213: Chapter 211: Looking forward to the stars, looking forward to the moon.
213: Chapter 211: Looking forward to the stars, looking forward to the moon.
On the calm waters of the Gulf of Aden, a super oil tanker with a displacement of over one hundred thousand tons was sailing, and on the deck at the bow was where Gao Yang and his party of six were gathered.
Although it was still January, the temperature in the waters of the Gulf of Aden had reached twenty-seven or twenty-eight degrees Celsius.
Especially on the sun-drenched deck, the temperature was at least in the sixties or seventies.
Coming from the cold Idaho straight to the scorching Gulf of Aden made them quite uncomfortable.
A mobile awning provided a bit of shade, and the surrounding tarps blocked the sea breeze.
Below the awning, the maritime gear that had taken so much effort to acquire was now carelessly thrown at their feet.
Gao Yang, Li Jinfang, and Cui Bo, all shirtless and wearing only their combat vests, were deeply engrossed in playing Fight the Landlord.
As the most popular card game in Huaxia, the rules of Fight the Landlord had caught the attention of Frey and Glolov, while Bruce stood alone at the starboard side, the most likely place for pirates to appear, holding his binoculars and hoping to spot some.
Gao Yang had been in the Gulf of Aden for ten days already, and it had been seven days since they officially started their escort mission.
The initial excitement of seeing the ocean and boarding a large ship had long vanished, leaving nothing but boredom.
The feared seasickness never came, as the waters were too calm and the ship too large.
The expected gunfire never occurred either; these days, Gao Yang and his team had not spotted a single hair of a pirate.
From being fully armed and on high alert for pirates from day one to a bored longing for just a glimpse of the legendary pirates after five days, and then two more days of sheer frustration, they finally could not stand the boredom any longer and decided to find something to do.
After boarding the Panamanian oil tanker they were tasked with escorting, the first thing Gao Yang and his team did was unload the heavy gear from themselves, and then they started playing cards.
They kept their combat vests on because the vests they brought this time were the LBT-2564A-KIT BLACK, the combat vests specifically used by the U.S.
Navy’s VBSS.
The level III bulletproof protection offered by the combat vest was not important.
What mattered was that the vests were also equipped with flotation panels so that even if one fell overboard with heavy gear, they wouldn’t sink.
Plus, the vests had SEA-MKII type emergency oxygen tanks for breathing in case of an accidental fall into water.
Gao Yang could swim, and Li Jinfang and Cui Bo could somewhat swim, but that was in rivers or swimming pools.
As for Glolov and Frey, they couldn’t swim at all.
But whether they could swim a bit or not at all, on the ocean, it was safer to consider themselves as genuine landlubbers, so even on a gigantic ship, with an almost negligible chance of falling into the sea, they still felt more secure wearing their combat vests.
“Double kings bomb, triple with one, haha, sorry, I win again.”
In Cui Bo’s triumphant shout, Gao Yang helplessly threw the bad hand he held onto the table, then took out two banknotes and threw them in front of Cui Bo.
Li Jinfang also spoke with reluctance, “Damn unlucky, getting blasts every round, and Rabbit always being the landlord, I’m really done for.”
Gao Yang said with a helpless face, “No way around it, that’s what they call ‘a fool’s luck.’ Have you two learned how to play?
If you have, why don’t you guys try for a while?”
Frey was quick on the uptake, eagerly taking Gao Yang’s place to start yelling and playing Fight the Landlord with Cui Bo and Li Jinfang.
Gao Yang stood behind Frey, ready to offer advice whenever Frey made a wrong move.
As for Glolov, he also wanted to join in, but he had to wait for either Li Jinfang or Cui Bo to give up their seat.
“Radar has detected a suspicious target, approximately four miles away and closing in.”
Just when they were bored out of their minds, the voice of the ship’s communications operator suddenly came through the waterproof walkie-talkie on Gao Yang’s shoulder.
But no one paid any attention to the warning from the walkie-talkie, as they had experienced many such warnings already.
What initially made them nervous soon turned into anticipation that it was pirates approaching; unfortunately, in the end, all these so-called suspicious targets turned out to be just small fishing boats because real pirates were unlikely to operate with just one boat.
After confirming the position of the target detected by radar with the ship’s communication operator, Bruce began scanning with his binoculars.
Gao Yang and the others continued playing their card game, as there was nothing to worry about; they were now approaching the northeastern tip of Somalia and were about to leave the waters of Gulf of Aden.
Once they reached the Indian Ocean, the pirates would no longer pose a threat because the wind and waves of the Indian Ocean were not something that small speedboats could withstand.
Somali pirates liked to approach and board ships at night, rarely taking action during the daytime.
While daytime hijackings did occur, they were rare.
Now that the most dangerous area and time had passed, unless something unexpected happened, Gao Yang and his team would depart from this cruise ship after dark.
The cruise ship continued to sail, Bruce continued his futile search for signs of pirates, and the sun gradually moved westward.
But, unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, nothing happened.
Time ticked by, the sunset that once felt like a beautiful view had become bland, and everything was as boring as the previous days.
The only thing that gave Gao Yang a slight thrill was that Frey finally got a good hand.
Just after Cui Bo threw out a three, Gao Yang immediately shouted excitedly, “Blast him now, do it, lock him out, play your four tens, then your straight, haha, breaking at nine, your straight is the highest, f**k, Frey, your luck is incredible.”
Frey started with a bang, throwing out a straight, and at that moment, Li Jinfang also excitedly said, “Wait, I’ll add a bomb too, four kings, haha, Rabbit, you’re dead meat this time!”
Gao Yang felt even more delighted, bursting into laughter, “Haha, taking the Double King Bomb, following up with a Three with One, Triple Bomb plus a Lock-Up, let me calculate—two bombs are four hundred, three bombs equal eight hundred, plus the Lock-Up that’s…”
“Pirates!
Starboard side!”
“Don’t be noisy, I’m busy, wait a moment, pirates?”
When Gao Yang, who was figuring out how much Cui Bo should lose, suddenly came to his senses, he grabbed the telescope that was at his feet and ran off while Cui Bo, also wearing a face full of excitement, stood up and was about to run out, Li Jinfang firmly held him back and loudly said, “Kid, you want to leave, you can, but first settle the money with me, I’ve finally gotten some relief, think you can run?
No way!”
Ignoring Cui Bo and Li Jinfang, Gao Yang ran over to Bruce’s side, while Bruce with a serious face pointed at the distant sea and said solemnly, “Over there, a mother ship towing three small boats, fishing boats never do that, it must be a pirate ship.”
Gao Yang quickly spotted the pirate ship through the telescope that Bruce pointed out—a fishing vessel with a displacement of around a hundred tons trailing three speedboats, almost a nautical mile’s distance from them.
Although the sun had already half sunk into the water, the remaining light still made it possible to see that the speedboats were crowded with people.
Overcome with excitement, Gao Yang shouted, “Brothers, pirates, real pirates!”
Cui Bo finally ran out, clutching his TAC-50, his face animated as he said, “There, where is it, let me have a look, damn it, after longing for stars and the moon for so long, the pirates have finally appeared.”
As he spoke, Cui Bo lied down on the ground, quickly finding the pirate ship through his rifle scope, and at that moment, the small boats trailing behind the fishing vessel began to break away, cutting a white wake behind them as they sped towards Gao Yang’s cruise ship.
The anxious voice of the communications officer started coming through the walkie-talkie, “Pirates, these are pirates, don’t let them get close, warning shots, let them know there’s armed security on board, and they will leave on their own.”
In fact, according to Gao Yang’s intentions, he had planned to let the pirates come closer, just to see what the pirates looked like, but scaring the jittery crew half to death just for that seemed a bit unscrupulous, so Gao Yang could only sigh with regret, “Rabbit, fire tracer rounds as a warning to scare them off, don’t hit the boats, if they flee then so be it, but fire only on my command, everyone else, get ready for battle as well.”
Gao Yang fastened his helmet, slung his shotgun across his back, and then took up the EBR.
After lining up one of the speedboats in his scope, Gao Yang shouted loudly, “Rabbit, the middle speedboat, aim for the forefront.”
The middle speedboat was closest to the cruise ship, now only about one thousand meters away, roughly half a nautical mile, a distance well within the accurate range of the 12.7mm caliber TAC-50.
Cui Bo fired a shot right away, the green flare of the tracer round very conspicuous against the dimming evening sky.
The bullet landed about twenty or thirty meters in front of the speedboat, causing water to splash up.
Gao Yang thought one bullet would be enough to do the job, at the very least to let the pirates know this ship was under armed protection; as pirates typically would not hard charge at a merchant ship that showed resistance, and instead would seek out targets that showed no capability to resist.
But this time the situation was uncommonly different; the pirates did not turn around to flee.
Watching the speedboats continue to approach, Gao Yang, although puzzled, still reacted immediately, “Fire another shot, closer this time.”
Cui Bo fired again, and this bullet landed less than two meters in front of the speedboat, demonstrating Cui Bo’s good marksmanship, but the result was the same; the pirates still showed no sign of stopping, all three speedboats advancing toward the oil tanker.
Gao Yang said with puzzlement, “That’s not right, this isn’t what we heard, aren’t these pirates supposed to run away?
Rabbit, fire another shot, if they still don’t stop, Big Dog, send a warning shot across their bow, and if they still don’t stop after that, then get ready to shoot at the people.”
Li Jinfang locked a grenade into the chamber with a click and then with a face full of gloom said, “These damn bastards, early or late they don’t show up, just as my luck was turning and I started to win some hands, these bastards bounce out, if they dare to board the ship, I won’t kill them, I’ll make them swim all the way back.”
(To be continued.
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