The space ripples produced when the United Fleet jumped were quickly detected by the Imperial Fleet that followed closely behind it. When Tomasko arrived with his fleet, what was waiting for him was an empty nebula space.
Tomasko looked at the gorgeous and charming dust of the Herbie Nebula outside the porthole window and remained silent for a long time. It was hard for him to imagine the purpose of such a desperate leap for the Charno fleet, which lacked both energy supplies and detailed starry sky maps. Is it just to not become a prisoner of the empire? For most of the generals of the Imperial Alliance, except for the citizens under the rule of a few brutal emperors, others would probably choose to surrender honorably to each other in exchange for a chance to survive. If a talented Charno general like Yi Lexiang chooses such a path, Tomasko believes that many empires will be willing to accept him, and the future will be bright.
"General"
"We have lost him again. Let's send a notice to the theater command." Tomasko sighed, feeling a little melancholy that such a great military achievement passed by him like this.
Soon the news reached the theater headquarters, and the face of War Supervisor Riggins of the Supreme Command immediately turned gloomy. "Calculate immediately, the escape point of the Charno people!" He barely suppressed the anger in his heart. If It's not that the old guy Tomasko wants to monopolize the military glory, maybe the Charno fleet is already surrounded by the imperial army at this moment. He was secretly determined to report the matter truthfully to the Supreme Command.
Interstellar jumps are unpredictable. There is no doubt that the vastness of the universe in which humans live far exceeds the boundaries of human imagination. It is simply too big. But the energy reserve of the Charno fleet is limited. They have no chance to replenish energy in the empire's occupied area. This gives professionals who are proficient in starship tracking an opportunity. After precise calculations, they can roughly estimate the energy reserve. The jump range of Zcharno's fleet.
Twenty minutes later, the calculation results were displayed on the three-dimensional holographic curtain wall in front of Riggins.
"Less than 15 light years?" Riggins breathed a sigh of relief.
He has carefully studied the relevant information of the Herbie Nebula. The coverage of the Herbie Nebula is about three light-years, which means that the Charno fleet cannot escape the huge encirclement composed of the Imperial Group.
"Send this information to each fleet commander. The Charno people are still surrounded by them. I hope they will not disappoint the empire again this time!"
A violent shaking awoke Yi Lexiang from his daze. He was still immersed in the numbness caused by the endless time in the "conscious space". The aggregates that nurture life are still growing slowly and steadily. It took billions of years for life on earth to evolve from single cells to humans. The evolution speed of these growing intelligent organisms is amazing.
Soon the piercing sirens woke Yi Lexiang up, and he realized that he and the fleet he commanded were in unknown danger. He felt someone shaking his body vigorously, "General, general"
"What's going on?" Yi Lexiang pushed Chen Yatian away and pushed him to the ground to protect him with his body.
It was pitch dark inside the command bridge, and a strong and pungent smell of burning equipment could be smelled in the nose. All the alarms were flashing and making piercing screams; even Yi Lexiang, who was lying on the ground, could not help but feel nervous. You can feel the hull of the ship shaking violently, as if being grabbed by a big hand; there are rolling figures all around, both officers and soldiers are trying their best to return to their posts.
"Open the shielding deck!" Yi Lexiang shouted loudly. The moment he regained consciousness, he noticed that the starry sky instrument in the center of the bridge was hit by something unknown, and a huge hole was torn in the shell, revealing The complex circuit board inside was exposed, and sparks were constantly flashing.
An operator stood up with difficulty while holding on to the metal ship wall. One hand tightly grasped a handle on the metal ship wall, and the other hand quickly tapped a few times on the control keyboard, "Electronic control system It's damaged and can't be opened!" He turned his head and shouted loudly. He had no idea where Yi Lexiang was in the chaotic cabin.
"Damn it!" Yi Lexiang grabbed a lieutenant who rolled past him. The lieutenant's forehead was covered with blood and he had lost consciousness. "Yatian, you save people first! I'm going to see what's going on?"
In this environment, only strong soldiers can barely protect themselves. The thin and slender arms of these civilian staff officers on the command bridge can't grasp anything at all, and can only be thrown away like toys in the hands of children. Gotta roll around.
At this time, the metal induction sliding door that commanded the bridge to twist and deform was pushed forcefully to both sides, and several military police wearing gravity boots squeezed in through the narrow gap.
"HurryHelp! "Chen Yatian then rowed towards the metal sliding door as the ship tilted. He grabbed the body of a military policeman and shouted loudly in his ear. The military policeman nodded and took out a pair of gravity boots from the tactical backpack on his back. He handed it to Chen Yatian and pointed to the metal sliding door with only a crack.
Chen Yatian grabbed the strong body of the military policeman with one hand, put the gravity boots on his feet, and nodded vigorously. After stabilizing his body, he began to work with several other military police to push the metal sensor sliding door to both sides. More military police crowded into the command bridge and began to treat the civilian personnel who had been hit and suffered severe head injuries and bleeding.
Yi Lexiang rushed to a porthole covered by metal armor and pressed the manual button on the lower left side of the porthole. The outer steel armor made a heart-breaking sound of metal friction. After shaking for a few times, there was no sound.
"Damn it!" Yi Lexiang couldn't help but cursed secretly. He grabbed the edge of the porthole with both hands, pressed hard, and jumped to the other porthole as lightly as a bat. For some unknown reason, his mental power network seemed to be disturbed by some force, and was constantly fluctuating violently, unable to provide him with external information at all. He kept jumping between the badly damaged portholes, trying to find a window that could open the outer steel armor. He desperately wanted to know what was attacking the starship.
Finally, the outer steel armor of a porthole slowly rose upwards, and a strong beam of light shone directly into the bridge along the open steel armor. Yi Lexiang saw the scene outside through the nano glass.
"What the hell is this?" Yi Lexiang opened his mouth in surprise.
Yi Lexiang is no stranger to alien native creatures. He has personally fought many strange creatures in Anokhi. But he had never seen such a creature or thing.
The starship is located not far from the core of the Herbie Nebula. The remaining light and heat after the supernova explosion can still warm the nebula core, making the starry sky shine quite brightly. In the bright light, a black cloud-like object surrounds the nebula core. It is difficult to describe how big this object is in words, because it surrounds the nebula core like a huge planetary halo, extending to Yile A place out of Xiang's sight. If it weren't for the countless tentacle-like things extending from the black ring structure that were attacking the fleet, Yi Lexiang would have simply thought that this was just a naturally formed cosmic landscape. But it is alive. Huge tentacles that looked like smoke or nebula dust were constantly expanding and contracting. These tentacles extending from the "ring" rolled up the starships and shook them violently.
"What is this?" With the support of two military policemen, Wang Shaodong staggered to Yi Lexiang's side. One of his hands tightly covered his injured forehead. Compared with the other people who were with him just now, Technical officer and computer entry clerk, he was lucky enough. One technical officer broke his neck, and several others broke several bones. They were being carried out of the command bridge by the arriving medics.
"No matter what it is, this thing is alive!" At some point, Chen Yatian also stood at the window, staring blankly at the huge black tentacles raging in the fleet.
Yi Lexiang looked past those black tentacles. No matter what they were, these tentacles would not pose a threat to the starship's solid steel armor for the time being, but it would be difficult to tell after a long time. The one recorded on the starry sky map must be found as soon as possible. Space door.
Wang Shaodong took out a small detector from his arms. After such a violent impact and tumbling, the small detector was intact, which made Chen Yatian standing aside secretly amazed. He pointed the detector at the "monster" outside.
As more and more soldiers join the ranks of Jiuyuan, the situation in the starship gradually stabilizes. The maintenance soldiers wearing gravity boots began to inspect circuits and energy pipes. The number of gravity boots was not enough, and many people simply used ropes to fix themselves to the pipes; a lightly injured technical officer led people to inspect various equipment. See if it's possible to fix it.
"Ah!" Wang Shaodong exclaimed, "This thing is really a ball of nebula dust!"
The data from the detector showed the composition of this object, which is the kind of nebula dust with abnormal mass. "We have been sailing in his body!"
Yi Lexiang looked at the detector in Wang Shaodong's hand. Wang Shaodong was right. The black smoke was a cloud of nebula dust, which also explained why this thing could survive in a vacuum. It is not an organic creature at all, and it cannot even be regarded as a creature at all. It is like a cloud floating in the sky or a big mountain on the ground.
"Space gate!" Wang Shaodong, who was holding a detector, pointed at a black nebula dust in the distance and shouted in surprise.
"Nebula dust?" Yi Lexiang was stunned. No wonder he couldn't find the location of the space gate. The space gate was actually inside the ring nebula dust.
"The position of the space"?Send to all ships! "Yi Lexiang made a prompt decision. It is obviously unrealistic to reorganize the fleet formation at the moment. We can only go one by one. No matter what the situation is in the space on the other side of the space gate, it is better than facing this unprecedented "nebula creature" . "If conditions permit, each ship will regroup on the other side of the space gate; if not, each captain will decide where to go! "