"FUCK! Look at what he's doing?!"
The drone operator was caught off guard, couldn't help but curse out loud, exclaiming in surprise.
"Courting death!" The weapons control officer sneered: "This guy has been driven crazy by us."
The drone operator swiftly pushed down the control lever.
The engines of the MQ-9 suddenly roared louder, rapidly lowering altitude in pursuit.
The two Black Hawk helicopters also noticeably sped up, like two raptors that had spotted prey, diving straight in with rotor-induced winds faintly blowing.
Song Heping burst forth with his last reserves of strength, racing to the edge of the gravel shore.
He zeroed in on a giant rock about half human height, relatively stable, and dove behind it.
He quickly unfastened his backpack, rummaging desperately.
He felt out the last two hand grenades, and…
A flat, metal canister—
This was a "little gift" from Nurase, a specially made, high-combustion aluminum thermite incendiary canister!
Originally intended for sabotaging equipment or taking down barbed wire during border crossings when necessary.
Time was tight!
The roar of the helicopters was already deafening, the hovering wind pressure sweeping up clouds of dust, blowing so hard one couldn't open their eyes!
He could even hear the metallic clanging of the helicopter's gun cocking!
They were very close!
Very close!
These guys, perhaps seeing he's injured, estimated they flew so close to give him that threatening death pressure, intending to break his fighting spirit.
For ordinary people, surrounded by the two Black Hawks, an MQ-9 drone plus two elite US Special Forces squads, would definitely give up resisting, and those slightly more heroic might choose to shoot themselves.
But Song Heping was no ordinary person.
He would rather die under enemy gunfire than choose to commit suicide while there's still a sliver of hope. If he must die, he would grip the hand grenade and wait for the enemy to come, going down together!
This was the mark engraved in his bones from his training and the army he served.
Hearing the helicopters getting closer, Song Heping took a deep breath, his eyes suddenly radiating a reckless frenzy.
He fiercely pulled the safety pins off the two hand grenades, releasing the handles, but did not throw them immediately!
Instead, he silently counted his heartbeats, timing the fuse burning!
One second…
Two seconds…
Three seconds…
The two Black Hawks flew left and right, approaching within thirty meters of Song Heping's hiding spot, hovering above the gravel shore, their cabin doors wide open.
US Special Forces soldiers wearing desert camouflage and smeared with camouflage grease paint tossed ropes out from the cabin.
Inside the cabin, the captain commander of the action team had already seen Song Heping's slightly staggered steps through the night vision goggles, with previous intel from the drone indicating the target had a leg injury!
An injured target, all alone!
Yet the top brass deployed two small squads.
For a moment, the captain felt like he was looking at a mouse trapped in a cage.
"GO! GO! GO! He's alone! Get down there and take him out!"
Just then, Song Heping suddenly moved!
With his left hand, he hurled the aluminum thermite canister with all his might towards the tail rotor of the left Black Hawk helicopter!
In the army, his grenade throwing range easily exceeded 80 meters; even an aluminum thermite canister, throwing fifty or sixty meters posed no problem!
He now aimed not to hit, but to disrupt and create panic!
At the same time, quickly grabbing two hand grenades, releasing the safety clips, delaying three seconds…
Hurling them successively!
Like deadly stones from a sling, they drew two precise arcs— one aiming for the ground below the right-side Black Hawk.
The other aimed higher, directly at the open cabin door of the right Black Hawk!
"Fire in the hole!!!"
A terrified shriek from a US soldier inside the right Black Hawk's cabin, a crew member operating the machine gun at the cabin's edge immediately pressed the firing button of the Gatling machine gun.
Zzzzzzzz—
The dense rain of bullets instantly shattered the rock fragments of Song Heping's hiding stone.
Song Heping, as ungainly as a sand lizard, burrowed into the bottom of the large rock, curling up with his head shielded, trying to tuck his body into the rock crevices.
This all happened in a split second!