Mercenary's War

Chapter 2495 - 2471: Short Break

The enemy retreated. The people from Three-leaf Jungle pulled back to the bottom of a valley in the mountains, then moved laterally to avoid Satan’s interception, chose a relatively weakly defended sector in the Houthis Armed Forces’ line, punched through it, and calmly withdrew back to Saudi Arabia’s positions.If Satan had gone all out to intercept the Three-leaf Jungle unit that had penetrated deep behind enemy lines, they could still have inflicted far heavier casualties on the enemy, but Gao Yang chose not to go all the way in a death match with Three-leaf Jungle.

To be honest, Three-leaf Jungle still had plenty of combat power. Forced to retreat under extremely unfavorable conditions, they ended up in a situation where they were getting pounded and had no time to hit back, but it’s not like Three-leaf Jungle was incapable of striking back.

If Satan had chased and blocked Three-leaf Jungle everywhere, then the people from Three-leaf Jungle would have had no choice but to fight their way out through a path of blood, and it wasn’t worth it for Satan to lock horns to the bitter end with an opponent like that.

So in the end, the confirmed battle result was killing twelve people from Three-leaf Jungle. In any previous fight Satan had fought, that kind of enemy body count was considered very low, and if you looked at it in terms of percentage, it was even lower.

But for Three-leaf Jungle, losing twelve men in battle was already an unprecedented heavy loss. For a Mercenary Group, losing that many people would be enough to shake the very foundation of the group’s existence; even for an underground unit like Three-leaf Jungle, secretly formed, it was an unbearable major loss.

As long as they’re elites, they’re precious. Every elite that dies represents a major loss—in manpower, and in money as well.

In fact, if Gao Yang’s gun hadn’t broken, the losses for Three-leaf Jungle would have been even greater.

The scope isn’t technically part of the gun and can be replaced at any time, but the scope is absolutely one of the decisive factors that determine a Sniper Rifle’s accuracy. Once the scope goes out of zero, the gun naturally stops shooting straight.

A scope looks simple, but making a good one is extremely difficult. There are tons of scopes available on the market; you can get a cheap one for a few dozen bucks, but those scopes are basically just for show.

A scope isn’t just two pieces of glass with a crosshair in between. Some cost a few dozen bucks, some a few hundred, a few thousand, even tens of thousands of dollars, and the difference between them is not something you can see from the outside.

Optical performance is a major index for judging a scope’s quality, but for a military scope, whether it’s fixed-power or variable-power, front focal plane or rear focal plane, how many times it magnifies—none of that is what matters most. The most important thing is shock resistance.

A gun will inevitably vibrate when it fires. If a carefully zeroed scope loses its zero after only a few shots from the recoil, what use is such a scope?

So scopes also have a service life. The constant vibration from firing always affects the scope’s internal structure, making its deviation grow larger and larger until one day it completely loses zero and gets scrapped.

The scope Gao Yang used was extremely high-end—very expensive, and its performance was indeed excellent.

From the day he started using Blade of Satan, Gao Yang had never changed the scope, because getting used to a gun is important, and getting used to a scope is just as important. Now when Gao Yang shoulders his gun, he can fire based on the firing parameters instinctively without thinking, but if he switches to a new scope, he has to get used to it all over again. So even though there were more expensive and better scopes out there, Gao Yang never had any thought of changing his scope.

Blade of Satan had fired about five thousand rounds by now, which is exactly when a barrel performs at its best, especially for this one-of-a-kind barrel. In terms of service life, it had only just entered its "youth," but in terms of performance, it had already reached its peak.

The gun was fine, but the scope finally broke. Even though only five thousand rounds had been fired, far from its theoretical service limit, broken is broken. Plenty of things break within their warranty period.

It couldn’t be repaired. A scope is an extremely precise piece of equipment. If you’re not a professional and you blindly take it apart, the only thing you’ll accomplish is turning a potentially salvageable scope into junk—nothing else. For someone who’s fought all his life and handled guns all his life, not being able to repair a scope is completely normal, because it’s a totally different field.

Gao Yang held the scope in his hand, tilting and swinging it back and forth, then said in utter frustration, "How did it break? Why did it suddenly just break?"

After sighing with obvious regret and reluctance, Gao Yang said to Cui Bo and Phoenix, "Do either of you have a spare scope? Lend me one."

Cui Bo spread his hands and laughed. "I don’t have a spare scope. Even if I did, you couldn’t use it. You think you can run a 6x24?"

Phoenix said calmly, "No."

Cui Bo used a large-caliber Sniper Rifle with a range of over two thousand Mi, equipped with a high-magnification scope. Phoenix used a 4x18 scope, which Gao Yang could have used, but unfortunately, she didn’t have a spare.

Scopes are big and heavy, and changing a scope means you have to re-zero the gun, so no one’s bored enough to carry a spare scope around. Gao Yang himself didn’t bring one; he was just asking Cui Bo and the others casually.

Eileen waved at Gao Yang and shouted, "You can borrow the scope on my 7.62-caliber rifle. Zeiss, 3x9."

For a Marksman, a 3x9 scope is more than enough, but for long-range shooting, the magnification is a bit low. Still, it didn’t matter; it was good enough.

Gao Yang sighed and said, "All right, thanks. Bring it over. I need to re-zero as soon as possible. Right now I feel like a useless piece of trash. This feeling is really bad, really bad."

Having at least set aside one worry—also the most annoying one—Gao Yang turned around and said to Yake, "Any news?"

Yake shook his head. "Our fight here ended too fast. There’s still no word from over there. But the Venus Troops’ combat power is strong, and they’re attacking where the Houthis Armed Forces’ defenses are weak. There won’t be any problems."

"Of course I know there won’t be any problems. I’m worried the Houthis Armed Forces’ soldiers will resist too hard and suffer major casualties."

Letting out a helpless sigh, Gao Yang said with obvious inner conflict, "We handed the Houthis Armed Forces’ intel to the Venus Troops and then had the Venus Troops attack the Houthis Armed Forces, who are now on the same line as us. That makes me feel awful. We’re like... like..."

Gao Yang didn’t know how to describe the role he was currently playing. At that moment, Tarta nodded and said, "Like double agents."

"I feel really guilty, just guilty."

Shaking his head, Gao Yang shifted his gaze back to his own gun, then said quietly, "I think we can leave this place. We don’t have artillery support anymore. Staying here to keep fighting is too risky. We’ll head to the Aden Front Line, then I’m going to have to leave for a bit. I need to re-form our artillery unit, and I also have to make a trip to America, get this gun serviced and some parts replaced, and fit a better scope."

After he finished speaking, Gao Yang waved his hand slightly and said in a low voice, "We’ve been here quite a while. Take a short break, everyone. Get some rest."