The commander understood what the adjutant meant and immediately retorted, "No, that"s too dangerous." Even though the adjutant"s strength was infinitely close to imperial level, he had still not reached it after all. Relying on the defensive shield of an ace mecha alone against the base"s ultimate weapon would at most buy the starship another ten to twenty seconds ...

"We can"t just sit here and wait for death. If we can earn a bit more time, then we need to fight our hardest for it," argued the adjutant pa.s.sionately.

"But, if anything happens to you, you will have no choice but to remain at the Swift Dragon base." The commander told the adjutant the likely outcome of his actions.

"That"s still better than having everyone remain here. If by any chance something happens to me, as long as you all live to return, then you"ll be able to submit a timely report. That will make it much faster for a rescue team to be sent ... I believe that I should still be able to hold out for a short three to four days," said the adjutant with a determined air. It could not be denied that he possessed the self-confidence and pride of an ace mecha operator deep in his bones.

The commander cast a silent look at the adjutant, then nodded solemnly and said, "Fine. Go and make your preparations. I"ll let the members of team C act as your personal JMC to guide your movements." At this point, the commander paused for a moment before adding a final statement, "Take care!"

The adjutant saluted respectfully. "Yes! Sir!" Done speaking, he resolutely turned to leave the control room of the starship. As he turned, all the members of the control room, including the commander, silently saluted him. This was a sign of respect as well as a blessing for a comrade.

Meanwhile, on Ling Lan"s end, she had received news of the activation of the Swift Dragon base"s ultimate weapon at first notice. This made her mood turn extremely grim, for every base had its own ultimate weapon whose power was exceedingly horrifying. It was the last resort to protect a base — a sure-kill weapon against starships and powerful mecha. No matter how strong the starship"s energy shield was, it would at most be able to endure one strike from this weapon. After that one strike, the starship"s acc.u.mulated power would be completely depleted. It could be imagined that a starship without an energy shield would be a blatant sitting duck — any slightly powerful weapon would be able to riddle the starship with holes.

This development had pushed Ling Lan"s team into a dire situation. The moment they died, their mission would be judged as a failure. Moreover, the key thing was that they could not leave the Swift Dragon base either if that happened, and so would have no way of returning to the real world. Sure enough, an SSS-rank mission was extremely insane. Even the ultimate weapon of a base had been brought into play.

Seeing the adjutant volunteer, an idea sparked in Ling Lan"s mind. She said to Qi Long, "Qi Long, later, no matter what happens, you must bring the team back alive to the central district and complete our mission."

Qi Long did not understand why his boss was saying this, but whatever Boss said to do, he would of course do his best to do. Thus, he acknowledged the order seriously.

Li Lanfeng was stunned by Ling Lan"s words, but he quickly figured out the other"s intent. With a shift in his expression, he said, "Rabbit, you"re going out?" Instantly, Ling Lan"s half-dead, battered appearance after he had intercepted the magnetic tsunami with an imperial mecha appeared in Li Lanfeng"s mind"s eye, and Li Lanfeng felt his heart shudder.

Li Lanfeng"s words instantly enlightened the other members of the team about what Ling Lan was planning to do. They all immediately spoke up in protest — they did not want to lose contact with Boss again.

Seeing this, Ling Lan cast a cold glance at everyone and then said calmly, "Obey my orders!"

Although Ling Lan"s tone of voice was extremely calm, her team members still felt a chill permeate their bodies. This cooled their ardent spirits instantaneously — their courage frozen in its tracks — and they did not dare to object any further.

Only Li Lanfeng was not frightened into silence by Ling Lan. Perhaps due to his exceptionally strong mental fort.i.tude, or perhaps out of courage due to his deep concern, he once again spoke up to say, "Rabbit, if you want to go, I"ll go with you." He absolutely would not leave the rabbit behind and escape on his own.

Ling Lan merely controlled her mecha to reach out its right hand and tapped Li Lanfeng"s mecha lightly on its head. "Leopard, you are still too weak. If you want to help me, improve your strength first. Otherwise, following me will just hold me back. Also, I have faith in you. Don"t let me down."

That said, Ling Lan walked out of her mecha"s secured seat and let Little Four command the transport system of the ship to move her mecha to the launching device of the ejection port.

Li Lanfeng was saddened by Ling Lan"s words. So he was actually that weak in his rabbit"s heart and was holding the other back? These words were truly quite hurtful ... he sat within his c.o.c.kpit and clenched his fists, cursing his infirm body for the first time.

No, he could not be discouraged just like that. Next time, he must make the rabbit understand that he, Li Lanfeng, was capable enough to fight by his side. Li Lanfeng touched the doc.u.ment in his bag. Since he could not help the rabbit at his current level of strength, then he could not disappoint the rabbit any further. He must live to hand this doc.u.ment over to the city lord of Grandsweep City and complete the rabbit"s clan-formation mission.

When she found out that the adjutant had already been ejected successfully, Ling Lan then let Little Four arrange for her to be ejected by the starship"s launch system. Of course, due to Little Four"s interference, the figure of Ling Lan"s mecha did not appear on the large display screen of the starship control room. This was also why Ling Lan dared to launch herself into s.p.a.ce so blatantly; her movements would never be discovered by these Federation soldiers.

Finally, the base"s ultimate weapon was revealed in its entirety. Viewing the image Little Four transmitted over, Ling Lan could not help but feel frightened. Just looking at its outer appearance, one could tell that this was a powerful ultimate weapon. Its ferocious form and its muzzle, which was several tens of metres wide in radius, were signs of how horrific the energy it would blast out was sure to be. A magnetic storm was scary because its a.s.sociated energy turbulence was too vast and enduring, while an ultimate weapon was horrifying because it focused all its ma.s.sive power onto a single point. This allowed it to very easily wipe out a target it had locked onto.

"Based on the outer shape of this weapon, I"ve found some relevant data. It"s part of the Federation ultimate weapon series: a magnetic energy beam cannon! It has powerful attack capacity — capable of smashing through all of its target"s external defence systems, and at the same time, the terrible magnetic energy it carries can destroy the internal systems of its target." Little Four immediately told Ling Lan all about the ultimate weapon of the Swift Dragon base, giving Ling Lan a good idea of what to expect.

"What a troublesome thing." Ling Lan frowned. Such powerful energy ... if they relied on the Pulsing King Shield of her imperial mecha, they could actually still withstand it. The problem was that the weapon possessed magnetic energy capable of destroying a mecha"s internal system as well. This would affect the power circulatory system in the mecha. An imperial mecha without power support would actually be no different from the average mecha.

She glanced at the x192 high-glazed nuclear power source equipped on the imperial mecha and hoped it would be reliable enough to withstand an attack from the magnetic energy beam cannon.

Right then, the starship had successfully climbed up to about 1500 metres. Meanwhile, the ultimate weapon, the magnetic energy beam cannon, had finally stored up enough energy as well to reveal its savage side. A magnetic energy beam shot out from the base, aimed right for the starship suspended in the air.

"Concentrate all power on the point being attacked!" bellowed the commander. At this moment, he had lost his usual composure. If this ultimate weapon was too strong, they might not even be able to withstand one blow.

The magnetic energy beam slammed heavily into the defensive shield of the starship. The power of its blast lasted a whole 20 seconds. During these 20 seconds, the starship was shaken violently by the powerful energy attack. Everyone in the control room was almost thrown to the ground. However, these soldiers were all battle-hardened warriors. They clutched tightly to the control panel before them, and thus were not sent tumbling by the violent vibrations.

Twenty seconds later, when the final bit of the beam from the magnetic energy beam cannon faded away, only then was it discovered that the starship remained high up in the air, but its appearance was battered and dark. The dull and bleak looking outer hull of the starship proved that the starship"s power had been utterly depleted; it could no longer maintain its energy shield.

The high-ranking officers in the control room of the base could not help but cheer at the sight. A smile appeared on the supreme commander"s face, and then he ordered decisively, "Let the armoured missile troops continue to attack."

When the armoured missile troop on the ground received this command, they once again fired their missiles. But very quickly, they found that their attacks were futile. An ace mecha had appeared beneath the starship, and it was striking down any missiles that were attacking the starship. Before the missiles could reach the starship, the mecha had already shot them down.

When the command centre heard this news, everyone waited for the supreme commander"s orders.

The supreme commander frowned as he looked at the grandstanding ace mecha in the sky and then also looked at the starship struggling desperately to replenish its power. He gave a decisive order. "Fire the second round of the magnetic energy beam cannon!"

When the starship"s main control room saw the ultimate weapon of the base begin to flash and acc.u.mulate light again, the men"s faces turned terribly pale. "Sir, they"re preparing to fire the second round. Are we done for?"

Seeing that the starship had only recovered 17% of its power, despair was present in everyone"s hearts. A full 100% power level had only been barely enough to block the attack of that magnetic energy beam cannon. However, the result of all that effort was still an inevitable 13% damage done to the starship. Fortunately, the crucial flight system of the starship had not been destroyed; this was their good fortune.

"Speed up power acc.u.mulation. We can only gather up to 50% power. Whether or not we reach the required alt.i.tude, we"ll have to switch to high-speed operation." With a grit of his teeth, the commander prepared to take this final gamble. He looked at the ace mecha struggling to defend the starship — he would place his hopes on the other, hoping that the other would be able to help the starship obtain the final bit of time to acc.u.mulate power.

Everyone stared nervously at the team member in charge of reporting on the progress of the power acc.u.mulation. They could only hope that they could hit 50% power before the ultimate weapon fired its second round.

"Power acc.u.mulation at 20% ... 25% ... 30% ... 35% ..." When the team member reported till 35%, the muzzle of the base"s ultimate weapon finally erupted in a dazzling blaze of sparks. In the eyes of everyone on the starship, these sparks were undoubtedly the flowers of death here to collect their lives.

"No ...!" Heaven knows who yelled this. Everyone instinctively held on tightly to the control panel before them and closed their eyes, waiting for death to descend upon them.