107: Chapter 107 Twelve Coffins! Eagle, are you being polite?

Taklamakan Desert, command tower of Shennong Base.

Zhou Qihang still had his communicator pressed to his ear, and the voice on the other end did not stop.

"——Altitude twenty-five thousand meters, speed Mach 3.7, expected to enter our Air Defense Identification Zone in twelve minutes."

Su Che stood at the exit of the bunker, with an endless sea of golden rice waves behind him and Zhou Qihang's livid face in front of him.

He dropped the rice ear in his hand and brushed the husks off his palms.

"Twelve B-21s? Is that all?"

Zhou Qihang didn't answer; he had already switched to the Western Theater Command's joint operations channel.

Inside the command tower, the tactical large screen displayed the air situation map in real time, with twelve red dots arranged in a wedge formation, thrusting directly in from the northwest.

Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang's call came in at this moment.

Su Che answered it before he could speak.

"I see them!" Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang's voice popped out of the receiver, carrying the fire he had been suppressing for half his life. "These bastards, they can't beat us in technology, they can't choke us economically, and now they want to play hardball!"

"General, where are our J-20s?"

"The 9th Aviation Brigade of the Western Theater Command, four pairs of two-aircraft formations, have already taken off on emergency alert from the Urumqi base and are climbing to intercept."

Su Che tucked the phone between his ear and shoulder, freeing his hand to swipe across Zhou Qihang's tactical tablet.

"The B-21 uses Eagle Sauce's latest full-spectrum stealth coating, which is hard for conventional radar to lock onto."

"But no matter how stealthy it is, it can't escape one thing."

Zhou Qihang looked up.

Su Che pointed to the data links of the J-20s marked on the tablet.

"The batch of quantum chips equipped a while ago has already been installed in the J-20's fire-control radar, right?"

Zhou Qihang was stunned for a second, then nodded.

"Yes, the Western Theater Command was the first unit to be re-equipped."

Su Che picked up the phone and said into the receiver.

"General, tell the pilots to turn on quantum-state perception mode and switch the radar frequency band to the terahertz band. The B-21's stealth coating is effective against centimeter waves, but it's like being naked against the terahertz band."

Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang on the other end of the line immediately put down his phone and gave the order into the command communicator.

"Western Theater Command Joint Operations Center! This is Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang! Order all J-20s of the 9th Aviation Brigade to switch to quantum fire-control mode immediately! Full terahertz band!"

Thirty thousand feet high.

Eight J-20s, in four pairs of two-aircraft formations, flanked from different directions.

In the cockpit, lead pilot Chen Rui received the order and pressed a button on the side control panel that had never been used in actual combat with his right hand.

The fire-control radar screen flickered.

Then, twelve red diamond markers, like light bulbs, lit up simultaneously on his head-up display.

Clearly—distance, altitude, speed, heading, and even the temperature distribution on the surface of the B-21 airframe were marked out.

Chen Rui's eyes widened. He had been flying for fourteen years and had never seen a B-21 so clearly at this distance.

"Lead calling control tower." He pressed the communication button, his voice incredibly steady. "Targets all locked, distance 380 kilometers, requesting instructions."

The control tower's reply was only one word: "Force them."

Chen Rui understood.

Eight J-20s accelerated simultaneously, engaged afterburners, and left eight white contrails in the high altitude.

B-21 formation command cabin.

The formation lead's weapon systems officer, Major Tom, was staring at the electronic warfare screen, chewing gum boredly.

Their mission was not to start a war, but to exert pressure.

Fly around the edge of the Dragon Country's Air Defense Identification Zone to exhaust their radar systems, and by the way, test the reaction speed of the Dragon Country's western air defense network.

They had done this kind of work no less than twenty times.

Every time, the Dragon Country's fighter jets would barely discover them at the last moment, and then search around like headless flies.

The B-21's stealth performance was the trump card that the Eagle Sauce Air Force was most proud of.

So when the alarm system suddenly let out a sharp buzzing sound, the gum in Tom's mouth almost choked his trachea.

"Warning! Multi-target lock! Bearing—"

He looked down at the electronic warfare screen.

Eight green dots were approaching from four directions at a speed of Mach 2.

The lock signal was as stable as if it had been welded shut.

"Impossible!" Tom slapped the screen. "We are in stealth mode; they cannot lock onto us at this distance!"

The voice of the formation commander, Colonel Rogers, came through the internal communication, three octaves higher than before.

"All aircraft attention, release chaff and flares, initiate electronic countermeasures!"

Twelve B-21s simultaneously released a large amount of chaff and infrared flares, and the entire formation was instantly enveloped by a cloud of metal fragments.

Three seconds later.

The alarm sound did not diminish; instead, it became more intense.

The J-20's fire-control radar, like a pair of unblinking eyes of death, firmly locked onto every B-21.

Chaff and flares were useless against the terahertz anti-stealth phased array radar equipped with quantum chips.

Rogers stared at the eight green dots on the screen getting closer and closer, sweat dripping down his forehead along his oxygen mask.

This was not exerting pressure.

This was being cornered at their own doorstep with their pants pulled down.

"Headquarters! Headquarters! This is 'Shadow' formation! Requesting emergency evacuation! Dragon Country fighter jets have locked onto our entire fleet from 300 kilometers away! Repeat, all locked!"

There was no hesitation in the headquarters channel; they only replied with one sentence.

"Withdraw."

The twelve-B-21 formation turned around collectively at a position eighty kilometers away from the Dragon Country's Air Defense Identification Zone.

Four engines pushed at full power, dragging long white contrails as they fled westward.

Shennong Base command tower.

On the tactical large screen, the image of the twelve red dots turning around was projected in front of everyone in real time.

Zhou Qihang put down the communicator and let out a long breath.

Lin Waner stood behind Su Che. Although she couldn't understand what those dots represented, she read the answer from the expressions of every soldier present.

Academician Li Zhengyang stood in the corner, hands behind his back, watching the large screen. His lips moved, but he didn't make a sound.

Su Che sat on the edge of the console, swinging his legs twice.

"General, the fireworks are over; it's time to pack up."

Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang's voice came from the other end of the phone, his laughter filled with undisguised pleasure.

"Good! Good, good, good!" He said "good" four times in a row, then his tone suddenly turned heavy. "But Su Che, listen to me, the B-21 was just a test; their real trump card hasn't been played yet."

Su Che stopped swinging his legs.

"According to information just intercepted by the intelligence department, Eagle Sauce is contacting Sakura Country, Stick Country, and all member states of the North Atlantic Organization, preparing to sign a joint military action agreement."

"Codename—'Judgment Day'."

"They want to gather the power of seventy-two military bases around the world to implement an all-around military containment of the Dragon Country."

"This is not a local conflict, Su Che; this is S3."

The atmosphere in the command room became instantly tense.

Zhou Qihang's hand tightened on the communicator, his knuckles turning white.

Academician Li Zhengyang looked up, the color draining from his face.

Lin Waner didn't understand what S3 meant, but she saw Su Che's back straighten.

Su Che did not answer Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang.

He stared at the vast territory of the Dragon Country on the tactical large screen and was silent for a few seconds.

Then he stood up and put his phone in his pocket.

In his mind, the system's blue and white panel automatically lit up.

[Ding! Global military threat level detected as elevated to the highest level, the Dragon Country's national defense system is facing a systemic challenge, emergency main mission triggered!]

[Mission Name: The Sky Is Not the Limit—Adaptive Variable Cycle Aerospace Engine]

[Mission Content: While the enemy's fighter jets are still spinning around in the atmosphere, please develop an aerospace engine that can freely switch working modes inside and outside the atmosphere, letting the Dragon Country's wings reach places they cannot touch!]

[Mission Reward: 8000 skill points, unlock the core power technology system of the Nantianmen Project, 5000 exchange points.]

[Current host has accumulated skill points: 8000 points.]

[System Prompt: This mission is the core mission of the first stage of the "Nantianmen Project". Completing it will unlock the subsequent series of aerospace platform mission chains.]

Su Che looked at the four characters "Nantianmen Project" and leaned his back against the cold metal wall.

He took out his phone and sent a message back to Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang.

"General, the live broadcast is delayed."

"Get me a batch of niobium-tungsten alloy and carbon fiber silicon carbide, the more the better."

"And move the five-axis linkage precision machining machine tool to Bunker No. 3 for me."

"I want to build something."

Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang's reply was almost instantaneous.

"What kind of thing?"

Su Che glanced out the window; the golden rice waves in the distance were still rolling with the wind.

He typed six words and sent them over.

"Something that can fly out of the atmosphere."