I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 47

* * *

─── Thud!

In the darkness where even moonlight couldn’t reach, a dull sound echoed as a man’s head flew through the air.

With the full force of a body that surpassed human limits, the power was delivered to the blade of the Tomahawk, striking the neck of a Russian soldier patrolling around the hotel.

As one soldier fell without even being able to scream, Ganjangchikin, who was hiding in the bushes on the opposite side, approached stealthily and initiated an assassination through a QTE.

Crack.

While the combat knife deeply pierced the carotid artery, a bizarre sound like the complete crushing of neck bones resonated.

In less than five seconds, two enemies disappeared, but due to the faint light making it hard to see, no one besides Yoo Jin and Ganjangchikin would ever grasp the true nature of the incident.

­”Please, turn on the night vision!!!!!!

­Something… something is happening….

­How the hell can someone assassinate without night vision goggles? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

­What was that sound just now?

­It definitely wasn’t something good ㅋㅋ”

­”That sound is familiar, like when I broke my leg falling down the stairs. What did you do, sir?????”

“Well, maybe this guy also tripped.”

My gaze met with Beta 2.

As I looked at Ganjangchikin, who seemed to question what he had just witnessed, I carefully placed my index finger on my lips. It roughly meant to be quiet.

Since the hotel wasn’t that large, we quickly hid the three bodies in the bushes to avoid being discovered by the follow-up search team and then touched the high wall.

“Do you have a drone?”

“Uh… my skill set isn’t specialized for drone operation, but is it okay?”

“It’s not a big problem, so it’s fine.”

Click.

In an instant, a small drone was assembled and began to float in the air. I attached an anchor to it and connected a thick rope, taking control of the operation.

After confirming the surroundings through the drone that soared to the rooftop, I skillfully wrapped the rope around a thick pipe on the rooftop and fired the anchor to secure it firmly to the ground.

All ICARUS Operators were provided with a variety of equipment, one of which was a rope ascender.

Click.

As the rope was placed in the center of the small ascender, I was ready to climb the wall.

“I’ll go up first. When I get there, retrieve the rope to the rooftop. You can lower it again when we need to descend.”

“…Okay, understood.”

After pulling the rope a few times to ensure it was securely fastened, I pressed the ascent button.

With a feeling of being pulled upwards, I climbed the vertical wall. Reaching a height even taller than the trees, I could see the entire situation at a glance.

Hundreds of enemies and infantry fighting vehicles. All of them shone brightly in a vivid yellow, signifying they were enemies. It was like looking at a yellow galaxy spread out on the ground.

Across the street, the green delta marker, signifying allies, fidgeted on the rooftop of a relatively lower building. Even with my highly developed vision, it was difficult to discern the minute movements.

Beta 2’s voice came through the communication.

“There’s a sniper team on the rooftop. They’re approaching the spot where the rope is hooked. I’ll share the location with you, so please check it out.”

“Confirmed.”

Even as I approached the rooftop, the hotel building was entirely made of vertical walls without any sloped parts, resembling old castle walls with sporadic openings similar to gun ports.

This was fortunate for me as it meant there were places to rest my gun.

A yellow triangle appeared over the heads of the approaching enemies. It gradually took shape and turned into the symbol indicating their military branch.

The distance was roughly 50 meters.

It was an awkward range to handle with a gun.

“What about other enemies around?”

“Uh… there’s another sniper team on the opposite rooftop.”

“Got it.”

It was better to lure them in and take care of them.

I put down my gun and stepped onto the rooftop. Leaving a message to not come up yet, I waited patiently. The enemies approached leisurely, as if they were taking a walk.

The smoke from their cigarettes blended into the cold winter night. It was time to show that smoking while walking was harmful to their health.

With my finger on the trigger, I slightly leaned out from the cover. The distance to the enemy was only about fifteen meters, so there was no reason to miss.

───!

With three movements of my index finger, the number of enemies lying on the ground increased proportionally.

Ignoring the admiring remarks from the chat window, I asked Ganjangchikin to pinpoint the exact location of the additional sniper team.

The movements were almost simultaneous. The rooftop had to be cleaned up to avoid any interference during the aerial support guidance.

Fortunately, cleaning up the hotel rooftop didn’t take long.

The situation was resolved.

While Ganjangchikin retrieved the rope that was hanging down to the ground, I took out the GRG (Grid Reference Guide) from the multipurpose pouch against the backdrop of the clear hotel view.

As I recalled the JTAC (Joint Terminal Attack Controller) fire support procedures etched in my mind, I activated the guidance function.

­”[Recommendation: Specify the bombing area precisely. Inaccurate guidance can cause serious damage to friendly forces, buildings, and civilians.]”

­”[Coordinate point specified – 1: 41.378422, -73.962436 // Conversion: FI 154236.]”

­”[Confirming the specified coordinates… formation includes multiple infantry and BTR-90 armored vehicles.]”

“Valkyrie 1-1, this is Beta 2-1. Requesting Type 2, 9-line ready?”

­”[ISO: Beta 2-1, this is Valkyrie 1-1. Ready.]”

“Follow the next line. Line 1, 2, 3, 9 N/A. Altitude 60. Multiple infantry and BTR-90 infantry fighting vehicles. FI 154236. Infrared laser. 300 meters south, danger close. Ready for additional remarks.”

­?????????????????????

­”Wow, what the hellㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

­Nuna, are you crazy? Nuna, are you crazy? Nuna, are you crazy? Nuna, are you crazy? Nuna, are you crazy?

­No matter how I see it, this person must be active-dutyㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

­This is tactical as hellㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ”

­”Heuuung heuuung heuuung heuuung heuuung heuuung heuuung….”

­”[ISO: Beta 2-1, confirm additional remarks.]”

“Use CBU-110. No anti-air threats.”

­”[ISO: FI 154236, CBU-110. Reached IP. Pulse.]”

“Pulse, confirmed.”

Pulse.

It was a method of designating the enemy’s position through the blinking of the infrared target designator attached to the gun.

When I pressed the button, the laser blinked. Since it was an aerial support request using cluster bombs, a single slip of the tongue could result in the deaths of two other team members.

Repeating the tense inhalation and exhalation, I watched the guided point where the enemies were gathered.

­”[ISO: Valkyrie 1-1, contact pulse. Approaching from the east.]”

“This is Beta 2-1, confirmed. Valkyrie 1-1, you are authorized to engage.”

Far away in the night sky,

A single cluster bomb tore through the starlight and scattered submunitions in all directions.

In an instant, the visual turned into one like scattered glitter on black ink,

────!!

The stadium in front of me was covered with thousands of explosions.

Amidst the ear-shattering noise and overwhelming gusts, countless screams filled the air, making the surroundings chaotic.

Even the enemies who were narrowly outside the blast radius seemed unable to believe what had just happened and sat there dazed.

I couldn’t leave them alone.

“Heptik, Omega, do you read me? Hunt down all the enemies before they can hide inside the building. Don’t worry about being detected, just clean them up.”

­”[Heptik: Uh… understood. Engaging.]”

­”[Omega: Confirmed.]”

It was time for us to move too.

After confirming that the aerial support had achieved significant results, I requested Valkyrie’s withdrawal and joined Ganjangchikin, who was waiting below.

Now, it was time to clean up the hotel.

­”[ISO: You delivered quite a blow to the enemy-dense area. I wish I could show you how panicked they are, but you know there’s no time to relax.]”

­”[ISO: There’s another hub with gathered enemies 400 meters northwest. If you want to rescue friendly forces first, you can head directly to the Military Academy 500 meters northeast. The choice is yours.]”

If there was one thing everyone liked, it was explosions, and this was true for others besides me.

The ultimate goal of the mission was to significantly reduce the enemy’s threat level. The more enemies there were, the harder it was for the resisting allies to hold out.

Thus, reducing the enemy’s threat level was synonymous with reducing the enemy’s numbers, and instead of going through the trouble of rescuing the allied forces, we decided to wipe out the enemies.

Cleaning up the area that was bombarded once didn’t take long.

Ground Zero, swept by hundreds of submunitions capable of easily destroying infantry fighting vehicles, left nothing alive. The enemies who were lucky enough to be elsewhere were

also slaughtered by us.

In just about 10 minutes, it meant that the two airborne brigades that had infiltrated West Point were wiped out.

Of course, there seemed to be other regular forces besides the airborne brigades.

Anyway, supporting allies by destroying enemies was a kind of romance.

Killing all the witnesses could be considered assassination, and eliminating the cause of pain was almost the same as healing, a straightforward and popular notion.

Following such a simplistic logic, we moved to the northwest hub.

And then….

­”[ISO: Beta 2-1, splash. Confirmed elimination of multiple targets.]”

“Valkyrie 1-1, this is Beta 2-1. Confirmed target elimination and requesting additional Type 2. 9-line ready?”

­”[ISO: Beta 2-1, this is Valkyrie 1-1. Ready.]”

“Follow the next line. Line 1, 2, 3, 9 N/A. Altitude 60. 5 2S25 airborne self-propelled guns. EF 851341. Infrared laser. 640 meters south. Ready for additional remarks.”

As always, close air support could resolve a lot of issues.

However, unfortunately, perhaps due to the significant success of the previous attack, the enemies in the northwest hub were in complete disarray, but still scattered in an orderly manner.

It was unusual to wipe out almost three battalions with just one cluster bomb, after all.

As a result, the second cluster bomb strike didn’t inflict as much damage as expected, and the enemies scattering in all directions had to be dealt with using other armaments like the separable Hellfire missiles.

The method that came out was to detach the infrared laser from the gun and attach it to the drone for aerial bombardment guidance.

Surprisingly, it was highly effective.

­”Enemy rate 37% ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I’ve played Dark Zone for 3,000 hours and never seen this before, sir are you insane?”

“Hamdrone Steelfist, thank you for the donation… isn’t this how everyone does it?”

­”No, you idiotㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

­Sir, the word ‘original’ does not mean ‘first,’ do you understand?

­Is this person an Air Force CCT? This is crazyㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

­’Original’ (meaning I always did it this way)

­What is this? Does killing all the enemies mean we can rescue the allies?”

“Apparently not.”

“Nobody does it like this, sir….”

“Ah, really?”

Meanwhile, I briefly relayed additional information to the ISO, and an explanation followed on why people generally didn’t clear the mission this way.

To summarize, it was because it was extremely difficult.

Eliminating the enemies and digging into their defenses was easy to say but, according to what I heard, in practice, it was really hard to avoid triggering alarms and attracting all the aggro if even one thing went wrong.

Especially as the difficulty increased, the AI became very sensitive to gunshots, making infiltration nearly impossible without perfect silent assassinations. If you made a mistake during the assassination, the enemies would scream or shoot wildly in desperation, drawing even more aggro.

But fortunately, that wasn’t an issue right now.

───Boom!

­”[ISO: Beta 2-1, splash. Eliminated airborne self-propelled guns and trailing infantry.]”

“Valkyrie 1-1, this is Beta 2-1. Confirmed target elimination and requesting additional Type 2. Make sure it’s done to the last round.”

­”[ISO: Haha, you sure know how to make use of us. Confirmed. Are all parameters except for coordinates and targets the same?]”

“They are the same.”

­”[ISO: Got it. After the drop, the rearm and refuel time will be 20 minutes.]”

When I called in the new coordinates, it took only a few dozen seconds for a rain of fire to fall from the sky.

This is why soldiers must know how to call in close air support. A well-trained JTAC could single-handedly wipe out a brigade-level force if they were lucky.

Of course, cases like this were really rare.

The rest was relatively simple.

There was no longer a need for sniper support, so the four members drove a wedge into the enemy camp in a straight line.

The main threat of this mission was the alarm caused by the overwhelming number of enemies, so if that was neutralized, what remained were just targets.

Clearing a path through the scattered enemy resistance, we headed towards the heart of the Military Academy.

After some time passed,

“…Wow.”

“This is because of the bombardment earlier, right, Teacher Yoo Jin?”

“Yes, it went even better than expected, fortunately.”

On the road leading to the US Military Academy campus,

Five completely destroyed airborne self-propelled guns and the presumed remains of trailing Russian soldiers lay scattered on the road that was utterly wrecked.

Since these vehicles were designed with air transportation in mind, their armor was weak enough to be easily destroyed by cluster bombs, and we had poured missiles capable of penetrating 1400mm armor on top of that….

I wouldn’t bother offering any condolences.

Leaving behind the countless burning remnants that still crackled, we approached the campus where the gunfire was beginning to die down.

A straight distance of about 200 meters.

The targets began to appear.

­”[ISO: Looks like you’re close enough to the destination. I’ll mark the points where allies are holding out. Key locations include the dormitory, coffee shop, academy library, Washington Hall, and post office, scattered across the campus.]”

­”[ISO: There’s no follow-up support from the enemy, but the firepower disparity is significant, so eliminate the enemies as quickly as possible. Once the enemy threat level drops sufficiently, the survivors can be sent to the extraction point.]”

­”[ISO: Good luck.]”

Numerous points marked within a radius of several hundred meters.

The beginning of full-scale urban combat.

For time’s sake, I split the four team members into two pairs and added,

“Alright, then… let’s go.”

The end was near.