The Space Station Under Attack and the Sneaky Stellaron Hunters
As the Chasing the Moon glided out of the jump tunnel, not a single navigation light on the Herta Space Station outside the porthole was lit.
The entire Herta Space Station resembled a broken bone lying across its orbit above the Azure Star. Only a small portion of the Master Control Zone was illuminated, while the support modules were completely dark. Occasionally, a streak of electric sparks would roll along the outer shell, only to be extinguished halfway through in the vacuum. The air leaking from the breach froze into a thin layer of frost on the surface of the module, gleaming with a cold light.
"Was it attacked?" Jingxing frowned.
"Ms. Herta didn't mention the space station being damaged." The android standing behind the pilot's seat tilted its head, its ball joints making a soft click, its tone rather rigid, indicating it was currently in autonomous mode.
"If she had told us beforehand, things wouldn't be like this now." Jingxing reduced the speed and manually took over berth guidance.
The public communication channels were filled with static. Some people were shouting that the defenses had fallen, others were reporting the number of missing persons, and a distorted broadcast repeatedly read, "The Antimatter Legion has breached the containment chamber," but soon, the sound was cut off completely with a violent metallic collapse.
The Chasing the Moon forcibly approached berth number three. The blast door of the berth looked as if it had been rammed open, with white steam rising from the rolled-up alloy edges. When the docking clamps snapped shut, the entire ship shook.
"You wait here, I'll go down and check the situation first." After giving this instruction, Jingxing jumped down the gangway. The moment his boots touched the ground, he saw a dark figure surging towards him from the end of the corridor.
Leading the charge were a dozen or so Voidranger, followed by trampling Trampler that pounded the deck with thunderous thuds. High up, between the pipes, hung a ball of dark red extraterrestrial flame, its intense heat sizzling against the bulkhead. The air was thick with the acrid smell of ozone and burnt materials.
"Heh." Jingxing reached into the sachet at his waist with his right hand and pulled out the Cloud-Washing Ink-Tracer.
No further words were needed to deal with such a public enemy. Jingxing, facing the horde of Voidranger, flicked his wrist, drawing a horizontal ink line in the air with the tip of his brush. The next second, the ink line stretched out along the ground, freezing the movements of the Voidranger and Tramplers in its path. Then, they were cleanly severed at the waist, the cut as smooth as a piece of white paper, without even a spark of annihilation, all turning into nothingness.
Then, the second vertical stroke rose up, and the cosmic flame between the pipes was pierced through the air by the thick ink formed from Imaginary Energy. The fire at the core struggled and flickered twice, scratching a few scorch marks on the metal ceiling before going out completely.
Jingxing flicked the remaining ink from his brush and took a few steps forward.
But out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of two figures that shouldn't be there.
A woman in a burgundy trench coat walked past from the side corridor, her high heels clicking at a leisurely pace, a submachine gun casually hanging at her side; behind her followed a short girl with gray hair in pigtails, chewing bubble gum, her fingers rapidly tapping on a floating holographic panel.
It's Kafka and Silver Wolf from the Stellaron Hunters.
Jingxing's hand holding the pen froze in mid-air. The two figures neither headed towards the combat zone nor the escape pod, but instead turned into the deepest part of the containment section with practiced ease.
He dispersed the ink that had gathered at the tip of his brush and took a deep breath. The key to "Temperance" in the Path of "Beauty" lies in restraining oneself. He gradually reduced his presence until, in the end, even the swaying emergency light overhead in the corridor did not leave a single shadow on the ground.
Jingxing walked through a group of wandering Voidranger. The monsters' compound eyes swept over where he stood, but saw nothing; a Mara-Struck Reaver was very close to him, the bone spikes on its carapace brushing against his sleeve, paused for half a second, and then walked forward blankly.
The door to the observation room at the end of the containment section was open, and a string of pixelated squares remained at the access control point—traces left by the "Aether Editing" directly rewriting reality.
"The Stellaron Hunters isn't here to steal anything, is he?" Jingxing pressed himself against the alloy wall outside the door, the cold metal making half his face numb.
The sound of their voices could be heard coming from inside the room.
"Four minutes earlier than the script says." Kafka's voice carried a hint of casual amusement. "Silver Wolf, are you sure you calculated the route to lure those guys away correctly?"
"Questioning my calculations?" Silver Wolf didn't even look up, his eyes fixed on the screen, his voice nonchalant. "I'll give you a little more time this time, so you can say goodbye properly."
"Okay, that's thoughtful of you. I'll have Ren make you some extra food when we get back."
"I don't need this." Silver Wolf scoffed and continued operating the device.
Jingxing peered through the crack in the door.
The containment platform in the center of the observation room had been unsealed, and a gray-haired girl lay on it. She was dressed in unfamiliar clothing with a black top, white collar, and bright yellow ribbons, and her eyes were closed.
Kafka stood at the edge of the stage, her right hand, gloved with a spiderweb pattern, pulling something out of her coat.
The object was no bigger than a handful, its entire body gleaming with a dark golden light, and fine cracks inside that seemed to move like living things. Jingxing had witnessed the echoes of the Amber Lord and the oppressive aura of the Emanator, but this golden light, even just a glimpse through the crack in the door, made his eyes sting.
It is the Stellaron.
Kafka, holding the Stellaron, hovered above the gray-haired girl's chest, then stopped moving.
"Kafka," Silver Wolf glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, "Are you sure she can hold on?"
"We must trust Elio's script," Kafka said softly.
Silver Wolf clicked his tongue but didn't reply. The code on the screen scrolled through two lines and then stopped.
Kafka lowered her head, pressed the Stellaron down with her palm, and the dark golden light seeped into the girl's chest like water seeping into sand. The gray-haired girl, who had been sleeping, suddenly arched her back, let out a very soft groan, and gripped the metal tabletop tightly before going limp as if all her strength had been drained.
Jingxing outside the door, had no idea what kind of ritual this was. He only knew that someone had stuffed a seed of calamity, powerful enough to Destruction a planet, into a girl's body.
He originally wanted to wait for Kafka to wake up the girl and hear what they were plotting, but just then, cries for help suddenly came from the maintenance area, which was separated by two passages.
Several sounds overlapped, including someone desperately pounding on the deformed blast door, the muffled thuds of heavy objects hitting steel plates, and cries.
Jingxing glanced back at the observation room. Kafka had already leaned down to whisper something in the girl's ear, but she was too preoccupied to listen now.
"Saving lives is the priority." He gritted his teeth, ultimately suppressing the urge to continue eavesdropping, and turned to rush towards the direction of the cries for help.
At the entrance to the storage room outside the two passageways, the collapsed load-bearing supports held the hatch tightly shut, and two Voidranger were hacking and slashing outside. Jingxing wielded his brush and shattered the Voidranger, the tip of his brush drawing two lines on the support, and the steel support cracked like paper.
He pulled out the seven or eight clerks and visitors who were stuck behind the door one by one. The guest at the very back, who was holding a child, was so weak in the legs that he couldn't stand up, so he simply helped him onto his shoulder.
When Jingxing escorted the person to the safety passage and then returned to the containment chamber, the observation room was empty. Only a faint mark that hadn't completely cooled remained on the metal table, and even the gray-haired girl was nowhere to be seen.
"What's going on?" Jingxing closed his eyes and dispersed his Imaginary Energy, but he couldn't detect any trace of the Stellaron Hunters.
"Looks like they've retreated. They were really fast." He thought to himself before starting to search for the gray-haired girl. Soon, Jingxing opened his eyes.
"Found you."