Chapter 132
Chelman’s students were surprised to find that after they participated in the field survival training, General Osborne and Cecil’s atmosphere completely changed. They spent almost every day together, even in class, Osborne also didn’t forget to look frequently through the crowd for Cecil, as if afraid he would disappear if he took his eyes off him for a second.
If Cecil winked at him or raised his eyebrows, he would laugh like a child who’d just received candy.
In contrast, the Kyle that Cecil was very close to before was suddenly very attentive to Joshua, in every possible way.
What are these two silly pairs doing? Exchanging partners? There was no time to speculate on the mystery, because another big event attracted everyone’s attention. Old Aldrich was jointly sued in military court by several powerful families for obstructing Chelman Military Academy’s rescue of candidates.
In the last enrollment examination, the rescue team Osborne had led was able to rescue the candidates trapped by the phantom spiders in time, but they were delayed for half an hour because the starship’s energy converter was inexplicably damaged. If Cecil had not resolved the crisis, the candidates would have been killed by the phantom spiders.
Afterwards, Osborne carried out a thorough investigation of the matter, seizing a few mentors bribed by the Aldrich family, gathering key evidence. He sent the evidence to the parents of the candidates who were trapped at the time, letting them choose how to handle it.
The Aldrich family’s practices simply attracted public outrage, they wantonly trampled on their subordinates, hindering them with no scruples, even if they were comrades, they could easily sell them if it benefited their own interests. Such a family was not a pillar of the Empire, but a cancer, it was necessary to eradicate them as quickly as possible.
Under the combined impetus of several families, the Aldrich family collapsed and the Fifth Army was suddenly rudderless. Several leaders of various smaller families scrambled for control of the regiment, making the situation more confusing.
While the others were fighting, Cecil quietly followed Osborne to the battlefield, after several major battles, he established a firm foothold in the army, accumulating a large number of loyal subordinates.
It took him only three years to subdue the Fifth Army by fearless means, leading them to the battlefield’s front line. He repeatedly built outstanding achievements, directly promoting the rank of his army to the Second Army, which became very friendly with Osborne’s First Army.
Kyle introduced Joshua into the royal family, and since the Lennon royal family was related by marriage to the Third Army, their growth was also very admirable.
Over the years, the Lennon Empire, the Freedom Federation and the Ballou Republic repeatedly generated friction, after several armed conflicts, just as a Star War was about to erupt, the Ballou Republic’s scouts received shocking news, a new Queen was born among the Zerg.
This was undoubtedly bad news for mankind. There were a variety of Zerg, mutant high-level Zerg would produce wisdom, but they were mostly fragmented, it was difficult for them to form a colony. However, every few hundred years, the Zerg would birth a Queen, which had the ability to command all the Zerg, multiplying the accumulation rate of high level Zerg by tens of thousands per minute.
It was also very greedy, it needed to eat a lot of energy cores and precious metals every day, so it needed as much teams of Zerg as possible to plunder the universe for resources. It would order the Zerg to sweep all the universe’s planets, trying to make them its lair.
Its birth meant insane Zerg and mankind’s demise.
So the turf wars were being put on the back burner in the face of extinction, the various forces of mankind banded together to try and kill the Queen. The Queen had very high spiritual power, but because it needed to continue breeding, it had extreme ovarian development, becoming a defenseless meat ball. It was not difficult to kill it, but surrounding it, at every moment, there were hundreds of millions of high level Zerg guards, not to mention the soldiers, even the spaceships couldn’t get close.
The human coalition spent several months before finalizing the battle plan, dividing into several teams to attack from all directions in order to disperse the Zerg Army, then letting the strongest army enter the underground Zerg Nest to kill the Queen.
This battle plan was very effective, but if the implementation was unsuccessful, the human coalition would pay a very painful price. Most of the young adults would be sacrificed in the campaign, and the remaining old and weak women and children would become Zerg food.
There was no doubt that the highly fertile Zerg would occupy this galaxy.
“So this mission can only be successful, no failure allowed!” Osborne said decisively to his men. He was the strongest in the galaxy, the vanguard army was naturally led by him.
Zhou Yun Sheng, as the second strongest, was also incorporated in the team. He knew that Osborne had died in this battle, that he had killed the Queen, but also paid with his life, so he couldn’t resist an expression of disgust at the sight of Joshua and Kyle, who were also incorporated into the army.
This time, no one could drag Osborne down, if these two couldn’t retreat in time, they would be buried with the Queen.
“What’s wrong?” Osborne dismissed his men and pulled his frowning lover into his arms for a kiss.
“We either come back alive together, or die together in the Zerg Nest. We should never leave each other alone, can you promise me that?” Zhou Yun Sheng asked in a low voice.
“My love, that’s exactly what I wanted to say to you.” Osborne smiled cheerfully, without the slightest sense of tension for the upcoming war. He had integrity on the surface, but in fact, he didn’t actually care about the survival of mankind. If Cecil was alive, he was alive, if Cecil died, he wouldn’t hesitate to leave the world.
He was delighted that his lover had the same feelings as he did, they really were the perfect match. He pushed his lover into a cubicle, nibbling his slender neck and graceful collarbone, then released his spiritual power to hook into his.
The two men eagerly made out, they didn’t have the slightest sense of tension on the battlefield. Whether it was the original Cecil, or the current Zhou Yun Sheng, dying with Osborne was the best ending.
After three days of recuperation, the Star Coalition fleet headed to the Queen’s hidden planet. All of mankind was concerned about this battle, if the battle was a loss, the remaining troops would escort the rest of humanity to other galaxies to seek life.
The Zerg had hollowed out the planet and built a huge underground maze, the vanguard was flocked by the Zerg Army and scattered as soon as they entered the maze, only Zhou Yun Sheng and Osborne stayed together from beginning to end. Their ultra-mechs had long been scarred, they needed to find the Queen’s hiding place before they died of energy depletion.
“I felt an unusual spiritual force.” Zhou Yun Sheng communicated with Osborne through the contact channel.
“I also felt it, straight ahead.” Osborne killed the group of Zerg in his way with a particle shot. The more forward they moved, that sharp spiritual force, as if it was a collection of howling evil spirits, became even more powerful, and the Zerg that came out to attack was like a tide.
There was no doubt that the Queen’s lair was in front of them.
The two were in tacit understanding, they courageously fought, and finally entered a huge underground palace. Lying in the middle of the underground palace was the Zerg Queen, which was the size of a star cruise ship. Its translucent skin was squirming slightly, the next bundle of grain-sized pale yellow eggs could be clearly seen.
Zhou Yun Sheng and Osborne couldn’t help but reveal astonished expressions, not because of the ugly Zerg Queen, but because a human was standing next to it, the man was pressing his palm on the Queen’s skin and seemed to be stroking the eggs.
His mech was quietly parked next to him, he was also a member of the vanguard.
Zhou Yun Sheng and Osborne had no time to think, they quickly maneuvered their armor and ran toward the man. Hearing the sound, the man seemed to be startled, he immediately turned around to look, and no doubt, that man was Joshua.
“Marshal, I found the Queen, come here!” He waved his arms, shouting excitedly.
“Hurry back to your mech!” Zhou Yun Sheng snapped angrily. In the end, he really was the fate of the world’s son, he’d discarded his mech in the middle of the battle and unexpectedly didn’t suffer from a Zerg attack, he was even the first to find the Queen in the complex nest.
Joshua woke up from his excitement and ran towards his mech, hurriedly informing his comrades through the contact channel to immediately come support them.
The three placed the prepared bombs in the Queen’s belly, the Queen knew what they were doing, but it was powerless to stop them, it could only emit whining hisses. Numerous Zerg rushed over to try to rescue it, but they were stopped by Osborne’s men stationed outside the channel.
After the bomb was activated, Osborne immediately informed the coalition to evacuate the planet. When the Zerg guards chewed off the thick PU34 wrapped around the bomb, the explosion would occur.
Zhou Yun Sheng originally thought that the evacuation would be hundreds of times more difficult than the break-in, but he was wrong. The Zerg didn’t even try to stop them, they just gathered around their Queen to gnaw at the bomb. The bomb was placed under the Queen’s body, because its skin was too fragile, it would be punctured every time a sharp limb accidentally touched it, making yellow undeveloped eggs pour out. The chewing Zerg were afraid to get too close, they could only gather around and screech mournfully.
The last batch of coalition forces withdrew, and a few minutes later, the minor planet fell apart in a violent explosion, becoming a meteorite belt.
Whether it was the soldiers on warships, or the ordinary people on planets, they raised their arms and issued deafening cheers. They’d once again destroyed a Queen, they’d preserved the sparks of mankind’s continuation, they were worthy of all the martyrs that’d died in the battle.
On this day, crystal tears rained around the stars, the people abandoned race, class, gender and other prejudices, freely embracing their neighbor.
The triumphant return of the coalition was greeted with the warmest welcomes, especially the ones with the most outstanding exploits, Osborne and Cecil, they almost became interstellar legends.
The Lennon Empire held a grand celebration feast for the soldiers, awarding military medals to the heroes at the banquet. Old Bernard and Old Matthew, respectively, were seated at the king’s left and right, raking each other with contemptuous glares. In their hearts, their own grandson was the best.
The king scratched his nose, feeling a little embarrassed, and when he was almost unable to sit still, the ceremony began, and he fled to the stage to honor the soldiers.
A row of shiny military medals were placed on a long table, the two most prominent medals undoubtedly belonged to Osborne and Cecil. The king pinned the medals on the two’s chest, then allowed them to give a speech.
They commemorated the dead comrades and said that defending the Empire was their honor, the audience stood up in warm applause, then stared in amazement.
Osborne had suddenly hugged Cecil, his big hand covering the back of his head, then he gave him a solid kiss, before asking hoarsely, “Before departure, we promised each other that we would either come back alive or die together in the Zerg Nest. Now we’re back alive, and I hope that we can use that unwavering pledge to walk hand in hand every day in the future. Cecil, are you willing?”
Holy shit, is this a proposal? The audience boiled at the scene, and the netizens watching the live broadcast on the Star Network also went crazy. A random person chanted ‘together’, followed by another call ‘together’, a flood of shouts soon drowned out the two people.
Old Matthew and Old Bernard’s faces were very ugly, they ferociously glared at each other, then turned away, humph! All the stars wanted the two to bond, they couldn’t say anything in objection.
Only the king’s expression was somewhat subtle. If the First and Second Army bonded, they would certainly become the most powerful presence in the Empire, the status of the royal family would be even more precarious. But he obviously wouldn’t reveal his thoughts, he only elegantly applauded.
After the kiss ended, Zhou Yun Sheng didn’t give a reply, he just grabbed the back of the man’s hair and fiercely bit his lips, his happy expression more dazzling than the sun.
This was no doubt a ‘Yes’.
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Following the death of the Zerg Queen, the two Marshals bonded, they were praised as the most well matched couple in history, no matter where they went, they were inseparable, when Marshal Osborne looked at Marshal Cecil, his eyes were always filled with a faint smile and thick warmth.
Joshua also received honors, and he held a grand wedding with Kyle, becoming the Empire’s second Prince Consort. The first prince was married to the Third Army Marshal’s daughter, becoming the Third Army’s helm, and he was made crown prince by the old king.
But soon, he and the princess were killed by Star Pirates while on a trip, plunging the Third Army into chaos. Joshua, who had not mastered the First Army as fate had decided, quickly conquered the Third Army and became one of the Five Grand Marshals of the Empire.
He was seriously injured in a battle, and woke up to sudden spiritual power growth to 3S level, and physique growth to 2S, becoming one of the strongest in the galaxy. He performed repeated outstanding military service, and his status quickly evened off with Osborne and Cecil.
At the same time, Kyle inherited the throne of the Lennon Empire, but he didn’t show signs of suppressing the other powers.
Although fate had slightly deviated from its track, Joshua and Kyle, after all, were the sons of fate, they still managed to climb to the heights they should’ve reached. Zhou Yun Sheng often received news of Joshua and Kyle’s achievements, and could only sigh at the obvious bias of the world’s consciousness.
After only a year of leisure, a Lennon Empire scout brought back news that shocked the whole galaxy, the Zerg had birthed another Queen!
How can this be?!
The Zerg would birth a Queen every two or three hundred years, which was managed by the evolutionary laws of the Zerg. One lucky Zerg would become a Queen after thousands of evolutions and molting, the process was very long, and after it evolved to a certain extent, it would secrete a smell that seduced the males while simultaneously inhibiting the evolution of the females.
As the saying goes, no mountain can have two tigers, even the Zerg understood this. It took at least five or six decades to completely get rid of the effects of this scent that suppressed the evolution of the females.
So, it was impossible for the Zerg to birth another Queen so soon, at least in interstellar history, there had never been such an occurrence. But the scout had brought back an egg to confirm the credibility of the intelligence, it was accidentally left behind by a male during transport.
This Zerg egg was completely developed, and very fresh, after a special device scanned it, they discovered that it was produced last week, and it was covered with the unique smell of a Zerg Queen.
Another interstellar war that was about to break out ended early, and the human coalition forces swept the scouted planet to wipe out the eggs but found no traces of a Queen, just as they relaxed, thinking that the intelligence was incorrect, a Zerg Army robbed several human inhabited planets, taking away all the mineral resources.
It could be assumed that the resources would be used to feed a Queen. The Queen had evacuated before the coalition attacked, so its wisdom was probably higher than any previous Queen.
The coalition began to search for the Queen’s trail, which was destined to be a protracted process. Joshua’s Third Army successfully completed its every elimination task, in contrast, the First and Second Army often suffered Zerg ambushes and had heavy casualties.
Gradually, Joshua’s prestige in the military began to prevail over Osborne and Cecil, and the army he led won the reputation as the ‘most powerful fighting force’.
The Freedom Federation scouts found the Queen’s trail, and they developed the same battle plan as before, but made Joshua the leader of the vanguard.
Zhou Yun Sheng and Osborne’s First and Second Army were responsible for containing the southeast Zerg Army. They investigated the distribution of the army in advance and developed a well-thought-out combat plan, but during the battle, the Zerg Army’s distribution switched into exactly the opposite positions of their investigations, so their weakest troops were hit with the most powerful group of Zerg, and the strong mech team led by Osborne and Zhou Yun Sheng rushed into an almost empty battlefield.
Because of this information error, a huge hole was torn into the coalition forces’ line of defense. When their army was on the brink of annihilation, Joshua found the Queen and planted the bomb, then immediately ordered the coalition to withdraw.
Half an hour later, another nest planet blew up into dust, the survivors were ecstatic, but also extremely exhausted. The casualties were more severe than ever before, and almost three-fifths of the soldiers were sacrificed on the battlefield.
Back to their home planet, the coalition didn’t hold a celebration banquet, instead, they liquidated the Marshals of the First and Second Army. They felt that the lives of so many soldiers were ruined because of Osborne and Cecil’s mistakes, their crimes were extremely heinous.
Ordinary people were also incited, they demanded that the military court judge the two men, the cries were especially loud from those who had lost their loved ones in the war, they hated them to death.
The military court deprived the two of their authority and ordered them to not leave Empire Star, if the investigation turned up true, the death penalty was awaiting them.
Zhou Yun Sheng was sitting on the sofa, holding a tall glass of wine in his hand, gently shaking it with a contemplative expression. Their reconnaissance team had been personally led by him, no one knew the distribution of the Zerg better than him. Although they were wise, they weren’t extremely intelligent, if they hadn’t discovered the scouts, they had no reason to suddenly change their formation.
But they not only changed it, they also adjusted it so that their most powerful forces faced off against the weakest part of the collision, leading to a breakdown of the line of defense, as if they’d long known the army’s battle plan and had developed countermeasures.
This was definitely not a coincidence, even worse, it meant that there was a traitor in the coalition. But which human being would sell their compatriots to benefit the Zerg? The human race had been fighting against the Zerg for thousands of years, they were repeatedly bought to the edge of extinction, it was impossible for someone with even a shred of humanity to do such a stupid thing.
There were two problems most worthy of scrutiny: What can they gain from betraying their countrymen? Second, how do they communicate with the Zerg?
Therefore, there could be no traitor among the human race, unless the traitor was a Zerg wearing human skin.
As soon as this idea emerged, Zhou Yun Sheng accidentally crushed the glass in his hand.
Joshua standing alone in the Zerg Nest palace, stroking the Queen, yet no Zerg came out to attack him; his sudden growth in spiritual strength and physique; his great successes in suppressing each Zerg encroachment.
He seemed to know the distribution of the Zerg like the back of his hand. He’d taken over all the troops except for the First and Second Army and was a supreme existence that could easily destroy the Empire…..His achievements had already gone beyond what fate had originally planned for him.
These strange occurrences were very clear, but Zhou Yun Sheng had been blinded by Joshua’s already established glory, so he’d never noticed. This so-called newborn Queen, could it be Joshua? More precisely, he wasn’t a new Queen, but the parasitic vassal of the original Zerg Queen?
The Zerg Queen could replicate all the genes and special abilities of every Zerg species, it could easily create a parasitic body.
Zhou Yun Sheng tapped his fingertips on the coffee table, he was 70% or 80% sure of his guess.
Osborne completed his training program for the day and walked in with hair slick with sweat.
“Baby, what’s wrong?” He touched his lover’s cheek and kissed him warmly. Death was not a terrible outcome to him, on the contrary, it was a gift to die together with Cecil.
So he still slept soundly and ate well, of course, his lustful demands were even more intense. At the moment, he was positioning his big hands around the boy’s neck to gently massage it.
“Stop it.” Zhou Yun Sheng shook off his hands, told him his speculations in detail, then asked, “What do you think we should do?”
“Naturally, we kill him.” Osborne sneered. He was not afraid of death, but he hated being manipulated.
“Yes, we kill him, and we’ll dig out the Queen from his body in front of the whole galaxy.” Zhou Yun Sheng commended his lover with a kiss on his eyebrows, then he smiled, “If I guessed wrong, let’s run away and become Star Pirates, I don’t want to be executed on trumped-up charges.” He couldn’t kill Joshua, but his lover could, the man could easily integrate into the world without being excluded.
Osborne stroked his jaw, he felt that the plan to become Star Pirates was very good, there was no strict discipline, and he could be intimate with Cecil anytime he wanted.
“Baby, whether he’s the Queen or not, I’ll kill him for you, but I need some rewards.” His ambiguous voice faded away under Zhou Yun Sheng’s wild kisses.