Chapter 155: The Pulling Plan (Chapter 3 of 3, Requesting Monthly Tickets)

"What?!"

"Send everyone up at once? What does that mean, no queue?"

"Two hours? Really??"

Lin Xian's words exploded like a heavy bomb among the crowd, instantly igniting chaos; everyone stared at him in frantic urgency, his words suddenly injecting renewed spirit into them all.

Zhang Dingzhong frowned at him: "What plan? Speak plainly."

"Captain Lin, two hours—don't we need to overwrite the system?" Wei Kexue was tense and urgent, yet as he looked at Lin Xian, his heart leapt; a subconscious instinct told him Lin Xian might truly have a solution.

Lin Xian spoke without hesitation: "If we overwrite the system, the power will only sustain the air defense and electromagnetic acceleration systems. If we divert it to the climbing elevator, even if it runs, the throughput won't be much higher—possibly even slower than before. Then the time won't be five hours, it'll be longer, and the air defense system will be compromised. The monsters are increasing; under the current schedule, we won't get everyone up."

"Yes." Wei Kexue nodded. "The climbing elevator consumes the most power, after all..."

Lin Xian had no time for details; he cut him off: "Another problem: the more people who leave, the fewer remain to fight. If the airport defense line collapses, no one behind will make it up. The best solution is for everyone to go together!"

One point Lin Xian didn't say aloud: order. When the outer defenses broke, the vehicle queues at the rear would be the first to suffer; mass chaos would erupt, and control would be lost.

"But there are thousands of vehicles and tens of thousands of people—how can we all move together when the airport's power is insufficient?" Shi Di asked, puzzled.

"The method isn't complicated!"

Lin Xian spoke loudly, raised his hand, and a micro-scale metal model of the climbing elevator materialized, glowing faintly in his palm.

Four simulated metal trains appeared on it, representing the four trains currently docked at the airport.

He then turned to Jian Xuwēi and Shi Di and spoke rapidly:

"The Longshan No. 1 and the Taitiewei train are intercontinental-class, each with engine power exceeding 150, 00 kilowatts. The Silver Star, as an Eternal-class train, must have at least 200, 00 kilowatts of operational power, right?"

"220, 00." Jian Xuwēi's voice was proud.

Lin Xian nodded: "Add my Infinite, which exceeds 100, 00 kilowatts—our four trains together exceed 600, 00 kilowatts of total power. Since everyone must reach the orbital ring, I assume these trains all have horizon gateways, designed precisely to launch into the climbing corridor and enter the oceanic orbit without external traction. If we hook all vehicles to the mechanical traction devices and connect them via steel cables to our four trains, we can haul these two thousand-plus vehicles directly up the high-altitude corridor without the climbing elevator."

"We can channel all power to air defense and electromagnetic acceleration—then we climb the elevator ourselves!"

As soon as Lin Xian spoke, the atmosphere froze. Everyone's expressions shifted from confusion to shock.

Pulling thousands of cars up a high-altitude corridor 4, 00 meters above ground—this sounded insane.

Bai Shuang stared at Lin Xian in astonishment, then turned to Wei Kexue, equally stunned: "Wei Gong, is this... feasible?"

Wei Kexue opened his mouth, his gaze shifting rapidly: "This... this..."

He quickly pulled out his computer and began calculating.

"Climbing corridor total length: 7, 50 meters. Slope: 90%. Vertical height: 4, 06 meters. Current queue: 2, 96 vehicles. Assuming all vehicles and trucks total 10, 00 tons, and trains accelerate at 100 km/h under horizon gateway and mechanical traction, with three-stage track acceleration... this... this requires an instantaneous traction power of at least... 408, 00 kilowatts. Theoretically, it's possible—even faster speeds could be achieved. But the traction cables..."

Clang! Clang! Clang!

A faint glow appeared in Lin Xian's hand; a high-carbon alloy steel cable, ten centimeters in diameter, materialized and clattered to the ground with a heavy metallic thud.

Lin Xian took a deep breath: "The trains only need to connect to the traction devices. Once they reach the high-altitude corridor, all vehicles can use high-speed traction units to enter the electromagnetic acceleration tunnel. Other trains can use track acceleration—this avoids internal corridor chaos."

"Damn, you actually thought of this? Pulling thousands of cars up the high-altitude corridor? Bold!" Shi Di's eyes widened; the engineers beside him were also calculating furiously, their expressions suggesting they reached the same conclusion as Wei Kexue.

On the other side, countless engineers aboard the Silver Star were in a frenzy of brainstorming, feeding calculations to Jian Xuwēi.

Zhang Dingzhong scanned the crowd, then fixed his gaze on Lin Xian, his eyes holding deeper meaning.

"The risk level is extremely high—it's purely theoretical," Jian Xuwēi said coldly, looking at Lin Xian. "First, all vehicle weights are estimates—many heavy trucks and modified vehicles aren't accounted for. Second, you only calculated instantaneous power demand, but neither the horizon gateways nor the mechanical traction have been tested under such massive tensile loads. If our gateways fail during this, not only will all the cars be stranded, but even our own mobile trains will lose their last chance."

"Exactly!" Jian Zeyang clearly opposed the plan: "This plan just makes us pull cars—it benefits us nothing and increases our risk. The Silver Star carries 3, 19 lives. Why should we take this risk?"

He sighed heavily, his eyes flickering: "To be blunt—if other corridors opened, we'd have already surged up. Why stay here to die? We've already lost too many. We might as well..."

"Zeyang!" Jian Xuwēi cut him off sharply.

The air seemed to solidify.

Zhang Dingzhong's gaze turned icy as he looked at Bai Shuang: "White Leader, what do you think of this plan?"

Bai Shuang's expression was complex. After a moment's hesitation, she said: "There's risk, but currently, this plan has the highest feasibility." "We object! This plan only increases our risk!" Jian Zeyang protested outright: "Even if it takes two hours, if every survivor is loading vehicles, who holds the line? If the airport falls, this plan will drag us all down. The Silver Star would be better off taking a few hundred survivors and pushing ahead ourselves!"

Jian Zeyang's words weren't without logic—he and Jian Xuwēi carried over three thousand lives. If they pushed ahead directly, their chances of success were higher.

BOOM!!

A blast echoed from the sky. Everyone looked up: the airport's air defense and electromagnetic railguns were firing at full power. The Federation's large operational airship, which had just ascended, seemed to have encountered some strange attack high in the clouds—it exploded violently, a massive fireball blazing, while smaller aircraft, no less, fell like leaves from the sky.

"What are the railguns shooting at?"

"Something's up there!" someone cried out.

All eyes turned to the dark clouds high above, faces grim.

CRACK!

A bolt of lightning split the sky, illuminating the clouds. In that instant, everyone saw it: above the clouds loomed a colossal, dark, circular silhouette—its rim towering like mountain edges into the heavens, resembling an alien entity.

It was the Atmospheric Mica.

Instantly, all faces paled.

"Oh god, it's that monster!!"

"It's... above us, in the clouds!"

!

Hum! BOOM! Hum! BOOM!

All four electromagnetic railgun muzzles swung upward and fired at the heavens.

Bai Shuang's face darkened: "Damn! If we don't draw that thing's attention with firepower, the high-altitude corridor will be swallowed!"

"Looks like our time is running out," Zhang Dingzhong's gaze sharpened as he looked at Jian Xuwēi and Jian Zeyang: "Then we proceed with this plan."

Jian Zeyang's face flushed urgently: "But—"

"Ma Xiaotang!" Zhang Dingzhong barked.

"Here!"

Deputy officer Ma Xiaotang stepped forward.

"1st and 2nd Battalions' artillery hold Zone A. 4th and 6th Battalions plus armored infantry company hold Zone B. 7th Battalion's tank company hold Zone C. 5th and 9th Battalions' logistics support company hold Zone D. 8th Battalion and reconnaissance battalion, with me, hold central Zone E. All aerial units take off—draw that thing's attention to the front of the airport, protect the climbing elevator and the high-altitude corridor!"

"Yes!" Ma Xiaotang replied.

Instantly, the entire area fell silent, the atmosphere solemn.

Zhang Dingzhong scanned the crowd: "The Taitiewei will hold this two-hour window. Anyone else have objections?"

At these words, Jian Zeyang's group turned pale, speechless. Jian Xuwēi stepped forward decisively: "No objections. We'll begin arrangements immediately."

"We have no objections!" Shi Di shouted in response.

The appearance of the Atmospheric Mica had plunged the airport in utter despair. With Zhang Dingzhong rallying all forces to cover them, Jian Zeyang now had nothing left to say.

"Bai Shuang!" Zhang Dingzhong said: "Your emergency team and all wounded board the Taitiewei's intercontinental train. We'll be the last to withdraw."

Bai Shuang nodded solemnly.

"Old Commander..."

At that moment, a voice came from behind.

Zhan Wei approached with dozens of airport security personnel, speaking quietly: "Our security battalion wants to join the defense."

Zhang Dingzhong turned, his expression shifting slightly, and said gruffly:

"Not a coward after all."

Without another word, he strode toward the outer defense line. Deputy Ma Xiaotang and Security Battalion Commander Zhan Wei followed immediately.

Instantly, every soldier of the Taitiewei and the security battalion mobilized—the atmosphere turned deadly serious.

Bai Shuang turned to Lin Xian, her expression grave:

"Captain Lin, I and the vehicle convoy leaders will handle sequence coordination and vehicle loading onto the traction devices. You handle configuring the train traction cables."

Lin Xian nodded: "No time to waste!"

(End of Chapter)