Chapter 157: Intensive Search

Ning Shuangshuang actually felt the same way in her heart, but the confident smile and look in Du Qiu’s eyes in the video inexplicably made her trust him at the time.

“Uncle, I hope what he said is true, but…”

Hearing this, Ning Yuzhe wished he could slap himself. How wonderful would it be if Du Qiu could soothe his niece’s emotions to not do anything rash. Why did he need to hurry and debunk it?

“Shuangshuang, I think what Du Qiu said makes sense. Perhaps the security personnel he hired are really capable. Some of them might be familiar with the area and thus could quickly locate the medical team. You should just wait peacefully for the good news.”

“I think maybe I should still take leave and go to South Sudan myself. I’ll wait in the capital, Zhuba, and if the people Du Qiu hired really rescue my mother and the others, I can see them as soon as possible.”

“Ah, Shuangshuang, why are you thinking of going again? Your dad said that the situation there is very tense recently. They’ve even built fortifications on the streets of Zhuba. It could erupt into conflict again at any moment. If you go there alone, might your dad not be worried to death?”

“Forget it, I’ll think about it some more. Uncle, you should rest.”

“Ah…” Ning Yuzhe sighed as he listened to the dial tone on the phone.

He thought it would be good to call his elder brother. After all, his brother is in Egya in the north, and might have more timely news to see if there really is a security company rescuing people.

The continuous rain in South Sudan had finally stopped.

Before dawn, as sunlight from beneath the horizon just began illuminating the high-altitude atmosphere 2000-3000 kilometers up, it started to dilute the distant starlight.

Although this sunlight could not reach the ground, Du Qiu, through the panoramic windows of the aircraft at an altitude of 10,000 meters, still saw the faint glimmer of dawn.

Du Qiu was aboard a large unmanned drone that was refitted from a transporter into a command model.

The entire aircraft was divided into two layers. The upper layer was like a small mobile command center with capabilities exceeding those of the Air Force One used by the United States.

Its lower layer was equipped with an active phased array radar that had powerful search capabilities, with a detection range reaching an astonishing 1000 kilometers.

Made entirely of silicon carbide semiconductor components, this radar was not only half the size of usual active phased array radar setups but also had far superior anti-interference capabilities and search range.

Most importantly, it did not need the huge radar antennas like existing models, which would disrupt the aircraft’s aerodynamic profile.

Beneath the entire fuselage was such a radar antenna capable of emitting radar waves.

Interestingly, the surface of the fuselage was coated with a new type of radar wave-absorbing paint that absorbed in a unidirectional manner.

It was somewhat similar to one-way glass, allowing vision from inside to outside but not the other way around.

This new type of stealth radar coating was far superior to existing stealth paints on Blue Star, almost completely absorbing radar waves.

To understand, the current stealth materials on Blue Star improve a fighter’s stealth capability by about 10%, relying more on the aircraft’s design to reduce its radar cross-section (RCS).

With the help of the Maintainer’s artificial intelligence, Du Qiu found a material capable of absorbing 100% of electromagnetic waves from a vast array of options, leading to the creation of this coating.

Thanks to this powerful radar stealth capability, Du Qiu’s unmanned intelligent aircraft dared to be built so large.

Otherwise, even with the low-level air defense in African countries, a giant aircraft would have been easily detected.

This unmanned command drone came equipped with a compact supercomputer, slightly smaller than the initial Starlight I supercomputer, but with better performance.

This was because the chip used was 3 angstrom technology, not the initial 1 nanometer technology.

Named as Starlight IIA model, it belongs to a class of intelligent brains that can be fitted inside large equipment, and the AI running within is also on the level of strong artificial intelligence.

“Sir, Star Ocean has confirmed a landing site for use as the frontline command post for this operation, and we are about ten minutes away from there,” a deep male voice said, coming from the artificial intelligence on the command drone, named Commander One.

In front of Du Qiu, a 3D holographic projection displayed a three-dimensional terrain map, and the landing site was marked with a yellow dot.

Du Qiu glanced at it; the landing site was 10 kilometers from Bor and 12 kilometers from where the medical team had their incident.

In this vast expanse of grassland, it was a rare small hill surrounded by sparse trees.

Star Ocean chose this place as the frontline command for utilizing a holographic projection camouflage system to project an image of a small forest.

With those actual trees, the camouflage effect would be greatly enhanced.

“Has the first platoon already reached there?”

“Yes. There are no villages within a five-kilometer radius, so we won’t need to worry about being discovered.”

“Order the first platoon to dispatch a squad in vehicles to the site of the incident to understand the details of what happened to the medical team and to determine what means of transport the armed militants used to escape.”

“Yes, the order has been issued.”

On the holographic projection, a squad divided into two all-terrain vehicles headed towards the incident site 12 kilometers away.

“Has the Tang Country peacekeeping squad arrived at the incident site?”

“Yes, they have arrived. Our undercover agents are in position, and we can access any information they obtain in real-time.”

As Commander One spoke, a green armored vehicle appeared on the holographic projection, representing the Tang Country peacekeeping squad.

“How are things with the Eagle’s Nest search?”

“Sir, after the Eagle’s Nest reached this airspace, it conducted a carpet search within a 150-kilometer radius from the center of the incident site, marking all locations where armed militants appeared. We are still analyzing the data and cannot yet ascertain the location of the medical team.”

“Heh, so many armed groups, South Sudan really is chaotic. Are there undercover agents dispatched to these places as well?”

“Yes, they’ve been dispatched. However, since the militants are asleep, we are temporarily unable to learn if there is any information regarding the medical team,” Commander replied.

Looking at the hologram, Du Qiu saw the densely packed red dots representing the militants, totaling 167 locations.

However, their distribution leaned towards the north of Bor, with fewer spots on the east and south.

The location of the frontline command post was 8 kilometers away from the nearest group of militants, which was right next to Bor and might be an armed checkpoint for entering and leaving Bor.

Currently, Du Qiu did not know the origins of the militants who had taken the medical team hostage. After one night, it was unclear if these people would continue to flee.

If they kept fleeing, Eagle’s Nest, with its super magnet imaging system, should be able to locate them quickly.

In addition to Eagle’s Nest, there was also the first flying squadron and the second flying squadron that followed.

A total of 216 Eagle drones circled the airspace above that region, identifying any moving targets.

The photos and physical characteristics of all 28 members of the medical team had already been collected, so as soon as the Fly drones captured them, Star Ocean would match and confirm their identities immediately.

Once detected, rescuing the hostages would be a simple task.

However, given the current strong search formation organized by Du Qiu, even if they stopped moving and hid somewhere, it would only be a matter of time before Eagle’s Nest discovered them after making a match.

As the sky gradually brightened, Du Qiu’s commander, accompanied by six escorting Eagle drones, landed at the frontline command post.

Here, the first platoon had already set up the field command in an orderly manner, a type of large armored command vehicle, which allowed for rapid deployment of the command post.

Stepping out of the cabin, Du Qiu set foot on the grassland, and six escorting Hawk drones gracefully touched down.

Then the area was covered by a holographic camouflage system that projected images of trees, expanding the sparse woods into a lush forest.

Over the past year, Du Qiu indeed spent most of his time and energy on the design and development of various weapons and equipment.

The reason he didn’t spend more time researching era-surpassing black technology was that he wanted to have sufficient self-protection capacity, so he could boldly undertake R&D.

Otherwise, with the manufacturing data of a level-four civilization, it would be easy to churn out epoch-changing black technology.

That could well mean the outbreak of a third world war.

With the current state of global military preparation on Blue Star, the outbreak of war would mean nuclear warfare and the onset of a nuclear winter for humanity.

Such an outcome is certainly not what Du Qiu wants, so he actively established a military foundation to deal with situations beyond his control.