Empire Conquest-Chapter 758 - 51: Low-Altitude Hegemon_2

To avoid collision with the approaching helicopter that was also plummeting, Lian Mingyang had his "Z-10A" make an emergency turn.

As a result, he missed another opportunity to fire.

Behind him, the wingman, codenamed "Swallow 02," had already opened fire, taking down another "Mi-24," and then followed the lead aircraft in a turning evasion.

Lian Mingyang didn’t climb with the helicopter; he stayed at ultra-low altitude.

Now, they had flown over the enemy armored cluster.

There was more to worry about than just the unmanned armed helicopters; there were also High-altitude Guns on the ground, as well as Air Defense Missiles in the hands of infantry.

Climbing would make them targets for High-altitude Guns and Air Defense Missiles.

As for the light weapons in the infantry’s hands, there wasn’t much to worry about; at least, there was no direct threat of bring down the "Z-10A."

After circling around, Lian Mingyang noticed that there was an additional wingman behind him, and another two "Z-10A" were a few kilometers away.

One "Z-10A" had been brought down by the enemy.

In the southwest direction, those "Mi-24" hadn’t completed their turn yet.

Clearly, the "Mi-24" were much less agile, therefore their turning radius was much larger.

"Follow closely behind and after one more round, we’ll return to base!"

"Swallow 02 received."

"Swallow 04 received."

Sure enough, the squadron lead, codenamed "Swallow 03," was shot down.

The three "Z-10A" arranged in a V formation, extending the interval distance to over 500 meters, with both wingmen positioned rear-side of the lead aircraft.

This was the air formation used when facing numerous enemy aircraft.

Extending the distance was to avoid being encircled by enemy planes.

Moreover, for a 30 Millimeter Machine Gun with an effective range exceeding 3000 meters, a distance of 500 meters was trivial.

On the opposing side, there were still 8 "Mi-24," and another 4 in the distance.

Lian Mingyang spoke of returning, not because he was frightened by the many enemy planes, but because of insufficient fuel!

Changala base was over 300 kilometers to the east, and according to the original plan, they should return to base immediately after completing the ground strike task. If they encountered unexpected events during operations and consumed more fuel, they could head to Akhtubinsk, where they could refuel and replenish ammunition at the Field Airport.

Of course, an unexpected event had already occurred.

The key point was that, after more than ten minutes of fighting, especially the fuel-consuming air combat, the remaining fuel was only enough to fly to the Field Airport. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

If they continued to consume fuel, they wouldn’t even be able to reach the Field Airport.

Being shot down in battle was just bad luck, but if the pursuit of combat led to non-combat losses, the Commander leading the team would bear the full responsibility.

It was not too late to return to base, refuel and rearm, and continue the fight!

When the 3 "Z-10A" were lined up, those "Mi-24" had also completed the turn, breaking into two formations heading this way.

One formation of 4 headed towards the "Z-10A" formation while the other 4 maneuvered to the western side.

Clearly, the pilots of these "Mi-24" had already realized that their main aerial combat weapons, the 12.7 Millimeter Machine Guns, were ineffective against the "Z-10A." A head-on engagement had almost zero chance of success, hence they opted to outflank from the side in an attempt to break through the "Z-10A" Plane Group.

The crucial detail was that the two engines of the "Z-10A" were mounted on the sides of the fuselage.

The frontal projection of the engines was only one-tenth of the side projection!

Furthermore, the armored plates protecting the engines were actually mounted at the bottom of the engine bay, primarily to contend with High-altitude Gunfire from the ground.

In other words, 12.7 Millimeter Machine Gun bullets could penetrate the engine bay from the side, and destroy the engine.

Another crucial factor was, the helicopter’s side profile projection area was definitely much larger than the frontal, thus a greater chance of being hit.

Consequently, the rocket launchers carried by the "Mi-24" came into play.

No matter how rugged the "Z-10A," it certainly couldn’t withstand rockets.

"Everybody keep up, take down those in front!"

At this moment, Lian Mingyang felt as if time had slowed down.

Of course, he knew that it was an illusion caused by an over-secretion of adrenaline, or rather, his entire being had entered a state of extreme excitement.

When facing challenges of life and death, this was a normal physiological response.

Logically, the remaining 3 "Z-10A" were doomed.

The most likely to be shot down was the lead aircraft at the very front.

But it was a matter of a few seconds.

When the helicopter began to shake violently, Lian Mingyang was startled at first, but then he realized that it wasn’t caused by the machine gun fire.

Shot!

"Chief, we’ve been hit!"

"Brace for impact!"

All three display screens in front of him had stopped working, showing some meaningless images, indicating that the helicopter’s electronic system was fried.

The "Z-10A" still had a backup hydraulic control system, which would start automatically.

After feeling the huge force fed back from the control stick, Lian Mingyang clung to hope, for that was a sign that the hydraulic system had kicked in.

At this moment, he finally took a glance outside.

The helicopter had been hit by a "Shilkha," and it was hidden in the woods, still firing into the sky, perhaps aiming at "Swallow 02."

Fortunately, as the lead helicopter was hit, the wingman had already turned away, narrowly avoiding the High-altitude Gun fire.

"Chief, engine one is gone!"

"I see it!"

Lian Mingyang didn’t give up; he had already pushed the throttle lever to the limit.

Although flames were spewing from the left engine number one, which had definitely been damaged by a shell, in emergency mode, a single engine could keep the "Z-10A" flying.

However, black smoke was also billowing from engine number two on the right, likely caused by an overload.

Using only one engine, there was no way to return to base, and a crash was inevitable.

What Lian Mingyang was doing now was trying to fly as far from the front line as possible, to a controlled area of his own side before making a forced landing.

Sadly, his efforts were in vain.

The tail rotor had come off, and the helicopter had lost the ability to control direction, spinning faster and faster around the main rotor—such a direction would be hard to discern even for the most skilled pilot.

Actually, even if he could make out the direction, controlling the helicopter to fly the right way would be impossible.

The best Lian Mingyang could do was to keep the helicopter in the air as long as possible, meaning to reduce the speed at which it would crash.

"Chief!"

"Hold tight!"

It seemed as if the whole world was spinning.

As the helicopter charged toward the forest, Lian Mingyang saw a fireball rising from the ground and a dark shadow that flew past overhead.

Then came the violent impact.

The "Z-10A" crashed into the ground after snapping a few large trees, and during the crash, both the main rotor and stub wings were flung away.

Actually, Lian Mingyang had passed out the moment the helicopter hit the ground.

Though the "Z-10A" possessed one of the best crash-survival designs among today’s armed helicopters, it didn’t mean the pilot would be unscathed in a crash.

No helicopter model could guarantee a pilot’s complete safety in the event of a crash.

It was already great if the pilot’s life was saved, and not being seriously injured was considered perfect.

The design specification for the "Z-10A" was merely to ensure the survival of two crew members if it crashed onto an unpaved surface at a speed of 15 meters per second.

Actually, Lian Mingyang’s initial efforts were not pointless.

Thanks to his efforts, the helicopter’s crash speed had been reduced to less than 10 meters per second, and the crashworthy boxy fuselage absorbed most of the impact force.

With that crash speed, the survival probability for the pilot was over 90%.

He was only unconscious for a few seconds.

The bulletproof glass on both sides of the cockpit had automatically detached during the crash, and white smoke filled the area—that was the fire-extinguishing agent sprayed out by the automated firefighting system.

Climbing out of the cabin, Lian Mingyang first thought of his copilot, Jiang Shanggui.

He had also just passed out.

After ensuring that Jiang Shanggui wasn’t seriously injured, Lian Mingyang went to retrieve the survival pack.

At that moment, a "Z-10A" flew overhead but did not stop—it flew away directly.

The fight was still on, and armed helicopters couldn’t carry out rescue missions.

Actually, Lian Mingyang had already guessed that the wingman destroyed the "Shilkha" Self-propelled High-altitude Gun that shot them down.

That was the only thing the wingman could do.

Besides, not being able to fly to a controlled zone of their own and having landed in enemy-controlled territory, more precisely in the rear of the enemy’s armored clusters!

The enemy was still advancing, and the defending army definitely couldn’t launch a Reprisal immediately, so don’t hope for rescue; be ready to save yourself!