Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 117

Chapter 117 – Dust and Smoke

Everyone was stunned.

Lin Jingheng almost thought he was hallucinating and asked subconsciously: “Zhanlu?”

Normally, a commanding ship would be a heavy mech surrounded by a team of mechs closely guarding it, making it difficult to shoot down. Ironically, a place like the frontlines in space was sometimes much safer than on the ground, so it wasn’t surprising for Ankur to come out. Zhanlu quickly pulled up the last recording from the mech and replayed the footage in slow motion on a large screen. The screen expanded like a flower and clearly displayed how that missile had passed through the group of dispersing mechs, flying past an armory of a guarding mech and right through the commanding ship’s armory.

Ankur made the right decision in the moment and removed both armories as soon as the missile passed through, but the detached armories and flying missile coincidentally created a deadly angle with no way to escape. Within a short time, both armories exploded simultaneously and created a massive explosion that engulfed the entire commanding ship.

The Seventh Galaxy Central Militia was still a proper military that could remain calm even after realizing they’d lost their commander. Ankur’s vice-commander immediately took on the commanding post and ordered the fleet to charge out amidst enemy fire.

They needed to open up a road of survival for the people praying towards the sky on the planet and the satellites.

“Sir, we have successfully captured the target mech–target mech has landed on the dock–”

“Air pressure is normal, target life signals are normal, medical capsules are on standby–”

Lin Jingheng turned his gaze. The Prime Minister’s escaping mech had safely entered his commanding ship, which meant that they could now make their escape.

In the distance, the Central Militia were like moths flying into a fire as they charged forward together, then turned into dust and smokes under gunfire.

Lin Jingheng ordered quietly: “All ships aim on the enemy’s side wing in single-side formation, turn on full acceleration, switch to missile number RA610…be prepared to break through with force. Once we escape the enemy’s disruption range, prepare to emergency warp back to the Eighth Galaxy.”

The entire fleet switched their formation the moment he finished his orders, their large cannons quietly turning. Lin Jingheng could hear footsteps coming from behind and turned slightly to see the Prime Minister limping over to him.

Lin Jingheng exchanged a quick glance with the Prime Minister. The young and handsome commander’s eyes were cold like ice, their surface covered in a layer of steely light. That sharp gaze stared out and pierced through the empty glory of the Eighth Galaxy and turned into a faith of the past.

Lin Jingheng quickly pulled back his gaze.

Zhanlu’s eternally mechanical voice rang out inside the vast mech body: “Persons older than 220 years, younger than 20 years, persons whose physical stats do not meet standard aerospace requirements, persons with external bleeding injuries, or persons with health concerns, please enter the medical capsules or ecopods inside the medical chamber immediately. We will be entering frontline fire range and performing continuous emergency warping…”

There was blood on the Prime Minister that clearly wasn’t his. The old Prime Minister looked more exhausted than usual as he stepped inside the medical capsule. Everyone else got ready into their positions as the physically weaker individuals followed the Prime Minister into their capsules. A few engineers joined the commanding ship’s engineering team to continue their work to fight off the enemy disruption.

Soon after, the entire Eighth Galaxy fleet charged into the side wing of the AUS fleet and very precisely located the weak point of the formation. The deadly RA610 type missile was like a giant tsunami that swept through the enemy fleet as the Eighth Galaxy fleet slid through the openings like a venom that stunned the enemy pirates with a single bite.

The main AUS fleet turned abruptly as Lin Jingheng took his fleet and sailed past the remnant of his enemies. The heavy mech’s shield pushed through all the space waste caused by the explosions as the rest of the AUS mechs that blocked the Eighth Galaxy fleet’s path were knocked off their mental network by Zhanlu. These controlled mechs then crashed towards their own comrades and before the backup pilot could retrieve control of their own networks, Lin Jingheng backed out and forcefully caused a space traffic jam so the pirates would all lose control within that split moment.

If the AUS fleet was like a large web that covered the sky, Lin Jingheng was a deadly hand that forcefully ripped apart the web and temporarily stopped the whole fleet, opening up a hole for the poor fishes caught in the net to escape.

Ankur’s vice commander reacted very quickly and opened fire during this opportunity, then sent a signal down on land for all the civilian starships to take off and escape. During this short moment of stalemate on the battlefield Lin Jingheng made possible, almost all of the starships made it out of the atmosphere successfully.

The starships were like little insects running away from a large storm as they sailed together back towards the center of the Seventh Galaxy to join in with the Seventh Galaxy Central Militia’s main fleet.

Lin Jingheng didn’t comment on them as if he wasn’t the one who purposely opened up a chance for the civilians to escape and ordered: “Retreat.”

The Eighth Galaxy fleet shot out a blinding wave of particle beams at that moment. While the frontline of pirates pulled up their shields and switched to a defensive formation, the Eighth Galaxy fleet took this distraction as a chance to regroup and sail past the stunned pirates in small groups of three before their enemies could react.

Suddenly, an engineer to the side gasped in delight. Both the original Zhanlu on the mech and the backup system at home with Lu Bixing announced in unison: “The Engineering Department has successfully hacked into the Seventh Galaxy Military’s internal network!”

Lin Jingheng almost laughed as he watched these excitable nerds work on hacking into the network system under deadly cannon fire. It was as if they completely ignored the fire around them as they followed Lu Bixing’s lead to pluck out all the garden plants in the enemy’s backyard.

Lu Bixing used up all four walls around him and even the ceiling in the living room as his work screen. The entire room was dark with only the lights of the data glowing like little stars in the galaxy. He spoke to Zhanlu as if he was also mumbling to himself: “This is quite an impressive long-distance network they’ve set up, almost comparable to standard networks before the war. It looks like the other galaxies don’t seem to have many issues with their network compared to us…hm, Ankur used a double-layer line here. One layer is for contacting the Union government and other galaxies’ Central Militia, the other is much smaller that’s used for…who are these people?”

Zhanlu answered: “These are all of General Ankur’s old comrades.”

“Ah,” Lu Bixing scanned the large amount of data, “Yelvich’s personal device signal was cut off before he was assassinated so the surveillance didn’t catch anything…why does this sound like the earliest batch of ‘opium’ we were researching? Oh right, Lin mentioned that he wanted to know the truth behind Commander Lu Xin’s death, so the keyword here must be ‘Lu Xin’….”

The words “Lu Xin”, “Forbidden Fruit”, “Eden Committee”, and “Lin Jingheng” popped up on the screen.

Lu Bixing skimmed and read over the data with incredible speed, quickly capturing the main points of these records. The abyss of darkness hidden behind the Union was instantly exposed before the young man’s eyes as he held his breath and stared in shock for a moment. Then, Lu Bixing pulled himself back to reality and said: “Password protect it, don’t let him find out yet!”

It was already too late.

When Lin Jingheng backed up Zhanlu at home and shared the AI’s powerful data processing and computing functions with him, it was almost like giving the young man a backup credit card to the account. The original Zhanlu was still inside the mech. The second the file was pulled out, before Lu Bixing himself could even look through it, the same file information got sent to the main mech in real-time.

The informer met up in secret with the secretary of the Eden Committee and ratted out Lu Xin. The informer told the Committee that Lu Xin adopted Lin Jingheng in order to get his hands on Laura Gordon’s forbidden fruit.

The forbidden fruit was the ultimate protection for terrorists and criminals of the Union, therefore it must not fall into the hands of others, so they must…

Raging flames engulfed the frontlines.

A moment was too long. It was like a violent gust of wind that blew away all of the questions Lin Jingheng held in his memories. Why was the Committee so insistent on having Lu Xin dead even if it meant dirtying their own hands? Why did Lu Xin live a life of honor and glory only to be forced to escape down the path of no return the day before his public court hearing? Why were the pirates here on the frontlines storming in like madmen, desperate to take his life? It was all because he had the forbidden fruit. Even though he was deaf and blind and ignorant enough to not know the real secrets behind the forbidden fruit, people on this criminal list were still alive. There were still people in the City of Angels trembling with fear that there was even the slightest chance that Lin Jingheng would learn their dirty secrets.

Yet a moment was too short. It was too short for Lin Jingheng to collect his thoughts. Lu Xin had held the forbidden fruit in secret and had Zhanlu protect the system…but why?

Why did the late commander decide to walk down into the depths of hell without even saying a single word to him until death?

An engineer reported to him at that moment: “Commander, the Seventh Galaxy noticed that we hacked into their network.”

Lin Jingheng no longer had the time to worry. The result of him being in a daze for a few seconds was the commanding ship almost being captured by the reorganized pirate fleet. Thankfully, his guarding mechs reacted in real-time and blocked off the enemies with another wave of particle cannons.

This was the dark and ruthless battlefield in space with no room for reminiscing about the past and no room to ask a second question—

Whose name did you see on that list?

Were you in despair when you left the Union?

Did you still believe in the Pledge of Freedom in your heart until the very end?

Lin Jingheng forcefully pulled back his thoughts and said: “Forget about them, we’ll…”

“Commander, the Seventh Galaxy Central Militia is calling for help through their internal network.”

This small but powerful fleet of the Eighth Galaxy that followed Lin Jingheng out already made their way out of the AUS firing range; they were one more warp away from the transfer portals back to the Eighth Galaxy.

“Sir, large fleets of pirates are coming in from the direction of the Seventh Galaxy’s main terminal.”

“Commander, Captain Turan sent a message from the Eighth Galaxy Defense Command Post. She said the preparations for the explosives are ready, they can activate the bombs anytime; she wants to know how much longer you need.”

Meanwhile, as the Seventh Galaxy Militia successfully escorted a large fleet of civilian starships to refuge near the central part of the galaxy, an alarm was suddenly sent out from the Seventh Galaxy’s Military Command post–they had been fully surrounded by the AUS!

That wasn’t the end. Immediately after, all navy posts around the Seventh Galaxy’s alarm sounded off.

The AUS wasn’t only targeting the small former planet Sabien, their target had been the entire Seventh Galaxy all along.

Looking at the big picture, the Freedom Corps were continuing with their biochip business within the Seventh Galaxy while the Central Militias around the Union led by Lu Xin’s old generals continued to rile up their battle with the Union Military forces. The Glory Troops snuck in during the mess only to be blocked off by the Silver Ten that were still within Union territory. This gave the AUS the perfect chance to gather up all of their troops around the eight galaxies to invade the Seventh Galaxy.

“Everyone that deserves to die will die like a hero.”

Ankur never understood the real meaning of this line and would never be able to in the future.

In the starry sea of the Seventh Galaxy, countless emergency starships sailed out of the atmosphere in a desperate attempt to find a path for survival, only to be shot down mercilessly one by one. There could’ve been a whole city’s population on a ship, perhaps the entire team of workers on a satellite city; there was no good or evil, no right or wrong, no rich or poor. All lives were like weightless dust in the air under these deadly weapons.

“Commander Lin, the temporary Commander of the Seventh Galaxy Central Militia is requesting on behalf of the entire fleet for you to open up the intergalactic terminal between the Seventh and Eighth Galaxies and take in refugees from the Seventh Galaxy.”

“Sorry,” Lin Jingheng answered lightly, “I have to consider the safety of the Eighth Galaxy as well, I’m unable to help.”

“Commander Lin!” Through the hacked network, that former vice-commander of Ankur called out from the other side, “We’ll block off the pirates, we don’t need any backups from the Eighth Galaxy. We’re only asking you to please don’t close up your doors and turn your cannons away from the refugees!”

Lin Jingheng didn’t recognize this vice-commander; perhaps he was someone who had made his way up the ranks after Ankur came to the Seventh Galaxy.

All the wealthy students from the Black Orchid Academy graduated with a rank in the military and were steps ahead of others even among elites. Occasionally, some were stationed further outside the First Galaxy, but even then it was considered a learning opportunity. Their futures were destined to be higher ranks in the military with even more complicated political games, in return for more publicity and fame. However, not many soldiers outside of the elites had heroic tales to tell in their lives. After completing their education, students would often enter a boot camp before getting sent off to various navy stations to train from between 30 to 50 years like a normal government worker. They would receive decent compensation and social benefits but almost surely not a chance to climb up the ranks. A ‘Top Commander of the Union’ was like an unreachable dream, an idol that stood above all else, someone that they were destined to never catch up to.

Perhaps there would be the one or two lucky individuals among millions who caught the eye of a high-ranking general and made their way up. Perhaps these lucky individuals would even have the chance to visit the First Galaxy for a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Yet who could have predicted that the powerful Union would fall into the abyss of warfare across the universe?

Lin Jingheng still refused to say yes and only responded: “We won’t attack any starships with a civilian passport.”

Perhaps this single line was enough for that vice-commander of Ankur.

“Seventh Galaxy Central Militia, all fleets gather up!”

In Lin Jingheng’s standards, the Seventh Galaxy Central Militia was certainly not considered ‘elites’ but was still made up of well-trained soldiers. Under the vice-commander’s order, all the mechs of the Central Militia turned and gathered up before the pirates and managed to pull together a sizable fleet.

Soon after, the first vanguard fleet opened fire without any warnings and charged right into the enemy fleet. The violent crossfire triggered countless mech alarms around the area as if they were out of control. Then, amidst the gunfire, the vanguards of the Seventh Galaxy followed the missile, crashing into the pirate fleet with their own mechs and self-destructing.

The exploded armories triggered a chain reaction that caught more and more unprepared pirate mechs into the massive explosion.

The second team immediately flew in before the first team could finish completely. The AUS were also stunned by this suicide tactic by the Seventh Galaxy and backed off in fear as they watched the second team close in. They drew back in a hurry in an attempt to pull distance to use long-range weapons against these mad soldiers.

This series of violent confrontations forcefully opened up a path within this ocean of pirate forces.

The starships waiting outside the range of fire quickly pulled up their pass signals and sailed through the opening like a herd of cattle rushing towards the Eighth Galaxy’s transfer portals.

The Seventh Galaxy Central Militia was like a wolf bitten by a deadly venomous snake: the poisonous fangs had already sunk in the most fatal area on the wolf’s neck, yet the wolf was still struggling to fight it off until its last breath.

No mass migration had ever been this thrilling and stressful.

The terminal of life was fragile and unstable. Every opening meant that a portion of starships could pass by, but an equal portion of Central Militia troops lost their lives in their suicide attacks.

“Commander.”

Lin Jingheng fell silent for three seconds: “Let them through.”

The footage of the frontlines on the Seventh Galaxy were sent real-time to the Eighth Galaxy, Qiming Command Headquarters, Turan’s Defense Command Post…and finally, the patrolling Galactic Forces guarding the secret terminal in the back.

Saturday was feeling the adrenaline rush when a mysterious signal requested to connect to his mech.

Saturday thought it was an order from the command post and picked it up by accident.

Yet what appeared on his personal device was instead a strangely familiar video.