SWNOVELXO Chapter 166: Unexpected Consequence!
"Already?" I asked, a little doubtful of his aims. "Didn't you say two hours is too short earlier?"
{What now? Are you blaming me for a wrong estimate?!} the general barked back, acting angry. {Then stay behind if you don't want to come! We can't hold our own now!}
"Ah, no can do, sir." I smiled, shaking my head. "You still haven't paid us our dues."
I turned to Nyssra, who was already working on the reason behind General Sam's sudden change of mind—and was surprised. Apparently, A1-03's reinforcements had arrived. Another batch of 200,000 ships, ready to protect the planet—or rather, the weapon hosted on it—from barbaric invaders.
'So since a bigger backup arrived, he lost his fear of losing against the Shadowless Hawks, huh?'
With that much armada on standby, if the Hawks attacked, then they might get turned to scraps within seconds.
That's if they survived long enough under the Primula's long-ranged bombardment.
To add, this news is quite bad for us too. With more troops on standby, that makes it harder for us to steal the Primula.
"Well, first things first." I shrugged. "Let's escort that General back to A1-03!"
Moments later, the general opened a large warp portal toward our destination. It was big enough for all ships in both fleets to pass through in one go, so we didn't have to open up our own portal—hitching a ride to our destination easily.
As soon as we came out, though, the view made me hold my breath.
As expected, an armada of over 300,000 ships was quite a sight to see. The cold, wide, outer space now looked crowded.
"General Sam is moving. Should we follow?" Eva asked, noticing that our employer was moving away without waiting for us.
"Of course, follow after him." I nodded. "And mark possible locations to hide. As soon as we're under their radar, we'll proceed with the plan."
Right now, we have no other choice but to act like obedient sheep, following after our shepherd. But given the smallest viable chance, we will not hesitate to move.
{Halt!}
Or at least that's what I had in mind.
But suddenly, a Leviathan-class ship moved, blocking our path. The comms rang and the video of a slim, young, Voltherian man appeared, wearing a military hat and an insignia—gold stars, four of them.
{State your name and affiliation! What are you doing in this airspace?!} the slim general asked.
I almost panicked when they blocked our way, but it seems it's just the usual security questions. I took a deep breath, smiling professionally, and responded.
"Greetings, General. We're the Rolling Clowns Mercenary Group, at your service." I said, bowing lightly in introduction. "Currently, we're employed under General Sam over there, as their escort protecting them against enemy fleets."
{General Sam?} the new general asked. {Do you mind if I confirm it from the person himself?}
"Oh, of course I don't mind. Feel free."
The man's figure remained still until a moment later, when a portrait of the coward general appeared beside him.
{Yes, General Blut, sir?}
{General Sam?} he started. {These people, the Clown Mercenary Group or something, insist they're employed under you as your escort. Do you confirm?}
{Huh?}
General Sam turned to me, before—
{Sorry, General Blut, but it's my first time seeing them. I haven't hired any mercenaries along the way.}
—lying through his teeth.
"The fuck...?" I gasped, shocked.
This fucker actually tried to...!
{So, that means they're trespassing, right?} General Blut smiled, as if this was the conclusion he was going for from the start. {Sorry, but this is as far as you can go. And since you can leak our formations to the enemy, we can't let you go either!}
"Shit...!"
I don't like the sound of this conversation. Not one bit! "To all ships, full starboard! Escape from here...!" I shouted instantly.
The next moment, the words I'd rather not hear echoed through the speakers.
{All ships! Lock onto this small fleet and wipe them out!}
The next moment, practically all of the 300,000+ ships turned their bows, facing us—turrets rotating as they adjusted their aims. Us, on the other hand, were just halfway through the turn, still far from starting our full speed retreat.
My heart beat loud, feeling as if it would jump out of my chest.
If we got concentrated fire from that many ships—not even bones would remain of us!
"Relax, don't worry!" Nyssra suddenly commented from the side. "Just stay alert. We won't be dying anytime now!"
Her fingers moved across her terminal at blazing speed, almost like a blur. Then, stopped suddenly.
"Done!" she exclaimed.
I didn't know what she did, of course... not until I saw the next scene.
{W-What's happening?!}
General Blut shouted, suddenly faltering in his position, almost falling to his knees. The reason? Well... all ships fired at the same time—but their targets weren't us, but rather, their allies.
In an instant, I knew what Nyssra pulled. A strategy that's often used against fleets with low-level digital defense—hacking through their mainframe and messing with their targeting systems!
But to do it across all 300,000 ships at the same time? That's no easy feat.
It was only possible with Nyssra's level of skills!
They tried to fix their targeting mechanisms, but it was as if their turrets had a mind of their own. The muzzles pointed toward a different side completely.
"This is our chance!" I growled in a hurry. "Activate all stealth modules we have, and go straight for A1-03's atmosphere!"
Although their aims were a mess right now, it shouldn't take them long to fix it. So, within that short span, we need to get to safety—something impossible if we try to escape through space.
But if we go beyond the planet's atmosphere, and hide somewhere below, then the chances we won't be detected would be a lot greater!
We reversed our turn, facing the large planet before us. It was a large blue planet, making it look closer to Neptune—thick atmosphere that prevents most space debris from falling onto its surface in one piece.
We cut off all outside communications, hiding our signals. Diving through the atmosphere in practically a straight line.
As soon as we reached below the thick, cloudy layer, the lower world welcomed us. It wasn't much the same as I imagined, though. I thought it'd either be like A1-01, barren and looking as if doomsday had passed—or like in sci-fi movies, where advanced, gigantic metal towers fill the view.
Instead, it was... more familiar.
Just a normal scene, like in any other planet.
Spots of urban areas, teeming with life and activity, and spots where there's not a single sign of life.
"Head toward the oceans. We'll hide underwater for now." I commanded through the local connection of the fleet.
Eva quickly modified our heading and started diving toward the right, where the closest ocean was. With how big this planet was, their oceans were deep, and I mean it. It wasn't just surface-level, but their oceans could even reach beyond the planet's mantle. That's equivalent to thousands of kilometers deep!
As long as we hide underwater, getting discovered by the Voltherian army would be a miracle.
Of course, a fleet of ships diving toward open waters was eye-catching, even if we were camouflaged. The splashes couldn't be hidden, after all.
Thus, as soon as we were completely submerged, we moved further away from our landing point—and in particular, headed toward a spot close to our target location.
Right... We're now in A1-03... That means!
"The Primula's somewhere around here!"
"And it's over here!" Nyssra quickly corrected me, marking a spot on the scanned map of this planet. "This is where the Primula is kept!" she explained.
The point she indicated was... a landlocked region.
It was set far from the large cities, almost as if they wanted to hide its existence. Though given its size, it was hard to do that without digging deep into the ground.
"So we have a lot of choices where to park, huh?" I grinned.
This meant that chances of us getting found out dropped even further. I carefully studied the land and the oceans' structure before finally deciding on where to go.
"Let's stop right there!" I said, pointing at a point east of the continent the Primula was on.
It was an area with particularly deep waters, making it easy to hide our gigantic ships.
The destination was roughly 5,000 kilometers away from our current position, so we didn't delay. Our ships turned into gigantic fishes terrorizing the deep sea, heading straight toward our planned parking spot.
We can't speed up too much, however. Doing that would cause so much tide our position would be given out.
Thus, we had to keep a slow pace of about 300 km/h.
What? Still fast?
Well, it's slow when you realize that the ships' cruise speed in space reaches 500 m/s, or 1,800 km/h. It's like moving at a sixth of our slowest speed in space.
With our pace, we should reach the target position in the next 20 hours or less.
Until then... well, we should take a brief rest.
I'm sapped already, after all.