Chapter 228: That One Moment of Stare
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The situation had gone too chaotic. Everyone on the spaceship was having their eyes tightly stuck upon the screen, with fright in them. The situation had taken a strange turnabout. The Coxcomb, from the beginning, had been traveling with them, as if a personal bodyguard heroically staying by their side, being the appreciated honor among the crew members. Well, anyone on the crew would have appreciated its participation in the fleet. The Coxcomb was sailing at the side wings of the spaceship, and the sailors, the staff, all of them crowded upon the window to have a proper look at their hero.
And that was when everyone thought they would be reaching Csebesini safely, the Coxcomb left abruptly, away from the side wings of their ship. Almost immediately after, they were shouted upon by Fid the leader to make it to the warping point at the quickest speed possible. The leader, who received the command, as well as the remaining crew had assumed the pirates had returned. His experience had illustrated a series of impeccable commands which eventually allowed them to be in quite a better status in the war.
But the confusion lingered, as everyone’s eyes were almost popping out seeing the Coxcomb being the only ship on the screen, they once thought it could be a false alarm, there was no pirate in sight, till the moment the Coxcomb launched countless streams of blue beams to the darkness, explosion occurred. The void was exploding? The void was exploding indeed. Did the pirates have invisible technology? What was that stream of blue beams?
Wei Yuan screamed, "What are you waiting for!" He reacted quickly, "Change to Photon Mode!"
Apparently the anti-detection system - despite being effective against the most advanced hologram detection system - could be ineffective against the most traditional Photon Mode of the visualization system.
The crew then switched their visuals to Photon Mode. To their horror, Coxcombs the gentle whale who escorted them kindly the whole time, turned out to be a warship, armed with countless dark frightening muzzles, all pointed towards the incoming dark mechs. The sudden emergence of a warship was worrying, the sudden devastation of the other warship was nauseating.
Warship - the tool which defined the war itself, that reminded humanity the fear itself - was there, laying bare in front of them. The pirates seemed to be a triviality now the moment the warship came into comparison.
The leader of the spaceship hurriedly performed his acceleration, since it was a known fact that an unarmed spaceship was directly vulnerable in front of a warship. Only speed could save them if they could make it to the warping point. All leaders from the other spaceships in the fleet held the same opinion, as the queue was in disarray. Then the pilot squads came into action to restore the order. And at that current ship where people crowded their windows, they were glad they were in luck, for they were quite ahead of the queue, they would be fleeing from the war field in a couple of minutes.
The passengers squeezed before the photon projection. They hurrahed the moment the Coxcomb finished the other warship, as they breathed in a relief, delighted and salvaged, believing that the Coxcomb would be the one holding victory in the end. There were dense flocks of mechs but rumor said there was one super sniper on the craft that could finish 300 advanced models quickly.
"Elderlies and ladies please enter the safe house immediately. I repeat, elderlies and ladies, please enter the safe house immediately. The remaining passengers please stay calm and take care of your own safety. We would be performing space-warping shortly. Please be prepared." The elderlies and women were sent the the safe house in the ship, remaining the others still watching the next action on the projection.
They could feel the inertia pulling them behind, the spaceship was accelerating, which signified them the space-warping was happening. Well, space jump was not something challenging for spaceships to perform, however, if they were interrupted, things could go a little nasty. Compared to two years before, as science and technology developed rapidly, the space-warping procedure for passengers today was of negligible discomfort. Most adults could not even feel anything much, other than the acceleration itself.
Zzt Zztt…
The visuals on the projection were wavering. The momentum intensified, the projection was getting more and more noises over the time, till at one point people could no longer distinguish the happening on the projection. They only saw a silhouette flying out from the Coxcomb, "Feels like a mech?" They believed.
Zzzzt!
"Ah!" One brief frame of the projection was very clear then nothing was there.
There were two voices exclaiming.
"Performing space-jump." The passengers were truly relieved by then. As soon as they completed the procedure, they would be away from all these chaos and devastation. Of course, before every space-jump, one must have performed a very precise calculation or the crew might never make it to their designated location. If the coordination was never given in the beginning, no one would dare to perform a space-jump this suddenly. Even if they were piloting a warship, the law of physics itself remained enforced for them.
It felt like a dream for the passengers, so unreal and mystifying, feeling so long yet it only lasted for a brief second. That depicted the sensation one had during space-warping, which was mesmerizing to most people.
They felt their bodies lighter for one pull. Then the projection regained its clarity, as if they had exited from a lucid dream.
Rui Bing’s face was stupefied, while Wei Yuan remained in a disbelieved expression. Yes, the two exclamations were made by them.
"Wh-What happened… Yuan?" Asked Rui Su to Wei Yuan, she did hear her beloved sister making the similar squeak, which was peculiar for she knew her sister’s undisturbed nature. Well, she would not directly inquire her sister, since it was not easy to dig out anything from her thoughts. But Wei Yuan made the exclamation too, so he should know something.
Wei Yuan took a glance at Rui Bing, who was pondering with her head lowered, "It seemed like…" Whispered Wei Yuan by Rui Su’s ears, "That… the mech seemed to be … well, the brother-in-law of Sister Bing…I saw it before…" It was already a common sense for the Ruis to know the relationship between Rui Bing and Ye Chong. Whenever the great guy was mentioned, Wei Yuan loved to address him as the "brother-in-law", while Rui Su would call him "my future brother-in-law". The nicknames were rather gimmicky sometimes but Madam Rui was helpless on her daughter’s marital relationship, knowing her daughter’s personality, her daughter would execute whatever she had decided.
"Ah!" Rui Su screamed then she quickly covered her mouth. Her expressive eyes were telling skepticism. A moment of silence, and her sister remained stoned, "Yuan, you sure?" she whispered into Wei Yuan’s ears, she was unconvinced.
"Hmph, no way I would get it wrong. My brother-in-law saved me with that mech, how could I have mistaken it?" angered Wei Yuan, as his wholehearted statement was being suspected by Rui Su.
Rui Bing’s head was all upon the floor. A hint of sadness rose in her heart for some reason. Was it… the greatest distance between us…? Or was it the silent most farewell? She was dumbfounded.
"Heh… my future brother-in-law is great in fact, for he knows how to protect us," Rui Su’s voice rang by her ears.
"No way, how would brother-in-law know our whereabouts? Probably he just happened to be there and well, being a hero, he did so-"
"Shhhhhh!" Interrupted Rui Su, all disdainful, "Well, being a hero? What do you think your brother-in-law was? He was the cruel and cold kind from the beginning. Hmph, if there was not anything here worthy of his protection, how would he have done it? Stop joking!" stated Rui Su, based on her past experience dealing with this indifferent beast named Ye Chong.
"Don’t insult my brother-in-law!" rampaged Wei Yuan. "What do you say?" shouted Rui Su. And they began quarreling.
Rui Bing’s soulless eyes suddenly lighted up a warm glow. Was he there… for me? The Coxcomb had always been flying at the side wings like a royal knight in escort… It does feel like…
Rui Bing who lacked the experience of such situation was of course mesmerized by this feeling, like a young girl she was.
But then her worries upon Ye Chong’s safety overtook her strange infatuation.
But what could I do? Rui Bing was quiet. And there the couple was, passing by the shoulders, touched yet unspoken again, when in the century, the decade would they mean again?
"But…" She tried to speak, but the words choked her. Her eyes were filled with bewildered fear and then were replaced by faith and optimism.
Rui Bing recovered her indifference, as she made the leap, right onto the center of the quarrel, and lifted the two fighting animals, dragged to the resting room where Grandpa Qian and Madam Rui stayed.
"Sister Bing! It was Sister Su who…" Wei Yuan felt embarassed.
"Bing Bing, don’t listen to that Yuan. You know your sister, don’t you? Sigh, my good little Bing Bing, would you spare your sister and put her down…" The strange gazes from the other passengers were more than pressuring to Rui Su despite her shameless nature.
The happening on the fleet was not something Ye Chong had leisure to deal with, as his eyes were all focused upon the flock of mechs before him.
About 20 dark mechs left in the field, waving their lingering aggression being the war units being all short of arms and legs from the effect of the Liquid of Shang. But they reacted quickly as they disengaged their limbs before the liquid expanded.
One could see the success of the Beauty’s Secretion being the tool for assassination.
Thorn the lord of the Black Coves was more than angry, as there was such terrible casualty under his lead, the first incident to taint his perfect records. Never once he would expected the foe would wield such diabolical weapon while being able to avoid detection.
Ye Chong’s glare carried on… and he distinguished one really different mech among the uniform mechs. And that was the mech who burst the incoming Beauty’s Secretion with a single sting on his short alloy spear. Judging by his skill, the foe should be no novice.
That was not it. What was giving Ye Chong a loud thump in his heart was the mech.
It was the very first time he came across such model among the Black Covers.