Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 2499 Battle Axe Again (Second Update, Please Subscribe)

Night fell over the Mediterranean Sea, the surface so calm that it reflected the starry sky; the Mediterranean was peaceful tonight.

Under a sky full of stars, warships are patrolling, and the sea surface ripples with waves as the aircraft carrier and warships cut through it.

One hundred meters underwater, the "Sea Serpent" attack nuclear submarine silently glides along the seabed. Only faint signals of ocean fish swimming by can be seen on the sonar screen. Suddenly, the red warning lights inside the submarine light up, breaking the long silence.

Inside the command center, the captain's figure stood out prominently under the cold light of the screen. On the nautical chart in front of him, important targets in Syria and Lebanon were marked.

Just after midnight, after the coalition command confirmed that Syria had not accepted the ultimatum, combat orders were immediately issued. The orders were transmitted throughout the cabins via the internal communication system, while the Sea Serpent awaited final instructions.

Although it is a tactical nuclear submarine, it can also launch Tomahawk cruise missiles.

This is precisely the biggest advantage of the Tomahawk cruise missile—it can be launched even from conventionally powered submarines.

"The launch tubes are now filled with water and the pressure is balanced with that outside the ship."

As the report fell, the captain gave the order:
"emission!"

The moment the command was given, the weapons officer pressed the red button. A muffled tremor came from underwater, and compressed air violently propelled the missile out of the launch tube. The missile broke through the water-filled pipe and sped upwards with a string of fine bubbles. On the surface of the sea, only starlight still twinkled on the crests of the waves, and no one noticed the thunder surging beneath the calm.

"emission!"

The calm sea was suddenly torn apart in the next instant!

A huge splash of water shot into the sky, followed by the missile's nose breaking through the water, spraying seawater and foam, and its tail erupting in a blazing orange-red flame. The scorching blast of air evaporated the surrounding seawater into white mist, and the roar pierced the night.

The missile rapidly ascended with the help of its boosters, its exhaust streaking across the night sky. Reaching an altitude of 200 meters, the missile suddenly tilted forward, the boosters separating precisely at the tail, plunging into the sea like a red-hot iron block, creating another splash.

The main engine immediately started, and the missile instantly adjusted its attitude, skimming at a height of fifty meters above the sea surface. Its wings unfolded like sharp blades as it flew toward the target.

At the same time, the entire sea surface turned red—Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from destroyers on the sea.

Hundreds of red plumes of flame rose from the sea, marking the largest Tomahawk cruise missile strike in history.

At the same time, more than 270 Tomahawk missiles were launched simultaneously from the sea, underwater, and air. H-1 long-range bombers, which flew in from the mainland, launched missiles over the Persian Gulf and then returned to base.

This was not a simple attack, but a crushing blow on the scale of a major war.

The deadline for the ultimatum is midnight.

When that moment arrived, the air in Damascus was already filled with a suffocating sense of impending doom.

On the rooftop of the communications building, Isabella stood facing the evening breeze, a reporter from French television standing before her with a camera, the lens fixed on her.
"The coalition's attack could come at any time. Are you really not going to leave?"

Isabella raised a hand to brush away the strands of hair that had been ruffled by the wind from her forehead, her gaze sweeping across the city outside the building, and said:

"I came here to be a human shield for this building."

Her voice wasn't loud, but every word was firm and resonant. Her face in the camera wasn't conventionally beautiful, but her expression was incredibly resolute.
"This is my goal in coming here: to safeguard peace. I will not back down."

The reporter paused for a moment, then finally put away the microphone and said, "Take care." After the footsteps faded, the rooftop quickly came alive. Several volunteers from France and Spain brought out old wooden crates to use as tables, and someone started playing a guitar with a broken string. Isabella hummed along, her cheerful voice echoing across the empty rooftop.

"As long as we are here, the coalition forces will not dare to bomb this place."

The young man playing the guitar smiled and said, and Isabella nodded. They both believed that the coalition would never bomb this place. After all, the whole world was watching, and reporters were interviewing them. How could they possibly bomb this building in front of the whole world?
Suddenly, the piercing air raid siren ripped through the night sky, followed by a series of distant explosions that sounded like thunder, each boom causing the communications building beneath their feet to tremble slightly.

"The coalition forces have begun bombing!"

She stood up abruptly, and the guitar music stopped abruptly. Looking up, she saw red trailing guitar strings, their long fiery tails intertwining against the dark blue sky.

"They...they've really started a war..."

Before Isabella's face could even register the shock, a rapidly moving cylindrical object appeared in her vision. The subsonic missile, like a small plane, hurtled straight towards the communications building.

"That's a Tomahawk missile!"

The thought had barely formed in her mind when a violent impact followed. Isabella didn't even have time to scream before the immense force of the explosion slammed her against the railing behind her. The violent explosion in the middle of the building sent scorching hot air waves carrying debris and metal fragments that rushed towards her, and the air was filled with the smell of gunpowder and dust.

Despite the presence of a dozen foreign volunteers on the roof of the communications building, the coalition forces did not cease their attack because of their presence, and cruise missiles accurately struck the middle of the building.

In the violent explosion, the building also caught fire. As for those people on the roof who had been so confident, they were now crying and screaming, and they fled down the building through the emergency exits as if they were escaping.

Startled and knocked to the ground by the shockwave of the explosion, Isabella, like the others, struggled to her feet and staggered toward the rooftop emergency exit, each step feeling like walking on precarious ice floes. The explosions behind her continued, and tracer bullets trailed red streaks in the air.

In the dark stairwell, as he fled downwards, the faint light shone on Isabella's dust-covered face, which was filled with fear. Tears mixed with sweat streamed down his face, blurring his vision.

"I don't want to die, I don't want to die..."

At this moment, what they feared most was death...

When she finally escaped the communications building and collapsed on a relatively safe open space, red tracer bullets were still flying through the sky, and the sound of explosions never stopped.

She looked back and saw that although the communications building that once stood in the city center had not collapsed, half of the charred wall in the center of the building was burning in the fire.

At this moment, these people who had originally vowed to protect the building with their bodies had only one thought left: to leave.

But obviously, that's impossible now, since war has already broken out.

In fact, the war did not break out at 12:12, but at exactly 12:00. As soon as the ultimatum expired, electronic jamming aircraft flying over the Mediterranean Sea immediately launched a full-scale electronic jamming attack on Syria and Lebanon.

Electronic jamming is itself a signal of war.

In the air defense command center in Damascus, as the coalition forces carried out electronic jamming, all radar screens were instantly swallowed by clutter and filled with snow.

The Syrian soldiers in the command center turned deathly pale instantly. Their fingers frantically tapped on the keyboard. Now they finally knew what it felt like to be "deaf" and "blind" in war.

This is exactly the tactic that the SEA excels at: as soon as the war breaks out, they first blind the enemy—making them unable to see the planes in the sky, and at the same time deaf, cutting off their communication with the troops at the front!
"We can't see any targets! And we can't contact the front lines."

While the Syrians were thrown into chaos, only the Soviet advisor Ivanov remained unmoved, his fingers lightly tapping the table as his gaze swept over the panicked crowd:
"What's the panic? Follow the plan and activate the backup plan. This has already been included in our simulations."

The Soviet advisors remained remarkably calm, while the operators snapped out of their daze and frantically entered frequency parameters with trembling hands. Meanwhile, as the radio was jammed, the command center activated its wired network—a fiber optic communication network. Sometimes, technological advancements bring about changes; the advent of fiber optics, to some extent, mitigated the power of electronic jamming.

In response to electronic interference, the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc laid a large number of defense fiber optic networks, and Syria was also affected, establishing its own fiber optic communication network. It was because of this that they were able to restore contact with all parties in the first instance.

Moreover, the Soviet radar has been significantly enhanced to resist electronic interference. With the adoption of many targeted countermeasures, they are no longer as passively attacked as they were in Iraq.

Just a few minutes later, the target information reappeared on the command center's radar screen. The radar signal instantly pierced through the fog of interference, and dozens of sharp points of light danced in the center of the screen—it was a Tomahawk missile, hurtling through the air at Mach 0.7.

They roared out precise parameters at the first moment. On the air defense positions outside Damascus, the SAM-11 missiles that received the target information were instantly powered on, and the launchers slowly rose, like hunters poised to strike the night sky.

"emission!"

At the commander's order, several SAM-11 anti-aircraft missiles rose into the sky, trailing orange-red flames, their whistling sound echoing across the position.

Guided by radar, the missile made a precise turn and collided head-on with the first Tomahawk missile, exploding in the air in a blinding flash, with fragments falling like a meteor shower.

Immediately afterwards, in other areas, the Shilehe anti-aircraft guns, following instructions from the command center, rained down bullets into the air, hitting low-flying Tomahawk cruise missiles one after another, illuminating the night sky as if it were daytime amidst the explosions.

As a series of good news reports arrived, the panic in the command center subsided. Although most of the missiles had hit their targets, at least a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles had been intercepted. This reassured them that they were not passively taking the hits!

Several tens of minutes later, a crowd had gathered on the wasteland on the outskirts of Damascus.

Under the glaring lights, the wreckage of several Tomahawk cruise missiles lay twisted in the sand, the composite materials of the missile bodies charred black, and parts bearing the SEA logo scattered to the side.

The national television cameras swept across the crowd. The old man jumped excitedly near the wreckage, the young man raised his rifle and fired into the sky, and the children ran and cheered around the debris, their slogans carrying far in the morning breeze.

Although it was just missile debris, it was an unprecedented victory for them.

And broadcasting such footage on television can at least mask failures in other areas...

(End of this chapter)