that were running. He could see a few pointing, yelling, but half of them were running for their little holes. The other half seemed intent on making it to the forest.
In sync, the squadron dropped their bombs on the stationary planes of the Americans; and though it was a hollow victory, there was still some satisfaction at the destruction of the only craft that could hope to truly damage them. The rest of the bombardment was aimed at the buildings; though several of his planes (as per orders) strafed to shoot down any moving targets.
When the entire squadron had dumped their bombs and unloaded their clips, Kiku gave the signal to retreat. They were beaten enough; the base was destroyed. 'No doubt orders will come in the morning to strafe the forest for survivors' and those orders would come regardless of the amount of people who slipped into the leafy jungle. Be it one, or a hundred. He didn't really see the point in looking for survivors.
He felt something dark coil around his heart as they flew away.
No doubt that the only American that Kiku had any relations with was seething at him.
The base was nothing but a pillar of smoke when he finally looked over his shoulder to glance back at their handiwork...
This would surely be a long, long, war.
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