Darkstone Code-Chapter 995 - 993: Hammer to the Face

The bullets outside were still whistling, Ryan was panting heavily, he didn’t dare to move at all now.

He still couldn’t understand why that child stabbed him, he looked at the veteran, with some fear in his voice asked, "Am I going to die?"

The veteran was silent for a few seconds, which plunged Ryan into deep despair.

He felt he might not have much longer to live.

"If I say no, you definitely wouldn’t believe it’s true." After a few seconds, the veteran spoke, "You probably have about ten minutes left, if no one comes to take you for surgery beyond this time, I can only take your dog tag back."

Ryan instinctively grabbed the small steel tag on his neck, with his name, work number, and blood type on it, this was prepared for when blood was needed in the field hospital.

Many times, wounds from war can’t wait for the blood test results, so everyone had been tested before joining, their blood type would be stamped on the dog tag with steel.

At the hospital, a doctor could know what blood to use by looking at the tag, no need to re-test, saving a lot of time, this could increase the chances of survival for those injured.

Ryan’s face was overtaken by despair, he looked again at the little girl lying at the doorway, half of her head blown away, incredulously he asked, "Why... did she do that, I just wanted to give her a candy."

The veteran looked at Ryan, with a very peculiar tone, as if mocking, or sarcastically saying, "To them, we are ultimately invaders..."

Actually, this wasn’t all the reason, most here were Mariluo people, the hatred between them and the former ruling class, Mariluo people, was difficult to resolve, it was a hatred engraved in the bones.

When children were born, adults would instill a concept in them—"A relative of yours died at the hands of the Mariluo, if there’s a chance in the future, you must avenge him/her!"

Sanchez was a Mariluo, his blue eyes symbolizing the nobility of the sky, and beneath the sky, countless hatred.

All these provided them the necessary source of motivation, and this was what the Federation Government feared most.

If their neighbors truly unify, even if their population drastically dropped to only thirty or fifty million due to war.

But this thirty or fifty million weren’t ordinary citizens, they were thirty or fifty million people who can turn into soldiers when given weapons, and they were veterans who participated in wars.

This kind of neighbor would become the Federation’s nightmare, now what’s most needed is to shatter it before the nightmare forms!

A smile, indescribable, appeared on Ryan’s face, he felt a deep exhaustion, "Did you encounter such things in Amelia too?"

The veteran moved to the window below, surveyed the outside situation, as soon as he popped his head out, several bullets shot towards him.

He crawled on the ground, tilted his head looking at Ryan, "Yes, everyone hates us, because what we do is kill their fathers, husbands, sons, they’re all their loved ones, they can’t not hate us, just like now."

The squad leader pulled the bolt, seized the momentary pause of bullets, swiftly rose for a counterattack.

Across the street immediately came the sound of something heavily falling, and simple curses of the locals.

"I’m about to die." Ryan looked at the wound that couldn’t be stopped from bleeding, the bleeding showed no sign of slowing down, "I can feel it."

"If you can go back, help me tell my mother, I love her, help me tell my father, don’t drink so much..."

The squad leader quickly ran crouching to Ryan’s side, looking at him, "Don’t talk nonsense, do you want to take a gamble?"

"What to gamble?", Ryan asked, "In my current state, what can I gamble?"

"Gamble whether the Lord will take you away or not!"

The squad leader said as he pulled down Ryan’s medical pack from behind him, he loudly shouted outside for cover, then took out alcohol, and poured it near the wound.

The contact of alcohol with the wound made Ryan feel pain, he frowned tightly, looking at the squad leader, "I don’t understand what you mean."

The squad leader took out a scalpel, looking at him, "I’ll now cut open your wound, sew up the ruptured organs first, this way your bleeding won’t be so fast, maybe if we’re lucky enough, it’s just a small wound."

"You don’t look at the speed and amount of blood loss and think it’s scary, actually just a barley-sized hole can cause this kind of injury, we just need to prevent it from bleeding so fast, you’ll be able to survive."

"And I’ll have to cut open your belly, do you want to gamble?"

Hearing the news that he might survive, Ryan’s scalp started to tingle, he nodded hard, "Why not, go ahead!"

"Bear with it, it’ll hurt a bit..." In the next second, the squad leader’s surgical knife sliced open Ryan’s belly along the wound, the intestines and such quickly surged towards the wound.

"Don’t exert yourself, this will block my view..." The squad leader laid down the scalpel, took gauze stuffing it inside, soaked up the accumulated blood, when he looked up at Ryan, shockingly, he had fainted.

"This guy... fainting is good too."

Soon the squad leader found the bleeding point, about less than a centimeter wide, and not very deep, this was good news.

He didn’t know what that thing was. He used stitches to quickly hold the split sides together and pulled hard—

The unconscious Ryan suddenly sat up, his face terrifyingly pale, awoken by the pain.

He was in so much pain that he couldn’t speak, and large beads of sweat instantly surged from his skin. He looked at the team leader, seemingly wanting to express something, but the team leader punched him in the jaw.

"It’s better if you keep quiet!"

Next was a careless stitching, and Ryan was lucky not to have punctured his intestines.

The entire surgical process lasted less than five minutes. Seeing that the wound was still bleeding but had slowed significantly, the team leader breathed a sigh of relief.

He hid under the window sill with his weapon and began observing the outside situation.

The battle on the street continued, and after the subsequent issues erupted, the command vehicle immediately demanded an evacuation.

The entire team was now trapped in the encirclement; if they couldn’t break through in time, they might get picked off bit by bit.

Fortunately, there were still some people left on the city’s outskirts. With their support, they successfully opened a path, allowing the main force to pull out smoothly. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

At 12:40 PM, after counting, the death toll had already exceeded two hundred.

Even more infuriating was that some of the Federation personnel’s bodies were hung on the exterior walls of a moving five-story building by the local warlords.

Dozens of bodies were densely hung, as if they were flaunting something.

This news quickly reached the Ministry of Defense and Lynch, which is why they insisted Lynch take the call even while he was having lunch.

"Confirm the list. I want a detailed and accurate list. Then follow company procedures."

"Additionally, reassess the reasons for this battle’s failure. Although we failed, I believe failure will make us stronger."

"Order the field officers who have participated in battle command in Amelia to replace the commanders sent by the Ministry of Defense, and replan the upcoming battles."

"I’ll visit the company later this afternoon, and I hope you can give me some good news."

All the Senior Soldier could say was yes, and he didn’t have anything more to add.

This time, those who went to Mariluo could be said to be some of the Navy and Army’s elite, commanded by the Army’s Strategic Command staff, but they failed, which actually reflects some problems within the Federation Army.

Domestically, some people, including the military and the Ministry of Defense, have a blind optimism about the Federation Army’s combat capability.

Their optimism is supported by two main points.

First, before defeating Gafura, no one thought the Navy could accomplish that, which is why they described the battle as "a fight gambling on national fortune."

As a result, the Navy won, albeit with a bit of coincidence. However, in some ways, it also proved that the Federation Navy was not as weak as everyone thought.

They subconsciously believe that the Army can also replicate the Navy’s success.

Second, Darkstone Security’s military actions in Amelia have always been smooth. They mistakenly regarded a group of civilians who had just taken up arms as the world’s most elite army.

Moreover, Darkstone Security provided them with enough convenience and leadership in the process, such as directly letting them "discover" the enemy’s base and grasp the enemy’s outpost.

These achievements made those back home feel quite capable.

Finally, they met a truly troublesome opponent this time, and upon contact, it resulted in possibly two to three hundred deaths.

The Senior Soldier said over a hundred, but Lynch didn’t believe it. Surely there were some who couldn’t be rescued, and the death toll could exceed ten percent!

This loss rate is too high; it could even be said that Darkstone Security’s personnel can’t undergo such a high loss rate again, or this group of people will all have to "retire."

Because their psyche will be affected, a soldier’s ability to kill an enemy on the battlefield comes from confidence.

It’s the confidence that "I won’t die" and "the enemy will die out." They believe this will happen, which gives them the courage and morale to fight.

But once they discover that "they could die anytime, anywhere" and "it’s difficult to eliminate the enemy," they can no longer be a qualified soldier.

They will become fearful, and fear will lead them to resist orders, which will be superficial and eventually impact others.

Thus, if a unit experiences repeated defeats or frequent failures in a short period, it will quickly disband.

The same goes for these three thousand people; their backbone is broken, how can they hold on?