At the headquarters of the Huaxia Front Council, the rapid patter of footsteps suddenly echoed down the corridors. "Frontline battle report...!"
"How is it?!" people turned to press from every corner.
"The traction field has been destroyed!" the reporting soldier said, his expression radiant with excitement, his voice trembling.
"Good!" Amid the cheers and laughter ringing through the halls, Chen Buer clenched his fist.
At this moment, even this unflappable old man couldn't help quickening his pace as he hurried back toward the meeting room.
Yet none of them knew that atop the snow-covered peak, an even greater joy awaited them. And with it, the story of a certain man—no, the stories of many men—were waiting for them to hear.
Just how deep was Azure's yearning for source energy spacecraft technology? Or rather, how dogged was their pursuit to research and harness source energy machinery?
It was the seemingly futile perseverance of generations of scientific minds through nearly a century without a single breakthrough.
It was the enduring conviction of nations that maintained "Fledgling Eagle," a permanent reserve air-combat force, despite never having launched a single source energy craft into the sky.
It was the longing to wage war among the stars, the dream of battling above the vault of heaven.
It was the bitter humiliation and forbearance of a superpower like Azure, where so many had willingly swallowed the threats of a petty outfit like "Voyage" just to secure a scrap of potentially useful technology.
The officials sent by the Alliance to question Chen Buer over that matter were still sitting in the conference room right now.
Regarding the failure of that technology exchange, the old man had uttered a single phrase. No matter who asked, his answer remained unchanged: *Whatever can be taken with a blade, we will take with a blade.*
His soldiers, and the blade-wielding warriors of Azure, were delivering on those words for him.
For him, they were hammering that declaration into reality, resounding and absolute, like steel slicing through iron.
Those words would crash down before the reckless fools of "Voyage," and before every urge toward compromise.
***
On the Xilang Peak battlefield, by the mothership at the summit.
The fighting suddenly dwindled into calm. No dazzling light flared in the sky anymore; the Great Spikes were self-destructing... Han Qingyu and Wu Xu still stood within the traction field, which flickered like the dying embers of a bonfire.
The only regret was that a single blue-light craft had escaped, slipping away with the small Red Shoulder aboard. Liu Yiwu and the other commanders conferred on the spot, putting their regrets aside to concentrate every ounce of their focus on this mothership.
Every inch of iron upon it held the potential for a quantum leap forward for Azure, the promise of victory for mankind.
As the orders came down, everyone present except Han Qingyu, Wu Xu, and Rusty Sister withdrew outside the ship. Apart from the cliff face, the remaining three sides were locked down in layered defenses, securing the Great Spike mothership behind an ironclad perimeter.
"Look... see... watch!" Liu Yiwu barked, running through virtually every word he knew for keeping watch. He jabbed a finger toward his own eyes and shouted to the blood-spattered soldiers before him, "Keep your eyes peeled, you little bastards! Do you understand how important this thing is?"
"With this, in the future, we'll fight them in the sky... fight them on the moon, fight them among the stars! Our homes won't get smashed, and our folks, wives, and kids won't have to live in fear of Great Spikes or get butchered by them!"
"Always Ready!" the foreign soldiers answered with grins.
"Don't worry, Corps Commander Liu!"
"I'm still short a wife and kid, though, Boss! Can the army set me up with one?"
The Huaxia soldiers traded irreverent banter with Liu Yiwu, and he didn't mind a bit.
Everyone was steeped in the joy of surviving disaster and tasting victory. Soldiers with foreign faces passed around lit cigarettes, gesturing and trading recollections of the battle they had just fought.
It was right in the middle of this atmosphere and camaraderie.
*Crack!*
A sudden sound of boulders tumbling down the precipice shattered the mood.
On the side of the mothership facing the cliff, a blue-sheened Great Spike hauled itself over the edge.
Considering that the blue-light craft was still wheeling in the sky without flying away... no one could tell whether the Red Shoulder was directing it, or if this blue-sheened spike had been deliberately left behind as a contingency. Otherwise, how could it have concealed itself in such a spot?!
Yet one thing was unmistakably clear: its target right now was not human beings, but the mothership.
The moment the blue-sheened Great Spike scrambled up from the cliff, it launched itself through the air toward the mothership, thrusting its column sword straight at a specific section of the hull... It seemed to possess a means of destroying the vessel.
*Whoosh!*
Too late. No one could react in time.
The distance was simply too short; every soldier standing in formation had no chance of intercepting it.
Liu Yiwu's heart plummeted. Every heart sank with his. Was the mothership going to be destroyed? ...The overwhelming joy from just moments ago was snuffed out in a heartbeat.
Amid the chorus of gasps, a gravelly roar detonated.
"Fuck your mother, ha!"
A figure hurled himself into the air, laughing as he cursed.
White Eraser, Liang Ge. A madman, foul-mouthed and reckless... Even Captain Wei Jiang was often left helpless and exasperated by him. This very bastard, simply because he hadn't wanted to stand guard or witness Han Qingyu walking out to receive everyone's gratitude, had crept along the thousand-meter precipice to sneak a smoke behind the mothership...
In this instant, the cigarette fell from his lips, its glowing ember tumbling downward toward the abyss below.
*Boom!*
Liang Ge's charging form collided head-on with the blue-sheened Great Spike just as its column sword was about to plunge into the hull.
The column sword impaled his abdomen straight through.
"Ha!" With a savage grimace, Liang Ge twisted his body in midair, throwing all his weight to force the Great Spike over the cliff's edge.
At the same time, he swung his blade in a ferocious slash at the spike's head. *Craack!* The cut went shallow.
By rights, his strength was nowhere near enough to stop a blue-sheened Great Spike.
Yet he hadn't planned on winning this fight at all. His sole intention was to drag the beast down with him. "I'll fuck your—"
Before he could finish the curse, his body and the blue-sheened spike plunged together into the chasm.
A figure burst from the charging crowd. Wei Jiang leaped forward, virtually risking falling into the abyss himself as he hurled his body over the brink and thrust out a hand, snatching Liang Ge by his collar.
That was his squadmate. A man of White Eraser.
"Liang Ge!"
Everyone froze in their tracks, staring at the scene before them.
Wei Jiang lay flat along the cliff's edge, one hand gripping Liang Ge's collar with white-knuckled desperation.
Liang Ge dangled in empty space. The massive column sword slowly slid free from his abdomen, following the blue-sheened Great Spike beneath him as it plummeted into the depths.
Blood gushed like an open fountain. Liang Ge lifted his head and, with immense effort, looked upward.
"Boss." Mouth brimming with blood, the rough-faced madman broke into a grin, flashing teeth stained crimson.
"...Yeah," Wei Jiang nodded.
"The face our squad lost..." Speech was turning difficult, but Liang Ge forced the words out. "The face I lost for White... did I win it all back this time?"
"You did. Every scrap of it," Wei Jiang said, his eyes rimmed in red as he nodded hard. "Our White Eraser has never had more face than today."
"Heh. Then am I... *cough*... am I the fiercest bastard in White Eraser?"
"Yes. You always have been." Wei Jiang strained to haul him up.
Liang Ge shook his head. His mangled body could no longer endure being pulled.
"Just bury me here, Boss. The proudest moment of my whole damn life is right here."
Liang Ge offered a smug grin and turned his head to look. Through blurring vision, the entire mountaintop was standing at attention, saluting him.
"The... the medal... make sure to put it in our trophy room. Put my name on it. Let all the little bastards who come after know that White once had a man named Liang Ge, and he was badass," he said in broken gasps.
"I will."
"Give me a smoke, Boss. My head's getting fuzzy."
"All right." Wei Jiang reached back with his other hand, taking a lit cigarette from a White Eraser squadmate behind him, and brought it to Liang Ge's lips.
Liang Ge parted his lips and took hold of it, drawing in a weak puff. The ember flared and dimmed... and his head slowly slumped forward.
"Right," with his very last breath, Liang Ge's voice faded to a whisper. "I... haven't disgusted that kid to death yet. Boss, you've gotta tell that punk what I did... I couldn't beat him, but... fuck if I'd ever bow down to him."
***
August 28, 1991. 1:24 AM.
Azure Huaxia Front, Sole Witness Legion, Ninth Army, White Eraser First Lieutenant Liang Ge fell in battle on the Xilang Peak battlefield.
Chapter 280