Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 173

Chapter 173 – The Girl He Swore To Protect With His Life

Lin Jingheng’s reinforcement order was the first to pass through the wormhole and arrive at the Eighth Galaxy.

“Man, there really is no worst case scenario, only worse news,” Thomas mumbled beneath his breath as he quickly scanned Lin Jingheng’s order and passed it to Turan. “If only we can also blow up the wormholes. ”

“Didn’t the expedition team calculate it before?” Turan received the order without lifting her head. “Even though it works in theory as long as we don’t care about both the First and Eighth Galaxies–how should we arrange the reinforcement?”

“Wait,” Thomas said, “let me call for some backup. ”

The connection to the Milky Way City’s command post channel successfully linked as he finished his line. White rubbed off the sweat on his forehead and announced: “General Turan, General Young, I brought Doctor Hardin over!”

“Send a message back to Jingheng: ‘don’t trust Lin Jingshu.’” Doctor Hardin pushed his wheelchair up hastily as he ordered, “And don’t go near the biochip humans, they’re not human at all!”

Turan shook on the spot.

Back in the Heart of the Rose, the atmosphere grew stiff ever since Lin Jingshu unexpectedly knocked on the Alliance’s door. The Silver Third Squadron and the wormhole technicians held an emergency meeting as they decided to send the second batch of refugees through the wormhole earlier than scheduled.

After a quick repair, Zhanlu returned to his human form and pulled up the data of the last battle before the foundation of the Union at Lin Jingheng’s order.

“Your grandfather, Chief Commander Lin Ge’er, died a month before the Pledge of Freedom memorial holiday during the NSC era. That was also during the final battle against the machine empire of the old Sidereal Era.” Zhanlu meticulously reconstructed the galactic map of the old Sidereal Era. “At that time, the Union Troops had already surrounded Wolto while the last tyrant of the old Era, King Hertz, committed suicide on the capital planet. Soon after, super-AI King Hertz appeared on the battlefield and invaded multiple military bases of the Union Troops across the galaxies, causing severe damage to the Union. ”

Lu Bixing made his way behind Lin Jingheng’s back and chimed in as he heard this line: “This sounds a lot like AI Woolf. ”

“No, Headmaster Lu,” Zhanlu said. “AI King Hertz was not a completely autonomous unlimited framework system. In fact, the human Hertz had a son when he was still alive who held the backup permissions of the AI; only when the backup permission was not activated would the AI become infinitely close to an unlimited framework system. ”

“In other words, its existence is somewhere between you and this ‘Woolf’ we’re facing right now, right?” Lu Bixing said, “A normal AI needs owner permission to be activated, but this ‘King Hertz’ AI needed owner permission to close off its autonomous mode. ”

“Yes, this was because King Hertz still had his own desires and wished to maintain his family’s authoritative position in the world. That was why he created this super AI in the hope of completely destroying the Union. He set his own son up to be the savior of the world to protect everyone from this horrible monster in order to extend the rule of their empire far into the future. ” Zhanlu said, “It was later when Chief Lin volunteered to be the bait of the Union Troops, luring the successor into using the AI’s backup permission, that the Union managed to overturn the war. At the same time, the Union also paid a hefty price for their victory. ”

“My grandfather died during this battle, ” Lin Jingheng said. “The AI King Hertz was actually annihilated by Chief Woolf’s hands.”

Lu Bixing pondered for a moment before asking, “Clearly, Woolf doesn’t have a successor nor personal ambition this time; what else can we use as a reference here?”

Zhanlu: “The successor back then thought he had won the battle and took over King Hertz’s permissions with his passcode. The Union Troops completely cut off all signals connecting to Wolto and temporarily turned the entire planet into a galactic prison. Then, the Union Troops that were already waiting on Wolto shut down all power sources on the planet at the same time. The entire planet temporarily returned to prehistoric times for twenty minutes. ”

Lu Bixing let out a sigh: “Are you serious, Zhanlu, baby? Wolto and the entire First Galaxy are on completely different scales. Besides, our situation now is completely opposite of how it was in the past–we’re the ones being surrounded this time. ”

Lin Jingheng didn’t speak and let his mind wander off in silence on the side.

Lu Bixing studied the man for a short while before reaching out to pinch the commander’s waist.

Lin Jingheng was suddenly pulled out of his own thoughts by this sneak-attack grope and felt a numbing sensation down his spine. He lowered his voice and gave Lu Bixing a warning glare: “What are you doing?”

Lu Bixing leaned in by his ears and said: “The Freedom Corps certainly chose a bad time to come in. I didn’t even get the chance to introduce your ‘real identity’ to those old folks; I was hoping to see their old jaws unhinge from shock.”

Lin Jingheng wasn’t interested in picking up those old men’s broken dentures nor was he in the mood to chit chat with Lu Bixing. He waved off the young man hastily and said: “Go away. ”

“There’s a very eco-friendly individual who said he would lock up his heart when he wasn’t sweet-talking romance with his lover in fear of racking up too much energy bills. ” Lu Bixing asked, “So what’s up, why are you locking yourself back up again?”

Lin Jingheng rolled his eyes: “Get to the point.”

“You misfired when we were outside of Wolto, but why are you still sitting around like it’s none of your business as you watch her get chased down by the AI?” Lu Bixing’s voice softened, “Some people think that now that we’ve ended up in this situation, we should aim to gather all potential power to fight against our common enemy. Even the AUS is siding with us now, am I right?”

Lin Jingheng sneered back: “So which of those dumbasses asked you to come convince me?”

Lu Bixing hissed backed in response: “Come on, be a little bit more sophisticated here, you’ve single-handedly spewed out a whole Wolto’s worth of insults–I know you have your own reasons. Hope is…different from her, right?”

Lin Jingheng fell silent momentarily: “They’re two different types of people. ”

Lu Bixing waited patiently for him to continue. His contacts were still intact, pupils still green from the disguise like the tranquil surface of a pond. For some inexplicable reason, Lin Jingheng felt a good half of the raging fire within his heart extinguished by those eyes.

“Do you know what ‘the beast at bay’ means?” Lin Jingheng said in a voice almost as low as a whisper.

Lu Bixing was taken aback.

“Only when a ferocious beast truly feels cornered by threat will it glare with hostility, showing signs of weakness means it’s ready to prey on its target.” Lin Jingheng analyzed clearly, “We’re both the same in this aspect.”

Lu Bixing: “But…”

“Hm?”

Lu Bixing’s mouth opened, but the last part of his sentence didn’t voice out– what if you were wrong?

You protected the last line of defense and shouldered responsibility for the Eighth Galaxy behind your back; your heartstrings tightened into an inflexible cord, afraid to relax even for a second. It’s always wiser to play safer…so what would happen if you were wrong? Are you going to watch the last of your family walk away from you one final time?

“……no, nothing.” Lu Bixing watched as Lin Jingheng was ready to turn around and continue discussing the super AI with Zhanlu. He suddenly called out, “Jingheng, can you hug me whenever you’re feeling sad in your heart?”

“No need,” Lin Jingheng responded without lifting his head, “I tucked it away already, save some energy. ”

Yet Lin Jingheng wasn’t a god, he couldn’t always be correct.

Just like how he had once distrusted Harris with every suspicion and ended up exposing himself, it seemed as if he had wrongly made assumptions about Lin Jingshu this time as well.

Forty-eight hours after the Human Alliance retreated to the Heart of the Rose, the third fleet of refugees finally entered the wormhole and sailed towards the Eighth Galaxy.

At the same time, the outermost layer of transfer portals around the Heart of the Rose saw another round of activity.

This time, Lin Jingshu was left with only one commanding ship and a few small mechs around her the size of ants. Outside one of the transfer portals, she frantically sent out at least sixteen long-distance communication requests within a span of less than a minute. The vanguard team of the Alliance troops finally but hesitantly answered the call; yet before they could speak, Lin Jingshu’s hasty voice rang out from the other side: “Send a message to your Marshal for me: tell him that large fleets of AI mechs are sailing towards the Heart of the Rose as we speak, don’t sit around. The AUS’ disruption technology may work on me, but you all won’t stand a chance against Woolf!”

Her voice was simultaneously sent to Lin Jingheng’s commanding ship. This time, Lin Jingshu seemed to have retrieved her vain pride after receiving a rejection once. After sending off the warning, she no longer brought up the topic of forming an alliance and left without another word. She didn’t even wait for Lin Jingheng’s figure to appear on screen and single-handedly cut off the connection to flee.

“What’s she plotting now?” Captain Liu asked Poisson beside him discreetly. “Don’t tell me she risked running back here just to give us a warning.”

Poisson didn’t respond.

That year when he escaped the City of Angels with his brother Thomas, they had hidden inside the Eden labs with Lin Jingshu’s help. Her position as the representative of the Committee back then made her seem like a proper and gentle young lady, graceful like a single bulb of the Azure Sea resting in the corner. She had listened to him bicker with Thomas and gave them a strange reaction, asking “Are you two twins? You two sure get along well.”

Poisson could still clearly remember her expression at that time to this day; it was filled with envy and surprise, like a child that had never tasted the sweetness of candy.

Yet her evil deeds left a bloodied trail over time; she may have once gifted Lin Jingheng mechs, but she also almost made him quietly disappear on a nameless planet in the Sixth Galaxy.

Now that they were all standing at the edge of the cliff, would someone like her also reminisce about the family she had once walked away from?

“Marshal,” Poisson said, “please dispatch the Third Squadron up to the front lines just in case. ”

Only technicians and engineers could fight a battle against AI fleets; Lin Jingheng hesitated momentarily before he finally nodded his head in approval.

Lin Jingshu’s warning this time was as timely as a rare rain during a drought. Within less than half an hour after she left, the front line vanguards detected a violent abnormal energy wave outside the transfer portals.

“Marshal,” Harris reported sternly, “it seems like Miss Lin certainly didn’t lie this time; we’re estimating it to be a heavy mech fleet closing in.”

“They’re coming!”

“Watch out!”

It was a fleet made entirely of heavy mechs with AI control. As the former sponsor of the AUS, Woolf’s research on the pirate group’s disruption technology was very thorough; Harris and his team had no way of stopping the fleet!

The AI-controlled heavy mech fleet passed through the AUS disruption line with ease and was already within firing range of the AUS fleets. Harris and his subordinates were not combat personnel; the small mechs from the pirate forces fled the scene as soon as possible. The First Galaxy Patrol fleet stationed in the front lines sailed up without hesitation and quickly exchanged fire with the enemies.

Poisson dodged a missile through the mental network while his own two eyes were still glued to the computer screen before him. The supercomputer was currently analyzing the enemy’s battle style; Poisson’s eyes scanned the results and captured the main points of the data. “Chengying is the core AI of this fleet, all mech’s mental networks are centrally controlled by it. Send out disruptions to the enemy’s communication signals!”

As the last word came out of his mouth, the main fleet of the reinforcement troops arrived and shot a row of high-energy particles from a visual dead-end of the battlefield. The reinforcements attempted to physically break through the AI troops, attempted to sail out of the transfer portals while the Silver Third Squadron quickly set up the disruption signals–freezing up all the internal connections within the AI mechs.

The First Galaxy vanguards repaired their missile systems moments faster than the frozen AIs and shot out a tsunami of missiles, knocking down a whole wave of enemy mechs.

Unlike humans, AI fleets didn’t have the kind of heroic spirit in them to fight until the end. Once it detected that they’d been put at a disadvantage, Chengying immediately ordered its fleet to flee the site and disappeared from the sights of the Alliance.

Yet this was merely the beginning.

Soon after, it was as if Woolf’s AI troops had shifted their targets as they began attempting to invade the Heart of the Rose. Every time the AIs got shot out, they would readjust and upgrade their systems based on historical data and return back with a new set of systems.

Machines didn’t need rest, but how could humans last without a break?

The enemy rolled in continuously like gears without rest over countless days and nights. Over time, the Human Alliance began feeling the toll, as the frontlines of their temporary fortress began to crumble.

On the seventh day, Lin Jingheng pulled out his third relaxant. Lu Bixing grabbed his hand before he could inject it and said: “You can’t use this anymore; I’ll keep an eye out for you for now, go take a nap inside a medical capsule. ”

Lin Jingheng: “Oh.”

He responded verbally and turned the needle head outwards toward the tip of his finger. Lu Bixing thought the man had listened and reached to take the syringe, only to see the tip of the needle head make a swift turn. It slid past his fingers as Lin Jingheng jabbed it into his veins.

Lu Bixing: “Hey!”

“Last one,” Lin Jingheng responded insincerely. “Besides, there’s time to rest after war. If we die here, don’t even think about getting back up, so don’t worry about resting now…the Eighth Galaxy’s new number one relaxant certainly is a piece of work.”

The number one completely eliminated the old version’s problem of muscle spasms and only had the small side-effect of a slight migraine and rising heart rate. For galactic soldiers who had been through rough training, these were essentially non-problems they could easily ignore.

Lu Bixing’s expression was grim: “Relaxants are emergency medication. It’s exactly because of its low-risk side-effects that we have to strictly control the usage. Overdosing will cause irreversible damage to your body, don’t you have a bit of common sense!?”

“I do,” Lin Jingheng pressed on his chest lightly. “Shush, be good and stay quiet for a bit, my heart’s racing in a bad way…isn’t Lin Jingshu the AI troops’ first target? Why did they suddenly change their strategy?”

“Your heart is racing because you used too many relaxants!” Lu Bixing drew his eyebrows together in disappointment. “If you dare touch the syringe again I’ll knock you out–AIs have a very straightforward sense of duty with clear goals; normally they wouldn’t change up their plans without reason, unless they concluded that their first target had already…”

Perhaps it was due to the effects of the relaxant, but Lin Jingheng’s pupils looked almost out of focus momentarily.

Lu Bixing closed his mouth in time and suddenly felt that at least for that split second of time, Lin Jingheng regretted not seeing her one last time.

Lu Bixing: “You…”

At that moment, new activities on the frontlines caught their attention. Aside from the AI fleet attempting to break through the outliers of the transfer portals and charge into the Heart of the Rose, another fleet of AI mechs appeared; the Alliance stiffened up, these machines had backup!

Yet as this new fleet of mechs closed in, Poisson was the first to notice something and reported: “Marshal, they’re pursuing a few small mechs from the Freedom Corps!”

The Freedom Corps once again appeared in the Heart of the Rose. This time, even the commanding ship was gone, leaving the pirates with a few broken mechs that flew off like headless flies. Soon after, they unsurprisingly were blocked out of the transfer portals from the signal disruption.

“Marshal!”

Without Lin Jingheng’s orders, nobody dared to let them in. Lin Jingheng clenched his fist.

Perhaps Lu Bixing was right; three relaxants was a little too much–his head felt as if needles were stabbing right through his temples.

“Marshal, shall we remove the transfer disruption and let them in?”

“No.” The word forced its way out through Lin Jingheng’s teeth.

“Marshal, a communication request.”

“……Take it in.”

Lin Jingshu’s figure flashed momentarily on the screen before disappearing again. The small mech she was in had already lost its gravity control, making it difficult for people inside to maintain balance.

The entire screen shook violently for a while before Lin Jingshu managed to crawl back up.

Her long hair had been blown out messily by the protection airbags and rested on her chest like seaweed.

This time, she looked deeply into Lin Jingheng’s eyes without a word for a long while.

“When I was young, I begged you to stay. During adolescence, I begged you to pick me up. After I grew up…I begged you to not leave me behind,” she finally opened her mouth and spoke up in a voice almost too soft to hear, “I won’t ask anything from you anymore.”

A strange light consumed the communication screen. Lin Jingheng’s eyes widened.

A missile hit Lin Jingshu’s mech, triggering a massive explosion at the very last moment. It only lasted for a split second before the connection cut off. The image on the screen thus seemed to have frozen at the moment the sparks from the explosion swept across the screen.

Lin Jingshu’s mouth seemed to be calling out “big brother.”

I’ll no longer ask you for anything, big brother.

This was the girl he had once sworn to protect for the rest of his life.