The shrill siren rang throughout the spacecraft. The shield expansion system began to charge as soon as the siren sounded. Large patches of azure veins appeared on the silver-white armor of the Petrachelys. Powerful energy surged in the shield generator, giving the spacecraft several layers of translucent energy shields in the blink of an eye. A large number of sub-cannons, close-range cannons, and ejection weapon platforms flipped and unfolded under the deformable armor structure, like a giant beast baring its fangs in space.
Nolan's voice had almost lost all emotion. After entering combat mode, she spoke as cold and stiff as a rigid AI. "All weapon systems online. The impact is expected to arrive in five seconds."
If it was before, Hao Ren would have been stunned when the siren sounded, but now his first reaction was to calm down. He connected his mind with the spacecraft's perception system and asked quickly, "Where is the attack coming from? Who is it? "
"The source is unknown. I can only sense a strong energy concentration phenomenon within a few astronomical units around the spacecraft. The level of hostility is very high. The impact is coming."
Almost as soon as Nolan's voice trailed off, Hao Ren saw a sudden dazzling light on the spacecraft's external sensors. The light came without warning, as if the space itself had suddenly burst into endless light, and then a large structure that looked like vines or branches extended from the light. These structures broke through the distance in the blink of an eye and quickly spread to the Petrachelys.
The spacecraft had nowhere to hide because the attack came from all directions, and the high-energy reaction seemed to have interfered with the calculation of the warp engine. The emergency warp also failed. Nolan could only turn all the shield systems to the maximum and take the first impact head-on.
The glowing weird structure in space touched the shield of the Petrachelys. In space, it was a silent "touch", like a harmless lick, but everyone on the bridge felt a violent shake.
The surface of the shield of the Petrachelys rippled. The seemingly harmless light 'branches' created a powerful impact when they came into contact with the shield, shaking the entire spacecraft. But the powerful survival system of the inspector's ship worked: the shield only shook for a while, but it did not break.
The glowing branches in space were not discouraged at all. In fact, Hao Ren was not even sure if there was a rational operator behind these things. He looked at the glowing space structure and felt that they were more like some kind of natural phenomenon. But whether it was natural or not, these things began a second attack.
More luminous branches appeared out of thin air, as if they were trying to trap the spaceship. They spread out from all directions, and a large number of fine light beams entangled the shield, causing the entire spaceship to shake from side to side.
Nolan also began to fight back.
All the defensive cannons rose from under the armor belt, and the 26 secondary psionic pulse turrets began to fire continuously. Bright blue energy beams burst out from the gaps of the armor plates on both sides of the Petrachelys and accurately hit some of the intersections of the glowing branches in space.
According to Nolan's radar scan, the intersections of the lines were the energy nodes of the "branches". If they were destroyed, they should be able to stop the enemy's attack.
The main cannon of the Petrachelys also began to charge. This powerful thing rarely came in handy because most of the time, its power was excessive for Hao Ren, but today, it came in handy.
Hao Ren's mind had been connected to the spacecraft's perception system. It was as if he was standing in space from a first-person perspective, feeling the energy storm in all directions. He felt a new peak of energy was arriving, and the space was about to be blocked by the glowing branches.
"This thing is trying to trap us here!" Hao Ren immediately shouted at Nolan. "What the hell is this thing?"
"It is a rapidly proliferating energy coupling structure." Nolan had allocated a large number of processing units to the tactical module, which made her voice sound more inorganic. "I have detected an unprecedentedly powerful energy tide in the local space, and the energy surge is gathering around the spacecraft. At this rate, the spacecraft's shield will soon be torn apart."
All the cannons of the Petrachelys were raised, and dense defensive cannons kept sweeping the glowing "branches" in space. The cannons were effective. Whenever they hit a key node, several bright branches would collapse and dissipate in the dense explosion. However, the gathering speed of these energy bodies was far faster than the Petrachelys could fire. Even without looking at the data on the console, Hao Ren could see with his naked eye that the space was entangled and blocked by more and more luminous structures, like a cocoon wrapping around his little spacecraft.
It was time to make a decision.
"Accelerate, get out of here. Jump to the nearest gravitational focus, as far as you can."
"Roger that."
The Petrachelys struggled to turn the bow of the spacecraft, and a burst of blue light swept across the hull of the spacecraft. This special defense method for "cleaning" attachments slightly reduced the impact of the tentacle-like branches, and the spacecraft took the opportunity to accelerate at full speed.
The warp engine was still being interfered with by an unknown source. Nolan's counterattack had begun, but the progress of breaking the interference was not satisfactory. It was almost impossible to accurately jump to the gravitational focus when the engine parameters were seriously inaccurate. So, Hao Ren asked to "jump as far as you can" — warp in one direction, not necessarily to reach a destination, but at least to get rid of this weird trap.
Yes, a trap, Hao Ren felt that this was a trap.
As the spacecraft accelerated towards the gap, the energy structure that spread everywhere in the space seemed to be touched, as if there was a really intelligent thing controlling them. These energy tentacles were "angry", they twisted wildly and began to chase the Petrachelys. Beams of light continued to entangle the spacecraft's shield, and a series of explosions shook the entire spacecraft violently.
The impact was so strong that even the spacecraft's inertial stabilizer could not withstand it.
Everyone on the bridge was nervous. They were a little panicked when the attack began. Even if they were knowledgeable, this kind of experience of being bombarded while sitting in a spacecraft was very rare.
Lily nervously grabbed the armrest of the seat. Although she was strong, individual strength seemed to be useless in this situation. She looked at Hao Ren trying to adjust the spacecraft's parameters and could not help but ask, "Mr. Landlord … What's going on? Wasn't everything fine when the drones came to investigate? Why are we being attacked as soon as we come in? "
"I still don't know what's going on," Hao Ren said quickly without looking up. "But the purpose of these attacks is very clear. It's definitely not a natural phenomenon … Something is stopping us from entering Star Cluster X …"
Before his voice trailed off, Nolan's alarm sounded again. "Attention! Energy focus ahead … Can't dodge, everyone take the hit … "
A bright light appeared in Hao Ren's field of vision from the spacecraft's perspective. He saw the light like a sharp blade, and the energy contained in the light shocked him.
Nolan tried her best to shift the angle a little, and the beam hit a set of shield generators in the rear half of the spaceship. A huge explosion erupted from the rear of the spaceship, and a large number of metal and crystal structures flew out in the explosion, leaving a tragic trail.
"Shield generators four to six lost contact, shield strength less than 30% … Hyperspace stabilizer damaged, switching to backup components … Material leakage in the seventh cabin, closing the ship's internal gate. Attention, gravity generator malfunction, emergency correction in progress … "
One after another, the gravity on the bridge was temporarily out of balance for a moment, and everyone floated up. Nangong Wuyue wrapped her tail around a pillar, one hand holding Lil Pea who flew out of the control panel, the other hand holding Y 'lisabet who almost flew out. But soon, Nolan restarted the backup gravity generator in the key cabin.
Nolan's voice sounded a little intermittent, as if there was something wrong with her speech. "The attack contains divine power, the energy level is the same as secondary psionic energy."
Hearing her words, Hao Ren was not surprised. He had felt this kind of power just now.
The Petrachelys also used this level of power, the level of power was the same, but in terms of quantity …
Hao Ren glanced at the energy storm that was chasing after the spacecraft. It had now developed into a terrifying space structure with a scale of several astronomical units, like an indescribable vortex surging behind the spacecraft. After the Petrachelys was damaged, the debris that fell into the storm was instantly devoured by the latter. The small spacecraft was almost like a grain of sand in the desert in front of this huge vortex.
There was a thousand words to say, f * ck.
It was impossible to go back the way they came, because the warp engine was interfered with, any precise jump was not possible. If they sailed normally, they would be caught by the storm in a few minutes, and there was no time to retreat to the outside of Star Cluster X.
So there was only one way out.
"Initiate warp."
"But the warp parameters are still …"
"Warp directly, don't set a course, search for the gravitational source in the hyperspace, and land on any planet. If possible, it's best if there are signs of life," Hao Ren said firmly. "At the same time, issue an emergency summon order to the drone cluster, let them come directly. It's okay if the warp misses, just build a fortress on the spot and start a riot."
"Roger."
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