Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 184

Chapter 184 – Verbal Promises Have No Legal Effect

The government-sponsored central residential area in Milky Way City that had been the butt of the joke among the veteran generals of the Central Militia earlier was now shielded from the outside world by a protective network layer. Occasional energy waves would send out a unique glow through the invisible barrier, engulfing both the security robots and human forces inside like a tightly-knit net.

Interview robots from countless media companies were all blocked outside the barrier, compressed into layers and layers of metal sandwiches. From the ground up to the skies, mechanical equipment filled the area in an almost menacing manner.

A ground-level armed mobile parked right outside of Lu Bixing’s house, floating slightly above the ground. Bayer and a soldier of the galactic forces jumped off the mobile and greeted them with, “Marshall, Prime Minister, this way.”

Lu Bixing walked out from the small yard and nodded at them. Bayer studied the Minister before him and noticed that despite the stern expression on the Prime Minister’s face, there was no sign of any negative emotions. It was almost as if remaining calm and gentle was a perpetual state that could not be stripped away from this young man.

Bayer lowered his voice and asked: “All the public tracks are cornered by the media and robots; I had someone from the Command Post open up a backdoor just now from the energy field barrier we set up. I suggest we take that backdoor right away and go through the energy field out of here to avoid trouble. It might be a bit of a rough ride…is that okay with you?”

Lin Jingheng: “Can’t die, let’s go.”

Lu Bixing lifted his head up to catch a glimpse of the media looming right outside his residence. He could make out some sounds of people talking even from this distance and saw millions of eyes staring in his direction through those camera lenses; the countless mouths across the galaxies shot endless questions toward him.

Lin Jingheng raised a hand and covered his eyes, pressed down on the young man’s shoulders and almost forcefully shoved Lu Bixing into the armed mobile: “Stop looking, get in first.”

A muffled buzzing sound hummed as the armed mobile warmed its engine up, invisible air waves lifting the vehicle above the ground. Soon after, the energy field activated and even took along some plants and flowers as the entire vehicle disappeared.

Even through the ringing in his ears, Lu Bixing’s overly sensitive hearing could still hear the voices of the media through the slight time space distortion inside the energy field. That haunting sound dragged through the distortion, becoming a long and off-tune chorus across time.

“……is the so-called ‘Nuwa Project’ related to the Rainbow Virus?”

“Prime Minister Lu, do you admit to performing Rainbow Virus experiments in secret?”

“The original pirate King Cayley started the Reinberg Experiment in year 128 of the Woltorian calendar, which became the direct cause of the Rainbow Virus outbreak. We should all know that this caused the deaths of at least 3 billion people within the Eighth Galaxy alone and countless more who were homeless; what do you have to say to this, Prime Minister Lu?”

“Was the last mutated Rainbow Virus outbreak caused by this damned Nuwa Project as well? Prime Minister Lu, can you give us an answer?”

“Prime Minister Lu—”

The armed mobile finally vanished into the energy field.

Lu Bixing closed his eyes. He remembered that it wasn’t too long ago when he had conceitedly said that his capital planet would overtake Wolto, inside his own house, even.

Almost as if he had finally grabbed onto that strand of fate that led to the future of the eight galaxies, only to be slapped in the face less than a few weeks after.

Perhaps he shouldn’t have aimed so high and left so much room to fall, in case he ever tripped and fell onto his face.

The armed mobile flashed through the energy field like a silver comet directly into the Milky Way City Command Post.

Those lingering accusations and questioning voices seemed to follow him, even until the Command Post building was directly ahead of him. Lu Bixing sat still for a few moments and pressed lightly against his ears.

“Prime Minister Lu.” Suddenly, the soldier inside the armed mobile turned his head and spoke up with some reservations. “I know that everything they’re saying isn’t true. I believe in you.”

Lu Bixing was taken aback momentarily before giving a slightly surprised smile, then responded courteously: “Thank you.”

“I…I’m from planet Mola. My family comes from a small village near a large mountain range on the planet. I don’t know if you remember, but it was year 4 of the Independent calendar–I was still sixteen, and Mola’s climate system had been damaged during the internal war. Ground transportation was completely dead and supplies couldn’t be delivered; everything from food, energy, to missiles were all depleted. The territorial organization that took planet Mola hostage didn’t care about the rest of us and only paid attention to fighting the war. Our whole family had to gather around a handmade alcohol lamp in order to survive the winter; my mom never made it and died in the cold.” The young soldier was visibly nervous as he spoke to Lu Bixing, the syllables quivering as they rolled out of his mouth. It was almost as if he still hadn’t been warmed up from that awful winter. “And then the government’s forces came; they didn’t attack us and instead sent the engineering teams down first to fix the climate system. They shouldered the pressure and dangers of being chased down by the territorial armed forces every day to help…I remember that you personally led the engineering team back then, I saw you at work from afar.”

The armed mobile finally stopped as the engine cooled down, the interior of the vehicle falling into dead silence.

“I just wanted to let you know that I enrolled in the military academy because of you. As an honorary graduate, I came to Milky Way City and got a job as a security guard. My father was so happy about the news that he downed two whole bottles of the ‘survivor’ wine. I even…even snuck a picture of you once inside the Command Post, which my father framed and is still hanging at home. I, I…I’m sorry, I know this isn’t allowed…” The soldier’s face was bright red as he rambled on and even accidentally ratted out his little mistake on the job. He frantically jumped out of the vehicle and gave a flustered salute to Lu Bixing, “Prime Minister, this way please!”

Bayer reached an arm around the soldier and laughed: “You snuck a picture of the Prime Minister? You got balls, kid, which team are you on? I’ll go pay your boss a visit in a bit.”

“Don’t tease him like that.” Lu Bixing pointed two fingers toward his temples and gave a small gesture back to the soldier. “Just put a good filter on me and I’ll let you off the hook this time and skip over writing your disciplinary report.”

Lin Jingheng was waiting a few steps ahead with a cigarette in his mouth. He shot a quick glance at that meek soldier and turned his head slightly as if he didn’t care to voice a small complaint to Lu Bixing’s ears: “Exchanging little looks with a fresh young soldier in broad daylight, huh, am I dead to you?”

Lu Bixing waved a hand at him and then responded in the same whisper: “Quality goods are always hot on the market. That’s what you get for procrastinating on signing papers with me.”

The two of them had walked a short distance when that soldier from earlier suddenly called out from behind them: “Prime Minister, I represent all 1.3 billion survivors on planet Mola to stand behind you!”

Lu Bixing’s footsteps stopped briefly. For the first time in over a decade, that face that had learned how to seamlessly hide all his emotions felt hot with gratitude as his vision began to blur.

“Hm.” Lin Jingheng blew out a cloud of smoke towards the direction of that soldier and said, “Looks like you have 11.3 billion supporters now.”

Lu Bixing lowered his head and let out a chuckle, forcing those building tears back inside and asked: “Where did the extra ten billion come from?”

“Me.” Lin Jingheng shoved the last half of the cigarette into his hand and casually put his gloves on. “I’m the ten billion; if anyone has qualms with it, my office hours are always open.”

Four hours, Woltorian standard time, later–

Heart of the Rose.

The Eighth Galaxy was like a bubbling-over pot of boiling water; the burning sensation from the air quickly spread along with the massive leak of information through an open wormhole terminal into the communication network inside the Heart of the Rose.

The Silver Third Squadron that was confronting the AI troops; the First, Second, and Fourth Galaxy Central Militia fleets that had just passed through the wormhole terminal–everyone in the Heart of the Rose received the information at the same time.

Poisson swiftly scanned the news reports from the Eighth Galaxy and commented: “They somehow gained access to the Eighth Galaxy networks…all of that information they gave us earlier was just simplified to cover the bait, the real story’s right here!”

The AIs had only sent them a short piece of footage and a physical exam report that made no sense out of context, which naturally sparked suspicion among the soldiers on the front lines. Of course, even their allies believed they were fabricated–there was no mention of the Nuwa Project anywhere. Little did they expect these AIs to slyly outwit them!

“Why does it feel like these inflexible metal robot heads are goddamn ancient cancers left from the Earth era?”

An uneasy feeling surfaced inside Thomas’ heart as he lifted his head: “How many of the Alliance Fleets and Woltorian refugees are still stuck inside the wormhole?”

A Third Squadron soldier quickly pulled up the data and gave a rough estimate: “Around half of the total fleets.”

“Captain Young, the First Galaxy Fleet is requesting to speak to you.”

“Captain Young, the Union Troops are asking…”

Poisson could feel a vein pop on his hand as he clenched his fist: “Tell them to fuck off! Stop asking questions during a time like this; everyone stay alert!”

Before the last syllable dropped, the high-energy alert inside the mech rang out.

It was as if those AI mechs waiting on the other side had done a precise countdown as to when the frontline vanguards would quietly back off to let the mid-guards out. Thousands of cannons pointed at them were already pre-heated, and as the world choked on anxiety, these heartless AIs fired at the Human Alliance without a warning.

All starships carrying refugees were immediately reeled inside heavy mechs for protection. Thousands of people already bearing boundless uncertainty in their hearts as they prepared to head home were suddenly tied together on the spot by safety belts, desperately clinging onto one another.

The Human Alliance that hadn’t been given a chance to organize frantically got into position for battle.

The last time they gathered up to fight against the Freedom Crops, all commanding generals of the galaxies had been together under the central command of Lin Jingheng. Despite coming from different teams and forces, everyone had taken orders from him without question. Of course, there had still been some friction in regards to coordination, but the experience of the top Commander and professionalism of each soldier had made it fairly manageable.

Yet now, the fleets present in the Heart of the Rose were only a portion of the vanguard fleets with their commanding generals still in the back. The entire Human Alliance was panicked; a tsunami of information flooded into their heads and overloaded them. They could feel a looming shadow of conspiracy falling over them, but didn’t know where it was coming from–all they knew was that it seemed like the Silver Third Squadron had lied to them earlier!

The hesitant Alliance was a completely broken puzzle that turned the entire communication channel into chaos as everyone shouted; nobody was sure who to listen to.

The Third Squadron had no choice but to hold the frontlines. This fleet of technicians and mechanics that rarely ever stepped into the frontlines somehow managed to shoulder the first aggressive wave of attack from the AIs. But over half of the mechs in the fleet were forced to switch up to their backup pilot and retreated at least a few hundred kilometers from their line of defense.

Thomas couldn’t help but holler furiously: “They want to expand and build their own machine empire; do you all want to be trapped in the Eighth Galaxy for the rest of your lives by robots!? Shut up!”

“Connect to the enemy fleet.” Poisson’s voice, in contrast, was much calmer but more hasty. “Let me yell at them for a bit; the rest of you guys, try and decode the AI’s communication network protection and intercept their internal communications.”

“Longyuan!” The enemy was surprisingly quick to receive an angry growl from Poisson. “We promised twenty-four hours, so why are you firing now? Do you not have fucking shame!?”

“According to galactic common law, verbal promises have no legal effect or binding.”

Poisson: “Screw galactic common laws, do you think you can make your own damn rules!?”

“No, Captain Young. I’ve simply scanned through all existing historical military examples of verbal promises. The search result gave a total of 1,634 officially recorded cases; among them, there were only 506 times where both sides followed through said promise. Therefore, we have reasonably concluded that the likelihood of the human side breaking their side of the promise first was over 95% and opened fire first to protect ourselves. Please understand; it is confirmed that the biochip human is in the Eighth Galaxy, so we will sail into the Eighth Galaxy and personally destroy the horrible biochip technology with our own hands.”

Poisson: “……”

This was beyond surprising; they had even managed to back up their claims with proper research!

Foolish humans, why did they have to record their dark histories of betrayal and breaking promises in such detail!?

“We’ve successfully decoded the enemy’s network protection.” Thankfully, the elite technicians of the Third Squadron didn’t drop the ball even under the intense pressure of the frontlines.

The AIs’ internal network was quickly faced with a massive systematic intrusion that caused a great deal of damage, successfully forcing the frontline vanguards to stop momentarily. The Human Alliance that was finally slapped awake quickly set aside their differences and focused on fighting off their common enemy. A wave of particle cannons shot back at the AIs and knocked off a corner of the swarming AI fleets that were closing in on the Heart of the Rose.

Yet nobody cheered.

“You know, in normal warfare, shooting down an enemy is called ‘annihilating countable forces.’” Poisson let out a bitter laugh. “So what would we call this, then?”

Every professionally trained galactic force had been built over time with considerable funding, and losing any one piece of the force was considered an irreversible loss. But there were no humans inside these AI mechs, and every ship shot down could easily be replaced by another; the entire First Galaxy’s military reserve was disposable to them. Even if they gathered up the entirety of humanity to fight against these AIs and shoot every last missile without missing, they wouldn’t even truly harm their enemy.

Thoma let out a heavy breath of air: “We have no choice but to beat the dead horse now; drag it out. Drag it out until the entire Alliance forces gather up.”

He took another anxious glance at the time as he spoke: “There’s a certain level of unpredictability when passing through the wormhole; they could possibly arrive earlier or later than scheduled. It’d be best if they can arrive early–if everyone shows up now, we’ll have a chance to turn the tables.”

“What will happen if they get delayed? A day, two days, or who knows how long…there’s no way we can possibly last for over 48 hours here.” Poisson’s laugh was one of despair. “History’s tossing the dice again; whose head do you think it’ll crack open this time?”

Something flashed across Thomas’ mind that wiped his face pale at that moment.

Before he could answer, Poisson asked again: “What are we going to do if we can’t hold out?”

What would they do if the rest of the Alliance fleet was still in the wormhole when the AI Troops eventually broke through the defense in the Heart of the Rose?

Would they crush the wormhole terminal and forever bury the AI Troops and over half of the entire Human Alliance within the tomb of timespace?

Or would they let these AIs intrude into the Eighth Galaxy?

“Captain Young,” a scouting soldier from the frontline reported in. “Massive amounts of mechs are sailing out of the First Galaxy military bases to gather with the AI Troops.”

“Captain Young!” The former First Galaxy Patrols were the most familiar with the situation within the First Galaxy and immediately gave their advice within the communication channel. “The First Galaxy’s military armed reserves are beyond what anyone could imagine; if they continue to endlessly dispatch mechs like this, it won’t be enough even if all of our missiles have a 100% hit rate combined! We need to come up with a different plan!”

“High energy alert–”

Poisson: “What!?”

“Captain, a few AI mechs have sailed around transfer portals and invaded through non-portal zones, they’re making their way over!”

This was the same non-portaled zone that Lin Jingshu had taken when the Freedom Corps pirates had ambushed the Heart of the Rose–these robots were certainly fast learners.

“Second Galaxy Central Militia fleet was met with an ambush on their wing.”

“The enemy’s internal communication network is repairing at a rapid speed, the protection code is upgrading…”

“Captain Young, we’re surrounded!”

Poisson could hear the drumming of his increasing heartbeat; it was almost as if all of the blood in his body was rushing up to his head while different alarms and sirens outside swallowed him whole.

He blocked off the internal communication network temporarily and turned, wide-eyed, to meet his brother’s gaze.

Thomas knew immediately what his twin was thinking, his eyes almost contracting anxiously in response.

“Send a warning to the Eighth Galaxy,” Poisson lowered his voice and spoke quickly, “and send out the wormhole disruption signals.”

Thomas took in a breath of cold air that chilled his lungs: “That’s over half of the entire Human Alliance, unarmed Woltorian refugees…and the escorting SIlver…”

Poisson: “We don’t have time anymore!”

Thomas grabbed his brother’s arm, his hand trembling in fear.

“I’ll send out the order.” Poisson spoke without hesitation, “I’ve always been the one in charge of these kinds of things.”

The cheery and sociable older brother was in charge of handling the diplomatic aspects and mundane day-to-day tasks of the job. He had the charm able to gather the team up as a unit; in contrast, the perpetually annoyed younger brother’s job was to wield the butcher knife during times of crisis–

Poisson easily pulled himself out of his brother’s grip and connected to the technicians waiting by the wormhole area: “Attention wormhole tech support…”

Before he could finish, the connection cut off cleanly. Poisson was taken aback for a moment before he turned his head towards the military camera on the mech; a mech from the Union fired behind and blew up the technical support mech carrying the wormhole disruption equipment.

It was not over.

Soon after, a handful of missiles from different parts of the Alliance fleets all fired towards the remaining technical mech. The poor technicians on those mechs didn’t even have time to process the fact that they were being targeted by their own allies and drowned in a sea of fire.

Then, all of the temporary communication systems and ports set up in the Heart of the Rose were also swept by the blazing cannons of high-energy particles beams.

They were now completely cut off from all communications with the Eighth Galaxy.

Thomas had already turned back on the chaotic internal communication channel and called out: “What are you guys doing!?”

“Captain Young.” The voices sounded almost cold behind the disruption within the channel. “You’re all planning on blowing up the wormhole terminal in order to protect the Eighth Galaxy, am I right?”

Thomas almost stopped breathing.

“I’m sorry—”

Before her death, Lin Jingshu had once prophesized that a second and third Eden would soon arise–mankind would once again separate along different paths.

And now, even before a second Eden could appear, the Human Alliance in the Heart of the Rose was already breaking apart from the inside out.

If her ghost still lingered within this forbidden zone, perhaps she would be laughing at this turn of events.