I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 739

"Something feels off, but I can't understand what the reaction is. And then you just leave alone, this brat is really…."

"You must have a lot of work to do. If you weren't so tired, you would have been there too."

"Don't be so harsh…."

Inside a building where no one comes and goes, on the blisteringly hot Governor's Island.

Lapland, who was leaning against a dusty sofa with an ice pack wrapped in a towel around his neck, opened his mouth with difficulty, and his husky yet clear voice echoed through the room that wasn't that big.

A sound that seemed to respond to the voice was heard right in front of him. Lapland's transparent gray eyes responded, but before he could fully see the man sitting across from him, he turned to another place.

It didn't take long for Lapland, who had been watching the situation, to let out a sigh that wasn't a sigh and open his mouth again towards the person in question - Captain Farquharson.

“… Captain, do you have anything to do?”

“It’s not like we’re short on manpower to the point where I have to be deployed myself. The company commander isn’t that high of a position, but the situation isn’t so dire that I have to go out to the field because there aren’t any people.”

“No, that’s true.”

“Besides, my company members are making a fuss, so how can I just sit back and watch? Managing company members is also the commander’s job. Especially in these times when every single person counts, it’s even more important.”

“… Understood.”

Crossing eyes.

Just like before, Lapland glared with difficulty. It was hard to say, but she felt a bit strange every time she made eye contact with Captain Farquason.

Of course, she wasn’t stupid. Even if she didn’t know exactly what it was, she couldn’t help but sense the mechanism behind it.

Unlike the Dagger Team, whose emotions and even the way their bodies work were being adjusted by the Icarus Gear, Lapland was affected by the altered nervous and hormonal systems.

Is it because they haven't realized it yet, or because they don't want to admit it?

Of course, strictly speaking, it wasn't necessarily love.

Not yet.

'... .'

To be precise, Captain Farquason occupied a complicated position for Lapland in many ways.

The image they had when they first met was never good. It was natural. The 107th Military Police Company was a guardian, and Ryker was a being who took something away. There was no direct connection, but there was an indirect connection.

However, now, due to an incident not long ago, the two met again by chance, and through various events, they gradually became closer, and in the process, they had many conversations.

She couldn't know what Captain Farquason was thinking, but she couldn't help but be aware of the other person.

That was all for now.

Captain Farquason checked Lapland’s condition while sneakily avoiding the gaze directed at him.

The heat had already left her body in an instant due to the immediate measures taken. However, it was still hot outside. It would be difficult to expect good results if they were to be deployed again just because the heat had dropped a little.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the construction on Governor’s Island was not going to be done day or night. In other words, there would be work even after the sun had set a few hours later, and even after midnight.

Of course, they were not going to deploy the people they had deployed during the day again at night, but the mutants were an exception. In a bad way. So Lapland was going to be deployed again a few hours later when the sun had set.

“First of all, they told us to rest until the sun has completely set. The medical sergeant of the Dagger team strongly advised me. I believe you know what I mean.”

“…Yes.”

"It's probably better to stay out. Just wait until the temperature drops a bit. If you want something to eat, let me know. The company members will bring it to you."

"Th-those guys must be hot too."

"The company members are doing their missions in the shade, replenishing their water and electrolytes, so it's a bit different from what you were in. You haven't finished all your work today, so don't feel bad and get some rest."

"..."

"And I brought some snacks, so replenish your calories first."

Swish.

The chocolate bar that was held out wasn't something you'd find in combat rations or anything, but something you'd find at a supermarket. Naturally, considering the characteristics of America, it was incredibly sweet.

Lapland, who accepted it with a strange expression, opened the package and started chewing it. It didn't take long for his expression to soften. Sweetness always made people feel good.

Feeling her body regaining strength, she let out a pleasant sigh and added softly.

"…Thank you. Well, I think I've gained strength after eating something."

"Yeah. Take care of your condition."

"Then are you going back to what you were doing?"

"I guess so."

"…."

A brief silence.

She couldn't tell exactly what that atmosphere meant, but it wasn't impossible to guess, and Captain Farquason met Lapland's gaze, who seemed to want to say something.

Lapland was a little braver.

"…Is there anything else you need to do?"

"It's not that there isn't anything. But since you're out on the scene, you should just focus on the work there, so there shouldn't be much work."

"…Then please stay a little longer. I don't know how long I'll be here, but I think I'll get bored if I'm alone."

"Well then."

How would Lapland’s one request, which he had put all his effort into, be received?

No one could tell, but instead Captain Farquason leisurely took off his long-sleeved clothes and laid them on the sofa. Of course, he didn’t put down his gun.

He added with a much more relaxed expression.

“It’s nice to have the two of us alone. I remember that you received training without any major issues, but are there any other issues? Something related to the Operations Officer or the Dagger Team.”

“Well, it’s always the same. Whether it’s the Operations Officer, the Dagger Team, or basic military training… I keep realizing that I still have a long way to go. If I had known this would happen, I would have learned something useful instead of doing something stupid.”

“Hmm.”

Silence.

Silence that continued for a different reason than before. It was a silence that lasted longer than the time Lapland needed to gather the courage to speak, so even Lapland had to wait endlessly.

But after a while, Lapland could see why he had been silent for a moment.

"What happened in the past?"

"... Yes?"

"I thought I should ask you sometime. Since you didn't tell me... I thought I should hear what brought you to prison."

"...."

A brief silence.

Lapland closed her mouth at that moment. She had told him to leave a little longer, but she had never imagined that the conversation would continue like this.

Her thoughts raced around in her head. And Captain Farquharson looked at the scene with a strange expression. It was not that she was completely unaware of what had happened.

Farquharson had checked Lapland's criminal record in the Icarus database, but he had no idea exactly what the context was. So he had to check it at least once.

Besides, he had this strange feeling that Lapland wouldn’t be too daunted by revealing his criminal history.

And somehow, as he had expected, he did.

“…Well, I don’t know how to put it, but…I think the database says I’m in jail for a $360,000 fraud, but that’s actually the smallest amount of money I’ve ever been involved in.”

“…What?”

“They were trying to rip off a mid-sized pharmaceutical company that was trying to do some shady stuff, and they got swindled. Do you know Purdue Pharma?”

“I don’t know.”

“They were the guys who lobbied the FDA to distribute fentanyl. There were other guys who were trying to do it a little bit more illegally. They were trying to distribute addictive psychotropic drugs that hadn’t been properly tested for safety in the Jamaica area of ??Queens.”

“….”

A brief silence followed.

Lapland continued.

"My parents ran a pharmacy in Jamaica, Queens. The pharmaceutical company was legal, and I chose all illegal distribution routes, but since the latter was risky, they gave my innocent parents various advices."

"And?"

"Rose Pharmaceuticals... Anyway, in return for all that legal and financial advice, they wanted a little bit of... 'closed eyes'. Thanks to that, I won't deny that my twenties weren't so bad."

"... Hmm."

"I finished off the sweet talk. My parents probably didn't even know they were being fooled. They packaged it like that. But I wasn't."

So he pretended to help the pharmaceutical company in place of his parents who didn't know much about the world, and collected evidence, and he received not only legal advice but also financial backroom deals, and he took everything he could.

However, the fun didn't last long. It was like tightrope walking on a knife's edge, and soon Lapland was targeted by both the gang and the pharmaceutical company who found out the truth.

When he realized that things were getting out of hand, he blew up all the evidence he had in order to survive, making the case bigger, and everything fell apart.

When the psychotropic drug nicknamed Hexanyl, which is the successor to Fentanyl for simplicity of naming, the gang, Rose Pharmaceuticals... all of that exploded, he survived but was confined to Ryker's Island.

And after a few years of imprisonment, the Omega Virus incident broke out.

"... I don't even know what to say anymore. Anyway... Of course, I don’t intend to deny my mistakes. Just… Now that I think about it, I just… I don’t know what to say either.”

“… Hmm.”

“Just, well… I think you can’t help it even if you hate me-huh!?”

“I asked for nothing. Eat this.”

At the same time, the chocolate bar was being stuffed in.

Lapland had to experience the chocolate bar in Captain Farquason’s hand being stuffed into her mouth, and her face turned red as she complained before giving up.

It didn’t take long for her to open her mouth with a red face.

“… I have hands too.”

“No problem, honey. Just eat it.”

“Miss… .”

Her face was full of complaints, but she still complied.

The sunlight outside was hot, and summer hung on Lapland’s cheeks.

“… Captain, you wouldn’t have let your girlfriend… ."

Meanwhile, there were still people outside listening to it.

Meanwhile, turning our gaze for a moment, East Asia.

When five-sevenths of the entire population of the United States, at least five out of seven, more than half of the living had crossed the River Styx and were in a state of never being able to return to the living world, the situation in other countries was no different.

But at this point, that was just a premise. We had to focus elsewhere. The choices made by the survivors were not wise at all, and they piled more deaths on top of the dead.

At least that was the case in the continental United States, but what happened in East Asia and the Pacific was a little different.

On top of the countless deaths, hundreds of thousands of tons of iron were added to the hundreds of ships.

The Third Fleet, which was not anchored at a naval base for overhauls and other things, was temporarily staying in Guam due to some hull defects just before the outbreak of the war.

It was a little late for the Omega Virus that broke out in the United States to spread to the Far East. Because of this, the 7th Fleet, which was relatively less affected, was staying at the Yokosuka Naval Base and undergoing overhaul.

Instead, when the flames of war broke out without a declaration of war, they experienced hundreds of anti-ship missiles flying toward them instead of viruses.

Originally, even if Russia and China had allied, they could not completely sink the 3rd Fleet and the 7th Fleet, which were the mainstays of the US Navy, into the Pacific Ocean. In fact, the opposite would have been true.

In the past, a radical expert even predicted that 40% of the Chinese Navy would have to be destroyed in order to sink one aircraft carrier, the core of the US carrier battle group, but this was not true.

However, on the other hand, it was not completely wrong.

That is why the preemptive strike at Yokosuka, which even involved nuclear weapons, began. The great war that would later be called the Battle of East Asia broke out in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

A series of anti-ship missiles, numbering more than three or four, flew across the sky, or even through the stratosphere and into space, and struck the Tokyo area. Most were intercepted, but some hit.

In the process, the 7th Fleet suffered a devastating blow, but fortunately it did not lose its combat capability, and a counterattack was launched, and the 3rd Fleet, which was about to depart from Guam, received an urgent request for support.

The 1st, 3rd, 9th, and 11th Carrier Strike Groups, formerly nicknamed the Beehive but now unofficially nicknamed the Cumulonimbus, scrambled to the surface, but the distance from Guam to Yokosuka was a whopping 2,500 km.

The 3rd Fleet was one step behind.

However, it was not irreversibly late.

The Third Fleet, after firing thousands of missiles at China, headed toward Taiwan instead of Yokosuka, clearly intending to burn the Chinese coastline to ashes, and there was no one in the People's Liberation Army who didn't know that.

The Chinese Navy moved south to stop the Third Fleet, and the battlefield became the Okinawa Islands, located midway between the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea.

The result was simple.

"...What the hell is going on...?"

The first thing the cumulonimbus clouds vomited out were a dozen or so thunderbolts - F35C Lightning IIs - and then the F/A-44 Arsenal Bird, which was introduced to replace the F/A-18E/F and had not been revealed to the public at the same time, took to the skies for the first time.

A tailless double delta wing with twin vertical fins that were angled outward. The graceful form soared into the sky to shower down lightning, and Okinawa residents could only watch in amazement as dozens of carrier-based aircraft successively crossed the island.

It didn’t take long for the sky to be covered in flames, and the East Sea Fleet and South Sea Fleet of the People’s Liberation Army Navy were reduced to ashes and scrap metal, while the Third Fleet was in a state of near-death.

Of course, the Third Fleet was not completely submerged. Due to the ROK-US Mutual Defense Treaty and the US-Japan Security Treaty, China’s North Sea Fleet was obstructed by the ROK and Japanese navies, and not only did it not come down in time, it was also reduced to a rag.

It was the moment when a new country called China was born, with a coastline of 5,000 kilometers but no navy at the same time.

However, the price of completely destroying a country’s navy was high.

"Commander of Carrier Squadron 9, Rear Admiral Christopher D. Goodwin. I am requesting an emergency port call at Sasebo for urgent repairs."

- I apologize. The port is currently heavily damaged and ships over a certain displacement cannot dock. How far can you sail on your own?

"I think it would be about 300km under ideal conditions."

- I am not sure if it will help, but I will send a repair ship and a logistics support ship waiting at Sasebo Port. The Busan Operations Base is 220km to the north. I will contact the facility and let you know if docking is possible.

"Thank you."

The ship that suffered irreparable damage was scuttled after the surviving crew members were transferred to other ships, which inadvertently made the Third Fleet very thin.

So while the 3rd Fleet was entering the Busan base of operations, the 7th Fleet, which had somehow recovered its damage, left Yokosuka and crossed the East Sea through the Tsugaru Strait between Hokkaido and Honshu.

It didn’t take long for them to reduce Vladivostok’s ice-free port, Fokino, and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to ashes, despite suffering painful losses, in cooperation with the Japanese Navy.

By the time the unprecedented naval war surrounding East Asia had come to a close, the Russian-Chinese allied forces realized that they could not move their forces to the western United States via the Pacific.

And they chose to take a long detour.

Hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops boarded the Trans-Siberian Railway from Beijing to Ehrenhod and then Irkutsk, and in an instant, western Russia was filled with numerous troops, and the next destination was set.

The European air defenses were no longer relevant, devastated by the virus, and the Allies could not immediately drop airborne troops across the Atlantic into the United States, so they had to somehow establish a separate beachhead.

That didn't take long.

"Canada. St. John's International Airport on the island of Newfoundland. This will be the Allied Forces' forward base."

The easternmost point of the Atlantic Ocean.

It was an inevitable process that occurred because they could not invade the western and northeastern parts of the United States through Alaska and Canada, and there were no major operational problems.

The reason was simple. It was thanks to Artemis. They had branches in Frankfurt, Norway, Canada, and so on, and they successfully neutralized the Eastern Air Defense Zone (EADS).

Furthermore, the 6th Fleet, the main US military in Italy, was scattered everywhere to maintain security and rescue Americans in Europe, and they could not respond in time.

Thus, at the end of March, when the US was struggling to rebuild, hundreds of transport aircraft and dozens of aerial refueling aircraft carrying enormous supplies and personnel crossed the Atlantic Ocean one after another.

The distance from St. John's International Airport to New York was 1,850 km.

It was the moment when the US was within range.

And-

"Unfortunately, the first The scale of the offensive doesn't seem to be that large. There are still many soldiers crossing the Atlantic, but the equipment is so lacking that it is difficult to handle the number of soldiers."

"... That can't be helped. We also need to reorganize."

"How many troops can we deploy now?"

"We could send the 106th Guards Airborne Division. Guard Major General Ulrich is preparing to deploy."

"We can deploy the 127th and 128th Brigades under the Northern Theater Command and the special forces, the Brain God Assault Unit."

"About two divisions. Okay. Let's fly to the northeastern part of the United States as soon as we're ready. "It should be possible within 2 months at the longest."

Preparations were beginning to be completed.

It was just before the hot July.

- Data analysis... complete. 1 minute until transmission. Encryption complete.

- Keyword transmission end // Jordan Amherst. Creator of the Omega Virus.

- Coordinates of the location where the electronically digitized pathogen genetic intel is presumed to be located completed.

- Transmission location: Database within St. John's International Airport. Transmission completed via Artemis transmitter.

- Connection terminated.