Volume 10: Ancient Battleship Chapter 525: Starting with a Suicide Mission
"Go to the imam, he will tell us who the enemy is." said the NPC teammate.
In the Arab world, the status of imam is equivalent to that of "priest" in Catholicism, but there are some differences between them. If translated literally, it is equivalent to "teacher who teaches scriptures."
(PS Because the name of that sect will be automatically blocked by Qidian with asterisks, it was blocked in yesterday's chapter, so in the following text, any mention of this sect will be replaced by the ancient name "Da Shi".)
The imam mentioned by the NPC is actually a small leader of the Hawiyi militia organization and a subordinate of the warlord Aidid. Instead of imparting doctrine, he spends more time teaching his militiamen how to operate weapons...
Using religious beliefs to control subordinate armed personnel is a common method used by many Arab countries. Although the combat effectiveness of those fanatical believers is far inferior to that of formally trained soldiers, any normal person would inevitably be frightened by their fearlessness of death.
As the old saying goes, even the most aggressive ones are afraid of those who are not afraid of death... In the original novel of Black Hawk Down, this group of armed militiamen exchanged thousands of corpses of their comrades for the so-called "victory" and drove the exhausted and terrified US troops out of Mogadishu like cattle.
Ke Lan couldn't help but think of the heretical sects in reality.
Fortunately, the heretical sects were established only a dozen years ago, and their foundation is far less solid than that of the Arabs, who had existed in the 7th century AD... Moreover, the heretical sects are more like a "tool" that the prophet casually fabricated to satisfy his own desires, and a tool full of self-destructive tendencies - rather than calling it a tool, it would be more appropriate to call it a "consumable."
But there is one thing that is enough to make the threat of heretical sects rank ahead of all religions that have appeared in human history: the "God" believed in by the Arabs is an idol fabricated by humans, but the "God" of heretical sects is real.
Even Ke Lan himself had witnessed the "miracle" of that god with his own eyes.
For ordinary people with weak wills, this kind of existence is enough to subvert their cognition and drive them crazy... When the initial madness gradually fades away, these people whose cognition has been "reshaped" will become extremely loyal believers of the heretical sect.
Ke Lan glanced at the NPC companion holding the machine gun, and saw a similar fanatical look flashing in the other's eyes.
…
The two men pushed open the shabby door and walked out quickly.
At this time, Ke Lan could already hear the sound of helicopter rotors coming from far outside the city. The civilians who were originally bustling on the street suddenly became a little agitated - many people did not run back to their houses immediately, but stretched their necks to look around for something.
In fact, many of these "civilians" are not civilians in the true sense. As long as they pick up guns, they become armed militia and enemies of the US soldiers.
Guns can be found everywhere in Mogadishu.
Ke Lan couldn't help but think of a line from the movie: They were fighting the entire city...
"They" refers to the Rangers and Delta Force members trapped in Mogadishu.
An old black man wearing a white linen robe and a turban of the same color on his head stood across the street and waved at Ke Lan. The moment Ke Lan saw him, a line of text popped up in front of him: "Mission Objective: Go to the militia assembly point."
The NPC companion had already pushed aside the passers-by and ran over, and Ke Lan hurriedly followed.
Apart from the fact that everyone was speaking Chinese, which made him feel a little magical, the scenes, lighting, and NPC characters were no different from the real world. When Ke Lan squeezed through the crowd, he could even smell the sweat emanating from the NPCs.
"Hurry up, hurry up, come here." The old man in white robe pulled Ke Lan and the other person into a low adobe house. In a corner where the sun could not reach, a dozen black uncles with "natural camouflage" were squatting in the dark corner, holding all kinds of firearms in their hands - the types, calibers, and origins of these firearms were extremely varied, but they all had one common feature, that is, they were all very old.
These people probably don't even know the standard shoulder-to-shoulder shooting posture, let alone the daily care and maintenance of firearms...
A black man wearing a denim vest and a baseball cap worn backwards was holding a submachine gun and lecturing the militiamen with spit flying: "The damn Americans planned a raid. They wanted to capture Aidid, but Aidid had already received the news in advance and left."
He glanced at Ke Lan and another militiaman who had just walked into the room, and then said, "But Aidid's cadres are still staying in the Olympic Hotel. Your mission is to protect them and take them to a safe place!"
Hearing the words of the little leader, Ke Lan's heart couldn't help skip a beat - the first mission their militia team received was actually more difficult than he had imagined.
The "capture operation" mentioned by the small leader is the "Operation Eileen" planned by the US special forces in the movie to arrest Aidid's senior staff. It belongs to the first half of the entire "Black Hawk Down" incident. At this stage, the US army basically did not encounter any decent resistance. Under the cover of the Rangers, the Delta team members broke into the Olympic Hotel neatly, quickly eliminated the militia defending the hotel, and took the target person to the convoy.
As an old player of this game, Ke Lan has naturally played this part of the plot when using the Delta character and the Ranger character. Compared with the entire game process, this part can only be regarded as a novice tutorial at best. The difficulty is so low that it can be ignored. It is basically used to familiarize players with the game operations.
Even if you choose the Delta Force in "difficult mode", as long as you pay attention to the crossfire in the corner when rushing into the hotel, and give priority to eliminating the militiamen with automatic weapons, the remaining enemies will be quickly killed by the NPC teammates who follow even if the player does not fire a single shot.
From the perspective of the U.S. military, this part of the game process is a tutorial for beginners... But if it is the other way around, from the perspective of Aidid's militia, it is equivalent to a suicide mission - although the movie only has a few shots describing this part of the militia that came to support the hotel, in the game, these people basically rushed out to get killed... Unless they delayed the start time of the convoy for a few minutes, they didn't even kill a single U.S. soldier.
It was not until the Humvee convoy began to evacuate that a dead American soldier appeared - Sergeant Pila, who was sitting on top of the Humvee and operating the M2 heavy machine gun.
Ke Lan thought that the first mission would be a less difficult task such as destroying roads or ambushing a convoy, but who knew that they would be asked to support the Olympic Hotel right from the start. This was simply a hellish start!
"Quick! Quick! Let's get going!" At the urging of the militia leader, the dozen people quickly climbed onto the two Toyota pickup trucks parked at the back door, and Ke Lan also got into the passenger seat of one of the pickup trucks.
Machine gun bases were welded in the cargo beds of the two pickup trucks, which were equipped with a US-made M2HB "Laoganma" heavy machine gun and a 14.5mm caliber "DShK" anti-aircraft machine gun produced by the Soviet Union during World War II.
Ke Lan was not unfamiliar with this vehicle. When he was playing the Ranger camp, they were the first enemies he encountered. However, these two heavy machine guns failed to shoot down the helicopter. Instead, they were shot into sieves by the Vulcan cannon on the helicopter.
"Anyway, as soon as we see a US helicopter in the sky, we will just jump out of the car." Ke Lan made up his mind and began to search around the co-pilot seat.
According to the setting of the game, on the vehicles of the US Army - whether it is a Black Hawk helicopter, a Little Bird helicopter or a Hummer, you can always find some extra equipment if you search carefully on the road. At the very least, there will be a few grenades and stun grenades. If you are lucky, you can even find a fully equipped M733 carbine or MP5K submachine gun. These weapons are much more useful than the M16A2 rifle issued by the Rangers, which can only fire semi-automatically and three rounds.
However, in the cab of the pickup truck, Ke Lan only found a few 14.5mm bullets for the DShK anti-aircraft machine gun... This stuff was completely useless to him. He would never run behind the pickup truck to operate the machine gun, as that position would make him a sitting duck.
"Hey, brother, do you have any extra magazines? Give me a few." There was really no other way, Ke Lan could only pin his last hope on the thick-lipped pickup truck driver next to him.
"Magazine? An AK magazine? Oh, here's one." The driver held the steering wheel with one hand and rummaged through the glove box filled with debris and garbage with the other hand, dug out a bent magazine and threw it to Ke Lan.
Ke Lan took the magazine and took a look at it. At the bottom of the magazine, he saw a line of Chinese inscriptions mixed with numbers: "Northern Industry XXXX-Type 56XXX" - this was not an AK magazine, but a "56-charge" magazine exported from China.
Fortunately, the Type 56 submachine gun was originally copied from the AK47, and the magazines of the two are completely interchangeable.
After throwing the magazine to Ke Lan, the driver stopped talking. Ke Lan did not continue to talk to him either. Instead, he took advantage of the time while on the road to quickly fill the spare magazine with bullets.
In less than five minutes, two pickup trucks drove to the alley just across the street from the Olympic Hotel. The militiamen in the trucks jumped out and ran towards the hotel. But Ke Lan looked around, locked onto a three-story building with a balcony, smashed the door open with the butt of a rifle, and walked in quickly.
"What are you going to do?" Seeing that Ke Lan did not follow the "planned route", the NPC who had been with him from the beginning stopped and asked.
"Since the Americans want to raid the hotel, they must go through the street. This house is a commanding height facing the street. We can go to the balcony and the roof to snipe the Americans." Ke Lan explained to the NPC.
"Good idea!" The NPC nodded and ran over immediately.
It turns out that this guy is the assistant assigned to him by the system ... Ke Lan thought to himself. When playing the Delta Camp and the Ranger Camp, there will be one to three soldiers following him all the time. Even if the player does not act according to the mission instructions, these NPC soldiers will always follow the player and provide cover for the player.
Of course, Ke Lan did not tell the truth to the NPC here - running to the rooftop to snipe the US troops on the street would only make them the target of helicopters in the air. Their legs could not outrun the bullets. If they really did that, they would probably become the first two militiamen to be killed in the "Black Hawk Down" incident.
Ke Lan's real purpose was actually the car that the informant used as a marker.
In the original work, in order to allow the soldiers involved in the attack to identify the target building "Olympic Hotel" at the first time, the US intelligence personnel specially arranged for an informant to park a car at the door of the hotel and put a cross-shaped logo on the roof of the car with eye-catching white tape.
If this car could be moved away...then the Delta Force's initial raid might not have gone so smoothly.
Ke Lan and his NPC teammates quickly rushed to the balcony on the third floor. At a glance, Ke Lan spotted the informant's car - a cross with white lines on a black background. Although it was not visible from a horizontal angle, it was very eye-catching when looking down from a high place.
At the same time, a US reconnaissance plane was hovering in the nearby airspace, probably helping the attacking US troops to locate themselves.
In five minutes at most, helicopters loaded with Rangers and Delta Force members will appear here...the war is about to break out.
"Did you see that car?" Ke Lan pointed at the car and said to the NPC teammates.
"I see!" The NPC teammate nodded vigorously, "Why is there such a pattern on that car?"
"This thing may be used as a positioning mark for the attacker! We have to move it away!" Ke Lan said.
"So what should we do?" the NPC teammate asked immediately - although the AI of these NPC characters is not low, due to the setting of the game, they generally will not question the player's suggestion unless the suggestion is too outrageous: for example, Ke Lan, a militia character, said that he wanted to shoot his own BOSS Aidid to death, then the player would definitely be regarded as a traitor and executed by teammates in minutes.
"Let's go!" After saying that, Ke Lan and his teammates ran downstairs again. While keeping an eye on the reconnaissance helicopter in the sky, he quickly moved to the informant's car.
The timid informant had already left, leaving only an empty car on the street.
"Can you drive?" Ke Lan asked.
"Yes." The NPC nodded.
"That's good!" Ke Lan used the butt of his gun again, smashing the window glass on the driver's side.
"Drive this car away, as far away from here as possible!"
