Even the best bulletproof glass will shatter under intense machine gun fire, but bulletproof steel plating won't. After all, the MK46 is just a squad-issue light machine gun.
Therefore, the fully armored Saab-Class withstood the test of this hail of bullets.
Typically, an MK46 can fire four to five hundred rounds continuously, but in reality, after around three hundred rounds, the barrel begins to overheat, and rifling wear increases, leading to unstable ballistic trajectories.
The proper shooting method for a machine gun is to fire in short bursts, which effectively delays overheating. Of course, a better solution is to simply replace the barrel.
Modern machine guns have quick-release barrels. Open the hood, disengage the barrel bolt, and gently lift to quickly remove the hot barrel and replace it with a new one.
For an experienced user, this process takes only a dozen seconds.
Of course, with an older, water-cooled heavy machine gun, this isn't a problem; you can unleash ammunition on the enemy before the water in the barrel boils away.
Back on Guadalcanal, there was a prodigy named John Basilone.
With his entire squad decimated, he single-handedly manned two Browning M1917 water-cooled heavy machine guns and withstood a board charge of hundreds of Japanese soldiers. Decades later, he earned the nickname "Machine Gun Sage" on the Chinese internet. Fortunately, while
the man they were facing was a professional, he was still far from a "Machine Gun Sage," even inferior to Sunny the Navy SEAL.
Facing the rear-end of the slowly approaching bulletproof Saab, the man operating the MK46, after emptying the 200-round under-barrel magazine, finally realized something was wrong with the color of his barrel and retreated awkwardly to the back of the truck to replace it.
Meanwhile, "Shotgun Sage" Jack continued his prowess, shooting down another Trans-Atlantic aircraft that had just taken off and hadn't yet gained speed.
Clay fired several smoke bombs from the HK417's underbarrel grenade launcher. Aubrey, crouching in the back of the vehicle, took the opportunity to open the door and yell at the dusty ESU soldiers.
"Retreat! Retreat!"
As smoke billowed, Jack and Clay unleashed their HK417s in full-automatic mode. They meticulously coordinated their reloads, swapping magazines with lightning speed to ensure continuous fire.
The ESU soldiers hurriedly supported each other through the open doors of the Saab, ferrying themselves to the temporary safety of the other side.
"Bang!" The opposing sniper, unable to resist, fired again, striking the last ESU soldier in the back.
The bullet failed to penetrate the heavy body armor, but the impact still caused the already seriously injured ESU soldier to spit out blood.
Aubrey quickly slammed the door shut, blocking the second round with a clang.
"Hurry!"
Without waiting for Jack's repeated urging, Jubal gently stepped on the accelerator, and the tall body of the Saaban, carrying the wounded, slowly retreated to the back of the armored vehicle.
"Get out of the middle of the road! Jubal drives the wounded away, and the rest of you take cover!" Jack, suppressing his anxiety, directed everyone to leave the open area.
Almost all of the twelve ESU members were injured. After all, heavy body armor only protected the torso, not the limbs. Several were already unconscious from excessive blood loss.
But they were still relatively well. By comparison, the ordinary police officers and mounted police officers wearing ordinary soft bulletproof vests were in a much worse state.
Two groups of four mounted police officers who had advanced to the intersection were all knocked down by the surprise attack. Their situation was now obscured by the long truck, but they were likely in critical condition.
Of the remaining mounted police officers on either side of the convoy, only one was able to retreat. The police car at the front was hit by a cart bomb and then hit by the truck, pushing it to the side of the road. Danny inside was currently unknown whether he was alive or dead.
The officer driving the second police car was killed directly by an MK46. His partner in the passenger seat was shot twice and rescued by the ESU. He had fallen unconscious during the retreat and had been carried back.
No one insisted on fighting back to protect the armored vehicle stuck in the middle of the road, which contained only a prisoner about to be extradited.
"Bang!" The sniper on the right side of the street continued to fire relentlessly. An ESU member who had barely made it into the alleyway was shot in the calf and fell to the ground with a scream. He was immediately dragged inside by his teammates.
"Da-da-da, da-da-da!" The continuous crackle of HK417 gunfire emanated from the business building not far behind the group, and Hannah's excited voice echoed through the headset.
"I took him out!"
"Hannah, be careful!" Amidst the crowd's exclamations, a drone, having previously circled to avoid Jack's shotgun range, slammed into the building's glass curtain wall.
Amidst the explosion, the shattered, still-clinging glass curtain wall plummeted, rustling on the road.
Jack's heart sank like the shattered glass, then tightened as if gripped by an invisible hand.
"Hannah! Hannah? Hear that!"
"I'm fine, I'm fine," thankfully the Texas girl's relaxed voice soon echoed over the communication channel. "I changed positions ahead of time."
Jack's heart relaxed slightly, then his attention was drawn to the situation before him.
As the MK46 from the opposite side opened fire again, more smoke grenades were hurled inwards, this time surrounding the armored vehicle, quickly obstructing the entire street.
A moment later, the gunfire subsided, and a cart wobbled out of the smoke. Unlike the one the homeless man had used, this one was self-powered and loaded with a blue plastic bucket tangled with wires.
"Damn it! IEDs! Retreat! Retreat! Get out of here!" Clay, unusually sensitive to such things, immediately called for everyone to retreat.
"No, we have to stop them. We can't let them take Zhang Mingjun away." Lin Zheling appeared out of nowhere, clutching an AK he'd scavenged from the truck behind him. Lieutenant Park followed him nervously.
"Bang! Bang!" Jack, still feigning ignorance, fired two shots, blowing out the motor on the cart's wheels, forcing it to stop, and then took off running.
He didn't owe the loan shark general a favor, so why would he risk his life to repay him?
By then, a cacophony of sirens filled the distance. Clay ran, shouting at the top of his lungs to Jubal, who had just evacuated the wounded in his Saab. "There's an IED here! Stop all reinforcements at least one intersection away! Call the bomb disposal team!"
"Zhang Mingjun's still in the armored vehicle. They won't dare detonate it," Lin Zheling said, but his legs honestly followed Jack's lead.
After running about seventy or eighty meters, Jack and Clay ducked into a streetside store, reminding Hannah in the business building to find a safe place to hide.
While the blue plastic barrel looked small, it could easily hold several dozen kilograms of C4. Even with improvised explosives like nitrate, the impact would be substantial, with a shockwave powerful enough to cover the entire street.
The air around them seemed to freeze in an instant. The sirens, which had echoed through the sky just moments before, now seemed as distant as the horizon.
A chilly northerly wind still blew through New York in early spring, quickly dispersing the smoke that hung thickly in the streets.
Jack looked through the gradually thinning smoke and saw that the armored vehicle's compartment had been opened from the inside out. Zhang Mingjun, his hands and feet no longer restrained, was escorted out of the vehicle by an ESU member.
"Da da da!"
Without a second thought, Jack picked up the HK417 and fired a burst of bullets at the enemy. All the bullets hit the ESU member in front of Zhang Mingjun.
The MK46 light machine gun roared again, but this time Zhang Mingjun, startled, directly snatched the weapon from his accomplice and pulled the trigger at Jack.
The bullets scraped against the wall, sending countless sparks flying. Occasionally, one or two lucky bullets ricocheted into the store, shattering a glass window and causing screams and cries from the store clerks and customers hiding behind the counter and in the dressing rooms.
When Jack looked out again, he saw the last of the thugs disappear into the roadside sewer.
(End of this chapter)