dognovel Chapter 558 Four Months of Flight
Chapter 558 Four Months of Flight
At 10:2 AM on February 25, 2031, China time, after rendezvousing with the Earth-based interstellar fleet in the Pacific Ocean, Li Chenglong and Yun Lan, aboard the Flying Dragon, set off first, leading all the warships to quickly break through the Earth's atmosphere and fly towards the outer reaches of the solar system.
Since the smaller warships had already been incorporated into medium or large warships equipped with space technology, the Earth Alliance Interstellar Fleet did not appear to be large. Including the Flying Dragon and the Dawn, it only had 15 large space warships and 40 medium space warships.
This number is slightly more than the originally planned number. On the one hand, over the past two years, the three major planets, along with some other alien friends, have come to help Earth build its spaceships. On the other hand, the three major planets have also directly donated some medium-sized spaceships and three large spaceships.
Upon entering the Earth Sphere, the Earth-United Interstellar Fleet split into three parts: the vanguard, comprised of the Chinese fleet led by Li Chenglong; the central part, composed of the European fleet; and the rear part, composed of the American fleet. Although divided into three parts, they remained relatively close to each other and maintained uninterrupted 24-hour communication.
From now on, all warships must use the jump navigation method to fly to a coordinate point on Mars, and then use space navigation to fly for a month before rendezvous with the fleets of the three planets.
Since only large warships and a few medium-sized warships gifted by alien friends have the ability to travel through space, once they arrive in the Martian sphere, regardless of whether they have the ability to travel through space, all medium-sized warships must enter the special accommodation space of the large warships and stay there for four months.
The reason for first placing smaller warships inside medium-sized warships, and then having larger warships accommodate the medium-sized ones, is primarily because, despite the use of space technology, the capacity of large warships is still limited. Furthermore, it's not just these medium-sized warships that need to remain here; a large amount of supplies, weaponry, and various types of mechs are also stored here.
The Chinese fleet consists of 5 large space battleships, 12 medium-sized battleships, and 40 small battleships. The reason for the large number of small battleships is mainly due to the help of our friends in space, who manufactured more of them. The 5 large space battleships are carrying Li Chenglong, Yun Lan, Shangguan Jingyun, Dongfang Yunbing, Nangong Yanran, and Zhao Wuji.
The reason why every large space warship must have a level 14 expert is mainly for safety reasons. Having a level 14 expert makes space travel much safer and less susceptible to the effects of spatial fluctuations.
To facilitate communication with other fleets, the Earth-United Interstellar Fleet will adopt the Universal Calendar upon arrival in the Martian sphere. Today's date is March 12th, and the time will remain in the 3-hour system with 3600 seconds per hour.
At 2 PM, the Earth fleet finally arrived at the Martian sphere after a hop flight. They will have half an hour to adjust here, during which the medium-sized warships will enter the space capsules of the large warships.
Li Chenglong unbuckled his seatbelt, stretched lazily, and said, "Sitting there motionless for four or five hours, my body feels a bit stiff. How's the containment situation now? How are the ships operating?"
Sitting in the control room, Zhao Liying replied, "Reporting to the captain, apart from the Flying Dragon, the other four large Chinese warships are steadily carrying out the retrieval of 11 medium-sized warships. All warships are operating well. During this jump flight, no Earth fleet warships fell behind or experienced any anomalies. The Flying Dragon has also successfully retrieved the Dawn, and everything on the Dawn is in good condition."
Li Chenglong nodded: "Very good. Contact all the captains of the large warships. After completing the containment work, we will begin preparations for space travel. We will depart on time in twenty minutes."
The main reason why the Flying Dragon only accommodated the Dawn, a medium-sized warship, is that although the Flying Dragon is called a large warship, it is the smallest of the 15 large warships. Although it uses the most advanced space technology and has a large overall space, the space is relatively small because it stores a huge amount of various supplies.
Another reason is that the Hiryu serves as the vanguard in the Earth fleet. In case of any abnormal situation or during subsequent battles, it may be necessary to carry out some dangerous missions, so it is not suitable to accommodate too many warships.
Li Chenglong turned on the warship's communication equipment and had a brief conversation with the main leaders of the Chinese fleet, Sindra from Europe, and George from America. A dozen minutes later, he returned to the captain's seat, fastened his seatbelt, and began preparing for space travel.
Yun Lan sat in the vice-captain's seat next to him, communicating with Liu Ruyan, the temporary captain of the Dawn, through her crystal phone. Although things were still somewhat restricted and they couldn't move around freely, once space travel began, there would be a long period of stability during which the crew could move around freely, and even travel freely between the Dawn and the Flying Dragon outside.
"120 seconds countdown before spaceflight. All crew members, please prepare for spaceflight! Do not move around unnecessarily." After Sun Menghua finished the announcement, she used a special code to open the cover of a red button next to her and pressed the red button.
The moment the red button was pressed, an alarm sounded inside the Hiryu. Then, except for the thrusters and other parts, the rest of the Hiryu was covered with a thick layer of black metal. Other large warships were in the same way, all covered with a layer of armor to withstand the impact of space travel.
At this moment, all the observation windows of the Flying Dragon were closed. Li Chenglong watched the countdown and silently counted down the numbers in his mind. The instant the countdown reached 0, everyone felt the Flying Dragon shake violently. If they hadn't been sitting in their seats and fastened their seat belts, they might have been thrown into the air.
However, the violent shaking only lasted for five or six seconds, after which the Hiryu's vibrations became moderate and lasted for thirty seconds before it stabilized.
Li Chenglong unbuckled his seatbelt and addressed all the crew members of the Feilong and Shuguang via the ship's intercom: "For the next month, we will be flying in this manner. The armor covering the warships will not be removed, so please don't be too curious. It's 3 p.m. now. Everyone should continue with their work and training. All departments should return to normal operations."
Zhao Liying stood up and said, "Reporting to the captain, all warships have reported that they have safely entered space navigation and everything is normal. The warships will now enter automatic navigation mode and will rendezvous with the fleets of the three planets and Miss Cecily in one month."
Li Chenglong clenched his right fist, placed it in front of his chest, and gently waved it, letting out a long breath. He smiled and said, "Spaceships have simulated gravity systems, so it's the same here as on Earth. Plus, with space technology, we basically have everything we need. But we still shouldn't waste too much water. If you're going to take a shower, do it quickly, don't take two hours."
After explaining many things, Li Chenglong prepared to meet the crew members of the Flying Dragon and the Dawn with Yunlan. Actually, the number of soldiers who had come on this expedition wasn't too large. More than 5000 people were spread across various warships, so the number of people on each ship was relatively small. For example, on the Flying Dragon and the Dawn, since the Dawn didn't accommodate smaller warships, the two ships together only had a little over 600 people.
Although these 5000-plus people are fewer in number, they are all at least level 10 ability users. Most of these ability users will be piloting Storm Fighter, Qilin, and Flame Phoenix mechs to fight against any potential enemies. These 5000 people are only the number of warriors; there are also a large number of maintenance and logistics personnel. The total number of people sent to Dawn City this time reached 1.
The situation was similar in other places. The Earth-United Interstellar Fleet had a total of 86,000 soldiers, while the total number of personnel reached 160,000.
Although the number of people is indeed small, they are all shrewd and capable individuals gathered from all over the world, representing the strongest force that Earth can currently muster.