Chapter 23: Breaking Through the Defense Line

22. Breaking Through the Line

"Hold on tight!" Vant gripped the flight stick. As the hatch slammed shut, he gave a sudden thrust, and the YT-1000 instantly surged forward like a horse breaking from its reins, racing toward outer space.

A massive barrage of blaster bolts rained down from the ground, but those small-caliber blaster rifles were no longer a threat to a ship at this altitude.

On several mountain peaks, hatches disguised as ice rock slid open, and large turbo laser turrets rose from underground, adjusting their firing angles.

Vant maneuvered the ship with agile rolls and shakes, making it impossible for the fire-control radar to lock on. Several turbo laser bolts streaked past the ship, leaving Tang Xiao breaking into a cold sweat.

As the ship broke through the atmosphere and entered outer space, the several *Liberator*-class frigates—which had remained indifferent when they first entered—suddenly sprang into action and began closing in!

Dozens of Vulture droid fighters attached to the frigates detached one by one. Their mechanical mandibles transformed into sharp wings, flying toward them like a swarm of ferocious vultures!

"Kunto! Get back here and help me!!" Vant roared.

Kunto emerged from the turret and sat down in the co-pilot's seat, asking, "But what about the turret?"

Spade needed to stay in the cockpit to keep the ship's systems running, and T-850 had just pulled Semide out of the wrecked car to keep him under guard. Tang Xiao didn't hesitate for a second. "I'll man the turret!"

With that, he scrambled into the turret.

"Listen to me. The screen on your left is the fire-control radar, the screen on your right is the target data. The left and right pedals control the turret's rotation, and then pull the trigger to fire," Spade's voice came through the headset. "Alright, you've learned how to use it. Now, take down those Vulture fighters first!"

"Fine, I'll try!" Tang Xiao grabbed the turret control stick and pulled the trigger at the Vulture droid fighters charging toward them.

*Shua—!* A green laser beam shot out, but it veered to the side, missing everything.

The Vulture fighters rolled with extreme agility to evade Tang Xiao's shots, then turned their focus on the ship to open fire! Despite Vant's best efforts to dodge, several crimson blaster bolts struck the ship's hull, only to be deflected by the deflector shields.

The swarm swept past the *Lance*, and then the Vulture fighters turned around to pursue them from behind.

"We have to break through this line to escape the gravity well and enter hyperspace!" Vant said while maneuvering the ship to evade.

About 7,000 kilometers ahead, three *Liberator*-class frigates were turning, and the turbo laser turrets on the ships began firing continuously toward them. The turbo lasers mounted on these massive capital ships were in no way inferior to the blaster cannons on Vulture fighters; even a glancing blow could mean total destruction!

Fortunately, due to the design of the *Liberator*-class frigates, most of their firepower was directed toward the bow. This gave Vant a window of opportunity to dodge before they completed their turn.

Vant's forehead was drenched in sweat as he piloted the ship. He roared with all his might, "I can only guarantee that we won't be hit by the capital ships! I can't account for those fighters—if we don't deal with the fighters, we're dead!"

"I said I'm fucking trying!" Tang Xiao cursed and fired again, but he still failed to hit a target.

"What on earth did Semide do? The entire military force of Maketo is chasing us now!" Kunto screamed.

"Do you think something Blackgo personally commissioned would be a small matter?" Tang Xiao said while continuing to fire, but his shots had little effect against the agile Vulture droid fighters.

*Shiu, shiu—!* More blaster bolts slammed into the ship's shields. Spade's roar echoed from the cockpit: "The shields are about to fail!"

"Concentrate all shield power to the rear!" Vant shouted. "Manager! You have awakened your power! You can do this! All our lives are in your hands!"

*Right! Calm down... stay calm! I have awakened the Force! The most typical ability of a Force-user in 'Star Wars' is precognition, which makes every Jedi an exceptional pilot and gunner. Therefore, I can do it! I can do it!*

Tang Xiao forced himself to calm down. Deep breaths, deep breaths. He closed his eyes and tried to expand his senses.

It was a strange sensation. He felt as if the ship he was in no longer existed, and he was floating in the dark void of space. It was just like... just like the dream he had had when he first traveled through time...

He felt like an observer, looking down at this universe and this battlefield from a vast height, as if everything were within his grasp.

He snapped his eyes open, his pupils deep and swirling like a vortex. He lightly tapped the pedal, the turret angle shifted by 7 degrees, and he fine-tuned the firing angle with the control stick. Everything was completed in less than half a second, as smooth as flowing water.

He pulled the trigger. A green laser beam instantly sliced through the darkness of space. A Vulture fighter happened to be flying in that exact direction at that exact moment, as if it had flown straight into the beam!

With a silent explosion, the Vulture fighter was instantly heated and detonated by the laser beam, bursting into a fireball that scattered in space. Vulture fighters had no way to resist a direct hit from a laser turret; in this universe, size meant greater energy, harder structure, and greater firepower.

The YT-1000 light freighter, at 28 meters long, was in a completely different energy tier than the 3.6-meter-long micro-fighters; naturally, it was a one-shot, one-kill affair.

"Yeah!! Nice job!!" Spade's cheers erupted through the headset.

But Tang Xiao's expression remained unchanged. He felt neither joy nor sorrow, watching everything unfold with cold indifference. In his eyes now, the flight paths of those dozens of Vulture fighters were no longer chaotic; they were clearly presented as distinct trajectories.

How they would fly, how they would dodge, and when they would fire—everything was within his prediction. Although he could only predict movements one or two seconds ahead, it was more than enough!

A fighter approached from the left, while a fighter below accelerated to fire; a fourth fighter on the right was about to launch a missile, and Vant would turn the ship 17 degrees to the right and perform an emergency deceleration...

Countless pieces of predictive information aggregated in his mind, allowing him to derive the optimal solution.

Pull the trigger, fire!

One Vulture fighter was destroyed. Then, letting the ship's shields tank the blaster bolts from the fighter below, he adjusted the turret angle to the right, intercepting a missile just as it was launched. The exploding debris destroyed the Vulture fighter's sensors, leaving it blind...

One Vulture fighter after another was destroyed by Tang Xiao. His efficiency was unimaginably high; in less than a minute, he had destroyed 13 Vulture fighters! The pressure on the *Lance* dropped significantly, allowing Vant to focus his energy on countering the attacks from the *Liberator*-class frigates.

Inside the cockpit, Spade watched all this in stunned silence, even forgetting to cheer. But then he remembered his duty and roared into the comms, "The shields are about to overload!!"

"That's enough! Kunto! Engage the hyperdrive!" Vant shouted.

"Hyperdrive, engage!" Kunto couldn't help but scream as he pressed the button. The space outside the ship was instantly replaced by a rush of light as they entered hyperspace.

In this higher-dimensional space, nothing could be seen.

The *Lance* entered hyperspace right under the noses of the three *Liberator*-class frigates and vanished into the distance!