Shaking off the four enemy ships, Harlegos commanded the transports to fly at full speed toward the border, the screen-shaped silhouette of the Monamolin Mountains at the far end of the horizon. In fact, after flying over the borders of the Norman Empire, they also needed to fly some distance within the territory of the Kingdom of Basel. Today, the weak country still stands in the side of the Normans, so as long as an armistice is not signed, the actions of the Union forces within its territory are not notorious for crossing the border, but are righteous and honest in combat.

The threat from the sky is behind us, and the threat from the ground is still everywhere. In order to avoid the enemy's anti-aircraft ground fire as much as possible, the major raised the flight altitude of the transport ship to almost 20,000 feet. In the absence of pressurization equipment and sealing settings, this is close to the upper limit of the altitude of a flying ship. Since the highest peak on the planet Orensis is only 16,000 feet, the intelligent beings on the planet Orens, before the discovery of the power of the source stone, have never touched such a height. In their minds, this incomparably pure airspace was the exclusive domain of the gods, and the awe of divine power was shaken when the star source stone refined by industrial metallurgical technology was driven by direct current to produce a powerful levitation force, bringing human machines to this level along with their bodies and souls. In some realms, people liberated their nature and revered freedom, while in others, kingship replaced theocracy and showed more aggressive ambitions in a more centralized way, which is the central thread of the recent history of Orens......

In the night sky, clouds flew quickly outside the porthole, and such a beautiful scene changed into a different appearance with the furious fire of the ground anti-aircraft artillery. Those shells that use time-delay fuses light up the night sky like brilliant fireworks, like brightly colored poisons. Most of them exploded under the transport, and there was no direct threat to the transporter itself, but the impact of the air flow generated by the explosion made it feel like it had encountered a storm, and the hull of the ship was constantly shaking and shaking, and no one would feel comfortable in such a state.

Looking down from the air on the enemy's ground anti-aircraft positions, when those anti-aircraft guns fired intensively, the flames were like someone lighting a match in the dark; When the artillery fire fell silent, the area returned to darkness.

Realizing that the shells were detonating at a low location, the enemy quickly adjusted the fuse settings, and the Federation transport ship was immediately threatened by the "brilliant fireworks". Blinding flames of light began to flash in front of them and on the left and right sides, and some shells exploded just a hundred feet away, and even through the portholes and bulkheads, the people in the command room could still clearly feel the terrible power of the explosion, and even the experienced people could not help but have tinnitus, heart palpitations, and dizziness. In the face of this situation, the major did not sit idly by, and he judged the situation and commanded the transport ship to use a combination of wave-like longitudinal maneuvers and S-shaped lateral maneuvers to avoid the enemy's artillery fire within the scope of his ability.

The silhouette of the Monamolin Mountains is getting closer and closer, and if the Federation transport ship can rush through enemy territory and climb over the mountains into Federal-controlled territory, then it doesn't matter if your patrol fleet comes or not, but it's not that simple. Weiss, who acted as a human early warning radar, suddenly found more than a dozen enemy fighters in front of him, which appeared in the airspace of the Kingdom of Basel, but they were not necessarily the armed forces of the Kingdom of Basel - after the neutral country announced its entry into the war, the Norman army quickly moved in, nominally sharing the pressure of its own defense, but in fact controlling the military and political order of the country, driving its army and people to serve the strategic decisions of the Norman Empire.

In this era, flying techniques were still relatively primitive and flight tactics were relatively simple, but that didn't stop brave pilots from taking to the skies at night. Despite the lack of advanced equipment such as radar, they quickly locked onto their targets with ground and aerial searchlights. At this time, Weiss wished that there was a large cloud overhead, and as long as they hid in the clouds, it would be difficult for enemy planes to accurately capture its tracks. Now, they have to confront these stubborn interceptors. During the day, the continued attrition had caused more than half of the crew to leave their combat posts to report to the infirmary, and the accompanying Special Forces soldiers were once again on combat duty, using the few weapons and ammunition left to counter the threat of enemy aircraft.

After locking on to the target, the enemy pilots attacked, but they were obviously not so proficient in night air combat, and could even be said to be rusty. In the process of searching for the attack position, two enemy planes were unable to dodge and collide together. In a state of high-speed flight, they suddenly crashed into the gameover, falling into the air like birds with folded wings. However, this scene did not last long to make the federal officers and soldiers happy, when an enemy plane collided head-on with the transport plane. No one knew whether the enemy pilot had made a mistake or if the plane had suddenly lost control, and the impact seemed to have a huge difference in size and weight, but the relative speed made the damage caused by the impact quite severe, and the people in the command room could only watch as the bow of the transport ship was smashed into a large piece - the impact just now was a matter of a moment, and the visual impact was not as shocking as that of Hollywood blockbusters, let alone slow-motion replays to appreciate. In an instant, the wreckage of the enemy aircraft, broken pieces of the ship's hull, ...... All kinds of debris fell and fell, and under the action of inertia, they flew towards the stern of the ship one after another.

This kind of collision did not cause the transport ship to fall immediately, but it seriously affected its flight stability and balance, and the experienced colonel had to order the flight speed of the transport ship to be slowed down, although it was only 1/3 of the deceleration, it could still close the distance of the enemy ship behind it. During this time, the remaining local fighters continued to lay siege around the perimeter, repeatedly strafing the officers and men on the ship with machine-gun bullets, and they fought as stubbornly as they did during the day.

The battle lasted more than ten minutes, and the enemy planes left in a huff because they ran out of ammunition.

On the observation platform, Weiss carefully dodged the strafing fire of enemy fighters while vigilantly observing the enemy's flying battleships. The frigates that were thrown away were like sharks that smelled blood, and they rushed over with great excitement, and the distance between the two sides continued to close, and the Federation transport began to descend after a period of steady flight. Worried, Weiss returned to the command room, only to find the Major standing there with a frown and Octavier silent.

"The enemy ships behind are coming after us, and if we maintain the current speed, they will surely catch up with us before we fly over the Monamolin Mountains...... You have to be prepared in advance! ”

The Major did not give a positive response to Weiss's reminder, but was preoccupied with something. As Weiss tried to get an answer from Octavier, an officer came to report that the cracked hatch and bulkhead of Cabin 1 had been blocked, but the temperature in the cabin had dropped considerably, and personnel had to be transferred to Cabin 2.

Previously, the transport ship flew at an altitude of nearly 20,000 feet, and the air temperature here was twenty or thirty degrees lower than that on the ground, and the leakage in the bow caused a large amount of cold air to pour into the cabin at high speed, causing the cabin temperature to drop rapidly, and the humans on the planet Orense were more cold-resistant, but this did not mean that they were not afraid of the cold, and after a long time, both the crew and those civilians had to face the new enemy of low temperature and cold, which naturally included Weiss's little nephew. Therefore, this news made his heart heavy all of a sudden, and at this time, he finally knew why the major was so sad just now.

According to normal logic, the transport ship can either maintain its flight altitude to avoid enemy ground artillery fire, or reduce its flight altitude and delay the drop in cabin temperature, which is difficult to balance. Now the descent of the transport ship is clearly a choice made by the major. Weiss didn't say much, he walked to the porthole and silently observed the enemy air defense positions on the ground. For dangerous areas where enemy troops are concentrated, he can distinguish them in a special field of vision, so as to give early warnings, but this method is extremely physically demanding, especially during this period of continuous work, and his brain has reached the point of being on the verge of hypoxia. For the safety of the hundreds of people on the ship, he could only grit his teeth and insist......

The flight altitude of the transport ship has been reduced to about 1,000 feet, which is a dangerous position that ordinary guns and bullets can reach. After the flight was regained in a stable state, the major ordered the power system to run at full power. After that, unless Weiss issued an important warning, he only fine-tuned the flight direction of the transport ship, this almost straight line sprint flight attitude, as if opening his chest to charge the enemy, but in night air defense operations, low-altitude and high-speed flying targets are often more difficult to capture and deal with than medium and high altitude targets - although there is no way to completely get rid of the tracking of the enemy's searchlights, but because the low-altitude sprint leaves the enemy's ground anti-aircraft artillery firing angle and reaction time, The chances of the Union transport ship being covered by concentrated enemy ground anti-aircraft fire have dropped significantly. In the process, almost everyone in the command room gritted their teeth and clenched their fists, lest they be hit by enemy fire in the next second. Fortunately, the transport ship was constantly hit by explosions, swept away by a lot of shrapnel, and the people in the open seats also suffered casualties, but on the whole it still persevered tenaciously.

Over time, hope has gradually turned from slim to bright...... A flying green dotted frame finally appears in the special field of vision. At this moment, Weiss burst into tears and almost burst into tears on the spot.

In sight, this federal fleet had one cruiser and two frigates, although three against three, but both in terms of quality and momentum formed an overwhelming advantage over the enemy. Having received definite news from Weiss, the Major Principal breathed a sigh of relief, judged the distance between the two sides, ordered the transport ship to maintain its flight altitude, and carried out horizontal maneuvers under his personal command, avoiding enemy artillery fire and avoiding the pursuit of its trajectory too easily by the pursuers behind him. After surviving this most difficult moment, the situation finally turned radically after the Federal fleet came into range, and they quickly repelled the enemy ships behind them, suppressed the enemy's ground air defenses, and covered the transport ships flying across the border.

The snow-capped mountains of the Monamolin Mountains finally appeared under the portholes of the transports......