Thunder Warrior Saves the World

Page 43

The brownish toxic smoke made it difficult for Vasa and Alyosha to see their surroundings, but they didn't panic. Instead, they maintained their current course and leveled their attitude. Whether they increased altitude or accelerated forward, their speed was unlikely to outpace the wind-blown toxic smoke, and in such low visibility, changing course arbitrarily could easily result in a collision. After navigating through the toxic cloud for some time, they finally escaped its reach. The two pilots in the cockpit breathed a sigh of relief.

The layer of brown powder on the cockpit glass was quickly blown away by the airflow, but like other Mil helicopters, mustard gas entered the cabin to varying degrees through gaps in the fuselage, contamination on the personnel's clothing, and the ventilation system. Naturally, the aircraft carrying Vasha and Alyosha, which had been traversing the gas cloud for some time, suffered the most severe contamination.

Therefore, none of the helicopter or airborne units involved in tonight's operation can return to Alpha Base. After coordination with the Kingdom of Elgia, they are staying at an abandoned farm north of Alpha Base; the Kingdom of Elgia even dispatched several fire trucks. Before their arrival, the chemical defense unit and medical corps had already established a chemical decontamination and medical center. The mission personnel will receive observation and treatment here, and the chemical defense unit will thoroughly clean the interiors and exteriors of their helicopters.

"Mustard gas again." By analyzing the particles remaining on the helicopter, the chemical defense team quickly identified the main components of the gas and submitted a report. Upon seeing the conclusion, Lu Wu snorted coldly. These Belken people were determined to pull off a big operation here. He just didn't know how long they had been making these small moves and what stage their preparations were at.

The concern is that they have already deployed a large number of chemical weapons on the front lines. The 7th Brigade is not afraid of mustard gas, but the Kingdom's army is not. Therefore, it is necessary to completely destroy their chemical weapons stockpile before the Belken launch an attack.

The question is, how do we do it?

Faced with this question, the operations center fell silent. They didn't even know where the Belken's chemical weapons depot was hidden. The location of the fourth chemical weapons depot was obviously very well concealed, possibly even underground or in a cave—a blind spot for aerial reconnaissance. Otherwise, it should have been exposed during previous reconnaissance. If it weren't for the accidental poison gas leak during the last operation, they might already have the relevant information.

Should we ask the Ergia to provide the coordinates of potential chemical weapons depots in this area, and then investigate them one by one? Lu Wu thought of the most rudimentary method, but that would be incredibly inefficient.

“I have an idea, Comrade Commander,” Sergeyev said, raising his hand.

"You said."

“Perhaps we could intercept one of their convoys, then switch with our men, and thus gain access to their storage site and blow it up,” Sergeyev suggested.

"What if the Belken don't have dedicated storage points and instead transport chemical weapons directly to the front-line troops?" someone asked.

"Mustard gas has a simple structure and is easy to produce. With skilled workers, large-scale production of mustard gas is not difficult," the chemical defense unit reminded them. Everyone understood his implication—abundant and easily replenished chemical weapons could potentially be deployed to frontline troops, allowing them to use this weapon more flexibly on the battlefield to gain a tactical advantage.

“That’s why we need to do this even more,” Sergeyev insisted. “No matter how secretive we are, someone in the convoy has to know where the destination is and how the goods are delivered, right? Even if the Belkens really didn’t set up a storage facility, at least we won’t waste time on something that doesn’t even exist. The Kingdom of Ergia can also prepare medicines and medical personnel in advance to deal with the Belkens’ chemical weapons attack.”

"We'll do it your way," Lu Wu decided, then added, "Also, remember to bring your camera. Take lots of pictures after you find the Belken people's chemical weapons."

Sergeyev was stunned for a moment, then he understood the reason for this stunt. How could they let such damaging information, which could further tarnish the international image of the Belken Empire, go unpunished?

With the tone set, the next step is implementation—the technical details.

To infiltrate Belken territory using the image of the Belken Empire's army, it's crucial to minimize damage to Belken equipment during the operation—a difficult task to achieve. Based on previous encounters, such a Belken convoy typically consists of about thirty infantrymen, roughly a platoon, accompanied by two anti-aircraft vehicles. Losing even a single piece of equipment could alert the Belken.

Conventionally, using incapacitating gas would be the preferred method to control these enemies as completely as possible, but this convoy was moving rapidly along roads within Belken's own controlled territory, so they couldn't fill the vehicles with gas...

Lu Wu suddenly remembered something that had happened on the way to Fabandi—back then, the Belken people, disguised and infiltrated into the Kingdom's controlled territory, had blocked their path with fallen trees, forcing them to dismount and investigate. Although the Gilahani warriors hadn't managed to seize their vehicles, they eventually mobilized some infantry to dismount and assist in clearing the obstruction to create space for the convoy.

Perhaps the same tactics could be used against the Belken? He suggested this idea.

So the question becomes: how do we determine if the Belken will follow our predicted route? No matter how well the trap is set, if the prey doesn't even go this way, it's all for nothing.

During the brainstorming session, everyone quickly came up with an idea—to lure the Belken people onto our path. "Having been spotted by our planes twice, the Belken people know their little tricks have given them away. We'll definitely increase our reconnaissance efforts in this area, and their actions will inevitably become more cautious—they'll actively avoid our planes," said Wu.

"You mean you deliberately create a blind spot for aerial reconnaissance, letting the Belken walk right into it?"

“No, that would seem too deliberate,” Yelena denied. Humans are suspicious creatures. If you put a chicken leg in front of him, he will wonder if you have poisoned it. But if he stole the chicken leg from the kitchen, he is likely to eat it without worry. “Our reconnaissance plan can be designed with certain regularity so that the Belken can easily crack and exploit it.”

Volume 1: Chapter 236 (Chapter 219) The Night of the Black Knife Conspiracy

After two days of effort, the Belken people finally took the bait.

They thought they had cracked the pattern of the coalition's aerial reconnaissance, and coupled with the rainy night, the Belken people thought they had successfully evaded the reconnaissance planes. In reality, however, long-range drones were constantly monitoring the land.

News of the Belken's appearance quickly reached the command post. Sergeyev, who had been on standby for two days, was also invigorated upon hearing that the fish had taken the bait. As the convoy ventured deeper into the road, Spetznaz finally received permission to launch an attack.

In the darkness, the noise from the helicopter engines and rotors woke many soldiers who had already fallen asleep. After realizing that it was not a battle alarm, they grumbled and rolled over to go back to sleep.

“Our men have already tampered with the Belken’s road beforehand; a tree will fall on the road just before they pass, blocking the way.”

"Won't they become suspicious? If it were me, I would send a reconnaissance team to scout ahead."

"They won't suspect anything because their reconnaissance teams will find traces of bombing in the area, and the trees near the blast center have damaged trunks, posing a risk of falling."

Recalling the conversation that had taken place in the operations center, Sergeyev licked his lips. He hadn't actually been that confident at the time, but since the plan wouldn't incur any significant losses even if it failed, he had been able to give it a shot without hesitation. Judging from the results, it seemed to have worked quite well.

"It's raining heavily tonight, which will mask the helicopter noise to some extent, greatly enhancing the stealth and surprise of our operation." Although Sergeyev doesn't particularly like rain, and even somewhat dislikes it, he's quite welcoming of this sudden night downpour. The rain not only masks their sounds but also blurs vision and reduces visibility; its appearance at this time is practically a blessing in disguise.

"Just like the plan, try to lure the guards out of the vehicle. The fighting must not affect the vehicle, or at least there shouldn't be any obvious damage." On the way, Sergeyev patiently repeated the mission procedures and details to his team.

"Teams A and B, lie in ambush on both sides of the road. Attack when the people in the vehicles come out to clear the obstruction, then launch a surprise attack and seize the vehicles. Remember to leave a few survivors."

"Group C is responsible for suppressing fire. Prioritize taking out the people in the two anti-aircraft vehicles, otherwise Groups A and B will just be sending themselves to their deaths."

"After seizing the vehicle, they changed into Belken clothing and equipment, simultaneously conducting interrogations and searches, calling in helicopters to remove roadblocks, and then drove off."

Sergeyev's A and B teams were two assault teams, while C was a fire support team equipped with sniper rifles, machine guns, automatic grenade launchers, and recoilless rifles. Of course, to avoid damaging the vehicles, they did not intend to use the latter two weapons in this ambush.

After a short flight, Spetznaz was successfully dropped to the designated ambush location. A thick tree trunk, requiring one person to encircle it, had already been snapped in half and lay across the road, completely blocking traffic.

"Men, get to your positions, the Belkens will be here soon."

To avoid detection due to noise, the helicopters have temporarily left the area. All three teams have taken their positions. Although the Belken soldiers, relying solely on sight, would have no chance of spotting them at this distance, Spetznaz has still constructed a temporary ambush position and camouflaged it. The individual night vision goggles on their helmets have been flipped down; while the visibility isn't exactly daylight, it's sufficient to create a significant asymmetric advantage.

"They're here." In the real-time black-and-white surveillance footage transmitted back by the drone, a convoy was preparing to enter their line of sight.

Gerasikov Timur was a sniper in Group C, using an OTs-03 sniper rifle equipped with a thermal imaging scope. This folding thermal imaging scope, in addition to providing a thermal view, also featured 4x optical zoom, allowing him to clearly see the gunner in the lead anti-aircraft vehicle's machine gun position.

Glazkov's gun moved with the target as he radioed his position. Soon, the high-value targets in the convoy were divided up by Group C, and even the machine gunners joined in this "night of the black knife conspiracy."

Many people who have only played shooting games often have this stereotype—machine guns have a high rate of fire, are difficult to control, and have low accuracy. However, this is actually a kind of attribute balance that game developers have to make for the sake of gameplay. Because machine guns generally have longer barrels than assault rifles, especially heavy machine guns, their ammunition uses much more propellant and heavier bullets than intermediate-power rounds. Therefore, machine guns, especially heavy machine guns, can have higher muzzle velocities and more stable trajectories. These combined effects allow machine guns to have better mid-to-long-range shooting accuracy than assault rifles. Especially when these machine guns are equipped with ACOG scopes with high magnification zoom, they can even temporarily serve as designated marksman rifles.

Just as they had anticipated, the convoy had no choice but to stop in the middle of the road in the face of the tree trunk blocking their path. Several men got out of the trucks and discussed the tree for a while before calling for help from the other vehicles—they had already calculated that moving a tree that a person could barely encircle was no easy task. All the men in the two escort trucks got out, splashing mud everywhere, but only a few were assigned to stand guard on either side of the road; most set up gun racks on the ground and went ahead with the empty trucks to help move the tree.

The machine gunners on the anti-aircraft vehicles were spared this grueling work because of their special duties. They lay on the machine guns with smiles on their faces, watching their unfortunate colleagues working hard and sweating profusely.

This is the best time to take action.

"Do it," Sergeyev whispered the order.

Glazykov slowly pulled the trigger. The gunpowder ignited, propelling the bullet rapidly out of the chamber. The muzzle flash was almost entirely absorbed by the device mounted on the muzzle, making it difficult to see in the darkness. The bullet successfully pierced the target's skull, churning the white soft tissue inside. The kinetic energy carried by the bullet caused the target's head to tilt, pulling the body off the machine gun mount with a dull thud.

Volume 1: Chapter 237 (Two Hundred and Twenty) - Disguised Infiltration

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

Even with the cover of the rain, most of the Belken people's attention was focused on moving the tree, but the dense gunfire made them realize instantly that they had fallen into a trap!

"Get down! Take cover!" The convoy commander made the right choice instantly. Normally, in such poor visibility conditions, as long as they lay down, they could avoid 70-80% of the bullets. "Machine gunner, open fire! Cover the others as they retrieve their weapons!"

However, what he didn't know was that the machine gunner he had placed so much hope in had become the first person to leave the battlefield.

The sounds of unfamiliar bursts of gunfire filled his ears. The Belken standard rifle fired only a handful of times, and the machine gun fire he had hoped for never came. He gripped his sidearm tightly and looked towards the side of the road, but the fleeting muzzle flashes in the distance made it difficult to pinpoint the ambush's location. He turned to look behind him, where he saw equally elusive muzzle flashes.

The enemy must have mastered a method to see at night! And it's definitely not some kind of "assault ingot" or anything like that!

Seeing several soldiers pinned to the ground as they tried to grab weapons, his mind raced under the pressure of life and death. He remembered a rumor he'd heard earlier—the Allied forces were trying to search for and destroy convoys like theirs, and one convoy had already met its demise.

However, now is not the time to dwell on the coalition's objectives; finding a way to survive this offensive is the most important thing right now.

The convoy commander forced himself to refocus on the matter—that's it! Flares can be used!

He remembered that he had a signal pistol on him, and the flare it came with could easily serve as a makeshift flare—at least enough to figure out the size and approximate location of the ambush attackers! He immediately reached into his officer's satchel, pulled out the exaggeratedly caliber signal pistol, loaded it by the extremely faint moonlight, and suddenly raised his hand, pulling the trigger diagonally upwards to the side of the road—he dared not raise it too high, as that would most likely make him the ambush attackers' primary target.

"Cyka!" Sergeyev's face darkened as he watched the red-glowing flare streak past his head and slowly drift away to a distance of about two hundred meters behind him. Fortunately, there were no other Belken troops within several miles. Or, if the flare launcher had raised the launch angle a little higher, they might have alerted the Belken forces in the distance. In that case, the Allied forces' disguised infiltration would have been a near failure.

"Teams A and B, assault! Take control of the convoy immediately!" Sergeyev immediately moved the operation to the next stage. Give that bitch some more time, and maybe he can find another signal flare.

However, the convoy commander had to pay the price for his actions; Glazykov had his eye on him. Just as the commander was loading a second flare into his signal pistol—the first flare hadn't provided much illumination—a pointed bullet from an OTs-3 sniper rifle struck his right shoulder blade, halting his advance.

Hearing words like "Surrender and you won't be killed" and "Put down your weapons" coming from both sides of the road, his vision went black and he lost consciousness.

The ensuing battle unfolded as expected—with both sides already manpower deployed and most of the opposing forces unarmed, the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Almost no one considered putting up a fight, especially after hearing the enemy shout "Surrender or be spared," which completely extinguished any thought of a desperate struggle.

After receiving news of the success of the first phase of the operation, the Mi-8 helicopters visited the site again, bringing with them interrogation experts from the intelligence team and a sufficient supply of explosives. After unloading the cargo hold, the Mi-8s easily moved the crucial tree trunk, clearing a path for Spetznaz's next operation.

The interrogation experts were very skilled; they quickly extracted a lot of information from the prisoners, such as the exact location of their destination, their route, radio frequencies, passwords, and so on. After cross-referencing, the Belken people's small-scale operations in the south finally began to reveal themselves.

Perhaps out of fear of leaks or accidental breaches, the Belken Empire's mustard gas shells were stored separately from the gas itself. Generally, chemical weapons units would only repackage the gas into special shells when needed at the front, before distributing them to troops. This particular convoy was responsible for transporting 5 tons of mustard gas to a hub on the southern front. That hub served as a distribution center, where the mustard gas brought in by the convoys would be repackaged and then delivered to the frontline troops. In the past three days alone, they had already made three round trips, and according to the prisoners, at least twenty convoys were carrying out this mission, meaning that at least 300 tons of mustard gas had been quietly transported to the southern front and even distributed to various units.

This data shocked everyone in the operations center, and Princess Rosa turned pale. Although the Belken people's craftsmanship was rather rough, and the mustard gas they produced was a brownish gas with many impurities, 300 tons was enough to make up for the lack of quality and was used to wreak havoc among the kingdom's army.

This hub must be destroyed as soon as possible. This was a consensus among everyone. Since the hub was located inside a cave, they had no way to destroy it through conventional air or artillery strikes; the only option was to sabotage it through special forces infiltration.

After replenishing their ammunition and changing their clothes, Spetsnaz left a few seemingly obedient Belken men to act as guides and to lull the guards at the hub into a false sense of security before the convoy set off once more. This time, however, the wagons were no longer filled with bottles of mustard gas, but with chunks of high explosives.

Now it's time to see how Speights performs.

Guided by the prisoners, Spetznaz arrived smoothly at the frontline hub that served as a chemical weapons repackaging plant. The convoy stopped at a concealed entrance, and sentries with guns on their backs walked toward them, clearly to begin an inspection.

"Do it the way you did before, don't try anything funny," Spetznaz warned from the passenger seat, returning the prisoner's identification to his owner.

The prisoner nodded hastily, took the documents, rolled down the car window, and handed them out as usual.

The sentry clearly remembered the prisoner. He glanced at the documents briefly and handed them back. Then he saw Spetznaz in the passenger seat and was slightly taken aback: "Oh, this seems to be a new face."

……

Please give me some votes, considering how diligently I've been updating lately.

Volume 1: Chapter 238 (221) Mustard Gas Factory (1)

"You mean that kid from before?" The driver felt his hair stand on end and quickly put on an angry expression. "You have no idea what we encountered! Those canned goods were all fucking spoiled, and that damn cook just pretended not to see it. He cooked them up and served them directly, knocking out half of our truck company. And look, he was even borrowed from the unit next door."

The sentry subtly took a step back, dodging the driver's verbal attack. "You guys have run into this too? Shit, lately quite a few units have reported problems with the canned food they've been issued. We're not going to get it, are we...?"

Sergeyev secretly noted down the news, intending to inform the intelligence department when he had some free time. He felt that following this lead might lead to unexpected discoveries.

"Is the cargo being transported the same as before?" the sentry continued to ask.

"Same as above, they're all in those cars in the middle, you know where they are," the driver waved his hand.

"By the way, why are you all soaking wet?"

"Don't even mention it," the driver rolled his eyes. "This rain knocked down all the trees, completely blocking the road. It took a lot of effort to move that tree. We shouldn't have taken that road." There was a hint of sincerity in his words.

So the sentry, rifle slung over his shoulder, slowly walked past the truck packed with people, lifted the tarpaulin, and saw a large stack of wooden crates, all stamped with unreadable seals and Imperial Army identification characters. After randomly opening the outermost crate and confirming that it indeed contained steel gas cylinders, the sentry waved to the sentry post, signaling him to pass.

"You can talk to the officer on duty; maybe he can find you some dry clothes to change into," the sentry kindly suggested at the end.

"Thanks, buddy." The driver left with those words, pressed the clutch, shifted gears, released the brake, and accelerated. A puff of gray smoke came out of the exhaust pipe, and the convoy filed in, passing through the narrow entrance.

"It's granite." This cave is extremely large and has a complex terrain, resembling an insect burrow, with both entrance passages and spacious "halls." Although the Belken people occupied this place, they hadn't made many alterations to the interior, at most using wooden planks for partitions, with exposed rock walls visible everywhere. Granite is extremely hard; to blast this cave down, a large amount of explosives would need to be planted in different locations. They wondered if they had enough. They had also considered blowing up the entrances and exits to seal off the cave, but according to the prisoners' testimonies, this hub had more than just the one they used; there were many others they didn't know about.

The storage area was located deep within the cave, a journey that took the trucks about ten minutes to reach. There were several checkpoints along the way, but the level of inspection was almost identical to the entrance checkpoint, giving the impression of a perfunctory formality. Fortunately for them, the Belken team didn't discover the various weapons and equipment hidden inside the trucks—except for the outermost ring of gas cylinders, the other cylinders on those trucks transporting mustard gas had been switched.

"Get up! You bunch of pigs! Unload the cargo!"

After the warehouse manager was notified, a soldier immediately kicked open a wooden door next to him and shouted loudly.

Soon, amidst the soldiers' angry shouts and the sharp crack of whips striking flesh, a group of emaciated, ragged, and lifeless laborers appeared before them. Two armed military police followed behind, clearly responsible for guarding the laborers.

"Get moving, you lowly beasts! Unload all the goods from the truck!" The sergeant's hands didn't stop moving. He slapped a boy who looked only sixteen or seventeen years old, making him stumble and fall to the ground. Seeing this, the sergeant kicked the boy, making him curl up like a shrimp on the ground, letting out a weak groan. "A bunch of useless trash! Listen up! If anyone breaks the boxes, they won't be eating for the next two days. Go eat shit!"

"Who's the commander?" After uttering this harsh question, the sergeant approached them, curiously examining their soaked clothes. Although it was raining outside, how had they gotten themselves wet in the vehicle? He wondered if something had happened on the road, but he sensed a burning anger emanating from these men, making him cautious. The sergeant didn't want to incur their wrath.

“I am,” Sergeyev said, gesturing towards the Spetznaz men who had already gotten off the vehicle. In just a short while, large patches of water had appeared on the ground. His voice carried a hint of anger. “Do you have any clean clothes here? My men are all fucking soaked.”

“It should be there, sir. I’ll have someone look for it right away.” Although the man before him was a complete stranger, the sergeant’s rank on his uniform was three levels higher than his own, so the sergeant naturally dared not disobey Sergeyev.

"Wait," Sergeyev called out to the sergeant who was about to go and get someone to find the clothes, "Where is your supervisor? The items have been delivered and need to be signed for."

"I've already notified Lieutenant Dietrich; he'll be there soon," the sergeant replied quickly.

"Hmm, hurry up, these clothes are really uncomfortable to wear." Sergeyev put his hands behind his back and made a ready gesture, intending to take down as many people in the storage area as possible.

The sergeant bowed and scraped, instructing the two military police to keep a close eye on things, before hurrying off into the depths of the warehouse area.

Two military policemen, busy ordering the laborers to move goods, were completely unaware that, at Sergeyev's signal, these "Belken soldiers" had silently taken control of the entrances and exits to the storage area, effectively surrounding them. The actual crates containing mustard gas were quickly unloaded from the trucks. Sergeyev noticed a laborer pause when lifting a wooden crate containing explosives, clearly realizing that its weight and center of gravity were different from the previous crates. However, this man was obviously intelligent and made no comment, simply continuing to move the goods silently.

Three or four minutes later, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed from where the sergeant had left, and a second lieutenant jogged up to Sergeyev. Seeing that it wasn't the officer in charge he'd seen before, the lieutenant instinctively asked, "Hmm? Why the change today?"

"You must be Lieutenant Dietrich? Please check and count the quantity of the goods, and then sign your name on it." Sergeyev waved the document in his hand, gesturing for the other party to come over.

"Sir, here are the clothes you requested." The missing sergeant reappeared with several other men. Sergeyev waved them over, signaling them to bring the clothes.

Volume 1: Chapter 239 (222) Mustard Gas Factory (2)

Are there only a few of you here?

After the sergeant brought over clean clothes, Sergeyev asked casually, seemingly unconcerned about whether the question would arouse suspicion.

"There are still a few resting inside," the sergeant replied instinctively.

Lieutenant Dietrich frowned, wondering what the other party's purpose was in asking this question. However, since all the boxes in the truck had already been unloaded, and Lieutenant Dietrich was focused on checking the supplies, he didn't think too much about it and walked towards the wooden boxes piled on the ground, intending to open them for inspection.

At Sergeyev's glance, some men immediately followed Lieutenant Dietrich, and the same thing happened behind the other Belken men.

The wooden crate was opened, and what came into view was not the mustard gas mentioned in the document, but a large number of large-caliber weapons that he did not recognize. He was certain that there was no name on the list that matched the items in front of him. Lieutenant Dietrich frowned and turned around to question him, but a pair of strong hands covered his mouth and neck. With a crisp "click," the confusion in Lieutenant Dietrich's eyes was frozen in time forever.

The sounds of necks snapping echoed, but the lifeless bodies didn't fall to the ground with unnecessary noise. Instead, they were carefully caught and gently placed on the ground. Thanks to Sergeyev raising his index finger to signal for silence, these laborers in poor condition suppressed the urge to cry out, and a glimmer of hope returned to their previously numb eyes.

“我8们是爱尔吉5亚王国7的盟6军，如果你们6不想死的话3就听4从我们的指4令。2”谢尔盖耶夫的话意简言骇，换来了劳工们的疯狂点头。

“Very good.” He nodded in satisfaction, gesturing for the others to begin taking the weapons from the crates. “How many laborers like you are left here? Where are they located?”

“Sir, there were about four hundred people who were brought here with us.” One of the laborers raised his hand and answered quickly in a low voice, “Most of them were taken to deeper areas, leaving only us here to load and unload goods for them.”