Lord of Cinder in American Comics

"Alright, lads, put down your weapons and lower your guard. These are not the enemy."

After Ash finished speaking, Shadow slowly put the gun away, and Hatch also put the safety on his pistol.

"Let me introduce myself. This is Hatch, formerly of GRS, who is often overseas."

"Hatch, this is the Ghost Squad. The one next to me is the Shepherd, and the rest are his teammates. Let's get to know each other."

After Ash finished speaking, the Shadows removed their disguises. Four fully armed elite warriors, even after Ash ordered the alert to be lifted, three of them remained scattered around the car, keeping watch over their surroundings.

“I’ve heard them say, ‘You can’t apply to become a ghost, they’ll come after you,’ right? Are combatants really that well-equipped now?” Hatch looked at the group’s gear with envy.

"The experimental equipment they used was for testing, designed and developed by a genius from Latvia."

Ash revealed a few relevant details. Turning to the shepherd, he asked, "Weren't you sent to cooperate with the CIA in conducting weapons testing? Why haven't you left yet?"

The shepherd took off his smart glasses, pinched the bridge of his nose, and said, "I was originally going to fly to Bolivia today, but the general said you needed manpower, so he sent us. When we go on a mission, we only need to report directly to the general."

With the CIA, Ghost Squad, and Bolivia involved, Ash recalled a scene from a game she had played that stuck with her. Ash felt it necessary to give the shepherd a reminder.

"I have some information. Your contact this time is a nuisance named Bowman. He's the kind of guy who'll go all out if I can offend him, but won't utter a word if I can't. Be careful."

The shepherd nodded to indicate that he understood.

Ash offered her opinion, because what she disliked most in the game was Bowman. He threatened and intimidated others and used underhanded tactics, but when it came to the Rainbow Squad's female ghost's brother, Bowman was completely useless. He was mocked and cursed by the female ghost and didn't dare to say anything. He only dared to throw a chair after the woman left.

## Chapter Seven: Gevas, is that you?

After exchanging pleasantries with the group, Ash looked around for a while but couldn't find their vehicle, so she asked, "Where's your driver? You didn't walk here, did you?"

“We temporarily hired a retired sergeant to drive, but since we didn’t know the specific mission, we had him park a kilometer away,” the shepherd explained.

"Let that poor young man come over here quickly, this family car can't fit all six of us men."

The shepherd then tapped his earpiece a few times and ordered one of his team members to wait for the driver by the roadside.

A few minutes later, the Ghost team members came over with a person wearing camouflage but without any markings.

As she approached, Ash exclaimed in surprise, "Gwass, what brings you here!"

The man Ash called Kwas stopped, then punched Ash and shouted, "Fuck you, Ash! My name is Swag, not your magical oriental drink. Fuck, I'm retired, but the army still calls me by your damn drink name."

Bob Lee Swagger, a former gunnery sergeant and one of the best snipers, was about to retire after his spotter was killed when he was pulled into this sudden operation.

Once everyone was gathered, Ash spoke up: "Alright, now everyone here is someone I know, so we can all trust each other. We just need to go to one location, deal with the thugs or scum inside, and then leave."

The shepherd then raised questions about strategies for dealing with resistance, personnel allocation, and support.

Ash reassured the shepherd, explaining, "This isn't a serious mission. Our adversaries are just some gang members, and they might not even have heavy weapons. There are only a few of us on the operation."

At this point, Ash turned to Swag and asked, "Gvas, do you have your gear with you?"

Swagger was indignant, but he understood the situation. He replied, "I have it with me; it's in the trunk."

Ash clapped his hands and said, "Alright, we have reinforcements. Gwas will provide sniping; he can kill any target within three thousand feet."

The shepherd gave Swag a deep look. He had no prejudice against Ash's words; he believed Ash's assessment that with Swag around, no enemy could escape.

"As for strategies to deal with resistance, it's so late now, let's just leave none alive."

The group then split into two pairs. The Ghost Squad rode in one car, while Swag sat with Ash and Hatch.

Half a kilometer from the target, the group got out of the car. Hatch acted as the guide, while Swagger and Ash went to find a sniper position.

On the streets late at night, apart from a few shops with lights illuminating their windows, there was no one else on the entire street except for Hachi. Of course, if someone got close enough, they could see the silhouettes of several ghosts surrounding Hachi.

Once Ash and Swag found a position with a good view, the Ghosts arrived at the target's door.

The ghosts split up to the left and right, standing against the wall next to a small red wooden door on the side of the street, appearing perfectly natural in the street.

Ash, holding the binoculars, gave the order to attack.

The ghosts quietly used a shovel to open the wooden door and entered one by one. What followed was a fierce one-sided firefight. Thanks to the silencer, no muzzle flash was detected; only by listening closely could one hear the intermittent, muffled gunshots after the silencer had reduced the noise.

A moment later, the shepherd's voice came through the walkie-talkie.

"Sir, I need you to come here. We have something we can't handle."

Ash was still wondering what was going on that required his personal attention, but since the shepherd had spoken and there were no dangerous coded messages, he had to go and see.

Ash patted Swagger, who was lying beside her, signaling him to stay on guard. Ash then left the sniper position and headed towards the shepherd's location.

As soon as Ash entered, he saw a long corridor with desks neatly arranged on both sides. On the desks were money counting machines, and among them were gangsters working hard overtime counting money. Of course, they were either lying on the floor or resting permanently on the desks because they were too tired.

At the end of the corridor, Ash saw a ghost standing guard in front of another door. Pushing the door open, Ash discovered that it was a warehouse, and the warehouse was filled with nothing but US dollars.

Neatly stacked standard logistics crates were piled up in the corner, while in the middle of the warehouse, stacks of US dollars were being filled into crates through stacking, shrink-sealing, and stacking.

The shepherd stepped forward. "Sir, this is the problem, how do we deal with these?"

Ash then asked Hatch, who was hiding to the side and not saying a word, "Do you know this is their financial warehouse?"

Hatch nodded and said, "I know. I originally planned to burn down the gang's bank, force their boss out, and then kill him, but I didn't expect there to be so much money."

Ash counted the wooden crates in the warehouse, came up with a plan, and told the shepherd he would handle it. He then pulled out his phone.

As soon as the call connected, General Ross's voice came through again.

“Ash, you need to know that an elderly person should get enough sleep. If there’s anything you can’t handle, call base, they’ll help you, even if you just want to find a B-2 to drop bombs for fun, they’ll make that happen.”

"General, I heard your recent financial reports are a bit outrageous? A toilet costs four thousand US dollars?" Ash teased.

Surprisingly, Ross didn't seem too emotional about the matter. Instead, he started talking about Sheffield. He mentioned the large numbers of wrecked armored vehicles and tanks in Sheffield, the reports from Sheffield that soldiers had lost their boots and needed to buy new ones, and the army needing to airlift goats to improve their rations.

In conclusion, military funding and such matters are the military's own business; how could outsiders possibly understand them?

Ash understood the reason, of course. Although he had saved some of the soldiers who had died in COD4 during the initial planning, soldiers still died after the bomb exploded, and others still suffered radiation damage. This required a large sum of money for cleanup.

Although Sheffield may not wage another world war as depicted in the original story to pay for the pensions and benefits of 30,000 fallen soldiers, the pensions for the fallen soldiers still need to be paid, which has led to inexplicable treatment and expenses in various branches of the military.

Just as Ross continued to tease Sheffield, Ash interrupted him: "General, I now have more than thirty standard logistics boxes of cash, all in big bills."

At this point, Ash could clearly feel Ross's breathing become heavier on the other end of the phone; it wasn't easy to find some money from the military budget for pensions.

"Where are you? What do you need? I can arrange two airstrikes right now, and Sheffield can immediately dispatch a combat company equipped with heavy weapons."

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Author's Remarks

If any readers have extra recommendation votes, please don't hesitate to give them away. Thank you very much.

2022-01-26 06:05

## Chapter Eight: Love and Hate

Ash held up his phone, stroking his non-existent beard. He knew a bit about the inside story, but he hadn't expected Ross to be so interested in what was happening in Sheffield.

It's said that the two old guys were fierce rivals in their youth, but one ended up as the commander of the army, and the other as the commander of the air force. Ross, who became a Thunderbolt General in the air force, then turned around and mocked Sheffield in various ways. After all, the air force was definitely a first-class force, and it wasn't right for them to ridicule the third-class army.

Ash was certain there was something fishy going on between the two, and immediately began to imagine a 100,000-word story in his mind about their fierce rivalry, their irreconcilable differences, and their eventual mutual respect and irresistible attraction. This continued until Ross's roar jolted him awake.

Ash pulled the phone away from his head, scratched his ears which were bothering him by the roaring, and said to Ross, "We might need to wipe out a huge gang and take these big wooden crates with us."

Ross thought about his armed forces and felt frustrated. He had nothing but heavy weapons, mostly airplanes, 500-pound bombs, and AGM-95 air-to-ground missiles. He did have a Ghost Squad, but he couldn't muster enough manpower to complete the mission quickly. He could only say to Ash, "Wait a moment, I'll go find someone. He'll contact you later."

Ash understood who Ross had gone to see. In this world, apart from the absence of the love-hate relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, there was still the mutual respect between Ross and Sheffield.

Not long after, Ash's phone rang again. It was Sheffield, just as expected.

"Ash, thank you. I don't know how many times this has happened." Sheffield's voice sounded tired on the phone, after all, so many fallen soldiers needed him to take responsibility.

“General, what we need now is to figure out how to deal with these goods. Everything will be alright.” Ash subtly added a touch of charm to calm Sheffield’s restless heart. Ash didn’t want to experience a repeat of the events of COD6 and 8 if Sheffield went berserk.

Ash and Sheffield then devised a plan: how to righteously entice the gang, how to coincidentally encounter the group, and finally, how to righteously eliminate the criminals.

After the discussion, Ash informed Swagger of the situation, telling him about the new teammates, the targets, and how to conduct friend-or-foe identification.

Ash then summoned Hatch and instructed him on the course of action, as well as assigning the Ghost Squad to eliminate any enemies entering the building.

Next, Hatch found the cell phone of the gang guarding the warehouse and recorded a video that roughly said, "I killed your henchmen, then found your warehouse, and now I'm going to burn your money to get revenge on you."

When the time was almost up, Ash received a signal from Sheffield. Ash then instructed Hatch to send out the video.

Just then, Julian's phone rang while he was still waiting for a message from his underlings at the bar. Julian opened the video and found that Hatch, who was supposed to be dealt with by his underlings, was now pouring gasoline on Julian's money and threatening to burn it as revenge.

Julian was furious. The money in his warehouse was pooled together by the five major New York mob gangs. It was meant to fund their plan to take down Kingpin, the overlord, and return to Hell's Kitchen after being kicked out by Kingpin.

Julian was merely the custodian of the money, though he wielded considerable power in certain matters. As long as he controlled the money, he could do as he pleased within the sphere of influence of the five major gangs.

Similarly, if there is even the slightest problem with this money, he will be torn to pieces by the five major gangs, leaving not a trace.

Julian immediately gathered his underlings, took out all the equipment they could get, and drove to the warehouse where the money was stored.

On the way to the warehouse, Julian slowed down his car; it wasn't a wise choice for his boss to scout ahead. He also dispersed his men, preparing to surround the warehouse.

Just as the first underling, eager to make a splash, drove to the intersection on the street in front of the warehouse, a military M915 Unicorn truck suddenly appeared on his right, violently pushing the underling's vehicle off the road and crashing it into a traffic light pole on the other side of the road.

Meanwhile, the unicorn truck's massive body blocked the intersection. These trailblazers appeared around the warehouse at every location where gang members were present.

Next, the same vehicles appeared at the end of the street, blocking the road again. Armed soldiers jumped out of the bulletproof vehicles, pointing their guns at the gangsters.

These things happened in an instant. The gangsters, who hadn't fully reacted yet, thought these were the enemies their boss had mentioned and raised their guns to return fire. The bullets shot at the truck, hit the bulletproof plate, and bounced off.

"Attacked! Fight back! Fight back!" came a shout from the military vehicle.

The calm and collected soldiers used the vehicles as cover, drew their rifles and returned fire. They showed no panic, simply using bursts of fire to eliminate the enemy.

The gunfire ceased shortly afterward; the gangsters were no match for the elite soldiers. It was a one-sided massacre.

From the series of impacts that followed, Julian realized it was a trap. He ordered his men to get out and check what was happening ahead. He then got into the driver's seat, intending to sneak away.

Just as he shifted gears and turned the car around, a bullet flying from a kilometer away struck his forehead and kissed his brain.

Seeing Julian fall in the scope, Swagger pulled the bolt of his bolt-action rifle, loaded another bullet, and continued searching for the fleeing target.

Ash heard the gunfire outside the building gradually subside, and he could barely collect any souls anymore, so he knew the battle was over. He signaled the Ghost Squad to disarm and opened the door.

Ash went outside and saw a group of unmarked soldiers, working in pairs to search for gangsters hiding in various places and shooting them one by one.

A man dressed as an officer walked toward Ash. Only this man wore an armband, which was an upward-facing spade symbol.

The man didn't speak, but simply saluted Ash, who then gestured for him to go to the warehouse.

Ash beckoned the Ghost Squad and Hatch out, then called Swagger down over the walkie-talkie, leaving everything inside to this taciturn squad.