Chapter 1158: Promotion

Sheyan took a deep breath when he heard this piece of news. As the saying goes, no one is perfect. Sheyan knew that he was not very good at piloting, let alone air combat. Moreover, the Wasp was a lightweight escape ship and had no weapons at all! This no doubt doubled his pressure!

But after that, he heard Major General Mungo’s hoarse voice say, “Don’t worry. We’re using all our energy to suppress the communications of the Predators, and it seems to be very effective. The spacecraft you’re piloting is also a special ship with strong stealth capabilities. In addition, the battleships sent to attack you are unmanned. With these three factors combined, it won’t be that easy for the battleships to find you!”

“So, as long as you make sure to be extra careful, it won’t be difficult to come back safely. Remember, you will survive as long as you can get out of the asteroid belts zone! Another advance base, the “Sydney”, has already arrived here. Those Predator bastards will never dare to chase you all the way here, or the only fate awaiting them is to be turned into space fireworks by our fortress artilleries!”

Although the technology of the Predators was stronger than that of the human race, they were still within the same era. Usually, it was difficult for an intergalactic ship to compete in firepower with a space fortress that had given up its mobility, let alone two space fortresses side by side. That horrifying firepower could even destroy an entire planet. It would be like an Old Earth battleship bombarding a coastal fortress. As long as they were in the same era technology-wise, the battleship would always end up worse.

After listening to the information provided by Major General Mungo, Sheyan could only charge forward and risk it all. He resolutely blasted the engine to the maximum output. Although there were no adjustment facilities to make up for the spike in G-force inside the spacecraft, the strong body of a contestant meant that Sheyan only suffered from dizziness and ringing ears. If he were an ordinary interstellar dweller from this era, he probably would have vomited his guts out with his eyes bulging.

The asteroids in front of him were dense and endless, completely blocking the route ahead. Even the light from the stars could hardly penetrate through the asteroids. Being surrounded by asteroids from top to bottom and from left to right felt really terrible. More terrible was the fact that some of the asteroids were relatively static, while others were moving at high speed, thus creating an extremely chaotic situation. If Sheyan slowed down, the moving asteroids would come towards him, but if he sped up, the relatively static asteroids would become huge obstacles.

No wonder the Empire found it hard to invade Uplos even with the forces of an entire war zone.

Sheyan suddenly received another communication from Major General Mungo.

“Be careful. We’ve just detected an abnormal electromagnetic fluctuation. The enemy has probably located your approximate position and made a move, but we have yet to find out what their plan is.”

Sheyan looked towards the outside and replied with a bitter smile, “I think I know what their plan is… You told us before that the asteroid belts were something set up by the Predators, right? Those bastards have increased the speed of the asteroids! I remember now, this is the asteroid tide mentioned in the data that Cyborg No. 1 obtained from the Predators!”

This move that the Predators made was truly vicious. If the asteroid belts were like a pot of thick porridge which was turning slowly before, now that it was stirred by the Predators with a ladle, it had become a high-speed whirlpool! If Sheyan was not careful, he would be hit by a high-speed asteroid, which would surely destroy the Wasp! And don’t forget, there were also other spaceships chasing after him!

The spaceships of the Predators were made of much better materials than those of the humans, and their sizes were fundamentally different too, so this level of asteroid tide could not harm the Predator spaceships.

As for the dispatched unmanned battleships, since they were unmanned, they were obviously meant to be cannon fodder. If they could bring Sheyan down with them, it would be the Predators’ win.

Facing the sudden acceleration of the asteroid tide, Sheyan could do naught but slow down the Wasp and fly carefully with his full concentration. Even with the exceptional nerve reflex of a contestant, the situation remained very dangerous.

Soon, the radar on the spacecraft showed two red dots in the rear. They were obviously the two pursuing unmanned battleships.

This was the first time Sheyan found himself in such a dangerous situation. But, he soon saw the two battleships moved in his direction at first, then bizarrely steered towards the opposite direction. They started flying around wildly like headless flies!

Seeing this, Sheyan realised that the Pi coating on the surface of his spacecraft had worked. The radar of the Kitty Hawk was also constantly interfering with the Predator’s detection technology so it could only perform at 60% capacity at most. Therefore, the Predators could only detect Sheyan’s approximate position and could not pinpoint his exact location.

At this point, Sheyan could only calm down and do what he had to do to the best of his ability. Whether the enemy could find him was up to the enemy and not something he could control. There was no use worrying about it. After he cleared his mind, he was able to fully focus on controlling the Wasp. The spacecraft ended up flying at a noticeably higher speed.

However, the Predator battleships did not continue flying around blindly like Sheyan expected. When they realised that they could not pinpoint Sheyan’s exact position, they started searching with an 8-shaped trajectory to try and hunt Sheyan down. This trajectory would increase their chances of finding their prey to the greatest extent possible.

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Sheyan gradually moved forward. He had already reached the edge of the asteroid belts zone. The asteroids here had become sparse, so the Wasp’s speed naturally increased too. However, fewer asteroids also meant that there were fewer targets for detection. It did not take long for the two unmanned battleships to locate Sheyan. They flew straight at him with fierce momentum.

But Sheyan was not worried any more. After he flew past a huge asteroid and saw the sight ahead, his unbelievably tense nerves finally relaxed.

Right at the edge of the asteroid belts zone was an empty area which was now filled with human battleships as far as the eyes could see! As soon as the two unmanned Predator battleships emerged, they were instantly reduced to dust!

Next, hundreds of battleships flew over and then slowly flew back escorting Sheyan’s Wasp in the center. Sheyan noticed more than a dozen destroyed battleships in the surrounding area. It showed that, although they were already at the periphery of the asteroid belts zone, the humans still paid a heavy price to fly in here to set up this battlefield!

After successfully landing on the Kitty Hawk base, Sheyan was greeted by a reception of the highest standard. There were military bands as well as red carpets, and all the senior members of the base had come out to receive him. It was completely different from the treatment he had received before.

The first thing he did right after he landed was to open the back compartment and let the human tilting doll Ronnie out. He then asked the specialists in the base to repair Cyborg No. 1.

Sheyan had only taken a few steps when he suddenly saw a Predator sub-ship parked in the base hangar below. He was a little stunned and immediately enquired with the person walking beside him, “Who came back in that ship? Aldaris?”

The one accompanying Sheyan was Archer, who had been promoted to a Captain. Archer nodded and said, “That’s right, sir. Your trip this time has been really dangerous. Twelve of you left, but only three returned. I don’t think there’ll be any more survivors.”

Sheyan nodded and laughed. “I knew that bastard would escape alive. Where is he?”

Archer smiled awkwardly. “Of the three that came back alive, sir, you’re the healthiest, followed by Mr. Ronnie. Mr. Aldaris is the most gravely injured.”

“Of course I’m the healthiest. And it’s no surprised that Ronnie’s seriously injured…. What did you say?!?! Aldaris is the most gravely injured?” Sheyan exclaimed in shock. “His injury is even more serious than Ronnie’s? Ronnie has been turned into a tilting doll!”

“Mr. Ronnie is physically handicapped, but this kind of injury isn’t a big deal. He can have his limbs cloned and restored as soon as we return to Alps Base 7 – though the operation is a bit expensive. But Mr. Aldaris has sustained a severe injury to his brain due to the aftershock from high-energy laser beams. We estimate that he only has two-thirds of his brain left. He’s quite fortunate to survive.”

Sheyan shrugged. “It’s fine as long as he lives. The Realms are capable of a lot of things, including healing that kind of injury.”

At that moment, a Major came forward to salute Sheyan accompanied by two guards.

“General Mungo would like to speak with you, Colonel.”

“Colonel?” asked Sheyan in surprise.

“Yes, sir. You’ve accomplished your mission and have been officially awarded the rank of Colonel,” replied the Major respectfully.

Sheyan checked his status in a hurry and found that his rank had indeed changed into a Colonel (241/1000). Once he saw the achievement points needed to promote to the next rank, he immediately felt that the rank of Major General was light years away! He could only sigh in silence.

In truth, the promotion from a Field-grade officer to a General-grade officer would always be a huge leap. Usually, in peacetime, an officer would climb no higher than the rank of Colonel unless they were particularly famous, and had luck, wealth, and personal relationship in their favour.

One would probably need to complete the official missions given by the Empire in order to promote to an official Major General. In fact, the achievement points Sheyan raked in this time were actually enough to promote from a Colonel to a Major General, but….he was unfortunately just a Lieutenant Colonel before.