The plunder of the heavens begins with the Spirit Cage.

After Lu Qianwei sat down in the captain's cabin, Case didn't beat around the bush and went straight to asking about the unit's organization and command unit.

Lu Qianwei certainly couldn't say that, only that he was an independent deep space exploration fleet that spent years exploring undeveloped star regions at the edge of the Milky Way.

Not part of any UNSC frontline organization, they happened to be collecting energy resources nearby when they stumbled upon the Covenant's attack on Reach. Being fellow humans, they stepped in to help.

Case frowned slightly, wanting to ask more questions, but Lu Qianwei interrupted him directly.

"Captain, I won't go into irrelevant details, but according to our fleet's intelligence, your voyage has actually been locked by the Covenant."

If you proceed along the original jump path, you'll only be walking into a trap.

Case fell into deep thought. He wasn't sure whether Lu Qianwei's words were trustworthy, but intuitively, he did feel uneasy.

"I understand." Case nodded succinctly and then politely had someone escort Lu Qianwei out.

After sitting back down, Case stared at the star map for five minutes and finally made the decision to change the navigation coordinates and take the western route.

As the course changed, the warships that had been assembled as planned were indeed ambushed by the Covenant heavy cruisers.

Autumnwind Mound escaped the ambush, but that doesn't mean they've broken free of the Covenant fleet's encirclement.

A Covenant patrol immediately rushed over after spotting the human warship.

The ship's alarms sounded instantly. The Autumn Wind's Pillar had already fought several battles with the enemy, and its shields hadn't even fully charged when two Covenant frigates charged straight at it recklessly.

A salvo of plasma directly pierced through the unfinished secondary shield on the port side of the Autumn Wind Mound. The ship shuddered violently, alarms blared and red lights flashed in the corridor, power output dropped by 30%, and the three anti-aircraft guns on the port side were immediately disabled.

Case gripped the command stick, staring intently at the radar, and barked out the order: "Turn the entire ship thirty degrees to the left, prioritize main power for the main guns, and take out the lead ship!"

The fire control officer immediately locked onto the target, and four anti-ship missiles were fired simultaneously to lure the enemy.

The main guns then fired armor-piercing shells, and before the lead frigate could even form a battle formation, its fuel tanks were penetrated by the armor-piercing shells.

The blue plasma exploded into a fireball, breaking the entire ship in two, with fragments scattered throughout the asteroid belt.

The remaining frigate had its bridge pierced by secondary guns, and its superstructure was completely destroyed, but this also automatically triggered the Covenant ship's suicide ramming program.

The frigate's engine, completely disregarding the consequences of overloading, rammed into the Autumn Wind Pillar ship at full power.

Case's pupils contracted as he made an emergency maneuver, but the 30% of his power lost in the previous firefight was not enough to completely avoid the impact that would result in mutual destruction.

In the end, the enemy frigate still managed to ram the stern of the ship.

The deafening roar sent everyone inside the ship sprawling.

Case steadied the swaying control panel, but didn't bother to wipe the blood seeping from his forehead after hitting the corner of the table.

The order was given sternly: "Damage control team, immediately enter the engine compartment to cut off power and extinguish the fire. Medics, take over the transfer of the wounded. All anti-aircraft guns, move to the outer perimeter of the engine compartment for defense..."

The orders were relayed down the chain of command. Damage control team members, carrying fire extinguishers and welding equipment, rushed into the smoke-filled engine compartment, while anti-aircraft gunners manually rotated their cannons to aim at the outer perimeter...

Half an hour later, the casualties were tallied, and a total of seventeen crew members were killed and twenty-three were seriously injured.

The engine's core turbine was deformed by the shockwave from the explosion, and it will take at least eight hours to restart the main engine.

And it was in this terrible situation that Lu Qianwei came to their rescue.

Chapter 251 Halo 3

Lu Qianwei arrived at the bridge command room and said bluntly, "Captain Case, your situation looks very bad."

"I don't need you to repeat yourself. Just say what you need!"

"You're all on the same ship. If the Autumn Wind's Mound dies, you'll be implicated too." Case looked at Lu Qianwei with agitation.

Lu Qianwei shrugged. "Okay, I'll keep it short."

I have a well-organized fleet on standby behind me that can help you clear out any enemies that appear later.

Case immediately tensed up and asked directly, "There's no such thing as a free lunch. What do you want in return for helping us?"

What are your conditions?

Lu Qianwei took two steps forward, stood in front of the control panel, and openly extended his finger: "The conditions are not difficult to meet at all. I only need to copy a copy of the Forerunner Halo-related data stored in 'Cortana,' that's all."

"This is impossible!"

Case slammed his hand on the control panel and stood up. Instantly, all the officers on duty on the bridge put their hands on the gun handles at their waists, and the muzzles of their guns were all pointed at Lu Qianwei.

His chest heaved with anger, and his voice trembled as he pointed at Lu Qianwei: "I don't care how you found out!"

"Don't even think about touching it!"

"Hmph, what help you talk about? To put it bluntly, you just want to take advantage of our misfortune!"

Lu Qianwei stood still, his expression unchanged as he faced the dozen or so guns pointed at him.

He simply shrugged and asked calmly, "If I really intended to take advantage of the situation, would I have waited until now?"

When Reach was besieged, Noble Squad was trapped in a mountain valley with no ammunition or supplies. At that time, I just grabbed Cortana and left. Who could stop me?

"Why would we need to help them clear ambushes, destroy bridges, and seize launch sites all the way up to Qiufeng Mound?"

Case's chest was still heaving violently, and his brows were furrowed as he was about to speak in rebuttal.

The highest alarm in the bridge suddenly pierced the air, and the red warning lights flashed wildly, turning the entire compartment blood red.

The radar officer reported in a trembling voice, "Captain!"

We've spotted the main Covenant fleet heading this way!

One hundred and fourteen ships jumped out from the left quadrant jump breakpoint of 032!

Eighty-six ships appeared in the right quadrant of 117!

Seventy-eight vessels have been deployed to intercept the taillights of the 074th hull!

"The enemy's vanguard units have advanced to a distance of 370,000 kilometers!"

The first wave of attacks will launch within five minutes at the latest!

Upon hearing this, Case's body stiffened abruptly, and the rebuttal that was on the tip of his tongue was swallowed back, his back instantly soaked with a layer of cold sweat.

Lu Qianwei took a step forward, his gaze sweeping over the panicked officers on the bridge, and spoke again: "Captain Case, it's not too late to make a choice now."

I'll send out my fleet to destroy them, and you'll give me a copy of Cortana's data.

We each get what we need; neither of us loses out.

Case gripped the command stick tightly, his knuckles almost transparently white. "Even if I don't agree, your fleet can't just sit idly by and do nothing!"

Lu Qianwei scratched his head. "Well, I'm really sorry, we have spatial teleportation technology on us."

“Like this.” Lu Qianwei said, and in one flash he appeared behind Case, and in another flash he appeared in another place.

Before they could recover from their shock, Lu Qianwei asked Case again.

Case gritted his teeth and forced out the words: "Even if I agree now, how could your fleet possibly arrive in time?"

By the time your fleet arrives, we'll probably be prisoners!

"That's not necessarily true." Lu Qianwei took out the Stargate Shuttle, its pale silver metal gleaming coldly under the red light.

"My fleet is ready to go, and they can appear at any time!"

Now all you need to do is give me a straight answer: Do you agree to this deal or not?

Case turned his head to look at the dense red dots on the screen, the oppressive feeling of death suffocating him like shackles.

With the lives of thousands of people on the ship in his hands, he had no other choice but to grit his teeth and nod in compromise.

At least it's better for them to have the Halo activation protocol in their hands than for it to be taken by the Star Alliance.

But then again, Case naturally didn't believe that Lu Qianwei's fleet could be conjured up.

He couldn't help but sneer, "I'd like to see how your people plan to save the Autumn Wind's Mound!"

Lu Qianwei ignored his words and threw the specially made stargate shuttle into space.

It then cruised at high speed on its own and arrived at a location 30,000 kilometers away.

In just three breaths, a stargate with a diameter of over 12,000 kilometers appeared between the Star Alliance's encirclement battle line and the powerless Autumn Wind Mound.

Sixteen heavy air defense destroyers took off first, arranged in a neat double column formation.

Following closely behind were eight heavy battlecruisers, each one larger than the Covenant's largest active CAS-class attack carrier.

The cold gray modular armor gleamed with a stern metallic sheen in the dim light of the nearby stars.

The three linked main particle turrets have completed their turning and pre-charging, and the pale orange energy halo around their muzzles is clearly visible.

Finally, two flagship-class heavy aircraft carriers brought up the rear. Their massive hulls almost blocked out half of the starry sky, and hundreds of space fighters in the underwing bays had already warmed up and were ready to be launched at any time.

The entire fleet, consisting of 102 warships, completed its standard offensive formation deployment in just one minute and twelve seconds after leaving port.

The two flank destroyers formed an arc-shaped blockade line, while the battlecruiser group in the middle advanced, perfectly positioned at the intersection of the three-way encirclement by the Covenant. They firmly protected the battered Autumn Wind's Mound at the very rear of the entire formation, leaving not a single gap in their firepower.

The bridge of the Autumn Wind Pillar was deathly quiet, with only the red alert still wailing incessantly.

Just moments ago, Casey was spouting harsh words and making sarcastic remarks, but he couldn't close his mouth for a long time.

This fleet is more organized than a regular army!

"My God... we in the UNSC don't even have a heavy ship of this caliber!"

Inside the command center of the Covenant fleet flagship, the Unyielding Sacrifice.

The supreme commander of the Sanhri fleet, Ur'Warren, also clenched his claws.

His face, covered by a layer of tough armor, was filled with shock and anger. He had never expected that a human fleet could break in despite the warp blockade!

Ur Warren stared at the enemy warship's size and energy readings on the screen, his heart sinking.

He has 278 warships, which seems to give him a numerical advantage, but the firepower and shield strength of each ship seem to be more than one level lower.

From the moment the opponent appeared, this battle was already at a disadvantage from the start.

Before Ur'Warren could adjust his formation, the opposing fleet had already made its move.

With a command from the fleet commander, all the main gun turrets of the eight battlecruisers in the center and the sixteen destroyers on the flanks opened fire simultaneously.

Seventy-two bright orange high-energy particle beams instantly streaked across the vacuum of 370,000 kilometers, moving so fast that even the Covenant's interception system couldn't react in time, and crashed straight into the Covenant's foremost vanguard battle line.

The piercing shield explosion alarms instantly blared throughout the Covenant fleet; the high-energy penetrating power of the particle beams was simply beyond the capabilities of the Covenant's conventional energy shields.

As the first salvo ended, all twenty-four Covenant destroyers and frigates at the forefront were directly hit in their core power modules. Their shields instantly evaporated, and their hulls were torn in two by particle beams. The chaotic energy triggered a core explosion, and blinding white light stretched across the starry sky.