Limited Ambiguity Chapter 66 Part 1

Chapter 66.1

“Apologies.”

Pojun suddenly spoke.

“I know I’m breaking the wonderful atmosphere, and the General is probably itching to dismantle me or reset me to my factory settings, but I believe this matter is urgent.”

Although Pojun was merely an AI, his level of autonomy was high. He had his own way of ‘thinking’ and making ‘judgments.’

Holding Qi Yan’s fingers, which had turned ice-cold in the night breeze, Lu Fenghan asked Pojun, “What is it?”

Pojun: “Two streets away from this building, a group of people just passed by. They were discussing a kidnapping.”

Lu Fenghan frowned. “Who are they planning to kidnap?”

Pojun: “This planet.”

Qi Yan was puzzled. “Kidnap a planet?”

Pojun: “Yes. They’re moving quickly toward a specific coordinate. According to their conversation, this operation is meant to uphold the glory of the rebel army and to avenge the 11th Corps’ Commander, Donald.”

Lu Fenghan gazed into the distance, where layers of darkness stretched endlessly. Only a few scattered points of light flickered faintly, far from enough to illuminate the vast expanse.

“Kidnapping a planet is a common tactic used by space pirates. Before Lu Jun crushed them, their favorite trick was hijacking starships to demand massive ransoms. If they were completely broke, they’d go for something big like kidnapping an entire planet and threatening the Alliance with an astronomical ransom. If the Alliance refused to pay, they’d blow up the whole planet. Naturally, everyone on it would die.”

After a brief moment of thought, Lu Fenghan ordered Pojun, “Use my authorization to retrieve data and check if any of those people have a criminal record with the Alliance as space pirates.”

Qi Yan immediately made a connection. “Vincent mentioned that after the Foundation Day, the space pirates and the rebel army had a falling out. Was that false?”

Lu Fenghan chose his words carefully. “It’s just suspicion and speculation. Pirates don’t act without profit, and they’ve long been at odds with the Alliance. They wouldn’t break ties easily. Aligning with the rebel army means that they can claim a share of the spoils if the Alliance truly falls.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Pojun completed the comparison. “General, among that group, two are registered space pirates. One is named Bius, the other Hench. Both were involved in the Alva planet kidnapping case in Year 182 of the Star calendar. They’ve been fugitives for thirty-five years, and the Alliance has placed a two-million-star-coin bounty on them.”

“The rebels want to succeed in one attempt without any mistakes, so naturally, they’d rely on ‘experts’ among the space pirates for guidance. There are definitely more than just these two with criminal records.”

Lu Fenghan didn’t rush off to confront the group two streets away. Instead, he continued questioning Pojun. “Search all available surveillance feeds. I need to know their plan.”

Pojun, a law-abiding AI, reminded, “General, a large-scale intrusion into the planetary surveillance system is a violation of Alliance law.”

Lu Fenghan raised an eyebrow. “You just called me ‘General.’”

“Understood.” Pojun fell silent. This time, the search took a little longer. “They plan to send a message to the Alliance under the name of space pirates after kidnapping the planet. The Alliance leadership is far away in Odin, which means the task of rescuing the planet will fall on you, General.

“Once you accept the mission, they will immediately destroy Mykono star, refusing any negotiations or ransom. The resulting massive casualties and the Expeditionary Force’s failure to provide effective rescue will incite public outrage. Your victory from the other day will be completely overshadowed, and at the same time, both the Alliance government and military will suffer an even greater loss of public trust.”

“They want to repeat their previous propaganda warfare.” Lu Fenghan thought that this plan wasn’t particularly sophisticated, but it was effective.

If he and Qi Yan hadn’t happened to be on Mykono star, if the portable Pojun hadn’t been on high alert and detected this scheme by chance, things might have played out exactly as the rebel army intended.

Pojun: “What’s our response plan? General, I’m very nervous.”

Lu Fenghan: “Check the communication status.”

“External communications were cut off fifteen minutes ago. All outgoing signals are fake. One minute ago, Mykono’s official website stated that planetary communications had been interrupted, supposedly due to particle storms. They’ve dispatched technicians for repairs. Internal communications remain unaffected for now, and they’ve urged citizens not to panic. For safety reasons, the civilian space lanes have been temporarily shut down.”

“The same trick again.”

Lu Fenghan recalled that on the Foundation Day, when the entire Fontaine-1 fleet perished, they had encountered the exact same tactic.

Pojun sounded worried. “General, we can’t contact the fleet.”

Qi Yan reassured him, “There’s a regular garrison stationed on Mykono.”

“Mm,” Lu Fenghan responded. “Besides, Mykono is one of the usual rest rotation destinations of the Expeditionary Force.”

In a bar on Mykono, a young man with short hair was chatting with a bartender. He specifically reminded him, “Make it the weakest drink. I’ll just take a sip to taste it, otherwise if I go back smelling of alcohol, my boss will scold me to death!”

The bartender laughed. “Got it, got it. But why is your boss so strict? Even off-day drinking is prohibited?”

The young man grinned. “Drinking dulls the senses. A clear head keeps you alive!”

Curious, the bartender leaned over the bar and asked, “We’ve known each other for a while now, Calvin. What exactly do you do? You’re always disappearing for long stretches.”

Calvin shrugged. “I clean up space junk. Not much free time, but it’s pretty exciting!”

The bartender straightened up, not quite understanding what was so exciting about cleaning up space debris. Did he expect to dig up priceless treasures and strike it rich overnight?

Just then, the personal terminal on Calvin’s left wrist flashed. He glanced at it absentmindedly, but the moment he saw the message, his eyes widened sharply.

He cursed under his breath.

Something had gone wrong.

The smile vanished from Calvin’s face, replaced by a rare seriousness. A bad feeling surged in his chest. He took two quick steps toward the door before doubling back to grab his jacket draped over the chair. As he ran, he slipped it on and called out, “Charge the drink to my account. That one’s on me!”

At the same time, every soldier of the Expeditionary Force who was still on leave on Mykono received the same message.

It was a single, cryptic order: “Report your real-time location.”

No explanation, no context. But since it came from Lu Fenghan, no one dared to ignore it.

Two minutes later, Pojun’s map display was filled with an expanding field of green dots, each representing a soldier’s response.

Lu Fenghan scanned the map. Most were concentrated in the bustling urban areas, but there were also dozens of signals near the outskirts, the mountain ranges, and even scattered across the ocean.

The moment his men disembarked, they had scattered like dandelions, drifting everywhere.

By now, Lu Fenghan and Qi Yan had left the rooftop and returned to their room.

Destroying a planet was not difficult with modern military technology.

All it took was forty to fifty stellar-class missiles detonating at very close intervals, and the spreading force fields would continuously stack up. Although Mykono would not be blown to pieces, it was enough to ensure that most of the living beings on the planet’s surface would perish.

In just a few breaths, Mykono would become a dead world.

Stellar-class missiles were typically stored at multiple locations for security reasons. Each storage facility was classified as an S-level secret, and launching them required the corresponding decryption key.

Lu Fenghan asked Qi Yan, “If it were you, could you obtain the authorization to launch stellar-class missiles?”

Qi Yan thought for only a moment before answering, “Yes. A decryption key works like a physical key. As long as it matches the ‘keyhole,’ it grants access. Even if I don’t know the exact structure of the key, I could design a program to generate hundreds of thousands, even millions of potential ‘keys’ and run them against the ‘keyhole’ until one fits. The calculations would be extensive, but eventually, one would be correct, and the system would unlock.”

Lu Fenghan: “Space pirates could do the same.”

Qi Yan nodded. “Yes. Pojun mentioned the Alva planet kidnapping case, which means the space pirates must have developed a decryption technique that bypasses the system’s limit on verification attempts, effectively turning a finite number of attempts into an unlimited one.”

“Otherwise, if they entered the wrong key twice, the system would automatically lock them out?” Lu Fenghan asked.

“Exactly,” Qi Yan replied, placing himself in the hacker’s position. “No matter how advanced the Alliance’s security key system is, it wouldn’t be able to stop me. The only limitation is the scale of computational power.”

Then, he blinked and added, “But I can try to stop the intruders.”

He shared his plan with Lu Fenghan. “While the enemy continuously attempts to crack the key, I can keep changing it. As long as I’m faster than they are, and they can’t keep up with me, they won’t be able to unlock it.”

Lu Fenghan: “How long can you hold them off?”

Qi Yan: “About twenty minutes.”

“It’s enough.” Lu Fenghan unfastened the buttons of his gray trench coat, revealing the sharp lines of his neck. “To simultaneously activate the stellar-class missile launch system, someone must manually enter the decryption key at all seven storage facilities and press the launch button in sequence. That means every storage facility will have intruders.”

Qi Yan immediately understood Lu Fenghan’s plan. “I’ll need two compact optical computers and a spare. To be safe, better prepare an extra one.”

Glancing at the map filled with green signals, Lu Fenghan ordered Pojun, “Identify the three closest tech personnel and have them bring compact optical computers here at full speed.”

The moment the command was issued, three nearby dots on the map began moving toward Lu Fenghan’s location.

Pojun quickly highlighted two more dots a little farther away. “These two are also from the Technical Department.”

“Good. Have them hurry over as well.”

Due to wartime protocols, all Expeditionary Force tech personnel were required to carry compact optical computers at all times, whether on duty or not, to ensure they could respond to emergencies at a moment’s notice.

Leave was no exception.

As Lorenz, the head of the Technical Department, put it, “Even if you’re out enjoying the nightlife, your optical computer should always be within arm’s reach. You never know whether war or XX will come first.”

With that settled, Lu Fenghan used his clearance to pinpoint the coordinates of all seven stellar-class missile storage facilities.

Each storage facility held six missiles. With a total of forty-two missiles, it was enough to completely flatten the entire planetary surface.

“Pojun, prioritize proximity and form seven teams, each with a hundred soldiers. The rest will remain on standby.”

On the map, colors spread outward from each coordinate, dyeing the soldiers’ signals in seven distinct hues. At a glance, the seven teams could be distinguished easily.

Lu Fenghan: “Send the mission details to everyone’s personal terminals. Mark the exact coordinates of the missile storage facilities and highlight the locations of nearby armories. Use my clearance to unlock them. Let them take whatever weapons they need.”

Pojun: “Understood.”

On the other side of the city, Calvin rushed out of the bar, jumped into his rented hover car, and sped toward the nearest armory.

Midway, he spotted two people sprinting down the street. He honked, catching their attention. Their eyes met, and without hesitation, Calvin called out, “How’s the braised pork ribs in the cafeteria on the seventh of every month?”

One of the runners panted heavily, momentarily stunned, before indignantly replying, “I’ve never grabbed any! All I know is that the smoked fish that day is always way too salty!”

Calvin threw open the car door. “That’s a real brother, get in!”

By the time the hover car was overloaded and couldn’t fit a fourth passenger, Calvin yanked the control lever hard. The vehicle shot forward like an arrow, streaking toward their destination.

The one who had complained about the smoked fish said, “When the command came in, I was soaking in a hot bath. I threw on my clothes and ran out, didn’t even rinse off the soap. It’s gotta be the rebels causing trouble again, interrupting my damn bath!”

The other chimed in, “First, they’re sending us to the armory. Then, we head to the stellar-class missile storage facilities. This is big, really big.”

“I bet everyone who hasn’t returned to the fleet is sprinting through the night right now,” Calvin said proudly. “Not me, though. I’ve got a ride.”

When they arrived at the armory, all conversation ceased. Their personal terminals, linked directly to their auditory nerves, fed them the details of their mission in a crisp electronic voice.

At the same time, based on rank, a temporary team leader for this operation was assigned within thirty seconds.

Under the cover of night, soldiers lined up in silence, swiftly retrieving weapons from the unlocked armory. Aside from the heavy sound of boots against the floor, there was no noise. Not a single unnecessary word was spoken.

It was a sudden mission, yet the Expeditionary Force displayed remarkable discipline.

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