Interstellar Survival: Invasion

The sight of the fiend gave me a new idea.

"Bao'er, do you see the fiend? Let's fly to it," I said.

"Yes, I can see it, but these drones are sticking very close to me. I need to think of a good idea if I really want to help the fiend," said Zhang Bao'er. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at that reply.

"You're saying you can help the fiend? Stop bragging. Just head toward the fiend. We need its help to get rid of these drones," I gave a clear order to make sure that Zhang Bao'er would get the message.

Following my order, our fighters flew rapidly toward the fiend with a swarm of drones following closely behind us. Meanwhile, the fiend was busy killing anything it laid its eyes on. However, the empire was starting to react to our attack. Two battleships were attacking the fiend from two different directions.

Each of the two battleships was escorted by no fewer than 10 other ships. The escort ships were in charge of protecting the two main battleships with their shields. The combined shields were much stronger, making it difficult for the fiend to break free from their encirclement.

At the same time, the two main battleships were constantly firing at the fiend. Of their many attacks, their halo attacks seemed to be rather effective against the fiend. Although it looked like the fiend was tanking all the attacks without much trouble, I could clearly see the red prints left on its transparent wings each time it was hit by the halo attack.

Before long, we arrived behind the fiend in our fighters. I immediately had my quantum fighter shake its wings. The fiend suddenly turned its head around. I was confident it could see me and the drones pursuing us.

With a casual swing of its limb, two drones exploded instantly. The third drone hurriedly rose upward, barely avoiding the attack. Seeing that the drone had changed its trajectory, I hurriedly turned my fighter around to attack it. Our roles were reversed, with me becoming the hunter and the drone becoming the prey.

My fighter released countless anti-armor bullets at the drone. The prowess of a quantum fighter was fully displayed as no matter how the fighter moved, it was still able to accurately hit its target. Before long, the hail of bullets managed to pierce through the drone's shield. Without the shield, the drone was struck, and it exploded into chunks of metal.

After destroying the final drone, I noted that Zhang Bao'er was still busy avoiding the five drones behind him. The fiend was busy attacking one of the main battleships, so it couldn't even help him.

Thus, I hurriedly piloted my fighter toward Zhang Bao'er. The five drones were too focused on Zhang Bao'er and did not notice my approach. I took the chance to lock onto the drone at the back and prepared to attack. With a bright flash, the drone lost balance and spun away. I was able to hit my target.

"Well done, Canyue! Get rid of the others as well!" cheered Zhang Bao'er.

Suddenly, several beams of light streaked over and destroyed the remaining four drones behind Zhang Bao'er. When I looked at the attacker, I saw that it was Carter, Old Du, and Baron Sisse who had come to help.

"Canyue, Markus is surrounded by enemies. We need to help them," said Carter.

With Carter's order, Zhang Bao'er and I joined the group. After dodging numerous beams and shells, we moved around two groups of ships before we reached Markus. At that time, Markus was under so many attacks that it had basically turned into a ball of flame.

"Temo, how is it over there?" I asked.

"I'm surrounded by two enemy battleships and their escorts. All my escape routes have been blocked. Under such concentrated firepower, my shield won't be able to last long," came Temo's urgent reply.

"Temo, try to contact the fiend and have it handle one of the battleships. We'll deal with the other," said Baron Sisse.

"With me, everyone. Try to get inside one of the battleships," Carter ordered.

"Piloting our fighters into the battleship? Has this fellow gone mad?" exclaimed Zhang Bao'er.

However, we couldn't disobey a direct order. We formed a single line behind Carter. His fighter proceeded to release a yellow beam at the enemy battleship.

"What weapon is that? Why don't we have it on our fighters?" asked Zhang Bao'er. I was curious about the same thing as well.

The yellow beam looked exceptionally impressive. The moment it touched the enemy's green shield, the point of contact turned red, with the red spreading rapidly to form an opening.

However, a rain of bullets and beams came at us immediately after. We followed Carter and started moving around to evade the attacks. No matter how Carter's fighter moved, the yellow beam remained on the same target.

"The targeting system of the latest laser weapons is truly impressive," I couldn't help but be impressed.

Before long, the enemies started attacking us with even more powerful weapons. Even one of the halo attacks was released toward us.

"Rush through the hole in the shield. Don't fall behind," ordered Carter upon seeing that the halo was about to get in between us and the opening.

"This hole is not big enough. It will be troublesome if we get stuck outside," said Old Du.

He was right. The opening ahead of us was still not big enough for a fighter to go through. However, we had no choice but to brace ourselves and follow Carter as he shot forward. The front of Carter's fighter went through the opening first. Then, the fighter turned its body twice, completely wriggling through the opening.

We repeated the same set of movements and safely went through the opening as well. Right after we went through, the halo attack arrived and closed the opening, blocking our path of retreat.

'What a close call,' I thought with some lingering fear in my heart.

However, an even bigger danger was waiting for us behind the shield. A group of escort drones started flying toward us.

"Everyone, we need to work together and defeat these drones. The main battleship will be forced to release the second batch of drones. When the exit for the drones opens, we'll rush into the ship," said Carter.

We also noted that the fiend had received Temo's message and was attacking the other main battleship.

"Fire at will. Focus fire on the marked targets," said Carter.

We opened fire at the same time, instantly destroying a few of the drones before us. With our close cooperation, we did not take long to destroy eight drones. However, the drones had also hit our shields enough that our energy level was less than 40 percent.

'Looks like our piloting skills are even better than the AI,' I thought smugly after destroying yet another drone.

Gradually, the battle became more and more bitter. It did not seem like we were facing a lot of drones, but they also seemed endless. Before long, we had destroyed about a dozen drones. However, no new drones were being sent out of the battleship.

"If this doesn't work, then we'll have to try using our nuclear warheads," said Carter.

"Are you crazy, Carter? If you use nuclear weapons within their shield’s cover, we'll be the first to die," said Zhang Bao'er.

I grew nervous as well, worried that Carter would really go crazy. Everyone within the bubble of a shield would suffer if a nuclear warhead was detonated within it. During that critical moment, I saw one of the battleship's doors opening. A group of drones flew out of the exit.

"Open fire! Stay with me!" Carter's command came as he started firing madly.

A wall of bullets was formed ahead of us. Our enemies had probably not expected us to have the guts to actually attack them. The drones were all stuck in the ship, and our concentrated attacks caused numerous explosions right at the exit. As the drones were still in the middle of leaving the battleship, their shields were fully activated. Thus, the initial explosions created a chain reaction as more and more drones exploded.

Shortly after, an opening finally showed itself. Carter took the lead and charged right through the opening. The rest of us hurriedly followed Carter into the enemy battleship. After entering the ship, I found myself in a long takeoff corridor. The chain explosions had damaged the place, and the drones farther away from the exit had fully turned on their shields.

"With me, everyone. Charge to the deepest part of the ship together," ordered Carter while attacking.

The corridor was large enough for two fighters to advance at the same time. Thus, Baron Sisse had his fighter stay above Carter, assisting him in the push. The rest of us followed closely behind them.

"After we get out of this corridor, split up. Look for their armory and attack without holding anything back," ordered Carter.