Tech Giants: Starting from Bankrupt Companies

322: Chapter 322 A Rain of Missiles from IranJuly 4th, 2:00 AM, an Iranian missile base.

The night was deep, and the desert was silent.

Suddenly, the ground shook.

The gate of a base disguised as a hill slowly opened, revealing the lights inside. Launch vehicles drove out of the cave, their tires crushing the gravel and making a rustling sound.

Hajizadeh, commander of the Revolutionary Guard Aerospace Force, stood in the command center, looking at the target coordinates on the screen.

Sixty-year-old Hajizadeh was a veteran of the Iranian missile forces; he had participated in the Iran-Iraq War and experienced countless crises. There was no expression on his face, only focus.

“First batch, twenty missiles.”

He pressed the launch button.

On the screen, the light points representing the missiles lit up one after another. They took off from different launch positions, and the tail flames illuminated the desert.

In the night sky, twenty trails of fire rose simultaneously, like twenty fire dragons, rushing toward the west.

2:30 AM, downtown Tel Aviv.

Air raid sirens tore through the night sky.

Citizens were awakened from their sleep. Some rushed to shelters, some hid in stairwells, and some huddled in corners holding their children.

The Iron Dome system fired automatically.

Launchers rose one after another, and interceptor missiles ascended, drawing dense trajectories across the night sky.

The first seven missiles were ordinary “Shahab-3s,” with fixed ballistic trajectories and medium speeds. The Iron Dome’s radar locked onto them, the fire control computer calculated the intercept, and the interceptor missiles rose to meet them.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Seven fireballs exploded in the night sky; seven missiles were successfully intercepted.

But the remaining thirteen were different.

They were “Fattah” hypersonic missiles—fully independently developed and locally manufactured by the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, without reliance on external technology or components. Range coverage: Iran to core cities in Israel (Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem). The Fattah missile has a range of 1,400–2,500 kilometers and can be launched from western/central Iran, covering the entire territory of Israel. The Fattah hypersonic missile’s terminal re-entry speed is Mach 13–16 (approximately 4.4–5.1 km/s), far exceeding the approximately Mach 10 interception limit of Israel’s “Arrow-3” anti-missile system.

It only takes about 7 minutes to launch from western Iran to Tel Aviv, compressing the interception window to mere seconds. The Fattah uses waverider gliding + terminal high-G maneuvers (lateral maneuvers of ±20 km or more), capable of serpentine trajectory changes, making it impossible for traditional anti-missile systems to predict its path.

At this moment, thirteen Fattah missiles were gliding at the edge of the atmosphere. Their trajectories were not parabolas, but eerie “skipping stones”—now high, now low, now left, now right, completely unpredictable.

The Iron Dome’s radar lost its targets.

The fire control computer calculated frantically, but each time it was thrown off by the missiles’ maneuvers.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three high-rise buildings were hit.

The first was an office building; it was empty in the early morning, but flames soared, and glass shards fell like raindrops.

The second was a twelve-story residential building with forty households. Screams, cries, and the sound of breaking glass blended together.

The third was a shopping mall that had already closed, but there were two staff members on duty in the security room.

Another 5 hypersonic missiles hit Israeli military facilities, with casualties uncertain.

3:30 AM, Israel Defense Forces headquarters.

Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi stood in front of the big screen, his face ashen.

The screen scrolled with battle damage reports:

Total missiles: 20

Iron Dome interceptions: 7 (ordinary missiles)

Hypersonic missiles: 13 penetrated, 8 hit targets

Civilian casualties: Preliminary count, 12 dead, over 80 injured

Secretary of Defense Benny Gantz rushed into the conference room and slammed his fist on the table.

Thud!

The water glass on the table jumped, and water spilled all over the floor.

“Iron Dome! Iron Dome! We spent billions of dollars on what is touted as the world’s most advanced air defense system, and it couldn’t even stop thirteen missiles!”

Kochavi said in a low voice: “Minister, hypersonic missiles... currently, there is no mature interception technology globally. Even America’s THAAD won’t work.”

Gantz was silent for three seconds.

“Call Washington. We need THAAD, we need Patriot-3s, we need everything we can use.”

8:00 AM, streets of Tel Aviv.

Beside the ruins, reporters were broadcasting live.

The fire was still burning, and firefighters were putting it out. Ambulance sirens wailed one after another, and stretcher after stretcher carried out the wounded.

A middle-aged man cried to the camera. His clothes were covered in dust, and there was blood on his face.

“They said the Iron Dome could protect us! Where is the Iron Dome? My wife is still inside! Where is the Iron Dome!”

His cries were broadcast around the world.

Another old man stood in front of the ruins and said angrily to the camera:

“The government gave all the money to the Americans to buy those useless weapons. The Iranians’ missiles must have had technical support from Xingchen Defense; why can’t we also buy weapons from Xingchen?”

This sentence was played repeatedly by global media.

July 5th, early morning, the second wave of attacks.

The same pattern.

Thirty missiles took off, fifteen of which were Fattah hypersonic missiles.

The Iranians had become smarter. They used ordinary missiles to attract the Iron Dome’s firepower, allowing the hypersonic missiles to penetrate from different directions.

The Iron Dome system intercepted ten ordinary missiles, but remained helpless against the fifteen maneuvering hypersonic missiles.

This time, an auxiliary building of the Israeli Ministry of National Defense was hit. Fortunately, personnel had been evacuated in advance, and there were no casualties. However, the main structure of the building was severely damaged, the outer walls collapsed, and all internal equipment was burned.

Two other commercial buildings were hit; one was the headquarters of an insurance company, and the other was an office building for a tech company.

Over the two days, Iran launched more than one hundred missiles. Forty of them were Fattah hypersonic missiles, hitting more than twenty targets. Most were high-rise commercial buildings with huge economic value, causing over ten billion dollars in economic losses to Israel.

These Fattah hypersonic missiles used some technology from Xingchen Defense, which enhanced their strike accuracy and damage capability.

Iran’s domestically produced “Fattah-1” hypersonic missiles, although improved in technology, were limited in quantity, and the technology was not as mature as Venus. This attack had exhausted their inventory. Iran urgently purchased 200 Venus hypersonic missiles from Xingchen Defense at a 100% premium, at a unit price of $20 million per missile, for a total purchase amount of $4 billion, settled in gold and oil, with a demand for quick delivery.

2:00 PM, Israeli cabinet emergency meeting.

Prime Minister Benjamin Golan sat in the main seat, his face as gloomy as if it were about to drip water.

After the military representative finished reporting the battle damage, there was silence in the conference room.

Golan spoke: “What do we need?”

Secretary of Defense Gantz said: “THAAD. Twenty sets of THAAD systems, totaling $3 billion. At the same time, we demand that the US accelerate delivery and prioritize supply to Israel.”

Someone asked: “Can THAAD intercept hypersonic missiles?”

The military representative was silent for three seconds.

“Theoretically, yes. THAAD’s radar is much more powerful than the Iron Dome’s, and the interceptor missiles are faster. But it needs to be tested in actual combat.”

Golan smiled bitterly.

“Then let’s pray.”