Cerulean Planet (Blue Dust Trilogy #1)

Chapter 1

"S320. In position," Jiayun maneuvered his fighter ship to its designated location before reporting back to the main ship.

"Stand by," a cold, feminine voice sounded on the other end of his earpiece.

He looked around. The troop's newly imported small model fighter ships fanned out like a web, all of them pointing in the same direction. Then, the ships began to congregate, creating a shell-like circular formation. The battleships glowed with faint, white light reflecting from their sleek surfaces, resembling the curtain of stars that sat quietly behind them. This was a siege campaign. All he needed to do now was to wait and to annihilate.

The troop of hired mercenaries consisted mostly of humans. This particular race neither possessed superior intelligence nor were they exceedingly advanced in their evolution. Yet, they managed to forge legends out of interstellar battles again and again through their unpredictable tactics and the unique prowess of each of their members in combat. All the while, these mercenaries had generous donors and possessed the most cutting edge of weapons technology. They rarely encountered a rival that could match them in the last decade and counting.

Jiayun pushed open his helmet, looking over the galaxy that stretched before him with his naked eye through the window. The universe seemed ever so quiet at this very moment. Those bright stars ignited themselves. Even the smallest of planets housed the most volatile of chemical reactions. Raging storms; the crust splitting open and lava gushing from within. But by the time any of this made its way into space, it was reduced to but a faint glitter, with more silence than not.

Suddenly, a light-blue planet glimmering in the distance caught his eye.

The colour of water.

Jiayun concluded so.

The region they occupied was a "dead zone;" Jiayun didn't expect to see a blue planet with an abundance of water here. He was an Earthling who had no notion of the kinds of elitist superiority and unbridled abandon that Spacelings had. Spending year after year in foreign battlegrounds only made him miss home that much more.

"I hope the upcoming battle won't make its way to that planet," Jiayun secretly wished.

Compared to the pure yet deep indigo of Earth, this faint blue planet appeared translucent and soft like a piece of half-opaque sapphire.

A glaring halo suddenly flashed before his eyes.

Jiayun pulled down his helmet. Their enemies were about to appear.

The disorderly sprinkle of halo floating in space gradually began to align themselves into tube-like rows of rings. The Gate, surrounded by circular rings, slowly began to open.

By the time the piercing white light reached the fragile retina of his eyes through the helmet's filter, he could only make out a flat, two-dimensional shape. Even so, the view before him was breathtaking. Hundreds of halos spun at incredible speeds, producing a low hum as they did so. Space began ripping open where the centre of the ring was and a different view could be glimpsed through its crack. Chaotic lights of different colours spun quickly as they were taken inside the crevice. The Gate was like a black hole trying to absorb every beautiful colour the universe had to offer. Like a giant eye, it slowly began to open.

Soon, the first fusiform battleship emerged from the Gate.

Jiayun, like everyone else, placed his hands on the control stick and silently waited for orders.

After completing a jump, one would be subject to a period of sensory loss. If the report was accurate, the distance of the enemy troops' jump would place them in the Blind Zone for a total of 41 seconds. This meant that within these 41 seconds, their enemies would not be able to sense anything within spacetime. With a legion their size, it would take about ten seconds for all of them to complete the jump.