Onboard the Third Star Ring Space Carrier, the politicians held a banquet to celebrate their narrow escape from death.
Melina found a corner and stared out at the view through the porthole.
Looking down, she could see that spinning red planet. The three ring-shaped space ports orbiting the Capital Star were slowly grinding to a halt.
When they completely stopped working, it would mean the ports were fully shut down.
“Director, the Star Ring Governor is here,” her secretary said, walking over to give her a quiet reminder.
But Melina asked instead, “I remember you’re from Tam Star in the Fourth Star Ring, right?”
A hint of surprise crossed the secretary’s face. He had no idea why she would ask that. “Yes, that’s right.”
“Are your family members all on Tam Star?”
“Yeah, they love the climate there.”
Melina said, “Then did you know that Tam Star’s companion planet has already been taken over by the Zerg?”
The secretary’s head snapped up, every hair on his body standing on end, and his voice rose without him meaning to. “How could that happen?! Didn’t the Federation say they had the wormhole area under control?!”
Melina sighed softly and said bitterly, “If letting the Zerg completely devour a planet and then abandoning it counts as ‘under control,’ then I guess it’s under control.”
The secretary’s knees gave way, and he crumpled to the floor.
Tam Star is incredibly close to its companion planet—extremely close!
If the companion planet had fallen, what about Tam Star itself?!
He grabbed hold of Melina’s pant leg, looked up at her, his eyes glimmering with fragile hope. “Director, the Zerg can’t fly through space, right? The Federation will definitely come up with a solution, won’t they?”
Melina’s face was hidden in the shadows, making her expression unreadable. “Whether there’s a solution or not, it all comes down to this.”
If the companion planet of Tam Star in the Fourth Star Ring could be so casually discarded…
Then what about the Capital Star in the Third Star Ring?
As it turned out, not even the Capital Star was safe from being abandoned.
The space carrier pulled away from the Capital Star’s orbital zone, and the Third Star Ring military took control of the Capital Star.
The military fleet hovered in the Capital Star’s orbit, the ships standing tall and silent like a forest of black tombstones.
Under the belly of the flagship, The Silencer, a ring-shaped accelerator unfolded. The superconducting coils hummed, making the vacuum vibrate.
The secretary watched this scene from a distance. “What is that?”
Melina: “A planet-class weapon. An antimatter cannon.”
The secretary twisted his head around in terror to look at Melina.
A planet-class weapon?!
“There are still so many people on the Capital Star! So, so many people!”
No more than twenty ships had managed to escape the Capital Star. And more than half of those were carrying Federation government employees and their families.
As the weapon finished charging, the antimatter cannon fired at the Capital Star.
A silent flash of light pierced through the atmosphere. The planet’s surface first collapsed into a black hole, skyscrapers curling inward like stalks of wheat being sucked down.
Then, blazing red cracks spread like a spiderweb. The oceans boiled away into steam, and entire continents were hurled into space.
The moment the neon lights went out, hundreds of millions of communication beams screamed to an abrupt halt, like sparks being snuffed out one by one.
The secretary just stood there, dumbfounded, staring at what had once been a vibrant, living planet. Now, only scattered debris remained, silently spinning in the vastness of space.
Those high-temperature explosions, the agonized wails of human beings experiencing death—all of it was filtered out by the vacuum of space. It was like a silent movie, utterly surreal.
In his smart device’s contact list, name after name after name had all gone dim. The list was so long he couldn’t scroll to the bottom.
“Director, I want to resign. I need to go home.”
Melina patted him on the shoulder and started walking away. “I’ll give you a chance. Think it over carefully.”
Melina walked through the crowd of dancing people and found the Star Ring Governor, who was also keeping to himself.
“Governor, we should release the research data from the Leviathan Project to the public.”
The Governor’s gaze was sharp as a falcon’s, cold and piercing, fixed intently on Melina’s every move.
He put down his drink and said in a low, deep voice, “Melina, the Leviathan Project is a secret you’re not cleared to know.”
“But I do know about it,” Lin Xiaohe had told her.
God only knew how shocked Melina had been when she learned what the project entailed.
Those lunatics in the Federation—when profits reached 100%, they dared to trample every law of humanity underfoot. When profits reached 300%, they’d even dare to sell the very rope used to hang themselves!
The Governor had a faint smile on his lips, like he was looking at his own mischievous child. “So you know. So what? You’re a mature politician. You know what you should and shouldn’t do.”
Melina met his gaze without an ounce of fear. “Does that include covering up the illegal experiments on Starlight Life?”
The Governor’s smile froze on his face.
He rubbed his forehead, torn between laughter and tears. “Where did you hear such a ridiculous rumor? Good girl, I know you’ve been through a lot, a near-death experience. It’s shaken you up. There, there. Have a drink, go back, get a good night’s sleep, and welcome a brand new, wonderful tomorrow.”
“So many people died because of a whim of yours. I can’t sleep.”
The Governor’s smile went completely cold. “That was a small sacrifice made to protect the Federation.”
“You haven’t even fought a single Black Beetle. During the military academy competition, Lin Xiaohe cleared the simulation. That proves the Zerg aren’t invincible!”
The Governor cut her off, his voice stern. “Enough! Melina, the way you’re acting, you’re making it very hard for me not to question your loyalties. The 8 billion credits in funding for the Star Harmony Party—that kind of thing doesn’t stay hidden.”
“Melina, Lin Xiaohe is strong. Sure, she can save one person, she can save a group of people, she can even save everyone on a single planet. But she cannot save the Federation. She cannot save all of humanity. Don’t pin your hopes on one hero. The will of the collective is the strongest force.”
Melina argued back silently in her heart. This hero is willing to save people, but this so-called strongest collective you speak of chose to blow up an entire planet just to avoid taking a risk!
She knew she couldn’t convince the Governor, so she turned and walked away.
“Melina, Starlight Life has very close ties with many members of our party. You understand that, don’t you?”
Melina waved a hand.
Of course she understood.
Every election was a battle of money. The people the party put forward were nothing but puppets for the behind-the-scenes capital.
Starlight Life was one of the biggest sources of capital in the Federation. They placed bets on both the Republican and Democratic parties. No matter who won the election, they always had a voice in politics.
After this conversation, Melina was put on ice. Officially, they said it was because of the war—schools across the Third Star Ring were suspending admissions, so her position as director of admissions was naturally useless.
In reality, Melina was excluded from every single meeting at every level from then on.
She simply took an extended leave and went back to her alma mater in the Second Star Ring. Her former classmates mostly held important positions throughout the star rings, so news traveled fast there.
Her advisor looked at his star pupil and felt a splitting headache coming on. “You’re getting more reckless the older you get. You weren’t even this impulsive when you were a freshman. What’s gotten into you? Are you under Lin Xiaohe’s spell or something?”
Melina shrugged and handed her advisor the gift she’d prepared. “Professor, can you tell me the real situation on the front lines?”
She didn’t believe a single word coming out of the Federation’s propaganda department!
