Chapter 192: Utter Destruction!

The Vampire made an abrupt twist, blasting away across space.

“Unmanned combat drones, dash right into the enemy!” Xia Fei howled his command.

*Whoosh!*

Ten of his heavy combat drones flew right for the enemies’ drone swarm at once, doing their best to stall the vast majority of them so that Xia Fei could have more time to rescue Old Porter.

Xia Fei’s Vampire was about to crash into Porter’s Tristan-class frigate, which was already extremely weak, no longer able to withstand even another knock.

*Fwoosh!*

“Activate the lateral auxiliary thrusters at one hundred percent overclocking!” Xia Fei ordered with gravitas.

A spectacular flame shot forth from Vampire’s side as the warship’s flight speed rapidly decreased.

Establishing a docking bridge between two ships required the utmost precision of control, and Xia Fei’s series of actions had been faultless, his reaction speed even faster than that of the mainframe.

*Thunk!*

A dull collision sound rang as the bridges perfectly connected to each other; the force of the impact just so happened to be within the acceptable threshold of the metal alloy, so the bridge did not suffer any damage due to the overly forceful maneuver.

The hatch opened instantly after the successful connection. Porter, who was already prepared, went running to Xia Fei’s warship. He was already sweating profusely at this point, his face even paler than usual.

“Get ready; we’re about to warp!”

Xia Fei did not have the time to chat with Porter. At the moment, the heavy drones, which he had sacrificed to stall the enemies, had all been destroyed, and a countless number of combat drones were presently blasting away at Vampire’s energy shields with great ferocity.

The sound of thunderous fire pealed as innumerable attacks repeatedly connected. The energy shields’ value was dropping fast as if they were performing a high-platform dive. The longer he remained in this situation, the more disadvantageous he would be. After all, the number of enemies he was going up against was simply too much!

“Activate the instant warp! Quick!”

*Swoosh!*

A temporary wormhole, which had no particular destination, opened, and Vampire flew right to it. Behind the ship was the swarm of combat drones, all of them attempting to press with their attacks on Vampire.

*Boom!*

Old Porter’s Tristan-class frigate could no longer withstand any enemy fire and turned into explosive fireworks, lighting up the starry space.

The resulting blast rocked Vampire as the sound reverberated within the warship.

Those combat drones were far less resilient than Vampire, so the violent detonation had taken down half of those in flight, littering the space with metal scraps which came flying everywhere!

“Full speed ahead!” Xia Fei urgently piloted the ship right into the wormhole.

This time, the self-destruct of the Tomahawk in the distance occurred!

Exploding and self-destructing were two completely different concepts. A ship would explode as a result of external forces, which made it so that the ship’s structure or its reactor would no longer be able to bear the brunt of attacks and thus explode, but a ship self-destructing was the result of the mainframe causing all the combustibles, including the ship’s ammunition bay, warp engine, reactor, and everything else, to detonate!

The resulting explosion would most definitely be violent and incendiary!

The Tomahawk was a battlecruiser, so be it the nuclear material found in its reactor or the weaponry stored in its ammunition bay, all would far outstrip that of an average warship. Not to mention that the Tomahawk had not just one reactor but two!

The ensuing explosion it created was simply devastating!

*KABOOM!*

A huge mushroom cloud formed from the eruption, producing a light brighter than the midday sun.

The blastwave, metal scraps, and heat of the explosion instantly filled that piece of space!

Countless diamond-shaped drones disintegrated in that huge explosion!

This was the third step to Xia Fei’s plan: Using the Tomahawk’s self-destruct to get rid of all the enemies harrying them once and for all!

Xia Fei was never one who would willingly be at a disadvantage. Though his biggest goal was to escape, he did not forget to brutally lash out at the enemies in retaliation.

It had to be said that this one move Xia Fei had done was truly vicious. Pretty much all of the enemies, possibly numbering in the tens of thousands, had been consumed in that huge explosion. Furthermore, to be able to come up with such a detailed escape plan in the scant time he had was a testament to his extraordinary decision-making skills. It was not anything an average human being could achieve.

*Whoosh*

Vampire closed the wormhole at around the same time the explosion occurred, beginning its warp as the streaking stars flew past around them, a gorgeous and dazzling sight.

The drones that had managed to follow Vampire into the wormhole were unable to withstand the tearing force of the wormhole and turned into metallic dust almost instantaneously.

Xia Fei heaved a long sigh of relief. He shook his arms forcefully; because he had to execute such an impossible parabolic maneuver, he ended up using too much of his strength and he was now somewhat sore from the exertion. The reinforced-metal-alloy steering wheel had already been deformed due to Xia Fei’s extreme operation, which was evidence of just how much strength Xia Fei had been using moments ago.

“Immediately start the self-diagnosis,” Xia Fei ordered.

Getting up to his feet, Xia Fei strolled off the command deck and helped the still shellshocked Old Porter to a seat.

“Uncle Porter, are you all right?” Xia Fei smiled as he asked.

Old Porter used his sleeve to wipe away the sweat off his forehead. It was not easy to forget that frightening scene he had just experienced, and he was still in a state of extreme shock right now.

“I’m fine; I’m fine,” Porter gruffly panted.

“Go brew us some tea and bring over some snacks.” Xia Fei told Harris.

Harris had his life bracelet on, so anything Xia Fei said was an order he must follow. After some time, he returned with a purple clay teapot and two teacups, filling them up for Xia Fei and Old Porter.

“You still came.” Porter took a cup in hand, not caring about its temperature one bit as he drank it down in one gulp.

“Yeah.” Xia Fei nodded slightly.

Old Porter’s one remaining eye was filled with gratitude. Even a fool could see that Xia Fei had only taken such huge risks to save him, even sacrificing that Vexor-class battlecruiser that he had just obtained for this. Vampire’s self-diagnosis was not completed, but Old Porter could tell from his experience that the damage this frigate had sustained was nothing insignificant.

It was not merely just the monetary losses that mattered, for there were also the risks involved. Had Xia Fei been even a tiny bit unluckier, the two of them would not find themselves sitting here having tea but would instead be tasting Granny Meng’s legendary soup in the netherworld.

Harris could read the room and knowingly ducked back into the crew cabin, sighing repeatedly. His computer, as well as plenty of the information he had gathered first-hand, had all been lost as a result of this gambit, and it would most likely be a very long time before anyone would see a smile on his face again.

Xia Fei and Porter were left in the mess. The latter curiously gazed at Xia Fei, noticing how he looked much tougher and gave off a completely different aura in the two years that he had not seen the young man. His hair was grizzled, appearing to have seen quite a lot of life despite being so young.

Old Porter even suspected that he had not seen Xia Fei for twenty years instead of two due to how much the latter had changed.

As Porter sized up Xia Fei, the latter was also examining him. The old man did not look much different from before; his skin was as dark as ever, and he was still tall and stocky. It was just that his eyepatch had been swapped out for a metal one, which made him look a little more impressive than before.

“Did Windchime send for you?” Old Porter curiously wondered.

“Yes.”

“That lass… I’ve specifically instructed her not to, but she just refused to listen.” Old Porter frowned.

Vampire had exited the wormhole at this time, and the self-diagnosis for the ship was also done at around this time.

“It was a good thing that she went against your wishes; otherwise, I wouldn’t be seeing you again like this at all.” Xia Fei chuckled.

Xia Fei got up and went over to read the self-diagnosis report. Vampire had been damaged quite substantially this time, especially its warp engine that was left with just a third of its mobility, while the other parts of the ship had also suffered varying degrees of damage.

After some thought, Xia Fei did not mention to Old Porter about Vampire’s status, afraid that the old man might become overly sensitive about it.

“Is Windchime your old flame?” Xia Fei casually asked.

Porter somewhat embarrassingly answered, “We’re just old friends. Just how did you find me?”

Xia Fei proceeded to tell Old Porter how Windchime had copied Porter’s starmap from his computer, causing the man to slap the table hard. “Windchime is far too mischievous. To actually copy my starmap without telling me.”

Xia Fei laughed. “I feel that you ought to be thankful to her. If not for what she did I doubt if I would ever be able to find you.”

Porter was quiet for some time. He was not one to nitpick, and his outburst chastisement of Windchime had only been done out of a moment’s exasperation. He was actually very grateful toward both Xia Fei and Windchime.

“So does that mean you’ve already been to the two other locations I circled out?” Porter asked.

“Xia Fei nodded. “Those two locations are rather unique. Just what exactly are you searching for that you took this much risk, venturing into this supergravity zone?”

In fact, Xia Fei had plenty of questions that were boggling his mind, but he was not in the least bit anxious to ask them. Everyone had their secrets, and he was not of the habit to pry. This was why he observed Old Porter’s reaction from the corner of his eye when he asked this question.

“Indeed, I am searching for something,” Old Porter answered, “but before that, I want to know your thoughts first. I believe that you’ve seen the rock formation in the first location.”

“Yes. At first, I thought those rocks were leftover structures from ancient times, but I later found that to be strange; who would build edifices without doors or windows? Thus, I turned my cannons on those structures and bombarded them, only to realize they’re completely solid.” Xia Fei did not hesitate to share his experience.

Old Porter smiled. “Was that all you discovered?”

“What I didn’t understand was who would make such huge concrete blocks like those? When I was on that deserted planet, right before I left, I suddenly discovered that the rocks were very neatly arranged, and it seemed that there’s some vague relation between them.

“Thus, I ordered the warship to ascend higher and, when looking down, saw parts of the surface from the planet. Though I was unable to see everything from just one direction, I realized that if the planet was completely spread out across a 2D surface like a map, those rock formations would make up two words! It’s a sort of text!

“The people who put those huge concrete blocks there seem to be telling others something, but it’s not something that they could conveniently convey, which was why they chose to use such a method to do so. Unfortunately, I still have no clue just what those two words mean,” Xia Fei said.

It was as if Old Porter’s eyes were shining with clarity, so filled with glee and admiration toward Xia Fei. As the person who had instigated everything, Porter of course knew about all these, and it was very apparent that he was testing Xia Fei’s observation and analytical skills. Xia Fei could also sense what Porter was getting at when he asked such a probing question, so he explained everything to Porter from the beginning without leaving out anything.

*Clap clap clap!*

Old Porter broke into applause excitedly, “Xia Fei, I have to give it to you; your ability to analyze and observe are truly worthy of praise; to have actually understood the secret behind the huge rock formation at a glance, well done.

“Regarding the second purple location, what have you discovered?” Old Porter asked.

Xia Fei thought back on what he saw and answered, “That place is a little complex, and the amount of information it contains is also very large.”