The Returner

Chapter 429: There’s a nuke headed this way? (4)

“What the hell are we supposed to wait for, anyway? Sh*t.” (Liu Jing)

SU-35 and SU-27 fighter planes were flying above Beijing in a tight formation. These pilots had been mobilised at a short notice without any proper explanations whatsoever, causing them to anxiously grumble away.

“Did a war break out or something?” (Liu Jing)

Every available fighter was being summoned to Beijing’s airspace. Not just those on standby in Beijing’s air force base either, but every single plane from Shenyang, Jinan, and even Nanjing had been dragged to this place.

– “If it’s a war, you think we’d be summoned to Beijing like this? Think first before saying something, will ya?”

“Sh*t, that’s what I was saying, though.” (Liu Jing)

Indeed, this pilot was trying to imply that there shouldn’t be any reason for all these planes to gather here when clearly no war had broken out. If this was merely a training exercise, fine, totally understandable – but when considering the cost of deploying a single fighter plane, not even the CCP would be crazy enough to start an exercise of this scale.

– “Everyone, shut your traps and maintain formation.”

“Roger.” (Liu Jing)

– “Surely you can tell just by looking at how many fighters have entered the operation area, can’t you? If you get a bit too lax with your flight route and cause an accident, it won’t only be your head rolling off your neck, got that?”

Liu Jing the pilot smirked at the voice coming through the radio.

If the planes somehow crashed into one another, then there wouldn’t be a need to worry about saving his neck anymore. He’d be dead by then, so why should he give a rat’s a*s about the higher-ups grilling him?

“By the way, what are we supposed to do here?” (Liu Jing)

– “Be on standby.”

‘Bloody hell.’ (Liu Jing)

Liu Jing already lost count how many times he’d been told to be ‘on standby’. Did this country think of its people as nothing but mere cogs or something? He was simply not given any room to think for himself. Anyone could tell that this was an emergency situation, yet no one knew exactly what was going on here.

“Yes, yes.” (Liu Jing)

So, Liu Jing muttered some simple replies.

‘Seriously, though. What is going on here?’ (Liu Jing)

It had been over six years since he was stationed in Beijing’s air force base. But this would be his first time encountering a situation like this one.

‘Something seriously big must’ve happened.’ (Liu Jing)

Now normally, you would carefully plan out an aerial training exercise before starting one. Even if China was raking in an exorbitant sum of money from the rest of the world every single day, a fighter plane was still one of those types of ‘goods’ that, when and if a problem crops up, would cause your heart to shrivel up from the sheer horror of the repair bill.

Meaning, there was no freaking way that the government higher-ups would abuse these planes as if they were some common foot soldiers or something.

Even the fighters grounded for maintenance had been wheeled out and deployed today, so at the very minimum, an event on the level of a quasi-state of war must’ve happened somewhere.

Indeed, all these planes wouldn’t have been mobilised unless the demon king army located in Sichuan was rapidly closing in on Beijing.

If so, this would be a tough encounter since China’s overall air combat capability had dropped below two-thirds of its former peak after every fighter plane dispatched to deal with the demon king got tragically shot down earlier.

Buzzzz...

Seemingly not giving a d*mn about what Liu Jing was thinking about, a scratchy voice entered his ears and interrupted his thought process.

– “Okay, listen up. Here’s your briefing.”

“Roger.” (Liu Jing)

– “Currently, we have an ICBM flying in from southwest. Its destination is Beijing.”

Right at that moment, Liu Jing chucked hollowly.

A bloody ICBM? Why was such a thing even heading towards Beijing in the first place? Unless there really was a war going on, such a thing shouldn’t even happen.

‘Was it India?’ (Liu Jing)

The only country located southwest of China capable of firing an ICBM was India.

‘I guess it wasn’t related to the demon king, after all.’ (Liu Jing)

...No, hang on a minute. (Liu Jing’s inner monologue)

Liu Jing suddenly fell into a pit of confusion.

‘...Did he say it’s coming from southwest?’ (Liu Jing)

Wasn’t an ICBM supposed to drop almost vertically at a ridiculous speed from outer space? So what did it even mean for an ICBM to ‘fly’ in from southwest?

The briefing carried on while completely disregarding Liu Jing’s confusion.

– “We estimate that an active nuclear warhead is mounted on the ICBM.”

“Son of a b*tch.”

“Holy sh*t.”

Various colourful expletives exploded forth from the cockpits of the planes.

– “Attempts to remotely detonate or shoot it down with anti-air missiles have all ended up in failure so far. The only remaining course is for us to directly shoot the missile down.”

‘This isn’t even funny anymore, you insane motherf*ckers...’ (Liu Jing)

If spotting an ICBM mid-flight with naked eyes and shooting it down was possible, who would be scared of nukes in the first place? Seriously now, you’d have a better chance of threading a thrown needle before it fell to the ground.

– “The sole advantage to this operation is that... the ICBM is currently flying at subsonic speed at the moment.”

What on earth was that about?

Liu Jing slowly shook his head.

He was not understanding any of what’s being said here.

– “The fate of our glorious mother nation hangs on your shoulders. I’m sure you can all guess what will happen if that nuke detonates in Beijing. So, this isn’t just some empty pep talk. The fate of our nation really depends on today’s results.”

‘You know, I’d much have preferred you to not say stuff like that in a situation we found ourselves in.’ (Liu Jing)

Such ‘pep talk’ would indeed work wonders in helping the listener feel proud and important in any other normal times, but to those people about to go through hell and back, those words served to only amplify the mental burden they were experiencing already.

– “I shall pray for all your fortunes in war.”

Once the briefing coming from the headquarters came to an end, the squadron leader addressed the rest of his crew.

– “You heard him, right?”

The leader’s voice seemed to be trembling ever so slightly. There was a lot of background noise over the radio and that made it hard to listen properly, but if Liu Jing indeed didn’t mishear it, then the leader himself had no idea what was going on before getting here, either.

‘The higher-ups hid the details of the mission when we’re in a situation like this?’ (Liu Jing)

But, then again...

Nothing would’ve changed even if the pilots were briefed beforehand. No pilot present would have trained for an event like this one, anyway. Realistically speaking, what would’ve changed if they knew the truth before coming here?

– “Any questions?”

“What did they mean by the ICBM flying in at subsonic speed?” (Liu Jing)

– “Even I don’t know exactly what’s going on, other than that the ICBM isn’t in the normal launch state but being forcibly moved by external forces.”

Were ability users responsible, then?

If not, it must’ve been the handiwork of the demon king.

Liu Jing gritted his teeth, then asked that one question he was dying to ask.

“Let’s say that we manage to destroy the ICBM mid-air. Wouldn’t there be a good chance of the nuke onboard detonating as well?” (Liu Jing)

– “We should consider that event very likely.”

“If so, what will happen to the fighter planes that shoot down the missile from the near vicinity?” (Liu Jing)

– “...It should be as you think, soldier.”

“Hah...” (Liu Jing)

Liu Jing chuckled hollowly again.

So, the higher-ups wanted them to die.

No matter how fast a fighter plane was, it’d still be impossible to escape the radius of the nuclear explosion happening right behind you.

‘To think that I’d end up doing the same thing as those Jap b*stards.’ (Liu Jing)

– “As such, only one squadron will approach the ICBM at any given moment. Approach the target, attack it, then get the hell out of there regardless of the results. You all understand what I’m saying, don’t you?”

“Yes, leader.” (Liu Jing)

Liu Jing spat out a lengthy groan.

That ‘patriotism’ thing people often talked about? It was one of those things that didn’t influence Liu Jing’s thought process all that much.

Even then, he could tell that the situation didn’t allow him to run away by himself to save his skin. Liu Jing always thought that he was the type to turn tail and run away without so much as a glance behind him, but once the terms ‘mother nation’ and ‘citizens’ were bandied about, he got ruthlessly suppressed by the indescribably heavy weight of responsibility.

If the price of his desertion was the destruction of Beijing itself, then would Liu Jing be able to carry on living normally for the rest of his life?

“What a f*cked-up situation this is.” (Liu Jing)

Profanities continued to leak out of his mouth.

He squeezed his eyes shut. Success or failure – both scenarios presented problems. The best result he could hope for would be... him failing, then after he safely got out of the nuke’s range, someone else successfully detonating it.

However, such an optimal result would be hard to come by. He was never much of a favoured child of lady luck, after all.

– Beijing air force twelfth division, take the lead.

‘The twelfth division, is it...’ (Liu Jing)

Liu Jing chuckled hollowly again.

He was the part of that very division, so how could he not chuckle?

– “Move out.”

He clenched his teeth tightly at the squadron leader’s command.

Only now could Liu Jing understand why so many people throughout history could sacrifice themselves in the name of their country and fellow citizens. The moment he realised that all those lives were now waiting for the results of his actions, the ‘absolute worst’ possible ending had changed for him.

Was his death the absolute worst ending for him?

Or was him surviving but thousands of others dying at his expense the worst, instead?

If it were any other ‘normal’ times, then Liu Jing would obviously say that the former would be the ‘absolute worst’ for him. He was definitely a selfish person and a firm believer of, ‘There’s no point if I’m dead’ philosophy.

But, what about now?

Even if he managed to survive through this situation, could he really say that everything will be alright?

He would always put preservation of his life above all else.

However! No one would go, “Everything will be fine as long as I’m the only one surviving”, in these sorts of situations.

This thing called the lives of twenty million people was too huge, too unimaginable. And when taking into account where all those twenty million were currently gathered in, which was Beijing, then you’d realise that this issue transcended the ‘mere’ deaths of countless people.

The destruction of Beijing signified the complete paralysis of China itself.

Would twenty million out of one-point-something billion people suddenly vanishing result in the destruction of China?

In normal circumstances, no. The country might go through great turmoil, but in the end, China would stand back up on its two feet sooner or later.

In a normal circumstance, that was.

However, now was not normal. The demon king army was still pouring out from Sichuan. They wouldn’t stop their relentless march to destroy everything in China just because Beijing was wiped off from the map.

“Huh, huhuhuh.” (liu Jing)

Liu Jing gripped the control stick even harder.

What a truly f*cked-up event this was. Truly.

– “If we succeed, we shall become heroes to the people of our glorious nation. You are now blessed with such an opportunity, so you should all rejoice.”

Give me a f*cking break.

What’s the point of becoming a hero if you’re dead? (Liu Jing’s inner monologue)

Liu Jing clenched his teeth hard until it hurt. All sorts of retorts and unwillingness welled up in his chest, but he couldn’t turn them into actual actions. Not because he was a coward, however.

No one in their sane minds would be able to raise a voice of opposition under the current flow of events.

“Fine. Let’s f*cking do this. Sh*t.” (Liu Jing)

Liu Jing gritted his teeth.

His squadron took the lead of the formation while his heart pounded away crazily. His field of vision narrowed and cold sweat seemed to gush out from every pore in his body.

He tried to regulate his wild breathing several times and only then did it feel like he had calmed down somewhat.

And it was right then.

The ‘thing’ naked eyes couldn’t spot was first discovered by the radar.

The radar screen began displaying an unidentified flying object headed this way. However, even a moron could tell what that object was.

“Fuu-wuuuph.” (Liu Jing)

Liu Jing sucked in a deep, deep breath, and clenched his teeth yet again.

– “All personnel, prepare to intercept.”

The squadron leader’s plane right at the front of the pack accelerated away. Since they were going to blow the missile up, might as well do so as far away from Beijing as possible. That would minimise the potential damage overall.

Liu Jing stuck close to the squadron leader’s tail, narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brows.

“Prepare to fire!”

“Preparing!”

Modern fighter jets weren’t all that dependent on the abilities of the pilots themselves. It was almost impossible to manually lock-on to a target moving at high speed then shooting it down mid-air, after all.

So, the job of locking on to the target was not his but the computer’s.

However, Liu Jing soon learned the truth.

...That this was not a simple interception mission. At all.

“W-what the hell is that?!” (Liu Jing)

While searching for the target through the head-up display, Liu Jing’s naked eyes finally caught the sight of a certain... something. What seemed like a small dot in the distant sky gradually grew bigger and eventually revealed its bizarre, monstrous silhouette.

“...Son of a b*tch.” (Liu Jing)

A massive black bird seemingly perched on top of the ICBM, with its expansive wings spread out to either sides, opened its beak wide and screeched out loudly.

Kii-aaaaaah!!!

Goosebumps broke out on Liu Jing’s body.

< 429. There’s a nuke headed this way? -4 > Fin.