875: Chapter 865 Withdrawal 875: Chapter 865 Withdrawal Friend of Nature had done many big things over the past two years, attacking many places and offending a plethora of multinational corporations.
Then, this very organization, which essentially drove and led the green wave, became a thorn in the side of some of the richest and most dynamic corporations.
The Commercial Alliance Security Company came into being through the secret funding by some multinational corporations.
Named a security company, it was in reality a wolf in sheep’s clothing, with the sole purpose of eliminating organizations like Friend of Nature, those extreme environmental groups.
What the Commercial Alliance wanted was more than just to eradicate Friend of Nature.
If it were merely a matter of killing some extreme environmentalists, matters would’ve been much simpler.
But the big companies, lately suffering at the hands of extreme environmentalism, wanted to arrest the members of Friend of Nature, unearth their financial backers, label the environmentalists as criminals, and, after a trial, throw them into prison.
There was no doubt that the radical environmentalists of Friend of Nature were criminals.
The key issue was how to erode the public’s sympathy and support for Friend of Nature, to suppress the rapidly growing green wave, and all this required living people for trial, not a bunch of corpses.
The combat power of the Commercial Alliance Security Company obviously didn’t measure up to the Iron Madonna.
Friend of Nature had previously clashed with the Commercial Alliance, and had the Alliance been capable of dealing with Friend of Nature on their own, they wouldn’t have called in the Iron Madonna.
The Iron Madonna was formidable, effortlessly crippling Friend of Nature in one strike, capturing four, killing one, and severely injuring the other three.
Had it not been for the timely rescue by the Satan Mercenary Corps, Friend of Nature’s only fate would’ve been annihilation.
One clarification: Friend of Nature isn’t an individual’s name, but that of a group.
The Friend of Nature who had dealt with Gao Yang simply adopted the organization’s name as his personal codename.
The airdrop site was already set up, thanks to Rafael’s efficiency.
Since it was only a supply drop, there wasn’t a need for excessive security—just an open space, as long as the plasma didn’t get caught in the trees.
The plasma was divided into four airdrops.
Only one box of plasma got hung up in the trees, but the remaining three boxes were sufficient for the three critically wounded.
While Bruce and Andy He performed emergency surgeries, Gao Yang was examining the bodies of the enemy.
There were thirteen corpses in total, five belonging to the Iron Madonna and eight to the Commercial Alliance.
The clothing of the two groups was distinct, making them easy to differentiate.
The Iron Madonna had sustained significant casualties.
They hadn’t necessarily made any mistakes, but in order to surround and capture members of Friend of Nature, the Iron Madonna’s squad had split up.
When the Satan Mercenary Corps engaged en masse, the Iron Madonna members couldn’t immediately rally to face them collectively, and those sent to block the Satan Mercenaries, despite assistance from the Commercial Alliance, clearly couldn’t rely much on the Commercial Alliance Security Company.
Only one Flamethrower Dragon truly threatened Gao Yang and his team.
As for the others, they were just adding to the numbers.
In this operation, the Commercial Alliance deployed twelve people, all of whom had been hastily recruited.
Their role in accompanying the Iron Madonna into battle was secondary.
Their primary mission was to assist, such as by whisking away the people that the Iron Madonna had captured and wounded.
The Iron Madonna had withdrawn, but Gao Yang couldn’t let his guard down.
Though they had lost five, half their number, if the remaining members of the Iron Madonna regrouped, they could certainly launch another attack.
And they had reason to, whether to retrieve the bodies or seek revenge.
An attack from the Iron Madonna to retake their comrades’ corpses seemed extremely probable.
Gao Yang believed that if any of his Satan members died in battle, he would spare no cost to retrieve the body, even if it meant losing another life for a corpse.
It was just a body, apparently not as important as a living person, but there was no choice.
Sometimes, people are just that strange, willing to pay with their lives for something that no longer has value, like dignity, reputation, or a brother’s corpse.
Because of this belief, Gao Yang, who judged others by himself, was convinced that the Iron Madonna would launch an attack to seek revenge and retrieve their comrades’ bodies.
Rescuing the wounded members of Friend of Nature meant that Gao Yang and his team couldn’t retreat right away, so establishing a defensive line became crucial.
When they parachuted in, there were already some clouds overhead.
After nearly three hours, the sky had filled with clouds, and it wouldn’t be long before it rained.
Once thick clouds formed, continuing surgery on the wounded would be difficult, and the planes above would have to leave.
With the clouds as a barrier and visibility decreasing, the planes circling above would be pointless.
Gao Yang looked up and felt the clouds were about to merge, and it might even start raining sooner.
In the rainforest, even a single cloud could bring downpour, so predicting when the rain would start was quite challenging.
The surgery had been going on for a little over an hour, and Gao Yang was feeling quite proud; he was very satisfied with his decision to bring Andy He into the fold.
After Bruce handled the emergency treatment, he handed it over to Andy He, and the two worked seamlessly together, greatly increasing the chances of survival for the severely wounded.
It had to be said that for a mercenary group of only twelve, having two top military doctors was incredibly luxurious and fortunate.
Tommy didn’t bring a mortar, so he brought three directional mines instead, all remotely detonated and visible.
Two had been set up, serving as the first line of defense.
The tripwires for the directional mines were set very long.
Even if the mines didn’t harm whoever tripped the wire, they would still serve as an early warning system.
Gao Yang had returned to using his rifle, continuously scanning with the thermal imager.
In reality, the most dangerous moment hadn’t arrived yet.
When they would have to evacuate with the wounded, a lot of manpower would be needed to carry them, and their speed would be significantly slowed down.
That would be the perfect opportunity for Iron Madonna to launch an attack, or they could choose to wait and ambush them along their route.
How to deal the deadliest blow was something both Gao Yang and his men knew, and of course, so did Iron Madonna.
Time ticked away slowly without any incidents.
Animals frightened by the gunfire started to become active again.
The unpleasant cries of the hornbills began to sound, and finally, when raindrops rushed through the barrier of the treetops to the ground, Bruce urgently spoke through the walkie-talkie, “We can evacuate.
Take the plasma and give the wounded continuous transfusions on the way.
Also, I need something waterproof to protect the wounded.
Don’t let water get into their wounds.”
Gao Yang was slightly disappointed that Iron Madonna’s attack hadn’t come, but they couldn’t just wait forever.
He spoke in a deep voice, “Make a makeshift stretcher, and designate five people to carry the wounded—Test Tube, Big Dog, Big Bird, Worker Bee, Rabbit, you’ll carry the wounded with Snake-Eating Mongoose.
Toad, Bat, Fork, and Dragon Knight, you four cover the rear.
Tyrannosaurus, Little Fly, follow me and lead the way.
Move out.”
“Boss, should we retrieve the directional mines?”
After hearing Tommy’s question, Gao Yang pondered for a moment and said, “Don’t retrieve them.
Worker Bee, hand over the remaining directional mines to Toad.
Toad, pay more attention to the monitors we’ve set up.”
Make-shift stretchers were crafted by cutting two branches and zipping up two jackets, threading the branches through each sleeve.
Short sticks were then wedged between the branches for additional support.
If tied with ropes or vines, the stretchers could even be made quite comfortable.
The rain had started to pour down, significantly reducing visibility, which was extremely disadvantageous for Gao Yang’s party needing to evacuate.
Traversing the rainforest was already difficult, and with the increasing rain and the task of carrying someone, everything seemed to exist just to torment them.
Eileen took the lead, with Gao Yang and Frey closely following behind, starting their advance.
It was uncertain whether the threat would come from behind or ahead, so Gao Yang focused the main strength at the rear to prevent being attacked from behind.
Gao Yang didn’t believe that Iron Madonna could accurately predict their evacuation route, but they couldn’t neglect the possibility of an ambush either, so the leading force couldn’t be weak.
He, along with Frey and Eileen, would ensure sufficient firepower in case they encountered a roadblock.
The rain continued to pour heavily, but after passing through the dense canopy, the droplets hit the ground in large splashes, along with the water streaming down the tree trunks.
However, once it started raining, the rainforest turned very dark.
Turning on the Glow Night Vision Device didn’t improve visibility much and also narrowed the field of view.
Not using the night vision device made it hard to see in the dim rainforest—either way was not ideal, creating the most uncomfortable visual conditions.
The soil in the rainforest was saturated, and with its capacity to hold water full, the rain couldn’t quickly seep into the ground.
Instead, it formed small puddles on the surface.
Walking slowly wasn’t an issue, but moving quickly and stepping in them would create noise, which was not conducive to concealed marching.
Eileen suddenly slowed down her pace to give Gao Yang time to scan a wider angle with the thermal imager.
After all, the enemy could appear not only directly in front but also could be waiting on either side, or they might accidentally stumble upon them.
While scanning and moving forward, Gao Yang suddenly stopped.
He had spotted a clear heat signature in his scope.
After the rain began, the sweltering rainforest started to cool down quite a bit.
Although the temperature would quickly rise again after the rain stopped, reverting to a hot and humid climate, during the rainy period, the background temperature dropped, making the thermal imager capable of detecting heat sources from further away.
Gao Yang quickly whispered into the walkie-talkie, “About seventy meters ahead on the left, two heat sources are moving.
No, three, wait, four.
Get ready for combat.
Bat and Toad, come reinforce us.
We’re going to sneak up on them and catch them off guard.” (To be continued.
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