Chapter Thirty-Two. Jump into the Unknown

“CAPTAIN, THERE’S NOTHING larger nearby!” Ayukh the Navigator looked at the data in the star reference guide and on our instruments again and again. “The largest asteroid is half the size of our frigate.”

I could see that for myself. The asteroid belt of the H9045/WE star system had absolutely no large objects in it, and I was running into this rare occurrence for the first time. Usually, among millions of smaller ice and rock chunks, there were a few at least a third of a mile in length or even several miles. But here, the largest object was a gnarled and flame-kissed iron-nickel asteroid no more than one-hundred-fifteen feet along its very longest axis. Just in case, we flew up closer and gave it a scan, but it was the most average asteroid you could imagine, containing no hidden surprises whatsoever. Meanwhile, scanning the dust cloud revealed only objects around the size of fine grained sand particles.

And nevertheless, there must have been something in the unusual H9045/WE system. I could still see the Small and Large Relict Guard Drones in my drone tab, and even order them to fly to me. Flight time for both drones was around three minutes, so there was nothing stopping me from simply summoning the pair. However, I was in no rush. After all, the drones were not merely drifting through space – otherwise, we’d have picked them up on the frigate’s scanning systems. No, they were inside an invisible object of some kind that none of our scanners could detect. If I removed the drones from it, finding the camouflaged Relict base would turn into a total crapshoot!

The Shadow Panther lying at my feet suddenly began to purr and rub up against me. After the time she attacked an allied player in a sparring match and learned her painful lesson, Little Sister hadn’t left my side for a second and was constantly trying to atone for her guilt.

Little Sister jerked her tail in offense and left the captain’s bridge, disappearing as she went. I then asked the drones their flight time again. Three minutes twenty seconds. The time had slightly increased.

“Dmmmitry, turn the frigate around! We’re getting farther away. We need to go the opposite direction. Yes, great! Time is pressing.”

We changed the ship’s vector several times, gradually coming closer. Two and a half minutes. One minute forty seconds. Now just one minute. But still we couldn’t see anything! The locator, lidar and even gravity scanner couldn’t detect any objects in our direct flight path.

The Large Relict Drone was twenty seconds away. Okay, I think that’s enough! The last thing we need now is for Tamara the Paladin to slam into some invisible object at high speed. I ordered the pilots to disengage thrusters and stop the starship.

There it is! From out of nowhere, just a few miles away from our ship, a metal sphere the size of a basketball suddenly materialized in the void of space and was immediately detected by the locators and other ship systems.

“We’ve found it! The Relict base is just over a mile away!” I shouted into the microphone in a frenzy, wanting to share my elation with the team.

“That’s just great, Captain Gnat! We’ll take it from here!” an unfamiliar whistling voice suddenly came over the intercom speaking Geckho with a very strong Meleyephatian accent. At the same time, several ships of Meleyephatian origin appeared just a few miles from my frigate.

Two cloaked frigates, a light cruiser, an assault cruiser and a long-distance scout ship. Almost at once, all five of the ships turned into red markers on the tactical map. Enemies!!!

“Dmitry, full speed ahead!” I shouted before I even read the next message. “Combat alert!!! Ayukh, get us out of battle! We need coordinates to enter a hyperjump quick!”

The frigate’s siren started wailing, my crew ran to their posts. I was pressed back into my seat with triple force, but this time I was delighted by the G forces, in fact wishing the ship could go even faster. We started getting farther from the enemies. I even had a flicker of hope that we’d manage to escape. After all, Tamara the Paladin had pretty sporty acceleration.

“We’re being targeted! We’re under attack!” Copilot San-Doon shouted in alarm.

And our forcefield really did take a slight dip. The two cloaked frigates first started firing from their laser cannons, then the other ships as well. It wasn’t critical yet – Tamara the Paladin had a strong shield, but still it wasn’t nice. Much worse was that we got “caught” by their combat electronics! That robbed us of our biggest advantage: speed!

“Captain, we have been hit with a hyperdrive disruptor and two stasis nets! Three nets now! We’re losing speed fast!” Dmitry Zheltov commented in a surprisingly calm voice as if telling me about the weather forecast back home.

Our main thruster started wailing in strain, working at the edge of its capability. But nevertheless our starship was slowing down. Our speed couldn’t save us now. And our hyperspace drive was blocked. We couldn’t beat them in a fight either – their firepower was significantly higher than ours.

“You’ll have to give me my ship back!” only after that did I finally recognize the nasty voice. I don’t know how Leng Sooweesssh Eleven managed to get off the Miyelonian station or how he found me, but it was the leader of the Nest of the Horde Frontrunners. I had no doubts.

“Keep dreaming! I’d rather blow this frigate to smithereens than let you take it back from me!”

I placed a marker on the probable location of the hidden Relict base. I didn’t have any idea what exactly was there, but it was our only chance.

“Pilots, accelerate in that direction! We’ll try to hide behind the space distortion shield! Gunners, fire at the nearest frigate with all cannons! I’ve placed a targeting marker on it!”

What, don’t like that?! The enemy frigate took a few hits and started dodging maneuvers, simultaneously accelerating to leave the battlefield. Cloakers generally had weak shields because their camouflage systems used too much energy. So a cloaked frigate couldn’t stand up against concentrated fire from nine laser cannons for long.

“Going somewhere? Nuts to you! You won’t make it!” I shouted. And literally at the last second, we managed to place a disruptor and stasis net on the ship, not letting the cloaked frigate escape. Half a mile from us, space was lit up by a bright explosion. One opponent down!

Any other time, I’d be celebrating the landmark level and the ability to choose three new skills for Gnat, but I could not think about that now. Our ship was sure to perish. Even though it was a twinbody, and the shield was enhanced and firepower improved, Tamara the Paladin was still a frigate and couldn’t stand up against two cruisers in a firefight in open space.

“You wanna know how I found you?” the Meleyephatian Spy asked, getting on my nerves. “Because you have MY ship! It’s unique, it’s my pride and joy! It still holds many secrets you never uncovered. I heard every word spoken on the frigate and was tracking your every move, human. I know about the ancient Relict base in the H9045/WE system and we even got here first. Do you really think an experienced Spy couldn’t get off of the Kasti-Utsh III trade station? It was no problem for me! I even got here before you. We checked the whole system and couldn’t find anything. But you found it for us!”

He was lying about the ship! I scanned the whole thing, every berth, every utility area, but I never found any bugs or any other espionage equipment. Although... maybe he wasn’t lying? How else could he know so many of my secrets?

Tamara the Paladin’s defensive shield was falling before my very eyes, especially when the enemy assault cruiser’s cannons hit. The Mirosssh-Pakh II was the main combat ship of the Meleyephatian Horde. It combined massive firepower and a sturdy defensive shield, the workhorse of most interstellar conflicts in modern times. By the way, the starships were assembled for the Meleyephatian Horde on subjugated Tailax.

All my attempts to take out the targeting system on that highly dangerous enemy ship with combat electronics ended in failure. The assault cruiser was still firing, and every volley it landed sharply reduced our frigate’s shield.

I tried to launch both of our torpedoes at the enemy Mirosssh-Pakh II cruiser, and it looked like a gesture of despair – both of the missiles were destroyed by the cruiser’s high-speed cannons before they even got close. We were done for. No more shield. We would not survive another shot.

I summoned the Large Relict Guard Drone into the firefight to help the two Small ones, and they got the second cloaked frigate out of the fight. But it didn’t wait around to meet the same tragic fate as its counterpart, just hyperjumped away. With one less stasis net on Tamara the Paladin, our frigate started to accelerate again. Were we really going to make it?

But then... At first I didn’t notice, but my Large Guard Drone was dashed to pieces by a direct shot from something very powerful and deadly. Then it hit our frigate as well. The rough blow just about made me fall out of my seat, and I painfully hit my left hand on a work panel. My eyes went dark from the sharp pain. I think I broke my wrist. The lights flickered on the starship and the characteristic siren rang out to say we’d lost pressure. Damn! They did hit us after all!

“Captain, the tail section of the frigate has been hit! We lost our hyperdrive!” there wasn’t even a trace of Dmitry Zheltov’s former calm left. The Starship Pilot was shouting in panic at this point.

And I understood his despair perfectly well. With no hyperspace drive, we could not leave this star system. Flying to a neighboring system in normal space would take years. Hundreds and thousands of years, in fact. With no hyperdrive, this was no longer even a starship in the literal sense of the word, just a ship for leisurely flights inside a system. And the captain’s tablet showed me that our troubles were not limited to a lost hyperdrive. The cargo hold had been completely destroyed, the right corridor took damage and the two outermost residential berths as well. Our right stabilizer was missing a big chunk, and so was one of the laser cannons.

“Uline, report on losses in the crew!” I demanded, but my first mate’s answer was not forthcoming.

“Leng Gnat, Gerd Uline Tar is dead! The explosion also killed Kisly, Gerd T’yu-Pan and Timka-Vu. Gerd Ayni has been severely wounded and is losing blood! I’m evacuating her from the depressurized section, then I’ll try to stem the bleeding.”

Looks like this is the end... One more hit, though it was glancing, and the frigate was destroyed in all new places. And then, when no hope remained... our starship started to creep through the distortion field surrounding the Relict base! From my workstation, it looked like our ship’s two fuselages poked into a colorful soap bubble, then went inside.

The image on the large wall screen changed. The whole “bubble” of camouflage was in fact tiny, a mere thousand feet in diameter. Our frigate’s left nose casing was just about touching the inclined steel spindle of the small space station!

“Stop the ship!!!” I shouted to the pilots. Thankfully, they’d already seen and were able to avoid a rough collision.

Just one mile away, outside the bubble, we could still see the Meleyephatian ships in space. By the looks of things, they lost track of us as soon as Tamara the Paladin entered the secret location behind the distortion screen!

Before my eyes, a bright red warning appeared in Relict on my helmet’s faceplate:

Security system not detecting adequate response. Identify yourself immediately or you will be destroyed!

A second later, the very same message was repeated word for word on the monitor of the frigate’s communication system. Despite the threatening content of the message I was in fact delighted to be able to communicate with ancient automated systems, and to have the chance to show off my knowledge of the ancient language:

“I am Leng Gnat the Listener! I am here in service of an assignment from the Pyramid to collect two drones that belong to me.”

No answer followed, and the ghastly sensation of death on the horizon didn’t leave me, so I quickly continued:

“I have earned the gratitude of the hierarchs for transmitting highly important data to the Pyramid and have been given permission to use level-three modifications on my armor. I am here in pursuit of a special assignment from the Relict hierarchs!”

Finally the alarming message disappeared. The automatic security system had made up its mind about the man that disturbed its millennia of peace:

Listener, right to visit confirmed. Access to research base permitted. Docking permitted.

Awesome!!! Just a minute earlier, I was mentally prepared to die and respawn at the far-off Kasti-Utsh III station, but now I was about to jump and shout for joy.

“Captains, the Meleyephatians have lost us! They’re no longer shooting!” San-Doon the Pilot couldn’t contain his emotions and shouted in elation, but I called for silence with a gesture – I was still communicating with the security system and couldn’t afford to be distracted.

Listener, we require clarification of the status of the ships beyond the perimeter. System not detecting adequate response. Listener, is that your escort?

“No, they are enemies! They were searching for this Relict research base and even attacked my ship!”

“Human, where are you hiding? It doesn’t matter, I’ll find you soon enough! You can’t hide from me!” despite the threats, the voice of the leader of the Nest of the Horde Frontrunners contained a certain amount of uncertainty and bewilderment.

But overall, the level-211 Spy had the right idea. All three Meleyephatian starships changed course and headed straight for the bubble concealing the secret Relict base.

Two absolutely identical texts appeared on the inside of my helmet and onscreen:

Listener, correction. They are not searching. They HAVE FOUND the secret research base. Location no longer secure. Defensive transportation protocol initiated. Random coordinate selection underway. Hyperspace jump calculation underway. Listener, your ship and this entire research complex will be transported to a random point in the Universe.

BE THE FIRST TO KNOW when Michael Atamanov’s next book is available! Follow him at https://www.bookbub.com/profile/michael-atamanov to get an alert whenever he has a new release, preorder, or discount!

If you like our books and want to keep reading, download our FREE Publisher's Catalog, a must-read for any LitRPG fan which lists some of the finest works in the genre:

Tales of Wonder and Adventure: The Best of LitRPG, Fantasy and Sci-Fi (Publisher's Catalog)

IN ORDER TO HAVE NEW books of the series translated faster, we need your help and support! Please consider leaving a review or spread the word by recommending A Jump into the Unknown to your friends and posting the link on social media. The more people buy the book, the sooner we’ll be able to make new translations available.

Want to be the first to know about our latest LitRPG, sci fi and fantasy titles from your favorite authors?

MICHAEL ATAMANOV was born in 1975 in Grozny, Chechnia. He excelled at school, winning numerous national science and writing competitions. Having graduated with honors, he entered Moscow University to study material engineering. Soon, however, he had no home to return to: their house was destroyed during the first Chechen campaign. Michael’s family fled the war, taking shelter with some relatives in Stavropol Territory in the South of Russia.

Having graduated from the University, Michael was forced to accept whatever work was available. He moonlighted in chemical labs, loaded trucks, translated technical articles, worked as a software installer and scene shifter for local artists and events. At the same time he never stopped writing, even when squatting in some seedy Moscow hostels. Writing became an urgent need for Michael. He submitted articles to science publications, penned news fillers for a variety of web sites and completed a plethora of technical and copywriting gigs.

Then one day unexpectedly for himself he started writing fairy tales and science fiction novels. For several years, his audience consisted of only one person: Michael’s elder son. Then, at the end of 2014 he decided to upload one of his manuscripts to a free online writers resource. Readers liked it and demanded a sequel. Michael uploaded another book, and yet another, his audience growing as did his list. It was his readers who helped Michael hone his writing style. He finally had the breakthrough he deserved when the Moscow-based EKSMO - the biggest publishing house in Europe - offered him a contract for his first and consequent books.

Michael is now the author of three bestselling LitRPG series: Perimeter Defense, The Dark Herbalist and Reality Benders which are already considered the classics of LitRPG.

^[1] The Cossacks were a loosely organized frontier people who lived in paramilitary communities in modern-day Ukraine during the middle ages. One of their defining features was a sort of democratic self-organizing.

^[2]Pyrrhus was a king of antiquity and second cousin of Alexander the Great. After he lost nearly his entire army in a hard-fought victory over the Roman army at Asculum in 279 BC, he is reported to have said: “One more such victory and we are undone.” Ever since, the term pyrrhic victory has meant a victory that comes at too high a cost, and which is essentially equivalent to defeat.

^[3] Tumen – a tactical unit of Genghis Khan's Mongol army consisting of ten thousand riders.

^[4] Vladimir Vysotsky was a famous and widely loved Soviet bard or folk musician who often clashed with the government. This line comes from his Song About a Friend, originally released on the soundtrack to Vertical, the 1967 film about mountain climbers.

^[5] A militant folk dance of the Caucasus region typically in a frantic 6/8 time.

^[6] A genre of stripped-down singer-songwriter music popular in the 60’s and 70’s in the Soviet Union typified by the often illicit and political works of Vladimir Vysotsky.