Great, we're doomed now!

Modified for space warfare, these mobile suits stand in rows in the hangar like soldiers being reviewed, ready to be deployed at any moment.

There's even a super laser cannon hidden here, which, when at maximum power, can melt through hundreds of meters of rock, and can even penetrate monster-level defenses!

Of course, the weakness of defense over offense is an old problem with human technology, and this base is no exception. Despite having "borrowed" shield technology, it is nothing more than a fragile bubble in the vast universe...

Once exposed, most of the staff in the base would be doomed. After all, humans are not yet adapted to the space environment. The life support system is only literal; if there are problems with oxygen or gravity, the consequences would be catastrophic.

In the original work, TPC's lunar base was once completely wiped out by aliens (it seems that all the aerial and space fortresses of the Ultras are very fragile), with only one survivor. Besides the enemy being too cunning, the biggest reason was that the staff had nowhere to escape.

This requires that everyone working here be a professional, with pilots and scientists from various countries' militaries making up the majority, and a small portion being those who have to stay here for various reasons.

For example, the researchers in the Zero Drive project also lived on the lunar base for a long time because the test site had to be in space.

But the world is fair; their hard work has paid off today.

"Attention all units... one hour countdown."

"Why isn't the energy saturation rate full yet?"

"What about redundancy? We need to leave enough space here!"

Various voices mingled on the public channel, a mixture of anxiety and barely concealed excitement...

On the edge of the crater, a silver-white launch pad stands out abruptly on the lunar surface.

Unlike a traditional runway, it has no straight taxiway or gradually rising ramp. The entire launch pad is angled upwards with a slight upturn at the end, resembling a giant cannon mounted on the lunar surface, its muzzle pointed towards the deep starry sky.

The plasma 100 is positioned in the center of the base of this "giant cannon".

The streamlined, silver-gray fuselage, with its glossy and bright coating subtly reflecting the dazzling starlight overhead, features wings folded and tucked into the sides, and two exhaust nozzles at the tail that are closed and simply folded together. The overall lines are clean and concise, designed entirely for one purpose—speed!

Although designing a pair of "wings" in space may seem a bit formalistic, anyone who has studied Zero Drive will know that the existence of these wings has nothing to do with aerodynamics. They are solely for the purpose of regulating pressure when entering subspace—where "spacetime" can be viewed as a fluid that also generates pressure, thus affecting the strength and balance of the machine.

Inside the cockpit, Kazuma Asuka pushed up his helmet visor, revealing a sharply defined East Asian face.

He was at the peak of his career as a test pilot, and fine lines had appeared at the corners of his eyes, but his eyes were still sharp, able to see through the truth hidden behind every fluctuating number on the instrument panel.

His fingers gently caressed the joystick, his gaze sweeping across the control panel in front of him; Kazuma Asuka was utterly calm.

Being a pilot is a job that is extremely challenging in terms of stress tolerance. They have to continuously monitor various data in a cramped, enclosed cabin where they can't even stretch their legs, and their actions must be precise down to the second or even smaller dimensions. Even a turbulence or a passing bird could turn this seemingly powerful steel behemoth into a coffin... No, that's a pipe dream, because in most cases, they either escape alive or are left without a complete corpse.

Having experienced an accident is like having walked through the gates of hell, so the more experienced a pilot is, the less daring they are, and the more cautious they are compared to novices.

Of course, many people are left with psychological trauma, which makes them unable to fly again... Therefore, the selection of pilots is extremely rigorous in every era.

Kazuma Asuka is very experienced and has successfully handled many emergencies. Although he is not as good as the monsters in the GUTS team, such as Shinjo and others, whose escape records are far ahead, he is still among the top humans.

He almost died in subspace last time, but was saved by Ultraman Bayeri at the critical moment. He also fused with a light life form of unknown status... Even so, Kazuma Asuka still insisted on staying on the front line and never retired.

He can fly even faster and farther!

Representing humanity in venturing to uncharted territories... this kind of romance is irresistible to men, even if it means mortal danger.

"everything is normal."

Yima successively opened the various detection panels and operated them continuously on the projected virtual interface...

The preparations were temporarily completed, and his gaze fell on the corner of the control panel, where a shrunken photograph was stuck, its edges worn white, but the image was still clear:

A man and a woman stood on either side, each holding the hand of a little boy, and all three were smiling happily.

"it is good!"

Kazuma Asuka smiled and gently touched the photo.

"Wait for me to come back—Dad will be back soon!"

"Calling Hyakushiki, calling Hyakushiki~"

The voice of the base command center came through the communication channel; the operator's calm and steady tone immediately put Yima into focus.

"Plasma Type 100, system self-test complete, Magus power unit preheating normal, please check cockpit status."

"receive."

Asuka Kazuma pulled down his mask, and his voice regained the composure expected of a test pilot.

"System in normal standby mode confirmed... The entire system is ready."

"Received. Launch window countdown: 60 seconds."

Inside the command center inside the crater, the three rows of curved control consoles were packed with people. The main screen displayed the real-time status of the Plasma Hundred, while several secondary screens on the sides monitored lunar weather, orbital parameters, and energy level fluctuations in the Magnum propulsion unit.

A gray-haired man stood in front of the command platform, his hands behind his back, his eyes fixed on the main screen. His name was Imamura, the head of the Propulsion Technology Department of the Space Development Agency, and Dr. Yao's partner. He was currently personally overseeing this project.

Plasma propulsion is a branch of the project that the Space Development Agency is pushing hard. It is independent of the Magus Propulsion System and focuses on the engineering realization of subspace travel.

According to the technology plan, TPC's interstellar travel technology is not developed in a single line. Magus Propulsion solves the problems of energy density and conversion efficiency, while Plasma Drive focuses on how to break the speed of light.

"Thirty seconds to go. The orbital defense system has been activated. The Jupiter relay station signal is working."

Imamura appeared to have his hands behind his back, but in reality, his fingers were gently tapping his wrists behind his back. He remained expressionless, but his heart was beating much faster than usual.

During the last test flight, the "Plasma Zero" experienced energy channel instability when entering sub-light speed, and the shuttle almost disintegrated. Although Kazuma Asuka brought the aircraft back intact thanks to his excellent skills, that failure put the entire project team under tremendous pressure.

Especially the leadership, they knew it wasn't an ordinary accident, but a monster attack. They still didn't know if it was purely accidental, or if this ghost engine would attract some kind of troublemaker from space…

After that, they redesigned the confinement magnetic field of the plasma engine, replaced it with a more stable Magus particle injector, and carried out seventeen rounds of iterative optimization of the entire energy chain.

Today is the day to prove all of this!

"Countdown to ten seconds."

Kazuma Asuka gripped the joystick and took a deep breath.

In the photo in the corner of the console, the smiles of his wife and children flicker in and out of the instrument lights.

"Five, four, three—"

The Magus power unit began charging, and the entire cockpit was enveloped in a pale golden light, with the readings on the instrument panel starting to jump.

"Two, one! Launch!"

A blinding white light flashed on the arc-shaped guide rail at the end of the launch pad, and the Plasma Type 100 was gripped by an invisible force, accelerating suddenly along the guide rail!

Without a runway or a gradual approach—the entire shuttle was like a projectile launched by an electromagnetic rail, accelerated to an extremely high initial velocity in a fraction of a second, soaring into the air from the lunar surface and leaving a pale golden trail as it pierced into deep space!

Kazuma Asuka's back was pressed tightly against the seat, the acceleration pressing him into the cushion. His field of vision darkened slightly at the edges, but his fingers remained as steady as a rock, adjusting the machine's posture according to the pre-programmed procedure.

The speed is constantly increasing—

One-hundredth the speed of light!

Three percent!

Five percent...

The speedometer readings on the dashboard continued to climb, and the high temperatures generated by the friction between the shuttle's outer shell and the thin cosmic dust turned the surface of the fuselage a dark red.

"Energy output is stable, and the confinement magnetic field is normal." Asuka Kazuma's voice was transmitted back to the command center through the communication link. He spoke each word slowly and deliberately, as calmly as if he were sitting in a simulator.

No one spoke in the command center; everyone stared at the speed curve on the screen.

Eight percent...

Ten percent!

—Singularity.

hum~

The shuttle suddenly shuddered, and in that instant, the plasma engine officially started. The Magneto particles were excited in a completely different way, and a curtain of emerald green light poured out from the tail nozzle, like a blooming flower.

Immediately afterwards, a rift tore open in the space in front of Hyakushiki!

No sound could be heard; in the vacuum, all the magnificent sights were silent. The rift presented a strange ripple that could not be described in words, like the surface of a lake being stirred by a stone thrown in, but the ripples did not spread in the water, but in the three-dimensional space itself.

call!

The shuttle plunged into the crevice and disappeared from the lunar telescope's view, putting everyone on edge.

Currently, they only have the technology to observe subspace, but not the ability to lock onto a specific target within it. Therefore, they cannot make any contact with Kazuma Asuka and can only wait for him to come out and report the situation.

The Sea of ​​Imaginary Numbers... This is the official name given to subspace by TPC scientists, where conventional physical laws no longer apply, and time and space coordinates lose their meaning.

The instrument panel in the cockpit briefly went haywire, with all the values ​​jumping to their limits simultaneously before instantly returning to their starting point and slowly stabilizing.

"Whoo~"

Asuka Kazuma breathed a sigh of relief, turned his head and looked out the porthole, where he saw a familiar yet indescribable scene.

It was neither the starry sky nor nothingness. Countless shadowy figures drifted outside the cabin, some like threads of light, some like flowing mist, and some with solid outlines that resembled geometric shapes, yet they were constantly changing.

They have no physical form, at least not in the sense that humans understand them.

But the sensors show that they do exist—they have some measurable properties, but they don't follow the logic of three-dimensional space and don't seem to qualify as "life".

Some of these beings noticed the shuttle's intrusion and began to approach the machine.

Just then, the protective shield formed by the Magus particles came into play. A pale golden light film covered the surface of Hyakushiki. Any beings that came close and touched this light film would quickly retreat as if they had been burned, leaving fleeting ripples in the void.

Ultraman Bayeri once ventured deep into subspace to rescue Kazuma Asuka. At that time, he used his own radiance to isolate these distorted objects. After TPC recovered Asuka and the prototype machine, based on the light energy particles remaining on the machine, he used Megas Power to create a shield with similar properties, in order to protect the pilot's safety in subspace.

—It actually works quite well!

With this, the biggest hidden danger in subspace was eliminated, and Asuka Kazuma must have turned his attention back to the navigation data on the dashboard.

Thirty minutes later, Jupiter's orbit.

hum!

When the Plasma Hundred leaped out of the rift in the sea of ​​imaginary numbers, the enormous orange-yellow planet suddenly appeared in front of the porthole.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot is slowly rotating, like an eye that never closes, gazing into deep space. Jupiter's moons are moving in their respective orbits, some of them so close they seem within reach.

However, the reality is quite different from the stated goal; the changes in gravitational fluctuations prove that the shuttle did not actually enter the orbit of Jupiter's moons.

Kazuma Asuka lingered near Jupiter for ten minutes, communicating with the lunar base via quantum communication. Once the machine's AI had completed a series of data acquisitions and system checks, the plasma engine was restarted.

hum!

The return journey was equally smooth. When he piloted the Hyakushiki out of subspace again and appeared near the moon, the command center could already hear the barely suppressed cheers over the communication channel.

In the corridor, some people were clapping, some were slamming their hands on the table, and in the corner, a young female engineer took off her glasses and vigorously wiped the corner of her eye... They were not soldiers, but ordinary scholars who could not bear the loneliness for too long. However, they had moved to a closed lunar base for the sake of "faster than light" and lived a life similar to that of prisoners. One can imagine how much pressure they had endured.

And this is the reply!

Their names are destined to go down in history along with this plasma... oh, now we can just call it the "faster-than-light engine"!