Leaving the planet went smoothly. When the public comms received the notification from the ship's public JMC that they had officially entered space, all the mecha operators breathed a sigh of relief. Honestly, they had also been afraid that at the last moment, X192's energy rampage would erupt prematurely, turning them into one of the ruins of the planet. Even if there were no benefits, it would still be good to be able to return alive.
However, before they could rejoice for long, they sensed that the transport ship's systems were beginning to go haywire. The initially brightly lit lighting system in the transport hold was actually malfunctioning, beginning to flicker incessantly.
"What in the world is going on? Why can't we control the lighting system?" exclaimed the operator in charge of this in the control room of the transport ship.
Before he could report this to the captain, he heard the operator in charge of the other systems beside him also exclaim, "The radar in front is malfunctioning. Not good, the left side is also not responding..."
"The surveillance system is showing signs of instability. Ripples of snow are appearing..."
One bad news after another was reported in the control room. The captain was drenched in cold sweat. Not daring to hesitate, he urgently established contact with the fleet's command ship. Only then did he discover that it was not their transport ship that was experiencing this problem — all the starships were experiencing this problem.
However, they could not immediately find the cause. Just as everyone was at a loss for what to do, someone suddenly noticed that not too far away from them, planet X193's star map was different from usual. The initially greyish planet actually had a ring of light purple haze around it.
This anomaly drew the attention of the people in the fleet's command center. After some research by the specialists, they found that the ring of light purple haze was actually the magnetic storm sea that caused everyone's expressions to change. And this magnetic storm sea was currently expanding outwards at an extremely fast rate.
The magnetic storm sea was an extremely terrifying existence in space. Wherever it passed, everything would be crushed into powder, leaving no trace behind. Even more frightening was that the magnetic storm sea was not stable. It could explode at any time. At that time, the magnetic storm sea would become a magnetic tsunami, expanding in an instant to swallow up everything in the surrounding space.
Knowing that X193 had formed a magnetic storm sea, the command ship ordered all the starships to ignore all other equipment and move forward at full speed, trying their best to escape the dangerous range of the magnetic storm sea. It has to be said that the two sets of navigation systems of the starship played a key role at this time. After the autopilot system was paralyzed, the actual commanding ability of the starship captain was displayed.
Ling Lan, who was in the transport cabin, immediately sensed the abnormality of the starship. A strong sense of crisis struck her heart. Without even thinking, Ling Lan had Little Four connect to the starship's mainframe. She knew that a terrifying magnetic storm was forming on Planet X193 not far away from them.
Although the transport ship was desperately moving forward, trying to leave the range of the magnetic storm, the speed of the transport ship was obviously slower than the patrol warships protecting them, not to mention the command main ship at the forefront.
Little Four's understanding of the magnetic storm sea was obviously better than the experts here. He anxiously told Ling Lan that if his estimation was correct, the magnetic storm sea would erupt in half an hour. And in half an hour, the speed of the transport ship would not be able to get it out of the range of the magnetic tsunami. In other words, if Ling Lan and the others stayed in the transport ship, they would be dead for sure.
Little Four analyzed that only the command main ship at the forefront had the best chance of escaping. Even the patrol warships that were slightly faster than the transport ship would not be able to escape … Of course, this was only possible if the command main ship started flying at full speed right now.
In the command main ship, the commander received the latest order from the mainframe. His expression became extremely ugly, and there was a faint trace of anger between his brows.
Seeing this, his adjutant asked, "General, what happened?"
"The mainframe wants us to move forward at full speed and ignore the starships behind us," the commander took a deep breath before replying in a low voice.
"Why?" The adjutant was shocked and asked abruptly.
"Because the magnetic tsunami sea will erupt in half an hour. Other than our main ship, the other starships will have no chance of escaping," said the commander grimly.
"Then we'll just do as we're told. Perhaps this is a plan designed by the mainframe." The light in the adjutant's eyes flashed, but it quickly disappeared.
"But there are millions of mecha operators on the transport ship. That's millions of lives we're talking about." As a commander, he could not abandon his own men.
"General, this is Mecha World, and we have a mission on our hands. Even if we really need to make this kind of sacrifice, we must harden our hearts and do it," reminded the adjutant quickly.
"Ah … look at me, I forgot." The commander slapped his forehead and smiled bitterly. Mecha World was too realistic — he had forgotten that he was in a virtual world.
Without any worries, the commander decisively gave the order to move forward at full speed. It was just as the adjutant had said — no matter what, he had to complete his mission, even if there were sacrifices. He could only be thankful that this was a virtual world — he would not feel guilty for the rest of his life because of this.
"Boss, things aren't looking good. The command mainship is already moving forward at full speed. Looks like they've discovered when the magnetic tsunami will erupt." Little Four, who had already sent one of his clones into the mainship, sensed the abnormal movements of the mainship and immediately alerted Ling Lan.
Ling Lan frowned at these words. She felt that they might have been tricked by the mainframe. She raised her mecha's right arm angrily and broke the restraining device on it. At the same time, she connected to the team's comms channel and said coldly, "We've been set up. How despicable."
"Boss, what's going on?" Ling Lan's words startled her team members, and they quickly asked for the reason.
"The reclamation this time is just a pretense. There are probably people on the command ship who are really sent to investigate the Swift Dragon base. Meanwhile, the rest of us are just sacrificial lambs specially arranged to give them a reasonable opportunity to approach the Swift Dragon base." Ling Lan smiled coldly as she voiced her conjecture. Everyone's expressions changed when they heard this.
"Our mission …" Han Jijun seemed to have thought of something, and his expression turned extremely ugly.
"Just as First-String said, it's probably just an excuse. The mainframe never expected us to successfully complete the mission." Li Lanfeng continued with a sneer, "We're just cannon fodder. The mainframe is obviously playing a huge game of chess, treating us all as chess pieces. We just don't know if those people on the command ship are the same."
"Who's a chess piece for whom? That's still hard to say." Ling Lan finished speaking and swung her left arm once more, breaking the restraining device on her left arm.
This kind of violent behaviour caused the mecha operators in the same cabin who did not know the truth to raise their eyebrows. The eyes of a few mecha operators who were already extremely bored lit up. Following Ling Lan's violent behaviour, they all broke free of the restraining devices. After being trapped in the hold for so many days, they actually had some complaints in their hearts. Since someone had taken the lead, they were happy to follow suit. It was also good to be able to move about freely in the transport hold for a while.
"We need to create a path of survival for ourselves. We need to hurry to the command ship before the magnetic storm completely erupts." Ling Lan stated her plan. Only by going there would they have a chance of survival. Fortunately, the short-range speed of mecha was faster than the speed of the mainship. As long as they were not delayed for too long, they still had a chance to catch up.
As for how to enter the mainship, Ling Lan was not worried. This was because Little Four, who had already obtained control of the mainship, would silently open the ejection ports of the mecha and let them enter the interior of the mecha … Of course, they would definitely be discovered after entering, but Ling Lan did not care about the consequences right now.
Hearing Ling Lan's orders, the team members did not hesitate to break free of the restraining devices on their bodies. Li Shiyu cast a pitying glance at the mecha operators in the hold and sighed, "These people … it's too much of a pity to die here. Should we remind them?"
"If there's any delay, we will also become one of them. When you can't even save yourself, don't be soft-hearted." Ling Lan chided coldly. She, Ling Lan, did not have the heart of a saint — she needed to ensure the lives of her companions first.
Li Shiyu was still a little too soft-hearted. Ling Lan actually admired Li Shiyu a lot, because a doctor needed this kind of soft heart. However, a competent military doctor not only needed this kind of heart, but also needed to be calm and cold-blooded. When making a choice, one needed to be decisive and not indecisive. Ling Lan felt that on this point, Li Shiyu still did not do enough.
Ling Lan's words made Li Shiyu's heart skip a beat. He did not say anything, only following silently beside Ling Lan. This was because he remembered what his instructor had once said to him. A military doctor was not just a doctor — he was also a soldier. His instructor had once judged him like this. He was perfect as a doctor, but he was extremely lacking in the identity of a soldier. If only he could understand the meaning of being a soldier one day, then he would become a perfect military doctor. At the time, he had been very puzzled, but Ling Lan's words just now had given him a vague epiphany …
"What are you all doing, destroying the booths? Do you want to die? The unexpected vibrations from high-speed flight will cause you all to be injured." The JMC on the transport ship saw the situation in the cockpit and could not help but shout into the public comms channel.
Some of the mecha who had been preparing to forcefully break the booths stopped struggling when they heard this. Indeed, so what if they had temporarily gained freedom? If they encountered any vibrations, without the booths, they would very likely be thrown into the air and slam violently against the walls of the ship. Even with the protection of the cockpit, there was no guarantee that they would not be injured. They might as well stay obediently in the booths to ensure their safety.
Thus, the mecha operators who were still in the booths no longer envied those mecha operators who were able to move freely. Meanwhile, those mecha operators who had already broken free from the booths felt faint regret. If they really encountered a strong vibration, they, who had broken free from the booths, would very likely be injured. Then, the losses would outweigh the gains.
Only Ling Lan's group of nine remained unmoved. They pushed aside the mecha in front of them and came to the door of the transport ship to consider how to quickly break open the door.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
