Counterfeit Hero

No one knows exactly how many asteroids are in the Smoke Lake Barrier Zone. Billions, tens of billions, hundreds of billions, trillions... In this Star Domain, these so-called asteroids vary significantly, some spanning over a thousand kilometers in diameter, while others are mere pebble-sized stones. They densely float in the void, rotating, tumbling, occasionally colliding with one another.

Even tinier dust and gases diffuse among them, enveloping them, obscuring space like mountain fog that never dissipates.

The tranquility was broken.

In the asteroid belt, steel battleships darted like a pack of wolves chasing in the forest, ripping through the gaps between celestial bodies at breakneck speed. The hardened bows smashed countless unavoidable rocks or shattered them.

The black battleships were fleeing, while the iron-grey battleships pursued. The dense energy cannon light groups roared through the gaps between planets like apocalyptic meteor showers, devouring countless asteroids. The larger ones were perforated and shattered. The pursuing and fleeing fleets had closed the distance to just eight thousand kilometers.

This wasn’t due to the slow speed of the Feiyang B15 Fleet. The reason for the closing gap was simple — Suss was an A-grade fleet!

In addition to having twice the number of battleships enabling the Suss Fleet to encircle and outflank on a large scale, they also possessed the most potent combat unit in this complex airspace — Space Carriers!

”Boom!”

Amidst the violent tremors of the Black Tulip Battleship, a Sword of Imperial Power Space Fighter rapidly sped past the port-side window of the bridge, flipped in the air, and managed to dodge the battleship’s rotating turret’s energy light bombs, darting past the belly of another Frenzied Shark-class cruiser and disappearing.

The massive Command Room was in total chaos. Alarm sirens blared incessantly from the central computer. On the battleship’s profile display, damage areas flashed red rapidly. Hundreds of staff and officers stumbled back and forth, yelling into communicators, and furiously hammering keyboards and toggling control switches.

Sammon could no longer sit still in the command chair.

He now had his hat off, collar torn open, his tightly pursed lips making his chin look more prominent.

Before the central control panel, the damage control system’s flashing red lights reflected on his face, dimming and brightening.

Sammon hadn’t anticipated the situation would become like this. Now, the B15 Fleet was like a mouse caught in a pipe, forced to scamper forward desperately. Ambushes, outflanking, changing direction — all had become daydreams under the relentless pursuit of the Suss Fleet.

The fleet’s SkyNet coordination system was almost paralyzed, and the other ships behind were only keeping pace due to their training. Each ship was damaged, the radar system’s detection range had shrunk to a very small area, and the fleet’s SkyNet system displayed that losses had exceeded twenty percent!

Under the attack from those fly-like fighter planes, the relatively clumsy battleships had no power to fight back in this perilous airspace. The fire control radar’s current scan and control area were inadequate to maneuver the rotating turrets to hit the Suss Space Warships darting through the asteroid belt. Manual operation was like a blind man trying to swat flies!

”How long until we reach Oasis Airspace?” Sammon asked hoarsely. As he spoke, SkyNet displayed another destroyer had been destroyed by the Suss Fleet.

”Three minutes!” responded the third navigator, sweating profusely.

”Boom!”

Another tremendous explosion, and the energy shield outside the battleship’s window had turned pale red. Amidst violent shaking, Sammon gripped the back of the navigator’s seat before him, avoiding the embarrassment of falling.

Enemy radar indicated it was that Suss Fighter’s handiwork once more. Like a petrel, it maneuvered through the fleet, and who knows when it had returned to deliver a missile to Black Tulip’s starboard.

On the SkyNet sub-screen, segmented images of rotating turret views showed countless energy bullets streaking past its rear, seemingly bidding it farewell as they chased it into the distance. In the red-and-white intertwined energy cannon light web, it quickly became just a dot, like an iron-grey bat, blending into the flock of gracefully flying fighters and disappearing.

”General!” A staff member turned from the SkyNet coordination system computer: ”Pars Battleship’s propulsion has been destroyed!”

”Damn it!!” Sammon felt as if someone had thumped his head, stars spinning before his eyes.

The Pars Battleship was an A-grade battleship among the Unicorn-class battleships. From vessel structure to weapon systems, propulsion systems, electronic systems, and all equipment configurations, it far surpassed the fleet’s other Unicorn-class battleships and was kindred to Black Tulip, ranking at the top of the fleet — B15 Fleet’s main combat strength!

But unexpectedly, this battleship, serving merely three months, without having fought an official battle, met its end here! For the B15 Fleet, it was a huge blow.

Sammon rushed to the control panel, and through the battleship’s optics telescope, he saw the spinning Pars, surrounded by fighter jets and Space Mechas, for one last time.

As the battleship navigated past a two-kilometer-diameter asteroid and swiftly descended, its view was blocked by an asteroid rising in the image.