Chapter 348: Escape in High Gear!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
When the Caesarian ace operator regained consciousness once more and opened his eyes, he had already returned to the resurrection point of the Swift Dragon base.
The resurrection point of the Swift Dragon base was actually a large room. Normally, the room doors were tightly shut and the NPC soldiers would never enter this area. This was because the mainframe had set it so that resurrection points were considered safe spots. Anyone who resurrected here would never be discovered by the NPC soldiers as long as they did not exit the doors.
The Caesarian ace operator stood up feeling regretful but found that there was someone peeking around the room doors ... black hair and yellow skin, it most definitely had to be that Huaxian who had died alongside him. He decisively drew the dagger at his calf and leapt over.
Hearing the whistle of the wind, that person rolled forwards and evaded his strike. The man turned to look at his attacker and his irises contracted. "Caesarian." He was the adjutant who had died by the force of the magnetic energy beam cannon. Having just come out of the resurrection point, he had had no choice but to stick around the area due to the patrolling guards of the base outside the doors. Of course, he also did not know what had happened outside.
"This time, you will still die by my hand!" The ace operator from Caesar pounced as he cried out gleefully.
The adjutant was taken aback by those words, and then as if figuring something out, his gaze narrowed as he once again dodged the other's attack. Tone hateful, he asked, "The magnetic energy beam cannon, you all were the ones who arranged its activation?"
The Caesarian ace operator sneered with a blade in his hands. "Looks like you aren't stupid. Indeed, if we hadn't changed the settings, how could the supreme commander of this base mobilise the base's ultimate weapon for just a small starship?"
It turned out that that final message sent out by D1 was primarily to the supreme commander of the base. It ordered the other to kill off all invaders at any cost. Of course, once the ultimate weapon was mobilised, those final members of Caesar still hiding on the Caesarian spaceship would able to find out in time that something had gone wrong.
If Little Four had been a little more careful back then, he would have noticed in time. With Little Four's capabilities, he could have changed this order completely, perhaps even uncover the hidden Caesarian spaceship based on the clues obtained from the message. Then, he would have been able to find the Caesarians hiding aboard the ship and silently annihilate all of them, truly wrapping up all loose ends.
Then, Ling Lan and the others, including the Federation soldiers, would not have been thrown into this current predicament. They would not have had to tide through difficulty after difficulty; they would definitely have been able to easily depart from the Swift Dragon base ... it could only be said that Little Four, who had learned something of human emotions, had also picked up some of the weaknesses of humans at the same time. For example, carelessness, or the tendency to hide some little secrets he felt were not very important and would not affect the larger picture ...
The Caesarian ace operator's words caused an expression of realisation to appear on the adjutant's face. He had in fact been puzzling over the matter all this while — the ultimate weapon would typically not be mobilised unless the survival of the base was threatened. They had only hijacked a ship and tried to flee the base — this would not affect the safety of the base at all, so the ultimate weapon should not have been activated.
Taking the other's explanation into consideration, everything made sense now. The adjutant looked sullenly at the Caesarian before him and responded belligerently, "I will not die a second time by your hand." The magnetic energy beam cannon was too powerful for him to resist, so he had no complaints about dying to it, but he definitely would not die at the hands of an equally human enemy.
The two of them confronted each other in a stalemate for several seconds, and then they suddenly leapt at each other. The adjutant pulled out a short dagger from behind his waist in an instant, stabbing it viciously at the opponent.
"Clang clang clang ..." Cold weapons clashed again and again. Both of them being ace operators, their physical skills were equally good. They were actually fighting on even ground — it would be hard to determine a winner anytime soon.
Excitement bloomed in the eyes of the Caesarian ace operator. As expected, the one who dared to pull a mutual destruction move on him was an extremely formidable adversary. Due to Ling Lan's ingenious scheme, the Caesarian ace operator could never have known that he had actually misidentified his opponent.
Meanwhile, because the adjutant had stayed in this room all this time after reviving, he was not very clear on some things that had transpired. He hated the other side for mobilising the ultimate weapon and stranding him at the Swift Dragon base, and after finding out that this was all a nefarious scheme of Caesar, he had taken the other to be an enemy right away and could not wait to kill the other.
In this manner, for various reasons coupled with some clever manipulation from Ling Lan, her hand in the matter was completely concealed. Until the very end, the Huaxia Federation and the Caesar Empire never discovered that there had been the involvement of a hidden third party between them.
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After finishing off the Caesarian ace operator, Ling Lan finally let out a breath of relief. In truth, that final scene had all been an illusion by Little Four. The so-called explosion of the engine and the mecha losing control were all fake — even the beam saber had been intentionally discarded by her to fool the opponent. The scene of plunging his blade into Ling Lan's cockpit the other saw was naturally also an illusion. It was impossible for an ace mecha's beam saber to pierce through the cockpit of an imperial mecha. The other's beam saber had only grazed by the waist of Ling Lan's mecha, not harming Ling Lan's mecha one bit.
In the end, taking advantage of the moment the other had let down his guard in joy, Ling Lan had equipped Regretless, which she had long kept on standby, to pierce through the other's cockpit. Regretless's unique sharpness once again showed its prowess — the outer shell of the ace mecha had no way of stopping Regretless. The blade pierced cleanly through the cockpit to kill the opponent instantly.
However, this bout of control, fighting, and calculation had indeed tired Ling Lan out to the extreme as well, and her stamina was also at its limit. Ling Lan knew that she needed to return to the starship as soon as possible, otherwise, her body would not be able to take it if she continued to operate this imperial mecha.
When they saw their team's adjutant choosing mutual destruction with the enemy, all the Huaxian soldiers in the control room of the starship closed their eyes in pain ... in order to live so they could return and report this situation to military headquarters, they had no choice but to abandon their comrade who had given his life to win them this opportunity. This feeling was very painful to them. Their only consolation was that they were currently in the virtual world. As long as there were no spectres, their comrade would only be temporarily trapped here without any danger to his life.
Right at this moment, a team member who had been keeping his post and monitoring the progress of the power accumulation all this while suddenly shouted, "Reporting to the commander! Power at 50%!"
At these words, the commander's eyes sprang open and forcefully suppressing his worry for his adjutant, a trace of resolution flashed across his eyes. He instantly gave the order, "Shift to high gear immediately!"
Subsequently, the team member in charge of speed control firmly pushed the speed dial to its maximum setting.
"Order received. Shifting starship operation from low gear to high gear ... warning, actual height is insufficient, gravitational force is too large. Starship may be damaged. Warning, insufficient power. High gear can only be sustained for 7 minutes. Please choose carefully, please choose carefully ..." The starship's A.I. processed the actual situation and made a determination, instantly issuing an emergency alarm alerting the starship operators that shifting speed settings now was a mistake and was extremely dangerous.
The team members that were in charge of shifting speeds lifted their heads to cast a panicked look at their commander when they heard this alert from the A.I.. After all, they were not specialized starship operators. Encountering this sort of unanticipated situation, they were flustered, unsure what they should do.
The commander clapped his hands fiercely together and said firmly, "Shift to high gear. We'll take the risk." If he continued to dilly-dally, once the enemy fired the third round of the magnetic energy beam cannon, they would truly be doomed. He definitely must not waste this time the adjutant had sacrificed his life to give them. He must lead his team members back to the central district successfully and report the situation to military headquarters in time. This way, he would also be able to save the adjutant faster ...
"Confirm shift to high gear. Countdown begins now. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, shift to high gear successful. Beginning power drain countdown. 420, 419, 418 ..." The A.I. executed the command to shift to high gear. The moment time was up, the initially slowly climbing starship suddenly sped upwards at high velocity like a propelled arrow.
Because they had not achieved the minimum required height to switch to high speed, under the opposing forces of gravity and the propulsion force of the engine, a part of the armour on the tail part of the starship was ripped off to fall from a height of 1800 meters ...
However, the starship still flew on tenaciously. As a plume of smoke curled around its tail, it prepared to break through the atmospheric layer to enter outer space!
"Commander, now what?" As the starship suddenly accelerated, zooming towards the skies above, the calibrating magnetic energy beam cannon instantly lost its target. The officer in charge of attacking this time immediately reported this to the supreme commander of the base.
The supreme commander wordlessly put down his polar telescope. The power of the magnetic energy beam cannon was indeed very horrifying, but once a target entered higher airspace, especially at the extreme high speeds of the starship in question, it was very hard for the cannon to do anything. In the end, he could only say regretfully, "Forget it. Formally seal away the ultimate weapon. Consider them lucky this time, actually managing to escape from the Swift Dragon base."
"Yes! Commander!" The officer responsible for the magnetic energy beam cannon immediately arranged for the cannon to be sealed and put away.
After this remark, the supreme commander stubbornly raised his polar telescope again to stare out at that starship that was about to fly out of the atmospheric layer. An idea sparked through his mind and he set the telescope down. Turning to the officer beside him, he said, "New orders. All able fighting crew of the Swift Dragon base are to assemble immediately and board their ships. Thirty minutes later, we will officially take flight and give chase to our warship that has been taken hostage. We must destroy it within the range of the Nebula Boundary."
"Yes, Sir!" The adjutant by his side instantly accepted the order and turned to disseminate this urgent call to arms.
Several seconds later, an ear-splitting emergency alarm blared out across the entire base. In all the encampments, the base's DMC's voice rang out, "Emergency notice. All able warriors of the Swift Dragon fleet, please assemble at your respective warships within 30 minutes. Thirty minutes later, the fleet will officially set off ... Emergency notice. All able warriors of the Swift Dragon fleet, please assemble at your respective warships within 30 minutes. Thirty minutes later, the fleet will ..."
The entire Swift Dragon base began to bustle with activity as all of the warriors rushed towards the respective warships they were assigned to. Thirty minutes was extremely tight; they had not a moment to lose.