Chapter 64
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Chapter 64: Damn it, Vanguard-4!
“Grenade! The Type 81 rifle’s grenade!” Captain Feng, sitting firmly on the couch, suddenly made the observation. As a seasoned veteran, he was all too familiar with the explosive sounds of historical Type 81 rifles that had long been phased out.
“Damn it, they’re using grenades! It’s the Type 81 40mm grenade. Stay concealed!” Captain Huang’s voice echoed from the distant battlefield, confirming Captain Feng’s assessment.
In the lower corner of the large screen, several avatars of First Squad members indicated “Wounded,” with heart rate and blood pressure showing significant changes. The medics on the battlefield activated and prepared a list of those needing medical attention.
The entire battlefield command system felt like an instant strategy game, yet the reality was a blood-soaked battleground filled with gunfire.
“How could this happen?!” Colonel Xie of the Intelligence Group glared at the screen, realizing the "Red Scorpion" was indeed using the Type 81, a model improved from the Type 56 specifically designed to fire grenades.
Captain Huang’s live feedback matched Captain Feng’s assessment perfectly, but the intelligence report hadn’t mentioned that the "Red Scorpion" armed themselves with grenades. Such a lethal weapon should have been neutralized immediately.
Was there an error in the intel? Or was it an unexpected twist?
Colonel Xie dared not look at Captain Feng, quickly requesting a headset from the Staff Group in the command hall, connecting to the member responsible for the "Red Scorpion" intelligence while whispering her inquiries.
At the same time, Colonel Ji also acquired a headset to communicate with Captain Huang on the battlefield to provide strategic advice.
“Use the grenades against them! Fire! Sniper! Sniper! Where the hell are they? Shoot their horses!” Captain Huang was in a poor state, with his heartbeat racing on the screen while injury signals appeared.
The two group leaders noted that nearly half of First Squad had been injured from that round of grenade attacks, with five severely wounded, reflecting how rampant the "Red Scorpion" members were.
Meanwhile, the map indicated that one-third of the "Red Scorpion" members had already been eliminated by First Squad’s ambush, significantly undermining their advantage and bringing the two sides’ firepower closer. First Squad’s battlefield observer calmly transmitted the enemy’s status to the large screen.
From the distance came a soft rumble, initially concealed by the grenade explosions and fierce fire exchanges, but now amidst the standoff, the intervals between gunfire became clearer, revealing an impending roar.
Colonels Xie and Ji both relaxed slightly, watching as Lin Mo’s J-10 triangle shape hovered above the encirclement.
Captain Feng had been silent the entire time, observing the Intelligence and Staff Groups respond to the situation. Although he didn’t speak, an intangible pressure mounted inside and outside the battlefield.
“Lin Mo, hurry and help out!” Captain Huang regretted not waiting for Lin Mo; with air support from the fighter, the gangsters wouldn’t dare to retaliate so boldly.
“Received! Target detected!” Lin Mo looked down at the dark mountains, clearly spotting fire points and faint lights darting around.
As he piloted for night navigation, Lin Mo adjusted the altitude, activating the onboard low-light night vision camera to lock onto the battlefield. The screens on the control panel and command hall both displayed the same footage.
Members of the Staff Group in the command hall, via satellite links, took control of the camera to observe the ground situation, adjusting positions on the large screen to show both enemy and ally locations.
Lin Mo didn’t look at the footage from the night vision camera; he had better conditions, saving light energy gathered before sunset. A gentle pop echoed as a disc-sized lens appeared in the cockpit. It radiantly lit up, revealing the battlefield floor in bright clarity, and although there was no sound, the audio from Captain Huang synced perfectly with the visuals.
“Be careful not to hit our own!” Suddenly recalling something as the J-10 fighter dove, Captain Huang quickly warned Lin Mo while relaying orders for his team to retreat from the attack line and avoid exposure to the fighter’s fire. The 23mm cannon rounds were indiscriminate.
In response to Captain Huang, an ominous red line sliced down from the sky and precisely swept into the valley, obliterating the scattered fire points of the "Red Scorpion."
Before Captain Huang could feel elated, a fiery dragon erupted from the valley, shooting up into the sky.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
As the fireball burst upwards, the cockpit radar emitted a piercing alarm. The onboard computer immediately identified incoming threats.
“Damn it, it’s the ‘Vanguard-4!’” Lin Mo had no time for curses on why the "Red Scorpion" possessed the country’s most advanced "Vanguard-4" infrared-guided portable air defense missile. He wrenched at the control stick, pushing the engines to maximum power, adjusting his position without sacrificing speed, to dive into the valley and evade the missile.
He was flying way too low; moments ago, while attacking ground targets, the J-10 had descended almost to a thousand meters, right within the four-kilometer range of the "Vanguard-4."
Captain Feng abruptly rose from the couch, startling Colonel Xie and Colonel Ji, who couldn’t understand his sudden agitation.
With such an overload, would Lin Mo be okay at that speed in this terrain?
As Captain Feng observed the returning data on the aircraft’s status, his heart raced. He focused intently on the large screen as the Staff Group members, understanding the situation, amplified and highlighted the fighter’s status while displaying additional data.
Many tactical maneuvers were not only designed for combat but also to protect the pilot. While the metal machine could withstand immense kinetic energy during flight, a human body could not always endure such loads. Thus, selecting pilots had always involved strict physical requirements, but unique human reactions, like Blackout, could be a pilot’s fatal flaw.
In that brief moment, the dynamic load exceeded the human physiological limit of 8G (eight times gravitational acceleration), reaching the J-10’s theoretical maximum overload of 9G, showing a clear reading of 9.1G.
“What’s wrong, Captain Feng?” Colonel Ji furrowed his brow. Captain Feng seemed transfixed on the fighter’s feedback data, silent.
“Damn that ‘Vanguard-4,’ it’s too close! Pull up!” Lin Mo’s angry mutterings echoed clearly in the command hall, the control stick nearly twisted to a breaking point. He quickly launched multiple infrared countermeasures from the fighter, knowing full well how little effect that would have on the "Vanguard-4" trailing him, but he adhered to the training manual’s instructions.
Anyone who dared to claim domestic products were inferior to imports would feel Lin Mo’s wrath.
“Vanguard-4” represented the latest model of portable air defense missile, utilizing an infrared imaging guidance head that outperformed the common point-source infrared detectors, being sensitive to exhaust heat from jet aircraft and resolving the 30-degree blind spot of the most advanced all-around infrared detectors. The guidance information came from images, making it hard to interfere with, traveling at twice the speed of sound, specifically designed for fighter jets.
The domestic "Vanguard-4" air defense missile even surpassed the performance parameters of the internationally renowned shoulder-fired air defense missile, the "Stinger" – RMP Block.
Suddenly, the J-10 nosedived straight towards the mountain, just narrowly avoiding a collision, before executing a stunning somersault. The aircraft’s tail erupted with a bright cyan-blue flame, resembling an explosion, as it shot upward vertically like a launch rocket, the mountain below igniting in smoke and debris.
Meanwhile, the "Vanguard-4," just under 200 meters behind the J-10 at an astonishing speed, crashed into the mountain, narrowly missing the fighter’s tail. The explosion erupted into a gigantic fireball.
9G, once again seeing 9G?
Captain Feng was flabbergasted; was the J-10 pilot even human? How could he endure two maximum overload shocks so close together without injury?
The battlefield fell silent; everyone momentarily forgot to fire their weapons.
It had been so perilous merely moments ago; in the span of a few seconds, the fighter had faced an air defense missile at close range, skillfully maneuvering to evade, and then swiftly climbing, taking advantage of the missile’s sluggish response to force it to strike the mountain instead.
This world was insane; had Lin Mo reacted just a second too late or made even a slight miscalculation, it wouldn’t have been the missile colliding with the mountain but the fighter itself.
“Haha!” Having escaped the disaster, Lin Mo felt a rush of adrenaline, laughing foolishly as his once-steady hands felt weak.
“Haha…” Captain Huang wiped cold sweat from his forehead, realizing how worried he had been for Lin Mo; it was truly a close call that only those who witnessed it could understand.
“Haha…” Colonel Xie seemed to have lost his spirit, collapsing onto the couch, casting a sneaky glance at Captain Feng, relieved.
The appearance of the "Vanguard-4" air defense missile was also an unpleasant surprise. Who would dare sell such advanced weaponry? They would deserve execution multiple times over.
“We must investigate!”
He needed to conduct a thorough investigation, ensuring that person faced a military court, where they wouldn’t even deserve a quick execution but should be forced to toil for life in the remote mountains of the southwest.
