News from Randall

"Thank you and your troops for answering our call for help!"

Randall watched Amber approach and was just about to step forward to thank him.

But the commander before him, whose face was hidden behind a visor, held out a hand.

"Name, position, and unit. And let me see your officer ID."

Randall froze for a moment. Having spent so long up in space, he really hadn't expected Amber to greet him like this after he reached the ground.

Before he could say anything, Amber continued:

"Don't take it the wrong way. These are extraordinary times, and identity verification isn't a step we can skip."

At Amber's words, Randall caught on and indicated his understanding.

He took an electronic card from an inside pocket and handed it to Amber, then stood at attention and saluted.

"Major Randall, Federal Navy, Lansford Port Combat Command Center."

Amber turned the card over in his hand and examined it for a while before passing it to the communications soldier who had been following him.

The communications soldier, who had practically become Amber's orderly by now, inserted the electronic officer ID into a small terminal, then collected Randall's facial, pupil, fingerprint, and blood data.

He finally confirmed that the middle-aged officer before them was indeed Major Randall.

After the communications soldier gave the all-clear, Amber seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and returned the salute.

"Warrant Officer Amber, Federal Army, Tactical Support Team under the Yasin Base Combat Intelligence Center."

"Tactical Support Team... So you must be a Psychic Agent."

Hearing Amber's unit and taking another look at his equipment, Randall quickly guessed his identity.

Although his own rank was considerably higher than Amber's, Randall still showed respect when dealing with a Psion.

Especially now, when he had to rely on him.

"Whatever the case, thank you again for rescuing us." Randall gave a friendly smile. "I honestly thought we were done for this time."

"Answering an allied unit's call for help is the duty of every Federation soldier."

Amber was fairly familiar with handling situations like this, and the polished words rolled off his tongue.

"But we can't let our guard down yet, Major Randall." Amber sighed. "The situation on the ground may be far worse than you imagine."

He spent a minute or two explaining the situation on the planet's surface to the Federal Navy major before him.

By then, Major Randall's expression was indeed far less optimistic.

Even so, he made no attempt to hide his admiration for Amber.

"You Psychic Agents really are tough as nails. You broke out of Yasin Base under those conditions and even rescued a squad of allied troops along the way."

"It was no trouble. But what about you, Major? I'm curious what exactly you went through."

Amber pulled a military energy bar from his pocket and handed it to the Major.

When the communications soldier had collected his blood earlier, he had discovered that the man's blood sugar was low, too.

"Uh, thanks. I am pretty hungry."

Randall paused, but quickly accepted the energy bar, tore open the wrapper, and started eating.

Although food like this, designed purely to pack in calories, didn't taste particularly good.

Randall still ate it with relish.

"You really must be hungry."

"Oh, don't get me started. I was supposed to have the late-night meal the mess hall had arranged for the duty shift last night."

Randall struggled to swallow the food in his mouth before continuing:

"But then the Empire's fleet used a disguised Induction Beacon to complete a jump and launched a surprise attack."

After the convoy set off again and traveled some distance.

Randall, sitting with Amber in the communications relay vehicle, was still recounting his "thrilling experience" without pause.

Amber had actually wanted to ride in the same vehicle as Isabel. At least he would have had someone pretty to look at.

But Tom still needed follow-up treatment after his emergency surgery.

So Isabel had boarded vehicle two, where the wounded and medics were, to continue treating him on the road.

As a result, aside from the communications soldier, Amber's traveling companion had turned out to be Randall, a grizzled old fellow.

"After we ran into the Empire's space assault troops, who had already breached the spaceport, those of us evacuating were nearly wiped out."

"In the end, only I, the wounded Tom, and one other comrade survived."

"I'd intended to head straight for the Escape Platform, but then I saw on my terminal that the spaceport had received a message from Yasin Base."

"And it was warning everyone that Robert IV was under invasion by the Empire, asking all nearby military units to provide support."

At this point, Randall turned to look at Amber.

"You were probably the one who sent that message, right? The timing and content match. Did you use Penetrative Communication's mass-broadcast mode to send it to every unit in the Robert System and the surrounding systems?"

"From your description, that was probably me."

Amber raised his eyebrows. The situation had been urgent, and he really hadn't paid attention to which units he had sent it to.

"Then you could say what I did next was entirely because of your message."

"What did you do?" Randall's words piqued Amber's interest.

He really was curious about what his actions had affected.

Randall leaned back in his seat and laced his hands behind his head, as though remembering something funny.

"I was in a hurry to escape, but your message reminded me that I couldn't just let the spaceport and the Space Elevator fall without doing anything."

"So I went and locked down the Space Elevator."

"Huh?"

Amber abruptly sat up. "Do you hear what you're saying?!"

"Hahaha! Don't get worked up, Warrant Officer Amber. Rest assured, I'm not joking."

Major Randall seemed to be in a good mood. Smiling, he took his dog tags off his neck.

Only then did Amber notice a black rectangular object, about a finger long, hanging beside them.

"This is a Physical Key." Major Randall held it between two fingers.

"It has only one function: you plug it into a control terminal, then use it to activate or lock down the Space Elevator."

"There's one of those control terminals at Lansford Port and another at the ground control station."

Amber frowned. In his previous life, he had never heard anything about the Space Elevator on Robert IV being locked down.

Did my actions change the timeline? he couldn't help wondering.

After thinking for a moment, Amber looked up at Randall.

"Major, are you sure that once you lock down the Space Elevator with the key, the Empire won't be able to use it?"

Noticing the look on Randall's face that said, "Why don't you believe me?"

Amber shrugged and added:

"It's not that I don't believe you, but the idea that a single key can lock down the Space Elevator is still a little hard to swallow."

"With an invasion on this scale, the Empire will definitely have brought plenty of technical personnel. I'm worried they'll crack it through brute force."

"Rest assured, Warrant Officer Amber."

In response to Amber's concerns, Major Randall reached out and patted his shoulder.

It was the first time anyone had done that to Amber in the past few days.

"I can guarantee that even if the Empire hooked up ten top-of-the-line supercomputers at once to brute-force it, they'd still need at least ten years."

"What if they brought in a hundred supercomputers?"

"You little punk, are you just trying to give me a hard time? Do you think supercomputers grow on trees?"

Major Randall couldn't help laughing, and a cheerful atmosphere filled the Communications Relay Vehicle.