North of Kirkuk, desert.
Local time: 04:30-04:55.
Five MRZR all-terrain vehicles moved like ghosts scraping the ground, racing across the desert filled with rocks and dry valleys.
The engines, specially tuned, had their low-frequency roar largely swallowed by the terrain and wind noise. They used low-noise sand tires, but the crunching of rocks was still unavoidable.
The drivers relied entirely on the micro-light vision provided by night vision devices and pre-input GPS waypoint navigation, with all vehicle lights off.
Song Heping sat in the passenger seat of the leading vehicle, his body rising and falling with the violent bumps.
In the night vision view, the world appeared in varying shades of green.
The terrain ahead began to rise, and the blurred silhouette of hills in the distance gradually became clear.
Inside the vehicle radio, there was only occasional faint electrical static.
