After Caesar and Xi Wei made their announcement on behalf of the royal family, early the next morning, the Imperial Alliance made up of the Glory Corps, the Cobra Corps and the long-hidden Night Corps quickly encircled the Cepheus galaxy’s five major space forts under Marshal Rosen’s leadership. They soon broke through the capital planet hypergate as well.
At the same time, under General Byron’s personal leadership, the Morningstar Corps that had been lying low on the capital planet surrounded the presidential palace, and raided General Auguste’s home quickly enough to catch them unprepared!
The Allied forces soon routed the rebel troops under Auguste. They cut through all of Cepheus’s defense satellites like a hot knife through butter, and smoothly landed on the capital planet’s central star field.
The leader of the rebel troops, General Auguste, was taken prisoner, and the Imperial military’s internal strife was completely pacified within a week.
After many days, Xi Wei finally saw His Majesty Trand and Queen Anna, who’d been successfully rescued.
His Majesty had been hiding in the underground city at the Underground Alliance for the past few days, and he’d been unable to rest or eat in peace, so his face looked a lot thinner and paler than before. However, His Imperial Majesty’s dignity was still there, and just by standing there, he radiated an aura of power.
Marshal Rosen and the others bowed towards His Majesty until Trand nodded and said, “Thanks for your trouble, everyone.”
Xi Wei and Caesar walked quickly up to His Majesty, and when the king saw his two grown-up sons, a pleased smile finally appeared on his face.
“Father, Mother, are you alright?” The brothers asked in unison.
Queen Anna gently embraced Xi Wei and said tearfully, “We’re alright, what about you and Caesar? Did you get hurt?”
Xi Wei shook his head quickly and said, “Caesar and I are both fine.”
His Majesty Trand reached out and patted the brothers’ shoulders lightly. “Good job, you didn’t let me down.”
Their victory in the war and the reunion with his family made Xi Wei feel both excitement and joy. He hugged his thin and frail mother tight, then stood next to His Majesty and the Queen with Caesar.
Since the rebel troops had blown up the imperial palace under Auguste’s leadership, it had long since lost its former appearance. General Craig of the Royal Guard took men back to renovate it. His Majesty and the princes temporarily settled themselves at Berg’s residence.
Living temporarily at Berg’s house with his parents, Xi Wei felt that he had experienced the past few days as dimly as a dream. First Klaire, who’d been missing for a year, suddenly appeared, and right after that the Thunderclap Corps led a military coup. It was a good thing his father had foresight, and had long since made arrangements. They successfully got through this crisis without a mishap.
At that moment, Xi Wei suddenly particularly missed Klaire. He and Klaire had come to this world together, and they’d gone through so much together. It was a rare stroke of fate that had brought them together in two lives. Since he’d already seen his own heart clearly, there was no need to cover things up anymore. After Klaire came back, they’d discuss what they should do in the future.
There were a lot of things he had to deal with right now. Personal matters had to be set aside for now.
Xi Wei had made his decision, so he sent a message to Klaire: “After you come back to the capital planet, come to Uncle Berg’s house to find me.”
Klaire soon replied. “Okay.”
After that, Xi Wei returned to his guest room with peace of mind. He soon fell deeply asleep, probably because he was too tired.
Their work was finishing up. The Empire’s major galaxies responded to His Majesty’s call, and began to prepare for electing members of the new congress. His Majesty intentionally had Prince Caesar take responsibility for this. He was evidently preparing to pass the throne on to Caesar. Right now, he had to start slowly tempering this alpha prince, and give him some more experience in handling government affairs.
Xi Wei also had his own business to take care of. The Underground Alliance had changed from a mysterious, covert organization you couldn’t tell anyone about to a formal organization that openly protected omegas. Many omegas in the empire wanted to apply for membership, and as the next leader, Xi Wei had to carefully check, investigate and organize the new members’ information.
Uncle Berg was pregnant, so Xi Wei took on the responsibility of managing the Underground Alliance’s affairs so that his uncle could rest at home.
It was a good thing Xi Wei had traveled extensively for years under Berg’s guidance, and he was very familiar with the Underground Alliance’s internal structure. He soon neatly organized the applications to enter the Alliance. He also set up different subdivisions inside the Underground Alliance that worked together to put omega rights under complete protection.
The empire’s omegas found at last that with this swift and decisive big beast acting as leader, after they joined the Alliance, they were really free of worries! Xi Wei established a department especially for giving job recommendations within the Alliance that offered omegas job opportunities according to their personal strengths. This was something that had been simply unthinkable in the past.
—Springtime had arrived for omegas. Popular support for the Underground Alliance’s next leader reached an unprecedented height.
***
Three busy days passed just like this. Under Xi Wei’s personal supervision, the Underground Alliance’s matters finally got onto track. Relieved, Xi Wei wanted to find Klaire for a talk.
He hadn’t seen him for a few days, and he actually missed him a little in his heart.
Xi Wei decisively flew Egret to General Byron’s house. Madam Grace took him into the house, looked at him gently, smiled and said, “Did Your Highness come here to find Klaire?”
Mama Grace’s expression was clearly that of someone looking at her “daughter-in-law.” Xi Wei rubbed his nose, a little embarrassed, and asked, “Klaire still hasn’t come back yet?”
“That’s right. He was supposed to come back a while ago, but this morning he suddenly sent us a message saying he wouldn’t be back for a few days, telling us not to worry.” Madam Grace paused, then said, “He might’ve run into a little problem he hasn’t dealt with yet.”
Startled, Xi Wei couldn’t help worrying a little.
According to what Uncle Berg said, when the three major corps that made up the Allied Forces had evacuated from planet Nami, they unexpectedly found some Federal troops lurking around the planet. Klaire led a portion of the Morningstar Corps fleet ahead to investigate.
If he was only investigating, he should have returned within three days. Until now, he still hadn’t returned to the capital planet, so he must have run into some trouble. But he hadn’t sent his father, General Byron, a message requesting him to send reinforcements, so the trouble evidently wasn’t much, and Klaire believed he could handle it on his own.
In other words, Klaire shouldn’t be in danger right now, but should’ve run into a little trouble that delayed his return instead.
Xi Wei calmed down and thought the matter over thoroughly, and soon cleared up what had happened.
After he said goodbye to Madam Grace, he flew Egret towards the capital planet space fort.
The war had just ended, and the capital planet space fort was still in a state of top alert under the Cobra Corps’s personal guard.
Xi Wei had just neared the space station when he received a warning from the Cobra Corps: “The capital planet has temporarily banned all passage of private mechas and spacecraft. Citizens leaving the capital planet with an emergency, please enter the space station for a safety inspection.”
This rule had evidently been set up for fear that survivors from the rebel troops would take advantage of the chaos to escape. The capital planet security checkpoint had been very strict for the last few days.
But to Xi Wei’s delight, the person in the video message was an old friend he couldn’t be any more familiar with.
“Carlo, long time no see.” Xi Wei greeted him with a smile.
The Carlo before him wore the dark green formal uniform of the Cobra Corps, had a serious expression, and carried himself tall as befit an Imperial officer, in stark contrast to the foolish alpha of his childhood.
In the year that he hadn’t seen him, he’d clearly matured a lot.
Everyone said that no matter how old a bachelor was, he’d still seem immature in some aspects. After marrying, with a wife, a household and responsibilities, Carlo had finally genuinely matured. The way he handled affairs today was true to the teachings his uncle Drew, head of the Cobra Corps, had handed down to him. He had already become an alpha with responsibilities and accomplishments.
Carlo saw the eldest prince on the monitor and was clearly quite surprised. His eyes wide, he asked, “Xi Wei? What did you run over here for?”
“I want to look for Klaire.” Xi Wei didn’t mince words. “He ran into a little trouble, I want to help him.”
“If he ran into trouble, he’ll ask the army for reinforcements. What can you help him with?” Carlo frowned and said, “Hurry back, the capital planet hasn’t been very safe recently. If someone happened to injure you, it wouldn’t be easy for me to explain it to your father.”
“Egret’s here, no one can hurt me.” Xi Wei said confidently and calmly, “What’s more, the marshal’s already arrested that traitor Augustus. What trouble can the small fry left behind start?”
“But…” Carlo wasn’t good with words to begin with. He couldn’t outtalk someone as eloquent as Xi Wei.
“...Fine then.” Carlo helplessly opened the space station’s security gate and urged him, “Be careful.”
“Thanks!”
Xi Wei immediately flew Egret through the space gate and left the capital planet’s atmosphere at the highest speed.
From afar, he was just like a pure white meteor gliding past the horizon in an instant.
Carlo’s adjutant couldn’t help but ask, “Is it okay to just let the eldest prince through like that?”
“There’s no problem.” Carlo said seriously, “With Xi Wei and Egret’s combat ability, they wouldn’t be scared even if they met that old cow Augustus, let alone those small fry. Let’s give him a chance to show off. Klaire will thank me for it.”
After Xi Wei flew Egret out of the Cepheus galaxy, he immediately had him locate Bluestar’s position.
Egret and Bluestar had a direct line of communication between them. As long as Bluestar’s communication equipment was fine, Egret could quickly find his exact coordinates in the universe.
“Owner, Bluestar is in Hilter, an unoccupied territory. His coordinates are 7321.9048, and he’s currently stationary.” As Egret gave his report, he put up an interstellar map on the big screen before him, and marked Bluestar’s position with a small blue dot.
Xi Wei stroked his chin and carefully examined the coordinates of the small blue dot. He could see from the map that Bluestar really was staying at the same spot without moving an inch. It could be that Bluestar suffered damage or Klaire had a problem, and staying in place made it more convenient to perform maintenance on the machine. Or it could be that Klaire found an abnormal situation, and was hiding there patiently waiting for an opportunity.
Of course there was also a third possibility—that Klaire had been surrounded and couldn’t break out. But Xi Wei believed that the possibility of this was small. With Klaire’s ability, even if he’d been ambushed, he’d think of a way to break through. He wouldn’t stay motionless in the same place, without the slightest ability to retaliate.
“Make a leap to Hilter immediately, near Bluestar’s coordinates.” Xi Wei gave a decisive command.
***
On Hilter’s outskirts, Klaire had Bluestar turn on the anti-tracking system, and quietly hid himself behind a small planet. The rest of the Morningstar Corps fleet were stealthily hiding farther away.
On the large monitor screen in front of them, a small convoy made up of five hovercars was heading rapidly towards the unoccupied territory. The hovercars were unmarked, and seemed not to belong to any corps, but to imperial civilians instead.
However, Klaire knew that from the moment the capital planet implemented strict supervision, it was impossible for civilian convoys to leave, unless they used some method to slip out and fool the space gate security inspection.
“The fish finally took the bait.” A smile showed at the corner of Klaire’s mouth.
Bluestar said excitedly, “Owner, are we going to move?”
“No, wait a little longer.” Klaire checked Bluestar and followed them, monitoring them closely.
The small convoy’s destination was Hilter, as expected. After they landed, they immediately joined the Federal Direwolf Corps that were concealed there in the same location.
This Federal unit wasn’t large either, and was only made up of five warships. A small fleet like this was usually used in the army for covert scouting and escorting. It could move agilely and had fixed firepower and ability to break out of an enclosure.
Before, they’d been hiding furtively near planet Nami. The scout ships the marshal dispatched had found traces of them. Since the marshal had to return to the capital planet to put down the rebellion, he’d handed the task of investigating over to Major General Klaire.
Klaire hadn’t wiped them out straightaway, because he felt that the enemy troops must be hiding here with a plan.
For the last few days, Klaire had been following them calmly. He’d tracked them all the way to Hilter. Sure enough, they stopped here, as if they were waiting for something.
Klaire had patiently waited with them, and now, his prey had finally arrived!
Seeing the two parties meeting up, Klaire’s eyes immediately narrowed, and he gave a command to the Morningstar Corps troops that accompanied him: “Surround them from three directions, and make sure to take them alive!”
With a loud boom, Bluestar, who’d been looking forward to this for ages, fired an electromagnetic cannon accurately at them. It made a beautiful explosion in the middle of a battleship!
Two battleships took strikes to their flanks, and smoke immediately rose.
“It’s an ambush, hurry and retreat!” The two commanders ordered in unison. A few battleships immediately took flight, and started escorting the hovercar convoy to escape in the opposite direction!
However, only three seconds after they began to retreat, a huge, pure white mecha suddenly appeared not far away. The mecha looked like a beautiful white bird. It opened its graceful wings and flew over, and fired three successive particle interference shots from its mouth. It accurately hit the fleeing Federal enemy troops!
The battleships the particle interference cannon hit immediately lost their direction, and ran around in space like headless flies!
“It’s Egret!! Oh oh oh, it’s Egret!” Bluestar shouted in excitement.
Klaire was very shocked as well. He’d never expected that Xi Wei would come here.
As Xi Wei directed Egret to stop the fleeing Federal battleships, he connected to Klaire’s communicator.
On the big screen, Xi Wei said with a face full of sincerity, “Klaire, I’ve come to help you!”
***5 hours and 13 minutes for 2,581 words, or 12.1 minutes for every 100 words. An increase in rate by 1.2 minutes. Lots of technical language again...
I haven't slept in two days. Fun times.
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