Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 103

Chapter 103 – “Lin Jingheng”

The moment Hope’s ecopod flew out of the exploding mech, another mech hiding amongst the larger AUS fleet quietly located the pod and sent out a disruption signal to cover up its existence from the enemy radar. Then, a capture net quickly tossed out as it pulled Hope’s ecopod to safety.

Meanwhile, the armed AUS fleet chased down the last of their enemies like a desperate beast towards Alpenglow, which was not far from the battlefield in space.

Inside the internal communication network of Alpenglow’s rescue team, the only survivor and a former soldier of the Ninth Squadron desperately called out to his teammates: “Spread out! Don’t get too close to the planet! The missile will land on…”

A missile pierced through the back end of his mech before he could finish, and his voice disappeared into noise from disruption. His words didn’t even manage to pass onto his teammates because the team leaders were all gone, the surviving members of the fleet were all newly enlisted young men that couldn’t even focus at a time like this and sailed back towards their command post like fearful animals…which also exposed the direction of the post to their enemies.

Nobody could blame these new soldiers; nobody could ask them to think of others while fighting for their lives on the frontlines and avoid dragging down the rest of the planet. The people that could keep their cool and think of the people they’re protecting were all heroes of their times, but the people that couldn’t weren’t evil nor cowards either; everyone was a person with flesh and blood.

The command post on Alpenglow immediately activated their anti-missile shields, but there was no way their fragile and incomplete shield could withstand an interstellar nuclear missile. Without proper equipment and protection, the newly built system began to break as more and more missiles shot through the atmosphere and created more mushroom clouds on the small planet.

When Hope was safely captured, a group of people rushed up to his ecopod inside the mysterious mech and pulled him out to relocate him inside a medical capsule.

“He’s still alive, this is likely just the side effect of being disconnected from the mental network…”

“My god, he almost…that was scary, who would’ve known he’d rush into the frontlines at his age, that’s too reckless. We almost had to be the messenger of bad news.”

“One shot of relaxant should do.”

The relaxant shot into Hope’s veins, and the unconscious man screamed reflexively as his whole body twitched in pain.

“We need to update the medical capsule’s programming, what’s wrong with this? How could it possibly inject an extra-strength relaxant, where’s the painkiller and saline, he’s not a young man anymore.”

“Be careful, press his head down but don’t close the cover…is he awake?”

“Prophet Harris, how do you feel right now? Can you hear me?”

Hope’s vision was still blurry as he struggled to pull himself up. His conscience was still stuck inside that blown-up mech with his comrades, swallowed up by the mushroom cloud above the farm tower: “No…”

The medical capsule sent out a robotic warning: “Patient is too aggressive, please consider the use of sedatives.”

“Prophet Harris, you….”

“I don’t need sedatives.” Hope’s trembling hands pushed away the syringe on the capsule as he desperately tried to crawl out. “My Terrace of Jewels, I must…”

A man walked through the crowd and kneeled down before him, locking his gaze in Hope’s eyes as the latter stiffened up in alarm inside the capsule.

“Prophet Harris,” the man said, “I’m the person in charge of escorting you this trip, my codename is ‘Parrot’—’daybreak rises from the peak of the White Tower’.”

The codename and code message matched up.

It was as if the relaxant burnt through his head, Hope’s mind went blank as he mechanically responded in a small voice: “‘and shine above the land of darkness’…why are you here? What’s with these people?”

“We came to meet you in the Eighth Galaxy on the higher-up’s orders, but didn’t expect to run into these people by the border of the Seventh Galaxy.” The man codenamed ‘Parrot’ explained to Hope. The man had large but clear eyes and an unforgettable demeanor that made him feel very dependable, like a mysterious but righteous rescuer in a movie. When he spoke quietly to Hope, it felt like the words of a reliable ally that arrived by the side of the protagonist at an important time. “We lied and said we followed the orders of ‘that person’ and came to investigate the rumor of the Silver Ten. Their explanation was even more vague, saying that they were here to chase down a traitor of the organization; that’s when I knew something was wrong.”

Hope lifted his head and met his eyes with Parrot’s eyes; the latter’s pupils were like a mirror that reflected the silhouette of a shaggy old man.

“I was worried that their target was you so I asked them to escort me over with the excuse of hiding from the Union troops within the Seventh Galaxy, only to find that you were their target. If you didn’t have the tracker on you, we would’ve almost lost you to them.” Parrot asked in a heavy tone, “Prophet Harris, what’s going on? Do you know who the traitor that exposed your whereabouts was?”

Hope didn’t answer and only stared at him: “Why didn’t you give me any prior notice when you found out that their target was me?”

“What?” Parrot was confused for a second, then his expression immediately grew grim. “I’ve sent an emergency message to your messenger to have you escape immediately. I even asked them to change the meetup location, where is the messenger? I was wondering why you didn’t leave after my message!”

The messenger fell out of the mech the first time Hope’s mech was hit. The situation was too chaotic at the time, and Hope’s attention had all been on Alpenglow so he hadn’t paid much attention to the messenger. Now that he recalled the scene, the broken opening happened to be at the tail end of the mech where a few ecopods were kept.

Was this a coincidence?

“You can check our contact history,” Parrot said and sighed, “But…of course, all records could be faked. If you don’t want to trust us, nothing will convince you. Prophet, can you remember who the messenger was and why your team decided to let him be the messenger again?”

The messenger was an old member of the AUS who had been captured by Lin Jingheng along with him. He was the first person who’d listened to him talk after they were imprisoned on Qiming; he was also the person who volunteered to become the messenger and take care of the crew along the way.

But what did that prove?

Perhaps the messenger that stayed alongside him betrayed him. Perhaps this man that called himself ‘Parrot’ in front of him was trying to push the blame onto the dead.

Or perhaps they were all together since the beginning, and that mad old man in the City of Angels had long planted a spy beside him in order to play out this dramatic movie of friendship to make Hope a puppet in his hands. How else would he be able to survive under these situations? Was he just simply blessed with luck or was this someone else’s script all along?

Hope’s head started aching from the after effects of forcefully disconnecting from the mental network. There were plenty of injuries on his body, and the effects of the relaxant were still in his body; yet none of the pain could compare to the horror and coldness that swept his heart.

Who else in this world could be trusted? Who else were his friends? Who else was still holding onto their initial belief? Who else had already changed completely?

At that moment, the sharp and piercing alarm inside the mech rang. Hope turned his head up in awe to the screen at the center of the mech, showing a mysterious fleet of mechs that suddenly appeared through the emergency rescue route and blocked off the invaders of the AUS. They were like a sharp and long blade that forcefully cut between the AUS fleet.

The AUS was still under the impression that this joke of an ‘Eighth Galaxy Government’ could only pull out a laughable army like the militia of Alpenglow and were completely caught off-guard by this powerful force. Yet the enemy didn’t even bother giving them a chance to catch a breath and sliced through the organized fleet of the AUS like a knife cutting through tofu, immediately turning the tables of the battlefield.

Immediately after the first wave of vanguard attacks, the mech fleet finally showed its true face behind the smokes of fire—it was the Galactic Navy of the Eighth Galaxy’s Defense Forces, and the commanding Model 3 loomed behind the fleet like a menacing monster.

Lin Jingheng showed up personally to the frontlines.

Hope stood up in shock.

This junk of an emergency rescue system actually works! He thought. If it wasn’t for the fact that Alpenglow was ridiculously close to the frontlines, if only they could be at least a transfer portal away, they could’ve avoided such a loss on the planet. Yet the saving grace was that the few months of construction from the engineering team wasn’t in vain! At least they could still save the few survivors of Alpenglow.

Parrot: “Inform our men, get ready to escape!”

Hope: “No, join in the Eighth Galaxy Defense Force’s internal communication channel, listen to me…”

The crowd looked at him strangely as if they all felt he needed another shot of sedative.

Parrot spoke up: “Prophet Harris, do you know their channel code?”

Hope: “……”

The old man then raised his voice: “Then request for connection, I have some words for…my friend…”

Hope forcefully swallowed the desire to say ‘Lin Jingheng’ and changed to ‘my friend’, but before he could finish, the mental network of the Model 3 already expanded throughout the battlefield. Even with its specs limited by old hardware, the former great mech of the Union was still a fearsome blade on the frontlines.

All human-mech ports that were under Zhanlu’s mental network trembled in terror.

The pilot of the small mech Hope was on almost couldn’t handle the blow while a few backup pilots connected onto the network to support their mechs. At the same time, they skillfully dodged the wave of particle beams shot towards them and immediately accelerated into escape right after they managed to break away. The internal gravity system had a few seconds of hiccup during the acceleration and Hope was thrown into a pile of protection airbags.

“Run!”

“Watch out!”

“What’s going on? My god, is the rumor of the Silver Ten real?”

“Commander,” Turan spoke up within the channel, “if there are traitors from the Union within the AUS fleet, do you think they will recognize Zhanlu?”

“The AUS sent out a fully armed heavy mech fleet for a single person. This Hope person that knew the language of the Prophets sure is a master of disguise,” Lin Jingheng commented coldly, “what’s the point of me hiding now that we’ve reached this point?”

“Headmaster Lu was wrong,” Turan’s voice was a little stiff as if she was speaking this through ground teeth, “I was also wrong.”

They had all thought that Hope had at least a bit of redeeming qualities and even had moments where they’d lived in the delusion that they were all friends. Even though this old man was quite naggy at times, he was different from the crazy people of the AUS.

Yet reality once again proved them wrong–he was no different than those members of the AUS.

Looking back now, it seemed as if Hope had stayed in the Eighth Galaxy only to wait for the right time to return; who knew what kind of internal strife went on in that shady cult anyway?

To make matters worse, perhaps he had spent so long in the Eighth Galaxy to see what Lin Jingheng had in his sleeves; now that he saw through everything from this former weapon of the Union, he could safely return and gift the newly established grassroots defense force in the Eight Galaxy to the bloodthirsty monsters of the AUS armed forces.

Ah, that’s right, he also wanted to destroy the newly built farmland on Alpenglow. How ironic.

Was he trying to leave the enemies with not a single piece of grain?

Was Alpenglow really just a toy for him to kill time?

Was he really named ‘Hope’?

“Lu Bixing always likes to give the benefit of the doubt to others,” Lin Jingheng said, “but what about you? A naive and pure angel like him can stay, but one is enough.”

Turan couldn’t respond.

It was quite strange, truly. In a place like the Eighth Galaxy that couldn’t even provide basic necessities for its people to stay alive, it somehow managed to instill a sense of homeliness in people. Everyone that spent an extended period of time here would grow attached to it and soften up the part of their hearts that shouldn’t be weakened–the unaspiring free soul like Monoeyed Hawk was like this, the harsh and unconventional Captain of the Ninth Squadron was like this…and even Lin Jingheng himself was no exception.

“What is expected will come eventually,” Lin Jingheng said darkly, “focus on the frontlines first, Captain Turan.”

Parrot’s quick reaction saved his fleet and fled the battlefield the moment both sides opened fire, backing towards the edge of the AUS fleet.

Both sides of the battle immediately took notice of this small mech that escaped during the mess and shot missiles at it.

The few mechs on Parrot’s team immediately shot out from the corner of the fleet and blocked Hope’s mech, running head-first into the cannons and missiles with their shields.

This sacrificial act of protection bought enough time for Parrot’s mech to escape as he ordered in a loud voice: “Turn on max acceleration, run!”

Hope could hear the particle beams hitting the mech’s shield and disrupting the electromagnetic field of the mech, turning the broadcast and radio inside into a noisy mess. The gravity system inside the mech had completely malfunctioned during the desperate run, and Hope could still feel the impact of the crashes outside the mech inside the protection bubbles. A missile flew right past the tail end of the mech, and thankfully the pilot was quick enough to detach the backup engine before it exploded into dust. The powerful impact of the explosion pushed the mech into a transfer portal ahead as it managed to escape a fatal blow.

The AUS had much higher technologies in the area of warp disruption and signal scanning, which also meant that they were better at fighting against them. The moment they sailed into the transfer portal, the pilot placed a signal immobilizer inside the portal–the enemies could still scan for their signals but would be faced with some delays. Yet this small delay was enough for the small mech to make an escape during the heated battle on the frontlines.

The mech passed through a number of portals before the battlefield completely disappeared from sight as they sailed into the silent space. As the mech gradually regained its balance, the protection airbags slowly deflated back and were sucked away through a window like balloons.

Parrot turned towards Hope and said: “Prophet Harris, you guys were no longer friends the moment you left without a word. How do you plan on explaining to them now?”

Hope closed his eyes.

“Activate long-distance communication, the code is…” Parrot turned back towards his pilot and ordered, “send the last military recording of the battlefield to Mister Wang.”

A large crew of robotic rescue teams was sent onto ground on Alpenglow. Through the ripped atmosphere of the planet, the lost electric charges crashed into each other and sparked little bolts of light that lit up the ashened land of the planet.

At the same time, the protected recording of the battlefield was sent to the City of Angels and was being processed by numerous supercomputers to decode the visuals. The AIs carefully scanned through every bit of the code, and a thorough report of the recording was sent to Wang Ailun’s hands sixteen hours later.

The lean man walked quickly into Woolf’s break room with a stern face: “The pattern of frontline assault is very familiar, and after running through AI analysis, we confirmed that the battle style matched up to 85% similarity with the former Silver Ninth Squadron.”

“Silver Ninth Squadron,” Woolf said in a deep voice, “Elizabeth Turan. She isn’t a guard dog, she’s a cold-hearted female wolf that just crushed the neck of Commander Lee. Who could she possibly be fighting for in the Eighth Galaxy?”

“The commanding ship is an old Model 3,” Wang Ailun said, “according to the battle record we received, we calculated its estimated mental network range with a sextile probability distribution and narrowed the rate of deviation down to less than 1%. The result was that the mental network range was way beyond the standard of a Model 3, and even beyond the modern superdimensional heavy mech of the current models used by the Council…”

Woolf raised his head in shock.

Wang Ailun: “It’s Zhanlu.”

Woolf said in a voice that was almost too small to be heard: “He took Zhanlu’s core with him, the body left in the Silver Fortress was just a shell.”

Wang Ailun: “He’s still alive and managed to hide from Eden, but the core technicians of the Silver Third Squadron had been under our surveillance in the City of Angels, they didn’t…”

Woolf held on the edges of the table and carefully stood up: “The core technician is following me. They’ve built a center of communication around me and the Council–he originally planned on making me the backup central, but it’s clear that he is now suspecting me…for many years, everyone thought he was just a vengeful pawn of the Union. Not even I could have expected that the ‘forbidden fruit’ was in his hands.”

He paused for a moment before adding, “if Lu Xin had even half of his cunning, he wouldn’t have met his end like that.”

“How unfortunate.” Wang Ailun said, “Lin Jingheng.”

“What did you say? Lin Jingheng?” The news also quickly made its way into the AUS.

And through the spies of the AUS, the news quickly leaked back to Wolto and crushed the headquarters of the Glory Troops: “Lin Jingheng!”

Not too far away on the Hummingbird Fortress, Lu Xin’s ex-subordinate Yelvich crushed a spoon in his hand in fury: “Lin, Jing, Heng.”