Hearing this, Nott didn't even hesitate. "Then so be it. We move first; we can talk about the rest on the way."
The others voiced their agreement—regardless of the risks, they had to leave this place. If they stayed any longer, the Floeans would soon find them.
They began to make their way out. But they had barely taken a few steps when a sonic boom thundered down from the heavens.
Practiced in the art of survival, the group dropped to the ground, feeling the earth shudder beneath them. Moments later, a roar echoed from the distance; clearly, something else had plummeted through the atmosphere.
"Is there no end to this..." Sandro grumbled, pushing himself up from the dirt. "Anyone would think this godforsaken place was under an Exterminatus order."
"An Exterminatus isn't nearly this gentle," Nott said, also rising. "At least, not the ones I’ve carried out."
The youths whipped their heads around to stare at him.
"What?" Nott asked.
"...Nothing," Sandro replied. "I’ve just heard that those who execute Exterminatus orders are all battle-hardened powerhouses."
"I suspect you wanted to say 'monsters devoid of humanity,'" Nott said genially. "But... you’ll learn in time. We’re all just people. Orion humans, just like you."
The atmosphere turned somber as they pressed forward. However, the sudden, rapid *beep-beep-beep* of a device soon had everyone snapping their eyes toward Sandro.
Sandro was startled, then overjoyed. He raised his detector and swept it around. "Such a strong signal... whatever fell out there can partially repel the interference! If we get a little closer, I can connect to the Star Net!"
At his word, the group scrambled up the nearby slope—they had previously been hiding in an abandoned enemy trench command post—and looked into the distance.
The object that had shaken the earth was embedded in the ground far away. It looked like a semi-hollow sphere, nearly a hundred meters in diameter, forged entirely of metal. A faint golden light shimmered over the metal, protecting it so effectively that such a massive mechanical frame had sustained no damage upon impact.
"...A Federation standard signal booster?" Sandro was stunned. "How could one be here..." His voice trailed off as he spotted that beautiful golden glow. "It’s Brother Lei! He must have found his way here!"
"Then why didn't he just come down himself?" one of the students from the other academy asked.
"The interference here is so strong that even mental strength can't be projected. Coming down blindly wouldn't help; he doesn't know our location." The other student nudged his companion. "It’s better to drop a booster like this and figure out the situation first... Would you charge face-first into an unknown zone during a tactical deployment?"
As they spoke, Sandro was already sprinting toward the booster's landing site under the cover of Nott and Susanna. The other two, startled, quickly followed, scanning their surroundings with their weapons ready in case something "exciting" decided to jump out and surprise them.
Soon, Sandro reached a suitable position.
"This is close enough. Any further and the Floeans will definitely flank us," he said, leaning into a corner. He quickly opened his light-computer and began manipulating a magnetic-strip-like auxiliary keyboard on the inside of his left forearm. He muttered a string of chaotic numbers that sounded like a mix of domain names and frequencies.
A few minutes later, he let out a low laugh. "Connected! It’s through a civilian channel, but I’ve sent our intel and coordinates to 'Pacific.' It said the message has already been forwarded to the higher-ups! If the info doesn't get stuck, based on standard Star Net speeds, it should reach Brother Lei in about eight minutes!"
"Great!" The group was heartened.
At the same time, Nott grew even more vigilant. He peered around the corner of the trench where they were hiding, then pulled back as the ground vibrated slightly. "A large Floean force is coming. Stay sharp."
The young students, who had been forced to mature rapidly, fell silent instantly. They listened to the silent march of the Floeans outside—those corpse-ghoul-like things truly lived up to their reputation as members of the 'Deep Space Stealth' units. Only their commanders made any sound during combat; when the commanders remained silent, they were like a procession of quiet corpses being transported to their final destination by their coffins.
But the hearts of the youths were leaping with joy. They saw hope, and in less than ten minutes, one of them heard the voice of that hope.
"...Can... hear...?"
*Sizzle...*
"Can you hear me?" A young, steady voice echoed in Sandro’s earpiece, slightly distorted by electromagnetic interference.
"Brother Lei?" Sandro whispered. He had already led the group to another command post beneath a nearby trench.
"It’s me." Floating steadily outside the planet, Lei Ting looked at the coordinate data, searching for the corresponding location as he answered. "Report your situation now."
He had been here for a while, using local materials from the planet's vicinity to forge dozens of signal boosters and dropping them in different directions. It had clearly been effective.
Sandro gave a brief report on their current numbers, combat capability, and the type of support they needed. He then took Susanna’s light-computer and adjusted it to function as an external camera.
Outside the planet, a feed flickered onto Lei Ting’s visor. It showed Sandro and Susanna in tattered, blood-stained standard combat suits, a Federation soldier in full-body armor whose identity was obscured, and two other unfamiliar peers also in ruined gear.
No one spoke in the video. Sandro raised a finger to his lips in a 'hush' gesture and then cautiously held the light-computer out.
Orange-red shale, reddish-brown soil... and then the dark sky. Beneath that sky, Floean troops were marching silently from all directions.
Then the image vanished—even with a direct connection between light-computers, Sandro didn't dare transmit video or continuous coordinate pings for long. Such high-data transmissions were too easily intercepted by the enemy.
Thus, they maintained only the bare minimum: voice messages filled with static and occasional blurring.
"I understand," Lei Ting said, his voice equally low. At the same time, he received more coordinate messages from various sources, unified and forwarded by the Federation’s central AI, 'Tianhe.' Most of them came with reports of 'Floean armies nearby.'
On the ground, Floean forces were swarming toward the signal boosters he had dropped like torrents of black ants. It was difficult to pinpoint specific targets immediately.
But it didn't matter. As long as he found Sandro quickly and provided him with enough hardware, the boy could lock onto the locations of those potential signals.
Lei Ting dropped nearly a hundred more signal boosters into the planet before diving into the atmosphere. He felt a clear, chaotic interference and suppression of his superpowers and mental strength, much like what he had experienced in that mysterious space...
But that power hadn't been very effective against him even then; this weakened version was naturally no different.
The radiance of 'Solaris' spilled forth. Golden light streaked through the planet's atmosphere.
Soon, Lei Ting’s brow furrowed. With just a cursory sweep, he 'saw' a vast number of Orion humans. His compatriots. His dead compatriots. He could sense the metallic elements within their bodies—some pooled in heaps, others scattered in fragments...
"Right," Sandro remembered something else. "Luo Xian... is dead."
"..." Lei Ting, who was performing a second, finer scan of the planetary weapon, froze.
Memories flashed through his mind: the handsome youth unexpectedly joining the fun during his birthday a few days ago, every conversation they’d had before that, the boy’s timid yet kind demeanor when they first entered the academy, and even further back... on the third planet of the New Solar System, when they were both small, growing up neither too close nor too far apart under the grace of compulsory education.
His lips parted slightly. For a moment, he didn't know what to say. It was a surreal sensation for him.
Sandro seemed to have expected this reaction. He sighed softly and took a data chip from his chest pocket, glancing down at it.
"He asked me to give a data chip to you," he said. "Later..."
As he spoke, Lei Ting had already found the location corresponding to the coordinates. There were indeed a large number of Floeans nearby—well, there were Floean armies everywhere on this planet now—but it didn't matter. A breath later, they were slaughtered by their own weapons and equipment.
"What was that sound?" Sandro whipped his head around.
"I killed a few Floe corpse-ghouls..." Lei Ting said as he descended from the sky, carving a brilliant golden arc through the air. "But don't move yet; there might still be stragglers around."
"Okay," Sandro whispered, turning toward the entrance of the command post where they were hiding. "Once you get here, Brother Lei, we can go find the others."
"No problem. I’ll need your technical assistance." Lei Ting said, drawing in his powerful mental strength and probing toward the coordinates ahead. "Let me check your physical condition first..."
"Sure..." Sandro started to say, but then a faint click sounded at the door.
He instinctively looked up, and a sliver of light and shadow entered his vision—several hunched Floean figures, and at the very front, one of the things was leveling a heavy gun equipped with a flash-lamp.
*Clack!* A bright light suddenly exploded in the darkness!
Beside him, Susanna squeezed her eyes shut and lunged forward. "Watch—"
*BOOM—!!!!!*
Susanna’s external light-computer shattered in the roar of the shotgun. Shrapnel, like sparks of fire, sprayed into the darkness.
Lei Ting’s face, which had just begun to relax, turned deathly pale. "Sandro... Sandro?!"
He stumbled forward a few steps, almost as if he had forgotten he could fly.
In that moment, his mind went blank—just as blank as the coordinates where his friends should have been.
***
