WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 425: Dawn, or Twilight (5)
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On January 4, the Independent Battalion was redeployed to Ishigaki Island, southwest of Okinawa. It was one of the forward bases secured for the Ground Zero drop, and the existing airport had been expanded with the facilities and equipment needed to airlift a division-class unit. On the day of the Ground Zero drop, they were scheduled to board transport planes from there. When they withdrew, the plan was to destroy any equipment that could not be transported and pull back to the carrier strike group in the South China Sea, so once they left, this was also a place they would never return to.
What surprised Gyeoul a little was the number of civilian settlements scattered across the island. Some were practically small towns.
He had never thought they were the original residents. Traces of the chaos and destruction caused by infection remained all over the island. Given how close it was to the continent, that was understandable.
At first, he thought they might be a maritime force that had decided to settle there. As it turned out, they were refugees the American government had systematically relocated. The agency in charge was the Pacific Military Government Office. It would not be wrong to call it a kind of colonial project. That was why no one of Japanese descent could be found among the island's residents. It was because of the New Order pursued by the Kramer administration.
Most of the vessels using the island's anchorage were warships, but every now and then, several large fishing boats would drop anchor in groups. Even though those boats were civilian vessels, each one carried at least one heavy machine gun mount, depth charge projector, rocket launcher, or something similar. As long as Melville Ray existed, fishing was difficult even in coastal waters without a large vessel equipped for defense.
After the garrison changed, Gyeoul sometimes visited bars in the civilian residential district. It started after he saw groups of sailors going in.
The shabby interior of the tavern in the village near the base had plenty that suited 「Days after Apocalypse」. The atmosphere felt quite unfamiliar now. Planks had been nailed over every broken section of wall. The damp boards had been torn from discarded ammunition boxes. Sunlight leaked through every rusted hole in the tin plates covering the roof. Under the dim glow of a neon sign, objects with Japanese writing remained only as traces of an old era among people who could not read the words. They were nothing more than decorations.
There was also a bar for officers inside the base, but what Gyeoul wanted was not alcohol. Tough sailors liked to tell war stories over drinks. Stories about monsters caught in nets they had hauled onto the deck.
The residents kept to their own circles and shared conversations soaked in the hardship of daily life.
Gyeoul, dressed in civilian clothes with his cap pulled low, sipped his drink and listened to their drunken truths. They were vivid voices that would never reach the mainland.
After hearing them, the thought he carried was this.
'This place is gray.'
The residents were not despairing over their current situation. In any case, they had escaped the threat of the plague, and the bare minimum of food, clothing, and shelter was guaranteed.
But any room to dream of a better life had been cut away. So the color of this island was gray. Not bright, not dark. If he had to choose, it was closer to shade.
All the food produced on this island was exported to Indonesia. The nearby islands were in the same situation. That meant the price could never be set high. If Indonesia suffered famine, America's resource supply would be affected. Even the Independent Battalion's airborne armored vehicles and tanks were made with Indonesian aluminum.
From America's perspective, it was also better for Indonesia to remain overpopulated. Thanks to food supplies provided in exchange for mineral resources, Indonesia's population graph was still tracing a gentle upward curve even now.
In other words, this island's productive capacity had been built solely to reduce the burden on the American mainland.
That likely would not change much even after America stabilized.
Gyeoul remembered something Yang Yongbin Shangjiang had once said. A life lived only for the sake of staying alive was miserable.
The stories of the people in that gray scenery did not offer much to hear, just as their lives were monotonous. That was why Gyeoul's visits stopped after only a few times. It was already a color far too familiar to him, and there were many other matters demanding his attention. Meetings day after day, maintaining troop morale, the paperwork essential to an officer, keeping up with the latest information about the operation, drafting training plans, and so on.
Training on the island focused mainly on improving nighttime combat capability. If the airborne operation succeeded according to plan, they would strike at midnight and withdraw before dawn. Because of that, the Independent Battalion and the Russian airborne troops alike were supplied across the board with the latest night vision devices, infrared target designators, identification friend or foe devices, and more.
When he heard that each night vision device cost 17,000 dollars, Colonel Davydov of the airborne troops (VDV) said incredulously,
"They've gotten more expensive than the most expensive thing I used to know. Those American bastards really know how to throw money around."
Still, they did perform well enough to justify the price. With the correction from 「Environmental Adaptation」 and firearm proficiency skills, Gyeoul had night vision better than most night vision devices, but this one was genuinely useful. It had high resolution, good sensitivity, and most importantly, it did not narrow his field of view.
'At least during the night on the day of the operation, even if we have to fight dismounted, we should be able to slaughter the mutants one-sidedly.'
That was his judgment after seeing the results of the unit's training.
As long as they could not put suppressors on the armored vehicles' autocannons, the chance of having to fight dismounted in the early stage of the drop was high.
Even while they trained in the mountains in the northern part of the island, various types of attack aircraft and bombers took off and landed without rest at the airport by the beach. Soldiers watching from afar often drew psychological comfort from the bombing that continued day and night.
One unexpected thing was that the soldiers of Japanese descent showed no noticeable agitation, even after setting foot on the land of their homeland, small island or not.
They had also never shown any particular maladjustment or dissatisfaction until now.
Gyeoul confirmed it while dealing with them face-to-face throughout training, but even when he asked, they only smiled and answered that they were fine.
Gyeoul found it hard to tell whether the quiet compliance of the Japanese soldiers was truly their honne, their true feelings, or whether they were obeying order for the moment regardless of those true feelings, their tatemae. The terrible life in the refugee zone had strengthened that tendency even further.
In a way, the boundary between honne and tatemae was the fence surrounding the Japanese refugees.
He had also heard something troubling from Jang Yeon-cheol.
Beneath the surface, ostracism, discrimination, and social exclusion on a community-wide scale had taken place.
It appeared to be revenge against the thugs who had held power in the past, and against some of those who had actively gone along with them.
So Gyeoul could not help being conscious of it.
'It would be better if they rejected me openly, like the Chinese side.'
Obvious as it sounded, an invisible fence was harder to cross than a visible one. Even in ordinary times, he had sensed a subtle distance.
That did not mean he could not trust them as a company. Over the past half year, the drops onto the Mexican Plateau to build combat experience had not ended with the single capture of Oaxaca Airport, and each company had shown abilities he could trust.
Gyeoul was simply thinking about what came after they returned from Ground Zero. If that solid wall still remained then, it would be difficult for them to join the alliance in the direction Gyeoul wanted.
If Gyeoul ended up disappointed by that, how would Bom interpret that disappointment?
After thinking it over, Gyeoul gave a bitter smile.
All of this could be chewed over after they returned safely. It would not be too late then.
An emergency briefing was held on January 18. Briefings were always being held, but the information delivered that day left Gyeoul and the other officers in a difficult position.
"A fire... you mean, sir?"
At someone's question, Lieutenant General Rogers changed the screen projected at the front of the conference room instead of answering. The officers who saw the real-time satellite footage all let out low groans. Several ridgelines had already burned black, and along the edges, orange borders were spreading outward. Bands the color of heated metal lay across the edge of the Tibetan Plateau.
A new question came.
"Sir. Is there any chance that fire will directly affect our operation?"
The lieutenant general gave a partial denial.
"The probability of it spreading all the way to Ground Zero is low. However."
The screen changed again.
"If the fire keeps spreading, it will cause some problems with sealing off the drop zone."
What he showed them was the distribution map of the mines they had scattered so far. With the location of the wildfire layered over it, it was clear that a large number of mines had already gone off after failing to withstand the high heat. Properly buried mines would have been more resistant to fire, but it was hard to expect that much from mines scattered from the sky.
Colonel Brusilov of the airborne troops (VDV) glared at the map and rubbed his chin.
"It is literally a small problem."
Colonel Davydov, his fellow regimental commander, agreed.
"Even with that, there is no way all the mines will be neutralized. Even in the worst case, they will provide at least some stopping power. The real problem lies elsewhere. That fire may not have started naturally."
Gyeoul nodded inwardly too. As he had thought before, mines were weapons that denied approach. And scattering three million mines required a correspondingly long time. Long enough that there were still sections where scattering was ongoing. The cunning ones must have grown suspicious.
The American and Russian officers exchanged opinions regardless of rank.
"In other words, they deliberately started fires to remove the mines?"
"Assuming they have grasped our intent even roughly, it is something they might very well try if they have a basic understanding of explosives."
"Well, considering everything they have suffered from us, it would be stranger if they didn't know..."
"Still, what a simple idea. They'll be very disappointed if they go in after that and another mine goes off."
"Disappointed?"
"You know, considering there was one that bashed its head in and killed itself before, it seems they aren't emotionless."
"Hmm. Could it not be that a fire they lit just to warm themselves grew out of control? Or that our bombing caused it?"
"We haven't bombed toward the minefields, have we?"
"It isn't good to take the situation too seriously, but it is still better to assume the worst. Either way, an unexpected weak point has appeared in the existing blockade."
"Can we submit a request to reinforce that section?"
"That is a little... The number we had already set was pushed to the limit based on available resources and the schedule. If we ask them to scatter more on top of that, the upper levels will balk. In the end, some section will have a lower density no matter what. Unless we postpone the operation entirely."
"Even if we make a request, we should do it after the fire is completely out. Right now, we need to watch. We don't even know how far that fire will grow. Everything is already bone dry because there has been so little snowfall."
"We also need to stay alert to what may be happening under that smoke. With that much smoke cover, it would not be strange if a mutant horde in the tens of thousands moved while avoiding observation."
Trickster clearly understood that the sky was humanity's domain. The long-term mine scattering had also revealed their intent far too plainly.
Gyeoul, who had been listening, cut in at a suitable point.
"I agree. When I was at Fort Roberts, a mutant horde that included Trickster set fires near the base to interfere with aerial reconnaissance and block fire support. The battles that followed were the same. I'm sure everyone already knows there are many similar cases."
One VDV airborne officer nodded.
"True. There was even a monster specialized in smoke screening, if only for a short time..."
"What? This is the first I've heard of that."
"It was in the American records. Called Akrid. There wasn't much written because it was weeded out so quickly."
As various opinions passed back and forth, some expressed concern over the change in situation, but no one showed fear. An operation that went perfectly according to plan existed only in theory. Gyeoul remembered the maxim Sergeant Pierce had spoken long ago under Capstone, back when Gyeoul had been a lieutenant.
「The first thing to die on a battlefield is the plan.」
There was also the joke that plans existed only on paper. Any soldier who had experienced real combat even once came to learn that through experience.
'I never thought it would all go smoothly.'
Still, Gyeoul felt a little regret. It was an expectation he had inevitably formed while watching the long preparation process, and as someone who missed the warmth of the person waiting for him. It was what one would call human attachment. An emotion far removed from the Gyeoul of the days when he had held no attachment to life.
The briefing ended after informing the officers of the joint task force of the situation. From the start, responding to the fire was a matter to be handled at a higher level, and it was even doubtful whether that was possible. The flames were on a scale that would be difficult to suppress even on the American mainland.
As more time passed afterward, fires broke out simultaneously in more areas. Their range largely matched the areas where mines had been scattered. At the very least, it was now certain that the mutants were deliberately starting fires.
Even so, it was not a variable large enough to postpone the operation.
Amid expectation and anxiety, the fated day finally arrived.
Footnotes:
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