Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 92

Chapter 92 – Our Enemy is Approaching

Monoeyed Hawk wasn’t like Lin Jingheng and didn’t have the bad habit of taking relaxants like coffee, it had been years since he last suffered the side-effects of relaxants in high dosages. After the muscle twitches passed, he felt his nerves tense up again as his lungs were strangled like a tight rubber band. Every breath of air he took in turned into a sharp pain in the chest, forcing him to lean down and relax his breathing.

As his head spun in discomfort, he began to notice something strange about the situation—the enemy pursuit stopped.

When he separated with William, most of the pursuers followed behind Monoeyed Hawk. A few teammates from his own fleet showed up in the middle of the chase and wanted to help take some pressure off his shoulders, only to find out that the enemy seemed to be completely set on solely targeting Monoeyed Hawk.

The transfer portals around the area were not protected, so no matter where Monoeyed Hawk went, the heavy mech was able to scan his location and chase after him. All of Monoeyed Hawk’s spare energy sources were sacrificed during the confrontation with the pirates earlier, and it was hard to tell how long his mech could last with the little energy left. Under these conditions, the only logical explanation to why the enemies disappeared was they voluntarily gave up the pursuit.

Was this a trap?

Did karma hit them and destroy their commander?

Or did the entire Eighth Galaxy’s spacetime screw up and summon the Ninth Squadron over here?

The communication channel was completely silent. Nobody else was around him, and there was no way for Monoeyed Hawk to know what was going on.

Knowing the other party’s coordinates or leaving a message in a transfer portal for someone to actively receive it were the basic requirements for connecting long-distance telecoms. While on the run, the former was impossible to accomplish and the latter was a blatant suicide-move.

Monoeyed Hawk passed through a number of portals while questions raced through his head, and after a few rounds with no signs of pursuit, he finally confirmed that the enemy lost interest in him and slowly made his way towards the underground passage.

The silent communication channel finally received some signals after he passed through the first protected portal. Someone else already arrived.

“Monoeyed Hawk is back!”

The crowd cheered every time a new dot appeared within their channel.

“Number 4 and 8 are here too, this is number 3.”

Monoeyed Hawk’s shoulders dropped as he slid down from the control panel and fell onto the ground. He pressed onto his throbbing rib cage and answered the channel: “This is number 1….number 6 is down.”

The channel went silent for a few moments. Four mechs represented by four flashing dots in the channel neatly organized into a rectangle in space.

Among the ten mechs that came along their journey, three were confirmed to be annihilated, and others that weren’t here already were unknown.

Monoeyed Hawk let out a sigh: “Sorry folks, you’ve already done your deed by helping me out of that situation, none of you deserve to go back into that mess again.”

The pilot on mech number 4–that old man with hypertension issues, spoke up: “We wouldn’t have come out with you originally if we just left you there. Don’t worry pal, we don’t have any other plans.”

The pilot on number 8 interrupted: “We’re both old and single anyway so we have nothing to lose, only Old Bay here might have some regrets.”

The pilot on mech number 3 was the oldest among them, everyone calls him “Old Bay” even though it was hard to tell if that was his actual name or a nickname.

Old Bay laughed: “Don’t worry about me, remember how I said I saved up a bit of money? I already took my wife and kid to the Seventh Galaxy back in NSC 216.”

The channel grew lively with people joking and complaining about him being a traitor of the Eighth Galaxy.

“The Seventh Galaxy sure was nice. Streets were filled with service robots that were ready to help you out even if you just tripped over a pebble. Everyone had houses and a respectable status there, and regardless if anyone was acquainted they would greet each other on the streets. But y’all know what the best part was? The pedestrian streets and main roads were separated into levels, all the cars were autopilot…can you imagine? They never have to worry about car accidents there!”

Monoeyed Hawk asked: “That’s not bad, why did you come back then?”

“I had no choice, the currency exchange rate for the Eighth Galaxy was 106:1. On top of that, there was a limit to how much you could exchange in a day; with all of our assets combined, our family could only exchange 5,000 coins a day, it was not enough to survive. Their exchange system was also built for ease of management and bans individual transactions, so we could only rely on black banks. Black banks were run by immigrants that exploited their resources, the highest exchange rate was up to 2800:1 with no upper limit–of course, you can call the police and report the illegal activities. The government would immediately send out robot security over to destroy their black market, but what’s the point? You still need money to survive, and since all those black market sales are on the same boat they can find out who called the cops. Once you’ve been ratted out, you’re done for; don’t even think about getting any money from their hands for the rest of your life. Native residents of the Seventh Galaxy enter the protection of Eden the moment they’re born, but immigrants are different. Installing Eden was like suddenly giving you a new organ transplant out of nowhere and requires time to adjust to it. You will need a professional to help you make the adjustment in a year-long course, and everyone’s responsible for paying their own training fees, which was extremely expensive. If I put down my entire family’s assets in the Eighth Galaxy, I would be left with virtually nothing after paying for my immigrant application and training fee. You’re able to request a full refund to return to your old citizen status within a year, so I returned my status and left my wife and kid there while I came back here to make some money for them.”

“Why don’t you find work in the Seventh Galaxy?”

“What can I do? The Seventh Galaxy isn’t like this damn place, AIs took over all physical labor and service jobs. Work that requires actual people is already scarce, and once they find out that you’re an immigrant nobody will hire you.”

Monoeyed Hawk asked: “Is your family still well during these times?”

Old Bay stayed silent for a while before he answered: “When the pirates invaded the Union, they wanted to smuggle back to the Eighth Galaxy to stay with me. They ran into a battle between the Union troops and pirates on their way over and were caught in the crossfire; the communication was completely cut off back then so I didn’t find out about this until a month later, and by that time it was already too late…so now I don’t have anything left like the rest of you. It’s nice to finally have something to do in a time like this where life and death are only a blink of an eye apart.”

Then, another mech appeared on the channel. The crowd cheered again after number 5 joined in and washed away all the sorrows from earlier. A reunion after a separation of less than a few hours was as dramatic as decades worth of a family reunion.

Next was number 9, which ran into some troubles. Perhaps the pilot was at a constant state of high alert for the entire time, before they could say anything after the mech joined the party, the pilot knocked out and disconnected from the network. The backup pilot didn’t take over the network in time and was too busy trying to save the primary pilot, forcing the mech to fly out of control off to a distance. The five mechs that were waiting inside the underground passage rushed out to capture it and safely dragged the poor mech back in place.

Old Bay asked: “We’re just missing Superintendent Yu right? What’s taking him so long?”

Monoeyed Hawk took a look at the time. It had already been six hours since they separated, but there were still no messages from William even though he should’ve already made it to the meeting spot way before Monoeyed Hawk did. After a few hours of rest, his mental and physical state slowly recovered to a point where he could analyze the situation calmly. Recalling the pursuers’ strange actions, his heart began to sink.

“Let’s wait one more hour,” Old Bay suggested, “If he doesn’t come, or…we can’t possibly wait forever.”

Nobody objected and they waited for another hour, but there was still no news from William.

Monoeyed Hawk said: “Let’s extend another hour, maybe something delayed him.”

They waited for another hour with no avail.

This time, nobody else spoke up as if there was a silent consensus among the six mechs to wait for their comrade for eternity.

After Monoeyed Hawk and his team left Qiming, they had made stops on 16 planets and space stations to pay the residents a visit. Some places had small military bases, others managed a whole city, but the most powerful among them was an ex-soldier of the Independent Navy called “Tiger Shark”. He managed a small planet with a population of six million people, and claimed the title of Top Minister after the war broke out.

Everyone they visited welcomed them passionately with a grand party comparable to pre-war times, almost giving Monoeyed Hawk the delusion that he was still living in those days where he bathed in wine and pleasure from day to night. Yet once they began the talks, it was clear that everyone had their own reserves about the Eighth Galaxy going independent.

At this time while Moneyed Hawk and his group waited endlessly inside the underground passage, William Yu’s little personal speech broadcasted throughout those 16 communication posts he visited.

William piloted his own little mech down the path on his own fake map and began his speech through his personal device: “My name is William Yu, born in NSC 63 and joined the Independent Navy in October of NSC 136. I was one of the first scouting soldiers of the Navy, and later joined the Union Government of the Eighth Galaxy as a cop, then made my way up to be the Superintendent of the Eighth Galaxy’s Law Enforcement Department…”

He was like an awkward stand-up comedian performing through a loudspeaker on the side of the street, with nobody stopping to pay him any attention. In the busy street of people walking by, he fell deep into his own little world.

William explained why he decided to join the Independent Navy in a boring fashion, talked about his mother and younger brother that died from the Rainbow Virus, outlined his old dreams, spoke of his life-and-death situation during the latest pandemic, and even added Prime Minister Edward’s grand outline for the future of the Eighth Galaxy. As he was about to discuss public health and education, his words stopped abruptly–the enemy fleet that suffered a “wolf pack” attack earlier silently blocked his path.

Monoeyed Hawk was right, the traitor was among the people they visited during this trip. William turned and glanced at everyone that was connected in the long-distance channel and knew that the traitor here already leaked his coordinates and map to the enemy. As for the “friends” that received his SOS signal, they were still waiting by the underground passage like a bunch of hamsters huddled up in fear.

William chuckled and sent out the recording of the ambush earlier as he continued: “In NSC 239, I had a chance to join a government-sponsored exchange program and was sent to the Sixth Galaxy for training. Perhaps I did pretty decently back then so they offered to let me stay and bring my direct family over as immigrants. I only needed to turn in an application and the Sixth Galaxy’s Police Force Headquarters would pay for all my immigration fees. I spent a long time thinking about it and completed my application form. Just as I was ready to turn it in, I received a letter from the old Prime Minister. He was Minister Edward’s predecessor and had already passed away…he told me that he just came back from a meeting on Wolto, Commander Lu Xin is currently fighting for more political authority for the Eighth Galaxy. The Fleet Commander of the Union is still fighting this battle for us, how can we run away for our own benefit? I didn’t sleep the whole night after reading the letter and deleted that entire application on my personal device, then returned to the Eighth Galaxy. My lover broke up with me because of this and hasn’t contacted me in 30 years.”

William placed the recorder back in its place and turned his face towards the long-distance channel.

“I’m extremely regretful.” He said to his audience, “returning to the Eighth Galaxy was the most regrettable decision I made in my life.”

He turned off the channel after he finished and skipped the closing line, then turned his engine up to the maximum as all the missiles fired out towards the enemy fleet. He was like a little ant carrying its tiny pincers as it charged forward into a flood.

There was no way these missiles could hit the enemy; the defensive mechs on the side of the fleet easily intercepted these missiles while the heavy mech’s large mental network pressed down onto William’s mech. A violent attack shot through the human-mech port and knocked the sync rate down from 70% to 55% within 20 seconds.

He was still at least ten thousand kilometers away from the enemy fleet at this time.

William wanted to run right into the enemy fleet and self-destruct in hopes to deal some damage, but even this suicide attack might just be another daydream for him. He spent his whole life daydreaming.

The sync rate fell to 51%, and William activated the self-destruction system at the very last minute.

Soon after, darkness consumed his vision as he was knocked off his mental network. The damage to his brain shocked him into a coma, and by the time the enemy that took over the network noticed, the self-destruction system was already irreversible. Before they could send out a warning, the countdown reached its end and the small mech exploded into a little firework in space.

Flammable objects on the mech quickly perished into dust while the dark universe swallowed up all its remnants. The pieces of the mech floated away in a rush like the ashes of the late soldier.

The moment William’s connection cut off, some of the signal posts that received the SOS finally acted.

Two armed bases sent out their fleets, then a planet sent out around 20 small mechs and merchant ships immediately after. At the same time, with this small planet’s signal post as the central communication, a new long-distance network spread out among the other planets and space stations within the Eighth Galaxy—

“Backup from Fann is ready to sail towards the target coordinates, we have 20 mechs and three supply ships. We estimate we can pass through the transfer portal and arrive on site in 20 minutes….are y’all fucking dead or just eating shit?”

“Satellite KD’s military base is still alive but we don’t have many resources, only six small mechs. We’ll head over to the target coordinates in 20 minutes.”

“New York Self-Defense Force is prepared, we’re on our way to the target coordinate.”

“New York 6 Satellite here, we just saw you take off. We don’t have mechs but supply ships are on their way–”

That small explosion finally reignited the dead cinder within the Eighth Galaxy; the ancient battle song blew out an imperishable wind that carried the sparks of flame until it turned into an unstoppable wildfire, spreading rapidly through the empty and vast starry sky.

Yet the igniter can no longer see it. His fire had already perished in the sea of anguish.

His friends had been waiting for almost six hours in the underground passage. Monoeyed Hawk couldn’t wait any longer and started scanning through the nearby transfer portals in an attempt to catch any signals. Using transfer portals to send out long-distance signals will expose William’s and the underground passage’s coordinate, so logically the superintendent wouldn’t do this, but what if….

Monoeyed Hawk caught a weak signal that wasn’t directed to them, but was leaked out of the network from the transfer portal.

He attempted to contact the signal with their team’s passcode but was refused by the other party. His heart skipped a beat–it wasn’t one of them.

Normally, only a large-scale communication will have leaked signals, so it couldn’t possibly be that shady enemy fleet chasing them down. Monoeyed Hawk hesitated a little before he subconsciously entered another passcode–the abbreviation of the Independent Navy. The next moment, he successfully connected onto the long-distance signal.

Monoeyed Hawk’s heart raced. The signal was too weak, and after the chaotic hide-and-seek with the enemy fleet earlier, his mech’s signal amplifier already turned into space waste: “Which one of you guys still have a functioning signal amplifier?”

Number 8 immediately turned on its amplifier, the rest of the team held their breaths and listened to the choppy sounds that came out of the signal.

“They dispatched their troops?” Old Bay was in disbelief, “to…to save us? But how did they know…did the superintendent send our coordinates to them?”

Monoeyed Hawk interrupted him” “Even if they are here to save us, as long as the coordinates are sent out our enemies would still be the first to arrive, be careful!”

Everyone tensed up at this one sentence; however, this anxious atmosphere only lasted a short while until silence once again took over their surroundings without any trace of abnormal energy waves.

Soon after, someone spoke up from within the weak long-distance signal: “We’ve arrived at the target coordinates and caught abnormal energy sources; chase down the source immediately!”

The entire group stared at each other in confusion as Old Bay asked: “They said….captured what abnormal energy? Where’s the target coordinate? It can’t be our location, right?”

Someone else then added within the channel: “I heard that Superintendent Yu used to be a scouting soldier back then, he was in charge of editing military maps.”

The channel fell silent for a second, then mech number 1 suddenly sailed out.

“Where are you going, Monoeyed Hawk?”

Monoeyed Hawk didn’t respond. They didn’t have a heavy mech and couldn’t do a long-distance scan in their current location, so they had to rely on the old method of physically following the weak signal to find its source.

The rest of the mechs followed him out of the underground passage without a word.

The ambush fleet that forced William to self-destruct had their own spy within the galaxy and received the information before those weak forces of the Eighth Galaxy dispatched their troops, so they were already prepared to transfer before anyone arrived. Although the total number of backups that sailed out wasn’t a small number, the forces from the various planets and satellites were all small mechs and teams that didn’t pose much threat to the ambush fleet. The fleet easily disposed of two small teams on their way to escape without thinking much of their targets.

The commander on the heavy mech of the ambush fleet sneered: “Just a bunch of weak old dogs barking at us, kick them away.”

“Yes, sir!”

The ambush fleet fired out a wave of missiles towards the blocking team of small mechs. These small mechs sailed away and attempted to counterattack a few times with no avail.

Suddenly, a wave of particle cannon shot out of a nearby transfer portal and hit the heavy mech’s shield. The shield blocked off the low-energy attack as the commander of the ambush fleet heard someone report to him: “Sir, that’s the target mech from earlier!”

“Good, I’ve been worried about how to find them and now they decided to show themselves. The commander laughed, “go after them!”

At the same time, the backups from the Eighth Galaxy also saw the mech: “That looks like Monoeyed Hawk!”

The scattered backup forces immediately attempted to gather up but were still too slow; Monoeyed Hawk’s team charged forward like a bloodthirsty army of ants attempting to eat up a prey many times larger than them. The ambush fleet responded like a beast ready to swallow their enemies and chased down the small mechs as they covered their surroundings with layers of heavy mental networks. The backup troops frantically followed behind Monoeyed Hawk in fear of being left behind.

Mechs number 4 and 9 disconnected from Monoeyed Hawk’s channel and got swallowed up by the enemy’s ambush. Monoeyed Hawk fired his last particle cannon towards the enemies behind him, the human-mech sync rate once again fell below minimum requirement and was about to break off—

At that instant, the dark space was lit up by a blinding light that pierced through his mental network. Monoeyed Hawk stood in shock.

The next moment, the ambush fleet’s heavy mech turned unnaturally as its armory disconnected from the main body. Its mental network was hacked in for a full second.

As the armory floated away, a missile shot right through it and completely destroyed the formation of the ambush fleet.

A ghost-like armed fleet appeared out of a transfer portal without a word. Within the blink of an eye, the fleet stood in between the ambush fleet and Monoeyed Hawk’s team like a powerful guardian.

After 14 hours of travel from Qiming to the frontlines of the battlefield outside of the Eighth Galaxy—