Chapter 65 - The Shadow of Betrayal

Even they had never seen anything like this.

The corpses destroyed by the explosions were nothing.

Corpses missing their heads, heads crushed under rocks, exposed hearts from caved chests, corpses with their waists twisted outwards, and corpses with brain remnants leaking onto the floor were found in uncountable piles.

There were over 32 corpses which had been created either by blunt weapon or hands. They felt an eerie air around them. Corpses riddled with AK bullet holes on their chests and one with a grenade embedded were all unprecedented sights. Even though they were rough mercenaries, they were frightened speechless.

Jang Shin finally began vomiting.

He had just pulled out a corpse from under a rock and had seen the exploded innards. He was an artilleryman. He had thrown artillery from the back lines and had never entered close-range combat. His insides were weak towards the gruesome sights.

Ombuti, who saw Jang Shin’s poor state, scoffed.

It was embarrassing to watch someone who called himself a warrior quack like a duck behind a rock.

‘He’s no warrior!’

He was someone who mocked the name of Azrael, who had sent many enemies to Allah. Angered, Ombuti began to approach the man. He was planning to send him tumbling down the cliff by kicking the man’s rear.

‘Wait, he’s Wakil’s friend.’

At the sudden thought, he stopped his action. He glared fiercely at the man before turning around and headed back towards Wakil.

Jang Shin kept vomiting without realizing the reaper had just visited. This was why ignorance was called bliss.

The team members who had finished organizing the battlefield began to set up their concealment tent.

It was placed under a climbing canopy which extended outwards. The Captain slowed their departure from the battlegrounds for Black Mamba’s recovery.

“Burimer, did you count the numbers?”

“Yes. There’s 119 dead, none injured. Just the RPG’s the bastards have moved are at 20. There’s even an old recoilless rifle and mortar. I’ve gathered over 10 RPG launchers and 30 grenade launchers. I’ve abandoned the useless STRELAs.”

“Ha, they’ve finally succumbed to evil.”

The 20 mobilized RPG’s were ridiculous to consider. It meant that the bastards had taken the Ratel team, or rather Black Mamba, as a serious threat.

“You’ve taken too much of a risk, Captain.” Burimer chewed his Captain out.

“S***, there’s nothing suspicious about this. Whoever it is, I’m going to chew him dead.”

The Captain gritted his teeth.

Mike threw a complaint filled glare at the Captain.

The idea of 120 guerrillas of the main army filling this narrow valley made him lose his breath. They were lucky to have a super-powered human such as Black Mamba or they would have died.

“Captain, were you trying to check the information leak with your subordinates’ lives on the line? I understand you want to believe in the headquarters. But don’t you think this was irresponsible as a leader?” Mike criticized in harsh tones.

“I’m the officer of Legion Etranger. I wanted to trust my organization until the end. I’m sorry.” The Captain admitted his mistakes honestly and apologized.

“Would an apology suffice after someone’s dead?”

“Dead? Everyone’s alive!”

“If Black Mamba hadn’t been here, everyone would have died. The FROLINAT had gathered in that damned small valley like herds of dogs. If this had been any normal situation we would have all died. I demand an apology,” Mike spoke back, fuming.

He had been riddled with fear throughout the night. Just thinking about it made him feel unjust.

Bang!

“Ack!”

The Captain, pissed, threw the water bottle at Mike. It landed on Mike’s nose, causing him to shout.

“You s*** bastard, it’s fine if you aren’t dead. You still haven’t got you s*** together after being pummelled by Black. You ****, I’ll kill you instead.”

At the fierce atmosphere, Mike quickly ran off.

Hilariously, the Captain had thrown Korean curses.

He was a captain who normally didn’t get annoyed with his subordinates. It only indicated how nervous he was. Mike, too, was someone who bossed those under him but didn’t dare fight back against his superiors. The scene indicated how stressed everyone was.

The Captain looked around at his subordinates.

“There’s no point in this Raccoon mission. I’m going to request a return.”

The team members nodded their heads.

“Black Mamba, what’s your opinion?”

“The Captain decides. I follow.”

Black Mamba’s words were, like always, short and to the point.

There was no meaning in continuing mission Raccoon any longer.

They had been thrown in as bait, and the spies had shoveled information to their enemies. There was no reason to drag their feet or to gain further confirmations.

Burimer opened up the communication line’s antenna.

– Alpha, it’s Bravo.

– Bravo, here’s Alpha. Is Paul okay?

A familiar voice rang over the communication line. It was the lieutenant officer Pedan of Operations, the squadron commander. The captain was pleased to the point of tears.

– Alpha, where’s the communicator?

– Bravo, what, you don’t want me? First Lieutenant Etang has gone down to the city for an urgent issue. It was too sudden, I had to stand in.

– Alpha, I want to talk to the commander myself.

Silence descended briefly.

– Understood.

Lieutenant Officer Pedan allowed communication. If the operations team leader wished to speak to the commander himself, it meant that there was a serious problem.

– Paul, are you alive?

It was colonel Philip’s bright voice, as always.

– Yes, I’m alive.

The Captain began to report everything which had happened in progress. He reported everything, including their battle status, the spy’s existence, their information which was leaking to the enemy real-time, the MP5F bullets they found in Ongur village alongside the guard’s corpse, their supply line’s attack, the misleading information, two contact hours and revealed position, and their emergency helicopter’s shooting.

– Those pieces of ****, Paul, stop the mission immediately. Wait at the order point.

Colonel Philip ordered the end of their mission and stationed them until further orders.

First Lieutenant Etang had headed down towards the city to meet Twarga at daybreak when communications were few. He hadn’t imagined Team Ratel would open communications in that hour. Humans schemed, but the heavens decided the results.

The Captain was relieved. From Colonel Philip’s reaction, he could tell that their immediate family hadn’t abandoned them. He had managed to avoid the worst betrayal.

He first moved out of the battle region and concealed the team deeply within the Bodélé Depression. He needed recovery time for his team’s condition to improve.

Colonel Philip didn’t doubt team leader Paul’s report. According to that report, he had been made the world’s greatest fool. He had basically pushed his subordinates’ backs towards their deaths.

Information such as the Ratel team’s movements, their supply drop point, and Gazelle’s trail was something that was unavailable to others but the line’s officers. Also, the bullets and corpse found near Makumbo’s hiding place was something he could faint on. It was, without a doubt, the DGSE bastard’s dirty back-door plan.

The Back Door plan was named from a story of a planned robbery and street robber.

The story was of how a street robber managed the walk through the back door, which was open, while the planned robbery’s members had to fight against the house’s owner.

“Major Charcosi, what is the point of you being here?”

Marshal Charcosi blinked blankly. He didn’t know the reason behind his sudden requested presence.

Philip threw the written transmission at him.

Charcosi’s face turned paler by the second as he read down the transmission until it ended up as ashen as a pig’s liver.

“Colonel, I’ll capture those rats as soon as possible.”

“Go now, you idiot! Declare a martial emergency and shove everyone with access to this line of communications above company-grade officer in observed holdings.”

“But what about Deployment commander Geofrey?”

“Putain, are you stupid? He’s the smelliest one them of all. Put him in a solitary holding cell. If he gets away, consider yourself dead!” Philip shouted, red-faced.

The surprised marshal shot outside like a bullet.

The high-quality amplifier began to ring.

– Beep, declaring martial emergency from now. All officers and non-commissioned officers remain in your positions. All soldiers aside from stationed guards to camp. I repeat. Declaring martial emergency….

The N’Djamena Deuxieme Rep’s camp flipped on its head.

Charcosi ran into the communications office first, leading the military police himself.

Bang!

Charcosi entered the room with his foot.

“What the hell?”

First Lieutenant Etang who had been solving to coded written communications jumped up from his sear.

“Ah! Police!”

Blood drained out of Etang’s face instantaneously.

‘Putain, I always knew the tail was too long.’

Etang threw his communications device at Charcosi before jumping out of the window.

But they weren’t military police hadn’t earned their positions due to their poker faces.

“Idiot!” Charcosi laughed.

Subordinates were stationed outside of the window.

Crash-

“Agh!”

What awaited Etang on the other side of the window was the head of a large Pamus. Etang, who had been stabbed in his stomach, rolled on the ground in pain.

“Lieutenant Tibel Etang, you’re under arrest for intentional strategic information leaks.”

The handcuffs clicked around him. Etang gave up on everything. The release of national secret strategical information was 10 years in jail at the least. There was no clemency.

Charcosi’s smile widened.

The situation had gotten easier thanks to Etang’s actions. It was as though he had gained everything without moving.

He immediately ran to the deployment’s head office.

“What is it? Marshals shouldn’t be so free to the point of visiting my office for a cup of tea.”

Geofrey didn’t even stand from his chair.

“Major Geofrey, I’m under orders to arrest you.”

“Orders? You should know I’m a part of the DGSE. Are these Colonel Philip’s orders?”

“Yes. Orders to arrest you for intentional confidential military information leakage.”

“Hm, any evidence?”

Geofrey’s attitude caused the marshal’s anger to flare. He was Charcosi, who was always dissatisfied with the DGSE and 11th Brigade’s lackadaisical and uncaring operational attitudes.

“If there’s nothing on you, I’ll gladly take off my cape noir.”

“Haha, is the cape noir some Belmondo’s hat?”

“A bastard who plans with his as*h*** knows cape noir?”

“Ha, how the ages have improved. Even the homeless and dysfunctional are capable of mustering pride.”

Sharp words were exchanged between the two.

Geofrey’s words mocked the history of how the Legion Etranger came to be.

The Foreign Force was founded in 1831 by Louis Phillip the first. He had forcibly recruited social threats such as illegal immigrants, street criminals, and violent murderers. He had trained the rough people even more roughly and deployed them into troublesome battles. The reason why it was called the Foreign Force was that the vast majority of conscripts at the time were illegal immigrants.

In any case, Philip I’s foreign unit policy became a huge success. It was because the country could solve problems by absorbing society’s threatening factors. He had literally caught crabs with a ditch.

At the same time, the Legion Etranger became the root of the main army’s envy. Legion Etranger was reserved to be forced into dirty, tough, and dangerous missions alone. Black Mamba’s Ratel team had also been deployed due to similar reasons.

It was told that Lacro and the advisers of King Philip the first said this to create Legion Etranger:

– … Your Majesty, if the French nobility touches trash, the stench lingers on their body. Trash has to be gathered and burned or recycled. We have realized your deep concerns in the Algeria problem. There are over 32,000 illegal immigrants in Paris alone. Their violent tendencies are causing Parisians to migrate to other cities, and the situation is getting out of hand. Your Majesty must have read the petitions to send them away. They are an easy solution. We can gather such trash to create a Legion Etranger. We can send the military’s troublemakers to train them. There’s nothing to lose, as they’re not the blood of our own Frenchmen…. –

It was a conversation that reflected how Legion Etranger was seen in those days. Such an image was still rooted deeply today.

“You cockroach bastard who doesn’t even know a man’s dreams. Take him away.”

Charcosi shoved down the feeling of wanting to slap Geofrey’s smiling face.

“If my charges aren’t revealed, be prepared to take off your clothes.”

Geofrey glared at Charcosi as he was dragged out by the military police.

“Damned s***, you should prepare to take off your own. Every f****** information department whines like a b***.”

In all countries, the relationship between field armies and informational departments were sour.

Legion Etranger and DGSE shared stronger sentiments. It was because the DGSE had always been behind the sacrifices of the Legion Etranger mercenaries.