Exclusive Possession – CH 030

Chapter 30.

The plane flew smoothly without turbulence. I leaned against the bulkhead, lost in thought.

In the driver’s seat, Adop and another second lieutenant stood with their backs straight.

Mu Xian’s plane was right in front of us. The dark gray fighter jet was steady and quiet, maintaining a fixed distance and guiding us.

Adop just successfully dealt with the searching mercenaries, and we’ve escaped the space station. We’ve been safely flying for about an hour now. However, we’ve heard there was still a possibility of encountering scattered enemy aircraft.

The sounds of their conversation with Mu Xian could be heard continuously coming from inside the helmet.

“Commander, the jump coordinates have been set.”

“Good.”

“Commander, adjust the course to the right by 15 degrees.”

“Execute the adjustment.”

“Enemy aircraft detected ahead, repeat, enemy aircraft detected ahead, all take cover, take cover!” Adop’s calm voice suddenly rang out, and my heart skipped a beat—we’d encountered enemy aircraft again. Just as I was about to look out of the cabin, the fuselage suddenly flipped, and I felt the world spin. My back was violently thrown against the cabin wall. I groaned, and the plane was already plummeting downwards like a hawk.

After a while, the plane finally stabilized, and I breathed a sigh of relief, though I was covered in a cold sweat. The pilots were also talking on the communication channel.

“They are gone; that was close.”

“I should not run into them again. I will be in a safe zone in a few minutes, and I cannot wait to jump away.”

They quieted down quickly, but I was still a little shaken.

“Hua Yao.” Just then, a soft voice sounded in my ear.

I was taken aback; it was Mu Xian.

“Yes,” I replied.

He seemed to pause for a moment before asking, “Were you scared just now?”

My heart softened slightly. The jolt had come unexpectedly, and he had actually thought of me.

I thought he was talking to me through an encrypted channel, so right now it was just the two of us talking.

“It is nothing.” I paused for a moment. “Do not worry.”

“Hmm.” There seemed to be a hint of amusement in his voice. “There is a metal pillar on the left side of your body, next to the locker.”

I was sitting in the seat facing the door in the back cabin. When I turned around, there really was a dark pillar.

“What do you need me to do?” I thought he was making some kind of arrangement.

“You can hug me.”

I was taken aback, feeling a slight flush on my cheeks, and replied, “…Okay.”

“Treat me as myself,” he said this almost inaudibly, as if his lips were moving slightly as he murmured it in my ear.

My face grew even hotter. I glanced at the front cabin; Adop and the others were still sitting upright, not looking at me. I felt a little furtive, so I reached out and hugged the pillar, whispering, “…I am hugging it.”

“Hmm.” He did not speak again, and the helmet fell silent. I thought he must have turned off the secret communication channel.

Just then, someone burst out laughing, the kind of laugh that you could not hold back, no matter how hard you try.

I was dumbfounded.

Then a few more people laughed, their voices very low. But to me, it sounded like a wailing alarm. I thought, “That cannot be right. They must be talking on a public communication channel and just happened to say something funny.”

“Mu Xian,” I called out.

The laughter and breathing around me stopped abruptly. After a few seconds, his soft, calm voice rang out: “Here.” The pause made me believe that he must have heard me call him and switched back to the encrypted channel.

I asked cautiously, “We were talking on an encrypted channel just now, right?”

Mu Xian did not say anything, but I tragically heard faint laughter from others before Mu Xian’s nonchalant voice finally rang out: “No. Your helmet only has public channels.”

Suddenly, the men burst into laughter, seemingly having lost all restraint and inhibitions. I was so ashamed I wanted to dig a hole and disappear; he was completely oblivious to everyone else!

After a while, the laughter subsided, and someone said with a smile, “Commander, please forgive us; we were just very touched. May God bless you with a lifetime of happiness!”

Mu Xian gave a low “hmm,” a hint of a smile in his voice. I hugged the pillar, feeling frustrated, my face burning.

Just then, I heard Adop’s voice: “Commander, I used to get quite airsick. Could I explain to Miss Hua some simple and easy ways to improve this?”

“Okay. Thank you,” Mu Xian replied.

Then I saw Adop stand up, walk to the seat opposite me, and take off his helmet. I took mine off, too.

He looked at me, a bright smile appearing on his dark face, revealing his perfectly white teeth: “Miss Hua, there are very few people in the world like the Commander who can pass flight tests without any training. Most are just ordinary people like us. And his talent also means he cannot tell you how to alleviate the pain.”

I thought to myself, “That is so true; Mu Xian is a freak.”

“Try slowing your breathing, bending your knees…” Adop slowly and clearly explained a few measures, which I followed one by one. He praised me gently, “Very good. If there is another bump, you can try it and see if it improves.”

I had a very good impression of him and smiled, “Thank you, Adop.” He smiled and said, “It was my honor to escort you back to base. I believe the commander will lead the fleet to victory in the war.”

When I heard the word “war,” my heart skipped a beat.

“How is the battle going? Can I know?”

Adopp paused slightly, then smiled and said, “Of course, your level of authority is the same as the commander’s.”

Huh? Did not Mu Xian suspend all my privileges after my failed escape attempt last time? Had they been restored? I could not help but feel a little happy.

Adop continued, “According to reconnaissance, the mercenaries have deployed approximately three space fortresses, over thirty warships, and countless fighter jets. They are currently operating primarily within a ten-light-year radius of the Pillar of Time.”

Although I did not understand the concept of these numbers, his serious expression suggests he might not be easy to deal with.

“But the fatal thing is that we lost contact with the fortress garrison and Commander Bai Lang for a full thirty hours.” A look of worry appeared between his handsome brows. “It is already clear that something is wrong with the fortress troops. Otherwise, the mercenaries would not have been able to cross the fortress so easily and reach the vicinity of the Pillar of Time.”

I nodded; this was not hard to guess.

He added, “None of the reconnaissance planes sent to the fortress have returned; they must have been intercepted by the mercenaries. If we could get information from inside the fortress, the situation would become much clearer.” He then softened his tone. “But you do not need to worry. With the commander here, the mercenaries will not get their way.”

I nodded and looked out of the cabin ahead. His plane was moving smoothly, still in the same spot.

After another hour of sailing, we arrived at a vast expanse of starfields. The Pillar of Time was no longer visible in the distance. The pitch-black night sky and snow-white stars were clean and gentle, with a band of black boulders faintly visible, like the purest ink in the deep night, floating at the edge of the starry sky.

The engine needed to warm up for 20 minutes, and everyone waited quietly. Listening to the empty communication channel, I actually felt a pang of sadness at parting.

I thought I should say goodbye to him in front of everyone, even if it was just out of politeness. How should I phrase it? Should I wish him great success? Or tell him to take care of himself?

“Wait,” Adop’s voice suddenly rang out. “Commander, I’ve received a distress signal very close to our location. It was a bit blurry… but now it is clearer! Decoding the identifier…”

His voice suddenly became excited: “It is Major Luna! It is her! Her signal is rapidly approaching, right behind the Boulder Field!”

Everyone fell silent in shock, and I was startled too—I knew Luna was Bai Lang’s wife, and the two of them guarded the fortress together. Why was she suddenly here?

Mu Xian’s icy voice rang out: “Adop, you continue with the jump. Everyone else, shut down your jump engines.”

My heart skipped a beat—Mu Xian was going to send me back first and then go rescue Luna? But could this be a trap?

Impossible. Adop said he used the system to randomly determine our return route, making the possibility of being tracked extremely small. It was impossible for someone to have set a trap here.

“Beep beep beep beep—” The cockpit radar beeped with an alarm indicating an unidentified flying object had been detected. I heard Mu Xian’s short, powerful voice call out, “Luna, Luna!”

After a brief period of crackling noise, a familiar but slightly intermittent voice came through: “Commander! It is me! You are in this star system, too? The fortress has been taken over, repeat, the fortress has been taken over! Vice Commander Zhuo Wu has betrayed us; he killed Bai Lang! Zhuo Wu has joined the mercenaries and taken control of the command center.”

Her voice was anxious and pained, but Mu Xian’s reply was unusually calm: “How did you escape?”

“Bai Lang has secretly prepared several emergency escape boats in case of emergencies. We escaped on three boats. Now there are eight mercenary fighter jets chasing us!” Luna replied.

If Luna did indeed escape from the fortress, then the intelligence she possesses would play a crucial role in the battle.

“Your highest security code,” Mu Xian suddenly said. Luna quickly recited a string of numbers.

I thought this must be some kind of way they confirm information.

Mu Xian said, “We’ve come to save you.”

As soon as I finished speaking, I saw the three fighter jets that were originally parallel to us outside the cabin simultaneously perform a beautiful roll, drawing faint dark silver arcs in the air before quickly disappearing from sight.

My heart skipped a beat.

“We’ve come to save you”—a very simple sentence, but Mu Xian’s voice even carried a slight chill.

But for some reason, I found that sentence very inspiring.

A calm, slightly arrogant passion.

Suddenly, Mu Xian’s profile appeared in my mind: fair-skinned, handsome, aloof, and quiet.

As our plane warmed up its jump engines, it continued to fly forward, moving further and further away from the direction Mu Xian had gone.

Suddenly, Adop raised his hand and pulled down a screen from the top of the cockpit. A flash of blue light, and the image went from blurry to clear. I knew that fighter jets were usually equipped with high-powered cameras; it seemed he was planning to check the battle situation behind them.

On the piloting device, the countdown to the faster-than-light jump continued.

**

In the darkness of night, perhaps due to a change in mood, the floating black boulder belt looked like a ferocious monster, crawling among the stars.

Several dark gray fighter jets suddenly emerged from behind the boulder field, a flurry of fire and chaos ensuing. Mu Xian led three fighter jets in a near-straight charge, then abruptly separated at close range, taking up three high positions on the battlefield and beginning to fire rapidly downwards.

I did not understand warfare, but watching their beautifully changing formations was quite impressive. I kept my eyes fixed on the middle plane; they all looked the same, and I was afraid that if I was not careful, I would not be able to tell which one was the Muxian.

But I soon realized that my worries were in vain. He was too easy to spot—his flight path was the simplest and clearest, his speed was the fastest, and he had shot down three enemy planes in a very short time.

The battle ended very quickly. Perhaps only seven or eight minutes had passed, and the area around the boulder field was already littered with floating debris. Mu Xian and his six aircraft, including Luna’s three badly damaged fighters, quickly formed a wedge-shaped formation and turned towards us.

“Commander, we need to leave here immediately. I am afraid other pursuers will catch up.” Luna’s voice had calmed down.

“Activate the faster-than-light engine,” I heard him say in a calm voice.

“Yes,” the crowd answered in unison, their voices filled with respect and excitement.

“Two minutes until the jump,” Adop said.

I watched them drive towards me from afar, fearing that by the time they reached me, we would have already leaped away. I hesitated for a moment, then called out softly, “Mu Xian.”

The channel suddenly fell silent.

Mu Xian’s gentle voice rang out: “Yes, I am here.”

I said, “I…”

I did not get to finish what I was saying.

A sudden, urgent radar alarm blared through my helmet, drowning out my already low voice. At the same time, I looked up and saw, directly ahead, on the route Mu Xian and his group were taking towards us, flashes of white light, like lightning bolts exploding from the ground, disappearing in an instant.

My breath caught in my throat—that was… a faster-than-light jump? Who jumped in?

“Mercenaries!” Adop cried out.

The pursuers were here!

Everything that followed happened in the blink of an eye.

Five medium-sized black warships appeared around Mu Xian and his group, each larger than all of them combined. After a brief silence, a dense barrage of artillery fire formed a net, trapping them in the center.

The two sides were completely mismatched in strength.

I saw dark gray fighter jets spinning, crashing, and exploding; I saw planes crashing through a barrage of fire that could destroy everything, yet finding no way to escape… Finally, I saw a plane on fire rise from the encirclement like a phoenix, soaring thousands of meters into the air before turning around and firing at a medium-sized warship below.

Compared to each other, the two were like a weak rabbit compared to an elephant. But just after the plane fired a burst of shots, a violent flame suddenly rose from the middle of the warship, and then it exploded violently, leaving no trace of the bodies in an instant.

“It is the commander!” Adop was voice trembled. “He destroyed the warship’s energy bay!” There was no joy in his voice.

Because Mu Xian was quickly surrounded again by four warships, one of his wings was burned down to half.

Then I saw a shell hit the belly of the plane, thick smoke billowed out, and it plunged headfirst into a warship below, like a lone goose with broken wings.

The warship, struck by his impact, seemed to be torn apart from the inside, silently and rapidly shattering into pieces and exploding!

Where he crashed, a raging fire erupted, and the wreckage of the plane rained down like debris, and then… vanished without a trace.

“Commander!” Adop and his co-pilot roared hoarsely.

“Hua Yao, I do not know…” The faint, almost nonexistent voice flashed past my ears.

I stared blankly at the scene on the screen, my mind seemingly frozen.

What happened? Mu Xian was… was…