Early July.
A military base in the Eastern Theater Command.
Military vehicles crisscrossed the camp as preparations for the upcoming exercise proceeded at a feverish pace.
At that moment, a strange-looking, silver-white aircraft stood in the clearing at the center of the camp.
With two short wings, two long ones, and cylindrical engines of astonishing size and proportions, it hardly looked capable of flight. Yet its perfect record of zero malfunctions was enough to dispel everyone's doubts about whether the thing could actually work.
Rosy Glow.
That was its model designation, as well as the standard name assigned to it after it left the factory.
After its delivery to the Eastern Theater Command, however, the command's Aerospace Forces had given it a more imposing name and painted it onto the fuselage with a special coating.
Thunderbird.
It could soar beyond the highest heavens and unleash thunder a thousand miles away.
True to its name, this aerospace plane could serve both as a transport to and from Low Earth Orbit and as a platform for space-based ballistic missiles striking aerial and ground targets.
Li Gaoliang jumped out of a military jeep, dressed in special operations gear with a specially designed paratrooper rifle slung across his chest. Looking at the silver aerospace plane in the middle of the camp, he clicked his tongue in astonishment.
He did not know whether he had spent too long in the hospital or whether technology had advanced faster than he could imagine. He had no idea when the military had started using something this badass.
A month had passed since his discharge from the hospital and assignment to the Aerospace Forces.
For him, that single month had been more eventful than the previous two years.
Equipment he had never seen, tactics he had never heard of-even