Interstellar Survival: Invasion - Chapter 327: Survival Amid Fire

Within the narrow takeoff corridor, the firepower of two quantum fighters gained the upper hand. The enemy drones were forced to retreat again and again. Suddenly, our surroundings brightened. We had pushed out of the corridor, arriving in a large hangar.

The hangar was akin to a complicated machine, each component carrying out its duty diligently. The conveyor belts were constantly transporting all sorts of battle drones over, while the maintenance system was performing last-minute inspections on them.

“Split up! Look for their armory and attack! Try to destroy them with their own ammunition supply,” ordered Carter.

With the order, I flew away from the group. However, it did not take the enemy drones long to start pursuing us again. The Milky Way–class battleship we had entered was massive. I started maneuvering around the machines in the ship to avoid the drones while looking for their ammunition stockpile.

There were also a lot of Eternal soldiers in the hangar. Flying at a low altitude, I could clearly see the soldiers looking at my fighter in astonishment. They were probably confused about my presence on their ship. Suddenly, I found a pile of white objects. I rushed over and saw that it was a bunch of unequipped guided missiles.

“Carter, Carter, I found their missile stockpile. Permission to open fire?” I asked.

“Granted. Destroy the missiles,” replied Carter.

I immediately took aim. To prevent any mishap from happening, I adjusted my weapon to the highest level before pushing the launch button. But right before my finger touched the button, I felt the world turn upside down. My fighter had lost balance and was spinning in the air.

“Canyue, your fighter is hit! Eject!” Zhang Bao’er shouted.

“You can’t! There is no space for you to eject here! You need to crawl out of your fighter manually!” said Baron Sisse.

“Reporting! Reporting! Your fighter has been struck. You need to escape the danger as soon as possible,” reminded the fighter assistant Daisy.

‘How could I be so careless?’ I blamed myself inwardly.

However, it was not the time to complain. I started thinking of escape. When my fighter was spinning around rapidly, my morph-capable defensive system had activated automatically to protect my body. The seatbelt was keeping me strapped to my seat, and I couldn’t remove it. In a moment of desperation, I cut it off with a laser beam.

By the time I removed the seatbelt, the fighter was spinning even faster than before. I stood on my seat and tried my best to push the door open. The fighter was on the verge of crashing into the wall nearby.

A nearby drone noticed that I was trying to escape, so a laser beam was immediately sent my way. During that critical moment, I exerted more force with my legs and pushed myself out of the cockpit. My morph-capable suit’s flight function activated, reducing the speed of my fall. I grabbed a nearby railing with both my hands while a loud explosion erupted not far behind me. My fighter had been destroyed.

An Eternal soldier on patrol noticed me and immediately charged over. However, I was already a veteran, so I was able to quickly calm my mind. I drew my pistol and shot the soldier before he could do anything to me. The struck soldier collapsed right in front of me. I pulled myself up and jumped over the railing before picking up the fallen soldier’s raygun. I then darted into a nearby room.

“Canyue, Canyue, are you fine?” Zhang Bao’er called out to me.

“I’m fine for now. I’m hiding inside a small room on the bridge,” I replied.

“Stay there. I’ll come for you,” said Zhang Bao’er, happy to hear that I was fine.

“Don’t worry about me. The enemy’s ammunition stockpile can be found near where I was struck. Complete the mission before coming for me. I’m fine for now,” I said to Zhang Bao’er.

“Ok. Take care. I’ll pick you up shortly,” said Zhang Bao’er.

I started observing my surroundings. I was inside a small observation room. In the middle of the room was an elevator that could move one up and down the room. At the front of the elevator, some Eternal characters were printed. The different floors the elevator led to were branded with different colors.

When I looked out the window, I saw that the drones were still flying around quickly in the hangar, looking for my companions. As they were moving incredibly fast, I could only see the occasional flash passing by in front of the window every now and then.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of the elevator activating behind me. I rushed toward the elevator’s door nervously and looked at the screen indicating the elevator’s movement through a different floor toward the floor I was on. The observation room was too small to provide me with a hiding spot. I could only aim my gun at the elevator. The moment an enemy showed itself, I would open fire.

The sceen continued showcasing the elevator’s movement through the floors. Suddenly, the elevator stopped at the floor one level below me. At that point, I was already so nervous I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my mouth. Fortunately, the enemy was not heading toward my room.

“Carter, ammunition stockpile found. Permission to open fire.”

“Permission granted.”

“Tracking missile launched. Canyue, get down and find cover.”

Immediately after, the room shook as a deafening explosion erupted outside. I knew that Zhang Bao’er and the others had succeeded. The loud initial explosion created a chain reaction. More and more explosions erupted, and the flame started spreading everywhere, including the observation room I was hiding in. The sturdy room was shaking violently from the shockwaves created by the chain explosions.

At that moment, I noticed the elevator moving again. Before long, it stopped at my floor. The door slid open, and I immediately fired at the opened door. A burly Eternal soldier appeared in front of me. A hole was opened up in his chest from my shot.

With a thud, the corpse was tossed my way. At that moment, I noticed that a different individual had blocked my shot with the Eternal corpse. That person was actually someone I was familiar with. He was staring at me with excitement in his eyes.

“Sarje, is that really you?” I exclaimed.

“Hehe, I knew it was you, Canyue! This time, I can finally carry out the duty you paid me for,” said Sarje.

“Temo told me that you were taken by Dirk as a guard and were safe for now. That was why we delayed looking for you. After all, our homeland is on the brink of destruction,” I said.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m happy to know that you’re all alive,” said Sarje, showing no dissatisfaction whatsoever.

“Why are you on this ship? Are you here with Dirk?” I asked.

“Dirk’s not here. He went on a different ship,” said Sarje. I was relieved to hear that.

Just as we were about to continue talking, the explosions outside became even more intense. The violent shockwaves gave me a sensation that the entire battleship was about to be torn apart.

“Shit! We need to leave immediately!” said Sarje.

“Bao’er, Bao’er, can you hear me?” I found that I had lost contact with Zhang Bao’er and the others.

“There is an emergency tunnel here. Come with me. We’ll leave this place first,” said Sarje as he opened a small hidden door on the wall.

A tunnel leading downward appeared before my eyes. Sarje took the lead and slid down the tunnel. I followed behind him. We slid to the bottom of the tunnel and found a door in front of us. The moment Sarje opened the doors, a wave of fire rushed through it. The bottom level of the ship had already turned into a sea of fire.

“This is bad! The emergency exit is blocked by fire! We need to take a different route,” said Sarje nervously.

Under Sarje’s guidance, we found another exit. However, the second exit did not seem like a better alternative. The path ahead was blocked by a burning collapsed cannon. The temperature at the bottom level continued rising, forcing us to escape to a higher level.

“Damn it, Zhang Bao’er! Why is the communicator failing at such a critical moment?” I scolded.

“Don’t worry. I know a corridor leading to an emergency hangar. There are fighters and other ships there. If we can reach it, we’ll be able to leave this battleship,” said Sarje.

Hearing Sarje’s words, I suddenly felt some regret. In such a moment, I should be even calmer than before, not complaining and panicking. At that thought, I calmed myself and followed Sarje to the corridor he mentioned.