314: Magnetic storm trap

Chen Wang had just released the medical pod door when an alarm sounded in the cockpit.

The kindling system interface turned red, and all modules were shaking.

The navigation map was distorted, the weapon system showed offline, and the Shield energy vanished instantly.

A line of text popped up on the dashboard: "External frequency locking in progress."

He immediately pressed the physical switch under the main control console, cutting off unnecessary circuits.

The audio powered down, the neural interface closed, and all data channels disconnected.

This was a new rule he had just set to prevent anyone from hacking through the audio channel.

Outside on the snow, three black combat vehicles surrounded them, forming a triangle.

They didn't fire, but instead raised metal rods from their roofs, with pale blue electric arcs emerging from the tips.

The arcs connected in the air, forming a web that grew larger and larger.

Amy Chen rushed into the co-pilot seat, holding a gold-plated chip in her hand.

She was a little breathless, but her hands were steady.

She inserted the chip into the slot on the side of the console and entered the SP exchange command.

"Superconducting interference projectile, activate."

The coating on the surface of the chip vanished instantly, emitting a puff of silver-white smoke.

The smoke spread into a ring and collided with a corner of the electromagnetic web.

It cracked there, and electric currents flew wildly like a burnt-out filament.

Chen Wang seized the opportunity and stepped on the accelerator.

The snow tracks of the hope began to turn, and the vehicle charged forward in a Z-shaped route.

The ground was uneven, causing the vehicle body to sway; this swaying changed the frequency of the radar reflection.

The enemy's locking signal began to falter, needing to re-align every 0.3 seconds.

He watched the combat vehicles in the rearview mirror.

The second one was adjusting its angle, preparing to reinforce the web.

He pulled the lever, swinging the rear of the vehicle thirty degrees to the left, while simultaneously engaging the short-term reverse thrusters.

This stop-and-reverse maneuver perfectly dodged the new pulse sweep.

The electric arc grazed the vehicle body and struck the ice rock behind it, shattering the entire stone into powder.

"There's still a signal on the right," Amy said.

She opened the SP consumption recorder; the screen showed that although the previous interference wave had torn a gap, it had also bounced back a small segment of the signal, which was received by the opponent.

"They've obtained our frequency characteristics," she said, "They'll lock onto us faster next time."

Chen Wang didn't speak.

He reduced the vehicle speed to the minimum, letting the tracks sink into a deep snow trench.

The snow at the bottom of the trench was thick and could block some electromagnetic waves.

Taking advantage of this time, he opened the local backup protocol and restarted the core control system.

The vehicle AI prompted: Power restored to 87%, weapons require manual calibration, Shield recharging paused.

He switched to the rear camera and saw that the last combat vehicle had already deployed its electromagnetic cannon array.

That was the main control unit, responsible for unifying the frequency of the three vehicles.

As long as he destroyed it, the entire web would collapse.

But he couldn't fight head-on.

The opponent was not an ordinary team.

The signal patterns of those combat vehicles were very special, appearing to be suppression programs designed specifically for the kindling system.

Approaching them rashly might trigger a trap.

Amy picked up another chip, touched it in her hand, and then put it back.

"There's only one left," she said, "This one can't be used casually."

Chen Wang nodded.

He knew what Amy meant.

SP points were hard-earned, every single one gained through running and fighting.

If they used it now, they might not have a chance to turn the tables later.

He decided to take a gamble.

He let the vehicle slowly crawl out of the snow trench, deliberately exposing it in the open.

The three combat vehicles immediately tightened the electric web, and the current became three times stronger.

The lights inside the vehicle flickered incessantly, and the dashboard alarmed again.

Just 0.8 seconds before the lock was completed, he jerked the steering wheel, making the vehicle body slide ninety degrees sideways.

This maneuver caused the enemy's frequency calculation to err.

The system seized the opportunity to catch the positional deviation of the main control unit.

He manually adjusted the rear electromagnetic cannon, entered the coordinates, and fired a single shot.

The muzzle lit up with blue light, and a beam of particle flow shot out, hitting the operating cabin of the third combat vehicle.

The shell was penetrated, and the equipment inside exploded.

The remaining two vehicles lost synchronization, and the electric web collapsed on the spot.

The first one tried to retreat, but Chen Wang fired another shot, damaging its power unit.

The vehicle sat paralyzed on the spot, smoking.

The second one didn't flee.

The figure in the driver's seat remained motionless.

Chen Wang put on his cold-weather gloves, got out of the vehicle, and walked closer.

Amy followed behind, holding a detector in her hand.

The combat vehicle's cockpit door was blown open halfway.

The person inside was wearing silver-gray clothes and a honeycomb mask.

His right hand was still hovering over the panel, with his index finger pointed at a red button.

Chen Wang crouched down to check.

The person wasn't dead, his eyes glazed over.

He let out a laugh, the sound coming out through the mask, intermittent.

"You... cannot escape the quantum marker..."

Before he could finish his sentence, he pressed the button.

The head armor exploded, sending fragments flying.

Chen Wang raised his hand to Shield his face and heard a "bang" behind him.

A corner of Amy's detector had been damaged.

When the smoke cleared, the person was no longer recognizable.

The chip in his brain was melting, and black smoke drifted upward.

The kindling system suddenly sounded a low alarm.

[Unknown particle residue detected, suspected spatial anchoring signal]

Chen Wang immediately returned to the cockpit.

He ordered the system to close all receiving ports and turn off the external radar, leaving only thermal sensing on.

On the screen, the enemy's red dots were gone, but a thin line appeared underground, extending deep into the distance.

Amy retrieved the detector wreckage and opened the casing to read the final data.

She discovered that when the interference projectile was used earlier, an extremely weak reflected signal hadn't been recorded.

After the interference ended, that signal had instead become three times stronger.

"They used our counterattack to mark us," she said, "Just like echolocation."

Chen Wang looked at the line on the screen.

This wasn't an ordinary tracking signal.

It didn't use electromagnetic waves, nor did it travel over the network.

It was a point nailed into space; as long as the hope was still moving, it would be found.

Ordinary shielding was useless.

He was silent for a few seconds, then opened the SP account details.

He reviewed all the income and expenses from the past three days, looking for resources he could still use.

Food, sleep pod maintenance, weapon upgrades... each item had a priority.

"We can't completely hide," he said, "Then we'll use it in reverse."

Amy looked up at him.

"You mean, let them think we're running away?"

"Not think," he said, "It's that we really are going to run, but run into a place they wouldn't expect."

He brought up the map and zoomed in on the northern region.

There was an area of abandoned underground pipes there, which was the heating system of the old city.

The structure was complex, with a lot of metal, making it the easiest place to interfere with signals.

If he used the quantum marker as bait to lure the enemy's main force into the pipeline area, and then used a magnetic storm to cut off contact, he could buy six hours of safety time.

Amy started calculating if they had enough SP.

Setting up fake signals, modifying the jammer, preparing energy... everything required points.

She deleted three non-urgent expenses to free up the quota.

"The plan is feasible," she said, "But we have to be quick. They could send a second wave at any time."

Chen Wang sat back in his seat, his fingers tapping lightly on the steering wheel.

He looked at the small slot in the corner of the console.

Old Zhou's navigation password card used to be there, but now it was empty.

He still remembered that password.

He touched the burn scar on his left arm, then started the vehicle.

The tracks turned slowly, crushing over the wreckage of the combat vehicles.

The wind and snow in the distance grew stronger, covering the bloodstains and broken parts on the ground.

Amy leaned back in the co-pilot seat, catching her breath, with only one chip left in her hand.

She placed it on her palm, flicked it lightly, and caught it again.

"We'll need a different way to gamble next time," she said.

She opened the SP record book and began to reallocate resources.

Chen Wang looked at the wind and snow ahead.

His eyes were very calm, as if he were calculating something.

The kindling system in the vehicle was still running, and the screen displayed: Power normal, defense on standby, communication closed.

The detector wreckage lay at his feet, its broken antenna trembling slightly.