OR1-EP2: Battle of Rhodesia (6)

McNeil's head was buzzing, and the explosion in his ears lingered in his head for a long time. He has been in the army for decades, accounting for most of his life, but he didn't expect that he would also fall into a trap in such an inconspicuous place. There is no excuse to justify himself. If he loses, it will definitely be another fault. No matter how he excuses it, the result will not change. He should be tougher, even if he offends more people. Compared with ruining other people's lives, wasting one's own reputation is not a problem at all. He sat lost in the wild on the grass, in front of the busy team members, who were planning to drag the bodies out of the underground facility and clear a road.

David Roberts limped to McNeil's side, saw that the captain was a little depressed, and said:

"It's not your fault, we're all responsible..."

"Are you two all right?" McNeil asked. "Especially the kid, is he still alive?"

"Alive, fortunately the mine is far away from him, it seems that the person who set up the trap is inexperienced." Roberts quickly responded to McNeil's question, "However, we have a lot of casualties here, and 5 corpses have been dragged out. I'm letting them continue their search for the remaining missing persons, who may have been buried under the ashes at the time of the explosion and then trampled by their teammates... I hope they are safe."

Carlo Farah, knowing that he'd gotten into trouble (though it wasn't his fault per se), said nothing from the beginning to the end, and evaded when McNeil sent others to find him. This accident caused serious casualties to the troops. In addition to 5 people died in the gun battle, two others were killed on the spot because of triggering a booby trap set somewhere during the retreat. In addition, 7 people were killed, another 7 people were injured to varying degrees. McNeil and Roberts, reluctant to express their concern as commanders, after a brief negotiation, decided to bury the bodies on the spot. At the same time, McNeil made another decision, which is to insist on continuing to explore the underground facility.

"I know you have a lot of questions." McNeil said bluntly to his comrades, "I said earlier that it's best not to go down, but if you don't agree, then I'll listen to you; Now that we have made it clear that there are natives hiding in it, if we don't clean it up, it will become a hidden danger for us. Since you were so resolute in requesting to explore this place, I will follow your advice and fully implement your opinions."

Everyone was speechless, and even if they wanted to refute, they couldn't find an issue. That's right, they suppressed McNeil's opinion by relying on the crowd, and now they are embarrassed to ask McNeil to cancel the original plan. So, after hastily burying the bodies of teammates and natives, they decided to continue cleaning the facility. McNeil didn't plan to go in. He and Roberts stood outside watching the wind, planning the next battle plan by the way.

As some of the correct opinions pointed out, if they control this EU military underground facility left over from World War II, they can use it as a transit base to attack the natives nearby, and the natives can only be beaten passively. Assuming the natives find it here (considering that the natives are in ambush, they must realize that this facility will be occupied by the enemy), McNeil's team can also hold it for a while, and use the terrain and fortifications to repel the enemy.

The opponent's plan may be very clever. They must have learned the location of the troops from the possible indigenous outposts, and therefore calculated that when the secret service team set off for most of the day, they would choose to temporarily rest in an underground facility. The enemy has already started an ambush here, and they will definitely plan to launch a second round of raids while McNeil and others are in an ambush - if McNeil is planning this fight, he will do so.

"Deputy captain, we are now gathering two teams and set off immediately." McNeil gave a new order, "It's getting late, leave here immediately after dinner, and we will also raid them."

David Roberts vehemently opposed the plan, arguing that the troops were not suitable for running around in the territory familiar to the natives, let alone grabbing the natives' tails if the natives could raid them at any time. The two argued for more than ten minutes, during which time McNeil asked Carlo Farah to inform the team members to gather and prepare them for defense.

"Since you guessed that the enemy will come to raid, you shouldn't split your staff to do other things at this time." Roberts still disagreed with McNeil's idea.

"We chose to be stationed here to leave a second choice, not to trap ourselves to death." McNeil advised, "The natives may come to raid today, they may come to raid tomorrow, and they are more likely to raid the day after tomorrow. Should we shrink back and wait here for them to come and raid? Besides, if we choose passive defense, the best result is just to let the enemy drop a few more corpses, and this kind of battle is meaningless to the whole plan."

McNeil guessed that Roberts was frightened by the battle just now, and he insisted on implementing the plan. In the end, David Roberts had no reason to object and had to choose to obey. The two gathered more than 20 people, each commanding half of them, and set off towards the nearest aboriginal tribe. Generally speaking, the fighting strength of a native tribe is calculated by the number of adult males in it rather than the total population, but since Colonel Carl Duttmann has given the order to kill everyone including the old, the sick and the disabled, women and children, then others will also join the fight.

Carlo Farah volunteered to explore the way, and McNeil patted the young man on the head in approval.

"Boy, have you killed natives before?"

"No." The Italian answered truthfully, "but I have killed a lot of Britannians in South America."

"It's all the same, no distinction is made between the rich and the poor, and all living beings are equal at the sound of a gunshot." McNeil would not have inexplicable sympathy for the natives at this time, but he would usually be happy to show mercy to the natives for James Solomon's kindness. Now the enemy will pick their heads at any time, and no one has the heart to talk about humanitarianism. After the rest, Michael McNeil and David Roberts led their men to set out. In order to avoid being noticed by the enemy, they decided to pretend to take a detour and return, and then take a small road to approach the target tribe on the way.

It has been less than half a century that Indigenous people have truly been part of EU society. The parents of these soldiers grew up listening to horror stories about the natives, and some participated in the siege and suppression of the natives, and they were very willing to let their children and grandchildren inherit this disgraceful tradition. Until the increasingly fierce resistance activities spread to North Africa, the EU, which has always regarded North Africa as its homeland, finally couldn't bear it anymore. The bureaucrats who have always been short-sighted may find that the enemy is getting more and more by suppression, and other methods must be taken to curb the destruction of the colony by the indigenous people. In the eyes of the older generation, the natives were a group of cunning and ferocious monsters, just like the goblins and orcs in some fantasy stories - therefore, some people pointed out that this creation contains serious discrimination, and decided to make a big criticize.

"It's time to let all these guys get out of the way, they have no reason to stay in Africa and not leave." Carlo Farah said angrily.

"...Actually, it's us who should get out." McNeil sneered a few times.

McNeil realized that his companions took the settlement of European settlers in Africa for granted, and that the natives had become land-grabbing thieves and thieves. That's fine, at least when they kill the natives, they don't have to feel any guilt in their hearts. Since ancient times, mercy could not be in charge of soldiers, and soldiers who are ready to go into battle should be machines that can only obey orders, and the slightest personal thoughts are superfluous.

McNeil remembered what Old Jake had said to him. In the eyes of the old man who is almost old and alone, the natives are complicated. The backwardness of the natives in the past stems from historical factors, and now it is because the EU selectively excludes the natives from society and also restricts those indigenous descendants who have been hard to integrated into the society.

"There are good ones and bad ones among them... We are the same as them, but because they have never had the opportunity to touch the same things with us, they always have fewer options in their minds, it seems that they're a bunch of idiots... people who think like this are really idiots." Old Jake often talked about his experience as a soldier in Rhodesia when he was drinking with McNeil, "Throwing a child into the wild, it will become a wolf child, he or she will only be exactly the same as the animals, not even comparable to the natives in front of us... What reason do we have to laugh at the natives?"

The group only focused on their journey, and only approached the scheduled location when it was completely dark. However, they did not find out where the tribe was at first, until Carlo Farah, who was sent by McNeil to scout the surrounding terrain, returned, and the truth was revealed. It turned out that the tribe chose to extinguish all the sources of fire for some reason, allowing itself to completely hide in the night. Not only teenage Carlo Farah was surprised, but McNeil, who had dealt with all kinds of enemies for most of his life, never thought he would meet such a vigilant native. If it weren't for the fact that he kept sending scouts around, they would have to turn on night vision goggles or infrared equipment to find targets. However, the strategy is vulnerable in the face of technology. If the EU has the same ion cannon as GDI that can strike any target on a global scale at any time, not to mention these indigenous people, even the Britannian Empire cannot fight against it.

"I may have underestimated our opponent." McNeil secretly thanked that they were not attacked by the natives before they noticed the anomaly, "Let Farah go to reconnaissance, if I guess correctly, the adult males in this tribe may have already dispatched... We will kill the remaining people without leaving any survivors. Assuming there is still time, we can also try to stay in place and ambush the returning enemy."

Following the directions, McNeil and his team gradually approached the tribe. It was already midnight, and the entire tribe slept in silence. This time, they didn't need to be merciful or scruples. With McNeil's order, Roberts threw shock bombs at the middle of the tribal camp. The loud noise and flashes were enough to make all the natives present immediately incapacitated. Before the noise reverberating in his head had completely dissipated, David Roberts had already led three or four teammates to rush out and headed straight for the humble thatched huts of the tribe.

The fight - a massacre rather than a fight - lasted less than ten minutes before it came to an end. Carlo Farah was the first among them, holding two submachine guns, and he opened fire when he saw anyone. Twenty or thirty natives were killed by his guns. Some indigenous people recovered from the aftermath of the shock bomb, picked up all the tools at hand to try to fight back, but they walked staggeringly, as if drunk, and were killed by trained mercenaries and killers one by one.

David Roberts looked through the corpses, trying to convince himself some joy in the end of the fight, but the smell of gunpowder and blood in the air forced him to dismiss the idea. This is not a glorious battle. They slaughtered the old, the young while the enemy's force was not nearby, and it was not significantly different from the Britannian Empire and the Chinese Federation in their propaganda.

"We're all going to hell," Roberts muttered.

"We are already in hell; Otherwise, do you think people like us still have a chance to go to heaven?" McNeil's voice came from behind, "On the contrary, I believe that some people are born with such a fate, so I never hope the crimes I have committed will be forgiven."

McNeil didn't look at the faces of those corpses. He thought of his parents he had never met, his brothers, and those comrades who had left before him. What will they think before they die? Maybe they all hoped that McNeil could keep his head up and continue to live - McNeil survived, but not necessarily the way they hoped to see, continue to live.

He thought about what kind of cemetery he would build for himself, but someone had already stolen his idea, the GDIS Michael McNeil, which should have been the iron coffin that carried his last wish, not a new tool that was taken out to show off his might when he was still alive. GDI doesn't understand McNeil, just like Black Hand doesn't understand Anton Slavik. The pain of being the hero of an organization and then being betrayed and abandoned is beyond the reach of ordinary people.

"Prepare for battle, we will kill all the enemies when they return."

"Understood." Roberts cheered up, "It seems that the mission is progressing smoothly, we have grasped the rhythm, and no enemy can confront us."

McNeil nodded with satisfaction, he looked down casually and found an inconspicuous red spot on his chest.

"Lie down!"

McNeil roared, pressed David Roberts' head, and lay down on the grass with him. A shot broke the victors' joy, and one soldier standing behind McNeil was shot through his stomach and fell to the ground moaning in pain. The executioner, who had just arbitrarily harvested the lives of others, soon fell to the same end.

TBC

Chapter Notes:

If there are some military common sense errors in the descriptions in this article, be patient: after all, there are no real military personnel here to serve as advisors.

Recently I got some different canons about the historical development in the Code Geass worldview, and I'm discussing its plausibility with friends.