Chapter 60
5.
When people looked at space, they often thought of an infinite world filled with stars.
However, Earth's space was actually different from what people imagined.
"The moment humanity escapes the atmosphere and reaches space, it realizes just how dirty Earth's space is."
The area around Earth was filled with an unfathomable number of artificial satellites and space debris.
"space is like the ocean. The closer it is to humans, the dirtier it is, and the further away, the cleaner."
In other words, the space around planets other than Earth was relatively very clean.
The space around Planet Amotia was the same.
Seen through the window of the Descent Spaceship before deployment, the space around Planet Amotia was so clean that it was hard to find even a single piece of space debris.
Of course, there were no Space Marines who looked at that clean scenery and called it beautiful!
A clean space meant there weren't many artificial satellites, which in turn meant it was a place where it was difficult to get help from artificial satellites and where one had to carry out missions as if banging one's head against a brick wall.
So, from a Space Marine's perspective, a dirty space was much more welcome than a clean space.
Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun felt the same.
He liked dirty space.
He liked space plastered with all sorts of trash from artificial satellites and space battleships.
And now, his wish had come true.
Vwoooom!
The space around Planet Amotia, seen through the window of the small Rescue Spaceship he was piloting, was dirty.
Of course, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun's expression was not pleased as he looked at it.
‘How many battleships blew up?’
Because what he was seeing were none other than space battleships right now, the destroyed remains of those massive vessels.
This was a sight that even Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun had never seen before, a man who had earned his star at the mere age of 43 and faced hells that most people would struggle to experience even once in their lives.
‘What in the world passed through here. I still can't even guess.’
What was even more surprising was that Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun still didn't know the reason for this ridiculous disaster.
He had been on standby at Gate No. 1, that is, on Earth, before Gate 7 was destroyed.
Then, following a sudden emergency dispatch order, he crossed over to Gate 7, and by that moment, the situation had already ended.
‘Just what had to pass through for the majority of the space fleets that crossed Gate 7 to be smashed to pieces?’
The officially tallied number of Space Battleships operating at Gate 7 was 355 vessels from 49 countries.
Furthermore, among them were 36 planet-class space battleships that supported planetary units, and as many as 5 giant planet-class space battleships that managed those planet-class vessels.
Considering that there was usually at least one star-class battleship around most Gates, it wasn't an overwhelming force, but it wasn't something that would easily fall to the types of Mog Groups that roamed space.
Even if they did fall, there should have been a process to it.
There couldn't be a process where everything suddenly went out, like a candle blown out with a 'phew!'.
‘Something came out, something I've never seen before.’
Fortunately, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun knew that anything could happen in this space, and so he was able to keep from going crazy.
Of course, that didn't mean his situation was good.
In fact, his situation was the absolute worst.
The moment the satellite-class battleship he commanded crossed the Gate, the Gate was suddenly destroyed, and his space battleship was destroyed along with it.
Even in that situation, he had worked hard in his own way to rescue the survivors.
He tried to do something without breaking down.
‘And those Chinese bastards know that.’
However, what he faced there was none other than China's space battleship, and China eliminated the remaining survivors.
‘Damn it.’
Honestly, there wasn't even anything left to resist anymore.
In that situation, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun had settled in a spot near the Gate, wiretapping China's combat communications while informing anyone who might need rescue about the situation.
He was putting up the final resistance he could manage.
He was struggling to save even one more person.
‘To think it would be Sergeant Kim in this situation…’
In that situation, he suddenly ended up in communication with Kim Seojun.
Honestly, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun hadn't believed it at the time.
At first, he thought he was hearing auditory hallucinations because he had overused stimpacks.
But unfortunately, he was already in a situation where even the stimpacks to get high on had run out, so he eventually suspected mental illness.
It was the same now.
‘I must be crazy.’
Even now, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun thought he wasn't in his right mind.
That was also why he was piloting this Rescue Spaceship alone right now.
He wanted to avoid dragging his other comrades into this crazy act as much as possible.
‘Still.’
In truth, it would have been right not to move at this point, but the reason he came anyway was simple.
‘If it's Sergeant Kim, you never know.’
The fact that the other party was Kim Seojun.
Kim Seojun was someone who was someone for whom nothing he did would be strange.
‘No, if it's Staff Sergeant Kim, you never know.’
He had just experienced that hell and still reenlisted for money.
In a way, he was the most fitting Space Marine for this ridiculous situation.
‘And if Staff Sergeant Kim asks for help, I have to help him unconditionally.’
Crucially, from Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun's perspective, he might be able to refuse others, but he couldn't refuse Kim Seojun's request.
Considering the life debt he owed Kim Seojun so far, even if he asked for help from inside a Behemoth's mouth, he had to gladly go help him.
That was the bare minimum of gratitude.
Anyway, for one reason or another, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun was piloting the Rescue Spaceship, and he was soon able to reach his destination.
"Ah."
And the moment he arrived and saw the bright red Planet Amotia, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun let out a sigh.
He couldn't see a spaceship needing help anywhere.
All he could see were the fragments of destroyed space battleships.
At that moment, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun felt like he had woken up from a dream.
That is, he thought.
‘It was my auditory hallucination.’
The conversation he heard with Kim Seojun was just an auditory hallucination from his mentally ill state.
‘Right, who would come out of there? Who would escape from Planet Amotia, which is occupied by China, especially when Mad Horse Lin Zhihan was urgently deployed?’
The moment he faced reality like that, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun muttered to himself.
"Right, there's no way he'd reenlist for money. Of course, no matter how crazy Sergeant Kim is, there's no way he'd come back here."
A smile hung on Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun's lips as he said those words.
A smile formed at the fact that Kim Seojun was probably doing well on Earth right now, not here.
It was that moment.
Tap!
Suddenly, the sound of something tapping on the Rescue Spaceship's specially reinforced glass window.
Of course, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun didn't think much of that sound.
It was all too natural for something to bump into it in this space overflowing with all sorts of debris.
Tap, tap!
However, the moment he heard the consecutive sounds, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun looked toward the source of the sound.
‘What is it?’
There wasn't anything particularly visible.
Tap, tap, tap!
But the sound repeated, and at that moment, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun's expression changed at that fact.
Slide!
"Huh?"
A figure revealed itself right before Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun's eyes, and that figure unfolded a piece of paper with writing on it and showed it.
[Company Commander, please open the door.]
6.
It wouldn't be strange for anything to happen in space.
So it wouldn't be strange to have an unexpected encounter.
Furthermore, the situations where Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun encountered someone were always urgent situations, so he didn't show surprise in most encounters.
On the contrary, he showed an overflowing sense of composure.
But not this time.
"Company Commander, it's been a while."
Looking at Kim Seojun, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun wore an expression that said this was far more surprising than meeting the President.
At that expression, Kim Seojun nodded.
"I didn't expect we'd meet in a place like this."
Who could have possibly expected this encounter?
"No, that's one thing, but what did you just do?"
Of course, what surprised Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun so much was that Kim Seojun had suddenly appeared right before his eyes.
"You just suddenly appeared, didn't you? What was that? How on earth did you do it? No, wait, where did you leave your spaceship?"
He was even wearing just a suit in space?
That was a crazier act than being naked in the middle of Earth's Pacific Ocean.
"Hold on, is that an agent suit?"
At the repeated questions, Kim Seojun smiled faintly.
"Company Commander, is this your first time seeing me do something strange?"
"Well, that's…"
And the moment he heard those words, the confusion in Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun's mind surprisingly cleared.
If nothing else, acting surprised in front of a Space Marine named Kim Seojun was a meaningless act.
"I have nothing to say to that."
Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun immediately accepted the situation, and seeing this, Kim Seojun saluted.
"I'll say it again. It's truly a pleasure to meet you."
"Yeah, it's a pleasure to meet you too, Sergeant Kim."
Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun also immediately returned the salute.
They smiled as they looked at each other.
"I'm a Staff Sergeant now. I reenlisted as a non-commissioned officer."
"Right, and I'm not a Company Commander anymore, I've got a star now."
"You got promoted quickly."
"Yeah, thanks to someone, in two years I accumulated achievements that others couldn't match even after 30 years of Space Force life."
"Since you got your star thanks to me, you should treat me to a meal later."
"Sure, when you have your wedding, I'll put in a hefty congratulatory cash gift. Oh, right. Are you married by any chance?"
"Not yet. What about you, Brigadier General? Are your wife and daughter doing well?"
"My daughter became a middle schooler and suddenly started making a fuss about wanting to be an idol singer. It's driving me crazy. You wouldn't know how I feel."
"…I know that feeling well."
At that point, Kim Seojun wanted to change the subject.
"It would be better to save the small talk for later when we have time."
This wasn't exactly a good place to share personal stories over a glass of beer.
"It's too dangerous here."
And those words of Kim Seojun soon became reality.
Vwee, vwee, vwee!
The Rescue Spaceship they were in was illuminated by the bright red warning lights, and the moment they saw that light, Kim Seojun and Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun immediately approached the instrument panel in the cockpit.
Then they could see it.
The countless red dots caught on the radar.
The moment they saw that, the two of them simultaneously raised their heads and looked straight ahead.
They saw something swarming toward the Rescue Spaceship they were in.
And Kim Seojun said.
"It's a Squad."
"What?"
Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun asked in surprise at those words.
"A Squad? You can see that?"
With his own eyes, he could only sense something approaching, and nothing more.
"Yes, I'm sure. It's a Squad."
That was all.
Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun wasn't surprised by the fact that a Squad had appeared here.
"Those damn squid bastards."
Squad.
Its exact name was Space Mog Squad, one of the Mog species that operated in space.
As its name suggested, its appearance was similar to a squid, and it was the Mog with the largest population in space.
To the point where there was a saying that if there were Mogdogs on the ground, there were Squads in space.
"Because of those tiresome bastards, I can't even look at squids anymore."
From the perspective of Space Marines roaming space, the creatures were ones they saw so often that they were absolutely sick of them.
Of course, that didn't mean they were creatures to be ignored.
Far from being ignored, they were like a nightmare for space battleships.
First of all, the Squad's numbers were massive, and they were very fast.
At the same time, the teeth attached to their tentacles were incredibly powerful, enough to tear off the armor of a space battleship.
They were like a nightmare from a space battleship's perspective, and in reality, 50 percent of the space battleships destroyed in space were destroyed because of those Squads.
From the perspective of small spaceships rather than space battleships, they were truly no different from a disaster.
Faced with that disaster, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun raced through his thoughts.
"Brigadier General, is escape possible?"
"Shaking them off is possible. The problem is that shaking them off before reaching the Gate is impossible. Hold on, let me map out a route."
In Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun's head, there was only running away.
That was natural.
The number of swarming Squads easily exceeded hundreds.
On the other hand, the size of the Rescue Spaceship Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun was piloting right now was so small that it would be finished if even a couple of Squads attached themselves to it.
Combat was meaningless.
"Is it a Gatling gun?"
"Huh?"
However, Kim Seojun was different.
"I mean the armament status of this Rescue Spaceship right now. Is it a Gatling gun?"
"It is, but why?"
To Kim Seojun, only one thing was important.
"How much ammunition do you have loaded?"
"Uh? About five hundred rounds?"
And the moment he heard that answer, Kim Seojun immediately sat in the Gunner's Seat next to the Rescue Spaceship's Cockpit.
After that, he said.
"Commencing combat."
With those words, a quiet shooting, a silent shooting where not even the slightest gunshot could be heard, began.
"You!"
Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun was startled by that fact.
It went without saying, but engaging in combat against the swarming Squad group was a crazy act right now.
Furthermore, this was Space.
It was a place where the laws of physics were completely different from those on a planet with gravity.
Shooting a gun like a Gatling gun in a place like this?
Due to the Law of Action and Reaction, the spaceship would inevitably be pushed backward.
No matter how much the various built-in devices reduced that reaction, the spaceship shook every time a shot was fired.
In other words, aiming had to be redone every time a shot was fired, and for that reason, the hit rate in Space was bound to be extremely low.
In many ways, combat could not be a good choice.
Kim Seojun knew this too.
"What are you doing right now?"
"I know it's a crazy act."
He knew that Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun would be greatly surprised by his actions.
However, Kim Seojun didn't try to persuade him with useless words here.
He didn't have the time for that.
"But I am confident."
And there was no need to do so anyway.
Kim Seojun showed him less than a minute after the combat started.
[Combat has ended.]
[Eliminated 133 Space Mog Squads. Acquired 399 points.]
[Eliminated 133 Space Mog Squads with a Single Shot. Acquired 798 points.]
[First Kill of a Space Mog Squad. 3,000 points are awarded.]
And the moment he saw what Kim Seojun showed him, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun didn't dare ask the question, 'Why?'
He just looked at Kim Seojun with a surprised expression.
"Brigadier General."
Kim Seojun said to Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun.
"There are some people I need to introduce to you."