Casiva sneezed twice more.
These sneezes were strangely ominous.
He didn't feel like he had a cold, nor did he feel uncomfortable, but he just kept sneezing.
Just as Qassem and his n had vanished from Casiva's line of sight, Casiva suddenly heard a familiar sound.
It was the roaring of helicopters, the sound of propeller airflow.
Casiva felt the hair all over his body stand on end.
Having spent years trafficking across the Persian Plateau, dealing with the Revolutionary Guard, border police, and the army, he was all too familiar with the sound of the Bell 214A dium utility helicopter.
The Persian military units stationed nearby often used this type of helicopter to attack them.
The Bell 214A helicopter was purchased by Persia before falling out with the U.S.; it is actually a civilian upgraded version of the Bell 214A, which belongs to the UH-1H "Huey" military dium utility helicopter. Its main distinction is that it had been fitted with a Daxin Lekoming Company manufactured LTC4B-8D turboshaft engine, with its rated power drastically increased from the latter's 1419 shaft horsepower to 2930, significantly improving its carrying capacity, safety, and reliability, reducing noise levels and increasing flight speed.
After their fallout in '79, Persia made so modifications to the Bell 214A helicopters, adding weapon mounts, rocket launchers, and anti-tank missiles, and fitting machine guns to the sides of the fuselage, to provide ground attack support.
Two Bell 214A helicopters soared up from behind the mountains like enormous black birds, their huge bellies laden with rocket launchers making Casiva feel like the Grim Reaper had swept over his head.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
Flas shot from the tail of the rocket launchers, as several rockets trailing black smoke streaked toward the ground.
A huge fireball then rose, with black smoke billowing from the hillside.
Even without seeing the site of the explosion, Casiva could tell that the rockets had hit the recently dispatched reconnaissance team.
Poor Qassem was probably already blown to pieces.
"Run! Run!"
It was only then that Casiva realized he had fallen into a massive trap.
Abel not answering his phone wasn't because he was busy or because his phone was out of battery or signal.
It was because he was done for.
Being able to deploy Bell 214A helicopters for this operation was certainly not sothing that a border police squadron commander like Abel could manage.
It was the Revolutionary Guard!
The na of the military force Casiva feared most flashed through his mind.
At that mont, he only cursed that his donkey had but four legs.
After attacking the reconnaissance team, the two Bell 214A helicopters still spotted the hundreds of people huddled together on the ground not far away.
Ordinarily, when transporting narcotics, Casiva adopted a squad style, transporting in a dispersed manner and hiding imdiately upon aerial reconnaissance to evade enemy attacks.
But today was different.
This location was relatively open, with no place that could conceal hundreds of people at the sa ti.
Moreover, the formation was already in complete disarray.
Fear had struck every soldier.
Facing the aerial power, the ground infantry were utterly helpless, like ants, especially without man-portable air-defense missiles—it was simply a one-sided slaughter.
Aboard the fuselage, soldiers from the Revolutionary Guard Special Brigade set up machine guns and riddled the ground with bullets.
It felt like they were hunting a migrating herd of water buffalo.
With the abundance of Revolutionary Brigade soldiers, each burst of gunfire resulted in casualties.
The crowd fell in swathes, like leeks being chopped down.
Casiva jumped off his donkey and began to flee on foot.
While riding the donkey saved energy, it made him too conspicuous.
Running on foot, he would find sowhere to hide from the helicopter attack first.
What he hadn't anticipated was that Song Heping had never planned to give him a way out.
The Revolutionary Guard Special Brigade intended no escape for him either.
Seizing such a rare opportunity, Avanti directly ordered Naxin to mobilize all the available army and air force units near Awaz to rush to the Persian Plateau and dispatched 4 transport helicopters and 4 ard Bell 214A helicopters from the eastern cities Zahedan and Birjand towards Awaz, with a strict order—extermination.
"They're done for."
Seeing helicopters approach from afar, Song Heping retracted his binoculars, then said to everyone, "Let's pull back into the ravine, hide well, don't let the helicopters spot us. Looks like we'll be here a while."
There was no friend-or-foe identification system in place between him and Naxin. In fact, letting Avanti dispatch the Special Forces here was a very risky move.
If the people on the helicopter realized there was still a squad here, it would be hard for them to discern whether they were Revolutionary Brigade personnel or so other group, even though Naxin had instructed that fire must not be opened on non-Revolutionary Brigade ard personnel.
But who could say for sure in the chaos of battle?
Hide away, wait for the clearance on this side to finish, and then confirm with Naxin that all is clear before it could really be considered safe.
The sound of gunfire lasted for more than two hours before it finally fell silent.
Song Heping waited another hour, estimated the ti for the troops to clean up the battlefield, then avoided Mist and found a quiet place to connect with Naxin to confirm the details of the battle.
Unsurprisingly, almost the entire Revolutionary Brigade had been wiped out.
Over two hundred people remained, and they surrendered, directly kneeling on the ground, lifting their guns over their heads.
The body of the assault team leader, Kawasi, was also found; he had been caught by machine gunfire from a helicopter during his escape, rolling down a steep slope, breaking his neck. It was unclear whether he died from the neck injury or the gunshots.
In the end, Song Heping requested that Naxin restrain all troops from searching northeast, stating his detachnt would head from there to Yazdan, where they would cross the border back to Peshanjan in Afghan.
Naxin assured Song Heping of safety, urging him to leave without worries. By now, the news of the annihilation of over a thousand n from the Revolutionary Brigade in the highland area had probably spread far and wide. All ard organizations active during the new crescent knew that a Persian special forces unit was operating here today and likely had taken refuge across the borders of Pakistan and Afghan, leaving likely only Song Heping's team in the Persian Plateau region.
After hanging up the phone, Song Heping stood still and pondered the route before returning to his group.
"Brothers, the gunfire has stopped; we should be safe now. Let's withdraw and head back to Afghan," he said.
In the direction of Kandahar, inside the ISA command center.
The sun had already settled in the west, and it would be dark soon.
Since last night, Niki hadn't gotten any sleep.
Reconnaissance drones continued to fly back and forth over the Afghan and Persian border.
This morning, the drone relayed information that a significant amount of electromagnetic signal activity was detected in the direction of Awaz, all within military frequencies.
This suggested that the Persian Army was conducting a major operation there, judging by the signal's strength and frequency, moving at least two battalions worth of troops.
Niki felt sowhat desperate upon hearing this news.
Why would the Persians deploy so many troops near Awaz?
She examined the map.
Awaz was a small town located on the northern border of the Persian Plateau.
Jinny thought it might be because Song Heping and Mist's three-man squad, being chased by the Revolutionary Brigade, had hastily chosen this route in an attempt to escape the highland to avoid the pursuit, given that the Revolutionary Brigade's influence was limited to that area.
It seed they had evaded the Revolutionary Brigade but then encountered the Persian border forces, leading to a conflict.
But deploying more than two battalions for three people?
This point puzzled Niki.
By evening, as night approached, no further news arrived from the Persian side.
This was the fourth day.
Niki felt that the chances of the Song Heping group's survival were virtually zero.
"Major..."
Thom approached carefully, inquiring, "What would you like to eat tonight?"
For the past few days, Thom had not dared to speak to Niki.
He had unofficially inford the headquarters about the operation, and Brigadier General Miles had co personally to stop it. The look Niki gave him that day was murderous.
Niki did not answer for a long ti.
Thom, treading on eggshells, was about to turn around and leave but was stopped.
"Thom, pour a coffee, no sugar," she said.
Thom, relieved at hearing this, thought that it seed Niki had forgiven him.
"Yes, Major," he responded.
Niki sighed.
She did not want to bla Thom.
After all, her subordinate had had good intentions.
If the ISA's rapid response team had entered the Persian Plateau and encountered the Persian military, any significant incident following an engagent would be a major headline.
If such a high-profile news item broke, it could even affect international oil prices, and the politicians in the White House would be furious.
And for herself—facing military court, imprisonnt, it all might be her reality...
"Major!"
An intelligence analyst, stationed in front of the computer, stood up, pulled a docunt from the printer, and approached Niki.
"I think you should see this intelligence, just received," he said.
Niki glanced at the content, her face instantly covered with surprise.
"What's going on? Is this source reliable!?" she exclaid.
"Reliable. It's from an insider we planted within the Revolutionary Brigade. Although not high-level, he is very trustworthy," the analyst explained.
Niki's eyes returned to the paper.
The ssage read—
"...Internal division has now occurred within the Revolutionary Brigade. The number one figure, Azhar, and the number two, Hula, have both been killed; the number three, Kawasi, and over a thousand elite were entirely annihilated by the Persian special forces in the highland area; a power vacuum has erged, and various factional organizations have begun fighting over territories..."
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