Counterfeit Hero

Chapter 534: Volume 6, Chapter 26: Live Broadcast

The entire Capital First Military Academy had been put under emergency lockdown by the Federation Army Second Armored Division after they received a report. Not only the academy itself, but several blocks surrounding it were occupied by fully armed soldiers and heavy Mechas.

Roadblocks were set up at every intersection, the energy machine guns of the Mechas had already emerged from their weapon pods, and the gaping black muzzles looked quite intimidating. Armed soldiers holding guns stood as if facing a great enemy. Countless young officers from the Intelligence Bureau and undercover agents from the National Security Bureau with stern faces led their men, hurrying back and forth.

The espionage incident in the military lab triggered a series of intense chain reactions. No one would treat this as a minor issue. Ordinary soldiers perhaps didn’t quite understand what had happened, merely carrying out the lockdown and inspection tasks in an orderly manner under their officers’ commands. But in the higher echelons of the Military Intelligence Bureau, the National Security Bureau, and the Second Armored Division, it was already as chaotic as a boiling pot.

The officers who were issuing orders to mobilize the troops, with their foreheads frowning, could no longer maintain calmness to first understand the details of the situation.

From the moment they received the urgent report from the academy, they all remembered only one thing: inside the compromised military lab, both Dr. Boswell, who was leading a critical secret research project, and the Federation hero Tian Xingjian, who had just returned from the frontline, were on the Command Department’s list of important figures!

A bold spy who damaged the laboratory equipment was still a minor issue. If this damned spy, in a fit of desperation, harmed even a hair of Dr. Boswell or the darling of the Leray people, Fatty Tian, it would be disastrous.

Therefore, all relevant parties moved into action immediately. They first surrounded an area covering nearly twenty square kilometers centered on the Capital First Military Academy. The most elite soldiers, led by their officers, quickly rushed to control all exits, teaching buildings, and dormitories of the academy.

This also included the gymnasium, where the shouting grew louder and louder.

********

”Long live Leray!” This slogan, which stirred everyone’s hearts, was repeated over and over, with the huge echoes reverberating and causing the entire gymnasium to vibrate.

The emotions of the people also surged with the chant, becoming increasingly intense.

In the stands, a girl with red-rimmed eyes shed large tears, eventually squatting on the ground, covering her face with her hands, and crying out loud.

The girls sitting around her, their eyes glistening with tears, rushed to embrace her thin body. When the girl’s sobbing turned into heart-wrenching wails, tears finally overflowed from her companions’ eyes, falling down like rain.

They knew that this girl from Miloke Star had lost her most beloved father and brother in this damned war. If the Federation hadn’t ultimately achieved a decisive victory on Miloke, the girl wouldn’t even have gotten to see her mother.

Until today, the girl from the Space Battleship Dynamics Department had always been so strong. She and her mother relied on each other, excelling in both academics and training. So much so that many people wondered how such a fragile body could contain such resilient and powerful strength.

But today, amidst the repeated chants of ”Long live Leray,” the girl finally broke down. She could no longer hold back the dam of grief in her heart. In front of the heroes who bled and fought, risking their lives for the Federation and achieving victory after victory, she cried like a deeply wronged child.

In that ordinary figure, she seemed to see her father and brother in heaven, seemed to see those who charged into a hail of bullets. She seemed to hear the loud military bugles and those stirring military songs.

As the girl cried, many other female cadets with similar experiences also wept. Even the male cadets had reddened eyes. For these eighteen or nineteen-year-olds, they were born in a great era, and their future was destined to be more turbulent than that of a peaceful time. However, they were also experiencing pains unimaginable to the youth of peacetime.

Tears flowed freely, and the shouts grew ever louder, ringing out to the skies.

Tears were wiped away only to flow again.

At this moment, no one could remain calm. The bewilderment towards war, the cheers for victory, the struggle against suffering, the emotions of collective catharsis were like erupting volcanic magma, unstoppable.

*****

Due to the command department’s gag order, Helen could not get even the slightest clue from Nia.

The temptation to interview Leray’s current brightest star face-to-face had become irresistible to any journalist. This temptation grew even stronger after Helen hosted the production of the video materials brought back by Nia.

As one of the few permitted to access the materials, Helen watched every piece of battlefield footage and SkyNet recordings Nia brought back.

She saw Tian Xingjian’s silent assassination of Stephen, saw him command his troops to fight valiantly against the odds at Long Line Ridge, and saw him piloting his Mecha to kill the three regimental commanders of the Mythical Army, defeating Reinhardt.

However, what Helen could not forget the most was the footage of him traveling alone behind enemy lines for thousands of miles.

Every time she thought of the figure desperately running in the mountain forest in the video, an indescribable emotion surged in Helen’s heart.