I quickly typed the word "OK" on my mobile phone, put it away, and stuffed it into my chest.
The rapid reaction force has three emergency levels: "Light Rain", mainly staffed by people from Ange, refers to tasks that are not too serious but still require manpower; "Heavy Rain", which requires 6 to 12 members to be responsible for. Depending on the situation, either 029 or 072 will be dispatched to handle it, and it is the most common situation; "Thunderstorm", which has appeared for the first time, indicates a critical situation. Only 4 members of the rapid reaction force will stay behind, and all 5 Black Hawk helicopters will be mobilized. In case of other situations, the MH-6 "Little Bird" will be used to complete the transportation task.
It was Liang Dong who got into trouble.
Here's what happened: A 4-person reconnaissance team from Class 7 went to an enemy village to carry out a reconnaissance mission but was discovered by the other side. They were attacked by about 30 people. The team leader arbitrarily thought that the threat from the other side was not big and that they wouldn't be chased all the time, so he refused to report it and just symbolically sent a message to the command post saying "We are under attack". As a result, while fleeing and fighting all the way, the reconnaissance team finally escaped into two abandoned shepherd huts in local valleys and established a defense line relying on their equipment advantages.
At this moment, the team leader, who finally realized that something was wrong, chose to ask Kreber for help. It was exactly 51 minutes after the first message. Due to the small number of people, the command post judged the level as "Light Rain".
However, when Liang Dong arrived, "Light Rain" suddenly turned into "Heavy Rain". As soon as the helicopter reached the sky above the valley, around 200 troops and anti-aircraft weapons emerged. Due to the terrain at the bottom of the valley, the helicopter had difficulty evading and was shot down on the spot and crashed into the valley bottom. Thanks to the excellent system of the Black Hawk, the fuel tank circuit was cut off immediately, so there was no fire and no casualties. But as the price of a safe crash, the pilot's leg was broken.
This was the first crash incident since we arrived at Kreber. Due to the anti-aircraft missiles, drones couldn't approach from above, and the rapid reaction force would be the only combat force that could reach near the target. The helicopter would land on a plain two kilometers away from the target, and our task was to march two kilometers on foot to provide support.
Both Class 7 and Class 13 were also on their way to provide support, and two classes from Courtyard B were also in the same situation. Angehefei assigned the task of rescuing the trapped reconnaissance team toValentina (name) (I assume this is a name, but it might be a misspelling or a specific term in your context, so I left it as is), and Liang Dong was our responsibility.
After quickly jumping onto the helicopter, I pulled Ji Han up along with me. Ji Ling, Jiang Li, and Lu Wanqing quickly climbed onto the plane. After confirming that everyone was on board, I gave the pilot a thumbs-up gesture. He returned the same gesture and then tapped his colleague beside him. The helicopter began to ascend.
"Touch down in 5 minutes."
"Roger that. Daniel, drop us on the empty ground in the south."
According to the intelligence provided by the personnel engaged in the battle on the spot, the opponent's heavy weapon was the RPG-7. The absence of a heavy machine gun was good news. I issued the combat instructions: "Ji Ling and I will go to rescue people. The three of you cover us."
"I want to come too!" Ji Han raised his hand. Ji Ling gave him a light but not too gentle pat on the head: "Stop messing around!"
Jiang Li and Lu Wanqing nodded and checked their MK12 MOD0 again.
"30 seconds." Daniel gave the signal. I opened my M4, turned off the safety, and the helicopter slowly descended. The air current whipped up the sand like a small tornado. Not far away, the members of F1 had already disembarked and were rushing towards the valley. Before the helicopter had come to a complete stop, Ji Ling jumped down directly. I immediately followed him.
There was no need to guard against the enemy's surprise attacks. I had clearly seen all the movements around earlier when I was in the sky, and the huge commotion of the helicopter had already informed both our side and the enemy of our arrival.
The mountain road was rugged. All the land seemed to be slowly releasing heat to the surroundings. The scenery seen through it was slowly distorted. There was hardly any vegetation to be seen in the mountain area. It had long been devastated by the high temperature and drought in the divine domain (I'm not sure if "divine domain" is a proper term here in a specific context or might be a misnomer, but I translated it as is).
This made me happy. There was no vegetation that could be used as cover for ambushers, and the high temperature of the sand and stones made it impossible for people to lie on the ground waiting for us.
The closer we got to the valley, the louder the sound of gunfire was.
Following Ji Ling and rounding a rock, I saw the whole picture of the valley.
029 had already established a position on the spot and was exchanging fire with the enemy troops in the distance. I crouched down as low as I could and entered the position, getting behind the same bunker as Ji Ling. A rocket-propelled grenade exploded in the air above our heads, splashing dust all over the position, and the choking smoke entered our nostrils.
I pulled out my binoculars and looked around. Beside the helicopter, I saw the back of Liang Dong holding the MK46 and spraying bullets. He seemed to be okay. Angehefei had already led people to the position and taken over the firepower. 瓦尔京娜 (the same name as before) took the lead and set off for the shepherd's hut, while we went along another path.
"Over here!" Ji Ling waved to me and jumped down from a small slope first. I followed him, rolled over, and got up. The anti-government forces immediately noticed our actions. Several of them turned their guns, but Jiang Li and Lu Wanqing took them out one by one. After running all the way and just passing a small earth slope, the 7.62×39mm rifle bullets, which seemed to be as cheap as one dollar each, were hitting the earth slope like they were free, and the shattered particles flew towards us.
I fired a few shots and then pressed the switch on my left chest to activate the throat microphone: "Jiang Li, take out that machine gun position!"
"I'm already trying!" Lu Wanqing shouted at me.
"Can't take it out!" Her reply came. "The damn PKM has protection!"
The PKM general-purpose machine gun, a nightmare for all of us on the battlefield. As the lightest and most user-friendly general-purpose machine gun in the world, combined with its low cost, it has been widely adopted by the anti-government forces. It has great lethality, and almost every rebel squad will have someone carrying one. This time, the opponents directly mounted it on a pickup truck as a fire suppression weapon. The steel plate in front was difficult to penetrate because the MK12 used 5.56mm bullets.
I took a look. The opponent was more than 300 meters away from me, already exceeding the effective range of the M203.
Suddenly, there was a "boom" behind me. A bright stream of fire streaked across the sky above my head and plunged into the crowd, blowing up the unlucky machine gunner and his pickup truck together. Amid the shaking of the ground, a small mushroom cloud rose directly from that part of the position.