After Crossing Over, I Marked the Empress

Chapter 159 : The Empress's Concern

The full moon hung high, its endless radiance pouring down, seemingly draping a veil over the entire Federation.

In the Zhou industrial park near the border of the Second District, intense gunfire was underway.

Dense gunshots swirled in the night wind, with occasional explosions sending tongues of flame skyward, illuminating half the dome of heaven.

The villains within this park knew their crimes were unforgivable, so they fought with particular frenzy when faced with elimination.

They seemed determined to take down two others with them if they were to die.

However, in this battle, all their desperate resistance would ultimately be crushed.

In a cultivated field nestled between mountains and waters within the park.

Shen Han was groping towards the underground passage entrance with several criminals.

The dirt path underfoot was uneven, the way ahead obscured by clusters of greenery, with pursuers hot on their heels behind.

Invisible terror germinated in everyone's hearts, extreme suppression constantly eroding the criminals' mental defenses, as if on the verge of collapse at any moment.

The group Shen Han was following, including her, comprised seven people.

This included the Omega taken hostage.

"Should I open fire? But from my current position, I can't ensure eliminating all the criminals while safely rescuing the hostage."

"If these people escape into the underground passage, trying to act in such a narrow environment will be several times more difficult than now."

Just as Shen Han was rapidly analyzing her battle plan in her mind.

The criminal walking hunched in front of her suddenly turned to look at her.

This was the one who had wanted to strike her with his gun butt earlier.

Beside him was a fat man panting heavily, who also turned to stare at Shen Han upon seeing his companion's action.

In that instant, Shen Han's entire back tensed, like a fully drawn bow.

"Why haven't we heard you speak from start to finish? Take off your hood, or I'll shoot!"

As he spoke, the man had already aimed his gun at Shen Han.

His large, fat companion beside him seemed truly exhausted. He propped his assault rifle on the ground like a cane, pulled off his own hood, and with a twist of his hand, squeezed out a puddle of sweat.

Shen Han's handgun was hidden in her sleeve, ready to grip the handle with a flick of her palm.

But with a gun pointed at her now, she couldn't directly swing her arm to draw.

She raised her hand towards her neck, pretending to pull at the edge of her hood.

In her mind, she had already mapped out a route of movement and shooting, to quickly take down these two men before rushing forward to rescue the hostage.

Just as Shen Han's fingers had barely hooked the edge of the black hood, a buzzing sound suddenly erupted above everyone's heads.

It was five of the Federation's latest amphibious drones, used for tracking and detection.

They were only about the size of an adult's fist, with little noise when moving on the ground, so they weren't noticed until they activated their propellers to ascend.

Seeing himself locked onto by the drones, the man who had been pointing his gun at Shen Han immediately turned his muzzle, firing into the air.

The fat man panting beside him bulged his eyes, grabbed his gun, and took off running.

"Drones! They're coming for us!"

The criminals couldn't distinguish between combat and detection drones, but how could Shen Han not know?

As the man in front raised his gun to shoot at the sky, she had already lowered her arm to grip her handgun.

The orange-yellow bullet, propelled by gunpowder gases, passed through the hollow tube of the silencer, wrapped in a shock wave as it shot towards the masked man's brow.

A mist of blood exploded in the night, its sound quickly masked by the drone's buzzing.

Shen Han darted out like a cheetah, arcing around from the side. After shooting two men dead, she had already reached Zhang Lei's vicinity.

By now, Zhang Lei had also sensed something was amiss.

Seeing a masked 'comrade' aiming a gun at him, he suddenly yanked the Omega beside him, using her as a shield between himself and the gun barrel.

They were now extremely close to the underground passage entrance.

Zhang Lei could even glimpse the flat manhole cover nearby in his peripheral vision.

He ordered his last remaining subordinate to return fire while hastily pressing the remote key Wang Qiang had given him earlier.

Several meters away, the manhole cover automatically popped open, revealing a dark passage below.

Zhang Lei's heart leapt with wild joy as he dragged and pulled the hostage to the edge of the well.

At this moment, Shen Han had already killed her opponent and was charging towards their position.

Zhang Lei released his grip on the hostage's hand, instead pinching his own nose tightly.

Then he kicked the woman in front of him in the lower back, viciously kicking her towards the direction Shen Han was running from.

As he jumped into the well opening, he curled his arm and blindly fired two shots towards where the hostage had fallen.

Earlier, Wang Qiang had whispered to him that there was several meters of water stored below the passage entrance.

After plunging in, he should quickly swim to the surface. Then he would see a half-meter-high hole in the well wall, which he could crawl into and follow the passage all the way out of the park.

On the ground, Shen Han caught the hostage while simultaneously rolling to the side with her.

The two bullets missed the Omega but grazed Shen Han's arm in succession.

Fortunately, they didn't hit any tendons or bones, only slicing open two gashes in her flesh.

Shen Han crouched on the ground. She first used her knife to cut the ropes binding the hostage's wrists, then roughly examined the Omega's injuries before picking up the fallen gun and charging towards the well opening.

"Lie still, you're safe now!"

The Omega, having endured a series of blows and despair, was already somewhat delirious by this point.

Extreme fear had even numbed her to physical pain.

The scene of being kicked away and then rescued by another person seemed like a fleeting illusion to her.

It felt hazy, without much sense of reality.

Only when she heard a woman's voice by her ear, telling her she was safe, did she finally awaken as if from a deep dream.

The thick smell of blood in the air made her stomach convulse, nearly vomiting.

But the pine scent mixed with the blood in the air had a greatly calming effect on her.

It was the scent dispersing from Shen Han's arm wound, containing the smell of alpha pheromones.

This wisp of high-grade snow cedar scent, unrelated to desire, was more like a kind of salvation, pulling the Omega back from the brink of mental collapse.

The drone swarm hovering overhead stirred the night wind, and army group soldiers were rushing over from not far away.

The Omega rubbed her swollen eyes and finally broke down in loud sobs.

After reaching the edge of the well, Shen Han didn't dare jump down directly like Zhang Lei had.

She tightly gripped her gun, lying prone at the well's edge to peer down cautiously, only to be shocked by what she saw at the bottom.

Through her detection glasses, she saw Zhang Lei lying at the bottom of the well in a twisted posture.

Dark blood spread out from beneath him, and he had fallen into a state of shock.

Although Shen Han didn't know the specific reason, it wasn't hard to judge that Zhang Lei had obviously been betrayed by Wang Qiang.

The purpose was self-evident - it was likely to have his team draw some of the army group's firepower.

"Captain Shen! The commander ordered us to quickly go to the target location to pursue the enemy leader!"

A soldier's voice sounded from behind.

Shen Han removed her hood, turned to take the communication earpiece handed to her, and succinctly uttered two words: "Lead on!"

Under normal circumstances, Wang Qiang and his men would have already escaped into the underground passage.

If they pursued from behind, not only would it be difficult, but the hostage's safety couldn't be guaranteed.

Only by getting ahead of the enemy and setting an ambush on their forward path would be the best strategy to defeat them.

The third point Gu Junwan had circled on the sand table was near a river outside the park.

The passage under the cultivation field wasn't a sewage tunnel; its final direction was a rainwater discharge outlet.

Shen Han led a team of people, speeding away in military off-road vehicles.

Along the way, upon learning that the vast majority of hostages had been successfully rescued, she finally felt slightly relieved.

She no longer needed to worry about the cornered enemies fighting desperately in the park.

The most important action before her now was to rescue Yan Ni and capture Wang Qiang.

"Captain Shen, let me bandage your gunshot wound on your arm."

"Also, is there any discomfort in your eyes? They look a bit bloodshot."

The action team member's voice interrupted Shen Han's current anxiety.

She took the medical disinfectant wipe already handed to her, removed her glasses, and began gently pressing around her eyes.

"It's fine, probably just some dirt and dust got in. It won't affect the operation."

Hearing the captain say this, the soldier sitting knee to knee with her said no more.

He took out gauze from the medical kit and very deftly began bandaging her upper arm wound.

At the same moment.

In the Peace Palace command center far away, Gu Junwan shifted her gaze from the projection screen to the special task force leader standing at attention.

"Immediately implement the arrest of Zhou K Group's high-level personnel led by Zhou Boxin, and interrogate them overnight!"

The Empress needn't say more; the special task force leader had a very clear thought process and case handling procedure for how to proceed.

After quickly giving instructions, Gu Junwan directly led Xu Zhao and a military officer out.

"Bring the best military doctor that can be summoned now, prepare, and follow me to the park."

Gu Junwan's voice was as steady and clear as ever, her expression not changing much.

But Xu Zhao, who knew her temperament well, could sense her Empress's burning impatience.

Shen Han was injured and now had to rush to complete the last tricky and dangerous task.

Just now, while watching the battle projection, Xu Zhao had been so nervous she could hardly breathe several times, let alone Gu Junwan who treasured Shen Han?

She hadn't shown the slightest loss of composure in front of everyone, because her identity as the Empress didn't allow for such a situation.

And now, as the final battle was about to end, she could no longer sit calmly in the command center waiting for results.

Xu Zhao was worried about both Shen Han and her Empress.

Torn by conflicting emotions, she couldn't utter a word to persuade Gu Junwan not to approach the danger zone.

The other military officer beside the Empress acted without the slightest hesitation according to orders.

A soldier's duty is to obey orders.

Moreover, in his view, there was nothing strange about the Empress being concerned for her own guard captain.

Ten minutes later, one command ship and twelve small escort ships hovered simultaneously above the Peace Palace.

The next second, this fleet streaked across the sky like flickering meteors, roaring towards the distance!