Book 10: Chapter 21: Flight Partner

On the third day after departing the Faith, the independent war vessel carrying Qin Lun and the others traversed the FTL orbit, arriving at the outermost edge of the Second Spiral Arm. This place lay far from the galactic core, distant by hundreds of thousands of light-years.

Being inside the galaxy versus dwelling at its edge were entirely different experiences. The view of a star-strewn sky the Apostles had witnessed upon first entering the Gospel World had vanished. Raising their heads to gaze out of the warship’s windows now, the most common sight was a profound, bottomless darkness.

Listening to explanations from Fuyutsuki and Vera, they learned this was also a phenomenon called “star blindness,” frequently experienced by space travelers during long voyages. After seeing too many stars, the human body deliberately ignores those flickers of starlight, perceiving the surroundings as completely black.

Environments similar to this were likely found only in the absolute deep sea of a planet. There, besides cold and silence, humans often experienced no third emotion.

The pitch-black Advancing, here, resembled a ghost returned to the deep sea. Besides its decent offensive power, this modified independent warship had inferior defenses. Sure, it possessed APB force fields, but in warship-class confrontations, its defensive shielding was practically useless.

This was an irreparable weakness of small independent warships. Nevertheless, while the Advancing lacked strong defensive capabilities, its surface, coated with Jannamer bio-armor, boasted excellent stealth properties.

In truth, by the technological standards of the Third Cosmic Era, humanity had long abandoned gunpowder technology. Whether Gauss technology or particle beam engines, in the vacuum of space, the light and heat they emitted were hardly noticeable.

Heat-sensing detection, once the most practical means in the past era, had become an uncommon detector in the cosmic void. Especially when vessels were separated by vast distances, the minuscule thermal signature emitted by a warship became almost indistinguishable from starlight.

The most commonly employed detectors in space currently were metal and momentum detection radars. Though modern warships predominantly used composite materials, their significant metal content still set them apart fundamentally from asteroids and meteors, making them easily spotted by detection radar.

As for momentum detection radar, it tracked changes in an object’s velocity. This device allowed warships to quickly locate enemies, whether metal warships or living cosmic entities.

The bio-armor used by the Advancing could largely evade most heat and metal detection radars. Furthermore, when not accelerating, it could “deceive” momentum detection. Had the material not been so exceptionally rare, Captain Marx, upon learning of the Advancing’s modifications, would certainly have wanted to layer the Faith with it too.

As the Advancing neared the star system housing the X-352 asteroid, the young crew members grew increasingly vigilant.

This vigilance, however, didn’t extend much to the Apostles. Even Robin, the nominal captain, didn’t know the first thing about commanding a warship. Fuyutsuki, the beautiful adjutant, had become overly sensitive these past few days. Jumping at the slightest disturbance, always personally checking things out, her once lovely, large eyes were now panda-like with exhaustion.

The zealous efforts of the Gith beauties made the Apostles keenly feel the tension of impending battle. They all buried themselves inside simulation pods, honing their dogfighting skills alongside their paired Gith Flight Officers.

“Sir, we should stop for today!” Qin Lun’s simulation pod slid open simultaneously on both sides. Out from the left emerged a heavily sweating Qin Lun. From the right came another figure — a youthful, somewhat pimply-faced Gith teenager.

“Lost again!” Qin Lun stared somewhat helplessly at the glaring “11-0” on the simulator screen, then at the jubilant Gith boy celebrating before him.

This Gith teenager was named Fiers, the youngest of the four Gith Flight Officers assigned as his flight partners. He was about one stellar year younger than Vera, making him around fourteen years old.

Initially, Qin Lun had chosen him as a sparring partner precisely because he seemed like an easier-to-handle rookie. But he’d forgotten the Gith people possess an innate talent for piloting semi-bio-mechs, and that talent peaks at an early age. These simulators couldn’t replicate the Apostles’ inherent [Replacement] abilities. The result? Every training session these past few days had seen Qin Lun decisively thrashed by Fiers.

“Heh heh, Fiers. We’ve been watching nearby all this time! Sir’s progress these days has been incredibly fast. You might still win, but it’s getting harder each time. Keep going at this rate, and in another ten days or so, Sir will be evenly matched,” a well-mannered young man observing nearby couldn’t resist needling Fiers, seeing the boy lost in his joy. Qin Lun smiled and nodded gratefully at this champion of his.

This was the final male member of their quartet, named Alex.

Alex was, apart from Qin Lun, the oldest in their five-person group, currently twenty. Handsome, with a calm and gentle demeanor, he enjoyed reading during downtime, radiating a scholarly air, his movements suggesting formal etiquette training.

According to the others, Alex came from a good family, Gith nobility. His talent for space combat was slightly inferior to Fiers, but his steady personality made him the squad’s deputy leader. Since Qin Lun, the official squad leader, wasn’t responsible for flight tactics, Alex essentially functioned as the true flight leader.

“Yeah, yeah, you little squirt, don’t get too full of yourself!” A ferocious redhead nearby suddenly lunged, locking Fiers’s slender neck in a strong arm and grinding her knuckles violently against the top of his head, making him howl in pain.

“Alright, Meri, let him go,” Qin Lun intervened with a smile.

“But Sir, I was just getting your revenge!” Meri blushed slightly, releasing Fiers reluctantly.

“Yeah, sure! ‘Getting your revenge’!” Fiers escaped the chokehold and leaped away, sticking out his tongue and making a mocking face at Meri while giving Qin Lun a suggestive wink.

“Aaah, you rotten Fiers! Stand still you little brat! I’ll beat you to death!” Meri instantly flushed crimson from temple to chin at the implied meaning in Fiers’s teasing, her fiery temper flaring.

“Youth,” Qin Lun chuckled softly, shaking his head as he watched the two sprint away.

“Haha, Sir, you’re not exactly old yourself, are you?” Alex couldn’t help but ask with a laugh.

“I’m… different from you all,” Qin Lun offered a brief, somewhat enigmatic smile, abruptly changing the subject. His eyes sharpened as he asked seriously, “Alex, you’ve watched all these training matches. What do you think is my biggest flaw in dogfighting? Why, whenever I feel I have a chance to win, do I still inevitably lose to Fiers?”

“Sir, you have no discernible flaws. If I had to pick one, it would simply be insufficient training time,” Alex suddenly gave a resigned smile and shook his head. “Captain Marx once told me Descendant Apostles are natural-born warriors. I didn’t believe it then. Seeing it now, it feels like he wasn’t exaggerating in the slightest. You know? Over these days, your… and your companions’ sheer capacity to absorb combat skills has nearly overturned my entire outlook on life. We Gith, even prodigies like Fiers and Vera, require years of grueling training to reach current levels. Yet you Apostles? After less than two weeks in simulators, you’re holding your own against us. Without even using your Apostle abilities…”

“Alex, you know our most scarce resource is time,” Qin Lun responded ambiguously with another smile, deflecting the implied question. “I know I must be making a mistake somewhere. Otherwise, Fiers wouldn’t always be able to spot the opening.”

Qin Lun hadn’t directly addressed Alex’s implied question. In his view, what Alex saw as “combat genius” was essentially the function of an Apostle’s [Law Body].

An ordinary person genuinely needed years of training to develop muscle memory, to internalize lessons. Apostles didn’t. Their Law Bodies were like precise computers. Since when did a computer program need inputting twice to be saved?

Back in the Shattered Starry Sky, even mastering a high-level magical skill only required the time it took… to tear a spell scroll.

Especially Qin Lun, with the data assistance from his [Death Notice]. What took a Gith Flight Officer over a decade to learn was, for an Apostle with their Law Body’s capacity for recall, quite complex enough to require over ten days of intensive simulation.

“Your marksmanship and tactical maneuvers have no apparent flaws now,” Alex stated earnestly. “Particularly… truly, Sir, I’ve never seen anyone dismantle a [Gauss phased array] to fire… that curving stream of metal!” Recalling a specific move from the earlier session, Alex couldn’t hide a trace of admiration.

He fell silent for a moment, clearly ruminating. Finally, he spoke decisively, “If I had to pinpoint how Fiers keeps winning? It’s actually simple. Back in flight academy, if a cadet displayed this problem, my instructors would usually let them figure it out themselves. Explicit explanation wasn’t the priority. But… since you need speed…”

“Yes? Please!” Qin Lun leaned forward slightly, eyes gleaming.

“Well,” Alex began with a light chuckle, “space combat differs completely from ground-based fights. Good aim is just one part of it.” His tone became more focused. “More crucially, Sir… you must learn to ignore your ingrained sense of direction. In space, there is no “up,” no “down,” no “left,” no “right.” No ground to stand on. You need to observe omnidirectionally, constantly. You must stop subconsciously trying to position yourself relative to an imaginary ground.”

He maintained his gentle tone. “The reason Fiers can predict your movements every time? Because mid-combat, you subconsciously favor certain evasion patterns. Retreating backwards, dodging left and right… you consistently neglect the ‘vertical’ planes. The clever little squirt noticed this, cunningly kept it hidden, and keeps pre-aiming precisely where you’ll dodge. Given that… how can you not lose?”

“Hah! So that’s it at its core!” A genuine burst of laughter escaped Qin Lun as understanding dawned. “Clever indeed! You have my thanks, Alex!”

“It’s nothing, Sir,” Alex replied warmly. “Honestly, I rather look forward to seeing Fiers’s face next time he loses.” He added humorously, giving Qin Lun a conspiratorial wink. Both men shared a knowing grin.

With the frustrating puzzle solved, a relieved Qin Lun felt significantly cheered. He invited Alex for drinks at the warship’s entertainment lounge. The scholarly young man, seeming far more an academic than a fighter, readily accepted. Him and the other young Gith all loved hearing the Apostles recount their – suitably edited – past exploits.

While the Star Void rules still forbade feeding specific details about other Quest Worlds to Plot Characters, this enforcement was less stringent. Some creative storytelling… carefully avoiding forbidden specifics… was permissible entertainment.

“Doo-doo…”

Just as they reached the entrance to the entertainment lounge, the button-sized communicators clipped to their collars suddenly pulsed with sharp, urgent red flashes.

“Enemy attack?!” Qin Lun and Alex shot each other shocked looks.

Instantly, both men whipped around, sprinting full-speed towards their respective flight deck hatches.