Chapter 32: Black Holes, Section 6

The tube was enormous, and its material was unknown. Yet it resembled a beast with its maw wide open, swiftly devouring those strange ships. In the blink of an eye, nearly half of the dots on the screen disappeared. No one could say where those vanished ships had gone.

It was still the engineer from the Black Prison who spoke first.
“Damn it! That’s a transit orbit—a positioning transit system! They’re not unable to transit; it’s just that their technology isn’t advanced enough to open transit channels at will. They can only rely on such fixed devices for transit!”

“Oh?” The black-haired man was slightly taken aback. “In that case, I’m even more interested. Send orders to the fortress—follow those ships in. I want to see what kind of place lies at the other end of this orbit.”

“Understood!” The crew in the command cabin responded in unison, each with an excited expression on their face.

A new civilization had been discovered. What an exciting thing! Moreover, this civilization seemed highly prosperous. With the Moors closing in, even the slightest resistance could become crucial in war. Perhaps the loss of the Thor Fortress this time wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

It might be because of the Thor Fortress’s aggressive appearance, which clearly scared those arrow-shaped ships greatly. Through the display terminal, the black-haired man could clearly see them fleeing in panic. It was hard to believe that such simple ships possessed far greater agility than standard ones. They moved like fish, twisting randomly within their dense formation before surging into the tube with the thrust of their fiery tails. In just five minutes, over 90% of them had disappeared, leaving only dozens behind.

Yet these remaining ships didn’t rush into the tube as eagerly as their predecessors. Instead, they all turned around simultaneously, facing the direction of the Thor Fortress. The light from their rear-mounted thrusters flared brightly, emitting massive plumes of exhaust at once. Before the black-haired man and the others could understand their intentions, those remaining arrow-shaped ships had truly turned into flying arrows, charging fiercely toward the Thor Fortress. Behind them, the giant mouth of the tube began to flicker. Visibly, one of its corners was slowly disappearing.

“Not good! They’re using sacrifices as a cover. That transition orbit can be adjusted!” Seeing this, how could those present not understand the intentions of those arrow-shaped ships? As they rushed toward them at an unprecedented speed, an overwhelming sense of sorrow arose in everyone’s hearts for some reason.

Why did this situation feel so familiar? It was as if they had experienced it before—only then, it was themselves who were being protected…

In an instant, the black-haired man grew confused, staring blankly at the rapidly enlarging ships on the screen, forgetting to issue an evasive command.

Of course, given the strength of Thor’s Fortress, even if it were hit, no one believed they would be harmed. Yet now, facing these arrow-shaped ships, people felt something new—a feeling that could be called… respect?

“Increase power on the right thrusters, reverse the left thrusters. Activate the third layer of defense immediately; shut down layers one and two. Deactivate the self-defense weapon systems. Full power on the main engines!” In the silence, Blood-eyed’s voice suddenly rang out. Everyone present shuddered and promptly entered his commands, feeling ashamed of their momentary distraction.

The battlefield changed in an instant—there was no time for pity. If the enemy hadn’t been weak, if it had been a Moth giant ship, those fleeting moments would have been enough for Thor’s Fortress to take thousands of radiation blasts. Even if all the defense shields were active, it would still be severely damaged.

But now, Blood-eyed’s commands came at just the right time.

In the vast starry sky, dense protrusions suddenly appeared on Thor’s Fortress’s massive hull, followed by a blue halo forming around its outer space. At the same time, the fortress’s bulky body suddenly shifted drastically, moving hundreds of kilometers sideways in the blink of an eye.

Hundreds of kilometers—almost negligible in the vast universe. But at this critical moment of impending collision, it became an absolutely vital figure. It was precisely this slight deviation of just a few hundred kilometers that caused those dozens of arrow-shaped ships to lose their target. Most of them hit nothing and rushed past Thor’s Fortress’s right side. The nearest ship even sparked in a series of flashes against the fortress’s defense shields.

As for the few that managed to succeed by chance, they crashed into the fortress’s third layer of defense.

Speaking of which, we must also mention the strength of the Black Prison faction. The three-layer defense shield they designed for the Thor Fortress is completely different from ordinary warship defense systems. Instead, it is divided by distance and intensity, each layer possessing distinct properties. Among them, the third layer, farthest from the fortress, is the most extraordinary.

This layer isn’t meant to withstand attacks at all. It has only one true function: buffering. Made up of highly compressed energy mixed with the unique force-field ore powder from Death Star, this shield, though thin, possesses a buffering capacity far beyond imagination. It’s like a viscous gel—whether it’s energy weapons or conventional ammunition, their impact is greatly reduced upon passing through it. By the time they penetrate the shield, their power is barely one-tenth or one-twelfth of what it was initially. With such weakened force, it’s easy to imagine what happens when they confront the two layers of defense behind the fortress.

I remember a test conducted when the Thor Fortress was first completed. A hundred Thunderbolt Attack Ships, equipped with the most powerful weapons from Death Star, fired at the fortress for 15 minutes straight. The result was astonishing. Such intense fire and continuous shooting barely managed to penetrate the fortress’s two layers of defense. By the time they reached the third layer, their strength was so depleted that they couldn’t even penetrate it. This clearly shows the power of this buffering shield.

Now, with Blood Eye having disabled two of the defense layers and using only the third layer with its buffering ability to defend against the enemy, what would happen if it were hit by arrow-shaped ships?

Have you ever seen a mosquito stuck in a spider web? That’s exactly what happened.

So, after the Thor Fortress barely managed to avoid all the collisions from the arrow-shaped ships, not only was the fortress intact, but those ships that intended to sacrifice themselves remained unharmed as well! After all, although the third layer has strong buffering capabilities, it has no offensive power. And Blood Eye had ordered all self-defense systems to be disabled. This directly led to a stunning outcome.

Of course, although neither side suffered any damage, this meant the Thor Fortress suddenly broke through the blockade of the arrow-shaped ships and ended up behind them. There was no longer any obstacle between the fortress and the teleportation tubes.

Without hesitation, Blood Eye issued a new command: “Full engine power—charge in!”

In an instant, Thor’s Fortress began spinning violently like a top. To the astonishment of the arrowships that had just failed to attack from behind, it plunged into the giant pipeline with unparalleled force…

At the same time, everyone in the command cabin suddenly saw nothing but darkness—completely blind. They were terrified. It was then that they realized a serious problem. According to the Black Prison engineers, this was a transit orbit. Did that mean they had directly entered anti-space transit?

But didn’t one have to enter a hibernation pod for anti-space transit? And there was no time for that now!

It might sound complicated, but it actually happened in just an instant. The moment they thought of this question, the darkness suddenly cleared. The familiar light returned to the command cabin. Instead of the expected disaster, the screens once again displayed the familiar cosmic scenery.

“Damn it! Did it fail? Isn’t this a transit orbit?” Bloodpupil was the first to react, cursing loudly.

Not only him, but everyone in the command cabin who realized what had happened showed expressions of frustration.

It wasn’t their fault. Thor’s Fortress had been chasing those freighters for eight days and had lost its original coordinates. What was the difference between them and the Wanderers now? After finally finding some clues and carefully avoiding the attacks of those arrowships to avoid conflict, this was the outcome?

There wasn’t even an anti-space scene—just darkness. What else could this be but failure? Could it be that they would really have to wander endlessly through space? Staring at the familiar starry sky outside the window, many people looked depressed.

But just then, a voice suddenly rang in their ears.

“That’s not right. This isn’t the place we were in before.”

“What? Head?” Bloodpupil was stunned, but his face lit up with joy.

To his surprise, the black-haired man who spoke didn’t show any joy at all. He lazily pointed at the screen of the scanning system and leaned back in his seat.

“Check it yourself. It seems we’ve stirred up a hornet’s nest this time.”

“What… what?” Following the black-haired man’s finger, Bloodpupil exclaimed in shock.

On the screen, the dense cluster of light dots was almost blinding. If each dot represented a spaceship, what enormous number must there be? Damn, this could definitely not be the starfield from earlier—only dozens of ships remained there. There surely couldn’t be such a vast number reflected.
“This… it can’t be real… tens of thousands?” Blood-eyed stared in shock.