Refuel

Zhang Peng shuddered and abruptly opened his eyes. His fragmented memories began working again, and he hurriedly prepared to maneuver the aircraft to evade the attack. But when he focused his gaze, he realized the aircraft's flight attitude had already changed, and the three unidentified aircraft from before had vanished.

As a veteran pilot, he immediately realized that the extreme G-forces had knocked him out. He had been completely useless throughout the whole fight.

Hearing movement from the front seat, Liu Jun said over the internal comms in a flat tone, "Master, you're awake? The battle's over."

"Were all the enemy aircraft shot down?" Zhang Peng asked gravely as he checked the aircraft's condition.

"Yes," Liu Jun replied calmly. As for how they had been shot down, he had no intention of claiming all the credit for himself. Without his comrades' cover, there was no way he could have fought so easily.

The electronic interference vanished after the three enemy aircraft were shot down. Communications returned to normal, and external comms came online.

A J-15S approached the rear side of Aircraft 139 and visually inspected it for external damage. Seeing no obvious scars, its pilot quietly breathed a sigh of relief. But an undamaged exterior did not necessarily mean there were no internal issues, so he asked over the comm channel, "Fatty, status?"

"Out of fuel."

Hearing Zhang Peng's words, the pilots of the two J-15Ss tensed up. What naval aviators feared most was running out of fuel. With no fuel, they could not even abort a carrier landing and go around, much less fly back from this far away.

Their comrades looked down at the boundless sea below and the 815A not far away.

The bad news was that they were out of fuel.

The good news was that they could be fished out after ejecting.

At that moment, a higher-priority communication relayed through the WZ7 connected to Aircraft 139's system.

"Aircraft 139, this is Command Headquarters. Report your fuel status."

"Reporting to Command, fuel remaining: ten minutes. Repeat! Fuel remaining: ten minutes!"

Hearing that Aircraft 139 had ten minutes of fuel left, the commander frowned. He was not worried about the pilots' safety if they ejected.

After disengaging from combat, the pilots could eject while the aircraft was in stable flight. Friendly warships were nearby and could recover them immediately. But this J-15S contained data from its engagement with the enemy, and that data could only be collected after the aircraft landed.

Against an unknown enemy like this, especially one they might very well encounter again in the future, they needed more intelligence to understand them. As long as the aircraft still had fuel, they had to make every effort.

"Where's the nearest tanker?" the commander asked the officer beside him.

That was not something he needed to worry about. After the four J-15Ss launched, the Liaoning had already considered the fuel situation. A J-15 carrying a refueling pod had launched afterward, ready at any time to refuel aircraft running low on fuel.

On the battlefield situation display, one of them was refueling the damaged Aircraft 140, while the other was flying straight toward the battlefield.

"Reporting to Command, the J-15 carrying the refueling pod is still fifteen minutes away from them!"

"Aircraft 139, the tanker is on its way. You must hold out for fifteen minutes."

"Aircraft 139 copies."

Making ten minutes of fuel last fifteen was not impossible. Zhang Peng swept his gaze across the instrument panel and checked the altitude: 7,000.

It was not particularly high, but it was enough. He pulled back the throttle and adjusted the aircraft's angle of attack.

A heavy aircraft would not immediately fall out of the sky after losing power. As long as it still had speed and altitude, it could be treated as a "glider" with rather poor performance.

As he reduced the throttle, the engine expelled less exhaust. The airspeed on the instrument panel gradually fell, then stabilized at a certain value. At the same time, the aircraft began losing altitude. He traded altitude for speed, keeping the aircraft in straight-and-level flight at a constant speed to extend its time in the air and wait for the tanker.

Seeing that the aircraft's attitude had stabilized, Liu Jun stopped worrying about it. Zhang Peng was a veteran pilot and could naturally solve the problem. Instead, Liu Jun turned his attention to the Flight Experience in his mind.

He got quite a shock when he checked it. His experience had increased by a huge amount, almost equal to two years of flying experience!

At that moment, Liu Jun had the urge to max out every flight skill he had. However, the experience he had gained was enough only to raise a level-one skill to level two, or increase a level-two skill by half a level.

Which one should he upgrade? After hesitating again and again, Liu Jun restrained the urge to spend his points. Wait. I should wait a little longer.

His gaze swept across the distant sea. Several columns of black smoke stood out beneath the blue sky and white clouds. It seemed the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group had suffered serious losses this time. The whole world would probably be shaken by it, but that was not his concern. The people above him would handle it.

Fifteen minutes passed quickly. A target rapidly approached on the radar, its IFF Identification marking it as friendly.

Once it entered visual range, Liu Jun saw it clearly. It was another J-15. After approaching them, it circled overhead to observe Aircraft 139's speed, altitude, and heading. Then it flew ahead, deployed its speed brakes, slowly merged into their flight path, and extended the hose from the pod beneath its belly.

Unlike normal refueling, where the receiving aircraft approached the tanker, this time the tanker had to approach the receiving aircraft. Aircraft 139's remaining fuel could not withstand any unnecessary maneuvering.

Zhang Peng watched the hose ahead, then glanced at the aircraft's fuel supply. There was less than three minutes left, and the warning alarm had not stopped sounding.

When the hose was only a dozen meters from the aircraft, the J-15 responsible for refueling maintained a steady flight attitude. For fighter jets, this distance was practically face-to-face.

Zhang Peng gripped the control stick, made a slight throttle adjustment, extended the refueling probe on the left side of the cockpit, and carefully guided the aircraft toward the hose.

Ten meters!

Five meters!

Three meters!

One meter!

With a click, the refueling probe connected precisely with the hose. High-quality aviation fuel immediately flowed through the probe into the J-15S. Watching the fuel level slowly rise, Zhang Peng let out a breath of relief. He glanced at the rearview mirror and saw his apprentice looking toward the distant columns of black smoke as if nothing had happened.

What impressive nerves!

With the fuel problem resolved, Zhang Peng relaxed as well and asked half-jokingly, "Kid, weren't you afraid we'd fall out of the sky?"

This was where the advantages of a two-seater showed. The pilots could chat with each other and ease the pressure in their hearts, especially after going through real combat.

"Master, if we ran out of fuel, we could only eject."

Liu Jun spoke calmly. They had done everything they could. If the aircraft still fell, then they could only abandon it and eject. Before ejecting, though, they would have to crash the aircraft near the 815A to make recovery easier.

"By the way, have you decided on your callsign yet?"

Zhang Peng brought up the serious matter. Liu Jun still did not have a callsign, but after this battle, he had officially seen combat. That was rare and valuable experience. He and his apprentice had also become comrades who had faced life and death together. Zhang Peng was very satisfied with his apprentice's performance—both his mental fortitude and physical fitness were solid.