“Sorry.”
Pojun suddenly spoke.
“I know I’ve ruined the beautiful atmosphere and that I’m being extremely unpleasantly timed. General, you probably really want to take me apart or restore me to my initial settings but I believe this matter should be very urgent.”
Lu Fenghan knew that although Pojun was merely an artificial intelligence, he possessed a high degree of autonomous authority, along with his own methods of “thinking” and “judgment.”
Holding Qi Yan’s fingertips, which had been chilled by the night wind, Lu Fenghan asked Pojun, “What is it?”
Pojun answered, “Two streets away from this building, there is a group of people passing through. They are currently discussing a kidnapping.”
Lu Fenghan frowned. “Who are they kidnapping?”
Pojun answered, “This planet.”
Qi Yan was puzzled. “Kidnapping a planet?”
“Yes. They are rapidly heading toward a certain set of coordinates. According to what I heard from those people, this operation is intended to uphold the glory of the rebel army and avenge Donald, the commander of the Eleventh Legion.”
Lu Fenghan looked toward the layers of dark shadows in the distance, where only a few scattered points of light were visible, nowhere near enough to fully illuminate the surroundings.
“Kidnapping planets is a standard tactic used by interstellar pirates. Before Lu Jun beat the interstellar pirates into submission, the thing they did most often was hijack starships and demand enormous ransoms. When they were completely broke, they would go for something much bigger, kidnap an entire planet, threaten the Alliance into paying an astronomical ransom and otherwise blow up the entire planet. Of course, everyone on that planet would die.”
After thinking for a moment, Lu Fenghan instructed Pojun, “Use my authorization to access the relevant records and compare them against the group. Check whether any of them are interstellar pirates already documented in the Alliance’s records.”
Qi Yan immediately made the connection. “Vincent mentioned that after Founding Day, the interstellar pirates and the rebel army had fallen out with each other. Was that false?”
Lu Fenghan chose his words carefully. “It’s only suspicion and speculation. Interstellar pirates don’t do anything without profit. They’re already irreconcilably opposed to the Alliance, so they probably wouldn’t sever ties with the rebel army so easily. If they side with the rebel army, then if the Alliance really falls, they can still get a share of the spoils.”
The moment he finished speaking, Pojun produced the results of his comparison.
“General, there are two documented interstellar pirates among that group. One is called Bious and the other is Hench. Both participated in the kidnapping of Alva Planet in Astral Era 182. They have been wanted fugitives for thirty five years and the Alliance has placed a bounty of two million star coins on them.”
“The rebel army wants this operation to succeed in a single attempt without any mistakes. Naturally, they would prefer to have ‘experienced hands’ among the interstellar pirates instruct them on how to carry it out. These two with criminal records certainly won’t be the only ones.”
Lu Fenghan did not immediately rush two streets away to find the group. Instead, he continued asking Pojun, “Search the surveillance feeds from various locations. I want to know their plan.”
Pojun remained law abiding. “General, a large scale intrusion into a planet’s surveillance system violates Alliance regulations.”
Lu Fenghan raised an eyebrow. “You called me ‘General.’”
“Understood.”
Pojun stopped speaking. This time, the search took slightly longer.
“They intend to send a message to the Alliance under the name of interstellar pirates after kidnapping the planet. The Alliance leadership is far away on Odin, so the responsibility for rescuing the planet will fall to you, General.
“After you accept the order, they will immediately destroy Mykono Star. They will refuse negotiations and will not accept any ransom for its return. As a result, the enormous number of casualties and the Expeditionary Army’s failure to provide adequate rescue will provoke public outrage. The credit you earned from your victory two days ago will be canceled out, while the Alliance government and military will further lose the trust of the people.”
“They want to repeat the same public opinion warfare as before.” Lu Fenghan thought about it. The plan was not particularly ingenious but it was effective.
If he and Qi Yan had not happened to be on Mykono Star and if Pojun, which they carried with them, had not happened to be monitoring the surrounding area and accidentally discovered the plan, the course of events might really have unfolded according to the rebel army’s script.
Pojun sounded worried. “What strategy should we use to respond? General, I’m very nervous.”
Lu Fenghan said, “Check the communications.”
“External communications were cut off fifteen minutes ago. All signals are false signals. One minute ago, Mykono Star’s official authorities issued a notice stating that the planet’s external communications had been interrupted and that they suspected interference from a cosmic particle storm. Technical personnel are currently being dispatched for repairs. Internal planetary communications remain unaffected for the time being and citizens are asked not to panic. For safety reasons, all civilian flight routes at the spaceport have been temporarily closed.”
“They’re using the same trick again.”
Lu Fenghan remembered that when the entire Fontaine One fleet had died in sacrifice on Founding Day, they had encountered exactly the same tactic.
Pojun was deeply concerned. “General, we can’t contact the fleet.”
Qi Yan spoke up to reassure him. “There are regular troops stationed on Mykono Star.”
“Mm,” Lu Fenghan said. “In addition, Mykono Star is one of the regular destinations chosen by the Expeditionary Army for personnel taking scheduled leave.”
Inside a bar on Mykono Star, a short haired young man was chatting with a bartender he knew well. He even made a point of reminding him, “The lightest alcohol you have. I’ll just take a sip to taste it. Otherwise, if I go back smelling like alcohol, my superior will chew me out!”
The bartender laughed loudly. “I know, I know but why is your superior so strict? They even control whether you can drink during your time off?”
The short haired young man smiled unconcernedly. “Drinking can cause trouble. You need to keep your head clear if you want to stay alive!”
The bartender became curious. Leaning forward over the bar, he asked, “We’ve known each other for so long, Calvin. What exactly do you do for work? You’re always disappearing.”
Calvin shrugged. “I clean up space debris. I don’t get much time off but it’s interesting. Exciting!”
The bartender straightened, unable to understand what could possibly be exciting about cleaning up space debris. Could he actually find some priceless treasure hidden among the garbage and become rich overnight?
At that moment, the personal terminal fitted around Calvin’s left wrist flashed.
He cast an almost casual glance at it.
Then his eyes widened and he muttered a curse under his breath.
Something had happened.
The smile vanished completely from Calvin’s face, replaced by an expression that was almost serious. An unpleasant premonition surged through his heart. He ran two steps toward the exit, then suddenly turned back, grabbed the coat he had left beside him and put it on while running. As he rushed out, he called back, “Put the cost of the drinks on my account. This one’s on me!”
At the same time, every active duty member of the Expeditionary Army who was on leave on Mykono Star and had not yet returned received a message.
It contained only one sentence, completely lacking any context:
“Report your current location.”
But because the order had been issued by Lu Fenghan, no one dared to treat it lightly.
Two minutes later, the map displayed by Pojun was gradually filled with glowing green points.
Lu Fenghan swept his gaze across it once and discovered that most of the points were concentrated in the prosperous areas of the city. However, dozens of points had also lit up along the edges of the desert, in the mountainous regions and even out over the surface of the sea.
The people under his command, the moment they stepped off a starship, scattered everywhere like dandelion seeds blown away by the wind.
By then, Lu Fenghan and Qi Yan had already left the rooftop and returned to their room.
With the current level of military technology, destroying an entire planet was not particularly difficult,
All that was required was for forty to fifty stellar class missiles to detonate within an extremely close time frame. As the resulting force fields spread and continuously overlapped with one another, they would not necessarily cause Mykono Star itself to explode into fragments but the biological life on the planet’s surface would inevitably be reduced to less than one in ten.
In only a few breaths, Mykono Star would become a barren planet.
For safety reasons, stellar class missiles were usually stored at separate locations and every one of those storage sites was classified as an S level secret. Accessing them also required the corresponding authorization keys.
Lu Fenghan asked Qi Yan, “If it were you, could you obtain authorization to launch the stellar class missiles?”
Qi Yan only thought for a moment before giving him an answer. “Yes. A key is like an actual key. As long as it successfully matches the ‘keyhole,’ it works. Regardless of whether I know how many characters the key contains, I can construct a program to generate a hundred thousand or even a million ‘keys’ and try them against the ‘keyhole.’ The amount of computation required would be enormous but eventually there would be one correct key that could open the lock.”
Lu Fenghan said, “The interstellar pirates can do it too.”
Qi Yan replied, “Yes. Pojun brought up the Alva Planet kidnapping case, which means the interstellar pirates should have mastered some kind of decryption technology that allows them to turn a limited number of key verification attempts into unlimited attempts.”
Lu Fenghan asked, “Otherwise, once the wrong key is entered twice, the key verification system will automatically shut down?”
“Yes.” Qi Yan applied the situation to himself. “No matter how sophisticated the Alliance’s security key system is, it wouldn’t be able to stop me. The only difference would be the scale of computation required.”
After saying this, Qi Yan blinked. “However, I can try to stop the intruders.”
He explained his idea to Lu Fenghan. “If the enemy keeps trying to decipher the key, then I’ll keep changing the key. As long as they aren’t faster than me and can’t keep up with the speed at which I change it, they won’t be able to open the lock.”
Lu Fenghan asked him for a specific time estimate. “How long can you stop them?”
Qi Yan calculated it. “Around twenty minutes.”
“That’s enough.”
Lu Fenghan undid the buttons of his gray trench coat, revealing the taut, clean lines along the side of his neck. “To activate the stellar class missile launch systems simultaneously, someone has to manually enter the key at each of the seven storage sites in sequence and then press the launch button. That means there will be someone attempting an intrusion at every storage site.”
Qi Yan understood Lu Fenghan’s plan. “I need two small optical computers, with another one as a backup. To guard against accidents, we can prepare one more.”
Looking at the green points scattered across the map, Lu Fenghan instructed Pojun, “Select three technical department personnel who are closest to this location. Have them bring small optical computers and get here as quickly as possible.”
As soon as the order was issued, the three nearby points on the map immediately began moving toward Lu Fenghan’s location.
Immediately afterward, Pojun circled two slightly more distant points. “These two are also personnel from the technical department.”
“Mm. Have them come here as quickly as possible as well.”
Because they were in a wartime state, personnel from the Expeditionary Army’s technical department carried small optical computers with them at all times to prepare for emergencies, regardless of whether they were currently on duty.
Their leave periods were no exception.
In the words of Lorenz, the head of the technical department, “Even if you’re out enjoying yourself for the night, you have to make sure the optical computer is somewhere within arm’s reach, because you never know which will come first, the battle or the XX.”
Afterward, Lu Fenghan used his authorization to determine the seven coordinates where the stellar class missiles were stored.
Seven locations, six missiles at each site, for a total of forty two missiles. That was more than enough to flatten the entire surface of the planet.
“Pojun, prioritize distance and divide them into seven teams, with one hundred people in each team. Everyone else will remain where they are and stand by.”
On the map, with each coordinate serving as the center, light in seven different colors spread outward. The glowing points were dyed in their respective colors, making them extremely easy to distinguish. At a glance, it was immediately clear which people belonged to each of the seven teams.
Lu Fenghan continued, “Send the details of the mission to everyone’s personal terminals. Clearly mark the coordinates of the missile storage sites and indicate the locations of the nearby arsenals. Use my authorization to open them and have them take weapons.”
Pojun replied, “Yes.”
✦ ✧ ✦
Vynellia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
✦ END OF CHAPTER ✦ BEGIN COFFEE NEGOTIATIONS ✦
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 50 · I am Pojun.Chapter 51 · Unable to deceive oneselfChapter 52 · Resurrected from the deadChapter 53 · Hello, General!Chapter 54 · My hand is injured.Chapter 55 · Come to my place.Chapter 56 · First VictoryChapter 57 · Self-introductionChapter 58 · Never changedChapter 59 · One reasonChapter 60 · Gentle and restrainedChapter 61 · Only you are allowed.Chapter 62 · To the Souls of the FallenChapter 63 · His reliefChapter 64 · His ambitionChapter 65 · Date TimeChapter 66 Part 1 · Abducting PlanetsChapter 66 Part 2 · Abducting PlanetsChapter 67 · Did not leaveChapter 68 · Perceiving EmotionsChapter 69 · My own effortsChapter 70 · Bright FlameChapter 71 · Dress codeChapter 72 · Take me with you!Chapter 73 · MirageChapter 74 · I’m used to it.