Chapter 78 - AC-130
Chapter 78 – AC-130
Staying still in the forest for six hours or more while making sure that nobody spotted them was a hard task, but they managed to pull that off, somehow. However, it had to be admitted that it was extremely tense with the amount of Elbanian soldiers that were patrolling outside of the forest.
Del grabbed his tablet and whispered to Anna, "We should be safe now, let's move."
With the night vision goggles on his head, he began to move slowly towards the car. It was a good thing that the Elbanian didn't spot the car. The camouflage simply worked. Del took off the net from the car while the others entered the car.
"Del, what's your plan now?" Cassandra asked.
"Well, let's see," Del opened the menu on his tablet.
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[Killstreak Menu]
[Tech Level: 6] [Total Balance: 252,000$]
[Sentry Gun] [5,000$]
[Precision UAV] [20,000$]
[Precision Airstrike] [50,000$]
[Juggernaut Suit] [60,000$]
[Cluster Strike] [80,000$]
[Cruise Missile] [120,000$]
[Chopper Gunner] [150,000$]
[Escort Helicopter] [180,000$]
[Gunship] [120,000$/Hour]
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"Bombardier 3-4 is arriving on station. Standing by for orders," A voice came out of the tablet.
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[Current Order: Protect Ground Unit]
[Protect Ground Unit]
[Eliminate High-Value Targets]
[Clear an Area]
[Manual Fire Control]
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The tablet displayed the camera that was attached to the AC-130 and tagged every single enemy on the map. The enemies were glowing in white. Twenty armored carriages were surrounding the entire forest. Unless they were destroyed, there would be no way of getting out of there undetected.
Del changed the order of the gunship from [Protect Ground Unit] to [Eliminate High-Value Target]. He waited a while until there was a confirmation from the gunship itself.
"Bombardier 3-4 copy. Prioritizing elimination of High-Value-Targets"
The gunship fired its howitzer from the sky. The round hit one of the armored carriages, creating a large explosion bigger than any explosion spell they had ever seen. Del started driving the car out of the forest.
"What kind of explosion was that???" Cassandra asked.
"Probably a 105mm howitzer," Del answered.
"I see, damn, you're terrifying," Cassandra said.
Things turned south pretty quickly as the rest of the armored carriages moved towards the position of the exploded carriage. Arrows and magical spells were also thrown at their car, luckily, they didn't penetrate. The soldiers must have known that they were in the forest and they were just waiting until Del came out of the forest. Del stopped his car before he collided with one of the armored carriages.
25 mm rounds immediately greeted the armored carriages and shredded them all. One soldier was still alive and Del could hear what he was screaming. "Where are they coming from? Show yourself, coward! I'm not afraid!"
"Cole, get that bastard!" Del instructed.
"Roger that," Cole shot his heavy machine gun at that last man.
Del continued driving again through the night. He eventually arrived at the road again. He then continued driving in the north direction. However, the gunship alerted him of a threat.
"This is Bombardier 3-4. Be advised, we detect another enemy gunship twenty kilometers in the north direction."
Enemy gunship could mean that an airship was actually floating in the north direction and it was waiting for Del to come closer to its weapon firing range. It was not good. They needed to destroy that airship. The tablet displayed what the airship looked like.
Rather than looking like a battleship that sailed the ocean, Del had an impression that the airship looked more similar to a wooden spaceship. Yeah, that was one way to describe it. It was rather rectangular with some sort of cannons on the sides and on the upper deck. It needed to be destroyed.
Del stopped his car, "Damn, we can't proceed to the north. An airship is guarding that area, what should we do?"
Anna gave her opinion, "if that's the case, we should destroy that airship, otherwise, we can't proceed."
"Ok, let me ask the gunship first. Bombardier 3-4, what's the altitude of that gunship?"
"Altitude is around 10,000 Feet with the speed of 0. The gunship isn't moving and simply floating above the sky," the gunship replied.
Well, it meant that the airship was way lower than the gunship, but they really needed to know the weak points of the airship or they would only be wasting ammunition on that thing. Luckily, there was an engineer in the car.
"Why are you looking at me like that, Del?" Cole asked.
"Cole, do you know where is the weak point of the gunship?" Del asked.
"Dude, seriously? I'm a chemical engineer, not a mechanical engineer, what makes you think that I know that kind of thing? Ask someone who works in the Internal Security," Cole commented.
"Me? I'm a surgeon, but well, I think I know. I heard some talks and rumors about the technology used in an airship, it used some sort of generator to produce a gravitational force in the opposite direction. Usually, it's located in the middle of the ship, I guess? What class is that airship anyway?" Cassandra asked.
"See this by yourself," Del showed the tablet to Cassandra.
"Ah, that's a corvette, well, I won't say it's weak, but it's the weakest among the airship out there. Still, that thing could destroy a whole battalion of hardened veterans. Anyway, the weak point is usually in the middle of the ship, but Del, I think you need more than one hit to destroy an airship," Cassandra explained.
"Bombardier 3-4, can you fly above the airship?" Del asked.
"We can."
"Do it then," Del said.
He then changed the order of the AC-130 to [Manual Fire Control] so he could engage the target manually. Meanwhile, Cole would keep an eye on the area surrounding him in case something decided to attack them.
"Bombardier 3-4, transferring fire control to you," the gunship said.
The camera now displayed a reticle in the middle of it alongside a selection of weaponry. The weapons were a GAU-12/U 25mm Gatling gun, L60 Bofors 40mm autocannon, and a 105mm M102 Howitzer. Del had various weaponry to take that airship down.
Del pressed the M102 Howitzer first and he clicked on the screen. A large explosion appeared on the airship and Del switched to the 40mm autocannon. He fired several rounds to the middle of the ship.
On the horizon, Del could see a little firework that his weapon just created. He then continued firing all of the weapons on his arsenal, including the 25mm Gatling gun. The personnel on the upper deck of the airship looked like an ant and Del's finger was squashing them using the weaponry from the AC-130.
"SHIT!" Cole shouted. He shot his machine gun at the approaching enemies. "We should move, Del!"
Del gave the tablet to Anna, "Anna, attack the middle portion of the airship, we need it to be destroyed or we wouldn't be able to get out of this godforsaken country."
"On it!" Anna said as she pressed the screen.
Del drove the car to the north, he didn't care whether that airship had been destroyed or not. Armored convoys consisted of multiple armored carriages were coming after them and no matter how many weapons that they had right now, there was no way to deal with them without the AC-130.
"Anna, is it shot down yet?" Del asked.
"Not yet, but it is sure as hell burning," Anna showed Del the screen.
Anna had made a hole in the middle of the airship. It was burning, but it hadn't fallen to the ground yet. Anna kept focusing the weapons of the AC-130 to the weapon system of the ship such as the magical cannons and artilleries.
"Bombardier 3-4, target is confirmed as no factor," the gunship said.
"It's down now," Anna muttered.
The burning airship came crashing to the ground, producing a large explosion that could be seen, even from Del's position. "That was a large firework," Del commented at the big explosion in the north. The
"Anna, change the target priority to the carriages that are chasing us," Del said.
"Alright," Anna said.
Anna pressed the screen and a large explosion appeared behind them. One of the carriages was thrown away from the road from that explosion while the other two were destroyed into scrap metals. 25mm rounds followed after that 105mm round and finished off the remaining pursuers.
"Look at the area in front of us, Are there any enemies?" Del asked.
"Yeah, there's an encampment filled with them, hell, maybe a whole division stayed there," Anna replied.
"Destroy them!"
"Aye, aye," Anna replied.
The gunship's guns fired at the encampment. 25mm rounds slaughtered them all from the sky and the howitzer destroyed the large targets of that encampment. It could be said that it was a genocide on the Elbanian, but it was the retribution for attacking him out of nowhere. Once the camp was destroyed, they moved further to the north direction.
"Hey, can your weapon destroy those warships on the northern shoreline? it should make our life easier," Cassandra suggested.
"Anna, you hear what she said," Del said.
"Alright, I'm on it," Anna said.
A bunch of explosions appeared on the shoreline. That explosion immediately destroyed the battleship that was blockading the shoreline. That should be all of the high-priority targets that required them to use a heavy bombardment such as the AC-130.
"Phew, we're safe now, I think we should dismiss the gunship or we will go absolutely bankrupt," Del said.
"I don't like your idea, but having no money at all is surely more miserable," Cole added.
Del pressed the [Dismiss Gunship] button to let the gunship fly away from their location. The fund for that gunship was immediately taken from his coins. He had enough balance for now, at least, until they arrived at Ilbistirum.
[Gunship Has Left Area of Operation. Remaining Balance: 132,000$]
"I think we're in the clear," Cole said.
"Yeah, what should we do now? I think everything is a no factor," Del said.
"I think we can call the ship near the northern shoreline, but I want to create some distraction first. Del, I think this car is the only reason why the Elbanian managed to find us, after all, it sticks out like a sore thumb," Cassandra commented.
"What? What do you want me to do?" Del asked.
"I'm saying that we should use this car, rig it up with a bunch of C4 charges," Cassandra said.
"You're saying that we should destroy this car? That's absurd, how are we supposed to go to the north?" Del asked.
"We can walk along the shoreline, it's safer and we have cliffs in the north that need to be climbed down first before arriving at the shoreline. The Elbanian won't even think to go climbing down if they even find us," Cassandra explained.
"It's a hard choice, but I have to agree. Del, let's just let the car go," Anna said.
Del sighed, "Fine… bring what matters first, leave everything else behind. Del got out of the car and grabbed the backpack that contained most of his belonging which was clothing and coins. Inside of his magical backpack was the juggernaut suit, but minus the minigun, he decided to leave it in the car.
Cassandra brought her backpack and her gun. Del bought two hundred kilograms of C4 charges and crammed it all up inside of the car. He also rigged a trap on that car. If someone tried to open the door of the car, the C4 would explode and produced a catastrophic explosion.
"That should be all, let's get to the shoreline," Del felt sad to leave his car, but it was necessary for his safety.