WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 277: Boar Hunt (5)

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“Alamo 3, Captain Pamela Pelletier. Thank you for saving me, Sir.”

Gyeoul nodded and sent a transmission in a sharper tone.

“Captain Jo Yun-chang! Medical team! When are you coming out?”

Then he picked up what the pilot had dropped and handed it back to her.

“I was startled by all the smoke filling the cockpit, Captain. I came in a hurry, but you look pretty relaxed.”

“I’m sorry. But if you had come about ten minutes later, I would have ejected. I was starting to consider it. Those ugly things kept pressing in, and it was getting hard to hold out.”

For a pilot trapped in an enclosed space, light would have been a problem whether it was there or not.

Dark shadows sat beneath her eyes. She took out a cutter and sliced the lit tip off the cigar. Then she ground the fallen end out under the heel of her combat boot and looked around.

“Looks like we’re still right in the middle of the boar herd.”

“We pushed ahead to rescue you. The main force is still to the north.”

Suddenly, Gyeoul set down his rifle and aimed the anti-materiel rifle he carried as a spare. When he gave a small look, the pilot said, “Ah,” and covered her ears. Boom! Bang! Bang! He was firing from a standing position, so there was some sway, but the targets two hundred meters away still had their heads blown off. They were ghouls lurking in the rear. The mutant horde that had been listening to their screams wavered. A moment later, attacks broke out without control.

“Two o’clock. Prepare for enemy assault.”

Barely five seconds passed after Gyeoul’s warning. At first, there was only sound, then gray bodies starved for life burst into view. The engineers’ detachment, already prepared, shredded the plague horde’s disorderly charge with a web of fire. Drawing out an attack before the enemy could gather in force was an effective strategy too.

Gyeoul changed weapons again. Despite the enhancement correction, a piiing tinnitus rang for a moment before fading.

Captain Pelletier groaned.

“Damn... Do you happen to have a spare rifle?”

“Get treated first.”

“I’m not hurt so badly I can’t fight.”

“We’re not so short-handed that we need a wounded person either. What if you have an injury you don’t even know about?”

“...Understood.”

People who had been in accidents were often too shocked to recognize the state of their own bodies. Quiet aftereffects were dangerous because they came slowly. The pilot knew that and accepted it without argument.

Captain Jo Yun-chang ran over with the medics, keeping low. It was how they had been trained, but inside the friendly perimeter, it looked a little comical. Beads of sweat dotted their foreheads. If anything, they seemed even more tense than the combat troops holding the perimeter.

Still, Jo’s ability as a doctor was the real thing, so no one disregarded Captain Jo.

Gyeoul also rated Captain Jo highly.

‘Motives aside, coming onto a battlefield at the risk of one’s life is courage enough.’

The U.S. military was suffering from a severe manpower shortage, and specialist medical personnel were even scarcer. In other words, someone from a regional center would have had more than enough ability to get assigned to rear duty. Yet Jo had volunteered to come. That, in itself, was Jo Yun-chang’s desire. Whenever the chance came, Captain Jo politely made a point of being noticed.

Captain Jo had probably heard talk about the establishment of a dependent territory or territory, or reasoned it out on Captain Jo’s own.

Desire itself could not be called bad. Thanks to it, the independent company had more medical personnel than it deserved.

“We’ll need a detailed examination, but aside from fractures, there doesn’t seem to be anything seriously wrong.”

After hearing Captain Jo’s diagnosis, Gyeoul ordered them to take the pilot to the ambulance. Captain Pelletier refused a stretcher, then looked back on her way out.

“Thank you again.”

“I’ll take your thanks later. We’re still in combat.”

“There may not be another chance. It was an honor to meet you.”

If she was going to the field hospital, though, there would likely be another chance to see her. Not only the independent company, but the entire front needed to reorganize at this point.

[Sir.]

Someone called Gyeoul from the command armored vehicle. It was the communications officer.

“What is it?”

Was there a new enemy group approaching from this direction? Gyeoul’s guess was wrong.

[Part of the rapid response team and the air rescue team are coming this way. Estimated time to linkup, T-minus six minutes.]

“...They said there was no other support.”

[I don’t know. Perhaps things on that side were wrapped up unexpectedly quickly?]

Maybe. Gyeoul tilted his head. Even if they were heliborne troops, the timing was extremely tight. Unless the Chinese forces had put up feeble resistance or surrendered outright.

It seemed there had been a clash of opinions at headquarters. He suspected the fact that Gyeoul was isolated with a support unit with low combat power had weighed more heavily than rescuing the pilot itself.

[Aerial thermobaric bomb impact warning! Target number, Quebec-Sierra 1, 1, 0, three rounds, thirty-seven seconds! Quebec-Victor 5, 5, 3, one round, thirty-nine seconds! Quebec-X-ray 4, 9, 1, one round...]

The warning came in a strong tone, but it was not a direct threat. The bombardment would fall outside the safety distance, on the heads of the boars driven into the slaughterhouse. Still, they needed to brace for the shock even here. Gyeoul counted the seconds in his head, then shouted at the right moment.

“Cover! Cover! Behind the vehicles! Engineer 1st Platoon, maintain your field of fire!”

The soldiers, already on edge, quickly found windbreaks.

Two breaths later, the north flashed and burned. Each blink felt like night and day trading places. A brief sandstorm swept in again and again. Tak, tatatak. Tiny sounds of grains of sand striking armor plates. Dry earth spread out with a shaa and formed a dirt-colored mist that flowed at knee height.

After the hot wind passed, Gyeoul immediately checked the north first. It was a blind spot he had been forced to accept while using the vehicle as cover. But no attack came to exploit the gap. At most, a few mutants ran in at random, with scraped knees and elbows. There might or might not be a Trickster maintaining radio silence, but if there was, it seemed to have given up on attacking. There was not even a single burst of radio waves needed for communication.

That did not mean they could relax. The operations officer updated them on the situation.

[A new enemy group is moving south. They’re the ones that forced their way across Putah Point. About four hundred individuals are heading here.]

“Special mutants?”

[There is one wounded Grumble. No other medium or large types detected. We cannot determine the other kinds.]

“Does evasion look possible?”

[If we move west, we can get out, but...]

That would put them farther from the main force, and they also had to consider the aerial reconnaissance range. One wrong move and they would be trapped in a dead end. After checking the enemy numbers again on his PDA, Gyeoul decided to simply meet them head-on.

“Keep updating us. And... Lieutenant Montgomery!”

[Sir.]

The engineer officer he had called was on the opposite side, with the aircraft between them.

“POMINS to the northern perimeter.”

[I’ll prepare them.]

The engineers who received the order brought cylindrical backpacks from the vehicles. The cylinders held projectiles and explosives, while the backpack frames unfolded into launchers. They were portable mine-clearing equipment, but since they detonated in a straight line forty meters ahead, they were useful for stopping the plague’s approach. If the Claymores set out when the perimeter was formed were not enough, they would be a great help.

The first one to appear was the wounded Grumble they had mentioned.

“That thing is still alive in that state...?”

A soldier shuddered at the horror of it. One arm was gone, and half of its upper body had been peeled away and hung loose. Its skin, sturdy enough to call a carapace, was heavy too. As it swayed in time with its running steps, the wounds opened wider and the bleeding worsened. The exposed muscles where the flesh had been stripped away were covered in blood-soaked sand. Woooooo! The monster revealed its will to fight with a roar.

And in that instant, it burst apart and died.

The explosion shook the earth. The transparent shockwave, visible only by its effects, spread dozens of meters across. A drone, lightened by the empty launcher on one side, drew a semicircle at an incredible height. The drone formation still had plenty of loiter time left.

“Weapons hold!”

Gyeoul delayed the attack. He intended to deliver a heavy shock all at once. They were trying to flee anyway. The stronger the resistance, the higher the chance they would avoid it. Once the monsters had crossed the bridge, their escape routes had opened wide. Another Driven Hunt would be waiting for them regardless.

“Weapons free! Detonate Claymores 4 and 6!”

“Detonating!”

Bang! More than 1,400 ball bearings swept through rotten bodies. Even one that had looked intact stiffened with a twitch, then collapsed as blood poured from holes across its entire body. Two fan-shaped backblasts. Dust sprayed over Gyeoul’s entire body once again. His skin was caked with dirt stuck to sweat. When he bit down with dry teeth, he heard grains of sand crunch.

Then another sound joined in.

The exhaust noise of helicopter engines suddenly grew louder. There were many orchards nearby, so the echo must not have traveled far. Among the helicopters that came in low was the very model Gyeoul had ridden at Santa Maria. Small, but never weak. The people aboard were even less so.

“Woohoooo!”

Sergeant Lockhart raised a fist toward the sky.

Support fire poured down from the formation as it raised its altitude slightly.

[Guns, Guns, Guns.]

Once the rapid response team joined in, their firepower increased overwhelmingly. Without even needing to use the mine-clearing equipment saved as a last resort, the mutants began avoiding them on their own. Just as expected. With the screams gone, only a wasteland remained, covered in the dead and those who would soon be dead.

When the battle entered a lull, the formation landed and spilled out reinforcements. Some jumped out before the helicopters even touched the ground. The highest-ranking officer finished the initial deployment and looked around for Gyeoul.

“Where is Major Han?”

“Sir.”

Gyeoul stood before him. The other man’s rank was lieutenant colonel. His beard was thick enough to hide his chin, and his strong Texas accent stood out.

Yet after calling him over, the lieutenant colonel did not say anything in particular. Gyeoul drew his attention back.

“Sir?”

The lieutenant colonel chuckled.

“You look good. You really don’t spare yourself.”

“...”

“I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s just that some childish bastards have been saying things. They’d shut their mouths if they met you in person.”

“What do you mean, Sir...?”

“They called you an attention whore.”

Gyeoul showed an appropriate amount of awkwardness. The lieutenant colonel tapped Gyeoul’s upper arm.

“Don’t mind it. You know, there are types who get angry if they aren’t the manliest thing in the world. Call it something like rivalry between units... Do you understand what I mean?”

“Yes. I understand.”

The prouder an elite unit was, the easier it was to fall into that tendency. And they wanted that pride recognized too. Even more so because they were people who had sacrificed a great deal. It was a psychological defense mechanism.

“How did the search for the missile launch point go?”

The lieutenant colonel’s face hardened at the question. The emotion there was dry and frozen.

“It was a pain taking alive as many bastards who deserved to die as possible. We’re chasing the rest who got away now. It’ll end soon. Whether we end it, or the monsters do.”

It was not enough, but Gyeoul did not ask any further.

The fighting afterward was easy. They only had to deal with the ones that intermittently chose the wrong direction. By the time the air rescue team’s helicopter evacuated Captain Pelletier, even that had mostly stopped.

The task forces, including the independent company, needed longer than expected to cross the river. Things had died, died, climbed over the dead, then died layered atop them again, becoming terrain made of blood and flesh. It was truly a stratum of plague, a ridge of remains. Receiving footage from the field, Gyeoul watched bulldozers push away ground that was entirely made of rotten corpses and thought it was truly surreal. It was a sight he had never seen in any apocalypse he had experienced until now.

========== Author’s Note ==========

#Today’s recommended song(?) - Alexandrov Ensemble, their final performance in 2016

Many of you probably already know them as the Red Army Choir.

I called it their final performance because most of the choir members died in the line of duty in a plane accident at the end of last year.

Even though they are a military choir, they are one of the world’s leading artistic groups, and they sing traditional Russian folk songs as often as military songs, so if they are unfamiliar to you, please try listening without prejudice.

#Chuseok holiday serialization notice

As I mentioned before, I now plan to go on hiatus for forty thousand years.

I mean it.

#Q&A

Q. CurryRice: @Wow, I can read Ossuary in the morning... Author, were you an early-morning relic? lol

A. When do you think a chapter posted in the morning was written?

Q. Bug: @A female pilot!! It’s a woman!!!! A woman appeared!!!!! Strike up the music!!!

A. You know there’s no need to strike up the music, right? :)

Q. Eeiko: @The pilot and Gyeoul won’t have a reason to meet again... and you said his popularity in America is beyond Jackson at his peak, so I can imagine how that pilot feels. Also, every time I see you handle the research, I’m always impressed and enjoy reading it, so please keep doing it.

A. Whatever she feels, Gyeoul is her superior officer, so it’s hard to show it. Research is something I do as a matter of course. I only said I would listen to opinions about whether or not to discuss it in the Author’s Note. Don’t worry.

Q. Black-billed Godwit: @This might be a question that came up before... but can’t you also upload a premium version, like Dreaming the Same Dream? If you already answered, I’m sorry. I can’t remember ;_;

A. For completed novels like Dreaming the Same Dream, premium purchases become possible even if they are Noblesse. / I remember answering the same question several times. :) Simultaneous premium serialization is possible, but if I did that, views would be split and the novel would get buried all the way at the bottom on Noblesse.

Unless I drop Noblesse serialization entirely, there will be no simultaneous premium serialization.

Even if it’s inconvenient, please use N Store for pay-per-chapter. Hehe.

Q. qgegegqe: @You said it was nothing big, but the engineers are confused... You must have killed something! The readers’ childlike innocence!

A. Rather than your childlike innocence, I want to delete your holiday.

Q. Nyar: (omitted first part) @Author, this is a request... Of course, as an author, you want to communicate with readers and listen to various opinions... let’s call that your heart as an author... But do you think opinions like that have enough value to be considered to the point of changing the direction of the work?? (omitted latter part)

A. In the case of the last Author’s Note, I was not trying to change my position after listening to only one person. Other people who read the note would also give their opinions, so I meant I would consider all of that before deciding. Writing about research in the Author’s Note is not absolutely necessary for the work, so it is simply an issue where I can follow the readers’ majority opinion.

Q. Leminy: (omitted first part) I want to say this to everyone, so I am adding @. @No matter what an author expresses in their novel or what content they write in it, that is up to the author. Readers are people who consume the author’s goods according to their own likes and dislikes. So let’s all praise the author and work hard to satisfy our childlike innocence... Please don’t pointlessly start fights in the comments... Stop criticizing so much... We came here to enjoy ourselves, not to get stressed and give stress, right?

A. Uh... I should say this after all.

I’m saying this not only to Leminy, but to all readers who were upset in the comments.

I did not think of that opinion as criticism. I was not especially hurt either. I only listened to it as an opinion and gave a serious answer, but it seems some of you who found that content uncomfortable thought I must have been stressed too.

The comments I truly dislike are not this type. :)

Anger is a fire that burns childlike innocence. Therefore, readers who get angry will soon demand that I offer up even more childlike innocence. Then, as a childlike-innocence life-form, I will have nothing left but to dry up and die. That is hard to allow.

So everyone, please save your anger carefully, even if only for my sake.

Footnotes:

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