Watching the airspeed climb at a terrifying rate, Liu Jun listened to the system warnings blare without pause. He was getting closer and closer to the breakup speed. Feeling the aircraft shudder, he did his best to build up a little more energy.
Now! Pull!
Liu Jun pulled level Gs and felt the stick grow somewhat heavy. The control surfaces were beginning to "lock up," the Elevator pinned by the rushing air. He adjusted the trim.
With the Flying Shark's aerodynamic design, coordinated between the Canard and Elevator, the diving aircraft's nose slowly adjusted before rapidly pitching up. The familiar system prompt sounded in Liu Jun's ears once more:
Max G! Max G!
Blackout spread across his vision. The G-forces forced the blood from his upper body into his legs, while the anti-G suit desperately squeezed it back upward, preventing him from passing out due to cerebral hypoxia.
Max G!
8G!
9G!
The instantaneous G-force continued to rise. The blackout before Liu Jun's eyes deepened. An ordinary pilot would have already passed out, but he had the bonus and could hold on a little longer.
Inside the AWACS, the commander of the combat duty team watched the rising G-forces with some concern, wondering whether Changkong would be pulled unconscious by the overload.
10G?
11G?!
Liu Jun felt the warning signs of oxygen deprivation in his brain. He put his skill points into G-Force Tolerance!
G-Force Tolerance: LV2.5
It's only 11G!
Though the skill had only increased by 0.5, Liu Jun instantly felt his nearly unconscious mind clear up. At that moment, the nose had swung around, and the blackout rapidly faded before his enhanced physique. Color returned to the world before him.
"11G?"
Looking at the G-force data transmitted through the data link, the commander doubted his own eyes. Was Changkong made of solid metal? He had not blacked out even at this?
The nose pointed directly toward Sky Pit. Liu Jun shoved the throttles to full, and the two WS-10 engines roared.
Borrowing the potential energy from its dive, the Flying Shark converted it into climbing speed and momentum, then began climbing toward the high altitude at an angle of attack of 18 degrees, consuming the energy it had built up earlier.
Altitude 15000 Altitude 16000 Altitude 17000
It reached the J-15's maximum service ceiling, but its momentum had not vanished and continued to provide climbing speed.
Altitude 18000 Altitude 19000!
The J-15 had broken through its service ceiling and was approaching near space!
At this altitude, the air was already extremely thin. The aerodynamic control surfaces were nearly ineffective, and the outside temperature plummeted.
Warnings sounded in Liu Jun's ears, alerting him that engine thrust was fading. An Engine Down warning also appeared on the main avionics display.
LOCK ON
A box appeared in the helmet display. The missile seeker had locked onto the target's general direction.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The weapon-lock tone sounded, and Liu Jun pressed the launch button!
"Launching two!"
The long utility-pole-like missile shot off the rail. Solid Rocket Engines propelled the PL17 like lightning toward the distance. Only after it had flown some distance did the roar of its engine reach him, its blade pointed at the Sentinels around Sky Pit!
After launch, the PL17 linked with the KJ-3000 through the data link. Under a combined guidance mode of the BeiDou Navigation System, AWACS radar guidance, inertial guidance, and more, it sped toward Sky Pit.
"Red Fox-2 calling Red Fox-1. Missile launched."
"Red Fox-1 received. Missile attitude is good, continuous tracking maintained. Proceed to the second stage of the mission. Head for A-2 airspace."
The KJ-3000 linked with the PL17A through the data link and monitored its status. Although its altitude difference from Sky Pit was only a little over one thousand meters, the attack had shifted from low-to-high to high-to-low. Do not underestimate that small altitude difference—the PL17 could fully use Earth's gravity to accelerate.
Its terminal speed would be faster, and its range farther!
Moreover, before launch, its angle had been manually adjusted to send the missile onto a "lofted trajectory," further increasing its terminal speed.
"Red Fox-2 understood!"
After launching the missile, Liu Jun used the altitude advantage he had gained from the climb and prepared to descend back within the service ceiling, heading for A-2—airspace one hundred nautical miles from Sky Pit, a rather dangerous distance.
Inside the KJ-3000, the combat duty team's technicians stared unblinkingly at the PL17.
Until the passive radar seeker activated, there remained—
--
In the sky, a faint white line appeared against the blue curtain and streaked into the distance. It soon vanished, but Liu Jun knew clearly that the launched missile had entered its inertial phase. Relying on thrust from its rocket engine, it flew toward the target, and with less resistance at high altitude, the missile could fly both faster and farther.
With the correct launch method, increasing its range by one-third—or even doubling it—was not impossible.
PL17 (dual-pulse solid rocket engine) range: 300–400 kilometers.
Even without seeing the missile launch, at that distance and altitude, AWACS aircraft from other observing nations could roughly identify the missile model. Even if they could identify it, they could only watch helplessly. They simply could not build a missile with such range.
Great East had only a few main missile models, and their design specifications were entirely aimed at targets such as fourth-generation fighters, fifth-generation fighters, AWACS aircraft, and the like.
This PL17 launch was a completely open display, no longer hidden away.
It was not only Great East's satellites watching this scene. Other capable nations were also keeping an eye on it, observing Great East's military operation. Yet the USA had remained silent, tightly blocking all online information concerning the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group. Reporters or individuals who tried to reveal the truth either mysteriously disappeared, suffered car accidents, or committed suicide by shooting themselves in the back.
To preserve the lighthouse's glow, the USA had truly spared no effort.
Hawaii, the USA's homeland territory closest to Sky Pit, was an important bridgehead. Military forces across the Pacific Ocean were converging there, and the US Military's forward Command Headquarters had naturally been established there, overseen by a US Navy lieutenant general.
"General! The aircraft has been identified as a J-15. It launched one missile one minute ago. Based on its altitude, speed, and distance, it is Great East's newest missile model—PL17!"
In the satellite spectral image, a pixel steadily enlarged and was enclosed in a green box. After continuous system correction, the blurry outline of a J-15 finally emerged. The missile's white launch plume was also marked, along with its launch direction.
The general stared solemnly at the images and data sent back by the satellites and AWACS. They had been talking about the PL17's threat all along, and now that threat had truly arrived.
After launching the missile, the J-15 continued closing on Sky Pit. Clearly, Great East did not intend to simply fire one missile and call it a day.
"Can they hit it?"
"Sir, we still do not know. According to data from the Carl Vinson, radar-guided missiles are ineffective against the alien civilization."
In theory, the USA had collected more data than Great East, and that was an advantage.
"God bless us. I hope they miss!"
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