Chapter 248: The Operation Begins Tomorrow (1)

Kang Chan turned around to glance behind him, making Choi Jong-Il and Woo Hee-Seung immediately dash forward to help Park Chul-Su back to his feet.

Kang Chan slowly stood up and looked around the mess hall. He was wearing a gray military uniform with the Korean flag on its left sleeve. His hat rested on his shoulder epaulets.

He glared at one part of the mess hall. Everyone followed his gaze, finding one person at the end of it.

“Andrei,” he called.

Andrei tightly pressed his lips together and glared at Kang Chan.

Kang Chan smirked as he slowly made his way toward him.

Clack! Crack!

A tray crunched under his feet, the plate with food on it shattering. However, Kang Chan just kept walking straight toward Andrei.

The Spetsnaz soldier who fought Park Chul-Su muttered something. Soon after, a powerful punch rang out.

Pow!

“

Kegh

!” the soldier groaned.

The people only saw him flinch, yet the next thing they knew, he was already gasping for air. No one could properly spot Kang Chan’s right arm move and hit the soldier in the neck.

Crash! Crash! Bam!

The Spetsnaz soldiers quickly stood up. The French special forces team burst to their feet as well.

Kang Chan grabbed the collar of his prey.

Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!

He then repeatedly slapped the soldier with his right hand. Blood splattered on his pants and the floor around him.

Crack! Crash! Crash! Clang!

Kang Chan kneed him in the face as soon as he let him go, slamming him into the table against the wall. The table surprisingly managed to remain standing.

Twisting his neck from side to side, he turned to the side and repeated, “Andrei.”

One of the unwritten rules in joint special forces operations was that the commanders weren’t to be touched. After all, most of them tended to be older, and they were no longer as sharp in combat as they used to be. It was also a sign of respect to one’s seniors in the special forces.

Moreover, beating up a commander meant that one of the teams would lose its center, which was a loss for everyone else. After all, at the end of the day, they were supposed to be fighting alongside each other.

Nevertheless, the Spetsnaz still targeted Park Chul-Su because they believed that their commander, Andrei, would have their back. Now, however, Kang Chan was openly going after that very person. The Spetsnaz soldiers couldn’t even protest against it because of what they had done.

Kang Chan stopped in front of Andrei’s table.

“Andrei,” Kang Chan called again.

“Oui,” Andrei responded, his tone filled with displeasure.

The Spetsnaz soldiers all looked at each other with flustered faces. At the same time, Seok Kang-Ho grinned and Gérard’s cheek twitched.

Squeak!

Kang Chan slowly pushed the table in front of Andrei away. He then took two steps forward, stopping right in front of Andrei. Now standing, Andrei gave Kang Chan a look of dissatisfaction.

“It seems you have forgotten how to address me. I’ll have to teach you again,” Kang Chan said in French. “I’ll be so thorough this time that you won’t ever forget again.”

The Spetsnaz soldiers anxiously glanced at each other, unable to understand what Kang Chan was saying. No one on the South Korean special forces team understood either. Unlike them, Gérard and the French special forces team were looking at Kang Chan with faces bright with pride.

“Andrei,” Kang Chan called once more, emphasizing and rolling every syllable of his name.

A brief moment of silence dawned upon them. When Kang Chan smirked, Andrei finally responded.

“Oui, Monsieur Kang!” Andrei exclaimed, dropping his gaze to Kang Chan’s waist.

Cha Dong-Gyun now understood why Seok Kang-Ho said that everything would be taken care of in one go as soon as Kang Chan arrived. Those words didn’t come as a surprise anymore, but this was still on an entirely different level.

A lion had appeared in the middle of a fight between wolves. If the wolves didn’t put their tails between their legs in front of him, they would die.

Cha Dong-Gyun felt a rush in his heart as he looked at the South Korean flag on Kang Chan’s arm, Andrei looking down in defeat in front of him, and the Spetsnaz soldiers reading the room with awkward expressions.

Kang Chan slowly looked around the mess hall. “Gérard!”

“Oui!” Gérard immediately replied.

“Request another lunch for us from the command center. We’ll eat in an hour.”

“Oui!”

Even though Gérard was the one who replied, it was a chick from the French special forces who walked out of the building with haste.

Kang Chan exited the hall, the Korean and French teams following right behind him.

“We’ll be right here,” Gérard said when they reached the benches at the open field.

Kang Chan nodded, then went inside the barracks that was marked with the South Korean flag.

Park Chul-Su sat down on a sofa and tilted his head back.

“I’m sowrry,” he said, his voice seemingly muffled. Blood kept flowing out of his broken nose, worsening his pronunciation.

“Please don’t say that. The bastards had you in their sights from the very beginning, yet you still properly stood your ground, sir,” Kang Chan gratefully replied. “You’ve already done your duty as our commander by not cowering or backing down,”

Kang Chan glanced at the picture of Choi Seong-Geon on the table. “I’m sure the general would’ve been proud as well.”

Park Chul-Su snorted in amusement, causing some blood to spurt out of his nose.

“I trwust I can leave the commwand to you?” he asked as he looked at Kang Chan. Not even swollen eyes and a broken nose could weaken the flames in his gaze. “I want to make the genweral and my cwountry proud.”

Kang Chan nodded. Only then did Park Chul-Su lean his head back again.

“I’m going to step out for a moment,” Kang Chan informed the others.

“I’ll come with you, Cap,” Seok Kang-Ho said.

Not long after, the two walked out of the barracks together.

“Damn!” Gérard exclaimed as he stood up from a bench, greeting Kang Chan with a satisfied expression. He then stepped in front of him, a curiosity he was dying to quench all over his face. “Did something happen between you and that Andrei guy?”

Only a few members of the United States’ special forces team were on the field. Not a single Russian or English soldier was in sight.

“What happened, Cap? You seem a lot sharper than before,” Gérard continued.

“And you’ve become quite the chatterbox,” Kang Chan sarcastically replied.

Gérard grinned. “I’m just happy to see you.”

Kang Chan didn’t mind this French’s ass-kissing.

They sat down on the benches and had a smoke each. An army interpreter stuck close to Seok Kang-Ho, quickly relaying Gérard’s words for him.

“Captain, I sense something fishy about this operation,” Gérard said.

“Why?” Kang Chan asked. He exhaled some smoke, then turned back to Gérard. From an ice-cold wilderness, he was now in such a dry and hot place that it was hard to breathe.

The blood on his pants had hardened into a black pattern that looked as if it was an intentional design.

“The SISS and SSIS have merged into the IS[1] and started massacring tribes, but their methods and ways of carrying out their schemes are strangely different from before. The UN command center seems to be hiding something too.”

Kang Chan thought about it for a second. This was a hunch that Gérard, the top commander of the Foreign Legion, had. It was reasonable to assume that the UN was indeed hiding something from them.

“Tell me about the joint forces’ upcoming plans.”

“We’ll probably start rescuing the tribes in a few days. We’ve been having some trouble with the command structure, but now that you’re here, all that has been cleared up.”

Kang Chan couldn’t help but chuckle. Gérard made it sound as if they were out on a picnic, not a battle.

“Captain! We’re in Africa again,” Gérard mischievously added.

“Aren’t you sick of this place?”

“Well, I’m not alone here, so why would I be? All the men who joined us in Afghanistan said they would throw a fuss if they weren’t chosen for this operation, so they’re all here too. Our youngest even turned down a captain position to come, so he has the least seniority here again.”

“Gérard,” Kang Chan began.

Seeing his expression, Gérard responded with a solemn “Oui?”

“Nothing changes, got that? Our highest priority is still the safe return of every soldier here. Don’t let your guard down, and now that you’re a commander, you better take care of your men.”

“Understood, Cap,” Gérard replied. As he spoke, a chick who gave off the aura of a teenage chicken approached Kang Chan.

“Lunch is ready,” the soldier informed him.

“Then let’s go eat.” Kang Chan grinned as he stood up.

The soldiers walked out of their barracks and headed to the mess hall.

Park Chul-Su accompanied them even though he could just rest, probably refusing to let the others think that the fight earlier made him cower. The gauze on his face was already soaked with blood.

Creak. Clank. Creak.

The mess hall was as silent as a monastery. Only the chairs being pulled could be heard.

“

Jeez

, these punks! The atmosphere here is so tense I won’t even be able to swallow my food!” Seok Kang-Ho grumbled as he scooped up some fried rice.

A member of the SBS glanced back at the noise. When he saw Seok Kang-Ho grinning at him, he immediately let go of the tongs and moved forward.

Cha Dong-Gyu, Kwak Cheol-Ho, and the other soldiers were feeling stiff when they entered the building. Without any apology or reconciliation, they had to eat with the very people they had just exchanged blows with moments ago. However, when they saw Kang Chan, Gérard, Seok Kang-Ho, and the proud-looking French special forces team putting food on their trays, they finally realized the significance of Kang Chan’s actions.

This was the power of one man. Because of Kang Chan, the Spetsnaz and the SBS now ate their meals politely like model students in a school cafeteria while the French special forces, who had gone on the operation in Afghanistan with Kang Chan, sat down at a table with pride.

More importantly, the commander of the French special forces, Gérard, clearly followed Kang Chan.

Perhaps Gérard did seem like an easy opponent whenever he looked at Kang Chan with puppy-dog eyes or grinned mischievously at the South Korean soldiers.

However, his sharp eyes, the scar that clearly showed his temperament, and the experience that was noticeably ingrained in his body made it clear that he was at least on the same level as Andrei.

It all came down to experience. They needed to experience this as much as they needed combat experience.

Click.

Seok Kang-Ho had never shown weakness since they arrived because of that. Having been in this situation countless times, he found himself at ease. Cha Dong-Gyun and the rest of the Koreans were starting to adjust to this situation as well.

“Did you come here straight from Mongolia?” Seok Kang-Ho asked.

“No, I met up with Jong-Il in China first, then came with him,” Kang Chan explained. “When I arrived and went to turn in my roster at the command center, I was told you left for some target training. We completely missed each other.”

Kang Chan scooped up some fried rice as he briefly explained what happened when he arrived and informed them of the situation in Mongolia.

The army interpreter wasn’t able to eat properly because he was busy interpreting for Gérard. Rather than being ordered to do it, he seemed to be doing it because he was intimidated by the aura that Seok Kang-Ho and Gérard were giving off. Frankly, it was pitiful.

They discussed various topics. Before they knew it, they had finished their meals. They poured themselves some mugs of the coffee that was on one side of the mess hall before walking out to the field.

It felt as if the fight earlier had perfectly established their command structure.

“

Argh

, hot! Fuck!” Seok Kang-Ho cursed as he glared at his mug.

Choi Jong-Il, who came with Kang Chan, Woo Hee-Seung, and Lee Doo-Hee all shook their heads, trying to hide their smiles.

With each blow, the wind carried over a foul smell—the smell of Africa.

Kang Chan was back on the very land he died on. This time, however, he didn’t want to have his neck slit or lose any of his soldiers.

He looked at the soldiers sitting around him, sipping coffee from their mugs. Having gone through hellish training to overcome their limits and improve their skills, they were now ready to sacrifice their lives for their comrades. He wasn’t going to let these men die in vain.

“

Hoo

!” Seok Kang-Ho exhaled cigarette smoke.

The men had been resting for an hour when the command center contacted them for a briefing.

“I’ll leave it to you,” Park Chul-Su requested, now able to speak properly again.

Kang Chan headed to the command center with Seok Kang-Ho, Choi Jong-Il, and the army interpreter.

Click.

A cool breeze greeted them as soon as they entered. It seemed the air-conditioning units were on.

Damn it! I can’t believe I battled all that cold just to come to this heat!

Following Kang Chan, Gérard, Andrei, the commander of the SBS, and the commander of the United States’ special forces entered the conference room with a couple of their soldiers.

Kang Chan recognized the gorilla from England from the time he took their helmets from them. Gérard informed him that his name was Tyler.

The only one he didn’t know was the United States’ special forces commander. He had the typical Caucasian build and deep, double-lidded eyes.

“Has the commander of the South Korean team changed?” the UN agent asked in English.

After listening to the interpreter, Kang Chan looked directly at him. “Why are you speaking in English now? Weren’t you speaking in French this morning?”

“Our official language is English.”

“Four of the five teams here know French. Why don’t we speak French?”

The UN agent looked around with a flustered expression. No one rejected Kang Chan’s proposal.

“Understood. We’ll proceed with French for now,” the agent said as he glanced at the United States’ team, who stayed silent.

“Starting tomorrow, we will be deploying soldiers to emergencies. We will first respond to the SSIS’ tribal wars, then launch an operation to support the government forces.”

He then handed each team a document that was composed of four A4 sheets. “We will leave the command to you all, but we cannot permit you to retreat until the operation is complete. The designated area of operation and roles are up to the commanders to discuss and decide.”

The UN command seemed to be acknowledging the division among the teams. It was between South Korea and France, Russia and England, and the independent United States.

“The areas of the operation have been marked on the materials I’ve given out.”

Kang Chan quickly flipped through the materials. The zone was divided into four with the base at the center. From the top left, they were labeled Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta.

“We will be sending out a mobile task force starting tomorrow,” the agent said.

The briefing lasted for an hour. When it was over, the men started to leave the conference room. A gust of hot wind rushed at them, seemingly mocking them for not being used to the heat.

“How’s the security on the perimeter of the base?” Kang Chan asked.

“I have people standing guard outside,” Gérard answered.

Kang Chan nodded.

The Foreign Legion’s special forces team was second to none when it came to experience in Africa.

“Anyway, fuck those assholes!” Gérard cursed as he scowled at the barracks of the United States’ special forces.

“What?” Kang Chan asked.

“They have apparently attached three additional shipping containers, a workout room, a small movie room, and a kitchen,” Gérard said.

Kang Chan glanced at the United States’ barracks and looked back ahead of him. There was nothing he could do about it, and he saw no reason to be jealous of them for being rich and being treated well.

They spent their afternoon relaxing, then had a leisurely dinner.

Since the operation would be starting tomorrow, the men naturally gathered in the living room of the barracks.

“The United States will be in charge tomorrow. Even so, due to the nature of this operation, we have to participate in the mission,” Kang Chan said.

His men’s eyes glinted as they focused on his words.

“You’re going to see worse than what happened to the little girl in Afghanistan. We might even come across newborn babies strapped with bombs,” Kang Chan continued. “The moment you let your guard down, you’ll find your brothers-in-arms torn apart.”

Seok Kang-Ho looked at the soldiers with a grin.

“You haven’t lost any of your touch, have you?” Seok Kang-Ho asked.

Park Chul-Su grinned back. His expression then turned serious. “Our objective is to safely fulfill our mission here and return together.”

“Understood, sir,” Cha Dong-Gyun responded for everyone.

1. Islamic State ?