TCPUAAV Chapter 113

 

After receiving a message from Ruan Shiqing, Garland went straight to the lower deck.

 

Some passengers had seen Rong Heng and his group speak with him. Seeing Garland leave alone, a few of the more quick-witted ones assumed he was trying to escape, and quietly followed him.

 

Garland pretended not to notice and let them tail him as he headed directly to the lower deck to retrieve the escape pods.

 

A batch of escape pods had already been used earlier, and now only twenty or thirty remained in storage. Garland quickly scanned over them and instructed Ruan Shiqing to open the hatch. Then, he issued a command to the service robot: once he exited, the robot was to eject the escape pods.

 

The hatch on the lower deck swung wide open. Garland loosened his collar and jumped straight out.

 

Once off the ship, he swiftly shifted into his full dragon form mid-air. Crimson wings unfurled, sweeping aside the Zerg swarming the ship’s shields with relentless attacks.

 

The passengers who had followed him, thinking he had discovered an escape route, rushed to the hatch and peered outside—only to be met with a pair of cold, dragon eyes.

 

“If you don’t want to die right now, get back up there.”

 

Garland deliberately moved aside so they could see the swarm of Zerg outside.

 

Behind the massive red dragon, layers upon layers of insectoid beasts writhed forward, waving vicious limbs as they tried to break through his defenses and reach the hatch. Garland even loosened his guard intentionally, allowing one Zerg to get closer. Its blood-red compound eyes and razor-sharp mandibles were enough to scare several passengers into collapsing to the floor. They scrambled back up the lift without daring to look back.

 

Garland scoffed lightly, then flared his wings and swept away the nearest Zerg, giving the robot the signal to toss out the bundled escape pods.

 

The robot acted quickly, flinging out the escape pods in a chain through the hatch.

 

Garland caught them with his claws, then gave a powerful flap of his wings. In a deft mid-air roll, he spat a wave of scorching dragonflame at the surrounding Zerg. The inferno forced part of the swarm to retreat, briefly opening a gap in their encirclement. Coordinating seamlessly, Ruan Shiqing immediately ordered the captain to accelerate, and the ship burst through the breach.

 

The spaceship surged out of the siege at full speed, dragging a massive swarm of Zerg in its wake.

 

Seeing this, Garland turned and sped off toward the space station.

 

At that moment, three aircraft were struggling to break through the dense swarm, dodging left and right in an attempt to land at the station. Thanks to Ruan Shiqing’s earlier support, they had managed to get dangerously close—but with their rear fire support cut off, the endless tide of Zerg surged back in, quickly sealing the opening.

 

As the hard-won gap was about to close again, Rong Heng clenched his jaw. Tossing Ruan Jiao onto his back, he abandoned the aircraft entirely and transformed into his full Ymir form.

 

Letting out a thunderous roar, he growled to the cub on his back, “Hold on tight.”

 

With that, he stomped directly into the swarm, slaughtering his way forward.

 

Ymir couldn’t fly, but he was incredibly fast—like riding the wind. Using the bodies of the Zerg as footholds, he relied purely on brute strength to surge toward the space station.

 

The other two aircraft, seeing his move, immediately followed behind.

 

When Garland arrived, he saw the enormous Ymir cutting a bloody path through the Zerg, with a small cub clinging to his back, and two fighter jets trailing close behind. One beast dragging three—advancing with great difficulty.

 

He couldn’t help but chuckle, then shouted, “Make way!”

 

Rong Heng looked back and saw the red dragon charging toward them, clutching a string of escape pods in his foreclaws. Without hesitation, he leapt to the side, clearing the center path. Then, shrinking his massive body, he turned and grabbed Ruan Jiao by the scruff of the neck, and with a few forceful leaps, landed precariously on the broad back of the red dragon.

 

At the same time, the little ones in the remaining fighters veered off to create distance, and even fired at the incoming string of escape pods—laying cover for the retreat.

 

Seeing that their people had cleared the blast zone, Garland didn’t hesitate—he unleashed a torrent of dragonflame.

 

The string of escape pods, linked together, exploded one after another under the searing heat. The resulting chain reaction was far more powerful than any single detonation. Shockwaves swept outward, scattering mangled Zerg limbs in every direction. Garland promptly folded his wings, shielding the two nearby aircraft beneath his membranous cover.

 

When the fiercest of the blasts had subsided, the Zerg defensive line had completely collapsed.

 

The shattered remnants of the swarm struggled to regroup, but Rong Heng wasn’t about to give them that chance. The two aircraft charged toward the space station, and Rong Heng, with the cub still clutched in his mouth, leapt from one scattered Zerg body to another, swiftly following them in.

 

Garland gave a shake of his wings to scatter the ash clinging to them. Once he confirmed the others had entered the station, he didn’t linger—his wings spread wide again as he shot off after the spaceship. There were still Zerg pursuing it, and he needed to deal with them.

 

The aircrafts made a rough landing at the space station. The little ones disembarked and immediately readied their weapons, heading cautiously into the interior. The little dragon and the fox cub led the way, while the little mermaid and 09 brought up the rear to cover them.

 

Perhaps because most of the Zerg had gone outside to intercept them, they encountered almost no resistance on their way deeper into the station. As they neared the main control room, they hadn’t even run into a handful of enemies.

 

The little mermaid quietly observed the surroundings, “There was a battle here. The Zerg won—and even cleaned up afterward.”

 

Dried bloodstains remained on the ground, but no bodies were in sight. The station’s equipment had suffered some damage, but most of it was still operational.

 

[Stay alert.] The little mermaid kept scanning the area, an uneasy feeling rising in his chest—the station was far too quiet.

 

09 activated his infrared scan, his head swiveling back and forth. “There are two humans inside the control room. And three Zergs.”

 

The four of them crept closer to the main control room.

 

The little dragon cub positioned himself in a blind spot of the surveillance camera and pressed the doorbell. The other three each found places to hide, ready to rush in at a moment’s notice.

 

The doorbell chimed three times before the control room’s doors slowly creaked open. A frail-looking man stepped out, wearing a lab coat and black-rimmed glasses. His posture was hunched, and his voice trembled. “Who—?” But when he spotted the dragon cub standing to the side, he froze in shock. He opened his mouth to speak, but the dragon cub quickly made a “shush” gesture.

 

The man barely managed to swallow his cry of surprise. His eyes were wide with fear as he gave a subtle shake of his head.

 

The cub gave him a reassuring smile—then abruptly grabbed him and pulled him out of the room. In the same motion, he burst inside and shot one Zerg clean through the head.

 

—Just like Snowball had said, these Zergs weren’t stupid. Two of them had been hiding just behind the door, lying in ambush. But the cub was faster—before they could react, the rest of the little ones had stormed in and blown their heads off.

 

The three Zerg corpses hit the floor with a heavy thud.

 

In the corner of the control room, a female hostage huddled in terror, screaming uncontrollably with her head buried in her arms.

 

The little ones were not exactly experts at comforting terrified humans. Eventually, it was 09 who stepped forward, speaking in a gentle voice: “Miss, it’s okay now. You’re safe. We’re not the enemy.”

 

He repeated the sentence three times before her screams finally quieted.

 

The woman cautiously lifted her face, eyes wide as she looked at 09 and the others behind him. Her voice trembled. “Who are you? Are you with the Empire? The reinforcements?”

 

09 wasn’t sure how to answer. He looked back at the other cubs helplessly.

 

They weren’t Imperial reinforcements—just a bunch of kids who happened to be passing by.

 

The little dragon cub’s eyes darted as he puffed out his chest and declared, “We’re not part of the Imperial military. Ever heard of the Eastern Alliance? We’re justice-seekers—rob from the rich, help the poor! Oh, and we’re real good at killing Zerg too. Most of them outside are already toast.”

 

The cubs all looked visibly proud.

 

The woman gave them a long, measuring look, and finally forced a small smile.

 

“If only you had come sooner…” she whispered, eyes welling up with tears. She turned her head, voice hoarse. “We’re the only two left on Driftwood Star.”

 

The frail man had heard her words and choked up as well. With a fury born of grief, he kicked the Zerg corpses over and over until he collapsed, utterly spent, sinking to the ground and burying his face in his arms, muffling his sobs.

 

The cubs looked stricken but didn’t know what to say.

 

The annihilation of an entire planet… wasn’t something that could be consoled with a few light words.

 

“We’ll avenge everyone,” the little fox finally said, rather awkwardly, and then joined the little dragon cub in dragging the Zerg corpses out of the control room.

 

The little mermaid and 09 didn’t dare waste any time. They approached the main control console. 09 connected a data port to the central computer and, following Rong Heng’s instructions, input the command to awaken Noah, so the AI could begin taking over the station’s control system.

 

The two surviving staff members gradually quieted down, watching the children’s actions with dazed expressions. One of them asked wearily, “What’s going on out there now?”

 

[The Zerg have taken over Driftwood Star. The surface has completely become a hive. Communications have been cut off entirely. We were on a ship passing by when we noticed something was wrong and tried to evacuate, but couldn’t escape because the planetary shield had been activated.]

 

While explaining, the little mermaid also patched through a comms channel to Ruan Shiqing.

 

[We need to deactivate the shield now so the ship can leave. After that, we’ll contact the Empire’s military for reinforcements. The underground of Driftwood Star is full of unhatched Zerg eggs—we have to destroy them as soon as possible.]

 

“The Zergs are the ones who forced us to activate the shield,” the woman said, her lips trembling as if recalling something terrifying. “They… they’re intelligent. After Driftwood Star was taken, they kept us locked up in here, pretending everything was still functioning normally in the station.”

 

Her eyes reddened again, and she bit down hard on her lip, clearly struggling to keep herself together.

 

[It’s not your fault.] The little mermaid sighed, doing his best to find comforting words.

 

Seeing that Noah had already started taking over the system, he gently offered: [We’ll finish taking control of the station soon. Do you want to take a break?]

 

The two survivors shook their heads and sat side by side against the wall. “We want to stay here and watch.”

 

The little mermaid didn’t press them and instead focused on updating Ruan Shiqing about the space station’s current status.

 

Having previously taken control of B3024 and Balham systems, Ruan Shiqing was quite experienced with this kind of situation. “There’s no rush to fully take over. Just follow my instructions: restore communications first, then lower the shield. Since there are surviving staff, they should know the passwords. Just ask for their help.”

 

Hearing this over the comms, the two staff members immediately got up before the mermaid could even speak. Working quickly, they restored the station’s communication systems and disabled the shield.

 

With the shield down, the threat to the spaceship was finally lifted. When they heard from Ruan Shiqing that the ship was preparing to leave Driftwood Star, the cubs all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

 

[But what about the hive on the surface?] The little mermaid was still worried.

 

There were too many Zerg eggs to just leave them be.

 

“Blow it up,” came Rong Heng’s calm voice as he walked in. He had made a full sweep of the space station—clearing out the last of the Zerg—and even found the weapons storage along the way.

 

“There’s an energy base on Driftwood Star. If we detonate it, the hive doesn’t stand a chance.”

 

As he spoke, Ruan Jiao, who had been tucked under his arm, struggled free in protest and dropped to the floor.

 

First, he carefully straightened out his rumpled clothes, then turned his head this way and that, examining his surroundings. His curious gaze finally settled on the two staff members.

 

His tendrils twitched slightly. A puzzled expression crossed Ruan Jiao’s face—he seemed to have picked up on some strange, subtle fluctuation.

 

 

 

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That Zerg commander (a Zerg queen maybe?) is scary to have been able to orchestrate such a thing… I wonder what Jiao Jiao felt

 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

For every three ko-fis, I will upload a bonus chapter~