From Cannon Fodder to Star Conqueror

Chapter 9: Federation Military Founding Day (Please follow and collect!)

In "Starry Sky," HCP, the humanoid tactical mecha, was merely a creation by the game developers to attract 'mecha' enthusiasts.

But now, they are real war machines.

Amber's body holds memories of many combat cases involving HCPs that she saw during her military academy's "HCP Pilot Course."

Whether it was supporting ground mobile forces through low-orbit air drops, acting as sword-wielding guards for space battleships in brutal "fleet brawls," or crushing regular units on complex planetary surfaces with the immense maneuverability of plasma propulsion arrays and metal muscle bands, all of these showcased the overwhelming combat power of these humanoid tactical mechs.

The infantry often referred to these machines—who frequently descended from low orbit to 'back them up'—with the fitting nickname "Titans."

Soon, this nickname spread, and it has since become a widely accepted term for HCPs.

But in the chaos of the upcoming war that would engulf all human society, the HCPs, once as powerful as Titans in the eyes of the infantry, would be little more than consumables in the heat of battle.

Watching the HCPs vanish in the distance, Amber shook her head to stop her wandering thoughts.

Two days quickly passed.

In these two days, Amber was not assigned any serious tasks.

After reporting to the Tactical Support Unit under the Operations Intelligence Center, Amber found that the tactical support unit at the Yaxin base was essentially a desk job.

The daily task was routine training for psychics and some collaborative combat exercises.

On this frontier agricultural planet, the tactical support unit rarely had any field missions.

Even in cases of protests, strikes, or uprisings, where the police forces weren't useful, there was no need to deploy heavy equipment like multi-legged vehicles or HCPs.

The mechanized infantry alone could easily suppress such "mobs."

Moreover, since Amber was new and the commander of the tactical support unit was a friendly "nice guy," he casually gave Amber three days off to familiarize himself with the environment before joining the regular training.

This was the usual situation in the border areas of "Starry Sky."

Contrary to what most people imagined, where millions of troops from both sides of the border were poised for battle, the reality was different after decades of a "peace treaty period."

Both the Federation and the Star Dragon Empire had seen a massive decline in the military discipline, style, and combat effectiveness of their border troops.

Not to mention, after humanity began using the "jump drive engine" technology found in relics to spread across the galaxy, the territorial expanse of human society had reached an enormous scale.

Conventional communication methods could only ensure the timeliness of information transmission within a single galaxy, provided the relay satellites and terminals were functioning correctly.

For communication across multiple galaxies, only "penetrative fault communication terminals" could be used.

This space communication technology could send messages across the distance of about five galaxies in three days, with various restrictions on content and message length.

Even so, messages sent from the border systems could take nearly half a month to reach the capital galaxy through the relay terminals.

This was purely the time for information transfer. If you factored in the "human delays" from the various organizations reporting up the chain, the time would only be longer.

In this regard, both the Federation and the Star Dragon Empire were equally ineffective—no one could laugh at the other.

Thus, the ancient saying "orders can't get out of Chang'an" had reappeared in the era of interstellar travel.

It was common for remote star systems to pay lip service to the capital's orders while secretly disregarding them.

In a sense, the signs of warlordism were already showing.

Under such circumstances, the combat effectiveness of the standing armies of various star systems was predictable.

However, what unsettled Amber more than the Federation's combat ability was the strange quietness of the past two days.

The important news about the Empire's impending raid, after reaching Major Mars' hands, had seemingly disappeared without a trace.

Not only was there no response, but Amber also found that she could not reach Major Mars.

Calls and private messages went unanswered.

As the boss of the Tactical Intelligence Center, Major Mars had not been seen in the past two days.

The people at the intelligence center seemed unfazed by this.

"What kind of godly military discipline and organization is this?"

Amidst Amber's complaints, the time finally arrived on August 17th, 588 in the New Calendar.

This day was not only the day the Imperial fleet launched its raid in Amber's memories but also the Federation's Military Founding Day.

Thus, Yaxin base hosted a grand celebration and opened the military camp to invite the nearby civilians for a visit.

At the evening celebration, Commander Adam himself took the stage and performed the Federation military's traditional song "Generous Commitment Starts Today" for the base's officers and soldiers.

"Courage, responsibility, honor!"

"We call upon the Federation Army in our time of crisis."

"Our lives are for this cause!"

"Generous commitment starts today!"

"When you understand why, citizen rights must be defended!"

"When the mission calls, brave sacrifice is required!"

"I will dedicate my life to the Federation!"

Looking at Commander Adam on stage, perfectly dressed in uniform and passionately singing with a determined expression, Amber had to admit that the man had considerable talent and sang with deep emotion.

Especially when he sang, "I will dedicate my life to the Federation," the entire audience joined in a chorus.

At that moment, Amber almost felt the illusion that this was a brave and elite unit.

With the whole base immersed in a warm atmosphere, Amber quietly left the venue.

Back in the dormitory, he took out the equipment hanger.

There, he found the psychic combat suit and lightweight exoskeleton retrieved from the logistics department.

Amber quickly donned both pieces of equipment.

With a final "click," all the connections on the exoskeleton and combat suit were made.

The HUD inside the full-coverage helmet lit up with green dots representing various nodes of the exoskeleton.

Amber looked at his reflection in the mirror. Beneath the tactical helmet, he wore a matte black one-piece combat suit. The matte black exoskeleton was tightly attached to his back and limbs.

Aside from the slightly raised metal hydrogen battery pack on his back, the exoskeleton had no protruding parts.

After powering up, Amber moved his limbs slightly. With the motor's drive, he felt his strength and speed increase by nearly 60% from the original.

Although this boost was not comparable to the mid- and heavy-weight exoskeletons and power armor used by mobile infantry, which were driven by gas turbines and hydrogen battery packs, this was more than enough for reconnaissance and infiltration missions.

After confirming the exoskeleton was working properly, Amber activated the combat suit and exoskeleton's synthetic cell coating using his psychic energy.

With a flash of honeycomb-like light, his figure completely disappeared from the dormitory.

(End of Chapter)