Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 177

Chapter 177 – Its Flower Language is “The Hometown of No Return”

Mint’s ecopod was pulled into the reinforcement’s capture net; the next moment, she heard a familiar voice call to her through the ecopod: “Mint, Mint! Are you still conscious? We’re here!”

It was…White.

Mint opened her mouth, but no sound came out of it.

Why did it take you guys so long? She thought.

“Give me a second,” White paused and mumbled a few words to someone before his voice raised excitedly, “……what? We captured it! Are there really life signals in it still?”

Mint felt something while still stuck within the ecopod and held in her breath. Her heart drummed anxiously and she waited, but as she was about to suffocate inside the pod, she heard White’s excited voice: “We just captured a mech that was knocked off by the enemy; the mech itself was badly damaged but we’ve successfully detected life signals within the mech!”

Mint relaxed her entire body as tears streamed down her face like a faucet let loose, then cried out: “You shit-eating bastards, you can’t even make it in time to eat freshly pooped garbage!”

This fleet of reinforcements from the Eighth Galaxy was an extremely unique bunch; they were made up entirely of small mechs, but didn’t seem weak at all because of their scale.

A few dozen small mechs grouped into a team; each mech within a team was densely organized with a strange sense of connection between them. Upon closer inspection, it was a special type of energy waves that even the Freedom Corps had never seen before and couldn’t decipher–from afar, these small teams of mechs almost formed into an individual entity in space.

They lined up in an organized manner before the wormhole area, creating a striking contrast to the chaotic battleground within the Heart of the Rose.

An unprotected communication network spread out before the wormhole zone like a gentle ocean wave; due to the disruptions from the wormhole behind them, there were slight bits of noise coming from within the channel. Moments later, a hoarse but slightly exhausted voice finally rang out: “This is Anakin from the Silver Fourth Squadron speaking, we’ve arrived on the Marshal’s orders–hello again, our sworn enemies from the Freedom Corps.”

Lin Jingshu’s first reaction was to measure the enemy’s strength by her own standards.

She thought: The Prime Minister of the Eighth Galaxy still gave into temptation in the end and secretly built a fleet of ‘superhumans.’ The Eighth Galaxy truly was a cursed land that could never walk out of the shadows of the Nuwa Project–even if the project originated from the Union and succeeded for the first time in her hands. This Eighth Galaxy certainly was a wild frontier that was the breeding ground for all kinds of toxins.

Therefore, Lin Jingshu questioned back with a hint of judgement: “This is the Silver Fourth Squadron, the original bunch?”

“Thanks to you,” Anakin responded calmly, “the original Fourth Squadron was virtually annihilated. When Marshal picked us all up, we didn’t even have enough people to fill a game of mahjong. As the substitute Captain, I had no choice but to recruit new members from all over the place. Man, our colleagues always bully us during drills because of this.”

Lin Jingshu chuckled: “Oh Prime Minister Lu, the historic ‘human genetic modification’ project was called to a halt in the middle and the only surviving results left today are our long and seemingly endless periods of youth. Laura was secretly tried by the Union, but they couldn’t even dare to put a name on her crimes…why is that, have you not wondered? And yet you dare to trudge down the same path as them?”

Lu Bixing’s reddened eyes were fixed on the screen showing the reinforcements that were checking on the escort team and Rickhead’s earlier situation. He gave not a spare moment to Lin Jingshu. Like how humans had four limbs, he only had four students left. Any missing one was like chopping off a limb from his body.

“Prime Minister Lu, you carry the slogan of the Pledge of Freedom on your shoulders but steal the Rainbow Project plan all for yourself so you can create your own evolved superhuman fleet in the Eighth Galaxy? And it seems like Commander Lin is also aware of this fact, am I right? If I am such a despicable terrorist and space pirate, may I ask on what ground you all stand against me in ethics?” Lin Jingshu raised her voice, “No…wait, I almost forgot. The Union government always defined any illegitimate armed forces as space pirates; the Eighth Galaxy never had any legitimacy to begin with, so I guess you all do live up to your names.”

“Evolved superhuman forces? I like that name.” Anakin laughed and called out to his comrades through the public channel, “Hey, did you all hear that? Y’all have no right to call us ‘those vaccuocerebrals’ or ‘disabled bunch’ anymore!”

The tides turned as the reinforcements arrived. A heavy burden inside Bayer’s heart was finally lifted as he let out a heavy sigh of relief, his voice becoming audibly more cheerful: “Hey shithead, the average human-mech sync rate in your squad doesn’t even reach 65%– even public starship pilots have better numbers than you guys–what evolution! Look, I’d believe it if evolution meant physical expansion for you guys!”

The confused rest of the Human Alliance stared at each other in silence until someone suddenly let out an awed comment: “Vaccuocerebrals…can form galactic fleets too?”

At that moment, Lin Jingheng called out softly: “Jingshu, is that you?”

Lin Jingshu clenched her fingers instinctively as she heard her name being called, snapping the flower in her hands in half. Yet before she could answer, she heard a young girl’s voice respond through the channel: “Yes, Marshal, it’s me.”

Lin Jingshu was taken aback for a moment before she lifted her gaze up in disbelief. A strange girl had appeared on that unprotected communication channel. From her outfit, it seemed as if she was some sort of technician or back-end personnel; her features were considerably plain but clean, the type that wouldn’t stand out amongst a crowd of people.

An unfamiliar and unexplainable anger sparked within Lin Jingshu’s heart as boiling blood rushed into her head.

Who is she? How dare she respond to that name?

“Unfortunately, as vaccuocerebrals, our mental strength will never reach the level of the original Silver Fourth Squadron. Captain Anakin, please bear with us,” that strange ‘Jingshu’ said. “But thankfully we are properly equipped.”

Vaccuocerebrals made up a large portion of the population in the Eighth Galaxy. Because of deep-rooted societal discrimination and prejudice against these people, it was important for the government to ensure equality of freedom and employment within all planets of the Eighth Galaxy. The military even established a special fleet for vaccuocerebrals under the pressure to reverse segregation. The mechs that these soldiers were piloting were specially made, derived from the early ‘training mechs’ and could simplify mental networks as much as possible in order to accommodate the pilots’ lack of mental strength.

A modified mental network would surely affect its functions; therefore, this special mech force operated in units comprised of multiple small mechs. With the help of the development in planetary anti-missile technologies, every team of mechs was equipped with a miniature sized anti-missile system. Mechs of the same unit were all equipped with special sensors on their ships that could automatically adjust their combat positions based on the location of each member within their respective units.

This type of galactic force required even better cooperation, support, and more precise control amongst teammates, in addition to a more powerful battle spirit; therefore requiring much more intensive training.

Yes this was galactic naval forces they were speaking of; mere decades ago, vaccuocerebrals who had been kicked out of Eden wouldn’t even dare to dream of this forbidden zone.

But now that technology had made the first step for them and opened up a small crack leading onto this path, mankind would complete the next 99 steps; even if it meant they had to crawl their way to the finish line.

So what if the training was tougher than usual? They had waited for this opportunity for far too long.

Huang Jingshu turned her head towards White beside her: “We dropped massive funding into the research for anti-missile systems and didn’t even have a chance to use them on actual planets, you guys lucked out this time.”

“We’ll be damned if we have to use it on planets now,” White said, “show some optimism and be grateful!”

The idea of a training mech first came out of a homework assignment White had done. After coming of age, he had entered the military research institute and became a research specialist in this particular field. Back when Planet Alpenglow had been destroyed by intergalactic missiles, the four students walked down different paths. The vaccuocerebral little gangster Huang Jingshu cleaned herself up, and under Lu Bixing’s concession, dove into a field that could potentially never deliver any promising results for the rest of her life.

Little did she know these seemingly impossible fields of supporting technology that both she and White represented would become the last beacon of hope within the vaccuocerebral fleet today.

Every ten years, the world would turn upside down.

“Doctor Hardin is getting too old; he’s not fit for long-distance interstellar travel, so I will greet Miss Lin in place of him.” White’s expression grew stern, “I also have a message from the doctor.”

Various alarms and lights flashed within the mech and reflected in Lin Jingshu’s eyes, glistening like a rainbow.

She had finally calmed down and realized that ‘Jingshu’ wasn’t a rare name, so it wasn’t anything to get worked up over. Her loss of composure earlier was perhaps because it had been too long since Lin Jingheng had called that name.

Lin Jingheng wasn’t someone who liked to express friendliness, even with close friends or relatives, rarely calling anyone solely by their given name. Whenever he called her by that in the past, his voice would always be slightly more timid than usual as if he were embarrassed, retaining a hint of a conservative but special kind of affection in his tone.

But…those were all memories of the past.

Lin Jingshu scanend her surroundings and, for the first time ever, tasted something similar to fate at the tip of her tongue.

Sixteen years–aside from the Silver Ninth Squadron that was stationed within the Eighth Galaxy, the entire Silver Ten fleet that had been standing in her way all these years finally gathered before her.

Everyone in her life she had once placed her hopes on but who had failed her:Chief Woolf, Doctor Hardin, Lin Jingheng…all looked at her across time in different ways at this very moment.

Her biochip empire was unparalleled and almighty; it had managed to fool the eyes of the AI, defeated the most elite soldiers of the Human Alliance, and proved that biochip humans were far more powerful than natural humans. Yet the last obstacle that stood before her at the very end was the most defective of human defects.

White said, “Doctor Hardin wants me to tell you: ‘the White Tower has already collapsed. As someone who was still stuck inside by a single syringe of a relaxant, when will you be able to step out and look at the starry sky outside?’”

Lin Jingshu blinked and then laughed, “Oh, that silly old man is still trying to play the sympathy card again.”

Her life had been filled with extremist ideals; she believed that everyone who criticized or attempted to persuade her, or even those people who tragically attempted to give her a helping hand, were all ridiculous. She believed that they were the ones blinded by delusions of ethics and morals as they upheld their illogical beliefs for the sake of feeding their egos. She thought they were all lowlives who tried to brainwash her down to their level as they degraded her to a tragic character, one ‘trapped by a single relaxant syringe’ because of Laura’s actions in the past.

“Then please tell him that my luck ran out, but that doesn’t mean you all are excused for your crimes of foolishness. Little boy, if you manage to live long enough to witness people make the same mistakes and destroy themselves once again, please remember to laugh for me.” Lin Jingshu crushed the Azure Sea in her hands and tossed it aside into the trash bin a few steps away as she finished her line. She then lifted a hand and ordered, “Who told you all to stop? Crush everyone that stands in our way!”

The Azure Sea was born from the hands of Woltorians that were banished to the City of Angels during the war, its flower language was: the hometown of no return.

Those packs of small mechs from the Freedom Corps didn’t mind the Eighth Galaxy’s reinforcements blocking their way and charged with full force towards the wormhole area like a violent tsunami crushing the shore.

This special Silver Fourth Squadron fleet from the Eighth Galaxy didn’t drop the ball at the raging waves before them, despite often being thrown under the bus by their colleagues. Of course, the act of playful bantering was proof that the rest of the Silver Ten squadrons fully accepted this fleet as their own comrades.

Those units made up of smaller mechs had an iron wall defense that was clearly experienced in battle; no matter how hard the Freedom Corps tried, they hadn’t been able to break through the defense line. The Fourth Squadron was like a powerful fortress that stood unmoved between the pirates and the wormhole. The Alliance finally managed to get a break from the endless battle and quickly reorganized to follow up from behind, creating a massive circle trapping the entire Freedom Corps inside it.

It wasn’t until now that Lu Bixing finally realized what Lin Jingheng meant by ‘a beast at bay.’

The Freedom Corps that had been actively making public announcements earlier completely blocked off all communications as they were pushed to a dead end by Woolf’s AI Troops. The beast was finally pushed to the edge, therefore it refused to communicate nor surrender as it desperately attempted to break through the Alliance’s barricade. Those small pirate mechs were like moths flying towards the light, crashing one by one into the barricade and vanishing into stardust in order to fulfill the last will of their queen bee.

Inside the Alliance’s communication channel was a flood of battle commands, ‘open fire’ taking up the majority of orders. It was as if they planned on burning a massive hole through the murk deep inside the Heart of the Rose, the remnants of destroyed mechs crashing into mech shields. Sirens of danger filled the entire communication platform.

Sirens, cries, and noises inside the channel mixed into a chaotic symphony that pierced everyone’s ears. Yet the senses of all pilots were consumed by the fire on the battlefield through their mental networks, unable to process the horrid sounds coming out of the channels.

Suddenly, the struggling Freedom Corps collectively stopped as if someone had cast a spell on them. After a short pause, the surviving mechs all fled in different directions like flies escaping the battlefield. Some mechs even crashed right into the Alliance fleet out of utter confusion and were knocked off the mental network by the Alliance troops.

Lu Bixing finally pulled himself back from the exhausted ringing in his ears, felt something in the atmosphere was off, and swiftly turned his head toward Lin Jingheng.

Lin Jingheng stood still as if he was frozen in time.

There was only one possible explanation for this strange phenomenon: the soul of the ‘queen bee’ had vanished…

The commanding ship of the Freedom Corps was shot down, annihilated by an unidentified missile.

The biochip empire lost its soul and brain. The fearsome titan that brought fear upon people suddenly fell, the grounds shaking as massive clouds of ashes from the impact blew away with the gentle breeze.

And then it died, its corpse and ashes fading away with the wind.