A Mercenary's War

Chapter 83: New Discovery

Translated by: kevin1782

Edited by: Isalee

How important was a good sniper? This question was very hard to answer, but there was absolutely no doubt that a good sniper had the ability to change the battle status quo. There was also too many battlefield examples out there that proved this point; hence any unit would all provide necessary welfare for their best snipers.

Now Gao Yang was received exactly like the apex sniper. Seeing Green Mamba again, he didn"t express his grat.i.tude to Gao Yang for taking care of the M2 HMG. He stared at Gao Yang and said solemnly, “You"re an expert, we"re really lucky to have your help.”

Gao Yang knew he couldn"t be humble with these whites so he only smiled, “That"s too courteous, we"re in the same battle trench, whatever we do is what we should be doing.”

Green Mamba nodded and said, “You can pick the spoils from the battlefield first, these people have some pretty good stuff. If you like anything they all belong to you. Also, you have the first pick in choosing your shooting position.”

After hearing Green Mamba, Gao Yang"s heart skipped a beat as he quickly said, “Did the defending troops in the building have shotguns? I lack a shotgun, and I have been wanting to find one ever since.”

Green Mamba shook his head and replied, “Truly sorry, I don"t have what you want, but y"all can see if there’s other things you need.”

When Coleman attacked the building, one was KIA (killed in action), and one was injured. But they killed eight. The defending troops’ carca.s.ses remained where they were, while any loot they found had already been piled together. Of course, the more valuable things like watches, rings, cash, and other stuff were all taken by Coleman"s men; but all the equipment and weapons were still there.

Gao Yang followed behind Green Mamba and arrived at the pile of loot. A dozen or more guns were piled up together, and guns of every breed and type were present. It wasn"t as Gao Yang had imagined which was a uniform amount of AKs. Other than the four to five AKs, there were unexpectedly three French FAMAS a.s.sault rifles [1] and two Austrian AUGs [2]. For the light machine guns (LMG) there was the American 7.62 mm M60 MG and the 5.56 mm M249.

Apart from AKs, the guns Gao Yang saw had come from at least three countries while the two American-made MGs were equipment from NATO.

Gao Yang’s eyebrows furrowed, he looked at those guns and felt that something wasn’t right. Though he knew that America was the leader of the Western countries supporting the Opposition, he didn’t think that Misurata would have so many weapons pop up that weren’t supposed to be in Libya.

Just as Gao Yang was pondering on with his eyebrows furrowed, Tribo excitedly said, “Bro Yang, what do you say, should I take the FAMAS or the AUG? I Ci-Ao, Lady Lucky’s shining, these guns ain’t bad, what do I choose? I want them both.”

Gao Yang didn’t reply to Tribo but he locked eyes with Grolev. He found that Grolev’s expressions were really sh*tty too.

Gao Yang shook his head and solemnly told Green Mamba, “Looks like our enemies ain’t just locals man. Y’all found anything in the building?”

Green Mamba nodded and replied, “Found a European, the items on him showed that he was from Italy. Don’t know if he’s merc, but what we can confirm is that NATO’s partic.i.p.ation is deeper than we imagined, we could tell just from their weapons.”

Gao Yang also nodded and said, “That’s right, I also discovered that and these people were better than the Opposition I knew of. Seems like they’ve improved a lot.”

Grolev was silent. He picked up an AK-47 and glanced at her magazine once after taking the magazine out from her. He was full of somber too as he said, “It’s Czech-made, both the guns and bullets. Seems like we don"t have to worry about not having good ammo, it’s just that we gotta deal with professional enemies now.”

Green Mamba laughed bitterly and replied, “It"s so easy to talk to people who know. Nonetheless, with the knowledge that the Opposition had mercs and that NATO had sent a lot of people, I thought there were very few of them. I just thought we had to exchange fire with those Opposition morons. But it seems now that I thought too simplistically. Guys, I plan to negotiate with Khamis’ people about raising the prices, if they refuse we’ll quit immediately. If they agree, then we’ll hold out a little longer, what about y’all? Interested to ask for a raise with us?”

Gao Yang looked at Grolev, he had to hear Grolev’s opinion on this one. Grolev on the other hand obviously agreed with Green’s suggestion.

Grolev nodded to Gao Yang and said, “As mercs, we have to be aware of the general situation. Now our enemies are stronger than we imagined, so asking for a raise is very normal. If Gaddafi refuses, then we’ll quit and go to the Opposition’s side then.”

Green Mamba chuckled twice before saying, “That’s right, gotta have the life to spend the money earned man. When our enemies change, our prices’ gotta go up too.”

Gao Yang was still a bit unable to adapt to the mercenaries’ outlook on this. But after retrospecting in detail about it, they really were here to fight for the money only. There was no need to be loyal to Gaddafi. As long as they didn’t turn their backs in the midst of battle and stab Gaddafi, that alone was sufficient practice of professional ethics. Seeing that Grolev and Green Mamba had no qualms at all about changing sides, Gao Yang also nodded and said, “Alright, we’ll negotiate together, but will Khamis agree when we quit the battle just like that?”

Green Mamba laughed, “Of course, we’re paid daily mercenary allowance, that means that our contract only lasts for a day. We understand this principle, and they do too. If they dare force us to fight for Gaddafi, guys, I don’t mind fighting for the Opposition for free anyways. We’re just mercs, not the National Defense Army. Why would we tie ourselves to a ship that’s destined to sink? Alright, I’ll go find the Sandstorm corp leader to have a chat. It’d be better if our three corps ask for the raise together. You guys can pick anything you want now, I’ll be right back.”

After Green Mamba hurried off to find Sandstorm’s men, Gao Yang chuckled bitterly and told Grolev, “Did I say too much? I exposed the fact that most of us are newbies[3].”

Grolev opened his arms and shrugged. “There’s no correlation between being a new merc and his or her battle capabilities, there’s not much to worry about. Also, Green’s right. There’s no way we’re gonna tie ourselves to a ship that’s bound to sink, seems like the US is determined to freeze[2] Gaddafi, we gotta exploit time to earn enough money now, then we’ll quickly leave when things don’t look good.”

Seeing that Gao Yang and Gro were talking non-stop, Tribo couldn’t take it anymore. He held an AUG in one hand, a FAMAS in the other, and whispered, “Bro Yang, which one should I take really man? I really don’t know which is better, how about I bring one of each type? Their rounds are interchangeable anyways.”

Gao Yang snapped, “Save it, you still wanna bring one of each type? Are you not scared of exhaustion man?”

“Nope, just a little burdensome[3], feeling totally weightless right now.”

“Forget it, let’s pretend I didn’t say that. Hmm, you better take the AUG man, the reviews are slightly better than the FAMAS.”

Translator’s note(s):

Me: ‘I want an ice lemon-tea!’

        Waiter (also ex-homie): ‘What? The lemonade’s innocent, boy! Go get a life! It’s Loc, no joke, no joke! I"m the man in the place, punch you in the face, a gun in my waist!’ LOL