Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 155

Chapter 155 – I Won

Independent Year 13, May 26th, Eighth Galaxy standard time, 10:00 AM.

NSC 291, May 4th, Woltorian standard time, 18:25 P.M.

Turan only took 30 mechs along with her to the wormhole zone, but they were all Eighth Galaxy-produced superdimensional heavy mechs.

For the vanguards with the highest mobility on the battlefield, 30 was a magical number: one less meant they wouldn’t have enough firepower, but one more meant they would have to sacrifice a certain amount of mobility on the battlefield. Thirty mechs in Turan’s hands could be turned into either a phantom or a sharp blade. She listened carefully to the sounds coming from the other side of the wormhole through the channel, cannons all preheated, standing on guard like a fearsome swordsman resting her great blade across her knees on the throne. Her expression was calm and quiet, almost too quiet for a longhorn beetle.

“General Turan, a researcher from the Expedition team is reporting in.”

“Okay, let them in.” Turan nodded as Mint walked over in her white lab coat.

“General, I’m here for equipment support. Sixteen starships carrying amplifiers are fully prepared and on their way.” Mint lifted her hand as her personal device automatically projected a complicated and detailed blueprint from the ceiling down to the floor. “To put it simply, a natural wormhole is so unstable that it can collapse at any time. Our job in the past was to prevent these sudden collapses and ensure that it was safe to pass through. However, these sixteen starships are equipped with disruption signals that do the exact opposite; they can disrupt the energy flow around the wormholes and cause a temporary shut down of the area.”

Turan asked: “What’s the range of the ‘mesh opening’’ after it’s closed off, is it big enough for a bug from the other side to slide past?”

Mint: “Even if an actual bug-sized mech were to slip through from the other side, it would still cause the collapse of the wormhole and get dragged into distorted spacetime.”

“Okay, stay on standby and wait for the orders from the command post.”

Mint let out a breath of cold air. All the preparations were ready, they only needed to wait for further orders from the meeting in the command post.

Mint suddenly asked: “I wonder what kind of solution will come out of the meeting in the command post…General, are you also a Woltorian?”

“Hm? Are you kidding me?” Turan laughed, “Do I look like a rich and delicate heir to a noble family?”

Mint blinked; Turan’s hands were rough from years of harsh training. After a long career as a soldier, the aura of a galactic soldier on this General covered up all other indicators of her identity.

“I was born in the Fifth Galaxy,” Turan said. “It was before the management law for external breeding was enacted; private breeding centers were just picking up on business and were a mess in terms of management. A private breeding center there was doing some opening campaign where they found a group of newly wed couples to join in, the first prize was a free DNA collection to breed a newborn at their center–I was the prize that came out of that campaign. My parents broke up before I was even ‘born’, and threw me under the care of the breeding center. That breeding center eventually got outlawed and we were all taken in by the government. Because my mental strength was a bit above average, I later got dragged out and selected as a backup soldier by the Silver Ten. I was probably one of the last groups of recruits; they stopped doing open recruitments later. I heard it was Commander Lu Xin’s idea because he wanted the Silver Ten to slowly blend into the Union and start recruiting from military schools like every other fleet…too bad that never happened.”

Mint asked: “Then have you ever been homesick, General? What if we have to point our cannons at the Union one day, what will you do?”

Turan simply avoided answering directly and responded nonchalantly: “Me? I have my boss the Marshal already, I’ll follow any orders without question.”

Mint asked: “Then do you…still believe in the Pledge of Freedom?”

“Of course,” Turan didn’t hesitate to answer, but paused for a moment before adding on, “but to tell you the truth, little girl, it certainly feels great to simply follow orders and not make decisions or hold responsibilities.”

Mint: “……”

Turan openly broke the rules of no open fire inside a mech and lit up a cigarette: “I can say something that I don’t mean, but will still fight for it regardless. People, you know—tsk, here, connect me over to the Milky Way City Command Post, feed me some beautiful men to wake me up.”

Milky Way City Command Post—

“We’ve been sending out communication requests with no response back.” Lee’s expression was grave and deep like the ocean. “We have reason to believe that the Union has their own opinions on the Eighth Galaxy’s proclamation of independence…that’s right, Prime Minister Lu. After the communication signals were cut off, the information department in the First Squadron here hasn’t been able to connect to the Union’s internal network. We found a news article in the Wolto Daily not too long ago regarding the Union’s public announcement towards the Eighth Galaxy; the topic was ‘we firmly refuse to acknowledge illegal proclamations of independence, the Union’s central government refuses to hold diplomatic talks.’”

Anakin shrugged and said: “At least this proves that Duke isn’t purposely blocking off our messages to the central government.”

Thomas was afraid that Lu Bixing didn’t understand the Wolto Daily and quickly explained on the side: “The Wolto Daily is the dog of the Union’s central government; they bark at whoever the government points at and are infamous for being shameless in that aspect. Back then, they would drag our Marshal out whenever they saw a drop in readership; my Marshal here is like their source of dog food, he’s guaranteed to have a stable market.”

Poisson saw his own brother start running his mouth again like cannons on a mech and kicked his leg under the table in fear that this idiot would anger the Marshal again: “His point is that the Wolto Daily’s position is a direct reflection of the central government’s attitude.”

Poisson carefully glanced at Lin Jingheng, only to find that despite showing a hint of fatigue, the Marshal’s expression remained calm and peaceful with no signs of anger: “Continue.”

“We also collected a lot of unofficial theories and discussion; many of the rumors among the public aren’t completely baseless, so we managed to pick out some key information from these discussions.” Lee said, “First, the Union is worried that the Central Militias will not listen to their boss. Second, all galaxies outside of the First Galaxy are also worried that the Union will return to how things were before the war, turning them all back into secondary citizens. Third, there were rumors that Prime Minister Lu’s Rainbow Virus experiment succeeded and had already built a superhuman fleet, ready to invade the Union at any time–I personally think this particular rumor clearly displays the Union’s fear of space pirates outside of their territory, which also explains why the military is not enough to ease the worries of the public.”

Lin Jingheng frowned and quickly exchanged a glance with Lu Bixing.

Lee didn’t know that these ‘rumors’ weren’t completely fabricated; the success case of the Rainbow Virus experiment was sitting right here in this meeting room. The only difference was that he refused to take the research a step further.

But Lu Bixing’s experiment had always been done in secret and the Eighth Galaxy had been closed off for so many years already. How did such a rumor suddenly arise at this time?

Lu Bixing smiled and tapped the tips of Lin Jingheng’s boots under the table: “That’s not wrong, General Lee, it certainly isn’t a rumor. I do have a powerful superdimensional fleet in my hands; isn’t that all of you sitting here in the room right now?”

Turan’s ghostly voice rang out through the long-distance connection screen: “Oh look, the token gay’s feeding the soup of temptation to a bunch of adult men in the room and abducting these boy toys right in front of you. Marshal, here, I’ll keep a note of everyone that’s blushing right now for you.”

Lee cleared his throat and glared at Turan before continuing his report: “Just from what we know of the 306th Decree, the amount of troops dispatched during the second increase, and their placement…it’s clear that the Union is hostile towards us. That’s very strange.”

The Captain of the First Squadron stood up and opened up his personal device. A large amount of data flooded the meeting table as he said: “This is all the data the First Squadron collected over the last 200 days on the Union and Central Militias, which includes everything from fleet organization, firepower, arms, size grade—after our thorough analysis, we feel that if the development continues on at this rate, both sides will maintain a stalemate of balanced military power for at least the next two to three years. After that, it will depend on the internal power struggle between the individual galaxies and the central government; also whether or not we will see another great leap in technological advancement.”

“Back in the Heart of the Rose, the Union was pressured by the situation and let us off the hook because the Central Militias had our backs. They also didn’t comment on the independence of the Eighth Galaxy; according to your reasoning, it’s not likely that the scales of the internal conflict would have tipped so much in favor of one side in a mere 200-day timeframe. Therefore, there are only two possibilities: first, the 306th Decree had a different intention than what we interpreted and the Union wasn’t actually targeting the Eighth Galaxy, they’re just using their attitude to hide something else. Second, the Central Militias and the Union came to an agreement on the topic regarding the Eighth Galaxy and both see us as a threat, so my sympathy card is completely obsolete.” Lu Bixing spread his hands in front of him at this point and turned to give Lin Jingheng a deep and suggestive look. “Looks like emotions and feelings aren’t strong enough as a promise without a written contract. Marshal, when do you plan on signing one with me?”

Lin Jingheng did not catch the implications behind those words and nodded sternly in response: “I personally lean more towards the former theory—I don’t know how difficult it is for the Central Militias and the Union government to come to a consensus, but it certainly is easy to break their alliance when the time comes, since Zhanlu still has the list from the forbidden fruit with him. I’m sure Woolf also understands my intention behind those words I didn’t say in the Heart of the Rose.”

The entire meeting room, including Turan on the other side of the screen, fell in complete silence after he finished and stared right at him. Lin Jingheng lifted an eyebrow in confusion: “Anyone have questions?”

The generals of the Silver Ten all lowered their heads simultaneously like parrots and insisted that nothing was wrong, everything the Marshal said was right.

The Marshal wasn’t dense and could read the room; it must be because the Prime Minister’s marriage proposal was too vague.

Lu Bixing gave him a slightly defeated and faint smile in response.

Lin Jingheng: “So the 306th Decree might have another motive behind it–to threaten us into closing off the wormhole zone.”

“Indeed.” Lu Bixing pulled back his joking demeanor and tapped his fingers lightly on the table. “During a time like this when the situation is complicated and our only source of information isn’t providing enough, the best option for us is to close off the wormhole zone. The Eighth Galaxy is a difficult target for our enemies, so that is our natural course of action; the Expedition Team should have already delivered the disruption ships over to Turan, right?”

Turan: “Yes sir, we’ve received them.”

“Let’s try thinking outside of the box for a second. The outside world barely knows anything about me, so this seems more like a collective gamble by numerous unknown outside forces targeting Jingheng specifically,” Lu Bixing said slowly but clearly, “They’re gambling to see if we will make the same mistake, even with a precedent that almost cost your life at the Seventh and Eighth Galaxy border battle.”

A sudden sound came out of Turan’s side of the screen at this moment, all eyes immediately turned towards the screen.

“There’s abnormal energy activity from the other side of the wormhole,” Turan said in a low tone, “It seems as if something is attempting to pass through and even sent a coded message signal–Mint!”

“Yes ma’am, decoding immediately.”

Lorde could feel that his human-mech sync rate had dropped to an extremely dangerous percentage right now. He was able to escape from Duke’s heavy mech under the cover of his comrades but spent the rest of the journey chased down by ‘the AUS’ fleet. His missiles were completely emptied out as he dodged another wave of particle beams from the side. Thankfully, he escaped the firing range quickly enough, but even then his mech body was already war-torn with damages on all sides. The internal gravity system could no longer maintain a reasonable air pressure, so Lorde put on a space suit and tied himself up in the cockpit as he shoved the last relaxant into his body.

He twitched in pain with the familiar muscle spasm– just a little longer , he thought. I’m almost at the Heart of the Rose.

He saw the pursuing mechs from behind through the mental network; the relaxant forcefully increased his mental strength temporarily as he yelled out loud and entered his fifth emergency warp. The flesh-ripping pain once again consumed his whole body as the sirens inside the mech rang out in a frenzy; Lorde’s vision blacked out almost instantly.

Emergency warp successful!

He returned near the Heart of the Rose. This area was heavily stationed with patrol fleets, thus the pirates would not dare to enter.

A heavy burden dropped off Lorde’s shoulder, and the next second, a long-distance signal scanned his ship. He recognized it as the patrolling guards scanning his identity. Lorde took a deep and exhausted breath of air as he responded: “I am the representative of the First Galaxy’s Border Patrol, Colonel Lorde. I was ordered to escort General Duke to Wolto until we were ambushed by the AUS pirates on our way back; General Duke was assassinated. Quick, I need to speak to the Eighth Galaxy….”

Before he could finish, the cold cannons locked onto him.

Lorde was shocked: “I’m…..”

“General Duke ordered to cut off communication with the Eighth Galaxy. There’s a traitor among us,” the patrol on the other side said coldly. “If you don’t want to die, disarm immediately and wait for us to capture you, don’t do anything funny.”

Lorde’s head was completely empty and could clearly hear his own heavy breathing. The next instant, a few mechs from the border patrol fleet sailed over and surrounded him. The naive and foolish colonel had lived in peace for decades until he was once again pushed into the storm of the era, feeling the cold air from the dark abyss beneath his feet.

“Go to the Eighth Galaxy, find Lin Jingheng.”

“Request help from the Eighth Galaxy—”

Suddenly, Lorde used up what little fuel was left on his small and battered-up mech to accelerate and fly out of the barricade. At the same time, the patrolling guards also fired at him without hesitation. Lorde’s shield was already destroyed, so any tiny scratch by the cannon fires and missiles would burn him up into ashes. He didn’t dare to turn back and dodged on instinct, but how could a mech be faster than particle cannons?

The overlayering particle cannons that were already visible through the mental network charged at him like a deadly wave.

Lorde closed his eyes.

Then, a few mechs suddenly appeared and set up a layer of shield over Lorde’s small mech temporarily, blocking off the particle cannons that were already in range. The massive energy explosion shot Lorde’s small mech into the heavy gravitation field in the Heart of the Rose.

“He has comrades!”

“This mech model is from the AUS, he really is the traitor!”

Lorde turned his head abruptly through the mental network and noticed that the small mechs that saved him all had the AUS logo on their ships; but what was going on? Lorde felt his head was going to overload, but as he closed into the wormhole zone, he no longer had time to think too much about it.

The First Galaxy patrols activated their signal disruption; Lorde bit down his lips and charged forward physically with the body of his mech. A message left by a trail of blood passed through the signal blockage and was sent to the Eighth Galaxy: “General Duke was assassinated, Chief Woolf became a puppet to the Union government, we’re requesting help from the Eighth Galaxy! Commander Lin, please save us!”

Turan stood up in shock: “What did you say? Duke is dead!?”

Lorde’s mech caught on fire within the explosions, his eyes closing at the bright lights. Soon after, the tail of his mech was hit by a missile. It passed through as the limited oxygen left inside the mech body blew up like little sparks of fireworks, burning away the matches of life one by one.

That year, the newly graduated youth had knocked on the commander’s door. He pressed his feet together through the new boots as he gave a slightly stiff salute: “Commander Lin!”

The man turned his head around, half of his face hidden in his shadows. Only those cold grey eyes and an unforgettable side profile looked at him briefly before giving a nod in acknowledgement.

Lorde could hear the sound of his increased heartbeat.

“Honorary graduate of the 260th class from the Black Orchid Academy, Andrew Brandon Lorde, reporting in. I hope to follow your footsteps and give my life to fight for the Union, all hail the Pledge of Freedom!”

I hope to follow your footsteps….

Boom!

“One second. General Turan, the second message.” Mint said sternly, “Decoding is about to be completed…”

“This is the First Galaxy Border Patrol, sending our greetings to the Prime Minister and Grand Marshal of the Eighth Galaxy. General Duke ordered us to cut off communication with the Eighth Galaxy under emergency circumstances. We have lost contact with General Duke, and are unsure whether he has been assassinated or not. Pirate spies have snuck into our fleet and have just passed through our barricade to send false information to the Eighth Galaxy, please be cautious of their message. I repeat, please be cautious of their message—”

The second message was much more detailed and thorough, which also included footage of the battlefield.

Turan turned to the communication channel back to the meeting: “Marshal!”

13:34 P.M. Eighth Galaxy Standard Time.

21:59 P.M. Woltorian Standard Time.

Sixteen starships in the Eighth Galaxy simultaneously released their disruption signals.

The Eighth Galaxy that had been hesitating finally closed off the wormhole terminal.

At the same time, the news was sent to the Union Parliament’s Secretary Office and Neverland.

Lin Jingshu let out a long sigh of relief: “Send out the order. I won.”