Airframe hydrogen engine calibration complete] [Shoulder railguns normal] [High-frequency particle blade mounted normally] [Beam weapons not mounted!] [Dragoon System not mounted!] [Final checks complete!] [3-2-1] [Crimson Sky No. 1, launch!!!]
Waves of air churned, sweeping across the surroundings.
A burst of azure flame erupted from Crimson Sky No. 1's vectored engine nozzles.
Countless Mach diamonds appeared in the exhaust plume.
Boom-
A sonic boom rang out as it tore through the air, trailing a cone-shaped sound barrier.
"Huh? Where did Dr. Chen go?"
Elder Wang looked at Elder Hua, his face full of confusion.
"No idea. Probably went off somewhere to play again, just like before. Nothing about that man looks like a researcher." Elder Hua curled his lip.
"Hey, Tong Yao, give him a call and ask where he went," Elder Wang said solemnly.
"Ah... okay, okay."
Tong Yao froze for a moment, then nodded.
Call him?
Of course she had to!
They had to put on the whole show. None of the necessary steps could be skipped.
By the time Elder Wang and Elder Hua walked out of the indoor testing grounds, everyone was still utterly bewildered.
Meanwhile.
More than a dozen Dongfeng Mengshi off-road vehicles bearing white license plates
were racing toward the Zhonghai Military Research Base in a mighty procession.
Clouds of dust rose behind them.
In the front passenger seat of one vehicle sat a rugged-looking middle-aged man wearing army-green camouflage.
He looked at the phone that had just started ringing in his hand, hesitating over whether to answer.
The call was from his sworn rival. Calling at a time like this had to be because their Eastern Military Region had developed exoskeleton armor.
He was calling to show off and throw in some mockery while he was at it.
The major military regions had been competing with one another for more than a day or two. If he could infuriate his rival half to death, he would certainly have done it too.
Just before the call disconnected automatically, Li Guozhong finally tapped to answer.
A familiar voice immediately came through.
"Hahaha, good morning, Old Li!"
The moment he heard that tone, Li Guozhong's face darkened.
Just as expected. He could already guess what kind of bullshit the other man was brewing next.
"Old Kong, if you've got something to say, say it. If you've got gas, let it out!"
"Hahaha..."
Old Kong laughed heartily.
"Don't get worked up! The military exercise is coming up, isn't it? I heard your Southern Military Region is short on firepower. As a fellow unit, our Eastern Military Region can lend you two suits of exoskeleton armor. It's not much, but they should do just fine for keeping up appearances!"
It sounded like concern, but he was really here to belittle him!
Fucking hell!
"Thank you, but we don't need them!"
Li Guozhong's temples throbbed violently. Only after holding it in for a long while did he squeeze those few words through his teeth.
He had long expected a call like this, and sure enough, it had come.
"Oh, look at you, treating me like an outsider! We're brothers from the same squad. Why stand on ceremony? Besides..."
Old Kong wanted to say more.
But Li Guozhong could no longer stomach this crap.
He cut him off outright.
"Stop right there. Listen carefully. I don't need them!"
Beep-
Before hanging up, Li Guozhong could still hear wild laughter coming from the other end.
Too fucking arrogant!
Thinking of the call he had received from Elder Hua earlier, a sharp glint flashed through Li Guozhong's eyes.
He muttered,
"Old Kong, go ahead and show off. When the military exercise comes, I'm afraid you won't even be able to cry!"
Li Guozhong picked up the radio and called out over the convoy's channel.
"Full speed ahead! Once we reach the research base, stand up straight and look sharp when you see Elder Wang and Elder Hua!"
"Elder Wang and Elder Hua are pillars of our nation who have rendered outstanding service to our country!"
"Yes, division commander!"
The Pacific Ocean.
Towering waves surged as a typhoon howled.
Dark clouds shrouded the entire sky, and the waves reached hundreds of meters high.
Lightning split the sky from time to time, crashing down.
It plunged straight into the deep, pitch-black ocean.
Even Eagle Sauce's F-22s would not dare carry out missions in such harsh conditions.
Amid the raging air currents,
a red mechanical figure, swift as lightning, broke through a hundred-meter wave.
It burst out.
Clutched in its palm was a man whose breath was barely a thread: Dr. Chen.
Crack-
A thick bolt of lightning split the sky and came crashing toward the red mecha.
Seeing the red warning flashing on the screen before her, Wang Yixue immediately increased thrust and pulled away.
She vanished into the storm.
An hour later.
Eagle Sauce's State of Alaska.
The red mecha skimmed low over the sparsely populated wilderness.
It eventually reached the skies above a primeval forest that stretched beyond sight.
Boom!
The mecha landed steadily in a valley, startling wild beasts into waves of howls.
Wang Yixue glanced at Dr. Chen. He was still alive.
Mainly because she had flown slowly.
Besides, the mecha's arm had blocked most of the fierce winds and turbulent currents encountered along the way.
Dr. Chen should have been fine. At worst, he would catch a cold.
Wang Yixue controlled the mecha and placed Dr. Chen on a boulder.
She opened the cockpit hatch and leaned halfway out.
"Dr. Chen, don't you love your Eagle Sauce masters? See, I got you here in under two hours. No need to thank me!"
With that, Wang Yixue politely waved goodbye and bade him farewell forever.
Click!
The cockpit hatch closed.
The ground shook as fierce blue flames gushed from the engines on the mecha's back.
In the blink of an eye, the red mecha vanished into the distant sky.
Dr. Chen stared blankly in the direction the mecha had flown.
After a long while, he shuddered.
"Mother of mercy, this place is too desolate! It can't be Eagle Sauce! Where am I? You can't do this to me!"
Dr. Chen's face was full of misery. Hearing the howls of wild beasts all around him, he lost control of his bladder again.
Sitting on the boulder, he took a little while to recover.
He exhaled a stale breath.
His gaze gradually grew resolute.
"I have to survive!"
"Good thing I watch Man vs. Wild all the time. It's finally coming in handy!"
"Bear Grylls, Brother De, bless me so I can survive."
On the return trip, Wang Yixue did not fly close to the ground as she had on the way there.
Instead, she shot straight up into space.
Taking this route would save about ten minutes.
The reason she had flown that way on the outward trip was that she had Dr. Chen clutched in her hand.
If she had flown into outer space, Dr. Chen probably would have died before even leaving the atmosphere.
The fiery-red airframe trailed a cone-shaped sound barrier, blasting an earth-shaking thunderclap through the air.
It was as though it had torn the sky apart.
It plunged straight into the clouds and soon reached suborbital altitude.
Meanwhile.
Eagle Sauce's Air Defense Department.
It was a complete madhouse.
Low-altitude air defense radar showed
what appeared to be a miniature rocket rising from the State of Alaska at the tremendous speed of Mach 3.
It was extremely fast, soon reaching Mach 5. Its movements followed no pattern, and the radar quickly lost the target.
After thinking it over for a long time, the defense secretary finally concluded that an intercontinental missile launch was unlikely.
They could essentially be certain that the people at the space administration were launching a rocket.
But standard procedure required them to notify the ground defense authorities in advance!
The defense secretary was getting rather angry.
They had failed to report something as significant as a rocket launch. They clearly did not take his department seriously at all!
So he placed a call to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.