Emergency Action

Waves crashed against Liaoning's massive hull, unable to shake this steel behemoth in the slightest.

Liu Jun, fast asleep, suddenly opened his eyes and looked in a certain direction in confusion. All he could see was a bulkhead, yet his instincts told him that something was there.

Just as he was wondering about it, the alarm suddenly sounded through the ship. Years of training made his body react faster than his mind. He shot out of bed, quickly pulled on his shirt and pants, and only then realized what the alarm meant—Level One combat readiness!

He threw open the cabin door and ran for the changing room. The instant he rushed out, he felt the giant warship beneath his feet begin to sway violently.

"Hard turn?"

Liu Jun quickly steadied himself. There were only two things that could make a warship this massive rock: an attack or a high-speed change in heading. An attack would usually be accompanied by explosions, but he had not heard any. That only left a hard turn.

"What's going on?"

Zhang Peng braced himself against the bulkhead beside him. His usual kindly expression had vanished, leaving only grim seriousness.

At their current location, sounding Level One combat readiness and making an emergency course change was definitely not an exercise. Were they about to go to war?

"Move!"

The two ran toward the hangar. The entire Liaoning was thrown into motion by the combat alarm, like an enormous machine starting up as each gear fell into place. This seaborne war machine began to turn.

The engine room was Liaoning's heart. The Chief Engineer stared intently at the steam turbines' operating status as they spun at full power, driving the steel beast across the sea.

Radar continuously monitored the surrounding waters while pilots on combat standby sprinted to their aircraft, climbed aboard, and prepared for takeoff.

Ammunition elevators carried ordnance up to the deck, while ground crew pushed munitions and fueled and armed the J-15 Flying Sharks in the parking area.

Having just changed into his anti-G suit in the hangar, Liu Jun ran to his No. 189 with his helmet tucked under his arm. He found that the skin blackened by gunpowder exhaust had already been scrubbed spotless.

Zhang Peng soon ran up to his own No. 139. The ground crew had already loaded it with aviation fuel and missiles inside the hangar.

Unlike Liu Jun's J-15, Zhang Peng's aircraft was a J-15S used to train carrier-based fighter pilots. The J-15S used a tandem two-seat configuration, improving the efficiency of long-range patrols while helping new pilots transition into combat, train new aviators, and increase the effectiveness of aerial operations.

A two-seat fighter was simply more capable in combat than a single-seater.

"Ride with me."

Zhang Peng motioned for Liu Jun to take the rear seat of the two-seat fighter. They still did not know the exact situation. His apprentice had only just completed daytime carrier certification and was still a rookie unfamiliar with combat at sea. He was not comfortable letting him handle an aircraft alone.

"Master, don't you have a partner?" Liu Jun walked over to Zhang Peng and asked curiously.

You could not casually swap partners in a two-seat fighter. It took long periods of training and adjustment to build mutual understanding and improve the coordination rate of the "two cores."

"Your senior brother went to Shandong. He just left," Zhang Peng explained briefly.

The ground crew in the hangar quickly released the tie-downs and started the tractor, towing the J-15S onto the side-mounted aircraft elevator. Liu Jun stepped onto it with his master as the elevator began to rise.

When the elevator reached the flight deck, the roar of engines thundered across it. A blast deflector equipped with a cooling system blocked the high-temperature, high-speed exhaust, and an armed J-15 launched into the night from the ski jump.

Once the flight deck cleared, another J-15 preparing to launch followed close behind after the exhaust from the first aircraft dispersed. It raced down the deck, leapt into the night sky, and its engine roar rapidly faded into the distance.

The blast deflector lowered, and the ground crew quickly cleared the deck in preparation for the next wave of Flying Sharks.

There was no doubt that they had entered combat readiness. They simply did not yet know who the enemy was.

Liu Jun looked out over the surrounding sea. With his exceptional eyesight, he could not spot a single light, which meant the carrier battle group had already deployed into combat formation.

Zhang Peng was well liked aboard the ship. Seeing the squadron commander heading toward the briefing room, he stepped forward, caught him by the arm, and asked quietly, "What's going on?"

The squadron commander looked at Zhang Peng and shook his head, indicating that he did not know the details either. "I'm not sure. Higher command hasn't notified us yet."

Hearing that, Zhang Peng did not ask further. He led his apprentice toward the briefing room while his fighter was towed to the parking area, where the ground crew began fueling and arming it for deployment.

The instant he entered the briefing room, Liu Jun saw several familiar faces, along with some he had never met. Naturally, the pilots who had been ordered to rest were not there.

The squadron commander sat at the front. Zhang Peng went over and took the seat beside him. After thinking for a moment, Liu Jun found an inconspicuous seat in the back row and waited for his superiors to explain the situation.

As they waited, the atmosphere in the briefing room was extremely solemn. The squadron commander was seated below, which meant someone of higher rank would be briefing them. It also meant the situation was far from ordinary.

Before long, the rapid clatter of footsteps approached. Senior Colonel and Captain Zhang Jun entered the briefing room with Political Commissar Yang Wei, both wearing grave expressions.

Once they entered, the briefing room doors closed. Captain Zhang Jun stepped before the naval aviators, his gaze sweeping across the valiant and weathered faces of these sea eagles. He said in a deep voice:

"Comrades, just moments ago, we received orders from higher command. After replenishing supplies, this ship will immediately proceed to the Western Pacific to investigate the 'Sky Pit' phenomenon."

Sky Pit? The name made the pilots exchange bewildered looks. None of them had ever heard of such a thing.

Beep. The large screen displayed a gigantic, bizarre pit in the sky. Seven-colored rays occasionally flickered around its opening, beautiful to behold—and beautiful things often signaled danger.

"Just now, the Air Force's H-6K deployed a Wuzhen-8. After replenishing supplies, our unit will also proceed to the nearby waters to investigate it."

At this point, Zhang Jun paused for several seconds, giving the aviators present time to digest the information before continuing:

"The reconnaissance mission will be led by drones. Since the danger of this mission is unknown, everyone must prepare yourselves in advance. Be bold, but also be meticulous!"

After saying that, Captain Zhang Jun looked toward the political commissar, who signaled an orderly to distribute paper and pens to the aviators.

Liu Jun froze when he accepted the paper, then realized what it was for.

He picked up the pen and wrote his name on the preprinted form. Then worry welled up inside him. What was he supposed to write in his last will?

If he died, should he tell them not to be sad? Forget it. What parent would not grieve?

After thinking it over and over, he wrote a few words to his parents:

Why must one's bones be buried in one's homeland? There are green hills everywhere in life.