Chapter 231: What is a Surprise?
Two weeks later, at New Hope Space Station,
Ran Ge called Loulan to join him, taking the cable car from the bustling port area to the dock area, to carry out the special intelligence mission given to them by the Executive Officer.
The two acted nonchalantly, hands in their pockets, and boarded their own warp-drive research vessel.
“This is the Cangyuan Future Technology branch, the 'Tianwen'—requesting departure.”
“Port received. AR virtual path has been sent. 'Tianwen,' please depart in an orderly manner according to the instructions.”
As soon as the tower operator finished speaking, a ribbon-like 3D sea route appeared on Loulan’s helmet display. By strictly following this route at the designated time, even an idiot could avoid colliding with other spacecraft entering and exiting the port.
Of course, with Loulan’s skill, such auxiliary means were not actually needed.
“Um, may I ask what you are doing upon departure?”
The tower asked an extra question.
“Just taking a stroll.”
Loulan answered very naturally, and Ran Ge smiled on the co-pilot’s seat.
“But you take your ship for a stroll once every day—”
“Ah, you’re right, sis. We just like it that much.”
“Alright, I know you are currently in a firefight with Apollo, but please try not to open fire on them here.”
“Look at you, I wish I could. By the way, sis, what time do you get off work today?”
“What, are you planning to ask me out?”
“Haha, you’re thinking too much. What I mean is, if you’re at your post for the next few hours, you might just get to see a good show from the best seat.”
Loulan circled above the dock area, while Ran Ge controlled the research vessel’s camera, looking at the dense array of nearly a thousand ship berths.
Having purchased the registration information of all docked ships from the hackers under Anya beforehand, the AI on the Tianwen quickly identified their nationality and type based on the ships’ outer contours and markings captured.
Soon, the reconnaissance mission was successfully completed.
Ran Ge opened the player community and posted.
【Ranqilaile】: “Homeland Fleet, attention! No Super Democratic Empire vessels were found in New Hope Port, and the number of warships from other factions is the lowest it has been in two weeks. Currently, only Jialan are assembling their fleet, with two 200-meter-class warships and three 120-meter-class warships in port.”
【Caoyuan a Caoyuan】: “Fleet understood. Focus on counting the number of warships bearing the insignia of these factions: Human Exploration Federation, Paradise Island, New Hope.”
【Ranqilaile】: “The numbers are 2, 0, and 12 respectively! Among them, the Human Exploration Federation has one 400-meter-class heavy cruiser docked, and all New Hope ships remaining in port are light destroyers and frigates under 150 meters.”
“However, according to what we understand, the much more powerful New Hope main fleet must be on standby not far from the space station. This is their consistent policy to avoid their fleet and space station being ambushed and wiped out by other powerful forces; they never put all their eggs in one basket.”
【Caoyuan a Caoyuan】: “Understood. Good work, the intelligence you provided is very important to us, please keep up the good work!”
In the bridge of the Xianyang, Caoyuan finished typing and turned to Lu Yuan.
“Executive Officer, ships 101 and 102 are ready and can enter the New Hope star system at any time.”
Lu Yuan sat upright in the captain’s seat, propping his chin with one hand, gazing at the endless void before him, and pondered for a moment.
“Enter Level One combat readiness. Everyone prepare for engagement with Jialan warships. Pass through the wormhole as quickly as possible.”
“Yes!”
Caoyuan, playing the role of first mate, repeated the order loudly.
“Attention all! This ship is entering Level One combat readiness and will begin high-overload acceleration. Everyone, quickly get to your cruising positions. Countdown, 1 minute! 102 Chang'an, please follow us!”
“102 received!”
One minute later, the helmsman player issued another ship-wide broadcast and counted down the seconds.
“—Three, two, one, acceleration initiated!”
After the countdown, he pressed the switch, activated the Mass Effect Zero Element Furnace, then shifted gears to ahead full, the fastest speed short of warp, which is Mass Effect sub-light cruising status.
Soon, the warship, originally weighing 12,000 tons, had its relativistic mass reduced to merely over a hundred tons, bursting forth with an acceleration exceeding 7G under the propulsion of its cruising engines, pressing all crew members firmly against their chair backs.
For typical native passengers, 7G is a completely unbearable acceleration, leading to gradual unconsciousness within 30 seconds.
But at this moment, the elite players on the two “Qinling” class frigates generally had a physique of 25 points or more, so a 7G overload felt no different to them than riding a roller coaster at an amusement park.
In this state, Lu Yuan could even speak at a normal pace and tone, hailing the Wealth Key merchant fleet behind him.
“Wealth Key, this is Xianyang. We’re heading out first. See you at New Hope Space Station!”
“Wealth Key received, see you at New Hope!” Hugh replied.
“Executive Officer, thank you for everything you’ve done for the Free Trade Alliance!”
Three hours later, the two “Qinling” ships had accumulated a speed increment of 75 kilometers per second, which was also the maximum speed that could ensure a 100% “alignment” with the Jump Point and smooth passage through the wormhole.
Whether it was due to the helmsman’s skill or the precision of the navigation assistance system, any faster would carry a certain risk of deviation.
“Executive Officer! Radar scan results show the path ahead is clear, no collision risk!”
“Good. Attention all, we are only 15 minutes away from the Jump Point. Now, tighten formation and activate the Entropy Zero Element Furnace at full power.”
“101 activated!”
“102 activated, formation entering infrared stealth!”
Currently, the dual-ship formation is located in the “Turbulence” star system, adjacent to New Hope.
As it is already in the core area of New Hope’s controlled star sector, almost all Jump Points here have wormhole observation service stations built nearby.
Normally, it would be difficult for ships from various factions to sneak into the closely monitored New Hope star system unnoticed.
For any form of surprise attack, even a warp-drive surprise attack, New Hope Space Station would have at least a 2-hour warning time.
But, Cangyuan was an exception.
Near the wormhole Jump Point from “Turbulence” to New Hope, a small space station, equipped with the latest and most complete facilities, floated, manned by a professional monitoring team of up to 10 people.
But all of this could not help them detect Cangyuan’s dual stealth.
“Team Leader—”
A young monitor raised his right hand.
“What is it?”
“Just now, the radar screen showed an echo signal near the Jump Point, it just flashed by, I don’t know exactly what it was....”
“How long did the signal last?”
“Less than a second.”
This space station was not equipped with high-precision, high-power military phased-array radar.
Less than a second was precisely the time it took for a “Qinling” class frigate, with its excellent radar stealth design, to enter radar detectable Ran Ge and emit an echo “flash.”
It was literally a “flash and gone.”
“Could it be a warship passing at high speed? Wait a moment—”
To be cautious, the monitoring team leader walked back to his console and pulled up the infrared monitoring image.
“What time did the signal appear?”
“40 seconds ago!”
He adjusted to the correct time segment, but the screen was pitch black.
Against the near-absolute zero cosmic background, no heat source was visible.
“Hmm, nothing is visible in infrared. What you saw definitely wasn’t a man-made radar echo. It might be solar flare activity!”
“But Team Leader—our radar isn’t directly facing the sun.”
“Well—then it’s a supernova burst far away, or a gamma-ray burst or something! Oh, these radio noise points often appear in the universe, no one can explain their source clearly, and it’s normal for their direction to coincide with the Jump Point!”
“So we’re not issuing an alert?”
“Hmm—no need for an alert. Issuing alerts unnecessarily will deduct performance points. You just control the communication drone to pass through the wormhole and report the situation truthfully to New Hope, let their intelligence analysts make the decision.”
“Okay!”
A full 3 hours later, the electromagnetic wave communication from the wormhole observation service station finally reached New Hope.
Intelligence analysts received two to three similar “suspicious noise” reports daily, all of which were later confirmed to be natural phenomena. Therefore, naturally, this time too, the attention level was not raised.
And at this very moment, Cangyuan’s dual-ship formation had long entered warp-drive cruising status and was approaching New Hope Space Station at full speed.
At the same time, Loulan piloted the “Tianwen” back to port. After disembarking, Ran Ge sprinted to “Purgatory” and found Anya.
“Good afternoon, Ms. Anya, I’m here to inform you of something.”
“What is it?”
Anya nonchalantly swirled the wine in her goblet.
“Our Executive Officer plans to visit New Hope Space Station with two warships.”
“The two warships that appeared in the video before?”
Anya stopped her movements. She knew what this diplomatic gesture meant.
This was definitely not a small matter!
“Yes.”
“When will they arrive here, in three weeks? Two weeks?”
This was the estimated arrival time based on the speed of most warp-drive warships.
Ran Ge smiled and shook his head.
He was enjoying this moment.
“Then, is it in one week?”
This was the estimated arrival time based on 99% of light speed, a speed that only a very few warships from the Super Democratic Empire and Human Exploration Federation could achieve in full warp mode.
Such near-light-speed warp engines were the signature treasures and closely guarded secrets of these two major powers, strictly forbidden from being sold or having any form of technology transfer, and were only equipped on capital ships and the highest-level research vessels.
“Approximately one hour from now, Ms. Anya.”
“What did you say!? Ah—”
Anya shot up, nearly twisting her ankle because she was wearing high heels.
She wasn’t angry.
The expression on her face was hard to describe, whether it was surprise, pleasant surprise, or schadenfreude from watching a show.
“Hiss—your Executive Officer is going to give the Jialan and those old farts in the council a big gift!”