Gao Lanlan, the genius pilot, had once again crashed her aircraft.
That's right!
And the reason I said "again" was that, if you counted carefully, this seemed to be her third crash since she'd come to this world and arrived on Canopy Star.
So, after learning that those "wild" survivors had only flashed their signal lights at them to ask what was going on and request help—not for anything particularly unusual—she had no choice but to squeeze into the cockpit of the fighter numbered "000" with a certain gleeful little leader and return to base, having lost her third aircraft.
Then, that very evening, before she'd even figured out how to write her report, her superiors summoned her for a talk, just as she'd expected.
See?
On the second floor of the Command Center at the mine base, in the office of an officer responsible for coordinating and commanding the air force, two officers—a man and a woman, wearing the rank insignia of colonel and lieutenant colonel—stared sternly at Gao Lanlan, who had been ordered to report and receive a reprimand.
"..."
"..."
Yet even after Gao Lanlan had given them a rough account of what had happened, neither of them said a word.
They just sat there with furrowed brows and complicated expressions, staring at her with a look that was hard to read. They seemed to want to speak, then think better of it, then want to speak again. Gao Lanlan was already in the wrong and on edge, and their silence scared her so badly she felt her soul might leap out of her body.
At last!
Who knew how long it had been? Gao Lanlan was starting to feel flustered and unnerved under the gaze of the two people behind the desk when, mercifully, the man—the