Chapter 133: Chapter 126, Long Live the Governor! _4
The flag that Tadeusz took down was nothing special; when unfurled, it was simply the banner of the 2nd Infantry Division.
The flag that Yan Fangxu took down, however, had something to talk about.
Once spread out, the words written on it were: [1st Extinguishing Wind Brigade].
Without a doubt, this was also an honorary designation given to the entire brigade, in recognition of the outstanding performances of the officers and soldiers of the whole brigade, including those former Alliance Legion soldiers who were absorbed into it, during the Wind-Extinguishing operation—this included the platoon that Tadeusz had previously led as political commissar.
After the ceremony of conferring ranks and bestowing medals had concluded, the broadcast signal switched to the microphone in front of Gu Hang. His voice, amplified by the loudspeakers, echoed throughout the entire square and then throughout the entire city.
People quieted down; they began to listen carefully to the Governor’s words, seeking to find a new, reliable support for their future lives.
“Residents of Revival City, my most loyal warriors, greetings. I am your Governor, Gu Hang.”
“Just now, I have adorned our brave warriors, who fought valiantly to protect this city, with the honors they rightly deserve.”
“I have bestowed one hundred Rejuvenation Medals, each of the honorees is a true hero. They have made outstanding contributions to the defense of Revival City, even at the cost of their own lives.”
“I have awarded the Wind-Extinguishing Medal, the highest honor, to Comrade Tadeusz.”
“Many still vividly recall the storm from ten days ago. With the help of the Phoenix Battle Group and the Sainte-Lys Nun Association, we thwarted the cultists’ scheme; we extinguished the storm, saving the entire city. And without a doubt, Comrade Tadeusz was among the most outstanding of them. At the most critical moment, with the most fearless stance, he accomplished the most heroic feat—he struck the final blow to extinguish the storm.”
“Extinguishing the storm is precisely the origin of the name for the Wind-Extinguishing Medal and the honorary designation of the Extinguishing Wind Brigade. All the soldiers who fought bravely, everyone who maintained order and rescued the city amidst the disaster, can rightly be called heroes.”
At the beginning of his speech, Gu Hang started with the origins of the Wind-Extinguishing Medal and the honorary title of the Extinguishing Wind Brigade.
The inner-city residents remained silent, not deeply moved by this; but the people from the outer city remembered the images of those soldiers.
In the battles over food transportation, they had seen with their own eyes soldiers fighting the cultists who tried to destroy the food carts and leave them starving.
In that escalating storm, which then abruptly ceased, they might not have known what happened in several wind farms, but they clearly saw a large number of soldiers maintaining order, distributing food and supplies in the wind and rain, and arranging for people to evacuate the city.
This military force seemed indeed different.
In the midst of disaster, they did not use their weapons to loot and plunder, nor oppress the poor. Instead, they stood with the people against the wind and rain.
All this was witnessed by their very eyes, and the Governor’s summarizing words of praise reinforced their impressions.
This was Gu Hang’s intention.
He wanted to bring honor to the military.
Honor keeps the military disciplined, honor makes the people cherish the military.
After saying these words, Gu Hang paused briefly and continued his speech:
“Hundreds of years ago, before the era of war, Rage Owl Star was a civilized world, the pearl of the entire Tianma Star Sector. Leveraging advanced industrial technology and special psychic energy fields for energy extraction, Rage Owl Star’s contribution to the Imperial Tax could rank in the top three in the Tianma Star Sector, only behind the Star Sector Capital Wing Star and the Nest Capital World Korolya III; the standard of living of its inhabitants could rank second, only slightly inferior to the Garden World Winged Star.”
“Back then, the people of Rage Owl Star lived in cities, many with respectable jobs; for the majority, the problem of food and clothing was a distant concern. They enjoyed the sunshine, the nightlife, the variety of delicious foods produced, and a thriving cultural industry…”
“Such an affluent world was not something you could see on many Imperial worlds. The people of Rage Owl Star were deserving of envy from most inhabitants of the Empire World.”
Gu Hang’s words left many with mixed feelings.
No one had seen the pre-war condition with their own eyes. But they had heard about it from their ancestors, passed down from generation to generation; some artifacts occasionally unearthed from the ruins before the war also proved this point.
The past Rage Owl Star was indeed prosperous and flourishing.
So why are we, the descendants, living such wretched lives?
The Governor provided an answer:
“Despicable traitors betrayed us. The highest quality energy resource on Rage Owl Star, the psychic energy field, was used as a source by the Chaos Traitors to open a psychic tunnel. This tunnel connected to a world corrupted by chaos; under the shroud of dark magic, even demons from hell were summoned.”
“A brutal war erupted on Rage Owl Star as its battlefield.”
“The people of Rage Owl Star, united with the soldiers of the Empire, with endless sacrifices, defeated those Chaos Traitors, closed the psychic tunnel, and destroyed the psychic energy fields… But at the same time, this war, which lasted for decades, turned Rage Owl Star into ruins, transforming this once flourishing world of nearly ten billion inhabitants into a desolate wasteland. The collapsed ecosystem gave rise to terrible low energy storms and mutated monsters, rendering vast lands uninhabitable.”
“Since then, Rage Owl Star went from being the Star Sector’s pearl to a desolate planet, abandoned by the Empire, removed from the Star Sector’s planning.”