Rust - Chapter 437



Only Krnovel

RUST [RUST]-437

You’re giving me the coordinates of the naval command?

After the war with China and the rampage of cannibals, security for all important facilities was tight. Among them, the location of the headquarters where the command headquarters resided was a top secret.

Like the Department of Homeland Security, the Navy had a visible headquarters and a separate bunker command center where key personnel resided.

The command center coordinates that Director Dan Brown had given were the bunker command center, which was classified as top secret. That’s why Maru was confused.

It felt like if you were to go wild and try to appease them, the rewards would increase a bit, but now it was completely different. They were just relaying the facts, telling you to do whatever you want, whether you kill them or not.

Why is this guy suddenly acting like this?

I came to my senses as if I had been poured with ice water.

“Is this a plan to kill someone with a borrowed knife?”

[Well, that’s up to you. But the Navy has issued a warning. They said that if you try to leave the area with a destroyer, they’ll sink you.]

Maru laughed in vain at the sound of Den Brown’s voice speaking as if it were someone else’s business. This old man felt like something was off, and it really did feel off.

Hood, who had been to Vladiak Tower by airship, sent us information.

[The Navy’s current situation has been confirmed.]

New York City had an active internet connection, allowing Hood to access the material.

“Director Den Brown, I’ll get back to you. I have an urgent call.”

[Yes, that’s right.]

Even though he said he had received an urgent call, there was no sound in Dan Brown’s voice.

There was no regret, and no intention to do anything. After the communication with Dan Brown ended with a meaningless voice, Hood got straight to the point.

[A naval vessel in the harbor appears to have been taken over by a swarm of rats.]

“To a pack of rats? How could that happen?”

It was a disaster from the start. Even if part of the harbor was frozen over, they couldn’t stop a swarm of rats from taking over a warship?

[It is not exact as there is only a brief description, but it is said that support attacks were made from the ship.]

They fired missiles at a horde of rats running out of the entrance to the sewer to escape the VX gas, and fired 5-inch guns and 25mm machine guns.

It is said that the rats realized the danger of the ship. Taking advantage of the heavy snow and blizzard, a swarm of rats, hundreds of thousands or even millions, swarmed onto the ship.

A hundred thousand? A million?

If they had come in like that, it wouldn’t have been easy to defend against. It would have been even harder if it had been a surprise attack. Unless you had prepared VX gas or napalm in advance, it would have been virtually impossible to stop them.

“Even if millions of units were swept in, there are still some parts that don’t make sense. So even if those monster rats can chew through reinforced concrete, they wouldn’t be able to chew through the armor plates of a warship, right? They could have just held out on the bridge and in the cabins and requested rescue from outside. They couldn’t do that, so they lost it?”

[The monster rats infiltrated through the vents and exhaust vents.]

Vents? That’s crazy.

Maru laughed in vain.

“Ha- Right- Okay. But how did you know that they went into the ventilation shaft? Were there any survivors?”

[When the rats attacked the bridge, there was a crew member who uploaded the situation to the Internet. There is also CCTV footage from inside the bridge.]

“That’s great. Surely the rats aren’t piloting the ship and pressing the missile launch button or something?”

[That’s not true. However, the Department of Homeland Security believes that the rats were aware of the ship’s strong firepower and neutralized it.]

Video footage and CCTV footage uploaded by dead crew members appeared on the monitor.

The footage showed people on the bridge being eaten alive. The CCTV footage showed rats the size of a forearm gnawing on all the equipment on the bridge.

[It appears that virtually all of the ship’s cables and electronic equipment have been eaten away. Even the Navy seems to think that it is virtually impossible to repair.]

“If you gnaw at it like that, it’ll be hard to fix.”

To fix it, we’d have to disassemble the entire interior and rebuild it, so it would take as long as it would to build it anew.

In the meantime, three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and a fuel supply ship came on their own? I can’t stand that.

The Navy couldn’t stand it.

Whether it’s Vladimir Kalin’s loot or something.

“Okay. Let’s just look at the results. Since all the ships were sacked by the rats, does that mean there are no warships left in the navy here?”

[According to the Department of Homeland Security, yes.]

What is this?

Are those Navy guys bluffing?

If I just leave without giving you a destroyer, you’ll sink me?

How could you do that? After leaving everything to the rats.

duress?

Dare?

Should I just put a missile in the coordinates that Den Brown gave me?

The accuracy will be rock bottom because the GPS is down, but you can just shoot more.

While Maru was thinking like that, a round piece of equipment caught his eye.

It was a piece of equipment I occasionally saw in movies. A sensor device with headphones.

Sonar (SOund Navigation And Ranging.) That is, an underwater sound detector.

···for a moment.

The ship was robbed by rats, but what about the submarine?

The information in my head was combined one after another.

I see.

Is that so?

When we first proposed exchanging two destroyers for one nuclear submarine, Director Dan Brown showed signs of wanting to do it, but said it couldn’t be done.

I knew the Navy wouldn’t give up the submarine. In the first place, the Navy, which was trying to eat it raw, wouldn’t make a cool deal.

‘The fact that the Navy, which had all of its ships destroyed, is the main party in the deal means that it still has power.’

If the Navy didn’t have submarines, the Navy attached to the Confederacy would have come up to attack New York. So it was certain that there were nuclear submarines. And in revenge.

“Do you know how many submarines the Navy has here?”

[wait a minute.]

The number of submarines possessed seemed to have been somewhat of a secret.

Hood was calm even though the number of submarines was not shown in various data. Whether it was confidential or not, what if they dig up what they eat and poop? If it were in the past, it would be okay, but in this messy situation, would they even care about the security of supplies?

Hood quickly checked the supply list. After passing the destroyers, cruisers, and coastal patrol ships, there was, as expected, additional supply data. If you convert the supplies in reverse, it would be about seven ships’ worth.

[Considering the supply situation, the number of submarines is 6~7. Assuming that the supply is efficient, 7 is expected.]

“There are a lot.”

There were more than I thought. There had to be about 6 or 7 nuclear submarines. Then, even if the destroyers and cruisers were blown up by the rats, the Navy would have been able to raise its voice and resist.

It was understandable that Director Dan Brown had hinted that he would trade two destroyers and a fuel supply ship for a submarine if he had the authority to do so. It was also understandable that the Navy was being overtly aggressive, threatening to sink the destroyer if it was not handed over.

Hood and Kim Yang nodded at Maru’s story.

[okay.]

[Just blow up the insane navy?]

“The reason Director Den Brown didn’t go into detail is probably because of his conflict with the Navy. Seeing Director Den Brown do that, I can tell he must have been very distressed.”

What can I do if I suffer for the sake of rebuilding the United States?

“That being said, how aggressive are the rats that they can swarm the Navy?”

A map of New York City appeared on the monitor.

They said that 20-30% of the area was taken over because the Navy was raided, but that wasn’t the case. In terms of area, it was less than 3-4%? The red dots on the port, the entrance to the underground waterway, and the slums.

“Isn’t the area smaller than I thought?”

[Although the absolute size is not large, the area that the rats control is problematic. The southeastern port and John F. Kennedy Airport to the east are the rats’ territory.]

“The port area and the airport were taken over? Are you only targeting that area? This is ridiculous.”

[If you look at the data from the Department of Homeland Security, yes. I think it would be better to assume that the rats were intentionally targeted.]

Taking control of the port was essentially the same as blocking maritime transport. The airfield was unusable anyway because of the flocks of birds.

No, there is no guarantee that the flock will survive the current cold weather, and what if they have moved to another place like migratory birds? If the weather cleared up and the crazy flock of birds disappeared, the flights could resume.

But rats took over the airport?

Maru’s expression changed seriously.

The airport was empty until now, so it could have been taken over at any time, but why now? Why did it happen at the end of winter?

It didn’t feel good. Maru started verifying the data first.

“Is the information we’ve seen so far credible? Couldn’t they have intentionally edited the information and uploaded it for us to see?”

If they can break through the security this quickly, isn’t that the same as opening it up for me to see?

[The security pattern was similar to the last time, so it was quickly broken through, but the reliability of the security system itself was not low. And judging from the traces left on the file, it was not a file that had been modified or tampered with in the past few days.]

Even if I edit the file, will there be any traces? Anyway, my doubts were somewhat relieved after the expert Hood said that the information was trustworthy, but my feelings were the same.

“But it still feels cheap?”

Even if all the information confirmed so far is true, doesn’t that chilling feeling go away? Then what’s the problem? Maru couldn’t just ignore this feeling.

[······.]

[?]

Maru thought again from the beginning.

‘Assuming we blow up the naval headquarters…’

Let’s say we planted a missile at the coordinates of the Navy Secret Command as Director Dan Brown said, and they would immediately know that we fired the missile from a destroyer.

There were only two things in New York City that had enough firepower to blow up the Navy’s secret command center at the moment: the Navy’s nuclear submarines and the destroyers that Maru had brought with him.

Since the submarines can’t blow up the naval headquarters, the only thing left are the destroyers. They have to fight against seven nuclear submarines, but they don’t have crews and can’t even launch anti-submarine helicopters? The result was already decided.

Then what if we go and clean it up ourselves instead of firing missiles? It would be better than firing missiles openly. There would be marks or traces left, but if we blow them up, it’s not impossible to destroy the evidence.

“Is that what you’re aiming for? To strike the naval headquarters directly?”

[I think so. It’s not right to think about launching a missile attack from a destroyer.]

But still, do you feel the same?

“Are you next to that guy?”

The central control room, the man who was either the security chief or the control room chief.

[Yes, it’s next to you.]

The two prisoners who were with him were isolated separately, and the man came with the hood.

“What do you think about the current situation?”

The man answered Maru’s question.

[This is a foreign language.]

“Details.”

[The moment the Director of Homeland Security gave the coordinates of the Navy Command, the situation was decided. The choice was between handing over the three destroyers and the fuel supply ship to the Navy and leaving, or liquidating the Navy Command.]

“I guess it’s hard to blame Director Dan Brown though.”

[Yes. Even if Director Dan Brown hadn’t given the coordinates of the Navy Command, the situation would have been the same, because the Navy would have tried to take them by force using a submarine. If you think about it that way, handing over the coordinates of the Navy Command… really…]

The man began to sweat coldly as he thought about Director Den Brown’s number.

It was their choice whether to attack the naval headquarters or not. Take it or kill it.

[If we attack directly, there will be traces. It will be difficult to erase them cleanly because the numbers here are small, so we need the help of the Department of Homeland Security.]

“Are you saying that you’re wiping out the debt?”

Hood uploaded the material.

[The Department of Homeland Security is currently under full-scale surveillance. Its command authority over the 80,000 troops it recruited during the second cannibal suppression operation has been revoked, and its emergency powers under the Homeland Security Act have also been revoked.]

“Is that possible?”

[New York State and City Councils vote to take back Homeland Security’s recruiting authority and emergency powers.]

“Hah- Are you crazy?”

[It seems to be based on the pretext of checks and balances.]

If you reject the resolutions of the state legislature and city council, you are a dictator.

If accepted, ‘the emergency powers of the National Security Act will be revoked, and the command authority of the army that recruited soldiers will also be revoked.’

It’s not like I can’t guard.

“No. If you didn’t have emergency powers, you wouldn’t have been able to subdue cannibals, prepare for the cold, and trade with us, right? Aren’t you all crazy?”

[As a result, New York City currently has no cannibalism problem and is holding up well in the cold. Its infrastructure is maintained. And even in this situation, the economy is maintained and dollars can be used. It’s okay, but I think they decided not to expand the Department of Homeland Security.]

“What’s okay about that? You never know when you’ll get slaughtered by a rat, and Virginia Langley is in chaos, too. And Director Dan Brown isn’t the type to do anything illegal. If he hadn’t done that, chaos would have already happened. Is everyone crazy there?”

The man next to the hood added his explanation.

[It’s probably because of the power and authority. If the Department of Homeland Security maintains the same authority as it has now, it will effectively rule New York, whether it wants to or not.]

“So, Director Den Brown, who was really pissed off, handed over the coordinates to Naval Command?”

You want the Navy and Congress to all get along and get fucked?

But the cheap stuff doesn’t go away?

Ms. Kim, who was giggling and giggling while listening to the story, said:

[That’s the Naval Command. Why don’t you just fire missiles instead of going there and getting tired?]

“You’re going to engage a submarine. If you clash with it, you might start a war with New York.”

[So what? We have nukes.]

Kim Yang said with a look of “Why? What?”

“······.”

[······.]

[······.]