April 12, 2050 - 07:12
Nam Dong, Vietnam - Near Nong Truong
Pvt. My Phan
"Where are we now?" My asked into her comm, seemingly bored out of her mind.
"You ask like every 5 minutes. Don't you get bored?" Long answered.
"EXACTLY! I'm asking because I am bored." She grumbled.
"We're about halfway there. We should be near a small farming town called Nong Truong. Funny thing, Nong Truong literally means farming."
"Thanks for the fun fact, but I know that already. I also know Vietnamese, in case you forgot."
"I didn't, but Chisato sure doesn't know any."
"... Touché, touché."
"Should we keep an eye out for anything in that town?" Chisato asked.
"I'm not sure. We didn't get any intel about the town or if bandits have taken it over or not, but just stay alert."
My looked around on the road. There were no vehicles around them at this point, and all around them were just vegetation and open fields.
Just when My was about to sigh from boredom, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Up ahead of the road, she could see an unnatural glint from one of the bushes. The car drove past the bush too fast for her to confirm anything, but she had a bad feeling about it.
As if to confirm her intuition, My saw some more unnatural glint from the bushes on the side of the road as the convoy continued down the line. Something happening once or twice could just be a coincidence, but something that happened more than 4 times in a row, that was definitely suspicious.
"Long, tell Peter to stay cautious. I think we're about to be in for some action soon."
"Huh? You saw something?"
"Yeah, just tell him to be prepared."
"Alright, I'll let him know
April 12, 2050 - 07:17
Sgt. Peter de Santos
Peter sat in the shotgun seat with his weapon in his embrace. Maximillian drove the car, and Edric manned the mounted .50 cal. Everything had been going smoothly so far, and Peter hoped that the rest of the trip would go as smoothly as the first half did.
He had been checking in periodically with Trung, the VinaSec convoy leader. As much as he didn't like the guy for being an asshole to his team, Trung was still their higher-up. All he could do was listen to orders and do his job. At least he had some pleasant company to travel with.
Max was a cheerful fellow, with sharp eyes and solid aim, though he might be too flirtatious towards women. Peter was pretty sure that Max didn't try to flirt with My and Chisato anymore after the first few times, since My could definitely kick his ass in, and My would definitely kick his ass if he flirted with her partner.
Edric, on the other hand, was almost the complete opposite of Max. He was a chill man, able to fit in anywhere, a good listener, and an absolute unit of muscle and power. The only complaint Peter could think of when it came to Edric was that he could do with a bit more talking. Other than that, solid man.
Peter was going to grab his water bottle when his radio crackled to life.
"1-1, this is 1-7."
Peter reeled himself back to reality. The water bottle would have to wait for a moment.
"Loud and clear, 1-7," He replied.
"1-2 said she saw some suspicious activity just a moment ago. She thinks it might be an ambush up ahead."
"Copy that, 1-7. I'll relay to the convoy."
He cut off the call with his squadmate and switched to the convoy's channel.
"Convoy lead, this is Heaven's Hounds."
He waited a while before the leader replied.
"This is the lead, hearing you loud and clear."
"My squad informed me that they saw some suspicious activity. I'd recommend picking up the speed and sending the front vehicles further to recon."
"What sort of suspicious activity? We can't just break formation because some dumbass thought that they saw a ghost."
"Lead, this is a reasonable suspicion. I think-"
"Keep your thinking to yourself. Unless there is some evidence from your squad, we will not break our formation. Convoy lead out."
Peter's face soured as the radio cut off.
"Fucking idiot…" he said, annoyance clear in his voice.
"His head is way up his ass, huh?" Max said to lift Peter's mood.
"Seems so…" Peter paused for a moment and switched back to his squad's channel. "Everyone, keep a lookout for an ambush. 1-5, prep and launch your drones as soon as you can."
He received replies from all of his squadmates in different vehicles. All he could do now was hope that there weren't any ambushes and that My's suspicion was wrong.
April 12, 2050 - 07:26
VinaSec Convoy leader Trung Dam
Trung was annoyed. Nothing was going according to his plan.
He asked the company for more of their own reinforcement and to wait until the additional reinforcements arrived. All he got back was, "We can't spare you any more than what you already have," from his higher-up, as if they weren't the single largest corporation in Vietnam and one of the largest in the SEA region.
He asked for better-armed escort vehicles, like those new Rhino or Ground Dragon models. Hell, even the old JTVL that the US deployed en masse during the war would be a better choice than this shitty surplus that he was given.
He asked for at least some additional reinforcement from outside the company, like the effective Hellhound from the US, or the Chinese's ex-mil in the Immortal, or the organized and disciplined from Japan's Shadow. But no, he only got a bunch of riffraff from the B.A.D.
Sure, Black Angels Division might be the largest PMC in terms of personnel count, but that just means the quality of their mercs was worse than that of other smaller but better-trained PMCs, he thought. Hell, even their acronym spelled out as bad.
He chuckled to himself for a short moment before returning to his brooding self.
All of this, and now he also had to worry about a potential ambush when the intel that he got from his company said that the road should be clear all the way through. He'd rather put his trust in his own company's intel than a bunch of nobodies with their intuition. After all, his experience with VinaSec's intel department was that they were correct 95% of the time.
Just as he was about to lose himself deeper in his own thoughts, his vehicle shook violently, bringing him back to the present, mentally and physically.
"WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED? GIVE ME A REPORT!" He yelled into his comm.
"Sir! Humvee 3 was shot at from the right! The ADS activated in time, so most of the crew is still ok, but the gunner was hit in the shoulder by a stray fragment!" Someone replied frantically to Trung.
"FUCK!" He cursed while switching his comm to the convoy-wide channel. "All vehicles, speed the fuck up and return fire!"
As soon as his order was transmitted and understood, a deathly chorus of gunfire erupted from the line of vehicles, all of which directed their fury toward the seemingly vast and vacant patch of forest.
The woods, as if to retaliate against the group of mercenaries, spat back small-arms fire and RPGs at the convoy, and since one side was not enough, a bunch of bandits emerged from the high grass and rice paddies and added to the clusterfuck of a firefight. Explosion.
Amid the chaos, Trung desperately contacted HQ to let them know that they were ambushed and to send reinforcements to them. However, luck was not on his side. All he got back after relaying his message was static.
"Fuck…"
He punched the Humvee's dashboard.
"Please… God, I'm not a religious person, but if we survive this, I'll be a believer!"
April 12, 2050 - 07:40
Pvt. My Phan
My pressed the trigger of the minigun and laid down a burst of lead toward a bandit she saw.
The unfortunate sod was immediately filled with bullets, caving in a massive hole in his chest. A few more bandits behind that guy were also hit and taken out of the fight.
"Wowie, Long, did you see that? I fucking split that guy in half!" My chirped.
"Not now! I'm trying not to get us killed here!" He barked.
My then swiveled my minigun to a new target approaching on the left side of the car. It was a group of bandits; one of them was holding an RPG, and the others were shooting at her vehicle.
"Stop scratching the paint, fucker!" My yelled.
She let it rip, sending a torrent of bullets that shredded that group into gore, sending their bits and pieces everywhere on the field.
"Your one o'clock!" Chisato warned her.
She reacted immediately and swung the minigun to her two o'clock position and sprayed the minigun without even acquiring her target. The car was moving too fast for her to see what her target was after reacting quickly.
"Good job My!" Chisato said.
Whatever her target was, she must have hit her mark. She continued her rampage with the minigun, killing bandits left and right as the car sped down the empty road.
"How the fuck are there so many of them?" She yelled to no one in particular.
'They said that their intel indicated that it should have been clear the entire way." Chisato replied.
"Clearly either they're fucking wrong, or they were fed with false or bad intel!"
"That or they have an insider leaking info. Either way, none of that matters to us now! You keep shooting, I'll keep driving, and Chisato keeps us alive." Long chimed in.
"What do you think I'm-" She was cut off as a tracer just missed her by mere inches.
My turned the minigun around to the back of the vehicle to see a pack of motorbikes rapidly approaching their location, with more of them jumping out of the woods like they were a bunch of dirt bike riders chasing a goal. Not just from behind the convoy, My could also hear motorbikes coming from in front of her vehicle. Each of the motorbikes had two people riding it, a rider and a gunner, clearly holding onto their dear life as the motor sped through the rough road. The convoy was beset by enemies in all directions.
"HOLY SHIT!" My yelled
At this point, she didn't care about aiming anymore and just held the trigger, letting the minigun barrel spin freely. She swerved her minigun around wildly and blindly. She managed to kill four of the bikers closest to the SUV.
The dead bikers dropped and fell off of their bikes, sending their corpses and bikes tumbling back, catching a few unprepared bikers behind as they collided at high speed.
The enemy bandits clearly weren't too happy that My had killed a few of their comrades and returned fire. My ducked lower behind the projectile cover while still letting the minigun rip.
Seeing the miniguns massacring their comrades, the majority of the riders from behind pivoted off the road to save their own hides from the wrath of the minigun. A few of the bikers, however, were brave or idiotic enough to hit the pedal and drive closer to the SUV, into blind spots where My couldn't shoot back with her minigun.
"Fuckers! They're being smart and got into my blind spot."
"Yeah, I can fucking tell, because THEY'RE SHOOTIN MY WINDOWS!" Long yelled as he stared directly at the bikers outside of his cracked window. "DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!"
"I'm grabbing my gu-" My couldn't finish her sentence as she lost her balance and almost fell out of the minigun hatch.
Long swerved the car left and right to hit the bikers and make them lose their balance, hopefully losing some heat off them. The bullet-resistant windows on these armored SUVs were good, but they weren't that good. The only reason why My hadn't fallen off the car was that Chisato was holding onto her legs with her dear life.
As she dangled on the rooftop while holding onto the minigun, she looked around, only to find herself staring at the barrel of a UZI, and holding the UZI was a biker with a devilish grin on his face.
My smiled awkwardly.
"Um… Hi?"