He was welcome to leave, but the road ahead was hers to walk alone.
The aloof officer tossed Lin Xiaohe a paper map and turned to go. “Report to the 5th Division headquarters before the planet is completely dark.”
Lin Xiaohe’s eyes widened in disbelief. She grabbed his arm. “You’re making me go by myself? With this?!”
She waved the map in her hand. You’ve got to be kidding. We’re in the interstellar age! And you’re using paper maps?
The officer replied, “Satellites are prohibited in Miluo Star’s airspace. If you could connect to the Miluo Star Federation’s internal network, I could send you the coordinates.”
Miluo Star was a warzone, a chaotic mess, especially when it came to communications warfare.
Even the Federation’s ground forces on Miluo Star dared not transmit urgent military intelligence directly from the planet’s surface. They had to go to the space communications ships stationed in Miluo’s outer space to send messages.
Lin Xiaohe pleaded, “Could you see this through to the end and just take me to the 5th Division headquarters? Please?”
Miluo Star was so chaotic. What if she died before even achieving anything? How unfair would that be!
“No. My mission is to go to the 24th Division.”
Pointing at a group of people boarding a military transport vehicle not far away, Lin Xiaohe said indignantly, “Then how come they get to ride?”
The aloof officer glanced over and said flatly, “They are sophomore students from the Deep Space Command College.”
“But I’m a specially admitted student of the Federal Central Military Academy!”
“Not officially yet.”
This is discrimination!
No matter how much Lin Xiaohe argued, she couldn’t change the officer’s mind. All she got from him was an electronic regional map, which required hacking and joining the Federation’s local network to view.
Grumbling under her breath, Lin Xiaohe placed the white box she was carrying on the ground. Under the curious stares of the people around her, she pressed the mech key.
Click, clack.
A ladybug-shaped mech appeared before everyone.
Its shell was polished to a shine and coated in pink paint.
The protruding mouth part was the mech cockpit.
On its back shell, seven transparent pods were evenly distributed. Instead of weapons, each pod held a large barrel of purified water.
Six slender legs trembled as they supported its plump body, looking somewhat overburdened.
Silence hung in the air for a long moment until someone couldn’t hold back a snort of laughter.
Then, everyone burst into loud laughter. Even the corners of the aloof officer’s mouth twitched incessantly.
Lin Xiaohe looked at him accusingly. “What? Just tell me, is this a mech or not?!”
“Yes, yes, it is. Now get moving,” the officer said. After a thought, he added, within the limits of his privileges, an extra ten cases of nutrient fluid for Lin Xiaohe.
He was just feeling sorry for her. It definitely wasn’t because the pink ladybug mech was too ridiculous!
Among a host of cold, black-metal killing machines, the pink ladybug was quite the striking sight.
Several soldiers even asked on the comms network if a performance troupe was coming to the base for a morale-boosting show. Was pink ladybug mech performances popular in the Sixth Stellar Ring now?
Lin Xiaohe secretly grumbled, What do you all know? This is a seven-spotted ladybug, a beneficial insect, a perfect match for plants.
The two transparent pods closest to the cockpit were taken, one by Xinbao, the other snatched by Doudou.
Tiantian, being a generous older sister, chose the transparent pod on the left side of the back shell.
All three little ones loved their dedicated spots. But this made the pink ladybug mech look even more peculiar.
Lin Xiaohe didn’t care about any of that. Her primary task was to report to the 5th Division headquarters before dark.
With Xinbao around, hacking into the Alliance’s local network was a matter of minutes.
Lin Xiaohe finally didn’t have to worry about getting lost on an unfamiliar planet.
The pink ladybug chugged along. Inside a military transport vehicle ahead, someone noticed it.
Wan Tianming frowned disapprovingly. “Zhou Fei, what are you sticking your head out and looking at?”
Zhou Fei, startled, answered honestly, “That pink ladybug mech behind us.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Even though ground forces deploy beast-shaped mechs, they’re definitely not ladybugs! That obsolete relic would never appear on a battlefield!”
“Haha, everyone knows painting a mech black or silver is safest. Who would be foolish enough to paint it pink?”
Zhou Fei, unconvinced, tapped the window. “I’m not lying. Just turn around and look, you’ll see.”
Skeptical, everyone leaned out to look.
One look, and no one made a sound.
Calling it a mech? Yet it looked comical and rickety, moving at a snail’s pace, soon to vanish from sight.
Saying it wasn’t a mech? Anyone with eyes could tell it was modified based on a 2nd-generation ladybug mech chassis.
Zhou Fei tsked. “What ‘talent’ drives a second-gen mech onto a battlefield?”
Isn’t that like an old man hanging himself—looking for death?
Wan Tianming frowned. For a special admission assessment to be assigned to Miluo Star… the difficulty is excessive!
Could it be the Federal Central Military Academy has extremely high hopes for this special admit?
He stroked his chin. Interesting.
“Alright, enough gawking! The person in that pink mech is Lin Xiaohe, a special admit to the Federal Central Military Academy. You definitely can’t compare to her. Once we reach the 5th Division, be sensible and try to get on her good side.”
What?
They should curry favor with someone who hadn’t even passed the university entrance exam yet?!
Who did he think they were?
Zhou Fei protested indignantly, “Fine if we can’t beat those freaks from Central Military Academy, but saying we can’t beat Lin Xiaohe? I refuse to believe it! Did we spend two years at the Command College for nothing? Two years of physical training wasted?”
Other students chimed in: “Right! No matter how talented she is, she’s still an untested rookie. On the battlefield, she might need us to rescue her!”
“Professor Wan, you shouldn’t boost the enemy’s morale and diminish our own! With that dilapidated mech of hers, she’ll only be fit for logistical tasks.”
“Just wait and see. If my performance in actual combat is worse than hers, I’ll eat my own mech!”
Seeing the students fired up like they’d been injected with adrenaline, Wan Tianming suppressed the corners of his upturned lips.
…
After all, Little Bug was a second-generation mech. Its performance in every aspect lagged far behind the times.
By the time the Command College students had reported to the 5th Division, Lin Xiaohe still hadn’t reached the base.
When she finally arrived in the pitch dark, she was met by a superior officer whose face was darker than a black hole.
“Military Academy student Lin Xiaohe?”
Lin Xiaohe hurriedly climbed down from her mech. “That’s me.”
Daxi’s face grew even grimmer. “Before answering an officer, you must first say ‘report’.”
Lin Xiaohe: “Report. It’s me.”
Daxi took a deep breath, suppressing his anger. “Didn’t you learn how to salute?”
Salute?
Lin Xiaohe only knew one kind of military salute—from China.
Lin Xiaohe raised her right hand, thinking her salute was perfectly standard.
Clearly, Daxi didn’t think so.
Upon seeing Lin Xiaohe raise her right hand, he completely blew up. “Listen up! This is Miluo Star! Where countless soldiers are buried! I don’t know why command shoved someone here who doesn’t even know how to salute!”
“But I absolutely will not give you special treatment just because you’re a special admit. My black hole, look at that ridiculous mech of yours! Are you hoping the enemy will spare you because you look pink and cute?”
Lights flicked on in the base windows one by one. Many soldiers and officers watched the spectacle from behind them.
Lin Xiaohe’s face was expressionless. She was being put in her place.
