TW: Depiction of violence, blood, child soldiers
A swarm of Federation warships descended.
Like countless dark blades glinting with metallic light, they tore through the boundless night sky with a chilling sharpness, unleashing a barrage of firepower upon Falcon Star’s A2 military port.
The Imperial garrison on Falcon Star quickly responded.
A torrent of mechas, like a flood of steel, rapidly converged on the roads as they raced towards the port.
The ground trembled, and clouds of dust billowed up. Behind the rising layers of smoke and dust, Imperial warships continuously took off, with rows of cannons aiming at the distant port.
A perilous and thrilling battle was about to erupt.
Sharp alarms blared throughout the night hemisphere of Falcon Star.
Countless dark torrents collided fiercely, and the brilliant and frenzied artillery fire and lasers illuminated the entire night sky in an instant, like a grand and brutal fireworks display.
The commander’s nearly roaring voice echoed through the communication channel: “Attack—!”
The ground shook with a thunderous roar.
Despite the Imperial garrison’s swift response, the Federation forces, having seized the initiative, captured the A2 port with lightning speed.
The fleet forcefully landed, and mechas glided through the air, quickly engaging the Imperial mecha units.
Amidst the chaotic battlefield, Ye Qing’s black and red mecha, propelled by immense force, exited overload mode early. He swiftly kicked over an Imperial mecha, quickly detached two cannons, and began repairing while connecting the cannons, all the while deftly dodging attacks and stray bullets from all directions.
“Assault squad, count your numbers!”
A voice came through the communication channel.
Beads of sweat appeared on Ye Qing’s forehead. Chu Yunsheng casually wiped it off for him, glanced at the blue dots representing team members on the cockpit screen and his own smart device screen, and replied in a deep voice, “First squad, eighteen people. Second squad, thirteen people.”
“Mission change!”
A cold voice issued a new order: “Proceed to the seventh blockade line and assist the Ninth Army in intercepting the Empire’s Black Wolf Mecha Warriors!”
“Received.”
Chu Yunsheng responded, then turned to meet Ye Qing’s gaze.
Ye Qing’s brows were slightly furrowed, but his eyes were bright and intense: “The Black Wolf Mecha Warriors are the elite assault unit of the Shire Empire, known for their speed and elite mecha warriors. At most, we and the Ninth Army can hold them off until dawn.”
Chu Yunsheng noticed something in Ye Qing’s expression, his eyebrows slightly raised: “Do you really want military merit?”
Ye Qing looked at Chu Yunsheng, his slightly pale face bathed in the dim, flickering light of the cockpit, and slowly smiled: “I just want some equal rights. At the very least, the next time someone tries to take you away, I want to have the right to stop them.”
The black and red mecha’s engine roared, gathering the other team members and charging against the steel torrent, quickly diving into the vast, dark wilderness, heading straight for the seventh blockade line.
The seventh blockade line was located in the mining area of Falcon Star, at the boundary between the mining district and the urban area, featuring a series of rugged mountains.
When Ye Qing’s team arrived nearby, Chu Yunsheng pulled up the map to check the terrain scan results. His voice was low and calm as he set up several blockade points and monitored the surroundings.
It wasn’t long before interference signals appeared within the monitoring range.
“They’re here!”
Ye Qing’s eyes sharpened, and the black and red mecha crouched low in the forest, its dark cannon silently extending outward.
Before the words had even faded, a dozen black mechas broke through the distant horizon, kicking up clouds of dust as they sped forward.
A sudden sense of foreboding surged in Chu Yunsheng’s heart.
Sure enough, as these mechas appeared, the static noise in the communication channel abruptly increased, and a distorted, sharp voice intermittently broke through: “Ninth Army encountered… other squads… must complete…”
Chu Yunsheng immediately cut off the external communication.
“Long-range signal jamming equipment.”
Chu Yunsheng looked at Ye Qing, his expression grim.
At this point, Chu Yunsheng had already guessed that this impromptu mission was a setup targeting them.
It could be the Ye family, the Feng family, or even the Chu family.
Given the influence of these three families in the military, especially the Feng family, it would be a simple matter to assign their insignificant squads as cannon fodder to stall the enemy’s advance.
If breaking through A2 could be justified by the strategic position of the fifth stronghold, then the current solo mission to intercept the Black Wolf Mecha Warriors was far too blatant in its intent.
But this was the battlefield, and any opposition or protest had to be based on the premise of survival.
The vanguard of the Black Wolf Mecha Warriors was already too close to them; retreat was no longer an option.
Moreover, the military order had been given. Regardless of its reasonableness, they had no choice but to hold their ground.
“Take one down, then drop me off.”
Chu Yunsheng tapped on the screen in front of Ye Qing, his fingertip pointing at one of the black mechas moving so fast it was almost a blur.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Ye Qing immediately understood his intention.
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The overload mode activated instantly, and the powerful engine roar filled the entire mountain range.
“Ambush!”
The Black Wolf Mecha Warriors reacted immediately.
A barrage of artillery fire and shrapnel filled the air.
The black and red mecha, like a bullet whizzing through the air, closed in on the leading Imperial mecha at an almost imperceptible speed. The heavy alloy fist, accompanied by a swiftly drawn light blade, directly pierced the cockpit of the Imperial mecha.
Almost simultaneously, the cockpit cover of the black and red mecha opened.
His jet-black hair flying, Chu Yunsheng leaped out like a nimble leopard. Under the cover of the black and red mecha amidst the hail of bullets and artillery fire, he swiftly began prying open the cockpit door of the Imperial mecha at the exact spot where the black and red mecha had just pierced.
“What is that mecha doing?”
“He’s crazy!”
“Is he… stealing our mecha?!”
The Black Wolf Mecha Warriors were stunned by the audacity of prying open a mecha on the battlefield. After a moment of shock, they launched a full-scale attack, firing at the lone black and red mecha and the vulnerable human exposed beneath the steel behemoth.
“Damn! The boss is really stubborn!”
“Prying open a mecha on the spot? I’ve learned something new!”
“Truly worthy of being Demon King Su’s… younger brother?”
The internal communication channels of the two squads were filled with tense yet teasing banter, but all the team members’ actions were precise and swift.
“Three hundred meters at ten o’clock, laser cannon charging!”
“Left wing, three mechas, intercept them!”
Ye Qing, his ears slightly reddened from the earlier teasing, quickly issued commands within the team, cutting off the banter.
The black and red mecha raised a shield with one hand and swung the light blade with the other, slashing away a mecha that had engaged in close combat and was attempting to take out Chu Yunsheng with a single strike.
But this was merely a stalling tactic.
More and more Imperial mechas were closing in.
Their speed and attack power were formidable, though their defense was somewhat weaker. However, many ants could bite an elephant to death, and the Black Wolf Mecha Warriors were composed of highly skilled mecha warriors from the Shire Empire, matching Ye Qing in combat prowess.
As a result, Ye Qing’s defense was quite beleaguered. The massive light blade even grazed Chu Yunsheng’s face twice, singeing his raised hair.
“Three seconds.”
Chu Yunsheng clung to the Imperial mecha, swaying left and right, unable to stand steadily, but his hands moved with incredible speed and precision.
The scorching heat instantly evaporated the sweat sliding down the side of his face, and the fierce wind from the intersecting plains and mountains roared in his ears.
The mechanical arm of the black and red mecha blocked the incoming shrapnel, causing its metal shell to crack.
The reinforcements of the Black Wolf Mecha Warriors crossed the horizon, like countless dark lightning bolts, their silent yet thunderous artillery fire covering half the sky.
Burning metal fragments scattered into the air.
Chu Yunsheng’s fingers trembled slightly as he finally kicked open the cockpit door in front of him. Inside, the mecha warrior had been impaled by the light blade and was already dead, with bright red blood soaking the seat.
The heavy scent of blood enveloped Chu Yunsheng.
He threw the mecha warrior’s body out, immediately closed the damaged cockpit door, and began to operate the mecha, sprinting towards the mountains alongside Ye Qing.
Dozens of mechas trying to stop a single mecha pilot—what a joke.
Chu Yunsheng didn’t intend to let the innocent team members get caught up and lose their lives, so he and Ye Qing quickly fled, luring the Black Wolf Mecha Warriors into the forested mountains.
Although the Black Wolf Mecha Warriors were renowned for their speed, individual mecha warriors varied in their control and handling of their mechas. Thus, in an actual chase, the once compact formation quickly stretched into a line. The other team members provided long-range interference along this line, while Chu Yunsheng and Ye Qing led the way at the front.
After running about two kilometers, Chu Yunsheng suddenly spoke.
“Turn back!”
The light blade slashed through the air like lightning.
Chu Yunsheng and Ye Qing simultaneously turned and stopped, one on the left and one on the right, striking down fiercely!
The leading Imperial mecha, which had been pursuing them closely, never expected that these two already battered and seemingly exhausted mechas would suddenly stop and dare to counterattack.
The sense of danger allowed him only enough time to raise a light shield.
But the two light blades and the heavy metal fists rained down like a storm, with a frequency and weight that could almost demolish a building.
Under such ferocious attacks, the Imperial mecha had no chance to respond. A swift whip kick destroyed the central control chip with a crackling sound.
In just a few seconds, the mecha was completely taken down.
The Imperial mechas arriving from behind only managed to catch a glimpse of their fallen comrade and the two cold figures disappearing back into the dark night.
“Maintain formation!”
The Black Wolf Mecha Warriors quickly raised their level of caution, no longer underestimating their opponents.
However, even with increased vigilance, they couldn’t prevent the continuous reduction in their numbers during the chase.
“Scan complete! Twenty-one enemy mechas!”
After a few minutes of pursuit, the Black Wolf Mecha Warriors finally broke through the Federation mechas’ camouflage and completed a scan of the area.
But this scan result infuriated the Mecha Warriors’ commander: “Our three hundred Mecha Warriors are being held up by just over twenty people?”
“Ignore those two little rats, break through by force!”
Chu Yunsheng’s bluff was exposed.
The Black Wolf Mecha Warriors quickly regrouped, ceased their pursuit, and directly charged towards the mining area.
The guerrilla chase was no longer effective. The first and second squads retreated while fighting, like slippery fish, doing their best to disrupt the Black Wolf Mecha Warriors’ advance while avoiding direct confrontation.
However, this method had limited success.
In just a few minutes, the Black Wolf Mecha Warriors had already flattened most of the forest, charging straight towards the brightly lit, cannon-roaring city in the distance.
Intense and protracted combat, with rampant and frenzied artillery fire.
Amidst this chaotic cover, Chu Yunsheng, like an ordinary Imperial mecha, blended into the rear of the Black Wolf Mecha Warriors’ formation.
Due to the rugged mountainous terrain, which was complex and difficult to navigate, Chu Yunsheng carefully infiltrated, managing to avoid detection by the Black Wolf soldiers.
But this luck only lasted until he came within two hundred meters of the Black Wolf Mecha Warriors’ commander.
“Bastard!”
“He infiltrated us!”
“What are your scanning signals even doing!”
Rocks shattered and trees fell in swathes.
The black mecha moved at high speed, dodging and weaving like a constantly bending shadow, flickering through the forest. Bullets clanged against the mecha’s exterior, causing it to stagger and sway.
The Imperial mecha lacked an overload mode, so Chu Yunsheng could only rely on the simulation system, pushing his own potential to the limit.
He was like a massive boulder crashing down from the forest.
With a thunderous boom.
Neither artillery fire nor light blade and shields could stop his high-frequency attack movements.
Mechanical arms and legs pounded down furiously, leaving only afterimages. The mecha’s metal shell was completely shattered, exposing the wiring, and the engine began to emit blue smoke.
“Commander!”
The relentless attack was almost frenzied.
Chu Yunsheng saw countless glaring red warnings and attack symbols on the shattered screen in front of him, but his movements remained steady and incredibly fast.
His arm trembled, sweat dripping from his chin, as his fierce assault battered the mecha before him like a leaf in the wind.
However, as the commander of the Black Wolf Mecha Warriors, he was an exceptionally skilled ace warrior.
After the initial surprise attack, he quickly regained his composure, managing to extract a mechanical arm from the storm of blows and strike back fiercely.
The light shield sprang up instantly.
“Take him down!”
The commander turned and engaged, his anger flaring from the provocation.
Chu Yunsheng’s black mecha was already in tatters, standing there like a black skeleton, its dodging speed slowing down.
But just at that moment, the long-awaited Ninth Army finally arrived.
The light of dawn and the shadows cast by the fleet of warships descended together.
Like a mantis stalking a cicada, unaware of the oriole behind, the Ninth Army played the role of the oriole perfectly and with great self-satisfaction.
The battle continued until noon the next day due to the arrival of the Ninth Army.
The Federation suffered heavy losses, and the Black Wolf Mecha Warriors were completely annihilated.
The Ninth Army left behind a small amount of supplies and departed triumphantly.
The first and second squads assessed their losses and replenished their supplies.
Neither Chu Yunsheng nor Ye Qing said a word to the commander of the Ninth Army, but Chu Yunsheng made sure to remember the commander’s name.
One by one, the battered mechas walked into the post-battle city. The last squad of Imperial soldiers, clutching their guns, shouted loudly and fired at the towering mechas approaching step by step.
The torrent of bullets couldn’t leave even a single dent on the mechas’ surfaces.
The smallest Imperial soldier, barely over a meter tall, wore an ill-fitting uniform and cried while shooting—a child not even ten years old.
“For the glory of the Empire!”
They shouted.
The mechas opened fire.
Large pools of blood stained the ground red.
Ruins and flames, along with distant wails of sorrow and grief.
Chu Yunsheng had already switched back to his mecha and was seated in Ye Qing’s co-pilot seat.
When Ye Qing raised his gun towards the squad of child soldiers, only to suddenly pull back as if burned, without firing a single shot, Chu Yunsheng’s eyes momentarily glazed over. There was an oddly familiar feeling about this scene.
But in his fragmented memories of the real world, there seemed to be no scenes of war.
“Chu-ge, are you afraid?” Ye Qing suddenly asked in a low voice.
“I don’t know.”
Chu Yunsheng, his eyes bloodshot, looked at him: “Maybe when I was a child, I would have been afraid. Don’t overthink it. Regardless of the reasons for starting a war or how many people benefit from it, once the war begins, everyone will only have one most frequently asked question—”
“When will the war end?”
“But anyone standing on the battlefield is both innocent and not innocent. This battle is just the beginning.”
Indeed.
Subsequent developments in the war confirmed that, as Chu Yunsheng had said, the Battle of Falcon Star was just the beginning.
The Federation and the Empire had been at war for years, with constant skirmishes. If it were like before, where they would fight and then negotiate peace, it would never have escalated to a nationwide state of war readiness. It was this serious.
This situation indicated that the Federation was determined to decisively defeat the Empire this time, leaving no room for luck.
The Battle of Falcon Star lasted for over a week before it finally ended.
The Federation reoccupied Falcon Star and used it as a base to continue their advance.
In the Battle of Falcon Star, due to the excellent completion of two critical initial tasks by the squad led by Chu Yunsheng and Ye Qing, both were commended and promoted.
Chu Yunsheng was promoted to Major.
Having earned his merits, Major Chu, with the patience of a gentleman seeking revenge, waited for the right moment. Upon returning to the Fifth Base, the first thing he did when he could access the Star Network was to hack into it and send a report to the military tribunal, filing a complaint against the Ninth Army.
The commander of the Ninth Army was a former subordinate of Ye Xian. Initially, he only intended to delay and give Chu Yunsheng and Ye Qing a hard time. However, with solid evidence against him, he was soon stripped of his military insignia. Using the battlefield for personal vendettas and delaying military operations was a capital offense.
Seeing the situation turn against him, this former subordinate didn’t hesitate to betray Ye Xian.
And as luck would have it, this incident erupted right after Ye Xian’s inquiry session.
Ye Xian, who hadn’t yet cleaned up his mess, was now covered in mud, causing his reputation to plummet. Public distrust of the Ye family soared to eighty percent, and public opinion was in an uproar.
It was adding insult to injury.
Many high-ranking members of the Ye family were temporarily suspended, and other influential families seized the opportunity to step in, even fanning the flames to assist Chu Yunsheng.
“Just one last straw.”
Chu Yunsheng scanned the rapidly flashing information and data on the light screen. After some thought, he decided not to let Ye Xian continue his antics.
The time was ripe, and it was time for him to deliver the final blow.
With a deep gaze, Chu Yunsheng opened his smart device, encrypted the communication, and sent out several anonymous messages.
Three days later.
Su Wenshu, the eldest son whom the Ye family had cherished and reclaimed, publicly announced his departure from the Ye family. He declared that he would inject the pheromone stripping agent that very day and enlist in the military.
No one knew what Su Wenshu said to Ye Xian in the interrogation room before he left, but that night, the doctors from the prosecutor’s office announced that Ye Xian had fallen ill and slipped into a coma.
The Star Network was immediately abuzz with spectators and gossip.
“Kicking someone when they’re down?”
“Su Wenshu’s move was brilliant! Is he seeking glory by betraying his father, or is he remaining untainted by the mud, righteously sacrificing for the country? Tsk, can’t see through it, can’t see through it.”
“Is there more drama from the Ye family? Su Wenshu, hurry up!”
The author has something to say:
Chu Yunsheng: Me, the mastermind, gkd.
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The dog author has been discharged from the hospital _(:3∠)_ and will resume regular updates! Bowing, apologies to the lovely readers who have been following the updates these past few days!
