Author: 唇亡齿寒 / Lips Gone, Teeth Cold
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 75
“Alois! The enemy has deployed the second squadron!” Joanna’s command came through the speaker. “You retreat first. Go protect the others. I’ll hold them off!”
“Understood!” At this moment, arguing with the captain about who should stay or go was pointless. On the battlefield, a moment’s hesitation could lead to drastically different outcomes. He had to trust the captain’s judgment. The enemy in front of him was indeed troublesome, sticking like gum on the sole of a shoe, impossible to shake off. He regretted that Titia wasn’t here;. With her and her brothers’ exquisite skills, dealing with the Empire Army would be a breeze.
On the other side, Joanna shot down an enemy fighter, suddenly turning the tide. The Bard traced a beautiful silver-white trajectory through the blackness of space, like a comet dragging a brilliant tail across the sky, dazzling to the point of being blinding. She elegantly brushed past the Empire fighters, mocking the slow and dull men, who could only spend their lives chasing after her silhouette.
Laser beams fell like rain on the enemy fighter. Alois swiftly retreated, leaving the battlefield to Joanna. In an instant, the white Bard dominated, spinning the troublesome enemy around, who couldn’t even touch her.
“Get out of here!” Joanna ordered again. “Don’t let them catch up to the escape pods!”
“Yes, Captain!” Alois maneuvered the black fighter away from Joanna, reluctantly looking back at the silver craft. “Captain, if you can’t win, just surrender. The Empire Army treats its prisoners well.” He repeated what Joanna had once said to him.
“Bullshit! Is that something you should say! Watch your salary!” Joanna laughed and scolded, “Just boosting the enemy’s morale, undermining your own dignity! Could I possibly lose?”
Ah, of course not. Alois smiled to himself. What was he worried about? How could there be an opponent the captain couldn’t defeat? She was the undefeated myth of the galaxy.
Another fighter was shot down, and the squadron leader cursed through gritted teeth. The situation with the second squadron wasn’t looking good either; three out of five fighters were down, and another was severely damaged. The white Bard and the black Godot II were like reapers from hell, wielding sharp scythes, mercilessly reaping lives.
Fear enveloped the squadron leader like a thick soup. His hands trembled, barely able to grip the control stick.
“First squadron!” A dying cry came through the speaker. “Request to launch subsonic wave missiles!”
The squadron leader’s eyes widened. “That’s banned!”
Subsonic wave missiles, as the name suggested, used sound waves as weapons against enemies. Although the squadron leader’s fighter was equipped with them, they weren’t to be used lightly because subsonic wave missiles were considered “inhumane” and had long been explicitly banned by the Empire. Launching one would require a thirty-thousand-word report.
“Life is more important than a report!” the teammate insisted.
The squadron leader clenched his fist around the control stick. “Although it’s a bit despicable, tactics are just trickery after all…” he consoled himself and unlocked the system’s restrictions on the subsonic wave missiles.
Another enemy fighter was shot down, and Alois whistled. He turned to go back and support Joanna, but before he could locate the captain, a sharp alarm pierced through his ears.
“Subsonic wave missile?” Alois was dumbfounded. These rebels really dared to use subsonic wave missiles? In modern space warfare, ships would normally evacuate air to prevent subsonic waves from harming the crew. Only in fighter combat, because the pilot’s body must contact the craft, did the sound transmitted through solids cause more damage. During the first Galactic War, subsonic wave missiles were the most feared weapons, claiming countless pilots’ lives. When Emperor Nasir I ascended the throne, he listed them as prohibited, never to be used lightly.
Alois quickly activated the air pump, draining the air from the cockpit and isolation layer, but it was too late. He felt the cockpit violently shake, followed by his body trembling uncontrollably. It was as if something exploded inside him, his organs felt like they were being squeezed into a pulp by an invisible hand. He opened his mouth but could only cough up blood. The blood smeared on his helmet’s visor, blocking his view.
He struggled to see through the blood, barely noticing a white shadow flickering on the optical screen, like the first ray of dawn piercing the darkness, burning his eyesight. From that moment, and for many years to come as Alois approached the merciful embrace of the Lord, he would remember this scene—like the night he escaped from Hecate, a woman descended in a Gondola from the sky, her hair blazing like a tuft of flames—that dazzling white craft was like a ghostly apparition, a brilliant meteor streaking across the night sky, weaving incredible trajectories before his eyes.
The Bard danced among the stars, striking from unexpected directions, confounding the enemy. Joanna laughed gleefully as she pressed the missile launch button. It had been many years since she had fought a battle so exhilarating. Since becoming a captain, she rarely touched the controls of a fighter, almost forgetting the feel. Today’s formidable opponent brought back the thrill of her youth, when she roamed among star clusters at the age of nineteen, pirating every passing ship, returning laden with trophies amid showers of bullets. Unrestrained, free, supreme, crushing anyone who dared challenge her—this was the life she yearned for!
She hadn’t expected that after so many years, she would rediscover this familiar feeling. Perhaps it was the formidable enemy, or perhaps the desperate situation of fighting with her back against the wall, that brought Joanna the joy of battle she hadn’t felt in a long time.
She couldn’t help but silently thank the all-knowing, all-powerful Lord above for allowing her to live such a carefree life in her remaining years, to do everything she wanted to do, meet everyone she wanted to meet, more free and joyful than anyone because she lived according to her own desires, bowing to no one and nothing, thus without regrets or remorse.
“Is this really the life I wanted…?”
As if recognizing her true desires for the first time, touching that hidden craving deep within her soul, Joanna momentarily lifted the burdens from her shoulders. Not as the captain of the Lady of the Night, not as the leader of the pirate legion, but simply as Joanna Begrel, herself, fighting alone.
—And yet, never lonely.
She allowed the cabin to refill with air, then tore off her helmet. Blood from her lips splattered in the air, forming little red beads. Impatiently, she flicked away these droplets of blood and reengaged in the fight. Her insides ached, crying out to their master, but she ignored them. What was pain compared to the battle before her? It was utterly inconsequential!
The fighter that had launched the subsonic wave missile was now a pile of dust, annihilated by her retaliatory strike, leaving not even a trace of bone or ash. The only remaining enemy was the one who had tirelessly battled Alois. Joanna knew this was the most formidable of the foes. She licked her lips, tasting the salty blood, as sweet as the wine of victory for her in that moment.
The movements of operating the fighter were deeply ingrained in her, becoming instinctive, executed without thought. Then Joanna saw a vision. She wasn’t entirely sure if it was a vision. Although she knew she was still on the battlefield, yet other scenes appeared before her eyes. She had heard that at the moment of death, one’s life would flash before their eyes—was she about to die?
Lieutenant Leslie Faraday let out a scream he wasn’t even aware of. The laser beams from the Bard struck his craft, melting through the hull and scorching his skin, muscles, and bones through his spacesuit. He screamed and laughed triumphantly as his fighter lost control. The radar detector also melted in the intense heat, and he could no longer see the distribution of friend and foe, but it no longer mattered. He watched through the optical screen as the large troop formation behind him strangely parted, making way like a crowd for a king. Cleared behind the parted path was the fleet’s mothership, its main cannon charging with energy, causing the remaining alarms in the cockpit to wail madly. Lieutenant Leslie couldn’t distinguish between his own screams and the alarms. One of his eyes had melted; the other was painfully seared by the heat, yet he refused to close it. He saw the light stream from the mothership’s main cannon brush past him, engulfing the detestable, ghost-like silver-white craft.
Joanna Begrel, go to hell before me! Leslie thought nearly ecstatically. This is my victory!
The dazzling light stream finally claimed his last bit of vision. What followed was a sea of blood red, then an endless darkness.
Joanna was sure it was a hallucination.
She saw herself at fifteen, receiving her first fighter, dancing with joy, telling everyone she could, wishing all to share her elation.
She saw herself at twenty, obtaining a strange chip from a black market merchant, inserting it into a terminal, and a young man with purple hair in a long robe appeared from the hologram. She asked, “Who are you?” The young man replied with a deferential yet teasing demeanor, “My name is Leonard.”
She saw her former first officer come to her with a look of distress on his face. “Captain, my dog had puppies. We can’t keep them all. Do you want to take one home?” The officer’s puppies were squirming in a cushioned basket, their eyes not yet open. Seeing the dogs reminded her of a scientist who liked experimenting on dogs, prompting her spontaneous suggestion. “Let’s just call it Pavlov then.”
She saw herself standing under the black eagle banner of the Empire, with the Queen herself awarding her a medal. Behind her, people roared like a tsunami, singing her praises, worshiping her like a god.
She saw herself in the shipyards of Neo Athens, where a huge curtain pulled back to reveal a splendid black hull behind it. She still remembered the thrill of that moment, her heart surging like a young girl in love.
She saw herself setting foot on the barren lands of Milantu for the first time, the light of the red giant star stretched like a scar across the sky. She turned around; all her surviving companions stood behind her, quietly staring at her. She spread her arms wide and proclaimed, “From today, this is our home!”
She saw herself sitting in the captain’s chair on the bridge, her own throne from where she commanded her fleet on paths of glory.
She lowered her head and noticed on the radar that the green dots representing her side were reduced to just her, while all the enemy red dots had vanished. This indicated that Alois had successfully disengaged from the combat area and caught up with the escape pods.
And so, Joanna smiled again.
She had never feared death. Death was merely a door. She would pass through that door to another place, where she would reunite with her companions who had gone before her, gather her subordinates, and once more raise her crimson banner to conquer the worlds beyond.
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