Chapter 1446: Encounter with an Enemy Ship!
After two days of high-speed travel, the Disaster finally reached its destination and emerged from the warp hole.
The moment the ship left the fantastic warp hole, Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha were able to see the legendary cosmic storm vortex from the command deck.
In the darkness of space, a storm was flashing with strange lights, spinning at crazy speed like a giant top.
The centrifugal force of the rotation stabilized the storm and prevented it from randomly moving around.
!!
That was a blessing for the Char Star Region. If the cosmic storm could move, it would have obliterated anything in its wake, whether it was a star system or the stars themselves!
When Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha saw the cosmic storm, they were immediately stunned by the power of nature, the pressure on their chests making it difficult to breathe.
After ten-some seconds, Traveling Buddha shrugged and said with a bitter smile, “The heavens and earth are vast, but it’s still the power of the universe that is the greatest of all. Even the most powerful special ability user of Ashen Moon probably wouldn’t be able to survive that cosmic storm, right?”
Xia Fan nodded, agreeing with Traveling Buddha’s assessment.
“Yes, a human’s power will always be tiny when compared to the universe. The legends say that if a special ability user reaches a high enough rank, they can destroy stars with a single punch, but if you look at this cosmic storm,a star-shattering punch is far from enough. You would need at least a punch that could destroy a star system.”
Traveling Buddha chuckled. He knew that a human could never destroy a star with a single punch.
“What’s our next step?” Traveling Buddha asked. “I certainly don’t want to get close to this thing. If we get sucked in, we’ll be done for.”
Xia Fan observed the radar and said, “Based on the energy distribution, there’s no need to worry about being sucked in. The cosmic storm vortex is in a shedding state. In other words, it’s constantly throwing out matter from the center of the storm, rather than sucking in surrounding matter.
“If it started to rotate in reverse and began to absorb matter, it would have turned into a black hole long ago.”
Traveling Buddha blinked. “What was all that nonsense just now? To put it simply, it means that we can’t go inside the storm, right?”
Xia Fan replied, “I wouldn’t go that far. If we were to travel in the same direction as the direction of the storm and use it to accelerate, we could enter at an angle. But let’s forget about it this time. The Disaster probably wouldn’t be able to take such a fierce shock.
Every person had a flaw, and Traveling Buddha’s flaw was that he didn’t understand technology-related questions. As for Xia Fan, he had studied many fields and was multi-talented, so the two of them could be said to complement each other. Xia Fan understood what Traveling Buddha did not.
——
After explaining the attributes of the cosmic storm to Traveling Buddha, Xia Fan began to navigate the Disaster and orbit the storm.
The storm was casting off matter from its center, and Xia Fan wanted to see if any of this matter had belonged to the Skywings.
The powerful disturbances from the storm made their radar extremely weak, so there was some luck needed in this search.
Unless the Disaster approached a wreck, there was no way it would be able to discover one. Moreover, most of the matter being cast out of the cosmic storm was planetary matter, not debris from warships.
After some time and effort, Xia Fan finally found his first piece of metal debris. Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha were both elated when they saw the scanner pick up a metal object.
He cautiously piloted the Disaster closer to the signal source. The energy pulses released by the cosmic storm meant that the warship was like a little boat in the ocean, shaking constantly.
The ship’s stabilizers had to work extremely hard to steady the Disaster, but the men in the cabin could still clearly feel that the ship was being bounced around.
“It’s a warship wreck!” Traveling Buddha shouted as he looked through the window.
Xia Fan piloted the ship closer and activated the stasis webifier.
There was a hum as a white beam of light struck the wreckage. White light instantly enveloped the debris and began to pull it toward the Disaster.
The Disaster was a warship, so its two stasis webifiers were actually meant for combat. When the beams of light struck a warship, they would immediately create a web that would tightly wrap around the enemy ship, preventing it from speeding up or warping out.
Once it had bound the enemy, the next step would naturally be to attack. The Disaster’s six main cannons would unleash a fierce barrage that would instantly tear apart the enemy.
As an elite frigate produced by Imperial Shipyards, the Disaster had superb weapon systems. An ordinary frigate would only have one stasis webifier, but the Disaster had two!
An ordinary frigate had only two main cannons, but the Disaster had six. It also had two missile systems, two explosive dispersal systems, and it even had electronic warfare and counter-electronic warfare systems.
Imperial Shipyards had been very simpleminded with this ship, caring only about function and nothing about costs, creating a ship which cost a jawdropping amount of money. Only rich scions had the ability to purchase it.
But from another perspective, there were reasons it was so expensive.
The Disaster was now considered extremely close to the cosmic storm. Ordinary ships, particularly the large salvage ships used by the general public, lacked the strength and would not dare to get this close.
But the Disaster didn’t have those problems. Although the ship was shaking, it was not in any danger.
It was precisely because private vessels couldn’t get this close that this wreck had never been collected by any salvage companies. If it had been a little farther from the cosmic storm, it would have probably been salvaged and sold off for money a long time ago.
The stasis webifier brought the wreck into close to the Disaster, where a mechanical arm came into play.
The Disaster’s largest hangar on its bottom deck, Hangar One, opened up, and a mechanical arm reached out. The arm was over a hundred meters long and had three flexible mechanical fingers.
The mechanical fingers opened like a human hand, grabbing the wreck and pulling it into the hangar.
The hangar closed, and the atmosphere was pumped back in.
—
It didn’t take long for the wreck to be brought into the hangar. Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha left the command deck excitedly, heading down to the hangar.
The sealed door opened with a whoosh and Xia Fan saw the wreck sitting in the middle of the hangar. From its shape, it seemed to be part of a cruiser’s scanning system. It was severely damaged, both from an explosion and from the cosmic storm, and was barely recognizable.
“Is it a Skywing wreck?” Traveling Buddha ran over. Although he didn’t understand, he still wanted to take a look at this wreck.
‘I hope it isn’t,’ Xia Fan thought silently.
If this wreck belonged to the Skywings, it meant that a Skywing ship had been destroyed in the battle, and the destruction of a ship meant death. Xia Fan did not wish for the deaths of his family.
The wreck wasn’t very large, a cylinder with a diameter of three and a half meters. Traveling Buddha was completely capable of lifting it up.
Traveling Buddha looked it over, and then his eyes widened in excitement. He said to Xia Fan, “Found it! This wreck isn’t Skywing, it’s Ashen Dragon!
“Look at this nut symbol! I recall that one of the divisions of the Ashen Dragon Army had an acorn as its symbol!
“Ashen Dragon and Hidden Moon were both extremely large superarmies. Under the general army were the corps, and under the corps were the divisions and brigades. Each division had its own insignia.”
Xia Fan looked where Traveling Buddha was pointing, and found that there really was an acorn symbol on a still-intact centrifuge.
It seemed like Traveling Buddha was right. This wreck had belonged to Ashen Dragon, and there was little doubt that this ship had been destroyed by the Skywings.
This thought filled Xia Fan with pride. Although he had never met them before, he could easily imagine the Skywings charging into Ashen Moon and blasting apart the Ashen Dragon and Hidden Moon’s armada!
“What a pity,” Traveling Buddha sighed, saying with some resentment, “It would have been great if this was a Skywing wreck. After all, my ancestors were part of Ashen Dragon Hidden Moon. When I think about how the Skywings bullied my ancestors so badly, I feel uncomfortable all over.
“Right, Little Hei from training camp, you were on pretty good terms with him, if I recall. His ancestor was seemingly deputy commander of the Acorn Division. Maybe Little Hei’s ancestor died in this battle.”
Traveling Buddha started to show off his knowledge. While this guy was lacking when it came to technology, when it came to the history of Ashen Dragon Hidden Moon, the factional make-up of the Ashen Moon Unvierse in the past, and the special abilities of various clans, he knew far more than Xia Fan!
After all, he was the young master of the Buddha Clan. From a very young age, he had grown accustomed to interacting with all the bigshots of Ashen Moon.
Traveling Buddha stroked his chin and asked, “What do you want to do with this? Although this is an Ashen Dragon wreck, it doesn’t seem to have any value. Why don’t we ship it to Little Hei?”
Xia Fan shook his head. “Wouldn’t that just be giving Little Hei more problems? How would he deal with it? Offer the wreckage to his deceased ancestors?”
“True. Little Hei’s family definitely wouldn’t be happy if they saw this thing,” Traveling Buddha said. “I guess we should just throw it away and leave it where we found it.”
Xia Fan found that that idea was acceptable. After all, he had reached his goal. The wreck proved that a vicious battle had taken place here!
He could tell from the wreck that it was definitely his family who had done this deed.
All that was left was to go back and think of a way to safely get his ship through the cosmic storm, and then he could come back and take a look at the center of the storm.
While the Disaster was powerful, it could only get close to the cosmic storm, not safely enter it. Entering it and safely entering it were very different things, and Xia Fan had no plans on casually gambling with his life.
When he went back, he would have to buy a more suitable ship, and then install his mech core and energy core into it. It would be even better if he could get his hands on a defense core. That would solve all his problems!
“Since we have the time, let’s keep searching. We might find something good,” Traveling Buddha said enthusiastically. He was very interested now that they had found a wreck from the Ashen Dragon Army.
The two of them left the hangar, preparing to return to the command deck and continue searching the area around the cosmic storm for wrecks.
Suddenly, red warning lights began flashing, and the corridors of the Disaster resounded with shrill alarms.
“What happened?” Traveling Buddha was startled.
“Not good!” Xia Fan rushed toward the command deck. “It’s the automatic warning system. Another warship is trying to lock onto us!”
Whoosh!
Xia Fan picked up speed and returned to the command deck in a flash. The warning alarms had intensified, and the red lights were blinking so fast that it made one dizzy.
When Xia Fan took a good look at the radar, he gasped.
While he and Traveling Buddha were in the lower hangar, a fleet had appeared around them!
The severe disturbance from the storm meant that the system had not given them an early warning. Only now, when the fleet was rapidly approaching them and had entered the ship’s radar range, did the automatic defense system react and send out a warning.
But it was already too late. The fleet was charging right at them!
The main force of the fleet was three battleships and six cruisers, and there were twenty-three destroyers and frigates!
Heavens! That was a regular fleet of thirty-two warships!
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