The moment she saw the strange cosmic sight, Natarle's expression changed, but she came to her senses in just a few seconds and shouted, "Evasive maneuvers! Full speed, increase distance!"
The Black Tortoise didn't stop for a moment. Its wings spread and all its thrusters spewed flames. Tilting its bow, it unhesitatingly skimmed past the golden hole and sped away without looking back.
The whale swam out of the hole, seemingly dazed as it stared blankly straight ahead.
Inside the rapidly retreating Black Tortoise, Natarle stared in shock at the whale's appearance. She had recognized its identity in an instant.
Without shouting in alarm, Natarle immediately recalled the garbled message she had received earlier.
"White Rabbit! Designate the enemy with the codename 'Whale.' From now on, record its every move. Package the data, copy it continuously, encrypt and scramble it using every method you know, and repeatedly verify the information's validity every second. The enemy has the ability to corrupt information!"
"Understood."
Gazing at the satellite wreckage in the distance, Natarle's eyes hardened with determination. "Circle the enemy, maintaining it as the center point. Load all weapons and fire in sequence to measure damage effects."
"Draw the whale's attention. We absolutely cannot let it notice Tian Ming's presence."
The Black Tortoise carved an arc through Cosmic Space, arriving at the whale's flank. All its Black Scale Type-1 Missiles were launched, and as the ship banked, its twin dual-barreled beam cannons fired four green beams that arrived first.
The whale remained motionless where it was. The beams struck its body, creating a ripple before disappearing.
On the screen in front of Natarle, a massive amount of data flowed like a torrent. She quickly scanned it, continuously analyzing the whale's weaknesses in her mind.
After being attacked, the whale seemed to have noticed the Black Tortoise and charged over with a flick of its tail.
As the Black Tortoise circled, the Black and White Pisces on its back discharged thick bolts of lightning. The flashes of thunder split the dark Cosmic Space and struck the whale on its head.
At the same time, the first wave of Black Scale Type-1 Missiles was detonated by the passing lightning and dispersed.
The whale was completely unharmed by the lightning strike; the electricity, just like the beams, was absorbed.
Simultaneously, the dispersed Black Scale did not detect any targets and remained stationary.
The whale leisurely passed through the Black Mist.
In a flash, another bolt of lightning struck, activating the Black Mist. Invisible microwaves enveloped the whale.
Inside the Black Tortoise, Natarle's expression was grave.
The whale still showed no reaction, ignoring the microwaves as it swam toward them.
The Black Tortoise sped on, wreathed in lightning, with the whale in hot pursuit.
Taking advantage of this brief gap, Natarle quickly recorded her deductions.
Microwaves ineffective—contains no internal fluids. Suspected silicon-based lifeform.
Beam and energy attacks are ineffective. Temperature scans show no increase in its surface temperature, so it's not resisting via heat dissipation. The brightness and volume of the golden orb on its abdomen are increasing. We surmise the energy is being absorbed.
A chase ensued. The whale was fast, but the Black Tortoise was faster, and the distance between them gradually increased.
The chase took them further and further away from the satellite.
Just then, the whale's tentacle-like wings began to glow, and golden apertures opened at their tips.
Seeing this, Natarle was astonished, her expression turning grim. "It can actually open a wormhole on its own!"
"White Rabbit, randomize our flight path to prevent it from ambushing us up ahead!"
The golden light vanished, and the whale was gone.
Natarle felt a wave of disorientation. She frowned and looked around. "What's going on?"
She found herself far from the satellite debris, with the Black Tortoise still moving erratically and speeding away.
Though confused, Natarle was cautious enough not to halt the Black Tortoise. While checking the system logs, she asked, "White Rabbit! What happened?" A series of incomprehensible, bizarre tones sounded in response, immediately reminding Natarle of the strange message she had received earlier.
At the same time, the system log was also a garbled mess.
Before she could make sense of it, a golden light suddenly flared up ahead.
Before she could get a clear look, the Black Tortoise executed a lightning-fast Z-shaped maneuver, instantly zipping past the light source.
Looking back, she saw an aperture that had appeared in cosmic space, from which a whale was emerging.
Astonishment.
Natarle was highly intelligent and immediately realized that the Black Tortoise's strange maneuvers were countermeasures against this very whale.
With no time to ponder why she was having memory problems, Natarle issued a firm command. "White Rabbit! Continue evasive maneuvers! Do not accept any unilateral stop command from a single person until Tian Ming and I issue the order together!"
"Understood!"
The whale that had emerged from the aperture stopped in place, seemingly stunned once more.
Although it had no visible organs on its massive head, it still twisted left and right as if observing its surroundings.
The Black Tortoise was incredibly fast, pulling nearly 200 units of distance away from the whale in just a few dozen seconds.
But the whale still detected the Black Tortoise through some unknown sense. It turned its body to face the rapidly retreating ship, and the golden sphere on its abdomen flashed. The Black Tortoise's rear thrusters were instantly "bitten off," vanishing completely. The contents of the rear cargo bay spilled out like an animal's entrails. The next second, in the blink of an eye, the wings snapped in half, their tips sent flying by inertia.
The Black Tortoise's speed dropped abruptly, leaving it to drift straight ahead on inertia alone.
On the bridge, Natarle closed her eyes and exhaled. She then opened them, her gaze resolute. "White Rabbit, secure the remaining supplies to the Black Scale as quickly as possible. Once the operation is complete, launch them sequentially toward Earth. Calculate the amount needed for Tian Ming to return to Earth alive and distribute it evenly with the Vermilion Bird's cargo capacity." "Go."
"Understood."
Watching the whale slowly swim closer on the screen, Natarle's expression was calm, her mind still racing to figure out how to leave information about the whale for Zhou Tianming and Earth.
"Load all weapons! Fire in sequence and record all the data!"
The weapons on the Black Tortoise began to fire nonstop. The ship's bow external armor unfolded and transformed, and the Electromagnetic Railgun fired moments later.
Green beams, bright yellow automatic cannon rounds, a thick bolt of lightning, and steel spikes wreathed in arcs of electricity like meteors all converged on the target.
But it was all for naught. The beams and lightning were absorbed, and the bullets stopped dead on the surface of the whale's skin.
Even the moment the steel spike touched the whale's body, it only created a faint ripple. It remained pointed vertically against its skin, motionless, before being slowly absorbed and disappearing from sight.
Witnessing this, a trace of fear appeared on Natarle's face, but she suppressed it in an instant, pursing her lips as she thought relentlessly.
If all information related to it would be interfered with and destroyed, then she would have to leave behind information unrelated to it.
Tapping lightly on the keyboard, Natarle first sent a message to Zhou Tianming. The message was extremely short, avoiding any information about the whale as much as possible. One minute, two minutes... ten minutes passed. Natarle quietly watched as the whale approached and swam ahead of them.
As if curious, it pressed its head against the bow of the Black Tortoise. The ship, which had been moving forward with immense inertia, came to an abrupt halt.
The two were pressed tightly together. The whale seemed to be peering at Natarle inside the Bridge, as if it could see right through the metal walls.
After they stared at each other for a moment, the whale's head split open vertically.
At this moment, the back of the Black Tortoise was still intact. The unaffected missile launch bays opened, and one after another, black missiles dragging strings of supply crates soared into the sky.
They traced a parabolic arc before flying straight toward Earth.
The whale's body began to swell, its form spreading forward to slowly envelop the Black Tortoise.
As the Black Tortoise entered its belly and neared its abdominal region, the split flesh gradually closed.
"White Rabbit, detonate the nuclear fission reactor!"
The white lights on the Bridge instantly turned red.
White Rabbit: "All system connections severed. Reactor power increasing. Countdown commencing..."
A dozen or so minutes earlier, inside the satellite wreckage—
Zhou Tianming had arrived at the location where the Psycommu Alloy reaction was concentrated.
Carefully prying open a door, he entered what appeared to be a control center. There was a massive screen at the front, with a control console below it.
Over fifty corpses floated within the several-hundred-square-meter room. Through the gaps between the bodies, Zhou Tianming saw eleven figures in the center wearing special helmets.
He flew forward, pushing aside corpses to get closer. He saw that they were surrounding a cylindrical machine with a round cover on top.
The cover should have been transparent glass, but it was currently a milky white.
He wiped it with his hand, but there was no change.
He knocked on it twice; the feedback felt extremely hard.
Retreating outside the door, Zhou Tianming fired a shot through the gap.
The bullet struck the top of the glass cover precisely. The immense impact instantly shattered it while ricocheting away, not damaging the contents in the slightest.
He walked forward to take a look and saw that inside was an ancient-looking square cassette tape, lying there quietly.
Just as he picked it up to examine it, the sound of an incoming communication alert chimed.
"Natarle?"
First came a burst of chaotic, noisy static, then Natarle's voice sounded intermittently, "Come... back..."
"Is something wrong?" An ominous premonition filled his heart. Zhou Tianming stuffed the tape into a pocket on his spacesuit's belt and immediately activated his jetpack to head back. "Don't... escape..."
Although it was choppy, Zhou Tianming understood her meaning—Don't come back. Escape!
His face turned ashen. He pushed the jetpack to its maximum, and his entire body shot out with a whoosh.
He somersaulted in mid-air, kicking off walls to continuously accelerate.
With a flicker of his Thoughts, he used
his Sense to check on Natarle's condition.
His heart clenched.
Zhou Tianming clutched his chest tightly.
[Overdrive] activated. His speed surged, and he became like a black phantom streaking through the corridor.
He gritted his teeth.
Natarle! Hold on!
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