Chapter 949: Chapter 949: Planet Fortress—Who Designed This Piece of Junk?
"Hey, I feel like they’re trembling."
Lilina, clinging to the railing in front of her, murmured as if talking to herself, but her eyes were somewhat shining brightly, "Just now, I suddenly noticed some very interesting life reactions, seemingly hidden deep inside that Planet Fortress... they almost fooled me, the Pope."
Sandora and I exchanged a glance, and she pondered slightly before saying to Lin Xue, "What did you just see?"
"Fleeing, annihilation, hatred, despair, wandering until now..." Miss slightly closed her eyes, her tone carrying an indescribable sense of desolate sorrow. The girl with the power of prophecy seemed to be immersed in a space and time we couldn’t observe with the naked eye, enveloped in an aura of solitude. Seeing this, I hurriedly slapped her on the back of her head: "Speak human!"
"This unlucky bunch was once hit hard by the Empire," Lin Xue rubbed the back of her head while kicking me, "Now, a tiny bit of survivors are hiding inside that Planet Fortress. Don’t ask for more, find out for yourselves. I suggest avoiding any casualties, so best to tie up Pandora and Visca first..."
The two Shorties immediately started grinding their teeth at Miss.
The vast majority of Ghost Fleet consists of uncontrollable death ships, yet evidently, there are survivors hiding in large ships within the fleet’s inner layer and at the core Planet Fortress. They are avoiding Imperial Ships but have unfortunately collided with the Macro World. Now, as the Imperial Fleet appears before them, they instinctively want to escape; this seems to be the current situation. Judging by their attempts to induce the Imperial Army to launch a full attack through a self-destruct maneuver to gain a minute for Void Jump, they possess considerable knowledge of some key parameters of the Empire’s equipment. Without the new gear from Leaving World Garden, they might truly have escaped. Sandora swiftly made up her mind, ordering the main forces to continue congregating at the periphery of the Ghost Fleet cluster, while using a fully charged artillery array to intimidate these ghost ships with unclear intentions, then leading twenty-two Revenge Angel-class advanced mother ships and a few light ships towards the fleet’s core Planet Fortress.
"Isn’t this a bit risky?"
Big Sister is more cautious, she looked worriedly at those dark and flickering ghost ships, "They aren’t small fry, if there’s a misunderstanding and they put up a desperate resistance, then the Imperial Admiral might not be able to withstand it."
I glanced at Lin Xue, who nodded at me, "They won’t attack us actively, of course, provided we don’t fire first."
"I better issue a statement for safety’s sake."
After pondering, I ordered the communicator on the officer platform to switch to the external full-frequency broadcast band, then thought for a minute, "What should I say? Show we’re here for love and justice, needs to be emotional, the kind that makes you want to hand over your deeds to people."
Lilina looked at me with admiration, "Wow, boss, you really never prepare drafts!"
I couldn’t tell if she was complimenting me or mocking me, but out of habit, I tossed her into a nearby tub.
"Whatever, they won’t respond anyway, but it might have some benefit."
Lin Xue glanced at me, full of helplessness, and said.
Thinking it over, I connected the communicator and said in the full-band broadcast, "Ghost Fleet’s... uh, not sure what you’re called, anyway, this is the Xyrin Empire Royal Fleet, I am the Fleet Commander, you have entered Imperial Dominions, our fleet will conduct routine checks, you can relax, we will not attack you, we hope you will cooperate with our actions, during the routine inspection hope you won’t try to leave or take unwise actions, otherwise we have the right..."
Lin Xue pinched me from behind, "Get to the point quickly!"
I swiftly summed it up in two sentences: "Anyway, we’re landing, don’t start firing randomly, or else the Imperial Army will launch a full assault."
Sandora slapped her forehead, "Letting Ah Jun improvise was a huge mistake..."
I chuckled, as long as the message got across that’s fine, diplomatic protocols between civilizations always seemed trivial to me, you use a bunch of rhetorical devices... can they understand? Even cultural backgrounds differ, back in Bieberu’s hometown, "Have you eaten?" is actually an insult... see, talking and I went off track.
After broadcasting the ceasefire declaration three times across all frequencies, the Imperial Admiral led the selected elite Escort Fleet into the heart of the Ghost Fleet cluster. I noticed that after the Imperial Army’s flagship suddenly moved, those ghost ships showed some signs of chaos, manifesting mainly as erratic light flickering on many ships, while recognized ships instinctively increased engine thrust. However, with the Leaving World Garden system modifying this area’s Void information structure, all ships other than Imperial ships have lost the ability to navigate through the Void; those ghost ships ultimately remained stationary.
As Lin Xue said, though the ghost ships were noticeably agitated, not a single warship recklessly engaged the Imperial Ships. Even as we approached that vast Planet Fortress, no conflict occurred, although anyone could feel the tension in this space reached its peak, Lin Xue’s prediction was indeed flawlessly accurate.
Only one thing was regretful, we never received a response from the other side. All ghost ships remained silent, the core area planet battleship greeted the landing craft from the Imperial Admiral in a stagnant, bleak darkness.
The landing team rode on specialized landing crafts shaped like plant pods, descending onto the surface of Planet Fortress nicknamed "Rotten Potato." The landing of crafts and several escort ships prompted no reaction, once off the gangway, all that met our eyes was a dark and oppressive sky and ground, the atmosphere here was somewhat stifling.
"There’s atmosphere, seem denser than Earth’s," Big Sister flared her nostrils, her brow slightly furrowed, "but not smelling great."
"Earthly life can’t survive in such an atmospheric environment, there are trace toxic elements," Sandora lightly stomped her foot, her small boots making a sharp collision sound on the metal ground, "All ghost ships have this kind of atmosphere, perhaps simulating ’their’ home ecosystem. It looks desolate around here, no animals or plants found, for a carbon-based home planet, this place’s environment is far from comfortable."
I found a small high platform, stood on it, and looked out into the distance. Everywhere was a barren dark metallic land stretching endlessly beyond the horizon, only in very distant places did the ground slightly undulate to form a parabolic curve across the skyline. This seemingly bumpy Planet Fortress from afar is actually quite smooth in detail, no animals, rivers, lakes, mountains, or complex topography; every parabolic element is smooth alloy armor. Standing on the planet’s surface resembles confronting an almost infinitely vast plaza, even the Imperial Planet Battleship appears more friendly than this monotonous scene.
The Planet Fortress beneath us has an atmosphere, thicker than Earth’s, containing trace light sources enabling direct observation with the naked eye, these light sources uniformly distribute from the atmospheric boundary, rapid analysis shows they’re caused by atmospheric chemical reactions. The landing crafts disturbed these reactions upon entering the atmosphere, creating several small black voids at the atmospheric rim which spread towards the high zenith but whose centers have begun glowing again—perhaps in a few minutes, they’ll merge into a massive black ring.
Besides our family, another three squads of Heroic Combat Soldiers and Reconnaissance Soldiers joined the landing. These special teams composed of Armored Scorpions, Ravens, and Leader Bees weren’t tasked with guarding leaders but protecting scouts, exploring beneath Planet Fortress’s crust to quickly locate an entrance or such, since previous scans revealed powerful energy reactions below this fortress’s crust, we couldn’t assure safety once deep inside the opposing base.
As for the Pandora sisters, they didn’t come—they might end up demolishing the house.
"Ola, you’re in charge. Try to avoid conflict after encountering the others."
Before splitting up, Sandora specially gave some instructions to the leader of the Leader Bee, because she is regarded as the most sensible and calm among the three types of Heroic Combat Soldiers. Letting her oversee this peaceful mission is the safest approach—if Vega, that machete-wielding sister, were in charge, I’d be worried she’d slice her way across the planet...
"Even if attacked?"
Ola quietly asked a question. The smooth semi-overlay visor made it impossible to see her expression—of course, you could also consider "smoothness" as the Leader Bee’s expression, although it’s a bit quirky.
Sandora glanced at Lin Xue before nodding, "Even if attacked."
Ola nodded very calmly. Not far away, Vega immediately dejectedly put away her Ship-Slicing Blade, and with six mechanical limbs, scratched a bunch of Chinese knots on the ground...
"I have a foreboding feeling that something’s off," Raven 001 mumbled among the highest-ranking imperial officers, known for being quite quirky. No wonder she’s unhappy. When do you ever hear of regular Imperial Soldiers being forbidden to retaliate after an attack?
But with Lin Xue guiding the way ahead, she could only comply unconditionally. After a brief awkwardness, Raven and Vega each assigned their soldiers to follow the team, quickly disappearing from our sight.
Before the Imperial Admiral hovering over the Planet Fortress, temporary satellites had been deployed. Now, these microprobes, not much larger than Mercury Lamp’s boxes, were orbiting the dark "Rotten Potato," transmitting scanned situations to the landing force on the surface. Sandora had set up a temporary communication platform on our small hill to keep track of satellite scans and the progress of reconnaissance units. Close-range scans indeed differed greatly from previous long-range detections. It wasn’t long before we located various facilities of this Planet Fortress on the energy distribution map marked by satellites—of course, as Taville would say, theoretically, that’s the case.
Sandora identified the energy readings that seemed almost identical to me one by one, whispering explanations, "Anti-aircraft gun emplacements, large spacecraft hangars, rapid near-ground defense mine platforms, and suspected field-effect weapon accelerators. This fortress’s weapon systems are comprehensive but focus on defensive battles within the Constant Star System, and there’s no sign of facilities related to the Law system. This fortress might prioritize survival capabilities over offensive actions. Ah Jun, take a look at these shield charges... Hmm, you probably don’t understand..."
I felt she didn’t need to make it so clear.
"It’s the first time I’ve seen a planet fortress made by a civilization other than the Empire," Big Sister said with interest, "it gives the impression of being quite advanced. How does it compare to our Planet Battleship?"
"Planet Battleships aren’t necessarily high-end," Sandora’s hair began to emanate golden sparkles as she spoke softly, "No, I should say Planet Battleships are defined so broadly that it’s hard to say whether they’re advanced or not. Many civilizations can make these giant fortresses as long as they master driving methods beyond macro forces, like coordinate-based or curvature drives, and have enough internal space-separation technology to create Planet Battleships. Some newly space-faring Galaxy-level civilizations can hollow out some metallic planets to convert into colonization ships. If strictly speaking, those space capsules with only a bunch of thrusters also count as Planet Fortresses—but those have nothing to do with actual battleships. The lowest-grade ones might only have cruise capabilities within low light-speeds, providing limited mobile colonization needs, while the highest grade could, like the War Song, easily overturn an entire star system, and the one beneath us is somewhere in between... I’m not very familiar with the physical properties of the interstellar alloy it uses, but if I’m guessing correctly, it can fully engage with the Empire’s current ’Zero’ level Planet Battleship and even have a significant advantage against some early models.
I was instantly surprised.
"So, during their prime, perhaps they had a deep relationship with the Empire. Such a powerful civilization should have been included in the Anti-Abyss Front Lines, but unfortunately, I know nothing about them..." Sandora said with a helpless smile.
Just then, we suddenly received information from Ola. They found something suspected to be the entrance to the Planet Fortress a few thousand kilometers from here!
With the aid of space transmission, a few thousand kilometers was just a moment away. We quickly regrouped with Ola. She had utilized Mirror Power to set up a fairly large temporary base in the vicinity, with no sign of the Armored Scorpions at the scene.
"They’ve already gone down with the reconnaissance soldiers," a Raven (I really couldn’t tell which number she was, but considering the carefree demeanor, she’s likely an old-timer with a lower number) nodded and said, "In such narrow spaces, only those muscle-for-brains troops can truly play to their strengths. You better hurry; you might catch up with the reconnaissance soldiers before that bunch of overly nervous Chopper Gang demolishes the place..."
I looked at the so-called entrance not far away, a passage resembling an ant burrow located in the middle of a relatively gentle hill, forming an entrance with a slope of about forty-five degrees. The narrowest point had a radius of about ten meters. Standing on the edge of the hill, I could feel the cold wind blowing up from below. The smooth metal pit walls around showed no visible symbols, suggesting this opening likely wasn’t meant for humans—of course, given this novel’s usual style, perhaps over time, the road signs were blown away or, worse yet, the ground markers faded.
...In any case, let’s go down and take a look.
Leaving Ola leading her bees on guard outside, I jumped into this big hole with my family, only to discover upon descending that the opening wasn’t as deep as anticipated: only a drop of about a hundred meters. Compared to starship corridors stretching for kilometers, this height was indeed like a small step.
However, upon landing, what lay before us was a section of a downward-sloping, end-unseen tubular passage, indicating that the true destination extended much further underground.
I contacted Vega, and she had already advanced several hundred kilometers with the reconnaissance soldiers—charging at supersonic speed all the way in. I started to feel that involving her in this exploration-type mission was a colossal error, but fortunately, she still remembered the rule of not harming a single blade of grass. She didn’t use her Ship-Slicing Blade to clear the way; otherwise, she might have run several thousand kilometers by now.
Vega also reported a noteworthy situation:
This Planet Fortress has an extensive underground network, with intersections everywhere. Scans indicated an extremely complex transportation network, and due to the presence of Ghost Energy interference, the scan couldn’t easily reach the entire planet as it normally would. It could only be used within a few hundred kilometers in the vicinity. Her team had divided into three groups. Considering safety concerns, they wouldn’t split further ahead but would randomly select paths to the bottom layer. In other words, while advancing through these passages, we could only choose a general direction without waiting for her.
These underground passages were utterly different from the bright, straight corridors I envisioned inside space fortresses. Although they had flat floors, the walls were, like mine tunnels, irregularly piped, with grayish-black metal covering the uneven tunnel walls. In the dim light, they looked rather unclean. There was lighting in the passages, but it was hard to say this was normal lighting; it was likely just emergency weak lights. Anyway, the dimness made my eyes uncomfortable after a while, so I decisively shook my head, called Alaya and Little Qijing out, setting one to daylight and the other to long-range light, as the searchlights paved the way ahead...
Exposed cables along the direction of the corridor were visible on the walls and overhead. I don’t know whose idea this externally exposed pipeline design was. Without considering safety and stability, aesthetically, they looked like unfinished buildings. Sandora criticized these awful wiring methods incessantly along the way, while Qianqian continually bizarrely linked this crooked, tubular passage with an ant tunnel.
Then... we reached an exceedingly wide, irregular hall, facing fifty or sixty passage entrances of various sizes in disarray.
Qianqian jumped up, clinging to my arm, "Ah Jun, see, I told you this is an ant hole!" (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to to vote for recommendations, monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation.)