CH 12

Fortress (1)

About half an hour later, in front of the First Fortress of Yin Beidou in Alpha Alien Star.

The ground was a frozen white hard rock, bare and devoid of vegetation. The newcomers from the major military academies in the empire had just finished their morning exercises with their mechas, and were now standing in a neat row in the cold air.

Blue-black IP’s were opened and young men in black military uniforms of Silver Big Dipper stood below. Most of them were panting, and big beads of sweat were dripping down from their faces.

These people were all the proud recruits who graduated from prestigious universities in the empire this year and passed the selection of Silver Big Dipper. These young officers went to the distant star with high ambitions, but before they could finish their dream of making contributions, the devil training in the fortress gave them a dismay.

The simplest was the morning exercise that just ended: a full hour of off-road mecha training, and half an hour of extra practice for those left behind—this would become one of the daily lessons they would repeat every day for a year from now on.

Next, they should line up for counting, listen to the commander’s instructions, and return to the fortress as a whole team before they can finally go and receive today’s breakfast.

However, at this moment, no one spoke in the neat queue.

Including the leading officer standing at the front, everyone’s eyes turned in one direction, looking at a figure who was coming steadily. Their faces were filled with astonishment.

The snow-white mecha stopped on the snow a few paces away, the strong wind on this alien planet ruffled the youth’s black hair. Jiang Jianming looked calm, and walked to the team step by step.

He was wrapped in a thick long black coat to keep out the cold. The collar covered half of his chin. His gloved right hand pressed the collar which shook in the wind. Compared with a group of sweaty recruits, he was simply shocking.

Jiang Jianming was very low-key even in the Kaios Military Academy, there was no person such as him in the Aslan Star City and even in the entire empire. It took a long time for someone from the same school to finally recognize him.

“That…isn’t that person from the Sixth College of our school!? It’s Jiang something…”

The new human recruit turned to Tang Zhen beside him.

“Young Master Tao? Isn’t that your friend?”

Tang Zhen was stunned and replied, “I’m convinced, Really amazing, little Jiang. You really did come…”

Beimaner, who stood beside him, said blankly, “My God, this is Alpha Alien Star, in this climate, the concentration of crystal particles……student Jiang, is he really okay?”

The commanding officer was a lieutenant colonel with a pair of triangular eyes and a hooked nose. After the initial surprise, the only thing left on his face was gloom. At first glance, he was a person who was not easy to get along with.

Jiangming walked all the way to this officer, stood up straight, and gave a military salute common to the empire.

“Class forty-ninth graduate of the Imperial Capital Kaios Military Academy, Jiang Jianming from the Sixth College, reporting to the team.”

The lieutenant colonel stared at him, and his lips moved. “What are you doing?”

Jiang Jianming lowered his eyes. “I was ordered by the superiors to join the Silver Big Dipper Interstellar Expedition Force temporarily. I had some accidents on the way and was delayed for a day. I’m sorry.”

“Reporting to Officer Hou Lin!”

Suddenly, a person in the team came out and shouted loudly, “I know this classmate, he is a disabled human, and he belonged to the Sixth Logistics Institute of the academy. End of the report!”

The malice in these words was too obvious. Tang Zhen turned his head in anger and looked at him. The person who said it was really “a notorious prick” at Kaios Military Academy. He also gave him a provocative smile with his eyes.

Lieutenant Colonel Huo Lin’s eyelids twitched fiercely, and he said, “A disabled human?”

Jiang Ming frowned, and sensed a trace of animosity in the officer’s tone perceptively.

He took a half step forward and said in a deep voice, “Sir, I…”

Huo Lin, with a sullen face ,interrupted him rudely. “Take off the gloves and let me see.”

Jiang Jianming’s lips formed a tight line. He knew that he could not escape, so he simply raised his head and admitted.

“Sir, I am indeed a disabled human being. I’m….” 

He just wanted to continue talking, but Lieutenant Colonel Huo Lin unexpectedly would not listen. He snorted, laughed twice, then suddenly shouted, “I told you to take off your gloves, can’t you understand!? Since you’ve reported to the team, obey my orders!” 

He stabbed Jiang Jianming’s shoulder fiercely with his finger. “You are warm enough, right? Then you can also take off your coat too!”

“……”

Jiang Jianming’s expression changed slightly.

At this moment, let alone Tang Zhen and Beimaner, his two acquaintances, all the military cadets were also startled.

The severe cold temperature of Alpha Alien Star was no joke. The material of Silver Big Dipper’s military uniform itself had the function of keeping out the heat and cold, plus they were all new human beings, which made it considerable for them to be able to freely move under this kind of climate.

But the physique of a disabled human being was notoriously weak. How could he bear this?

Tang Zhen was about to open his mouth to shout, but before he could make a sound, Jiang Jianming simply took off his black coat and threw it to his feet with his gloves without even frowning.

Cold wind came and blew against his face. He did not have the uniform of Silver Big Dipper, but he wore the blue uniform of the Kaios Military Academy, which was also the uniform of ordinary officers of the Empire. But because he had not been admitted into the army, there was no star on his epaulet.

Huo Lin’s expression did not change, his eyes were cold and contemptuous, and he looked at the thin, pale-skinned young cadet in front of him as if looking at some goods.

The temperature of the alien star was already cold, and this time, it was the early morning when the snow had just stopped. The humid wind like knives cut people’s bodies, and chills were seeping into the bones.

Jiang Jianming stood up straight, but he couldn’t stop his body from shaking physiologically.

The blood color on his cheeks, which was not much at all, faded visibly, and the breath he breathed silently was full of white fog.

“Sir!” 

Tang Zhen couldn’t bear it any longer, took a step forward and shouted, “Jiang Jianming is my roommate, although he is a disabled human, he had taken the main courses of all the six colleges at the same time in the military academy. He has never lost in simulated war confrontations. You can check his grades.”

Lieutenant Colonel Huo Lin turned his head. “Report before you speak. Were the rules in the army swallowed into your stomach?”

He pointed to the mecha behind Tang Zhen, and gave an order coldly, “Mecha off-road training 20 kilometers, move now.”

Tang Zhen choked. “I…!” 

Lieutenant Colonel Huo Lin said, “Go, the time you will be done, will be the time your roommate finishes standing.”

Tang Zhen’s eyes suddenly turned red. “Sir!! He can’t—”

Huo Lin interrupted him coldly, with an unbearable stern tone. “Do you want me to add more?”

Tang Zhen gritted his teeth violently, almost on the verge of a seizure, but he saw Jiang Jianming turned his head and glanced at him, shaking his head vaguely.

“……” 

The Young Master of the Tang family took a deep breath, lowered his head, ran to the front of his mecha, got into the cockpit, and went back to practice.

Jiangming was standing there, with a little bit of ice residue on his drooping eyelashes. 

Lieutenant Colonel Huo Lin did not move, and none of the recruits from the major military academies dared to move. Time simply passed by in the wind.

Ten seconds…twenty seconds…one minute…..three minutes…

“Report!” 

Suddenly, a crisp female voice sounded in the queue. Beimaner bit her lip and looked at Lieutenant Colonel Huo Lin.

“Sir, what Tang Zhen said is true!”

Huo Lin glanced at her expressionlessly, and just snorted from his nose, unmoved.

Nearly ten minutes had passed, and there were a few scattered cadets from Kaios Military Academy who couldn’t stand it any longer.

The Empire had done a good job in protecting the disabled people, among them, the Aslan Star City valued its importance the most. Most of the students in Kaios Military Academy were full of blood young boys, and they couldn’t bear to see such a scene, and soon a few more people came out.

“Report! Report!”

Someone pointed at the guy who just “reported” Jiang Jianming.

“Sir, this person… Xu Shengfan, he lost to Jiang Jianming in a mock battle before, he is avenging a private hatred in the name of public interests!”

The muscles on Xu Shengfan’s face twitched, and he shouted angrily as if his tail had been stepped on.

“Bah, don’t make an unfounded attack on someone, how can I lose to a disabled human being?”

The team gradually became chaotic, but still Lieutenant Colonel Huo Lin remained unmoved.

On the other side, Jiang Jianming’s lips have turned purple from the cold. In fact, his physical strength had not yet recovered. At this time, with the rapid loss of body temperature, he felt a little dizzy.

But he was still very conscious, his trembling teeth bit the tip of his tongue lightly and his gaze barely fell on his tightly curled fingers.

Hands… are almost unconscious.

Jiang Jianming was actually not panicking, he knew that it was nothing to endure the cold for a while, and the soldiers of Silver Big Dipper would not freeze him to death outside the fortress, no matter how difficult they made things for him.

But this time he began to worry about his hands. If the fingers were frostbitten, it would be difficult to control the mecha……

Fortunately, at this moment, a voice of a mecha sounded in the distance.

The blue-black M-IP 18 rushed forward askew and then was rudely stopped by the driver. The cockpit opened, and Tang Zhen almost rolled down from the inside, propped up on the frozen ground, gasping for breath, while sweat dripped down from his face.

Lieutenant Colonel Huo Lin glanced down at his wrist device. “The speed is twice as fast as the morning exercise, okay, go back to the team.”

After speaking, the lieutenant colonel raised his hands, and his fingers tightened into fist—blue crystal bones were suddenly released from his wrists, like a piranha with a wide mouth, pouncing towards Jiang Jianming!

“Ah!”

“No sir!”

Several exclamations sounded, but neither was from Jiang Jianming.

“…” 

The black-haired young man calmly raised his eyes and looked at the crystal bone that stopped a few centimeters in front of him. Deep in his quiet pupils, reflected two deep blue rays of light.

Lieutenant Colonel Huo Lin squinted his eyes and slowly retracted his crystal bones. He seemed to never expect that a spoiled disabled human would have such courage.

He snorted again, glanced at Snow Dove parked in the distance, and said indifferently, “The mecha is not bad, and not fainting in front of my crystal bone, the tranquilizer injected should also be good. The family should have spent a lot of money for you, right, Young Master?”

“…..”

When these words came out, Jiang Jianming’s heart was on fire.

Before anything, he woke up from a coma half an hour ago, his hands and feet were so weak that he could not walk steadily.

Therefore, before coming to see the commanding officer, in order to look better, he gritted his teeth and asked Seth Henry to give him a half-shot of stimulants.

The intelligence disagreed very much. It was not good for the human body if it was used too much. Jiang Jianming actually didn’t want to fight, because each of these medicines was very expensive, and he was not a young master at all. He was very poor.

As a result, now that he was given the medicine, the superior still didn’t appreciate it, and even thought that he was a rich and well-fed young master of the Imperial Capital.

Jiang Jianming secretly regretted it: He made a mistake, he might as well just paralyze in the snow and simply be a good example of a “Young Master. 

Not only was the medicine wasted, his heart also ached for the money……

“I don’t know how you got to the far interstellar space, and how you found the fortress. But for the sake of how courageous you are, I will not pursue it.” Lieutenant Colonel Huo Lin continued, “But Silver Big Dipper does not accept wastes. Regardless of how you came here, just go back.”

Jiang Jianming gently adjusted his breathing, closed his eyes and opened them again.

“Sir, I…” 

As soon as he opened his mouth, his voice was frighteningly hoarse, like scraped rusted iron. He didn’t care, he cleared his throat and continued in a low voice.

“I’m done standing, you see, can you give me half a minute and listen to what I have to say…”

Lieutenant Colonel Huo Lin passed him and shouted at the group of recruits.

“Line up! Back to the fortress!” 

Jiang Jianming pursed his lips, and a dark light flashed at the bottom of his eyes.

Lieutenant Colonel Huo Lin turned and walked towards his mecha. As for the disabled human being in front of him, he had already regarded it as air.

When recruits have done more work, naturally they would be recognized more. Occasionally, there would be some fat aristocrat adults, who regard the blood-stained Silver Big Dipper military emblem as a sweet pastry to earn seniority.

If one can find a way to put their incompetent children into the army and stay in there for a year or two before discharged, one would be able to boast a lifetime of honor when they go back.

Lieutenant Colonel Huo Lin sneered in his heart: However, this is the first time he has seen a disabled human run to the front line. I don’t know if his brain is flooded. But to have such a layer of relationship inside…is it uncomfortable to go to the rear and only work a clerical job?

However, just as he passed the young disabled human being, the latter suddenly raised his hand without warning, taking out something from his front pocket.

Pa!

That cold and hard thing hit the lieutenant colonel’s cheek fairly and with a patting sound.

“You…!?” Huo Lin was instantly furious, and a violent curse had already rushed into his throat.

But when his eyes moved, he almost doubted his own eyes if he had seen it correctly.

He saw a pitch-black chip box being opened under Jiang Jianming’s fingerprints, revealing the Silver Big Dipper military emblem. Under the light from the rays of the sun in the sky that was reflected in frost covered ground, it appeared too dazzling to even look at.

“Sir, “Jiang Jianming didn’t even look at him, his drooping face was expressionless, and his voice was hoarse but light, “Sir, may I ask… When you were in kindergarten, no teacher ever taught you that you have to listen to others finish what they have to say first?”

The whole place fell silent in an instant.

Huo Lin’s face had turned to the color of a pig liver, as he stared in shock and anger. One could almost hear his teeth grinding.

A group of military cadets were so frightened that they did not dare to come out. They stared in amazement at this “classmate” who had been obedient just now, but dared to slap the officer’s face in the blink of an eye.

No one knows, but when Jiang Jianming said these words, he felt amused for a while: Strange, how did his words become so poisonous?

It must be because I met Ryann… No, it’s Garcia… Again, it must be because I met Garcia and was influenced by that man’s bad temper.

Instantly, Jiang Jianming shrugged off the responsibility completely in his heart, and when he spoke again, he was still calm.

“Graduate of the forty-ninth class of Kaios Military Academy, Jiang Jianming of the Sixth College, upon the temporary order of the honorary commander of the empire, the Grand Marshal Chen Hanke, hereby joins the Silver Big Dipper Interstellar Expeditionary Force —reporting to the team.”