A Mercenary's War

Chapter 74: Must Become an Elite

Translated by: kevin1782

Edited by: Isalee

South Africa was one of the main countries in the world that exported mercenaries. The ma.s.sive Executive Outcomes company in South Africa used to be the world"s largest legal mercenary company. Though it disintegrated early in 1999, the com-panis mater[1] was still operating — Executive Outcomes (EO) [2] only went ‘divide and conquer’ mode and changed from a big company to a few small ones. The services they offered didn"t decrease. Not a single one at all. 

The International Defence Service Company was precisely one of those small companies that had branched out from EO after it disintegrated. This company had their own mercenaries, but the mercenaries’ days weren’t very good. Thus the International Defence Service Company also provided services for other mercenary corporations and freelance mercenaries such as Support and Transport among other services. As long as they were willing to pay, the company could get one anywhere.

Africa could be seen as the backyard of the International Defence Service Company (IDSC), and even more so for South Africa. If Gao Yang and the rest were in other nations they might have had to wait for a few days more, but in South Africa, the IDSC could send Gao Yang and the rest to Libya in minutes. That was because they had their own airplanes.

Good services usually meant expensive rices. The cost of the journey for the men totaled eight thousand USD in total. Luckily Tribo hadn’t spent his money at all — therefore they could pay the fare to reach Libya at G.o.dspeed and not waste their time on the journey there.

They were going to Tripoli, so they took the plane to Tunisia and then took a car from Tunisia’s borders all the way to Tripoli. If they had chosen to work for the Opposition, then they’d just have to fly to Egypt and then go from Egypt to Benghazi.

They were all sent together by IDSC to Tripoli. It’d be sixty-four in total, in addition to their party of four. Apart from two others that were also freelance mercenaries like Gao Yang and the rest, the remaining forty belonged to a small mercenary corp from several different nations. They had just completed their previous mission and were hurrying to Libya to get their share of gold.

When they reached Tripoli, they didn’t follow the other mercenaries who straightaway went to the army amps. Instead, they went to find Abdullah, because Gao Yang and Hare’s guns were still at Abdullah’s place. Though Gaddafi provided weapons for the mercenaries, since they had the best weapons in storage, they certainly wouldn’t use those trashy weapons. 

After finding Abdullah, Abdullah was apparently astounded to see Gao Yang again. Shaking hands with Gao Yang, he said in surprise, “Why did you come back? I thought we’d never be able to meet again. I didn’t think our second meeting would be so soon, I think you only left here less than half a month ago, right?”

Gao Yang chuckled bitterly. “Something popped up, otherwise we wouldn’t have come here. We four are gonna work our lives out for Gaddafi. If our guns are still here, I would like to take my stuff and fight the war straightaway.”

Abdullah shrugged and replied, “Although I don’t think that being a merc is a good occupation, you’re an adult and of course you can make your own decisions. Alright, your stuff is still here, nothing’s missing. Another piece of good new, Gaddafi’s prices now are very high. If you’re gonna be a merc, you’ve joined just in time.”

Gao Yang laughed, “I know, isn’t it a thousand bucks a day now already?”

Abdullah laughed twice before saying, “Ha ha, that’s the price from the day before, it’s now for mercs of the lowest tier … a thousand USD a day. According to what I know, almost all the mercs joined the 32nd Brigade that Khamis al-Gaddafi commanded, but NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) started bombing and many mercs chose to leave. So now the price of a thousand US dollars is for the lowest tier mercs, while the good ones get at least sixteen hundred dollars. Get this clear, it’s at least. Columbia’s snipers get four thousand dollars a day. If their military achievements are extremely good, it could even reach up to ten thousand dollars a day.”

Gao Yang was dazed after hearing all that. His eyes met with Grolev’s and both of them said, “Awesome.”

Abdullah shook his head. “Don’t think too optimistically, you gotta know that the enemies’ aren’t just the Opposition. The French External Army and Infantry Paratroopers are all coming too. As for the English SAS, they all came in their squads, platoons, brigades or divisions. There are elite troops from other countries too, regardless of their incognito status or not, they’re all on the Opposition’s side. There are also many mercs on the Opposition side. If it weren’t for this, why do you think Gaddafi gave such a high price?”

Gao Yang shook his head and replied, “No matter who the opponents are, with the current situation, we don’t have a backup to retreat to.”

Abdullah shrugged, “Seems like you’re all resolute and have made your decisions. Good luck to you all. By the way, Gaddafi’s going to attack Misurata, y’all better grasp your time right and catch up with the operation. Also, I recommend you to not join forces and become a big squad with the other mercenaries. Y’all got to fight to become a small elite squad, it ain’t just about the money.”

Gao Yang wasn’t too clear about Abdullah’s words. He frowned and said, “Any difference between the two?”

Abdullah grinned, “Nothing much, mercenaries do the war, but the original 32nd Brigade Army officers command them. If you ain’t afraid of dying under an idiotic commander’s orders, you can mix and match with the big unit and become one of them.”

Gao Yang wasn’t sure how the cogs worked there, but Grolev who was a veteran mercenary knew everything. He frowned, “What’s up, how can mercs be commanded by unfamiliar officers?”

Abdullah chuckled, “You have got to understand that Libya currently has over twenty thousand mercs, and there are mercs rushing over here. n.o.body could spread out with so many people out on the battlefield, so Gaddafi’s choice was to recruit those people into his son Khamis’ 32nd Brigade. I think he made the right choice but the problem is that his commanders are really mediocre. Fortunately he knows that too, so he let those elite mercs fight by themselves, free to choose their battle tactics as long as it meets his expectations.”

Grolev nodded and told Gao Yang, “Seems like we can only buy weapons ourselves. I originally thought that our budget was tight and wanted to use the weapons the government provided to dilly-dally, but for the sake of our lives and for the sake of earning more, we gotta use the best weapons.”

Gao Yang didn’t have any opinion regarding Grolev’s suggestion. It"s just that his weapons were already the best: regardless of his M1A or M1911, they were the exalted of the exalted goods. Also, Tribo’s M700 and SIG P226 were also pretty good. So what they has to consider was to find some good stuff for Grolev and Jin Fang, not those see-and-throw-away kind of guns and bullets printed with Arabic as Grolev had mentioned before. 

Translator’s note(s):