129: Chapter 129 The US Fleet is Approaching? General Shen: No more waiting, open fire!
2:50 AM, B2 level of Pangu Laboratory.
Su Che walked around the 42-meter-long metal skeleton.
He tapped the aluminum-lithium alloy tubing, producing a dull sound.
"The first validation section is done." Su Che walked back to the console. "Let's set the base parameters for the remaining five sections and start the development of the stealth structure simultaneously. We can't wait until the 252-meter main beam is assembled to go back and do the stealth work; that would be a waste of time."
Qin Lan answered the terminal, listened for a moment, and hung up.
"The US is getting anxious." Qin Lan looked at Su Che. "Intelligence about the destruction of the Gravitational Wave Base has reached The Pentagon. Those 147 naval vessels on the sea have suddenly increased speed to 28 knots. It's estimated that at 3:10 AM, the vanguard formation will enter our 200-nautical-mile warning zone outside the territorial sea baseline."
Jiang Yingxue swiped on her tablet, pulling up the satellite tracking trajectory. "They think the gravitational wave failed and we've used up our trump cards. They want to use the absolute tonnage of seven carrier strike groups to force us to bow our heads."
Su Che pulled out a chair and sat down.
"The 200-nautical-mile territorial sea baseline is the red line." Su Che picked up his water cup. "Cross the line, and you die."
Lin Waner walked over with a kettle and refilled Su Che's empty cup with hot water. Steam rose up.
3:00 AM.
Dragon Country, Wartime Joint General Command.
A giant curved screen occupied the entire wall.
On the screen, dense red triangular markers were advancing westward in a wedge formation.
General General Shen Wangchuan stood before the screen, dressed in a crisp military uniform, his shoulder insignia glinting with a metallic luster under the cold light.
With his hands behind his back, he stared at those red triangles.
"Report, Commander-in-Chief!" A staff officer walked over quickly. "The enemy's vanguard, a mixed formation of the Seventh and Third Fleets, is forty nautical miles from the 200-nautical-mile red line. They have activated full-band jamming and launched three squadrons of F-35Cs for forward escort."
General General Shen Wangchuan raised his right hand and checked his wristwatch.
"Has Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang confirmed?" General General Shen Wangchuan asked.
"Confirmation complete. The gravitational wave threat has been neutralized, and Su Che is proceeding with the next phase of R&D."
General General Shen Wangchuan lowered his hand.
"These bandits, after all these decades, still only understand the fist." General General Shen Wangchuan walked to the main console and picked up the red command communicator.
Everyone in the hall stopped what they were doing and turned to face the main console.
"The red line is a bottom line, not a starting line." General General Shen Wangchuan's tone was calm, yet every word carried immense weight. "We will not wait for them to cross the line."
He pressed the all-army broadcast key.
"Rocket Force, DF-26B, DF-21D, first volley. Target: the core vessels of the joint fleet."
"East Sea and South Sea Fleets, Type 055 destroyers, YJ-21 hypersonic anti-ship missiles, clear the enemy's vanguard air defense zone."
"Air Force J-35 formation, move out and hunt down enemy carrier-based aircraft."
"Now, open fire."
3:05 AM.
East Sea, the night was like ink.
The Type 055 10,000-ton destroyer Nanchang.
The vertical launch system covers popped open one after another, firelight tearing through the night sky.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Sixteen YJ-21 hypersonic anti-ship missiles soared into the air, their exhaust flames casting a vast orange-red glow on the sea surface.
The missiles quickly adjusted their attitude in mid-air, piercing straight into the clouds and entering near space.
At the same time, the Lhasa, Dalian, Yan'an, and Anshan ships were firing at full capacity.
Hundreds of pillars of fire illuminated Dragon Country's maritime territory.
Deep inland.
Rocket Force hidden position.
The launch tubes erected, and as the countdown hit zero, DF-21D and DF-26B anti-ship ballistic missiles rose from the ground with a deafening roar.
Over two hundred missiles wove a death net in the sky covering thousands of kilometers.
Western Pacific.
The US Seventh Fleet flagship, USS Reagan.
Captain Howard's paper coffee cup dropped onto the deck. Brown liquid splashed onto his leather shoes.
On the tactical screen, shrill air defense alarms blared incessantly.
"Hypersonic targets! Quantity over three hundred! Speed over Mach 10!" The radar officer's voice cracked. "Interception systems cannot lock on! Repeat, cannot lock on!"
Howard stared at the screen.
"How dare they…" Howard muttered to himself. "How dare they open fire first?"
He lunged to the command console.
"Aegis system, full power! Fire Standard-3! Fire Sea Sparrow!"
It was too late.
The terminal penetration speed of the YJ-21 exceeded Mach 10; conventional anti-ship missiles were like slow motion in front of it.
3:12 AM.
The first YJ-21 hit the Ticonderoga-class cruiser guarding the left flank of the USS Reagan.
There was no thunderous explosion, only the dull sound of kinetic penetration.
The immense kinetic energy brought by the hypersonic speed cut the 9,000-ton cruiser in half; the hull snapped in the middle, and seawater flooded in frantically.
Immediately after, a rain of missiles fell.
The DF-26B, with the might of divine punishment, smashed into the enemy's vanguard mixed formation.
A Kongo-class destroyer of the Sakura Country was hit directly in the bridge, and its superstructure evaporated instantly.
Arleigh Burke-class destroyers were hit one after another, and flames soared into the sky on the sea surface.
The flight deck of the USS Reagan was grazed by a DF warhead, tearing open a gash over fifty meters long, and four F-35Cs parked on the deck were blown into the sea by the blast wave.
In the sky, Dragon Country's J-35 stealth fighter formation cut into the battlefield like ghosts.
PL-15 air-to-air missiles precisely picked off targets, and the enemy's escort F-35C squadrons turned into fireballs one after another without ever detecting the enemy aircraft.
A one-sided slaughter.
The pace of modern warfare was suffocatingly fast.
From General General Shen Wangchuan's order to the collapse of the joint fleet's vanguard, it took less than fifteen minutes.
The Pentagon.
Austin braced his hands on the conference table, watching the real-time battle damage report transmitted on the big screen.
"USS Reagan heavily damaged, lost flight operations capability."
"USS Carl Vinson's escort formation annihilated, the carrier itself is taking on water."
"Sakura Country escort fleet lost contact."
Adam stood nearby, his suit jacket draped over the back of the chair, his tie loosened.
"They don't just have that monster that can burn through decks." Adam stared at the flames on the screen. "Their conventional military strength is already capable of steamrolling us within the First Island Chain."
Austin straightened up.
"Retreat." Austin spat out the two words.
"But…"
"There are no buts!" Austin slammed his fist on the table. "If we don't retreat now, all our assets at sea, these seven carrier strike groups, will all be lost here! Order the entire fleet to turn around immediately and retreat out of Dragon Country's strike range!"
3:45 AM.
B2 level of Pangu Laboratory.
Qin Lan put down the terminal and let out a long breath.
"They retreated." Qin Lan looked at Su Che. "The joint fleet is in full retreat. They left behind twenty-one shipwrecks, and the rest are running towards Guam with damage."
Jiang Yingxue leaned against the edge of the table, holding a cup of coffee.
"General Shen's way of doing things is as ruthless as ever." Jiang Yingxue took a sip of coffee. "Now, the whole world is quiet."
Su Che finished typing the machining parameters and synchronization layout program code for the remaining five sections of the main beam on the keyboard, looking at his own reflection on the screen.
Under the dark circles from an all-nighter, the corners of his mouth twitched upward, then returned to calm.
"They are quiet, but I'm not finished." Su Che turned his swivel chair to face the truss in the center of the hall.
In his mind, the blue and white system panel lit up right on time.
[Ding! Detected that the aerospace carrier core load-bearing validation truss has met the standard, main beam assembly parameters validation passed, triggering subsequent supporting R&D main mission!]
[Mission Name: She Needs a Stealth Suit!]
[Mission Content: After the six sections are assembled, the massive main beam structure will become a live radar target. Please develop an upgraded version of the Full-band Metamaterial Stealth Structure to prepare a full-domain stealth cloak for the subsequent 252-meter complete main beam and the luan bird body in advance!]
[Mission Reward: 10,000 skill points, unlock giant/heavy-duty versions of the three original stealth technologies, 6,000 exchange points.]
[Current host has accumulated skill points: 13,000 points. Redeem?]
Su Che stared at the panel.
"Redeem."
[Ding! Consumed 6,000 skill points, redeemed.]
[Current host has accumulated skill points: 7,000 points.]
Massive amounts of data blueprints rushed into his consciousness.
Ultra-large-scale graphene composite film arrays, heavy-duty liquid metal substrate topological arrangements, and high-precision quantum doping process curves adapted for giant structures were clearly presented.
This was no longer a thin coating suitable for small units; the previous stealth shield could not be scaled up. This was now a heavy-duty adaptive electronic skin covering the giant main beam, with stronger stealth depth and anti-detection capabilities.
It could conceal full-band radar signals and distort optical characteristics; even high-dimensional level detection and scanning could not capture a trace.
With this stealth suit, the true opponent was no longer on Earth!
Su Che pulled up the material list and input instructions on the console.
"Qin Lan." Su Che spoke up.
"Yes?" Qin Lan put away her tactical terminal.
"Help me contact the logistics of the Military Science Commission." Su Che looked at the material proportions on the screen. "I need fifteen tons of high-purity graphene and three tons of liquid gallium-indium alloy. Deliver to Pangu before dawn."
Qin Lan nodded and turned to go out to make a call.
Su Che stood up and walked to the 42-meter-long metal skeleton, placing his hand on the cold aluminum-lithium alloy.
The first bone was there, the machining instructions for the remaining five sections of the main beam had been issued, the stealth suit was being developed in parallel, and all that was left was to add the nerves and muscles.
The moment this giant bird truly opened its eyes was not far off.
Lin Waner walked over with a wet towel and handed it to Su Che.
"Wipe your face," Lin Waner said. "Your eyes are full of bloodshot veins."
Su Che took the towel and wiped his face haphazardly; the coolness seeped into his skin, and his spirits lifted a little.
On the other side of the hall, Jiang Yingxue's tablet suddenly emitted a sharp alert sound.
Jiang Yingxue put down her coffee cup and swiped her fingers rapidly across the screen.
"Su Che." Jiang Yingxue looked up, her voice tight. "The Yiren AI Core just intercepted an encrypted communication, not from Earth."
Su Che stopped wiping his face.
"Where is the source?"
Jiang Yingxue projected the tablet screen onto the main hall screen.
A set of coordinates flickered on the screen.
"Earth-Moon Lagrange L2 point." Jiang Yingxue stared at the coordinates. "The communication content is locked by an unknown quantum encryption method, and the core is forcibly cracking it."
Su Che threw the towel on the table.
Grandfather's seed, the source of the Prometheus fragments.
Now, it was sending a signal.