Squad 1923

"Report!" The figure of a running soldier appeared along the street where fighting raged on all sides. "Speak." Zhang Chiyuan looked back. Behind him lay once-bustling streets and high-rises steadily crumbling into ruins. "The Rejecters report that the situation in Linzhou is secure. At the same time, our ground surveillance indicates that the Great Spike craft heading toward Linzhou are gradually decreasing in number." Having delivered the official report, the soldier relaxed his rigid posture, leaned forward a bit, and said with marvel in his eyes, "Isn't their interception over there a bit too incredible, Commander?" So far, a preliminary pattern had emerged across Azure's global battlefronts: whenever strong resistance appeared somewhere, the Great Spikes would continuously deploy reinforcements until all active forces were eliminated. They seemed to be hunting down and systematically wiping out humanity's high-tier combat power. Of course, this might also be an early-war tactic to probe and gather intelligence regarding high-tier human combatants. Yet in the battle unfolding in Linzhou today, the Great Spike craft had gone from sparse to heavy, surging forward in dense swarms, only to now actively dwindle. In reality, they had achieved no results whatsoever. This likely meant they were preparing to give up. "You call that an interception?" Amid the heavy and grueling combat, finding a piece of uplifting news was rare. Zhang Chiyuan mulled it over, looking up with a smile in his eyes. "I'd say it's more like a slaughter." A slaughter? Slaughtering Great Spikes—and that many craft? The soldier froze, picturing the scene in his mind, and stammered, "Isn't... isn't that a bit too much... I mean, isn't that a bit too easy? It has me in a daze for a second. If we weren't fighting here ourselves, I'd almost think humanity held the upper hand." "...Use your head!" Zhang Chiyuan glared at him in annoyance, grumbling, "Do you even know who you're talking about? Wu Xu, Wen Jifei, Shen Yixiu... If even they couldn't cut down ordinary Great Spikes with ease, what the hell would the rest of us in this world even be struggling for?" With that, a heavy mood seemed to wash over him again. Zhang Chiyuan turned and strode back toward the dense combat zone. An accompanying aide caught up. "Report..." "Cut the 'report' and just say it." Zhang Chiyuan sounded irritable, but knowing him well, the soldiers were not rattled. "Yes, Commander. Something just crossed my mind... I'm worried the Great Spikes might dispatch a Red Shoulder to Linzhou! It seems that's happened abroad—wherever the battle was going well, a Red Shoulder showed up." The aide's eyes were filled with worry. "Is that so?" Zhang Chiyuan turned back to look at him. His brow furrowed, then smoothed out as he muttered to himself, "But if a single Red Shoulder goes, wouldn't it just die right there? Most likely. "Regardless, go quickly. Remind the Rejecters to keep a close eye, and have them warn the team to be careful as well." Zhang Chiyuan waved the aide away and continued forward. *Actually, if that brat is there too, or somewhere nearby, even two Red Shoulders would be walking to their deaths. No need to worry—they have source energy aircraft after all,* Zhang Chiyuan thought to himself, putting his mind at ease. *** Inside the two-person Needlefish-class source energy aircraft, only Han Qingyu and Yang Qingbai were aboard. His and Wen Jifei's hometown was also in Yuejiang Province, just tucked away toward the northwestern corner. On their return trip, Han Qingyu and Yang Qingbai had deliberately chosen to take a wide arc along the battlefield's edge to observe the situation as they went. The aircraft flew at blistering speed. All along the way, Han Qingyu monitored the outside through the craft's built-in observation scopes. The dark clouds in the distant sky and everything on the ground swept past his vision like layers of fleeting phantoms. "Qingbai," Han Qingyu called out suddenly, looking up. "What is it?" Yang Qingbai asked, glancing back. "With this setup, what's the fastest way to reach Tu Zi?" Han Qingyu pointed at the headset he was wearing, adding, "Circle back first." "Got it." Without asking why, Yang Qingbai directly shifted the control stick to carry out the order, saying, "Switch to 57dqnbnbh on the control console in front of you. That's a new frequency Tu Zi secretly set up for us." The call connected quickly. "What happened, Brother Qingzi?" Tu Zi's hoarse, anxious voice came through on the other end. "Is my family's side definitely okay?" Han Qingyu asked straight away. "It's very certain for now," Tu Zi replied. "Besides, there was something else I didn't get to finish before. You cut me off and said you already knew... Brother Qingzi, do you really know who else is at your house besides the perimeter squad?" "My house?! Who?!" Han Qingyu was completely taken aback. "General Jiang." "..." "General Jiang has been living out his retirement at your home for over three years now." "...What?! Then my parents..." "Uncle and Aunt don't know. They only think of General Jiang as that old monk who was close to you years ago—elderly, forgetful, and homeless—so they took him in and looked after him," Tu Zi said. "The year before last, the Legion Commander visited your hometown in person. When he came back, he said that since General Jiang had finally found a place where he could settle down peacefully and happily, he should be allowed to enjoy his retirement there." "Oh, okay, I understand." That was Jiang Longchi... Han Qingyu's heart instantly settled. In truth, the first thought that had crossed his mind a moment earlier was: *Do they pay? Azure has to cover the retirement expenses, right?* He didn't say it out loud, because he had an even more pressing matter at hand. "Can the Rejecters monitor specific ground conditions right now?" Han Qingyu asked instead. "We can barely manage the central battle zone. We don't have the capacity for other areas," Tu Zi said. "What's wrong, Brother Qingzi?" "Nothing. That'll do for now. Stay busy, hang in there." Han Qingyu disconnected the call and turned to Yang Qingbai. "Qingbai, do you remember the route we took coming here?" "I definitely remember the general route, though maybe not precisely. What's up?" Yang Qingbai asked. "Turn back, and fly slower," Han Qingyu said. "Just now, because we were going too fast, it flashed by in an instant. I don't know if my eyes were playing tricks on me... but I think I saw a school. There were our fighters down there, as well as Great Spikes—and a lot of people." *** Wucheng, outside the gates of a small cluster of buildings. Squad 1923, Ninth Army, Sole Witness Legion, Azure Huaxia Front. Out of forty-one combat personnel, twenty-seven remained standing. Before them lay the bodies of their comrades, alongside the corpses of three Great Spikes. As an ordinary combat squad, they had just fought like madmen in a battle against four Great Spikes at once, slaying three of them in a bath of blood. Yet now, not far ahead, three more stood. Two extras had dropped down just as victory seemed within their grasp. At this point, the surviving members of Squad 1923 could no longer even form two arrays. And behind them was Wucheng Second Experimental Primary School. In the distance were parents weeping, desperately searching for their children.