The space was an endless expanse of black curtain, enshrouding all the unknown gloom. The "War Phoenix" space fortress, like a burly and iron-gray giant, hovered within it.
Li Xizhong was a man nearly thirty years old, having served on the "War Phoenix" for over five years with the rank of lieutenant.
At first glance, he presented a rather ordinary image of a Union soldier – tall, handsome, taciturn, and reliable. And he was indeed an honest and kind-hearted person. Therefore, although his rather rigid personality didn't quite appeal to the captain, he had nevertheless earned the captain's absolute trust and heavy reliance.
At this moment, he was standing on the deck, representing the captain to welcome the newly arrived recruits.
The girl was petite in stature, wearing a light green long dress, with fair skin and a delicate countenance, looking as if water could be squeezed out with just a gentle pinch, attracting the overt or covert gazes of numerous men around.
Li Xizhong immediately strode forward and took the luggage from her hand. "Welcome! Miss Su, I'm Lieutenant Li Xizhong."
The girl repeatedly expressed her gratitude, showing a timid and shy smile. Li Xizhong couldn't help but sigh inwardly – such a frail girl, being sent to the mightiest space fortress of the Union? The captain would surely not approve.
Walking along the silver metal corridor, Li Xizhong noticed that although the woman remained silent all the way, her eyes were constantly looking around. When she saw many fighter jets parked in the shadowy corners of the hangar, her expression visibly froze.
Li Xizhong then offered an explanation. "Do you think there are too few people? In peacetime, half of the pilots and staff have returned to the ground."
"What if the Zerg launched a war?" She asked.
"The Zerg?" He showed a simple and honest smile. "Beautiful lady, don't joke! There won't be a war."
The girl nodded.
The moment Su Mi entered the captain's cabin, she quickly surveyed the surroundings – the iron-gray room with a rather low ceiling, giving an inexplicable sense of oppression.
However, the sense of confinement in the space was nothing compared to the intimidating coldness on the face of the man sitting on the black leather sofa on the red velvet carpet.
Before boarding the ship, Assistant Mu had told her that the training location was on a battleship managed by the renowned Colonel Lian Duo of the Union, which had made Su Mi feel flattered. It was said that Lian Duo had once been a mercenary, extremely brave and skilled in battle. For the sake of his elderly and ailing parents, he had left the mercenary troops and joined the regular air force on the Hope Planet.
However, the man in front of her was a bit beyond her expectations.
In his dark green, crisp military uniform, the famous Colonel Lian Duo was at most thirty-five years old. He had a square face, rough skin, a stubbled beard, and handsome features with large and bright eyes.
Upon seeing Su Mi, he seemed to be ignited by a burst of anger.
After a two-minute gloomy stare-down, he suddenly grabbed the phone on the table.
"Mu Xiting!" He roared. "You said you'd send me an outstanding air force recruit, but it's a woman as weak as a blade of grass? You're out of your mind! Take her back immediately! I don't want women on my ship!
"You don't use the favor I owe you to talk me into this... No, no, no! I only agreed because I thought it was a man... What? ****!
"Fine, fine, fine. I'll keep my word, but I won't go easy on her just because of you! When she comes crying back to you, it won't be my fault for breaking my promise!"
He slammed the phone down with a "crack" and plopped onto the sofa with a "thud", lowered his head in thought for two seconds, and then suddenly looked up, staring at Su Mi with a gloomy gaze.
The two of them stared at each other.
Seeing that he was about to lose his temper as his gaze darkened, Su Mi, without waiting for him to speak, suddenly threw her luggage onto the floor with force and cursed, "Mu Xiting, that bastard!"
This made Lian Duo look at her in surprise.
She was angry and aggrieved. "Before being sent here by him, I didn't know there were no female pilots on this ship either."
Lian Duo's sharp eyes swept across her face without a word.
Su Mi's voice calmed down. "Sir, I didn't expect to cause you trouble, but I..."
"Don't say anymore." Lian Duo interrupted her, looking at her with a contemptuous gaze. "Since I've promised Mu Xiting, if you can't pass the basic assessment within six months, get out!"
Su Mi clenched her fists tightly at her sides and, after taking a deep breath, said, "Okay, I'll prove myself."
Six months passed in the blink of an eye.
"What are you thinking about?" A clear voice suddenly rang out. Su Mi snapped back to reality. She was on a joint patrol mission along the border between humans and the Zerg with Flight Captain Ling Zheng, a captain.
"Thinking about your lover?" Ling Zheng smiled faintly. "Xiao Mi, I'll be sad if that's the case."
Su Mi just smiled without answering and turned to look outside the cabin. "These stonehenges are really beautiful."
Ling Zheng looked up at the huge, crude, and gray-brown stonehenges outside the cabin. This was the most famous large stonehenge at the border. It was said that the total volume of all the stones added up could be as large as the Windsor satellite.
Although it was spectacular, Su Mi, a young girl, actually liked such a rugged kind of beauty?
He stared at her. "Xiao Mi, do you want to go and touch the stones yourself?"
Spacewalking was a rather peculiar experience. Previously, Su Mi had only seen on TV that the top pilots of that era had such opportunities. She never expected that one day, she herself could hover in space, feeling the aura of the universe in such a tiny and real way.
A few meters away, Ling Zheng was sitting in the cockpit, smiling as he watched her. She was gently floating on the surface of the largest stone, touching the craggy and dark stone through her spacesuit.
Taking advantage of Ling Zheng's inattention, she turned off the communication channel.
"You're so beautiful." She sighed softly. "How long have you been here? Millions of years? Tens of millions of years?"
Her fingers slowly stroked the cold and black surface. For some reason, facing this lifeless existence, she suddenly had the urge to cry.
"Stonehenge, have you ever seen Earth?" She murmured to herself. "I'm as lonely as you. I can't find my home... My parents, classmates, friends..."
Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, she suppressed the tears that were almost welling up. She reopened the communication channel, and it was still quiet in her ears. She looked back and was stunned.
Ling Zheng was sitting there, staring at her blankly, his gaze... extremely gentle.
"Xiao Mi..." His voice came through muffled. "You're touching it as if it were your lover..."
Su Mi couldn't help but chuckle. "Yes, you guessed it. It is indeed my lover – I'm coming back now."
The combat command center of the main ship was quite spacious. Behind several rows of paper-thin computers, all the technical and command officers were standing, applauding to welcome Ling Zheng and Su Mi.
Lying beside the human border guard was an adult scorpion. With a dark gray hard shell and sharp barbs, its entire body seemed to be piled up by chunks of iron, huge but not clumsy. And when its purple bug eyes coldly swept over, it made one's hairs stand on end.
"Queen's Glory." The voice of the scorpion border guard sounded as if it came from a cellar.
"Queen's Glory." Ling Zheng solemnly replied to the border guard.
The border guard's eyes lingered on him for a moment, and his tone was cold. "The captain is quite a handsome fellow."
The Zerg border guard complimented Ling Zheng out of the blue and then went with the human border guard to the deck to extradite the outlaws.
Ling Zheng and Su Mi flew their planes back to the War Phoenix.
Holding a small gold nugget in his hand, Ling Zheng was beaming with joy. "So I like joint patrols with the Zerg the most. They're really generous."
Su Mi rubbed her own gold nugget and asked, "Can all the Zerg speak human languages?"
"Of course not. After the current queen came to power, more and more Zerg started to learn human languages, but mainly it's just some officers and high-ranking Zerg. But speaking of the Zerg queen..." Ling Zheng showed a strange expression. "She's really disgusting."
"Disgusting?" Su Mi was puzzled.
"It's said that she's half-bug." Ling Zheng replied. "Her father was human."
Su Mi opened her mouth wide, and immediately an image of a woman with a human face and a bug's body popped into her mind. Thinking of a human body growing multiple legs and compound eyes and crawling forward, she felt a shudder run down her spine.
"Indeed disgusting." Su Mi frowned.
"It's said that the man was once a young and outstanding soldier." Ling Zheng looked at her with disdain. "What a shame for humanity."
The Human Alliance once had the strictest and most demanding pilot training and assessment measures. During the great war with the Zerg twenty years ago, many excellent air force officers were trained. In peacetime, these strict regulations were not fully implemented.
However, on Lian Duo's battleship, these regulations were meticulously enforced. This was also the reason why the War Phoenix became the strongest in the Union.
Generally, new recruits needed to train for a year before they could apply for the basic flight assessment. Once they passed the exam, it meant they were qualified to fly fighter jets independently. Ling Zheng passed the assessment in three months, setting an example among the young soldiers. And Su Mi, who participated in the assessment after six months of training, was also quite excellent.
On the day of the assessment, Su Mi was completely focused and single-minded. After completing a series of prescribed maneuvers, she needed to fly a single-seat Snow Peak fighter jet and face the final and most difficult assessment task – flying over a debris belt while being ambushed by three Cheetah fighter jets.
Ling Zheng, as her wingman, assisted her in the flight. Two silver-white Snow Peak fighter jets, one in front and one behind, left the deck and plunged into the dark space. Su Mi and Ling Zheng looked at each other through the glass cabins and smiled.
Neither of them expected that this would be their first and last time flying side by side.
Seeing the billions of debris scattered like a mist on the planet's synchronous orbit again, Su Mi couldn't help but think of Shang Zheng. She felt a mixture of hatred, fear, obedience, and gratitude.
The complex feelings flashed by, and Su Mi was clear in her mind that her current struggle was not only for the agreement with Shang Zheng but also a turning point in her own fate. So she was extremely hardworking and diligent, and now, she had reaped the rewards.
The silver-white Snow Peak fighter jet flew through the debris belt like an arrow piercing through the air, tracing a stable arc. The examiners on the War Phoenix remained silent, while the fellow pilots watching the battle through the radar let out low murmurs of admiration.
Under Ling Zheng's protection, Su Mi successfully "shot down" the three enemy planes and had completed most of the orbital flight. She knew she was only one step away from success.
On the War Phoenix, the vice-captain in front of the control console said to his subordinates behind him, "See? Her flight path is getting more and more beautiful."
"What do you mean, sir?"
"Near the final moment, she's not the least bit impatient. Instead, she's flying more and more steadily." The vice-captain said with a smile. "So even though she's not as physically strong as men and her talent isn't outstanding, she can pass the assessment in such a short time."
"Understood, sir."
"Stop your blabbering." Lian Duo, who was standing by, suddenly interrupted. "If she can hold her own, she's good." He lowered his voice and said to the vice-captain, "I'll call Mu Xiting. I want this kid."
Su Mi in space didn't know what was on the minds of the people on the mother ship. She was flying over the most concealed and dangerous section of the debris belt on the back of the planet, and she was already a long way from the War Phoenix. As long as she passed the debris belt, her assessment would be a complete success.
But at that moment, an alarm suddenly rang out in her earpiece, and a target suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the radar in front of her.
Out of nowhere?
Only a target that had made a superluminal jump would suddenly appear on the radar.
She quickly looked up, and in that instant, her mind went blank.
A purple, circular, and quietly hovering Zerg spaceship.