As far as the eye can see, there are endless garbage, and the foul air is filled with the stench of biological and chemical weapons.
The hatch is open.
The crew scrambled out of the mutilated and burned door on their legs as soft as noodles, and then began to vomit frantically, their stomachs cramping, and they were dizzy.
Not because of the smell.
But because of their captain's fatal boating skills.
Xiao Yi, who was tortured the most and vomited the most, almost vomited out his bile.
As the culprit, Ge Xiu didn't seem to feel any guilt. He stretched his stiff limbs in position, the bones made a slight rubbing sound under the muscles, and his eyes narrowed contentedly like a cat.
In the distant sky, the solitary Alliance warship could be seen slowing down and approaching the surface of the planet, and it seemed to be preparing to land.
Ge Xiu shouted: "Pack up the supplies and withdraw."
The crew also knew the priorities. They stepped on the fluttering pace and rushed back to the cabin at the fastest speed, bringing the supplies, weapons and tools they depended on for survival, and then followed behind Ge Xiu and quickly left the ship.
They stumbled and ran into the distance in the undulating garbage heap. After walking a distance, Ge Xiu suddenly stopped his pace, and then dodged and hid behind the steel wreckage that slanted out from the garbage mountain, and then He made a gesture to keep up with the others. Although the crew members were confused, they still obediently followed Ge Xiu and hid, looking in the direction they came from through the gap in the wreckage.
Not far away, there is a battleship with a broken fuselage and billowing black smoke. The front part is stuck in a soft garbage heap, and the steel skeleton is torn in the middle. It looks terrible. inside.
On a flat and gentle slope behind it, the Union warship was slowly descending, and a group of people in Union uniforms filed out of the open hatch, loaded with guns, and trained to approach the battleship they had previously boarded. , After confirming that there was no enemy ambush inside, the advance troop cautiously walked into the open cabin.
Ge Xiu rolled his eyes, a pure and gentle smile overflowed his lips, and silently made a mouth shape—
Bang.
As if a switch had been flipped, the only remaining hull of the warship suddenly exploded, the deafening sound spread almost all over the planet, the bright fire shot straight into the sky, and the scorching shock wave almost overturned the surrounding Allied forces to the ground, from this distance I could only vaguely hear the panicked shouts of the Alliance Army, and the appearance of those little figures in dark blue uniforms quickly evacuating from outside the ship.
Fuel alone is clearly incapable of causing such an explosion.
Xiao Yi turned his head to look at Ge Xiu in a stunned manner, barely able to spit out a single syllable.
Ge Xiu sighed happily, threw aside the detonator that had been used up in his pocket, and then turned to look at the crew behind him:
"Go, go, go."
With a casual smile on his face, raging flames reflected in his indifferent eyes, he seemed to have no consciousness that he had blown up his only hope of leaving, and said lightly:
"Let's go, or wait to be caught?"
The crew came back to their senses and continued to evacuate with Ge Xiu to the distance.
The group of people were like tiny ants, they got into the mountain of rubbish that stretched vertically and horizontally, and they were nowhere to be found in an instant.
The captain in the uniform of the Union Army raised his hand to cover his nose, his face was ashen as he watched the ship's remains that were blown to ashes, leaving almost no complete metal residue, and frowned tightly.
Aside from gunpowder smoke and dust, the adjutant who apparently barely escaped from the explosion stumbled back to his life:
"Report, report! Advance troops, none of the advance troops survived!"
The captain's face was even worse, and the sinking seemed to be able to drip water. He did not expect that there would be such a lifeless person who would dare to load a large number of deadly bombs on the warship he was riding. , The design of the external protective layer is relatively thin, and no one dares to take such a big risk except for suicide attacks, so they were not aware of it for a while and were directly attacked.
He stared at the wreckage of the battleship that was still burning in front of him, and asked coldly:
"Have the brains and navigation facilities on board been rescued?"
The adjutant shook his head sadly:
"It's all blown up."
The captain was not surprised by this result. After all, the shell of the battleship was shattered to pieces under such great destructive force, and it was extremely unlikely that the sophisticated and high-end intelligent equipment would survive.
He thought again of the thrilling chase just now. After joining the Alliance Army for so many years, he had never seen such a cunning and crazy operation method. The captains of the other ships that crashed were all experienced, but still Being dumped around, even thinking about it now, he couldn't help but still have lingering fears.
Many years of military career made the captain have a hunch that the ship he was pursuing this time was likely to have a great relationship with the extremely tense and fierce horses in the recent alliance. The desire to establish merits ignited his eyes, but this time The dangers of the mission also made him doubly cautious:
"You bring half of the people with light energy guns, and divide them into small teams to search. If you encounter them, shoot them directly, regardless of life or death."
"Yes!"
The adjutant covered in ashes led the order to leave.
The captain turned his head and said to another subordinate who was on standby behind him: "The remaining half of the people are on the boat with me."
The man was taken aback.
The captain narrowed his eyes slightly and explained: "Their ship was blown up. Now our ship is the only way to leave this planet. If they want to escape, they will definitely come to grab the ship."
"Sir wise!"
The young subordinate suddenly realized that Shang Xian's immature face was full of admiration.
The atmosphere of the junk star is turbid and unrepentant. The star that has been extinguished not far away hangs in the sky like a rotten corpse, which makes the planet a ash no matter the day and night, and the endless garbage is sticky under the feet. A greasy crunch, a mix of colors, and an unbearably disgusting smell.
A group of people walked deep and shallow among the garbage piles.
This is their home planet after all.
Looking at the monotony and repetition, the irregular mountain-shaped landforms are very familiar to their eyes, and the rotten garbage with one foot deep and one shallow foot did not slow down their pace, and soon they will have no clue to search for them. The trailing Union Army was far behind.
As Ge Xiu walked, he picked and picked from the garbage piles that he passed by. Occasionally, he found some oddly shaped pieces of scrap metal and threw them into Xiao Yi's arms.
Seeing that they are about to approach the residential area in Junk Star, the scene on the roadside is becoming more and more familiar, and everyone's faces are no longer as calm as before.
Although I haven't seen any acquaintances, even just staring at the dirty planet where I have lived for decades makes everyone feel complicated: nostalgia, joy, sadness, pain... all twisted into an indescribable gloomy mood , deeply deposited in the eyes of everyone, and diffused throughout the entire team.
Xiao Yi quickened his pace and lined up with Ge Xiu, and asked:
"Xiao Qi, what shall we do next?"
Ge Xiu didn't answer, because he was busy digging through the garbage dump on the side to find something. He didn't seem to mind the foul smell, and he took out half of the burnt chip from the depths of the garbage dump with his bare hands. I came out, wiped it clean with the hem of my clothes, and looked carefully at the murky gray light in the air.
A crew member suggested: "The alliance army that is chasing us should soon start searching for us on the planet. After all, it is difficult for us to fight against them. It is better to complete the task as soon as possible before they find us. ."
"That's right." The other person nodded in agreement, turned to look at Ge Xiu, and asked, "Then what should we do now? Go to inform the people in the gathering area to gather in the square or look for them one by one?"
Ge Xiu was tossed by the damaged chip in his hand and carried the baggage on his back, holding the tattered little one in his arms, raised his eyebrows and looked over.
His expression was still sloppy, but his eyes unexpectedly gave people a very sharp feeling, which made people feel shocked.
Ge Xiu shrugged, and suddenly asked without thinking: "Do you know when the selection according to the Alliance Humanitarian Act started?"
Everyone was stumped by his sudden question.
The crew member who made the suggestion just pondered for a while, and then hesitantly replied: "This... we don't know the exact time, but, since we have memories, the selection has already appeared... "
"That's right."
Ge Xiu turned around, his eyes searched aimlessly on the garbage piles around him, and said slowly:
"Will you directly overthrow your own notions that have been ingrained since you can remember because of the words of an outsider?"
The crowd was choked.
They looked at each other and saw the same uncertainty in each other's eyes.
On Junk Star, no one has the condition to receive any form of education. Even if some people can barely recognize a few words, it is still in consideration of survival. Fumbling and learning from the vague signs on the garbage, and the extreme bad The environment and alliances come to collect labor force from time to time, and the average life expectancy of the residents here is extremely extreme, and their vision is narrow and stubborn.
Everyone asked themselves, if they hadn't really experienced the thrilling situation of almost becoming slaves, as well as the months of study on the main ship and contact with other more knowledgeable people, they would not have been able to rely on the words of others. Easily deny your ten or even twenty years of experience and ideas.
Plus... it's the reason all junk star inhabitants struggle to survive, their only hopeless hope in extreme conditions.
All the crew fell into silence, and they finally realized the biggest obstacle to their journey.
It's not the coalition warships that follow, the enemy armies scrambling, or even the return ships that have long been blown to ashes, but the false beliefs that are entwined, even indestructible, on this planet - one of the inhabitants of the junk star. So they struggled so hard to survive because, one day, it was possible for them to escape such a harsh environment and be able to live a dignified life with their own hands and labor.
- and they don't allow anyone to take that hope out of their lives.
Xiao Yi looked at Ge Xiu for help, and asked with almost no hope:
"Can we… can we really convince everyone that this is all a hoax?"
Ge Xiu dug out another half of the machine from the garbage pile on the side, threw it into Xiao Yi's arms again with great pleasure, and replied lightly:
"sure."
Everyone was stunned.
Ge Xiu smiled and turned to look at the crowd: "Those who survived in such a dangerous and harsh environment are not incapable of perceiving the difference, they just chose not to see, not listen, and not believe. Allow yourself to indulge in false and deadly hope, giving up real possibilities for an ethereal hallucination."
His smile was beautiful and even cruel: "Only breaking their unrealistic illusions is the only way to solve the problem."
He held his breath consciously for a while, and asked softly, "Then... what are we going to do?"
Ge Xiu nimbly jumped over the gap between the pieces of garbage and replied calmly:
"In small groups, go to your familiar friends, relatives, especially the families of residents who have escaped from the Raibert, and tell them—"
Ge Xiu turned his head, the corners of his lips curled up:
"The next selection is about to begin."