Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1436
"How did it happen?"
The most dazzling and devastating picture on the surveillance light beam cast the control center into a moment of suffocation and silence.
The manager of the Navigation and Coordination Center of the No. 3 space gate roared furiously, "Who is responsible for the coordination of the ninth jump point? Why did they send the same accurate jump coordinates to two starships?"
The scale of the universe was far beyond the imagination of any human being. Theoretically speaking, it was impossible for two starships to run into each other in a space jump.
However, in order to increase the precision of the jump, The Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan, mankind's ancestors, created the magical equipment such as "star beacons" and "space gates", which attracted travelers everywhere like the lighthouses in a dark night.
As a result, the jump coordinates of the starships that passed the space gates would be limited to an extremely small range. Chances were that two starships might affect, overlap, and melt with each other.
When two starships overlaid in the same space, or two bodies of flesh and blood jumped to the same spot simultaneously, there would be dire consequences.
The Navigation and Coordination Center on the space gates was an administrative department created to avoid such accidents.
According to the size and navigation radius of every space gate, the area near the space gate would be classified into different jump points, each of which had unique jump coordinates and control code.
Under normal circumstances, before a starship performed a space jump, it would send a request to the target space gate. After confirming the identity and mission of the starship, the target space gate would send the jump coordinates, jump time, and control code to the starship according to the traffic of the space gate at present.
In such a way, the safety, regularity, and rapidity of the space jump could be guaranteed.
Therefore, in a normal jump procedure where the two parties communicated closely, it would be barely possible for two starships to land on the same spot, leading to such a serious accident.
The identities of the two overlapped and mutually-destroyed starships had been confirmed. They were two carriers that had come to the Divine Rain Planet to ship goods on a normal, monthly transportation mission. Their jump requests had been sent over a day ago!
Then, there could only be one possibility.
It was a human-error accident. The coordinator gave the two starships the control code of the same time and coordinates.
The manager of the control center of the No. 3 space gate immediately blushed and glared at the coordinator of the ninth jump point.
There was no telling if it was because he sensed his superior's scorching eyes, but the coordinator suddenly trembled violently and hissed. His face became grave, and tremendous foams spurted out of his mouth. He collapsed to the floor, cramped nervously, and peed and s*ited his pants.
It seemed that some kind of terrible disease had attacked him.
"Well…"
The manager of the control center was slightly stunned. "Doctor! Somebody call a doctor!"
At this moment, everybody in the control center of the No. 3 space gate was overwhelmed.
The chaos caused by two overlapped starships could not be settled so easily. While the fuselages of the two starships had been too badly destroyed to be rescued at all, the fragments raised by the explosion were still sweeping across the entire area.
Under normal circumstances, even a carrier would boast a spiritual shield of reasonable intensity, which would be enough to withstand the broken pieces.
But this place was next to the space gate. Every minute, a starship would leap out of the void and condense into a solid form from the fractured state.
It was the most vulnerable moment for the starships and the crews.
Even the experts in the Nascent Soul Stage and even the Divinity Transformation Stage would be more fragile than ever in the state between the three-dimension and the four-dimension. They could even barely control their own souls.
If one of the pieces happened to hit the power unit or the arsenal of the starship, or if a starship happened to jump to the pieces from the void and overlaid with the pieces, it would definitely be a tragedy of serial destruction.
Therefore, desperate roars were echoing both from the control center and from the bridges of every starship nearby.
Everybody was operating so quickly that their hands were cramping. Every surveillance camera was aimed at the starships that had already leaped out of the void. More than 90% of the computational ability of the mainframe crystal processor was dedicated to the recalculation of the sailing routes and the order by which the starships were being teleported. Both the human brains and the crystal processors were overloaded, with white smoke popping up from their heads.
In the turmoil, nobody noticed that on the nineteenth jump point, which was the farthest away from the No. 3 space gate and usually served as a backup point, a dark warship that seemed to have been melted into the universe surfaced from the void without a sound.
It was a warship that seemed to be carved out of a black gem.
The application of the energy-absorption and anti-interference materials reduced the ripples it raised when it ripped apart the three-dimensional space to the minimum, making it look like a crocodile that slowly craned its head out of the thick swamp.
When its slender yet powerful body completely surfaced from the "universal swamp", revealing the lightning camouflage on the two sides of the body and staring at the chaotic space zone, still nobody caught its existence.
It was the first crocodile.
Very soon, the second, the third, the fourth… the tenth crocodile popped up from the void dozens of kilometers away. They were as soundless as the first crocodile. Except for the feeble ripples that looked like black fog, they barely showed any signs. The only thing that declared their intimidation was the lightning paint on the starships that were in the shape of abstract tigers.
Such a paint was the symbol of the Astounding Thunder Fleet.
After the space jump, they were only dozens of kilometers away from each other, short enough to gather into a battle formation quickly. It was almost a perfect group jump.
It was not until this moment that the control center of the No. 3 space gate finally detected the unannounced guests.
"What… What the heck!"
Looking at the light spots on the surveillance light beam that were gathering into a battle formation as quickly as bees and ants, the manager of the No. 3 space gate couldn't have been paler. "How is it possible? So many unauthorized, unknown starships have jumped to the Divine Rain Planet at the same time… Where did they get the jump permission and the control code? It's impossible! It's absolutely impossible!"
To avoid the awkward situation where the enemy's large group of troops marched into the heartland rapidly and unstoppably, both the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance had extremely high control over their own space gates. The frequency of the signals sent by the space gates was one of the top secrets too.
Every starship changed the frequency every day to broadcast different navigation signals. Only by learning the navigation signals of today, or even a particular hour, which included the top confidential data like the "jump password", could the navigation purpose of the space gate be best achieved and the precision of the jump be maximized.
If the coordinates of a space gate were known but the jump password could not be decrypted, there was a 99% chance that the starships would jump to the edge of the target world. Perhaps it would take them ten to fifteen days to cruise at the sub-light speed before they arrived at the resourceful area at the center of the world, namely the planets frequented and mostly developed by human beings.
However, the mysterious intruders had jumped right next to the Divine Rain Planet. There must've been—
The manager of the control center of the No. 3 space gate was greatly alarmed. Out of intuitions, he drew the mini storm bolter from his waist.
But all the navigators, coordinators, and operators before him were performing the operations according to the regulations dutifully, with confusion on their faces. There was not the slightest anomaly.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The noises of boots echoed in the corridor. They were the guards who were responsible for the safety of the No. 3 space gate.
The manager of the No. 3 space gate was slightly dazed, because he did not order the guards to come. When he turned back, the gate of the control center had been kicked open, and more than twenty soldiers in crystal suits barged in aggressively, followed by the deputy captain of the guards who was not wearing a crystal suit but the military uniform of the Imperium's army, except that there were stains of blood on the uniform, as if he had just killed someone.
On the other hand, the armband that represented the Li family on his left arm had been ripped away, replaced by a new armband that said "Honor the Majesty and Settle the Rebellions" intimidatingly!
Chapter 2250: The Fleet Blessed by Darkness |
The twisted faces of the guards and the foams on their mouths made them seem to be enshrouded in queer and zealous flames, depriving them of their original sanity.
It also seemed that something new had been injected deep into their brains, allowing them to show the air that was entirely different from the common Immortal Cultivators of the Li family.
The manager of the No. 3 space gate pointed his mini storm bolter at the guards subconsciously and stammered, "What-What are you doing?"
Before he pulled the trigger, the weapons on a couple of crystal suits on his opposite side emanated weird brilliance at the same time, and the mystic rays that entailed powerful spiritual energy of the fire class hit his right hand that held the gun simultaneously.
The powerful spiritual energy of the fire class dashed into the mini storm bolter instantly and led to the loss of control and explosion of the ammunition, blowing the manager's right hand and the arm below the elbow into magma.
"Ahhh!"
Looking at his flesh that was quickly melting and spraying to the floor like orange mud, the manager screamed in excruciating pain.
He was not a battle-type Immortal Cultivator in the first place. Under the agony and the pressure of almost thirty crystal suits, he completely lost the determination to resist and fell on one of his knees. Holding his right arm that had been completely melted into a blackened, broken bone, he sweated heavily in pain and cramped nonstop, almost passing out in shock.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
There were two guards in the control center at the beginning, but they seemed to be on different sides with the guards who trespassed without order. Hardly had they drawn their storm bolters, meaning to counterattack, when they were blown back by the enemy's stormy attacks. The pieces of their crystal suits splashed nonstop, until they crashed into the control panel of the space gate and turned into two dazzling sparks.
All the navigators, coordinators, and operators were so scared that their faces lost all colors. The control center was not spacious at all, and they had nowhere to run to. Having no other choices, they could only raise their hands and surrender.
The leader of the guards, the only guy who was not wearing a crystal suit, walked to the front of the manager who was shuddering with a pale face, observing the man coldly from the high stance.
"How… How dare you—"
The manager of the space gate realized the enemy's intention from his cold eyes, but he found everything that had just happened too absurd to believe. His question was more like deep confusion than to reprimand.
"Life and death, honor and disgrace, are none of our concerns right now. There is nothing we daren't do!"
The leader of the guards drew the saber, raised it high, and roared. The aura of the saber cut in the manager's left shoulder like a lightning and went all the way down to the right abdomen, chopping the manager into halves!
Because many organs were still connected to his head, the manager of the space gate did not die instantly. While the world swirled before him, he saw everything on the surveillance light beam.
He saw that the rebelled guards led a dozen mysterious persons that he had never met before into the center, replacing the previous coordinators and operators of the No. 3 space gate.
Those newcomers were all well-trained professionals. They navigated the jump of the unknown starships so smoothly that their efficiency was even higher than that of the previous staff of the No. 3 space gate.
Under their flawless operations, more and more unknown starships leaped out of the void. Their jump points were so immaculate that they were neither so close to each other that they would affect or even overlap each other nor so far away that the enemy would have an opportunity to attack them separately. With the most appropriate distance from each other, they were able to gather into the most solemn battle formation the moment they got rid of the aftermath of the space-time ripples!
At first, they were all the stealthy models in black camouflage that did not show any sign. They were like crocodiles that were covered in mud.
As more and more "crocodiles" crawled out and gradually formed an indestructible battle formation, more and more huge arsenal warships and behemothic mothership barged into the area without any hesitation, not covering their existence at all, like the killer whales weighing tens of thousands of tons jumping out of the surface of the ocean.
Before he fell into the infinite darkness, the last picture that the manager of the space gate saw was the crocodiles, swordfishes, sharks, and giant whales launching colorful streaks of brilliance at the local garrison of the world.
The dozens of brilliant streaks were even and long, just like his soul waves and cardiogram right now.
Then, his soul completely dispersed into the vast sea of stars, and he could feel nothing anymore.
…
The Divine Rain Fleet was as chaotic as the No. 3 space gate just now.
As one of the most resourceful worlds in the dominion of the Li family, the defense of the Divine Rain Sector was certainly an important focus in the Li family's strategies.
The equipment and personnel configuration for the Divine Rain Fleet were among the best in the hundred fleets of the Imperium nationwide.
But the critical thing was that, in order to build up the defense of the capital, the Divine Rain Fleet had just dispatched one-third of the warships to reinforce the capital. The reinforcing warships brought away tremendous ammunition and fuel and resulted in a few insignificant flaws on the local defense system of the Divine Rain Sector that could be fixed within twenty-four hours.
Who could've thought that the rebellions would march out at such an awkward moment?
The strength of the Divine Rain Fleet had been diminished by at least a third, but the rebellions had gathered the elites of the dozens of smaller worlds at the periphery of the Imperium who were commanded by Lei Chenghu, the famous "God of War"!
Besides, a war was not a game of numbers, and the final victory could not be decided by the advantages listed on a piece of paper.
In the war between the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance over the past hundred years, in order to preserve their strength as much as possible, the four Kurfürst families often asked the bumpkins and the miscellaneous troops from the edge of the Imperium to lead the vanguard as cannon fodder. After the cannon fodder paid great sacrifices and crushed the tough enemy, their own troops would arrive and claim the fruits of victory easily.
Then, a paradox was inevitably raised.
A fleet could only be built through fighting, and a strong troop could only be whetted by blood. Since the cannon fodder had always led the charge, and they had never been tested by the real iron and fire themselves, the elites of the four Kurfürst families often had only the most advanced starships but not the determination of fighting or abundant battle experience. They were nothing but decorative vases.
In the meantime, of a hundred cannon-fodder fleets, ninety were perhaps crushed, crippled, or even collapsed to the point that their designations were canceled.
But there were always ten cannon-fodder fleets that were relatively lucky. They would hone their claws and horns with the enemy's blades in the cruel, hellish battles, swallow the enemy's bodies to build up their own flesh and bones, and grow into the most fiendish creatures from cannon fodder quietly!
Unfortunately, the Divine Rain Fleet was a typical example of the former, whereas the coalition fleet of the Third Battle Area of the expedition army, represented by the Astounding Thunder Fleet, was a quintessence of the latter.
The Divine Rain Fleet was equipped with the most advanced and powerful starships of the Imperium, but they had been stationed in the Divine Rain Sector for decades. In name, the heavy responsibility to defend the sailing routes and the jump points was on their shoulders. But was any space pirate, extraterrestrial devil, or rogue blind enough to come to the Li family's heartland to be killed?
Aside from in the regular drills that were getting slacker and slacker, the starships, which had installed the most advanced cannons of the Imperium at the cost of tremendous money and resources, had never been stained with a single drop of blood.
In the meantime, the commanders of various levels of the Divine Rain Fleet were almost all the descendants of the Li family. Many of them had a high Cultivation. Even the captain of an insignificant cruiser might be at the peak of the Core Formation Stage.
But their high levels were often piled by infinite Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and high-purity crystals. They had never been through real tests. However fierce the internal competitions within the family were, and however vivid the trial fields were, like the "Land of Sins", could they be compared to the frontline of the war where the entire universe was burning and everybody's blood was simmering?
