321 Comradery?

Looking at the standard military-use advanced mecha they had obtained, the vague idea swirling in Ling Lan's mind abruptly came into focus. She quickly contacted Leopard and communicated her idea to him.

The moment Li Lanfeng heard her idea, his gaze lit up. He felt that it was an excellent plan. Even as he signalled his agreement, he could not help but be secretly proud. See, this was his friend. What a bright and intelligent rabbit!

The two of them instantly changed their mecha into the standard advanced mecha they had obtained from the ship. Only then did they operate their mecha to move to the airlock's doors and make preparations to sneak inside the mainship proper ...

Just as Ling Lan was about to instruct Little Four to observe the surroundings near the doors of the airlock, to see whether there was anyone out and about, they suddenly sensed the travel speed of the military vessel slowing down. They could also hear the faint sounds of alarms blaring from the mainship proper.

"What's going on, Little Four?" Ling Lan quickly turned to ask Little Four in the mindspace. Right now, Ling Lan was like a blind person — she was solely reliant on Little Four to obtain information on the outside world.

Little Four answered immediately, "Boss, the radar has picked up the appearance of an unidentified flying object about 10 kilometres ahead of the command mainship. The entire ship is now in emergency mode. It isn't suitable for us to act at this time."

Having heard what Little Four had to say, Ling Lan settled down to wait for a while. Meanwhile, Li Lanfeng too had figured out that something seemed to be happening inside the ship, so when Ling Lan suggested they wait, he was in full agreement, curious to see what exactly was happening ...

********

At the distant base of the Swift Dragons, right after the eruption of the magnetic tsunami, an urgent notification came, requesting the Swift Dragon fleet to send a search and rescue team immediately to the surrounding districts of planet X192 to help the surviving soldiers and adventurers.

In one of the rooms in the command centre at the Swift Dragon base, a man shrouded in shadows sat on a sofa. In a hoarse voice which sounded grating to the ears, he said to another man equally obscured by shadows, "D9, do you think this notification is fishy?"

"D1, on the surface, this notification is exceedingly normal. Whenever an incident with great casualties occur, the mecha mainframe will definitely inform the closest fleet to send assistance. As far as I know, the magnetic tsunami of X191 is a natural phenomenon ..." Any natural disasters that happened in Mecha World was actually a realistic copy of natural disasters in the real world. In reality, on the fringes of the Chinese Federation in the real world, there had indeed been an eruption of a magnetic tsunami on one of the planets. It was just that it had not been as violent and destructive as the one in Mecha World.

At this point of the conversation, D9 paused, then continued in a dark tone, "That reclamation fleet should also be carrying out their mission right about now ..."

"What you're saying is, it won't be a big problem?" Within the shadows where expressions could not be seen clearly, D1 asked in return with his usual emotionless voice.

"Not quite. It's precisely because there's no problem at all that it is problematic ..." A mocking smirk appeared on D9's lips. "We're infiltrators. We cannot let down our guard. No one can tell whether the mecha mainframe has discovered something."

"Then, pretend we did not receive the notification?" D1 followed up with this question.

"Of course that won't work. At the very least we must act normal and send a search and rescue team over, otherwise the mecha mainframe will definitely become suspicious. We still need a little time before Project T can be completed," refuted D9 directly, "The magnetic tsunami was so strong ... according to the information we received, that reclamation fleet basically had no way of surviving ... Even if there are any lucky survivors, having them be under our guard will be more reassuring for us."

That said, D9 added proudly, "The Swift Dragon base is already fully under our control. No one can carry off any petty tricks under our watch. If the mecha mainframe really tries anything and sends some people over, we will definitely discover them at soonest notice."

"In that case, let's send a search and rescue team! I too do not want there to be any disruptions before Project T is completed." In response to D9's words, D1 gave this order.

On that very day, a patrol ship departed from the Swift Dragon base towards planet X192. Half a day and one night later, when there was still two-fifths of the journey left to planetary sector X192, the ship encountered the sole remaining command ship from the reclamation fleet.

The command mainship no longer had any strength to fight, so they instantly sent out a questioning signal through the public comms. The other side did not delay in responding with their identity. When the mainship found that the other ship was a rescue team from the Swift Dragon base, all of the surviving mecha operators and staff members could not stop from tearing up. Over this past half a day and one night, their minds had constantly tormented by worry — they did not know just how much longer the battered mainship they were on could hold out for, and none of them wished to end up as debris in outer space like the other ships had.

The commander of the mainship and his adjutant looked at one another, their gazes a complicated mix of excitement and nervousness, and also a sort of stoicism. Still, very quickly, both their expressions turned as joyful as the other NPC soldiers below them.

However, the adjutant was still young after all. His hand could not help but clench in nervousness — entering the Swift Dragon base meant their mission was about to officially begin.

As the mainship really had no way of guaranteeing anyone's safety, after making contact with the base, the Swift Dragon fleet's rescue team began moving the people on the mainship to their military vessel.

Meanwhile, Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng took the chance while everyone's attention was drawn to the moving process to let Little Four silently open the airlock doors and snuck into the mainship. Using the route indicators Little Four gave, they very quickly arrived at the central mecha hall.

Right then, the attention of everyone in the hall was gathered on the two launch ports in the hall. The surviving 50 to 60 mecha operators were currently lining up to exit from those two ports and move to the rescue ship. Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng quietly sauntered up to join one of the lines.

The mecha operator who was originally the last in that line was startled by the sudden appearance of two new mecha and turned to give them a curious look. He was not suspicious, however — after all, Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng were currently operating the standard advanced mecha exclusive to this mainship (the identifying logo of the ship the mecha belonged to was displayed on the mecha's chests). At most, he was only wondering why these two had been so slow. Still, this was their own personal business, so the mecha operator did not pay much mind to it.

Seeing that this mecha operator was only looking at them but not asking any questions, Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng breathed out a great silent sigh of relief. They knew their plan to infiltrate had succeeded. Very soon, they had been ejected from the mainship and were flying towards one of the launch ports of the Swift Dragon's patrol ship. Once they had safely landed in the other ship's mecha hall, under the instructions of the staff member there, they operated their mecha adeptly to enter the secured seat arranged for them. After that, they chose to remain in their mecha, silent, making no move to leave their mecha.

The mecha operators of the Swift Dragon ship did not think much about the sight, because many of the mecha operators who had been transferred over were doing the exact same thing. The experience of escaping with their lives had tired out these mecha operators, and now they were safe, their high-strung emotions eased. Thus, after entering their secured seats, many of the mecha operators had instantly fallen asleep. Only a few mecha operators with bolder nerves had the mood to climb out of their mecha to interact with the staff members or mecha operators of the Swift Dragon ship.

Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng both just seemed like another member of the sleeping group, so the staff of the Swift Dragon ship considerately left them alone. In truth, Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng were actually having an intense conversation within their mecha.

Initially, with Ling Lan's and Li Lanfeng's change in mecha, their original team comms had become unusable. But who was Little Four? He had instantly helped Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng to secretly establish a private comms channel for just the two of them.

"Who knows if Combat and the others have also gotten aboard this ship? Would they also be here in this mecha hall?" Li Lanfeng swept one look around at the mecha which all looked the same and could not help but shake his head. He really had no way of finding the other members of their team from all these similar-looking mecha.

"As long as they still live, we'll find them. There is no need to worry." On the other hand, Ling Lan was extremely composed. She had great trust in Qi Long and the others. Having participated in an expedition team before, this kind of trivial matter would not trouble them too much. Besides, this was also a test for them — without her full protection, could they survive based on their own capabilities?

********

Right then, in another mecha hall of the Swift Dragon ship, Xie Yi had already struck up a good relationship with the staff members. All smiles, he rejoined his teammates and shared what news he had learned with them.

Qi Long and the other six had not remained in their mecha, because they were currently dressed in the exact same piloting suit as the Federation NPC soldiers and not their own individualistic clothes.

Fortunately enough, when the magnetic tsunami had caught up to the tail of the mainship and the explosion had broken out, with great teamwork and rapport, Qi Long and Luo Lang had grabbed hold of the special-class mecha who had abruptly rushed in and put him right in front of their team to be their shield. The other had taken the majority of the force from the magnetic tsunami, allowing them to safely tide over this crisis. (Of course, Qi Long and the others did not know that the reason they managed to survive was also because Ling Lan had blocked off a large portion of the magnetic tsunami on the outside, otherwise just one special-class mecha alone would not have been able to keep all of them alive ...)

Of course, the end of the special-class mecha was most tragic. He had been instantly destroyed by the force of the magnetic tsunami. This was still the result of the other not reacting in time, activating his defensive measures half a second late. It was this half-second delay that had caused the mecha operator inside the special-class mecha to be unable to endure the force of the magnetic tsunami, hence dying instantly.

The ruthlessness of Qi Long and Luo Lang's decisive action caused the two new members, [No Mecha Unrepaired] and Li Shiyu, to quiver involuntarily in their hearts. In particular, Li Shiyu finally realised that this team he had joined not only had a shameless and black-bellied team leader, even the team members were not very nice people ... if he had been in their shoes, he would never have been able to use an innocent person as a shield ...

Still, Li Shiyu's rational mind acknowledged the fact that Qi Long and Luo Lang's decision had been correct, because their choice had allowed everyone in their team to survive. Li Shiyu did not forget that even as they had grabbed hold of the special-class mecha, Qi Long had pushed him and [No Mecha Unrepaired] to the back of the pack, while the other three members had worked seamlessly with Qi Long and Luo Lang to shield the two of them. In other words, only after the five of them were dead would he and [No Mecha Unrepaired] have met any danger.

After the fact, Li Shiyu's emotions were extremely complicated. He was stunned and confused but also ashamed and guilty for the special-class mecha, yet overall, he was mostly moved. At that moment, he really just could not berate Qi Long and Luo Lang for their ruthless decision ... perhaps this was what comradery meant! Li Shiyu's heart throbbed powerfully, and he found that he rather liked the feeling.