Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 192

Chapter 192 – We Are All Frontline Soldiers

Time seemed to have stopped.

This wasn’t the first time Lu Bixing had seen blood. During the internal warfare of the Eighth Galaxy, Turan had pulled him back from the brink of death numerous times, but this was the first time he had this particular experience–instead of desperately trying to escape death and survive, his last moment was spent with his mind wandering out into space.

He suddenly thought: Did Jingheng receive that pair of rings he ordered?

There weren’t many emotions attached to this thought because he had no time to feel regretful nor fearful. That last thought flashed by like a harmless gust of wind that left no impact on him.

At that moment, an interstellar coordinate point crashed into his vision from the internal communication channel. Lu Bixing recognized upon first glance that it was the coordinate of a transfer portal. He subconsciously carried out the emergency warp procedure towards that coordinate like a dying animal’s last breath of air.

The entire escorting team mirrored his actions simultaneously–

The mech violently fired up its engine to connect to the transfer portal with the last bit of its power. Portal activation successful. The protection airbags shot out from inside the mech.

The emergency warp was successful!

During those fleeting moments when Lu Bixing’s mind wandered, the warping disruption the AIs had used to trap the team was suddenly nullified. Lu Bixing’s little fleet of mechs vanished on the spot before their enemies; the missiles that had already left their cannons suddenly lost their targets and crashed into each other after being blown off-course, blasted by the massive energy from the emergency warp.

The visual of a few dozen missiles colliding in space was quite a scene; even the frontmost rows of AI mechs were impacted by the aftershock of the explosions. Unable to determine whether or not their target had been shot down, the chase was forcefully halted for a few seconds.

During these few seconds of delay, Lu Bixing’s mech was turned upside-down by the emergency warp. The young man struggled to maintain balance within the protection airbag while the mental network trembled violently. Yet even during a time like this his mind was crystal clear as he sent out an order immediately, “Blow up the transfer portal!”

His escorts might be small in numbers, but they were all elites from the Silver Ten. With their astounding teamwork, the escorts quickly backed up simultaneously and began firing rapidly at the transfer portal they’d just arrived through.

The poor transfer portal was met with sudden destruction after greeting these uninvited guests, creating a violent whirlpool within space, and taking a few pursuing AI mechs to the grave.

As a communication request was accepted into their channel, Lu Bixing finally let out a long breath of air. He responded, exhausted, “Good timing, Mister Hope, thanks.”

Warping disruption technology was a specialty of the AUS, the one Woolf used was merely a second-rate copy.

It wasn’t hard to figure out who was able to break through the copy disruption.

As expected, Harris’ projection appeared before the young man the next instant. The older man gave a bitter smile and said: “We meet again, Professor Lu. To be quite honest, I really didn’t want to see you again so soon.”

At this time, multiple other communication requests arrived. Lu Bixing’s escorts decided to build a temporary internal channel for these newcomers.

“Minister Lu.”

“Prime Minister.”

“Goodness, how are there only this many of you guys?”

A handful of new projections appeared: a bandaged-up Thomas, a pale-faced Poisson, a portion of the Third Squadron, and a few others from the vanguard fleets that Lu Bixing was familiar with…

“We’ll explain to you later.” Poisson gave him a conflicted look and said, “There are other transfer portals around the area that are listed on the maps. The enemies will catch up soon even if we blow up this portal. Quick, we better get going; the Third Squadron will lead the way!”

Lu Bixing tapped the shoulder of an escorting soldier beside him and said, “Here, take the piloting permissions.”

He instantly disconnected from the mech’s mental network and handed the pilot’s seat to the soldier. Then, he turned to everyone on the team and said, “Head over to the Section Nine military zone.”

All of this happened within a blink of an eye, a matter of seconds. Not until those last words were said did Lu Bixing’s natural reaction finally run its full course and settle. That earlier thought, then fleeting and unharmful, suddenly came back and jabbed at his unprotected heart, the cold sweat on his body freezing into ice.

If he had died under those missiles earlier, would Lin Jingheng wait for him in the Eighth Galaxy forever?

He had joked before departing that with their technology now, passing through the wormhole only took an average five to eight days, that only Lin Jingheng would ever run into astronomically impossible situations….so would that man think his bad luck had acted up again if Lu Bixing didn’t come back, assuming that the young Prime Minister was simply lost within the realms of timespace?

That year at the border between the Seventh and Eighth Galaxies, an unexpected ambush blew up Lin Jingheng’s mech. Had the almighty commander also felt the same way back then?

And yet all of these questions of waiting were built on the assumption that he was safe in the Eighth Galaxy.

Would the galactic forces be able to stop those damned AI fleets?

What if….

Lu Bixing snapped himself out of this dangerous thought, knowing that he might go mad the more he pondered and forcefully stopped his mind from finishing that “what if”. He then openly broke safety regulations on the mech by pulling out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it–,only to discover his whole body was trembling and unable to hold the cigarette.

He pressed a hand on the wall and said: “Give me a relaxant…not this one, number six.”

When he reunited with Lin Jingheng, his soul had been already shattered and dead. With the help of a number six, he had been able to pull his heavy flesh up and bring the man home without any troubles.

Now, when fear consumed his whole body, he once again had to rely on a number six to glue the shattered pieces of his soul together to search for that last ray of hope.

Hope had never been to the new Eighth Galaxy and didn’t understand the numbering system of their relaxants. Puzzled, he asked: “Oh, are you hurt?”

“No, I just scared myself.” The medical equipment injected the liquid into his body as Lu Bixing gave the old man a tired but honest smile, then mumbled, “I’m scared of dying.”

In the Eighth Galaxy.

The Prime Minister had made an announcement telling the public to not listen or pay too much attention to the current news, but it was virtually impossible for anyone to tear their attention from the frontlines of the battlefield.

Milky Way City made a public announcement that Prime Minister Lu Bixing had already left for the First Galaxy and was not present, but the AIs didn’t seem like they planned on letting the Eighth Galaxy off the hook.

The starry sky of the Eighth Galaxy was quiet. Sounds of gunshots and missiles were blocked off right outside the gate to civilization; all non-galactic grade military bodies, including on-land security, were all now on standby.

Everyone who was still alive in this turbulent galaxy had lived through the trials of war; they all looked up at the skiy, waiting silently for the drop of a missile onto their homeland.

All space terminals in the galaxy were under heavy guard; non-military galactic vehicles were temporarily banned from flying out of the atmosphere. Tourists and workers on major satellites were evacuated down to land. Transfer portals and long-distance communication networks were temporarily limited to emergency usage only; people calling their families and friends outside of the Eighth Galaxy were forced to deal with several hours of delay.

The vanguard fleets that fought at the frontlines against the AIs were wiped off their mental networks by the enemy, causing a short pause in their movements. Of course, the AIs seized this opportunity and fired a few dozen rounds of missiles during the few seconds it took for pilots to reconnect.

At that moment, one of the heavy mechs from the Eighth Galaxy Galactic Forces let out countless small mechs from its body. Like a manual anti-missile system, each small mech precisely countered the missiles without missing an inch–it was almost like they knew exactly which direction the missiles would fly from.

Turan, a hair’s breadth away from blowing into stardust earlier, wiped some cold sweat from her forehead and gave a thumbs up. “Nice, Zhanlu! A walking disaster like me’s gotta depend on you to live ‘til 1000 years old!”

Zhanlu had completely turned himself into a simulator at this point. Lin Jingheng had ordered him to roleplay as an AI from the side of the Great Swords, analyzing the battle and making precise predictions for deal with the incoming enemies.

This was still the homeground of the Eighth Galaxy forces, regardless of how powerful the enemies were. There were billions of lives behind their backs; these soldiers could not give another inch. But as long as they held their ground, they would always hold the upper hand in terms of supplies and arms, eliminating the possibility of running out of ammo or relaxants in the midst of battle. While holding the final line of defense with their lives, the forces were also deliberately working to deplete the enemy’s resources.

Bayer complained into the channel, “I was the one that saved you just now!”

Turan gave a sarcastic “hah” and said, “Oh you think you’re so cool now? If I die you’ll be the next bait. Besides, my life’s already rewarding enough if I die here, you can’t compare with me, mister ‘my fictional girlfriend only exists in my personal device’ Tenth Squadron Captain.”

Lee let out a sigh. “Bayer, don’t you think having both the label of a galactic assassination team leader and a hopeless nerd really is kind of embarrassing?”

Captain Liu made a dramatic and sarcastic gasp as he remarked, “Captain Bayer, I didn’t know you were this kind of person! I always thought you were like me, a loyal and pious man who follows our Marshal’s path of abstinence!”

“Oh my goodness, I can’t handle this anymore. Hey invisible man, stop finding all the opportunities you can to shove in your opinion just because Kin isn’t around.” Turan was on the verge of breakdown, asking, “Is it some sort of law that we must have an ass-kisser among us at all times?

Bayer: “……”

These shitheads!

Zhanlu: “Actually, master here isn’t…”

Lin Jingheng: “Shut. Up.”

There was a brief awkward silence within the communication channel until the Captains of the Silver Ten all gave a small ‘oh’ of understanding or confusion, as if they all found the key to a forbidden door at the same time.

“By the way Marshal,” Turan said, “there’s actually a question I’ve always wanted to ask…”

“Watch out, everyone,” Zhanlu suddenly interrupted her and shared a map, pinning all possible directions of attack from the enemy. “The enemy is narrowing their formation. It may be a sign that they’re running out of ammo and are gathering up for one last round of attacks.”

Just as he finished, the AI fleet charged forward and grew more violent than before. Supermechs Chengying and Chunjun shot out from the fleet towards the weakest spot of the Galactic Forces formation. Both supermechs opened up their docks as a flood of small mechs sailed out like a swarm of flies.

Turan: “The cornered beast is finally making a desperate move?”

Heavy layers of mental networks pressed down on the Galactic Forces; the exhausted pilots didn’t have time to switch with their backups and took the hit directly. At the same time, fifteen mechs lost their mental network access as the AIs took control, forcing these captive mechs to turn their cannons toward their comrades.

The Ninth Squadron’s high dexterity allowed them to sail over to save their comrades, but by the time the alarms on Turan’s mech rang out, she was already too close within firing range.

She couldn’t escape and didn’t escape; Turan locked on and fired at the supermech’s armory at the very last second.

Bam–

Supermech Chengying’s armory blew up at that moment. The AI managed to detach the armory right before the explosion, but the compact swarm of AI mechs it had just sent out was still too close to its main body–it was too late!

The supermech’s body completely broke down from the center; the explosion ruptured outward and caught a round of small AI mechs within the massive fire.

The tail of Turan’s mech was hit by a missile, and less than five seconds later the entire ship also exploded.

Bayer, who was the closest to her, felt something in his head snap as he called out, “Elizabeth!”

During the chaos, Zhanlu expanded his mental network from the commanding ship and took control of the fifteen mechs that had been captured earlier. He shot out a long-distance shield through the network to cover the fifteen mechs and quickly pushed back the pursuing AI mechs behind them.

NSE 260, space pirates invaded Union territory and Commander Lin Jingheng of the Silver Fortress was sent out to fend off the enemies. In that famous battle, he hacked into fifteen enemy mechs simultaneously and took control of all piloting access. This legendary feat was still passed on even years after the man had left the Union.

And now, he recreated the miracle.

Within the endless fire and debris of the battlefield, one of the fifteen mechs tossed out a capturing net and precisely caught a piece of junk…as well as an ecopod.

Turan choked on her own breath inside the ecopod and laid sideways inside the capturing net. She said in between her heavy panting, “I’m not even done with my question…ahem, listen, I’ll never rest in peace if I don’t get to finish–Marshal, question. I know you’re a man that can understand every implied and explicit dirty joke ever made in the world, so how exactly did you manage to maintain that pure and aloof look that makes everyone think you’re as clean and untouched as you dress?”

Lin Jingheng’s throat was still aching, so his voice was quiet, almost gentle for once.

Unfortunately, the words that came out of his mouth were anything but gentle: “Don’t know, maybe because I don’t look like a thot?”

Turan cackled wildly in her ecopod, still choking up while the pod was slowly being pulled into the mech.

“Ain’t dead yet,” she said. “Send out a backup mech for me!”

It was less than three hours away from the promised twelve hours that Huang Jingshu had estimated. The entire galaxy’s anti-missile systems were all in the last stage of installation; all robots and engineers hopped on the job to finish the last adjustments. Half a sailing day away, the battlefield was reaching its climax. The Galactic Forces stopped retreating; there were no more fancy strategies nor ambushes as they faced head-to-head against the AI fleets like two ferocious beasts attempting to bite each other’s neck off.

First, Supermech Chengying was knocked down while Turan jumped into an ecopod.

Next, Chunjun was shot down while Lee’s mech alerted him that the backup engine of the mech was destroyed, forcing him to hop on a small mech to escape.

When Longyuan fell into a barricade by the Sixth Squadron, Lin Jingheng’s commanding ship became the target of a massive attack from the AI troops. The Marshal gave up on the heavy mech and sent the commanding ship to the mouth of the enemy.

Everyone from the top commander, squadron captains, and down to the guarding soldiers became frontline soldiers—

The First Galaxy.

Old Bu felt like he won the lottery. The Section Nine military zone, where everyone had been ordered to meet up, was the area he was investigating.

While the AIs were attempting to break into their protected communication network, the old General hadn’t wasted a second of time and ordered the team to clean up all surrounding transfer portals. The entire military zone was now temporarily isolated from the rest of the galaxy.

Even though the First Galaxy was small enough that it was possible to travel around without transfer portals, cutting off the portals meant that the main AI body could not escape after losing connection. Sailing out of the zone would take at least twenty hours without portals. With the amount of energy necessary to run the main AI body, it would be easy to narrow in on the target inside this enclosed space–twenty hours was more than enough time to search.

During this time, the AI would also lose its control over the First Galaxy. The Human Alliance fleets from outside of the zone would be able to quickly surround the area after receiving the news; even if Old Bu accidentally let the AI escape, it would sail right into the heavy barricade of his comrades outside.

“We’re close to capturing it!” Old Bu was shaking in excitement as he called out, his voice cracking, “Search thoroughly!”

Lu Bixing took his battered-up team towards Section Nine.

Poisson commanded his tech team to fend off the pursuing AIs while he explained to Lu Bixing, “Sorry, Minister Lu. We didn’t have enough people at the time and everything was too chaotic, the supplies in the Heart of the Rose….even relaxants were low. A lot of comrades were…we were all knocked off our mental networks by the AI fleets. They were all desperate to invade the Eighth Galaxy at the time and didn’t spare any moment to deal with us, so H….Prophet Harris here managed to save us.”

His expression was a bit awkward as he spoke.

The Silver Ten and AUS had once been mortal enemies. Who knew that these weird cult followers would save their lives?

Harris gave a humble smile and said, “No worries, it’s all for life and nature.”

“Oh? But I still won’t legalize your religion in our galaxy. The AUS has a history with us; also, wasn’t the organization just a peaceful environmental organization when it was first established during the Earth Era?” Lu Bixing was finally able to relax with the help of the relaxant. “But you didn’t sell us out when you first left the Eighth Galaxy, so I believe you.”

Harris laughed, “You’ve always believed in me, the one that had always distrusted me is Commander Lin.”

“It’s alright,” Lu Bixing said, “he only needs to believe in me—anyway, how’s it going?”

“Prime Minister, Section Nine military zone has been successfully isolated.”

“Looks like we’re the first to arrive,” Thomas said. “We can wait until others get here.”

At the same time, all teams from the Human Alliance received the same message about the isolation, the ray of hope was suddenly visible.

“Surround the AI! Prepare to warp to Section Nine.”

The Alliance fleet that had been on edge was finally able to have a weight lifted off their shoulders, yet just as they were about to sail into transfer portals–

“Missiles, watch out!”

“Wh-….”

“Enemy attack!”

The Alliance fleets exposed under the transfer portals were suddenly surrounded by AI mechs.

Lu Bixing’s body tensed up.

“What’s going on?” he heard someone called desperately, “Didn’t we successfully isolate the main AI already!?”