Chapter 107: Capital ship!

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Be it the life detection system or the infrared system, the results were all the same. There was not one lifeform on board the ship, nor was there any damage to the interior of it.

After walking back and forth a few times, Xia Fei decided to gather the parts he required first.

The detection system activated once again. Beams of light appeared on the fleet one after another. There were plenty of parts on it; evidently, the fleet had never been disturbed by salvagers.

The salvager and detection system worked in tandem. Soon after, Xia Fei managed to salvage all seven of the parts he needed.

There was one thing left if he should board the Thanatos-class carrier.

The capital ship that was just a short distance away attracted Xia Fei’s attention like a magnet. Not only did he wish to find out why the ship was abandoned here, he was also interested in finding out if that ship could move.

It was more likely for someone to win the lottery than finding a capital ship in the middle of space. How could Xia Fei pass up this opportunity when a carrier in perfect condition was right in front of him?

“Let’s take a look. It’s a capital ship, after all, so it’s probably filled with many useful things. You’d be rich even if you just grabbed a tiny bit of it.” Phantom continued to egg on Xia Fei.

Xia Fei went through a few cigarettes as he contemplated his next move. Finally, the allure of the capital ship triumphed over the unknown dangers.

Xia Fei decided to take the gamble. His eyes glistened with hope as he raised his head, muttering, “Fortune favors the bold; I’m just going in, so there’s no big deal.”

Phantom was extremely happy with this outcome, praising Xia Fei’s heroic decision. As he was a phantom, he had nothing to worry about when it came to considering the risk involved.

It was not an easy task to board a naval capital ship. First, a connection needed to be established from the outside of it, commanding the carrier to open its landing bay hatch and initiate its life-support and gravity systems.

All naval fleets had their set of dedicated decoders, which were not something supported by civilian ships like Xia Fei’s. Any command that Xia Fei sent to the ship would be completely useless.

After some thinking, Xia Fei slapped his thigh. “I got it!”

Using the salvager, Xia Fei salvaged naval decoding from the dominix-class warships nearby and skillfully attached it to his.

The old naval decoder was not perfect and had a fatal flaw in its isolation protector, so it could be hard booted externally via the use of electrode activation.

Meaning, anyone who had a naval decoder could use this vulnerability to install it onto their ships, making the navy think that the ship was one of their own.

Xia Fei had learned this from Porter’s notes and did not think that he would be able to use that knowledge so soon.

A few moments later, the naval decoder started working, and Xia Fei sent a request for entry to make repairs onboard the Thanatos-class carrier.

Thinking it was from an allied ship, the capital ship opened its landing bay hatch and turned on its life-support and gravity systems.

Xia Fei brought his ship into the maintenance hangar through the landing bay hatch before disembarking from it.

The hangar was huge, extremely well-equipped with various different types of maintenance equipment.

Taking off his cumbersome work clothes, Xia Fei was now only wearing his Windshade Mark IV combat suit, with Chasing Light attached closely to his arm.

After calming his nerves, Xia Fei started searching through the ship.

One thing that Xia Fei did feel from the Thanatos carrier was how gigantic it was. It had countless passageways and cabins like a city.

‘There’s not even a single corpse around,’ thought Xia Fei. Normally, there would be soldiers in the tens of thousands working on management or maintenance, but Xia Fei did not discover a single corpse during his search. Could it be that everyone on this carrier had disappeared?

In order to find out what had happened here, he first needed to visit the command deck to check the work logs, as well as the captain’s logs, and Xia Fei was doing exactly just that.

After taking a lift to the top floor, Xia Fei walked in a long hallway to reach the outside of the command center.

A big warning sign, dissuading people from entering the command deck, was pasted on its huge, black alloy doors.

Xia Fei walked inside the room after pressing a button to open the doors.

“Corpse.” That was the first thing Xia Fei saw once he was inside the command center; the corpse was leaning on one side of the captain’s seat.

It was completely black and, like a mummy, completely dry, with two dark holes gazing into the endless space.

Xia Fei walked around the body a few times to discover that its death was caused by suicide. A golden laser gun could be seen on the ground, which looked to have slid off the person’s right hand, and there was a hole on his temple as well.

Xia Fei picked up the laser gun. On closer inspection, the gun was really well-built; every part had been finely polished and felt heavy in his hand.

There were even colorful gems embedded on the body of the gun, making it look just like a fancy piece of art.

Guns were banned among Adjudicators, but Xia Fei did not care as a gun like this could probably fetch a big fortune. He put the gun into his spatial ring after a few moments of consideration.

There was a control console in front of the captain’s seat with belongings of the deceased arranged neatly on top. It had probably been placed there before his death.

Xia Fei examined these items one by one.

There were two golden navy stars, and judging from the color, shape, and pattern, the deceased was probably a lieutenant general. The highest position in the navy was held by an admiral, and a lieutenant was quite highly ranked.

There was a metal card dangling on a silver necklace. It was an ID card required for identification for high-level functions for this ship.

This was incredibly important as it meant that Xia Fei got hold of the command rights to this capital ship, allowing him to do as he pleased with it. With this card, the ship would self-destruct if asked.

There was a collection of medals, such as Alliance Hero, Navy Bravery, et cetera, among the deceased belongings; they were considered as part of the lieutenant’s amazing portfolio, representing his various military exploits.

There was also an exquisitely crafted ring with a red gem carved in the shape of a heart. Its quality and workmanship were incredible. The red gem in particular even felt warm upon touch as if it were alive.

Xia Fei asked curiously, “Phantom, what is this red ring?”

Phantom gave it a quick look and said in a deep voice, “It’s a Scarlet Training Star used by mental ability users. It increases the wearer’s mental ability and is extremely rare. I told you that there are things to be gained by boarding the ship. See, this is proof!”

“Is it valuable?” asked Xia Fei.

Phantom sighed. “Why do you relate everything back to money? Although the Scarlet Training Star isn’t all that useful to you, it’s an incredibly rare item for mental ability users. Things of this caliber could only be exchanged; nobody is dumb enough to sell it for star coins.

“If you ever get the chance, you can trade the ring for an incredible item useful to speed ability users, such as a Wind Spirit Ring. That should be no problem,” Phantom said excitedly.

historical

Xia Fei nodded. Other than trading for an item of equal value, it was uncommon for anyone to trade top-tier items for star coins as a lot of them could not be bought with money.

Happily putting away these items into his spatial ring, Xia Fei checked the lieutenant’s body but could unfortunately not find a spatial ring.

Xia Fei shook his head, seemingly a bit sad. “How could this lieutenant not have a spatial ring on him?”

Phantom almost fainted as he could barely stand Xia Fei’s greed.

Xia Fei turned on the computer on the command deck in hopes of finding out why this capital ship was abandoned and where the other crewmates went.

He inserted the lieutenant’s ID into the card slot, Xia Fei managed to pull up the captain’s log. From it, he gathered that the lieutenant was a man called Robert, hailing from the fifth naval theater of operations.

Xia Fei quickly scanned through the log before finding the entries he made before the ship fell.

‘July 1: The long-awaited transfer order has finally arrived. Tomorrow, I will lead the 64th combined fleet into the insectoid base from the flank so as to carry out a sneak-attack on their supply lines. The troops have no idea how dangerous this mission is, but every one of them are extremely excited about it. I’m excited, too. The victory will surely belong to the great Human Alliance.

‘July 2: The 64th combined fleet set off from the base into the endless space. Grand Admiral Yuan Ke personally issued the combat order to me. I will not disappoint him; I will not disappoint the people of the Alliance.

‘July 5: This area is incredibly odd, and our fleet is right in the middle of it. Communication signals are only working within one million kilometers, and we have completely lost control of the propulsion and firing systems. As a mental ability user, I can feel something of unparalleled pressure approaching us. I can’t tell my soldiers about this; I must keep it to myself.

‘July 7: An uneasy atmosphere has been spreading on the fleet, and the situation never improves. Two of our ships fired at each other for reasons unknown, and we permanently lost them less than ten minutes later. I heard the screams of my soldiers through the communicator. I could hear how tragic and hopeless they sounded. Who is mentally coercing us? I must find out. The commander of Ship 586324789, a good friend of mine, had uttered the word ‘flee’ with his dying breath.

‘July 13: The fleet has been in this area for eight days, and the situation is getting worse and worse. I can feel a strong, spiritual energy around us, and we have no way out of this. Ziyun, the pharmacist, handed me an antidote that can increase my mental abilities temporarily. We will never surrender. I must gather all mental ability users and resist the pull of that spiritual energy. We must try to fight it no matter what.’

Xia Fei had goosebumps all over him as he read that part. He had anxious eyes when he looked at Phantom.

With a cigarette in his hand, Xia Fei continued to read through the log of Robert to find out what had led to his death.