As soon as the first rays of the morning sun illuminated the towering cliffs of the valley surrounding the prisoner of war camp, a series of sharp whistles rang out one after another outside the cave cells. Some guards in black uniforms, light individual armor, and lasers on their backs opened the gates one after another with a loud bang, and violently brandished electric batons and other things to blast the groggy prisoners out of the dark and damp cells like chickens and ducks.

Outside the rows of prisoners, in a crooked and uneven procession, waiting for the guards to finish the roll call, these prisoners of war, wearing tattered and fuchsia prison uniforms, were escorted by the heavily armed marines, and slowly crawled out of the prisoner of war camp in the valley in a fiery red dragon, and marched straight into the barren mountainous area.

They were going to the mines, more than 10 kilometres away from the camp, to begin a day-to-day process of forced "re-education" -- with some extremely rudimentary tools, they were going to dig up cheap ores that were far less than the value of their labour. This pointless manual labor is said to be to drain the "anger" of these prisoners of war from the distant rebel sector, so that they can return to their "good citizens" nature as the people of the Federation should be.

The long-term poor living conditions, extremely poor food, and high-intensity and meaningless manual labor have turned these prisoners of war, who used to be mostly strong men, into lean people with dishes on their faces. There are many people who die of illness and exhaustion in this foreign land that they don't even know the name of the place, and they can never return to their homeland that haunts them.

"When we first came here, there were more than a thousand of us, but now, alas, ......" Maier, who walked in the middle of the line with a somewhat lazy step, sighed without looking back at Hao Yi, who was supported by two prisoners of war behind him, "Even those guys who are sick and thrown in the cell are counted together, and the full count will not exceed six hundred." ”

"These dogs are clearly trying to exhaust us alive and trap us in this hellish place!" A slightly balding prisoner holding Hao Yi's left arm almost burst out of his teeth word by word.

"You second-class old king, do you want to die? Be quiet! The short, thin prisoner on the other side whispered, and then turned back cautiously to glance at the Marines who were swaying along the line with spike rifles not far away, as if he was afraid that his own complaints would be heard by the Marines wrapped in heavy CMC armor.

"Damn, how could this be!" Listening to the intermittent introductions of Maier and others along the way, Haoyi's mood couldn't help but become heavy. He could never have imagined that the federal army, which would always be the embodiment of justice in the eyes of the vast number of federal people, would treat the rebel officers and soldiers who had laid down their arms in this way. Putting aside the so-called political stance, these soldiers from distant star regions were once members of the federal people, and they didn't have much deep hatred with the federal soldiers who were also soldiers, so as for letting them abuse prisoners of war to death like this?

"Hey, things are often not what people think!" Hearing Hao Yi's whispering, Maier involuntarily stopped, turned back to Hao Yi with a straight face, and said something with infinite meaning.

"Hey, why are you stopping? Come on! At this moment, a marine who came from behind viciously pushed the short and thin prisoner who was holding Hao Yi with his big hand wrapped in thick armor, causing the poor fellow, who was already hungry and had little strength, to stumble and fall to the ground.

"Don't look at it, let's go!" Seeing this, Hao Yi was about to scold the marine, but Maier grabbed it to hold Hao Yi for the prisoner of war, whispered, and quickly pulled Hao Yi to continue walking.

"Fuck, still lying on the ground and pretending to be dead?" The Marine shouted arrogant invective from the loudspeaker outside the CMC armor, and Hao Yi watched as the Marine lifted his boots, which were enough to kick a cow to death, and kicked the prisoner who fell to the ground wailing.

At this moment, listening to the heart-rending wail of the prisoner who was rolling on the ground, Hao Yi suddenly had an indescribable disgusting hatred for the army he had served.

"Old Mai, aren't you going to save your men?" Holding back the discomfort in his heart, Haoyi asked in a low voice.

"It's useless! If he lives greatly, he can't die! Otherwise, more brothers will suffer! Maier shook his head and sighed helplessly.

Perhaps to corroborate what Mel said, the other prisoner, as if unable to bear the brutality of his companion, rushed madly to pull the dying companion from under the Marine's feet.

"Boom!" However, what awaited him was the cold butt of the marine's rifle, and the prisoner who rushed over fell to the ground and grunted.

This unexpected tragedy played out for a full minute or two, and the two innocent prisoners lay on the ground covered in blood and motionless under the punches and kicks of the marines who seemed to have convulsions. During the whole process, the other prisoners walked as if they hadn't seen anything.

Probably to vent his anger, the swaggering Marine staggered away contentedly with a spike rifle. After he walked about ten meters away, two other prisoners rushed forward in a panic, picked up the two comrades who had fallen to the ground with serious injuries, and continued to stagger forward with the team.

"These bastards!" Hao Yi, who turned his head awkwardly and saw this scene out of the corner of his eye, stared at the Marine with hatred in his eyes full of viciousness, and his fists fixed to the torture equipment were also subconsciously clenched.

After about an entire morning's walk, the prisoners arrived at the so-called "construction site" - a dilapidated abandoned mining area. Several broken and paralyzed SCV mechs were scattered in the open space in the center of the mining camp, and there were about a dozen huge dark and gloomy mine caves, leading to the depths of the tall mountain.

The prisoners of war, who had arrived here one after another, were not rushed to the cave by the perverted guards, but lined up one by one from the guards who had arrived here by locomotive beforehand, and received the first meal of the day, which I don't know if it was breakfast or lunch—a piece of black and hard black bread like a stone and a cup of muddy white soup with a few green onions.

"Here, let's make do with it!" Due to his inconvenience, Maier asked Hao Yi to sit on a mountain rock first, and he and his men lined up to get food, and then hurried back to hand Hao Yi the piece of black bread.

"I'm not hungry, so let's give my food to the brothers!" Hao Yi, who had no appetite for being tormented by the anger in his heart along the way, saw the black stone in Meier's hand, frowned slightly and shook his head and said.

"Really not hungry? Boy, it's not me talking about you, even if you are an immortal, you can't live here hungry! Maier was a little stunned, reversed Haoyi's rations, and suddenly lowered his voice and said: "If you still want to go out alive to save your wife and children, then you should listen to my brother's advice and eat it!" Something is better than nothing! ”

"Thank you Lao Mai, I'm really not hungry!" Haoyi shook his head with a wry smile and rejected Meier's kindness.

"Alright! Lao Liu, go and give this to Lao Wang and the two of them, let them eat it separately, don't grab it! Seeing Haoyi's resolute face, Melliu groaned and turned around to hand Haoyi's rations to another older prisoner, and gave a deep command.

The old king in Meier's mouth is the prisoner who was brutally ravaged by the guards because he helped Haoyi walk slowly. He and another innocent companion who had also been beaten were lying on a large rock, gasping for air. It's hard to imagine how the two of them survived the Marine's heavy punches, perhaps the instinct for survival or the extremely slim hope of returning home, which sustained them with great difficulty.

"If you're not hungry, just rest here! I'm going to have to dig up rocks in those dog holes in a minute! While struggling to break the black bread in his hand and stuffing it into his mouth, Maier said to Haoyi vaguely: "However, seeing you like this will not help much!" Forget it, you kid, let my brothers help you dig up more stones in a while! ”

"Digging up stones?" Haoyi was stunned when he heard this, and then asked a little abruptly: "Do you mean digging those ores?" What a mess of recharge? ”

"That's right, it's mining stone! See those shabby tools like manuscripts? Each of us had to dig out at least twenty kilograms of ore from those dog holes every day. If you can't complete the task, you won't have dinner! If it's more serious, you might be thrown into those dog holes and die! Maier chewed the crumbs of bread in his mouth and explained to Haoyi as he pointed to the old tools that were clearly rusted and tattered piled up at the entrance to the mine in the distance.

"Twenty kilograms?" Hao Yi gestured in the void with his hands fixed by the torture instrument, and asked with some puzzlement: "That doesn't seem to be too much!" Is it that hard to dig? ”

"Hehe, boy, don't stand and talk without back pain! You'll find out with us in a moment! The prisoner who had finished delivering food to the injured Lao Wang and the others happened to return to a few people, and when he heard Hao Yi's somewhat innocent question, he grinned and sneered.

"Those rocks are hard to come up with, and time is limited, so you have to complete the task in less than two hours! Otherwise, those dogs will leave us alone! Maier glared at the prisoner, took a sip of white water soup, sighed lightly and explained to Hao Yi: "Many of our brothers have even dug up blood from both hands, and sometimes they can't dig enough for the specified task!" ”

"Xiexie, old Mai!" Hearing Meier's explanation, Hao Yi was stunned for a while, and then he came back to his senses, and whispered thank you with a lot of feelings.

"Live well, boy!" Myer's old face, which was already thin and bloodless, suddenly burst into a very comfortable smile, gently patted Haoyi's shoulder, and mentioned it seemingly unintentionally: "Do you remember the promise I made to you back then?" ”

"Promise?" Haoyi was stunned again.

"Hey, it's better if you don't remember!" Mel smiled slyly and went on to eat on his own.

"Boy, you're Haoyi!" Just as Haoyi wanted to continue to ask about the promise that Meier had made to him back then, a strange voice suddenly sounded behind him.