"The Emperor's angel!"
"An angel has descended!"
The human warriors, seeing the sleek motorcycle racing across the plains and the figure atop it, raised their arms in jubilant celebration.
Chen Ye, composed, maneuvered the motorcycle around the gene thieves, drawing his explosive pistol to fire upon them.
With the motorcycle's speed, it was near impossible for the gene thieves to target him, yet Chen Ye's aim remained unshaken, his marksmanship as precise as his blade—every shot hit home, never straying.
For a space marine, this level of combat was almost trivial; typically, even if hive-dwellers dared to ascend, a space marine wouldn't intervene unless there was something of profound importance on this planet worth defending.
Sitting quietly behind on the motorcycle, Yao En noticed Chen Ye seemed to be driving the gene thieves into one concentrated mass.
As one gene thief after another fell, the surviving ones gathered tighter, no longer spread across the ruins.
Understanding his intention, Yao En readied his shoulder cannon and fired toward the sky.
A mortar shot, set to anti-infantry mode.
A crimson orb streaked through the sky in a perfect arc, fragmenting into a rain of light beams a hundred meters above the heads of the gene thieves.
None were spared; every gene thief perished.
It's worth noting that Yao En observed these gene thieves displayed the same unity and sacrificial spirit as those seen in Tyrone's hive. One young gene thief, before being riddled with holes, had elder companions throwing themselves onto him, using their bodies as shields to protect the younger one.
"Battle's over!" A ragged human officer stepped forward, waving to the others. "Clean up!"
The scrappy militia began dispatching each enemy corpse, collecting anything usable from their bodies.
The officer joined in, finding a laser pistol that had been damaged by the beam rain. Instead of discarding it, he called over one of his soldiers.
The soldier, barely fourteen, held a crude iron baton meant for peacekeeping.
"For you," the officer said, handing the damaged pistol to the young soldier.
Delighted, the boy saluted with an unrefined military salute, admiring the gun with a gaping hole.
He didn't even realize it was useless.
"Isn't this just sending him to his death?" Unable to bear it, Yao En stepped forward, seized the pistol, examined it, then used his power armor's built-in repair device to restore it before handing it back to the young soldier.
"No need to worry. He won't see combat, just does odd jobs following the officer around," Chen Ye explained, stepping forward.
"But he's still a soldier; he's here," Yao En insisted, pressing the gun back into the boy's hands.
Chen Ye and the officer didn't stop him, turning instead to discuss matters of greater importance.
"How long has this purge been going on?"
"Three days now."
"Are there other battles elsewhere?"
"Certainly, sir."
"Transmit their coordinates to me; I'll head there at once."
After acquiring the coordinates, Chen Ye entered them into the motorcycle's navigation system, and with Yao En riding behind, they sped toward the next battlefield.
The gene thieves hadn't launched a full rebellion, so the hive wars remained relatively subdued. The human fighters were merely militia, lacking even uniforms, identifying foes by whether they had hair.
After tackling one battleground, eliminating the enemies, and moving to the next, this cycle repeated over a dozen times, leaving only one battlefield in the ongoing gene thief purge.
This final battleground was the most intense, with nearly fifty thousand soldiers engaged.
Before heading there, Chen Ye had to prepare.
Stopping the motorcycle in the ruins of a long-abandoned building, Chen Ye began cleaning his sword and organizing his remaining ammunition.
He explained to Yao En what he'd observed in the Northern Haven's lower hive.
"Those militia aren't organized by the hive governor; they're residents of the Hundredth District."
"This is the only place you'll find a semblance of order."
"In District 100, children and the elderly manufacture ammunition in makeshift workshops, while able-bodied men and women undergo voluntary military training during downtime. Once enough ammunition is gathered for a fight, they descend to the lower hive to purge gene thieves."
Hearing this, Yao En suddenly remembered how, not long ago, Chen Ye had saved a girl and given her a gold coin, telling her to go to District 100.
It seemed this wasn't merely to get her out of harm's way but to ensure she could live in a more stable community.
Thinking further about the militia, Yao En frowned and shook his head. "I don't understand. The lower hive is riddled with gangs, and non-gang members, out of necessity for food, water, and oxygen, might form alliances, but only with those on their own street. If a civilian group grows too large, internal conflict over resources becomes inevitable."
Chen Ye chuckled, nodding as he continued cleaning his gun.
Yao En continued, "In such a cutthroat environment, an entire district cooperating is inconceivable, let alone doing so not to seize resources or resist gangs, but to fight gene thieves in the lower hive. From an individual perspective, what do the gene thieves have to do with District 100? Even the judiciary isn't concerned."
"You're absolutely correct. But what fills me with pride is that in my birthplace, there exists such a community of unity." Chen Ye, tucking the cleaned gun back into his belt, rose and mounted the motorcycle.
"You haven't answered my question," Yao En said, not boarding the bike this time, sensing something amiss. "An entire district, united… I have reason to suspect District 100 is populated entirely by gene thieves; otherwise, this can't be explained."
Chen Ye smiled, posing his own question in return. "Imagine a person within the hive who possesses advanced sewage and air filtration equipment, commands a loyal following, and exudes a certain charisma… With such a person, would the unity and order of District 100 still surprise you?"
"I met Lord Tyrone just yesterday," Yao En replied with a wry smile, shaking his head. "He isn't on Northern Haven One."
"Sadly, Northern Haven One doesn't have another Tyrone. But it does have a young leader worthy of his followers," Chen Ye said solemnly, fixing his gaze on Yao En, raising a finger from the motorcycle throttle to point skyward. "He is far more suited to govern Northern Haven One than that disgraceful fool at the top."