144: Blood-red boarding

D-7 Port Area had turned into a sea of fire.

The chaos following the explosion of the energy node was the perfect cover, but also the deadliest trap.

"Reno!"

With Eve on his back, Chen Feng charged like a madman toward Reno's direction, guided by the intermittent gunfire and that final massive explosion.

"Answer me! Reno!"

The communicator returned only a deathly silence of busy tones.

"Boss, calm down!" The only remaining soldier followed behind him, his voice trembling with fear. "We'll be spotted!"

"Shut up!" Chen Feng growled without looking back.

His heart felt as if it were being squeezed tight by an invisible hand; every breath he took brought a cutting pain.

A gantry crane, collapsed from the explosion, lay across the path ahead. It was engulfed in raging flames, completely blocking the way.

"Damn it! Take a detour!" Chen Feng was just about to turn.

"There..."

A hoarse, weak voice, nearly swallowed by the flames, came from behind him.

Chen Feng froze. It was Eve.

She had opened her eyes at some point, her hollow pupils reflecting the dancing flames. She raised a trembling hand and pointed toward the center of the fire, at a narrow maintenance passage where the structural steel beams were relatively intact.

"There... safe..."

"Are you sure?" Chen Feng asked doubtfully, looking at the wall of fire.

"Calculating... heat flow... structural stress..." Eve's voice was intermittent, like a sleep-talker. "Ninety-three point seven percent... safe."

Chen Feng hesitated for only a second.

He chose to believe her.

"Stay close!"

He shouted at the remaining soldier, then took a deep breath. With Eve on his back, he plunged headlong into the sea of fire that could incinerate a person in an instant.

A scorching heatwave hit him full-on. Chen Feng felt his hair and eyebrows curling and burning. But he gritted his teeth and stepped precisely onto the passage Eve had pointed out.

In just over ten seconds, they burst out of the fire, their bodies trailing black smoke.

The air was thick with the heavy scent of blood and the stench of burning.

Then, he saw it.

He saw Reno lying in a pool of blood. He saw the two cold, mangled corpses of soldiers beside Reno. And not far away, he saw a cyborg with a terrifying gash torn across its neck.

Chen Feng's heart skipped a beat.

He rushed over and knelt beside Reno, his trembling fingers reaching for the carotid artery.

There was... a faint pulse.

"He's alive... he's still alive!" Chen Feng's voice was so hoarse it didn't sound like his own.

He noticed Reno's blood-soaked hand was tightly clutching a black metal plate. It took a great deal of effort for Chen Feng to pry Reno's stiff fingers open one by one, take the data pad, and tuck it into his shirt.

"Boss, they're coming!" the soldier cried out in terror.

In the distance, the black silhouettes of Alliance Agents appeared, the red dots of their laser sights beginning to converge on their position.

"Get him on your back! Fast!" Chen Feng handed Eve to the soldier, while he used all his strength to hoist the unconscious, tower-like Reno onto his own back.

Boom! Boom!

Hecate's port guards joined the "clean-up." Silver standard-issue mechs descended from the sky, beginning to indiscriminately attack any moving target on the ground.

"Damn it!" Chen Feng cursed. Carrying Reno, he sprinted madly through the dual crossfire of the Alliance Agents and the port guards.

"Fili! Landing Pad 7! Where the hell are you!"

"I'm here! I see you! Get up here! I can't hold out much longer!" "quick hand" Fili's scream rang out through the communicator.

Ahead, a dilapidated smuggler ship was hovering in mid-air, its ramp already lowered. However, the automated turret on top of the ship was firing frantically toward them.

"Turn off your turret! You idiot!" Chen Feng roared.

"I'll turn it off once you're on board! Fast! This is to stop them from following you up!" Fili shouted back.

That goddamn bastard!

There was no other choice.

Carrying Reno, Chen Feng braved the hail of bullets and charged toward the ramp step by step.

"Boss, go!"

The soldier at the rear turned and raised his gun to return fire, trying to buy Chen Feng those final moments.

A stray bullet struck him precisely in the thigh.

"Ah!"

He let out a scream of agony and fell from the ramp, instantly consumed by the concentrated fire converging below.

Chen Feng watched helplessly as a mist of blood erupted; his last loyal soldier vanished into nothingness before his eyes.

"Agh—!!!"

Chen Feng let out a beast-like roar, his eyes turning blood-red instantly. Using his last ounce of strength, he carried Reno up the ramp.

He dragged Reno and Eve heavily into the cabin, then turned and rushed onto the bridge.

"Take off!" Chen Feng pressed the cold muzzle of his gun hard against the back of "quick hand" Fili's head.

"Yes, sir! Yes, sir!" Fili was scared out of his wits and screamed as he pushed the control lever forward.

The "lucky dice" gave a violent shudder, as if it were on the verge of disintegrating, and forced itself off the ground, surging into the sky.

But before they could accelerate, the dense cannon fire from the Hecate fleet covered them like a rainstorm.

The ship evaded and rolled frantically amidst the fire, while alarms blared throughout the bridge.

The shockwave from a massive explosion slammed hard into the rear of the ship.

Clang!

The ramp, which hadn't fully closed, was shaken loose and detached from the hull.

"Warning! Warning! warp engine preheat module damaged! Unable to preheat!"

Looking at the red alerts on the console, Fili let out a roar of despair more intense than ever before.

"It's over! It's over! The warp engine won't start! We're sitting ducks!"

Chen Feng looked out the viewport. Ahead of their escape route, a massive ring-shaped facility made of pure energy had been activated above the port.

An invisible giant net, flickering with electricity, was descending upon their "coffin" of a ship that could no longer warp.