The Almighty Ring

Following Z0-11’s lead, Jiang Fei and his army went on board the shuttle and proceeded.

“Mhm. I see that you really went all out for this,” said Jiang Fei after he had toured the entire craft. There were cargo bays loaded to the brim with supplies and equipment.

“This is but necessary. We want to make sure our forces are optimized,” said Z0-11.

“I understand. Shall we take off?”

“But of course. As soon as the last of my men is onboard, we will proceed with the take-off procedure,” said Z0-11.

After only 30 seconds, Straz waltz in to inform that all members were aboard the shuttle. Z0-11 then ordered the ship to start flying.

The target was within China’s border. The Unknowns were “born” within China and most of their operating bases were located close to the capital. Before the attack, Jiang Fei had preemptively sent a report to the military to inform them of their incursion. To be fair, even if he did not report, the military would know about it. Informing them earlier was only to prevent unwanted attention from the military. Not that they could do anything about it. A large flying vessel coursing through the skyline of China would be a sight hard to miss. This would not be a stealth attack but an open assault.

As such, there was no need for Z0-11 to equip and allocate extra energy for the cloaking system. Just by informing the military, Jiang Fei did not need to take precautions to avoid restricted airspace. If he did not inform the military, a large flying vessel intruding Chinese airspace would trigger a nationwide alert. Fighter jets would be scrambled to “disturb” Jiang Fei’s journey. Although Earthly-based weaponry could not put a dent on the Namekian shuttlecraft, they would still be a bother.

The ship rose to the sky and zoomed off with speed. Since the shuttle was not meant for space travel, it would succumb to Earth’s gravity. Even so, it was powerful enough for it to travel short distances. With speed, the entire army arrived at close proximity to their target.

“Leader, we will soon enter the enemy’s airspace,” said the pilot.

“Stop the ship!” said Z0-11 abruptly.

“How do we go from here?” Jiang Fei asked. From the looks of things, he concluded that the enemy would have deployed some form of defensive measures to prevent intruders from coming close. They would undeniably be attacked if they were flying closer.

“This is where you come in,” Z0-11 said.

“Me? What can I do?” Jiang Fei exclaimed. Jiang Fei was sure enough that he would not survive charging into the enemy base by himself. Even with Isabella protecting him, they would not make it to the enemy base without first being shot with holes like a honeycomb.

“I’m not asking you to charge in head first,” said the pilot as he could not hold his frustration for Jiang Fei being too dumb. He switched on the auto-pilot and turned to Jiang Fei, “We would require the help of the support system. Both the enemy and us are using the same Namekian defensive system. The only way we could breach in is to have the superior support system to hack into the enemy’s system and disable their defense.”

Jiang Fei was taken aback when they asked for the help of 0543. From where he stood, he thought they must have overestimated 0543’s power. Jiang Fei had always thought 0542 and 0543 were useless systems that could not do anything. Not like how 0541 was. Jiang Fei was rendered speechless when they were asking to rely on 0543’s “superior” capabilities to hack into the enemy’s system.

Ariel was only able to assume 0543 had been leaking information to the Unknowns whereas she had personally caught 0542 sending information to Straz. Since 0542 had almost zero evolution progress, the only explanation would be Z0-11 had managed to hack into 0542’s deep layer protocols. That would explain that 0542 being weaker in capability. However, they were now stating that the support system was the superior system, which would, as they claimed, able to break into the enemy’s system and disable their defenses.

Jiang Fei was confused. If 0542 and 0543 were so strong, how did it allow itself to be hacked in the first place? If 0542 was not hacked, that would only mean it had betrayed Jiang Fei on its own volition! What was that about?

“Jiang Fei, time is of the essence here. If we do not disable the enemy’s defense system, it would only be a matter of time before we will be attacked,” Straz chimed in.

“Very w-well,” Jiang Fei stuttered. He knew well that that was not the time to be dwelling in his own thoughts. Even though there were still questions that he wanted to tackle, he gave the order anyway.

“0543, hack into the enemy’s defense network and disable the defense system,” Jiang Fei ordered.

“Yes, captain! Attempting system breach…”

“Captain, without the main Data Management Center, I would take up to 12 hours 35 minutes to break into their system,” said 0543.

“What the f*ck? 12 hours? By the time you’re done, we would all be dead!” Jiang Fei roared. At the same time, he hoped that Z0-11 and the others were listening. He wanted them to know just how useless this support system was.

“I’ve brought the Data Management Center!” said Z0-11 immediately.

“Huh… Ugh. Very well,” Jiang Fei acknowledged. It really looked like they were going all out this time. That was probably the reason why they had sortied out in a large shuttle! It was to bring along all the important facilities to aid their assault.

Z0-11 quickly escorted Jiang Fei to the back of the shuttle, where the Data Management Center was stored. With a quick link, the ring connected to the center and it started whirling.

“Connected to the Data Management Center. Disabling enemy defensive system ETA: 60 seconds!” 0543 reported.

As soon as 0543 reported, it had started to work its magic to break into the enemy’s system. At the same time, Straz frantic calls could be heard.

“The enemy is changing their formation!”

“How long until they have a lock on us?” Jiang Fei asked.

“About 45 seconds!”

“That’s all the time we need!” Jiang Fei claimed. It was already 30 seconds since 0543 had started working. With only 30 seconds left, they would have more than enough time to disable the enemy’s defensive system, allowing them to enter the enemy’s airspace without being pummelled to the ground.

Seconds ticked away and this time, Z0-11 was also counting down the seconds, hoping to hear 0543’s good news.

When the atmosphere was cold and tense, Jiang Fei felt a sudden woosh. He could hear a loud roaring engine coming in from afar and approaching them at high speed!

Boom!

A loud explosion was followed by a violent shake of the ship.

“What’s going on?!” Jiang Fei roared.

“The enemy is attacking us!” Bennette Straz reported as he quickly took the co-pilot’s seat and activated the ship’s shield.

Another explosion was heard but the ship was not shaking violently as before.

The enemy was obviously attacking even before they could lock onto the shuttle. The system breach, albeit only an attempt, had rattled the enemy into desperation. Currently, they were shooting into the sky blindly, hoping by luck they would be able to bring down the shuttle.