Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 83

Chapter 83 – His Soul Above the Parliament

Milky Way City entered its rainy season.

Inside the greenhouse left by the AUS in the operational base, plants and fungi that enjoyed moisture began growing rapidly. The sound of rainfall was like the ticking of a clock that ran from morning to night, with raindrops dripping from broken rooftops in the city. The streets were empty as usual with few people occasionally running out with an umbrella like little flowers rushing down a river stream.

The sound of rain woke Lin Jingheng up once–it had been a while since he heard such heavy rain. Beijing-β was dry like a desert – winter almost felt as long as an eternity – and the small space station used an artificial water cycle system with no natural rain as loud as this.

He opened his eyes abruptly from his dreams and saw the cover of the medical capsule above him; he felt as if he’d traveled back 30 years ago to the rainy night when he was stuck inside the emergency medical capsule. Memories and real life convulging into a mess in his head, Lin Jingheng instinctively broke open the cover of the medical capsule. The needles in his body flew out from the impact, and in his half-conscious state of mind he struggled to crawl out of his capsule without a care for the pain. His knees fell to the ground as he struggled out and once again fell unconscious as he listened to his own rapid heartbeat.

“I…I have to go…”

Someone in an isolation suit barged in with a handful of medic robots and pressed him down after a small commotion. A relaxant shot into his veins and Lin Jingeheng’s consciousness sunk back into darkness.

This time, he had a dream about a galactic video record.

It was a top-secret file that Doctor Lance from the Black Orchid Academy had somehow obtained a copy of. On Lin Jingheng’s graduation, he was gifted this video as a present from the doctor.

It was a video recorded on a military instrument on a mech, so aside from the clear view of space, there was also data on-screen that accurately documented data such as the coordinates, environment, climate and energy waves.

The positioning was around the Heart of the Rose within the First Galaxy, documenting the night that Lu Xin “escaped” from the Union.

The Union troops chased him down in desperation and fired multiple rounds of missiles at him. A man’s voice spoke over the slight noise in the background: “Missiles are useless, Lu Xin has seen more missiles than all the meals you’ve eaten in your life combined! The higher-ups didn’t order us to capture him alive — there’s so many of you against these few mechs, why are you all only trying to block him off? Can’t you all just use the ‘oven’ and finish it all at once!?”

An ‘oven’ was clearly not official jargon, but slang used often by frontline soldiers that refer to overlaying particle cannons.

Superimposing over 30 rounds of particle beams on top of each other would create an energy with high enough temperature to melt a mech’s shield like an oven cooking yams, hence the nickname.

This was a method that was only used by troops that had obtained an absolute advantage over their opponent and had the intention to annihilate said enemy. Countless mechs joined in together and entered a proper formation with great precision, then locked their cannons at the correct angle and fired simultaneously. The key to successfully carrying out this strategy was good command and cooperation among the troops; if the troops were well-trained enough to cooperate seamlessly, every mech would be able to precisely fire their cannons on the clock. The overlaying particle beams would then become deadly enough to lock on its target within a large area, and there was no way a mech would be able to escape the target area even at full speed.

The screen followed the particle cannons and locked on its target—it was a small team of five to six small mechs. The mech leading the team glided over like a bullet while leading its team; it didn’t look any different from regular small mechs, but Lin Jingheng could tell just from one look that it was Lu Xin’s mech.

He watched as the screen flashed with a bright light as the high-energy beam pierced through space. The military telescope even pulled up the energy data of the tsunami-like wave of particles on its screen. The beam was like an invisible reaper of death that passed through the Heart of the Rose with a grim smile, lifting its arm to chase down its prey.

It was a very short video that lasted no longer than a minute, but Lin Jingheng watched it repeatedly for a whole night and replayed it countless times. The video was engraved into his brain so vividly that even many years later, he could still recall the details in his mind when he closed his eyes.

The person that made the ‘oven’ command made a very simple mistake; he entered the wrong number for the target mech’s acceleration speed. It was a very small mistake that would go completely unnoticed if nobody checked for an error, but because the target’s escape route was not a straight line, after his own calculations, Lin Jingheng concluded that under that speed and angle at the time, the particle cannon would’ve passed right by the leading mech by the time it reached its target.

Perhaps there was a greater force out there that still refused to give up and wanted to protect that man one last time; or perhaps there was no god in this world and the commanding soldier was only secretly letting him go…yet none of these had an answer now, and the conclusion was that Lu Xin was not meant to die at that time.

But as soon as the particle cannon fired, Lu Xin’s leading mech suddenly hit its brakes. It was impossible for humans to react at this speed, and before his followers knew what was happening, his mech fell to the tail end of the fleet. Both the missiles that had been fired earlier and the ‘oven’ beam reached their target almost simultaneously; Lu Xin’s mech took three missiles head on, completely destroying its shield before the alarm could go off, burning into a bright ball of fire. And within this deadly explosion, the particle cannon hit a roadblock and flew off its route, passing right by the team of small mechs and allowing them to find time to make an emergency warp escape.

He’d used his life to protect the people that followed him.

At the end, aside from Lu Xin’s vice-captain committing suicide in public, to this day the Union had not released any hard evidence to prove the identities of the people that escaped with Lu Xin or ran away afterwards.

That secret list of names was hidden inside the file after the video and was destroyed after Lin Jingheng read through it. He then spent 30 years quietly replanting the people on the list into the soils of the seven galaxies, waiting until they regrew into deadly plant bodies that could unearth the Union.

But…Doctor Lance could have chosen to only give him the list, why did he also send in the video?

What did he want to tell that young and rebellious child? Lin Jingheng pondered this question for years and never found the chance to ask.

Doctor Lance was already 286 years old the year he graduated and had refused the Academy’s teaching offer to retire instead. At that time, Lin Jingheng was busy reporting to the Military Council, swearing into the military and officially taking on his position. When he finally found some free time from his busy schedule, the doctor had already been hospitalized due to illness and passed away soon after.

That image of the high-energy particle beam ripping through space was already engraved down to his bones.

Who knew that this destructive scene would suddenly give him a flash of inspiration and save his life many years later.

Wait…Lin Jingheng’s heart skipped a beat–it saved…his life?

It was as if his consciousness finally grabbed onto a string within the black hole of his memories, and after following along the string, he walked out of the rainy day from when he was 16 and ran desperately for almost as long as his entire life. When he finally found the exit, he found the cruel and chaotic reality crushing down on him: a galactic war, the Eighth Galaxy, the Nuwa Project, space pirates, a Milky Way City that became the epicenter of the mutated Rainbow Virus, and Lu Bixing…

A massive feeling of anxiety immediately swallowed everything up as Lin Jingheng opened his eyes. As he was about to sit up, he felt something on top of him. With the help of the medical equipment’s dim lighting, he looked down to see a hand laying on his body.

Lin Jingheng’s mind went blank.

This time, the medical capsule’s cover was opened. He held in his breath and turned his head to see Lu Bixing beside him.

There was actually a resting capsule right beside him that people could sit in, but maybe Lu Bixing had complained about it being too cramped or something and had chosen not to rest inside it. Instead, he’d stubbornly built a hammock beside the medical capsule and even added a crab-shaped pillow for that full vacation feel. He laid in the hammock like a big fish with half his face and messy hair shoved into the shell of the crab pillow, sleeping on his side with his limbs draped out of the hammock. His fingers curled up in a resting position and touched Lin Jingheng’s body.

The sky was just lighting up at this time. Lin Jingheng didn’t want to disturb him and carefully laid back down in his capsule. He scanned the small screen from the capsule on the side that recorded his physical stats and saw that even though he was still weaker than normal, his body had already recovered to full health. Someone even added an extra line at the bottom that said: “Patient might be claustrophobic, it is not advisable to close the capsule cover unless necessary.”

Lin Jingheng: “…..”

Nope, never heard of this, what kind of shit doctor added this line?

The last line on the screen was the virus index that had already dimmed out.

“Is there a vaccine now?” Lin Jingheng thought and looked up towards Lu Bixing, “Where did they get it from?”

Lu Bixing turned his neck a little and fully shoved his nose into the crab’s soft pincers. It was unclear where he’d gotten that strange crab pillow from, but it even had leg hair on its little feet!

Lu Bixing rubbed his face a few times and sneezed into the pillow without waking up. He then turned his body to continue sleeping and pulled his dangling hand up slightly.

Lin Jingheng suddenly felt like a whole mountain had finally moved from his body and let out the breath he’d been holding in. Soon after, as if Lu Bixing wasn’t sleeping peacefully enough, he rolled around a few times in his hammock while his hand subconsciously searched for something below his bed. Lin Jingheng dodged the attack, shoved the blanket over and placed it right beneath Lu Bixing’s fingers.

Lu Bixing grabbed onto something and finally settled down back into deep slumber.

Lin Jingheng turned off the medical capsule, pulled the sensors off his body and carefully pulled himself up. He grabbed Lu Bixing’s jacket hanging on the side and placed it on himself as he walked outside.

The calendar showed that it had been sixWolto days since he’d fallen unconscious.

Even though he felt his limbs still felt a little weak, the medical capsule managed to recover most of his bodily functions, making it possible for him to walk on his own.

It was clear that this wasn’t the quarantine rooms anymore: the doors were unlocked and there was no other quarantine equipment in sight. He was greeted by the hallway the minute he walked out of the door, and Lin Jingheng recognized that it was the internal medical center built inside the former AUS operational base on Qiming.

Even though the AUS tended to have questionable aesthetics in the fashion department, their architecture seemed fairly normal. Perhaps they decided to use their resources elsewhere but the building was quite simple in design; the window was just a simple glass window with no fancy construction that reached from the ceiling to the ground. These windows were all strategically placed in the building to allow for the best view outside with countless open hallways and balconies decorated with plants that had just had a nice rainshower.

It was breaking dawn when Lin Jingheng saw the Ninth Squadron pass by uniformly after completing their five kilometer warmup run. As they headed towards the training grounds, the Self-Defense Squad followed after them.

If the Ninth Squadron was an organized line of freshly cut tofu, the Self-Defense Squad were the smashed tofu that they dragged along for five kilometers behind them.

The Self-Defense Squad had spent all of their energy simply trying to catch up with the Ninth Squadron and wishing they could catch their breaths, why would they care about the neatness of their formation? Saturday, who was in the lead, yelled some sort of new team cheer that was then repeated by the group behind them. They pounded their chests as they shouted, creating an image that looked like a bunch of gorillas that had jumped off the mountain ready to invade some territories.

The soldiers of the Ninth Squadron were reorganizing by the entrance of the training grounds and desperately held in their laughter at this scene.

Turan glanced over and said: “At ease! Reorganize for one minute, then you may laugh!”

Most people from the Self-Defense Squad were summoned urgently by Saturday in response to the mutated Rainbow Virus and had almost no break since the outbreak of the pandemic. Because they were severely lacking in resources, aside from armed mobile missions, the Ninth Squadron and the Self-Defense Squad spent most of the time working together.

In these terrifying eight to nine days inside the isolation suits, despite being blocked physically by the face masks, these people grew close like brothers and developed a new kind of friendship under these trying times.

The Self-Defense Aquad were surprised to find that these legendary elite soldiers were also normal humans that ate and slept like everyone else. When they weren’t training they would also chat and talk among themselves — even their complaints about their bosses were awfully similar to the thugs of the Self-Defense Squad.

With a comparable standard right before their eyes, the new marathon runners of the Eighth Galaxy felt like they’d found their pace-maker and leader. Suddenly, the seemingly impossible training menu seemed to be somewhat doable, so the Self-Defense Squad members naturally joined in to follow the soldiers’ footsteps.

The soldiers of the Ninth Squadron immediately turned into a pile of laughter within this minute of break. On the other side, the loud Self-Defense Squad didn’t back down and started reorganizing their formation while throwing a few middle fingers at the Ninth Squadron. The two parties soon began to insult each other shamelessly like a group of hooligans.

Turan blew a sharp whistle once the minute had passed; the Ninth Squadron immediately followed the order and returned back to their professional image. This fleet of soldiers that were just like thugs earlier stood up straight and sternly without a single person standing out of line. The Self-Defense Squad beside them were soon affected by this strict atmosphere and pulled back their playful expressions as they silently stood back in line; this entire scene was as if they were all playing a massive game of red light, green light.

Turan let out a small laugh herself at this scene, and a few more simple-minded soldiers that couldn’t hold in joined her…Unfortunately, the whole group was then sent to do another 100 rounds of anti-gravity training as punishment by the sneaky fleet captain.

Lin Jingheng shook his head at this sight; the Ninth Squadron had never been this lively back when they were still in the First Galaxy.

He searched in Lu Bixing’s pocket but didn’t find any cigarettes, only a slight-melted piece of mint. Lin Jingheng took one out and put it in his mouth as he watched the horizon slowly light up; it was a rare sunny day during the rainy season.

The weak light of daybreak broke through the mist in the air and showered over the wet grounds with soft glows of life. The view from the operational base was wide enough to see the silhouette of Way City from the top. Qiming’s climate satellite had already turned into space waste, but the weather report above the city still stubbornly remained at its job with its lights still on: “The satellite eloped with someone, please wait for an accurate weather report—”

But the people had already waited for 140 years.

Is there a planet or place in this world that you are deeply connected to even in your dreams?

Somewhere that makes you think that you must return no matter where you wandered to to spend the rest of your life…

Is there anything in your life that’s important to you? Something that you must protect with everything you have?

In this daybreak, it was as if the perpetually lazy and tired Lin Jingheng opened his eyes for the first time to carefully look at the lives in Milky Way City that survived, the planet Qiming……and the Eighth Galaxy.

His empty soul that floated above the Union’s Parliament building finally found the staircase that led him down to the mortal world one step at a time.

And this bittersweet mortal world gave him a hug with the mixed scent of rotting stench and fresh fragrance.

It had been six years since he came to the Eighth Galaxy, but he’d only just discovered the path that Lu Xin once walked.

The Eighth Galaxy of the Union was never supposed to be an underground tunnel oppressed by the Union and space pirates.

A hasty sound of footsteps came from behind him. Lin Jingheng turned his head to see Lu Bixing barge in with his messy hair that had suffered a rubbing from the crab, frantically searching for him. Lu Bixing stopped as the two’s gaze met; it was as if neither of them were ready to confront the other and just stared at each other five meters apart.

Lu Bixing cleared his throat and smoothed down his messy hair and clothing, then started mumbling to himself: “You had an allergic reaction to a fever medicine one night and fell out of the medical capsule while unconscious. I was worried…about you…I….ahem…”

Lin Jingheng–now that his fever was gone, his attitude was back: “So you finally found your guilty conscience for your inappropriate action on the mech?”

Author’s notes: There was a comment last night that I tried to reply to, but my internet cut off the moment I hit submit and now I can’t find it anymore…

So let me respond to it here regarding why the pirates didn’t manage to catch the long-distance signal the last chapter–

According to my bullshitting, the long-distance communication system is built on transfer portals, otherwise it wouldn’t be possible to have real-time telecommunication when they sail outside of the eight galaxies. This is like how we Earthlings can’t communicate real-time with astronauts on Mars ╮（╯▽╰）╭

The dangers of long-distance communication is that there’s a risk of exposing your coordinates–when the Cayley pirates were searching in the out of the Eighth Galaxy for hidden tunnels and passages, they will scan all nearby transfer portals and follow the network signals to track the sender. In the last chapter, the AUS pirates and the small mechs were very close to each other nearby the same transfer portal, so it would be hard to notice a large-scale communication network. It’s the same as how ancient people on Earth don’t realize they’re standing on a globe.

Headmaster Lu used his own personal device as a signal transfer station, so all he needed to do is to cover up the signal sending out towards the transfer portal behind him =w=