Under their watch, the helicopter flew over the mountain ahead trailing black smoke. Just when everyone thought it should be safe, the pilot's curse suddenly blasted through their headsets.
"Fuck your ancestors..." A Sichuan curse abruptly burst from the pilot, who had been speaking standard Mandarin until then.
Before he could finish, a sudden boom came through their headsets, followed by a crackling burst of static.
Then, beyond the mountain in He Chen Guang and the others' line of sight, a fierce ball of fire suddenly erupted. What flames soaring into the sky meant needed no explanation.
A few seconds later, the thunderous explosion reached their ears once more.
Silence. A long, drawn-out silence.
"Everyone, attention! Salute!" Chen Shan Ming growled.
With a crisp swish, everyone moved in perfect unison. They silently stared at the flames. Li Er Niu's face was already streaked with tears.
He reflexively wiped at them, smearing the tears together with his camouflage paint.
The others' eyes were red as well.
"Move! We don't have time to grieve. He gave his life to get us here so we could bring our people back! Group A, Group B, prepare to move out. We're still over ten kilometers of mountain trails from the target landing site. This isn't familiar territory."
"And the enemy already knows we're here. But we'll show them what it means to repay blood with blood and tooth with tooth! Take them out!!!" Chen Shan Ming let out a low, furious roar.
"Take them out!!!" Everyone lowered their voices, but the grief in them was impossible to miss.
"Move out!"
"Yes!" Everyone growled in response, then swiftly split into two combat teams and advanced in dispersed formations to the left and right.
At the operations command center, Fan Tian Lei was speechless. He had