Chapter 125 – Guardian Angel
Not long ago, we sent drone carriers to the South Sea to check on a group of survivors across the sea.
Unlike the inland area, which was in a state of extinction, a significant number of survivors could be confirmed.
The closed islands, including Jeju Island and Geoje Island, have eliminated the threat of infectious agents.
Although the conditions are poor due to overpopulation, insufficient supplies, and conflict between forces, survival itself continues without problems.
Thanks to this, we were able to take the time to think about how to approach it.
Anyway, even if I wanted to help here, there is no way right now. We have to cross the ocean, there is interference from the Noise Tree, and there are too many refugees to help compared to the resources we have. The situation is much more difficult than the Berlin airlift.
Nevertheless, there were places where immediate help was needed, even if inefficiently.
Yeosu and Goheung. They are survivors of places connected to the mainland. Yeosu was especially serious.
As confirmed through the first drone reconnaissance, battles with infectious agents occurred there every day and the control order was on the verge of collapse.
Even under difficult circumstances, minimum rations are provided mainly to military bases, but even this is running out.
As supplies in the safe outer areas ran out, we had no choice but to send an exploration team to the dangerous inner areas, and damage is gradually accumulating.
Therefore, a combat drone unit was urgently sent, limited to Yeosu.
The good news is that the risk of infectious agents in the southernmost region is better than inland areas.
First, refugees moved to nearby islands and the land became empty.
This is because it was effective to carry out a simultaneous sweep operation while the military units were escaping to Jeju Island.
Artemis and I replayed the memory of a drone operating in Yeosu.
The first record is a group of survivors running away with a rear cart.
They were civilians, consisting of two men and a woman, who were robbing a rest area far from the survivor camp.
“Keeeeek-!”
With dozens of walkers on the tail.
It seems like they have already finished plundering nearby places and have no choice but to head out to distant places. Looking at how skinny everyone is, it looks like they have been starving for a long time.
The tallest man pulled the cart from the front and the other two pushed from behind.
Inside the truck, snacks, canned food, powdered milk, toothpaste, and ramen with questionable expiration dates were all mixed up.
“Keeeeek-!”
“Omg! “Huh!”
The situation was pessimistic.
When I entered the observation range of the drone carrier, I was already out of breath. Little by little, we were being overtaken by the walkers.
“Fuck!”
The speed slowed down drastically as one of the men pushing from behind gave up on the rear car and left on his own. Even though it was quite a distance away, the voice restoration program was able to reproduce the voice as close to the original as possible.
“Where are you going?”
The man pulling from the front shouted urgently.
“You have to live and see first! Throw that away!”
“What about the babies!”
The woman who was pushing from behind shouted.
“It’s not even my baby, so either chase it or not!”
“Hey you bastard!”
Meanwhile, the walkers came a short distance away, and the woman, who tried to hold on as long as she could, broke away and ran away.
“Damn it!”
The man left alone could not let go of his regrets and dragged the cart until the very end, when he finally gave up.
But it was too late.
Exhausted from pulling the cart with his starving body, he fell to the ground before he could run much. The shadows of walkers appear above him.
Ta-ta-ta-ta-tang!
Nothing happened to him as he closed his eyes tightly.
Boom!
Boo!
A few seconds later, three drones passed over his head as he slowly opened his eyes.
What he saw were drones killing walkers accompanied by loud gunshots.
Perhaps to protect people, he descended a few meters above the walker to attract a lot of attention, but never gave him any distance.
Walkers flailed with both hands reaching for the sky and fell down with blood spraying from their palms and faces.
“Huh…”
Tears flowed from the eyes of the man who looked at the sky with a devastated face.
Boom!
Drones flew high in the air and checked for dangers around them.
The man and woman who ran away approach again in a bicycle.
Puck!
After confirming that the man pulling the cart had ground the bamboo tube of the man who ran away, the drone moved to another area.
There were too many of our citizens in need.
The second record is isolated female divers.
The problem was that they traveled further away than where they usually collected.
There was an abundance of seafood here, but it was dangerous because it was off the patrol course.
Sure enough? As they were trying to return, they discovered a group of infected organisms on the shore.
It appears that they had let their guard down as they were not found on the coast recently.
“Krrrr-!”
Moreover, there were several slave dogs mixed among them. The option of landing in a suitable place and running away is also impossible.
With their landing place blocked, they sat together on a small reef in the sea.
As the days became shorter in winter, the weather was already getting dark.
The weather is good enough for fishing activities during the day, but it’s a different story at night.
As the night wind howled fiercely and stirred their hair, the naked female divers trembled and hugged each other.
Cheolpudeok.
As the sea spray hits the reef where the divers are sitting, spraying white foam, their goosebumps and skin twitch.
Because the day was dark, the eyes of the infected looking at us from the shore seemed to shine more clearly. They were clearly staring at the female divers on the reef.
If night falls like this, even if you don’t freeze to death, you will have major health problems. Moreover, there is no guarantee that they will leave tomorrow morning, and there is no possibility of rescue by the patrol.
A miracle descended on the women who held each other tightly in a hopeless situation.
“What are you talking about?”
Because it was dark, the drone could not be seen clearly.
There was just a buzzing sound, and then yellow flashes simultaneously in the dark sky. Then, the infected organisms on the coast began to fall down.
The divers saw shell casings bouncing around the reef and falling noisily. Even among those who survived the infection war, there is no one who is clueless.
They stared at the shore with their eyes wide open, and jumped into the sea the moment the last infectious agent fell.
Boom!
The drone flew high and checked whether there was any danger along its path.
In the third record, nothing was killed.
We found two groups fighting over a bag of rice that had been distributed: five people who were moving the bag of rice and seven people who came to steal it.
They are ready to fight for their lives, pointing kitchen knives and clumsily sharpened bamboo spears at each other.
The pros and cons were clear to anyone. The 7 people they were trying to steal were adults, and the 5 people they were trying to protect were students.
[What a tragedy.]
Artemis said.
Among the students, there are children who have just entered elementary school.
He was holding a kitchen knife with both fern-like hands and trembling, aiming it at the adult.
Just before they rushed at each other, the drones appeared making noise, and they were startled and stopped the fight.
“Hey, jump! I guess the security forces are here!”
When the furry man who appeared to be the leader of the adults gave a signal, the men all covered their faces and ran away.
It appears that this drone was mistaken for being sent from a military base. That means the troops stationed here are operating drones.
When the adults left, some of the children sat down and started crying. The eldest boy took the sack and headed to their nest. The boy had no shoes and was barefoot.
“That’s surprising. “I can’t believe there is room to use drones not only in Jeju Island but also in an army that has fallen behind.”
[At best, it’s an observation multicopter. It’s impossible to even compare it to the combat drones we use.]
Artemis’ voice was filled with pride.
What makes sense is that the drone we use is a tiltrotor model that uses two rotors.
It demonstrates speed, payload, and energy efficiency that overwhelm multicopter drones operated by the military.
Instead, it has the problem of being difficult to design and having low stability during flight, but these problems are meaningless in the face of Artemis’ perfect algorithm.
“If an astute soldier spots our drones, he might predict the presence of a civilian warlord.”
It is a combat drone that is far superior to military drones, such as drones equipped with live ammunition in countries where the use of firearms is prohibited. It would be strange not to be suspicious.
The fourth provided a service that intercepted radio calls for rescue and went to the rescue.
[We are on the rooftop of the 5th Avenue Mart. Please save me!]
A duo of young men were hanging from the rooftop of a local supermarket, or more precisely, from the signboard at the end of the rooftop.
It seems that they were caught off guard while taking risks to secure food. He was stuck.
Walkers were shouting from the ground and rooftops, targeting young people.
“Wow!”
Then, six drones appeared and wiped out the walkers surrounding the supermarket.
They were standing there with dumb faces, but then they cheered, waving their hands wildly.
“I survived! I lived! Yay!”
The young man, who was waving his arm in greeting at the drone, froze when he saw the descending drone carrier.
Drones fly into the docking bay of an airship, are stored neatly, and are supplied with ammunition by sophisticated mechanical hands.
“Drone aircraft carrier? There was something like this?!”
“Isn’t it the military…?”
They seem to have quite a bit of knowledge about military. It was a face that realized that the entity that saved them was not the national army, but a completely different force.
The fifth record is a military reconnaissance unit in combat.
Five men were extracting oil from a vehicle in the city.
There were two young men in military uniform, one old man, and two older men.
“The enemy! Subway entrance!”
A soldier pointed to a nearby subway entrance. A group of walkers were pouring out from there.
Fighting broke out immediately, but there was a problem.
Only two soldiers were armed with assault rifles. The old man was holding a hunting air rifle, and the two older men were unarmed porters.
Considering that they are not even wearing military uniforms, they appear to be conscripts from among civilians.
While fighting with insufficient firepower, something strange happened.
“Jump up!”
The old man shouted.
An extremely compressed, muscular body with long limbs. Two gibbon-like Reapers jumped out of the subway entrance, moving as if possessed.
At that moment, it was time for active-duty soldiers to reload. Cunningly, the Reapers took advantage of that moment and attacked. A moment of despair flashes across the face of the old man holding the air rifle.
“Kueek-!”
Bullets rained down from the sky and knocked down the Reapers.
Boom!
“Oh!”
The soldiers were the first to react and rejoice. But there was doubt in their eyes.
A combat drone equipped with a tiltrotor and gun. This may be because it was a model that their unit had never seen before.
Six scout drones descended like guardian angels and hovered above the men and fired a salvo.
“Ouch!”
Suddenly, a porter who was showered with hot bullets on his head fell down while running away.
“Shoot!”
Meanwhile, a soldier who had finished loading shouted, and others also added firepower.
When no more infected agents came out, three drones entered the subway entrance to check for additional threats, and the remaining three flew into the sky to scout the surrounding area.
In addition to this, there were endless videos of large and small drone activities.
Meanwhile, there were many groups that attempted to communicate with us through open channels, probably because they anticipated that we would be wiretapping.
Loud radio signals and radio signals were picked up from various survivor camps in Yeosu. They were broadcasting with excited voices.
[This is Okjeok Reservoir Camp. I would like to communicate with those who sent combat drones.]
[This is Park Jin-cheol, leader of the Jangdo Survivor Camp. There is a shortage of food and medicine. Can you help me?]
[This is the Bud Hall. It looks like monsters have built a nest near our camp. Please help.]
There were numerous survivor camps requesting immediate communication. Among them, there were people who tried to steal supplies from children.
[This is Noeul Elementary School camp. I don’t know who it is, but thank you for helping our kids!]
An older woman greeted. She ended with a thank you, expressing confidence in her self-sufficiency.
[Thank you!!!]
After a while, a chorus of children could be heard shouting in unison in deaf voices.
[And then my mouth gets stuck in my ears.]
Artemis said. But her voice also contained joy.
[It is a camp where divers and children stay together.]
She displayed a map of Yeosu City.
The paths of the two groups she rescued in the second and third videos met in an elementary school building.
It seemed that the divers were taking care of the children.
The military unit also attempted to communicate with us.
[This is Lieutenant Colonel Lee Seong-bong. He is the military commander in charge of the defense of Yeosu City. I know you are listening to this communication. I am temporarily entrusted with command of all counties in the inland regions. Furthermore, I would like to know the affiliation of the people who dispatched the drone.]
All of these activities and communications interception occurred beyond the Noise Tree.
The drones maintained silence and continued rescue activities according to a preset algorithm.
At the same time, camps that appeared to be in need of urgent material support were selected and sent to us.
[All right. I will prepare it immediately.]
Chrollo, who was in the central factory complex, responded to my instructions and began organizing relief supplies.
The survivors of Yeosu will each talk about what they experienced or heard about in the camp about the heavenly saviors.
We have officially revealed our existence to the external survivor group.
