Chapter 141 Abandon Ship and Escape

Everyone immediately objected. How could they escape without the spaceship?

"Piloting the spaceship to break through DarkStar's blockade is basically impossible. The chances of escape are virtually zero. From the beginning, we only had one choice: to stall for time and wait for rescue. Abandoning the spaceship and losing mobility is extremely disadvantageous to us, but it can also reduce the intensity of DarkStar's pursuit... Without the spaceship, we are like turtles in a jar to DarkStar, and DarkStar's vigilance will further relax. We will break up into smaller groups and flee separately in the underground space. DarkStar will stop bombing the surface because without the protection of the spaceship, the collapse of the underground space would bury us alive, and what they want is… cough, cough, to capture us alive. Therefore, DarkStar's strategy is very likely to slowly search with hovercraft and send ground troops to capture us."

Han Xiao explained, this was a risky method, and the mercenaries looked at each other in dismay.

Although it sounded somewhat reasonable, the risk of abandoning the spaceship still made everyone hesitate.

"Are you absolutely sure?" Goeia couldn't help but ask.

"What do you think?"

The crowd was immediately depressed. Why are you still being coy at this time?

Han Xiao shook his head. In this situation, how could he have 100% confidence? Otherwise, it wouldn't be called a risky move.

Piloting the spaceship seemed safe, but in reality, they were about to encounter a devastating attack with slim chances. Abandoning the spaceship seemed like a desperate situation, but it could buy them time to continue stalling.

The bombing continued, and time was running out. Goeia discussed with Pert a few times, and finally gritted his teeth and agreed to implement the abandon-ship plan, asking, "How exactly do we do it?"

"The plan is like this..."

Han Xiao explained in detail.

…

Rumble rumble…

In the high altitude of the planet, dozens of DarkStar bombing ships were neatly lined up, dropping explosive bombs toward the surface. Mushroom clouds rose into the sky, and the hot wind from the explosions stirred up dust and sand, blasting out crater-like pits one after another, covered with spider web-like cracks.

The earth cracked.

In the DarkStar mothership's command room, Sarota stared at the surface screen, tapping his fingers on the table non-stop, his impatience fully reflected in his small movements.

Since the spaceship escaped into the underground space, he had been chasing for several hours without progress. His patience had reached its limit, and he decided to make a big commotion, sending bombing ships to destroy the surface, causing the underground space to collapse and forcing the target to return to the open surface from the narrow and winding underground space.

Moreover, he had deployed many medium-sized interceptor ships on the surface, forming a encirclement. Once the mercenaries' spaceship appeared on the surface, there would be no more chases, and they would be able to seize the spaceship immediately.

"Report, Captain, interrogation complete. The captured mercenaries have never seen the Cipher Pearl, and there are no items on their clothes or in their bodies," one person said. These prisoners were Faserleni and others who had been captured.

"At least the range has been narrowed."

Sarota nodded.

Then, the remaining two ships were the most suspicious.

Just then, the pursuit screen of the hovercraft fleet suddenly showed the trace of the Heavenly Ring spaceship. They had been thrown off before, but now they were getting closer and closer. The Heavenly Ring spaceship had slowed down a lot and occasionally crashed into the rock walls.

Bang bang!

Lasers hit the spaceship's shield one after another. The Heavenly Ring spaceship seemed to be piloted by someone else, and it no longer had the dazzling evasive maneuvers of before. It was very clumsy.

Almost all attacks hit.

Soon, the shield shattered.

Boom! !

Lasers concentrated on the tail of the spaceship, and flames and thick smoke burst out!

The Heavenly Ring spaceship's engine was damaged, losing power, and it crashed into and shattered more than a dozen stone pillars, embedding itself in the rock wall, with thick smoke billowing.

The hovercraft fleet immediately surrounded it, but the Heavenly Ring spaceship was silent. Several teams of DarkStar warriors jumped off the hovercraft, holding guns and blasting open the hatch, only to see the interior of the spaceship was pitch black. The DarkStar warriors rushed in, but it was empty. Arriving at the driver's seat, a warrior checked the system and quickly reported to his superiors.

"Report, there is no one inside the spaceship. It's the spaceship system's autopilot."

Sarota slammed his hands on the edge of the table, his eyes piercing, "They abandoned ship!"

On the other side, the Blade spaceship followed suit, jumping off the spaceship in batches. Because they didn't shake off the enemy like Han Xiao, the scene of abandoning ship was directly displayed in the eyes of the pursuing troops, but the mercenaries didn't care. After landing, they each showed their skills and fled in different directions.

"Abandon ship... It seems to be to delay time. Heh, they still hope for rescue." Sarota sneered, "They are not small, daring to gamble like this..."

Then, he ordered loudly, "Stop bombing, the hovercraft fleet disperses to search for life signs, and send ground troops to cooperate in the pursuit."

Sarota looked to the side and said, "Ashes, you lead the ground troops."

Hearing this, Ashes nodded and turned to leave the bridge.

Puff puff puff—

Hundreds of egg-shaped drop pods detached from the mothership and fell from orbit to the surface. Inside were DarkStar superhumans, including Ashes.

Sarota knew Han Xiao's plan, but he still did it, because DarkStar's goal was indeed to capture everyone alive. In his opinion, the mercenaries were betting on this point, which was a calculated scheme.

Without the spaceship, Sarota had no worries. If what happened just now was a hunter chasing prey, now it was catching animals in a circle, without having to worry about anyone escaping.

…

At this time, in a hard-to-find corner of the underground, a round, silver-white metal ball was quietly parked here, and inside the metal ball was a sophisticated cockpit with Han Xiao and a few others sitting inside.

This was a vehicle Han Xiao had been manufacturing—[Spherical Mobile Fortress].

The exterior was a round metal sphere, amphibious, with a complex internal structure. The sphere was divided into multiple layers. The silver-white shell was both armor and a ground mobile mode. The sphere was suitable for rolling, easy to turn, and could adjust the rate. It was equipped with a gravity level sensor, and when rolling, only the shell moved, and the internal cockpit was an independent structure, separated from the shell and would not rotate. The huge arc of the cockpit displayed real-time images of the outside world.

When encountering complex terrain, four mechanical limbs could be extended for crawling. Moreover, the sphere was equipped with thrusters, balancing fins, and turbines, which could fly at low altitudes and swim underwater. It was a multi-functional vehicle.

In his previous life, players called this thing "ball car." Han Xiao made it in Dragon Tomb and put it on the spaceship. It came in handy when he abandoned ship.

The plan was to flee separately. At this time, the members in the ball car were only Melos, Aroshia, the Volga brothers, and Crazy Blade and Maple Moon.

"The bombing has stopped."

Han Xiao sat in the main control seat, his eyes lit up.

The underground space no longer vibrated, indicating that DarkStar had stopped bombing as expected, which made him relieved. He thought to himself: "Next, DarkStar will send ground troops to search and start a cat-and-mouse game, turning to ground warfare. The mercenaries are all scattered, breaking up into smaller units. Some people will definitely be caught. Hopefully, it can delay even longer..."

The ball car rolled backward, disappearing into the darkness along the winding underground passage.

Darkness was the mercenaries' cover, increasing the difficulty of the search.

The members of the two ships totaled two or three hundred people. All of them were scattered. The target of DarkStar's pursuit changed from two to hundreds. The hovercraft fleet also separated, patrolling slowly, and the blue light of the cone-shaped searchlights swept across every corner.

Before long, the DarkStar ground troops led by Ashes arrived underground and began a carpet search. Footsteps echoed in the deep underground space.

The situation changed from a spaceship chase to a time-consuming search, which seemed less intense. However, the mercenaries' sense of tension was constantly accumulating in the boundless darkness and the vigilance of encountering enemies at any time, becoming tighter and tighter.

At first, DarkStar quickly caught some mercenaries, but as time passed, the mercenaries fled further and further apart, and the efficiency of capture decreased rapidly.

DarkStar often had to track for a long time to find one or two mercenaries. The mercenaries had various abilities, and some were particularly good at hiding.

…

Time passed.

On the Raylene, Siwadei was a little annoyed. DarkStar had been staying for a day and had not left. He had issued warnings many times, but DarkStar announced its progress. Because the mercenaries abandoned ship, it wouldn't take long to catch everyone, so Siwadei had to wait patiently.

"Buzz buzz buzz—"

The alarm suddenly sounded, and the radar detection map showed that not far away, a new force was warping in, and its numbers were rapidly growing.

"Which force is this?"

Siwadei's face changed.

Through the porthole, in the starry sky behind the DarkStar mothership, streaks of warp light flashed from the distance and stopped abruptly, revealing their true colors.

What arrived was a huge fleet, characterized by a mixed style, seemingly with warships from various races. It looked like a ragtag army, but after seeing the logos on the warships, the officers of the Holy Stone and Black Crow troops suddenly looked solemn.

This was a fleet temporarily assembled by Heavenly Ring, Blade, and Zijing. In addition to the three major mercenary groups, there were also dozens of mercenary group collaborators, hundreds of various warships, glaring at the DarkStar mothership.

"Is it necessary for these large mercenary groups to make such a big scene?"

Siwadei was surprised and secretly called out, "This is bad!"

If these mercenaries and DarkStar failed to negotiate, they would definitely fight, and at that time, Holy Stone and Black Crow would be hard to avoid being affected.

For a time, Siwadei's face was ugly. If that group of mercenaries had been caught earlier, how would it have turned into such a troublesome situation?