We Have to Go

"What? You're saying Pink Hair is on Mars?!" He Tangtang had dragged the Little Prince over purely to show off his speed, without bothering to ask along the way why he was looking for Qingzi in the first place. Now that he finally knew, an intensely startled look crossed his face. "So... could he really have survived by eating Great Spikes?" The Little Prince hadn't caught his breath yet and could not be bothered to acknowledge him. Han Qingyu glanced at him, thought for a moment, and offered no answer either. He and Wen Jifei had a general idea about this. Given Pegmont's godlike, buggy trait, he most likely did not need to eat anything at all to survive. As long as he sincerely, blindly, and muddle-headedly believed he could survive, that was enough. Unfortunately, fate had intervened. Back when everyone was offering Pegmont their parting advice, He Tangtang, clutching a high-grade communicator, had chimed in over the channel: "Don't worry, Brother Peg, you can survive by eating Great Spikes from now on. That stuff is totally edible." So, over these past ten-plus months, Brother Pegmont had probably actually been eating Great Spikes on Mars the entire time. "Then he's definitely eaten more of them than I have now!" No one paid any attention to his question, but He Tangtang did not mind. He stood there furrowing his brows in deep thought, muttering to himself, seemingly worried that his reputation as the "Spike-Eating Demon" would now be stolen by Pink Hair. "Don't worry, you have plenty of nicknames anyway. Giving up one won't hurt." Rustle, rustle... Wen Jifei leapt straight from the helicopter into the tree canopy, calling out as he slid down through the branches. Without even bothering to tidy himself up, he ran straight toward Han Qingyu and asked joyfully, "Alive?!" "Alive." Han Qingyu nodded with a smile—one that was both genuinely heartfelt and slightly tinged with the absurd, speech-robbing feeling of *damn it, he really did*. The two of them had actually discussed it privately several times in the past. Their conclusion had always been that Pink Hair most likely would not die; it was just a matter of whether he could be found, or whether he could come back. Before this, while ninety-nine percent of the world was praying and hoping while inwardly assuming that Pegmont had likely fallen, the two of them were among the few who firmly believed he was still alive. Apart from them, the only others who believed this were a handful of people: the few members of the Azure Board of Elders, Speaker Kemore, General Bochen, and a scarce few others. Otherwise, no matter how vital Pegmont was to the future of humanity, and no matter the steadfast promise once made by the Refusers, how could Azure have hurled more than two hundred source energy aircraft into outer space without the slightest hesitation—and even promised to keep building and launching them indefinitely? That was a mountain of source energy and dead iron, which could easily turn out to be a bottomless pit, a gamble that flushed resources endlessly down the drain. "He's on Mars. An Azure exploration craft just intercepted his distress signal. It says the Great Spikes that retreated from Antarctica have set up a tractor field on Mars." As Han Qingyu spoke, the eye contact between him and Wen Jifei gradually grew heavy. For people like them who had constantly fought at humanity's front lines, neither Pegmont's situation nor the gravity of a Martian tractor field required any time to ponder or analyze. In that distress signal, Pegmont had not mentioned a single word about asking Azure to send a ship to pick him up. His entire focus was on reporting the tractor field's existence... That was not a good sign. It meant that when he spoke, he did not have much confidence in whether he could handle the tractor field himself. In that case, what would likely happen next, and the response humanity was bound to take, naturally surfaced. *Someone will probably have to go to Mars.* The answer was in their hearts, unspoken for the moment. In truth, Han Qingyu naturally did not want to go to Mars. It would be hard to explain to his mother, to tell her he was just visiting a friend out of town or taking a little trip... Yet he was prepared for it. It was just like during school days, when a teacher would say in class, "Certain students in our class..." Merely saying that, without naming names or pointing with their eyes, was enough for those students to know exactly whom the teacher meant. When "the world might need someone to go to Mars," and Chen Buer was frail while General Bochen was severely injured and had yet to regain his strength... Han Qingyu knew that his vacation of nearly a year was most likely coming to an end. "Speaking of which, back in Antarctica, when Daie forced you away, if that guy hadn't sprinted alone onto the Pole battlefield first, running laps around our battle formation through the swarms of Great Spikes... hardly any of us would have made it back in the end," Wen Jifei said with a soft laugh. It was the kind of laugh that belonged only to soldiers who had walked through life and death for so long, having seen countless comrades fall with their own eyes. "So, if someone really has to go, we have to go." Not only was Han Qingyu keenly aware of this, Wen Jifei and the Little Prince quickly realized it as well. Even Wu Xu, who had just arrived and listened to the explanation, silently looked up at the sky... After looking, his expression was rather sour, his thoughts running something like: *Where is Mars? How do we get there? Will I get lost? If I get lost over there, will it be even harder to find my way back?* The reason Xu'er tended to get lost on Blue Star was that most of the time, even when he knew he was lost, he would not shout, call for help, or ask for directions. On Mars, if he accidentally wandered too far and actually wanted to shout or ask, there might not even be anyone around to ask. Having considered this, he glanced at Han Qingyu. *Once we go, I have to stick close to Qingzi,* Wu Xu told himself inwardly. "Hey, do you think Pink Hair boils or roasts the Great Spikes he eats on Mars? Can he even make fire there? Does he smoke? Could he be rubbing sticks together to make fire? By the way, is there firewood there?" He Tangtang snapped out of his own worries and suddenly looked up to ask. "..." Of all the people present, he was probably the only one who still did not understand the situation. No, there was one more: the one who had sprinted blindly for minutes before finally realizing no one was chasing her, and had sneaked back to watch covertly... Liaison Officer Yang Tieyu, presently hiding behind a tree trunk not far away. "By the way, is she going?" Wen Jifei asked in a low voice. "I doubt many people will be qualified to go this time... and if all of us go, we probably couldn't stop her if we tried." In his phrase "all of us," Han Qingyu had naturally excluded Wen Jifei by default, but he could not exclude Rusty Sister. Even though she was terrified of blades right now and looked utterly helpless, she was genuinely, extraordinarily strong. "Regardless, let Azure know first to prepare her new iron armor. Remember to send a gift so Jiang Chou will forge it personally." After giving Wen Jifei the quiet instruction, Han Qingyu sheathed his blade behind his back, glanced at that tree, turned around, and said, "Let's go. Have Azure patch through the live communications to me." *** The Azure Council chamber. The recess had just ended, and the hall had not yet fully quieted down. "Report!" A soldier rushed in, shouting from the doorway. Speaker Kemore turned around. "What is it?" "Reporting! Major Qing—er, Stream Blades just contacted us. They're demanding to be patched directly into the ongoing communications feed. Do we... do we allow it?" The soldier seemed unprepared with his phrasing, hesitating as he asked. After all, this was a matter of enormous magnitude, miraculous nature, and high secrecy. "Of course we allow it! Even if I'm not permitted to listen, he must be allowed to hear it, understand?!" Speaker Kemore responded decisively. Inwardly, he thought: *You young man are really not thinking straight. For something like this, even if Stream Blades and Major Qing didn't want to listen, we'd have to beg them to! Isn't humanity's finest fighting force right over there right now?* So, now that Stream Blades was willing to intervene of their own accord... "Thank you." Kemore felt a slight ease in his chest. Rumors circulated across the world that the relationship between Stream Blades and Pegmont had always had some friction, not particularly friendly... That was most likely true. Even without an investigation, it was obviously true. Because with someone like Pegmont, no ordinary, normal person could ever get along with him. As for the folks in Stream Blades, ordinary people could not establish very friendly relationships with them either. Yet none of that had ever hindered their mutual respect as humanity's strongest echelon, nor the trust and tacit understanding to aid one another and fight side by side to the death whenever necessary. In Antarctica, Pegmont had done it once before. Now, without demanding a single explanation, Stream Blades had made up their minds to do the same the moment they heard the news.