───Boom!

"Using all the energy we have, both left and right. There’s no other display quite like this."

"The flare looks amazing."

The flares, bright against the clear sky, illuminate the scene, with missiles falling around and five unmanned aerial vehicles descending from the air. A procession of five, resulting in a total of twenty-five unmanned tanks descending upon the city of Yelm. The sound of the gears turning is merely an added bonus.

As the catapult equipped with a railgun that reaches speeds of Mach 8 rolls into action, several surface-to-air missiles soar through the sky from somewhere within the giant military base located south of the joint command center. The reason our transport plane fired the flares was precisely because of that.

Amidst the scattering of aluminum fragments and bursts of flame, a display akin to a grand fireworks show begins. One transport plane catches fire in its engine, but it does not crash; after all, such aircraft can fly with just one engine.

With over twenty SAMs flying in, if we've only lost one or two engines, that’s a miraculous exchange.

"…Ah, ah. We’re breaking through the front line as of now. Please designate the target."

"Confirmed."

During this time, a sudden voice comes from the tank, halting its movement. It seems the voice synthesizer inside the tank has activated. It was now time to utilize the infrared laser designator attached to the Icarus gear.

Placing a hand on the side of the tank, I connect to the internal system, and various functions pop up. While it would be possible to replenish ammunition or tactical equipment that was running low, the most crucial aspect at this point was to enable the optical enhancement setting for the Icarus gear before we arrived at the battle zone.

There’s a high chance that the tank could get destroyed by sudden bombardments or artillery fire upon arrival, or we could face access issues due to jamming signals... In fact, the likelihood of such occurrences was nearly 100%. This realization came from years of battlefield experience.

Meanwhile, separate from that:

• "It’s been a while since I’ve seen a Guardian. I only saw prototypes when I was messing around in New York."

• "Development progress sped up only after completely wrecking Artemis, so it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it’s finally being supplied now."

The M3 Guardian unmanned tank.

I only recall seeing prototypes from DARPA rolling around, but seeing this on the battlefield now truly fills my heart with grandeur. Specifically, it had become so grand that I exchanged secret conversations with Logan, excluding Harmony and Dice.

With a low, small engine sound opposite its size, the catapult began to roll. As Logan and I stepped onto the tank, Harmony and Dice timidly climbed on, and soon all the nearby users initiated a tank descent.

Of course, at this point, it was crucial to borrow the tank's computational power to slightly enlarge the optical enhancement to avoid any unfortunate demise later on. Other users might not be aware of this, but I was.

Approximately four minutes later, while we were resupplying the anchor launchers from the tank, we finally arrived back at the melted plain where thousands of users had fallen.

The difference from earlier was that this time, we had brought some stronger friends along.

───Thump!

A strange sound mixing railgun fire and main cannon noise, followed by simultaneous explosions. About a hundred unmanned turrets began falling silent one by one, while half of the tanks rotated their barrels skyward and opened fire.

Boom. In that instant, something exploded in the sky. It was evident without even looking what it was. It was intercepting incoming self-propelled artillery shells. Given the heavy fire support from the other side, we couldn’t stop them all, but we could easily fend off the decisive bombardments aimed at our tanks.

Amidst this, the tank we were riding in began amplifying the optical enhancement.

"Good luck to us."

The voice from the synthesizer rang out amidst the continuous firing of high-explosive shells. Only I, and Logan, knew that this was not just an in-game voice but a voice heard directly from reality.

Simultaneously, the fifteen smoke grenades carried by the tank were uniformly deployed along the prearranged maneuvering route. A few other tanks also responded, deploying about four or five to ensure the smoke wouldn’t dissipate easily, and soon a large cloud of smoke formed over the gaping plain.

We dashed through the gap. A massive base that looked ridiculously large even at first glance. It must have mobilized hundreds of thousands of unthinking numbers to nearly level a mountain and build a base atop it.

───Kaang!

The anchor that shot out from the launcher caught something above. Gunfire could still be heard from above, and bombs were dropping hundreds of meters behind us. It felt like something out of WW2, but originally, battlefields could indeed be such bizarre spaces.

It was more important to achieve the given objective by any means possible, so there was no need to worry.

Climbing the wall while plugged into the ascender. Basically, a blockhouse adjusts the firing angles based on crossfire, so if the optical enhancement were to be disabled, there was a high possibility of bullets hitting the softer sides or back. Thus, the speed was neither too slow nor too fast, but that exact point was nerve-wracking.

After climbing about several dozen meters, results began to show.

"…These guys really do seem to have minds similar to the French soldiers salvaged from WW2."

"It's a scaled-down version of the Maginot Line. Just how many soldiers do you think dug this out?"

A densely connected line of defense, a colossal base constructed by cutting through mountains and digging into the earth.

As Logan glanced around, he opened a map to check the distance between this place and the Lewis-McCode Joint Base, then added with a subtle expression.

"Let’s do what we can, and if it doesn't work, let’s bring in bunker busters or laser hydrogen bombs."

"In the end, that’s the only answer; it seems the trip here was pointless."

"There’s a significant difference between conclusions drawn from rough estimates and those derived from measurements. Since we are quite far from the joint base, we can comfortably unleash firepower."

Clank.

As Logan, Dice, and I prepared the steam napalm and incendiary grenades for immediate use as agreed, Harmony busily manipulated the Icarus gear.

A hacking pulse enveloped a radius of 300 meters. From now on, Harmony could partially utilize the facility’s basic operation functions, and we planned to use them very effectively.

"Everyone knows about the oxygen generation feature, right? It would be troublesome if you faint from hypoxia, so always keep an eye on the UI."

"Yes."

"Then we will now proceed."

It was the moment when the four-member shock team set foot inside the facility.

───Boom!

"Ah, hot!"

"Cough, cough…!"

"Semyeon, damn it…!"

The ventilation system shut down, the gates closed, and flames erupted.

Though it was a fortress built by squeezing out every last bit of capacity to trap intruders during an emergency, if the function itself were seized, it would all be for nothing. It meant that reinforcements were blocked, and our troops were trapped.

When the worst-case scenario that everyone had anticipated became a reality, the situation was nothing short of disastrous.

"Enemy spotted in sector Gamma-3! Our exit is blocked! We can’t get out!"

"Engage, Vimpel Team. Closed circuit confirms four enemies."

"Because of those four, everyone here is getting picked off one by one!"

The engagement protocol was quite simple.

First, close the gates to divide the enemies.

Second, turn off all the lights on the ceiling to create darkness.

Third, detonate the napalm.

This simple yet effective priority of engagement made it impossible to identify the enemies using thermal imaging or night vision, and the enemies, unable to find an exit, were either killed by the two murderous tanks that approached through the darkness, had their heads severed from their bodies, or succumbed to hypoxia.

The fire consumed oxygen, and with the ventilation system inoperable, oxygen intake was zero. Only operators with spare oxygen masks in their multi-purpose pouches and the ability to generate oxygen through the Icarus gear could survive in hypoxic or anoxic environments.

As personnel losses gradually increased, the allied forces had no choice but to take drastic measures.

"Bring explosives, breach the partition, and rescue our troops! Seal off all other routes!"

"You should have done this sooner, damn it…."

Explosives piled up in front of the massive iron partition, which was ten centimeters thick. Due to the lack of materials and available time, it wasn’t going to be like the gigantic bombproof doors typically seen in large bunkers.

Thus, the bombproof door was blown to smithereens. The explosion was so immense that even the self-propelled artillery units outside, busy reloading for follow-up fire, had to make emergency contact, thinking their ammunition depot had exploded.

As the explosion subsided, allied troops began to hurriedly escape through the torn door, all with fear etched in their eyes.

"I’ll reorganize the troops, so retreat to the reserves!"

"Ah! It’s coming! An immortal wrapped in flames! That partition, that partition!"

"This is insane. What the hell is happening inside?"

They aimed their guns, waiting for any potential enemies, but naturally, it was impossible for the enemies to crawl out unharmed from the gaping space. The base commander reported the number of lost allied troops and the isolation zone to the higher-ups.

However, some truly perplexing facts began to surface.

"Are you telling me that only four enemies came in here? Are you asking me to believe that 320 lives were lost to just four people?"

"…I have no further comments."

Even if the base commander was broad-minded enough to understand that fact, once he reported it to the upper command, he would surely be bombarded with insults like stars in the night sky, enough to dry up and evaporate even the sea.

Yet, despite everything, there was nothing they could do. It was literally true that only four had invaded, and the nightmare captured by the CCTV supported the fact that it was not a dream.

Even at this moment, the CCTV in the gamma sector was breaking down one by one. Although they had closed off the bridges that blocked the sectors and sealed them with partitions… what if the enemies were those 'shadows'? What if they were Icarus operators who wouldn’t die even if killed?

In the firmly sealed conference room, a plethora of debates ensued.

"Where do you think they will go next?"

"Realistically speaking, they would likely move around gathering information and head to the command center or server room, where the fortifications are laid out."

"Don’t be foolish. We cannot overlook the fact that they are Icarus operators. A few pulses would give them a rough idea of the internal blueprints."

"This is dizzying."

There’s no way a sharp answer would arise from this.

Still, not knowing and getting hit is completely different from knowing and getting hit. At the very least, the latter allowed them to train soldiers hastily for manual opening of the doors and urgently distribute oxygen masks and tanks to prepare for any potential combat.

All that remained was to respond. If they lost any more internal power, it would be difficult to maintain control of the base without the self-propelled artillery battalion in the rear and the guided missiles from the destroyers in the Seattle sea.

The fact that the enemies were dismantling the turrets one by one with airborne tanks was also a significant threat.

After a brief moment of contemplation, he added.

"Are we able to get in touch with Brigadier Pushkin in the Gamma sector?"

"…Contact was lost 13 minutes ago."

"What about data purging?"

"Reset completed, and network blockade was successful."

"I can only hope he revealed as little information as possible."

In the heavy atmosphere, the meeting continued.

After that, the staff kept compiling reports from the lower soldiers, and as time flowed on – roughly 20 minutes later, the top brass suddenly realized that the four-man infiltration team had not been sighted in either the Beta or Delta sectors… or anywhere else.

Of course, no one thought that they could breathe easy about the situation. If four people could wipe out an entire sector, it was far more likely that they were hiding somewhere, plotting an unimaginable scheme.

And indeed, it was just as said.

───Crackle!

"Is anyone nearby?"

"Not that we know of yet."

"Confirm. Just thirty more seconds… Secure the exit first, and eliminate all enemies lingering at the exit point cleanly."

"Of course."

A flash erupts from inside the pitch-black hangar.

After slicing the exterior of the Iskander missile with a torch, we pry open the casing and extract a 300kg sphere - a plan proposed by Eugene in San Jose. While the parallel world’s Logan knew about it, the Logan from this world was completely unaware of this insane operation.

It was such a bold plan that even Logan momentarily shut his mouth. However, the undeniable fact was that if everything went smoothly, we could turn this massive fortress to ashes by the end of today.

"…Alright. Let’s give it a shot. We’ll each carry a nuclear warhead. Take Dice with you. The little one can go with Lorentina’s cherished green cat."

"Confirmed. Where should we set the exit point?"

"If respawning is possible, then we can simply burn together without worrying, but that’s a bit unsettling… I see there’s a highway number 5 to the north; we’ll head west along that route. Is there any objection?"

"No objections."

"Ugh…!"

The enormous, seemingly heavy round metal piece barely squeezes into the bag. Eugene and Logan, moving much faster than regular folks, finally catch up to Harmony and Dice.

The four of them sequentially place their feet on the ladder. Two carry the 300kg load up the ladder, then almost leaving behind the ascender that nearly got damaged, they exit through the pre-cut rooftop and scatter as agreed.

"I’m glad we didn’t turn on the stream."

That thought crossed Eugene's mind.

While he informed Logan how to trigger the gyro sensor connected to the nuclear warhead, he felt it wouldn’t be good to share such information with Dice and Harmony, so he planned to have them close their eyes or look elsewhere when installing the bomb.

She thought about that while heading towards Delta Sector with Harmony, while Logan and Dice moved towards Beta Sector.

Meanwhile, Harmony continued speaking.

"I once accidentally saw a defense TV program when I was young, and it was the first time I saw what a nuclear briefcase looked like. I never knew what it really meant until now… thanks to you, Eugene."

"Even knowing about this won’t make it flesh and blood, so we should keep it hush-hush."

"Seriously, this is maddening."

Harmony, and likely Dice as well.

They were inching one step closer to the darkness of the world today.

It was spring.