Chapter 93
Chapter 93: Colonel’s Diary
Translator: _Min_ Editor: Yukira_
2 October 2172, sunny
Truth to be told, this planet is no longer suitable for human habitation, starting from the moment the Russian committed atrocities in Paris.
These trivial complaints have no meaning coming from a man of my status. Being able to complain, after all, is a good thing since those 21 people in battalion next door couldn’t even complain anymore.
I remember Daniel, a young man who always likes to aim at people’s nuts and blew up his own guns, his DNA can’t even be found anymore in the aftermath of the war in Berlin.
That damn guy…you still owe me a drink, dammit!
Running into enemies, taking cover, shooting, calling for an airstrike, advancing continuously…and praying to the priest.
Every day is like a living hell. Despite having air advantage, the CCCP fire power was too fierce. When they finally tore their hypocritical facade and revealed their true nature, they started using nuclear weapons. Godda*n! Now, everyone’s life has been depreciated to ten dollars. Perhaps even less.
That’s all for today. We’ll push towards Frankfort tomorrow. It was rumored that a nuclear is being set up there. I hope we can make it in time.
God save me, may victory belong to NATO.
–
3 October 2172, cloudy
The plan was for my team to start with the tanks, storm the 141 Fort located in Frankfort, destroy the air defense missiles, then call an airstrike to bomb the nuclear silo.
But things seem to have changed a little. My team had received a special mission for the time being. God save me, I hope my ominous feeling is wrong.
–
6 October 2171, unknown?
It’s hard to believe but I am aboard the x12 space station. In half an hour, we’ll be entering an airdrop pod and the destination is PAC’s Wanghai City.
Dammit, it’s fu*king difficult to write in space.
–
6 October 2171, cloudy, (added)
I have seen the picture of Wanghai City before the war, and it seems to be a very beautiful place. But now it looks no different than Paris, at least along the coastline and downtown. Our Marine Corps will invade through the coastline, while we will infiltrate enemy territory through airdrop pod and mark strategic target to facilitate the shooting of the space-based weapon “God’s Cane”.
Particle barrier generator, air defense missiles, electromagnetic pulse cannon, nuclear power plants… In short, mark anything that is worth destroying.
Sounds easy?
Perhaps… although the moment the airdrop pod passed through the cloud of radiation, a rare chill went down my spine.
–
7 October 2172, cloudy
Goddamn*t, this is a living hell.
There are PAC soldiers everywhere, armored vehicles, tanks and…even stranded soldiers from our side. It was a complete mess.
Absolute madness, the moment the electromagnetic absorber was deactivated, the power armor would stall for a while. There are radiation and snipers everywhere. We can now only rely on sign language, and everyone acted like they were mute. How many nukes have been detonated here? Or do EMP ever stop?
I’m only worried that I have yet to receive communication from the headquarter.
This point is of utmost important! If the team lost…
–
8 October 2172, rainy
Terrible weather, the rain turned into a bad omen.
We almost engaged in a skirmish with our own soldiers today. That’s right, across the street where no one could identify each other, and the communication device was in a state of failure.
Fortunately, the crisis was averted as PAC’s tanks helped us to identity them, and then we worked together to solve the problem.
They are the Marine Corps and they lost contacts shortly after landing. They followed the offline map’s direction as they were supposed to reconvene with other 11 battalion soldiers here, but it seemed like were the only ones who made it.
Lucky guys.
I allowed them to join our mission temporarily as they didn’t even have anti-tank weapons. Death would be inevitable if they stay so might as well have them joined us.
.
With the help of light infantry, our vision would reach further since the life detection device is no longer functioning with EMP absorber being activated.
–
9 October 2172, cloudy
It seems that in addition to rain, it is also cloudy in here. This is strange.
The battle has continued for 3 days already. The good thing is that the quality of the buildings is quite high in the center of the city. Despite being showered with nukes, we can still find buildings for cover. We continued to engage in skirmishes with PAC as there were more of us here in the city. That’s a good sign. Maybe we’ll win the war another day?
We almost cheer when we saw the tungsten rod fell from the sky and shattered the particle barrier generator into pieces.
However…shortly afterwards our communications went back online.
Our “God’s Cane” has been captured by PAC Space Corps?
The fifth fleet suffered heavy losses?
Retreat? Lost?
Heck, how does one withdraw from the middle of the city?
–
10 October 2172, partially cloudy (added)
I was the only one left.
James was done for, Zach has gone insane.
Did PAC soldiers take pity on me? I was somehow expecting that when I got ripped out of the power armor, I would have been beaten, had my limbs broken, and finally be shot dead.
But that doesn’t seem likely.
PAC soldier are very united, and under the directive of the commander, no one would dare breach it. Although the yellow monkey seems to want to cut my head off. In the end, he didn’t do it though.
I was familiar with that look of animosity, as if wanting to tear me apart.
I can understand that perhaps what we did in school was over the top. But I can’t be blamed for that. Although I am a devout believer, my soldiers also need to relieve their stress. Maybe I should have stopped the guy in Georgia State?
Come on, who cares? Everyone’s dead.
–
I was forced into a truck loaded with captives. There were plenty of people like us in there.
Fortunately, they didn’t confiscate my diary or I would have gone insane.
It is imperative to keep a diary. That’s right, it’s very important.
I’ll try not to provoke the guy who escorted us as he already killed two unlucky fools.
–
15 October 2171, sunny.
We were brought to somewhere far away from the battlefront. There were a lot of mountains here, also a lot of tunnels, and some factories built underground.
I settled down after seeing these because I knew I had no chance of ever returning. Exchange prisoners of war? Hehe, if I say this, would they let me go?
The people in the truck was separated into two groups: one group to the North and one group to the South.
I have a foreboding feeling that one group would die. Of course, we are all going to die in the end, I just pray that it won’t be an ugly death.
After coming to the underground base, our faces were soon branded with barcodes and we got our own bed.
Mhmm…this place is a bit like a concentration camp.
Thank God, my diary is not confiscated.
–
17 November 2172, unknown
I don’t know what the weather on the surface is because we haven’t seen the sun in a long time. Are they still fighting out there? Or has the war stopped? Of course, we are already deemed “dead”, so even if the war ended, I’m afraid we can’t return home.
The work isn’t hard but it is rather boring and we get beaten a lot.
Someone tried to run but was apparently killed. We are incarcerated along with the federal death row prisoners. The guy, who slept above me, was a political prisoner. He was very thin with little hair left on his head. He talked to me in English and asked me if I believed in God.
I said I don’t or rather I believed in him before.
He didn’t mind as he continued to chat about other things. To be honest, I was quite disgusted with any topics related to political point of view.
But he seemed to become increasingly more frustrated.
Thank God, he got shot not long after.
–
21 November 2172, unknown
There are dead people being dragged away every day, however, there are more people being brought in.
Maybe the war is about to end? After all, there are less familiar faces and more Asian faces are being brought in.
But what made me unsettled is that I spotted some Slavs from the latest batch of captives.
Did PAC and CCCP go to war as well? Luckily, that’s a great news for NATO.
However, how long will a war of this level last?
–
25 December 2172, unknown (maybe it is snowing?)
Today is Christmas without Christmas tree and candles, and buttery cornmeal porridge.
I don’t believe in God, but I still prayed devoutly and pray to my diary. My inmate said I am crazy, I disagreed. Someone had tried to steal my diary, I beat him to a pulp. I broke his nose, and we were both taken in.
I left the journal under my pillow but no one dared to touch it.
Perhaps I scared them? I trust that they are all unafraid of death—me neither—but I believe that no one wants to die.
No can beat me here. I am a special force, while they are all political prisoners.
Suckers.
–
6 May 2173, unknown
I am not sure if it was earthquake or airstrike. It’s probably an airstrike.
Everyone quivered at the corner but I didn’t. I read the journal from the beginning again.
I didn’t have time to write every day. Most of the time, I only left a date. It was hard to find a pen, so if there was nothing special, I choose to leave it blank.
The barrage lasted for a long time, but it stopped eventually. Someone mentioned relocating and I smiled.
Where to?
–
14 June 2173, cloudy
The day of relocation came. Unfortunately, I wasn’t welcome by the sun.
It was snowing outside, and the sky was covered with radiation dust. Is this what they called nuclear winter? Being able to see snow in summer was quite an experience.
The soldiers guarding us all wore protective suit, but we only wore a jacket. They didn’t plan on using us for a long as they only gave us an iodine chip.
We were still left in the truck.
When I left, I was surprised to find out that few mountains have gone missing. Or should I say, became pits.
I remember that’s where the group of people from the North headed to work.
–
20 June 2173, sunny
Surprisingly, today is sunny.
Amazingly, I returned to Wanghai City.
Order seems to have been restored here as there are already some citizens living in rural areas. Of course, they didn’t look well, probably the unlucky people that didn’t manage to hide in shelters. At any rate, this is a good sign that the war is over.
Or at the very least, a ceasefire.
Still it has nothing with us.
I was escorted into an underground survival base or a research facility? This is because survival base wouldn’t open in less than a year which should be the same in every country.
A man in a white lab coat welcomed me and smiled at me, but I only felt chill in my hands and feet.
It’s as though he was looking at a white mouse?
Insane, this is insane.
For the first time, I experience real fear. Dammit!
–
I can’t remember the time, unknown.
The diary was confiscated.
Ripped into pieces.
But so what, I memorized everything.
–
They are crazy. Do they think they can create XXXX like this? (Scratched out)
Wait, why am I still normal?
–
Well, now it’s certain that they are insane.
If someone sees this diary, everything would have been worthwhile. I tried to leave something behind, but it was futile.
All clues will be hidden.
But I still firmly believe that there are smart people out there who will find the clue.
Why am I still conscious? Why hasn’t it been erased?
I should have been dead.
Well, before I die, I hope that Asian girl will forgive me for my sins… that’s probably not going to happen though.
(Colonel George’s final words, pays tribute to the NATO flag)
–
Jiang Chen’s hands and feet felt cold after reading it.
There must be something that’s missing, but what was it exactly? This wasn’t normal…no, what was normal?
Inside the drawer, there was a gun lying next to the diary.
Revolver!
Hand trembling, Jiang Chen swallowed after finally picking up the firearm. Feeling the cold metal texture, he unloaded the magazine. The copper colored metal bullets burned his eyes.
It’s a real gun!
Inside the drawer in the activity room of the school library! What the hell is this place? And not to mention the insane Colonel’s Diary.
It’s only year 2171, how would the journal spoke of something from the year 2173? Wait…time travel?
Jiang Chen felt an onslaught of headache. He clutched his forehead and sat back on the chair. His head was a mess. It’s as though everything was a déjà vu, but he couldn’t explain where the feeling came from.
[Am I forgetting something?]
Jiang Chen frowned he tried to search for every nook and cranny of his memory in the hope of finding clues.
But he didn’t even know what the clue was.
From learning how to speak when he was a baby, to his elementary education, and then his junior high…up until this moment. Every piece of memory was so vivid.
Where’s the problem?
[Wait, why is it so clear? I can even remember the details of changing diaper?]
Thinking of this, Jiang Chen suddenly blanked out, he felt he had grasped onto something, but he must have missed a detail, just a tiny bit.
It was at this time that he suddenly heard an unexpected knock.
“Are you in there?”
An abrupt but gentle voice struck at Jiang Chen’s heart like a hammer…