Ye Pang invited everyone to the bridge. Since this was a transport ship, the bridge was quite spacious. As the starship began its steady flight, most of the crew could now leave to rest, leaving behind only a skeleton crew to operate the ship. However, no one was in the mood to sleep. This was the first time since the Gateway was opened for an emergency beacon to be received. Everyone was nervous, and people could be seen gathering everywhere around the ship, discussing the incident with worried looks.
Ye Pang looked completely different from earlier. He wore a smart looking black uniform, with a leaf emblem sewn on the collar and on each sleeve. The beret on his head made him look like a military officer.
"Why'd you wear this?" Ye Luo could not help but ask as he saw Ye Pang, and even commented, "You look ridiculous!"
Ye Pang took off his beret and threw it onto his desk. He glanced at Ye Luo and said, "You're still as ignorant as before! It is a rule of the Family for any division to be combat ready whenever an emergency beacon is received. We are now combat ready! Do you understand? It's going to be a waste of time explaining this to you, you probably don't remember any of the rules anymore."
Ye Luo was speechless at that.
"What would all of you like to have?" Ye Pang smiled at the rest and said, "Make yourselves at home. I'm from the logistics division, so we still have the good stuff here."
Ye Luo grinned at Ye Chong and said, "The man's got everything. Just let him know what you'd like to eat and drink."
However, no one was in the mood to consider their meal preferences, and simply asked for the host to decide for them.
Ye Pang noticed their mood. He summoned a subordinate and whispered a few orders. The subordinate left quickly, and soon returned with a tray of snow white cups. The golden liquid in the cups had a very strong and pleasant aroma. Everyone felt refreshed by the smell.
"Solarnimbus Soup! You sure know how to indulge!" Ye Luo took one of the cups eagerly and downed it all in one gulp.
Ye Pang was horrified to see the way Ye Luo finished his drink. "Drink it slowly, this isn't plain water! What a waste to offer you this!"
Ye Chong took a cup and sipped. A strong taste permeated every corner in his mouth, with a slight sharpness that was refreshing. His stomach warmed up, and he felt as though all the hair follicles on his skin were stimulated. It was so comfortable that it made him want to sigh in pleasure.
Solarnimbus Soup was one of Risserd's cuisine specialty. It was a rare product, and only people like the Yan Family and Huang Family could afford to have a bit of them every year. Who knew how Ye Pang got his!
For the moment, everyone indulged in their drinks quietly, and the bridge fell silent.
Ye Pang rested his chin on his hands, his head lowered in thought.
"Our journey will take approximately six days. However, I believe that the combat troops ahead of us would reach the Gateway about three days ahead of us. That means we will receive news of the situation in three days. By then, I believe we will have a better understanding of what's happening," Ye Pang explained slowly.
Later events proved that Ye Pang's estimations were accurate.
On the third day, they received news from the frontlines.
However, the news brought a gloom over everyone's mood. More precisely, they had received an order from the people ahead of them, directing all transport ships to a specified rendezvous point. Nevertheless, together with the order was a summary of the events that unfolded these last few days, the one thing that everyone was worried about.
Ye Yin and the others were defeated in their first wave of attack! Everyone was shocked by the news. Ye Yin was almost like a God to many in the Ye Family. No one expected him to ever lose!
However, the attacker of the Gateway was also identified.
It was a kind of unknown lifeform, and they came in large numbers. They attacked viciously, and were terribly aggressive. From the reports, it was still difficult to ascertain the nature of this lifeform.
In their first contact, the attack of the unknown lifeforms had surprised all those present. If Ye Yin had not grasped the situation quickly and ordered for a swift retreat, they would have suffered a lot more casualties. Nevertheless, in their brief first encounter, the Ye Family had lost 300 mechs, a total of 300 mech pilots.
Every Ye Family member on the transport ship was scared and concerned. How could the Ye Family be so defenseless? When was the last time the Ye Family had suffered so many casualties? 300 staff mech pilots were a formidable force, no matter how one looked at it.
Ye Yin had decided to retreat for the moment, consolidate all their combat forces, and prepare for the next attack. Hence, he had ordered for all combatants and transport ships to rendezvous at the specified location.
"Ye Yin you useless fool!" Ye Luo cried out loud. 300 Ye Family members were dead, just like that. As a Ye Family member himself, how could he not feel pained?
Ye Pang took a long exhale, opened his eyes, and shook his head, disagreeing with Ye Luo. "Ye Yin made the right decision. This unknown lifeform must be very powerful for Ye Yin to act so passively."
Just then, a sharp alarm came on in the ship!
"All crew members at your stations, all crew members at your stations! Unknown lifeform detected approaching the ship at high speed!" The monitoring officer's voice came through, trembling with fear.
Everyone was caught off guard. It was like a bomb was set off in the ship.
Ye Pang stood up quickly and headed for the bridge. Ye Chong and the others followed him.
In the bridge, Ye Pang looked calm and steady. This managed to soothe the panicking atmosphere in the bridge.
"What happened?" Ye Pang asked in a low voice.
"Captain, please … please look at this!" The monitoring officer put on a video feed on the largest holographic screen in the bridge.
On the holographic screen, against the dark background of outer space, a small swarm of unknown lifeforms were heading towards them.
Ye Chong had never seen them before. Each of them was like a sphere, enclosed with purplish black armor plates, with an eye on each plate. It was an eerie looking lifeform. The eight purplish black spheres flew in a straight line across the dark space at high speed.
Just then, the unknown lifeforms seemed to have noticed their starship as well. On the holographic screen, each sphere extended its body from its balled up state, revealing a long, flat body. The sides of the body were lined with horrific looking blades. On the head of each creature were two large feelers.
These lifeforms directed their course towards the ship.
Ye Pang suddenly frowned . "Check their speed!"
"They're … They're at Mach 15!" The monitoring officer stuttered. Ye Pang's expression turned grim instantly. The rest of them were all still finding it hard to believe.
How fast was Mach 15? Shockingly, terrifyingly fast! In fact, there were hardly any mechs that could achieve this speed. Starships, on the other hand, fared much worse, especially one like their transport ship.
These unknown lifeforms were rapidly approaching their starship.
On the holographic screen, it was even possible for everyone to see the slight vibrations of the two feelers on the foreheads of these creatures.
"Could it be?" Ye Pang muttered to no one in particular.
The seven creatures stopped their approach about 20 kilometers away from Darvill, and began to circle around the ship.
Ye Pang could no longer keep his composure, looking even more grim. "This is bad! They must be scouts of some kind!"
"What do we do?" Ye Luo was already panicking like mad.
"Sigh, we can do nothing. We have no combatants onboard this ship. All combatants were already deployed to assist Ye Yin. This ship is also not a warship. I can do nothing to them!" Ye Pang sounded profoundly helpless.
"Do we need them gone?" Ye Chong finally broke his silence.
Ye Pang took a glance at Ye Chong, and nodded. "If they are scouts for a larger swarm of creatures, we'll be in big trouble if we don't get rid of them! The rest of the swarm might come down on us!"
"Alright! Then I'm heading out!"
Ye Chong took out Feng Su's dimension keystone from his bag and passed it Feng Su. He said to her with an undefiable voice, "You're going with me."
Feng Su accepted her dimension keystone and quietly agreed. She knew that the only ones with real battle experience on this ship were this cold, apathetic young man and herself. Guardian might be a powerful mech, but it could hardly travel in outer space.
Ye Pang felt a glimpse of hope, but felt worried as well. "We don't know how dangerous these creatures are, you …"
"We're heading off to prepare ourselves." Ye Chong cut him off and turned away to leave the bridge. Feng Su immediately followed him.
Rui Bing bit her lips, watching Ye Chong leave without stopping him. She understood that Guardian would only be a burden in outer space.
Ye Chong and Feng Su were weathered combatants, and they were quickly done with preparations.
"A Phoenix class mech!" Everyone in the bridge was surprised. No one imagined that such a fragile looking beauty would be one of the elites of their enemy, the Xi Feng Tribe! Ye Pang, however, looked like he had guessed as much.
When Han Jia appeared before them, everyone gasped again in admiration! Han Jia's beauty was a marvel to behold!
"Configure your comms!"
"Comms configured!"
"Begin mech assessment!"
"Mech assessment complete!"
"All the best. Prepare for launching. In five, four, three, two, one. Launch!"
Two hatches slid open.
As all eyes watched nervously on the holographic screen, two mechs with their engines ready dived into the vast outer space like two brilliant comets!