Chapter 587: Chapter 341, The Farewell Flute and Xiao_2
But since there was an old hand at home, they didn’t bother to get involved in areas that called for the old hand’s experience and wisdom.
Instead of engaging in deceit and intrigue, they preferred to cherish the final moments, to cultivate their relationship.
Then, while those “elders” were still negotiating and compromising without reaching a result, the two had to say goodbye.
Six days after the engagement ceremony, Yelisia received her formal reassignment orders from the Imperial Navy.
The mission consisted of five cruisers, including Quintet, Opera Cruiser, Cello, Final Mark, and Interlude Cruiser, accompanied by fourteen destroyers and thirty escort ships, excluding the smaller vessels not worth mentioning.
The dispatched forces of Tianma Fleet made up more than half of its capacity; most of the ships had set sail, leaving only two cruisers behind.
The expedition fleet was commanded by Tilermungs, the Vice Admiral of Tianma Fleet; his flagship was the “Opera Cruiser.”
Yelisia held the rank of Rear Admiral and served as the captain of “Quintet” and also as the fleet’s Deputy Commander, assisting Tilermungs.
On Flying Wing Star, a grand deployment ceremony was held for the navy.
The sailors of the many starships of Tianma Fleet mainly came from the Imperial Tax—in plainer terms, from Korolya.
However, most of the naval officers were locals from Flying Wing Star, graduates of the Flying Wing Naval Academy.
Before departure, these local officers said their farewells to their wives, children, and parents amidst flying streamers and stirring music played on repeat, walking toward the starry sea under a bright sun, with their families’ hopes and concerns in their hearts.
After saying goodbye to her parents and family, Yelisia then stood before Gu Hang. Just like other young officers parting with their partners, they embraced and whispered sweet nothings to each other.
A moment later, the urging “beep beep beep” of the space elevator sounded, prompting them to part ways.
Yelisia stepped back with her hands behind her, sunlight outlining her figure as she faced Gu Hang, smiling.
“I’m off.”
“Return victorious.”
“Alright.”
The female general donned her military cap, waved with a smile, turned, and left, heading towards the battlefield that awaited her.
…
With Yelisia’s departure, Gu Hang found he indeed missed her a little.
He didn’t suppress this emotion; he let it grow.
This wasn’t a bad thing.
As for Yelisia’s safety, no one could guarantee it. Separated by several star sectors, Gu Hang was powerless. All he could do was to dispatch a team into Quintet to ensure Yelisia’s safety.
This team consisted of five Phoenix members and one hundred of the Tenth Special Warfare Elites in exoskeletons.
But in reality, their ability to make a difference was not that significant.
In the warfare of the Star Sea, the losing side rarely had a way out, and Interstellar Warriors were not gods; no matter how strong, they couldn’t save anyone when a starship exploded.
The only situation where they could really make a difference was during boarding combat.
As it happened, the Green Skin Orcs were one of the factions in the entire Star Sea that loved to engage in hit-and-run battles the most.
With these hundred or so elites, at least in the event of hit-and-run battles, paired with the defense forces on board the Quintet, they should be able to play a significant role.
…
After Yelisia had left, Gu Hang himself didn’t stay on the Flying Wing type for long; the next day he bid farewell to his mother and returned to Rage Owl Star.
On the way, he made a brief stop at Korolya, where he, in his capacity as legion commander, visited his soldiers, particularly those who had just left the new recruit camps on Korolya and joined the Rage Bear Legion.
In an army consisting of 320,000 people, although the numbers were complete and headquarters were assigned, it had not yet been fully established.
The paperwork was already in place, and the tax currency totaling over 14 million had been provided to the league by the Military Affairs Department, transformed into orders for all the military supplies needed to arm these 320,000 people.
But at present, these supplies were still in the order phase; after all, weapons and equipment couldn’t just materialize out of thin air, they needed to be produced.
The league was already working at full capacity on Rage Owl Star and on Heijian Star.
According to negotiations between the league and representatives from the Military Affairs Department, within the next year, the league was to equip these 320,000 people completely. An official from the Military Affairs Department would stay here, and a representative from the Dragonhawk Third Legion, as allies, would also attend to supervise the matter.
This meant that over the next year, beyond the league’s own requirements, they had to produce an additional 600 or more tanks, over 3000 armored vehicles and self-propelled artillery, and tens of thousands of other military vehicles. As for other individual equipment, let’s not even count company-level equipment.
There was indeed pressure on production capacity.
Reliance on Rage Owl Star alone to meet such a large production demand was somewhat challenging. After all, the wars on Heijian Star over the past two years had also resulted in a significant loss of weapons and equipment, and those tanks and armored vehicles had still not been replenished to date. Unless completely ceasing supply to other league forces and not expanding its own forces, it would be difficult to satisfy the demand of the Rage Bear Legion’s new troops within a year.
However, if Heijian Star could be included, then things would look better.
On Heijian Star, centered around what used to be the capital of the Kingdom of Stefano, the Stefano Industrial Center had already launched a production line for Lion Tanks.
With the increase in industrial population there and more production lines being laid out, as productivity gradually increased, it should also be able to take on some of the production burden from Rage Owl Star.
After inspecting the military forces, Gu Hang also met with Colonel Li Kexi, a commander who had been striving on Heijian Star for a long time, and discussed the recent situation, as well as Li Kexi’s views on the future.
The situation, actually, wasn’t much to talk about. The intensity of the battle in Korolya had never been too high, even though that Governor Fatches kept urging them to attack with all their might to resolve the issue as soon as possible, General Hansen, the chief commander here, did not heed those calls.
In his words, Li Kexi still had quite an approval of General Hansen. They had discussed this issue before, with General Hansen assuring his subordinates that he would absolutely not engage in a ‘political war’. Whether or not to fight, and how to fight, would all be purely from a military standpoint.
After all, he was the chief commander of the Star Realm Army; the Planetary Governor had no jurisdiction over him.
This brings us to mention the views of Li Kexi and many Imperial officers on the front lines regarding the future.
They were rather pessimistic.
Fino City was like a giant black hole, continuously ‘sucking’ everything in its vicinity; the population kept taking losses, but due to some political reasons, the relocation of the established refugee camps wasn’t quick enough.
As for the demand from politicians to push the military into Fino City and fully take back the entire Nest Capital, that was out of the question.
“With our current strength, we might have to send all of the more than twenty million troops from the entire Dragonhawk Legion in there to possibly accomplish this task.”
“But if that were to happen, what about the other cities?”
“Governor… Legion Commander, please understand one thing: the problem with Korolya is far greater than imagined. The current military strength can only just barely prevent the situation from worsening. To resolve it, unless another thirty million from the Star Realm Army arrives, and decision-makers are willing to sacrifice twenty million from the Star Realm Army, it could truly be resolved. Otherwise, if what Ivan Fatches that blowhard said were to come true, adding a billion native troops, that too would solve the problem.”
“And it must be done quickly. Fifty million from the Star Realm Army, be prepared to lose twenty million, or a billion native Defense Forces—that’s the current price for solving the problem. If we delay any further and the situation deteriorates, then what the price will be, nobody knows.”