Chapter 55: The End of a Hero?

Watching Yu Lian also strike a sword stance to prepare for a charge, everyone felt their emotions surge and their blood run hot, their spirits seemingly set ablaze.

"This Lunarian... Sub-lieutenant Yu Lian, probably doesn't want any of us to die in vain against a psionic's dying counterattack. Even though he's still young and has a pretty-boy face, he truly is a man of responsibility!" Lieutenant Parkin was deeply moved.

"You're a lot more principled than I imagined! Fine then, I'll humor you one more time!" Ash Stein looked at Yu Lian with a trace of surprise, his favorability ticking up just a fraction.

This Sandman is a real man... He truly deserves an honorable death! They thought to themselves as they watched Kaze, who endured his injuries and still assumed a battle stance.

The end of a hero cannot be too mundane, too desolate, and certainly not too realistic; it must align with public expectations. What, then, could be more legendary, more dramatic, and more capable of igniting the public's emotional resonance than a heaven-shaking duel to the death?

Seeking songs of courage and honor in the gaps between sharp blades, comprehending the true meaning of soul and will on the boundary between life and death—only this could forge the true essence of heroism! A bleak life as illusory as a dream must also gain genuine substance by confronting flowing blood up close, meeting an opponent's gaze directly, and watching him slip away in your hands!

This was the authentic space opera style, wasn't it?

Yu Lian looked at the surrounding people and knew these guys were overthinking again. Yet, having lived three lifetimes, he still didn't understand why anyone wouldn't use explosive weapons if they had them? What dialectical relationship was there between hacking at each other with blades and honor?

There was no helping it, though; whatever the majority thought naturally became tradition and ritual.

Fortunately, a capable man has the privilege of being willful. Letting Khan Kaze—a man destined never to become a hero—exit in the manner he anticipated did indeed align with Yu Lian's aesthetics.

Yes, it wasn't about some grandiose honor! It was purely caprice and aesthetics!

Anyway, he didn't think Kaze would be a match for him, even if the other had just broken through to the Second Ring.

Besides, he definitely didn't think an immobile "heavy infantryman" was the ultimate whetstone to brush up on his techniques from his past life.

Nor was he coveting the family heirloom on Khan Kaze, hoping to swallow it up without anyone noticing.

Of course, someone voiced a dissenting opinion. For instance, Ina's voice rang through Yu Lian's earpiece at that moment: "Sir, I think... well, you've been working hard for too long, you should take a rest."

Yu Lian would bet his life that if he weren't still her direct superior, this girl would have definitely said something like, "I think your brain was kicked by a donkey."

So what if his brain was kicked? A man still needed to be occasionally willful to grind experience and loot corpses.

"Ash! Cover me!" Yu Lian shouted.

Covering the vanguard was great! You didn't have to fight for your life yet still got to participate in the division of spoils. Ash was momentarily flattered, feeling that this guy actually had a human touch.

"Come on! Earther, this is my final battle!" Khan Kaze let out a stern, resonant shout, as if even the rivers trembled in its wake.

A hero at bay, a tiger cornered on the plains, yet still overflowing with heroic spirit!

"Get ready, I grant you an honorable death!" Yu Lian laughed heartily, his white garments as pure as snow, striding forward to the rhythm of a song.

I am witnessing an epic! Everyone was moved to tears, feeling as if they couldn't even catch their breath—except for a certain master sergeant rolling her eyes from a sniper perch several hundred meters away.

Consequently, they failed to notice that an airship had rapidly arrived over the battlefield. The nose-mounted Vulcan cannon dropped its muzzle and unleashed a violent torrent of barrage directly at Khan Kaze, who had just assumed his stance.

A blazing line of fire instantly engulfed his entire body.

Everyone froze. Yu Lian, of course, was stunned as well. However, he fared slightly better than the completely paralyzed crowd; because of the close range, he could even see scales, flesh, and fragments of internal organs rolling amidst the rain of bullets.

The airship, seemingly still unsatisfied after emptying a magazine of at least a thousand rounds, followed up with eight rockets, completely transforming the area into a blazing sea of fire.

"Are they trying to blow me up along with him?" Yu Lian's skin tinged with a burning heat, and he hurriedly retreated a few steps.

He knew Kaze was dead beyond all doubt this time. Leaving aside the fact that he was merely a "heavy infantryman," even if he had an extra ring of power, he could not have survived such saturation bombardment.

Yu Lian looked at the distant flames, as if hearing the desperate wails of the future founding father of the Sandmen before his death, and momentarily didn't know what expression to wear.

The twists of history were truly sigh-inducing!

On this timeline, even if Khan Kaze's name managed to survive, it would only be as a minor villain with a fleeting line or two, wouldn't it?

Yu Lian's mood was complex, and for a long while he didn't want to speak, a wistful look on his face. Once the airship finally ceased firing, he silently approached the still-burning crater, gathered a pile of charred and semi-charred flesh, and with lightning speed, fished out a small crystal and pocketed it.

The second piece, secured...

Of course, from the perspective of others, this was clearly a display of heroes cherishing heroes. Even after the opponent had been blasted to dust, he was still diligently collecting the remains.

It wasn't until the airship landed nearby and a familiar figure clad in powered armor leaped out of the cabin, striding towards them, that Yu Lian—who was busy "collecting the body"—hurriedly stood up and gave a slightly stiff military salute.

"Are you stupid? Well, are you stupid?" The other party returned the salute with a gesture even more casual than Yu Lian's, while immediately launching into a tirade: "Was there any need to risk your life just to pander to someone else's self-satisfaction before death? Or have you spent three years at the Academy without making any progress?"

"Well, the Awakeners Watch Pact..."

"Pact my foot! First and foremost you are a soldier of the Commonwealth, and only then a psionic. Don't you even understand this?"

Yu Lian felt that what she said made profound sense, so he snapped to attention and shouted loudly, "Senior Sister Eleanor... uh, reporting to Commander Bonaparte, Sub-lieutenant Yu Lian, acting commander of Outpost No. 12, reporting for duty!"

"Reporting my foot! How did I teach you before? Isn't combat about neutralizing the enemy to the maximum extent while trying your best to protect yourself? Sub-lieutenant Yu Lian, this is a battlefield, not Imperial nobles playing house!"

Speaking of which, Senior Sister, you're a supreme commander who personally led a charge—what qualification do you have to lecture me?

Still, he finally understood why he and Senior Sister Eleanor hit it off so well.

On the other side, Lieutenant Parkin genuinely hadn't expected the legendary "Flower of the National Defense Forces" and "First Beauty of the Defense University" to have this kind of demeanor. He froze for a good while before hastily saluting in a fluster, "Madam Commander, Lieutenant Grumman Parkin of the 101st Regiment, Hell Jumper Division, reporting for duty!"

Senior Sister Eleanor shot Yu Lian a side-eye that conveyed a "I'll settle accounts with you back home," then instantly switched to an impeccable business smile, shaking hands with him. "Thank you for your timely reinforcement! It is precisely thanks to your loyalty, courage, and wisdom that we have achieved such a brilliant victory! By the way, where is Captain Winter? I need to thank him in person as well."

Yes, this was indeed a great victory! Such deep-seated threats as High Elder Hesen and future threats like Khan Kaze had perished one after another, while the total rout of the Sandmen had begun over an hour ago. Any effective resistance had been thoroughly pulverized—not to mention the airships, drones, and mobile infantry in the skies and on the ground, even the militiamen who had fought their way out alongside Senior Sister could join this one-sided hunting game without any fear of enemy counterattacks.

Post-battle statistics showed that at least over two hundred thousand Sandmen had died within a hundred-mile radius of Tulong, with the vast majority perishing in the chaotic stampedes and mutual slaughter. Years after the campaign ended, people would still occasionally stumble upon weathering Sandmen skeletons out in the wilds.

In addition, over a hundred "Frankenstein" tanks, more than two hundred anti-aircraft guns, and the ten heavy ion artillery pieces on the Archie Highlands had all become spoils of war for the colonial garrison.

Of course, aside from the heavy guns on the highlands, the vast majority of the other spoils had been blasted into smithereens and could only be recycled as scrap metal later, but they still counted towards the combat merits statistics, didn't they?

Regardless, the Commonwealth military had indeed fought its most brilliant major victory in nearly a decade, and the protagonists were the garrison grunts who had always sat at the absolute bottom of the military's contempt chain. This was truly enough for the New Yumen Governor's Mansion and the garrison high command to brag about well into the next century.

Senior Sister Eleanor's mood was naturally excellent. Now, not just by graduation ranking, but even by battle achievements, she had left her classmates—and even seniors from the past ten classes—far behind. At the thought of this, when she arrived at the highlands and shook hands with Captain Winter, a bit of genuine emotion inevitably mingled into her business smile.

"Are those heavy guns in good condition?" the Senior Sister asked.

Captain Winter didn't quite understand why she asked, but he answered loudly nonetheless, "Condition is intact, I can guarantee that, Ma'am."

Eleanor nodded, glanced over the heavy cannons, and smiled with a chuckle. "Oh? Alliance Tsunami-IVs? Did they think changing a local workshop's chassis would make me fail to recognize them? Good stuff. Not just for ground targets, but against air targets, they can reach near-Earth orbit, right?"

Worried that the Senior Sister would order the cannons dismantled and dragged back to the city, Yu Lian stepped forward and said, "Sir, we cannot let our guard down yet."

"Oh?" The Senior Sister glanced at Yu Lian with rising interest, lifting her pretty chin to signal him to continue.

The Senior Sister's overly calm reaction caught Yu Lian slightly off guard, but he pressed on anyway: "Those goblins are employees of the Compass Mercantile Association. According to their confessions, these heavy guns were also brought in by Compass. I suspect those armored vehicles and anti-aircraft guns are also the handiwork of Compass. However, how could the Sandmen possibly have the connections to deal with this multinational arms broker? There must be other forces operating behind the scenes."

The Senior Sister nodded, still maintaining a calm expression as she replied, "That's not surprising. There are no shortage of petty minds green with envy over our colonial interests in the Andromeda Galaxy. However, what does this have to do with our current predicament?"

"We have indeed won, but Tulong was besieged for nearly a week—that is a fact. Settlements, industries, and outposts outside Tulong being attacked are also facts. Yet on this planet, aside from Commonwealth citizens, there is a considerable number of foreign nationals. Other nations are fully justified in using this reason to question our ability to maintain public order, and can even rightfully dispatch military forces here under a righteous pretext—saying they are merely here to evacuate their citizens."

Yu Lian had pondered this argument for a long time; it was well-founded, logically coherent, and devoid of mysticism, so even the Senior Sister wouldn't doubt it upon hearing it.

Sure enough, the Senior Sister merely raised her eyebrows in surprise, then offered appreciative praise: "Not bad, you've improved quickly! I knew you had this kind of potential!"

...Wait, is your reaction slightly different from what I anticipated?

Captain Winter was listening with rapt attention when his earpiece buzzed with an incoming call, his expression instantly changing.

"Colonel, three destroyers are approaching the planet from outer space, about to enter near-Earth orbit!"