Age of Cosmic Exploration
chapter-244

Chapter 244: Fifth Revolution Weaponry and… Surrender?

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

While Ying’s group was isolated from the Hope and tricked by the big-brained aliens, back on the Hope, the Yao Yuan-led Black Star Troopers were piloting Prototype 003 Space Combat Jets to combat a continuous wave of circular combat jets… it was a one-sided massacre.

The difference in the two parties’ fighter jet quality was even greater than Yao Yuan imagined. The Prototype 003 Space Combat Jets were better than the space merchants’ space combat jets by miles!

The quality of electromagnetic shield generator and metallic tensile strength that were hard to gauge aside, the competition of speed alone was hands-down won by the Prototype 003s!

The circular combat jets had incredible balance, and just like mankind’s classical sci-fi UFOs, they could accelerate and decelerate freely, ignoring the rules of inertia. On this particular point, the circular jets were indeed better than the Prototype 003s.

However, this small advantage couldn’t compete with the fully-trained Black Star Troopers. With their ability to sense malice and their greater military discipline, advantages like free acceleration and deceleration were as good as nothing.

If the circular combat jets were faster than the Prototype 003s, then perhaps they would be a threat. However, the circular combat jets were much slower than the Prototype 003s.

This came as a pleasant surprise to Yao Yuan. The circular combat jets’ speed was not as good as their ability in free acceleration and deceleration. Their speed was only half the speed of Survivor-piloted Combat Jets. For Red Lightning, the circular combat jets were practically as slow as snails. For the Homo Evolutis, the space merchants were no threat.

After activating his Thinker power, Yao Yuan realized where the problem was.

It was due to the speed of reflex.

Even though mankind and the space merchants were in the 4th revolution, the combat jets still had to be manually-piloted and not computerized. The quality of the combat jets was wholly dependent on the quality of the pilots. If the pilots were unable to support flying at a high speed, having a high-speed jet would be nothing more than a waste.

Therefore, in this battle, the Prototype 003 Space Combat Jets had the evident upper hand. Even though they were lacking in firepower, with coordinated movement, they could still take down their enemies.

A short ten minutes crossfire later, almost half of the circular jets were taken down and zero Prototype 003 jets were lost. Such a one-sided result wasn’t seen before when mankind was on Earth, much less in space. It was something akin to a miracle.

When Yao Yuan led the troopers to take advantage of winning the skirmish, the circular combat jets started to flee towards their mother ship. The bigger spaceship started doing so even earlier. Yao Yuan shot down the propulsion engines of the few spaceships which were suspected to carry kidnapped humans. Other than those, the rest were already congregating around their mother ship.

There were about 10,000 space merchant troops still on the Hope, but the spaceships had abandoned them completely. This situation alarmed Yao Yuan.

"…I smell danger."

Yao Yuan used his Anima power to stop the troopers from pursuing the fleeing space merchants. For some reason, when he saw the spaceships and combat jets returning and gathering around their mother ship, he had a bad omen. Since Yao Yuan also had access to Diviner power, he knew what this meant… The mother ship had something that could destroy the Prototype 003 Space Combat Jets!

The Homo-Evolutis-piloted combat jets were unbeatable in close combat… unless they were faced with scientifically-advanced weapons, like ones from the 5th revolution, such as sophisticated laser weapons, sophisticated plasma weapons, or sophisticated light beam weapons!

These weapons probably could shoot down Prototype 003 jets before the pilot within had the chance to react. After all, light-speed was not something humans could bypass easily. They might sense it coming, but the body couldn’t react fast enough to avoid the danger. Therefore, if the mother ship did have some kind of 5th revolution weapon, then pursuing the space merchants back to their mother ship would mostly likely end up a suicide mission.

"Activate ECS System to its maximum capacity! All combat jets, prepare for evasion!"

Yao Yuan ordered through his Anima power. Before he could come up with the next order, the space merchants' mother ship underwent a weird change before their eyes!

The mother ship turned to face the Hope, and numerous electromagnetic layers like the electromagnetic shield appeared in the cosmos. Behind each layer was a spaceship. The circuits on the spaceships started flashing, and energy could be seen gathering on the electromagnetic layers before them.

The spaceships moved into formation and the layers piled onto one another, creating a bright mirage in space. Eventually, the electromagnetics layers melded into a cylinder-shaped object that was more than 100 meters thick and more than 10,000 meters long!

The situation took mankind’s breath away. This was the first time ever since the space merchants assaulted mankind that they revealed a technology that was vastly superior to mankind's. This was a technology that eluded mankind’s understanding! This was definitely a threat!

"Fifth revolution technology!"

Yao Yuan mumbled subconsciously to himself before turning back to look at the Hope behind him…

The Hope had regained its power, but it was still unmoving. Evidently, the code or virus the space merchants had used to control the Hope was still in effect, locking the Hope down. Without mobility or ECS system, the Hope was pretty much a giant target.

Yao Yuan had no idea what the power of this weapon was, but he was certain that with just one shot… the Hope would disintegrate into space dust…

"Attack! Everyone, attack! Aim at what you think is the weakness on the enemy's mother ship! Attack!"

Yao Yuan realized it was not the time to be cautious anymore. As he gave the attack order, Red Lightning rushed forward with its speed that was thrice the normal combat jet's. Like an actual red lightning bolt, it reached a spot that was 10 kilometers away from the mother ship in a matter of minutes.

His feeling of danger was at its peak. He didn’t dare to dawdle. With a tip of the control stick, Red Lightning careened towards the mother ship. Behind him, 0.3 seconds later, about ten particle beams shot at his previous location. Truth be told, Yao Yuan didn’t catch what kind of attack it was, laser? Plasma? Light-beam? Or something else completely? The only trace that the Red Lightning was attacked were the trails of the ten particle beams. They looked suspiciously like the particle streams of the corpuscular propellers.

The rest of the troopers followed behind Yao Yuan. When they flew dangerously close to the mother ship, the shell of the mother ship became something like a porcupine. In the blink of an eye, about 10 Prototype 003 Space Combat Jets flared up in fire and smoke before exploding in a mess of fire. Other than that, there was no trace of an attack…

"…Retreat! Other than the Perceptors, everyone retreat more than 10 kilometers away from their mother ship! I repeat, retreat!"

Yao Yuan screamed while he controlled Red Lightning to fire another round of focus fire using all the weapons he had at his disposal at the mother ship, but…

It was no use, completely useless!

Compared to the circular combat jets and the spaceships, the mother ship was simply too large. Even though it was still smaller than the junkyard civilization’s main ship, it was still the size of a small planet. The Prototype 003 Combat Jets were as small as a mosquitoes before it. Their attacks were easily taken down by its electromagnetic shield, causing not even a ripple…

This series of pointless attacks lasted for about ten minutes. Within that period, another two combat jets fell. Despair crept into Yao Yuan’s heart. He was overwhelmed by the superiority of their enemy…

The last time he felt this way was during the neutron star apocalypse…

The electromagnetic layers in front of the mother ship almost materialized into a solid object.

A blurry light beam visible to the naked eye fired from the cylinder-shaped object. The attack looked surprisingly fluid. The shot ebbed and flowed as it missed the Hope by 5 kilometers before disappearing into the wide cosmos.

"It missed?!" Yao Yuan was given a sudden reprieve from despair, but soon the reality came crashing back down.

"Impossible, the distance between the two mother ships is not far. Without the protection of the ECS system, the Hope is a sitting duck, so there is no way they would miss, The only reason for this is…

"They want us to surrender!"