“So why do you think they parked that supercarrier out there?” Jackie asked, “Been there a few days now.”
“I have no idea, man, I just worked for them.”
“Hrmph,” he grumbled.
“Something wrong?”
“Just so fuckin’ sick of lookin’ at it. Fuckin’ eyesore.”
“C’mon, Jack, seriously-”
“Nah, really, I can’t stand this crap.”
“What? Jackie, talk to me. You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”
“Yeah, but can I?” Ah, the eddie finally dropped, “Alright, fine. What happened yesterday? With the guy.”
“Hm,” I shrugged, “I, uh… just wasn’t at the top of my game and…” I pondered my next thought carefully for a second. “Nah, know what, you’re right, Jack. I’m sorry for not trusting you more.”
“And why don’tcha?” he leaned forward, “Som’n wrong? Is it my breath?”
“Hah,” I giggled, “No, Jack, it’s not your breath,” I got up and threw out the empty cups of coffee before sitting back down and palming my hands together. “Look, I just… Eh, I don’t really know how to word it.”
“Hey, we got all mornin’, unless you got somewhere to be,” he smiled reassuringly.
“You know what I mean, I’m just, eh, not very good at this.”
“What, talking ‘bout yourself? C’mon, how long we know each other? Don’t think I don’t know that?”
“It’s not even that, I don’t think.”
“So what, just don’t wanna admit that you had a moment of weakness?” he pressed.
“Hm?” I started, then let what he said simmer for a few seconds while Jackie remained silent. “I mean… maybe. I guess. I don’t-”
“Don’t know, yeah, I got that,” he rolled his eyes.
“Jackie, I-”
“Yeah,” Jackie got up and walked off to the portside walkway, with me not far behind, “Y’know, I can’t swim for shit,” he muttered, “I tried once. Sank like a fuckin’ anchor. Would’ve died had it not been for this kid who spotted my fat ass goin’ in the water. Was right up there, on the port.”
“Oh? You never told me about that.”
“I know,” he sat down on a nearby bench, “Was back when I was 6 or 7. Been scared of goin’ in the water ever since. Couldn’t even take a bath for years.”
“I’m sorry,” I sighed, taking a seat next to him.
“All good, ancient history,” he smiled, “Seems like yours isn’t, though. So what’s up? C’mon, I know you been through worse.”
“Sure, I mean, we have,” I shrugged, “But, well… yeah.”
“Fine, you really gonna make me ask, huh,” he grumbled, “What gotcha so scared, exactly? Is it the exoskeleton, the way the guy looked at you, the gun, what-” I flinched when he said it. Fuck. “His gun? What about it?” Jackie continued pressing.
“Nah, it’s not the gun itself… it’s… uhm…”
“How big it is? What?”
“Fire, Jackie,” I finally said it out-loud, “Just… I don’t like fire. Okay?”
“...What?” Jackie paused for a couple seconds, “Wait, you mean to tell me you just did that whole fuckin’ buildup just to drop the bombshell that, what, you’re afraid of fire?”
I paused for a solid few seconds, admittedly it sounded way worse now that he worded it like that. “...Yeah.”
“Bahah!” he roared in laughter, “C’mooon, choom, you gotta be kiddin’ me. Here I was thinkin’ this guy shot your hermana or somethin’ with the way you played that up.”
“Oh shut up, Jackie,” I smiled and slapped his arm, “But yeah, like… I dunno. To be fair, I never actually said that out-loud before.”
“Never?”
“Nah. Never,” I shrugged, “You’re literally the only person in this whole city who knows I’m afraid of fire, how about that?”
“Can I ask why?” he softly replied.
“Why what? Why I never talk about it?”
“Nah- well, yeah, hah,” he chuckled, “But I was just wonderin’ why you’re afraid of fire, like did som’n happen, or just always had it or what?”
“Oh, it’s been around for a long time,” I confessed, “Several different things happened, actually. Truth be told, well… I just never had good luck around fire. It’s… I don’t know, frightening. To see such a force of nature destroy so much, so slowly and unrelentingly, it’s just frightening.”
“Hm, sorry,” Jackie frowned, “Hey, s’alright. Thanks for tellin’ me.”
“Thanks for asking,” I said reassuringly.
“What was it like, workin’ for ‘em?” Jackie broke the silence, staring off at Kujira docked in the bay.
“Arasaka? Well…” I pondered, “I guess it’s hard to really know. I mean, I didn’t exactly have much time on the outside, so how am I supposed to answer that? It’s like if I was in a wheelchair and asked you what it’s like to walk. I just don’t know how to reply to that.”
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“Hm, alright,” he thought, “Well, what about the training? Let’s start there.”
“Oh? ‘Start’? This gonna be a long discussion?”
“Hey, you got time, not like you ever told me ‘bout any of this shit, right?” he shrugged, “Sides, we’re gonna have to go up against ‘em, you always said to know your enemy.”
“Yeah, it’s a pretty common phrase in the counterintel community. We could spend hours discussing different projections. Looking at everything from every angle we could. Take an enemy encampment, for instance. What’re they eating, what uniforms are they all wearing, how many people have come and gone and were they any different, what language are they speaking – everything comes into play,” I explained, “I once had someone above me who said that one of his first jobs, he was in the middle of Brazil working with a PMC. Ended up going out into the middle of the Amazon Plains where he found this terrorist cell, right? So he was getting set up with a team of about 8 guys to take this place out, and launched it within a couple hours. Took a bunch of them nice and easy, but then a whole garrison of Soviet troops came crashing down on ‘em. Turned out they walked right into a massive ambush, most of ‘em got killed.”
“Fuck,” Jackie scratched the back of his head.
“Yeah, so that’s why they always beat it into us to never miss any detail.”
“Sometimes literally beat it into you, I’m guessin’?”
“Heh, I definitely had my share at Benkei and Hokkaido,” I laughed, “I mean, they didn’t want you to die or anything, be a huge waste of resources. But a lot of us didn’t make it… especially at the White, what we used to call Hokkaido…” I paused briefly.
–
I took out my lighter, looking left and right for any instructor who might see, and quickly sniffed the licking fire, allowing some of the buildup in my nose to melt so that I might be able to breathe again. I couldn’t stop shivering… just 5 kilometers to go… I tripped over someone lying face-down in the snow. Hana…? No… “Hey,” I whispered, “Get up…”
–
“...Yeah,” I frowned while staring out to sea, lost in my train of thought, “We had some good times. But a lot of us, well…”
“Shit,” Jackie shook his head, “Hey, least it’s over, right?”
“Yeah, not really,” I muttered, “Still get nightmares about it and the war. Just… everything, you know?”
“I get it, ‘s all good.”
“Thanks, Jack.”
“Nah, thanks for tellin’ me,” he smiled.
“So, uh…” I awkwardly paused, looking across the bay at Kujira, “Man, it does look imposing, though.”
“Looks like someone dropped a fuckin’ building on its side if you ask me,” Jackie grumbled, “I still don’t get it, though. Why bring that thing over here?”
“Eh, who can say, really,” I shrugged, “Not like they’ve ever been that forthcoming.”
“Yeah, not unless you happen to be on the inside, right?”
“Even then, Arasaka’s always been secretive,” I elaborated after licking my chapped lips a little, “I mean, I only made it about a third of the way to the top of the Tower and I was a company woman since 2064. It takes way more than that to get to the top. And to get in the basement levels, where the real treasures are… You can’t really earn that. You’re born into it.”
“So basically you never really had a shot, s’what you’re sayin’?”
“I wouldn’t say that, I think I was better-off than some,” I shrugged, “But not by much. This company values honor, loyalty, and ruthlessness. Factors my old boss said I had plenty of. Like you know what’s fucked-up, is the fact that I’ve considered many times just going back to the office even after everything that’s happened. Even now, over a year later, I think about going back. I hated my work in the office. But Arasaka makes you feel like you’re worthless without it.”
“Sounds like such a mindfuck, if you ask me,” Jackie thought out-loud, “So what, you just pick yourself up and get right back to the grind? Like that’s just a bad day and everyone has ‘em so it’s cool?”
“Pretty much, yeah,” I said in agreement, “It’s just kind of… expected. You know, I think they fully expected me to come into work the next day. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if I came in now and someone told me I hadn’t shown up in years and I was fired, heh.”
“Man, that’d be ironic.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.”
“And now you gotta steal from ‘em, too,” Jackie sighed, “Sorry I gotcha roped into this.”
“Nah, it’s not your fault for wanting a better life, Jack. Just keep your head up, okay?”
“Sure?”
“Yeah, I’m here for you no matter what, remember?” I smiled reassuringly.
“Thanks, V.”
“No problem, bro.”
“That still kinda gets my gears goin’ a little bit though – what sorta shit we gonna have to put up with, anyway?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like, what sorta people’re at the top who’d want our asses when we take this biochip thing? Better yet, what even is it? Fuck’s a biochip?”
“Hm,” I sat and pondered for a bit, thinking back. I know I heard something about a biochip once before, I can’t place it…
“Whatcha thinkin’ about?”
“Just… I don’t know. Something about this is rubbing me the wrong way, I guess,” I shrugged, “Wait! I think I remember… some guy I met back during the War mentioned a biochip… Fuck, what’d he say…”
“Oh? What was he, a squadmate, or-”
“No no, this was a mission I did myself. Was tasked with rescuing this guy from 6th Street, wasn’t a big deal though, just like 9 or 10 dudes and a lieutenant. They were keeping him alive for interrogation or… No, wait… Fuck.”
“What?”
“I dunno, this was ancient history… okay, um…” I thought hard to my time back then.
–
I much preferred this work over what I do now, yet I must admit that I didn’t think terribly fondly of it at the time. I certainly never despised it the way I despise my work now. I was always a woman of action – sitting back and waiting for someone to tell me how to do my job never appealed to me. How wrong I was, though. As I sit at this desk, all I can think of is the level of pure, undiluted freedom I experienced during my tenure in Arasaka’s military ranks. While I hold the rank of Captain now, I had not seen a battlefield in five years. The only analogue I have is my mercenary work on the side, though some nights I remain restless. The feeling that I could’ve done more, that I could be doing more, is inescapable. That I let my squad down, that what I’m doing now will never be as effective as our actions in combat. I suppose that’s a consequence of being a student of war…
…I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. As soon as I said I was from Arasaka and removed my mask, the man immediately drew his weapon on me. I raised my sword in-kind, resting it on my shoulder and imploring him to stand down. I remember pondering to myself if he was cyberpsychotic or something, but no, he seemed quite articulate. I asked him why he was so reluctant to go to Arasaka if he betrayed Militech; after all, we could’ve used all the intel we could find. But, interestingly, he said he wasn’t from Militech at all. He was from Arasaka.
That’s when everything fell into place for me. That assignment wasn’t about me escorting a Militech whistleblower; it was about silencing an Arasaka turncoat. My job wasn’t to ensure his safety, it was to deliver him to be tortured to death by Arasaka…
What did he say… uhm… Something about using Soulkiller as a weapon, I think?... No, no, like a development of Soulkiller into some sort of new technology… Well I know the Secure Your Soul program is just a modified Soulkiller, maybe that’s it?... No, but that’s not a weapon, at least as far as I know… then what the heck is this biochip-
–
“Hey, Earth to V!” Jackie shook me, “Anyone home?”
“What? Yeah, yeah, sorry…” I tilted my head back, “Ugh, to be honest, I don’t really know what the hell the biochip is. But if I had to guess, it’d probably be a weapon of some sort.”
“Hm, a weapon?” Jackie raised an eyebrow, “What makes you say that?”
“Well not exactly a weapon… I mean, it could be, but like… I don’t know. Gut feeling, I guess.”
“Huh. Well look at it like this, best to keep a weapon outta the hands of some power-hungry corpos, eh?”
“On that we’re in agreement, Jack,” I smiled, “I dunno. Call me paranoid, but I’m not exactly keen on fighting Arasaka, you know? There’s just too much we don’t know.”
“That’s what this meeting tonight’s gonna be about, right?”
“Yeah but it’s not even that it’s…” I paused, “Nah, know what, it’s alright. Let’s just get it done, okay?”
“Oh, um, yeah, sure,” Jackie shrugged, “That’s the plan, anyway.”
“Good. I’ll talk to you later tonight, okay? I’ve got a couple gigs today for Regina that need doing but I’ll be home around 5-ish.”
“Sure thing, I’ll say hey to Misty for ya, too.”
“Thanks, Jack.”
“Don’t mention it.”
---
The Hokkaido Training Camp has been Arasaka's primary troop training facility since the 2000s. Centrally-located on the northernmost island of Japan, the facility houses thousands of soldiers at any given time in a wide breadth of both regular and irregular courses, including particularly brutal winter warfare regimens known as the "Death Marches." With overpopulation a rampant condition throughout Japan, Arasaka holds little issue with the odd casualty, viewing the deaths as a valuable learning tool to desensitize soldiers to the horrors of war.
