Long-term salvation

Turning off the public frequency, Rhode ignored the spiderweb-like warning ripples that suddenly exploded on the monitor. Instead, he rotated the fuselage and released jammers. His left hand pushed the throttle lever, and his right hand gripped the joystick tightly, causing the fighter's metal frame to roar as it was on the verge of disintegration under the multi-G overload.

The F/S-15 fighter suddenly began to climb, and the bright tail flame of the engine when it was in afterburner overshadowed the sun's brilliance at this moment, driving the fighter to fly through the smoke rising from the burning military port, rolling up a tornado-like tail.

Rhodes could hear the hissing sound of the oxygen mask releasing pressure, and his lungs immediately felt uncomfortable as if all the air was sucked out by a vacuum pump. But for other ordinary pilots, this was not just "discomfort", but an extremely dangerous act that could take away consciousness and life!

Of course, this was not without cost for Rhodes - he bit the breathing valve tightly, and snowflake noise still began to appear in the center of his vision. Darkness was coming from all directions - this was a stupid decision when being chased by multiple enemies with high speed and height.

But Rod is more than just himself:

The F/S-15 fighter jet with one wing painted red swooped down from the sky with a roar. The fairy with one wing pressed the missile launch button in the cockpit with an expressionless face. The missile left the beam, and the white smoke trail drew a spiral trajectory in the blue sky, mixed with the purest murderous intent.

This is far from the end!

The Red Wing fighters swiftly dived, their cold steel bodies slashing through the black smoke and thin clouds, abruptly splitting the battlefield in two. The Su-47 at the rear was caught off guard. If it hadn't been for its exceptional performance, forcing it to execute a defensive maneuver, those few bursts of machine gun fire alone would have been enough to adorn the sky with yet another ball of flame.

As the fighter planes crossed each other, the bright red wings reflected a cold light in the sunlight, which matched the indifference flashing in the fairy's eyes.

Glancing at Pixy, who had already chosen her opponent, Rhode didn't waste any more time. He turned his fuselage and looked up at the Mimic Squadron No. 2 still following behind him - it was his sister Scream, who had a bad temper and was suspected of having a mishuman personality.

Dealing with such a person is very simple... Rhodes turned on the public channel again and challenged him:

"Imitator Squadron Unit 2."

"Aha! Are you finally going to surrender to me? But unfortunately, I'm the one who wants to eradicate the problem completely. After all..."

"No, I was just wondering what kind of gift to give you—how about 'despair'?"

"you wanna die!!!"

Rhodes heard the missile warning blast beside him, and immediately turned sideways, afterburning, and fired jamming flares while looking up. He saw the black and white Su-47 flipping its fuselage to adjust its shooting angle. The Su-47 fighter's subsonic maneuverability was terrifyingly high, and the maneuverability it could perform depended more on the pilot's ability to withstand it... Or rather, many vehicles in the world were like this.

The moment the Su-47's vector nozzle deflected, the tens-ton steel giant, like a spinning top whipped by an invisible giant hand, trembled and completed a 180-degree turn. The nose of the aircraft quickly turned towards the flight path of the F/S-15 fighter, began to close the distance between them, and fired an air-to-air missile!

The missile crossed the slightly longer distance almost instantly, brushing past Rhodes' fighter plane and plummeting toward the sea like a puppy attracted by a baseball, creating milky white spray in the choppy waves.

"Tsk, the enemy's energy is still greater than mine..."

After glancing at the remaining number of jamming bombs and fuel, Rhodes thought for half a second, then swerved to defense when the enemy plane began to dive. The enemy was cautious and did not try to fire with machine guns, but instead kept trying to lock onto the F/S-15 fighter at the six o'clock position with radar.

"The height is about the same, but the speed is a bit higher, and she's on the outside of the turn... That's... great, she's caught up. The provocation is paying off."

Rod continued forward and performed a horizontal scissors maneuver. The Su-47 also planned to do the same thing and opened the speed brakes to slow down and turn.

Both sides wanted to enter the other side's rear hemisphere and end the battle with a burst of machine gun fire.

Soon, the first intersection point was about to be reached - Rhodes then saw in the rearview mirror that the Su47 was still slowing down in order to gain an advantageous position in the opponent's rear hemisphere when the two sides intersected - what a good idea, the grumpy female pilot was far less crazy than she appeared in the battle.

Come to think of it, anyone who is really that stupid would have died in battle long ago and would never have had the chance to fly a Su-47.

"Aha! Where is your gift, my Lord? I'm about to tread upon your crown!"

A provocative voice echoed over the public radio. The female pilot of the Su-47 waited eagerly to experience the enemy's painful struggle. After all, at the current speed, if they reached the first intersection, the F/S-15 would be in front and the Su-47 would be behind, which would be quite disadvantageous for Rhodes.

But it was just as well this way. Rhode had lost his patience to continue playing with her. According to the plan, the mass-produced Nikkis should have finished suppressing the Alicorn and were maneuvering it to the designated location.

So, just when the two sides were about to reach the intersection.

Rhodes released the [Angle of Attack Limiter].

The F/S-15 fighter suddenly flipped and hovered in the air! It was like an ugly iron nail being hammered into the blue sky. Even though the wingtip vortices drew beautiful arcs, not even a trace of cruel murderous intent was eliminated... At this moment, Rhode raised his head and met Scream's gaze.

Even though he couldn't see the other person's eyes, Rhodes could feel the shock, panic, and - despair from that sight.

The 20mm cannon immediately opened fire, and the ugly scar caused by the shell extended from the nose of the Su-47 to the rear, beating the stunned human into a pulp. Blood coated the entire cockpit faster than the explosion, and finally turned into a brilliant flame.

As the flames trailed a long trail of black smoke as they fell, Rhode looked up and saw another meteor falling as well. They plunged into the vast ocean one after the other, sending up waves several meters high mixed with metal fragments, becoming part of the countless pieces of fighter debris scattered across the planet.

"YO, Buddy, Still alive?"

"It's obvious," Rhodes breathed out. He glanced at the low amount of fuel left and sighed, "I'm afraid we can't get to the evacuation base now... I hope my girls can move faster, otherwise we'll have to feed the fish."

"Will you land an F/S-15 on the Alicorn?"

"Don't make such meaningless jokes."

"Oh, can you swim?"

"……meeting."

Chapter 285: Alicorn! (3/3·4.5K)

Darkness is seeping into the sea water in varying densities.

The churning sound of the Alicorn's propellers slowly spread out along the sea water, and the sound waves were distorted in the cold ocean currents, like someone striking a bronze bell through thick frosted glass. But the drivers need not worry about this - these faint sounds have long since merged into the ocean noise, allowing the giant beast to move forward like a black hole below the sea level.

This massive submarine features a trimaran design. The main hull is equipped with a flight deck capable of launching and landing carrier-based aircraft and a vertical launch missile unit. Auxiliary hulls on either side each carry a 200mm railgun with a range exceeding 400 kilometers. The entire vessel is 495 meters long, displacing an estimated 81 tons submerged. It is equipped with two liquid-cooled nuclear reactors, ensuring long-term submersible operation.

However, the Alicorn's most threatening weapon is the 600mm railgun hidden beneath the deck, with a range of 3000 kilometers and the ability to launch hypersonic gliders carrying nuclear bombs! Of course, this beyond-visual-range strike still requires a calibration drone.

Captain Matthias Torres, who controls this giant ship, does not believe that he will be defeated, although in the established timeline, fate played a little joke on him... and here, he also forgot one thing:

The strongest fortress is most easily breached from within.

Alicorn, supply storage bay.

The place was filled with all sorts of miscellaneous items, from canned goods to tools needed for repairs and maintenance, enough to sustain the Alicorn's extended operations on the seabed. Now, ten stacked crates shifted, and from within emerged ten lovely girls—mass-produced Nikkis—who quickly dispersed and hid themselves in the shadows of the crates.

There was no need to be so vigilant. There were only three exits with faint lights above the waterproof hatches, and the rest of the area was shrouded in darkness. For Nikki and the others, this was not a problem.

"Align the time... Four of you will take control of the bridge, and the remaining three will form teams to control the hangar and reactor bay. Action begins! For Commander Rhodes!"

"For Commander Rhodes!"

The deliberately suppressed shouts overlapped, and the next second they were drowned out by the sound of soft and gentle footsteps.

The captain of the mass-produced Nikki First Tactical Team is a "Soldier EG" model. Her code name during operations is "1-E". As for the name... she hasn't thought of it yet, but plans to wait until all this is over, then go to the library or somewhere else to find some books and choose a suitable one.

"1-E, there are 330 people on this submarine. If we want to take care of them all, we don't have enough Frigga bullets."

Team member Number 6 said, her fingers tracing the trigger guard of her silenced M9 pistol. Her combat uniform scraped against the metal wall beside her, making a soft sound like the vibration of a cicada's wings. In front of her was 1-E, and further behind her was the mass-produced Nikki, wielding a shotgun and a machine gun.

"Have you forgotten what the commander said?" 1-E muttered. "The Frigga bullets we have are for creating stealth conditions! To kill humans... we have enough bullets."

"I get it. There's no need to be so fierce."

The four-member team moved forward in silence. It seemed that because they were on a combat cruise, the crew members were concentrated in various combat compartments and had no time to hang out outside.

Now, before the mass-produced Nikkis lay a geometric maze of phosphorescent green. Bolts and pipes, like inverted stalactites, cast strange shadows in the dark corridors. Condensate dripped along the ribs, forming winding underground rivers on both sides of the metal floor, then flowing through grooves into the submarine's collection and circulation system.

At this moment, the submarine's hull is bearing the pressure of hundreds of meters of water. Every high-strength alloy plate is making a teeth-grinding squeak, as if countless steel pliers are slowly tightening the submarine's ribs, trying to make it succumb to the violence of nature and the laws of physics.

Ignoring these strange noises, 1-E and her team walked cautiously for a few minutes before hearing a report from the team heading to the reactor over the communication channel:

"We have arrived outside the power compartment and are currently taking cover, but we can hear the conversation going on inside."

"Very good, wait for the one over there in the hangar... Wait, someone's coming here."

1-E shut off the comms, pressed herself against the corridor wall, and stretched out her beautiful figure. She heard two crew members approaching from the other end of the cross-corridor. Their flashlights swept across the ceiling, which was covered in pipes. Their voices echoed in the metal cabin, crawling along the pipes to other areas of the submarine.

He winked at 6O, who was standing opposite him. The latter nodded slightly and got ready.

As the footsteps of the two crew members were getting closer, the mass-produced Nikkis threw punches at the same time. Two heavy swinging punches suddenly hit the men's noses, making the straight things dented, and blood mixed with the sound of broken bones gushed out!

After dragging the two men aside, 1-E exhaled slowly, her eyes sweeping over the crew members who were bound to die. Then, through gritted teeth, she spoke to the others:

"We must continue to advance—Commander Rhodes' orders are absolute! Groups 2 and 3, act quickly and secure the target cabin! Kill any who resist!"

"Understood!"xN

The yellow-green emergency lights cast distorted spots of light on the walls of the tube, like the glowing scales of some deep-sea fish, stretching the outlines of Nikki's tactical helmets into deformed shadows. These shadows flashed across the walls of the corridor until they reached their destination.

After knocking over a dozen crew members along the way and knocking out four more with Frigga bullets, 1-E and her team had already reached the outside of the bridge. They could even clearly hear the roar coming from inside:

"Intruders?! No... don't you understand? Those guys stepped on me without taking off their shoes! On my perfectly clean white sheets!"

More and more footsteps echoed in the dark corridor, accompanied by the flickering lights of flashlights. The various cabins were about to be closed and sealed. This would be the last chance for the mass-produced Nikkis.

Just as the bridge's watertight hatch was about to close, a slender arm suddenly appeared, firmly grasping the heavy door. Then a second one followed! The crew member responsible for closing the hatch was furious, but he couldn't shake the slender, woman-like arm... Just as he was about to turn around to warn the others, a petite figure scurried into the command cabin and, with a roundhouse kick, sent him flying into the wall on the other side.

As the crew member slowly slid down the wall and his consciousness fell into darkness, he heard a clear female voice shouting:

"Raise your hands! This ship has been commandeered by the great Commander Rhodes!"

These words, these sounds, echoed in the bridge, vibrating through the slightly turbid air, reaching the ears of Captain Matías Torres, filling his gloomy face with a fiery glow of anger.

This crazy man pushed aside the other crew members and stood in front of everyone who was stunned by the gunpoint. He was buying time and blocking the subtle movements of the helmsman behind him. Then, Captain Torres said with a sneer:

"Is the Ossia Navy completely empty? Do they still need to send little girls like you to serve as death squads? You're not even tall enough to reach the operating table!"

The facial muscles of 6O, the shortest among them, twitched slightly. She took a deep breath, clenched her fists, and prepared to step forward to teach this old man a lesson. After all, Commander Rhodes said that "humans can be killed", so how to kill them is our own problem, right?

"We are an army without borders,"

1-E spoke calmly, taking two steps to the side and firing a single shot from her M9, knocking the helmsman unconscious. As his limp arm touched the heel of Torres's shoe, the man calmed down, quickly fabricating a lie and speaking coldly:

"I was wondering what it was. It turned out to be that wild war dog... According to our intelligence, he's been hunted down and killed by fighter jets from an unknown force. The fuselage of the fighter has already crashed into the seabed. Little girl—do you want to listen to the sonar recording now? Do you want to hear the mournful cry of that metal creature as it sank to the bottom of the sea?"

As he spoke, Torres casually waved an earphone at Nikki and the others - but he didn't see any panic or confusion on their faces, not even the slightest hesitation. On the contrary, they were responding silently with mocking expressions.

Oops, there's something wrong with these women's brains.

Torres exhaled slowly, looked around, and without hesitation, shouted angrily:

"Control them!"

The next second, the Alicorn crew, who had begun to move slowly earlier, rushed towards the mass-produced Nikkis like arrows. They were not wearing bulletproof vests or other protective equipment. They were only using their flesh and blood - the only thing they had at the moment - and their own lives to create opportunities for their companions. At the same time, they were also gambling that these armed outsiders would not dare to destroy the equipment in the bridge at will!

A heroic act, but it meant nothing.

The crew members rushing in the front only felt that they were retreating and flying backwards, and when they felt severe pain in their chest or abdomen, they realized that their bodies had been attacked - the four girls who looked like Terminators were playing whack-a-mole one by one, punching, kicking, or even just standing there!

"So... humans are such weak creatures. They're no match for Nikki."

6O sighed. She was holding the head of a crew member in her palm. The man was still struggling, but as Nikki slowly lifted him up—four Nikkis lifted the heads of four crew members at the same time—the struggle became weaker and weaker. The mass-produced Nikkis threw them aside, crashing into those who were still trying to get up.

Then, Product 12, holding a machine gun, mounted the weapon on the bridge hatch, and slowly fired at the crew members who came with weapons, destroying their weapons and bodies together. The orange-red gunfire flickered in the corridor with a careless and indifferent look.

All this happened in a split second, so fast that Torres didn't even have the chance to start the submarine's self-sinking - not to mention, he didn't want to sink it.

The atmosphere in the entire bridge was almost frozen. Even the dry air that was continuously spitting out from the ventilation ducts extending from the upper and side bulkheads could not blow away the painful gasps here. It could only make the center of the yellowed and curled map with the four corners fixed with magnets float up and down, making the capital of the Osean Federation with circles drawn on it particularly eye-catching.

The surveillance footage from dozens of surveillance cameras showed only corpses or unconscious people lying on the ground, with occasional flashes of human activity. These were nothing more than beings like the four "girls" before them, conducting inspections and sweeps.

They descended from the shadows, and with overwhelming speed and power, they destroyed all resistance on the Alicorn, including the hangar, the power compartment, and the torpedo compartment. Now, they were sending people to check the living quarters...

"Are you fucking Terminators?" Captain Torres covered his eyes with his hands and laughed a mixture of anger, hatred, and helplessness. "Robots from the future, just to make fun of us primitive people?"

"The future? Not entirely wrong, but you could also consider us from the 'past,'" 1-E slowly stepped forward, her M9 pistol raised, the muzzle pointed at Captain Torres, and she spoke calmly, "We don't want to kill. That's not our job. Your fate will be decided by Commander Rhodes."

"Rod? Ha, what a nice name... I just hope that when he calls himself Lord or Monarch, he can have more pride as a human being, instead of filling his chest with arrogance."

"I return these words to you, Captain Torres—the man who vainly sought to end the war with slaughter."

1-E said no more. She took a step forward and knocked the crazy man unconscious before Torres turned around and tried to forcibly reverse the steering gear to make the Alicorn dive deeper into the sea.

"call……"

When it was all over, 1-E let out a long breath. She turned her head and looked at the rest of the team, then asked:

"Is everything okay?"

"It's okay." / "It's okay, just a little weird—the corridor is covered in human blood." / "Humans are so fragile... Oops, don't hit me on the head!"

The mass-produced Nikkis did not waste any more time, but quickly took over the nearby submarine and tied up all the crew members, whether dead or alive.

"Well, Commander Rhodes sent us a satellite message. We need to head to the designated location to meet him now!"

+ + + + + + + + +

When the F/S-15 fighter jet Rhodes was flying was about to run out of fuel, he saw the huge black body of the Alicorn emerging from the sea, lazily wandering in the afternoon sunshine like a whale, enjoying the bright light that could never appear in the depths of the ocean.

"Okay, now we say goodbye to these two fighters," Rhodes said helplessly. "The F-15 can't land here... and even if it lands, it can't take off."

"Takeoff is another matter. If you can get that magical cat to work a little harder and land the fighter more slowly, then maybe we can do it."

Pixy said this on the communication channel, but before he could finish his words, he felt something "swallowing" him and his fighter plane together! If he savored it carefully, it was like crossing a certain "door"... Pixy came to his senses and looked outside blankly -

The F/S-15 fighter jet has landed smoothly on the deck runway of the Alicorn.