In the Persian Gulf, the Suez-class tanker Demeter Goddess, which belongs to the Mediterranean Shipping Group, is sailing on the route to South Africa, and the mercenaries on board are fully armed to observe the sea situation and prevent a sneak attack by the Iraqi Navy.
Now in its eighth year, the Iran-Iraq war has dragged down the finances of Iraq and Iran, and both sides have used all means, including chemical weapons, but the war is still in a stalemate.
As a result, Iraq and Iran began to target each other's economic lifelines, and Iraq announced that it would attack all ships carrying Iranian oil entering the Persian Gulf, including tankers from Arab countries.
At first, no one in the world took what this country with only 60 kilometers of coastline said, until the world's largest supertanker, the Nok Nevis, was sunk by the Iraqi Air Force with Exocet missiles, and a Suez-class cargo ship of MSC was sunk by the Iraqi Navy.
The Iraqi ship raid took a huge toll on Glencore's oil business, while MSC lost a Suez-class freighter.
In order to maintain his own safety, Seryosha had to ask the newly established international risk consulting firm to send mercenary troops to the Persian Gulf region with the ship to maintain the safety of navigation.
For Exocet missiles in the hands of the Iraqi Air Force, it is impossible to defend against these mercenaries on tankers alone.
Their anti-aircraft weapons can only be used against helicopters and attack aircraft flying at low and medium altitudes.
If the aircraft were to launch Exocet missiles at an over-the-horizon range, there would be no way to do it with the weapons in the hands of the mercenaries.
However, the Iran-Iraq region is now an arms embargo area that is explicitly prohibited by the United Nations, and the Exocet missiles are naturally within the scope of the embargo, and the Exocet missiles in the hands of the Iraqi Air Force are one less than one, and it is very wasteful to use Exocet missiles against oil tankers, and not every oil tanker is so lucky.
Therefore, the main opponent of the mercenaries on the ship is actually the Iraqi Navy, because the Iraqi coastline is only 60 kilometers, so the Iraqi Navy is not strong, and the largest surface ship of the Iraqi Navy is the Italian-built Seawolf-class frigate, in addition, most of the surface ships of the Iraqi Navy are torpedo boats and missile boats, and their strength is similar to that of the National Coast Guard of the United States.
Perhaps God did not want the MSC to have a smooth journey, but just a few hundred nautical miles from the Strait of Hormuz, the mercenaries standing guard at the stern of the ship gave a warning signal, and soon the ship's radio communication equipment received a warning from the Iraqi Navy.
"Goddess Demeter, please note that we are the Iraqi maritime armed forces, and we suspect that you are transporting oil from Iran, please stop the ship and cooperate with the inspection, otherwise we will take force action, and you will be responsible for all the consequences."
The crew of the Goddess Demeter was completely frightened by the sharp words of the radio broadcast, the modern Suez-class ocean-going tanker was equipped with a total of forty-five sailors, twenty mercenaries, and was equipped with only individual missiles, 2 Browning machine guns, and 16A4 assault rifles of the American standard.
As soon as the alarm for the battle sounded, the Iraqi Navy's torpedo boats followed, and the mercenaries who attacked the risk consulting company received authorization from the captain to use force, which was issued by the Swiss headquarters of MSC, which has a mafia background, and they will not allow themselves to suffer the slightest grievance, even if the opponent is a sovereign state.
"Everyone immediately went into combat positions and contacted the headquarters to request support" The mercenaries of the international risk consulting firm are veterans of the war, and they are not intimidated by the Iraqi Navy, which is inferior to the US Coast Guard.
Moreover, it is not easy to sink a 120,000-ton Suez-class tanker for a torpedo boat, the specific gravity of oil is lighter than that of seawater, even if a torpedo is hit, it will absorb the power of the explosion, and there are water traps inside the tanker, unless most of the tankers are flooded, they will not sink.
As for the Exocet missile, the power is not comparable to that of a torpedo.
In less than five minutes, machine guns had been set up on the stern and sides of the ship near the stern, the machine gunners were already in position, and several men with individual anti-armor weapons were aimed at the approaching torpedo boats.
In terms of speed, oil tankers are definitely no match for speedboats, especially fully loaded oil tankers, otherwise how would the famous Somali pirates use civilian fishing boats to hijack modern ocean-going oil tankers?
Just after the distance between the two ships had already entered the firing range, the mercenaries of the international risk consulting firm fired the first shot.
Since it is impossible to escape, the only way to escape is to fight.
As an anti-armor missile was fired from the stern side of the Demeter Goddess, all the fire on the ship was concentrated on the Iraqi missile boat, and the fire of the bomb rained down on the target at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the sudden attack caught the Iraqi Navy on the missile boat by surprise, first a missile exploded near their cabin, and then one of the sailors who was standing in the bow of the ship to observe the situation was broken in the arm by a flying bullet.
"Damn, bastard, all in place, ready to launch torpedoes" The commander of the missile boat, enraged by the unprepared attack of his opponents, had already thrown aside the plan developed by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense to hijack the tanker, and now he only wanted to send the 120,000-ton large tanker to the bottom of the sea with torpedoes.
After twenty minutes of preparation, a torpedo was launched into the sea from the missile boat, and because the two ships were too close together, the torpedo unexpectedly caused an explosion in the stern.
However, it is not easy to sink a Suez-class tanker loaded with crude oil, the Demeter Goddess only shook for a moment, and it was still driving normally, and if you want the Demeter Goddess to sink, it is possible to directly blow up the keel, but the draft of this ship is not ordinarily deep, and it is not easy to explode near the keel.
"Quick, throw all the containers into the sea" Shortly after the torpedo exploded, the mercenaries on the Goddess Demeter began to use the containers as bait to block the torpedo. t1706231537: