The Azure Star Region · the Water-Lily Star System · on a certain planet.
At this moment the whole sky seemed dyed a blood-red; there were warships exploding and falling toward the ground from bug-race attacks, and there were combat starfighters still fighting to the death in resistance.
In the cities, combat-mecha and ground troops too were locked in bloody battle with the interstellar bug-race's ground units that had landed on the planet!
And amid a range of mountains, a T3 ship lay toppled between the ridges, gravely damaged in many places across its hull, some spots even giving off flame.
Not far off around it lay the wreckage of several T2 ships besides.
"Warning! Warning! Fire in Compartment K931; automatic fire-suppression program engaged."
"Warning! Warning! Oxidizer leak in Compartment T711; ship engineer, proceed to repair at once."
"Warning! Warning! Hazardous-gas concentration in Compartment N771 too high; explosion possible; personnel in surrounding compartments, evacuate at once! Evacuate at once!"
This ship's bridge had already been thrown into a busy tangle, alarms of every kind rising one after another.
"At the 13-o'clock direction outside the ship — interstellar bug-race ground units sighted!"
"Put the mecha corps and ground combat troops on full alert!"
"Report — we still can't reach the outside world. We can only make contact with this planet's defense department."
"Latest word from the planet's defense department: the planet's patrol fleet's combat-loss rate has already exceeded 50%; without support, it'll be wiped out within 20 hours. And the planet's ground military installations too will fall entirely within the next 60 hours!"
A woman, her forehead bound with gauze, stood at this moment at the captain's command post, her expression grave, her eyes brimming with tension and worry — yet she made herself, as far as she could, calm and composed as she gave order after order.
"Contact the several ships that made forced landings nearby; see whether there are survivors. Carry out emergency repairs on the ship's interior; the high-risk compartments that can't be repaired, seal off at once! Most important, check how much is left of the ship's weapons and personal weapons, and arm every crew who can fight! And gather the wounded together and settle them!" The woman gave order after order without pause; the teachers and students around who could still move carried them out without pause, and only so did the tense situation aboard ease considerably.
"Report, Teacher Qin — so far our search has confirmed 237 survivors, of whom 17 are gravely wounded, 57 lightly wounded… Bodies of the fallen found… 61…" Su Lan ran up before this Teacher Qin and reported the present situation.
Teacher Qin clenched her fists, her expression at once guilt-ridden and pained.
She was a woman teacher of the Northstar Academy, and the Northstar Academy's leading teacher in charge of this two-academy interstellar task.
But who could have foreseen that this seemingly ordinary two-academy interstellar task would meet with such a plight.
Had she not, before this, led the greater part of her students to evacuate onto this T3 Cavalier-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer — the reward for first place in the task — then she and her students would truly have been fraught with peril.
Teacher Qin looked at the two academies' students around her, half of them crouched in the corners, most still not recovered from their fright; those who could keep a strong nerve at a time like this were a minority, and the great majority were like startled birds.
Not a few among them were, indeed, crying out for their fathers and mothers.
"In the short term we're in no danger yet. But to hold out until support arrives, we must restore everyone's confidence as soon as we can. Only so do we have hope of living! Teacher Cheng, I'll trouble your Heaven's Glory Academy students to work with us too!" Teacher Qin looked at Teacher Cheng beside her, whose expression was a touch slack.
This Teacher Cheng was the Heaven's Glory Academy's leading teacher; perhaps because he'd been frightened during the forced landing earlier, his expression was still somewhat slack now.
"All right… all right." Teacher Cheng nodded dumbly and walked off toward his own students, but his unsteady legs already told of the tension and fear in his heart.
"Su Lan, you've worked hard. Go rest a while too; in the short term we should be in no danger…" Teacher Qin looked at Su Lan, yet there was helplessness in her eyes too.
Just how long this "short term" would be came down to how long this planet's defense forces could hold.
By the time those interstellar bug-race truly descended upon this planet, that would be, for them, the coming of a doomsday.
"Teacher Qin, you must mind your rest too; you're wounded — look after yourself," Su Lan said to Teacher Qin with concern.
Then Su Lan walked out of the bridge and into a compartment where the wounded were settled; the pained crying and cries of the teachers and students reached her ears.
Students once so pampered and precious were now, one and all, in wretched disarray, like infants wailing in a parent's arms.
And among them were, indeed, some crying out for their mothers and fathers.
Amid this were a few busy figures, helping several teachers tend and treat the wounded.
"Hold her foot down!" Zhao Wan'er said to Xue Xiaoxiao beside her.
Xue Xiaoxiao gulped, but pressed down all the same on that girl's blood-and-flesh-mangled leg.
Zhao Wan'er sprayed onto the wound a kind of agent that could swiftly clot it; this could staunch the bleeding in the short term and also numb the pain the wound brought.
But to heal it thoroughly, more complete medical equipment was still needed.
Zhao Wan'er finished the operation and wiped the sweat from her brow.
"Wan'er, the wounded are near enough seen to. You must mind your rest too." Su Lan came over with concern.
Zhao Wan'er shook her head and forced out a faint smile. "I learned a bit of first aid at the academy; where I can help a little now, I'll help a little."
"Senior Su Lan, do you think… we can still leave here alive… those interstellar bug-race are too terrifying… swathe upon swathe of them…" Xue Xiaoxiao recalled the scene earlier out in the cosmos, when the two academies' fleet was ambushed by the interstellar bug-race.
Some of the interstellar bug-race had even flown into the ships themselves; a portion of the teachers and students hurt here had been harmed by those very bugs!
Even now, recalling it, her scalp crawled.
Xue Xiaoxiao muttered again in a small voice, "And I've never even touched a T4 battleship's giant cannon… I don't want to die yet…"
Su Lan drew her two dear friends into her arms and consoled them. "Rest easy. The academy has already gotten our call for aid, and it'll surely send a fleet to save us!"
"Heh heh heh… dream on… we've been utterly cast off…" a self-mocking voice came from beside them.
Su Lan knit her brows and looked over — it was none other than Zhou Min, who'd earlier had a starship duel with Zhao Wan'er.
Zhou Min had only taken a slight wound to her left arm, wrapped in a layer of gauze.
But to shirk the work needed outside, she'd hidden herself here in this place where the wounded were settled.
"Zhou Min, right now we all have to hold to hope! Only so can we all leave here alive!" Zhao Wan'er stood up and fixed her eyes on Zhou Min.
Zhou Min laughed aloud, a touch crazed. "Hope? Hope? Where is there any hope left here — have you all not heard. The Water-Lily Star System's star-gate has already been destroyed by the interstellar bug-race; though we fled to this planet, this planet too will soon fall. No star-gate to use! The fastest relief fleet can only enter the Water-Lily Star System across interstellar edge-space! How much time will that take? Three days? Five days? A whole week! And what's more, interstellar bug-race are everywhere now; neither the imperial military nor the two academies' leadership would ever, for our sake, risk paying a still greater price to save us. Don't go craving hope… we've been thoroughly, utterly cast off."
As she said it, Zhou Min broke into great despairing sobs.
Hearing Zhou Min's words, Zhao Wan'er wore a look of disgust; she said, steadfast and unswerving, "I… I believe someone will surely come to save us!"
And as Zhao Wan'er said this, for some reason the figure that rose in her mind was that one.
Would he come to save her?