WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 195: Under Black Water (13)

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The wall, lined with blazing searchlights, drew closer. So did the soldiers fighting a defensive battle around the helicopters. Bright sunset-colored tracer fire slashed again and again through the savage dark. Joanna pushed up her night vision, slowed down, and radioed the entire group.

“Everyone, hah, turn on your flashlights! We need to, haah, prevent friendly fire!”

Nothing beat artificial light for telling people and monsters apart in the dark. Of course, they needed other signals as well. Among the mutants Gyeoul had killed, some had transformed with lights still fixed to their chests.

But they had to wait a little. Men and women alike, the agents dropped to the ground and began vomiting as soon as they slowed down. Agent Tucker had gone one step further and had been spilling vomit while running.

It was a physiological reaction willpower could not suppress. Right after enduring the violent motion of the speedboat, they had sprinted beyond their limits under fear and tension. The fear of not knowing when the helicopters would take off had only added to it. In the end, Joanna could not hold back either. Ugh! She bent over. Since she had come all this way without even eating dinner, nearly everything she brought up was sour stomach acid.

Gyeoul provided broad cover, feeling faintly awkward about it.

Even after taking off his night vision, he could see the shaded areas beyond the reach of the lights fairly clearly. Ah, right. This was how it felt. The superhuman realm he had reached after so long felt strangely unfamiliar to Gyeoul. It was the influence of 「Firearms Mastery」. It did more than improve his shooting. It strengthened the traits needed for shooting as well.

Eyesight was one of them. It went beyond simple visual acuity, allowing him to secure his field of vision and identify targets with far less light.

Now that the frenzy had passed, the difference struck him all over again.

Ta-tang! Ta-ta-ta-tang!

His rifle, suppressor removed, rang out with a sharp rhythm. The mutants that had been using the lights as targets and closing in like sprinters died in groups beyond the perimeter Joanna and the Intelligence Agency agents could see.

Once he had room to breathe, he signaled toward the wall. The movement of the light had a clear meaning. They must have been watching this side too, so someone was bound to have seen it.

“Can everyone move?”

At Gyeoul’s question, they began pulling themselves together one by one. Watching them, Gyeoul added,

“Leave the fighting to me. In your condition, I don’t think you’re going to hit anything anyway.”

At that, several muzzles that had been struggling upward sagged. Instead, Gyeoul took some of their magazines. Their grenades as well. Then he fired at once. Ta-ta-ta-tang! A chain of single shots, nearly indistinguishable from automatic fire, dropped nineteen mutants approaching in a spread. Every one of them had a hole punched between the eyes.

At last, they drew close enough to see the faces of the troops near the helicopters.

“Who the hell are you? Identify yourselves!”

A soldier barked the question. Fighting was still going on in other directions. Joanna stepped forward a few paces, lowered her gun, and raised both hands.

“I’m Joanna Gibson! Supervisory Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation! The people with me are Central Intelligence Agency agents!”

Gyeoul’s name did not come up. His disguise had not been fully removed yet. Since contact with the former Chinese military forces had been cut off, it had not been reinforced, but it still needed time to fade naturally. Talbot, the Intelligence Agency agent, had been busy preparing for the sudden withdrawal.

“What kind of bullshit is that? Why would FBI and CIA agents be here? Get lost!”

It was a natural reaction. There was no way line soldiers would know the truth behind Operation Fair Strike.

“It’s true! We were assigned to a classified operation to track the former Chinese military’s strategic nuclear submarine, Changcheng 9! The base commander should know! I have ID here too!”

She carefully showed her badge so they would not mistake it for a weapon.

It did not work.

“Shut up! Say that after you get rid of that dirty Chinky bastard over there!”

The insult was aimed at Gyeoul. The frightened soldier had turned aggressive, and rational judgment seemed beyond reach. Judging by the situation, it did not look as if they could contact Fort Baker’s command post either.

On top of that, Kurt Lee’s filthy impression worked against him. Chinky. A slur against Asians.

‘One reason the base fell must have been the refugees landing indiscriminately.’

Looking more closely, he saw a coupe in vivid primary colors among the abandoned vehicles. A Ferrari 612 Scaglietti. No matter how many civilian vehicles they had requisitioned, one base would not have two of the same car. Gyeoul remembered the cheerful ensign who had come out to meet them at the harbor in Horseshoe Bay here at Fort Baker.

“Is Ensign Aaron Barker over there by any chance? He should recognize us!”

“You know Ensign Barker?”

Only then did the hostility ease. Gyeoul turned and killed a newly approaching group of mutants. The agents had no time to react. Joanna murmured with a complicated look.

“You just keep getting farther away...”

Since she was an expert marksman herself, she must have realized that Gyeoul had become even faster.

Freed from the black, heaving sea and its endlessly unfavorable conditions, Gyeoul poured out overwhelming firepower. In terms of killing efficiency, none of the heavy weapons deployed here could surpass him. Bewildered murmurs came from the soldiers, who suddenly had nothing to do.

A short while later, Ensign Aaron appeared after receiving a radio call.

One of the helicopters had just released its wheel brakes and started its engine. Joanna shouted urgently.

“Ensign Barker! Do you remember me? I’m Joanna Gibson, the FBI Supervisory Special Agent who came with Lieutenant Han Gyeoul! You took us to Angel Island!”

The young ensign did not recognize her easily. He had only seen her once, and enough time had passed for him to forget. Joanna had become haggard too. The darkness made it even harder.

“Uh... sorry, but I don’t remember your face!”

“What does that matter? Who else would know something like that?”

Joanna burst out in frustration at the maddening response. It was understandable, but it was not a wise choice when the other side was just as tense and had no room to spare. You could not expect rational judgment from someone in Combat High. Gyeoul, having completely silenced the rear, stepped in for her. He lowered his gun and closed the distance.

“It has been a while, Ensign. I am Han Gyeoul.”

“Huh?”

“You may not recognize my face because of the disguise, but I think you’ll remember this.”

Then Gyeoul raised one hand and pressed his index and middle fingers together, and his ring and little fingers together.

“Live long and prosper. Right? It’s the greeting you taught me when we parted in front of the immigration office building.”

Amid the echoing gunfire, shouts, and monstrous cries around them, a strange silence fell. Joanna looked stunned, and realization slowly spread across Ensign Barker’s face after that first, “Huh?”

“Holy shit! It really is Lieutenant Han Gyeoul! I thought your voice sounded familiar.”

Ha... What were they supposed to do with this hopeless Trekkie? That was the look in the eyes of the soldiers to either side as they stared at the ensign in disbelief. At the same time, they had questions about Gyeoul too. Was that really Lieutenant Han Gyeoul? Regardless, the ensign welcomed Gyeoul’s group warmly.

“What the hell happened?”

“It’s a long story. Details later. Right now, we need to get out of here. It looks like you’re planning to escape by helicopter. When can you depart? Is there room for us?”

“We’re fueling as many aircraft as possible, so there’s plenty of room.”

It was not an entirely cheerful answer. Filling more aircraft than necessary meant they intended to spread people out, keeping the possibility of crashes in mind.

“The problem is that we don’t have enough pilots. Only one person has formal training.”

“Then what were you planning to do?”

“A few people got a crash course in taking off and handling the controls. The pilot said they could somehow manage the rest if they were taught over the radio while flying.”

It was a plan so flimsy and dangerous that no one could object if it were called insane. But they probably had no other choice. Joanna hesitated, then said,

“I know how to fly this model. I had conversion training once before.”

“Oh? Really?”

Unlike the delighted ensign, Gyeoul asked worriedly,

“Will you be okay?”

“I’ll manage somehow.”

But she did not look confident. She had a mild psychological disorder. Gyeoul recalled a past conversation. She had said it came from crashing during an aerial patrol after taking heavy machine gun fire from a drug cartel. The symptoms she had shown then had not been severe, but they would clearly interfere with delicate piloting.

Between a rookie pilot who had only just learned the basics and a skilled pilot with trauma, which could they trust more?

Gyeoul as he was now had no room to acquire a skill. Maybe after the escape, if the process were evaluated. With the mutants he had killed so far, it would be hard to get beyond the basic realm.

‘Learning the skill would be a problem too. I’d have no way to explain it later.’

Before he had time to think, kuung! The wall shook violently. Then came a massive roar. Kraaaaaa! Everyone’s faces stiffened. A Grumble, now of all times.

Two searchlight beams swung toward the distorted wall.

“Of all times, when there’s no one on top of the wall...!”

A soldier ground the words out through clenched teeth. Normally, it would not have been able to approach at all. Now that even artillery fire support had vanished, the wall lay defenseless.

“I’ll check the aircraft condition!”

Joanna climbed into the cockpit of the helicopter right in front of her.

Kuung! Once more. Through the widening crack, the hideous face of a Beta Grumble appeared. The monster saw the humans too. Its yellow eyes reflected the light. With sheer mass and brute strength, it was tearing the wall apart. Even though the container had been reinforced inside, it could not withstand the repeated blows.

“What are you doing? Fire the TOW!”

At the ensign’s shout to fire the anti-tank missile, the soldier sitting in the Humvee turret answered.

“Guidance is still difficult! We can’t afford to miss with this! I’ll fire once the gap opens a little more!”

It was a report that they would fire carefully because ammunition was low.

But the massive monster did not give them that chance. Static seemed to crackle from the radio, and then it slipped back, leaving only a narrow gap. What followed was the intrusion of ordinary mutants swarming on the other side. The ones forcing their way in, bodies grinding against one another, let out hungry roars.

“Only cover the directions you were already holding! I’ll handle this side!”

Gyeoul responded quickly. Ta-tang! Ta-ta-ta-ta! The ones just emerging turned into corpses one after another. He intended to block the gap with bodies. Even if they pushed in stubbornly, they would not do it at any threatening speed. If anything, more of them seemed likely to be crushed to death.

Kwaang! With a thunderous boom, a new crack formed. The problem did not end there. As the welds on both sides snapped, one whole container began coming loose. Blow after blow landed. The corpses jammed in the gap, and the mutants still alive among them, were crushed violently. Bones jutting through torn flesh glowed red and white in the searchlights.

A lieutenant in charge of another direction shouted irritably.

“Stop fueling! Board! Everyone board! Get on the nearest aircraft!”

The soldiers broke from their positions in a rush. Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang! The Humvee heavy machine gun and grenade launcher gunners, who had emptied their ammo boxes in a burst of fire, gave up reloading too.

Few moments were as dangerous as a retreat. The soldiers who arrived first stopped just before boarding and poured out suppressive fire, but once the heavy weapons were abandoned, their firepower was not enough.

With the Grumble pushing in behind the container as a shield, an absurd number of mutants poured through like a torrent. The scale of the ones entering by land far exceeded the ones that had landed from the sea and the ones infected inside the base.

If Gyeoul alone had not exerted more stopping power than an entire platoon, the casualties would not have ended at one or two.

As the helicopters increased engine output, the exhaust noise and wind grew fierce.

“Get on, Lieutenant! We’re taking off now!”

Agent Kowalski’s urgent call came. The density of cover fire dropped sharply. But Gyeoul waited until the aircraft left the ground. The mutants had closed in that much.

‘If they manage to hang on, we might crash!’

If dozens of them, with strength beyond human limits, formed a chain, takeoff would be impossible. The aircraft were already unstable enough. There was already one engine that sounded different from the others. The soldiers aboard it did not seem to have noticed yet. Hopefully, nothing was seriously wrong.

Kyaaak!

One charged in during the gap while he changed magazines. Gyeoul dropped low into a tight spin and kicked its shin. He felt bone break. He planted a single shot into its pain-filled scream, then fired three shots to the right, nine to the left, and seventeen to the front.

The number of rounds spent matched the number of mutants killed exactly.

At last, Gyeoul turned and leapt toward the raised hatch. Several hands reached toward the boy officer hanging from the edge. But the recoil from kicking off the air once was enough. The desperate hand of a ghoul that jumped a beat late only brushed the back edge of his combat boot.

It was not over yet. After putting on the internal communications headset, Gyeoul picked up the grenade launcher he had saved.

“Anne! Turn us! I need to see the wall!”

The aircraft responded a little late. She must have been doing her best in her own way.

That brief delay allowed an attack.

Kraaaaaa!

The Grumble’s roar cut through the engine noise. Next would be a throw. By the time Gyeoul aimed several dozen meters out, it was already too late. Kyaaaak! The projectile hurled in a straight line was a living mutant. It carried enough force to burst into blood the instant it hit.

A nearby friendly aircraft took the direct hit in midair and tilted dangerously. Its door had not closed yet. A soldier was thrown out. It was a dizzying fall toward the clamoring infected below. All Gyeoul could do was hope the soldier died instantly on impact.

Gyeoul aimed at the roar that warned of another attack and fired the grenade.

That was the final shot needed for the escape.

The helicopters gained enough altitude and lined up behind the lead aircraft. The line was ragged, but it held.

They circled once above the base, but there was no sign of other survivors.

Fighting was still going on at sea. It would be good if U.S. Navy ships took them in, but from the cockpit communications, it looked difficult. The number of civilian vessels escaping far exceeded the number of shells, missiles, and torpedoes. They seemed busy just avoiding collisions. In the meantime, it seemed some People's Liberation Army ships had managed to get out of the bay. This chaos would not settle easily.

Where should they go now?

[With this aircraft, whew, waiting at sea with this aircraft... is judged, judged to be far too dangerous. First, we need to set a course... by the shortest route that can take us away from the metropolitan area. On land, hoo, we can land at any time, so...]

Even while cowed, Joanna made a rational decision. With the lead aircraft agreeing, their rough direction was set.

============================ Author's Note ============================

#Hide-and-seek

These days, even things like hide-and-seek come out as computer games.

I thought it wouldn’t be much fun, but I was wrong.

The seeker who can’t see properly unless you’re in front of it is kind of cute...

And there’s a thrill to creeping along behind it...

The fact that it uses a spaceship and space station as its setting was unique too.

Everyone, go play [Alien: Isolation].

Footnotes:

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