Counterfeit Hero

Chapter 1450: Chapter 1: A New Beginning

Cheers echoed in his ears; the entire command hall had become a sea of joy.

Everyone was jumping, shouting, embracing. Whether they were officers and men of the bandit army or of the Phantom Fleet, at this moment there was no barrier between them. These men who had fought side by side slapped hands hard in celebration, hugged hard, pounded each other’s shoulders, hammered each other’s chests.

This was not a successful bid in peacetime, not a successful acquisition... this was victory in war, a great triumph bought at last with blood, life, and will.

For hours they had roamed the edge of death, threading their way through blazing spheres of explosions, firing into the Unhindered Stride of killing light. With utmost unity they worked in concert, racing against time to charge the main gun, eyes bloodshot as they locked onto their foes, drenched in sweat as they rushed emergency repairs. They regretted every mistake, exulted at every hit......

They had staked their lives as chips on the table, and what they won was the right to unleash these sky-shaking cheers!

This was the sound of victors, the brilliant flame of life burning in this age, the soul-shattering roar of detonation!

Many of them, in peacetime, might have been mediocre nobodies, might have been timid cowards, might have been just a petty vendor, a farmer bent over his fields, a street performer, or an ordinary office worker who spent his days hoping for a raise. Yet in this vast, surging era, they had not hesitated to shed their blood on the battlefield in the name of being men, fighting to the death.

To be caught in a cosmic war was the misfortune of every man of this age, and also their good fortune.

No one knew, when the war ended, how many such men would sleep forever beneath the boundless starry sky, sleep beneath the heavy soil. Among them countless would not even have a single gravestone. But they left their footprints in this era, left their voices, left their blood.

In the future, generation after generation will stand within the echo of their shouts, behind the silhouettes of their charges, upon the land watered with their blood, and continue the line of human civilization.

By then, perhaps everything will have returned: dust to dust, earth to earth. But right now, no one can stop the powerful beating of these men’s hearts, no one can cool their boiling blood, no one can blow away their mad roars, their shouts, their laughter, or the tears of joy of the women soldiers among them who likewise poured their all into this victory.

On January 2nd, 2064, the battle of the Bull Tail system came to an end.

In this engagement, the Bandit Army Fleet, with the strength of three Class A fleets and one Class B fleet, defeated the world-renowned Jiepeng Dragon Rider Group Fleet. Three hundred and six vessels of various sizes were destroyed, and one hundred and nineteen captured.

Jiepeng General Auben was killed in action.

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After embracing Fei Ouwen, Blatt, Tony and the others one by one, Fatty asked Carl for a cigarette, tucked it behind his ear, and walked out of the command hall.

Along the long corridor, officers and soldiers whose faces were flushed and eyes shining with uncontrollable excitement followed this bandit army Vice Admiral—whom they had only just met—with respectful gazes as he passed through the parting crowd.

Waves of applause sounded, then spread outward, like thunder.

Fatty kept the smile on his face, nodding as he passed through the crowd and walked out onto the round terrace at the very top of the carrier’s bridge.

The transparent isolation dome above the terrace covered it entirely. Seen from afar, the glass sphere connected to the long terrace passage looked more like a matchstick extending out from the bridge.

His field of view suddenly widened greatly. Brilliant stars gathered around him from every direction.

The automatic door closed behind him, and the applause faded.

Fatty took the slightly bent, creased cigarette from his ear, smoothed it with his fingers, and lit it. He drew in a deep breath, letting the rich smoke roll into his lungs.

Standing on the terrace, Fatty suddenly recalled the old music box his mother had given him for his sixth birthday. It was a simple, beautiful box; as soon as you opened it, you could see a transparent glass sphere inside.

Within the glass sphere there was a house, and tiny figures dancing. With a gentle shake, a flurry of snow would drift through the sphere, and the two little figures, a boy and a girl, would slowly begin to dance to the music.

Right now, he himself felt like one of the little figures inside that glass music box, and he wondered if somewhere in the cosmic starry sky, there might be a warm family of three quietly watching him.

Fatty clenched the cigarette in his teeth and braced his hands on the railing.

In the nearby void, the fleet was carrying out the final mopping-up operations. Fighters circled around the surrendering Jiepeng Warships, while Space Mecha were being catapulted from nearby Bandit Army Warships standing guard, flying toward the Jiepeng Warships whose engines were already shut down.

Several shuttles packed with prisoners brushed past shuttles packed with bandit army soldiers. Farther away, the Chuckna Fleet, which had sent a communication signal half an hour earlier, had already revealed its silhouette.

The cigarette burned between his fingers, curls of bluish smoke rising. Fatty’s gaze fell upon a vast field of wreckage floating in the distant void.

That was the Space Carrier Supreme Glory.

Now this enormous warship had been torn to pieces. The explosions that raged on for nearly ten minutes had destroyed its entire body from the inside out. Tens of thousands of fragments of various sizes had formed a man-made asteroid belt. The largest piece of wreckage was the stern section. This chunk of hull connected to about half of the bridge was pitch black, like the dwelling place of a Ghost.

The cigarette spun rapidly between his fingers. The glowing red tip was like a sprite tumbling head over heels.

Thinking back on the battle just now, Fatty found that the hand holding his cigarette was still trembling a little.

In terms of ships, electronics, and personnel quality, the Jiepeng Space Navy was in no way a match for Feiyang. Yet a single Great General could compress this gap—which would terrify ordinary people just to look at—until it was almost imperceptible.

Auben was definitely one of the strongest opponents he had ever met. If the fleet under his command hadn’t been the most powerful in Feiyang, if he hadn’t known in advance about the enemy’s presence, and if a Stealth Reconnaissance Ship hadn’t secretly probed out the enemy’s position, then right now the one standing here looking at this starry sky might well have been that one-eyed Jiepeng General.

Fatty was startled to discover that he felt a trace of fear, but far more than that, the thrill of surging adrenaline.

That field of wreckage in the distance represented only the first Great General on the path of this bandit army war chariot; it would not be the last. And Auben was not the most formidable figure in the Western Alliance camp. There were many ranked above him.

Besides, that ranking list was from many years ago.

From here on, the bandit army would walk down this tightrope-like path, challenging ever more powerful enemies one after another.

Perhaps they would soar to the heavens in one leap; perhaps they would fall into eternal ruin.

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.This Chapter counts as the closing Chapter of the previous volume, and also the opening Chapter of the new one; more importantly, it’s my leave slip. I just wanted to tell everyone: I’ve written, just haven’t finished yet. My daughter has a bit of a fever, I’m in a panic, and I don’t have much time or energy.

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.(To be continued. If you wish to know what happens next, please log on to www.qidian.com. More Chapters there—support the author, support reading the official release!)