Chapter 490
Chapter 490: Chapter 79: Lord of the Stars (Thanks to the alliance leader rewarded by Feitian and Brother Chen!)_3 Chapter 490: Chapter 79: Lord of the Stars (Thanks to the alliance leader rewarded by Feitian and Brother Chen!)_3 The spaceplane was now fixed vertically inside the rocket.
Therefore, once inside, they sat in “sitting-lying” positions, lying on their seats.
They had to lie there for two hours, waiting for various checks and preparations outside to be completed before welcoming the rocket launch.
“Hey, glad I didn’t wear that Michelin Man outfit.”
After struggling to get in, Gao Yang changed his tune and couldn’t stop praising the orange spacesuit:
“This lighter wear is so much more comfortable.
Otherwise, with such a small entry on the rocket, I would have had a hard time squeezing in…
Now I finally understand the purpose of the posture training we went through.
If I had to sit and lie in such an uncomfortable position for two hours before, I would probably have had a brain congestion.”
Wei Cheng, leading Liu Feng to the cockpit, smiled and said over the radio channel:
“That’s why the type of mission dictates the suit.
Especially with your mission being so critical, wearing that inconvenient and bulky white spacesuit would hinder your operation of the mechanical arm and greatly reduce flexibility.”
“But as I’ve told you, this orange spacesuit is officially called the Advanced Escape System Spacesuit.
It has a lot of equipment and small components inside.
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Since we won’t need them, and given our tight training schedule, I didn’t teach you how to use them, so remember, don’t fiddle with anything!
Don’t touch anything!
After launch, just follow Director Huang’s commands.”
Once everyone was seated, they all lay in their own seats.
Although the spaceplane had windows to see outside,
the spaceplane was inside the rocket now, so even if they looked out, they would only see the black heat shield and no outside scenery.
Lin Xian lowered his head, studying the orange spacesuit, the Advanced Escape System Spacesuit.
It indeed had many features and components.
The ones he could understand included a parachute, a flashlight, an emergency medicine box, a survival gear bag, and a very sharp-looking knife.
Suddenly!
Lin Xian felt something familiar!
“A pistol?”
Of course, he did not pull it out, because Wei Cheng had cautioned that these items wouldn’t be needed and not to fiddle with them.
He was about to ask about its use when the restless Gao Yang beat him to it:
“Brother Wei!
What are the knife and pistol for?
Are they prepared for when we have to fight aliens?”
“Don’t touch them!
Pretend they don’t exist!”
Wei Cheng warned:
“These are standard equipment for astronaut suits because if any emergency arises, the final landing position could be uncontrollable, possibly resulting in a drop in the primitive forest, desert, or other locations outside the designated landing sites.”
“All these items are just precautions, for example, the knife is for cutting the parachute ropes; the pistol is for self-defense against wildlife after landing.
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But clearly, you don’t need them, nor do you have the skill.
With our limited training time, we definitely don’t have time to teach you shooting or anything like that.”
“In short, remember my words, don’t touch anything on this suit, you don’t need to.
You will always operate within the equipment cabin, focused only on capturing the Alpha material, and don’t worry about anything else.”
Gao Yang snorted:
“Then if we’re not supposed to use them, why not just take them away!
It’s scary enough just being here…
What if it goes off!
Go on, hurry and take it, I feel like the muzzle is still pointing at my groin…
We can’t be just playing around here!”
“Don’t worry,” Huang Que softly said over the radio:
“The pistol has several safeties, and unless someone specifically teaches you, you couldn’t fire it even if you wanted to.
Disabling the safety on this type of gun is a technical task, which you won’t be able to manage.”
“The reason we haven’t removed these unnecessary equipment is also for the secrecy of [ultra-secret missions].”
She turned her head with the clear face mask to look at the three other passengers, her voice emerging through the communications device in everyone’s ears:
“All the people on the ground, including those workers and inspectors, they don’t know your true identity.
This launch operation is secret externally, and internally it’s claimed to be a simulation of intercepting Earth-orbit satellites.”
“Since we’re playing a role, we should play it in full.
Although you are not formal astronauts, others don’t know that, so all procedures have to treat you as normal astronauts, naturally including having all the gear.”
“It’s better to do less than to do more, letting everyone think you are truly registered astronauts is the best, so there won’t be a leak of your identity or the operation.”
…
So that was it.
Playing the full role, it wasn’t wrong at all.
Lin Xian also felt this operation was layers upon layers of deception, fooling one layer after another.
Externally, it appeared as if China was launching a satellite.
Internally, it seemed like professional astronauts were riding a spaceplane on an Earth-orbit mission.
Wei Cheng thought it was just a bunch of novices executing the Alpha Material Capture mission.
But the truth is—
[Space-Time Travelers, Dream Recyclers, Cosmic Constant Creators, Trinity Cloners, Masters controlling thousands of spacecraft, plus a chubby kid, were about to head to space to capture the extremely mysterious space-time particles.]
What a gathering of big shots.
Lin Xian couldn’t help but sigh.
The passengers on this skyspace aircraft were no ordinary people, aside from the chubby kid, each one was extraordinary!
“Whew…”
Chu Anqing took a deep breath.
The radio communication equipment let her exhalation linger by Lin Xian’s ear:
“This really is…
the longest journey of my life.”
She smiled, moved her huge transparent helmet, and looked at Lin Xian sitting beside her:
“Senior Lin Xian, before this, what was the farthest journey you had ever taken?”
Lin Xian smiled faintly:
“That would be to Mi Country, that time I went to New York Manhattan, the center of the world, that’s the farthest place I’ve ever been in my life.”
“Hehe, me too!”
Talking with Lin Xian, Chu Anqing’s nervous mood instantly relaxed:
“I suddenly thought, if New York Manhattan is the center of the world, the center of Earth, then…
”
“Where is the center of the universe?”
“Cao County!” Gao Yang answered rapidly:
“Shandong heze Cao County is awesome!
666!!”
This provoked a burst of laughter from everyone.
Thump thump.
Lin Xian tapped his helmet twice.
This was his and VV’s secret code.
Whenever Lin Xian tapped his helmet quickly twice, VV would isolate Lin Xian’s radio channel from the others, turning it into a channel where only Lin Xian and VV could communicate:
“VV, any movements from Kevin Walker?”
“No, I’ve already gained control of the X-37B spaceplane and denied all access.
He can’t get in.”
“And Jask?” Lin Xian asked.
“Jask has gone up to that [Scenic Iron Tower] again, as usual for his daily tasks, leaning against the railing, admiring the Starship Rockets at the launch site.”
Lin Xian nodded.
So far, everything is normal.
Finally…
The long wait.
In the radio channel, the countdown from mission control started:
“5!”
“4!”
“3!”
“2!”
“1!”
“Ignition—”
Boom!!!!!!!!!!