The sharp sound of Hu Hao's rifle shattered the rainy night in Tianyu City.
The civilians cowering in their homes nearby heard the gunfire and immediately shrank further into the shadows, terrified. Over the past few weeks, gunfire had become a daily occurrence in the city. Every shot usually meant another civilian had been executed.
Those who could flee had already fled. But for families with elderly parents or young children, escaping was nearly impossible. If they tried to run and were caught by the Allied patrols because the elderly couldn't keep up, the entire family would be slaughtered.
It was human nature to cling to hope, to gamble that the Allied massacres wouldn't reach their specific doorstep today. They knew the invaders were butchering the population, but without the immediate threat of a gun to their heads, many chose to stay and wait, praying for the Eastern Spirit National Defense Force to arrive and save them.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
Hu Hao lay prone behind the sandbags, his suppressed rifle trained on the guardhouse doors and windows. After emptying a magazine through the thin walls, he quickly reloaded. The Allied soldiers inside, noting the pause in firing, immediately stuck their rifles out the shattered windows and returned blind fire, hoping to catch him.
Hu Hao remained perfectly still. He unclipped two fragmentation grenades from his webbing, pulled the pins, and hurled them through the broken windows.
"GET DOWN!"
BOOM!
BOOM!
The twin explosions rocked the small structure, immediately followed by agonizing screams.
"All units, advance! Secure the high ground! Push forward methodically!" Hu Hao ordered into his throat mic.
Moments later, the first wave of Special Operations soldiers materialized from the darkness, sprinting past the ruined checkpoint and pouring into the city streets. They moved with terrifying speed and fluid coordination.
Pew! Hu Hao fired a single shot into the smoking guardhouse. He knew there was a full platoon stationed there; a few grenades wouldn't have killed them all.
Pew! An Allied soldier stumbled out of the doorway, clutching his bleeding ears. Hu Hao put a bullet squarely between his eyes. The man collapsed instantly.
"Hao-ge!" Dong Qipeng called out, leading his squad past the checkpoint.
"Toss a few more grenades in there to finish them off. Then spread out!" Hu Hao ordered.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The passing soldiers casually tossed several more grenades into the structure. The combined blasts finally collapsed the hastily constructed guardhouse entirely.
"Move out!" Hu Hao retrieved his combat knife from the first sentry's throat, wiped it clean, and jogged into the city behind his men.
The Special Operations soldiers immediately identified the tallest residential buildings along their infiltration routes and breached them. They sprinted up the stairwells, shot the locks off the rooftop access doors, and secured the high ground.
In one fifth-floor apartment, a family huddled in terror on their living room sofa as two masked soldiers kicked their door open and rushed in.
"Eastern Spirit National Defense Force!" one of the black-clad soldiers announced briskly, seeing the terrified civilians.
"Ah?!" The father and his two teenage sons stared at them in absolute shock, slowly standing up.
"Stay on the floor and do not move! A major battle is about to start right outside! Do not go near the windows, or stray bullets will kill you!" the soldier ordered firmly. He then used the butt of his rifle to smash the glass out of the living room window.
He had to clear the glass now; otherwise, the concussive force of the impending firefight would shatter it anyway, sending lethal shards flying inward. The soldiers quickly established firing positions at the windows, dominating the street below.
Meanwhile, another element of the squad was pushing rapidly down the street, securing the next block. They advanced roughly a hundred meters without encountering a major Allied force. Once the street was clear, the Platoon Commander issued the order to advance.
The snipers abandoned their overwatch positions in the apartments, sprinted downstairs, and bounded past the lead element to secure the next set of high-rises.
The entire regiment moved like this: two-man buddy teams providing mutual cover, leapfrogging forward, clearing buildings, establishing overwatch, and pushing deeper into the city.
"Do not go outside tonight! Stay down!" the soldiers warned the hiding civilians every time they breached a new apartment.
"It's the National Defense Force... it's our army... we're saved!" a mother collapsed onto the floor, weeping with profound relief.
By now, the Allied garrison in Tianyu City had heard the muffled explosions and scattered gunfire. They began dispatching Quick Reaction Forces (QRF) to investigate. Initially, the response was light: two armored personnel carriers leading a handful of transport trucks.
"Allied QRF approaching. Heavy snipers, eliminate the APC drivers! Force them to dismount! Marksmen, establish kill zones! Do not let a single one survive!" Hu Hao commanded over the tactical net, spotting the approaching headlights.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
The distinctive, thunderous roar of the 12.7mm heavy sniper rifles echoed through the streets. The massive armor-piercing rounds punched straight through the APCs' reinforced windshields, instantly obliterating the drivers.
The APCs swerved wildly out of control, crashing into roadside storefronts and grinding to a halt.
"Ambush! Dismount! Everyone out of the vehicles!" an Allied officer screamed from the back of the lead truck, seeing the APCs violently neutralized.
Pew! The moment an Allied soldier's boots hit the pavement, a suppressed 7.62mm round took his head off.
"Damn it! Take cover! Dismount under covering fire! Pop smoke!" the officer roared, panic setting in.
Fwoosh~ A flare arched high into the rainy sky, illuminating the street with a harsh, flickering light.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The heavy snipers didn't even wait for the soldiers to exit the trucks. They simply aimed at the canvas-covered troop compartments and pulled the triggers. The 12.7mm rounds punched through the thin metal siding like paper. Anyone struck by the massive bullets was either instantly killed or horrifically mangled; a hit to a limb meant instant amputation.
"Command, we need immediate reinforcements! We are pinned down by a massive enemy force! We don't know who they are! I don't see any tanks or armor... it's just infantry! But they have heavy weapons!" the Allied officer screamed into his radio.
"Dismount now!" he ordered his surviving men as the smoke grenades finally provided a thick screen.
However, the smoke screen offered little protection. The moment the Allied soldiers broke cover and sprinted for the nearby buildings, the suppressed Daman Marksman Rifles opened up.
The Eastern Spirit snipers fired single, precise shots and immediately relocated, making it impossible for the Allied soldiers to pinpoint their positions in the dark and the rain.
"Damn it! Get into the buildings! Secure the high ground! Move!" the officer bellowed, trying to rally his men.
His shout immediately marked him as the commander. A split second later, a 7.62mm round struck him in the back of the head, blowing his face off.
"Damn it! Move! Get inside!" the next senior officer screamed, feeling completely surrounded by invisible, lethal phantoms.
The surviving Allied soldiers sprinted for the entrance of a large commercial building, desperate for cover. Just as the lead element reached the doorway...
Pew! Pew! Pew!
A hail of suppressed automatic fire erupted from inside the lobby. The Allied soldiers were cut down where they stood.
"Damn it! They're already inside the buildings!" a veteran soldier screamed, diving behind a parked car.
Pew! A bullet punched through his helmet before he even finished his sentence. He lay dead on the wet pavement.
"Where are they?! WHERE ARE THEY?!" The remaining Allied soldiers were on the verge of a psychological breakdown. They were being slaughtered, and they still hadn't even seen the enemy!
BOOM! BOOM!
More explosions echoed from different sectors of the city.
The gunfire was completely erratic and decentralized. The Allied garrison was utterly bewildered. Their fortified perimeter checkpoints hadn't reported a major breach, yet they were taking heavy casualties deep within the city limits!
Units stepping out of their barracks to respond to the alarms were instantly ambushed by suppressed fire. A few shots would ring out, men would fall, and then silence. When the Allied soldiers attempted to pursue the shooters, they were inevitably ambushed again from a completely different direction before they could advance a hundred meters.
"Report! We have flash traffic from Tianyu City! They are under attack!" a staff officer sprinted into Vostok's command center.
"Tianyu City?" Vostok's eyes narrowed, and he exchanged a meaningful look with Vitali.
"It begins," Vitali murmured.
"Indeed. Hu Hao has finally launched his offensive. Damn him," Vostok nodded. They had anticipated that Hu Hao wouldn't allow those major cities to remain in Allied hands.
"However, Supreme Commander... the report from Tianyu City is highly unusual. They state there is no preliminary artillery bombardment, and no armored units have been sighted! They have no idea how the enemy forces infiltrated the city!
"Currently, our garrison is taking fire from all directions. The enemy has successfully fractured our defensive lines and isolated our units. The entire garrison is engaged in chaotic, decentralized urban combat. The Division Commander reports he still hasn't identified the primary axis of the enemy advance!" the staff officer elaborated.
"What did you say?! They don't know the axis of advance?! No armor?! No artillery?!" Vostok stared at the officer in profound disbelief.
"Yes, sir. That is the official report," the staff officer confirmed.
"What kind of tactics are these?!" Vitali asked, equally bewildered.
"Get Major General Hippocrates on the secure line. I need to speak with the Tianyu City commander directly," Vostok ordered after a moment of stunned silence.
"Yes, sir! I will establish the link immediately!" the staff officer hurried away.
Vostok turned back to Vitali. "Is it a localized partisan uprising? Or perhaps small, independent commando units? It can't be Hu Hao's main force."
"It's unlikely to be partisans. They've already fractured Hippocrates's entire division and isolated his units. An uncoordinated civilian uprising couldn't possibly execute such precise, devastating tactical maneuvers," Vitali shook his head.
"Then this makes no sense. Hu Hao didn't commit his main force, and he didn't utilize his artillery. This completely contradicts his established operational doctrine!" Vostok frowned, his mind racing to solve the tactical puzzle.
"Supreme Commander, the link with Major General Hippocrates is established!" the staff officer reported, returning to the command table.
(End of Chapter)