Time seemed to freeze.
On one side stood an impenetrable fortress of steel behemoths; on the other, the Hummingbird, hanging alone in the vastness of space.
The cold standoff reached its peak in utter silence, each heartbeat counting down like a ticking clock toward destruction.
Within the steel fortress, a massive communications ship broadcast this scene across the Starnet, straight into the livestream.
This was the most severe challenge to the federal government’s authority in nearly a century.
Neither the Federal Government nor the Security Bureau would allow Lin Xiaohe to leave the Federation alive and defect to the Empire.
Members of the Star Grain Party were burning with anxiety. In this moment, they felt utterly insignificant, like mayflies in the vast world, powerless to sway the clear breeze or the bright moon.
Wesley clasped his hands together over the Star Grain Party badge on his chest and prayed silently, “Party Leader, you are our faith, our unyielding star. You will surely create another miracle!”
At the Sixth Star Ring, the Star Ring Governor authorized a special fund to redirect the livestream onto the local network, allowing more Sixth Ring citizens to watch.
Unlike the citizens of the First Star Ring, who watched with a spectator’s curiosity, the feelings of the Sixth Ring citizens were deeply conflicted.
They were citizens of the Federation and should stand with it. But Lin Xiaohe was a child of the Sixth Ring, their pride, the Insect God revered as an idol by countless young people!
Photos of her piloting the pink beetle mecha still flashed frequently on the 3D screens of countless towering buildings.
Her fan forums were ablaze with unrelenting activity.
Countless people wanted to join the Star Grain Party she had founded, hoping it could, just like Lin Xiaohe, shatter the injustices of the federal system and carve out a bright, clear sky!
The Federation officially condemned Lin Xiaohe with fierce denunciations, but the citizens of the Sixth Star Ring simply could not do the same.
Lin Xiaohe was their hope.
Seeing the Hummingbird stand alone, facing down a sky full of Federation warships, they seemed to see themselves—as insignificant as ants within the Federation.
Their silence was their resistance to the federal government.
In the livestream, the commander of the Federation Space Fleet issued a final ultimatum: “In ten seconds, we will annihilate the traitor Lin Xiaohe and the Hummingbird!”
Ten, nine…
The main cannon arrays on the bellies of the battlecruisers slowly completed their final calibration, their muzzles gathering energy cores so bright they seared the eyes, making the Hummingbird’s pale yellow shield look like a candle flickering in the wind.
The missile bay hatches along the cruisers’ sides were fully open, revealing a dense cluster of missiles, poised and ready to strike.
Time seemed stretched to its absolute limit, the taut bowstring about to snap.
“Main cannons fully charged!” a Federation soldier reported coldly.
Inside the Hummingbird, Thunder Brother rubbed his hair, threw an arm around Black Brother’s shoulder, and waved at Lin Xiaohe. “You guys go ahead. Blackie and I will clear the path for you.”
Lin Chiyang picked up Cassius’s mecha hub and stepped forward. “Count me in.”
Thunder Brother glared at him. “What can you do? You’re not a mecha pilot, are you?”
A layer of frost seemed to form on Lin Chiyang’s handsome face. “I’m not. But I can be cannon fodder, a shield to cover your backs.”
Taking even one extra hit for the Hummingbird would give their family a tiny sliver more chance of survival.
Black Brother said in a deep, heavy voice, “Get back. This is adult business. What are you kids messing around for?”
Lin Xiaohe stood up, pushed the three of them aside, and walked to the hatch. “All of you, get back inside. When we go out, just follow behind me. I’ll open the path.”
With that, she opened the hatch and entered the decompression chamber.
Thunder Brother was utterly exasperated. What time was this for Lin Xiaohe to be acting all tough? What did she mean, “follow behind me”? Could a mecha possibly be faster than an assault ship?
Then, as if suddenly realizing something, Black Brother’s eyes went wide.
He banged frantically on the chamber door. “Xiaohe, where’s your mecha? Did you even bring a mecha?!”
Oh, black hole, swallow me whole!!
If he remembered correctly, Xiaohe didn’t have a mecha on her at all.
Just as his words fell, they saw Lin Xiaohe leap out of the Hummingbird.
【Holy crap! Someone snap me out of it, did I just see Lin Xiaohe appear directly in the vacuum without any protective suit?!】
【You’re not seeing things, because I saw it too! Was Lin Xiaohe abandoned by her own family?】
【Is she coming out to surrender? But you don’t have to sacrifice your life to surrender!】
The viewers in the livestream were completely dumbfounded by Lin Xiaohe’s sudden appearance.
Even the commanders on the Federation’s space command ship were baffled. What on earth was Lin Xiaohe trying to do?
A human, exposed to the vacuum of space with no space mecha and no space protective suit.
Did she have a death wish?
Under the gaze of millions, a layer of fiery red, flowing liquid emerged from the back of Lin Xiaohe’s head.
This liquid mass seemed alive, wrapping around her head, body, and limbs at an incredible speed.
In the blink of an eye, Lin Xiaohe had completely transformed.
In the pitch-black universe, the crimson battle armor covering her body blazed with a flame-like glow. Green lines traced along the armor’s limbs, like mysterious summoning arrays, seamlessly merging with the armor itself.
Upon closer inspection, every part of the armor was exquisitely detailed. A red light, full of vitality, flowed across its surface. Its lines were incredibly smooth, perfectly contouring Lin Xiaohe’s muscles, with not a single seam or joint to be found.
She floated silently in space, like an art piece of war descended from the primordial chaos of the universe, every strand of her being radiating lethal intent.
Lin Xiaohe was the battle armor, and the battle armor was Lin Xiaohe!
Lin Xiaohe spread her arms wide, and two pitch-black whips, so dark they seemed to absorb all light, materialized directly in her hands as if born from the universe itself.
On the Federation’s space command ship, the communication lights flashed urgently, voicing the question on everyone’s mind.
“Lin Xiaohe, what are you trying to do?”
Lin Xiaohe was completely encased in her battle armor.
It was clearly a vacuum, where sound cannot travel, yet Lin Xiaohe’s reply materialized directly in the minds of the Federation soldiers and echoed as audio within the livestream.
She said: “Those who block my path… die!”
She flicked both whips gently. The red light tracing through her armor pulsed in response, its glow flowing like liquid mercury across the surface, radiating a coercive power that surpassed all earthly forces.
The commander of the Federation Space Fleet felt his scalp prickle intensely. His sixth sense, honed on countless battlefields, was screaming a warning: Danger! Extreme danger!
The commander swallowed hard, his eyes filled with steely resolve.
He slammed his hand down on the button, his roar echoing through the entire comm channel: “All ships, prepare to fire! Lock onto the target! Open fire!”
The command was like a spark in a powder keg.
In an instant, the encirclement erupted into a destructive frenzy. Massive energy beams tore through the void, weaving a deadly net.
Dense clusters of missiles, like a swarm of angry hornets, hurtled toward the Hummingbird.
The Hummingbird’s engine let out a shrieking death cry, its dangerously flickering blue exhaust almost swallowing the light.
Thunder Brother and Black Brother sat at the pilot’s stations, their eyes locked onto the tiny blue dot on the screen.
Lin Xiaohe had told them to follow her closely!
Even if the path ahead was a raging storm of cannon fire, they would follow her closely!
