As the entire 75th Mechanized Infantry Brigade entered the maneuver, several Spider-II drones, which are unmanned reconnaissance drones, soared high into the sky making a motor sound and flying in each direction.

  The morning temperature in Dagestan was similar to that in Korea, it was minus three degrees Celsius, but the wind was blowing so hard that it felt like the temperature was 15 degrees below zero instead.

  The reconnaissance drones that went up to 500 meters in the sky was vibrating in the strong winds.

  “Ah! This is not good. I’m annoyed.”


  Sergeant Kim Seok-je, the deputy director of the drone reconnaissance team of the 75th Mechanized Battalion’s headquarters, frowned and grumbled as he watched the monitor on the controller.

  From the squad to the squadron, normal soldiers controlled the SI-Q Super Eye drone, which is an ultra-light drone, but in the battalion and above, non-commissioned officers controlled the Spider-II drone. At the division level, commissioned officers who had received formal training were also allowed to control it.

  “Is it too much? Sergeant Kim!”


  Sergeant Na Dong-won, a non-commissioned officer at the drone management department, was watching from the side and grasping on the handle inside a rattling armored vehicle, and he asked.

  “The higher the altitude, the worse the wind gets. It’s not like there’s a typhoon. Why the hell is it like this! Check the weather!”


  “Yes, sir.”


  Sergeant Na Dong-won operated the control X-K02 device on his left wrist and displayed the current weather information on the liquid crystal screen.

  “Ah! Sergeant Kim! The wind is not messing around today. It will be blowing up to 15 meters per second in the afternoon.”


  “How much is it now? It’s at 10 meters per second.”


  “Ningi-ri, F*ck! I just wanted to do some scouting comfortably.”


  Sergeant Kim Seok-je continued to spit out profanities.

  “With that much wind, wouldn’t it be unsafe?”


  “Unsafe! It will run out of battery quickly instead!”


  “Oh well! Sergeant Kim is also……Even so. It’s a plasma battery, so it’ll last for an hour.”


  “Hey! Do you know how annoying that is? If you fly it once, it stays for three hours, but try to fly it and change the batteries every hour! How annoying!!”


  “Ah! Then I’ll control it. Hand it to me please.”


  “Be quiet! They said that the battalion commander has ordered the chief to control it. So, tell them to check the battery’s charge and check the crew’s drones too!”


  “Yes, sir.”


  In the headquarters the reconnaissance drone crew has eight people, every team of two people has a shooter and a non-commissioned officer and they operate a total of four Spider-II drones, one for each group.

  Currently, not only the brigade headquarters but all three battalions had launched a reconnaissance drone. This was the reason why each battalion launched only one. Later, if the brigade’s forces were to split into two, the battalion was going to launch additional reconnaissance drones.

  * * *

  January 10th, 2024, 22:00 (Ukraine time: 16:00)

  Severodonetsk, Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine

  On the night of the 6th, the Sphinx regiment which is a quick response regiment of the 5th Marine corps (The Earthworms), who put up the Korean flag and a regimental flag in Dvalchev City Hall in Donetsk Province, took a break and did maintenance while waiting on the arrival of several war supplies. At midnight on the 8th, Peace units had gone into an empty area in southern Russia and entered the Luhansk province.

  After occupying the first area, they moved on to invade small cities in the surrounding area, centering on the Crimea area. On the second day which is the 9th of that month, they turned to the southern end of the empty areas and went through Rubizhne. They had a huge accomplishment and managed to occupy up to Dnipro, Petrovsky.

  Currently, it has been engaged in a fierce city war since morning trying to occupy Severodonetsk, which had a population of 120,000 people.

  Exactly nine hours have passed since the battle began. The situation has been very different from when Dvalchev was occupied. The city had more than twice the population, and the contrast between the rebel army stationed in the city and the Russian Allying Army has not been easy.

  At the moment, the number of rebels alone exceeded one division. In addition, in the Russian Allying Army, the ones who were defending Severodonetsk, were the allying 321st truck mobile division of the 51st Allying Army belonging to the Western Military District, which are the elites of the Russian Army, and not the Guards belonging to the Southern Military District.

  Russia whose economy had gradually been revived since 2018, had spurred out defense reform and expanded the size of the western military district to defend Moscow, which is close to Europe. Two additional armored divisions were established in the existing first allying tank group. Operating equipment was also organized into some top-of-the-line tanks and armored vehicles. In addition, the 50th and the 51st Allying Armies were newly established at a military level, taking the responsibility for defending the southern and eastern ends, and being centered around Moscow.

  The existing Russian Guards in Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast were mostly subordinate units belonging to the Southern Military District and were stationed in defense missions. However, when the Korean Marine Corps intervened with the Ukrainian army and recaptured it seven days after it intervened in Donetsk, the Russian General Staff had no choice but to send additional troops to Luhansk. As a result, the Southern Military District tried to recruit additional troops to the Luhansk region, but as two troops were supporting the northwestern front, it was difficult to defend the Crimea Peninsula as well as to stop the Peace Units advancing from the south.

  For this reason, the Russian General Staff sent several subordinate units belonging to the 51st Allying Army of the Western Military District, who is the best of the best, to the defense of Luhansk, and among them, the 321st Motorized Infantry Division was tasked with defending Severodonetsk, which is close to the Donetsk Oblast border.

  Unlike the existing Vehicle Fire Infantry Division, the vehicle boarding the infantry was the new BMP-3 Dragon Infantry Armored Vehicle (IFV), not a general tactical vehicle.

  MP-3 Dragon Infantry Armored Vehicles have been improved in many ways and began production in late 2016, it was distributed starting from the newly established units. One of the few improvements was the armor. The additional armors have improved the protection, and in particular, the side scouts were reinforced with composite armors. In addition, electronic optical equipment was also replaced with the latest model and equipped with a UTD-32T diesel engine that can generate 660 horsepower.

  Armed with a remote unmanned turret (RCWS) equipped with a 100-millimeter calibre main gun, and equipped with a 30-millimeter machine gun and a 7.62-millimeter Kalashnikov coaxial machine gun, the BMP-3 Dragon Infantry Fighting Vehicle was the latest armored vehicle with both firing and protection power.

  Hundreds of these BMP-3 Dragon Infantry Fighting Vehicles had responded using various obstacles and shelters all over the city of Severodonetsk, and among the rebels and Russian Allying Army, anti-tank firearms hid in various parts of the building and aimed at the top of the Sphinx Regiment’s armored vehicle passing by.

  In the inverter vision mode, they detected anti-tank gunners hiding in the building and fired suppressive fire at them at that same time, but occasionally they did not detect them and became under attack instead.

  The Sphinx Regiment, which had been fighting for nine hours under these unfavorable conditions, retreated from the front-line fighting area and retreated to the back to relieve the accumulated fatigue.

  From the rebels and the Allying Army, it was as if the Sphinx Regiment had lost their fighting spirit and retreated. However, the leaders of the rebels and the 321st Vehicle Fire Infantry Division did not chase the retreating Sphinx Regiment or order an overpowering attack against them. They also suffered a considerable amount of damage during the battle,

  and it was decided that most probably if they switch to attack tactics unwillingly, they could fall into a trap. And one more thing was that it was more urgent to overpower the 300 marines of the 38th Aircraft Helicopter Corps, who were penetrating the air from the rear performing guerrilla tactics.

  “What is the situation like in the 38th Battalion?”


  Colonel Oh Seung-pil, the commander of the regiment, who gave the order to retreat from the current fighting area to the rear checkpoint, looked at the several monitors mounted inside the C-22-M command vehicle and asked lieutenant colonel Na Myung-joon, the chief of operations department.

  “Now! The battalion is moving in units, we’re in the battle with no damages.”


  “Since our armored vehicle battalion retreated from the fighting area, we will take this opportunity to conduct a sweeping operation with the 38th Battalion, so please refrain from engaging as much as possible and order them to take cover until nightfall.”


  “Yes, I will give orders to the 38th battalion commander.”


  “No! Open the network to the 38th Battalion platoon and give them the orders directly.”


  “Yes, sir.”


  If the Sphinx regiment fought against the rebels and the Allying Army in open areas and not in the city, they would have stood still for about three hours after defeating the Rebel Infantry Division and the Russian Allying Army Infantry Division. However, in a complex and varied urban battle with various types of covers, it was not possible to subdue the enemy’s power in a short period despite having military strength that was six times stronger than them.

  Accordingly, Colonel Oh Seung-pil, the regiment’s leader, thought of having a street battle at night.

  The most tragic deaths in modern wars are those caused by a misfire among allies. In particular, the stronger the firepower of the operating firearm is, the greater a disaster the friendly fire is. As such, in modern warfare, how quickly it is possible to identify your opponents has become the biggest issue there is.

  The U.S. military, as the world’s global police, has dispatched troops to various countries and fought in numerous places. It has also suffered considerable difficulties in identifying its opponents, even though it is the only military that had the most advanced tactical systems and uses integrated battling tactics.

  There was a time when the Pentagon suffered an embarrassment when a report came up saying that the number of Americans killed by friendly fire or fire of their supporting allies was twice as high as the number of Americans killed by enemy attacks. That is why, in modern warfare, especially in complex urban warfare, the identification of friend or foe (IFF) was the most important thing. It was especially important in night battles.

  This was the reason why Colonel Oh Seung-pil ordered a retreat and decided to wait until night to take advantage of this.

  The Korean Armed Forces, including the Sphinx Regiment, were provided with Control X-K01 or Control X-K02 devices equipped with an enemy identification chip to everyone from soldiers to generals, making it possible to easily identify the allies through the shield glasses. In addition, for the figures identified as allies, there was a safety function that prevented them from operating personal weapons.

  As such, for the Sphinx Regiment, which possesses many advanced functions related to the identification of friend or foe (IFF), street fighting at night was the only tactic that could reverse the battlefield at once.

  “Tell the helicopter commander of the 38th Battalion to rest and maintain the vehicles until the order is out.”


  “Wouldn’t it be hard to take a rest in the helicopter unit?”


  Lieutenant Colonel Na Myung-joon, who was handed over a communication device from a communication officer while giving out orders, looked puzzled and immediately asked back.

  “Looks like there’s plenty of room for that.”


  Colonel Oh Seung-pil tilted his head towards the monitor. As a result, Lieutenant Colonel Na Myung-joon’s gaze naturally moved to the monitor.

  The monitor showed images transmitted from several Spider-II reconnaissance drones from the regiment’s headquarters.

  The 22-inch OLED monitor showed several scenes on a split-screen. The first split-screen showed the retreating allying armored vehicles, and in the second split-screen, the opposite side of the retreating allying armored vehicles was seen where the rebels and the Allying Army were deployed. Whether or not they could see the retreating armored car clearly, they didn’t strike them aggressively.

  They probably were very tired too from the nine-hour street battle and must have been very happy to see the allying armored vehicles retreating. However, such a scene could not be confirmed on the monitor.

  As Colonel Oh Seung-pil predicted, the Sphinx Regiment’s armored vehicles and infantry stepped down from the battle zone, at the command of the rebels and allying army. That’s when the Marine Corps of the 38th Air Force Helicopter battalion were deployed to do a sweep-up operation and carry out guerrilla tactics. In addition to the troops deployed in the operation, all the remaining troops were ordered to take a rest and be alert in their current positions.

  At that moment, Lieutenant Colonel Na Myung-joon realized the regimental commander’s intentions, sealed his lips, and nodded his head.

  After the nine-hour fierce street battle, the loud gunfire stopped in Severodonetsk and it was just like the silence before the storm.