"Who cares if it’s an attack aircraft or a drone, shoot first, talk later!"

Shooting drones out here is still less risky than really going up against attack aircraft with better maneuverability and firepower.

No matter how much money you’ve got, you need to stay alive to spend it.

Staring at the cargo bay door with the gale howling in and the ground nowhere in sight, he clenched his teeth, forced down his fear, and tried to pump up his squad.

"Brothers, it’s time to become legends! Let these bastards see what a tank battle from the Europe Black Forest ace squad really looks like."

The team members were scared out of their minds, but their blood was boiling even more.

Gunner Jerson: "Fuck, tanks going airborne, these company dogs really can come up with shit."

Spotter Hoss: "God help us! I’m afraid of heights."

Hacker Arce: "Praying to God is worse than praying these company dogs’ escape systems actually work."

"Trust your skills, boys."

Hans popped the tank’s securing locks and jumped into the tank.

"Start the engine, time to make something big happen!"

"GO!"

The hover tank powered up; once the restraints were off it floated up, and before they could even fire the thrusters to stabilize, inertia flung them straight out of the cargo bay.

"Aaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!" *N

"Dope up! Hit the meds, now!"

The tank interior was full of screams; after a long moment they realized the tank wasn’t falling, it was just quietly floating in the sky.

The altitude lock had already been pre-unlocked by the manufacturer; now it should be under Hacker’s control.

Once the adrenaline and stimulants hit their veins, the terror from losing all safety guarantees got tossed out the window; they quickly calmed down and started steering the tank toward the combat zone.

But where they couldn’t see, within radar range,

several faint signals had already reached the airspace over the battlefield.

They were three large transport aircraft.

Jianxue leaned against the cargo door and shouted to the players taking part in this op,

"Listen up, you’ve only got one shot!

Whether you can jack a fighter or not all comes down to your skills!

The exoskeleton gear on you is not for you to fly with."

Rumble—

The cargo door opened, icy wind rushed in, and at twenty thousand feet the temperature had dropped to minus twenty degrees.

But the fully exoskeletonized players felt their blood burning.

Dozens of Predators were already holding formation at the ramp, synced with the aircraft, relatively motionless.

Jianxue pointed at the Predators; because of the roaring wind he had to shout at the top of his lungs,

"When a fighter is flying at transonic speed there’s a strong shockwave airflow around the fuselage. If you rely on this gear alone to get close, you’ll get flipped right off. So in a bit, one person per Predator, jump onto the top of the Predator and let it carry you in close to the enemy fighters,

then use this gadget on you!"

Sword Saint held up the button on the palm of his exoskeleton, introducing it to the others,

"The exoskeleton is tied into your neural net. Once you’re close, use your cyber-eye to aim at the enemy fighter and hit this. The exoskeleton will fire a high-pressure magnetic dart lock, tethering you to the enemy aircraft, then you use your gorilla arms to haul yourself in along the line!

Flip the canopy, yank those dumbasses out, and the plane’s ours!

We’re robbing their goddamn imperial tribute convoy! One big, nasty score!"

This wasn’t some spur-of-the-moment insanity; it was damn well premeditated.

Ever since they came to Cuba and got their asses kicked by enemy air power, they’d already been cooking up crooked schemes like this—only the original target wasn’t the attack aircraft, but the enemy’s floating battleships.

Even though the players here hadn’t just never rehearsed this, they’d never even done a parachute drop, it didn’t stop them from feeling zero fear—only the thrill of tackling a high-difficulty dungeon.

"Glory to Super Earth, Administrator Democracy grant me strength! Aaaaahhhh!!!"

Bros chose to chuck all fear aside and charged out of the cargo bay howling. Under Sky Net’s control, the Predator drone caught him dead on, then immediately peeled away to open a slot for the next Predator.

Moves that crazy ran smoother than taking the stairs under Its choreography.

"Let’s hit a big one! Hahahaha."

"Mission Impossible my ass, I’m Tom Cruise now! Someone grab me a badass shot!"

"Aaaah awoooo! I’m going in first, it’s on you guys now! All or nothing!"

Dozens of people jumped one after another, screaming their lungs out. They sprawled across the backs of the Predators and, with cover from the other Predators, rocketed toward the Cuba fighters.

The Cuba pilots, still clueless, were just starting to get a bad feeling.

These drones were acting way too weird; aside from that one wave of interceptors, they’d barely launched any attacks. At this point all three squadrons were sitting at zero casualties.

It was like they were plotting some kind of conspiracy.

But no matter how hard they racked their brains, they couldn’t figure out why. Even if it’s a trap, shouldn’t you at least attack once?

Where are Military Technology’s fighters?

Where are your SAMs?

Pilot Polk was completely baffled. He’d been working his stick the whole time trying to shake off these weird drones, but their maneuverability was every bit as good as his own; no matter what he tried, he couldn’t open the distance.

He didn’t dare go supersonic either, because at that speed the fuel burn was way too high; he’d run dry in no time, and if Military Science’s fighters lying in ambush caught up then, he’d be dead for sure.

Until

he heard a strange sound.

It sounded like a person’s voice.

The voice wasn’t coming from his headset, not from any teammate, but from... outside the plane.

"Hey! BOY!"

Polk stiffly turned his head and looked out the window.

What he saw then would stay with him for the rest of his life.