In the 64th year of the New Imperial Calendar, at the border of the universe.
A vast expanse of darkness and sporadic brightness made up this cosmic space. Burning stars emitted light of different wavelengths, scattered asteroids maintained their orbits for tens of thousands of years, and silence embraced it all.
Before the footsteps of mankind reached here, they had been operating according to the rules of the universe for billions of years. But just over fifty years ago, the White Bird Expedition extended the pioneering footprints of the empire here.
Since then, occasionally, starships would skim across this universe, like black sparrows crossing the dark sea.
At this moment, a fleet was dragging a dim blue tail flame, traversing through this dark sea.
They were not shiny, the alloy-built hull was covered with transparent crystal spikes. The traces of alien creature attacks had scratched the emblem of the Silver Big Dipper.
They were warriors, dragging their weary steps, trekking towards their homeland.
Outside the flagship’s combat command room, two young men in Silver Big Dipper uniforms stood at the door.
“Hey, Lieutenant Tang.” One of them poked his head out, whispering to the young man with chestnut hair next to him.
“Do you think, who is the Major General communicating with? It’s been an hour, and there’s still no movement.”
Tang Zhen rolled his eyes. “How would I know, haven’t I been standing at the door all this time…”
The other young man chuckled, realizing he had asked a silly question. He twisted his neck, just about to stand for another hour, when he suddenly heard Xie Yuduo’s voice.
“Xiao Tang is outside, come in.”
The automatic door opened accordingly. The two young guards perked up, and Tang Zhen immediately stepped in with three steps in two, saluting, “Reporting! Major General!”
The command room was very spacious, with no one else. Xie Yuduo sat alone at the command seat in the innermost part, a huge virtual screen was wrapping the Major General in a surround style.
The days of expedition had made the youngest general of the Silver Big Dipper look haggard. He had lost a lot of weight, the dark circles under his eyes were clearly visible, but his demeanor was still resolute.
At this moment, the Major General was staring at the window in front of him, seemingly engrossed in contemplating some problem, he pointed casually, “Hmm, sit.”
The automatic door closed. Tang Zhen walked a few more steps inside, just casually found a seat and sat down, then he heard Xie Yuduo ask, “Xiao Tang, can you write a self-criticism?”
“Self-criticism?” Tang Zhen was taken aback.
“Right,” Xie Yuduo gestured, “Make it official, with a format, to be submitted to the Imperial Military Department.”
“Oh…” Tang Zhen showed an enlightened expression. During this Crystal Nest expedition, they indeed made quite a few actions that did not fully comply with the military department’s orders.
Now that they were about to return to the country, Major General Xie was trying to fool those old-fashioned people in the military department again.
“It should work, let me try.” Tang Zhen scratched his military cap, casually took it off and put it aside, and pulled out a virtual screen in front of him.
Actually, this kind of thing was usually handled by the Major General’s adjutant and secretary–Major Liu Rita. Unfortunately, Rita did not join the expedition this time and was left by the Major General to look after the house.
As for the members of this expeditionary army, ninety-nine percent of them were iron-blooded rough men who only knew how to chop alien creatures and didn’t know how to write documents. Upon looking, it was still the young master Tang, who was from a meritorious noble family and had just graduated from the military academy, who had the most culture in this area.
Tang Zhen complained in his heart again: Writing official documents was still okay. On days without battles, he, as a guard, had completely become a servant taking care of the Major General’s daily life.
So the question was, why did he, the famous young master of the imperial capital, have this skill? Because he came from the Logistics Sixth College? Don’t joke, it was clearly because he had taken care of a certain disabled person in the military academy…
He opened a blank document and asked, “Major General, what content should I write? The problem of going too deep into the Crystal Nest?”
“Oh no no no, not those.”
Xie Yuduo cleared his throat, his expression wandering, “Just say…”
“I feel very guilty about the loss of the First Fortress.”
Tang Zhen: “Oh.”
He bowed his head and typed two words.
He paused, raised his head in a daze, “…Huh?”
Xie Yuduo pondered with his arms folded, “We must get it back as soon as possible.”
Tang Zhen was struck by lightning, and jumped up with a pop.
“The——the fortress is lost!!?”
This sentence was no less than the sky falling and the earth sinking, Tang Zhen’s face turned pale in an instant, he was so scared that his teeth were chattering, “What…when did this happen, how was it lost, how could it be lost, lost——who was it lost to!?”
He was almost anxiously spinning around, waving his hands incoherently, “Didn’t the empire support it, what about the second and third fortresses, ah!? What about our other people who stayed behind in the fortress…”
Xie Yuduo still looked calm and composed. Just when Tang Zhen was about to rush up, commit insubordination, and shake Major General Xie by the collar, a clear voice came from the front of the Major General’s screen.
“It’s not lost yet.”
That voice sighed, “Tang Zhen, be steady.”
Tang Zhen was shocked as if he had been whipped, and when he came back to his senses, he still rushed up, his head stuck in front of the command seat’s screen, even squeezing Xie Yuduo, who had a disgusted face, to the side.
“Xiao Jiang!?”
In the center of Major General Xie’s screen, it was not a three-dimensional star map or crystal particle monitoring data, but a real-time communication window.
A somewhat pale black-haired youth was sitting opposite, draped in a thick military coat, holding a steaming white porcelain tea cup in his hand, his familiar eyebrows were smiling faintly at him.
“Young Master Tang really hasn’t made any progress.” Bei Man’er walked over lightly, handed Jiang Jianming a small bottle, and took a jab at Tang Zhen on the way, “Fortunately, it’s a private occasion.”
“…” Tang Zhen was like a mute who had eaten Huanglian, his eyes twitching with frustration.
Damn it, why blame him? Which general would say that the fortress was lost in a non-private occasion! It shouldn’t even be in a private occasion!!
No, the point is, how come Bei Man’er and Xiao Jiang are together on the starship!?
No, no, the real point is still——
Tang Zhen: “So, it’s not lost?”
“Ah, this.”
Jiang Jianming unscrewed the small bottle, poured out two white pills from it and bit them in his mouth. “We’re discussing it.”
Tang Zhen: “Discussing… what?”
Jiang Jianming on the other side didn’t pay attention to him, lowered his head and took a sip of hot tea to send the pills down.
Next to him, Xie Yuduo was sitting in a chair with his legs crossed in an unprofessional manner. “How to lose the fortress.”
****
“In the current situation, it’s meaningless to hold on. The Silver Big Dipper’s First Army is all elite, the fortress can be taken back if it’s lost, but the soldiers can’t come back if they die.”
An hour after the end of the interstellar long-distance communication, Jiang Jianming was sitting on the bed in his bedroom.
He had a transparent mask on his mouth and nose, and was inhaling medicine, a misty tranquilizer plus a drug to suppress chronic crystal disorder.
But this patient didn’t have half a patient’s consciousness, and was now looking at the three-dimensional star map with a sidelong glance, his fingers jumping on the virtual keyboard, “I still advocate strategic retreat, Your Highness.”
When he spoke, a thin white mist appeared and disappeared on the mask.
Ryann was standing at the head of the bed, reaching out to adjust the rate of the medication machine, frowning. “What about Xie Yuduo’s fleet?”
Jiang Jianming: “I just discussed with the Major General, if we can clear the Space Bandits here, we can let the fleet jump over and temporarily dock at the Second Fortress.”
Ryann was silent. Behind the two of them, the curved porthole reflected the universe outside, and the fleet traversing the universe with a tail flame.
They were now riding on the “White Jade”, this starship named after the palace was a flagship-type armed interstellar battleship that was only allowed to be dispatched when the royal family was on an expedition, using the most cutting-edge technology, capable of carrying about four hundred soldiers, it was undoubtedly the strongest ship in the empire.
In the 64th year of the New IMperial Calendar, the “Crystal Cult” rebelled, and many star cities including Aslan were attacked, thus opening the prelude to the war.
The tough defense battle lasted for two days, and finally forced the Crystal Cult out of the empire’s territory. Before they had a chance to catch their breath, the Silver Big Dipper’s First Fortress was attacked again.
The empire urgently sent troops, but before the reinforcements could get close to Alpha Alien Star, the First Fortress was already in a state of emergency – the main general was not there, the elite were missing, it really couldn’t hold on much longer.
At this time, the Silver Big Dipper’s Second Fortress located on Beta Alien Star also fell into a bitter battle with the Lava Space Bandits.
This group of space bandits who usually like to run after firing a shot, suddenly bit like mad dogs, and couldn’t be shaken off.
A dilemma arose.
Inside the flagship of the reinforcement fleet, Jiang Jianming and Ryann had been troubled by this for three full days.
If the reinforcements go directly to rescue Alpha Alien Star, they are likely to be harassed by the Space Bandits from behind. If they delay for a few more days, it’s hard to say how many people in the First Fortress would have to sacrifice; Xie Yuduo’s expeditionary fleet would also have nowhere to dock, and every day in the universe would be more dangerous.
In response to this, Jiang Jianming proposed a strategy of retreat, simply giving up the First Fortress for the time being and letting the Silver Big Dipper’s army withdraw from it.
First, join forces with the reinforcements to drive out the Space Bandits from the Second Fortress, welcome back Major General Xie’s expeditionary fleet, and then retake the First Fortress.
“Even if we go by what you said, the battle to retake won’t be much easier.”
Ryann hummed lightly, he pulled a chair to the bedside, sat next to Jiang Jianming, and casually pinched his lover’s wrist to check his temperature.
“Choosing to retreat in the face of the Crystal Cult, an alien faction whose details are still unclear, who can predict what will happen next?”
The Crown Prince obviously didn’t like this battle plan of giving up a city before the official battle.
However, public is public, private is private. Differences in strategic opinions should not affect other things——
“Time is almost up.” Ryann took another look at the medication machine, reached out to pick an apple from the fruit basket on the bedside table, “Want to eat an apple?”
“Eat, don’t peel with crystal bone,” Jiang Jianming continued to tap the virtual keyboard without raising his head, “There are still a large number of intelligent machines and drones in the fortress, and the main control system is ours, the Crystal Cult will have a hard time cracking it for a while.”
“In addition, the Stele of Heroes underground can be sealed, resources that can’t be taken away can be directly blown up and destroyed, just leave the empty shell fortress to the enemy… the battle to retake is still in our favor.”
——Obviously, in the face of the tense war situation, in order to save time, the Crown Prince and the Princess of the Empire have tacitly learned the mode of combining public and private.
Ryann leaned over to pick up a fruit knife, and when he sat back down, his face was still unsuspecting. “The empire is currently preparing to disclose the truth about crystal particles. At this time, especially after just experiencing the star city defense battle, what would the news of the front line falling mean, have you thought about it?”
Jiang Jianming paused, raised his eyes, and finally showed a few strands of difficulty.
Drip——The machine made a timing sound, the medication was over.
The black-haired youth slowly took off the mask on his face, sighed lightly and admitted. “…This, indeed, is a problem.”
He understood the reason, if the truth is revealed to the public in the situation of continuous defeat, it will only cause large-scale panic.
Moreover, the symbolic significance of the First Fortress is too great, if the fortress is lost and cannot be retaken, it will also be a major blow to the morale of the imperial army.
Jiang Jianming picked up the towel next to him, wiped his face, rinsed his mouth, and said softly, “If we choose to retreat, the pressure of the subsequent battle to retake will be great, I admit.”
On the other side, Ryann cut another piece of apple, peeled it, carefully stuck it on the tip of the fruit knife and passed it over.
With such a tender and considerate action, His Highness’s expression was still hard, “Even so, you still insist on your plan?”
Jiang Jianming leaned over, opened his mouth to take the fruit, and mumbled as he chewed. “Hmm.”
The Crown Prince stared at him. “What if I say, I don’t allow retreat?”
Unexpectedly, Jiang Jianming’s answer was quick and calm.
He swallowed the food in his mouth and said, “Then we can still fight.”
He paused, and added, “Although there may be more casualties.”
“But if Your Highness has made up his mind,” the black-haired officer bent his eyebrows and said softly, “You are the commander-in-chief, I will obey the order.”
Ryann chuckled lightly, saying something about obeying orders…this is still euphemistically saying that he disagrees.
He cut two more pieces of fruit, then put down the small knife in his hand, and said, “Go by your idea, Colonel Jiang.”
“I guessed you would agree.” Jiang Jianming smiled gently. He turned the screen he had been tapping just now, and pushed it to the Crown Prince’s side.
On it was a simple tactical concept schematic.
“Then we’ll split our forces.” He said, “Your Highness, please take half of the people to assist the Silver Big Dipper’s withdrawal from the First Fortress, and I’ll go to Beta Alien Star to deal with the Space Bandits.”
Sure enough, they were going to separate again….Ryan ground his teeth in displeasure. “Every time you’re not by my side, something happens.”
Jiang Jianming: “No, it definitely won’t happen this time!”
Ryan: “Tsk.”
Jiang Jianming: “Really–if I mess up again, you can dismiss me. You can even deduct my pension, that should be okay, right?”
Ryan’s forehead twitched, and he finally slammed the table in anger. “And then what, I’m still the one supporting you!?”
Jiang Jianming: “…..”
He made such a good point that he couldn’t refute it.
The Crown Prince turned around with a cold face, making a “I’m angry” gesture. But his gaze was always lingering behind, watching the disabled human being helplessly coax him.
…He felt that since learning the truth about the crystal particles, Jiang Jianming seemed to be more tense than before.
Patients with chronic crystal disorder actually can’t stand such hard work, the consumption of mind and body will accelerate the progression of the disease. If a patient wants to live longer, they must learn to rest, but it’s just Jiang Jianming.
Ryann had no choice. He knew that this person would never allow himself to stop… whether it was for personal feelings or for the country.
……..
“Alright, let’s talk about something else.”
After a round of quarreling, the two sat back on the bed. Ryann held Jiang Jianming in his arms, casually rubbing the somewhat cold fingertips of the disabled human.
“Hmm, what?” Jiang Jianming squinted and smiled, he nestled in the Crown Prince’s arms, a bit like a lazy black cat. It seemed that he was finally settled on the strategic plan, and his mood was better.
Ryann pondered for two seconds, and said in a low voice. “That day…when my consciousness projection returned, what did the so-called Great Emperor Kaios…look like?”
