Chapter 339 - 259: The Vanishing Blackbird
Meanwhile, 1,200 kilometers east of the East Sea, at the edge of the Dragon Abyss Mist Sea.
A gray fog, like a thick wall, pressed down heavily upon the surface of the sea.
There was no sound of crashing waves, only the low roar of an engine reverberating within the cramped cockpit.
"Blackbird Three, report your readings."
The voice of his captain, Old Ghost, came through the headset, laced with heavy static. It sounded like the grinding of some kind of warped, stretching metal.
Cai Xu swallowed, his fingers tightening on the slightly slick control stick.
He glanced at the instrument panel, where the needles were jumping wildly, as if having a seizure.
"Reporting... The magnetic field readings are all over the place. The radar is pure static, and visibility is less than fifty meters." Cai Xu’s voice trembled.
He was a rookie in the Garrison Army’s Aerospace Forces, with the callsign "Rookie."
This was his first A Level reconnaissance mission.
The modified Night Falcon recon jet he was piloting was fresh from the factory last month, supposedly equipped with the latest anti-interference Rune Array.
But in a place like this, that so-called "latest technology" wasn’t performing much better than a piece of scrap metal.
"Steady."
Old Ghost’s voice was still calm. "We’re just on the periphery. Blackbird Two, what about you?"
Silence.
Only the crackle of static in the headset.
"Blackbird Two, come in," Old Ghost said, his voice louder.
Still no response.
Cai Xu instinctively glanced to his left.
According to their formation, Blackbird Two should have been just thirty meters off his left wing.
But there was only churning gray fog. It was empty. There was nothing there.
"Blackbird Two is gone!"
Cai Xu yelled, cold sweat instantly soaking the lining of his G-suit. "His signal’s gone from the radar, too!"
"Shut up! Maintain radio Silence!"
Old Ghost barked, cutting him off. "Switch to the optical search system. Manual visual scan."
Cai Xu frantically activated the optical search pod.
The screen lit up, the display a ghastly white.
Just then, the static in his headset changed.
It was no longer a harsh crackle, but a strange, intermittent... humming.
The sound was faint, like a language never heard before, or perhaps a woman humming a lullaby to her child.
It didn’t enter his brain through his ears, but resonated directly inside Cai Xu’s skull.
"Who’s singing?" Cai Xu asked.
"Singing? I don’t hear a thing!"
Old Ghost’s voice turned urgent. "All units, increase altitude immediately! Exit the Fog Area! Now!"
Cai Xu yanked back the control stick and slammed the throttle to maximum.
The Night Falcon’s thrusters flared with blue flame, and the entire jet began to shake violently.
But he realized the jet wasn’t climbing.
The numbers on his altimeter were dropping like a rock: 2,000 meters, 1,500 meters, 800 meters...
"Altimeter’s failed! We’re in a dive!"
Cai Xu roared in terror. "Captain, the Gravity in this godforsaken place is all wrong!"
"Forget the instruments! Trust your Intuition! Pull up!"
Cai Xu gritted his teeth, wrapped both hands around the control stick, and pulled back with all his might.
The airframe emitted a sickening groan of twisting metal, as if a pair of giant, invisible hands were grabbing the jet’s wings, trying to drag him into the abyss.
The bizarre humming grew clearer.
Cai Xu felt his vision begin to double.
The red lights on the instrument panel were no longer warning indicators, but had become scarlet eyes, staring coldly at him.
"Isn’t it a lovely sound..."
A gentle female voice echoed in his mind.
Cai Xu’s gaze went slack. His hands, which had been gripping the control stick for dear life, slowly loosened their grip.
’This feeling is so comforting.’
’It’s like returning to the womb, to the safest harbor.’
’Why struggle?’
’Just fly down, into the sea, and all the pain will be over.’
"Wake up! Wake the fuck up!"
A thunderous roar exploded in his ear.
It was followed by a violent impact.
Cai Xu snapped back to his senses, realizing his jet had been struck by something with immense force, sending it into a lateral roll.
Through the canopy, he saw a sight he would never forget.
His captain’s jet, the one painted with a shark’s mouth, was spewing long tongues of flame from its thrusters as it intentionally collided with his own plane, knocking him aside.
And directly in front of his captain, the thick gray fog had torn open.
Behind the rift was neither sky nor sea.
It was a colossal "jellyfish" composed of innumerable translucent tentacles.
It floated in mid-air, its tentacles piercing the fuselage of another jet—the missing Blackbird Two.
Blackbird Two’s canopy was shattered. The pilot wasn’t dead, but... smiling.
The veteran, a man who was normally terrified of death, now had his arms wide open, fanatically embracing a tentacle that had wormed its way into the cockpit.
He allowed the thing to pierce the center of his forehead, feeding on... something.
"What is this monster..."
Cai Xu felt his stomach churn violently.
"It got me, too..."
Old Ghost’s voice had become incredibly weak, the humming apparently eroding his sanity.
"Rookie, my fire-control system is locked, and the ejection seat has failed. I’m not getting out of this."
"Captain!"
"No time for that! Record this and get it back to base!"
Old Ghost’s jet suddenly swung around, all its weapon bay doors sliding open.
"Tell command these sons of bitches aren’t Demon Beasts! They’re... some kind of Spiritual Body!"
BOOM!
Old Ghost detonated all of his missiles while simultaneously activating his engine’s overload self-destruct sequence.
The shark-mouthed jet became a dazzling fireball, slamming violently into the body of the giant "jellyfish."