"It's a monster!"
The Ten Rings clearly kept up with international news. Besides, after the massive commotion caused by the Monster Association, even Afghanistan was not spared from monster rampages.
"Damn it, call the Sword Bureau! Hurry!"
The Ten Rings leader hesitated for only a moment before shouting the order.
The Sword Bureau hotline had basically become the equivalent of dialing 911. After all, the organization had been created specifically to combat monsters and protect the world.
It wasn't like they could operate in the shadows the way the CIA, FBI, or NSA did.
The operator at the Sword Bureau took the distress call, nodded, and then informed the Ten Rings that since Afghanistan had previously refused to allow the Sword Bureau to establish a presence within its borders, even if they scrambled a superhero team now, it would take at least twenty hours to arrive.
The Ten Rings leader cursed furiously in his native tongue and ordered his underlings to stop the monster from destroying any more of the poppy fields.
If this continued, this year's losses would be catastrophic.
So far, the Ice Cream Monster had already ruined over a hundred tons of unharvested poppy pods, and the sight made the Ten Rings leader's heart bleed.
His men were trembling with fear, but after he shot two of them dead on the spot as an example, the rest gritted their teeth and charged forward.
Their firepower was actually quite formidable, far superior to that of most terrorist factions. In Afghanistan, you had to contend with U.S. forces, the Taliban, and even various tribal militias. Gunfights were practically a daily occurrence.
The reason the Ten Rings possessed such advanced weaponry was that the CIA had been quietly supporting them all along. Their arms were funneled through CIA channels.
The CIA's strategy was to use the Ten Rings as a counterweight to both the Taliban and the East. Obadiah Stane alone could not possibly have smuggled Stark Industries weaponry into Afghanistan and delivered it into the hands of the Ten Rings.
Maintaining such a supply chain required immense power and influence, and the CIA was an indispensable link in that chain.
At the same time, the Ten Rings had forged alliances with local Pashtun tribes. These tribes provided the Ten Rings with funding, manpower, and fresh recruits, while the Ten Rings offered the tribes elite combat capabilities and protection from Taliban exploitation.
This partnership had proven highly successful. The Ten Rings had swiftly established deep roots in the unfamiliar terrain of Afghanistan and expanded rapidly, while the tribes under their protection were spared the worst of the Taliban's extortion and plundering.
At this moment, the fighters were all hopped up on drugs, their fighting spirit blazing and utterly fearless of death as they rushed the Ice Cream Monster.
The Ice Cream Monster chuckled darkly. This was the first time it had seen humans so eager to die. It had been dispatched by the Association's executives to destroy these poppy fields, supposedly to cripple a major revenue stream of the most powerful human nation. The Ice Cream Monster was working diligently. Dealing with these humans was just a bit of entertainment on the side.
Unsurprisingly, the Demon-level monster, Ice Cream, effortlessly annihilated the wave of attacking terrorists.
Even though the drugs made them hyper-aggressive and suicidal, they managed to cause only minor inconvenience to the creature at best.
"It's over!"
The Ten Rings leader clutched his head in despair. He had just received word that a full one thousand tons of poppy pods had been obliterated by that damned monster.
One thousand tons!
Just think of how much heroin that could have been refined into! All of it, U.S. dollars! Pure money!
The Ten Rings leader could already envision the catastrophic fallout from losing such a massive sum.
It was a crippling blow!
And then, his subordinate delivered another piece of terrible news. The Americans and the Taliban were seizing the opportunity to launch attacks on Ten Rings controlled territory!
"Damn them all!"
The Ten Rings leader felt like he was about to have a stroke. Those opportunistic vermin!
In an effort to hasten the end of Afghanistan's internal chaos and cut the ties between rural villages and organizations like the Taliban and the Ten Rings, the U.S. forces in Afghanistan had initiated a Village Stability Operations program.
The program's approach was to start with individual villages as a point of entry. From there, the influence would radiate outward to surrounding villages, eventually linking them firmly to district centers. The U.S. military aimed to use this method to construct and reinforce administrative connections between the Afghan government and grassroots villages.
This task was primarily carried out by U.S. forces. Operational teams typically consisted of five to eight Special Forces soldiers. These teams embedded themselves within pilot villages, assisting in building fortifications and enhancing the villagers' capacity for self-defense against Taliban insurgents seeking to reclaim influence.
Coalition forces would also coordinate with the Afghan National Army to increase security patrols around these villages. Once a foothold was established, neighboring villages would gradually shift their allegiance. These zones would then receive a series of development-oriented projects from the regional government, including medical support, basic education, and training in agriculture and animal husbandry.
Through this method, the U.S. military was methodically eating away at the areas controlled by the Taliban and the Ten Rings.
This was precisely why U.S. forces were able to detect the monster attack on the Ten Rings so quickly. The U.S. commander in Afghanistan seized the initiative, ordering his troops to strike at Ten Rings positions. The Taliban, seeing the Ten Rings and the Americans locked in a firefight, with gunfire lighting up the night sky and the intensity suggesting more than a mere skirmish, decided to join the fray and attack the Ten Rings as well.
"Danny, alert the patrol! Marcus, get the villagers up here to support the fight!"
A U.S. soldier barked the order and immediately squeezed the trigger.
He was using a K11 O.D. 0 sniper rifle chambered in .308 Winchester. The rounds could easily punch through body armor lacking ceramic plates and standard military helmets.
The Ten Rings fighters opposite him, lacking both body armor and helmets, were riddled with bloody holes and dropped to the ground.
Another American soldier laid down a storm of suppressive fire with his HK416.
A third soldier led a charge of able-bodied young men from the village. The Ten Rings fighters, caught completely off guard by the sudden assault, crumbled into disarray.
...
One by one, Apache attack helicopters belonging to the 101st Airborne Division's Combat Aviation Brigade were refueling at a Forward Arming and Refueling Point.
Helicopter bases were typically located at fixed sites far from the front lines. Flying to a target area consumed a significant amount of fuel. As a result, helicopters rarely proceeded directly from base into a combat zone.
Forward Arming and Refueling Points, or FARPs, were usually situated about fifty kilometers from the strike location. They handled the resupply of fuel and ammunition and sometimes also served as forward command posts.
The gunships did not shut down their engines. Once a turbine engine was powered down, it could not be restarted until the temperature had dropped sufficiently, which was a time-consuming process.
Attack helicopters were generally equipped for "hot refueling," capable of taking on fuel while the engines were still running. It took only fifteen to twenty minutes to top off their tanks completely.
/-\
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