A Mercenary's War

Chapter 85: Super-duper Far-distance Snipe Kill

Translated by: kevin1782

Edited by: Isalee

Even though the sudden rocket missile surprise caused temporary chaos, after the pandemonium, Coleman’s men were quick to report the situation after the sudden attack. No casualties or a death toll, and four missiles. .h.i.t the building in total. Only one of them hit the inner section of the building and exploded in an empty room.

Knowing that there were no casualties or KIAs, Green Mamba heaved a sigh of relief. At this moment somebody shouted, “Found the ambusher’s location, three pickup trucks. They’re shifting their base, nope, they’re coming towards us, they want to raise their accuracy. Can’t let them get too close, prepare to counter attack!”

Hearing their shouts, Gao Yang and the rest swiftly rushed to the shooting positions on the fourth floor. From a window there, the scope of view was good, but the window’s position on the house wasn’t especially eye-catching. 

Just when Gao Yang reached his position, he saw three pickup trucks driving towards their location; they stopped around a thousand meters away from him. Then the three pickup trucks started going in to reverse with their car tails aimed at the building he was in.

Gao Yang didn’t know what the trucks were planning on doing, but when he raised his binoculars to have a look, he couldn’t help but exclaim in shock, “F*ck, what the f*ck’s happening?”

Gao Yang thought that only three pickup trucks were approaching, but truth be told, he had been too simple-minded. Pickup trucks were still pickup trucks, but they weren’t ordinary pickup trucks. In the back compartment of one of the trucks, there was a rocket-firing platform-pod; the other two trucks had HMGs (Heavy Machine Guns).

Just as Gao Yang was still astonished by the creativity in combining rocket-firing pods and pickup trucks, he saw the rocket pods flash with a few rays of light.

“Take cover!”

Gao Yang screamed once and immediately lodged his body beneath the window. He then quickly crawled with all his limbs to the side. It’s just that before he could take action, a deafening explosion sound travelled to his ear.

Another five explosions came after one another. But fortunately, he was only frightened as the missiles didn’t shoot into the rooms in they were in. There was not much danger despite the terrifying explosions.

Right after the rocket missiles came the bullets —the two HMGs on the trucks fired. But Gao Yang didn’t know what the gunners were aiming at, and at least there weren’t any coming into the room that he was in.

Grolev asked for the binoculars from Gao Yang and knelt single-legged on the floor. He peeked over a little for observation, but just after a glimpse he shrank his head back immediately.

“F*ck, f*ck, the UB-32 57mm rocket pods usually used on Mil Mi-24 helicopters, they installed it on the pickup truck, thirty-two rockets’ worth. They also have a double-barreled anti-aircraft gun, a 14.5mm ZPU-2 model, which is a killing machine. Don’t know the model name for that 12.7mm MG, but d*mn it, their firepower is really strong and ferocious.”

Grolev looked very angry as the Opposition’s firepower was so strong beyond his expectations. It had only been less than a month and those Opposition soldiers who only knew how to execute suicidal charging now somehow had heavy weapons. And they were decent at using them.

After reporting the weapons on the three pickup trucks, Grolev shouted loudly, “Careful, they’re probably covering for the a.s.sault infantry troops. We gotta be more careful, but their rocket pods don’t have aiming devices, so they can’t hit accurately. If we ain’t too unlucky, it’ll be alright.”

Gao Yang hid behind the wall and mustered his courage to take a peek. Then he immediately shrank back and said depressedly, “You’re right, they have at least fifty people rushing over, and two more pickups are coming.”

Hearing that there were two more pickup trucks, Grolev immediately used his binoculars to scan the area. This time around, his observation time was longer. But after he shrank back again, he chuckled bitterly, “F*ck, this is getting troublesome, now they have two rocket launching cars, not the small 57mm fry anymore but the 107mm. Gao, it’s your country’s Type 63 107mm[1] multiple rocket launcher car — a merc’s ultimate nightmare.”

Jin also took the binoculars for a glance. Then, with a very serious expression he said, “Though the rockets can’t a.s.sault fortified places, our house is not a fortress either, man. I’ve used the Type 63 before, I doubt our walls can withstand the 107mm rocket missiles.”

Gao Yang held the rifle in his hand and roughly panted twice before loudly saying, “Let me try, I’ll see if I can handle the rocket launcher.”

Grolev shouted, “No, they’re out of shooting range. I estimate that the distance is about a thousand meters, and our weapons can’t shoot that far. I’ll go and find a way to shift the M2 here. It’s the only thing that might be enough of a threat to them.”

Gao Yang shook his head and replied, “No, my gun can hit a basketball within a thousand yards, I believe I can hit them.”

Just as he said that, the Opposition’s 107mm rockets started firing. Although the accuracy wasn’t high, they seemed to be targeting just the building.

The power from 107mm and 57mm couldn’t be compared to each other. Two huge explosions brought about an extremely strong tremor. Gao Yang who had faced such bombings for the first time couldn’t help but panic.

The Opposition’s shooting range was too overpowered (OP). Their weapons were able to completely dominate from a thousand meters away. Coleman and Sandstorm, who only had light weapons, couldn’t retaliate at all. Even a RPG rocket launcher only had a maximum range of seven hundred meters. It’d self-destruct at the seven hundred meter mark, posing no threats to enemies a thousand meters away.

As for Gao Yang’s M1A, even though it could theoretically reach a thousand meters, almost no one would use sniper rifles from the M14 a.s.sault rifle series to shoot targets further than eight hundred meters. In fact, snipe kills over six hundred meters were uncommon as well. Most sniper rifles made from the M14 series were usually all used as sharpshooting a.s.sault rifles and not specialized sniper rifles.

They couldn’t let the Opposition continue attacking with such audacity and outrageousness anymore. Gao Yang felt that he had to try and respond: although his gun was also a variant of the M14, or its citizen-grade version, Gao Yang believed in what Bob said. The rifle in his hand had an accuracy that was akin to the epitome of a semi-automatic rifle’s accuracy.

Gao Yang adjusted his scope to a thousand meters and then he unloaded his magazine full of rounds. Then he changed to a magazine with twenty rounds. The magazine had a red insignia on it, and it was loaded with handmade bullets.

Just as Gao Yang was sitting down and making preparations before shooting, Green Mamba called him with the walkie-talkie.

“Ram, we might not be able to hold up anymore, come down and rally up with us. Prepare to retreat when the situation’s not good!”

“Give me a moment, I’ll see if I can try to neutralize the rocket launcher. Give me one minute!”

Gao Yang was very grateful that Green Mamba still remembered them at this time, along with informing them that they couldn’t hold up. Gao Yang on the other hand screamed into the walkie-talkie and held up his rifle. He breathed deeply and placed the rifle on the table that was acting as the gunning stand.

Gao Yang’s shooting position was behind the window point and the flash suppressor wouldn’t extend outside the window. Using the table as support with two additional sandbags, this allowed him to have an extremely comfortable grip on the rifle. 

After making all preparations to shoot, he held his breath and carefully aimed at the person standing on the 120 rocket launcher truck. It could be said that there were shooting targets for Gao Yang right now, and hence he first chose the closest one to the rocket launcher.    

He held his breath, and Grolev, Tribo and Jin also held theirs — they were waiting for Gao Yang to create a miracle. If a 7.62mm caliber semi-automatic rifle hit its target one thousand meters away, it’d really be a miracle that would be neither big nor small.

A thousand yards would equal 914.4 meters. Gao Yang felt that if he could hit a basketball within a thousand yards, then he would definitely hit the target at a thousand meters.

With great confidence for the gun in hand, Gao Yang pulled the trigger with the unshakable thought of definitely hitting the target.

Gao Yang’s rifle was a citizen-grade M1A that was derived from the M14, and there were differences between the military-grade M14 and the citizens’ M1A. The differences were: the M14’s peak pressures[2] were higher, the bullet sh.e.l.ls used were also a somewhat thicker, and the bullet trajectories had a higher muzzle velocity than the M1A’s .308 Winchester rounds with greater kinetic energy. Thus, the M1A’s overall effectiveness was somewhat poorer than that of the M14’s.  

But Gao Yang’s gun was definitely not a common M1A. As to why it was called M1A, it was merely because of the fact that the buyer, Bob, and the gun-manufacturer, Ali Ranmerson’s[3] Work Lab, were trying to get through the legal loopholes in America. Gao Yang"s M1A should be called Super-grade M1A to do her justice. As for the US military-grade M14 blueprint-variant, the military-grade was miles away from Gao Yang"s gun. The shocking price of seventy four thousand USD wasn"t just for the shock.

The bullet he shot was a slug, and the muzzle velocity was around nine hundred meters per second. But this velocity would decrease overtime after reaching a thousand plus meters. The bullet"s flying velocity would only be left with three hundred and a few more meters per second. Therefore, the bullet travelling from the chamber to the destination point required about two seconds. 

In the two seconds where the bullet would be flying,if the enemy slightly moved, it"d be impossible to hit the enemy.

After shooting, at the two-second moment before the bullet hit the target, Yang who had finished firing swiftly thought about all the statistics of his shot one time.

Though he knew that this shot was extremely difficult, he just had a premonition that he had definitely the bull"s-eye, even if he didn"t know where his confidence had come from.  

“Hit! Hit man, you got him! Right in the chest area, confirmed dead, confirmed dead. I Ci-Ao, Bro Yang, you’re too awesome!” 

Tribo who had insisted on being the observer shouted excitedly. Grolev ferociously punched the wall and frenzied jubilance filled his face. Jin on the other hand stared at Gao Yang wide-eyed. It was exactly the same look Gao Yang had when he looked at him after he finished off eight muscular goons. Although Jin always denied that he was from the Commando, the least-probationary Commando knew how hard Gao Yang’s shot was.  

“Shut up!”

Jin and Gro were still okay, but Tribo was still screaming here and there, which disturbed Gao Yang. After admonishing Tribo, Gao Yang then focused on aiming a new target.

Gao Yang had to seize the opportunity to finish off a few others before the enemies could discover where the bullets were coming from. This time, the target he chose was the double-barreled anti-aircraft MG gunner. Not that the threat of the MG being very big, but the more important and essential fact was that the gunner’s seat was stationary and hence Gao Yang was confident in being able to hit him.

Translator’s note(s):