Chapter 558 - 546 Stealth Attack_1

Lei Qing, who was already prepared for takeoff, once again checked the flight route map on the monitor. It displayed the course of this mission:

Blasting off from inland, they would fly towards Modu City, veering slightly higher, then head north over the Yellow Sea, pass through the Tsushima Strait straight to the Kuril Islands, then turn and circle around the airspace over the Tsugaru Strait following along the coast of Hokkaido, before heading south again close to the coastline to complete the encirclement, and lastly, fly directly to the South Sea, following the nine-dash line, and return to the inland northwest from Guangxi Province.

The total journey was 23,000 kilometers, expecting to take 2.5 to 3 hours—a slightly longer mission time than usual.

But this was relatively easy for the two-seater H-10, with more than enough range to spare.

Huang Sheng was encountering this mysterious aircraft for the first time and couldn’t help but say while watching Lei Qing manipulate the flight route:

"This route, if we don’t circle around Hokkaido, we could even graze Hawaii."

Lei Qing, "02, are you trying to write a 20,000-word report... But if we’re touching Hawaii, we might as well just fly around the world."

Huang Sheng, "That won’t do. How many airspaces would we have to cross for that? Unless we fly above 100,000 meters; this time, we’re not intruding into anyone else’s airspace."

Lei Qing, "Above 100,000 meters would be up to Cloud Ascend. It’s much faster than us, but too delicate and hard to maintain."

"01, 02, are you thinking of switching jobs?"

"..."

Naturally, the one saying this was Androff. Dou Ping was still as nervous as he was two months ago, fearful of another malfunction.

"Eagle Nest, Peregrine Falcon is ready, requesting takeoff!"

"Good luck to you. This time, radar won’t catch you."

After Androff spoke, he kept his gaze fixed on the radar screen beside him. After waiting for almost three minutes, as the Xuehu retracted its landing gear and climbed above 5,000 meters, there was no longer a signal on the screen.

But this was a medium-short range radar capable of providing guidance; some large meter-wave radars could still detect Xuehu, but not with sufficient precision to provide effective guidance for anti-aircraft missiles, which did not affect the overall plan.

As for visual observation? At least this time, after some improvements, it was not as conspicuous as before.

...

B-level Base.

Academician She stood at the entrance of the canteen, looking around uncertainly.

He had brought three people with him to the base and had agreed to have lunch together at the canteen. Why hadn’t he seen anyone?

Lin Ju had been busy with the affairs of the advisory committee’s scientists and often disappeared, and the base’s executives were also elusive. He had decided to leave with his team that afternoon.

After waiting for almost four or five minutes at the entrance of the canteen, Academician She finally saw his three colleagues hurriedly arriving in an electric car from the base, who started pulling him onto the car before it even stopped:

"Something’s happened, Mr. She. We need to hurry to the assembly workshop. There’s trouble with the experts from the advisory committee."

Upon hearing this, Academician She immediately sprang to action, convinced of the urgency. He squeezed onto the electric car without a second thought.

Racing to the assembly hangar in the electric car, they immediately saw a crowd gathered around a small partition inside the plant. Academician She didn’t bother with pleasantries and bolted inside, just as he passed through the partially open door. He heard a thud behind him and realized the door had been shut.

Hawking, who was wearing a spacesuit, took great pride in his perfect timing as he leaned against the door, gesturing madly with his eyes.

Wu Yunfeng and Ye Changsi, who were prepared to take action earlier, lunged at Academician She. In the flurry of hands and feet, they pushed him into the dressing room.

Before Academician She could comprehend the situation, his coat and shoes were stripped off, and immediately his legs were bound by the straps of a fixed pair of trousers, followed by the sensation of being lifted as a one-piece, loose-fitting astronaut suit was pulled up to his chest.

The skilled team helped him into the suit, while Lin Ju standing at the back accurately buckled up the half-open helmet and gently pulled the locking device, readying another astronaut.

"What are you doing? I came here to..."

Academician She, who had just been let down onto the ground, now fully understood that he had been tricked. He hurriedly tried to take off his astronaut suit, but he was firmly held down by everyone.

Lin Ju: "Sir She, we just had a communication with the UK. Their scientists can go up without any problem, but they insist that an important person from our side must accompany them. You’re the only one with a high enough rank here."

"Send Wu Yunfeng, send him!"

"His credentials are not sufficient."

"But I can’t do it either, I have old age diseases!"

"Do you remember the wellness project you participated in during yesterday’s visit to the biological lab? We checked, and your health is very good!"

"You, you, you... you really are..."

"So if you don’t go, should I go instead?"

As soon as these words came out, Academician She, who was originally going to object, immediately changed his attitude. He quickly turned around to hold Lin Ju down and said to the others:

"You all hold him, I’ll go, just let me go!"

The crowd immediately let out a cheer, and half-carried, half-pushed Academician She towards the Cloud Ascend, which was ready for departure. Hawking, who was also part of this operation, followed closely with the ground crew and was then hoisted aboard.

His seat was easy to recognize. To reduce g-forces as much as possible, it had been fitted with extra cushioning, making it look a bit like a child’s car seat.

To the right of Hawking was Academician She, who had just been placed in his seat and left there, fumbling around in confusion.

Fortunately, a screen immediately dropped down in front of him, looping a demonstration of the safety precautions for riding, albeit very briefly. If anything needed attention, it was to sit up straight and fasten the seatbelt—just that simple.

The person in front of him turned around, opened his visor and shouted:

"Mr. She, how do you feel?"

"Frank Yang?!"

Academician She’s eyes widened. He was about to blurt out "This is ridiculous," but then stopped himself, ultimately muttering:

"Organizational discipline, there is no organizational discipline."

Frank Yang seemed quite relaxed, pleased with being assigned to the first batch.

"Mr. She, you are the second-in-command of the Space Agency. If you don’t go up there, how can you prove to others that the Aero-Space Plane is safe?"

"But this should have required a group decision... wait, did you report this?"

Frank Yang laughed: "Of course we will report it, it should have been submitted by now."

"..."

Academician She wanted to say more, but suddenly he felt the scenery outside the window begin to move, and he immediately became anxious:

"Wait, we’ve just boarded, are we preparing to take off already?"

"But isn’t that what Cloud Ascend is designed to do?"

"But, but..."

Academician She quickly checked his seatbelt and the status of everyone else, only then noticing that there were indicator lights above everyone’s head. The lights would not turn green unless they had taken proper safety precautions.

Frank Yang put his face against the window, watching a large group of colleagues standing by the runway, waving enthusiastically at them.

The Aero-Space Plane only stayed at the start of the runway for 15 minutes, after which Li Wei, the commander of this flight mission, released the wheel brakes and began to taxi, soon becoming a small dot in the sky.