PLA Marine Corps training camp, Sino-Vietnamese border. 1045 hrs.
Our bullet-ridden truck skidded into the training camp. Xung and I leapt out and ran over to command post Delta. When we entered, Xung explained the infiltrator attack. "OK." Said Major Li. "Well, you've arrived too late to participate in the initial attack. Tell you what, jump on the Helix and it'll take you down to Viet-Tri." I nodded and we went outside, gestured to the six soldiers in the back of the truck, and our group clambered into the chopper. It took off and in several minutes we were flying over the scene of the tank battle. I whistled, and turned to Xung, shouting over the noise of the Helix. "That must have been some battle, eh?" before Xung could respond, the helicopter was landing in the rubble-strewn square. I dropped out of the chopper, followed closely by Xung and the rest, to meet the Special Forces (SF) commander who had led the attack: Lieutenant-Colonel Mao Zequin.
Viet-Tri, Vietnam. 1056 hrs.
Captain Kai Hiwatari of the NVA was marched along the road into captivity. He turned the corner with his fellow captives, urged on with a "Hurry up!" and a prod from a bayonet. He passed a square in which a helicopter was sitting. He noticed also a young Lieutenant talking earnestly with Lieutenant-Colonel Zequin, before he was herded onto a truck with the rest of the prisoners. Two marine guards came with them. The 3 trucks started up and rolled out of the square, destination: the Viet-Tri armoured division HQ.
Fate, however, had a hand to play in events in an artillery base 2 miles east; the guns were preparing to fire. When they did, the shock of the population of the village surrounding it was profound; after all base had been there for years and never fired a shot.
In Viet-Tri, however, the shell's arrival induced a trained response. Rei Kon's eyes widened; "Get down!" He yelled, pushing the commander onto the dirt road. The shell landed on a building on the outskirts of the city and blowing it to smithereens. More shells followed, smashing the once proud city into the dust. Rei hauled the to his feet, shouting. Rei screamed over the noise of the explosions. "Sir, we've gotta get you into cover!" A shell smashed into the square, blowing chunks of concrete into the air. Rei pulled the C.O. over to an abandoned Vietnamese slit trench. "Sir, stay here! I'm going to get the radio from the listening van!" The van was sitting on the other side of the square. The Lieutenant raced towards it, dodging around the Helix, which was trying to take off. No sooner had Rei passed it a shell scored a direct hit on the robustly built machine, blowing it to pieces.
Rei was knocked to the ground, a piece of stone slicing his cheek open. As he picked himself up, blood trickling down his jaw line and dripping onto the ground, another shell exploded into a building directly opposite him, bringing it crashing down in a shower of dust and masonry on the Chinese soldier. Blackness engulfed him.