Cyberpunk: Spartan Walker

She maneuvered the flagship towards the critical star. The planet's magnetic field might neutralize the plasma beam's power—if only she had the guts to fly close enough.

Ellie transferred the energy of the bow shield to the stern, and the shield surrounding the flagship also deformed. Then, she turned all seven plasma cannons aft and fired two plasma torpedoes to intercept the incoming torpedoes from the Covenant forces.

The temperature of the plasma cannon became higher and higher, and finally it sprayed out streams of hot flames - but it only spread out a few meters away and dispersed into a dark red cloud, then gradually became thinner and thinner, and finally disappeared completely.

She saw a subsystem connected to the weapons control unit: the accessory field amplifier. The Covenant troops relied on it to determine the shape of the plasma and guide the emission direction of the plasma beam. Its function was equivalent to a precise focusing lens. However, something is wrong here - the name of this thing appears in the system directory, but its application software has been cleared.

Ellie vowed that if she caught this Covenant artificial intelligence that was specifically waiting for opportunities to cause destruction, she would delete it line by line.

Without understanding the working principle of the guidance magnetic field, firing a plasma cannon is no different from setting off fireworks, and has no power at all.

However, the plasma beams launched by the Covenant troops were concentrated, like small suns. They caught up with the flagship and struck the stern shield, flashing with blinding light. They boiled and rolled on the silver energy shield until the shield darkened and disappeared.

The plasma melted away part of the hull at the stern, like salt melting in boiling water. Ellie could feel the dull thud of the air as it decompressed.

She opened the communication channel of the Covenant warship, This is the flagship, the Truth and Harmony, can you receive it?

After a burst of static noise, Keith's voice came out from the communicator, Can you get it, Ellie, what's the situation over there?

We have captured the bridge, but there is an artificial intelligence in the flagship's system that is interfering with my control of the spacecraft. I need your help here.

There was a pause, and Ellie heard the rumbling sound of the plasma cannon firing beneath Keith's voice. Okay, but the cruiser of the Covenant force is very strong. The Truth and Harmony should be able to arrive in a minute. Case has finished the call.

The communication channel was disconnected.

A minute of suffering

She checked the Master Chief, the physiological monitor showed he was still alive, his signal was still on the ship and hurried towards the control room.

Tommy, are you there yet? I'm going to put one last plan in motion.

There was only static on the communication channel, and after a moment Tommy whispered, That's almost it.

Be safe. Your armor is broken and you can no longer move freely in a dangerous environment.

His status light flashed.

Ellie overloads the ship's nuclear reactor and plots a route around the critical star. She must enter the outer reaches of the critical star's atmosphere, where the heat, ions, and the planet's magnetic field can protect them from plasma weapons until support from the Truth and Harmony arrives.

The flagship descended into the thin clouds of Critical Star. The clouds are either composed of white ammonia or amber-colored ammonium hydrosulfide. They are like ribbons meandering in the sky. A ball of purple-red phosphorus compound was swept up by the whirlwind, and an arc of lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating a layer of light blue ice crystals in the atmosphere.

However, their ship had lost its shields, and as it flew against the upper space of the critical star, the temperature of the ship's hull reached hundreds of degrees Celsius due to friction.

From the stern camera, Ellie saw that the pursuing Covenant force spacecraft opened fire again, and the energy beam rushed towards it, like a flock of raptors fiercely pouncing on its prey.

Come and catch me if you can, she muttered.

She adjusted the elevation of the flagship so that the bow was pointing upward, causing the craft to rise slightly. She focused her attention on the tail of the spacecraft, which was getting hotter and hotter. She saw a trail of extremely high-temperature exhaust trailing behind the ship.

Ellie? Polaski said, If we go further down, we may not be able to break out of orbit. You are too close to the planet.

I know the trajectory we're on, Warrant Officer. She closed the communication channel as soon as she finished. What she hates most is people teaching her how to fly.

The front plasma beam caught up with them. It followed closely behind and exploded violently after contacting the atmosphere. The flagship jumped forward and fell into the unstable airflow, while the energy of the plasma beam was exhausted and could not cause further damage to them. Behind the flagship is a stretched strip that is hundreds of kilometers long. It is a huge fiery red crack on the surface of the critical star.

Ellie was excited about her victory - but quickly regained her composure.

Currently facing a new problem: the spacecraft changed its course after being impacted by the explosion. The huge shock wave of heat and pressure made the atmosphere thin, just enough for the flagship to fly down another 700 meters. Bundles of ice crystals rushed towards the bow of the ship.

Now that they are stuck on this planet, they no longer have enough energy to break out of orbit. They will spiral into the atmosphere and eventually be crushed by the critical star's huge gravity.

****

Tommy somersaulted in mid-air and landed firmly on the ground with his feet. There is no gravity in the elevator, and it is much easier to cross these layers of decks. He only needs to jump around to check whether the power of this part of the spacecraft can be restored. The engineer who grabbed his shoulder lightly knocked on the small control panel on the wall, and the door at the bottom of the elevator squeaked and slowly slid open to both sides.

Interestingly, this alien creature doesn't care what or who Tommy is, as he discovered back on Harvest. Apparently it's not stupid at all and can communicate. Maybe it doesn't care about enemies or allies, maybe it's all about its work.

In front is a corridor, five meters wide, with a dome-shaped ceiling. After walking out of the last arch, you enter the nuclear reactor room. The lights in the corridor and indoors were not on, but there was a row of ten-meter-high reaction coils along the wall at the far end of the reaction room. They emitted streams of blue-white electric light, casting clear shadows on the wall.

Tommy adjusted his night vision goggles to eliminate the glow from the reactor. He made out the outlines of several boxes and other machines, and he also saw a shadow moving on the wall. It was obviously the slouching posture of a Grunt walking. Then the action disappeared.