"Yes," Major General Lin responded, turning to leave.
"Wait." Qin Qianfan stopped him.
The Marshal turned back, his face expressionless though a barely perceptible flicker passed through his eyes.
"Send an encrypted letter to the Wanshi Star Sector Theater Command under my personal name. Write that... the defense of the Elvira Star System is critically important, and the Empire may launch targeted retaliation! Request Commander Wen Tingtao to appropriately reinforce military deployments in that area. Do not mention Beiwang's name."
Major General Lin paused momentarily before understanding dawned. This was a father using whatever means available to silently add an extra layer of protection for his son at the front lines.
"Understood."
After his adjutant departed, the office returned to silence. Qin Qianfan sat back down at his desk, staring at the newspaper image of his son's young and unfamiliar face.
The Qin Bei Wang in the photograph had clear eyes and a gentle smile, completely different from the perpetually drunk, indifferent son he remembered.
"Hiding one's inadequacies..." the Marshal murmured the phrase from the report, a barely noticeable bitter smile touching his lips. "If you've truly been hiding for twenty-two years... then you've hidden it far too well. Perhaps war brings out the worst in people!"
He closed the newspaper's holographic projection and opened the mountainous pile of military documents before him. Yet that photograph had already etched itself deeply into his mind.
While the Federation celebrated nationwide, the atmosphere at the Empire's Opal Starfield Theater Command was so oppressive you could wring water from it.
In the command conference room, Theater Commander Karl von Strauss sat at the head of the long table, his face dark as iron. Before him, the holographic screen repeatedly played that forty-three-second Federation propaganda film.
Twenty-four main cannon beams, the destruction of the Imperial Glory, finally freezing on the still-expanding metallic vapor cloud.
Twelve senior officers sat along both sides of the long table. No one spoke, no one moved, even breathing was deliberately subdued.
After watching the footage for the seventh time, Strauss slowly raised his hand and shut off the projection. Only the pale starlight streaming through the observation window remained in the conference room.
"A complete sub-fleet," Strauss finally spoke, his voice cold as steel. "Seventy-seven starships, over twenty-four thousand Imperial soldiers. While holding the advantage, completely annihilated by a Federation garrison fleet division that had traveled a long distance to attack."
His fingers tapped lightly on the alloy tabletop, each tap hammering heavily on everyone's hearts: "And their commander was a twenty-two-year-old... bottom student who only became a Lieutenant Commander through his father's connections."
"Disgrace." Strauss uttered the word quietly, yet it made everyone instinctively tense. "This isn't just Wells' disgrace, but the disgrace of the entire Opal Starfield Theater Command, and indeed the entire Empire."
He stood up, his tall frame casting a long shadow across the conference room.
"The Emperor himself has taken personal interest in this matter. The Imperial Parliament convened an emergency session overnight.
The Imperial Military Committee has issued an official order!"
Strauss paused, his gaze sweeping across every face in the room.
"Within three months, the Elvira Star System must be captured.
Qin Beiwang must be killed or captured.
We must wash away this disgrace with the blood of the Federation."
He opened an encrypted file, projecting it onto the center of the conference table.
"To this end, the Theater Command will mobilize the three main sub-fleets—[Obsidian], [Bloodblade], and [Iron Curtain]—to form a Special Composite Attack Group.
Total strength…"
He glanced at the numbers.
"Three hundred and twenty starships, including four [Emperor-class] super battleships."
A wave of suppressed gasps echoed through the conference room.
Emperor-class battleships—those were Tier 5-level starships of the Empire!
"Commander!"
A senior lieutenant general couldn't help but speak up.
"Mobilizing three main sub-fleets… isn't that too much!
After all, the enemy is only a single sub-fleet, with no more than a hundred starships."
Strauss cut him off, his eyes cold.
"Are you questioning me?"
Hearing this, the lieutenant general immediately shrank back.
Strauss pointed to the star on the holographic star map, already marked in blood red.
"I want the Federation to know that the dignity the Empire has lost must be repaid tenfold in blood.
I want that kid named Qin Beiwang to know…"
Strauss's voice lowered, like a venomous snake hissing.
"Some victories require paying interest with lives."
The order was given.
The Empire's vast war machine began to rumble into motion.
The orbital ring around Shiva Star gleamed with a cold metallic sheen under the starlight.
From a distance, it resembled an exquisite ring encircling the equator of the gray-blue gas giant planet.
The ring's diameter exceeded 150,000 kilometers, with its widest point reaching 300 kilometers in thickness, composed of twelve arc-shaped modules connected end to end.
Blue-white energy beams flickered at the junctions between the modules.
Those were the gravitational anchoring fields maintaining the ring's structural stability.
As the Pluto Fleet slowly entered the ring's port area, Qin Beiwang observed the details of this colossal structure through the observation window.
The outer surface of the ring was covered with densely packed facilities.
Dockyards, warehouses, gun emplacements, communication arrays.
Over a hundred large dockyards gaped like steel maws, eight of which were already illuminated with work lights. Repair barges bustled around damaged ships like worker ants.
In several dozen other empty dockyards, freshly laid keels were visible.
New starships were under construction.
The inner side of the ring presented a different scene.
Through the reinforced glass dome, vast stretches of green were visible.
That was the artificial ecological zone. Further in were rows of residential modules, commercial districts, training grounds, and even a small simulated beach where artificial waves rhythmically lapped against the white synthetic sand.
"Orbital Ring [Ring of Hope], completed in Federal Calendar year 1578."
Zhuang Zhixuan stood beside Qin Beiwang, reading from a data pad.
"Permanent population of thirteen million, sixty percent of whom are shipyard workers and engineers, thirty percent are garrison troops and their families, and the remainder are service personnel and researchers.
The ring's rotation provides 0.8G standard gravity, and its internal ecological circulation system can sustain three years of sealed operation…"
She paused, looking up at Qin Beiwang.
"The Theater Command has approved our maintenance plan.
For the next three months, Shiva Shipyard will be fully dedicated to producing new starships for us.
Meanwhile, reinforcements from the rear are arriving in succession—the first batch of two thousand personnel will arrive tomorrow."
Qin Bei Wang nodded, his gaze still fixed on the observation window.
Kunlun Mountain was passing through the harbor's guidance beams, slowly gliding into Main Berth Three.
The length of the berth was just enough to accommodate this battleship.
On both sides of the hull, massive mechanical arms had already extended, ready to conduct a comprehensive inspection after docking.
"Additionally," Zhuang ZhiXuan added, "the Command has arranged accommodations for you in the ring residential area. They suggested... you could rest there for a while."
"Rest." Qin Bei Wang repeated the word, a faint, almost imperceptible curve forming at the corner of his mouth.