The aftermath of the explosion still reverberated deep in his eardrums. Song Heping shook his head forcefully, trying to dispel the dizzy sensation of everything spinning around.
The taste of rust-like blood filled his mouth. He spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and found that his hand had been cut by shards of glass.
Looking up, all the glass windows were gone, the eastern wall on the second floor had collapsed entirely, and half of the second floor had turned into a terrace...
Even though the vehicle exploded at the police station entrance, its power was jaw-dropping.
Everything around was pitch black, and nothing could be seen.
"Report your status, everyone!"
He turned around, shouting hoarsely into the darkness.
"Jiang Feng, lightly injured."
"Utekin, nothing."
"Hussein..."
The sheriff's voice ca from the smoke.
"I'm still alive."
Song Heping groped around and picked up the fallen AK-12, its barrel scaldingly hot.
Through the smoke, he saw that the police station's main entrance had been blown open into a three-ter-wide gap, with twisted rebar stretching out like injured tendrils.
The entire police courtyard was flattened.
Farther away, a dozen shadows were quickly approaching under the cover of night.
"Freedom Army! From the main entrance!" Jiang Feng had already set up his assault rifle, the sight reflecting a faint glow of fire.
Song Heping stumbled to the stairway entrance and looked down at the lobby.
The ground floor lobby of the police station resembled hell at that mont—a large portion of the ceiling had caved in, exposed wires sparked, and two bodies of special ops officers were crushed under concrete debris, with only their legs protruding.
The surviving five or six officers were frantically trying to build a defense, one young officer kneeled on the ground, vainly pressing a companion's bleeding neck wound.
"Utekin, take the high ground on the third floor!"
Song Heping commanded sternly.
"Jiang Feng, guard the left corridor! Hussein, have your n block the right passage!"
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat—
The first wave of bullets whistled in before he finished speaking.
The indoor rain of 7.62mm bullets pierced through the unobstructed windows, instantly peppering the walls with beehive-like holes.
Song Heping rolled sideways behind the reception counter, splintered marble chips scraped across his cheek.
The sound of warheads colliding indoors was chilling.
This kind of indoor ricochet could kill!
"Allah Akbar!"
Outside the building, fervent shouts ca from all directions.
By the light from burning car wreckage, Song Heping saw at least thirty ard n spreading out in a fan-like formation. So wore mismatched military uniforms, others dressed in civilian clothes. The one common trait was their black headbands inscribed with white tadpole-like characters.
"Bang!"
Utekin's SVDS sniper rifle rang a deadly note.
Three hundred ters away, an ard man carrying an RPG fell, the rocket veering upwards and exploding into a brilliant fireball in mid-air.
"Nice shot!"
Jiang Feng exclaid, simultaneously killing an advancing enemy with a three-shot burst.
The bullets pierced the target's forehead precisely, exploding a bowl-sized bloody hole at the back of the head.
Song Heping regulated his breathing, firmly pressing the AK-12's stock against his shoulder.
His first target was a commander-like figure waving a handgun.
The sights locked steadily on the opponent's chest, and as the trigger was pulled, three 5.45mm bullets flew out in a triangle formation.
The first shattered the target's collarbone, the second pierced the lungs, and the third went straight through the heart.
The man fell like a puppet with its strings cut.
The next five minutes turned into a slaughter feast.
Trained special forces against fanatic militias yielded no surprises.
Every shot from Utekin's sniper rifle downed an enemy; Jiang Feng's precise bursts sealed the entire left corridor; Song Heping was a ruthless killing machine, each bullet claiming a life.
Soon, over twenty bodies lay sprawled in disarray across the police station's front yard.
"They're retreating!"
A special ops officer shouted excitedly from downstairs.
Song Heping frowned. Too easy.
The Freedom Army couldn't just...
Whoosh—
Swish swish swish—
Strange whistling sounds echoed.
"Mortar!"
Jiang Feng's voice exploded in the conference room.
Boom—
The first shell landed in the planter at the right side of the police station, its blast shook the entire building.
"Careful! They're test firing!"
Song Heping knew mortars all too well.
Where there's one, there's bound to be more.
The first shot was certainly a test firing, to check the fall point, adjust the sights and distance.
Next cos the main act.
Sure enough, about twenty seconds after the first shell landed,
ca the second, third...
Shells rained down, each one precisely correcting its fall point.
These weren't amateurs, Song Heping realized imdiately—the enemy had professional artillery observers.
"Everyone retreat to the ground floor lobby! Abandon the outer defenses!"
He yelled frantically.
With mortars on the opponent's side, defending the open ground was a deadly choice.
They must enter the building.
Otherwise, no amount of sandbags and fortifications in the courtyard would help.
Boom—
An 82mm mortar shell flew directly through the window, crashing into the second-floor corridor. The violent explosion turned three Special Forces officers hiding behind the corridor wall into bloody, mangled pieces.
Half of Hussein's left ear was sliced off by shrapnel. Blood flowed down his neck into his collar, but he still insisted on dragging an injured officer backward.
Song Heping was the last to retreat into the hall. Just as he slipped in, an RPG hit the spot he had just vacated.
The scorching shockwave flung him to the ground, his back slamd heavily against the wall.
He grunted, feeling at least one rib crack from the impact.
"They're coming up!"
Jiang Feng shouted from behind a pillar in the first-floor lobby.
Song Heping struggled to get up, through the thick smoke seeing at least fifty militants approaching from three directions simultaneously.
This ti they had learned their lesson, no longer shouting slogans but advancing silently and lethally. More terrifying was that Song Heping spotted two DShK heavy machine guns mounted on pickup trucks, their 12.7mm barrels pointed right at the police station's door.
"Don't enter the hall, hide in the rooms behind the hall! Prepare for close-quarters combat!"
Song Heping clicked a new magazine into place.
"They have more people, aim for key points and conserve ammo!"
The mont the first wave of enemies burst into the hall, the fight turned into a bloody lee.
Jiang Feng blasted the upper bodies of the two leading n with his shotgun; Utekin had discarded his sniper rifle, sohow acquiring an AKM assault rifle, and was picking off targets precisely from the stairwell between the first and second floors.
The first batch of about seven or eight Freedom Army soldiers that stord into the police lobby were quickly gunned down, turned into corpses.
Then a second batch poured in.
Gunfire erupted once more.
Both sides engaged in a fierce shootout within the hall.
Thirty seconds later, more bodies lay on the ground…
Before anyone could catch their breath, a third batch charged in again…
Song Heping emptied his magazine and didn't even have ti for a quick reload, pulling out his Glock 17 pistol to take down three enemies at point-blank range.
A burly, bearded man suddenly lunged at him from the side. As Song Heping sidestepped, he drew his tactical knife, driving it precisely into the attacker's eye socket.
"Reload!"
He shouted as he ducked back behind the wall to quickly swap magazines for his assault rifle.
Jiang Feng quickly moved to fill the gap, taking out two incoming Freedom Army soldiers.
"Are these guys on sothing? Why are they so crazy!"
His voice carried a tremor.
It had to be admitted, people in the extremist group sotis truly weren't afraid of death.
These guys didn't value their lives at all.
"There are too many of them, I estimate around two hundred!"
Utekin cursed: "Suka! Everyone save a grenade for yourselves! Hahaha!"
This GRU Major was also killing with abandon.
From the sound of it, he didn't expect to leave alive.
But there were simply too many enemies.
For every one that fell, two replaced them.
The police station's defenses were continuously shrinking, with fewer than 5 Special Forces officers surviving.
Hussein's right arm was shot, forcing him to awkwardly shoot with his left; Jiang Feng's forehead had a gash from shrapnel, blood blinding his right eye; Utekin's ammunition ran out, leaving him to use his SVD sniper rifle as a regular rifle to maintain the fight.
"This can't continue!"
Jiang Feng wiped at the blood blurring his vision.
"We need to co up with sothing!"
"Hussein, does your police station have any secret paths or back doors!?"
Song Heping shouted at Hussein from behind a wall.
"There's a basent! It used to be used for secretly transporting prisoners out, with a passage leading to an adjacent street, where there's an exit!"
"Prepare to retreat! We can't hold this place!"
Song Heping threw a hand grenade toward the entrance and imdiately moved to join Hussein.
"Jiang Feng, find our people, see how many are still alive!"
"They're all dead!"
Jiang Feng shouted in the dark.
"Damn it!"
His rage rising.
Having just arrived in Syria, without starting the rescue of the cook, three Special Forces rcenaries from the sa team were already gone here…
He had to admit, he felt quite defeated now.
Siria's chaos was far beyond imagination.
This was a real war.
Just as they prepared to retreat, distant machine-gun fire sounded.
Tat-tat-tat—
Tat-tat-tat—
Tat-tat-tat—
It wasn't the staccato of an AK series, but the unique triple-tap of a Desheka machine gun.
Boom-boom-boom—
Boom-boom-boom—
Boom-boom-boom—
Followed by the thunder of the 30mm autocannon from a BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle, the shells tearing through the air made everyone instinctively duck.
"Governnt reinforcents! It's governnt army reinforcents!"
The familiar gunfire prompted a blood-sared Special Forces officer to exclaim with delight.
Song Heping bravely peeked out.
Sure enough, the Freedom Army outside had completely halted their assault.
At the end of the street, three desert-camouflaged BMP-2s advanced, spewing fire, followed by at least a company of governnt soldiers.
Caught off guard, the Freedom Army's formation descended into chaos.
The dozens of Freedom Army soldiers that had pushed to the courtyard's outskirts were now abruptly turning around, wildly firing in the direction of the incoming BMP-2s.
"Counterattack! Hit these bastards from behind!"
Song Heping was the first to charge out of the hall.
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