Allied Intelligence dispatch to Field Marshal Bingham, 25th May 1974:

I regret to inform you that reconstruction of our strategic Chronosphere network in Europe is still underway after its destruction by the Soviets during their push last year. We have some limited chromosphere capability via our Australian facility, although given the strategic state of matters it is not advised it be used for strategic operations just yet. The Americans are requesting we use it to aid in supplying their defence of California; however, given Canadian and Mexican reinforcements there, I would recommend a different approach.

You will be aware of how it was through Soviet arms and supplies that Cuba was absorbed into the communist block. I thereby propose we begin using what chrono-capability we have to begin aiding partisan and resistance groups in the Japanese Empire to cause instability therein. Our agents have already managed to establish connections with certain groups and individuals, such as the famed partisan leader Kim Jong-Il in the Korean peninsula. With your permission, we can begin covert support immediately.

The jungle was hot and humid, with anything from scorpions to booby traps hidden away in the thick undergrowth. One could never be sure if a mosquito or a Japanese drone was buzzing overhead, ready to give you malaria or bring down fire from the air. But for Juan Hizon, the jungle had been his home for years. He had learned to adapt to every facet of it, becoming part of it as much as any bird or insect lurking amidst the trees and branches. Sometimes, it seemed like madness, living in mud and ferns against a ruthless enemy with not a shred of mercy. But he had already sworn himself to the Philippine Resistance. And he was not going to change his ways until he was dead or until his side overcame.

Around him, fellow men of the Resistance emerged from the entrance to the tunnel network they had created under the jungle, from which they could happily lay ambushes against Japanese patrols fool enough to try and seek them out. They bore a diverse assortment of weapons, from old submachineguns dating back from the 1940s to stolen Japanese weapons, modified to accept more conventional ammunition. Their faces were sullied from dirt and scars, and they wore whatever had come to hand, from rags to stolen Imperial body armor painted with camouflage patterns. They had little to match the enemy with, other than sheer determination.

He remembered the struggle that had brought them here. Japan had moved against the Philippines almost as soon as they destroyed Pearl Harbor, the move that won them the Pacific. American forces had long been redeployed to Europe to ward off the Soviets there. Nevertheless, the Philippine Army fought on, bogging down the Japanese efforts to occupy the islands, but it was eventually scattered into guerrilla groups. Soon, the Japanese began to almost relish the efforts to resist, as it began bringing in frightening new technologies to test out against the partisans. Their reprisals became ever more brutal, wiping out whole villages for the deaths of single soldiers. And while the rest of the world focused on the standoff between the Allies and the Soviets, the Philippine people—as well as all the other people under the yoke of the Empire of the Rising Sun—remained alone.

Until now. Not long ago, Hizon and his group had been contacted by a strange man dressed as a local peasant, although his mannerisms betrayed his masquerade. He gave them instructions to arrive at a specific clearing at a specific time on this day, without fail. Perhaps it was a Japanese trap. But with so little success for so long, they had agreed that taking the chance was worth it.

"This is it…"

He pushed away some vines to reveal the clearing in question. He motioned to the partisans around him, indicating for them to surround the clearing while remaining in cover. Almost invisible in the undergrowth, they silently took their positions while keeping their camo-painted weapons ready.

Hizon raised his eyebrows in surprise as a vortex of blue energy began to materialize in the center of the clearing. Leaves were blown up by wind as a definite shape began to appear in the center of the light—a moment later, it subsided, leaving what looked like several containers lying in the middle of the clearing. An expression of sheer disbelief remained on his face for a good minute. As far as he could tell, it could only be sorcery.

"Careful." Hizon uttered as he moved carefully out into the open. Gingerly grabbing one of the containers, he carefully opened it—and again he stared in shock as he found what appeared to be a Javelin missile launcher within, complete with manual in Filipino. The others quickly moved out, opening the remainder of the boxes. Heavy-duty sniper rifles, advanced assault rifles, grenades, communications equipment…it was almost as if God himself was now on their side.

"We have friends after all." One of the fighters grinned as he opened a smaller container, producing a strange-looking thing—like a bulky pistol, but with some sort of lens in place of a barrel. It looked more like a strange camera than a weapon.

"Let me see that." Hizon huffed, taking the thing and a document that came with it. The first thing he noticed was a picture of a Japanese Shogun battleship moored by the waterfront of Davao—a city not far from here, and now used by the Japanese as a naval base and shipping hub. A message on the paper instructed him to use the 'designator', as it called it, on the battleship from a safe distance, and then to cause damage to the Japanese base there. How? He thought blankly. Davao was hardly a city the Nipponese bastards held lightly. Still, he thought, if their new allies could make weapons just appear out of nowhere, he supposed he trusted them enough to carry out a task as this.

"What now?" someone nearby uttered.

"We go to Davao." Hizon uttered. "They want us to attack the docks."

"What? That's suicide!"

"If we ever had a chance of hurting the Nipponese, now is the time." He said, pocketing the designator. "Grab what weapons you can carry and move out. Better to die gloriously than to live in this jungle like rats."

Grabbing what they could from the pile and hiding it all under their rags, the group began to move out through the jungle in the direction of Davao, gradually adjusting their clothes to make themselves look more like simple peasants. After so long, they had become masters of disguise and concealment. Some boasted of smuggling whole batches of rockets past Japanese patrols while disguised as women. Hizon didn't doubt them.

Eventually, they emerged from the trees onto a simple road near the shoreline of the Davao Gulf, with the city itself visible across the water ahead. He could see the shining towers of the city center like the ones in Tokyo, covered in neon Japanese characters. He could also see sprawls of slums to the edges of the city, as if in shame of the larger buildings towering over all. Japanese settlers residing here would get the grander homes, he knew, as well as any Philippine people willing to sacrifice their identity of favor of becoming 'Little Nipponese', all in line with Emperor Yoshiro's 'East Asian Solidarity Programme'. The rest lived in squalor, to be exploited by Zaibatsu given Imperial mandate to use the human and natural resources of these lands for the glory of the Empire.

Drawing closer, he could make out the sleek shapes of the Japanese naval structures, and the target battleship. In the past, he had heard, the Empire would send out the occasional trade shipments to both communist and allied nations to maintain the illusion of neutrality from ports as these. His eyes briefly glanced upward, looking out from under the sedge hat he as wearing to look out for any Imperial drones or helicopters patrolling the skies above, looking down on their domain. By now they were passing clusters of old fisherman's shacks—many places around here were becoming increasingly empty as the Japanese conscripted people to serve as auxiliaries for their armies. He didn't think their little attack on Russia was going so well.

"Okay, stop here…"

As they neared the city waterfront, he paused, carefully looking around. In addition to drones, local Philippine auxiliaries would sometimes volunteer to patrol. People were quick to judge them traitors, but Hizon wondered if they were really in support of Yoshiro's empire of if they were just trying to find some good income in these trying times.

"Are you sure about this?" one of the fighters uttered.

"Nothing is ever sure in this world." Hizon replied simply, as he produced the 'designator' and pressed a button as the instructions had showed. A screen on the back lit up, showing a zoomed-in image of the battleship ahead. Hizon gently aligned the crosshairs on the image with the ship, and then carefully pulled the trigger. The lens at the front projected forward a thin blue beam, which stayed beamed onto the floating giant. For a moment Hizon was disappointed. With the magic trick from earlier, he was half-expecting this little thing to blow up the ship with a single shot.

Then, a light came from above, and then a huge pulsing blue beam shot down from the heavens, striking the battleship with a white flash. Hizon felt the air around him suddenly turn cold as he shielded his eyes—when he lowered his hand, he could see the battleship encased in ice, and the naval docks around likewise frozen solid. The water around that had also turned into ice sheet, making it look completely incongruous with the tropical surroundings. Again, he looked stunned, before throwing his head back and laughing. Oh, these people and their magic tricks…

"Now!"

He snapped back into action as the fighters around him whipped out their weapons, diving for cover. Three of them armed with rocket launchers aimed towards the frozen battleship and fired, sending warheads streaking across the water and slamming into it—the ice shattered, and so did the hull, leaving Hizon with a wide grin at the sight. For a long time that thing had represented Japan's military might here…now it was time to put an end to that.

"Down with Yoshiro!" he shouted, as more rockets shot out towards the frozen naval structures. Smoke billowed and shards of ice rained down across the waterfront as sirens and shouts came from all over the streets of Davao.

"Enough!" he said—strike fast and move, that was the core principle of guerrilla warfare. The designator now seemed to have gone inactive, presumably to prevent possible misuse—with that, he chucked it into the water, as the others again assumed their peasant garb and scattered. In the streets, Japanese troops and vehicles were being deployed, shouting about honorless cowards shying from real battle. However, the eyes of the people within were turning to the burning docks, seeing for the first time the vulnerability of the seemingly almighty Imperial occupiers. God willing, Hizon thought as he slipped into one of the slums, all of East Asia would soon wake up.