Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 238 - 060. Air Raid

Chapter 238: 060. Air Raid

Frost Plated acted with extreme swiftness. At a temporary airfield on the Grante Border, two Z-11 "Vulture" fighter jets that had just completed a bombing mission stayed in the hangar for only three minutes. They changed their air-to-air combat missiles and immediately headed for the runway.

The dark starry sky camouflage made the fighter jets almost merge with the Ersha Sky, their agile forms, like swallow-tailed swifts, were propelled almost silently into the air by the triple vector engines and then disappeared into the endless night.

"Demon Stone squadron, your urgent task is to cover the transport plane until it safely reaches the combat airspace."

"Received."

The order came from the air command center ’Ice Palace’. To this, Demon Stone No. 1 was nonchalant as he chewed his gum and switched to a private channel, teasing his wingman, "Those women are too confident, daring to set off without waiting for the escort squadron."

"Ease off the throttle, let these Fourth Rule bastards suffer a bit," Demon Stone No. 2 sneered, "Those brown-nosers used to plundering and bullying on a daily basis, it’s time they learn what real war is about."

"Good idea, but don’t make it too obvious, after all, they are our compatriots."

"You consider them compatriots? They sure don’t consider you a man as one!"

"Don’t say that, they don’t hate men, they just despise the poor."

The professional skills of pilots demand high levels of education and physical fitness; thus, in the entire Frost Plated National Defense Force system, the Air Force is the only branch with a significant concentration of highly educated men.

The two fighter pilots saw through the nature of this war very clearly, in their eyes, the Grantians were fighting a war to protect their homeland, obviously possessing a stronger will to fight than the Fourth Rule Agents who sought to reclaim colonies and play house.

More importantly, although the Fourth Rule Agents had considerable combat experience, street fighting and battlefield combat are entirely different.

Without even shedding their auxiliary fuel tanks and maintaining a cruising speed of Mach three, even if the Grantians had any lucky fighter jets that took off, they would at most be the outdated Frost Plated-exported Z-08 "Dove" fighter jets, which lacked stealth capabilities and could at most bully unarmed transport planes.

With such fighter jets, to compete with the state-of-the-art "Vulture" was simply laughable.

As he was about to reach the target airspace, Demon Stone No. 1 joined the combat data link and his expression suddenly changed:

"Something’s wrong! There are no enemy aircraft data in the combat system!"

"Could it be an electronic attack?" No sooner had Demon Stone No. 2 spoken when a transport plane within their visual range suddenly burst into flames, as if a sword had cleanly sliced it in half along its fuselage.

"What is that?"

Following this, a series of explosions erupted, with the densely packed transport squadron in the air getting hit by direct arrows, bursting into flames, and plummeting in a stall.

"My God..." Demon Stone No. 1 swallowed, "There are no identification codes on the radar—it’s an unidentified flying object."

"It must be unmanned drone support provided by the Red Arrow Empire." Demon Stone No. 2 concluded. Imperialist mechanical levels are the most advanced; it is hard not to suspect them.

"There might be another possibility." Demon Stone No. 1 narrowed his eyes, "Demon Stone calling Ice Palace, we are under attack by an unidentified flying object, suspected Gamma Phase involvement in air combat. Request AAF jurisdiction approval, I want to use the TSL (Tactical Laser System)."

"We have not detected the specific biological frequency range of the Gamma Phase, approval denied." The response came quickly from the airborne warning plane.

"No, I am certain it is the Gamma Phase."

As Demon Stone No. 1 spoke, another four transport planes were sliced and fell. This time, both he and Demon Stone No. 2 saw it very clearly:

"—because no Beta Rank can withstand a speed of 6 Mach and directly smash through a flying craft!"

Many transport planes couldn’t withstand this pressure and had to deploy for airdrop early. Female agents clutched their weapons, opened their winged flight suits, and as the front-row female agents were preparing to airdrop, a red and black shadow instantaneously hit one of them. There wasn’t even time to blink as several female agents’ upper bodies were instantly smashed into a pulp, their lower halves bending at the knees, scattering towards the ground.

Bang!

A shadowy figure in red and black smashed into the cockpit, his gaze swiftly shifting as he noticed some objects and immediately halted.

"Oh? Fourth Rule also has such nice stuff," he remarked.

The face armor split open, revealing Li Aozi’s handsome face. He curiously walked over to the armory and picked up two shoulder-mounted missile launchers.

The Eye of Truth immediately identified the model: ’Snake’ anti-vehicle missile.

The head of the Snake missile came with a thermite effect, a highly effective anti-vehicle weapon. Most importantly, it was cheap to make, costing only 200,000 Derby. With a bit of luck, two shots could take down an old-fashioned mobile armor.

Li Aozi planned to stockpile these, later handing them to the Mechanic in Bemudes to see if they could be reverse-engineered.

"Whew—the radar no longer shows that flying target. Thank God, we survived," muttered the pilot.

"The Air Force’s intelligence was wrong, the Grantians still have air power. My God, that speed was terrifying."

The pilot, still flying the plane, had not realized that the female agents in the cabin had already turned into a mush of flesh and blood, still relieved to be alive.

Li Aozi walked forward unceremoniously, pulled with both hands, and the alloy door, under his enhanced implant arms, tore off as easily as a pancake. He faced the two surviving pilots, smiled slightly, and then the face armor closed again.

"Don’t rush to go home. It’s too cold up there; come sit in hell for a bit."

The next moment, his palms shot out neural tentacles, which immediately pierced the skulls of the two pilots. The tentacles’ rings quickly pulsed, and as brilliant lights flared, the two pilots immediately turned into desiccated corpses, slumping over their seats.

[You have extracted the life of two targets, you can choose to refine their abilities and personalities.]

[Refinement completed.]

[You have obtained [Human Amber] (small) — can be used to make equipment of ’Exquisite Craftsmanship’ quality or higher.]

[You have obtained [Soul of Fear] (small)*2 — can be used to heal soul damage, make equipment of ’Exquisite Craftsmanship’ quality or higher, or as a casting material for the Mysterious Series.]

[The targets were full of fear and hatred. Due to the [Aura of Goodwill] effect, a judgment will be made...]

[Overwhelming with the [Charm] attribute, judgment completed, great success.]

[It chooses to forgive you, the soul has been purified.]

[You have obtained [Purified Soul] (small)*2 — can be used to heal soul damage, make equipment of [Flawless Perfection] quality or higher, or you can crush it to extract some information.]

Li Aozi got exactly what he wanted and immediately crushed the souls, flashing a series of information fragments through his mind.

First love, graduation from college, enlisting, getting married through a friend’s introduction, taking his daughter to the amusement park, leaving his hometown with his mother’s advice, coming to the temporary airfield.

"—That’s the one."

Li Aozi was quite satisfied:

"The Ersha storm in the Outer World is so strong; without an airfield, they couldn’t possibly deploy such a high-level air transport. Just as I suspected, there is a temporarily constructed airfield at the Frost-Grante border."

This would make it easier to deal with. By destroying that airfield, Frost Plated would be unable to mobilize air power for a while.