by Kevin Brown
Ghil also played a key role in the study of flying objects. He found clues about the relationship between universes and the secret of dimensions so the institute made significant progress. Nobody could deny that Ghil was the best contributor to the knowledge they gained about the universe, the design of the transmission device, and many other achievements recently made in the institute.
Unfortunately, he passed away very suddenly due to illness. The institute was shocked by the loss and the research he had been doing on trying to solve the problem of bringing people back through the transmission device ground to a halt. If Ghil was still alive they could definitely finish the project within the twenty day window, but progress had been slow in the five years since he died. All Dutan could hope for was that they finished the project in time.
Once more Dutan asked himself if it was the right thing to help Daekhan. Even if the previous leadership had made a wrong decision, it was not normal to bring them down by force. He had a serious internal conflict when the leadership changed and Hoon went through a tumultuous period. After a group of people who supported a person collapsed in a day, how many people would accept the new power without hesitation?
Dutan had decided to be faithful to his current position and work for the good of Hoon after giving careful consideration in the midst of serious internal conflicts. Although the tendencies of the new leadership and the direction they wanted to lead the planet towards were different, the people who comprised the newly emerged group were not bad. Their intentions and concerns seemed benevolent. It was clear that the new leadership pursued things for the good Hoon and cared about its future. It was the institute’s position to research and conduct studies in support of the current leadership; not serve a specific leadership. He tried to think only of the initial motivation whenever there was a conflict for he wanted to be a professional who devoted himself to the prosperity of the humanity. That thought was the source of power that enabled him to overcome many obstacles.
Out into the World 20
Taehan spent most of the day in a parantan to perfect maneuvering it. When the war broke out, Santan and Sochan planned to stay with Daekhan and help command the situation. Taehan, on the other hand, had volunteered to fight on the battlefield. Unlike Chanman and Hanmoo, he had little experience in operating a parantan so he tried his best to train himself better. Fortunately, he was good at operating ride-in type equipment which meant his ability to operate the parantan grew every day.
Today marked the fifteenth day since Hoon’s leadership had been thrown into utter chaos with the emergence of the Taebakun fighters. During this time the leadership reviewed both defensive and pre-emptive war scenarios and quickly adopted the best of them. There had been no news from the Institute of Military Science since the meeting so it seemed the problem of returning from hostile territory was not easily solved. Whether Hoon took the advantage in the upcoming war or not depended on the institute’s results. Therefore, it was important that they received the desired results quickly – or at least no later than the day Dutan had promised delivery.
Since the emergence of the Taebakun fighters, the military had maintained a state of alert. However, professionals and ordinary people, except the military, were living life as usual. Taehan decided to take a break from his training to go to the concert Sochan participated in. Long before she joined the ‘Silence in the Storm,’ she had proficiently played various musical instruments in solo recitals and joint concerts and was known for her excellent musical performances.
When he arrived at the theater Taehan moved to a center seat so he could enjoy her performance better. He’d made the reservation a few days ago. He could see Sochan on the right side of the stage among the other musicians tuning her instrument. Soon, the theater was filled and music began wafting off the stage in a soft rhythm. Sochan’s skill had not been affected even though she had stopped playing for a while. Taehan enjoyed the music and soon the bits of tension dropped from him one-by-one.
He looked at the beautiful figure of Sochan who was absorbed in playing the long stringed instrument. If not for the war, she would be simply an exquisite, musically-talented woman living her life. After all, she was not associated with the organization. He felt a rush of pity that she would ever have to do anything rough or dangerous whether those activities were voluntarily or involuntarily.
He closed his eyes and lost track of time as he let the music carry him. When he did open his eyes the bandan on his neck was blinking busily. Taehan made a small screen in the air, so as not to bother the people around him. Daekhan appeared on the screen and spoke urgently without giving him a chance to say a word.
“Taehan! Taebakun attacked!”
“Taebakun did?” Taehan felt a thrill in his body.
“It is a huge army! I sent a search party to the enemy, but it was destroyed in a second.”
Taehan was speechless and just blinked as he stared at Daekhan, but he quickly gathered his wits and said, “I will be right there!”
“Please join Chanman directly! Ask Sochan to come to the headquarters.”
“Should not we evacuate the public first?”
“I was about to declare an emergency throughout the planet and evacuate the public. I will take care of that part here. You’ll have to hurry up.”
“Yes, sir!”
Taehan hung up and rose from his seat with his eyes on Sochan who was lost in the music she was creating, unaware of the sudden urgent situation. He was scared after hearing the news, even though it was something he had anticipated and been waiting for. His heart was beating erratically and he recognized the drumming as intense fear. This was poor timing. They had expected to get off a preemptive strike with help from the institute. Now all they could hope for was to launch an effective counterattack. But would they have protection from the transparent objects that posed such a threat?
Taehan went to the concert organizer and asked to stop the concert, explaining the emergency. He told Sochan to get to the headquarters quickly and then he hastily left to meet Chanman.
Out into the World 21
Taehan arrived at Chanman’s headquarters and found him busy organizing the arrangement of parantans. When he saw Taehan he shouted at him.
“Taehan! Hop in your parantan and get to Hanmoo, now!”
“Yes, Commander.”
Taehan hurried to his parantan and went to Hanmoo’s camp.
He spotted Hanmoo’s parantan right away and he called him from the communication screen that dropped down at the left corner of his vision.
“Hanmoo! How close is the enemy?”
“Very close,” Hanmoo said with a slight tremble in his voice. His eyes looked nervous. He turned his parantan’s head toward the horizon and said, “Their base is just over the horizon.”
“Size?”
“We do not know the exact scale, but I am certain it’s huge. It is the largest army in history.”
“That many?”
“The second search party was wiped out too. Even though they were dorans, they were destroyed so easily….and it was a big search party.”
“Probably because of the transparent object!”
“I believe so as well. We have to deal with them after spraying liquefied Pan!” Hanmoo shouted with anger.
Taehan looked back at the friendly troops. There were endless rows of parantans and dorans. It was such a magnificent and scary number. He bet that Hanmoo, and maybe not even Chanman had ever seen such a huge formation of assembled war machines.
On the horizon, a group of enemies finally began to reveal themselves.
“Hold your position!” Chanman’s voice rang out inside Taehan’s parantan.
Taehan fixed his eyes on the enemy. He was nervous too. Their number increased exponentially in a flash. In a matter of minutes, black culcoons spread out over the horizon and rapidly approached. Behind them the sun lit up the battlefield in a blaze of glory as it set, and Taehan wondered how something so beautiful could shine on t
he ugliness of battle.
I wish to have an ordinary life now, which I had…
Taehan felt a weakness in him threaten to surface, but just then the friendly force to his rear shot flares into the darkening sky. The size of the hostile force continued to swell. It seemed Chanman had decided not to launch fighters after all even though that was what he originally planned to do. He repeated his order to stay put until the enemy came closer.
Electromagnetic railguns fired at the hostile force and bullets flew through the air with a sickening sound. Whenever a bullet landed, culcoons were blown in the air as a group and destroyed without mercy.
“We cannot use the electromagnetic railgun once culcoons and parantans meet. We have to reduce their number significantly before they get here,” Hanmoo said, watching the culcoons being destroyed and falling into a pile as the bullets drove into them.
“The transparent objects are being destroyed as well?”
“They aren’t visible, but I don’t think it can avoid the bullet,” Hanmoo replied while staring at the horizon. The electromagnetic railguns continued to shoot and destroy the culcoons. It was not clear how much damage was being inflicted since there were so many of them.
At last, the enemy was getting very close. Culcoons would be within the effective range of the parantan guns shortly. It was a short and advantageous range where parantan guns could damage weak culcoons but the, culcoons could not harm the parantans.
“Ready to fire!”
Chanman’s order echoed across field. As he placed an order, parantans in the first two rows aimed the guns installed on their right arms at culcoons. Taehan and Hanmoo stood in the front row and extended their guns out. Their left arms were bent fully in preparation for the upcoming battle. They stood with their legs wide open and their knees bent a little. They were waiting for Chanman’s order.
“Fire!”
Parantans began to shoot. Culcoons sped up when they realized how exposed they were at this distance. The advancing culcoons were dropping like flies so the ones behind them ran, continuing to avoid the fallen units of their fellows as if they didn’t care about the sacrifices being made.
The roar of electromagnetic guns suddenly stopped.
The regular cannons shot shells of liquefied Pan in the air. The bullets peaked and fell to a certain height to explode. The liquefied Pan spread like fog, instantly shrouding the air around the battlefield in white.
The culcoons didn’t hesitate with this new development and quickly penetrated the fog, clinching onto parantans as soon as they got close enough. In the blink of an eye, culcoons and parantans were wrestling fiercely with each other.
“Don’t worry about the culcoons,” Hanmoo yelled at his men, “search for the transparent object!”
“Annoying bitches!” Hanmoo swung his arm violently and his parantan flung aside the two culcoons running at him.
Taehan could see that many parantans around him had unilaterally suppressed the culcoons. The dorans gathered-up for the emergency were having a hard time against the culcoons as expected, after all, they were fighting against robots designed exclusively for battle. However, the hand-to-hand combat between parantans and culcoons was going much better than expected; it was as if adults were fighting against children. Taehan punched his fists at two culcoons trying to get closer and destroyed a few more by shooting them at point-blank range, all the while scanning for transparent objects. But right now all he could see were destroyed culcoons piling up all over the battlefield.
How long had the battle been going on? Taehan wondered when suddenly he heard Hanmoo shout out.
“Where is the damn thing?” No transparent objects had yet been found.
“I don’t think there are any in the vicinity!” Taehan answered as he turned his body toward Hanmoo. Hanmoo had wandered off and was now alone and quite a distance from the troop without realizing it, apparently. He seemed to be in a very dangerous position because he was surrounded by dozens of culcoons.
“Are you okay, Hanmoo?”
Taehan moved toward Hanmoo with the longest strides the parantan was capable of.
“Do not worry! These are…!” Hanmoo stopped short to punch two culcoons with his left arm and then immediately turn on the group of culcoons coming at him from the right. Just then two more assaulted him from the left and three of them tackled his legs quickly. Hanmoo lost his balance and fell and even though Taehan was fast approaching, he was still too far away to help him.
“Hanmoo!”
Taehan knocked down enemies attacking him and closed the distance. A culcoon climbed onto Hanmoo’s parantan and put a gun to his chest while the other culcoons clung to his arms and legs. Hanmoo could not move an inch.
“Taehan! Help me!” Hanmoo’s urgent voice rang out. just as the culcoon began shooting repeatedly at the chest of his parantan. Bang! Bang! Bang!
The culcoon shot his chest over and over in the same spot, trying to get through the armor and kill the man operating the parantan. Taehan smacked at the culcoons clinging to Hanmoo. Just then two other parantans and a few dorans strode over and surrounded them, protecting them from any other culcoons who might think to come their way. Taehan saw the hole in the chest of Hanmoo’s parantan; the culcoon had managed to shoot through with all the rapid-fire consecutive shots to his chest.
“Hanmoo! Hanmoo!” he cried out over and over as he torn at the chest cover to open it. But Hanmoo was already dead with multiple shots to his head and face.
Taehan was stunned, but could not mourn now for a group of culcoons were flocking towards him and the group of parantans and dorans that surrounded him.
Taehan stood next to Hanmoo and contacted Chanman. When his face appeared Taehan said, “Commander! Hanmoo got shot!”
“What? What’s the situation?”
“He is dead.”
Chanman did not speak for a moment after hearing the news. He was a man who rarely revealed his feelings, but now shock registered clearly on his face.
“Did you find any transparent objects?” Chanman asked, trying to stay calm.
“No, I have not found even one.”
“Me, either. Quite a few parantans have been killed by culcoons, like Hanmoo. There are just too many culcoons. Please do not ignore them!”
“Yes, sir!”
Another parantan fell in front of Taehan just as he responded to Chanman, and he could see that multiple units had fallen in the distance, as well.
As time went by, the number of culcoons increased, as did the fallen parantans.
Suddenly Chanman issued a new order to all parantans. “Stop searching for transparent objects! Focus on destroying culcoons!” he shouted as if he could not tolerate it any longer.
“Taehan!” Chanman spoke to him separately.
“Yes, sir!”
“It seems there never has been any transparent object. Destroy culcoons with full force!”
“Yes, Chanman!”
A parantan of his ran to Taehan in a hurry right after he finished speaking with Chanman.
“Too many of us have been killed by culcoons and we will lose too many units if this continues!” he said in a scared voice.
Taehan turned his parantan’s head to the horizon from where the enemy continued to stream forth. There were an astonishing number of culcoons there and he could not see the end of them. Under the circumstances it was clear that matters would only worsen, and they would have even less of a chance to reverse the situation.
Chanman contacted Taehan again after he barely escaped destruction a second time. “Taehan! Take the remaining men to the leadership! We have to reserve them for later. Please flee and join Daekhan immediately!”
“Commander, you have to go as well!”
“Take men with you quickly! I will stay here and defend the line for you!”
Taehan looked at Chanman’s face on the screen. His eyes were bloodshot-red; his face was stiff. It seemed he had already made up his mind. Knowing his personalit
y too well, Taehan could not ask him to retreat again. He hesitated.
“Commander!”
“Hurry up!”
“Chanman…”
Taehan looked at Chanman and came back to the reality in a hurry. If he hesitated longer, his remaining troops would be exterminated. Taehan ordered his men to withdraw, losing even more parantans as they retreated.
Out into the World 22
Yanhu flew his fighter toward the pathway at full speed, in a panic to get out of Hoon’s atmosphere. He checked and rechecked his direction and was still trembling when he arrived in Hanbau airspace. He knew full well that his body was not wracked by nervousness, fear or panic. No, he was infused with guilt and bitterness.
But it was unavoidable, he told himself, trying desperately to justify what he had done.
Shortly after Hanbau was raided, the commander of the Taebakun military approached Yanhu and pressured him into his plan to trick Hoon, for he had planned from the beginning to attack them. Yanhu knew many of the researchers working for the Institute of Military Science since he had interacted with them for a long time. He was also fluent in Hoonish. Yanhu was the best person to accomplish the mission, the commander insisted.
Hoon was not an easy opponent. Many Taebakun military commanders were afraid of Hoon to some degree, and the presence of the parantan was one reason. It was obvious that Hoon would produce more parantans and reinforce other military initiatives if they were given more time. It was not something Taebakun desired. While Taebakun could produce more culcoons if they had more time, the war simulation they’d enacted suggested it would be disadvantageous to wait until later to attack Hoon. The time was ripe now.
However, launching an attack right away didn’t seem wise either since it wasn’t certain that the number of culcoons Taebakun had in their army now could defeat the rather massive number of parantans Hoon had in their possession. Simulation results suggested that the current culcoon force could easily beat Hoon’s parantans if their numbers were reduced by half. After giving the problem careful consideration, Taebakun’s Military Headquarters came up with a sly plan to downsize Hoon’s parantans.