Chapter 402: Chapter 201: One Hundred Thousand Merits
Chapter 402: Chapter 201: One Hundred Thousand Merits
The Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin-class destroyer Choe Yeong of the South Korean Navy was frantically escaping, when suddenly it noticed the sea beside its hull churning as a drone emerged from the water. Then it hovered just twenty meters beside the ship, only 1 meter above the sea surface.
The drone hovered midair, moving at the same speed as the Choe Yeong, constantly maintaining the same distance between itself and the Choe Yeong. It then rapidly fired enhanced AGM-114 Hellfire missiles at the waterline of the Choe Yeong. Like before, the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles fired by the drone were ceaseless, each missile striking the same point on the Choe Yeong’s waterline.
After realizing it was under drone missile attack, the Choe Yeong was thrown into panic and wanted to counterattack. However, due to the drone’s proximity, the Choe Yeong’s radar could not lock onto the drone because of the angle and was completely unable to attack the drone near at hand. With no other choice, the Choe Yeong could only accelerate in a mad dash to increase the distance from the drone to find an angle for attack. But under the precise control of the Auxiliary Brain, the drone clung to the Choe Yeong like an incurable disease, neither increasing nor decreasing the distance, preventing the Choe Yeong from ever finding an opportunity to strike back.
With continuous attacks from the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, series of explosions occurred along the waterline of the Choe Yeong. Fierce flames and smoke shrouded the point of attack, with no one knowing what was happening beneath the smoke. The Choe Yeong was scared out of its wits, but it had no way of shaking off the drone’s assault and had to urgently contact the Yulko Yi, which was fleeing ahead, to use its air defense missiles to attack the drone close by.
Perhaps the Yulko Yi had a change of heart, or the fear it had felt during its earlier flight had dissipated. After receiving the distress signal from the Choe Yeong, the Yulko Yi finally stopped its flight, activated the Aegis Combat System Radar on the warship, and started to lock onto the distant drone.
The drone had been hiding beside the Choe Yeong’s hull, using its hull to stay out of the Yulko Yi’s radar scan’s blind spot. To attack the drone, the Yulko Yi had to make a sharp turn to reach the other side of the Choe Yeong, first to lock the drone with radar and then fire air defense missiles to strike it.
While the Yulko Yi was turning, the drone did not stop attacking the Choe Yeong, continuously launching AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. Although the Choe Yeong was also one of South Korea’s advanced missile destroyers, its overall strength was still notably behind that of the Sejong the Great-class destroyer, and this difference was comprehensive. So when an AGM-114 Hellfire missile finally penetrated the armor of the Choe Yeong’s waterline, it had only used a total of nine AGM-114 Hellfire missiles.
The sturdy shell of the Choe Yeong had been torn open, revealing its vulnerable interior. More AGM-114 Hellfire missiles were then launched, entering the Choe Yeong through the opened pathway and wreaking havoc inside the hull. When the twelfth AGM-114 Hellfire missile flew into the interior of the Choe Yeong, a violent explosion finally ignited the ship’s fuel warehouse. The warehouse exploded in a great blast, splattering the fuel everywhere. Flames began to spread quickly, and in a very short time, the entire destroyer was engulfed in roaring fire.
At first, the damage control personnel on the Choe Yeong desperately fought the fire, but as the blaze grew larger, the ship’s commanding officer finally realized that the situation was irretrievable and declared an evacuation. The crew of the Choe Yeong then jumped into the sea one after another. By this time, the Yulko Yi had completed its turn to reach the other side of the Choe Yeong, and its radar system was finally able to lock onto the drone on the sea surface.
However, the Yulko Yi’s turn had come too late, and the Choe Yeong was beyond saving. Then the Yulko Yi suddenly realized it was the only remaining South Korean warship on the sea surface. So, when it saw the drone turning towards it, it was terrified to its core, fearing that the drone was about to unleash an attack. Overwhelmed by the fear of death, under the captain’s orders, the Yulko Yi turned again and fled towards the South Korean coastline. Nonetheless, as it fled, it still locked onto the drone above the sea and fired two SM-2 air defense missiles in its direction.
The drone had destroyed two South Korean warships, achieving great military success, but its missile arsenal had been significantly depleted, using a total of 28 missiles in just two volleys. Including the 11 missiles consumed earlier in combat, the drone was left with only 5 missiles. The escaping Yulko Yi was also a Sejong the Great-class destroyer, its hull was incredibly resilient. With only 5 remaining missiles, the drone barely had the firepower needed to sink it, so Yan Fei decided to let this ship go, thinking of retreating.
On the sea surface, the Yulko Yi was frantically fleeing, while the two SM-2 air defense missiles it had fired before its escape were chasing after the drone. Yet such SM-2 missiles hardly posed a threat to the drone, which also decided not to destroy them because shooting down the incoming missiles wouldn’t earn any Merit Points. Thus, the drone dipped its nose and prepared to submerge itself back into the sea.