Returning from the abyss

Chapter 525: Castle in the Sky
The temporary rest room of Base Station No. [-] is a large room with several compartments simply separated by wall panels. Lu Ning sits on a chair in the room and looks out through a window made of a black mirror. The shadow of the auxiliary star in the sky occupies a large part of the sky, and it cannot actually be called a shadow. After all, the brightness of the auxiliary star is still a little higher, and a silhouette that is slightly brighter than the night sky can barely be seen.

"Captain?" The bayonet poked his head from the door.

"Calm down?" Lu Ning asked.

"Yes, Zhusi asked me to tell you...she is indeed not calm, and I am very sorry for that."

"Come and sit." Lu Ning pointed to the chair next to her, "I'm not angry, I know about the spider silk problem, and I know something about her past, but we are on a mission, such emotional behavior can easily affect her, It’s actually okay now, if it breaks out at any critical moment, it may be the difference between life and death.”

"But Spades and Clarinet actually agree with Spider Silk's point of view." Bayonet's tone was a bit sullen.

"Spades come from mercenaries. Most of the time, he regards the regular army as an enemy, so he can't leave a good impression. And Clarinet's position was not high when he retired, and it's hard to say how much trust he has in the alliance because of his background." Lu Ning explained, "But having said that, the thing that surprised me the most was you, Bayonet."

"Ah I?"

"In fact, I know the least information about you. The reason is simple, you are the youngest. Except for the absolute privacy protection period of 12 years from birth, the military department has counted all your information after the age of 12, but You are studying as a student most of the time." Lu Ning looked at the bayonet and said in a slightly comforting tone, "It wasn't until your parents' accident that you suddenly showed your talent. From your grades, we can see that your real interest is in firearms and weapons. You also signed up for a shooting club and participated in some military prep training, but no one would think that these programs that are open to ordinary students to learn about the military will be real. Contribute to a killer."

"I……"

"I don't accuse you of your actions. There is nothing wrong with avenging your parents. You just chose a wrong method, but that was the only available method for you at the time. I'm just curious. The performance in the task can still be called excellent, is this intuition? Or is it your judgment that really has a reason?"

Bayonet lowered her head, as if she was thinking about something, and Lu Ning let her think about it too.The military department dispatched these people here without the intention of using the means of these senior officers to really screen these people. Of course, Lu Ning can't treat his own psychological problems, but it's okay to help others.

"The only reason is... I'm ready." The bayonet finally spoke.

"What to prepare?"

"Prepare for the worst, whether it's shooting the enemy, participating in this operation, and the things I encountered... I have prepared for the worst, so I can think about things in a better way, Because I can bear the worst consequences."

"That's an optimistic attitude." Lu Ning nodded, "I didn't expect you to be the one who doesn't need any psychological adjustment."

"I'm not confident enough." Bayonet was a little ashamed, "I will still compromise when arguing with others. Even if I know the result may not be good, I can easily give up the dispute."

"Because disputes can't achieve the results you need in most cases, then I will teach you how to solve such things in the army-power."

"I don't think that's a good word."

"You can use some things to describe it, but the essence is this. Superiors order and subordinates obey, this is the power of the army, and power is order. You can ask, seek advice, and ask others for advice, but once your own judgment is formed The order, that is, the iron rule is unshakable, and no opposition is allowed."

"But what if..."

"If you make a mistake in judgment, you will bear the consequences. You have this quality." Lu Ning tapped her knee lightly, her tone softened a bit, "Bayonet, I decided to give the number three authority in your team."

"what?"

"Yes, at any time, as long as Qiu Shu and I are not around, you are the commander of the team. We are dead, and you are the captain, that is the authority."

"I'm too young, and..."

"The army never looks at age, but only at ability. Now it's a war, and everything is judged by victory."

After finishing speaking, Lu Ning opened the terminal and began to adjust the authority for the bayonet.

And the bayonet didn't argue anymore, just took a deep breath.

"I get it, I'll do it right."

"Don't put too much pressure on me, at least Qiu Shu and I will support you now." Lu Ning smiled, after setting up the authorization, she got up and walked to her cubicle.

=
The sunlight passing through the asteroid belt casts a net-like black spot on Tianmuyi, and when it is reflected on the phantom star, only a blurred black shadow remains.

Spade sits on a rock outside, looking up at the scene in the sky.

"Can't sleep?"

The sudden sound came from the clarinet behind her. She was carrying her own steel chopping ax and pulse gun, and her tone was still erratic.

"You can't sleep either?"

"It's strange. I never knew I had this kind of problem. I'm tired from running all day today. I should just lie down and fall asleep." Clarinet hung the pulse gun behind his back, unfolded the steel chopping axe.

"What are you going to do? Exercise?"

"Since you're not tired enough, let's do some more exercise. What's the matter with you? If the mercenary still suffers from insomnia, I'll have to question your fraudulent identity."

"Are you kidding... I just suffer from insomnia once in a while." Spades snorted and looked up again.

"What's so nice about stars? We all know they're just big balls of solid or gas."

"Clarinet, what are you looking for?" Spades asked.

"seek?"

"What I'm looking for is a sense of peace of mind," said Spade. "Freedom can make me feel at ease, so I won't be afraid of wandering outside, because I know I am free. And when I am tired of the mercenary career , after getting tired of excessive unfettered freedom, I thought a home was a place of peace of mind, so I returned to the Union and surrendered, even if it would take a long time in prison. Participating in this project is because the army and The alliance is the goal I want to contribute to at present, and being needed can make me feel at ease... What about you?"

"You're so funny, a mercenary is still thinking about that." Recorder laughed, "If it's peace of mind, I must hold a weapon. But I don't think this is the answer you want."

"Yes, that's just your state of mind. You talked about your past, right? Do those really matter to you?"

"It doesn't matter." Clarinet replied lightly, "I have forgotten my father's appearance, and I don't remember what the foster family was like. I was a very bad soldier, so bad that I was forced to retire, and then I couldn't leave the battle. In fact, even fighting can't satisfy me, so I went to the star sea, went to the various habitable planets of the alliance to see what interesting things were there, tried many entertainments within the scope of the law, and finally even started to jump out of this circle ……but."

Spades looked at her.

"Your heart is empty."

"That's a good description. The military department thinks I have a war fanatic tendency, but it's actually just because the most fulfilling years of my life were the first few years when I became a soldier. Sufficient training, learning and fighting gave me a sense of satisfaction." I felt unreal, but when it all became normal, I got tired of it."

"Ah... I can't help you at all." Spades sighed, and turned back to the perspective again, "I'm not good at psychological problems... huh?"

"Lucky Spades, what did you see again?"

"Hey, clarinet, that black, black shadow is not the shadow on Tianmuyi?" Spade pointed to the sky, and clarinet also raised his head.

"No, I can take pictures, the light is a little dark, start the adaptation..." Spade quickly adjusted the detector on his spacesuit, took a burst of continuous shooting, and then called up the pictures to quickly process them on the personal terminal , and soon there will be an enlarged pattern.

It was a building that looked more like a church.

The quantifier "one piece" is also a more accurate way to describe it in spades. It is like a slice of bread. The buildings appearing in the sky seem to be neatly cut out of a thin slice from a building. The continuous shooting images show that the black Particles are continuously gathering on the left section, condensing into a building entity, and at the same time, black particles are constantly peeling off on the right section, forming this strange state of a piece of architecture.

Spade glanced at the condition of the building again, and decisively pressed the emergency communication button: "Captain! There is something urgent!"

"It's better not for you and Clarinet to go out in the middle of the night and bring back a group of C-level creatures. I will throw you out to appease their anger." Lu Ning's voice came from the communicator, with a slightly joking tone.

"Anyway, look at the photo first, it was taken 3 minutes ago!"

After a while, Lu Ning quickly issued an order: "Keep watching, the bayonet, me, and the spider silk will come out soon!"

Only ten seconds later, the three of Lu Ning ran out of the base station, and at this time the building like a castle in the sky had moved to the end of the shadow zone of Tianmu.

"Activate jetpack, maximum power!"

"Yes!"

The four people responded in unison, and then the five people reached out to buckle a button on the belt at the same time, and two jet tubes popped up from the back of the spacesuit, and the air flow turned into white mist and sprayed out from the inside, and the powerful recoil force instantly lifted the five people onto the ground. up the sky.

This thing is not so easy to control. For example, spider silk, which has little experience, is spinning up in the air. Lu Ning and Spade are the most front, and they rushed towards the building in a straight line. When approaching, Lu Ning found that the left side of the building no longer gathered black particles, but the right side was still disappearing.She immediately stretched out her hand to pick off the window frame of the remaining wall, and at the same time Spade also popped out beside her and stepped on a step with her toes.

At that moment, time seemed to stand still, but this was entirely an illusion caused by the sudden change in the world in front of him.When Lu Ning suddenly came back to her senses, she found that she had indeed stretched out her hand to grab a window frame. The spade below was standing at the door of the steps, and in front of her was a huge dark building.There is light around, but I don't know what direction the light is coming from, it just makes people feel very bright.

"Captain, we... have we arrived safely?"

"It's arrived, but I don't know if it's safe or not. The bayonets don't seem to be able to keep up. Anyway, let's take a look at the material here..."

"This space seems to be the building behind." Spade looked around, then stretched out his foot to test outside the steps, but it was empty.

Lu Ning's scan quickly obtained unclear results. The equipment on her body was not yet accurate enough to scan molecules. Since she couldn't distinguish the material, she had no choice but to give up.However, she discovered another interesting thing, that is, she can float there naturally without holding on to the window frame.

"This place is quite like a state of weightlessness..."

Before he finished speaking, the helmet lightly touched the window.Lu Ning felt that her judgment just now was still not correct, she stretched out her hand and wiped lightly on the wall, allowing herself to land in the same position as Spade.

This is not the main entrance, but a side entrance.It is different from the automatic doors in the technological age, retaining structures such as door handles and door knockers, and there is a line of text above the door frame, but it cannot be deciphered.

"Maybe we have to think about how to leave." Spades looked at the empty surroundings, it was really empty, even the "black" of the universe didn't exist, but there was nothing, the eyes couldn't catch anything Color, it is easy for people to have a sense of abnormality.

"Don't you think you should go in and have a look? The mysterious building that appeared at a special time may represent some kind of civilization."

"Unknown civilizations seem to always consider high danger." Spades said, but after looking at the door, he had to admit, "We have no choice."

Lu Ning stretched out her hand to hold the doorknob, and began to push hard. The door was pushed inward, and she did not expend much effort.After stepping into the door, azure swirl-shaped curves light up in rows above the head, illuminating the interior.

"Oh..." Spades shook his head, "This looks even more wrong."

"There are words on the wall." Lu Ning looked at the two sides, and she could see clearly under the bright conditions. The overall material of the building is very similar to stone, and the surface is slightly rough. At first glance, it seems that there is no sense of technology.But this kind of automatically triggered lighting system, and even the building itself is already technological enough, so there is no need to doubt it.

The writing on the wall is actually very legible, it might as well be a picture.As a member of the Canglong Alliance, he must be familiar with such characters, and Spade was a little happy when he saw it, at least the pictographs could understand some of the content.

"Sure enough, this kind of communication is still used in the communication of civilizations... those social historians believe that ideograms are used for friendly communication, while phonograms are used for war. Although this view is a bit biased, it seems to be reasonable now." Lu Ning I touched it lightly with my hand, but there was no reaction, and nothing was wiped off.

"Shall we decipher it now?"

"No, after all, words are not as easy to convey as real image information. Since we have described it here, let's look inside to see if there are other good things." Lu Ning walked deeper while taking pictures casually.

(End of this chapter)