Chapter 123: Treacherous

Chapter 123: Treacherous

Twenty seconds.

Everyone was down, with heavy casualties.

The numbers were lopsided, and a little more delay could have meant being surrounded by the massive forces. Chen Feng couldn’t hold back.

But he did not come away unscathed.

As he broke through the encirclement and rushed towards the hangar, he left behind a long trail of black-gray mist.

This was caused by his standard-issue Starblade Armor overloading and gradually breaking down.

Fortunately, he wouldn’t have to face any enemies again soon, or things would have been very bad.

Now, if he made any high-intensity maneuvers, the Starblade Armor would fall off completely.

The Great Snow Mountain Base hangar was located underground at the rear of the base, divided into several levels and covering a very large area.

If a warship needed to leave the hangar, it was usually transported to the ascent port via alloy rails. The ascent port would open, and then a lifter would raise the warship to the surface.

Given this multi-level structure, heavy spacecraft like heavy cruisers and large combat ships were stored on the lower levels. The lighter the spacecraft, the higher it was placed.

Chen Feng first charged in through an unlocked employee passageway.

There were some technical staff working here, along with some soldiers sent by the Military to maintain order.

But absolutely no one could stop him.

Chen Feng found a Wasp Ship, rushed inside, pulled a data cable from the buckle of his nearly broken Starblade Armor belt, and connected it.

The words “Warning: Unauthorized Link Detected” appeared on the Wasp Ship’s control panel.

At the same time, a shrill alarm sounded in the hangar bay, and red signal lights flared on. The Military soldiers and officers rushing towards him from ahead looked grim.

An aide asked, “General, he’s trying to hijack the warship! What should we do?”

The officer thought briefly, analyzing the situation.

No one expected Chen Feng ‘s individual combat capability, once he wore the Starblade Armor, to be so terrifyingly powerful—so strong that it exceeded the theoretical maximum predicted by intelligent simulations.

Now, the armored soldiers he brought were completely wiped out, and the fastest reinforcements would not arrive for another six minutes.

Besides the combat-type armored soldiers, he had also brought ten command-type armored soldiers this time.

These ten command-type armored soldiers were currently heading to the hangar with him.

However, unlike the combat-type, command-type armored soldiers, while also equipped with Starblade Armor, did not have strong individual combat power. They needed the support of a large combat function module to unleash their firepower.

But within Earth ‘s atmosphere, the combat function module, due to its Mothership-like nature, had very poor mobility, similar to large trucks of ancient times. Even if capable of short-distance flight, its speed wouldn’t be very fast.

“Chen Feng obtained the Starblade Armor and is now aiming for a warship. This means there must be technical personnel assisting him remotely. Investigate abnormal data flows at the Great Snow Mountain Base immediately. As long as we find this technician and cut the link, Chen Feng, without support, naturally won’t be able to take the warship.”

“Right!”

Five seconds later, the Military’s vast database provided feedback.

Another traitor was discovered.

Xuanwu Institute senior researcher, head of the Starblade Armor design department, Ou Qinglan.

“Revoke Ou Qinglan’s communication permissions, approve her arrest immediately!”

The Xuanwu Institute took action, but it was a step too late. Ou Qinglan had already escaped the Xuanwu Institute Base in her private fast Shuttle.

The officer on-site felt a twinge of regret. “Forget it. Issue a global warrant. This is also good news. It means that Chen Feng lost Ou Qinglan ‘s remote assistance about a minute ago. It’s impossible for him to… What!”

Before he finished speaking, an orange-yellow, thirty-three-meter-long, fully loaded 57.3-ton triangular combat ship blasted through the ground above the hangar and shot into the sky.

It was the recently commissioned latest single-pilot Combat Ship, the Wasp Type.

The Wasp Type did not use the widely adopted humanoid, oval, or spindle-shaped design of single-pilot combat ships. Instead, it looked a bit retro, its overall shape resembling a folded paper airplane.

The main reason for this design was that its four powerful ion thruster engines took up over fifty percent of the ship’s structural volume and weight.

In outer space, the Wasp Type ‘s primary combat mission was medium-to-short-range concentrated assaults, unleashing powerful firepower in an extremely short time to achieve a swarm attack effect.

Compared to other micro combat ships, the Wasp Ship pursued extreme mobility and extreme burst firepower.

Due to its massive power output, the Wasp Ship had a very short operational range, only four hundred thousand kilometers—enough to circle Earth about ten times.

On the ground, that range seemed decent, but if the battlefield was in outer space, it was barely enough for one small fight, a round trip.

“Damn it, how did he get control? All Cruisers, power up the weapons! Shoot him down!”

The weapon ports on the five Cruisers that had moved to the air above, surrounding the hangar, began to glow with faint blue light. Electric arcs crackled and snapped.

But they were ultimately a step too late.

Chen Feng ‘s Wasp Ship struck first. The moment it burst out, it maxed the thruster output. It traced an S-shaped arc in the sky, perfectly slipped through the encirclement of the five Cruisers, and vanished beyond the distant horizon.

“He actually got away,” the leading officer murmured. “Report to Military HQ immediately!”

The aide stepped forward and asked, “Should we pursue him?”

The officer shook his head. “Within Earth’s atmosphere, Cruisers are too large and far less maneuverable than Combat Ships. We can’t catch up. Have bases along the route dispatch Combat Ships to intercept him. Stand down and continue the psychological screenings. Lieutenant Colonel Ye Luming!”

Ye Luming, who had already passed his psychological screening and was standing by, unsure what to do, quickly stepped forward. “Sir!”

“I appoint you as the temporary commander here. Your duty is to organize all qualified Great Snow Mountain members who have passed the psychological screenings into a special pursuit team. They are to pilot medium and small Combat Ships to pursue Chen Feng. You have one minute to assemble a team of over three hundred elite personnel. Here is a list of personnel who must be included in the team.”

“Yes, sir.”

Watching Ye Luming leave after receiving the order, the leading officer’s gaze was deep.

Even his own Cruiser couldn’t catch Chen Feng, so he naturally didn’t expect Ye Luming’s special pursuit team to be able to catch up.

He was considering a different scenario.

Chen Feng’s destination was undoubtedly the Capital. The only question was whether he could break through the many layers of interception along the way and reach it.

Though theoretically impossible, today Chen Feng had already accomplished many impossible things.

If he actually reached the Capital, a firefight would inevitably follow.

The officer couldn’t be sure Chen Feng would be quickly eliminated.

If he managed to hold out, then this special pursuit team he dispatched could play a role.

Chen Feng was undoubtedly an emotional outlier.

The personnel list the officer selected included Lin Bu, Ding Hu, Pang De, Dr. Ouyang, Scott, and other members of Chen Feng’s recruit squad.

These were all people who had close contact with Chen Feng.

Since Chen Feng cared so much about Tang Tianxin’s life, he would certainly care about the lives of these people to some extent as well.

If another firefight broke out, Chen Feng’s emotional nature would become his weakness, making him hesitant. He would no longer be invincible.

There was no need to worry about Lin Bu and the others betraying them on the spot. As long as they passed the psychological screenings, they were certainly fine.

Holding his own side’s casualty report, the leading officer thought this.

It was the best plan to minimize the cost of killing him.

He couldn’t really be blamed for being treacherous. It was truly because Chen Feng had been too ruthless and shockingly effective against the armored soldiers he didn’t know.

Sixty armored soldiers lasted only twenty seconds. Fifty-one were killed, nine severely wounded.

Too terrifying.

Thirteen minutes and seven seconds later, a report came through the military affairs system.

Chen Feng arrived at the Capital.

But he did not blindly charge into the Capital Defense Force lines. Instead, he landed in the mountainous area twenty kilometers outside the Capital.

According to intel from another source, two minutes before Chen Feng arrived, a private fast Shuttle had landed there first.

There was a 99.99% chance Ou Qinglan had rendezvoused with Chen Feng there.

A top-tier warrior and an ultra-high-intelligence researcher had joined forces. Suddenly, Chen Feng’s threat level skyrocketed.

Things were getting serious.

The Capital Defense Force had already reacted, dispatching action teams that would arrive at the scene within three minutes.

Furthermore, the special pursuit team dispatched from the Great Snow Mountain Base would arrive at the scene aboard medium Combat Ships in sixteen minutes.