Alien Relic Hunter

Yeager's combat uniform was still in the cockpit of the fighter jet. He did not ask anyone else to help him, but took off his shirt and trousers, threw off his shoes, and got in wearing only a pair of shorts. After getting into this one-piece anti-load combat uniform, he skillfully hooked the zipper puller on the back of the suit to a protrusion on the edge of the seat, sat down, and pulled the zipper behind him all the way to the top.

"Tsk... If I had known, I should have asked the logistics to wash off the combat uniforms immediately after the flight in the morning..." An indescribable smell of sweat was squeezed out from the collar... even though the smell of sweat came from him. Himself, but there was still a look of disgust on Yeger's face.

After tightening several air-tight valves on his limbs and neck, and after a quick check, Yeager pressed the switch on his waist. The air in the combat uniform was instantly evacuated, and the fabric made of special materials clung to him. skin, he could even feel the thin layer of semi-fluid material filling the interlayer.

"When Hans comes, tell him I'm leaving first and ask him to follow quickly!" After saying this, Yeager put the helmet on his head.

"The preparation work for the other two aircraft has not been completed yet." The ground crew turned to look at the fighter jets parked in front of the other two catapults and said, "It will take at least ten minutes. If you dispatch now, Colonel, you will have to Without wingman support.”

"It's just a reconnaissance mission. There's no need to fight. It's not a big problem if you don't have wingmen." With a crackling sound, Yeager turned on a bunch of switches on the fighter's control panel, and the view from the external monitor was directly projected onto the helmet. On the inside, the middle covers of the left and right footrests slide up, revealing a hatch. The folding joystick rises from this hatch and is fixed at the height and angle that is most convenient for Yeager.

Although Yeager said that he would not encounter combat, he still asked the ground crew: "Have the weapon bays been replaced with live ammunition?"

In the morning, he was only flying this fighter jet on a routine cruise mission, and he was also leading a few new recruits in the team. All the fighter jets were equipped with training bombs... Although strictly speaking, this thing can kill people, but It is limited to unarmored targets without any protective equipment. When facing indigenous creatures or military vehicles, training bombs are of no use except for scraping the opponent.

"They have all been replaced with live ammunition." The ground crew's face looked a little ugly, "It was the captain's order."

"Tsk, it seems that the old guy also knows that this time the trouble will not be trivial...Okay, hand over the timing of starting the catapult to me, and we will take off in ten seconds."

After Yeager stared at an indicator light inside the mask that turned from red to yellow, he pressed the ejection button without hesitation.

The ten-second countdown ended quickly, and the yellow indicator light jumped to green. At the same time, a huge thrust came from the tail of the fighter jet——

"Yegor Novikov, RV-003S 'Raven-class' high-speed fighter, attack!"

The "Raven-class", whose whole body was painted almost black in dark green, accelerated from standstill to a speed of nearly Mach 2.5 in just one second. Like a sharp arrow leaving the string, it shot from "Betelgeuse" The heavy cruiser's bottom hatch flew out.

The number printed on Yeager's "Raven" is "003S" - the S at the end of the number represents the captain's aircraft, and the two numbers 001 and 002 belong to the first two officers of this air combat unit. commander.

While flying, Yeager quickly checked various parameters of the fighter jet - since it had just flown once in the morning, many data and settings remained in the same state as the last flight and did not need to be readjusted at all.

After leaving "Betelgeuse", the communication between the fighter jet and the mothership was disconnected. The earphones were filled with noisy current sound, and the screen used to display the radar image was covered with black and white snowflakes. occupied.

"The interference is really strong..." Yeager muttered, pushed the joystick, and slowly lowered the altitude of the aircraft.

According to the intelligence analyzed by the "Betelgeuse" CIC, the interference source should be located in the southeast of Fleet Zero, and the estimated distance should be in the range of 80 to 220 kilometers... But the weather today is very good, and this area The visibility in the airspace is extremely high, so CIC officers believe that the source of interference should be on the ground or underground.

As if showing off his skills, Yeager lowered the fighter jet to an altitude of fifty meters, flying close to the ground at an ultra-low altitude. Although the speed of the fighter jet had dropped to Mach 0.75, when converted into seconds, it was still 10 seconds per second. Two hundred and fifty-five meters, as long as the nose of the plane is lowered a little, or the terrain in front is slightly higher, the entire fighter jet may crash into the ground.

Only experienced ace pilots like Yeager dare to carry out such long-distance ultra-low-altitude flights.

Yeager stared at the ground below through several monitors at the bottom of the fighter jet. At the same time, the intelligent program in the computer was scanning and analyzing the images over and over again - compared to human eyes, computers even It is possible to find enemies hidden under camouflage in a few frames.

Locked frames appeared on the screen one after another, and then disappeared one after another. Most of these suspicious targets were stones, vegetation and the like, and were quickly eliminated by the computer.

Yeager had already flown back and forth in the designated area, but found nothing. On the way back, he also encountered several friendly fighter jets that also belonged to Fleet Zero and were sent out to perform reconnaissance missions. However, it was obvious that these friendly fighter jets also found nothing.

Yeager pressed the trigger of the machine gun with some irritation and fired at the ground. However, apart from stirring up a burst of sand and dust, the only result was to blow up a beetle-like indigenous creature hiding under a rock. .

"Is the CIC's information wrong? Is it the wrong direction or wrong distance? Or is the source of interference located deep underground?" Yeger thought to himself, and suddenly, he felt an unexplained feeling of palpitations. ——

He subconsciously looked up. For some reason, he always felt that the sky above his head seemed a little "unnatural".

Out of caution, he tried to launch a small unguided missile upwards, and the missile's wake drew a straight upward white line in the sky.

Just when the missile reached an altitude of about four thousand meters, it was blocked by a light curtain that suddenly appeared and exploded!

Immediately afterwards, with a distortion of light, a completely black warship without any logos or emblems on the hull, not even the hull number, emerged in the sky...

"Is it... the optical camouflage technology of Alpha Civilization?!" Yeager was stunned. Ark has not yet mastered this technology. The biggest difficulty lies in how to distort the light to make the covering object appear "invisible" - - If optical camouflage armor like that used on vehicles is equipped on a battleship, even if the surface of the battleship can show the color of the sky, the light blocked by the hull will still leave a sizable shadow on the ground.

The optical camouflage technology of Alpha Civilization allows light to "circle" the warship - except for some abnormalities found when observing at close range, there are almost no flaws.

Although Yeager had been mentally prepared for a long time, what happened next still made him freeze in the driver's seat - if the warning of "danger, imminent touchdown" suddenly sounded in his ears, he would have been His soul was brought back, and it is estimated that he has crashed and died in a state of confusion.

What emerged in the sky... was not just a battleship, but a complete fleet, a fleet that could fully meet the "Class A standard"!

(Note: The definition criteria of Ark's Class A fleet are mentioned in the notes of Chapter 763. If you have no idea about this, you can go back and take a look.)

All the battleships in this fleet were the same as the first one that Yeager saw. They were all painted in pitch black without any markings or numbers - even the flagship aircraft carrier battleship with a length of more than a kilometer was the same.

Yeager only knew that it was an aircraft carrier battleship, but he had no idea of ​​the battleship's class and model - in his memory, there had never been such an aircraft carrier battleship in the Ark Air Force Fleet.

Building an aircraft carrier battleship is a large project that requires the collaboration of multiple official and private forces, a large investment of manpower and resources, and a long construction time. Not to mention anything else, just the people involved in the project, up to the chief designer, From welding workers to even handymen who clean the factory or cook for other workers, there are tens of thousands of people in total... Unlike the old era, in this era, the construction of aircraft carriers and battleships is not done at all. It's possible to keep it completely confidential.

Even civilians, as long as they are a little bit attentive, can usually tell the number of Ark Air Force fleets and the names of their flagships... As for those fanatical military fans, they can even tell the basics of these aircraft carriers and battleships like a treasure trove. In terms of parameters - aircraft carrier battleships are just like the maritime aircraft carriers of the old era, their strategic significance is far greater than their tactical significance.

Yeager is not a civilian, he is a veteran soldier who has served for more than ten years, and is also a member of the Air Force fleet, but even he does not know when Ark gained such a black aircraft carrier battleship...

But Yeager firmly believes that this aircraft carrier battleship is definitely built by Ark - the design of the hull is completely in the style of human civilization, and its appearance is similar to the aircraft carrier battleships currently in service in major fleets, and those that are mixed in the wilderness The exiles on board could not even solve the problem of food and clothing. It was absolutely impossible for them to build such a behemoth.

Not to mention aircraft carriers and battleships, any empty ship cannot be built by the exiles - even when the heretical sect was still there, they had never owned even one empty ship.

Where did this aircraft carrier battleship come from? No... I should say, where did this entire fleet come from?

Yeger couldn't help but think of the warships that had been transferred some time ago, but he didn't find any familiar warships in this fleet - even if those warships had been modified and had their paint changed, he still couldn't help but think of them. It can be seen at a glance, but in this "black fleet", they are all new models of warships that have never appeared in the archives.

Yeager took a deep breath and tried to calm down his mood as much as possible. He held the joystick tightly with both hands and moved the fighter as close to the ground as possible.

He had no intention of launching an attack on this fleet at all - his mission was just reconnaissance. Now that the goal has been achieved, the top priority is to return to the mothership immediately and report the matter to the captain... But then again, as long as Zero The officers and soldiers on the fleet were not blind. They should have seen this black fleet with its optical camouflage removed.

The weapons of the Raven class cannot penetrate the shields of these battleships at all, but the anti-aircraft weapons of these battleships can restore the Raven class and the pilot Yeager to the original state of matter in half a second... Even if Yeager launches a surprise attack on this black fleet with the determination to die, it will be meaningless.

He couldn't even delay the other party for even a second.

"Damn... I guessed it was the rebels, but I never would have guessed that the rebels would actually have a Class A fleet that has never been seen before... Could I be fucking dreaming..." Ye Geer wanted to pinch himself, but at this flying altitude, he didn't dare to move his hands away from the joystick.

"Although this fleet has not yet launched an attack, it first conducted radio interference, and then came so close under disguise. It is obvious that it is definitely not a friendly force... and with the combat effectiveness of Fleet Zero, I am afraid that this sudden attack will not be possible." The opponent of the black fleet that has emerged." Yeger quickly analyzed the current situation in his mind, "No, although Fleet Zero is somewhat short of combat power, we still have that ancient battleship, that 'Aguna' Thor'...as long as that thing joins the fight, we can't lose!"

Yeager flew towards the mothership while observing the situation in the sky - even though Fleet Zero and the mysterious black fleet had discovered each other, and both sides had entered each other's attack range, neither side was able to Without taking the lead in firing, the situation maintained a delicate balance.

Yeger knew that the current mood and thoughts of the commander of Fleet Zero and the captains of each ship must be very different from his own... No one knew what to do with this fleet of unknown origins opposite him.

Under this strong interference, it was even impossible to communicate with the other party.

But the black fleet is still slowly approaching Fleet Zero and "Aguna Kotor" - this delicate balance cannot be maintained forever, and it will soon be broken!

Yeager gritted his teeth, sweat dripping from his forehead and neck, dripping inside the helmet.