Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 322 Acute Angle! (3k)

The sustained ultra-high acceleration has lasted for nearly forty minutes. The chemical propulsion fuel has been more than half consumed, and its violent thrust phase is still ongoing, steadily pushing the warship's speed toward 5.6% of the speed of light.

Of all the escape ships, the “Natural Selection” was the fastest and covered the farthest distance. The second fastest escape ship was the “Infinite Frontier,” whose speed, propelled by the chemical thrusters, reached 4.8% of the speed of light.

The speed of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth escaped warships had also increased to more than 3% of the speed of light.

However, the four escaped warships that had taken half an hour to break away from the parade were now accelerating to 1% of the speed of light and officially entering the [Advance 3] state, and had not yet left the range of Jupiter's orbit.

Even so, the sudden acceleration of these four warships caused varying degrees of damage to the small parade formation. Several star-class warships were burned by the exhaust plumes of tens of kilometers emitted by the chemical thrust engines suddenly activated by the fleeing warships beside them.

At this moment, Natural Selection.

The cabin was relatively quiet, as if the people had not yet recovered from the previous standoff.

The seven space force soldiers have been temporarily detained by Zhang Beihai in their own rooms with electromagnetic reinforcement activated to ensure they will not use force to escape. Persuading them is not difficult; Zhang Beihai will communicate with them personally later.

As for Dongfang Yanxu, she was wearing an anti-G suit and standing behind a transparent isolation door. She had just seen Zhang Beihai finish a call with the commander of the Asian Fleet.

"Even if the commander dissuaded you, would you still insist on your escape?" Dongfang Yanxu asked him.

In the captain's cabin, Zhang Beihai checked various parameters and equipment, and nodded patiently in response to Dongfang Yanxu's question.

"The spaceship is already very fast now, and the probability of the pursuit fleet catching up with the 'Natural Selection' is extremely slim. No one can stop your escape now. Can you explain to me the direct reason that prompted your escape?"

"can."

Just as Zhang Beihai was about to speak, an alarm suddenly interrupted him.

First mate Inoue Akira, wearing anti-G gear, struggled to enter. He glanced apologetically at Dongfang Yanxu before quickly reporting to Zhang Beihai: "Captain Beihai, we've detected multiple abnormal reactions. The coordinates are in the airspace where the 'Mantis' and its escort fleet were previously located. The telescopes can see obvious flashes and explosions, as well as the explosion of a stellar hydrogen bomb, at least twelve nuclear spheres, and electromagnetic pulses."

Because of the ultra-high voltage of 600G, it was extremely difficult for Akira Inoue to speak each word, but he still managed to finish the report.

With most space officers and crew unable to perform their duties normally, these vice captains and other first officers are among the few in the fleet who can remain active.

Zhang Beihai's gaze immediately fell on the projected image on the screen, and Dongfang Yanxu also struggled to lift his head and look at the screen despite the overload.

The shipborne AI's analysis was standard: [The interference from the star-shaped hydrogen bomb explosion has been filtered out; the analysis matches the characteristics of a large fusion reactor sympathetic detonation; five fusion reactor sympathetic detonations occurred during the escort fleet's azimuth attack.]
The escort fleet consisted of only five star-class warships, plus at most the small spaceship Mantis. Five nuclear fusion explosions meant that none of the five star-class warships survived.

Moreover... if he remembered correctly, his scientist friend, Ding Yi, seemed to be in the escort fleet that was researching the probe.

But when Zhang Beihai heard the news, he simply nodded.

Akira Inoue said, "The signal characteristics of the 'Moon' and 'Jesus' disappeared on the public channel almost simultaneously—there may have been a few seconds of time difference. One of the star-class warships briefly entered forward four-stage mode, but it is unknown which one it was. The engine could be seen to light up with the naked eye, but the forward four-stage mode only lasted for about three seconds before it went out."

Vice-Captain Levin flew in and said, "It was an attack. The last warship was clearly trying to escape by advancing four ships, but it was too late. I believe that not only we saw this, but Fleet International also saw it."

After speaking, the two vice-captains looked at Zhang Beihai with a more complicated expression.

Dongfang Yanxu felt light as a feather, as if her soul had left her body and floated away, as if the 600G pressure could no longer affect her.

She suddenly recalled the comment that hibernating children in the Beijing hutongs made when they looked at her: "She's a child!"

Oh, at least at this moment, Dongfang Yanxu truly felt like a child.

Inoue Akira asked, "Where did the attack come from?"

Levin: "It can only be the Trisolaran probe. The probe killed five warships... It used some unknown means to directly penetrate the nuclear fusion engines of five star-class warships. These five warships are all new warships equipped with Iron Curtain devices, but it is unknown whether they had time to activate them."

"Could this detector be a super-powerful laser emitter? Or can it fire antimatter bullets from its tail? But we haven't detected any fluctuations in the annihilation of matter and antimatter... Aren't those warships locked in with magnetic bottles? This is truly incomprehensible." Inoue Akira frowned in thought.

"Where did the probe go?" Dongfang Yanxu suddenly asked.

Zhang Beihai waved his hand, and the transparent door that had isolated Dongfang Yanxu disappeared in an instant. The latter staggered and floated up, quickly crashing into the opposite direction of the acceleration.

Zhang Beihai swiftly pulled her down from mid-air and replanted her on the magnetic ground, roughly as if planting a scallion. He then instructed the ship's AI: "Retrieve the 'Fog Umbrella' project map and focus on scanning the airspace behind our ship."

If it really was the probe that did it, then the artificial nebula created by detonating the oil-film nuclear bomb is the only hope that could capture that small truck cab.

After a brief, anxious wait, the results were in.

"A super-high-speed object is crossing the fog canopy area behind our ship, with an estimated speed exceeding 7% of the speed of light! Its trajectory is heading straight for our ship!" The privacy door to the captain's cabin disappeared, and the command center appeared nearby. The observer shouted.

On the main screen, a faint flow mark, formed by a high-speed object disturbing the oil film, is clearly visible, hurtling toward Natural Selection at an astonishing speed.

Zhang Beihai's tone was calm and composed: "Calculate the relative velocity and the estimated contact time."

"It is expected to enter within one million kilometers of our ship in fifteen minutes, which is almost face-to-face. As for when it will touch our ship... it depends on whether the other side can accelerate. After all, we are also accelerating, and there is a chance that we can outrun it!"

"Twelve million kilometers..."

"Eleven million kilometers..." "Gamma laser beam cannons and electromagnetic railguns are ready. Fire!"

"Ten million kilometers!"

"The gamma laser beam hit the target, but the target didn't slow down at all. What the hell? Was this thing made by a neutron star?"

Nine million kilometers!

"Eight million kilometers!"

"The warship has reached 7% of the speed of light! After the electromagnetic railgun is fired, it still has a speed of 4% of the speed of light. We can only wait for the target to catch up with the electromagnetic projectile... Damn it, the electromagnetic projectile is too slow. This weapon is too damn outdated."

"Some guys said it was too hot in the engine compartment and wanted us to reduce the engine power."

"What time is it for you to still care about mushrooms? Tell those idiot mushrooms that if they get caught, they're all going to die."

Everyone's hearts were in their throats. The panic caused by being pursued ignited a strange fear deep in their genes from ancient times. Even though the Natural Selection was a heroic warship that had experienced the Great Ring War and its crew was highly qualified, it was no exception. As a result, the originally polite fleet language was filled with a lot of profanity.

The average quality of the crew of the Natural Selection is rapidly approaching that of humans in the Common Era.

Most of the crew held their breath.

Five million kilometers!

"Target slows down! No... Target changes direction! It has abandoned the pursuit!" The radar operator's voice was filled with the elation of surviving a close call and immense confusion.

On the "Fog Umbrella" trajectory display screen, the deadly red dot drew a strange zigzag line in the void, only about five million kilometers away from the "Natural Selection".

"Am I blind? The trajectory is a fucking broken line?" someone cursed.

"And it's a fucking acute-angled zigzag line!"

Is the ship's AI malfunctioning?

A line of text suddenly appeared in the top left corner of the screen: [You're the one who's broken, I'm not! Damn! That scared me to death, what the hell is accelerating faster than me?]
"How come this AI can swear? Where did it get its training data from?" someone asked.

No one answered.

In short, a line graph containing infinitely strange and mysterious elements clearly appeared on the "fog umbrella".

Obviously, no one can explain all of this.

But in any case, the pursuit finally stopped, and a brief, bewildered silence fell over the hall. The immense pressure suddenly vanished, leaving behind a near-exhausted sense of disorientation.

"Why...?" Dongfang Yanxu murmured to himself.

Everyone instinctively looked at their "executive captain".

Zhang Beihai slowly spoke: "It's about speed. Our chemical propulsion system compresses the acceleration process into a very short time. If it wants to catch up with us and complete the destruction, the time cost it needs to pay is far beyond expectations. This time is enough for Fleet International to make more reactions and allow more warships to escape its hunting range."

"Where is it going?" someone asked.

Zhang Beihai remained silent, his gaze sweeping across the corner of the star map to the four pursuing fleets that had entered the [Advance Four] state.

"Blue Space", "Ultimate Law", "Deep Space", "Enterprise"

Clearly, the target probes were heading towards the pursuing fleet.

"For it, or controlling its existence, maximizing its elimination within a limited time is the highest priority. We have temporarily removed it from the 'highest priority' list," Zhang Beihai said.

But the others didn't feel excited about surviving the ordeal; instead, they were all quite depressed.

But everyone understood that their safety was based on the fact that the pursuing fleet was about to become a substitute sacrifice, and a complex emotion permeated the cabin.

"They probably also saw the explosion of the escort fleet and the line graph under the fog umbrella."

"It's no use, they're too slow unless we change course immediately. But those people are inflexible. Changing course requires the fleet command's approval, otherwise it will be seen as escapism. And Fleet International probably doesn't even know what's going on right now, how could they possibly authorize it?"

"The higher-ups are a bunch of short-sighted old bastards."

"It's useless to scold them. Without Captain Zhang, we're just a bunch of muddle-headed little bastards."

"In any case, the fog canopy project that spreads throughout Jupiter's orbit did a good job; at least it prevented the fleet from losing track of the target probes."

"Forget about calling it a detector, it's not a detector at all. Let's just call it a water droplet. Wasn't that the name we used in the first place? A water droplet that kills without leaving a trace."

Zhang Beihai ignored the whispers in the hall and ordered, "Maintain course, keep current acceleration, initiate communications with the four pursuit fleets, and focus on tracking other high-speed targets in the fog umbrella area."

(End of this chapter)