Chapter 21: Journey to Africa

  August 5, 1999

  At midnight, everyone stood on the runway, watching as the plane slowly taxied out of the hangar and stopped in front of us. As we were about to board, a colleague suddenly asked me out of nowhere: "Xing Tian, I heard that you had a tough time learning to fly?"

  "Yes, don't mention it, that despicable Captain Jason is really not a good thing, he inhumanly tortured me, and that Major Kate is also not a good thing! They made me miserable! Fortunately, I avenged myself before leaving!" I said with hatred, remembering the middle finger I showed to Captain Jason when I left, I couldn't help but smile again.

  "Is that so? I didn't know you hated me that much!" A familiar voice suddenly came from behind, and I turned to see Lieutenant Commander Jenson and Major Kate standing in the crowd with a smile on their faces.

  "What are they doing here?" I asked the captain. Listen, just listen, anyway, I won't be trained by you anymore, bite me!

  "Let me introduce, this is our deputy captain Kate. Major Rash, codename Knight, and Jason Brown, codename Board. But you've already met! I won't say more. This time, the mission to Congo will be led by Knight." The captain boarded the plane and left, leaving me and Knight staring at each other.

  "SIR! I... " I didn't know what to say and stood there stupidly after giving a military salute.

  The knight just smiled and boarded the plane.

  "Let me catch you!" The plank walked up to me: "Do you think you can escape?"

  After the plank machine also boarded the plane, I had a dejected expression and followed behind to board the plane. After boarding, I pulled the bottom fire away from the plank machine and knight and sat down far away, asking: "What's going on? Aren't they instructors of the French Foreign Legion? Why are they people from our wolf group?"

  "They were originally our wolf pack people, heard that absorbing you in, went to observe your situation, entering the wolf pack requires both team leaders to agree. As a result, after two months of observation and training, Knights also agreed to let you join, so you're here!!" Di Huo laughed very cheaply.

  "Is there still a trial period? Then it's not necessary to torture me to death. Is such a large amount of training really needed?" I said fearfully.

  "That's the knights being curious about how much training you can take, adding extra just to test you! You're doing great! The knights don't want to let you go now. Your training volume is 1.5 times that of SEALs, you're doing fantastic!" Di Huo said.

  "Haha!! Thank you!" I burst out laughing.

  "But in a pack of wolves, this isn't exactly a good score!" The underdog struck me.

  "That's right!" After watching the training of the big bear and the butcher, I summed up three words - Non-human!

  Looking at the knights and plank machines sitting in front, my head is a bit big, this is bad! Scolded the deputy captain! What to do next? Hope he won't give me a hard time. Don't mind him, this mission isn't with them anyway, just hope I can come back alive! After just one battle, I've already experienced the cruelty of war, so I don't think I'm a lucky star, bullets hitting others but not me.

  All the way, everyone was chatting and laughing, not like going to war, but rather like going on a tour. We arrived in Congo (Kinshasa) first because we were helping the government army fight, so we had a legitimate base of operations there. After resting for a few days to acclimate to the weather, we took a boat to Liberia.

  Sitting in a small fishing boat with no defense at all, if we are seen by the coastal patrol team, one shot will wipe us out!

  "Captain, is this okay? This boat is too thin! What if we encounter the coast guard?" I asked quietly as I moved closer to the captain.

  "No, Liberia is at war every day, we're approaching from the southeast which has nothing to do with us, the rebels have already defeated most of the port garrisons in the southeast. And besides, the government troops don't have time to inspect sea fishing boats like ours!" The captain waved his hand and said: "Go rest for a while! Once we land, there won't be time to rest."

  "Ah!" I responded and sat back in my original position, closing my eyes like everyone else to rest. I couldn't sleep anymore, so with my eyes closed, I slowly savored the combat and assassination skills I had learned over the past few days, while adjusting my body's condition. The muscle soreness from the first two days was gone, and after a good practice session with Knife Hand and the others, I felt that there was a qualitative improvement in my use of strength. Due to the increase in strength, it seemed that my flesh wasn't as solid, and when I punched the sandbag with all my might, the skin on my hands would crack open. This reminded me of what my brother said when he taught me some boxing techniques: "Iron Sand Palm" type of kung fu is achieved through cruel practice, constantly tempering the hand's ability to withstand impact, so it can shatter bricks and stones without harming the hand. I haven't undergone such training, so I chose a combat glove with iron rings on the fingers (a half-covered glove), and as I was deep in thought, I heard the captain say: "Everyone get ready to abandon ship in 5 minutes."

  Everyone re-checked their equipment, I steadied my military knife, checked the ammunition, and nodded to the captain. The captain walked up to me, took out a camouflage strip, and reapplied some camouflage to my face. Then, he patted my face and said to everyone: "OK! GO!"

  We put down the rubber boat, eight people in two boats, one in front of the other, taking advantage of the night to row towards the river mouth opposite us. Against the current and up the narrow river channel, we slowly entered unfamiliar Liberia. After entering the river channel, we turned off the engine and proceeded for an hour before abandoning ship and landing on shore, forming a search party at 5-meter intervals. The team leader had previously instructed that anyone wearing military uniforms was considered an enemy, so we quickly advanced inland. At four o'clock, we encountered the first village, if it could still be called a village. Broken houses, a smoking church, bloodstains and shell casings everywhere, but no corpses. We hid under a large tree on the outskirts of the village.

  "It's the government army!" The captain said in a low voice: "They've been here! What was agreed to be met here has changed! It seems that only plan B can be relied on now. Everyone be careful, the government army may not have gone far yet!" The captain picked up a shell and added.

  Everyone nodded in understanding, and the group quickly retreated into the jungle. After leaving the village 500 meters behind, the captain re-checked the coordinates and indicated to move northward. Following the captain, we ventured deeper into the rarely visited jungle. My previous impression of Africa was still stuck on desert plains, but I didn't expect Liberia to have so many forests and mountains. After walking for a while, we all stopped because everyone discovered something - we were taking the same route as the government army.

  "Brothers! We are following closely behind the Liberian government troops. It's estimated that they have discovered the rebel base and are now heading to wipe them out. Looks like we need to hurry up, or else they will get ahead of us, kill our employer, and we won't be able to collect our reward!" The captain joked.

  "Shall we get them from behind?" The butcher rubbed his hands gleefully.

  "No way, judging from the traces, their number will not be less than 200 people, we are too few! We just need to run ahead of them and set up a few "roadblocks" for them." The captain said.

  "Good!" Everyone nodded in agreement.

  "Alright! Let's go!" The whole team quickened their pace and moved forward.

  After walking for two hours, we were in a hurry when the wolfman at the front suddenly said on the radio: "There are straggling soldiers!" Everyone immediately stopped advancing and hid in place, then slowly gathered towards the wolfman's direction. Lying behind a tree, I looked in the direction the wolfman was staring at, and indeed, about ten meters ahead, there were six soldiers wearing military uniforms, scattered and walking slowly.

  "Sniper in position!" The cold voice of the turret came, as if it had changed into a different person.

  "Otherwise, let's take them down! Let the troops in front know that there are people behind them, so as to slow down their speed." said Kuai Dao.

  "Alright! Xing Tian, the first two are Quick and Slow Machine, Assassin, Fast Knife, Werewolf, and Devil are the last four, be quiet!" The captain ordered.

  Everyone slowly moved, the others slowly approached the small squad. I slowly climbed up the tree, installed a silencer, set up my gun, switched to single-shot mode, and aimed at the person in front of the team.

  "I'm first." I called out my target.

  "My second." The rangefinder also reported a target.

  Others slowly approached the end of the team, and from the night vision scope, they could see clearly those who were unaware that their doom was near still laughing loudly. Behind them, four black shadows had already slowly locked onto their respective targets. This scene reminded me of the velociraptors approaching the hunting party on the grasslands in Jurassic Park 2, except now the hunters weren't dinosaurs but a pack of wolves.

  The devil pounced on the first person at the same time, and the werewolf and quick knife had also cut open the necks of the other two people on the side. The three in front and the ones behind were a bit far apart. The assassin flew up and stabbed one knife into the back of the third soldier's neck. The two people in front looked back with their mouths open, just about to ask a question, when I moved the board.

  Looking at the splattered brain in the scope, my heart didn't even beat faster, as calm as when I smashed a bottle during practice, I knew I had gotten used to the fear that came after killing.

  The werewolf in the mirror gave me a thumbs up, and I also gave him a thumbs up to acknowledge.

  Jumped down from the tree, saw that the tortoise was still on the tree and hadn't come down. I curiously walked to the foot of his tree and asked: "What's wrong? Why not come down?"

  The tractor didn't respond to me, it was motionless and something was off. I climbed up the tree ready to push it when I heard him squeeze out a word from between his teeth: "Snake!"

  Although it was almost daylight, the light was still dim. I had to stare at him for half a day before I noticed that there was a not-too-thick snake wrapped around his shoulder. When I was in Yunnan, I learned from someone how to catch snakes, but I didn't learn how to remove a snake from someone's body. So I could only use the most stupid method - using my left hand to tease the snake head to bite me. The snake head lunged forward and I took advantage of the momentum to grab its neck, then pinched its head with force, crushing it, and finally pulled the snake down from his body.

  "How did you let a snake crawl onto your face?" I asked in surprise

  "I'm taking aim! It's crawling up already. By the time I finish off my target, it'll be at my neck!" The slow machine replied nonchalantly: "Thanks!"

  I watched his back, this is what they call the first sniper, nothing can interrupt the ambush. Shaking my head, I followed behind the quick machine, I guess I couldn't do it, if a snake crawled onto me, I would definitely throw the snake aside first, looks like I still need to practice!

  Click to view picture link: G3/SG1 sniper rifle