58: Chapter 58 Showdown 3

As the destroyer uss mustin scrambled to decelerate...

Aboard the warship Xining, Captain Xu Kai was methodically arranging combat tasks.

"Yanshan, now! While it's slowing down, accelerate to its right side and squeeze its sailing space. I want to see if these Americans still dare to push inward!"

"Yanshan received!"

"Captain, you're really sly, letting our sister ship cut right across its path. This is a total encirclement!"

Old Lei's face was flushed with excitement beside him.

Xu Kai didn't reply to Old Lei. After a moment of thought, he picked up the shipboard telephone.

"Frigate Yishui, your ship is to keep an eye on that surveillance vessel. Its escort has been put in 'solitary confinement' by us. Let's see how much more it can jump around!"

"Yishui received!"

Xu Kai finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Old Lei, if you want to talk about being sly, Xue Rui is the real one. I told him to intercept the Americans' path, and he actually hoisted the Z Flag. Haha!"

"The two of you... in the entire base, you two are the most cunning ones."

"Haha."

Xu Kai walked out of the bridge with a smile, looking at the white warship positioned horizontally ahead.

That conspicuous Z Flag was fluttering in the wind.

His eyes were fixed on that fluttering flag, his blood boiling. In a daze, he seemed to understand Xue Rui's meaning—it was a will to burn one's bridges, a fearless spirit of 'who else but me.'

"Signalman, order: hoist the Z Flag immediately. Since our sister ship has already sounded the charge, we can't drag them down!"

"Yes, Captain!"

The signalman saluted Xu Kai, his eyes filled with admiration.

A few minutes later,

The Chinese warships all hoisted this flag in unison.

Meanwhile, on the destroyer Mustin.

"Report, Captain! The electronic surveillance ship Victory has also stopped in place. Their path has also been blocked by a Chinese warship."

"Report, Captain! The Chinese warship behind us took advantage of our deceleration to maneuver to our right and is constantly shortening the distance between our two ships."

"Report, Captain! Air search radar shows a four-plane formation flying rapidly toward our fleet. Behind them, another group of eight aircraft is on patrol."

...

In the command room, crew members constantly reported the surrounding dynamics to George Wells. He stared at the integrated information screen in front of him.

The information screen was large and divided into three sections. In the middle were monitoring videos of the surrounding Chinese warships. The two side screens displayed radar imaging of the surrounding sea and air surveillance radar maps. In the air surveillance map, several red dots were moving rapidly toward the center of a circle that looked like an electronic target.

George was getting a bit nervous now, feeling that something wasn't quite right.

"Captain, what does it mean that the Chinese warship ahead hoisted the Z Flag? Could there really be a malfunction?"

Brown asked anxiously from the side.

George Wells didn't answer. He looked left and right, then raised his binoculars to look at the Victory in the distance.

"Brown, do you think four warships would malfunction at the same time?"

"This... then what should we do?"

"Maybe this is an opportunity. While the situation is chaotic and everyone's attention is on the opposing warships, immediately launch that reconnaissance plane. Also, release our ship's drones to disrupt their vision."

"Yes!"

Brown hurriedly left the bridge. George Wells also walked out of the bridge at this time and came to the deck. Looking at the large white warships not far away on both sides, his face became unusually solemn.

Just as he was rubbing his chin in thought, the distant roar of fighter jets could be heard faintly.

The roar gradually became clearer.

In an instant, four fighter jets in a standard combat echelon formation roared over George's head. George could even clearly see the five-pointed star insignia on the tails of the fighters.

The massive sound caused his eardrums to throb directly below them, the buzzing sound traveling from his ears straight into his brain.

"Oh!!!"

...

This small patch of sea was exceptionally busy today. The two countries' aircraft in the sky were surprised to find six huge warships below abruptly stopped together, neither advancing nor retreating.

It was as if several people walking had seen each other and were exchanging polite greetings.

In truth, those in the sky were also feeling awkward. Originally, AWACS and reconnaissance planes were meant for long-distance accompanying patrols and operations. They should have been far in the rear, and were rarely used as "vanguard" units at the front.

Today was something else; both sides were just short of opening their cabin doors to shake hands and chat.

The air and sea fell into a temporary stalemate, with both sides cautiously testing each other...

Guam Base.

"Good, neither side has taken further action. Tell the warships and aircraft at the front to maintain the current state and stay safe. Our focus is not on the sea!"

Base Commander Kyle stared at the real-time footage from the reconnaissance plane and ordered after a long sigh of relief.

He picked up his long-cold coffee and took a sip, not noticing at all that the coffee was no longer so fragrant.

He had lingering fears; the scene just now was too dangerous. Once friction occurred, the situation would be hard to control. As a shrewd man, he knew this wasn't the intention of those gentlemen in Washington.

If the situation escalated seriously, he might end up being the scapegoat.

Right now, all he wanted was to get that damn reconnaissance plane to take its photos so he could order the fleet to withdraw from those dangerous waters.

So, after seeing two drones take off from the destroyer Mustin, Kyle finally felt at ease.

"Alright, have the RC-135 and the AWACS keep an eye on the Chinese missile and radar signals. Report to me immediately if there's any abnormality. As for the sea, let them play poker with the Chinese Navy for a while, haha."

"Haha."

...

At the Q City Prism Tower Base,

Chu Ge was currently staring at the large screen on the wall with the two commanders.

They were now inside the Prism Tower, which served as the command center for the entire Q City Prism Tower Base. The layout was similar to the bunker. At this moment, the large screen was showing a networking progress bar: 98%... 99%... 100%.

The screen flickered, and when it restored, Wang Yun's pretty face appeared before everyone.

"Hello, Academician Chu! Hello, Commanders! Wang Yun from the Telescope Detection Center reporting to you!"

"Hello, Wang Yun."

Commander Meng replied.

"Reporting to the Commander, the detection center has successfully networked with the twelve Prism Towers. The Prism Towers can now exert their powerful combat capabilities."

"Good! Good! Good!"

Commander Meng said 'good' three times in excitement, then led a round of warm applause.

Under his lead, the personnel from the Prism Tower Base and the detection center all clapped vigorously, especially Yan Tianhao, who looked like he wanted to clap his hands raw.

After everyone quieted down, Wang Yun suddenly became serious.

"Commander Meng, there is an emergency that needs to be handled immediately!"

"Hmm?"

"The telescope has detected two small aircraft taking off from an American warship near the East China Sea, not far from the Q City base. One of them is already approaching the national border."

"Approaching the national border?"

"Immediately pull up the base's air defense radar screen."

Commander Wan hurriedly said to an operator nearby.

The monitor showed that the radar was on, but the military radar screen only showed distant aircraft signals; the national border was completely blank.