WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 431: Dawn, or Twilight (11)

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Behind them, a VDV airborne company was operating about a kilometer away. With a mountain along the flank, mutant density was lower between the VDV Company and Gyeoul’s side. Mutants were tougher than humans, but when they moved in large numbers, they still chose routes where the horde was easier to control. In pitch-black darkness, a freezing mountain full of jagged slopes and rough terrain was hardly suitable as a route of advance.

In other words, this ambush was possible only because the mutants had individuals capable of exerting a high degree of control. If they had not been able to predict the mutant horde’s direction of entry from the terrain, the operation would have died in the planning stage. That was almost the only tactical advantage gained from releasing the Trickster.

Even so, some still lost their way now and then, wandered off, and popped out. Given the size of the approaching horde, even those stray appearances added up to a surprisingly large number.

Designated marksmen or rocket gunners stepped in and silenced them. Artillery fire was still coming from every direction, so a few brief, sharp noises were no great problem.

‘Since there’s a subterranean neural network, can they somehow reach the destination even after being separated from the horde?’

How exactly were information and directional guidance being transmitted between the mindless ones and the individuals laying down the subterranean neural network? Gyeoul wondered about that. It might be sound waves outside the audible range, or they might secrete pheromones like insects, but there was no way to find out right now.

The armored decoy team’s engagement site came into view. Through night vision, the heavy machine gun firing from an armored vehicle looked like a laser cutting out in short bursts.

Fast special mutants gathered, aiming for the armored vehicles and tank column. They circled using the uneven terrain, watching for an opening. Their numbers kept rising. It was a writhing band of plague.

Just as he thought they would need to begin the annihilation soon, Gyeoul frowned at a sudden contact from headquarters.

“A biological contamination warning? Now?”

The signalman who relayed the message did not understand it either. Wasn’t Zero Ground itself the center of biological contamination? The warning was worse than belated. It was absurdly out of place.

‘It’s not as if we need separate contamination precautions when every unit is already in MOPP level 4...’

In truth, there were no anti-contamination measures beyond this. Except, perhaps, taking shelter in armored vehicles equipped with positive pressure systems. Inside an armored vehicle that constantly maintained positive pressure, outside air would not flow in even if a small gap opened. Near-total isolation between inside and outside. But if they had to rely on that, normal combat was already out of the question.

The signalman spoke with a troubled look.

“I don’t know either. They said the details would be delivered by satellite communication... The message is to contact them as soon as the situation allows. What should we do?”

Lieutenant General Rogers would not do anything foolish, so even if it was not urgent, something had clearly happened. Still, since there was no immediate order to retreat, the situation was probably not too severe. Gyeoul had the signalman connect the military satellite phone. The gas mask made it awkward to hold the receiver close.

“This is Lieutenant Colonel Han Gyeoul. What exactly happened?”

The person on the line was one of Rogers’s staff officers. Colonel Zachary Govan. Unexpectedly, Gyeoul had known the man by face since the Olema base. Even if it was literally only by face.

「Code grey. A containment failure has been reported at the ballistic missile base investigation site.」

Gyeoul was speechless for a moment. By prior agreement, Code grey meant that a new mutant, one never discovered before, had broken through the search team’s containment. At least grey meant the danger level was low. If it had been red, he would have had to worry more about the rear than the enemy in front of him.

Once his thoughts reached that point, Gyeoul grew a little angry.

“A containment failure... How sloppy was their work over there?”

「How would I know?」

The colonel seemed just as baffled.

「They say they missed them because the creatures were too small, but that’s just an excuse in the end. The command chain should have been integrated much earlier.」

The base search team and the investigation group were not under the direct command of the joint task force headquarters. It seemed to be a precaution in case something politically sensitive was discovered.

There was no time to waste. Gyeoul quickly checked the essentials.

“How small is small? How many left the base? Do we know any of their traits?”

「Video analysis puts them between a minimum of 2 inches (5.08cm) and a maximum of 5.5 inches (13.97cm). Fewer than twenty escaped at most. No specific traits have been identified yet. They say they’ll examine the captured specimens.」

“Twenty...”

「For personnel below jade-level clearance or Class 3, tell them only that a small new species has appeared. We can’t have them thinking the rear is in danger.」

In effect, Govan was telling Gyeoul to be the only one who knew the whole picture. Gyeoul narrowed his eyes and answered.

“I’ll end communications for now. The enemy is right in front of us.”

「Good luck.」

Click. The connection cut off. Gyeoul tossed the phone back to the signalman.

‘It’ll take time for those things to get here anyway.’

Even at a maximum of 5.5 inches, they were smaller than a handspan. In Atascadero, the twisted babies had shown impressive movement, but they had still fallen short compared to adults.

There was also a chance they would freeze to death in this cold. And there were only twenty of them.

So it would be fine to tell the soldiers after the battle was over.

Major Singh would pass the word to the three Companies left in the rear.

“Fire!”

At the single-word order spreading over the radio, the semi-encirclement formed by three platoons began spitting flame. The weapons platoon, behind them at the position Gyeoul had designated, poured out powerful support fire.

Kiiiiieeeek-

The wedge formation of mutants that had just been trying to split the armored vehicle column was crushed into a mess. They had been hit by a barrage from an unexpected direction at the decisive moment. Long-limbed monsters convulsed, scattering blood. They looked enraged by the ambush from behind. Even in the dark, the eyes whipping back toward him were stained with plague-madness.

Gyeoul aimed at one of those eyeballs. Tuk! The recoil of a single shot struck his shoulder. The eye at the end of his line of fire burst. The monster that lost one eye stuck out its tongue and went berserk.

Right after that, sparks flew everywhere and stones of every sort shattered. The long-armed monsters were throwing stones in a frenzy close to madness. The ground was so barren that anything they scraped up was stone or gravel. The slinging looked ridiculous, but its power was even more destructive than Grumble’s Throwing. Soldiers hunched down as vicious fragments bounced around them.

After emptying a magazine in an instant, Gyeoul grabbed the radio and raised his voice roughly.

“Shoot! Don’t give them space! This is a fight we win as long as you don’t get scared!”

In a head-on clash like this, Gyeoul’s personal combat ability could not account for much. The enemy were fearless monsters, and most of them were special mutants. All he could do was add the suppressive power of two or three light machine guns. That was not nothing, but it was hard for him to play the central role.

Gyeoul’s strength, however, was not limited to combat power.

“Grenade launcher 3! Eleven o’clock, range 150! Suppressive fire!”

Two breaths later, in just four seconds, fifteen airburst rounds detonated. Each had power comparable to a hand grenade. The Keshik charging like mad dogs all rolled across the ground at once. Even then, they were still alive and sprang back up, but their formation had already been cut in two. They were Grumble’s size, but nowhere near as tough. Rifle rounds, or whatever else, would still punch into them. For now.

The armored vehicles responded as if tightening a noose. With their basic defensive strength, they could maneuver boldly and project firepower. Now that offense and defense had reversed, the mutants’ best choice was to chew up the weaker side first. The side that looked weaker right now was obviously the dismounted combat group, exposed outside their vehicles.

Gyeoul fired at every dangerous instant, while also catching and correcting every bit of wasted fire.

“You there! Machine gun! Where are you shooting? Drag your line of aim down!”

The stream of tracer rounds was stretching out over the mutants’ heads. The gunner kept ducking at the thudding sound of stones breaking, terrified. This was what happened when someone became fixated on the act of shooting itself without even looking. The person thought they were fighting desperately, but all they did was waste ammunition.

Monsters were pushing into that gap. Their aggressive savagery surpassed that of beasts.

The hastily corrected line of fire swept across the formation from side to side. Hot thermal images of blood spurting with wet bursts showed clearly even in the green field of view.

This was how Gyeoul drew the unit’s lines of fire into his own senses. For soldiers whose vision narrowed so easily while stones and mutants came flying, those were the instructions that helped most immediately.

When approaching became difficult, the surviving Keshik began zigzagging between natural cover.

Baaak!

Near Gyeoul, an unlucky soldier took a heavy thrown stone straight to the head. The shattered rock had a mass closer to a shell. The soldier’s neck twisted, and the soldier died on the spot. Blood and brain matter flowed from beneath the caved-in ballistic helmet. The corpse stared at Gyeoul with open eyes. The comrade beside the body froze in fear too. Gyeoul pushed the corpse behind cover and encouraged the soldiers without regard for himself. Few things were better for maintaining morale than a commander who knew no fear.

The mutants focused their attacks on Gyeoul.

Wiiiiik!

Two small mutants flew in with suffocating shrieks. Gyeoul had no room to spare while dodging the rain of thrown stones, so he barely shot one dead and twisted his upper body to smash the other with his elbow. Bang! His body shook. Meeting the heavy inertia with strength and center of gravity, Gyeoul suppressed the creaking pain in his joints. The frozen ground nearby broke, throwing sharp sparks.

‘Their accuracy?’

It had gone up. Unlike a moment ago, when they had been throwing blindly in the dark, it felt like the Trickster had taken the reins in earnest. At the same time, intermittent static began mixing into the radio too.

But it was already too late.

No, it would be more accurate to say this had been too deep a trap from the start. As Gyeoul had shouted at the beginning, this was a fight they would win as long as they did not get scared.

A faint, high, sharp sound came from the sky. It was a barrage of laser-guided mortar shells. High-explosive rounds burst one after another. His vision was stained again and again with orange afterimages. Amid the explosions burning through the night, hideous shadows twisted and broke apart in a wild dance. Deaths blazed in chaos. The platoon leader in charge of fire control clenched a fist and shouted something unintelligible.

If a cunning individual was watching this scene, it must have been furious. It would have been asking why shells were still falling when they had already closed this much distance.

But this was only the beginning. When the mutants reached the first stopping line, as some tripped over Detonation cords, the roar of turbofan engines drew closer in the low southeastern sky. Two attack aircraft of the same model as the Alamo flight were approaching.

[David Actual, David Actual. This is Hitman. As of this time, we are beginning close air support for your side. Break. Available armament, 2,228 rounds of 30mm high-explosive rounds...]

The signalman, having received permission, guided a rain of fire down onto the ground.

Bababababang!

Continuous explosions raced in two straight lines. A brutal short burst, firing several hundred rounds in a few seconds. The attack aircraft circling from the other side repeated the same method, plowing up the frozen night ground.

Then the 2nd Platoon leader shouted sharply.

“Detonation cord 1, detonate!”

Another line of explosive death was added. With Claymores bursting one after another immediately after, the mutants failed to break through the first stopping line in the end.

The second and later stopping lines became effectively useless. The mutants’ numbers had dropped so far that they could no longer attempt a breakthrough.

With that, the battle entered its practical closing stage.

Even as explosions and roars continued, Gyeoul instinctively snatched something that bounced against the nape of his neck.

Tup!

The threat level was low, so he thought it was a fragment of broken rock. But once he grabbed it, he felt something writhing powerfully in his hand. Crunch, crunch. Small but sharp teeth chewed at his ballistic fiber glove.

‘This is...’

It seemed to be one of those small mutants that had supposedly escaped the base. The pink lump of plague struggled with all its strength to slip free of Gyeoul’s hand. Its kiiik, kiiik cries grated terribly. It sounded like a blade scraping metal.

Gyeoul was shaken by the fact that this thing had already made it all the way here.

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Footnotes:

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