The dedicated communications base station erected on the Martian surface by the Human Expeditionary Force had already been destroyed in the earlier fighting. Subsequent communications had relied entirely on the relays built into the two space motherships. Now, as the evacuating fleet flew farther and farther away, Wen Jifei's final transmission gradually grew intermittent, fading into garbled fragments...
Soon, even the last faint hiss of static vanished entirely into the thin Martian air.
Visuals lost, communications severed, and no hope of Blue Star reinforcements in the near term... From this moment on, no one knew what fate awaited the thirty thousand isolated human soldiers remaining on Mars.
After all, tens of thousands of Great Spikes remained there as well.
Considering the disparity in individual combat strength, despite the seemingly comparable numbers, humanity's situation remained brutally difficult and perilous.
"At this point, we can only hope that most of their Daie-class Great Spikes boarded the ships to join the pursuit."
"And then, maybe Tangtang will eat up the ones left behind, just like he promised me."
"I'm sorry. I really never imagined that the person left behind in the end would be you. You reckless, utterly clueless idiot. You damn well better survive, Tangtang."
Having thought this, Wen Jifei exhaled deeply. His head felt dizzy and heavy; he simply sat down, leaned back against the bulkhead beside the hatchway, and closed his eyes.
The ancients said the martial world makes youth grow old.
Now, the youths of this era were growing old on the battlefields of a civilizational war, growing heavy under the weight of maturity beyond their control.
Looking back over these years, though the road had been fraught with hardship and peril, repeatedly forcing them to gamble their lives, an opportunity had always presented itself, and they had always emerged victorious. In that enduring streak, Wen Jifei's reputation had grown, his confidence had mounted, and he had felt completely in his element, handling everything with ease—whether commanding the battlefield or organizing and building Stream Blades.
"Back then, without realizing it, habit turned into conviction. I thought the story would just go on like that—that Qingzi and the rest of us would keep winning forever."
"Even with this Mars expedition, though many warned beforehand of grave danger and feared there would be no return, I didn't feel much of that dread or anxiety."
"Old Xu was right."
Old Xu was, of course, Xu Xiaohong, Chief of Staff of the Huaxia Front for decades, the only active-duty member remaining on the Azure Board of Elders, and rumored to be the only person in all humanity capable of keeping the invincible-under-heaven Chen Buer in check.
Just as there were dozens of legion commanders in the world, yet if someone vaguely mentioned those two words without a name or surname, everyone assumed by default they meant Chen Buer—likewise, among Azure officers of general rank and above, Xu Xiaohong had always been the sole default referent of the title "Chief of Staff."
For years, people said Second Lieutenant Wen would be the Chief of Staff's successor, that so long as he was willing, he would one day become the pillar holding up the Huaxia Front.
Yet Xu Xiaohong himself had never deliberately guided or groomed Wen Jifei. The Chief of Staff did not like teaching people. He said that most people didn't need his teaching, and he couldn't teach them anyway; while for others, teaching them would only ruin them.
In his memory, the only time the Chief of Staff had seemed inclined to offer Wen Jifei some guidance was last year.
At the time, during a core high-level Azure conference, Wen Jifei and He Tangtang had also attended. After the meeting adjourned in the evening, when the sunset and evening breeze were just right, Xu Xiaohong had invited the two of them for a stroll.
More accurately, an aimless walk. The old man had walked very slowly with his hands clasped behind his back and a hunched posture. Along the way, he had asked about their families, their love lives, and all sorts of romantic gossip about Qingzi, Xu'er, and the others in Stream Blades. Only when they were heading back did he suddenly turn his head and ask, "Do you know when I finally grew up, when I truly became myself?"
"Eighteen?" He Tangtang had said. "How am I supposed to know what age you got laid!"
The Chief of Staff had said, "Would you kindly piss off first."
He Tangtang had beaten it.
Wen Jifei's eyes had held a hint of bewilderment.
"When that reckless brute Chen 'died' for the first time," Xu Xiaohong answered on his own. "During the period when I believed Huaxia and humanity would never again have Chen Buer, I decided to hold the line. And I truly held the resistance across Huaxia's ten million square kilometers together—only then did I truly become myself."
"In those three years, I saw a hundred thousand fall. With my own hands, I pushed batch after batch of soldiers into desperate, fight-to-the-death battles. I buried hundreds of geniuses and renowned generals. Those bloodstained hands choke my throat night after night."
He had said that, and once finished, he walked away, quickly returning to his appearance as an ordinary little old man, claiming he was off to drink.
Wen Jifei knew what the old man had actually been asking—and what he wanted Wen Jifei to ask himself: "If one day Han Qingyu is no more, what will you do?"
Back then, there had been no answer to that question.
Not until today on Mars, when for the first time in his life he faced such utter defeat, had to make such an abandonment and sacrifice, and felt such complete powerlessness and panic, nearly crushing Wen Jifei entirely.
"Today... I probably didn't even earn a passing grade, did I? No, I didn't."
*Clang-rumble-rumble...* The heavy hatch of the Doomsday Great Wall sealed shut in Wen Jifei's ears.
He opened his eyes, braced himself against the bulkhead to stand, and shook his head to focus and steady his gaze. Only then did he look toward the staff officers who had followed him over and hesitated to speak. "What's the situation now?"
"Relying on the distance opened up earlier, we're temporarily safe."
"We haven't shaken them off, but judging by the data, there's temporarily no danger of them closing the gap or catching up."
"We have no way to estimate the maximum speed of that Great Spike superdreadnought, but it shouldn't have reached its limit yet."
"We can't determine its objective."
The staff officers reported one after another.
Wen Jifei thought in deep concentration, then nodded, picked up the communicator, switched it on, and established a direct line with General Yergna.
"God bless us, the Doomsday Great Wall and you all survived in the end. A great fortune amidst misfortune," the old general said in a raspy voice the instant the line connected.
Wen Jifei could clearly hear the tremor and emotion in his voice.
"Thank you, General." Wen Jifei gave a brief reply, then immediately turned back to the main topic: "Has the relevant intelligence and data been transmitted back to Blue Star?"
"Yes, but transmission isn't very smooth. I'm not sure how long it'll take to arrive. And once they receive the intel, they'll probably need time to study countermeasures. What about us? I mean, where will they order us to go?" General Yergna asked.
"Us? Let's just keep cruising for now. Whether our final destination is the Moon or Blue Star, this is the course we take either way. But we need to prepare to split up the fleet," Wen Jifei said. "I'd like the Zenith Blade and its escort craft not to rejoin the fleet for now, and have CA117 keep its distance and cruise alone as well. Would that be acceptable to you, General?"
"Of course, you make the call. It's just... what about us..." General Yergna hesitated, but ultimately did not finish the question.
Because at this point, both of them knew very well in their hearts that once the Blue Star Azure Supreme Command received the intel, their subsequent decision would very likely be neither allowing them to proceed to the Moon nor allowing them to return immediately to Blue Star.
This "homeward-bound" human fleet would in all likelihood be ordered to lead the pursuing Great Spike fleet in tow, continuing to fly endlessly through this vast expanse of space.
Chapter 954