NoveLight ™
“Wow, why is it so warm here when it’s winter?”
“It’s because it’s a city built in the middle of the desert. This time of year is probably the best time to visit the actual city, too. But if you come in the summer, you’ll roast.”
“Wow, it sounds perfect for you, Yujin.”
“Do you think I’m a desert rattlesnake?”
My favorite weather is hot with high humidity... in other words, the summer in Korea, not a dry desert climate.
Anyway, back to the main topic—this was the Deer Valley Airport located in the northern part of Phoenix. Everyone present was heading toward the briefing room.
In short, the Dagger Team, along with Harmony and Dais, had finally set foot in Phoenix. After being unable to proceed last time due to scheduling issues, we had regrouped about five days later. Naturally, the viewers’ reactions were hotter than a furnace.
I checked our journey so far through the UI. We had moved from Houston to Corpus Christi, then to San Antonio. After that, we took a transport plane to Tucson, completed our tasks there, and finally reached Phoenix. Next up was San Diego, where we would conclude this mission.
Separately, I opened my mouth while glancing at the chat window.
“By the way, I heard there’s still no clearing party announced.”
The moment I posed that question, the chat went wild. It was as if raw meat had been tossed into a river full of piranhas.
In any case, extracting only the important information confirmed from the chat, it appeared that the difficulty level was officially ramping up from this point onward. For instance, the enemies’ armor was becoming more formidable, their organization had strengthened, and not only were the previously used improvised armored vehicles deployed, but tanks and missiles were being mobilized as well.
Of course, we knew the reason.
‘In the end, it’s China’s fault.’
The Chinese military that crossed the Pacific was invading the U.S. alongside an alliance of the Sinaloa Cartel, South Pacific Cartel, and Juárez Cartel. They must have provided tactical training along with equipment. It was like outsourcing and simultaneously acting as mercenaries for the Chinese military.
The method was simple. A Chinese aircraft carrier group had made contact with the cartels in Mexico’s Sonora and Sinaloa states while traveling up the Cortez Sea—though not American soil, it was Mexican territory—gifting them all sorts of weapons and sending them off to Phoenix.
With a distance of roughly 300 km, it would take only about 4 hours by vehicle. Alternatively, they could fly in helicopters, which would be excessive for the cartels. It meant that troops were continuously being reinforced.
At this point, it was necessary to briefly discuss the current situation in Phoenix.
Coincidentally, we had arrived at the briefing room.
Phoenix was essentially a city divided in half by the Salt River, simply put, split into the northern and southern banks. The northern bank fell under U.S. military jurisdiction, but the southern bank was different; in short, everything south of the Salt River had been consumed by the cartels and the Chinese.
Furthermore, to the southeast of Phoenix was the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, which served as the replenishment point for manpower. There were even rumors that SAM missile batteries had been set up, making it hard to approach carelessly. Of course, there were indeed surface-to-air missile sites.
All those facts seemed to be no different here, as the information presented in the briefing was largely similar.
But that wasn’t all.
“...Additionally, unfortunately, Phoenix has another Achilles' heel.”
“What is it?”
“Would you take a look at this?”
At that moment, a map was unfurled.
Just a few dozen kilometers east of Phoenix was something that was already known to some, but others would be seeing it for the first time.
The Granite Reef Dam. An extremely important facility that provides irrigation and drinking water to Phoenix. While the cartels might not care, if the Chinese military saw this facility, they would likely occupy or blow it up. The live footage showed that it was still intact.
According to the following explanation, several U.S. military outposts were established around that facility. If any suspicious individuals approached, they would deal with them autonomously, and if that failed, they would dispatch a rapid response team. However, the reason for sharing this was simple: if substantial force was projected, there was no guarantee they could be stopped.
I nodded and scanned the overall map of Phoenix. South of the Salt River was painted red, with numerous skull marks scattered throughout. According to the explanation, these were densely populated enemy areas or strongholds. Notably, the largest skull mark was attached to the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.
Though I pretended to think, I had already discussed how we would act through private chats. To put it bluntly, engagements in Phoenix were a race against time. The longer we dragged it out, the more the enemies would deploy reconnaissance balloons and drones to scout the surrounding terrain.
When we landed in Tucson, there were no SAM batteries—if there had been, the transport planes would have been in chaos—but if left unchallenged, it would only be a matter of time before surface-to-air missile batteries were established. The enemies occupying the airport were likely well aware of this fact, and they might even know that we had landed.
We couldn’t afford to give the enemy any leeway.
As we seemed lost in thought, one of the operational staff members in Phoenix added.
“For now, you can afford to take a day to rest and contemplate. We have several proposed plans for operations that we can review later.”
“That's fine. I’ve already thought things over to some extent.”
“Excuse me?”
Before the enemy could gather their wits or collect sufficient information, we would strike.
If only we had the DDP-52 here, but unfortunately, that was left in Houston as it couldn’t be carried around. At this point, it was too late to lament what we didn’t have, so I decided not to dwell on it.
We would infiltrate under the cover of night and do everything we could.
“Please provide the airport blueprints, along with any information collected about the facility so far. I’ll ensure we reclaim southern Phoenix within a few days.”
“...Understood. Is there anything else you need?”
We smiled and added.
“Please provide as many explosives as possible. We’ll take care of the remaining gases and such.”
That was the end of it.
The sun began to set.
“...It seems like they don’t understand the concept of insulation and soundproofing here.”
“On the other hand, it might also mean they don’t care much.”
On the rooftop of a high-rise building near the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.
I marked surrounding enemies through special binoculars and deployed stealth drones to survey the entire airport. In this vast area of approximately 14 square kilometers, enemies were swarming. There were easily thousands of them. The guards around the base were cartels, while the individuals inside performing relatively more important tasks bore Eastern features.
The runway’s guiding lights twinkled. Of course, what was landing wasn’t a transport aircraft but something resembling a stealth helicopter.
Additionally, a few tanks and a dozen armored vehicles were moving along the roads below. Naturally, they would be the greatest obstacles for this operation.
“What do we do about those?”
“We could put a Sicario mine in the cockpit beforehand, or we could attach thermite grenades to the barrels, or stick penetrative adhesive bombs in the ammo depot, and that would do it. It’s not that difficult. In fact, coaxial machine guns or upper machine guns would be more of a nuisance.”
Of course, these words were all rooted in experience.
And as always, we divided into reconnaissance and infiltration teams, acquiring information through wireless interception while checking when the guards would switch shifts. The current time was around 8 PM, and communications had noticeably dwindled. It seemed like it was mealtime.
That might be their last supper.
Since we were near the airport, the surroundings were literally barren. There were only a few trees and grasses growing nearby, so it didn’t seem like it would serve as cover. However, optical camouflage could be effectively utilized anywhere, especially during night infiltrations.
“Stop.”
While standing at the forefront, Logan signaled.
As we stood quietly, a few individuals nearby the airport building were having an argument. Two or three Chinese soldiers and four or five cartel members. It wasn’t particularly intense, but it didn’t seem like their differences would be bridged.
When I amplified the volume, the contents were as follows.
“Damn it, I told you not to smoke during the guard duty. When night falls, the light from the cigarette can be seen from everywhere.”
“Hey, Ching-Chi. Consider the position of someone staring at this desolate land for six hours a day. Doesn’t that upper management who smokes our cocaine allow us to smoke a damn cigarette?”
…Well, they were certainly acting in a way that deserved criticism.
In any case, fortunately or unfortunately, the Chinese soldiers cursed and returned to where they came from, and the cartel guards began laughing and took out cigarettes as soon as those soldiers left. They lit the cigarettes and took deep puffs. It was a truly ridiculous sight.
As I watched, Laurentina added a line.
“It seems like it’ll be their last cigarette.”
I couldn’t disagree with that.
And true to her words, within just 30 seconds, the four guards’ necks were snapped, sending them on the express train to heaven. We had containers and construction materials around, so we hid them suitably and performed a pulse scan. With no further troops around, we approached the airport entrance. We cut the fence and cautiously slipped inside.
We moved past the shuttle storage area and the airport fire station, which was now an armored vehicle repair shop. The airport was structured around the runway, so we had to move between the buildings.
Naturally, our target was the enemy vehicles.
With a peeing sound, the pulse scanner activated again, sweeping through the repair shop.
Silhouettes moved in real time. They seemed to be working on vehicles. There were several dozen vehicles inside, and there were quite a few people nearby who were giving orders or doing maintenance.
Fortunately, there were no people within a 200m radius, and there were several containers that could be used for hiding bodies inside the repair shop, so hiding them seemed straightforward.
Then what happened next.
“It’s a delightful night, isn’t it?”
“Who—gack!”
Instead of thinking we could just deal with it casually, Laurentina confidently walked in, completely locked the door leading outside, greeted the lead engineer with a smile, and immediately blasted his head with a silenced pistol.
The closest person to the shark swung a wrench in resistance, but with a quick chop from Laurentina, his neck was completely crushed. In that instant, the cartel and Chinese maintenance personnel dropped their weapons and begged for mercy, and Laurentina asked the most experienced one a variety of questions.
“Where do you store the repaired vehicles or tanks?”
“Ah, uhm, they’re all stored in the A-23 hangar. There’s a large area nearby where a lot of people can stay, so we can deploy immediately at any time…”
“Nice, good. Uhuhuh…”
Pick!
At the same time, Laurentina drew her gun and, after exchanging the magazine, shot a bullet into each of their bodies. Of course—if that’s even necessary—since the non-lethal shock rounds were used, all personnel in the hangar were rendered unconscious.
It took about 3 minutes to move all of them into a container, and according to the additional information we gathered through physical persuasion, we headed toward that hangar.
Of course, there was something we had to do first.
“Before that, I think we need to interrogate a few more. How about we take 5 minutes to gather information and then meet back at the designated location?”
“What kind of information should we bring?”
“We just need to find out the location and name of the logistics officer and the operations control room. We can’t exactly go around this massive place trying to figure out what’s stored here.”
Sure. After all, the internal network probably wasn’t functioning properly, and if that was the case, it would be better to look for something like handwritten ledgers... but in the end, this was enemy territory.
Thus, there wasn’t much to hide.
Logan chuckled, and I responded similarly. After all, we had the most black-ops agent among us, so it was only fitting that they were thinking along such lines.
Of course, I was also heading off to do some serious business.
“Anyway, we’ll all be fine. Don’t think of causing any commotion.”
“Of course.”
“See you later.”
With that, the three of us who had been having this turbulent discussion dispersed.
Since everyone was equipped with pulses, finding personnel wasn’t a problem. As for me, I headed in a straight line toward the area where the most communication traffic was being detected, thinking that I would turn everything upside down as long as I stayed within the coverage limits.
A while later, what I saw as I infiltrated the ticketing building was the three Chinese soldiers who seemed to be enjoying something delicious in a restaurant inside the building. I quickly identified the rank on their uniforms. Two were lieutenants, and one was a captain.
I didn’t know what confidence they had to eat something secretly in a place like this at night, but I didn’t particularly care. I got as close as possible and shot each one in the leg with a stun round, and they fell over their chairs, gasping for air.
I grabbed the necks of the three and dragged them to the furthest corner, locking the door tightly in case they screamed, and activated the soundproofing feature. I placed the radios attached to their pouches neatly on the table.
“Ugh…!”
“Shh.”
While twirling my safety-locked pistol with my finger, I activated the automatic translation feature.
“The logistics officer and the location of the operations control room, as well as the name of the logistics officer. If you tell me these three things, you’ll be able to quietly get through tonight.”
Of course, what I pulled out next was a hammer and an axe.
As soon as one of them frowned, I held the hammer in my right hand, tapped on the solid concrete wall, and told them to watch carefully before swinging it with all my strength.
As a result, a chunk of concrete chipped off along the swinging path, fragments scattering everywhere like an explosion had occurred, revealing a deep indentation that showed the exposed steel rebar.
Their reaction was immediate.
“Ha, of course I’ll tell you. If you go about 200 meters north from your current position, there’s the Aerodynamic Simulation Center and Training Building, and the operations control room is right next to that building.”
“The first floor of the airport office is used as the logistics department. You should head there. The logistics officer’s name is Gao Jin (高津), and he’s a uniquely bald man. You’ll probably recognize him immediately when you see him.”
It was truly a smooth response.
With a word of thanks, I cranked the stun setting on my weapon to maximum.
“If you ever get the chance to surrender to the U.S. military, please explain this situation in great detail.”
Bang, bang, bang.
At the same time, leaving the fainted bodies behind, I opened the communication network.
“Did you all hear that?”
“You really are a smart kid, huh, heh heh.”
“It seems like you’re lucky, too.”
As I heard a word from everyone, I wrapped up the interrogation that hadn’t really been a true interrogation in just under 3 minutes.
“Indeed, conversation is the greatest invention of sentient beings. Isn’t it?”
Everyone was not being honest.
Anyway, the night was deepening.
The operation was not yet over.
thxxx
Thanks for the chappy!