Stream Vanguard had previously hollowed out an enormous cavern beneath a desolate peak to park their airships. Now that both the Swordfish-class and Qing Spear-class were gone, only the smallest two-person Needlefish-class craft remained, tucked away against the wall in the corner.
On the flank of the quiet Needlefish was painted an oversized red moth.
In fact, it was not just the Needlefish; a while back, someone had secretly ordered all three source energy airships at the Third Fixed Exploration Site repainted.
That they had not been coated in tender pink was proof enough of the kindness in Rusty Sister and Milla's hearts.
After their new paint jobs, the three airships were finally given names by the soldiers: Little Red, Big Red, and Old Red.
This Little Red was the very ship Yang Qingbai had piloted when he "drove a train" across the sky.
Later, the craft had returned to the Azure air combat base, where numerous detailed refinements were made according to Yang Qingbai's descriptions and suggestions.
In terms of combat maneuverability, the upgraded Little Red was likely one of the most advanced airships humanity possessed.
Even so, a substantial gap still remained between it and the Great Spikes' craft.
Because all the extra hands had left, Wen Jifei, Yang Qingbai, Rusty Sister, and Zhe Qiuhong had to labor together for quite a while before finally concealing the massive cavern entrance.
By the time they returned to the off-road vehicle, the Han iron armor was already seated in the back row with his seatbelt fastened.
The car seats had originally been leather, but one had been accidentally scorched, so a large slab of dead iron was now laid down in its place.
As for Han Qingyu's current condition: to say he was strong, he might indeed be at his peak; to say he was miserable, it was true that he was in pain every single day; and to say he was weak was no lie either.
In his present state, if he were alone and ran into a blue-sheened Great Spike, he would most likely run—and he would not even be able to run fast.
This was also why Han Qingyu had said earlier that even if he went along to South America, he probably would not take the field.
If Wen Jifei and Rusty Sister had not stayed behind as well, he and Yang Qingbai would most likely have had to remain holed up in that cave indefinitely.
*Clang, clang...* Amid a series of metallic clatterings, Rusty Sister brushed the dirt from her hands and body, glanced up at Han Qingyu, and said sullenly, "You sure look like a lord and master."
Han Qingyu turned his head. "Then go ahead and address me as one."
"All right, Lord Toasted Snake."
While bickering, Rusty Sister and Zhe Qiuhong both climbed into the vehicle. Zhe Qiuhong was squeezed between two sets of iron armor, her stern, silent expression making for quite an amusing sight.
As usual, Yang Qingbai took the wheel. Wen Jifei cradled his sniper rifle in the passenger seat, buckled his seatbelt, and turned around to ask, "Where to now?"
"First meet up with Team Leader Lao and the others, then head north along the coast with them," Han Qingyu said.
"North?" Yang Qingbai glanced back toward the cave mouth where the craft was hidden, silently asking: *Is it really fine to get so far from Little Red?*
"Yeah. Northeast, to be precise, and probably not too far. Since the east is dangerous right now, the residents originally slated to evacuate from there are all heading north," Han Qingyu said, gesturing toward the communicator hanging behind the driver's seat. "Team Leader Lao just told me they received escort orders."
"Got it." Understanding now, Yang Qingbai started the engine and steered out through the winding valley.
Three Azure squads, including Squad 1777, were driving the vehicles Stream Vanguard had left behind, waiting for them outside.
With the Great Spike swarm pulling back overall, they could resume using vehicles.
Of course, the large-scale movement of civilians still did not dare employ vehicles, for fear that drawing an attack from Great Spike craft would lead to massive casualties.
***
Oceania coastline, east to northeast.
A long, massive column of civilians trudged silently through the night.
The column was not particularly wide—at most three to four people abreast—yet it stretched endlessly. It was so long that even if one stood watching for hours, neither the head nor the tail could be seen.
For safety reasons, the escort convoy did not dare draw too close, keeping just outside visual range as they trailed along while staying alert to broadcasts from the Rejectors, ready to charge in and assist at the first sign of trouble.
"There must be hundreds of thousands!" Wen Jifei stood on a high rise on the hill, scanning through his sniper scope for a long time. When he returned, his voice trembled with nervous tension.
Before, they had only heard that Oceania needed to evacuate twenty million people in total and that roughly six million had yet to leave. To them, those were merely abstract numbers.
Only now, seeing a civilian column of hundreds of thousands with his own eyes, did Wen Jifei truly grasp what kind of sight that was, and what colossal figures twenty million and six million actually represented.
"If... if the Great Spikes suddenly launch a massive descent..." Wen Jifei continued, "even if things look relatively safe right now, isn't Azure being far too reckless?"
Silence fell over the cabin.
They all understood that if such a scenario truly unfolded, even if Han Qingyu fought with everything he had, and even if Chen Buer, Bochen, and Christine were all present, they could not prevent the civilians from being slaughtered.
With so many civilians on the battlefield, there would be even less they could do.
"What else can Azure do?" Zhe Qiuhong said. "It wasn't easy to force the Great Spikes into a temporary retreat, and time is precious... After all, no one knows when they'll launch a counterattack. Under these circumstances, I don't think anyone could guarantee that splitting people into smaller groups and taking different routes wouldn't be an even more dangerous, worse choice. Even like this, I expect it'll take two or three nights of marching."
She made sense. Wen Jifei nodded.
"Besides, casualties are only normal, aren't they? With the world as it is, any idea of trying to protect everyone strikes me as foolish and ignorant," Zhe Qiuhong continued.
"Still..." Rusty Sister could not help but speak up.
"Over twenty million people have already died in this world. In the future, that figure might be a hundred million, two hundred million, maybe a billion, two billion... perhaps even more. Don't forget Azure's assessment of Daie—it and this wave of Great Spikes are most likely just the vanguard," Zhe Qiuhong said coldly.
Hearing such words was painful, yet none could refute them.
"Is that why Voyage has always wanted to leave?" Han Qingyu turned to look at her and asked. It sounded like an earnest inquiry, devoid of negative emotion.
"Yes. You can take that to mean Voyage has always held an absolutely pessimistic stance. But I believe that because of this, we are humanity's hope," Zhe Qiuhong said, meeting his gaze without flinching.
"Uh, is that so? I used to think you ran away from home and came to Azure on your own because you opposed Voyage's ideas, Doctor Zhe," Rusty Sister chimed in.
"No, that had nothing to do with it. I support them. That has been my belief since childhood; it has never changed." Zhe Qiuhong turned toward her.
"But hasn't your Voyage already gone over to... collaborated with Azure?" Rusty Sister asked, puzzled.
"...Yes." Zhe Qiuhong looked somewhat helpless.
"Looks like your objection didn't count," Rusty Sister said with a laugh. "Or maybe they didn't even consult you. Haha, that's what you get for staying in Azure all these years."
Rusty Sister had come close to mentioning Zhe Qiuhong's father and her brainless younger brother Zhe Shouzhao, but fortunately caught herself in time. She was only trying to lighten the mood.
Playing along with Rusty Sister, the atmosphere in the vehicle improved slightly, and Wen Jifei and Yang Qingbai let out dry chuckles as well.
"Actually, if you're pursuing this on your own, I don't object. In fact, you could say that mentally, I quietly support you," Han Qingyu said suddenly.
At his words, Zhe Qiuhong, Rusty Sister, and Yang Qingbai all stared in shock. It was utterly unexpected—Qingzi actually supported fleeing—no, Project Fireseed?
"Did the heat bake your brains?" Rusty Sister reached over, tapping Han Qingyu's chest with a fingertip—*clack, clack*, dead iron striking dead iron.
"Get lost!" Han Qingyu swatted her hand away and said, "Is it that strange? In a world with so many people, isn't it a good thing for a portion of them to try finding another way out?"
Zhe Qiuhong said, "But when I asked for your thoughts before, you said..."
"Oh, back then I said Azure cannot do it." Han Qingyu paused, then turned back and said, "They absolutely cannot. Nor can Stream Vanguard."
"Why? Why is it that Azure can't do it, and even Stream Vanguard can't?"
"Because Azure cannot take away all the people who took up blades to fight because they believed in it. Much less can it take away the families and loved ones they truly fight for. If so, who gets to leave? The councilmen?"
Zhe Qiuhong said, "A set of principles could be established first, and then, based on those principles, people could be selected fairly across all humanity."
Han Qingyu countered, "No. There is no fairness beneath power and martial might. For instance, if I want to board the ship, and I want to bring my village's ninety-two-year-old Third Grandpa who herds cattle along, who could stop me?"
Zhe Qiuhong was speechless.
Han Qingyu continued, "So, the same goes for Stream Vanguard now. We can't carry that many people. I can't just say, 'Mom, Dad, get on the ship; Plague Chicken, bring your girlfriend onto the ship,' and then abandon thousands of Stream Vanguard fighters and their families."
"...Then what will you do?"
"So I will take every single one of them with me, and we'll keep fighting on together," Han Qingyu said.
In that instant, the cabin fell utterly silent.
Zhe Qiuhong turned silently to look at Wen Jifei, who had remained calm and quiet the entire time.
*They know my identity. With Han Qingyu's straightforward mind, there's no way he figured it out. So it has to be Plague Chicken.*
In truth, Zhe Qiuhong had indeed been in contact with people from Voyage during this period.
The arrival of this sweeping Great Spike invasion meant that little time remained. Leaning on Azure's Project Fireseed, they had to accelerate their progress.
Under such circumstances, no matter how carefully Zhe Qiuhong acted, certain details were bound to leak. And those details had been caught by Wen Jifei—or perhaps the Little Prince as well.
*How much do they know? The exact whole of it? No, probably not.*
*Qingzi's words just now were really his way of making his stance clear to me.*
Zhe Qiuhong reflected on it, sensing an attitude of "not angry about it, but truly walking different paths." Han Qingyu had even expressed understanding and support for her choice.
*So they probably don't know what we're doing within Azure.*
Unlike organizations such as Pure Purgatory that spread despair and panic across the outside world, Voyage's current strategy was to spread despair and panic among targeted high-ranking officials within Azure, thereby securing their full support for Project Fireseed.
In this world at present, only Azure had the potential to realize Project Fireseed.
*They shouldn't know about that yet...*
Zhe Qiuhong's emotions were deeply tangled. She could not voluntarily confess Voyage's plans. Perhaps she ought to get out of the vehicle right here, but she hesitated and said nothing.
Averting her gaze from Wen Jifei's eyes and the faint smile at the corners of his lips, Zhe Qiuhong looked out the window, ultimately choosing not to lay everything bare.
"Why did it get so quiet all of a sudden?" Yang Qingbai asked blankly as he drove, sensing the strange atmosphere.
Then—
"Hmph!"
Rusty Sister suddenly let out a huff.
Mixed into that sound was likely anger, but also put-on disdain... and beneath the pretense, a subtle desire for someone to ask why she was upset.
"What's wrong?" Han Qingyu asked, puzzled.
"'...Mom, Dad, get on the ship; Plague Chicken, bring your girlfriend onto the ship.'" Embellishing her tone with dramatic flair, Rusty Sister repeated the example Han Qingyu had just used, then said, "I wasn't in any of that."
Han Qingyu: "..."
"Why didn't you keep listing examples? Go on, who's third? Who's fourth, fifth... Anyway, you definitely wouldn't think of me in your top ten."
While saying this, Rusty Sister desperately wished Han Qingyu would cut her off, but he simply listened in quiet, earnest silence until she finished.
"So," Han Qingyu hesitated briefly after hearing her out, then asked gently and seriously, "if there really were a Project Fireseed, would you want to leave, Rusty Sister?"
"Of course not," Rusty Sister said decisively. "I wouldn't leave... I just wanted to be named in the example. And, well, I was a little curious about where I'd rank."
Chapter 681