Chapter 076. Going into Battle
(TN: General Auguste Orlando has been changed to General Auguste Olaf)
As soon as Rosen's words left his mouth, the entire conference room suddenly silenced.
Among the several generalissimos in the military, Rosen is also the one who is the most obsessed over gaining jurisdiction of the Isville Galaxy.
This galaxy had originally been an uninhabited area situated near the border of the Empire. The rich energy reserves contained in the celestial bodies possess great importance to the development of the Empire. The former Marshal always wanted to occupy the Isville Galaxy, but a variety of reasons lead to the sneak attack mission failing in those years. The chief commander, Ling Yu, was expelled from the military registry and the former Marshal later died of an illness. This matter had been continuously thrown to the side.
In these few years since taking over as the Marshal, Rosen had repeatedly raised the proposal to seize Naomi Star, but the other heads of the legions voted against it.
Those celestial bodies would not only bring about a plentiful power source to the Empire but, just its geographical location alone is a space stronghold in the cosmos and a place that military strategists would certainly vie for. Rosen's determination to seize Naomi Star has always been very firm. If it were not for the military having a stipulation that "major resolutions must be decided by having all of the heads of legions vote ", Rosen would have brought his Glory Legion over to attack it a long time ago.
After a full two years of ample preparation, Rosen yet again put this previously vetoed proposal forward on the agenda.
Udir is still wearing a smile on his face. In the military's top-secret regimental command meeting, he is as calm and leisurely as if he were sitting in his dining room sipping on a coffee. His blue eyes glance over Rosen, he twirls the electronic voting pen between the fingers on his right hand and said with a smile: "The substance of Marshal's proposal this time seems to be written verbatim to the other one that was vetoed two years ago?"
Rosen nodded and said nonchalantly: "I had already written my justifications very clearly in the proposal. Naomi Star's importance to the Empire is self-evident, we must occupy it as soon as possible."
Rosen's indifferent gaze swept across the other five generals, "At the beginning of this year, the Pearl 731 passenger ship was suddenly hijacked by the Federation's hostile forces. According to the results of my investigation, the Federation's Greedy Wolf Legion had just entered the gap of a wormhole in the nearby cosmos of Naomi Star and jumped straight to the Imperial Cigar Galaxy. If this kind of thing goes on, then the several galaxies on the Imperial Frontier, not even the peoples' safety can be guaranteed! "
Apart from campaigning the Naomi Star, he also wants to complete the mission that Ling Yu didn't complete in those years. The Federation's exploitation of Naomi Star as a footrest to constantly harass people living on the border has pushed Rosen to the breaking point.
Rosen's bearing was very firm and his voice when he spoke was sonorous and powerful.
This Undefeated God of War, world-famous for his ruthlessness, has never once lost a battle since he took over as Marshal. He is very confident in capturing Naomi Star. However, as the rules passed down in the military over the last several hundred years state, any proposal that a high-ranking military officer raises must be passed through another five high-ranking military officers and reach a decision through a vote. He cannot take it upon himself.
Each of the previous proposals was three votes opposed, one vote in favor, and one vote neutral...... In favor of Rosen was his only close friend in the military, General Drew Bayh of the Hydra Legion. The one who kept a neutral approach was naturally Udir Shaman who took attending meetings as going to a tea party.
The other three people were unanimously opposed.
Rosen cast his gaze on the face of the general sitting to his right.
—the head of the Thunder Legion, the heir to the Olaf Family, Auguste.
This man's age already exceeds 180 years and he is currently the oldest out of the several military generals. However, the age of one hundred and eighty nowadays in this era can still be said to be the prime of one's life. General Olaf still looks very spirited. The man's facial features look as if they had been carved with a knife and his pair of brown eyes that were just as sharp as an eagle's. His dark, almost black, deep purple military uniform makes his figure look increasingly well-built. The four golden stars that lay abreast on his shoulders shine and glisten. Just calmly sitting there gives an intense feeling of oppression to a person.
Auguste turned his head around and brought Rosen's tranquil gaze into contact with his own. This man unexpectedly gave out a rare smile and said in a low voice: "It seems that the Marshal with regards to occupying Naomi Star is determined to win? In this case, I believe Marshal can continue maintaining his record of undefeated military victories."
After he finished saying that, he pressed the voting device in his hand.
A green squared box appears on the big screen in the conference room, indicating that his vote is...... an affirmative vote.
Rosen was lost for words, he did not expect General Olaf to vote in favor today.
Drew and Rosen were roommates in their college years. In the military, the proposal Rosen raised did not involve any principled issues. Drew always voted in favor. Naturally, this time was no different and he bluntly nodded in favor.
The two generals of the Star Legion and the Phantom Legion continued to cast a dissenting vote. The reason was that the Empire and the Federation had been waging war for many years, wasting manpower and resources. The Emperor's XX Department should place the highest importance on defense. They do not need to go attack the enemy at Naomi Star of their own accord.
Two votes in favor, two votes against, there was still the final key vote.
Rosen turned his sights to Udir. Udir smiled and touched his chin, saying: "It seems that I can no longer continue to be neutral?"
When the number of votes for and against are equal, the final vote is not allowed to be neutral or abstain. Otherwise, the proposal would have to be voted on once again.
Udir lowered his head thoughtfully, taking another look at the proposal in the e-reader, and finally, under Rosen's penetrating stare-down, he pressed down an approval with a beaming smile.
Rosen could finally relax.
Next, Udir's proposal was also voted on, and all five votes for the proposal of the Rose Legion's transfer to the Po Military Starfield passed it through. None of the generals had any objection to this. They then went on and each head of the military briefly reported the trends of each major legion during this time. The meeting soon came to a close.
As he was leaving the conference room, General Byron Warwick of the Star Legion suddenly walked in front of Rosen and said with a grave expression: "Although I still disapprove of you campaigning Naomi Star, however since the proposal has already passed, I hope that you can lead the Glory Legion to win a victory as soon as you raise your flag in this battle."
Rosen nodded and said: "I will keep your well wishes in mind."
The six generals left one after another and the 3D simulation conference room set up through the network quickly became deserted without a single soul in sight.
***
At this moment, Caesar and Lin Yuan had put away the badges and continued to move forward. On the whole way there, they repeatedly escaped from the jaws of danger. At 4:30 in the afternoon, they smoothly made it out of Köln Forest.
What Lin Yuan didn't expect was that Baker, Karl, Bertha, and the others had already reached the endpoint. He and Caesar were considered to be quite slow.
After seeing Lin Yuan, fellow classmate Baker very excitedly came over and said: "Boss, Karl and I were 10 minutes faster than you and we took the first place! Did you and Caesar run into something unexpected? With the two of your levels, you shouldn't be this slow."
Lin Yuan smiled and said: "En, we were held up by a bunch of snakes for a while."
In reality, it took a long time to try and find the badges with Caesar, otherwise, they should have arrived here by four o'clock. However, Lin Yuan did not want to tell others about the matter of the badges, he had no choice but to use a group of snakes as an excuse.
Karl also walked up to Lin Yuan and smiled, saying: "How was it? Did the two days and one night pass by fairly smoothly?"
Lin Yuan looked back at Caesar with a glance, and Caesar also just happened to be looking at him. The two looked at each other. Lin Yuan suddenly recalled that two people lying down in the tent last night, covered under the same quilt, holding the other party's sensitive thing, and using each other's hands to......
As soon as he thought of those scenes, he felt both of his ears grow hot. Lin Yuan hurriedly moved his line of sight off of Caesar's face.
Caesar came over, as if to announce his rights of possession, he gently threw his arm around Lin Yuan's shoulder and said to Karl with a smile: "Not bad, it went quite smoothly."
—the two of them smoothly entered into the same quilt and solved one another's physical problems with their hands.
Lin Yuan seemed to understand the meaning of his words and his ears went slightly red.
***
Two days of group field training finally came to a close. The 50 students of the Command Department successfully completed the assessment. With a large-scale suspension vehicle, the group of people returned to school under the guidance of Instructor Knox. When they had initially set off, each and every person was lively and full of enthusiasm. When it came to the trip back however, their heads were all orderly hung down as if they were wilted flowers.
Two days of surviving in the wilderness is both tiring and famishing, everyone honestly had no real interest in chatting, the majority of them conked out in the car.
Lin Yuan felt no need to sleep, he actually was so extremely hungry that his stomach was growling nonstop.
For a big eater like him, eating that sort of wild roasted fish without any seasoning for two days straight is truly not filling enough. He eagerly thought of going to the dining hall to pig out after arriving at the school. Unexpectedly, as soon as he arrived at the school, he suddenly received a notice from the Class Teacher, Instructor Irene, asking for him to immediately head to her office when he got to school.
The suspension car arrived at St. Romia Military Academy on schedule at six o'clock, the other students urgently rushed to the dining hall to eat— because the military academy provided three meals a day on a very strict schedule. The evening meal is from 5 to 6:30, anything beyond this time and you would have no other choice but to wait for the 9:00 pm midnight snack. The completely starved students naturally dashed to the dining hall at the quickest possible speed.
Because Instructor Irene had something to call on him for, Lin Yuan could only bear with the emptiness of his stomach and walk alone to Instructor Irene's office.
He knocked on the door and heard the crystal-clear voice of the female instructor coming from the inside: "Come in!"
Lin Yuan pushed the door open. Irene in the middle of sorting out documents in front of her office desk. She was still wearing her full military uniform in the office, the Beta woman's appearance with her tall frame donned in her military uniform gave off a valiant and formidable air.
Lin Yuan had a very subtle sense of affection towards this female instructor and her husband, Instructor Knox, probably due to knowing that they had previously served in the Dark Night Legion.
Seeing Irene lift her head up, Lin Yuan immediately stood to attention in front of her and saluted, saying: "Instructor! You were looking for me?"
Irene smiled a bit and said: "The school must choose the best to be put into a group of outstanding students and award both honorary certificates and a large number of scholarships. Only one person can be chosen per class. In order to be fair, after you go back, let the students anonymously vote, gather and report the results to me before the weekend."
Lin Yuan nodded, "Okay."
Irene then went on to hand another document over to him, "There is also this, this is the latest notice passed down by the school. Our military academy has always used the academic year system. The curriculum reform from this year on has started the process of converting to a semester system. The corresponding class timetables, examination periods and as well as vacation arrangements have been revised. They have also all been registered online. After you go back, inform your classmates to go download the latest school calendar and testing arrangements."
Lin Yuan nodded and said: "Understood, Instructor!"
Lin Yuan bowed his head as he came out of Instructor Irene's office with the notices in his hands and walked towards the direction of the dining hall.
This document that was stamped with the official seal of the School's Educational Administration Section was the latest notice passed down concerning the curriculum adjustment. The St. Romia Military Academy had formerly used the academic year system, ten months was one school year, and then they were let out for two months on vacation. After three academic years, they'd graduate. Now, it's going to change to a semester system, five months is one semester, and then they would be let go for a one-month vacation, and they will graduate after six individual semesters.
Because of the conversion to a semester system, an awful lot of courses have been distributed to different semesters, and moreover, a large number of elective courses have also been added. Compared with the joint examination of many subjects for ten months in a row, this kind of semester system alleviates a lot of the psychological pressure on students.
Lin Yuan was somewhat excited thinking about it, with this kind of reform, he would be able to go home on vacation in three months.
Lin Yuan immediately told his mother about this good news. Mrs. Lin and Lin Yao both appeared to be very excited. Lin Yao even said that she would wait for her little brother to come back and give him a type of pastries she made from her latest experimentation......
When his older sister mentioned pastries, Lin Yuan only then found that his stomach was already flat as a board.
Turning off the communicator, he sped-walked to the doorway of the dining hall. Lin Yuan was suddenly struck dumb— he was only met with the sight of the completely bereft space in the dining hall. Obviously, dinner time has passed. If you want to eat something, you have to wait until 9 o'clock for the late-night snack run.
Lin Yuan rubbed his completely empty stomach and dejectedly drooped his head on his way back to the dormitory.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he opened the door, he could smell a rich aroma. Lin Yuan followed after the smell and saw that Caesar was wrapped around in an apron and right in the middle of cooking in the kitchen. Brian was assisting beside him on one hand while still directing Caesar's actions on the other.
Snow sat down in the kitchen with a calm and unperturbed face as he read a book. When he saw Lin Yuan come in, he turned his head around and said: "Come take a seat, dinner will be ready soon."
Lin Yuan walked over to him in shock and sat down across from him, pointing his finger at the kitchen,"The two of them are personally preparing a meal?"
Snow said faintly: "En. Caesar said that in the forest, the two of you had eaten roasted fish for two days. He wanted to make the food a bit better, so he bought a huge pile of vegetables and came back. Brian is teaching him how to do it. He's almost done making it, he was just waiting on you to come back to start eating."
Lin Yuan: "..............."
There certainly wouldn't be anything to eat at the dining hall at this time. Caesar conscientiously bought food and then brought it back to the dormitory just now to make dinner. The so-called improving food was obviously in order to wait for an absolutely starving little monster to come back and eat dinner.
Lin Yuan went back and watched Caesar bustling about in an apron making a show of being very earnest. While he thought it was funny, his heart also couldn't help but feel somewhat moved. Just like a warm stream of water slowly flowing inside his body, the comfortably warm feeling suddenly filled his entire heart.
When I returned to the dormitory terribly hungry, there was someone there preparing dinner for me......
This kind of feeling is really nice.
Soon, Caesar and Brian came out with a table full of rich vegetable and meat dishes. Seeing that Lin Yuan was salivating, Caesar handed him a pair of chopsticks and smiled, saying: "Come eat."
Lin Yuan hurriedly tried a few mouthfuls. He exclaimed in admiration saying: "You're the one who made this dish"
Caesar nodded his head: "En, this is my first time cooking, is the flavor okay?"
Lin Yuan rushed to say: "Very delicious!"
Caesar picked out some more dishes to give to him with a gentle gaze. The nearly starved to death Lin Yuan was solely preoccupied with immersing himself with eating, the bowl in front of him is piled up high by Caesar.
Brian questioningly took a look at Caesar and then took a look at Lin Yuan. After watching for a while, he suddenly thought— is the atmosphere between these two more intimate than it was before? How did this feeling of the two of them being in their own world and acting as though there was nobody else present come about? Could some "happy event" have happened during the wilderness survival training?
***
After they finished eating the meal, Caesar and Brian went to the kitchen to sort out the numerous vegetables they bought. Lin Yuan took the documents from Instructor Irene and transmitted the notice down to the dormitories one by one. While he was there, he asked everyone to send an anonymous email to their email inbox to select the outstanding students on the basis of a vote.
Dormitories were notified one by one until it was already 7:00 pm, Lin Yuan returned to the dormitory and knocked on Caesar's bedroom door. When Caesar got to the bedroom door, he had just recently finished bathing. He wore his nightwear and the ends of his hair were still dripping wet. Lin Yuan handed the notice over to him, he patiently explained and considerately told him to go to the website to download the new class schedule.
When Caesar saw Lin Yuan's serious appearance, he can't help but smile and say: "Okay, I got it Squad Leader, Sir."
Lin Yuan also felt that his formal dialogue with Caesar was somewhat ridiculous, he soon put the documents away and turned around and sat down on the sofa in Caesar's bedroom, he raised his head up and said: "Oh yeah, that's right. Caesar, the badges we found today, how about we have Suzaku come out a take a look?"
Caesar also sat down beside him and turned around to say: "Go ask Suzaku and see if it remembers or not."
Lin Yuan called Suzaku out. Suzaku looked at the badges and hurriedly said: "Master, I remember, this is the badge of the Thunder Legion."
Caesar asked: "Who was responsible for pursuing you back then? Do you have any impression of them?"
Suzaku thought about it and said: "General Auguste Olaf's mech, Comet and General Ivan Stork's mech, Phantom. Apart from those two mechs. There were some personal guard forces who followed them. I didn't know those people, I didn't recognize them either."
Lin Yuan and Caesar looked at each other. According to Caesar's inference, these badges should have been left behind back when the soldiers of the Thunder Legion went across Po Military Starfield to hunt Suzaku down. But who was who is not concrete, and after asking Suzaku, they still haven't gained anything. They only know that to have been able to participate in the hunting operation for Suzaku, those people must have been trusted aides of General Olaf...... This will be quite difficult to look into then.
The two of them were silent for a while, and then right at this moment, Lin Yuan's communicator suddenly lit up.
—it is a communication request from Rosen.
Lin Yuan immediately connected to the communicator, Marshal Rosen's face quickly appeared on the holographic screen in front of him. The man dressed in a pure black military uniform was just as expressionless as before, however, after his eyes landed on Lin Yuan, the man's gaze visibly grew soft.
Rosen looked at his son and said in a low voice: "Xiao Yuan, I will be leading the Glory Legion into battle tomorrow, I don't know when I will come back. You take proper care of yourself at school. If anything happens, you can directly connect to Black Dragon's communicator. "
Lin Yuan's stare went blank, "......into battle?"
Although he knew that as the head of the Glory Legion, his father can't avoid rushing to the battlefields. In addition, his reputation as the Undefeated God of War also stood to testament the Glory Legion's invincible strength and their triumph in every battle......
But the strange uneasiness that suddenly sprung up in his heart nevertheless made Lin Yuan somewhat anxious.
Lin Yuan looked up at his father and earnestly said: "Father, please be sure to take good care of yourself, I will wait for you to come back."
Rosen smiled and said: "There's no need to worry, I am fairly confident in my odds of success this battle."
Caesar also stood up and respectfully said: "Marshal, please take care of yourself."
Lin Yuan originally also wanted to tell his father about the matter of the badges, but what he and Caesar have is merely inferred and completely unfounded. With his father on the verge of going into battle, it's hard to say if these trifling matters would make him distracted. Lin Yuan had to endure it for the time being and say: "Go ahead, you must be busy. I will be careful. I will inject the inhibitor on time. My body has been examined and there weren't any issues."
Rosen nodded towards the two of them, and then turned off his communicator.
The room was quiet for a while, and seeing that Lin Yuan's complexion was a bit unsightly, Caesar softly asked:"What's wrong?"
Lin Yuan said softly: "I have a very bad feeling...... I feel that my father will run into trouble this time...... "
Caesar hurriedly threw his arm lightly around his shoulders and gently comforted him: "Don't worry, since the Marshal actively chose to go into battle, he must be awfully sure of the outcome. We should believe him. The Glory Legion's combat ability is the strongest in the Empire, he has never lost before either...... Don't overthink it, he will come back safe and sound."
Lin Yuan was silent for a moment, he finally slightly nodded and said: "I hope everything goes well for him."
***
In that same moment, Naomi Star's underground military base.
Ling Yu's communicator suddenly lit up. A complicated line of character of the highest-level ciphertext passed through the space station between the galaxy many times and was finally put through. At last, it was smoothly transmitted into his hands.
After the ciphertext was deciphered, there was only one line of words—
Rosen was on the eve of leading the Glory Legion on a campaign to Naomi Star and to prepare for cover.
Ling Yu slightly frowned, deleted the ciphertext, and then turned around to enter the command room.
Soon, there was a cold and tranquil voice simultaneously sounded in the earpieces of all of the officers throughout the whole underground base. He spoke clearly, word by word: "All officers above the colonel rank will promptly arrive at the command headquarters within three minutes! The base will be entering the first-level alert state!"
Countdown to 10, 9, 8......
The underground base suddenly echoed with the pleasant roaring sound of the first-level alert signal.
The author has something to say:
The dads will see each other very soon, ai, these past few days have been so cold *pitifully weeping. My hands have quickly become frozen stiff, give me a little warmth my dear fans!
(TN: Sigh, Lin Yuan's conversation with Rosen raised so many red flags. But hey~ The author has spoken! Their meeting is imminent! I didn't even need to spoil all of you, the author did it for me! Ling Yu! No more running now, Papa Rosen is on his way over!)