Chapter 490: At Full Force
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Xi Qing simply did not expect him becoming leader of a squad consisted of over 600 members. He was very thrilled at first, finding everything in his command so interesting but it was not long till he realized that it was more of a responsibility than mere fun of pointing people around. The first few days lapsed like years to Xi Qing, his nerves were tightened by both demand and stress. Nevertheless, he managed to shoulder the consuming responsibility few days after.
Every 5 persons would form a team and every 5 teams would form a group. The conglomeration went on as every 5 groups would form a camp and every 5 camps would form a squad. Both Shu and Xi Qing were the commanders of the squad.
As planned, the head leader of team leaders would receive a detailed guide on combat tutoring. No doubt passion burned high within every young man's soul, including Xi Qing who went on a reading spree like a famished tiger. The young men were certainly young, were clearly inexperienced but they worked hard, harder than they imagined.
It was not only about pride, or dream.
It was about their survivals!
Xi Qing was new. Not everyone wholeheartedly identified him as the leader, since obviously in the eyes of the people he was none other than an immature brat who had not even undergone his puberty completely. It was a joke, a bad one too. Not once in their career of handling the steer they had heard a mere boy leading a squad of 600.
Well, there should have been dramas, but again, interaction between pilots had always been rather simple and straightforward. People recognized Xi Qing when he destroyed 30 mechs with his team. Shu acted the same too, as if having an invisible bond with Xi Qing, though his style was way harsher - he spoke with his fists, not machines, proven as he was standing by the pile of 10 few people collapsed.
And the discrimination was only the beginning. There were a whole crew of people waiting to see them fall. They had to train this batch of newbies to master strategic formations within the shortest time possible. It was the whole point of their position and it was difficult, realized Xi Qing. Their indifferent instructor had given them a whole set of standard training course yet there were a lot of details to be taken care of.
He was almost dead beat after the training. Yup, almost. Both Shu and Xi Qing were still mentally strong beings. They would not fall, especially with such a golden opportunity in hand. This might be the only chance they could show themselves before hitting adulthood. Frankly they might just be one of the minions if they resigned, given their age. So they had a head start compared to most people of their age.
They put in their everything in training the newbies, that they would even have a professional discussion with each other at night. Assuming they met an issue unable to be sorted out among themselves, they would always look for the instructor.
And the instructor sure was an amazing wise figure, for he was always able to sort out their problems in a few words, that it felt like a knock on their head whenever the answer was revealed to be really simple. It made them fairly curious of the instructor's background. It was blatant that the instructor had led a massive operation before, while usually only the commanders of the well-established military hierarchy of the Research Consortium or the leader of a gigantic pilot squad would have such a rare experience. Only either-or, there should not be any other possibility, especially when the instructor was pulling off a typical standardized military management on them. They were in Gray Valley, probably the instructor was from Gray Valley, so the instructor should be the one in command of the consortium's military.
Well, if only the instructor nodded on their speculation right away.
He never admitted to any of the hints they hurled.
The boys were very intrigued yet they could not get a definite answer from the instructor. They were also running out of time so they could only set their gossip aside.
Meanwhile the instructor, Ye Chong was pretty satisfied of both Xi Qing and Shu's performance. It was far-fetched for two newbies to produce such work. Their comprehension was great that they immediately caught on whatever he said and illustrated other similar ideas. For example, there was once they discussed the details on the training course. Both of them worked with their members and formulated a diverse course. The two of them even suggested a competition system which seemed to have fueled the enthusiasm among the members as the members worked like the last day of their life daily. The squad eventually improved dramatically.
Ye Chong had hardly contributed anything throughout the process. He was not that super great one as imagined by the boys. It was Shang who planned everything, from the hierarchy, the training course to the little handbook of combat tutoring in the hands of Xi Qing and Shu.
Whatever Ye Chong actually did was measly while most of them were demonstration of pure violence, like forcing himself into a spaceship to perform supply "reorganization". Well, he could have just asked someone else to do it for him most of the time.
Haskel was rumored as a spaceship of the arms dealer, yet ironically, little Ye Chong knew, there was indeed a vessel of the arms dealer inside the fleet.
The owner of this vessel named Flamethrower was a second-class arms dealer, Wu Guang. He was an opportunistic merchant who gathered up every last few pennies around him to bulk purchase close-combat models upon seeing the war scene of the frontline. He believed there would be market and he would get profit. So he frantically loaded the 2000 units to the ship and wanted to zoom towards frontline as soon as possible.
Too bad, he was an opportunistic merchant with bad luck. Before he even started seeing flares of the frontline, he was already informed of the fall. He practically exchanged everything he had for a risk to become a part of the meteorites. He was smacking his head, calling himself foolish and almost wanted to jump into vacuum but well it would be better if he ran.
So on his way running to somewhere, he discovered this vey strange fleet. In the end he got to the back of the queue and sneaked into the fleet.
Throughout the course he had witnessed the legendary Haskel clearing out every red-tailed beast encountered. He was very glad to have joined this fleet uninvitedly, till one day he got a request from Haskel, kindly asking him to "contribute" all his close-combat models.
He wanted a negotiation but clearly he was negotiating with the wrong person. The negotiator was extremely skillful, even annoying, that he had not gotten a way to free himself from this awful deal. Every line from the negotiator was convincing enough to shut him up. Eventually he only could give all his mechs sincerely, with both hands. He believed, the negotiator would be an excellent merchant if he started doing business for real. The sole regret was he never managed to see this negotiator in person.
Soon the 2000 units were distributed. The "Fighter" model was not exactly a high-end tier among the close-combat units but was the only option for the trainees. Once the new pilots got a mech themselves, the training would be more efficient.
Alright, all things seemed settled. And Ye Chong realized, he was rather bored... He had nothing needed to be taken a look at. There were Shang to monitor the fleet for him and Xi Qing watching the training for him with Shu. Speaking of the two boys, they were maniacally training their members. It looked like training but definitely did not sound like one, as people could hear the loud slamming and thrashing echoing in the spaceship everyday.
Xi Qing and Shu had surpassed their teacher, that they did training more dead serious than Ye Chong. Mortality, casualties were none of their concern. They actually had 35 trainees wounded or passed out one day.
The mechanic trainees were arranged to be assistance of actual mechanics in the spaceship. Under the arrangement, every mechanic was naturally assigned with at least two assistances. As Shang had suspected, there were indeed a great deal of talents hidden among the folks in the fleet. He actually found out a masterly mechanic in the crowd, along with 30 advanced mechanics. The technician team alone was far more superior than whatever Haskel had in the beginning.
That was fun but Ye Chong was really bored...
...(Meanwhile at the mechanics' site)...
"Take a careful look now. This pressure-control valve is the most important part of the entire structure. It is what determines if this would be a machine or a piece of trash," said Harrell as his hand adjusted the valve constantly. There were 12 young men surrounding him as he explained working of every part in details. They were all ears to his words, and Yang Ming was one of them.
Underneath that snowy white hair of the master, Harrell had rosy cheeks of a child. The years he spent wielding the wrench had given him a strong physique. His voice was forceful to reach almost corners of the room. Being one of the top masters in Gray Valley, he was low-profiled. He declined any form of services associated with a particular force. He preferred getting indulged in his research at home alone.
Nevertheless, he was a rational person. He understood how every ounce of strength mattered at the moment. So he decided to provide assistance the best he could, and he offered himself becoming the head engineer of the entire modification operation. As inspired by Haskel, he had provided a new modification plan.
Most features highlighted in Haskel's version of modification blueprint were retained, except the few new additions of offenses Harrell added. It had a similar concept, where the battery would still be the bait, inside a pathway which formed like a trap. So that would at least provide basic defense mechanism for the other spaceships.
But it was tricky to execute. The weaponry involved just be strong enough to penetrate the defense of red-tailed beasts.
It took great efforts among Harrell and the other advanced engineers to devise a proper plan. Of course, Ye Chong gave a few touches too, since he was that one genius who happened to know much about the almost-forgotten field of ancient mechanics.
Well, that was probably his greatest contribution during the period.
Ye Chong yawned, looking at the clusters outside the window.
"Ye, I want to play a game," said Shang, a rather preposterous proposal at a period like this.
Ye Chong was bewildered. It was a foreign term of luxury to him. He grew up without games to be honest. He had been racing with people, with money, with time. Never once he stopped strengthening himself and had something called... "Game...?"
"Jajaja..." Shang knew how to keep the boy interested, "Let's play a game that could strengthen yourself. Well, you could think it as a kind of training if you want to."
"Okay." Shang seemed pleased by the response.
"Take the helmet."
And Ye Chong, still bewildered, placed this strange, out-of-nowhere virtual world helmet on top of his head.
"Hehehehe, Ye, here we go~" Shang sounded excited...
"So am I, Ye." A cold voice rang in his head, unexpectedly.
"Mu?" Ye Chong was shocked. He was supposed to in a kind of hibernation...
"Hehehehehehehe, Ye, it took me some efforts to get Mu to join us. Well, the game would be fun with Mu here... Sinc-" Said Shang proudly, since it was indeed almost-impossible to get the artificial intelligence of cold logic to join the a game. "I'll explain the rules," Mu interrupted.
Shang's flashback was interrupted.
"Okay." Ye Chong went focused. He knew it would be fun.
If it was a game that caught Mu's interests, very likely it would be...
Wow, this would be exciting.