The Red Hand

Chapter 58 – The U.S. 7th Fleet.

The United States 7th Fleet anchored in Yokosuka at the designated U.S. Navy Port. Since the end of the Second World War, the United States has placed its military assets and personnel throughout Japan. With the increase in Chinese Naval Power, the U.S. had dumped even more of its naval capacity in the Far East. With over forty thousand sailors and marines, two carrier strike groups, and well over one hundred ships, Yokosuka was by far the largest U.S. forward-deployed fleet in the world. The recent Libra attacks on Tokyo and other outlying areas meant that the Naval Base was placed on high alert. U.S. Pacific Command feared an attack, but couldn't relocate most of the vessels out of port due to a lack of adequate berthing capacity at other relevant locations.

Vice Admiral Charles C. Barkley was the current commander of the 7th Fleet and had just prepared for his morning briefing when the sounds of explosions rocked the base. He and his team were in the main administrative building and rushed to the ops center on the floor above.

"Give me a situation report! What's going on, are we under attack?" Admiral Barkley yelled. He had an idea of what happened but needed to be sure.

"Sir" An officer spoke up. "Security is currently engaged with a woman who we believe to be part of the Libra organization. One who was responsible for the attack in Tokyo City Hall.”

It was exactly as feared.

"Do not let her get near the ships! Send all available personnel to stop her." He turned to his special attache from Washington. "I thought you had a handle on this! You told me there was no danger of involvement in this internal Japanese Affair, and you wouldn't listen to me when I told you it was dangerous to assume we wouldn't be attacked." He yelled at the man.

"Sir." the attache tried to speak up but was instantly silenced.

"Not now, first we have to drive off our attacker and secure the facility. I will not have any of my ships so much as scratched by this woman." He turned to his other officers. "And get me Ambassador Kumuoka, we're going to need help from their team. I'm not taking any chances."

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"AHHHHH" one of the marines screamed as he was burned by fire from Elna's palm and collapsed on the ground. She'd been easily cutting through the outer layer of security around the harbor and the handful of guards couldn't do anything to stop her.

"See, what I tell them? Not so tough when their bullets can't hurt me." She slammed her foot on the ground and flung a large slab of concrete a group of marines crushing a few. "Now then, while it's fun to kill these idiots." She looked down the hill at the anchored boats. "Sinking those will cause much more damage." She jumped up in the air and used her power to cause small wind vortexes to appear beneath her feet as she flew towards the docked ships. She was intending to cause major damage to U.S. Naval power in the hopes of causing further destabilization. Their benefactor had insisted they avoid provoking the United States, but she didn't really care about his cowardice.

{The Chinese and Russians are serious cowards, telling us not to attack American troops. Hah!} Elna admonished them in her head.

Flying towards the dockyards, she began to take hits from heavier rounds as the stationed marines began their attack. While they wouldn't do much damage, they were still annoying.

"Piss off!" She swung her arm, causing a blade of wind to fly toward the marines, cutting over ten of them in two. Just as she got smug from killing them, she took a massive explosion to the face as an APC shot her with 25mm rounds. "You fuck! Do you have any idea how expensive these clothes were!" Her jacket had been slightly torn from the hit. Enraged, she flew down towards the APC and picked it up before throwing it into the harbor. "Anyone else wanna try me?" Her death stare caused the few marines who were nearby to retreat. "Thought not," she smirked before continuing towards the dockyard.

All around the ships, marines and sailors scrambled to raise anchor and get them moving. The harbor was shallow enough to allow raising in case they sunk, but taking no damage at all was preferable. Especially in the case of the two carriers currently docked. Flying over top of one of the U.S. destroyers, Elna punched the air causing a shockwave to impact the conning tower and rip a hole straight through it, sending several sailors flying into the water. Seeing how easy destroying the ships was, she dove down towards the main deck and punched straight through the hull, using her ki to send a shock wave out the other side, causing it to start sinking. Flying back up, she watched as the sailors scrambled while the marines opened fire on her, to no avail. Wanting to test out her control over the water, she commanded a wave to crash over the deck of the sinking ship flushing the crew into the harbor.

"Hell, just doing that might be easier." She commented on seeing how quickly so many men just died. "Better move fast, one of those goody-two-shoes is gonna be here any second." Not wanting to get caught out in a fight, she jumped from ship to ship, tearing holes, throwing men overboard, and generally causing destruction. There was little the marines could do. They were simply not equipped to fight an enemy like this. Their heaviest gear only seemed to annoy her, so they tried to buy time until reinforcements arrived. After damaging or sinking over a dozen ships Elna decided to take a crack at one of the U.S. carriers. Even just damaging one, let alone sinking one would be a huge feat. Those things cost well over 13 billion dollars a piece, so they made for an attractive target for Elna's destruction.

Deciding to land on the deck, Elna was met with U.S. servicemen scrambling to have planes take off, a few fired some small arms at her, but she quickly silenced them.

"I wonder what happens if I start throwing their planes around?" She looked at one of the jets and got a terrible idea. The jet fuel used in modern fighters would create a massive explosion if handled improperly. So if she threw it, the resulting explosion would cause severe damage. So that's exactly what she did, rather than sink the carrier she began to send the fighters on its deck careening into buildings and other ships. The resulting explosions caused one hell of a racket and countless deaths. The base caught fire and the leaking oil from the ships caused the water's surface to ignite an a hellish scene.

"Ah, man this is fantastic. Those things cost how many tens of millions of dollars each? And I'm just throwing them around like toys." She stood on the flight deck of the carrier and laughed, falling over practically in tears. She was enjoying this destruction, and the few crew that remained looked at her like she was crazy.

"What exactly is so funny about taking people's lives, Elna?" A booming voice came from the other side of the carrier.

"Oh great, it's the goodiest of the goodie two shoes." She stood up and looked at the heavily armored man. "Hey, Excel, it's been a while." She gave an evil smile.

"What the hell are you doing?!?" He yelled. "You had to know that attacking this base was going to have dire ramifications, Right?" He was baffled that Libra would be so stupid as to directly involve the United States. Powers or not, attacking them was asinine and he figured if anyone was going figure out how to harm returnees it would be the Americans.

"Duh!" she tilted her head. "That's why I did it." She looked at him like he was stupid. "Those idiots were too timid with their whole attacking American boats is a bad idea spiel." She made a funny voice as she mocked her fellow Libra members.

"So you just went and did this all on your own?" Excelsior was confused.

{Are they having internal issues already?} (Excelsior)

"Pretty much. But now that you're here, I guess I can't have my fun anymore." Elna pouted.

"What is wrong with you Elna? You were never like this before, so why are doing this? Why are you working with Libra." Elna was a social outcast, but Excelsior never thought she would be capable of doing something this terrible.

"You wouldn't understand Excel." She scoffed at his words. "You always fit in with society, you had it good, and life treated you well. You had good looks, got great grades, landed a good job and you even had parents that actually loved you." She assumed a fighting stance. "But I never had any of that, and when I reached out for help, society looked at me like I was trash." She sent a flame attack towards Excelsior from her fist. "So why the hell shouldn't I burn such a corrupt world to the ground."

{She's lost it.} Excelsior knew Elna since they were young, and at one time he even thought he loved her. But seeing the woman in front of him now, the only emotion he had for her was pity. {I'm sorry Elna, I should have tried harder to help you, I never knew you had it this bad. Why didn't you ever confide in me? Weren't we friends?} He took a battle stance. He didn't want to fight Elna, but if she was going to kill innocent people, he was prepared to stop her.

She kicked off the flight deck and came straight for him, unlike Minazawa, Excelsior had no shield. So he blocked her punch with his war hammer.

"Nice block, but you're wide open." She swung her offhand forward and blasted him point-blank with elemental fire. As a four elements monk, Elna could do far more than just punch and kick. She could command fire, water, earth, and air at will with her Ki which made her a deadly opponent.

Seemingly unfazed by her attack, Excelsior shifted his weight and swung his hammer downwards slamming it into the flight deck where she stood moments before.

{This is gonna be hard. She's way too fast and I'm not meant for this kind of fight.} Excelsior was a war cleric and battle priest. He was able to fight on his own, but he was much better at AOE attacks and fighting monsters than dueling someone 1v1. Just like Ishigami when he fought Akagi, his lack of speed was a crippling weakness against such a dexterous opponent.

{I'm the only one of us in Tokyo at the moment. If I can't stop her, she'll wreck the entire harbor.} He would be alone in this fight, though perhaps not as alone as he first thought. Suddenly, a group of U.S. marines opened fire on Elna from behind. They'd snuck up the flight deck and surprised both fighters and caused Elna to become momentarily stunned, which Excelsior took advantage of by slamming the butt of his hammer into the side of her head. Dizzied by the blow, and under fire from marines, Elna jumped back. While their bullets didn't hurt, they were a nuisance, and she didn't like the idea of being distracted by them while fighting Excelsior.

{Well I'll be damned. Never thought I'd see the marines bail me out of a jam.} Excelsior laughed in his head as he readied himself for the coming battle. He knew the marines would be his best method of obtaining victory.

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