Su-Cheong
The briefing was quick, just like how the Raven Squad would always expect. Circumstances might happen in the middle of their operation and they were trained to handle such dynamics. Su-Cheong took in the mental note about her task to disable the AAs and to infiltrate the data center these people had entrenched themselves in. She had to make her jump, something that she should expect but never had time to perfect the skill. Su-Cheong disliked how she should rely on the nature being good to her every time she did this. The wind speed and direction, the temperature, the humidity of the air surrounding had to come into the equation. This was where Su-Cheong realized that she might need to adjust her calculating habit to not become something more like an debilitating overthought.
The platform was lowered and the cold morning wind invaded the space they took inside the VTOL aircraft. Su-Cheong raised the mouth cover of the exposed part of her infiltration suit and lowered the multi-channel goggle, switching it for the normal sight. The light adjustment enabled her to clearly see her squad mates even with the limited lighting of the passenger bay. Su-Cheong waited for Howard’s sign, but he just gave her the coordinate where she should land through his PDA. The location augmented Su-Cheong digital visor with visual cues of point, direction, and range. Howard then gave her a nod, a gesture Su-Cheong had accustomed herself to be interpreted as “you can jump now.” Indeed, the engine was loud and physical gestures could convey the short message more clearly than some words.
Su-Cheong had both her hands free, with all her weaponry and stuffs carried around the rucksack she tied on her hip. The backpack she wore was the reusable parachuting equipment she needed to use for this aerial entry, a standard issue for this era’s airborne troopers. The way that she would have to quickly detach this parachute as she would land later was quite ironic against the essentiality of her clandestine mission. The choice of having a portable jetpack did not make any difference, only for the more expensive cost per-use, more detectable heat signature, and that she could never simply burn it if the necessity arrived. Some said it would give her more control mid-descent, but the benefit clearly could not outweigh the cost.
That was why Su-Cheong always preferred rappelling, but she jumped regardless. A rather reckless attempt was made, as she attempted to dive from the platform like an olympic diver taking off from the jumping board. Su-Cheong knew such act of stunt would annoy some of her squad mates, seeing her as rather pretentious, but she did not care. The thrill felt so much fun for her as she twisted and rolled mid-air, as little as the equipment she carried allowed her to do so. She guessed that such act could make an ordinary enlisted personnel be discharged if he survived the stunt, but she was a Raven.
After several meters of descent, Su-Cheong assumed the standard procedure of para-dropping. She extended her limbs to give her more control for her fall. Su-Cheong was still able to see the digital indicator for the waypoint she had to reach, her stunt had not jeopardized her mission. The altimeter showed the how fast she descended and when to pull her parachute out. Su-Cheong began to wonder whether she had relied too much on technology in performing her mission.
It was quite sudden, the static filled Su-Cheong’s vision in her goggle and suddenly turned the altimeter off. This made quite a surprise for her, but she had to remain calm. Su-Cheong still remembered the last metrics shown in her electronic vision and calculated when she had to pull the parachute. Eventually, she pulled it and fortunately the parachute functioned well. However, as she made her attempt to direct her descent, and updraft blew her parachute out of control. Su-Cheong was about to get pummeled into a rock formation, just in time when she managed to cut herself from the parachute.
The rigging unraveled themselves as Su-Cheong fell, releasing her from the rucksack and weapon case. As she rolled along the snowy slope, Su-Cheong tried to reach her weapon case first. She was able to catch it back and stopped her fall. Down below, she saw her rucksack bumped against a rock formation and stopped tumbling. Su-Cheong carefully put herself into position and allowed herself to slid on her hip along the slope, her legs controlled the direction. She was able to get her equipment back. Su-Cheong tried to find where her parachute fell, but she could never see it anywhere.
This soldier immediately checked for any injuries. It was quite miraculous that she only felt small bruises around her joints. The shock-absorber built into her infiltration suit was able to reduce the impact. However, Su-Cheong needed to postpone any celebration as she had to get into cover and finish the first phase of her mission. Her multi-channel goggle still malfunctioned and she had to rely on her navigation skill. Unfortunately, this was not the season when the sun would get up early. Su-Cheong’s vision was limited, it was hard for her to determine her current location from the map.
Suddenly, Su-Cheong could hear a pair of explosions from one side of the mountain. It was likely that Jaguar had just disabled some of the AA placement. Su-Cheong looked again at her map and compared the sound direction against the AA supposed location she remembered photographically when she browsed the datafile given to her during the briefing. She felt quite fortunate that the updraft brought her to the closer side of the mountain. Another look-around gave Su-Cheong some visible rising smoke from the exploded AA position. Using her sniper scope, Su-Cheong could determine the AA type from their husks. She was now fully aware where she fell.
“Dollface to Lasanga, I’m proceeding to Waypoint 2, shall I proceed, over… Dollface to Lasanga, do you copy, over.”
No answer from the other side, Su-Cheong knew that this was unnecessary. She could immediately proceed with the mission, one thing she need to confirm was some intel that her intended target might had reacted with the explosion.
“Dollface to Queen, I’m moving to Waypoint 2, need to confirm about target, over… Dollface to Queen, do you copy, over.”
Not even her superior made any response. Su-Cheong began to wonder whether her radio malfunctioned or somehow these people could jam their communication line. Both possibilities would be dire in their consequences, though Su-Cheong could say that the equipment malfunction was less probable, having witnessed them surviving submersion and collision tests. Regardless, she had to proceed with her mission whether the situation changed or not, using the old intel if the new one could never be acquired.
Su-Cheong moved to a rather covered position, then prepared her small UAV. She reconfigured the sensor to catch any incoming radio transmission and pinpoint the source. As she turned the UAV on, Su-Cheong noticed that her fall had not damaged it and no indication of jamming against its control. She flew it as far as her range of control allowed it. Then, not longer than five minutes, the UAV fed Su-Cheong’s goggle with the position of the enemy units placements around her. This also surprised her as suddenly her previously jammed device turned back on.
“Dollface to Lasanga, reporting in, over… Dollface to Queen, reporting in, over.” No response yet from both Su-Cheong’s attempts to call. This young woman then proceeded with the limited intel she already had.
Su-Cheong noticed the AA had some elements of MANPADS operators among them, attached to a platoon of three squads, with two of them being the almost similar to standard infantry configuration. Each squad brought along an all-terrain IFV with them. There were three platoons under a single company with one of them dedicated in full-AA configuration. Every elements were in full mechanized all-terrain configuration.
If Su-Cheong immediately shot at the MANPADS operators, they would notice and simply mobilize a sniper-hunt. This, Su-Cheong thought, might prove to be dangerous for the rest of her squad mates. Su-Cheong decided to take the commander first. She moved far enough for them to detect, but close enough to their mobile HQ. She was lucky to quickly find the commander’s IFV, being one without a turret. Even so, her Lapua Magnum might not be enough to penetrate the armor. She needed to find a way to pull the commander out of his vehicle.
Su-Cheong noticed the radio equipment connected to the commander’s vehicle had been assembled externally. Moreover, they positioned it close enough to a gas-based heater. Su-Cheong had been thinking that she was out of luck when she got blown out by the updraft during the landing phase, she believed that was not so. Su-Cheong then switched her magazine to one that contained the miniaturized high-explosive incendiary/armor-piercing component. This equipment made her sniper rifle a micro-version of a tank gun.
Su-Cheong turned on the D.O.P.E. feature in her goggle and used the automated computation against the current measurement of wind, temperature, humidity, altitude, and her target range. The computation simulated where she should put the crosshair so that the bullet directly hit her intended target. Again, Su-Cheong felt that she had been relying too much on her automation equipment. She took a mental note to give more portion in her sniping exercise during her off-mission time. Of course, she could test her sharpness right at this moment, but the risk would cost to high if she failed.
A shoot was made, the bullet went through the silenced barrel of Su-Cheong’s rifle. It spiraled toward the main component of the radio equipment, went through the metallic casing, and exploded inside. Su-Cheong pushed the bolt back and reloaded another bullet into the chamber. She watched where the empty case fell and reminded herself to take it home. A few seconds later, Su-Cheong saw some personnel coming out of the command-type IFV. Though she could likely determine the commanding officer, among the other men coming out of it, Su-Cheong took no risk of misidentification.
A second shot was made, with the target placement simulated by the automated computation from a software in Su-Cheong’s goggle. The bullet penetrated the gas casing and exploded close to the gathering personnel around the broken radio assembly. That explosion would surely kill them immediately. Su-Cheong opened the channel she had been eavesdropping through her UAV and found an increasing amount of communication. A Named-Entity Recognizer embedded in the voice processing found several names of the victims. Su-Cheong gave no attention to the names, but having the ranks of Captain and First Sergeant was enough for her to determine that this company had been crippled from command.
In such chaos, Su-Cheong immediately moved her targeting toward the AA platoon and several MANPADS operators among the heavy-weapon squads. She changed her magazine to the one containing the ordinary less-expensive armor-piercing type. The round would be enough to penetrate the personal body armor they wore. Su-Cheong started with the AA platoon, beginning with the officer who might stay around a command-type IFV, carrying a lighter type of weaponry, probably a simple handgun. This kind of platoon was quite easy to eliminate as they had lesser composition of weapon operators and carried less armored vehicle-based AA.
A series of shots was made, beginning with whom Su-Cheong determined as the lieutenant, an instant kill. She did not target for headshot because the bullet could already penetrate the torso and was enough to kill them. Then, rather than targeting the stragglers outside the vehicles, Su-Cheong shot the standing-by vehicles, with several hits each time, killing the operators inside without them having any time to get out. Su-Cheong eventually wiped out a whole platoon while they were still in chaos.
Suddenly, her concentration was interrupted with a recognizable ripple. The sound put a little terror inside Su-Cheong’s mind, an incoming helicopter. Su-Cheong lowered her UAV and got herself ready to hide under another covered area. She was able to see a pair of combat helicopters coming closer to her position. One was a modernized Havoc-type and the other was a Hind-type, also modernized. Through her sniper scope, Su-Cheong noticed a familiar jamming device attached to the Havoc.
The Hind hovered mid-air and lowered some ropes from its side. A squad-sized group of men rappelled down from the helicopter. Su-Cheong directed her scope and found that they might be some kind of commando unit. She knew that she was in danger, but an idea then came into her mind. It was a risky one, but she felt that she had no other choice.
Su-Cheong put her commlink back into the enemy’s radio frequency she had been eavesdropping. She then applied a voice simulator to sound like the captain she managed to previously sample using her eavesdropping software. Pretending to be the commander, she gave the whole company a notification that he managed to survive. Su-Cheong then gave the remaining personnel of the company to shoot down the incoming helicopter and conduct a search-and-kill against a squad-size group of military personnel.
Su-Cheong then waited in cover. Several shots of Stinger missiles coming from the MANPADS hit the Hind, crashing it down to the woods below. Some other Stingers hit the Havoc and drove it away from the area before another missile hit it and finally brought it down like its counterpart. With their position revealed to Su-Cheong, she was able to simply wipe those MANPADS operators out of action. The ensuing firefight was enough for Su-Cheong to determine that her pursuer had just been made busy with things other than looking for her.
“Queen to all callsigns… Dollface, get your arse down here…”
With the jammer finally out of action, Su-Cheong was again able to contact her commander.
“Dollface to Queen, reporting in, I’m on my way, I say again, I’m on my-”Su-Cheong’s message stopped mid-transmission. Somebody had just choked her from behind. The young woman made her struggle and managed to wrestle her assaulter. Su-Cheong pulled a harness which then released her backpack to allow herself for a close-quarter combat. She then took her combat knife and managed to stab her attacker in the neck, killing him.
However, that man’s squad mates were close by and he already pointed their weapons toward Su-Cheong. The young woman threw her knife and put her arms in the air. One of the commando approached Su-Cheong and dismantled her from her weapons. He pulled her goggle and threw it, then pulled down her face cover, revealing Su-Cheong’s look to her enemy.
“A woman,” one of the commando remarked, “and that’s not a face I want to shoot.” Su-Cheong knew some Russian, but the choice of words this man made told her that he was not a native, likely someone who came from the Balkan region.
“She’s clear, no more weapon on her.” The soldier who searched her body took his chance to grab some of Su-Cheong’s private parts. “Ohoho, you’re on gunpoint, don’t do anything stupid, cutie” he said as he noticed the anger in Su-Cheong’s face.
“Should we take her prisoner?” Said another soldier. “She made this chaos, and killed Zlatko.”
“You’re right, she’s not our prisoner, but again, that is not the face I want to shoot at.”
The soldier lowered down the muzzle of his rifle. Five separate shots were made. Su-Cheong twitched as the bullets pierced the fabric of her uniform around her lower abdomen. The last shot pushed Su-Cheong backward and made her tumble across the slope before she finally landed on her back.
“Dollface to Queen, gasp… Dollface to Queen, agent compromised, gasp…ov-cough!” Su-Cheong made her attempt to contact her team. She had not turned her radio off so it was likely that they would figure what had just happened. Su-Cheong was lucky that the bulletproof modification for her infiltration suit worked. However, she might have not noticed it, the shock was enough to put her unconscious.
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