New Imperial Calendar Year 65, Aslan Imperial Capital, White Jade Palace.
The deep red curtains were half-drawn, faintly revealing a woman’s beautifully crossed legs. The Emperor sat on the imperial throne in the depths of the palace, with the thief slaughter knife laid across her knees.
Lin Ge’s fingers caressed the scabbard, but her gaze drifted towards the window, thinking about the reports from days ago regarding the space bandits.
…Perhaps this blood-stained sword, imbued with hatred and sin, would not exist in this world much longer.
If they could completely resolve the space bandit problem, Jiang Jianming would probably be relieved. Even if those past life memories returned, someone with his nature would likely want her to let go of this obsession.
The Emperor then became lost in memories, recalling hazily the moment when Sylph contacted her from Black Shark Base, saying “What His Majesty sent over was the Commander’s mental consciousness.”
That feeling of her whole body trembling was something she would probably never forget in this lifetime.
“You’re saying Jiang is still alive, and he’s in the Crystal Nest!?”
She even remembered the cool wind that night, making something chime continuously. She had hidden in the depths of the palace to make the call, suddenly raising her voice then lowering it. “Don’t deceive me, wasn’t he in hibernation? Besides, his physical condition before hibernation was already… and in a place like the Crystal Nest… he’s really still alive!?”
The black-clad chief standing before a large machine calmly replied in an electronic voice. “Yes, but the current situation is complicated and difficult to explain.”
“Based on the decoded consciousness information, I believe the crystallized Kaios took the Commander into his body to protect him from external crystal particles.”
Lin Ge froze. “Took… into his body!?”
“Don’t make that expression, haven’t you seen it before? Since the Commander and His Majesty were unified as one for years… um, don’t misunderstand, I mean literally unified as one…”
“Doesn’t literally unified as one mean exactly that – unified as one!?”
Lin Ge exploded in rage. “To hell with Kaios! Has he no shame, to do that to someone who was unconscious and ill!?”
Chief: “.”
That’s not what I meant…
“Never mind, let’s put aside the unification matter for now.”
The chief resigned herself and decided to be straightforward. “It’s pointless explaining more theory to you since you won’t understand. In short, Kaios requested we first create a projection of the Commander, and we’ve matched a Base Body.”
“You found a match!?”
“Unfortunately, current technology can only start from an embryo, and can only carry personality and some subconscious, but not memories.”
Lin Ge anxiously asked, “Those are minor issues, Zhen is asking if you found a match!”
Sylph: “Yes. The matched embryo is a disabled human.”
Lin Ge: “…Is that so.”
—Even to this day, Lin Ge still clearly remembered her conflicted feelings at that time: it was like a heavy stone had been lifted from her heart, yet a layer of clouds had settled over it.
Oh, a disabled human, she thought almost despicably in her subconscious, then there would be legitimate reasons to keep him away from warfare, this was inevitable, wasn’t it?
Disabled humans these days should have better lives compared to when Jiang Jianming was born, right?
At least the new law amendments passed two years ago prohibited new humans from releasing crystal bones in public…
So return his real name to him, give him a healthy body that could taste the sweetness of apples and fragrance of roses, find a guardian who wouldn’t have episodes and abuse children, give him a warm and stable family.
He loved reading books so much, he once said he regretted not encountering mechas earlier. He loved the vast starry skies, and all of history from ancient times to present.
Now she could give him all of that. She was the Emperor, and Sylph was the base chief. This time they could finally…
That night she rambled to Sylph for an hour about how to screen guardians for that precious Base Body.
Until she drove the chief to exasperation. “Your Majesty! Don’t you think your requirements are a bit too high?”
But before hanging up, Sylph still said, “…I’ll keep an eye out.”
That was all more than twenty years ago.
At the beginning of this year, the chief told her the Base Body plan was nearly complete, and they could transfer all the original body’s memories into the Base Body’s brain.
At that time…
“Your Majesty… Your Majesty?”
The voice brought the Emperor back from her thoughts. In a blink, a black cane appeared on the floor in her field of vision.
An elderly man in a crisp military uniform had somehow already arrived below, saluting with his hand over his chest.
“Your Majesty, forgive my offense, but military matters are urgent, so I came in on my own.”
Lin Ge immediately composed herself, setting aside the thief slaughter knife. “What happened? Did you find the Crystal Cult remnants, or is there news from the out-of-contact expedition force?”
Old Marshal Chen’s face showed rare gravity, “No… neither.”
“The urgent report comes from Omega Alien Star, Third Fortress.”
****
Boom…
Another mecha crashed into the Crystal Nest’s ground, trailing thick smoke.
The vast crystalline surface was already covered with the wreckage of starships, mechas, and drones. Lights flickered in the distance, finally fading into nothingness.
Countless strange crystalline lifeforms wandered in their nests, repeating cycles of decomposition and recombination.
It was difficult to describe in words this form of life so utterly different from humans.
The crystal particle aggregates, like the Crystal Nest itself, were colorless and transparent, with no fixed form. All their changing appearances—whether extending sharp edges or forming thick shields—were meant to better counter these colonizers, the humans.
“Cough, pooh pooh…”
Two figures in combat suits supported each other as they stood up. Above was the dark universe, and looking around, there were no other imperial soldiers in sight.
The chestnut-haired female soldier with prosthetic limbs spat out blood, wiped more blood from her forehead, and said with difficulty. “Sorry, Tang Zhen, seems like the mecha won’t work anymore.”
“Obviously! I’m not blind yet, I can see that!”
Tang Zhen’s face was pale as he staggered forward a step, revealing his crystal bones, standing back-to-back with Bei Man’er.
Transparent crystal spikes were slowly materializing around them.
“Damn it, it’s been a month, a whole month,” Tang Zhen cursed under his breath, “We’ve been struggling with these ghost things for a month and it’s still not over!”
The next moment, both their crystal bones suddenly expanded as they began fighting these “ghost things”!
When the reddish-brown crystal bones collided with the colorless crystal spikes, Tang Zhen’s features contorted as chaotic power transmitted through his crystal bones, causing his entire body to throb with pain.
“Ugh!”
His mind buzzed, and countless negative emotions surged like a tide, interfering with his spirit.
The crystal particles inside his body… were being affected…
Even after fighting in the Crystal Nest for over a month, the soldiers of Silver Big Dipper still found it difficult to overcome this pressure.
Unfortunately, the enemy showed no mercy. Dangerous battles were occurring in every corner of the Crystal Nest, and each day was harder than the last.
Inside the flagship of the Silver Big Dipper fleet, Yuan Changze gritted his teeth as he watched the fierce battle outside the porthole, a gun gripped in his hand.
“Don’t be rash, little young master!”
Larry frantically grabbed Yuan Changze’s arm, trembling all over, “If that consciousness projection technology isn’t reliable, you’ll be finished if you fire this shot!”
“Let go,” Yuan Changze said in a low voice, “The situation is far more serious than anticipated. The expedition force needs reinforcements. My death could bring the memories back to Black Shark Base… as long as His Highness or the Major General agrees…”
A bloodied hand reached over and pressed down on the black gun barrel.
“Calm down, kid.”
At some point, Xie Yuduo’s mecha had stopped behind them. The Major General had already fought one round, his right arm covered in blood, breathing heavily. “It’s not time yet, I don’t agree.”
“…But!” Yuan Changze’s voice trembled, “So many people have already died.”
“People die in war,” Xie Yuduo said, “Stay steady, Silver Big Dipper isn’t as useless as you think. Hold on a bit longer, the main force can manage to withdraw from the Crystal Nest.”
Larry sighed in relief, hurriedly pressing down Yuan Changze’s gun.
Just then, a communication came through from the Tianshuhao mecha behind them—Xie Yuduo had just returned to the ship, and the military channel was still open in his mecha.
“Report to Major General, we’ve detected a foreign object approaching the Crystal Nest, requesting instructions!”
Xie Yuduo: “Foreign object!?”
The other side said. “It seems to be… a mecha. Yes, confirmed, it’s a mecha!”
Outside the starship, the soldiers fighting in the Crystal Nest’s air or surface began to stir.
They were the first to sense that the frequency of the surrounding crystal particles had changed.
Someone shouted, “Look!”
Tang Zhen and Bei Man’er had just finished fighting, and the Silver Big Dipper mecha formation had found them. As the two were about to retreat with the main force, they looked up instinctively.
They saw a tiny black dot at the zenith.
A mecha slowly approached from the distance. Its cockpit was open, with a man in white sitting there.
Bei Man’er looked closely and said in astonishment. “Gaius…!?”
Tang Zhen’s nose beaded with sweat as his expression turned ugly. “It’s him? Why is he alone?”
The Crystal Cult’s Archbishop, the race traitor against humanity, the mastermind behind all the recent turmoil!
A dark golden flash suddenly rose high, appearing in the Crystal Nest’s sky.
It was the Crown Prince’s L-Crown of Golden Dawn!
Ryann didn’t care what sinister purpose this Archbishop had in coming to the Crystal Nest alone, nor was he afraid. He went straight to meet him. The Super S-class mecha’s guns gathered energy—shoot him down first, ask questions later!
But Gaius merely glanced at him indifferently, a strange fanatical smile appearing on his elegant face. He spread his arms and leaned backward like a puppet—
He fell straight down from the mecha!
The next moment, the Crystal Nest’s ground awakened like a living thing, with crystal formations thousands of meters high shooting up from the ground, blocking even the starry space above.
“!?”
Ryann’s expression changed as the Crown of Golden Dawn spun sharply, narrowly avoiding the crystal formations that rose like massive waves.
Looking back down, they saw the surface deeply sunken as if drained. The soaring white crystals formed into an enormous carnivorous flower that suddenly enveloped the falling Gaius—
From head to toe, swallowing him whole!!
“Holy sh*t!?” Tang Zhen’s face turned green.
“He… he was swallowed!”
Inside the starship, Yuan Changze stammered, pointing outside.
Xie Yuduo stared in disbelief. “Could swallowing people be some kind of racial preference for crystal particles??”
The next second, massive crystal formations crashed back to the surface, seemingly satisfied as they carried Gaius in their “belly” towards an unknown destination.
Ryann’s expression suddenly turned cold as he raised his hand to gather some real crystals, attempting to blast the crystal formation containing Gaius out of the ground.
But that thing moved too fast—even after the Crown Prince blasted away crystal fragments along the entire path, he couldn’t catch it. Soon even its shadow was gone.
The consequences of a human voluntarily entering the Crystal Nest remained unknown.
Xie Yuduo put his hand on Yuan Changze’s shoulder.
Yuan Changze: “?”
After several seconds of silence, Xie Yuduo suddenly turned with a strained smile. “Ha, sorry little young master Yuan, but given the current situation, you might need to prepare yourself mentally for death after all?”
****
That night, deeper in the Crystal Nest.
A black-haired disabled person was encased in the center of colorless, transparent crystal clusters. His handsome brows were tightly furrowed, eyelashes trembling constantly, seeming to endure great pain even in unconsciousness.
The surrounding crystals grew agitated, even taking on a faint crimson-gold luster.
They, or rather “it,” crawled onto the human’s fragile body, pressing against him seamlessly, consuming him, trying to offer him some comfort.
Suddenly, the disabled person’s lips moved. He weakly tilted his head, making an unclear sound: “…Ry…Ryann…”
“It” abruptly froze.
Several seconds later, “it” drooped down a crystal bone, lovingly and carefully nuzzling the disabled person’s cheek.
*****
“Ah—!!!”
A scream, accompanied by splashing water.
In the depths of the dim laboratory, lights flickered as several Black Shark Base researchers huddled in the corner, staring fearfully at the figure who had burst out of the treatment cabin.
—It was a man who appeared to be in his early thirties, sprawled awkwardly on the raised treatment cabin lid, gasping heavily.
“Huff, huff…”
He squinted while panting heavily, his vision overlapped with shadows, vaguely able to see the researchers crowding around, chattering all at once.
“It’s Changze! 002 is awake!”
“002 Base Body confirmed dead, original body awakened!”
Changze… who was Changze?
Memories collided frantically in the man’s mind—one moment filled with gunfire splitting the air, the next with the dull thud of breaking open the treatment cabin door.
Changze clutched his temple, groaning.
Yes, it’s me, I’m Changze the research staff at Black Shark Base, also Base Body 002, and the famous non-crystal little young master Yuan Changze from Glorious Autonomous Dominion…!
I just died, I died in the Crystal Nest, because—
Suddenly, the man jerked his head up, shouting hoarsely. “I need to request reinforcements!!”
“Where’s the chief… the chief, please let me see the chief!”
Changze’s voice was terribly hoarse from disuse, his words jumbled as he gestured wildly, “It’s Silver Big Dipper, the Silver Big Dipper expedition force is trapped in the Crystal Nest…”
“Um, sorry…”
Suddenly, a timid female voice spoke up.
Diana shrank in the corner, making eye contact with her fully responsible Base Body—Changze, or rather Yuan Changze.
Boom boom boom…
Changze froze. The distant sounds were clearly artillery fire, making the laboratory shake.
“Well, you see, if you had woken up five days ago, we could have helped you, but now…”
Diana’s face was pale as she gave a dry laugh. “Omega Alien Star is under enemy attack. Five hours ago, we lost contact with Black Shark Base and the Third Fortress.”
“So, we might be having trouble… just surviving ourselves?”
…..
At the same moment, in another corner of Black Shark Base.
With crystal particles acting strangely and alien creatures rioting, this place had become a battlefield.
The ceiling was broken, wind howling as it rushed in, and everywhere was the smell of blood and medicine.
“Don’t come closer… don’t come closer!!”
The research staff desperately extended his arms, forming crystal bones. He stood guard in front of an automatic door.
Low growls came from the alien creature before him, its head covered in flesh tumors and crystal blocks, with three eyeballs. Its original species was unrecognizable, only an overwhelming stench could be detected.
The staff member breathed rapidly, face covered in fine sweat, death’s shadow before him, fear making his legs tremble. “Don’t, don’t…”
But those arms still firmly blocked the doorway, unmoving.
What was behind the door?
Behind the door was the base’s most important core room, the archive backup library. Most importantly, in its deepest part was a special treatment cabin.
When the alien creature pounced, the staff member thought: It doesn’t matter if I die.
But the door must not be broken, nothing must get inside, the one in the treatment cabin absolutely cannot be harmed.
Otherwise, even in death he would have failed the chief, failed the empire, he would die with regret…
In that flash between life and death.
In an instant, the automatic door behind him suddenly opened. A force yanked his collar sharply, pulling him aside!
Bang! Two people rolled together on the ground as the alien creature’s claws barely grazed over their heads.
The staff member screamed and closed his eyes, then four gunshots rang out!
—Bang bang bang bang!!
After a long silence.
When the research staff finally opened his trembling eyes, before him lay the corpse of the alien creature, shot through its vital points, blood still spurting from the bullet holes.
The life-saving hand slowly released him.
The staff member was thunderstruck.
He stiffly turned his head to look, first seeing an arm holding a gun.
Steady, composed, with taut knuckles beneath pale skin.
A black-haired young man knelt beside him, his expression calm. His thin frame wore only a white long gown used for patients in hibernation, his long, lean arms and legs exposed and dripping wet, transparent medical treatment fluid continuously dropping from his black hair.
“Is this Black Shark Base?”
Jiang Jianming vigilantly gazed forward, speaking each word with a hoarse voice, “Report the situation.”
