Chapter 22: Little Assistant
Five hours later, the convoy drove off the gravel road and entered the plains.
With a squelch, mud splattered as the mud-caked truck wheels rolled through a puddle. This was a wilderness path, overgrown with weeds on both sides. Due to long-term use by trucks and tanks, two deep ruts were pressed into the muddy road, filled with shallow muddy water.
Sitting in the bumpy truck, Su Xiao swayed left and right with the vehicle's movement, having entered a light sleep.
Bang!
The sudden gunshot made Su Xiao open his eyes. The soldiers around him all stood up, leaped toward the rear of the truck canopy, and jumped off.
The truck didn't stop. Including Su Xiao, all ten members of the Killing Force had already jumped off, landing on the mud-soaked dirt road.
The convoy soon halted. After the single gunshot, all Killing Force soldiers had disembarked before the trucks stopped and set up temporary defensive lines. Some engineers even started digging trenches. The most efficient squad had already jumped into a trench and reinforced it with single-soldier patterned spiral steel plates.
In just ten seconds, not a single soldier was visible on the muddy road. Only seventeen trenches remained, with heavy machine guns mounted outside. Three squads of engineers had already connected their trenches to each other.
“It’s a deserter.”
A loud shout came from the truck at the front of the convoy. Hearing this, the Killing Force soldiers understood what was happening.
Skain jumped down from the passenger seat of the lead truck. He looked at the trenches that had already merged into a continuous line and the soldiers covered in mud. His fists clenched. Leading a unit like this, if they couldn’t win a battle, he might as well shoot himself in atonement.
“Fill this in within ten seconds. Extra rations tonight.”
After the road was leveled, the convoy continued forward. Su Xiao leaned back in the truck canopy and resumed his rest.
After ten hours of travel, Su Xiao could hear explosions in the distance. Shell craters appeared by the roadside, and he even saw dried corpses hanging from trees.
Around six in the evening, the truck convoy stopped at a military camp. This was the camp of the Second Legion, Fourth Division, Second Regiment.
As the convoy entered the camp, cries of pain reached Su Xiao’s ears. A nurse in red clothing was pouring water from a white porcelain basin. Pale red bloody water splashed onto the lawn. The nurse’s clothes had originally been white; the red was stained by blood.
There were no proper hospitals on the battlefield. Tents and abandoned armored vehicles served as hospitals. Some soldiers with severed limbs were even treated in the open air.
The doctors’ methods were simple and brutal: a leg blown off meant amputation, an arm gone meant amputation. Anything that couldn’t be saved was cut off, except the head and torso.
A soldier wrapped entirely in bandages, his lower body completely amputated, lay on an open-air bed smoking a cigarette. Though he had lost his legs, he wasn’t despairing. Aside from him, everyone else in his squad had died on the battlefield. Compared to his comrades blown to pieces, surviving was already a win.
After one truck stopped, the convoy moved on. Skain was to disperse the Killing Force across the battlefield, roughly one squad of ten per regiment. Every regimental commander he passed asked him to leave more squads behind. The Killing Force was simply too effective on the battlefield—no command needed, and within days, the enemy commander might be dead.
The truck convoy pushed deeper into the battlefield. By late night, only one truck remained—the one carrying Su Xiao.
Skain was also in the rear canopy. He could have sat in the passenger seat.
“Brothers, I’m sending you to the front lines. If you’ve got complaints, say them now. Once we arrive, there won’t be a chance.”
Skain pulled out cigarettes from his chest pocket. Of the ten in the squad, nine smoked. During peacetime, the Geya Alliance strictly prohibited soldiers from smoking. In wartime, cigarettes were provided free, but no alcohol was allowed, and drinking was strictly forbidden.
“Nothing to complain about.”
Sage lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.
“Regimental Commander, from the day I enlisted, I knew the battlefield wasn’t a vacation—it’s a duty.”
Earth, the only non-smoker, sat at the very back of the canopy where ventilation was best, but it was also the most exposed to bullets. Twenty minutes ago, a bullet had punched a fist-sized hole in the green canvas behind his head. He had stuffed his canteen into the hole to block the draft.
“Good. Tch—I’ve got a beautiful princess for a wife, so why am I here on the front lines with you bachelors? Damn it.”
A burst of laughter followed, and then the truck arrived.
Boom, boom…
The roar of artillery shells landing came from a kilometer away. Several planes flew overhead. One of them, just half a kilometer out, was hit by ground anti-aircraft fire. Half its fuselage smoking, it spiraled downward.
“Here, here, and here. Must be taken before 12 o’clock. Get the tank divisions up here as fast as possible.”
A middle-aged man in tattered military uniform, his face smeared with mud, stood before a wooden table. He was the regimental commander of the Second Legion, Fourth Division, Twelfth Regiment. Unlike in war movies, this commander had no command post—his command post was this wooden table and six soldiers carrying radio sets.
“Gana, what’s the situation?”
Skain stepped forward without ceremony.
“You’re here. Not good. Those blue-eyed bastards attacked the Seventeenth Regiment last night. We have to take here and here before 12 o’clock, or we’ll be surrounded.”
Skain looked at the map. The situation was indeed grim. The Seventeenth Regiment’s position was adjacent to the Twelfth’s. Now the Seventeenth had pulled back five kilometers. If the Sun Kingdom’s army pushed back the Eighth Regiment behind the Twelfth, the Twelfth would be encircled in a spoon shape.
And the force that had pushed back the Seventeenth was a tank unit. Being semi-encircled by tanks meant the Twelfth would be skinned alive even if not annihilated.
“Understood.”
Skain turned and walked to the truck’s passenger side, pulling out a sniper rifle about 1.3 meters long.
“Your gun.”
Skain tossed the sniper rifle to Su Xiao. Su Xiao caught it with one hand and was surprised to find it was a Gold-quality sniper rifle.
[Mr. 24 Sniper Rifle]
Origin: Geya Alliance, Third Military Factory
Quality: Gold
Category: Medium Sniper Rifle
Caliber/Magazine Capacity: 5 (Single Shot)
Durability: 100/100 (Patterned spiral steel construction)
Attack Power: 134–198 (Using white powder ammunition)
Equipment Requirements: Strength 50, Agility 40, Stamina 40, Basic Gun Skill Lv.35 or above.
Equipment Effect 1: Fifteen-Power Optical Scope (Passive), Aim Correction +10%, Ballistic Adjustment +12.
Equipment Effect 2: Patterned Spiral Steel Ballistics (Passive), Bullet Penetration +19, Stability greatly increased.
Rating: 400+ (Gold equipment rating 310–400)
Description: The perfect combination of patterned spiral steel and white powder ammunition allows it to hit targets 3,000 meters away—provided you can see the enemy.
Price: Usage rights only, cannot be sold or transferred.
Su Xiao worked the bolt of the Mr. 24 sniper rifle. It wasn’t new, but it had been well maintained.
“Bai Ye, I’ve got bad news. Your spotter died half a month ago. The Killing Force can’t spare a suitable spotter right now, so you can pick any spotter from the Twelfth Regiment.”
Skain’s gaze shifted to the Twelfth Regiment’s commander, Gana, who nodded after a moment’s thought.
“I don’t need a spotter for now.”
Su Xiao had never worked with a spotter since he started using sniper rifles. In fact, he was both sniper and spotter himself.
“In that case, I’ll choose one for you.”
Skain seemed not to understand the concept of refusal.
At two in the morning, in the front-line trench.
The trench was about two meters wide. One side was lined with patterned spiral steel plates. Dirt alone couldn’t stop bullets; patterned spiral steel plates were essential for trench construction.
“Due south, 180 degrees, 680 meters, wind speed 3…”
A female voice came from the dark trench.
“Shut up.”
Bang!
The bullet left the barrel. The enemy 680 meters away was shot in the head.
“Next enemy, south, 173 degrees, 570 meters, wind…”
“Shut up.”
Su Xiao pulled the trigger. The enemy in the night-vision scope was shot in the head.
“Next enemy, south, 171 degrees, 620 meters…”
“You. Shut. Up.”
“Pfft…”
“Hahaha, let me laugh for a bit.”
Bang.
The bullet pierced the night, drilling straight into the enemy’s skull.
“Next next next enemy, south…”
“…”
Su Xiao pulled the trigger. He wasn’t surprised that the Geya Alliance had female soldiers—gender equality was the norm here, and women on the battlefield were common. But what he couldn’t understand was why Skain had assigned him a female spotter. And even worse, this female spotter never stopped talking.