Chapter 35

Urban Warfare (2)

"Smoke!"

"Turn on thermal imaging!"

As thick smoke billowed out, large numbers of North Korean M1992 armored vehicles appeared. The hatches of their troop compartments flew open. Heavily armed North Korean soldiers climbed out and pressed themselves against the nearby buildings.

Unlike the light infantry of the Special Operations Forces' 'Lightning' unit they had faced at the golf course, who hadn't even worn ballistic helmets to maximize their mobility, the North Korean soldiers dismounting now were heavily equipped for direct frontal combat.

However, their weapons weren't entirely modernized. The latest equipment supplied by Russia and China was mixed with older equipment the North Korean Army had operated for years.

KABOOM! KABOOOM! KABOOOM!

The tanks near the 33rd Battalion turned their turrets and began firing into the smoke.

Even if the infantry could see the armored vehicles through their thermal imaging devices, their weapons couldn't inflict any meaningful damage. But the K2 Black Panthers could destroy anything visible to them.

The Black Panther's first shell flew straight into the side of a North Korean armored vehicle stopped in the middle of the road, tearing it apart. Red flames surged into the sky through the smoke.

"Advance! Stop moving and you'll die!"

"Secure one sector at a time, slowly!"

Even after watching an armored vehicle explode before their eyes, the North Korean soldiers began advancing. Whether they were fearless or simply determined to exploit their overwhelming numerical superiority, faint silhouettes of North Korean troops began appearing in the smoke.

"Fire!"

Ratatatatat! Ratatatatat!

The 12.7mm K6 heavy machine gun mounted atop a K2 Black Panther tank spat fire. Each time the heavy rounds swept across the road, chunks of asphalt were gouged out.

North Korean soldiers who couldn't find cover collapsed where they stood on the road. Those who escaped the bullets could no longer advance in a straight line and scattered to either side.

"Into the alleys! Into the alleys!"

"Flank them! Secure the areas without tanks first!"

With K2 Black Panthers and K21 infantry fighting vehicles blocking the road, it appeared that severing the 8th Division's center would be no easy task.

The North Korean soldiers smashed the windows of commercial buildings and entered them, or climbed onto electrical cabinets to reach the rooftops, dispersing the firepower concentrated at the division's center.

And at that moment, a low, heavy engine rumble echoed from beyond the rise in the road.

Rrrrrrumble—

The barrel of a North Korean tank emerged through the smoke. Behind the Cheonma-2 came the latest Russian and Chinese tanks. Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je shouted urgently.

"Sergeant Kim! Get off the road! Take the alley to your right!"

"Yes, sir! Second Platoon! Move! Quickly!"

"Yes!"

Kim Hong-je wanted to move his platoon together with Bong-tae's, but right now, they needed to get into the alleys as quickly as possible. Bong-tae didn't hesitate and led his soldiers running into the alley.

Once tanks began fighting other tanks, the road was no place for infantry.

A human wandering around where 120mm shells were flying back and forth was no different from a shrimp jumping into the middle of a fight between whales.

Bong-tae ran to a building at an intersection of narrow alleys. From here, they could avoid the tank fire on the main road while observing the movements of North Korean soldiers coming down from above.

He kicked the building's glass entrance door with all his strength.

BANG!

The door didn't swing open dramatically like something out of a movie. But the lower locking mechanism bent under the impact, allowing the door to open inward.

Without looking back, Bong-tae shouted.

"Hey! Over here! Gi-tae and Min-jae, take the second floor! Everyone else, take positions by the first-floor windows!"

"Yes!"

Bong-tae reminded the soldiers that they were positioned at the intersection of narrow streets. They could see in every direction from here, but the building was also visible from every direction.

"Keep watching the alleys! If a grenade comes in here, we're all fucking dead!"

"How about putting one or two men outside?"

Bong-tae chuckled.

"Got some bastard you've never liked?"

"I do! Though I can't say who!"

A brief burst of laughter escaped the soldiers. It relieved the tension for just a moment. The members of 2nd Platoon quickly dispersed throughout the building. Two soldiers took positions on opposite sides of each window.

The hurried footsteps of Song Min-jae and Hwang Gi-tae climbing the stairs echoed through the corridor.

The building's first floor housed a small snack restaurant. Traces of the business that had operated here until three days ago remained, along with a faint smell of sesame oil.

"They're coming! Twelve o'clock!"

Four North Korean soldiers could be seen approaching along a wall farther up the alley. Song Min-jae shouted down from the second floor.

"Should I shoot?"

"Fire immediately!"

"Yes!"

Without even opening the window, Song Min-jae began firing from inside. His first shot shattered both the glass and the head of the North Korean soldier at the front.

RATATAT! RATATAT!

Under 2nd Platoon's gunfire, all four North Korean soldiers collapsed to the ground, slumping against the wall.

"All targets down!"

"Don't let your guard down! Keep watching the surroundings!"

Bong-tae had barely finished speaking when—

RATATATATAT!

Machine-gun rounds poured into Bong-tae's building from somewhere in the buildings across the street.

Whiz! Whiz! Whiz!

CRASH!

The snack restaurant's front windows shattered, sending a torrent of glass fragments inside. Bullets occasionally penetrating deeper into the building struck the window frames and walls. A cheap calendar hanging on the wall fell to the floor.

"From the building across the street!"

"Which fucking building? There are dozens!"

"I can't tell which floor!"

Just then, Hwang Gi-tae leaned down from a second-floor window and shouted.

"Sergeant Kim! I'll go up to the roof and mark the coordinates!"

Certainly, climbing to the rooftop would provide a much wider field of view.

He might be able to see the machine gun firing at them, the North Korean soldiers hiding among the buildings and alleys, and even the tanks and armored vehicles moving along the main road, all at a glance.

But it was dangerous. Bong-tae shook his head. Right now, repeatedly choosing low-risk options was more important than taking chances for high returns. The battle had only just begun.

"No! The rooftop's too dangerous!"

"Is there anywhere around here that isn't dangerous?"

"No! Fuck!"

"Then I'll only go up to the fourth floor!"

"Fourth floor and no higher! Stick your head out and you're dead!"

When the frenzied gunfire briefly subsided, Bong-tae raised only his eyes above the windowsill and examined the outside.

Flash!

About fifty meters diagonally across from 2nd Platoon's position, sunlight reflected off a sight in the window of a three-story building bearing a sign that read 'Shinsegae Karaoke.'

"Hey! Over there—"

RATATATATAT!

Before Bong-tae could finish speaking, machine-gun fire poured into the building again.

"Those fucking bastards! They're shooting again!"

"Hey! Don't we have anything?"

"We've got grenades!"

"Try throwing one!"

"The angle's fucking terrible!"

Situations like this called for high-firepower weapons. Heavy weapons capable of completely demolishing a building were concentrated at the platoon level.

Bong-tae's 2nd Platoon was a unit that had minimized its equipment to preserve mobility. And frankly, even if they were given heavy weapons, there wasn't anyone who could operate them properly.

Their rapid mobility had allowed them to occupy this building in the middle of the surrounding alleyways before the enemy, but now that they were under machine-gun fire, the platoon's lack of firepower was painfully apparent.

"Got the coordinates!"

Hwang Gi-tae's voice came from above. He'd said he would only climb to the fourth floor, but apparently the angle had been poor, so he'd gone up another floor.

"Get down here, quickly! Want to fucking die?"

"Yes! Understood!"

"Song Min-jae! You come down too! Everyone to the first floor!"

"Yes!"

They had already witnessed the firepower of K9 self-propelled artillery firsthand at the golf course. The karaoke building whose coordinates Hwang Gi-tae had marked was only about fifty meters from their current location.

There was a strong possibility that the explosion would reach them as well. Bong-tae intended to leave this position quickly if necessary. Although he hadn't decided where they would go yet.

"Hey! Find somewhere we can move to!"

"How about that convenience store?"

"It's exposed on all sides!"

"Th-there's a bank! Looks like there are plenty of places to hide inside!"

It was a good idea. Banks had thick concrete structures and numerous interior partitions. They would withstand attacks much better than ordinary commercial buildings. Bong-tae shouted toward his platoon members.

"Okay! Over there—"

Once again, Bong-tae couldn't finish his sentence.

Wheeeee—

KABOOOOOOOM!

The three-story karaoke building was destroyed in a single strike. A red fireball shaped like a rugby ball plunged into the building, and flames like a dragon's breath burst from every window.

Everything inside the building went up in flames. The rooftop ceiling collapsed. The karaoke building had now been reduced to a single story.

"F-fuck! What was that!"

"It hasn't even been ten seconds since we marked the coordinates!"

"Artillery shells can land that quickly?"

At the golf course, it had taken approximately forty-five seconds for the first shell of the self-propelled artillery support to arrive.

Hwang Gi-tae had only just shouted that he'd marked the coordinates. There hadn't been enough time for self-propelled artillery shells to land. Even if the guns had already been pointed in the right direction, it would have taken at least thirty seconds.

"A tank!"

"One of our tanks fired!"

Kang Min-jun shouted while looking through the window across the street.

The culprit that had demolished the karaoke building was a K2 Black Panther. Hwang Gi-tae's coordinates hadn't been transmitted only to the artillery battalion. They had also been shared in real time with a nearby K2 Black Panther tank engaged in combat.

And the round it fired wasn't armor-piercing ammunition.

It was a 120mm multipurpose high-explosive round.

Tanks needed to engage various kinds of targets. Against other tanks, they used armor-piercing rounds capable of penetrating thick steel plates. Against softer targets such as lightly armored vehicles, machine-gun positions, infantry, or buildings, they used high-explosive rounds.

And the destructive power of those high-explosive rounds was more than enough to bring down a building like this with ease.

"···Hey! M-move out!"

"Yes! Yes! Understood!"

Bong-tae was momentarily stunned by the overwhelming firepower of the high-explosive round. Everything above the first floor of the karaoke building had been destroyed beyond recognition. There was no guarantee they wouldn't end up the same way. Bong-tae forced himself to concentrate.

For infantry to survive on this battlefield, where insane amounts of firepower were being unleashed, they had to keep moving.

"Hey! Gi-baek! Keep reporting our position!"

"Yes!"

"Where's First Platoon?"

"They're inside a supermarket across that road!"

"Ask whether they need support!"

Nam Gi-baek exchanged a few words over the radio. The surrounding artillery fire seemed to be making communication difficult, and he shouted so loudly into the radio that he sprayed it with saliva.

"Sergeant Kim! Staff Sergeant says just stay alive! He'll give us the withdrawal signal soon!"

"Why the hell does he have to give us the hardest job! Second Platoon, move!"

"Y-yes!"

Half crouching, the members of 2nd Platoon gripped their rifles tightly and began running. Bong-tae, who was leading the way, reached the bank's entrance.

"Wait! Watch the surroundings!"

"Yes!"

Fortunately, the steel shutter over the bank's main entrance hadn't been lowered, but its glass doors were much thicker than those of an ordinary store.

BANG!

Bong-tae kicked the glass door again. But perhaps the hinges were much sturdier, because the door didn't budge.

"Fuuuuck! Why the hell did they have to make the door so sturdy!"

"Platoon Leader! Get out of the way!"

BANG! RATATAT!

Behind him, Kang Min-jun fired several rifle rounds into the glass door, then threw himself forward and leaped inside.

CRASH!

Shattered glass fragments scattered in every direction. Kang Min-jun rolled once across the floor before quickly rising to his feet.

"Come in!"

"D-doctor! Are you okay?"

"Yes! I'm fine! Hurry inside!"

"Stop showing off that handsome face! You're making me feel pathetic!"

The soldiers following behind shouted in surprise at Kang Min-jun's actions. His movements were the kind they had only ever seen in movies.

"L-let's go! Get inside!"

"···Yes! Understood! Everyone, move!"

Bong-tae was the first to climb through the broken glass and rush into the bank. The soldiers followed one by one. Naturally, there was nobody inside.

"Hey! Bring those desks from the back and make barricades! Chairs, whatever you've got, bring anything made of metal!"

"Yes!"

"Gi-baek, report our position. Hwang Gi-tae and Song Min-jae, take the second floor!"

They cleared away the bank documents piled on top of the desks and stacked the large metal desks around the windows, creating double-layered barricades.

The bank's heavy furnishings were difficult to move, but once stacked, they could provide at least some protection against fragments.

Nam Gi-baek pressed himself against the wall, took out his radio, and began transmitting.

- This is Second Platoon. We've entered the bank building. Preparing to defend this position.

- Acknowledged. Hold that position. Keep your withdrawal route in mind as well. There's a main road if you go out through the back door.

- Yes. Understood.

Explosions, shouting, and screams could be heard mixed into Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je's transmission. First Platoon was only about forty meters away. The sounds coming through the radio could also be heard outside in real life.

"Sergeant Kim! When we get the withdrawal signal, we're supposed to go out the back door and onto the main road!"

"Got it! What, we're supposed to run down the main road? Don't they have any vehicles?"

"I don't know!"

BANG!

The sound of Song Min-jae firing a single shot came from the second floor. The soldiers on the first floor were startled.

"Wh-what was that!"

"They're coming! Large numbers of infantry ahead!"

"Large numbers? How many!"

"I-I don't know! There's a fucking lot of them!"

"Hey! Everyone to the barricades! Fire the moment you see them!"

Sting—

Bong-tae frowned slightly. The inside of his throat was painfully raw. He couldn't even remember how many orders he'd shouted since beginning the climb up Mount Baekbong.

"F···uck···."

He glanced down at his wristwatch. One in the afternoon.

Only half the day had just passed. Bong-tae pressed his cheek firmly against his rifle stock and let out a small sigh.

He had a feeling that he would have to shout dozens more times and fire hundreds more rounds before the day was over.

© Jungle Pocket#22844

Author's Note

Thank you, as always.