Capítulo 972: Chapter 972: The Mysterious “Clone”?
Before this, I was curious about one question: just how powerful is the escaped test subject that makes that Emperor named Harlan send out more than half of his remaining army to pursue it, even leading to several border worlds’ defenses becoming so vulnerable that the Imperial Army easily breaches them? No matter how you look at it, our actions have gone way too smoothly. The three research worlds located at the border were almost effortlessly subjected to heavy strikes by the Imperial Army—yes, I admit, these three universes suffered very severe damage, the Void Rift piercing time and space made the local garrison have to transfer most of its energy from defense facilities to math rate modification equipment to desperately patch this rift, which is how our three sub-fleets managed to successfully destroy the remnants of the research centers in these worlds, but undeniably, the actions of the Imperial Army were still a bit too smooth. The resistance we encountered was less than half of the expectation, and mostly came from fixed sentries. It’s hard to believe that the always cunning Fallen Apostle did not deploy enough mobile units near its lair, if it hadn’t actually happened, I would absolutely never believe it.
Now the situation seems to be clear, Harlan sent out half of his army (this half of the army was likely cobbled together after the battle in the Ruins World, as various signs show these spaceships are exceptionally new—just like our Sixth Fleet) out of necessity, because that magical runaway test subject turns out to have—led a sizeable fleet astray.
Indeed, when the Imperial Fleet maintained its highest intensity of stealth mode cautiously approaching the optimal shooting point, meanwhile ambushing those Fallen Apostles, the scan probe transmitted pictures showing two Fallen Apostle Fleets engaged in a distant standoff at a distance of 200,000 kilometers.
Oh, for the mother ship’s artillery, perhaps we should say it’s a close-range standoff.
“Who are they…” Looking at the radar images of two fleets that could start shooting each other’s brains out in the next second, Sandora painfully held her head, “Ah Jun, your clone is indeed a unique case, now I can definitely say that.”
“Surprising mobility.” Lin Xue’s voice came from behind.
“Didn’t you go back to rest?” I was surprised looking at Miss standing behind me, her face wasn’t looking good, but she seemed a bit more spirited than before; it appears that mysterious interference was still there, although Miss was quickly adapting…
Miss, with a mood as terrible as waking up with bed head: “Uneasy, various horrible intuitions, lying there was like watching a movie seeing some bizarre scenes, like dreaming of Silent Hill—you think you could sleep?”
“Alright then, take a look, between the two groups in front of us, who’s the pursuer and who’s the escapee?”
I shrugged, gesturing with my chin towards the two Abyssalized Fleets on the holographic display.
The identical ship types, 100% the same formation positioning, mirror-like paint job, aside from a slight difference in numbers, these two units are almost twin brothers. Of course, that quantitative difference isn’t enough for us to determine who the escapee and the pursuer are, causing a significant identification problem is another reason: both fleets imposed communication controls because the two sides might have been part of the same camp not long ago, cracking each other’s communications would be exceptionally easy, so the commanders of both fleets wisely restricted communications between ships, perhaps now the only way these two Abyssalized Fleets are communicating internally is through the spiritual link of their crews—this thing can’t be intercepted.
In all the listening channels, both confronting Fallen Apostle Armies remained absolutely silent.
Faced with these two almost silent mirror-like black and red fleets, we’re all somewhat frantic.
Lin Xue glanced at the image, then immediately rubbed her forehead in frustration: “Don’t count on me, don’t know why, now the interference is very strong, that annoying clone seems to be quite a special guy, as soon as I try to decompose information related to ‘it’, inadvertently it’s a bunch of interference. Now that our distance is too close, I can’t see anything.”
Qianqian suddenly muttered, “…Ah Jun…how did that clone manage it…”
I knew she was referring to how a runaway test subject could possibly commandeer a Fallen Apostle Battleship of such scale. What does this mean? It means that this mysterious guy has incited an entire legion! Incited a legion composed of Xyrin Apostles! Exactly, those Xyrin Apostles have gone mad, becoming devious and ruthless, behaving like they’ve OD’d on forty pounds of ecstasy, and are thoroughly fascinated with destruction. Yet, this isn’t a reason for them to be incited, not even for the Fallen Apostles, who are supposed to be impeccable in loyalty. However, now, that unfortunate Emperor Harlan has had half of his army incited away…
Big Sister said wistfully, “In the encounter in the Ruins World, we took out most of the main force, then they suffered a testing accident without catching a breath, and the runaway test subject destroyed a bunch of spaceships. Afterwards, the garrisoned forces in several Research Worlds were decimated, and finally, half of the remaining surviving forces were incited. It’s the first time I’ve realized some people are just this unlucky without needing a curse, that Emperor called Harlan…should we take this opportunity to eliminate his stronghold?”
Of course, no one took it seriously. Perhaps the Emperor named Harlan has indeed lost considerable vitality due to a series of unfortunate events, but he still has the entire Abyss Camp behind him. This hornet’s nest is not to be poked right now.
The Fallen Apostle Fleets on both sides have equivalent strength, so their commanders were extremely cautious. A distance of two hundred thousand kilometers may be unimaginable for any weapon on Earth, but for a Ghost Energy Ship Cannon, it can be a direct hit even without using a Super Space-Time Strike. Both sides opted for very similar tactics: large spaceships formed a powerful Joint Shield at the front, while smaller warships jumped continuously from the formation in the back to disrupt direct targeting radars. This was done to allow a small number of light fighters to stealthily encircle the battlefield and deploy Gravity Traps or any hidden mines. This universe, under a dark red spectrum, seemed filled with a rarefied aura; therefore, even though the Joint Shield formed by the mother ships shimmered like a planet, the fleets were impossible to observe with the naked eye. However, just from the radar view and the scanned formations, one could feel an atmosphere so tense it could send one’s brain racing.
Nobody knew when they would break the deadlock. Actually, the Imperial Fleet had a second option for altering the situation: we could suddenly come out from the stealth state and decide to hit whoever fired first among the Abyssal Spaceships. Yet, I did not dare to voice this idea; anyone with intelligence surpassing a tabletop would realize it’s a lousy idea, even though it could indeed open up the situation…
Sister was speculating earlier that if we could confirm the identity of the two fleets, and if the Imperial Army attacked the Fallen Apostles, whether the runaway clone would temporarily stand on our side. After hearing all this, I acknowledged that it’s an attractive hypothesis, but no one was willing to risk trying it. In this environment, the enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend, especially when they all carry an Abyss reaction—I don’t know if my clone carries an Abyss reaction as well, but “it” certainly has half a Group Army of the Abyss Fleet with it. Perhaps this test subject despises the Fallen Apostles that treated it as a tool, but that doesn’t mean “it” isn’t a member of the Abyss Camp. I don’t expect the other side to jump from one group of controllers to another easily. From their perspective, the New Empire and the Fallen Apostles might seem like the same thing; after all, “it” was just born and everything known is negatively charged.
However, just when I thought the stalemate would last longer, one of the Abyss Fleets in the standoff suddenly made a move. Their medium and small-sized ships formed into an extremely orderly lineup—some turned off their lights, while others began signaling with their left lights to indicate overtaking…I have to admit, this scene was bizarre.
The other Abyss Fleet, of course, noticed this unusual scene, believing the enemy was about to launch an attack and quickly prepared to take action. But as they were about to change formation, they realized the opponents who acted first were merely aligning neatly and flashing lights, collectively leading to a stunned halt.
We were also stunned, because we discovered that the fleet which suddenly rearranged its formation and frequently flashed lights had actually aligned its spaceships to form a giant LCD screen, with the lights forming orderly symbols!
“Oracle Bone Script! Ah Jun, it’s Oracle Bone Script, and there’s also Seal Script and Engravings! And Cuneiform!”
Qianqian excitedly grabbed my arm, shaking it back and forth; she was already wide awake because this girl was seeing something very familiar to her since childhood—ancient human scripts. Don’t forget what Uncle Xu does; Qianqian’s dad has been unearthing ancestral graves for thirty years and is rumored to have even disturbed foreign ancestors’ graves. Under the influence of my father-in-law, Qianqian, who frequently saw red lights in various subjects, was particularly adept in ancient culture; she was allegedly able to write her name in pictographs before learning numbers one to nine, and typically, Mr. Xu exchanged notes with her using Oracle Bone Script—imagine how impressive that is.
The fleet engaging in this bizarre action by using their fleet to display symbols—which we’ll temporarily call Fleet No.1—had behavior that bewildered its enemies; perhaps this led the latter to believe that Fleet No.1’s purpose was to provoke them into striking first. Thus, the opposite spaceships became even more cautious. At this point, Qianqian was translating for us what the symbols deployed by Fleet No.1 meant:
“…’the ones across are a bunch of idiots’,” Qianqian explained while watching the screen, “Oracle Bone Script doesn’t have the word for idiot, so cuneiform was used metaphorically. Next line…’they can’t understand these ancient scripts’, and next line, ‘these bastards have a weak flank, when the fighting starts strike them at the right moment’, ‘I’ll give you an identification code, after the battle begins, don’t attack ships with this identification code, I barely managed to bring them out’, ‘The identification code is a proverb’.”
Qianqian had just translated to this point when the intelligence officer reported receiving a highly encrypted short message from those Abyssal spaceships. The short message was indeed a proverb: Mussolini, you’re a dumbass — Hitler’s last words.
It even came with a dash!!
Everyone was baffled by this bizarre development. It was quite obvious that Fleet No.1’s strange behavior was meant for the Imperial Army to see. They formed a display in outer space to blatantly put up subtitles because the Fallen Apostles over there couldn’t understand Earth’s ancient hieroglyphs — because the Fallen Apostles had definitely never studied these things before. There’s no doubt now: if the runaway specimen is among one of the two fleets, it must be in Fleet No.1. Though no one could explain why: why “it” would know hieroglyphs, why “it” knew the Imperial Army was here, and why “it” seemed so familiar with us and Earth’s civilization.
“Energy levels have been detected rising!”
The ship’s onboard computer sounded a warning on the bridge as the stand-off between the two fleets finally broke the silence. Those subtitle enthusiasts, whose actions were quite strange, fired the first shot.
Dense black and red energy beams instantly crossed a distance of 200,000 kilometers, heavily striking the Fallen Apostles’ Joint Shield.
In a situation where both sides knew each other well and had long been prepared, and where our side had a slight numerical disadvantage, firing the first shot was a highly risky move. No sane Commander would do this, as it meant you’d have to face the enemy’s long-prepared counterattack with your ship in a sluggish state in the very next second. Any medium or larger starship must deal with this: once your main cannon completes a round of volley, the ship’s shield strength and reaction speed will inevitably drop a bit unless you leave that massive energy reserve unused and only use secondary cannons during an attack.
The two fleets instantly engaged in crossfire, with dense main cannon salvoes piercing through the dark red haze in space, destabilizing the already fragile space. Massive space battleships began turning and maneuvering at speeds inconsistent with their shape, adjusting their positions in clusters. In the places they originally occupied, fragments of space were left behind, and micro wormholes and mass rifts spread like a spider’s web across the dark outer space. This reminded us that while fighting in the Fallen Apostles’ territory, it’s better to always prepare to relocate since their world is built on fragments and isn’t very stable.
“Well, it seems it’s not a prank.”
Sandora looked at the holographic projection on the officer platform, “One-half of the engaging ships are shouting that Mussolini is a dumbass in Hitler’s name — that crazy Clone is serious about this.”
I felt deep sorrow for that fascist leader who had been dead for years. He, too, came under fire while lying down, shot by almost ten thousand medium and large space battleships. Those who got hit in the knee can now rest in peace because here’s someone who hung around for decades and finally got dragged into another universe to get whipped. Compared to this guy, do you still feel hurt?
Nearly ten thousand spaceships charged while dragging Mussolini through the mud, firing away. Such a scene is deeply black humor, and we need to decide whether to help eliminate the other half of the fleet who don’t think Mussolini is a dumbass as requested by our allies.
“Indeed, the Fallen Apostles have a weak flank. They never expected the Imperial Army to have preemptively ambushed in this universe with the Prophet’s help, so they arranged completely in a chase formation,” Sandora chuckled and pointed at the radar display. “In a few minutes, it will be our golden opportunity to attack. Ah Jun, what do you think? That’s your Clone. Do you feel it can be trusted?”
Well, I don’t know what my Clone is thinking. Initially, I thought if perhaps I got close enough to that Clone, there would be some legendary telepathy or something, but it turns out that being this close, I haven’t sensed a hair. So I have no idea why the other side would take such a bizarre action, but that doesn’t prevent me from making a cooperative move —
“Main cannon begins slow charging, with super-heavy stealth bombers slowly circling behind the enemy. It appears the forces led by that Clone can engage the enemy for quite a while. We must try for a decisive one-shot kill.”
This is the tactic I could come up with, although in such a situation where the enemy is aware while we are in the dark and everything is chaos, one doesn’t really need high-level tactics. Frontline Commanders will take care of everything on the local battlefield. I just need to tell them how I plan to end the fight. While the Royal Fleet’s ships were spreading out in stealth mode, I nodded to Sandora, “I’m really curious — how can a Clone from the Fallen Apostles’ lab write in Oracle Bone Script and know Mussolini is a dumbass?”
Sandora silently turned her head, shoulders shaking.
The frontline Commanders waited cautiously for their moment because both sides were still in the probing phase. Although the Rebel Army led by the Clone was slightly fewer in number and their advantage was much reduced after taking the initiative to attack, it was still a significant fleet. In a battlefield where both sides’ conditions were nearly entirely transparent, unless you held an absolute advantage or a surefire trump card, steady, stable combat was the only smart choice. Meanwhile, the previous “bizarre behavior” of the Rebel Army, although confusing the Fallen Apostles, also put them on high alert — a sizable portion of the main battlecruisers did not leave their positions, with their Near Defense Guns covering two-thirds of their sides and rear. The Imperial Army’s heavy stealth bombers had to wander outside this range, or else the moment they launched an attack, they would be exposed and could face instant annihilation: those ships’ defenses are not great.
“If we don’t attack soon, Pandora and Visca will have looped 300 times.” Sandora pointed with her chin at the hologram, where two sesame-sized bright spots were making circles behind the Fallen Apostle Fleet. Those little madmen brought major firepower this time — each carrying a hundred of the Olympic rings our Big Sister normally doodles, ready to toss in a god-and-devil-disabling volley.”
At this point, the situation broke once more, and it was the Rebel Army that did it — several colossal carriers suddenly broke away from the protection of the battle group, their whole bodies emitting intense blue light, indicating a forced break from the Gravity Trap to jump into the Void!
Suddenly, the Fallen Apostles finally panicked. They couldn’t just stand by and watch the fugitives leave this world. They had allowed three Research Worlds to be massacred by the Imperial Army just to catch them! This cost alone demonstrated the synthetic Void Creature’s importance!
The fast ships of the Fallen Apostles immediately broke formation and moved up, while all heavy ships accelerated and prepared to use their main cannons. To increase fire efficiency, their flanks and rear guard began to detach from the formation.
At that moment, violent explosions erupted, linking into a web behind the Fallen Apostles and along the fleet’s border.
The sudden attack caused a slight disorder in the Fallen Apostles’ formation as they began releasing strong energy pulses. In waves of blue light, ash-gray and hunched-shaped battleships emerged from the darkness — these menacing and grotesque ships were responsible for the explosions. They were known for their extensive space-mined dark lightning and had a much showier name than their sleazy appearance: Heavy Stealth Bombers, or simply Heavy Stealth Bombers, shortened further to — Bom!
Evidently, this is both a noun and an adjective…
The Imperial Admiral once again received an encrypted message from that magical Clone: “Oh my, finally acted, I’ve got a forehead full of cold sweat… make me something good to eat when I get back to calm down, ok?”
Everyone: “…”
The entire bridge fell into a peculiar silence. (To be continued. If you enjoyed this work, feel free to visit Qidian () to vote for recommendations or monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)