Escape

Boom!

The energy lance pierced through the Raklazav escort ship, and the immense energy shock swept over the ship's hull like a tidal wave, surging and exploding within, tearing apart the Raklazav into shreds, with debris flying in the air like scraps of paper.

Amidst the flying debris, the massive frame of the space mech slowly rose.

Like a divine being, it appeared majestically in near-Earth space, in front of everyone.

"Shadow... So you're the Shadow," Mathieu uttered a desperate groan.

Unable to forget, six years ago, during the Storm League elimination match, that astonishing shot shook the league, the universe, and the entire human world.

Countless people had tried to find out the true identity of the Shadow, but without exception, they all failed.

He was like a shooting star, brilliant in appearance, yet quietly disappeared.

The escape pod was still flying in the air, but Mathieu's heart had already sunk into the endless abyss. He watched Reno as he drifted farther and farther away until he could no longer see him...

Glancing around the space, the Silver Wing Angel's shoulders shook, and hundreds of missiles flew out.

This time, however, their target was the densely packed satellites and space stations in near-Earth orbit. The missile barrage roared out, instantly destroying all spacecraft in this airspace.

After completing this task, the enormous silver space mech flew towards the spaceport.

All the way to the Aberdai, entering the cockpit automatically, two figures dashed out of the cockpit, Nora and Reno. The difference was that Reno's face was covered in blood, almost fainting, relying solely on Nora's support.

"Claire, come and help him!" Nora shouted.

At this moment, she no longer cared whether her sister was far from this "ban" with Reno.

"Oh God, how could this happen?" Claire ran over, supporting Reno, one hand already on his forehead, asking urgently.

"He used Ascendant Dragon," Nora replied.

"Ascendant Dragon?" Claire was surprised, looking at Reno. "You still can't fully control the mech, and overly complex tactical movements will increase pressure and possibly crush you."

Ascendant Dragon was the move Reno had just used to destroy the Raklazav.

Although Reno could operate the space mech in near-Earth space with the assistance of the control system, as Claire said, overly complex tactical movements would still impose a huge burden on him, and in severe cases, could even kill him!

So while Reno could use the space mech in near-Earth space, he still relied on its powerful defense and weapon systems. As for tactical changes and flexibility, forget about it.

In this situation, it was astonishing that Reno would use Ascendant Dragon, even to Claire.

"This time is different," Reno laughed and replied. Blood kept flowing from his mouth, but his face was filled with excitement. He grabbed Claire's hand. "Mental power... my mental power has increased!"

"What are you saying?" Claire didn't understand.

"The power of the mind! The mental power needed to control the mech, I've enhanced it!" Reno answered loudly.

Claire hesitated for a moment, somewhat stuttering, "You mean, your mental strength has reached eleven points?"

Before this, Reno's mental strength was ten points, three points higher than when he first learned to use the mech.

Reno shook his head. "No, not one point."

"Not one point." Nora was also surprised.

"How much is it?" Claire's gentle hand still rested on Reno's forehead, her beautiful eyebrows slightly furrowed like two crescent moons.

"I don't know, but it feels amazing, as if the world has opened a window for me, showing me a world I've never imagined. It's a feeling you can't understand, a feeling of advancement. It's like the promotions before, but much stronger and clearer." Under Claire's treatment, Reno's mental state improved significantly, and his speech began to flow more fluently and rapidly.

"How many times stronger?" Nora asked hastily.

"I don't know," Reno replied. He thought for a moment and said, "I guess at least five or six times."

Nora and Claire exchanged glances, both showing expressions of disbelief.

"When we leave here, we'll go to the medical bay for a proper mental examination," Claire said.

"When can the ship leave?"

"The cargo has been loaded, the main body of the ship has been repaired, and we can leave soon," Claire replied.

"Then let's not waste any time."

Claire smiled. "As you command, Captain."

Shouting to everyone, she said, "All personnel, get on the ship immediately, take your positions, we're ready to leave here!"

"Roar!" The warriors of the Heart of Freedom simultaneously let out excited cheers, their flying discs swirling, rushing towards the Aberdai, heading to their respective positions.

At the same time, Reno, Claire, and Nora headed to the command hall.

In the command hall, all the pilots were in their positions, and a young officer saluted Reno, "Captain, all personnel are in position, awaiting your command."

His name was Snyder, the first officer of the Aberdai, a young and handsome guy.

Reno strode to the captain's seat and sat down, opening the command screen.

Swish, large amounts of data flowed past his eyes.

Claire brought him a steaming cup of coffee.

Reno quickly ordered, "Retrieve all external devices, start engines three and four."

The deputy began relaying and executing Reno's commands, and all external devices on the Aberdai started to retract as the engines roared to life.

"Release the fixed anchors."

"Open the flight pathway."

"Attack signal transmission towers, block message relay."

"Deploy patrol robots to guard the rear passage."

"All mech squads, stand by."

One command after another came from Johnny Reno. The massive starship started to fly out of the repair yard, ascending into the vastness of space. Behind them, smoke rose from the spaceport and repair yard.

The destruction of signal transmission towers and spacecraft plunged the Amenia Spaceport into complete communication blackout.

Although this blackout would soon be restored and noticed by Earth, for the Aberdai, this time was enough for them to escape the gravitational pull and enter the jump.

Because most of humanity's current technology cannot function within wormholes, pursuing and fighting within wormholes remains impossible. This means that once in jump, the starship can easily escape.

The only way to stop escape is to prevent the jump.

However, due to the distraction caused by the Thunder, the Earth fleet is currently pursuing it. By the time they realize something is amiss, the Aberdai is long gone.

"Engines three and four shut down, all lights off, enter silent darkness."

Silent darkness is the specialized term for secret flight. In this state, the starship shuts down all devices that could expose its presence, including the roaring engines, high-power energy flows, and ubiquitous communication signals.

The starship glides through the dark sky like a quiet fish, evading enemy detection, even communication can only rely on the most primitive human messaging. Of course, once discovered and attacked in this situation, the starship will have a hard time mounting defense and counterattack immediately.

At this moment, the Aberdai was like this.

It drifted in the darkness, silently crossing the quiet night, with only distant starlight and the flames of the spaceport below visible.

Due to the destruction of a large number of spacecraft, Earth entered a communication blackout period. The Aberdai took advantage of this opportunity to slowly leave the gravitational sphere and head towards the depths of the distant stars.

The farther they go, the closer the Aberdai gets to freedom.

"We've entered deep space, completely out of the gravity well in two minutes and thirty seconds." Outside the command hall, a young communications officer ran over and said loudly, "It took me about one minute and forty seconds to get here."

"Roar!" Everyone in the command hall cheered together.

"Prepare to start the engines, restore internal communication, announce the message, just say: We are free," Reno said, holding up his coffee cup leisurely. At this moment, he finally had the mood to take a sip of coffee.

The message quickly spread throughout the ship, and a chorus of cheers and celebrations echoed within.

"We're free!"

"We are free!"

"Long live freedom!"

"Long live the Heart of Freedom!"

"Long live Johnny Reno!"

The channel was filled with the cheers of the crew.

Claire and Reno also smiled at each other. Seeing this scene, Nora quietly left the hall.

Everything seemed to return to normal.

As the starship's silent mode was lifted, information from Earth reappeared in the Aberdai's view. As the side in deep space and the prepared side, they were the priority information recipients.

"Captain, look!" the young officer pointed to the porthole.

On the porthole, a row of bright spots was shining brightly.

Reno's finger gently swiped on the virtual screen of the porthole, and the image on the screen enlarged. Reno saw that it was a starship fleeing under pursuit by the Earth fleet.

Thunder!

Although the starship was unable to jump under the pursuit of the Earth fleet due to proximity, it could only continue to flee within the Earth's orbit, but it could not shake off the pursuit.

At this rate, its ultimate fate would be capture.

"Johnny?" Claire walked over and asked, noticing Reno's gaze.

She didn't understand Reno's relationship with Clarice, but she understood Reno's character.

Sure enough, Reno whispered, "They are not enemies, I misunderstood them."

"What do you want to do?"

"We should save them."

"That might put us in danger!" the young officer hurriedly reminded.

Under the current circumstances, any additional complications were unnecessary.

But Reno ignored it.

He looked at the distant starship and murmured, "For our own needs, do we ignore others' lives? If so, what's the difference between us and the New Federation? I don't want us to become like that, respecting life is our bottom line and principle. And the so-called bottom line is not something we find every reason to break, but something we find every way to protect!"

The officer fell silent.

Reno ordered, "All ships prepare, all gunports turn, thirty seconds for saturation attack."

All movable gunports on the Aberdai began to turn towards the Earth fleet below. With Reno's command, the sky was instantly filled with a wave of missiles and torpedoes, followed by a barrage of heavy cannons, and finally, the fastest laser shots.

Although the three types of weapons were launched in batches, they almost reached their targets simultaneously.

The fierce attack filled the sky above Earth in an instant, with fireworks floating everywhere, explosions lighting up the sky like the most brilliant lights of a festival, illuminating the entire starry sky. Even in some places on Earth with high visibility, this celestial flame could be seen.

They occurred one after another, intense explosions on each ship, smoke and flashes everywhere. The brilliance of the energy shields broke through the sky, dazzling human eyes.

The sudden onslaught caught the Earth fleet off guard, forcing them into a full defensive posture.

This scene undoubtedly also caught Serenity's eyes.

"Johnny Reno..." Seeing the incoming barrage of missiles, although she couldn't see the starship in the deep darkness, Serenity realized who was helping her. With a deep look into the darkness, she exclaimed loudly, "Accelerate, prepare for jump!"

With the Aberdai's attack and delay, the Thunder began to accelerate frantically and prepare for jump.

The energy shield flashed with a large number of colorful lights under the attack, but the energy generator still rose uncontrollably at full speed, releasing a warp field. In front of the Thunder, a vortex reappeared.

Although the Earth fleet tried to use interference waves again, the frenzied bombardment from the Aberdai and the Thunder's full defense eventually led to the failure of this interference.

With a flash of light, the Thunder plunged into the vortex, and with a bang, as the warp field dissipated, it disappeared without a trace.

At the same time, the Aberdai also began to jump.

Just before entering the jump, it received a message.

The message was sent by Serenity:

"We're even now."

Seeing the message, Reno smiled, but the image of Clarice surfaced in his mind.