Chapter 189: An Insectoid Ability User
It was hard to imagine that this ma.s.sive wars.h.i.+p had a hole large enough to let the Tomahawk pa.s.s through.
“Fully activate the illumination system,” Xia Fei commanded with both hands on the control sticks.
*Flas.h.!.+*
Sixteen, high-intensity searchlamps extended from under the hull as white artificial lights illuminated the surroundings from different angles.
Xia Fei estimated that the hull and frame were probably at least over one hundred meters in width. According to the information obtained by the metal detector at close range, other than tritanium alloy, the wars.h.i.+p was made using rare anti-electronic interference metal known as naz fluid, meaning that no type of electronic interference equipment could interrupt its normal operation.
A hull and frame that was one hundred meters thick! Instead, Xia Fei was actually more interested in the firepower of the s.h.i.+p that destroyed it. He could not even imagine how much firepower one would need to blast through armor plating of this thickness, but one thing was for sure; if a weapon could deal so much damage to such a ma.s.sive wars.h.i.+p, it was certain death when used against smaller wars.h.i.+ps. Battles.h.i.+ps or even normal carriers might be blown into smithereens in one shot.
Who would have thought that such terrifying firepower existed somewhere out there? If someone attacked Earth with this kind of power, it would only take a few minutes to blow the whole planet into pieces.
The Tomahawk entering the ma.s.sive wars.h.i.+p was just like a bug that accidentally flew into a mansion. No matter how large the Tomahawk was, it was nothing compared to the wars.h.i.+p in front of it.
No wars.h.i.+p in the Alliance’s possession could oppose a force like this, and this applied to the legendary supercarriers, too.
Under the illumination of the searchlights, Xia Fei finally realized what the interior of the s.h.i.+p looked like.
“My goodness! This is a city!” exclaimed Harris.
Xia Fei shook his head with a serious look on his face. “It’s not a city but a mobile planet—a destructive planet!”
After an hour later, Xia Fei slowly left the interior of the s.h.i.+p in the Tomahawk. The huge shock remained in everyone’s heart. They could not help but think that they were dreaming as its existence greatly surpa.s.sed the limits of the imagination of humans.
Harris shook his head as he returned to his room filled with questions to resume his genetic research, leaving behind Xia Fei and Phantom in the command deck.
“Something’s not right. Why is its interior so empty? Huge wars.h.i.+ps like this should be filled with weapons and equipment,” wondered Phantom.
Xia Fei laughed. “Obviously, it wasn’t completed.”
“Not completed?”
“Yes,” Xia Fei said in a deep voice. “There are scaffolds on the sides of the s.h.i.+p, meaning that it’s in a s.h.i.+pyard when it was attacked. Although there are installed cannon brackets, its weapons system were not equipped. The interior is also less than fifteen percent complete. It doesn’t even have a propulsion system installed.”
Phantom recalled everything he saw as Xia Fei went through them. It was just as Xia Fei described; a lot of the s.h.i.+p was still in the a.s.sembly stage. The interior of the s.h.i.+p was filled with lots of heavy machinery; if it was complete, these machines would not be there.
“An incomplete s.h.i.+p attacked by the enemy then lost in s.p.a.ce. That’s unfortunate. I wonder who was able to bring down such an incredible s.h.i.+p?”
Xia Fei thought for a few moments. “Who knows who struck it down? But by the looks of it, the attacker probably wasn’t any weaker than this super wars.h.i.+p. Look at where it’s damaged on the armored hull; it’s almost a perfect circle, probably produced by a pulse laser.
“This one looks like a star, probably caused by a large antimatter charge. This spot, on the other hand looks, like a cross, probably a missile or a torpedo. All this points to the fact that the enemy wasn’t a wars.h.i.+p but a complete fleet.”
Different weapons did different damage. Xia Fei pointed at the super wars.h.i.+p outside the window as he explained to Phantom.
“How many s.h.i.+ps were attacking it?” asked Phantom.
“Many, and the s.h.i.+ps attacking it were at least similar to this one in terms of size and firepower, potentially even stronger,” said Xia Fei.
Phantom was shocked. “Are you saying that what sank this super wars.h.i.+p was a wars.h.i.+p of similar scale?”
“Exactly!” Xia Fei nodded.
Phantom was speechless. This ma.s.sive wars.h.i.+p was not the only one of its kind in the universe. Some unknown empire or organization even possessed an entire fleet of these super wars.h.i.+ps.
Xia Fei paused before continuing. “Obviously, it wasn’t humans who built this. We can infer from the interior that the finished pa.s.sageways are probably around 2.2 meters. I think that the s.h.i.+p’s owner was from a smaller sentient race, and that’s why it’s so low.”
Humans were around 1.8 meters tall, and the taller ones could be over 2.5 meters, and the 2.2-meter height of pa.s.sageways were not suitable for all humans. Evidently, the creator of the s.h.i.+p was not human.
Phantom pouted, expressing thereafter, “If the force possessing this kind of super wars.h.i.+p were to attack the human race, we’d be in big trouble.”
Obviously, the weapons and defense greatly surpa.s.sed the best wars.h.i.+ps the humans had to offer: supercarriers. Humans were still lacking in strength in order to have a chance against such a strong race.
The supergravity zone was only a few warps away from the Alliance-colonized Death Trio Star Region. If this super wars.h.i.+p continued further into Alliance territory, the outcome could be disastrous.
Xia Fei laughed all of a sudden. “It’s interesting that Uncle Porter picked out these two areas. The first one has many ma.s.sive rocks forming a script that isn’t decipherable to humans, while the second one has a wars.h.i.+p that greatly surpa.s.ses the technological capabilities of humans. Moreover, this wars.h.i.+p was destroyed by an even stronger fleet. I’m quite looking forward to the third one now; who knows what’s in store for us there?”
Phantom rolled his eyes at Xia Fei. “I just hope that the third one is peaceful and safe. I don’t want anything confusing like this.”
Xia Fei disagreed. “These extraordinary things have always been here; it’s a good thing that we are discovering them. At least, we now know such a behemoth exists in the universe.”
After setting his destination, Xia Fei embarked toward the third region. No matter what, finding Old Porter was Xia Fei’s main goal.
The places Old Porter circled were incredible; it definitely was not something done randomly. It was possible that he had known of all these beforehand, so the best way to understand the situation was to get a hold of him first.
The Tomahawk embarked once again, and this time, it was the last purple area that Old Porter had circled. The last two places had shocking discoveries; who knew if the next one would be similarly surprising?
This place was a bit further, requiring six warps to reach.
As Xia Fei sat on the captain’s seat, all he had in his mind was that ma.s.sive wars.h.i.+p, which dwarfed his Tomahawk. It was not easy to let go of such a shocking image in his mind.
However, this supergravity zone was not suitable for building wars.h.i.+ps. Other things aside, even an ability user of Xai Fei’s calibre could not take it for too long, and normal humans or ability users of lower cultivation might not even survive for a minute, unless of course this area had not previously existed.
Looking at the map again, the location of the supergravity zone could be described as miraculous. It was surrounded by a void lacking anything that could be used as a landmark. This supergravity zone was just like a bridge, linking the Death Trio Star Region to other far away star regions.
Right when Xia Fei was deep in thought, Harris’s voice came through the communicator. “Xia Fei, it’s best if you come take a look. The initial a.n.a.lysis for the insectoid corpse is out.”
Xia Fei walked toward Harris’s room. It was quite impressive to be able to produce a report in such a short time with the lack of equipment.
“Did you find anything special?” asked Xia Fei.
Harris’s room was filled with many different types of small equipment for experimentation, which he had gathered while drifting in s.p.a.ce for dozens of years. Although all this equipment was not of high quality, each one was portable due to the small size, good enough to serve as temporary scientific tools.
“Yeah, I discovered something similar to the zero-degree mezon on this corpse. From the preliminary results, it’s more than ninety percent similar,” Harris said in a deep voice.
“Oh”—Xia Fei slightly furrowed his brows—”the zero-degree meson also exists in insectoid brains?”
Harris nodded, handing Xia Fei a transparent piece of gla.s.s with a small sample of brain cells. “A section of this insectoid’s brain was shut off by the zero-degree mezon, but it wasn’t fully shut, with thirty percent exposed. Based on your account, I hypothesize that it’s an insectoid ability user.”
“Ability user!” Xia Fei was shocked. From Harris’s reports some time ago, he guessed that ability users also existed among insectoids, yet he did not think that he would get proof of it so soon.
“Are you sure,” asked Xia Fei.
Harris had a serious look on his face. “It’s been proven long ago that insectoids have a section of their brains blocked off, but never have there been any accounts of insectoid ability users, so we’ve got no idea what’s hidden in that region of their brains.
“Based on your account and the comparison of brain cell activity to you, I think that the sealed-off section of their brains may well be their ability region, and this one has the same ability as you do: speed!”
“An insectoid ability user,” Xia Fei muttered. “If insectoids have ability users, does that mean all sentient life has abilities, but for some reason, these abilities have become inaccessible?”
Harris took off his glove and put away the insectoid corpse into the spatial ring as he exclaimed, “You’ve already thoroughly read my report?”
Xia Fei gave a slight nod. “You were really detailed, so I gave it a careful and thorough read.”
It was always a great feeling to be acknowledged by someone. Harris then said with a smile, “I’ve mentioned this a long time ago to the old scholars of the academy, but they insisted that abilities are unique to humans. I really want to show them this corpse and tell them proudly, ‘You’re wrong! All sentient life in the universe has abilities!’
“Do you understand now why I’ve been working so hard to try and open the seventh brain region of every human?” asked Harris.