Had Old William gone mad?
Under everyone's bewildered gazes, Old William staggered over to the window and looked up at the sky.
"Vrrrr-"
Amid a roar that shook the heavens, dozens of fighters and bombers tore through the smoke-shrouded sky and appeared in Old William's sight.
Golden sunlight also shone down onto the earth through the gaps they tore open!
"That's... our flag!?"
As he looked at the unfamiliar yet familiar flags on the planes' wings, Old William trembled from head to toe, tears streaming uncontrollably from the corners of his eyes.
Our flag?
Just as everyone was wondering what nonsense Old William was babbling.
"Wheee-"
A sound like artillery shells falling from the sky, but sharper and more piercing, reached everyone's ears, including those of the National Liberation Alliance militants.
The next second.
"Boom-"
"Boom-"
"Boom-"
Everyone felt as though the entire earth were shaking, and something seemed to squeeze their hearts viciously, yet they could hear nothing, as though the whole world had fallen silent at that moment.
"???"
Less than two kilometers east of the hospital, the leader of the National Liberation Alliance was standing on a rooftop, observing the battlefield through binoculars.
When he saw the bombers that had suddenly appeared dropping aerial bombs onto his side's positions under fighter escort, he was utterly dumbstruck.
His mouth hung open and his eyes widened as he stood rooted to the spot, unable to react for a long time.
Only after quite a while.
When the bombers finished dropping their bombs and began heading back, and the remaining fighters began diving to strafe the ground with their cannons, did the National Liberation Alliance's leader come to his senses.
"Are those fighters and bombers? No, wait! Since when did the government forces have fighters and bombers? How the fuck did I not hear a thing about this?
"Didn't the French bastards repeatedly promise that the new president was just like the previous ones, that he barely had any heavy weapons, only a few armored vehicles at most?
"Then what the fuck are those things flying up there!?"
The National Liberation Alliance's leader was shocked, and terrified too.
Watching the buildings flattened in an instant by aerial bombs and the dust hurled into the sky, he even wondered whether he had yet to wake up and was still dreaming.
While the National Liberation Alliance's leader was questioning his entire existence, the militants at the front, already dazed by the bombing, came to their senses under the fighters' follow-up attacks and scrambled away, crying for their fathers and mothers.
Hundreds upon thousands of large-caliber rounds streamed from the fighters' cannons, then blasted one spray of bloody mist after another out of the ground that had already become rubble.
The poor militants did not even have time to cry out in pain before they lay scattered in pieces, white brain matter and bloody internal organs splattered everywhere.
"Boo-hoo... I want to go home!"
"Mommy..."
"Demons! Demons are punishing us!"
For most of the National Liberation Alliance militants, this was their first time seeing fighters and bombers, their first time witnessing such a scene.
Their morale collapsed in an instant!
"Come back! Get back here! Those are fucking planes, not demons!"
"Take cover! Don't run out into the open! All of you, take cover!"
"Are you idiots? Watch out for the attacks!"
"No running! I'll shoot anyone who runs!"
The National Liberation Alliance's officers did everything they could to sustain their troops' morale, but all their efforts were futile.
More and more militants began retreating, and some officers who tried to stop them by opening fire were even shot by their own men.
Even the militants who had already fought their way into the hospital's ground floor scrambled out when they saw what was happening outside, then threw down their weapons like madmen and fled to the rear with the main force.
"Did we... survive?"
"What happened outside just now? My ears are ringing from the blasts!"
"No idea. I wasn't doing much better myself. It felt like my insides were about to be shattered!"
"They've all pulled out. We should be alive, right?"
"Can we really go on living?"
Inside the hospital, the surviving soldiers, police officers, doctors, nurses, and civilians watched the militants fleeing into the distance and murmured among themselves, still shaken.
Even now, most of them had yet to grasp what exactly had happened or why the National Liberation Alliance had suddenly withdrawn.
Only Old William, who had witnessed everything and understood exactly what had happened, declared firmly in a voice choked with sobs:
"We... survived!"
Nijia, outskirts.
"..."
The Aksang Brigade, which had just reached the outskirts of Nijia, fell into considerable turmoil at the sight of the fighters and bombers roaring through the sky and the clouds of dust and smoke over the city, visible from several kilometers away.
Standing on the roof of a military jeep and looking up at the sky through binoculars, Full Beard lowered them, rubbed his eyes hard, then raised them to look for a while longer before lowering them and rubbing his eyes again.
Utterly baffled, he muttered to himself:
"No, wait! There's nothing wrong with my eyes! So why am I seeing our country's flag on those planes' wings?
"Come to think of it, since when did the central government have planes? And there must be at least fifty of the fucking things, right? How many North African francs does one cost?"
At that moment, he seemed to doubt his own memory too, so he looked down and asked the adjutant standing beside the jeep:
"If I remember correctly, our national flag is red on the top half and green on the bottom half, with a yellow five-pointed star right in the middle, isn't it?"
"You remember correctly, Brigadier. That is what our national flag looks like," the adjutant replied.
Hearing the adjutant's answer, Full Beard, the brigade commander, nodded in satisfaction, then said with the look of someone who had seen a ghost:
"Then it looks like the problem isn't with me, but with the central government... or rather, that kid named Sankara who just took office! And it's a big problem!"
Full Beard understood one thing: before Sankara took office, their Republic of Burkina had not possessed a single military aircraft.
Their Republic of Burkina had not even possessed wooden biplanes, decades out of date, of the kind that had only appeared during the First World War!
"So all these military aircraft were bought from other countries after Sankara took office? But where did he get so much money?"
At that thought, a trace of gravity and a trace of confusion appeared in Full Beard's eyes.
Just as Full Beard was about to think further, the adjutant beside him interrupted:
"Brigadier, the troops are ready to attack. Your orders, sir!"
"Uh..."
His train of thought broken, Full Beard was visibly taken aback. Only after two or three seconds did he speak:
"Order the troops to attack immediately. As long as we can drive those National Liberation Alliance terrorists out of Nijia before the other three brigades arrive, our brigade gets the entire billion in extra bonuses!"
"Yes, Brigadier!"