Sky Pit

The ring collapsed inward, forming a pit-like shape. At the center of the pit, faint seven-colored radiance formed a thin "lid," like plastic wrap, covering the opening.

The commander furrowed his brows deeply. No matter how he looked at it, this did not resemble a simple natural phenomenon. Especially this Sky Pit—it was far too round, unnervingly round. Its appearance was also too much of a coincidence, right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

"What is this?"

"We retrieved satellite imagery. The spectrum in that area has shifted."

"Shifted?"

"Yes. Just as light is refracted when it passes through a prism, normal light was refracted when passing through this Sky Pit, becoming what we see now. As for the light that first appeared, it resembled an aurora."

At this point, the elderly academician paused. After organizing the technical terms into language ordinary people could understand, he continued:

"When the solar wind reaches Earth, the high-energy charged particle streams within it are guided by Earth's magnetic field along magnetic field lines toward the poles, producing dazzling and beautiful light. That is how auroras are formed. But the middle of the Pacific Ocean is not a polar region. As for why it appeared there, the reason remains unknown."

"So this gigantic Sky Pit was man-made?" The commander's expression darkened slightly as he asked.

"There is a high probability that it was man-made." The elderly academician gave his assessment. This thing had been created by someone; he even suspected that gravitational waves had fluctuated as well.

Upon hearing this, the commander fell silent for a moment. Then the red telephone in front of him rang. The ringtone was not particularly loud, yet it was incomparably clear throughout the enormous command room.

Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!

For a moment, the busy officers all turned to look at the commander, because they knew very well where the other end of that call was.

The commander sprang to his feet, picked up the receiver with a grave expression, and held it to his ear. "This is the Command Headquarters. Please give your instructions, sir!"

"Yes!"

"Understood!"

"Yes!"

"Understood!"

Click! The commander hung up the dedicated line. No one knew what had been said on the other end, but from the commander's reaction, it was clearly something major!

"Order the 001 Carrier Strike Group to enter Level One Combat Readiness. After resupplying at the nearest location, immediately proceed to the designated waters to conduct reconnaissance and alert operations."

"Deploy the 002 Carrier Strike Group to..."

"Transfer two Type 055 Destroyers to..."

"Move 815A to..."

One order after another was sent out, and Great East's massive navy began to mobilize.

While the ordinary people of Great East were still asleep, phone calls were made one after another. For security reasons, the waters surrounding the Sky Pit were designated an "exercise" zone. All Great East vessels and civilian aircraft were ordered to bypass the area. Several coastal cities in particular also received instructions from the central government.

Police, armed police, special police, Coast Guard, fire services, emergency response, power, waterworks, China Mobile, China Unicom, provincial and municipal television stations, and personnel from other state-owned enterprises were awakened from their sleep. Though confused, they headed to their respective units. Meanwhile, police, special police, and armed police moved into key transportation routes to maintain order.

Such a massive "Sky Pit" had not yet been revealed to the public because the news was temporarily blocked. But once dawn came, the public would definitely discover it. To prevent unrest then, preparations had to be made in advance.

Later, during the morning news broadcast, official reports would also have to be aired to further soothe public sentiment. As the saying went, blocking was worse than channeling, and channeling was worse than guiding. Official reporting was always more reliable than coverage from those irresponsible self-media outlets.

At the same time, the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group in the Western Pacific, along with the Charles de Gaulle carrier that had joined midway, changed course and headed toward the Sky Pit waters.

Inside the Pentagon, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff watched the glowing dots slowly creeping across the map. They represented the joint fleet formed by the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group and the Charles de Gaulle.

"Sir, rest assured. Our nuclear-powered carrier will be the first to arrive."

Although, in terms of combat power alone, nuclear-powered carriers were not necessarily stronger than conventionally powered carriers—especially after the sea trials of Ford's sister ship, Fujian, had posed a serious challenge to Ford—

Nuclear-powered carriers possessed an advantage that conventionally powered carriers could not match: high-speed cruising capability. The Carl Vinson, a Nimitz-class carrier, could advance at 30 to 31 knots without needing resupply along the way. A conventionally powered carrier, however, consumed fuel extremely quickly at such speeds, greatly reducing its endurance.

Before they arrived, however, aerial reconnaissance forces took off from opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean and raced toward the Sky Pit that had appeared in the middle of the Pacific.

On the long runway, a two-plane formation of still-vigorous H-6Ks taxied down the runway. As their speed steadily increased, the pilots pulled back on the controls, and Six-Master's landing gear left the ground. The two Six-Masters soared into the sky almost side by side.

Mounted beneath Six-Master's wings were black flying-wing aircraft—Wuzhen-8s!

At a time like this, every second counted. They had to determine what exactly the Sky Pit in the middle of the Pacific Ocean was as quickly as possible. Speed meant time, and the high-altitude, high-speed Wuzhen-8 was perfectly suited for this mission.

Once the H-6Ks reached their designated altitude and released them, the Wuzhen-8s would fly toward the Sky Pit at hypersonic speed for tactical reconnaissance. According to Command Headquarters calculations, although the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group was closer to the Sky Pit, the Wuzhen-8s would reach it first.

However, due to its unique geographical location, the Hawaiian Islands were actually the closest area with stationed military forces. The first to reach the Sky Pit would be a Global Hawk deployed in the Hawaiian Islands.

US Military personnel drove a tractor to pull the RQ-4, the US Military's primary reconnaissance aircraft, out of the hangar and tow it to the end of the runway. Ground crew began fueling the drone, which had a high-aspect-ratio wing design and a wingspan of 35.4 meters.

After being fully fueled and fitted with the HISAR reconnaissance system, the Global Hawk UAV began taxiing down the runway. Once it had sufficient speed, its landing gear left the ground and it climbed in altitude. This unmanned reconnaissance aircraft would then fly toward the Sky Pit at 650 km/h. Its internal fuel supply guaranteed a range of 25,000 kilometers, more than enough to investigate the Sky Pit thoroughly.

"Sir, we just received word that Misawa Air Base has also deployed a Global Hawk to the area."

"Hm?"

The general frowned slightly. After a moment of silence, he said nothing. A few years ago, they had indeed provided Little Japan with three Global Hawks. If Little Japan wanted to use them now, there was no reason to stop it. Even if they tried, Little Japan could find another excuse to brush them off.

After all, geographically speaking, if something truly happened in the Pacific Ocean, Little Japan would be the first country to face it directly, rather than Great East.

Whenever he thought of that, the general felt a toothache, because there was no barrier off the US West Coast to shield them from any potential disaster.