A genius? I just love studying.

Chapter 287 The Black Bird Spreads Its Wings, Stars Fall Like Rain (Second Update)

"Report this to the bureau chief immediately!"

In the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters control room, Karim's expression changed drastically.

But there was no need for him to report. In a white building more than ten kilometers away from them, Nick and Wilson were also watching the live broadcast. They also saw the black bird soaring into the sky.

"Seventh-generation fighter jet!"

"It's definitely a seventh-generation fighter!"

Nick looked dazed, yet very certain. He had learned about the three sixth-generation fighter jets that China had announced, and he was certain that a sixth-generation fighter jet could not achieve this level of capability.

Wilson's face turned ashen.
The members of parliament in the meeting room had pale lips and watched the scene with trepidation, feeling extremely uneasy, as fear overwhelmed them like a tidal wave.

If China can so quietly send fighter jets into their homeland, does that mean they can drop an egg on their heads at any time?
This situation makes them feel completely insecure, as if they are standing naked in front of a lion with its jaws wide open, ready to be bitten to death on the spot at any moment.

"We have to stop them!"

Ultimately, Nick, who had served as a frontline special agent, was the first to recover.

How do we stop them?

The lawmakers are already prepared to give up. Such an opponent has made them lose their fighting spirit, and they are even planning to switch sides to China, since they will still be powerful families anyway.

"Kill them!"

"If we can't get the talent, then we must not let China get it either!"

Nick looked at Wilson with unwavering certainty; he knew that only Wilson could issue such an order.

"But if we do this, won't China think we're declaring war?"

Wilson, who had long held a high position, had never shown such a panicked expression. He certainly understood that stopping Chen Hui was the right choice, but he was really not confident in facing the Chinese who were showing their sharp fangs.

"The worst that can happen is that both sides will be destroyed!"

Nick's expression hardened. "We still have a chance if we fight now, but if we wait for Professor Chen to go back, we'll really have no chance at all."

“There must be some intelligence we don’t know, which is why China went to such great lengths to rescue Professor Chen, even at the cost of exposing the existence of the seventh-generation fighter jet. In other words, in their eyes, Professor Chen is more important than all of this.”

"No matter what that intelligence is, if it's something the enemy wants to do, the best thing we can do is prevent them from doing it."

"it is good!"

Wilson understood that Nick was right; the gap between the two sides was now at its smallest, and if they continued to drag it out, the gap would only widen.

In that instant, he was ready for all-out war. He looked up at the middle-aged man in uniform in the conference room and said, "Russell, deploy immediately."

"understand!"

Russell grinned maliciously.

Although he was also taken aback by the seventh-generation fighter jet that China had unveiled, his sword was not without its advantages. Battles are not necessarily won by having better equipment; otherwise, what would be the point of fighting? Everyone could just compare their equipment stats.

"Reporting to the leader, the target is moving too fast, making it difficult for the missile to lock on."

However, a few minutes later, Russell's sneer froze.

How fast is it?

"How could it be impossible to lock on? Are you playing me?"

Russell looked at the agent who came to report with a gloomy face, as if a thunderbolt was about to explode at any moment.

"The target is moving at Mach 6. With the weapons we currently have, it would be difficult to even catch up with it, let alone capture it."

The agent looked dejected; he was now filled with pessimism about the fate of his country.

"Mach 6?"

"how is this possible?"

Their most advanced fifth-generation fighter jets in America only have a top speed of Mach 1.6 and a cruising speed that can barely be maintained at Mach 1. Now they are telling him that China's fighter jets are maintaining a speed of Mach 6.

"Deploy Minuteman-3, and all overseas bases are also ready to carry out a saturation strike!"

Wilson regained some of his composure and decisively gave the order. He understood very well that if you're going to do something, do it thoroughly.

The Minuteman-3 is currently America's fastest hypersonic missile, capable of speeds up to Mach 15. They originally possessed behemoths with speeds exceeding Mach 26, but due to excessively high maintenance costs, they have long been retired.

However, Mach 15 is already more than enough!

At Wilson's command, countless sparks erupted across the globe like fireworks, all converging on the silently piloting Xuan Bird.

This is America's advantage; they have bases all over the world, so intercepting Chen Hui doesn't require launching missiles from their homeland.

Of course, the three Minuteman-3 missiles still took off from the mainland and, like sharp swords, quickly chased after the fighter jet.

In the conference room of a courtyard house in Beijing, Lin Zhengtian, who was also in charge of directing the event, looked at the scene on the big screen that resembled fireworks and sneered, "You have a road to heaven but you don't take it; you have no gate to hell but you insist on going through it."

"Project Star-Reaching, let's begin!"

In the distant, dark depths of space, where there is no atmosphere to buffer the temperature, the temperature fluctuates wildly between -150°C and 120°C. The sunlit side is scorched white by solar radiation, while the shaded side is shrouded in eternal darkness.

Six Blackbird fighter jets, arranged in a wedge formation, slowly ascended into the air. The engine nozzles on their bellies spewed out pale purple plasma streams, leaving translucent ion trails in the vacuum, like six burning swords slicing through black velvet.

Through the panoramic quantum window of the cockpit, Chu Yunfei saw the curvature of the Earth, below which lay the deep blue ocean and the outline of the continents, with the clouds shimmering like mother-of-pearl under the sunlight.

Debris larger than 10 centimeters in diameter travels at a speed of 7.8 kilometers per second, like a relentless rain of metal—this is the space debris belt created by various countries on Earth in recent decades.

The near-Earth orbit is densely packed with silver-gray metal spheres, rhomboid antenna arrays, and cylindrical radar cabins, which run in an orderly manner along fixed tracks, like pearls strung together by invisible threads.

The place was eerily quiet, making Chu Yunfei feel as if his thoughts were frozen.

"Attention, entering the attack window."

The voice from the ground control room came through the headset: "Target orbital altitude 420 km, speed 7.6 km/s, estimated contact time 1 minute 17 seconds."

Chu Yunfei immediately snapped out of his daze, looking at the satellites marked with America's symbol, his eyes flashing with excitement.

They were probably the first pilots to venture into space for combat, and such an honor made even a well-trained man tremble with excitement.

At the same time, the other five Xuan Birds that rushed into space with him scattered, leaving a pale purple afterimage in the vacuum, leaving Earth's gravity behind.

"Laser cannon charging."

The combat system voice message rang in their ears, and more than a hundred red dots appeared on the tactical screen—their targets.

At that moment, a red dot was rapidly approaching him. It was America's KH-12 optical reconnaissance satellite, with a mirror diameter of 2.4 meters and a resolution of 0.1 meters. It had once conducted in-depth reconnaissance of the details of a base in Northwest China.

Chu Yunfei didn't recognize the satellite, but the combat support system had already transmitted all the information to him.

At the same time, the combat assistance system displayed a continuous route on the screen, connecting one-sixth of the red dots, which was his next target.

"Xuan Niao 1 has locked onto the target."

In the quiet depths of space, time seemed to stretch out, stand still, and then seem to compress. In an instant, the target appeared in the combat support system's field of vision.

"Blackbird 2 has locked onto the target..."

The voices of my teammates came through my headphones one after another.

"Permission to fire!" The final confirmation order came from the ground command center, and Chu Yunfei pressed the red button without any hesitation.

The neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet crystal inside the laser cannon is excited by an electric current to produce monochromatic coherent light. After being focused by 12 magnifying lenses, the beam diameter is reduced to 3 centimeters, and the energy density is as high as 10 watts per square centimeter.

In a vacuum, a laser travels at the speed of light, taking only 0.00014 seconds from emission to impact.

Almost the instant the red button was pressed, a red beam of light struck the satellite bearing the America mark.

The KH-12's mirror was burned by a laser, creating a 50-centimeter-diameter crater. The internal optical components instantly vaporized, and the satellite's outer shell shattered into dozens of fragments under thermal stress. The metal debris shimmered like a meteor shower in the sunlight.

"Second group, lacrosse - 7!"

"Adjust the angle to compensate for the track deviation!" Lin Shuang, the co-pilot, said with a hint of excitement.

She had already switched the fighter jet to orbital maneuvering mode, with the vector nozzles spewing out a dark blue plasma stream, and the fuselage tilted at 30°, precisely aiming at another synthetic aperture radar satellite.

This attack was even more dangerous. The satellite was changing its orbit, moving laterally by 200 meters per second, but Xuan Niao's quantum radar predicted its trajectory 0.5 seconds in advance. The laser beam drew a tiny arc in space and accurately hit the satellite's thruster nozzle.

The propellant leak triggered a violent explosion, tearing the satellite in half. Liquid oxygen in the fuel tank mixed with aluminum powder and caused a "cold explosion" in the vacuum. Although no flame was produced, a large amount of high-speed debris was scattered in all directions. The debris flew at 20 times the speed of sound and hit two nearby communication satellites, causing a secondary disintegration.

The Black Bird had already made subtle adjustments under the control of the combat assistance system, dodging the flying fragments. Lin Shuang broke out in a cold sweat, but thankfully, she escaped unharmed in the end.

At the same time as they launched their attack, five other Xuan Birds also launched their attack simultaneously, and within a few minutes, stars rained down like rain!
When the last Americana military satellite was hit by the laser, Chu Yunfei's tactical screen was completely blank.

He reduced his speed to Mach 3 and began to disengage from the combat trajectory.

Through the viewing window, the atmosphere below appears as a pale blue veil, while hundreds of satellite fragments continue their orbits in space, gradually falling into the atmosphere and turning into meteors over the next few decades.

“Mission accomplished.” Lin Shuang’s voice carried a tired smile. “120 satellites, time taken 3 minutes and 27 seconds, laser weapon consumed 1200 kilowatt-hours of energy, 12 kinetic energy interceptor missiles were used.”

“It’s worth it.” Chu Yunfei gazed at the distant blue planet. “They can no longer use these eyes to peer into our sky.”

The Black Bird formation began its return journey, the ion contrails of the fighter jets leaving pale purple arcs in the vacuum. After returning to the atmosphere, these purple arcs slowly disappeared as the Black Bird optical stealth coating activated. Even the six Black Birds disappeared completely, like a sharp sword returning to its sheath, its edge completely concealed.

……

At America's ground control center in Washington, D.C., everyone stared blankly at the satellite monitoring screen, their faces filled with bewilderment.

It all happened so fast, so fast that they still don't know what's going on.

"Look, there's a shooting star outside."

Suddenly, someone looked out the window and vaguely saw a few specks of light falling.

"It's a satellite!"

Russell's expression suddenly changed drastically. He finally understood why the satellite monitoring screen was blank, but he never expected it to be this worst-case scenario.

His face turned even paler than the monitor screen.

Without satellite-assisted communication, those missiles that fly out are nothing more than fast-moving pieces of iron.

"General, this is footage sent by our allies."

At this moment, someone connected the signal to the main control screen.

In the pitch-black depths of space, six steel birds emitting a pale purple glow hovered, with red lights flashing above their heads, followed by the disintegration of satellites one by one.

"Jesus!"

"what is that?"

Someone screamed in despair.

Russell was equally cold.

Such a scene could easily evoke images of an alien invasion, but he noticed the Chinese markings on the six flying birds.

Just recently, he saw one of these fighter jets on the Ohio River!
He understood that this was an attack from China.

This is an attack on a completely different level; with America's current strength, she simply cannot withstand it.

The members of parliament in the conference room also witnessed this scene. Wilson shuddered and slumped into his chair, his face as white as paper.

The other members of parliament also looked anxious.

If they were only slightly worried when they first saw the seventh-generation fighter jet, now, seeing the seventh-generation fighter jet baring its fangs and witnessing its terrifying combat power, they have completely lost their will to fight.

Many people are even planning how to surrender to China so they can sell America for a good price.

Over the Pacific Ocean, Chen Mo piloted the Black Bird, streaking across the sky like lightning.

"Warning! Target bearing 270°, altitude 12000 meters, ballistic missile attack!" Suddenly, the alarm from the combat support system pierced the silence of the cockpit.

Chen Mo glanced at the holographic screen. Twelve red dots were rising from the direction of Guam, their tails trailing long orange-red flames, like a flock of startled firebirds.

Immediately following, a second wave arrived, with eight cruise missiles launched from the aircraft carrier deck, skimming the sea surface at a distance of 0.5 meters; finally, 15 air-to-air missiles were launched by the F-35 formation, trailing fluorescent green trails as they hurtled towards the carrier.

Chen Mo's Xuan Bird was instantly surrounded by missiles, and no matter how fast it was, it had no way to avoid them.

However, at that moment, these giant swords that pierced through the air seemed to suddenly lose their souls, and after a tremor, they continued forward simply due to inertia.

Chen Mo looked up at the sky.

There was nothing there, but he knew his teammates must have succeeded.

He felt a little regretful, as he could have also carried out the Star-Picking Project.

But with Professor Chen around, going into space will surely become easier and easier in the future, and there will definitely be more opportunities!

He had complete confidence in Chen Hui.

"It's now!"

Chen Mo quickly composed himself and pressed the yellow button on the control panel.

Instantly, 32 magnesium-aluminum thermal decoys were launched from the missile bay, instantly erupting with a high temperature of 1500 degrees Celsius, like orange-red fireballs heading towards the distant missile.

At the same time, the radar decoy pod released 16 plasma decoys, which emitted electromagnetic signals with the same radar cross-section as the fighter jet, making them appear as 16 "false targets" flashing in the sky.

The laser decoy pod deployed eight laser jammers, emitting infrared lasers at the same frequency as the exhaust plume of the Xuanniao engine, creating a fog-like trap.

The sky over the Pacific Ocean instantly transformed into a fireworks display.

The first out-of-control ballistic missile collided with the infrared decoy. The 1500°C temperature of the magnesium-aluminum thermal decoy caused the missile's infrared guidance head to mistakenly believe it had found a "heat source." It adjusted its tail fins to rush toward the fireball, but at the moment of contact, the high temperature of the decoy melted through the fuel tank.

The mixture of liquid oxygen and kerosene exploded, and the fireball expanded to a diameter of 50 meters, turning half of the cloud layer blood red.

Immediately afterwards, two cruise missiles struck the radar decoy.

The plasma decoys simulated "fighter jet signals" that were clearer than the real targets. They swooped down along the decoys' trajectory, but their guidance systems were disrupted by the electromagnetic pulse waves released by the decoys when they were 10 kilometers away from the Black Bird. They eventually plunged into the sea, creating two white columns of waves.

Subsequently, the infrared fog released by the laser jammer overlapped with the setting sun, causing the missile's infrared guidance head to be trapped in a "sea of ​​light." The 15 air-to-air missiles were as if they were under a spell, drawing spiral trajectories in the sky before exploding one after another 5000 meters away from the Blackbird.

The orange-red infrared decoy, the silver-white radar decoy, and the deep blue laser decoy intertwine to form a giant net, and missile debris falls like a meteor shower, splashing into the sea.

The shockwave from the explosion stirred up the airflow, gently lifting the black bird up, like a mother's hand comforting her frightened child, before it soared into the sky and quietly disappeared into the distance.

(End of this chapter)