451: Initiate emergency procedures

Time returned to when the fleet had just entered the new spatial rift.

Inside the spatial rift, a large amount of spatial turbulence surged, and wherever it passed, the starship's outer shell was crumpled and torn like paper.

Captain Li Yang stood in the Command Room, watching the light points representing friendly ships on the screen extinguish one by one. The left wing of Ship Three was twisted into scrap metal by the spatial turbulence, and Ship Seven attempted to turn and evade, but was crushed as the rift's edges suddenly tightened, folding its hull in half. The last communication image from the cockpit froze on the captain's desperate face.

“Attention all personnel! Abandon ship immediately!”

Captain Li Yang's voice came through the communication channel, overriding the piercing alarm, carrying an undeniable calm.

“All escape pods are to launch dispersed at random coordinates, set random jump parameters, do not cluster!”

His fingers flew across the control panel, forcibly taking over the launch authorization for all escape pods.

After all, in this situation, staying in the starship would most likely result in being swept away by space. As the saying goes, don't put all your eggs in one basket.

It was better to disperse all remaining officers and soldiers in escape pods; perhaps a lucky few might still successfully leave this space and survive.

On the screen, small green dots representing escape pods began to light up successively, like stars scattered into the night, launching in different directions out of the rift.

Pal rushed into the Command Room, his face full of anxiety.

“Captain Li Yang! Your escape pod is ready! Hurry!”

Captain Li Yang didn't turn his head, his gaze fixed on the launch trajectories of each starship's escape pods until the last green dot successfully jumped out of the rift's range, then he let out a sigh of relief.

The ship's hull was already covered in cracks, always at risk of being torn apart or crushed by space.

“Divert all remaining energy to the escape pod thrusters, make them go even further.”

He ordered, his fingertips white from exertion.

“What about you?!”

Pal roared, tears mixed with dust rolling down his face.

Captain Li Yang finally turned around, his face splattered with grime, but he smiled, pointing to a projection of an escape pod on the control panel's screen—a single-person escape pod within the ship's hull.

“I am the commander; I can't let my comrades see me run first. So I will wait until everyone has successfully left the starship before entering my escape pod. Someone, take Pal to an escape pod!”

Several officers quickly came forward, ignoring Pal's struggles and roars, and escorted Pal out of the Command Room.

Captain Li Yang watched as the last escape pod shot out like an arrow, then slowly walked towards the smallest, spare escape pod reserved for himself.

“Whether you live or not, depends on your luck.”

But just as Captain Li Yang entered the escape pod, a powerful spatial turbulence struck the ship's hull. Before Captain Li Yang could launch his escape pod, he completely lost consciousness... The young man watched the figure stumble out of the “capsule,” his heart pounding, his hands gripping the baseball bat tightly, trembling as he aimed it at the other person.

The person in front of him was covered in blood, the dark red stains on his body glowing eerily in the moonlight, especially the deep, bone-exposing wound on his chest, which made his scalp tingle.

Even more bizarre, this person had fallen from the sky. Anyone suddenly encountering such a scene would feel a chill down their spine.

“You... who are you? What kind of person are you?”

The young man's voice was tight, with an uncontrollable tremor, but he still forced out a few questions.

His palms, gripping the bat, were sweaty, his gaze fixed on the other person, fearing any dangerous moves.

Captain Li Yang was pulled back to some clarity by the shouted question. His vision, which had been somewhat blurred by intense pain and blood loss, slowly focused, and he finally noticed the young man standing before him.

The other person's attire resembled that from the Blue Star era, his figure slight, looking as if he had just come of age, his face filled with vigilance and fear, and he held a baseball bat.

“Intelligent life from another civilization... or human...”

Captain Li Yang silently mused.

The language from the other's mouth was rough and difficult, neither the Empire's common tongue nor in any known civilization's language database stored in the smart-brain—it seemed that although he had escaped the spatial rift, he had stumbled into a starfield the Empire had never ventured into.

He tried to speak, but his throat felt clogged with blood clots, only able to produce a hoarse gasp.

A tearing pain shot through his chest, making his vision darken. He had to lean back against the escape pod wall to barely steady himself, the sharpness in his eyes dulled by weakness, leaving only a hint of caution towards the unknown environment.

“No... too severely injured, must find a way to deal with it.”

Captain Li Yang did not respond to the young man's questioning, his attention completely seized by the excruciating pain in his chest.

He looked down at the deep, bone-exposing wound; blood was still gushing out, each breath felt like a dull knife stirring in his chest, and his vision was already blurring.

He staggered back and looked at the escape pod behind him.

The pod's outer shell was covered in cracks, several indicator lights were completely off, and the energy reserve bar on the control panel showed only a faint red glow. This little energy could barely sustain the basic life support system, let alone activate the built-in medical bay.

Consciousness was rapidly fading, and Captain Li Yang knew he wouldn't last much longer.

He gritted his teeth, using his last ounce of strength to give an order to the void, his voice weak but clear.

“Smart-brain, execute the destruction program on the escape pod, activate the highest level security protocol, all data... to be handled by you.”

This was the final safeguard.

“Instruction received. Destruction program initiated, highest security protocol activated.”

The smart-brain's electronic voice remained steady and unperturbed.

The scene that appeared next completely exceeded the young man's comprehension: the three-meter-tall escape pod, gleaming with metallic cold light, seemed to be erased by an invisible eraser, slowly dissipating from the top down.

The edges of the silver-white pod glowed with tiny light specks, like error-loading pixel blocks in a game screen, gradually decomposing and dissolving, along with the grotesque bullet holes and scorched marks, all turning into nothingness in silence.

In just a few short seconds, the behemoth that had occupied half the crater completely vanished, leaving only a fist-sized, entirely black spherical object, suspended at the bottom of the pit, its surface flowing with a faint, eerie blue light.

“Temporary multi-functional smart carrier conversion complete, attempting connection...”

A cold electronic voice emanated from the black sphere, with the characteristic steady tone of a machine.

The smart-brain had drained all remaining energy from the pod, compressing and reconstructing all materials through the pod's conversion device, transforming them into this new carrier capable of housing its program.

“This way... it's good...”

Captain Li Yang watched this scene, mumbling, his body no longer able to stand. His vision went black, and he fell straight backward.

In a coma, Captain Li Yang's breathing was weak, his life hanging by a thread. At this moment, only by relying on the smart-brain could the subsequent emergency plan be executed.