Chapter 98 - Shockwave
After dropping the shock bomb, the Lunar Eclipse started to beat a hasty retreat. Xia Fei turned on the defense system and held onto his seat, bracing himself for the storm that was about to come.
He could clearly see the faint blinking indicator light atop that round bomb, which flashed faster and faster.
The moment that light finally stopped flashing, the bomb exploded. A bright ray of white light emanated from the bomb, lighting up the dark space.
It was blindingly bright as if he had just created an artificial star. A majestic red shockwave followed the initial bright light as it expanded outward spherically.
The shockwave quickly went past the Lunar Eclipse to spread even further out. All the electronics onboard the Lunar Eclipse flashed frantically, illuminating the inside of the ship with various colors that were accompanied by an ear-piercing siren.
The ship was shaking violently as if it was in the middle of a fifteen magnitude earthquake. Everything on the ship went into a state of hibernation, and as the warp engine stopped, Lunar Eclipse gradually slowed down.
Xia Fei leaped out of his seat and activated the emergency system on the command deck.
Commands followed one after another as a large number of weapons appeared from every crevice of the ship, all aimed directly at the opponent. The weapons were usually kept hidden within the ship, and upon receiving orders, every port and hatch opened to reveal the various offensive or control weapons the frigate possessed.
The Lunar Eclipse finally bore its menacing fangs. The traction controller and warp disruptor had an effective range of two hundred kilometers, and once the insectoid ship entered this range, the two weapons would be activated to actively subdue the target. Anti-matter shells and missiles soon followed, bombarding the enemy ship as they engaged in combat.
As the shock bomb had destroyed one of the main cannons and a missile launcher, Lunar Eclipse had less than forty percent of its firepower available and lacked the firepower to destroy the enemy ship.
Moreover, Xia Fei was worried that Xiaoyu was on the ship, so he did not dare attack the critical parts of it.
What was even more surprising was that the insectoids did not seem to be retaliating, and Lunar Eclipse’s detection systems showed that it was rapidly charging up energy.
All of a sudden, the insectoid ship opened a wormhole. It turned out that they had a warp stabilizer, and Xia Fei’s warp disruptor could not do anything to prevent them from escaping.
“Tag it with the marking system immediately!” commanded Xia Fei.
The marking system could lock onto an opponent continuously as if installing a beacon on them. No matter where they went, Xia Fei would be able to know exactly where they were.
Alas, the market system took some time to activate. Moreover, all of the energy of the ship was focused on its different parts, meaning he would need to redistribute the energy in order to activate the marking system and turn off some non-essential equipment to gather energy.
Xia Fei was anxious but helpless as he saw half of the insectoid ship enter the wormhole, but the marking system was only seventy-three percent done. The wormholes generated by the warp engine were temporary and could collapse anytime, so Xia Fei could not follow the insectoid ship into the wormhole and could only give chase after determining its position.
If Lunar Eclipse failed to tag the ship before it escaped, Xia Fei would completely lose track of it, and all his previous actions would go to waste. Rage filled him as Xia Fei clenched fists and let out an angry roar. It was as if the flames of anger in his eyes were about to flare up for real as his heart fought to get out of his chest. Just when the insectoid ship was about to enter the wormhole fully, the marking system shot out a faint green ray of light, hitting the tail of the insectoid through a tiny gap in the closing wormhole at the last possible second, barely marking the insectoid ship in time. “Perfect!” exclaimed Xia Fei as he slammed his fist onto the console.
A white blip appeared on the projected screen immediately. The blip was advancing incredibly fast. Xia Fei zoomed out from the starmap and saw the ship moving toward the outer reaches of the star region.
The Endaro Star Region was a star region at the edge of the Pan-Human Alliance area, far away from its core areas. It appeared that his foes were trying to escape the Endaro Star Region altogether, making their way toward the military buffer zone set by the humans and insectoids.
Military forces from either side were not allowed into the buffer zone, so the military would lose track of it once they entered that zone. They had to stop the ship before it entered the zone at any cost.
“Bosingwa, are things all right on your end?” Xia Fei initiated a connection to Bosingwa’s ship.
“We are fine, but most of the ship has been damaged. I’ve sent out a distress signal, and I’m now waiting for help.”
“There are only one minute and thirty-seven seconds left in the self-destruct system; you know what you should do,” said Xia Fei.
Bosingwa was a little sad as the self-destruct of the space station was also a farewell to Xia Haili and Queiroz, two of his most trusted friends. Farewells were always difficult, and a tough guy like him was no exception.
At this moment, there was another signal from the tracking system. The insectoid ship only warped three thousand lightyears before leaving the wormhole.
There were two possibilities: One, the shock bomb had affected its warping capabilities, dramatically shortening the warp distance; two, the insectoid ship had been forced into initiating a warp, meaning that it was not entirely in control of its destination.
Without any hesitation, Xia Fei entered the insectoid ship’s location into the AI navigation system and activated his own warp system to try and follow it. Ships needed to take some time to recharge their power after every warp, and they would be unable to open a wormhole during this time. This was Xia Fei’s best chance.
“I’m going after that insectoid ship; take care,” said Xia Fei.
Right as he finished speaking, Lunar Eclipse entered the wormhole in the direction of the insectoid ship.
Bosingwa sighed, turning around to inform his passengers awkwardly. “Hold on tight; a second explosion is coming.”
Moon Song was trying to move her arm around at the moment. She was still in pain from her newly relocated arm and stubbornly put all the blame onto Xia Fei as she spat with vitriol, “Xia Fei, you’d better watch out!”