Chapter 1464: Charging In (4) |
“Sir, over there. We’ve got movement.”
Reggie Mercer frowned when his adjutant pointed in a direction. He looked through his binoculars and, sure enough, he could see something in the distance.
Is that all? Really?
The distance between him and the location pointed out was considerable, making it hard for him to get a visual confirmation through his binoculars. The surveillance footage shot by the cameras should give him a clearer picture, but as far as he could see right now… That group was not big at all.
At most, there were fewer than thirty people over there.
Depending on one’s view, thirty could be a lot or too few. However, no one would disagree that that number was way, way too low for a group wanting to fight Mercer’s armored division. Unless they were morons, that was!
“Huh. So, this whole thing wasn’t a joke?”
Mercer’s expression grew stiff, cold.
He really wanted to be gracious about this whole situation. He really did. But things were getting more and more ridiculous for him to do that. At this point, he had to question if those people were trying to make fun of him or something.
“Unfortunately, little to none, sir. The entire operational area has been blocked off completely. Better still, our location being the middle of a remote desert means it’s unlikely for a group of civilians to randomly show up. But let me get the confirmation, just in case.”
Mercer nodded, his brows still deeply furrowed. Those folks being civilians sounded more likely. But his instincts said otherwise.
“Should we attack first…? Mm, no. That ain’t right.”
Mercer slowly shook his head.
With the targets in plain sight, it would’ve been so easy to blow them away to kingdom come. That would end this… idiotic training exercise on the spot.
However, Mercer was a soldier. The idea of attacking unidentified enemies first didn’t sit well with him. Besides, doing so also went against the rules of engagement, didn’t it?
“For now, we wait,” said Mercer.
“But, sir. They are within range.”
“I know. But we’re on standby, soldier!”
“Yes, sir!”
While the adjutant stepped back, Mercer narrowed his eyes.
Fine. We’ll humor you.
A part of him wanted to blow the target away with a surgical artillery strike. However, a soldier like him must remain level-headed at all times. He had to remind himself that the brass wouldn’t want to see an outcome like that.
Indeed, their aim must’ve been to obtain as much useful data as possible through actual combat.
Artillery was undoubtedly a part of the army’s combat power, but using it now would also lead to a result no one wanted to see. Since that was the case, Mercer should wait until the enemy had…
“Mm?”
Mercer’s thoughts were interrupted just then, and he furrowed his brow again. He could see something strange happening at the target’s location.
The group of people, who resembled nothing more than dots due to the distance, suddenly began emitting bright light.
Huh? Light?
Mercer reflexively looked up at the sky.
They were still in the middle of a desert, where the relentless sun was out in full force to torment the poor humans below.
However, emitting such bright light in this desert…? How did they do that?
What are they doing over there?
Mercer didn’t have time to ponder that question too deeply as even more questions flooded his mind. The brilliant light soon began taking some kind of shape in the air. And then, it turned into a bizarre symbol Mercer had never seen before.
“…Are we looking at a new type of weapon system developed by our enemy nation?”
After muttering that, Mercer’s expression crumpled hideously.
“Sir! Should we respond?”
“What’s the matter with you? Did they fire at us first? What will you say after shooting at them first? That they were emitting light and scribbling something weird in the air? And that’s why you blew them away with our artillery?”
“I… My apologies, sir!”
Mercer suppressed his irritation at the adjutant and resumed glaring at the strange glowing symbol still floating mid-air.
I don’t know what you’re doing over there, but go ahead and try it!
Because, regardless of what the enemy had in mind, Mercer’s men would simply blow them away out of existence!
Just as his thoughts reached that far…
The strange glowing symbol gradually descended until it… melted into the ground below. Mercer dazedly stared at this bizarre development.
It melted into the ground? What?
…And then, nothing else happened. Everything seemed to have calmed down again.
“What the hell was that?”
Unfortunately for Mercer and his men, however, they didn’t need to wait for long to find out that this bizarre light show was only the beginning.
Rumble…
“…? Mm?”
Mercer thought he heard the low-pitched rumbling sound just then. The noise grew louder and louder until it sounded as if a huge swarm of bees was buzzing around. His complexion paled as this deeply unpleasant noise dug mercilessly into his hearing.
“What’s going on?! Where’s that noise coming from?!”
Soon, though, Mercer realized something. He realized the noise wasn’t his biggest problem right now.
Huh? It’s… vibrating?
Mercer’s gaze drifted lower to the ground.
He had been sensing something was off for a few seconds now, and looking lower helped him realize that his body was vibrating. Not only that, but he could also see pebbles on the ground vibrating and shifting around ominously.
“…?! An earthquake?”
The “earthquake” arrived just as he said that.
RUMBLE, KA-BOOOOOM!
The land began rocking and rumbling. The low vibration rapidly grew in intensity until it became much easier to feel the movement of the ground below his feet. Even before Mercer could do something, the land began overturning and breaking apart!
The soldiers began crying out from everywhere.
“W-what the f*ck?!”
“It’s an earthquake!”
Mercer shouted at them. “Stay calm! I said, stay calm! Protect your positions!”
Unfortunately, none of what he said mattered anymore. The vibrations finally became a full-on earthquake to swallow up the American army, after all!
“Uwaaaaaahk?!”
Mercer fell on his butt. He wanted to remain standing, but the rocking had gotten too intense for that. It felt like somebody had thrown him inside a giant shaker and began shaking him around mercilessly. He could even see his feet leaving the ground again and again!
Mercer laid down flat on the ground before desperately crying out to his men nearby. “Get down, now! Grab on to something!”
Either they heard him or their survival instincts had kicked in, because everyone he could see all went down to the ground in a hurry.
Goddamn it!
Where did this earthquake suddenly come from?!
Everything he could see was shaking around. It was so bad that figuring out whether he was shaking or the things were shaking around became practically impossible.
What am I even thinking about?! It’s obviously both!
While biting his lip, Mercer racked his brain. Obviously, there wasn’t much humans could do against earthquakes, but they were in the middle of the desert here. There was nothing here to crumble and fall down, so the overall damage should be minimal. The artillery and tank operators might get injured after getting thrown around inside their vehicles’ cramped interior, but there shouldn’t be any other types of injuries to worry about.
So, once the earthquake ends, they should reorganize, and…
Before Mercer could think of a plan, however…!
KA-BOOOOOOOOM!
He heard what sounded like an explosion. Did someone fire their cannon inadvertently?
No, wait! It’s not that!
The noise sounded almost the same, but not quite. It couldn’t have come from something exploding. Maybe it was closer to something hard snapping into…
Wait, what? Snapping?
Mercer was overcome with confusion just then. What could possibly snap in this place?
He got his answer soon enough. Unfortunately, it came in the worst-possible shape!
RUUUUMBLE!
The ground began overturning. Quite literally, the earth cracked apart and began overturning!
Loud cracking noises rang out in the air as terrifying-looking fissures rapidly opened up all over the withered desert floor!
N-no f*cking way!
Mercer’s eyes grew bloodshot as he desperately cried out, “Goddamn it! Hold on tight!”
The fissures in the ground began widening rapidly. At the same time, the ground began jutting up or caving in.
“Uwaaaaahk?!”
Wretched screams of those who fell into the abyss dug sharply into Mercer’s hearing despite the cacophony of noises.
Screeeeeiiiing!
The tanks and the artillery began tilting and tipping over as their stable footing disappeared. Some even fell into the abyss opening up below them.
Why?! Why is there an earthquake here?!
Weapons created by humanity were powerful, but in the face of Mother Nature’s fury, they were completely useless.
Artillery was so powerful that it needed to be secured to the ground, but when all the stable footing disappeared, these incredible weapons suddenly became worthless lumps of metal.
By now, the army’s formation had completely broken down. And all Reggie Mercer could do was to witness the carnage while lying flat on the rumbling ground.
How is this happening?!
How could there be an earthquake here, and at this exact timing, too?
“C-commander! We gotta do something! Staying here will get us all wiped out, sir!”
“Sir! We need to retreat!”
That was easier said than done, wasn’t it?!
No one could predict which part of the ground would split open next. The landscape now resembled a piece of play dough roughed up by a naughty child, with the ground chaotically jutting out or caving in. With things like that, how were they even supposed to withdraw from here safely?
A haphazard attempt to retreat could only worsen their losses instead, after all!
“Shut up and keep your head down, okay?!”
Mercer roared out his order that sounded more like a desperate scream. His subordinates in the vicinity all gritted their teeth and laid down as flat as possible.
Of course, doing so still did not guarantee their safety.
Crack! Craaaaack!
Black lines spread on the ground. Anyone with a functioning brain should be able to tell what would happen when those lines split open.
Mercer’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as he stared at those lines rapidly getting closer to him. Those lines, they… They looked like the grim reaper’s hand extending toward him!
Cold sweat soaked Mercer’s entire body.
Crack, craaaack!
D-dammit! No! Stop!
The lines slowed down as they neared Mercer before eventually stopping altogether.
“Huff, huff, huff…!”
Mercer panted and wheezed laboriously. However, even before he could catch his breath…!
Rumble, riiiiiiip!
The ground opened up and began swallowing up people near him next.
“Uwah-aaaaaaahk?!”
The adjutant right before Mercer screamed as he fell into the chasm below. Mercer squeezed his eyes shut.
He couldn’t even help his own men?Even though his men, people he cared about like his own kids, were falling to their deaths, there was not a goddamn thing he could do!
This sense of powerlessness ruthlessly trampled on him.
“U-urgh… Ouch…”
“…?! Huh?”
Mercer’s eyes flew open when he heard the pained moan coming from below.
“I-is that you, Wilson?! Where are you?!”
Mercer hurriedly crawled toward the abyss where his adjutant had fallen through and peered over the edge.
“C-commander, I’m down here!”
Mercer was overcome with confusion once more at what he saw next.
Wait, what? It’s… shallow?
When the ground split apart with such force, Mercer feared he wouldn’t even be able to see the bottom of these chasms. Thankfully, though, he was proven wrong. The bottom couldn’t have been deeper than two, maybe three meters.
Huh? How is that even possible?
An earthquake was not a phenomenon where only the ground surface got disturbed. With such an intense shaking, it wouldn’t have been strange to see actual cliffs form in this location, but… But never mind cliffs, most of these crevices were only around the depth of two adult males.
Eventually, the rumbling died down.
Rumble, vrrrrr…!
The soul-shaking earthquake gradually lost power and petered out into heavy vibrations. Even those weakened to the point where Mercer could barely sense anything.
He cautiously stood up, then studied the surrounding carnage.
“D-dammit…!”
“Carnage” was indeed the correct term to describe what he could see.
Who would think they were in the middle of a desert? Various parts of the ground had split open to resemble maws of hungry beasts. The ground that hadn’t split open jutted out chaotically instead. Even though Mercer’s side hadn’t done anything yet, this place looked like it had gone through several intense battles already!
Rather obviously, the things that needed the ground to stand on suffered the most from this catastrophe. Tanks had fallen into the crevices; large howitzers were lying on their sides. Smokes billowed from some of the tanks half-perched on the edges.
In short, this was… destruction. Utter destruction!
“W-what the hell happened?!”
Phil Burton roared while stumbling outside the bunker. He was holding his bleeding head. Mercer obviously had no answers to give, though.
“Oh, my… god!”
Burton gasped in shock. His words perfectly encapsulated Mercer’s sentiments, however.
“W-with things like this…!”
Burton’s eyes powerfully trembled.
This location was supposed to be protected by the combined firepower of two armored divisions, but all that destructive power had become useless in the proverbial blink of an eye. What could those overturned tanks and smoking cannons even do now?
The artillery needed to secure themselves to the ground first, get the coordinates of the target, and calculate the accurate trajectory. Only then would their firepower mean something. But with the ground like this, they couldn’t fire anything even if they wanted to!
Mercer grimaced in pain while addressing Burton. “Sir… You need to call off this training exercise. That was a natural disaster. We can’t continue like this…”
“N-no, it’s not!”
“I’m sorry?”
Mercer reflexively turned his head to look and saw how pale Phil Burton’s face was.
“This, this was no natural disaster, okay? This was…!”
Mercer grew stupefied just then. Not a natural disaster? What bullsh*t was this bastard even trying to say here?
However, before he could say something, Mercer clamped his mouth shut. Because he had remembered that bizarre light show from earlier.
Back then, he couldn’t understand where those rays of light came from or what the bizarre symbol in the air even meant. However, could those things be related to what happened here somehow?
Mercer’s head snapped toward where the unknown group of people responsible for that light show was.
Not too long after that, he saw something.
There, not too far from where he was…!
He saw a man who must’ve closed the distance while nobody was looking. And that man was leisurely approaching this scene of utter chaos and destruction.