Author: 唇亡齿寒 / Lips Gone, Teeth Cold
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 121
While Alois was warmly welcomed by his juniors, Joshua Planck was being “neglected.”
Joshua sat in a corner of the cabin silently, his arms crossed. Due to the needs of the landing operation, every cabin was packed with people; the captain wished he could turn all his subordinates into sardines. However, the cabin Joshua was in was clearly different. The evidence was that there wasn’t a single person within a three-meter radius around him, as if under a microscope observing penicillin placed in a petri dish—nothing was around it but the culture medium.
The crowd squeezed into the other end of the cabin, desperately keeping their distance from him while simultaneously casting mixed looks of fear and awe at him. Yet, whenever the assassin looked up and glanced back at them, people would immediately lower their heads, focusing intently on their crotches.
Joshua was feeling extremely awkward.
That bastard Darius Bayes had definitely put him here on purpose, nominally to command a regiment’s forces for the landing operation, but in reality, just to irritate him.
The soldiers here all feared Joshua. No one hadn’t heard of the terrifying legends about the assassin known as the Mourner. Those exaggerated rumors portrayed him as a cold-blooded and bloodthirsty God of Death (which was pretty much true), killing friend and foe alike as he pleased (which was nonsense), and the last time he was injured, he managed to escape from the heavily armed Sword of the Queen (he himself never wanted to recall that mess). What kind of monstrous power was that? And the assassin’s eyes, known as the “Abyssal Flame”, added a layer of eerie mystique to the rumors. Some even claimed that just a glance from Joshua could cause someone to faint. It wouldn’t be surprising if, soon enough, the legend would include, “He can kill with just a look.”
My eyes aren’t some kind of destructive death ray! Joshua thought bitterly. He glanced at the trembling crowd and punched the wall hard. “What are you huddling over there for? Get over here!”
The crowd didn’t move forward but instead retreated further. The population density at the other end of the cabin increased again.
“Come over and sit down!” Joshua raised his voice. “Are you planning to huddle up like this during battle, get packed together, and then get wiped out by a missile?”
This had some effect. A few of those at the outermost edge of the crowd were pushed forward by those behind them, reluctantly sitting down on a bench still at some distance from Joshua. Joshua coldly glanced at the one sitting closest to him, who shuddered as if having a seizure, trying to move back but was firmly held in place by the person next to him, who was using him as a human shield.
“What are you shaking for, Sergeant?” Joshua asked coldly.
“R…Reporting, sir… I… I have a habit of spasms…” The sergeant’s nose was covered in beads of sweat.
“Can you stop shaking? It’s making me dizzy.”
As soon as he said this, everyone gave a little shake. Joshua initially thought these guys were protesting against him with their actions, but after a moment, he realized it wasn’t the people shaking but the ship itself.
They hadn’t even entered the planet’s atmosphere yet, so they couldn’t have encountered high-altitude turbulence. It was also unlikely that a small drifting object in space had hit the ship. The transport ship had anti-vibration systems unless that “small” object was as big as an armed mecha. The only possibility was that they were under attack.
Joshua glanced again at the trembling sergeant—now everyone was trembling along with the ship—and said as nonchalantly as possible, “Calm down. It’s just war.”
“Reporting! Our fleet is under fire from the Sword Bow military satellite!”
“Defensive barriers deployed!”
“Change formation! Attack in a U-shape!”
The bridge was noisy, with various reports, commands, and chaotic footsteps hitting Darius Bayes like a hail of bullets. Although sitting in the command seat, the challenges he faced were no less than those of the warriors at the front.
“Deploy the flight squadron!” Darius ordered. “Cover the Almaty! The Scarlett and Jenny, disperse the enemy’s fire! Head straight for the Sword Bow capital!”
This order immediately turned into a stream of light racing through the cosmos, reaching each ship.
“Sword of the Queen, Madonna, Alois Lagrange, deploy!”
Alois pushed the control stick all the way forward, and the Bard was catapulted into space by the massive thrust from the launch pad behind him.
Simulated gravity disappeared from around him, and the sudden weightlessness and acceleration caused a brief moment of dizziness, but Alois quickly recovered, taking no more than 1.5 seconds. The battle had already begun, and the flickering optical screen told him how fierce the attack ahead was. Behind him, one fighter after another was launched from the Sword of the Queen’s launch slots, drawing arcs to follow him.
“All squadrons form a V-shaped formation!” Alois commanded. The Sword of the Queen didn’t have an AI as intelligent as Leo, so it couldn’t help them pre-plan their formations and routes. Alois had to rely on himself to organize the formation, make the plans, and issue the orders. “First squadron, follow me; second, third, and fourth squadrons, form a wedge formation centered on the first squad!”
“Yes!” Twenty-six voices responded in unison.
The governor stared at the real-time battle map sent by the satellite, his eyes wide. Every time the screen was obscured by the flash of an explosion, he would tremble slightly, making the chief of staff think there was an earthquake several times.
The Sword Bow military satellite’s positron cannon continuously fired at the enemy fleet. Even a slight graze could cause severe damage to a fully armed battleship. Fearing the satellite cannon’s power, the enemy fleet had been hovering at the edge of the firing range, which slightly reassured the governor.
“Your Excellency, it seems they want to enter the planet’s atmosphere,” the chief of staff said. “Sword Bow B and Sword Bow C are also under siege.”
“I’m not afraid of a siege,” the governor said impatiently, tapping his desk. “I’m just afraid the battle will drag on too long, cutting off the Sword Bow system’s supply lines. If they really want to do that, they’ll surely bomb our farms and food processing plants. Divert the ground-to-space forces to protect the agricultural and industrial areas.”
“But… what about the cities?” The chief of staff couldn’t help but feel a bit apprehensive.
“They wouldn’t dare bomb the cities. We’re civilized, modern people, not living on Old Earth. Involving civilians in warfare is not the way of soldiers. Isn’t Darius Bayes supposed to be the soldier among soldiers? He wouldn’t dare do such a thing.”
With that, the governor confidently nodded. The chief of staff had no choice but to pass on the order as instructed.
The governor’s confidence didn’t last long. The stalemate on the screen was completely broken when a green light shot out from the enemy fleet!
“Wha…what is that!” The governor jumped up.
The green light was like a deadly arrow shot by a god, piercing through the layers of fire, leaving a trail of smoke, heading straight for the military satellite! When the camera zoomed in, the governor saw that it wasn’t an arrow engulfed in green flames but a wedge-shaped flight formation! Leading the formation was a silver-white fighter, gleaming coldly like the sharpest tip of an arrow.
<<< || Table of Contents || >>>
Kinky Translations 