Lucy Lee Ko Xi was one of the few whose military rank did not diminish during the transition from the Alliance Army to the Star Realm Army sequence, eventually becoming part of the Rage Bear Legion.
For instance, Yan Fangxu was initially promised the position of legion commander, at least holding the rank of brigadier general, but in the end, Galaraldo’s interference left him as second-in-command with only the rank of colonel. Compared to his formal rank of major general within the Alliance structure, he had fallen two levels.
Li Kexi, however, fared much better. Originally a colonel in the Alliance, her rank should have dropped to lieutenant colonel during the Star Realm Army grading, just like other division and brigade commanders. However, Gu Hang, as legion commander, quickly pulled her back up to the rank of colonel within the scope of his authority—as legion commander and brigadier general, he had the power to do so.
It was merely a matter of nomination, submission, and waiting for approval.
Gu Hang was at Korolya III, with representatives from various investigation groups and the Military Affairs Department present, so the process went quite smoothly.
The reason Li Kexi’s rank was pulled up a notch was to officially empower her to consolidate command of the half-strength Rage Bear Legion that had come to Korolya III.
As per Galaraldo’s request, the Military Affairs Department had issued orders for the Rage Bear Legion to participate in the war at Korolya III.
77,000 Rage Bear warriors, away from home for half a year, were fighting in this foreign land.
She commanded seven division and brigade units, equating to two large regiments in terms of Star Realm Army numbers.
The Supreme Commander of the Korolya battle zone, Major General Jeden Hanson, did not take them seriously at first.
Over seventy thousand people mattered little in the grand scheme of battles like the fallen Nest Capital Fino City, where millions were involved. He regarded it as a superfluous move, an act of people manipulation by Galaraldo, the Apostle of War.
Of course, he was not on good terms with Galaraldo, had no entanglements of interest, and now that the Apostle’s life or death was unknown, he had no need to please a dead man—just conduct business officially and fairly.
The Rage Bear Legion wasn’t his direct unit, so he wouldn’t grant them special treatment. While Gu Hang was their legion commander and had just displayed A-level Spiritual Energy capabilities, making him quite popular in the current special situation on Korolya III, Hanson wouldn’t purposefully sacrifice the Rage Bear Legion.
The 77,000 members of the Rage Bear Legion received the standard treatment of the Star Realm Army, taking on some routine military tasks.
However, Major General Hanson quickly realized something was amiss.
Wasn’t the Rage Bear Legion supposed to have been just a Planetary Defense Force half a year ago? They had only recently transformed into the Star Realm Army.
But why were they so fierce?
He allocated tasks based on the amount of work a normal two-regiment large unit should assume. Yet, this group managed to complete tasks relatively easily, and under Colonel Li Kexi’s command, they often provided additional aid to nearby friendly forces.
Two months prior, during a large-scale Plague Demon uprising, tens of thousands of native soldiers, forming a Defense Forces, were defeated at an under-city exit. Tens of thousands of plague corpses, along with a large number of higher-grade Plague Demons, broke through to the quarantine zone.
At least three hundred thousand uninfected individuals were still in that quarantine zone, undergoing identification and evacuation.
Hanson did not wish to abandon them, so he assembled two regiment-sized units and contested the area again.
However, the number of enemies was unexpectedly immense, seemingly endless.
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His troops soon found themselves in a tough fight, and the tens of thousands of native troops who later came to support dissolved like water in the desert, quickly evaporating without much effect.
The area turned into a quagmire and a meat grinder within a week, with over four hundred thousand human soldiers ensnared, surpassing the number of civilians awaiting rescue in that region.
Worse still, when Hanson considered abandoning the area, pulling out the troops, and destroying the entrance to prevent further losses, he was distraught to find that retreat would be incredibly difficult.
His numerous troops, locked in a chaotic battle with the Plague Demons, were strung throughout the complex architecture of the entire district. It wasn’t a situation from which one could easily retreat.
A mismanaged retreat could turn into a rout, with the safety of four hundred thousand soldiers at stake, including two regiments of Star Realm forces—a considerable force. In the worst-case scenario, the chaos could allow the Demons to strike the next district and trigger a domino collapse across the entire Fino City blockade line.
This wasn’t mere speculation, as a large regiment of the Dragonhawk Legion was already suffering.
At that moment, an unexpected force emerged from the skies.
It was a Composite Camp from the 35th Brigade of the Rage Bear Legion.
The combined assault of tanks and armored vehicles was resolute, and the timing and position they chose were particularly tricky. It was a critical moment when the enemy was about to encircle over thirty thousand Dragonhawk warriors and block the retreat path.
If one mentioned tanks and armored vehicles, the Dragonhawk Legion certainly had them. Everyone used the Lion and the Wanderer models; nobody was inherently better than the others.
But the difference lay in the fact that their Composite Camp had far tighter infantry-tank coordination than the Dragonhawk Legion. The armored infantry units deploying from the armored vehicles and the motorized infantry units could keep pace with the advancing armor units, securing the breach firmly. This not only prevented the enemy formation from ‘healing’ their ‘wound’ but also protected the armored units from being surrounded by overwhelming enemy forces during their assault.