Skyfire Avenue - Chapter 779

Chapter 779

Chapter 779: Again the Main Guns Brighten

Lan Jue sat quietly aboard his ship, looking out at Angel through the window . Qianlin sat behind him with dull expression, although from time to time her eyes would flit his way . She had come to rely on him, and when he wasn’t around she was visibly agitated .

Lan Jue’s team, Team Three, was led by the Photographer . Under her command, besides Lan Jue and qianlin, were the Arhat of the Descending Dragon, the Driver, the Harbinger Faerie, and the Gourmet – seven people altogether .

Zeus-1 would drop them off on Angel first before moving on to the other planets . Because of Angel’s importance to their overall battle plan, they would be dispatched first . They were just waiting for their moment .

The Driver made his way over to Lan Jue’s side . “Are you nervous?” He asked quietly .

Lan Jue cast him a sideways glance . “Are you?”

His friend chuckled in response, his words heavy with pride . “Don’t forget my name – I’m the Driver! I’ve been chasing adrenaline my whole life . It doesn’t look like there’ll be a more heart-pounding mission for me to participate in for all the rest of my days . I’m thrilled . If you’re scared big brother can intervene, ask the Photographer to leave you behind . ”

“We’re all going!” Lan Jue quickly retorted in irritation .

The Driver sat beside him . “My only regret is never having found a wife . I was always looking for the next adventure, keeping women at arm’s length . Ah…”

“Are you afraid you won’t be coming back?” Lan Jue asked .

The Driver shook his head . “Whether I do or not isn’t an issue, really . I just wish I had a son of my own . Someone to pass my skills on to from a young age . I would have trained him to be the greatest Driver in the universe . Who knows whether that day will ever come . ”

Lan Jue shrugged . “Who’s to say it won’t? On the contrary, it must . Did you think you would be a Paragon one day? Now you are, what does that tell you?”

The Driver laughed gently . “This is true . You know these ladies that follow you around are quite something! When did you plan on introducing one to me?”

Lan Jue stared at him flatly . “You have a mouth, introduce yourself and leave me out of it . ” Introducing other men… it would spell the death of him . Those ladies were already nursing hefty resentments against him, Lan Jue didn’t dare even think about offending them again . If they survived this fight then he would have to find a way to solve his women problems, but they had to live first . Thinking about it made his head hurt . These weren’t the old days, when having many wives was common practice . He couldn’t just wed them all, nor was he such a man .

At this time Luo Xianni also came wandering over . “What are you two young gentlemen talking about?” She asked . Outwardly she didn’t look much older than either of them, but they knew the truth .

He glanced at her and chuckled . “Auntie, we’re talking about having children . ”

Her eyes immediately lit up . “Children? Children are wonderful! A-Jue, have you decided to have kids soon? You should, quickly and en mass . I’ll help look after them, I’d love the opportunity since I’ve never had any of my own . ”

Lan Jue cast his adoptive mother a helpless look . “Alright, alright – at least wait to see if we live through this fight . ” He didn’t dare tell her the prospect of her looking after his kids worried him . Without question the sentiment would not go over well .

“Eh?” She said suddenly . “It’s starting?”

Lan Jue’s pupils contracted . He shot to his feet and peered out the window toward the armada . Just as she said twelve ships had separated from the others . They weren’t moving forward, but instead were spreading out . Middle Heaven was in the lead, a bright spot against a deep black backdrop .

The twelve ships followed as the East’s bastion pressed forward .

The other two bastions – Poseidon and Tyrannosaurus – were on the move as well . They slowly moved forward in a triangular formation with Middle Heaven in the front and the support ships filling in the spaces in between .

They weren’t fast . On the contrary, they moved at a snail’s pace, but ever forward toward their destination . It filled everyone with a suffocating sense of pressure, like a rolling war machine that promised to crush anything before it into dust .

The aliens reacted, with beasts surging toward the planet from all directions . They also arranged in formation . It was then a strange scene emerged .

A thick and impenetrable mist gushed out around them – a violet smokescreen that was belched from beasts that looked like mutated pufferfish . They waddled to the front lines with their big bellies and spat the smog before the arrayed defenders . It took only a few moments before everything was lost in a purple haze .

The Keeper stared at the spectacle with furrowed brow . “This smoke likely isn’t just to hide their positions . It will affect our radar systems, too . ”

Zeus-1 was still keeping its position secret, so its systems were still offline, including radar . However the Keeper’s hypothesis was sound, and they knew enough about their cunning foe to know their actions were anything but random . There was a reason for this .

As time stretched on even Angel disappeared in the poisonous fog . A vast swath of space was hidden from view .

But the human armada made no signs of stopping . They advanced with the same slow, indomitable pace . Middle Heaven revealed its honeycomb of guns once more, their barrels glowing ominously .

As it had shown before, Middle Heaven could use this barrels to launch itself backward and out of harm’s way . This time the rest of the human army was spread out behind it like the wings of a swallow, with nothing behind it . This meant Middle Heaven could advance and retreat at a moment’s notice .

Meanwhile the smog was only growing thicker . It billowed like a cloud of cosmic dust that no human instruments were able to penetrate . Indeed the aliens had many tricks up their sleeves, and this was one they’d never encountered before . It was a tactics well suited to their weak ranged fighting capabilities .

Human ships could not see the enemy, nor could their systems get a lock on any target . The advantage of their ranged guns was severely curtailed .

“Admiral, sir! All of our scanning and targeting systems are unable to penetrate the fog . Our guns can’t find their targets . ” Lan Qing and his people discovered the problem quickly .

He nodded . “Keep our scanners up, stick to the plan . ”

“Aye, aye!”

Lan Jue was seated behind his desk in the control center, with a hundred soldiers busily checking systems all around . Middle Heaven was different from traditional bastions . The Admiral was, of course, responsible for all of the ship’s final decisions . However, he also personally managed several of the ship’s systems . The control board in front of Lan Qing was large and complicated .

The opposing sides were drawing nearer by the second, and human ships had all begun to shine as their weapons were charged . The battle was about to begin any moment . Yet the humans could no longer see any sign of their enemy through the fog .

Lan Qing spoke through the special communications channel they’d set up . “Begin!”

“Aye, aye!”

With his calm command Middle Heaven’s myriad guns blazed orange in much the same way it had before . The aliens, meanwhile, remained a mystery though there was no sign of movement . They hid behind the screen, seemingly unperturbed by the threat of Middle Heaven’s weapons . Their bastion’s guns would strike the planet first, and the explosion of a planet would obliterate anything near it – including the humans . What’s more, the aliens were sure their attackers wouldn’t put their own planet in danger .

Judging solely by Middle Heaven’s size, its main guns were more than likely capable of destroying a planet . The aliens believed this without a shadow of a doubt . This was their reasoning behind using the planet as a shield .

If their leaders decided to cast out their misgivings and destroy the planet, the morale of their people would collapse . It would be pointless anyway, because the humans could not know the location of the home worlds behind the seven planets . If they dared to push through they would be surrounded and summarily destroyed . The power of the home worlds had been revealed to the stubborn humans more than once .

Finally, Middle Heaven slowly came to a halt a short distance behind where it had been during its first attack, though still within firing distance . The aliens did not rush to meet them . They just waited… waited for their prey to come closer .

If the humans fled from the mist that would serve their purposes just as well . They would not pursue them . Their main objective was to stall for time, so they did not rush to engage .

Suddenly Middle Heaven lit up – more accurately, its guns flared to life . A wall of angry red energy burst forth . They fired without pretense, not in a sustained stream but instead as a hail of energized orbs . They sizzled and burned as they made their way toward Angel .

Without question, this was Middle Heaven’s main weapon .

Were the humans really going to disregard the safety of their own planet?

Because Zeus-1 was position closer to the side of the planet, Lan Jue could spy some of the condition behind the mist . He saw the aliens moving erratically as the orbs neared .