Chapter 88: Each Their Own Strengths
Translated by: kevin1782
Edited by: Isalee
If Gao Yang were to use a phrase to describe his first day at Misurata, it would be: too thrilling.
The Opposition kicked Gao Yang and the rest of their *sses, especially the laser-guided bomb that almost landed on their heads. Gao Yang and the rest felt defeated, earning money was awesome, but it was only really awesome when if they had the life to spend it.
However, the Opposition seemed to have given it their all in the first day. In the next few days, there was nothing as intense and fast-paced like on the first day for Gao Yang. The Opposition’s retaliation was only hot for three minutes’ during the first few days. The most heated part of the war was only at the city’s outer rim.
Only using two days worth of time, the government had already controlled most of Misurata. The Opposition’s resistance only lasted for two days before they swiftly became powerless. Though there was air support from NATO, the Opposition seemed to have lost the courage to fight for Misurata against the government troops.
From the difficult times in Misurata until everything swiftly eased up, the big change in the trend naturally made Gao Yang and them all want to stay. When easy money was floating around to make dollars, n.o.body would want to leave with such a good thing around. However, these wonderful days wouldn’t last too long.
Gao Yang and the rest earned their keep on the first day. The next nine days were almost uneventful, but the situation changed on the eleventh day. The Opposition seemed to know which day they were receiving pay and hence cooperatively launched their attacks. The fight between the government troops and the Opposition over Misurata started again on the eleventh day, going into overdrive.
Although the war was already very intense from the start, not many intense events happened again after that. It was maintained at a rather low degree of strength.
The government troops would transition from offense to defense later. As for now, just as Gao Yang and the rest went into Misurata for about a month, the situation ended up in a deadlock.
Misurata was already in helter-skelter. Both regions had government and Opposition troops in each other’s regions. It was a total melting pot. Even though each side claimed to be controlling Misurata, neither actually had real sovereignty.
In the beginning, Gao Yang was still somewhat excited about the war — he maybe even antic.i.p.ated it. But after a month of extreme torture, Gao Yang completely loathed war, considering the endless fighting and killing. The endless times where he had to see people that he was familiar with die in front of him. The Gao Yang right now only wanted to quickly leave Misurata and then Libya.
Gao Yang became a little reticent, very demoralized. Jin was also the same. As for Grolev, he had already gotten used to life amidst the flames of war. And he was always silent ever since he stepped into Misurata. Only Tribo was still the same all these while, even now. Not just once did Gao Yang lament on how good it’d be if he were as callous as Tribo.
Gao Yang and the other three as a sniper team didn’t do a.s.sault battles that would have heavy casualties. Always. Hence the four of them were still alive and kicking now. But Sandstorm had already exited the war since their casualty rate and death toll were too high.
Sandstorm Mercenary Corp’s combat method and weaponry had already determined their not-too-low casualty and death rates. Ever since they fought over Misurata again, on the first day of battle, eleven people died from Sandstorm, and eight on the second day with four heavily injured. Almost none of the merc corps could take it. Hence, Sandstorm quit the war immediately.
While Coleman had nine dead from the start, Coleman’s people didn’t lessen as they got more instead. This is because the Coleman Company sent another forty men to join Green Mamba’s squad.
Gao Yang and the rest were always on an operation with Coleman. Because they were familiar with each other, Coleman would provide the greatest extent of convenience and protection. However, Coleman was happy to do so because the returns they got was far more than their contributions.
Now that the Satan Mercenary Corp was famous, Gao Yang’s nickname as Ram also became renowned. Everybody knew the corp’s head was a very impressive sniper.
Big Dog Grolev was also well-known now. Though he had some reputation originally, now that he was labeled with a big name as ‘The Machine-Gun (MG) Artist’ in the Satan Mercenary Corp, numerous mercenary corps in Misurata were all very envious and green-eyed[1] about it.
As for Jin’s nickname, ‘Toad’, that became widely established too. He almost soloed the entire Machete Mercenary Corp and that was already widespread news. Everybody knew that the Satan Mercenary Corp had an admirable melee combat expert called ‘Toad’. Of course, most Internationalites [2] weren’t cultured. They didn’t care if Jin was called ‘Toad’ — they called him ‘Frog’.
But Jin was only known for his close combat skills, his real potential hadn’t actually been unleashed. Gao Yang was treated as the core of the Satan Mercenary Corp and he almost never engaged in close-ranged combat methods. Hence, Jin didn’t have chances to perform. It should be noted that Jin was also an a.s.sault shooter, but since there weren’t any a.s.saults or ambushes, he naturally didn’t have the opportunity to perform in that area either.
Only Tribo was more of a sad reminder compared to the rest. He was nominally known as the Satan Mercenary Corp’s professional sniper, but Gao Yang took all his thunder as a part-time sniper even though he was a specialized sniper. Now Tribo’s greatest use was only being Satan Mercenary Corp’s draught animal.
That’s right, even though his nickname was Hare, he was now utilized as a deadweight donkey. As long as his shooting skills hadn’t borne fruit, he had to be ordered around like a deadweight animal.
And after a month of tempering, everyone’s fortes and défauts became very clear.
Gao Yang was now the irreplaceable core of the Satan Mercenary Corp. He almost covered the infantry’s entire shooting range. The shooting ranged from the extremely close distance just in front of his nose to the maximum range of a thousand meters. He could almost always perform perfectly.
As to why he became the core, Gao Yang was efficient at killing or injuring enemies at a range of four hundred to a thousand meters which made him irreplaceable. Tribo wasn’t reliable enough, and hence only Gao Yang had the ability to provide effective long-distance firepower.
Actually, Grolev could also provide firepower from zero to eight hundred meters of range. If he changed his RPD, his range could be even higher. But an MG gunner’s greatest function wasn’t focused on damage most of the time. It either provided supporting firepower or suppression to keep the enemies at bay.
It was not the World War One (WWI) era. No one would be silly enough to charge forward in the face of bullet storms and h.e.l.l. Hence, MG gunners could very well fire dozens of thousands of bullets, but the number of people killed wouldn’t be more than that of ten bullets from a sniper. But even so, if discussing the degree of demand by the other mercenary corps, Gao Yang and Grolev were definitely equal and they wouldn’t be able to win a decisive victory over one another. MG gunners and snipers each had their benefits: it was really hard to say who was more popular.
Though Grolev didn’t put killing and injuring as his main objective, his function was irreplaceable. Gao Yang would only have a completely relaxed chance to shoot with Grolev. With the nickname that was given to Grolev, it couldn’t be more obvious.
‘MG Artist’ was what Coleman Corp called Grolev. All of them thought that Grolev was at an artist’s level while using the MG.
As for Jin, there was no need to add words towards his melee combat — the other three in Satan weren’t his opponents either. While Jin’s most suitable shooting range was thirty to two hundred meters, within this range, Gao Yang was slightly worse than Jin. Gao Yang could only somewhat equal Jin somewhat at a range of two to three hundred meters in range.
Of course, for three hundred meters and above, Gao Yang was the only guy onstage in the entire Satan Mercenary Corp. It’s not that the others definitely couldn’t kill people from this distance, but no one could be like Gao Yang as he could almost definitely ensure a kill each time.
As for the distance from right in front to thirty meters in close range, Grolev and Tribo would have to bow respectfully at the side to just rely on and learn from Gao Yang and Jin.
If Gao Yang and Jin both used pistols, then both of them would probably be equals. Neither one was more capable than the other. But if Gao Yang were using shotguns, then he definitely would place first. No matter what gun he used, even Jin who was in charge of a.s.sault fire couldn’t compare.
As for Tribo, he currently was in a really awkward situation. He couldn’t train his shooting — mainly due to the war becoming extremely tense and heated. Support was affected to a very great extent. Tribo didn’t dare to waste precious ammunition, and hence he naturally couldn’t practice anymore. But Tribo definitely and surely had the potential to become the top sniper.
Furthermore, Tribo already had a grasp of all theoretical sniping knowledge; his psychological quality was already definitely beyond first-cla.s.s. If it weren"t for the limitations from the mainland that didn’t allow Tribo to shoot real arms before, Tribo definitely could have truly been a top sniper already.
The situation now was that as long as Tribo had the time to train his shooting and properly improve his basic attributes, Tribo"s future as a sniper was really coruscating with light.
After the first night of spooky bombs and a fright scare, Gao Yang and the rest didn"t dare to stay over in buildings that were easy targets and obvious to the eye. Even in the day, unless it was absolutely necessary, they"d stay in the buildings. Otherwise, they"d stay as far as they could from those landmarked infrastructures.
The street area they were at right now was still under the government troops’ jurisdiction, or rather, Coleman"s jurisdiction. But the district area not far from here was under the Opposition’s control.
Gao Yang was currently hiding in a small, short, low and dim house. He was snoring off on a three-legged stool. Whenever he was about to fall asleep, he"d be awakened by the shaky chair that was about to tip over. When he was stable, he would repeat the cycle.
Jin on the other hand was sitting cross-legged on the dirty floor and counting the bullets in an unjaded fashion. He unloaded them out one by one and then counted as he loaded them back into the magazines. Ever since the resupply didn"t come when it should have yesterday, Jin had been doing so. Gao Yang was already tired of counting the hundred and forty rounds for Jin but Jin was still not bored with it at all. He"s enthusiastic and not tired.
Grolev leaned his gun beside the door and had always been taking note of the situation outside the door. Only Grolev wouldn"t have any emotional ripples to suddenly rage or scream anyhow with all he got. Hence, he was the most suitable candidate for guard duty.
Tribo was lying on a thing that could barely be considered a mattress and was snoring in his sleep. The stench in the house seemed to have no effect on him, though the time was nine in the morning, Tribo always had the ability to sleep whenever he wanted to.
Just as the throng was waiting lazily for the battle mission today, Tribo suddenly sat up from his snoring and clumsily said, “Awesome, I wanna poo, any one of y"all coming with me?”
Jin was annoyed as he said, “Just p.o.o.p inside, the day before a man from Coleman lost a limb and almost lost his life. So many snipers and you had to go out. What for? Really not worth it if you go out cause you wanna sh*t and then lose your life.”
Translator’s note(s):
It is actually the Chinese word ‘red-eyed’. But both mean the same thing: envious or jealous. 老外 was translated into Internationalites because the original Chinese meaning was mostly neutral, although the word’s origin was a little derogatory. In modern times, we use it as a neutral term but I fear that readers might react poorly to this. Hidden meaning: Also, the part about, ‘no culture’ was strictly from the Chinese author, doesn’t represent even half of GT’s stand/point of view/outlook towards fellow Earthlings.