CH 194

The moment I heaved the steel plate up, more than ten ice bullets whizzed over and struck the plate accurately. Broken tranquilizing bullets scattered down on me. Fortunately, I had my morph-capable shield on so the shrapnel was all blocked.

The instant the opposing snipers fired, Anxashe stood up with a brightly shining helmet and rapidly loosed several arrows toward where the bullets came from. In only a few seconds, he had released eight arrows before he quickly dove onto the ground again.

Zhang Bao'er was also attacking, but I could see that he was actually shooting blindly. After Anxashe was done with his volley of arrows, I could clearly sense that fewer bullets were striking my steel plate. It was obvious that some of the snipers had been struck down by Anxashe. This warrior from Planet Rumble was truly astonishingly powerful. After the counter-snipe operation, I heard the tanks outside move.

"People in the battleship, listen. You have 30 minutes. If you don't lay down your arms and surrender, we will attack," came the warning. It seemed that after they had realized that their sniping plan had failed, they had decided to launch a head-on attack.

"Canyue, what now? If they really attack, the weaponry that they had gathered outside can easily destroy all of us," said Baron Sisse after pulling out of the command room.

"We still can't contact Spacetime. Our only choice is to defend our position while waiting for backup," I said helplessly.

"The moment their tanks start attacking, we won't last more than 10 minutes. This battleship has been stripped of all its weapons. There is nothing we can use here," said Old Du. He had performed a detailed search of the ship and had not found any usable equipment.

We were in an extremely passive position and could only react to the enemy. It was starting to look as if surrendering was our only option. Everyone looked rather dispirited. Li Yizhi had bought us this escape with her life, but it did not take us long to fall into yet another dangerous situation. At that moment, the sound of a Nebula cruiser could be heard outside. It was obvious the enemy had deployed their battleships as well.

"I can help you," a voice sounded behind me.

We all looked back and saw that Wind Spirit had untied the frail repairman while we weren't looking.

"Wind Spirit, how can you release the captive without permission? That is too dangerous," said Zhang Bao'er.

"He is a good soldier of our Divine Empire. What is there to fear?" said Wind Spirit with a look of derision.

"Everyone, I know a way out. Can you return my tablet? I can show you the way out," said the frail repairman.

I saw Baron Sisse nod, and then Old Du handed the tablet back to the repairman. The frail repairman accepted the tablet and started studying a blueprint on it, seemingly looking for a way out for us.

"Young man, how should I address you?" asked Baron Sisse.

"You may call me Jack," said the frail repairman without even looking away from the tablet.

"People in the battleship, listen. You still have 20 minutes left. Lay down your arms and surrender, or the imperial army will attack," the warning came again. We did not have much time left.

Second after second passed as we waited anxiously for Jack to find an escape route for us.

Jack suddenly looked up and said, "Come with me."

Then, he walked along the ship's corridor toward the ship's middle level. We followed closely behind him, and Old Du did not forget to place the unconscious Dondon into a backpack before carrying him with us.

The insides of a Milky Way–class battleship were extremely imposing. The numerous delicate electronic instruments and sleek design caused us to gasp in amazement repeatedly. From how even a ship so powerful had been damaged, one could imagine just how bitter the battles had been.

Shortly after, we arrived at the escape cabin with Jack. There, several intact escape pods could be seen. We only had 10 minutes before the imperial army's attack.

"Are you planning to have us escape in these escape pods?" I asked in astonishment.

"We're surrounded by air defense drones and fighter drones. Using these defenseless escape pods will only turn us into live targets. They will just strike us down one after another," said Zhang Bao'er.

"No. I intend to set specific flight trajectories on all these pods before sending them out as bait," said Jack with a shake of his head.

After saying that, he walked up to the escape room's dashboard and inserted his tablet into it. He rapidly inserted flight trajectories into the pods so that they would escape in different directions and scatter the enemy's attention. After he was done, he brought us further down into the ship.

"Those pods will buy us about 15 minutes," explained Jack to Wind Spirit as we walked.

"This princess has wasted a lot of time on this shitty planet. If you can help me escape, I will have you promoted to battleship engineer. That will be much better than being a repairman on this dumping planet," promised Wind Spirit with big words.

Those might be big words, but Jack appeared visibly excited at the offer. It was very likely that Wind Spirit was the highest-level official he had ever spoken to. We moved quickly and reached the bottom level. There, Jack swiftly opened the energy transmission tube and said, "Go through here. This tube is connected to the repair center's main energy tube system, and we can escape through this system."

At that point, we were only a minute away before the enemy army attacked. After exchanging gazes with each other, Baron Sisse took the lead to enter the tube. Everyone else followed behind him. I was the last to enter. By the time I entered, the sounds of explosions could already be heard. The tube was big and made of steel. At the other end of the tube, an entrance to a different tube could be seen.

"Jack, shouldn't this ship run on nuclear power? Why does it need this energy tube?" asked Old Du.

"The imperial battleships run on two main power systems, nuclear and electrical," replied Jack.

"Electrical power? Is that even enough to support the flight operations of a battleship?" asked Old Du doubtfully.

"We aren't using regular electrical power. Rather, we're using a unique bioelectricity," said Jack.

"What kind of bioelectricity? Tell us more," said Old Du with the look of someone hungry for knowledge.

"We do not power our battleships with regular electrical charges. Instead, we use electrical agents that are actual life forms. These life forms are very small, and with trillions of them living together, they form a natural cycle that supplies the battleships with the required electrical power," said Jack.

"Wow, that sounds amazing! I feel like taking a sample of this tech back with me. This is completely new to us," said Old Du as he exclaimed in admiration.

"You can't. These electrical life forms require a replenishment equivalent to 10 percent of their population each month. Due to their extreme reproduction speed, they will easily go extinct due to inbreeding without an injection of new blood. The embryos for these electrical agents can only be found in one location in the Orion Constellation," said Jack.

"Where can the embryos be found?" asked Old Du.

"On Planet Newgod, a planet on the fringe of the Betelgeuse System. The planet is heavily guarded by the imperial army," said Jack.

I could see from Old Du's eyes that he truly desired to snatch that planet from the empire. At that point, we reached the end of the tube. A massive intersection appeared before us.

"This intersection leads to the electrical tube system's core area. I will open the emergency maintenance door. After entering, be sure to not touch the electrical agents as they have a tendency to look for new homes. Your bodies are incapable of hosting them," warned Jack.

After giving us the reminder, Jack stepped forth to insert the security code and open the door.

A series of automatic tubes appeared before us. After we followed Jack through the emergency door, it closed behind us. The tube connected to the ship was not connected to any of the other tubes. I could see many tubes moving automatically. Some were clearly in the middle of transmission and were filled with electrical charges. The blue electrical agents were constantly overflowing from the tubes, dropping into a massive pool below the tubes.

"Be careful of the agents that fell down. Don't touch them," warned Jack.

"There are so many tubes. Which of them should we use?" I asked.

"I'll choose one. This tube is in the middle of recharging a restored battleship, Skyhawk. After Skyhawk is done charging, we can enter the ship through this tube," said Jack, giving us all a pleasant surprise.

We had tried painstakingly to steal a ship for so long, and none of us had expected a fully repaired ship to land in our hands right when we were about to escape. Led by Jack, we climbed up the stairs running up the tubes. Shortly after, we arrived on a small platform. A big cylindrical container filled with electrical life forms whistled past us, carrying countless electrical agents toward the battleship's bioelectricity reserve pool.

"This tube is charging Skyhawk. It will finish charging in about 60 minutes. Only then would the tube be safe to enter," said Jack.

"Will the imperial soldiers look for us here?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"If nothing unusual happens, it will take their search about 20 minutes to come this far. Also, to enter the core tube system, they will need the security code. Applying for the code will take them another 30 minutes. The escape pods we used as bait will buy us around 15 minutes," said Jack, indicating that we should have enough time.

"Why do you know the code to enter?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

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"I've worked here for 20 years. I know every single system in place and can easily hack through any security lock," said Jack smugly.

At that point, the only thing left for us to do was to wait silently and try to enter Skyhawk before the imperial soldiers reached our hiding place. The torrent of electrical agents continued onward before our eyes. The blue agents were constantly overflowing into the deep pool below us. Some of it even dropped onto our platform. I could clearly see these electrical agents flapping around on the floor for around 3 minutes before dimming and dying.

"Is that Skyhawk fully repaired?" I asked.

"Yes. It was damaged during a battle where the Northstar Army broke out of an encirclement. Both its nuclear power system and weapon control system were destroyed. The repair had just finished yesterday. It was supposed to return to the battlefield today after being recharged," said Jack.

"What time is Skyhawk supposed to be returned to the army?" I asked.

"After 5 hours. The imperial army will send some people to collect it," replied Jack.

"Looks like we'll have enough time. Everyone, be ready for the rapid escape after snatching the ship," I said.

Suddenly, the energy transmission slowed down. I even noticed that the number of electrical life forms was dropping.

"Shit. The imperial army might have discovered our escape route. The search team will probably reach us soon," said Jack anxiously.

"In other words, Skyhawk is not fully charged yet?" I asked.

"The moment the energy transmission stops, we need to enter the tube. It seems like they are stopping all energy transmissions. However, they shouldn't be aware of our target. If we rush into the tube immediately after the transmission stops, they will need more time to look for us," said Jack.

"But can Skyhawk fly since it's not fully charged?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"Its nuclear power system has been fully repaired. It will be able to fly fine," said Jack.

At that point, the transmission in some of the tubes had fully stopped. We could even hear sounds coming from the tubes far from us.

"They're coming!" said Baron Sisse calmly.