Author: 唇亡齿寒 / Lips Gone, Teeth Cold
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 123
“The fleet has exited warp. We are 2.5 light-years away from the planet Sword Bow C. Radar is beginning target monitoring. Monitoring successful. Data is being sent.”
The cold female voice guided Commadore Ors Spencer’s gaze toward the screen, where densely packed red dots indicated the presence of enemies. The number was slightly higher than expected, but it didn’t hinder his plan to annihilate the enemy forces.
“Are the three planets of Sword Bow still resisting?” Commadore Spencer asked.
“Yes,” the cold female voice responded. “Sword Bow B has already been captured, but Sword Bow C and Sword Bow A are still resisting.”
“Attack and assist the planetary defense forces in repelling the enemy!”
Following Spencer’s orders, the fleet changed formation and moved toward the Empire Royal Army surrounding the three planets of Sword Bow. According to the radar monitoring map, the enemy forces attacking Sword Bow A were the most numerous, which was expected since it was the capital of the star system. On the other hand, there were far fewer ships attacking Sword Bow C. Sword Bow C was located on the outskirts of the system, sparsely populated, and had little strategic value. If Spencer were in charge, he would also prioritize capturing the capital first.
His fleet surged into the beleaguered agricultural star system like a tidal wave. The ships besieging Sword Bow C immediately fled, almost collapsing entirely. The small fleet scattered and ran, with some merging into the main fleet, while others joined the fleet surrounding Sword Bow B.
The planetary defense forces of Sword Bow C sent a brief message of thanks. Commadore Spencer proudly said, “Reply to them: Don’t mention it. As colleagues, it’s just a small effort! Right now, we must work together to defeat Darius Bayes!”
Under his bold and enthusiastic orders, the fleet advanced deeper into the star system. The enemy forces around Sword Bow B also began to retreat, merging with the main fleet at the rear. The formation took the shape of a U, or rather, like two arms encircling Spencer’s fleet.
“What is Darius Bayes up to?” Spencer wondered. “Why is he retreating without any resistance?”
His question was answered by the sudden blaring of alarms on the bridge.
“Under attack, under attack,” the cold female voice announced calmly amidst the chaos, as it was merely a machine. “Sword Bow C has launched an attack. I repeat, Sword Bow C is attacking our forces.”
The fleet found itself caught in a situation of being attacked from both front and rear! “What!” Spencer was shocked. “Isn’t the Sword Bow system on our side? What the hell is going on?”
Three hours earlier.
Joshua Planck sat in the co-pilot seat of an armed mecha, mentally reviewing the plan laid out by Darius Bayes. According to the plan, they would land on Sword Bow A aboard the Almaty, with the entire fleet providing full support. The Almaty would break through the planetary army’s barrage and enter the atmosphere, crossing half the equator to reach the capital city before dropping all the armed mechas like bombs. The mechas had excellent shock-absorption capabilities, so those inside would only feel numb all over from the impact, but wouldn’t be harmed (those outside, however, might not be so lucky—these things could create an 800-meter-wide crater, and could be used as missiles if necessary). After landing, these airborne mechas would transform into warriors with a critical mission: capturing the capital of Sword Bow A.
“If I see a bunch of ground-to-space forces waiting for us when we land, I swear I’ll shove Darius Bayes’s head into a toilet when we get back,” Joshua silently vowed as he lit a cigarette.
His piloting skills for the armed mecha were limited (to be precise, he couldn’t pilot at all), so his superiors assigned him a pilot, the young man who had been trembling in fear on the spaceship earlier. His name was Tyler. The young man was still trembling, and if he operated in this state, the armed mecha would probably look like a clown with springs on its feet.
Joshua tucked the lighter back into the cigarette case and handed it to Tyler behind him. “Want one?”
The young man cautiously glanced at the brand, Soft South Star. “Is this… really not marijuana, sir?”
“Have you ever seen marijuana that looks like this?”
The young man hesitated before accepting the cigarette case, taking out a cigarette and putting it in his mouth. It took him several tries to light it. “It really isn’t,” he muttered.
He didn’t understand why the imposing assassin known as the Mourner would smoke something like this. Soft South Star had a very mild flavor, a cigarette that women tended to prefer.
“When the time comes, you focus on running, and I’ll handle eliminating the enemies.” Joshua brought up the shooting panel, and instantly, the surrounding hatches opened, revealing the stored shooting assistance equipment, from simulated firearms to various types of sights, all ready to use. Joshua selected two long-range and two short-range guns, along with his preferred sights. The gunner and the pilot sat back-to-back, coordinating without interfering with each other. Typically, the second seat wasn’t used, as the pilot could also serve as the gunner, but this time was different. The order Darius Bayes gave to Joshua was simple: “Kill the governor or force him to surrender.”
For a sparsely populated, mechanically dependent agricultural planet like Sword Bow A, the governor held considerable power, controlling all military and political authority on the planet. Capturing the governor was equivalent to capturing the entire planet. Darius’s judgment was correct, but carrying out the mission wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
“We’re starting to decelerate.” Joshua noticed the speed indicator on the ship’s main speedometer rapidly decreasing. The Almaty had to reduce its vertical speed to zero when it was 300 meters from the ground. Otherwise, the combined effects of deceleration and gravity would turn each mecha into a meteor crashing into the ground. That wouldn’t be fun at all.
“Sir, are we really going to land successfully?” Tyler asked in a low voice.
“Open the spherical screen.”
The young man followed the instruction and opened the spherical screen, instantly transforming their confined cockpit into an expansive sky. The cockpit was a sphere, with projection material on its surface displaying the scenery around them—of course, the images were captured by external cameras and processed before being shown.
They were falling from the sky, with the Almaty carrying two hundred armed mechas as it plunged into the atmosphere. The friction caused the surface of the ship to heat up rapidly, and the surrounding air expanded, refracting the light into a mirage-like scene, reminiscent of the shimmering heatwaves in a desert under a scorching sun.
Joshua pointed slightly upward. “See that?”
Out of the corner of his eye, Tyler caught a bright green light, or rather, a bright green flame. It looked like an indestructible sword, tearing through the sky with scorching air currents.
“That… That’s…” As the green light approached, Tyler realized it wasn’t a sword but a formation of aircraft emitting green particles. They circled around the Almaty like terns following a ship’s white sails across the ocean, meticulously and orderly, as if controlled by a precise program. Tyler recognized the silver craft leading the formation. Anyone who enjoyed reading military magazines knew the name of that craft, which had been extensively covered in articles praising it as a ghost traversing time and space, a white bird soaring between the stars, and a graceful lady dancing on the battlefield. Admiral Bayes had bought one out of his own pocket, naming it after his mother, the Marchioness Madonna, in hopes of bringing good luck to his fleet.
And now, there it was. “He’ll protect us,” Joshua said.
Tyler crossed himself, silently reciting the names of the Lord, Her Majesty the Queen, Her Highness the Princess, Admiral Bayes, and his mother, grateful to these great figures for protecting someone as insignificant as himself.
What he didn’t see was that behind him, his commanding officer clenched his fist in frustration.
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