EROS [Zerg]

"Let's hurry up, I'm afraid the space pirates will come back." Audit nodded repeatedly, helping Kirkland support the unconscious Eros as they ran outside.

"Space pirates? They haven't left yet?" Kirkland paused for a moment.

“Two space pirates just escaped, but they said they’ll be back,” Audit said.

"Damn it." Kirkland frowned and quickly informed his comrades outside through the terminal. After discovering a rescue spacecraft filled with insects in space, they immediately reported to the military headquarters of the Fifth Star System where they were located. After receiving the news, the higher-ups quickly gave them coordinates and asked them to go and investigate. If they found any space pirates, the military headquarters would send troops.

When they entered the spaceship, they only saw a pile of corpses and assumed that space pirates had looted and slaughtered the place before escaping.

If the space pirates return, their patrol team of six insects will have no chance of escaping unscathed.

What are you afraid of?

Kirkland pushed open a door leading to the hatch, and came face to face with a group of space pirates who had just entered the spaceship through the hatch.

He gasped sharply, slammed the door shut, and soon the shrill sound of bullets hitting metal echoed from outside.

Kirkland knew that taking Auditorium and Eros with him would only result in them being captured by space pirates, so he pushed Eros onto Auditorium: "You take him, we're running fast. Don't hide inside the spaceship, find a way to get outside."

As he said this, Kirkland gripped the door tightly while also holding his sidearm firmly in his hand.

Audit, supporting Eros, nodded repeatedly, then took the laser gun he had just picked up from his pocket and shoved it into Kirkland's belt.

Field trainees are not authorized to carry firearms; they typically use sidearms provided by the military for shooting practice.

So when Kirkland saw the gun Audit offered him, he was only slightly surprised and did not refuse.

After handing the gun to Kirkland, Audit turned and ran towards the watchtower with Eros.

He knew that from there he could climb to the very top of the spaceship.

Behind them came the sounds of Kirkland and the space pirates exchanging fire fiercely.

Audit knew that Kirkland was drawing fire to help them escape. He didn't dare to think about what would happen if the female soldier had been captured. He could only bury his head and run, as fast as he could.

Although Audit is a female insect, he is a technical insect officer and does not have the strong physique of a military female. In addition, he was just injured by space pirates and can't run fast at all.

He was somewhat relieved that Eros wasn't one of those big, burly female insects.

Otherwise, they might be exhausted to death before they even get outside the spaceship.

Auditor ran to the office below the observation deck, retrieved the key, opened the door, looked at the vertical steel staircase stretching dozens of meters, gritted his teeth, and said to Eros, who was still unconscious and leaning on his shoulder:

"I said, you're having a great time now, but I'm exhausted."

"But I won't abandon you. After all, you've kept me alive until now, and I can't repay kindness with enmity."

"You'll have to thank me after we're rescued."

"But I also want to thank you, otherwise I wouldn't be alive today."

Auditer muttered to himself, as if talking to the unconscious Si Cong on his back could cheer him up.

He gripped the handrail of the elevator, braced his feet against the edge of the escalator, and slowly climbed upwards.

Audit, focused solely on climbing, was unaware that Eros on his back had opened his eyes and was still talking to himself as he struggled to climb.

Eros's gaze fell on his empty right arm. His lips moved as if he wanted to speak, but no sound came out.

He felt only endless pain tearing at his heart.

What does the absence of a right claw mean for a military mechanic?

How can a disabled insect live in this world?

Not only did he injure General Kuwait, but he also fled to escape punishment. Even if he were rescued, he would surely be caught again, right? Perhaps he would even be thrown into a place like the Prutto Exchange Building and return to his old life.

There's an even worse possibility: maybe I'm not even a bug? Perhaps I really am a defective product discarded from some laboratory, a deformed defective product just like my bug-like form.

This easily explains why I have been in the Pruto Exchange Building since I can remember.

Since information about a bounty on Lieutenant General Ivanson's organs circulated on the black market, some insects saw a business opportunity and began illegally genetically modifying and surgically intervening in some offspring, modifying their organs according to the conditions required by the buyers.

If a flawed experimental subject with only a useful face isn't destroyed, selling him into prostitution is probably his only remaining purpose.

Just as Eros's thoughts began to sink into an inescapable abyss of despair, a violent jolt and Audit's screams jolted him awake.

Realizing he was falling, Eros quickly grabbed the ladder step with his left claw and managed to stop falling. Eros looked at Audit, who was sitting on his lap with a look of shock.

Eros didn't say anything, but lifted his leg to continue climbing.

Although he now only has one left arm, lifting a medium-sized adult female insect is not a difficult task for him because he often carries large mechanical parts. Looking at the skylight that is still more than ten meters above his head, Eros lowered his eyes, used his legs to stabilize his body, lifted Auditorium onto his shoulder, and helped the female insect climb down to the skylight step by step.

Audit quickly took out his key and inserted it into the keyhole on the sunroof.

The two insects successfully climbed onto the open-air rooftop of the observation deck.

Audit, whose feet had just touched the ground, immediately clutched his backside and groaned in pain. Although he hadn't fallen off when he sat on Eros's lap, his backside had certainly been hurt.

Eros saw the flashing lights of an aircraft in the sky not far away.

Having interned at the military headquarters, he was very familiar with these lights. "Quickly, get your personal computer out!"

As Eros spoke to Audit, he prepared to turn on his personal computer, but suddenly he paused and remembered that he had lost his right claw.

Eros lowered his raised left arm and said in a deep voice to Auditer beside him, "Turn on the spotlight, then raise it high and shine it on that aircraft in a pattern of long-short-long intervals, repeating this every half minute."

Audit obeyed and raised the terminal, using a spotlight to project a distress signal.

After repeating this three times, Eros saw that the distant spaceship had received their distress signal and was also signaling back with a signal light.

Eros looked at the flickering lights in the distant starry sky, walked directly to Audit, and began sending messages to the spacecraft using his terminal.

This is a special language used in the military. Eros had spent several nights memorizing thousands of signal lights, and this was the first time he had actually used it in this situation.

After seeing the signal from the distant spacecraft, Eros smiled with relief, sat down on the ground, hugged his severed arm, and looked up at the starry sky.

"Great! We're saved!" Audit was so excited when he saw the Imperial Army's aircraft that he almost jumped for joy. "You're amazing!"

"By the way, I still don't know your name. My name is Audit." Audit turned to look at Eros, only to find that the female insect behind him was already sobbing uncontrollably.