Chapter 15: Garbage Star
When the positioning of the ship that Ge Xiu was driving suddenly disappeared from the galaxy chart, Lulai was having a routine tactical meeting.
His gaze swept across his smart brain inadvertently, but his eyes were drawn to the burning bright red alarm. It almost immediately grabbed all of Lulai’s attention, making him lose consciousness for a few seconds.
Richard has just finished his regular report at the moment and was standing by the table waiting for Lulai’s instructions.
Lulai returned to his senses and nodded calmly as usual, indicating that he did a good job – his few second long loss of attention was fleeting and almost no one noticed it except for Hall, who was standing behind him.
At the end of the meeting, the officers dispersed one after another.
Hall stared at Lulai’s straight back, but a faintly uneasy expression appeared in his eyes.
Lulai Sivir – his name alone can frighten enemies on the battlefield, no one in the Alliance dared to challenge his authority, almost all influential families in the Alliance Parlament were trying to win him over and he was the most popular general in 100 years. However, he rebelled when his prestige was at its highest and instantly turned from the God of War praised by everyone to a fugitive pursued by the entire alliance.
No one knew why.
Even Hall dare not to make assumptions randomly.
He’s been by his side ever since Lulai was given the title of God of War and he was also the most loyal follower who followed him first after Lulai defected from the Alliance. Even so, he never dared to say that he knew well the unpredictable man in front of him.
In Hall’s impression, Lulai always seemed to be in a state of lack of joy, anger and mood swings, as if everything was under his control and he was never disturbed by any variables, no matter how severe the situation on the battlefield. As long as Lulai was here, he felt that any situation could be rescued and his existence itself was reassuring.
It was the first time Hall saw Lulai lose composure in a long time.
This gave him an unimaginable hunch.
Lulai did not look back, but calmly asked, “How many manoeuvrable warships are still on the main ship?”
Hall: “Excluding the warships and reconnaissance ships responsible for defending the main ship and scouting the enemy, there are four medium-sized and thirteen lightweight ships left.”
”Good.”
Lulai turned his head, his silver-blue eyes were like the icy sky on a snow-capped mountain and the expression in her eyes was as unfathomable as the deep sea. Hall’s heart contracted, he was holding his breath waiting for the other’s command:
”Take all the mobile fleets and search with all your strength along this positioning route.”
Hall looked down at the positioning route displayed on his brain, and couldn’t help but being startled slightly – isn’t that, Ge Xiu’s route?
Could it be that something happened?
Although he didn’t have a lot of affection for this damned child, he still highly respected Ge Xiu’s abilities. With Lulai’s order, Hall did not dare to neglect, gave a military salute and then hurriedly left the meeting room through the metal door. Before it closed behind him, a vague question flashed in Hall’s mind involuntarily-
Why is captain so nervous when Ge Xiu had an accident…?
Before he could understand it, the cabin door got closed behind him.
Once again, only Lulai was left in the conference room.
He turned around calmly, looked down at the magnified virtual galaxy map on the desktop, his eyes stuck tightly to the suddenly disrupted route, his eyes dark.
Lulai also asked himself this question in his heart.
Why was he so nervous the moment he saw the news?
Lulai put his hand into his pocket, his fingertips hit a hard sphere wrapped in wrapping paper, he was taken aback for a moment and then took it out.
A candy.
Citrus taste.
Lulai’s eyes were downcast, quiet and deep.
–Since when did he have the habit of bringing candies in his pocket?
On the garbage star.
Ge Xiu peeled off the candy wrapping flexibly.
The strong sweet scent from the inferior candies instantly occupied his mouth, nose and senses, almost dispelling the stench that lingered around him a little.
Ge Xiu touched to check number of candies left in his pocket.
There are only five left.
He cautiously licked the round sugar ball in his mouth with the tip of his tongue, then raised his eyes and looked at the environment around him.
The sky was as gray and gloomy as ever and the stacked mountains of garbage seemed to stretch to the end of the world.
Ge Xiu retracted his gaze and sighed lightly.
To find candy in this kind of place was simply a fantasy.
The terrain here has visibly smoothed out and there were traces of life on the ground. The other crew members have been sent out by him. Only him and Xiao Yi were left to walk together in this huge place.
Although Ge Xiu was still looking for the rubbish on the side of the road as he walked forward, his movements became lazy and he could even be regarded as impassive and depressed.
His eyes drifted away, he kicked an empty jar on the ground casually as he walked, his thoughts floating somewhere unknown.
The empty iron can kicked by Ge Xiu clinked on the ground, only to roll into the trash pile aside.
Xiao Yi hesitantly followed behind him. He stared at Ge Xiu’s back, as if he wanted to say something, but he swallowed the words back at the last moment.
Ge Xiu didn’t look back, but he seemed to have eyes in the back of his head:
”What’s the matter?”
Xiao Yi was taken aback by his abrupt question and finally summoned the courage to speak:
”Well, Xiao Qi, let’s…can we go back to the shed you lived in before? It won’t take long, I promise! I’ll be back soon!”
The first place he saw when he woke up?
Ge Xiu’s spirits lifted and his lack of interest just now was wiped out in an instant.
He turned around, nodded happily, and laughed out showing two little tiger teeth:
”Yeah, okay.”
Xiao Yi’s face immediately lit up.
In the next second, Ge Xiu’s deliberately elongated voice sounded again: “But…”
Xiao Yi’s face became stiff, and he looked at him fearfully.
Ge Xiu watched with great interest as Xiao Yi changed his face at an extremely fast speed, without the slightest guilt for his own bad taste. After a long time, he finally completed the words compassionately:
”…you have to tell me why. “
Xiao Yi’s hanging heart finally relaxed, but he looked away, his eyes avoiding Ge Xiu, his ears turned red as he whispered quietly:
”Let’s go there, you’ll know once we get there”
”OK!”
Ge Xiu’s interest got ignited by his hesitation, his big round eyes flashed with excitement, he couldn’t wait to say:
”Walk quickly!! Let’s hurry up!”
There were not many places for humans to live on the garbage planet, almost all houses were gathered in the same area, where the layer of trash is relatively thin, bare soil was even exposed in some places, and even groundwater with a low level of pollution could be excavated, resulting in the sparse population on the planted gathered all in one place. They could barely survive in this hard environment.
And the ruined shed where they once lived was on the edge of the area, it’s take them at least half an hour of walk to get there.
However, Ge Xiu hurried so much it took them ten minutes with his constant urging.
Xiao Yi didn’t even have time to catch his breath. When he saw the shed, he stumbled straight to a small area not far from the shed and squatted on the ground, looking for who knows what.
Ge Xiu stood in front of the broken shed, sent his position to the smart brains of the crew members who went out to perform the task and then looked up around this both strange and familiar place.
There was hardly any difference between this place and when he just woke up. The turbid atmosphere was filled with foul smells, layers of garbage were piled up into high hills, and the traces of life that were already scarce have basically completely disappeared. Only a half run-down grayish brown shed remained.
He turned around and walked in.
Obviously, all the useful equipment in the shed had been raided after they left, and even the blanket on which Ge Xiu had lay disappeared, leaving only half a broken shed with no value standing stubbornly on the ground.
Under such a thorough sweep, there is basically nothing left.
Ge Xiu retracted his gaze and yawned disinterested. The excitement of returning to the starting point disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived.
He found a fairly clean place to sit in the shed and sat down cross-legged, found his tools in the bag of supplies he was carrying from all this time and began to tinker with the scraps he picked up on the road.
The virtual image transformed by the smart brain was suspended in mid-air, and the bright blue light illuminated Ge Xiu’s face.
He was so engrossed in it that he hardly noticed Xiao Yi, who was not far away, let out a low cry of surprise, and then ran towards the shed holding a tiny box full of dirt.
Xiao Yi stumbled into the ruined shed, shocking Ge Xiu.
He quickly moved the metal parts in front of him into his arms, to avoid the indiscriminate attack of Xiao Yi’s dizzy head.
Xiao Yi didn’t notice Ge Xiu’s little movements. With bright eyes, he carefully lifted the metal lid on the edge of the can, and a small metal block fell out of it: “Great! I found it! It’s still here!”
Ge Xiu blinked and looked over.
Xiao Yi used his sleeve to clean the dirt on the surface of the metal block treasured by him and then handed it to Ge Xiu with a little embarrassment:
”This…for you.”
Ge Xiu was taken aback and took it with some surprise: “It’s for me?”
Xiao Yi nodded slightly, a thin layer of embarrassed blush appeared on his cheeks and he hesitated: “I, I have always wanted to tell you, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have wronged you in the selection. It’s simply unworthy of being your friends. But, afterwards, I never found a chance to apologize to you seriously… and thank you.”
Ge Xiu looked at the metal block that was handed to him.
It was a red-black round card with a round surface, reflecting a shallow silver light under the light, and the text on it was deformed and blurred, and it didn’t seem to be the universal language of the alliance.
Xiao Yi noticed Ge Xiu’s scrutinizing gaze and hurriedly explained: “Everything after getting on the ship, clothes, food and so on, were given to me by others. Only this, it’s mine. I picked it up when I was picking up waste. I thought it could bring me good luck, so I kept it hidden secretly. No one can say it’s not my own, so…”
Ge Xiu touched its shiny surface with his fingertips, raised his head and looked at Xiao Yi:
”Thank you.”
His eyes were pitch black and their clarity could clearly reflect the human figure, there was an extremely rare serious look at the bottom of his eyes.
Under this line of sight, Xiao Yi’s face turned red. He twisted his hand and scratched the back of his head, turning his head shyly to look at the dirty door of the shed:
”No, no need for thanks…”
Ge Xiu lowered his head again and looked at the text on the metal plate. Suddenly he was taken aback, he seemed to have thought of something and scanned it quickly with his smart brain.
One minute later, the smart brain analysis was over.
Ge Xiu glanced at content written there and his eyes gradually brightened.
He has a new inspiration of how to complete the task.
At this time, the crew have completed their tasks one after another. According to Ge Xiu’s instructions, after spreading the rumor that “the next selection is about to begin and the qualification assessment will be carried out from house to house” they gathered out side the shed according to positioning on their smart brains. Everyone looked gloomy and worried.
Ge Xiu got out of the shed bending his waist, looked at the depressed crew mates in front of him and asked calmly:
”Is it over?”
Everyone nodded heavily and began to report harvest of their trip to Ge Xiu one by one.
The visits from house to house this time made them discover something that made them thoughtful and terrified – the residents did not doubt the authenticity of the selection at all.
So they asked a few more questions and found that within a few months of their departure, two selections had been held. The selection was once held every seven years, so that the planets whose population resources were plundered could have time to replenish the population, but now…the Alliance seems to have completely ignored the future development of these planets, almost completely emptying them out!
And… what’s even more terrifying is that all those who had escaped from the Leibert were gone.
After asking carefully, they realized that not a few days after those people fled back, the Alliance sent troops to capture them all in the name of fleeing, in order to prevent them from leaking the news, in order to not affect the continued exploitation of the Alliance.
The more Xiao Yi listened, the more frightened he became and he subconsciously turned his head to look at Ge Xiu.
The young man standing next to him was much shorter than himself, his bone-shaped shoulders protruded from under the cloth and his body was as thin as a cicada’s wings, as if it could be broken easily. But there was no unexpected expression on that small pale face, which made panicked people calm down.
Xiao Yi was stunned, and suddenly remembered what Ge Xiu had said before “They are not incapable of detecting the strangeness, but they just chose not to see, listen, or believe.”
It turned out to be the case.
He now finally understood the meaning of Ge Xiu’s words.
It was impossible for the Alliance to wait for death, so they will definitely take action, which was equivalent to destroying the existing balance.
– Then the seeds of doubt will inevitably be planted in the hearts of the residents, and there was the possibility of overthrowing that deep-rooted superstition.
After all the crew members reported, one of them asked:
”Captain, what should we do next?”
Ge Xiu pursed his lips and shrugged carelessly: “Wait.”
His unexpected answer made everyone stunned–wait? What are we waiting for?
Before they could react, Ge Xiu got into the broken shed again, leaving a group of crew members with blank faces standing on the open space outside the shed.
Xiao Yi had long been accustomed to Ge Xiu’s arbitrary attitude, he sighed, shrugged helplessly at everyone and then turned and followed him into the shed.
Ge Xiu sat cross-legged on the ground, with fragments of mechanical parts scattered around. He had already turned on his smart brain at the moment. His thin fingertips were tapping flexibly on the screen and his dark eyes were reflecting blue light in a relatively dim shed. It looks particularly eye-catching.
Xiao Yi seemed to have figured out something, and his eyes lit up instantly:
”Xiao Qi, do you…have a plan?”
Ge Xiu raised his head and looked at him, with a pleasant arc of laughter on his lips, and he raised one finger and put it on his lower lip in a silencing gesture:
”I just thought, as the host, how can we not entertain our guests?”
Although Xiao Yi didn’t know what Ge Xiu was talking about, he still shivered involuntarily.
He was too familiar with that ominous expression.
–During the week when they went out together, every time the other party showed this expression, someone was deemed to suffer.
Xiao Yi shrank his shoulders, and didn’t know who to mourn for a moment.
Four hours later.
A squad of the Alliance Army came towards the residential area. They submerged deep in the garbage dump with each step. Everyone’s faces were blue and white from the stench in the air that started to torture them from the moment they set foot on this planet. Many of them have already vomited a few times but the captain walking at the front seemed to take it better.
Because the mission was extremely dangerous this time, the weapons they wore were all highly lethal high energy light weapons and they proceeded cautiously towards the gathering area.
The captain walked to one of the crooked houses that looked extremely dilapidated and tried to knock on the door fiercely with the handle of the gun, but before he could smash it down, the door opened ahead of time.
A scrawny man stood in the black hole of the door frame, watching them with an extremely passionate and eager look.
The adjutant couldn’t help but swallow down all the questions about missing people into his stomach and shiver subconsciously.
This look…
how could he put it?
It’s like a person who has been hungry for a month suddenly sees a table of steaming food, uncontrollably raising hairs on their backs.
—————————-
Bamboo has something to say:
The affection and doting of Lulai is so subtle. He doesn’t say anything, but he always carries sweets with him, does anything to help him, indulges Ge Xiu and even lets him go on a dangerous mission because he never meant to tie him down but to let him fly free
no theater today I got so moved by what i wrote i cry now wuwuwuwu
