been partisan-hunting for two weeks already. High Command wanted every shell and every bullet to reach the front, not burning in exploding trucks due to partisan ambushes.
Putting on his helmet, Zhu radioed the nearby outpost and the First Rank in charge of security. He didn’t want them to begin firing at him.
“I’m practicing,” he said.
“Is that you, Zhu?”
“Yes,” Zhu answered via the helmet’s radio.
“I thought Tian went to town for some skirt,” the First Rank said.
“He did.”
“Why didn’t you go with them for once?”
Zhu looked away. He couldn’t tell anyone that he practiced so much because he feared that deep inside he was a coward. “I’m trying a new technique,” he said.
“You work too hard,” the First Rank radioed. “You need to rest sometime. You’re supposed to be relaxing tonight.”
“This…this helps me relax,” Zhu said.
“You’re an animal. Go ahead then, practice.”
Zhu put his elbows on the armrests and activated the jetpack. The Qui 1000s purred with power. After years of effort, Chinese scientists had finally produced a rugged, fuel-efficient, battlefield jetpack. That had given China the Eagle Teams, the elite of the elite. Each Eagle Team flyer was a White Tiger, although not all White Tigers were Eagle flyers.
With a twist of the throttle and a spring with his legs, Zhu Peng shot into the air. He moved fast, gracefully and under perfect control. This was Zhu’s element. He might not have big muscles, but his flight-control was phenomenal. No one in the company could fly as well as he could.
A sense of well-being flooded through Zhu. He performed tricky maneuvers, going sideways, flipping, abruptly stopping his forward momentum and zooming away backward.
After each twenty-second interval of flight, Zhu automatically checked his fuel-gauge. Eagle Team flyers had died before, crashing to the ground because they ran out of fuel. There was probably nothing in the Chinese Army harder to perfect than flying and fighting during combat in a jetpack.
Now, Zhu focused on the target on the ground. He’d been thinking about this for some time. Usually, during flight, Eagle Team commandos used a grenade launcher carefully fitted to their left shoulder. Grenades were area-effect weapons. A commando was supposed to clear a landing zone for himself. Aiming with an assault rifle in flight took too much concentration. Eagle Team doctrine called for short, hopping flights because a flyer caught by the enemy in the air was soon dead.
Zhu had been thinking about that. He was good with a grenade launcher. But the partisans had learned to distinguish the whoosh of approaching Qui 1000 jets far too well. He wanted to be able to snipe them from the air as they ran away.
Building up speed, flying one hundred meters above the ground, Zhu turned off his jets. He went silent, using stubby glide wings. If the jets didn’t whoosh, the partisans had nothing to hear. Taking his elbows off the armrests, he grabbed his QBZ-95. It was attached to a side-rack. He saw the paper target in the dark and began firing. Unfortunately, he did it too long.
The realization struck him powerfully as he realized he headed down fast. He tried to rack the assault rifle—failed—and let it drop. He didn’t have any more time to stow it. He put his arms on the rests and grabbed the throttle. With a flick of his thumb, he turned the jets back on and gave them fuel.
The jets whooshed and he shot up. As he climbed, Zhu thought about what had just happened.
I almost panicked. How would that have helped me? I must train harder and learn to act calmly in ALL situations. Only then will I be worthy of being called a Bai Hu Tezhongbing.
Zhu turned in flight and began sweeping the area, searching for his gun. He didn’t see Tian watching him from a hidden position behind a large set of bushes. He didn’t see the other man with First Rank Tian Jintao. He didn’t hear the words Tian said, either.
Likely, the words would have surprised Zhu Peng. Even more likely, he would have thought they were joking about him.
Tian said, “There goes China’s most fearless warrior.”
“Why didn’t he join us tonight? The women were very eager to please.”
Tian laughed, although with a sneer. “Join the likes of us? We’re ordinary mortals. Zhu, he is something that comes along only once in a generation. I’ve never seen a flyer like him. Does that satisfy him, though? No. He demands godlike perfection in everything he does. Don’t let that skinny body fool