Chapter 1448
Chapter 1448: A Warship Graveyard!
The Murder Shrine’s fleet stopped at the edge of the cosmic storm. The main combat ships were rather close to the storm’s edge, but the smaller ships had to stay further away for fear of being swept up in the storm.
After all, not everyone could be as crazy as Xia Fan, relying on a small frigate to charge into that terrifying storm!
“Curses!”
On the command deck of a battleship, the captain of the ship, the black-robed Jin Cankun, clenched his fists and slammed the command platform, his voice brimming with rage.
!!
Jin Cankun was the commanding officer of the Murder Shrine’s 17th Fleet. After he received the report from his comrades in Beacon City, he led the fleet patrolling the area to capture Xia Fan and recover the Immortal Wine.
It should have been a very easy mission, but in the end, Xia Fan had run away. That crazy guy had actually piloted the Disaster into the center of the cosmic storm. That was far beyond Jin Cankun’s expectations.
“Is he still alive? Or did he go down with his ship?” Jin Cankun began to ponder the question.
Normally, a frigate entering the cosmic storm was suicidal behavior. But Jin Cankun recognized the Disaster’s model. It was an expensive elite frigate produced by Imperial Shipyards, a Mauler.
He vaguely recalled that Mauler frigates had been designed to standards far above the norm, and it needed a mech core installed to activate it. Without one, the mechanical parts of the ship would rapidly malfunction from overheating.
Based on the speed of the Disaster just now, it was easy to see that it was at least three times as fast as a regular frigate, and its acceleration when overloaded was even more shocking. The ship definitely had a mech core that was boosting its performance far above regular frigates.
But even if it was an elite frigate with a mech core, was that enough to penetrate through the cosmic wind and enter the storm?
Jin Cankun shook his head.
After all, it was just a frigate. Even the strongest defensive ship in his fleet, a Fortress battleship, wasn’t confident of penetrating through the cosmic wind, let alone a frigate!
Moreover, even if that small ship could get into the storm, there was no way it could get out. If it did, it would be a miracle.
Since that was the case, did he need to keep waiting here?
Retrieving the Immortal Wine was his mission. If he couldn’t complete his mission, he would undoubtedly receive criticism from his superiors.
But no matter what, he had done everything in his power. Even if he couldn’t capture the Disaster, he had at least guaranteed that he had taken his mission seriously.
With that thought in mind, he ordered his deputy, “Leave behind a capture fleet to lay down a defensive perimeter around the storm. If that ship comes out of the storm, capture it. The other ships will move on with the capital ship.”
Even in the Outer Frontier, the Murder Shrine’s fleets needed to be constantly on the move to ensure they weren’t detected. After all, the three Federations hated the Murder Shrine to the bone. The traitors were constant thorns in their sides.
They wanted to annihilate the Murder Shrine.
Thus, in the Outer Frontier, the three Federations had stationed hidden fleets and numerous undercover Investigators. All of their moves were so they could find the right opportunity to deal the Murder Shrine a grievous blow.
If a fleet stayed in one place for too long, the star system scanning arrays of the three Federations might discover them, and then send a joint fleet against them. Jin Cankun needed to avoid combat, so his fleet almost always needed to be on the move.
The deputy didn’t dare believe his ears. He blinked and asked, “Sir, do you think that that ship can come out of the storm? That shouldn’t be possible. I would think that the frigate has already been obliterated by the storm.”
Jin Cankun massaged his temples. “I also think it’s impossible, but you know how much our superiors want to get the Immortal Wine. We have to do as much as possible to complete our mission.”
The deputy nodded helplessly. “Very well. I will arrange for one cruiser and two support capture ships to remain behind as an ambush squadron.”
Jin Cankun thought for a moment, and then said, “Leave behind a stealth scout as well.”
The deputy laughed. “Sir, I will do as you say, but I think that this is still all a bit too much. After all, that ship can’t possibly come out. Even if there’s a miracle and it gets out of the storm, it won’t have the slightest bit of defense left. Any ship could easily capture it.”
Jin Cankun said nothing. Leaving behind four ships to ambush anyone that came out of the storm should be enough, right? Once his superiors were informed, they couldn’t say that he wasn’t taking the mission seriously.
Thus, one cruiser, one interceptor destroyer, one interceptor frigate, and one stealth scout frigate were left behind on the perimeter of the storm. The remaining ships were led by Jin Cankun in warping away from the terrifying cosmic storm.
…
After charging into the core of the cosmic storm, Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha were shocked like never before.
They were still on the command deck, looking out upon many shipwrecks. This was a warship graveyard, with many ships of various sizes floating around in the blackness of space!
The core of the cosmic storm was a mystical place. The wall of cosmic wind was furious, but the insides of it were calm.
The multicolored storm was revolving rapidly around this space, which was about the size of three standard star systems. In the very center of this space was a warship graveyard!
The alarms were still blaring. The Disaster’s armor plating was badly damaged, with only thirteen percent left, and immediate repair was needed.
Xia Fan pressed several buttons on the control panel, shutting off all the alarms and warning lights.
No matter how many alarms there were, they were of no help to him right now. The constant screeching would only annoy Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha, so it was better to just disable the alarm system.
The command deck was finally quiet. Black smoke was still rising from the armor plating. Xia Fan controlled the half-ruined Disaster, using its last working engine to move toward the shipwreck region.
As they finally drew closer, Xia Fan could see more than a hundred battleship wrecks, at least six hundred cruiser wrecks, and more than three thousand wrecks of smaller ships.
In the center of the graveyard was an enormous supercapital ship, an Avatar-class carrier!
That was a legendary ship. Xia Fan found it impossible to describe the shock he felt when he saw the Avatar. He had never imagined that a ship could be the size of a planet!
The Avatar was the strongest all-around capital ship in the ancient times of Ashen Moon. It had a length of sixteen thousand kilometers, a width of forty-eight hundred kilometers, and a height of twenty-two hundred kilometers.
The Avatar wasn’t just equipped with tens of thousands of large drones, it could also serve as a dock for other ships in the fleet. If the support ships were damaged, they could just enter the Avatar, for the Avatar had three full-service repair docks.
It was an all-around ship, because there was nothing that the Avatar couldn’t do.
Xia Fan had no idea how much time and how advanced the technology needed to be to build such a supercarrier, but through the giant shipwreck floating in the middle of space, he could see how vicious that long-ago battle had been.
Traveling Buddha swallowed as he stared at the warship graveyard. His mind and eyes were fixed on those warship wrecks, and his breathing gradually grew heavier.
The Disaster slowly entered the warship graveyard.
At this distance, Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha only needed their naked eyes to see the damage done to the ships.
Traveling Buddha pointed at a nearby battleship. “Those damaged areas are very weird. If they were inflicted by cannon fire or energy weapons, shouldn’t there be round holes?”
It was a Spirit Bird assault battleship. The model was produced during the ancient Ashen Moon era and was no longer in production.
Xia Fan chuckled. “Because that isn’t damage done by cannon fire. Someone punched it.”
“Punched it!?” Traveling Buddha’s eyes widened.
The battleship’s armor was an astonishing twenty-five meters thick. Even with such thick armor plating, it had been punched into oblivion? It was truly difficult to imagine!
Was someone who could punch through a battleship’s armor plating even human? Could it have been a pack of monsters?
Xia Fan’s blood was pumping. He had already noticed that all of these warships had the symbols of the Ashen Dragon and Hidden Moon on them.
The only ones capable of destroying an Ashen Dragon and Hidden Moon fleet were the family he had never met, the Skywings!
In other words, this warship graveyard had been left by his family!
They had completely destroyed the main fleet of Ashen Dragon and Hidden Moon, and then left!
So amazing!
So powerful!
Pride swelled up within him. Having that sort of family was truly something to be proud of!
Xia Fan controlled his excitement and explained to Traveling Buddha, “Normally, humans find it very hard to destroy warships with their fists.
“But you’ve forgotten about the Skywings. Those legendary speed elites had wings on their backs and could fly freely through the universe.
“Even if you don’t understand physics, I’m sure you understand acceleration theory, right?
“If a hovercar crashes into a tower at maximum speed, it can make the tower collapse, because the speed will create an impact, and as speed increases, the force increases exponentially.
“If you think about it, cannons are just firing extremely fast pieces of metal!
“The Skywings could move faster than cannon fire, so they could create greater impacts. Thus, it’s not strange that they could destroy an Ashen Dragon and Hidden Moon fleet with their fists.”
Traveling Buddha nodded his understanding. He felt like he could see those monstrous speed demons moving like shooting stars, like light, slamming into the warships and leaving their wrecks strewn throughout space.
Bravo, Skywings!
They deserved their legend as the vanquishers of Ashen Dragoon and Hidden Moon. Speed when pushed to the limit was truly impressive!
Traveling Buddha said in a self-mocking tone, “If you think about it, our ancestors didn’t die for no reason. How could they possibly have stopped those speed demons?”
Xia Fan chuckled. Did that even need to be said? History had long ago proved that Ashen Dragon and Hidden Moon was no match for his family. They hadn’t been just beaten up, they had been utterly dismembered!.
Bang!
Bang!
A strange sound came from the rear of the Disaster. Traveling Buddha looked at Xia Fan in confusion, and Xia Fan explained that the engine system was at its limits, and if the ship wasn’t repaired, it would be crippled.
“Let’s anchor at the Avatar carrier. That ship has a docking and repair platform. It might still work,” Xia Fan told Traveling Buddha.
——
After a short time, the Disaster finally managed to crawl its way to the Avatar’s deck. Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha disembarked, activating the breathing systems on their combat uniforms.
Whether it was combat armor or combat uniforms, they all had breathing systems that could provide air while in vacuum.
Once they were off the ship, Xia Fan first used a still-functioning robotic arm to lock the Disaster to the Avatar. They then found a damaged area and entered the Avatar.
Xia Fan threw Traveling Buddha the space hoverboard. “Use this. I’m fast, so I don’t need it.
“Let’s split up. Based on the files, the Avatar should have a modular design. Each module has its own energy system.
“We have to find a module that can be activated. After all, we need energy in order to repair the Disaster. So long as we have energy, we can use the repair equipment from the docking area.”
Traveling Buddha nodded.
Although the Disaster was half-destroyed, its structure was still intact. As for these wrecks, their structures had been completely busted through.
According to modern warship design theory, the structural layer was the final defensive layer. The structural layer was one entire piece, and if it was pierced through, it needed to be completely replaced.
Ancient warships were larger and had greater firepower, but there was no value in repairing them. That was because a structural layer that had been penetrated could no longer be repaired. The only way they were getting out of here was using the Disaster.
Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha split up. The Avatar was massive, and it would probably take a long time to make a full circuit of it. Thus, Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha agreed to meet on the deck once they had gone through the place. The powerful disturbances from the cosmic storm meant that their wrist-coms couldn’t be used.
If they ran into a problem or found a usable module, they would fire a signal flare into space. The light from the flare would be visible through the ship’s windows.