FT DR Chapter 107: Bastards go to war.

Chapter 107: Bastards go to war.

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

 

The rotorcraft hovered over the weapons research facility, descending in altitude. Qian Hua opened the cargo bay door, and Chang Gong, wearing his exosuit, popped his head out, loudly asking Jin Xuan hanging on the landing gear, “Ready to land?”

Jin Xuan gestured “OK.” When the aircraft lowered to a height of twenty to thirty meters from the top of the building, Jin Xuan released the landing gear and jumped down, performing a somersault to dissipate the momentum. He swiftly used his ray gun to take down a guard who rushed towards him. Yin Bo followed, landing back-to-back with Jin Xuan, establishing a defensive line to repel pursuers.

Inside the cabin, Chang Gong pushed another spare exosuit to the bay door, unfastening the buckles and shouting loudly to Jin Xuan, “Rifle, catch!”

With a loud bang, the exosuit crashed to the ground. Jin Xuan sprang into action, leaping towards the suit. As he made contact, the suit’s systems activated, automatically enveloping his body and establishing a connection with his personal terminal, merging into one.

“Let’s go!” Jin Xuan flexed his shoulder and knee joints. The cannons on his shoulders activated, blasting away the guards attempting to attack Yin Bo, covering him as they moved towards the interior of the building. Qian Hua raised the rotorcraft to a height of five hundred meters, hovering in the air. Chang Gong stood at the doorway, his foot on the landing gear, aiming the suit’s cannons at the pursuing guards, providing long-range cover fire.

With the virus still running, the defense system in the X-X area was completely paralyzed. Communication within the garrison was impossible, and the automated weapon systems couldn’t be activated. Everything had to be done manually, resulting in significant delays in information transmission. Jin Xuan and Yin Bo rushed into the weapons research facility, encountering only scattered resistance along the way, and smoothly entered the workshop.

Unlike the command center, there wasn’t just one mainframe here; they were scattered across various research groups’ workshops. Jin Xuan reached the floor where the workshop was located, dismounted the exosuit, set it to automatic defense mode, and guarded the staircase. He instructed Yin Bo, “You stay here; I’ll go from the other end. Let’s search towards the middle, take any chips that can be removed, and bring any suspicious weapons to the central workshop. We’ll use a quantum field shield to cover them later. The virus will expire in twelve minutes, and we’ll meet at the entrance in ten minutes. Once the automatic defense system is activated, we won’t be able to leave!”

“Understood.” Yin Bo, lightly equipped, kicked open the first workshop door without hesitation and charged in with his ray gun. Jin Xuan sprinted to the other end of the corridor, bypassing the door lock and entering a large workshop.

This workshop was about five to six hundred square meters in size, with a row of mainframes against the wall, several precision machine tools in the middle, and testing systems on the side. Some prototypes of weapons, in various shapes and conditions, were piled on the display shelves, some looked newly assembled, while others appeared to have been used.

Jin Xuan was quite familiar with weapon design, having been influenced by Jin Zhe since childhood and having seen many rare items. He opened the mainframe, removed the chip, scanned the weapons display shelf, and suddenly his eyes lit up: a black cylindrical object leaning in the corner, emitting a cold light, looked very familiar.

Where had he seen this before? What was this thing? Jin Xuan took the cylinder down, held it in his hand, and connected the chip he had just removed to his personal terminal. He quickly searched the data and his face changed drastically – a high-dimensional weapon!

The Federation had been researching high-dimensional weapons for years but without success, eventually only producing the “Severance” device. Now, the thing he held in his hand was so well-crafted, could it be that the Second Army had succeeded?

He rapidly browsed through the information in the chip and his heartbeat accelerated: they had indeed produced a prototype, but it hadn’t been tested yet. They were planning to wait for the “test subjects” discarded from the embryo research facility to arrive and use guides and sentinels for human experiments. If the severance markers could be eliminated, it meant their research direction was correct, at least indicating that this weapon could indeed affect high-dimensional space.

In other words, Haynes had never intended to abide by the five-year commitment. It was likely that as soon as they obtained guide embryos and proved the effectiveness of their disruptors, they would immediately send the experimental pairs involved to the weapons research facility as cannon fodder.

These scumbags… Jin Xuan’s face turned cold. He placed the cylinder into a cart and picked up another slightly old-looking prototype nearby. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was a nuclear weapon!

These things had been completely obsolete for hundreds of years, with nuclear energy now only used by a very few ancient nuclear-powered starships. In today’s era of mature warp propulsion, why would the Second Army be researching such things? What was the purpose?

Jin Xuan’s suspicions grew as he opened the chip to search for information about the weapon. He discovered that it had been manufactured four years ago and had been used once three years ago. The location of its use… seemed familiar.

With an exceptional memory, Jin Xuan barely forgot anything he had seen. After a moment of thought, he recalled that over a year ago, after Wu Chenghe severed ties with Hannibal, he had entrusted the remaining assets of his clan to a trust fund for management. Jin Xuan had helped him organize the paperwork at the time and remembered that among the real estate assets left by the Wu Clan, there was a mining planet with the same name as this weapon.

Why would a weapon manufactured by Lancer be tested on the territory of the Wu Clan?

Jin Xuan vaguely thought of a possibility, opened the casing of the nuclear weapon, removed the intelligent chip inside, and tucked it into his pocket. He then placed the prototype on the cart as well.

In ten minutes, Jin Xuan roughly searched several workshops, removed all removable chips, and dragged the suspicious prototypes to the largest warehouse with the cart, where he gathered them with the ones Yin Bo brought. He activated a quantum field shield to protect them, set a password, and then closed the workshop door, locking the access. These things were too heavy to carry, so they could only leave them here for now. The password he set was difficult for ordinary people to crack, so it would take some time for anyone to enter and destroy them. With the workshops and the quantum field shield’s protection, they wouldn’t be damaged even if the NTU’s main force arrived and the two sides engaged in battle.

“The time’s up, and the automatic defense system is about to activate. Let’s go.” Jin Xuan returned to the corridor, put on the exosuit, and covered Yin Bo as they rushed towards the rooftop.

Arriving at the rooftop just in time, with Chang Gong providing remote fire cover, they overwhelmed the guards who were pursuing them. Qian Hua lowered the altitude of the aircraft, and Yin Bo took the opportunity to leap up and grab onto the landing gear.

“Let’s go!” Chang Gong shouted to Jin Xuan, who discarded the exosuit, set it to automatic shooting mode, and leaped to grab onto the landing gear as well.

With the dual protection of the exosuit and Chang Gong, Qian Hua managed to buy them time as she slowly lifted the aircraft into the sky.

As time passed, the virus inputted by Jin Xuan was gradually cleared by the defense system. Just as their aircraft reached an altitude of one kilometer, with a “buzz,” the defense system activated, and a high-power quantum field shield covered the entire X-X area.

The aircraft flew out of the X-X area, scraping against the quantum field shield, causing a series of bright blue sparks, and safely left the area. Their plan had succeeded by sixty percent! Qian Hua’s Red Wolf couldn’t contain her excitement, letting out a wild howl that echoed through the sky, “Awoo, awoo, awoo!”

“Ho!” Jin Xuan’s lion echoed, followed by Qian Hua’s Wolf, emitting a long cry, “Kou!”

Yin Bo’s Black Panther, rarely excited, joined in for once, letting out a howl, “Awooo!”

Inside the cabin, Kazumi Koyamas Chameleon lay on his owner’s shoulder, watching his excited companions with an expression of “Oh my goodness! Is this for real?” Even its crest stood up in surprise.

Among the quantum beasts, Wu Chenghe’s Butterfly was the most composed (?) one, squatting on its owner’s head, flapping its wings. No one bothered to respond; they could only sense its disdain through their consciousness, “So noisy, hmph!”

Wu Chenghe was speechless.

The rotorcraft flew out of the X-X area, heading swiftly towards the port. Jin Xuan and Yin Bo had already climbed onto the landing gear and didn’t enter the cabin, sitting on the racks, staring at the pigeon-gray artificial sky of Tartaros as if waiting for something.

Just as the aircraft was about to reach the port, there was a sudden flash of red light outside the semi-transparent artificial sky, followed by a loud bang – “Boom!” Two fireballs smashed the exit of the port, falling towards the earth like meteorites.

“They’re here!” Jin Xuan raised an eyebrow, opened his personal terminal’s positioning system. Yin Bo did the same, and they saw the two fireballs suddenly halt their descent in mid-air, arching towards the aircraft.

As the fireballs approached the aircraft, the flames on their surfaces extinguished, revealing metallic surfaces shimmering with a cold light. With a few “clicks,” they unfolded into giant mechas, one red and one blue, standing in mid-air like gods.

Jin Xuan stood on the landing gear, and with a push of his feet, he leaped out, landing steadily on the shoulder of the red mecha, “Rifle.” 

Inside the cabin, Chang Gong gestured to Wu Chenghe, “Come over, Rifle’s calling you!”

Wu Chenghe, baffled, unfastened his seatbelt, carrying the backpack containing the chips, and walked over, “What’s going on?”

Without explaining, Chang Gong grabbed him by the back of his neck with one arm and tossed him out – 

“Ah!” Wu Chenghe soared into the air, screaming in shock. His entire body arched in a trajectory through thousands of meters in the high sky, free-falling towards the ground. Thankfully, the backpack’s strap was hanging on his shoulder, or he might have dropped everything in his hands out of sheer fright.

The strong wind blew so hard that he could hardly open his eyes. He was shouting with his mouth wide open, swallowing a bellyful of cold wind, falling several meters. Suddenly, he felt his body jolt and land on a semi-soft surface. He steadied himself, opened his eyes, and saw Jin Xuan with long eyebrows and eyes, smiling at him. The look on Jin Xuan’s face was begging to be punched.

“Don’t be afraid, I’ve got you,” Jin Xuan yelled into his ear. He wrapped his left arm around his waist and, with his right hand loosened, the two slid down the surface of the mecha. They quickly reached the chest area where a small window was open. Jin Xuan braced against the window and stopped, lifting Wu Chenghe into the cockpit before jumping in himself.

As the window closed, the two safely entered the interior of the mecha. Wu Chenghe was still in shock, his legs trembling. This kind of high-altitude operation was pushing his limits. Even the bravest person couldn’t remain calm at thousands of meters in the air, especially without a parachute. What if Jin Xuan hadn’t caught him? He’d be flattened like a pancake!

“It’s okay, I’ve got you. I won’t let you fall,” Jin Xuan said, seeing the dazed look in his eyes. He gently stroked his head. 

After a moment, Wu Chenghe regained his composure, pushed away Jin Xuan’s hand, and exclaimed, “Why wasn’t this part of the plan?”

“It was,” Jin Xuan replied. “I mentioned that after completing the mission, Yan Shi would send a mecha to pick us up.”

“But you didn’t say anything about being thousands of meters in the air in a mecha!” Wu Chenghe, still agitated, sat in the co-pilot seat, fuming. “Do you think I’m a baseball to be thrown around by you guys?”

Knowing he was in the wrong, Jin Xuan just laughed and didn’t bother explaining further. He took a seat beside Wu Chenghe, connected his nervous system to the alloy, and then reached out to pat his head again. “Come on, wasn’t that a cool move?”

“Cool my foot!” Wu Chenghe retorted angrily. He glanced up and saw through the three-dimensional holographic projection outside the mecha—Kazumi Koyama was also thrown out of the cabin by Chang Gong. Yin Bo stood on the chest of his light blue mecha, one hand on the window and the other catching Kazumi Koyama. Yin Bo pulled his arm and pushed him into the cockpit of the mecha.

Throughout the process, Kazumi Koyama had a look of disbelief on his face, resembling his quantum beast. He couldn’t even scream. Seeing his pale face and the veins bulging on his forehead, Wu Chenghe, as a guide, suddenly felt a sympathetic kinship with him: Sentinels were all idiots!

The two mechas started up, their pilots connecting their nervous systems to the intelligent alloy, becoming one. Jin Xuan’s body was surrounded by delicate nervous threads as he smiled at Wu Chenghe. “Let’s go!”

The red mecha giant spun in the air, powered up, and flew towards the artificial sky. The blue mecha giant followed closely behind, sandwiching the gyroplane carrying Qian Hua and Chang Gong in between them, providing dense protection as they headed towards the Tartaros Near Earth Defense Line.

Inside the cockpit, the two had some idle time as the internal stabilization system kept the cabin steady. Jin Xuan tossed a bag to Wu Chenghe. “Put these together with the chips from before.”

Wu Chenghe opened the bag, took out various chips, and put them together with the ones from his backpack. He asked, “Is everything sorted? With this evidence, Lancer won’t be able to cover up the case, right?”

“It’s hard to say, it depends on the considerations above,” Jin Xuan, unlike typical military personnel, had been influenced by Jin Zhe and was more politically sensitive. “The Voyager Army is too powerful. If the naval forces aren’t enough to counterbalance Hannibal, Lancer is still needed to balance the power. Look at Jin Zhe’s plan; politics and the military are different.”

Wu Chenghe didn’t quite understand all of this. He just grunted. Jin Xuan handed him a chip and said, “Take a look at this one. It contains records of a prototype weapon’s usage. I feel like it’s related to you.”

“Oh?” Wu Chenghe was surprised. He connected the chip to his personal terminal, found the index number Jin Xuan mentioned, and discovered it was an ancient nuclear weapon. Flipping through the usage records, he saw a familiar name.

“This is from my home planet!” Wu Chenghe exclaimed in shock. “Three years ago, someone tested a nuclear weapon there… on this date… it was my mother!”

A white light flashed in his mind, and Wu Chenghe instantly understood why Jin Xuan wanted him to see this chip—nuclear weapons were extremely rare nowadays. Why would the Second Army be researching this? Coupled with the date and location of the test, a terrible reality became clear!

“This isn’t a thermonuclear weapon, but a radiation contamination weapon,” Jin Xuan’s expression turned serious. “It’s designed to spread nuclear contamination to the maximum extent, causing severe radiation sickness and death to the targets in a short period of time.” He paused. “Your mother should have died from this type of weapon over three years ago.”

Wu Chenghe’s face turned pale. He stared at the weapon data, his lips trembling, unable to speak. He was just a transmigrant, and he didn’t have any emotional attachment to the mother of this body. But the instinctive reactions of this body still governed him, making him feel like he was being torn apart inside, burning with anger—Wu Xi didn’t die from a traffic accident; she died at the hands of Lancer. The decline of the Wu family wasn’t due to economic reasons; it was because someone had been manipulating things behind the scenes.

“Your mother’s death doesn’t seem accidental; someone was behind it,” Jin Xuan said, seeing his distress. He reached out and held his hand. “Don’t worry, I’ll use all my resources to help you investigate this. But before that, I hope you can remain calm and not act impulsively, alright?”

Wu Chenghe gritted his teeth and nodded. Jin Xuan breathed a sigh of relief. “From my preliminary guess, Lancer probably just coveted the wealth of your family. After all, he has a huge operation in Tartaros and needs a lot of money. With limited military funds, he can only start from the civilian sector. It’s likely that more than just your family have been victimized; there are probably other families with simple backgrounds and substantial assets.”

Wu Chenghe thought for a moment and had to admit that Jin Xuan was right. Families like his, nouveau riche without background or support, relying solely on luck to make their fortune through mining within a few decades, had accumulated enormous wealth, like children sitting on a gold mine, utterly incapable of self-defense.

If it were within the jurisdiction of the Federation, with a sound legal system, things might be a bit better. But within the territory of the Voyager Army, under the iron-fisted rule of Lancer, everything was uncertain.

“I also considered whether he was targeting you like Hannibal, but Lancer doesn’t know you’re a guide, so that speculation doesn’t hold. They’re probably just after the money,” Jin Xuan continued. “But Hannibal definitely played a part in this. While your family’s wealth is substantial, it’s not enough to make Lancer kill. I guess Hannibal must have leaked some information to his father-in-law, such as his ex-girlfriend, or having a child before marriage, and so on, to push Lancer to take action against the Wu family.”

Using others to do his dirty work was Hannibal’s usual trick. He discovered that his son was a guide and wanted to claim him as his own. But as long as Wu Xi was alive, he couldn’t gain custody of him. As a mother, Wu Xi would never hand over her guide son, who she had hidden for seventeen years, to her former boyfriend who she had a one-night stand with.

Wiping out a family, using others to kill, Hannibal was skilled in political intrigue. He didn’t get his hands dirty but obtained everything he wanted. Even if things were exposed in the future, he had Lancer to take the fall for him. He could still portray himself as a good person, sacrificing his own family for the greater good, gaining his son’s trust.

The Mayflower Incident, the Grasshopper Space Station Incident, the Black Pearl Case… each time, he used Lancer’s ruthlessness step by step to control Wu Chenghe, and step by step pushed his former mentor into the abyss.

Unfortunately, the headstrong Lancer was completely oblivious. He joyfully walked into the traps Hannibal had set, heading towards his downfall.

Wu Chenghe looked at the gradually shrinking Tartaros planet in the three-dimensional holographic video, grateful that he and the NTU special agents had initiated the downfall of the Second Army, doing something for the original owner of this body.

Lancer was likely finished, but the vendetta of the Wu family was only half repaid. Hannibal was still at large, showing no signs of vulnerability.

“Don’t worry, Hannibal will pay the price for everything he’s done one day, and that day won’t be too far off,” Jin Xuan sensed his pain and anger through their consciousness link, holding his hand. “He’s not just your enemy; he’s an enemy of all humanity. The Federation won’t allow him to continue his madness.”

Wu Chenghe took a deep breath, suppressing the instinctive hatred in his heart, reminding himself to stay calm and composed, not to let personal hatred cloud his judgment, not to disrupt the NTU’s plans and cause trouble for the Federation. After a moment, he said, “I won’t act recklessly. You can rest assured. I’ll cooperate with the President’s plan.”

Jin Xuan’s eyes twitched. He embraced him and kissed his forehead, saying, “I won’t let you suffer for too long. Blood for blood, your family is my family, your mother is my mother… but your father, let’s just kick him out of the family tree.”

Wu Chenghe forced a smile. “He’s not my father; he’s just the enemy who killed my mother.” After a pause, he added, “I have a request: when you’re investigating the case, please also look into the situation of my family. I’ve lost my memory, and I don’t remember many things. Perhaps I still have distant relatives or close friends among them.”

“No problem,” Jin Xuan said. “I’ve always suspected Dean Mu. He looks too much like you, even the quantum beasts are identical. Have you ever thought about doing a genetic comparison to see if you’re related?”

Upon hearing Jin Xuan’s suggestion, Wu Chenghe also found it reasonable. Mu had always been exceptionally kind to him, protecting and nurturing him since the first day of school. Though his methods were somewhat unorthodox, his intentions were clear. “I’ll think of a way when I get back.”

Just then, Jin Xuan’s expression changed abruptly. “We have an alert!” 

Without hesitation, he returned to the control panel of the mecha. Through their shared consciousness link, Wu Chenghe sensed his thoughts and was equally startled. He fastened his seatbelt, preparing for the impact.

This intelligent mecha was directly connected to the pilot’s brain via neurons, forming a symbiotic relationship. Any external attacks on the mecha would be directly projected onto the pilot’s brain, and the pilot’s commands would be transmitted directly to the mecha through the brain.

With their marked shared consciousness, Wu Chenghe could sense most of the feedback from the mecha’s neurons. Theoretically, if he reacted quickly and had strong enough consciousness, he could even control Jin Xuan by controlling his mecha.

Just now, he sensed the mecha’s alarm—they were about to fly out of the near-earth defense line. Ten super mechas from the Tartaros mecha legion had been dispatched to intercept them. And ahead of their flight path, a massive dark shadow was approaching.

“[Quadrant Fleet],” Jin Xuan informed him through their consciousness link. “[The First Army, Hannibal is here!]”

Wu Chenghe took a deep breath. Jin Xuan continued, “[The Second Army has his informant. He must have received the message from Tartaros, so he’s trying to seize the victory fruit from us before the arrival of the NTU main force—he’s been eyeing the Second Army’s demise for a long time.]”

“What do we do now?” Wu Chenghe asked anxiously. “[He has the entire Quadrant Fleet, and we only have seven people. We’re no match for him!]”

“The NTU is on the way,” Jin Xuan said. “[We just need to hold him off, buy some time for the main force, and it’s still possible.]” He then connected to multiple communication channels and said, “It’s the Quadrant Fleet, prepare for interception.”

Yin Bo’s voice came in, “Who’s leading? Hannibal himself?”

“It’s highly probable,” Jin Xuan replied. “The Battle of Tartaros will determine the future ownership of the Second Army. Hannibal won’t pass up such a fat opportunity; he’s been coveting this piece for a long time.”

“The squadron just did the final curvature propulsion; they should be close,” Chang Gong’s voice chimed in. He and Qian Hua had abandoned the rotary-wing aircraft before flying out of the atmosphere and put on the exclusive mechas sent by Yan Shi. Chang Gong piloted a deep blue heavy combat mecha, while Qian Hua piloted a pure white rescue mecha with a red cross medic mark on the upper arm.

“Yan Shi, first try to negotiate with them,” Jin Xuan said. “Clarify our identity and put some pressure on the NTU. We’ll try to drag this out as long as possible.” 

An unfamiliar voice, calm and slow, spoke up, “Prepare for combat, children. I’ve already communicated with them, but they refuse to let me intervene in the communication.”

“What?” Chang Gong asked in surprise. “Yan Shi, what are you saying?”

Yan Shi’s voice remained calm and unhurried, “They refuse to acknowledge our identity or communicate with us, so be smart, let’s fight.”

Jin Xuan paused for a moment, then sneered, “I understand now; they want to take us down together… Fine, let’s fight.”

“They have an entire fleet,” Little Shanmei interjected softly, her tone filled with worry.

“We have the entire Federation,” Jin Xuan said solemnly. “For the Federation, fight!”

“Beat them!” Qian Hua exclaimed, “Sis has been itching to take them down for ages, for my queen! Holy moly!”

Wu Chenghe was puzzled. He asked Jin Xuan, “[What’s going on with her? What queen?]”

“[She’s a diehard fan of Lilith],” Jin Xuan explained. “[One fan is worth ten haters, understand?]”

“[…Got it.]”

 

 

 

 

 

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