Chapter 93 - A Military Blockade
Chapter 93 – A Military Blockade
"Damn, why are we stopping in the middle of nowhere?" Alina looked around.
It was nighttime, and it was only one hour away from their destination. Del would suspect that there was a mechanical issue, but his guts were telling him a different thing. He was only one hour away from a town that had been attacked by a separatist group. It could be sabotage, or worse, highjacking.
Del shook Anna to wake her up, "Anna, grab your 16, wear your helmet and comtac, we might have an emergency here." Anna barely opened her eyes as Del grabbed his M16 and Anna's M16. He opened his helmet and attached the straps to help him wear the night vision goggles.. He checked everything, including the radio with Anna.
"Test, test, is everything clear?" Del asked.
"Loud and clear, bro," Anna said.
"Let's move," Del said.
They began moving towards the front of the train. Hubert was in the front car, he should have known what happened, but if it was a highjacking, then they shouldn't even bother to come to the front wagon.
One of the passengers asked them, "Boy, is there anything happening?"
"Nothing, ma'am, I'm just checking my friend in the front wagon," Del smiled as he walked to the door of his train car.
He opened the door to see what was going on outside. Del peeked, but it was dark, he put his NVG on top of his eyes. He then saw what was blocking the way. In front of them was a tank. However, its turret wasn't exactly pointing to their train.
Three people were arguing near the locomotive of the train. One was the train operator, one was an Ilbistirum military officer, and the other was Doctor Hubert. It was suspicious but wasn't dangerous either. Del got off the train and started walking in the direction of those three.
"[Defensive Spell: Material Field] [Force Modifier +20,000]," Del activated a material spell on his body.
He continued walking until one of those three greeted him with a pistol aimed at him. The one that aimed his pistol was none other than the military officer. However, Del immediately flashed his patch that read "ICMWI" and he lowered his pistol.
Del lifted his night-vision goggles so his face became much more recognizable. Del approached the military officer to know what was going on and why there was a bloody tank in front of the train.
"Excuse me, sir, what's going on?" Del asked.
"Ah, Del, we have a problem, it looks like we can't go to Halivaara," Hubert said.
"Has the separatist taken over that town?" Del asked.
"Not quite, but they have cut the supply lines, two kilometers in front of us is the 4th Armored Cavalry Squadron and they were charging here, I suggest you leave right now unless you can help me, we only have four operational tanks right now. The other tanks are too broken to be operational," the officer said.
"How many tanks do they have?" Del asked.
"Nine light tanks, and four medium tanks," the officer said.
Well, Del had the right tool to open those tanks. He just needed enough reasons to do it. If the commander is willing to put a price for each tank that he destroyed, he would be more than willing to take the risk of doing it. He had the advantages after all.
His woodland camouflage would certainly help him in hiding against the tank and since this section of railroad wasn't exactly surrounded by grassland, but also the forest. He could go to the forest, hide among the thick greeneries and fire his RPG one by one at those tanks. It would be easy, but quite risky if someone managed to lob a tank shell in his direction.
"Say, what if I destroy those tanks for you, how much can you afford?" Del asked.
"Well, I have five white gold coins if you can destroy one tank, ten if you can destroy two tanks, and so on," the officer said.
"What if I destroy at least, ten of them," Del asked.
"Boy, you must be very drunk, but sure, I'll give you 100 white gold coins if you manage to pull that off. I meant, even losing one tank on our side is a loss of more than 100 white gold coins, so yeah," the officer said.
"Ok, I will take that offer, you just watch and see," Del said.
Hubert suddenly intervened, "Kid, do you have a death wish or something? Those are thirteen tanks and you're alone, what makes you think that you can destroy at least one of them?"
"I don't think, doc, I just act," Del replied as he and Anna walked back to the train.
Del had no comment about what he would do, he knew it was risky, but one million dollars was one million dollars. The cost of one rocket for RPG was very cheap after all and Del happened to have twenty of them inside of his backpack. How did Del store them all? Well, he just stacked the rockets on top of each other. That was the main function of having dimensional storage inside of the backpack. Del grabbed his backpack and wore it on his back.
"Del, you are not nuts, right? Spec-op is one thing, but a tank is another, do you really think you can take them all down?" Anna asked.
"I don't think I can, but I'll try, besides, what to lose? I'm not underestimating my enemy and right now, our technology really has an edge over them," Del said.
The eyes of a tank would be the infantry around it. Without the help from the infantry, they wouldn't be able to spot Del. He just needed to move every time he fired his RPG so the soldier would have a hard time in spotting him. Besides, it was night time, the soldiers didn't have NVG while Del and Anna had one.
Still, a distraction would be appreciated. If the commander of the tank could be convinced to launch an assault, it would be rather helpful, but Del really doubted that the commander would want to sacrifice more tanks. It was just him vs the tanks.