The Little Prince in the Ossuary

Chapter 35

# Clown (2), Camp Roberts

Three officers were waiting for Gyeoul in the Operations Division. A haggard-faced battalion commander, an operations officer, and a captain whom the boy had no acquaintance with. The captain, for some reason, didn’t seem very happy.

Gyeoul saluted the battalion commander. The half-bald captain looked at the boy with a pair of bleary eyes.

“You’re here.”

The whole room reeked with the smell of strong alcohol. On the table, there was a half-empty bottle of liquor. ‘He sure drank, considering it is midday,’ thought Gyeoul.

The captain shook his head a little and wrinkled his forehead as if his sight was blurry from drunkenness. The captain’s expression got worse. The battalion commander chuckled when he saw his grimace as if asking what he would do about it.

“You may stand at ease, lieutenant.”

Gyeoul lowered his saluting hand and stood at ease.

“Before we begin, this is Captain Niels McGuire. He’s a public affairs officer. Captain, this is Lieutenant Han… whatever.”

The boy and the captain greeted each other with a nod.

“Good. Now, let’s get to the point.”

The commander began to explain the special operation that had been issued to Gyeoul.

“There’s an order from the Department of Defense. They want to film a video for both promotional and training purposes. There’s not much to it, really. Just go to Santa Maria, kill a few mutants on camera and you’ll be done.”

Santa Maria was a city located about a hundred kilometers to the south of Camp Roberts. Given that Paso Robles, which was much closer than that, was barely accessible, Gyeoul presumed that land vehicles would not be their means of transport. And just as expected, helicopter support was to be provided this time.

The operations officer took over and continued with the explanation as he spread a map on the desk.

“The operation will begin tomorrow at 0600. Get yourself geared up with a basic load and come to the training ground ten minutes ahead of time. Then, you’ll ride a chopper and move to this farmland located northeast to the field of operations. The arrival time will be at 0630. There will be no danger up to this stage, as one of the companies of Ranger Regiment has already cleared the area. From here, you will join the backup force and move 7 kilometers on foot to the field of operations. Once you reach the point, you will hunt down the target mutants the search team lures in, and that will be the end of the operation. Any question?”

“Sir, how do you plan to ‘lure the targets’ exactly? That’s too dangerous for a person to carry out.”

“We’re going to use a drone as a decoy.”

“Is that possible?”

“We’ve run several tests. The mutants have low intelligence.”

‘Which is already growing higher.’

「Morgellons」 could learn to utilize the host in more diverse ways. Now that Grumble had made its appearance in this playthrough it was only a matter of time for other variant mutants to appear. However, since this information wasn’t something that could be known this early in the game, Gyeoul had to bite his tongue.

The public affairs officer, while lightly surveying the boy, gave a short exclamation of surprise.

“I’ve heard the testimony from the soldiers, but you really aren’t scared of them, are you?”

“That’s because I know those things can’t hurt me.”

“Hmm…”

The officer closed his mouth with an indiscernible expression.

“Sir, can I bring other volunteers with me on this mission?”

But his question was met with a flat refusal.

“No, you may not.”

Gyeoul smacked his lips. With their safety ensured, it could’ve been a good chance to train the members of his alliance. But unfortunately, all they needed was Gyeoul and no one else.

The operations officer then went on to explain some more details about the mission. There wasn’t anything worth noting.

5:50 a.m. of the next day, at the training grounds.

When Gyeoul arrived at the appointed place, there were two helicopters tagged as ‘MH-6’ with their engines heated up, waiting for departure. The seats were already full except for one. Those who were already sitting inside showed interest in the boy, except for the public affairs officer.

The rotor blades began to spin almost exactly at six. The chuffs of the choppers were quieter than the boy expected. It was because they were equipped with special noise reduction equipment, explained the pilot.

The rotation speed reached its highest point. With a momentary feeling of being weighed down, the sky came closer and the ground became distant.

Along the horizon line, a vivid pink band was gradually dying a deep indigo sky. Beneath the boy’s feet, the scenic panorama fleeted away. The boy stretched his hand out to his front. Crisp winter wind ran through his fingers as though he had put his hand in a stream of water.

The helicopter tilted sideways and bent its course. The safety of the camp was always at the top of the list. Ravenous creatures could be seen far below, running while chasing the object in the sky. There were a lot of them. Even if the noise was reduced, the helicopter was still a helicopter. It was only after they hovered in a place for several minutes that they could get back on track

“Have you ever ridden on a chopper before, sir?” The man sitting next to Gyeoul asked with a playful smile.

“No, this is my first time.” Gyeoul shook his head.

At least in this playthrough.

The man then continued.

“You’re really a fearless guy. Better than any fresh lieutenants I’ve seen.”

“I’ll show you what fearlessness is, Sergeant Greg.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

During the remaining time until their arrival, Gyeoul checked the equipment provided. A new rifle with various modules, a radio earpiece, and a much lighter ballistic helmet… For the filming, Gyeoul was supplied with several pieces of gear better than what he originally had.

The helicopter soon landed behind a ridge beside a highway road. On the ground were some soldiers to guide the landing.

Army Rangers were using a luxurious looking mansion as their temporary headquarters. Besides the main house, the mansion had a couple more annexes, a large swimming pool, a ranch, and a nice fence. Judging from the solar panels installed, it seemed they even had access to electricity.

「Wolf Leader, this is Wolf Three. We’ve confirmed the arrival of Team Circus.」

Radio messages of the Ranger Company were heard from the radio. ‘Oh great, Team Circus.’ It seemed that Gyeoul’s team, once again, had been assigned a ridiculous call sign. ‘I wonder what my call sign is. It can’t be worse than ‘Banana’, can it?’ And as expected, Gyeoul was informed that his call sign would be ‘Clown’.

Gyeoul’s team joined with the Rangers that were waiting on the ground. The newly joined soldiers briefly showed interest in Gyeoul. But they were wearing not a friendly look, but rather an expression as if they were looking at an inexperienced greenhorn.

They briefly introduced each other and demanded to depart. The introduction was so crude that he couldn’t remember who was who. It showed how little they cared about this operation.

At the same time, one of the team members gave the boy a proper greeting.

“Hey, I saw you on TV. It was a pretty brave thing you did out there,” said the man, as he extended his hand for a handshake. His outfit was different from the others.

“Sergeant Perry, working under the Santa Maria Police SWAT Team. I’ll be guiding you through the town, though you won’t be going today.”

“Lieutenant Han Gyeoul. I don’t belong to any team yet.”

The platoon leader then cast Gyeoul a scornful glance.

“Pick up the pace if you have the energy to waste on jabbering.”

Sergeant Perry whispered, “please forgive their rudeness, Lieutenant Han. They’ve had a hard time here. They’re all exhausted.”

“How long have you all been here?”

“I’ve been here for only about a month, but I’m not sure about the Rangers. They said they’ve never left the contaminated area since the epidemic broke out.”

Sure enough, the team seemed to lack quite some people for a whole troop. Normally, this kind of troop was supposed to be sent to the rear.

But of course, in times like these where humans were gradually being pushed towards the brink of annihilation, nothing could remain ‘normal’.

One of the Rangers walking near them glared daggers at them as if he had heard them whispering. The sergeant apologized with a smile.

Seven kilometers was a distance that required more than an hour of traveling on foot. Throughout their journey, the sergeant kept asking about things like the situation in Camp Roberts, as well as telling him what he knew.

“Santa Maria is one of the few cities to achieve a successful evacuation. The mayor made a quick decision. He requested the governor to mobilize the National Guard. Things were really chaotic back then, but it was nothing compared to the pandemonium that other cities went through. Thanks to that, 97% of the citizens were able to safely evacuate out of the city.”

“What about the other 3%?”

“I heard the last rescue signal was received about two months ago. It was an amateurish telegraph.”

The sergeant’s face grew a few shades darker.

“But there’s still a chance the survivors are still in the city.”

“We’ve been constantly conducting air reconnaissance. The Rangers also began to patrol around the city a few days ago. But not once during this time could we find a single evidence of survivors. So…”

The sergeant’s voice trailed off.

The team drew near to the city. To avoid being caught, the team changed their course to a single-track road forking south from the highway they were following.

No more had they walked a couple of kilometers, they reached the embankment built by the city. They would be able to reach Santa Maria after crossing the bridge.

The filming team began to lay down the equipment on the road. The Rangers, on the other hand, took out a drone and began to conduct a test run.

“You’re using a human scream?”

Gyeoul asked as he heard the drone playing the recording of people screaming for help.

“The mutants react differently towards various sounds. We figured out that they react well to human voices, and even better to screams.”

Soon after, the drone flew across the bridge towards the city.

The soldier was using a small bag-sized laptop to control the drone. Standing side by side with the soldier, Gyeoul and the public affairs officer watched the screen. Inside, the drone was busily scanning for mutants with its thermal scanner.

“That’s quite a lot of mutants for an empty city,” the officer mumbled.

“Those are mutants from nearby areas. Actually, Santa Maria isn’t the only city with this problem. Mutants somehow manage to flock towards cities like this.”

“But… why?”

“We wouldn’t be here if we knew that.”

A curt reply. The public affairs officer grimaced. Gyeoul knew the answer to that problem, but he didn’t give it out. Because it was a piece of information that the characters couldn’t possibly figure out at this point. If he gave it out, the Control AI would attempt to revise it with a scenario computation. And if it failed, it would roll back the server to the point when the information hadn’t yet been disclosed. Although the rollback itself wouldn’t cause any problem to him, the AI could penalize the player if it occurred repeatedly.

At last, Grumble was caught on the camera. The soldier reported immediately.

“Boogie one spotted at the intersection of Donovan Road and North Broadway. Boogie two is also nearby.”

“Damnit. Why are they so far away today? They used to wander around the outskirts… How much juice does it have? Is there enough to lure it out here?”

“It’s almost out of juice, but I reckon I can manage that, sir.”

The soldier quickly hid the drone in an alleyway and played the recorded scream. As soon as the scream played, the screen showed the mutants quickly turning their heads towards the alleyway almost instantly.

Running up and down through the alley, the soldier lured and gathered up the mutants that were spread all across the northern part of the city. The small, quick-footed ones followed the drone in the front, and the two Grumbles followed from behind. Without their target in sight, their movements were slow and dull. Using this difference to his advantage, the soldier began to separate the Grumbles from the herd of mutants.

After flying south for about one kilometer, the herded mutants were so exhausted that they couldn’t follow the drone anymore. At that point, the soldier turned off the screams and headed back north to lure the big guys.

“Can you handle two at the same time?” Asked Captain McGuire with anxious eyes.

“I can.” But Gyeoul returned him a short, nonchalant answer.

The captain then mumbled something to himself in a voice so small that the boy could not understand a thing even with the help of his skills.

The luring went smoothly. Two giant mutants followed the drone as they snooped around, looking for the unsighted screams.

But it was when the drone came back out to the main street that the screen showed something that horrified everyone.