228: Chapter 228 The White Emperor's maiden flight: Something went wrong in the cockpit!

Countdown to the arrival of the sentry ship, day thirty.

Kaitian Base, Assembly Workshop No. 1.

The first unit of the Solar System version of the White Emperor dual-mode manned/unmanned aerospace fighter was perched on the assembly rack.

It had a length of thirty-six meters and a wingspan of thirty-two meters.

The entire aircraft was coated in the same matte silver-gray stealth skin as the Xuan Nu, with the bulge of the tandem dual-seat cockpit embedded in the middle section of the fuselage, and the arcs of the front and rear canopy covers gleaming with a cold tone under the fluorescent lights.

Su Che stood beside the assembly rack, looking up at the belly of the White Emperor.

Six improved Adaptive Variable Cycle Aerospace Engines were distributed at six fixed points on the wing roots and the belly, with the serrated lips of the air intakes fitting seamlessly against the stealth skin.

The rotary weapon bay doors were closed, with not a single seam visible on the surface.

Zhou Dehai crawled out from under the assembly rack, a bit of grease smeared on his anti-static gloves.

"All circuit power-on self-tests, software package flashing, and Brain-Computer Interface pre-embedded channel calibration have all passed."

Su Che walked around to the nose of the aircraft.

The front canopy was open, with the Brain-Computer Interface helmet hanging on the slot to the right of the seat; the inflation lines of the airbag cervical spine protection module extended along the helmet lining to the shoulder restraint interface.

Inside the helmet, that layer of graphene oxide flexible electrode patches, thinner than paper, rested quietly in the positions corresponding to the forehead and temples.

"Have the pilots arrived?"

Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang's voice came from the workshop entrance.

Su Che turned around.

Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang was wearing his service uniform, sans jacket, holding a clipboard in his hand.

Behind him followed two people wearing anti-G suits.

The one in front was in his early thirties, of medium height, with broad shoulders, and a stride so even it looked like it had been measured with a ruler.

The one behind was slightly younger, thinner, and his steps were half a beat faster than the person in front.

"Yang Yi from the J-20 Flight Squadron, front seat; Zhao Yang from the J-20 Flight Squadron, back seat," Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang introduced the two.

Both stood at attention and saluted simultaneously.

Su Che nodded.

"To what extent have you completed the Brain-Computer Interface simulation training?"

Yang Yi finished his salute and answered crisply.

"According to the training plan arranged by General Shen, starting from the day the equipment was handed over, we have been doing four hours of Brain-Computer Interface simulated flight every day. As of today, the total training time has exceeded one hundred and twenty hours."

"Have you practiced dual-mode switching?"

"Yes. Manned-to-unmanned, unmanned-to-manned, and emergency ejection scenarios—we've practiced each at least fifty times. The feel of the physical toggle switch has already become muscle memory."

Su Che glanced at Zhao Yang in the back seat.

"What about the swarm command?"

Zhao Yang's answer was shorter than Yang Yi's.

"Thirty-six aircraft coordinated scheduling, zero omissions."

Su Che didn't ask further and turned to Zhou Dehai.

"Begin."

Yang Yi and Zhao Yang climbed the ladder of the assembly rack and climbed into the front and rear cockpits one after the other.

The restraint straps clicked shut, they took the helmets from the slots and put them on, and the hissing sound of the airbag pre-pressure inflation lasted for two seconds.

Su Che walked to the ground control console on the side of the workshop, and the main screen connected to the main god ai real-time control interface.

The White Emperor was towed out of the workshop by a tractor and pulled to the start of the runway.

In the suburbs of Beijing at the end of October, the wind blew from the northwest, and the poplars by the runway were left with only bare branches.

Su Che pressed the communication button.

"White Emperor first flight, front seat, report status."

Yang Yi's voice came through the communication channel, clean and crisp.

"Front seat ready, Brain-Computer Interface connection normal, flight control main path activated."

"Back seat ready, swarm command terminal on standby, Brain-Computer Interface connection normal," Zhao Yang's voice followed immediately.

"Take off."

Six engines ignited simultaneously.

The White Emperor was three tons heavier than the Xuan Nu, with a deeper sound, but that sharp tearing sensation was the same.

Taxiing, liftoff.

Nose pitched up, climbing.

The speed numbers on the main screen began to jump upward.

Mach one, Mach three, Mach five.

Everything normal.

Altitude thirty thousand meters.

Fifty thousand meters.

Su Che stared at the Brain-Computer Interface real-time status panel on the main screen.

The 32-channel brainwave output was stable, with an end-to-end latency of eleven milliseconds and one hundred percent external signal isolation.

Yang Yi issued the first maneuver command with his consciousness.

The White Emperor performed a standard six-G turn.

All parameters on the main screen were green.

"Accelerate to cruise."

The speed was pulled to three hundred kilometers per second.

Then, something went wrong.

On the main screen, a segment of high-frequency oscillation suddenly appeared in the brainwaves of Zhao Yang in the back seat.

It wasn't a normal conscious command waveform; it was interference.

Zhao Yang's voice came through the communication, carrying a hint of unnatural suppression.

"Back seat reporting, the swarm command terminal screen is shaking, there is noise interference in the Brain-Computer Interface."

Su Che pulled up the raw data from the back seat Brain-Computer Interface.

In the 32 channels, periodic peak noise appeared in channels seventeen through twenty-two, with a frequency that perfectly matched the natural vibration frequency of one of the White Emperor's six engines.

The vibration isolation pads that Academician Zhang Weide had originally made suppressed ninety-one percent of the weapon bay's mechanical vibration.

But this wasn't the vibration of the weapon bay.

This was the engine's.

In the six improved engines, the natural frequency of the mounting base of the No. 4 engine had formed a resonant coupling with the conduction path of the back seat.

Ninety-one percent of the vibration isolation was targeted at the weapon bay, not the engine mount.

The simulation didn't detect it because the engine vibration model in the simulation had a slight deviation from the vibration characteristics after actual installation.

After actual installation, the bolt preload distribution of the No. 4 engine's mounting base was not completely symmetrical, leading to a natural frequency shift of zero point seven percent.

Zero point seven percent, it had landed exactly on the resonance band.

Su Che picked up the communication button.

"Zhao Yang, take off the helmet, disconnect the back seat Brain-Computer Interface temporarily."

"Understood."

The back seat brainwave signal disappeared.

Yang Yi in the front seat was unaffected, and all indicators remained stable.

Su Che said to Zhou Dehai.

"The preload of the No. 4 engine mounting base is asymmetrical; recalibrate it after landing."

Zhou Dehai paused for a beat on the other end of the communication.

"How do you know it's the No. 4?"

"The noise frequency in channels seventeen through twenty-two is eight hundred and thirty-seven hertz, and the design natural frequency of the No. 4 engine mounting base is eight hundred and thirty-one hertz. The deviation is zero point seven percent; only asymmetrical preload would cause a shift toward a higher frequency."

Zhou Dehai didn't ask again.

Su Che pressed the communication button.

"Yang Yi, the back seat has temporarily withdrawn; continue solo. Accelerate to maximum speed."

"Understood."

The White Emperor's speed continued to climb.

Four hundred, four hundred and fifty, five hundred, five hundred and forty.

Maximum speed reached.

Yang Yi switched modes once at maximum speed.

The physical toggle switch was flipped, the Brain-Computer Interface signal released control, and the main god ai took over in the same frame.

The White Emperor automatically performed a standard eight-G evasive maneuver and then resumed cruising.

Yang Yi flipped the toggle back, and control was returned.

Seamless throughout.

"Return to base."

The White Emperor decelerated, turned around, and aligned with the runway.

Landing.

Su Che walked out of the console and waited on the runway.

The White Emperor taxied to a stop, the canopy opened, Yang Yi came down first, followed by Zhao Yang.

Zhao Yang tucked the helmet under his arm.

Su Che walked to the belly of the White Emperor and crouched down to look at the No. 4 engine mounting base.

Of the six titanium alloy bolts, the preload torque of the three on the left was about three percent higher than those on the right.

There was no problem with the outgoing inspection; it was a calibration deviation of the torque wrench during final assembly.

It was something that could be solved in three minutes.

He stood up and brushed the dust off his hands.

"Zhou Dehai, recalibrate the torque wrench, re-tighten the six bolts on the No. 4 mounting base, and run a vibration spectrum set to confirm after finishing."

"We can finish it today," Zhou Dehai was already calling the technicians over.

"After it's done, Zhao Yang will go back up and run the back seat position once more."

Su Che turned and walked toward the console.

After walking a few steps, the blue and white panel in his mind lit up.

[Ding! Detected that all four major pieces of equipment for the Solar System version of the Nantianmen Project have been finalized! R&D conditions for the fifth core equipment have been met! Main R&D task triggered!]

[Task Name: Put a seven-and-a-half-meter-tall iron coffin on the soldiers!]

[Task Content: The luan bird is a fortress, the Xuan Nu is a swarm, the White Emperor is a lead aircraft, and the Mingdi Interceptor is an assassin, but the Solar System is still missing one thing: an iron fist that can fight while stepping on the surface of a planet!]

[Mecha global tactical armor, star-ground dual-mode mobility, individual deep space protection, close-range interstellar combat, engineering emergency maintenance—four core items plus a full set of firepower defense systems must all be implemented!]

[Aircraft core, micro-space displacement evasion module, individual directed-energy rifle, high-energy melee cutting blade, miniature quantum protective shield—all five major modules in one go!]

[Task Reward: 1,500,000 skill points.]

[Total exchange points for core technology and auxiliary technology: 880,000.]

[Current host main skill point balance is sufficient; do you want to redeem all at once?]

1.5 million.

The last piece of equipment for the second phase of the Nantianmen Project.

Mecha.

Su Che stood still by the runway.

"Redeem all."

[Ding! Consumed 880,000 main skill points; all core technologies, auxiliary technologies, design drawings, and adaptation plans for the five major modules have been unlocked! Material and equipment lists have been synchronized and pushed!]

Eight sets of technical frameworks flooded in simultaneously.

The complete aircraft drawings of the Mecha unfolded in his consciousness space.

A seven-and-a-half-meter full-body Mecha, ten tons total weight, powered by a portable Controlled Nuclear Fusion individual battery, with an Anti-gravity low-altitude flight module providing mobility.

Not an aircraft, not a missile, but a mobile fortress worn on a person.

Su Che digested it for nearly ten minutes, running through the entire set of technical logic in his mind twice.

When he returned to the console, Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang was still standing there.

"Any problems with the test flight?"

"Minor problem, preload deviation of the mounting base caused resonance, already being repaired."

Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang nodded, not asking for technical details.

Su Che picked up the handheld device and dialed Liu Huaqiang's number.

"Dean Liu, the R&D for the Mecha has started."

There was the rustling sound of flipping through a notebook on the other end of the line.

"It's the last one."

"Yes, the last ten days, tell everyone to return to the B2 level."

He hung up the phone.

On the runway, the White Emperor lay quietly.

Technicians were already gathered around the No. 4 engine mounting base, and the clicking sound of the torque wrench came over, one click after another.

Corner of the main screen.

Countdown to the arrival of the sentry ship, thirty days.