134: Crack

The Black Hawk Unit pursued them once again, forcing Ling Chao and his team to engage in a firefight with the defenders on the plank road; when it came to trading fire, the Shadow Special Forces had never feared anyone.

They stood right in front of the gate, braving the incoming fire and returning it with the most precise marksmanship, and soon the soldiers on the plank road died one after another, either collapsing on the path or falling into the valley below.

Li Xiao’s marksmanship was lacking, so he compensated with firepower; he could even calmly reload the quad-barrel rocket launchers and then pull the trigger toward the heavy machine gun emplacements.

Within ten minutes, there was no more gunfire on the plank road, and all the Black Hawk Unit defenders within the canyon had been killed.

“We need to figure something out quickly! The Black Hawk Empire air force should be providing support soon. Even if they can't get in, they will definitely fire a massive amount of rockets or even drop aerial bombs into the canyon! The enemy ground forces will likely arrive as reinforcements via transport helicopters as well!”

Ling Chao explained the current situation to Li Xiao, which made his head ache a little.

This damn wall was so thick, it really couldn't be blown open even with a nuke.

“Perhaps that's not necessarily true...”

Just as everyone was at a loss, someone spoke up. Li Xiao immediately looked toward the speaker as if grabbing a straw, and it was that newly enlisted Shadow Special Forces recruit, Zhou Shuang.

“Zhou Shuang? Tell us what you have in mind!”

Zhou Shuang pointed at the wall and said, “Look, there's a hidden electronic lock here.”

Everyone looked over and indeed discovered a square fissure the size of a palm on the otherwise smooth metal wall.

Zhou Shuang pressed it lightly, and the square fissure immediately opened, revealing an integrated iris, password, and fingerprint lock.

“It really is!”

After the password lock popped out, the screen lit up; it seemed the gate was not without power.

“So what can this lock do? We don't have the password or the fingerprints,” Li Xiao asked.

“Boss, did you forget my specialization? I'm a communications specialist; I'm quite skilled at network communications and electronic encryption.”

As he spoke, Zhou Shuang took out a handheld computer and then used a screwdriver to pry out the entire lock.

Using the data interface behind the lock, Zhou Shuang successfully connected it to his handheld computer and began reading the program.

“I never thought a communications specialization could be used for lock-picking; I’ve learned something new!”

Li Xiao was overjoyed; if they could successfully open the gate, then the subsequent tasks would be much easier to handle.

Seeing that Zhou Shuang had already started cracking the gate's password, Ling Chao called for everyone to hold their positions and defend.

Li Xiao distributed ammunition and medicine, although the medicine was purely redundant; after all, in such intense combat, the restorative effects of medicine were basically zero.

But being able to reduce pain and improve physical condition wasn't bad either.

Furthermore, he fully reloaded the quad-barrel rocket launchers; with only forty-something rounds left, his anti-armor firepower was really running low.

More than ten minutes later, Li Xiao suddenly heard the two iron walls make a sound as they began to slowly descend, and at this moment, the noise of high-speed rotating propellers outside grew closer.

“The enemy reinforcements have arrived! How much longer, Zhou Shuang!”

Ling Chao ran out to take a look and asked urgently.

“Ten more minutes!”

Ten minutes was enough time for the enemy to mobilize hundreds or thousands of troops to arrive here.

Yet in just one minute, the two iron walls descended, and the large group of enemies in the distance had arrived; and faster than the infantry were the armed helicopters.

The Black Hawk Empire helicopter pilots were truly daring; they actually managed to fly into the forty-meter-wide canyon corridor.

Just as Li Xiao was exclaiming about the heaven-defying flying skills of the Black Hawk Empire pilots, the armed helicopters that had flown in began to pour out fire, and a massive amount of rockets came crashing down onto the Shadow Special Forces, causing the team members to lose one or two hundred thousand health points in an instant.

Before they could catch their breath, the imperial armed helicopters fired anti-tank missiles again, with a total of four missiles aimed directly at the gate.

“Protect Zhou Shuang!”

The power of the missiles was astonishing. Fearing that the explosion would threaten Zhou Shuang's progress, Ling Chao rushed forward first, using his own body to shield Zhou Shuang.

Seeing this, the other team members rushed up as well, forming a human wall.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!!!

Anti-tank missiles could penetrate tanks with heavy armor, let alone people.

The massive shockwave sent Ling Chao and his team flying, and everyone lost five hundred thousand health points in an instant.

Fortunately, the anti-tank missiles didn't hit them directly; otherwise, if their human wall had been pierced by the missiles, even if Zhou Shuang hadn't died, the cracking progress would likely have been lost, and the equipment might even have been destroyed.

After firing the weapons mounted under their wings, the armed helicopters began their third wave of attacks, with the autocannons under their noses unleashing their power; meanwhile, the ground forces began their assault under the cover of the armed helicopters.

Whoosh!

At this moment, Ling Chao and the others, who had climbed up from the ground, suddenly heard a sharp sound of a rocket piercing the air; they initially thought another rocket attack was incoming.

But the next second, they saw a missile flying toward the canyon entrance, and two seconds later, with a violent explosion, the armed helicopter that had been showing off just moments ago turned into a fireball and crashed down.

Everyone turned to look and saw Li Xiao panting while carrying a Stinger missile launcher.

“Damn it! This thing is way too heavy!”

Li Xiao laughed heartlessly; this portable individual missile system from Tian Yu was actually quite easy to use, with idiot-proof operation and automatic target locking after launch.

Without the suppression fire from the armed helicopters, Ling Chao and his team lined up in a row, blocking the front of Zhou Shuang, and began to intercept the attacking Black Hawk Unit.

Without the cover of heavy equipment, the ground forces couldn't make a dent in the Shadow Special Forces, and over a hundred men were wiped out in less than two minutes.

But after a while, they heard the sound of propellers again, and another armed helicopter flew in.

“Damn! Another one!”

Having gained experience this time, Li Xiao didn't say a word and immediately readied the Stinger missile.

The anti-aircraft missile flew out, trailing a white exhaust plume, and the armed helicopter was shot down straight away before it could even adjust its posture to fire rockets.

In such a narrow space, combined with a fragile hull of twenty-five thousand health points, the armed helicopter couldn't make any major maneuvers and was taken out by a single missile without any suspense.

Following that, Li Xiao kept hearing the sound of a large number of helicopters circling outside; he guessed they were likely transport helicopters carrying infantry and armed helicopters hovering outside waiting for an opportunity.

However, even knowing it was suicide, armed helicopters kept flying in one after another; Li Xiao had only brought ten missiles this time, and in this short while, he had already shot down six.

Yet the helicopters outside kept flying in like they had gone mad, even firing rockets and missiles into the canyon from the entrance to avoid being shot down without firing a single shot.

“It looks like they're panicking! This proves that there is definitely an important secret hidden behind this gate!”