Tens of thousands of warp interference devices released by the fleet were scattered around the red dwarf. Once they were activated, the scorching, high-density gaseous star would become a huge trap zone. The gravity would be skewed to tens of thousands of different coordinates, and the spatial readings would fluctuate violently. Under such circumstances, all warp devices would not be able to locate themselves and could not be turned on. This interference array could even trap a flagship like the Imperial Admiral, let alone the Specter Ship.
However, the interference array could only be activated after the Specter Ship entered this space. According to Xiaoxue's prophecy, we only had three seconds to activate the interference array. To ensure that nothing went wrong in these three seconds, we had brought a mass-produced mainframe to act as the data link hub. She was powerful enough to ensure that the entire system would boot up at the same time without any accidents.
Xiaoxue's prophecy was very accurate this time. The moment the countdown hit zero, the Specter Ship appeared exactly where it was supposed to appear.
When the huge ship reached the encirclement, all the sensors reacted instantly. Information about the target ship's position, size, energy response, and other information were uploaded to the mass-produced mainframe on Engineering Ship No. 1 within milliseconds. Then, under the unified control of the mass-produced mainframe, the gravitational trap array was turned on, the warp blockers were turned on, and the tracking probes began to fly towards the Specter Ship and take root on its surface. The whole process took less than a second, and the out-of-control warship that had terrorized everyone in the macro world was completely under control.
My family watched this scene from the upper deck of the No. 1 engineering starship. From the ghost ship's sudden appearance to the soaring data in the information link, to the firefly-like probes darting out from under our feet to the target, everything happened in the blink of an eye. I didn't even have time to react until the huge, broken starship floated lifelessly in front of me a dozen kilometers away, and I heard the voice saying "Operation Successful" in the information link. I finally confirmed that the starship had been captured.
Xiaoxue was standing next to me. I couldn't help but pat her on the head. "Not bad, girl. You're pretty accurate this time."
The Bear Cub King had a proud smile on his face, but he still tried his best to pretend to be calm. "This is nothing. No matter what, I'm a prophet … Hey, dad, don't rub my hair, I'm not a kid anymore!"
I chuckled. Together with Sandora and the others, we observed the starship a dozen kilometers away. Just as the data said, this old, broken starship was huge. Although it was no longer complete, the remaining parts were still dozens of kilometers long. Other than the normal protruding components on the main body of the starship, there were a lot of damage and distortions caused by age and external collisions. The mottled and broken armor plates protruded into space, making the silhouette of the Specter Ship look like a mountain range floating in space. The dim light of the nearby red dwarf shone on the broken armor, making the surface of the Specter Ship glow dark red. It reminded me of blood.
I paid special attention to the front of the starship. The structure of the starship was similar to an Eternal-class battleship. So, the front of the starship should be the weapon section. However, there was now only a huge jagged fracture zone. The twisted armor plates and tangled internal components poked out from the fracture zone, like the broken blood vessels and bones in the front of a broken arm. Such a terrible damage made me curious. What happened to this ancient starship? How did it escape from such a dangerous situation?
"It's so terrible …" Sandora was a little speechless. Although we had seen a lot of eyewitness reports of the Specter Ship, seeing a few pictures and seeing it with our own eyes was not the same as seeing it with our own eyes. Also, those pictures that were taken in a hurry rarely recorded the details of the Specter Ship. Now that the ship was right in front of us, we realized that it was worse than we had expected. Sandora looked confused. "Look at the damage at the front. That is a fatal wound. If the starship was in this state because of a battle, there is no way it could survive. The energy response of this starship is very weak. My radar shows that it is almost in a state of shutdown. I can't believe that its Field of Order can still be activated, and it has been floating in the void until now … Where is the test report? "
Sandora's last sentence was directed at the mainframe of the engineering ship. After the Specter Ship was captured, the engineering mothership had sent out a lot of probes and engineering submachines to check on the enemy. It had been a few minutes, and the rough scan report should be out soon.
The voice of the mainframe rang in everyone's head. "External scan: 26% destructive damage, 30% severe damage, the rest light damage. Surface functional scan: All outer components of the target spaceship have stopped. No activated equipment found. Preliminary judgment: completely incapacitated. Deep functional scan: the target spaceship's warp engine and void engine are still usable, but have been suppressed. Other systems have weak energy response. Preliminary judgment: dormant or malfunctioning. Core scan: no results. There is interference inside the spaceship. The core may still be operating. Suggested for further inspection. "
"Any signs of life?" Liliana suddenly jumped out and asked. She had been busy squatting on the ground playing Gomoku with the little crow. She did not expect the little girl to be concerned about something serious.
The mainframe was silent for a moment. Maybe it was busy communicating with the probes. Then it replied, "No signs of life found. The possibility of life in the core cannot be ruled out."
"What do you feel?" I noticed that Liliana had switched to her demigod form, which was the blonde, green-eyed elf form. I asked curiously.
"I don't know if it's an illusion." Liliana blinked. "I feel like there's something alive on the spaceship. Goddess, listen to your believer and show the truth to your believer!"
The fake loli pretended to pray. Jingle immediately crawled out of my pocket. The little one rubbed her eyes and said softly, "I heard you, I heard you. You don't have to text me when you're just beside me. Also, why are you being so courteous with Jingle?"
I looked at the master and servant, speechless. I reached out and poked Jingle's head. "Let's get down to business. The Specter Ship is right there. Liliana said that there's someone alive on the spaceship. But our long-range probes are blocked by the core's barrier. Take a look."
Jingle might have just woken up. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the spaceship. Her first reaction was to say, "Ah! This spaceship is broken! " Then I remembered to get down to business. The little one mumbled something and gestured in the air for a long time. Finally, she grabbed my clothes and shook it. "Maybe, maybe not … There's a barrier in there. Jingle's intuition tells me that there's someone alive on the spaceship. But the barrier has blocked all signs of life."
Just now, Liliana said so, and now even Jingle said so. I suddenly realized that the situation was tricky. It seemed that the interference barrier in the core of the spaceship was not an ordinary starship's core protection layer. It could even block the Goddess of Life's senses. It must be a special device!
"This spaceship should be specially made. Xiaoxue is right. It's special." Sandora frowned and looked at the Specter Ship. Then, she connected to the reconnaissance team in front. "Have you found the spaceship's entrance? What's the situation inside? "
The person in charge of the reconnaissance team immediately replied, "We have found the spaceship's gate. But the normal passageways are all locked. We are trying to cut a hole in the spaceship's armor. The spaceship's charging armor only has weak power. It's easy to cut."
Of course it was easy to cut. Forget about cutting it, the forest goblins could smash the Specter Ship into pieces with a merchant ship. It was a miracle that the spaceship could survive until today without breaking apart.
Seeing the expression on Sandora's face, I knew what she was thinking. So, I took the initiative to contact the reconnaissance team. "Open the entrance and wait for orders. We will go there ourselves."
The Empire was already used to the Princeps' style of throwing their arms around and taking matters into their own hands. Moreover, this was not a high-risk operation, so the person in charge of the reconnaissance team did not hesitate at all and happily accepted the order.
"Who is going with us?" Sandora and I turned to ask the family behind us. But there were only a few who responded. Even Shallow Shallow and Xiaoxue, who loved to see the world in chaos, did not say a word. I looked at the two brats curiously. Shallow Shallow stuck her tongue out and said, "That spaceship is too ugly." Xiaoxue nodded and said, "Upstairs."
"…" Alright, it's Qian Qian anyway. Nothing she does is worthy of being surprised.
In the end, Liliana stood up and said, "Boss, I will go with you. I am a biological radar."
A small head popped out from my pocket and said, "Jingle too!"
I pulled Liliana to my side and said, "Alright, you two can control each other."
At that moment, I felt someone tugging at the corner of my shirt. I turned and saw Maddy standing behind me. The silly bird was excited and said to me happily, "Quack!"
I did not want to correct the silly bird. She was not a duck but a crow.
Although I didn't know what this silly bird could do to help, the little crow still had the title of Crow God. I should let her see more of the world, so I nodded in agreement. In the end, other than me and Sandora, Liliana and the silly bird went with us. We also brought Jingle, whose Intelligence was around nine points. The rest of the family was disappointed by the shabby appearance of the Specter Ship. Those who were always afraid of the world being in chaos stayed behind to watch the house …
We soon arrived at the lower armor belt of the Specter Ship. There was an entrance that led to the interior of the ship. The scouting team had set up a small floating outpost next to the entrance. We talked to the leader of the scouting team and learned about the situation of the passage. The tall and thin soldier pointed at the alloy barrier dozens of meters away and said, "The normal gate is completely locked. That is a reinforced gate. It will take a lot of time to open it. We have already scanned the passage behind the gate. Now, we are drilling a slanted well in the connecting groove between the armor belt and the structural plate. Look, it's over there."
I looked in the direction that the Empire soldier was pointing and saw a groove on the shell of the Specter Ship that stretched as far as the eye could see. Three autonomous robots were hovering outside the groove, using high-power psionic jets to ablate the spaceship's armor. This place was on the dark side, and there was no atmospheric diffusion, so it should be dark. However, the light from the base of the floating outpost still illuminated the work site as bright as day.
"I really can't tell which sector this spaceship belongs to from its appearance." While waiting for the slanted well to open, Sandora looked up curiously and observed the shape of the Specter Ship. We were now very close to the huge spaceship that was dozens of kilometers long, so we couldn't see its full appearance. Just the armor plate on the lower side looked like a towering cliff in everyone's eyes. However, Sandora was also maintaining a smooth data connection with the nearby probes, so she was observing all the details of the ship at the same time. After comparing all the external features, Sandora shook her head in disappointment. "It's a specially modified model. Anyway, I didn't order the construction of this thing. The spaceship's logo should have disappeared into the void along with the missing parts. Otherwise, I could have checked the memory bank to find out who built it. "
I tilted my head and glanced at Sandora. "Why do you care so much about who built this spaceship?"
"Xiaoxue's words made me feel uneasy." Sandora curled her lips and smiled. Although she said she felt uneasy, I didn't see any uneasiness in her at all. "This spaceship is related to me, but I haven't even seen it before. Don't you feel awkward if this happened to you?"
I thought about the symptoms of my late-stage OCD and didn't dare to continue thinking about it.
As the Specter Ship's armor charging system was basically scrapped, it didn't take much time to drill a slanted well next to the armor belt. Soon, the autonomous robots drilled out a wide enough passage. One of the autonomous robots flew in to check the situation and reported back that it was' internal security '.
I noticed that when the slanted well was opened, there was no airflow near the hole. This meant that the spaceship had completely lost pressure, at least in the outer area.
The Empire's battleships were equipped with automatic repair functions. Even if they were to be blasted in half, as long as the core was still working, the ship would be able to seal up the damage on its own. This complete loss of pressure meant that the ship's self-repair had stopped.
"Let's go in." Sandora didn't say much. She teleported to the entrance of the slanted well that had just been opened and was still glowing faintly blue. Then, she took the lead and flew in.
The slanted well that had been ablated by the high-power psionic jet was hundreds of meters long. The molten and solidified metal walls were still glowing blue, but there was only darkness at the end of the well. Not only was the Specter Ship's external lights out, but it was also dark inside. Even the emergency lighting equipment seemed to have run out of energy.
We passed through the still glowing cavern and came to a wide alloy corridor. The corridor was about ten meters wide. Considering that one end of the corridor led to the outer door of the spaceship, it should be a passageway for people and small aircrafts to enter and exit. I looked around. It was extremely dark. The only 'illumination' was the blue glow left by the psionic jet. The autonomous robots had pierced through the spaceship's structural plates, and the psionic jet had also melted part of the floor of the corridor. The metal there was already half-solidified, and part of it had become crystalline. The blue crystals were the only source of light.
I thought for a moment and suddenly slapped my head, causing Alaya to be slapped out of my head. My little angel sister had been thrown into such a dark environment without even needing me to tell her what to do. She immediately spread her wings and increased her brightness …
Sandora glanced at me silently. She didn't say anything and continued walking forward. The little crow curiously stroked Alaya's wings, his face full of envy. This silly bird isn't trying to bleach itself, is it?
With Alaya's illumination, it became much easier to move forward. We quickly floated along the corridor, looking for any signs that could indicate the structure of the spaceship or at least the ownership of the spaceship. This severely damaged spaceship had lost its gravity, and there was no air in this cabin. We felt as though we were floating in outer space as we floated along the corridor. The little crow cleverly used her lightning power to create an electromagnetic field. She relied on the surrounding alloy walls to fly forward. Her speed was surprisingly fast. She was now a maglev crow. Liliana couldn't help but mutter, "Boss, I don't think this bird is silly at all."
We quickly passed through the long corridor and stopped at a fork in the road. Sandora looked at the sign on the wall at the fork and looked at the road on the left. She said through the mental connection, "Level 2 controlled passage. This should lead us to the inner area."
"Let's go then." I didn't think too much about it. I got up and planned to fly towards the seemingly deeper alloy corridor. However, I found that Sandora hadn't moved an inch. "What's wrong?"
"I'm thinking about something." Sandora seemed to have a lot on her mind. She frowned slightly and looked around. "We have already walked so far. Why can't we see any signs?"
I didn't react immediately. "What do you mean?"
"Army insignia, the symbol of the sector it belongs to, or at the very least, the designation of the unit it belongs to." Sandora pointed in the direction that we came from. The long alloy corridor now looked dark. "There's nothing on the walls along the way. There's also nothing on the covers of the embedded equipment. We haven't seen any information that indicates the ownership of this spaceship. Also, look at the sign here."
Sandora pointed at the big blue sign on the wall at the fork in the road.
"According to the regulations, this kind of sign will have the serial number of the spaceship written on the corner. There isn't even such information."
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