Ye Yun was quite tense right now. He noticed when Ye Muo’s footsteps slowed even a beat and turned to bark at him to follow close.
The inside of the warship was very spacious. It was mainly silver in colour.
Claire was the first to speak.
“Beautiful, isn’t it? Its name is the Mother Bear, and it’s used exclusively to teach cubs like you.”
This warship was the most basic type whose basic navigation could be handled by AI. Any fine manoeuvres would require the input of psychic power. It was travelling on autopilot right now. The command centre was empty aside from the pilot and the two instructors.
Aaron and Claire took them around the ship for a brief tour.
“…Warships must be controlled using psychic power in combat mode. You’ll get to experience that in later years. Over there is the landing gear for reducing speed when landing.”
When they came to the most open area of the ship, the command centre, Claire shouted.
“Turn on viewing mode.”
The outer walls of the warship gradually became transparent. There was a murmur of surprise among the students.
“You can go inspect the areas you’re most interested in on your own now. Be careful not to wander off to restricted areas.”
The students soon dispersed and began to move freely in groups of twos and threes.
Aaron shot Claire a look of faint disapproval.
Claire shrugged her shoulders indifferently.
“The most important places all require iris authentication anyway. What’s the harm in letting them relax a bit first before they start vomiting later? We can’t let that be the highlight of their experiential learning opportunity.”
Ye Yun and his entourage of seven or eight remained together. Everyone followed Ye Yun unanimously. He quickly made arrangements.
“Inspect all your equipment and head over to scout out the emergency exit. Then go over how to put on the landing gear again.”
Claire walked over to Aaron.
“Almost there, right? Z472 really is a fine place. It’s an uninhabited abandoned planet far from the imperial capital filled with all sorts of trash and abandoned buildings. Direct shelling will do.”
Aaron still had that serious look on his face. He stood pencil straight.
“Compared to the previous batches, they’re far too relaxed. Far too relaxed.”
“The little guys over there are doing a pretty good job.”
Aaron inclined his chin. He was referring to the group organized by Ye Yun. Claire swept a glance over and noticed that they were all subservient to Ye Yun.
“How scary. The elites of Class A have already established a hierarchy in their first year.”
Claire deliberately huddled over a bit and shivered, looking away in mock reverence.
Aaron glared at him. He happened to have been a white uniform all the way until graduation.
“If your eyesight is still passable, you would have spotted a student from another class mixed in there.”
He was referring to Ye Muo, whose black uniform was unusually conspicuous surrounded by white.
Claire waved his hand in a gesture of surrender before opening the comms.
“This is the Mother Bear. What’s the situation?”
The other side answered loudly.
“The fawns have all been herded into the hunting ground and are staying there obediently. We’ve even saved the best viewing position for you lot!”
……
“Although the surface of the Mother Bear has been restored, you can tell from the scratches and the newness of its parts that it’s not merely used for teaching. This warship is still in service.”
“All other places require permission and are temporarily inaccessible–“
Ye Yun was quietly discussing the current situation with the others and speculating about what tests might come next when he suddenly stopped and tugged at Ye Muo.
Ye Muo caught his drift and looked outside. The entire command centre went quiet.
Outside was an entire fleet of gigantic warships, each surrounded by a large number of mechs. They were gathered together, facing the planet nearby.
And the warship they were on weaved through the fleet, looking much smaller in comparison.
“Mother Bear is requesting access to the port.”
“Access granted. The channel is open. Safe travels, Mother Bear.”
The warship approached the planet with great haste. Behind it was the fleet that was closely guarding the planet.
The port was built at a high altitude near the surface of the planet. Starships that wanted to take off or land could only do so here. Otherwise, they risked damage to both the planet’s surface and their own ship. So even though this was just an abandoned planet, a port was still constructed.
On the way to the port, Claire clapped his hands and waited until all eyes in the command centre were on him before he barked.
“Listen up, elites of the First Military Academy. This will be your first mission since enrolment. See that abandoned planet below us? The fleet has just forced a group of galactic pirates to land there. Eliminate them!”
Ye Yun watched the instructor closely and loudly asked.
“Instructor, is this warship ours to use?”
As soon as he asked this question, the rest of the students gradually quieted down. A faint smile surfaced on Claire’s face.
“Of course. I just lifted all restrictions on the ship.”
“Is the test starting now?”
“Yes, it’s started. From now on, Instructor Aaron and I won’t be offering you any help.”
Claire walked over to Aaron and stood in the corner with him.
Ye Yun turned around and raised his arms so that everyone could see him.
“Listen up, we are all elites of the First Military Academy. That group of galactic pirates are nothing but rabble! No matter how many they number or how many warships they possess, they were frantically forced to land on the surface so their ships are as good as done. On the contrary, we have a well-equipped warship! This is our chance to prove ourselves!”
Claire watched the freshmen who were originally looking at one another gradually settle down to discuss the division of labour. He chuckled lowly.
“Lucky little guys. All they need to do is conduct a burst of bombardment using the warship to end things. We might be heading back rather quickly today. How come we weren’t so fortunate back then?”
The experiential learning opportunity was different every year. The most gruesome one involved an actual firefight with galactic pirates. The counselling centre was booked full that month.
Aaron kept his head tilted, looking out of the warship.
“We’ve arrived in port.”
Just after entering the port, the lights in the command centre suddenly flickered a few times before going out entirely.
“What’s going on? Did someone move something?”
“Is this a malfunction? But obviously the landing went well…”
“Is this part of the experiential learning opportunity?”
Claire frowned. This wasn’t part of their plan.
Aaron was the first to sense something wrong. He exclaimed.
“Quiet! All of you, stand still and don’t move! Don’t open the doors!”
Aaron drew his dagger as he took a few steps forward. He leaned over toward the door and got down on one knee.
Claire followed closely behind. Both closed their eyes and listened. Their eyes snapped open in unison after a beat.
“There are people outside forcing their way in. They’ve destroyed the external energy source, which caused the warship to automatically shut down.”
This was a common tactic employed by galactic pirates after intercepting starships. The Empire started out exterminating galactic pirates, and successive emperors have all kept the tradition alive. Thus, the military was very familiar with these foes of theirs.
“Has anyone tried contacting the main fleet or the port?!”
“We just tried the main fleet but the signal was intercepted. Trying the port now…it connected? I’ll tune in.”
There was a harsh burst of static from the other side, but no one spoke.
The sound gradually became a little clearer. There seemed to be a lot of people yelling.
[…Kill them all! Cut off their heads and mount them on the flag!]
Then there was a man’s voice.
[Hear that, dogs of the Empire?! I’ll cut off your heads and take you down with us! Wait, they’re using us as practice for the freshmen, right? The twerps aren’t even adults yet, are they? I’m going to cut their tender flesh to shreds with a knife and throw them onto your warships!]
No one spoke. Ye Yun turned off the comms.
“They occupied the port, which is meaningless and doesn’t make sense. Unlike starships, warships aren’t that easy to dismantle. We can still start the ship by force.”
Ye Yun frowned. This didn’t make sense. Despite their main goal obviously being to use them as hostages to secure an escape route, they immediately resorted to provocations. It was almost like they were trying to force them to start the warship again.
At this time, the emergency power automatically turned on. The whole hall was lit up.
Aaron and Claire exchanged a look.
“There’s a Level S among them. They want to steal the warship.”
Only after the warship was started could psychic power be used to invade and gain access.
“An obvious trap, but we have no choice but to jump in. After it’s activated, we’ll have a period of about 20 seconds before the pirate’s psychic power can assume full control of the warship.”
They could either stay put, wait for the warship to be dismantled and then go head-to-head with the galactic pirates, or take the safer option and start the warship themselves and descend on the planet surface.
The choice was obvious. Although Ye Yun just delivered an impassioned speech, both he and the other students understood deep down that freshmen like them who had yet to reach maturity were no match for the vicious galactic pirates.
“I can only hope they’ll leave these children alone after they capture the warship.”
Claire came to a decision with Aaron.
“Hear that, you unlucky bastards?! Put on your landing gear and jump as soon as we leave port! This time it’s for real. Change of objective, survive!”
Everyone scrambled to get their landing gear on.
Ye Yun pulled Ye Muo over and helped him put everything on before doing the same for himself. Aaron and Claire were also among the last ones to start.
Ye Yun took out one of the medicine vials at his waist and exchanged it with one in Ye Muo’s pack. He put it in the spot for emergency medicine.
“This is from Father. If you feel unwell, inject this. I’ll keep the rest with me.”
Finally, he pushed Ye Muo over to Zhou Ran.
“Stay with your friends.”
He glared at Ye Muo.
“Jump down as soon as the door opens. If you encounter a pirate on the surface, run if you can. If you can’t, don’t hold back.”
Ye Muo was a little uneasy. He seemed to want to say something, but he obeyed Ye Yun’s orders in the end. He was used to being told what to do like this.
“Got it, Big Brother.”
On the other side, Aaron sat in front of the control console and input his psychic power into it. Claire was down on one knee beside him, gripping the edge of the console with one hand and Aaron’s ankle with the other.
A battle between psychic powers was imminent, so the starship would become very unstable.
The students stood in place, stewing in fear and uncertainty. They looked at one another after seeing what the instructors were doing. Ye Muo stood among them. He could even hear someone’s quiet sobs.
Ye Yun and his group moved first. They walked out of the crowd and headed straight to Aaron’s side. Drawing their guns from their waists in unison, they got down on one knee just like Claire.
Ye Yun grabbed Aaron’s other ankle.
Aaron glanced down at him.
Ye Yun did not even raise his head.
“Class A goes first on principle, no? After receiving so much preferential treatment on the regular, it’s time like these where we need to put in some effort.”
The school did have a rule like that. Class A’s uniform was conspicuously white for a reason. They were the leaders, the ones required to be on the front lines at all times.
But requiring that of them at a time like this was almost too cruel.
Aaron saw a boy beside Ye Yun quietly put his hand behind his back. That hand holding the gun was trembling minutely.
“No need. You’ll only get in the way.”
One girl kicked that boy. “Don’t cause a misfire. I’ll beat you up if you do.”
The boy immediately stopped shaking.
“Don’t order us around. I’m the leader here, instructor.”
Ye Yun gave a cold snort.
Aaron would need to directly face off against the other party’s psychic power later on. The difference between Level S and A was significant. He was destined to lose this battle.
“Instructors, if we delay any longer, the warship will be completely dismantled.”
They all knew very well that 20 seconds was not enough for everyone to jump out.
Claire barked orders to the crowd still gathered in the command centre.
“Get out, all of you! Wait at the doors and jump as soon as they open! If you don’t make it, hide somewhere close by!”
When only he, Claire and Ye Yun’s group were left in the room, Aaron first closed off all access hatches, completely sealing the command centre off.
The roar of the starship starting up could be heard. The starship swayed violently for some time, coming to a stop as soon as it left the port.
Beads of sweat quickly emerged on Aaron’s forehead. He grimaced in pain. The starship was shaking erratically making it difficult to even walk.
The exit doors quickly opened. Students jumped down in batches like dumplings. When only 10% of the students were left, the exit suddenly closed. The starship also stabilised and returned to port.
Finally, the access hatches leading to the command centre all opened automatically. Control had been seized.
“Everyone, disperse!”
Aaron had collapsed in front of the console. Ye Yun left two people to protect him as he tightened his grip on his gun, stood up, and quickly pressed himself to the wall, guarding one of the passages.
The sound of approaching footsteps grew clearer and clearer.
Ye Yun stared fixedly at the passage.
The passage hatches suddenly closed automatically again, tightly locking. Several others followed suit.
The faint sound of yelling and cursing came from behind the door.
“What the hell! Why did you suddenly close the doors again? Don’t you have it under control, idiot?!”
Ye Yun was momentarily stunned.
……
Ye Muo stood at the exit, which was actually in the central part of the warship. It opened from the bottom so you just needed to jump down.
The few students that didn’t manage to jump down like Ye Muo all followed the orders of the instructor and immediately hid.
One was in the storage room, two in the ventilation duct, and in the rooms…
Ye Muo instinctively knew all this because his psychic power relayed it back to him as it instinctively flowed through the entire warship and gently covered all its contents. He could even sense two other psychic powers. The very weak one by the control centre’s interface was the instructor’s, while the other in slightly better shape belonged to a redheaded man.
If someone was here to witness this scene, they would certainly be shocked into silence. How much power and finesse was required for this degree of exact control?
Ye Muo’s senses had sharpened a lot, but his emotions were blunted by an equal measure. Countless data flowed into his brain, which was clear like never before. His fear, worry, and everything else seemed to be infinitely diluted. Was this the sensation of using psychic power his teachers described before?
Many people had entered the warship.
One came towards him. He laughed uproariously when he spotted Ye Muo and pointed his gun at the boy.
“Looks like there’s a son of a bitch scared stiff here.”
“How unsightly.” Ye Muo thought as he stood his ground.
“I’ll break your arms and legs! Make sure to cry loud for me, boy.”
The galactic pirate drew closer. When he got a good look at Ye Muo’s appearance, his eyes became bloodshot. He licked his lower lip.
“I can give you a chance. Get down on your knees and cry in my bed.”
Ye Muo looked at him quietly and extended his hand in the shape of a gun. He tilted his head a fraction and softly said.
“Bang.”
Author’s Corner
Self-righteously hustling for comments.
