Chapter 652 - 594: The Peregrine Under the Night Sky

7:00 p.m.

At the Manas Air Base in Gilan, neighboring Afghan.

The longest runway of the entire base, Runway 3, was completely sealed off, and on the apron next to it was an enormous object.

It resembled an enormous peregrine, with its dark fuselage and a wingspan of 52 meters creating an oppressive terror just by standing in front of it.

It had a scientific name: "Low Observable Flying Wing Bomber," also known as "Ghost," its military designation being the B-2 Stealth Strategic Bomber.

The peregrine is a medium-sized raptor, known for its astounding flight speed and diving ability. A peregrine's flight speed can reach 389 kilometers per hour, even faster than some high-speed trains.

Its unique body structure and method of flight make it almost impossible to detect on radar, a stealth characteristic that aligns perfectly with the design concept of the B-2 bomber.

Its appearance here surprised many at the base.

Even many were unclear why this aircraft appeared here.

Everyone was discussing and guessing where it would fly to, what mission it would perform.

All stealth aircraft have internal bomb bays, and no one knew what was loaded inside this monster's belly.

The ground crew was performing the final preflight checks.

Although the B-2 is useful, its maintenance is extremely stringent and costly.

Half an hour later, the sky had completely darkened.

The ground crew had filled the B-2, which had flown in from the US Air Force base in Germany, with fuel.

Receiving the signal that it was clear to take off, the B-2 pilot controlled the advanced stealth bomber to slowly taxi into the runway, paused briefly at the takeoff position for a final check, and then finally began to accelerate forward.

Quickly, under the watch of everyone on the ground, the B-2 disappeared into the night sky, vanishing into the distant horizon.

Inside Afghan territory, Song Heping led his squad, divided into three groups of four. Willie and Dax stayed with him in one group, responsible for assembly.

Gabri and Arthur each led a group, approaching stealthily from both sides of a valley three kilometers east of Main God Mountain.

All of their weapons were fitted with silencers, and everything from tactical packs to other gear was placed in the valley below, preparing for light individual equipment.

Song Heping, at this moment behind a huge rock on the opposite side of the valley, watched as Willie and Dax took out satellite communication equipment, erected a parabolic antenna, and started linking various devices.

Major General Miles wasn't bluffing on one count.

Willie and Dax were indeed professionally trained in communication and setting up information processing platforms.

They quickly and adeptly aligned the antenna with the satellite and pulled out laptops to start linking the satellite communication equipment; soon, images appeared on the computer screen.

"Are these satellite reconnaissance images?"

Jiang Feng saw the colored reconnaissance images of the region near Main God Mountain on the screen and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

After all, for a small unit to achieve synchronous transmission of images with a satellite requires extremely advanced technology. It's not just about having the technology; one must also be willing to spend a fortune on purchasing this set of highly portable equipment for their use.

Critics may badmouth the Americans, but they can't accuse them of incompetence.

With such military technology, it's no wonder they've been able to traverse Blue Star for so many years as the boss of ruffians.

"Not satellite images, drones."

Song Heping pointed to the sky above.

Jiang Feng instinctively looked up into the sky.

He then remembered that this operation was supported by two drones providing reconnaissance images at all times.

Soon, the drones arrived over the valley, beginning surveillance and scanning of the ground.

Mounted beneath the nose of the drone was an AN/DAS-1 MTS-B electro-optical surveillance system.

The system includes a television camera, infrared imaging, laser rangefinder, spot tracker, and laser designator.

These devices provide long-range surveillance, target acquisition, tracking, rangefinding, and laser designation capabilities, and can even identify a car's license plate number from two miles (3.2 kilometers) away!

"You guessed it right."

Willie pointed at the screen and said: "There are people from the Ata Organization on both hilltops on the sides of the valley; look, there are 8 here, and 12 there."

Song Heping squatted in front of the computer, his gaze fixed intently on the images on the screen.

In infrared mode, the heat sources on the ground all appeared as bursts of orange, becoming bright spots.

He could even see an animal searching for food in the dark a few hundred meters away from him.

Nothing that emitted infrared radiation could escape the fearsome MQ-9 drone overhead.

Song Heping suddenly felt a chill down his spine.

If drones became commonplace, would future special forces' operational modes change?

"Gabri, turn on your phones, receive the location data sent by Willie. There are a total of 20 Ata members, 12 on the north hillside, 8 on the south. From the images, their alertness is very low, sentries are sitting on the ground, not patrolling..."

"Arthur, you take the south hillside, Gabri, you take the north. Can you handle it? If not, I'll come support you."

"Principal, I guarantee the mission will be completed!"

Gabri's response seemed to give Song Heping the illusion of returning to the old days.

He was momentarily startled.

But he soon came to his senses.

"Are you sure you don't need my reinforcements?"

"Not needed! I guarantee I can handle it! If I need you to do this personally, what am I still a company commander for?!"

Gabri was obviously very confident.

"Good!" Song Heping appreciated this confidence, "Remember, our lives are in your hands, you only have permission to succeed, otherwise, we'll meet in hell!"

"Understood!"

"Understood!"

The voices of Gabri and Arthur faded from the channel.

What followed was a long silence.

It takes a certain amount of time to make your way from the foot of the mountain to the slope.

Song Heping, holding a reconnaissance device, came beside a rock and looked towards the valley.

The two teams of Gabri and Arthur had already started climbing, while the sentry from Ata seemed to still be sitting on a rock turning back and chatting loudly with his comrade.

They had all been deployed here for the past few days.

It was an order from Hou Saini.

But everyone felt that this time the British and American forces were greatly hindered in attacks from all directions, the "absolute isolation" operation had been declared a failure, and they had all withdrawn back into Kandahar to be shrinking turtles; why would Main God Mountain nearly two hundred kilometers away from Kandahar be unsafe?

No one knew what was being said, but the sentry was obviously very happy, laughing heartily while slapping his thighs, completely beside himself with glee.

As he was rocking back and forth in laughter, suddenly he felt something pierce into the back of his head, then everything went dark, and he saw nothing more.

Not far away, several Ata members stood under the moonlight in a circle, chatting merrily, when they suddenly noticed their comrade who was laughing heartily and standing guard a few meters away had suddenly stopped laughing.

"Amir! He said..."

Just as he was laughing and about to share the amusing thing with the sentry, there was no one to be found in his line of sight.

"Huh?! Where is he?"

His smile disappeared along with his confusion as he looked around.

"Amir!"

The others were still chatting, no one noticed this detail.

This Ata member, full of confusion, walked towards the sentry's position.

There was a rock there; the sentry had been standing on it on guard just moments ago, how could there be no one in the blink of an eye?

Approaching the rock, he couldn't see the sentry.

Just as he was about to take out his flashlight, he suddenly noticed something stained on the rock under the bright moonlight.

He couldn't help but reach out and touch it.

Sticky...

Under the moonlight, the substance he touched gave off a fishy smell.

"Blood!"

His brain buzzed and went numb; he immediately tried to grab the assault rifle slung over his shoulder into his hands...

A shadow suddenly flashed out from behind the rock, holding something dark in his hand, aimed at the Ata member's head, and pulled the trigger.

The noise of the warhead shattering the skull may have been too loud, or perhaps this person's skull was a bit harder than the previous one's.

The sound of the break was somewhat loud, finally catching the attention of the others, who turned around looking for the source of the noise.

Several shadows suddenly flashed out from behind the large rock, their assault rifles fitted with long silencers kept spitting out tongues of flame.

Tap tap tap—

Tap tap tap—

Tap tap tap—

The gunshots had the piercing sounds cut off, leaving only the metallic sound of bolt action.

More than a dozen Ata members didn't even have time to react and were each hit by several bullets, falling to the ground, never to rise again.

Those emerging from the darkness spread out quickly, advanced, expanding the search range, and as they passed by those Ata members, they made sure to aim at the heads and fire a shot, fully ensuring their demise.