Chapter 1527: Is It a Trap?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When the panic siren sounded throughout the entire spacecraft, the shield expansion system began to recharge. Blue veins started to appear on the silver-white armor belt of the Petrachelys as the shield generator was surging with energy, protecting the spacecraft with several layers of energy shield. Meanwhile, sub-cannons, short-range anti-air guns, and cannons emerged from behind the armors and glinted in cold light as if the fangs of a behemoth.
Emotions had disappeared from Nolan’s voice. In battle mode, she sounded exactly like a robot. “All weapons systems are online… impact in five seconds.”
In the past, Hao Ren would freeze upon hearing this kind of alarm. But that had all changed; he was now calm and steady. He connected his mind with the spacecraft’s sensor system. “From where the attack comes? Who is the attacker?”
“The attacker is unknown. I can only detect strong energy build-up within several astronomical units around the spacecraft. It is extremely hostile… impact.”
Just as Nolan’s voice trailed off, Hao Ren saw blinding light appeared out of nowhere in space. The light then split as if branches of the tree, piercing through space and quickly spreading around the Petrachelys.
There was no way to run as the attack came from all directions. The high-energy light also seemed to have interfered with the warp drive; Nolan could only raise the energy of the shield to the maximum level to counter the impact.
The strange light came into contact with the Petrachelys. In space, it was a silent impact. But on the flight deck, everyone could feel the spacecraft was shaking violently.
The energy shield of the Petrachelys began to ripple as the seemingly innocuous light twigs struck and produce a powerful impact, sending tremor throughout the spacecraft. But the shield had withstood the attack.
The glowing twigs in space were not backing down. Hao Ren was wondering whether there was an intelligent being behind the attack. He looked at the bright light, which looked more like a natural phenomenon. While Hao Ren was still in thought, the thing had launched a second wave of attack.
More light twigs emerged from space and closed in from all directions. The light beams began to wrap around the shield, and the spacecraft began to shake uncontrollably.
Nolan launched a counterattack.
Twenty-six secondary psionic-pulse turrets opened fire, shooting bright blue energy beams and hitting the light twigs in space accurately.
Nolan’s radar scan showed that the intersection of those light twigs were the energy nodes, and destroying them could stop the attack.
The main gun of the Petrachelys began to recharge. It was a rare opportunity for the use of this powerful weapon, which was deemed too powerful in most of the cases.
Hao Ren’s mind was still connected with the spacecraft’s sensor system. With this connection, he would be seeing everything that happened in space from a first-person perspective, witnessing the onslaught of the energy storm from all directions. He could feel the hostile energy had reached its peak, and the light twigs were going to block off all of his escape routes.
“This thing has us trapped here!” Hao Ren shouted at Nolan. “What the hell is this?”
“A rapidly proliferating energy coupling structure.” Nolan had allocated most of her processing power to the tactical module, and this made her voice sound even more inorganic. “We have detected a burst of energy tide in space, which was gathering around the spacecraft. If this goes on, it will rip the spacecraft’s energy shield apart.”
All turrets of the Petrachelys have been activated, firing at the glowing twigs in space. The counterattack had somewhat worked; a few light twigs would disappear whenever the turret fires hit an energy node. But those twigs could grow back faster than the Petrachelys could destroy. Without needing to look at the console, Hao Ren could see with his naked eyes that the glowing things had begun to form a cocoon-like shroud around the spacecraft.
He had to make a quick decision.
“Accelerate and get out of here. Warp jump as far as possible to the nearest gravitational field.”
“Roger that.”
The Petrachelys struggled to turn around. A flash of blue light swept across the surface of the spacecraft as it activated a defense mechanism to clean off any foreign matter on the spacecraft. After successfully breaking loose from the light twigs, the spacecraft accelerated away in full power.
Some unknown forces still interfered with the warp drive. Nolan was fixing the problem, but it was not getting anywhere. It was almost impossible to accurately warp-jump to the gravitational focal point when the warp-drive parameters were severely misaligned. So, Hao Ren ordered to warp-jump as far as it could—any direction would do as long as the spacecraft could get out of the trap.
It was a trap. Hao Ren felt that this place was a trap.
As the spacecraft accelerated toward an opening, the energy structures in the surroundings responded in a way that as if there was really an intelligent being behind them. These energy tentacles were ‘angered.’ They began to twist violently and chase the Petrachelys from behind. Their light twigs clung on the shield of the spacecraft, causing the Petrachelys to shake vigorously.
The shaking was so strong that the inertia stabilizer was unable to keep the Petrachelys stable.
Everyone on the flight deck was nervous. Panic had actually stricken them at the beginning of the attack. It was something that they had never experienced before.
Lily clenched the armrest tightly. She might be physically strong, but individual strength was useless under this situation. With the hair standing on end, Lily looked at Hao Ren, who was struggling to control the spacecraft. “Mr. Landlord, how is the situation? Nothing happened when the drones arrived earlier. Now we are pinned here as soon as we come in.”
“I have no idea.” Hao Ren said quickly. “But this is a targeted attack. It is not a natural phenomenon. Something is trying to stop us from entering the X-Galaxy—”
Before his trailed off, Nolan was heard giving out warning again. “Watch out! An energy mass has appeared ahead. We cannot get around it. Brace for impact.”
A bright light had appeared in Hao Ren’s field of vision. Hao Ren was struck dumb when he sensed the form of power in the light, which came down on the Petrachelys like a blade.
Nolan did an evading maneuver. But the light beam still hit a set of shield generators in the rear of the spacecraft. An explosion blew apart tons of metal and crystal structures, forming a trail of debris behind.
“The 4th to 6th shield generators are damaged. Shield strength is below 30% now. The hyperspace stabilizer is damaged as well. Switching spare parts now. Leakage detected in the 7th compartment; the compartment is sealed off. Warning! Gravity generator is malfunctioning, restoration is in progress.”
Gravity on the flight deck disappeared. Nangong Wuyue wrapped her tail around a pillar as she reached out with one hand to catch Lil Pea, who was drifting away from the console and Y’zaks with another. The loss of gravity only lasted for a moment before Nolan restored the gravity in this compartment.
Nolan began to stammer as if her speech function had malfunctioned. “The attack comes from a divine power. It is of the same category as secondary psionic energy.”
Hao Ren was not surprised at all. In fact, he had felt the same thing.
The Petrachelys was also powered by this category of energy, but at a much lower output.
Hao Ren stared at the energy storm that was right behind. It had now developed into a horrific space structure of several astronomical units in size, like a hideous space maelstrom surging behind the Petrachelys, swallowing the debris of the Petrachelys. The spacecraft appeared like a grain of sand in the desert before this space maelstrom.
The Petrachelys was in deep shit.
It was impossible to escape via the direction from where they initially came. The warp drive was out of sync and could not make any precise warp-jump maneuver. But if the Petrachelys used its conventional propulsion method, the storm would catch up with it in a few minutes. There was no way the Petrachelys could make it out outside the X-Galaxy.
There was only one way.
“Initiate warp jump.”
“But the parameters are still—”
“Do it anyway. No need to preselect flight path. Search for gravitational sources in hyperspace and land on any planet—habitable if possible, if you could find.” Hao Ren ordered. “Summon the drone cluster immediately. It does not matter if the warp jump is not accurate. I need them to start building a base at wherever they emerge.”
“Roger that.”