Old Man Xu finished this long stretch of words in a single breath, paused to rest, and turned his head to glance at his old comrade Chen Buer, sitting motionless on the incense altar.
Seeing that he still showed no reaction, Xu Xiaohong felt no disappointment. He simply turned back calmly, lowered his head, and slowly took a sip of tea.
The reason he had laid out such an elaborate explanation was ostensibly to enlighten the unimpressive new chief of staff of the ANZAC Front, but in truth, it was meant primarily for Chen Buer. After all, the old brute had never had much education, and Old Xu feared he wouldn't grasp it even after listening for half the day.
Just imagine—if Chen Buer were still in his prime... no, if those old bones of his could simply move and join this battle, humanity would never be pushed into such weakness and passivity, and Wen Jifei would never have had to make such a helpless battlefield decision.
Chen Buer, oh Chen Buer... was that complete-form Puta'er truly worth that single strike of your blade?
With Xu Xiaohong speaking up to this point, everyone present, including the ANZAC Front chief of staff, finally understood the shifts and adjustments in the overall battlefield strategy following Wen Jifei's takeover of command.
"So, in the melee, the Great Spike fleet's attention will stay focused on hunting down and destroying our scattered, fleeing ships while continuing their search for that satellite, right? And we can take advantage of the chaos to keep digging for the skeletal remains," the ANZAC chief of staff said with delight.
"Yeah," Xu Xiaohong replied somewhat weakly.
Sigh. Why did they ever form that damn ANZAC Front?
And why let a guy like this come here?
"What if we bet wrong?" After a brief pause, the chief of staff continued, "I mean, what if the premise of these decisions and choices is completely mistaken, and that satellite never crashed onto the lunar surface..."
"Then we lose," the Rejector leader cut in. "This was a dead game from the start. Every decision and choice we make is nothing more than clawing for survival amidst doom, struggling as best we can. There is no right or wrong in this."
A definitive gavel strike.
At Azure General Staff on Blue Star, there were no more questions or wavering hesitations.
All source energy warships and human soldiers swung into action under Wen Jifei's new directives. The entire space battlefield transformed abruptly, shifting from two fleet battle lines facing off into an ever-expanding, tangled web of chaos.
Meanwhile, on the lunar battlefield.
Several dozen meters away, an ordinary-looking, mid-sized source energy airship had its side hatch open, quietly awaiting the new supreme commander of this lunar campaign to board his command ship.
Because of humanity's absolute disadvantage in this campaign, a source energy mothership presented too massive a target, extremely susceptible to decapitation strikes. This was a brand-new command vessel specially prepared by Azure for Wen Jifei; concealed beneath its unassuming exterior was the same formidable propulsion system as CA117 and humanity's finest contemporary operating system.
Not long ago, Chief of Staff Xu Xiaohong had personally given this special-grade warship—which had not even had time to receive an official hull number—a Huaxia name: Ping'an.
The Ping'an command ship.
"The orders are being carried out resolutely. Looks like Chief of Staff Wen's reputation and battle record are still widely recognized among human forces," Yang Qingbai said jokingly, turning toward the side hatch aboard the smoothly gliding CA117.
"The rank-and-file soldiers are easy enough; they all know who fought the hardest and deadliest battles, and who fights best. What's truly rare is those old fossils on the Azure Board of Elders, plus that messy swarm of corps commanders and chiefs of staff from all the fronts—this time, not a single one raised an objection or held anything back." Yang Qingbai sighed with emotion, then smiled and gestured toward the shipboard communicator. "How about it? Want to go through the motions and offer some thanks for their unconditional trust?"
Wen Jifei shook his head. A smile lingered on his lips, yet heaviness weighed in his eyes. "Thank their mothers? Thank them for their brilliant decision to hand the chance to personally bury all of humanity right into my hands? They can fuck right off!"
He finished cursing, caught between laughter and tears.
By this point, Han Qingyu and Pegmante were no longer on board the ship.
Considering Han Qingyu had not yet recovered from his injuries, Pegmante had immediately followed suit, insisting his own injuries were severe and his combat strength drastically reduced...
The side hatch slid open.
Wen Jifei and General Jiang Longchi stood at the threshold, waiting to disembark.
How many years together?
Forgotten.
How many battles together?
Forgotten as well.
What was left to say in the end? Tell each other to do their best to stay alive?
Just like how they had seemingly casually bid farewell to Qingzi moments ago.
No one knew if this would be their final parting.
"Master Jiang, we're heading over. Don't jump off mark now," Wen Jifei said, and was hoisted up by one hand by Jiang Longchi beside him.
Jiang Longchi lifted him with a single arm and surged out through the hatch.
Instantly, a surge of source energy whipped up with a whoosh.
"Good luck to humanity!" Yang Qingbai yelled toward the outside.
"Good luck to humanity!" Wen Jifei answered from beyond the hatch.
"I'm off," Wen Jifei said, his voice calm, as if this were merely an ordinary, temporary departure.
With those words spoken.
Watching this unfold, a faint trace of sorrow quickly flitted across Yang Qingbai's eyes, and the same was true for Shen Yixiu and Wu Xu still aboard.
Because Rusty Sister was a girl, she had no need to force herself to hold back; her eyes had already turned red.
Back on Blue Star at Azure General Staff, after a spell of silence, the communication operators before the giant communicators finally became busy and lively.
"Report: Major Qing and Major General Pegmante have just been airdropped directly onto the lunar surface by CA117 to join the search for the skeletal remains."
"Report: Chief of Staff Wen Jifei and former Huaxia Front General Jiang Longchi have boarded the Ping'an command ship."
"Report: CA117 has entered the battlefield."
"Report: CA117 eliminated an enemy Daie-class ship in a counterattack, broke out of the Great Spike encirclement, and is currently cruising, position unknown."
"Lieutenant Wu Xu and Major General Shen Yixiu have just completed their initial extravehicular sortie, directly destroying two enemy warships head-on. Afterwards, they were pursued by four Daie-class enemy ships and hemmed in by over ten enemy vessels..."
"Report: The black spear pierced the hull! But it gave out!"
"..."
"Report: General Bochen has fallen in battle," an operator suddenly announced.
Everything seemed to be proceeding in the direction humanity hoped.
Aside from Han Qingyu scrambling across the lunar surface without yet triggering an active resonance from the other half of the remains via the half he had already fused—and thus failing to help humanity swiftly pinpoint the complete skeleton—everything else appeared to be gradually improving.
Of course, among the old men sitting there, none were naive enough to believe the battle would continue developing so smoothly.
Xu Xiaohong let out a faint smile.
One had to remember: that silver-armored Puta'er from Mars had not yet made a move.
Compared to a Daie, a Puta'er was only one tier higher in the Great Spike hierarchy, yet its combat power grew by geometric multiples.
Humanity's near-frenzied advancement in source energy martial power and its miraculous, mythical progress over recent years suddenly seemed utterly meaningless before the appearance of a complete-form Puta'er.
Take humanity's top supers like Wu Xu and Rusty Sister: their combat strength was now sufficient to duel Daie-level Great Spikes and even blast Daie-class warships head-on. Yet if placed before a Puta'er, they remained completely fragile.
The other veteran supers, such as Bochen and Christine; the mid-generation supers, such as Aleksey; and the prodigies of Han Qingyu's generation, such as Wolf—all were the same, utterly powerless to halt the aggressive onslaught of a Puta'er.
Humanity could hardly find a single person capable of standing in Puta'er's way even for a brief moment.
And now, aside from swiftly finding the skeletal remains and completing mass fusion, humanity had no other avenue left to achieve an abrupt leap forward.
What else could be done?
Play for time with warships? Keep sending doomed vessels into harassment like sacrifices offered up to slaughter?
Yet the battlefield was right there, and Puta'er would strike eventually. What other way did humanity have to sustain this final thread of hope?
Chapter 976