223: Chapter 223 The Funeral of the Stars: The End of "Underworld"
The few seconds it took for the Alpha unit and Beta unit to readjust their formation seemed to be stretched infinitely.
In the starry sky, the cloud of debris left behind after the Gamma unit exploded was still slowly expanding, like a silent tombstone, marking the first "Scavenger" to be destroyed.
But that brief joy of victory was completely frozen by the dark light condensing once again at the muzzle of the Alpha unit.
This time, it was no longer aiming at any specific target.
Its muzzle began a regular, area-covering scan, and dark purple energy surged wildly at its core, clearly accumulating energy for an indiscriminate saturation strike.
The Beta unit, like a loyal guard, cruised around the Alpha unit, its surface energy arrays expanded to the maximum, ready to deal with any possible interference at any moment.
Their tactical intent was crystal clear: at all costs, completely wipe out every trace of humanity on the moon, especially the "Guanghan Palace" base that had just demonstrated an astonishing "variable" capability.
"They are going to wipe the floor!" Moon Base commander Wang Lei's voice sounded hoarsely in the communication channel, filled with despair and anger, "All defense systems have less than 15% energy remaining! The shields can hold for at most one more round! The non-combatants in the base... haven't been fully evacuated yet!"
On the bridge of the "soaring heavens", Long Zhantian stared fixedly at the two figures of death on the screen about to launch a full-scale attack, and then looked at the battered mothership beneath his feet.
The main engine was dead, shields were gone, the hull structure was fractured in many places, and two-thirds of the weapon systems were offline.
But it still floated between the moon and the earth, like a silent tombstone that refused to fall.
"soaring heavens..." Long Zhantian murmured, a strange calm suddenly rising in his eyes.
It was a sense of relief, having experienced countless life-and-death moments and finally seeing his own destination at the last moment.
He suddenly looked up, his voice transmitted through the ship's internal broadcast to the ears of every surviving officer and soldier:
"All 'soaring heavens' crew members, I am Captain Long Zhantian."
The brief noise subsided instantly.
Everyone listened quietly, waiting.
"Our ship is finished. Our weapons are also almost exhausted." Long Zhantian's voice was calm, yet carried a power that pierced through steel, "However, we still have one thing that hasn't been used up—that is our ship's hull itself."
"A 530,000-ton 'North Heaven Gate' class mothership, crashing at full speed, is enough to tear a wound that they cannot ignore in the defense field of any 'Scavenger'."
In the communication channel, there was dead silence.
Everyone understood what he meant.
"This is not suicide." Long Zhantian's voice suddenly carried a hint of a smile, a smile filled with bitterness, pride, and even a heroic spirit before facing death, "This is the last attack."
"Use our wreckage to pave a bloody path for the moon, for the earth, and for everyone behind us."
"Those willing to complete this last journey with me, stay at your posts. Those who want to leave, there is still time now, the escape pods are..."
Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by a series of angry roars.
"Bullshit! I never thought about running away since the first day I joined the army!"
"Wherever the Captain is, that's where I am!"
"Soldiers of 'soaring heavens' only die in battle, never escape!"
Not a single voice chose to leave.
Long Zhantian smiled, and in that smile, there were no more worries.
He took one last look at the azure planet rising slowly from the edge of the moon outside the window—Earth, his home.
Then, his voice sounded again, calm and clear, issuing the last order of his life:
"All remaining power, inject it all into the only remaining main engine. Full ship, maximum speed, target—Alpha unit! Crash into it!"
The battered body of the "soaring heavens" trembled slightly in the void, and then, the only remaining main engine burst forth with its final radiance, pushing this heavily wounded giant beast, resolutely, like a burning arrow, charging madly toward the Alpha unit that was preparing to launch a saturation strike!
"Ark" city, command hall.
Everyone stood up.
Old Chen's hands gripped the console tightly, his knuckles turning white.
Su Xiaowan covered her mouth, tears falling silently.
Countless people's gazes were locked tightly onto the mothership on the screen, accelerating and rushing toward the god of death like a moth to a flame.
Lin Mo's body jolted suddenly.
He looked at that resolute figure on the screen, that wrecked ship carrying countless loyalty and courage, his heart seemingly gripped tightly by an invisible hand.
He wanted to order it to stop, but he knew he couldn't stop it, nor should he stop it.
Because this was the most valuable and final destination chosen by "soaring heavens" itself.
"Long Zhantian..." Lin Mo whispered the name, his voice hoarse, yet every word enunciated clearly, "You damn... come back alive for me!"
But he knew this was just a luxury.
The collision speed of the "soaring heavens" became faster and faster, like a bullet of revenge fired from hell.
The Alpha unit clearly sensed this crazy variable, its muzzle turned suddenly, and the dark purple death beam was fired in a hurry!
The beam grazed the flank of the "soaring heavens", instantly vaporizing a large piece of the hull structure! But the "soaring heavens" was too fast and too close, so this strike failed to stop it completely!
"For the Earth!" Long Zhantian's roar, through the last remaining communication, reached everyone's ears.
The next second—
The 530,000-ton steel body of the "soaring heavens" crashed hard into the Alpha unit at a terrifying speed of nearly one-tenth the speed of light!
There was no sound, only a silent yet brilliant explosion, bright enough to illuminate the entire dark side of the moon!
Alpha's invincible spatial deflection field finally bore pressure beyond its design limit in the face of this pure kinetic impact capable of shaking a planet!
It flickered wildly, distorted, and finally—collapsed!
The wreckage of the "soaring heavens", like a steel dagger stabbing into the heart of a giant, together with the collapsing deflection field, pierced fiercely into the core of the Alpha unit!
Alpha's polyhedral hull erupted from within with a blinding, chaotic, and uncontrollable torrent of energy!
It struggled and rolled violently in the void, the energy arrays on its surface flickering wildly, like a dying giant beast letting out its final wail!
A few seconds later, a second, more violent explosion erupted from the core of the Alpha unit!
This time, it was no longer light, but a violent spatial turbulence sweeping through the surrounding space!
The Alpha unit, this once arrogant god of death, finally followed in Gamma's footsteps under the desperate collision of the "soaring heavens", turning into a rapidly expanding, irregularly shaped cloud of debris!
"soaring heavens" perished with it!
"No!!!" The Moon Base, the surviving fleet, and "Ark" city—countless people let out heart-wrenching cries.
Long Zhantian, that iron-willed tough guy, that general who walked all the way from the "S.H.I.E.L.D." to the starry battlefield, that guardian who stood countless times at the most dangerous front line of humanity, just like that, with his beloved warship, turned into a wisp of dust illuminating the starry sky.
And just at this extremely tragic moment, another corner that everyone had temporarily forgotten experienced an unexpected change—
That ripple of spatial distortion caused by the explosion of Craig's escape pod, located above the Earth's synchronous orbit, under the pull of the spatial turbulence from the Alpha unit's final explosion, actually began to drift slowly, yet irreversibly, toward the moon!
Its target was none other than the Beta unit, which was trapped in a brief "chaos" due to the destruction of Alpha!
The Beta unit seemed to sense the danger and began to maneuver frantically, attempting to escape that strange, still-expanding region of spatial distortion.
But its speed appeared so slow in the face of that space, which had been made extremely unstable by the Alpha explosion.
A few seconds later, that "spatial collapse ripple" from the final legacy of "Underworld" finally caught up with the Beta unit!
There was no violent explosion.
The moment the Beta unit was engulfed by the twisted spatial ripples, its hull began to be stretched, twisted, and torn apart in a way that violated the laws of physics, eventually turning into countless tiny fragments, silently merging into that strange, twisted region, and then, as the region slowly dissipated, it all returned to nothingness.
The second "Scavenger" was completely erased in this incredible way.
The "Underworld" platform, this deformed creation once controlled by Craig, symbolizing the madness and infighting of the old era, in its last and most insane "self-destruction", not only almost destroyed "Ark" city, but its "legacy" left behind after it vanished into nothingness, by a stroke of luck, helped humanity eliminate the third "Scavenger".
In the starry sky, only the wreckage of the Alpha unit initially destroyed by the "soaring heavens", the wreckage of the Gamma unit accidentally killed by Alpha, and the wreckage of the Beta unit swallowed by the "Underworld" ripple remained, floating quietly, silently telling the story of this extremely tragic starry bloodbath.
Three main "Scavenger" units, all destroyed.
The cost was: the "Taishan Ship" sank, the "soaring heavens" perished with the enemy, less than one in ten of the lunar fleet remained, the "Guanghan Palace" base was devastated, a scar of spatial distortion was left on the North American east coast, and also... Long Zhantian, along with countless heroic soldiers, remained forever in this starry sky.
"Ark" city command hall, dead silence.
No one cheered, no one celebrated.
Everyone stared blankly at the three cold clouds of debris on the screen, looking at the place where that once proud mothership finally disappeared, tears flowing silently.
Lin Mo walked slowly to the viewing window, looking at the starry sky that had just experienced a baptism of blood and fire.
Moonlight fell quietly on his face, reflecting two tear tracks that slid down silently.
He closed his eyes, and in his heart, toward that starry sky, toward that figure who would remain there forever, he said silently:
"Long Zhantian... brother... rest in peace."
The wreckage of the "soaring heavens", under the gravitational pull of the moon, drifted away slowly.
But those fragments, under the starlight, seemed to turn into a string of never-extinguishing stardust necklaces belonging to the brave, forever embedded in this starry sky that they defended with their lives.
The funeral of the starry sky was tragic and magnificent.
And human civilization, after paying such a tragic price, finally welcomed this brief, blood-colored silence.
But everyone knew this would not be the end.
Because initially, there were a total of four main "Scavenger" units.
What about the fourth one?
Lin Mo opened his eyes suddenly, staring fixedly at the edge of the star map.
There, the fourth "Scavenger" unit, which had appeared at the beginning along with the other three units but had always cruised on the outermost periphery and had never participated in any attacks, after witnessing the destruction of its three companions, finally reacted—
It did not angrily rush up to take revenge, nor did it choose to escape.
It just stopped there quietly, its dark core, like a cold, emotionless gaze, watching from afar, deeply, watching this battlefield, watching the surviving human fleet, watching "Ark" city, watching... Lin Mo.
Then, a new information stream, with a format extremely similar to the previous "Watchers broadcast", flowed from its direction, crossing the void, and entered the human monitoring network.
The core content of the message had only a few short words, but it made everyone who deciphered it feel like they had fallen into an ice cave:
【Evaluation complete. Civilization identification updated: Potential symbiotic factor—to be verified. Requesting to awaken 'gardener'. Waiting response cycle: Unknown.】
The fourth "Scavenger" was not a warrior.
It was... an observer, a messenger, the final judge of this "test".
And it was waiting for a reply from the "gardener" that might never come.
The funeral of the starry sky came to an end.