Chapter 45: Can you forgive me?
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
“Ah…” Ika blinked and replied, “I used the ship’s power to slowly convert it, and it took about… seven hundred and thirty-five days and thirteen hours.”
Ika said the number with resignation and regret when he thought that the shuttle, which had taken so long to store energy, would be blown up.
Heinrich pressed his temples, “Seventeen months ago the quartermaster told me that the Victoria was consuming energy at an abnormal rate, and he never found out the cause, but the problem was in your independent lab.”
Ika tilted his head, neither denying nor hiding.
Lin Xu asked, “How are you going to detonate it?”
Lin Xu’s question lifted Ika’s spirits, “The shuttle can emit a cluster of ultra-high-energy particles, and I can control the weapon system from a distance, and the collision of the ultra-high-energy particles will create a Black hole.”
“You want the black holes to devour each other?” Heinrich asked.
“No, no, the Black hole will radiate extremely high-energy gamma rays, and the gamma rays will detonate the strong compression energy, automatically detonate the space shuttle, and the projector will take advantage of the gap to leave. Dr. Lin, what do you think?”
Ika’s eyes shone brightly at Lin Xu, as if he was a student expecting his teacher to comment on a new idea. Lin Xu froze for a moment and answered deliberately, “I don’t know much about the current framework of human technology, but as the actual designer of the shuttle, you yourself know more about the details.”
“Humanity’s current technology is no different from that of three hundred years ago, and we have not yet reached the end of the framework.” Ika said something that drifted from the topic, and with Lin Xu’s affirmation, began to discuss the specifics of the operation with Heinrich, “Marshal, can you and Captain Cassandra complete the operation?”
“Calculate the escape time left for the mecha,” Heinrich looked at the rolling yellow sand, “after breaking the Zerg’s blockade, the drop operation is not difficult. Are you sure you can complete the remote manipulation in the strong gravitational field conditions near the black hole?”
“I confirm.” Ika scratched the silver eye necklace, “Please, believe I learned black hole technology beyond the Empire’s highest level.”
“Okay.”
Heinrich confirmed to Ika that after the shuttle turned on the cluster shot weapon, the black hole gravitational field effect was calculated, the ray and explosion had a ripple range of one hundred and twenty kilometers. It was not so large as to destroy the entire planet, and mecha had five seconds to evacuate. Blizzard needed to increase its flight speed to maximum within three seconds to complete the evacuation.
The LK809 lagged behind Blizzard and could not enter the 30 km radius of the blast site to avoid being affected. It would cover Blizzard during the pre-flight to break through the Zerg encirclement, but the denser Zerg encirclement within 30 kilometers could only be faced by Heinrich alone.
“Ika, record the remote operation program into Blizzard, then go to LK809 with Lin Xu.”
“Oh, okay.” Ika quickly completed the relevant operations and sent the command mnemonic to Heinrich’s console, getting up and waiting for Lin Xu to go with him, the cockpit hatch already unlocked at the AI’s icy beep, heat waves pouring in along the cracks. But Lin Xu sat still, “Ika, you go over, I’ll stay on Blizzard.”
“Oh.” Ika turned towards the hatch and did whatever Lin Xu said.
“Lin Xu…” Heinrich looked at Lin Xu’s calm face, Heinrich’s brow appeared as just a shallow crease, but the knuckles of his hand gripping the joystick were white, exposing raised bruises and veins, he was not as calm as his tone. Ika paused, pondering whether, for the sake of politeness, he should stay and listen for a while.
“Am I lacking a spot on Marshal’s mecha?” Lin Xu asked rhetorically, raising his eyes back.
Heinrich said bluntly, “LK809 is safer.”
“You think you’ll fail?”
“… No.”
“Then there is no difference between the safety of the LK809 and Blizzard.” Lin Xu said, “Ika, you go over there.”
“Oh.” The stopped Ika turned away, and Lin Xu and Heinrich’s stilted conversation was quickly cut off by the thick cockpit hatch, and LK809 picked Ika up when it saw him emerge.
On the mecha, Cassandra was stone-faced, debugging the mecha functions. The next trip through the Zerg encirclement would definitely be a vicious battle, and even if she was only responsible for cover, there was no guarantee of absolute safety.
But compared to Blizzard going deep into the Zerg source, near the black hole, LK809’s mission was quite routine and safe. Ryan was also worried about this, sighing anxiously, and when he handed Ika a towel to wipe his sweat, he saw Ika’s calm demeanor and couldn’t help but say, “I’m really worried about Professor Lin…”
“Why are you worried about him?”
Ryan froze, “He’s my teacher, of course I’m…”
“That’s…Dr. Lin! He’ll be fine. You should trust him like I do.” Ika said.
—
Heinrich had no way to persuade Lin Xu to leave, but was silent as he pulled off the mental energy link helmet and put it on.
The scout plane returned again, bringing back more detailed information on the Zerg swarm, and Heinrich and Cassandra confirmed the battle plan before launching Blizzard. The engines continued to hum and build up power, and seconds before takeoff, Heinrich broke the silence, “Lin Xu, you don’t have to stay.”
Lin Xu was looking down to check his seat belt and said in passing, “Don’t you want me to stay?”
Heinrich hesitated for a moment, but finally didn’t answer. He didn’t want to. A rational person should avoid harm, and he wanted Lin Xu to be safe, so he let Lin Xu go to LK809. Reason exists and if Lin Xu held the same position, he would have made the same judgment as Heinrich.
But Lin Xu’s use of the rhetorical question “don’t you” instead of stating the stakes line by line suggested that he was not just asking Heinrich, but also implicitly suggesting that he was staying because he wanted to stay. He is not just asking Heinrich, but also implicitly suggesting that he wanted to stay. He did not care about what was at stake, whether it was life or death.
Heinrich… Of course he wanted Lin Xu to stay with him, at all times. The thought was selfish and dangerous. Many things flashed through his mind in a split second.
“Lin Xu, can you forgive me?”
“What?” The unspoken words put Lin Xu on instant alert, his body tensing as he held onto the driver’s seat and jerked upright, almost thinking Heinrich was ready to eject him from his seat with an emergency lifeboat. His gray pupils were fixed on Heinrich, whose hands did not move, but his throat tensed and felt dry at the sight of Lin Xu’s movement.
“You didn’t have to come here and end up in the situation you’re in. I was the one who tricked you into getting on the Victoria, and kept a lot from you.”
So that was all Heinrich wanted to say. Lin Xu relaxed and leaned back in his seat, and Heinrich looked at him, waiting for his answer and pronouncement, a deep emotion in his eyes. The engine hummed, yet the two seemed to be quiet.
“Have I ever blamed you?” Lin Xu asked. Oh, it seemed that he hadn’t. He blamed Heinrich for his aversion to people full of scheming ideas, like himself, and distanced himself from Heinrich for it. But now that instinct had beaten reason, he didn’t care about that. Lin Xu paused and added, “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
At the sound of his voice, the engine successfully fired up and started, the constant mechanical vibrations turned into smooth operation, and Heinrich’s tense expression loosened and seemed to be soothed. Cassandra’s voice came over the comm channel, “Mecha LK809, pilot Cassandra is in position, please advise!”
Heinrich sat upright and looked off into the distance with a steely gaze, “Mecha Blizzard, pilot Heinrich Chu, LK809, please depart as scheduled.”
Blizzard’s mechanical arm grabbed and lifted the shuttle and took off towards the black hole coordinates, piercing through the long whistling winds, loud noises and human genetic signals that caught the Zerg’s attention on this lifeless planet.
Blizzard climbed with the air currents above LK809, and within moments, a scattering of Zerg located the two mecha and launched their attack.
As the LK809 drew Zerg fire from below, fire and smoke filled the sky as Blizzard continued to advance, shooting down several winged D-Class Zerg along the way. Inside the cockpit, Heinrich and Lin Xu could see the black hole opening up on the ground and the Zerg pouring out of it in great numbers.
In mid-air, the Zerg swarm flew in the shape of a tornado and headed for space.
Zerg couldn’t distinguish between dragon and mermaid genes, but in years of fighting humans, they have engraved the humanoid mecha equal enemy code into their genes.
Upon seeing the gunmetal gray Blizzard in mid-air, the Zerg, originally on the ground, began to chirp shrilly and take off, their wings vibrating at high frequencies with a back-breaking hum.
After Heinrich fired automatic tracking missiles to destroy several clusters of low-level Zerg, these clusters of Zerg immediately turned into a scattering of sand, fluttering their wings and trying to rush towards the culprit. However, Blizzard was able to break through the circle of F-Class Zerg with its own solidity alone.
Lin Xu held onto his seat as the fuselage shook violently on impact.
Heinrich gave him a look and raised his altitude once again to fly around the F-Class Zerg swarm.
The black hole that had appeared in view was still seventy kilometers away from Blizzard. The density of the Zerg gradually increased and the probability of the appearance of high-class Zerg began to rise.
Heinrich steered Blizzard to make a difficult 720-degree turn to avoid a B-Class Zerg, which was left behind due to flight inertia and was beheaded by a lightsaber from LK809 following them.
Blizzard’s movements were smooth, fine and fluid, which was the advantage of the mechamental energy maneuvering system. The disadvantage of energy maneuvering also came from this. The pilot’s brain had to process a lot of information at the same time, and if the mental energy and will were not strong enough, there was always the risk of overload.
They progressed to fifty kilometers. A wave of B-Class Zerg rotated their extended multiple eyes, accurately capturing the trajectory of Blizzard and began firing biological missiles. Blizzard maneuvered intricately to avoid the corrosive material, only to be impaled on the leg by an A-Class iron beetle’s foot limb on the way. A muffled grunt escaped from the corner of Heinrich’s mouth, and his right leg shook and was pinned down again.
Blizzard’s light saber was charged up and pierced the brain of the A-Class Iron Beetle, then cut off the limb and immediately accelerated to avoid the Iron Beetle, which was twice the size of Blizzard. They traveled to 40 kilometers.
A squad of five B-Class Poison Winged Zerg met Heinrich. The Zerg above C-Class had already acquired a strong sense of combat strategy and a sense of association beyond biological instinct, sometimes even more difficult than the A-Class Zerg alone.
They found that the shuttle caught by the robot arm appeared to be important to Blizzard. Two of them led the attack on the shuttle, and when Blizzard split its weapons to protect the shuttle, the other three went around to the back of Blizzard to attack.
The mecha detection system simultaneously transmitted image signals to Heinrich in all directions, and the shoulder-mounted turrets activated, firing intense light-energy rounds at the group of poisonous winged insects.
The two poisonous winged zerg below screamed and lunged at the front of the mecha, getting shot in both eyes by the high-energy rays from the mecha’s chest. In order to save energy, Heinrich did not turn on the ray to its maximum power. He killed the poisonous winged insects with a single sword when they temporarily lost control. They travelled to thirty-five kilometers.
Lin Xu covered his ears in pain, and Heinrich immediately turned on the anti-sonic attack device. But the attack wasn’t over yet. Behind the Zerg squad was a huge, bloated A-Class Zerg that was bulging its abdominal lamellar armor, emitting audible noise, and inaudible waves of mental attacks. It was a Mayen Zerg! This Zerg’s mental attack ability could penetrate mecha’s mental manipulation system and directly damage the pilot’s mental energy.
The author has something to say.
Ika? Ika front row provides an annihilator cannon button, universal modifier, the Silver Fortress security system, sub-planet star energy weapon…
What a techno-geek! Tactical backward
The next chapter to end the battle to fall in love, after the fight with the Zerg is Earth!
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