Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 119

Chapter 119 – An Unfortunate Accident

“Top-end defense technology and arms had always been a tradition of the Union. It was precisely these that allowed us to unify the Union today…”

Someone was speaking through his ears; it was a familiar voice, deep and slow, with a hint of old age.

Who was it?

“But in recent years, I’ve been thinking…was peace through unity truly a good thing?”

“When the lion stops hunting, its fangs will grow dull. We know that the military spends incredible amounts of money every year on those useless mechs and missiles while the factories continue to increase production numbers and roll out new models. They would then roll out these weapons of mass-destruction every year during Memorial Holiday as displays in a parade to awe the media as if they had actually been working. Every industry is in overproduction including the military.”

“But they don’t do anti-missile systems nor do they study military theories; why not? Because there is no direct impact, no pretty data to show off, and they can’t bring it out for display.”

“We live in a world too peaceful with no threats from the outside. Do you all know about the ancients? The old Earth Era was a horrifying time; billions of people all lived on a tiny planet while the limited lands were divided up among countless nations and countries. They were divided into the East, West, China, America…hundreds of governments coexisted on the same planet. They would spend days and nights fighting over their limited resources. People would work a hundred hours a week to make ends meet, befriend each other one day then turn on another the day, while others might not even make enough to meet basic needs. Our ancestors at the time would go to bed every night worrying about their calculating neighbors. Perhaps when you all visit the history museum next time you can ask our ancestors if they dare to bring their nation’s ‘weapons of defense’ out to play like toys.”

“As for us, we don’t have the concept of a ‘nation’ and therefore no such thing as ‘national defense’. If I must say, the Union’s failure came from your honorary alumni Lu Xin. He crushed the space pirates and instilled enough fear for them to stay away from the Union like the demons and creatures of mythology that would never descend upon earth. Would any of you build traps around your houses and defend yourselves from demons at night?”

“Hey there, young man, is my lecture really that boring? Why are you so sleepy? Wake up…Yes, I’m calling you in the corner of the back row, Jingheng…”

“Lin Jingheng!”

Right, that was the History of Military Theory class in the Black Orchid Academy. For the first lecture, the school principal asked Chief Commander Woolf to come in as a guest speaker at the school’s ceremonial hall.

A theoretical course is fine, but why history too? As a stubborn student with very clear interests in his subject areas, Lin Jingheng obviously chose to take this time for a nap. Unfortunately, because he knew the guest speaker, he couldn’t escape the old Chief’s eyes. A student beside him hit him with his arm to wake the boy up, the metal pin on the uniform sleeves poking into his temples and waking the sleepy student up immediately.

A sharp pain came from Lin Jingheng’s temples. The blood coming from his forehead already blurred his vision as he vaguely felt that he was inside an ecopod. The throbbing pain and numbing sense on his body were the last strings that pulled his consciousness weakly back to reality—the scale of the explosion near the portal was too large and too unexpected, virtually the entire fleet of the Seventh and Eighth Galaxy forces were dragged into it. The massive energy created by the explosion pierced through all the shields, bodies of heavy mechs…virtually everything turned into ashes.

At the very last moment, Zhanlu had activated his top danger mode and turned himself into an ecopod against his master’s orders as he wrapped Lin Jingheng inside.

“Sir…”

“Sir…”

Lin Jingheng wanted to move but couldn’t; he couldn’t feel his body below his chest, nor could he answer to Zhanlu’s call, only able to give a weak response to the AI through the mental network.

He was in a state between conscious and unconscious as if his soul were flying out of his body. He couldn’t distinguish the past and present, yet ironically, many things became crystal clear in his mind.

He remembered that open lecture where he was called up in front of the whole class.

The old Chief was purposely picking on him as he asked the young student to talk about how he felt about the “Great Unification” theory. If he didn’t give a satisfying answer, he would simply fail the class and retake the course.

A fourteen-year-old Lin Jingheng was still sleepwalking when he stood up, his mind still blank, not having caught anything the Chief said earlier. He had no choice but to bullshit his way through.

“The Great Unification…there’s a lot of social issues with the Great Unification,” the fearless young man spoke up arrogantly, “for example…for example, gorillas are closely related to us…”

The class broke out in laughter.

“…What’s so funny? This is a fact, did you guys all inhale too much helium? The desire to destroy and fear death is engraved in our genes so naturally that we side ourselves into a community against our enemies, even risking our lives to fight. This is one of the most fundamental characteristics of humans. When ancients talk about ‘patriotism’ and ‘fighting for our people’, not only do they have political and economic reasons, it is also human nature. In theory, internal and external conflict within a government body are two sides of the same coin. A society without enemies from the outside would be like a reservoir that only reserves water until it’s filled, then grows unstable and cracks when it gets too heavy…”

The students in the lecture all gave their rebuttals before the young man could finish: “Where do you see instability in the Union?”

The young Lin Jingheng was still in a daze from getting woken up from a nap when he randomly caught onto something to give an ad-lib show on. Most of what he was saying didn’t have any basis, so of course he wouldn’t be able to discuss anything deeper when questioned. In frustration, he could only bring out his usual arrogant attitude and turn toward his fellow classmates: “Do you all not know what a ‘theory’ is? Even the Black Orchid Academy is an elite school in theory, there’s no way they would enroll a bunch of idiots like you guys.” Thanks to his potty mouth, the classroom discussion escalated into an uncultured verbal fight as everyone jumped into this mess.

Only the old Chief on the podium remained silent. He let the young man’s misdemeanor in class slide and quietly put an A on the section of the student’s classroom performance.

What part of the Union is unstable?

The stability of the Union was built on two pillars; the first was the cradle of the Eden system that was determined to pamper everyone in a false sense of comfort. The second was the “false Pledge of Freedom” that the Union held up high as the pampered babies looked up to it to find their sense of control and belonging, giving them a lucid dream about freedom and bravery.

The Lin Jingheng 30 years later turned around abruptly. His gaze passed through time back to that afternoon class in summer and met with the old Chief standing behind the podium.

He understood: “It was you.”

It was you who had been behind the AUS.

Eight whole galaxies away, the man had carefully controlled the battlefield…the man was the teacher of Lu Xin, and his own teacher as well.

But why? Lu Xin never revealed the list on the forbidden fruit even until his death, was it because he’d also seen your name on there?

This wasn’t a result of Ankur trying to play smart and taking the hand of the demons.

The existence of the forbidden fruit came to light by accident, and Woolf wanted it gone; he wanted it completely gone with no traces left behind.

As for the people of the AUS, perhaps they were also people that had sworn to change the world in the past but turned into a bunch of fools that sought destruction. For the Chief in the City of Angels, these madmen lost their value as pawns and had grown out of control.

In this script, the AUS were the mad villains. Lin Jingheng and Ankur were the “heroes” that protected the people. The two tragic heroes worked together in the end and faded away along with the forbidden fruit while the AUS rebuilt itself from the inside by sending off the dangerous pawns to the frontlines.

Woolf killed and silenced people, but the Union was drowning in anger and frustration. The blood of the Eden Committee and the battle in the far galaxies would once again unite the Central Militia and the Union troops. The foolish mad dogs of the AUS would have their legs cut off on the frontlines of the Seventh and Eighth Galaxies, which would then make it easier to put a leash on them in the future; what a truly happy ending.

Old Chief, is this the script you wrote for this world?

Did the Union you built betray you, or were you the one that betrayed it?

That was the founder of the Union; but if someone like that could also give up on the Pledge of Freedom and turn his back against all his dreams and hopes for the future, Lu Xin, the Silver Ten, and everyone else who had shed blood in space…who or what were they all fighting for?

For a short instant, Lin Jingheng felt his soul shatter into pieces before his own flesh gave up.

Zhanlu’s voice remained calm and robotic as if nothing happened: “Sir, my core processor has been severely damaged and cannot be repaired. The temperature is rising, I expect I will melt down after one minute. My transformable body has sustained over 80% damage during the portal explosion and cannot open a shield anymore. Very soon, you will be exposed to the high-energy particle beams from the aftershock of the explosion. I’m sorry, I will no longer be able to protect you.”

Zhan…lu…..

“Please allow me to express my thanks to you during the last minute of my life. Thank you for your generosity and tolerance toward me; I am unable to understand your unique sense of humor a lot of times, which is very unfortunate. If there is a chance, I hope to give a full upgrade for my database. Commander Lu Xin set up a farewell message on me, which is also something he wished to tell you. He wants me to tell you: I love you, my child. I love you like my own son. I wish for the prosperity and peace of the Union to last, and for you to live happily and safely. If my two wishes cannot be granted together, then the latter is more important to me; you are my pride and joy.”

Zhanlu paused slightly after relaying the message. Lin Jingheng wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, but he felt as if Zhanlu let out a small sigh: “….This is farewell, sir. I hope you will miss me.”

Lin Jingheng mustered up all the strength in his body only to move his finger slightly. Yet the broken bones in his body made it difficult for him to move around as his fingers slid dumbly across the walls of the ecopod…and this time, this rare and precious mech core would never be able to speak to him like a human again.

But he still needed to go back.

Lin Jingheng clung onto his thoughts; he promised someone that he will return no matter where he went, how far he is, he will return as long as that person is still there.

Lu Bixing was still waiting for him. He couldn’t let the same thing 30 years ago inside the medical capsule happen to Lu Bixing.

The commander struggled to get up, but his injured flesh trapped him inside the pod. Even with all his strength he could no longer lift a finger.

Why does a soul have to be trapped inside the ugly flesh and can’t fly away like electromagnetic waves back to its home?

Zhanlu’s mental network already disappeared in the vast sea of space, and on his physical remnants, the last layer of his shield dimmed in silence.

Like a weak candlelight blown out by a storm, it disappeared.

When he wandered the universe carrying his hatred, traveling through dangerous paths that could cost his life at any minute, the damned string of fate would always manage to bring him back to the world.

But when he finally found a place that he would risk everything to return to, a person that he would cling onto until the last second of his life, that damned string of fate finally snapped.

His life had always been an ‘unfortunate accident’ since the day he was born.

The Union established the first Great Unification Galactic Era of human history. A year and half after the pirate invasion broke the peace within the Union, the glory and spirit of the Union remained as people clung to their last hope. There were people who were still willing to call others that lived galaxies away their comrades and fight for them with their lives.

At this moment, the great Era of the New Sidereal Calendar perished; along with the last Top Commander of the Union, the last foolish man who loved the Union and lived in the delusion that he could once again bring back prosperity and the last stubborn idiot who refused to let go of the Pledge of Freedom…everything sank in the depths of space with the explosion.

The civilization of the Union—this last mass hallucination woven together by mankind finally shattered.

The news of the ambush at the portal wasn’t sent over to the Eighth Galaxy in real time. After Turan exploded the portals, Lin Jingheng lost connection with the Eighth Galaxy for a short while.

Turan stayed and cleaned up the particle waves caused by the aftershock and minimized the effects of these explosions, all while checking up on the patrolling team beside the underground terminal.

“Commander Lin and the rest of the fleet are expected to arrive within sixteen hours, all teams on standby make your way over to escort them in case of pirate pursuit.” She paused slightly after making the order as an unexplainable feeling consumed her heart.

She looked out towards the mental network on the mech and thought, perhaps it’s because they are finally here.

Severing the connection with the Union was like escaping the womb: it was supposed to be uncomfortable.

The Eighth Galaxy Forces followed her orders and made their ways toward the underground terminal.

“I think we’ll probably end up like this from now on,” Weasel spoke through the channel to Monoeyed Hawk and the other teams gathering up near the terminal, “the Defense Force is going to split up into two teams. One will be patrolling this entrance, the other will maintain the safety within the galaxy. Even though we don’t have many people and over half are garbage, it should be enough. Besides, don’t we still have the Silver Ten? We should finally be in peace for a while.”

Monoeyed Hawk mocked back: “Back when I was the king of Cayley, I thought the same. Then guess what? Storms came without a warning and swept every single one of these fools up. What prosperity and good fortune, the old capitol is gone with a blink of an eye.”

Weasel sneered: “Old Lu, I thought we’re all cleared now, didn’t we rip up those receipts at the Old Fart’s place?”

“Yeah, we’re cleared,” Monoeyed Hawk said, “if we weren’t, I’d be sending a missile your way right now instead of chatting. But nobody said I’m not allowed to pick on you even after ripping up the receipts, right?”

Weasel: “……”

Monoeyed Hawk let out a sigh and dropped the topic: “The transfer portals may have been blown up but rebuilding a network across spacetime takes a little less than a century. We might not be able to see the day due to our age, but the younger ones can still wait until the portals reopen. If everyone thinks like you, maybe these kids will be facing more missiles by the time they reopen the doors…why can’t you think about the future for a bit, you carefree old man? Even that little Saturday kid is better than you. By the way, where did Saturday go? He’s not here yet, is he trying to skip out on work?”

Before Weasel could respond, a high-energy alarm came from the entrance of the terminal.

“That was fast,” Weasel was amazed, “these sure are the elites of the Union…”

Monoeyed Hawk interrupted him and yelled: “Be careful, run!”

The ID check for the tunnel near the entrance of the underground terminal rang out before Monoeyed Hawk could finish, but the alarm only sounded off once. The next moment, loads of gunfire and missiles poured out of the transfer portal at the entrance along with a fleet of enemies. The enemy fleet slashed down directly toward Monoeyed Hawk and Weasel, who were the closest teams near the portal.

Over half of Weasel’s team were caught in fire while Monoeyed Hawk dodged the cannons in a panic.

“It’s an enemy attack!”

This turn of events was completely unexpected; nobody could imagine how this underground tunnel’s coordinates had been exposed. The fleet gathered up near the portal lost their composure within an instant.

How could this be?

Where’s Lin Jingheng?

Monoeyed Hawk howled into the channel: “Connect to the command post, Turan!”

Turan stood up abruptly.

The Eighth Galaxy was like a closed-up cattle barn filled with fearful sheep; what would happen if a pack of wolves barged in?

Monoeyed Hawk couldn’t even begin to think.

The AUS pirates took the opportunity to stay on the offensive as they ripped the fragile protective layer of the Defense Force apart with their sharp claws. Clouds of smoke shot up outside the terminal while the AUS fleet was already thousands of miles away from the frontline Eighth Galaxy Forces, charging right into the main galaxy with no care for the weaklings behind them.

Monoeyed Hawk: “What are you all staring at, stop them!”

“Hold them for twenty minutes, I’ll send backups immediately.” Turan’s order came from the command post. Meanwhile, all mechs of the Eighth Galaxy Defense Force received an enemy attack alert. Turan almost felt her voice stick in her throat as she called out, “Send out a long-distance signal, connect to Commander Lin!”

“Captain, a long-distance signal might expose…”

“We’re already exposed!”

Turan knew the route Lin Jingheng was going to take to retreat. All the transfer portals that the commander would pass through had exact coordinates, and in theory the other side should immediately receive the signal once it was sent out.

But the signal received no response.

Turan’s hands began to tremble as she turned to look at Lu Bixing, who she’d drugged down. Her heart sank as she asked: “Where’s the Prime Minister?”

“The Prime Minister’s mech was hit by particle cannons during their retreat; he wasn’t able to dodge in time and is currently knocked unconscious in the medical capsule.”

“Captain,” a technician from the Engineering department cut in, “the supercomputer inside Professor Lu’s house suddenly shut down and entered an unknown process.”

Zhanlu!

“Captain, we’ve sent out our sixth long-distance signal but still haven’t received a response yet.”

The Eighth Galaxy Defense Force was built on the grounds of the Silver Ninth Squadron, but most of the troops on duty right now were newly enlisted soldiers that they’d recruited from within the Eighth Galaxy. Half of the former elites in the Ninth Squadron followed Lin Jingheng to the Seventh Galaxy, if they…

Turan’s face turned pale as if she were frozen in time, not speaking for half a minute.

Then, she finally said: “Blow up the underground terminal.”

“Captain! Commander Lin and the rest are…”

Turan howled: “Or am I supposed to expect you weaklings to stop the pirate invasion? Send out my order!”

Saturday was still waiting for the mystery person to respond, but the other suddenly stopped responding once the connection was made. When he heard the alarm of the enemy invasion, he felt as if the sirens slashed through his body.

He jumped back onto his mech and quickly gathered up his subordinates as he rushed towards the battlefield. Before he could see the battlefield through his mental network, the mech already detected the abnormal energy level caused by the explosions.

What happened?

He pondered in denial as an answer he refused to acknowledge lingered in his heart. He trembled in fear as he connected to the communication center: “Mint, what happened?”

“I don’t know, the underground terminal’s coordinates got leaked through unknown reasons. The AUS pirates sent a large fleet over, and we lost contact with Commander Lin.”

Saturday’s eyes widened.

Is it me?

Is it because of the signal I sent out?

Saturday’s group was the first backup to arrive on the frontlines. He watched as the large AUS fleet charged in towards the insect-like Eighth Galaxy mechs. The mechs perished one by one as they closed in on the enemy fleet like helpless ants.

Saturday felt his mind explode as his body chopped up into pieces.

At that moment, Turan’s order to blow up the portal arrived.

“Captain, the AUS has signal disruptions with them, we can’t remote control the explosion of the portal!”

Turan: “Then we’ll do it manually!”

Saturday yelled as he charged right into the pirates’ cannons. His subordinates were taken aback for a moment but followed behind without hesitation. Countless broken pieces flew past as Saturday felt his whole body on fire; there were multiple times where he thought he was hit until he realized he was still sailing forward. The piercing sirens drummed in his ears as the comrades behind him built walls to stop the pirates.

One wall down, another backup arrived.

Saturday passed through the entrance portal of the terminal, disarmed his armory, and activated his self-destruction system—

From then on, the Eighth Galaxy finally became an isolated land.

Author’s Notes: Here are some technical questions from earlier since there seemed to be some issues with JinJiang earlier, so I’ll answer them here

A user by the ID Bapai asked: “So even with airplanes we have today, cellphones are usually required to be turned off due to risk of signal disruption in air, but the connection from the underground terminal has absolutely no protection. Even if it’s highly unlikely, but what if the other person sent you an invite to a group chat and then set up some believable bait for you to click on, kind of like fishing and spam emails we get today…even without being baited like Saturday, what if someone was just tired and accidentally pressed on the wrong link like that?”

So according to my bullshit science in this happy two-man space waltz novel, when long-distance communications are passing through transfer portals, the signal between the sender and receiver are unique in a set. Because of how the portals create a network throughout the galaxies, regardless of if it’s a public or private signal, there would be tons of weird signals stuck onto the portals at any given time; however, only signals that are password protected and set up by two consenting parties can be connected within the sea of noise, so there wouldn’t be a scenario where they would accidentally connect to the wrong one.

When Hope escaped, he only managed to pick up Woolf’s signal after passing through a portal. When Lin Jingheng was still in the old space station and decided to send out a signal to the Ninth Squadron, it was only when the Ninth Squadron connected to the signal that they would risk their signals being detected.

Also, the side sending out the signal would need to know the receiver’s location and coordinates; please check the chapter of the twins from the Third Squadron borrowing Lin Jingshu’s network.

Saturday picked up the passcode when he was near the border of the galaxy, but it’s not guaranteed that he will be able to successfully connect to the long-distance signal because his sender only knew the general direction of his location. However, it didn’t matter if he could pick up the signal or not because most people wouldn’t choose to connect to it. It was only when he was lured over to the Old Fart’s place where he would be much more likely to connect to the signal, and because at that point his coordinates are confirmed, the sender can send out their message with precision.

As for disruptions—during wartime, the Eighth Galaxy portals would be in a state similar to being blocked off to outsiders. Otherwise, even if pirates send out suicide teams into the Eighth Galaxy and send out signals to their comrades outside, the AUS can still detect the location of the underground terminal by the time Turan blows up the portals. If that were the case, they wouldn’t even need to bother using Saturday.

At the same time, enlisted soldiers can’t possibly block their connection with the transfer portals. Because if they block that off, they would be only left with regular telecommunication within the galaxy which would cause significant delays in communication. For example, even with a distance between the earth and Sun, there would still be an 8-minute delay if you sent the message at the speed of light. According to the setting of this little adult fiction, without transfer portals between the center of the Seventh Galaxy to the edge of the Eighth Galaxy, it would take decades for Commander’s message to be heard on the other side. This would be extremely inconvenient in space during wartime.