VAP - Chapter 128
Chapter 128: The Marshal's Journey is the Sea of Stars (24)
In the end, the result of the negotiations was that the Federation agreed to send troops to support the Empire, but it would not dispatch the Silver Lion Legion.
Although the Empire was currently the area hardest hit by the Zerg tide, the Federation was also in a tense and dangerous period, just one that was less urgent.
Under these circumstances, how could they possibly send out their top fighting force?
The Empire didn't insist. Or rather, they hadn't held much hope for it in the first place. Yue Du had reason to suspect that the so-called "hope for the Silver Lion Legion to be dispatched" was just an excuse for Terence to speak with Sheng Xuejiu.
If it succeeded, great. If not, they could still use the opportunity to make contact with the Federal Marshal. They had nothing to lose.
They had calculated it well, but unfortunately, the Federation didn't cooperate in the slightest. The result was finalized, the negotiations ended, and Terence's holographic projection could only disappear, full of reluctance.
Yue Du shed her aggressive negotiation persona, gently smoothed her hair, and muttered to herself, "Honestly, I..."
Sheng Xuejiu was still basking in the pleasure of having successfully declared her sovereignty. "You did the right thing. Beautifully done."
"No," Yue Du said. "I just feel like I was a bit childish."
It was indeed childish. Although the Imperial royal family didn't know, she did—the half-Spiral Star blood in Sheng Xuejiu came from the Emperor. As Sheng Xuejiu's blood relative, Terence's attempt was nothing more than a farce.
But Yue Du was still displeased, and she had stood up and sharply refuted his proposal. In fact, ever since she turned eighteen, she had rarely shown her emotions so openly in front of people she didn't know well.
She really shouldn't have.
Sheng Xuejiu's perspective, however, was: "If you're unhappy, just tear into them. Do whatever you want. I'm here for you."
As she spoke, the corners of her eyes lifted in a smile, carrying a hint of reckless arrogance. She looked every bit the part of a fatuous and tyrannical empress.
Yue Du didn't know whether to laugh or cry. After a moment's thought, she said with relief, "That's true."
It was unclear whether Terence had been beaten into submission or if he was plotting something else. In any case, after this incident, he never contacted Sheng Xuejiu again under the pretext of negotiations.
Of course, it was also possible that he simply didn't have the time.
Perhaps because the Empire had drawn the majority of the Zerg forces, the Federation had sent a legion to the Empire's border, yet the pressure on itself had decreased instead of increasing.
The Marshal went into battle several times, always tearing apart King Zergs with her bare hands in an act of utter cruelty to the Zerg. But as soon as she started, the other Zerg would retreat at lightning speed, as if terrified of being caught.
When the Zerg fled, their formations were scattered, retreating in every direction, making it impossible to track them.
The end of the month was the reporting time for all legions.
Judging from the reports, it was clear the other legions also found the fighting difficult.
"These Zerg have gotten too smart!" He Yin complained over the comms. "As soon as a King Zerg falls, they turn and run as if they've received an order. They refuse to fight, and we can't catch them. Tell me, isn't that infuriating?"
Sheng Xuejiu said nonchalantly, "Oh, that does sound quite infuriating."
He Yin: "..."
Sheng Xuejiu added, "In any case, I'm not the one responsible for wiping them out."
Just listen to that. Were those the words of a human being?
He Yin took a deep breath and looked away in resignation, chanting silently in her heart, She's my superior, I have to endure it. I've endured for so many years, this one time won't make a difference.
Yue Du offered an objective assessment. "The Zerg don't have the intelligence of humans or the people of the Spiral Star System, but they are smarter than ordinary animals. In a sense, they understand tactics."
He Yin calmed down. "According to the legion commander sent to the Empire, the battlefield there is more of a stalemate, and the King Zerg kill rate is also low."
"After all," Yue Du said, "the Federation's top-tier mecha technology is still slightly superior to the Empire's. Technology determines hard power."
To be fair, the Federation absolutely did not want the Empire to be breached.
The Zerg had attacked the Spiral Star System to plunder food in the first place. The more food they had, the faster the Zerg Mother would reproduce. If all the people of the Empire were fed to the Zerg, it was truly hard to say to what extent the Zerg population would swell.
Sheng Xuejiu blinked, seemingly wanting to say that it didn't matter if the people of the Empire were all eaten, as long as she could kill the Zerg Mother.
Yue Du gave her a slight shake of the head. The Marshal was very cooperative, covering her red lips with one hand and watching her quietly.
After He Yin finished her report—or rather, her complaint—she ended the communication. She was a legion commander now, much busier than before.
The Marshal stared thoughtfully at the now-blank light screen.
"Ah Jiu?" Yue Du asked.
"I just thought of something," Sheng Xuejiu said.
Yue Du gave her an inquisitive look. Sheng Xuejiu said, "Actually, we could go to the Empire's defense line to track the Zerg forces. After all, they usually don't flee from there."
"That's right," Yue Du said.
Sheng Xuejiu admitted frankly, "But I really can't be bothered to help the Empire kill Zerg."
The Federation was her own, so she could be responsible for defending it.
But the Empire, for now, still belonged to others. Why go to the trouble of helping?
Yue Du said uncertainly, "Think of it as being for the people of the Spiral Star System and the Federation's reinforcements?"
Sheng Xuejiu thought for a moment, then lowered her eyes. "Ah. Oh."
Her perfunctory attitude was plain to see.
Sheng Xuejiu was in no hurry to find the Zerg Mother. The Main System had given her a two-year time limit, and not much of it had passed.
So she spent her days at leisure. Her daily activities included accompanying her fiancée and tearing apart King Zergs with her bare hands, turning a blind eye to the Empire's resentment.
Amidst the wave of nationwide tension in the fight against the Zerg, this supreme commander of the Federation was a complete misfit, like a hands-off manager—even Yue Du was busier than her!
However, Sheng Xuejiu did indeed have the right to be at leisure.
With the war having progressed to this stage, the Federal Marshal's image had become a beacon, or a stabilizing pillar—in short, a spiritual symbol of that nature.
Even if the common people knew of her usual leisure, they wouldn't criticize her. Some might even offer a serious analysis, saying that the Marshal was conserving her strength, waiting to deliver a fatal blow to the Zerg.
In a sense, this view wasn't wrong. If anyone could end the war, that person could only be Sheng Xuejiu.
...And her System.
In the second year of the full-scale Zerg invasion, the situation seemed to have stabilized. The frequency of Zerg attacks had decreased, and the Empire was no longer struggling as much to cope.
Zerg research experts stated that this was a normal phenomenon. The Zerg had been fighting large-scale battles for a long time and lacked food supplies; under these circumstances, choosing to retreat was a biological instinct.
This explanation was accepted by the public.
Just when almost everyone had let their guard down, the Zerg erupted.
These creatures, which humans considered intellectually deficient, executed a textbook military strategy: attacking the unprepared and creating a diversion.
"El Star is about to fall. Mental-infection-type Zerg discovered. Requesting support."
This was the last short message sent back by the Federation garrison on El Star.
El Star was a special planet. Half of it belonged to the Federation, while the other half belonged to the Empire.
Logically speaking, this method of dividing territory shouldn't exist in the interstellar era. However, El Star was covered in a precious military-grade metal ore.
Three thousand years ago, when humanity established the Federation and the Empire in opposition, neither side was willing to give up this resource. Wary of each other, they simply split it in half.
Later, when the Zerg attacked, the military-grade metal ore proved to be of great use. El Star became one of the important anti-Zerg planets and the only one jointly garrisoned by both the Federation and the Empire.
And now, El Star had been attacked by mental-infection-type Zerg and had fallen in just one day.
"There's nothing to be done," He Yin said with a grim expression at the emergency meeting. "El Star's strategic position is too important. Sentinels and Guides make up nearly seventy percent of the legion members stationed there. Once they encounter mental-infection-type Zerg, it's as good as them all being crippled. I believe the Empire's garrison is in the same situation, perhaps even worse, since they rely more heavily on the natural advantages of Sentinels and Guides."
Mental infection, as the name implies, infects the minds of Sentinels and Guides. It induces rampages and fugue states in Sentinels and causes a Guide's barriers to be contaminated, leading to a coma or emotional turmoil—a condition in Guides known as chaos.
Only ordinary people were immune to its effects, but their mecha piloting skills were generally inferior to those of Sentinels and Guides. They would be torn to shreds by the giant King Zergs accompanying the mental-infection-type Zerg.
Admiral Samo also said with a solemn expression, "Mental infection is a terrifying ability. Someone at the research institute said this thing is also contagious. If El Star falls and those Zerg expand inward, the consequences will be unimaginable."
"We can't just ignore it," He Yin said. "We are urgently compiling a list of the strongest ordinary people in the military and Sentinels with stable mental states. We should have the results soon."
Yue Du lifted her eyes slightly.
As a Guide System who could pass for a Sentinel, her mental state was comparable to that of an ordinary person. Needless to say, she would definitely be on the list.
Sheng Xuejiu listened in silence, then pressed her hands on the table as if to stand.
He Yin was startled. "Marshal, where are you going?"
Sheng Xuejiu said lightly, "To kill them, of course."
"That's not acceptable, Marshal," He Yin said. "Mental infection already affects Sentinels more severely, not to mention your mental state has never been particularly stable..."
Zhan Lingqi also said, "At a time like this, you should remain here on Cadina. Send the ordinary people and those with stable mental states."
Samo's voice was the loudest. "Don't forget you don't have a bonded Guide! If you're affected, who can pull you back?"
The three generals tried to dissuade her at the same time, the cumulative effect of their voices giving the Marshal a headache.
—And she clearly did have a Guide.
Sheng Xuejiu gave the people opposite her a dark look.
To be able to place the entire military under her control, she was naturally not a person without methods; she had just never let Yue Du see them.
How should she make those noisy voices stop?
Sew their mouths shut, snap their necks, or, less obviously, use her pressure to suppress them—would that be enough?
However, before the dark emotions could erupt, Sheng Xuejiu first thought of Yue Du, who was sitting beside her.
Her slender fingers, already raised, paused and slowly returned to their original position.
She lowered her eyes slightly, pushing the darkness back down.
Yue Du did not approve of Sheng Xuejiu going.
Only she knew how special the inside of her host's mental landscape was. As long as it was unknown whether the mental infection would affect this condition, she would not let her host go anywhere near it.
So Yue Du tried to catch Sheng Xuejiu's eye.
But Sheng Xuejiu, for her part, crossed her arms as if restraining something. Her dark eyes darted around, looking at the ceiling and then the floor—anywhere but meeting Yue Du's gaze.
Yue Du: "..."
But soon, they no longer had to make a choice.
A sharp, urgent alarm rang through the conference room. The reconnaissance department was patching in an emergency communication.
"This is Cadina Star's Third Reconnaissance Department. We have detected large-scale Zerg life signs outside the planet's atmosphere. More than fifteen massive energy clusters. Please enter a state of high alert immediately!"
The Zerg were self-taught geniuses; they had learned to create a diversion.
The mental-infection-type Zerg, recorded only centuries ago, had suddenly appeared and were ravaging El Star. At the same time, Cadina was facing a massive Zerg army with more than fifteen King Zergs. The number of low-level Zerg was likely overwhelming.
Under the current circumstances, there was no way the Marshal could leave.
With the Zerg surprise attack imminent, the generals in the conference room exchanged a few final words and then rose to prepare for battle.
A force led by more than fifteen King Zergs—this was an unprecedentedly large formation.
As for El Star...
Sending some Sentinels with stable conditions to stabilize the situation and hold out until the main force could arrive—this was the most appropriate arrangement for now.
Comments
Post a Comment