Chapter 297: Democratic Warriors Fear Nothing
After the expeditionary fleet made a stylish escape from the blockade, Lu Yuan executed a rather audacious move.
Was I not interested in the technology on your ship simply because I was in a hurry?
Not at all.
It was because I had thousands of employees behind me.
He ordered all first-tier combat players, excluding Cao Yuan, including but not limited to members of the First Battle Group, who could teleport to New Hope, to immediately teleport there.
“Come on, everyone who can board! Those planning to go to Paradise Island, come along first, let’s hit them hard! Two crippled Imperial warships mean extra experience!”
Black Smoke called everyone to put on their power armor, head to the dock area, and board the Tianwen research vessel, as well as three other warp yachts recently captured from Apollo.
These things didn’t have infrared stealth capabilities, but there was no time to worry about that now.
Black Smoke checked his watch; time was almost up.
“Can’t wait any longer, this is everyone. Let’s go!”
Four small boats successively weighed anchor, engines at full thrust, climbing at a high angle. After escaping the planet’s gravity well, they immediately activated their warp engines, heading straight for the recent battlefield.
Lu Yuan speculated that the two Imperial warships earlier likely didn’t have superluminal communication stations installed.
The New Hope star system had three wormhole Jump Points, the closest of which to the recent battle was 8.5 billion kilometers away.
Assuming the two Imperial warships sent out distress radio signals, and also assuming the Empire had forces stationed at every wormhole Jump Point, it would still take eight hours for the signal to reach friendly forces.
Even if the reinforcements’ warp speed reached the speed of light, it would take at least 16 hours for them to arrive.
This time was enough for Cangyuan to pull off a heist; a one-way trip from New Hope would only take nine hours.
When viewed on a cosmic scale, the speed of light, which usually seems instantaneous, immediately becomes as slow as a crawling turtle.
Nine hours later, Black Smoke led a group of high-level players to the battlefield.
“It’s those two!”
The Tianwen’s optical lenses clearly showed the eagle emblem on the crippled warship’s hull, the insignia of the Imperial Navy.
Of the two warships, the first one hit was in very bad condition. After a large number of superconducting capacitors were destroyed, the massive internal electrical energy was forced to be released as heat, heating one-third of the hull to a red-hot or even molten state, while also causing violent explosions that broke the hull into two sections.
Its internal environment was too harsh, no longer suitable for boarding.
The remaining ship was relatively intact; at least its capacitors and nuclear power system hadn’t exploded, though all its ship-borne weapons were destroyed.
External measurements showed it was 310 meters long, 90 meters wide at its widest point, and 50 meters deep, with a volume three times that of a real-world heavy aircraft carrier. It was classified as a light cruiser in the Star Alliance and a frigate in the golden age.
“Begin operation!”
Over 80 players, in groups of six or seven, exited the airlocks of the four yachts into outer space at the fastest possible speed.
These “repeat offenders” skillfully maneuvered their flight packs, without any wasted movements, and quickly secured themselves firmly on the surface of the damaged warship.
They found the weak points where armor plates had been previously penetrated by shells and began using plasma melee weapons to cut away excess structures beneath the armor breaches.
“Hurry, hurry, more people to open the can! Time is precious this time, it’s a timed mission!”
Black Smoke was incredibly excited.
This was different from Galan’s stinky warships; these were industrial treasures with more advanced technology. And unlike the alien construct “Deep Sea,” these were human creations, which would surely provide a lot of inspiration for Cangyuan’s future new warship designs.
Alright! Heavily armored brothers with shields go first! Time to board!
Just three minutes later, 80 muscular men and women simultaneously breached the ship from three different points.
This efficiency was definitely top-tier among professional teams in the Star Alliance.
“Defend! Democracy!”
In the rather wide warship corridor, an Imperial Sailor, wearing a tight-fitting spacesuit with clearly defined muscles, charged forward bare-handed.
Although what he shouted was not the Star Alliance language, Cangyuan’s built-in AI in the power armor helmets still provided a timely and accurate translation.
The opponent’s language was not significantly different from the official UN language of a thousand years ago, and shared vocabulary was fully recorded in the database originating from the cangyuan one colonial ship.
Bang!
What awaited this Sailor was, naturally, a single shot that took him down.
His sealed helmet shattered, and his entire head was blown into a bloody mist by the boltgun, a relatively painless “humane execution.”
“What the hell—isn’t this just suicide?”
Black Smoke curled his lip.
“Over here! The running dogs of the autocratic mega-corporation have boarded!”
“All threats to democracy must be eliminated! Take up arms!”
“Hoo-ah!!!”
More shouts and communications from the defenders came from deep within the corridor.
“Get ready, don’t underestimate them,” Black Smoke told everyone. “At least their morale is high, standard strong-attack formation!”
Thump!
Four heavily armored Soldiers lined up neatly, shields in their right hands, single-wielding 53-kilogram Dragon Breath shotguns in their left hands, resting the muzzles on the C-shaped notch on the side of their shields, steadily advancing.
Assault and sniper Soldiers behind them rested their gun barrels on the shoulders of their heavily armored comrades in front, their firing lines slightly above the top edge of the shields.
Although this formation, derived from ancient armies, was cumbersome, in narrow terrain, it was as unstoppable as a tank.
“Ahhh!!”
More Imperial Sailors rushed out from the dark corners of the corridor. Half of them carried firearms, while the other half only had daggers and machetes.
Every one of them had exaggerated muscles, and their white, tight-fitting spacesuits were adorned with many tattoo-like patterns, mainly guns,
cannabis leaves, naked women in a “my humble door is now open for you” pose, and playing card suits.
“Fire!”
Did your muscles grow into your brains?
Black Smoke almost laughed.
The enemies charged one after another, most of them unable to even pull the trigger before being torn to shreds by the dense hail of bullets.
Those still clinging to life lay on the ground, not forgetting to shout slogans.
“Death—is—a better choice—than—tyranny! Listen!!! Medic! Where’s the medic!? I need fentanyl!!! Ahhh!!!!”
“These morons really have issues—”
Ye Xing couldn’t help but complain.
“Hmmmm—”
Black Smoke had to admit, “It is a bit unusual, but never mind, let’s finish the job first!”
Finally, on the way to the reactor power room, enemies that were somewhat formidable appeared.
He wore a special battlesuit, with even more exaggerated muscles than the previous Sailors; his shoulders were like basketballs, even larger than his helmet.
Clearly, this was an artificial muscle suit worn over his body, with a general structure somewhat similar to Emerald Life Science’s powered soft armor, but with armor plates attached to vital areas.
This compensated for the lack of defense at the cost of significantly increased weight.
This guy dual-wielded two Gatling autocannons of considerable caliber, striking a bicep curl pose, as majestic as a movie protagonist.
“Cannons flashing! Bombs bursting!”
While shouting a slogan of unclear meaning, he opened fire.
“Get down!” Black Smoke yelled a reminder.
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
Bullets rained down on Cangyuan’s ceramic-gold shields, creating continuous thrust, but without causing much substantial damage.
“Are these traditional gunpowder weapons?”
Everyone quickly realized.
“No, who are you looking down on?!”
Soon after, the Gatling ammunition ran out, and the opponent threw down his autocannons, drew a beautifully decorated kukri from his back, and launched a death charge.
“Land of the free! Home of the brave! No invader shall ever set foot! Charge!!!!”
What awaited him were four close-range, fatal volleys from the Dragon Breath.
All the muscles on his body, whether “natural” or artificial, immediately lost their normal contractile ability under the scorching heat of the superheated plasma, and he fell beneath the shields like a Xian Yu who had lost his dreams.
Beneath the transparent visor, the man’s face still held a strange excitement, his mouth widely upturned, and his eyes wide open.
“What the hell—continue!”
After a humane coup de grâce, the team continued to advance and finally took control of the reactor room, located at the core of the warship.
After ensuring safety, the players scanned the two intact reactors there.
“This trip was worth it, Big Brother Black Smoke! From the control panel, this reactor’s maximum power is 1200GW, six times larger than our largest model!”
“Hmm!” Black Smoke nodded. “And the volume is only less than half larger. I estimate this is the energy density limit of traditional nuclear fusion. Good, good stuff!”
At the same time, two other small teams also sent good news.
“Electromagnetic main cannon occupied! Core section is in good condition, only the launch rails are severely damaged. Blueprint completeness 89%!”
“Team Three has reached the laser turret. The laser emitter is intact, but the focusing lens part has been destroyed. Blueprint completeness 52%, scan completed!”
“Very good!”
At this point, less than 10 hours had passed since the Executive Officer issued the attack order.
Black Smoke knew he still had time to acquire a little more technology, so he issued new orders.
According to his arrangement, the third squad cut a bloody path and found the ship’s server room.
Players swarmed in, scanning the server racks.
It was obvious that the chips here were definitely more advanced than what Cangyuan currently possessed.
After scanning, they violently dismantled them. Due to incompatible interfaces, data from motherboards and hard drives could not be downloaded immediately, so they were taken back for slow research, to decrypt as much data as possible.
Take everything you can.
Following this line of thought, they also incidentally rushed into the ship’s living quarters, ransacked the armory, and took an artificial muscle suit as a sample.
On the other side, Guo Li Cheng led the second team all the way to the bridge and took control of it.
Next to the bridge was an airlock. The airlock door was forcibly blasted open in advance, allowing for a quick return to outer space to board the warp yachts and escape.
Thus, all boarding personnel, instead of killing all the Sailors on board, gathered at the bridge.
Black Smoke directed the players to perform the final task before evacuation.
Recover all suspected hard drives storing navigation logs and combat/communication records here.
This would be an important source for obtaining frontline intelligence on the Super Democratic Empire.
“Uncle Black Smoke! Look!”
As they were about to evacuate, Guo Li Cheng walked over, triumphantly holding a fresh Imperial officer’s head.
“Oh my… ”
Black Smoke was startled, thinking this woman was truly falling deeper into chaos!
“Sister, can’t you be more normal? What happened?”
“I think I found the reason for their erratic behavior. Look at the back of this head.”
Guo Li Cheng rotated the head 180 degrees.
Black Smoke saw an artificial device extending from the brainstem to the top of the head.
Judging by how the device’s edge connected with the scalp, it appeared to be a central nervous system prosthesis, its casing directly replacing a portion of the skull, and its interior likely deeply invaded the brain.