Defiance

All hopes and expectations for the future vanished with the roar of a suicide drone. First survive this suffocating battle, then worry about the rest. Gao Fei truly had no idea what he could do right now. If he went out, he would very likely be blown to pieces by a drone; if he stayed put, stifled inside this dugout, he couldn't do a thing. The battlefield was just this cruel. Soldier kings, master snipers—under a mature modern system of firepower, they were all complete nonsense. An infantryman today was nothing more than a screw. The war machine truly could not function without these tiny screws, but the problem was that a single screw or even a few of them could never produce the power of a whole machine. If a screw could hold firmly in its place, it had fulfilled its purpose. Just like Gao Fei's current situation: nailed down here, holding fast to this salient surrounded on three sides by the enemy. If friendly forces arrived and the war machine operated normally and pushed forward, he would have a chance of living. If the enemy arrived first, there was nothing left to say—they were done for. No wonder that after capturing this position, supposedly a trench junction, they hadn't seen any routed enemy troops trying to withdraw through here. It turned out friendly forces hadn't broken the enemy at all. If the enemy hadn't collapsed, where would routed troops come from? So that raised the question: was his own unit too fierce, or were the friendly troops too incompetent? If friendly forces could break through the enemy's line across the board and relieve this salient surrounded on three sides, there would still be hope. Gao Fei was eager to poke his head out and see, but just as the thought crossed his mind, he saw Parker suddenly scramble up, charging forward along the ground on hands and knees like a madman—and heading straight for him. "Drone!" Gao Fei nearly fired, but Parker's frantic shout made him hesitate for a fraction of a second, and in the end he held his fire. Parker squeezed into Gao Fei's dugout. Right on his heels came a loud buzz as a drone sliced through the trench. It didn't detonate, instead whizzing right past the entrance of Gao Fei's dugout. In truth, an FPV drone could easily fly into a dugout and kill anyone hiding inside. The only reason it hadn't was that there were too many targets and too few drones. The drone pilot preferred to linger, like a predator picking its prey, selecting a high-value target before detonating. Parker had no intention of snatching a weapon. Pressing himself close against Gao Fei, he gasped urgently, "Don't shoot! If I'd stayed out there, I was dead meat." With only one person in the dugout, the drone might not bother blowing it up. But with two, maybe it would deem it worthwhile. "Get out!" "I'm going, I'll find another dugout! Don't shoot! My only chance of surviving is sticking with you guys—I definitely won't do anything stupid!" Rattling off those hurried words, Parker gritted his teeth, took a step back, and leaped up to sprint down the trench once more. The dugouts were close together. After a few strides, Parker dove into another one. Then Gao Fei heard another sharp buzzing sound as the FPV drone swept through the trench again. It wasn't that it lacked an opportunity to strike; it simply chose not to. It was terrorizing them, maintaining deterrence, scaring the grunts cowering in their dugouts half to death so they wouldn't dare emerge. Agonizing. It was truly agonizing. Having scrambled into the dugout, Parker yelled at the top of his lungs, "Two drones! I saw two drones!" Even two drones were enough to create deterrence, not to mention that Parker had merely *seen* two, which hardly meant there were only two in the area. Crucially, this was a salient. Whether the enemy on both flanks reinforced each other or reserves moved up from secondary positions, they all had to pass through here. If Gao Fei and the others cowered in dugouts afraid to come out, weren't they just waiting for the enemy to close in and finish them off one by one? If only he had a shotgun; at least a wide spread would pose some threat to a drone. Trying to hit such a small, agile, blindingly fast FPV drone with an assault rifle was pure fantasy. Deep down, Gao Fei felt unconfident in his reputation as a sharpshooter. He didn't even know how he managed to shoot the way he did. Although he truly had dropped one enemy per shot so far, the difficulty of shooting a person compared to hitting a drone was worlds apart. Gao Fei didn't dare even entertain the idea. The drone swept past the trench once more. Listening to the sound abruptly roar in and vanish just as quickly, Gao Fei felt fear, then despair, and after despair, a suffocating frustration. Gunfire grew fierce again, and it didn't sound far away. Right now, even if Sokholov said something, Gao Fei wouldn't be able to hear it. Hiding inside the dugout, the drone shouldn't be able to see him. Gao Fei pulled out his walkie-talkie, switched it on, shielded it with his body, pressed the talk button, and whispered, "Team leader, what do we do?" "Stay hidden in the dugout and don't worry about anything." Sokholov told Gao Fei what to do, and right at that moment, the company commander's call came through over the radio. "Enemy reinforcements are arriving! Block them! 1st Squad, hold off the enemy reinforcements!" Hearing that made Gao Fei's blood boil with frustration. Things were already like this—stepping out meant death, so what talk was there of blocking enemy reinforcements? Yet Sokholov responded gravely over the radio: "Copy. We'll do our best." With that, Sokholov roared, "The enemy only has two drones! On my command, everyone charge out together! Who lives and who dies comes down to luck! Prisoner! You, prisoner, get your ass out there, or I'll shoot you dead first!" Sokholov's logic was simple: with so many of them charging at once, the enemy only had two rounds in the chamber and couldn't kill them all. But the question was, who would be willing to go out first? Gao Fei felt certain someone would try to shirk and refuse to budge. Sokholov continued bellowing: "I'm counting down three, two, one, and everyone moves immediately! If we charge together, you won't necessarily die, but anyone who dares cower in a dugout is dead for sure! I guarantee I'll shoot them on the spot! That's an order!" Gao Fei tightened his grip on his rifle. He intended to charge out with them. If he died, he died. The point was that cowering in a hole felt far too suffocating; Gao Fei couldn't stand this stifling feeling. Just then, however, Sokholov spoke again: "Rex, you stay put..." "Why does he get to stay put?!" Someone shouted from down the line. Such special treatment was indeed hard for most to accept. It was unfair, truly unfair. Sokholov snapped furiously, "Who said that?!" No one dared own up to it. Sokholov roared again, "If your shooting was as good as Rex's, you wouldn't have to go out either!" Still, nobody made a sound. Sokholov let out a breath, then shouted, "Going out doesn't guarantee you die, but shrinking back guarantees you do! Listen up! Three! Two! One! Move!" Suffocation, extreme suffocation—and after extreme suffocation came fury. Truly, Gao Fei would rather die than cower in a hole. He refused to be protected, refused to hide behind others. That was just his nature, his stubborn pride, beyond cure. The moment Sokholov finished the countdown, Gao Fei bolted out in a flash. Clearing the dugout, the first thing Gao Fei did was look up at the sky. Whether he could shoot the drone down was one thing, but he had to try. Failing to hit it was a matter of ability, which was normal. But what if he actually brought it down? If he shot it down, wouldn't that save a life? Even Sokholov was prepared to absorb a drone strike with his own flesh, never considering using a rifle to shoot it down. All of them chose to gamble with their lives, without the slightest hope of shooting down a drone. Yet Gao Fei had charged out specifically to bring it down. Knowing it was difficult, knowing it was nearly impossible, he just refused to yield. Emerging from the dugout, Gao Fei looked toward the sky, and sure enough, he immediately spotted a small black dot. His hands were faster than his eyes, his eyes faster than his brain. The instant he saw that hovering speck, he raised his rifle and fired. No aiming at all—pure instinct, pure feel. One shot. A single bullet. The drone cruising through the sky plunged straight down with a crack. One shot down, Gao Fei instantly whipped his head around, spotting another drone in the same breath. The hovering drone had accelerated, diving steeply toward the ground. From its trajectory, it wasn't aiming at him, but tracking and shooting a fast-moving drone from the side was even harder. It was close, incredibly close, but drones became harder to hit the closer they got, especially one in full flight. It moved so fast it felt as if his rifle would be wrenched from his grip. Gao Fei swung hard and opened fire in the drone's general direction. Holding down the trigger on full auto, he didn't know which bullet struck home, but if he hadn't let off the trigger, his rounds would have plowed straight into Sokholov's head. The drone lost control, whizzed past right above Sokholov's helmet, and crashed to the ground a dozen meters away. Sokholov stood there in utter bewilderment, still wondering why Gao Fei had just opened fire at him. Crisp and clean. Gao Fei gave no one time to react—not the drone pilot, and not his comrades. He hadn't even given himself time to react. Brain: *I see it.* Hands: *Already shot it.* By the time Gao Fei realized what had happened, the shooting was already done.