254: Chapter 252: An Opponent Who Earns the Enemy’s Respect 254: Chapter 252: An Opponent Who Earns the Enemy’s Respect Gao Yang was indeed fortunate—he had come across a retired SBS sniper rather than an active one.
It is well-known that service in the SBS is incredibly long, and by retirement, most members are of advanced age.
While their experience may be richer, their physical responses and various capabilities have significantly declined.
To join the SBS, the difficulty and length of time required is enough to dismay anyone.
The first step is to join the Royal Marines.
Upon enlistment, one must submit an application expressing the desire to join the Special Boat Service, which is the only way to qualify for future SBS selection.
First, one must undergo 30 weeks of Royal Marines basic training to become a Marine.
During this period, the instructors will observe the performance of those who have applied to join the SBS and make an initial assessment of their capabilities.
At the conclusion of basic training, those seeking to join the SBS must serve in the Royal Marines for two years.
In addition to serving in their respective units during this time, they will undergo training in polar conditions, mountain warfare, and amphibious operations.
After extensive training, these applicants have become formidable members of the Royal Marines, but this is still not enough.
Unless they have participated in combat and demonstrated exceptional performance in battle, they will need to participate in specialized exercises and excel in them after training in order to be considered for SBS selection.
After training and passing the exercises, with two years of service in the Royal Marines completed, can they now join the SBS?
No, one must volunteer for at least another three years of service.
And after enduring so long, they have only just qualified to attempt to join the Special Boat Service—that’s all.
Furthermore, before the actual SBS selection begins, all candidates eligible for selection must have more than six months of combat experience.
What if they lack combat experience?
Initially, the British would send candidates to serve in Northern Ireland for at least six months.
After peace was achieved with Northern Ireland, deployments would include Iraq, Afghanistan—any place with active combat.
If no conflicts were available, candidates would be sent to battlefields unrelated to Britain.
Regardless of the location, a minimum of six months of combat service is mandatory, without a day less.
After numerous trials and tests, becoming an SBS member is not guaranteed.
However, an applicant’s training scores, performance in exercises, and combat achievements will all be closely observed and recorded.
Based on these records, the SBS selects approximately 60 of the most outstanding Marines each year and sends them to Poole, a coastal town in the UK.
Poole is the SBS headquarters.
Sixty candidates face two weeks of extremely stringent selection training and testing.
Even though these applicants are already the elite of the elite, a considerable portion of them will still be eliminated.
Only about half or even fewer will pass all the tests and become probationary members of the SBS.
Note that after passing all tests and training, they are just probationary members.
After at least five and a half years, having completed all possible training available to a Marine, and reaching the limits of what a soldier can achieve, they remain merely probationary members of the SBS.
They must wait for an opening to arise, due to retirement or death in combat, to be selected from the reserves and become official members, earning the right to wear a badge featuring a frog and two boat oars.
Those who join the SBS are undoubtedly capable of being the cornerstone of any military unit.
The resources and finances expended to develop a qualified SBS member are immense.
Once they join the SBS, barring disability, not making officer grade, or staying as an instructor, members typically retire close to the age of fifty.
Gao Yang’s adversary had worked for the Armored Group for a few years post-retirement before forming his own tiny mercenary group.
But on his first mission fighting for himself, he encountered Gao Yang.
If he had been ten years younger, or if his pride hadn’t led him to refuse his teammates’ help, or if luck had been a little more on his side, making the right call on Gao Yang’s evasive actions at least once, then they might not have died, or at least not all at the hands of Gao Yang.
Indeed, the SBS is one of the world’s finest special forces.
Retired soldiers from the SBS are proud, and rightfully so.
But Gao Yang also had his pride.
While he couldn’t match an SBS member in overall competence, when it came to marksmanship alone, Gao Yang could stand toe-to-toe with any world-class expert.
In the pinnacle battle against that SBS sniper, Gao Yang won.
He may have only won in precision shooting, but he survived, while the former SBS member and his entire squad perished.
There is no better judge than life and death—the survivor might not be the best, but they are certainly the victor.
Surviving the encounter with an SBS sniper and then quickly killing the remaining five before they could even attempt to dodge, Gao Yang was as satisfied with his performance as he could possibly be, and equally content with his luck, although he also felt a sense of foreboding.
Gao Yang exhaled a long breath, then clenched the EBR in his hands and kissed it fiercely.
Although it wasn’t his best gun, it was with this one that he had achieved his most proud record, at least so far.
Watching Gao Yang’s actions, his captive snorted coldly and said, “You’ve won.
Now you can celebrate to your heart’s content.
As for me, I can only die.
You know, this was supposed to be my last mission.
I’m actually semi-retired.
I planned to fully retire after this battle.
My son is getting married; I wanted to attend his wedding.
But now, I can only die in this damned place.”
Gao Yang fell silent.
After a long pause, he said in a deep voice, “Nobody wants to die, but you came to the wrong place.
You shouldn’t have come.
Since you chose to be a mercenary, chose to come here and kill, then you can’t blame others for killing you.”
The captive said weakly, “We are all mercenaries, selling our lives for money.
If we die, we can’t blame anyone else.
I’m aware of this, and I’m sure you are too.
Everyone is here for the money.
If we hadn’t met here, perhaps we could have become friends through our shared experiences.
So I don’t hate you, really, I don’t hate you at all.
“But you and your damn trainees killed my brothers, so I will curse you.
I curse all of you, you and your people are going to hell.
These n*ggers will get killed, you all will eventually get killed.
God will surely punish you.
He definitely will.”
Gao Yang stood up.
He shrugged his shoulders indifferently and said, “I don’t believe in God, so your curse doesn’t work on me.
I won’t go to hell.
I’m going to marry my girlfriend and live happily until I die of old age.
My brothers will also live happily and die peacefully in their own beds, surrounded by their loved ones.
And none of us will go to hell.”
After finishing, Gao Yang said loudly into the walkie-talkie, “Toad, do you have any prisoners over there?”
“Toad here, received.
There are a few captives; I’ve already sent someone to bring them to you.
I’ve kept one here who we’ve just interrogated.
They are from Bosaso, a militant group called the Mokadi Faction.
From the looks of it, they’re all scared witless and no longer pose any threat.
You can interrogate them again in detail; maybe you’ll find something different.”
“Got it.
Send someone to scout further out and confirm that the enemy has withdrawn in all three directions.”
After ending the conversation with Lee Jinfang, Gao Yang couldn’t help but smile wryly.
Just as Maide and Abu were planning to target the Mokadi Faction, they had already struck first, and even teamed up with a British maritime security company.
This was totally unexpected for Gao Yang, and he was sure it wasn’t something Maide and the others had considered either.
Thinking of Maide and Abu, Gao Yang felt he had wasted too much time on the captive.
Now he needed to find Abu; he had to see him alive or confirm his death.
He couldn’t remain in the dark about Abu’s situation any longer.
Gao Yang said to the interpreter beside him, “Remove all his gear, then find a place to lock him up.
You go personally, make sure to keep a close eye on him.
Go.”
Upon hearing Gao Yang’s words, the captive, who had been cooperative until then, suddenly tried to stand up fiercely but was immediately smashed back down with a buttstock to the head, lying back on the ground.
Then the captive yelled with all his might, “You can’t do this.
You can’t let some idiotic morons humiliate me.
For the love of God, please kill me.
I don’t want to die at their hands.
Give me one last bit of dignity.
Damn it, for the love of God, no, for the sake of our being comrades, please shoot me yourself.
You’re already an opponent worthy of respect from the enemy!
Do you want to die humiliated by these damned bastards?
Dying at the hands of a top marksman is the last bit of dignity I have left.
Please grant me this one request, you damn bastard!”
Gao Yang stopped mid-step.
He thought carefully and realized there was nothing essential that he needed to know from this captive.
Although he was reluctant to shoot a man who had lost the ability to resist, after hearing the captive’s plea, Gao Yang hesitated.
Gao Yang felt that if he had to die, he certainly would want to die at the hands of a more formidable opponent.
For a mercenary, such a death is dignified.
In battle, people die, and it’s better to be killed by a strong enemy than to feel suffocated.
Anyway, under no circumstances should one die at the hands of enemies one despises.
As for being humiliated by the enemy right before death, that’s even more unbearable.
(To be continued.
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