Bakker sat quietly for a moment or two, silent in his contemplation. The masks handed about as part of the uniform made the squad members look unsurprisingly similar but it was nevertheless simple to note who said what and remember this for the future. He looked at Mr. Gill who shrugged, in a way that said “don’t do anything stupid” without any words. Karmyle pitched in immediately after, suggesting caution/ “Wasting time if we don’t find our VIP in the West sounds imprudent. Let’s go East, if we don’t find our man there then going West we’ll then be going right to our destination.”

Wilhelm was distracted momentarily by something the sniper muttered, but not quite discerning it with his attention in the discussion he shook his head and returned his mind to the scene. The field manager more or less agreed with the majority of the team and then turned to the Afrikaner assuming he would understand his Dutch: “Nee, ridder.” was all he offered with a shrug. “We head East. Hector spoke wisely, we’ll head East and check out Ahaggar National Park. Even if we don’t catch some of these Bedouins we’ll easily find some people who will… if threatened by a gun anyways.” Bakker looked at the screen of the drone but he was unable to make anything out before the sharp speech of Coghan hit him. 

MG mounted on a Ford? The Marine jogged his memory considerably. These sort of modern tachankas were very, very popular in North Africa to the point Russian and some NATO forces were even adopting and developing such vehicles. But the Bedouins didn’t really have proper machine guns to mount like that. Civilian weapons, low grade black market shit and the occasional assault rifle handed over by a corrupt officer, that was all. Unless of course they were growing faster than previously believed, a thought that momentarily frightened the warrior. If they were going to go against geared criminals pelting them with 12.7mms rather than thugs with scraps that would jam half the time....

“Stay put, keep your eyes on them and don’t make a move.” he ordered the sniper, hoping to have her as a little ace in the hole against whoever these people were. Wiping his brow once again Bakker brought the drone to the ground and turned off its screen trying to get his eyes readjusted to the darkness as fast as possible. “Spread out, the Nimrs are good cover.” Cursing the fact that they couldn’t get models with top-mounted HMGs of their own, the Dutchman hopped into one and turned it such that it would be slightly off-parallel with the dune they crossed. Pulling back the bolt Brick made sure his carbine was full and once satisfied he left the thing and hid using the engine for cover. 

“Just waiting now.” the man remarked, tightening his helmet. Neither it nor the vests handed out would really stop anything save a pistol but they still gave confidence. He could hear the cars approaching now even if they did mad things to the mufflers to silence themselves as much as possible. The ford with the HMG crossed first which was at this distance easily recognizable as a DShK. Old of course, but that didn’t matter if the .50 hit you anywhere. Soon the other two cars followed, with the front passenger seat of the jeep opening and a man in athletic calling out in Arabic from it. To the speakers of the language it would be easy to tell what was said: “Why are you Satans here? Did you not fucking listen on the phone?” 
Bakker was confused, but he didn’t want to hesitate. “After the gunner is down we give them everything. Hypatia, get him.”  The moment the sound of SVD discharge would spread the Marine would lean out with his SKS, shooting thrice at the driver of the Ford. He missed the man but it was enough to get him to duck and drive erratically. He stopped, and as the PMCs followed in suit shooting the arrivals began to do likewise. A man replaced the gunner while two more dropped down from the flatbed with their own AKMs. From the front seats bursts of 9mm would come from a pistol and SMG. These were certainly some other goons than the Bedouins as the ones in the jeep had plate carriers of some sort and ARs too hard to identify in this light. Only one of them disembarked, two firing from within their vehicle indicating they were either stupid or pertinent to the knowledge it was more durable than a civilian variant.The lada meanwhile drove along with an SMG firing from either window closer to the group of PMCs whilst the opposite side had men with FALs opening fire.