"What are you crying for? We are not dead yet." The officer threw the soldier onto the ground.
"Check and see how long the oxygen can last," The officer calmed down and ordered another soldier.
The soldier was shocked by the violent treatment from the officer and froze on the spot. Another soldier immediately helped to reply. "Base on positive circumstances, there is only 1.5 hours left."
"Have you calculated the number of survivors?" The officer rubbed his face forcefully.
"There are 421 survivors. They are in the two starships at the front of the military vessel."The smallest military vessel had 2000 people. For a middle-sized military vessel like theirs, there should be at least 4500 to 5000 people. Only less than 10% survived.
A few soldiers cried as they remembered their brother-in-arms. They were lucky that their enemies bombed the back of the ship instead of the front. If they did, there would be no survivors at all.
The officer's expression was complicated. He waved to his confidant and whispered into his ears. The confidant turned pale. He whispered back. In the end, under the threatening glare of the officer, he nodded his head stiffly.
The officer patted his shoulder. Then, he turned to the other soldiers in the control room and said, "Send the distress signal."
This sentence sparked hope in the frantic soldiers. The distress signal was sent out but in the vast galaxy, it was difficult to find an interstellar cruise that would pass by them.
Time passed slowly. One hour passed by. Nothing was spotted on the radar. Everyone turned hopeless. They might die here and become a speck of dust in the vast galaxy.
When the officer saw that there was only 30 minutes of oxygen supply left, a malicious intent appeared in his eyes. He nodded at his confidant.His confidant swallowed his saliva when he saw his superior looking at him. His heart pounded furiously and his hand started shivering.
If he had a choice, he didn't want to do this. However, it was a command by his superior. He must listen to him.
He looked at the 400 soldiers on the screen with his bloodshot eyes. He closed his eyes and pulled the lever. The oxygen supply to these soldiers were cut off.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
Very soon, someone realized the change in the control room. One of the soldiers exclaimed in excitement. "There is an abundance of oxygen in the control room." He saw the oxygen supply increased from 30 minutes to more than 10 hours."
The other soldiers in the control room saw hope again. "Did the oxygen system start functioning properly again? This is good!" Some soldiers even cried uncontrollably. They were unable to handle the sudden surprise.
One of the soldiers wanted to send this good news to his friends in the starship. He changed the screen in front of him. However, all he saw were people gasping for air and falling to the ground in pain. Some rushed towards the door of the control room and tried to force the door opened.
This scene caused him to jump. He shouted in fear, "Senior officer, the starship…"
"Boom!" A punch landed on his stomach. He fell to the ground in pain. He could no longer continue his sentence.
"Ai'er Beili, cut off all images to save power," The officer stood beside the soldier that was lying on the ground and ordered his confidant in a cold voice.
"Yes." "Ai'er Beili immediately shut off all the screens.
The soldiers in the control room looked at their officer with different expressions. Some had fear in their eyes while others looked lost. Some understood what their officer wanted to do. However, no one dared to say anything.
"We need to live. No matter what crimes we have committed, we must live for the sake of the 4867 soldiers on the Aoluo Ship," The officer said in a cold and vicious tone.
A few seconds later, one of the soldiers shouted, "I will follow Captain Ao Duo'er."
The other soldiers regained their senses and shouted, "We will follow Captain Ao Duo'er."
Captain Ao Duo'er revealed a satisfied smile. He looked at Ai'er Beili. Ai'er Beili glanced at the soldier that was lying on the ground in pain. He reminded the Captain Ao Duo'er, "Captain, Luo Mo was just agitated. He didn't mean to offend you. Please forgive him this time."
The captain looked at Luo Mo and smirked. He waved his hand to ask Ai'er Beili to bring him away.
Ai'er Beili instantly went up and held Luo Mo up. He brought Luo Mo to the restroom which was beside the control room. He sighed and said, "Luo Mo, this is a lesson for you. Remember to control your temper next time. The captain hates people who screams and shouts."
Luo Mo raised his eyes. They were bloodshot. He begged Ai'er Beili. "Major Ai'er Beili, you must save them. Please save them!"
Ai'er Beili looked surprised. "Luo Mo, what happened?"
"There is no more oxygen in the starship. It must be the captain. If not, there would not be so much oxygen in the control room. The captain sacrifice his 400 comrades in order to survive. He is a criminal."
Ai'er Beili got a shock. Luo Mo grabbed his hand. "Major, only you can save them. Stop the captain. Please stop the captain."
"But, if the captain survive, you survive too. Are you going to give up this chance to survive?"
Luo Mo was firm. "If my life is built on the death of 400 brother-in-arms, I rather die with them. At least I will not feel remorse…"
Ai'er Beili patted Luo Mo's shoulder in satisfaction. "Luo Mo, you are indeed a strong warrior of Yagulin. I am proud of you."
Luo Mo shook his head furiously. "No. I am just doing what I…" He suddenly grabbed the hand that was strangling him. However, Ai'er Beili was at the peak of refinement. As a soldier that just advanced to manifestation, he was not Ai'er Beili's match at all.
Luo Mo got weaker. In the end, he stopped struggling. Ai'er Beili looked at the dead Luo Mo and snorted, "I didn't want to kill you but you seek your own death. Even if I want to, no one in the control room will want to share they oxygen with other people. Little brat, before you reincarnate, remember that the most important thing is your own life."
Ai'er Beili carried Luo Mo's corpse and walked to the rubbish processing equipment. He threw Luo Mo into the equipment. Very soon, after the equipment processed the corpse, Luo Mo would became rubbish in the galaxy.
Ai'er Beili went back to the control room. The captain looked at him. Ai'er Beili nodded. They quickly shifted their gaze away.
The control room was silent. All the operation soldiers were looking for signs of life around them. They all knew that they elongated their life from half an hour to more than ten hours. If no starships or cruise ships pass by this area within the next ten hours, they would still die.
Twenty minutes passed. A soldier suddenly shouted in excitement, "We received a foreign signal source a moment ago."
Everyone in the control room cheered when they heard this news. The captain's eyes lit up, He immediately said, "Increase the range and search for the source of the signal. Send out a distress signal every 10 seconds."
"Yes, captain!" Everyone started working.
On the Feiyang Ship.
"Captain, we received a foreign signal source." One of the surveillance personnel immediately reported to his superior.
"I understand. Try to see what it says." His superior gave him a reply quickly.
"Yes," The surveillance personnel replied.
"Also, don't call me captain. Call me leader. Remember that." His superior added on. They were on a cruise ship now. They shouldn't be using military terms.
"Ah! I understand!" The personnel was enlightened. He muttered the word 'leader' to himself a few times. He must remember this. He didn't want to get punished when he went back.
To make up for his mistake, he worked harder and finally managed to decode the signal. "Ca… Leader, it is a distress signal."
His leader tensed up and asked hurriedly, "Where is the location?"
If no military vessels or cruise ships passed by, the ships in distress rarely got saved. Hence, all the countries came up with a joint declaration that no matter which country they were from, whether they were military vessels or cruise ships, once they received a distress signal in the galaxy, they must save the ship.
"I am still searching." The personnel said dejectedly. The signal source was too faint so he was unable to trace its location quickly.
As time went by, the signal got stronger. This meant that the location where the signal was coming from was in front of the cruise ship. The cruise ship didn't need to go off its assigned path.
"The location is confirmed. The assigned number of the signal is decoded too. It is a starship from Yagulin."
This news was passed on to the captain of the Feiyang Ship. In the captain's room, two people sat opposite each other with a recreation game placed on the coffee table in front of them. It was a game with a long history——Chinese Chess.
The energetic man who was around 40 years old moved his 'Pao' on the chessboard and said, "Let me see where you will move your 'Che'." He was the general manager of the Feiyang Ship.
Another 40 year old man was sitting opposite him. This man looked more fierce. He was the captain of the ship. The general manager saw that the captain was pondering so he asked casually, "Are we really going to save the Yagulin's starship?"
"Do we have a choice? The human race made a joint declaration on this. If someone found out that we ignored their distress signal, Huaxia will be condemned."
"If you don't want to save them, no one would know." The general manager shook his head. He had worked with the captain for a long time and knew him well. "Tell me, what plans do you have?"
The captain shrugged. "What plans can I have?" He took his 'Xiang' off the chessboard and blocked the opponent's 'Pao'.
The general manager's focus was brought back into the game. He touched his chess piece and thought about something.
"You want to fish in troubled waters?" The general manager seemed to understand what the captain wanted to do. He frowned. "The commander wanted us to help the six battle teams. If you do this, you are creating trouble for them."
The captain smiled. "You are thinking too much. Those six battle teams might have to thank me instead. I gave them an opportunity to clear some of the suspects away."
He didn't like those unknown factions who take his ship like the backyard of their house.
The manager sighed. He knew that he was going to get busy soon. The captain said it as if it was extremely simple. However, he would have to clear up any mess that the captain make so that everything would go according to plan.
Very soon, the Feiyang Ship found the broken starship and saved the remaining 25 people left in the central control room. When the 25 people from Yagulin boarded the Feiyang Ship, they broke down and cried. They managed to escape from death.
A few of the Yagulin people who knew the truth felt pity towards the 400 soldiers. If they knew that a cruise ship would pass by within half an hour, they would have taken the risk and their brother-in-arms might have survived.
"We have sent people to investigate the forsaken military vessel. There is no information on the ship at all. The people from Yagulin are very cautious. They didn't leave behind any information for us to understand them. They destroyed all their documents." The general manager told the captain about the information he just received. "However, the soldiers in the two starships didn't die from an attack. They died from suffocation. We suspect that the oxygen pipes had malfunctioned."
The captain's hand stopped in mid-air. "Inform the people guarding them to be careful. If they notice anything amiss, don't catch them. Just move away from them.
"What happened?" The captain's order caused an alarm to trigger in the mind of the general manager.
The captain gave a bitter smile. "I might have brought unnecessary trouble to everyone on the ship."
"Huh?" The general manager was stunned. Their captain was not someone who would regret his actions.
"Ask them to investigate the central control room. Was there an abundance of oxygen inside?" The captain reminded him.
The general manager quickly contacted his subordinates. After a while, he answered the captain with a dark face. "They tried their best to repair the optical supercomputer of the military vessel. Although it is not confirmed, the oxygen in the control room could last for more than 8 hours."
One lacked oxygen while the other had ample oxygen. There was definitely something amiss.
Very soon, the staff members on the Feiyang Ship received an order.
"Be aware of the people from Yagulin?" Ling Lan touched her chin as she thought about this message which Little Four obtained by hacking into the optical supercomputer of the Feiyang Ship.
Before she could arrive at any conclusion, the next message that Little Four sent her cleared her doubts. If it was her, she would send out the warning too.
