RUNE TROOPERS VOLUME 1 PART 2 OF CHAPTER 2

We’ve got a reading on the radar! The target is 270 degrees out! The distance is 2 miles and closing! It’s getting closer to the ship!”

In the information center of the Aegis destroyer “Ibuki”, the operations specialists raised their yelling voices.

“Why have we been unable to detect this until now?… Ah, it disappeared into the shadow of the island, eh?”

The operations officer—the one who is responsible for being in charge of monitoring the radar and communications—he muttered these words. The department called the information center, also called the “CIC”, could be said to be the brains of the war ship. It’s deep inside the ship, where there are no windows and darkness is normal. It’s about as wide as a classroom in a school. They use operations tools like radar and sonar, and are able to control weapons and armaments on the ship, they gather information, and manage all these things at once so that it can carry out orders.

According to the giant radar screen on the wall, there is only one target. It was while watching this that the operations officer yelled.

“What is the nationality? Quickly, check the SIF! Where is this aircraft from? Is this a private passenger plane from around Guam?”

After the incident, the fleet changed course in an attempt to go to Guam, the nearest U.S. Military base. The reason for this is that, not only was their communications from Japan cut off, they were in an emergency situation in which they were in complete silence. Due to these circumstances, the operations officer thought that maybe the aircraft could be from a Guam airport. This was a stubborn common sense expectation.

“There’s no response on the applicable ATC responder! It’s unknown!”

The operations specialists shook their heads. SIF (Selective Identification Feature)  is a built-in device on aircraft that allow for their identification. It’s not just on war planes, it would definitely be built-in on a jumbo passenger plane. It allows for the fuselage’s personal data to be transmitted to those around it. To not have a response means that this aircraft doesn’t have the SIF transceiver device, so it would be an old, small private craft.

“Call out to it using the radio transmitter. Use the international frequency. Continue until we get something back.”

Sending out the waves, even if it’s only to one aircraft that appeared, it’s good luck. However, this is when they got contact from along the warship’s bridge via Sand Power. The war fleets of the Self-Defense Force use the communication device from within their warships called Sand Power. It could be called a electrical wireless phone at sea. You transform your vice into frequencies and if you were in the boat itself, you could use the communication device without a power supply. It was like a really high-quality “phone” made from 2 cans and a string, so to speak.

“CIC! Can we make contact with the target?!”

The operations officer received the warship bridge’s navigator with great uneasiness. With this distance, he should probably be able to see the person on the bridge.

“CIC, you’ve been sending out the international frequency to the aircraft in question, but what about a response to the trouble on the other side?”

“Aircraft, you say?! Don’t try to make a fool of me!”

The communication on the bridge screamed nearby.

“That’s a ‘bird’!”

“Bird…? To suggest an Aegis vessel’s radar can’t discern a group of birds…”

The Aegis destroyer’s high-power 3D radar had the ability to detect and track over 200 targets. It was hard to imagine that it would fail to show so many figures from what is at best a distance of only a few kilometers. But, the reporter at the bridge f the ship yelled in return.

“You’re wrong! It’s not a group of birds! It’s a monster of a giant bird with a wingspan of 15 meters!”

“A-a bird with a wingspan of 15 meters?!”

To this message, the navigation officer, in terror, looked at the radar screen without looking. For a moment, those on the bridge thought that they might have inhaled some sort of hallucinogenic gas in the middle of that sea covered by fog.

“Na-navigation officer, th-th-that,”

However, what the CIC monitor that presented the pictures from the vessel’s outside cameras showed left the whole room speechless.

On that screen, they saw a giant of a bird and a figure of a young girl with red hair straddling it. She was wearing some sort of armor and a sword at her waist. To all the crew members, it was like they were seeing a soldier from ancient Rome or something. The scene did appear to be something from a different generation. Looking at the monitor, it felt like the girl was scowling at the crew.

They connected a headset and all the crew members surrounding the CIC had to take that look of the girl whilst dumbfounded.

—-Thus ends part 2 of Chapter 2. Part 3 continues next page—