jdhmnovel Chapter 471: If You Can Blow It Up the First Time, You Can Blow It Up the Second Time
Chapter 471: If You Can Blow It Up the First Time, You Can Blow It Up the Second Time
Lei Tao stood beside the F-35B, a holographic map flashing before his eyes, precisely marking the dangerous airspace from Hebei to Xinjing. Each red dot represented a Japanese airfield, like fangs in the darkness, emitting a sinister menace. A robotic arm calibrated the thermobaric bomb's fuse for the final time. A faint blue quantum shield swirls across the fuselage, its fine energy lines like pulsing musical notes, playing the prelude to battle.
"Bagua Gyroscope System, activate spatial anchor point retracing." Lei Tao's voice, filtered through the helmet visor, was cold and hard, like a sharp blade piercing through ice. The air around the cockpit twisted into a vortex, spacetime folded under the effects of quantum entanglement, and the fighter plane seemed to be falling into an inky abyss. When the vision cleared again, the familiar cumulonimbus clouds rolled on both sides of the wings. It was the same airspace that destroyed the Shijiazhuang Air Force Base two days ago. It was as if time and space were flowing backwards, replaying that thrilling scene.
The infrared detector suddenly flashed red, like lightning piercing the darkness of night. Below, on the snowy plains, the once-destroyed Japanese base had been rebuilt. Brand-new Zero fighters lined up on the concrete runway. A massive steel tower stood in the center, its disc-shaped device atop it emitting strange pulses. Lei Tao's pupils shrank slightly, and his tactical eyepiece automatically interpreted the German craftsmanship evident in the metal structure. The familiar lines and structure instantly confirmed that this was no ordinary military facility.
"Well, seeing how quickly you guys rebuilt, if I can bomb it once, I can bomb it again." A cold smile played at the corner of Lei Tao's mouth. His fingertips tapped the touch panel on the side of the joystick, and a holographic tactical map slowly unfolded before his eyes, like a war painting unfolding. The cool air from the breathing mask brushed against his burning cheeks. He took a deep breath, tilted his neck slightly, and a scarlet warning halo immediately appeared at the edge of his vision—the EODAS electro-optical system had detected the heat source, like a falcon in the night sky, keenly sensing the presence of its prey.
"Ground target cluster detected." The onboard AI's electronic voice trembled metallically, like a mechanical whisper, while six infrared camera feeds rapidly switched across the helmet's visor. As the camera panned over the Japanese airfield in the valley, Lei Tao's pupils suddenly constricted. The cooling vents on the oil depot dome, the coldly glowing Zero fighters on the apron, the anti-aircraft gun battery at the end of the runway—every detail was vividly displayed under the augmented reality layer, as if the entire airport layout was laid out before him without reservation.
He fixed his gaze on the row of oil tanks painted with the rising sun emblem. The neural sensors at his temples instantly registered the movement. As if by telepathy, the crosshairs automatically and precisely selected the target group. The red lock box began to flash rhythmically, and the mechanical click of the weapons bay unlocking reached his ears. "Strike confirmed." As soon as he finished speaking, the parameters of the GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munitions were projected below his visor. The data streams of range, wind speed, and dive angle perfectly overlapped with the real scene, like a precise battle blueprint.
As his thumb pressed the launch button, the fuselage trembled slightly. Through his helmet display, Lei Tao witnessed the trailing flames of a GBU-31 joint direct attack munition piercing the clouds. The Japanese soldiers at the oil tank area sensed something was amiss, but it was too late to react. The bombs had precisely hit their targets, and a violent explosion instantly engulfed the entire oil depot. Amidst the blazing flames, the oil tanks resembled giant candles, their thick fuel splattering in all directions, igniting the Zero fighters on the tarmac and transforming them into a sea of inferno, like the flames of hell raging on earth.
The massive steel tower creaked under the weight of the blast, its bulwark crackling. Sparks erupted from the disc-shaped device atop it, like the final wail of a dying beast. Seizing the opportunity, Lei Tao quickly adjusted his fighter's stance and dived toward the tower. Ground-based anti-aircraft fire intensified. The Type 96 anti-aircraft guns belched orange-red flames. Relying on the gunner's visual observation and experience, a dense barrage of tracer rounds descended upon the F-35B, like a spiderweb of death, attempting to engulf the aircraft.
The fighter's electronic warfare system instantly activated, releasing a powerful electromagnetic pulse that disrupted the anti-aircraft gun's mechanical aiming devices and the fuses of its shells, casting a thick fog over the enemy's vision. Simultaneously, the F-35B's tail jetted jamming flames, creating a vast cloud of interference in the night sky, obscuring the Japanese gunners' vision like fireworks blooming in the night sky, obscuring the shadow of death.
Leveraging the F-35B's exceptional maneuverability, Lei Tao swiftly weaved through the barrage of missiles, executing a variety of challenging maneuvers like a dancer on the edge of a knife, both graceful and dangerous. He locked his sights on a crucial structure in the center of the tower, and the AGM-158 missiles under his wing roared out, striking the tower with pinpoint accuracy. The violent explosion tore a massive hole in the tower, twisting and deforming its metal frame, and the entire structure teetered, seemingly poised to collapse at any moment.
Just as Lei Tao was about to deliver the final blow, six specially modified Zero fighters swooped down from above the clouds. These Zeros, equipped with turbulence-amplifying devices on their wingtips, relied on their sophisticated aerodynamics to turn at an astonishing rate. Lei Tao's F-35B suddenly encountered turbulent airflow, and a piercing alarm blared from the instrument panel, a terrifying experience like a cardiac arrest. He quickly activated the vector nozzles, performing a sharp 180-degree turn in mid-air. The GAU-12 cannon opened fire first, with armor-piercing incendiary rounds striking a Zero's fuel tank, blasting it mid-air. Flames shot up into the sky, like a flower of death blooming in the night sky. But the remaining enemy aircraft had formed into a tight formation, engaging in a crossfire. A barrage of bullets rained down, and the surface of the fighters' fuselages occasionally scraped against the surface of the anti-aircraft guns, making a sharp scraping sound like a sonata of death.
He noticed that the crews at the base of the tower were urgently moving key equipment. If they succeeded, the Japanese would likely rebuild the airfield in a short time. "We can't let them escape!" Lei Tao gritted his teeth, abandoning the dogfight with the Zero fighter and suddenly gaining altitude. He dived down from above the clouds at a near-vertical angle, the fighter plane roaring under the acceleration of gravity, the air around its wings ripping into white vortices, like a meteor streaking through the night sky. Just a hundred meters above the ground, Lei Tao jerked the control stick, and the F-35B executed a cobra maneuver at an incredible angle, its fuselage tracing a semicircle through the air like a nimble snake dancing through the air. At the same time, the bomb bay under the aircraft exploded, and four thermobaric bombs plummeted down, trailing blazing crimson flames. The spiral patterns on the bombs twisted the air as they spun at high speed, emitting a shrill scream, like messengers from hell descending upon earth. The first bomb struck the half-track carrying the core equipment with pinpoint accuracy. Instantly, the air was drained from the explosion, creating a vacuum zone a hundred meters in diameter. The Japanese soldiers transporting the equipment felt their bodies swell up, their eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. Even their screams were swallowed up by this terrifying vortex of energy, as if the portal to hell had swallowed them all in an instant.
Immediately afterwards, the thermobaric agent burned fiercely, a fireball exceeding 3,000 degrees Celsius spreading wildly in a hemispherical pattern. Metal equipment melted like ice in a furnace, instantly transforming into crimson iron. The base of the massive reinforced concrete tower began to warp, its supporting structure groaning under the combined weight of the intense heat and shockwaves, like the final wail of a dying beast. The second and third bombs detonated in quick succession, the burning thermobaric agent licking the earth like sticky tongues of fire, completely devouring everything within a radius of hundreds of meters. Trees vaporized in the intense heat, sending clouds of ash billowing into the sky, like a doomsday carnival.
The final thermobaric bomb exploded in mid-air, creating a secondary explosion. A swirling mushroom cloud, swirling with scorching fumes, soared into the sky. In its path, the Zero fighters were violently tossed by the invisible force and plummeted out of control, like leaves caught in a gust of wind, powerless to fight back. Lei Tao, piloting the F-35B, rapidly ascended on the brink of detonation. Alarms blared in the cockpit, and the red light flickered on the instrument panel, illuminating his tense face. Through his tactical eyepiece, he saw the tower collapsing. Amidst the blazing ruins, the so-called core equipment had long since crumbled into a heap of twisted scrap metal, emitting a dark red glow from the embers, like the afterglow of hell lingering on earth.
Lei Tao suddenly pulled up with his fighter plane, tracing an exaggerated arc through the air in a classic Cobra maneuver. The nose of the fighter plane lifted high, almost perpendicular to the ground, and then plummeted at breakneck speed, deftly dodging the crossfire of the Japanese Zero fighters. A barrage of bullets grazed the wings, leaving scorching trails in the night sky, like a meteor streaking across the night sky, but carrying the aura of death.
Before the Japanese pilot could react, Lei Tao exerted his strength again, maneuvering the fighter into a tricky barrel roll. Like a nimble silver swallow, the F-35B tumbled through the air, instantly reaching the rear of the Zero formation. His gaze fixed on a Zero, his hands gripping the control stick. The GAU-12 cannon roared with deafening fury, raining down armor-piercing rounds, accurately striking the Zero's cockpit. The instant the bullets tore through the metal, the cockpit glass shattered into countless shards. The Japanese pilot didn't even have time to scream before the powerful impact ripped him out of the cockpit. The out-of-control Zero, billowing black smoke, spiraled toward the ground, exploding in a dazzling ball of fire across the snowy plains, like a flower of death blooming in the night sky.
The remaining Zero fighter pilots finally reacted and turned, attempting to surround Lei Tao. However, the F-35B, relying on its exceptional maneuverability, executed another difficult Herbst maneuver, rapidly turning mid-air and aiming its guns at the pursuing enemy aircraft. A sneer curled Lei Tao's lips as he squeezed the trigger again. The flames from the cannon severed the wing of another Zero fighter. The unbalanced fighter tumbled and struggled in the air, finally plunging headfirst into the burning Japanese airfield like a meteorite falling into a sea of inferno.
Just as Lei Tao was about to press on, the red glow of the fuel alarm suddenly pierced his vision. In the distance, more Japanese fighters were scrambling to take off. Lei Tao took a deep breath, and as his fighter executed a Herbst maneuver, he accurately shot down two pursuing enemy aircraft. Gazing at the ruined airfield, he jerked the control stick and plunged into the clouds. Like an arrow from a bow, the fighter jet streaked towards Tangshan Xiaoguanzhuang Airport, a Japanese air base 300 kilometers away. Like a shooting star streaking across the night sky, it carried the nightmare of the Japanese army with it as it vanished into the vast night.