Mercenary I am the king

Chapter 1007 A Crazy Plan!
“In extraordinary times, do extraordinary things!”

Song Heping interrupted him, his eyes burning with an almost obsessive flame, "Tear it down! Tear it down until it can fit in a container! The target isn't the Gobi Desert, it's the ports of Egypt! Load it onto ships from Alexandria or Port Said and ship it out to sea!"

He stopped explaining, immediately returned to his room, took out another encrypted satellite phone, and rapidly typed a long string of extremely complex communication codes with multiple layers of jumps on the keypad.

The long, monotonous waiting tone came through the receiver, each sound striking the taut nerves of the command center.

It took almost a minute for the call to be answered.

A hoarse, sleepy male voice with a heavy Greek accent rang out, its tone extremely agitated: "Who?! Do you even know what time it is? Which blind bastard…"

"Toby, it's me, Song."

Song Heping's voice was icy, piercing straight through the other party's curses.

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone. A few seconds later, Toby Papadopoulos's voice was ten times clearer, filled with surprise and a hint of barely perceptible fear: "Dead?! Holy Mother of God! You're still alive? Isn't the trouble in Darfur big enough? Wait... you're contacting me using this 'graveyard' line? What happened? Need the goods? Things are as tight as a whore's belt right now, especially to Egypt and Lebia..."

"Toby, shut up and listen to me."

Song Heping interrupted Toby, the chatterbox, with a commanding tone that left no room for argument.

"I need a ship. A bulk carrier or roll-on/roll-off ship of around 10,000 tons, the older and more unassuming the better, but the engine and hull must be able to handle long distances and withstand some wind and waves. Ideally, it should be registered in a convenient place like Panama, Liberia, or the Marshall Islands. The ship must arrive at Alexandria or Port Said in Egypt within 72 hours, no, within 48 hours and be ready to go! I'll let you know the specific port later."

A violent cough, as if someone had choked, came from the other end of the phone, followed by Toby's absurd roar, raised eight octaves: "What?! Damn it! Are you fucking high on drugs?! Or have you been sunburned by the Sahara sun?! 48 hours?! A 10,000-ton cargo ship?! Do you think this is ordering takeout?! And you specifically requested an Egyptian port?! Do you know how strict Egyptian customs and port authorities are right now? The coast guard and navy patrols are like flies! Especially on unidentified vessels! And what do you need such a huge ship for? To transport an armored brigade to attack Jerusalem?!"

"It's not an armored brigade, but the stuff is a bit 'sensitive'."

Song Heping's voice was completely flat, "Some... large 'engineering equipment.' They are very large and require heavy lifting. They are very susceptible to 'bumps and knocks.' Therefore, we need a large enough, seemingly harmless old cargo ship as cover."

"Large-scale engineering equipment? Fuck you, Song! Do you think I'm a newbie?"

Toby's voice was filled with vigilance and anger. "What you're making to call yourself, and what the hell do you want a 10,000-ton ship to arrive in 48 hours? It's definitely not some piece of junk engineering equipment! Is it a tank? A self-propelled artillery piece? Or is it... a missile?! Are you trying to kill me? I can't do this job! No amount of money could make me do it! The risk is too great! If I'm exposed, I'll be used as a target by Mossad, MI6, the CIA, and even the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate, Mohebarat!"

"Thirty million US dollars."

Song Heping announced a number, his voice as flat as if he were saying three thousand yuan.

"Cash. Old banknotes, not consecutive numbers. Five million in advance, the balance to be paid before the ship arrives and the cargo is safely loaded. All fees for bribing officials are separate and will be reimbursed based on actual expenses. Port loading and unloading, 'special passage fees,' hush money... no matter how much it costs, I will pay double."

There was an instant silence on the other end of the phone.

Even the sound of breathing seemed to have disappeared.

Thirty million US dollars in cash!
In this dangerous business, this is an absolutely astronomical price that would drive any desperate criminal crazy!
What's more, there's an unlimited "activity fund"!
A good ten seconds passed before Toby's voice rang out again, extremely hoarse and dry, as if every word was being squeezed out of his throat, filled with the pain of being burned by immense greed: "...Song...you devil...you fucking ask for more than Satan...thirty million dollars...cash...double the cost..."

He seemed to be swallowing hard, the allure of money locked in a fierce battle with the fear of death.

“Listen, Toby.”

Song Heping lowered his voice, which carried a seductive and cold pressure that seemed to understand people's hearts.

“I know you have connections. You’ve been operating in Alexandria for twenty years, from the port authority director to a small-time customs inspector, from the port’s underworld godfather to a coast guard lieutenant in charge of night patrols, which line of influence haven’t you patronized?”

“A rusty, dilapidated old ship registered in a country of convenience, looking like it's about to fall apart at any moment, carrying some ‘mining machinery parts,’ enters the port with ‘thorough’ connections, and under the cover of night, at a designated secluded berth, loads the ‘cargo’ as quickly as possible, and then leaves the port without anyone noticing… Isn’t this routine for you, Toby Papadopoulos?”

He paused, then his tone suddenly turned sharp, like an ice blade being drawn from its sheath: "Besides, do you really think you're safe if you reject me now?"

“Oh, Toby, don’t be naive. You know what kind of person I am. I know your old home in Crete, with its olive trees, and I know your mistress who plays the piano at the Athens Conservatory, and her illegitimate son who just started elementary school… Her name is lovely, Sofia, isn’t it?”

"If I were destined to perish in the Mediterranean today, do you think an angry 'loser' who feels abandoned by his allies would be happy to give a 'farewell gift' to certain people who are 'particularly interested' in you—such as your arch-enemy 'Black Sea Shark' Nikolai, or the Greek Anti-Money Laundering Bureau that has always wanted to uproot you—a 'farewell gift' containing all your secret accounts, smuggling routes, and the addresses of your 'cozy little family' in Crete and Athens?"

It's another blatant, precise, and chilling threat!
On the other end of the phone came Toby's heavy, beast-like breathing and suppressed, desperate curses: "...Πουτνα! (Greek: son of a bitch)...Σκατ! (shit)...Song Heping! You'll die a horrible death!..."

Seconds later, the curses turned into a resigned, venomous roar: "...Thirty million! Cash! No fucking wire transfers! Not a single penny from the bank! Five million in advance, must be in my basement behind the third freezer at the 'Blue Marlin' bar in Limassol's Old Port, Cyprus, before dawn tomorrow! The rest, payable before loading! All the 'grease money,' you pay! Double! I'll send you the ship's name and estimated arrival time in an encrypted email later..."

"Damn it! You've really dragged me into hell this time! 48 hours... I'll fucking risk it all! If it doesn't work, or if word gets out, we'll all die together!"

"No ifs, Toby."

Song Heping interrupted him, his tone resolute, "The ship must be in place within 48 hours. The money and 'gifts' will be delivered on time. Keep the channel open and wait for my notification regarding the loading port and specific time."

After saying that, he hung up the phone before Toby could roar again.

ten minutes later.

The command center was completely silent in one of the conference rooms.

Everyone was shocked by the outrageously crazy plan that Song Heping had just proposed and his bloody and money-grubbing conversation with the arms dealers.

They dismantled the SAM-6, smuggled it to Egypt, loaded it onto a ship, and sailed to the depths of the Mediterranean to ambush the Hoopoe Kingdom's air force refueling aircraft.
This sounds like a fantasy!

Because no one has ever done that before.

Moving land-based air defense missile launchers and systems onto a cargo ship, and then launching them from the ship?!
This is insane!?
The SAM-6 is a typical land-based mobile air defense system, using a tracked chassis. Its combat unit consists of an independent radar vehicle (1S91 guidance radar) and a launch vehicle, which need to be deployed in coordination at ground positions.

I've never heard of any combat instance where this thing was mounted on a ship and launched.

Moreover, there is also the issue of weight and size involved: a single launch vehicle weighs about 19.5 tons, is equipped with three ready-to-launch missiles, and requires an additional radar vehicle.

This split structure is difficult to integrate into the ship's deck space and lacks the base design required for stable launch at sea.

Moreover, the SAM-6 uses semi-active radar homing throughout its flight path, requiring the 1S91 radar to continuously illuminate the target.

Ship movement can cause the guidance radar to lose its ability to track targets stably, and the system is not designed to resist interference from sea clutter.

"Old squad leader... this..."

Jiang Feng looked at Song Heping with an extremely complex expression, a mixture of shock and worry, but also a flicker of fire ignited deep within him by this desperate gamble.

"Deploying SAM-6 missiles at sea... is that technically feasible? The ship is rocking! How can the radar maintain stable scanning? How can the missiles be launched? How can accuracy be guaranteed? This isn't like firing at a stationary target on land!"

"Where there's a will, there's a way! Even if the conditions aren't there, we'll create them and get on it!"

Song Heping's eyes burned with an almost obsessive flame.

"The ship is a launch platform! We don't need it to be as stable as on land! And it's not out to sea, just forty nautical miles from Benghazi port, where the waters are relatively calm. We only need to seize those few minutes when the refueling aircraft docks with the F-15!"

"In a relatively fixed airspace and altitude! Launch a saturation salvo! If the accuracy is insufficient, compensate with quantity! Two systems, launch all the missiles that can be fired at once! Shoot down the refueling tankers, and those F-15s will be like birds with broken legs, either returning to base or waiting to run out of fuel and crash into the sea!"

He turned to the air defense commander and several key "musicians" of defense technology, speaking rapidly: "You now have to solve several critical problems: First, how to quickly hoist, roughly fix, and power on the critical components of the SAM-6 system in a very short time on the turbulent cargo ship deck? Abandon complex leveling calibration, just aim to roughly point towards the refueling airspace! Second, how to ensure that the 'Cube' radar can capture target signals when it is briefly turned on, in the absence of a stable platform?"

"Even if the scanning range is narrow and the accuracy is poor! Third, how do we ensure the initial attitude stability of the missile the moment it leaves the launch pad? Use sandbags? Weld a temporary steel frame base? Reinforce it with steel cables? Even if we sacrifice range and accuracy, as long as the missile can be launched and fly into the sky!"

The technical officers exchanged bewildered glances, their foreheads instantly covered in cold sweat.

This was an almost impossible task! But seeing the unwavering determination in Song Heping's eyes and the only way out before him, the instinct for survival overcame his fear.

"boss…"

An elderly Russian engineer with gray hair, who had served in the Soviet Air Defense Forces, licked his chapped lips and hesitated before speaking.

"Perhaps... we could try... choosing the flattest and sturdiest area of ​​the cargo ship's main deck, preferably near the midships. Using a large number of heavy steel frames welded to the deck as the base for the launcher, and then stacking hundreds of sandbags around the steel frames and under the launch tubes as counterweight to maximize stability."

"The radar vehicle operates in the same manner. We don't aim to completely eliminate swaying, but only to suppress the amplitude of swaying to the limit that the missile's gyroscope can barely correct at the moment of launch... As for the radar... it can only perform a very rough, short-duration sector scan in the airspace where the target is expected to appear, relying on the operator's experience and manual fine-tuning to capture the signal... This requires a great deal of luck..."

"Okay! Let's go with this approach!"

Song Heping immediately made the decision without the slightest hesitation: "Vasily, you are in charge of developing detailed procedures for shipboard deployment, securing, and launch! Hurry! Collins! Klein!"

"exist!"

The two immediately stepped forward, their eyes serious.

"You two will personally lead the team to carry out this 'sea transport' operation!"

Song Heping's gaze was as heavy as a physical weight on them. He walked over, reached out, and patted each of them on the shoulder. Then, with a solemn expression, he said:

"Select the most reliable and elite engineers, technicians, and guards! Immediately begin the maximum adaptation disassembly of the two SAM-6 systems! Missile launch tubes, radar antenna arrays, command cabins... all core components must undergo additional shockproof, moisture-proof, and seawater corrosion-resistant reinforcement packaging! Prepare heavy military trucks and perfect camouflage solutions! We're going to turn them into 'mining machinery'!"

"Yes! Promise to complete the mission!"

Collins and Klein responded in unison, their voices carrying a desperate, all-or-nothing resolve.

"Transportation route..."

Song Heping's fingers traced across the sand table, like a general deploying for the final battle. "Start from the base, traverse the most desolate and uninhabited Gobi Desert and dry riverbeds in the northwest, completely avoiding all known roads and towns! Go through the real no-man's land! Sneak across the Egyptian border! I will have Nura use her last and most secretive connections among the Bedouin tribes in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula to open a lifeline for you!"

"Once you enter Egypt, head straight for Alexandria at full speed! Toby's ship will be waiting for you there! The loading process must be lightning fast! Under the cover of darkness, use the port's heaviest and most reliable cranes! Use money to pave the way at every step, but also be prepared for the worst—armed conflict! If exposed, break out at all costs!"

"understand!"

Collins's voice was firm and resolute.

"The goods are our life! If the goods are destroyed, the people die!"

"remember!"

Song Heping's voice was as cold as ice, echoing in the conference room.

"This is the key to whether our five thousand-plus men can survive and fight our way back to Lebia to avenge our defeat! Success is the only option! Failure is not an option! Let's go!"

　Asking for a monthly ticket! Asking for a monthly ticket!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)