Starting Cultivation in Wasteland
Chapter 747 - 617: Aerial Battle
The intelligence level of the Customs Enforcement Division's artificial intelligence is indeed slightly inferior to Xiaohu's.
It requires a relatively long time to take over the manual driving control unit and is relatively easy to expose.
The main issue is that the Customs Enforcement Division is part of the government; some things can be used quietly but cannot be made public.
Xiaohu does not have such concerns, and because of its high intelligence, it leaves less trace.
The current control center looks at the starship with a bit of helplessness; they cannot fire, nor can they forcibly take control.
The duty officer gritted his teeth, "Launch the warship, order the other party not to land, and authorize warning shots!"
Launching the warship makes the issue prominent, drawing the attention of the people on Celestial Sharp Star to the problem here.
This reaction from the Customs Enforcement Division is not uncommon, but it won't attract high attention.
Generally speaking, they initiate warning shots first, then after a period of time, the warship can carry out precise strikes.
As for whether the opposing starship complies with the order, that... isn't particularly important.
If other incidents occur, ground weapons can also attack.
Such operations make ground attacks seem less abrupt and easier to explain to the government.
However, whether they can get away with it... is hard to say, but intercepting first poses no major issue.
The duty officer's intention was clear and he communicated the decision to other higher-ups; he wanted to hold out until the Supreme arrives.
Only a Supreme can deal with a Supreme; using thermal weapons on a habitable star is too conspicuous.
A few minutes later, three warships took off, and shortly thereafter, a large transport ship also took off.
The three warships quickly ascended to the corresponding altitude and issued warnings.
"First warning, stop landing, or we will attack!"
"Second warning, stop landing, or we will attack!"
"Third warning, stop landing, we will attack!"
Two white beams flashed, and a scorching stream of electrons swept past beneath the starship, less than ten meters away.
The starship's pilot was already terrified, "They... they have attacked, raise the protective shield, quickly!"
The starship dared not land and maneuvered evasively in the air.
As a mode of interstellar transport, the starship is also equipped with defensive weapons to respond to potential incidents.
However, the attackers were governmental standard warships, which even bore the "Customs Enforcement" insignia—who would dare to counterattack?
In reality, even if they wanted to counterattack, they couldn't win...
Buckingham's brow twitched, and he snorted coldly, "An altitude of over ten thousand meters... barely enough."
He flashed away, not forgetting to add, "You can stop landing, just keep maneuvering."
Upon arriving at the passage, Qu Jianlei and the other two were already waiting, each donned in double-layered armor.
The B-level man was of Wood Attribute, the C-level woman was of Earth Attribute, though Qu Jianlei's Wind Attribute... It was fine not to wear the armor.
Seeing the warships ascending, the three began armoring each other; regardless of whether they had to fight, combat readiness was a must.
The four entered a small fabric compartment and quickly lowered the isolation gate. Buckingham raised a hand to release a lifeboat.
The C-level woman entered without a word and closed the hatch behind her—this was all pre-planned.
Buckingham then donned Ice Armor over Qu Jianlei and the B-level man. "Confident in escaping?"
"Rest assured," Qu Jianlei replied concisely.
Under these conditions, he could escape on his own, let alone with the addition of the Supreme Ice Armor.
However, he had no intention of leaving alone. Escaping with the others drew less attention.
As for protecting the two younger Supremes, that was a matter of course.
The woman was only C-level and could only hide in the lifeboat, but a B-level could withstand the harsh external conditions.
Buckingham donned Ice Armor himself once more, then asked, "Ready?"
The B-level man had already buckled himself to Qu Jianlei with a safety belt, single-handedly wrapping his arm around Qu Jianlei's waist.
A safety belt attached to the lifeboat was fastened at his waist, with his other hand gripping the lifeboat's handle.
This was one of the pre-arranged plans: Qu Jianlei would escape with the two, while Buckingham obstructed the enemy.
The emergency hatch slowly opened, and four... three people and a cabin were dragged out by powerful airflow, rushing out of the hatch.
An ear-piercing beeping emitted from the starship, stunning the flight attendants momentarily, "Did someone open the emergency hatch?"
The starship's pilot was already aware of what had happened, shaking his head with a sigh, "What madness!"
The patrolling warships around detected the anomaly and immediately reported to the control center, "A hatch opened..."
"Jumped out... one, two... no, there's a lifeboat too..."
"Upon careful identification, three individuals along with a lifeboat... among them an Awakened... damn!"
Buckingham had already rushed over at lightning speed, releasing a massive wave of spiritual suppression with an icy expression.
The warship's hull was thick, and it had a protective shield, rendering electromagnetic attacks ineffective on the combat personnel inside.
Spiritual power is also a form of wave, so the impact within the warship was minimal for the Customs Enforcement team.
Nonetheless, each person felt chest tightness and dizziness, finding it hard to breathe.
"Damn, it's a Supreme, and he wants to board for combat!"
The warship is indeed a tortoise shell, but since the opponent is already attached to it, there are too many ways they could break through the defenses.
Let's not mention this battlefield for now, but other warships discovered another problem, "What's going on with those three?"
Qu Jianlei and two others are in freefall towards the planet.
However, the customs enforcement team noticed something amiss: two people plus a lifeboat... how could they be linked together?
This type of lifeboat can accommodate one to two people, but if there are two people inside, it'll be quite cramped.
That means that the two people outside the lifeboat can't all fit into the lifeboat.
And when the lifeboat nears the ground, it can deploy a parachute.
But typically, the two people outside should be holding onto the lifeboat.
The current connection method seems quite strange.
Because their falling speed is too fast and figures are small, the customs enforcement team couldn't clearly identify them in haste.
Upon closer examination, everyone realized something was wrong; one of them had empty hands. What does that mean?
Buckingham is currently sabotaging the power system of a warship, potentially causing it to stall, crash, or even explode.
The customs officers on this warship are scared to death, desperately spiraling downwards.
The other two warships want to support but it's useless, unless they fire upon their own warship.
One warship is eyeing Buckingham, trying to ram it with the hull, while the other is heading towards Qu Jianlei and company.
"Calculate the wind speed and trajectory... fire the capture net!"
Most large and medium-sized starships have capture net cannons, but they're rarely seen on small warships.
However, customs enforcement division's warships are an exception. Their targets aren't mutant beasts or massively sized resources.
Their capture targets are mainly small micro-starships or escaping lifeboats, unafraid of the opponent pulling too hard.
The capture net is woven from various high-molecular materials, soft yet tough, and its alloys can conduct powerful high-voltage currents.
To prevent smugglers from escaping, customs enforcement warships, though small, have large capture nets spreading over tens of thousands of square meters when fully opened.
Even so, to capture the opponent, preemptive calculations are needed.
The calculation process was short. The warship arrived at the side and below the three, with a muffled "thump," a cluster of silver light was shot out.
The capture net instantly unfolded in mid-air, white with a touch of transparency, resembling blooming fireworks.
However, the opponent's figure flickered and swiftly moved sideways four to five hundred meters, dodging the large net.
From firing to opening, the capture net's speed was just a tad slow.
Customs officers on the warship were dumbfounded upon witnessing this scene, "Is this... another Supreme?"
Someone immediately refuted, "That's impossible, it's just an A-level."
However, even an A-level would not bring small troubles.
The customs enforcement division had long decided that if necessary, they would use a man and a woman to coerce Buckingham.
Kidnapping hostages is not prevalent in the empire because, in most cases, it's ineffective.
But Buckingham's performance on the starship showed he valued these two people very much, making this strategy feasible.
Now, with an A-level added to the mix, capturing those two would be significantly more difficult.
If the three landed safely, the difficulty of capture would only increase.
"Damn it, this A-level can protect them during landing... there's a high probability that a C-level woman is in that lifeboat!"
The command center soon sent new instructions.
"The one with empty hands is likely A-level, shoot him! Don't accidentally hit the other man and the lifeboat."
"That's impossible!" The warship transmitted the related images to the command center. "They're in too close contact."
With the current development of Imperial technology, the shooting accuracy of a warship is indeed good.
But with the opponent descending rapidly, affected by the airflow at stratospheric levels, and an A-level awakened can maneuver sideways...
The most crucial point is that these three are too close, the B-level warrior has Qu Jianlei in his left hand, the lifeboat in his right, how can you aim?
The command center responded swiftly, "Use the paralyzing bullet!"
Only customs series warships could do this; if it were a military warship, even with a paralyzing bullet, it would take half a day just to find it in the armory.
The next moment, several machine guns on the warship spewed continuous tongues of flame.
"Damn..." Qu Jianlei cursed through gritted teeth, frantically dodging with two burdens in tow.
He had no idea what kind of bullets were fired, but even with three layers of armor, he was unwilling to take the hit straight on.
After all, these machine guns are on warships, the heaviest type of machine gun.
In his frustration, Qu Jianlei flashed his form repeatedly, accelerating his descent towards the ground.
His body technique caused the B-level man great pain, who couldn't help but shout near his ear.
"Steady, steady! My hand is getting twisted!"
Qu Jianlei snorted coldly, also shouting in response, "We have to land first! You're both with B-level cultivation level, stop being so fragile!"
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