Darkstone Code-Chapter 848: Fishing [16/?]

On the morning of the fifth day as the situation continued to ferment, a new headline was hot off the press.

The entire front page of the "Federal Times" was occupied with photographs, a total of sixty-seven images, each having undergone some technical processing to make them appear less gruesome.

But anyone who saw the pictures knew that these people were dead.

Their blurred heads were undoubtedly filled with gunshot wounds, and their vacant eyes had lost focus, giving an eerie impression.

The photographs evoked discomfort in some, yet drove others into a frenzy of excitement.

Jim was one such person.

His life path was no different from that of most people in this country.

Free public education allowed him to spend very little to complete high school, but that was where it ended.

College did not embrace him; compared to those "luckier ones" who received college invitations for "mastering a cooking skill" or "singing well," clearly Jim was not among them.

Fortunately, he wasn’t idle in high school, engaging in numerous romances with girls, venting endless energy during life’s best yet most bewildering phase.

After graduation, he joined the assembly line of a factory. Not long ago, he lost his job, but thankfully his father remained employed, allowing the family to weather the crisis unscathed.

Now he’s found a new job and started dating a new girlfriend. He follows topics of common interest among men, such as politics, economy, society, healthcare, education, and front-page headlines.

The news in the papers during this period greatly angered him, as a young man in his twenties held very clear moral and emotional views.

The girl’s ordeal, along with Mike’s family’s predicament, infuriated him.

Why would anyone harm innocent people?

And even deceive others afterwards?

He couldn’t understand what was happening to this world, to the country called Suge — were they all madmen or psychopaths?

Finally, at this moment, the bottled-up discontent had fully been unleashed. He swung his fists a couple of times, standing by the roadside, gazing at the sixty-seven deceased people’s photographs in the newspaper.

He didn’t find them terrifying; instead, he felt exhilarated, like when he added another trophy to his stamp collection.

Wonderful!

Absolutely wonderful!

Clearly, it was related to slaughter, yet it sparked in Jim a feeling of "this is the image of a strong nation."

Perhaps he couldn’t articulate it well enough, but that’s what he meant.

A strong nation, respect — not just empty words, but must have factual basis.

Now it exists.

If you don’t give it to me, I’ll take it myself. Look at these fools, they damn well deserve it!

For the first time, Jim found those luxury car fleets on the road less nauseating, as some people were different from others.

Such as Mr. Lynch sitting in the convoy that had just passed him.

"Our experimental results have exceeded our expectations. Based on the technology we currently have, we can push the aircraft’s engine functionality further within six months."

The engineer overseeing aircraft research was reporting their achievements to Lynch during this period.

The aircraft research was basically completed, but they hadn’t rashly asked Lynch for work approval; instead, they continued optimizing the overall structure of the aircraft.

Additionally, more attempts were made in terms of materials, such as all-aluminum alloy aircraft.

Lighter, faster, higher, stronger load capacity, and more unreliable.

Besides these, they tried equipping it with a firepower system. The engineer knew Lynch had given them great freedom, with the core objective of developing civilian entertainment devices into war weapons.

Thus, a lot of designs had been made, and these designs needed to be validated, which led to the delay before reporting the results to Lynch.

"Don’t tell me what I don’t want to hear, just tell me whether the aircraft can fly and achieve our design goals."

The engineer forcefully nodded, "Yes!"

Lynch patted the engineer’s arm, "I hope you can give me a surprise!"

The vehicles roared through the streets of Bupen, aircraft research aims were unsuitable to be conducted inside the city.

If it fell from the sky and killed some people, it would be quite a hassle, so the aircraft research lab was located in a rural area near the Warning Zone.

These remote lands weren’t valuable, coupled with Lynch providing jobs exceeding the Federation’s minimum standards, so Bupen City Hall generously granted him large tracts of land to build various facilities.

The convoy didn’t stop outside the lab, but went directly to the runway, where two brand new aircraft, let us call them airplanes, were already parked.

"One is an all-aluminum alloy fuselage, while the other is a more traditional aluminum-clad fuselage, with wood inside."

The engineer explained again to Lynch the difference between the two materials. Lynch patiently listened, as he needed something to sway the potential wealthy clients later.

After the engineer finished those hard-to-understand terminologies, the first all-aluminum alloy aircraft quickly took off.

"Mr. Lynch, did you notice how stable the fuselage was during takeoff, without any abnormal vibrations? That’s the advantage of aluminum alloy."

"I believe once some breakthroughs are made in metallurgy processes, the future of the aircraft field will inevitably adopt all-aluminum structures."

"But there are still some areas we cannot solve, like dealing with strong convection..."

Lynch lifted his head, watching the plane flying steadily in the sky, followed by the aluminum-clad aircraft.

The wood-aluminum structure has existed for a long time. Aside from its cost-effective price making it viable, wood provides extra resilience ensuring safety in the air when facing danger.

At least the wing wouldn’t suddenly break off, tough and durable.

Watching the two planes flying, Lynch could already imagine the future sky being filled with various aircraft.

"What about their combat capabilities?"

The engineer mentioned some things Lynch already knew, like some number of millimeter grenade launchers could achieve high-altitude drops with a simple switch.

Disregarding accuracy, it’s still quite useful.

Listening to those not-so-meaningful figures, Lynch asked a question no one had thought of, "Have you considered how it would tackle aerial enemies?"

The researchers and engineers present were stunned; they didn’t know how to answer the question.

It’s not that the question was so difficult, it’s just that during the whole design process of the aircraft, they hadn’t considered it needing to tackle enemies from the air.

Currently, globally, aircraft still belong to the popular field of private research.

Precisely because it’s popular, many private scientists encounter flight accidents each year, enforcing a stereotypical impression that aircraft aren’t safe.

This is also the main reason limiting it from gaining more attention and investment. People like Lynch willing to invest are scarce in the entire Federation.

So the research institute never considered having any competitors; if there were, it’d be about who could fly further, higher, and faster rather than combat.

The issue now arises: what if the attack comes from the ground?

"We have machine guns!" exclaimed a researcher excitedly, as if answering the most important question in his life.

Lynch didn’t immediately praise or criticize him but raised several questions, "Who controls it? If two people are involved, how long can they withstand high-intensity combat, and how is its stability ensured in aerial combat?"

Looking at these people, Lynch knew they hadn’t grasped this concept.

"Can we contact someone above?"

Someone nodded, "We didn’t equip grenade launchers, instead using excess weight to mount radios inside, allowing contact with the pilot."

"Great, have them fly a circle over the Warning Zone..."

The researcher was stunned again but quickly reacted, even appearing excited.

The aircraft project was initially aimed at military sales, but the Military wasn’t interested in these frequently malfunctioning items, not even considering funding.

This left some researchers with a bit of obsession with the Military.

The two planes received the command, quickly changing direction, flying towards the Warning Zone.

Lynch curiously looked at the Chief Engineer beside him, "You seemed quite tense a moment ago?"

As the plane flipped and turned in the air, the Chief Engineer beside Lynch was so tense his hands clenched into fists.

"No... How could I? I wasn’t nervous at all!"

After speaking, he laughed twice, trying to show he wasn’t lying.

Actually, he was lying. High-angle roll turns easily snap the wings, but fortunately, they performed well today without any incidents.

Over twenty minutes later, the two planes landed steadily on the runway, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, cheering for the successful test flight.

The Chief Engineer planned to invite Lynch to rest at the research institute, but Lynch didn’t agree and stayed at the airport.

"No rush, let’s wait a moment."

Wait a moment?

The Chief Engineer gazed at the blue sky and not-so-many clouds in the sky, the golden sunlight dyeing the clouds golden, like palaces where gods reside.

Beautiful it may be, but is there any point in waiting here?

Minutes later, engine noises were heard from the distant wilds; a group of soldiers was quickly approaching.