Chapter 18: Forever Loyal

Lu Yuan picked up the broken shards of the blade and placed them into his storage pouch, returning the half-broken short sword to its scabbard. He looked once more at the small hill that held the graves of countless sailors. He raised his hand, then slowly lowered it, saying bitterly, "Rest in peace, brothers. May your souls forever, eternally, lie undisturbed in your homeland."

He walked over to a mech with a broken leg and sat down, turning over the rusty short sword in his hands. This sword, barely three fingers wide and two feet long, was cherished deeply by countless paratroopers. Many paratroopers, before their final battle, would rather entrust their sword to a comrade, so it wouldn't suffer even the slightest dishonor. If they fell, the sword would be buried as their representation.

"Second Lieutenant Lu Yuan, you have passed the official test of the Coronal orbital paratroopers. Welcome to the 1st Orbital Assault Division!"

"I serve the Zeus Federation!"

"Paratrooper Lu Yuan, on behalf of the entire 1st Mobile Division, I present to you this Honorary Paratrooper's Sword. May it pierce through every enemy! Boundless, fearless!"

"Forever loyal!"

Memories swirled around Lu Yuan's mind, fading like a thin mist. The weight in his chest made it hard to breathe. Only those gradually fragmenting memories of the past could bring some comfort to this paratrooper. But how many dreams can come true? Blurred faces flashed before his eyes, one after another. Even the sight of violet hair tips dipped in tricolor had drifted away into the depths of space.

Unconsciously, Lu Yuan reached out, trying to grasp Bai Jiyue's slowly fading figure. As he touched it, it burst like a rainbow-colored bubble, jolting Lu Yuan back to reality.

There was nothing here.

Lu Yuan stood up, uncertain for a moment about what to do next. Just as he was about to head to the bridge, he noticed a row of escape pods in the corner of the base. Pausing, he walked over, barely daring to hope, but in that instant, he saw that several of the escape pod slots were indeed empty!

A surge of strength rose within him, and he sprinted over, counting the fifteen seats in the row. Indeed! Three slots were empty: the first from the left, the seventh, and the second from the right! Lu Yuan inspected the launch seats of the three pods. The electromagnetic ejection buttons hadn't reset, and the firing springs showed burn marks—clear evidence of recent launches!

He wasn't alone!

The smoldering embers of hope reignited within Lu Yuan, and a smile crept across his face. Three people had managed to escape in the chaos of the gravitational inversion. They would certainly need support now! He had to do everything he could! Yes! The ship's terminal! He'd command the AI to assist them!

Lu Yuan dashed over to the control terminal in the deployment base, sat down, and his fingers flew over the keyboard, summoning the AI. A faint projection appeared from the holographic projector—an avatar of a female officer.

"Did you receive any distress signals from the escape pods?" Lu Yuan shouted immediately, voice urgent.

The AI, in the form of the female officer, gave a disappointing answer, stating, "The ship's signal modulator is damaged, and tracking or decoding quantum pulse signals is not possible."

"Do you have any record of who launched? I need the names of those three people!"

"Emergency ejections do not record occupant information; the identities of the passengers are unknown."

"When did they launch? Can you estimate their approximate landing location?"

"132 hours, 41 minutes, and 27 seconds ago. Due to the disintegration of the ship's rear section, turbulent disturbances were present, making it impossible to pinpoint."

Lu Yuan's frustration flared, and he cursed, "Then do you have any way to locate these three escape pods?"

The officer's image quickly shifted into a rudimentary yet continuously improving digital map projection. As a captain, Lu Yuan easily identified the crash site, likely a high-altitude area, or even deep within mountainous terrain. Nearby, the contours rose and fell steeply, and flat ground was rare for kilometers. Further afield, the map faded into blank spaces due to the limited range of the ship's damaged echo-detection.

The AI explained, "Based on data from atmospheric reentry and probe feedback, as well as pre-existing planetary data, a space launch site is located approximately 1,040 kilometers north. With proper adjustments, it could receive quantum pulse signals."

A space launch site? Old records? Lu Yuan's vigilance spiked. Could it be they had crashed on a former Imperial outpost planet? If this was a temporary stopover for the fleet, there could indeed be a significant military presence here. Nearly six days had passed; even aside from the condition of the escape pods, enemy forces might already be closing in.

Lu Yuan's hand unconsciously tightened around the hilt of his sword as he asked, "Are there any enemies nearby?"

"Based on energy density standard detection, no life forms meet the criteria of the Skyhawk Empire." The AI responded in kind, ensuring no threats within or outside the Evening Cloud.

Yet Lu Yuan was more puzzled than reassured. Unless the Empire had collectively lost its mind, even the slowest planetary transport could have covered the distance from the planet's southernmost to northernmost points in six days. Had they abandoned this outpost? That didn't make sense. A sentry planet without sentries?

Rubbing his eyes, Lu Yuan ordered, "I need all available information on this planet, from location to garrison."

The faint AI hologram flickered as it calculated and processed, then replied a few seconds later: "Within the known universe, this planet is located in the western region of the universe, within the Milky Way's Orion Arm, distant from the core but closer to the edge, within the third orbital ring of the Solar System, at three-sevenths distance from the left boundary and seven-sevenths from the center."

Lu Yuan listened, somewhat baffled. An uninhabited planet on the fringes of the Orion Arm? The Evening Cloud's Light Gate coordinates were supposed to be aligned with the Zeus domain. Even if there was drift, auto-correction should have kicked in. Where in the cosmos had they ended up?

A sudden, startling thought struck him—this planet's name. A name only mentioned briefly in the lower-level citizenship education curriculum. But Lu Yuan could hardly believe the planet beneath his feet was actually this one.

Swallowing hard, his voice trembled as he asked, "Tell me the official designation and name of this planet."

Unmoved, the AI reported without a flicker.

"Designation: M34-4602151-B."

"Name: Earth."