Chapter 590 - 578: The Vast Ocean

Lin Ju and Academician She, standing on the concrete dock, were curiously pointing at a dark figure in the distance when someone wearing a rescue team uniform approached and saluted them.

"I am Tian Zhan, the Fudao Management Area Emergency Response Third Squad Leader, welcome to your arrival!"

Both of them quickly returned the salute, and then Academician She pointed towards the distant sea and asked:

"That looks like an aircraft carrier?"

Tian Zhan glanced at it and confirmed without hesitation:

"Yes, that’s the Roosevelt Aircraft Carrier; they are on their way to the monitoring area.

However, our Liaoning Ship has already arrived ahead of schedule and is carrying out its observation mission by orders!"

"Great!"

Lin Ju couldn’t help but exclaim, feeling a pity that the Shandong Ship had just been launched and not yet commissioned, and an even more powerful 003 was still in the works; otherwise, it would have certainly been more imposing.

Academician She: "Why don’t we greet them on the way back and take the aircraft carrier?"

"Is that possible?"

"Of course, it is. The JH-9 is still your creation; the navy is not so stingy, and they might even count on you for a fourth-generation carrier-based aircraft."

"Really? When the bidding starts, I..."

Academician She quickly cut off the topic, realizing that the joke he began could possibly veer in an unpredictable direction, and the navy might actually be persuaded.

He now regretted suggesting the idea of traveling on the carrier and was rapidly thinking of how to get out of this situation.

However, Lin Ju, already excited by the idea, clearly didn’t realize this, and both were escorted by Tian Zhan aboard the Yuanwang Seven where they returned to their assigned cabins to rest.

Lin Ju’s cabin was right next to the captain’s and was very spacious; as soon as he entered, he saw Yu Man engrossed in eating tuna sashimi.

She immediately cast him a plaintive look, though her mouth was saying to sit down and join her quickly.

Picking up a piece of sashimi that might contain an unknown dosage of radiation, Lin Ju carefully confirmed the sea fish had no parasites before daring to eat it.

"What’s wrong? Are you too tired?"

Yu Man gently shook her head: "No, it’s the captain saying there are many confidential areas on the ship and telling me many places I can’t go."

"That... we need to cooperate with their work."

"So I’ve stayed here."

"..."

Of course, Yu Man was well aware of Yuanwang Seven’s special nature of work and cooperated with them, but now she was in a phase where she’d act coquettishly toward Lin Ju at any time, and Lin Ju hastily engaged with concern, managing to appease her despite his fatigue.

After all, the System couldn’t handle his love life for him, and the research institute hadn’t yet developed a direction for emotional research, such things required firsthand experience.

It was only after Yu Man finally fell asleep that he quietly left the cabin door and found Zhang Zheng smoking on the bridge.

"Want one?"

"No, thank you, I don’t need it."

Zhang Zheng put the cigarette back into the box and stood up, facing the sea:

"Mr. Lin, today is the most exhilarating day of my life; this will be the most memorable mission I will ever remember."

"Me too, I really didn’t expect this day to come."

Lin Ju spoke the truth; the IAEA cleanup operation was initially just an attempt by him to divert attention, create a hotspot to avoid United Mining being targeted, but who would have known that the shifting timeline would turn it into reality.

If Comrade Lao Lin had any knowledge under the springs, he’d probably leap out to give me...a page of the family tree for myself alone.

"Eighty years, eighty years of vast changes."

...

At five o’clock in the early morning of December 13, in the still dim sky, planes began to take off one after another, starting to patrol in shifts around the blast center.

The observation sea area surrounding the explosion site had already formed an arc with hundreds of ships spread out, adjusting their positions under the command of the IAEA patrol aircraft to avoid entering the blockaded area.

Above the nuclear power plant, drones passed by every few minutes, equipped with comprehensive surveying equipment, preventing any remaining personnel from entering, as well as more people seeking to sabotage the cleanup efforts.

Although three hydrogen bombs would soon strike this place, the international community could never accept even one ordinary person dying as a result.

The IAEA was also extremely careful in its operations, patrolling not just from the sky, but also with NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) protection armored vehicles performing grid searches on the ground, especially near the coastline, until they withdrew half an hour before cleanup began.

Tian Zhan, who hadn’t slept that night, sat in the IAEA rescue team’s command center and saw Bailey suddenly take a phone call, stand up swearing foully, then slam something hard onto the desk.

"F**k! Those sons of bitches, the journalists, they actually sneaked to the coast with a submersible. Even if they don’t get blown up, aren’t they afraid of the radiation in the seawater?

Our people even took incalculable radiation risks to catch these idiots—no pickles for them!"

Tian Zhan quickly saw the pictures sent back from the front; the first squad of patrolmen had caught two fully equipped divers, one of whom even had a press badge from some European tabloid and displayed a defiant face when captured.

"We need to immediately sweep the surrounding 15-kilometer maritime zone and coastline. There must be a boat or vehicle picking them up—more likely a boat. There’s more than one who slipped through."

Tian Zhan’s reminder was well heeded by Bailey, who had just conducted a brief interrogation and learned that the two individuals were amateur divers. Even with a submersible, they couldn’t move too far, which meant there must be a gap somewhere.

It could only be said that the allure of explosive news was too great, and there were too many fools not afraid to die.

The headquarters immediately instructed more planes to perform carpet searches and soon found several small boats on beaches kilometers away. It was clear that these people had come in a group, and more than one had snuck in.

After three hours of frantic efforts, they were confident they had caught all the unauthorized intruders, and the patrolling warships outside had timely patched up the gap.

Tian Zhan prayed that nothing else would go wrong, and he kept waiting until ten o’clock in the morning, when the sky had completely cleared up before he began to relax a little.

Just past 10 o’clock, a domestic call came right on time:

"Haijiao, report the situation!"

"This is Haijiao. No abnormalities found. Please proceed as planned, over."

"Longgong received. Continue monitoring and report at any time!"

This message was quickly sent to a more distant place, and a few minutes later, in a clearing in the dense forest beside the Mudanjiang, came the sound of commands and the running of personnel.

A green four-axle special transport vehicle that had been parked in advance was surrounded by soldiers at the center, who started to perform an electrical self-check on the white solid rocket mounted on it.

The missile battalion lieutenant colonel in command at the site checked the time on his wristwatch, first stared in the direction of the sea, then turned his head northward.

He knew that the same thing was happening in Vladivostok; they were using the "Iskander," aiming at the same direction.

At 10:40, with no word over the radio to abort, the East Wind 15C should have entered the launch program according to plan.

Grasping the time, the colonel shouted the command with a hoarse voice:

"One hour prepare!"

"One hour prepare"

"Erect the missile, input the designated coordinates!"

A series of orderly instructions came out from the command vehicle, and the colonel watched as the white rocket on the transport vehicle began to rise, vertically under the action of hydraulic rods, pointing towards the sun.