WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 415: Wind from High Places (13)

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The attack from outside began.

From the ruins under cover of darkness, mutants as black as night swarmed toward the airport. Their shapes melted into the dim nightscape. From the towed battery’s position, most of them were inside minimum range, so the mortar teams fired illumination rounds one after another. But the black shadows of those black things made the scene visually chaotic. They were hard to identify with the naked eye. The outer perimeter troops relied on infrared observation as they responded.

Colonel Davydov, watching it unfold in real time, made an incredulous sound.

“Camouflage?! Don’t tell me every mutant shares the Whipper’s trait!”

Gyeoul rejected the colonel’s guess.

“No way! They probably smeared soot on themselves or something. The whole city is a bombed-out ruin.”

There would have been more than enough sticky soot around for them to rub their bodies against.

‘Still, if that’s all it is...’

It was not dangerous enough to matter. That was Gyeoul’s assessment. The enemy was a mutant horde that had to cross open ground, while his side was an armored force with overwhelming firepower. They also had a basic defensive line in place, so a clumsy breakthrough would not be enough to collapse it. It might be different if monsters on Grumble’s level, or mutants carrying acidic and flammable babies, managed to force their way into the formation.

The Trickster must have noticed the fighting inside the airport and launched its attack.

But it would soon realize that its plan had completely fallen apart, and that the ambush had been neutralized without accomplishing anything. An assault from outside alone was not enough to break the mechanized defensive line of two regiments and one battalion. They would only be ground into blood and flesh until the final moment.

The pitch-black mutants made an impression, but if they had no other move, they would have no choice but to retreat.

If they had no other move.

The thought that came back to him was the mutants’ attempt at digging, but they had at least confirmed that there were no tunnels in or around the airport. Even if, by some chance, there was an exit outside near the runway, it would not matter.

‘We can just bury them alive.’

If it was close, then it was also within his side’s range. If an airborne tank slammed even a single high-explosive round into it, a shoddy tunnel like that would obviously collapse for dozens of meters behind the exit. How long could mutants buried alive possibly survive?

The other officers seemed to be thinking along the same lines, because they merely watched in silence like Gyeoul. The front line was responding well, so there was no need for additional orders. In any case, the battle was close to a pure contest of strength. A simple battlefield where there was nothing to do but hold.

Flashes burst diagonally from the sky. It was support fire from two gunship (AC-130) aircraft circling over the battlefield in a ring several kilometers across. Even if the mutants hid their color by smearing themselves with soot, they could not hide their body heat. Under the clear sky after the rain, the multiple aerial batteries, with no obstacles blocking observation, placed accurate fire without needing coordinates called in from the ground.

The skin of the earth peeled away. The mutants on top of it were torn apart mercilessly.

“What is that now?!”

Brusilov, commander of the 217th Regiment, sounded baffled.

「Kugugugugung!」

Every time a shell exploded, the ground caved in along an artificial pattern.

“...Wow. These cunning bastards!”

That was exactly what they were. The drone launched over the engagement area showed zigzag-shaped assault trenches that had suddenly appeared.

‘Since the tunnels kept collapsing no matter how much they dug, they dug them from the start assuming they would collapse.’

It was an idea worthy of the Trickster.

With that, the engagement distance shrank drastically. For the Independent Battalion and the airborne troops (VDV), who relied mainly on direct-fire weapons, mutants bursting out from only seventy meters ahead were much harder to deal with.

Colonel Davydov brought the wavering formation under control.

“Do not falter! If they get close, just run them over! Do not look back just because a few slipped through! We will handle our side ourselves! You watch the front! Understood?!”

Then the colonel turned to Gyeoul and Captain Graf.

“We should move to the command armored vehicle as well. Captain, can I leave the rest to you?”

The only troops left inside the airport would be the Ranger Company.

The captain gave a slight nod.

“Do not worry. We are Rangers. No matter how many get in, we will kill them all.”

At the confidence shown by America’s elite, Colonel Davydov gave a light snort.

But that resolve soon proved unnecessary, because the mutant offensive did not last long. To the cunning mutant, the odds must have looked poor from every angle. In truth, the outcome had been decided the moment the ambush was wiped out. Dragging out a fight it could not win was a stupidity that did not suit the Trickster. It accepted the failure of the attack it had prepared with such care, cleanly and without hesitation.

The soldiers let out sighs of relief.

It was an anticlimactic end to an engagement that had begun without warning.

Gyeoul, however, sank alone into complicated feelings as he watched the mutants retreat, leaving countless corpses behind. He felt strange to himself today. It was probably because he had realized anew how the meaning of death had changed for him, and how his fear had changed with it.

‘My objective combat power is stronger than ever...’

Across all his afterlives, there had never been a time when his experience and level of skill were as complete as they were now. It would be fair to say he had reached the practical limit of his growth. To become any stronger than this would require a long time.

At the same time, he felt weaker than ever. At least, that was how Gyeoul felt. A fragment of the violence he had once wielded in the grip of emotion still seemed to linger in his hands.

He wanted to hear Anne’s voice.

This was what it meant to truly love someone. Especially for a person like Gyeoul, whose life until now had held so little happiness. The deeper one’s affection became, the greater the fear of loss grew. Wanting to stay together forever, if only it were possible, was just as natural.

A powerful temptation tormented Gyeoul.

While the site was being cleared afterward, the soldiers often stole glances at Gyeoul. It was probably because he felt different from usual. Gyeoul noticed, but had trouble keeping himself under control.

It was not the first time he had wrestled with this worry, but this time, it was not easy to shake off.

Three days later, the new troops who would officially take over the airport arrived from the air and the ground at the same time. Altogether, they amounted to an entire division. Strengthening the garrison was only natural. This was the only proper airport within a two-hundred-kilometer radius, so it had to be defended if they wanted smooth air support in central and southern Mexico. Many airports had already been destroyed by the mutants. Looking back now, the fact that the facilities at Oaxaca International Airport had been intact from the start had itself been a sign of the trap.

The division’s direct engineering corps began expanding the runway as soon as they arrived. For now, however, there was only one runway, so the return schedule for the airborne troops (VDV), the Independent Battalion, and the Rangers stretched out to July 3. Each unit had to be split up and sent back little by little, and that was how it worked out.

The first to get a chance to withdraw was Alpha Company of the Independent Battalion. By order of deployment, the Rangers should have been first, but they were apparently scheduled to receive another mission in the region. Their situation was different from that of the Independent Battalion, which was slated for Ground Zero Vacuum.

Gyeoul had decided, as battalion commander, to remain until the end. He spoke with the officers of Alpha Company as they waited for transport.

“Don’t feel bad about going first. Go ahead and get plenty of rest. You probably won’t have any other missions until Independence Day.”

If anything, there was a strong chance they would be dragged off to some event on the holiday itself and not get any real rest. Interest in the Independent Battalion had risen again after this engagement, so the government would probably try to show them to the public in some form. It was part of the process of raising approval ratings ahead of Ground Zero Vacuum.

Gyeoul turned it over in his mind.

‘It’s not as if there’s no public opinion saying the Independent Battalion’s deployment is inappropriate.’

In percentages, it would not amount to much, but given how changeable public opinion was, it was better to snuff out even those few sparks while they could.

This battle had also become famous for no good reason.

The suspicious disappearance of an entire battalion and the truth behind it. Was that not perfect material for the media? And anything that easily drew media attention was also easy for the White House to use. It had been the successful debut of a mountain airborne armored battalion without precedent in U.S. military history.

Jin-seok wore a displeased expression.

“Shouldn’t you be the one resting, Battalion Commander? You’ve looked very tired these past few days.”

Gyeoul gave a troubled smile.

“I know how I must have looked, but it was just a private concern. You don’t have to worry. I’m doing a little better now.”

Putting off his call with Anne had made it worse. If he had given in to impulse and called her on the nights when his worries ran deep, even without video, she would have sensed that something was wrong from his voice alone.

Even after hearing that answer, Jin-seok still looked sour. Yura, who had quietly shared the same concern, studied Gyeoul’s complexion and spoke.

“Sir. I’ll tell you something funny, as a change of pace.”

“Something funny?”

“It’s a nonsense quiz.”

At this point, Jin-seok groaned.

“If the mutants saw Usain Bolt running away, what would they think?”

Even without Intelligence correction, Gyeoul knew Usain Bolt was a legendary track-and-field athlete, but he had no idea what the answer to the quiz could be.

“I’m not sure. I don’t know.”

Seeing Gyeoul’s puzzled look, Yura smiled and gave the answer.

“The answer is fast food!”

“...”

Jin-seok let out another pained sound, muttering that that man had ruined a perfectly normal person. Gyeoul thought he knew who that man was. Had Yura not called him brother before?

“Hahahahaha!”

A clear laugh burst out. Slightly flustered, Gyeoul looked back at Major Singh, who was laughing hard. Gyeoul was not the only one startled; Sergeant D’Angelo and First Sergeant Merriweather were also looking at the major in mild surprise. Jin-seok looked completely stunned. After laughing for quite a while longer, Major Singh said to Yura,

“That was very funny!”

Yura brightened and looked at Gyeoul again. Gyeoul managed to smile back before it was too late. As a result, Yura’s face lit up even more. When Major Singh asked if she had any others, Yura poured out old jokes she must have heard from someone else with tremendous force.

Fortunately, if that was the right word, the momentum did not last long.

That was thanks to the sound of dogs barking from the transport aircraft that had just landed.

“Ah, the military dogs are finally here. They would’ve helped a lot if they’d come earlier.”

Yura was thinking of the Whipper ambush. The monster had excellent visual camouflage and could even neutralize infrared detection by controlling its body temperature, but it could not escape the noses of military dogs. At least, not at present.

The problem was that supply fell far short of overwhelming demand. Military dogs could not be stamped out like weapons. On top of that, existing military dogs had to undergo training suited to searching for Whippers.

The reality was that there were very few military dog units capable of airborne drops.

Another alternative was the mass production of thermobaric munitions. The idea was to sweep through any suspicious area with shock waves of various scales. It was a plan to crush the problem with industrial production capacity.

Yura suggested,

“What about training His Majesty?”

Gyeoul gave a bitter smile.

“It would be faster to just wait for other military dogs to be deployed. Besides, His Majesty has joint disease. He isn’t suited to work as a military dog.”

“Ah... Right. He did.”

Yura looked disappointed. Then she looked at the longsword worn by her superior.

“Could I take a look at that sword for a moment?”

Gyeoul readily unfastened the sword and handed it over. After taking it, she drew the blade with a shring and let it catch the early-summer sunlight. The sharply honed sword flashed with a clear brilliance even beneath the rainy-season sky. Yura let out an exclamation.

“Wow. Even after clashing that much, the edge isn’t chipped at all.”

Yura, who had not been at the scene, said this because the combat records had been made public.

“I think I might get a sword for actual combat too when we get back.”

Knowing her personality, Gyeoul doubted it was just a passing remark, so he tried to dissuade her.

“For that weight, you’d be better off carrying extra magazines instead.”

“Mm... I guess that’s true, but...”

Unless one was an exception like Gyeoul, cold weapons were rarely more efficient than ammunition of the same weight. Yura stroked the blade with visible regret. Gyeoul’s gaze followed her fingertips and came to rest on the engraved sentence he had read so many times it had become familiar.

God is in the human heart.

“Major. Do you remember the conversation we had about the name of God? You said I was someone close to the name of God.”

When Gyeoul asked, Major Singh nodded with a curious look.

Footnotes:

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