activa-t Chapter 17 Cleaning
Chapter 17 Cleaning
The two men, one in front and one behind, took advantage of the darkness and the ruins to sneak towards the 17th Cannon Fodder Battalion.
Once out of the convoy's cover, the dark wilderness felt particularly oppressive. Lu Ye took a deep breath of the cold air, forcing himself to calm down.
His physical condition was still not as good as that of veterans like Dmitry, who had been through many battles. The continuous fighting and forced marches made his legs feel slightly heavy, and his lungs felt like they were being pumped by a bellows.
Lu Ye tried to concentrate and keep up with Dmitri's pace, and that familiar sense of clarity in his mind resurfaced.
Although his vision was still obstructed by darkness, he was able to vaguely discern the outlines and layers of bushes and rocks ahead by the extremely faint starlight.
More importantly, he could hear and touch. The rustling of the wind through the weeds was no longer a chaotic noise. He could clearly feel that the cold wind was blowing from the ten o'clock direction, with a wind speed of about two meters per second; there was also the extremely subtle friction sound of Dmitri stepping on the gravel.
The hidden attribute "Perception" is indeed extraordinary, but there is no opportunity to study it for the time being.
"Stop." Dmitri suddenly raised his right fist and half-squatted in a waist-deep ditch.
Lu Ye immediately knelt down on one knee, held the SVD sniper rifle level, and cautiously scanned his surroundings.
Dmitry raised his thermal imaging telescope, and the lens slowly swept across a undulating grassland about four hundred meters ahead.
"As expected, there are rats." Dmitri's lips curled into a cruel sneer.
He put down his binoculars and said to Lu Ye in a low voice, "There are two in a depression at the eleven o'clock position, about 220 meters ahead; the other two are at the two o'clock position, about 300 meters away, hiding behind an abandoned tractor."
"Captain, it's too dark. My scope doesn't have night vision." Lu Ye reported truthfully.
"You don't need to see clearly," Dmitri whispered. "I'll guide you, Anton!"
"Captain, I'm here," came Anton's voice through the earpiece.
"Immediately call the commander of the 17th Cannon Fodder Battalion and tell them we've arrived, just two kilometers outside their defense zone. Tell them absolutely not to fire; we're helping them clean up the trash in front of their gate."
"clear!"
Dmitry turned his head, his gaze fixed intently on Lu Ye: "Lu, your task is to fire. I'll give you the specific direction, distance, elevation, and correction values. Shoot the two in the depression first; they're close and pose the biggest threat."
"Understood!" Lu Ye took a deep breath and pressed the butt of the gun firmly against his right shoulder.
He pushed his "perception attribute" to its limit.
At this distance, his eyesight is largely useless, and he must rely on subtle changes in the environment to catch his prey.
"11 o'clock, 220 meters," Dmitri whispered, announcing the data. "Wind direction to the left, 2.5 meters per second, correction 0.5 to 1 mil."
"Bang!" In the quiet wilderness, the SVD let out a muffled roar.
[Kill the enemy scout, earn 100 points]
"Beautiful!" Dmitry, who had been watching the thermal image, saw the writhing dark shape suddenly flip backward and fall silent. "The other one has gone down and is trying to crawl to the right!"
"Target, lie down! Crawl to the right, 11 o'clock, distance 220!"
Lu Ye quickly pulled back the bolt, ejecting the scalding hot cartridge case, and then slightly wiggled the gun.
"Predict the lead." Lu Ye shifted the crosshair half a mil to the right.
"Bang!" The second bullet left the barrel.
[Kill the enemy scout, earn 100 points]
"The depression is cleared! Move out!" Dmitri grabbed Lu Ye and the two quickly ducked out of the ditch and ran towards a pile of broken bricks a dozen meters to the right.
Just as they collapsed behind the rubble, two dazzling tongues of fire suddenly spewed out from behind the abandoned tractor at the two o'clock position.
"Da da da da!"
A hail of bullets swept across the ditch where they had just taken cover, sending dirt flying everywhere.
The other side was clearly equipped with night vision goggles and had located their approximate position.
"Damn, that's pretty heavy firepower." Dmitry lay on the ground, not even lifting his head. "Lu, 350 meters, can you handle that?"
Lu Ye was panting heavily, his heart pounding like a drum.
The continuous high-intensity concentration and distraction had greatly depleted his already mediocre physical strength. The wound on his left arm reopened, and blood soaked through the bandage.
But gritting his teeth, he poked the SVD's barrel through the gap between two bricks. "Yes!"
The enemy behind the abandoned tractor was firing wildly, and the muzzle flashes made them the most obvious targets in the darkness.
But the enemy was very cunning, hiding behind the engine compartment and firing blindly, barely exposing their bodies.
Lu Ye closed his eyes, forcibly suppressing his frantic heartbeat and calming his breathing.
"He's changing magazines." Lu Ye keenly noticed the extremely brief pause in the enemy's firepower.
Changing a magazine inevitably involves slight body movement and a shift in the center of gravity.
"Ready! Two o'clock, 350 meters away!" Dmitri had clearly noticed this as well and spoke up.
"shooting"
"Bang!" Without any hesitation, Lu Ye pulled the trigger.
[Kill the enemy scout, earn 100 points]
"Another person moved! They rushed out from behind the tractor and ran wildly into the woods! Moving laterally! Between two and three o'clock! The wind direction remains unchanged, 2.5 meters to the left! Lead by one micrometer to the left!"
"Bang!" The fourth shot rang out.
[Kill the enemy scout, earn 100 points]
Dmitri saw the running black figure seem to have been struck in the back by an invisible hammer, and he fell forward, sliding several meters.
"Hoo..." Lu Ye let out a long breath and leaned against the brick wall, feeling as if the SVD in his hand weighed a ton.
"Well done, you do have some shooting talent." Dmitry patted Lu Ye on the shoulder heavily, his tone full of undisguised admiration. "From today onwards, you are our team's sniper."
"Anton, contact Camp 17 and prepare to enter the camp!" Dmitri ordered, reaching out to pull Lu Ye up.
"clear!"
Shortly after, Anton's voice came through the earpiece, "Their commander, Major Vorov, said that the camp gates have been opened and we can enter normally."
"Roger that. Everyone, get in the vehicles and head to the campsite!"
A dozen minutes later, two transport vehicles riddled with bullet holes came to a stop in the central open space of the 17th Artillery Fodder Battalion with a screech of brakes.
The environment here is ten times worse than that of the temporary camp.
The camp was surrounded by makeshift shelters made of sandbags and abandoned vehicles, and the pale beams of searchlights swept across the camp.
Everywhere you looked, there were the groans of wounded soldiers, and the air was thick with the stench of decay and cheap vodka.
A middle-aged man with a bulky build, wearing a dirty major's uniform, strode towards them.
With a cheap cigar dangling from his mouth and a half-empty bottle of vodka in his hand, he was none other than Major Vorov, the commander here.