Chapter 1649: Chapter 1566: Anticlimactic Airstrike
"Frid! Frid! Turn! Turn!" Suddenly, a comrade screamed frantically in the headset. Despite some interference noise, Frid could hear it clearly. He jerked his control stick hard, causing his plane to abruptly change its flight direction.
The Peidao Fighter turned sharply, exerting its maximum performance, but still couldn’t shake off the agile air-to-air missile tailing it.
The missile’s guidance head had already locked onto the burning tail flames. Its sensitive components rotated the sharp glide wings, instantly altering the trajectory to follow the Peidao’s exhaust and cutting into a more direct angle.
Before Frid could pull his aircraft back to a normal flight stance, he felt something push him from behind.
He had no time to think more. He pulled his ejection lever, and the sound of an explosion immediately echoed in his ears: a small amount of explosives around the cockpit blasted his canopy away, and he, along with his seat, was flung out of the plane.
The tail of the Peidao Fighter he was piloting had already vanished, a burning and exploding fireball was consuming the entire aircraft, and the next second, Frid’s cockpit was engulfed in blazing flames.
The plane had already exploded and disintegrated in the sky. After feeling the heat around him, Frid quickly experienced the cold of high altitude. Only the whistling wind was left in his ears, and he felt as if he were being held by a giant hand, swaying in the strong wind.
"Ha! Ah! Ha..." He tried to take deep breaths, but because he was wearing a mask, his breathing was not smooth. He wanted to see everything around him clearly, but the spinning sky made it impossible for him to control his brain.
He had not yet broken free from the recent explosion, and pulling the ejection lever was all an instinctive reaction for him. In fact, from the moment he performed that high-g maneuver, he had been in a dazed state.
The next second, he saw the earth beneath him, the sky above him, the smoke-trailing plummeting plane, and the white trails in the sky.
The entire sky seemed to be on fire, with the Tang Army’s planes shooting down countless planes, including the far-flung Peidao, the Jian Liu, and the more advanced Jian Liu Gai.
The assets that the Ice Cold Empire had painstakingly accumulated, along with the support from afar, all turned into bubbles on this day. Hundreds of planes fell, with the roar of engines and the sharp sound of slicing air currents everywhere.
Even without interference from the Tang Army, the front-line command channels of the entire Ice Cold Empire were already paralyzed, filled with cries for help, curses, and weeping in every channel.
No one could stop this from happening. Even if orders were issued for all planes to return, it was already too late.
The Saab Bomber formation was being slaughtered, with gunners tensely searching the sky from behind their defensive machine guns. They couldn’t see the incoming enemy, but could hear the voices of despair from pilots in their headsets.
"Where are they? Find them! Hurry up, or we’re finished!" Despite hearing such words making them wish for more eyes, they could only stand dazed between the white clouds and blue sky, at a loss.
They could not see the enemy’s shadow at all, then suddenly saw a white smoke trail crash into a Saab Bomber, and the plane shattered in the sky, tumbling down from the formation amidst the pilot’s screams.
Soon, a second smoke trail rushed in and collided with another plane on the edge, and that plane too fell trailing black smoke, its wing breaking halfway down.
Some had already started shouting in despair, others began to sob, and the radio brought commands from the commanders, saying they were already surrounded and ordering an immediate descent for bombing preparation.
Unfortunately, the entire formation was already in chaos, with few people executing such orders. Some planes began to turn back, some descended, and some started to climb, leaving the formation disorganized.
"We’ve been betrayed! Where are the fighter jets covering us? Where are they?" Someone already broke down, questioning in the radio.
Then the cursing began to rise continuously, many started swearing: "Those bastards must have run off themselves! Damn! Giving orders to execute such a command is sending us to die! Those officers should be captured and shot!"
Because they were too old, the Saab Bombers didn’t have any warning systems, they had no idea they had been locked onto, or that missiles were continuously coming to knock them down.
"Boom!" With a loud explosion, a missile went off beside the cockpit of a Saab Bomber, flames engulfing its left engine, and shrapnel shattered the cockpit glass.
The pilot fell back into his seat covered in blood, while the co-pilot’s arm was also soaked in red blood. He struggled to control his plane to maintain its flight stance, pulling the control stick in the cold wind flooding the cockpit.
His plane was losing control, with one engine starting to smoke, flames lashing out from behind the stalled propeller, engulfing the surrounding damaged skin. As the flames inside became uncontrollable, thick smoke poured from the skin cracks, and then the airflow blew some skin away, revealing the flames inside.
"We’re finished!" He didn’t know if the bombardier and gunners behind him could hear his voice, but the co-pilot said this, then gave up struggling. He could no longer control his plane, which was now like a runaway horse laden with bombs.
Or perhaps that comparison wasn’t entirely accurate as it quickly couldn’t even maintain a normal descent trajectory anymore.
One wing started to deform and break due to the fire, with the metal frame making screeching sounds, ultimately snapping under the airflow’s strain. The wing tip flew away in the whistling wind, taking some debris with it, tossed by the plummeting plane.
Next, it began to spin, tumble, and then shatter... However, the main part of the fuselage and a portion of a wing finally slammed into the ground, and was immediately consumed by an explosion.
The detonators of the bombs suspended in the bomb bay completed the final detonation work upon impact, ensuring these bombs accomplished their mission.
What should have been an inspiring aerial counterattack now brought even greater despair to the Ice Cold Empire infantry fighting on the ground. They watched their planes fall one by one, spreading fear in their hearts, beyond any control.