WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Little Prince in the Ossuary

Chapter 111

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Premonition (2)

The mutants used basic ambushes and cover. Even with only pack-animal intelligence, they were still a pain to fight. The problem was that all that cover was soaked in oil. They had to worry not just about damage to the facility, but fires too.

That gave Heavy Infantry more chances to prove useful.
Even if they did not like it.

Gyeoul led Yura squad into the second facility.

The interior had no lighting at all except sunlight through windows and vents. Gyeoul raised his visor. A thick, volatile smell hit him immediately. Crude oil seemed to be leaking somewhere in the structure.

'Shooting probably will not ignite it... but you never know.'

He could smell rotting flesh too. More than one. Gyeoul lowered and locked his visor, then signaled a warning to the rear. Watch your fire, and expect multiple enemies. The squad spread out into positions where they could cover one another, setting overlapping fire lanes clear of pipes and equipment.

The first enemy came from straight ahead, unexpectedly. Lean body, packed with muscle. Just short of becoming an enhanced mutant. A brief standoff followed. The inhuman thing kept jerking its head side to side, teeth chattering, as if testing their response.

[Captain!]

Someone shouted a warning. Gyeoul snapped the crowbar up over his head. At the top of the motion, he felt something catch. Blood poured down. He swung through, and the mutant skewered on the crowbar blade crashed heavily to the floor. It had dropped from overhead piping. A beat later, rat-tat-tat, gunshots went wide. Support fire.

'So one draws attention, and another jumps in?'

The one in front charged. Gyeoul charged too. The moment the distance hit zero, he slammed in shoulder first. Thud. The impact shook his whole body. He was testing the Heavy Infantry fighting style, and the result was exactly what he expected. The mutant was sent flying back. He chased it three steps and brought the crowbar down.

Clang! Concrete shattered between its rotted thighs, sparks spraying as the bar jammed in.

'Too slow.'

If only his body were not this heavy. Gyeoul let go of both his regret and the crowbar, then pushed forward. He grabbed the mutant by the hair and yanked hard. Not just hair came off. Skin peeled with it. Inflammation, maybe? A blood-soaked skull showed through. Shocked, the mutant collapsed at the boy's feet. He had not meant to do that. Gyeoul raised his fist.

Bang! He could see cracks spreading across the skull. Bang! Good, he could hit the same cracked spot again. Bang! The mutant foamed at the mouth and clung to his waist. Bang! A monster trying to tear into a human and drag him down. Bang! His weight made that impossible. Bang! Bone was almost caving in. Bang!

The last sound was slightly different. A crowbar had swung from behind, and Gyeoul blocked it with his wrist. He struck just inside the incoming blade path, then grabbed it with his other hand before it could slip away. A contest of strength followed. The Ghoul gripping the handle bared its teeth.

More mutants came over the pipes. Squad members fired aimed shots from the positions they had already taken. Even so, one person got jumped. Crushed from above, knocked down, unable to bear his own weight plus the mutant's.

[Aaaagh!]

A scream like a death rattle.

'He'd do better if he stayed calm.'

It was not as critical as it sounded. Ordinary mutants could not tear open the protective suit. Gyeoul shoved off the two clinging to him first.

The one with the stolen crowbar was the problem.
And it was a Beta Ghoul.

Its arm strength was serious. The one clamped around his waist had already lost most of its power, but hanging there still got in the way. He could not properly use his hips and lower body.

It was a dogfight. The beast using a tool had no idea how to use it properly. As long as he blocked the full swings, that was enough. One hand could handle the probing blows. Trusting the defense he had felt so far, ignoring the smaller hits, Gyeoul grabbed the Ghoul's face.

It shook its head wildly, hard to pin down. It bit savagely at his pushing hand. As expected of an enhanced type, the pressure was heavy. Every bite left scratches.

No need to rush. His defense was solid. Gyeoul kept trying. Then at last, crunch, his thumb drove into its eye. Blood ran from the collapsed eyelid.

"Kyaaak! Grrr! Kkaaaak!"

The Ghoul barked like a mad dog.
A fitting sound for this kind of fight.

The second time was easier. Almost by touch, he braced with his ring finger and below in the first hole, anchored his hand, then moved his thumb to the remaining eye. Bone slid under his fingertips. He pushed again. Failed. Again, failed. Third try, success.

A blind Ghoul was no longer a threat. He drew his Bayonet and drove it deep into the eye socket. It lodged at an awkward angle and would not come out easily, and his blood-soaked hand kept slipping. Gyeoul locked his left arm around the remaining mutant's neck, then hammered down again and again with his right fist. Monotonous as hammering, and hard as a hammer. The weight and rigidity of the ballistic material were weapons in themselves.

Crack.
Finally, something broke.

The force squeezing his waist disappeared.

Yura squad was also in the final cleanup phase of the fight. As both team chief and squad leader, Yura was the most composed.

Gyeoul thought the stress training really was working. Firing while someone cursed beside you and shoved you around, while still identifying valid targets and shooting them. Of all shooting drills, it was the closest to real combat. Yura was the only one who had received one-on-one Instruction from Gyeoul.

She carried a shotgun capable of automatic fire. Right in front of him, she fired twenty rounds straight and swept down the mutants. Her firing accounted for spread precisely. Walls and floor were torn up, but she did not touch the facility equipment at all.

Gyeoul supported with pistol fire. Faster and simpler than a machine gun. Bang, bang! The clacking slide spat short casings. He barely felt recoil. That too was because of the suit's weight.

"Everyone okay? Report your status."

Gyeoul spoke. Sniffling sobs drifted over the radio net. Fewer than half answered properly. He put that half on watch, then had to steady the rest one by one himself. They were not lacking. They were all new recruits. They lacked real combat experience. Heavy Infantry was, by common sense, a role for veterans.

But the order to deploy regular troops from refugee backgrounds had also come down from Blockade Command.

It seemed Fort Roberts garrison forces in Operation 「Manifest Liberation」 were not meant only to build supply lines.

[Captain, are you okay?]

Yura's voice, worried about her little leader.
She was the one who was not okay.

The shaking showed even through the thick protective suit. Her guarding muzzle would not hold steady.

Gyeoul gave them a short break. They had to at least be able to aim.

The search resumed a little later. Thankfully, that ambush seemed to be the only one. The remaining sections of the facility were chaotic with oil-smeared footprints, but otherwise silent.

After that, similar steps repeated. During the process of securing the oil field zone, there was exactly one fatality. A Heavy Infantry soldier forgot to lock his visor, and his face was bitten open. He cried, then killed himself.

Lieutenant Colonel Capston called Gyeoul over.

"Good work. Looks like you did not hold back this time either."

He was looking at Gyeoul's protective suit, caked with blood and flesh.

"How did that suit feel, now that you used it yourself?"

After the formal praise, that question came right away. He seemed to want the boy officer's evaluation of the new protective suit. As a field commander, the lieutenant colonel also had to write Centurion operational reports. Gyeoul started with his personal impression.

"It is good gear, and the defense is reliable, but it does not suit me."

"Why not?"

"If I had been wearing this in Santa Maria, I probably would have died."

The example was clear enough that the lieutenant colonel nodded.

Wearing the suit blunted Gyeoul's strengths. Fast, accurate shooting, high-speed movement in dangerous environments, aggressive hit-and-run action. 「Firearms Mastery」 and 「Movement」, which supported all that, were heavily affected by suit weight and thickness.

'Should I just reinforce 「Close Combat」 instead?'

He had postponed skill investment for a long time, so he still had many options. But as skill grades rose, the number of times he had acquired them dropped. In other words, Talent Advantage thinned out. Required resources rose sharply.

Gyeoul cut off the thought. Lieutenant Colonel Capston was waiting.

"You can probably guess the rest..."

He set it up, saw the colonel still watching, then finished.

"I think it is useful when fighting in cluttered environments, but outside that, not very meaningful. And there will not be many people who can hold their ground by trusting defense after getting overwhelmed. Even if ten million are mobilized for Operation 「Manifest Liberation」, they are all recruits anyway."

"Still, we can expect a psychological effect. Being perfectly safe from enemy attacks, how much reassurance would that give soldiers? As you said, almost all of them are recruits."

Gyeoul answered with doubt.

"I do not know... if they meet a Grumble, they are dead anyway. Smart ones use tools too."

It wore you out quickly, and it slowed your feet. Yet its defense was only enough to block a bare-handed Beta Ghoul. If a Grumble appeared, Gyeoul planned to throw the suit off first. Trickster was unclear. The suit was an insulator, but too slow to chase a Trickster.

'Still, pre-recon confirmed no special mutants.'

Heavy Infantry had been deployed inside the oil field, so they had enough time to get warning from the external perimeter forces.

"So, in short."

Lieutenant Colonel Capston spoke.

"It means it does not help someone like you, and it is awkward gear to give people who lack ability. Environments where it is worth using are limited to urban areas or similar places. And even then, to prepare for Grumbles, they need strong fire support... honestly, obvious enough."

"Will that be possible?"

Gyeoul asked many questions at once. Ten million was far too many to support fully, and the prep period was too short. Everything would be lacking everywhere. Heavy Infantry would not be special. Would there at least be enough transport vehicles? Without vehicles, they could not even move.

"I do not know. They must have a plan up top."

The lieutenant colonel looked up. Dozens of transport planes were flying overhead in lines. They were dropping modular construction materials. Gyeoul recalled the journal.

'When transport planes are already short.'

Lift capacity was already insufficient even for supplying contaminated zones. That showed how important Blockade Command considered this oil field. Even so, there was not much time to stockpile. The U.S. military burned massive amounts of fuel. Supplying by day-to-day production alone was an extremely tight plan, even if there were other routes.

"So this is still influenced by the coming presidential election, right?"

At Gyeoul's question, Lieutenant Colonel Capston lightly frowned.

"Cannot be helped if you think that, but do not say it elsewhere."

A commander's role was to calm worries, not feed them.
That was what he meant.

Either way, this was a force of over ten million. A number large enough to crush ordinary shortages through sheer mass. Not even in the previous twenty-six worldlines had there ever been this kind of scale.

Unless something abnormal happened, it was hard to expect failure. Surely there would not be an earthquake or anything like that.

Still, Gyeoul was worried about the process.

============================ Author's Afterword ============================

#Manifest Destiny

I did not expect people to connect Operation Manifest Liberation straight to Manifest Destiny. Wow, excellent.

#Editing

I guess I need to edit today's manuscript before sending it to the publisher. Better to cut the brutal parts in advance...

But after editing this much, I start thinking maybe it would be better not to publish it at all...

#Q&A

Q. Moranon: @I always enjoy reading. Your writing and descriptions are so strong that even lower levels of violence can still come across as shocking compared to other works. I hope you did not feel too bad about getting restricted. Also, my guess is that the Humpback is a mutant that strengthens or evolves other mutants.

A. Thank you for your words. The Humpback's role... still has no confirmed answer yet. I got many similar guesses though. It is not that amazing, really. :)

Q. Moranon: @You uploaded around 11:40 PM. Would it not be better to wait a little more or schedule it for 12:xx AM the next day? I heard that helps for reflecting in top rankings.

A. I know that too, but... this novel only reaches around top 30 even when it ranks, so I figured there was no need to worry about it and just posted it. Hehe.

Q. RGZ95: @So powered exoskeleton has appeared! Feels like an event that will soon explode the childlike innocence.

A. Since it has no self-power, is it really accurate to call it a powered exoskeleton?

Q. Harriet: @Centurion being U.S. self-development instead of Lend-Lease feels awkward.

A. The U.S. already has a weapon system called Centurion in service. Search C-RAM. :)

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