Chapter 59

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General Flanders Silvado Dujie had not slept well for several days. In the spacious and luxurious office, the middle-aged general, whose figure had begun to grow stout, leaned back in the comfortable star beast leather sofa chair. He rubbed his temples with his fat and stubby fingers, and with a worried expression, he said to the holographic screen in front of him:

"My dear general, the situation here is already very dangerous. Please, for the sake of our past friendship, quickly send some mecha teams to help us out!"

In the three-dimensional holographic screen, a spirited general with slightly white hair and a chest full of medals slowly said with drooping eyelids:

"General Dujie, this is not the time to talk about friendship. You know how much pressure I am under! The Vrotikor priests' supported space pirates have been very restless lately, so I need to keep more forces to guard my territory!"

"But I only need 150 bronze two-star mechas and a special assault team of 5,000 people. If you could also send me some of your medium and small warships, we could stabilize the situation!" General Dujie said hopefully.

General Chen Dequan, the supreme commander of the Eastern Theater, controlled a vast military force of hundreds of thousands of warships and over a dozen elite mecha corps. For him, this amount of troops was just a drop in the bucket.

However, despite the plea from his old subordinate and friend, the general remained unmoved:

"Let alone two-star mechas, I don't even have any ordinary standard mecha teams to spare for you. Don't expect anything else! Unless the situation here calms down completely, I won't have the resources to help you!"

Dujie's face turned grim: "Old friend, you're being too unreasonable! The important project on Dinnan is personally overseen by the Minister of National Defense. If those damned natives suddenly go crazy and we don't resolve this quickly, if the base is compromised, neither of us will be able to explain to the higher-ups!"

"That's your problem!" Chen Dequan said without a hint of shame:

"If the secret base on Dinnan can't be saved, you, as the local garrison commander and the primary responsible person, will be held accountable. I, as your superior, will only bear secondary responsibility! At worst, I'll get a reprimand, nothing serious!"

"You..." General Dujie leaped up, his fat and stubby fingers pointing at the general, his voice trembling with anger:

"You shameless old man, are you even speaking like a human? Ignoring our old friendship is one thing, but the Federation paid a heavy price to obtain that thing! Many of our old comrades died in that battle. Now that the project has finally made some progress, you actually... actually..."

Chen Dequan shrugged, spread his hands, and said with an innocent look: "No matter how deep the friendship, it can't be eaten! My dear old friend, the situation is different now. Those annoying priests are getting more and more arrogant! If I help you, I won't be able to maintain my own operations!"

"Also, the equipment update application you submitted last time has been approved by the minister! But with the current tense situation, I can't send them to you. Why don't you let them stay here and serve a purpose? Don't worry, I'll remember this favor!"

"You shameless old scoundrel..." General Dujie was so angry that he was incoherent, his large belly rising and falling like an enraged toad.

"Hehe! Don't overreact, it's not good for your health!" Chen Dequan said with a smile:

"Considering our old friendship, I can promise that when you spend the rest of your life in prison, I will definitely come to see you! I'll bring you some good wine and food, and that will be my way of repaying you!"

With that, he "snap" shut the ultra-long-range spatial communication device, leaving General Dujie to rage on his side.

...

"Boom!"

Outside the central research institute, the fire cloud from the cloud bomb rose sharply, and the invisible shock wave sent the surrounding heavy objects flying! The solid alloy ground shook violently, as if the demons beneath the earth were awakening.

The nearest Stray Turtle Rhino beast, unable to dodge in time, had half of its massive mouth and jaw burned by the intense heat. In pain, it attacked its fellow beasts, causing chaos.

"Damn, with me here, you beasts won't take a single step forward!" Wu De, in the cockpit, panted and cursed.

Before setting out, Qin Huang had chosen to attach these small cloud bombs, which indeed had formidable power. Even high-level beasts would suffer severe injuries if hit directly!

Unfortunately, such powerful weapons were too few, and against the countless beasts, they were like a drop in the bucket.

Qin Huang led the remaining students to hold out until now, but most of the base had already fallen. Only the most important research institute was still under control. The base was in flames, and the roars of the beasts echoed everywhere. The original garrison had been completely wiped out!

Muliya swung her massive ship-cutting light saber, forcing back a circle of beasts. She asked, taking a moment to spare: "Luotianxiong, how is the situation on your side?"

"...Very bad, the energy center has just been lost," Luotianxiong's weary voice came through the communication channel.

Qin Huang's heart skipped a beat. Losing the energy center meant that the energy shield around the research institute would soon fail, and the valuable instruments inside would suffer unimaginable damage due to the loss of power!

For example, some high-level intelligent robots, whose thinking and computational cores required a constant supply of energy from the moment they were assembled and activated. Once the power was cut off, they would be completely ruined, with no possibility of repair!

Sure enough, a few minutes later, the energy shield disappeared, and the lights around the research institute dimmed. With emergency power reserves, it might hold out for a while, but the final outcome was already determined!

Given the situation, Muliya remained calm and said: "Luotianxiong, Chen Fanglin, you two are responsible for covering us. We need to hold them off for a few minutes. Qin Huang, follow me!"

"Rest assured! As long as I'm alive, they won't take another step forward!" Luotianxiong gritted his teeth.

Qin Huang silently operated the mecha to retreat and followed Muliya into the depths of the research institute.

As for what they were going to do, she didn't say, and he didn't have the heart to ask. He didn't know how much longer he would live, so investigating further didn't make much sense!

Soon, a massive, 25-meter-tall heavy alloy steel door appeared before them. Muliya stopped the mecha at the door, seemingly inputting a password to unlock it.

After a moment, a "buzzing" mechanical sound rose, and the steel door slowly opened, revealing a long, dark corridor. At the end of the corridor was another steel door.

"...This place can't be held, so we've been ordered to evacuate with that thing," she said suddenly.

Qin Huang frowned: "Where can we retreat to? Given the current situation, at least a silver three-star mecha would be needed to break through to the exit! If they had known this, they should have prepared in advance!"

Muliya sighed: "You're right. What we're doing now is just a last-ditch effort."

After passing through seven steel doors, the core secret laboratory finally came into view.

Among the various instruments, a half-meter-tall, three-legged, double-eared, round-bellied emerald container stood steadily, resembling an ancient Chinese ding vessel. However, it had a lid.

"Such complex and profound source energy matrix patterns!" Qin Huang was immediately struck by the ancient and mysterious taotie cloud patterns on it.

The pale golden patterns were naturally formed, densely covering every corner of the ancient ding. At the top, twelve green jade gemstones were evenly distributed, each with a diameter of 3.3 centimeters. Inside each gemstone, a faint shadow seemed to undulate. A faint green mist swirled around the ancient ding, reflecting a hazy and splendid light!

This mysterious ancient ding showed no signs of artificial processing or carving, as if it had grown naturally!

"This is what those aliens are looking for!" Muliya said softly:

"We will take it and leave immediately. Whether we can break through will depend on luck..."

Before she finished speaking, a sudden change occurred!

The surrounding space turned pitch black, and all the detection instruments on the mecha instantly lost their function!

Before Qin Huang could react, a tangible and terrifying pressure enveloped him, almost stopping his heart. It felt as if an extremely ancient and fearsome deity had projected its consciousness here!

In the suffocating silence, time seemed to stand still. Qin Huang felt a sudden pain in his heart, and his consciousness almost dissipated on the spot!

(Please note: The protagonist's opportunity has come. What will it be?)

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