109: O97's Thousand-Mile Rescue! No. 0403's Strive to Save Himself!

“Good heavens, so this is what it feels like to be underneath an Eagleland aircraft carrier group? No wonder many of our submarine captains say we need to speak softly inside the submarine.”

“It’s impossible not to speak softly!”

Operating a submarine in combat is exactly like infiltrating a massive enemy camp of tens of thousands of people, all by oneself!

This multi-faceted test of spirit, psychology, and reality caused even Commander Qin, a General who had seen countless life-and-death situations, to feel his heart rate accelerate.

He stared intently at the screen,

terrified of hitting an Eagleland vessel the next second,

and thus drawing their attention.

“Commander Qin, actually, this is already quite good. After all, the large screen shows the surrounding situation, meaning we can directly see the outside world.”

“Otherwise, under normal circumstances, we would only be able to rely on the sonar operator to listen, cautiously fumbling around in the deep sea like blind men feeling an elephant.”

“That’s even more nerve-wracking!”

Xu Youcai said softly with a smile.

Commander Qin nodded.

Just as he was about to say something,

suddenly!

“Alert: An abnormal sonar structure has been detected 300 meters ahead. Connecting to dragon blade to acquire sonar scan data.”

“Data acquisition complete.”

“This abnormal structure has been identified as our submarine no. 0403, an offensive nuclear-powered submarine.”

“Found it!” Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

But soon,

as Lin Qi inquired, a sense of unconcealed gravity once again rose in everyone’s hearts!

“Scan submarine no. 0403’s latest status.”

“Scan complete. submarine no. 0403 has multiple cracks. The non-pressure hull section has severe deformation.”

“The pressure hull section is under continuous stress.”

“Calculation results show it is on the verge of collapse and could collapse or rupture at any moment.”

“Abnormal sonar feedback detected at the energy compartment. Combined with submarine no. 0403’s reduced speed, it is suspected that the nuclear reactor has an anomaly.”

“What?!” People had speculated about the other situations, but they never expected that even the nuclear reactor was having problems now?

If the danger level of other situations was ninety, then the problem with the nuclear reactor at this moment was one hundred, two hundred, three hundred!

This was the real life-threatening weapon!

For a moment,

the atmosphere in the room suddenly solidified.

Almost everyone frowned, various thoughts popping up in their minds, but they quickly overturned them themselves.

Ultimately,

there was no other way.

Many people secretly looked at Lin Qi and Commander Qin.

After all, the former was the Chief Engineer and the direct initiator of this operation.

The latter was the Commander-in-Chief of the Xuanwu Fleet.

It was obvious that someone who could become a Commander-in-Chief not only had genuine capability but also extremely high comprehensive qualities.

Decades of military career had allowed Commander Qin to accumulate a vast amount of experience.

Perhaps it could be put to use now!

“Little Xu, do you have steel cables on your submarine?”

Suddenly!

Commander Qin turned to look at Xu Youcai.

The latter thought for a moment and said, “No.”

Then he said somewhat helplessly, “Given the working environment of a submarine, there’s no need to equip something like a steel cable.”

Commander Qin: “……”

Xu Youcai was right.

To put it harshly, once a submarine has an accident at sea, unless it’s in shallow water, say, about a hundred meters deep,

and the accident isn’t a major one like submarine no. 0403’s, then it might just be possible for people to salvage their lives.

Otherwise…

the submarine can only helplessly sink.

Equipping something like a steel cable, which is useless and adds weight, is clearly not the choice of normal submarine forces in various countries.

“In that case, we can only use that method!” Before the others could speak again, they heard Lin Qi muse.

“That method?” Everyone was curious.

Lin Qi smiled.

……

Meanwhile, inside submarine no. 0403.

“No!”

“I’m going to help with repairs too!”

Seeing that Qin Huiwu, the leader of the damage control team, had not responded for a long time, the crew members standing in front of the energy compartment frowned.

Those damage control team members who happened to be in the front of the submarine when the accident occurred, without thinking, immediately wanted to put on their anti-radiation suits and rush into the energy compartment!

Seeing this?

Fang Yueshan originally wanted to say something.

But when he heard one of the damage control team soldiers say those serious words, even though Fang Yueshan was the Captain Fang, he fell into extreme indecision.

“If you stop me now, then we’ll all die in the end! Team Leader Qin only has four people, how can they possibly plug such a large crack?”

“If we don’t go over, then this submarine will slowly fill with seawater, and if it even submerges to the energy compartment, there’s a possibility of an explosion!”

“Do you want to be blown up?”

Everyone: “……”

That’s right.

What these damage control team members said was correct.

Although this reality was cruel, unless they abandoned the lives of over a hundred people on the entire submarine, they could only let these people go and face nuclear radiation.

Because there was no other way.

Whether for the instinct of survival or to protect this submarine, especially to preserve the evidence of this incident!

They needed more people to help with the repairs!

“Damn it! In that case, I’ll go with you too! Although I’m not a professional, an extra person means an extra pair of hands!”

“We can plug the leak sooner!”

Hearing this, many people around instantly raised their eyebrows, turning to look around for anti-radiation suits, saying:

“Exactly! We’ll go too! Rather than passively wait for death here, it’s better to grit our teeth and fight!”

“Right! I’m going to find my suit now!”

Seeing everyone’s hurried appearance, the First Officer and Second Officer beside Fang Yueshan frowned.

As Dragon Country commanders, they did not want their soldiers to actively enter danger.

But also as commanders, they had to be responsible for over a hundred people on the entire submarine!

From a purely numerical perspective, sacrificing a few, or a dozen people, to save the remaining dozens, seemed like a worthwhile trade no matter how you looked at it.

For a moment, while the atmosphere among the crew was lively, among commanders like Fang Yueshan, it was an indescribable sense of suppression and silence.

Qin Huiwu and the others, who were currently at the stern of the submarine, did not know what was happening at the front.

Standing in the cold, murky seawater, Qin Huiwu and the others, enduring the immense water pressure, exerted all their strength to repair the large cracks visible to the naked eye.

Soon,

although there were only four of them, with solid professional skills, most of these visible large cracks were repaired.

Even if some areas were still leaking water, the leakage was significantly less than before.

“Phew…”

Wiping his face, Qin Huiwu smiled and nodded to the three people beside him, then said to Zhao Zheng'an:

“Little Zhao, go check if the submarine pressure has returned to a safe range! Damn it, when I get back this time, I’m definitely taking ten days to half a month off!”

“Hahaha, about that!” Zhao Zheng'an’s master, Chen Hao, said with a smile, “This was a close call, we definitely need to…”

“Report!”

Suddenly!

Before Chen Hao could finish speaking,

Zhao Zheng'an’s voice, filled with deep unease and horror, reached their ears:

“The submarine pressure is still in the danger zone!”

“What?!”