The international sabotage of the Gate or Operation Ginza Red Flag is the event in which a group of Chinese Black Ops tries to destroy the Gate in Ginza and kidnap Lelei La Lalena, which they refer as the Jade Wall to gain the ability to control the Gate for China while denying Japan her monopoly of the Gate access. The Chinese government also threatened to destroy the gate to strand 26 000 JSDF military personnel in the Special Region.
Prelude[]
- -"If you think a show of force refers to military power, then you are mistaken. Gunboat diplomacy and the like are relics of the past century. We will make war in a brand new battlefield, and thus win the rights to the Special Region"
- -"We call it, ‘Operation Ginza Red Flag’." — Chairman Dong Dechou proudly announced his plan in kidnapping Lelei, depicted in volume 8 chapter 6 of the light novel.
Frustrated by the growing influence of Japan and the failed capture of Piña Co Lada, Bozes Co Palesti, Rory Mercury, Lelei, and Tuka Luna Marceau during the Hakone Incident, Chinese Prime Minister Dong Dechou initiated a plan to destroy the Gate or study how to manipulate it for the benefit of China. This plan involves a group of black ops infiltrate Alnus during international inspection to investigate and research the Gate and the Special Region. Despite being bound by the treaty of mutual cooperation and security toward Japan, the benefit of monopoly in trading and exploiting resources and ability to control the Gate through Lelei were outweighed the sharing cooperation between US and Japan causing the US to seemly sided with the Chinese to put pressure to Japan to prevent them from closing the Gate and force them to hand the administration of the Gate to the UNSC. Consequently, POTUS Dirrel sent a group of whale protesters to join the fray with multiple NGOs paid and provoked by the Chinese to cause ruckus in the garrison in Ginza.
Prince Diabo at that time was trying to stop Japan from closing the Gate since he needs the JSDF to get rid of Zorzal and tries to cooperate with countries more powerful than Japan beyond the Gate to give him more chance to get the throne. He managed to come into contact with the Chinese Black Ops and made a deal with them.
After successfully kidnapping Lelei with the help of Panache and Gaston, Diabo gets into contact with the Chinese Black Ops. They paid hundreds of protesters to cause ruckus beyond the Gate in Ginza. Duringing this protest Komakodo, Tomita, and Shino had to defend themselves against the protesters. During the chaos, he and the Chinese Black Ops managed to get through the chaotic security line and escaped into a safe zone.
Riots[]
A group of armed Chinese Black ops armed with the QBZ-95 rifle and the PF-98 rocket launcher managed to capture the garrison of the Gate in Ginza. Some Tokyo police officers tried to stop them only to be slaughtered by better-equipped and well-trained enemies.
Tomita, Kuribayashi, Tuka and Komakodo tried to suppress the protesters with little success and Tomita suffered minor injuries in the process.
Hostile negotiation[]
Japanese Prime Minister, Morita made a call to Chinese Ambassador, Yang to express his anger towards Chinese actions only for Yang to feign ignorance about the matters. However, Yang eventually revealed Chinese's involvement in the attack on the Garrison and tried to negotiate with Morita about the administration of the Gate after Yang intentionally revealed the true number of JSDF members that were sent beyond the Gate.
Yang demanded Japan to hand the control the Gate to the UNSC and enable China to migrate 500 000 Chinese to the Special Region each year much to Morita's horror since the number of Chinese immigrants were more than the whole population of the Empire due to the loss of Imperial soldiers during their futile war with the JSDF and Chinese had more than enough weaponry and big guns to equip this group of immigrants to consume the Special Region and the entire Falmart in within a month. Consequently, Morita accused the Chinese government of trying to create a Second China in the Special Region and vehemently refused to Chinese demands.
Unfazed by the refusal statement came from Morita, Yang then smooth-talked with Morita about the fact that China still a major market for Japanese's economy, a lot of Japanese companies had factories in China's soil as well as Japanese still needed to import natural resources from China. After that, he made the ultimatum to Morita to consider his proposal and blackmail Morita with Lelei's staff to make him comply to show him that the Chinese already had Lelei in their hands and it would be the grave sin for the Japanese to let 26 000 JSDF to be stranded in the Special Region.
After the end of the conversation, Morita inquired with Tarō Kanō and other Japanese officials about the matter. Kanō and other officials believed the Chinese lied about kidnapping Lelei to create pressure on Japan due to the fact that if they already had Lelei, they would try their best to threaten Japan. As the result, Morita began to calm down from the opinion of his officials.
Knowing fully well the Japan government wouldn't easy to give in to their demands, Chinese Prime Minister Dong declared embargo towards Japan, sent battleships in Senkaku island, arrested 4 Japanese businessman in China, conducted mass purchases of the Yen to create extreme inflation of the currency as well as conducting cyber-attacks on Japanese's infrastructure like railways and traffic lights. As the result, Chinese's actions caused Morita to make the decision to give in to Chinese's demands much to Kanō's anger since he considered Morita's action was cowardly. Subsequently, Kanō and some officials discussed a possible veto to oust Morita out of the office in the cabinet's meeting.
US Intelligence Gathering[]
Not content with being a Chinese's pawn, Dirrel also made a plan of his own. He knew that Lelei was only the person that could control the Gate, therefore, he tasked the CIA to gain as much intelligence about Lelei so the US could take the advantage from the Chinese. Agent Jenkins would replace Graham to take care of this operation.
Preparation for Lelei rescue operation[]
It was revealed that Lelei was actually still in the Special Region and not in the hands of the Chinese since Diabo blackmailed the Chinese to send him 10 000 heavily armed Chinese soldiers so he could get rid of both JSDF and Zorzal's forces in one swoop and getting the throne from Pina easily (it should be noted that Diabo didn't mention them to send armored vehicles since he was still not familiar with the concept of modern warfare).
One of the leader of the operation Wu Liapao devised a plan that involving the group of 12 female operatives led by Ling Fenghua would disguise as tourists who caught in the ruckus and seek help from JSDF garrison officers. After that, Wu then initiated a frontal attack on the main gate of the garrison by stirring up the crowd of protesters to create confusion in order to force JSDF garrison officers to get Ling and her members to safety inside the garrison. After getting inside, Ling and her group would try to get into Alnus Hill to search for Diabo and took Lelei from him by force.
After Itami was briefed about the situation by Tomita and Shino, he set out to save Lelei with Tomita and Shino by parachuting from a helicopter into the airlock of the Gate's dome to get into the Special Region. He and the rest of the team were armed with break-action shotguns taken from Kanou's gun collection to do the rescue mission. Despite the fact that Itami was not a certified diver, he was managed to successfully land on the top of the dorm along with Shino and Tomita.
Battle at the Alnus Refugee District[]
Due to the lack of JSDF personnel and armored vehicles to guard the refugees because of Idaten retreating order. A group of Dars led by a man and woman under Zorzal managed to infiltrate refugee districts in Alnus and began to slaughter refugees in the camp.
Because of the Idaten order, JSDF personnel wouldn't be allowed to assist the refugees. However, 3rd Recon Team led by Major Wataru Higaki defined the order and got in their Humvees to help the fleeing refugees. As they entered the refugee camps, they decimated vast amount of Dars with their 50.cal machine guns and assault rifles. However, despite their superiority in firepower, the number of the Dars were too great for a small team to kill all of them forcing Higaki to initiate tactical retreat. While on their way, Higaki saved two refugees named Toista and Touhatta, respectively and got them in the Humvee. Unfortunately, these two refugees were actually commanders of the Dars as Toista used the soundless flute to command more Dars to attack the Humvee as well as stabbing a JSDF training officer and Touhatta stabbed Higaki in the chest.
As the result, Tozu furiously used his rifle butt to brutally smash both of them to death. However, unlike Toista, Touhatta still had some strength left in her as she sprayed a special liquid of an unidentified species of insect beasts inside the interior of the Humvee to cause all Dars in the area to go frenzy to attack the Humvee. Afterward, she tried her best to escape the Humvee by rolling out the vehicle but Tozu's beating was too great for her to even stand to run for her life. Consequently, as she cringed to her life, Azuma executed her with multiple gun shots from his rifle.
As the rest of team scrambled their way to get to the camp infamy near the Gate, the Dars blocked their escape with tree logs and housing debris. Despite Wataru Katsumoto's efforts to mop off the Dars, the Humvee was flipped upside down and crashed into a temporary shelter. When everyone in the vehicle tried to save each others, Katsumoto bravely and boldly went on the rampage with incoming Dars with his rifle to save Tyuwal as she fled the place in exhaustion. Like a lone man in the horde of zombie, Katsumoto's rifle ran out of bullets causing him to choose to sacrifice himself by tossing two grenades at the incoming waves Dars while using his body to shield Tyuwal from the blast.
Fortunately for Katsumoto, Rory Mercury came to save the day by decapitating the entire waves of Dars and some of them landed on two grenades causing them to absorb all impacted forces, which saving both Katsumoto and Tyuwal. Subsequently, Rory chastised Katsumoto for his reckless behavior and stating that there was no such thing is glory when you sacrifice yourself to kill your enemies as it is equal to defeat and it will cause emotional problem with the person you saved. Furthermore, Rory affirmed that she only wanted warriors who fought till the end and never give up their life easily. Finally, she threatened to not collect his soul and let him went to meet Hardy.
Taking the advantage of the chaos in Alnus and deployment of JSDF troops, Ling and her operatives managed to sneak through the Gate into Alnus.
The expose of Diabo's plans and Chinese's kidnapping operation of Lelei[]
Yao commanded the group of mercenaries to arrest Diabo after his scheme was exposed by Meia.
In the other sides of the refugee camp, Yao, Wolf and other mercenaries were trying their best to fend off the Dars and gathering as many civilians and refugees at the cafeteria. Ling Fanghua and her group bumped into Wolf and he escorted them to the cafeteria, mistaking them as Japanese since he never see Chinese people before.
As Ling was able to identify Diabo and Metmes along with Meia in the cafeteria, she and her teammates successfully abducted Diabo, Meia and his assistant while everyone else were too busy fighting the Dars outside.
In order to locate Lelei, Ling and her agents brutally tortured Metmes to make him talk. Due to his loyalty to Diabo, he gave in to Ling's demand to reveal Lelei's true imprisoning location in the storehouse after she threatened to kill Diabo. At the same time, it was revealed that the Diabo at the scene was actually a body double since Diabo was smart and paranoid enough to realize that the Chinese was not gonna went through the bargain. Unwilling to let Lelei fell into the hands of the Chinese, Meia utilized her innate agility of the feline demi-human to escape Ling's gasp, making Ling and her fellow operatives to throw combat knifes at her to silent her but they could only injure her back with a single knife. As Meia managed to escape, Ling and the rest of her team proceeded to retrieve Lelei.
At the center of Alnus, Diabo delivered a passionate speech to entice the entire town folks to delay the closure of the Gate for the sake of their's livelihood and safety from Zorzal's menace, only Meia to come to expose his true plan of exchanging Lelei to get 10000 armed men from the Chinese to get rid of both Zorzal and Pina's forces in order to take the throne rather than benefiting the people of Alnus. Despite denying the fact, Meia tricked Diabo that the Chinese had sent the army, he desperately wanted with the condition that he handed over Lelei. Consequently, Diabo eventually let his passion and hunger for the throne to take over his head, he finally exposed his scheme to the rest of the town folks by rushing to get Lelei much to the disgusts of the rest of the town people.
However, Diabo's route was blocked by Yao, Wolf and the rest of the mercenaries as she demanded his arrest and location of Lelei. As Diabo tried to protest and drew a knife toward Yao, Rory Mercury came and put her halberd at his neck to put him into submission. Knowing resistance was futile, he led the rest of the group to Lelei's location only to see his assistant Metmes, being bound and gagged in the storehouse since Ling had taken Lelei out with her agents.
Kanō's coup d'etat[]
After getting the approval of the Senate, Kanō informed Morita that he would be booted out of his position as Prime Minister due to his cowardly surrendering the Gate to the UNSC. Morita then tried to contact all big faces in the government to help him keeping his job, but he only received cold shoulders from all of them. Consequently, Morita could only scratch his head in agony.
Hostage situation[]
When Ling sent the signal of the successful kidnapping to Liu, he confronted General Hazama to make way for Ling and the rest of her teams to get pass the garrison of the JSDF with Lelei as a hostage.
Seeing Lelei being held with a knife to her neck, Hazama reluctantly allowed Ling and her group to pass, despite the protests and anger of the rest of the JSDF personnel, Yao and Rory. During Ling's passing with Lelei, Liu then ordered two other armored trucks to ram at the pillars of the Gate to destroy its. However, they could only damage the Gate severely not outright destroying its while at the same time causing a lot of debris to fall at the surrounding areas and JSDF personnel. A the same time. a group American operatives led by agent Jenkins then arrived, beginning a standown with the Chinese operatives as two sides pointing weapons at each others.
When Ling nearly reached Liu's position, Itami and Shino parachuted directly at her and her group, knocking her and most of them out. Taking the opportunity, Wolf, Yao and the Alnus mercenaries grabbed Lelei and brought her to safety.
The end of the kidnapping operation and the beginning of the Arachnid War[]
- "We are allies of Japan. We know where to find what we want. That being the case, all we need to do is conduct official diplomatic negotiations to have them give it to us. Our plan was always to take the Jade Wall from you by force when you took it from Japan. Now drop your weapons!" — Jenkins assures that the US will get the Gate for themselves one way or another by taking advantage of the mutual treaty of cooperation and security between US and Japan.
As Lelei fell into the hand of the JSDF and Alnus mercenaries, Liu and the rest of the Chinese Black Ops operative lost their Jade Wall and Hazama ordered them to put down their weapons. At the same time, Jenkins and his CIA members pointed their guns at him and his team making Liu to mock the US for letting Japan monopolized the Gate again. However, Jenkins asserted that the US would sooner or later get the Gate through negotiation by taking the great advantage of the mutual treaty of cooperation and security between US and Japan as well as the fact that the JSDF still needed USA ammunition, armament, materiel, military supplies, and weaponry, as well as the US Navy Force, which was posted in the Japanese's territory to deal with the Chinese and the Russian. Another benefit of the USA military is the threat of nuclear retaliation against invasion. As the result, Jenkins gloated that the Chinese would be the party that only got empty-handed in the end since at least in the end the US was still Japan's ally.
- "I don’t care who does it! Make me Emperor! I’ll be your puppet or whatever! How about it, Japanese general!? How about using me!? I’ll do a better job than Pina! I’ll make the Empire a vassal of Japan. How about it? I don’t care who uses me! Doesn’t anyone want me!?" — Diabo demands the Japanese to make him Emperor in exchange of becoming their puppet emperor and the Empire becoming Japan's vassal state.
Seeing his chance of becoming Emperor was slipping away, Diabo madly requested Japan to make him as Emperor since he proclaimed that he was better than Pina and he willing to submit the Empire as Japan's vassal state. His words shocked Panache since she couldn't believe that Diabo could surrender the entire Empire and Falmart to just become a puppet Emperor to Japan. As she tried to persuade him to stop his madness, he still not changed his mind. However, Rory Mercury intervened again and put her halberd at his neck to make him stop his attempt.
Rory stated that Diabo should be the Governor of Alnus since he had great oral skill to persuade town people and he had potential to manage the development of Alnus. Despite Diabo's protest, Rory threatened him with death to make him comply and he finally gave in to her demand since being dead was equal to being forgotten for a prideful person like him. She then makes a demand that he must prove himself to be a capable ruler for four years so she could extend his term for another 4 years. Furthermore, if he failed to be a fair ruler, she would take his life.
Consequently, Liu scolded Diabo for his decision and still asserted that the Chinese could make him Emperor but Diabo chastised Liu for not keeping his promise of sending 10000 armed Chinese troops and stated that this was the only good way for him.
Realizing that they had lost, Liu signaled the retreating order to the rest of his units. As he knew fully well that capturing him and his group would result in diplomatic problem, the only ways to get out this sticky situation were to escape from the GInza garrison or being killed by the JSDF and CIA. At the end, Liu chose the former and ordered his groups to throw smoke and hand grenades to create distraction for escape route causing firefights from three sides, JSDF, Chinese and CIA, respectively.
During this time, the phenomenon of the instability of the Gate began to manifest as the strangely inter-dimensional vortex opened at the top of the dome. From the vortex, the swarms of Arachnid initiated their invasion to Japan and the Special Region, marking the beginning of the Arachnid War.