Infinite Stream Metaverse

Chapter 784 Boarding! Boarding!
Fu Qinghai raised his hand and slowly took off his helmet.

When he looked around, he found himself still standing in the huge pit that had just been dug, a flashlight shining at his feet, surrounded by fresh black soil. Although the entire archive remained quiet, when he listened carefully, he could hear his own breathing and heartbeat, and smell the damp earth.

It was as if that feeling just now was an illusion.

Fu Qinghai thought for a moment and then put the helmet back on.

His vision went completely black again. Not only his sight, but also his hearing, smell, and taste disappeared. It was as if he had fallen into an endless abyss of sensory deprivation, with only his sense of touch remaining. But he felt no fear, because there was another sense present, a sixth sense that transcended the five senses—the perception of the Force.

Fu Qinghai cleared his mind and calmed his spirit, trying to use his Force to sense and explore his surroundings. That familiar feeling returned. Fu Qinghai seemed to have returned to the time when he first awakened his Force. Without the interference of sight, hearing and smell, only the connection between him and his Force remained in the world. This connection was so clear and omnipresent.

"I see……"

Fu Qinghai thought to himself, understanding the situation perfectly.

This time, he didn't take off his helmet. He squatted down, picked up the flashlight, turned it off, and put it in his pocket. The only light source in the archives disappeared, plunging it into darkness. Fu Qinghai, however, was unaffected. He bent his knees and leaped out of the pit, landing steadily on the edge. He picked up a piece of floorboards and used it as a shovel, starting to backfill the soil again, shovel by shovel.

After filling the pit, Fu Qinghai casually placed the broken stone slabs on top, then pulled down the bookshelf next to him, and the scattered books and broken shelves completely covered the floor.

After finishing all this, Fu Qinghai patted the dust and dirt off his hands and turned to walk back to the cave entrance he had come in through.

He did not take off his helmet throughout the entire process.

……

Fu Qinghai had already understood the purpose of the helmet.

This is a tool to assist in the cultivation of the Force.

Fu Qinghai never underwent complete, systematic Jedi training. He and his master, Old Man Hu Xian, were stranded on a desolate planet, lacking the resources for true Jedi training. Fu Qinghai's current mastery of lightsaber techniques and Force skills is entirely due to his comprehension, understanding, and diligent effort.

Of course, Hu Xian himself probably didn't experience true Jedi training, since he was already middle-aged when he joined the Jedi Order, and it was impossible for him to go through the training process of a Jedi apprentice again.

Objectively speaking, Force training is somewhat anti-human. Take the most basic Force meditation as an example: Force meditation requires a clear mind, which is difficult for both adults and children, and it is even more difficult for those with quick minds, while those with slower minds may find it easier.

However, with long-term training, anyone can master the ability to enter a meditative state with a clear mind, while the training requirements for Force perception are even more extreme.

Force perception training requires abandoning the five senses.

It is impossible for a person to completely block out the five senses.

You can close your eyes and not see, plug your ears and not hear, and block your nostrils and not smell, but in reality your vision, hearing and smell have not really disappeared, only been weakened and reduced. Unless the corresponding nerves are severed through certain drugs or surgery, the five senses will not completely disappear.

Inside the Jedi Temple, there are some auxiliary training devices. For example, Jedi Cubs usually wear a huge, pot-lid-like helmet, the WJ-880 blindfold helmet, which can block vision and hearing to help Jedi Cubs master Force perception.

The Sith relic that Fu Qinghai unearthed, this helmet, is a Force-assisted training tool, but unlike the WJ-880 blindfold helmet, it is a Force item, and its effect is stronger, comparable to nerve resection surgery.

Furthermore, this helmet is also very versatile.

Humans are visual animals, relying primarily on their eyes to obtain information about their environment. Humans' sense of hearing and smell are relatively weak, but for other races sensitive to the Force, the ability to shield their sense of smell and hearing is also important. The Kali, the Sir, the Nortulan, and the Kubaz are all races whose sense of smell is stronger than their sight, relying primarily on their olfactory organs to obtain information.

At this moment, on the sixth floor of the Imperial military base.

Inside a single dormitory room for a naval officer.

After locking the door, Fu Qinghai turned and walked towards the bedroom, taking the metal helmet out of the pilot's helmet.

Fu Qinghai carefully examined the tiny dents on the surface of the helmet, gently stroking them with his fingertips.

Look at the shape of these tiny dents...

It looks like it was caused by some familiar weapon.

"Buzzing sound—"

Fu Qinghai ignited his light stick, illuminating the small bedroom with a bright cyan light. Holding the helmet in one hand and the light stick in the other, Fu Qinghai controlled the plasma blade to slowly approach the helmet's surface and lightly touch it, like a dragonfly skimming the water.

"Sizzle!"

A faint crackling sound of electric arcs emanated from within the sword hilt, the light shard extinguished, and the bright blue plasma instantly dissipated.

"Ok?"

Fu Qinghai quickly threw the helmet on the bed and began to check his optics. He then discovered that it was just a temporary short circuit, and the blade could be reactivated a few seconds later.

"Ah... Kotosis alloy."

Fu Qinghai quickly remembered.

In the Star Wars universe, there are three metallic materials that can withstand lightsaber cuts to some extent: Bescar steel, Frick alloy, and Cortosis alloy.

Bescar steel is Mandalorian iron, one of the hardest metals in the Star Wars universe. It cannot be cut by lightsabers. It is hard yet lightweight, and can be used to make armor.

Frick alloy can be seen as a low-cost, cheaper version of Bescar steel. It can also be used to make armor. It can temporarily block lightsabers, but it will still be cut if you continue to cut it with force.

Cortosis alloy is also a very strong metal, just not as strong as Bescar steel. Cortosis alloy can also stop a lightsaber's cuts, but not because of its strength—this alloy causes a temporary short circuit in the lightsaber's components.

The tiny dents Fu Qinghai saw on the helmet's surface were damage caused by the lightsaber. It seemed the helmet's original owner had worn it in many intense lightsaber duels and frequently used it to defend against opponents' lightsaber strikes, resulting in such a scarred helmet.

Fu Qinghai tossed the helmet in his hand and thought:

It's like getting a cheat code for cultivating the Force.

His current Force perception level is already high enough that he can eat, drink, and relieve himself completely without being affected while wearing this helmet, relying solely on his Force perception to sense his surroundings. His next step is to try piloting a fighter jet while wearing this helmet, to see if he can control the aircraft solely through Force perception without any of his senses.

…………

Naval officer's single dormitory room, with bathroom.

A dense stream of water gushed from the showerhead, filling the small, single-person shower room with steam. A naked woman knelt on the non-slip mat, her eyes slightly closed, letting the water flow over her delicate, upturned nose. Her mouth, wide open, was clearly stuffed with something, and her wet, short black hair clung tightly to her scalp, revealing her smooth forehead.

Just then, an alarm sounded outside the shower room, and an announcement came over the loudspeaker in the hallway outside the room.

Fu Qinghai and Ai Luowen were both stunned for a moment.

The ceiling sprinklers were still pouring water. Elwin spat out what was in his mouth. Fu Qinghai listened intently for a few seconds, then reached out and pulled Elwin up.

"Emergency assembly order."

Fu Qinghai turned off the shower head, took out two bath towels from the niche next to him, handed one to Elowen, and quickly began to dry himself off with the other towel.

……

Four minutes later, Fu Qinghai and Ailovin appeared on the seventh floor of the base, fully dressed in heavy black spacesuits and carrying flight helmets.

They then discovered that Eli Nellie was also there.

"what's the situation?"

Fu Qinghai looked at Eli and asked.

"A message has come from the Imperial Security Bureau office."

Lieutenant Eli leaned closer and whispered:

"Their people discovered that someone was smuggling ore in the mining area, and it was already being loaded onto a ship. We must take off immediately to intercept them."

"Is there any other information besides this? How many smuggling ships are there exactly? What are the models and specifications of the ships?"

Fu Qinghai wanted to gather more intelligence in order to decide how many fighter jets to send and what action plan to take.

"This is urgent intelligence transmitted through a special channel. Apart from the location, there is no other useful information at the moment."

Lieutenant Eli shook his head and explained.

"I see."

Fu Qinghai nodded and then turned to wave to the other five members of the team, calmly giving the order:

"Blade Squad, all personnel mobilize."

……

Accompanied by a distinctive shriek, TIE fighters and TIE bombers rushed out of the base hangar one after another.

"Blade Team, check the communications channel."

Fu Qinghai spoke as he adjusted the equipment.

"Blade II, in position."

Elowin's voice immediately rang in my ears.

"Blade III, in position."

"Blade Four, ready."

……

"Qingshan, the target's coordinates have been sent to the navigation systems of all fighter jets. We must arrive as soon as possible."

Eli Nelli's voice also rang out.

He was currently on the sixth level of the base, the command level, wearing headphones and facing a microphone, surrounded by screens of various sensors, monitoring stations, and communication arrays.

"receive."

Fu Qinghai answered calmly.

He then issued his first order:

"Atmospheric attack formation, accelerate."

Four TIE fighters are positioned in a triangle at the front, while two TIE bombers are positioned parallel to each other at the rear. The six aircraft form a standard arrow shape and fly at full speed.

Six dark gray fighter jets flew over several cities, attracting people in the cities to look up and watch.

According to the information displayed on the navigation system screen, the target location was marked as an "abandoned mining area" on the map. That place was far from the Imperial military base and was not within the Blade Squad's usual patrol range.

The agents of the Imperial Security Bureau are definitely not to be trifled with.

Fu Qinghai looked down through the cockpit window. The city buildings were receding rapidly, and the landscape was gradually becoming desolate. The vegetation was sparse to almost nothing, and the bare land was covered with huge scars left by disorderly mining, large and small spiral pits and narrow rift valleys. The riverbed was divided into broken streams, and several colorful rivers meandered, their colors so bright that they were somewhat eerie.

Fu Qinghai saw many large mining facilities along the dry riverbed and in the valley. These facilities were obviously abandoned, with no smoke coming out of the chimneys and some lights on the exterior walls turned off.

The dot display on the navigation system.

We are very close to our target.

"My energy sensor has given me a warning."

Elwin's voice rang out:
"A large number of signals appeared three kilometers directly ahead."

As soon as she finished speaking, a large amount of grayish-yellow smoke and dust suddenly rose from the distant valley. A spaceship with a bow that looked like a hammer was slowly rising in the billowing smoke and dust. The spaceship was estimated to be more than 150 meters long, and its outer shell was old and the paint was mottled.

"Smuggling ore? This is a fucking warship!"

Fu Qinghai frowned and said in a deep voice:

"CR90 light frigate".

The CR90 light corvette is a light multi-purpose corvette produced by Corellian Engineering Corporation. It is a classic and old model that entered service during the Galactic Republic era and was still in use by the Rebel Alliance during the Empire era. In addition to the Rebels, other factions also used it.

No wonder that fighter squadron was wiped out.

No wonder they equipped us with two TIE bombers.

Fu Qinghai suddenly understood everything:

If the previous fighter squadron had faced smuggling gangs of this caliber, they would indeed have been wiped out. How could four TIE fighters and two TIE reconnaissance aircraft possibly contend with a frigate? Regardless of the pilots' skill level, they objectively lacked the capability to sink a warship.

The TIE fighter is a standard space superiority fighter, designed to contest air supremacy with other aircraft; it has absolutely no weapons capable of attacking warships. Those two blaster cannons think they can sink a frigate? Even if the frigate doesn't deploy its shields, it's questionable whether they can even penetrate its hull after half an hour of fire.

Moreover, the most troublesome thing right now is that the CR90 light frigate is not an ordinary warship. The firepower configuration of this warship is very extreme: "no big guns, only small guns".

In a direct confrontation between capital ships, the CR90 light frigate is out of the running, as it lacks even a single large turbo-laser cannon of sufficient power and caliber. However, when it comes to targeting fighter jets, the CR90 light frigate is perfectly suited for this role. Its role within the fleet is to provide anti-aircraft fire support for large capital ships. It has a total of six small turbo-laser turrets: one twin turret at the stern and one at the hull, and two single-shot turrets on both the port and starboard sides of the hull.

In addition, the ship itself is not large, only 150 meters long, and from a distance it looks like it has a forest of gun barrels standing menacingly.

At this moment, the frigate had risen into the air, and the six small turbine laser turrets on its hull simultaneously turned in this direction and spewed out a large number of green beams.

Upon seeing this, the six fighter jets of the Blade Squad scattered and flew around, using speed and maneuverability to evade the energy beam.

"What plan, boss?"

One of the team members spoke up and asked.

"Should we call for naval support?"

Another team member asked.

"That's too late."

Fu Qinghai said while controlling the device:
"We must intercept them within the atmosphere; once they leave the planet's atmosphere, they will leap away and escape."

Because they had not received specific intelligence from the enemy beforehand, each TIE bomber carried four proton torpedoes and eight concussion missiles according to the standard bomb load pattern. The proton torpedoes were the only weapon that posed a threat to warships in the Blade Squad's possession, and there were only eight in total. If all eight proton torpedoes were thrown at the frigate, they could certainly severely damage or even sink the warship. However, the problem was that the warship also had a shield system, and they first needed enough firepower to break through the shield.

In Star Wars, shields are collectively called deflector shields. They can both deflect and block attacks. Deflector shields are divided into two types according to their defensive type: one is a beam shield that can only block energy attacks such as blast beams and laser beams, and can also block radiation and rays from space; the other is a particle shield that can only block solid materials such as torpedoes and missiles, and can also withstand collisions with meteorites and other warships and aircraft.

Fighter jets are usually equipped with only ray shields, while warships have enough space and energy to equip both types of shields simultaneously.

Ray shields are one-way shields; they do not need to be deactivated when fighter jets or warships fire. Particle shields are two-way shields; they need to be deactivated when warships launch torpedoes or missiles, or when fighter jets are in the hangar.

The shield is projected by a shield generator; fighter jets typically only need one shield generator. Warships, however, require multiple shield generators installed in different locations to project together and form a complete shield that covers the entire warship.

Both types of deflector shields are projected onto the surface of the aircraft or warship, taking on the shape of the aircraft or warship, rather than forming a spherical or egg-shaped shield like the Void Shield of the Human Empire.

Therefore, the shield-breaking logic in Star Wars space naval warfare is: it is not necessary to break all the shields on the warship at the same time; it is only necessary to concentrate firepower to break the shields in a certain area, causing the shields on a certain area of ​​the warship to become ineffective, and then continue to attack that area to destroy the warship.

The CR90 light frigate is still on the rise.

Six TIE fighter jets followed and circled around it.

Fu Qinghai was still pondering and thinking.

If they were willing to pay any price, the Blade Squad should be able to successfully intercept and sink the frigate, but the key issue is that Fu Qinghai doesn't want to pay that price.

He was a rebel spy, not a true Imperial soldier. The Blade Squad was the only military force he could command, his only personal force. If it meant losing several squad members to successfully intercept the frigate, Fu Qinghai would rather let the smugglers leave Sereno.

On the other hand, this is the Blade Squad's first mission after arriving in the Ring District. If the first mission fails, it will not be in line with Fu Qinghai's plan to accumulate merits and get promoted quickly. After all, he had previously boasted to Yevand and the others that he would promote them together after he was promoted.

Fu Qinghai wanted to successfully complete the mission.

But they don't want to pay any price.

As for the last question: Is it possible that this frigate belongs to the rebel alliance? Is it possible that this smuggling ring was secretly transporting some kind of strategic material for the rebels?
Fu Qinghai was completely unconcerned about this.

This period is a gap in the cycle of reincarnation, and the major events in the storyline have not yet begun. Even if Fu Qinghai sinks the rebel army's escort ships, he will not be penalized with any assimilation points.

Fu Qinghai stared intently at the frigate's hammer-shaped bow and the narrow boarding gate in front of it, quickly sketching out a daring plan in his mind.

"Blade II, III, and IV, draw the turret fire. Blade V and Blade VI, seize the opportunity to launch proton torpedoes. Target: the bow area of ​​the frigate."

Fu Qinghai finally issued the order.

"Received." "Received." "Received."

After a moment of thought, Blade One finally spoke, and the rest of the squad immediately felt reassured and began to pilot their fighter jets according to his instructions.

Three TIE fighters suddenly separated and flew past the frigate from different directions, while simultaneously performing aerial spins and somersaults, causing the ship's six turrets to erratically turn in an attempt to track their flight paths. The frigate's gunnery operators were clearly untrained; they failed to allocate firepower and instead interfered with each other.

Taking advantage of the window of opportunity when the frigate's firepower was dispersed, the two TIE bombers extended their bombing arms from the main bomb bay, and the fire control system aimed at the frigate's bow and launched two proton torpedoes in succession. Then, before the bow turret could turn around, they quickly pulled up and flew away. After the guided warheads of the four proton torpedoes locked onto the target, they drew a faint trail as they converged in an arc.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The frigate's spiked bow erupted in a series of explosions, immediately disabling the particle shield in the bow area.

Just as the two bombers pulled up and separated to the left and right, a TIE fighter that had been following behind the two TIE bombers revealed its true form. The TIE fighter's ion engine was at maximum power, and it swooped straight down toward the bow of the ship with a ferocious and unstoppable momentum.

"Blade One, what are you doing!?"

Just then, Elwin was maneuvering his fighter jet around, flipping and turning its nose when he saw this scene and immediately cried out in shock.

Fu Qinghai did not answer her. His gaze was already firmly locked on the rectangular boarding gate. His hands were firmly gripping the control stick. When the two squares on the head-up display overlapped and turned red, his thumbs immediately pulled the trigger. The TIE fighter jet's blast cannon continuously spewed out beams of green blast energy.

As the TIE fighter jet rapidly dived and fired continuously, a series of large holes appeared on the rectangular metal gate of the boarding gate. Then, the fighter jet crashed into it. With a short and ear-piercing bang, the TIE fighter jet smashed through the gate and rushed into the hangar, disappearing into the huge, ripped gap it had created.

"Blade Squad, retreat."

Fu Qinghai’s final order was given.

Then, only a lot of noise remained in the communication channel, and the Blade One signal light disappeared completely.

Elwin stared blankly at the gap.

For a moment, he even forgot to control the fighter jet.

…………