NOVEL WEB Chapter 429: Modern Warfare
Alhan's extensive experience saved their lives...
The accuracy of 120mm mortars was far from as high as people imagined. Experienced veterans could roughly judge the point of impact and then choose to either hide in place or flee.
A series of explosions erupted behind the convoy, and the massive blast raised a dust storm that engulfed the rear of the vehicles.
From a distance, the four Milos Armored Vehicles didn't seem intent on continuing their attack but rather rotated their rooftop weapon stations, 'escorting' Alhan's group to keep moving forward...
Alhan felt something was off, but the sound of mortar shells whistling through the sky once again gave him no time to think, only to pound forcefully on the driver's head...
"Fast, fast, fast, shake them off, shake them off..."
But this time Alhan's convoy ran into bad luck, as a 120mm mortar shell landed in the middle of the convoy. Although it didn't hit the vehicles directly, it caused the convoy to be disconnected...
"Boom boom boom boom..."
The massive explosions struck a pickup truck in the rear, hitting a machine gunner strapped in with a safety harness. The upper half of his body was mangled as if hit by a meat grinder, his torso upwards shredded...
The impact of the explosion combined with the shrapnel tore away a portion of the machine gunner's chest and face, leaving him looking like a zombie from a movie, frantically struggling to break free from the restraints of the safety harness...
"Ah..."
The intense screams pierced through the smoke and tightened everyone's hearts. The instant the pickup truck emerged from the smoke, those sitting in the cabin heard a 'thud', turning back to see the machine gunner's head smash against the rear window, his exposed gum line dragging across the filthy glass, leaving behind a gruesome trail of blood...
"Ah..."
Everyone in the car let out a scream, the driver frantically stepping on the gas to surge forward, desperate to escape the nightmarish area.
Alhan tried to control the pace of the convoy, waving and shouting vigorously, but it was completely impossible to snap his men out of their daze.
The pickup trucks caught in the rear plunged into the wilderness in panic. When they emerged from the smoke, they saw the four Milos slowly rotating their weapon turrets, followed by a series of large-caliber bullets sweeping at them like a whip...
"Bang bang bang bang..."
12.7mm bullets punched only a small hole in the vehicle, but the tumbling large-caliber ammunition became a nightmare for everyone inside the cabin...
The tumbling bullets carried immense kinetic energy; the damage they inflicted upon hitting the human body was absolutely horrific.
A black man sitting in the driver's cab had his ribcage penetrated by a bullet that tore through the door. The tumbling bullet entered through his ribs, blew open a huge hole, and it was as if a bottle of ketchup had been knocked over, with chunks of red flesh beginning to pour out...
The driver's leg was pinned by the unlucky man, and when he tried to push him away, he ended up with a handful of blood and flesh.
The frightened driver screamed, and then because he failed to hold the steering wheel, the runaway pickup plunged its front wheel into a ditch.
The driver, urged by his panicking companion in the back seat, desperately pressed down on the gas pedal, but the spinning front wheel just couldn't provide enough power.
As a Milos Armored Vehicle passed by at a distance of 300 meters, a series of large-caliber bullets penetrated into the pickup...
"Bang bang bang bang..."
A series of bullets turned the interior of the pickup truck into a tin of crushed tomatoes...
Alhan, like a madman, picked up a 'Javelin' and began to attempt a counterattack, but as he struggled to lock onto those slow-moving armored vehicles, a lot of smoke suddenly spewed from both sides of the armored vehicles...
Finding it impossible to lock on to targets through the 'Javelin' scope, Alhan painfully dropped the 'Javelin' and pushed hard on the driver's head, shouting, "Don't panic, drive steady..."
As Alhan spoke, he pushed the obviously stunned machine gunner again, angrily yelling, "Fire, fire, cover for the others to catch up with us..."
The machine gunner, as if waking from a dream, pulled the bolt and then aimed the muzzle at the distant white smoke before pulling the trigger.
The vehicles on both sides reacted to the gunfire. They too fired back in the direction of the Milos, but their bullets entered the smoke with no response.
When the few vehicles blocked behind struggled through the area of explosions to catch up with the main force, four anti-tank missiles shot out from the mist, striking the vehicles with accuracy.
Firing anti-tank missiles at pickup trucks was like using a cannon to swat a mosquito, and after a thunderous blast, all the windows of the vehicles began to spew smoke and body parts.
The explosion lacked the wild burning seen in movies; after destroying the vehicles, there was initially a small fire, which then ignited the fuel tank, causing a secondary explosion.
Several vehicles formed burning piles on the country roads, emitting black smoke and blocking the entire road.
Alhan, battle-hardened, realized that the vehicles behind had been destroyed and that those Milos Armored Vehicles weren't attacking his own, he instinctively sensed there might be trouble ahead.
Sitting back in the passenger seat, he pointed towards a thicket in the wilderness on the right side of the road ahead and shouted loudly, "Go there, go there...
We've been targeted, hide there..."
The driver, who had been with Alhan for many years, understood and steered off the road into the wilderness.
As they neared the thicket, Alhan finally spotted traces of their own kind.
It turned out there were many others who had made the same choice as he had…
A stretch of dense shrubbery nearly a kilometer long was where numerous armed pickups were hiding.
They seemed to have encountered a fierce attack as well, only not as tragic as Alhan and his group.
Alhan ordered the person in the back seat to raise the flag, intending to greet his fellow strugglers.
But just at that moment, two missiles with a terrifying whistle took over the sky above the shrubbery…
"Bang, bang, bang, bang…"
A series of explosions erupted in the shrubbery, the dreadful cluster bombs covering the not-so-large area, turning those who thought they could hide from the enemy's eyes among the trees into canned fish, blown to bits by a chain of firecrackers dropped by a mischievous child.
In the impact of the explosions, Alhan slumped into the co-driver's seat, the massive shock sending a barrage of pebbles pummeling the vehicle with a rattling noise. Discover exclusive tales on My Virtual Library Empire
A machine-gunner standing in the back of a pickup was struck in the eye by fragments and let out a terrible scream…
The screams of agony snapped Alhan back to his senses; he shook his head at the driver's dazed look and said, "Our way back is cut off, they're driving us towards a location.
The road is no longer an option, we get off, we walk away, inform everyone, we get off and walk off."
The driver, looking ahead at the hellish scene, spoke in a tear-stricken voice, "Boss, which way do we go?"
Alhan, pointing to the rising smoke not far away, tied a scarf over his nose and mouth, then draped a gray cloak over himself. While motioning his men to follow, he said, "The enemy won't bomb the same place twice; we take shelter here for a bit, then make our way through the shrubbery heading south."
The driver, filled with incredulity, called out, "South? But that's enemy territory..."
Alhan, clutching the driver's neck and baring his teeth, shouted, "I fucking know, but there's no going back now.
All the routes for retreat must be blocked. Those madmen don't want to defeat us; they want to annihilate us.
To the south, going south we might still have a chance…"
Following Alhan's command, a group of men drove into the smoke-filled shrubbery…
The cruelty of modern warfare was vividly displayed in the shrubbery, almost 300 hundred people were blasted to death in an instant without even seeing where the enemy was, who they were?
Looking at the bodies lying on the ground and the riddled vehicles, Alhan felt a chill in his heart.
He could not understand why the enemy would use such powerful weapons against mere mercenaries like them.
They came for a 'high' daily pay of $200, hoping to make a fortune through combat and looting.
But the enemy was using weapons worth $20,000, $200,000, even $2 million against them…
Was it worth it?
Alhan had experienced terrible times in Liberia; he knew there must be enemy eyes in the sky.
But even though the cities of Liberia had become ruins, there were still countless places that could serve as cover, whereas here was nothing but endless wilderness…
Thankfully, there was still some cover here. Alhan hunkered down, coughing violently while leading his men through the shrubbery. After reaching a position upwind, he took a deep breath and then waved for everyone to crouch down…
"We wait for nightfall, and then head south…"
.........
On a hill to the south of the shrubbery, Seville veteran Jotic loudly hailed his platoon to load five 120mm mortars onto the pickup.
Xiao Hei, holding a pair of binoculars, grinned and said, "Sir, I think I see some survivors, eight of them. Should we finish them off?"
Jotic, watching a lieutenant platoon leader open the Milos Armored Vehicle door and loudly urging everyone to hurry to the next position, patted Xiao Hei on the head with a glance that said it all, scolding, "Shoot your ass, follow orders!
Do you know how much a single shell costs?"
Having been scolded, Xiao Hei shrank his neck and with a grin replied, "Sir, we were just saying the boss shouldn't waste money, we can take them out ourselves.
The boss should spend the money on something more meaningful!
We aren't afraid of dying!"
Jotic, in his fifties, paused for a moment, then grinned and rubbed the young Xiao Hei's head while laughing and scolding, "You don't know shit, this is modern warfare!
Keep up; if you're not afraid to die, try to live a few more years and find yourself a beautiful woman to carry on your line.
You got lucky; if you can survive this, your next generation might live a better life."