OR1-EP2: Battle of Rhodesia (14)

"You are running too slowly, and you will be overtaken by the natives." McNeil did not forget to express his dissatisfaction to Roberts, "If I hadn't suddenly remembered to pay attention to your work progress, you would definitely be burned to death today over there."

"There are too many indigenous people, and we can do nothing." David Roberts didn't want to let himself be a symbol of incompetence. "In my opinion, they are not only organized and disciplined, but also have a clear purpose. Looking at their current movements, they probably want to directly attack the defend force."

Everyone's thoughts have changed a lot compared to before. Previously, they hoped that the natives would take the initiative to attack, so that they could drag the army into the battle and free themselves from immediate danger. However, during the process of arson, David Roberts gradually discovered that the natives were not forced to take the initiative by the fire, but had premeditated, which meant that the peripheral defense forces lacking countermeasures and negligence would suffer extremely heavy losses. In the end, of course, Colonel Karl Duttmann would settle the bill with them. No matter how serious the conflict between these mercenaries who only want to reward money and the army is, the scope of influence must be controlled within reasonable limits. If they win in the end, they still have room to bargain with each other. Once the overall situation is frustrated, the army will inevitably shift all responsibility to these mercenaries who are not working cleanly enough.

The condition they negotiated was that these mercenaries would assist the army to clean up the natives, drive those dangerous natives out of their hiding places, and let the natives rush to the army's defense line. According to this combat plan, the pressure on both sides is not great: the task force only needs to kill a small number of aborigines and wipe out a few tribes to create panic, and then use methods similar to the arson plan to drive the aborigines out of the tribe, and the peripheral army wiped out all the natives. However, the aborigines did not fight on their own, but instead formed a temporary alliance. Using the superiority in numbers, they quickly pushed the task force to the point of nowhere, and then decided to fight the final decisive battle with the defend force who surrounded them. Colonel Karl Duttmann seems to have never considered the possibility of a large-scale invasion of the aborigines in groups. In his concept, these timid primitives will never have the courage to compete with the EU regular army, and they only deserve to stay where they are, being slayed like pigs.

"Speaking of which, have you thought about how to retreat?"

"We continue to walk down the river, there is a small waterfall, and there are no traces of indigenous tribes below the cliff." McNeil said his backup plan, "However, since we have poisoned the river before, I can't guarantee that we won't be poisoned to death when we jump off the cliff from the waterfall, or just hit our heads on the rocks at the bottom of the river."

"It's all the same, at least we still have a certain probability of being able to escape." David Roberts seemed optimistic, "As long as there is still a 1% chance, we may all be able to go back alive."

Carlo Farah would be waiting for them downriver. McNeil didn't know if the Italian young man had escaped from the pursuit of the Britannian soldiers, but the Britannians were not as familiar with this place as the natives, maybe both sides were exploring randomly, maybe Carlo Farah had better luck than those Britannians. However, it is unrealistic to pin our hopes on luck. The only thing McNeil regrets is that he did not have the opportunity to arrange more manpower to ensure the smooth completion of the reception work. Now, they don't know where Carlo Farah is, nor do they know the movements of the surrounding indigenous and Britannian people. The fire is spreading rapidly, and the fire is devouring the homes and lives of the aborigines. It's time for them to take revenge on the greedy colonists. Prior to this, the natives, hoping to wipe out these troublesome reptiles in their territory as soon as possible, decided to send a large force to attack the underground facility previously occupied by the special task force, but of course they were evacuated, and there was no trace of anyone inside. Before leaving, McNeil ordered to take away all the useful things in the underground facility. The natives found nothing, but stepped on the trap set by McNeil inside, triggering a series of explosions. Now it's their turn taste booby traps. McNeil himself didn't know what happened in the underground facility, and he didn't care about the situation there, let alone whether the traps he set were useful. He has done his best, and the current situation cannot be reversed by relying on his own efforts.

"It seems that we are unnecessary." David Roberts saw bushes appearing in the distance and thought they were close to the river. "Our purpose of doing these things is to force the aborigines to take the initiative. Unexpectedly, the aborigines originally planned to attack the defense force's lines at night. It seems that we may have cut off the retreat with our own hands."

Things would have been better if McNeil hadn't decided to poison the river. However, it is too late to repent, and now they can only struggle to survive, and there is no other way.

Michael McNeil ordered the rest of the team to crawl forward to avoid attracting the attention of possible enemies. Now that the Britannians had already thought of laying an ambush by the river, McNeil decided to take a detour downstream, so that he must never encounter those Britannians again. That military officer was not his relative or friend, and it was a miracle for an enemy to let him go once, and it was daydream to expect the enemy to show mercy.

"Where did the water on your body come from?"

"Irrigated by the river." McNeil said in a low voice, "I was afraid that you would be caught in the fire and you would not be able to get out, so I filled all the containers on me with this potentially poisonous river water... You are lucky, otherwise there is no way for me to save you."

They vaguely heard the sound of running water, and the river was right in front of them. The people who had been advancing with trepidation could finally relax for a while, and they began to casually discuss how to evacuate from the downstream, completely forgetting that they were actually still in the enemy's net. McNeil frowned, he looked around, but did not find Carlo Farah. He was a little uneasy, because the young Italian who have always kept his promises probably would not suddenly change his mind at this time. Since he had already given up the chance to escape back to the safe zone, there was no need to escape alone at this time. Everyone knew that fighting alone would not make him out alive.

"Vice-captain, ask a few people to search ahead." McNeil finally made up his mind, "See if there are any corpses of enemies or friendly troops ahead."

Roberts was puzzled, but he saw that McNeil's dignified expression did not look like a joke, and he also realized the seriousness of the situation, so he immediately sent three team members to check the situation ahead. After a while, several team members ran back in horror and asked McNeil to go with them to confirm the scene.

"What happened?" McNeil sternly taught them as they walked, "Speak directly, don't waste time."

"You'd better go and see for yourself, it's not convenient for us to describe." The team members on the side said hesitantly.

McNeil pushed aside the bushes in front of him, crossed several patches of grass, and found a corpse lying on the bank of the river not far away. McNeil was startled at first, but when he took a closer look, the head of the corpse had disappeared. He walked towards the corpse with an extremely sad heart, from the clothes of the corpse, he would say that it was Carlo Farah who had just parted with him not long ago.

"It seems that he didn't break his promise, we were all wrong." McNeil sighed heavily, and sat on the bank of the river in a low mood, "I thought he ran away, but even if he dies here, he will give us directions... ...forget it, we don't have time to give him a eulogy, let's move on."

Everyone didn't dare to delay any longer, and immediately set off to move downstream along the river bank. McNeil stopped in front of the corpse, raised his right hand to the side of his eyebrows, suddenly seemed to remember something, and lowered his half-raised hand in a dejected manner. Seeing this, David Roberts ran back to the corpse and saluted the corpse in a similar manner.

"This doesn't bring us any good luck." McNeil's voice was low, presumably he was not at ease, "Maybe we don't even have the chance to go back alive to commemorate him."

"Maybe, but you should be optimistic," Roberts said. "If anyone has a better chance of surviving, of course it is you-you are much more capable than us."

McNeil asked Roberts if they had heard an explosion on the way, and after getting an affirmative answer, McNeil was sure the trap he had set before leaving had worked. The aborigines who entered the underground facility for reconnaissance have all been buried underground, and neither the aborigines nor the Britannians will waste time cleaning up the ruins or looking for other clues. However, the natives also know that invaders were fleeing the battlefield, and the blockade of the surrounding area was only getting tighter. With the fact that they could not count on the defend force to come to help, the situation looked worse again. McNeil told Roberts that after they escaped from the small waterfall, if they were lucky, they would encounter a guard post or scouts further downstream, and they would be saved at that time.

The faint sound of gunfire in the distance caused everyone to quicken their pace. The natives are still chasing them, and they will never let it go. They rushed into the homes of the aborigines, burned, killed and looted everywhere, and now it was the turn of the aborigines, who had an absolute superiority in numbers, to take revenge on them. Perhaps those Britannians who commanded the natives behind the scenes would consider showing mercy, and the angry natives just wanted to eat all of these invaders.

"Then how do we know where we are?" Roberts suddenly asked a question, "Brother, if we go ashore too early, we might still be circling in the area controlled by the aborigines, and we'll be caught in a trap by then."

"Indeed." McNeil had already prepared in advance, "This small river will flow through a camp where the defense forces are stationed downstream. According to Major Herzog's plan, the nearby troops belong to the reserve force. It will not be dispatched under certain circumstances. Therefore, as long as we can successfully reach there, we will almost certainly encounter our friendly forces, and they will definitely find a way to take us in."

McNeil, however, couldn't even convince himself with this statement. He knew nothing about the actual situation downstream. He only saw from the map that there might be a defense force garrison downstream. Whether the whole plan would be greatly changed because Carlo Farah passed the invalidation information to Colonel Duttmann, McNeil was unaware of this. Assuming that there were no friendly forces downstream at all, they could only choose one of two options: either landed according to their personal feelings, or waited to be washed to Orange and rescued by the locals. For the former option, the risk is also huge. Even if the possible natives in the surrounding area are not considered, their own supplies have been exhausted, and it is not yet known whether a group of outsiders without water and food can make a living.

Only by finding the waterfall will they have any hope of surviving. At first, everyone moved forward enthusiastically, and the river in front of them seemed endless, with no end in sight. It was already late at night, the night sky was pitch black, the strange cloudy weather blocked the moonlight, and the only thing that could illuminate was the fire in the distance. They didn't dare to shoot a new light source here, because it would be easy to be discovered by the surrounding natives, and no one wanted to cause other troubles during the retreat.

"...Captain, when can we reach the waterfall?" Someone finally asked incessantly, "If we haven't arrived yet, they will catch up—"

"Be patient, everyone, we'll be there soon." McNeil casually said, "It looks short on the map, but it's actually a long road... I won't say much, you'd better save your energy and don't go here engage in debate."

However, McNeil could not suppress everyone's exhaustion and inner dissatisfaction. It didn't take long for everyone to agree that they needed to stop and rest. Seeing that there were no natives around, McNeil simply agreed to their request with confidence. The team members hurriedly sat by the river bank to rest, they needed to relax their tight nerves too much. As the few survivors of the entire task force, they believed their luck would help them finish their mission alive, or at least get out of here alive. McNeil sent two of his men to guard the surrounding area while he lay down and began to doze off. Regardless of McNeil's seemingly endless energy, he can quickly fall asleep in less than two minutes. Some people can't fall asleep after lying in bed for more than two hours, and when they get up to work, they are sleepy and unconscious. These people are naturally not suitable for this special task.

David Roberts was still thinking about the tragedy that just happened. Carlo Farah was killed by the natives by the river, so where did the natives who killed him go? Since the Britannians and natives were intercepting them by the river, it must have been expected that the remnants of the team would return, and there was no reason why they should not defend downstream. These mysteries may never be answered, just as David Roberts had no idea why he was being chased by natives when he first started setting fires. Some secrets have to be buried deep.

TBC

Chapter Notes:

In fact, the reason why they did not use communication equipment to communicate with the army may be that the colonel did not want to leave any evidence.

One of the latest official mobile game gives a pretty bad setting, calling South Africa the AREA 2. Considering that the Britannian Empire captured South America and set it as a numbered area first, this new setting is completely unacceptable.