radicalducati Chapter 85 Arriving at the Courthouse's Hometown
Chapter 85 Arriving at the Courthouse's Hometown
Chapter 85 Arriving at the Courthouse's Hometown
"Om one"
It was accompanied by a very slight, low-frequency hum that made the deck vibrate twice.
The New Bond ended its second subspace jump.
The curtain of reality split open ahead of the ship, and the white starship glided smoothly into the real universe.
On the bridge, Gamma-9 was peering out of the observation window, its single eye wide open, and it even reached out to touch its belly.
"I didn't throw up—I didn't throw up at all?"
Gamma-9 stared at its hands in disbelief, then burst into joyful laughter: "Hahaha, praise to Ohm Messiah! This is simply a miracle!"
In the past, taking a warp jump on an Imperial ship was basically like being stuffed into a washing machine and thrown off a cliff.
The crew members experienced severe nausea, headaches, and even terrifying hallucinations, hearing the screams of the dead.
After each jump, the cleaning crew has to spend half a day cleaning up the vomit on the floor.
But this ship is different.
Apart from a slight distortion in the field of vision, Gamma-9 didn't even feel the spaceship moving.
This is the true value of navigation technology in the golden age.
The current Imperial navigators rely on a mutated third eye to look directly at the starlight, and then navigate the ship based on intuition and experience.
Xiao Liu, on the other hand, calculates billions of times per second to accurately predict the direction of every subspace turbulence, and then controls the spaceship to squeeze through the gaps, not only making it stable, but also widening the path.
Andy sat in the command chair, ignoring Gamma-9's fuss over nothing.
He glanced at the mission time.
Only twenty-three hours had passed since the New Bang took off from Furnace No. 7.
At this pace, they were a full day ahead of schedule.
"Six, where are we now?" Andy asked.
Xiao Liu's cool voice rang out: "We are currently located directly below the Calissis Sector, on the edge of the Wandering Harbor, in the outer gravity well of the Ruby II system."
"We are still 20,000 kilometers away from the 'Giant Mouth'."
Andy nodded, indicating that the external optical sensor should be turned on.
The image on the main screen of the bridge flickered briefly before lighting up.
The moment they saw the scene outside, everyone on the bridge gasped.
"hiss----"
The mechanical tentacles behind Father Zor stiffened.
"Wow...there are way too many people!"
"Wow," Andy exclaimed, also taken aback, "What kind of Spring Festival travel rush is this?"
All that could be seen in the void ahead were countless ships.
Not dozens, not hundreds.
Instead, thousands upon thousands of ships of all kinds were crammed onto the edge of the Ruby II system.
There were legitimate imperial merchant ships, oil makers' ships, and some dilapidated civilian transport ships, which must have suffered quite a bit on the journey.
They were like traffic jams on a highway during the Chinese New Year holiday, completely blocking this star field.
All the ships are crowding in the same direction.
In that direction, there was a huge nebula vortex, emitting an eerie purple light, known as the "Giant Mouth".
The only stable subspace route to the Colonus expansion.
Speaking of which, this place is a very special location on the map of the empire's territory.
The Calissis sector is located on the edge of the Misty Starfield, within the borders of the Imperial civilization.
Further out, across this subspace passage known as the "Giant Mouth," lies the Colonus Expansion, the preliminary station for the Halo Sector that Andy is heading to.
Beyond that lies the deep space of the Halo Zone.
Normally, only money-grubbing wandering merchants or criminals wanted by the empire would go there.
But now, this place has become a lifeline.
As the commotion from the Eye of Fear grew, a warp storm began to rage across the entire star system, disrupting or making most conventional shipping lanes extremely dangerous.
Only the "Giant Mouth" waterway, due to some unknown astronomical reason, remains relatively stable.
As a result, refugees, deserters, and speculators from all over the star sector flocked here.
Everyone wants to make money.
Escape the impending Black Crusade, escape the Tyranids, escape the Greenskinned Orcs.
Even if it's an unknown wilderness over there, it's better than staying here and waiting to die.
This mindset is exactly the same as Andy's.
"Don't push! Don't push!"
The communication channel was filled with a cacophony of shouting and cursing.
"I am a ship of the Agrippina Grain Group, and I have the right of way!"
"Screw your priority! My ship's about to explode, I need to get into the Wandering Harbor to repair it, get out of my way!"
"Move something! Don't you want to live?!"
Andy frowned as he listened to the noise.
There must be something wrong with this traffic jam.
Since everyone wants to run, they should all rush in together, so why are they all stopping here?
"Zoom in on the image."
Andy pointed to the front of the fleet.
"Let's see what's blocking the road."
Xiao Liu adjusted the focus.
The camera zooms in, passing through the chaotic civilian boats, and focuses on the entrance to the "giant mouth".
The moment Andy saw what it was, his heart sank.
A fleet was anchored there.
An imperial naval fleet, arranged in standard battle formation with cannons pointing outwards, exuding a chilling aura.
A dozen or so Luna-class cruisers, plus two even larger Dictator-class cruisers, formed an iron wall blocking the entrance to the shipping lane.
Their side armor was painted with a striking white double-headed eagle emblem, along with a line of Gothic numbers.
"Baltford Battle Group"
Father Zor's voice grew hoarse as he explained, "It's the main force of the Calicus battle fleet; it looks like they're blocking the shipping lanes."
Andy watched the shimmering void shields on the warships and the array of macro cannons ready to fire at any moment.
It's less of a lockdown and more of a massive checkpoint!
Any ship attempting to force its way through the checkpoint will be instantly turned into space debris by concentrated fire.
Among these gray naval warships were several slender spaceships painted pure black, without any numbers or insignia.
Those ships didn't look very big; they weren't even as big as the frigates.
But the sense of oppression they exuded was even stronger than that of the two Dictator-class cruisers.
"That is—"
Sisyphus hid behind Andy, peeked out with half his head, then quickly withdrew, his face pale.
"Black Ships"
"The Black Ship of the Tribunal"
The moment those two words were uttered, the temperature on the bridge seemed to drop to freezing point.
Black Ships.
In the nightmares of the empire's people, this thing was second only to the Chaos Demon in terror.
They belong to the Hall of Star Language and the Inquisition, and their sole mission is to hunt down psykers, mutants, and heretics throughout the galaxy.
Once you're caught on that ship, you'll only have two fates.
You'll either be dragged to Holy Terra to be fed as firewood to the Emperor, or you'll be executed on the spot.
"unlucky!"
Andy muttered a curse under his breath.
He should have thought of that sooner.
The Calissis sector has another name: "the back garden of the Inquisition".
The famous Inquisition fortress, Tricoon Palace, is located on Sintira, the capital of this sector, where the density of Inquisitors may be higher than that of rats in the bottom nest.
On the eve of this great collapse, the courtroom certainly wasn't idle either.
They sealed off this place not to collect tolls, but to screen for the infiltration of chaos.
The outflow of warp energy from beyond the Eye of Terror may have resulted in the infiltration of Chaos cultists into many refugee ships, or the corruption of some crew members during their escape.
The court will absolutely not allow these unclean things to escape to the Colonus enclave and pollute it as well.
Therefore, every ship that wants to pass through must undergo the most stringent inspections.
They not only inspect the goods, but also the people, and even subject them to a mental scan by psychics.
They will only be allowed to leave if they obtain a "certificate of purity" issued by the court.
"This is a big problem."
Andy leaned back in his chair, tapping his fingers on the armrest.
He turned his head and looked at the model of the New Bang in the holographic projection.
In short, first examine the "composition" of your own ship.
First of all, this is an unregistered ship without a registration number.
Although it was a merchant ship, that was an old almanac from hundreds of years ago, and there's a high probability that the current Imperial database won't have any record of its service.
Secondly, the style of this ship is completely wrong.
The Imperial Navy's ships were bulky, dark, and crude, adorned with skulls and wax seals, exuding a strong religious atmosphere.
And what about the New Bang?
After Andy's restoration, it is now smooth, white, and with lines so fluid it looks like an alien creation.
What's even more critical is the internal situation.
There is a little sixth on this ship, whose "abominable intelligence" is of excessive purity, a capital offense.
The ship was loaded with prohibited industrial equipment with completely fabricated serial numbers or even no serial numbers at all.
capital offense.
There was also a gene stealer locked in a cold storage room in the cargo hold.
A capital offense!
The most outrageous thing is that the captain of this ship is a fucking iron man!
This is beyond the death penalty; it is the ultimate heresy that will be reduced to ashes and its name erased from history!
It can be said that every part of the New Bang, down to the smallest screw, is etched with the word "heresy".
This is like a wanted criminal driving a stolen police car, loaded with drugs and weapons, with a terrorist in the passenger seat, and then swaggering into the police station compound and asking if they can be let through.
As long as Andy dares to sail the boat over there, even if it's just close to that checkpoint.
The psionicists in the Inquisition only need to glance this way, and the Navy's oracles can scan the ship's structure.
The next second, all the light spears and macro cannons will be aimed at this spot.
"Mr. Andy, we can't get through."
Father Zor slumped in his chair, rubbing his face with a mechanical hand.
"Those black ships—their scanning arrays can penetrate conventional shielding. If they find an active Abomination AI on board, we're doomed."
"Even if we turn around and run, we still can't outrun a naval cruiser."
"Then what do we do?" Gamma-9 asked, "Force our way in?"
"What a load of crap."
Andy rolled her eyes at him.
"Those were two Dictator-class cruisers, leading an entire squadron of Luna-class cruisers, and those black ships—who knows what kind of advanced technology they're equipped with?"
"Although the New Bang has been repaired, it only has one layer of void shield, and its weapon system is still very immature."
"Trying to break through the regular army's blockade with this kind of firepower is no different from suicide."
The bridge fell silent; everyone stared at the large screen.
Ahead lay an impenetrable blockade and the dark muzzles of cannons; to the left and right lay the vast expanse of deep space, with no supplies and no shipping lanes.
Caught between a rock and a hard place, unable to escape even with wings.
Andy looked at the unlucky spaceships still queuing up.
An ordinary-looking merchant ship was spotted by a black ship as soon as it approached the checkpoint.
Without any warning, a lance on the side of the black ship suddenly opened fire.
"Zi"
The merchant ship was instantly sliced in two, and the explosion's flames silently bloomed in space.
Clearly, the court discovered something and carried out the execution on the spot.
This scene sent chills down the spines of everyone on the New Bond.
It's too cruel.
This is the style of the court: better to kill a thousand innocent people than let one guilty person go free.
Under such high pressure and red lines, any clever tricks or pretense are futile.
Andy took a deep breath.
Since conventional methods are not working, we have to think of some unconventional approaches.
If you can't get through it head-on, then go around it?
Impossible. The subspace turbulence around Ruby 2 is too strong; the only way forward is through the "Mouth."
Then————
"Sixth grade."
Andy turned and asked.
What do you think?