The Bombardment

A second passed, but the other party still didn't answer. Yu Lian was getting impatient. He was short on time and had no time to waste on these little people.

"Honestly, you might just be an idiot." Yu Lian sighed and raised his gun again.

"I'll talk, I'll talk! My name's Babbas. I-I'm an Alliance citizen... No, wait, I'm an employee of the Compass Trading Company! I, uh, right, all ten of the cannons here were brought in by the company. They're Tsunami—no, ion cannons modeled after the Alliance's Tsunami Type 4, capable of engaging both ground and air targets! There are twenty of us here, all company employees! We're just wage slaves! We're really not dangerous enemies, so please don't hurt us! Waaaaah!"

Seeing that Yu Lian remained unmoved and expressionless, the goblin engineer named Babbas repeated himself in broken Terran, then added, "I-I'm willing to cooperate. Really, everyone will cooperate. We'll do anything you ask!"

Now that was more like it. Yu Lian nodded in satisfaction, then glanced at the headless corpse beside him, its head blown apart. "This gentleman was hit by a stray shot from the Sand People. What rotten luck! May the Spirit of the Universe watch over him. That's what happened, right?"

"Y-yes..." Babbas finally understood why Yu Lian had picked up the Sand People's gun, and grew even more terrified. There was nothing more frightening than a madman—except a madman who still had his wits and judgment.

"Your cannons are all controlled through a central computer, right?"

They didn't actually use vacuum tubes, so technically they should've been called information terminals. But to save the great lords observing from beyond the Great Universe the trouble, they'd just call them computers from now on.

Yu Lian had checked the motorhomes. Aside from the ones used as living quarters, the biggest was clearly a multipurpose terminal command vehicle. It had to be the central command post for this artillery position.

"Yes, yes." Babbas nodded obsequiously. He could tell Yu Lian knew his stuff, which made him even harder to fool.

"Then what are you waiting for? Get over there and get to work!"

The engineers squealed as they scurried out of their motorhomes like mice chased from their holes, only to be herded into the command vehicle. Yu Lian gave Captain Winter a thumbs-up. The captain had finally recovered from his daze, though his feelings were complicated. "Heh, getting bailed out by a student. What a disgrace. If all the Moon people were this capable, though, maybe the world really would be at peace."

Thinking that, the captain gave Yu Lian a thumbs-up in return and waved several soldiers inside with him. Then he turned his full attention to defending the position. He was effectively handing over command of the bombardment to Yu Lian, yet didn't think there was anything wrong with that. Neither did the other officers of the 101st Company.

"Just like Warrant Officer Yu Lian said, that goblin was killed by a stray shot from the Sand People. Anyone who lets the truth slip, I'll shove a shell up your ass!" The captain roared over the company comms channel. A chorus of "That's right!", "Who's a goblin?", and "I didn't see a thing!" followed, along with some hard-to-understand remarks. "Death is just death," and "A goblin's death is actually a philosophical question," prompted a burst of laughter from the soldiers. The channel was suddenly filled with good cheer.

"I like this Moon person. He's more interesting than every other Moon person I've ever met! No, more interesting than all the elite bureaucratic groups I've ever met!" Lieutenant Pakin summed up.

It was now 8:17 p.m. Both Highland 6 at Alchi and all ten heavy cannons had changed hands. The defenders of the position had been wiped out. More than a thousand Sand People soldiers and laborers had been killed, while not a single one of their side had even been injured. The whole operation had gone almost flawlessly.

Even now, most of the Sand People hadn't realized what was happening. The brawl over there was still raging, and the tank and firearms training ground was still in full swing.

Yu Lian stood in the command vehicle, holding his C10 upside down in one hand and the White Crow he'd picked up in the other. Smiling, he watched the backs of the goblins' heads as the short creatures trembled over their computers, bringing up a map of the battlefield on the holographic display.

"Point three cannons at A7, two at B12, two at H11, and keep the remaining three on standby. Get moving... Oh, you there, you unlucky gentleman. Why are you adjusting the cannon's angle? Shift it one notch to the left. That way you won't hit empty ground. What a shame!" Before the goblin could beg for mercy, Yu Lian stepped forward and swung the White Crow's stock into his head. The little yellow-brown hairless head burst like a watermelon, spraying the area around it.

The goblins screamed, but a soldier standing outside the vehicle fired a shot into the air, and they fell silent at once.

This madman knew his stuff. There was no fooling him! The goblins fought down their fear and grief and got to work.

Yu Lian hadn't planned to operate so many cannons alone. He knew how, of course, but even if he awakened two or three more star rings, he still wouldn't have enough hands. And since history had already told him there was a whole gang of goblin mercenaries here, working as combat engineers and artillerymen, why not leave the heavy lifting to them?

He'd come along to make sure someone knowledgeable kept these toad-like fellows in line and ensured they carried out his orders.

As for being Alliance citizens... Heh. It was true that the citizens of the two great powers could throw their weight around throughout the universe, and that might give an upright man like Captain Winter pause. But that wasn't going to fool Yu Lian, a transmigrator and reborn man who'd made his way through the underworld. Did he not know the Compass Trading Company's true nature? It was registered in some obscure little country in the galaxy. Naturally, there were Alliance tycoons behind it, but plenty of other forces too, including interstellar criminal organizations. In plain terms, it was a peripheral outfit serving as a black glove for a bunch of powerful people. So what if you'd joined an outfit like that and been caught red-handed? What did being an Alliance citizen matter? Even if you were an active-duty Alliance soldier or diplomat, you could still be killed. Did you really think anyone would own up to knowing you?

Under Yu Lian's gentle gaze, the goblins finally finished adjusting the firing trajectories and nervously looked over at him.

"Captain, what's happening down the hill?"

"Some Sand People have tried to take the hill, but it's under control for now."

"We're ready here too. Do we have permission to fire?"

Just based on their attitude, the other elite military academy students couldn't compare! The captain sighed, suppressing his excitement, and said in a cold voice, "You are cleared to fire!"

How could the captain not be excited? He knew his order would go down in history.

The seven cannons began firing! Clusters of condensed energy howled out of their barrels, streaking across half the sky. They had been aimed directly at the light curtain covering all of Tulong, but halfway through their flight, they veered toward the dense Sand People encampment below.

Whoosh! A photon-beam explosion erupted. The sudden shift in airflow and temperature made the energy clusters burst in midair. The sound wasn't very loud, but they created a deadly region of intense heat, completely destroying every stone hut and living thing within their reach.

Then an even more terrifying explosion followed, accompanied by billowing smoke and a truly deafening boom. The intense heat had ignited every explosive substance. The Sand People lucky enough to survive the heat were battered once more by the light, the heat, and the deadly shock waves.

Kazhan had naturally seen flames rising in the direction of the Great Elder. For a moment, he stood frozen. He knew the worst had happened: the enemy had truly seized the heavy artillery position. The Sand People had scraped and starved to buy these weapons of mass destruction, only for them to become their own death sentence.

Should he go save Teacher Hesen, or retake the position? The thought flashed through Kazhan's mind, and he quickly made up his mind.

The bombardment was fierce, but it shouldn't be enough to kill the Great Elder. Besides, plenty of people were already rushing to his side to curry favor. But if they didn't retake the position and the cannons, they'd all be slaughtered.

"Mo Wei! Get everyone together, quickly..." Before he could finish, he felt a sudden, scorching heat source overhead.

"Khan, watch out!" Mo Wei somehow reacted even faster than Kazhan, a first-ring psionic. He slammed him to the ground, then used his far bulkier body as a shield.

The energy blast's searing heat killed Mo Wei instantly, then pierced Kazhan's body like a blade. After that, the colossal explosion and shockwave swallowed his hearing and awareness. If he hadn't been a "Guardian," with a body and resilience far beyond those of an ordinary person, he might not have survived.

He didn't know how long it took before Kazhan, nearly unconscious, regained a little awareness. He struggled out from under Mo Wei's body and realized that not even the remains of his loyal friend had been left intact.

He stared around almost blankly, then spotted the small training ground. A minute ago, more than a hundred of the tribe's finest young people had been training there with all their might, gritting their teeth and pushing themselves for their own sake and for the future of their people. Now there was only a massive crater, with charred limbs scattered around it.

The young Khan walked forward in a daze, unconsciously stumbling toward his stone house, where his wife was. Then his knees gave way, and he sank to the ground, bewildered.

He saw the collapsed stone house, and an arm wrapped in beautiful white scales, wearing a bracelet.

Just one arm...

Kazhan sat there like a puppet stripped of its soul. He didn't even hear the bugle call coming from Tulong Port behind him.

But to the other Sand People, it sounded like the howl of demons from hell.

Without comments from the funny internet crowd, I can't even plagiarize anything. Please don't hold back with the snark, and while you're at it, please vote and add this to your collection. If you're feeling generous, heh heh heh.