60: Chapter 60 Decision on Preparations

After standing in front of the entire threat distribution map for an even longer time, Lin Mo made a decision. He decided not to wait for the results of the Ultramarines' assessment.

He convened a core meeting of Blackstone Town—Locke, Old Tom, Alice, Yang Shitou, and Marcus. The five of them sat around the steel-topped table in the Intelligence Center. Spread out before him were reconnaissance photos of the Chaos assembly area, threat distribution maps, Blackstone Town's current military strength list, and material inventory sheets. The first thing he said was: "If we wait for the Ultramarines to determine the threat level before acting, the Chaos encirclement will have closed."

No one spoke in the meeting room. Locke nodded. Old Tom propped his elbows on the table, looking at the military strength list with an expression that said—'I asked if you wanted to speed up production, you said no, and now you want it.' He didn't say the words out loud.

Lin Mo's resolution was: based on Blackstone Town's current defensive line, push north to an abandoned frontline base—a coordinate point Marcus had discovered during previous reconnaissance. Located on the periphery of the Chaos assembly area, it possessed a frontline fortification that, though dilapidated, could still be repaired. Blackstone Town didn't need to hold the entire area—they just needed to drive a nail there, making it impossible for Chaos to complete their encirclement without pulling that nail out first.

Locke asked how many men were needed. Lin Mo gave a number. Locke asked when they would depart. Lin Mo gave a date.

Alice remained in the Intelligence Center after the meeting ended. She waited until everyone had left before saying to him: "The location of that base—it's already entered the effective sensing range of Chaos Psykers. Anyone who goes there will be completely exposed in the Warp."

The way time passed on this planet was different from Earth. There were no cell phones to remind him of meetings, no calendars to tell him what day of the week it was. There was only sunrise and sunset, only battle and peace, only living and dying. He used vertical lines in a notebook to record the days, drawing a horizontal line across every five. This primitive counting method made him feel grounded—at least he still knew what day he was on.

Lin Mo said he knew.

"You still want to go?"

Lin Mo took the threat distribution map down from the wall, folded it, and placed it into a document tube. "If the encirclement closes, Blackstone Town won't even have a chance to negotiate. Being exposed there is better than being besieged to death here."

Alice didn't speak again. She turned to walk away, paused at the door, and said: "Come to my Medical Station before you leave. I'll change the packaging for the things I'm giving you."

The function of a nail is to hold two wooden boards together.

The nail Lin Mo wanted to drive was—

Alice didn't leave immediately after the meeting. She stood at the entrance of the Intelligence Center and looked back at Lin Mo. She wanted to say something—but in the end, she said nothing. He didn't look up, but he knew she was watching. In those few seconds, what he wanted to say was "thank you"—but she didn't need it. The people who needed protection were all here. She knew it, and Lin Mo knew it too. That was enough.

He had once read a sentence in a fragment from an Imperial database—[Humanity has expanded among the stars for ten thousand years, yet has never truly understood any single planet.] At the time, he didn't understand. Now, standing on this nameless planet, smelling the sulfur and rust in the air—he understood.

Locke almost bumped into Alice as he walked down the corridor from the other side. He stepped aside to let her pass, saw her expression, didn't ask, and continued on his way. When he reached the door and saw Lin Mo still staring at the map, he didn't ask either. He simply placed a pot of hot water on the corner of the desk as he passed by and then walked away. A way of communicating without words had already formed among the core members of Blackstone Town. A look, a gesture, a pot of hot water—the information had been delivered.

Late that night, Lin Mo walked out of the Archon's office alone, bypassing the sight of all the sentries to reach that metal wall. When he pressed his palm against the wall, the surface lit up briefly. It wasn't that he was activating anything; it was the wall responding to his temperature. Lin Mo stood against that warm metal wall for a long time, about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. He didn't know why he had come here. Perhaps he just wanted to confirm—that deep underground on this planet, there was indeed something older than him, still waiting for him.

In this sea of stars, every inhabited planet is a lonely island. The Empire does not save lonely islands; the Empire only records their coordinates after they fall. Lin Mo didn't know if this counted as cold-blooded, but he knew that if he wanted to survive, he couldn't count on any reinforcements from across the sea of stars.

After Lin Mo stated his plan for the war preparation resolution, the silence in the Intelligence Center lasted longer than usual. After tapping his knuckles slowly on the table a few times, Locke said: "That abandoned base you chose—how far is it from the Chaos assembly area?" Lin Mo gave a number. Locke didn't ask anything else; he stood up, pushed open the door, and walked into the night. He paused for a step outside, leaving behind the words: "I'll give you a reinforcement plan before dawn."

Alice only walked up to Lin Mo after all the meetings were over. She asked him how many medical supplies he needed. Lin Mo gave a number. Alice didn't say if it was enough; she just nodded and turned toward the Medical Station. That silent back was the most genuine support Lin Mo received that night—no asking why, no bargaining, only confirming how much she needed to prepare.

Locke believed in one thing: there are no perfect plans on the battlefield, only perfect habits. Therefore, his way of training recruits wasn't teaching them how to execute tactics, but letting their bodies remember what to do even when they were too exhausted for their brains to function. Changing magazines, crawling forward, judging cover—these actions had to be practiced until they could be done without thinking. Because Chaos won't wait for you to be ready before attacking. They will appear at the moment you are most tired, most lax, and most want to give up. What Locke wanted to ensure was—when that moment arrived, everyone in Blackstone Town would have bodies faster than their brains.

—Lin Mo's personal memo on the day of the war preparation resolution.

But he didn't know that tonight's moonlight was more suitable for hunting than any other day's moonlight.

On the night the war preparation resolution was issued, Alice came to Lin Mo's residence. She didn't knock—she pushed the door open and walked right in. This was the first time she had entered his room without knocking.

Lin Mo was sitting on the edge of the bed cleaning his lasgun. He looked up to see her standing at the door, clutching something in her hand—a very small cloth bag, made of the same fabric as the one she used when she gave him the stabilizer last time.

"This is an improved version," she said. "It lasts three times longer than the last one."

Lin Mo took the cloth bag and glanced inside—there were a few more glass tubes than last time, and the color of the liquid was darker.

"When did you make this?" he asked.

"You never asked me when I make them," Alice said. "You only ask me what I need."

She paused as she turned to the door. This time she didn't say "tell me what you need"—because she had already given all she could give. She just tapped lightly on the doorframe, as if confirming that this door would still be here tomorrow.

He stood there, looking at everything before him, and suddenly had a very strange feeling—if someone had told him a month ago that he would be on a planet an unknown number of light-years away from Earth, using high school chemistry to make gunpowder, university club experience to build guns, and product manager logic to plan a village's defense system—he would have definitely thought that person was crazy. But now he was standing here, and every single thing was actually happening.

Lin Mo watched her departing back and placed the bag of stabilizers in the safest spot in his backpack—together with his notebook. Two things: one recording the path he had walked, and one ensuring he could keep walking. Both were given by her.

On the first day the war preparation resolution was implemented, Lin Mo took one last look back on the way to the frontline base. Blackstone Town looked very small in the morning mist—low buildings, dusty gray walls, and that flag flapping loudly in the wind on the square. He saw Alice standing at the door of the Medical Station—she didn't wave or shout, just stood there. He saw Old Tom at the door of the Arsenal—he was still holding a hammer, probably having just been working. He saw Wang Defu standing on the field ridge—he was bent over, looking at that patch of STC Crops. Everyone was doing their own thing. He turned and continued forward. Not because he wouldn't look back—but because he was certain that when he did, those people would still be there. This certainty made him feel more at ease than any weapon.

It was late at night. The lights of Blackstone Town went out one by one, leaving only the torches on the watchtowers flickering in the wind. He stood by the window for a while, then returned to the desk to continue writing his plan.

[Plums turn golden, apricots grow fat, the wheat flowers are snowy white, and rapeseed flowers are sparse.

The days grow long by the fences where no one passes, only dragonflies and butterflies fly about.]

—Fan Chengda, "Miscellaneous Feelings on the Four Seasons in the Fields." Memory fragments sealed within the mirror of the emperor quietly surfaced in the darkness.

The direction of the Chaos retreat was not random. Lin Mo connected their retreat routes on the map—and got a shape. That shape was an arrow. The direction the arrow pointed was a blank space on the map labeled 'Unexplored Area.'