On Mars, a woman was escorted by several soldiers and locked into a cell.
“What do you want?! Let go of me, you have no right to restrict my personal freedom!” Jenny hit the iron bars with her bare hands and angrily shouted at the Celestial soldiers outside the door, “You savages, I’m going to report you! And let the media all over the world know that I have been treated unfairly here.”
The soldiers stopped and turned around. The eyes that focused on her were without much emotion.
Jenny felt eerie after being stared down and her tone became weaker.
“I have the right to know why you’re locking me up here. I have clearly complied with the laws and have not violated any rules. Why did you lock me here…”
Until now, she still had hope that she did not get caught.
She thought what she pulled off was flawless.
And even if Celestial Trade gathered sufficient evidence, she still had excuses. Many people would blink more in a nervous situation. She never learned Morse code and did not intend for her nervous actions to be over-interpreted.
However, the two soldiers just looked at each other and sneered.
“There is no point in dishonesty. There are no lawyers or courts here.” One of the soldiers stepped forward and said, “The arrest warrant was issued by Ghost Agents. When we investigated your correspondence, we found you leaked sensitive information using Morse code. ”
“I demand extradition, and there is an extradition treaty between Xin and the UA!” Jenny said nervously when she realized that her trick was easily exposed.
“Oh? Really. I haven’t heard that you can be extradited on charges of espionage? And this is Mars, not Xin.” With a sneer, and the soldier said sarcastically, “Also, I can tell you that because of your thoughtless behavior, the return date for you and your friends will be postponed. Until we are sure that you have not overheard more sensitive information, you will stay here with us and enjoy this beautiful sandy planet.”
“You, you can’t do this.” Only now did Jenny finally realize how much trouble her behavior had caused her crewmates, “I…”
However, the two soldiers did not want to listen to any more of her nonsense, and while she still wanted to say something more, the door of the room was closed shut.
In the narrow corridor, darkness returned.
In front of the cell, an officer of the Army Intelligence Division ticked the logbook and nodded to the two soldiers, signaling that they could go.
Brace was at the other end of the corridor. He hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to step forward.
When the astronaut approached him, the officer had a mocking smile.
“Do you want to plea for your crewmate?”
“Is there no other solution?” Brace glanced at where his colleague was being held, and then looked at the soldier. “Maybe this is just a misunderstanding. Jenny is a good person…”
“Misunderstanding? Good person?” The officer pushed up his hat and stared at Brace with a half-smile, “A good person would not be a spy.”
“Spy?” Brace frowned, he suddenly had a bad feeling.
In fact, when Celestial soldiers came this morning to take her away, the feeling was already lingering in his mind. He kept telling Jenny not to probe into something she shouldn’t know, but apparently, she didn’t take his words to heart.
When he heard the word spy, he immediately understood what was happening to that girl.
It must be that she was sniffing around, and was caught by Celestial Trade.
He thought of the conversation he had with his family on Earth and Brace’s face suddenly turned pale. Then he cursed at Jenny with all the words he could think of.
“… But do you know that your actions may hurt the relationship between the two countries?” While Brace scolded Jenny, after all, Jenny reported under him, he tried to plea, “I mean, before there are conclusive pieces of evidence—”
“When our soldiers risked their lives to save you from the broken ship, they have taken the greatest care for the relationship between the two countries,” The officer interrupted the former captain and said with a hint of a sneer, “But how do you repay our grace?”
It wasn’t just the astronaut who was detained. The intelligence department investigator who supervised her communications and the investigator who worked under him were all detained. With his soldier detained, of course, the Army Intelligence Officer did not treat him with the best attitude.
“Sorry…” Brace said awkwardly, “I apologize for my colleague’s reckless behavior.”
“We won’t be angry at you,” The officer said coldly, “but don’t expect us to treat you with respect either. As you wish, I now offer you an alternative that takes care of the relationship of both countries. Either do everything as we say or pack up and go back to Ares.”
Brace froze.
[Go back to Ares?]
[That’s like asking for death!]
“If you want to go back, you can come to my office at any time, and I will drive you back in person.” The officer stared at Brace and uttered out this sentence word by word. While Brace was still processing the information, the officer walked away without looking back.
Outside the colony, the war against the swarms continued. The soldiers, shielding behind the cover on the wall, fired back with the Gauss rifle while dodging the spewing acids.
It seemed that the assault on the colony was becoming a norm, and these bugs just didn’t seem to die at all. And the most terrifying part was that the intelligence of those bugs was substantially higher than the Devil Worms. In just a week, their tactics evolved from simply trying to flood the colony to repeated attacks to consume Celestial Trade’s ammunition.
The production cost of a missile was close to 6 million Xin New Dollars. After accounting for transportation and launch cost, the total was close to the ten million figure. Although the cost should not be a factor considered by the military, the command center already proposed to the Captain of the Expedition more than once to use electromagnetic pulse cannons instead of missiles, if possible.
Inside the office of the Space Department, Kelvin looked at the budget report with a headache.
At this moment, there was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” Setting aside the budget report in his hand, Kelvin looked at the door and said nonchalantly.
After the staff received permission, he walked into the office.
“Reporting.”
“What’s the matter?”
“SS Origin successfully completed deceleration into the Mars Synchronous Orbit, requesting next commands.”Kelvin, after hearing the news, looked at his watch.
It’s been a week…
Kelvin looked at the staff and ordered with an affirmative voice.
“Start weapon deployment immediately.”
“Roger!”
It’s time to end it all.
Kelvin watched the staff member leave as he thought.
He did not have the slightest doubt that the weapons, specifically tailored to the bugs, would shred those bugs into pieces…
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