"Enemy contact! Directly east! VBIED!"
Sanders' shout echoed through the entire checkpoint via the soldier's radio.
Almost simultaneous with his warning, the checkpoint's firepower points erupted like a startled hive of deadly bees, launching a ferocious counterattack!
"Ratatat! Ratatat!"
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The sudden burst of M4A1 carbine short bursts and the continuous sweep of M249 squad automatic weapon ford a deadly symphony.
Dense bullet rain poured onto the frenzied death truck like water. Bullets hitting the thickened steel plates and bullet-proof glass exploded in dazzling sparks, emitting "clink-clank" sounds like iron striking.
However, the pickup truck had clearly undergone insane modifications. Ordinary 5.56mm rifle rounds crashing against its front armor only left dense pits without penetrating through to incapacitate the occupants.
The pickup charged forward like an unyielding bull, ignoring mosquito bites, continuing its mad dash!
"Damn it! It's a heavily armored VBIED! Can't break through!"
Soone shouted desperately from behind the downstairs cover.
"Scythe! Target the driver's seat! Aim for observation slit and door hinges! Stop the driver!"
Sanders was crouched behind a low wall at the roof edge, yelling into the radio, his voice distorted with urgency.
Behind the sandbag cover at the southeast corner of the checkpoint, the precision shooter codenad "Scythe" had already set up his M110 semi-automatic sniper rifle on the sandbags.
Unlike the others blindly firing, he took a deep breath, exhaled slowly halfway, held his breath, then locked onto the blurry, distorted figure behind the bullet-proof glass of the violently bouncing vehicle through the Schmidt & Bender 3-12x50 PM II scope.
The crosshairs within the scope swayed slightly with the vehicle's bounce and his heartbeat.
Scythe's gaze was icy, his finger steadily preloading the trigger.
He was searching, searching for that fleeting shooting opportunity.
Suddenly, he noticed a weld line below the driver's side window where the armor plate t the original vehicle body, leaving a roughly four-finger-wide gap due to poor craftsmanship!
The opportunity had arrived!
"Go to Hell!"
He silently recited, his index finger exerting sudden force on the trigger!
"Bang!"
A steady and crisp gunshot sliced through the air.
The 7.62x51mm NATO warhead penetrated the deadly gap with extre precision!
Within the scope, one could clearly see the driver's head snapping backward, a dark red stain mixed with brain matter and bone shards bursting "plop" against the interior side of the window, spreading rapidly.
"Target driver, hit!"
Scythe's slightly proud calm voice transmitted through the radio, still devoid of emotion, terrifyingly composed.
However, what happened next chilled everyone who witnessed it to the bone—
The pickup did not veer out of control or stop as expected, instead accelerated to crash straight into the wall!
"Hell! The driver's been shot dead! But his foot's welded or strapped to the gas pedal! The body's wedged against the steering wheel!"
Another observer on the rooftop rcenary uttered a report close to collapse.
Sanders felt a chill rush from his tailbone to his head, his body hair standing on end.
When soone is shot dead, nerves reflexively twitch in an instant, causing the foot to step hard on the gas, making the vehicle speed up.
This knowledge is amassed from the deadly experience by the 1515 Ard extremists.
These damned lunatics!
He'd heard of their insanity long before.
But facing them firsthand is entirely different!
These individuals, brainwashed by extremist ideologies, can no longer be considered normal humans. They not only disregard others' lives but have designed their own deaths to ensure mission fulfillnt in cold, calculated ways!
"M72 LAW! Who's closest to the equipnt box? Get the M72 now!"
Sanders yelled at the top of his lungs, his gaze urgently scanning the courtyard corner below where the green box of heavy equipnt was stored.
A rcenary nearby reacted swiftly, imdiately crouching and dashing towards the equipnt box, forcefully flipping the lid open, grabbing a dark green M72 rocket launcher.
But the distance is too close, the speed too fast!
From discovery to reaction, the deadly ti gap was already irreparable!
He had just torn open the protective cover at the front of the rocket launcher, frantically trying to pull out the inner tube and open the rudintary chanical sight—
The steel Grim Reaper, carrying hundreds of kilograms of high explosives and "driven" by a corpse, crashed violently into the explosion-proof cage and sandbag wall on the eastern side of Checkpoint 4 with the engine's fierce roar!
Ti seed to stretch infinitely and freeze at this mont.
Then—
"Boom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
An indescribable thunderous explosion erupted suddenly!
A massive orange-red fireball, like a death flower blooming in the night, expanded instantly.
The fireball swallowed the pickup truck, devoured that segnt of the wall, and surged straight up twenty to thirty ters high!
The scorching heatwave, centered at the explosion point, spread violently in a perfect circular shape, the fierce shockwave engulfing mud, broken iron, vehicle parts, and human tissue, rampaging over everything that tried to stop its expansion!
Sanders standing on the rooftop could even feel the concrete slabs beneath his feet shaking violently.
The scorching wind, mixed with smoke, rushed towards him, and the pressure from the explosion left him breathless, almost unable to open his eyes.
Tiny sand and stones crackled against his helt and bullet-proof vest.
The explosion's shockwave battered every inch of the checkpoint's ground.
The wooden window fras with glass removed facing the explosion on the main building suddenly turned to dust, and the two sandbag-built barricades closest to the explosion point were torn apart and blown away directly.
The vehicles parked in the courtyard were shaken and creaked.
Dust and thick smoke, like a heavy curtain, quickly engulfed the entire checkpoint, reducing visibility to less than five ters in an instant, with intense coughing sounds coming from all directions.
Sanders shook his head, buzzing from the shock, struggled to get up from the rooftop, and dashed to the edge, staring tensely at the explosion's location.
Through the thick smoke, the scene before him sent a chill through his heart.
The explosion point had already turned into a ghastly big pit, twisted vehicle chassis and explosion-proof cage wreckage still burning fiercely, emitting a dark red glow.
The explosion-proof wall, once believed to be relatively solid, painstakingly built with explosion-proof cages and sandbags, was now torn open with a gigantic gap seven or eight ters wide!
The fractured steel bars on the wire cage lay exposed like grotesque bones tearing through flesh, and the burning wreckage and rubble ford a gentle slope leading straight into the checkpoint!
A perfect attack passage!
"All units! Report status! Report casualties imdiately!"
Sanders shouted into the field radio, his voice hoarse from inhaling smoke.
Responses gradually ca from within the smoke and dust.
"Outpost one... safe, mild concussion..."
"Northwest corner safe..."
"Safe..."
"Truck flipped by the shockwave, all good..."
"dical point safe, casualties stabilized..."
Miraculously, besides a few suffering from dizziness and minor scrapes, no one seed to have lost combat ability in this intense explosion.
This was due to the absorption by the fortifications and distance, and perhaps a hint of luck.
Several rcenaries near the gap crawled out from the rubble, still in shock as they gazed at the gap like a giant beast's open mouth, and so even subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the worst of the attack had passed.
But Sanders knew it wasn't that simple!
He sniffed hard, and in addition to the choking smoke, burning rubber, gasoline, and charred flesh, there seed to be another more dangerous, colder scent in the air—
His battle instincts were frantically blaring alarms, as sharp as an air raid siren!
Too simple!
Too direct!
If the intention was only to cause a suicide explosion with maximum damage, the opponent could have done it from a closer distance, even as the checkpoint gate was breached.
Why choose to crash into the relatively sturdy wall?
Why ensure the vehicle hits accurately with such decisiveness?
A terrifying thought flashed through his mind like lightning, causing his hair to stand on end!
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