One hour passed quickly.
It was now 1:30 PM—ninety minutes remained until the assault was set to begin.
The two trucks that had previously entered the village of Kadaku were nearly full, loaded with all kinds of supplies. At that moment, Shah emerged from the building, standing beside the trucks and speaking with several armed men. From the looks of it, he was giving last-minute instructions before departure.
"We can't wait any longer. We need to move closer to the village immediately so we can effectively intercept Shah the moment he tries to leave."
Murphy could no longer hold back and gave the order: "Check weapons and ammunition. Get ready for combat. We move out in one minute."
The urgency of the situation was clear to everyone. Not a single objection was raised.
All five men moved in unison.
They checked their weapons, ammunition, and gear, adjusted optics, disengaged safeties, and chambered rounds—fully shifting into combat-ready mode.
One minute passed.
"Move out!"
With Murphy's command, the five-man squad broke from their observation post and began stealthily advancing toward the village of Kadaku.
The two shepherds still tied to the trees watched the fully armed DEVGRU team depart and immediately began struggling, trying to loosen their ropes.
Kadaku was nestled in a mountain hollow, surrounded by ridges on all sides, with only a dirt road to the west serving as the sole entry and exit point.
To effectively intercept Shah, the first priority was to block that road—cut off his only escape route from the village.
Only then could they worry about how to set up firing lines to suppress the Shanhu guerrilla force with just five men.
Five men against two hundred sounded ludicrous.
But in this era—where firepower reigns supreme—the advantage of numbers had been drastically diminished. With the right deployment, it was entirely feasible.
During World War II, a single machine gunner could hold back hundreds. Such examples were far from rare.
As the commander of a SEAL team, Murphy wasn't just trained in mountain warfare at military academies—he also had years of real combat experience.
From the moment they left their covert observation post, he began deploying his strategy.
It took them nearly ten minutes to descend from the ridge to the mid-slope. Once they reached that position, Murphy had Matt stay behind.
He was tasked with choosing a position with good visibility and setting up the laser target designator.
If combat became inevitable, Matt could take advantage of the elevation to provide the team with critical visual intel.
In small-unit warfare, battlefield visibility is paramount—whoever controls the line of sight controls the fight.
Moreover, the mid-slope was less than 800 meters from the village. As a trained sniper, Matt could also deliver potent long-range fire support.
With the team's "eyes" in place, the squad continued moving closer to the village.
To suppress over two hundred Shanhu fighters and avoid being flanked or encircled, one absolute prerequisite had to be met:
The enemy must be confined inside the village—prevented from organizing and pushing into the woods.
If scattered Taliban fighters did enter the forest in small numbers, they posed no real threat. Matt's overwatch and sniper fire could pick them off easily.
As long as that containment held, there'd be little pressure on the squad before they ran out of ammunition.
There were a lot of Taliban fighters in the village—but with their poor marksmanship and lack of training, as long as they didn't get within thirty meters, their threat level remained limited.
And to keep them bottled inside, the firing lines had to be set perfectly.
Long Zhan, Murphy, Dietz, and Marcus couldn't be positioned too far apart in the woods outside the village—nor could they be clustered too close together.
Spread too thin, and they couldn't coordinate. Taliban fighters might break out from the village and exploit the gaps.
On the other hand, if they were too close, they couldn't fully block the road—Shah could just drive through, and there'd be no way to stop him.
If the firing line was too tight, the Taliban might encircle and crush them from the village side.
Murphy's initial plan was to set the team 200 meters from the village, arranging the four men in a straight line to form a semi-enclosure of Kadaku.
But Long Zhan thought the firing line was still too shallow—Murphy's plan was overly cautious.
He was grossly underestimating Long Zhan's firepower.
As a one-man "walking ammo depot" carrying 1,000 rounds, ten grenades, and four Claymore anti-personnel mines, Long Zhan was confident he could hold the road by himself.
Murphy had assigned Marcus to support Long Zhan from the other side of the road in a pincer setup—an absolute overkill in terms of firepower.
If Marcus were repositioned just thirty meters to the right, the team's coverage around the village would expand from a half-enclosure to nearly three-quarters.
With that adjustment—
The tiny village of Kadaku—barely fifty meters across—would fall almost completely under the squad's containment, leaving only a thirty-meter-wide gap.
If Shah wanted to break out of the encirclement, his only options would be to either drain the team's entire ammo supply—or have all the Taliban fighters charge out through that narrow opening.
Only once outside could they swing around and launch a counter-encirclement.
But Shah wasn't a prophet—he lacked that kind of battlefield intuition. It was inconceivable that he'd order all his men to break out through a single choke point.
Compared to Murphy's original plan, Long Zhan's revised deployment was far more effective.
Murphy quickly realized the flaw in his own thinking—he'd only accounted for standard operating conditions and overlooked the fact that Long Zhan was an outlier.
With the amount of firepower Long Zhan carried, he was more lethal than the other three combined.
There was no need to play it safe.
Murphy adopted Long Zhan's suggestion and confidently left the village's only exit in his hands.
He also assigned the section of road and the adjacent village perimeter entirely to Long Zhan for suppression.
"Here—each of you take one. Set it up right in front of your position. If Shah concentrates his forces and pushes hard on your side, this could save your life."
Right before everyone split up to get into position, Long Zhan handed each of the three—Marcus, Dietz, and Murphy—a Claymore mine.
As directional anti-personnel explosives, commonly referred to as "claymores," each device was loaded with 700 steel balls and possessed terrifying lethality.
Upon detonation—
A 60-degree cone spanning from 2 to 2.4 meters in height and up to 50 meters in range would fall entirely under its lethal zone.
With no obstacles in the way, the steel balls could still cause moderate injuries even out to 100 meters.
A hit to a vital area would result in instant death.
If triggered in open terrain, it could easily decimate a large group—no matter how many advanced, they'd be shredded like wheat in a harvest.
The village of Kadaku sat in a relatively flat mountain depression—terrain that perfectly suited the claymore's destructive capabilities.
Marcus and Dietz were seasoned veterans—well aware of what a claymore could do, especially here.
The moment Long Zhan pulled out the four mines, they all lit up with excitement.
If they had any earlier concerns about the Shanhu fighters charging all at once from one direction—overwhelming their firepower—
Those concerns vanished.
Now, they were hoping the enemy *would* rush them en masse.
Even Murphy shared that sentiment. If just one claymore detonated with full effect, it could take out a whole group in one shot—just like mowing grass.
Its horrifying anti-infantry lethality could scare the Taliban inside the village senseless.
At that point, forget a counterattack—they might not even dare to reposition.
As long as Shah and his forces stayed hunkered down inside, Murphy's team would have succeeded in their mission—just hold the line until the main force arrived to clean up.
Of course—
That was the best-case scenario.
Whether the plan would work in real combat remained to be seen.
Still, even setting that aside—each of the four operatives now had a claymore positioned right in front of their zone.
At the very least, their confidence and morale had skyrocketed.