Mercenary I am the king

Chapter 965 Thunderclap in the Rift
North of the Seine, the Rift Valley Corridor.

The night was as thick as ink, soaking into the rolling hills and deep ravines.

The wind howled through the towering rock walls, making a strange, whistling sound. The temporary command post was located deep inside a natural cave, damp and cold. The dim light from the emergency lights and electronic screens made Song Heping's sharply defined profile look like a stone carving.

The air was thick with the pungent smell of dust, sweat, and cheap tobacco, mixed with the metallic odor of gun oil, ammunition, and tense nerves.

The radio headset hissed and crackled, like countless venomous snakes flicking their tongues in the darkness.

"Boss."

Collins's hoarse voice came through the headset, "We've been waiting for two days, the bait's been tempting enough, but those John Bulls... are they really going to come and take a bite? Or have they given up on the operation?"

“They’re definitely coming!” Henry’s calm voice followed: “London’s communications silence level has been raised three levels, but the frequency of military satellite scans of the Rift Corridor region has surged by 270% in the past six hours. It’s not like giving up, it’s like… a final confirmation before a beast pounces.”

"Who cares if they come or not!"

The polar bear's voice was filled with nervous excitement, "The 'welcome red carpet' I buried is enough for them to tap dance all night! Chain mines, bounding mines, directional fragmentation... there's a 'surprise' in every inch of the ground!"

"Shut up!" The Queen's calm voice rang out. "To the southwest, Lumar's rabble has moved! Trucks, pickups, and outdated armored vehicles—the dust is visible for kilometers! The show is about to begin!"

Inside the command post, everyone's eyes instantly focused on Song Heping.

On the electronic sand table, a red arrow representing the Lumar armed forces is clumsily thrusting towards the blue defense zone from the southwest.

The cold light from the sand table reflected in his unfathomable eyes.

"Did you hear everything?"

Song Heping picked up the communicator, his voice cutting through the static, as calm as a frozen lake: "The drums of Lumar have sounded."

He pressed his finger heavily against the entrance to the rift valley on the sand table.

"The old lady in London is even more ruthless and greedy than that old fox Vincent! The Americans' sabotage will only force her to shut everyone up with a bloody victory! To prove that the claws of the British Empire can still tear open the throat of its prey!"

He grabbed the main communications microphone, his voice suddenly rising in pitch, carrying a force that seemed to penetrate the rock wall, exploding in the ears of every lurking soldier:

"All units! 'Guests' on their way! Repeat, 'Guests' on their way! 'Can Opener' (SA-6), keep your eyes glued to the sky! 'Razor' (MiG-23), warm up your engines! 'Hound' (Ambush Team), pull your fingers off the trigger! Let the scouts in! Wait until Lumar's cannon fodder has 'cleared' the way before you move in..."

His voice transformed into a cruel roar:
"Hear my command! Tighten the sacks! Turn the Rift Valley into a slaughterhouse! Break their spines! Let the old ladies of London weep under the African sun with their shattered imperial dreams! After this battle, I guarantee no one in Africa will dare to provoke us again! Prepare for battle!"

The command was like a high-voltage current activating a dead, chasm.

The wind carried the click of a safety being released, the swishing sound of a grenade pin being pulled, and the soldier's heavy, suppressed breathing.

The SAM-6 radar screen glowed with eerie green dots under the camouflage netting; in the rear base, the engines of MiG-23s roared deep into the hangar.

Countless wolf eyes opened in the darkness, locking onto the entrance to the rift valley.

"The target has entered the pocket, two kilometers deep."

Jiang Feng's voice was as cold as ice.

On the military laptop screen, a dense cluster of red dots—representing the British SAS troops—advanced skillfully through the dry riverbed and bushes like deadly snakes, while the Looma rebels, scattered like miscellaneous fish, surrounded them.

The drones in the air have locked onto their movements.

"SAS is mainly located in the middle and slightly ahead of the valley. An aerial threat has emerged – to the south, four 'typhoons' are 70 kilometers away, at an altitude of 8000 meters, posing a high threat level."

Song Heping braced his hands on the table, sweat dripping from his temples and evaporating.

The command post was deathly silent, save for the electronic sounds of instruments and suppressed breathing.

Our weakest point is air superiority.

If the air force cannot stop them, all the mercenary forces currently trapping Lumar's six brigades in the northern rift valley region, as well as the Isis government forces, will suffer heavy losses, and the encirclement will inevitably be breached.

In that case, once Lumar's armored forces break through the defensive perimeter and enter the plains, there will be more than 300 kilometers of flat land ahead, and the capital Butare will be indefensible.

By then, no matter how valiant his thousands of mercenaries were, they wouldn't be able to stop six armored brigades.

Whether or not Lumar can be trapped in the Rift Corridor region will be the key to the success or failure of this battle!
Commanding such a large army in battle was a first for Song Heping, like a young woman getting married.

Tension is inevitable.

“Ferrari!”

Song Heping's voice was taut like a steel wire, "SA-6! Start! Lock onto the target airspace! Keep a close watch on 'Typhoon'! If it dares to cross the line or be scanned by the fire control radar, shoot it down without asking for permission! Block off the skies!"

"Roger that! Radar activated! Missiles powered on! If the 'Typhoon' dares to come, I'll give them some big rockets!"

Collins' excited roar came through.

A dozen seconds later, on the independent radar screen, the fan-shaped beams of the three SAM-6 search radars deployed in different sectors of the Rift Valley suddenly lit up, piercing the night sky and pointing straight to the southeast.

Behind the hills, six triple-launcher SAM-6 missiles hummed hydraulically as their massive missiles slowly rotated, poised to fire!
Ten minutes later, just as the four Typhoon fighter jets entered within about 20 kilometers of the Rift Valley Corridor, the piercing radar warning (RWR) blared in the Typhoon's cockpit!
"Alarm! Fire control level scan! Azimuth 290! Fire control radar locked on! Multiple targets!"

The squadron leader's voice changed in shock.

"How do they have so many anti-aircraft missiles?! And so fast?!"

"Evade! Chaff countermeasures! Release heat decoys! Decrease altitude! Maintain formation!"

Four Typhoon aircraft tilted sharply to the side and swooped down, ejecting large clouds of shimmering chaff and scorching infrared decoys from their bellies and wings.

The alarm wailed desperately, each screech pounding at my heart.

The pilot was forced to abandon the overhead support posture and focus all his efforts on dealing with the death stare from the ground.

On the ground, the silence of the Rift Corridor was also shattered.

"Ground troops, move out!" Song Heping's roar was like a thunderclap!
In an instant, a destructive surge erupted from the highlands on both sides of the valley!
On the left flank high ground, White Bear wielded a DShK heavy machine gun, spitting out half-meter-long tongues of fire. 12.7mm bullets swept like the Grim Reaper's scythe towards the junction between the SAS and the rebels!

Human bodies were torn apart like rags, and shrubs and stones flew everywhere!

Several RPG-7s, trailing flames and hissing, slammed into the rebel vanguard's lead tanks!
boom!
boom!
boom!
A fireball shot into the sky, blew the turret off a T-55, broke its tracks, and burst into flames!
Scrap metal parts and limbs flew everywhere! The rebels screamed in terror, and their formation crumbled.

On the right flank, the Hunter's Death Trap has been relentlessly triggered!
The rebel reconnaissance troops climbing the high ground suddenly lost their footing, and a pit of sharp stakes swallowed one of them, causing a scream to erupt!

Another person tripped over the thin wire, and a booby trap in the rock crevice exploded with a deafening roar, unleashing a rain of pre-fabricated steel fragments! The two lying on the ground were engulfed by the storm and convulsed violently!

Further away, an anti-personnel directional mine was triggered by the fleeing soldiers. In the muffled explosion, hundreds of steel balls swept across in a 60-degree fan shape, instantly turning more than a dozen rebels on the edge of the narrow valley into sieves, their screams piercing the air!
"Snipers suppress the right flank high ground! Team C, establish a circular defense! Call in air support! Quickly!"

At the bottom of the valley, an SAS captain inside an armored vehicle roared, trying to organize resistance.

Well-trained SAS soldiers used the boulders in the riverbed to build fortifications and returned fire with precise bursts.

But overhead was a crisscrossing hail of deadly bullets, in front of him were booby traps, and around him were stumbling, fleeing soldiers. The space was squeezed to the point of being deadly!
Every time someone looks up, it's accompanied by massive casualties!

"Dagger 1 calling! We've been ambushed by heavy fire! Mid-section of the rift valley! Fierce enemy fire, unfavorable terrain! Heavy casualties! Urgent air support needed! Location..."

The captain's frantic cries amidst the screams of gunfire were destined to be lost forever.

Those four Typhoon helicopters were locked in a chaff cloud more than ten kilometers away by the SAM-6, and were too busy to help themselves.

Vasily's crew arrived as scheduled in two MiG-23s. The rain of fire from S-24 rockets was like a hammer from hell, instantly shattering the core of the SAS resistance and the armored spearhead of Lumar's vanguard.

The middle section of the valley was transformed into a blazing inferno, with thick smoke obscuring the sun. The surviving SAS soldiers mingled with the completely collapsed Lumar rebels, desperately fleeing and trampling each other in the narrow valley of death.

"Well done, Vasily! Head back!"

Song Heping's order was tinged with admiration.

"Received! Mission accomplished! That old lady's dance moves aren't bad, are they? Ha..."

Suddenly, Vasily's rough laughter stopped abruptly on the radio.

This was followed by a terrified, distorted scream: "Missile! Damn it! Below the left flank—!"

boom! ! !
The dull, violent explosion, accompanied by a piercing electrical noise, assaulted the eardrums of everyone in the command post!

"Vasily! Report the situation!"

Song Heping roared, his knuckles turning white from clenching his fists.

After a few seconds of deathly silence, the wingman's trembling, terrified voice broke through: "Lead aircraft... hit! Infrared missile... from the ground! Fireball... crashed! Southwest of the valley... Sector Three..."

The command post fell into an eerie silence.

On the computer screen, the signal dot representing Vasily disappeared.

"Poison Sting! It's 'Poison Sting'!"

Ferrari was furious and filled with regret. "Damn it! The SAS must have brought the shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles!"

Song Heping closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and suppressed his emotions.

Now is not the time for sadness; war always kills people.

"Search and rescue team! Move out immediately! Find them alive or dead! Hunter, take your men and coordinate to eliminate all remaining threats in that area! Leave no one alive!"

The order was given swiftly, but the joy of victory was replaced by a heavy shadow.

The SAS truly lives up to its reputation as a top-tier special forces unit; even under a sudden attack, they were still able to maintain morale and organize effective resistance.

They are indeed not to be underestimated.

Even more serious is that Lumar's main force did not completely collapse due to the collapse of his forwards.

Amid the chaos, several of Lumar's main mechanized battalions, which had not suffered serious damage, began to launch a fierce counterattack under the forceful integration and real-time guidance of SAS teams equipped with advanced communication and observation equipment!
"Hound B3 calling Wolf's Lair! Lumar Armored Group! At least one battalion of T-55s and BMP-1s! are advancing at high speed along the main road on the west side of the valley! They are less than three kilometers from our forward positions! They are receiving strong artillery support! Repeat, the artillery support is exceptionally precise!"

The voices from the forward observation post were filled with anxiety, against the backdrop of deafening explosions.

Inside the command post, on the electronic sand table, a thick red arrow representing Lumar's counterattack force was fiercely ramming into Song Heping's flank defenses.

Even more alarming is that the blue dots representing our own defensive nodes on the computer screen are going out one after another at a speed visible to the naked eye!

boom!
boom!
Rumbling--

The intense artillery bombardment covered the left flank high ground! The explosions were exceptionally precise, almost all landing near pre-positioned machine gun positions, mortar sites, and anti-tank team hideouts!
The power of the 155mm howitzer shattered the rocks and tore the fortifications apart like paper!

The White Bear's DShK heavy machine gun position was the first to bear the brunt of the attack. The violent shockwave and shrapnel sent the gunner flying, and the heavy machine gun was twisted into a pile of scrap metal!
"Wolf's Lair! This is the left flank high ground! We're under heavy artillery fire! Coordinates...correction...damn it! The shells are like they have eyes! Heavy losses! Most of our heavy weapons are destroyed! Requesting suppression! Requesting suppression!"

The polar bear's voice was interrupted by explosions and coughing, filled with anger and disbelief.

"The same goes for the right flank! The mortar positions have been taken! More than half of the anti-tank teams have been lost! The enemy's artillery fire, combined with their armored assault, is overwhelming us!"

From the right flank, the hunter's cries for help also came.

Song Heping's face turned ashen.

This is something Lumar's ragtag artillery couldn't do!

It's SAS!

Those special forces soldiers, like leeches clinging to bones, used individual laser designators and advanced communication equipment to transmit real-time target information back to the rear via satellite data links, guiding Lumar's hidden heavy artillery group to carry out surgical precision strikes!
At this time, Lumar's six brigades were not just the six brigades they appeared to be; the powerful British army also provided them with intelligence and data support through various means!

(End of this chapter)