Chapter 2602 - 2594: Maiden Voyage

Chapter 2602: Chapter 2594: Maiden Voyage

Trying to provoke me? Feng Jun really thinks Beauty Lin is overthinking it, do you think I lack female company? The warriors are the ones who are really pitiful.

Before he could retort, an officer walked over—judging by the rank, he was a captain (note 1). He saluted and spoke sternly, "Commander, the warship is about to set sail, please change into formal attire."

Beauty Lin gave him a helpless look, "I don’t want standard attire, I want a summer dress... the army’s."

"This is the first military exercise for the Space Army, Commander, please don’t make things difficult for me," the captain replied sternly, "Please change into the formal attire... the Space Army’s uniform isn’t defined yet, we’re referring to the Air Force’s uniform, which is still quite nice."

A soldier next to him pushed over a set of spacesuits—a more slender type.

"You call this... nice?" Beauty Lin’s mouth twitched, "Would your wife look pretty in this?"

"Reporting to the commander, I don’t have a wife yet," the captain spoke earnestly, "In space warfare, wearing a spacesuit is the safest. If you wear regular clothes, the consequences of an air leak are unimaginable."

"I trust the warship’s performance, this was brought by Boss Feng," Beauty Lin glanced at Feng Jun and asked calmly, "Do you all wear spacesuits inside the warship too? Logically, you shouldn’t need to."

"Most people need to wear spacesuits," the captain answered seriously, "Regular clothes should suffice, and we also believe that’s enough, but the first military exercise cannot afford any mistakes, please understand... if you don’t wear a spacesuit, it will send the wrong signal to everyone."

Don’t let Beauty Lin’s serious demeanor towards Feng Jun fool you, she can be quite rebellious when she loses her temper. She thundered, "I just won’t wear a spacesuit, I want to prove that the inside of the space battleship is safe... we have to trust the ship’s performance."

The captain didn’t have much of a temper himself, he could only offer a wry smile, "We also trust the ship’s performance, but... this is the first time."

In Huaxia’s tradition, the first time means there can be no mistakes, but once Beauty Lin makes a decision, she doesn’t care much about that, "I don’t care if it’s the first or whatever, I just trust Boss Feng. Let me emphasize again, I won’t wear regular clothes... I’ll wear a summer dress!"

Not even regular clothes? The corner of the captain’s mouth twitched, "At most, you can only wear regular clothes... after all, some people do dress like that."

The warriors boarding the warship didn’t all wear spacesuits, a third of them didn’t.

These people were in the "Multi-Pressure Sealed Cabin," which theoretically didn’t require spacesuits—if these critical areas were breached, basically you’d just start singing a farewell song, so it didn’t matter if you wore a spacesuit or not.

However, from another perspective, they were also taking risks—it carried at least an experimental nature.

Actually, the materials brought by Feng Jun clearly stated that even on platoon-sized warships, thanks to the presence of multiple vacuum shields, spacesuits aren’t needed at all times. Battalion-level command ships are even less of a concern.

But since it’s the first space military exercise, you can’t be too cautious... everyone understands this.

Beauty Lin persisted, to the point where even Feng Jun couldn’t stand it anymore, "Alright, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Regular clothes are fine; those who know understand you’re trying to encourage everyone’s courage; those who don’t might think you’re defying military discipline!"

The captain glanced back and slightly raised his chin, "Prepare a set of regular clothes for Chief Lin... Mr. Feng, do you need a set too?"

"I don’t need it, just casual wear," Feng Jun shook his head, even joking, "It’s already pretty good not wearing a Daoist robe."

In the end, he really didn’t want to have any entanglements with the military, he didn’t even want to wear normal military clothes.

The captain’s eyelid twitched at the remark, if you wore a Daoist robe onto a space battleship, that would really be a bit nerve-wracking.

Reluctantly, Beauty Lin was taken away by a female soldier and soon returned wearing a set of army uniforms, now holding a small case that looked like a makeup bag.

Feng Jun didn’t ask why he wasn’t given a bag, he just walked into the largest warship—the battalion-level main battleship—empty-handed.

Apart from the two of them, there were also dozens of people who obviously looked like researchers who entered the main battleship.

Half an hour later, each warship closed its hatch, imposed light restrictions, and quietly ascended into space.

Beauty Lin and Feng Jun were both in guest rooms not far from the central control room. Feng Jun had a single room to himself, while Beauty Lin was in a double room—there were a considerable number of female soldiers on the ship, almost a hundred.

However, even though these female soldiers were engaged in medical, communications, or logistic work, most of them were selected from combat units and could capably handle tasks independently.

In fact, Beauty Lin being able to stay in a double room was already quite accommodating. Although the space battleship was sizable, every inch of space was precious. She wasn’t in a bunk-bed double room, so it was the second-highest class of room available.

As for single rooms, the main battleship only had three. One for the commander, one for Feng Jun, and the other was given to the leader of the research team.

Beauty Lin’s roommate is a senior military journalist. She revealed her identity and then asked, is it appropriate to disclose your identity?

Chief Lin’s identity cannot be casually disclosed, so she could only smile, "Sorry, I must adhere to confidentiality protocols."

The senior journalist was not very surprised and turned on the room’s surveillance switch. "I guess you’re not very skilled in operating this; luckily I’ve done it a few times, just watch."

There were two monitor screens in the room, each capable of displaying sixteen grid images, and they could switch and combine at will.

Beauty Lin gave her a deep look, sighing, "I can’t believe you know how to operate it, that’s quite something."

"This isn’t much," the female journalist smiled indifferently, "We’re about to enter space, don’t move around or make noise freely; this point should have been emphasized to you, right?"

"Understood," Beauty Lin nodded, then asked, "Can our monitors not display the situation outside?"

"Theoretically, they can, but currently they’re locked," the female journalist knew quite a bit, "The priority now is to safely fly out; we aren’t warship operators, we don’t have the authority to watch live... We’ll have to watch the video recordings later."

Compared to Beauty Lin, Feng Jun had much higher privileges, he even had the authority to switch to the external window.

But he wasn’t interested in fiddling with these; instead, he took out a Gathering Spirit Array Plate and played with it in his hand.

This room originally had surveillance, but since it was one of only three single rooms with high privileges, the occupant could request to turn it off, so Feng Jun made this request and it was granted.

Actually, before boarding the warship, they were required to surrender all electronic devices and underwent strict security checks. Feng Jun boarded empty-handed, theoretically, he shouldn’t have anything on hand.

However, he believed that even if they saw something extra in his hands, they would likely pretend not to see it.

As for the situation outside the warship, if he wanted to know, he could simply release his Divine Sense to perceive it.

The main battleship of regiment-level could somewhat hinder his Divine Sense penetration, but the fleet was currently using a silent night navigation mode, restricting many unnecessary operations, not only to save energy but also to reduce the risk of exposure.

However, Feng Jun wasn’t very interested in this, only perceiving the state of the warship every ten minutes or so.

The fleet headed south, reaching the coast in an hour, then began to dive, advancing rapidly southward at fifty meters below the surface, with a speed exceeding three hundred kilometers per hour.

Feng Jun shook his head; it could actually go faster, but the energy consumption is too high when the ship moves too quickly in water, which isn’t economical for a warship intending to practice tactics in space.

After about three hours of underwater navigation, the fleet turned southwest, the speed gradually increasing, from four hundred kilometers per hour to five hundred, at which point the fleet started surfacing, preparing to leave the water.

When the speed increased to around five hundred and fifty kilometers per hour, the warship finally left the sea, skimming the surface and rapidly accelerating to over a thousand kilometers per hour.

Flying for another three hours, reaching a speed of about two thousand kilometers per hour, the fleet suddenly soared into the vast sky.

Seven and a half hours had passed since departure, and the fleet finally began its space voyage.

During the ascent, all seventeen warships performed an amazing maneuver, gradually attaching to each other as if in aerial refueling, ultimately merging into a huge spacecraft heading into Outer Space.

By this time, several radars and satellites had detected this bizarre craft, and some couldn’t resist posting pictures and videos on social media, "Oh my god, what is that... An alien spaceship?"

Unfortunately, this spacecraft remained in Earth’s shadow from the sun during its ascent. Some could capture or observe it, but the view wasn’t very clear.

Once airborne, the warship’s speed increased rapidly. By the time the Europa realized something strange was in the sky, the fleet’s speed had already surpassed ten thousand kilometers, swiftly leaving Earth.

The speed was so fast and with its partial invisibility and mimicry, combined with the fact that seventeen vessels merged, no one knew what in the world this thing was.

A day later, Earth was thrown into an uproar, with discussions worldwide about what appeared in the sky, leading to all kinds of speculations.

Some claimed it was an alien spaceship departing and predicted an alien attack soon; others said it was an ancient god awakening, while apocalyptic cults declared it the end of the world.

Meanwhile, the space fleet was advancing towards Mars at over two hundred thousand kilometers per hour, planning to use Mars as a cover to practice space fleet tactics behind it.

(Note 1: The rank of captain is just borrowed, trying to set a more fictional context, nothing else. Also: Updated to, summon monthly tickets.)