ISMW Chapter 89

—This reason was too far-fetched.

 

Unfortunately, the investigation report records showed that five minutes before the Severir insectoids broke through the first border defense line, a group of people from Huo Su’s main warship had indeed left on a small patrol starship. So that main warship, with insufficient personnel and lacking combat power, became the most fatal breach point when the Severir insectoids attacked.

 

Without Huo Su’s authorization, who could freely leave the most important main warship on the front lines under her nose?

 

Not to mention the positioning instruments showed that Huo Su’s mecha was also on that small patrol starship at the time.

 

Those who didn’t believe General Huo Su would do such a thing could only choose to remain silent after the recorded evidence was presented, because this matter had too great an impact. Huo Su came from humble origins with no background, and her wife Ran Xuechen was already dead. Such people were often the most suitable to be used as political sacrificial pawns—the Nebula Federation’s ruling party needed someone to take the blame to help restore approval ratings, and the opposition party also needed to set up a target to attack political enemies and impeach current cabinet government officials.

 

If Huo Su’s own country treated her this way, would people from the Corona Empire and Galactic Empire be willing to speak for her?

 

Different countries had different interests. Moreover, with the loss of the galaxy’s first border line, no country could remain unaffected. Compared to the total casualties of three countries, Huo Su alone was too insignificant. Doubt was easier than firm belief, so those faint voices speaking for her could only be drowned in the larger waves of abuse.

 

During that period, Yu Chen didn’t dare look at online news much either.

 

He desperately remained silent, even though he wanted to tell everyone: his mother would absolutely never abandon her post and gamble with all humanity’s fate, even if it meant sacrificing her wife, his mom.

 

But humanity’s collective interests were above all else.

 

If it were Ran Xuechen, she would make the same choice as Huo Su, because they were soulmates with high ideological resonance.

 

But if it were other people, they might not maintain consistent thoughts with them. Most people felt that Huo Su loved Ran Xuechen too deeply, and while her panicked wrong choice in urgency was understandable, it was unforgivable.

 

Yet Yun Qihe publicly declared at this critical moment that he believed in General Huo Su’s character, believed she wouldn’t privately leave the main warship and disregard all humanity’s lives, thought there were other hidden circumstances, and demanded the federal government reinvestigate.

 

Once this statement was made, public sentiment was aroused.

 

Yun Qihe immediately faced impeachment from ministers. The Galactic Empire’s citizens already had no good feelings toward this incompetent ruler, and now they all wanted him to transfer power to Empress He Chubai or directly abdicate for Crown Prince Yun Xunguang to ascend the throne. Otherwise, if Yun Qihe continued to hold power, this country would be finished sooner or later.

 

People ignored the other detailed reasons he wrote afterward: such as what those mutinous soldiers who captured Ran Xuechen said about the Nebula Federation military’s serious corruption and extremely poor military equipment—no matter how good the soldiers were, without usable guns and ammunition, how could they win battles? And those fleets sent to rescue Ran Xuechen were the ultimate waste among wastes, unable to even defeat a group of mutinous soldiers. If they had been of any use, this blame couldn’t have been shifted to Huo Su. What if that investigation report was forged? There was no supervision from other countries during the investigation process anyway—who knows if it was deliberately fabricated by the Nebula Federation’s idiotic ruling party to avoid being impeached?

 

However, it might also be because his wording was too blunt and crude—”garbage,” “waste,” “idiots” were all his original words. For a nation’s ruler to speak this way in public venues and platforms, without any class or credibility, seemed more like a mental breakdown or malicious slander of another country’s government rather than revealing the truth.

 

Especially when citizens asked him: “You believe Huo Su would definitely abandon Ran Xuechen’s life at that moment to defend the first border line, but if the person captured by mutinous soldiers were He Chubai, could you resist going to save him?”

 

Yun Qihe replied: “Of course I couldn’t resist. If my wife dies, I’ll die too. Let’s all die together—everyone has to die anyway.”

 

—Well, now everyone was even more convinced he was going insane.

 

In addition to Yun Qihe’s countless misdeeds—suspected of being a homewrecker, frequently publicly insulting and beating his wife’s ex-husband, loving to oppose his own citizens, being an emperor of spreading pessimistic negative emotions—he now had an additional charge of collaborating with the enemy.

 

So much so that before the Nebula Federation’s ruling party could be impeached, he was impeached several times first, ultimately forced to transfer most governmental power to Crown Prince Yun Xunguang.

 

But as the only person among high-ranking officials of various countries who dared to publicly support Huo Su so openly, Yun Qihe gave Yu Chen the idea of going to the Galactic Empire.

 

Because he could no longer stay in the Nebula Federation. His identity was special, and the Nebula Federation’s treatment of his mother and mom chilled his heart. He just couldn’t decide whether to go to the Galactic Empire or Corona Empire.

 

Genetic testing showed he had a 99% probability of differentiating into an alpha, and alphas held very high status in the Corona Empire. If he wanted to clear his mother Huo Su’s name, developing his influence in the Corona Empire would undoubtedly be more convenient.

 

But he hadn’t begun differentiating yet, and at this time, Manyuin Hurst was found.

 

With the loss of the first border line, the Nebula Federation bore the brunt and suffered the most severe impact. If the Corona Empire and Galactic Empire didn’t provide assistance, then with the insectoids unstoppable in Nebula Federation territory, the other two countries wouldn’t escape either. Combined with Yun Qihe’s belief that there were other circumstances behind Huo Su’s abandonment of duty, wanting to find other witnesses, he dispatched large military forces to the first border line to help search and rescue surviving soldiers.

 

In early February of Star Calendar 7000, one month after the first border line’s fall, the only survivor from Huo Su’s main warship—Manyuin Hurst’s mecha escape pod—was found by a Corona Empire search and rescue ship.

 

At that time, his escape pod was right next to a Severir king insect. If the Corona Empire search and rescue ship had arrived any later, he would have died too.

 

The day after his rescue, he refused visits from the Nebula Federation government but accepted a reporter’s interview.

 

In the live interview, with reddened eyes and firm tone, he told all galactic citizens: “My close friend Huo Su would absolutely never abandon her post. She is a hero who gave everything she could for her country and the people she protected.”

 

When the reporter asked how to explain the investigation report and positioning device records released by the Nebula Federation, Manyuin Hurst didn’t explain.

 

He only said: “This is a country rotten from top to bottom.”

 

“When Huo Su and I were young, the special funds allocated by the government to the orphanage were stripped away layer by layer. Very little reached Director Mom’s hands. After Huo Su and I were admitted to the Federal Military Academy, our applications for tuition-free spots were also usurped by others. The tuition and travel expenses were finally scraped together when Director Mom sold the house and borrowed money from Teacher Cui and Aunt Huixiu.”

 

“Director Mom never had biological children of her own. When she fell ill, even though Huo Su and I sent back all our allowances, salaries, and borrowed money to the orphanage, we couldn’t save her life or change the orphanage’s situation. After Director Mom’s death, the new beast of a director was also a pervert. If Huo Su and I hadn’t discovered something wrong when we returned home, I don’t know how many children he would have harmed.”

 

“Huo Su and I thought—we thought such days would change once we graduated, once she went to the military to seek justice for the suffering, once I went to the Federal Mecha Research Institute to ensure the orphanage children had adequate food and clothing. But we were wrong.”

 

Huo Su, unwilling to go with the flow, could only go to the distant, dangerous border battlefield to painstakingly accumulate military merit.

 

Manyuin Hurst faced serious exclusion at the Federal Mecha Research Institute. Not wanting to implicate Ran Xuechen further, he could only resign and go to the first border line, using his only private asset—his life—to fight for a way out.

 

But even though Huo Su rose to general, she couldn’t single-handedly fight an entire country’s corrupt system.

 

They could protect the orphanage where they grew up, but the Nebula Federation had many orphanages, many orphans like them. Could they protect everyone?

 

Manyuin Hurst spoke with tears and blood in every word, denouncing the numerous crimes of the Nebula Federation’s ruling party cabinet government.

 

He also said he would renounce his Nebula Federation citizenship, preferring to be a stateless wanderer from then on rather than remain in the Nebula Federation for even one more second.

 

He said much, and his words seemed to hint that the Nebula Federation’s ruling party cabinet government was absolutely capable of forging investigation reports, but he never directly answered.

 

Finally, Manyuin Hurst’s interview video sparked large-scale protest marches within the Nebula Federation. The Nebula Federation government was forced to step down, and a new political party formed a new government to take power.

 

Under dual pressure from public opinion and Yun Qihe, the new government reopened the investigation.

 

However, the second investigation showed that the previous government’s investigation report wasn’t falsified. The small patrol ship that left the main starship was indeed authorized by Huo Su personally, and her mecha was indeed on that small patrol ship. Unfortunately, five minutes later, the Severir insectoids broke through the border defense line, and the small patrol ship that hadn’t traveled far became dust and debris under the insectoids’ feet along with the main starship.

 

At this point, Huo Su’s status as a “sinner” was completely confirmed.

 

Manyuin Hurst married an omega nurse who had cared for him on the Corona warship that rescued him, joined Corona Empire citizenship, and the words he had spoken for Huo Su became, in people’s eyes, favoritism and protection for a friend and revenge against the Nebula Federation’s former government.

 

The one who truly became a stateless wanderer was Huo Yuchen.

 

Using the false name and identity “Yu Chen,” he entered the Galactic Empire to live temporarily. He suspected all events were related to Manyuin Hurst, but he had no evidence.

 

Until a year later, when the Corona Empire’s king granted Manyuin Hurst a ducal title, praising him for completing the 3S mecha blueprints.

 

—How ironic.

 

The alpha mecha researcher once extremely despised and excluded by the Federal Mecha Research Institute was valued in the Corona Empire. The talent that once belonged to the Nebula Federation had now become the Corona Empire’s.

 

Because of this incident, the Federal Mecha Research Institute completely changed its previous atmosphere.

 

From then on, just as Ran Xuechen had written at the end of her work notes, they abandoned prejudice and would never again deliberately cold-shoulder or bully researchers of any gender.

 

But the true author of the 3S mecha blueprints was Ran Xuechen, not Manyuin Hurst.

 

It was because of this that Huo Yuchen learned that the clue connecting all events to Manyuin Hurst was this set of blueprints.

 

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 (advanced chapters available on kofi)