Return Voyage

"Codename? I've already thought of one."

"Oh? What codename?"

"Chang Kong."

Liu Jun spoke the codename he had long decided on—Chang Kong, the Chang Kong from "Eagle Strikes the Vast Sky, Fish Swim by the Shallow Bottom."

"That's a good codename," Zhang Peng nodded inwardly. "Eagle Strikes the Vast Sky" was the romance of a pilot.

"Master, what's your codename?" Liu Jun asked curiously. "Fatty" wasn't a common codename.

"Haha, that's all in the past," Zhang Peng laughed. Then, his eyes slightly sank, as if recalling something, he said, "After I passed the flight selection, my family was poor, and I hadn't eaten much good food. The military rations were too good, and available 24 hours a day. My weight 'accidentally' exceeded the limit, and I was almost disqualified because of it."

"Pfft."

Hearing Zhang Peng's words, Liu Jun couldn't help but laugh. His master was truly a character. It would be too unfair if he were disqualified for exceeding the weight limit. Pilots had strict weight requirements, after all; the chief designer didn't want a Göring sitting in the cockpit.

"How did you finally slim down?"

"Control your mouth and move your legs," Zhang Peng said, his tone filled with bitterness as he talked about his weight loss.

During their idle chat, refueling was complete. Zhang Peng maneuvered his fighter jet away from the refueling probe and retracted the probe. The other two J-15S aircraft moved closer, preparing to queue up for refueling. After all this commotion, everyone's fuel wasn't abundant.

"Aircraft 139, return to base immediately! Repeat! Return to base immediately!"

"Roger, RTB!"

Receiving the order, Zhang Peng adjusted the heading of his J-15S to 060 and altitude to 8000. He had received enough fuel to fly back.

Liu Jun glanced at the 815A below. It was moving towards the wreckage of an unidentified flying object floating on the sea, emitting a small amount of black smoke. The fragments, with their glass-like density, seemed to be less dense than water. Coupled with the fact that seawater's buoyancy was greater than freshwater, the fragments were extremely conspicuous under the sunlight.

After flying a certain distance, Zhang Peng's radar detected a friendly signal. The IFF identified it as the previously damaged aircraft "140," so he moved closer.

Upon approaching aircraft 140, Zhang Peng observed the wingman's condition from his rear quarter. During the previous engagement, there wasn't enough time to thoroughly check his comrade's damage. The pilot inside the cockpit only knew that the aircraft was damaged but had no idea how severe the damage was; they could only rely on wingmen for visual confirmation.

The left engine had shut down, and the left elevator and rudder were damaged. Before the automatic fire suppression system activated, the tail had already been scorched black, making it very conspicuous against the low-visibility paint scheme.

"How is it? Can you still fly?"

Flying parallel to aircraft 140, Zhang Peng turned his head to look at his comrade and asked worriedly. Carrier landings were already like dancing on the tip of a needle, and now with such severe damage to the airframe, only having one engine left increased the difficulty of landing by several levels.

"Right engine is normal, I can fly back."

This was why the Navy favored twin-engine heavy fighters. If one engine failed, the other could still function. Moreover, heavy fighters had superior payload capacity and range compared to light aircraft. If it were a single-engine fighter, 140 would have already ejected.

"Understood."

Opening the speed brakes, aircraft "139" maintained its position to the rear quarter of "140" for escort, observing the wingman's condition and ready to notify them immediately if any abnormalities occurred.

After a tough battle, the pilots of both aircraft (except Liu Jun) felt somewhat fatigued. They took turns taking out chocolate and drinking some water to moisten their dry throats.

"Aircraft 139, missiles expended, cannon rounds remaining 100, airframe condition good."

"Status: RTB."

Inside the command center, the commander looked at aircraft "139" on the screen, which was returning to base, and then at the wobbling, slowly returning aircraft "140." The damaged aircraft made him a bit worried.

"Reporting to the commander, 815A reports that the ship is salvaging wreckage of unidentified flying objects."

"Salvage it cleanly, leave nothing for them!"

This was their spoils of war; no one else was getting their hands on it!

After the relentless efforts of damage control, the fires on the 815A were extinguished. The once-beautiful hull was now "bruised and battered." The several spheres on its head were like bitten apples, missing large chunks. The laser communication system was destroyed, and the satellite antenna array was malfunctioning.

However, with the three unidentified flying objects that were constantly emitting electromagnetic interference shot down, the 815A's backup system connected to the data link, and radio communication was also restored.

Without the commander issuing any orders, the 815A had been observing the aerial battle the entire time. After aircraft "139" shot down the three unidentified flying objects, it immediately turned its course and headed towards the wreckage on the sea.

After confirming temporary safety, Song Xizhu, a specially recruited military officer codenamed "Professor," stood on the ship's railing, holding binoculars to observe the wreckage floating on the sea. Her gaze shifted towards the departing J-15S.

"Who are the pilots on that aircraft?"

"Professor, the pilot of aircraft 139 is codenamed Fatty, along with a trainee," said a technician nearby as they packed up their equipment. With its high-level technical reconnaissance capabilities, the 815A could easily obtain this basic information.

"Oh, very impressive."

Her first encounter with a single aircraft shooting down three unidentified flying objects with its cannon left a deep impression on her. Indeed, East University had hidden talents.

For the next period, four J-15s were constantly escorting the 815A. The 815A, like a "fishing boat," was scooping up the spoils of war, not letting go of any fragment. Large fragments were collected with fishing nets, and smaller fragments were retrieved by speedboats. The most valuable among them was the wreckage of the flying object that remained one-third intact.

The wreckage was piled into a cleared hangar, carefully protected, and guarded by security personnel.

Suddenly, on the 815A's surface search radar, a radar signal that was both strange and familiar appeared and was slowly approaching. There were also eight aerial targets in the sky.

"Captain! We've detected a surface target, identified as the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle!"

"Aerial targets: 8, identified as Sea Rafales!"

The J-15s responsible for escorting the 815A detected these aerial targets and became vigilant, flying towards the Sea Rafales.

"Ask them what they're doing here," the captain frowned. If it were normal times, he wouldn't be too worried, but this was wartime, and one had to guard against others!

Upon the 815A's inquiry, the Charles de Gaulle gave a very tactful reply: they wished to withdraw from the current sea area together and were willing to fight alongside the 815A.

"Want to fight alongside us? Heh~ Aren't they allies with the Americans?" The captain of the 815A was amused to the point of anger. Where were they when the 815A was attacked by unidentified flying objects just now?

No wonder the satellite didn't detect the Charles de Gaulle being attacked after the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group was assaulted. It turned out that when the situation became unfavorable, they played to their strengths and directly fled. However, as an aircraft carrier, without escort ships, it was just a high-value target.

At this moment, with the Americans being beaten up by unidentified flying objects, the Charles de Gaulle could only come to hug East University's leg. Otherwise, if this sole flagship, a symbol of the nation, were sunk, the impact on the public would be enormous.

"This is not something we can decide. Report it."

"Yes, Captain."