I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

The sun slowly rose.

Dazzling sunlight rose over cold Lower Manhattan. The devastation hidden in the darkness was revealed one by one. Airborne anti-tank self-propelled guns destroyed by friendly anti-tank missiles, and corpses strewn around them.

The torn pieces of people quickly cooled by the cold winter wind blowing through Manhattan, and then froze. The pools of blood that had formed from melting snow on the ground also began to freeze while retaining their color.

It was a time when equipment was more valuable than people. And even equipment could not be taken care of if the situation was not favorable. The Allied soldiers who decided to withdraw had to get out before the road out of Manhattan was cut off, and some of their equipment was left behind.

However, there were those who did not withdraw, or could not withdraw.

Aside from the fact that the Dagger Team was freely moving around the rear and causing devastating damage to the command center, the soldiers who had already been continuously attacking around Central Park HQ were left behind.

Some climbed onto the roof of the building and fired mortars, and others climbed onto the windows of nearby hotels and residential buildings and fired at the American soldiers who were blocking the Allied offensive from the walls of the fortress.

After about ten months, the HQ had become a solid fortress and was nearly impregnable, but the Allied forces had also committed several brigades. There were more Allied soldiers roaming around Manhattan than there were people in Central Park HQ.

New York City, one of the pivotal axes of the Northeastern defense. The moment this place fell, the path to New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and the capital, Washington, D.C., would be open. The Allied forces thought so and did their best to capture the base.

Until that the communication was left in the middle of the enemy, "Lyapunov?" "The intense electronics in the enemy fortress, the communication bottle was barely confirmed by using the antenna equipment on the building!" It was no different from the destruction of the brain or gangliness. However, the difference was that they were not completely dead and their bodies were still alive, but this situation occurred in the middle of a World Championship match where one side would die if they lost.

If they didn’t respond quickly, a counter punch would come right away.

“We’re going to retreat while keeping our equipment and… troops intact. The Americans won’t be able to destroy the bridges connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn, or New Jersey. If they did, they would suffer losses too.”

“What should we do with our troops who are deployed in a position where retreat is impossible?”

“We should take them alive or something. If any airport had fallen, we would have had a lot more room to maneuver, but we couldn’t even take Westchester Airport and our main force is tied up in New Haven… I don’t like everything about them, you incompetent bastards.”

Retreat, retreat, and retreat.

Strictly speaking, there was a good reason for the retreats taking place in all directions.

In some places, the commanders in the battalion headquarters /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ were completely destroyed, and the airborne battalion could no longer be deployed in battle, so they had no choice but to retreat. In some places, all the friendly forces that had to watch over them and give orders had retreated, so they had to retreat to prevent isolation.

However, if they continued like this, they would never be able to completely destroy the enemy's stronghold that they had been beating so excitedly.

And-

'... Will we be able to return to Manhattan at this rate?'

No, will they be able to achieve their operational objectives in the first place?

If they keep making concessions like this, where will they end up? That thought suddenly crossed the company commander's mind, but if they didn't retreat and kept beating, would the friendly forces that had retreated be able to come back?

The other companies deployed nearby also seemed to have reached similar conclusions, and each gave their own answers.