Chapter 88: Are UFOs Real?!

Under the stern command of the training officers, the soldiers, who had spent some leisure time at the proving ground, had to advance with their firearms and equipment. Before long, they suddenly heard the distant sound of air raid sirens, followed by thunderous roars echoing from the sky. The training officers calmly ordered the soldiers to disperse, and the soldiers all appeared quite composed. Sitting in the snow, gazing at the horizon, the black dots flying in from the west seemed as dense as a swarm of bees, far more spectacular than anything Linen had witnessed on the eastern front—the strategic bombing power of the Anglo-American Allies was indeed outrageously exaggerated!

As the black dots drew closer, rumbling gunfire could be heard from the northwest, and the sky began to fill with numerous plumes of smoke, resembling a swarm of bees from afar. However, this swarm did not present a significant obstacle to the rapidly advancing swarm from the east. It took several minutes before Linen could vaguely see two Allied aircraft being hit and plummeting to the ground. Then, a louder and more penetrating roar came from another direction. Linen had heard this sound before, so he quickly turned his head and saw a squadron of jet fighters heading toward the Allied aircraft, each trailing a long white tail from its rear. In the twilight, the edges of their wings were tinged with a faint crimson, like the bloodthirsty blades of executioners.

"Down with those Yankees!"

Such fervor came from only a few soldiers, while most displayed an attitude of resigned acceptance.

Linen felt the same.

The German jet fighters in sight were the vanguard of the jet age, undoubtedly possessing a significant advantage in technological capabilities. Equipped with air-to-air rockets mounted under their wings, they were formidable weapons. However, their numbers were no match for the Allies, and even with their courageous assault and fearless engagement in dogfights, they could not stop the massive Allied bomber formations from rolling over German airspace like steamrollers. The intense aerial combat was nothing but a show of force; in the end, only a few Allied heavy bombers were shot down, while the escorting "Mustangs" maneuvered freely in the sky, forming an inescapable net for the skillful "Assassins."

Watching the German jet fighters futilely engage the enemy, unable to make any significant impact, Linen felt a hollow emptiness in his heart. This war was ultimately hopeless!

As the Allied bombers, accompanied by their fighter escort, flew over and disappeared into the distance, the training officer called out with his emotionless voice, "Continue the march." The soldiers, who had been spirited just moments before, now resumed their formation with a weary and languid demeanor, even their marching steps becoming noticeably sluggish.

As darkness descended, Linen wondered if anyone in the ranks contemplated desertion. Continuing to risk life and limb for a war destined for failure seemed utterly meaningless—unless one harbored more long-term aspirations, like himself.

Suddenly, Linen heard a strange rumbling sound, and the surrounding soldiers were obviously startled by it as well. Many slowed their pace, looking around in bewilderment, causing the formation to momentarily dissolve.

The training officer at the head of the column stepped to the side of the road and shouted loudly to the soldiers behind, "Maintain formation! Don't panic! Maintain formation! Continue the march!"

If it were an Allied aircraft or some other offensive weapon, the training officer would certainly not have been so calm, Linen thought, dismissing his earlier concern. However, the sound was indeed peculiar, like that of a jet aircraft, but sharper, and it seemed to be coming from nearby. Could it be that an aircraft was taking off from the proving ground they had just left?

Linen was speculating about various possibilities when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a round object "jump" up from the right side of the forest—why "jump"? Because it basically appeared in a vertical trajectory and continued to ascend. By the time it reached a height of twenty to thirty meters above the treetops, it suddenly changed course and flew diagonally upward. Unlike an aircraft turning with a gradual tilt of its wings, it did not exhibit any apparent buffering during this process.

In addition to emitting a tremendous, piercing mechanical roar, the disc-shaped object, which was obviously larger than a typical fighter aircraft, also rotated slowly clockwise as it moved. It resembled the exhaust plume of a fighter jet that Linen had seen in the 21st century, with a bluish flame visible beneath its circular chassis. As it departed from the forest, nearby tree branches and leaves could be seen violently shaking.

A flying...saucer?

Linen was stunned. With its round cross-section and a diameter of more than ten meters, coupled with its peaked hat-like profile, wasn't this the most classic image of a flying saucer?

The surprises didn't stop there. As it flew over the soldiers' heads, Linen clearly saw the Iron Cross emblem painted on the circular underside—whatever its principles or model, it could be confirmed as German military equipment.

Linen suddenly felt like he had entered a sci-fi world.

Immediately, the third and fourth disc-shaped aircraft appeared and flew away in the same manner, judging from their consistent flight direction, they should all be following the Allied bombing fleet.

Could these highly sci-fi aircraft easily shoot down a dozen Allied fighters and bombers?

All of a sudden, Linen recalled an episode of "Exploration" he had seen before, which was about German flying saucers. It was said that Allied pilots had encountered these unidentified flying objects during bombings, but they did not attack—wasn't that just a hallucination caused by nervousness, but a real phenomenon?

Stunned for quite some time, Linen turned to look at the soldiers around him. They were all as dumbfounded as he was, except for the leading training officer who did not look up to watch the strange aircraft flying away but was very dissatisfied with the disorder and halt of the troops.

After the sudden scene just now, the soldiers all unconsciously stopped, and the formation naturally ceased to be a formation.

Despite repeated urging having little effect, the training officer finally shouted, "Idiots, those are our own things, keep moving forward!"

This time, the soldiers, who had been stunned in place due to excessive surprise, finally woke up like from a dream and reformed their ranks to continue marching. However, after this disturbance, the mood of the training officer seemed particularly bad. On the way back to the barracks, many soldiers received lashes from him. Worse still, due to the delay, the soldiers missed dinner time when they returned to the camp. Although there was the factor of encountering Allied bombings, the training officer heartlessly announced that everyone would skip a meal.

Having been accustomed to having one meal and then another on the front lines, Linen didn't care much about such a fasting punishment but was filled with thoughts of "flying saucers." The soldiers accompanying him were also full of curiosity about those things that completely subverted the concept of aircraft. Almost everyone was talking about this topic whenever someone spoke. In the evening, they started a training session on disassembling and assembling firearms. Although the fiery-tempered training officer flew into a rage several times, as soon as he left, the soldiers continued to talk. It wasn't until Colonel Bach, who was also wearing a leather jacket but had a much stronger aura, appeared that the training ground truly quieted down for the first time.

"I heard that you saw something very special today and are curious about it. This is normal!" Bach said in his usual tone. "To be honest, I was also so surprised that I couldn't say a word the first time I saw them! They are not the steeds of the gods but the top works of German technology, scientific miracles that break all traditions! Every time I think of them, I can't help but shout 'Hail Germany!'"

More than a hundred people on the training ground stood with their ears up, staring at this young commander without blinking.

"Perhaps you are curious about the operating principles of them, and I was too, unfortunately, they belong to the most cutting-edge technical secrets, and we simply cannot get in touch with them. Moreover, it is said that only three people in the entire Germany can understand the principle! I consider myself not a scientific genius, so I am willing to abide by my duty. From the standpoint of the nation and the people, each of us has an obligation to keep this secret! Gentlemen, I hope from this moment on, everyone will deeply bury what they have seen and heard today in their hearts, whether facing their comrades, family, or our enemies, never to disclose! Gentlemen...for the Fuhrer, for Germany, I swear to keep this secret to the death!"

Bach had clearly conveyed his meaning to every soldier present, so the voices echoing his sounded particularly uniform: "For the Fuhrer, for Germany, I swear to keep this secret to the death!"

Although he shouted the same slogan, Linen was neither German nor belonged to the Germanic ethnic group, and he had the peculiarity of crossing time and space. The more Colonel Bach demanded, the stronger his curiosity became: was it technology left by aliens or the crazy work of German scientists? Since it had been born, why hadn't it been widely used to help Germany reverse the situation? Why couldn't the countries like the US and the Soviet Union manufacture similar aircraft like this in the decades after the war, when they could make satellites, spacecraft, and aerospace planes?