Infinite Stream Metaverse

Chapter 779 A Gift for Kalida
Early the next morning.

Elowin arrived outside Fu Qinghai's dormitory.

"Tuk-tuk-tuk."

Elwin knocked on his door, but received no response. He simply pulled down the lock panel and started entering the password. The metal door slid open, and Elwin asked as he walked into the dormitory:

"Green Mountain? Green Mountain... Huh?"

Elowen glanced around the bedroom and bathroom, finding the entire dormitory empty and deserted. She also noticed a detail – the huge, long metal box that Aoyama always kept in the room was gone.

…………

Caleda Military Academy, main building.

Calida Military Academy is not only a school, but also a fortress. The Imperial Engineering Academy has applied almost all of its knowledge of military defense construction to its own school. It is no exaggeration to say that Calida Military Academy's defensive capabilities surpass those of the vast majority of Imperial military bases.

In the Star Wars Legends universe, the Rebel Alliance attempted to bombard Calida multiple times, but without success, leading General Rickon to remark:

"We may never be able to conquer Kalida."

At this moment, at the very top of the main building, a large, pure black crow folded its wings and gently landed beside the dense array of long and short antennas. It turned its head to examine the ventilation ducts on the roof. Then, the crow suddenly swelled up and grew into a tall, black-haired boy, who squatted on the roof of the main building.

Fu Qinghai took out a small sculpture from his pocket again. The sculpture was shaped like a coiled multi-legged worm. He swallowed the sculpture in one gulp, and it quickly turned into a multi-legged worm the size of a sea cucumber—the Ufa Worm. The worm twisted its body and crawled along the ventilation duct's air vent.

The Ufa insect crawled along the ventilation duct into the building. It came to the grille of the ventilation duct in a room, stopped its wriggling legs, and silently looked down with its large black compound eyes.

At this moment, in this room, huge instruments and equipment were arranged in a circle, and several people in military uniforms sat in front of the screen, stretching, yawning, and chatting idly with their eyes fixed on the screen in front of them.

The Ufa insect lay motionless on the grille.

It seemed as if it was patiently waiting for something.

"New Kronau radiation has been detected."

A sergeant suddenly spoke up.

"It has appeared, with coordinates of 073.197.916."

Another sergeant spoke up calmly:
"A Gozanti-class light cruiser."

"This is the Calida Military Academy interstellar tower."

An officer turned on the transponder in front of him:

"Please send us your identification code immediately."

"Buzz... We are Rotana Heavy Engineering, a subsidiary of Quarter Power Dockyard, transporting a batch of new weapons for testing and development. The identification code has been sent."

A rough voice came from the transponder.

"Received, currently verifying..."

A sergeant bent down and tapped on the button.

After a moment, he raised his head and said:
"Verification confirmed, code is correct."

"Okay, Rupert, clearance to land."

The officer turned on the transponder again and spoke.

Kronau radiation is a special type of radiation emitted by a spacecraft when it leaves hyperspace. It can be detected by specialized sensors. This technology is used on warships or planetary customs to detect spacecraft that are about to arrive via hyperspace jump.

The Ufa worm did not get the target it wanted.

It remained quietly perched on the ventilation duct grille.

About two hours passed.

"New Kronau radiation has been detected."

The sergeant spoke again.

“A T-3c Delta-class shuttle. This spacecraft is not on the schedule. Its coordinates are 164.735.845.”

Another sergeant spoke up.

"Whose spaceship is this now?"

A sergeant nearby muttered to himself curiously.

The T-3C Delta-class shuttle is a high-level executive shuttle used exclusively by high-ranking members of the Imperial military. Orson Krenniel's personal shuttle is one of these.

The officer leaned closer to the microphone and said cautiously:

"Hello, this is Kalida..."

"Shut your mouth and read the security code."

The cold voice from the transponder interrupted him.

The officer quickly shut his mouth and stopped asking questions.

The sergeant next to me was typing on the keyboard.

"I received it. Uh, it doesn't show the target ship's identity, it only shows 'confidential', and then... the control tower has just automatically opened landing access to all ports and berths."

The sergeant scratched his head, somewhat at a loss.

"The shuttle has begun its descent."

Another sergeant spoke up to remind him.

"Ignore them, let them go."

The officer waved his hand and gave the order in a deep voice.

He knew in his heart that a security identification code alone could grant landing access to all port berths on Calida Star, and the control tower could not see the other party's identity, which meant that the other party's level of secrecy must be very high. In this situation, what he should do is not to interfere or ask any questions.

Inside the ventilation duct above his head.

The Ufa worm twisted its body and began to wriggle rapidly.

……

The Ufa insect emerged from the exhaust vent of the ventilation duct. Fu Qinghai, once again using the same trick, transformed into a crow and quickly flapped his wings, flying from the main building to the adjacent gun emplacement.

A twin-turreted turbine laser cannon.

The crow darted in through a small window on the side of the turret, followed by screams and muffled thuds like fists pounding flesh.

The inside of the turret quickly became quiet.

Fu Qinghai opened the door from the inside.

Almost the instant he opened the door, a sudden shift in light and shadow appeared at the bottom of the empty turret, and a black and gold armored figure materialized out of thin air. The armored figure grabbed the ladder on the side of the turret, climbed up the turret, and crawled inside through the opened hatch.

Inside the turret, Fu Qinghai had reverted to his normal Space Marine physique and donned his power armor. He sat alone in the middle seat, several corpses lying haphazardly at his feet. His power backpack, with a "cool click," mechanically transformed into a work backpack, eight octopus-like mechanical tentacles extending out to grasp the surrounding controls.

A twin-turreted turbine laser turret requires a five-person crew to operate properly, but Fu Qinghai, along with the eight mechanical tentacles extending from his backpack, could control the turret alone. He quickly spotted the shuttle on the radar screen and swiftly controlled the turret's rotation, causing the two parallel, thick cannon barrels to slowly rise.

The turbolaser cannon is one of the most common large cannons in the Star Wars universe. It is mainly used as a shipborne weapon, but can also be used as a ground-based air defense weapon. Although it is called a "laser cannon", it is actually a blast cannon that uses turbolaser technology.

The fortress-like Calida Military Academy houses numerous turbolaser cannons, and this particular turret was carefully selected by Fu Qinghai after a thorough site visit the previous night. The larger-caliber planetary turbolaser cannon is an anti-ship weapon, but it's too bulky and requires a fifty-person crew to operate; moreover, its slow turning speed makes it unsuitable for targeting small ships. The smaller-caliber quadruple turbolaser cannon, while fast-turning, has lower single-shot power and cannot guarantee a single volley will destroy a ship's deflector shields.

The twin-turreted turbine laser turret is just right.

……

At this moment, inside the atmosphere of Calida.

A shuttle with flat, slender wings and a triangular fuselage is flying. Its pure black paint job gives it a mysterious and slightly austere look, and its design is both tough and elegant.

Inside the shuttle's cockpit, two pilots were methodically controlling the shuttle to gradually decelerate and descend.

Inside the cabin, on the foredeck, a slender lieutenant from the Imperial Security Bureau, dressed in a moon-white uniform and wearing a black mountain hat, paced back and forth with his hands behind his back and his head down, his brows furrowed and lips pursed, as if he were pondering some thorny problem.

Behind him, two cleansing soldiers in black helmets and armor with red shoulder pads on one side stood solemnly to one side, holding blast rifles.

On the aft deck, in the crew cabin, a girl with black-rimmed glasses and black-gold curly hair sat facing a mysterious man in black armor wearing a helmet. Four cleansing soldiers sat upright in the seats next to them. The entire crew cabin was unusually quiet.

The girl with black-rimmed glasses had her eyes gently closed and her hands crossed on her lap, seemingly meditating on the Force.

The mysterious man in black armor sitting opposite her had his face completely covered by a helmet, so no one knew what expression he had. Only his bare blue hands and four unusual fingers indicated that he was a member of a different race.

The shuttle flew smoothly.

The girl with black-rimmed glasses, who was meditating with her eyes closed, suddenly felt an indescribable fear and palpitation rise in her heart. She abruptly opened her eyes, and a terrifying vision appeared in her wide-open eyes: explosion, disintegration, crash...

Force warning!

"You saw it too!?"

She suddenly looked up and asked the person opposite her.

"what?"

The Imperial Judge asked with a hint of doubt.

The girl with black-rimmed glasses ignored the guy and stood up abruptly. She turned around and ran towards the stern ladder passage. She climbed up the ladder passage to the upper deck and rushed towards the shuttle cockpit without regard for anything else.

"What's wrong, Herava?"

The lieutenant from the Imperial Security Bureau entered the crew cabin, watched the girl's figure disappear into the stairwell, and called out in confusion.

The cockpit door opened, and Sonia Khairova rushed into the shuttle cockpit at her fastest speed ever, screaming at the two pilots inside:

"Turn! Turn! Turn immediately!!!"

The two pilots turned around, puzzled.
"Miss?"

Sonia Herova leaned forward and shoved the control stick hard. The stick tilted to one side, and the shuttle began to roll violently to the left. All three people in the cockpit lost their balance and fell to the floor.

Just then, two extremely thick green energy beams shot from the ground. The energy beams almost instantly shattered the shuttle's deflector shield, which was operating at 50% power, and after penetrating the shield, they hit the shuttle's wing and half of its fuselage.

"Boom!"

The violent tremors and explosion engulfed the three people.

……

Inside the turbine laser turret on the ground.

"Huh? What's going on?"

Fu Qinghai squinted at the screen.

The T-3C Delta-class shuttle, which had been flying perfectly fine, suddenly rolled to the right, causing him to miss slightly. The blast beam that was supposed to hit the shuttle's fuselage squarely struck the side of the fuselage instead. The shuttle, which should have been destroyed in mid-air, now only lost half of its fuselage and a wing, and fell down in a spiral, billowing black smoke.

After taking one last look and memorizing the direction the shuttle had crashed, Fu Qinghai stood up from his seat. The eight mechanical tentacles on his back retracted, and the industrial backpack underwent another mechanical transformation, turning into a flight backpack with a huge turbofan and ion nozzles. At the same time, a protruding device appeared on his arm armor, which Fu Qinghai pointed at.

Stealth Boy activated.

He vanished in a blur of light and shadow.

……

In the woods outside the Calida Military Academy.

A jet-black shuttle lay sprawled on the ground, one side of its fuselage seemingly devoured by a ferocious beast. Thick smoke billowed from the gaping hole, occasionally punctuated by sparks. Its broken wings were stuck upside down in the soil, and scattered metal fragments were mixed with fallen leaves.

The pilot's body hung upside down from a tree branch, while the bodies of the mob soldiers, their limbs twisted and mangled, lay scattered about. A lieutenant from the Imperial Security Bureau struggled to crawl out of the hole, his face, hair, and white uniform blackened by smoke, blood gushing uncontrollably from his mouth.

The lieutenant climbed two meters but could climb no more.

His eyelids closed and his head drooped limply.

"Heh, heh, heh, uh..."

Sonia crawled out from the gap in the shuttle, her chest heaving as she gasped for breath. Her hair was disheveled, her face was covered in bloody scratches, and her black-rimmed glasses were nowhere to be seen. She gripped the ground covered with soft fallen leaves and crawled forward with all her might.

Her legs were completely numb and she didn't know whether her spine or her legs were broken. Despite the excruciating pain, her will to survive drove her to crawl forward with difficulty. At this moment, the girl just wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible.

Suddenly, Sonia stopped moving.

She lay prone on the fallen leaves, too afraid to move.

"Click..."

A barely perceptible sound of a dead leaf being crushed came from behind her, and Sonia's nerves tightened.

The girl's eyes were filled with terror, but she dared not make a sound or turn around to look behind her.

At this time, in this place, no one spoke, yet the sound of footsteps crunching on withered leaves could be heard… She absolutely refused to believe that these were rescue workers from Calida or survivors from the shuttle; there was only one possibility…

Those were the people who came to kill her.

"I thought that among all the reincarnators who could cultivate the Force, my talent was already outstanding."

A calm voice came from behind me.

Sonia's body trembled slightly, fear filled her mind, and her fingernails dug into the soil.

"But I never expected that there would be people more capable than you, and mountains beyond mountains... that someone could actually awaken the ability of 'reading minds by touching objects'?"

The voice continued to mutter slowly to itself.

"Buzzing sound—"

A dragon-like roar came from behind her.

Sonia closed her eyes in despair.

That was the sound of a lightsaber being ignited.

Fu Qinghai, clad in armor and wielding a dragon sword, stood amidst the trees, silently watching the girl lying on the ground with her back to him in the distance, his eyes indifferent and devoid of any pity.

At this moment, to Fu Qinghai's left rear, a twisted and sharp triangular metal fragment had silently risen from the ground and was suddenly shooting towards him.

Fu Qinghai didn't even turn his head or look at it. He casually waved his hand, and the metal fragment instantly changed direction and returned along the same path, disappearing with a "whoosh" as it cut through the air.

"Pfft!"

Metal shards pierced his neck precisely through the gaps in his armor, severing his spine. The severely wounded Imperial Inquisitor leaned against a tree trunk, his raised arm drooping down.

Metal fragments pinned him to the tree trunk.

At the same time, it separated his neck from his head.

While Fu Qinghai was dealing with the Imperial Inquisitor, Sonia's hope for survival was rekindled. She remained lying on the ground without moving, but her right hand, which was pressed under her body, quietly reached towards her left waist and grasped the hilt of the lightsaber.

He moved his hand, still holding the lightsaber, to his abdomen.

Just then, without her touching a button, the lightsaber in her hand activated without warning. Red plasma burst out from the end of the hilt, pierced through her stomach without hesitation, and emerged diagonally from her shoulder.

Sonia's expression froze instantly.

The light in his wide eyes gradually faded.

The body was frozen in this awkward position forever.

"Your talent is truly extraordinary."

The person behind me spoke again:

"But my use of the Force is superior to yours."

…………

Caleda Military Academy, main helipad.

An Arquitenths-class light cruiser is moored here.

"What's wrong with this guy?"

Elwin stood at the open boarding gate of the warship, his brows furrowed slightly. He stood on tiptoe, gazing at the distant school buildings, and spoke with a hint of complaint.

They'll be leaving in about ten minutes.

However, Qingshan has still not appeared.

Nobody knows where he went.

All the other members of the Blade Squad were already seated in the warship's cabin. Elwin glanced down at the mechanical watch on his wrist, as time ticked by.

Is he planning to desert?
Elowin considered an outrageous possibility.

Looking up again, Elowin suddenly saw a tall figure in the distance carrying a huge, iron-gray metal box in one hand, running hurriedly toward them.

Elwin breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sorry, I'm late."

Fu Qinghai came up to her and scratched the back of his head.

Where did you go?

Elowin reached out and slapped Fu Qinghai, looking up at him with a reproachful gaze, and said somewhat unhappily:

"Don't you have any sense of time? I went to your dorm and couldn't find you. Roxie and Yevander don't know where you went either. Did you go to say goodbye to some secret lover?"

"Sorry, sorry, I have something urgent to attend to."

Fu Qinghai smiled and put his arm around her as they boarded the deck.

……

The boarding ramp slowly rises and closes.

Fu Qinghai turned his head and took one last look at Kalida.

The shuttle that crashed in the woods.

It was a gift he gave to his alma mater before he left.

…………