Chapter 186: A One-Man War (1)

"Buzz, buzz, buzz..."

Accompanied by the low engine hum of armed Humvees, a squad of soldiers from the Delta Force of North Carolina sat quietly in their vehicles, advancing steadily with the armored unit ahead.

"Lieutenant Vonder..."

An order was relayed through the communicator to the vehicle where the squad's commander, Lieutenant Vonder Abramson, was located: "We have received notice from above, ordering us to proceed immediately and prepare to clear mines..."

"Clear mines?"

Lieutenant Vonder was stunned by this inexplicable order. He turned to look at the communications soldier and asked with a frown, "What's the situation?"

"Four tanks ahead have already been destroyed by anti-tank mines. The enemy is much trickier than we imagined..."

"Anti-tank mines..."

Lieutenant Vonder's expression froze. He then nodded with a heavy face, "Snow, take a team to B-Team's side. The rest follow me..."

If the enemy had truly planted anti-tank mines, the situation might be very dire.

As a special unit ordered by the United States Army Department to serve in NEST, Lieutenant Vonder and his men, though numbering only about fifty, represented nearly half the combat strength of the United States Delta Force, as the Delta Force's combat personnel had always been maintained at around two hundred.

After arriving at NEST, Lieutenant Vonder and his men gained the full trust of Commander William. Not only was he told the truth about the Autobots, but Lieutenant Vonder and his men had also conducted several joint drills with the Autobots and participated in the previous Battle of Tucson.

The awkward part was that because their training from the beginning was based on the premise that their opponents were Decepticons, NEST had not configured a specialized mine-clearing unit, and they were ill-prepared in this regard.

"Attention everyone, the situation is likely even worse than imagined..."

Jumping out of the vehicle, Lieutenant Vonder immediately led a team of Delta soldiers, jogging quickly past the forward tank unit that had slowed its advance, and soon arrived in front of a destroyed M1A2 tank.

Because of the anti-tank mines, the advancing tank unit had already stopped.

Armed helicopters circled in the sky above; their speed of advance was quite fast, and they had already vaguely brought the nearby airspace under their control.

However, because the radar had not detected any hostile combat units on the ground, the formation was clearly very cautious.

"Careful, there are mines ahead..."

Reminded by the NEST marines following behind the tanks, Lieutenant Vonder nodded in thanks.

With a wave of his hand, the Delta members who had undergone mine-clearing and explosive search drills quickly passed the tank convoy and, under the protection of the armed helicopters overhead, cautiously searched the road ahead for potentially buried anti-tank mines.

"An anti-tank mine discovered in sector B1A4..."

"I have one here too..."

Relying on their rich experience, the Delta soldiers soon discovered several anti-tank mines.

Because anti-tank mines generally have weight requirements to be triggered—for example, the trigger weight standard for American anti-tank mines is 180 kilograms—they are not easily triggered, so they are not difficult to clear.

Lieutenant Vonder soon discovered one as well. After personally disarming the threat of an anti-tank mine, he picked it up to take a look and couldn't help but frown: "Is this the Army's standard anti-tank mine again?"

With his keen eye, he naturally recognized at once that the anti-tank mine in his hand was indeed the standard equipment of the U. S. military. This discovery made him frown incessantly, "How could our equipment fall into the hands of those robots?"

Just as he was puzzled, a sudden explosion came from not far away.

Then came screams. Lieutenant Vonder hurriedly handed the disarmed mine to a soldier to take aside and store, while he grabbed the communication device in his hand and asked, "Where did that explosion come from? What's the situation?"

"Sir, damn it... there are anti-personnel mines..."

From the communication device, a flustered reply came back quickly.

Lieutenant Vonder's heart sank upon hearing this. Anti-personnel mines were an extremely cruel weapon; once they exploded, they would cause massive casualties to infantry units.

Although one might see soldiers in some military-themed movies and TV shows escape after stepping on an anti-personnel mine due to amazing reaction speed, in reality, that was merely artistic embellishment.

The cold reality was that even for the most elite special forces soldiers, the probability of dying on the spot after accidentally stepping on an anti-personnel mine was as high as over 70 percent, with another 20-plus percent chance of lifelong disability, and only a 5 percent chance of potentially remaining unscathed.

Swallowing hard, Lieutenant Vonder felt troubled. It was true they had undergone anti-riot and mine-clearing training, but it focused on counter-terrorism. Since they lacked specialized mine-clearing equipment and protective gear, if there were truly a large number of anti-personnel mines on the current battlefield, even they, coming from the elite Delta Force, would be helpless.

After pondering for a moment, he decisively issued an order, "All personnel, stop clearing mines upon hearing this order. I will..."

Before he could finish his sentence, another explosion suddenly came from a hundred meters away, and the screams coming through the communication device were almost incessant.

"Medic, we have wounded here..."

"Ryan, damn it, it's a Bouncing Betty..."

Clearly, another well-hidden anti-personnel mine had been triggered, and it was a Bouncing Betty anti-personnel mine that left no room for reaction.

The explosion immediately took the life of the soldier who couldn't react in time and caused injuries to several nearby Delta Force soldiers as well.

Seeing that the battle had just begun and they hadn't even seen what the enemy looked like, they had already suffered casualties and losses.

Lieutenant Vonder had to issue the command to stop the work of searching for anti-tank mines. With an ugly expression, he raised his communicator to request instructions from Commander William: "Sir, the situation has exceeded expectations. There are mines everywhere here, not just anti-tank mines but also anti-personnel mines and Bouncing Betties. We lack specialized mine-clearing equipment and protective gear, and the brothers have already started suffering casualties. I request to stop manual mine-clearing..."

The other side of the communicator was silent for a long while before Lieutenant Vonder heard a hoarse voice, "Request approved. Withdraw two kilometers immediately. I have ordered the rear to prepare; M270 rocket launchers will soon clear a path for the tanks to advance..."

"Yes..."