WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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Chapter 432: Dawn, or Twilight (12)

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As the warning about the tiny things spread, Charlie Company's dismounted combat group fell into a brief but intense confusion.

"Are you sure? You're sure there aren't any tears?"

That was the machine gunner, nervously snapping at the assistant gunner. The question was whether the protective suit had any bite holes in it.

"I said I'm sure, so look forward! Forward! Shoot the ones you can see first! They're all getting away, you idiot!"

The shout came not from the assistant gunner, but from the platoon leader.

Just as the platoon leader said, the swarm of monsters that had been dying under the crossfire was now pouring through the loosened net of fire. Decisive annihilation had been right in front of them...

At the same time, Gyeoul was relieved things were only this bad.

'If these things had appeared a little earlier, we might have been the ones getting wiped out.'

He had that thought while looking down at the lump of flesh struggling in his grip. The thing had been chewing on his ballistic armor until now, but perhaps it had realized its efforts were useless. Now it thrashed its short limbs, trying to break free. Eeeek! Eeek! It strained so hard that muscles and blood vessels bulged across its whole body.

Judging by how the bigger ones had chosen to flee instead of charging into this opening, these little things did not seem to be under the Trickster's control after all. In other words, neither side knew the other existed.

It would have been stranger if a new species that had only just escaped the base already carried an acquired trait passed on through secondary infection.

Gyeoul began pressing down on the thing in his hand with his thumb. It was not pointless cruelty. He wanted to test its toughness. How much pressure could it withstand? How hard was its skeleton? What level of firearm would be right for dealing with it? There had been far too many monsters beyond imagination, so he could not let his guard down just because it was small. The threat level he sensed reflected only the direct danger to Gyeoul himself.

Inside his tightening hand, the little monster thrashed desperately, unable even to breathe. Blood vessels burst in its eyes, and its organs pushed out through its mouth. Strangely, there was no sound of bones breaking. Its skeleton was flexible and highly elastic. A fierce pulse beat against the tip of his thumb. A heart racing in the face of death was the same for humans and mutants. Pshhk! The moment its body burst under the pressure, the monster glared at Gyeoul with hatred stronger than pain.

That meant it had at least enough intelligence to hate.

A large amount of steam rose from the spray of blood, even considering the cold weather. Its body temperature was far higher than that of other mutants. No wonder he had felt warmth through his thick gloves. He tossed the half-span corpse into the air, then flicked it back up with the blade of his Bayonet as it fell. Slice! The sharply honed Bayonet cut through the small body with ease.

Gyeoul nudged the severed corpse with his toe and examined it. It had a fair amount of fat, but that alone was not enough to withstand a subzero, knife-edged wind.

In short, this monster likely possessed an extremely wasteful trait.

'Not good.'

Strange discords rang out from across the field.

Kiiik! Kiiik! Kiiiiik!

Kiiiik? Kik! Kikik-kik!

There were more than one or two nearby. Counting the movements that sprang up from the corpse-covered slope, more than ten were visible right away. Sometimes they leaped as high as two meters.

Colonel Zachary Govan had said at most twenty entities had escaped the ballistic missile base.

'But assuming all of them came here would be far too optimistic.'

In the end, these monsters had rapidly increased their numbers in a short time. He still did not know how that was physically possible, but it was clearly an ill omen.

"Wah! What is this? Gross! Seriously gross!"

A soldier flung away a monster that had clung on, then stomped on it irritably. Under the boot coming down again and again, the monster was crushed like a rodent run over by a tire.

The other soldiers snickered as they watched.

"Hey, Fujio. Don't make a fuss over something like that. It looks pathetic."

"Damn it! I-I was just surprised because it jumped on me out of nowhere! You think you guys would be any different?"

"Sure. If you say so."

The Charlie Company soldiers exchanged familiar words in their native language and eased some of the tension. They had gone through a moment of confusion, but they seemed to have decided the tiny new species was not that frightening.

The chemical protective suits helped with that to some degree. They were designed to protect the whole body from biochemical agents, and since they were new models, they had a basic degree of defensive strength as well. Ballistic fiber had even been added to the areas mutants were most likely to bite.

A monster smaller than a palm truly was not much of a threat as a single entity.

But the story changed if large numbers of them slipped in during a fierce battle.

No matter how sturdy the new protective suits were, not every part could be as tough as ballistic armor. If a little monster clung on and kept chewing, a hole would eventually open.

At the same time, a full-body protective suit dulled the wearer's senses. In a combat situation, how could someone immediately notice a lump of flesh weighing less than one kilogram sticking to them?

There was even a high chance they would not realize they had been bitten. Pain often dulled from Combat High and concentration. This was the same phenomenon as looking down after a battle and wondering, "When did I get hurt like this?" If that wound was a monster's bite mark...

The only comfort was that the entire task force was wearing gas masks. Even if someone became infected, they would not be able to bite their comrades right away.

Perhaps noticing what the battalion commander was worried about, one platoon leader asked Gyeoul for instructions.

"What should we do? Should we turn the whole place over with grenades?"

The platoon leader meant the corpse-strewn field. The little things were clinging to the remains of mutants.

After a brief hesitation, Gyeoul ordered, "Sweep it."

Given how quickly their numbers were increasing, he had doubts about whether it would mean much, but it would be better than leaving them behind. It would not take long either.

The pair of high-speed grenade launchers once again displayed outstanding killing power. A storm of anti-personnel grenades poured out at up to ten rounds per second between the two guns. To things made of blood and flesh, it was a disaster of flame and fragments. The ones that leaped away from the explosions were turned into showers of torn meat by the blast pressure.

Yet the number dying in droves seemed greater than what he had seen earlier.

Gyeoul's worry deepened.

After joining Company Commander Matsudaira, Gyeoul loaded the troops into vehicles and returned them to the original defensive line. Then he immediately connected to headquarters by radio. What exactly was happening? What new information had been found? Even at that moment, the mutants' main groups were approaching. Their screams echoed through every valley. If the tiny things multiplied and latched on too, it would become difficult to prepare any countermeasure.

'Even a few hundred at that size would be a major variable.'

If there were thousands or more, that went without saying. Gyeoul imagined the worst-case scenario. If monsters outside their assumptions swarmed over them, neither the Independent Battalion nor the airborne troops (VDV) would be able to fight at full strength.

「For now, we need a name for them, whatever they are, so until an official Mutation Code is confirmed, we will call them Teratoma.」

It was the CDC doctor, speaking after connecting to the commanders' channel.

The generals reacted awkwardly.

「...Teratoma?」

The doctor answered quickly.

「Because they look similar, and the formation process shows an outwardly similar appearance as well.」

They were slightly out of step. The generals seemed not to know what a teratoma was, while the doctor took it as a question about why that name in particular had been chosen. In any case, it was not an important issue, so no one pointed it out.

「At any rate, that Teratoma or whatever it is, how does it reproduce that fast? It makes no sense!」

Major General Kapralov's voice carried a sense of crisis that had not yet faded.

「It is not reproduction.」

「It isn't?」

「Correct. After decoding the data secured from the ballistic missile base... no, it would be better to call it a Chinese military research facility now. In any case, according to the decoded data from the facility, Teratoma replicates itself by transforming the bodies of humans and mutants.」

The explanation had a lot of side branches for how hurried it was. Then again, this was not someone likely to be used to situations like this. The doctor deserved a passing mark just for not rambling, leaving out important information, or stuttering.

「In other words, it is a completely new form of infection. In particular, transformation based on bodies already taken over by Morgellons, meaning mutants, happens at a terrifying speed. What you witnessed was probably the result.」

「Govno.」

The major general muttered a curse.

「Then what about the skeleton? It can't transform even bones that way, can it? Do the replicated ones have no bones?」

「Denatured protein replaces the skeleton. Like a rhino's horn.」

A rhino's horn was different from bone.

The major general sighed, as if still refusing to believe it.

「No matter what we imagine, it always goes beyond that! Then what, are you saying any mutant bitten by that Teratoma thing will, before long, break apart into tiny monsters equal to its body weight?」

「Not quite. Such rapid transformation naturally consumes a great deal of calories, and the existing entities also absorb nutrients. We would need proper research to be precise, but they would be lucky if even half the original weight remained. My guess is that they were intentionally created as a means to control the spread of Morgellons, or as a weapon to replace Morgellons itself.」

「A control method? That swarm of pink locusts?」

「Doesn't every line of research have intermediate stages, or failed products?」

「Damn it...!」

Lieutenant General Rogers asked dryly.

「What is the basis for judging them as weapons? Data from the base again?」

The doctor answered at once.

「No. There has been no further decoding yet. It is just that the entities multiply without limit and consume an enormous amount of calories even through ordinary metabolism.」

「I don't see what that has to do with it.」

「In other words, they are easier to control than the Morgellons we know. If calories are not supplied, their activity will stop within a few hours at most. In a cold region like this, they will either enter Metabolic Suppression or start eating their own kind in less than an hour. They have no middle ground between extreme metabolic acceleration and Metabolic Suppression. Their small size should also mean lower intelligence. As biological weapons, would they not be more ideal than the Morgellons we have seen?」

Extreme metabolic acceleration. That was the true nature of the wasteful trait Gyeoul had expected.

'They must endure the cold through pure calorie expenditure.'

Because of that, they had no ability to stay active for long on their own. They needed hosts to constantly supply nutrients.

'Is their ability to endure through Metabolic Suppression actually better than an ordinary mutant's?'

Closed blast doors. A completely isolated base. If they had survived inside it through Metabolic Suppression alone for three years by calendar count, Gyeoul could only judge it that way.

「The problem is that mutants are pushing in from every direction right now.」

Lieutenant General Rogers' voice dropped lower.

「At least hundreds of thousands of hosts...」

The hundreds of thousands originally expected to arrive before sunrise, followed by the millions or tens of millions that the cunning ones would desperately drive in afterward. And Teratoma that would eat them. If only one side existed, it would be relatively easy to deal with, but having to face both at the same time was the real problem.

Of course, Teratoma were enemies to the mutants as well.

But could the cunning ones, keeping their distance from the front because they feared artillery fire and bombing, properly grasp the existence of these little things in the dark?

Even if they did, it would be hard for them to secure control over Teratoma through secondary infection. Ordinary mutants would fail to control their biting strength and kill them through excessive bleeding, and even if that did not happen, the Teratoma would multiply faster than secondary infection could take hold.

On top of that, this side's investigation of the ballistic missile base was guaranteed to be delayed.

Even withdrawal of the task force might become impossible.

Rogers was probably already considering an early withdrawal.

「Let us not overcomplicate this.」

It was Major General Zverev's voice.

「There is a way to hold the defensive line, one way or another.」

「Specifically?」

When Lieutenant General Rogers asked, the major general answered calmly.

「In the worst case, we load all troops into vehicles and fire tactical nukes danger close. We also request additional nuclear delivery from the carrier strike group. A crisis more serious than toxin accumulation has broken out right now, so they will not simply say no forever.」

「...」

「Along the continuous line of radioactive contamination created that way, the tiny things will not survive. The larger ones will not last long either. In the end, they are living creatures. If we adjust burst altitude according to wind direction, we can also prevent fallout from dropping onto the ballistic missile base. We must be careful over there, since the blast doors have been breached. The original form of Morgellons might become contaminated.」

Even special mutants like Likhoradka and Chernobog had only been exposed at the microsievert, one-millionth of a sievert, level at most. If they were exposed to intense radiation reaching tens or hundreds of sieverts, it would be normal for mutants or anything else to die in droves.

But if they followed this proposal, the task force would also have to accept at least some exposure. nuclear shell danger-close fire meant seeing a mushroom cloud from a distance of only several kilometers. Neither armored vehicles with positive pressure systems nor the latest gas masks and protective suits could serve as perfect countermeasures against radiation.

They also had to consider cases where protective suits were damaged, whether by combat or by Teratoma. Even the smallest damage would be fatal.

Silence lingered over the radio net for a moment.

Footnotes:

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