Chapter 34: Firepower Overwhelm

Is this reasonable?

This is not reasonable!

At this location, at this time, something utterly unreasonable has appeared!

Where are there pirates who sail a yacht and fly a skull flag in broad daylight?

This is Dongsha; any pirate who can read a nautical chart would not be so bold as to loiter nearby.

There are almost no passing cargo ships or passenger liners near Dongsha, only the Pacific Fleet and patrol water police vessels. Do they intend to rob the water police?

Although he truly could not fathom what pirate would have the heart of a bear and the courage of a leopard, the lieutenant immediately grew alert and rushed into a combat-ready state.

The patrol boat originally preparing to approach and board the yacht also made a sharp turn under command, keeping its distance to observe for now.

Supporting the bridge as it tilted violently due to the turn, Lieutenant Gao Weilun was also utterly shocked.

From a distance of about one thousand meters, several masked figures could be seen standing on the yacht through a telescope, and someone at the stern seemed to be doing something.

The "pirate ship" did not seem to intend to start moving, merely staying in place as if doing something.

It made no reaction to the arrival of the patrol boat, appearing to merely watch coldly from the sidelines.

Gao Weilun picked up the intercom, switched to the public frequency, and began shouting:

"Unidentified vessel, please report your nationality, unit, registration number, and purpose; otherwise I reserve the right to demand a boarding inspection.

Repeat, unidentified vessel..."

Gao Weilun shouted several times in succession, but the public frequency remained silent; instead, it drew questions from teammates on the island.

He immediately reported the discovery of a potentially hostile pirate ship and requested support.

There were seven or eight patrol boats on Dongshadao, the largest weighing over thirty tons.

Upon hearing Gao Weilun's report, the security team on Dongshadao erupted into chaos.

They were equally utterly shocked by the "pirate ship"; the commander, who had just woken up to eat breakfast, immediately ordered the remaining vessels to rush to support.

At the same time, he did not believe pirates had appeared near Dongsha and ordered Gao Weilun to first confirm the other party's identity.

The entire exchange took over ten minutes; Gao Weilun followed instructions and kept shouting, but the "pirate ship" still gave no response whatsoever.

In fact, Tang Wen heard it all, yet simply never made any response.

Because responding was meaningless; no matter what, there were only two choices: flee with all might, or enter combat.

"Quick, keep lowering the hook!"

Tang Yi, eyes bloodshot, lay on the gunwale staring at the trajectory of the steel cable descending.

No matter what, he must search this area completely; he could not miss the Oak due to giving up the last sliver of possibility.

The Oak was a ship of over ten thousand tons; its position after sinking could not have changed much.

He had demanded Tang Wen hold out for at least one hour; if there was no result within an hour, they would give up.

The latter estimated the time for water police support to arrive; even at the fastest speed, it would take about forty minutes, which was not too troublesome.

As long as the first to arrive, 3563, did not interfere, they could simply flee at full speed once the rest of the support arrived.

Gao Weilun had already shouted until his mouth was dry and his throat hoarse, but still no response appeared.

Through observation, he had already discovered the "pirate ship" must have encountered some problem to remain motionless, so he made a bold decision:

Before friendly forces arrived, attempt to approach and board!

He carefully instructed the patrol boat to turn in a curve and approach slowly, while Sergeant Yang Xing, his adjutant, held a telescope to observe the "pirates'" every move at all times.

When the distance closed to around 800 meters, Yang Xing let out an "Eh?":

"What is that? Something covered is beside the bridge."

In the magnified view of the telescope, an object about human height was covered by a three-colored tarp, looking rather strange.

Gao Weilun paid it no mind, casually grabbed an M16, and tossed it into Yang Xing's arms:

"We have guns, body armor, and support; no need to fear."

"They are just mere pirates; what could they have? At most..."

"Bang bang bang"

A metallic impact sound resembling a punch press suddenly came through the air; at the same time, a string of splashes erupted from the sea in front of the patrol boat.

Every soldier on the ship recognized what that sound was.

"Damn, it's a machine gun!"

The helmsman let out a startled cry; without needing Gao Weilun's order, he automatically lowered his head and whipped the rudder hard, sending the bewildered lieutenant tumbling face-first into the deck.

But the latter not only did not complain; instead, he lay on the ground, grabbed his hat, and shouted loudly:

"Return fire, return fire!"

"We have automatic rifles too; return fire immediately!"

There were ten water police officers on the patrol boat; they first hid behind steel plates and railings by instinct, and upon receiving the order, immediately opened fire to return shots.

On the swaying sea, separated by hundreds of meters, there was no point in talking about aiming; pulling the trigger in roughly that direction was enough.

Four or five M16s fired intermittent bursts; for a moment, the noise was tremendous, and the crew on Y1, fearing stray bullets, had to bend low or even lie prone.

A temporary machine gun team composed of two shooters was still returning fire, operating the "Wild Chicken Neck" to fire continuous short bursts, forcing patrol boat 3563 to retreat repeatedly.

In fact, after confirming it was a heavy machine gun, the patrol boat decisively abandoned the plan to approach.

Machine gun rounds and rifle rounds were completely different concepts; the patrol boat could block rifle fire, but steel plates with no armor structure whatsoever would be easily pierced by a heavy machine gun.

Moreover, the latter had a mount, and its accuracy was on a completely different level.

Only after pulling back to a distance of over 1500 meters did Gao Weilun stand up shabbily, grab the intercom, and shout in fear:

"The pirates have heavy weapons; they have a machine gun, less than 0.5 inches, but very powerful, firing continuously at us!

Request support, request support!"

At this moment, the supporting patrol boats had just left port; upon hearing of the heavy machine gun, they also hurriedly retreated, temporarily seeking something capable of suppressing heavy firepower.

Machine guns, the coast guard has them too!

Not only that, they're M2 Old Ma Deams, 12.7mm heavy hitters.

The commander on the archipelago, shocked and furious, grabbed the intercom and ordered Gao Weilun:

"Lieutenant Gao, hold them off. Under no circumstances let this gang of bandits escape.

They dare to use heavy firepower; these are no ordinary pirates. We must strike hard!"

"Yes, sir!"

Gao Weilun felt like crying but had no tears; the enemy held firepower suppression and absolute advantage within a 1000-meter range. It was impossible for the patrol boat to get close.

Hold them off? The pirate ship had a full six engines; even if they chased, they couldn't catch up.

But bound by orders, he could only have the patrol boat circle the 'pirate ship,' firing the occasional faith shot to claim he was executing orders.

On the yacht, Tang Wen, viewing from a third-person perspective, could clearly see the trajectory of every bullet from both sides. Seeing the enemy firing wildly, he simply stayed still; their shots were wildly off anyway.

Unlike 3563, Tang Yi had considered combat scenarios from the start. Critical areas had 10mm reinforced armor; as long as they stayed inside the cabin, there was no need to worry about danger.

As for outside the cabin...

"Commander, we've hit bottom!"

【Steel detected: 375.4 tons (recovery rate 90%). Recover?】

"It's a shipwreck!"

Tang Wen shouted excitedly. Over three hundred tons; it could only be shipwreck debris!

This was a very large chunk of wreckage, meaning the main body must be nearby!

【Steel detected: 12.4 tons (recovery rate 93%). Recover?】

【Steel detected: 852 kilograms (recovery rate 94%). Recover?】

As the grappling hook dragged slowly along the seabed, system prompts constantly rang in Tang Wen's mind.

What they were touching now were just small fragments on the surface or cargo inside the shipwreck, but the dense stream of prompts clearly proved the shipwreck was right below.

After recovering over a dozen pieces of wreckage, the warehouse immediately held over six hundred tons of steel and other supplies.

Although the most critical hull hadn't been found yet, the dawn of victory was already in sight.

However, just then, Tang Wen felt the entire boat get yanked hard.

Before he could realize what happened, quick-eyed and quick-handed Tang Yi stepped forward and grabbed the steel cable that was about to snap.

Due to the sudden density of wreckage fragments, the grappling hook got stuck on a piece of debris.

Since they hadn't anticipated actually salvaging anything beforehand, the steel cable wasn't thick; after all, rolling up over a hundred meters still took up a huge volume, and if it were too thick, the yacht might not even fit it.

The consequence was that even the natural undulation of the seawater overloaded the cable, snapping several strands immediately, leaving only the core section to support the load.

The snapping steel cable nearly whipped a nearby crew member; fortunately, Tang Yi had been watching and rushed to grab the cable.

The other crew members immediately reacted and moved to help, but then heard Tang Yi shout:

"Don't come over! Be careful, it might snap and hit someone!"

Once a taut steel cable snaps, the force is enough to whip a person to death; Tang Yi didn't want to lose a life over this.

Tang Wen, now understanding, quickly recovered that fragment, yet the rope remained taut, as if ready to snap completely at any moment.

Since it was a steel cable, the over hundred meters deployed weighed nearly three hundred kilograms; it was heavy indeed.

Fortunately, the load had been greatly reduced; even with just a few strands, the cable could bear this weight, but it absolutely could not get stuck again, or the steel cable would inevitably snap.

If they failed, they would have to return next time and laboriously search for the coordinates again.

The sea isn't the land; a positioning error of a few kilometers is something to be thankful for, and who knows how long it would take to find it again next time.

Tang Yi's mind raced; he quickly ordered the winch to rotate back a few meters so the fragile section wouldn't continue bearing the load.

But the price was that the grappling hook's height rose, making it harder to hook the shipwreck and requiring more time.

"We need time!"

"Received!"

Tang Wen replied, and immediately a stream of messages popped into his mind.

【Unknown target detected!】

【Unknown target detected!】

【Unknown target detected!】

【Unknown target detected!】

【Entering combat state!】

After four consecutive warnings, Tang Wen entered combat mode without hesitation; immediately, red markers floated above the heads of four small boats approaching in his field of view.

3563, which had been sheltering from the wind outside, also regrouped and moved toward them again.

The tonnage of the four support small boats was even smaller than 3563's, because their speed was faster than the larger ships.

But to Gao Weilun's delight, every small boat had an M2 Old Ma Deams heavy machine gun mounted on its bow, giving them absolute firepower superiority.

Three of them had already split up, attempting to circle around to the side of the 'pirate ship' to encircle it.

If the encirclement succeeded, they would truly be able to suppress Tang Wen from all directions.

Since they already knew about the heavy weapons beforehand, the encircling small boats maintained a distance of around 1000 meters, waiting to gradually close in only after the encirclement was formed.

Watching the movements of the five small boats on the mini-map, Tang Wen immediately understood the enemy's intent.

The 12.7mm M2 Old Ma Deams was incredibly powerful; the yacht's steel plates could hardly provide all-around protection.

Moreover, there was no need to pierce the hull; destroying the external engines or causing personnel casualties would cause major trouble.

At this moment, Gao Weilun was participating in the encirclement while simultaneously watching the pirate ship's every move through binoculars.

Two 'pirates' operating the Type 92 suddenly stood up and retreated into the cabin with their machine guns.

He was just pleased that the reinforcements had scared off the pirates, but then he saw the three-colored cloth mentioned earlier by Yang Xing slip down, revealing what lay beneath.

A flash of firelight streaked past.

Unlike the machine gun, the 25mm autocannon was born for anti-aircraft duty, belonging to the class of anti-aircraft guns.

To facilitate the gunner's observation of the trajectory, a tracer round was interspersed every few shells, burning and glowing during flight to produce a trajectory visible to the naked eye.

Unlike the Type 92 which required manual operation, the warship's own armaments, controlled by the commander, needed no loading or reloading; ammunition was fed into the magazine via the power of the Origin Force, furiously spitting fire outward.

As the saying goes: "Anti-aircraft guns laid flat, court-martial."

Although the caliber was only 25mm, the anti-aircraft gun's propellant charge was immense, and its muzzle velocity extremely high.

When the MK7 machine cannons on both sides of Y1 fired simultaneously, sweeping fire outward to both flanks, everyone saw the fiery red ammunition belts sweeping toward them.

Gao Weilun's mind went blank; Dongshadao had anti-aircraft autocannons, and he instantly recognized what the sound was.

What the hell is there to fight!

If bullets could only injure personnel, the autocannon was already sufficient to directly sink several small boats.

"Rat-tat-tat... Rat-tat-tat..."

The originally arranged encirclement deployment was instantly shattered; the radios were filled with cries for parents and screams of terror.

"Autocannons, it's autocannons..."

"I've been hit, I've been hit!"

"Retreat, the intelligence was wrong!"

Several small boats immediately scattered to flee for their lives; at this moment, who could still care about friendly forces?

The 25mm autocannon was extremely vicious; a graze caused injury, a direct hit meant death!

【Over-penetration*1, Penetration*1 (Damage +460)】

【Over-penetration*2, Ricochet*1 (Damage +180)】

Damage notification prompts of hits kept popping up in Tang Wen's mind; he could already see the health bars of two small boats thinning slightly.

However, his original purpose was primarily to drive them away; the ship lacked observation and aiming equipment, and with visual guidance alone, over a hundred shells fired yielded a hit rate of less than 10%.

But even the random shots were terrifying enough; there was no need to bring out that fearsome 152mm giant cannon; just the two anti-aircraft turrets were already slaughtering everywhere.

The public channel radio was filled with chaotic cries for help and curses; no one dared approach them anymore.

Water police boats usually only bullied fishermen; where had they ever seen a scene of real guns and live ammunition?

When the true "bandits" emerged, five small boats actually dared not return fire!

Just as Tang Wen, on guard, drove away the patrol boats, a message flashed through his mind:

【Steel (Impure) Discovered: 8195.2 tons (Recovery Rate 89%), Recover?】

【Aluminum Alloy Discovered: 154 tons (Recovery Rate 92%), Recover?】

【... Discovered】

Tang Wen did not hesitate and immediately confirmed.

【Recovery Successful!】

【7294 tons of Steel, 52 tons of Rubber, 138 tons of Aluminum Alloy, 16 tons of Petroleum have been stored in the warehouse】

【Congratulations, you have achieved energy reuse through shipwreck recovery, making an indelible contribution to the environmental cause.】

【Obtained Medal "Green Vanguard": Commemorative purposes only】