WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 435: Dawn, or Twilight (15)

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The Teratomas' attack, viewed from above, resembled a swarm of locusts. They simply moved in search of more food and more hosts. Individual specimens probably did not even understand that they were attacking. Their momentum only grew more violent as their numbers increased because competition for prey among their own kind intensified. To eat first and multiply first, they naturally had to move farther and faster than the others.

And so the wave of erosion they formed, that instinct made visible, had no rationality to it. The defensive line was a breakwater of armor and gun smoke, and the waves of appetite crashing against it kept turning savage, then quieting, surging in, then pulling back in confused repetition.

Now was one of those moments. In the middle of a long fight, silence suddenly fell. Of course, it had only gone quiet in this area. From the directions other units were holding, a symphony of gunfire and artillery still rang out. If things went badly, reserves would have to be sent from this side too, but no support requests had come in yet. There was no way even their command elements had been buried in an instant, so they seemed to be holding somehow.

Gyeoul steadied his shivering body. Only people who had experienced it knew, but there was a limit to how much exercise could warm the body in the cold. Once past that limit, heat production dropped sharply.

On top of that, his whole body was soaked with sweat, making it harder and harder just to maintain his temperature.

He was tiring so quickly because the monsters he had to face were too small and too numerous. Killing each tiny thing one by one meant wasting movement no matter what.

The one blessing in the misfortune was that the colder his body became, the easier it was to spot the Teratomas clinging to him.

Only after checking each company's losses and remaining ammunition, then resetting the points of concentrated fire and the defensive frontage, did Gyeoul finally find time to lean against the earthen wall and rest. His stamina might be superhuman, but he had been running all over the defensive line throughout the battle, so his exhaustion was no less than that of the other officers and soldiers.

Beeeeeeeep-

A sharp electronic sound came from somewhere. It was the sound of radiation measuring equipment, a Geiger counter.

A nearby soldier snapped irritably.

"Which bastard is that? Turn it off right now!"

Han-byul answered bluntly.

"I'm the bastard, asshole! People can make mistakes! Sorry!"

Then she switched her counter to mute. In truth, it had been in mute mode from the start, but as she said, she must have touched the wrong button while nervously fidgeting with it. The soldier who had snapped looked flustered.

The usual image of a counter was a machine that clicked intermittently, but here, it screamed like that the moment it was turned on.

A Geiger counter was never meant to measure high-level radiation in the first place. It was only a tool for checking whether radioactive contamination was present.

Even so, they had been issued equipment like this because...

'No one ever imagined a situation where nuclear artillery shells would be used for danger-close fire.'

In other words, if nuclear shells were actually used, the equipment had been given to help prevent fallout damage.

It went quiet again, but the lingering echo of that one warning sound remained as a stronger unease. Gyeoul sensed it and called to a soldier.

"Private Jeong Jae-yeol. Do you smoke?"

"Sir?"

"I asked if you're a smoker. If I remember right, you are."

"Uh, yes. I am."

"How many a day?"

"About half a pack..."

After hearing the answer, Gyeoul shaped his face into an easy smile and spoke in a gentle voice.

"Quit smoking for just twenty years after we go back. That should make up for the exposure you've had so far."

"..."

Private Jeong awkwardly scratched the back of his head. Since he was wearing a protective suit, the motion looked ridiculous.

Everyone here knew that cigarettes contained polonium (Po-210) and the radioactive isotope of lead (Pb-210). They had been taught that in advance. The goal of the training had been to drag the vague fear of radiation down to a concrete, realistic level, and Gyeoul approved of that purpose. The greatest fear always came from ignorance.

As long as the task force had been issued nuclear shells, that education was necessary.

It was also true that long-term smoking was harmful enough to be compared to nuclear exposure. That did not mean nuclear weapons were nothing to fear. It meant the toxicity of cigarettes was that serious.

Of course, they also had to remember that every member of the task force was wearing a protective suit, which protected them against the deadliest kind of exposure, internal exposure.

'I don't know if twenty years will really be enough, though.'

It was only a rough estimate he had given to reassure him. It might be too little, or it might be too much. The people listening would know that in their heads, but in their hearts, they would take Gyeoul's words as comfort. Their trust in Gyeoul was one thing, and the officers and soldiers themselves would want to believe it too.

He heard the non-smokers grumbling. Since I don't smoke, I don't even have a way to make up for it, they said.

That was just the right amount of fear to endure this moment. After all, there were plenty of people who had lived as heavy smokers all their lives and still died of old age.

"Sir! Pararescue is coming!"

At someone's report, Gyeoul gave a distracted nod. He had noticed the helicopter's approach long ago. The rescue squadron under Special Operations Command was the only means of evacuating the wounded from this battlefield. Because of that, an entire Special Operations Wing had been committed to supporting Zero Ground.

With the sound of engines beating the earth, the rescue helicopter lowered its altitude. Even though the darkness was this thick, it descended at a frightening speed without a single person guiding its landing, then recovered its balance just before impact. It was an outstanding display of ability, worthy of the elite of the elite. If there was anything to compare them to, it would be the famous Night Stalkers (160th Aviation Regiment). Gyeoul had ties to both.

「More incoming!」

A warning came over the crackling radio. This time, it did not mean helicopters were coming.

「Priest, Priest! This is David 4 Actual! Approximately 300 regular variants, including multiple Keshiks, are moving south in dispersed formation 6 klicks north of reference point Sun Spot! Movement speed 10 klicks per hour! Request fire for effect, 8 high-explosive rounds! Do you copy?」

「Stand by. 8 high-explosive rounds are up, over. Time of flight 14 seconds.」

It was Delta Company of the Independent Battalion requesting fire support from the towed battery deployed on the ground.

"Please let us rest for a bit, you motherless sons of bitches..."

The one muttering with his head lowered and a deep sigh was Sergeant Im Ho-jin, one of the squad leaders. He ripped off the duct tape he had been wrapping around his torso, secured it, and prepared for combat. His protective suit had become bizarre from layer after layer of tape. The other soldiers were in similar shape.

Some had even broken apart ammunition boxes and strapped the boards on like splints. The entire unit looked utterly outrageous.

Ensign Song Jeong-hun sighed.

"This isn't a proper battle. I really, really miss Heavy Infantry..."

But only two Centurion armored suits could fit inside an armored vehicle, and even if they assigned a separate armored vehicle for charging them, the problem of battery duration remained. In both transport capacity and sustained combat ability, they were not suited to airborne operations.

When the Teratomas retreated, regular variants pushed in. Teratomas gathered again to eat them. After repelling those, they had to face regular variants again. The pattern repeated without end.

Gyeoul hoped the cunning ones would grasp the situation and halt the offensive, but this cruel night on the plateau did not grant a single hopeful expectation.

As he turned over that failed hope, Gyeoul realized one possibility he had overlooked.

'Ah, is that... how it is?'

The change he had initially hoped for was for the cunning ones to recognize the existence of the Teratomas and stop sending in additional mutant hordes.

But if the subterranean neural network had been destroyed by Teratoma infection, then even if the Tricksters lurking at the front recognized the threat of the tiny monsters, they had no way to pass that information to the rear. To avoid radio-tracking bombardment, and to move hordes across the continent, the Tricksters were likely scattered so widely within the range of the subterranean neural network that direct communication between them was difficult.

The expanded range of action created by the subterranean neural network had instead turned toxic.

'As expected, to make them recognize a threat across such a vast area, we have no choice but to use strategic nuclear weapons...!'

This was the moment when they needed a display of strategic destructive power on a completely different level from tactical nukes.

If only the inflow of mutant hordes could be cut off, the crisis caused by the Teratomas would have passed its peak.

"Where is the wounded man? I heard there was one here too!"

A pararescueman appeared with a comrade, carrying a stretcher, and shouted.

"Over here!"

Captain Foster waved broadly.

The wounded man was Captain Murray, the intelligence officer. It meant they had fought a battle with no distinction between front and rear, to the point that even the battalion staff had someone requiring evacuation.

At least it was fortunate that the wound had not been caused by a Teratoma. The cause was a mine that had been caught in the nuclear blast and flung through the air. Judging by the fragments, it was not something scattered by the air force. It was an anti-personnel mine the old Chinese military had likely buried in the mountains to prevent infiltration into military areas.

'Though I don't know if I should call that fortunate.'

He had somehow avoided a fatal wound, but because his protective suit had ruptured, there was no way to avoid more serious exposure.

Even in the rush, the pararescuemen paid the Medal of Honor recipient the minimum respect. Gyeoul held the staff officer's hand as he was quickly secured to the stretcher.

"Go ahead and wait for us. You've done enough."

Murray, whose eyes were unfocused from blood loss, spoke haltingly.

"We won't last long like this. I recommend withdrawal."

"...I'll consider it."

In truth, there was no need for a separate recommendation. Of course withdrawal had come up among the senior staff.

「Given the Teratomas' traits, if we just pull back briefly, they'll collapse on their own!」

That had been Major Alexei Gushkin's argument.

His superior, Major General Kapralov, had dismissed it as optimism.

「I may know nothing about biology, but by common sense, a short reproduction and division cycle means a high mutation rate. And whatever else that thing is, it is an improved strain of Morgellons. It may change in some way while eating existing variants. Who can guarantee it will stay that way until the end?」

Major General Zverev had also snapped back briefly.

「Are you saying this because you don't know that a successful withdrawal is as difficult as victory?」

Even Lieutenant General Rogers, as the highest commander responsible, had refused.

「There may be a chance of success. But soldiers must prepare for the worst. It has only been a few hours, but has any hopeful prediction come true on this battlefield?」

In the end, unless the president stepped in and reversed the decision, the operation would continue.

'If we withdraw here, it will take at least several more months to prepare again.'

And there would be no guarantee of victory in that fight either.

At the same time, as Zverev had said, withdrawing while stopping a large-scale enemy offensive was never easy. Two airborne troops (VDV) divisions and one U.S. brigade, including the Independent Battalion, would have to escape only by air. Since ancient times, withdrawal in the face of the enemy had often caused as much damage as an opposed landing.

So if they had to accept sacrifice anyway, they would rather finish this now, while it was already underway, than rely on an uncertain future. That was the shared will of the generals and the White House.

When the hand he was holding slipped away, Murray murmured a request to Gyeoul.

"Come back alive."

"Don't worry. This isn't where I die. I have one decent plan too."

The staff officer looked puzzled, but could not ask more before being carried into the helicopter.

When Gyeoul recommended using strategic nuclear weapons, Lieutenant General Rogers replied that they were already under review. There was no room to doubt the man's competence.

「As it happens, I just forwarded it to Whiskey Hotel (White House). I judged that if we drop one for demonstration purposes in an area with sparse variant density, POTUS (the president) should have an easier time making the decision. It will take time to select the strike point, so I want you to hold out as you are until then.」

Dawn was approaching, but the sky was still pitch-black. Since satellite observation was half useless, figuring out variant density within a range where they could detonate a strategic nuclear weapon would never be easy. That was what he meant by needing time to select the strike point.

"Sir!"

As the new army of plague entered even Gyeoul's field of view, Captain Evans urgently transmitted.

"The base search team has broken through the final quarantine zone! Securing the original Morgellons strain is imminent!"

Gyeoul nodded with a sigh.

"So they weren't just sitting around after all."

Ever since the base had not been properly sealed off, Gyeoul had carried no small amount of distrust. If they had not let the Teratomas escape from there, the current contest of strength would have been far easier.

"...Let's push just a little harder."

Hiding his exhaustion with effort, Gyeoul renewed his will to fight.

Footnotes:

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