The Interspatial Bombardment worked beautifully, giving Luo Xia a terrifying trump card. Until people realized what the Mechanical Beetles were, there was practically no way to defend against it.
Still, Luo Xia needed an attack powerful enough to end a fight in one blow. He needed to know Gustav's maximum bombardment power so he could plan for the future.
But he couldn't test it on Earth without quickly inviting major trouble. So Luo Xia's plan was to test it out in outer space.
Not long ago, leaving Earth would have been no easy feat for him. But Sarah had built the Black Blade Fighter.
This combat unit could easily reach the first cosmic velocity and break free of Earth's gravity. It was also small enough not to attract the attention of satellites.
Unfortunately, the Black Blade Fighter couldn't carry passengers. It was an unmanned fighter—or perhaps the Black Blade Fighter itself was a lesser Intelligence Sequence, a weaker version of an intelligent machine.
An opening appeared in the underground base, and an enormous shadow, nearly invisible to the naked eye, shot into the sky. An electromagnetic catapult launched it at an initial speed of over a thousand kilometers per hour, far faster than an ordinary fighter's takeoff speed.
The Black Blade Fighter's acceleration was terrifying, exceeding that of most conventional missiles. Its blade-like design wasn't particularly suited to the aerodynamics of flight within an atmosphere, but the Black Blade Fighter was made for space combat. In a vacuum, the smaller its frontal cross-section, the harder it was to hit with lasers or energy weapons.
Products made with the AllSpark were naturally top quality. Before long, the Black Blade Fighter had smoothly broken through the atmosphere and entered the starry expanse of space.
"Sarah, what's the Black Blade Fighter's maximum range?"