"What's wrong?" Cen Yemeng asked, a little panicked.
"Those kites are for collecting lightning. Someone is using this method to gather electricity from lightning strikes. It must be the same group of terrorists that Machine Dog encountered ten years ago." Jiang Ye's expression was grim. He tapped the screen, making the spaceship descend continuously to reduce the risk of detection.
As soon as Jiang Ye finished speaking, several flashes of light appeared, followed by rumbling thunder. The kites were struck by lightning, and the long lines erupted with bright arcs of electricity, thin beams of light descending from the sky to the ground! Immediately after, several dark, small objects flew up from beneath the scorched kites!
"Spaceship!" Cen Yemeng's face turned pale. "A spaceship is chasing us!"
Jiang Ye felt his heart skip a beat. They had really run into these people! His hands flew across the screen, tapping frantically, accelerating to maximum speed! A violent tremor shook the ship as the engines roared, propelling them forward at high speed! Lightning and thunder continued to flash, with several kites lighting up each time, followed by the ascent of more spaceships. Their fleet seemed to rely on lightning for energy replenishment. With the thunderstorm today, more than a dozen ships quickly took off, charging towards Jiang Ye's vessel!
"Will they help us?" Cen Yemeng was sweating nervously.
"Don't expect terrorists to help us!" Jiang Ye pulled his rifle from under the seat and cocked it with a click. "Damn it, they seem to be faster than us!"
"Just a little faster. If our speeds remain constant, they should catch up in about ten minutes!" Machine Dog stated.
Jiang Ye pulled open a small gap in the rear window, aimed his rifle, and fired! He fired four or five shots in quick succession. The leading spaceship suddenly lurched violently, tilting and falling! He hit it! It could indeed be destroyed! Jiang Ye continued to fire. The enemy, initially pursuing in a straight line, began to move erratically, trying to dodge the bullets. The energy bar of his weapon depleted rapidly. After using 40% of its energy, he had only managed to shoot down three spaceships.
The enemy forces were growing in number. More than twenty ships were visible in pursuit! Jiang Ye dropped the rifle and lunged towards the control console, smashing at the screen and maneuvering the spaceship to ascend. The ship's altitude climbed steadily: 200 meters! 300 meters! 400 meters! The pursuing ships also ascended desperately, following closely. Perhaps to conserve energy, they clustered together, shielding each other like migrating birds.
Cen Yemeng strapped herself into her seat with the safety belt, and began to vomit. The violent jolting made her dizzy. Jiang Ye couldn't attend to her; the pursuing ships were now very close, only a hundred meters away. He could even see the faces of the pilots. He raised his gun and fired! One pursuing spaceship after another was hit, their windshields shattering, erupting into massive fireballs along with debris before crashing. The enemy seemed to have no long-range weapons and never retaliated, only relentlessly pursuing!
Machine Dog, perched nervously by the window, kept shouting: "Fifteen left!" "Hit! Fourteen left!" "Thirteen! Thirteen ships! Fire, Master!" "Ten!" "Eight!" Jiang Ye's hands were numb from the recoil, but he gritted his teeth and kept firing. Finally, only six enemy ships remained, and his gun's energy was down to 3%.
"They've stopped!" Machine Dog exclaimed excitedly. The six ships were indeed slowing down. Perhaps after so many comrades were lost, they had become fearful. Jiang Ye watched them disappear before returning to the control console and tapping the screen to decelerate. His back was soaked in cold sweat, a chilling sensation.
"Don't slow down!" Cen Yemeng gagged. "Keep going for a while longer. They might have instruments to track our location."
"But you..."
"I'm fine!" Jiang Ye tapped the screen again to accelerate. The spaceship reached the sea. From high above, the ocean appeared a deep, dark black. They flew for over four hours, making a large loop to return to the camp. The camp was already shrouded in storm clouds. The spaceship gradually descended, breaking through the cloud layer. Jiang Ye had initially thought that by making such a wide detour, he would have shaken off all pursuers. But as soon as they emerged from the clouds, he saw more than thirty ships parked on the beach, like a swarm of black beetles. The vegetable patch had been destroyed, the old spaceship moored by the sea was emitting thick smoke, and the nearby garbage mountain was ablaze. Their home had been ravaged! Many people, like ants, were busy on the beach, setting up massive anti-aircraft guns. The anti-aircraft guns extended their iron frames in all directions, resembling spiders lying on their backs. There were six such spiders, occupying the entire beach.
Jiang Ye reacted swiftly, tapping the control screen. The spaceship's descent was instantly halted, and it turned upwards to escape! "BOOM!" A thunderous roar, not from the storm clouds, but from the ground. The anti-aircraft guns on the beach fired upwards, their rate of fire like machine guns. A dense hail of projectiles shot into the sky, flashing in the sunlight! Jiang Ye instinctively hugged Cen Yemeng, followed by a massive impact as the spaceship was hit! All the glass shattered, the engines burst into flames, and the control screen flickered out. In the fierce wind and rain, the spaceship plummeted rapidly. As it neared the ground, the crash parachute deployed, its bloom as large as a basketball court. Before it could fully unfurl, the spaceship crashed down! It landed in the steel garbage mountain. Countless rusty parts flew in, creating a deafening din. Cen Yemeng's head was bleeding. A long steel rebar pierced Jiang Ye's waist like a spear, narrowly missing Cen Yemeng's abdomen. Dust poured in like fog, quickly dispersed by the heavy rain. Both were drenched, and blood-red water flowed on the ground.
"Jiang Ye!" Cen Yemeng cried out as she saw his abdominal wound.
"Go!" Jiang Ye gritted his teeth, knelt on the floor, crawled a few steps, and grabbed a gun from the corner.
"I'll carry you!" Cen Yemeng reached out to him.
"You go quickly! They'll definitely chase us. I'll stall them here." Jiang Ye's tone was calm but tinged with despair. "I didn't expect to die here. Without me, raising the child will be hard for you."
A rumbling sound came from outside. One black spaceship after another landed around them, from all directions. All the ship's hatches opened, and terrorists armed with guns poured out, each clad in a black raincoat. At least two to three hundred people approached, a vast, dark mass. Jiang Ye propped the gun on the window. His stomach was pierced, yet he could still shout, "Anyone who steps forward, I'll shoot them dead!"
The terrorists raised their guns in unison. Jiang Ye forcefully pushed Cen Yemeng to the ground. The next second, gunfire erupted. Bullets of various calibers flew in through the window, striking the outer hull and creating dense sparks. Fortunately, the spaceship's hull was thick, and the enemies were using old-fashioned firearms, so the bullets couldn't penetrate. Jiang Ye felt a numbness in his thigh; perhaps a ricochet had lodged in his flesh.
The sound of footsteps grew closer outside. Jiang Ye was about to poke his head out to fire when a barrage of gunfire erupted from all directions again. He slumped to the ground, his face taking on a deathly pallor. The rebar sticking out of his stomach was bleeding like a pipe. Cen Yemeng, crying, covered his stomach with her hands, trying to staunch the bleeding, but such a penetrating wound offered no hope of survival.
Machine Dog shakily stood up. It too had lost three legs from the impact and could only function precariously. "Master, I'll fight them. You find a chance to escape," Machine Dog said. Jiang Ye and Cen Yemeng held each other, saying nothing. They knew it was all about to end. The sounds of footsteps drew nearer from all sides. The ground was littered with metal debris, covered in years of rust, like a thorny red wilderness. The terrorists, wearing thick leather boots, made sounds like an army marching. Ghostly conversations drifted through the wind and rain: "Damn it, so many died, leave no survivors!" "This spaceship belongs to the government forces. Has our location been exposed?" "We'll kill whoever comes!" "Be careful, there might be survivors inside, possibly with bombs." "Who has bombs? Get ready to throw them into the windows!"
Jiang Ye's consciousness was fading, but he suddenly heard a dragon-like roar! A military-green spaceship descended from the sky, its presence like a rampaging dragon. It stopped abruptly, hovering steadily above Jiang Ye's spaceship! The fierce air currents kicked up dust from the surrounding ground, and the metal debris clattered loudly! "CLANG!" The front and rear hatches of the spaceship opened, revealing ten rotary cannons simultaneously. Screams erupted from all directions, but were immediately drowned out by intense firing. The military-green spaceship unleashed a torrent of cannon fire, rotating and sweeping the surroundings, each cannon spewing flames a meter long! The terrorists raised their guns to fire, but this suddenly appearing spaceship possessed astonishing power, unleashing firepower that overwhelmed the entire area. The entire hillside was engulfed in explosions, as if thousands of grenades had been thrown simultaneously. In just a few seconds, more than half the terrorists were killed, their shattered remains flying into the sky like red waves. The top of the spaceship opened its hatch again, spewing thick smoke towards the sky. Dozens of mini-missiles shot out like a swarm of bees, scattering in all directions! The white smoke trails of the missiles transformed into huge chrysanthemums in the air, like suddenly blooming fireworks. After a brief pause, dozens more missiles roared out! Then came the third wave! The fourth wave! Terrorists hiding in the garbage piles were blasted into the sky, and the distant parked spaceships were also hit, their explosions reaching heights of five stories. The spaceships shattered like paper, and the entire hillside lit up as if a sun had risen! The insane firepower coverage continued, seemingly determined to vaporize every last terrorist. This military-green spaceship contained an astonishing amount of ammunition, harvesting the entire hillside like rain, again and again.
Simultaneously, a small door opened at the bottom of the spaceship. Several soldiers jumped out and entered Jiang Ye's spaceship. Jiang Ye, with his last thread of consciousness, looked up in shock. The next second, he fainted. Because he saw the insignia on the soldiers' chests: "Trauma Team." Two years ago, while pioneering on Jiang Ye Star, he had gritted his teeth and spent a fortune to purchase "Resurrection Insurance" from the Trauma Team. This insurance was incredibly expensive, with the lowest tier costing tens of millions. It claimed to arrive instantly when a client was on the verge of death and rescue them swiftly. No matter where you were in the universe, no matter what danger you faced, as long as you purchased Resurrection Insurance, the Trauma Team could save you from the clutches of hell once! Jiang Ye had not believed it when he bought it, but he never expected them to actually come. They were like divine soldiers descending from heaven.