Chapter 106: Warship Infiltration
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Messenger exploded into a brilliant cluster of fireworks. Zoom! Ye Chong was not in the mood to behold such dazzle! He quickly steered Yu Di away from the incoming mechs. If it was not for the impromptu steering, he would have joined the fireworks too! Those mechs on the other hand also found the happening recklessly preposterous, but being an old hand on the steer in the war field, they understood that it simply was not the time to ponder on these nonsensical issues as they repositioned themselves to cover up for each other, searching for the next target to fire!
The war field was chaotic and congested with speeding mechs. The laser beams crossed over each other, blooming in clusters like grand fireworks. The deafening explosion resounded sometimes, marking the tiny conclusion of each overlapping battle in the boundless space.
Not only the enemies had to watch themselves for the bullets, the member of the same team was also defenseless as they could helplessly get hit from this massive shower of firings.
"Ye, tsk." Mu commented, "Marksmanship, Ye. Marksmanship. You do need additional classes on shooting skills. Blades do not work in a war field like this; shooting works much better."
Ye Chong agreed with Mu deep in his heart, as it seemed to him that any melee attacker could suffer worse fate than slavery in a war field like this.
Ye Chong loitered in the field. He fired a few additional shots with the bullets in his cartridge from time to time. However obviously Ye Chong lacked the talent for ranged shooting as he was still able to bloodily miss the shot on the enemy and land it on his ally instead… despite all the modification of simplifying the set-up for the firing on his cartridge.
The number of the Messengers decreased drastically. Only less than half of them remained 5 minutes after the beginning of this free-for-all fight. The Sabre was not at an easier place however, as they suffered worse loss - averagely 7 to 8 mechs had to go sacrificed to take out a single Messenger, and that was under the circumstance of a besieging strike.
Hence, the offensive force of a Messenger was justifiable. The strength of FMPA was fearsome enough to make Ye Chong to have cold feet.
That was especially when most of his allies consisted of well-known ace pilots. Imagine if he was allied with ordinary pilots instead; it would be a massacre!
"Ye, follow my lead!" Mu's voice rang out of the blue.
"Mhm!" Ye Chong replied without hesitation and tailed Mu for a moment. "Wait!" He realized the direction they were heading to and he was surprised, "Mu, aren’t we committing suicide if we head this way?"
"Very strangely, there happened to be information on this model of warship in one of the damaged folders in my databank." Flatly Mu stated.
"What?" Ye Chong was stupefied, "You actually have details on this warship?"
"Correct. However as mentioned, part of it was damaged, so it was not a complete information to begin with. If my analysis has no inaccuracies, the raid by 42 of these white mechs was only the first wave. Going by the standard set-up there should be 42 more unmodified mechs and 6 more advanced mechs being the main defense," elaborated Mu indifferently.
"There’re 6 more advanced mechs?" Ye Chong frowned as he asked on while dodging the bombardment around, "Why didn't they send the advanced mechs first? They could have won right away if they did."
"Negative. According to my information, the answer remained unknown. Nevertheless, as illustrated by the damaged information in the database, the so-called warship was not actually made for warring purposes."
"What is it made for then?" asked Ye Chong in curiosity.
"The name is ‘Twin Moon Corvette’, a ship for escorting important items or personnels, normally travels in 7 as a fleet. Sometimes a single of them is used for conducting offensive missions, though its firepower was unknown as displayed being a damaged portion of the data. I had intercepted the signals and I had found out that the encryption methodology used in the signal from this corvette was the exact signal we got back in the ship. Technically, the signals should come from the same group of people," explained Mu.
"Also the signal verification system of the corvette acts passively. Additional information regarding their encryption and the exact frequency had been transferred to your processor. By setting up the frequency in the processor, we could avoid their tracking system as being identified as an ally rather than foes in the field."
"Oh… I… I see…" Ye Chong nodded as he somehow had gotten the idea… but… "So what do we do next? Raid the warship?"
"Based on my calculations…" Mu began. "My plan would be ambushing one of the many walkways for their outgoing mechs to catch them off guard while heading in. Then we destroy the entire commanding center of this corvette and turn it into our main war field. We can hold better advantages hitting from the inside," added Mu.
"What if there was no any outgoing mechs at the walkway as we ambush?" inquired Ye Chong.
Mu answered nonchalantly, "Based on the information obtained, mechs of the main offense and unmodified forces share an entirely different walkway, with 6 of them being the frequently used entrances and 2 of them being a backup doorway, the odds are great in this! Well, if the odds were against us, we would have to blow the gate open, though I would not recommend this as this would alarm the foes and time would be constrained."
"Mu, can’t you hack into the ship?" an idea flashed in Ye Chong’s mind. "It would work on this ship, wouldn’t it? Or can’t we enter under the disguise as allies with the frequency you have given ?"
"Negative, our time is sufficient," Mu concluded concisely. "And that signal is solely for external verification, unlike the internal system of the warship, which contains a more complicated set of signals for recognition. Even if we have that said signals, we could not pass the hologram scanning checkpoint. The appearance of our mechs differ from the foes’ too much."
While they discussed on their plan, they have arrived meters away from the corvette. There were actually 2 mechs that came from nowhere. They were not the Messengers apparently yet they flew towards the corvette recklessly. It seemed like they had the same infiltration plan as Ye Chong but they were much ignorant. Since they do not have the matching signal to the ship, they were assailed right when they moved forward, forcing them to run away clumsily.
Clumsily they might have dodged the shots yet Ye Chong’s eyes lustered. "Those were the experts!" commented Ye Chong upon witnessing the scene.
"Follow my lead," Mu’s voice rang again.
Ye Chong shifted his eyes away from the experts and hurriedly hovered to a spot near the sides of a walkway allocated by Mu.
Gasp…
He took a deep breath as he watched the gate carefully. No more time for nonsense, he thought as he laid his hands on the control panel, relaxed and was ready to launch anytime.
He had not gotten used to Yu Di yet. If only he was piloting the Harmony… he would have better confidence.
The seconds lapsed sluggishly in his head, while the 2 mechs were still dodging the shells from the warship. The warship did not show full hostility however, as seemingly they presumed these 2 mechs were no more than just annoying flies on the screen. As insignificant as the mechs were, it was impossible to capture a warship with only two of them, although to Ye Chong and Mu, these mechs had became their allies in this operation.
"Ye, ready!" Mu’s voice came abruptly.
With full focus, his body tightened slightly as his palms were placed right above the panel, waiting for that initiating keyword from Mu.
The gate opened slowly.
"Do it!"
Zap! Both hands of Ye Chong transformed into shrouds of overlapping imageries, as Yu Di accelerated all the way to the top of the gate and aimed the laser lance right at the entrance!
"How com-" The opponent was covered in darkness. They tried to react with maximum speed on their mechs with further speed-up from the firing system, yet they failed!
The moment Ye Chong got to the spot, wham! A brutal force came into his way!
Yu Di was sent flying, like it was crashed by a shooting star.
The momentum was so great; greater than expected. Ye Chong felt like his body was hammered violently at the time of crash, with splashes of blood squirted from his mouth. Nonetheless, he could not stop just yet! His hands were inputting command back at the time of contact. His speed allowed him to make a slash at the foe with his magnetic blade. Before he was sent flying he also tossed the laser lance to the foe. It should not miss at a distance this short… Thought Ye Chong.
On the other hand, Mu zapped into the walkway the second the foe exited from the warship. He had to, since the gate would close immediately after the mech left.
The mech launched itself from the gate and crashed into Yu Di with full speed. A major comeback from the foe!
Mu was a much more tactical fighter than Ye Chong. He turned his side towards the gate and cannoned into the gate from inside, like a meteorite. The dividing gate was smashed and the air inside the warship leaked wildly like a hurricane. The gate had became a vent!
The remaining 5 mechs of the main force were discharged from the walkway! Obviously Ye Chong had noticed something amiss as he zoomed into the walkway, disregarding his wounds and Yu Di’s damage. At least the gravity system of the warship remained intact. Imagine if the place had gone weightless and those fragments of the gate were dispersed like flying spikes. It could be fatal.
The dodging mechs also followed Ye Chong into the warship right after!
The walkway was not as long as he imagined. Within twinkling of eyes he arrived at a dead end. The white mech floated at the gate. It was all distorted on the outside. There was a huge hole right at the chest where the sides were charred thoroughly. Its left shoulder was broken, probably because of that slash made by Ye Chong’s magnetic blade. The body was pressed by the remnants of the gate. It looked like only miracle could save the pilot inside from being dead.
The interior of the warship was covered by thin walls. Certainly they were foolish to let this potential security breach go unnoticed, since the thickness and hardness of the walls could not even hold any mech from entering, let alone the super mechs like Mu and Yu Di.
The mechs exited in flocks instantly when they realized something was wrong as they flew towards the mothership. Mu did not have the leisure to hack the whole system of the warship. He only had the time to destroy the control room before these men arrived. If not, "We would be watched and soon we would be destroyed, like a honeypot," Ye Chong said although he had never seen an actual honeypot before.
After the 2 mechs stormed inside the warship and they whizzed before Ye Chong, he ran away right after he catapulted an explosive to the walkway. The 2 mechs were not that ignorant towards this blatant forewarning coming from Ye Chong as they chased after his lead with the highest velocity.
2 to 3 seconds later, the sound of the explosion roared behind them.
Anyone could have guessed what a pain it would be if they were boomed in such a narrow space.
The remaining mechs followed Mu, making a few sharp turns to the left, sometimes to the right, all the way to the main control room!