Chapter 162: The Candidate to Take the Blame

Although Su Cheng knew that reinforcements were on the way, he still took immediate action, ordering Stin and the others to split into small squads and prepare for combat.

Time ticked away second by second.

The NATO coalition forces had not yet arrived, but the reinforcements mentioned by Kitte had already reached the destination.

Two Ka-50 attack helicopters landed directly in an open space within the valley.

As soon as the helicopters touched down, several soldiers unloaded a number of huge crates from the cargo holds.

At that moment, Kitte emerged from the cave and strode forward to meet them.

There were no salutes, just a direct handover.

Kitte pointed toward a nearby clearing.

Several soldiers carried the crates over.

"Captain Su, have your men get ready. These are Javelin anti-air missiles, one for each squad!"

Hearing this, Su Cheng was momentarily stunned.

There were a dozen crates unloaded from the helicopters. If every crate contained Javelins, that would mean twelve new anti-air missile systems. Combined with the four they already possessed, they had a total of sixteen anti-air missile systems—an utterly extravagant firepower setup.

"Understood!" Su Cheng did not waste words, immediately signaling his men to come forward and take the Javelins.

Su Cheng's team did not take all of them; they only took eight Javelin units, leaving the remaining eight for Kitte's side.

Silence instantly descended upon the valley.

In every concealed vantage point, a Javelin launcher was aimed at the sky.

The two Ka-52 helicopters had already flown to the other end of the valley to conceal themselves, fully armed and ready for action.

Ten minutes later, four Rafale fighter jets roared in from the distance, cruising at an altitude of three thousand meters.

The radar showed no anomalous readings whatsoever.

Just as the Rafales maneuvered to bomb the valley, eight missiles suddenly surged out from the terrain below, hurtling toward the jets at extreme speed.

"Dammit, an ambush! Ambush! Evasion, take evasive action!"

The moment the radar locked onto the incoming missiles, the NATO pilots reacted instantly. The Rafales rolled sharply, accelerating away to the side while deploying massive flares and infrared decoys across the airspace.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

The missiles slammed into the infrared decoys and detonated mid-air.

However, a single missile punched straight through the dense web of decoy flares and locked onto one of the Rafales. Before the jet could even react, it was caught and blown apart directly in mid-air.

Had American military experts been present, they would have discovered that these Javelins possessed far greater destructive power than the standard-issue versions used by the US military. A single missile was enough to obliterate a Rafale, meaning the internal warheads were definitely not standard ordnance.

Of course, the Javelins brought by Kitte were not standard American military equipment, nor were they black-market surplus anti-air missiles. They were specially manufactured Javelin anti-air missiles produced by Red Queen. Although called Javelins, they had been fundamentally altered at their core.

The destructive capacity of these new Javelins was by no means inferior to surface-to-air missiles. If necessary, installing a specific arc-generator inside could even replicate the destructive yield of a Tomahawk cruise missile.

"Dammit! Dammit! Change course, change course!"

Seeing one of their Rafales destroyed, the NATO air force pilots broadcasted furious curses over the radio.

Back at the NATO coalition headquarters in Jordan, the commanders also frowned upon hearing the reports from the Rafale pilots.

Before the remaining Rafales could complete their turn, a fresh volley of Javelins was launched.

Another eight anti-air missiles were sent skyward, throwing the remaining three Rafales into a frantic struggle.

Since this was a long-range launch, the Rafales, though panicked, were still able to handle the threat with relative ease.

Bang, bang, bang, bang!

Suddenly, a massive barrage of concussive sounds echoed through the air.

Looking up into the sky, a vast defensive wall of shrapnel and flak had formed.

Up on the valley ridge, mounted atop a specialized vehicle, a twin-barreled 100mm anti-aircraft gun continuously poured fire into the heavens, weaving the shells into an overwhelming defensive curtain.

Because the Rafales were forced into violent aerial maneuvers to dodge the missiles, their speed had dropped significantly. The sudden opening fire of the anti-aircraft guns plunged the jets straight into a nightmare.

The moment the cannons opened fire, the left wing of one Rafale was clipped by the anti-air barrage, instantly trailing thick black smoke. Before the pilot could even react, subsequent rounds tore right through the aircraft. In less than a second, the Rafale bloomed into a massive fireball in the sky.

"Accelerate! Push the speed up!"

Seeing this horrifying scene, the two surviving jets immediately maxed out their throttles.

Anti-aircraft artillery found slow-moving targets easiest to hit; as long as an aircraft's speed was high enough, it could easily breeze past even the densest flak grid. This was because by the time the flak shells left the barrels and reached the target airspace, a fast-moving plane would already be far away.

Under normal circumstances, this tactical logic was completely correct. However, the NATO air force had just run into anti-aircraft guns equipped with intelligent target-locking systems.

These 100mm anti-aircraft guns were not as long as the conventional or retired 100mm anti-aircraft guns used elsewhere in the world; each single barrel was only two meters long. The twin-barreled 100mm system was mounted on a tank chassis, allowing it to easily absorb the massive recoil generated by the rapid fire.

While the anti-aircraft cannons continued to fire, the new batch of Javelins had already been reloaded, and another eight missiles soared into the sky.

Hampered by the interference of the anti-aircraft guns, the two remaining Rafales tried their utmost to evade, but ultimately could not escape the pursuit of the eight Javelins. Four missiles were now tracking a single fighter jet. No matter how advanced a fighter might be, it was impossible to dodge four incoming anti-air missiles under such intense defensive firepower unless the aircraft possessed the explosive acceleration typical of fourth-generation jets.

All four Rafales were completely destroyed, leaving the NATO coalition command utterly enraged.

Nano-flies were already swarming and scouting the surrounding areas.

"How long are we expected to hold out?"

Seeing that all four Rafales had been downed, Su Cheng stepped out of his bunker, walked up to Kitte, and asked.

Kitte knew he couldn't get away without offering some explanation.

He gestured to Su Cheng, tapped a control on his wrist, and a virtual three-dimensional holographic map materialized before Su Cheng's eyes.

On the map, there was one blue dot and two red dots.

"This blue dot is us."

Su Cheng nodded.

"This represents the NATO coalition forces, and this one represents the terrorist organization."

"IS?"

Kitte nodded.

"It seems Hurd didn't just sell the intelligence to the NATO coalition; he sold it to the IS terrorists as well."

Kitte remained silent, taking it as confirmation.

On the map, the blue dot sat in the center while the two red dots steadily closed in. Scattered across other locations were numerous yellow dots. Without needing Kitte's explanation, Su Cheng understood that those represented opportunistic onlookers.

Right now, both the NATO coalition and IS were marching toward their position. Barring any accidents, within twenty minutes at most, the two opposing forces would collide right here. Without their presence, it would undoubtedly have been the prelude to another bloody battle.

And now, they had inserted themselves directly into the middle of it.

Su Cheng pondered for a moment, suddenly putting the pieces together. He looked at Kitte in shock. "I get it now!"

He finally understood why they hadn't evacuated the moment they received the intelligence.

Instead, they had gone to great lengths to conceal their tracks—they needed a scapegoat. The appearance of IS provided Kitte with the perfect candidate to take the blame.

Once the two armies clashed, his own team could slip away quietly from another direction, erasing their traces entirely. By leaving behind a few deliberate pieces of evidence, IS would be forced to shoulder the blame for the whole affair.

Understanding Kitte's plan, Su Cheng said nothing more. He picked up his weapon and returned to his defensive position.

"Captain! The NATO coalition forces have stopped two kilometers out!"

Frowning, Su Cheng raised his binoculars and spotted several transport helicopters touching down in an open clearing 2.4 kilometers away, disgorging swarms of heavily armed soldiers.

"Captain, look over there!" someone suddenly shouted, pointing at the sky.

Su Cheng raised his head.

Two C-130 Hercules transport planes were flying overhead, deploying massive parachutes. Raising his binoculars again, Su Cheng saw that the C-130s were air-dropping armored vehicles directly into the zone.

"What a lavish display!" Su Cheng couldn't tell whether to be pleased or concerned; this was textbook regular army warfare, completely divorced from special operations.

"Captain, radar shows twelve attack helicopters approaching!"

Su Cheng furrowed his brow.

"Don't panic, the bait has arrived," Kitte's voice came through his earpiece.

Hearing this, Su Cheng glanced at his wrist-watch. Sure enough, the IS red dot had closed in to less than three kilometers from their position.

The side Su Cheng was facing was the NATO coalition, while the side facing Kitte was the IS terrorist group.

"Are we engaging?" Su Cheng asked bluntly.

"One round of attacks, five minutes, then full retreat. The vehicles are already prepared."

"Copy!"

Su Cheng cut the communication and looked around.

"Javelins, ready!"

At Su Cheng's command, from various hidden positions across the terrain, the Javelin launchers slowly extended into view. 2.4 kilometers away, the NATO coalition forces had already secured their air-dropped armored vehicles, while on the horizon, a squadron of twelve Cobra attack helicopters had materialized in the sky.

Huum-huum-huum-huum—

At that moment, the two Ka-52s slowly rose into the air, hovering a few dozen meters off the ground. They immediately launched a long-range missile barrage directly targeting the NATO coalition's armored forces.

Simultaneously, the Javelins fired. Twelve Javelins and four anti-air missiles—sixteen projectiles in total—converged to envelop the twelve Cobra helicopters.

Sensing the attack, the NATO coalition forces reacted instantly. The Cobras launched air-to-air missiles for interception while their onboard machine guns laid down a continuous hail of suppressive fire.

On the ground, anti-air missiles mounted on the VBCI infantry fighting vehicles launched upward, and the vehicle-mounted autocannons joined in to intercept the incoming ordnance.

Having been placed on full alert ever since their Rafales were shot down, the NATO coalition had immediately air-dropped their heavy armor precisely for this contingency.

The resulting wall of flak and fire blanketed a vast sector of the airspace.

The missiles slammed into the defensive barrage, proving ineffective as they detonated one after another.

The Cobra helicopters began dispensing decoy flares to execute secondary interceptions against the missiles that bypassed the initial flak screen.

Meanwhile, the Ka-52s pressed forward toward the armored vehicles, launching rocket pods while unleashing their heavy machine guns.

The moment the battle erupted here, the IS forces on the opposite flank instantly detected it.

The intelligence they had acted upon hadn't come from Hurd; it had been fed to them by Kitte.

In the suicide run by the Ka-52s, the Cobras engaged them in a three-on-one dogfight, shooting them down one by one.

After downing the Ka-52s, the Cobras swung toward the valley, launching a barrage of missiles from a distance to blanket every potential radar-detected fire point—especially the suspected Javelin launch sites.

However, little did they know that Su Cheng's forces had already pulled back. From a concealed vantage point, Kitte was leading Su Cheng and his team away. On the other side, as IS forces pushed into the valley utterly unaware of what awaited them, they were immediately ambushed by the NATO coalition. Naturally, IS retaliated without a second thought. Meanwhile, certain equipment left behind by Kitte managed to shoot down a NATO Cobra helicopter, perfectly realizing Kitte's design: the NATO forces and IS fell into a brutal firefight, while the Blue Squad executed a clean and safe evacuation, slipping away from the combat zone entirely. With Red Queen assisting in the shadows, the NATO coalition's military satellites failed to detect how the Blue Squad had slipped through their fingers!

(To be continued.)