Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 110

Chapter 110 – Pledge of Freedom

Unlike the Eighth Galaxy that had spent the majority of the time hiding away and cutting off communication with the rest of the world, Ankur had his own galactic navy and post within the Union. In the year since the war broke out, he had been actively rebuilding a strong communication network among the Central Militia of the eight galaxies and the central government.

Especially with the Central Militia; thanks to Lin Jingheng, the commanding generals of virtually all fleets around the Union had been ex-subordinates of Lu Xin. After the passing of the late commander, the government funding for the Central Militia also ceased, so they naturally formed a support group amongst themselves to supply resources whenever necessary.

Therefore, Ankur could not ignore the messages from them right now.

The secretary quickly walked up to him and leaned into the general’s ears to explain the situation: “Yelvich’s death was too sudden and the messages inside his personal device were leaked too quickly, so the Hummingbird Fortress is still insisting that it was an assassination. They’re currently doing another round of thorough investigation at the scene.”

Ankur asked: “What’s so urgent, what did they find?”

“A lot, including a message for his personal guards written right before his death that for some reason didn’t get sent out–but that’s not that the point. The point is that there was something they found inside his personal device that proved the Eden Committee of the Union to be the ones responsible for accusing Lu Xin of his crimes years back.”

Ankur turned his head around in shock as if he couldn’t care less about the current stalemate between the two navies before him. His eyelids twitched instinctively as he asked carefully: “Commander Lu was a victim of the Union’s political war inside the central government, isn’t this common knowledge?”

If a prominent figure in the high ranks of government died as a criminal, to the eyes of the public, they either deserved the punishment or they were a sacrificial lamb for a political conspiracy.

For the people who refused to believe Lu Xin ever betrayed the Union, of course they would believe that he was intentionally silenced by certain people inside the central government.

Yet this was all speculation with no real evidence nor a target to direct their anger at.

Ankur took in a deep breath: “Talk to me.”

The secretary said: “You should know that back when Commander Lu Xin fought for the Eighth Galaxy’s military autonomy, he angered a number of people in Parliament….”

However, the story didn’t start off with military autonomy. Lu Xin originally fought for social security, financial support, government support, and establishment of a defense system the Union had promised. The last two demands were especially important due to the Eighth Galaxy being too close to foreign land and bases of pirate organizations. They were at the highest risk of pirate invasion, and ensuring security was the basis of building a sustainable community within the Eighth Galaxy.

But the Eden Committee kept intervening with the excuse of the Eighth Galaxy having the highest rate of vaccuocerebral population and therefore lacking the basic requirement to build the Eden system. A place without Eden was like a land the Committee couldn’t control – why would they waste their time and energy to help out the Eighth Galaxy?

Lu Xin spent most of his life out on battlefields and had significant control of the Military Council, so he was never the type of person that could sit down and discuss politics patiently with others.

Therefore, he proposed that the Union could keep the promises empty and not give any money, but the Eighth Galaxy must have military autonomy and that he would personally build the defense forces for them. This eventually earned him a line of supporters from the other galaxies that also wanted military autonomy. Lu Xin was a man of his word, and after turning against the Eden Committee, he bypassed the parliament and personally approved the construction of the Eighth Galaxy’s military base.

“Someone had reported to the Eden Committee back then that Lu Xin adopted Lin Jingheng because he wanted his hands on Laura Gordon’s ‘forbidden fruit,’ because it contained massive amounts of top secret data and files from the Union. This included the identity of the reporter and the original voice recording, but for some reason Yelvich obtained this piece of information and now it’s made its way onto the news. All the Central Militia have ceased fire and are pressuring the City of Angels to give an explanation, otherwise they will no longer fight for the Union.”

Ankur never heard of the ‘forbidden fruit’, and because of differing fields, he almost couldn’t remember who Laura Gordon was. However, this didn’t stop him from being able to piece out the vital information from these words.

A piece of a top-secret file related to the death of Lu Xin was suddenly made public, so the Central Militia and ex-subordinates of Lu Xin that had been keeping quiet for over 30 years all united in a riot during a chaotic time like this.

“Commander,” the person in charge of the escort fleet for the Eighth Galaxy residents asked Lin Jingheng, “our cannons are locked on the enemy fleet.”

“General,” Ankur’s secretary said, “please give your next order.”

Lin Jingheng raised his hand.

Ankur commanded: “Pull in the teams on the side, reorganize into defensive formation.”

“Sir,” Zhanlu said, “the enemy seems to be preparing to retreat.”

Lin Jingheng caught his hand in mid air: “Wait.”

“I captured the enemy’s long-distance signal, it seems to be coming from outside of the galaxy.” Lu Bixing said, “I have to put that AUS communication technology into good use, let me try decoding it. It might not work but it’s still worth a try, too bad I haven’t been able to fully utilize their methods.”

The heavy mech sailed slowly as Ankur’s gaze extended out the mental network; complex lines of data flashed before his eyes.

“What’s the ‘forbidden fruit’?”

“It’s a legendary program that can fully block out Eden, which would explain why Lin Jingheng is still alive right now.”

“Who doesn’t have a few programs that can block off Eden? Under the Pledge of Freedom, this isn’t even considered illegal!”

“It’s not the same, General. A normal immunizer could only block off the functions of Eden; you can let it not scan your health and reject any medical intervention. You can even stop it from giving primary education to your child, but the system itself still exists. It will record every move and interaction you have with programs, AIs, and robots; even if you were simply getting on an elevator or using the restroom, all data will be kept inside Eden. It can collect this data and analyze your behavior using predictive technology, with almost impossibly high accuracy. There was a list of ‘criminals’ and ‘potential criminals’ that were discovered within Yelvich’s personal device–unfortunately the file was too large so I can’t fully explain it here, but once the system determines a person has the potential of being anti-Eden and anti-Union, they will be listed on the potential criminals list. This person will then be secretly watched, and the moment they step out of line, the Union will immediately silence them.”

Ankur answered slowly: “No wonder why the crime solving rate is so high, they’ve basically perfected predictive policing. I’m on this list too, right?”

The secretary confirmed in silence and then continued: “But the ‘forbidden fruit’ is different. It’s a back door system that was created behind the backs of the Committee in the White Tower. It can completely hide your whereabouts and revise the database inside Eden. According to the published data from Yelvich, once the ‘forbidden fruit’ locks on a single person, it can even alter this person’s entire life data based on the person’s profile to be fitting of their personality.”

In other words, the forbidden fruit was the epitome of terrorism in the eyes of Eden; it could create an umbrella protection for countless criminal to disguise them as the good guys.

“The Eden Committee needed the forbidden fruit otherwise they wouldn’t know how many ‘spies’ were inside the Union and how many people had their data revised by it. And Lu Xin had to die because anyone with no ulterior motives wouldn’t possibly keep the forbidden fruit program to themselves. Even if he hadn’t committed a crime, the fact that he kept the forbidden fruit meant that he could still become a criminal in the future.”

“That’s why they fabricated a crime and evidence; the truth had concrete records within the Committee. From the data leaked out by Yelvich, they called this act the ‘ghost hunt’; but unlike normal political games, during the ‘ghost hunt’ against Lu Xin, the Committee broke the bottom line of the Pledge of Freedom and law. They meticulously plotted a plan from rumors, fake reports, to every evidence that would surface afterwards and spread it out to the public using Eden. Everyone who hadn’t blocked off Eden that received this news was also given a slight dose of shock that helped amplify their suspicions, anger, and jealousy.”

Ankur nodded without a word and thought, no wonder .

No wonder why even though Lu Xin had never done the things he was accused of, he had to run the day before his public court hearing.

The court hearings of all high-ranking officials of the Union government used a national jury of all citizens in the Union, and all non-government officials were free to enter the jury system as they listened to the hearings real-time online.

“Inform all our comrades and brothers across the galaxies,” Ankur said, “we will stand with them–retreat!”

Whether or not Yelvich was a spy inside the Union, whether Lin Jingheng secretly worked with the pirates or not…none of these mattered anymore. If the Central Militia of the Union stood up against the government, that must mean they’ve already fact-checked the published information.

The moment these top secret documents that were supposed to be hidden in the depths of the Committee’s files got exposed, everyone that had followed Lu Xin and made a place for themselves in society thereafter must voluntarily carry the name of being a traitor.

At first, Ankur thought that pirates were responsible for Yelvich’s death in an underhand move to target Lin Jingheng. It wasn’t until this very moment that he realized there was a much bigger story behind all of this. Whoever was behind everything had the ability to pull out the top secret files from the Committee and bring it out under the spotlight during a time like this to further complicate the war. They upheld the Pledge of Freedom for so long only to trample it underfoot on stage for the world to see.

The entire Union–no, the entire civilization of the NSC Era was shattered at its core. From now on, glory and the Pledge of Freedom were nothing more than lies and jokes.

For the Eighth Galaxy, the only thing left for them in the vast sea of stars was the desperate struggle to survive in a universe full of enemies.

“Commander, the Seventh Galaxy fleet made their retreat!”

Lin Jingheng: “I saw. Ignore them and escort the civilian starship to refuge as soon as possible.”

“The Seventh Galaxy Militia left you a message.”

Lin Jingheng looked up in surprise.

“A greeting from General Ankur of the Seventh Galaxy Central Militia for Commander Lin: I still remember 30 years ago, when I joined Commander Lu Xin to attend your opening ceremony in the academy. Times are rough, take care.”

“Ah wait, they left, I haven’t finished decoding their long-distance signal!” Lu Bixing listened in the whole time he was working on decoding the signal and asked, “Does that mean he suddenly remembered your school’s opening ceremony during the middle of ordering fire, got emotional and decided to put his gun down?”

Lin Jingheng didn’t answer him. Turan was already pushed to the edge by the AUS fleet and had lost her weaponry during the crossfire. The shield on her war-torn mech already shattered, she felt as if she could charge into the enemy fleet and self-destruct at this time.

They were less than 20,000 kilometers from the transfer portal; they couldn’t afford to back up anymore.

Turan bit her lips and said: “Gather up! Send out your last words.”

“My comrades,” Turan had heard these words countless times since she enlisted in the Silver Fortress, but this was the first time she said them. It was slightly embarrassing for her to say, but she had no choice because this was the tradition. “If we perish in space, our corpses will float in the endless night until the day we crash and shatter into stars. Our souls will return to our homeland, return to the place we began our journey, the place you had once sworn to protect with your life–all hail the Pledge of Free…”

“Captain, emergency warp and retreat!”

Turan couldn’t even finish saying the word ‘freedom’ when the order from the command post came through the channel.

Turan was speechless and could only smile in response: “Asshole, did you really have to say this after my performance!?”

The next moment, these half-beaten-up fleets of the Eighth Galaxy Forces made an emergency warp all at once. The AUS followed closely and sailed through the transfer portal only to run directly into Lin Jingheng and the backup forces from the escort team. Before they could even pass through the portal completely, they also stepped foot into the enemy’s trap.

“It’s a trap, retreat!”

The pirates frantically reorganized and got ready to retreat, yet at that moment a sudden wave of cannons and missiles fired from behind. The Seventh Galaxy Militia that had been blocking the public terminal earlier suddenly appeared behind the AUS and fired into this mess, blowing up the powerful heavy mech fleet.

The AUS quickly made their escape as the Seventh Galaxy Militia stopped and lowered their cannons at the Eighth Galaxy Fleet. They flashed the flag of the Seventh Galaxy Militia on their mech bodies and made their ways out.

Meanwhile, the Union was in absolute chaos; within three hours since the reveal of the secret files from Yelvich, the Eden lab suffered an attack from an unidentified fleet of armed mechs. The entire base was annihilated, and the spokesperson of Eden, Lin Jingshu, also went missing.

The annihilation of the Eden experimental base was labelled as an open act of vengeance. Soon after, all major military bases within the Union also suffered attacks while the pirates took advantage of the chaos to expand their influence.

24 hours later, the central government announced that they would thoroughly investigate all related individuals involved with Commander Lu Xin’s case and confirm the validity of all records. They requested for everyone to remain calm during a time like this and avoid falling into the trap of unconfirmed rumors.

Yet this announcement was too weak and too late—

While the central government was attempting to ease the complaints, a military fortress in the Union called Alaska was attacked by an unidentified armed fleet. Due to the slow reaction of the defense department, a missile pierced through the shield of the fortress and landed in a non-militarized zone–the residential area for the friends and family of the military. The casualty also included a pair of underaged siblings, which fueled the anger of the commanders of the Alaska Fortress. They fought back against the invaders and fought all the way over near a Central Militia post around the area.

This time, there was no Eden to control the mood and emotions of people. The conflict between the Central Militia and the Union grew more heated as if people were purposely fanning the fire, and within a short time the internal warfare escalated to an unprecedented scale.

The Union, the former Union-controlled Central Militia, and the space pirates entered an all-out war among each other, ripping apart the Union that was already covered in darkness.

At this time, a ghost-like mech sailed out from the City of Angels, passing through the dark universe towards the secret base of the Freedom Corps. Lin Jingshu, who supposedly turned into stardust along with the Eden lab, and her zombie-like researchers who had taken off their white lab coats were alive and well on the mech.

Lin Jingshu passed through a glass tunnel inside the heavy mech into the innermost lab. Behind the protective glass window was the scene of a human experiment; sixteen people of different ages and genders stood naked in a line as they trembled in fear. A man wearing a bright orange vest stood before them with a twisted expression of excitement.

A researcher spoke through the speaker to the orange vest inside: “Tell the odd numbers to step forward and reorganize into two lines.”

The person in the orange vest pressed on their headphones and nodded towards the surveillance. They didn’t speak nor make any gestures as if they communicated through air, the sixteen individuals reorganized into two rows as ordered.

The researcher glanced at the clock and took some notes. Then, a row of heavy and sharp axes dropped from the ceiling inside the experimental room and landed right between the two rows of guinea pigs.

The researcher said: “Order the people in the back row to pick up the axe and kill the people in front of them in the fastest time possible. The people getting killed must remain standing until death.”

The orange vest person made an OK sign at the camera; then the next moment, the sixteen people perfectly carried out the order of “kill and be killed” as if they were puppets on a string.

An old man inside the experiment room turned his head in distaste to see Jingshu walking in.

“Good evening, doctor, seems like the second generation of opium is quite successful.” Lin Jingshu said joyfully, “Second generation chips can suppress first generations, and we’ll eventually develop a third generation to suppress the second generation as well. This will encourage everyone to climb up the social ladder and create a clear hierarchy. It’s effective and an ideal model of society. Fools should have their own lives as fools, am I right? Don’t let them wave around the flag of the Pledge of Freedom like idiots.”

The old man remained silent for a few moments: “That wasn’t your mother’s intention when she made this chip.”

“But we never received the full instruction manual,” Lin Jingshu chuckled, “so we can only take our liberties with it now. Isn’t that right, Doctor Hardin?”

The old man was the first director of the White Tower, and the man that was supposed to already be dead from suicide in prison–Doctor Hardin.

The doctor said: “You’ve messed with the war this much already, have you not thought of how Lin Jingheng would not have enough troops in the Eighth Galaxy because you’ve stopped the Silver Ten along their way?”

Lin Jingshu shrugged: “Are you saying the Silver Ten would voluntarily join in this mess? Besides, wasn’t he stuck in the Eighth Galaxy before because he lacked resources? Now that their enemies have turned against each other, and he has all the troops and arms in his hands, why would he waste more time in the Eighth Galaxy? Grandpa Hardin, Lin Jingheng isn’t that stupid.”