CH 70

As soon as Ling WenHua and the others arrived, they immediately engaged the interstellar pirate group in battle.

“Damn it! It’s the Imperial Army!” Nelson didn’t expect the reaction of the Imperial Army to be so fast. He narrowed his eyes and decided stop playing games with Xing Mo and the others. He turned on his light brain and prepared to use the master control to initiate the GX battleship’s self-destruct.

However, what he didn’t expect was that the battleship was too badly damaged. After damaging the self-destruct systems, it was no longer possible to activate it remotely…

“Fu̲c̲k̲!” Nelson couldn’t help but curse, and wanted to fire on the battleship directly. He found though that under the strong attacks of Ling WenHua and others, he had to temporarily give up on the battleship and instead focused on commanding the interstellar pirates in their battle against Ling WenHua’s attack.

“Boss! Shall we withdraw first…?”

“What withdraw?! Their forces don’t come so quick. We’ll withdraw when their reinforcements show! If you can kill one more, kill one more!”

“Yes…”

When the people on the battleship saw Ling WenHua and the interstellar pirates fighting, they all showed joy that they were no longer being attacked, “Great, when the main force comes, they’ll definitely be able to kill these damn pirates. Kill them all!”

However, they only guessed the beginning.

Xing Mo quickly received a communication request from Ling WenHua.

“Sorry we’re late.” It is rare for Xing Mo to see such a solemn expression on Ling WenHua’s face.

“It’s okay, you arrived very quickly. It was the interstellar pirates who deliberately blocked the signal so that you couldn’t get the alert.”

“Are all the survivors on your battleship?” Ling WenHua asked.

“Yes, we’re all on this GX battleship. The battleship is seriously damaged and on fire. The main system is controlled by interstellar pirates and has been shut down. The battleship may explode at any time. We need to evacuate immediately.” Xing Mo quickly told Ling Wenhua of their situation.

“Okay. Xing Mo, listen to me. A few hours ago, interstellar pirates swarmed out and launched a surprise attack on Vermi. The rest of the army went to fight the interstellar pirates over there. We didn’t expect that they would send people to attack you. I brought people to rescue you all as quickly as possible, but Vermi can’t deploy more troops. We’ve already requested support from the garrisons on other planets, but I’m afraid it will take a while for them to come…”

Hearing this, Xing Mo’s heart quickly sank. Ling Wenhua and the others were all ability users and could be regarded as the elites of the imperial Army, but when there were many enemies and few allies, it was still very difficult for them to fight alone and required backup from army reinforcements.

“But it’s okay. I think the attacking rhythm of the interstellar pirates is a bit chaotic. They should also think that we are an advance force. They are afraid that reinforcements will come soon. W can use their hesitation to our advantage and take the opportunity to quickly cover your evacuation. How many people do you have? Each of our mechas is equipped with a miniature escape pod, which can squeeze in three people. The GX battleship also has a small escape pod, which should be able to seat more than a dozen people.”

“There were 97 survivors without combat capability wearing protective suits with oxygen masks, and 12 combat-capable personnel, all with combat protective suits. Additionally we have 14 interstellar pirates, totaling 123 people.”

“Okay, let the people without protective clothing and masks use the  GX battleship’s escape pod. Non-combatants with protective clothing and masks take our mechs miniature escape pods, and those interstellar pirates can stay right there on their own battleship.” Ling WenHua roughly estimated the number of people, and quickly made arrangements, “I’ll open the directional wormhole at the designated location in fifteen minutes. You set the directional launch for the ship’s escape pod according to the coordinates I give.”

The escape pod was specially designed to escape, so it wasn’t controlled by the main system and only needed to be activated manually.

“Good.” Xing Mo immediately agreed. Although the situation was grim, as long as they acted fast enough and cooperated in a timely manner, safe evacuation shouldn’t be a big problem.

Xing Mo relayed Ling WenHua’s words to the escapees, and everyone immediately took action. There were 17 people without protective gear. In fact, they exceeded the maximum capacity of the ship’s escape pod, but among them were the elderly, women, and children, so they managed to barely squeeze themselves in. It’s not that they deliberately didn’t distribute protective clothing to the more vulnerable groups, but because they were the first to evacuate the remaining people were in more danger when they retreated and they needed protective clothing more.

Xing Mo set the directional launch for the escape pod according to the coordinates given by Ling WenHua. After the wormhole was opened, their escape pod would be ejected directly to the corresponding position, pass directly through the wormhole, and return to the vicinity of Vermi, where the Imperial Army was to ensure their safety.

Ling WenHua and the others would try to contain Nelson’s firepower and buy time for others to enter the miniature escape pods, which would also be sent through the wormhole.

But wormholes last a very short time, so their speed had to be fast enough.

The people without protective gear quickly entered the escape pod of the GX battleship. Ling WenHua and others did their best to distract the interstellar pirate group’s attention, then took turns to drop the miniature escape pods near the starship where Xing Mo and the others were. The miniature escape pods were escape equipment specially designed for mecha fighters, so they had a cloaking effect and were only able to be seen within a certain distance. Beyond that distance, they were not able to be captured by electronic equipment. The escapees wearing protective gear were able to survive in the vacuum of space for a period of time, so they sneaked out of the hull breaches in the battleship one by one. The interstellar pirates were still unaware of them by the time they had all gotten into the miniature escape pods.

Fifteen minutes later, Ling WenHua opened the directional wormhole using his ship’s negative ion emission device.

But fifteen minutes was too short, and it was too difficult to complete the transfer of nearly a hundred people without being noticed by the enemy.

“Quick! Quick! Quick!” Xing Mo and Lin Luo got into the last miniature escape capsule together with the last survivor after sending out one survivor after another.

After the wormhole was opened, the escape pod of the GX battleship was ejected first, with the other miniature escape pods following one by one, flying extremely quickly in the direction of the wormhole.

After they saw the wormhole open suddenly, Nelson immediately realized what they wanted to do.

“Want to run?! No way!” Nelson’s reaction was also extremely fast, and he aimed the photon torpedoes of his mecha at the direction of the wormhole and shot frantically.

At this moment however, a raging fire rushed toward his mecha. In the vacuum of space, only the flames produced by ability users could still burn. Such flames are in the power mecha. With an ability mecha, such a flame can even burn through steel. Nelson didn’t dare to ignore such a threat, so he had to manipulate his mecha to dodge, missing the best opportunity to attack, and allowing the escape pod of the GX battleship to successfully pass through the wormhole.

“They want to run! Everyone! Direct fire at the wormhole!” Nelson yelled angrily.

All the interstellar pirates immediately aimed at the direction of the wormhole and started their attack.

Ling WenHua and the others reacted very quickly. They immediately used their abilities to cover the survivors’ evacuation. For a while, sand and dust filled the void, water curtains gurgled, and light cast by arcs of electricity flickered.

At this moment, the Imperial soldiers had created a safe area for the Imperial citizens in front of the wormhole and tried their best to protect them during their evacuation.

Ling WenHua and the others are were all ability users, so their physical fitness and reflexes were much stronger than ordinary people. They used ability mechas specially designed for ability users so that their abilities could be channeled through the mechas which would greatly increase their combat effectiveness. Because of this, Ling WenHua and the others were able to use power belonging to more than just their twenty people to fight the interstellar pirates for so long while being outnumbered, but as a result had become exhausted.

“Captain Lin! I’ve been hit! I’ve been hit!” After all, abilities don’t make you omnipotent. No matter how many or how much abilities were used, a mecha was eventually overwhelmed by the enemy’s photon torpedoes. The damage rate reached 68%, and it was no longer able to continue fighting.

“I’ll cover you! You also withdraw!” Ling WenHua immediately replied.

“Yes…” The mecha quickly passed through the wormhole under the cover of Ling WenHua.

The enemy’s artillery fire was too dense, and many mechas were hit one after another and had to be evacuated.

The eyes of the remaining mecha warriors were fixed in the direction of the wormhole. When they saw the last miniature escape pod reached the front of the wormhole, their tightly strung nerves were able to slightly relax.

It’s just… they relaxed too early…

Consecutive triple-pulse shots of photon torpedoes suddenly pierced through the dust and sand floating in the void that had been covering Ling WenHua’s side, one of which hit Xing Mo and Lin Luo’s miniature escape pod. The violent explosion stung Ling WenHua’s eyes.

“No!” Ling WenHua roared.

“Hahahahaha! It’s not so easy to run!” Nelson showed a bloodthirsty smile.

“Damn it!” If he could, Ling WenHua really wanted to rush to fight with them, but there were only seven or eight mechas left that could still fight. They would never be able to take on so many interstellar pirates.

“Captain Lin… the wormhole is about to close. Let’s retreat…” one of the team members said softly, with forbearance and anger in his voice. No matter how angry he was, it was useless. They were at an absolute disadvantage and staying would be just a senseless sacrifice.

Ling WenHua closed his eyes tightly, took a deep breath, and reluctantly ordered, “All retreat…”

The remaining mechas all flew in the direction of the wormhole.