The wind was strong, the waves were rough, and the continuous heavy rain wove a white net in the air, making visibility extremely low. This provided perfect cover for Jiang Ye's team.
A rumbling sound came from the water. Jiang Ye felt like he was crawling in a washing machine. It took him four minutes to successfully circle to the side and enter the enemy ship's blind spot. The team members surfaced their face shields to breathe. Jiang Ye took the opportunity to re-mark the enemy ship's position.
"Attention! Prepare for a sprint. When I say 'up,' immediately stand up and open fire. Leave no one on the ship alive. Swordsmen, move forward and board to engage." Jiang Ye commanded via voice.
"Yes!" The team members' voices were tense.
Jiang Ye crawled forward with more force, only his eyes showing above the water, staring at the enemy ship's movements. The exchange of fire was still intense. A cannon at the bow was emitting thick smoke, continuously launching heavy cannonballs, raising spectacular sparks. The enemy gunners, crouching or lying prone to shoot, were almost buried in shell casings. Every machine gun was emitting white steam from the heat. If it weren't for the rain, they would have been red-hot.
80 meters, 70 meters, 60 meters…
40 meters, 30 meters, 20 meters!
"Open fire!" Jiang Ye shouted.
Nine gunners stood up simultaneously, raising their machine guns and raking the ship. The entire vessel was instantly engulfed in a hail of hot bullets. The enemy gunners, who were in a crouched firing position, hadn't even reacted before they were all knocked to the ground. Their guns hadn't stopped firing, and bullets flew wildly, killing their comrades next to them.
A swordsman leaped onto the ship with a mighty jump, brandishing a large saber and hacking wildly. His momentum was like a tiger entering a flock of sheep. Before the gunners could even figure out what was happening, several heads rolled onto the deck, spurting transparent blood.
Finally, one enemy came to his senses, grabbed his gun, and fired at the swordsman. A burst of bullets shattered the swordsman's face shield, mangling his head inside. The swordsman's mech crashed to the ground with a loud rumble.
But the time had been bought. While the swordsman was creating a spectacle of flashing blades and swords on the ship, Jiang Ye quickly led his team up the bow!
They advanced while firing, a mix of sweeping and aimed shots. Whip-like bullets whizzed across the ship. Bullets flew back and forth between both sides, and the sound of shattered face shields was incessant. The battle on the deck was resolved in less than a minute.
Jiang Ye kicked open the captain's cabin door, leaped forward, and tackled the enemy charging officer who was steering the ship. He pinned the opponent's stun gun with one hand and punched directly at the opponent's face shield with the other. The face shield was harder than expected. One punch only created cracks, and it took three punches to shatter it, revealing a very delicate and beautiful face, filled with terror. Then, another punch caved in the entire face, squeezing out fluids like a watermelon crushed by tires.
He got up, panting, and could no longer hear the sound of gunfire.
Jiang Ye looked back at the deck and was shocked to find no one standing. The deck was covered in corpses, lying in disarray.
"Are you all down?" Jiang Ye asked via voice.
"Report, Commander, I'm down," the swordsman replied.
The others didn't reply; they were likely just waking up in their respawn bathtubs and hadn't put on their mechs yet.
Jiang Ye spoke to Isabel via voice, "Old Yi, Old Yi, how do I drive this ship? I don't understand the instruments."
Isabel: "Holy crap? You succeeded in the raid! Amazing! We were still waiting for someone from the other side to come out of the captain's cabin. Are you the only one on the ship?"
"I'm the only one. No other survivors." Jiang Ye looked out at the surging floodwaters. "This ship is drifting further and further away. I don't want to abandon it. Find someone who can drive it quickly."
"Those small boats are easy to drive. You need to unlock it with the captain's fingerprint, and then you can operate it by touching the screen," Isabel said.
Jiang Ye went to the deck, picked up the swordsman's saber, returned to the captain's cabin, and with a swift cut, severed the right hand of the corpse on the floor.
The knife felt crisp, like cutting radishes.
He removed the outer hand armor, revealing a fair, slender, and tender hand. Jiang Ye straightened the index finger and placed it on the screen.
"Fingerprint verification successful! Captain: Chao Xiaoyu"
Then came the control interface. Jiang Ye quickly figured out how to drive the ship, increased the throttle, and headed towards the camp. Soon, he docked the ship at the edge of the camp and dropped anchor.
The first to board the ship was Isabel, who looked at the corpses on the floor and tutted.
"Can we find the enemy camp using this ship?" Jiang Ye asked rapidly. "Shouldn't there be route records or something?"
Isabel went directly into the captain's cabin and tapped a few times on the screen, quickly bringing up the route records. "You want to raid their home, right? This ship can carry fifty people, and with overloading, it can carry seventy. It will arrive in half an hour."
"Teams one through seven, resupply ammunition and board immediately!" Jiang Ye ordered.
The soldiers in the camp quickly boarded the ship and sat neatly on the deck, their gun muzzles and sabers pointed skyward. Jiang Ye and Isabel stayed in the captain's cabin to steer.
Many broken trees and plump animals were floating on the floodwaters. Some animals had drowned, while others were struggling to swim. Seeing the ship, the living animals all tried to approach it, as climbing onto the ship would save energy. But as soon as they got close to the ship's side, they were shot at and could only swim away with cries.
Everyone kept turning their heads to observe the water surface. The moment they saw the enemy camp, the sound of machine guns being cocked echoed in unison, and they all lay prone.
Jiang Ye took a look through the telescope in the captain's cabin. The enemy camp had approximately sixty-odd spawn houses.
"Teams two and three, disembark and swim over underwater," Jiang Ye ordered. "Block their mech manufacturing machines. Destroy any mechs they build, and kill anyone you encounter."
The two teams immediately entered the water from the side of the ship and quickly dispersed, swimming forward.
Without waiting for orders, Isabel ran to the ship's bow cannon, loaded a shell, and fired!
The opposite camp was hit by a cannonball, sending water splashing into the sky. Then, a group of gunmen emerged, and dense bullets rained down.
Jiang Ye was not intimidated at all. The ship's bow charged towards the enemy camp, taking advantage of the current. The speed was incredibly fast. In just a few dozen seconds, the bow crashed into the enemy camp!
After crashing into and damaging two spawn houses, the ship slowly came to a halt, wedged into the third spawn house. The bow was completely dented, and the hull was riddled with bullet holes and marks.
The soldiers on the ship jumped off and opened fire. Jiang Ye remained in the captain's cabin, setting up his gun and raking fire at any visible enemies. Isabel continued to aim from behind the cannon. The cannonballs were very powerful, capable of collapsing two spawn houses with one shot.
Jiang Ye felt that Isabel must have had artillery experience in the army, as every cannonball was incredibly accurate. They either collapsed distant spawn houses or blew away concentrated groups of enemies, proving more effective than airstrikes.
The enemy was in disarray, completely stunned by the attack. They likely hadn't expected people from the Jiangshuitang to steal a ship and launch a surprise attack. From beginning to end, they couldn't organize an effective counterattack, only struggling to resist and unable to raise their heads under the hail of machine gun and cannon fire.
A few individual enemies tried to escape and flank, but they were beheaded by swordsmen who jumped out from behind the spawn houses!
In less than five minutes, the entire enemy camp was completely destroyed.
The spawn houses were either collapsed by cannon fire or damaged by the swordsmen's blades. The spawn points were captured, and the opposing team ceased to exist.
Jiang Ye counted the numbers. Of the seventy people brought, forty were killed in the exchange of fire, leaving thirty. More than half of the survivors were swordsmen.
The swordsman profession seemed to have a stealth effect and a very high survival rate. As Isabel had explained in class before, the essence of raiding a camp wasn't a shootout between gunners. Gunners were only used to attract the enemy's attention. The real killers were the swordsmen, who operated in the shadows, emerging at any time to decapitate their targets with a single strike.