In the vast, empty expanse of space, dazzling electrical arcs suddenly erupted, becoming increasingly dense and spreading rapidly.
A few seconds later, a colossal object abruptly appeared in this part of the universe.
This behemoth was the aircraft carrier Poseidon, which had just exited warp and was undergoing a routine inspection.
At the time, Mars's warp technology was still not fully mature, and the cooling system required some time to recover.
Only the Olympus's new engine could perform long-distance or multiple short-distance warps, such as traveling directly from Mars to Earth and then back to Mars.
The captain of the Poseidon, a veteran who had participated in the previous great war, was very familiar with the emergency procedures of the battleship.
As soon as the Poseidon exited warp, he ordered marine soldiers, equipped with jetpacks, to leave the ship and search the asteroid belt drifting on both sides of the battleship.
"Any situation?"
"Reporting, sir, this is Marine One, no sudden incidents so far!"
"Very good, continue to maintain vigilance, we still need ten minutes for the inspection!"
"Yes!"
However, neither the vigilant marine soldiers nor the sensors on the battleship detected two very small asteroids slowly detaching from the asteroid belt and flying towards the battleship.
Perhaps they noticed something amiss, but they didn't become suspicious, because asteroids drifting randomly in the asteroid belt were simply too common...
Colonel Reyes, captain of the Retribution and commander of Scar Team One, watched the increasingly close, massive shadow above him with bated breath.
Beside him were his good brother, Lieutenant Saotl, his young admirer, the E3N tactical robot codenamed Ethan, and Marine Staff Sergeant Omar.
This small squad had been lurking in the asteroid belt for over three hours.
Just a short while ago, after concluding the Siege of Luna, they received a battle report from Earth: a Martian army aircraft carrier would be transporting a weapon prototype through this star system.
Thus, the Retribution had arrived here ahead of time, dropped off the squad, and then departed.
Once Reyes and his three companions successfully boarded the ship, Ethan would send a signal, and then the Retribution would warp into this airspace, complete the surprise attack, seize the weapon prototype, and quickly leave.
The plan proceeded incredibly smoothly; the Martians were completely unaware of their small actions.
The four men, without any major incidents, arrived at an emergency maintenance tunnel on the underside of the Poseidon aircraft carrier.
Ethan, with his natural superhuman strength, easily tore open the sealed hatch of the maintenance tunnel.
Then, the remaining three filed in, successfully infiltrating the Poseidon.
"Alright, we'll disable the ship's engines, then call in the Retribution, finally grab the weapons and data, and then we're out of here.
Understood?"
As soon as they entered the battleship, Reyes eagerly laid out his plan to the others.
The others naturally followed his lead; even if Reyes had proposed that they follow him to Mars to assassinate Salen Kotch, his subordinates would have gladly accepted.
However, Fisher at this moment had no idea that someone was eyeing the classified data he had long since reserved.
He was currently in his room organizing his weapons and equipment.
He planned to make his move once the battleship entered warp, first having the ground engineers he had brainwashed create chaos in the hangar to draw the guards' attention.
Then, he would have the drone, carrying gravity grenades, fly into the warehouse and detonate them while the guards were unprepared, at which point he would rush in with his gun and eliminate the guards.
What he didn't expect, however, was that before he had even gone halfway, a dull explosion suddenly echoed from deep within the battleship, followed by a buzzing sound, and then the entire aircraft carrier lost power.
"Enemy boarding! All personnel to battle stations! Activate security robots, eliminate them!"
Accompanying the red emergency lights was the furious roar of the carrier captain.
Then, the entire battleship churned like freshly boiled water, with fully armed marines and sailors wielding makeshift tools swarming towards the engine room, and successive gunshots and explosions reverberated from that direction.
"May good people be safe for life!"
Fisher, who had been troubled by the numerous sailors in the hangar, was overjoyed and eagerly watched these soldiers leave their posts.
He himself ran towards the carrier's hangar in the opposite direction.
Using his identity as a high-ranking officer as a cover, he successfully passed through the security robots' blockade and rendezvoused with his newly recruited ground crew subordinates in the hangar.
"What's the situation?"
"There are twelve armed patrol robots in the hangar.
We can shut them down, but we can't do anything about the ones in the warehouse.
Their mission is to guard the warehouse; they won't come out unless the enemy attacks!"
One of the ground crew regretfully pointed to the simple drawing he had just sketched on the wall, which depicted the terrain he had just scouted.
"Don't worry about that, I have a plan!"
Fisher kicked the drone behind him.
The Eighth Fleet had assigned him this thing as a backup, and now it was time to let their own people experience what it was like to be an insider.
The firefight continued, especially after the UNSA called in the Retribution.
The UNSA forces entering the Poseidon received more reinforcements; elite armed assault teams directly blew open some of the Poseidon's gates and airlocks, then infiltrated every corner of the aircraft carrier like ants.
Such intense gunfire naturally made the guards in the warehouse tense up, especially since the captain had previously instructed these few soldiers to destroy all blueprints if they couldn't hold the battleship.
Just as these soldiers were meticulously watching their surroundings, the drone, with gravity grenades tucked into its waist, clanked into the warehouse.
"What is this? How did this robot get into the warehouse? Hey, robot, get out!"
One soldier impatiently stepped forward, intending to chase the drone out of the room.
But the drone completely ignored his command, walked into the crowd on its own, and then pulled out the gravity grenades hanging from its waist.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
The drone's actions were so alarming that it wasn't until the grenades clattered to the floor that the soldiers, as if waking from a dream, reacted, but it was already too late.
The erupting magnetic field disrupted gravity, causing the unprepared soldiers to float in mid-air.
Fisher, who had been waiting outside the door, heard the commotion, covered his face, and charged into the room with his weapon.
After quickly dispatching the standing guards, Fisher didn't bother to check the contents of the boxes.
He destroyed the surrounding surveillance, collected the safe, and quickly left the scene, leaving behind only a large Z-shaped symbol and a few scattered corpses.
Alright, the duplication check is down to 15%, that should be enough, right?