Imperfections Chapter 48

According to the books, the asteroid belt in Sodo was a stable asteroid belt. Bixing Lu just barely survived from colliding with a planetesimal, then was almost hit by an unknown particle flow: "I'll be detained for changing the route randomly!"

He avoided two colliding planetesimals like walking on a tightrope, quickly crossed through the rubble in disorder: "I will file a complaint to the author of the 'Ecology Recording of Death Desert' when I come back, why it is not marked as 'this story is purely fictional'!"

More than half of the energy of the small mech was used for the protective cover, Bixing Lu did not dare wander at all, and the speed was too slow as if it's crawling in the universe. However, it was still the hardest video game that he ever played. It was so fatal that, he's only got one single chance. In order to keep himself concentrated, Bixing Lu played the loudest electronic dance music in the mech. Its acoustics were very garish, which was enough to annoy ten Jinheng Lins.

However, as he got deeper in the asteroid belt, even though Bixing Lu made the mech be like a moving KTV, his expression became more and more dignified.

In such kind of place, why was there a transfer point?

As far as he knew, there was no one else that could be bold enough to blow up a transfer point. However, if that was truly Lin, the mech Beijing did not even have a big enough arm stockpiles. What did he use to blow it up? His brainwaves?

The turbulent energy fluctuations got more and more dense, and Bixing Lu realized that he was close to the transfer point destroyed by the explosion.

He carefully pa.s.sed a large planetesimal which was hundreds of kilometres in diameter, using the protective cover to barely fend off the storm of planetesimal debris: "What the heck happened here ..."

The large planetesimal went away along its...o...b..t, and his vision suddenly became clear.

Bixing Lu's heart sank.

It was a tragic cemetery. Countless mech wreckage floated in vacuum. Sometimes, when planetesimals sweep through like a gale, the mechs rise like dust on the ground, then fumble into their new orbits. Under Sodo's gravitation, they wander slowly, lifelessly.

Through the mental network, Bixing Lu was even able to see one or two complete human remains floating in the vacuum, like a solidified wax statue. When Primalien ordered an emergency transfer, the non-combat mech was required to remove the remaining energy source and give it to the ones that were still able to fight. This command was not to let people who were not involved in the jump stand by or wait for their comrades to come back after triumph. It was to ruthlessly discard them.

It was known that in order to maintain the protective cover, change their orbits, dodge unidentified flying bodies, launch weapons, and so on, it required a lot of power, that was, energy.

The mech that didn't have power could only be a fragile s.p.a.ce float.

The transfer point has been blown up, spreading violent energy turbulence through the asteroid belt, and this, was the Death Desert.

A "s.p.a.ce float" without the ability of defense and evasion, abandoned in the middle of the Death Desert, only had one way to go - death.

The lucky ones would be smashed with their mech under the impact of the planetesimals, dying quickly. The ones with bad luck would have to watch their companions be swallowed by the Death Desert one by one, while they could only be trapped in a mech, unable to hide or move, waiting for their own destiny.

It was like being buried alive.

People who could not stand this kind of fear often break down, and finally jump out of the cabin to be finished in a faster way - they became the complete remains that Bixing Lu saw.

When Lu arrived, there was not one single living thing in that place.

Bixing Lu was shocked, as if a taut string had suddenly snapped in his mind. The throat which talked to himself for millions of words suddenly lost its voice. After a long while, he managed to spill out a few words: "Sc ... scan for me..."

The scanning task on the mech was sent halfway, followed by a string of flas.h.i.+ng ellipsis, waiting for his following command.

"Scan...mech Beijing's communication port ... or wreckage..."

The mech did not have an intelligent core. Although its mental network was connected with its owner, the mech couldn't feel any severe fluctuations in emotions except the mind-mech compatibility. It meticulously carried out the scanning task.

Bixing Lu sank in the ground. He would subconsciously avoid things that was going to collide with him, but there was not one complete thought in his mind. His heartbeat seemed to be dragged very slowly.

Without knowing how long it took, the mech suddenly gave out a faint pop that made Bixing Lu jump.

"No match found."

Bixing Lu could finally breathe. The heartbeat that was nearly paused started racing like an unbridled wild horse, almost breaking out of his chest. Cold sweat was flowing down his spine, very itchy - no match found means, mech Beijing ... Lin, whether he was dead or alive, at least, he was not in this cemetery.

Bixing Lu closed his eyes, quickly recovered, and began to a.n.a.lyse the wreckage in the "cemetery".

Judging from the logo, these wreckages should belong to the Guard of Prince Cayley. Also, judging from the amount of wreckages, at least hundreds, or even more medium-sized mechs had gathered here. This was a heavily armed pirate team.

In that team, some of the mech's fuselage was broken, leaving only wreckage behind: they died of the extremely strong energy shock, presumably generated by the explosion of the transfer point. The remaining part of the damaged mech was relatively complete, most of them were destroyed by physical impact. Their common ground was ...

They all uninstalled the energy system.

After putting together all the information, it was enough to make a probable cause and effect — why did Jingheng Lin suddenly jump off the underground channel, why did he run here, and who used the missile to detonate the transfer point.

Bixing Lu slammed his fist on the door of the mech cabin, even wanted to curse. Unfortunately, he didn't really know how, so he could only grind his teeth tightly.

When a group of pirates chase a person, they could just bury him with missiles. This would not require too much energy. Therefore, dismantling energy must have other uses. What needed such a lot of energy?

The only thing Lu Bixing could think of, was an emergency transfer.

That was to say, Jingheng Lin detonated the transfer point by some means, and before that, he completed a transfer in a thrilling way, avoiding the impact of the explosion of the transfer point. After that, the surviving interstellar pirate must have tracked down his transition point and chased him there.

There were no recorded transfer point coordinates in the vicinity. The transfer point that Jingheng Lin chose was likely discovered by himself. The fact that the pirates were able to get there meant that the transfer point was very close, or at least could be scanned.

Bixing Lu licked his dry lips: "Scan the nearby transfer point."

The mech was silent for a moment and still replied: "No match found."

Bixing Lu: "d.a.m.n it!"

He forgot, Lin used the mental network of Zhanlu who could cover a lot more than this small mech... the pirates that chased him were likely to have heavy mech too!

Bixing Lu's blood all over his body seemed to be retrograde, and his fingers became cold and stiff.

Sat.u.r.day's words "Some things just can't wait" echoed in his ear, and his heart that trembled violently squeezed his lungs. He could not even breathe. A thought suddenly emerged and immediately broke all his logical processes.

He thought: "What if I don't have time anymore?"

At the base, when he implanted an illegal chip into his own body, Lin's face turned pale and he almost hit him. He feared it was the last time they saw each other.

Bixing Lu has a strong sense of empathy. When he encountered something, he often put himself in other people's shoes naturally. However, this time, he did not dare to think about Jingheng Lin's mood and situation through this thought.

That person never declared his emotions. Silent, restrained, introverted, only revealing a little clue when his temper was ruined. Without the time to digest it, he left the base alone. As he noticed the danger on the way, he quietly shouldered the burden, faced a violent pirate team alone and took them to the Death Desert.

The base was in carnival all night because of surviving the high-energy particle flow, while he was alone here, without receiving even a little intranet signal ...

These ideas were like viruses, revolving around his head, repeatedly wandered in his consciousness. The man-machine compatibility violently trembled, and the mech warned him.

The sentimental Headmaster Lu, just by his imagination alone, felt that his heart was breaking. However, the hero himself, who was one of the "four major tragedies of the NSC" in his mind was preparing for killing.

On the other side of the transfer point, Primalien was preparing to return.

After a short period of the excitement of having successfully exploded Mech No. 1, the mood around Primalien lowered again. This was a heavy loss. They didn't acquire any information about the underground channel yet, they had already lost a whole mech team. The other party only had one person, yet they did not even have time to figure out his ident.i.ty.

How could they face Prince Cayley?

Prince Cayley, Aris Von, was overly suspicious, capricious, and as perverted as Primalien. Primalien would get gooseb.u.mps at the thought of him.

If Primalien had a little bit more leverage, he would even want to claim independence. He stood up anxiously, pacing back and forth like a trapped animal.

Just while he was thinking anxiously, the secret pa.s.sage on the heavy mech was suddenly triggered.

For someone on the heavy mech, even when connected with the mech's mental network, it was difficult to cover all the places, just like how a person also could not always pay attention to where each of his own hair was falling towards.

Primalien was surprised, squinted, and mobilized the mental network, concentrated on his secret pa.s.sage. Then his spine suddenly became stiff and saw the little kingfisher that should have died with the Mech No. 1, rus.h.i.+ng to his secret lab!

An indescribable shudder crawled up the back of Primalien. At that moment, he almost felt fear.

It should be impossible for this little kingfisher to fly from Mech No. 1 straight here unless he was a ghost. Primalien rubbed his eyes. Through the mental network, he clearly saw this little s.h.i.+t went all the way through the narrow corridor and ran into a darker place. When he looked up again, the tracker had no change!

This was a trap!

The Mech No. 1 exploding... no, even leading them to transfer here is a trap!

Primalien slapped the internal first-level alert command of the mech, and the ominous screams echoed in the heavy mech: "Check the standby mech transceiver station, hurry up!"

"Sir, the vicinity of the transceiver station is damaged and cannot be detected."

Primalien was angry: "Why didn't you report the damage earlier! b.a.s.t.a.r.d, b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You didn't even realize someone is sneaking in. Gather together, search! Search manually!"

The pirates on the heavy mechs a.s.sembled quickly and split into three parts down to the transceiver room.

People dared not to face the mech directly. They were fully armed and drove the armored vehicles to the quiet and unmanned standby mech transceiver station. Next to the group of mechs, lots of huge weapons were arrayed on both sides of the track, staring down at them. They were very stifled, so quiet that even the falling of needles could be heard.

The pirates stopped and cautiously searched for the aberration in the group of mechs ...

Suddenly, the alarm sounded, and the leader of the pirates trembled: " Careful, stay back!"

But it was too late.

In a very hidden corner, an un.o.btrusive small mech lifted the missile launcher towards the pirate team - with its last missile in it.

The missiles mounted on the mech were weapons of the interstellar level, able to blow up a city when they fall on the ground. In comparison, all the armors were slags.

The pirates were petrified: "Retreat! Retreat quickly!"

"Get out of here!"

"Can't! The door of the transceiver room is closed!"

"He takes us as bait. f.u.c.k your family Primalien -"

"Help!"

Primalien did not show up, but he kept watch on the whole process through the mech's mental network. He was aware of the position of mech Beijing earlier than the unlucky ones he sent out. He saw Beijing lift the missile launcher and confirmed that the man was in the small mech. Regardless of whether the baits were alive or dead, Primalien closed all the pa.s.sages leading to the armored transceiver room. After locking, he completely unloaded the spare armor transceiver room from the heavy mech.

The next moment, the missile on the Mech Beijing launched. The entire mech transceiver room was pierced, and none of the above people were able to be spared. At the same time, the transceiver room was completely detached from the heavy mech, and the heavy armor launched two missiles towards it. The numerous mechs that were docked in it, all became nothing and were blown up into splendid fireworks.

Primalien cursed with his eyes straining: "Go to h.e.l.l!"

Having solved this serious trouble, Primalien turned to the disloyal little kingfisher outside with b.l.o.o.d.y eyes. The little kingfisher had broken into the secret laboratory, anxiously patting every nutrition cabin. He still did not know what happened, only knew that terrible grey-eyed man wanted to destroy this mech.

The nutrition cabins mostly contained monsters of half-humans and half-beasts who had no humanity at all. They were numbly leaning against the nutrition cabin, and the little kingfisher patted the cabins all the way and stopped in the corner — it was the biggest, cleanest nutrition cabin. There was a girl, blonde, as beautiful as an angel in ancient paintings. Her body was well preserved, naked, and she was grafted with a huge pair of wings on her back, which had snow-white feathers.

Even with the wings forcibly grafted, the human skeleton could never afford to fly. The person who made her probably did this only because of the twisted aesthetic. The pressure from the heavy wings deformed the girl's spine. She couldn't even stand for a long time. She was leaning to a corner, used the wings to cover her body, and the exposed limbs were covered with traces of bruises. However, through the transparent gla.s.s door, she squeezed a small smile at the bird youth.

The bird youth screamed anxiously for a while, climbing onto the nutrition compartment. He forcibly broke the door lock and wanted to drag the girl out. However, although he did not have feathers, he had a bird's bone. He was less than half the weight of a normal person. The girl had a standard human body, plus a pair of wings which weight was similar to herself. The bird boy was directly pressed down.

The girl's voice was very weak, but she could still speak like a human: "What happened?"

Bird youth: "Chirp!"

"I don't understand," the girl reached out and pushed him. "Is it dangerous? If it's dangerous, just escape, don't care about me, you can't carry me!"

All the bones of the bird youth were shaking and his face turned into purple-red in an instant. His bones and meridians seemed to be going to pierce his skin. With a loud cry, he shakily stood up. He walked away step by step. After only a dozen meters, he fell down again and then stood up again with difficulty.

The girl said to his ear: "They will catch you!"

However, the blood vessels of the bird youth's body were about to burst and his ears were filled with the sound of intense tremors of the arteries. He almost heard nothing.

Just as he was approaching the exit, the lab suddenly lit a red light. All the doors were locked.

The bird youth turned pale, knelt on the ground, crawled and turned back, trying to find the secret pa.s.sage that he had taken with Jingheng Lin.

The footsteps suddenly came, and the bird youth froze.

In the flickering fluorescence of the nutrition compartment, Primalien's face came over gloomy. The hard-soled military boots stepped on the ground and made a "click-clack" sound. He held a laser gun in his hand.

"Very touching," Primalien gently lifted the bird youth's chin with his toes. "Soil of tender feelings also grew in the rough laboratory, is there anything more poetic than that?"

The hearts of the bird youth and the girl with wings were wretched.

Primalien looked at the bird youth and shook his head: "They gave you to me and told me that you are the only masterpiece of the 'Nuwa Plan' in that year. All the samples were destroyed. The technology has been lost so far. You are so precious ... I always take you as a treasure, and I even allowed you to walk around in the mech."

"But you let me down every time there's a test of loyalty. Guess you'll never learn loyalty." He knocked the bird youth's forehead with his gun, and then grabbed the girl's neck. "Even the most expensive pets cannot bite the master. Understood?"

Primalien's fingers suddenly tightened, the girl struggled to try to escape. The bird youth was trampled on by Primalien on the ground, sliding his limbs like a turtle. He watched in despair as the girl's struggle got weaker and weaker. He screamed with a high pitch bird voice.

Primalien laughed, but at this moment, his whole body suddenly became stiff, and a laser broke through his brain cleanly.

The girl who suddenly fell to the ground coughed fiercely. The bird youth looked up incredulously and saw that outside a secret door, Jingheng Lin was retrieving his laser gun indifferently.

"Didn't even know what remote mech control is, stupid." Jingheng Lin did not look at them. He lifted the body of Primalien and searched it without any respect. He dug up the core of this heavy mech from Primalien's chest: "Take over the mental network."

The pirates were ignorant about the authority change of the heavy mech. Jingheng Lin immediately placed the first order. The small mechs that followed the heavy armor had not got time to overhaul their damages before all the alarms suddenly sounded together. Before anyone could realize what happened, they were cleaned up by a group of missiles that were launched from the heavy mech. The pirates probably could not figure out why they died, or why they were killed by their boss after everything was finished.

"All cleaned."

At this point, the first general of Prince Cayley, Primalien's entire mech team was annihilated, and there was no residue left. The mental network of the heavy mech brought a great burden to the weakened Jingheng Lin. He really couldn't walk anymore, so he just sat down at the door of the laboratory. As his whole body was relaxed, his consciousness began to blur immediately.

Just then, Zhanlu suddenly issued an alarm: "Sir, detected ..."

The ringing in Jingheng Lin's ears was too serious. He really didn't hear what was said after that sentence.

A virus program that was hidden in the heavy mech network was suddenly activated — it was the last ghost of Primalien.

The chip that was implanted in the brainstem of the corpse was activated.

The corpse on the ground suddenly stood upright, with the gunshot wound on the head, the whole person looked like a zombie. Without thoughts and consciousness, it only killed indiscriminately, taking the laser gun and shot randomly.

The girl with wings was the first one to bear the brunt, her body looked like a blossoming flower of blood, flying outwards.

The bird youth made a heartbreaking scream.

At the same time, the heavy mech started the self-destruction program!

Zhanlu incarnated as a protective cover in front of Jingheng Lin immediately. Jingheng Lin twitched, barely got up and then reached out a hand to the bird youth.

However, the bird youth just glanced at him. He pounced over him, pa.s.sed the hand that Jingheng Lin had extended. He threw himself at the muzzle of Primalien's gun, and put his heart against the laser muzzle. The printed heart exploded, a b.l.o.o.d.y wind swept the whole lab.

A small-ranged explosion dismantled the weapon-corpse, and half of the chip flew out.

The broken head of the bird boy fell at the foot of Jingheng Lin. His eyes were still open as if looking at Lin, as if looking at the distant starry sky.

Commodore Lin, the eyes seemed to be saying - you are strong, but lives are dignified.

"Sir, the mech self-destruction program is turned on, my protective cover cannot last for a long time!"

Jingheng Lin's hand was still extended, as if he hasn't recovered from the shock.

Zhanlu's protective cover was getting weaker and weaker. He took the initiative and turned into an eco-cabin with his remaining energy - the same as the one that Bixing Lu found in the past — and wrapped Jingheng Lin into it without asking.

Bixing Lu was alerted by the alarm of his mech, and suddenly looked up.

Yes, the mental network!

He was like a hungry vulture, patrolling around the entire mech cemetery. All the mech ports that had weak human-machine connection were all picked up by him, barely making the covering range of mental network on the small mech a dozen times bigger.

He was in a hurry, still refusing to give up after one "Unable to match" after another, changing the angle repeatedly to repeat the search operation.

In the ninety-sixth operation, Bixing Lu finally found a clue through the intermittent signal.

He immediately launched an emergency transfer!

However, just when he completed the transfer, what greeted him was an earth-shattering explosion. Bixing Lu raised the speed of the mech to the extreme, the protective cover screamed. He grumbled, and was going to evacuate.

Just then, a familiar eco-cabin entered his field of vision.

Bixing Lu's pupils contracted, rushed up against the explosion waves and fished the cabin forcibly without thinking.

____

Note:
Have you heard? The Defective/Can Ci Pin is one of the two winners of the Best Original Book Award in the 30th China Science Fiction Galaxy Awards! It's the most prestigious science fiction award in China, also having awarded renowned scifi authors such as Liu Cixin and w.a.n.g Jinkang multiple times ^^

The award announcement have said, "When humanity's footprints have been all over the starry sea, and the nervous system and intelligent networks are seamlessly connected, we seemed to usher in a perfect utopia. But the 'defectives' whose brains cannot be connected to these intelligent networks, they show us a different future. Under the surface of all kinds of scifi elements such as mechs, cyber, and interstellar wars, there lies a story about the warmth of humanity. The author uses a first-cla.s.s narrative ability, bringing scifi to a much wider audience."

Congrats to Priest and Can Ci Pin!