An Imperial space ambulance support ship slowly approached the Banshee-like starfighter floating in space.

"Independence, this is ambulance support ship 4425, I'm already close to Thunderbird 11, uh...... It doesn't look like there's much damage to the fighter's appearance. The pilot of the rescue ship glanced at the cockpit, and one of the pilots was gesturing to him in ecstasy, and the pilot immediately happily replied, "It seems that the person is fine, and he is quite energetic." ”

"Uh, understood, 4425, let's start the rescue at once, and bring our honorable guest back safely, Independence, over."

"Yes, Independence, start the rescue mission now, please wait for ......"

A pair of robotic arms slowly protrude from the sides of the bow of the space ambulance support ship, and the pilot steers his boat cautiously close to Ryson's Banshee fighter. This ambulance support vessel is a small, multi-purpose working vessel with powerful (but slow) engines, and is a veritable all-rounder in space for towing, container transport, wreckage recovery, equipment installation, meteorite removal, personnel rescue, etc.

When the two mechanical arms successfully grabbed the wings of the Banshee fighter, Risen clearly felt a slight shake of the fuselage, and the project 4425 ambulance support ship took the Banshee fighter and slowly flew towards the space carrier Independence under the powerful engine propulsion.

Great, Risen stretched comfortably in the cockpit, and everything was so good: both quantum torpedoes were finally destroyed at the last minute by the Independence's close-range defense weapon system due to the time difference in arrival, and although the blast wave may have had a slight impact on the Independence's attitude, the Independence finally escaped. And just when he was feeling a headache because the fighter plane was paralyzed and the communication failed, the ambulance support ship arrived in time, looking at its direction, it was still an ambulance support ship on the Independence, I didn't expect that I would be able to meet everyone so soon. Looking at the space carrier that was getting clearer and clearer, Risen was nervous and excited, what should he say when he saw everyone? They shouldn't have thought that the person sitting on this banshee fighter plane was themselves, wouldn't they be surprised? ........

The ambulance support ship is getting closer and closer to the Independence, under the reflection of the light of the Heinison star, Risen can already clearly see its tragic situation with the naked eye, there are two large openings in the front half of the port hangar on the port side of the hull, which are quite close to each other, this should be a good thing for the powerful quantum torpedo, the combustion and explosion are no longer visible from the outside, but there are still billowing black smoke coming out of the hole, Risen does not need to understand too much how much damage the Independence has suffered, just looking at the two big black holes, even the layman knows how dangerous the situation was at one time, Risen felt lucky that the ship hadn't broken in two from there.

The Project 4425 ambulance support ship took Risen with his Banshee fighter plane around the Independence for half a circle, and slowly landed in the starboard hangar where the USS Independence was still intact. Before he landed, Resson's eyes were wandering, searching, searching for some familiar faces he knew, some memories that had been hidden deep in his brain.

But to his disappointment, there was not a single face he was familiar with, and he looked at it, although there were all kinds of expressions on people's faces, expectation, gratitude, and curiosity, but none of these faces were known to him.

When he climbed down the gangway, when he turned around, a middle-aged man was already standing behind him, he was a lieutenant colonel, and Risen immediately stood and saluted.

"The 11th Fleet Cruiser of the Galactic Empire, USS Columbus, Risson. Second Lieutenant Nigaul salutes you, sir. ”

"Rest, second lieutenant, and welcome aboard the Independence, I'm Lieutenant Colonel Mannheim, Flight Captain (CAG) of the Independence. Well done, second lieutenant, without your heroism today, perhaps I would not have been able to stand here and receive your salute. The lieutenant colonel complimented appreciatively.

"You're gracious, sir, it's our responsibility not to stop those dreadnoughts."

The lieutenant colonel shook his head, "You've done a pretty good job, at least the Independence is still floating in space, but, second lieutenant, the current situation of the Independence doesn't allow her to continue fighting, we're about to leave the battlefield, and it's time for the ship to be overhauled." ”

"What? Sir? What about me? And my Banshee fighter? Ruisen was stunned and hurriedly asked.

"Ensign, I suggest you evacuate the battlefield with us, I've spoken to your captain, Captain Clark, what do you think?"

"Well, sir, thank you for your kindness, but I still hope to get back to the Columbus. Could you please have someone help me fix my plane urgently? If it can't be repaired, I'd like you, sir, to arrange for a dinghy to take me back to the Columbus. ”

"In that case, I won't force it." The lieutenant colonel nodded and shouted, "Sergeant." ”

"Yes, sir." A Humpty Dumpty Imperial Sergeant who was carefully inspecting under Risson's Banshee fighter hurriedly ran over.

"How's the damage to this Ensign Nigaul's Banshee fighter? Can it be fixed? How long will it take? ”

"Sir, I did a preliminary check, there is no big problem, just replace the stabilizer of the fighter and the pressure valves of the two engines, and it can fly again."

"How much time does it take?" Risen asked hurriedly, and was quite happy to hear that there was nothing wrong with the fighter.

"At least an hour, sir." The sergeant glanced at Risen.

"OK, Sergeant, get your men to hurry, it's a priority. Ensign, take a break, and if you want to eat, the dining room is in the T24 cabin on the fourth deck. ”

"Yes, sir." The sergeant saluted and immediately gathered his men and busied the Banshee on the Banshee.

"Uh, sir...... "Rison isn't in the mood to eat anything right now, and an hour is a little less, but it's enough to meet."

"What's the matter, second lieutenant?"

"Do you know where Major Layton and Captain Alex of the 1142 Mechanic Battalion are now? And Major Remington and Captain Vincennes of the 862nd Banshee Fighter Wing, can I meet them? Risen thought about it, but still made a careful request.

"Layton? Remington? Alex and Vincennes? How did you hear about them? The lieutenant colonel glanced at Risen in surprise, and then reacted, "Wait, I see, they are all from Cardoso Space." Rissen. Nigaul, Rise. Nigaul, no wonder the name is so familiar, it turns out to be you. The lieutenant colonel muttered.

"Sir, do you know me?" Risen asked the lieutenant colonel with some excitement.

"I heard Vincennes mention it, but I just didn't think of it." The lieutenant colonel confessed that his face darkened unnaturally.

"Sir, I hope to meet with a few of the chiefs before I go back to Columbus, please allow me."

"Rise. Nigaul, I'm sorry to tell you. The lieutenant colonel glanced at Ryson and said slowly, "Remington has been transferred from the USS Independence to the USS Victory as a flight captain four months ago, Vincennes was shot down in battle against the enemy last month, and is either dead or captured, and is now listed as a missing person. ”

"What?" Risen froze.

"As for Layton and Alex, you might have met them if you had come a day earlier." The lieutenant colonel continued, with a faint gloom and sadness in his eyes, "You also saw the damage to the Independence, it turned out to be Hangar No. 2, and the operation site of Company B was there, and unfortunately, Layton happened to be there when he was torpedoed, along with Captain Alex. ”

"No, it can't be." Riseon's flying helmet fell to the ground with a clatter, and the whole person was completely stupid, so he stood there dumbfounded, he didn't even know when the lieutenant colonel left, he was not a fool, and the lieutenant colonel's meaning couldn't be more clear.

Risen wanted to cry very much, he wanted to cry a lot, although the boy had tears and did not flow lightly, but he felt that in his eye sockets, strings of tears were rolling uncontrollably, and he felt as if his heart had lost something, and he felt uncomfortable. All along, he has been imagining various possibilities when he meets everyone again, but when this day really comes, he suddenly finds that there is no one to see.

He left the hangar on his own, like a walking corpse, and even he didn't know where he was going, but his steps revealed where he subconsciously wanted to go, that he was heading to the port hangar of the Independence, where his friends had been.

As he got closer to the place that was so sad for him, the aisles began to crowd up, and wounded soldiers, all of them seriously wounded, were being carried past him, covered in blood or burned to the point of being inhuman. The medical room was already overcrowded, and some soldiers who knew some medical skills had made temporary cameos as doctors, and they were busy everywhere on the bulkheads and decks, some of which had dried up and turned black, some were still flowing, and the groans, pain, and pleading of the wounded filled the entire aisle, and there was an irrepressible heaviness in the suffocating air. It was the first time that Risen had come into close contact with this hellish scene, and in the spatial graveyard near Hennison, there were so many ships that had been sunk or severely damaged, and each of them was the same scene? Or even worse? He began to understand a little bit how the name "Henison Meat Grinder" came about.

"Sir, stop, you can't go any further from here, the front cabins are all cordoned off." A crew member whose face was blackened by the smoke blocked Risen in his way, and Risen felt that this voice was a little familiar.

"Sergeant, sergeant, sir, it's me," Risen grabbed the crewman's arm in excitement, "I'm Rissen, Rissen. Ah, Nigaul. ”

"Rui... Rissen? "Jack. Sergeant Russell seemed incredulous, he raised the lamp in his hand, and the white light pierced Risen in the face, but he was not annoyed at all, he just looked at the sergeant steadily, he was expecting.

"Really, it's really you, that's right, Risson, it's you." The two former colleagues hugged each other excitedly.

"Let me see, young man," the sergeant sighed, giving Risen a good look, "yes, you have lived up to the expectations of the men, you are our pride, and lo and behold, you are already a second lieutenant in the Imperial Army, and I should call you Sir now." By the way, how did you get here? ”

"I'm now stationed on the cruiser USS Columbus of the 11th Fleet, and this mission happened to coincide, our squadron was ordered to cover the Fourth Fleet, and my Banshee fighter plane happened to be damaged when I was fighting outside just now, so I got to the Independence."

"I see, it was you who destroyed a quantum torpedo outside just now, you saved everyone."

"Yes, sir." Although Risen is now higher in rank than sergeant, he doesn't think there's anything wrong with the word sir, on the contrary, he likes the title.

"Do you know where the rest of Company B is? What about Company Commander Alex? Risen asked with a hint of expectation, the sergeant's words you saved everyone made him have a glimmer of hope, he hoped that Lieutenant Colonel Mannheim had misremembered, he hoped that Company Commander Alex would have good luck, and he hoped that the sergeant would give him some surprises.

"It's gone." The sergeant replied miserably, ignoring his expectant eyes at all, and shattered Ryson's hopes again with one sentence, "All of them are gone, all of them, that damn torpedo, except me, I wasn't fucking in the hangar at the time." ”

"All of them?" Resson only felt a blur in front of him, and he shook it a few times, with one last bit of hope, "Maybe they will get away with it, will anyone be seriously injured and now being treated in the infirmary?" ”

"No," the sergeant shook his head and replied with a little choked up, "after being hit by a torpedo, in order to prevent the fire from burning the fuel line and causing a large explosion of the ship's hull, they immediately sealed off the entire compartment and opened the emergency exhaust port of the isolation cabin to extinguish the fire, even if they can survive the torpedo explosion, they cannot survive the harsh space environment without wearing a space suit, no one, no one can survive." ”

Risen was silent, the cruelty of war had greatly exceeded his original imagination, war was by no means child's play, this was what he had learned today.

－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－

"This is Thunderbird 11, all systems are fine, Independence, Thunderbird 11 requested to take off."

"Thunderbird 11, you're ready to take off. Thank you, young man, for your help, the Columbus is waiting for you to return home and have a safe journey. ”

"Thank you, sir."

Risen started the Banshee's engine, his eyes on the console, and Jack. Sergeant Russell was standing there saluting him, his body straight, and Risen felt a warmth in his heart, and he raised his right hand to salute the sergeant. I don't know when the next time we meet, maybe this will be the last time they meet. Who knows about the war?

"Thunderbird 11, Rissen. Nigaul, let's go now. ”