056 Breaking Through the Siege (Part Two)

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North Hudson Ground Station, Hangar 46 at Dock 12.

Standing at the hangar entrance, watching the shuttle driven away by Sereni, Reno took out the communicator. "Eagle calling Alpha, the bait has been deployed. How's the situation on your end?"

Claire's gentle voice came through the communicator, "Alpha received. All personnel have reached the designated target point and commenced takeover operations."

"You better hurry. No one knows how long those women can hold out."

"Understood, make sure you come back quickly too," Claire responded.

Putting down the communicator, Reno turned around to see a vast harbor with a starship docked, and numerous soldiers busy on it.

The Abrodyne! The Amenia Spaceport's Dock 4 was now completely occupied by former Abrodyne soldiers wearing blue-green uniforms. They were swiftly working on the ship, not for repairs but to reassemble the dismantled parts and cover the exposed areas, removing the repair equipment and securing anchors, striving to restore the starship to its original condition.

In simple terms: the ship had been repaired to this point.

On the other side of the dock, the original maintenance crew, including the port's chief engineer Amon Palma, were tied up and left on the platform, guarded by several soldiers holding guns.

"Bang!" A crane accidentally bumped into the ship, making a loud noise.

"Be careful, you fool!" Engineer Palma, tied up, angrily shouted, "You'll damage that regulator. It's responsible for redistributing the energy to forty-three energy conduits. Any malfunction could lead to an overload in the energy circuit, or even worse, pressure loss and explosion... You're playing with fire! Taking out a ship that's not fully repaired is a death wish!"

Engineer Palma shouted without any grace or fear.

"Don't be so nervous, Mr. Palma," Claire smiled as she approached, "If we could bring it back once, we can bring it out again. Even if the ship isn't fully repaired, it won't be worse than when it first entered the port. Besides, haven't you already fixed the most crucial core components?"

"Hah!" Palma made an incredulous expression, "Is this why you came to steal the Abrodyne? You think that if you can bring back a broken ship, you can take out one that's not so broken? What kind of logic is that? It's absurd!"

Claire responded expressionlessly, "We came to steal the Abrodyne because it was the only option we had... There wouldn't be a fully intact starship waiting for us to steal without any defenses."

"But this is too risky!" Palma lectured Claire without courtesy, "I admit that the ship can be taken out, but it still has too many issues. And any problem in deep space could turn into a disaster. You might just go halfway and boom, turn into a massive fireworks show! Besides the fireworks, you won't leave anything behind. The person who came up with this plan is simply insane!"

"Perhaps. But we don't care. We're soldiers, taking risks is our duty," Claire replied.

"Loyalty should be your duty, not taking risks. You're traitors!" Palma retorted.

"No!" Claire replied, "We didn't betray the country, the country betrayed us!"

Palma was slightly stunned.

He saw Claire's serious expression, her eyes filled with sadness, and saw all the soldiers looking at him at that moment.

A soldier said, "You'll never understand what we went through in that hospital, nor will you understand the feeling of a soldier returning from the battlefield only to be imprisoned. You don't understand how it feels. You're not understanding this, Mr. Palma. You're just a technical bureaucrat, spinning between cables and bearings, ignorant of blood, death, and even less about harm and betrayal. We're not traitors, those high and mighty guys are... they betrayed us!"

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