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They succeeded, but this attracted even faster pursuers and shook the already fragile internal balance!
A thrilling, life-or-death chase, a gamble with lives at stake, has officially begun in this cold, dark, and shattered star field! Their "vehicles," however, are already battered and bruised, beset by internal and external troubles!
Chapter 543 The Mystery of T-9
The spaceship lurched violently as it accelerated wildly. The barely contained blast site on the port side continued to flash blinding sparks and leaking energy. The interior lighting system flickered, illuminating tense faces.
Thirty-eight minutes!
This number weighs on everyone's heart like a heavy boulder.
Lin Ye felt as if his head was about to split open, the nausea from the overload acceleration intertwined with the persistent nerve throbbing. He stared intently at the navigation star map, the faint dot representing the T-9 like a candle flickering in the wind, ready to be extinguished at any moment.
"Sentinel, scan the T-9 at full speed! I need to know what that thing is, even just a tiny bit more information!" Lin Ye's voice was distorted by the roar of the engine and the groaning of the ship's metal.
"Signal too weak, severe interference, unable to image." The sentry's cold electronic voice sounded. "The target is small, less than 100 meters long, and irregularly shaped, not a standard spaceship. The energy signature... is strange, not a normal engine or weapon response, but more like a low-power, regularly pulsed, sustained energy field."
“A maintenance field?” Li Sha gripped the anchor bar beside her tightly, struggling to maintain her balance amidst the swaying. “Like… a hibernation pod? Or an ecosystem maintenance system?”
"It is possible, but cannot be confirmed. The target remains completely silent and does not respond."
A silent, unknown little thing with a life-sustaining energy field. It could be a lifeline, or it could be a death sentence.
"Whisper, analyze the properties of the energy field. Is there a similar record in the database?" Lin Ye asked urgently in his mind.
[No perfect match found. The pulse frequency shares 17% similarity with the backup life support system of a small research outpost of the 'Observer' civilization, but the structure differs. There is a possibility of a non-'Observer' creation existing.]
Not an "Observer"? Lin Ye's heart tightened. Were there others in these ruins? Or perhaps the legacy of a long-dead civilization?
There's no time to investigate further.
"Keep accelerating! Use every bit of power you can squeeze out of the engine!" Lin Ye roared. "Li Sha, get ready. We might not have time to explore slowly. Once we're down there, find energy sources as fast as you can, anything that looks usable!"
"Understood!" Li Sha quickly checked the explosive welding torch and tool bag at her waist, then stuffed the few crystals and alloy ingots of unknown purpose into her coat pocket. "With these, we might just hit the jackpot."
Time ticked by in a suffocating sense of oppression. Behind them, three "Void Predators" appeared as rapidly enlarging red dots on the sensor screens, like a swarm of sharks drawn by the scent of blood, relentlessly pursuing them. Their streamlined, dark hulls and menacing energy gatherers on their bows exuded the cold-blooded ruthlessness of professional killing machines.
Twenty-five minutes...eighteen minutes...ten minutes...
The engine groaned under the strain, the speed had reached its limit, but the distance between the two was still closing.
"Entering enemy effective firing range!" The sentry's warning had barely faded when...
Three deadly energy beams tore through the starry sky and struck the right side of the database precisely!
Boom! BOOM—!
The ship jolted violently, and a piercing alarm instantly filled the entire space. The external armor was torn open, sending fragments flying everywhere; internal wiring and pipes snapped, and electrical sparks flew wildly through the passageways like festive fireworks.
"Starboard auxiliary thruster malfunctioned! Third energy pipeline ruptured! Defense matrix energy imbalance!" The sentry quickly reported a series of damage reports.
"Dodge! Move however you want, but don't go in a straight line!" Lin Ye gripped the edge of the control panel tightly, knowing that the effect would be limited, but he couldn't just sit and wait to die.
The massive ship began to squirm awkwardly, trying to evade the onslaught. But the hunters behind were experienced, their attacks relentless and fierce. Energy beams constantly grazed the hull, leaving charred marks, or struck directly, triggering new explosions.
Boom! Another heavy blow landed near the previous wound on the port side, triggering a series of small-scale secondary explosions!
"Structural integrity has dropped to 61%! Depressurization has occurred in the port side sealed compartment!"
"Lin Ye! You can't hold on much longer!" Li Sha cried out amidst the violent shaking, her voice trembling slightly.
Lin Ye's eyes were bloodshot as he stared intently ahead. The outline of the T-9 gradually became clear in his field of vision—it didn't look like a ship at all, but more like a twisted metal structure, like the internal organs of some kind of giant creature, its surface covered with a thick layer of cosmic dust and ice, with only a few places emitting a faint, rhythmically pulsating glow.
It hovered silently, indifferent to the pursuers behind it and the fugitives ahead.
"How much longer until we can get into its... docking range, whatever?" Lin Ye asked anxiously.
"Three minutes! But the enemy's next salvo is expected in one minute and thirty seconds! We may not be able to withstand the next attack!"
One minute and thirty seconds! A salvo! Given the database's current dilapidated state, if it's hit in a vital area again, it will definitely disintegrate!
"Sentinel! Let's calculate the success rate of using our last bit of power for a short, unguided emergency jump directly to the T-9." Lin Ye proposed an even more audacious idea. The engine was extremely unstable; a forced jump would be tantamount to suicide.
"The engine core is extremely unstable. Forcibly activating the emergency jump protocol has a success rate of less than 15%! Furthermore, the landing point is uncontrollable, with an extremely high probability of colliding with the T-9 target!"
"Let's gamble! It's better than getting blown up right now! Get ready!" Lin Ye roared, "Pour all the remaining energy, except for the minimum survival energy and... that sealed one, into the warp drive!"
"Command confirmed. Energy allocation in progress... Throw engine charging... Warning! Engine core temperature exceeds limit! Logic self-check forcibly skipped..."
The thrusters at the tail of the database suddenly went out, and in their place, a highly unstable spatial distortion field, flickering with dangerous electric arcs, instantly enveloped the entire spaceship.
The "Void Predators" behind them clearly sensed their prey's intentions, and their attacks became even more ferocious and precise! An exceptionally thick beam of energy shot directly at the engine area where the database was already damaged!
A close call!
Om-! ! !
The blinding white light illuminated the entire observation window, and the space seemed to be crushed by an invisible giant hand! The immense G-force pressed Lin Ye and Li Sha firmly into their seats, their bones creaking and breathing becoming incredibly difficult.
On the verge of having my consciousness torn apart, the terrifying sense of oppression suddenly vanished.
The white light dispersed.
Outside the window, the fleeting stars were no longer a blur of motion, but an eerie stillness. The twisted, organ-like T-9 structure was right there, so close! Its pulsating "vessels" were clearly visible, and a ghostly light flowed within.
They succeeded—at least, they weren't blasted into pieces immediately.
But the cost was heavy.
[Emergency jump complete. Engine core severely damaged, cooling system collapsed, unable to restart. Hull structural stress reached critical point, multiple load-bearing structures cracked. Energy reserves: 3.7%.] The sentry reported the devastating news.
[Warning! Due to spatial oscillations and unstable energy supply, the stability of the internal seal has dropped to 71%! The activity of the anomalous structure has significantly increased!] The whispered alarm only made matters worse.
The situation before them was even more astonishing.
"Are we... stuck?" Li Sha looked out the window, her voice somewhat dazed.
Instead of coming to a smooth stop, half of the database was deeply embedded in a massive, faintly fluorescent, gelatinous cloud of interstellar dust. This dust cloud seemed to have some connection to the T-9, partially enveloping it. The database's momentum was cushioned by this strange substance, but it was also firmly "stuck" in place. The remaining thrusters emitted weak exhaust plumes, but the ship remained completely still.
They temporarily escaped the pursuers' artillery fire, but found themselves in an even stranger predicament.
Moreover, the three "Void Predators" hadn't given up; they were adjusting their course and speeding towards T-9's location. Although the emergency jump had created some distance, at their speed, it wouldn't take them more than a few minutes to reach them.
We must get inside the T-9 immediately! This is our only chance of survival!
Lin Ye struggled to untie the restraints and looked at the distorted creation that was so close yet separated by a cloud of dust.
"Sentinel, find the entrance! Or anywhere you can get in!"
The Sentinel's sensors focused on the T-9's surface. "No conventional airlock or docking port detected. A convergence point of 'blood vessel'-like structures was detected, with a concentrated area of energy reaction, suspected to be an entry point requiring biometric or energy key activation."
Biometrics? Energy key?
Lin Ye subconsciously reached into his pocket, where the fragment of the "Key of Creation" was emitting a faint warmth.
Could it be... that this thing recognizes this too?
Chapter 544 Life in the Viscous
The database was stuck fast in that shimmering dust cloud, like an insect caught in a spider's web. The remaining thrusters futilely spewed weak flames, serving no purpose other than consuming the already limited energy.
It won't move! It won't move at all! Li Sha pounded on the control panel, even though she knew it was useless; this damn thing had them completely trapped!
Outside the window, the T-9 structure, resembling the organs of a living creature, stood silently, its pulsating, eerie light seemingly observing their predicament with indifference.
Lin Ye forced himself to calm down and quickly issued the order: "Sentinel, analyze this clump of glue! Composition? Structure? How to break free?" His voice was still a little hoarse from the violent impact. The pursuers were closing in from behind, and every second was incredibly precious.
Scanning... The Sentinel's sensors emit a faint hum, a complex mixture of high-density interstellar dust, unknown organic molecular chains, and an... inert energy matrix.
Get to the point! Li Sha was so anxious she kept stamping her feet.
It possesses extremely high viscosity and energy absorption properties. Conventional propulsion cannot break free. It is recommended to use high-energy blasts or energy shocks of specific frequencies for regional disintegration.
Explosion? Li Sha almost jumped up. Do we still have anything left to use for explosives? We only have so little energy left!
Lin Ye's gaze swept across the internal surveillance screen, finally settling on the still heavily sealed area of the historical logs. High energy...don't we already have a high-energy source inside?
Li Sha instantly understood his thoughts, her expression changing drastically: "Are you crazy! You still want to mess with it? We were almost all finished just now!"
Not to exploit it, but to guide it. Lin Ye's eyes sharpened as he whispered, "Sentinel, calculate the feasibility."
[Theoretically feasible.] Whispering provides a rapid response, [but requires extremely high precision control. Success rate...58.3%.]
Fifty-eight percent... Lin Ye pondered this number.
This is too risky! Lisa grabbed his arm, just in case...
There's no "what if"! Lin Ye looked at her, his eyes filled with a do-or-die determination. It's either gamble with this 58% chance, or wait to die! Which do you choose?
Looking into his bloodshot eyes, filled with exhaustion and determination, Li Sha finally released her grip: "I'll help you. What do you need me to do?"
Keep a close eye on the external sensors, especially the pursuers' location! Sentry, how long will it take to prepare the pressure relief vent?
The robotic arm is in place and ready to cut... It is expected to take 2 minutes.
Whisper, prepare the microstimulation protocol simultaneously.
[Protocol loading... Warning: This operation will inevitably lead to a short-term increase in the activity of the anomalous structure, and the seal stability is expected to decrease by 3-5%.]
Understood. Execute!
The two people and the machine immediately began operating at high speed. The Sentinel controlled the robotic arm to precisely cut into the port side of the database's outer shell, Li Sha stared intently at the sensor screen, while Lin Ye placed his hand on the central query platform, feeling the fluctuations of the dangerous seal.
The pursuers have entered the range of the high-precision sensor! They will be within effective firing range in 4 minutes! Li Sha's voice tightened.
Pressure relief vent ready! Sentry reporting.
"Whisper!" Lin Ye whispered.
[Microstimulation protocol activated! 3, 2, 1... Execute!]
hum!
An extremely subtle yet incredibly sharp fluctuation entered Lin Ye's mind. Within the historical log area, the suppressed deep purple light suddenly leaped! A condensed stream of purple energy, filled with chaotic energy, shot out like an enraged venomous snake towards the source of the stimulus!
At that very moment, the miniature pressure relief vent controlled by the sentry opened instantly!
call out--!
The dark purple energy stream struck the viscous dust cloud precisely!
Chi Chi Chi -!
The viscous dust cloud was instantly vaporized and repelled by this energy! A brief passage, large enough for the database to pass through, was forcibly blasted open!