152: Arrival in Kyoto

Kyoto

This thousand-year-old ancient capital, which bore the rise and fall of three Chinese dynasties, has undergone the expansion of modern civilization. Its urban area spanned over thirty thousand square kilometers, and its permanent population once approached five hundred million. It was one of the few mega-cities on Blue Star and served as the core garrison and command center for China's Central Military Region. Before the apocalypse, a million elite troops were permanently stationed here, possessing a foundation far beyond ordinary imagination. (The area has been expanded and does not refer to reality.)

The military base of the Central Military Region was situated in the suburbs of Kyoto, covering an area of approximately one thousand two hundred square kilometers. The facilities within the base were extremely comprehensive, with permanent fortifications, large hangars, ammunition depots, Barracks, training grounds, and even several high-tech military research institutes hidden deep within. Were it not for the collapse of the basic industrial system and the shortage of raw materials after the apocalypse, the Central Military Region, with its massive military strength and technical reserves, might have quickly expanded outward to reclaim large areas of lost territory.

Many soilless cultivation factories and farmlands were established within the base, but compared to the three million survivors gathered there, it was merely a drop in the bucket. The food issue always hung over Kyoto Base like the sword of Damocles. However, fortunately, through the unremitting bloody battles and sacrifices of the Central Military Region troops, the clearing operations in several important grain-producing counties in Jizhou Province near Kyoto Base were nearing completion. Once the zombies are completely wiped out and agricultural production is restored, it will be just around the corner, which will greatly alleviate the food pressure.

Two silver-gray apollo aerospace fighters, at hypersonic speeds, silently swept through the clouds and soon approached the Air Defense Identification Zone within a radius of hundreds of kilometers around Kyoto Base.

"Buzz—" Inside the cockpit of the apollo fighter jet, a serious and vigilant voice suddenly came over the communication channel, breaking the silence in the cabin:

"Unidentified unauthorized aircraft ahead, take note! This is the Kyoto Base Air Control Center! Please state your identity and unit number immediately! Repeat, state your identity and unit number immediately! Otherwise, we will consider you a threat and initiate mandatory interception procedures!"

The captain of the apollo fighter jet remained calm, having long anticipated this situation. He skillfully adjusted the channel and replied in a clear, steady tone, "Kyoto Air Control Center, this is an aircraft belonging to the Lujiang Base-Red Alert Legion. Our mission is to escort the National Government's Commissioning Commissioner back to the base. Repeat, our mission is to escort the National Government's Commissioning Commissioner back to the base."

There was silence on the other end for a few seconds, obviously verifying the information. Soon, the voice sounded again, its tone slightly softened but still full of caution: "Red Alert Legion aircraft, message received. Please stop advancing in the current airspace immediately and orbit on standby. We will immediately send a guide plane to provide navigation for you. Repeat, please cooperate with the guidance and do not enter the core airspace without permission!" Sending a guide plane was for navigation, surveillance, and a standard procedure to shoot down potential threats at the first opportunity if necessary. Kyoto Base would never allow any unidentified aircraft to directly enter its core defense circle.

"Instruction received. Our aircraft has stopped advancing according to instructions and entered a hovering standby state. Please send the guide plane as soon as possible," the apollo captain replied calmly.

"Hovering?! Wait... you said hovering?" The operator's voice on the other end suddenly rose, filled with astonishment and disbelief. "Are you a helicopter formation?" he asked instinctively, because in his knowledge, only helicopters could hover.

However, the light point characteristics on the Radar screen and the terrifying speeds captured earlier simply did not match up!

Due to the loss of the satellite network, the Central Theater Command could only rely on ground-based long-range early warning Radar for monitoring and could not obtain clear visual information at all.

They did not know that the apollo fighter jet did not rely on conventional Blue Star stealth technology (such as Radar-absorbent coating materials or shape design) to evade Radar, but was equipped with a more advanced Regional Radar Beam Annihilation Device. This device could form an invisible "Radar silence zone" within a five-hundred-meter radius around the fighter. Any detection Radar waves entering this area would be instantly interfered with, absorbed, or even annihilated, making it impossible to form an effective echo. If it hadn't been for Zhang Lei's formal visit, which led them to voluntarily turn off the device and maintain a conventional flight mode, it would have been impossible for China's pre-apocalyptic Radar technology to track them.

The operator at the Air Control Center did not dare to delay. Although full of doubts, he quickly reported the situation. Soon, two Huayi-20s—one of the five-and-a-half generation fighter jets representing China's most cutting-edge technology before the apocalypse and belonging to the Central Military Region Air Force—roared off the base runway. They shot toward the clouds like two arrows, ordered to "guide" but actually to monitor and escort those two "Red Alert aircraft" with special identities.

When the two ace pilots of the Huayi fighters approached the target airspace and saw those two so-called "fighter jets" through optical equipment, they could hardly believe their eyes!

"Holy crap! Old Chen! What am I seeing?! Is that thing a fighter jet? This size... it's almost as big as a transport plane!" one pilot exclaimed in the encrypted channel, his voice slightly distorted.

The other pilot also swallowed hard, staring intently at the two streamlined, futuristic, silver-gray behemoths ahead. "This... this doesn't comply with aerodynamics! With such a large volume, the Air Control Center said their speed exceeded Mach 4?! Are you kidding me?! Wait... how... how are they just... staying there without moving?!"

A scene that shattered their worldview even further appeared: those two massive "fighter jets" showed no signs of tilt-rotors or rotors, yet they remained steady and absolutely still, hovering ten thousand meters in the air, as if held up by invisible giant hands! This was simply not something any known helicopter or VTOL aircraft could achieve!

Suppressing the stormy waves in his heart, the pilot of Flight Lead opened the public channel and tried to keep his voice calm and professional: "Lujiang Base aircraft ahead, I am Flight Lead of the Central Military Region Air Force guidance formation. Please follow our flight path, maintain the specified distance and altitude, and proceed to the designated airport for landing. Repeat, please follow the guidance."

"Received! Our side will follow your aircraft," the apollo captain's reply was still steady.

The two Huayi fighters completed an elegant turn and began to lead the way at subsonic cruising speed. However, in the next second, something happened that made their eyes almost pop out: the tails and underwings of those two silver-gray giant birds suddenly erupted with two faint blue particle flow beams that seemed to contain destructive energy!

"Buzz—Boom!"

There was no violent roar, only a low, powerful energy hum! The two apollo fighter jets instantly erupted with staggering speed, yet they precisely matched their speed with the Huayi fighters. Like the most loyal wingmen, they followed steadily behind and to the side, their formation perfectly maintained! This ease of acceleration and control once again deeply shocked the two ace pilots.

The four fighter jets formed a formation and flew over the auxiliary military airport outside Kyoto Base, which was specially used for the takeoff and landing of foreign aircraft.

The two Huayi-20s skillfully lowered their landing gear, aligned with the runway, and opened their engine thrust reversers. Accompanied by the sharp sound of tires rubbing against the ground, they smoothly taxied to a stop in the designated area of the apron.

And the landing method of the two apollo fighter jets that followed caused all the ground crew, Commanders, and the Huayi pilots who had just climbed out of their cockpits to turn to stone in a deathly silence!

Those two silver-gray behemoths first hovered steadily about ten meters off the ground like nails driven into the sky! Then, the armor plates on their bellies slid open silently, and a magnetic suction hatch smoothly extended to touch the ground.

Zhang Lei, Yang Ning, Shen Nan, Li Xian, Ye Anhe, and the others walked out of the cabin with composed expressions, stepping onto the soil of Kyoto.

Only after all personnel had safely disembarked did the two apollo fighter jets slowly and vertically land on their designated parking spots like feathers, their landing gear touching the ground gently without a single shake. Subsequently, the faint blue glow of the engines completely went out, falling into silence.

The entire airport was dead silent.

You could hear a pin drop.

Everyone's mouths were wide open, their eyes bulging as if they had seen an alien spaceship descend. Several ground crew members didn't even notice when the tools in their hands hit the ground with a "clang."

Vertical Take-Off and Landing fighter jets? It wasn't that they hadn't seen them, but those were small carrier-based aircraft designed for aircraft carriers! Yet these two guys in front of them, with bodies comparable to large transport planes, could achieve such physics-defying vertical takeoff and landing and high-speed cruise? And those shut-down engines, that magnetic suction door, those faint blue particle beams from the thrusters... is this a damn sci-fi movie?!

An indescribable mix of shock, awe, and envy spread wildly in the hearts of all Kyoto Base personnel who witnessed this scene. The strength of the Red Alert Legion was, for the first time, displayed nakedly before the center of power in China in the most direct and shocking way.

(Author's Note: Creating is not easy. The current popularity of Red Alert is too low, and this book isn't getting many recommendations. Writing depends entirely on my passion for Red Alert, and I hope more people can see it. I'm shamelessly asking you all to take a moment to give it a rating. Without enough ratings, the book won't have a score or appear on charts. I am deeply grateful, and I will definitely work hard to finish this book and will never leave it unfinished.)