Chapter 442: It's Coming!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The three aristocrats did take prompt actions in fact, as Ye Chong detected a few suspicious mechs wandering within his vicinity from time to time. Those were very sneaky mechs that had been only observing the Collisions moving in the area the whole time. No action was already taken thus far but Ye Chong was informed of their existence.
Facing an unknown force from the corner of the galaxy, the three aristocrats decided to tackle it with great caution under a tricky period like this.
These mechs were already a distraction to Ye Chong. The rate of spatial instability was ticking fast and Ye Chong simply did not have the time to entertain these uninvited guests.
Sang's reinforcement did not seem to be arriving soon. Once the spatial anomaly occurred, the reinforcement would be stuck at the Calamitous Asteroid Belt and failed to reach Ye Chong's site.
The entire Planet Yi Ju was on high alert, ready to battle anytime.
And that was when one last plot twist was added to their script, as a few blurry visuals were spread in the network...
There were a few threads created with the following titles:
"A Mysterious Force on Planet Yi Ju!"
"Stronger than the Stronghold, Mission: Unknown!"
"Strange Skeleton Aircraft's Higher than the Sky, said experts."
"Who are They? What do They Want?"
"Friend or Foe? Aliens on Yi Ju!"
Speculations about Ye Chong's property and his army flooded the Virtual World board. Photos were clearly taken from afar, as the clarity was horrible. But it was also such horrible clarity that further enhanced the mystery brewing on Planet Yi Ju. The reformation in the three aristocrats was then having their attention shifted upon this mysterious planet activity.
All sorts of stories were on the board rapider than Little Rock's fingers busy tapping the keyboards trying to eliminate those posts. It only took a few moments before the news got to the station. Several talk shows were hosted regarding the controversy on some of the most popular news channels.
"Hello and welcome back to Galactic Whisperer. I'm your host and today we have a very special guest, known as the specialist ahead of the time, Mr. Uda. So, Mr. Uda, what's your view on the mysterious force that had engulfed Planet Yi Ju recently?" asked the host.
"Uhh...," replied Uda carefully, "We have yet to receive sufficient information regarding the force that had been active recently. I can't really name the possible kind of organization the force associates with..."
"There have been rumors claiming that they are the pirates, do you agree?"
"Impossible!" Uda shook firmly, "This is obviously a baseless speculation. It's clear from those pictures available on the Virtual World. We could see a well-disciplined army that carries out tasks systematically in the organization. To be honest, I personally think that this force is pretty close to the ace pilot squads of all three aristocrats in terms of standards. So they can't be pirates, especially when they have a standardized equipment, which it would be impossible for a group of mere burglars to achieve."
"Such insightful analysis, as expected from Mr. Uda! As mentioned by our commentator, the organization sure is strong, which debunks the speculation that they are merely pirates. Still, people are confused, Mr. Uda, regarding the reason why anybody would pick a place with such horrible environment like Planet Yi Ju as a military base for training. As far as we could discern from these shots, the army not only is stationed at Planet Yi Ju itself but also had formulated a strong defense system on the planet. So, why and how, Mr. Uda?"
"Umm..." Uda did not seem really confident at this, "I do have the same question as everybody else. Planet Yi Ju has substandard productivity while its land resources are poor. Its location is rather dangerous as it was close to the Calamitous Asteroid Belt, far from the developed area with bad transportation. Every aspect is so poor that a sane person would never consider investing materials to build a base here. However, according to what we have found, apparently a group known as the Papatte pilot squad had appeared on this planet a few years ago. So I would believe that they have their own reasons to be there. Regarding why they built the defense grid, it should be related to their main goal I suppose." Such language skill of squeezing out an empty comment...
"So, Mr. Uda, do you think there might be a type of association or two between the defensive behavior of the force and the recently initiated reformation among the three Aristocats?"
"There might be," said Uda.
That was when the visual of Collision got projected to the audience. It was nearly indistinguishable with the motion blur.
"This is the visual we had obtained at the exterior of the area. This aircraft with a unique design seems to be their main equipment in executing tasks. It was pure coincidence when we got hold of the aircraft's appearance, as somehow this bizarre looking aircraft possesses an excellent anti-detection capability that our staff managed to take a shot of it only because of an accidental flick on the photon mode button. I am pretty sure Mr. Uda has some good insights on this strange bird," said the host.
"Certainly, we were also astonished by the visual when we first saw it, that we consulted countless mechanics on the aircraft. Most of the mechanics believed that it could be a skeleton aircraft. Well, I believe most pilots and any of our friends whose job has something to do with mechs would know what a skeleton mech is. The concept of building a fully skeleton mech had been proposed years ago but none of those aristocrats managed to realize it. Never once we would expect the blurry aircraft we see right now is really a skeleton aircraft. There is actually someone who is capable of building a skeleton machine. It is simply amazing!" said Uda, with a little more excitement towards the end.
Skeleton Mech - the terminology that had once vanished in the mind of the people - had rekindled in the discussion today. The almost-impossible craft to create was found on the planet with the mysterious force, no doubt the mystery had intensified of the planet in the eyes of the people.
Few pairs of eyes were soon found somewhere afar from Ye Chong's vicinity, those were the curious people from all fields. Some of them were the intelligences of different forces, there were also mere reporters and some insane mech fanatics who would like to check out the legendary skeleton mech with their own eyes.
They sure would like to have a better look, but none of them had mustered the courage to step beyond the boundary. Even if they did, like one of the reporters who recklessly piloted a mech one meter into the territory, they would be chased upon a team of those strange-looking mechs right away.
And none of them had survived.
The floating pieces in the space were reminding people of the cruel truth, that the mysterious force's army was formidable and inhumanly efficient. The outsiders gave up their thoughts of even trying. It was the army's cruelty that warned the outsiders to back off. No explanation, no talking, one blast and the intruder would be a goner.
Somehow the outsiders could feel the horrible gazes coming from the inside of the strange mechs.
Zoom! The outsiders' mechs backed out immediately, which some of them decided to stop only after traveling a few hundreds kilometer away from the boundary.
Ye Chong hated being the focus but he did not have any feasible solution in getting rid of that. The truth was, even Little Rock had given up on stopping the waves in the Virtual World.
Something was happening and Ye Chong's team was watching the projection carefully.
"T-30 minutes till the limit. With an inconsistency of +/- 3%," said Mu.
Mu's monotonous speech somehow calmed Ye Chong's mood.
30 minutes till the moment of truth.
Thought Ye Chong, taking a deep breath, as he turned and nodded at Sang Pu.
"Team 1 into the air now! Team 2 and Team 3, standby," ordered Sang Pu through the communicator.
Above Terry City, a thousand Collisions had launched themselves into the air. These Collisions were no longer the outdated model you saw back in Archipelago, as improvised its design by Old Jalopy while revamped its engine by Lian Yue the genius.
It was quite a view to have 1000 mechs in the air at once, but nobody could ever witness it as the citizens had been evacuated to the underground.
The reporters beyond the boundary were almost thrashing in excitement upon seeing the 50 teams of army of 1000 Collisions appearing in the neighboring space zone of Yi Ju.
Most programs had been cancelled and were replaced with the streaming of this view.
"After days of silence, the mysterious organization had finally launched its first operation. As you can see, we are streaming the historical moment for you, stay tuned as you could see a thousand aircrafts traveling in the area. They have demonstrated great discipline and have a complete formation. Their army is enormous but not out of control. If you were here with us, you would be feeling the intensity by just looking at the skeleton aircrafts themselves... Not even the aristocrats' reforming army could beat this intensity..."
The hologram screens in the heart of different cities were projecting the same scene, which the pedestrians jerked their steps clumsily and had a view upon.
The hustles and bustles of cities had stopped, as people set their eyes upon history.