Chapter 682: Don’t you want to find out the truth? (Part One)
– M Nation –
– Department of Strategic Defense –
A couple of officers were coming back from a meeting at the White House, and while in the car, the assistant whispered in the minister’s ear.
The minister’s expression changed dramatically. “What did you say?”
Assistant: “The first batch of soldiers who went undercover as Blackwater agents were attacked. Only thirteen of them survived out of the entire army, they are now back at the headquarters.”
Minister: “I just reported to the president about our strategic target, and you’re telling me the entire army was defeated? Get me back there right now, I’m going to find out what’s going on.”
The car drove straight over towards the Strategic Department and then headed over to a more discreet meeting room.
There were twelve people sitting inside, and all of them were somewhat dispirited. None of them saluted when they saw the minister come in.
The minister found it hard to believe that the spirit of these men had been beaten up like this.
“What, have you forgotten basic military protocol?” the minister said.
Then, only one soldier who still had some sense stood up and saluted, “John of the 28th Squadron of the 6th Battalion, Minister.”
The minister nodded and looked behind him at the soldiers who were sitting with their heads down and their faces emotionless. He asked John, “Aren’t there 13 of them? Why are there only twelve of you?”
John laughed bitterly. “That man couldn’t take the shock, he broke down and went a little insane. We brought him home and took him to the hospital right away because we were afraid of missing the best time to save him.”
The minister was surprised and looking at the other eleven, he asked, “So the eleven of you aren’t crazy, are you? If you’re not crazy, then get your sh*t together and tell me what’s going on! You’re elites from all six battalions, how come… you’re the only ones left?”
At this point, one of the eleven soldiers with their heads down simply took off his hat and said, “Sir, if you’re questioning us and still want us to go back into the Land of Mercenaries, I think I’ll think about my future.”
The minister was stunned. “What do you mean?”
The other ten raised their eyes to him and said in unison, “We choose to retire!”
“What the hell happened?” The minister felt bizarre.
John then said reluctantly, “Do you believe in ghosts? It’s the kind of thing that is very horrifying and horrifying. Sir you must be curious or don’t understand why our elite division was all defeated in one night with no fight back at all. We might have died too if we had stayed in that hellhole, too many people died in the land of the mercenaries, and so many that there were a lot of spooky stories about what had happened there.”
“Ghosts?” The minister raised his eyebrows at them. “Are you making up a story? Is that a reason or excuse for your defeat?”
“Sir, we won’t make excuses for defeat, but if you still want us to go back to that hellhole, we’d rather be legally punished,” the other soldiers said.
Some followed. “It wasn’t even human! We never saw what was on the other side the whole time, but our guys were under control and some soldiers suddenly lost their mind and shot at our own people. The others just detonated their own grenades for no apparent reason to die with their comrades! Sir, would you believe me if I said there was a tank with no operator in it and it was targeting and shooting on its own?”
“Three commanders, two military experts, two officers; seven of them in total, died by the bullets of one officer, who then suddenly took his pistol, pointed it at his own head and killed himself! Then the whole barracks was filled with people detonating suicide bombs, some with guns in their hands pointing at their own heads as if they were playing a game of killing each other! Almost everyone was mad, the whole time we had no idea why this was all happening. The patrolling tank outside bombarded our own home base, and when we rounded them up to look inside, there was no one there! It was a Ghost Tank!”
A few of the soldiers shook their heads in fear.
Chapter 682: Don’t you want to find out the truth? (Part Two)
The minister was shocked for the longest time and he turned to look at John. “Is this true?”
John nodded wearily. “There were thirty or so of our brothers who could have retreated, but we wanted to know who was behind the attack, so we surrounded the ghost tank and found that there was no one in there at all. Then, when we went for one tank, another one would start attacking us for no reason, and I swear on my years of military glory that this was all true! We didn’t want to be deserters, and we tried to fight back, but when we knew that fighting back was just redundant, we chose to be sensible and come back home to tell the country all about it. We are willing to accept any punishment.”
The minister paced back and forth after listening to the story, and he asked the other subordinates of the Strategic Department.
“What do you think about this?”
A few strategic military experts pondered for a while and still didn’t quite believe what the eleven soldiers had said; it was too unbelievable, at least they hadn’t encountered such a bizarre thing in the five decades they had lived.
“Strategic deployment in the Land of Mercenaries is very important, we have to be firm on this. I won’t say whether or not this is true, but how about we give you another battalion of soldiers from the headquarters?”
John didn’t say anything, but the others were agitated when they heard that the military experts didn’t believe them at all. They stood up one by one and said, “Listen, officers, we’d rather be punished than go back to that damn place.”
The few military experts: “Well, you have to go and bring back the bodies of your own comrades, right? And the supplies. Do you know how much money was lost? Two fighter jets, five tanks, plus all kinds of guns and ammunition, a total loss of 30 million dollars. We haven’t gotten any of that money back, so you have to find oil or minerals, right? Do you think it’s acceptable to come back empty handed just like that?”
The eleven soldiers were speechless.
John looked up at this point and said. “I’m not done with it. I’m willing to go back in there again, because I don’t believe it’s the ghosts doing all that.”
The minister nodded. “Good, then you will be regrouped into another battalion ready to head back in. You will be going in for the second time, and now that you know the place better, it will be better if you lead the way.”
John nodded as he accepted the order.
The other eleven comrades who followed him after leaving the strategic department all cursed at him. “We had a hard time leaving from there and avoided bad luck. Now you’re going in?”
John sighed. “Don’t you want to find out the truth?”
His other comrades snickered. “The truth? You want to know the truth from the death reaper? Just like that night, it was you who wanted to know the truth, and half of the thirty other brothers died!”
John said to his group of comrades, “I’m helping you guys. This type of defeat gets us in a lot of trouble. We’ve broken a lot of military rules, and if we choose to back down at this point, we will only face jail time. We have to continue to create our value. Otherwise, even if you are a veteran and you retire to work for Blackwater security, they wouldn’t want you.”