CH 111

For a moment, Lin Han felt that not even the roar of the mecha’s engine could drown out his heartbeat. He blinked his eyes twice very slowly.

When He YunTing’s lips left his face, Lin Han stroked one hand to the corner of his lips that had just been slightly curled up, wanting to use his fingertips to perceive this silent, gentle smile again.

Lin Han heard a very clean and simple voice.

【I love him, I want to bring him back properly.】

【So we can’t fail.】

Lin Han traced He YunTing’s cold lips with his fingers, and bent the tips of his eyes.

People who compiled history weren’t all completely neutral. The books often said that behind those cold tyrants there was a person who loved the country but killed the people. But the fall of a dynasty, the change of an era, was clearly the result of many people, many scenarios together, but it was easy to put this on someone, as a thousand sinners could never be reversed. Fortunately, He YunTing wasn’t a tyrant, and he wasn’t the type of person who would wreak havoc on the country and the people.

Lin Han sat up straight, took off He YunTing’s hat, and reached out to touch his silver hair without fear.

He YunTing wasn’t sure what he was doing, but stood quiet and motionless, “What’s the matter, Mr. Lin?”

The real beauty put the fake tyrant’s military cap back on and said with a smile, “Nothing.”

Lin Han licked his lips, feeling a little unfulfilled by his own brainstorming.

The small blanket on the side moved, and Grr finally woke up. Probably because it had been in the mecha many times, it finally seemed to be able to overcome the mecha dizziness, and was staring at the two people in front of it with a pair of eyes.

Lin Han spread his hands and let the little one rub himself against him.

The warm, fluffy little blob grabbed Lin Han’s clothes and crawled upward, but finally, under He YunTing’s cold gaze, it didn’t have the heart to continue burrowing into Lin Han’s collar, and only stayed on his shoulder.

Lin Han laughed out loud.

The man was being unreasonable even at this time.

He’s really changing, Lin Han thought. He’s changing because of me.

So Lin Han finally stopped clinging to the lost time, and maybe, the star river was rotten, maybe they would cross the stardust and meet in another unknown time and space.

He YunTing continued to contact Lu AnHe, Lin Han rubbed Grr’s head and waited for the mecha to arrive at the fortress. He YunTing naturally didn’t have anything to do with tyrants, but when it came to the monarch just now, Lin Han remembered Wen Zhaoge, whom he had met for the first time not long ago. People in other star areas say that the Emperor of the M System had a kind of unspeakable ruthlessness.

He seemingly let the council quarrel all day long, while he himself occasionally passed by to casually listen. The military power was given to He YunTing, who seemed to have no wariness at all, his trust was given simply. But in addition to having the Empire’s top blood and pheromone, no one would forget that when he was young, he led the fleet on an expedition to destroy nearly half of the Zerg forces, and also fortified and upgraded Fortress X until it expanded to its current size.

In short, even if he looked lazy and easy-going all day, in fact, he was a character one couldn’t mess with.

The air around the fortress was cold and thin, and even though people wouldn’t be directly exposed to the outdoors, He YunTing turned up the temperature inside the mecha a bit. Lin Han thought back to the scene when he had just come out of the council and accidentally met Wen Zhao. At that time, His Majesty the Emperor was holding a chess piece in his hand, playing with it intently and meticulously.

He still remembered that the chess piece was the “queen”. He thought of the plain dress in the Galaxy Gallery, which was said to have been deposited by the Empress, saying that it was a symbol of love.

So there could be such a person behind Wen Zhao.

Lin Han didn’t pay much attention to the movements of the royal family, and only vaguely remembered that it seemed like the Empress didn’t show her face very often.

A shake brought Lin Han’s flight of thought back.

“There are some bumps when the air currents hit the ground.” He YunTing turned back to him and explained. Lin Han nodded, worried that Grr would have a hard time, and very carefully put it in his pocket and patted it again as a soothing touch. And he himself obediently let the other man take his hand and stand up, gazing out into the universe—

This was the first time he saw Fortress X with his own eyes.

M2742 was already considered one of the larger heavy mecha, but here it felt like the opposite. They probably landed at the bottom, so Lin Han was able to look up through the portholes.

After all, Fortress X functioned similarly to Earth’s bunkers of millions of years ago, but in a much more impressive way. To its left was a giant space station surrounded by faint points of light, with weapons placed from the bottom to the top according to energy consumption needs, each row and column was shocking. The right side was a place to park starships, because to ensure the safety of the fortress, this design allowed the prevention of unexpected situations, and could directly accept the largest starships, and wouldn’t have any poor connection.

The center of the fortress was surrounded by a dazzling white pillar of light, which stored a whole magnitude of energy, with a giant capacitor to charge the upper laser cannon, and a gigabit multi-linked FTL particle gas pedal to support the largest main gun at the top.

In short, the fortress was a flag that wouldn’t fall, and was also a magnificent stargate.

If the fortress wasn’t breached, while the leap point of the sub-star could be held, all the current crisis could be defused. After a bumpy ride, M2742 finally flew into the base of the fortress, as the starship arrived at the same time, nestling perfectly into the right end of the fortress.

Lin Han obediently let the other man take his hand and stand up.

Although the fortress was large, the range of movement was limited to the mecha and the starship, and everyone would gather on the ship first, then choose whether to stay inside the fortress or go up to the mecha to confront the enemy, depending on their needs. There were too many people, so Lin Han didn’t let the little one go down with him, and let it rest on the mecha while he put on his protective armor and walked out with He YunTing.

Lin Han originally wanted to follow the group back to the team, but unexpectedly He YunTing simply didn’t conceal anything since their relationship became public, tugging Lin Han’s hand to prevent him from going over, “You can just stay next to me.”

Facing his kind eyes, Lin Han blushed for a while, “…Okay.”

Lin Han had never seen so many mecha.

In addition to the tail transports and the mecha assigned to each berth in formation, there were mecha that couldn’t be seen at a glance, neatly arranged in order by different functions, from mecha of slightly lower rank but responsible for defense, to high rank mecha responsible for close range fire attacks, to long-range strike formations that needed to use fortress energy and gas pedal energy storage, and the list went on and on.

He had been in this field for so many years, the Institute was mostly responsible for research and development and maintenance, and if a new batch was developed, bulk manufacturing would have little to do with them. So even though Lin Han was familiar with every part of the mecha and knew the strengths and weaknesses of their drivers, he couldn’t help but feel a stirring emotion when he saw so many highly motivated soldiers standing in front of their mecha.

As when they were about to go to the border area for practical training, the soldiers’ faces were heavy, but they still saluted with determination and swore, “We swear by our lives, faith and loyalty to the Empire!”

With light as a sword, with stars as spears, with blood as a blade, through the galaxy of chaos, through the abyss of red flames, folly and sin will be turned into ashes—

“Only glory and victory will be mine.”

Unlike the border area, Fortress X was barely recognizable as day and night, despite the thin air and harsh climate. Before the first dusk of the fortress, the newly arrived soldiers were still making all the pre-battle preparations in an orderly manner according to the Lord General’s orders.

For five days in a row since they entered the fortress, news was also coming in from the various berths that some Zerg had indeed tried to take advantage of the opportunity to invade, but neither the type nor the scale was large, and the berth formations reported that so far no Zerg had been able to break through the berths and break into the Empire.

The media of the main planet sent daily reports to the political parties and the people, praising the strong defense of the Imperial berth, and the Zerg couldn’t find any chance to invade. So it seemed that the breakthrough of the city’s defensive network wasn’t that frightening — the people thought so, after all, the Zerg couldn’t even enter the gate, and to let them break through a network defense from a distance of light years was just a bluffing threat of the weak.

So everyone’s eyes were focused on the fortress.

After all, the General himself was guarding the fortress, with a huge number of mecha formations, and this was the most important battle. As long as the Zerg had a little sense, they were unlikely to come back hard — unless they bet all their strength and had to fight with the Empire to lose both. But almost no one wouldn’t watch this battle. Even if some people have vague concerns, in the end they would choose to trust because of the name “He YunTing”.

Not to mention the fact that M2742 now had another new pilot—

The human nature of gossip was engraved in the bones, not to mention that the situation was still quite stable, many people have begun to dig deeper. Their cold General actually had an Omega.

Some people even began to write the causes and consequences for this relationship, saying that Lin Han was originally a civilian area of the most common Omega, but fell in love with the General after seeing him in battle and with all his efforts he tried to enter the core area, just to see him.

Unfortunately, the General was born indifferent and unapproachable, and every Omega in the university pursued his favor, so he became an Omega that got into the Institute. Every year he would participate in practical training, and finally ushered in a turnaround.

In this regard, Lin Han’s colleagues guessed who the “big brother behind him” was and had some comments about it.

What a long time pursuit but not favored? What desperate to participate in practical training?! In previous years, it was Lin Han’s unwillingness to run to the base! They began to recall the previous traces, saying that it was obviously the General who was chasing Lin Han, and that he had to be transported by his flying machine every day, and that he came to the Institute to pick up his mecha in order to meet Lin Han in person!

Of course, most people were dismissive of this conclusion, after all, the four words “General was chasing him”, sounded like a fantasy. Not only that, but there were also those who questioned a skinny Omega’s ability to handle such a huge mecha.

This time, Lin Han’s colleagues continued to choke back nonchalantly, asking if they knew exactly what the concept of SSS-level mental power was, the entire Institute had only one such Omega! He was the best mecha master at such a young age, so what was wrong with piloting a mecha with his Alpha?

No one could convince anyone for a while. Although the situation wasn’t settled yet, the people were still lively and active. Of course, the sergeants in the fortress had no time for such gossip.

He YunTing wrinkled his brow in the starship when he received the news for the sixth time that a Zerg had unsuccessfully tried to break through the berth. He contacted Lu Huai, who arrived at the same time to Wen Yu’s sub-star, and the other party responded that everything was normal.

There weren’t many people on the sub-star, and the leap point was somewhere very remote, but Lu Huai still cautiously watched over it, afraid of any accidents. The fortress still looked serene, except for the joint shields that began to surround the outer perimeter, except for the stars that lit up one by one with energy storage markings.

“Boss,” Lu AnHe handed up the sixth short report, “the berth in the K area is also well defended, only a small number of Zerg troops invaded and have been eliminated.”

“Mn,” He YunTing answered in a deep voice.

Grr still refused to go to the mecha, Lin Han was afraid that it would be alone, so he didn’t leave the mecha either, checking the mecha parameters reported up a day ago in the cockpit.

The scene of him stepping off the M2742 and taking off his helmet was still in everyone’s eyes, and the sergeants wanted to see more of the handsome “Mrs. General”, but the other side hardly left the mecha these days, and only He YunTing would occasionally go in and talk to him.

This seemed to be a kind of golden house to hide an Omega in.

Lin Han heard a rattle by the hatch, and when he looked up, He YunTing was walking towards him. Lin Han dimmed the light screen a bit, saw He YunTing silent and sat down, as he raised his hand and rubbed his brow.

For five consecutive days the fortress was excessively quiet, and the mecha in charge of reconnaissance ahead couldn’t find any movement. But even so, the Lord General was the person who was standing the longest, checking all the valve ports, energy storage, acceleration and all kinds of war preparations to ensure that nothing was wrong, and all kinds of information gathered together to immediately make a reply and decision… 

Ordinary sergeants could take reasonable shifts to ensure physical fitness and sleep, but he seemed as if he wouldn’t be tired at all, and would only return to the mecha for a few moments of rest after processing everything every day.

Lin Han saw He YunTing’s fingers covering his brow, as if he wanted to wipe away the weary color that flowed unnoticed. He didn’t say anything, nor did he ask He YunTing how tired he was again today, just grabbed He Yun Ting’s hand and held it very seriously in his own. He wanted to achieve 2 things with his action, he wanted to let him know that ‘you don’t need to hide tiredness from me’, and he could very quietly hear about the current situation.

It was too unusual.

From the beginning of the breach of the defenses of the city, everyone thought it would be an extremely difficult and vicious battle, but except for the first battle at the berth, the scale of the latter showed a clear decreasing trend. Everyone began to think that the Zerg were really just “playing around”, or because of the battle at the mouth of the berth they understood the difficulties and retreated, leaving only a few scattered Zerg to resist.

But other than that, those who have really experienced the battlefield know that this naturally brutal race, if they really decide to attack, wasn’t even thinking of retreating. They would just keep fighting and fighting until one side no longer had the strength to stand up — despite the possibility that they themselves would be the ones.

High-ranking Zerg had intelligence comparable to that of humans, and they would also arrange their deployment and organize their troops to rally using their own form of communication. So now the situation has become very strange.

Zerg also had intelligence, since they chose to leap over and declare war, naturally there was a high level of command. But now these sporadic raids seemed to be tickling the formations guarding the berth — how could they fail five times in a row with the same type of defense?

“So…” Lin Han understood He YunTing’s speculation, “They might be testing something.”

Or rather, using ‘trial and error.’

“But the sub-star is not a normal berth… Let’s not assume that they can find it, but even if they do, if the number of Zerg remain like now, the strength of Major General Lu Huai’s side has nothing to worry about.” Lin Han squeezed He YunTing’s finger, “According to the current order of them trying one place a day, Zixing is the farthest place, then they will take at least a week to arrive.”

He YunTing furrowed his brows, “But Lin Han, think about it. Will they be so stupid that they continue to hit the wall of trial and error even though we can see them?”

Lin Han’s fingertips froze for a moment.

A sharp alarm suddenly sounded piercingly.

The starship lit up with scarlet light, everyone was already in a state of war readiness, and at the same time as they heard the alarm, all mecha immediately assumed a standby position.

“Look.” He YunTing’s voice wasn’t surprised at all, “That’s why we’re waiting at one place.”

While letting the people drop their guard, they wanted to try to get the army to divide from the fortress and dispatch troops to the already slackened Empire after they noticed something wrong with the berth.

Lu AnHe’s voice was still calm, after all, everyone had come here ready to face the battle.

He said only four short words, “Boss, they’re coming.”

He YunTing stood up and picked up the goggles beside him. His expression could almost be described as mild now, Lin Han thought, probably because of the layer of exhaustion that had enveloped him. He still hadn’t been able to rest for even an hour.

“Right.” He YunTing calmly spoke over the communicator, addressing Lu AnHe. “Tell Major General Lu Huai to remember one thing at that time, regardless of the battle situation at the frontline fortress and whether or not communications are sent in time. Five days from now, and at this moment on the fifth day, regardless of any situation, activate all bombing devices loaded by the formation… Destroy the sub-star leap point in one fell swoop.”