Mercenary's War

"Stop moving forward, switch to the wartime communication channel."

He picked up the walkie-talkie, shouted once, and the entire convoy quickly came to a halt. However, the car that Gao Yang was in did not stop. Instead, it turned and approached the missile command vehicle following behind.

"We’ve identified a target, and we need to stop to fire two rounds."

He explained the reason for the stop on the walkie-talkie to avoid unnecessary worry, and then Gao Yang’s car arrived in front of Niva’s command vehicle.

Niva had already gotten out of the vehicle. He said to Gao Yang, "What’s going on?"

"We’ve found a target. I want to fire two rounds before we leave. Here are the coordinates."

After taking the coordinates from Gao Yang and the GPS that Gao Yang conveniently handed over, Niva compared the two sets of data. After a moment of contemplation, he nodded and said, "Within range."

"Let’s let the logistics convoy move ahead first, and we’ll catch up after the firing. How does that sound?"

Dmitry also got out of the car at this point. He said softly, "Should we fire?"

Niva handed over the coordinates and said in a deep voice, "Within range, but the wind is quite strong."

Dmitry glanced at the coordinates and also nodded, "Within range, but the wind is too strong, and it’s coming from the wrong direction, a level six wind."

The wind was indeed a bit strong since Aden is a coastal city and Gao Yang and his team were currently near the coastline. The wind from the sea kept blowing, and the wind tonight was particularly strong.

As a good shooter, judging wind speed is a basic skill, and Gao Yang assessed the wind speed to be around a level six wind.

Under the influence of a level six crosswind, long-range shooting would definitely be greatly affected. Gao Yang knew that the wind would certainly impact the missiles, but he wasn’t sure to what extent.

"Can we fire?"

Dmitry shook his head and said in a deep voice, "Not under the current wind speed conditions."

"Is it that we can’t launch, or something else?"

Niva casually said, "It affects precision."

Gao Yang, a bit confused, asked, "Is the impact significant? If it’s not too bad, then let’s fire. It’s fine."

Dmitry shook his head and said, "The impact is significant. A constant wind has a great impact on the missile’s flight trajectory. For a wind vector with an average value of 10, a constant wind essentially acts on the missile with a constant value of 10. Gusts and random winds have canceling parts with each other, so the effective value of a constant wind is slightly less than 10..."

"Stop! Stop! No need to explain, I understand. Uh, no, I don’t understand. No need to explain."

Gao Yang considered himself a smart person, but though he could understand every word Dmitry said, he was completely lost when they were strung together.

So there’s no need to explain; explanations are just a waste of time.

Gao Yang said helplessly, "If we can’t fire, then let’s just leave. You don’t need to explain it to me."

Niva, looking relaxed, smiled and said, "It’s not necessarily that we can’t fire. We need to ask the meteorological soldier to know for sure."

With that, Niva picked up the walkie-talkie and said, "Roman, come over. It’s time for you."

After putting down the walkie-talkie, Niva smiled at Gao Yang and said, "We’ll soon find out if the launch conditions can be met. It won’t take long."

A soldier came running quickly from the back. When he reached Niva, he saluted Dmitry first and then, as he saluted Niva, he said, "Sir, you called for me."

Niva made a gesture with his hand and said, "Will the wind stop, and when will it stop?"

The soldier named Roman looked a bit dazed, with wide-open eyes. Gao Yang remembered him because this person was also brought over by his persuasion. He must have met him before.

But Gao Yang didn’t know what this Roman’s so-called meteorological soldier role entailed.

Hearing Niva’s question, Roman immediately turned to face the direction the wind was blowing from, closed his eyes, and stretched out his arms. After standing motionless for about ten seconds, he opened his eyes and said without hesitation, "The wind won’t stop, but it will weaken."

Dmitry said very gently, "When will it weaken, to what extent, and will there be a launch window? Give me the data."

Roman again turned to face the direction the wind was coming from and began to meditate silently.

Gao Yang was a bit dumbfounded and muttered, "What’s this about?"

Niva put his finger to his lips, making a silence gesture, so Gao Yang had to swallow back all his questions.

This time, it took a while, a full ten minutes later, before Roman opened his eyes and looked at Dmitry. "Sir, the wind won’t stop, but in forty minutes to an hour from now, the wind speed should drop to meet the launch requirements. The window for reduced wind speed is about fifteen to thirty minutes, conservatively allowing a ten-minute launch window."

After speaking, Roman looked at his watch and, still looking a bit dazed, said, "At 12:20, the wind speed will decrease, around 12:30 it will drop below level three, and by 12:40, the wind speed will increase, reaching an unlaunchable level by 12:50, sir."

Niva waved his hand and said solemnly, "Understood, thank you. Prepare for launch."

Gao Yang urgently said, "Wait, wait! Just like that? How did you make that judgment, based on what? Is it just a guess or some prophetic ability?"

Niva hadn’t answered yet, when Roman, still with a blank expression, said, "Reporting to the sir, I studied the meteorological data around Aden for nearly six years and then made my judgments based on personal experience. It wasn’t guessed, nor do I have prophetic abilities."

Gao Yang dumbly nodded his head, then said in amazement, "Okay, I understand. Thank you."

Roman saluted, then hurried back. Niva raised his walkie-talkie and said, "Prepare to launch the missile, and act quickly. The launch window is at 12:30. We can’t miss it."

After Niva finished giving orders, Dmitry hurriedly ran back to set up the data for the inertial guidance warhead himself.

Gao Yang looked at Niva and said, "This... is it reliable?"

Niva shrugged and smiled, "Without meteorological radar, without probing balloons, and without comprehensive meteorological data, if another meteorological soldier said this, I wouldn’t believe it. But if Roman says it, I do believe; he must be reliable, and there will definitely be a launch window."

Gao Yang and Joseph exchanged a glance, both extremely surprised.

"That’s amazing!"

"Unbelievable!"

Niva, looking at the still somewhat skeptical Gao Yang and Joseph, smiled and said, "Roman isn’t under my command, but I’ve heard of his name before. He’s indeed an outstanding meteorological soldier. But this isn’t all that miraculous. If you devoted all your energy to memorizing meteorological data, analyzing meteorological data, then perhaps you could achieve this too. Of course, it’s just a possibility."

After saying this, Niva confidently waved his hand and loudly said, "Let’s wait and see."