I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

"…Ah, ah. Currently, we have arrived in the small town of Gofstown, located about 11 km west of Manchester. I'll be entering the city while following the river."

• Oh my. Did we really just cover 100 km in a little over two days?

"We’ve been running day and night. The mission should be fine, so don’t worry too much. How far behind is the team trailing us?"

• The team, led by Owens, is about 30 km behind.

"That’s not much of a problem. I plan to lay the route here, but if we’re late, it might close again, so there’s nothing we can do about that."

Click.

The familiar clank of metal and the heavy feel. Carrying only a sniper rifle with an emphasis on precision, I climbed to the roof of a high school in Gofstown—a town I had never even heard of—and ascended the 50-meter-high spire.

The ladder creaked with every step, making it feel unnervingly unsafe, but I ignored it. Reaching the top, I saw two bodies with their heads blown off. If it weren’t for the Icarus gear, this would be the kind of sight one might see in a nightmare.

As expected, these were snipers. Russian military snipers, watching for any infiltrators in the area. Of course, they were already in the past tense. We took care of them.

Several hours had passed since they were killed, and with their heads blown off, the inside of the small guard post atop the spire was gruesome.

Such sights were nothing new to me. The only way to avoid psychological damage in the face of these horrific situations was to view everything objectively.@@novelbin@@

I tossed the two headless bodies out, and they fell about 50 meters, hitting the ground with a sound I’d rather not hear.

Now, it was time for us to continue the work they had been doing.

"I’m going to spray oxidizer inside the post and ventilate it, rookie. We’ve got about 5 minutes for prep. The target is the small hydropower plant and transformer station 1 km east... just adjust the up-and-down clicks and leave the rest alone."

"Got it. Here’s the manual and checklist on the wall... looks like it's almost time for the regular check-in. What should we do?"

"I’ll handle that. Don’t worry about it."

In that case...

After pulling out the oxidizer canister, I carefully applied it to the bloody mess inside. It wouldn’t be a place to stay for long, so as long as I could bear the smell for a short while, it was fine.

• I trust you.

• Back door reached. Moving in.

• There weren’t many inside. This’ll be over soon.

• It looks like about a company is stationed here.

• Where...

• Got it. Moving in. Deploying comms jamming, wireless silence as of now.