WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 309: Greek Islands (9)

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On the afternoon two days before redeployment, General Terrence Schroeder visited the Sacramento regional command. His purpose was an awards ceremony. The Army blockade commander looked older and thinner than when Gyeoul had last seen him. As the man in charge of Boar Hunt, he must have spent many sleepless nights.

‘Still, I’m glad he looks more at ease.’

Behind that stern expression, Gyeoul sensed something softer.

Most of the recipients froze stiff in front of a four-star general. There were so many of them that they had been lined up in five ranks according to rank and order of decoration. Among them were people selected from Gyeoul’s independent company. The highest-ranking was Captain Singh, and in the second row stood the junior officers, Jin-seok and Yura. All of them were being recognized for their accumulated service so far.

Since Captain Singh was in the front row, his turn came quickly. As General Schroeder presented the medal, his gaze lingered on the turbaned captain’s waist.

“So this is the one. May I take a look?”

After asking permission, the general drew the captain’s sword and held it up to the sky. It was not the usual curved Sikh kirpan, but a straight sword meant for actual combat. The white sun of early autumn ran along the straight blade. The light reflected differently from the intaglio on one side and the relief on the other.

「ਹਮਰੇ ਦੁਸਟ ਸਭੈ ਤੁਮ ਘਾਵਹੁ ॥ ਆਪੁ ਹਾਥ ਦੈ ਮੋਹਿ ਬਚਾਵਹੁ ॥」

“Writing...? Yes, writing. What does this phrase mean?”

“It is part of a prayer. It means, defeat all my enemies and save me with Your own hand.”

“Then the bastards killed by this sword were struck by divine punishment?”

“In the faith I believe in, divine punishment is the will of man.”

General Schroeder considered the answer for a moment, then returned the sword.

“That line you just said feels oddly Marine-like. I don’t know much about it, but it sounds like a faith suited to a soldier.”

Click, click. The embedded press set off flashes. Cameras were rolling too. The Sikh officer who had stirred controversy in the recent past would make good material this time as well, as long as the public affairs office did not interfere.

After that, General Schroeder offered praise and encouragement to each person with a handshake, then arrived in front of Jin-seok. The general pinned on a silver medal and patted the Lieutenant’s shoulder a couple of times.

“I reviewed the records. Your platoon handling is very aggressive. I sensed a lot of ambition in it.”

“...Yes.”

“No need to make that face. I don’t mean it badly. Too much can be a problem, but a commander needs ambition. Not just anyone receives the Silver Star. For someone like me, the opposite type is more troublesome. The sort who prefers stability and drags their feet even at the decisive moment.”

“Thank you.”

“Treat your subordinates well. Officers like you tend to fall short there.”

The last words carried the weight of real advice.

Next, the general stood before Yura and gave a faint smile.

“Lieutenant.”

“Yes, Sir!”

“This is our first time meeting in person, but your face is strangely familiar. I’m glad to meet you, and a little disappointed too. It would have been nice to see you after autumn deepened. Is the weather still too hot for a tiger-skin cape?”

Gyeoul could see Yura’s ears turning red.

“Sh-should I bring it now?”

She sounded slightly dazed. The general glanced back at the aide following him with the medal case.

“This one is very nervous.”

“Sir. You are a general of the Army. If you are going to joke, please smile more clearly.”

“Am I the problem?”

“Of course.”

“You’re fired. Get out to another unit.”

At the sudden comedy routine, a small laugh slipped out from somewhere. The general turned around with a scowl.

“Who laughed?”

Compared to the start, the mood had loosened considerably. The general let the stern look he had put on fall away with a huff, then pinned a medal on Yura too. It was mostly the result of her fighting without regard for her own safety at the Aidlin Geothermal Plant.

“I read your evaluation materials carefully as well. Even in the same company, your style is very different from Lieutenant Park here. You may not have Lieutenant Park’s ferocity, but across your command, I could sense a solid bond with your unit. Soldiers who follow orders because they like their superior are strong in adversity.”

“Thank you!”

“In that sense, should I say you resemble your direct superior?”

“Th-thank you.”

“You learned very well. I hope you can catch up in ability too.”

“...”

“Your answer?”

“I’ll...do my best.”

“Good.”

The general shook Yura’s hand briefly.

The noncommissioned officers and soldiers also received decorations, large and small. Gyeoul was surprised that General Schroeder knew the achievements of every recipient. With the homeland recapture entering its final phase, he would have more room to breathe than before, but even so, this was a level of care shown by someone who had reached the peak of military rank.

After emptying the medal case, General Schroeder was about to return to the presiding seat when he stopped with an “Ah,” and turned back. His gaze, carrying a different tone from before, fixed on Gyeoul, who stood some distance away.

“You there, Lieutenant Colonel Han Gyeoul. Stay behind for a moment after this is over.”

Gyeoul answered at attention without delay.

“Yes, understood.”

Standing on the platform, the general ended the ceremony with a brief speech whose gist was that their efforts had brought them to this day. As everyone dispersed, the Sergeant Major approached and asked,

“Should I tell everyone to stand by?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure. This might take a while, so it would be better to tell them to go back first.”

“Then I’ll have a vehicle wait separately.”

“Do that.”

After sending the Sergeant Major off with a salute, Gyeoul did not have to wait long. Like Gyeoul, General Schroeder had sent his staff away first, and he walked over alone without a single attendant.

“The weather is good. Let’s walk a bit.”

“Yes.”

Gyeoul followed the general as he led the way.

Contrary to what he had said, the walk was not brief. Outside, a dry September wind shook the wild grass. The patrol route around the edge of the garrison was always noisy, even with few people around. The unit itself made plenty of noise, and an airport stood close enough to see with the naked eye.

How much longer had they walked? The general muttered to himself, “This should be good,” and stopped. It was a spot between machine-gun positions, where they could see the ruined farmland outside the wire.

“First, congratulations on your promotion.”

“Thank you.”

As of today, Gyeoul’s rank was lieutenant colonel. Once he returned to the company garrison, there would also be no small number of people whose rank insignia Gyeoul had to change. They were finishing the promotions before the return.

After looking at him for a while, the commander asked as if the thought had just occurred to him.

“You’re going east of the blockade line soon, aren’t you?”

“East of the blockade line...sir?”

“Ah, damn.”

Realizing his mistake, Schroeder shook his head and smiled bitterly.

“I haven’t adjusted yet. At any rate, I heard the Lieutenant Colonel will soon be going east. To use the leave that’s been delayed, and to receive the decorations you couldn’t receive today.”

“That is what I heard as well.”

“I’m saying this out of an old man’s worry... When you go, watch out for strange people approaching you.”

Gyeoul tilted his head slightly.

“I’m sorry. I don’t quite understand what you mean.”

Did he simply mean Gyeoul should be careful in how he conducted himself? But if that was all, it was not something a blockade commander would call out a mere lieutenant colonel in private to say.

Schroeder chose his words, then spoke slowly and carefully.

“You know well enough that since the quarantine war began, we’ve had a chronic shortage of officers, yes?”

“Yes. I received related directives several times.”

“Right. Among them, demand for field-grade and higher-ranking officers was especially hard to fill. The total number of troops mobilized by the Army was close to twenty times what it was before the war. Even if we kept it to the bare minimum, we still had to supply more than ten times the past number. You can promote a Corporal and have them command a platoon, but promoting a master sergeant and having them command a division is difficult, isn’t it?”

“That is true.”

“We promoted everyone who met the minimum qualifications at high speed and even recalled officers who had left service to put out the urgent fire. Even then, the empty seats had to be filled in whatever rough way we could manage. In logistics, we pulled civilian experts in on a massive scale as a temporary measure.”

General Schroeder, who had been looking into the distance, turned halfway toward Gyeoul.

“What I mean is, there will be bastards who are unsuitable to command combat units, whether because of ability or temperament.”

“...Are you worried about a military rebellion?”

“That is one way to put it.”

Gyeoul had experienced the threat the commander was raising. But society back then had collapsed so far that a change of government was meaningless, and in this world, the military administration he had experienced had been so stable that he had not felt the possibility of rebellion.

General Schroeder continued.

“Most of the proven commanders were sent to this front. Especially after the nuclear strikes, it was a literal total war. But we couldn’t leave the east completely empty, so with a few exceptions, only second-line or lower troops were left behind. In other words, the farther back you went, the higher the chance that both soldiers and commanders were of questionable quality, and they also had room to get in step with one another.”

“Wouldn’t the government obviously know that?”

“How would they monitor the entire military organization now that it’s grown so massive? Every intelligence agency is already struggling just to suppress social unrest.”

“There would be no need to monitor the whole military...”

“From the center’s perspective, I am also someone to be wary of.”

The general cut off Gyeoul’s objection.

“In American history, there has effectively never been a soldier with as much real power as I have had. The number of troops whose command authority I was involved in, directly or indirectly, was absurdly large, and I was granted broad discretion regarding the quarantine war. Humanity’s survival came first over everything else, didn’t it? Because of that, now that the front has stabilized, blockade line command is about to be dissolved and divided. It’s a natural step, but to a third party, the conditions are enough for me to be dissatisfied.”

On top of that, General Schroeder was also, nominally, the commander who had completed the recovery of the homeland. From what Gyeoul had heard, his public name recognition was quite high too.

“This may all be needless worry-”

“...”

“No, the odds are far higher that it is... But if, by some remote chance, truly by some remote chance, there is a group plotting some half-baked conspiracy around the presidential election, you will be a rather attractive recruitment target...or a prize to be captured. Of course, places like the Department of Homeland Security and the Bureau will have measures prepared near you with that sort of thing in mind.”

Gyeoul naturally thought of Anne. She would not be all of it, though.

Once the conversation reached this point, something became hard to understand. If he expected the various intelligence agencies to be watching anyway, what was the point of warning Gyeoul personally? Gyeoul asked directly.

“Sir. I’d like to know why you’re telling me all this.”

“Why?”

“Yes. I don’t think you’re saying this simply to tell me to be careful.”

After a pause, General Schroeder took a small note from inside his coat. Gyeoul accepted it and asked again.

“Is this a phone number?”

“That number itself is disconnected. If you increase each of the last four digits by one and call, it will connect to my satellite terminal.”

“What kind of situation would you want me to contact you in...?”

“The worst-case situation, when everything has gone to hell.”

“Is this insurance?”

“That’s right. If the intelligence agencies do their jobs properly, just tear it up, throw it away, and forget about it. But if not, you are likely to be one of the first people to know about the catastrophe. What worries me most is the possibility that one agency or another will hesitate to let the military intervene further, and that hesitation will keep them from stopping an incident they could have stopped. Then I will only learn of it after the situation is already over.”

Hearing this, Gyeoul thought the blockade commander must have prepared several methods besides himself.

The general said,

“So when that time comes, judge for yourself. If you can trust me, or if you think whatever I do could not possibly make things worse than they already are, contact that number.”

Footnotes:

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