Chapter 18 Chapter Seventeen

Jane sent me a message, The explosive opening method blew open the gate of the airport, and the explosive decompression was very similar to the situation when I arrived in the space of Coral Planet last time.In this case, it is lucky not to be sucked into space.Such a coincidence, but I ran into it twice.Fortunately, there were no free-flying dangerous objects in the airport this time; there was nothing else in the Sparrowhawk's airport, only the crew and soldiers, all wearing airtight and bloated airborne suits.Our feet are riveted to the floor by the electromagnetic sheet. Once the gate of the airport is opened for a safe distance, so as not to hurt people, the magnetic field will be closed, and we will be swept out of the gate by the escaping air-the cargo ship airport also specially added pressure to make sure we have enough speed to fly out.

The speed is indeed sufficient.As soon as the magnetic field on the feet was cut off, we were dragged out of the mouse hole by giants.I followed Jane's advice, offered no resistance, and found myself tumbling into space.That's fine, being thrown into space all of a sudden, which is exactly what we wanted.In this way, even if they were observed by the Ruiyi people, they would not become suspicious.I was jumbled into space with the rest of the Special Forces.The moment we flew out, our sense of direction was confused, and it took a while to reorientate ourselves to the downward fall.During this period, there were bursts of ups and downs in the stomach.We are going to fall two hundred kilometers down to the dark coral star.To our east, daylight is ending on the surface.There is the destination.

The body spun again, just in time for me to see four simultaneous explosions on the Sparrowhawk. Fireballs surged from the hull at the far end from me, and the flames outlined the silhouette of the spaceship.The vacuum between me and the ship protected me from explosions and heat waves, but what the other senses lacked visually, the bright red and yellow fireballs made up for.Miraculously, I spotted the Sparrowhawk firing a missile towards an enemy ship I couldn't see.There were people on board the Sparrowhawk when it was hit!I turned around again just in time to see the Sparrowhawk being hit by another missile and breaking in two.Whoever remained on the ship was doomed.I hope the missile they fired hits the target.

I fell alone to Coral Star.Other soldiers may be near me, but I can't tell.Our drop suits are non-reflective, and the BrainPal is forbidden until passing through the upper layers of Coral's atmosphere.Unless I could catch a glimpse of someone blocking the stars, I couldn't see them there at all.When raiding a planet, it pays to stay stealthy, especially if someone might still be searching for you from the sky.I fell for another ride, watching the rising horizon of Coral Star slowly swallowing stars one by one. My BrainPal beeps twice, it's time to activate the shield.I signaled my agreement, and immediately a trickle of nanomechanical particles floated from my backpack.Electromagnetism wove these particles into a net, covering me in a pitch-black ball, blocking the starlight outside.From now on, I fall in total darkness.Thank god I'm not claustrophobic, otherwise I'd be freaking out.

Shields are the key to landing from high-altitude orbit.It protected the soldier inside, both inside and out, from burning him alive on re-entry.The shield's spherical surface is created while the soldier is in a vacuum, which reduces heat transfer.When entering the atmosphere, the people inside must not touch the spherical surface that rubs against the atmosphere.To avoid this, the electromagnetic field used to weave the nanoshield creates a fixed net that anchors the soldiers in the center of the sphere, immobilizing them.This is not very comfortable, but the taste of being scorched is also uncomfortable.

The nanomechanical device absorbs thermal energy, uses some of the energy to strengthen the soldier's electromagnetic fixation net, and then dissipates the remaining heat as much as possible.But in the end, the built-up heat will still burn the shield, at which point another batch of nanoparticles will use the electromagnetic field to form a new protective layer.Ideally, the shield will last until you no longer need it.The number of nanomechanical devices we have is set with the atmosphere of Coral Planet with a little margin.But you can't help but feel a little scared. As the shield began to pass through the atmosphere, I felt a shudder; the bastard honked to tell me we were about to hit a turbulence, but the information didn't help me.I rattled around in my little sphere, and the electromagnetic fixation field worked, but the range of wobble it allowed was still too much for my liking.The outer layers of the sphere may transfer thousands of degrees of heat into your flesh, and at this point any outward movement, no matter how slight, is terrifying.

On the surface of Coral Planet, anyone who raised his head would see hundreds of meteors suddenly streaking across the night sky; even if someone doubted the nature of these meteors, they would only think that they were human spaceships destroyed by the Rye army.At hundreds of thousands of feet, a fallen soldier looks identical to a fallen ship's hull. The gradually thickening atmosphere exerted drag, slowing down the speed of my sphere's fall.The sphere ceased to heat up, and within a few seconds, it fell apart, and I popped out of the shell like a chicken being ejected from its shell.What is in front of me is no longer a dark, empty nano-wall, but a dark world, with only a few scattered places illuminated by glowing seaweed, showing the outline of coral reefs.Then there are the harsher lights of the Rye Barracks and former human settlements.The latter light source is where we're headed.

Major Creek sent, I was taken aback; I thought he had been blown up with the Sparrowhawk. About a kilometer to the west and a few hundred meters to the west of me, Jane suddenly lights up.In reality, she didn't wrap herself in neon lights, which is the best way to get slaughtered by ground troops.It was only my BrainPal who showed me where she was.Beside me and in the distance, other soldiers were starting to glow; my new comrades all looked fine.We struggled to get closer to each other in the air.At the same time, the surface of Coral Planet became a topological grid, with a few tiny bright points of light shining tightly together: that is the tracking station and its adjacent regions.

Jane began flooding her soldiers with information.Since I joined Jane's platoon, the special forces have stopped talking to me politely, and have returned to their usual BrainPal communication.Their thinking is, if I'm going to fight alongside them, I'm going to play by their rules.The incredible speed at which information has passed over the past three days has left me with a blur in my head.Jane said that the communication speed of strangers is relatively slow, which is too conservative.The speed of information transmission between special forces is so fast that I have no time to blink. When we communicate, I can't even understand the meaning of the first sentence.What makes me most uncomfortable is that the communication between special forces is not limited to text and voice information.They also use the BrainPal's ability to convey emotional messages and empathize with each other.Just like writers use punctuation.Someone tells a joke, and everyone's BrainPal makes its owner laugh like a bullet straight through the head with some kind of pleasure-generating airgun bullet.But all I feel is a headache.

To be honest, this is indeed a more efficient way of "speaking".Jane was laying out our platoon's missions, objectives, and tactics in about one-tenth the time it would take an average Colonial commander.Such a condensed briefing is a boon when you and your comrades are free-falling toward the planet's surface.Amazingly, I was able to keep up with Jane's briefings almost at the same speed.The trick, I've found, is to stop fighting it, and stop trying desperately to organize the information in the report the way you're used to.You just have to keep your mouth open and let it flow, like drinking from a fire hydrant.Also, I don't need to respond, which is good for receiving speed.

The tracking station is located on a high ground near a small human settlement occupied by the Ruiyi people. There is a valley there, and the closed place at the end of the valley is the location of the tracking station.This place was originally the command center of the colony and its ancillary buildings. The Ruiyi people chose this place to use the past lines and use the computer system, transmission system and other resources of the command center.The Rye built fortifications in and around the command center, but according to real-time images (provided by one of Creek's staff officers with a reconnaissance satellite strapped to her chest), these fortifications can only be equipped and manned It is average.The Rye people are overconfident, thinking that technology and spaceships alone can wipe out any threat. The other platoons are responsible for occupying the command center, finding and controlling the equipment that integrates satellite tracking information, prepares it, and uploads it to the Ruiyi spacecraft.Our platoon was tasked with capturing the transmission tower that sent the ground signal to the ship.If the launch hardware is advanced Consu equipment, we cut the wires to the tower and protect it from Rye counterattacks; if it's just a product of the Rye's own backward technology, then we just blow it up . No matter which method is used, the tracking station will be disabled, and the Rye spacecraft can only fly blindly, unable to track when and where our spacecraft will appear.The tower is some distance away from the command center, and it has a stronger garrison than the surrounding area.But we had planned to have them disperse their forces before landing. Choose your target.Jane sent.A map of our target area suddenly appeared in Brainmate.Ray soldiers and their machines glow in infrared.Not anticipating any threat, they did not take precautions.Squads, groups, and individual soldiers were selected separately.We are ready.Whenever possible, we choose to kill the Rae over their weapons, so that we can use their weaponry after we've defeated the Rae.Guns don't kill, it's the aliens who pull the trigger.After selecting the target, we scattered lightly.There was nothing else we could do until we descended a kilometer below the ground. At a thousand meters in the air, our remaining nanomechanical devices formed a controllable glider, and our descent speed suddenly slowed down.The change was sudden and stomach-churning; but doing so allowed us to move back slightly for the remainder of the descent and avoid colliding.Our glider, like the combat suit, can block light and heat.Never see us coming unless you know what to see in advance. destroy their respective targets.Major Crick sent. The MP opened fire, and the deafening sound of gunfire ended our silent landing.On the ground, heads and limbs were blown off Rye soldiers and staff; their companions had only a fraction of a second to figure out what was going on, but in a blink of an eye, the same fate befell them.I aimed at the three Ryemen near the launch tower, and the first two fell without blinking. The third raised his weapon in the dark and prepared to fire, but he thought I was in front of him, not in the air.Before he had a chance to correct this judgment, I shot him dead.In about five seconds, all the Rai people within sight of the outside fell to the ground dead.At this time, we were still hundreds of meters in the air. The floodlights came on, but we smashed them as soon as they came on.We fired missiles at ditches and foxholes, blasting Rye soldiers to pieces in those places.The Ruiyi soldiers swarmed out of the command center and the camp, aiming at the trajectory of the missile launch and firing; but at this time our soldiers were no longer there, and were knocking down the Ruiyi who were firing on the open ground one by one. I found a landing spot near the tower and instructed the jerk to figure out a landing path that avoids the fire.Just as I was about to land, two Raemen rushed out of a hut near the launch tower and ran towards the command center, firing in the general direction of where I was.I hit one in the thigh and he fell to the ground screaming; the other stopped firing and just ran wildly on the muscular, birdlike legs of the Rye.I gave the bastard the order to ditch the glider.The electrostatic field that combined the glider into one collapsed, the nanomachines were reduced to inert dust, and the glider scattered.I fell a few meters, rolled a few times on the ground before standing up, and found the Ruiyi people who were retreating rapidly.He ran wildly in a straight line without turning every now and then, making it difficult to aim.I hit the mark with one shot and knocked him down.Behind me, another Rye suddenly yelped, then fell silent after an uh.I turned around and saw Jane standing behind me, MP pointing at the dead body of the Rye. she sent, beckoning me toward the hut.Along the way, two more Ryemen rushed out the door, and another opened fire from the house.Jane hit the ground and fought back, while I chased down the fleeing Rye.The two men's running routes changed from time to time, and I only hit one, and the other slipped down a dike and escaped.Meanwhile, Jane, tired of the constant gun battle with the Rye in the cabin, shoots a grenade into it.There was a muffled sound inside, and then it exploded with a bang, and a large piece of the Ruiyi man's body flew out and fell heavily to the ground. We rushed into the hut, and there was the remains of the Rye splattered all over the place, and a set of electrical appliances.After BrainPal detected it, it was confirmed that it was an information exchange device of the Rai people.It turns out that this is the control room of the launch tower.Jane and I came out and fired missiles and grenades into the house.The scene of the explosion is spectacular.Now, the link between the tower and the fleet is broken.Next, we have to deal with the transmission hardware at the top of the tower. Jane received a situation report from the squad leaders under her command that the launch tower and surrounding areas had been occupied.The Ruiyi people didn't understand what was going on from the beginning to the end.Our casualties were minimal and no one in the platoon was killed.The other platoons also went well.The fiercest fighting was at the command center, where our men went from house to house, firing fire as they went.Jane sent two squads to support the friendly forces in the command center, another squad stayed put to guard, and the last two squads established a defensive line around them. "You," she said, turning to me, pointing to the tower, "climb up and tell me what's up there." I glanced at the tower, which was a typical radio tower, about 150 meters high, with nothing on it but a metal frame supporting whatever was on it.This is by far the most impressive Rye artifact.This launch tower didn't exist before the arrival of the Rye people, and it is estimated that they built it almost in the blink of an eye.Of course, this is just a radio tower, but on the other hand, you can try and see if you can build a tower in a day.The launch tower has raised sections that form a ladder to the top of the tower.The Rye's anatomy and height are similar to humans, and this ladder works for me, too.I started to climb. It was very windy at the top of the tower, with a large car-sized antenna and instrumentation on it.I did a scan with the bastard, and it compared the visual imagery to its internal Rye tech library.This thing is made by Ruiyi, not imported high-end goods.Received satellite information is processed at the command center.Let's hope they managed to capture the command center and didn't blow it up. I pass the information on to Jane.She told me to get down from the top of the tower as soon as possible, so as not to be hit by stray bullets.I need no further persuasion from her.As soon as I landed, a missile passed over my head and hit the instrument on the top of the tower directly.The impact of the explosion was so great that the fixed cable of the launch tower broke with a metallic brittle sound.Anyone who stood in the path of the missile would get his head blown off.The whole tower shook.Jane ordered the tower's footings to be broken.The missile tore through the metal frame, and the tower twisted and collapsed, groaning all the way down. The battle sounds in the command center stopped, and there were still a few sporadic cheers.No matter how many Rae there were, it was all over by now.I let the jerk show the time.Less than ninety minutes have passed since we were thrown off the Sparrowhawk. "They had no idea we were coming," I said to Jane, startled by the sound of my own voice. Jane looked at me and nodded, then looked at the tower, "They really didn't know, which is good news. Bad news, they now know we're coming. This was the easiest part, the hardest part is Arrived." She turned around and began crackling orders to the platoon.We are ready for a counterattack.The fiercest counterattack. "Do you want to be human again?" Jane asked me.It was the night before the airborne, and the two of us were choosing food in the restaurant. "Do it again?" I said with a smile. "You know what I mean," she said, "returning to a real human body with no artificial additions." "Right," I said, "no problem, I only have a little over eight years left in my service. If I survive those years, I'll retire and colonize." "That would mean becoming weak and dull again," said Jane.The special forces speak really implicitly. "It's not so bad," I said, "and there are other compensations, like having children. And knowing other aliens, and not having to kill them because they're enemies of the colony." "You'll grow old and die again," Jane said. "I think so," I said, "that people are always going to die of old age. And this," I said, raising a green arm, "is not the normal state of being human. Speaking of death, the years of service in the colonial army Here, I am much more likely to die than to be a colonist later on. From an actuarial point of view, being an unimproved human colonist is the right thing to do." "You're not dead yet," said Jane. "It seems that someone is covering me." I said, "What about you? Do you have any plans to retire and colonize?" "Special forces don't retire," Jane said. "You mean you can't get permission to retire?" I asked. "No, we can get approval," Jane said. "Our service period is ten years, just like yours, except that you may not serve the full ten years, and our service period cannot be less than the full ten years. We Just never retire, nothing." "Why?" I asked. "We don't have a life experience other than the military," Jane said. "We were born and we fight, and that's what we do. We're good at it." "Did you never think about not fighting again?" I asked. "Why?" Jane asked. "Well, first of all, it will greatly reduce your chances of getting killed; secondly, it will give you the opportunity to live the life you dreamed of. You know, the past you imagined for yourself. We ordinary Colonial soldiers had that life before they joined the army, and you can have it when you get out." "I'll be at a loss," Jane said. "Confusion is the hallmark of being human, welcome to being human," I said, "That means no commando ever retires, does he? Never?" "I know one or two who have retired," Jane said, "but very few." "What happened to them?" I asked. "Where did they go?" "I'm not sure," Jane said softly, and then, "Tomorrow I want you to be right next to me." "Understood." I said. "You are still too slow." Jane said, "I don't want you to affect my other subordinates." "Thank you." I said. "I'm sorry," Jane said, "I know that's not a tactful word. But you've been in the army, and you know what I'm worried about. I'm willing to take the risk of having you around. No one else has that responsibility." "I know," I said, "I don't mind if you say that. Don't worry, I'll do what I can. You know, I have a retirement plan, and I have to live a long time." "It's good to have this motivation." Jane said. "Yeah," I said, "you should think about retirement, too. You're right, it's nice to have the drive to keep yourself alive." "I don't want to die," Jane said, "that motivation is enough." "Well," I said, "if you change your mind, I'll send you a postcard from my retirement so you can come with me. We could live on the same farm and grow some corn and chickens What." Jane snorted. "You're not serious, are you?" she said. "Honestly, I'm serious," I said, realizing that I was serious.Jane was silent for a while, then said, "I don't like doing farm work." "How do you know?" I said, "You never did it." "Does Cathy like farms?" Jane asked. "Not at all," I said. "She has no patience for a garden." "Well, then you will find out why," said Jane, "precedence is against me." "Let's think about it," I said. "Perhaps I will," said Jane. Jane sent.Immediately afterwards, the rocket hit the target.I fell to the ground, and the debris splashed where Jane was, and fell around me like a heavy rain.I looked up and found Jane's hand twitching.I crawled towards her, only to be stopped by a hail of bullets.I took a few steps back, hiding behind the boulder I was just on. I looked down at the group of Rhei who had been attacking us; two of them were slowly climbing up the hill towards us, and a third was helping the last guy install a rocket.I know where this rocket is aiming.I fired a grenade at two approaching Rheeys and heard them struggle for cover.After the explosion died down, I ignored the two of them and shot the Rye who was fiddling with the rocket.He fell to the ground with a thud, triggering the rocket; the plume scorched the face of his companion, who staggered, covering his face and screaming.I shot him in the head.The rocket was flying upwards, far away from me.I didn't bother to wait to see exactly where it landed. The two Rheians who were closer to me began to climb again.I fired another grenade in their general direction, gave them something to do, and ran for Jane.The grenade landed squarely at the feet of one Rae, blowing off his legs; the other ran quickly and fell headfirst.I fired another grenade at him.This time, he wasn't moving fast enough. I knelt beside Jane.She was still twitching, and I saw the stone go through her head.The intelligent blood had already coagulated rapidly, but there was still a small stream of blood oozing from the edge of the wound.I spoke to her, but she didn't answer.I plugged into her BrainPal, feeling nothing but erratic surprise and pain.She was blind-eyed and dying.I held her hand tightly, trying my best to suppress the feeling of dizziness and the feeling of déjà vu. The counterattack began at dawn shortly after we captured the tracking post, and was extremely violent.Realizing that their protective umbrella had been torn, the Ryemen counterattacked frantically, trying to regain the tracking station.Their attack was organized temporarily, and it could be seen that they didn't choose the timing well, nor did they plan carefully, they just moved forward violently.Troop transports appeared on the horizon, and more and more Rheians went into battle. Commando tactics are a combination of wit and madness.As soon as the first troop carriers landed, our fighters went on the offensive, firing rockets and grenades into the open landing hatches.Later, the Rye increased their air support, so that the troops were no longer blown up as soon as they landed, and their soldiers began to land.We allocated some troops to guard the command center and the Consu high-tech inside, while our platoon was guerrilla nearby, constantly harassing the Ruiyi people, making it more difficult for them to advance.That's why Jane and I stayed on the surface rock a few hundred meters away from the command center. Directly below us, another group of Rhei was picking its way toward us.It's time to withdraw.I fired two missiles at the Rye, held them off for a while, then bent down to pick Jane up and put her on the casualty's back.Jane moaned, but I couldn't help it.I found a huge boulder that I used for cover when I rushed out with Jane just now, and I rushed over.Behind me, the Rye began to take aim.The bullets whizzed by, and the blasted rocks scratched my face.I managed to hide behind the boulder, set Jane down, and fired a grenade in the direction of the Rye.As soon as the grenade flew out, I rushed out of the boulder, pounced on the opponent's position, and almost took two strides across.The Rei people howled, not knowing what to do with my humanoid grenade.I switched the MP to fully automatic, and before the enemy could organize itself, a burst of close-in shots knocked them down.I hurried back to Jane and plugged in her BrainPal.She is still there.She is still alive. The next leg of our journey is going to be tough; my destination is a small repair shop separated by a few hundred meters of open land from where I am now.Rye infantry surrounded the area, and a Rye spaceship was flying in the general direction I wanted to go, looking for and shooting human targets along the way.I visited the bastard to determine where Jane's men were located.I found three people nearby: two on my side, thirty meters away, and one on the other side of the clearing.I ordered them to cover me, then picked up Jane again and sprinted towards the workshop cabin. The bullets tore through the air, round after round digging into the ground I had just walked or was about to set foot on, and the turf was flying around me.A ricochet hit my ass, and the pain spread to one side of my body—it must have been swollen.I tried my best to hold my feet and continued to run forward.Behind him came the sound of missiles bombarding the position of the Ruiyi people.My comrades are supporting me. The Rye ship turned a corner, fired a shot at me, then swerved to avoid a missile fired by one of our soldiers.It managed to avoid this one, but was not lucky enough to avoid two coming from the other direction.One missile hit its engine and another hit the windshield.The ship plummeted and began to fly sideways, but still maintained a certain altitude, until the last missile kissed it, flew through the cracked windshield and flew into the cockpit and exploded.The spaceship trembled, made a bang, and crashed to the ground.Taking advantage of this opportunity, I successfully ran to the hut.The Rye men behind me, who were targeting me, turned their attention to Jane's men, who could deal far more damage than I could.I slammed the door open and slipped into the hidden room of the repair shop with Jane. I calmed down a little and reexamined her vitals.The wound on the head was completely covered with intelligent blood, and it was impossible to see how serious the injury was and how deep the gravel fell into her head.Her pulse was strong, but her breathing was very weak.At this time, smart blood with a greatly increased oxygen carrying capacity can show its talents.I don't think she's going to die anymore, but don't know what to do alone to keep her alive. I plugged into BrainPal for help, and found a route: There was a small medical room in the command center.The equipment there is mediocre, but the important thing is that there are portable fixed pods.The fixed cabin allows Jane to stay steadily until she is sent to the spaceship to return to the Phoenix galaxy, allowing Jane to receive treatment.I still remember how Jane and the Sparrowhawk fighters crammed me into the fixed bay when I first came to Coral Planet.Now is a good time to reciprocate. Bullets whizzed through the windows above my head; someone still remembered I was here.It's time to withdraw.I plan to charge towards the trench dug by the Rey about fifteen meters in front of me, which is now occupied by Special Forces.I informed them that I was coming, and they very politely provided me with suppressive fire to run towards them in fits and starts.I was finally back among my own people.The rest of the way to the command center was nothing more than a thrilling show. I got there just before the Rye men started firing on the command center.They've lost interest in retaking the tracking station and are focusing on destroying everything here.I looked up at Fukong, and there were bright lights shining in the blue sky with the slight dew of morning light—the fleet of the colonial army had arrived. It won't be long before the Rai will blow up this command center and destroy the Consu equipment inside.I don't have much time.I rushed into the center with a low waist, and went against the special forces who rushed out one after another, and rushed to the medical room. In the medical room of the command center, there is a huge and complicated contraption, which is the tracking system of the Kangsu people.God knows why the Rye decided to put it here, but they did.As a result, the medical room became the only place in the entire command center that was not battered.Special Forces were ordered to keep the tracking system intact as much as possible.When attacking the Rye people here, the special forces used flash concussion bombs and long knives.The Rye men were still here, lying sprawled on the floor with knife wounds. The tracking system is flat and inconspicuous.It buzzed in the medical room with a sense of contentment.The only indication of its input and output capabilities was a small display, along with a memory module and reader, placed casually on a small table next to the tracking system.Apparently, the tracking system didn't realize that within minutes it would have the good fortune to be turned into a tangle of broken wires by one of the Rye shells.All our efforts to defend the damn thing will be in vain. The command center is crumbling.I stopped thinking about the tracking system, put Jane on a hospital bed, and started searching for the fixed pod.I found it in the storage room next door, and it looked like a wheelchair embedded in a half cylinder.I found two portable batteries on a shelf next to the pod, inserted one into the pod, and looked at the dashboard.The battery lasts for two hours.I grab another battery.Safety first, no regrets. I pushed the pod close to Jane.Just then, another shell exploded, shaking the entire command center and knocking out power.Pushed aside by the force of the blast, I tripped over a dead Rye, hitting my head against the wall as I fell.Venus burst out in front of my eyes, and a sharp pain hit me.I stood up cursing and felt a rush of intelligent blood gushing from the cut on my forehead. The light came on, flickered a few times, then went off again.In just those two or three seconds, Jane sent me an emotional message so strong I would have fallen to the floor if I hadn't held on to the wall.Jane woke up, and during the few seconds she was awake, I saw what she saw in her imagination.There was another person in the room, with her, who looked exactly like her; she smiled, and touched Jane's cheek with her hands.In the flickering lights, she looked the same as the last time I saw her.The light flickered again and came on.The phantom disappeared. Jane twitched.I walk towards her.She opened her eyes, looking straight at me.I picked her up as a BrainPal, and she was still sane, but just about to give up. "Hey," I said softly, taking her hand, "you've been shot, Jane. You're all right, but I've got to put you in this hold until we can get a doctor to treat you. You Saved my life before, remember? After this, we're even. Hold on, okay?" Jane took my hand weakly. "I saw her," she said softly. "I saw Cathy. She talked to me." "What did she say?" Chung asked. "She said," Jane said, distracted before she turned her attention to me again, "she said I should come and live on the farm with you." "How did you answer that?" I asked. "I said, good." Jane said. "Okay." I said. "Okay." Jane said, and passed out again.Her BrainPal showed erratic brain activity.I picked her up and lowered her into the anchorage as gently as possible.I kissed her and activated the stationary pod.After the fixed cabin was closed, it began to hum, and Jane's nerve and physiological indexes dropped to the minimum.She is ready to go.I looked down at the wheels, carefully maneuvering them around the Rye corpse I had stumbled upon a few minutes earlier, and saw the memory module poking out of the Rye's belly. The command center was shaking again from the explosion.I should have run for my life, but I stooped, grabbed the memory module, walked over to the reader, and slammed the module into it.The monitor lights up, showing a list of files in Rai language.I open a file, it is a sketch.I close this file and open another one, still a sketch.I go back to the original list to see if there is an advanced classification path on the graph interface.Indeed there are.I open the path and let the jerk translate what I see. What I saw was the instructions for the Kangsu People Tracking System.Includes diagrams, operating instructions, technical settings, troubleshooting procedures.It's all here.Outside of the system itself, that's the best we can get. The next shell knocked me down on my butt, sending shrapnel flying into the medical room.A piece of metal punched a big hole in the display I was looking at, and another piece punched a hole in the tracking system.The tracking system stopped humming comfortably and made muffled noises.I grabbed the storage module, ripped it from the reader, grabbed the handle of the mount and ran.刚勉强逃到安全距离，最后一颗炮弹就穿透指挥中心，炸塌了整栋建筑。 我们面前的瑞伊人正在撤退，现在他们顾不上追踪站了。头顶的数十个黑点是正在着陆的交通艇，里面载满急于夺回珊瑚星的殖民军战士。我很高兴把这份活儿交给他们，我只想尽快离开这颗星球。 克里克少校正在附近同几个部下商谈，他挥挥手让我过去。我推着简朝他走去。他低头瞥了她一眼，然后抬眼望着我。 “他们告诉我，你背着萨根冲了差不多一公里，又在瑞伊人开始炮击的时候闯进指挥中心。”克里克说，“我好像记得你还管我们叫疯子。” “我没疯，长官。”我说，“我很有分寸，知道什么样的风险是可以接受的。” “她怎么样了？”克里克冲着简点点头，问道。 “很稳定，”我说，“但头部的伤势比较严重。我们需要尽快把她送进飞船医疗室。” 克里克朝一架正在着陆的交通艇点点头。“那架交通艇会第一个起飞，”他说，“你们俩都可以上去。” “谢谢你，长官。”我说。 “谢谢你，佩里。”克里克说，“萨根是我最优秀的军官之一，我很感谢你救了她。唉，要是你还能救出那个追踪系统，那你就真的太让我高兴了。我们保卫这该死的追踪站的努力全都泡汤了。” “关于这一点，长官，”我举起存储模组，“我有个东西，我想你可能会觉得它很有意思。” 克里克瞪着存储器模块，然后对我怒目而视，“没有人喜欢成就超群的人，上尉。”他说。 “您说得对，长官，我想也是。”我说，“还有，我是中尉。” “你就等着瞧吧。”克里克说。 简被送上了率先起飞的交通艇。我的行程却被拖延了很久。