Counterfeit Hero

As Tian Xingjian’s mentor, no one understands this Fatty, who is frowning while reviewing battle cases, better than Russell. In fact, two years ago, he handed the entire Freedom Front over to Tian Xingjian.

At that time, the Freedom Front was just a dwindling resistance force. In its most dangerous moment, it was Fatty who arrived at the Freedom Front base and turned a scattered group into a cohesive, self-preserving combat force. It was also he who led the Freedom Front to capture James, completely shattering the Vibo people’s rule over Gazalin.

Assessing the situation, the collaboration with Gordon and Hailig amidst the chaos in Gazalin further solidified the Freedom Front’s footing. Under its influence, uprisings erupted everywhere, and countless resistance organizations converged on Prisk like rivers flowing into the sea. Like a prairie fire, when Reinhardt and Stephen discovered it, the blaze could no longer be extinguished.

Now, the Freedom Front is the ruling party in Gazalin. This is the return on Russell’s investment of trust.

If not for Tian Xingjian, the Freedom Front would have been destroyed long before Stephen’s coup in Gazalin.

After Tian Xingjian went missing, the Command Department repeatedly reviewed the list of generals, but could never make a decision.

One by one, experienced, brave, or smart commanders were all excluded. The reason was simple: although they all possessed considerable command skills and experience, they couldn’t preserve this last, irreplaceable force in the chaotic situation without supplies.

Thus, when Russell learned that Tian Xingjian was very likely still alive and had safely reached Mars Free Port, he was so delighted.

And he was not the only one delighted.

The office door was almost shoved open. Striding in with a beaming face were Mihailovich and Hamilton.

”General Russell, did you hear?” Mihailovich said loudly, ”That guy is on Mars!”

”I know.” Russell replied with a broad smile, signalling Hamid to pour tea.

”I didn’t expect it at all.” Hamilton sat down on the sofa, stretched, and let out a long breath. ”If Flavio knew the Blue Rose was still around, who knows how happy he’d be! That old man has cried several times in front of me. The last time he called back from Chuckna, he kept talking about this matter.”

”Of course!” Mihailovich said. ”If they hadn’t covered for Castle Lily, our mission to Chuckna would have been completely ruined. A Vice President, a Foreign Minister, a Level 1 Admiral, and the Federation’s top scientist, just thinking about it gives me chills.”

”The one who told Castle Lily to get lost...” Hamilton smiled slightly, ”Was Tian Xingjian, right? This guy always speaks without restraint. I can’t believe that our Federation’s hard-earned hero acts like this.”

”His character is a bit lazy.” Russell smiled. ”Afraid of death, and slippery. He avoids many things if he can. But if you really push him, and he decides to go all out, the energy he unleashes is tremendous. Knowing he’s at Mars Free Port, I think it’s actually a good thing. With his character, who knows what benefits he might bring us in the Free World!”

”The most important thing now is to find him and confirm his safety!” Hamilton said. ”After the Seed Forces are formed, we must find a way to put them in his hands. We’re going to Fei Alliance for exile; we need to look the part of poor exiles! Since we’ve fixed our route, we must follow it, whether it works out or not. Flavio has already had several rounds of discussions with Chuckna, and our ideas are quite similar. In this war, our two countries, and Gazalin too, cannot be led around by the nose by the Fei Alliance and the Western Alliance any longer.”

Sipping his tea, Hamilton continued, ”The focus of the war must quickly shift to the Karsdon Star River, or else, by the time the Southeast Star Domain is all ravaged, our countries will become subjugated even if we emerge victorious.”

”If only we could complete the space jump technology research.” Mihailovich said. ”Then we wouldn’t need to live at the mercy of the Fei Alliance. With a fleet and space jump technology, plus artificial intelligence, we could do a mass migration and jump out to watch the spectacle, leaving them to fight however they want!”

”Do our best and leave the rest to fate.” Hamilton said. ”Research isn’t something that can be rushed. Although we now know the direction of the research, there’s still a long way to go. Speaking of artificial intelligence, I’ve been impressed lately. Our productivity and resource allocation efficiency have improved by eleven percent! This is just the initial application stage after the central computer system was completed!”

”SkyNet System is the most important thing!” Mihailovich smacked his lips and sighed. ”While I know how powerful artificial intelligence is, I never imagined it could be this terrifying. Troop deployments, communications, battle plan reviews, logistics management, intelligence collection and processing, command coordination—the SkyNet System’s functions have been upgraded to an entirely different level! If we had this earlier, our Leray... heh heh.”

”That kid is a lucky star.” Hamilton laughed. ”Sometimes, I want to resign and let him be President. The accomplishments he’s made in the past three years are simply unimaginable. Just based on artificial intelligence alone, Leray’s Hall of Honor will definitely have his portrait.”