Chapter 124: Report, someone is faking a fall!
In space, a formation consisting of 24 space fighters and a large transport plane was heading towards the small system formed by Li Star and its two satellites.
It was a mighty procession.
“Deceleration braking complete, orbital maneuver complete,” a Soldier came into the transport plane’s command cabin and reported to the flight squadron leader, “Estimated landing at the Lunar Mining Facility in 40 minutes!”
“Excellent!”
Apollo’s transport plane was purchased from New Hope’s most powerful military industrial enterprise, with the front cockpit area equivalent to an independent four-story building.
The squadron leader, in the top-level cockpit, looked at the moon outside the transparent metal window, rose with satisfaction, and moved from the spacious command position to the living area on the floor below.
The cabin was filled with smoke, and the pilots were gathered together playing cards. On each card table, holographic images of star alliance credit points, used as stakes, shimmered, projected from smart wristbands that had been taken off.
As the force guarding the entrance to the star system, they were Apollo’s true elite Soldiers and strong generals, enjoying high treatment. Both their weaponry and personal gear were a cut above other employees.
“Thump, thump, thump!”
The squadron leader knocked on the wall.
“Alright, stop playing. We’ve begun gliding, prepare for battle!”
To minimize fatigue during long journeys, space fleets on long-distance raids would be accompanied by at least one auxiliary supply vessel. Pilots would live inside it, with their fighters following on autopilot.
In this mission, the transport plane, in addition to serving as an auxiliary vessel, also carried an additional 30 power-armored Soldiers for ground combat.
These individuals didn’t fare as well, spending the entire journey in the smelly cargo hold.
“Let’s go! Count your money, we’ll continue when we get back!”
The pilots extinguished their cigarettes, stacked their cards neatly, opened the cabin door, and, through skilled spacewalking, entered their respective cockpits, scattering into tactical formations.
The fleet quickly approached the moon without encountering any interception; the surroundings were very quiet.
“Squadron Leader, we haven’t detected any radar emissions, only some communication signals overflowing.”
Upon hearing the report, the squadron leader knew that Minister Omar’s intelligence was accurate: the occupied Lunar Mining Facility’s defenses were weak.
But he dared not underestimate the enemy.
Because too many strange things had happened recently: first, the Li Star bandits withstood nuclear missile bombardment, and then they even teamed up with internal traitors to occupy the moon…
It was simply unbelievable!
None of Apollo’s three ministers were incompetent, so it seemed the enemy indeed had some… and it wasn’t impossible for one or two indigenous military geniuses to occasionally emerge on a planet.
“Launch missiles, destroy the communication antenna!”
“But those are our own facilities—”
“Do as I say!”
Four smart missiles were launched, trailing long plumes of exhaust, accurately hitting the mining facility’s communication tower and blowing it in half.
“Prepare for landing!”
The massive fleet landed near the mining facility. The transport plane’s hatch opened, and 30 power-armored Soldiers bounded forward in the low-gravity environment, encountering no resistance as they stormed into the mining facility’s interior.
“Enemy sighted! Seventeen of them!”
They saw the defenders left behind, wearing some kind of military exoskeleton and holding automatic rifles that Apollo had once sold in large quantities to Li Star.
“They think these scraps of equipment can stop us!?”
“Fire!”
Four daredevil players wearing Barbarian exoskeletons put up a fight, but the equipment gap was too large, and they were all killed within a minute.
It’s fine, this is part of the plan.
“Insolent fools, making us travel so far!” The squadron leader kicked a player’s corpse. “Continue advancing!”
The group then stormed into the main control room.
“We surrender, surrender!”
Ye Xing, Black Smoke, and Jubian, who had been left behind to guard, immediately raised their hands as soon as they saw the large group rush in.
“Don’t kill us! We’re useful. Kill us, and you can forget about getting the treasure!”
Ye Xing shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Stop!” The squadron leader gestured, ordering his subordinates to hold their fire for now.
“What treasure?”
“Sir, let me explain in detail—”
The squadron leader didn’t wait for Ye Xing to finish, walked over, and delivered a front kick that sent him, unarmored, flying several meters.
“If you want to live, stop with the damned nonsense!”
Fine!
I’ll remember that kick!
As a player, Ye Xing couldn’t feel pain, but the humiliation wasn’t so easy to shake off.
He feigned agony, rolling on the ground, then lay on his side, gasping for breath.
“Speak quickly!”
The squadron leader grabbed Ye Xing’s collar and lifted him up.
“I—we are all valuable technicians in the warband, we have a way to let you—earn more money!”
The squadron leader was extremely disdainful.
“Why do you have the misconception that Apollo is interested in your wealth?”
“This venerable sir,” Black Smoke stepped forward cautiously, “we can lead you to the valuable relics we excavated earlier. Just spare our lives, and everything can be discussed—”
The squadron leader looked at him, narrowing his eyes.
“Do you take me for a three-year-old?!”
“No!” Black Smoke said, trembling with fear, “Your leader was deceived by us earlier. Actually, we don’t have any space fighters at all. Our chieftain was just taking a huge gamble, trying to bluff his way to a big win! I told him I didn’t agree with his plan long ago. Let me go talk to him again; maybe I can make him realize his madness and give up defending!”
“Are you still dreaming at a time like this?!”
Ye Xing began to compete with Black Smoke in acting.
“Sir, don’t listen to him! Our damn chieftain is a stubborn fool who won’t listen to reason! He’d rather blow up the camp and be buried with it than negotiate! But it’s fine, I know the secret path into the camp, and I know where the pre-civilization treasures we dug up are hidden. You must know about the extensive network of caves under the Desert, right? I’m very familiar with it!”
Jubian, standing nearby, didn’t know what to say.
You two are really outdoing each other in acting.
I suggest you go to a film academy for further study!
The squadron leader turned to look at his teammates.
Through their helmets, their expressions were naturally invisible, but their body language was very clear.
What if they just trusted them?
Anyway, the next stop was Li Star, so the sooner they finished, the sooner they could go home.
“Alright, a few people go and thoroughly check this place first!”
A moment later, the Apollo Soldiers who had gone to investigate returned with news.
“Report, Squadron Leader, the hangars here have been destroyed! All ten fighters have also been destroyed!”
“zero element and nuclear fuel have been emptied!”
“Report, no other personnel were found in the facility, and the armory has been cleared out.”
The squadron leader punched Ye Xing in the chest again.
“Where are the rest of the people! Where are our weapons!”
Alright, you’re a dead man—
Ye Xing continued to gasp for breath, regulating his breathing.
“The weapons were transported back to the ground camp by us, and your traitors. How about it? Shouldn’t you seriously consider my proposal? Afterwards, you just need to pretend you haven’t seen me and let me return to the Desert. I just want to buy my own life.”
Hmm—
The squadron leader began to re-evaluate the situation.
Although these bandits failed to seize the valuable space fighters, they did steal quite a lot of things from here. If they couldn’t get them back in the end, that Omar fellow would surely give him a good scolding.
His promotion at headquarters would probably also be affected.
In this world, there was no boss who didn’t pass the buck to their subordinates.
At least, he had never seen one!
Unless he could perform perfectly and retrieve all the stolen supplies intact, then he would achieve a great merit.
That’s right, that’s the stake!
The squadron leader looked at his teammates again, switching to Star Alliance language, which he believed Ye Xing and the others wouldn’t understand.
“What do you all think?”
“Let’s try it. We have heartbeat detectors and ultrasonic radar; we’re not afraid of these simple-minded Barbarian leading us into an ambush.”
“At least we can take these three people along and interrogate them on the way to see if we can get any intelligence. If we leave them here, we’d have to assign more people to watch them, and we don’t have extra manpower.”
That’s right.
These three had been disarmed and couldn’t contact the outside world; they were no threat.
The squadron leader smiled and walked towards Jubian, who had been silent, looking at the computer screen beside him.
Hmm? He’s actually writing code? Although he couldn’t understand exactly what this guy was writing, he was indeed a valuable technician.
“Don’t you have anything to add?” he asked. “…Don’t kill me, I don’t want to die,” Jubian replied dully.
I’m a Scholar! Don’t make things difficult for me in terms of acting!
Squadron Leader: “—Alright, take these three good-for-nothings with you. We’re heading to Li Star! Also, immediately update Minister Omar on the situation here.”
“Yes!”
Ye Xing was escorted to put on an EVA suit, then walked towards the nearby transport plane.
It had twin-linked turrets on both sides and on the roof, confirming it was the same type of transport plane Cheng Lei and the others had seen before.
This thing is at least three times larger than our aerospace craft, and it looks pretty good—
He glanced around and saw fighters taking off one after another from the grayish-white lunar surface, entering the dark space, and heading towards Li Star, 370,000 kilometers away.