Rust - Chapter 498



Only Krnovel

RUST -498

General Dan Brown, holding his breath slightly, poured a lot of ice into his green tea.

As I gulp down the cold green tea, my bubbling stomach cools down and my face becomes expressionless.

“Can you communicate with the carrier?”

[Entered communication distance.]

That means it came within 40 to 50 km.

Are you crazy?

You’re just pushing in with an Aegis fleet on an aircraft carrier? Are you in your right mind?

“Connect.”

[four-]

[Chijijijijik- Ah, it’s been a while. General-General Den Brown.]

“It’s hard to say that I’m happy even with empty words. Why are you bringing an aircraft carrier here all of a sudden? Your Majesty, Prince Vladimir Kalin.”

[Chijijijik- I came here because I need to repair the aircraft carrier and the Aegis ship. Last time when we traded the Aegis ship and the submarine, you said you were planning to build the Aegis ship, right? That’s what I thought. -Beep-]

So there’s a shipyard, right? They do repairs there.

President Den Brown sipped his cold green tea in silence.

There was a time when Vladimir Kalin negotiated the sale of two of the three captured Aegis ships.

‘I sent a crazy woman as an ambassador.’

When I suggested that they sell us two ships now and take them later when they sell us the Aegis ships since they will be able to produce them in 1~2 years, they didn’t even blink an eye.

Suddenly, they came and asked me to repair aircraft carriers and Aegis ships? They needed a dock to repair them. They started rebuilding the New York Navy Yard shipyard that closed in 1966 to produce Aegis ships, so you want me to put them there?

General Dan Brown’s eyes became sunken.

‘Vladimir Kalin.’

Thinking of him brought up mixed emotions.

If Vladimir Kalin had been a true patriot, there would have been no split in the United States. All the separatists could have been assassinated.

As we saw in the two cannibal suppression operations, he certainly had the ability to do so. Vladimir Kalin could have been a judge and a protector, but he did not.

Vladimir Kalin took up the profession of a mercenary, created a mercenary band, and later founded a nation called the Holy Ark Kingdom.

How contradictory is it that a mercenary becomes a king and then gives the name of the country a sacred name? In a capitalist society, money is said to be god, but isn’t that too blatant?

It was Dan Brown who noticed the subtle trauma that Vladimir Kalin had, and so he maintained a relationship with him by providing sufficient compensation from the section chief to the department head, and from the bureau chief to the president. As a result, he was able to make deals that were sufficiently profitable for both himself and himself.

Even Dan Brown, who was proud of knowing Vladimir Kalin’s power better than anyone else, found it difficult to accept the current result.

‘You captured an aircraft carrier? How?’

Aircraft carriers do not travel alone. They are usually accompanied by patrol ships, destroyers, submarines, and supply ships.

But you broke through that and captured the aircraft carrier?

Let’s say the aircraft carrier is like that, but what about the seven Aegis ships next to it?

no way···.

The aircraft carrier you’re on right now isn’t that one, is it?

That aircraft carrier that will be the hope of the empire, right? No, it won’t.

President Den Brown asked calmly, hiding his true feelings.

“Is this the 2nd Carrier Strike Group?”

[Chijiik- Yes. The 2nd Carrier Squadron has decided to join the Holy Ark Kingdom. – Beep beep.]

So, it was that aircraft carrier.

I desperately hoped it wouldn’t be the case, but it was.

The story goes that he went and ate it while fighting the southerners here.

Gulp-gulp- After emptying his glass, General Dan Brown answered.

“First of all, please step back behind the defensive waters.”

[Chichik- Then communication will be difficult? Chiik-]

I felt Vladimir Kalin coming closer and closer.

“You just need to place a relay line in the middle.”

[Tsk- If that’s convenient for you. Sure. Beep-]

“Let’s talk about the repairs again after we get back to the water area.”

[As you wish.]

President Den Brown looked around the conference room, pouring green tea into a glass filled with ice.

“What do you think?”

“It’s a threat. If fighter jets are launched from an aircraft carrier, there’s no stopping it.”

“There are too many Aegis ships to simply view it as the power of two carrier battle groups.”

“That’s right. The 2nd Carrier Squadron operated four Aegis ships.”

There wasn’t enough information to make a judgment.

[Video footage taken by a patrol ship and a drone has arrived.]

“Put it up right now.”

Footage taken by a drone was displayed on the monitor.

The first aircraft carrier we checked still had traces of battle here and there.

“It looks like the flight deck has been temporarily repaired.”

“The two Aegis ships also suffered serious damage.”

One ship was half wrecked, and the other was not in good condition.

“It’s strange. If such a fierce battle took place, why are the five Aegis ships here unharmed?”

“······.”

“······.”

The most important thing in a carrier battle group was the aircraft carrier.

When an enemy torpedo was launched at an aircraft carrier, if it seemed that the carrier could not avoid the torpedo, the escort ship’s job was to block it with its body. This was the same even if it was a missile rather than a torpedo.

Why are there so many intact frigates while such aircraft carriers are so ruthless that they need to be patched up here and there?

‘A healthy frigate? What if it wasn’t a frigate?’

General Dan Brown realized the nature of the discomfort.

This was because the situation when the first three Aegis ships were brought in came to mind.

“Zoom in on the bridge area and the area next to it.”

As expected, long bullet marks were visible along the deck. When we looked closely at the five Aegis ships that appeared to be in good condition, we could clearly see such marks on all of them.

Something had landed on the deck, and there were signs that other Aegis ships had focused fire to catch it. And the hatch leading up to the bridge was open, showing that something had landed on the deck of the Aegis ship, and another ship had attacked to catch it.

‘Did you catch him by sending in special forces?’

Does this mean that the Holy Kingdom has created a special force comprised of capable individuals?

After Vladimir Kalin ascended to the throne, he was said to be unwilling to act rashly, so perhaps he had another sword in his hand that could replace him.

‘There’s another person with that kind of ability.’

President Den Brown’s sharp eyes scanned the images on the monitor.

Just as war has accelerated the development of science and technology, so too has the present. All regulations have been abolished in the name of survival, victory, and safety, and various studies and experiments have been conducted.

The field that we delved into the most deeply was the field of bioweapons. Even if there were ethical issues, there was nothing we could do about it. Compared to exosuit production, bioweapons showed overwhelming cost-effectiveness.

Producing exosuits required a lot of infrastructure and parts. It was difficult to secure all these elements in a short period of time, so the reality for the empire was to import exosuits from the Holy Kingdom.

But what if it was a biological weapon? If you induced genetic mutation, it would automatically become a proper weapon in an instant. There was no need for other processes? Materials?

You could tell by looking at the cannibals. Strictly speaking, cannibals were the best foundation for turning into biological weapons. Weapons that didn’t require any production facilities and could be produced infinitely as long as there were humans.

It was even worth doing research on control. The fact that a superior entity can dominate and control a subordinate entity meant that control was possible if only the mechanism was understood.

So that’s what the Virginia Company and the Confederate Army were working on like crazy, and now the Empire is doing the same. Over the past year, the Empire has been able to find some clues about the ability.

As a result, the test subjects that had just begun their verification experiments have completed their performance tests in the field. The top-level physical enhancement test subjects showed strength nearly twice that of ordinary cannibals.

The experiment was a success.

Dan Brown looked at the drone footage of the aircraft carrier, recalling the results of the experiment. Even if he had created a special force of enhanced power users, they would not have been able to capture the aircraft carrier.

‘It’s impossible.’

Then how on earth did you capture it?

General Dan Brown’s eyes turned to the bridge of the aircraft carrier. A long, sharp tear was clearly visible on one wall. That must have been the result of Vladimir Kalin’s sword strike.

Did he recruit more people with similar abilities? Even so, he wouldn’t have captured seven Aegis ships and a carrier by himself, right? If so, that means there was someone else.

‘Fuck.’

The reason I became obsessed with bioweapons. Maybe that was why I supported cloning research without anyone knowing.

Dan Brown suppressed his emotions and cried out.

“As you can see from the video, all seven aircraft carriers and Aegis ships need repairs. The King of the Holy Kingdom himself has requested repairs. What should we do?”

They said it was a request for repairs, but they were going to threaten to rob the shipyard if things went wrong.

The Empire was currently working hard to revive its shipyard, the Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York.

The Navy Yard was the premier shipyard in the East during World War II, building large aircraft carriers. At its peak, it employed over 70,000 shipbuilders and was nicknamed the “Can Do Shipyard” for its ability to build anything from destroyers to battleships to large aircraft carriers.

Even a shipyard with such enormous shipbuilding capacity lost its usefulness after World War II. Eventually, the shipyard was closed in 1966, but there was still dock space left.

The Empire was planning to revive the docks and revive the shipyards to build Aegis ships when they suddenly received a semi-threatening request to repair an aircraft carrier.

“We have to negotiate. If we can get two or more Aegis ships for the repair costs, it will be beneficial for us as well.”

“Two ships is not bad. Since we will be operating three ships in total.”

Everyone had experienced the previous tyranny of the ambassador, so they were not making any impossible suggestions. In the midst of all this, one person came up with a new idea.

“It will take at least six to eight months to rebuild the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In fact, it will probably take until the spring or summer of next year to be repaired. They won’t like that either.”

That’s right. The dock was saved, but the other equipment and materials were still far away.

“How about suggesting that we take control of the shipyards that build aircraft carriers?”

“If there’s a shipyard that built Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, it’s Newport News Shipbuilding.”

“That’s where they’re currently building the Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier···.”

“Oh, I see. I heard that the Virginia Norfolk was blown up by a nuclear attack, but some of the shipyards survived.”

A blank space that neither the Confederacy nor the Empire can reach. If we take control of the Newport News Shipyard there, we can secure the new aircraft carriers that were being built, and the Holy Kingdom can quickly repair the aircraft carriers it wants, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard can build the Aegis ships as scheduled.

Isn’t this a world where no one feels sorry?

And the answer that came back was this.

[Chick- If we take control of the Newport News Shipyard, the latest aircraft carrier they are building there will be mine… or will it be the kingdom’s? Chick-]

“······.”

“······.”

“······.”

The Imperial Conference Hall fell silent.