Weekly routine report in the war zone

Thirtieth week

Former Arab League, Persian region, now the 18th region of the empire.

The 12th Overseas Division of the Black Knights, Middle East Theater.

This email has a reading priority:

1.ZERO

2. Eastland, REX, Britannia

3. Diethardt Leader (opening condition: commander-in-chief or deputy commander authorization password)

4. Fan (opening condition: commander-in-chief or deputy commander authorization password) 5. Fujido Kagami Shiro (opening condition: commander-in-chief and deputy commander authorization password)

(Automatically destroyed after 24 hours if no one reads it)

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Our biggest problem remains the same, it's still water.

Domestic water is still secondary, at least the members of the group are guaranteed. The simple distillation equipment kept the members from dying of thirst, and the bottled water that the local residents secretly placed in the designated locations of the war group by the local residents took advantage of the darkness to give some of the cleanliness bastards in the team a chance to take a sneak bath.

That was a mistake on our part, and we shouldn't have accepted the local resistance so hastily. Half of them were illiterate, ninety-nine percent had no training, and the vast majority didn't know what they were fighting for -- I don't know how the locals saved the water, but there was no doubt that if it had been delivered to some really desperate person, he wouldn't have died for at least a week.

Forgive me for being so emotionally charged with the narrative, but something that happens here does break through the fundamental principles of the Black Knights.

My job is supposed to be to stop this from happening, and I should teach them what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil, regardless of their background.

I let the organization down.

We are here to save these people, not to exploit them.

There is a paradox here.

No matter how much we deal a blow to the local army, it does not improve the livelihood of the local population in the slightest. On the contrary, the more active we are, the more pressure we put on the local people to survive.

The locals are so supportive of us that they are eager for the arrival of the Black Knights.

We have let the people down.

Domestic water is already so scarce, and the water resources needed for the maintenance of the body are not a problem at all in Japan, but here it is almost impossible to achieve astronomical figures.

None of the 65 airframes brought with the group are currently in a fully equipped state, and with the local hot and dry climate, the cooling system is already in danger.

It's all because of the water.

Three days earlier, I, the station commander, and the engineers who accompanied the army had discussed this issue, and had come to the conclusion that in the absence of war, half of the forty airframes would be in a state of inactivation in three months, and in four months we would have to rely on our two legs and guns in our hands to resist the Empire's torrent of steel.

Without the help of the Empire, the Black Knights will die of thirst on this desert.

Rather than endure until the moment when he was about to die, he was forced to fight the enemy in a decisive battle. My opinion is to seize the port of Glen in the Persian Gulf while the morale is still there and the weapons are available. If successful, we will open up a supply line by sea, and the desalination facilities near the port can be used by our army and the local population.

If we don't succeed, at least we can completely destroy Britannia's second most important port in the Middle East. This is a heavy blow to both the country's resource delivery and the supply of the local army. For at least three months, the Imperial Army will be on the defensive, and the country's supply of benzene products will be halved.

Having lost half of its plastic raw materials, the Empire's warplanes will be hit hardest since Sakuraishi's production cuts.

In the second discussion, the Commander and I agreed that the chances of capturing and holding the port were extremely slim, so the top priority of the operation was to lightning attacks and the placement of explosives on port equipment. If it can't be defended, the port will be detonated immediately.

(Detailed plans are attached to this report for approval.) Emergency dù: black; Red. It is related to the strategic objectives of the Black Knights in this theater of operations; It is related to the survival of the Black Knights in this war zone. ）

Robert M. G. Nelson, S10120

Member of the Working Committee of the General Political Committee of the 12th Theater Regiment

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After typing the report, save it, insert the wire into another palm-sized square box, and click Encrypt Transfer. The small box attached to the computer emits a tiny ticking sound, and the signal light flickers on and off in the darkness, scattering the information and reforming it into a dot matrix that the interceptor cannot decipher anyway, and transmits it to the Shinjuku headquarters on the other side of the world.

After doing this, Nelson collapsed tiredly on the back of his chair, lifted his glasses, and rubbed his eyes vigorously with his other hand.

It was getting dark, the temperature was dropping quickly, and the wind was blowing outside the tent.

Tonight's work has just begun.

They were to take advantage of the darkness of night to move their troops to the seashore and gain a favorable location for the port to seize the battle.

The local improvised forces had been mobilized two days earlier, moving towards the exact opposite location, destined for a less important town. The purpose is also to cover this operation, so the suspicion is arranged.

Of course, the final decision is still in the hands of ZERO.

The sound of keystrokes behind him stopped, and the other person in the tent closed the computer and walked behind Nelson with a teacup.

"Seventy-two hours ・・・・・・in the next ...

The man behind him muttered in Japanese.

"Hmm."

Seventy-two hours.

If ZERO were to approve the operation, they would be in the heavily guarded port of Glenn in seventy-two hours.

Not surprisingly, the success rate is 90 percent, and the casualty rate is 20 to 35 percent.

For the Black Knights, this is an absolutely acceptable figure, exchanging a hundred lives for a port and at the same time battering the country.

It's a good deal!

The problem is keeping.

They knew that with their men, it would be absolutely impossible to hold the counterattack of the local military headquarters.

The nearest base is only four and a half hours from the port, and has 300 Sunderlands and 4,000 troops. Mechanized troops could surround the port in ten hours, and if there were one or two of the Empire's newest floating airframes in the base, that time could even be reduced to less than an hour.

This is not Japan, and this is not Mt. Fuji.

There are no bunkers, no underground facilities, no fire cover, and away to no longer away. Looking at the boundlessness of thousands of miles, all the conditions of fighting more with less do not exist.

It was a purely suicidal operation.

Seventy-two hours later, it was their limit.

"."

The man behind him cursed quietly.

Nanjia Gao.

The Elder of the Order, who held a key position in the Order's predecessor before the Black Knights were created and Zero took over. Now, he is the commander of the Persian theater.

He is strong and tall, at least among the Japanese. With a resolute face, he wears a pair of glasses, and if he shaves his beard and takes care of his hair, he looks like a successful person who goes to the gym every day, but what he does is a rebellious job.

"!"

Nan gritted his teeth in an accentuated tone, and cursed in a low voice.

"Sir?" Nelson turned to look at the other person.

"It's okay..."

"Is there anything you want to tell me?" The monk took the posture of a political commissar. "I know it's normal to be nervous before the war."

"Fuck you, when I was playing Shinjuku with ZERO, you were still sitting in your office as a Persian translator." Nan scolded with a smile, but gradually his face sank again. "No, I'm not afraid of death, I was dead that day. I'm just... I'm not reconciled. ”

As he spoke, he took a sip from the pungent teacup.

It was a substitute for local tea, made from the leaves of some unnamed thorny shrub. It tastes terrible, and it's life-threatening if you just squeeze the sap into the wound, but the pick-me-up effect is outstanding, and Nelson personally thinks it's just that it's too unpalatable.

"Unwilling?"

"Well, I just thought... if I can hold that port. At least the local people have access to water. ”

Nan Yu spit out the plant residue between his teeth and said woodenly.

Nelson was silent for a moment, then nodded slowly.

Next to the harbor is the Empire's oil refining and desalination facilities, which produce water for the Empire's army.

That's actually a very, very simple and original design.

The empire needed the basic raw materials for industry such as benzene, alkanes, hydrocarbons, alkynes, etc., in oil, without which there would be no plastics, and without plastics there would be no modern industry. To do this, they need to burn oil to separate these raw materials, and the enormous heat of the combustion process is used to distill the seawater. Of course, pure water is just a by-product.

In order to load ships in close proximity to ships and to get close to the cooling water, refineries are generally located at the dockside, and some are even set up at sea.

If we can keep that refinery, we can provide drinking water for at least 500,000 people.

At least half a million people could be saved.

And now they have to blow up that port.

"Hey." Nelson saw that the other party had been darkened and did not speak, and comfortingly hammered Nan's shoulder. "That's the limit of what we can do."

"Damn the Empire."

Nan's fists clenched tightly.

Although it is difficult in Japan, at least starvation and freezing to death rarely occur. But here, in today's world where technology has developed so much, hundreds of people are literally dying every day due to lack of water.

Obviously, the water source is close at hand.

Obviously, as long as there is one person, just turn on the faucet・・・・・・

In the end, there was still nothing they could do for the people here.

"We look like we're going to end up in the bleakest way of all the war zones." Minami muttered.

"Don't be so sure."

"Cut."

"Two years ago, when I was in my home country and saw ZERO announce on TV that they were going to fight against the entire empire with a small organization of 100 people, I also thought you couldn't win. No, I didn't think you could describe madness anymore, grasshoppers shaking trees. But the result? Japan is firmly independent, isn't it? ”

"That's different." Minami shook her head. "Mt. Fuji is guarded by the deputy commander, and without him, even if there are ten times more people, it will not be useful. There are people in this world who are born with the gift of making the impossible possible, and unfortunately I am not one of them. ”

"・・・・・・ Either way, at least we're doing something meaningful and right. Isn't it? ”

"yes, that's enough."

Nan silently drank the liquid in the cup, as if he had thought of something.

"Hey, there's something I haven't asked. You Britannian, why do you follow us to do such a deadly job? ”

"Good question."

Nelson smiled.

"My son, two years ago, was studying in Tokyo."

"Ahh

Nan immediately understood that the white man's son must have been one of the protesters killed in front of the Governor's Palace.

"Nothing, and I don't know if that kid's luck is good or bad. Nine holes were drilled into the body, one of which remained in the brain. Lying in the hospital like a cabbage for two years, living on a lot of pipelines until now, maybe never waking up. My wife divorced me, and I quit my job to take care of the child. Do you know who I blame for this qiē? ”

“・・・・・・”

"ZERO, THAT MAN RUINED MY LIFE ON AN ISLAND HALF A WORLD AWAY. So, as someone with a psychology degree, I tried to get revenge as much as I could. I studied every move, every speech, all the information I had access to. I wanted to prove to the world that the masked man was nothing more than a madman with an expansive personality and a tendency to self-destruct. But no one can figure out about human nature. In the process of studying him, I felt in him myself, pain, sadness, the kind of despair, crazy sadness that only those who have been taken away have a qiē. Then I began to look beyond the walls and take a closer look. Gradually, I understood that the qiē I suffered was nothing compared to numbers. ZERO is just an opportunity, he is no longer a person, but a flashpoint for all this human suffering. I can't use the so-called psychology to study this kind of existence. On Mt. Fuji, you were almost slaughtered and none of you took a step back, which is no longer a human move, and it strengthens my thoughts. ”

"Huh?"

"In addition to egoism, there is indeed altruism in human nature. But this kind of 'goodness' in human nature is too cowardly and too difficult to condense. It wasn't until the advent of ZERO that it provided a refuge for the good in human nature, and for the first time in human history, humanity realized that kindness does not equal weakness. You just said you're dead, didn't you? For me, it's the opposite, I'm doing it to prove I'm alive. Instead of sitting in front of the TV and watching the senseless suffering happen to innocent people, as some walking dead do, they do. I'm not going to say that I'm doing this for the sake of the kid, helping him fulfill his wishes or anything like that. I'm just doing this for myself, and I'm living like a human being. ”

"Mr. Nelson, you are a noble man."

"Dying for what is right. Think about it, instead of lying on the hospital bed 30 years later, urinating **, let the nurse rudely help you turn over and wipe your back. Fighting with cancer, lawyers, insurance companies, these trivial things without dignity until the last breath; Or one day being hit by a jerk that uses the accelerator as a brake. There are only three ways for people to die, and I personally prefer the first one. ”

Nan, who didn't smile for a while, couldn't help but grin when he heard this.

Live like a human.

Die like a human.

It doesn't get any happier than that.

"Alright, it's getting dark." Nan tapped the last blush behind the horizon with his thumb. "I'm going to take charge of the mobile unit."

Nelson nodded and stood up as well. He was responsible for supervising the march of the infantry.

Outside the tent there was the sound of an argument, the source of which was gradual, and it sounded like it was Persian and Japanese. The two glanced at each other, lifted the curtain and strode out.

A skinny Japanese man was dragged out of the tent by three or four Persians, struggling incessantly. When the Persians saw the chief, they quickened their pace and threw the boy in front of them, and began to complain with a look of rage.

Nelson's face was getting more and more ugly.

"What's wrong?"

"That kid is going to kill without reporting, hold them down."

"Prisoners of war?"

"Comrade-in-arms."

Nan's face suddenly turned black, and green tendons popped out of his neck, and he lowered his voice.

"Ken, what's wrong?"

"They snatched my gun." The boy stood up and didn't look at the two, and lowered his head to pat the dust on his body. "That's the gun the lieutenant gave me."

"Asakura Ken'er, report on the situation just now."

Asakura Jian'er, in terms of the combat ability of individual mechas, this unsightly child can be ranked in the top ten in the whole regiment, and even above him, the head of the station. It is no exaggeration to say that this kid is the trump card of the Persian branch. The deputy commander was one of several people selected as a seed and personally trained.

In the previous battles, Nan could already see the fighting style of the deputy commander interspersed behind enemy lines from this kid, and no one in the whole regiment could beat him in destroying and killing, and even gradually gained his own reputation among the enemy army.

Nan likes this kid very much, and as a guy who "crawled out" from the dead man's pile "that day", he has the same smell on his body, and he knows the child's character without asking.

People like them will never draw their guns against others for no reason.

"I'm not wrong." The boy said with a stiff neck. "They killed people."

Nelson frowned and asked the local militia again, and after another passionate exchange, Nelson finally showed a sudden expression.

"Remember the patrolmen I caught last week?"

"Well, six, Team G got it back from the north side of the dunes. What's wrong? ”

"Their leader, Hadi Reza, got drunk and cut off their heads."