Eh? Do you also want to try the iron fist of the humanoid girl?

Jacob stood for a moment, looking at her, then sat down at the table and fumbled in his pockets - the cigarette case had gone somewhere.

He reached into his field backpack, and Jacob was surprised to find the cigarette box between the map and the military iPad.

He looked at the cigarette that was crushed into a shattered state, picked it up and smoked it without hesitation, as if something special had happened at this moment and he needed to smoke this last cigarette for this matter.

The world outside the subway grew dim, and the ordinary, hard night he had grown accustomed to began, but in addition to the things he had to worry about that day, there was one more thing.

Although he refused to admit it, he had already felt it: this was his concern for the girl sleeping in the corner under his winter coat.

It shouldn't be like this. Jacob took the weapon from the armorer and walked out of the subway station with the officers and soldiers of his company.

He had a vague sense of how this girl was suddenly bound up with all his future thoughts, with siege, death, his official entrapment here in New York, the city where she had been born and raised.

——He would never know who Raphael really was.

Jacob slightly adjusted the positions and defense lines and issued an alert order. After 17:00 PM, whoever broke into the fire zone would be killed.

Standing on the observation deck behind the defense line, he looked through a telescope at the swaying, tireless figure, and suddenly felt that when the time was right, the lieutenant who had come all the way to seek help should leave here and cross the river to the other side.

To be honest, he didn't know why he had such an idea.

Is it because the girl is also an officer? But they are no longer in the army, and the honor of the rangers is not worth mentioning in the face of survival.

It was extremely difficult for him to imagine this situation.

Jacob finished his cigarette and stood up.

"Hey, man, where's your winter coat?" asked the company's deputy, XO Officer Noah Stanley, in surprise.

"It's very heavy to wear, and it's warm today."

"It doesn't matter if it's heavy. I'll hold it for you when it's warm."

"Okay, that's not necessary, just go ahead..."

The battle that night was quite tough. Two-meter-tall little giants appeared, and Jacob personally picked up the AT-4 (M136) LAW anti-tank rocket to kill one of them.

His B Company was responsible for the defense of the left wing of the camp, and he was stretched thin by the Fifth Avenue. The light machine guns equipped to the squad were easy to deal with ordinary new ELID infected people, but they were a bit stretched to deal with those old corpses.

Fortunately, they have M2HB Lao Gan Ma heavy machine guns to make up for the problems of lethality and lack of manpower.

The MK-18 grenade launcher removed from the armored vehicle is also a good thing, but their ammunition reserves are limited, so they have to use it sparingly.

Although they were frugal, the city's airdrops over the past two weeks already contained the grenades and disposable rocket launchers they needed. It was as if someone was watching them and even knew what their survivor army needed most.

Jacob is no fool, and his boss, Charles Bliss, is even less so.

Someone must be watching their every move, knowing not only what the survivor army is doing, but also what they are thinking.

Perhaps it was one of those traitorous agents, Jacob thought, and he waved his hand, and the grenade launcher began to bang.

This time it was more powerful and more accurate than usual. His artillery crew had already calculated all the firing parameters of the grenade launcher, so it could almost be used as a mortar.

He gave the order to fire, for the enemy were coming down this broad street in far greater numbers than before, and this indicated that a particularly violent attack must be launched tonight.

By 20:11 in the evening, the intensity of the interception battle proved his judgment correct.

ELID infected people don't care about guns and artillery at all. Unless they are caught in the absolute killing zone of weapons such as grenades and hand grenades, they will continue to move forward until their bodies are completely destroyed.

If you lose your legs, use your hands. If you lose your hands, just move your body.

Jacob didn't understand the principle, but he only knew that destroying the head should be able to stop the infected people completely.

He gathered together the company's precision shooters and used them specifically to target those ELID infected people who were able to continue moving forward after being swept away by light and heavy machine guns and low-pressure grenades.

The riflemen used the M4A1 to delay the enemy's advance, because the M855 green-tipped bullets were like scraping when hitting a person with a siliconized body.

At this moment, Jacob thought of Raphael who stayed in the lounge, and the XM5 assault rifle and XM250 squad machine gun in her hands.

If possible, the lieutenant should be able to help tonight? Then when he meets Lieutenant Colonel Charles Bilis, he will be more confident when speaking.

At least it gives the feeling that "the little girl is not a high-ranking military personnel, she is a colleague who is forced to stay in the city to survive", and she also participated in the battle with the limited ammunition.

"Noah, go to the lounge and call the lieutenant over and ask her to bring her equipment and weapons." He said to Noah.

"Hmm? When did the company get new officers?"

"She's a lieutenant in the Navy who was stranded in Manhattan after the outbreak of greenback smallpox," Jacob explained. "She managed to get a weapon from the NGSW program from a supply box left in the dark zone by the JTF Joint Operations Force. She should be able to help."

"The one that uses 6.8 ammunition?" Noah asked.

"Yes, one more machine gun is better than anything else."

Jacob thought about where to best place Lieutenant Raphael's XM250. In any case, she had to become the core of firepower support for B Company's second line of defense.

Soon, a surprising presence appeared among the ELID infected. There was a "person" holding a flamethrower, who staggered forward and sprayed flames at the defensive positions built by the survivor army with roadblocks and caltrops.

"An ELID infected person from the Purifiers?" Jacob asked and answered himself.

There were quite a lot of people, he estimated with his eyes, about two companies of people. Those "elites" with weapons did not distinguish between friend and foe, and often set their companions on fire, turning them into slowly moving torches.

This is completely different from the situation on the Syrian battlefield. Those guerrilla forces would retreat because their attack was blocked, but the lunatics here only know how to move forward and then reach their hands into the stomach of their prey and take out every piece of it.

Chapter 76 Found a treasure

Bang, bang, bang, bang - the sound of the exploding shells was neither loud nor soft, but enough to let the whole city know what was happening here.

"The survivors' army even used mortars." Doug Sutton peered through a scope at the battle that broke out on the northern section of Fifth Avenue. Before his eyes appeared the horrifying, cut-to-piece bodies that had just been torn apart by shrapnel.

The bombing seemed to be over, but the sound of long and short bursts of harvesting from light and heavy machine guns continued until five o'clock, but the bombing soon began again.

This round of mortar bombardment lasted longer, but the length of time is meaningless; what matters most is the effect of the bombardment.

Doug saw that the mortar's explosion did not have a very strong killing effect on ELID infected people, and it was large pieces of debris flying at high speed.

At the very least, none of the infected people who were directly hit by the blast storm could stand up.

What puzzled Doug was that the survivor army had such a sufficient supply of ammunition without any regular supplies. It was simply a miracle.

It was getting dark, and Doug began to worry about Raphael. When she was in contact with the patrol, he could still provide some watch with his weapon, but after entering the defense zone of the survivors' army, she could only rely on herself.

Although the survivors' army was formerly the 75th Ranger Regiment, their public message to the outside world has never changed, and they have clearly announced that they have broken away from the Army's chain of command and decided to fight for survival.

A situation like Raphael's, where he clearly reveals his identity, might cause resentment.

He and other team members were very worried. In addition, the survivor army had extremely strict management of the sheltered personnel. Getting sick was equivalent to death, without exception.

Of course, this is an acceptable rule. In troubled times, severe punishments should be used, and cutting off the chain of infection is more important than anything else.

For Lieutenant Colonel Charles Bilis, who wanted to restore order, eliminating unstable factors in a timely manner was his first job, followed by governance.

Coupled with her calf injury, it was undoubtedly a case of the survivor army repeatedly breaking the rules they had set.

On the other side, Jacob gathered about 12 automatic riflemen in the semi-darkness. He decided that he could not leave those infected people with broken limbs until late at night, so he deployed them to the periphery of the first line of defense and asked them to execute the infected people who were unable to move or could only crawl.

He also gathered together the snipers to cover the execution teams operating outside the defense line.

At this time, Raphael also arrived. He appeared at the second line of defense with a machine gun, which immediately attracted a lot of whistles and cheers. Many soldiers shouted at the top of their voices to praise Captain Jacob for his reliability.

However, due to fatigue and the sound of artillery fire, he did not notice the cheers of his men. Earlier, he was knocked against the wall by the blast of a nearby mortar explosion, and his head was still buzzing.

So at this moment, he realized that when he got excited later, he was angry, deaf, and overly tired, and he almost needed to do what he needed to do mechanically.

The number of ELID infected people was so large that he was afraid, even though most of them were unarmed. The number alone was enough to cause trouble, just like the "Griffin" recovery team had done...

Those guys are so arrogant and crazy.

He was about to dissuade them, but they proudly told him:

They are one of the few professions in the military that excludes women, and they can call themselves "Special Operators."

That is, those who hold core and basic combat positions in the ground special operations forces and have obtained relevant qualifications. At the same time, they are one of the highest-ranking special forces in the US military and specialize in those "impossible missions."

For many people, becoming a Tier-1 special forces member means extremely strong combat capabilities, and this profession and title means to them: strong physique, bravery, endurance of hardship, and the ability to complete tasks under nearly impossible circumstances.

They consider excessive comforts—spring mattresses, sweaters, even cold medicine—to be a crybaby thing, and will mercilessly mock anyone who brings them.

Before the recovery mission officially began, they had to do combat training at night. Although in Jacob's eyes, it was almost no different from fighting. They used judo techniques to throw each other's heads to the floor of the tent.

They held their companions' heads under their armpits with their strong arms, and struck each other's chests with their fists, leaving them purple and blue.

Or they would hide in the shadows, then jump out brandishing a military dagger and use the tip of the knife to scratch their companions' chests, or lightly smear a camouflage oil paint on the victim's neck, mischievously imitating the clean and neat method of killing.

They say they do it to get the best out of each other; they do it for fun but also to hone their skills.

People like this can be distinguished from others just by the way they walk and the way they carry themselves. They have an air of pride, a kind of charisma that draws people in like a rock star.

Jacob remembered that the captain was Eric Koch, a second-class sergeant (E-8). He had this kind of aura and was a leader in special forces.

Before leaving, Eric said with a smile: "Although I don't like those arrogant guys in the navy, I want you to remember this sentence: Never Out of the Fight!"

After saying that, they set off, without looking back, with firm steps, and never came back.

At that time, he still wanted to hold on, but the ELID infected people had bodies as hard as steel plates and overwhelming numbers, as well as their deployment according to traditional special operations...

Coupled with those bastards who played with fire, the defense line set up by the Rangers was broken through by those brainless things 6 hours after the operation began.

Not long after, Jacob's contact with the Griffin recovery team was completely cut off.

He didn't know the details of the mission, but that kind of thing was definitely the primary reason for the mission's failure.

Jacob's B Company lost 14 men and 23 were injured in the mission. Lieutenant Colonel Bilis sent a quick response team, but they were also ineffective and never returned.

When everyone was immersed in the blow of failure, Bilis gathered the two companies that were on the mission and sent the remaining troops out to provide support, thus avoiding them from suffering greater losses during the retreat.

At this time, Raphael had already set up the machine gun. Although she did not receive any clear orders, she went straight back to her old job, using the high-magnification optical sight and excellent ballistic performance to carry out precise strikes.

When Jacob turned around and noticed Raphael, he cursed at her undisciplined behavior, and then noticed that the infected people that the mobile disposal team had not had time to deal with fell down.

He immediately put away his temper, smiled happily, and praised his deputy Noah, who stayed in the company headquarters to command the team, saying that he had found a treasure.

Chapter 77 Step by Step

It is true that the survivor army received the vast majority of the airdrops, but they are still in a situation of shortage of supplies. If they run out of food, they will fall into an emergency state.

Food is always a big problem, Jacob looked at the street ahead where there was a blazing fire.

Bilis took in too many refugees, and because of the smallpox virus, it was unable to liberate all of them and put them into reproduction.

He also noticed a strange phenomenon: the amount of supplies obtained in the airdrop sites they surrounded was twice that of the "wild" airdrop sites.

Perhaps, the troops' contact with the Joint Special Operations Command was not interrupted, Jacob thought.

"What are you imagining? It's already been announced publicly."

Jacob sat down exhausted, leaning against the iron wall of the sentry post, unscrewed the horizontal cap, and drank a few sips. He felt cold, and for the first time in the day he thought that it was already late at night and he was not wearing a coat.

His good brother Noah guessed what he was thinking and took his coat from the lounge.

Jacob at first threw it over his shoulders, but Noah forced him to put it on.

Bang, bang, bang...

Mortars started firing in the next street, and not only that, the two autonomous batteries started firing. Karl Jacob expressed his envy, wishing that autonomous batteries could be deployed on the defense lines of several avenues.

Unfortunately, they don't have many resources.

The armored vehicles and large-caliber weapons of the JTF joint forces were abandoned in the "black zone". Anyone who entered would be killed.

When the Rangers came here, apart from the MK18 grenade launchers and M2HBs mounted on the Humvees, the only heavy firepower they had was the mortars.

Thanks to the artillery bombardment and the noise of the Bushmaster machine gun, the ELID infected with the sound-tracking characteristics were slowly attracted over.

Taking this opportunity, Jacob began to arrange personnel rotation.

Fortunately, it was just an ordinary defensive battle. After getting used to dealing with the nearly invulnerable ELID infected people, we were able to basically avoid casualties.

The reinforced team for the field operations returned safely. Except for one unlucky guy who sprained his ankle due to running too fast, the rest of the people were all normal, just a little tired.

At 4 a.m., Jacob and Noah began to patrol and adjust and optimize the defense line. He said to the girl lying on the defense line, concentrating on alert, "Oh, she... really helped a lot."

He thought about it, and throughout the day, from the moment he thought there would be a fierce defensive battle until the minute the battle was almost over, he only thought of people when he found benefits.

Oh, and the other party's original intention. Jacob remembered that Lieutenant Raphael came here to seek help, hoping to use their equipment to establish contact with Annapolis College and convey the news of her being trapped.

There's little hope, but...

Jacob shook his head, but decided to take the person there when daybreak.