The Legendary Mechanic in Marvel Universe

Chapter 260 Space Voyage

TL: Kyous

Soaring into the sky, Leo reached an altitude of over ten thousand meters without any plan of slowing down. He relied on the Vibranium barrier as he continued to climb rapidly, with the barrier deflecting the heat generated by the friction against the air.

Meanwhile, Steam excitedly reported updates, “Buzz! The current altitude is 11,003 meters and the speed is 65 Mach, and still rising rapidly. Due to the high speed, the external temperature cannot be detected at the moment.”

65 times the speed of sound. In the time it took Steam to speak, he had climbed another two thousand meters.

When he reached a height of 100 kilometers, Steam spoke with a hint of sadness, “Buzz! Master, to avoid satellite detection of ground-to-air communication signals, Steam will temporarily go offline. Once Master has successfully installed the satellite decryptor and gained certain operational permissions from the satellite, Steam will be back.”

“See you later,” Leo whispered softly.

“Buzz! Goodbye, Master. Steam wish you good luck,” Steam replied.

Inside the Viper Mark IX, silence once again prevailed. Fortunately, Leo had long grown accustomed to this mode of flight, so he didn’t feel a hint of sadness.

Deactivating the armor’s turbo boost system, he switched on the space life support system, continuing forward without uttering a word.

200 kilometers.

300 kilometers.

……

Soon, he had flown over 1,000 kilometers away from the ground, where the atmosphere had become so thin that it was almost non-existent. He had reached the boundary of the Earth’s atmosphere.

At this altitude, he could hardly feel any atmospheric resistance as he flew.

It was a momentous height to commemorate, so he began controlling the armor’s barks to stabilize his position.

At such a great height, the concept of a stationary reference point was lost. Leo’s notion of stabilizing himself meant that he and the suit were essentially orbiting the Earth in a uniform circular motion.

With the Earth’s radius being nearly 6,400 kilometers, the gravitational acceleration at an altitude of 1,000 kilometers was still around 7.1 m/s². But the gravity acceleration meter within the suit displayed a value of only 6.8 m/s², with the remaining 0.3 m/s² serving as a centripetal force to maintain his uniform circular motion.

As his position stabilized, he felt compelled to look down.

After all, having existed in both previous and present life, Leo had only seen the Earth from a space perspective in photographs. Now, he finally had the chance to witness it with his eyes, and it was impossible not to feel excited.

Before him, a vast blue-green continent emerged, barely recognizable as a spherical shape.

However, his current altitude wasn’t high enough to see even half of the Earth. If he wanted a closer and clearer view, he needed to fly even higher. Around 7,000 kilometers would suffice.

Coincidentally, the satellite add-ons he had created specifically for positioning and communication satellites, each one positioned higher than the other. Besides, he later learned that although five positioning satellites were sufficient, the accuracy of their positioning wasn’t accurate enough.

As a result, he paid another visit to the N.A.S.A. and obtained the blueprints for a total of 24 satellites, creating add-ons for each of them to enhance the positioning accuracy.

By then, no matter where he was in any corner of the Earth, he could ensure that at least four satellites would simultaneously provide accurate positioning, reaching an astonishing level of precision.

Equipped with these satellite add-ons, he ascended once more, heading towards the orbit height of the positioning satellites.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites developed through the collaboration between the United States and Stark Industries were positioned at an altitude of 2.02 kilometers. Leo still had a long way to go.

As he flew, he turned his head to glance at the Earth. When he finally beheld the breathtaking sight of the entire blue hemisphere, he knew that he had reached a height close to 10,000 kilometers and he had already flown halfway to the satellite orbit.

At this point, Leo suddenly came to a halt.

He transmitted a command to Viper Mark IX using his skill, “Mechanical Force – Relay.” The next moment, a compass-like holographic projection screen appeared before his eyes. But the holographic screen was chaotic and devoid of any content.

As he calmly transmitted another command to his utility belt, three ant-sized storage boxes popped out right after. They enlarged and stopped when they reached the size of a fist.

Using his Mechanical Force, Leo opened the boxes before commanding them to shrink down and leaving behind three fist-sized metal spheres that spun steadily.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Under his control, the metal spheres silently dispersed. When they were about three meters apart from each other, they came to a stop and extended a ten-centimeter-long antenna.

The next moment, on the chaotic compass-like holographic screen, twenty-four cleared dots appeared, slowly and intermittently moving. These were the real-time positions of the twenty-four positioning satellites within the GPS system.

Utilizing a receive-only approach and taking advantage of the straight-line propagation of electromagnetic waves, Leo precisely pinpointed the positions of the VPS satellites through three signal reception points at a certain distance apart.

Then, without sending any signals, the GPS system wouldn’t record any abnormal signals from high altitudes, allowing him to remain completely covert.

He retracted the three metal spheres into his utility belt but the real-time positions of the 24 satellites remained displayed. Since they followed fixed orbital paths, their positions for the next second could be easily calculated through real-time calculations, a task well within the capabilities of the armor’s built-in computing chip.

Even if there were some calculation errors when he approached the satellites later, he could just take out the three small metal spheres and simply pinpoint the position again. It was only a trivial issue!

Before long, he caught up with a satellite and maintained a relative stillness alongside it. Looking around, not to mention the appearance of the satellite itself, the eye-catching letters “Stark Industries” on its outer surface were striking enough.

The might of Stark Industries was undoubted.

The control of this satellite lay firmly in the grasp of both Stark Industries and N.A.S.A.

However, today, Leo, was about to intervene forcefully and assertively joining the fray. The control of this satellite would also belong to him and the Erwin Tech Company in the future!

With this in mind, he shrank down further and entered the satellite, proceeding systematically to install the satellite add-ons.

Speaking of which, Leo thoroughly enjoyed using his Mechanical Force to manipulate things, especially in space.

Since the satellite’s gravity provided the centripetal force required for orbiting the Earth. Leo, who was traveling alongside the satellite in the same orbit with the same velocity, was completely weightless. Normally, performing tasks in space would be challenging under such conditions.

However, the remarkable ability of Mechanical Force allowed him to navigate effortlessly within the satellite. He didn’t have to be concerned about the detached components flying off to unknown places. 

Soon, he had installed the satellite attachments in their designated locations. Swiftly operating on a virtual panel, he activated the functionalities of the attachments. 

After waiting for five seconds, the self-diagnostic of the attachment system passed, and Leo succeeded!

Finally, he gained backdoor access to the satellite without the risk of being discovered by Stark Industries or N.A.S.A. Next, with his newfound experience, he replicated the process and swiftly claimed ownership of other 23 satellites as well.

During this period, the positioning module installed in Viper Mark IX seamlessly connected to the GPS navigation system. It accurately displayed his current altitude, which was 20,202 kilometers.

And thus, Leo effortlessly ripped the blood and sweat of the United States and Stark Industries who maintained the GPS navigation system for forty years.

After handling the positioning satellites, he took a brief pause and stood upon the high-orbit satellite, over 20,000 kilometers above the Earth, admiring the beautiful blue planet.

In silent admiration of the magnificent splendor, he turned his head and continued flying in the direction away from Earth.