Chapter 162
Chapter 162: Ready to Go [Part 1]
"I guess we can’t say that they’re the only ones who are keeping a low profile, since in reality everyone was keeping a low profile. It’s just that they were extremely low key even when compared to the others. For the past fifty years, there hasn’t been any unusually huge conflict between the four great Hunter regiments, the great four and the military, and the business, political and other circles as well. This was a buffer everyone had agreed to by chance." Lung continued to say.
Cillin did not say anything.
Ever since he joined Vanguard, Cillin had been paying constant attention to the movements of the four great Hunter regiments. On the whole, the four great Hunter regiments were just like an indicator whose movements were more or less followed by the Hunter regiments in GAL.
However, as he came to understand more over time, Cillin discovered that the current great four weren’t nearly as dazzling and flamboyant as they used to be. It could be said that they were acting a lot more low-key than the historical records stated. Now that he thought about it, it might really be due to the influence of that incident fifty years ago. If he hadn’t seen the content of Enji’s diary, he might not know even now that there was an incident fifty years ago so huge that it influenced the entire GAL. However, what Cillin still did not know was what exactly had happened fifty years ago that caused even the great four to withdraw their claws?
In GAL, the incident from fifty years ago was not brought up be it in electronic networks or physical records. Perhaps some of the old people who lived through that time would know something, but were all afraid to talk about it.
"Have you checked out Blue b.u.t.terfly’s communication department when you were at the transit planet?" Lung asked.
Blue b.u.t.terfly was the one out of the great four Lung spoke of who had been keeping a low profile all this time. Blue b.u.t.terfly was slightly special among the great four in that their numbers might not even reach a tenth of numbers of the three other Hunter regiments such as Vanguard. However, their average strength was also a lot higher. Looking at the ranking of GAL’s Hunter regiments, the great four’s overall strength did not differ much from each other, and it was difficult to differentiate exactly who was more superior to the other. However, Blue b.u.t.terfly’s average individual combat power was publicly known as the strongest out of all Hunter regiments in GAL. Moreover, B Squadrons did not exist in Blue b.u.t.terfly. This was what made Blue b.u.t.terfly was special.
Every Blue b.u.t.terfly member had a b.u.t.terfly-shaped tattoo on their bodies. There were demon b.u.t.terflies, swallowtail b.u.t.terflies and all kinds of other patterns, and underneath these major categories, everyone’s tattoo differed according to the person.
Cillin shook his head when he heard Lung’s question. He had headed straight to Vanguard the moment he found the coordinates. He had not paid attention to the situation of other Hunter regiments’ communication departments.
"Blue b.u.t.terfly’s communication department never had too many people, and even if you went there you would only find some gra.s.s-roots units. However, no one knew where the core forces of Blue b.u.t.terfly were since they had vanished more than forty years ago." at this point, Lung let out a sneer and said, "But this time, it is likely that even the most low-key Blue b.u.t.terfly would return. In fact, they would return in force."
"Do you know what happened fifty years ago?" Cillin asked.
Lung made an apologetic gesture and said, "I only knew some matters that are related to our family, and a rough impression of the other forces. Although everyone was involved in the incident fifty years ago, their objectives and needs all differed from each other. Did no one in Vanguard tell you about this? But I guess it’s only natural since it’s a public secret. If I wasn’t the first young master of the Andrea Family, I would not have the qualification to know about the things that involved the family back then as well."
"Never mind then." Cillin expressed his indifference, "Let’s talk about this mission. What are your intentions exactly?"
"My intentions? Didn’t I say them pretty clearly before? I’m requesting your cooperation in completing this mission. Speaking of which, this mission is beneficial for you Vanguards as well."
"That electronic minute book only talked about a mission at Sector S, but it did not specify exactly what we’re going to do there."
Lung used the hand he used to rub his leg earlier to scratch his head, "Er, to put it in simpler words, that Andrea Family core mission of ours absolutely won’t fall into my lap. My dad would not let me do something as leading the charge and breaking through the enemy lines right now anyway. He said that my abilities are lacking, and I haven’t left a seed behind to continue the family line. It’s the pits if I went there and did not return, so instead I applied an extra mission on my own accord from my dad – arson!"
"Arson?"
"Yeah. If they’re fighting mad at the front yard, then we’ll go set the back yard on fire. It’ll serve as a kind of a distraction, and a chance at toughening ourselves. There are no hardline victory conditions, and there are no hardline objectives. This is purely entertainment with a high degree of freedom."
"The place you choose for pure entertainment sure are special. A step in the wrong direction and we’ll lose our little lives away and be miserable all the same."
Lung said excitedly, "It’ll be fine. Not even my dad turned down the idea after the difficulty level was lowered. This is a rare opportunity, and I have a feeling that when the time comes Sector S will be pretty chaotic, so why not take the chance and make the waters muddier. We’ll just be a spectator of the whole thing."
Cillin gave it a thought. It was not like he had anything to do, and it wasn’t an opportunity that he would let pa.s.s by. When he saw the phrase ‘Sector S’, he had already decided against foregoing the mission. That being said, it was still better to get answers for zome questions.
"Why fifty years? Something happened fifty years ago, and then a bunch of people were all given fifty years sentences. That doesn’t sound right."
"Excluding the heavyweights, the small fries were either dead or sentenced to prison terms of varying periods between ten to fifty years. There were people who had been released and returned from Sector S, but the ratio of people who returned safely from Sector S were less than a thousandth. In fact, at a certain period of time the people who were released from Sector S were utterly annihilated. The ridiculously low safe return ratio was one of the reasons why everyone had made their respective preparations to safeguard the heavyweights’ return. As for why that mission only resulted in fifty years of prison term, we had the disagreements between the military and political groups to thank. The people in academia who had decision making power also reached some sort of underground deal with everyone, which was why everyone worked together to reduce everyone’s sentences to fifty years."
"I see." Cillin recalled a number of things. It wasn’t that the Hunter regiments did not have any achievements on ‘Glory’ or ‘Code’, they had simply became someone else’s achievements. These were all part of the deal.
"Therefore," Lung approached Cillin with s.h.i.+ning eyes, "Let’s go stir up a row."
Cillin raised his eyes and glanced at Lung once, "It can’t be that the reason you volunteered yourself and applied for such a mission from your dad was because you were fed up with the matters at Sector H, can it?"
"Bullseye. Let’s go let’s go, when the time comes I’ll tell you secretly some of the secrets back then."
"I didn’t say that I’m not going."
"Haha, then it’s a deal!" Lung bounced right up and ran towards the door, but just when he was about to open it he stopped and walked back with a bitter look on his face. He put on his shoes, tidied up his clothes, and straightened out the flew clumps of hair he scratched out of order until everything was perfect. Finally, he cleared his throat and opened the door with a profound appearance.
They returned to the big meeting room, took a further step deeper into the negotiation, discussed about remunerations and other matters, signed the contract, shook hands and bid each other goodbye. But because
Of course, there was no way they would allow the Andrea Family people to stay long term at Planet Vanguard, so they had arranged their lodgings at another planet at the rim. However, Lung lost his patience after just staying there for a day and took his men directly to the transit planet for fun. He told Cillin to find him there after he had rested sufficiently and dealt with all his matters.
Shawton did not comment anything about Cillin’s choice. He simply told Cillin to rest well during the few days he was at the Sixth B Squadron.
Chapter 162: Ready to Go [Part 2]
After getting out of the A Squad’s domain, Cillin and Shawton took a s.p.a.ceplane and departed towards the Sixth B Squadron’s domain. The gray cat laid lazily on top of Cillin’s shoulder and moved its tail from time to time. It had not interrupted when Cillin and Lung were conversing earlier. It did not matter since it would have fun wherever they went anyway. Of course, the gray cat was very willing to go to an unfamiliar and dangerous place; preferably the kind where it could turn everything upside down.
"You look like you’re feeling pretty good." Cillin poked the hair above the gray cat’s ear. The gray cat flicked its ears and patted Cillin’s hand away with a paw while letting out a humph, "The weapon loadouts at the A Squad’s domain are pretty good. Their signal protection is stronger than our squad’s too."
"But?" Cillin raised an eyebrow and continued along the lines this fellow was headed to. He’d allow it to have a moment of self-enlightenment this time.
As expected,
"But! I can turn that place into a mess all the same, hehe meow." the gray cat raised its chin and said proudly.
"Alright enough, when we get to Sector S you’ll have the chance to go wild."
"Of~ course~. For the sake of the mission later, I want extra meals for the next few days!"
The main point is at the last line, isn’t it?
Although this was the first time he visited the Sixth B Squadron’s base, Cillin still felt a lot more relaxed. Perhaps that big emblem with the number ‘6’ alone was enough to soothe his feelings.
With Shawton leading the way, Cillin and the gray cat were able to go wherever they wanted unimpeded. Previously, the Sixth Squad had all operated on the stars.h.i.+p, and now that they had all been transferred into the base. The many connected buildings looked just like a fort.
"Let’s go, everyone’s accommodations are over there." Shawton led Cillin towards one of the buildings.
However, before Cillin could enter his own room, Cary intercepted him and gave him a bear hug. Then it was Xiao Shang, Eudy and the others. Tang Qiuqiu came over while hugging a white fur ball; the thing that had hatched out of its egg. Still, other than slightly larger ears, why did it look a little like a bear? While a bear was a mammal, this particular fat bear had most definitely jumped out of an egg.
Cillin scoured the information in his head for a bit and confirmed that he had not seen such a specie on that planet.
"Brother Cillin, I named it s...o...b..ll!" Tang Qiuqiu said clearly while hugging the fat little fellow.
"s...o...b..ll. That’s a good name." Cillin said. It was a good name, since both the owner and the pet had the word ball* in their names, unlike a certain gray cat who once called itself Whebeze. Now it was called Wheeze, wasn’t it? So it would seem that names were defined by the people around you. No matter how much you disliked a name initially, given enough time you’ll eventually get used to it.
*The Chinese word 球 a.k.a ‘Qiu’ also meant ‘Ball’.
Cillin asked Tang Qiuqiu to give s...o...b..ll to him for a hug. The little fellow had awoken from its sleep since it was noisy with so many people around it. According to Eudy, this little fellow slept eighty percent of the time. The rest of its time was spent on foraging, excreting, and being rolled around like a ball by everyone for fun.
Little s...o...b..ll opened its silver eyes and looked at its surroundings in a daze. It did not struggle despite the unfamiliar surroundings, and after moving its little nose once it narrowed its eyes and let out a yawn. It then turned its gaze to the gray cat crouching on top of Cillin and patted it with a paw. It let out a whining cry that sounded like it was b.u.t.tering up to the gray cat.
The gray cat’s whiskers shook once as it said with a serious expression, "This guy&h.e.l.lip; seems to be older than me!"
The clamorous group who were chatting and laughing with each other fell silent at once.
"Wheeze, this little fellow hasn’t hatched out of its egg for much time. It hasn’t even been thirty GAL calendar days yet. I can guarantee this! The rest of the people in the Sixth Squad can be eye witnesses as well."
The gray cat rubbed its whiskers and continued to ask, "When do you start calculating its age? When it took form after the ovum was fertilised? When it was an egg? Or when it hatched out of the egg?"
"Er, for creatures that hatched out of eggs, of course we start counting since the moment they were hatched."
"Oh, I see. Then it’s okay." the gray cat lifted its paws once more and touched s...o...b..ll. It now felt a lot more elated, "So it’s still just a baby!"
If they really counted its age since the moment the egg was born, this little fellow might as well be a demon already*.
*Chinese lore often say that animals who cultivate for a thousand years can become a demon, or what you may imagine as an elite, power wielding version of the animal. Hence the above.
Dough, who had been clutching the wall and watching the scene was unhappy when it saw everyone’s attentions were focused onto s...o...b..ll. It swiftly moved its four limbs and charged towards Cillin, climbing up his pants all the way up to his shoulders. It then stuck close to the gray cat and gave it a rather disproportionate sized hug.
"Yo, you came out, Dough." Cillin loosened a hand and gave Dough a rub, "You seem to have grown bigger, little fellow."
Dough grew even more pleased when it heard Cillin’s words. Its wide open mouth seemed to indicate that it was smiling.
The gray cat cast a glance at Dough beside it before looking down at its own completely unchanged body. It lifted a foot, and whack!
Sometimes cats really were petty minded. At the very least, Dough had been kicked off Cillin’s shoulders as a result of the gray cat’s own disgruntled feelings. That being said, with Dough’s abilities it would be perfectly fine even Cary grabbed it by the tail and flung it against the wall.
The few people gathered together and talked a little about the things that had happened during the period of time. Earlier, Tang Qiuqiu had already shown everyone the photos she took with her camera, and shared some souvenirs with them. The trip to Little Garden especially had Zaya Kasa – the girl who replaced Asiya’s position in the squad – claiming that she must take a stroll at Little Garden when she had the time. It was such a fantastic place. Bee honey can nourish one’s skin, and the bee honey of Little Garden was old several times its original price outside. This further fortified the decision of some of the females in the squad to form a group and take a vacation at Little Garden.
Cillin inquired about the situation over Dias’ side since Dias and the others who had gone to Sector E for treatment had not yet returned. Apparently things were going well, and they were undergoing recovery treatment. After all they were all Hunters, and no Hunter would wish to be incompletely healed. In a battle of life and death, an incompletely healed affliction was like an invisible bomb that could not be seen, but could explode at any moment and rob them of their lives. However, he also heard that they would be able to return after another half a year. Dias would often send some videos back to the squad, and in the videos everyone looked pretty healthy. This also caused the Sixth B Squadron’s morale to recover by a lot.
"Where are Udoze and Rikulab?" Cillin looked around but did not see the two people.
"They went to deal with the enlistment procedure. LC Akayi and Lu Suo are responsible for it." Cary said.
Cillin was a little surprised by this. After all, back when he joined the squad he had to go through the joint voting of the commander and the LCs before a decision was made. So why was the decision made so quickly when he, the LC, had not showed up until now and Shawton was with the A Squad?
But after giving it another thought, Cillin found the answer on his own. Senior Barthus himself had agreed to the enlistment, and Cillin himself was the one who brought the two new members on board. Naturally, the rest of the people would not object to the enlistment. Shawton might be dealing with some work at the A Squad, but he should have been informed a long time ago. Therefore, the decision to admit Udoze and Rikulab into the squad had become much easier to make.
The moment the topic of the new recruits were brought up, Cary immediately grew excited, "I heard from the brothers at Second Squad that you guys showed off pretty well at Vanguard’s communication department on the transit planet!"
"What do you think of them both?" Cillin looked at Cary. He did not believe that Cary had not given both Udoze and Rikulab a show of strength, just like how Cary had wanted a handshake the first time he met him. He had to test their level of skill after all.
Xiao Shang interrupted laughingly before Cary could say anything, "That Udoze guy’s driving skills are pretty impressive. He took out Cary at least."
Eudy also added, "It’s just like the time you dueled fighters against each other on the virtual platform!"
Cary’s face had been trained to become much thicker than before, so he simply chuckled at the jabs. He really wasn’t that embarra.s.sed to lose five out of ten matches against Udoze. Plus, he had to admit that Udoze’s adaptability and driving skills were amazing. During the ten versus matches, he had won the first five and lost the last five matches. In fact, he had only lost faster and more decisively with each pa.s.sing match. A talent like Udoze would be able to contribute a lot to the squad when they engaged in dogfights in the future.
"As for Rikulab, the guys at the medical team talked a lot with him. Sometimes they would skip meals altogether when they discussed." Cary said.
It would appear that the duo had blended quite quickly into the squad.
After returning to the squad and resting for two days, Cillin got ready to head to the transit planet. For the past two days, they had drunk, dueled, and gave both Udoze and Rikulab a welcoming party in pa.s.sing. The one who ate the most at the feast was the gray cat, and the fat s...o...b..ll came in second. It truly was a creature that had jumped right out of its egg, not having even a nursing period. Although it did drink milk, it ate even more of other things.
Therefore, the two greatest gluttons in the Sixth B Squadron became famous since that day.
Both Cary and Xiao Shang were rather disappointed when they heard that Cillin had a mission yet again. Originally, they were going to drag him to a few famous places of entertainment at Sector K. it would seem that Cillin could only join them after his mission was complete.
When Eudy heard that Cillin had a mission to perform even during such a time, a flash went across his eyes. He pa.s.sed a note to Cillin when the others weren’t paying attention, and after he read it, Cillin destroyed the note and gave Eudy an ‘OK’.
He did not need to worry about Udoze and Rikulab. Right now, Udoze had access to fighters and received fighter training everyday. While this might be tedious and exhausting work to someone else, to Udoze it was something to take pleasure in. Meanwhile, Rikulab had also begun to attempt realizing some of the few inspirations he had in the past with the aid of some people in the medical team who were well versed in pharmacology.
After bidding the Sixth B Squadron goodbye, Cillin and the gray cat stepped onto the stars.h.i.+p headed for the transit planet once more. Although they had not yet officially departed, he could obviously detect an unusual atmosphere during the few days he spent on the base’s planet. The atmosphere around the B Squadrons was still okay; it was mainly the A Squadrons spreading their tension and restlessness to their surroundings involuntarily.
A few days after they had reentered the transit planet once more, Cillin had purposely gone to the Blue b.u.t.terfly Hunter regiment’s communication department to take a look. It was as desolate as Lung had told him, but something else laid beneath this surface of desolation.
Cillin did not head to Vanguard’s communication department, and instead went directly to the place Lung told him to go. Lung was still sleeping when he reached that place. The same sight of a singlet and a pair of beach pants, slippers tossed randomly at the side and saliva flowing along the edges of the bed and onto the floor greeted him.
When Cillin saw the process of Berzett waking Lung from his sleep, he sighed: the actions of those who hail from great families were truly beyond the imagination.
What Cillin had not expected was that Berzett, the butler who had stayed by Lung’s side like a nanny all this time actually wasn’t following them along the trip. The only pa.s.sengers on this trip really was just him, Lung and a cat. Even if the stars.h.i.+p they were on was small-sized, it still had quite a large amount of s.p.a.ce. However, everything else around them except them two and a cat were machines.
Suddenly, Cillin thought that a road of hards.h.i.+ps lay ahead of him.