NationStates Jolt Archive

Monday, October 12, 2009 - 1100 hours local time
Hainan Island, slightly south of mainland Confederate China

"... yong yuan bu hui gei ni liao ..."

The large, Hawaiian-shirted man dropped his cigar carelessly, watching it glow against one of the dark patches on the sun-dappled carpet of the little dacha. Quite expensive carpet, too - a gift from an associate for his fortieth birthday.

The radio was playing some crappy Confederation Chinese pop remix of a 1987 hit.

"... yong yuan bu hui rang ni shi wang ..."

He reflected on how bloody annoying the song was, but the same couldn't be said for the backbeat, which was actually quite decent. Still, he'd take the Doctor Who theme any day for something to hum along to.

A workhorse Toshiba laptop sat on one of the nondescript olive drab crates stacked against one wall of the dacha. It was printing data to screen, then encrypting it, at a rate so fast the screen seemed to blur. The processor light flickered hypnotically as the data was shunted through a series of algorithms.

"... yong yuan bu hui pao lai pao qu he sha mo nin ..."

Ten years in the trade, and the two Chinese administrations he'd 'worked around' had known damn well he was there, but had been quite powerless to do anything of note against him... well, the second - the Confederates - seemed to think they could loosen his, and PORCELAIN's, hold on the drug industry. Hell, he supplied most of the legitimate drug companies in the Confederacy, whether they knew it or not, so if he were to be taken down the entire economy would go with him.

"... yong yuan bu hui rang ni ku qi ..."

Something on the horizon, mayhap? No, just a trick of the light, it seemed. He could have sworn he saw maybe a charter boat out there. Just his bloody luck, an unwritten change of schedule for one of the charter companies. Ah well.

"... yong yuan bu hui shui zai jian ..."

He didn't think the Confederates even knew the illegally-constructed dacha was there. The former People's Republic administrators probably hadn't been very helpful to them, what with being violently supplanted by them and all. And anyway, the freighter should show up in a few hours. His boys would load the crates and he could be on his way to another luxurious, remote destination. Get out of the bloody hellhole the place had become ever since the capitalists took it over and tightened up trade controls.

"... yong yuan bu hu shui huang he shang hai ni ..."

A well-aimed, sharp pencil hit the loose on/off switch and shut off the music. It had sounded better with a British singer, anyway. Even what's-her-name had done a better job of it.

With the radio off, he could hear a faint hum, but thought nothing of it.

---

Eleven kilometres east of Hainan Island
Helicopter deck, CPNS Type 053HT-H frigate PCN-544 Siping

Commander Zhu Kun shielded his eyes as the helicopter lifted away from the Siping's helicopter deck, blowing away dust from invisible crevices and glinting sunlight aggressively off its reflective fuselage. Two twenty-three-millimetre cannons were slung almost casually under its stubby pylons, reflecting the formidable destructive power the Z-9 copter held. With a roar like an angry god, the helicopter lifted into the air to survey Hainan from a distance.

Zhu did not really believe in luck, but he was rather certain the odds were tipped in their favour. The only man in the dacha was Ethan Lewis himself, and the only people due in a long while were the captain and crew of a small chartered freighter. With luck, the Navy could execute a bust, score at the expense of the stuck-up bastards over at Confederate Police HQ, and Zhu's crew could add one more commendation to their already long list. What was it the British used to say? "Home in time for tea and medals"?

Somewhere near Hain Island, On board the Surprise class crusier "Applebee"

A Single sleek kewen crusier, which looked like a Arleigh Burke, but subtly different its usuall weapons system and arnaments replaced with different things, also several sets of chain translined both sides of the hull, carrying a deadly payload the thrid of its class, the Surpirse Class Cruiser the first Kewen Navel design, it would be a tricky little thing or people hoped.

It neared the redavous point, and it broadcasted the code word
"Never gonna give you up, and let you down"

ooc: EPIC WIN, please, someone translate this mans chinese song and then sing it hehehe

Zhu, by now safely back on the bridge, watched the Kewen cruiser, hull glinting in the light of the near-noon sun draw in over the gleaming blue waves and transmit the code phrase.

Taking a moment to remember the code phrase, he donned a radio headset, depressed the TRANSMIT button, and began to speak.

"Tisdale, this is Astley. 'Cong lai mei you yi ding pao lai pao qu he sha mo nin'."

Flicking a switch, Zhu changed the radio signal to international key two five, as agreed.

"Kewen cruiser Applebee, this is the Confederate Navy frigate Siping, rendezvousing as arranged. Before we drop into light banter, I'd like to confirm a couple of things - first, Siping's got its full complement of ground-pounders on board, that's ten; do you have your dozen?

"Secondly, are you equipped for close fire support? We may need to sink a couple of patrol boats, prove a point. Just to help us, the Judiciary has put up a bounty of five hundred thousand yuan for each guard captured alive."

Behind him, he could hear the deck chief bullying the loaders and engineers to have the Siping ship shape, as it were. The helicopter deck was creaking as a couple of engineers adjusted it, while the armament fixtures were swiveling madly through their routine tests.

The kewen crusier pulled up along side the one sent by the EAS, the engines slowly throttling down to zero as it was side by side with the ship.

A few sailors waved to there Asian counterparts, by kept working cleaning the deck and getting to work making sure the cannons were fully operational.

"Confederate Navy frigate Siping, This is the Kewen cruiser Applebee reciving you perfectly clear, code word(s) match up fine, glad to see you made it without any trouble, we've got our guards on board a bakers dozen to say the most, and we are perfectly fine to handle Patrol boats."


indeed, the words spoken by the captain were true, as around the hull specifically two at the front and two at the rear of the ship, the familiar domes of the Phalanx Close-In Weapon System could be seen, but what was different was the domes were slightly bigger and too the back of said protruding machine gun, also there were two of them and next to each one on a rotating pivot was at least five thousand rounds of ammo. perfectly enough to deal with light boats.

14:00 local time

The afternoon sun glinted upon the waves, creating some rather fetching visuals - yet nobody was looking at them, rather at the gigantic freighter lumbering over the horizon.

A transmission crackled up from belowdecks, faintly echoed by its owner's voice. "SSMs checking out, running checks... fifty-five-cal gun checking out, AA guns... checking out, torpedos and rockets are green. We're ready to rock, Bridge."

Zhu tossed a casual salute to his chief engineer through an open hatch, then another to his Kewen counterpart. "Alright." Raising the mike, he directed the Kewen ship to a sheltered harbour about ten kilometres southwest of the dacha, and took the lead. The young commander saw an easy victory coming.

Belowdecks, his slightly less optimistic Marine complement were checking their weapons.

The kewen ship, fell behind the EAS Ship, and followed it more or less directly to the line, crew members ran across the decks slightly worried and began to finish loading up the rounds, several of them mounted of the turrets on the decl, especiall the converted CIWS gunsnow dubbed Shredders, due to the rate of fire.

"We're right behind you" the captain said over the radio to the EAS ship, sighing and rubbing his temples he wiped a non-existance spec off of his gleaming white shirt.

A rather annoyed looking officer walked onto the bridge
"WHAT IS THIS SORRY MESS!" The captain yelled, as he saw the mess that was the Officer.
"Im sorry capt'n, but it wasnt my fault, the marines, they did this too me, i got swirlied..." his face was a mask of sadness and humility as he spoke.
"THE MARINES?!? Your a navyman ferchristsake! you let your corps down! UNFORGIVEABLE"
"Bright side, i stole there wallets" he said, backing into a corner like a injured puppy
"Second thoughts, forgiven, gimme four of em and this goes under the rug"
" one "
"four"
"one and three gold credit cards"
"Shrewd barginer, i like it I can tell your going to go far" the captain ended as he petted the the soaked officer on the back, walking out of the room to conduct there buisness deal.

Down stares, the former group of diciplined and stoneface marines were sprawled on the floor in a mess, none of them even standing as they were laughing so hard, waiting for the moment then..
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS SICK ****" was roared over the intercomm, it was answered by the distinct sound of someone retching and then the roar of approval from most of the crew.

At the exact same time as the Kewen captain was retching over the rather interesting photograph in one of the wallets, each and every monitor onboard the Siping was graced with a picture from behind of a middle-aged gentleman using some rather impressive skills to display to the crew the inside of his rectum.

The signal source was traced back to the terminal owned by the Siping's Kewen joint forces liaison, but the young lieutenant steadfastly denied ever having seen the image before. Several logs seemed to back him up, except for the bridge network log; in any case, the Siping's complement had several objectives to complete.

Thirty minutes later

The Siping drew quietly into the tiny bay, Kewen cruiser in tow and engines humming discreetly. Sliding in towards the damp sand and the walkable area, the Provincial Forces frigate let down a gangplank, down which the ten-strong marine complement clattered as quietly as possible, rifles clipped to their backs.

The sergeant leading the small ship's complement waved to the Kewen to let them know it was safe to come in.

The kewen complement of marines, could barely get on deck let alone onto the shore, but sure enough they got off the boat, some landed face first in the sad still laughing there asses off, when a rather angry and puke covered officer rushed out of a door and to the front of the ship.

Giving a few choice hand signs and verbal encouragment of the colorful sort, he turned around and mooned the Kewen soilders, one was smart enough to unhostled the nonleathal-xp45 SBBBG, which was a fancy way of saying a Air rifle, and shot the officer in the ass, who fell on the deck writhing in pain.

Turning to there asian counterparts one said
"Dont worry, this thing is common for us" before helmets were clipped on and the groupd of soldiers became black masked warriors in full body armour and weapons loadout.

The only-just-unsmiling Asian sergeant nodded and formed his squad into the Kewen one, creating a coherent unit. Two eight-wheeled transports lay ahead, over a compacted, high-walled sand path that gradually became dull silvery rock. Lowering their automatic and marksman rifles, the ten-strong marine complement piled into one of the monolithic black machines - the sergeant driving - and one corporal curtly directed the Kewen privates to do the same.

Suddenly, with a loud roar, the Asians' transport revved up, its lights flashing on to illuminate the thick forest and one very startled guard. A tranquiliser gun coughed, the young man went down, and one of the Confederate soldiers dragged him back to the Siping for five hundred thousand potential yuan, then returned to the transport.

During the short trip to the dacha (speaking of which, the freighter should turn up any time now), the Asians would be loading their weapons with AP rounds and deaffixing silencers, since anyone with business here was likely to have equally unsilenced armaments.

The kewen, pilled up into there transports, and with a loud roar also shot off after there counterparts.

Inside the APC, the atmoshpere was light to say the most, with a low level of rock music being played, Rounds were slammed into the guns a few troops had special rounds with enough tranqs to put a rhino asleep while others just carried standard AP rounds with a explosive center.

Seven kilometres into the trip

The last thing that passed through the mind of Provincial Marines NCO second-level Zhao Chen was a bullet.

The Asian forces ducked as one as their sergeant's brains spattered out across the dash, regaining their senses within a few seconds and firing their bullpup assault rifles back at the guards flanking them. It was, however, a futile fight - there were at least twenty black-clad troopers ahead of them, and just less than that behind, firing on the Kewen transport. Bracketing them were perhaps fifteen troops a side - overall, one Confederate marine would later estimate the number of troops firing upon them at that moment at seventy or thereabouts.

Command fell immediately to NCO first-level Liang Cheng, who issued his first order by shouting to his troops to duck. Doing so himself, he heard a satisfying thump as each and every one of the seven marines remaining dropped to the ground and thick metal covers dropped with a clang over their heads. Now, at least, it would take explosive charges to blow away the doors from the outside, and he could navigate through his objective map.

Accelerating and skidding around, he set the transport to auto and robotically hightailed it back to the beach in a darkness illuminated only by the panels in front of him - in the passenger seat, the multinational force's relay chat channel was filled with frantic queries from joint command as to exactly what the hell was going on. Leaning over, he rapid-fired a terse message onto the channel with a brief situation report and an estimate of dead.

The kewen were having a hellava time inside the APC, it wasnt till someone realised that they were being shot at did the music stop the APC stopped moving engine idling for a second as bullets pinged off the hull.

"Should we go back?" said a rather nervous looking soilder
"Wait i hear them really close, prepare the stun grenades and lemme drive" said the sargent, while he grappled with the driver
"Mein!"he cried as he was pulled out of the seat.
"Lets see here" he murmered tohimself as hee studied the controls.."In chinese GODAMIT! oh wait, i know what these do!" he squeeled with joy as he spun the APC around and around doing donuts crushing the few soidelrs very close by

"Drop em boys!" he yelled at the top of his lungs and the hatches popped open for a second as a few dozen stun grenades flew out of the APC in various directions.

the troops ran out as quick as possible with rope, tied it to any man still alive then tied it to the APC before pulling a uey and getting the hell out of there.
"early retirement here i come!" shouted a few soilders

[14:39] *** CPM-NCO1-liangcheng is now known as CPM-CO-liangcheng
[14:39] *** ChanServ sets mode: +o CPM-CO-liangcheng
[14:40] <ChanServ> Command and control privileges transferred to NCO first-level Liang Cheng.
[14:40] <CPM-CO-liangcheng> No you don't. Twenty-five million yuan comes to...
[14:40] <CPM-CO-liangcheng> Just over eighty thousand standard WA dollars.
[14:40] <CPM-CO-liangcheng> Not so much early retirement as a superb holiday.
[14:40] <CPM-CO-liangcheng> Now, I'm going to peek out of the transport.
[14:40] <CPM-CO-liangcheng> Wish me luck.
[14:40] <CPM-XO-gaoju> wtf cheng, dont
[14:41] <CPM-XO-gaoju> i dont want to be this godforsaken crews commander
[14:41] <CPM-XO-gaoju> that is if we make it out of here
[14:41] <CPM-XO-gaoju> cheng?

Liang smiled at the desperate jocularity of his exec. Poking his head and the tip of his assault rifle up above his canted-up hatch, he spotted a dark-coloured jeep following the transport with alacrity, driver leaning out the driver's-side door to avoid the cloud of dirt flying up in front of the windscreen. With a short cough from the assault rifle, the driver fell away with a quick red splatter, and the now-unmanned jeep crashed into a tree.

He ducked back down into the jeep, slammed the hatch closed, and attended to his IRC channel again.

[14:42] * CPM-XO-gaoju pokes CPM-CO-liangcheng
[14:42] * CPM-XO-gaoju pokes CPM-CO-liangcheng again
[14:43] <CPM-CO-liangcheng> Back. At least one bogey down. You're at the back, Ju, can you see anything?
[14:43] <CPM-XO-gaoju> cant see shite, the kewbles are right behind me
[14:43] <CPM-XO-gaoju> look like there dragging a couple of mercs along behind them
[14:44] <CPM-CO-liangcheng> For once I feel sorry for the mercs.
[14:44] <CPM-XO-gaoju> ^
[14:44] * CPM-CO-liangcheng slaps Kewen-CO-atunshenzu around a bit with a large trout
[14:45] <CPM-CO-liangcheng> Ms Shenzu, can you see anything behind us? Anything to report?

[14:46] <SgtShen-zu> umm... besides about fourty or thirty maybe even fifty of these drug runners being dragged behind us.. waitthey fell of there sleds! we didnt do it! we dont see anything
[14:47] <SgtShen-zu> Oh except flaming thingo
[14:48] <SgtShen-zu> looks like a rocket
A loud boom can be heard from somewhere behind the two transports
[14:49] <SgtShen-zu> they missed no worries
[14:50] <SgtShen-zu> umm now all i can see is arapdily shrinking man with a RPG-7
Audible crack
[14:51] <SgtShen-zu> again nvm

the two transport continued on there journey

[14:51] <CPM-CO-liangcheng> Thanks, Atun.
[14:52] <CPM-CO-liangcheng> Helpful.
[14:52] * CPM-CO-liangcheng sour look
[14:53] <CPM-XO-gaoju> dont be so mean to the minion ^.^
[14:53] * CPM-XO-gaoju pets atun
[14:53] * CPM-CO-liangcheng blasts Atun into orbit, dusts his hands off, and turns back to the controls
[14:54] <CPM-CO-liangcheng> Here comes the Siping now.
[14:54] <CPM-CO-liangcheng> Hold on to your headwear.
[14:54] *** CPM-XO-gaoju quit (Read error: Connection reset by peer)
[14:54] *** You have been disconnected (Read error: Connection reset by peer)

Liang laughed. A peer reset was probably the best thing that could happen at that point - the APC shot into the Siping's quickly-excavated belowdecks cavity, coming to an abrupt halt a few feet short of the back wall. Its power systems flickered for a few moments, then came back online, connections syncing up as they were before.

[14:55] *** Now talking in #wao-ceas-cpdf
[14:56] *** CPM-XO-gaoju entered the room.
[14:56] <CPM-XO-gaoju> interesting

* * *
17:20 local time

A lot of things had changed in a few hours.

Firstly, depression had struck. Nobody had really liked Zhao Chen, but at least he'd provided a crusty old authority figure to hang around. Now he was gone, and they were all feeling the impact. Even Gao Ju, the intelligent, pretty and bubbly young woman acting as complement XO, had gone quiet and subdued, and that was saying a lot.

Secondly, to fill the power void, Liang had provisionally been promoted to NCO-two. Commander Zhu himself, one of the Confederate Rebellion's most famous young officers, had personally pinned the tabs onto him, as well as breaking his normally cool, taciturn manner to offer a few words of advice. It helped to know your CO had confidence in you.

Thirdly, Ju had been promoted in sync with him, going up to NCO-one and getting the single rank tab associated with the position. Liang guessed she'd had the same kind of encounter with Zhu.

Fourthly, the diplomats back at the General Staff HQ in Beijing had demanded he take the Applebee complement's sergeant-commanding, Atun Shen-zu, onboard as his tac officer. Most of the time he'd have resented being forced to take orders from a desk jockey, but in this case the orders seemed to be justified - Atun had quite possibly the most capable mind in what the mil-bureaucrats had arbitrarily declared was the First Confederate and Kewen Joint Force. He felt slightly inferior to her at times, truth be told, but it didn't engender resentment like it probably should have. Her casually optimistic outlook might have something to do with it.

Fifthly, the promotions and appointments' positive value had been counterbalanced by what a lot of the depleted unit believed was a flock of civilians to protect: three of the Siping's onboard security people attached to the unit as two designated marksmen and one anti-materiel sharpshooter - Privates Hsiao and Tung and NCO-one Xu, respectively. Liang knew them and thought rather highly of them, but he didn't really know what the rest of the command structure thought - in any case, he was one of the few who didn't think they were attached through perverse fate.

<SgtShen-zu> quit IRC Pingtimeout

"Heheheh that will get rid of them" she muttered, as she ran about poking poeple to activity.
The APC parked on the beach, and the soidlers disembarked to checkout there prise.
"Aww crap, this ones dead"
"Sos this one"
"any living?" She asked hopefully
"most of em"
"YES!" she screamed jumping in the air and clicking her heels. ptu em on stretchers and give em to the Asians, i want everyone re-armed and ready to roll, we still have some work to do."

Liang turned from his laptop and stared out the port on the Siping's starboard side, watching Atun run about collecting mercenaries to cash in. It was a fun sight, in a way - she seemed so enthusiastic, and Confederate yuan was such a cheap currency.

Pulling out a mike from under his battered leather seat with some effort, he put a message through the intercom.

"Marines, security officers, the next deployment will be at eighteen hundred hours. We will attack under cover of night with silenced weapons.

"I'm not going to lie to you. It's a long, hard mission ahead, and there are likely at least three hundred and fifty guards remaining on the island. We have also received intelligence that there are at least one hundred guards on the freighter, not the complement of five marksmen previously thought.

"But the promise of money to these cowards, however much they may outnumber us, does not and cannot rival the fact that we are trained, we are disciplined, we have a mandate to efficiently solve crimes that CPHQ cannot, and we know damn well we are in the right.

"With enough effort and enough will, we, a joint force of forty-four, can prevail against what are now, to us, four hundred and fifty instances of enemy cannon fodder."

When the kewe soilders here the was more then a hundred of the enemy they couldnt help but, do a little dance, whoop and give each other high fives!
"Sweet Leaping Jebuss, even with there shitty conversion rates, that will still make us some sweet green!" shouted Sgt Shen-zu as she did a little jig.

Liang felt an ironic smile tug at the corners of his lips. The Kewen soldiers really didn't seem to have any concept of death - they were on this island for fun and their next paycheck. Come to think of it, the Chinese Provincial Forces could probably learn from them.

17:55 - thirty minutes later

"Ladies and gentlemen: lock and load!"

A simultaneous chk-chk came from the short line of drilled-to-instinct-level CPF soldiers to Liang's left. Raising the mike, he issued a similar instruction to the much bigger Kewen complement, then turned back to his people.

"Alright. Transports, now."

17:59

Liang stood inside the new, significantly roomier transport and surveyed the ten soldiers in front of him. Only the legs of the gunner were visible, but Liang knew he was listening attentively. "Alright, ladies and gentlemen. First stop is the rise designated on your GPS, where we will be placing our designated marksmen. Second stop is the dacha, where the wai guo ren turret gunner Private First Class Martin will have a chance to prove himself." A chuckle ran throughout the transport, and the gunner waved a leg in acknowledgment.

Liang took his place at the controls and donned a pair of camera goggles linked to the outside array, gunned the engines, and shot off down the dirt trail in a cloud of dust. A small red reticule jerking across his field of vision told him Martin was scanning the area for fifty-cal targets.

Just the kewen they were, the transports they boarded were different to the ones that the CPM were driving, with the addition of speakers extra armour plating a bigger engine and of course, instead of your usualy single .60cal turret a dual one stood in its place, Typical Kewen Engineering.

Two of the trucks were expanded ever so slightly, and more then usual amount of passengers were crammed in the thrid truck was too expanded but it was fixed to hold the prisnors the kewen looked to capture.

One of the trucks had the dual fifty cals, another had twin 40mm grenade launchers while the thrid one had no guns just smoke launchers, and lots of em.

"Move out!" hollered Sgt Shen-zu as she slapped the last marine on the ass as he piled into the APC. they shot off after there CPM counter parts, slow at first but began to build up speed, music was being played inside again.
"Everybody was kung fu fighting" "Hah ho yea!"
"In fact it was a little bit fightning" "Yea right!"

Martin's voice crackled through Liang's headphones. "Full fire zone, straight ahead. Permission to open up?"

Liang let a savage grin form on his face. "Permission granted." The APC shook with repeated recoil as Martin brought the machine gun to bear with gusto. Several soldiers complained, but Liang bluntly told them to shut up; Martin's faux-marksmanship was cutting down the remaining seventeen guards in the area at speed, and each was in a messy heap by the end of about a minute after Martin had opened fire.

The problem was, though, the freighter had taken time to circle the island, reconnoitering, and although its crew wouldn't be able to see the Siping or the Applebee through a cursory orbit, they'd easily be able to see the two APCs parked just up the island's wide beach from them.

Liang gunned the right-side thrusters and spun the APC around on the hard sand, curving up the wide beach and through a convenient gap in the trees.

Provincial Forces honour said they would dispose of this drug runner, the man who was notorious as the criminal saint, and had no apparent sins other than selling drugs. But Liang knew the man's record intimately - his elder brother had been in the drugs business back in 2006 and 7; one day only his head had come back from work, along with a nice little note of apology from Ethan Lewis. In early 2008, just after joining the PRC military out of a sense of national duty, Liang had perhaps misused his privileged access to look up the data files on Lewis, and there were a whole stack of similar incidents.

Scant hours ago, he'd been deployed here, by a General Staff who perhaps didn't know his thirst for revenge against the Criminal Saint. In any case, their mission was to extract Lewis to face trial, and that Liang would do quite happily.

Someone was laucghing there ass off inside there APC, that someone turned out ot be a Sgt Shenzu, smiling she slapped Pvt Griff on the back.
"You really did a number on the captain huh," she guffacked some more "God, if i could i would give you a promottion quick snap right now"

Gunshots were heard, well more accuratly Machinegun shots were heard
"Open fire!" they yelled at once, and within a few seconds the two APC's lit up the ship qith Quad 50cal fire, and sprayed the area with 40mm Grenades of the explosive kind, when you shoot someone in the head with a sniper you get pink mist, the qual 50cals were giving the maries some red hot salsa and chunkcs, after the gunner was thorugh sweeping the deck of the frieghter from his posiiton, it was pock marked with scorchholes from grenades and bloodied chunks.

"Perez,Rico get out there and find out whats going on, bring the APC's closer to the CPM one." ordered Sgt Shen-zu as she slammed home a fresh mag to her gun.

Liang moved back and stuck his head out the flipped-up hatch, glasses still transmitting. One lens caught a trace moving across the ground - a short burst from his assault rifle handled that.

Now...

He swiveled around, rifle in hand, and eyed the Kewen APC, sitting up on one of the peaks with an excellent angle of fire down onto the deck of the large freighter below, which Liang estimated could hold several thousand cubic metres as well as a reasonably-sized cadre of guards. Unfortunately, "reasonably-size" in this case was probably about seventy to one hundred, and the vessel was big-big. The Kewen were shooting fish in a barrel at five hundred metres with a fifty-cal machine gun, because five hundred metres was the nearest part of the bay that could accommodate the ship.

Unfortunately, although the deck might be a reasonably dead zone, the same couldn't be said for the interior of the Handymax-class ship, which appeared to be the part holding the cargo (there was nothing on the deck, and the class' characteristic deck cranes' weren't present). It could probably fit at least a hundred guards, plus cargo.

Still, there was an open port at the end of a long, makeshift but solid pier anchored in the sand. Without much further ado (except to assign two squad members to the dacha door, because Ethan Lewis knew damn well the Confederates were there and might try to escape), Liang crawled the APC up onto the pier and accelerated along it, humming into the apparently empty cargo bay at the end. The three startled guards inside were quickly dropped by Martin, who had taken the time given to load stun rounds. Thinking on that, Liang ordered his remaining seven - those who hadn't anticipated the order - to load up their rifles with stun rounds.

"Alright. Time to debark, you lot. We sweep this freighter deck by deck, we make sure all threats are neutralised, and we make damn sure Sergeant Shen-zu has her opportunity to carry out her mission. Is that clear?!"

"Yes, sir!"

The Kewen soilders clambered out of the APC, and formed up into near lines pretty quickly with money on the line one could not take any chances

"All right boys, you see that freighter there, were going to roll right in nab everything that moves and some stuff that dosnt and run back home quick snap, Smashand Grab operation" Sgt Shen-zu said, as she sat ontop of the APC, resting on the machine gun

"Emphais on the smash right mam? A enterprising young soilder said loading his weapon
"No, emphasis on the GRAB shoot to incapacitate, each one alive means more money for us,who ever gets the most, I buy dinner for, tis be like taking a farmers daughters virginity before he wakes up and loads the 12 gague, and no ideas anyone, I see you watching me jenkins!" She Continued, with much approval from her crowd of troops.

Like a silent marching band they doubletimed it to the boat, watching there asian coutner parts, one piped "Can we blow our way in?"
"Thats...I...Perfect" She purred as she clasped the man on the back, set the charges! she added as a few men waded out the short distance to set the splosivs.

"... set the charges!"

A minute later and a quiet peal of thunder rolled through the metallic structure of the ship as the enterprising Kewen made their way in.

Liang spoke quietly. "Watch out for the Kewen. Their theme tactic for this week is 'overwhelming application of underwhelming force'. Watch out for the rounds, especially, this stuff is armour." He tapped the wall for emphasis, knowing it was at least three inches thick. Which brought to mind the entire size question - how the hell had Lewis got a Handymax-class freighter into South Hainan Bay? It should have bottomed out at least two kilometres before reaching the place.

As it happened, pre-mission sonar had noted a stone channel built along the path of the freighter, pushing the sand out to the sides and allowing space for the gigantic ship to come in. How Lewis had even done that was a mystery, and one Liang hadn't aided himself in solving by not perusing the sonar reports.

Being the squad sergeant, Liang made his way quietly around the corner, electrotaser rifle (for which he had left his assault rifle in the APC) in both hands. He popped an unfortunate guard in the stomach with the long-barreled 'lightning gun' and proceeded on down the long corridor, kicking open doors to both sides with his squad backing him up. Every so often he would have to neutralise a guard, and by the time the squad had reached the end of the corridor the coma-count was 14. It clicked up to 15 in unison with a nearby crackle and groan, along with a slight burning smell that told Liang one of the guards might be slightly damaged.

* * *

Some time later, Liang and Gao were finding themselves walking along a corridor alone, heading for the Kewen-Asian rendezvous point, the squad having split up into several groups. The two Asian privates first class were following slightly slowly, kicking open doors - suddenly the loud clanging of kicked metal stopped, with a series of gulps and groans. Spinning around, Liang found himself staring at an equally frightened Gao, and a few seconds later they were both running at full pelt as shots cracked over their heads.

They screeched to a halt in the middle of a wide, dusty and overly warm intersection, a hot white light above their heads painting them quite clearly as a target. A team of what must have been twenty guards advanced on them, five from each direction.

Liang backed into the centre of the intersection, eyes frantically searching for a way out, but he could find none that wouldn't involve at least one of them sustaining a fatal bullet wound. Suddenly, he bumped into Gao, and it took all his reserve not to turn in surprise, a quick movement that might cost him his life. The electrotaser he slung over his right shoulder (and, he reflected in an odd calm, now that they were back to back, Gao's left, too), attempting to not look threatening.

The kewen, advanced into the ship and through the hall with the stealth and grace of a angry rhino, after enting the ship and neutralising the four guards with Metal BB's, four were stationed to guard there exit, five were told to get on with the smashing and grabbing, and the overwhelming application of underwhelming force, while The Sgt, and Jenkins, Peterson, Boof and Rocko ,ade another infrastrucural improvment to the boat and moved about through the ventalation system

"Jenkins, dispite your inherant lack of dicipline, ability to ook at my face for more then a few seconds before looking at another part of me, you are turning out to be quite the soilder, already we have used explosives and duct tape, more then twice too! keep at this and you will be a SGt in no time, and me a general" she chuckled as she crawled through the vents

"Y...Yes Mam" said jenkins, a bit slower then he should of have from behind her.
"And if i catch you staring at my ass, you would live to have kids, nor be able to have them IF you live"she commented snidly after realising how close he was.

Motioning for them to be quiet, she slowl removed the vent covering, and gently flopped ontop the deck with a very soft thud, before turning to find the back a some soilders.

oh crap she thought, removing the top button of her combat dressing, and holding her pistol behind her back she put on her sweetest voice "Anyone here know how to show a girl a good time?" she was rewarded with three things, one was the guards turning around stunned then whistling and making very obvious gestures, two was drool from jenkins mouth, from the veiw he had and third was the look on Liangs face.

"Baby, Great chia wall, not only thing big out of asia come out of" One of them said in bad english
"Aww, so sweet, NOW SUCK BALL BEARINGS BITCH she said, changing back to her usual bad tempterd voice, swining her arms forward and clubing two of the five soilders with her pistiols before firing BB's into the remaining three's faces and watching them fall to the floor
"OPEN FIRE " she yelled, and was rewarded with her men dropping down behind her and unloading there guns at the guards, wiping a spec of blood off of her vest she commented
"And my favrioute combat shirt too, I JUST HAD THESE CLEANED!"

Liang and Gao took the 'hard'-won opportunity as quickly as possible, spinning and unshouldering their electrotasers as one, unleashing an electrical storm upon the remaining guards and throwing them (with the aid of a metaphorical boot) into the unconscious.

Liang tossed a fast salute to Shen-zu, adrenaline still pumping. "Thank you for the timely rescue, mi'lady. Have you seen our unfortunate mission personnel?" But his question was almost immediately answered for him, as a snickering Asian NCO-one led the two abashed-looking privates first class into the light. Liang eyed them with mock annoyance, then turned to Shen-zu again, holding a PDA with objective maps.

"Mi'lady, the cargo is right through there," and he pointed at a distant doorway. "This appears to have been surprisingly easy."

"No problem," she said returning the salute "As for it being too easy, your right but it dosnt stop it from being fun" she chuckled, as a few Kewen soilders began picking up the now knocked out enemy fodder which had been incapacitated by kewen arms, and begna to haul em outside to the APC

"Hrm, that door looks fortified, and that hallway looks like a trap, I have two simple solutions one we go around, two we go through. Im in favour of both, you and your men go around and find another way in, see if you can get some kinda height advantage or something, me and these four behind me will go through" she said, pointing at directions and people.

As she spoke, rock lined up behind her with the "zook" loading a bunker buster charge, he took aim at the door and waited for orders

Liang looked up, visually scouring the walls ... wait a minute! His eyes snapped back to one particular point on the tall wall enclosing the metal cavern of the accommodation spaces. If he squinted, he could just make out what appeared to be a dusty metal door painted in black. Tagging it with a laser waypoint, he figured a way up based on schematics of similar ships.

Quietly informing Atun, he made his way down a side corridor, gun at the ready and a squad of Asian troopers behind him. Every so often an unsuspecting guard would stroll round a corner, normally to be hit by a couple of electrotaser shots at once. The next day, he'd wake up with a serious pain in the ribs and find himself shoved into a convenient gap.

Meanwhile, Liang was cutting the lock out of the upper-deck service door with an overly sharp combat knife. Just the sound of the knife scraping around the rusty metal exterior of the damned thing made him wince. Finally, the lock came away, and he extricated the bolt with his index finger, thumb, and a great deal of wriggling. Putting it in his pocket, he crept onto the metallic observation balcony the door revealed, clanking as quietly as possible.

Ahead loomed what appeared to be a sturdy wooden deck laid across the ceiling girders, convenient holes sawed out of it. Liang looked down through one and noticed what appeared to be a number of long, hook-on ladders laid across the floor, about twenty feet below; he surmised the holes must be grips for the hooks.

Ahead lay a middle section with a pole securing the wooden deck, and a square six metres to a side sawed out of the wood. Liang directed his squad to fall back, and settled back on the edge of the hole to wait for something to happen, a small tranq pistol at the ready.