Chapter 34 – Rescue (2)
Boo Woo-
The boat runs through the current.
The sky was dark and the waters of the sea were rough and tossed from time to time.
Watching this on the huge screen and loud speakers in the central control room, the sense of realism is comparable to that of a theater movie.
It feels like watching a movie about American soldiers landing in Normandy, but there are two differences.
First of all, this is not a game. Even if the operation goes wrong, it is impossible to restart, and the lives of many people, not just one player, are lost.
Second, the soldiers on the boat are not nervous at all.
Sitting facing each other, the butt on the bottom of the boat, the muzzle pointed toward the sky, and the motionless appearance even evoked the feeling of a religious ceremony.
There are no clichés like a sergeant with a cigar in his mouth and a nervous and trembling recruit.
At the top of the screen, there was a satellite map, the distance to the target point, the dock, the expected time of arrival, the speed of the ship, the status of the squad members, and information such as ammunition.
When performing special missions, it is also shown at the actual operational command center, but the operation rate was displayed instead of vital signs in each squad member information.
In the case of human soldiers, if an arm is severed during an operation, their vital signs will fluctuate immediately, but for them, it is only a matter of a drop in shooting accuracy.
It is only important how many percent of the operation rate that can contribute to the mission is left.
Gurgling.
The warm yet bitter taste melted in my mouth and made my mind sensitive.
I don’t really like bitter things, but right now, anything other than bitterness is a luxury.
[Jinsu, this is a communication request from the marine prison.]
“Is it a rush? Connect.”
Beep.
[Nice to meet you. I heard the story from the warden. Can I call you Manager Seo Jin-soo?]
The voice I heard was not Lee Se-yeong, the head of the temporary prison. Fluent in standard language, but an accent that seems to lack 2%, presumed to be a foreigner.
“Right. Who are you? Where did Director Lee Se-young go?”
[I am Sophia, the former representative of Dongbu-dong. Seyoung is resting. From now on, I will negotiate with you.]
At the end of the communication with Seyoung, the noisy background sound came to mind.
“You believe that? Where should I try to match? By now, the warden seems to be frantic in the kkamppang? Don’t play the obvious, bring the warden. Communication will only be with the warden.”
[I don’t mean to fool you. From the beginning, the eastern wing was under our control. Yesterday’s communication was only briefly giving the prison guards a seat. Things are going normally, so we’re just trying to proceed with the negotiations.]
“I say it for the last time. If you wish to resume communications, bring the Warden. If the warden is dead or unable to communicate, the rescue team will be ordered to return. We’re already taking a lot of risks, so if it keeps going like this, why go further?”
[…Wait a moment.]
Over the communicator, I heard Sophia shouting something in a foreign language.
‘Bring her in now! You idiot in solitary confinement, not him!’ – Ukraine
It was translated in real time on the situation board. Can you see that this is wearing a mask like a young lady?
‘Ha, fuck.’ – Ukraine
Even the voice that was so faint that it sounded like a sigh, Artemis caught it like a knife.
You’re not in the right position to block this woman’s fire extinguisher with your palm. It is a basic skill for Korean reserve forces.
After a while.
[Director Lee Se-young. Is communication possible?]
“I was waiting. It looks like he was in solitary confinement. How is the situation going?”
Through the communicator, the sound of gasping for wind was heard.
[In fact, the east wing here is not under the control of the prison guards. This place is also occupied by prisoners.]
“Is that the first time you’ve heard of it? Only the nuance that the prison guards are controlling it even when we communicated yesterday.”
[I had no intention of cheating. We needed a rescue, and we only delivered the necessary information at the time. I apologize if I was offended.]
Looking back, I didn’t say that the prison guards were controlling the east wing.
“Doesn’t the act of cheating include intentionally skipping certain information?”
I took a sip of coffee.
[Are you listening? I really didn’t mean to cheat! If you want, I’ll even fall down and pray! Do not cut off communication!]
“Calm down. Just drank coffee I don’t quit.”
The moment of silence while drinking coffee seemed to make me think I was angry.
I don’t like the lack of information, but it didn’t start out of sympathy in the first place.
It is a group that must be controlled by force anyway, but it is not really important who is occupying the marine prison right now.
[Thank you. And coffee…]
The sound of saliva going down came all the way from here.
“Please explain the situation. The situation of the self-proclaimed Dongbu-dong representative and the prison guards. From the looks of it, it looks more like a relationship than a cooperative relationship.”
[Isolation here and two weeks later, a rebellion broke out. The rebellion that started in the west wing quickly engulfed the government building, and while the eastern wing was fighting, a rebellion broke out here as well. After that, the prison guards were put in prison and the prisoners controlled it.]
“Two weeks…”
It was eaten very quickly.
“Are the convict groups in the west and east confronting each other?”
[You can see that. There are always many factions in prison. It was fortunate that there were a lot of moderate masters in the east wing, though.]
“There’s something I didn’t ask you yesterday, so why are you resuming communications now? It’s strange that they hold out until the food runs out and then call for help only when they’re about to die of starvation.”
[Communication equipment was damaged in the chaos caused by the mutiny. Prisoners didn’t care at all. On the contrary, he would have liked it because the rebellion was not known to the outside world. Since then, infighting broke out among the prisoners in order to take a little more of the limited food. Well, of course, but.]
Slurp.
When the sound of drinking coffee was transmitted to the other person through the microphone, he felt a flinch.
“Then, since the food ran out, you thought everyone would die, so you called the guards in Kamppang to repair it?”
[Right. Prisoners don’t have the skills to repair and adjust the communicator. To be honest, I didn’t expect anything because it seemed too late, but there was no law telling me to just die. Sophia keeps asking for a change, is it okay?]
“Okay, change it. He must know the situation there better than you, who has been locked up all along.”
The sound of a chair being pulled was heard for a moment.
[This is Sophia. Do you speak Korean?]
“I do not know. My secretary knows.”
Artemis at the top of the screen looked displeased.
“So what do you want to say?”
[Is it true that the rescue team is coming this way?]
“Okay. Three squads of combat troops are moving in boats.”
[Boat? There’s no choice with that. Do you know how many people are here?]
“I’m going to stop at the dock and steal the ferry and drive it away. If you squeeze as much as you can, you can move them all at once. It will be inconvenient to exceed the number of people allowed, but bear with it.”
[Where is it?]
“It means full.”
[Ah.]
Little elasticity.
[Then you have to deal with the bitches of the west wing, but that’s a bit…]
After a while, she said in a worried voice.
“Isn’t it time to cover hot rice with cold rice? You don’t know what problems might arise in the process of going back and forth twice.”
[That is also true. It’s late to say thank you. Thank you so much for your helping hand.]
“Nothing is free in this world. If you come here, you will have to pay for your meal.”
[I know.]
“How is your food situation? I heard it ran out.”
[I haven’t eaten anything since yesterday morning. There are still some of the bitches in the west wing, but.]
“The prison guards? If you had starved for a day, the guards would be on the verge of dying by now.”
[There is no such thing. Food was equally distributed.]
This was a surprise. Prisoners who rioted and distributed food to prison guards?
“Is that a bit arbitrary?”
[I’m not going to live here for the rest of my life. You always have to assume what-if situations, and in order to do that, it’s better for the prison guards to be alive. At the very least, it is better not to support the enemy. Thanks to that, I have a way to live like this now.]
“Aren’t the other prisoners complaining?”
[I can still cover it somehow. Because I am also quite talented.]
He’s definitely tough when he speaks in his native language. It seems that I have a head that thinks of the future.
“Any other questions?”
[Are the supplies there plentiful? I’ve heard from the warden, but I’m concerned. I know because I’ve been in the water business. Dealing with a few hundred people requires a huge amount of supplies, but will you be able to handle this many people in a closed city… Everything will run out in an instant.]
How can I get rid of this useless worry?
“What do you want to eat the most right now?”
Silence for a while.
[Beer. If I could just drink a sip of beer, I would have no wish.]
It’s beer…
“Is it possible to connect video? There is something I want to show you.”
[Video connection? Wait.]
Instead of Sophia, Seyoung answered.
After a while, we could see each other’s faces.
Sophia was a Slavic beauty with an innocent atmosphere. She is in her mid 20’s.
Among them, is it the image of a foreign model appearing in a home shopping women’s underwear advertisement?
“It looks good from this side. How are you there?”
[Looks good. You have a wonderful impression.]
“You can’t afford lip service. Now, look at this.”
While the video connection was being prepared, he shook a can of beer from the refrigerator in the central control room.
A brilliant name engraved on its side.
Cloud
On the other side of the screen, I see Sophia’s eyes shaking like crazy.
Cheek.
How cool is this open sound?
“Ghuo.”
After opening the can for the first time, you can taste the aroma of beer.
The bouncing carbonic acid and spicy scent wafts through your nostrils.
“Gulp.”
Is this sound coming from my throat? Or is it the sound of Sophie on the other side of the screen?
The sweet taste that only 100% fermented undiluted solution can produce fills my mouth.
“Oh ah … This is this! I don’t like beer very much, but this is great whenever I drink it.”
[Are you taking medicine now? This side has survived with only biscuits and water!]
Sophia forgot her own situation and became angry. I must have misunderstood the reason I requested a video connection to mock.
“No, there was something else I wanted to show you. Artemis! Connect the warehouse screen.”
By now, Sophie in the Marine Prison would be looking at a completely different scene, not my face.
[This, this!]
Sophia’s voice sounded in astonishment.
“What you’re looking at right now is the food storage area here. That’s only a small part of it. What do you see?”
[Um, is that all beer?]
“Right.”
The screen that Artemis is sending over there is being relayed to my PDA.
Beer crates piled up like a mountain in a part of a vast warehouse.
“About 200,000 cans? I hope Cloud fits.”
I was thinking about how long I would eat all of that by myself, but it turned out well.
There was no intention of solving it without a countermeasure, and if it was paid like a performance bonus, it would help control the prisoners.
[Can it not be right? Cloud was the best in my store!]
“If you have that many luxury items, you don’t have to explain how plentiful they are, right? We can even produce our own.”
Beyond the burns, Sophia’s coldness has largely disappeared.
When pushed into an extreme situation, even the most resolute person will be shaken by small pleasures.
Even more so, the cloud is a cloud containing a storm of pleasure.
[Almost there. We will start landing soon.]
Rose reported.
“I’m sorry, but I’ll end the communication at this point. The rescue team reached the shore at the target point. The time for small talk is over.”
After Sophia said good luck, communication with the prison was cut off.
On the screen of the central control room, you can see port facilities getting closer and closer over the black night sea.
Covered with concrete, sidewalk blocks and buildings.
[Start of landing. From now on, it will switch to silent communication mode.]
With Rose’s words, a border resembling a small chat window was created at the bottom of the screen.
This is a possible advantage because the operational subjects involved are machines.
When the PDA is operated, one huge scene screen is divided into four.
Rose.
Alpha Squad Leader.
Squad Leader Charlie.
Echo Squad Leader.
The visual information of each unit was transmitted on a 4-split screen.
Cheolpudduck, shoot ah-
The world has been cataclysm, but nothing has changed as much as the sound of waves on the shore.
Boats reach the shore with a small noise digging through the sand.
A screen as if returning to a dark, primitive night without a single light.
Only the red eyes of the security robots facing each other shone.
Cheolpudduck, shoot ah-
The screens seen through the squad leaders bobbed up and down lightly, and the ocher-colored beach came into view beyond the boat’s boundary.
Took.
Hard mechanical feet dig deep into the sand.
It’s the outside world
A world where the concept of walking has now disappeared.
A world where every step could lead to death.
Stepping on the ground for the first time after the infection.
Please wish them good luck.
