The port was the property of War Chief Duaman, and no one dared to ploy against it. But the Lake Victoria Development Zone was different. The NAC already paid taxes to War Chief Duaman, and their action now was unlikely to attract the defenders from Mombusa.
These militants planned to take advantage of this point frame, and thus they dared to attack at this moment.
As the siren went off, the entire settlement was like a pot of boiling water, and everyone began to move. Among the 500 employees stationed in the colony, more than 200 were private guards recruited by Future Development. At this moment, they were equipped with kinetic skeletons and headed onto the wall, as well as bunkers and platforms.
As for the remaining engineers in construction, agriculture, and water, they withdrew into the underground bunker located in the center of the settlement under Feng Yuan’s command. There was enough food and fresh water stored in the underground bunker to sustain rations of 500 people for six months. Even if the settlement was captured, these six months were enough for NAC to rescue the people.
As for slaves, of course, they were not treated as well.
Everyone was pushed back to the dormitory, the doors and windows were shut tightly, and they were waiting for the final outcome. Everyone who fought before was sent to the frontline with a rifle. If someone survived in this battle, based on the number of people killed, that person could remove the status of slave. If that person did not survive, then the fate was to die gloriously as cannon fodder.
Just as the settlement was prepared to fight, more than 30 trucks two kilometers away had already left the road and drove to behind the settlement that could not be directly observed from the wall. It was the edge of the development zone, and a simple farm was built there out of wood with agricultural machinery parked in it, and two shotguns used to scare away wild animals.
A dozen tribal soldiers quickly occupied the farm and dug a mortar position behind the wooden house. Soon with a few muffled bangs, a few mortar shells were shot up in the air, accompanied by a few columns of black smokes, then they slammed into the colony.
One shot landed in the garden and blasted a few transplanted birch trees to pieces. another shot, unfortunately, landed on the window of an apartment building, which directly blasted off the wall of that window. Fortunately, the building did not collapse, but the few Indian slaves hiding in it were unlikely to survive.
The rest of the shells hit the wall. Except for some damage to the surface of the concrete structure, as well as two cannon fodder salves who were injured because they did not evade in time, there were no casualties.
Almost at the same time when the first round of shelling began, the settlement quickly launched a counterattack. Several electromagnetic catapult mortars were set up and soon shells were shot off by the electromagnetic catapults with a few bangs, then exploded behind the farm.
Shrapnel raged as they tore the wooden buildings to pieces, and the artillery position behind the farm was also blown up. Except for a few gunners who jumped into a trench and escaped, most of them were killed or maimed.
Followed by the collapse of the wooden house, the militants inside screamed and hurriedly withdrew from the collapsed cover. Behind the other side of the mound, the militants dug a T-shaped tunnel with a spade, then set up a machinegun to fire at the wall to cover the retreat of the troops on the forefront.
The tactic was indeed accurate, but it was a pity that they encountered the NAC. More than half of the private guards hired by Future Development were veteran soldiers who have retired from the NAC force.
Of course, the soldiers on the wall did not feel sorry for the agricultural machinery. They ignored the bullets fired from the mount and directed several heavy machineguns to the ruins of the wooden house. It didn’t take more than two seconds before the dozen of militants that snuck out from behind the cover were pinned down again.
The sniper on the sentry tower skillfully set up the sniper rifle and began to shoot at the opposite firing points. Followed by a few shots, the firepower on the opposing side gradually weakened. They were indeed enemy snipers, but the accuracy of both weapon and shooting was obviously not on the same level.
The first round of feint attack ended in the defeat of these militants.
Except for a few riflemen and gunners who were pinned down behind cover, all the militants retreated behind the mound.
Feng Yuan equipped a kinetic skeleton, lowered his body, and crawled into the bunker outside the wall to see Jacobs, the security captain of Future Development.
This survivor from North America was a mercenary who used to be active on the West Coast of North America with extensive combat experience. After he served in Qingshan Town for half a year, he was transferred to Wanghai due to work. By coincidence, he was recruited by the Future Group as a private guard and sent to Africa.
“How is the situation? How many people are there on the opposing side? Did you see it clearly?” The floor shook slightly, and Feng Yuan cursed under his breath. He hurriedly grabbed onto the table to stabilize himself. The mortars and catapults on both sides were still engaged in sporadic exchanges of fire. This place was the very front line.
“More than 500 people but less than 1,000 people. The wave just now was a feint. It is very likely that it was just a force made up of slaves or lower citizens in the tribe. We have to closely monitor the specific situation. We just released our drones.” Jacobs held a pair of binoculars in his hand as he locked his sight onto the mound full of dead weeds and his brows twisted together, “You have to quickly contact the port and ask the NAC Marines stationed there for reinforcement.”
“But our employees are also at the port.” Feng Yuan hesitated, “If these tribal militants take advantage of this time difference and attack our port…”
“Impossible, the port is the property of the War Chief. If you are not assured, you can let our employees at the port board the ship first. These tribal militants won’t go into the sea,” Jacobs said.
After Feng Yuan debated for a moment longer, he finally gritted his teeth, turned on the EP switch, and called the NAC Marine Corps at the port. The force stationed there by NAC was to escort cargo ships and deal with pirates in South Asia, and so, their combat effectiveness was naturally impeccable.
There was no power armor in the development zone, so the defensive force was more than capable but lacked offensive power. As the security captain said, it was the best decision to call for the reinforcement of the army when the number of militants outside was unclear.
At this moment, on the mound outside the wall of the settlement, tribal militants with different types of rifles waved their shovels and wooden spades and dug a crooked tunnel. Among them were not only blacks but also many slaves of other skin colors.
Bullets whizzed above their heads, and the slightest peek could result in a headshot. The two sides tested each other with mortar shells. The people in the wall were at an advantage with better firepower, while the tribal militants behind the mound were at an advantage due to attacking a fixed target.
In a trench not far from there, the tribal militants built a cover with wood and sandbags as a temporary command post. Two men, one tall and one short, in weird costumes stood under the shed of this command post.
The tall one was burly, built like a gorilla, and just a robe covered his body as his neck was wrapped with bullets tied to a chain. His facial features were ferocious, his frontal bones were wide, his lower jaw was protruded, and his eyes glowed fiercely like two mung beans.
If it were placed in the Pan-Asia boundary, his appearance alone would be enough to make survivors flee. Because his appearance was too similar to a mutated human, more precisely, the most dangerous lead-skinned mutated human that could tear apart a power armor by hand.
The short man’s back was crooked, his face was full of wrinkles, but his eyes flashed with shrewdness. He wore a long dress with complicated patterns, which was similar to that of the courtiers of the War Chief, but there were some differences. His appearance looked like that of a noble in other tribes, and in short, his status was likely not low.