Chapter 77 - Family

After the successive bombardment of explosive coming out in a single day, everyone was already feeling numb to it. So, after Adrian published his letter, troops were sent out from the Navi Military Commanded once more. Nobody thought this was hard to believe—after all, one of the military commands have already put their hands on civilians inside a school. Also, Adrian’s letter clearly stated that he was going to send troops to deal with the military commands that attacked.

But over time, everything began to heat up again. An hour has passed since the media first reported that Navi has dispatched troops. Since then, warships continued to pour out from Lebor’s borders with no end in sight. The nearly endless amounts of troops left the entire world shocked. To describe it using one of the hot post titles in the Current Politics Forum, “I’ve already gone to sleep and woke up, but the Navi Military Command’s troops still haven’t come to an end! How many warships do they actually have?!”

The big black mothership slowly pulled out from Lebor’s borders, leading with it a large team of frigates. The media that had been squatting outside the border since a long time ago took pictures of those heavily-armed warships from far away. For the very first time, the Navi Military Command was revealing its true power to the Federation after lying dormant all those years behind locked borders.

Countless army fans watching the live broadcast were able to make out the outlines of those familiar weapons from those distant and blurry images. They were all riling up in the comments. They never thought that they would actually be able to see these weapons on the battlefield in their lifetime. When these heavy warships just appeared in the Capital, many people were still wondering, “What are they going to do? Why are they taking out weapons designed to destroy entire planets?”

After all these weapons showed up as if they didn’t cost any money, everyone could see that they had brought enough to be able to destroy nearly half of all the planets within the Federation, but they still did not plan to scatter. Instead, when the entire team moved only towards that one military command that had sent out its troops, nobody felt worried anymore. Everyone could see clear as day that they had enough forces to beat that military command into submission a hundred and eighty times over. They didn’t bring these weapons to use them, they were just to deter them.

This trick really did have a significant effect. All the other armies that had already gathered had given up on actually setting off after Adrian’s letter. More importantly, the public opinion that was growing sluggish because of the Capital’s forceful attitude was now riled up again thanks to the overwhelming force the Navi Military Command showed, as well as their Commander’s attitude that was even tougher. The ordinary civilians who didn’t dare to say anything found the courage to stand up and speak their minds again. In an instant, anger broke out. The virtual community grew lively again for two days, and it was even more bustling than when the videos of the soldiers violently breaking into the school came out.

However, Zhong Yan was not in the mood to look at such things. He left all this for Intron to deal with instead. Besides dozing off for a short nap halfway through the trip, he spent the rest of his time refreshing the news sent over by all parties without rest, calculating whether Adrian will be able to reach the Institution Star before the Capital. If Adrian was the first to arrive, then the Capital’s affiliated military command is likely to choose to retreat and avoid direct conflict with Navi’s army. If they’re not sure they can win, then there’s no way they’ll want to carry the infamy of being the one to fire the first shot in a civil war between mankind. But if the Capital’s army arrived first, Adrian will take that shot no matter what.

Compared to Zhong Yan, the number of signal zones in Adrian’s route were very scarce. He set himself an alarm clock that notifies him every time his signal is up so that he would never miss a minute of it even if he was sleeping. He wanted to send Zhong Yan messages to inform him that he was safe. If both of them were free, then they can briefly connect to a voice chat for a short while.

Such experiences rarely appear in Adrian’s life. It was strange to say, but he never felt the difference when they lived together in the same house. Everything felt so natural as if they had just gone back to their student days. The two of them did not need to make any adjustments to their lives at all after getting married because they used to live together like this to begin with. But after separating, Adrian clearly realized for the first time what having a family was like. He also saw him as his own responsibility, and as long as he had a signal, he would try to update him so that he wouldn’t worry about him.

All his grandfather wanted was a perfect heir. He never cared about his feelings at all. On the other hand, his mother didn’t even look forward to his birth in the slightest, and it made her so sad she ended her own life. His biological father was forced to marry a woman and he regarded him as a stain in his life. Adrian’s own family had never thought him what that word meant, “Family”. But when he reached the age of twenty-seven, he actually got a small family. Someone was there to pour all their love and care onto him. Even though a small part of it was given to the rabbit back at home, he wouldn’t try to fight with a soft herbivore. After all, he was the one who bought it.

During the times when Adrian was going through the bold and decisive reform of Navi, there were several times that he thought to himself how lucky he was that he wasn’t together with Zhong Yan. It had nothing to do with what sort of person Zhong Yan was, things will just get in the way of the grand cause if he were to have deep relations with anyone. But only now when he stood at the cusp of this historical frenzy, he finally understood how stupid and ignorant those thoughts were back then.

These warm and soft emotions did nothing to dull him. Instead, he became even tougher and sharper. Now, it was time for him to be unsheathed.

The distant image of the Institution Star could be seen from the porthole. Just after Adrian stood up, his terminal lit up, reminding him that he had entered the Institution Star’s signal zone.

“I’ve arrived.” Adrian sent Zhong Yan a text message. “I love you.”

He did not turn off the interface. After waiting for a few seconds, he received a reply. “Be careful out there. I love you too.”

Adrian reread the last few messages that Zhong Yan sent him again, and only then did he turn off the virtual screen. He carefully tightened the pendant to his military uniform before heading to the warship’s podium in large strides.

All the senior officers in the ship have already gathered there. Adrian commanded in a deep voice, “Send the word out to the entire team. Prepare for landing.”

As soon as the messenger wearing a headset received the news from the scouting ship, he said, “Commander, the enemy has also arrived! They are in the other direction. Their distance to the target planet is the same as ours. It is estimated that we will both land in ten minutes—”

“We can’t land with them at the same time,” Adrian spoke. “Colonel of the second regiment!”

“Sir!”

“Pass on my order, dispatch all single fighter ships in the second regiment.”

“Yes! Commander, do we fight to land first using the fastest ships?”

“Why do you want to land? Don’t land. Tell all fighters to target the enemy’s ships. Only intercept them. Do not open fire. If they want to leave, then let them. If they open fire, then…make sure not a single one of them gets to leave.” A fierce glint of a good battle flashed past Adrian’s eyes. “I’ve raised soldiers for so many years. After all those fights with space pirates, I still haven’t crossed guns with any actual armies yet.”

However, his thirst for battle still was not able to be quenched this time. All the way until three of their motherships have landed on the Institution Star, the Capital’s affiliated military command that they had intercepted still did not dare to open fire. Hopelessly, they watched as Navi’s patrolling warships covering the entire planet very quickly. The troops from the Capital that had been at a stalemate with them for several hours finally decided to turn around and leave.

By the time Zhong Yan landed back onto the Capital that he had been absent from for a long time, the situation had already become serious for them.

The first thing Navi’s troops did after landing on the Institution Star was to remove all the monitoring equipment. Right now, things were just like back then for the Capital when they lost White Aegis and Lebor. They had completely lost all signals from the Institution star.

Since the majority of the military commands have received “Butterfly’s” suppression orders, a few days have already passed. Up till now, only two military commands have executed its order. If you were to say that the other military commands were lagging behind because both of these military commands have already been defeated by Navi’s army without any resistance under the huge disparity in power—all their weapons had been seized, and all their soldiers were captured—then it was still forgivable. However, in the two hours before Zhong Yan landed, three military commands that were close in proximity to each other actually issued a joint statement. They have decided to form their own military alliance for the time being and no longer accepted orders from “Butterfly”. When necessary, they will request for assistance from the Navi military Command.

“This is too much. This is a blatant act of segregation. What are they saying at the end? Aren’t they just threatening us right now?” After hearing Intron’s report, Zhong Yan responded calmly, “We should criticize their actions immediately.”

Intron answered gleefully, “Of course. But it’s a shame, the Capital’s already having trouble with how much they’re already getting scolded. If we criticize them now, I’m afraid we’ll be adding oil to the fire.”

Zhong Yan gave Intron a glance from the rearview mirror. Intron realized he had gone beyond his own position and quickly put on an anxious expression, saying, “Sir Zhong, should we head to the council house right now or should I take you back to your residence to rest?”

“Neither.” Zhong Yan looked out the window and said to him calmly, “Go to the Yate family residence.”

Stalvern Yate had thought that Zhong Yan would not be the same as before, coming to see him as soon as he was summoned. But unexpectedly, Zhong Yan who had just landed in the Capital actually came. He couldn’t help but wonder in his heart. Did the brat not turn?

“Sir Yate.” Zhong Yan greeted him politely just like he did in the past few years. Without even waiting for Stalvern’s response, he quickly began again, “Maybe it’s better if I refer to you as Councilor Yate. Even though you have already retired, it still feels a little strange to call you Sir Yate. After all—you have the same surname as my husband¹.”

Stalvern was furious. “What do you mean I have the same surname as him?! He has the same surname as me!”

Notes:

[1] Sir, Mr., and husband all share the same word, 先生.