Interstellar Survival: Invasion

Chapter 203: Reunion

The sleep was a comfortable one. I was completely oblivious to my surroundings. Even as young warriors, we weren't able to fight off the exhaustion as we recuperated through sleep. After an indeterminate amount of time, I suddenly felt sore all over, especially the part between my waist and the chair. Thus, I woke up.

The command room was in complete silence. I did not know where everyone else was. The only other person in the room was Zhang Bao'er. He was still snoring away while a trail of saliva flowed down his mouth to his chair.

I pushed my body straight with my hands. Suddenly, I heard some noise beside me. I looked over and saw a big head that caused me to jump. I nearly fell to the ground. Dodo was standing right beside me, staring at me and Zhang Bao'er without making a single sound. I rubbed my eyes before I was sure that I wasn't dreaming. Excitement bubbled within me.

"Dodo, is that really you? Is Spacetime back as well?" I asked in excitement.

"This is absolutely me. We have all returned safely to Rumble. Kelly had believed that Master Crystal would be able to bring all of you back. At that time, Spacetime had suffered heavy damages. We were forced to return for repairs before going for you guys," explained Dodo.

"In that case, Skyhawk is also back on Rumble?" I asked in astonishment.

"Yes. Skyhawk has safely landed on Rumble. Commander Zhang Xingxing is returning from King Carter's place," said Dodo.

"Good lord. How deep in sleep was I? I didn't even feel the wormhole leap," I said as I rubbed my head in astonishment.

At that point, Zhang Bao'er woke up from the noise of our conversation.

"Wow! Dodo, why are you here? Am I still sleeping?" asked Zhang Bao'er, reacting the same as I had just a moment ago.

"No, wait, why are there only the two of us here? Where are the others and the baron?" I asked doubtfully.

"They had left for a meal," replied Dodo honestly.

"What? Why are they eating without calling us along?" Zhang Bao'er started growing grumpy.

"It was Wind Spirit's idea. She said that you were too tired and that we shouldn't wake you up when you're in deep sleep. She even mentioned that you hate green worms. It won't be too late for you to join after waking up. Thus, everyone listened to her," explained Dodo.

"I knew the female cat would be the culprit! Just you see! I'll teach her a lesson! I'm going crazy from hunger. Come on, show us the way to the meal," Zhang Bao'er urged.

Dodo started leading the way. We hurriedly stood up and followed them out of Skyhawk. Walking out of the ship, I saw that we were inside a massive military base in a ravine. A large number of robotic workers were busy performing maintenance and repair works on Skyhawk. With one glance, I saw Jack among the crowd.

"Hey, Jack, you're not eating?" asked Zhang Bao'er as he walked up to Jack.

"I've eaten. Skyhawk is too damaged. The repair needs to begin immediately," said Jack.

After facing two battles and the pull of a black hole, Skyhawk had suffered heavy damage. Numerous components on the ship had been detached. It was truly an incredible feat for Jack and Dondon to navigate a ship so broken back to Rumble. We did not disturb Jack and his work. Rather, we followed Dodo toward the base's rest area.

On the way, we saw some Wargod soldiers under intense training. There were also some Akkon soldiers added into the mix. Lin Feixue was drilling them on regular military tactics. There were over 10,000 soldiers in the area, split into several smaller groups, each drilled by a soldier from the 7th Armored Division.

'Looks like Zhang Xingxing has finished reorganizing the army. We will need to make the plan for our attack on the Horsehead Nebula next. The critical moment to destroy Emperor Fille's beast-breeding base has finally arrived,' I thought and grew excited at the thought.

It did not take me and Zhang Bao'er long to arrive at the dining hall. The moment we arrived, we saw Wind Spirit leisurely sipping on some beverage with Dondon politely attending to her by her side. The others were busy with their own matters. The table was filled with plates that were already cleaned of food. The moment Zhang Bao'er saw that, he grew furious.

"Female cat, why did you finish all the food alone? You should have left some for me!" roared Zhang Bao'er.

"Hey, what are you yelling at me for, weirdo? I thought you didn't like these green worms," Wind Spirit shot back.

"There are so many empty plates here. Are you sure you've only been eating green worms?" argued Zhang Bao'er, not willing to take even a step back.

"Bao'er, stop. See, we kept some food for you," Old Du quickly said.

With a wave of Old Du's hand, a local military attendant came with two plates of food.

The two dishes were delicacies resembling roasted fish. They emanated an intoxicating smell that instantly triggered the hunger within my stomach. The moment the military attendant placed the dishes on the table, Zhang Bao'er and I threw ourselves at them without a care for our appearance.

"Two idiots acting like they're starving to death," came Wind Spirit's usual snide remark.

"What did you just say?" Zhang Bao'er was about to rage when Old Du pushed him down.

"Canyue, all our preparations are complete. Kelly, Lin Feixue, and the others are helping to train the new soldiers. The two princes and Commander Zhang Xingxing are on their way back. I believe Skyhawk will be fully repaired in three days. We need to make our next plan as soon as possible. Prince Gede and tens of thousands of common citizens are still trapped in Milk City," said Baron Sisse.

"Yeah. We have wasted a lot of time. We need to increase the pace." I nodded in agreement.

"Baron, Canyue, where are you?" Prince Arude's voice came before he had even arrived.

A familiar figure rushed over. Prince Arude, whom we hadn't seen in a while, appeared before us.

"Canyue, Baron, I'm so glad to see both of you alive!" said the prince, causing me to feel somewhat awkward.

Following behind Prince Arude were Prince Toruse and Zhang Xingxing. Official Dulite was also with them.

"Canyue!" Zhang Xingxing called out in excitement when she saw me.

"Commander, I've returned from the mission!" I stood up and gave her an official report.

"The moment I heard of your return, I quickly reached an understanding with King Carter before coming here. When Kelly and the others returned, they told me what happened on Cloudcast. I was so worried about you guys," said Zhang Xingxing, her eyes filled with emotion.

I had many words I wanted to say to her. In fact, I had practiced saying these words many times in my head. Each time I practiced, I had thought that it would take two or three hours for our conversation to end. But for some reason, I couldn't find any words to say when I was finally standing before her again. As a result, an awkward silence hung in the air.

"Commander, we're all from Blue. You can't only show concern for Canyue. Why aren't you expressing your concern for me and Old Du? No matter what, we've both served under you for quite a while," said Zhang Bao'er, the absolute brother, after he noticed the awkwardness.

Zhang Xingxing laughed and walked over to greet Zhang Bao'er and Old Du. And then, Zhang Bao'er took the chance to start telling Zhang Xingxing about our entire experience. He also moved his arms around animatedly while speaking. At the same time, he was blinking at me with a smug look on his face.

However, Zhang Xingxing had a solemn expression, especially when she heard of Li Yizhi's sacrifice, showing her respect for the heroic sacrifice. About an hour later, Zhang Bao'er finally finished the rather comprehensive storytelling session. In a way, it was great because he had completely dissolved the awkwardness resulting from my inability to speak when meeting Zhang Xingxing.

"I did not expect Senior Li Yizhi to be an android. Since her core organs are still around, we need to resurrect her if given the chance," said Zhang Xingxing to Baron Sisse.

"Commander Xingxing, the emperor is definitely already aware that we snatched an imperial battleship. We had severed the connection between the ship and the supercomputer Fantasy, but there are too many people on Rumble, and news will spread easily. It is only a matter of time before the information about Skyhawk is leaked. Our priority is to restore the ship as soon as possible and begin the next phase of our operation," suggested Baron Sisse.

"Yes. Before I came, I received a report from Wuzhou on the damage level of Skyhawk. If we perform the repair without rest, the earliest we can restore the ship is in 40 hours. Therefore, I suggest setting then as the time for us to depart for the Horsehead Nebula," said Zhang Xingxing.

"Miss Xingxing, the imperial army guarding the Horsehead Nebula is the Divine Empire's Midstar Army. I believe the command needs to complete the arrangements for our army and make the battle plan for our next operation. We need a meeting to confirm everything and try to minimize any unexpected circumstances during the operation," said Master Crystal.

Master Crystal's suggestion was reasonable. Zhang Xingxing decisively gave the order to call a meeting for all the core members of the 7th Armored Division and the officials of the Kenante army who had been deployed to help us with the operation. The meeting was to be held in an hour at the combat command center.