Chapter 68

Fu Luo didn't dare delay. As she opened the video, she sent out a communication request to the rescue forces.

The image of Graf, the commander-in-chief of the other star system, appeared on the screen. He seemed to still be lingering in America, with a small rural church in the background, its pointed cross reaching towards the sky, where dark clouds gathered, gloomy as if a storm was brewing.

Behind him was a large open space, but those seemingly identical soldiers from the other star system weren't with him. There wasn't even a single clergyman in the church, only a marble statue of Jesus' crucifixion stood there. The light was poor, making the stark white stone look cold and silent.

Fu Luo hadn't seen scenes from Earth for a long time, and couldn't help holding her breath.

Graf was old, his lips inevitably a bit shriveled, pressed into a line, the corners of his mouth slightly turned down. He stood with his hat off, bowing towards the camera, and didn't rise for a while, revealing his balding head and frail white hair, adding a sense of sorrow to the atmosphere.

After a long time, he finally straightened his back with some difficulty, put his hat back on, and looked at the camera with appropriately clouded eyes, showing an appropriate degree of senility.

"I'm very sorry," he finally spoke, "I'm sorry for everything we have brought."

What was this act? The Earth Allied Forces had suffered too many losses at the hands of Graf, so Fu Luo instinctively became nervous as soon as he opened his mouth. She glanced at the communicator.

Damn it, why was it still "sending, please wait"?

Didn't Yang Ning see it? Was the entire rescue team sleepwalking?

Graf continued, "Two hundred years ago, we were all children of Mother Earth, breathing the same air, sharing the same water sources. I heard that ancient people all over the world would write their own family genealogies without prior agreement. If we had kept this tradition, maybe the names of us unworthy descendants would still be hanging on the tapestries behind your family doors. I always thought, if that were the case, would both our sides have come to this point?"

He rambled on and on, with all the implications pointing in one direction - a ceasefire and peace talks. Anyone with ears could hear it.

Fu Luo's communication request to Yang Ning was cut off, unable to get through.

Why was it that when Yang Ning was preparing to make a big move with Wang Yansheng, they received a call for help from the Third Department? Why was it that when he wasn't at the Saturn Fortress, the people from the other star system released a signal for peace talks?

No, wait, was this really just a "signal for peace talks"? Or was it another long-planned conspiracy?

"The space forces of both sides, due to a momentary sense of righteous indignation, had friction in the Jupiter system. At that time, no one expected that the conflict would continue to intensify and become uncontrollable. Both sides invested a large amount of military power, to the point of allowing long-planned space pirate groups to take advantage of the situation, causing irreparable losses to both the people of Earth and the people of the our star system."

His tone was deep as he sighed tremblingly, "I am guilty, we are all guilty."

Fu Luo was dumbfounded. For a few seconds, she almost believed it to be true!

It was the first time she knew that someone could distort right and wrong to this extent!

"I once privately sent a signal for peace talks, but unfortunately at that time, communications on Earth were paralyzed, and it may not have been conveyed to your side."

As Graf spoke, he lowered his head, closed his eyes, and clasped his hands with his ten fingers interlocked, making a gesture that was not clear whether it was prayer or confession. Then the video camera turned, and he shrank to the lower left corner while maintaining this posture. Edited video footage began to roll on the big screen.

Empty factories, dimly lit office buildings, deserted streets, the ravaged underground city...

Rampaging pirates swooped by. In an alley, a little girl with a sallow face was rummaging through a trash can. She seemed to have heard something, stood up straight like a startled bird, stared at the camera with wide eyes, and then quickly ran away.

With a loud "boom", a pirate's near-ground mecha crashed into a tall building. The slender tall building was like a fragile pencil, swaying a few times before slowly toppling over. An old man's head appeared at a window, his face full of terror, his mouth wide open as if screaming in fright, but the roar was too loud, completely covering the feeble human voice, like a suffocating silent play.

People poured out of the collapsing building like ants.

Panic-stricken, they held their heads and scattered in all directions...

Countless people were in disarray, some didn't even have time to put on their pants.

For hundreds of years, countless ancestors had fought and died for human dignity, only to have it trampled by the monstrous mechas of those aliens.

With a loud bang, a high-energy shell fell from the sky. Amidst the clamor of voices, someone seemed to scream hoarsely, "Run--!"

Mixed with the shrill cries of children, the high-energy shell landed right in the crowd. The camera suddenly blurred and the image went out. Two seconds later, the video lit up again, but there were no people in the frame anymore.

On one side were the ruins of the collapsed building, on the other side was a huge sunken crater.

The corpses had probably been moved away. A bloodstained white shirt lay on the ground, and in the distance, the setting sun was as red as blood.

Fu Luo suddenly couldn't breathe, reaching out to tightly pinch the chest of her uniform, feeling a sharp pain in her chest cavity, as if someone had viciously chopped her with a knife.

"Earth is our common ancestral home," said the old monster Graf from the other star system. "For the continuation of human history and the inheritance of civilization, I hope that both sides can stop the conflict and sit down for peace talks. To show our apologies, we will be open and honest, listing all the negotiation terms here. From now on, everyone is welcome to settle in our jurisdiction. As long as you bring your ID and go through simple registration and procedures."

Afterwards, lengthy terms began to be listed on the screen, with background audio explaining the important terms. A slightly stiff female voice translated the content of the terms in various languages, and explained them in relatively plain language with examples, for fear that people wouldn't understand.

Her tone was stiff, but her manner of speaking was not. She spoke in a tactful and gentle way, very skillfully, describing a harmonious, beautiful and joyful world.

If she went to sell insurance, Fu Luo felt that she might really buy it.

"Any response from Yang Ning?" Wang Yansheng asked.

Fu Luo composed herself, "No, I'll send it again."

This time, she planned to directly connect to Yang Ning's built-in communicator in his ear through the command center's authority. Halfway through the operation, her palm slipped, only to find that she had broken out in a cold sweat.

However, soon, something that made her sweat even more appeared. The communicator only returned a busy tone, unable to establish a connection. Fu Luo abruptly stood up.

Wang Yansheng keenly asked, "Communication with the rescue team is cut off?"

Calm down, calm down, calm down... Fu Luo repeated this sentence three times in her heart.

She was already tied to this pirate ship, in a state of half-understanding everything, and no one expected it would turn out like this.

Things had changed on Earth, and Colonel Yang had inexplicably lost contact. Beside her was only a senior who was sometimes friend and foe, sometimes working hand in hand, and sometimes she had to be on guard against him tricking people!

For a few seconds, Fu Luo seemed to have returned to the night before the war. Facing her parents' painstaking obstruction and her own distant starry dream, she urgently needed someone to point her in the right direction, to enlighten her with a single sentence.

At that time, she was an ignorant child. Anyone could give her some guidance. She had Teacher Robin and Colonel Yang by her side. They intentionally or unintentionally illuminated a direction for her, allowing her to walk all the way here.

So what about now?

She sat in the command center, with an invincible enemy before her and a space fleet as confused as she was behind her. Who could point her in the right direction?

"Fu Luo," Wang Yansheng's expression turned solemn, "You have been detached from the ground for too long to have a deep understanding. Now let me briefly outline the key points for you-"

Fu Luo was stunned, "Please go ahead."

"When invaders from the other star system and the space pirate group landed, they caused immense destruction on Earth. Afterwards, they had intense conflicts with Earth's local military forces, confronting our ground forces for up to a month. Later, the enemy troops began to use various heavy, large-scale lethal weapons prohibited by the United Nations in densely populated areas on the ground, regardless of the consequences. The allied forces were apprehensive and were forced to change their primary objective from 'resisting the invasion of the other star system enemies' to 'trying to cover the evacuation of civilians as much as possible'. In addition, the performance and inventory of the allied forces' near-ground mechas were completely incomparable to those of the space pirate group, so we were put in a passive position."

"Our troops retreated again and again." Wang Yansheng fell silent for a long time before finally saying this sentence in its entirety. The color of his face visibly turned ashen, as if admitting all this had exhausted all the strength in his body.

"Then what?" Fu Luo asked softly.

"The occupied areas are mostly densely populated and relatively prosperous metropolises. The area is getting larger and larger, radiating to the surrounding areas, nibbling and swallowing - the space pirate group does not operate much within the occupied areas, and the regular army of the other star system will not actively attack civilians, so large commercial groups that hinder the economic lifeline have begun to secretly seek protection from the other star system people early on. According to the United Nations Human Rights Declaration Charter, when war or disaster strikes, the safety of human life has the first priority. You know, this means that when the lives of unarmed citizens are threatened, even if they defect to the enemy, they will not be held legally responsible after the war."

Fu Luo understood, "You mean our military supplies are in urgent need."

"Our statistics are incomplete, but they include the losses caused by the mad dog-like space pirates and an inestimable amount of supplies secretly transported to the enemy. Not to mention the military logistics, even the lives of ordinary people in non-occupied areas are difficult to guarantee. We can't hold on. This is not a declaration of peace talks - you understand - this is the first step to force the ground to surrender under the guise of peace talks."

Once the ground front collapses, even the most elite battleships in space will become kites with broken strings. At that time, no matter how many fortresses are built or what kind of defense and counterattack network is planned, it will be meaningless.

The first step of the "peace talks" is to distribute limited rations to civilians who have already approached the crisis line of survival, turning the occupied areas into "protected areas".

And when the time is ripe, the regular army of the other star system will officially turn against the space pirate group. Once the two sides treat Earth as a battlefield, the "reaping the benefits" written by the quartermaster on the calendar before the New Year is simply a dream. The original Earth Allied Forces will inevitably be tied to the ship of jointly resisting the space pirates.

The heavy damage to the military's vitality will in turn lead to the collapse of the regimes of various countries...

"Since Yang Ning has lost contact, let me tell you," Wang Yansheng's tone was urgent, "Originally, our plan was to establish a regime centered on military forces, with the military and government integrated, to prevent the previous situation of mutual checks and balances. But unexpectedly, the other side is forcing us to surrender at this juncture. No matter what, in the face of a great enemy, we cannot engage in internal strife that destroys our own Great Wall. Our arrow is on the string, but we must not let it fly even if we die. Do you understand?"

Fu Luo's fists clenched and loosened. The next moment, she solemnly saluted Wang Yansheng, "Yes, sir."

She opened the internal communication system of the command center, "Everyone, the rescue team has just lost contact with the headquarters. The enemy situation is unknown, and it is suspected that there is a large-scale enemy invasion."

She paused slightly.

Yang Ning had instructed her to seal off the Saturn Fortress in case of a sudden situation and not to act rashly...

The headquarters, including her, had a total of three A-level officers, and there was also Ye Wenlin from the special forces, who was qualified to command giant ships and their subordinate fleets, and could command the battle on behalf of the commander when he was unable to attend.

If what was lurking in the darkness and spying on them was the terrifying other star system forces, not the loose space pirates, could she coordinate with the others to confront them head-on?

Sealing the fortress, how long could they hide?

What if they couldn't hide?

Or, what if Yang Ning had already...

"Commander, should we seal off the Saturn Fortress?"

With this question, there was a brief silence on the communicator.

"No," Fu Luo's eyelids trembled slightly, and she finally made a decision, "Enter S-level combat readiness! Open the highest defense range and set the fortress safety limit to 150 firing range units. Begin dense patrols with scout ships. If an enemy is discovered within the safety range, do not hail them, do not warn them—destroy them immediately!"

Wang Yansheng listened to her entire command before nodding slightly, as if approving that the Second Department could be temporarily handed over to her. He silently cut off the video communication and rushed to his own battle.

It was from this moment that Fu Luo finally became a commander who could stand on her own.