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"When Company A launches the attack, we'll move into sniper positions, and your squad will be responsible for periter defense."
Vincent issued the order to Song Heping with a harsh tone.
"Understood, no problem, how much distance should we maintain?"
"Do you even need to ask?" Vincent said with dissatisfaction, "The optimum distance is 300 ters, don't you know that?"
Song Heping originally wanted to retort but thought better of it and let it go.
The distance for periter defense was not fixed; 300 ters was just a commonly used range. In actual situations, it would depend on the enemy's strength and the actual battlefield conditions.
"Understood," replied Song Heping with a calm response.
No sooner had they finished the conversation than Samir next to him started to badmouth Vincent with a look of disgust.
"Look at their tone of voice, they really treat us like a servant army!"
The 'servant army' he referred to was the Independent 1st Brigade of the Illigo Army, which had co to participate in the Mosul operation that day.
This brigade was the first army unit ford with the assistance of the Aricans for the interim governnt. Before this, the Illigo Interim Governnt's military forces consisted of only the ICDC Civil Defense Force and the ISF Special Forces.
This operation in Mosul was the 1st Brigade's first regular combat mission; they had always been trained by the US Army and had never participated in official missions before. Mosul would be their maiden battle.
Working with Company A was a battalion-level unit from the brigade, which the US Army had given a nice-sounding na – Sword Battalion.
Song Heping could tell from the advancing formation just how crafty the Aricans were.
They let the Sword Battalion take the lead.
It was obvious they were being used as cannon fodder.
"I think they took good care of us," Song Heping, however, had a different view, "It's still better than being sent to take the lead in front of Company A, right?"
"Absolutely!" Hunter, sitting in the back seat, said with a grin, "I just went to take a close look at the tanks of the Sword Battalion, and they're monkey model Abrams."
The Sword Battalion was currently equipped with Arican-made Abrams Main Battle Tanks, as well as Humvee armored vehicles.
If you were not an expert, at first glance, it would look just like a low-budget version of the US Army, with no substantial difference.
"Monkey model?"
Song Heping hadn't paid attention to the Sword Battalion's equipnt before; he only noticed that their gear seed similar to that of the Arican chanized infantry battalion.
"Yes, all monkey models!" Hunter responded, "The old Aricans wouldn't give the complete versions. Basically, any equipnt given to the Illigo forces is a monkey model because, after all, it costs less. Besides, who knows the combat effectiveness of those servant armies?
If they end up throwing away complete Abrams tanks in a battle and they fall into the hands of militants, the US Army would not only lose face but also leak secrets."
Hunter wasn't wrong.
These tanks were hauled out of the Arican Nevada tank graveyard and refurbished, but they were just monkey models.
The monkey model Abrams tanks were reduced in both protection and performance compared to the sa type of tank used by the US Army. The most obvious changes were the removal of the highly confidential depleted uranium armor, identification chips, advanced reading, writing, and communication electronics, etc., euphemistically labeled as simpler and easier to use.
"Do you think that thing can withstand an RPG?" Samir asked.
"For an old thing like an RPG, frontal defense is no problem," said Hunter, "but if the tanks enter the city, that's a different story. They'll probably get hit from behind by militants, which is why I think the tanks wouldn't dare enter the city.
They will likely stop at the edge of the city, everyone will disembark and enter on foot, leaving a portion of Bradley armored vehicles to follow as fire support."
Song Heping stuck his head out of the vehicle and looked ahead.
The convoy was long, snaking along the open dirt road leading to Mosul, with tanks at the forefront, followed by Bradleys and Humvees in the middle.
Their own SUV followed two Humvees from Seal Team, at the end of the convoy.
He subconsciously looked behind.
Ideally, there shouldn't be any ard personnel showing up behind them.
It would be best if they didn't show up.
Otherwise, their modified SUVs still couldn't withstand RPGs.
About fifteen minutes later, buildings appeared on both sides of the road.
The convoy began to enter the outskirts of Mosul City.
All the buildings Song Heping saw were damaged, with none intact.
Every wall bore countless holes and bullet marks, with many buildings even collapsing on one side, seeming ready to crumble.
Mosul was the political and economic center of Illigo's northwest region before the war and also Illigo's second-largest city. But the war had turned this once prosperous city into a ravaged shell.
The dawn's light cast patchy shadows on the buildings.
A woman carrying a bucket walked out of a dilapidated house and was stunned to see the armored vehicles passing along the road in front of her house; shortly after, a young girl appeared behind her, looking at the rumbling steel beasts with confusion.
The woman quickly dropped her bucket and ran back into her ramshackle house with her daughter, tightly closing the door that was actually quite superfluous.
Since they had entered the city area, the Warrior Camp and Sword Battalion convoys beca more cautious, slowing their advance. The Humvee gunners on top were anxious, clutching their machine guns and constantly scanning the surroundings, fearing a gun barrel would erge from one of the buildings and fire a few bullets to send them back ho.
The radio beca active at this point, with the Sword Battalion soldiers at the front of the convoy intermittently relaying the road conditions and surroundings ahead to Lieutenant Colonel Mandres in the command vehicle in the middle of the convoy through the radio.
Drones had already been deployed, circling overhead, providing real-ti aerial reconnaissance for the ground troops, helping to avoid potential ambushes or traps.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—
Clink-clink-clink-clink-clink—
In this atmosphere of utmost tension, as the convoy was passing a clean gully, suddenly, an armored vehicle at the front was attacked. A Sword Battalion machine gunner on top took the brunt of the assault, his torso pierced by machine gun bullets, slumping forward and sliding back into the Humvee.
Then, gunfire erupted around them like bursting beans.
Rat-tat-tat—
Ping-ping-ping—
Whoosh—
Song Heping heard the intense gunfire.
But their position was in the very back of the convoy, approximately 700 to 800 ters away from the front Sword Battalion vehicles, so there was no sight of the enemy.
This was the typical sensation of large-scale combat.
While intense fighting was going on ahead, the convoy hadn't fully deployed yet, so the tail-end vehicles at the back had no sense of engagent.
```
The radio imdiately began to crackle.
"Man down! Man down!"
"twenty! Twenty!"
"Taking fire!"
...
All sorts of military jargon spilled out from the radio, becoming a muddled jumble.
"Everyone out of the vehicles, don't stay inside!"
Song Heping quickly made a judgnt.
He looked around.
There weren't many buildings by the small ditch, with two broken-down buildings about two hundred ters to the left and a row of bungalows about 150 ters to the right.
Apart from that, the remaining areas were open fields, with so earthen hillocks in the distance.
However, it was clearly not a good idea to stay in the vehicles, especially after the firefight had started. Even though it hadn't affected the rear yet, the many armored vehicles and tanks squeezed onto the dirt road would definitely need to spread out.
If there really were an ambush from behind right now, popping out a devastating RPG rocket at their SUV, everyone would be going to heaven!
Everyone hastily opened their doors and got out, looking for earth mounds and ditches nearby to use as cover and temporarily hide.
"Chef, your vehicle's team handles the left rear; our team will take care of the right rear."
"No problem."
Everyone took their positions on both sides of the dirt road, setting up a defensive line.
And then...
There was nothing to do but watch.
After all, this rcenary squad wasn't included in the combat sequence of Warrior Camp and Sword Camp, so Lieutenant Colonel Mandres wouldn't think to ask them to deal with the ard attackers in front.
The Seal Team mbers also ca down.
They had already packed everything up, carrying large bags and being ard to the teeth.
It looked like they were gearing up for a big fight.
"It looks like they're moving forward," said Chef, signaling to Song Heping across the road. "Should we follow them?"
"If they move forward, we'll just follow them. We're to take care of the periter, right? We'll stay on the periter. As long as we keep within three hundred ters of them, we'll be fine," replied Song Heping after glancing at Vincent and the others.
The Seal Team mbers parked the Humvee on the side of the road and began moving forward in a loose formation, bending over as they walked.
Song Heping said to Samir, "It looks like we'll be relying on our legs from now on. Go park the vehicles properly, then co find us up front."
"Alright, boss," answered Samir as he stood up and ran toward the SUVs to start parking them.
Song Heping called out to everyone, "Spread out and follow those Seals."
The n erged from cover and, keeping a distance of about ten ters from each other, they spread out into a line and leisurely followed the Seal Team mbers toward the direction of the gunfire.
The firefight was a long way from Song Heping, so he wasn't worried about getting attacked. With so many armored vehicles and tanks ahead of him, and judging from the sound of gunfire, the leading Sword Camp had completely suppressed the enemy.
The sound of the militants' gunfire gradually dwindled, indicating that their counterattack was weakening.
The Seal Team mbers' advance was to find sniper positions, prepare for surveillance of the surroundings, and see if "Hunter" snipers would appear here.
So Song Heping figured they wouldn't go too far forward.
Sure enough, after they had gone a distance, Vincent gestured towards the right.
It was those two little buildings.
Song Heping realized they were going there to set up a sniper position and an observation post, waiting for the "Hunters" to show up.
"Let's go there," said Song Heping, pointing to an earthen mound about a hundred ters away from the buildings.
"We'll establish our position there."
Once Vincent confird the location, the Seal Team mbers began to dash, quickly reaching the buildings. After a bit of rough door-breaking, not caring whether anyone was inside, they stord in.
Song Heping and his team also reached the earthen mound.
The mound was about five ters high, not a remarkable observation post, but the terrain around was relatively flat, with only the urban area of Mosul directly in front of them. They could see a dense cluster of buildings in the distance, presumably where the lead vehicle of Sword Camp was attacked near the entrance to the city area.
Song Heping took out his binoculars and began to scout the direction of Mosul.
Soon he saw muzzle flashes from the second floor windows of buildings on the right side of the road leading to the city area that looked like factories.
He figured the previous attack had started there, with militants hiding inside.
"Grey Wolf, Disaster Star, White Bear, the three of you keep an eye on our rear and conduct periter vigilance. Make it look like we're really on guard, don't let anyone creeping from behind catch us off guard," instructed Song Heping, and then he turned to Hunter, "Hunter, at the two o'clock direction, right in front, the second floor of that warehouse-looking building. Do you see it?"
"Got it, I see the muzzle flashes," Hunter responded.
"By the sound of the gunfire, that's the militants' main attacking position," said Song Heping.
Hunter asked, "Should I take care of it?"
"Forget it," Song Heping looked again towards the small building to his right front. "Don't steal the show from the Seals, otherwise Vincent would go ballistic again. Let's just watch."
"Alright," said Hunter, relaxing upon hearing this.
They all sat on the earthen mound, half-alert and half-curious as onlookers, all waiting for the Seals to perform.
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