Chapter 407 Invisible Enemy


Chapter 407 The Invisible Enemy

Yu Hui suddenly disappeared en masse while being pursued by the Empire. This situation puzzled Chen Ming.

Generally speaking, if they disappear, they just disappear. It may be that they have mastered some special means and escaped. This is normal.

But all the supplies that were supposed to be taken away with the retreat were left behind for the Empire. This situation was obviously very wrong.

It just so happens that Chen Ming is free recently.

The spacecraft design is nearing completion and needs a thorough self-inspection before the final closing phase begins.

He could have taken the initiative to intervene in this matter and investigate it.

the next day.

Chen Ming still drove his Supreme Point, and after several jumps, he successfully arrived outside the empire, the frontline headquarters of the Fourteenth Army Corps in the area where they had been at war with the Machine Tribe in the past six months.

The location of the headquarters is an afterglow military planet occupied by the Legion.

With advance notice, Chen Ming arrived at the planet's ground port smoothly.

The legion commander is already waiting for him here.

As soon as Chen Ming cleared the spaceship, the legion commander took the initiative to greet him and extended his hand to him.

Chen Ming shook his hand and went straight to the point and asked: "What's the specific situation? Are all Yuhui still missing? Are there still no clues?"

"It is true that everyone is still missing. There are clues, but I feel it is a bit difficult to figure out what is going on."

"Come with me first."

The legion commander signaled to Chen Ming and took Chen Ming on the shuttle boat to the nearest military base, which was also the real command center on the front line.

After boarding the spaceship, the legion commander placed a terminal on the small table in the shuttle boat and projected a star map of the empire's border.

The legion commander then handed several documents to Chen Ming. While Chen Ming read the documents, he explained to him the general situation when they were chasing Yu Hui.

Simply put.

The retreat of the Afterglow army was not a mass escape. They still maintained a complete social structure.

Moreover, they did not actually show any obvious desire to retreat at the beginning, but continued to pretend there exactly as they were, as if they didn't care at all about the empire's attack on the machine race and the end of the machine race.

During the war with the Machine Tribe, the Fourteenth Legion had not yet received an order to directly launch a large-scale attack on Yuhui.

Therefore, the fighting at the previous intensity has been maintained.

Until one day, the legion commander discovered that Yuhui's fighting power with the legion was obviously much weaker, and there was less follow-up supplementation.

So some additional reconnaissance fleets were sent out.

After receiving reports from the fleet that bypassed the flank for reconnaissance, the legion commander confirmed that Yu Hui had run away, and he immediately received instructions from the empire to track Yu Hui's escape.

They actually retreated slowly after a relatively long period of preparation.

Therefore, Yuhui specially separated a considerable number of individuals to stay in their original territory, responsible for blocking the pursuing Imperial fleet.

Then the Yuhui in the star field farthest from the empire packed up their homes and ran away. When they took away everything they could, the large-scale fleet divided into several batches chose to retreat.

Judging from the traces currently investigated, the Afterglow force is divided into five fleets that maintain contact with each other, but have a relatively loose structure.

They are the forward, middle, rear, port and starboard fleets.

They didn't scatter too far, and it seemed they planned to separate only when something really went wrong.

Although the plan seemed to be good, from the fact that the legion commander knew Yuhui's retreat plan in such detail, it was obvious that their counter-reconnaissance was not good enough.

And...

"Retreating like this? Are you really afraid of being chased by the imperial fleet and harassed to death?"

"It's better than being beaten to death here."

"And they have been doing this secretly for a long time. Although we detected it very early, they retreated faster."

The legion commander raised his hand and drew a crooked trace on the terminal projection in front of him, and some corners of these traces would often diverge into small branches. Obviously, this was Yuhui's retreat route.

And the end of this route is not finished yet.

"The front fleet of Yuhui evacuated the earliest. We really can't track them accurately and can't determine where they went."

"But as long as there is an afterglow fleet escaping behind, they will eventually converge."

"So what I did before was to deliberately hang them and not kill them completely, in case the earliest batch of Yuhui who escaped before we could react could not catch up."

Chen Ming said: "In the end, something unexpected happened."

"Yes, no one expected it."

"So when exactly did you disappear?"

"The day before yesterday."

The legion commander gave a certain amount of time and said: "Our fleet at the front has almost touched the tail of the fleet at the rear of Afterglow."

"Before I could really take action, this happened."

"Look at this position."

The legion commander pointed to a point on the star map.

Chen Ming carefully looked at the various professional military markings on the projection, mobilized the knowledge he had learned in his mind, and said: "This is the location of the final battle with Yuhui's rear troops."

"Yes, it was here that we killed Yu Hui's last blocking force and found that there was no new fleet to resist in the future"

"Gone?"

"Yes."

"Originally, Yuhui regularly sent fleets to our side to stop us. It can also be said that they used their lives to stop us and gain time to evacuate."

"I guess I think we can escape once the distance is extended and our logistics can't keep up."

"They didn't realize how determined we were."

"After finishing one battle, we were still waiting for the next one. Yuhui suddenly stopped sending a fleet, which was very strange."

"At that time, I thought that it couldn't be the Afterglow Fleet that had destroyed the area. There must be some reason, so I sent a ship to investigate first."

"Then in this position."

The legion commander pointed to the place on the star map where the last battle between legion and afterglow broke out more than three hundred light years away, which was near the area where the line had not been completed just now.

"Here we found the rear fleet of the large force retreating in the afterglow."

Chen Ming raised his hand and interrupted: "Discovered the fleet? I thought only the supplies were lost to Yuhui, and then they escaped and couldn't catch up."

"No, maybe I didn't make it clear in the message I sent you."

"In short, the entire retreating transport fleet is here. There are many supplies that are not too important in this fleet. I guess they want to abandon these and continue to waste time when we are about to catch up."
< br>

"There are indeed almost no supplies here that can keep us going, but these things are here, and we basically got them without encountering any resistance."

"No resistance?"

Chen Ming repeated the legion leader's words in a questioning tone, wanting to know more details.

The legion commander explained; "Because only some automated defense weapons detected our fleet and resisted slightly, all Afterglow's spaceships became silent."

"Whether it is the spacecraft or the afterglow core that should be installed in various equipment that was taken away, everything is gone."

"Only the afterglow core is missing."

"And there's something even stranger."

"We also discovered a group of Afterglow fleets here that were obviously trying to rear their tail and fight our fleet."

"The ship is all there but the afterglow core inside is also missing."

Chen Ming frowned subconsciously. He now couldn't understand why such a strange thing happened.

Chen Ming could understand the disappearance of the transport fleet's Afterhui core. After all, Yuhui might choose to load all the cores together and take them away in order to preserve more cores.

This is what Chen Ming did when he was collecting wool from Yu Hui.

But he couldn't understand the battleship without its afterglow core.

Yuhui is now being hunted by the empire, and instead of resisting, the fleet spaceship is abandoned on the spot?

Even if he set up the autopilot and automatic fire of the spacecraft, Chen Ming had tried his best to set it up as an afterglow, but now?

Chen Ming couldn't help but ask: "Is there no sign of battle or other damage to the fleet behind Yuhui Palace?"

"No, all the ships are in good condition, and there are no traces of violent dismantling. They were dismantled by normal dismantling methods."

"Judging from the remaining state of the spacecraft, those ships were already floating there about ten days ago, and the afterglow we fought were all dispatched earlier."

"We didn't advance too fast, and we were deliberately fighting the fleet sent by Yuhui behind us, so we never found it."

"It's outrageous." Chen Ming stared at the star map projection in front of him for a while and asked what he was thinking; "Is it possible that Yu Hui wants to take only the core, discard the others, and speed away?" < br>


The legion commander gave the same answer as Chen Ming thought: "Of course there is such suspicion, but there is no need to withdraw the blocking fleet."

"Afterglow has reached the point of life and death for them. There is really no need to save this core."

"Even if you set up an automatic program to automatically lock and fire when other spaceships approach, it is better than just leaving it there."

"Yes." Chen Ming nodded slightly and asked: "What about the fleet in front?"

"The reconnaissance fleet is still pursuing them. If the same thing happens to the fleet in front, it is estimated that our reconnaissance fleet will discover them within today."

"We're here."

The legion commander suddenly pointed out the window of the shuttle boat.

Chen Ming looked around and saw that diagonally below the spacecraft was the renovated human command center of Yu Hui's military base.

However, the shuttle boat turned a corner during the landing and flew in another approaching direction.

"Let's go to the test site first. Earlier this morning, the scouts in front of us brought back some samples of the fleet and cargo left behind by Yuhui. There might be clues on them."

Chen Ming's spiritual energy has been used for such a long time, and everyone who should know about it also knows the effects of Chen Ming's spiritual energy.

As long as he can bring back some samples, he can always tell something. Chen Ming did not refuse.

Since he came here, he had the idea of ​​​​helping in this matter.

After all, the connection between Yuhui and him can be said to be quite close, and he really wants to use the empire's means to take advantage of Yuhui.

If something goes wrong, it's not a big deal to help take a look.

He was indeed curious as to what caused Yuhui to be in such a situation.

The testing ground set up by the legion was under an obviously newly built dome.

The shuttle boat quickly landed in the open space near the dome.

When Chen Minggang stepped off the shuttle boat with the legion commander, he saw a spaceship using electromagnetic capture equipment to hoist an afterglow spacecraft into the dome at the edge of the dome in the distance.

The outside of the spacecraft also carries some equipment, supplies, etc. that also belong to Yuhui.

When the spacecraft arrived inside the dome, it hovered in the air in the center of the dome.

Under the guidance of ground personnel, the captured objects are gradually placed in different areas on the ground.

Chen Ming could see that in the open space in the center of the dome, some things that had been transported earlier were placed there, waiting for someone to investigate.

As for who is waiting, it goes without saying.

Chen Ming and the legion commander quickly changed their ground vehicles and entered the dome smoothly.

Once inside the dome.

Chen Ming keenly smelled a familiar smell from the body created by Zerg technology.

He will never forget this smell in his life, because it is the smell of toxic substances produced by the mechanical nanorobots when they are operating.

The source of this smell comes from the afterglow things brought back by the spacecraft.

Chen Ming immediately asked the driver to stop the car and opened the door.

He came outside the car and took a few deep breaths.

Although the smell is very light, it proves that there are not many pollutants in the air and the degree of harm is very low.

Not to mention that the body Chen Ming is currently using does not have such a big impact on ordinary people. Inhaling too much poison gas may at most cause minor problems such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

But this is a pollutant anyway.

Chen Ming immediately said to the legion commander who also got out of the car: "Let everyone under the dome evacuate first. Anyone who has been in contact with Yuhui's things should go to the hospital for examination."

The regiment commander's expression became more serious: "What's wrong?"

"The pollutants from the mechanical family are on those things in Afterglow. The concentration is very light. I see that everyone is wearing protective clothing. It shouldn't be a big problem. But to be on the safe side, let's get people out first."

Chen Ming said so, and the legion commander was unambiguous. He took out a walkie-talkie, adjusted the channel, and asked, "Have the contaminants on the Yuhui things you brought back been checked?"

"I've checked and everything is normal, but I haven't done the purification yet. Time is too tight."

The legion commander turned around and frowned, switched several communication channels, and issued several orders to order everyone who had been in contact with Yu Hui today to go to the hospital for examination without a moment's hesitation.

After finishing this, he looked at Chen Ming again and said: "It seems that I need to adjust the data of the inspection equipment later."

Chen Ming nodded slightly, pointed to the open space in the distance and said: "Actually, these pollutants are quite strange. I don't even feel that they are ordinary pollutants. In short, Yuhui's disappearance is likely to have something to do with the mechanical race."< br>


The legion commander immediately thought of the past and said, "I remember you brought back a big star map some time ago?"

Chen Ming, who was thinking about this matter, immediately said: "Yes, I remember that there seems to be no mechanical race near the place where Yuhui disappeared on the star map, but if there is a mechanical race, since we killed the nearest mechanical race star field some time ago, If you rush here..."

Chen Ming didn't finish his words, but his meaning was already very clear.

This was something he had warned the Empire some time ago.

Now, his warning appears to be coming true.

The people under the dome began to withdraw one after another.

Even the driver, Chen Ming and the legion commander, and the accompanying guards were all withdrawn.

Chen Ming didn't know why he and the legion commander, the two top psykers in the empire, had guards around them, but it didn't matter.

After confirming that everyone nearby had evacuated, he directly put a piece of biological armor on his body and approached the scorpion where Yuhui's things were placed.

The legion commander also followed Chen Ming's footsteps without any protection.

Soon the two came to the area where Yuhui's things were placed.

Things that can be seen from the high point next to the afterglow of the site are placed in three areas.

The first area contains several Afterglow combat ships.

The second area houses Yuhui's cargo ships. Many of Yuhui's cargo ships are copied from the Empire's designs, and are very different from their own combat ships, so they are easy to distinguish.

The third area contains Yuhui's cargo. This batch of cargo seems to be completely free of contaminants. At most, it was a little bit scratched when it was moved out.

Chen Ming glanced around the field several times, preparing to start with the combat spacecraft.

But just before he took action, the regiment commander suddenly said to Chen Ming: "Wait a moment, there is news from the front line."

He looked down at the terminal for a while and said to Chen Ming: "The frontline found traces of the destroyed Afterhui combat spaceship around where Yuhui's rear fleet stayed. It had drifted some distance away from the main force, so it was only seen now."

He turned the terminal and pointed it at Chen Ming so that Chen Ming could see the photos above clearly.

The content of the photos shows that Yuhui's battleship was cut off by something, and then something exploded from the inside.

Whether they were escorts, expulsors or main cruisers, all the shipwrecks had similar traces.

Moreover, Chen Ming also keenly observed that there were traces of metal rust on the edges of some spacecraft wreckage, which was very special.

This was also confirmed by several photos of the shooting details shown to Chen Ming by the regiment commander.

After reading it, the legion commander said: "The frontline judged that the enemies fighting these afterglow fleets used a cutting weapon and a penetrating corrosive explosive weapon."

Chen Ming shook his head and said: "I feel a little bit different, but I'm not sure what it is."

If you are not sure, there is nothing to say. The legion commander continued to say to Chen Ming: "The front line said that the wreckage has been captured and is being sent to the empire."

"Furthermore, other reconnaissance fleets also found the remains of some afterglow battleships between the positions of the afterglow rear fleet group and the expected central fleet group. The number is not large, but the damage is basically the same."


"Then more and more traces of the fleet group in the middle and front were discovered. Many ordinary afterglow spacecraft broke away from the team and were scattered on their navigation tracks."

"This should be enough to show that Yuhui's entire army has encountered this incident."

"Yeah." Chen Ming also agreed with this: "Then there should be no other news. We still have to start from here and take a look, and then talk about the wreckage and so on."

"Yes, let's start here."

Chen Ming said nothing more.

In a few steps, he arrived at the place where the Yuhui battleship was staying. He stretched out his hand and pressed on it, completely controlling the battleship.

And immediately called up the database of the spacecraft, wanting to confirm whether there was any valuable information stored in the databases of these combat spacecraft that were brought back as samples.

But Chen Ming searched carefully and found that in the past few months, there was no valuable data left in the system database of the spacecraft.

Chen Ming's expression did not change at all, but the metallic liquid that appeared around him instantly enveloped several battleships in an attempt to repair them.

As long as the situation of the spacecraft can be repaired to before the data was deleted, then the data that should be there can always be seen.

However, Chen Ming's repair also had no effect.

These

The combat spacecraft's storage unit does not store any logs from the most recent period.

There is only one possibility for this situation.

That was the afterglow core that was originally installed inside the spacecraft. When recording the spacecraft data, the spacecraft data was stored directly in their cores without going through the spacecraft's storage system.

The special nature of Afterglow cores allows them to do this.

Avoid some data leakage issues.

Chen Ming knew that some afterglow cores would do this. For example, afterglow cores that were about to upgrade from gamma to beta as their own abilities were optimized would do this in order to avoid the leakage of their own data caused by changing the spacecraft in the future.

But he didn't understand why these samples were like this?

It couldn't be that Yuhui's senior management had given some order, right?

Confused, Chen Ming turned around and took control of the cargo spacecraft in the next area.

The design of the cargo spacecraft is imitated from the design of human spacecraft.

The data acquired by these spacecrafts first passes through the spacecraft and then is transmitted to Afterglow.

Although the cargo ship's data was deleted, Chen Ming was able to see the specific situation after the psychic repair.

These cargo ships really captured the battle scenes of Afterglow.

It is not accurate to say that it was a battle, because the contents of the few scenes recorded on the cargo ship were all scenes of Yuhui's ship dying suddenly.

The warship that was originally sailing in the universe was suddenly cut into several sections by some kind of force, and other ships were detonated by some kind of force from the inside and outside and exploded into pieces.

In just ten seconds, there were dozens of capital ships of the rear fleet, more cruisers, and countless combat ships fighting in a battle where it was not clear who the enemy was or what their attack methods were. destroyed.

What happened next was even stranger.

All the afterglows took the initiative to unload their own afterglow cores uniformly, concentrated on a certain cargo spacecraft that abandoned materials, and left here.

Although leaving here was Chen Ming's own imagination, after all, when the cargo ship's afterglow core was disassembled, the data stored on the cargo ship had been deleted.

But judging from the actual situation, this is the fact.

and in the records of several cargo ships.

From beginning to end, Chen Ming did not see any enemies.

Afterglow seemed to be attacked by some invisible means.

(End of chapter)

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