As soon as Shi Lang heard the message, his figure flickered and he appeared on the bridge. His eyes locked on the scout vessel drifting in space. He asked, “How long has it been drifting like this?”
Milo replied, “A couple of minutes.”
The technician was standing behind Shi Lang in rapt attention. The aura from the young general was strong enough to squeeze him into a crumpled paper. Shi Lang spoke again, “Bring him on board, but only after you have checked everything on and inside of him.”
Milo nodded, and after a crisp salute, he left the bridge. To catch this drifting ship they used a scout vessel of their own and made an incursion inside the drifting ship, they were anticipating some resistance, but they found Jacuuba sitting in a chair with indifference. At first, they were surprised, but then, even after scanning and performing all sorts of checks, the lizardman did not seem to be putting up a resistance.
Then he was taken to the warship and presented in front of Shi Lang. However, this moment was nothing like what the young general had imagined in his mind. The person in front of him did not have any emotion left intact in his eyes. Shi Lang sighed and said, “Milo, throw him back to that drifting ship.”
The others were confused why Shi Lang was letting this guy go, even if his tail was taken away, he was a lizardman and the one that has been acting like a pain in their sides. The young general sighed and said, “You all, look into his eyes and tell me what you see?”
They all observed and replied, almost the same, they saw dejection in his eyes. Shi Lang said, “How do I break him when he is already broken, and that too at the hands of his kin.”
At this moment, Jacuuba spoke up and surprisingly he used Terran speech, “I have no kin, I am a drifter.”
Shi Lang looked at him and said, “Yes, yes, you are a drifter, an outcast of the lizardman. Let me ask you, is this because of the lizardmen who died in yesterday’s attack?”
Jacuuba had once again turned silent. Shi lang sighed and waved his hand. The team worked quickly and after they injected the Lizardmen with poison, they sent him back to the drifting scout vessel. Then they scanned their own vessel for anything that might have been left behind by the Lizardman.
Shi Lang sat in the command chair and said, “Move back to Novus, and then we go back to the federation. Time for a vacation.”
The people nodded and the journey began. The speed was fast, but they had to be cautious to not meet any of the stellar patrols that belonged to the different space territories they were breaching Shi Lang took a mental note, they needed to develop a system to detect such incursions. This way they will not suffer the same things as the komodians.
The journey was smooth and it was very relaxed as the teammates were all happy. The warship made a small stop at Novus, Shi Lang collected the guard bot, transferred all the data back onto the ship mainframe, and left the base.
They might come back here in the future, but if some intelligent species came over in their absence and cracked the data, then it will give away a lot of details that they did not yet want to give away. After all, the actions of the Ace Division were nothing less than an act of terror. Thus, they had to stay low-key and sure of their tracks.
The next stop was the Federal Space station. The ship was docked for checks and repairs, while the team was given time off to go home, and the bots were left to watch that the things were all in order. They could not do anything else after all.
When Shi Lang and the others reached the ground in the space elevator, they were shocked. The place was full of puppets, and the spiritual energy in the surroundings was brimming. They looked around and found that every Terran was being followed by such bots. He was surprised, but he did not say anything.
Shi Lang found that even the general council was also not in session, after all, his arrival was unannounced and since he had nothing to do, he said, “Amy, come let’s go home.”
They had changed their suits into uniforms and were acting like normal people. The soldiers arranged a vehicle for the general and sent them off respectfully. While on the way, Shi Lang was contacted by OB-One, who reported an unsettling matter. There seemed to be a lot of tension in the first fleet and was not easy to deal with for the bot.
Shi Lang assured him that they will leave for the fleet in a day. OB-One nodded and accepted the command before going back to work. The bot was able to remain indifferent but the humans were not. In the absence of the young general, a lot of people were getting confident that they can do what they wished to do in the fleet.
After the people reached back home, they were taken hostage by their relatives and friends. Shi Lang happen to come back at the time when a few people in his class were going to get married. However, he could only visit them all early with Amelia and congratulate them within a day before he had to take off again and go to the first fleet.
He could never get away from his responsibilities as a Fleet general. Although he did not like to be bound, but since someone else had to do these things, might as well be him. After dealing with some trivial matters, he boarded a special space flight and headed right at the first fleet.
The news of his arrival was not known to anyone, even Jenkins and Hayley were kept in dark. When Shi Lang arrived at the place, he was greeted by a bot, who drove him back to the base at Frontier.
At the entrance of the base, a soldier responsible for looking after the main gate, spotted Shi Lang and his body froze. The general had come back and his aura was that of a demon. He was even stronger than before. Shi Lang cast a gaze at the guard and said, “Shhhh.”
The finger on his lips and the gentle shushing sound were enough for the guard to understand the intention of the general. He nodded hurriedly and Shi Lang nodded. The vehicle entered the base, and Shi Lang came in front of the building and climbed the stairs to reach the top floor and the command center.
Inside the command center, Deputy General Sikar was sitting in a chair, with his shoulders slumped. He had no idea what to do, now that Shi Lang was not here, and OB-One did not have much understanding of human relationships, things had been a lot messier and he was also not very efficient in this matter.
Just when he was thinking about it, the door of the command center slid open. Subconsciously the deputy general raised his head and found a young man with sharp eyes, and a straight back, trotting inside the room. He was shocked when he saw this person. He stood up and saluted the young general in a crisp manner and said, “Welcome Back General Shi Lang.”
Shi Lang cast him a gaze and said, “At ease, Deputy General Sikar.”
That said, he did not wait for the other shocked soldiers but sat down on his command chair. The soldiers were still in a daze and had yet to greet him. Shi Lang scrutinized them with his cold gaze and said, “Seems like, the discipline of the fleet is getting lax.”
The soldiers shivered and said in unison, “Welcome Back General Lang.”
Shi Lang waved his hand and they all fell silent. He said, “Call back every unit out of the base area. They have twelve hours to report, anyone who fails in doing so will be discharged from their duties. They can feel free to plea with the general council, but the duel of veto will not make any changes.”
The decree of the iron fist was passed down, who dared to defy it? The technicians all sat down in front of their stations and issued the commands. Shi Lang did not believe in wasting time, he was going to dismiss the violators from service directly.
The news that the general has come back to the fleet, spread throughout the planet. Yet there were some who thought that Shi lang was easy to handle, and laughed it off. However, they did not know that their laughter will not last for long. The devil of the young general reserved the last laughter for, himself and himself, only.