Chapter 54 Discovery of the Hidden Base

The Allied Fleet plodded forward through the blood-red mists of the Nibelungen galaxy. Their hull platings were riddled with acid-etched craters and energy-scorched burn marks, the edges of those pits curled with metal that had melted and then rapidly solidified, resembling the tooth marks left behind by some gargantuan beast. The blaring sirens were mixed with the hissing of the air-circulation systems, rising and falling in waves like the ragged breathing of a dying behemoth, shaking the instrument panels on the bridge ever so slightly. When the dimensional detector of the Entropic Silence Watcher suddenly erupted into a high-frequency shriek, the piercing sound tore through the tense atmosphere. Lin Yu's knuckles gripping the tactical tablet turned abruptly white, the bulging veins beneath his skin resembling twisted vines. The dark matter readings on the screen pulsed like a frantic electrocardiogram, vibrating violently past the thousand-times threshold of normal values, and every single fluctuation was accompanied by a harsh alarm, as if heraging the impending storm.

"Spatial folding index has broken through the critical threshold!" The commander's battle armor of the Watcher burst with brilliant blue light, and twelve energy beams intertwined into a net. As the beams slashed through the void, they produced a crisp sound like shattering glass, instantly tearing open the cloaking barrier in the void. Through the fracture-riddled observation windows, everyone witnessed a surreal spectacle: the previously empty star sector was being lifted like a curtain by an invisible giant hand, slowly revealing a distorted black structure. The surface of the building was covered with prism-like crystal structures, gleaming with a cold metallic luster under the glow of the purple star. Those sharp-angled protrusions were arranged in a manner that defied geometrical principles, resembling a work of art forged from nightmares by some higher civilization. Between the crystal structures, deep purple electrical currents faintly pulsed, adding an eerie atmosphere to the structure.

"Database match rate: 100%!" Old Zhou's exclamation cracked in pitch. His glasses slipped down the bridge of his nose from the violent trembling, and he fumbled frantically to push them back up, nearly overturning the control console in front of him. "It's an 'Abyss Shadow' class base! The half-section bulkhead we found in the Martian ruins last time had this exact honeycomb-like quantum alloy structure!" However, the atmosphere of excitement was short-lived. As the vanguard ship tentatively advanced three hundred kilometers, countless tiny fissures suddenly split open across the surface of the base, as if a giant beast were opening countless eyes. Immediately afterward, tens of thousands of black mechanical swarms poured out like a plague, buzzing as they arranged themselves in the void into an eerie mandala formation. The triangular bodies of each drone shimmered with a greedy crimson glow, resembling a pack of demons awaiting their prey.

"Antimatter absorption field detected! These things can devour energy attacks!" Before the Time-Space Administration technician could finish speaking, the bow of the flagship inadvertently triggered an invisible minefield. In an instant, space was detonated like a supernova, the intense light of the violent explosion blinding everyone and tearing the warship into glowing streams of particles. Amidst the energy ripples kicked up by the shockwave, distorted folds of spacetime could even be faintly glimpsed, as if the barrier of reality had been ripped wide open at that moment. Lin Yu pressed hard against the control console, and his tactical eyepiece automatically switched to tactical analysis mode, rendering the base's defense system in a three-dimensional holographic projection. The dark purple energy shields resembled the scales of a behemoth, and the electric arcs leaping across their surface wove into a deadly power grid, every flicker accompanied by a crackling sound. The movement trajectories of the defense matrix formed by the drone swarm matched a certain ancient astrological chart perfectly, as if manipulated by a mysterious force.

A tripartite emergency meeting was held within the trembling bridge, the chairs surrounding the conference table creaking in protest with the sway of the hull. The Entropic Silence Watcher projected the base's energy distribution map into mid-air, those flickering nodes resembling beating hearts: "The shields adopt a chaotic topological structure, but at the Klein bottle coordinate points, the energy flow exhibits a 0.3-second phase difference." As he spoke, the runes on his battle armor flickered in tandem, echoing the pulse of the energy nodes. The engineer from the Time-Space Administration synchronously called up the cracked underlying code of the drones, the data streams transforming into emerald light bands in the air that coiled like a venomous snake poised to strike: "Their swarm intelligence possesses quantum entanglement vulnerabilities, and we can create a blind spot using frequency interference."

Lin Yu's fingertips swept across the tactical sandbox, marking a bright red cross at the shield's weakness. The traces left by his fingertips in the sand resembled a wound about to heal: "The Watcher will handle the dimensional raid. Once the breach is torn open, we will board the transition pods to seize the nodes. The Administration's electromagnetic pulse bombs will buy us 30 seconds of clearing time." His voice was as cold as ice, yet it could not mask the burning combat spirit in the depths of his eyes, revealing a resolute determination to burn the boats and cross the river. When the Watcher leader added his input, the runes on the surface of his armor suddenly flared with a warning red light, staining his face a grim and terrifying crimson: "Every time a node is destroyed, the energy of the remaining shields will grow exponentially. We must complete three simultaneous detonations before the seventh energy tide arrives."

The echelon deployment finalized at last unfolded slowly within the holographic projection: the vanguard echelon's Watcher warships were entwined with galaxy-like bands of energy, looking like swords about to be unsheathed as the bands circulated around the vessels and emitted a low hum; the main attack echelon's transition pods were wrapped in electromagnetic barriers, resembling dormant beasts with indicator lights flashing incessantly on their hull surfaces like the eyes of predators peering through the dark; the rear guard fleet laid out a quantum minefield in the distance, weaving an airtight interception net where tiny sparks occasionally burst forth from the quantum energy. Lin Yu adjusted the night-vision mode of his tactical eyepiece to its highest magnification, gazing at the faint crimson light source lurking deep within the base. The pulsing energy frequency there resonated eerily with the trembling rhythm of the mysterious organization's emblem inside his coat pocket, causing the badge to grow slightly warm against his chest, as if answering the call of the impending battle.