60 Reconnaissance Before Sunset

The Dark Night Secret Service Brigade was different from typical special forces.

Although there were not a lot of personnel in the aerial team, all of them were elite experts. Dark Night's base was the ultimate defense system of the nation. If a sudden war broke out, it could be independent and operate normally even when faced with a lack of resources. It had everything a conventional air base should have and also more advanced integrated assembly and maintenance centers. It was always in the state of having equipment being updated, and this was the guarantee for the aerial team to be able to assemble the Chengdu J-10 and carry out the subsequent maintenance.

Having a jet fighter was not simple. An ordinary base would not be able to support the maintenance and repair of a jet fighter. Only brigades and regiments such as the Dark Night Secret Service Brigade with abundant resources could support it.

Many important industrial zones in China had similar closed war preparation plant areas. They were not used for production during normal times, and their equipment was constantly updated and replaced. They were responsible for maintaining the domestic industrial system during war. It was impossible to completely destroy China's industrial foundation by bombing and latent destruction alone. Many countries had the same reserve base.

System self-check passed!

Lin Mo stuck his head out of the cockpit and made a gesture. An aerial team member inserted a fuel gun into the fuselage's fuel tank hole. The long fuel pipe was connected directly to a manual fuel pump inserted into a fuel barrel.

"Everyone back away! Be careful of sparks!" Team Leader Pan joked as he got the others to retreat to a safe distance. Lin Mo's first test flight was still rather risky.

Seeing Lin Mo's 'OK' sign, the person beside the fuel barrel quickly activated the manual fuel pump and fed fuel into the plane. A few hundred liters of fuel poured into it in a moment. It was not much, but it was enough.

Just when Lin Mo fixed the last accessory, Team Leader Pan led the others to quickly store away all the inventory, tools, and accessories to prevent something from being forgotten in the aircraft. Otherwise, the newly-assembled plane might explode and turn into a huge fireworks display when the engine started for the first time.

A ground crew with a sturdy and ruddy face volunteered to replace Lin Mo to test out the jet fighter, but Lin Mo rejected him. If a professional racer could not fully understand and was not confident about their own car, how could they have the qualifications to become one? The same went for pilots. Only the weapons they maintained personally could naturally exert their greatest power.

The technical manuals that had been used until they were tattered were scattered all over the ground. In order to understand these things, Lin Mo often called the technicians of his former Base 7759. After this assembly project, even if Lin Mo stopped being a pilot in the future, he could at least become a maintenance technician.

No one noticed that a golden coin had been popping out of Lin Mo's pocket every day. It would suddenly rush and disappear into the plane and then rush back into Lin Mo's pocket.

This fellow who usually liked to explore the internal structure of the aircraft had quietly helped Lin Mo to inspect the Chengdu J-10 many times during its assembly. It was finally doing something good for him.

"I'm going to start it up!" Lin Mo said to the walkie-talkie in his hand.

In the distance, Team Leader Pan gave in a thumbs up, and his voice came over the walkie-talkie. "Everything is normal! You can start!"

Lin Mo did not hesitate to activate the start-up operation process. Under everyone's nervous eyes, the J-10 shook slightly, and a light smoke emitted from the tail, followed by red flames. The high temperature immediately twisted the air behind the plane and sent a cloud of dust flying on the flight line.

Lin Mo put one hand on the ejection lever at the edge of the seat while he stared at the signal lights. He had a tablet connected to the monitoring system of the plane, reflecting large amounts of data on the screen, refreshing like a waterfall. If something went wrong, Lin Mo would quickly pull the lever to eject.

The power surging from the engine was immense, and the fuselage trembled slightly at a certain frequency. All the indicators and data were normal. Lin Mo breathed a sigh of relief and did various simple tests, including the movement of various mechanical components and operational error alerts.

After a moment, the warning light of the fuel gauge lit up, and an alert sounded. The testing came to an end.

Lin Mo turned off the engine, stood up in the cockpit, gave a 'V' gesture, and shouted in front of everyone's expectant eyes, "The tests were successful! We're done!"

Cheers from the nervous aerial team came. It was a victory for them to assemble a Chengdu J-10 from scratch and pass the tests the first time.

"Hahaha. I've been studying this for a long time and just never had the chance to touch the real thing. I only manage to do so because of you. How satisfying," Team Leader Pan said with a pair of bloodshot eyes. He had not slept for the past two days, but there was no sign of fatigue in his eyes. He rushed over and helped Lin Mo off the plane.

Team Leader Pan waved to all the crew members who helped out and said loudly with joy, "Come! I've ordered supper in the cafeteria to celebrate our first successful assembly of a J-10! Let's have a good meal before going back to take a bath. Have a good sleep, and take the day off tomorrow!

Team Leader Pan's words drew another round of cheers.

Everyone started packing their tools. The busy period finally came to an end after a week of hard work.

Debugging the J-10 was the first step. There would still be the weapons and live ammunition tests and engine break-in period. The aircraft had many consumables as well. Fortunately, the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group sent them all together. That was why there was a small hill of boxes. Most of them were tools and maintenance spare parts.

There were still many boxes that had not been opened, which included conformal fuel tanks, special mounting for various weapons, items for reconnaissance, and so on, equipment suitable for different mission requirements.

…

"Comrade Lin Mo, I'm Feng Chenye!"

Lin Mo received a radio message from the base while maneuvering the jet fighter in the blue sky.

Although he was no longer part of Base 7759, the training modules were still issued to him. All kinds of knowledge and tactical abilities were indispensable to an ace fighter pilot in grooming. Although this base only had Lin Mo as a J-10 fighter pilot, there was no room to relax.

"Gold Coin copy! Please instruct!" Lin Mo reduced the output power of the engine and left supersonic speed. The dazzling sunlight at the high altitude illuminated the cockpit.

"How did the flight tests go? When will it be battle-ready?!" Brigade Commander Feng's unchanging voice had a peculiar charm.

"After one week, the preliminary engine run-in will finish, and it will be ready for actual combat!" Lin Mo estimated based on the situation of the airframe. The Russian-made engine especially required a longer period of run-in, and it could not run too high a load as well. Otherwise, it would affect future fuel consumption and service life.

All engines required to be run in to grind off any burrs that were invisible to the naked eye. The other spare parts would also have to be run in until they fit perfectly.

"Very good. You are not required to participate in combat for the time being. Now, we have a reconnaissance mission for you. Report on the target's position once a day, and don't be discovered by the other party. You're allowed to load live ammunition but prohibited from launching unauthorized attacks. The details of the mission have been sent to your battle strategy tablet." Although Lin Mo belonged to the aerial team, he was receiving command directly from the Dark Night's brigade commander.

"Copy!" Lin Mo started lowering his altitude.

Thousands of days of cultivating a soldier to be used in that one instant. Lin Mo's first mission after arriving in Dark Night was not difficult.

After he returned to the base, a tractor unit dragged the Chengdu J-10 into the hangar. Lin Mo opened his cabinet and took out his tablet to look at the latest mission instructions.

The mission was about half an hour flight away. The target's location was in a wild mountainous area with complex terrain, and there was no decent road nearby. It would not be easy to get rid of being tracked by an aircraft in a day or two.

Lin Mo's immediate consideration was to spray a coat of dark grey paint on the aircraft for camouflage. Moreover, he would need to mount a special high focal length stable camera system and a side-view radar to meet the needs of this mission.

Although he could use the light mirror spell, Lin Mo could not let others know that he could find targets beyond the scope of the human physiological visual range. That would make him too much of a demon.

Brigade Commander Feng handed this mission to Lin Mo probably because he had experience with the search and rescue efforts of the expedition team. How extraordinary must his eyesight be to be able to count the number of people on the ground and to know their status from so high above?! Who else would be the more suitable for this reconnaissance mission than Lin Mo?

The spraying of the J-10 was very fast. The members of the aerial team were veterans. They could even spray paint different patterns. The faint black-gray matte paint masked the original silver-gray body of the J-10, making it even more mysterious. Lin Mo only dared to do this to his private jet. He would probably have to sit in the confinement room for being disobedient and undisciplined if he were to do it at Base 7759.

"Good design skills!" Lin Mo raised his thumb and boarded the plane. During the spraying process, in addition to the conformal endurance fuel tanks on the left and right wings, a special side-view radar was mounted on the weapon loading position, and an ultra-long focal length stable camera pod was installed at the bottom of the aircraft. The Chengdu J-10's accessories for reconnaissance were rather comprehensive. This was what the dozens of trucks had brought with them that night.

Before sunset, Lin Mo planned to fly around and confirm the position of the target. He would fly quickly and covertly high up in the sky while using the radar and the ultra-long telephoto lens surveillance camera. At most, the target would only be able to hear a faint roar in the sky and might not even be able to see the shadow of the plane.

Lin Mo did not want to screw up his first mission and embarrass his old 7759th Aviation Regiment.

"Report! Second Lieutenant Lin Mo has set off!" the communications officer reported to Colonel Feng Chenye, the supreme commander of the Dark Night Secret Service Brigade, who was reading documents in the command room.

Colonel Feng Chenye raised his head to look at the combat command screen on the wall. A small shiny triangle marked with ID number and speed was slowly moving in a certain direction.

"Received!" Colonel Feng Chenye took a look and then lowered his head. Lin Mo's actions were somewhat unexpected. He originally thought that Lin Mo would set off on the mission tomorrow, not when it was nearing sunset.

Although darkness was conducive for covert operations, it would be more difficult to find the target. Brigade Commander Feng did not think that Lin Mo would be able to find the target immediately and felt that this trip would at most be to familiarize himself with the terrain.

"Gold Coin, sunset in one hour!" Lin Mo heard Team Leader Pan's voice through the headset. He felt that Lin Mo was a little too hasty, but he did not object.

Team Leader Pan had automatically switched to Lin Mo's code name immediately after take-off to guard against someone listening in.

"Rest assured, Team Leader! I'll close in on the target in an hour and return in two hours! Please help save some dinner for me!" Lin Mo was full of confidence. He used to go on reconnaissance missions with his Giant Dragon mount in the other world, regardless of whether it was night or day, no matter how harsh the environment was. Why else would the Dragon Knights be able to enjoy such good treatment? The Dragon Knights' value was to be used in the most dangerous and complicated situations.