Chapter 44: Chapter 8, Episode 4: The Conditions of a Mercenary and a Human

Boom! The ASG17 bomb exploded at a point 2m away. The M24 bomb had 4 times the firepower of a grenade. Caught in the explosion, the shooter and his assistant’s body were ripped to shreds.

The soldier in charge of ammunition had a worse fate.

The grenade launcher flung into his body as it was caught in the blast. The unlucky ammunition soldier became fish meat. The expensive automatic grenade launcher was retired after five shots. It was Jang Shin’s hidden talent.

The two locations where the machine guns were located were also blasted away in the explosion. It caused a steel rain that spread across a 2-3m diameter. There was nothing more effective at destroying the enemies undercover.

“There’s another Asian monster. That one is a bomb master.”

Mike’s mouth dropped open.

“I’d never think I would see a person using a grenade launcher like a gun.”

Captain, who had been observing, was also surprised.

Jang Shin had been the one always throwing up whenever he witnessed Black Mamba’s massacres. The pathetic rookie had finally shown his amazing true potential.

After the guerrilla forces were dispersed in a panic from the bomb attack, they were dealt with another critical hit…Black Mamba’s sniping. From the left, he used Dragonov to blast the shooter’s wrist off and the blow half the assistant’s face off. They were forced to hold their breath as machine guns fired from the right also.

The intense training of the Lattell team and their experience with war had made them run like a well-oiled chainsaw. In the small moments of trade-off between Ahmud’s shooters, Charlie and Delta tag teamed from both sides to bring them down.

Charlie’s Emil and Morris used the M60 and minime while Delta’s Burimer and Chartres started to attack. Frolinat couldn’t even lift their heads once they started getting attacked. Anybody that peaked out was hit right away by Black Mamba.

The aide got hit square in the face and fell backward. The aide had been waving a gun in front of him just moments ago. Ahmud hid his face and body behind a boulder as he jumped in fear,

“Ugh, how could this be!”

Ahmud wiped away the blood that splattered on his face with his hands. It was the blood from the face of his aide-de-camp.

Ahmud couldn’t believe it. A grenade launcher and guns…the efficient combination was not something he could defend against. The enemy was at a disadvantage in numbers, but they were ruthless. Even though they had initiated a surprise attack, they flipped the tides with a well-executed counter-attack.

Ahmud’s eyes glazed over. It was not anger but fear in his eyes as he looked around him. Men buried under gun powder from the air explosion, men ripped to shreds from getting hit in the blast, men with their head blasted off from a gunshot…the hills were soaked with the blood of his men.

Half his troops had been swept away. Complete annihilation was only a matter of time. He felt a sense of desperation. The frighteningly accurate attack had been impossible to defend against. There was no choice now. Ahmud decided on an all-out war.

“Everyone charge!”

“Whaa, Alahu Akbar!”

Twenty bikes shot out. The shouts of the Frolinat soldiers rose up from the sound of gunshots.

“That, that!”

Ahmud was at a loss for words.

The leading bike and rider fell like a leaf blown over by the wind. The bikes fell consecutively without even getting a chance to put up their guard.

The 2 groups of bikes had been destroyed before they could even reach a distance of 300 meters. It had all happened within 30 seconds. The face of the remaining men behind him turned white.

Ahmud had made the detrimental error of forcing his men into the mouth of the gator. The Lattell team had the monster Black Mamba. Even his backups were highly skilled snipers. The bikes who could not have cover were easy prey.

“I should crush them into pig feed!”

Ahmud ground his teeth. They were scarier than the North Korean soldiers.

He looked back with an exasperated expression at the five or six surviving men.

Of those left, there was none who was not injured. It was all because of that cursed bomber.

“Stop the operation, retreat!”

His men had fought valiantly, but his opposition was too strong. Ahmud got up on his bike without regret. What 20 years of war experience had taught him about survival was to read the situation quickly. The five or six remaining survivors did not look back and started to run away.

-Ceasefire.

At Captain’s command, the sounds of battle stopped instantly.

The battle ended as quickly as it was brutal. It didn’t take longer than 20 minutes. It was because both sides had held nothing back and gave it their all. The result was the annihilation of Frolinat’s 3rd brigade of Boruku’s reconnaissance team.

-All report losses.

-Burimer clear

-Mike clear

-Morris clear

…

Lattell team had ended the battle without any casualties.

The reason this was able to happen was because of Black Mamba’s early detection of the hiding Ahmud army and the precise bomb attack initiated by Jang Shin. It was also due to the fact that Ahmud had decided to attempt a long-range operation against a sniper team.

The only person wounded on the Lattell team was Captain. He had torn his ear when he had jumped out of the speeding vehicle.

Jang Shin was staring blankly at the targets without even thinking of organizing his equipment. The old launcher was burning red after shooting 50 shots.

“Ha ha ha, what should I use to cool down this burning hole?”

Mike laughed as he pulled out his penis and pissed on the gun barrel.

According to the manual, you should pause 10 seconds after shooting 3 rounds. Jang Shin had insanely shot out 50 shots every 3 seconds.

“Jang Shin is amazing. You are the best shooter.”

Mike patted Jang Shin’s shoulder. Jang Shin, who had come back to his senses, smiled widely. A majority of the killed guerrilla troops were a result of the grenade launch. He was worthy of receiving praise.

The smell of blood and gun powder surrounded the hills. Blood streamed down from between the boulders. The red blood made the already red rocks look more horrific. Charlie and Delta teams checked for survivors with emotionless faces.

“Clean, isn’t it?”

Burimer kicked at a corpse whose head was halfway decapitated.

As always, the corpses that Black Mamba attacked were clean. Compared to the corpses blasted away by the grenades, the ones with bullets through their head or heart were very clean.

A majority of those hiding undercover on the hills were blasted by the grenade launcher. Jang Shin’s short-range shot had steel rain falling gruesomely over their heads.

The ripped apart corpses were gruesome. Their innards spilled out; their eyes had popped out of their sockets and dangled. There were corpses with grey matter spilling out of their skulls.

The ones who were alive were more grisly than the dead. Surprisingly, human life is a lot more resilient than most think. The wounded with their stomachs ripped apart, their chests broken, and body parts blown off yelled in pain. The ones who were dead were more at peace.

Jang Shin didn’t register the massacre he had induced. This was the difference between a gunner and a sniper. A sniper sees the fallen target spouting blood squarely through his scope. Their death is a direct consequence of their pulling the trigger. On the other hand, a gunner throws bombs based on location. He cannot see whether the enemy dies or not with his eyes. He does not see the death caused by his action. It would be like playing a game.

The Sahel belt’s temperature difference in November was over 20℃. The possibility of the wounded guerrilla troops surviving in such conditions was low. They could either slowly dry up under the scorching sun or freeze to death from the sudden drop in temperature at night.

Whether they dried up or froze to death, they would have to endure prolonged pain. There was even a high chance that hyenas could have eaten them alive after smelling their blood.

Sergeant Mike took second in command Miguel and went to put an end to the wounded. If they were unable to call in medical help for them, it was more humane to kill them. Of course, they were not doing this for humane reasons but to block an information leak.

In war, the word humanity does not exist.

War was a collision of evil. Humanity in war is but a fantasy that only comes out in novels or movies.

Burimer’s eyes widened upon finding the caravan and field artillery construction sight. They had not finished construction. Burimer turned back to Chartres.

“Is the pipe leaking?”

The horrific thought that their position was being leaked popped into their minds.

“No. We could have just been caught up by the guerrilla surveillance.”

Chartres disagreed.

“What are you talking about, we ran here as fast as we could from Olonga.”

“They had bikes. They have better knowledge of the area and have more information than us.”

Chartres did not readily agree. It was too scary to agree with Burimer’s suspicions.

“No, something’s not right. We should talk with Captain.”

Burimer could not get rid of the nagging feeling. It felt like his uncomfortable suspicions were coming true.

“Captain, we’re out of bullets.”

Sergeant Burimer was worried.

The sniper team had fought in three large battles as if they were the infantry. From the beginning, they had never expected to have to participate in such battles.

“Of course. We are mercenaries.” Captain said this as if it was somebody else’s business.

If they lacked bullets, they could use the ones they looted. The battle they fought in Algeria and Sudan had been done with a majority of the enemy’s weapons and bullets. There was no weapon that he or his comrades could not control. Captain didn’t worry much about the lack of their supply of bullets.

“Captain, there’s something I would like to check.”

Chartres lead Captain to the construction site and showed him the sheltered camp.

“Damn, they had even built a field artillery. If we hadn’t been quick enough, our corpses would have been spread all over this place.”

Captain clicked his tongue.

“If they shot at us from both sides with the artillery, we couldn’t have survived.”

Beside him, Burimer nodded. If they had completed the construction of the cannon, they would have been in big trouble.

“Burimer, do you think the dirty assumption I hear in my head could be true?”

“If it isn’t, then it is hard to explain what happened.”

Captain got the nasty feeling that his irksome suspicions were becoming a reality. After the fruitless mission in Olonga, he was bothered by a consistent discomfort that felt like he didn’t finish wiping after coming out of the bathroom.

The battle at Uldi Harmarl had been a coincidence when they accidentally ran into the reconnaissance team upon first arriving at the Sahel belt. But the battle they just fought was difficult to think of as a coincidence.

There was no way that Frolinat had a reconnaissance team. The Sahel belt is infinitely wide. Just the Bodele lowlands were 30,000km wide.

The enemy had planned to stalk the Lattell team with their exact knowledge of their movements.

Luckily, the opposition did not prepare themselves fully. It was because the Lattell team had ran at full speed to arrive there earlier than expected.

The construction site that they saw in front of them had to have taken at least 3 days to build. Based on the dried state of the cement, two days had passed.

If it had been 3 days ago, it would have been when they had arrived near Olanga.

What if the guerrilla had gone through here after creating their camp?

They would have been buried in gun powder and obliterated. Their corpses would have been lined up like a tri-colored parade on its floors.

‘Is the information being leaked? From where?’

The information is being leaked!

Just thinking about it made chills run down their back as if they had been doused in ice water.

The Lattell team was not an army meant for a prolonged battle. They were meant to go in and come out quickly as a rescue team.

The rescue team’s purpose relied on stealth.

If their operation path is revealed, they become mere fish being hoarded into nets. If they were to ever come under siege, the Lattell team would disintegrate in an instant.

Captain’s heart felt heavy. Their mission was important, but as a leader, he felt obligated to maintain their survival. Mercenaries are still somebody’s sons and fathers.

The only place where their information could be being leaked was from the DGSE main headquarters.

‘Could it be from our side? Am I just being paranoid?’

Even though their situation warranted suspicion, DGSE’s main headquarters had no reason to leak their information. They racked their brains about it, but they could not find an answer.

There hadn’t been any indication that a traitor was found in the DGSE main headquarters. Still, they didn’t want to stupidly stand around trapped in a net and showered with bullets.

Captain pulled at his hair while he finished confirming the state of the rest of the soldiers. The wounded begged for mercy in words they could not understand. The mercenaries coldly shot them in the head.

Black Mamba stared forward with an expressionless face.

Mu Ssang may have been a monk, but Black Mamba was the angel of death. A living rebel is dangerous. A dead rebel is nothing but a mass of muscle. What this meant was that he was not human, but merely the enemy. He seems to have already become immersed in the madness of war.