Having successfully evacuated survivors from two planets in a row, Lin Xiaohé and her group once again became the center of attention for many.
Darcy glanced at the red figure ahead of the Ark, a tumult of emotions swirling in his chest.
Lin Xiaohé had transformed far too quickly—so fast it was almost unimaginable!
Wesley treated Darcy and his men with great respect; they were honorable, battle-hardened soldiers. “Darcy, which district would you like to go to? Should we arrange seating by your old Federation military units?”
Darcy snapped back to the present and corrected him. “We’re not Federation soldiers anymore. From the moment the Federation decided to abandon the Sixth Star Ring, we fight only for ourselves—and for the Star Grain Party!”
“Oh? Right, of course. Welcome aboard.”
Old Black led the medical team in treating the soldiers from Miluo Star.
They applied powerful hemostatic patches to their wounds.
The gruesome injuries closed up quickly, but the soldiers’ faces remained ghastly pale, each one weak and listless.
Old Black frowned. “Darcy, we need to run further tests on all of you.”
“Alright.”
The test results weren’t encouraging. Every single wounded soldier showed varying degrees of dark shadows within their bodies.
Old Black reported to Lin Xiaohé: “These shadows are very similar to the ones we found in your brother Lin Chiyang’s brain.”
Even after Lin Chiyang had become a Stardust Human, the shadows in his brain hadn’t been eliminated.
Old Black had once attempted a craniotomy on him but couldn’t find any physical trace of the shadow.
Fortunately, the shadow didn’t seem to be harming Lin Chiyang’s health.
Lin Xiaohé had quietly kept this matter in the back of her mind ever since.
“Old Black, could these shadows be connected to the Zerg?”
Before the Zerg appeared, Old Black had never seen a case like Lin Chiyang’s.
But as soon as the Zerg emerged, tens of thousands of similar cases surfaced.
It was hard not to connect the two.
Old Black’s eyes gleamed thoughtfully. “Hard to say for sure. We need to step up monitoring on these tens of thousands of people.”
“Agreed.”
Lin Xiaohé quickened their pace.
The Zerg were far too strange—far more complex than they appeared on the surface.
She needed to get the survivors back to the Black Domain’s Kyushu Star as soon as possible.
The Black Domain’s time dilation and material void were both a cage and a form of protection for them.
The Great Sound Whales, sensing Lin Xiaohé’s will, began to beat their tails faster.
Their songs stirred gravitational ripples, sending iridescent waves shimmering through the void, gently propelling the Ark forward.
Inside the Ark, a soft feminine voice chimed in reminder: “Please remain seated. We are about to enter a warp bubble for ultra-long-distance travel.”
Warp bubble?! Wasn’t that supposed to be purely theoretical?
And Lin Xiaohé actually had this technology? How insanely impressive!
The survivors all stayed put in their designated seats, chattering excitedly among themselves.
What exactly had Lin Xiaohé experienced during those six months or so in the Black Domain?! How had both their technology and their very bodies undergone such earth-shattering changes?
Outside the Ark, the gravitational ripples enveloped the entire vessel. Just a second before the field closed completely, the Ark received a distress signal from Volkus Star.
Volkus Star and Miluo Star were separated by a gauntlet of [Void Devourer] warships.
One lay at the far eastern edge of the galaxy, the other at the western extreme.
Volkus Star was closer to the Fifth Star Ring.
To be honest, fighting their way through to rescue them would be quite an ordeal.
“The potential risks of mounting a rescue are too high. We should focus on protecting the survivors we already have.”
“Exactly. Volkus Star is so close to the Fifth Star Ring—surely the Federation won’t just stand by and do nothing, right?”
Opinions were divided on whether to rescue Volkus Star.
——-
On Volkus Star, the survivors had gathered together, holding their ground at the planet’s signal transmission tower base.
“Lao Wu, did you send out the distress signal?”
“I sent it! I really did!” A bearded man with bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at the control console.
The men and women surrounding him started arguing again.
“We’re closest to the Federation—we should be sending everything to them. But what if the Federation thinks we’re turncoats and refuses to help?”
“Give it a rest! If the Federation wanted to save us, they’d have sent someone by now. No one’s come yet—what are you still counting on them for?!”
“If we can’t count on the Federation, then what—are we supposed to count on Lin Xiaohé?! Don’t you know she’s got a grudge against the Federation? She’s probably laughing at our misfortune right now.”
The man who said this was shoved sideways by a woman beside him.
She glared at him furiously. “Is there something wrong with your brain? You just spout nonsense out of thin air! Which eye of yours saw Lin Xiaohé gloating? If Wasteland Planet Number 7 and Miluo Star weren’t saved by Lin Xiaohé, were they saved by the Federation you keep talking about?!”
The man picked himself up, grumbling, “Women are just narrow-minded. Wasteland Planet is her homeworld, of course she’d save it. What does Volkus Star have to do with her? You keep fawning over her, but do you really think she’d care about us?”
“I’ll fawn if I want to! I’ve got eyes that work! The only one doing any rescuing in the entire Sixth Star Ring is Lin Xiaohé!”
The two factions were locked in a heated argument—and the Federation military, having also received Volkus Star’s distress signal, was no different.
The Sixth Star Ring Military District Commander strongly urged for a rescue mission: “We’re very close to Volkus Star. It would only take a day or two to pull them out.”
But the proposal was shot down by the Federation’s First-Level Parliament.
Under Federation law, during wartime, everything must serve the military—but to prevent the military from gaining too much power, the Federation Government and Parliament held oversight and veto authority.
The First-Level Parliament invoked Chu Huaizhi’s orders: “Your primary mission is to assist the Fifth Star Ring in building its defensive line, buying the Federation time for war preparation. Every minute you delay, every unit of force you divert, could tip the balance of the entire war. Can you bear that responsibility?”
No, they couldn’t.
The Sixth Star Ring Commander tried to report to Marshal Chu but failed.
“Marshal Chu is busy fortifying the First Star Ring’s defenses and inspecting the Sacred Gate. He has no time to spare.”
Damn it!
The soldiers of the Sixth Star Ring felt as though their hearts were being deep-fried in oil—suppressed emotions forced into a barrel, festering and fermenting.
The Mantis Battle Group Commander tried to soothe them over the comms: “Volkus Star broadcast its distress signal to the entire universe. Besides us, maybe someone else will come to their rescue.”
To this, the soldiers held no hope: “What armed forces are even left in the Sixth Star Ring? And even if there were, how could they possibly stand against the Void Devourers?”
The situation was deteriorating rapidly.
Aside from the Void Devourers, several Octopus Battle Groups were advancing toward the Fifth Star Ring’s defensive line.
The soldiers barely had time to grieve before they were thrown back into the frantic work of fortifying the defenses.
The Mantis Battle Group Commander stationed his fleet at Firecloud Star to resupply.
Watching the Octopus Battle Groups closing in on Volkus Star, he let out a long sigh. “It’s just fate.”
Volkus Star was unlucky—if only it had been located just three thousand miles closer to the Fifth Star Ring, it would have been included within its defense perimeter.
The logistics officer on Firecloud Star gave a bitter smile. “We’re not exactly lucky either. Who told us not to be born in the First Star Ring?”
The First Star Ring had the strongest defenses in the entire Federation.
“Ah, comparing yourself to others just makes you angry. Do you think Volkus Star can hold out for even a day?”
“Probably not. This is the Octopus Battle Group—the Federation rates them as a greater threat than the Void Devourers!”
