Sky-cracking Rider

The members of the flight squadron burst out into a baffling bout of laughter at the backs of Chief Mechanic Xiao Ming and the newcomer Chen Fei.

The arrival of a newcomer in the maintenance team seemed to have given the bored flight squadron an amusing diversion.

Whenever a clueless rookie appeared, it often added a good deal of conversation topics to the dull, monotonous life on the base.

The interior of Hangar 1 was quite spacious, comfortably accommodating six propeller-driven light attack aircraft and two armed helicopters, with plenty of room left over for rows of neatly arranged shelves and even stacks of standard shipping containers.

One of these containers had been converted into the maintenance team's office, furnished with several sets of tables and chairs and a whole row of personal lockers, allowing space for folding beds to catch a nap during breaks.

"Sit!"

Leading Chen Fei into the container office, Xiao Ming pointed to a chair and turned to bring over a large dining tray filled with two bowls of white porridge, a plate of large steamed buns, a dish of bacon and fried eggs, a salty vegetable platter, and a large jug of milk, quickly filling the air with the aroma of food.

He handed Chen Fei a set of bowls and chopsticks, saying, "This is breakfast, let's eat together!"

"Thanks!"

Chen Fei did not stand on ceremon, grabbing a bowl of porridge and eating it with a steamed bun, fried eggs, and several small salty dishes, slurping it down heartily.

Chief Mechanic Xiao Ming lived up to his build, wrapping up all of Chen Fei's leftover food, including the large steaming jug of milk.

After clearing his plate and bowl, Xiao Ming brought over a cardboard box and pushed it in front of Chen Fei.

"Here, this is your work computer."

Chen Fei glanced at the packaging, somewhat surprised.

Inside was not just a computer but also the latest model of tablet, the printed specifications on the packaging showed it was light and thin, with local hardware performance that was not lacking and supported cloud technology, far surpassing his old clunker of a laptop from his university days, with included cloud service and hardware performance benefits from cloud hardware acceleration service.

"Turn it on, grab this specialized data cable, and come with me!"

Xiao Ming tossed over a cable that looked like a snake and headed out of the container office without hesitation, with no intention of introducing Chen Fei to his other colleagues in the maintenance team.

Whether or not Chen Fei would ultimately be approved to stay in the maintenance team was still up for debate.

If he wasn't up to snuff, he would still be relegated to the custodial team to sweep floors and haul bricks.

In fact, the maintenance team was so busy from morning till night that they hadn't even noticed a new member had joined.

The specialized data cable had ends glinting with 24K gold, undeniably luxurious, and was long enough to be used as a jump rope.

Chen Fei cradled the tablet taken from the box and wrapped the data cable around his wrist, hurrying to keep up.

Despite having never eaten pork, he had seen pigs run, and he easily located the power button, pressing it to light up the screen which quickly loaded the standard desktop in just a breath.

Grasping one end of the data cable, he shoved it directly into the tablet's port, achieving connection on his first try.

The obsolete foolproof design had been discarded long ago, the compatible universal data port and special protocol recognition ensured mistake-free connections that would never damage either device.

Arriving at the work area, Xiao Ming patted the underbelly of a propeller-driven plane waiting for maintenance, saying, "This here is the A-39B light attack aircraft.

It has a name, 'Big Mouth Monster.' It's an upgraded replacement for the A-29 'Super Big Mouth Bird,' optimized with a long-life turbine engine, improved load and endurance, and most significant is its capability to carry and deploy Louis Industrial Company's KDK-1 suction-type hypersonic intelligent missile, whose power is enough to kill a giant dragon, the KDK-1 is also known as the 'Dragon Slayer Missile,' not even the Metallic Dragons could escape unscathed."

The A-29 "Super Big Mouth Bird" also has a silly twin sibling named B-250, a simplified version that lacks a wing-mounted cannon, has one fewer propeller blade, two additional attachment points, and a 50% increase in endurance and range, better suited as a reconnaissance and patrol aircraft.

"Dragon slaying?" Chen Fei gasped in shock.

Since the "War of the Fusion of the Three Realms" ended thirty years ago, apart from the remnants of the Third Era Civilization, the collective migration of the Neanderthal tribe to the Blue Star Realm and even the Cangqiong Realm, and the resource-depleted Primordial Realm falling silent, the still-vibrant Blue Star Realm and Cangqiong Realm had seen increasingly frequent exchanges, encompassing more than just economic and cultural fields, as many extraordinary creatures came to the Blue Star Realm through various channels, including, naturally, the life-dominating giant dragons.

According to a series of agreements reached between the Blue Star Realm and the Cangqiong Realm, there are respective clauses indicating that if a threatening creature (including but not limited to the Dragon Clan) causes innocent casualties and destruction, the civilization where that threatening creature resides has the right to kill it to terminate the threat.

The vast majority of dragons are peaceful and friendly, except for the Metallic Dragon Clan.

Located in near-Earth orbit, the "Halo" Dimensional Gate is managed by the digital intelligence assembly, Cybertrom, but on the side corresponding to the Cangqiong Realm, it is guarded by the entire Metallic Dragon Clan.

The civilian names for this dimensional gate in both realms are completely different, even diametrically opposed.

On the Blue Star side, it is called "Guardian Ring," whereas in the Cangqiong Realm, due to some taboo topics, it is called "Annihilation Ring;" not targeted at each other, but each formed from some bizarre reasons.

The special kill authorization clauses largely target not only the easily uncontrollable magical beasts but also to prevent the thoughtless Metallic Dragons from suddenly leaving the "Halo" and causing trouble everywhere.

The Metallic Dragon Clan, which feeds on metal, has now found a new evolutionary inheritance and has become the digital dragon lineage, capable of causing exceptionally great destruction, especially to the human civilization of the Blue Star Realm.

The increasingly difficult-to-manage digital dragon species must have corresponding checks and deterrents.

Hence, the KDK-1 air-breathing hypersonic smart missile, known as "Dragon Slayer Missile," was developed, which records the characteristics of the Dragon Clan in its recognition database, with an effective range of 300 kilometers, particularly with a very high hit rate within 100 kilometers; if targeted by three "Dragon Slayer Missiles" simultaneously, the probability of annihilation is nearly 100%.

Such a dominating and fierce weapon is referred to as "Dragon Slayer Missile" for a reason; once it hits, it instantly turns everything within the blast radius to dust and ashes, and even the tough-skinned giant dragons cannot withstand such a fatal blow.

"There! That's the constant humidity weapon box for the 'Dragon Slayer Missile'. It needs to be charged and decoded before officially being mounted, handled by the weapons team and also involves the use of computers and data cables."

Chief Mechanic Xiao Ming indicated the edge of the dedicated work area, where six rectangular silver boxes were stacked together, with the surface of each box also marked with KDK-1, the production date, serial number, and Louis Industries among other inscriptions.

Such a massive weapon is usually in a dormant state and is not easily deployed unless a very severe event occurs.

"Open the 'Sky Eye Cloud Inspection' app, first register a personal account, remember to enter your work card number, and let me know once you're done so I can authorize you."

Xiao Ming step by step guided Chen Fei on how to operate the new productivity tool, a tablet computer using a customized encapsulated system with an integrated special key chip, which had been debugged and would automatically connect to the hanger's WIFI network upon startup.

"Sky Eye Cloud Inspection" is an aviation maintenance software customized by contractors at the 911 Aircrew Base to assist employees in maintaining aviation equipment.

Chief Mechanic Xiao's way of training newcomers was simple, crude but effective; hands-on is the quickest method, pushing theoretical basics aside.

Directly handling this light attack aircraft allows Chen Fei to quickly familiarize himself with the basic work of the maintenance team.

The advantage of this approach is quick familiarity with the A-39 light attack aircraft's modular composition and common faults. However, the drawback is also apparent: it tends to create a biased skill set, and if other models are encountered, he will be completely unprepared, necessitating starting from scratch.

As the saying goes, the master leads you to the door, but the practice is up to the individual; if you want to handle more complex and difficult tasks, you need to spend more time accumulating bit by bit. There's no shortcut, one has to consciously and voluntarily make up for the lack in basics.

"Now that the authorization is complete, log out of the account and then log back in, try plugging in this 'Big Mouth Monster,' and launch the inspection module of the aircraft."

Chief Mechanic Xiao Ming skillfully opened the maintenance panel within the work area of the A-39B light attack aircraft, letting Chen Fei connect the other end of the dedicated data cable connected to the tablet, to the corresponding port on the panel, still using the familiar universal compatibility data interface.

Drip!~

A signal light on the maintenance panel lit up and quickly changed from a flashing yellow to a steady green.

The five-inch LCD screen displayed the words "Maintenance Mode" and "Device Discovered, Connecting..."

Another flashing blue signal light then lit up.

In the maintenance team, plugging in is the most common operational step.

If you cannot even plug in, then what is the point of living?

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