Ye Muo’s limbs were like ice, but he was still conscious. The connection cut off before quickly reconnecting.
[Confirmed encounter with galactic pirates…]
He heard someone say from the command centre’s end.
He repeated quietly, “Galactic pirates…”
The ship was suddenly violently hit by something, followed by a deafening explosion.
The voices from the command centre let Ye Muo know what was happening. One of the ships that came to help him had self-destructed, the final and most powerful means of offence.
Only then did Ye Muo make an effort to turn his head to look at the command console. He recalled from class that all of Grantz’s warships were equipped with an emergency self-destruct sequence that could be manually or voice activated.
Another explosion. Ye Muo’s eyelashes trembled. Another life had been sacrificed in vain for his sake.
Ye Muo’s gaze turned to the king insect sprawled on his body. The stab wound he inflicted before was still present. As he expected, it actually didn’t have much in terms of defence. An explosion would definitely finish it off.
The surrounding eggs have been stained red in this short period of time. They have also started to wriggle, as if they were about to hatch.
The warship suddenly stabilized. There was a heated discussion taking place on the other end of the line.
[It’s already been captured by the galactic pirates. Have reinforcements still not arrived yet?]
[Aren’t the logistics department busy in Maintenance?]
So the ship had been captured by galactic pirates.
Ye Muo was a bit muddled as all kinds of thoughts flew through his mind. If he didn’t move, it would consume him to nourish the eggs. Then, when those galactic pirates came in, they would be met by a bunch of king insects. Ye Muo even thought about the looks on their faces.
These king insects could help avenge him and the soldiers who sacrificed themselves by devouring all the galactic pirates.
But Ye Muo knew what letting this warship escape meant. If this king insect could hatch other king insects, Grantz’s defensive line would be rendered meaningless.
Another explosion.
Ye Muo knew this meant the last soldier had also sacrificed themselves. Because of him.
Ye Muo was a little sad.
He shouted, “Initiate last stand mode!”
The interior of the warship was bathed in red light. A synthetic voice reconfirmed, [Please input the start phrase.]
Ye Muo shouted out the phrase one last time, “May imperial glory endure, and Grantz forever be immortalized!”
The system would only seek confirmation from those still aboard the warship. Only Ye Muo was left.
[Confirmed. Initiating in five seconds.]
….
On the frontlines of the insect tide.
The soldiers who had just fended off the first wave of king insects were returning to the warships as the surfacing frequency slowed.
When the piled corpses of the king insects were the only thing left, the warships bombarded the entire rift with heavy artillery.
Norton was among the last batch to return to the mothership. Like everyone else, he was inevitably stained with blood and other traces of battle.
A group of people immediately came to greet him upon his return to the mothership.
The captain was at the forefront. “Your Majesty, the base was attacked by insects.”
Norton’s steps paused. He stopped. The insect tide coming early meant almost all the warships they could divert were either here or transporting supplies, meaning the base was at its weakest.
But the base was set up in the rear far from the rift itself. Even if king insects broke through the defensive line, it would be a while before they reached the base.
Norton looked at the captain. “From where? When did this happen? Have reinforcements arrived?”
Norton lost contact with the base during his time at the bottom of the rift.
“What seems to be a newly evolved variant of king insects broke through from underground soon after your arrival at the rift, Your Majesty. They should have been laying in wait even before our arrival. Reinforcements were dispatched post haste. They just arrived and have secured the base.”
“Casualties?”
“32 deceased.”
Norton was still waiting.
The captain opened his mouth before finally admitting, “His Little Highness and three other warships encountered galactic pirates and collectively activated their self-destruct sequences. The reinforcements and all divertable warships are still searching for them. Surveillance footage is available. Would you like to watch?”
Everyone present knew that MIA was a rather euphemistic statement.
Encountering galactic pirates was by no means a death sentence, but Ye Muo had activated the self-destruct sequence. His chances of survival were practically nil. The search right now was basically for his remains.
Norton stared at the captain, who had lowered his head and averted his gaze from the start. Although there were many people present, it was abnormally silent aside from the whistling wind.
Then Norton grasped his sword and went inside. The captain and the others followed.
The large screens of the command centre relayed all the events from the initial king insect invasion, Ye Muo’s declaration that he was a Grantz, the command centre’s preliminary reactions, to the footage of Ye Muo on the warship.
It ended with Ye Muo’s warship and the three others encountering the galactic pirates and Ye Muo’s final command.
Norton stared at the screen even after it was over. “Were all the pilots from logistics?”
If they were combatants, even three warships should be able to deal with galactic pirates.
“Yes, they were not combatants. Those three warships were originally cargo ships as well. They were being repaired and lacked any weapons. The rest of the warships had normal daily maintenance records, but inspection after the fact revealed the activation devices were all filled with an unidentified white substance.”
The captain lowered his head. He had already poured over the details several times. In the end, this king insect was just that intelligent. If it hadn’t run into Ye Muo, it could have definitely infiltrated, produced eggs and taken over the base without anyone being the wiser. The king insects it could mass produce would have rendered their defensive line defunct.
Norton tilted his head back and looked up at the screens. Their light was cast on his figure.
The captain did not dare to look at Norton right now or avoid him. From his current perspective, he could only see the handsome line of Norton’s jaw.
Norton suddenly spoke, “Play clip number four again.”
He was referring to the video of Ye Muo in the warship. His voice was rather calm.
But the captain with his head down could see that Norton was gripping his sword so tightly green veins bulged on the back of his hand.
Norton paused the video halfway. He stared at Ye Muo’s broken sword. Could Ye Muo have held his own if this sword hadn’t broken?
Ye Muo said that he lost control of his psychic power, but that didn’t match what happened. Only suddenly withdrawal of psychic power could’ve caused this. If this symptom was identified early on, would he not have taken the risk?
For a split second, Norton wished the warship didn’t have a self-destruct mechanism in the first place.
Norton reviewed the footage who knew how many times before someone approached. He stopped by Norton’s side and got down on one knee with a solid thump.
Only then did Norton mechanically tilt his head and spot a familiar figure.
It was Ye He.
As a recent graduate, he had no obligation to come to the frontlines. However, he received special permission due to his exceptional performance.
Ye He had a sword by his side. He stated, one word at a time, “I overstepped my authority and ordered the searching warships to temporarily detain all starships they encountered.”
Unless they belonged to the stateless galactic pirates, seizing starships was a very serious provocation. Only Norton had the authority to order such an act.
Everyone present waited for Norton’s judgement. At last Norton spoke.
“Well done.”
…..
In the Exile Sectors, on a junk planet.
The roar of starships hauling huge cargo drew closer and closer.
Starships of this size were basically only used to transport goods.
The ship that came to this junk planet was obviously here to dispose of waste. There were no ports here or regulations prohibiting starships from approaching the planet’s surface. In fact, due to certain ecological factors, the lower altitude the starships disposed of their cargo, the better.
After countless disposals day in and day out, every part of this planet was either a garbage dump or residential areas resembling ruins.
The adults and children searching for resources to live off of in this gigantic garbage dump all looked up to the sky.
The starship’s altitude continued to decrease.
Many people have already started running after it. Although the starship was too fast for them to catch up with and normally dumped its cargo far away from them, the closer they were the better.
One youth raised an arm and squinted into the distance. He only stopped after ascertaining the insignia on the starship.
“It’s the cleaners today.”
His companion also stood up.
“We might find some precious metals if we’re lucky.”
Starships that clear the ship routes of debris were colloquially referred to as cleaners. Every once in a while, they would bring all the debris floating about that they collected and dump it on junk planets. Since this planet was so close to the Exile Sectors, sometimes there would be wreckages from galactic pirates skirmishing with other fleets.
The cleaners towed everything here without exception. You had a better chance of finding something good from their cargo compared to other types of transport ships.
Author’s Corner
It’s fine. Daddy Norton just needs to fetch his cub.
Successfully picked up a small red flower! Don’t worry, I’m not that Daqiang who runs away while crying anymore. I’ll definitely give Cub Muo a good, well-rounded ending. I also edited the last two chapters to remove some repetitive parts and add a bridge between the timelines.
