Wandering Meteor-Chapter 114 Rescue Mission

"Beep beep..."

Suddenly, the quantum communication device blared.

Everyone in the communications room seemed to realize something, and they immediately rushed to the device.

Then, their expressions quickly relaxed quite a bit.

Originally, the sudden blaring of the quantum communication device was due to a message coming through.

Although the message had not been completely translated yet, and the specific content was unknown, nowadays Earth Civilization only dealt with interstellar travel through the Pathfinders program, and only the quantum communication devices on the Stealth Ships were activated. The sudden sound undoubtedly indicated that someone on the Stealth Ship had luckily survived.

After the communication system translated the message, it was indeed as everyone had thought.

The message was transmitted back by the people on the Stealth Ships using the spare communication devices in the escape pods.

Originally, they had timely evacuated using the escape pods before the Stealth Ship was hit, which is why they were able to avoid death.

However, since the people on two of the Stealth Ships were a bit slow in their actions, the escape pods had just been launched when the Stealth Ships were destroyed by the ion cannons. All the newly launched escape pods were engulfed in the explosive inferno, resulting in the regrettable deaths of those on the two Stealth Ships.

Thus, the final survivors were thirty people from the other three Stealth Ships.

Earth Civilization quickly confirmed the list of casualties through quantum communication.

Yang Wenye had been constantly following the situation of the survivors, and when he discovered that his girlfriend Wan Liqi was unharmed, he felt relieved.

However, he couldn’t be happy at all, the brave warriors who sacrificed themselves had indeed perished.

Not just him, at this moment, everyone in the communications room felt immense grief and anger, they swore to make the attacking Alien Civilization pay the price.

However, they were not overwhelmed by their anger and understood what needed to be done first in such a situation was to rescue those who had survived. So they immediately instructed the survivors to fly the escape pods back, and sent an Earth Battleship to go for the rescue.

At this time, Lu Chen from Constant Star also heard about this incident.

When he learned about the logical actions of Earth Civilization, Lu Chen was very satisfied with Earth Civilization’s decision.

In such a situation, indeed rescuing the survivors was more important, and other matters could wait until everything settled down before making further decisions.

Just when everyone, including Lu Chen, thought that this matter had temporarily come to a close, an unexpected scene appeared that nobody anticipated.

Suddenly, the staff in the super-distance communication room rushed hurriedly into the translation room, informing everyone that the quantum communication device had just received another message, a distress message sent by the survivors on the Stealth Ship, and displayed the message on the giant screen of the translation room.

Everyone looked, and then understood the sequence of events.

Originally, after the survivors on the Stealth Ship had launched the escape pods and thought they were safe, they piloted the escape pods at full speed towards the Wandering Star System, as all resources within the escape pods were limited, and they needed to rendezvous with the rescue battleship before their food ran out, otherwise their lives were at risk.

However, unexpectedly, a huge shadow suddenly appeared from behind, and it was rapidly catching up.

Wan Liqi, inside the escape pod, observed carefully and discovered that it was the Alien Cosmic Battleship that had destroyed their Stealth Ships.

It seems that the enemy had learned that there were survivors from the Stealth Ships, so they sped up their pursuit, apparently not planning to let any person from the Stealth Ships escape.

Wan Liqi’s guess was not wrong.

At first, the 25th Fleet of the Double Star Civilization thought that all the aliens aboard the five Stealth Ships had perished with the explosion of their ships.

However, just when they were about to return, they unexpectedly discovered thirty escape pods fleeing into the distance. After consulting with the Double Star Civilization, the 25th Fleet immediately received orders to either "capture" or "kill" them.

The meaning was clear: capture them alive if possible, but kill them if necessary; under no circumstances should they be allowed to escape.

When Earth Civilization was informed of this incident, they were furious, and the intent to kill grew stronger in their hearts, prompting them to immediately start planning a new round of rescue operations.

Moreover, Earth Civilization asked Constant Star Lu Chen for assistance.

Lu Chen did not hesitate; he quickly sent a segment of the Wandering to rescue the survivors.

When the 30,000-meter Metal Ball from the Wandering was dispatched for the rescue, Earth Civilization also began communicating with the survivors inside the escape pods.

They inquired about their current physical condition and the supply situation in the escape pods.

Fortunately, the survivors were well-trained, and there were no significant problems regarding their health and psychology.

However, the food in the escape pods was only sufficient for about two years; even if they halved each meal, they could only last for about six years at most.

Yet, the escape pods were about ten light-years away from the Wandering Star System.

According to Earth Civilization’s plan for the escape pods’ thrusters, they could only accelerate the pods to half the speed of light, meaning it would take approximately twenty years to cover those ten light-years, and the food supplies would not last that long, not to mention considering the fuel issues with the pods.

However, the only piece of good news for Earth Civilization was that the rescue battleships and a segment of the Wandering had already gone for the rescue.

Earth Civilization’s scientific team immediately began designing a new rescue scheme based on the current situation.

Since both the rescue battleships and the Wandering could only reach half the speed of light at their fastest, Earth Civilization’s preliminary plan involved both the escape pods and the rescue battleships covering five light-years each, then starting to decelerate and meet in the middle to complete the rescue mission.

This would reduce the escape distance by five light-years for the escape pods, effectively shortening the time by ten years.

However, due to the severe shortage of food in the escape pods, which was only sufficient for two years, even if they halved each meal daily, it would only last for six years. To ensure survival until the rescue, Earth Civilization instructed the people inside the escape pods to halve their daily food intake again, ensuring it would last for ten years.

Once the food issue was addressed, the next problem was fuel.

The escape pods, designed by Earth Civilization for single use, naturally had limited fuel and could not support continuous acceleration.

After precise calculations, Earth Civilization decided to let the escape pods use eighty percent of their fuel to continuously accelerate for three years until they reached half the speed of light, then cease acceleration and travel by inertia. As they approached the rendezvous, they would use the remaining twenty percent of the fuel to decelerate.

As for oxygen, there was no need to worry. From the large Cosmic Battleships to the small escape pods, all were equipped with recycling systems that could continuously regenerate oxygen.

Finally, after meticulous calculations and discussions,

Earth Civilization and Constant Star Lu Chen finalized this rescue plan and promptly informed the survivors in the escape pods, the rescue battleships, and the segment of the Wandering, ensuring all parties were aware of the rescue plan details.

However, despite having the rescue plan set, everyone at Wandering Base was still frowning.

They weren’t worried about the implementation of the rescue plan since their calculations assured them of a ninety-nine percent success rate.

What made them uneasy was the realization that the real enemy in this rescue mission wasn’t time or food, but the persistent pursuit of the alien battleships.