Chapter 397.2: Lofty Cloud

Above the clear skies, the Heart of Steel floated quietly.

The towering fortress of steel was as stable as a floating mountain. Yet, inside the observation cabin hidden at the front of the airship, it was all hands on deck.

"... An unidentified flying object observed at bearing 116 degrees approaching. Estimated distance, about 10 to 15 kilometers. It is observed with a vapor trail several meters long!"

"Speed approaching Mach 1. It’s moving straight towards us!"

"Our aiming system is severely out of focus. I can’t see clearly what that is. It seems like a missile!"

"No radar response! They have anti-radar equipment!"

For an object flying at Mach speeds, whether it’s 10 kilometers or 15 kilometers, it won’t take more than a minute to arrive

The window for them to shoot was even shorter. They had less than 20 seconds to take a shot!

The soldiers in the observation cabin didn’t have time to be surprised. They immediately reported the situation to the weapon operators, and raised their emergency level to two.

Although it was uncertain what that thing was, since it dared to challenge the authority of their Heart of Steel, it should be prepared to die.

12 100mm secondary guns and 144 medium-caliber guns aimed at a 90 to 180 degree wide angle.

They weren’t planning to shoot at a precise location, but an entire space.

"Fire!"

With a roar over the comms, all the anti-air weapons that met the firing angle conditions fired at almost the same time.

Streams of orange-yellow flames burst forth from the airship, weaving into an airtight net in the air, covering the direction of the unidentified flying object.

In the airspace near the target...

That web-like dense barrage exploded with a loud blast, and the thick smoke, flames, and shrapnel instantly scattered into a sky-obscuring black cloud!

The Heart of Steel didn't have guided weapons not because they lacked guided technology.

But because they simply didn’t need it!

A sufficient number of shells were enough to compensate for the lack of precision. Their proudly touted barrage was enough to tear apart anything that approached!

Even a fly would be blown to bits.

Nothing could not penetrate their layered net.

However... Something that shocked everyone on board happened next.

The silver trajectory that should have fallen rose like a dolphin leaping out of the water. It penetrated that wall-like thick black cloud!

“What the hell is that?!" The main gunner in the forward gun bay yelled in astonishment.

He watched as the silver vapor trail whooshed over their heads, leaving only a flickering afterimage.

A string of cannon fire, like a downpour, rained onto the airship. Although it was deflected flawlessly by the directional shield, its insolence was extreme.

Watching the speeding afterimage through the screen, General McClennan revealed a flash or rage. "Is that an aircraft from the Enterprise?"

The aide beside him gulped in fear. "Probably..."

"From the East Coast?!"

"Sir, I'm not sure..." The aide said nervously.

He only knew that Enterprise had great technology. However, he didn’t know how good it actually was.

The distance between the East and West coasts of the Central Continent spanned over 10,000 kilometers. Even if things were 10 miles apart, things in the wasteland could be completely different.

The staff officer beside him maintained a grave look in his eyes.

"If a plane with a range of 3,000 kilometers is really from the Enterprise, their strength is not to be underestimated."

"But their weapons are weaker than imagined, they didn’t even scratch our paint," the aide added, "Feels pretty average."

...

"Holy shit!"

"It’s really fucking thrilling!"

Regulating his disordered breathing, Falling Feather glanced behind at the impenetrable explosion cloud and the airship disappearing in the distance. He slowly released his right hand from the afterburners.

The speedometer's needle was stuck at the far right end as it twitched crazily. The speed measuring function had already lost accuracy half a minute ago.

He didn’t know exactly how fast he had been in that instant. He could only guess based on experience that he hit Mach 3!

He had once died at the hands of that airship.

The strong premonition of death made him subconsciously decide to accelerate. As it turned out, his decision was indeed correct.

If he hadn’t pushed down the afterburner at the last moment, he might have been turned into a sieve by the exploding shrapnel. There wouldn’t be a trace of the aircraft, or him, left.

As the sea of black and red gradually faded from his field of vision, the clear skies also gradually returned.

Falling Feather moved the stick in his hand and began to return.

He could feel that it when he pushed the aircraft to its limit earlier, he didn’t just almost blackout. There was a moment when he even felt his eyeballs were about to be pulled out of their sockets.

Fortunately...

An awakener had great constitution. Even agility type players had constitution levels higher than the average man.

If it had been in reality, he probably would have been gone by then. Anyhow... He succeeded.

With his heart pounding, Falling Feather took another deep breath to calm his excitement.

His next task was to bring the plane back... Compared to surviving that dense barrage, Falling Feather felt that landing the plane that had no flight control system would take nothing less than a miracle.

Especially that moment when he was close to the ground, the fuselage shook like it had cramps.

When he finally stopped at the airport and leaped off the cockpit, he found the rear blades of the left engine had melted and deformed.

Well, those weren’t problems anymore.

The final speed test showed that when he pushed the afterburner to the maximum, the peak speed had approached Mach 3.7!

Looking at the aircraft that had been his ride for less than an hour with a complex expression, Falling Feather found it hard to imagine how the plane could fly at Mach 3.7 without disintegrating...

At the same time, next to the airport...

Two players from Goblin Technology were muttering to each other.

One was an intelligence type, the other an agility type. Both were newcomers Mosquito had roped in during the Beta version. Rather than saying Mosquito had tricked them into joining, it was more like they had voluntarily signed up and joined Goblin Technology.

"Didn’t expect the swept-forward wing design to shine in the game."

"Yeah."

"But given the game’s restoration of the physical system, I feel it can totally provide a reference for real-world research."

"Yeah."

"It’s a pity, there’s nothing here. It’s worse than Africa. If we could get a supersonic wind tunnel, that would be great."

"True."

The agility type player rolled his eyes. "Don't just agree, give some suggestions!"

The intelligence type player sighed, “I don’t have any. I completely agree with you. I'm just thinking... A 20mm aircraft gun is completely useless. What if we dropped low-speed bombs on top of that airship? Could it penetrate that Anti-Newtonian Shield?"

The Anti-Newtonian Shield was the name players had given to the directional shield, after all, its effects were hard to explain scientifically.

If it were just metal bullets, that would be one thing.

They could be explained by the Meissner effect.

However, for non-metal, irregular projectiles, even the aerodynamic shock wave from explosions being deflected... That was a bit too much.

Only an imaginary setting could explain it.

The agility type player replied, "Large targets would be intercepted by the guns. Small ones... Even if they could break through the shield, the shockwave would be weakened by the curved armor. They won’t be able to damage the interior of the ship!”

The intelligence type player said helplessly, "Guess we still have to rely on ground forces... I always feel like Mosquito's inventions are a bit reckless, can humans really withstand that kind of pull?"

"You don’t understand. This is a game. You can’t expect it to be like reality." The agility type player by his side chuckled.

"Humans might not, but strength type and constitution type beasts can."

A beast with a load capacity of a ton... Could they even call people like that humans?

Not to mention a ton, even if they could only life 500 kilograms, it would be enough to challenge the world record...

Although still unable to deal with the airship, Goblin Technology’s newly developed jet plane still managed to secure a certain advantage for the New Alliance.

As the New Alliance’s first independently developed next-generation plane, its role on the battlefield was to compete for air supremacy, scout the battlefield, and provide mid-range rapid strikes.

For common low-value targets like mutants and marauders... The Mosquito ground attack plane and Dragonfly gunship that could hover there for a longer time would be better choices.

The players at Goblin Technology had high hopes for it.

Surprisingly, Mosquito didn’t give it some weird name. Instead, he opened a vote on the forum and chose the name with the highest vote. He ended up calling it the ‘Lofty Cloud’.

Although a single Lofty Cloud couldn’t cope with the heavily armored Heart of Steel, the Heart of Steel was similarly unable to deal with the incredibly fast jet.

Breaking the speed limit of Mach 3 was terrifying.

Especially when they didn’t know what was installed on the plane... The radars couldn’t detect it, and they could only rely on their eyes to try to capture any knowledge on the plane.

By the time the spotters saw the approaching Lofty Cloud jet, they had less than half a minute left to prepare their fire.

As soon as a round of barrage was fired, the plane sped away.

It was like a fly buzzing beside a giant. It was impossible to hit but also impossible not to try, seriously annoying the gunners on the airship.

In stark contrast. The members of the Storm Corps were jumping in excitement.

In cooperation with the intelligence from their spy, the quick-moving Lofty Cloud often delivered unexpected strikes to the Army’s ground forces and key facilities.

Previously, it had always been the Storm Corps who were bombarded by the Army. Now... Everyone was bombing each other! At the very least, it was an improvement.

The situation on the front lines was gradually becoming clear. Players discussing the battle situation on the forums were getting happier day by day, with various clever tactics emerging one after another.

However, Chu Guang didn’t feel too optimistic.

Reinforcements from the East Coast hadn’t arrived yet, but he had already received an urgent report.

If there was one force on this land that he found most troublesome, without a doubt, it was the Army from the West Coast.

Not only were they ambitious, but they also saw everything around them as barbarians waiting to be eliminated. It was nearly impossible to resolve differences with them through interest exchanges or negotiations.

Now, with the crew of the Pioneer's fate unknown, Shelter 0 seemed to have become the eye of the storm. The Army had already invaded the Sunset Province and seemed to be cooking up a second expedition.

The southern region of the River Valley Province where Shelter 404 was... They had no Divine Shield System like Ideal City!