Chapter 10#

The Beta Lieutenant Colonel Who Died for His Country#

“I never imagined this would be how we die.” Lu Heng gave a bitter smile as he spoke to Xiu Yite.

The Queen’s psychic network had sealed off the entire planet. Once a mecha attempted to break through the network to leave the atmosphere, the electronic equipment would be struck by the Queen’s psychic power and rendered useless. In other words, the three of them were stranded on this planet. To make matters worse, the Queen had dispatched a massive number of guard insects to hunt them down.

It was already the tenth day. The relentless combat had left both Xiu Yite and Lu Heng utterly exhausted. More critically, the mecha’s energy reserves were nearly depleted after such intense fighting.

“Little Nana, you’re too pessimistic. I promise you’ll make it back to the Capital Star for the Star Era Festival.” Xiu Yite’s face showed signs of fatigue, but his eyes burned with startling brightness. “I have a plan. But since we still have a little time, let’s chat first.”

“What time is it for chatting, and you’re still messing around.” Lu Heng frowned.

Xiu Yite, however, clutched his chest in an exaggerated manner, putting on a look that teetered between crying and not crying. “When Little Nana gets fierce with me, I get nervous. And when I get nervous, I forget all the plans in my head.”

Lu Heng sat down with a helpless sigh. At a glance, Xiu Yite understood—Lu Heng had agreed to his request.

“Actually, you probably already know what I want to ask…”

“Why are you so concerned about this question?” Lu Heng found it somewhat puzzling. Xiu Yite was a remarkably carefree person who, apart from his ideals, never clung stubbornly to anything.

“Because I think you’re unhappy, Laina.” Xiu Yite’s expression turned unusually serious. “And I believe the root of all this has something to do with me.”

Lu Heng fell silent for a long time, a thousand words but not knowing where to begin. Laina, born into a political family, had keenly perceived early on that Feng Lei’s situation was extremely delicate—independent of the other corps yet possessed of formidable strength. By now, Feng Lei had become the utopian ideal for all outstanding soldiers; every year, the top graduates of every military academy across the Allied Nations chose Feng Lei as their first pick, without exception.

The Marshal had grown old, and lately there had even been multiple reports that his life was in danger. Under these circumstances, how could Feng Lei’s remarkable rise not set off the sensitive nerves of other corps commanders? Xiu Yite’s father, General Lis, already held enormous prestige among the public, and the Second Corps had always been distinguished by its battle achievements. With Feng Lei’s support added to that, the question of who would hold the next Marshal’s seat was virtually a foregone conclusion.

Although Xiu Yite was rebellious and untamed, never yielding to any corps and never engaging in power struggles, he was nonetheless General Lis’s son. Therefore, plenty of eyes were fixed on Feng Lei.

“I hear the Marshal doesn’t have much time left,” Lu Heng paused. “In the scheming and infighting at the top, resources that can’t serve as someone’s leverage are always safer destroyed. So a Feng Lei where the commander and his deputy are at odds is far less threatening than one united from top to bottom.”

Xiu Yite wasn’t a fool—he had simply always been too lazy to bother with such petty machinations. He had believed that by leading Feng Lei far from the Capital Star, stationed long-term at the border, he could devote himself purely to defending the Human Alliance and eradicating the Zerg.

Yet while he peaceably pursued his own goals, all of this had actually been won through Lu Heng’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering on his behalf. For this, Lu Heng had suppressed his true nature, gone so far as to deal with the upper echelons of various military departments, and participated in those games of power and profit. After all, Lu Heng had defied his family’s arrangements and applied to military academy precisely because he despised the darkness and helplessness of politics.

When Xiu Yite pieced all of this together, he seized Lu Heng’s hand, his facial muscles trembling slightly from gripping too hard. “You…”

The words stuck in his throat. He didn’t know what to say, so he simply pulled Lu Heng into his arms, his iron-hard arms squeezing until Lu Heng ached.

Lu Heng felt a bit uncomfortable. He pushed Xiu Yite away with slight force. “You don’t need to feel guilty. Feng Lei isn’t just your ideal—it’s mine too. Someone always has to do what needs to be done.”

With that, Lu Heng looked Xiu Heng up and down again, his gaze seeming to carry a trace of disdain. “And that someone naturally could never be you.”

Xiu Yite feigned anger. “Little Nana, are you looking down on me?”

Then he saw Lu Heng’s lips curve gently upward and instantly understood that Lu Heng simply didn’t want him to feel too guilty. He laughed along. Watching Lu Heng’s smile, he felt his heart skip several beats, as if something had subtly shifted. Lu Heng was actually very good-looking, Xiu Yite suddenly realized. His slightly upturned outer eye corners, his straight nose bridge, and those lips whose soft, elegant lines curved when he smiled—the whole man seemed to glow.

“Can you tell me your plan now?” To Xiu Yite’s disappointment, Lu Heng quickly put away his smile and returned to his usual serious and earnest manner.

And so Xiu Yite laid out his plan. The two would use psychic resonance to multiply their psychic power and attack the Queen’s psychic body, then seize the opportunity to escape the planet. Psychic resonance required both parties to completely trust each other, with absolutely no suspicion or misunderstanding in their hearts, or it would fail—which was precisely why Xiu Yite had asked his earlier questions.

After confirming the plan, the two carried Carlo from the repair pod and slipped quietly toward the Queen’s lair. The closer they got, the greater the damage a psychic strike would inflict.

After eliminating several waves of guard insects, they once again reached the cliff. Xiu Yite built a fire pit, took a few chunks of meat cut from guard insects out of a spatial key, and began roasting them. “Come on, come on—eat your fill before we do anything big.”

Lu Heng looked at this man who could remain composed no matter the situation, and could only choose to follow along. He sat down and cooperatively began sprinkling seasoning on the insect meat.

“Actually, I think we could completely change things. We can just put on an act of being at odds in front of outsiders. Behind closed doors, we can still eat and sleep together as close as before—wouldn’t that be nice?” No matter how much time passed, Xiu Yite still couldn’t get used to Lu Heng being so distant with him.

“First, I suspect there are spies planted on Feng Lei by other corps.” Lu Heng glanced at him. “Second, we never slept together.”

Xiu Yite put on an injured expression. Seeing that Lu Heng paid him no mind, he had to redirect his attention to the matter at hand. “A traitor? Do you have any suspects?”

Lu Heng shook his head. “I have leads, but I don’t know who yet.”

After eating and drinking their fill, the two rested and recovered their strength, preparing for the psychic resonance. Xiu Yite’s psychic power was more aggressive, so he would serve as the primary controller.

The more powerful one’s psychic power, the more intensely it tended to react to external psychic intrusion—it could even spiral out of control and attack the other party. Therefore, Lu Heng first extended a thin tendril of psychic power, cautiously probing its way into Xiu Yite’s psychic space.

To Lu Heng’s astonishment, his psychic tendril was fully welcomed, with absolutely no sign of resistance. Lu Heng regarded Xiu Yite with a complex expression, then closed his eyes and allowed his psychic power to completely merge into Xiu Yite’s psychic space.

Though it was their first psychic resonance, the process went remarkably smoothly. In no time, the two streams of psychic power twisted together into a single colossal rope. Lu Heng relinquished control, allowing Xiu Yite to wield their combined psychic power. It formed into a massive spear, poised to plunge viciously into the Queen’s psychic body.

At that critical moment, the unexpected happened. Perhaps Carlo’s psychic power was too highly compatible with Xiu Yite’s—his psychic power involuntarily released itself and began winding toward theirs. Psychic resonance was an inherently perilous affair that required maintaining a delicate balance. If Carlo’s psychic power intervened, all three of them would either die or be gravely injured.

Xiu Yite, already concentrating all his effort on controlling their dual psychic power, had no capacity left to remedy the situation. Lu Heng had no choice but to grit his teeth and forcibly sever a small portion from the very core of his psychic power, forming it into a psychic barrier to shield Carlo’s psychic power outside. The searing pain of having his psychic core split open made Lu Heng’s face turn deathly pale in an instant.

At the same time, a piercing shriek echoed from the Queen’s lair—their attack had apparently struck true. The Queen’s psychic network, thick as a fortress wall, suddenly became unstable. Xiu Yite once again manipulated their combined psychic power, reshaping it into a long blade, and slashed fiercely along the weakest point, carving a massive gash in the psychic network.

“Now!” Xiu Yite summoned the mecha, scooped up the weakened Lu Heng in one arm, and leaped inside. He then had the mecha’s hand grasp the repair pod containing Carlo. Like a bird finally freed, they plunged through the gap and soared out into outer space.

“Is it all right to leave Carlo outside?” Lu Heng asked, his hands never ceasing their operations.

“The repair pod has its own built-in circulation system. He won’t die.” Xiu Yite’s fingers danced across the control panel, leaving a trail of afterimages.

Lu Heng found Xiu Yite’s attitude toward Carlo somewhat strange. He had always considered himself Carlo’s protector, terrified that the child of his benefactor would come to harm—yet now he had simply tossed the repair pod outside the mecha. Although the cockpit was rather cramped, squeezing in a repair pod would still be barely possible, and the cockpit was far safer than being held in the mecha’s hand.

“Laina, how are you feeling? Forcibly severing part of your psychic core is no small matter.” Earlier, though Xiu Yite hadn’t had the bandwidth to do anything, he hadn’t missed that episode. “No, when we get back, I insist on having Erin take a thorough look at you. No, no—let’s go to Horst Planet first. I know an excellent doctor who specializes in the psychic domain…”

“That’s enough, Xiu Yite. If you quiet down, I’ll feel much better.” Lu Heng rubbed his temple, where a headache was starting to throb.

Xiu Yite looked at Lu Heng’s somewhat pale complexion. He mimed pulling a zipper across his lips, signaling he would make no more noise.

After a moment, Lu Heng studied the radar display, sensing something was off. “The Queen actually hasn’t sent forces after us. Something’s not right.”

“When we attacked the Queen just now, I also noticed its psychic defenses seemed too weak,” Xiu Yite said. “That shouldn’t be the Queen’s true level of power.”

No matter what the explanation, they had already reached the vicinity of the wormhole. Whatever anomalies the Queen was displaying were now the research institute scientists’ problem to investigate. Having barely escaped with their lives had left Xiu Yite and Lu Heng utterly spent. All they wanted was to return to the mothership and get some proper rest.