Rust - Chapter 70



Only Krnovel

RUST -70

The sound of gunshots ringing out from behind Maru was no longer bothersome. That alone gradually made his senses focus forward.

bang!

bang!

The 20mm Vulcan, which was moving with an automatic aiming device, stopped moving after several gun holes were made. The crew of the high-speed patrol boat was outside, armed.

It would have been nice to have some optical concealment equipment, but it can’t be helped.

The crew began firing their guns as they saw Maru approaching at high speed on quad skis. There was no warning to surrender or stop, as only one person was approaching.

Maru pulled down his bulletproof mask. It obstructed his breathing and his vision.

The swaying waves, the sound of the quad ski engine, the bullets filled with murderous intent. Among the things that were erased one by one, what remained were the bullets and the murderous intent.

Wheein wooin wooin-

As Maru turned the accelerator hard, the quad skis howled like a horse.

I saw waves.

I saw the waves.

There was a wave that rose in a triangular shape, as if two waves had overlapped in the wind.

The world felt like a 3D image. Maru headed towards it.

A transparent wave soars, and a quad ski races across it. A red quad ski jumps up the hill of the wave like a red hare.

slam

A quad ski lifted into the air from a hill of waves that rose in an instant.

Tata Tang

Papa Papak

Thud thud

Several bullets from a 9mm submachine gun lodged in the underside of the quad ski.

Hieeeeeeeeng

Maru jumped off the quad skis screaming into the air.

Boo-woong

The orphaned quad ski crashed into the wheelhouse window and let out a final roar.

Kwaaaaang!

The high-speed patrol boat rocked erratically as the wheelhouse was blown away by the explosion. Maru, wearing a bulletproof mask, fell onto the patrol boat, which was swaying like a tree branch floating in a flood.

It came down too quickly to be called a crash.

The breath of those watching was short even though it was called a descent. The crew members on the rocking patrol boat could feel that something had descended on the ship. From those outside the ship to those inside.

Something. I could tell. It was here.

Pfft

The sound of a flute. Or perhaps the sound of the air tearing and howling.

With a single horizontal slash, three men were gone. There were no screams, only the sound of waves.

Swaying

with a plop

The sound of waves, the sound of something falling on the deck, the sea dotted with red.

“Shoot!”

The scream that broke the silence turned into the sound of a gunshot. Maru felt it. Somehow his lips felt dry. He moistened his lips and ran.

Tick-

As we briefly moistened our lips, a bullet grazed the bulletproof mask.

It happened last time too, and it happened again.

But······. Why?

Maru felt the corners of his lips turn up, as if to erase the unfamiliarity.

Maru, who had bitten his lip again, jumped towards the wheelhouse.

I ran from the bow to the stern, stepping on the outer wall of the wheelhouse with flames streaming out the windows.

Bullet marks and gunshots follow the movement of the floor. Crew members stand in a line, dead, as they follow the floor.

Tata-tata-tak.

bang-

Clank. Clank.

Tick- Tick-

The sound of an empty bullet hitting an empty ball, the sound of an empty magazine being vomited out.

The crew members lined up along the outer deck of the wheelhouse, their guns pointed at the deck. The eyes of the crew members, who had already used up their ammunition and were hastily replacing their magazines, were filled with fear.

Maru stamped his feet, his lungs filled with cold air.

Boom! The high-speed patrol boat swayed in the clouds. In an instant, the new model stretched out in a straight line.

Kigigigigigi-

The sound of blades scraping against the outer wall of the wheelhouse was behind me, and my arms began to fall like fallen fruit.

The arm that was changing the magazine fell off. The hand that was changing the magazine and pulling the trigger fell off. The arm that was taking the magazine out of the waist fell off. One by one, the arms fell off first, and then a long red line was drawn on the outer wall of the wheelhouse deck.

with a plop

Iron fist

Thud thud

The sound of crashing, falling, and pouring, as well as the sound of the waves, forced silence.

“······.”

“······.”

A crew member who had just opened the hatch in the engine room and came out and a crew member who had run in from the other side froze at the sight.

Chuck- Maru’s fingers pulled the trigger, pulling out the Glock 41 with one hand.

Valid!

Valid!

The crew members fell to the ground after being shot twice in the head with .45 caliber bullets.

A moment later, a loud explosion erupted from the stern of the speedboat.

The high-speed patrol boat, emitting flames and loud noises, circled in place, then lay on its side like a mackerel out of water, flopped around, and began to sink.

======

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Okinawa US military base, Major General Henry Garrison’s head felt like it was going to explode.

The Great Tokyo Earthquake simultaneously wiped out the US military headquarters in Tokyo, the United Nations Command, and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force Air Corps. Suddenly, the heads of US troops in Japan disappeared.

The commander at headquarters, a lieutenant general, and the deputy commander, a major general, disappeared at the same time, so the next person to be left was me, who was stuck at the Okinawa base. Does that mean Okinawa is peaceful? It wasn’t. A few years ago, there was a vote on the issue of relocating the Okinawa US military base, and the result of that vote was explosive.

The issue of base relocation is annoying, but those who eat wrong things can cause accidents, and even though they made a secret agreement with Japan and tried to cover up the accidents as much as possible, accidents that were difficult to cover up happened when they were forgotten. On top of that, the aftermath of the earthquake that hit mainland Japan made the already unstable neighborhood even worse, as if adding oil to the already unstable situation.

“I just have to throw everything in.”

Henry Garrison wanted to tear out his hair, which had grown a little long. The aftermath of the great earthquake devastated Japan, especially the Kanto region, and the Japanese government as well. Those who came out as a temporary disaster government could not last three days and communications were cut off.

Now, for the time being, Okinawa, a strategically important location for defending the Asia-Pacific from hostile countries such as China, North Korea, and Russia, had to be defended without the help of the Japanese government. If Okinawa was breached, Guam and Hawaii, which were right behind it, would be in danger.

If Guam and Hawaii were to fall to enemy countries, even the U.S. mainland would be in danger. That was why it was difficult for the Okinawan local government to move the U.S. military base to another location. In any case, there was no other region that could protect Guam and Hawaii and block enemy countries from advancing into the Pacific region as much as Okinawa.

Even if I just sit still, my stomach will be filled with acid, and a hole will form in it, but the 7th District of the Japan Coast Guard keeps making a fuss about China invading the southern waters of Kyushu, Japan, and that there is evidence of Chinese special forces moving in.

“What the hell is this?”

“That’s right, that’s right.”

I don’t know why, but China has been very quiet since the Great East Japan Earthquake. It was unusual for China to do nothing. But in the 7th district that governs the southern part of Kyushu, there was chaos as if Japan and China were going to war.

“So. Chinese special forces tried to infiltrate Japan?”

“It wasn’t infiltration, it was an attempt to seize a luxury yacht belonging to the Charlotte Group of Japan and take it to China.”

“Was there an important person on board? No, if there was an important person on board, it wouldn’t have happened. These days, China is also doing its best, but they caused an accident?”

“That’s what the 7th District Coast Guard of Japan claims. They say that two 200-ton high-speed patrol boats were attacked and sunk. They say that immediate assistance is needed, and that there is a hole in the breakwater that was supposed to block China…”

Henry Garrison pressed his temple. He had served in the US Army in Korea, so it was hard to hold back the bitter Korean curses that were lingering in his mouth. I want to curse Korean. Okay, let’s do it.

“Ah- What the fuck. What the hell is this? You’re just eating shit because it’s so abundant? Stop talking about the Kim-pop side and go inside and take care of your daughter.”

“Uh- um-”

The adjutant looked embarrassed.

“Shut up or tell China to bring you this fucking evidence.”

“ancient!”

I did as I was told, but this was a matter that I couldn’t just ignore. What if the Chinese special forces really tried to seize the Charlotte Group’s yacht? What if there was important information on that ship? What if that information was directly related to the security of the United States?

Major General Henry Garrison seemed to understand why Koreans asked about their parents’ well-being. They wanted to see their deceased parents.

“Japan Coast Guard, Southern Kyushu 7th District, gather the data sent by the kids there and bring it back. When you get on the Global Hawk, tell them to check out that area as well to see if what the Japanese kids are saying is true.”

Henry Garrison prayed, thinking of his parents in heaven, that the accident would not happen, and that it would not be in China.

======

======

A day passed after the patrol boat was cleared.

There was no trace of the hotel owner who had given the location tracker. Where did he go? Since a day had passed, I thought we wouldn’t meet again. I didn’t have to worry about people. Maru held the knife and stared blankly at the sea.

Ki-sun quietly steered the ship after seeing Maru’s gloomy expression. Although the course was significantly off, they managed to reach the southern waters of Kyushu and Shikoku.

Maru sighed several times while holding the knife with the tip slightly broken off, and then started sharpening the knife again. Rather than just sighing, it would be better to at least sharpen the knife. That’s what Ki-sun thought.

“Big- big- ah, this tickles my throat.”

As I approached Japan, I felt a tickle in my throat and my eyes got a little heavy. It wasn’t a good feeling.

“Maru, are you okay with your throat? It doesn’t feel good.”

“That’s a bit true, but when I think about the yellow dust and the toxic fine dust from China, it tastes mild, right?”

Is that so? That seems to be the case. Ki-soon turned on the radio. It was hard to hear because of the noise. The long-wave radio only replayed disaster broadcasts, so there was little up-to-date information.

How long did it take? It was definitely not normal. The sea, which was not foggy but gray, had a gloomy atmosphere.

“This volcano must have erupted a ton. How many erupted to make it look like this?”

It was difficult to breathe in the sea more than 50km away, whether it was southern Kyushu or Shikoku. Unable to bear it any longer, Kisun made a fuss, insisting that they wear gas masks or oxygen masks. As the day drew to a close, the battle, not a fight, between volcanic ash and volcanic fog was in full swing. The radar began to lose its sense of humor.

At first, the radar was like that, but then the electronic devices malfunctioned more frequently. As the sun set and the engine was running, the engine noise also became a little strange.

“The engine will taste bad because of the volcanic ash.”

Since it was a yacht that my senior had poured his romanticism into, it had an air purifier and heat exchanger that ordinary yachts don’t have. However, the filter was full before half a day. While I was taking out the filter that was clogged with gray volcanic ash and replacing it, I had a thought that maybe the Japanese mainland was buried in volcanic ash.

As night fell, the darkness grew deeper. There were no stars in the sky, and even if a searchlight was turned on, the light that barely penetrated the hazy dust did not last long.

Beep beep beep beep

Beep beep

Beep beep beep

The radar was acting up for some reason, and it was a mess. Eventually, the malfunctioning radar was so bad that we had to turn it off and navigate by sight.

Fortunately, the GPS was working and the auto-navigation device was working. Without it, it would have been impossible to avoid obstacles like reefs and small islands.

Ki-sun calmed his nerves and slowly sailed. As the sun rose, the hazy space began to dimly light up, as if the sun was rising outside an old traditional paper window.

Tung-

Tung-

There was a slight thud from the player.

“Go in front of Maruya. There’s something in front of the ship.”

“Hey.”

Maru held the sword and headed towards the front of the ship.

“Ah- fuck-”

What Maru saw was debris, floating objects, and the bodies of people wearing life jackets floating among them.

“What is going on?”

“······.”

“······.”

Ki-sun and Kim Yang were also speechless at the sight.