Ou Zhanpeng had anticipated a scenario where the glass wall would shatter, unleashing a torrent of water.
However, that effect was contingent on standard gravity. Lunar gravity was too weak. The glass wall did indeed collapse, but the water flow wasn't as forceful as imagined, still descending at a sluggish six-times-slower pace.
The not-so-sudden accident failed to stun the colossal creature. Although the enemy was positioned slightly lower, it was only momentarily impeded by the water flow, with no other discernible effect.
Ou Zhanpeng bolted, completely oblivious to this. He ran a considerable distance before realizing his ears were filled with the sound of flowing water, completely masking the enemy's footsteps.
A miscalculation!
He immediately turned back, raised his weapon, and brought the entire corridor under the machine gun's threat.
Xie Yu's anxious voice crackled through the comms: "Ou Zhanpeng, keep up!"
Young Master Ou remained stationary: "You go first, I'll cover the rear!"
"Be careful!" Xie Yu cautioned, quickening his pace.
The situation was dire, and there was no time for sentimental delays. The faster they ran, the sooner Ou Zhanpeng could retreat.
Ling Xiao wanted to say something, but ultimately remained silent.
In this instance, silence spoke volumes. As someone who understood Ou Zhanpeng best, he knew his capabilities better than anyone. Staying would achieve nothing and only become a burden for Ou Zhanpeng.
The fleeing group had long since disappeared from sight, their disarrayed footsteps fading into the distance. Ou Zhanpeng was fully prepared, yet the colossal creature did not pursue him!
The rushing sound of water gradually diminished to the rhythmic drip of water droplets. Ou Zhanpeng heard footsteps wading through water within the water compartment, but no colossal creature emerged.
Beyond that, a faint, unusual hum emanated from the bottom of the compartment. Initially imperceptible, it soon became alarmingly clear.
A sense of unease stirred within Ou Zhanpeng. Feeling that time was running out, he took off—running in low gravity required considerable skill, balancing speed with exertion.
However, before he could pick up speed, the faint hum suddenly erupted into a booming roar. The ground beneath him shook violently, throwing him more than a meter into the air, unsteady on his feet.
The unexpectedness of it all left Ou Zhanpeng genuinely bewildered and flustered: what had happened?
In a moment of inspiration, he flicked his toes against the ground and pushed forward. With each contact, he floated forward a short distance.
The method was clumsy and slow, but far better than remaining stationary.
The inexplicable tremor came and went as quickly as it arrived. Before long, the crippled vessel returned to stillness.
Just as Ou Zhanpeng was about to sprint out, the sound of mechanical rotation suddenly echoed from behind him. He turned and was utterly stunned.
Behind him, successive bulkheads gradually deployed, sealing the corridor completely.
Then, the floor cracked, the cabin walls split, and a thick steel plate rose, bisecting the corridor. A sudden gust of wind roared, startling Ou Zhanpeng into quickly donning his helmet.
This wasn't wind; it was clearly depressurization!
What surprised him even more was that the steel plate severing the corridor began to rise, its speed accelerating. A strong airflow poured into the corridor, making it difficult for him to stand.
What finally appeared before his eyes was a thruster spewing flame!
Ou Zhanpeng froze: what exactly was that thing?
Time rewound a few minutes.
Outside the ship, Xie Yu and the others, having finally broken free, had just scaled the ridge when violent tremors erupted from the crater floor. Even though they were far from the crippled vessel, the ground beneath them still vibrated noticeably.
They all spun around. The earth and rocks on the crippled ship continuously fell amidst the violent shaking. Soon, the crippled vessel, buried by the collapse, reappeared.
But this was just the beginning. As the soldiers watched in stunned silence, the crippled vessel suddenly split in two. A short, stout missile stood upright. Before anyone could react, a thunderous roar shook the surroundings. The missile detached from the crippled vessel at extreme speed, vanishing into the sky in moments, leaving only a faint trail of exhaust.
Xie Yu gasped in alarm: "Bridge, bridge, enemy vessel has launched a missile! Enemy vessel has launched a missile! Intercept, intercept!"
"Polaris received... Wolfhead, the missile is not heading towards us, nor towards the training ship."
Xie Yu blinked in surprise and instinctively looked up, gazing questioningly at the almost invisible exhaust trail in the sky.
Ou Zhanpeng's voice suddenly cut into the comms: "That's not a missile, it's an alien escape pod!"
Instantly, everyone fell silent. Tang Haifeng was filled with regret—why had they let the aliens escape?
In truth, he couldn't be entirely blamed for not considering it. Conventional lifeboats were minuscule, accommodating only a dozen or so people.
However, this escape pod was nearly half the size of the Polaris, and even within the crippled vessel, it occupied a significant space. It was difficult to fathom what purpose the aliens had for hiding such a thing within their warship.
Xie Yu couldn't help but ask, "Are you sure?"
"Very sure," Ou Zhanpeng replied. "I was damn close to being taken along with the aliens."
At this moment, he stood at the edge of the deck. After the escape pod detached, it left behind a colossal rupture that spanned half the warship. Looking down, one could see the bottom compartment; looking up, more than a dozen decks were stacked layer upon layer; and looking back, it was the stern of the ship.
It was no exaggeration to say that the escape pod occupied nearly half the volume of the crippled vessel, if not more.
He finally understood. The reason for hiding the lifeboat within the warship was clearly to maximize its safety. Even if the warship was torn in half, the escape pod remained completely undamaged.
Learned something!
The immense size was also easy to understand. Human lifeboats of that small size could only be used near Earth. If they ventured far from Earth using such a vessel, escape would become a desperate, slow suicide. Only ample space and sufficient supplies offered a chance of rescue.
Learned something again!
There was another, more crucial point. Observing the size and location of the cavity revealed that the escape pod had not only taken a thruster that was originally part of the warship but also the most critical control center, and perhaps other components Ou Zhanpeng was completely unaware of.
This was utterly baffling. Who designed this warship, to conceal the escape pod within it from the very beginning, in a ship-within-a-ship configuration?
Truly, a testament to their will to survive.
Learned something yet again!
Wait!
Ou Zhanpeng suddenly realized something was amiss. In other words, they had already penetrated the core area of the crippled vessel. That water compartment might well have been one of the alien's core chambers.
Although the attacking force consisted of only about twenty-odd people, the enemy had no way of knowing that. So, could it be that by accidentally destroying the water compartment, the aliens mistakenly believed the humans had fully entered the core chamber, and this unexpected fright prompted them to activate the escape pod and leave the moon?