WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 428: Dawn, or Twilight (8)

──────

Information about Esther was still treated as an important state secret at this point. Naturally, however, the senior officers of the joint task force knew exactly what kind of help they were receiving from the girl who had lost her human body and had only her mind left.

After this operation ended, limited information was also scheduled to be released to the general public. Esther's contribution to the quarantine war was reason enough, and the research indicating that her distorted body would not last long had also influenced the decision to disclose information.

In other words, even if they had no way to treat that miserable body, they intended to let her receive the world's recognition and gratitude before she died. Esther herself would surely be overjoyed to receive a government commendation. God was already in her heart, but in any case, her devotion had been for people.

Separate from that policy, it was only natural for those involved to remain wary of Esther. The government was one thing, but the military was especially so. They were the ones who would actually have to stake their lives on trust. Who could guarantee that the girl's cooperative attitude was not ruled by some twisted instinct beneath the surface?

When throwing dice with humanity's fate on the line, even the slightest chance of ruin weighed heavily.

Because of that, many officers still felt awkward about speaking with Esther. As people, they pitied her, but as soldiers, their nerves were on edge, so they found it hard to decide how to treat her. At the very least, she was not even clearly part of the military hierarchy.

Lieutenant General Rogers settled the unsettled atmosphere.

「About two hours remain until the mutant vanguard arrives. That may be a long time, or it may be short. Since the existing operational plan has effectively become meaningless, we would be better off omitting unnecessary intermediate steps as we exchange information and opinions. If any of you have questions, it will be easier to ask her directly.」

Naturally, there was no objection. Everyone simply found direct communication unfamiliar.

Esther appeared over the line as a voice alone. Gyeoul adjusted his headset.

「Helloo, everyone.」

Major General Zverev blinked, twisted the end of his beard, and answered.

「Uh. Hello there, Lady. A good night... is not quite right, I suppose.」

Gyeoul also offered a gentle greeting.

"Hello. Even in this situation, it's good to hear the voice of someone close to me."

They had spoken whenever they had the chance, so it was no exaggeration to call them close.

「Waaah. It's Lieutenant Colonel Haaan Gyeoul. Kihihit.」

When Esther laughed, the mood of the video conference loosened awkwardly.

'Better than everyone feeling uncomfortable.'

Gyeoul's warmth was sincere, and at the same time, it was a tool.

Major General Kapralov asked,

「So, what information did you want to tell us?」

Gyeoul was curious too. What had Esther discovered? Now that the mutants had built a biological neural network beneath the surface, it was true that expecting Esther to perform her originally envisioned role had become difficult. The existence of the subterranean neural network gave the cunning ones endless freedom of choice.

'Still, she's collecting radio waves in real time, so maybe she did find something.'

Esther said,

「The mutants are, mistaken.」

Lieutenant General Rogers asked,

「Mistaken? What are they mistaken about?」

「Our purpose.」

The girl continued her explanation in uneven, halting speech, her breathing irregular.

「This place is, high and rough land, right? Once it's taken, it's haard to take back. For the mutants, when they fight in the mountains, they have a lot of, memories, of suffering similar things. It was like that in the summer before last, and the battles since last year were like thaat too.」

The summer before last meant the Burning Valley operation. In that operation, which used murderous heat as a strategic weapon, the mutants suffered an utterly brutal exchange ratio against human troops occupying the high ground. At the Aidlin Geothermal Plant, where Gyeoul and the independent company had fought, the corpses had been piled up like strata, to the point that bulldozers had to push them away.

'And last year was... farther back, Continental Partition operation, and more recently, Fort Liberty.'

From last year into this year, the fiercest battlefields of Continental Partition operation had been the central Mexican plateau and the jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula. Lost in thought, Gyeoul quickly traced back through the past.

'The first time I heard about capturing an Alpha Trickster... was October last year. In Las Vegas, from Colonel Emmert. He said the order had just come down and that he had passed it off to another unit, so they must have begun in earnest after that.'

It had happened after all the mutants were driven out of the U.S. mainland. In that case, the Alpha Trickster capture had most likely been conducted alongside Continental Partition operation.

'It wouldn't have ended quickly. Alpha Tricksters themselves had already become rare by then, and considering the size of the Chinese mainland, they couldn't have felt safe releasing only one or two. Then should I assume the Tricksters here share memories of air assaults?'

Even aside from the armored airborne troops of Rogers Joint Task Force, including the 201st Independent Battalion, heliborne operations by units such as the 101st Airborne Division had been carried out actively from the early stages of Continental Partition operation. As far as Gyeoul knew, there had never been a case where mutants seized high ground from airborne troops. Not unless the airborne troops abandoned a position themselves after it had lost its value.

「The mutaants-」

Esther went on.

「So, the Tricksters, think this is, the preparation stage, for a muuuch bigger attack.」

「A much bigger attack?」

The puzzled voice belonged to Lieutenant General Rogers.

「Yees.」

「Hmm. So they judged that our offensive is meant to secure a bridgehead...」

「Bridge, bridgehead?」

「It means a foothold for preparing a larger offensive.」

「Aaah, right. I learned that. I'm sorryy.」

Learned that? Gyeoul tilted his head inwardly for a moment, then dismissed the question. Since she was taking part in the operation, even indirectly, they would have had her memorize basic military terms for smooth communication. She had also spent a long time supporting operations in Central America.

Boom-

Vibration traveled up through his hips and back. It was the afterecho of bombing and artillery fire meant to cut off at least the subterranean neural network near Ground Zero. The Air Force, naval aviation, artillery, and aerial batteries were consuming an enormous amount of bombs and ammunition from the very start. The controller was probably starting to worry. Operational plans really did die the moment operations began.

The conversation continued without regard for the explosions.

「At any rate, am I correct?」

When the lieutenant general asked, Esther unexpectedly denied it.

「It's similar to that, but still a liittle different.」

「How is it different?」

「Well, uhm, for example, in places like Mexico, the mutants mainly hid in mountains or valleys, and places like thaat. Because there, they were relatively safe from airstrikes.」

「Ah, I understand what you mean.」

The lieutenant general said it, and everyone nodded.

Gyeoul understood as well.

'So it feels to them like they're losing an important refuge and breeding rear area ahead of a full-scale fight. True, if they were hit by a combined air-ground attack after losing the mountains, a single defeat could easily turn into an endless rout. Like the early stages of Boar Hunt.'

From the cunning ones' perspective, it was understandable that they would make that mistake. They would think that the U.S. military, after fighting a harder battle in Mexico than expected, was now applying those lessons by seizing regions that would become troublesome in the future before attacking.

The signs were clear too. Fort Liberty was the first, the massive spreading of mines was the second, and this drop onto Ground Zero was the third. If the first had been suspicion, and the second had been anxiety, then the third would have been certainty.

'Then they must have suspected that the offensive in the Russian Far East was also meant to lure them out.'

A bitter smile crossed Gyeoul's lips. Fort Liberty had been reasonably successful, while strangely few mutants had been drawn into Russia's decoy operation.

The force Russia had deployed as bait was about three thousand tanks and armored vehicles. Armored vehicles, though, were easiest to move on terrain with fewer slopes and obstacles. That was even more true if they wanted to provoke the mutants across as wide an area as possible. To the cunning ones, would it not have looked like a ploy to draw them down from rough terrain to flatter ground?

Although the mutants had started from the wrong premise, on this point, they had accurately seen through the humans' intent.

Major General Kapralov spoke with a sour look.

「In short, you're saying those half-dead things will charge in with everything they have... That's unfortunate. It isn't information that helps us right now.」

His tone suggested they had wasted time on insignificant information while the situation was hardly relaxed. His eyes seemed to say it too. Could Esther, who was essentially only a teenage girl, really distinguish between important and unimportant intelligence? Colonel Davydov agreed as if making a joke.

「Well, that's true. It isn't as if we can ask the bastards to be understanding and tell them we'll be leaving soon.」

Every war was filled with misjudgments. The quarantine war was no different.

But Esther had not finished speaking yet.

「So, please, send me down.」

The expressions on the screen changed.

「Miss Esther. That matter has already been settled.」

Lieutenant General Rogers' voice also changed slightly.

「The siituation, has changed.」

Esther appealed as if clinging to them.

「The mutants are, desperate. If things go on like this, General, Lieutenant Colonel Han, and the other people, will face a harder battle, than you told me. Surely, more people will, die or get hurt too.」

「But-」

「God gave me, a calling.」

The lieutenant general, who had been about to cut her off, closed his mouth. He had faith too.

「It must be, His will, that He sent me here too. I don't like, staying still, when I have the ability to help. If it's me, I should be able to interpret, the signals going back and forth, underground too. Besides that, I can be of much more help, to all of you.」

「Please give me a chance.」

A short silence followed that final request. Nobody wanted to wound her by openly saying they could not trust her, so everyone naturally fell quiet. Some frowned, some hid their irritation, some grew impatient, and some stayed expressionless or looked sorry for her. Either way, nobody wanted to be the villain.

Gyeoul felt Lieutenant General Rogers looking at him. It was hard to tell the direction of a gaze through a screen, but he was probably not mistaken.

The senior officers' position was the same. Speaking for them was Gyeoul's role.

"Esther. I'm grateful for how you feel, but we can't accept that proposal."

「Ah...」

A sigh thick with disappointment and hurt. She must have expected it from the uncomfortable silence of the commanders and staff.

「I thought, it wouuld not work, but Lieutenant Colonel...」

He could guess what words she had left unsaid, even without her saying them aloud.

"I trust you. I could even entrust my life to you. Because I know what kind of person you are. You said it that day too, didn't you? That you wanted to become a star."

Daniel 12:3. 「Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.」 It was the verse Esther had sadly recited after falling to Gyeoul's hand in the refugee zone.

Gyeoul spoke gently.

"But I want you to understand that not everyone can trust you as much as I do. Even if we followed your proposal, if people had to fight while carrying that unease, it would be hard for them to perform at their best. There is also the possibility of an unfortunate misunderstanding. Right now, it's your turn to trust us."

「Yees...」

Esther sighed again and accepted the refusal.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried