Kote took the drink without sipping.
His eyes locked onto the main screen's edge—there, the icon representing the "Balance Beam" early warning aircraft was cruising at high altitude behind the war zone, with the data link status all green.
"The beam of information flow has been set up." He murmured, "Now, let's drop that heavy hammer."
04:50, over Tetric City.
The deepest darkness before dawn enveloped the city.
A hint of white appeared on the eastern skyline, like pale blood oozing from the edge of a giant wound.
Then the sky began to scream.
Not the roar of engines, but the increasingly sharp wail of air being torn apart by high-speed objects.
The sound fell from the high altitude, like the Grim Reaper sharpening its blade.
Four F-16C "Fighting Falcons" entered from the northwest direction, flying at an altitude of 25,000 feet, and a speed of 0.9 Mach.
They were armed with mixed ordnance, with GBU-12 laser-guided bombs and AGM-65 "Little Bull" air-to-ground missiles under the wings, and auxiliary fuel tanks and AN/AAQ-33 "Sniper" advanced targeting pods on the centerline of the fuselage.
"'Poison Snake' 1-1 on attack course. 'Balance Beam,' request target confirmation."
"Roger that, 'Poison Snake.' Target A-1, suspected command post in the west of the city. Coordinates sent. Laser code: 1685."
"Code confirmed. Commencing attack."
The lead pilot pressed down on the control stick, and the F-16 dove at a 30-degree angle.
Altitude dropped sharply, speed increased to 1.2 Mach.
The infrared image from the targeting pod displayed the target building clearly on the helmet display—a four-story concrete structure with an antenna shadow on the rooftop.
Distance eight miles, altitude ten thousand feet.
"Locked."
The pilot used the helmet-mounted sight to frame the building and pressed the laser designator button on the control stick.
The laser from the bottom of the pod emitted an encoded beam invisible to the naked eye, forming a targeting point on the building's exterior wall less than a meter in diameter.
"Bomb away."
A GBU-12 dropped off the right wing rack.
The 500-pound bomb deployed its tail fins in mid-air, gliding down guided by the laser beam.
On the ground, the building stood silent in the pre-dawn darkness.
Several stray dogs were scavenging near a heap of garbage.
Suddenly, they pricked up their ears and began to bark uneasily.
GBU-12 almost vertically fell at near the speed of sound.
Within the last 500 meters, the warhead made minor adjustments to align with the laser point.
Impact occurred at 04:51:17.
The explosion tore the entire building apart from within.
Concrete fragments were thrown hundreds of meters into the air, the shockwave swept across two streets, shattering all windows.
A fireball tore a bright orange gap in the darkness, a black smoke column began to rise.
In the command center, the main screen showed a red "X" in the corresponding area, marked "Target Destroyed."
The explosion's heat signal on infrared imagery shone like a supernova.
Colonel Kote leaned forward, staring at that red "X."
His mouth curled slightly upwards.
The first strike, perfect.
"Second target, ammunition depot, coordinates updated."
The massacre in the sky continued.
The subsequent F-16 formations entered in succession.
GBU-12 and "Little Bull" missiles fell one after another, each explosion in different corners of the city setting off new fireballs.
A suspected vehicle gathering point was covered by two "Little Bulls," over ten parked pickups blasted into burning fragments.
The ammunition depot was directly hit, causing a terrifying secondary explosion, flames shot nearly one hundred meters high.
The most lethal blow came from another weapon.
Two F-16s dropped CBU-105 cluster bombs over the eastern outskirts.
These bombs opened at predetermined altitudes, releasing ten BLU-108 submunitions. Each submunition then released four "Skeet" warheads, totaling forty warheads parachuting down, slowing down while spinning sensors activated, releasing deadly explosive-formed projectiles downward.
The entire eastern outskirts were covered in metal streams within thirty seconds.
Thin-roofed buildings were directly penetrated, open-stored materials destroyed. If any personnel were exposed, survival was impossible.
In the air, Apache formations were flying at low altitude.