Chapter 640 - 582 "Isolation Passage" Operation

"What are your names?"

Two mercenaries sent over from a row quickly ran over to report to Song Heping by the Humvee.

"Sir, my name is Pepis."

"Sir, my name is Evan."

Song Heping then asked, "What are your specialties?"

Pepis said, "I'm a machine gunner; he is an assaulter."

"Not bad, follow me."

Song Heping was satisfied with this arrangement.

He was capable of doing reconnaissance.

And a machine gunner was essential.

Once engaged, a machine gunner's firepower can suppress the enemy, buying time for his team to retreat.

The gunfire was getting more intense.

Amidst the gunfire, there were also explosions and familiar whistling sounds.

It sounded like the noise made when an RPG hit and exploded a vehicle.

RPG launchers are not standard issue for the Multinational Coalition, so the presence of such noises clearly indicated the presence of Alta forces nearby.

"You two, left flank."

Song Heping made a tactical hand gesture to Pepis.

The other quickly understood, nodded, and together with Evan, formed a pair, distancing themselves from the pair of Song Heping and Jiang Feng by about 30 meters, trailing slightly behind by 20 meters, forming a left echelon formation.

This formation was chosen because the firefight was taking place at a T-junction; southward leads to the highway to Kandahar, while eastward is a dirt road to the border city of Maruf.

Based on information obtained from conversations with Niki during the day, it seems that in the past few days, Admiral Chariz is launching a major military operation in the south called "Absolute Isolation," intending to destroy the link between Alta militants and the routes to Persia and Ba Country. Once the objective is achieved, an arc-shaped isolation zone will be formed in the south, cutting off any external assistance to the Alta forces hiding in the Hindu Kush mountain range, and then besieging them to achieve complete eradication.

If this operation is successful, not only will Admiral Chariz secure his position as the supreme commander, but even the British will gloat and gain leadership status in the global war on terror.

However, of course, Americans wouldn't let the British have their way.

Just as Niki said, the US Army and the American intelligence agencies have all received orders to start slacking off. Whereas the British Parliament and lords eagerly await Admiral Chariz's glorious achievement from this largest scale coalition operation, they didn't expect that after several days of anticipation, Admiral Chariz would pull a big one on everyone...

Combining this information and the current gunfire, directly ahead is the south, and to the left is east, which is the direction of the Abba Border and Maruf.

Judging from the scene, besides the firefight directly ahead, there is also dense gunfire to the east, indicating that someone near the T-junction is caught in crossfire.

Sending the machine gun team to the left allows them to provide fire support when necessary.

The single soldier equipment bought from Sebo in the afternoon all came equipped with AN/PVS-7 night vision devices.

Really, in this regard, Sebo is quite honest and has yet to reach the level of a profiteer.

Although the AN/PVS-7 night vision device is not the most advanced night vision device of the US Army, it is at best a generation 2 night vision device, standard equipment during the first Gulf War.

The leftover inventory from back then is now provided as support to Afghan forces.

Do not underestimate this generation 2 night vision device.

With it, Song Heping is sure that only the elite Afghan troops and special departments could get their hands on it.

But what's the use?

Sebo turned around and sold this equipment to him.

Who knows how that guy is writing off these items.

The feature of the AN/PVS-7 night vision device is that the field of view is all green, but the resolution is still decent, definitely better than having nothing at all.

The muzzle flashes in the distance appeared like little twinkling fireflies in the green-tinted vision, flickering on and off.

About 200 meters away from the firefight, Song Heping ordered Pepis's machine gun team to set up a machine gun position, then turned to Jiang Feng and asked, "Do you see that?"

"What?"

"About a hundred meters ahead of us, behind that little mound." Song Heping pointed to the right-front: "Those people are facing away from us and are still hugging the wall. By their attire, they don't look like coalition forces."

"Hmm, like armed militants."

"Four men." Song Heping asked, "Too bad there are no silencers."

Jiang Feng glanced at the AMK assault rifles in their hands and laughed: "What do we do then?"

"No problem, it's all chaos now, no one from Alta can tell who's firing the AKMs."

Saying that, Song Heping picked up his rifle and crawled forward, hunched over.

"You take the left, I'll take the right."

At this time, four Alta armed militants were mounting a PRD light machine gun, wielding intense fire at the T-junction, completely unaware that the Grim Reaper had already arrived behind them.

Song Heping and Jiang Feng approached ten meters behind the enemy, unnoticed.

"Do it!"

Song Heping issued a command to kill in a deep voice over the channel.

Dada-dada-dada—

Dada-dada-dada—

Dada-dada-dada—

Dada-dada-dada—

It was a decisive strike from the start.

The four Alta militants didn't even realize what was happening before they were penetrated by bullets, their souls enjoying the afterlife in Heaven with seventy-two CVs.

After taking down these two men, Song Heping immediately pounced on the PRD light machine gun and looked around.

Machine gun positions are usually in spots with a good view, so Song Heping could easily see what was happening at the T-junction.

He saw four trucks with NATO markings and two Striker armored vehicles stopped on the dirt road to the east of the T-junction.

This section was an uphill twist in the road, an obvious choice for Alta to ambush as the convoy would have to slow down here, making it perfect for a surprise attack.

Both Strikers were smoking, their homemade explosive-resistant fences wrecked, and the logs inside scattered all over the ground.

It seemed they had been hit by several RPG rockets.

Standard Strikers, when outfitted with explosive-resistant fences and stuffed with logs or sandbags inside, are somewhat effective at protecting against RPGs.

Song Heping had seen American soldiers in Illiguo do this when the original equipment did not include such fences; they'd install them on their own, so clearly, they found it effective.

Judging from the spread of bodies around the Strikers, it looked like they took several hits before the vehicle bodies were finally penetrated. Those inside were injured or dead, and those who ran out were turned into sieves.

Song Heping was quite surprised when he saw the remaining trucks—they were marked with red crosses.

This indicated they were medical vehicles.

"It's a medical convoy; I reckon the Strikers were escorting them, but it looks like they are in bad shape."

Through the night vision, he could see that there were still people who had escaped from the trucks and were now stubbornly resisting behind large roadside stones.

However, such resistance was futile.

Caught in a three-sided crossfire and situated at a lower terrain.

Death was only a matter of time.

"We better not get involved; let them fight their own battles, we'll just take a detour."

Jiang Feng estimated and said: "I see at least dozens of Alta around us. We could win if we fought, but there might be casualties."

"There's only one main path here, and while there are other small roads, do you know the way? Navigation here is unreliable."

Song Heping analyzed the situation and made his judgment.

"If we don't fight, we can't get through; after Alta kills these people, they will ambush here."

Looking around, he made a decision: "They haven't realized yet that they've already lost four men. We are in the dark; they are exposed. Let Gabri and his men come over and split into two groups, silently approaching the enemy positions to the north and south for a simultaneous surprise attack."

"What about the ones on the other side?" Jiang Feng asked, "There are a lot of Alta to the east."

"Leave a gap when besieging a city," Song Heping said. "We're just passing through. If this wasn't the only way, I surely wouldn't want to use my men to help the damn NATO Alliance! Leave an opening for them to run. If we trap them completely, they will fight us desperately, and then we'll really suffer losses."

"All right, I'll organize immediately," Jiang Feng understood and agreed.