Chapter 428: There and Back
More than one hundred warp tunnels suddenly opened, and a massive fleet containing two capital ships appeared in the pitch darkness of space.
The excited Xia Fei tapped on the control console and had his Vampire slowly approach the escort fleet.
“Eh? Why does one fleet seem like it’s going back?” Xia Fei asked in surprise.
Halleh replied, “The first fleet is a border force. They aren’t qualified to enter the imperial capital region, so they are switching out with the internal force’s fleet. Uti has always been extremely cautious. Other than his personal soldiers, he forbids any other armies from approaching the capital, and those who do will be punished as traitors.”
Xia Fei nodded. This sort of thing was rather common since ancient times. It was no wonder the fleet had paused here for a little. It was for a changing of the guard.
The two fleets had met here to reconsolidate. The massive warships began to turn their bodies and rearrange themselves clumsily, the formation both chaotic and orderly. The two capital ships were in the center of the fleet while the other warships were ringed around them in a layer of protection.
“What do we do now? While your warship can remain stealthed, let alone boarding, even getting close to the fleet is impossible. The defenses are too tight. A formation made of more than one hundred warships is essentially unbreakable,” Halleh nervously said.
Phantom also said, “Stop hesitating. Regardless of what object was found in the Panhuman Alliance, destroy it together with this fleet!”
The minutes flew past. After each jump, a warship required fifty minutes to readjust. Once the readjustment time was past, they could set off again. If he wanted to use the Star of Ruin, it must be in this time period!
Xia Fei had never been a hesitant or an indecisive person, but he was extremely worried today. First, destroying the fleet would require using one of his precious Stars of Ruin, and he only had two of these superexplosives created by the ancient civilization left. Moreover, these might be the last two Stars of Ruin in the entire universe. Each was incredibly valuable, and Xia Fei had been planning to use them on Uti.
Second, he was extremely interested in the mysterious object which Uti had gone at such great lengths to excavate from the Panhuman Alliance. No one would believe that it did not have any value. If it had valuable information regarding the ancient civilization or if it concerned the mysterious Three Great Laws, destroying it would be an irreparable loss.
Thus, unless it was absolutely necessary, Xia Fei would not take this sort of action.
“We still have fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes, the fleet will set off again. Any farther and it will be the imperial capital’s defense ring,” Halleh sternly reminded Xia Fei.
*Bang!*
Xia Fei placed his fists together and spoke as if he were venting his frustration. “Their defenses are too tight. I truly have no chance to board the warship.
“Since that’s so, then destroy it all!
“Activate all active modules. Prepare to open up a wormhole at any time! Direction 23595—full speed!” Xia Fei furiously bellowed!
*Whoosh~*
historical
The Vampire accelerated toward the fleet. Under the cover of its cloaking system, it naturally approached silently like a ghost.
Xia Fei tensely stared at the radar, looking for the best place to shoot.
“Now is the moment! Fire the mine! Start the stealth jump!” Xia Fei loudly ordered. A cloaked warship could not do that much. Even launching an explosive would cause it to drop out of stealth. Thus, by launching the mine, Xia Fei was exposing himself. He had to leave at once!
*Whoosh~*
An ordinary and unremarkable mine was launched, descending at a leisure pace. At the same time, the protective layer around Vampire was discontinued, and as was its jamming of electronics and energy signals.
Fortunately, the entire process required thirty seconds rather than being immediately revealed. Otherwise, Xia Fei would have been immediately locked on and obliterated by these numerous warships!
The stealth wormhole silently opened, and Vampire charged in!
Xia Fei had calculated that thirty seconds was just enough to complete this series of actions, launching the mines and then jumping away. After all, Vampire was only a frigate. When it came to speed and agility, it far surpassed the Impaler.
Still, they were all still very nervous. They risked facing the attacks of more than one hundred warships if they were discovered, so the consequences would truly be unthinkable!
Halleh felt his heart madly thumping, almost about to beat out of his chest!They were so close to those metal behemoths that he could even see the pitch-black barrels of their cannons through the command deck window!
One second, two seconds, three seconds...
The signal radius of Vampire grew larger and larger, and just when it was about to hit the radar range of the opposing ships, the end of the ship finally entered the wormhole!
*Whoosh~*
The wormhole immediately closed, and dazzling lights appeared outside the window, and then they began to streak backward at high speeds like comets!
Halleh sat back on the sofa and sighed. Xia Fei lit a cigarette and took a sip of tea.
“That thing you’ve just released is the superbomb that can destroy half a star system?” Halleh curiously asked.
Xia Fei nodded.
Halleh muttered, “It didn’t seem that different. How could it be so powerful? Do you still have any more of those bombs?”
Xia Fei smiled. “Those were ancient relics we dug up from some ancient ruins long ago. There were only two left, and both have been used up. If not, I would’ve used them on Uti.”
“A pity, truly a pity,” Halleh muttered.
Intense energy waves appeared on the radar. The energy waves created by the bomb were like boulders thrown into a lake, energy waves rapidly spreading outward, their power difficult to describe.
Xia Fei, Halleh, and Phantom all stared at the screen. Glancing at the timer, Halleh excitedly shouted, “Success! The escort fleet must’ve been destroyed by such a powerful explosion!”
*Whoosh~*
Vampire emerged from a wormhole. Hidden in the pitch-black darkness of space, it slowly moved forward.
Halleh sighed in relief. “That sight just now was truly harrowing. I didn’t think that controlling a warship would be even more stimulating than fighting barehanded. When you released that bomb above the massive ship, the nearest warship was only dozens of kilometers away. I almost thought you would crash into it.”
Since ancient times, whether it was the Panhuman Alliance or the insectoids, their warriors had all rejected technology, believing that martial arts strength was the strongest, but after today, Halleh had a completely knew understanding of these overlords of the universe that were warships, and he also grew envious of this Vampire of Xia Fei’s, which had a strange appearance and was also capable of stealth.
Xia Fei said nothing, simply staring at the radar while in thought.
Suddenly, Xia Fei stood up and ordered the smart computer, “Turn the ship around! Set the coordinates at one hundred kilometers from the explosions just now. Shut down all unnecessary systems! Funnel all energy to the energy reserve!”
*Pa!*
The lights of the command deck went out, and the temperature control system followed. The air gradually began to chill as all the energy was funneled to the warp engine. The refrigerator, the smart washing machine, and all of the modules which had nothing to do with navigation were shut down.
Each jump would consume large quantities of energy. Energy was normally stored in the energy reserve, but once it was used up, it would take around fifty minutes to recharge. Xia Fei was mustering up all the ship’s energy in the hopes that he could bring that time down to forty minutes.
Halleh was alarmed, speaking in a trembling tone, “Xia Fei, have you gone crazy?! Returning to the sight of explosion might result in us running into the emergency response fleets converging there! Everything would be over if that were so!”
Xia Fei coldly stared at the radar and said, “The nearest fleet will arrive in seventy-two minutes. If my calculations are correct, considering the time it takes to get there, we will have about twenty minutes to search and twenty minutes to escape the field.”
Halleh did not dare to believe his ears. In his eyes, casting that bomb into the enemy fleet was crazy enough, and now he was risking his life to go back? It was sheer madness!
This entourage of warships was Uti’s secret fleet. Now that it had encountered a problem, a large number of reinforcements were bound to arrive. Moreover, this place was very close to Venoscorpion Swamp Base. The fleets there were probably going insane trying to get here.
Xia Fei stared at the radar, taking in the locations of every ship in the area. The AI was furiously calculating which warships would get there before Xia Fei.
“A small patrol squad will arrive three minutes before us, but it’s not too strong. Vampire can deal with it,” Xia Fei sternly said, apparently hoping to soothe Halleh’s worries.
Phantom helplessly shrugged his shoulders. He had no plans of trying to persuade Xia Fei otherwise in the middle of his bout of madness, for he was well aware that once Xia Fei had made up his mind, he was as stubborn as stone.
Halleh sighed. “Can you at least tell me why you want to go back?”
Xia Fei casually said, “It’s very simple. I’m unwilling to believe that the mysterious object was destroyed just like that. If that’s really some sort of divine artifact, it shouldn’t be that easy to destroy.”
...
*Whoosh~*
Vampire emerged from a wormhole, appearing in the middle of devastation!
That anchoring point for a fleet was now a graveyard of the universe!
The Star of Ruin’s power was immense, much of the debris pushed to as far as several million kilometers away. These pieces of debris were extremely small, like tiny snowflakes.
Obliterating massive warships into dregs—this was the power of a Star of Ruin!
Around three hundred kilometers away, two insectoid warships looked at the wreckage in stupefaction, the crew members too shocked for words. Their passing by had been sheer coincidence. After noticing the massive explosion, they had rushed over to investigate. They had never imagined that they would be seeing such a gruesome scene!
“Advance at full speed! Firing systems, lock onto the enemy warships!
“Energy shields up! Prep the boosters! Be ready to activate them at any time!
“Activate the energy drain system! Pulse lasers, give the targets a savage beating!
“Release the combat drones! Attack target number one!
“Radar system at 100% operation! Scan for any suspicious targets in the vicinity!
“If there’s any abnormal signal waves or energy fluctuations, or any object that’s three times larger than the average debris size! I want to see it!”
Xia Fei issued a string of orders. As Vampire dealt with the two insectoid cruisers, it also began searching the sea of wreckage for that item Uti had so dearly desired!