Chapter 97: Space Station Falls
"Oh! Charlie, I'm going to marry you!" When Nof saw the drones behind him being shot down one by one, his voice trembled with excitement, and the entire radio channel was filled with his cheers.
"I'm not Juliet! Stop talking nonsense, Nof! Those drones are heading towards the space elevator!" Zhang Peng replied quickly. Although there was a hint of ridicule in his voice, there was more tension and anxiety. His eyes were fixed on the radar, and his brows were furrowed into a deep "川" shape.
Ahead, the space elevator looked so fragile against the sunlight, as if it would be destroyed in the next second.
Lu Mingfei's eyes were fixed on the drones flying towards the space elevator in the distance. Through the glass of the cockpit, he could clearly see that the Watcher close-in defense guns around the space elevator began to fire. They were like the iron guards of the base, spewing out blazing flames, and the fierce artillery fire formed an invisible protective net.
The pulse Doppler radar of the Watcher close-in weapon system accurately captured every target. The drone swarm seemed to be trapped in a death trap. The drones that tried to break through were intercepted by the high-rate artillery fire as soon as they entered the fire network. They instantly turned into fireballs in the air, and the debris from the explosions fell to the ground like a meteor shower.
"Well done!" Zhang Peng couldn't help but praise, but his tone was still nervous, "But don't be too happy too soon, those watchers can't block all the drones, there are still some that slip through the net."
Lu Mingfei nodded silently, his eyes still sharp. Within the detection range of Word Spirit·Kamaitachi, there were still several drones that had silently passed through the Watchers' firepower network and were quickly approaching the space elevator.
The detection within the Kamaitachi area was like an invisible radar, feeding back the movement trajectory of each drone to Lu Mingfei's mind. He could hear the low humming sounds of these ruthless mechanical bodies tearing through the air and flying.
"Zhang Peng, ninety degrees to the left front, several planes have broken through!" Lu Mingfei quickly reported the location, with a hint of urgency in his voice.
"I saw it!" Zhang Peng suddenly took control of the fighter plane, the engine roared, the J-20C accelerated instantly, and the fighter plane was like an arrow shot from a bow, rushing straight towards the drones that had escaped the net.
Lu Mingfei gripped the joystick tightly, and the fighter plane rolled, climbed, and dived in the air, quickly adjusting to the best attack angle. His fingers operated quickly on the weapon control panel, and his eyes were locked on several drones that were flying rapidly towards the space elevator.
"Fire!" he shouted, and his finger decisively pressed the fire button.
The J-20C's machine gun once again let out a deafening roar, and dense firepower swept towards the swarm of drones ahead like a storm.
The drones seemed to be aware of the danger and began to rapidly change their flight paths in an attempt to avoid the machine gun attacks, but thanks to Lu Mingfei's precise operation, they were ultimately unable to escape.
"Bang!" A drone was hit by artillery fire in the air. The flames of the explosion instantly engulfed its body. Hot fragments flew everywhere and fell to the ground like a meteor shower. Several subsequent drones could not escape the disaster and turned into flames and wreckage in the air one after another.
"Oh! Zhang Peng! When did your shooting skills become so good!" Nof's exclamation came through the radio, his voice full of surprise and disbelief. He and Zhang Peng were classmates in the same school, so he naturally knew very well the level of his classmate.
Zhang Peng smiled, his mouth corners slightly raised, "I brought an ace shooter this time!" There was a hint of pride in his tone, and then he quickly returned to seriousness, "Nof, start the visual attack! This time it's our turn to attack! Cut them down!"
Although Lu Mingfei shot down several drones, there were still a lot of drones hovering in the sky. The number of predator drones seemed endless, like a dense swarm of bees, creating an oppressive feeling on the battlefield.
Lu Mingfei and his crew as well as several other fighter planes were still barely holding on in the sky.
However, their reinforcements have arrived. Lu Mingfei and his team took off and attracted most of the drones into the air, while the ground crew urgently repaired the runway.
Other pilots have also rushed to the hangar, and the planes in the hangar began to take off urgently. A mixed formation of fighter jets from various countries began to take off, including F22, F35, Rafale, KF-21, and even Shining and Tejas fighter jets.
With the addition of these fighter jets, Lu Mingfei and his team felt a lot less pressure. Although fighter jets were better than drones in all aspects, they could not use the locking system and missiles and could only use machine guns for visual attack, so they were still inseparable from the drones for a while.
The smoke and flames in the air mixed together to form an impenetrable fog. The roar of fighter jets, the roar of machine guns, and the loud noise of explosions were intertwined. The sky was in chaos, and drones or fighter jets kept falling from the sky with flames.
However, just when Lu Mingfei thought the situation had temporarily stabilized, a warning from the ground command suddenly sounded on the radio.
"All units, attention! A large group of UFOs are approaching at a very fast speed!"
The moment the ground command issued the warning, Lu Mingfei's Kamaitachi field also detected something approaching them at high speed.
"Zhang Peng, get out of the way!" Lu Mingfei shouted almost subconsciously.
Zhang Peng reacted extremely quickly. Almost at the same time as Lu Mingfei shouted, he pulled the joystick suddenly, and the J-20C fighter plane slid sideways like a flash of lightning, urgently avoiding the UFO flying from behind. The thing brushed past the wing tip of the fighter plane, making a shrill whistling sound and bringing up a terrible airflow.
"What the hell is this thing!" Zhang Peng shouted as he looked at the UFOs that kept flying past him.
"Missile?" Nov said uncertainly on the radio, his tone full of nervousness.
"No, not missiles..." Lu Mingfei saw through the cockpit that several fighter jets that did not have time to hide were destroyed by those missile-like UFOs, but he noticed that those fighter jets were destroyed by collision and not by explosion.
"No matter what they are, their target is the space elevator. We must not let them get close to the sky elevator! Nof, let's go! Use the tactics taught by Teacher Wang! Xiaolu, you aim well and shoot those things down for me!" Zhang Peng shouted to Nof on the radio and then said to Lu Mingfei.
"Xiaolu, fire one!" Zhang Peng began to accelerate. A sonic boom cloud burst out from the fuselage of the J20C and it began to cruise at supersonic speed. Since these missile-like things were not from the Gabon base, they were not identified as friendly forces by the aircraft's system, so the missiles and locking systems began to work.
"Fire!" At the moment the locking system locked, Lu Mingfei pressed the launch button, the missile bay of the J20C opened, and a PL-10E infrared air combat missile flew out.
The missile made a sharp whistling sound, instantly passed through the clouds and headed straight for the target. The UFO was hit by the missile before it could react.
The shock wave of the explosion shook the entire sky, and flames exploded in the distance, forming a huge mushroom cloud of fire.
"Fire two!" At the same time, Lu Mingfei quickly aimed at the next drone and fired the missile again. Another PL-10E infrared air combat missile flew out and hit the target.
The space elevator stood in the distance, towering into the clouds, like a giant pillar connecting heaven and earth. An unidentified flying object approached a rapidly rising cabin on the space elevator. It approached the cabin and attached itself to it, then a flashing red light came on. Soon, the rapidly rising cabin exploded.
"Those are fucking suicide drones! They want to blow up the space station!" Zhang Peng saw this scene and finally knew what that thing was. He shouted loudly and increased the speed of the plane to the limit.
"Fire three!" Lu Mingfei also knew that the situation was urgent, so he pressed the launch button again, and soon another self-destructive drone was destroyed.
"Launch four! Zhang Peng, faster!" Lu Mingfei shouted to Zhang Peng. There were only four missiles on the J20C, and he had already fired all of them.
Lu Mingfei destroyed four suicide-destructive drones, but there were still two in front of him climbing up the space elevator at a high speed, trying to catch up with the cabins in front that were approaching the space station. Now the only way to destroy those suicide-destructive drones was to rely on machine guns, but at this distance, the machine gun's hit rate was somewhat worrying.
"The speed has reached the limit! Nof, do you have any missiles?" Zhang Peng shouted loudly into the radio.
"The missiles have been used up long ago!" Nov also roared.
"Damn it, I can't catch up!" Zhang Peng shouted as he watched the suicide drones flying farther and farther away. The speed of those suicide drones was even faster than that of fighter jets.
"Zhang Peng, transfer the control of the plane to me!" Lu Mingfei shouted to Zhang Peng.
"Xiao Lu, can you fly a plane?" Zhang Peng said in disbelief when he heard Lu Mingfei's words.
"What's the point of flying a propeller plane? Stop talking nonsense! Give it to me now!" Lu Mingfei shouted, his eyes already glowing with gold.
Zhang Peng turned his head and looked at Lu Mingfei's resolute expression, then gritted his teeth and transferred the controls of the plane to the back seat.
The moment the controller was transferred over, the golden light in Lu Mingfei's eyes exploded to the extreme.
The Word Spirit·Mirror Pupil was fully deployed, and every detail of the J-20C fighter was thoroughly analyzed in his mind. The structure of each component, the working principle of the engine, and the operation of the electronic system all emerged in his brain like a three-dimensional projection, down to every screw and every circuit.
Countless complex parts and technologies representing the pinnacle of science and technology filled Lu Mingfei's brain, almost bursting his head.
"Xiaolu, are you okay? You're bleeding!" Zhang Peng saw blood gushing out of Lu Mingfei's nose in the back seat like a faucet that had been turned on, and shouted anxiously.
"I'm fine!" Lu Mingfei shouted with some effort. The long-term use of the sickle weasel had consumed a lot of his physical strength. Now using the mirror pupil put a lot of pressure on his body, especially the complexity of the J20C was far beyond his imagination. Blood kept flowing out of his nasal cavity, forming a thin layer of blood mist in the mask. The bloody smell in the mask gradually became heavier, mixed with his rapid breathing, pressing his chest so hard that he could hardly breathe.
But Lu Mingfei couldn't care less now. The plane's engine relied on burning fuel to generate thrust, and this process required oxygen. As the plane climbed higher, the oxygen became thinner and the engine might be at risk of stalling. So he had to shoot down the self-destructive drone before it climbed to a higher altitude, otherwise there would be no way out.
As every part of the J20C appeared in Lu Mingfei's mind, he became adept at flying the J20C. When the plane was flown again, Lu Mingfei pushed the limit of this plane.
The two suicide-destructive drones were rapidly climbing up and were approaching the top of the space elevator at an alarming speed. The outer shells of the suicide-destructive drones had a cold metallic luster, and red warning lights were constantly flashing on their bodies. They were flying close to the elevator's track, and the engines at the tails were emitting dazzling flames.
The J20C began to approach the suicide drone in front while aiming its machine gun. Lu Mingfei pressed the launch button, and soon the suicide drone in front was destroyed.
"Beautiful!" Zhang Peng shouted loudly, and Nof also exclaimed on the radio.
But Lu Mingfei did not relax at all, because there was a suicide drone in front of him. He controlled the plane and aimed at the suicide drone at the same time.
The suicide drone was only a few hundred meters away from its target, and its red warning lights were flashing more violently, indicating that the countdown to destruction was approaching the end.
Lu Mingfei clenched his teeth and almost leaned his whole body on the joystick. Under his control, the J-20C was forced to climb, and the engine made a dull roar, as if it was making a final protest.
"I'm the best pilot in the world! How could I let you escape my lock!" Lu Mingfei locked his sharp eyes on the self-destructive drone and pressed the launch button. Soon the drone was also shot down.
"Oh!!! Oh!!! Xiaolu, you are so awesome! Why are you still a ranger? Come and fly a fighter jet with us!" Seeing the last self-destructive drone being destroyed, Zhang Peng and Nof burst into cheers like ghosts howling.
Lu Mingfei also breathed a sigh of relief as the golden light in his eyes faded, and the blood from his nose almost made it difficult for him to breathe inside the mask.
At this time, the J20C's climbing speed stopped, and then began to lose speed and fall downward. The aircraft climbed to its maximum distance and the engine stalled.
Lu Mingfei raised his head and could vaguely see the outline of the earth through the cockpit glass. It was a blue arc, quiet and vast, as if it had nothing to do with this chaotic war.
At that moment, he felt like he was at the end of the universe, everything was so small and empty. However, a few shadows in the distance quickly broke this brief tranquility.
Lu Mingfei's pupils shrank instantly. Those shadows were approaching quickly from below. They were several self-destructive drones that broke through the defense line of other fighter jets.
Lu Mingfei's heart sank suddenly, but there was nothing he could do at this moment. The J-20C had completely lost power and began to fall slowly. A low warning sound came from the cockpit, reminding him of his powerlessness at this moment. He could only watch the self-destruct drones quietly approach the cars on the space elevator and quickly climb towards the space station.
When the J-20C fell to a certain height, the engine reignited. Zhang Peng took over the control again, and Lu Mingfei finally relaxed his stiff body. He leaned back in his seat, gasping for breath, the blood in his mask coagulated into a sticky layer, blocking most of his face. He looked out the cockpit window to see what would happen next.
He stared quietly out of the cockpit window. The Predator drones hovering in the air outside began to lose speed and fell from the sky with black smoke. This time it was really like dropping dumplings into the water. Dozens of drones fell together, dragging long black smoke tails. When they hit the ground, huge flames erupted, like dozens of artillery shells.
Lu Mingfei heard the voice of the ground command center in his headset: "550C has taken over all the drones."
This should have been good news, but Lu Mingfei did not feel relieved at all, because he knew that the real disaster had not ended yet, but had just begun. The inexplicable sense of uneasiness in the sky gradually spread, as if something even more terrible was brewing.
Fireballs began to fall from the sky like meteorites, and several fighter jets that did not have time to dodge were hit and crashed.
"What's going on!" Zhang Peng asked as he looked at the fireballs, then dodged them carefully.
"The sky is on fire!"
The radio heard the screams of other pilots, trembling with fear and disbelief. Lu Mingfei suddenly raised his head and stared at the sky.
High in the sky, the huge space station slowly emerged from behind the clouds. The steel behemoth seemed like a giant under the sky, but at this time it was shrouded in blazing flames.
Billowing black smoke billowed out from it, and flames devoured every inch of its metal surface like a ferocious beast. It was no longer the cold space fortress, but a blazing fireball, dragging a long tail of flame, and falling straight towards the Gabon base.
The burning and falling space station almost covered the entire sky. It was like a huge meteorite, smashing towards the ground with a doomsday atmosphere. The Gabon base in the distance looked small and fragile under its shadow.
The moment the space station fell to the ground, it stirred up a large amount of dust and black smoke, covering the entire Gabon base. The black smoke rising from the base was clearly visible more than ten kilometers away.
"The space station is falling... Repeat, the space station is falling..." Zhang Peng said weakly into the radio.
Lu Mingfei looked at the falling space station and suddenly felt powerless. He couldn't help but wonder whether humans could really stop the solar crisis.
As the fighter plane descended steadily, Zhang Peng's tense nerves finally eased a little. He turned his head to look at Lu Mingfei in the back seat and found that he was almost slumped in the seat, with blood all over his mask, and it was obvious that he had exhausted all his strength.
"Xiaolu, hold on! We're almost reaching the ground!" Zhang Peng shouted loudly, even though he knew Lu Mingfei could no longer hear him.
The moment the plane landed, Zhang Peng randomly pulled a ground staff member to help him carry Lu Mingfei towards the hospital.
The Gabon base was in chaos at this time, with ruins everywhere. Many people had wounds on their bodies, their faces covered in dust and blood, and their eyes showed helplessness and fear.
The air was filled with thick smoke and a burning smell. The residual heat of the explosion had not yet completely dissipated, and from time to time the sound of wreckage collapsing could be heard in the distance.
Zhang Peng and the ground crew ran, struggling to make their way through the ruins and chaotic crowd inside the base.
They carefully carried the already unconscious Lu Mingfei. Zhang Peng's face was full of anxiety and worry. He looked at Lu Mingfei from time to time. Seeing Lu Mingfei's pale face and the blood still slowly flowing from his nose, his heart tightened.
"Faster! Faster!" Zhang Peng shouted to the ground crew beside him, his tone full of urgency. His breathing was rapid and his physical strength was consumed faster and faster, but he didn't dare to stop for a moment.
All around, emergency personnel and soldiers were busy moving around the base, carrying the wounded, putting out fires, and clearing the rubble.
Several ambulances sped past, sirens echoing over the base, but each vehicle was already filled with wounded. The hospital was overcrowded, doctors and nurses were struggling to maintain order in the chaotic situation, and the medical facilities seemed extremely strained.
Zhang Peng almost rushed all the way into the hospital gate. When the medical staff saw Lu Mingfei being carried in, they immediately brought a stretcher and took him from Zhang Peng and the ground staff.
"Urgent treatment is needed! He is bleeding too much and may suffer hemorrhagic shock!" After seeing Lu Mingfei's condition, a nurse immediately shouted to other medical staff for assistance.
Zhang Peng stood aside, breathing heavily, his hands still shaking slightly. Looking at Lu Mingfei's back as he was pushed into the emergency room, he felt heavy in his heart.
There was a busy atmosphere all around, with the sounds of footsteps, shouts, and machines running mixed together. Every corner of the hospital was crowded with wounded people. Many people were groaning, some were curled up on stretchers in pain, and some seriously injured people had fallen into coma. Medical staff were racing against time to rescue them.
Zhang Peng's eyes passed over all this, the brutal scene of the battle in the air still echoing in his mind. He suddenly remembered what Lu Mingfei had said before, that Liu Peiqiang was on the space elevator.
He began to urgently look for Liu Peiqiang nearby. After searching in the hospital for a while, he saw Liu Peiqiang. Although he was slightly injured, it was not serious. This made him feel a little relieved.
Lu Mingfei lay on the hospital bed, staring blankly at the medical staff busying around him. The hospital was filled with wailing, which reminded him of the scene in the hospital during World War I. It was exactly the same, as if nothing would change with time.
The TV on the wall was broadcasting the news of the attack on the Gabon base.
"Ladies and gentlemen, four hours ago, the space elevator encountered a carefully planned and organized terrorist attack. So far, 3,521 people have died and 5,137 people have been injured..."
"This is the largest attack on the Mountain Moving Project since the attack on the United Government Headquarters three months ago. This attack caused the space station to fall, the Ark Project completely failed, and the Mountain Moving Project was seriously hindered. This means that we will not be able to complete the feasibility verification of the Mountain Moving Project within the window period. The risk of humanity's plan to face the solar crisis being completely terminated has increased..."
(End of this chapter)
