Chapter 164: Chapter 164: Such a Big Ship
“Wow…such a…huge…spaceship…”
Near the spaceport in the suburbs of Shadow K City, as I looked at the colossal black warship that had just been assembled, floating in mid-air practically the size of a town in the skies, I could feel the corners of my eyes twitching involuntarily.
Even though I knew that the Xyrin Empire possessed war technology far beyond what Earthlings could imagine, and I had seen static images of Imperial Battleships before, I was still overwhelmed by the sight of the largest medium-sized warship— the Faith-class. I realized my imagination had been too limited.
Is this still a warship? It’s practically a flying town!
The massive warship quietly hovered near the landing platform. Thanks to space anchoring technology, it floated in the air without a hint of hum or buzz. Its body was an elongated hexagon in appearance, with its total length estimated to be at least ten kilometers and its widest point around three kilometers. At intervals of several hundred meters along the ship, there were circular devices glowing with a faint blue light; those were the Energy Shield Generators of the warship. Nearby, there were many diamond-shaped protrusions, which were micro-space stabilizers responsible for keeping the ship from disintegrating during Super Space-Time Jumps. Besides, scattered across the ship were various sizes of anti-aircraft guns and anti-landing strike systems. But overall, its armament seemed not to be very strong—at least compared to those super weapons I had seen in pictures, which were bristling with guns or appeared as if the entire ship was one giant cannon. By these standards, the armament of this ship was relatively weak. To compensate for its firepower, plenty of smaller Escort Ships buzzed around it. However, those formidable Escort Ships now seemed like mere flies in comparison to the Faith-class.
Sandora proudly introduced me to the Faith-class:
“The Faith-class: a super-sized ship among the medium-sized vessels, with a standard crew complement of ten thousand people, which can accommodate up to thirty thousand if needed. The Faith-class boasts vast residential areas and leisure facilities, even equipped with two Colonial Level Ecological Balls. As a non-main battlecruiser, the Faith-class’s armor is average, its speed unremarkable, and its firepower only suitable for self-defense. Compared to its weak firepower, this huge vessel is equipped with a full jump evasion system, a power guzzler that requires all non-essential equipment to enter energy restriction mode for ten minutes upon activation, thus it’s only used in critical situations to save lives. The Faith-class is a typical large transport or colonization ship, promising a comfortable life aboard. But remember, never let the protective fleet stray too far from yourself…”
…Impressive, so impressive! Its firepower may not be too fierce, but that’s a relative comparison to other Xyrin main battlecruisers. I was certain that with it, along with its escort combat group, probably just one was enough to sweep away any nation on Earth!
Of course, the assumption is that there wouldn’t be some hot-blooded, incredibly lucky character, like the hero of a movie, popping up. I deeply realized that such protagonists are those against-the-odds beings who could slaughter gods in anger with just a pig-killing knife. Against such creatures, all reasonable settings are just paper tigers…
I digress. In fact, I didn’t have any plans to conquer the world with the Xyrin Fleet.
“Ah Jun,” Qianqian suddenly tugged at my sleeve, “if we put up a three-bedroom apartment on this, would we have to change our house every day?”
“…Let’s not go for a three-bedroom. We’re rich, let’s tear down the hangar and build a detached house!”
Immediately beside me, a certain Miss’s incessant muttering began: “Filthy new-rich, filthy new-rich, filthy new-rich…”
“Lin Xue, are you really going with us?”
“Nonsense! If you had persuaded me a day earlier, it might have worked, but now… hehe, having seen such a cool thing, I’m telling you, even if you knelt down and begged me, I wouldn’t leave!”
“…You’re not thinking of this behemoth as a toy, are you, Miss? This is a Super Battleship! And didn’t you just get a Space-Time Sensor? Isn’t that enough for you to mess around with?”
“Pfft, please… The road to exploration is endless! How could you ever understand the boiling blood in a researcher’s heart? Anyway, I’ve already asked the old man for leave, saying I’m going on a trip with classmates, so no matter what you say now, I’m not going back~~~”
Well, I knew I couldn’t possibly sway Lin Xue, that tenacious super clinger, with my abilities. And having a Prophet with us could save us from a lot of trouble… Well, it could also do the opposite…
But half an hour later…
I seriously doubted whether bringing Lin Xue aboard was the worst decision I’d made in my life.
Watching a certain troublemaker walk around the command center with a large wrench in hand, I deeply lamented that this dismantling lunatic had nerves so thick as to be inconceivable.
“Look, Miss Lin, do you even know where you are? This is the command center of a time-space battleship! Are you planning to dismantle the console and then go down with us?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Lin Xue, who was enthusiastically studying a console that projected the entire image of the battleship, replied without turning back, “Didn’t you say the Faith-class has two sets of backup control systems? If I break one…”
…you actually plan to break one, you crazy girl!
In the end, I had no choice but to ignore Lin Xue’s vigorous protests and had two guards force down this dismantling lunatic, already half-mad from the array of high-tech gadgets, into a chair. They then tied her up securely and even gagged her tightly. God forgive me, but I couldn’t think of any other way to stop Lin Xue from tearing apart the ship…
The command center of the Faith-class was enormous. Although it was called a “center,” it was actually a circular hall thousands of square meters in size, with two floors. Above the central floor of the hall floated a gigantic holographic image, which was the current surroundings of the spacecraft. Around the holographic image was a line of consoles prepared for the ship’s control personnel. Including the one that Lin Xue nearly dismantled, there were a total of twenty-two. These consoles, which didn’t resemble the human spacecraft panels filled with dizzying buttons but were quite simplistic, complied with the ultimate rule of technological development—the more advanced it is, the simpler. Hence, it was conceivable that the control consoles of this highly advanced time-space battleship were merely some crystal prisms placed on a sleek metal surface. On these consoles, a variety of holographic images were displayed, including the current status of the spaceship, intelligence on the surrounding space, output of the power systems, condition of the weapon systems, and so on and so forth… Anyway, these things were just hearing them once was enough to make my head spin, so I preferred to keep my distance.
The upper level of the hall was composed of three curved metal terraces—this was where the commanders sat. Sandora and the others, and I, were here. Oh, and including a certain super troublesome aggregation who was tied up like a rice dumpling, wailing in her seat.
With the captain, that is, myself, and Sandora inserting the two crystal keys for the spaceship into a socket at the captain’s seat, the command center immediately filled with the whirring sound of equipment starting up, and the jump began!
Dusty Mud Swamp overhead was overcast with dense clouds. Jaina and her most trusted lieutenants gathered on an island near Serramo, nervously awaiting “their” arrival.
Jaina’s feelings were mixed. Now, the stronger her premonition that the mysterious voice from before hadn’t been joking with her, the more her unease grew, because nobody knew what the real intentions of the others were. She hoped for the arrival of the Savior, but she was even more worried about another Burning Legion coming to this world.
If the others really were another vast demon army, Jaina felt she would certainly become the sinner of the entire world—because she had a creeping suspicion that it was through her conversation with them that they had obtained the space coordinates of Azeroth. It wasn’t that she was being unnecessarily anxious, for this world could no longer bear any more disasters.
“Master, should we launch a direct attack then?” An old mage, who looked quite prestigious, approached Jaina and asked respectfully.
“Master Victor, there is no need for such formality,” Jaina replied, somewhat unnaturally saluting the old mage who was much older than herself, “We’ll wait and see how things unfold for now. The other party may not have ill intentions, otherwise, they wouldn’t have contacted me in advance, letting me know where they would land. If they truly were enemies, I don’t think anyone would make such an unwise move.”
There was one thing Jaina didn’t mention: even if the others were indeed enemies, her own warriors could probably do little.
The demon army had already appeared on the land of Kalimdor; just yesterday, her warriors had engaged in a skirmish with a small group of the demon army on the outskirts of Gray Valley. Although the enemies were likely just stray demon servants, it was enough to indicate the seriousness of the current situation. At this critical moment, if there truly was an enemy as powerful as the Burning Legion—and they appeared directly on the land of Serramo—everyone knew what that meant.
But no one had a foolproof plan of action. Time was too tight. Even the swift-moving Dark Night Elf allies couldn’t arrive in such a short period. Jaina could only gamble that the newcomers really were friends with her seriously undermanned troops.