“What kind?” Jiang Jianming pressed his fist to his lips, hiding a smile.
A neurotic little pitiful who was both crazy and stuck to him crying… This kind of truth couldn’t be told. He casually said, “That’s also you. No one knows what Emperor Kaios himself looks like. The result of the consciousness projection is the fusion of the original body and two base bodies’ memories, haven’t I said that?”
Ryann fell silent, tightening his arms, holding Jiang Jianming in his arms a bit tighter.
The latter patted him, “Still can’t accept it?”
There was no way around it, Jiang Jianming thought to himself.
Admitting that he was a base body born in a laboratory was cruel enough, and it seemed that the original body still had a faint consciousness that could “invade” the current body at any time, and the memory during that period couldn’t be retained.
For the Crown Prince, who was both arrogant and controlling, such a manipulated situation was indeed a bit too cruel…even if the manipulator was just his past self.
Ryann frowned, “I’m worried about you.”
Jiang Jianming: “Me?”
“The first consciousness projection, let’s not talk about it. But Kaios was born in a chaotic era where order was trampled on, and he was a war-mongering madman. He neglected Queen Sylph, forced the founding marshal Aslan, who had accompanied him since his youth, to death, and even formulated the crazy strategy of the White Bird Plan.”
The slightly cold voice echoed in the bedroom, with the universe’s stars scattered outside the window.
Ryann rested his chin on his lover’s shoulder, but his eyes were very gloomy, “…I’m not at ease. How could such a person learn to cherish you just because he accepted two new memories?”
Jiang Jianming was speechless, and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, “Are you thinking too much?”
He said, “At least in the short term, the consciousness projection can’t return stably, I won’t have to live with the founding emperor. Besides, that day after your memory fusion, you were also very pitying towards me, even if it’s true——”
Ryann immediately interrupted, “He might want to use you, making a disguise.”
The Crown Prince’s expression was overly serious, as if he was certain that his partner would suffer from love deception. Jiang Jianming couldn’t help but laugh again.
“If you keep this up,” he leisurely tugged at Ryann’s hair, “I’ll take it as His Highness is jealous.”
“Suit yourself.” The Crown Prince huffed, “I just want to tell you that it’s very dangerous, you’re too defenseless against acquaintances.”
“In short,” he whispered near the disabled human’s ear in his arms, like a lord warning a thief, “If Kaios appears again, don’t let him get close to you casually, got it?”
****
The next day, the reinforcement starships split into two routes.
The Crown Prince took sixty percent of the starships, leaving eighty percent of the mecha soldiers, drones, a large number of new crystal mechanical weapons, and most of the senior officers who were with the team to go and meet the First Army of the Silver Big Dipper retreating from the fortress.
Jiang Jianming took over the command of the remaining troops. When the fleet approached the star system where Beta was located, it was noon on this planet.
The disabled human who had once deceived his way to the front line was now wearing the black and silver military uniform of the Silver Big Dipper after a long absence, sitting in the seat of the starship commander.
Jiang Jianming looked at the spherical projection of the alien planet’s terrain on the giant screen in the center, recalling the first time he touched the mecha M-IP 18.
Coming back to this alien planet with dry red soil, his mood had completely changed.
“Little Excellency doesn’t need to feel pressured,” Zheng Yue stood on the right side of the command seat, whispering to him at this moment, “The staff on the ship are all experienced officers. If you don’t trust them, you can also contact General Jin at the Second Fortress in real time.”
Jiang Jianming laughed, “Do I look nervous?”
Objectively speaking, he had indeed served as a temporary commander during the Battle of Lan Xishi. Later, His Highness Ryann even asserted that every judgment he made at that time was calm, precise, and nearly perfect.
But unfortunately, Jiang Jianming had no memory of it, so for him, this moment was his first battle as a starship commander.
“How could that be, it’s this subordinate who is nervous, this is——”
Zheng Yue held his breath, and only after a second did he murmur, “This is a Far Star battlefield.”
…At the same time, for these Golden Sun Wheels brought out from Aslan, it was also their first battle in the Far Star.
“Report! Received a real-time communication request from the Second Fortress,” Bei Man’er sat on the lower level, wearing electronic goggles and a headset for communication, “Do you need to take it?”
Jiang Jianming squinted. This kind of request that only came after entering the communication range was generally not something urgent, anything truly urgent would be directly forced into the military internal channel.
It was probably General Jin wanting to say hello and do some pre-battle communication.
He thought for a moment, “No rush, ignore it for now.”
Real-time communication had the risk of being detected, Colonel Jiang decided to show the courage he had when he blacklisted the instructor in the military academy.
“The Space Bandits probably didn’t expect that we would choose to give up rescuing the First Fortress.”
The young commander tapped the command table thoughtfully with his index finger, “The speed of the troops is the key, let’s fight first.”
In less than half an hour, the correctness of this sentence was verified.
It just so happened that at this time, the Lava Space Bandits were harassing the fortress on a small scale, who would have expected that the heavenly soldiers from outer space would descend, and they would fire fiercely at the mecha group of the Lava.
This effect was no less than being hit in the back of the head with a stick. The fortress reacted quickly, bombing up and down together. The Space Bandits were not a regular army to begin with, they were immediately in a mess, scattering and fleeing.
The scorching sun baked the red soil, and the spinning mechas kept falling with smoke, causing waves of explosions on the ground.
“Lava’s specialized mechas are not easy to deal with, the firepower network is dense, try to suppress the enemy’s mechas in the low-altitude range… The enemy’s starships are still docked in the universe domain, they should be coming in soon.”
Jiang Jianming did not relax, his eyes were fixed on the crossfire of light beams in the alien sky, and with a hook of his fingertip, he pulled over the three-dimensional star map floating on the right.
“Look at this,” he poked a coordinate, “Here, the old battlefield where the emperor cleared out the Space Bandits, there are still a large number of mecha starship wreckage floating in the universe domain…These things are still continuously emitting energy fluctuations, which can interfere with the enemy’s reconnaissance system.”
“Old Zheng, you take some people, make a detour and ambush here, and scare them when the time comes.”
Zheng Yue immediately perked up, “Yes!”
Jiang Jianming said, “Perform well, and if you make a merit, I’ll go talk to the military department and transfer your registration to the Silver Big Dipper.”
Zheng Yue saluted and left with even more energy.
……
In a room on a medium-sized non-combat starship in the center of the fleet.
“So powerful…”
Yuan Changze was half-lying on the bed, his mouth agape, staring blankly at the projection on the wall… It showed the current intense battle situation in the simplest way.
It took him a long time to squeeze out a sentence, “So powerful, this person Jiang Jianming really…”
The little young master didn’t understand military affairs, but even laymen could see now that the imperial fleet was chasing the Space Bandits everywhere, and it was clear at a glance where the advantage lay.
A non-crystal human being in his early twenties, who could talk strategy in front of the emperor, could sit on the starship command seat, and was said to be very good at piloting mechas…What kind of freak is this!
Larry Horn was twisting a cool handkerchief next to him, casually perfunctory, “Ah, after all, His Highness Jiang is a colonel in the army, of course he can fight.”
He bent over to wipe Yuan Changze’s forehead, then sighed with a worried face, “Are you still feeling sick, little young master? You didn’t vomit today…This deadly Far Star environment, this deadly jump reaction.”
Yuan Changze’s eyes were straight, he muttered to himself, “Yeah, I can’t even get out of bed now…..Is the gap really that big for the same non-crystal human beings…”
Larry frowned, “Young master! Why don’t you think about it, we’re both crystal species, how big is the gap between me, Larry, and His Highness the Crown Prince!”
Yuan Changze: “…”
The master and servant looked at each other and sighed at the same time.
……
On the bridge, Bei Man’er was also feeling the same way.
After all, she was Jiang Jianming’s classmate, knew about his student days, and had seen him pilot a mecha when he was an adaptation period officer.
Now, Jiang Jianming sitting on the command seat had a different temperament. When he used to pilot a mecha through the snow alone, he was like a knife made of ice, sharp and brittle, carrying a determination to die with fate.
Now the ice had turned into invisible water, and the still water ran deep. The sharpness in those pitch-black eyes had turned into something deeper, closer to the vast universe above his head.
Bei Man’er thought vaguely: Who knows? Maybe this is more suitable for Jiang…
Or perhaps, he seemed destined to be in this position, and now he had simply returned to it, back on track.
A clear voice came from above, it was Jiang Jianming calling her. Bei Man’er came back to her senses and quickly responded.
“Although there probably isn’t any possibility of reconciliation.”
Jiang Jianming sighed, “Still, let’s send a message to the other side.”
The real battlefield was different from simulated battles. Here, every command from the commander would determine the life and death of the frontline soldiers.
Even if there was only a 0.01% chance of avoiding bloodshed, it was worth trying.
Bei Man’er immediately adjusted the frequency and sent the information-carrying waveband to the universe domain. The screen flashed, and a flamboyant redhead appeared in front of Jiang Jianming.
“Hah, why is it you again!?”
The background on the other side was a luxuriously decorated Space Bandit ship, and Red Dragon was sitting cross-legged on a gilded chair.
He spat out a mouthful, sneered and said, “You have quite a life, a disabled human, who has been so tortured and hasn’t died, and has even become the commander of a fleet?”
Jiang Jianming leaned back on the command seat, his face pale, thinking: I also want to ask, why is it you again.
It was strange, this kid should not be the young leader of the Lava, nor was he the leader, such a young age, where were his parents? Why was it always him leading the Space Bandits to fight…
But now was not the time for gossip.
Jiang Jianming cleared his throat, “Kid, I hope you’ve thought about the question I asked you last time.”
Red Dragon’s eyebrows twitched, and he opened his mouth angrily. Coincidentally, Jiang Jianming’s next sentence also followed, so the two voices overlapped.
“Have you considered accepting the empire’s amnesty?”
“——What does great-grandfather’s name have to do with you!?”
Jiang Jianming: “.”
Good heavens, it turns out that’s what you remembered——
