Chapter 37 Disruption of the Transportation Line

The dark matter engine emitted a low hum resembling a dying behemoth, the sound waves echoing back and forth across the shuttle's metallic bulkheads and causing the indicator lights on the dashboard to tremble slightly. Piloting the stealth shuttle like ancient assassins cloaked in the mantle of night, Lin Yu’s "Broken Chain Project" team moved silently through the profound darkness of the universe. Outside the portholes, starlight was filtered by special coatings into faint points of light like scattered fireflies, accentuating the utter stillness of this unknown sector.

They were closing in on the crystalline transport lanes at the edge of the Charon system, a vital lifeline of the mysterious organization. The present silence, however, was merely the calm before the storm. The infrared scanning imagery on the tactical eyepiece flickered continuously; amidst the snowy static noise, three armed transport ships ahead towed massive cargo holds, resembling giant steel whales swimming slowly through the deep sea as they headed toward the jump point. The eerie blue light flowing across the surfaces of the cargo holds resembled the pupils of demons, and within that glow, countless tiny runes seemed to wriggle, silently proclaiming that they carried lethal crystals capable of tearing spacetime apart.

"Prepare for infiltration," Lin Yu’s voice came through the quantum communicator, the suppressed tension transmitting through the current like a physical presence. His Adam's apple bobbed involuntarily, and a thin layer of condensation formed on the respirator of his tactical eyepiece. The team members moved swiftly, nano-stealth suits conforming tightly to their bodies. Woven from nanoscale optical refraction materials, these battle suits could bend light into an invisible protective barrier, rendering them near-invisible in the vacuum of environment, like ghosts merging into the darkness.

As Ali was putting on his equipment, his finger was accidentally scratched by the metal buckle of a magnetic cable, his fresh blood dripping onto the cabin floor and instantly freezing into a dark red ice crystal. When the courses of the shuttle and the transport ship perfectly coincided, the magnetic anchor attached itself to the bottom of the transport ship like the sucker of a hungry octopus. The moment the metals locked together, a faint yet distinct click rang out. Grasping the magnetic cables, the team members climbed swiftly through the freezing cosmic space with the agile postures of dexterous spiders; every kick and push sent a ripple-like shimmer across the surfaces of their nano-suits.

Under Chen Mo’s mechanical eye scan, the encryption system of the cargo hatch was stripped bare like a peeled secret, offering nowhere to hide. His mechanical fingers danced rapidly across the control panel, the collision of metal joints producing a subtle yet distinct clicking sound that mirrored his nervous heartbeat.

Sweat slid down his angular jawline, flashing with an uneasy luster under the blue illumination of the tactical eyepiece.

"Thirty seconds left to crack it," he lowered his voice. Just as the words fell, the control panel suddenly erupted with a string of electric sparks, startling him into pulling his hand back abruptly. Gripping his pulse rifle tightly with the weapon's grooves deeply embedded in his palm, Lin Yu kept a vigilant watch on his surroundings, his nerves stretched taut like a bowstring about to snap.

A sound of metallic friction from a ventilation pipe on the distant transport ship caused him to instantly swing the muzzle toward the source, and he only slightly relaxed his tense muscles after confirming it was merely the normal thermal expansion and contraction of the pipeline.

With a brilliant flash of blue light, the cargo hatch slowly opened, the roar of rotating gears resembling the low growl of a giant beast. Inside the cargo hold, neatly arranged crystal cargo crates emitted an unearthly glow, within which mysterious runes faintly flowed. The air was thick with a pungent scent of energy fluctuations reminiscent of burning sulfur, irritating everyone's nasal passages.

Lin Yu’s tactical eyepiece suddenly issued a warning, indicating that the radiation level in the air was soaring rapidly. The team members quickly split into two groups: one group, holding anti-matter bombs, moved lightly among the cargo crates to find the optimal placement points; the other group raised their weapons in vigilance, their gazes burning like torches as they guarded against any potential danger. Lin Yu secured a bomb to the junction of a cargo crate, his slender fingers expertly setting the countdown—five minutes. With each digit set, he could feel the slight tremor transmitted through the bomb's outer shell, the sign that its internal energy core was activating.

At that moment, a piercing alarm pierced the silence like the scream of a night owl, and the red lights inside the cargo hold flashed frantically like the beating heart of a demon.

"We've been discovered!" cried one team member, his exclamation tinged with unconcealed panic as his tactical eyepiece was instantly overwhelmed by enemy jamming signals, turning the display into a field of static. The transport ship's defense system activated instantly, automatic turrets spinning wildly like awakening mechanical beasts, and dense energy beams poured toward the team members like bolts of fatal lightning.

Lin Yu raised his rifle and fired. The blue light spewing from the quantum resonance rifle collided with the enemy's energy beams in mid-air, bursting into blinding sparks. The heat wave generated by the violent energy impact rushed at him, scorching his skin and even carrying the smell of his tactical suit's edges being singed. "Fall back, now!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, pulling the trigger continuously to suppress the enemies with firepower while covering the team members' retreat. During the withdrawal, Suyao’s leg was grazed by an energy beam, and blood spurted out, forming a suspended cloud of crimson mist in the vacuum.

The moment they scrambled aboard the shuttle in disarray, a deafening explosion echoed behind them. The first transport ship disintegrated into countless fragments amidst soaring flames, and the powerful shockwave rolled across the space like a rampaging cosmic storm, rocking the shuttle violently. Everyone tumbled about the cabin, and Chen Mo’s mechanical arm slammed heavily against the bulkhead with a dull metallic thud.

Yet, the mission was far from over. The remaining two transport ships, like startled beasts, suddenly altered course and accelerated toward the crystal storage facility, their plasma exhaust plumes painting two scarlet trails across the dark void.

A flash of resolute determination crossed Lin Yu’s eyes as he rapidly adjusted his strategy: "After them! We strike at the storage facility!" His palm slammed heavily onto the console's acceleration button, and the roar of the engines escalated sharply, sounding like an enraged beast howling.

Like an enraged falcon, the shuttle spewed searing exhaust from its engines, chasing relentlessly like an arrow released from a string. The moment the transport ships touched down at the storage facility, the enemy ground troops, already lying in wait, immediately swarmed forward. Their armor gleamed with a cold luster under the searchlights like a pack of steel monsters. A fierce firefight broke out instantly; the shrieks of bullets and the roars of energy beams shook the heavens, weaving an alarming net of death.

Lin Yu led his team weaving flexibly through the rain of gunfire, his tactical eyepiece continuously tagging enemy positions with red dots resembling the marks of the grim reaper. "Ali, use the electromagnetic pulse bomb to paralyze their defense towers!" His roar was filled with unquestionable majesty. With trembling hands, Ali loaded the electromagnetic pulse bomb into the launcher, sweat blurring his vision. As the electromagnetic pulse bomb detonated in the air with a blinding white flash, the lights of the defense towers went out instantly like a blown-out candle. However, the enemies quickly activated their backup power, and the searchlights flared back to life, illuminating the battlefield as bright as day.

Seizing this fleeting opportunity, the team members rushed into the core area of the storage facility like a pack of ferocious leopards. They quickly planted the bombs onto the crystal reactors. The moment the countdown began, everyone turned and sprinted away, their footsteps echoing in the empty corridor like hurried drumbeats. During the evacuation, Old Zhou’s leg was struck by a stray bullet, blood soaking his tactical trousers, yet he gritted his teeth and kept running, refusing to drag the team down.

A massive explosion resonated throughout the entire star system, the dazzling light resembling the birth of a new star, and the shockwave propagated outward at visible speed. The storage facility and the remaining transport ships were reduced to ashes in the blazing inferno, and a gigantic mushroom cloud rose slowly in space, its radiance even illuminating the surfaces of several nearby planets. Looking at the enemy signals gradually disappearing on his tactical eyepiece, Lin Yu finally relaxed his tense body and let out a long breath.

Leaning back in his seat, he only then realized that his hands were trembling uncontrollably from holding his weapon for so long. Yet he knew this was merely the first step in a protracted confrontation with the mysterious organization; ahead lay countless unknown dangers and even harsher challenges lurking in the darkness, waiting for them to face. Meanwhile, the universe, following a brief flash of brilliance, plunged back into profound darkness, as if nothing had ever happened.