Chapter 227

Chapter 227: The International Air Defense Missile Store

There was no choice; the rockets lacked guidance systems, so Lin Mo could only try to avoid hitting his own people.

The cannon underneath the aircraft fired two quick bursts, sweeping toward the enemy flanking the green dots.

Almost simultaneously, a series of bright lights swept in from the direction of the ancient castle. Lin Mo quickly adjusted the control stick; they were anti-aircraft machine guns. As he launched a barrage of rockets, he had also entered the enemy’s firing range.

Once again, the ancient castle erupted into a sea of flames, and even the walls were hit by rockets.

At this moment, the East Turkestan militants, now aware, rushed toward the anti-aircraft machine gun position, and more flames began to chase after Lin Mo’s J-10.

Visible light trails rushed toward the fighter jet, appearing before Lin Mo as projections of their trajectories.

This was the Dragon Knight’s unique skill: the predictive technique, allowing him to easily maneuver the J-10 based on its performance, dodging the incoming fire as if he were a seabird dancing through a rain of bullets, invulnerable even amid the most intense attack.

Inside the anti-aircraft machine gun position, Lin Mo quickly broke free, flying around the ancient castle to scout the real situation. Suddenly, clouds of black smoke erupted in the sky, closely tailing the J-10’s trail. With swift movements of the control stick, Lin Mo executed a pendulum maneuver, accelerating to escape the encirclement of black clouds.

Wow! They even had anti-aircraft cannons! Judging by the range and the exploding black clouds, they were likely 23mm caliber cannons. This East Turkestan stronghold was indeed armed to the teeth.

Pulling into a sharp turn, Lin Mo adjusted the aircraft’s nose again and headed toward the ancient castle. On the heads-up display, multiple small green dots had safely exited the castle, rushing toward the mountains along the opening Lin Mo had made.

His unique Light Mirror Technique captured the battlefield situation. Snipers were firing continuously on both sides of the road at the mountaintop, flashes of gunfire lighting up like stars. Dust exploded in puffs as bullets struck, and the warrior responsible for covering the retreat held a personal ballistic shield that sparkled with sparks, the dense rain of bullets pressing them back unsteadily, illustrating just how urgent the situation was.

Faced with fierce anti-aircraft fire and his comrades in dire straits, Lin Mo had to make a choice.

With gritted teeth, he began a demonstration of supersonic maneuvers, snake-like approaches, and launched another surface-to-air missile. To cover his comrades’ retreat, Lin Mo daringly approached the ancient castle, using the cannon to target the anti-aircraft positions, trading fire with several small-caliber anti-aircraft guns.

His teammates had not yet escaped the kill zone of the cloud explosive bomb, so Lin Mo couldn’t risk dropping bombs yet, fearing friendly fire. Instead, he continued to use the cannon to suppress enemy fire, prioritizing the safety of his comrades.

The 23mm cannon exploded against the defensive points within the ancient castle, creating fiery flashes and even causing secondary explosions. As Lin Mo raced past, he could see many East Turkestan militants firing AK-47s into the air from below.

What a prickly situation! The wings got peppered with several small bullet holes, and since they weren’t made of armored material, there would be repairs needed—what a blow!

The design of the AK-47 allows for a maximum range of 1200 meters, but this doesn’t mean bullets only travel that far; it’s simply the range where the bullet still has effective lethality. In fact, the 7.62mm bullets can reach up to 2000 meters.

To ensure effective lethality, Lin Mo had to hold the distance within the cannon’s effective range; otherwise, stray bullets could hit his own men. This also meant the J-10 was exposed within AK-47’s range.

However, at this distance, any bullet that could hit the J-10 was mere luck.

Seeing damage to his aircraft made Lin Mo feel a pang in his chest — those debts from last December had to be repaid quickly. He immediately triggered the cluster bomb deployment, releasing two 250-kilogram cluster munitions.

To control the kill radius, the death zone created by the explosion of the two cluster bombs covered nearly half the ancient castle. The explosive sound echoed as the exposed East Turkestan militants wailed in agony, overwhelmed by a storm of shrapnel and the shockwave of high-explosive grenades, claiming lives.

However, the centuries-old stone structures of the castle offered solid defenses. The densely dropped cluster bombs only scattered rubble without destroying too much of the architecture. Many East Turkestan militants smartly chose to hide inside, while only a handful foolishly fired at the J-10 from the streets or rooftops, or unfortunate souls caught within their own buildings suffered from the bombardment.

Against such complex structures as the ancient castle, aerial cluster bombs weren’t ideal, but Lin Mo only needed to suppress fire momentarily to allow his team to escape further, which was sufficient.

With a bang, the aircraft violently jolted. Lin Mo turned to see a cup-sized hole in the cockpit behind him.

The cost was high this time; who knew such a group had so many anti-aircraft weapons? No matter how much Lin Mo maneuvered, he couldn’t completely avoid it, and took a hit from an anti-aircraft bullet.

Fortunately, it didn’t hit a vital area; the aircraft’s self-repair and protection systems activated, briefly emitting smoke before extinguishing. Fire-fighting foam even flowed out from the bullet hole, carried away by the airflow, sealing the wound.

A warning light on the control panel flashed red, then switched to yellow, indicating that a functional module had been disabled due to damage.

It seemed like a long night ahead. Lin Mo shook his head, cursing his misfortune.

After numerous nighttime treks, there would be hits; Lin Mo was cautious as he rapidly pulled back on the control stick, accelerating to supersonic speeds. However, from the direction of the ancient castle, five or six trails of white smoke shot out, closely pursuing him.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The alarms in the cockpit blared.

Lin Mo glanced at the radar screen, his heart racing in fear. Damn it, surface-to-air missiles—more than one! The radar quickly identified the oncoming missiles, three SA-2 "SAM-2" surface-to-air missiles, along with two FIM-92C Stinger shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.

This was life-threatening. More missiles continued flying out from the direction of the castle, as Lin Mo identified even more missile types: France’s "Crotale," S14 "Starshine," and even China’s FN-6 "Red Cherry-6" (also known as the Flying Crossbow).

It was practically an air defense missile exhibition; this wasn’t merely an East Turkestan stronghold but an international arms bazaar.

A report indicated that nearly 50,000 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles were uncontrollably scattered throughout the Middle East, the Caucasus, and South Asia, especially Iraq and Afghanistan.

There were also quite a few in the unstable regions of the Congo River Basin and the Great Lakes in Africa.

“Missiles! Watch out for the missiles! So many!”

The soldiers of the First Squad and Second Squad felt the immense pressure of the dense missile barrage, their firepower diminishing as the East Turkestan militants in the castle were also struck with fear. At least seven or eight trails of white smoke were tailing the roaring J-10 fighter jet, creating a spectacular sight.

The sky roared with the sounds of jet engines and rumbling rocket boosters.

“I see them! I see them! This is damn bad!”

Lin Mo gasped, making a quick decision to dive into the mountains, using the terrain to evade.

“Eject! Eject! You can’t escape!”

Colonel Ji’s voice and the urgent calls from the two squad leaders filled the channel.

“No way! Even if I eject now, I’d still get hit by a missile. I can’t get out of its kill radius!” Lin Mo shook the control stick, his other hand rapidly pressing buttons in the cockpit.

As he executed dangerously extreme maneuvers through the narrow valley, infrared countermeasures were deployed below, scattering a line of red light beads. Occasionally, a missile collided with a countermeasure and erupted into a fireball.

As the J-10 and the missile swarm plunged into the distant valley, every explosion echoed sharply in everyone’s hearts. The East Turkestan militants hoped that the fighter jet would be turned into a fireball in the next explosion—a point of pride for them in future conversations.

Meanwhile, two Night warriors hoped that Lin Mo would trigger all the missiles to explode safely.

“Whoa! I’m dodging! I’m dodging! Damn, it’s not over yet!”

The J-10 performed an incredibly thrilling acrobatic flight, where even a slight deviation could result in a collision with the rugged terrain, destroying the aerodynamics, leading to a deadly chain reaction. At this moment, forget about ejecting; if he could remain in one piece, that would be a blessing.

The Dragon Knight concentrated fully on piloting the aircraft, calculating every maneuver precisely; even the slightest mistake was unacceptable. Any slight deviation of the control stick could mean destruction and loss of life.

Yet guided by the Light Mirror Technique, it felt as if there were a dedicated optical reconnaissance satellite overhead, informing Lin Mo of the surrounding terrain within a five-kilometer radius, allowing him to execute various dangerous maneuvers. The pursuing missiles, while fast, lacked turning capabilities, like an adult swinging a lethal, uncontrollable club—efforts rendered futile.

The first to lose power was the FN-6 "Red Cherry-6," with a range of only five kilometers, which fell into the valley after exhausting fuel, becoming a surface-to-surface missile.

Next came the Stinger and the Crotale—a shoulder-fired missile targeting Lin Mo’s J-10 proved insufficient.