Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

The green recruit swallowed hard: "Yes, yes! Target spotted!"

“Our ‘Never Falling Star Island,’ a ship that’s supposedly ‘planetary-level’! It’s so badly damaged that even the fuel filler cap in our level 3 engine has blown off. What the hell is this?” The commander was practically pressed against the glass, and a streak of fire lit up the pitch-black starry sky outside.

The human eye could not see it clearly, but Samuel could see it easily: a huge spaceship was stuck in the line of fire, or rather, it was the line of fire itself, with countless fragments breaking off from it, which was the source of today's "meteor shower".

Chapter Ninety-Four: Silence and Boiling Blood

[November 2nd, arrived at Titan transit station. Eating compressed biscuits and energy bars under Saturn's rings was like chewing on soap; the rings were fine, but the energy bars weren't so great.]

[November 5th, onboarding training ended. I felt it was risky, and so did my mentor; I just hope nothing goes wrong.]

[November 6th, first day on the job. Saturn's rings have a big gash from spacecraft debris; hopefully the rings are okay. Turns out we were eating energy bars from two years ago?!]

[December 11……]

The author of this record was breathing rapidly under his master's arm. White mist blew onto the helmet of his spacesuit and quickly disappeared, and the tranquil vastness of the deep universe returned to before his eyes.

A shadow swept across his head, blocking the sunlight from the distance, as if someone had draped a curtain over him with their bare hands.

He looked up, struggling to suppress his fear, gripping the toolbox tightly. He was thankful he couldn't hear the sound of the shadow's owner passing by, even though he was unconsciously simulating it in his mind.

It was enormous, consisting of a single piece of hull from a planetary-class warship, and its shape suggested it was the engine compartment. The paint scheme was unrecognizable; occasional blue-green flames flickered against the crimson edges, likely from a reaction between residual fuel and the copper-containing hull material.

result.

Although the troops stationed at this small base were mostly new recruits who had been scrambling to buy supplies in Mars City just two weeks prior, they managed to complete the mission of shooting down or deflecting space debris that was about to collide with the base, albeit with some difficulty.

But no one was in the mood to be happy.

“Ours…ours…” he called out through his spacesuit.

The irritated reply came through the earpiece: "We blew up a planetary ship. We've blown up many before. You'll get used to it."

"In the future, when you encounter this situation while performing maintenance outside, just do the same as now: stick to the base wall and leave the rest to luck." The foreman said, releasing his arm so that the man could stick himself to the wall himself.

"What about our fleet out there?" he whispered. "They went on an expedition to the Andromeda Galaxy, and now that their home is about to be lost, don't they know to come back?"

The master remained silent for a long time before finally managing to squeeze out, "Back to die?"

Warfare in the era of cold weapons brought immense physical pain to soldiers, leaving them missing limbs and trauma that haunted them for life.

In interstellar warfare, there is almost no pain. As long as a weapon sweeps across the field of vision, there is no need for a "whoosh" sound; people and their aircraft are instantly vaporized.

"There's no chance of them coming back," the newcomer said, still shaken by the flying debris of the ship. "It's poor and small, it can't even support half a fleet. Hey, Master, I have a feeling something's going to happen... If we can't hold it, we should just run away. We can go to the base on Proxima Centauri to settle down."

The master gripped the wrench as if to strike, but glancing at his apprentice's spacesuit, which would likely tear if the wrench were used, he lowered his hand and suddenly asked, "You didn't grow up in the solar system, did you? Where are you from?"

"Uh... NX91075, Centaur Arm New Area."

"Then why did you come here to work?"

"Because the subsidies are high."

Why are the subsidies so high?

The newcomer wondered why the seasoned veteran would ask such a question: "Because it's remote and poor."

The master smiled and said, "Then tell me, why don't we leave this remote and poor place instead of going to great lengths to attract people to come here and make a living?"

The newcomer thought for a moment and then cautiously asked, "Is there some secret we don't know about, like new energy sources?"

The foreman raised the wrench again, as if to hit him: "Stop reading those cheap news stories! We're here because... Earth is here."

"If Earthlings didn't have Earth, would they still be Earthlings?"

Like a pebble dropped into a calm lake, the newlyweds suddenly felt a touch of emotion, a feeling somewhat similar to when they first met the pet that was said to have inherited the bloodline of Earth's animal ancestors.

From this angle, the mother star is not visible. It should be opposite the sun now, and it's summer according to the time of year. Textbooks describe flowers, birds, insects, fish, clear springs, flowing stones, and annoying mosquitoes.

But as each child grows up, they gradually come to realize that what's written in textbooks is just a dream about the past. Adults tacitly keep it a secret until the children also become adults.

If we look at Earth from space today, it is no longer the light blue color shown in photos from many years ago. Its land should be reddish-yellow, and its water should be a deep, rich blue.

Newcomers don't quite understand why textbooks don't write the facts: "Our home planet is destroyed. It's not as habitable as Mars. If you go there for tourism, you'll need to wear a spacesuit and remember to bring plenty of oxygen."

The newcomer gazed towards the direction of the third planet in the solar system, where nothing could be seen now, yet he seemed to see that rocky star, the depleted mother planet.

"Then why..." the newcomer asked blankly, "Are aliens coming to attack this place? It's only symbolic now, isn't it? At least we have a base here. They're going on a long and arduous expedition, and they also have to guard against our fleet on the outskirts."

This time, the master didn't intend to hit him. He moved his body up and peered out from the edge of the wall to observe the situation.

The fire line in the distance had dimmed slightly, probably because the "planetary-level" ship had blown itself away to pieces. The small pieces of debris were no threat to the base, so he confidently told the new recruits to continue working.

“They ran to the edge of the Boötes Hollow Galaxy, and then to a small galaxy on a branch arm of the Milky Way, perhaps because of what you call ‘symbolic meaning’.” The master said this without any expression, but the newcomer felt that he seemed to have a lot to say, but in the end he swallowed it all back.

……

What makes aliens embark on a long and arduous expedition, stretching across galaxies?

Samuel watched from Earth's Saturnian defense line as two massive fleets clashed on this vast, yet extremely narrow, battle line when compressed to the scale of the solar system.

Samuel didn't know how much effort both sides had put into building those ships, but considering they could easily accommodate tens of thousands of people, they must have put in a lot of work.

Now they are all consumables, teetering on the edge of death in the millstone of Saturn's defenses, or crashing headlong into it, silently decomposing in the silent cosmos.

"We have a blood feud, and the only option is to fight to the death."

Countless tiny fragments spread in all directions, some of which were captured by Saturn's gravity and fell into the dense storms, or became one of the thousands of small celestial bodies rolling around Saturn's rings, adding to this famous and magnificent spectacle.

As those resentful aggregates said, a large portion of the aliens are wanderers, who have marched far and wide, tearing at Earth's defenses like bloodthirsty hounds. But Earthlings have not given up easily, for their homeland lies behind them.

Samuel wasn't sure if he was hallucinating, but he seemed to see... two monsters.

Monsters locked in a fierce battle.

Like Gob and Bats, who fought in the suburbs of Tokyo that day, one wanted to kill the other because the hatchery was destroyed, and the other, out of self-preservation instinct, naturally showed no mercy.

Scales rolled back from the monster's sharp teeth, flesh and blood flew everywhere, and the blood of both aliens and Earthlings evaporated into mist in the intense heat. In the distance, a dreamlike, veil-like nebula appeared beside Saturn's orbit.

"Hey, Giant of Light, you saved Gob and Bats," the ethereal voice said, "but against such a 'monster'... are you still powerful enough?"

Chapter Ninety-Five: The Great Divide

"What? All the footage we risked our lives to film is unusable?"

At the entrance of the KCB television studio, Inoue Rinfumi and Yoshii Reiko received disheartening news.

"Yes, the videotapes need to be sealed," Kenji Tabata said, his expression equally unfriendly. "Forget about what happened in Shiroiwa City. By the way, Reiko, what about the person we rescued?"

Upon hearing this, Yoshii Reiko lowered her head even further: "She's missing... Lin Wen came in to wait for news about the videotape review. I was touching up my makeup in the car when I heard the car door open. When I turned around, she was gone."

……

Meanwhile, at the Geo base.

Kinoshita Kei finally mustered his spirits and decided to continue searching for the unknown creatures in the distorted space. He handed over his shift to Nakai Ryoya and stayed on duty until nearly evening, waiting for Team Leader Fukui to return from a meeting.

“Organize the data you’ve already completed,” said Team Leader Fukui. “Summarize it and make sure there are no mistakes.”

Kinoshita Kei thought it was a progress report from his superiors: "We're still searching. The biggest progress was in defining the scope. We were limited by our computing power and needed..."

"The Alchemy Star will take over the follow-up work."

"Huh?" Kinoshita Kei paused, his hand still on the scratch paper.

As usual, Team Leader Fukui put his hands in the pockets of his white coat, as if giving a simple handover: "The follow-up work will be taken over by the personnel and equipment of Alchemy Star. We don't have time to wait any longer."

Kinoshita Kei put down the pencil, unsure of what expression to make.

This felt like having your project snatched away by a more capable senior—or rather, snatched, since the other was stronger. A genius and a machine created by a genius are, of course, the best option given the current situation. They certainly didn't have time to wait; with each passing day, more people had their minds invaded by unknown creatures.

Reason told him that he should hand over all the results and let a more powerful figure advance the cause.

"Okay, okay, I'll take care of it right away." The pencil spun rapidly between his fingers, a habit of his. Back in middle school, he had the urge to spin anything he got his hands on, from pens, textbooks, workbooks, to even four-cornered stools. Students took pride in being able to spin as many things as possible.

Later, life turned him into a spinning top, and now that he's here, he's experiencing that feeling again.

"We can't wait, we don't have any more time. Wasting time is wasting life. Let's be generous and act like upright heroes."

Kinoshita Kei stood up and gave his boss a weak thumbs-up: "Then... let's leave it to Alchemy Star. It's so great to be a sucker. Does that mean I don't have to work overtime?"

Team Leader Fukui nodded: "You should go to the workshop and take a look. We'll continue to advance the sky survey project when we have time."

Kinoshita Kei didn't know how he got to the workshop. Once he was in the familiar environment, he felt a little better. He took a deep breath and, as usual, opened his experimental records.

“The low-temperature test went smoothly, and the material strength was normal…” He opened another notebook, where a long list of regular tests was followed by a blank page.

He raised his voice: "Nasiri? Nasiri! You've caused a misunderstanding. You promised to test the insulation material yesterday, but we were busy with other things and forgot about it?"

The gazes of those wearing orange clothes swept over him, some looking at him with strange eyes, others glancing at him and then quickly turning their faces away.

"What's going on?" Even someone as oblivious as Kinoshita Kei could sense the strange atmosphere. He looked for the most familiar person in orange and asked, "What's going on?"

The man replied, "You guys are in the lab all day and don't know, Naxi has developed sleepwalking and is already in the isolation ward. There are several others in the same batch, all under observation in the hospital on the fifth basement floor."

Kinoshita Kei paused for a moment, then took off running towards the elevator.

The hospital at the Geo base is more strictly managed than the outposts because it frequently treats patients related to monster incidents. Nobody wants to go there normally, including Kinoshita Kei.

But there were many people outside the ward on the fifth basement floor. Kinoshita Kei looked around and saw that almost all of them were people he knew—they were from the thermal insulation materials research group, and they were squatting outside the isolation room of Naxi.

Look, there's a big, dark-skinned guy dancing inside.

Nasiris, from the ancient civilization of Burkina Faso in West Africa, are nourished by the Muwen, Nacombe, and Nazion rivers. In the local language, Burkina means "gentlemen."

He inherited the Moses people's talent for singing and dancing. Even when he was wearing a hospital gown in the isolation room, he gave people the illusion that he was singing and dancing on the grassland.

He saw Kinoshita Kei and approached her with a smile: "You've come too? To see my hometown!"