Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
A bright light swept over from a short distance away. Screech! A braking sound rang out at the edge of the concrete landing.
“Lads! Bring your things and get on!” An officer jumped down from an electric transporter and looked at these poor fellows who had been abandoned here casually.
The long, electric flatbed transporter had stopped nearby. Lin Mo and the rest quickly took their things and boarded the transporter. The transporter was used to deliver goods usually, and temporary railings were installed on it. It did not even have a seat, and its speed was slow. However, it steadily brought Lin Mo and the others to the barracks not far away. The large space in the barracks was full of classic bunk beds. There were enough beds for twenty people, but they were almost all empty. Under the arrangement of the soldier, they each found an empty bed at will and placed their luggage down before resting.
Upon the breaking of dawn, Lin Mo, Chen Haiqing, and the other cadets were like children in kindergarten as they were brought to wash up and have breakfast before they had the opportunity to look at the base they were brought to overnight.
Last night, they lived in a collective barracks made of large stone blocks. The outside looked like a warehouse. Seven or eight buildings were arranged in two rows, but most of them were obviously empty and unused.
There were several multi-story buildings at the back, and the field of vision in front of the barracks was extremely wide. From a distance of more than a thousand meters, they could see a silver plane parked there. The sharp-eyed Fan Dazhi recognized dozens of Chengdu J-10s, a straight runway on the side, and a huge hangar not far away.
“Chengdu J-10s! J-10s! We aren’t dreaming, are we?! I am going crazy!” Lei Dong could not suppress his excitement of wanting to rush over. He was immediately dragged back by the soldiers patrolling nearby. What a joke. Jet fighters were more expensive than a Ferrari. How could they let these kids touch them randomly?
Although this base was not conspicuous, it had a steady stream of flight missions, and there were other pilots on the base. Every hour, four or five planes took off or landed with a roar, and it was apparent that these were the usual basic exercises.
Lin Mo looked around. Behind the hazy morning fog were mountains. This base seemed to be hidden in a small basin. This is really a good place for an air base! Lin Mo thought. Hidden, spacious, and complete with all the major features. As for contact with the outside world, the developed communication technology was enough to solve it easily, and the materials were all shipped in by air, so there was no need for any worry.
“Will we fly a J-10 in the future?! Fighter pilots?” Chen Haiqing and the other cadets looked at each other and were unable to hold back their excitement. They really made it this time.
To a rich scion like Chen Haiqing, how could driving a BMW or Ferrari compare to the excitement of flying a jet fighter at high altitude and enjoying the feeling of breaking the sound barrier? This was also one of the reasons why Chen Haiqing had signed up to be a pilot. No matter how rich a person was, it was not easy to buy an airplane to play with on their own. With air control regulations, each private plane had to apply for lift-off in advance and go through complicated quasi-flight procedures. And there might not necessarily be a route open. Also, maintenance and airport and runway rentals were restricted by all the regulations. Unlike sports cars where you could sneak on the road without a license, if you took off without lift-off approval, you might be fired at by a missile that exploded into a large firework. The second shot used a missile to hit the airplane.
After breakfast, the six cadets each received a thick security and confidentiality regulations book. At present, the only order issued to them was to memorize this thing, which was more detailed and complete than the Aviation University’s confidentiality regulations, in a week.
See no evil, hear no evil; speak no evil, move no evil. The level of confidentiality of this base was beyond the expectations of these cadets. Ten steps to a post and five steps to a sentry were not enough to describe the various detection equipment that covered the entire base. It was evident that the base monitored all movements within a twenty-kilometer radius. If they did not observe the security and confidentiality regulations and wandered around, they might be arrested and thrown into confinement for three days or even be shot. Military laws were even above national laws.
…
In the next few days, many new people arrived here sporadically. Lin Mo and the rest became seniors within a week. People from all over the country, including cadets from other aviation schools, came. Not that many came, and added up to slightly over ten people, filling half of the barracks.
The management here was exceptionally strict. Chen Haiqing’s usual group formation was declared a failure, and he was called in and given a warning. The base only recognized the large military team and did not allow private groups to appear.
All the cadets’ phones, laptops, PSPs, and IPADs were checked. Who knew whether their pile of things could still be turned on normally when they were returned to them. This place was almost isolated from the world.
This made Chen Haiqing and the rest feel even more depressed. In this damn place, you had money but nowhere money to spend it. Even a rich scion was at a loss with all the money he had. The bills were too hard to even clean their asses with. All the living utilities and food were uniformly issued, and there was no chance to use money at all. There were few things in the military commissary on the base. It had no cigarettes and no wine, and only paper and pens of the same brand, envelopes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, towels, training uniforms, shoes, washbasins, etc. Only compressed biscuits, canned luncheon meats, and some special aviation snacks could be considered snacks. Even so, they could not eat too much. The most luxurious items were peanuts and Oreos.
A retired veteran couple was in charge of operating the store. They used to be a ground crew and settled here now. Their business could not be described as bleak. An ordinary Army soldier had a monthly allowance of five hundred yuan, while official pilots only got two thousand yuan.
The new cadets were even worse off. A thousand yuan was not even enough for a meal in the city. But in this damn base, it was possible to still have nine hundred yuan remaining. Even so, they could not possibly have canned luncheon meat for snacks every day.
After all the cadets arrived, the instructor in-charge at this base told them the reason for getting all of them here. The Air Force selected elite students from various aviation schools for concentrated and specialized training. They wanted to train a group of pilots to adapt to the new type of jet fighters and, as much as possible, nurture Air Force aces.
The cadets who made it here were all silently excited, and naturally none of them were interested in voluntarily opting out. This was incomparable to being pilots for helicopters, transport planes, and even civilian airliners. They would be true air warriors and could realize their dreams of flying freely in the sky.
In addition to the basic theory courses of the aviation schools, every cadet in the base received a set of textbooks with classified information such as Air Combat Geometry, Offensive and Defensive Maneuvering, and other obviously military-like subjects. Despite classes not yet starting, most of the cadets gave in to the urge to start reading. Even after lights off, some people were still holding a flashlight and reading under their covers as though they were obsessed.
Lin Mo was also one of them. He was biting on to the small flashlight he bought from the military commissary to read. The tactical theories inside made him marvel at his peers in this strange world. Although the combat methods were slightly different, the essence still had something in common. Many cadets had already read them. There were even some who had lost themselves in the books after reading them once and could easily remember what they read, having etched them deeply into their minds.
The cadets’ zeal in studying was unprecedentedly high. Despite theory courses ending, they were still not allowed in a plane. The operation of the actual plane would be different, though the general steps were the same. The flight simulator machines that came next allowed the cadets to get over their craving first. It was like taking the driver’s license test but more stringent. A real pilot took their accumulated flight hours as their flying age.
This base was actually equipped with the most advanced simulator in China, comparable to the US military’s F-15 full mission flight simulator. Although the operation manual was not thick, it clearly explained the operation methods and things to take note of for various takeoff and landing positions. But there were more wolves than meat. The two six-degree-of-freedom flight simulators could not satisfy so many cadets.
There was also a computer room next to the simulators, with dozens of high-performance computers. These computers had all kinds of flight training software and games, and the cadets could only use them to quench their thirst.
Lin Mo, who came into contact with computers for the first time, made a fool out of himself. He faced the black screen absent-mindedly and did not know what to do. He almost poked a hole in the case. Finally, the cadet at the side could not bear looking anymore and helped him start the computer. But the 26-letter keyboard posed a new challenge to him. Having many years of experience learning different languages, he had, with much difficulty, integrated his soul with the Chinese language of this world. But the appearance of a new language method caused Lin Mo to behave like an uncivilized savage.
The others obviously regarded Lin Mo as a computer idiot. There were actually such people that existed in this technologically-advanced world.
A bunch of computer experts volunteered to provide free intensive tutorial lessons for the rookie, and Lin Mo could finally use the five-stroke input method with one finger to press the keyboard awkwardly. This was totally different from the time when the airport taught him how to fly a Boeing 737. At that time, the plane was in auto-pilot mode, and it was as simple as avoiding errors and adopting streamlined operations. Had it been normal circumstances, it would not have been strange to shorten the normal service life of the airplane with such lazy operations.