Chapter 74

Yang Ning, the Colonel, could bring face-saving to an unparalleled level in the world - a clean freak, sleeves never rolled up, collar never wrinkled, boots never touched by dust, chin never showing messy stubble.

He seemed like he could shoot a space force recruitment ad at any time.

But when he was carried out of the command cabin, it was probably the most disheveled moment of his life.

Half of Yang Ning's face was covered in dried blood, his arm hanging limply by his side, his uniform torn in several places, his hair in disarray, his breath weak.

He looked like he was about to be covered with the national flag at any moment.

This wasn't him pretending, he was really about to kick the bucket - if he had the strength to lift his hand, even if it killed him, he would definitely wipe his face clean.

At first, no one dared to move him, fearing they would be the last straw that caused their Second Department's Commander to die young. Finally, the sweating medical team leader rushed over, personally shouting orders for the medics to lift him onto a stretcher.

Just then, the hatch opened. Fu Luo docked her medium command ship in the Penglai's escort port and hurried inside, wanting to see the commander who was rumored to be "seemingly injured."

Unexpectedly, as soon as they met, she saw this scene. Fu Luo instantly felt as if she had been hit in the face by a heavy object; her chest went numb, and she was stunned.

Her face still carried the cold, indifferent expression from her earlier armored charge, with only a hint of bewilderment and shock showing through her eyes, her heels firmly planted on the ground.

For a moment, Fu Luo went completely blank. She didn't think about whether Yang Ning was dead or not, because as soon as that thought emerged, her mind scattered completely like a dandelion blown by a strong wind, leaving only an empty stalk like a club, barely holding up her head, allowing her to maintain a posture with her neck stiff.

It wasn't until she heard the medical team leader's shouts from afar that Fu Luo's rationality painfully broke through the soil and regrew; a small handful of heat slowly floated up in her chest. Only then did she continue the breath that had been stuck in her throat.

"Lieutenant Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel?"

Fu Luo turned her head woodenly and silently in the direction of the voice, looking as if she was listening attentively with a solemn expression.

"Colonel Yang is seriously injured and may need immediate surgery. What should we do now? Should we head straight back?"

Indeed, in this battle, although the rescue squadron fought bravely, advancing and retreating brilliantly, saving face, they were actually fighting until they ran out of ammunition and supplies, losing three out of five warships, with the commander seriously wounded.

Fu Luo pretended to ponder for a moment, concealing the fact that her mind was actually completely blank at that moment. After a while, she finally found her voice again, vaguely relying on some instinct to speak: "The medical team leader will make arrangements, everyone else fully cooperate. The entire force..."

She paused again, forcefully sorting out her thoughts with a splitting headache, before continuing, "The entire force is to correct course, decelerate, enable stealth mode, and return to base. The fake pirates especially need to be careful, bring up the rear inconspicuously, maintain the highest level defense alert, implement the highest density shift patrols, with the two wings as the main force, immediately replenish weapons, equipment and energy. If encountering any unknown forces approaching, have the fake pirates engage them, no communication, just attack directly. After the battle, do not linger, cover the main force's retreat and immediately follow."

"Yes."

Fu Luo thought back and, satisfied that she had not missed anything, slightly lowered her eyelids, gave a restrained and quick nod, kept a blank face, and said no more.

The medics pushed Yang Ning quickly past her, stirring up a strand of hair on her forehead. Fu Luo stood there like a clay figurine, so stiffly it was as if she was completely indifferent.

It almost made people feel that she exuded a kind of innate, detached demeanor of a great general.

Only Fu Luo herself knew that the reason she stood motionless was because her muscles had contracted so tensely at the time that her calf actually cramped up in a burst of pain.

Fu Luo was stuck in place for a long time by her cramping calf before she came back to her senses as if sleepwalking, slightly moving her numb hands and feet.

At this time, the technicians were inspecting the command ship to the side - there wasn't much to inspect, it was slightly better than wreckage, beyond saving, they could only remove the useful parts and then prepare its funeral.

Among the "useful" parts was also Chief Yang's message in a bottle.

The lid wasn't closed, probably slipping out of his hand in the rush. The thin scroll of the e-reader inside had half fallen out. Its quality was obviously sturdy, with the soft screen damaged in one corner but still lit up in other places, showing a decent amount of battery remaining.

Fu Luo saw the words "To Saturn Fortress" on the exposed half of the e-reader.

With the owner still alive, Fu Luo didn't want to read his message in a bottle out of respect. However, accidentally catching a glimpse of this line, and worried that Yang Ning had left some urgent orders, she hesitated for a moment before pulling it out.

Yang Ning's message wasn't handwritten or typed, but speech transcribed into text.

The voice system used in the military was made for emergency situations in the first place, so it was well-made, responsive, and had very high recognition capabilities, even able to "understand" various regional dialects.

But this short passage was filled with unrecognizable garbled text, constantly interrupting the content before and after, showing that the person recording must have already been unable to speak clearly at the time.

Fu Luo read on intermittently.

"To Saturn Fortress:

If fortunate enough to be salvaged, let it return to my hometown in my stead. Please listen to me finish these few words."

Fu Luo suddenly realized this might be a will, but since she had already opened it, she didn't have time to stuff it back in.

Most people's wills usually start by expressing their current feelings, then recalling their life, giving a brief summary, and finally mentioning one or two concerns. But the Second Department Commander at this time was far from having that much time to lament.

"First, if Saturn Fortress is leaderless, please follow Mr. Yesi's orders."

Fu Luo was stunned. She hadn't thought of herself, only that there was still Dagger, still Ye Wenlin, and besides her, the General Staff Office still had two other upright lieutenant colonels.

Yesi is a special person. In his own words, he is a "prisoner". During his imprisonment, he has no personal freedom, so he has no rank or status. At a critical moment, it's uncertain whether he will side with them or not.

Why hand over the highest authority of Saturn Fortress to him?

Fu Luo suppressed her thoughts, planning to go and understand in detail how the recent battle was fought, and what exactly led Yang Ning to make such a decision in haste.

"Secondly, Graf instigating the masses to defect to him is just the first step. Given the cautious nature of most people, it won't cause too big of a crisis for now. The second step requires... (unintelligible) ...uneven distribution of UN resources, delicate international situation, centuries of gaming between countries... (unintelligible) ...Graf will certainly divide the countries, first breaking up small alliances within continents, then provoking intercontinental relations, winning over some countries, causing the alliance to disintegrate."

"Third, although the allied forces in space are fragmented and severely weakened, unable to match the enemy in numbers, as things stand, we have a clear advantage. Technology determines the fate in space, don't forget this point because of Graf's psychological warfare and the momentary collapse of the allies. And a planet that values freedom and human rights will always have more possibilities for technological breakthroughs than barbarians who only speak the language of weapons."

In the middle of this paragraph, there was almost no pause on the reader, indicating that when the owner spoke of this, his nearly exhausted spirit was briefly uplifted.

However, it was only for a moment. The next part sounded a bit like nonsense.

"Fourth, priority should be given to ensuring the safety of scientific and engineering personnel, and providing them with all... (unintelligible) ...can be shared, but... (unintelligible) ...must not... (unintelligible)..."

The rest was unreadable, large sections of garbled text, no one could understand what he meant. Fu Luo could only make out the words "the allies must" at the end.

"Must" what? There was nothing after that. But given Yang Ning's rhythm of fighting to the death, it should have said something like "must win".

Fu Luo sighed softly.

Her feet could finally move. She paced around like a zombie, noticing a few faint bloodstains on the ground. She looked back at the direction of the operating room.

Fu Luo knew she couldn't be of much help, so she wandered aimlessly outside the operating room.

She summoned a soldier from the ship and asked in detail about what had transpired. She pried off a folding chair from the ship's wall outside the operating room and sat down. At this point, she vaguely understood why Yang Ning wanted to transfer power to Yesi.

Her mind became active, trying to extrapolate forward - probably when the rescue fleet was attacked, something happened on the ground, and something happened at the fortress. Yang Ning already had an idea.

He knew that if the war was tense, Wang Yansheng definitely couldn't do something like "pacifying the inside before repelling the outside". The plan had to be temporarily shelved, meaning Cao Kun couldn't be touched openly for now.

Saturn Fortress is now the cornerstone of the entire Earth allied forces. With Yang Ning's temperament, he wouldn't allow such a person to get in the way under his watch - even if he was prepared to die at that time, the first item in his posthumous arrangements would be to send Cao Kun down as cannon fodder.

For such a matter, it was inconvenient for Ye Wenlin to take action, and even more inconvenient for others, because discipline and rank were pressing down on them.

A "temporary commander" can become "not the commander" in minutes. Although disobedience in the face of battle occurs from time to time, long-term disobedience is preparing for treason.

Regardless of whether the ground provides supplies or not, regardless of whether they are in a self-reliant state or not, regardless of whether they can now "disobey military orders while on an external mission", once regular troops bear the charge of treason for a long time, even if their combat power remains strong, their spiritual pillar is bound to collapse after some time.

Moreover, the battlefield is not only in space.

At this time, the only option is to push out Yesi, a stateless space pirate with no family or understanding of worldly affairs, to take the fall.

As an unaffiliated convict, even if he really kills and commits arson, Saturn Fortress will not be held responsible.

Fu Luo figured out some of the twists and turns, and suddenly felt very heavy-hearted.

Yang Ning arranged these matters in a life-or-death situation to the best of his ability in his final moments. She didn't feel a sense of tragic heroism, just an inexplicable pity for him.

"If it were me, what would I write?" she thought silently, "In any case, it definitely wouldn't be these things."

She still has family, still has friends, still has countless ties. The thousands of strands of human relations are entangled around her. Fu Luo felt that she would definitely nag and exhort about everything she could before closing her eyes.

Even if she was willing to guard this dark battlefield for a lifetime while alive, how could she be without selfish desires when facing death?

If a soldier has no selfish desires, then what are they fighting for so resolutely at this moment?

But Yang Ning had none.

At this moment, she seemed to touch upon that man's unknown loneliness - that invincible, mortal loneliness.

Fu Luo fiddled with Yang Ning's reader and found that the "will" page was locked, probably so that the person who salvaged it would see it first. She noticed a small, hidden title appended to the file. The corresponding window was open but obscured, likely due to its importance.

Fu Luo took a look. The title was "Technical Problems to be Solved in Actual Combat of Allied Warships".

This guy really racked his brains. After writing about internal struggles, he wrote about overall strategy. After writing about overall strategy, he wrote about technical issues, leaving no detail unattended.

Fu Luo unlocked the screen, wanting to see what technical problems there were. But unexpectedly, that file window was minimized. She accidentally switched pages, and Yang Ning's personal reader desktop appeared before her eyes.

Fu Luo: "..."