Chapter 14

The Battle of Pungam-ri

“Fuck! Don't we have any tanks?”

“No!”

The mortars continued firing shells at the tanks, but hitting tanks moving at high speed was no easy task.

At least the shells that missed were tearing up the road. Thanks to the numerous large craters they created, the tanks were prevented from charging straight toward Pungam-ri.

But the North Korean soldiers gained momentum. Smoke screens erupted around the tanks, and the North Korean soldiers rapidly advanced toward the foot of the hill.

The distance between them and the trench occupied by the headquarters battalion was now only about 500 meters.

The North Korean armored vehicle at the very front began firing indiscriminately into the mountains. Trees and rocks near the trenches began to be shredded.

They were clearly firing wildly because they didn't know the defenders' exact positions, but the soldiers' shoulders flinched with every deafening burst.

“May I open fire?”

“···What?”

Bong-tae turned his head at the unexpected remark from beside him. Song Min-jae was murmuring with his face pressed tightly against his K2C1.

“I think I can hit them.”

“Can you even see anything?”

“Yes, I can.”

At that moment, Lieutenant Colonel Choi Pil quickly approached Song Min-jae.

“Min-jae. Can you see the men with shoulder insignia too?”

“Yes···. I can.”

“The ones wearing red shoulder insignia are squad leaders.”

“Should I pick them out and shoot?”

“That's right. You can fire immedia—”

BANG—!

Before Lieutenant Colonel Choi Pil could finish speaking, Song Min-jae pulled the trigger. The head of a North Korean squad leader among the soldiers snapped backward.

“···I hit him.”

“This bastard's crazy too.”

Song Min-jae continued firing.

BANG—! BAAANG—!

“Low shot. Okay.”

His voice was as calm as though he were shooting an air rifle at an indoor firing range.

An ordinary person—no, even someone with considerable courage—would have trembling hands just from seeing hundreds of enemies approaching.

But Song Min-jae's muzzle didn't waver in the slightest. Every time he pulled the trigger, another North Korean soldier fell. And most of those who collapsed were squad leaders or higher-ranking soldiers wearing shoulder insignia.

Bang—! Bang—! Bang—!

Lieutenant Colonel Choi Pil clicked his tongue in amazement.

‘I'm confident in my shooting too, but this bastard is on an entirely different level.’

However, no matter how insanely skilled a marksman Song Min-jae was, he was still only one soldier. He couldn't change the course of the entire battlefield.

The North Korean machine guns that had been set up beneath the ridgeline began pouring out fire.

Dudududududu—!

Bullets struck all along the trenches. The smoke rising after the friendly machine guns and mortars fired had allowed the North Korean soldiers to roughly identify their positions.

“Keep your heads down!”

“Machine guns! Get down!”

“Fuuuck!”

The soldiers in the trenches instinctively crouched. A machine gunner who had been returning fire against a North Korean machine gun clutched his shoulder and fell backward.

“Uwaaaaaagh···!”

“Fuck! He's hit!”

Screams began erupting throughout the trenches.

In terms of position, the defenders had an overwhelming advantage because their trenches were on higher ground, giving them a clear view of everything below. But the North Korean soldiers vastly outnumbered them.

The main North Korean light infantry force was now approximately 300 meters away. Even the soldiers could see the dark figures approaching. There were at least three to four hundred light infantrymen. The headquarters battalion had only around a hundred men.

“Everyone, fire!”

Colonel Kang Tae-seong shouted loudly. The soldiers simultaneously raised their heads above the trenches and pulled their triggers.

Rat-tat-tat—! Rat-tat—!

Automatic fire from the K2C1 rifles swept across the ridgeline in an instant. Several North Korean soldiers charging at the front pitched forward. But the soldiers following them didn't slow down at all. They continued advancing, stepping over the bodies of the dead.

“Take aim before firing!”

“Fire in short bursts! Don't just stick your rifles out and shoot!”

Rat-tat-tat—! Rat-tat-tat-tat—!

Lieutenant Colonel Choi Pil shouted as he joined the shooting himself. His MCX spat fire at a steady rhythm, almost like a machine. Every time he pulled the trigger, another North Korean soldier fell.

Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je was even more impressive than Choi Pil. He positioned himself outside the trench, using a large tree as cover, and fired at the highest-priority targets first.

Machine gunners and men standing atop armored vehicles directing the troops had their heads blown apart.

Bong-tae, Lee Hwan, and Jin-gu also continued firing without paying any attention to the bullets flying overhead. Every one of them fought bravely without retreating.

But the tide of battle was gradually turning. If they were facing only North Korean infantry, they might somehow have managed to hold them back.

The problem was the tanks.

BOOM—! BOOM—!

North Korea's third-generation tank, the Cheonma-2, was built using Russian tank technology. Compared to South Korea's K2 Black Panther or America's M1A2 Abrams, it was considered distinctly inferior, perhaps even two levels below them.

But that was only in a tank-versus-tank engagement. There were no Black Panthers or Abrams here in Pungam-ri.

All they had were roughly a hundred infantrymen hiding in trenches, along with rifles, machine guns, and mortars. Under those circumstances, the North Korean Cheonma-2 was no different from a skeletal warhorse from hell ridden by the grim reaper.

KABOOOOOM—!

Flames erupted from the Cheonma-2's 125mm smoothbore gun. The shell landed near the trenches. The people inside lost their balance and fell backward. It was that powerful even without a direct hit.

“Gaaaaagh···!”

“F-fuck···.”

The soldiers who had fallen onto the relatively deep trench floors couldn't get up for some time after the impact.

“Do something about those tanks!”

“How the hell are we supposed to do that!”

Panic broke out among the soldiers. Their ears were already ringing from the bombardment. The shells and gunfire had shaken their heads so violently that even their vision had grown hazy.

BOOM—! BOOM—!

The other tanks continued firing. This time, their shells didn't land nearby but struck a machine-gun position directly. The sandbags piled high around the emplacement were utterly useless against the tank shells. They simply burst like water balloons.

The soldier manning the machine gun was engulfed by the explosion and disappeared along with the dust.

“Aaaaaaagh—!”

“The machine-gun position's been hit!”

“Fuck! Save me!”

It was obvious that the headquarters battalion would soon collapse if things continued like this. Colonel Kang Tae-seong was now regretting having concentrated the anti-tank weapons with the 1st Battalion.

“Hyeongung! Hyeongung operator!”

An officer whose face had been blackened by smoke ran among the soldiers. He was desperately searching for someone who could operate the only anti-tank weapon remaining with the headquarters battalion.

“Hey! Is there anyone who knows how to fire a Hyeongung?”

“P-Private First Class Kim Jin-pyo! I-I do, sir!”

A soldier hurriedly raised his hand. There had been one Hyeongung launcher and two missiles at the forward camouflaged position, and the same number of launchers and missiles here in the trench.

Private First Class Kim Jin-pyo was the only person here who had completed Hyeongung launcher training.

“You have to fire at the tanks ahead! Can you do it?”

“Y-yes, sir!”

He answered immediately, but his voice was trembling badly. Kim Jin-pyo quickly crawled toward the launcher.

“Uh···. Fuck···.”

He couldn't remember a single thing he'd been taught. He was so confused that he couldn't even tell which end of the missile launch tube was the front.

“Like this···. Is this right? Fuck, is this right?”

He had definitely received weapons training, fired the weapon at a training range, and passed his evaluation with good marks. When Kim Jin-pyo continued hesitating in front of the Hyeongung, the officer shouted.

“Hey! What are you doing! Do you want to d—”

KABOOOOOM—!

The officer's shout was immediately drowned out by the tank's gunfire. A massive explosion erupted directly in front of the trench, sending clumps of earth raining down inside. It was a rain of dirt.

When people experience extreme fear, their intelligence declines.

This is because the brain pushes aside everything except the functions necessary for survival. That's why people in a panic make mistakes in calculations they could normally perform mentally, botch tasks they've performed dozens of times, and cause major accidents.

That was exactly the state Kim Jin-pyo was in.

“Get a grip!”

Someone slapped Kim Jin-pyo across the face. It was Sergeant Kim Bong-tae, who wore the 8th Division insignia instead of the same 3rd Division insignia as him.

“Right now, you're the only one we've got!”

“Ah···.”

“You can do it, right?”

Kim Jin-pyo's eyes gradually regained their focus. He took a deep breath. The scattered memories in his mind began falling back into place one by one.

He shouted toward Bong-tae.

“Th-those things probably have APS!”

“What the hell is that?”

“F-fuck, how do I explain it! Banshee, like Banshee! Like a shield!”

“So what!”

“One shot might not be enough!”

“Then fire two!”

“As soon as I fire, load the next missile for me! From the front!”

“Got it!”

Kim Jin-pyo lifted the enormous Hyeongung and braced himself tightly against the front of the trench. When the North Korean soldiers spotted Kim Jin-pyo holding the large weapon, they began firing in his direction.

“Hey! Protect the Hyeongung operator!”

“Blast them so they can't even raise their heads!”

The soldiers in the trench raised their rifles. They also threw every fragmentation grenade they had.

BOOM—! BOOM—!

As concentrated gunfire and grenade fragments poured down simultaneously, the North Korean soldiers stopped climbing the hill and flattened themselves against the ground, unable to raise their heads.

A Cheonma-2 entered the Hyeongung's sight. Its massive turret rotated quickly, turning toward Kim Jin-pyo's position.

But Kim Jin-pyo didn't lower his head or hide inside the trench. If he failed to hit his target now, everyone here would ultimately die. Summoning his courage, he maintained his aim.

The tank's shell flew over Kim Jin-pyo's head. A massive crater appeared behind the trench.

BOOM—!

Another rain of dirt poured down on Kim Jin-pyo. At that moment, his aim was complete. Without a second of hesitation, he pulled the trigger.

“Fire!”

Thump—

Whoooooosh—

The missile launched from the Hyeongung sped through the air.

“Please···. Hit it···.”

A sensor mounted on the side of the Cheonma-2's turret detected the missile. Its active protection system responded immediately.

KABOOOM—!

A massive explosion erupted in the sky at a forty-five-degree angle in front of the tank. It was some distance away from the vehicle. The hull didn't appear to have suffered any significant impact.

“Fu···!”

Just as Bong-tae concluded that the first missile had failed, a second explosion erupted from the Cheonma-2's hull.

The Hyeongung had two warheads. The first was a precursor warhead, which struck the target ahead of the main warhead to increase penetration and neutralize reactive armor.

The Cheonma-2's APS had reacted to that precursor warhead. A next-generation Western main battle tank would have intercepted the main warhead of the two, but North Korean technology lacked that level of precision.

Bright red flames could be seen surging from inside the tank's hull. Bong-tae pulled the second missile up from the ground and shouted.

“Hey! You got it in one shot! Aim at another tank!”

“Reload! Reload!”

“It's in!”

Kim Jin-pyo's hands trembled.

Click—

The launch tube was attached. Kim Jin-pyo immediately aimed at the second tank. Perhaps because the lead tank had been set ablaze with a single shot, the remaining tanks had stopped advancing and were frozen in place.

“Fire!”

Whoooooosh—

The second Hyeongung sliced through the sky. Once again, it penetrated the Cheonma-2's APS and struck its target precisely. The force of the explosion spread through the surrounding area, knocking the infantrymen beside the tank backward.

“I-I did it···!”

“You bastard! Get down!”

Kim Jin-pyo stared blankly at the tank he'd destroyed. Bong-tae grabbed his shoulder and dragged him down into the trench.

“Fuck! We got two! Are there any more of these?”

“No! There should be another one at the camouflaged position over there···.”

“The camouflaged position···?”

About fifty meters down the slope from the mountainside where this trench was located, there was a small position completely concealed by camouflage netting.

Even now, an infantry squad was engaged in a fierce firefight there. But the Hyeongung that should have been at that position hadn't been fired.

“Why the hell aren't they firing from there?”

“I don't know!”

Bong-tae stared toward the camouflaged position. If he ran straight there, he could probably reach it within ten seconds. But there was no way the North Korean soldiers would simply stand by and watch.

“You stay here. I'll bring it back.”

“What? You're going all the way there and back?”

“Do we have another choice?”

Kim Jin-pyo picked up the rifle he'd placed on the ground.

“Fuck···. Then I'm going with you.”

“Are you sure?”

“No, I'm not. But firing it from there would be faster than bringing the ammunition back here.”

“Then let's run!”

Bong-tae and Private First Class Kim Jin-pyo ran quickly through the trench. Seeing them, Lieutenant Colonel Choi Pil shouted urgently.

“Kim Bong-tae! Where are you going now?”

“To destroy the tanks!”

“How?”

“There's a Hyeongung over there!”

Bong-tae pointed toward the lower slope. Hearing that, Lieutenant Colonel Choi Pil and Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je immediately moved to Bong-tae's side.

“We'll cover you!”

“Don't even try to shoot! Just run! We'll keep the enemy's guns off you!”

Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je spoke while checking his magazine.

“Run like hell!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Let's go!”

The four men pushed themselves out of the trench. At that instant, North Korean rifles swung toward the four figures emerging from cover.

Rat-tat-tat-tat—! Rat-tat-tat-tat—!

Dozens of muzzles spat fire simultaneously. Bullets tore through the dirt, passing beneath Bong-tae's and Kim Jin-pyo's feet.

Lieutenant Colonel Choi Pil and Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je fired toward the North Korean soldiers even while running fast enough to keep pace with Bong-tae's full sprint. Kim Hong-je threw a flashbang and a grenade from his vest in quick succession.

Rat-tat-tat-tat—!

Bong-tae didn't look back. He didn't even have the energy to look after Kim Jin-pyo. He ran as though his feet were literally on fire.

“We're almost there!”

The camouflaged position appeared directly ahead. They roughly pushed aside the camouflage netting from above and practically tumbled inside. Kim Jin-pyo also reached the position safely just behind him.

“We're friendly! Don't shoot!”

Bong-tae shouted urgently, afraid that the friendly soldiers inside the position might mistake him for a North Korean and open fire. But the camouflaged position was silent.

Before they'd started running, he had definitely seen muzzle flashes coming from here. But now there wasn't a sound.

“Hey! Where's the Hyeongung? The Hyeongung!”

Bong-tae rushed into the position. And at that moment, he understood why the Hyeongung hadn't been fired and why everything was so quiet.

“···Fuck.”

Every soldier inside the position was dead.

The Hyeongung launcher and missiles remained in place, but the gunner who should have been beside them lay beneath the camouflage netting, covered in blood.

“Sergeant Ha! Fuck···! Fuck!”

Kim Jin-pyo screamed when he saw the Hyeongung gunner's face. The soldier's face was covered in dirt and blood, and one side of his ballistic helmet had been completely shattered.

Perhaps he'd tried to protect the Hyeongung launcher until the moment he died, because his hand was still gripping the launcher's handle.

Bong-tae said nothing. He simply picked up the missile lying beside the Hyeongung.

“···.”

Kim Jin-pyo also fell silent. The rims of his eyes turned bright red. There wasn't even time to grieve now.

“···It's loaded. Please cover me.”

Bong-tae nodded at Kim Jin-pyo's words. He raised his head slightly above the camouflaged position and checked for North Korean soldiers nearby.

Perhaps thanks to Lieutenant Colonel Choi Pil and Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je's efforts, the enemy's eyes and muzzles weren't directed toward this position.

“None! You're clear to fire!”

Kim Jin-pyo roughly wiped his eyes and brought his eye to the Hyeongung's sight.

“I'm going to get them. Those bastards.”

“Yeah.”

The sight moved to track the tank. A moment later, as soon as the indicator showed that targeting was complete, Kim Jin-pyo pulled the trigger.

Thump—

Whoooooosh—!

The third Cheonma-2 rapidly reversed, trying to escape the missile's guidance, but that was utterly impossible. The Hyeongung pierced straight through the tank's upper armor.

KABOOOOOM—!

The tank was engulfed in enormous flames. Kim Jin-pyo clenched his fist and shouted.

“Nice!”

But his joy didn't last long. The last remaining tank was turning its gun barrel toward the camouflaged position.

“Get down!”

Bong-tae pulled Kim Jin-pyo backward and threw himself over him.

KABOOOOOOOM—!

The entire camouflaged position shook. The overhead cover concealing the position was completely blown away. Bong-tae and Kim Jin-pyo were hurled backward and slammed hard into the position's outer wall.

“···Cough.”

Bong-tae's mouth filled with dirt. This was the second time today he'd experienced the sensation of an artillery shell landing nearby, following the bombardment of Headquarters Company. A harsh curse escaped his mouth.

“···This is really fucking awful.”

Bong-tae barely managed to raise himself.

“Hey, hey! Are you alive?”

“I am··· still alive···.”

Kim Jin-pyo staggered to his feet a short distance away.

“There's still one more tank!”

“I know! Uh···! Fuck!”

The Hyeongung launcher Kim Jin-pyo had been holding moments earlier lay on the ground, split cleanly in half. It had taken a direct hit from fragments of the tank shell and was completely ruined.

Kim Jin-pyo turned the broken Hyeongung launcher over in his hands, then shook his head.

“It's broken!”

“Damn it···.”

Rat-tat-tat-tat—!

Having seen the Hyeongung fired from the camouflaged position, the North Korean soldiers began shooting toward it like madmen. Bong-tae and Kim Jin-pyo couldn't even raise their heads and pressed themselves tightly against the position's walls.

Loud shouts from the North Korean soldiers could be heard. They seemed to have approached very close to the camouflaged position. Bong-tae swallowed hard and checked the ammunition remaining in his rifle.

“Fuck! There are more tanks···!”

“···What?”

At that moment, Kim Jin-pyo screamed. Behind the approaching North Korean infantry, two more Cheonma-2 tanks, spotless as though brand-new, were drawing closer.

Bong-tae felt despair. All strength drained from his hands and feet. There were no weapons left here capable of stopping those tanks.

No matter how well he could shoot, no matter how much courage he had to run through a hail of bullets, without a Hyeongung, he couldn't put so much as a scratch on those masses of steel.

‘Ah···. Is this as far as I go? Feels like I haven't even gotten to do anything.’

Bong-tae's eyes fell on the two grenades attached to his chest. He gritted his teeth.

“You fucking bastards. I'll kill at least one more of you.”

“···Mister.”

“What?”

“I'm glad I got to fight alongside you.”

“Bullshit. You're giving me goosebumps.”

Bong-tae and Kim Jin-pyo extended their rifles beyond the position's cover. Just as they were preparing for the end.

Dududududududu—

An unfamiliar sound, unlike anything they'd heard so far, echoed from the mountaintop of Pungam-ri.

It was the powerful beating of rotating helicopter blades. And then.

Whoooosh— Whoooosh—

Two missiles streaked over Bong-tae's head toward the tanks, trailing white smoke.

KABOOOOOM—!

KABOOOM—!

The Hyeongung had enough firepower to destroy a tank with a single shot, but the missiles that had just struck the tanks were on an entirely different level.

Overwhelming explosions swallowed the tanks and their surroundings. Fragments of the tanks scattered in every direction.

And that wasn't all. Large-caliber machine-gun rounds, each capable of tearing a human body apart, rained down upon the North Korean soldiers.

Dudududududu—

Colonel Kang Tae-seong and Lieutenant Colonel Choi Pil shouted from the trenches.

“Don't raise your heads above cover!”

“Stay inside the trenches! Bong-tae! You two keep your heads down too!”

Bong-tae and Kim Jin-pyo flattened themselves against the floor of the camouflaged position. Since the entire roof had already been blown away, they could see what was destroying the tanks.

Bong-tae stared blankly at the sky and spoke.

“Th-that thing···. Do you know what it is?”

“···Apache.”

“A-an Apache?”

Four AH-64E Apache Guardians, the pride of Army Aviation, were peeking over the ridgeline of Pungam-ri.

The sharpest weapon possessed by Republic of Korea Army Aviation. The AH-64E Apache Guardian.

With 1,200 rounds for its 30mm autocannon, sixteen Hellfire missiles, and dozens of 70mm Hydra rockets, it was a flying arsenal capable of destroying several tanks and dozens of vehicles with the firepower of a single aircraft.

And four such monsters had just arrived at Pungam-ri.

Hellfire missiles flew toward the remaining Cheonma-2 tanks. As soon as they finished firing, the helicopters concealed themselves behind the ridgeline again.

This method of attack was a basic tactic of attack helicopters. Never expose the entire helicopter, but briefly raise only the rotor and part of the fuselage above cover, attack, and then hide again.

The four Apaches appeared above the mountain simultaneously. This time, they weren't firing the Hellfire missiles that had destroyed the tanks.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

Dozens of Hydra rockets launched simultaneously.

Rockets rained down across the broad area stretching from directly in front of the headquarters battalion's trenches and Bong-tae's camouflaged position to where the North Korean tanks stood.

BOOM—! KABOOOOOM—! KABOOOOOM—!

Even Bong-tae, who hadn't covered his ears during any of the explosions so far, clamped his hands over them. If he continued hearing noise this loud, he felt as though something might burst out of his ears.

Next came the Apache's autocannon. Thirty-millimeter rounds rained down on the backs of the North Korean soldiers fleeing in utter panic.

Tremendous noise and screams echoed throughout Pungam-ri. Until now, the Cheonma-2 had been the apex predator at the top of Pungam-ri's food chain, but before the Apache, it was merely a rabbit facing an eagle. Infantrymen and lightly armored vehicles were something beneath even earthworms.

Barely three minutes. That was all the time it took for the Apaches to unleash every weapon they carried. The four eagles turned their bodies and disappeared behind Pungam-ri.

The battlefield fell silent in an instant.

There were no more North Korean shouts or screams. Only the crackling of the Cheonma-2 tanks still burning ahead and the victorious cheers of the headquarters battalion soldiers rising from the trenches could be heard.

Bong-tae lay spread-eagled inside the camouflaged position.

“···Mister, are you alive?”

“···Yeah.”

“Maybe I should've become a helicopter pilot.”

“You mean stay in the military?”

“Absolutely not.”

A familiar face suddenly appeared inside the camouflaged position. It was Lieutenant Colonel Choi Pil.

“Kim Bong-tae, are you alive?”

“Yes···. I'm still breathing.”

© Jungle Pocket #22844

Author's Note

Thank you to all the readers who always read my work!

If you're enjoying it, please give it a recommendation! A recommendation post would be even better, haha;;