Chapter 1403: The Weapon That Was Not A Weapon
Without any hesitation, Jiang Chen tossed down the Rubik’s Cube Lin Lin gave him onto the ground.
Almost as soon as the s.h.i.+eld unfolded, the turret gun unleashed its terrifying wrath, and the bullets arrived like a violent storm. The bullets tore the windows and the reinforced concrete walls to pieces together with the force of destruction.
“Wings of Freedom” F-79, NATO F series close-range attack aircraft.
The concept of close-combat attack aircraft was proposed after the sixth-generation fighter and was born after the completion of the basic artificial intelligence database. In the golden age of artificial intelligence, the widespread use of AI provided more options for air combat, especially in the form of ground support. In addition to beyond-visual-range strikes, NATO needed a fighter that was capable of air combat while also being able to provide firepower support at close range to ground units. The model “Wings of Freedom” was born.
As a fixed-wing fighter, the F-79 could switch to hover mode when necessary, partic.i.p.ate in the close-range combats of ground forces, and redefine the correct use of the gun turret with its high mobility and strong firepower.
“FU*K!”
Gerrard screamed in panic as he didn’t expect that the incoming aircraft for support would include himself as the target. He dove to the side, however, he could not get far as his head slammed into the spread-out s.h.i.+eld.
The constant stream of bullets blasted the Holy s.h.i.+eld but was instantly deflected away like headless flies flying in all directions. The compressed air created countless ripples across the transparent surface along the surface of the gravitons and outlined the arc-shaped trajectories.
Unlike Gerrard who was shrouded in a s.h.i.+eld, his two soldiers were not so lucky. The deflected bullets bounced inside the hallway and tore the soldiers, along with their kinetic skeleton, into a million pieces.
Jiang Chen took a quick glance at Gerrard next to him and didn’t dare to take this fight lightly. He immediately released the smoke bomb on the power armor.
The gray air ma.s.s filled the s.p.a.ce inside the s.h.i.+eld. Under the cover of smoke, Jiang Chen took out the type-57 electromagnetic pulse cannon from the storage dimension, locked it onto the aircraft outside, and took a deep breath.
Just as he was about to deactivate the s.h.i.+eld, a loud explosion suddenly came from outside, and the bullets that poured onto the s.h.i.+eld suddenly came to a halt. As if the building was. .h.i.t by something, the floor shook violently and made the s.h.i.+eld unsteady.
Jiang Chen deactivated the s.h.i.+eld, walked to the half-destroyed wall in the hallway, and looked out the window. The F-79 smashed into the building, the entire fuselage had been torn apart by a stream of bullets that hailed down from above, and the out of control engine was spewing out flames uncontrollably…
Jiang Chen thought about something, then immediately looked above, and joy appeared in his eyes.
A black silhouette sped across in the sky, and at almost the same time, the communication screen was connected to the code of a friendly unit.
“This is Aurora, I am honored to serve you.”
…
When Jiang Chen exchanged fire with Gerrard and the others, AS Order just arrived above Hawaii. Two Aurora-20s took off from the deck and arrived first to cruise over the West Coast. When they arrived, they discovered the F-79 that was unleas.h.i.+ng its firepower towards the mall, so they decided to deactivate the safety and fired their turret.
This F-79 was quite unlucky. Its technological level was obviously much more advanced than the Aurora-20 developed after the war. If a fair duel occurred above the clouds, maybe even two Aurora-20s would be unable to win, even if the F-79 did not carry any air-to-air missiles.
But the battlefield did not consider so many ifs. If it switched to hover mode, it was no different from a dummy target parked on an airport runway to other fighters. The two Auroras easily ended the fight.
After Jiang Chen took Gerrard back to the colony, he ordered people to take him to the dungeon. He was locked in separate rooms with several other soldiers in NATO Army-model kinetic skeletons and they were interrogated separately.
Perhaps he was traumatized by the death of his two comrades under friendly fire, or perhaps he knew that there was no hope of being rescued, the defeated Gerrard quickly explained everything. The information included their ident.i.ties, included the whereabouts of the colony, included their base drifting in the Pacific Ocean…
“The cause was that your people found a number of strategic nuclear warheads on a cargo s.h.i.+p off the coast. These nuclear warheads are what we have been looking for for a long. But in fact, whether this incident happened or not, we were ready to take action. Congress has long ago introduced the Anti-Invasion Bill because of the outpost you built on the West Coast, but unfortunately, our Congress has been debating whether or not we should take actions immediately or not,” Gerrard shrugged and said in a somewhat helpless tone.
“The intelligence you leaked to me through Gris, the NATO Strategic Missile Force military base in the Grand Canyon…or rather, the nuclear a.r.s.enal, how are these all connected?” Jiang Chen asked.
“Because there is indeed a military base of NATO Strategic Missile Force in the Grand Canyon,” Gerrard laughed and no longer concealed anything, “But now it is occupied by a mutated human tribe, and we thought that since we are going to drive you out of North America, it’s better for you to deal with those troublesome guys.”
“Where is the nuclear a.r.s.enal?” Jiang Chen asked.
“Nuclear a.r.s.enal? There is no nuclear a.r.s.enal at all. Most of the strategic warheads were used up, and the unused warheads were almost all dismantled in the years after the war. The moon base was completely collapsed, and there was not much nuclear fuel left. At one point, we even considered recovering nuclear materials from tactical nuclear warheads but gave up due to the technical challenges.” Gerrard looked at Jiang Chen and said calmly, “Can you give me a cigarette? For the sake of all the things I told you.”
“No problem.” Jiang Chen smiled slightly, put a box of cigars and matches on the table, and pushed it towards Gerrard. “Why don’t you have a cigar. For the prisoners who cooperate with us, we will never treat them with disrespect.”
When Gerrard’s eyes landed on the box of Columbian cigars, his eyebrows twitched violently and his throat felt dry.
The war had been over for twenty years, and it was the first time he saw a luxury item like a cigar. In the years when World War Three broke out, supplies were scarce to the extreme, not to mention the nuclear winter after the war and radioactive pollution everywhere.
He had almost forgotten about the smell unique to cigars.
There was a look of struggle in his eyes, but he finally reached and picked up the box of cigars.
He lit a match to light the cigar. When he felt the acridity pa.s.s through his throat, tears filled his eyes. The silence lasted for a long time, and after a few puffs of smoke, Gerrard continued.
“What you are looking for is in the desert outside Las Vegas. The cargo s.h.i.+p stranded at the West Coast port and the nuclear warhead inside was originally planned to be sent there. I can show you the specific coordinates… Thank you, if it weren’t for your accidental discovery, we might never find that thing.”
“What is it?” Jiang Chen asked immediately.
“Weather Weapon,” Gerrard breathed out the smoke ring, then gently swung the cigar between his fingers, “…though from the very beginning, that thing did not exist as a weapon.”