淫欲的代价

In the gallery, the Second Marshal sat up straighter after Jin Qi\'s recollection. He could feel his blood boil. The odds were clearly pointing at a guilty Yang Xue! He slowly clenched his teeth.

The Marshals exchanged subtle glances between themselves before the First Marshal looked to He Yuan. "Sergeant Major Yang. You may give your own account of the events."

He Yuan went straight to the point, detailing everything -just as ue\'d done at Major General Serra\'s office but when he got to the climax, he gave a more detailed narration whilst minding Yang Xue\'s status as a mandron, "I initiated the self destruct sequence to cause an explosion. The explosion would cause rocks to seal the hole and trap those creatures.

-I would fly out of the hole, eject, then let my Tech suit fall back in. The closest person to the exit was me so I tried to leave first. Lieutenant Colonel Jin would come out after and I would release my Tech suit into the hole."

It seemed pretty straightforward but the First Marshal was not having it. "First of all, First Lieutenant Taepher and Lieutenant Colonel Jin stated that Lieutenant Colonel Jin had been the one to give the order. How did it turn to you in the second narrative? And also, how did things develop into Jin Qi losing her limbs since there was enough time?"

He Yuan cleared his throat. "I stated the idea to blow open the roof. Lieutenant Colonel Jin tried to kill me so I left my Tech suit for her."

Everyone was taken aback by the mandron\'s simple declaration. The Marshal\'s exchanged looks again and the First Marshal asked, "Jin Qi tried to kill you? Why would she? What proof do you have of this?"

He Yuan shrugged. "I don\'t know. Ask Lieutenant Colonel Jin..." He locked eyes with Jin Qi, trying so hard to hold in his amusement as he added, "... She had recorded everything herself."

Jin Qi frowned. "What nonsense are you-" Her eyes suddenly widened in horror when she remembered something. Back in the cave she had turned on the passive recording function of her Tech suit in order to take video clips of the cacoons on the roof because she didn\'t want a video feedback taking up space on the interface of her control screen.

She had gotten so caught up with the following events that it had completely skipped her mind to turn it off!

He Yuan bit down on his lips a little too hard to hold back his smile. His original plan had been to leave Jin Qi to her fate in the cave. As a special one, if she got eaten by creatures that were native to a realm, it wouldn\'t count as him voilating the rules and killing her before the realm drained out her luck.

He had only changed his plan last minute when he saw the steadily blinking red light at the side of her helmet. A phenomenon that indicated the recording function of a Tech suit.

The Sixth Marshal was quick to catch Jin Qi\'s change in expression. She slowly scowled in her mind. To thinknshe had been leaning towards Jin Qi\'s side just a while ago. Tsk.

As the audience comtemplated He Yuan\'s words, the First Marshal looked to Jin Qi. "You have a recording of the events?"

Jin Qi\'s body trembled slightly but she managed to compose herself in time. She took a quick glance in her grandfather\'s direction before saying, "There is no such thing."

The First Marshal turned to He Yuan, who only blinked slowly as he said, "I am sure. I had discovered the recorder was on after dragging Lieutenant Colonel Jin with me to the more rocky terrain. I could not switch it off as I had no access to her Tech suit."

At this point, Jin Yusheng relaxed back on his seat and covered his face with a hand in disappointment. He knew what kind of person his sister was but a part of him had wanted ro believe that this circumstance was as a result of Yang Xue\'s revenge and not something she had brought upon herself!

What an utter waste of his time.

The Second Marshal, on the other hand, wanted to throttle his granddaughter\'s throat. Her earlier reaction had already told him everything he needed to know about this situation! He took a deep breath to curb his anger and then quickly sent out an instruction to his subordibates. He absolutely could not let that Tech suit be brought into this hall!

As for the soldiers, reporters and civilians watching live, they were all torn. What was with this situation? At this point, they were no longer pointing fingers. They just wanted to see how this would end.

The First Marshal finally cleared his throat and looked towards some soldiers standing at attention at the entrance of the hall. "Have Lieutenant Colonel Jin\'s Tech suit delivered to this hall with some technicians."

Jin Qi\'s eyes widened but before she could say a word,

"No." He Yuan cut in.

Every single person was thrown into confusion once more. The mandron did not want the Tech suit to be brought in? Did that mean he was lying?

He Yuan finished his sentence then, "No need. I applied for the Technical department to bring the Tech suit beforehand. It\'s in the next room."

[Pfft!] Despite his anger, 888 couldn\'t stop himself from wheezing softly. He Yuan was a psycopath. Messing with the minds of so many people like that in such a situation. [If I were part of the audience, I would want to beat you up.]

To the horrors of Jin Qi and the Second Marshal, the soldiers walked to the next room and came out with three Technicians hefting a huge metal container between them.

Jin Qi tried to spring up from her seat but then the painful throb from her knees reminded her of her pitiful state so she,

SLAM!

Hit the armrest of her wheelchair in anger. "Insubordination! You have no right to relocate my Tech suit without permission!"

He Yuan resisted the urge to roll his eyes. It did not count as insubordination if the item in question had been listed as a crucial piece of evidence in court. That was the reason he\'d confidently gone over to the Technical department first to have them transport it here.

The only thing none of them had the right to do was open the metal container without permission from a superior -which they did not do so they were safe.

In the witness box, Second Lieutenant Bo had a bright smile when the Tech suit was brought in. This was the reason the mandron was so confident? Admirable! Too admirable! It turned out he\'d been concerned for nothing. He resisted the urge to run over and give the mandron a heavy pat on the back.

Seated on the other end, First Lieutenant Taephar did not have a good expression. If that Tech suit truly contained a recording of the events then it would be seen that he\'d given a false report and had also lied in the Marshal Court! His entire career flashed before his eyes and he looked to He Yuan with pure hatred.

The First Marshal directly ignored Jin Qi and addressed the Technicians, "Retrieve the file."

In the presence of everyone, the metal container that had been tightly sealed when Jin Qi\'s Tech suit had been placed in it on Aer was opened and then the Technicians began the file extraction process from the battered Tech suit.

Without Jin Qi\'s command, it was impossible to activate the Tech suit so they had to spend a lot of time breaking through firewalls just for the video feed alone. Every single person -except He Yuan- was on the edge of their seats whilst Jin Qi tried to brainwash herself that the video feed might not have captured everything from a clear angle.

Almost an hour later, the video feed was successfully retrieved and transferred to an extra large holographic screen in the hall. Since it was uncensored, the reporters had to switch their love feeds from video recording to just audio recording.

The recording would of course be censored and released to the general public after the Hearing.

Jin Qi directly closed her eyes in shame when everything was set up. It was over. She\'d played herself. She couldn\'t even bring herself to look at Yang Xue. She couldn\'t afford to stare at whatever victorious expression he had on.

The first image to appear on the recording was a close up of a cacoon covered in thick slimy black goo. Every single person watched as the events unfolded and then,

"AAAAHHHH!" At reporter screamed in pure shock when Jin Qi, in the recording of course, had turned to face the soldier whose head had been chewed off of his body along with his helmet. It was a gruesome sight which only got worse when a small horde of those horrid creatures rushed into the cave and began aiming for the soldiers.

In the otherwise silent Courtroom, someone kept screaming out when the creatures constantly regenerated or when a soldier got eaten up until what was left in the recorder\'s field of vision were three other soldiers. Meaning it was just Jin Qi and three others left.

The expressions of the soldiers could not be seen due to their helmets but watching as they fought to keep up with the regeneration of the creatures and also, listening to Jin Qi\'s labored breathing told the audience all they needed to know.

This experience was also terrifying for viewers listening to the live audio. The lack of video context just made the sounds they were hearing all the more horrifying.

Some reporters directly closed their eyes to avoid the hire but just when things were getting too intense, a strained but steady voice came in through \'recording Jin Qi\'s\' intercom.

[Focus one of your laser guns on the roof and use the other to blast the creatures!]

They all knew what Yang Xue\'s voice sounded like and besides, if Jin Qi\'s was the one who gave the command, it wouldn\'t have come out through the speakers in her intercom!

A lot of soldiers looked to Jin Qi and Taephar and as the video played on, a mixture of disgust and disappointment for both persons flashed through their eyes.

It finally got to the deciding point and as both Yang Xue and Jin Qi dashed for the hole, the audience sat up straighter on their seats.

When Jin Qi leaped, held onti Yang Xue\'s let guard and pulled with so much force that they themselves felt it, the audience knew the truth. Jin Qi couldn\'t give them the excuse that she\'d pulled on Yang Xue\'s leg so she could leave first as that was just stupid.

They all watched as Yang Xue quickly ejected his Tech suit and Jin Qi got slammed in the face by karma. What surprised the audience at this point was the fact that Yang Xue had still rushed over to help Jin Qi even when she\'d clearly tried to kill him.

In fact, the only reason Jin Qi was still alive was because Yang Xue had pulled her out from the mandibles of those creatures in time!

The finishing touch was when Yang Xue had taken his time to staunch her bleeding even after she cursed him to die and then carried her for such a long distance until the rescue team found them.

If the events of the recording were to be made into a series, it deserved to be called \'The Struggles Of A Little Mandron Soldier.\' Just watching the delicately statued Yang Xue tirelessly pull along a human being in half of a Tech suit made them feel new found respect for the mandron.

It had taken three human Technicians to bring the Tech suit into the courtroom just now but Yang Xue, a mandron, had found the strength and determination to painfully pull not just the Tech suit, but the horrible human being in it! What did he get in the end?

Accusations and a law suit.