General Sora paced back and forth in the main control room, like a caged beast.
Half an hour ago, their contact with the Marines was completely interrupted, and contact was also lost with the New Pharos. Although it was still sliding towards the orbit, its speed had obviously slowed down.
"Did the rioters take control of the bridge?"
General Sora immediately rejected his idea. This was absolutely impossible. It was impossible for a poor and weak slave to capture the strong bridge with water pipes, even if it was just a transport aircraft.
Loken was standing next to a machine not far away. He was analyzing the noise signals he had received earlier. He thought he could find something.
Finally, in a vague static noise, he separated a weak voice, which seemed to be the last echo of a dying person, just repeating two words.
"……traitor……"
Loken immediately stood up, turned around and said loudly:
"Sir, I found out——"
"Sir!"
Another voice interrupted his words, and the officer in charge of communications shouted excitedly.
"We're connected to the Marines, but there's some interference with the signal."
"Play."
Soon, a low and vague voice came from the loudspeaker, and it sounded like the young officer from before.
"...Emergency...retreat...return..."
"What? What happened to you?"
General Sora asked nervously, but the other party only responded to him with a blur of noise and a continuous cycle of words such as retreat and return.
"Sir! It has been detected that the Hyena has left its target and is returning to orbit!"
"strangeness?"
General Sora held his fat chin with his hand, thinking about what accident could cause two hundred marines to come back defeated.
"Sir!"
Loken quickly ran to his side, the mechanical appendages on his body were shaking constantly, and he seemed quite nervous.
"Hyena cannot be allowed to enter orbit!"
"ah?"
Sora looked at him and blinked, not understanding what Loken was talking about.
"I just separated the real voice of the captain of the New Pharos from the channel! Listen!"
Ghostly whispers floated out from the small loudspeaker on Loken's mechanical appendage. General Sora's face suddenly turned pale, and large beads of sweat fell from his wrinkled head.
"This this……"
"No matter what is on that ship and what happens, it is definitely not something fun! The Hyena is most likely already occupied and it is trying to enter orbit!"
Seeing that this stupid bureaucrat was still shocked, Loken immediately grabbed his shoulders and shook him vigorously.
"Sir! Sir! Do you hear what I say! Launch defenses immediately and shoot down the Hyena! Shoot it down immediately!"
As a result, that damn fat man just trembled his lips and couldn't say a word.
"I'll fuck your piston! I'll die sooner or later if I stay with you trash!"
Angry, Loken pushed General Sora away, then walked to the big screen in the main control room and inserted one of his mechanical appendages into the console below.
The next moment, his voice echoed throughout the orbital station.
Suddenly the bells of the entire orbital station rang, and the soldiers and staff above ran to their posts in panic.
"How far it is from here!"
Loken looked at the apocalypse officers in the crowd. After the other officer operated in a panic for a while, he said:
"Still...ten minutes left!!"
"What?"
Loken realized that he had underestimated the speed of the Hyena. The landing ship's engine should have been modified, but he did not know this.
"The laser array will start immediately! Level one preheating! Lock on the Hyena!"
He has made up his mind, no matter whether his guess is correct or not, he will destroy the Hyena, even if there is really that idiot sitting on it.
Because the threat was real, the Hyena's speed was so fast that it didn't look like a return gesture at all, but more like an attack, a predator eyeing helpless prey.
"Level 1 warm-up completed!"
Soon, the weapon array was the first to send the signal, but as Loken often laughed at himself.
His luck has been very bad.
"Sir! Emergency!"
"explain!"
"The Hyena has an advanced security identification code. We must deactivate the identification code before we can target it!"
Loken felt the world spin for a while. He looked back at the stationmaster who was still in a daze, and really wanted to stuff him into the general's cannon and shoot him out.
How could he give a landing ship an Advanced Security Identification Code?
unless……
Loken suddenly thought of the rumors he had heard before about certain officers at the orbital station being involved in smuggling.
All bad luck really happened to him.
"How long does it take to remove the identification code!"
"It takes...it takes at least ten minutes."
"There's no ten minutes here for you, five minutes to get it done!"
That's what he said, but as a priest of the Mechanicus, Loken knew the characteristics of the advanced security identification code better than anyone else, so he immediately contacted the garrison in orbit.
"Everyone gather on the landing platform! If you see any target, fire first! Remember! Fire first!"
Under his order, thousands of soldiers on the defensive orbit picked up their weapons and went straight to the take-off and landing platform. However, most of them had never seen blood and came to the orbit just to support their families. There were very few soldiers in the true sense.
.
Just as Loken estimated, the Hyena plunged into the take-off and landing platform of the defensive orbit before the security identification code was released.
The autocannons on the outer fortifications rattled as they tracked the flying object, but never fired, and then its landing forks deployed from below.
The gate of the take-off and landing platform opened to accommodate the Hyena, then closed again, and the air pressure in the platform returned to normal levels again.
After the Hyena successfully entered the take-off and landing platform, a large number of soldiers also felt the surroundings of the platform. They raised their shotguns and laser guns, using various proposed roadblocks as cover, and watched the uninvited guest vigilantly.
The engine noise reduced to an idling whine, then disappeared altogether.
The sudden silence seemed to compel everyone, and some soldiers even felt as if bugs were crawling on their skin.
The heavy front hatch is facing the entrance and exit of the landing platform, and there is also a black cockpit and a cannon with an open belly along the upper part of the spine.
The defense forces were waiting.
Finally, as the front door began to lower, there was a vibration of the magnetic lock being released and the whirring of the servo.
The burst of pressurized steam blurred their vision, and whatever was lurking within seemed invisible.
Suddenly, some soldiers' bodies began to tremble because they saw...