Chapter 105 - Searching For An Outpost
Chapter 105 – Searching For An Outpost
In the darkness of the night, Anna and Del walked away from the town of Moruguri with night vision goggles helping them to traverse the darkness of the night. They would be heading straight to the front line. Was it risky? Yeah, for the most part, the answer was yes.
Was it worth it? Definitely. It was 12,000,000$ for just killing one single general. However, first thing first, they needed to interrogate an officer from the enemy side or they wouldn't be able to find the general in the first place. The target would be an outpost that had little to no tanks, but at least, had one officer.
"Nighttime is the best time, don't you agree?" Anna asked.
"Yeah, it's dark and it's relatively cold," Del said.
"I agree. There is less sweat and there's less chance of being spotted by the enemy," Anna said.
"Correct, so, according to the intelligence that the general gave to us, it seems that most of the outpost that doesn't have any tank guarding is located on the back of the front line. This is not good," Del said as he opened his tablet.
The tablet displayed the map of the entire region. Del placed two markers, one at Moruguri while the other marker was for the town of Halivaara. The map displayed three more areas filled with buildings in the west.
It had been bothering his mind for a while, but how did the map display the region with such accuracy even though the tablet probably had been abandoned for a very long time. This planet might have artificial satellites orbiting it. It was a sensible theory made by Del himself. Maybe, he could discover more about ancient technology later.
Back to the topic of finding the outpost. It looked like finding one would be rather hard. There might be more than one structure that looked like an enemy outpost and charging in blindly would rather be suicidal. The map also couldn't differentiate between what was a tank and what was an ordinary dark building.
Anna whispered, "Hey, look." Look at what? Del thought. A light, no, two lights were shining on the horizon. It might be a vehicle. Any military vehicle would be bad news no matter whether it was Federal or Imperial. Del jumped to the trench alongside Anna.
The rumble of the vehicle could be felt from afar. The two lights transformed into multiple lights heading in their direction. From the sound of the tracks, Del concluded that it was another convoy of tanks. He wondered how many tanks the imperial government had. They seemed to be resourceful.
Del peeked at the road right next to the trench. The convoy consisted of heavy trucks and tanks and they were heading in the east direction. Were they heading for Moruguri or were they heading for Halivaara? Del had no idea, but well, at least the artillery in Halivaara should help Moruguri this time. It was none of their concern right now.
Del and Anna laid themselves on the ground as they waited for the convoy to go past them. They waited until the rumble of the engine went away. Del peeked out of the trench and observed that the convoy had gone from their sight. Del climbed out of that trench with Anna following him from behind.
"Phew, we're lucky you put that backpack away in your magical storage," Anna commented.
"Yeah," Del said.
Without the backpack, they didn't have any obstruction or any limit in movement. They also could move faster and use their camouflage more effectively. The backpack also filled only one slot inside of the storage. To put it more bluntly, it was like having a chest inside of a chest on a video game.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
[Storage]
[Vehicle: 2 Slot Available for Ground Vehicles | 1 Slot Available for Air Vehicles | 0 Slot Available for Ground Vehicles]
[Storage: 3/70 Item slots filled]
[Military Backpack] [1x]
[RPG-7] [1x]
[M240B] [1x]
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"Del, don't you think we can buy a vehicle?" Anna asked.
"Not now." Del felt that any vehicle would be a massive fat target for anything that the imperial would be throwing at him. It had to be remembered that Del only could drive something that had a steering wheel and looked conventional. Because of that, a tank wasn't one of the vehicle options for him. It was complicated, it was heavy, and Del was sure that he wouldn't be able to drive it.
"When?" Anna asked.
"When we need it," Del said.
"When will it be?" Anna asked again.
"Let's see, I don't even think bringing something as big as a car or an MRAP to the back of the front line to be a good idea at all. The only vehicle that we can use in the back line would be a tank and you know that I can't drive a tank," Del commented.
"I see," Anna answered.
As they walked through the darkness of the night, a thought entered Del's head. Something was bothering him. He was afraid that he was being lied to again by everyone. The source of conflict that he had been previously told by everyone didn't match with the current situation on the ground.
First, the imperial was modernizing as rapidly as the federal government. It meant that the old saying that the imperial was against modernization was entirely untrue right now since they had tanks and other modern technologies that most likely were reverse-engineered from federal technologies.
Second and lastly, who was lying, and why? Every government would do all kinds of evil things to keep itself from disintegrating and Del was more than aware of it. There was a reason why some activists were silenced and keeping the integrity of an organization or a country was the main reason for that. It was cruel, but it was a necessity in the perspective of those who wanted to maintain the status quo.
It seemed that Anna was also reading his mind, "Are you thinking about the current conflict, again?"
"Yeah," Del answered, knowing that a "no" wouldn't be an option for his sister. She was the only person that could see whether Del was lying or not. Still, it was not a win-win situation for Del, it was quite the opposite. His sister would keep nagging him if he said "no" or he would need to explain what was inside of his mind to his sister.
"Listen…" Del briefly explained what was inside of his mind.
"Ah, I understand what is inside of your head now. Well, to be honest, everyone is evil, us included. I won't deny how many people I have killed, but it is what it is," Anna commented.
"So, you are saying that neither of us is as good as we thought?" Del asked.
"I never see myself as the good guy. I see myself as a person that does anything that needs to be done," Anna said.
"Well, we are the same then," Del commented.
"Anyway, let's just find the outpost and be done with it."
"Right…"
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After some painful searching in the back of the front line, they finally found an outpost that had an enemy officer but no tanks. It would be the perfect place to start. As of now, they were laying down on the ground while Anna had the scope on her rifle aimed at the imperial soldiers.
The goal was to capture the officer and extract the information about the target general from him. Sure, it was easier said than done, but any other option wasn't exactly fitting either from the perspective of time efficiency or the perspective of survivability. Del doubted that any federal scout would dare to stray that far into the backline.
"Take it easy, sis," Del said as he observed the outpost using the binocular. Five guards were guarding one officer.
The most dangerous weapon in that outpost was a radio located in the middle of the outpost. The outpost itself looked more like a checkpoint. It might be there to make sure that nobody managed to smuggle a federal vehicle to the back of the front line. Anna and Del were lying down around five hundred meters away from that outpost.
"Relax, I know what I am doing," Anna replied as she adjusted the magnification on her scope.
According to the guide that Pidma gave, the tranquilizer was a self-acting drug that could put its target to sleep instantaneously according to the dosage put inside each tranquilizing round. Overall, it was a perfect tool for the job.
"Take the shot when you're ready," Del whispered.
Anna pulled the trigger of her rifle. One guard dropped to the ground as Anna pulled the charging handle of her bolt-action rifle and shot at another guard. Slowly, the guard dropped dead one by one without them noticing who was shooting at them. Anna was skillful with a rifle after all.
Anna pulled the magazine out of her rifle, "Reloading." She put another fresh magazine inside of her rifle and pulled the trigger to neutralize the officer. The officer dropped to the ground just in time before he reached for the radio.
"All targets are neutralized, good job, sis."
Del stood up from the ground and he walked towards the direction of the outpost alongside with Anna. There should be the enemy's officer ready to be interrogated. However, it might be a better idea to check the outpost for any information in the form of documents. Documents would be way better than an officer to be entirely honest.. It might expose a weak point that the imperial military had or the location of the general himself.