Dictator From Outer Space

Chapter 45: Ion Cannon

“Corporal Kwon Kyungho. You are in charge of the search and carry 90 bullets, 2 grenades, a mine detector and a smoke kit!”

The captain received the report and encouraged the new search team member.

“Good, did you fill up the BM plate well?”

“Yes! I filled it up well!”

“It might feel heavy, but it will protect your life in the end.”

“Yes!”

“In the past, it was much heavier. In the summer, there were many soldiers who collapsed.”

The captain went around and cheered them up until he saw a drone floating next to the platoon leader.

“You too, take good care of our team members, okay? Got it?”

The sensor blinked green as if it understood, and the soldiers chuckled.

But it was not all laughter.

These drones had been deployed not only for the GOP border patrol, but also for the DMZ search and ambush operations.

They showed amazing performance in a firefight during a heavy rainstorm.

The front-line divisions who confirmed their performance sent absolute trust to Silla Hi-Tech’s drones.

Even when some voices from the political circles expressed concern about the algorithm, they asked them not to take them away until the end.

The lawmakers from both parties who visited the front-line divisions for an investigation heard this.

―They are excellent colleagues who do more than their share in every operation.

―Of course, even if the drones are gone, our team members will maintain a flawless defensive posture. But in a situation where the North’s provocations are getting stronger day by day, I think these drones are necessary.

It was natural that all the soldiers said this.

Now, the drones had become indispensable equipment for the front-line operations.

How could they not use them when they could accurately find even wooden box mines that were hard to detect with mine detectors and mines covered with soil?

So, the team members led by Lieutenant Park Minho entered the gate with the drones ahead of them.

“Load the magazine.”

“Don’t just trust the drones and keep an eye on both sides.”

Today’s ambush operation took place at a point less than 300m away from the enemy GP.

If you look at it during the day, you can see the North Korean soldiers aiming at this side with machine guns.

It was a nerve-wracking operation, but it felt better to think that the drones were watching around.

On a cold winter night, the team members arrived at their ambush position, checked their equipment and waited for dawn.

But then, the drone that was wandering around like a puppy blinked red.

‘Large-scale infiltration of enemy special forces!’

It was a situation that came to mind for the team members.

Silla Hi-Tech updated several features when delivering drones, and one of them was to analyze and alert signs of enemy infiltration.

The GP search team members who entered DMZ as well as GOP border guards were trained on how to recognize the blinking state.

“Get down, get down!”

When the team members lay down flat on their ambush site, they received a call from their radio.

「This is situation room. Signs of large-scale infiltration of enemy special forces are thickening. All search team members return to gate immediately」

“We will return immediately.”

「Hurry up, the situation is not good. The division situation room activated drone defense mode」

Drone defense mode too?

This feature was activated when there was a high possibility of large-scale infiltration, and most of the drones except for essential ones were deployed to dangerous areas.

That is, they used drones as shields to defend against enemy infiltration.

They didn’t know how useful it was in reality because there was no such situation yet.

But Silla Hi-Tech said this when updating features.

―The main parts are bulletproofed so they will be quite useful.

―It’s big and attracts aggro very well. Have you played games? It’s a tanker, a tanker.

They would see if that was true later.

Anyway, all search teams inside DMZ returned to gate.

They all waited anxiously wondering what was going on when they heard an urgent voice from GP near military demarcation line.

「Large-scale infiltration of enemy special forces! There are more than ten of them!」

「No. 7 launcher… no, there is even bigger rocket launcher! They just fired!」

Bang! The sound reached division situation room.

「Th-the wall collapsed!」

There was no such thing as military agreement or anything else now.

In principle, heavy weapons were prohibited from entering DMZ.

It’s not for nothing that they hide their equipment and run away when UN comes to inspect them.

Neither South Korea nor North Korea cared about that, but they kept the minimum line.

They didn’t use heavy weapons over 60mm.

But they used heavy weapons that could collapse the thick concrete wall of GP in one shot.

The division duty commander jumped up.

“Report to the top and close the entrance! Start counter-fire!”

「Enemy special forces confirmed! They are wearing South Korean military uniforms!」

“Those bastards, who are they trying to kill! Shoot them all!”

The sound of gunfire continued.

And the drones that came over the gate lined up and rushed to GP.

With precise formation and fast speed, it looked like they were watching a drone swarm.

The soldiers in the situation room exclaimed for a moment.

“Wow, that’s amazing.”

“Were they always that fast?”

“They must be going at full speed, since it’s so urgent!”

The firefight continued.

Other GPs also reported the infiltration of special forces and the division situation room got busy.

This was not a matter of alert but of entering combat readiness.

The 3rd Corps headquarters that received the situation issued one alert and the 21st Division artillery battalion entered the gun line.

But then something strange happened.

The drones that entered DMZ in formation suddenly started to crash into the North Korean special forces.

They were surveillance drones, so they only had sensors and no weapons.

Instead, the drones used their bodies as weapons.

They were quite large and heavy because they were military, and they had fast speed, so the impact was tremendous.

The special forces agents who didn’t see the drones falling from the sky got hit in the head and passed out.

Some of them broke their shoulder bones or even died from having their throats cut by the drone’s blades.

Meanwhile, the soldiers in the situation room who confirmed the last moments of the drones were shocked.

“They are doing a suicide attack!”

The last data sent by a drone was a scene of a startled North Korean soldier opening his mouth wide.

The cameras turned off one by one and only the last drone remained to inform the situation on site.

The direct commander opened his mouth belatedly.

“What are you doing! Contact each GP and ask them to support fire!”

How could the soldiers sit still when the drones were blocking the enemy with suicide attacks?

When the soldiers who came out of GP fired support fire, the reconnaissance bureau agents couldn’t stand it anymore and scattered.

Gunshots were heard intermittently while search teams were dispatched to the scene.

“Ugh…”

Along with groaning North Korean soldiers, dozens of drones were scattered around.

Hi-Tech’s drones completely blocked the attack of North Korean soldiers.

The search team members quickly tied up North Korean soldiers and cleaned up the scene.

Corporal Kwon lifted up the body of a blinking drone.

“Thank you…”

He felt like he had lost a good friend.

.

.

.

「Unprecedented large-scale provocation by North Korean army」

「GP inside DMZ completely collapsed and only shape left」

「Many injured in breathless gun battle, fortunately no deaths」

As soon as dawn broke, breaking news dominated broadcast and internet.

People were surprised to hear that this provocation was unprecedented in scale.

―35 people? Isn’t this a war?

―Crazy bastards.

―They ask for rice in front and use heavy weapons to attack GP behind? Are they human?

On the internet, anti-North sentiment boiled over while the defense minister came out instead of spokesman.

It seemed that he decided to announce it himself because it was such a serious matter.

Of course, the minister’s announcement was full of criticism against North Korea.

―35 people attacked our GP. How can North Korean authorities do this when they criticized us for pointing cannons at our people? This is an intolerable provocation and a crazy act.

Diplomatic language is usually softened as much as possible.

But the words that came out of defense minister’s mouth were extremely harsh.

When North Korea announced that it was South Korea’s self-made drama, defense ministry sent out spokesman to show reporters photos of scene.

The reporters were shocked to see drones around them.

“What? Why are there drones?”

“Did they crash into them?”

Spokesman nodded his head.

“That’s right. Our army’s surveillance drones detected this situation first and entered defense mode. Since they had no weapons, they blocked North Korea’s infiltration with suicide attacks.”

“Drones crashed into North Korean soldiers?”

“That’s unbelievable…”

As some voices of disbelief came out, spokesman revealed new photos.

Several North Korean special forces agents were tied up with ropes.

“Our army captured several North Korean special forces agents in this large-scale provocation incident. They are not from border guard units but elite agents from central command. They are currently being treated but will be interrogated soon.”

It was shocking news that they captured several special forces agents alive.

North Korea was surprisingly quiet, because they had contacted through communication lines connected to army.

―Do not disclose it to outside and return agents immediately.

But President Lee Hyunseong, who was in his final year of term, was very angry about this situation.

He usually heard criticism that he was indecisive, but this time it was different.

―Disclose all circumstances of this situation and sue them to UN. This is a matter that cannot be overlooked.

Of course, North Korea would not accept UN’s audit, but it was enough pressure by itself.

A fierce diplomatic battle between the two countries unfolded.

He watched everything, including the situation inside DMZ.

“Did North Korean GP withdraw?”

“Yes. They must have thought South Korea would retaliate.”

“And they have no intention of apologizing from North Korea’s side.”

Arma looked at the data and adjusted his glasses with his finger.

“As always, they have none.”

In the history of provocations over decades, North Korea had rarely apologized.

It was frustrating for South Korea, but there was no way to deal with it without causing a war.

Of course, his position was different.

He confirmed that Kim Yo-jong went to China on a Koryo Air flight and chuckled.

“They are in a hurry to ask China for mediation.”

“But China has no room for that. They couldn’t even issue a statement on this provocation.”

Among the countries that issued statements urging restraint on North Korea’s provocation, China and Russia, which were traditionally North Korea’s allies, remained silent.

Kim Yo-jong’s next destination would be Russia, but she would get more cold treatment than China.

He finally made a decision.

“Blow up the entire reconnaissance bureau.”

“I’ll deploy Sibiri satellite.”

A cylindrical launcher popped out of Sibiri satellite that came down from low orbit.

Ion cannon.

It was a weapon that fired charged particles at ultra-high speed through a particle accelerator installed inside the satellite.

These charged particles generated tremendous heat when they collided with the target, enough to melt black metal.

It was the main weapon of plague over kraken level and humans copied it and used it well.

If you shoot it at full power, you can evaporate a mountain and make a hole in the ground.

Arma reported.

“Ion cannon is ready.”

“Shoot.”

“Ion cannon, firing.”

A pillar of golden light spewed out of the launcher.

In an instant, the headquarters of the reconnaissance bureau in Pyongyang disappeared.

The building collapsed without being able to withstand the tremendous heat that pierced even black metal.

More than a thousand agents died without screaming and the surroundings boiled with heat.

When Sibiri satellite moved its launcher slightly, several buildings in the area flew away.

They exploded because they couldn’t withstand the increased concentration of charged particles.

The shock wave swept around and dust clouds rose.

When the dust settled, all that was left was the site of the reconnaissance bureau.

It went back to before it was built in 2009.

He turned his head away from the screen then.

“Let’s see what they say now.”

Who is the culprit?

The flash of heat in Pyongyang sky was detected by US and Russian reconnaissance satellites.

Both countries had launched hundreds of satellites to monitor each other’s ICBMs during Cold War and as a result they were able to build a dense surveillance network.

The surveillance areas were mainly North America and Russia, but recently they also included China and North Korea.

「Heat flash detected in Pyongyang sky, suspected ICBM launch」

NORAD and Russian missile warning center sounded alarms and entered emergency mode.

But no ICBM trajectory was detected even after a few minutes passed.

The satellite that happened to pass over North Korea analyzed telemetry data and determined that it was not an ICBM.

Then what the hell was it?

Exactly 30 minutes later, Humphrey, national security adviser, opened his laptop on President McKinley’s desk at White House.

“Mr. President, North Korea’s reconnaissance bureau headquarters has evaporated.”

“Is this related to the heat flash you reported to me?”

“We haven’t confirmed it yet, but we suspect there was an ICBM launch site near the reconnaissance bureau.”

“That’s the only possibility for now.”

No one knew that Sibiri satellite fired an ion cannon and returned to geostationary orbit.

There was no such technology in this era.

Logically, they could only conclude that the heat flash was an ICBM launched by North Korea and exploded in the air.

But why?

President McKinley sighed as he looked at the screen.

“If these photos and reports are true, it means we missed North Korea’s missile launch site.”

And near Pyongyang…

Considering that only privileged classes could live in Pyongyang, it was suspicious.

But they might have thought of some way to avoid sanctions since they were desperate.

“We are checking now, but it won’t be easy to find evidence.”

Everything flew away, so there was no other way.

Anyway, the nuclear threat to North American continent was gone.

The air force officers left and President McKinley instructed Humphrey, his national security adviser.

“Contact Pentagon. Cancel the nuclear launch procedure completely.”

“Yes, I’ll relay that.”

“I’m glad we didn’t have to use this.”

President McKinley closed the black book that was open and put it in the nuclear bag himself.

A similar situation happened in Russia.

If they had judged it as an ICBM launch flash, a nuclear war might have broken out.

Fortunately, that didn’t happen and an investigation into the evaporation of the reconnaissance bureau headquarters began.

Meanwhile, Arma was able to identify reconnaissance satellites that monitored ICBMs from low orbit through this situation.

He also found out how the data collected by satellites was processed and transmitted to each command.

Of course, Settler, located in North Pacific, was also operating gravity radar now.

He had already figured out how many artificial satellites were orbiting around the world.

However, there were many vague parts about the types and missions of those many satellites, but he found out for sure this time.

Arma reported the summarized information to his master.

“There were 21 artificial satellites that detected this ICBM launch flash. Of those, 12 were owned by the United States, 5 by Russia, and 3 by China…”

As expected, the United States had many.

They were the first to notice this situation and invested a lot of money in space field.

If he wanted to enter space in earnest, he had to break through US surveillance network.

He looked at the information and asked.

“Will there be any problem with attacking from low orbit in the future?”

“Yes. We have identified satellites, so we just need to avoid their time and angle when we come down to low orbit.”

The satellites of this era used a lot of fuel to avoid falling from low orbit.

That meant that moving position was a factor that shortened life span for artificial satellites.

It was a bit annoying for Siberia satellite, but it didn’t affect its mission much.

In the worst case scenario, he could capture them and throw them into space.

He nodded his head.

“Still, just in case, install optical camouflage function on Siberia satellite.”

“Got it.”

“Let’s see how North Korea comes out now.”

It was not an ordinary shock that reconnaissance bureau evaporated.

They must be furious to find the culprit by now, but they would never find them.