“Party Leader, I’m a little scared to go to the First Star Ring alone.” Wesley looked at Lin Xiaohe with pitiful eyes.
On the Ark’s public screens, the Federation’s official news was still playing.
[All Federation troops have set out! Next, let’s take a look at our interview.]
A reporter in Federation military uniform stood inside a warship: “Second Lieutenant, hello. Is there anything you’d like to say to our audience?”
Bastid was stopped in his tracks. His cool eyes shifted slightly: “No comment.”
The reporter was speechless.
See? He’d said this job wasn’t easy.
Cassius beside him burst out laughing, draping an arm over Bastid’s shoulder: “Haha, don’t be so serious.”
Then Cassius dropped the grin, his expression turning earnest: “I want to tell my sweetheart—I like you. I hope my mom and dad will take good care of you.”
The reporter was moved, eyes glistening with emotion: “What a touching love story. Second Lieutenant, I’m sure you’ll come back safe and be with your beloved.”
“Hahaha!”
The moment he said that, the surroundings erupted into thunderous laughter.
The reporter was baffled. What had he said wrong?
Li Hao couldn’t hold back a grin either. Seeing the reporter’s bewildered look, he took pity and explained: “His ‘sweetheart’ is a quack-quack duck he keeps. His parents can’t stand how much it eats and how horribly its poop stinks, so they absolutely refuse to live with him.”
The reporter looked sympathetic. Quack-quack ducks were adorable as ducklings—fluffy and great to pet. But the catch was, they reached adulthood in just one week!
A grown quack-quack duck was like a poop cannon—its droppings came out in explosive bursts and smelled absolutely atrocious. No amount of air freshener could fix it!
The reporter felt for those poor parents, but he was also a bit exasperated.
This wasn’t the kind of answer he wanted from soldiers heading into battle! Weren’t they supposed to be stirring and passionate, showing their fearless side?
Cassius’s interview answer opened the floodgates. Soldiers who had been avoiding the reporter like the plague now swarmed around him.
The virtual screen filled with young, vibrant faces.
They scrambled to get interviewed.
“Fourth! When I get back, if you still haven’t paid back the 500 star coins you owe me, you’ll taste my iron fist!”
“Mom! Dad’s secret stash is hidden in the storage compartment of the vacuum robot!”
The reporter was swallowed by a tide of nearly two-meter-tall young soldiers, flailing helplessly. He kept jumping up, just barely managing to show half his face in front of the camera: “Reporter Sui Feng, reporting from the [Indomitable]!”
The interview hadn’t gone according to script, but the results were surprisingly good. Watching the young officers so relaxed and casual eased the viewers’ anxiety.
If the people heading into battle weren’t afraid, then what did those hiding in the rear have to fear?
Lin Xiaohe watched the entire interview without blinking, only looking away when the official channel switched to a Federation government representative’s speech.
“Wesley, what did you say just now?”
Wesley swallowed his sigh and said casually: “I was hoping you’d come with me to the First Star Ring.”
“Oh. Okay.” Lin Xiaohe seemed to realize she’d agreed too quickly, and quickly covered: “You know, your mother Melina has been a great help to us.”
“Mm-hmm. You’re absolutely right!”
“Don’t read too much into it.”
Wesley tactfully replied, “Of course, our Star Harvest Party’s principle is to never abandon or give up. My mother is a prospective member of our party.”
“Right. Exactly.”
Lin Xiaohe told herself internally—she was mainly going to rescue Melina, and maybe check on a few old acquaintances while she was at it.
After all, when she’d been at her lowest, some people had still lent a helping hand.
There’s an old saying in Huaxia: a drop of kindness shall be repaid with a gushing spring.
She was just going to take a look. She definitely wasn’t going to meddle!
Lin Xiaohe left Xiao Shi in charge of the ocean planet, then took Wesley and twenty other Stardust Humans, riding Giant Whisperers toward the First Star Ring.
To save time, the Giant Whisperers glided along the edge of the Dark Domain, trying to avoid the Zerg in the Second Star Ring.
When they emerged from the Dark Domain, they happened to witness a battle erupting between the Federation and the Zerg at the junction of the First and Second Star Rings.
Deep space had become a grinding mill of flesh and steel.
The Federation’s First Star Ring 4th Division had their space warships arrayed in formation, like a metal Great Wall studded with cannons, silently unleashing torrents of destruction.
Their opponents were ten Void Devourer Battle Groups.
The Zerg had also deployed Octopus Battle Groups to support them.
These newborn octopuses had mutated. Their mental powers were linked into a matrix, allowing them to easily infiltrate the Federation military’s communication channels.
They sent out invisible ripples of psychic energy, and the Federation’s comms channels instantly went haywire.
The 4th Division was thrown into chaos, each unit fighting on its own.
The battleship [Indomitable], bearing the brunt of the assault, became the Zerg’s primary target.
Hundreds of Black Armor Beetles stepped across the stardust clouds and charged toward it.
The [Indomitable] didn’t panic. It activated its massive magnetic railguns.
With each volley, multi-ton tungsten projectiles were hurled at near-light speed, tearing brief vacuum corridors through the distant Zerg swarm.
Chitin fragments and fluorescent green blood instantly froze into crystalline clouds.
Yet the Zerg tide was endless.
The Second Star Ring had almost become the Zerg’s main stronghold.
One Void Devourer, enduring the bombardment of plasma torpedoes, led its Zerg battle group forward, closing the distance.
Its carapace was melted into a massive crater, and the corrosive bodily fluids spraying from it froze into sharp ice spears in the vacuum.
These ice spears would become weapons to hurl at the Federation fleet!
Nick was busy repairing the backup communicator, but the [Indomitable]’s warning lights kept flashing—more and more systems were being damaged.
“Report to the captain—shield breach detected!”
As if things weren’t bad enough, another Void Devourer bypassed the front and turned its firepower toward the destroyers on the fleet’s flank.
“Warning! Shield overloaded! Starboard side—brace for impact!”
Before the warning even finished, a frigate had been torn to shreds by the Void Devourer Battle Group. The metal hull twisted and snapped like paper, air and flames erupting outward in an instant.
The faces of everyone aboard the [Indomitable] turned cold as frost.
The Zerg were evolving too fast.
They had learned the art of human military command!
Zhou Fei’s pupils dilated violently. His lips trembled, his breathing rapid: “That… that was classic Otway deep-space battle tactics!”
Back in the day, the Federation had used that exact strategy to defeat an Imperial deep-space fleet!
The Zerg had learned it! How? Through the network? Or by eating humans?
The Zerg didn’t give them much time to think. A small squad of Black Armor Beetles crept onto the [Indomitable]’s shield.
The captain gave the order: “Mecha Special Operations Battalion—deploy!”
Bastid saluted: “Yes, sir!”
