Chapter 699: XXQ1 Base!Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“Ah, there"s some news from Boss.” Lin Zhong-qing, who had been waiting in the starship, jumped up in excitement when he saw the message on his communicator. The people beside him also started clapping at the good news. Finally, after waiting for a few hours, their Boss called them.
“I"ll immediately apply for a landing request.” Lin Zhong-qing rushed off immediately after saying that.
The logisticians of 250 Mecha Clan were on board the starship. If they wanted to unload their supplies, the entire starship had to land. A landing request had to be made immediately because they were not the only mecha clan on the starship.
All the mecha clans were rushing for time. No one wanted the starship to land while they were still packing their supplies. Hence, everyone rushed to apply for the landing request.
Li Shiyu stretched his back to loosen up his stiff body. Then, he stood up and said to Luo Chao and Han Xuya, “Inform our people to take care of medical supplies carefully. We can"t afford to lose a single pill.”
“Yes!” Han Xuya and Luo Chao received the order and rushed out to inform the logisticians of the medical department.
Li Shiyu gave this order because the logisticians were carrying special medicines and agents. He didn"t place them in the warehouse because the warehouse was used by everyone. If someone made a mistake or detain a portion of their medical supplies, he would cry. These medicines and agents were really important to 250 Mecha Clan. They could save lives. Hence, they must be safely protected.
In the central command center, an officer who was staring at the optical supercomputer screen shouted, “A mecha clan is requesting to land. They have sent in the coordinates.”
The officers, who were about to fall asleep, jumped up in excitement.
“Haha, we are the first to get the request. Which impressive mecha clan is that?” One of the officers laughed. He was in charge of communicating with the other fleets so he knew that no other starships had landed on the new planet yet.
“It"s…” The officer"s smile froze when he saw the three numbers.
“What happened?” The other officers asked anxiously when they heard no reply.
The officer"s smile disappeared. He said softly, “250.”
“What?” Some people didn"t hear it properly.
“It"s 250 Mecha Clan.” The officer shouted this time.
The entire command center turned silent. A few seconds later, someone groaned, “F**k, it"s not someone from our fleet.”
“Our pa.s.senger is faster than our own mecha clans? This is impossible.”
“Even the ace mecha clans from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd division haven"t found a base yet. How did this rubbish mecha clan find one before them? What kind of luck was that?” Someone sighed.
“Did they just simply chose a spot, then requested us to land?”
Unsurprisingly, many officers agreed with this thought. No one believed 250 Mecha Clan was able to find a safe place to set up their base in such a short time. Some officers even suggested asking 250 Mecha Clan to inspect their location again to ensure its safety.
“Hmph!” A cold voice came from the door. Qi Aiming walked into the central command center with a stern face.
“Just because 250 Mecha Clan is not under us, you don"t trust them and even want to set up obstacles for them?” Qi Aiming stared at the officers seriously. There were disappointment and anger in his eyes. They were not from their fleet but 250 Mecha Clan was still a part of the 23rd division.
“I"m sorry, commanding officer. The 250 Mecha Clan had always been deemed as useless so we suspected them.” One of the officers bucked up his courage and spoke the truth when he saw Qi Aiming being angry.
“Those were just rumors. Did you see the 250 Mecha Clan personally before? Even if you did, how do you know that things haven"t changed over these past few years? Who said that 250 Mecha Clan would be useless forever?” Qi Aiming glared at all of his officers. They lowered their heads in shame.
Actually, Qi Aiming was curious whether 250 Mecha Clan really found a safe spot to set up their base. However, he knew that if General Ling Xiao gave 250 Mecha Clan this mission, it meant that the mecha clan was ready to accept such missions. Qi Aiming firmly believed in the decisions made by General Ling Xiao as he was a crazy fan of Ling Xiao.
He waved his hand and said, “Have the starship land at the coordinates given by 250 Mecha Clan.”
“Yes!” The officer immediately accepted the 250 Mecha Clan"s request after receiving this order.
“If you are not convinced, you can push our mecha clans to work harder. We still have a chance.” Qi Aiming couldn"t help but remind them. If 250 Mecha Clan could do it, their mecha clans could do it too. It would be an honor for them if they were faster than the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd division.
Many officers got enlightened by their commander-in-chief"s words and quickly contacted the regiment commanders under them. After speaking to them, all the regiment commanders promised that they would work harder with their clan members.
F**k, 250 Mecha Clan, I hate you! All the regiment commanders screamed in their c.o.c.kpit after hanging up the call.
Ling Lan sneezed suddenly.
“What happened?” Ling Xiao got nervous. His daughter just sneezed. She could be sick! He wondered if there were any unknown viruses on the new planet. Is it harmful to the body? How can he help his daughter?
Ling Lan rubbed her nose and examined her body carefully. She felt great. She calmed down and said, “I"m fine. Maybe Mummy is missing me.”
Ling Xiao heaved a sigh of relief. That"s good! If something happened to his daughter, he would have a hard time later at home.
Soon, the news of 250 Mecha Clan finding a place for their base was made known to the other divisions. The commanders-in-chief of the other fleets were furious. The first mecha clan to set up their base would have their names written down in history. This was an honor. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd division had been fighting for this glory within themselves for so many years but this time, someone else took it from them. It was the 23rd division, a division that they never held in high regard.
However, no matter how strong a team was, luck was an important factor too. Everyone thought that 250 Mecha Clan just got lucky. No one would have thought that they had to fight a formidable monster and had gone through many obstacles before finding their location. Of course, this thought was to act as their excuse for their incompetence.
All the divisions were jealous of 250 Mecha Clan. They wished that they were the ones who found the location first. Anyone who went through a land clearing mission knew, there was a huge difference between a division with a base and a division without one. Having a base would allow the division to officially enter the planet, enjoying all the benefits if they successfully finished their mission.
250 Mecha Clan managed to attain the highest status with just a single step!
Soon, the starship arrived at the location where Ling Lan was at. Since they were not sure if the ground was able to support the weight of the starship, the starship didn"t land.
However, the logisticians were still able to transport all the supplies down. This was all thanks to the transportation mechas Chang Xinyuan had created. The other logisticians stared at 250 Mecha Clan"s logisticians with envy. When would they be able to operate a mecha?
Even if it was just a transportation mecha, it was still a mecha… all the outstanding logisticians hoped to operate a mecha someday!
After these logisticians return to the 23rd division, they told everyone the 250 Mecha Clan"s logisticians had transportation mechas. Thus, in the future, whenever 250 Mecha Clan was recruiting for logisticians, logisticians that wanted to operate a mecha all signed up.
The person-in-charge of the various mecha clans in the 23rd division hated 250 Mecha Clan. It was hard to raise a batch of qualified and excellent logisticians. Why did they have to give these rare resources away to 250 Mecha Clan, letting them benefit from their hard work? Shameless!
Yet, there was nothing they could do to stop their logisticians from applying to 250 Mecha Clan. They could only grit their teeth and let them proceed.
Back to the new planet. Lin Zhong-qing organized the logisticians and they started building their base. Chang Xinyuan"s mecha research center officially started its operation. He first modified all the transportation mechas so they would become more efficient.
Everyone knew that their safety depended on how strong their base was. This base would be the home of the mecha operators. The mecha operators could only rest at ease if this base was safe.
The logisticians of 250 Mecha Clan were amazing. Normally, a temporary base would take one week to complete. However, they finished it in three days. Of course, with the help of Chang Xinyuan"s modified transportation mechas allowed them to speed up the building process. The mecha operators that didn"t have any missions would help the logisticians to carry supplies around. Hence, their base was built really quickly.
When Lin Zhong-qing came to report that the base was finished, Ling Lan got a shock.”
“Really? Was there any false report on labor and uses of substandard materials?” Ling Lan believed in Lin Zhong-qing but she still had to make sure that it was safe because they would be living there for quite a while.
“Don"t worry. I supervised the entire construction with Chang Xinyuan. There is no mistake. Also, Chang Xinyuan inspected the base a few times. It pa.s.sed his test.” Lin Zhong-qing smiled. He knew that his boss questioned him because the speed of construction exceeded his expectations, not because he didn"t trust him. He felt happy that he was able to give his boss a surprise.
“That"s good. Let"s go take a look then.” After staying in the mecha for three days, Ling Lan felt her body was turning into a mecha. Hence, she was elated to know the base was finished. Sob, she is so dirty. Luckily, she didn"t have any obsession with cleanliness. If not, she wouldn"t know how she would survive the past three days.
All the team leaders were unhappy when their regiment commander left with Lin Zhong-qing. They knew nothing good would happen when this guy appeared. He must be here to curry favor with their Boss!
The ten team leaders immediately operated their mechas to follow after Ling Lan. They would not let Lin Zhong-qing have a chance to gain any favors from their Boss.
When they reached the base, they were stunned. The entire base was shimmering with white light and was quite huge. The white light was due to the protective shield around the base. Since the environment of the new planet was not suitable for humans, they needed to activate the protective shield and equip the base with oxygen conversion systems. That way, the bad air would be blocked outside and the air within the protective shield would be suitable for humans.
“I thought that it will be an enclosed s.p.a.ce. It is more advanced than what I had imagined.” Ling Lan smiled. What a surprise this was.
“Seems like you extorted a lot of pieces of equipment from Xuyang. You even got this.” Ling Xiao looked at the familiar protective shield. He used the two ace mechas from Caesar to exchange for this technology. This new technology had undergone five rounds of experiments and was going to be released to the public soon. He didn"t expect it to land in the hands of his daughter in the end.
“Of course. A land clearing mission is not an easy mission to do. It"s better to have more protection. Moreover, it"s a waste to keep this thing in the headquarters" warehouse. Why not bring it out and let it do what it should do?” Ling Lan glanced at her father. “You can"t blame the chief of staff for this.” If her father reprimanded He Xuyang, she wouldn"t be able to extort things from him again. Ling Lan liked asking things from He Xuyang. It was fun for her.
“Why will I blame him? I didn"t see anything.” Ling Xiao coughed and expressed his opinion.
He should be having an argument with his wife in the main base of the 23rd division. How would he know what was happening so many light-years away? Even if he knew, he had to pretend that he didn"t. Good things should be used by his daughter. Who else was supposed to use them? Those guys? He must give some credit to He Xuyang after he goes back so he could continue helping Ling Lan.
Ling Lan was satisfied with her father"s answer. As expected, in this world, having a good father was the most important thing. Ling Lan knew that she had such a smooth journey in the 23rd division because of her father. He gave her a good environment and good resources to display her talents.
There were no gates at the base. There were only two big and brightly lit holes. Logisticians wearing hazmat suits stood outside the holes and waved the flags in their hands.
“That is the entrance and exit.” Ling Lan understood the flag language.
“Yes. These two holes are the exit and the entrance of the base. The interior was designed based on a starship"s launching port. If there was an emergency, we could use these launching ports. Of course, we can walk in too as the ground here is firm.”
“Your mechas will be stored in the warehouse closest to the entrance. This is to make sure if our base got attacked, our mecha operators can get ready for battle within the shortest possible time.” Lin Zhong-qing asked everyone to follow him in. He followed the orders given by the logisticians at the entrance and slowly flew down.
50 meters into the pa.s.sage, there was a door. Once they went through the door, it closes automatically and isolated them from the air outside. They pa.s.sed through five such doors before finally reaching the last gate.
“Boss, welcome to the ZZQ-1 base of 250 Mecha Clan. I"m your JMC to help you enter the base. Please listen to me.” A gentle and cute voice sounded in Ling Lan"s c.o.c.kpit. It was Luo Chao.
The other mecha operators were not as lucky as Ling Lan. Besides Qi Long who managed to have Han Xuya as his JMC, everyone else had a man speaking to them. Among male JMCs, only Li Shiyu had a pleasant voice.
Due to the lack of manpower, the members of Lingtian who hadn"t started working as well as some logisticians who performed well, like Chen Yi"an, Zhou Yu, and Guo Rongqi, were all dragged by Lin Zhong-qing to become JMCs.
The others were still okay with their new role but Li Shiyu was not. He was always an elite of the elites, someone who was treated like a prince all the time. Yet, when he came here, he had to do all kinds of tough work. Some even had nothing to do with his specialization. If his instructors knew what he was doing now, they would definitely hug him and cry. What a waste of talent…
However, he had no choice. The only thing 250 Mecha Clan lacked was manpower. Lin Zhong-qing had to worry about the lack of manpower every day. When they were on the Rising Sun fleet, his mouth watered when he saw people in logistician uniform. He wished that he could knock them unconscious and abduct them into his team. From this, you could see how much Lin Zhong-qing suffered from the lack of manpower.
Thus, when he saw Li Shiyu, Luo Chao, and Han Xuya idling around, he turned frantic and immediately gave them the job of being a JMC.
Li Shiyu didn"t like to be on the losing end. Three people handling 200 mechas? They would die from the workload. Hence, he dragged Lin Zhong-qing"s four deputies to share the workload with him. These four people were not as free as Li Shiyu. They were really busy. They had no choice but to ask Lin Zhong-qing for help. Lin Zhong-qing knew that if he wants to save his four deputies, he needed to give Li Shiyu more people. In the end, Lin Zhong-qing unwillingly pa.s.sed a few of his men to Li Shiyu and this issue regarding the JMC was finally solved.
Currently, Ling Lan and her team were the people Li Shiyu and his temporary JMC team had to service. They didn"t leave a good first impression but they managed to accurately bring them to their landing spots without any mistakes.
Ling Lan heard her mecha entering the mecha hold and jumped out of her c.o.c.kpit.
The other mecha operators landed almost at the same time. Zhao Jun stomped the ground furiously. “I can finally feel the ground. I almost suffocated to death in the mecha.” This was why they needed a base. If they live in a small c.o.c.kpit for a long time, they would start to develop a mental illness. It would affect their performance.
“This is not the safety zone of the base. Everyone, please follow me,” Lin Zhong-qing said.
Everyone followed Lin Zhong-qing to a small door. A red light appeared from the top of the door. Lin Zhong-qing was scanned from top to bottom.
“Everything is normal. Please display your ident.i.ty chip.” A gentle female voice sounded. At the same time, a virtual character appeared. She had long hair and was looking at Lin Zhong-qing with a gentle expression.
Lin Zhong-qing showed his communicator to the virtual character. A beep was heard. The virtual lady smiled and bowed. “Your ident.i.ty is confirmed. Senior Captain Lin, you"ve worked hard.”
“You too, XXQ1.” Lin Zhong-qing smiled. The virtual lady t.i.tled her body, opening the door behind her. Lin Zhong-qing nodded at the virtual lady and walked in. After that, the door closed.
Qi Long scratched his head. “Are we supposed to follow what he did?”
“Of course. If anyone could enter our base, we will be dead.” Han Jijyun rolled his eyes at Qi Long. He stepped out and stood in front of the virtual lady.
“Everything is normal. Please display your ident.i.ty chip.”
Han Jijyun showed his communicator to the lady. A beep was heard and the virtual lady smiled. She bowed. “Senior Captain Han, you"ve worked hard.”
“You too, XXQ1.” Han Jijyun copied what Lin Zhong-qing did.
The virtual lady tilted her body and the door opened, showing Lin Zhong-qing who was smiling and waving at them behind the door. Seems like he was waiting for them inside. Everyone started entering the base. In the end, only Li Lanfeng, Ling Lan, and Ling Xiao were left.
Li Lanfeng wanted to let Ling Yu enter first so he could have some alone time with Ling Lan. Ever since Ling Yu appeared, he had been staying beside Ling Lan. Li Lanfeng was unable to talk to Ling Lan alone, making Li Lanfeng frustrated. Thus, he was not willing to give up the chance now.
“Lanfeng, you can go in first.” Ling Lan knew that Li Lanfeng probably had something to say to her but she could only reject him now. She must not let her father"s ident.i.ty be exposed. Would XXQ1 say something like ‘Ah, General Ling Xiao, you"ve worked hard"?
Speaking of which, how did XXQ1 appear? She didn"t remember asking this from the chief of staff.
When Li Lanfeng heard Ling Lan asking him to enter first, his heart dropped. Not only did he have to fight with Ling Lan"s childhood companions to become the Ling Lan"s most important person, but he also had to battle with the Ling family"s loyalist now.
It had to be said that Li Lanfeng was a little abnormal. Because of various reasons, he previously had to give up on his friendship. Hence, when he managed to get it again, he wanted to get more from Ling Lan. He was never satisfied with what he currently had. You could say that Li Lanfeng had gotten the ‘Ling Lan friendship" illness. If he wanted to get cured… it would be difficult. We could predict Li Lanfeng would do many stupid things because of this illness. However, life wouldn"t be complete without doing a couple of stupid things in life, right?
Li Lanfeng was sad but he didn"t want to disappoint Ling Lan. Hence, he nodded and walked in first.
“Okay father, you can walk in now.” She wouldn"t have to disappoint her friend if she didn"t need to cover up for him. Ling Lan glared at Ling Xiao.
Ling Xiao looked at Ling Lan thoughtfully. He touched his chin. “Is Li Lanfeng very important to you?”
“Of course. He is a good friend.” Ling Lan smiled. They sneaked into the Mecha World last time and trained together. Although they never spoke much, they cheered each other silently. That year, if it wasn"t for Li Lanfeng, she would not be able to withstand the boring fundamental training.
Ling Lan still remembered the things they went through together so to her, Li Lanfeng was a little more special than her other comrades, but just a little.
“I will not interfere with your choice of friends. However, Li Lanfeng makes me feel uncomfortable. I just hope that you keep an eye on him.” Ling Xiao was an open-minded parent. He didn"t like Li Lanfeng but he trusted Ling Lan and let her decide how to live her own life.
“I know.” Ling Lan smiled secretly. Li Lanfeng has spectre abilities. He is the enemy of everyone who has spiritual power. Thus, it was normal for her father to feel uncomfortable around him.