Chapter 163: Chapter 161: The Soldier's Honor_2
Watching 'Crowbar' rush over to lift the cellar lid and pull out a tattered child's corpse, Sanderson, leaning against the wall, fiercely kicked the wall several times...
"Shit, shit, shit! This goddamn haunted place!"
As Joe Ga and his team approached, a gaunt young man emerged from a pile of firewood at the edge of the village, shouldering a mottled RPG and aiming in their direction.
Before he could pull the trigger, a Magnum bullet struck his head.
The high-caliber bullet took off half of the young man's skull, and as he fell, his finger twitched mechanically; the rocket propelled towards a house on Joe Ga's flank.
The rocket exploded against the wall, causing a mud-brick house to collapse partially, revealing a child inside, squatting among several bodies with a gun, looking like an evil ghost.
As the child raised the gun...
"Don't~"
In the roar of Sanderson, 'Chainsaw' seemed to recall something, his eyes instantly reddening, then the PKM in his hand roared.
"Shit!"
Sanderson cursed, then with a complicated expression, he patted 'Chainsaw''s arm and said, "You're not wrong, I'm the one who is unfit!"
The usually boisterous 'Chainsaw' seemed choked up, and after a few seconds, shook his head and said, "Sometimes being 'unfit' is actually quite good, at least the nightmares won't come for you!"
This was what Karman meant by "A person with a conscience can't last long here."
It wasn't outright brutality, but the subversive impact on one's inner values could make someone irritable and confused, and with time, numb.
Sanderson and his team clearly hadn't reached that level of numbness...
The previously fierce Sanderson and Diamond Squad now seemed to have lost their morale!
Joe Ga didn't understand how to adjust the state of these professional soldiers on the battlefield, but he realized he had to do something.
Just as he was about to say something, a convoy of vehicles came speeding from the direction they had come from.
The pickup convoy stopped at the outskirts of the first village, and a large number of soldiers from Bangassou rushed into the village with their guns.
Finding no enemies inside, some of them remained on guard while others rushed to the riverbank, using wooden boats to cross the river and head toward the small village across the river, blockaded by helicopters.
Leading the way, Old Bull and Tony drove their trucks to the village where Joe Ga and his men were, and then twenty soldiers jumped off the trucks.
These soldiers didn't even wait for Old Bull to speak before they rushed into the village under the leadership of an officer with a red cap, engaging in a firefight with the militants hidden inside.
Without any probing or concepts of prisoners and hostages, they reached the door of a house and unleashed a barrage of gunfire through the thin wooden door. After shattering the door, they aimed inside; not caring whether there were any survivors, they sprayed bullets, and after a quick check, dragged out the bodies of those who were enemies, and if not, moved on to another house.
The soldiers who came to the rescue were more like terrorists than the terrorists themselves, acting brutally simple, killing not only the enemy but also hostages, and even losing several of their own.
Faced with this form of rescue, the survivors gathered at the edge of the village, seemingly accustomed to it.
Compared to the conflicted Joe Ga, how could Old Bull, with his military academy origins, stand it?
The bald man roared in anger as he charged toward the Bangassou soldiers, flipping one over with a punch and another with a kick. He then lifted a rifle and smashed a soldier who was desecrating a corpse, startling the surrounding people into a momentary freeze...
Joe Ga saw a strange light in the eyes of Dorian, Sanderson, and the Diamond Quartet, and decisively ordered, "Let's move in, no more innocent people should suffer!"
As he spoke, Joe Ga pulled the trigger at the feet of a few ferocious-looking soldiers, frightening them, before he turned to shout at Ayu, "King Kong, keep an eye on them..."
The red-hatted black dude who had issued the attack order knew who Joe Ga and his team were, and understood they would be his future instructors.
Upon receiving the report, the dude had rushed over with his subordinates, leading his most elite troops, hoping to show off in front of Joe Ga and the others. However, he was doused with cold water right away.
He felt he was treated unfairly, but looking at Ayu's cold and piercing gaze, he reluctantly gathered his men, then lined up at the entrance of the village, trying his best to look professional.
In contrast to the dude's grievances, Joe Ga and his team's assault, though not fast, was much more effective.
Sanderson and the Diamond Quartet, all recently out of the army, were exemplary soldiers, and exemplary soldiers have one similar trait: a sense of belief.
Killing child soldiers made them feel dishonored, and naturally sapped their motivation.
But once the goal shifted to saving people, the situation began to change.
Being rigorously trained soldiers, Sanderson nodded as if waking from a dream the moment Joe Ga gave the order, then signaled the Diamond Quartet to start clearing the remaining houses as a team.
Kicking doors down, entering, shooting—the special forces training ensured their efficiency and lethality.
Most of the villagers held hostage in the houses survived, but 'Chainsaw' and 'Crowbar' were injured.
The cruelty of CQB was evident here, no matter how well you are trained, when facing an enemy who is not afraid to die and is prepared, you are bound to get hurt.
Rigorous training makes you faster, more responsive, able to choose the best way of attacking under extreme conditions, not invulnerable to weapons.
When your enemy is not afraid of dying, it is nearly impossible to come out unscathed in such confined spaces.
'Chainsaw' and 'Crowbar's' experiences were not unique; Dorian too was distracted and shot in the rib area during the assault on the last house.
Like the previous routine, kicking the door in, an ugly black man with gold teeth was forcing children to pull the trigger at gunpoint, yelling and urging them.
As the point man, Dorian had never encountered such a situation before and instinctively shot the black man dead, then he was hit by a bullet.
Had it not been for the bulletproof plate on his side, it would have been more than just a broken rib.
Following him, Karman shot dead a half-grown kid with bloodshot eyes, madly screaming due to a jammed bullet, and was about to sweep the remaining children when the fallen Dorian shouted, "I'm fine, I'm fine, they've wet themselves, don't kill them, let them drop their guns..."
Karman looked at Dorian with a complex gaze of either admiration or scorn, shaking his head and saying, "They're fine for now, but you're going to get yourself killed someday!"
Dorian watched a boy of about seven or eight years old, without even trousers, frightfully drop his rifle and sit on the urine-soaked ground crying loudly, followed by the other children also hastily dropping their shoddy rifles...
Leather Head, with a 'heh heh' grin, then glanced at Joe Ga, who Karman had barred from entering, and said, "Boss, I've found that Dragon Gecko can still be humane, as long as you're not in danger!"
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Saying this, Dorian, with an expression of pain, clutched his ribs, and said with a wry smile, "Boss, I think my rib's broken; did I get my health insurance sorted?"