Heartbeat Moment

Amid anxious waiting, the Charles de Gaulle received Great East's reply: Agreed, but command authority would be handed over to Great East for coordinated operations.

"Sir."

Seeing Great East's response, the officers on the bridge all turned to the carrier air wing commander, awaiting his answer.

To be honest, the demand was not excessive. In their place, they would only have demanded more.

"Reply to Great East. We agree. Open the data port."

With the lives of thousands aboard, France's honor, and the possible wreckage of unidentified aircraft at stake, the Gauls lowered their proud heads.

It was all Earth's technology, and the underlying principles were much the same. Countries had held joint exercises before; as long as they opened the port to receive data, they could connect to Great East's combat system. Of course, this connection was one-way and could only receive combat data.

Very soon, the Charles de Gaulle's IFF Identification changed to friendly on 815A's radar. At the same time, the Sea Rafales patrolling the surrounding airspace also became friendlies. Their sensor data was transmitted into the 815A system, processed, and then sent to the Combat Command Center.

In the Situational Awareness display, the new "friendlies" swept away a vast patch of the fog of war and strengthened awareness of the surrounding waters. The Charles de Gaulle also changed course and moved closer to 815A, sailing alongside her at a distance of roughly two nautical miles. It was practically acting as her armed escort. A nuclear-powered carrier escorting a reconnaissance ship was quite a show of respect.

The captain of the Charles de Gaulle stood on the bridge, observing 815A's hull through binoculars and assessing the reconnaissance ship's damage.

The scorched hull showed that the ship had once caught fire. Its radome was riddled with holes, and the extent of damage to its radar modules was unclear. The most conspicuous thing was the wreckage of an unidentified aircraft on the helicopter pad, its glassy shell shimmering with iridescent light, impossible to overlook.

Sure enough, those three aircraft had been shot down by Great East. No obvious fragments could be found in the surrounding waters, so they had likely already been salvaged. How should they negotiate an exchange for wreckage fragments? The captain of the Charles de Gaulle pondered the question, then gave up. Such matters were better left to the higher-ups to haggle over.

After securing the salvaged wreckage, 815A set off at full speed toward the Liaoning Carrier Strike Group, accompanied by the newly joined Charles de Gaulle.

Although many of the Charles de Gaulle's permissions were unavailable, the intelligence it received somehow contained a large number of images showing the damaged Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group—whether deliberately or by accident, no one knew.

In satellite images, the damaged Carl Vinson billowed thick smoke, its carbon emissions severely exceeding standards. Its deck had practically become a colander, and its island looked like Swiss cheese. The close-in weapon systems along its sides had vanished without a trace, while only one Sea Sparrow launcher remained. Several French naval officers had already pronounced it dead.

Even if it successfully returned to the West Coast, Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company was on the East Coast. Whether it could be repaired at all was still a question.

Even if it could be repaired, did the USA's current industrial strength leave enough budget for it?

And even if the budget was enough, how many years would repairs take? They could barely manage to build a destroyer, let alone restore a carrier so severely damaged.

Its escorts had not fared much better. A Ticonderoga-class cruiser had one layer of its superstructure flattened, lying in utter silence as leaking engine oil polluted a vast stretch of ocean.

An Arleigh Burke-class destroyer suffered sympathetic detonations in its vertical launch cells, its forward hull snapped in two. Surviving crewmen paddled small inflatable boats away from the destroyer as it prepared to sink.

The luckiest were probably the nuclear submarines. Hidden beneath the water, they had successfully evaded the unidentified aircraft's attacks.

The entire carrier formation endured the Triangle Aircraft's attacks. Once it had moved a certain distance away from the Sky Pit, the Triangle Aircraft gave up the pursuit and returned to the area around the Sky Pit, circling it like bees guarding their hive.

The Carl Vinson thus escaped the fate of being sunk.

Whether it was Great East, France, or any other nation capable of observing the battle, no one could laugh at the sight of the USA carrier strike group's miserable state.

Inside 815A's control room, Song Xizhu adjusted her gold-rimmed glasses and focused on organizing the data from the battle against the unidentified aircraft. Looking at the unidentified aircraft in the combat footage, she arrived at a definite answer: they were not creations of humanity.

"Doctor, headquarters has sent a notice. After rendezvousing with the Liaoning, report to headquarters immediately for a meeting."

"Understood."

At the same time, on Liaoning's flight deck, deck crew worked frantically. They erected a crash barrier on the deck, while fire trucks were positioned along one side of the flight deck. If the landing J-15S caught fire, they would immediately spray it with firefighting foam to prevent the blaze from spreading.

Inside Liaoning's bridge, the carrier air wing commander watched the two approaching J-15Ss through binoculars: aircraft 139 and aircraft 140.

Higher command placed great importance on both aircraft. Aircraft 139 had shot down three unidentified aircraft, while aircraft 140 had been attacked by one. Its internal data was of immeasurable value.

After approaching the carrier, aircraft 139 broke away from its escort position. The heavily damaged aircraft 140 struggled to adjust its landing attitude. Its Elevator could still be substituted by the Canard, but only one Rudder remained. The aircraft's handling had deteriorated considerably, and whether it could accurately catch the Arresting Gear Cable with its tailhook would severely test the pilots' skill.

"Inform aircraft 140 that they may eject if they are not confident," carrier air wing commander Zhang Jun said uneasily. Landing a combat-damaged carrier aircraft in actual combat was a first since the People's Navy had been established. They indeed lacked much of the experience foreign forces possessed.

"Reporting! We are confident!"

The damaged sections of aircraft 140 held great research value. They could be used to analyze the enemy's weapon performance and type, and assess the damage it could inflict on frontline fighters.

After hesitating repeatedly, Zhang Jun chose to trust the pilots' skills.

Approved!

Having received landing clearance, aircraft 140 followed standard landing procedures, slowing down and extending its flaps. With one engine missing, the aircraft had only half its thrust remaining. The veteran pilot carefully worked the throttle, and his forehead was soon drenched in sweat from the tension.

The aircraft descended toward the flight deck, swaying unsteadily. Without one Elevator and part of its tail assembly, the once-familiar aircraft had become somewhat alien. As he adapted, the pilot made countless minute adjustments to maintain the optimal landing attitude.

Finally, the moment the fighter's landing gear struck the carrier, the immense landing force drove the gear's shock absorbers violently downward. The two pilots could even hear the overloaded landing gear creak. But no matter what, they had made it down. The tailhook successfully caught the fourth Arresting Gear Cable, and the pilots immediately throttled back, deployed the speed brakes, and applied the brakes.

After rolling for some distance, the J-15S plunged headfirst into the crash barrier and stopped, like a shark caught in a fishing net.

Once they confirmed the successful landing, the two pilots seemed to lose all their strength and slumped limply in the cockpit.

The instant the fighter came to a stop, ground crew sprinted toward the J-15S as if running a hundred-meter dash. After opening the canopy, they carried out the exhausted pilots, placed them on stretchers, and transferred them to the medical bay.

The damaged aircraft 140 was moved to the parking area. After the deck crew cleared the flight deck, aircraft 139, under Zhang Peng's control, landed smoothly on the flight deck.