The Little Prince in the Ossuary

# Sunrise, or dusk (5)

On January 4, the Independent Battalion was relocated to Ishigaki in Okinawa, Southwest Sea. It is one of the advancement bases secured for Zero Ground descent, expanding its existing airports to provide facilities and facilities for the air transportation of its squadrons. On the day of the Zero Ground descent, we were supposed to catch a plane here. When he was pulling out, he planned to destroy the shippable equipment and withdraw it to the South China Sea's antihelmet, which was a place where he would never come back once he left.

What was a little unexpected for winter was that the island had a large number of civilian settlements distributed. Some of them were actually close to small towns.

I didn't think of them as residents from the beginning. There were traces of infection and destruction all over the island. Given the proximity to the continent, it was understandable.

So at first, I thought it was the resolution of Jungju. It turned out that they were refugees systematically migrated by the U.S. government. Jurisdiction is the Pacific Military Office. It's a kind of colonial business. That's why I couldn't find a Japanese among the island's inhabitants. It was because of the new order that the Kramer administration was pursuing.

Usually military vessels used the island's marina, but occasionally large fishing boats lowered anchors in droves. Even though they were civilian vessels, they were carrying at least one heavy machine gun, bomber, rocket launcher, etc. As long as Melville existed, it was difficult to operate even in the near seas without a large vessel with defensive measures.

Winter after the garrison changed, I occasionally went to a bar in the Civilian Residence. It was the next thing I saw the crew entering in droves.

The shabby interior landscape of the tavern near the base was a lot of places that fit into After the Apocalypse . Now it feels pretty unfamiliar. Every time the wall broke, I nailed the plank. The damp planks were taken from the discarded ammunition box. Sunlight came from every rusted hole in the tin plate covering the roof. Under the faint neon sign, things written in Japanese remained only ancient traces among people who could not read the text. It was just an ornament.

Inside, there was a bar for officers, but winter wasn't what Winter wanted. Tough sailors like to tell tales in their drinks. Stories about monsters being caught in nets that were pulled to the deck.

Residents mingled with each other and talked about how hard everyday life is melting.

Winter, when I pressed on my hat in uniform, I drank a drink and listened to their gossip. They were lively voices that were not conveyed to the mainland.

This was the idea I had when I heard it all.

‘This place is gray. ’

The residents were not in a desperate position. After all, we were free of the threat of the plague, and the lowest consciousness was guaranteed.

But I was castrated to dream of a better life. Therefore, the color of the island was gray. Neither bright nor dark. More like shade, to be honest.

Food produced on the island is exported to full-scale Indonesia. Other islands nearby are the same. Therefore, the value could never be higher. Because if Indonesia suffers from hunger, it will disrupt U.S. resources. Even the Independent Air Armored vehicles and chariots were made of aluminum from Indonesia.

It was also an advantage for the United States that Indonesia remained overpopulated. Thanks to its supply of food in return for mineral resources, Indonesia was still drawing a moderate elevation curve on the population graph at this point.

Therefore, the island's productivity was only built to alleviate the burden on the mainland.

It won't be much different after the U.S. stabilizes.

Winter reminded me of what Yang Yong-bin said one day. Living only to live is miserable.

The stories of people in the gray landscape were not heard as much as life was monotonous. This is why winter's visit has only ended a few times. It was a familiar color for winter anyway, and there were many other problems to be cautious about. Continuous meetings throughout the day, maintaining the fraud of the crew, working on paperwork required for officers, familiarizing yourself with the latest information about the operation, and preparing training plans.

The island training focused primarily on enhancing nighttime combat skills. If the drop succeeds as planned, we'll reach midnight and evacuate before dawn. Because of this, the Independence Battalion and the Russian Air Force have collectively supplied state-of-the-art vision, infrared targeting, and pia identification devices.

When he heard that the price per Yaoscope was 17,000 dollars, he reasoned that the Air Force's Captain Davidov was ridiculous.

“It's more expensive than the most expensive thing I've ever known. We need to know what the Americans are up to. ”

Still, it showed performance corresponding to that value. It was winter with a better night snow than a dizzying level of field of vision due to the calibration of the Environmental Adaptation and Firearms Skilled families, but this field of view was really useful. High resolution, good sensitivity, and, above all, less visibility.

‘At least on the night of the operation, even if we land, we'll be able to kill the mutants unilaterally. ’

It was a judgment based on the performance of the team's training.

As long as the armored car machine gun is not equipped with a silencer, there is a high chance of landing combat at at the beginning of the descent.

While training in the mountains of the northern part of the island, various types of fighters and bombers rose and landed on the beach. Soldiers who watched the scene at a distance would get psychological comfort from the ongoing bombings day and night.

One unexpected thing was that even on a small island, Japanese soldiers who stepped on the land of their country did not show this kind of tremor.

Also, they have never shown any unusual misadaptation or complaints.

Throughout the training, I checked in person, but all I had to do was smile and say okay.

Winter was hard to distinguish between whether the quiet conformity of Japanese soldiers was really their nature or whether they were obeying and watching the order separately from their instincts. A dreadful life in a refugee area also made that tendency stronger.

In other words, the boundary between Hone and Tate was the fence of Japanese refugees.

I also heard a disturbing story from Chongcheol.

Under the surface of the water was a communal-scale distraction, discrimination and store.

This seems to be retaliation for the gangsters who took the lead the other day and for some of those who were actively relocated to them.

So it will be a ritual even in winter.

‘It's better to exclude them as openly as the Chinese. ’

It sounds natural, but it is more difficult to cross the invisible fence than it appears. I usually felt a subtle sense of distance.

I'm not saying I don't trust them as leaders. In the last half year, the strong Mexican plateau to accumulate practical experience did not end with a single occupation of Oahaka Airport, during which each squadron demonstrated reliable capabilities.

Only winter was to think after returning from Zero Ground. If that solid wall remains, it will be difficult to join the alliance in the direction winter hopes.

If winter were to be so disappointed, how would spring interpret that disappointment?

Winter smiled bitterly at the end of her mind.

All of this will be done once we return safely and without delay.

On January 18, an emergency briefing was held. It was always a briefing, but the information conveyed on that day made the officers, including winter, quite embarrassing.

“Fire... You mean? ”

In response to someone asking, Lt. Gen. Rogers changed the projection screen in front of the conference room instead of answering. Officers watching live satellite footage groaned without exception. Some of the ridges are already charred, and the pink border extends the area at the edges. A glowing band of iron hangs on the edge of the Tibetan plateau.

A new question came up.

“Sir. Do you think that fire could directly affect our operation? ”

The lieutenant was partially denied.

“It is unlikely that it will spread to zero ground. However.”

The screen has changed again.

“If the fire continues to spread, there may be a slight problem with blocking the stronghold. ”

What he showed was the distribution of mines that had been sprayed. Overlapping the location of the wildfires here, it was clear that a large number of mines had already exploded because of the heat. If it was a landmine, it would have been more resistant to fire, but it was hard to expect it to reach the landmine scattered from the sky.

Colonel Brusilov pats his chin at the map.

“Literally a bit of a problem. ”

Colonel Davidov, a fellow battalion commander, agreed.

“Even with that, you can't disable all the mines. The worst case scenario will be minimally resistant. There's a real problem. That the fire wasn't spontaneous. ”

Winter also nodded. As I thought before, mines are weapons that refuse access. And it took that long to plant three million mines. There is still a section of spraying in progress. The cunning ones must have had their doubts.

The U.S. and Russian officers had an exchange of opinions across classes.

“That's the fire you set on purpose to get rid of the mines? ”

“It's worth a try if they have a basic understanding of gunpowder, assuming they've got some idea of our intentions. ”

“Well, it's weirder not to know that I've been hurt.... ”

“That's a simple idea, though. If he goes in there like that and another mine explodes, he's going to be disappointed. ”

“Disappointed?”

“That's why, when I saw someone who had stabbed himself in the head before, I guess I didn't feel bad. ”

“Hm. Maybe the fire you just started just to melt your body grew accidentally." Or the bombing on our side was a setback. ”

“You've never bombed a landmine before? ”

“It's bad to take things too seriously, but it's better to assume the worst. But it's true that there are unexpected weaknesses in existing containment networks. ”

“Can't we put up a request for reinforcement in that section? ”

“That's a bit……. We've also pushed the number of available resources and schedules to the limit, and if you ask us to spray more of them, we'll also color them up there. And eventually, somewhere, you have to have low density intervals. Unless we postpone the operation at all. ”

“Once the lights are out, so be it. Now's the time to watch. We have no idea how big that fire is. In a backyard where there was so little snow, everything was dry. ”

“We need to be wary of what's going on down there. With a smoke screen like mine, it's not unusual for 10,000 variants to have shifted away from observation. ”

Trickster clearly recognizes that the sky is humanity's domain. Long-term landmine spraying has also revealed its intentions too clearly.

The winter I was listening to intervened moderately.

“I agree. When I was in Fort Roberts, a mutant group containing Tricksters set fire to a nearby base in an attempt to disrupt aerial surveillance and disable firepower support. The same was true of the battles that followed. You all know that there are a lot of similar examples. ”

An air force officer nods.

“Well, there was a special monster in the smokehouse for a while.... ”

“What? I've never heard that story before. ”

“It's on the American record. Acryd. Though it was quickly wiped out, nothing much. ”

In the course of several opinions, there was no one who expressed any concern about the change in the situation. The perfect plan exists only theoretically. Winter reminded me of the oral words of Sergeant Pierce, who was long before the lieutenant's captain.

Death on the battlefield is the first mission.

Some jokes that the operation only exists on paper. If a soldier had ever been in a battle, he would gain experience.

‘I didn't think it would go well. ’

But winter felt a little sad. During the long preparation process, I expected the temperature of the waiting person to be forced into the position of longing. It would have to be called a human naivety. It was a distant feeling from the winter when life was not foolish.

The briefing ended with a line to inform joint task force officers of the situation. It was because the fire response at the beginning was a question of whether it could be done at a higher level. Even on the mainland of the United States, there was a fire path that would have been hard to contain.

Over the coming years, simultaneous fires erupted in more areas. The range generally matched the area where the mines were planted. At least it was clear that the mutants were setting the fire on purpose.

But not enough variables to postpone the operation.

In anticipation and anxiety, the day of destiny finally arrived.