Six did not answer immediately.
The blue "breathing" light on the console flickered rapidly, the frequency so high the pulses blurred into a solid line. Clearly, her core processor was running at maximum load, frantically devouring every data packet from the sensors to construct a real-time mathematical model of the surrounding star system.
Three seconds later.
"We can take the dead end."
Six's voice was calm, devoid of any fluctuation, as relaxed as if she were suggesting they go for a cup of tea.
"The dead end?!"
Priest Zor, standing nearby, jumped right out of his chair in a fright, his semi-mechanical parts clattering and clanging together. "Are you insane?"
Zor pointed at the holographic screen, specifically at a patch of Warp nebula on the edge of the "Maw" trade route that was churning violently and flashing with an eerie purple light.
"That is a high-frequency zone for Warp turbulence—a death zone that even Imperial Navy battleships don't dare approach! Entering that means the ship is destroyed and the crew killed; not even dust remains! The laws of physics in there are a mess—gravity is inverted, and time flows backward! You call that a road?!"
Zor's reaction was normal; in fact, it was the only sane reaction a human of the Empire should have. In an era where superstition and ignorance coexisted, the Warp was, for most people, synonymous with Hell.
For Navigators, who relied entirely on intuition, a calm Warp current was a good road, a slight ripple was a dangerous path, and a visible turbulence zone with off-the-charts energy readings was absolute certain death.
Currently, the space outside the "Maw" was exactly that kind of death zone. Because Navigators were human, their mental endurance was limited; seeing such a violent spectacle, the person would go mad before the ship even entered.
But Andy did not panic. He looked at Six, a flicker of realization crossing his electronic eye. He understood.
"Explain," Andy said. "Specifically, how do we move?"
"It is simple."
Six pulled up an extremely complex waveform diagram, covered in dense functional curves that a normal person couldn't possibly decipher.
"A chaotic, disordered, and malicious storm of destruction is, in the eyes of this unit, essentially just a complex model of high-energy fluid dynamics. As long as energy exists on the fringe of the material universe, it must follow certain mathematical laws."
Six drew a winding, almost frantically knotted red flight path on the screen.
"This unit has just calculated the tidal gravity parameters of this turbulence. While the Warp energy in this area is violent, its eruptions are periodic. There are extremely tiny, fleeting, low-energy gaps between the energy peaks. As long as our speed is high enough and our course corrections are precise enough, we can dive into the troughs before the peaks crash down. Not only will we remain unharmed, but we can utilize the massive tidal thrust generated by the turbulence to accelerate the ship."
In her eyes, the so-called whispers of demons and the curse of Chaos could all be deconstructed into psionic beams and magnetic field interference of varying frequencies. Since they were waves, they could be calculated; since they were fields, they could be utilized.
It was like sailing a ship on a stormy sea. The Empire saw the giant waves and could only pray to the God-Brother for protection in terror. Six saw the giant waves and thought about how to adjust the bow's angle and use the tide's thrust to surge faster.
"We will eventually re-emerge from the Warp turbulence and force an entry into the middle section of the 'Maw.' By then, whether it's the Imperial Navy or the Inquisition, it will be too late for them to give chase."
"Understood."
Andy didn't waste words and made the decision immediately. "Let's do it. Adjust course, target 35 degrees port, Warp turbulence zone. Full speed ahead!"
---
On the edge of the Ruby No. 2 system, the Shinbon, which had been waiting in line for the Inquisition's inspection, suddenly moved.
It didn't inch forward slowly like the other ships. Instead, it swung its bow around sharply, the plasma engine nozzles at its stern erupting in a dazzling blue light. The pristine white starship broke away from the crowded lane like a mad drunkard and dove headfirst into the nearby void.
Immediately following, the veil of reality was torn open, and a visible spatial rift began to form rapidly. This move instantly caught the attention of the Imperial Navy.
"Sir! Look there!" On the bridge of a Dictator-class cruiser, an officer in charge of monitoring shouted while pointing at the screen. "An unknown model of ship has broken formation! It is forcing a jump into the Warp!"
The captain was a heavy-jowled middle-aged man in a garish Navy uniform. Holding a wine glass, he glanced indifferently at the red dot on the screen.
"Hmph, another lunatic." The captain sneered, not even bothering to put down his drink. "There are no stable Warp nodes in that position; he'll jump straight into a turbulence vortex. Likely scared witless by the Inquisition's Black Ships, or hiding something unspeakable—preferring death over inspection. I've seen plenty of these fools lately. Ignore it."
The captain waved his hand and issued an order. "Don't waste precious macro-cannon shells. Let it go; the Warp turbulence will handle it for us. Once it blows up, remember to log the wreckage location so it doesn't block the path later."
In the logic of the Imperial Navy, charging into turbulence of that magnitude was no different from flying a ship into a sun—certain death. Since the other party had chosen suicide, there was no need for the Navy to intercept. Saving ammunition meant more time for a few extra drinks.
A similar scene unfolded on the Inquisition's Black Ship. An Inquisitor looked at the determined ship on the screen and coldly wrote a line in the logbook: "Target self-destructed, suspected suicide out of fear of guilt. Case closed."
And so, under the gaze of tens of thousands of eyes, amidst the ridicule and confusion of countless people, the Shinbon crashed headlong into that violent purple storm.
RUMBLE—!!
The hull shuddered violently. Upon entering the turbulence zone, the massive energy impact caused the entire ship to emit a terrifying sound of twisting metal. The lights on the bridge flickered wildly, and the red alarm lights bathed the room in a hellish glow.
"We're going to die! We're going to die!" Zor clung tightly to the console, his mechanical eye spinning frantically as he muttered prayers to soothe the machine spirit. Sisyphron, Bauer, and the others were so terrified they crawled under the tables, clutching their heads.
Only Andy and Six remained chillingly calm.
Andy sat in the command chair, his body swaying with the ship's violent bucking, but his electronic eye never left the data on the screen.
"Geller Field at 120% intensity!"
"Port attitude adjustment thrusters, ignite!"
Six's voice echoed through the bridge, her speaking speed incredibly fast, every command precise to the millisecond.
At this moment, the Shinbon was like a small skiff navigating through monstrous waves. Outside was a Warp energy storm capable of shredding steel; purple lightning slithered across the shield surface like dragons, letting out sharp crackling pops.
But strangely, the Shinbon was barely taking damage!
The Geller Field on its surface wasn't maintaining a constant frequency like a normal ship. Under Six's micro-management, it was jumping and changing thousands of times per second. Every jump corresponded exactly to a peak energy shift in the external turbulence.
When a massive wave of energy slapped against them, the field strengthened instantly, acting like a hardened shield to block the impact. When the wave receded, forming a low-pressure zone, the field weakened instantly, allowing the ship to slide in and gain massive acceleration from the pressure differential.
This wasn't resistance; this was borrowing power!
The Shinbon wasn't struggling in the turbulence; it was surfing! It was riding the crest of the energy storm, pushed along by that world-ending power!
Speed was increasing!
The conventional engines, which were originally sub-light, surged to an unbelievable value with the aid of the Warp turbulence. The surrounding purple nebula blurred into streaks of light.
"This feeling—" Andy looked at the skyrocketing speed readings on the screen, feeling the thrill of dancing on the edge of destruction. "This is damn exhilarating!"
This was true interstellar travel! No mystical prayers, no fear of the unknown. Just pure computing power, pure physics, and pure conquest! As long as your brain was fast enough and your calculations accurate enough, even a Warp storm would obediently serve as your thruster!
"Incursion window detected ahead!" Six's voice remained calm. "Prepare to exit the turbulence zone. Transferring shield energy to the front; prepare for re-entry impact. 3, 2, 1—"
"We're out!"
---
Sixty thousand kilometers behind the blockade in the middle of the "Maw" trade route.
This was originally a patch of calm void. Suddenly, the nearby Warp nebula bulged outward. Following that, a bolt of purple lightning tore through space.
BOOM—!!!
Accompanied by a violent release of energy, a white starship, draped in residual Warp lightning, surged out of the nebula. Its speed was staggering, leaving a long trail of energy in the vacuum. The moment it appeared, it had already left the blockade far behind.
The Imperial Navy monitor looked at the signal that had suddenly popped up on the screen, completely stunned.
"Sir! Sir! That's—that's the suicide ship! It's not dead! It came out! And—and it's behind us! It broke the blockade!"
The wine glass in the captain's hand finally slipped, shattering on the floor. "What?!"
He lunged at the monitor, staring at the red dot that was pulling away at full speed. The speed of that red dot was more than three times that of their old-model cruiser.
Chase it? With what? By the time they turned their ship around and preheated their heavy engines, the target would be in the next sector!
"How—how is this possible?" the captain muttered to himself, his face full of disbelief. "That was Warp turbulence—that was a death zone... How did it do it? Was that ship personally blessed by the Emperor??"
---
On the bridge of the Shinbon.
The violent shaking finally stopped. The view outside the window returned to peace—the deep, cold starry sky, and ahead of them, the broader, freer Koronus Expanse.
Gamma-9 climbed up from the floor, checking if his prosthetic limbs had rattled apart. Sisyphron also crawled out from under the table, looking relieved to have survived.
"We... we're out?" Sisyphron looked out the window, his voice still trembling.
"We're out." Andy leaned back in his command chair, looking at the Imperial fleet that had been left in the dust. "And, we're free."
He turned his head toward the blue pillar of light on the console. "Good job, Six."
"Standard procedure," Six's voice was still flat, but her blue breathing light flickered just a bit more cheerfully. "It was just standard procedure."