Chapter 554 Ch

However, he was soon left dumbfounded, a tremble spreading through his body as he stared at the display.

"V-Vice C-Captain..." he stammered in a terrified voice. "I-I can’t find the leader’s signature! It... It was here just a mo-moment ago, bu-but now it isn’t!"

"What?" Upon hearing this, Colt’s fuse nearly blew. For a moment, he even forgot to react, standing there dumbfounded.

"A-are you joking?"

However, he quickly recovered. As a veteran soldier who had served as a sub-unit commander within the Shadow Legions of the Shadow Imperium, one of the seven superpowers in the galaxy, Colt was highly experienced.

He had witnessed numerous situations like this before, where commanders either went missing due to enemy tactics or were killed by enemy forces.

Still, Colt wanted to make absolutely sure.

The pirate nodded without uttering a word, struggling to bear the pressure Colt was unconsciously exerting on him.

Colt stood rooted to the spot. Even after receiving confirmation, he couldn’t figure out what to do for a moment.

RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

Suddenly, the Bull Fang shook violently, and the sharp sound of cracking reverberated across the bridge.

ALARM!!

The already blaring alarms grew even louder, followed by another pirate’s urgent shout.

"Vice Captain! Our shields have lost more than 75 percent of their integrity already! They won’t be able to withstand the bombardment much longer!"

"Ahh!"

Only that shout brought Colt back to his senses. He firmly closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and taking a deep breath.

"This is already hopeless..." he muttered slowly.

Colt knew he stood no chance. They were completely surrounded from three directions, and almost all their ships had either been destroyed or crippled.

He looked toward the last remaining frigate in the fleet. Under the successive bombardment of the enemy’s much smaller corvettes and mechs, its shields were nearly shattered.

Meanwhile, the other two frigates had already been reduced to fragmented wrecks, riddled with multiple holes across their hulls and drifting helplessly through the vacuum of space. Every living being aboard them had already lost all signs of life.

The last remaining frigate was being brutally battered by several enemy mechs. Colt still had no idea why they were targeting his fleet in the first place. Regardless, the fleet had been completely dismantled and was now almost entirely wiped out.

Their leader had also been taken down. All that remained was Colt and a handful of survivors aboard the Bull Fang.

Colt clenched his fists, feeling unbounded anger welling up from the deepest part of his heart. He couldn’t understand why they had been attacked.

He felt helpless, unable to comprehend how they, a group that had always stood strong against numerous enemies and fought fleets twice their size without ever suffering defeat, had suddenly found themselves in this situation.

Just who are they? Colt thought, coldly eyeing the enemy ships and mechs.

Just as these thoughts rushed through his mind, the Bull Fang trembled again, its instability growing even worse.

"RUMBLE! RUMBLE!"

"What happened?!" Colt shouted, knowing that something was very, very wrong with the ship’s violent shaking.

"V-Vice Captain! We’ve lost two secondary shield generators! Our shield integrity is now down to a mere 90 percent!" the pirate operator replied hurriedly, his lips pursed in panic.

"Dammit!" Colt frowned. "How could we lose so much shield integrity in just a couple of seconds?! What’s going on? Are our defensive grids not working properly or what?!" he shouted at the crew members.

The pirate crew members didn’t dare talk back at that moment, nor could they afford to. There was no time for accountability or idle chatter. They were literally hanging by a thread.

"YOU! Why won’t you speak?!" Just as Colt was about to lose his temper completely, his eyes fell upon the shield integrity chart. The reading had already dropped from 90 percent to 92 percent.

His entire body trembled as he realized that this nonsensical talk could wait until later. Right now, they had far more pressing matters to deal with.

"BRING ALL WEAPONS ONLINE! Launch everything and anything we have at the enemy ships and mechs at once!" Colt roared, pointing at the weapons operators. "You must force them to retreat, even if only for a moment!"

"You!" Colt quickly pointed at another crew member. "Input the overdrive command! Divert all power to the propulsion engines! And prepare the warp drive for a jump! We must leave this place at once!"

"Yes, Vice Captain!" The pirate crew members’ eyes lit up, and they hurriedly acknowledged the order.

Outside, Baku continued leading the assault.

"Keep up the pressure, everyone! We should be able to break through the pirate flagship’s defenses at any moment now!" Baku said firmly, increasing the intensity of their attacks.

A few moments later, as he launched a coordinated bombardment alongside his ship, mech, and mech squadron, Baku suddenly frowned.

[ Ding! Higher-than-normal energy fluctuations detected aboard the pirate ship. ]

"Calculate where the detected energy is being allocated," Baku ordered the intelligent system.

A moment later, he realized something was wrong.

"Everyone, pay attention! The pirates are about to do some thin..."

Before Baku could even finish speaking, BANG! BANG! BANG!

Multiple attacks were launched from the Red Bull Gang’s flagship, the Bull Fang, directly targeting them.

A barrage of tracking missiles followed, racing toward their positions.

Baku frowned even more deeply.

"Everyone, dodge!" he shouted, immediately steering toward a nearby asteroid field to shake off the tracking missiles.

The others did almost the same. While continuing to launch kinetic and energy-based attacks, they maneuvered directly into the dense asteroid field around them, attempting to lose the pursuing missiles.

Meanwhile, Baku’s frigate took the assault head-on. Its main and secondary weapon systems roared in retaliation, while its point-defense systems intercepted approximately 75 percent of the incoming attacks.

The remaining shots struck its shields directly, causing them to flare intensely for a moment before returning to normal.

Just then, Baku’s headset chimed with an incoming notification.

He glanced at the message, and his eyes widened in surprise.

[ According to calculations, the detected energy is being concentrated primarily on the pirate ship’s weapon systems and propulsion engines. ]