Forcefully Doting On You - v2c22

 

Chapter 54

After speaking, Mu Cai felt a bit embarrassed and regretted his words.

He didn't want to give Claire any hope initially, but Claire's worried and pleading look really moved him. Being a soft-hearted person and fond of Claire, Mu Cai couldn't bear to see Claire's desperate face, so he responded.

The result of this momentary soft-heartedness turned Claire's green eyes sparkling with excitement. He was staring at Mu Cai like a famished wolf staring at a piece of meat, making Mu Cai uncomfortable and a little shy.

He quickly sat in the cockpit, hoping to avoid the somewhat awkward moment. However, Claire saw everything, including Mu Cai's reddened cheeks and the blush in his ears.

Sitting on Qingluan, Mu Cai adjusted the telecommunicator and put on the psychic sensor. Only then did he address the twenty mecha fighters assembled in the field, "Prepare to depart."

Just as he was about to take the first step, he felt Qingluan lift into the air.

Through the cockpit, he could see that it was Bai Ze who was lifting Qingluan from the middle. Claire's laughter came through the communicator, "Let's go, I'll take you down there."

Qingluan was originally a bit smaller than a regular mecha, and Bai Ze, being the only 3S-tier mecha in the whole galaxy, was slightly larger than most. When held in this manner, it appeared as though Bai Ze was embracing Qingluan in his arms.

The cockpit glass on the opposing side was lined with one-way film, so Mu Cai couldn't see Claire's expression at the moment. However, he could imagine the likely smile dancing in those emerald-green eyes of his.

These thoughts made any trace of shyness swelling inside Mu Cai evaporate straight away. Claire had always treated him with great respect, hardly ever overstepping his boundaries. Right now, it must be his few words of response that had made Claire happy, stirring up this rare bit of audacity.

There was silence over the communicator as nineteen activated mechas, lined up in two rows, looked on quietly at them. And behind them, hundreds more mechas were ready and waiting for the battlecruiser to dispatch the zergs.

Although he couldn't see others' faces, Mu Cai found himself blushing unexpectedly due to Claire's recent actions.

He cleared his throat, seeing that everyone was ready, and ordered: "Open the hatch."

The ship operator complied and pressed a button, slowly raising the ship's hatch. A strong wind rushed in from outside, followed by the rustling sound of the flying bugs' trembling wings and the sound of their feet crawling on the exterior shell of the battlecruiser.

There was no time to waste.

Mu Cai yelled: "Jump!"

Twenty-one mechs leapt out from the hatch at an incredibly fast pace, accidentally knocking aside some zergs aiming to sneak in. Keeping tags, hundreds more orderly emerged from the hatch, battling the zergs scrambling atop the battleship's roof.

Once the last mecha fighter took off on his mission, the battleship's hatchway promptly shut down, preventing any further incursion by the zergs.

In the cockpit, Mu Cai sat with the roaring wind outside the glass. With the help of a buffering device, the twenty-one mechas smoothly dove into the Zerg horde, landed on their backshells.

With the help of Bai Ze nearby, Mu Cai managed to make his Qingluan stand back up, surveying the surroundings.

The other nineteen individuals were all within his sight. That meant the distance amongst them wasn't too great, making it relatively easy to regroup - an ideal situation.

Moreover, on a rough observation, Mu Cai noticed that none of the mechas were damaged. While landing amidst zergs seemed unavoidable, the mechas, initially designed to combat zergs, bore a harsh outer shell. Considering most of them stood atop zergs' backshells, only a few zergs could reach them, making the landing environment relatively safe.

The zerg beneath Mu Cai and Claire was a large one amongst its species, named Kingworm.

Kingworm, famous for their ability to lay siege, boasted a colossal size, a resilient shell, and a fearless demeanor. If rows of such kingworms made it to a human-inhabited planet, there would hardly be any effective measures to halt their advance.

Fortunately, both Mu Cai and claire had landed on a kingworm. Due to height and size variations, other zergs, including the kingworm itself, found it challenging to reach them.

This could be considered as one of the safest spots on the current planet Kotal. This position gave Mu Cai the opportunity to evaluate the surrounding conditions.

The kingworm, which he was standing on, was on the move. Ignoring the vibrations below his feet, his mind was inundated with the fluctuations of the Zerg queen's psychokinetic waves.

The queen's mind waves were extremely vigorous and easy to discern, overtly indicating its direction.

Thing that left Mu Cai puzzled was that when the united force of the Galactic Empire and the Kale Confederation first arrived at the Kotal planet, the queen did not use her psychic abilities; the brain bugs independently commanded the attack with their flying bugs.

This indicated the brain bugs were not entirely reliant on the queen's commands. Despite the queen initially choosing not to use her psychic abilities, it reacted violently after a few brain bugs were killed. The queen's psychic wave fluctuations were so noticeable, the insect fleet started ferociously attacking the humans' fleet as if on a rampage.

Upon watching the densely swarmed zergs, Mu Cai always felt that the death of a few brain bugs can't possibly provoke such a response from the queen. Hence, there must be some additional, unseen reasons at play.

After considering the psychic wave fluctuations, Mu Cai felt that these anomalous behaviours of the queen didn't look like an anger-induced reaction. They resembled more of a stress response due to fear.

If that were true, what could frighten the queen? The zergs are almost unstoppable in space, why would the queen feel scared at this moment?

Mu Cai checked the plot in his mind.

According to the original plot, the urgent motive of the zergs to invade the human galaxy was to prepare for the birth of the new queen. After the human hero, Karol, severely injured the Zerg queen three hundred years ago, the latter gave birth to a new queen and died.

The new queen, being particularly frail, was unable to adapt to long-haul interstellar travel. Hence, the zergs ransacked the human-inhabited galaxies during this period, nurturing the new queen to maturity.

However, the matured new queen was on the verge of inability to reproduce due to a lack of sufficient food and nutrition. Her desperation for food compelled the zergs to charge into the human galaxy without any preparation.

Upon thinking about this along with the earlier abnormal behaviors of the Zerg queen, Mu Cai speculated a possibility.

The queen might be reproducing at the moment!

According to the data he once read, the Zerg queen was at her most vulnerable during childbirth. During this period, the zergs tend to hide her in the safest place and provide an impermeable protection until the birthing process is complete.

But the queen who hadn't produced any new zergs for a long time arrived at the planet Kotal, and after replenishing her food, she was forced into childbirth before she could reach the safe zone!

This was a godsend opportunity!

Excited by this thought, Mu Cai asked his communicator, "Attention all personnel, can everyone see me?"

The positions of their twenty-one members are relatively close to each other, but not every mecha fighter's location is as secure as Mu Cai's and Claire's. They could observe the situation around them without being attacked by the zergs. He has to confirm how many people could cover them while they go after the queen.

In quick succession, responses came from the communicator. Mu Cai counted and ascertained that almost everyone was present.

Immediately, he commanded, "Everyone follow my direction and cover me as I locate the Zerg queen!"

The communicator echoed clearly, "Received!"

The kingworm underneath was moving forward in a direction opposite to where Mu Cai felt the Zerg queen was. It seemed like the kingworm wanted to lead them away from the queen.

As Mu Cai looked at the kingworm beneath him, he was slightly reluctant.

The mount was excellent: tall, and large in size. Most zergs could not climb up to attack them, providing safety along with fast movement. If only he could control this kingworm to obey his commands.

Just as this idea came to mind, Claire's deep voice came from the communicator, "Which way do we go?"

Mu Cai refocused, extended his mental power, perceived again, and quickly made a judgment, "We move to the 9 o’clock direction. Specific distance isn't clear yet. Let's head there and we will determine the distance based on how strong or weak the mental force is."

As he spoke, he subconsciously manipulated the mecha with his mental power. His mental power quickly covered the entire body of Qingluan, ready to execute the owner's command at any time.

Claire responded with a hum, controlling Bai Ze to stretch out his mechanical arm in preparation for Qingluan, intending to take it along for the journey.

However, in the next moment, both Mu Cai and Claire felt a tremor beneath their feet.

The kingworm moved.

Claire, controlling Bai Ze, quickly held onto Qingluan's waist and said into the communicator, "Cai Cai, hold tight. I'm taking you down."

He didn't expect the kingworm to strike at this moment, but with the speed of Bai Ze, they should be able to escape from the kingworm's back quickly. Although it's fast, its large size resulted in less agility. They had a good chance of evading.

However, Mu Cai stopped Claire's action: "Wait!"

He had just given the order when the kingworm started moving. Mu Cai had a premonition that the kingworm's actions might not be what Claire expected.

Claire wasn't sure why Mu Cai stopped him, but he obediently halted. He made Bai Ze's mechanical arm hug Qingluan even tighter, keeping a close eye on the movements of the kingworm beneath them.

And then, Claire saw the enormous kingworm sweeping away surrounding lesser zergs, slowly changing course, and starting to move in the nine o'clock direction.

________________________

Author's Note:

Claire: Even though I'm not sure why my wife is saying this, I listen to everything he says =w=

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter