Chapter 121: Shoot Down! Drag Away!
In the command hall, the operators also reacted accordingly.
The rocket body’s massive tail flame was ignited, and the second stage rocket’s speed began to slow down immediately after.
Only now did everyone have the chance to turn their attention back to the footage from the camera, that massive spaceship that instilled fear.
This spaceship seemed extremely agile, as it slightly adjusted its posture, and the plasma flames spewing from the two massive engines at the tail dragged the hull to reduce the falling speed.
Young Dragon One spaceship piloting room.
This spaceship also utilized the ultra-strong computing power provided by Star Calculation No. 1, allowing most operations to be handled by autopilot.
Because of this, most of the time, one pilot could handle the remaining series of operation commands.
At this moment, in the pilot’s seat, the pilot wearing Great Xia’s new army green spacesuit stared intently at the Hunter Nine second stage booster not far ahead, which had turned black and ashy from high-temperature scorching.
Behind him, two space force team members wearing the same military uniform looked at him with faces full of envy.
The pilot slowly activated the weapon launch button; this spaceship had top-tier attitude control, managing to keep the hull perfectly aligned with that second stage rocket booster throughout the falling process.
“Target locked, two solid missiles, firing!”
He muttered under his breath, unclear if it was for the hub command headquarters or for the two team members behind him to envy.
In his view, the two slender missiles with tail flames bursting from their rears shot out immediately.
“Missiles have all hit the target, mission complete, preparing to return.”
His voice carried no emotional tone as he placed his hand on the piloting joystick ahead, taking back control, then pulled it hard toward him, while instantly pushing the thrust lever on his left to the maximum.
Young Dragon One halted its falling posture in mere seconds, and the powerful gravity immediately pressed the few people in the cabin until their vision went black, passing out directly.
When they opened their eyes again, the blue atmosphere ahead had turned into the pitch-black universe backdrop.
“10 Gs, Captain. Next time, give us two a heads-up in advance, yeah?”
“No kidding, our Young Dragon One’s hull strength is insane. I’ve never endured such heavy pressure in my life—didn’t hear any structural stretching sounds from the hull just now, right?”
The captain’s face showed astonishment; that massive maneuver he just performed also had some experimental nature, and this data would be saved and entered into the Xinghai supercomputer to serve as data reserves for future spaceship designs.
Meanwhile, on Blue Star’s synchronous orbit.
Not far from the Hunter Nine spaceship, Star-2, with its silver-white rocket body that had never sprayed any coating, finally arrived.
Nasa Aerospace Base command hall.
When that spaceship left, the Great Xia space force emblem printed on its belly coating was seen by everyone.
Roy watched the footage from the ground camera on the screen; the second stage booster in the sky had now turned into a fireball, rapidly falling.
“Officer! Bad news!”
The adjutant ran over, his voice trembling.
“Can there be any worse news?!” Roy suppressed his anger, staring at him gloomily.
The adjutant didn’t reply,
“Star Spaceship, damn it, what exactly is Great Xia trying to do!”
On the screen, he immediately recognized that launch vehicle traveling at a steady speed.
No one answered him.
In the Star-2 spaceship, two Space Force members smiled at each other. Immediately after, a team member responsible for equipment operation pressed the cabin door open button.
From the outside, the belly of the Star spaceship slowly opened, and a thick mechanical arm extended from it.
The pilot maneuvered the spaceship slowly closer to Hunter Nine, eventually maintaining relative speed at a distance of two meters between them.
The claws at the tip of the mechanical arm slowly opened like a giant’s palm and finally landed on the protrusion at the top of Hunter Nine spaceship.
“Locked in place.”
The pilot raised a finger to his team member, then pressed the call button: “Report to Command Headquarters, capture mission completed, request return to Hub Port.”
“We can return to base.”
Liu Shengzhan’s voice came over.
Nasa Command Center.
Roy looked at this scene, and he suddenly felt no anger at all now.
A chill rose from the soles of his feet.
If before this, he still felt that once the moon landing plan started, the United States, after obtaining the tri-titanium alloy, surpassing Great Xia again and leading the world would not be difficult at all.
But now, whether it was that ferocious spaceship or this seemingly relatively clumsy Star spaceship.
The technology revealed by both has far surpassed any aerospace technology of their United States.
Despairing.
Roy wearily waved his hand, signaling the adjutant to take over the remaining matters, and walked alone back into the office.
Picking up the telephone, he couldn’t help but laugh mockingly at himself.
Just a moment ago, he had confidently assured Wells in front of him that the subsequent series of plans would proceed in an orderly manner.
But what now?
Not only was the second level rocket shot down, but even more laughable is that their new space station main structure was “dragged away” by someone before the next batch of astronauts could go into space to begin construction.
“Roy, congratulations on successfully completing the mission.”
The telephone had already been connected, and Wells’s voice finally no longer sounded as gloomy as it had in the past few days.
“President, the mission failed.”
After saying this, Roy couldn’t help but feel that his breathing and heartbeat at this moment were calmer than ever before. He then slowly continued:
“Great Xia dispatched a spaceship capable of flying in high-altitude space and the atmosphere, shot down our second level rocket propulsion system over the ocean during the recovery process, and our already-orbiting space station, because it did not implant monitoring equipment as per their demand, was just now dragged away by their space force.”
As his words fell, the telephone line fell into a strange silence.
“You mean, dragged away? Shot down?”
“Yes.”
Wells’s voice carried a slight tremor.
She, as president, knew what this meant.
Great Xia had changed from its previous passive stance to the current active posture. In her view, it was originally just venting anger over the space elevator incident not long ago.
She understood.
But now, their recovery rocket was directly shot down in the sky by Great Xia’s spaceship.
This was the first time in decades that Great Xia had truly opened fire in a meaningful sense.
Although there was no one on that recovery rocket, the significance was absolutely extraordinary.
Moreover, the matter of the space station being dragged away mentioned later was too unbelievable for her.
She knew that Great Xia now had a space elevator and was constructing a space hub at the top.
But she had never imagined that their aerospace level had developed to the point where they could effortlessly drag away spacecraft in outer space with such an inconceivable capability.
A question couldn’t help but arise in her heart.
“Has the great United States fallen behind to this extent now?”
