Chapter 598: Confidence
In his moment of life and death, the bearded man frantically racked his brain, recalling what heinous act he had committed that warranted the intervention of the Ministry of Internal Affairs' big shot.
"It couldn't have been those petty sums I accepted before, and I haven't offended any major figures recently... Could it be that previous incident where I failed to report information? But dereliction of duty alone shouldn't warrant the kind of treatment reserved for enemy spies..."
...
"You're still too slow." Just as the bearded man was still wracking his brain, a white shadow appeared eerily behind the two men in black.
"Sir?" The two men, seeing their immediate supervisor's superior arrive, quickly replaced their grim expressions with smiles.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs building was equipped with countless defensive arrays; without the proper authority, it was utterly impossible to teleport or turn invisible within its confines.
"Release him," the white shadow stated directly.
The two men in black hesitated for a moment.
They were somewhat confused by their superior's intentions—why release someone they had just been ordered to apprehend? Yet, they dared not openly question, so their movements merely became exceptionally slow.
"Yes, sir!"
"You have two days to get your affairs in order. Senator Xiestu has interceded for you; you won't face a military tribunal. Instead, you'll go directly to the first floor of the Geocentric Grand Prison to reflect for a few years," the ethereal figure said, condensing an almost corporeal arm to gently pat the still-shaken bearded man's shoulder.
As a member of the same faction as the bearded man, he was relatively more amiable.
"Thank you, thank you, sir." The bearded man, who had finally understood the situation and realized he had just walked back from the gates of hell, thanked the figure with the utmost sincerity he could muster.
...
Through the figure's explanation, he learned that he had unwittingly become embroiled in a storm of high-level Federation infighting.
A certain powerful figure believed that the bearded man's failure to report information was orchestrated by a rival to undermine the figure's own position as commander-in-chief of the Martian vanguard landing force, aiming for him to suffer a hidden loss by underestimating the enemy in the preliminary skirmishes.
However, Senator Xiestu, the bearded man's backer, had a good personal relationship with that powerful figure and intervened to save him, changing his fate from facing a military tribunal to serving five years on the first floor of the Geocentric Grand Prison.
Had he gone to a military tribunal, charged with failing to report information and delaying crucial wartime opportunities, his life would essentially have been ruined.
Although the Geocentric Grand Prison was often colloquially referred to as "hell," its first floor was no different from an ordinary prison.
Naturally, the deeper one went, the more savage the imprisoned criminals became, and the more the surroundings resembled true hell.
...
After losing Bai Mo, their greatest external pressure, the Federation, which had only been forcibly united, found its internal conflicts resurfacing with renewed intensity.
Especially with Mars on the cusp of being acquired, the astronomical profits it contained further inflamed these contradictions.
Whoever could carve out the largest slice of the cake would have a greater certainty of reaching the seven-stage, thus having the best chance to dominate the Federation's future.
As for the war for Mars, no one believed they would lose; the only question was the price they would have to pay.
...
"The Heavenly Beings have arrived!" The immense gravitational fluctuations of the Moon God fortress utterly failed to escape the detection of Mars's powerhouses. These mighty warriors, completely oblivious to the true meaning of "interstellar civilization," were still brimming with confidence, dreaming of how much loot they could plunder once they counterattacked.
Through visual estimation, they concluded that the massive object (the Moon) the attackers were on was only half the diameter of their own massive object (Mars), thus they felt their chances of victory were quite high.
The simple, primitive belief that "bigger is stronger" still dominated the vast majority of Martian lifeforms.
With the power of a six-tier powerhouse on Mars, as long as concepts of measurement and geometry were developed, measuring Mars's diameter by foot would be a trivial matter.
Both warring sides appeared exceptionally confident, though this was merely a case of different paths leading to the same destination, founded on an asymmetry of information.
Thanks to the cultural and technological output of a certain transmigrator, the various Martian civilizations managed to establish simple writing and language systems within just a few decades, even acquiring a small amount of ancient human technology.
After all, Qiu Yi, the instigator, never imagined that he would one day stand in opposition to all of humanity; he had genuinely poured his heart and soul into developing the Four-Armed Centaur race, believing them to be his future hope.
...
The colossal Moon God drew ever closer, and the gravity dampening devices on the fortress, replicated from the Land of White, began to activate.
At an equal distance, the gravitational pull between the Moon and Mars was only one-eighth that between the Moon and Earth.
In overclocked mode, the replicated spirit energy gravity dampening device was sufficient to completely counteract the gravitational pull between the Moon God and Mars, ensuring Mars's orbital path remained largely unaffected.
...
"Commence deceleration!"
"Blazing Sun, ready!"
The Moon God fortress, advancing at a relatively high speed, needed to complete its deceleration before reaching Mars. To achieve this, they adopted a method brimming with violent aesthetics.
"Fire!"
...
"A meteor?" Qiu Yi, standing on Mars and gazing up at the sky, suddenly witnessed an intensely terrifying light streak across from the direction of the supposed Heavenly Beings' battleship.
However, this light appeared somewhat strangely viscous.
The "meteor" appeared so far away that Qiu Yi couldn't even determine what it truly was.
But soon, a more fitting and utterly chilling thought formed in his mind.
"That's a space battleship's main cannon!"
The moment he finally understood what that scorching light in the sky truly was, this near-light-speed strike, beyond the range of sight, descended.
Contrary to Qiu Yi's expectations, the enemy's main cannon didn't strike his planet; instead, it grazed the atmosphere and plunged directly towards the small moon in the sky (Deimos).
The shockwave, originating from the point of light's contact with the rock, instantly spread throughout Deimos. In the next moment, it scattered the surrounding rocks into a sky full of fluttering butterflies.
The ground was torn asunder under immense pressure, revealing horrifying fissures.
The rampant thermal energy melted and even vaporized all rocks in the path of the light pillar. The resulting lava erupted outwards like blood from a wound.
Then, the ultra-high temperature, high-velocity plasma, mixed within the "Planet-Melting Cannon" and arriving in its wake, delivered the final blow to Deimos's demise.
The plasma matter, carrying the momentum released for Moon God's deceleration, was flung towards Deimos at an incredibly high speed, melting it clean away almost visibly to the naked eye.
This poor little satellite, which moments before had been burst open by the Blazing Sun's light pillar, was then submerged by an ocean of plasma, leaving behind only a few molten remnants, telling the story of its brief existence in this world.
PS: It's rare for the esteemed editor to remember a "salted fish" like me and give a recommendation. As a token of gratitude, I will do my best to post daily updates next week. ORZ.
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