The Annihilation of the Vanguard Guard Motorcade

In this mismatched contest of sheer strength, the Alliance forces found every exposed firepower position destroyed almost instantly. In a mere five minutes, the AC-130 gunship arrogantly plowed a straight line right through the middle of Kismayo, carving out a safe route for the advancing Coalition infantry behind it.

Following this, the AC-130 began circling directly above the Alliance military camp in downtown Kismayo, incessantly raining down lethal bullets and artillery from the midair.

Despite the presence of the AC-130, which felt like a cheating super-weapon, the Coalition troops were still vastly outnumbered by the Alliance. Thus, during the half-hour melee that ensued, the Coalition managed to advance only four city blocks before being surrounded once again by Alliance forces converging from all directions. Consequently, the government forces major had to radio for help from the AC-130, urging it to loop back and sweep the area with gunfire once more, which ultimately shattered the Alliance's encirclement.

It was precisely at this moment that a garage specially secured by US Special Forces fell into the hands of the Coalition. After supplementing their ranks with two armored cars and eight armed pickup trucks, the Coalition's offensive grew increasingly fierce, accelerating their breakthrough into the city center in coordination with the AC-130.

Amidst the intense battle, the entire city was burning. The sounds of fierce gunfire and artillery echoed everywhere. From time to time, the massive shadow in the sky would swoop around in a circle, wiping out all the Alliance soldiers on the streets and rooftops with dense streams of bullets, and demolishing any exposed Alliance firepower points or vehicles. It was under these exact circumstances that Hou Rui, clutching a scavenged rifle, advanced along a street littered with corpses and the wreckage of pickup trucks.

"Thud-thud-thud-thud!"

The AC-130 suddenly swept past directly above Hou Rui. Amidst the deafening roar, its Gatling gun fired for roughly five to six seconds. Immediately afterward, an explosion of fire erupted on the roof of a small building beside Hou Rui, and yet another Alliance anti-air defense point was destroyed by the AC-130 before it could even play a role.

Hiding inside a building facing the street, Hou Rui was just about to crawl out and resume his advance when a series of structural cracking sounds erupted from right above his head. Looking up, Hou Rui saw several massive cracks spreading rapidly from top to bottom along the outer wall of the small building, while countless clouds of dust, shattered bricks, and wooden splinters rained down like heavy drops of water.

Not good! The building is going to collapse!

Seeing the outer wall of the small building begin to lean, a panicked Hou Rui immediately turned and bolted back into the storefront facing the street. The very second he dashed inside, a massive chunk of the building's outer wall, measuring around fifty-six square meters, slammed flat onto the street outside.

"Cough..." Hou Rui choked violently on the smoke and dust. Waving away the haze in front of his face with one hand, he scrambled awkwardly over a pile of rubble and continued running forward.

Relying on his memory, Hou Rui knew that not far ahead lay the temporary encampment of one of the three vehicle columns led by General Garcia. Earlier, that location had managed to evade the American bombers, and as luck would have it, it did not lie along the Coalition's ground attack route either. Consequently, the area remained relatively calm overall. Hou Rui hoped to check it out and see if he could find any trace of General Garcia there.

Rounding a street corner, Hou Rui spotted an Alliance officer drenched in sweat shouting at the top of his lungs near the camp's entrance. Around the officer, a row of armed pickup trucks had their headlights turned off, waiting silently in the darkness for the next order.

Admittedly, General Garcia's personal guards were indeed far more loyal and disciplined than ordinary Alliance soldiers. Even with the city in chaos as if it were about to fall, they still steadfastly held their respective posts.

"You! Which unit do you belong to?" As soon as Hou Rui poked his head out, he was immediately spotted by the officer coordinating the entrance, who barked out the question.

"I am Second Lieutenant Douglas, attached to Lieutenant Colonel Maras. I'm an armored vehicle driver." Staring at the stern-faced Alliance officer, Hou Rui chose to answer honestly.

"Lieutenant, don't come any closer. The convoy will begin breaking through shortly; just follow behind and provide cover!" The officer dropped a casual instruction and waved toward the side.

Only then did Hou Rui notice that a large mass of retreating Alliance soldiers had already gathered on the street beside the encampment. These routed soldiers, who had likewise rushed to seek refuge with the General's convoy, apparently were not permitted to join the personal guards. Once the convoy began its breakthrough, these men would undoubtedly serve as ready-made cannon fodder.

Unwilling to become mere cannon fodder or blindly follow the crowd in desperate flight, Hou Rui was racking his brain for another solution. He still hoped to infiltrate the personal guard's convoy, as that was his only chance of getting close to the General. However, before Hou Rui could even finalize a plan, that absolutely fatal shadow in the sky had already tracked down a panicked, runaway Alliance pickup truck and was closing in on their position!

"Dammit! That idiot is going to expose us! Everyone prepare for anti-air combat, get the Stingers ready!" the officer in front of the encampment roared in tense fury. Moments later, Hou Rui saw four guards pull long wooden crates out of a large SUV, extract shoulder-fired QW-2 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, and dash away in single file to hide in the small buildings on either side of the street, presumably preparing to use crossfire against the AC-130.

About half a street away, the fleeing armed pickup truck blasted away desperately at the AC-130 in the sky while charging straight toward the guard convoy's encampment at near-maximum speed. The 7.62mm rounds fired by the pickup's machine gun could not pierce the AC-130's titanium armor, but the 105mm artillery cannon mounted in the nose of the gunship obliterated the entire truck with a single shell, sending it spinning high into the air before slamming fiercely back down onto the ground in a burst of roaring flames.

Having effortlessly disposed of the fleeing pickup, the AC-130 in the sky acted like a triumphant, swaggering general, flying completely unconcerned right into the firepower trap set by the personal guards. Following their comprehensive suppression campaign earlier, the crew members of the AC-130 had inevitably grown careless and complacent; in their eyes, the backward Alliance-controlled zone possessed no equipment capable of threatening their safety.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

However, just as the AC-130 soared directly over the rooftop of the guard vehicle camp, four Stinger missiles darted mercilessly into the midair, hurtling toward the gunship's massive fuselage.

Simultaneously, at the roar of the guard officer, dozens of heavy machine gun tracer lines materialized in an instant, weaving a crossfire from multiple angles to trap the AC-130 in the sky. Those dark-red glowing bullets struck the AC-130's titanium armor one after another, bursting into clusters of impact sparks high in the air.

"Beep, beep, beep, beep!"

Inside the cabin of the AC-130, the passive locking radar was wailing like mad, while the crew members, who had been relaxed and careless just moments ago, were now scrambling in utter chaos.

"Don't panic! Deploy decoy flares and execute a rapid climb!"

At this critical juncture, the experienced pilot issued the correct countermeasure. Right before the eyes of Hou Rui and the others, the AC-130 suddenly ejected a massive quantity of decoy flares from both sides of its fuselage, rapidly scattering two broad clouds across the sky. Seen from afar, it looked as though shining wings had been grafted onto the gunship.

"Boom, boom, boom, boom!"

Chasing the tail of the steeply climbing AC-130, the four Stinger missiles detonated one after another. Yet those balls of fire still failed to inflict fatal damage upon the massive hull of the AC-130, merely breaching the exterior add-on armor in a few spots and short-circuiting a handful of internal electrical circuits due to the crew's negligence. Next, however, the personal guards were about to experience the full wrath of the AC-130.

"All units, fire at the sky! Do not be afraid, we are the invincible Liberation Alliance!"

The guard officer continued to rally his subordinates. From armed pickup trucks, armored cars, the buildings on both sides, and the street itself, countless AK-47s, 12.7mm machine guns, PKM machine guns, and even Type 54 pistols opened fire simultaneously. The Alliance soldiers in the vicinity converged their barrage on the circling and turning AC-130, attempting to overwhelm the aircraft with a massive volume of lead.

Such a tactic was, of course, futile. Just as the AC-130 began banking into a wide circle, unlike the other fanatical guards, Hou Rui had already broken into a full sprint. Summoning every ounce of strength he had, he charged all the way toward a basement entrance not far away.

"Coward! What are you doing? Bang, bang, bang!"

The exasperated guard officer fired his weapon at Hou Rui's back, but Hou Rui did not stop. Pulling his head down and hunching his shoulders as much as possible, he rushed unflinchingly toward the basement doors. Without even pausing to open them, he crashed straight through the glass and hurled himself inside.

At that exact moment, the AC-130, having completed its turn, flew back over a cluster of blinking light signals on the ground below, dropped a massive, pitch-black, short and stubby object, and then soared off unhesitatingly into the distance.

High in the air, the massive object trailed a small deceleration parachute as it drifted slowly down toward the earth. Throughout its descent, countless bullets struck the bizarre weapon; the ignorant Alliance soldiers were attempting to preemptively destroy the round, iron-block-shaped device. Yet in the end, their plan failed, and the heavy iron ball—properly known as a BLU-82 vacuum bomb—finally crashed down onto the ground.