In addition to an armored personnel carrier, the enemy had two squads defending the area.
Selene pointed to the terminal on the map and a bunker at the far end of the runway.
"Since the Eastern Island Alliance occupied this airport, they've been constantly building fortifications. The runway opens onto a broad plain. There isn't any cover at all."
"So this will be a battle of attrition."
The Eastern Island Alliance had placed its bunker in an especially troublesome position. The airport itself stood in open terrain, surrounded on every side by flat plains.
Within a five-hundred-meter radius, there were no buildings apart from the terminal.
"Here's a photograph of the bunker."
Adrian looked over.
The bunker was sandy yellow, apparently constructed from sandbags and wooden stakes.
In the Battlefield World, nothing could be brought in except items classified as weapons or equipment.
To construct this fortification, the Eastern Island Alliance had brought in a large number of sacks and used the surrounding earth and sand to build the bunker.
Selene fell silent.
A few seconds later—
"Captain, leave it to me. Cover me when the time comes, and I'll blow that bunker."
Dylan spoke up.
Without taking that bunker, they had no chance of capturing the airport.
There was only one option: everyone would lay down suppressive fire while one person went forward and used explosives to destroy the bunker.
"Not yet. We'll take the terminal first, then decide what to do next."
Adrian spoke at last.
He could already picture what would happen if they assaulted the bunker.
Not even Dylan could carry out that mission. Neither could anyone in Adrian's VDV squad.
The enemy's position was too good, and there was no cover nearby.
As long as they returned fire through the firing slits, no one would be able to get close.
But Adrian had a solution.
"All right. If that's what you think, Adrian, then let's move out."
Everyone checked their equipment and stepped through the portal.
After the familiar sensation passed, Adrian found himself in the Battlefield World once more.
An abandoned city lay around them, reduced to shattered walls and rubble.
Black smoke rose from distant buildings. The sky was overcast, oppressive.
Their spawn point was inside the abandoned city. Once they rounded a street corner, they could see the airport in the distance.
Wire fencing surrounded the airport, and damaged sections had been repaired.
The Eastern Island Alliance had clearly prepared for this.
"Stay with me."
Selene took the lead, her special forces personnel following behind her.
Adrian and his VDV squad came after them.
They circled around behind the terminal, where the terminal itself conveniently blocked the bunker's line of sight.
The Eastern Island Alliance had already reinforced the terminal.
Sandbags blocked the entrance and windows, leaving only firing slits.
An Eastern Island special forces soldier was also patrolling the terminal roof.
"Damn it. They prepared in advance."
Selene cursed under her breath.
When they had reconnoitered the area before, the Eastern Island Alliance had not yet fortified the terminal, and there had been no sentry on the roof.
"Looks like we'll have to wait until dark."
Using darkness to infiltrate was a standard Federation tactic.
Every country had control of certain Battlefield Instances.
The Eastern Island Alliance, for example, controlled an arms-depot instance.
The Federation had also acquired an arms-depot instance.
However, that depot could not produce armored vehicles. Instead, it produced large quantities of thermal imagers.
That was why the Federation preferred fighting at night.
At those words, the special forces squad under Selene's command breathed a sigh of relief.
A direct assault would certainly bring heavy losses.
Anyone killed in the Battlefield World could not return to reality.
It was the same as death.
"Get some rest, everyone. We'll wait for nightfall."
Selene was the first to leave, heading toward distant ruins.
"Wait."
Adrian suddenly called out, stopping everyone as they turned to go.
"Binoculars."
Adrian held out his hand, and the rifleman behind him promptly passed him a pair of binoculars.
"What is it, Adrian?"
Seeing how serious he looked, Selene hurried over.
"Look."
Rather than explain, Adrian handed her the binoculars and pointed to a small mound beside the terminal.
"My guess is that they'll light bonfires inside those mounds at night. And there are mounds like that every twenty meters or so."
Through the binoculars, Selene could see what was inside the mounds as well.
"Of course. The Eastern Island Alliance knows we have thermal imagers. If they light bonfires at night, it'll seriously interfere with thermal imaging."
A bonfire gave off tremendous heat. At night, it would look like nothing more than a burning pile of wood to the naked eye.
But through a thermal imager, looking at it would be like staring directly into the sun.
"We can't wait for nightfall. We move now."
"Don't do anything reckless, Adrian. It's more than five hundred meters from here to the terminal. We can't possibly rush it."
Selene grabbed Adrian as he started to leave.
"I have my methods."
It was just like the [Ammunition Depot No. 4] instance. From Selene's perspective, that situation had been completely impossible to solve.
Yet to everyone's surprise, Adrian had eliminated more than two hundred NPCs and destroyed several armored personnel carriers.
Selene released Adrian's arm and chose to trust him.
"Everyone, over here."
The VDV squad came to Adrian's side without the slightest hesitation.
The special forces soldiers behind Selene looked at her. Once their captain gave her approval, they too came over to Adrian.
"Captain Selene and I just discussed it. The operation planned for tonight is canceled."
"Wait. If we're not acting tonight, are we going in now?"
The instant Adrian finished speaking, Dylan stepped forward to challenge him.
"There's open ground ahead of us. If we don't make the assault at night, crossing it now is suicide."
Dylan's voice was heated. He was clearly against moving in daylight.
"If you have objections, you can choose not to participate."
Adrian tilted his head toward Dylan, his expression utterly unchanged.
"You're obviously trying to send us to our deaths."
Dylan met Adrian's eyes and refused to back down.
"Listen carefully. I'm not the kind of commander who hides in the rear. If I make the plan, I'll be the first one forward."
Adrian ignored Dylan after that and began assigning combat tasks.
"Captain Selene, this—"
Dylan turned a pleading look toward Selene.
"Do as he says."
"Captain, you too—"
Dylan could not understand why Captain Selene, normally so levelheaded, was going along with Adrian's madness.
The other eleven special forces soldiers exchanged looks, then glanced at Selene standing there. In the end, they crouched down to join the briefing.
With everyone else committed, Dylan had no choice but to let it go.
They're insane. Completely insane. How are they supposed to win a fight in terrain this open?
Dylan thought to himself. He did not believe Adrian's plan was reliable.
"All right. Here's the plan."
"Designated marksman, you're responsible for long-range fire support."
The designated marksman was the squad's sniper.
The full term was special marksman.
Armed with a Dragunov sniper rifle, he could make accurate shots out to one thousand meters.
"General-purpose machine gunner, move to that mound up ahead and establish a firing position. Rifleman, go with him."
Adrian pointed to the closest mound to the terminal.
It was only four hundred meters from the terminal.
Rifles were plainly unsuitable at that range, so suppressive fire would naturally fall to the more powerful general-purpose machine gun.
"Captain Selene, your squad will enter the airport from the flank. This is a dead angle in the enemy's fields of fire, so you're less likely to be spotted."
"Once you're in position, suppress the terminal's firing slits."
A drainage ditch ran alongside the airport runway, allowing them to approach to within two hundred meters of the terminal.
"Understood, Adrian."
Selene agreed.
"Everyone else, move in combat formation behind Selene's team. Once they suppress the enemy firing positions, we'll seize the terminal as fast as possible."
That was Adrian's plan.
Once they pinned down the enemy, the VDV assault element under his command could charge across those deadly two hundred meters.
Insane. Absolutely insane. The Eastern Island Alliance's firing slits are protected by piled sandbags. How are you supposed to suppress them?
Dylan was furious, but he did not say it aloud.
His own captain had raised no objections. What could he say?
"All right, move out. Once the machine gunner and designated marksman are in position, we'll move behind the drainage ditch and then make the push."
Everyone began moving.
This time, Adrian's squad formation was slightly different.
Two squad automatic riflemen took point.
They would use RPK light machine guns to maintain sustained suppression on the enemy positions.
They were followed by four riflemen, tasked with protecting the squad's only medic.
Adrian did not know the Eastern Island Alliance's exact weapon loadout.
But according to Selene's intelligence, they were armed with M4-series rifles.
5.56mm rifle rounds could not penetrate Russian Level 6 heavy armor. As long as they protected the medic, no one in the squad would lose their ability to fight.
Adrian and the combat engineer took up the rear of the formation.
As for the anti-vehicle gunner, Adrian had him wait in the drainage ditch with Selene and the others.
He was the only person in the squad capable of damaging light vehicles.
Selene's earlier intelligence had stated that the Eastern Island Alliance had deployed a Type 73 armored personnel carrier this time.
If they failed to destroy that APC immediately, Adrian and the others would face a barrage from its 12.7mm heavy machine gun.
And then they would have no chance at all.
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