38: Chapter 38: Deep into the Arctic, Destroying the Chaos Gathering Point

The Raven's next reconnaissance mission discovered a specific target for a strike.

Deep within the arctic ice fields of Hope Star, a Chaos convergence point existed. The reason the Chaos Forces arriving from different directions could maintain coordination was that this convergence point provided them with a unified navigation beacon. After the reconnaissance data was confirmed, Lin Mo made a decision he didn't discuss with anyone: take out their navigation center before the main force arrived.

Rock opposed this plan—the North Pole was too far from Blackstone Town, and the window of time the main force would be away was too long. Lin Mo did not change his decision. He streamlined the strike team: Rock would take a few elites, including Duran. The raven reconnaissance drone would be responsible for transport and evacuation. Alice would accompany the team—not for combat, but to identify and neutralize the psionic fluctuations of the Chaos convergence point if necessary.

The Expeditionary Force marched across the arctic ice fields for several days. The Chaos convergence point was located at the bottom of an ice-covered crater. When Rock looked down from the crater's rim, he saw a circular structure constructed of bone and metal, over dozens of meters in diameter, its surface carved with Chaos runes glowing a dull red. At the bottom of the crater, about dozens of Chaos cultists were maintaining the array's operation.

The battle was very short, ending in less than a few dozen minutes. Rock led the team to breach from the crater rim in three directions, using the ice field terrain for cover before launching a close-quarters surprise attack. Duran used his modified mining pick to smash a runic pillar in the center of the Chaos convergence point—when the first one fell, the red light of the entire array flickered and then dimmed by about half. Alice stood firm in the center of the crater floor, her hands pressed against the core structure of the array's eye. The suppression ring on her wrist did not shatter, but she found a gap within the ring's constraints through which she could conduct psionic energy—a faint golden shimmer seeped from her fingertips into the array's eye, dismantling the remaining runic structure from the inside.

The light of the entire Chaos convergence point extinguished in an instant. As they retreated, Duran picked up a small piece of shattered rune stone and put it in his pocket. When Rock asked him what he was doing, Duran said, "Just a souvenir."

The chaos attention level dropped from seventy-eight to seventy-five. With the navigation beacon destroyed, the Chaos Forces converging on Hope Star would lose their unified operational rhythm—Lin Mo hadn't gained much, but it was enough for him to take the next step.

Meanwhile, in a Black Legion outpost camp hundreds of kilometers away, a figure wearing a pig-iron mask stood before a spread-out star map. Its finger rested on the location of the arctic ice fields—the red light there had just extinguished in its perception.

It felt no anger. Anger was an emotion for soldiers, not for a Commander. It simply remained silent for a few seconds, then tapped the star map twice with its iron-gauntleted finger, hitting an unmarked area in the southern part of Hope Star.

"Reroute," it said, its voice raspy. "Have them take the southern route. Go where that light cannot reach."

The adjutant behind it hesitated: "But the southern route has radiation belts—"

The voice beneath the mask didn't rise, but the temperature in the room seemed to drop by two degrees: "I said, reroute."

Rock remained silent throughout the return journey. It wasn't because the battle had exhausted him, but because he was pondering a question—if a location like the arctic ice field could be infiltrated by Chaos into a stronghold, then every seemingly safe patch of land around Blackstone Town could hide the next Chaos convergence point. The first thing he did upon returning to town was ask Lin Mo for a complete topographical map and began marking all locations that might have similar geological structures. His finger paused several times while marking the map—not out of hesitation, but because each pause meant he had found a defensive line that needed re-evaluation.

That night, he sat in the Intelligence Center with the raven reconnaissance drone's flight data and the full map of the Eastern Star Sector spread before him. Without a unified navigation beacon, there would be a brief window of opportunity while the Chaos Forces fought independently—about a few weeks. During this time, a specific coordinate point would be in a relative vacuum. Lin Mo tapped a spot on the map. Before finding the starting point for the expedition, he had one more small thing to do—repair that Raven so it could fly further and find more things that could break the deadlock.

The navigation beacon was shattered.

Lin Mo looked away from the map and glanced out the window. Under the grey-purple sky, the Arsenal's chimneys were still quietly emitting smoke. Every day he spent on this planet taught him the same lesson: in this universe, there are no permanent victories, only a defense that never slackens for a single day.

The friendship between the Chaos brothers ended there.

Before they could renegotiate who would take the lead—

On the last night before the Arctic Expeditionary Force set out, Alice came to Lin Mo's quarters and handed him a small cloth bag—inside were improved versions of the psykana stabilizer. She stood at the door and did not enter, just as she had when she first delivered the crystals. But this time, she stood at the door for a few seconds longer.

"This time is more dangerous than the last," she said.

"I know."

"The formula for the stabilizer has been changed. The dosage is the same, but it takes effect faster." She looked down at the bag in her hand, her fingers tightening slightly at the drawstring. "If you suffer a psionic shock, inject one into the inside of your arm first—don't wait to confirm it, just inject it."

"Alright."

When she handed the bag over, her fingertips brushed his. The contact was brief, so brief that no third person would have noticed. But Lin Mo noticed—her fingertips were cold, unnaturally cold, as if the long-term suppression of her psionics under the suppression ring had caused poor peripheral circulation. She probably didn't even know it herself.

She turned and left. After taking two steps, she paused, and without looking back, simply said, "When you return, give the bag back to me."

"Why?"

"Because empty bags can be refilled."

Lin Mo watched her figure disappear at the end of the corridor. He looked down at the bag in his hand; the drawstring was tied in a simple knot she commonly used—tight, clean, with no loose ends. He untied it and took a look: twelve sealed glass tubes, each filled with a pale silver liquid, darker in color than last time—she had changed the formula, but she hadn't told him what improvements she'd made, nor had she asked if he would need them for this mission. She had simply done what she could and left the choice to him.

While the Expeditionary Force trekked across the northern ice fields, they faced blizzards and unknown threats every day. During the march, he would occasionally feel the bag in his backpack—not because he needed to use it, but because touching that tight, simple knot with his fingertips reminded him of the way her fingers tightened when she tied it.

The night before the Arctic Expeditionary Force departed, there was a dip in morale—a young soldier was found with trembling fingers while organizing his gear. Rock walked over and knelt in front of him; he didn't scold him, but simply helped him retighten the straps of his backpack and said one thing: "It's right to be afraid. Those who aren't afraid are already dead on the road." The soldier was stunned. Rock stood up, patted him on the shoulder, and continued checking the next person's gear. That night, the soldier sat by the campfire for a long time, then he found Rock and said, "Captain, I'll take the front row tomorrow." Rock looked at him for a moment and nodded.

The blizzard the Expeditionary Force encountered on the arctic ice fields was more violent than expected. The marching speed was forced down to less than a third of the original. Rock's beard was matted with ice in the sub-zero temperatures, and each breath of white mist formed a new layer of frost on his whiskers. He walked at the very front of the column, using the handle of his battle-axe to probe the path. Before each step, he had to confirm that the ice beneath could support a person's weight.

The map of the Eastern Star Sector hanging on the wall of the Intelligence Center already had dozens more markings than it did a few months ago. Each marking was a trajectory of Blackstone Town's expansion—new outposts, new farms, new settlements. But this expansion also meant a stretched defensive radius, meaning there were more gaps for Chaos to slip through. Lin Mo would sometimes stare at that map for a long time, not looking at the areas already occupied—but at the unmarked blanks. Blanks were not no-man's-lands. Blanks were the unknown. And in this universe, the unknown was rarely empty.

—Lin Mo's Late-Night Combat Notes upon Return from the Arctic

During the Arctic Expedition, Alice saw the inner workings of a Chaos convergence point up close for the first time. When she stood in the center of the array's eye, her hands pressed against the core structure, she felt an unprecedented psionic shock—not aggressive, but seductive. The array tried to use a warm, enveloping power to entice her to abandon the constraints of the suppression ring and release all her psionic energy.

She almost wavered in those few seconds.

Then she remembered something Lin Mo had said before they left—"If you're not sure whether to do something, first think about whether you can still come back after doing it."

She grit her teeth and, using the restraint granted to her by the suppression ring, guided her psionic energy thread by thread into the core structure of the array's eye, dismantling it from within. A drop of blood seeped from the tip of her nose—the price of psionic overload. But she didn't let anyone see.

On the way back, she kept her eyes closed in the Raven's transport bay, secretly wiping that drop of blood onto her cuff. She didn't tell Lin Mo what had just happened. She only gave a small nod when he looked at her.

Before the Arctic Expeditionary Force set out, Lin Mo handed Rock a handwritten alternative combat plan. On the plan were written two words: "Plan B". When Rock opened it, he saw a retreat route more extreme than the official plan—a route that would only be activated if the situation spiraled completely out of control. Rock folded the plan and put it in his left breast pocket—close to his heart. "It's best if it's not used," Lin Mo said. Rock glanced at him and nodded: "It's best if it's not used. But carrying it makes me feel more at ease."

[A lone carriage seeks the border land,

Past Juyan, the tributary state's command.

Like tumbling tumbleweed from Han's frontier,

Like returning geese in the barbarian sky.]

—Wang Wei, "Mission to the Frontier". Memory fragments sealed within the mirror of the emperor quietly surfaced in the darkness.

What the Arctic Expeditionary Force did not know was that at the moment they destroyed the Chaos convergence point, a ship hidden in the shadows of Hope Star's planetary rings recorded that golden light. That ship did not belong to the Empire. It did not belong to Chaos. It belonged to—something that shouldn't exist in this era.