Homo Sapiens

April 26, ’22.

9:44 AM, North American time.

The United Nations General Assembly was already in chaos.

America’s representative, Steve, looked at the representatives of the other four ”great philanthropists” and instinctively tightened his grip on the urgent report in his hands.

He clearly hadn’t expected Luzon to react so fiercely before the Seventh Fleet and Fifth Fleet had even made a move.

In a low voice, he asked, ”Mr. Carmen Lopez, is Luzon declaring war on America?”

Carmen, who had been chatting and laughing with Wu Wei, pulled the microphone closer and shrugged nonchalantly. ”I haven’t received any notice of a declaration of war yet.”

Steve’s eyes widened in fury as he roared, ”Do you think blockading the Malacca Strait can stop the Seventh Fleet? You will pay the price for your actions...”

”Okay, okay,” Carmen said, shaking his head contemptuously. ”You can say that after you’ve made us pay the price. Otherwise, it just makes you look weak.”

’Fuck...’ Steve felt like he was going to lose his mind.

Meanwhile, inside the Pentagon.

The generals of the United States Army felt like they were going crazy, too.

This wasn’t how the script was supposed to go at all.

「At the same time.」

Ceylon Ocean.

The Badu Strait, north of the Maldives Islands.

Under the cover of night, amidst the churning waves.

America’s Fifth Fleet sounded its air defense sirens, deploying all manner of anti-aircraft weaponry.

On the deck of the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), over a dozen Super Hornet Fighters, armed with various missiles, scrambled to take off.

However, fifteen Sea Eagle Fighters had already appeared within fifty kilometers of the fleet.

Inside the cockpit of the Sea Eagle Fighter squadron’s lead plane, a warning from the United States Army came over the public channel:

”Leave this area immediately within the next five minutes, or it will be considered an attack, and we will shoot you down...”

”Leave this area immediately within the next five minutes, or...”

The squadron leader roared back, ”Fuck you... you white pigs! This is international water. You have no right to tell us to leave. If you’ve got the guts, come and get me...”

”Fuck... you un-evolved monkeys...”

The two sides traded trash talk furiously over the public channel.

Meanwhile, the Tianzhu Navy, the ignored third party in the area, also overheard the exchange on the public channel.

The Sea Eagle Fighter squadron circled on the edge of the Fifth Fleet’s perimeter, between fifty and seventy kilometers out, constantly provoking them.

Aboard the Blue Ridge, the Fifth Fleet’s commander, William, was burning with rage. ”Launch missiles! Take out this trash.”

A moment later, thirty Javelin missiles shot into the sky.

The Sea Eagle squadron leader, Hu Tor (Thor Hook), instantly saw the feedback on his magnetic field radar and immediately shouted over the internal channel, ”Go low for evasive maneuvers! Deploy thermal decoy drones!”

”Roger that.”

The squadron of Sea Eagle Fighters dove, hugging the surface of the ocean. As New Humans equipped with magnetic field vision and intelligent assisted-piloting systems, their pilots brought the jets down to a height of just fifteen to twenty meters above the waves.

At the same time, they ejected small, highly reflective, high-heat signature drones from their weapon bays.

Even with their AWACS planes, the Fifth Fleet was helpless against the sea-skimming Sea Eagles.

The Javelin missiles and the Super Hornet Fighters, which were already halfway to their targets, instantly lost their lock.

On the bridge of the Blue Ridge, Vice Admiral William’s expression changed as he heard the report from the radar monitoring department. ”Have the AWACS expand their search radius! Air defense, Condition One alert!”

”Report! The targets have reappeared...”

His adjutant, Wood, frowned. ”Reappeared?”

”Report! Missiles have impacted the targets...”

But their celebration was premature.

The two AWACS planes trailing the Super Hornet squadron had just entered the 53-kilometer zone when they were targeted by two Sea Eagle Fighters from the surface of the water.

Inside the AWACS cockpit, the crew nervously watched their instrument panels.

Suddenly, the radar operator’s eyes went wide. ”Oh no! Below us!”

”What?”

The Sea Eagle Fighters, climbing rapidly from the sea’s surface, burst forward at a maximum speed of Mach 3.7.

CRUNCH!

The wings of the two fighters sliced directly into the wings of the AWACS planes.

”Fuck!”

”We’re hit!”

The Sea Eagles, built from a super-hard alloy, had used their wings to slice through the wings of their opponents. With one wing sheared off, both AWACS planes lost aerodynamic stability and began spiraling toward the sea.

”Bail out!”

”I don’t wanna die!”

Only then did the Super Hornet squadron receive the report that their AWACS had been attacked.

They quickly turned to counter-attack.

But their every move was exposed to the Sea Eagle squadron below.

En route, five more Sea Eagles shot up from the ocean’s surface.

RAT-TAT-TAT...

Incendiary cannon shells traced fiery serpents across the night sky.

Caught off guard, two jets in the Super Hornet squadron were hit by the cannon fire.

Something even more terrifying followed. The Sea Eagle Fighters repeated their earlier tactic, using their superb piloting skills to ram the Super Hornets’ wings with their own at supersonic speeds.

One Super Hornet pilot was stunned by the sight. ”Fuck... a bunch of madmen...”

But there were daredevils among them, too. They fired back with their cannons while launching missiles.

During the exchange, another three Super Hornets had their wings sheared off, forcing the pilots to eject.

Faced with missiles and cannon fire, the Sea Eagle pilots felt no fear. Instead, they grew more excited, wildly deploying more thermal decoy drones.

After all, with a 21-ton payload capacity, the Sea Eagles carried plenty of ammunition and decoy drones.

SLAM! William’s anger boiled over. ”Scramble! Get the F-35 Lightning Squadron in the air, too...”

”Report! Torpedoes detected!”

”Report! Drones detected!”

It was as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped on William. ”Intercept them immediately!”

”Interception is underway...” Cold sweat beaded on Adjutant Wood’s forehead.

This was horrifying.

With the enemy closing to within 100 kilometers, the Fifth Fleet was now in an extremely passive and vulnerable position.

The hidden Homo Sapiens Company’s Ceylon Ocean Fourth Fleet was currently positioned in the waters 143 kilometers southeast of the Fifth Fleet.

The Fifth Fleet was so vulnerable mainly because they couldn’t detect their targets, while the Homo Sapiens Company’s fleet had them locked on the entire time.

They hadn’t detected the launch of the torpedoes or the drones. It wasn’t until the weapons had closed to within fifty kilometers that they finally picked up some signals.

By now, the Fifth Fleet’s radar monitoring department was in complete disarray.

The signals from the sea-skimming drones were incredibly difficult to detect. The waves were high that night, with swells sometimes reaching over ten meters, severely hampering the radar’s accuracy.

As for the torpedoes, Homo Sapiens Company’s submarines were lurking on the seabed, approaching the Fifth Fleet along the ocean floor before launching their torpedoes directly from below.

A Los Angeles-class Nuclear Submarine was suddenly hit in the propeller by a torpedo that shot up from the seabed, forcing it to surface.

Meanwhile, on the surface, over five hundred drones and more than thirty torpedoes had already broken through the Fifth Fleet’s defensive screen and were now within ten kilometers.

Phalanx CIWS cannons fired wildly.

Interceptor missiles filled the sky.

Flares scattered in every direction.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! A dozen or so drones were instantly destroyed.

But the Aegis System was not, after all, an invincible iron curtain.

Over eighty drones and more than a dozen torpedoes tore through the Aegis System’s line of defense.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM...

The bridge of the Blue Ridge shook violently as 300 kilograms of TNT detonated around the warship’s propellers.

Other warships were also hit in their propellers, while the flight decks of the carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) and the amphibious assault ships USS Iwo Jima and USS Boxer were struck by incendiary munitions.

In less than half an hour of engagement, the Fifth Fleet was completely paralyzed.