COUNTER ATTACK

Aya's brain turned quickly, coming up with a plan to save themselves.

She started yelling orders. Her plan is for them to take the offensive, strike and wipe out the insurgents shooting them at their flank and back, attacking at close distances to render the mortars useless. She also decided to allocate one sniper pair to suppress the mortars.

"Everyone, launch smoke grenades!" she yelled. "Cover the entirety of the road!"

"Captain Santiago, you and your men to attack the hostiles on the flank! Get as close as you can to render the mortars useless! Cameron, Meari, cover them!" she yelled.

"Liu Zhong, Atsumi, Maia, Walter, Electra, engage the hostiles behind us! Get as close as you can!" she ordered. "Vasily, recover whatever equipment you can! Ethan, find the mortar position ASAP!"

"Freddie, Sean! move to a vantage point, suppress the mortars!" she finished.

"Copy!" yelled Vasily, reloading his AK-105 and dashed for the now wrecked motorcade, concealing himself among the wreckage and smoke.

Bullets whizzed past him. He ducked, sliding across the sand, subconsciously keeping a hand on his helmet. He straggled over to a wrecked armoured car, taking out boxes of suicide drones, throwing them towards his comrades.

He uncovered a crate on a wrecked armoured vehicle that had miraculously survived the bombardment. Channeling Cosmic Energy, he punched the password lock off, opening the crate, revealing 3 sentry robots, which he promptly activated.

The 3 robots leapt out of the crate, deploying their heavy machine guns, missiles at the insurgents' position, whilst deploying smoke grenades to cover the operators charging forward. 2 moved to cover Santiago's group while 1 moved to cover Maia's group.

Santiago fired a rifle grenade at the insurgents from the under-barrel grenade launcher of his HK G36. The Spanish GOE popped smoke grenades, shielding them. Cameron and Meari then immediately aimed their rifles at insurgent machine gunners and rocket launchers in their sights, picking off these high priority targets to cover the Spanish GOE attacking.

Cameron cycled the bolt of her MRAD sniper rifle. Meari fired bursts from her SCAR-H rifle, aiming down her LPVO optic. The 2 are hidden behind a sand dune.

Liu Zhong and Atsumi readied their machine gun, raining destruction on the insurgents. Maia, Electra and Walter popped more smoke grenades, covering their movement as they rushed forward, the 5 covering each other.

Ethan launched a drone into the air, trying to find the origin source of the mortars, remaining hidden at the ditch.

Nanami ordered the journalists in the ditch to stay put, and ordered those still on the tour bus to stay inside. While the bus offers no real protection to the mortar bombardment, it at least shielded the journalists more than letting them run amok on the chaotic battlefield.

Aya and Nanami launched suicide drones, launching them at the insurgents at the rear, then advancing forward to join Maia's team.

Sean and Frederica moved. Gunfire rained down at them. Sean rolled to avoid the gunshots, dropping his rifle to the process. A bullet nicked him in the shoulder, opening a wound.

Seeing Sean's predicament, Frederica used telekinesis to push the rifle towards Sean, Sean grabbed it. Frederica shot a .50 round at an insurgent machine gunner, the bullet instantly shredded the insurgent into pieces.

Frederica and Sean then dashed for a light all terrain vehicle that had survived the bombardment. Frederica stepped on the accelerator, heading for an elevated sand dune, while Sean fired his SCAR-H in fully automatic at the enemy positions, covering their movement.

"Hurry up, guys!" yelled Aya, popping more smoke grenades. The smoke grenades they had thrown are now clearing, and they are still not close enough to the enemy positions.

The insurgents, now with a clear view of the area, resumed their bombardment. Fortunately, Ethan had managed to find their position.

"Mortars 2 o'clock position of motorcade! 1.5km away!" he reported, dashing to take cover, seeing a mortar shell coming his way.

A mortar shell exploded among Santiago's men, killing some. Meari and Cameron immediately took cover from the blast.

A few mortar shells landed around the tour bus, instantly blowing the bus up. The shockwave also floored Nanami who is nearby.

Vasily opened up a box of suicide drones, finding only one functional.

Just then, a mortar shell landed next to him, blowing up the vehicle wreckage beside. "AHH!" screamed Vasily, setting up the suicide drone, launching it into the air, remote controlling it to dive bomb at the mortar position.

The suicide drone exploded, destroying a few mortars and killing a few insurgents, but the impact is still too small nonetheless, 4 mortars still remained functioning and manned.

Nanami painfully stood up, still dazed from the shockwave.

Ethan and Vasily appeared behind her, firing their rifles in the direction of enemies to cover her.

"Nanami!" yelled a concerned Aya.

"I am ok!" replied Nanami. "Quick, save the journalists!" she yelled at Vasily and Ethan to come with her, ignoring Aya's orders to leave them. She knows that it is the more logical course of action, but she cannot bear the idea of letting all of the journalists die. Even if there is only one slim chance, she wants to save as many as she can.

The 3 dashed into the bus wreckage, keeping their heads low to prevent being spotted by the insurgents that are still firing on them.

The sight that awaited them will leave a permanent scar in their mind:

The entire bus is littered with broken body parts, so gruesome that it looks like it belong to a horror movie set. Whatever journalists that remained alive are buried under the piles of bodies and debris, whimpering in pain.

(Rear)

"Electra, Liu Zhong, Atsumi, cover us!" yelled Aya. She, Walter and Maia dashed to the side, intending to flank the insurgents.

The 2 machine gunners rushed forward, lying down suppressive fire, hiding behind the war robot. They have managed to close in, rendering the mortars useless. Electra fired 2 rifle grenades from her under barrel grenade launcher, then launching a smoke grenade to cover them. The heavy close firepower soon pinned the insurgents down.

Aya's team seized this opportunity, appearing from the left of the insurgents, throwing grenades and opening fire on the insurgents, killing most of them.

Once their rifles locked empty, they switched to pistols, closing in their distance to 20m.

An insurgent turned to Aya, she threw a wind blade at him, slicing his hands off, rendering him unarmed.

Just then, a shot ran out. Aya cried out in pain, falling.

"BIG SIS!" yelled a shocked Walter, rushing to her.

Aya groaned, looking at the fresh bullet hole on her body armour. She immediately checked herself. Fortunately the body armour had caught the round, and she is unhurt.

"All stations," she alerted. "The enemy has a sniper reinforcement, be careful!"

(Vantage point)

Sean and Frederica rushed off the vehicle, immediately concealing themselves among the rocks and sand.

"Frederica," radioed Sean. "You handle the mortars, leave the enemy sniper to me!"

"Understood," replied Frederica reticently.

Sean crouched down among the sand dunes, looking at his monocular and individual radar closely.

(In the bus)

"Her leg is already blown off," said Ethan. "Slice off the remaining flesh."

Vasily nodded, cutting off the flesh. The painful screams of the woman reverberated in the bus.

Ethan popped more smoke grenades, shielding the bus in the thick smoke. He cauterized and bandaged the woman's wounds.

"Please stay calm," he said, carrying the woman off the bus, to a small shelter he had made consisting of debris, laying her next to a man.

Nanami meanwhile used her laser cutter to cut a man free. He has been impaled through the shoulder by a metal rod. Instead of pulling out the rod, she chose to cut it off. This is to prevent loss of blood, since the rod is now effectively clogging up the wound.

Just as she cut the man free and Vasily carried him to the shelter, she noticed a mortar shell wedged into the bus.

She immediately rushed over to check on it. It is a smart high explosive projectile, programmed to explode at the head level to kill personnel more efficiently. This one had a malfunction, failing to detonate, thus crashing in through the windows after the bus was toppled by the explosions outside.

That does not mean the shell is safe though. The shell is still loaded with explosives, and may explode at the slightest movement, which will be disastrous.

"Bloody hell," she cursed once she realised there is not 1 unexploded shell, but rather 3.

"These insurgents must be broke huh," she mused.

She ordered Ethan and Vasily to quickly move out of the bus, while she froze the shell to prevent it from exploding by freezing the action. She then took out her tools, preparing to deactivate the shell.

Just as she managed to deactivate the shell, the smoke cleared, and soon another wave of bombardment hit the areas around the bus. The shockwaves shuddered the bus violently, throwing Nanami off balance. She immediately froze the remaining 2 shells, using up almost all of her energy to channel the required Cosmic Energy.

The insurgents readied themselves for another round. Just then, a speeding .50 anti-material bullet whizzed at them, penetrating through the rock wall beside them, killing the 2 operators close by with a single shot.

"Tango down," reported Frederica, cycling her rifle bolt. She has locked down the insurgents' mortar position.

The insurgent sniper noticed what is happening, then taking out his individual radar and a pair of binoculars, scanning the area where he suspects the shot to be fired from.

"Did you find him?" asked Frederica.

"Negative," reported Sean. "He is very well hidden. Unless he fires I will not be able to see him."

Frederica acknowledged. A plan popped into her mind.

Instead of changing her sniper position, she chose to fire a shot again at the mortar position. This is an extremely risky move. She is betting that by exposing herself, she can trick the insurgent sniper into shooting, allowing Sean to take him out.

Seeing the muzzle flare of Frederica's anti-material rifle, the sniper sneered. "Enemy sniper is 2 o'clock of your position, the cluster of rocks on hill B," he radioed the mortar crew.

Frederica continued to aim at the mortar position.

An insurgent stepped out of hiding and quickly loaded a shell into a mortar. He was too slow, and was shot in the head immediately when he exposed himself. However, he had already loaded the shell in, which them promptly flew out of the barrel.

Alarmed, Frederica immediately removed her helmet, realising that the shell is coming towards her. She kept her body low and dashed for the nearest cover, using telekinesis to levitate her helmet in the air to mimic a person running.

A bullet hit her helmet just as she rushed into the cover, followed by a mortar shell which then landed at where she was standing, blowing up, toppling her in the shockwave.

"F***!" cursed the insurgent sniper once he realised that he did not take out Frederica.

This frustration will only last for a brief moment, as less than a minute later, 2 bullet whizzed out from under him, hitting him in his forehead, killing him instantly.

"I got him," reported Sean, aiming down his LPVO optic.

"Well done," commended Frederica, wiping off the dirt on her face.

(Flank)

"Not so tough now, are you?" gloated Santiago, taunting the burned remains of an insurgent machine gunner after the Spanish GOE obliterated his vehicle with a thermobaric rocket.

The Spanish GOE took big losses. In the first round of bombardment, they lost 10 operators. Another 2 were badly wounded and 3 more were killed in the subsequent counter-attack.

Cameron and Meari focused their attention on the mortar position. Together with Fredercia and Sean, they managed to suppress down the area, none of the insurgents now dared to fire their mortars for fear of being sniped.

Santiago managed to capture a suicide drone from the insurgents. One explosion later the entire mortar position is blown into the air.

(1 hour later)

"That is our situation now," reported Aya, explaining the events that happened to their superiors, finally able to reestablish connection.

Xiao Tian frowned upon hearing Aya's report: all of Squad Artemis wounded, Spanish GOE has 13 KIA and 2 wounded badly. All of their vehicles and heavy equipment are gone except for the light all terrain vehicle, which had broken down and is currently being repaired.

Xiao Tian knows that there is no way that they can make it back to Madrid in time. He then told Aya the contingency plan.

"Once the rescue is successful, go southwards, enter Morocco," he ordered. "I have already notified the Moroccan authorities."

Aya frowned. "There is huge area between the insurgent base and the border, who will cover us?"

"Spanish air force will," replied Xiao Tian. "Unfortunately when they can take off is still unconfirmed."

"Why?" asked Sean, who is taking guard beside Aya with Frederica.

Xiao Tian sighed. "Because of the sandstorm coming."

Aya nodded. "But why are we crossing borders?"

Xiao Tian laughed. "Do you know why, Sean?"

"The base is a mix of insurgents and Vanguard terrorists," Sean analysed. "The insurgents want power, while the terrorists just want destruction. Hence, the insurgents will not dare to chase us towards the border of a neighboring country, for fear of causing a diplomatic accident that will impact their legitimacy. This means that we only need to worry about the terrorists."

"Excellent," commended Xiao Tian.