death of hope

Chapter 149 "Corporate Warrior" (65) Warlord
Lieutenant Marcus Lynch was enjoying the shade under the open belly of the scientific research ship, listening to the clattering noises of the starport.

Assault rifle in hand, he stood on guard as workers moved crates of measuring equipment onto pickup trucks.

The members of the Alpha Tactical Squad lined up around, all looking around curiously, full of curiosity about this wild planet.

"Wow! Cool armor!"

A group of local children bounced around and sold commemorative coins and handicrafts to these foreigners.

Lynch raised his gun to scare them: "Hey! Brat, don't get any closer, let's play!"

"Bah! Miser! You can't even look at it!" The leading girl made a face at him, and took the little friends to sell goods elsewhere.

Wang Hongye complained to Lynch: "Boss, it's too much, pointing a gun at the child."

"You've misunderstood, boss," advised Lodayev beside her, "on this chaotic planet, children are more dangerous than adults, maybe their little bamboo baskets contain high-explosive bombs. "

"That's true, we should pay more attention."

Before he finished speaking, he saw Shaft squatting beside a little boy, stroking his disheveled hair, picking a painted clay doll from his small bamboo basket, and paying for it.

"Thank you for your patronage, handsome soldier!" The child jumped and ran away holding the banknotes.

"Hey, hacker." Lynch said, "Don't be distracted, be alert."

"Take eazy...eazy..." (relaxed) Shaft said:
"It's just a poor kid with a nose full of snot. If you buy a gadget, it's considered a good deed."

"Well done, do good deeds, and you will go to heaven." The sniper Mehmadi said, looking at the roof of the chapel in the distance.

"Hey, country bumpkin, don't curse me! I haven't lived enough!" Shaft laughed.

Mehmadi was a little puzzled: "I wish you to go to heaven after death and be crowned in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. This is an auspicious word, so how can it be a curse on you?"

"Bearded man, don't pay attention to him, this kid's brain is on the bottom." Wang Hongye said: "If the succubus in the flame hell is hot enough, this kid will voluntarily give up the heaven and jump down to accept the torture."

"Look, the eldest sister knows me best!"

Suddenly.A roar of motors came from the east of Xinggang, and it was only after the smoke and dust in the sky cleared that two convoys of more than a dozen broken trucks were seen.

A group of militants wearing black hoods, tactical vests, and long guns stood in the cargo compartment. The driver was holding the steering wheel and waiting, seemingly quite nervous.

Not far from the convoy, the transport plane of the Red Cross was unloading. Workers drove forklifts to unload bags of grain and boxes of medicines to the ground.

There was another noisy sound, smoke and dust filled the north, and a large group of locals came here by various shabby vehicles or on foot.
These locals seemed to have just received the news of the relief supplies, and rushed over in a hurry, waiting for a share of the pie.

"It's so lively over there. There are so many people... Boss, aren't we responsible for protecting humanitarian relief supplies?" Mahmadi asked.

"Don't worry about it, just keep an eye on our company's own things." Lynch replied: "The mission briefing made it clear that we are only responsible for guarding against interstellar pirates during the voyage. After the starship lands, it is their own business. .”

"I really don't understand. Since they are here to receive relief supplies and not to fight a war, why are there so many gunmen on the truck?"

"Of course we want to grab something." A local employee of McMillan said.

"Huh? Grab... grab something?"

"You heard me right, in this ghostly place, robbing things is just a routine operation, Kurmat is a primitive and wild land where the weak prey on the strong, and there is no place for pity.

The militants on those trucks were soldiers of the two most powerful local warlords, 'Sand Viper' and 'Scorpion'. The leaders of these two waves of forces called themselves 'Great Generals', and they could be regarded as local emperors. "

"Good guy, you want to rebel. Is this so lawless... The federal government doesn't care?"

"The sky is high and the emperor is far away, what the hell!" A sheriff who smelled like wine held his cowboy hat and said, "What do you care? It's just us old men, these old rusty revolvers, and The tanks and machine guns of other warlords challenge? Make trouble! Isn’t that courting death.”

"Ask for reinforcements, you guys!" Mehmadi felt even more puzzled: "Is the Star Command asleep? Why didn't they send troops?"

"Stop joking, brother, the starships and soldiers of the Federation have more important things to deal with. They have to fight aliens and rebels, so they don't have time to care about this mess.
In short, Kurmat Star has no economic interests, and no one wants to get involved. "

"There's nothing we can do about it. The Federation has already abandoned this colony and left them to mess around." Lynch shook his head helplessly.A group of people just chatted and watched the fun,

After the Red Cross workers finished unloading, they drove their forklifts back to the transport ship as if fleeing from the plague.

The warehouse was closed in an emergency, and the driver quickly drove the ship away from the densely populated area and stopped at the corner of the star port.

The two convoys of trucks started almost at the same time, as if they had been discussed a long time ago, they drove to both sides of the unloaded goods, the machine gunner lay on the front of the truck, and the riflemen all jumped out of the truck.

At the same time, the surging crowd is also approaching the goods,

Pairs of eager and greedy eyes looked at the neatly stacked food and medicines, but no one dared to take a step closer.

A local McMillan employee hid behind the door of the pickup truck and said:
"The show is about to begin, everyone, be safe."

"What's going on? What are those people doing?" Mahmadi asked.

The magistrate ignored him, and quickly hid behind the car door: "Look, you will understand soon."

At this moment, an officer-like man wearing a big-brimmed hat jumped out of the truck, seeming to be shouting something in the local dialect,

The workers curled up in the cargo compartment stood up one after another, rolled up their sleeves and began to load the goods onto the truck.

Seeing that the remaining food and medicines were getting less and less, the people gradually lost their temper. A hunchbacked lady walked out of the crowd first and shouted:

"Soldiers! My grandson is infected with parasites and urgently needs the deworming medicine in the box. A course of treatment is enough!"

When the aunt spoke, people couldn't hold back any longer, they rushed out and prayed loudly:
"Master Jun! The seven members of my family have been hungry for several days, please do me a favor! Give me a bag of corn kernels!"

"Military men! Please! My child is malnourished and needs soybeans and vitamin tablets urgently!"

The scene became more and more chaotic, and the officer on the truck lost his patience, picked up the loudspeaker and yelled at the crowd:

"What are you shouting for! A bunch of bastards! It's not that I won't let you stay!"

"Boom!" Another officer wearing a big-brimmed hat pulled out his pistol and fired two rounds into the sky:

"Quiet! Don't cross the red line, the military master's bullets don't have eyes!"

The machine gunner on the roof pulled the bolt, and the riflemen lined up like a wall to separate the noisy crowd from the goods. Facing the muzzle of the gun, the people could only stare and worry.

The aunt who was begging for deworming medicine for her grandson before saw the words "nitrothiocyanamide and oltipraz" printed on the boxes carried by the workers-the deworming medicine she urgently needed.

"Please! Give me a box! Just one box!"

I don't know where the strength came from, but the hunchbacked aunt actually pushed away two strong warlord soldiers, crossed the red line, and rushed towards the box containing the medicine.

"Rifleman, what are you doing in a daze! Kill that stupid woman!!"

The officer yelled and ordered, the rifleman hesitated for a moment, then turned around and gave a sudden pause. These guys' marksmanship was so bad that they killed the aunt and also killed two migrant workers who moved the goods.

(End of this chapter)