Chapter Twenty-Eight: From the Planetary Graveyard

Upon the land, earth beasts rampaged without restraint. The ground was fractured, dust and rubble filled the sky as if the end of the world had arrived. Massive earth beasts roamed the land, sometimes burrowing underground, sometimes surging into the mountains. Chunks of the earth’s vital ore were swallowed whole by the beasts. Any resources they managed to find were utterly destroyed by these creatures. For the earth beasts, such ores were nourishment, a means of growth.

Two figures flew through the air, weaving among the swirling dirt and scattered stones. In the distance, lights flared as squads of mechs dodged falling debris. Upon a mountain peak, an earth beast, eight meters long, coiled menacingly, then opened its maw and spewed a hail of stones like bullets, engulfing the mechs in the sky.

Thud, thud.

The stones battered the shields, sounding a deep, muffled drum. One beast leaped from the mountain, its massive body crashing down atop a mech.

Boom.

The mech plummeted to the ground, carving a huge crater where it landed. The earth beast, its hide thick and tough, vanished the instant it touched the earth. The mech’s shield flickered, nearly spent. As its pilot tried to rise, a gaping maw burst from below, biting down on half the mech, the shield groaning under the strain.

Bang.

A metal fist crashed into the beast, the mech’s energy flaring as it broke through the beast’s defenses, but could go no further.

“Unit 193 requesting assistance, unit 193 requesting assistance…”

He activated his distress call, but the nearby mechs were already struggling to survive themselves. Without their weapons, the mechs’ energy alone was not enough to dominate the beasts.

A golden light pierced the dust and debris, homing in on the distress signal. A single punch landed on the beast, detonating with a shocking explosion, blood spraying as a hole was blasted through the creature’s body. In pain, the beast released its grip. Jiang Taichu seized the mech’s arm and shot into the sky. “Unit 193, are you alright?”

“Thank you, thank you! That was a fully grown earth beast. If you’d come any later, I wouldn’t have made it,” replied 193, his voice still trembling with youth.

“You must have graduated recently?” Jiang Taichu asked.

“Yes,” 193 replied, “My name is Lu Changqing, I just graduated from Spring City Mining University.”

“No wonder. Relax, don’t be so tense,” Jiang Taichu said calmly. “If you were an old hand, you’d have pushed your mech to the limit and shattered that beast’s teeth by now.”

Though it was difficult to unleash the mech’s full power, for the sake of survival, one could always overdrive the energy output, even at great personal risk.

The result would be dizziness, possibly fainting, but that was better than waiting for death. Jiang Taichu led him through the debris, maneuvering with 45% power, utterly unafraid of the stones or the beasts. Even a fully grown earth beast could not withstand a mech driven at nearly half power.

“Be careful. I saw an employee killed by a mech just now,” Lu Changqing whispered.

“What?” Jiang Taichu stared at him in shock. “Killed by a mech?”

“Yes, someone in a mech was killing people,” Lu Changqing said heavily, fear in his voice. “Not far from here—I wanted to help, but the other guy had a semi-automatic rifle.”

“How did a gun get in here?” Jiang Taichu’s expression grew grave. He called out on the comms, “Fatty Tang, Zhang Jing, if you hear me, respond.”

Two beams of light sped away, vanishing in the swirling sand in the blink of an eye. Mechs soared into the night sky, their patrol lights especially conspicuous.

Bang, bang.

Two gunshots rang out. Lu Changqing jumped, shouting, “Watch out—!”

Jiang Taichu yanked Lu Changqing down, dodging two bullets. Looking below, he saw two figures weaving among the earth beasts, untouched by their attacks. Their evasion had clearly surprised the assailants, who failed to fire again in time.

In an instant, Jiang Taichu was upon one of them, landing a punch on the energy shield.

Boom.

The shield shuddered and shattered. The punch slammed into the mech, nearly tearing it apart.

Crunch.

The sound of bones breaking echoed. The terrifying force shattered the pilot’s bones, blood flowing as his body flew like a battered sandbag, the semi-automatic rifle spinning from his grasp.

“Something’s wrong.” Jiang Taichu caught the rifle in midair, then fired a burst in return, riddling the foe with bullets. “They’re using outdated mechs!”

Ratatat.

Bullets whizzed by, sprayed wildly, the shooter’s aim lost. The other assailant fired while trying to burrow underground. Jiang Taichu dove in pursuit. Meeting an earth beast below, he rammed through it with brute force, moving like a wild beast himself.

“Slow down, please, slow down!” Lu Changqing shrieked as he was dragged along, feeling as though he might vomit at any moment. He could barely withstand such rapid movement.

Jiang Taichu paid him no heed; his spirit radar showed the target was close. The assailant, realizing escape was impossible, abandoned his attempt to burrow and shot skyward. Jiang Taichu followed, bursting out onto the surface.

Ratatat…

A hail of bullets closed in, but Jiang Taichu, as if expecting it, twisted midair, dodging every shot. He landed another punch on his foe. The mech’s shield shattered instantly, the force nearly destroying the outdated armor. These old mechs had only sixty percent the power of a standard unit, and their defenses couldn’t keep up. The pilot, unable to use his full strength, could manage at best thirty percent—how could he withstand Jiang Taichu’s blow?

Agonizing pain hit. The man’s body shot backward like a cannonball. Jiang Taichu was faster still, appearing behind him in a flash, pinning him by the back and seizing his weapon. “Who sent you?”

“Someone paid us to hunt at the planetary graveyard, to cull the earth beasts,” the man gasped.

“Planetary graveyard? This is Earth Star One—how could this be a graveyard?” Jiang Taichu’s face darkened.

“I bought a ticket to enter, and rented this mech at the Yuling Treasure Shop.”

“So you kill anyone you see?” Lu Changqing demanded in outrage.

“In the planetary graveyard, isn’t fighting normal? We act, and Heaven’s Law doesn’t object,” the captive croaked.

“That’s true enough. Seeing us unarmed, you took us for easy prey,” Jiang Taichu sneered.

Lu Changqing searched the man, finding a sachet and a backpack. The sachet reeked, “This is a special concoction for earth beasts. They’ll take you for one of their own and ignore you.”

In the backpack were ten magazines. Jiang Taichu nodded and searched the other corpse, finding another sachet and backpack, each with ten magazines as well.

The two of them, dragging their captive in the outdated mech, flew rapidly to the rest area, only to find it destroyed.

“Maybe we should go up—there’s a light in the sky,” Lu Changqing suggested.

Jiang Taichu nodded, taking him higher. At five thousand meters, dozens of mechs had gathered. Fatty Tang and Zhang Jing were among them. At five thousand three hundred meters, a golden barrier enveloped everything.

“Taichu, you’re alright, thank goodness,” Tang Yu breathed a sigh of relief. “We couldn’t find you, nearly got bitten by a beast, so we shot up here.”

“Picked this guy up on the way—claims he’s from the planetary graveyard,” Jiang Taichu said, tossing the captive to Zhang Jing. “Keep an eye on him.”

“Changqing!” a voice called out. A patrol mech strode forward, a kitchen knife in hand.

“Uncle!” Lu Changqing cried, overjoyed. “I’m so glad you’re alright. Where’d you get that knife?”

“Found it at the rest area. The cook was eaten by a beast, but the knife is a spiritual tool—I used it to hack my way out.”

“This is Jiang Taichu. He saved my life back there…”