Chapter 26 Repayment

Edward spat out two simple words, 'All gone." He also stopped talking and lowered his head to stare at the book, not turning a page for a long time. The two brothers were silent for a long time, but Alphonse still opened his mouth and asked, 'How many starships have you captured?" Edward glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and asked, 'Really want to know? You can't leave if you know." 'You want to let me go, huh?" 'Why? It's not the first time." Edward said, tossing the book aside when he saw the mood lighten and continued, 'Plus this is the third time." He quickly retorted, saying, 'Where's the third time? It's the second time, isn't it!" Edward laughed and said, 'Three times, the first time was when you were in the Bobcat Regiment and you were talking to one of the officers after that time the sandworms attacked your command vehicle, then you jumped on a shuttle and ran off and I gave the guy a shot." He slapped his head and said, 'It was you that time, too!" His intense pride made him swallow back the second half of the sentence expressing his admiration. For the first time, he felt that the gap between himself and his brother in terms of military prowess was so wide. The man in front of him hadn't gone to officer's school for a single day, yet he had come up with Project Meteor and occupied the strongest fortress in the entire Star River Empire, and he even possessed the combat ability of a high-level special warrior in his own right. As for himself, he boasted of being a military genius, yet he was captured by him three times in a row. Looking at his frozen brother, Edward said, 'Don't think about it too much, you didn't just fracture your arm, but you also broke one of your ribs, get well." 'When can you let me go? I haven't been home for a long time this time out, my mother will definitely be very sad when the news of the destruction of the Imperial Grand Fleet is sent back this time." Alphonse said and looked at Edward. Edward said with some difficulty, 'That, I can't do anything about it, connecting to the empire's communication network here will cause an alarm, in order not to cause some unnecessary trouble it's better to wait a little longer, after all, you're messing up a lot of things I won't be able to let you go." Edward then slowly stood up and said, 'Get well and don't think about anything else, I'm relieved to see that you're okay, I'll go back and get busy with mine, if there's anything you can tell the guards, I've greeted them." Looking at his brother who walked out of the hatch, he gathered his emotions and that shattered pride trying to reanalyze the situation, but he couldn't concentrate to keep thinking. He murmured, 'The Grand Fleet is hit and lost, that's a third of the Empire's starships!" Inside the conference room, Edward looked at the report and wrinkled his eyebrows together, he had thought about the price he would pay for taking Andre Star Fort, but when the battle damage report was in front of him, he still couldn't accept it. A commander was reading the battle damage report: ''On the Federation side, 820 starships were involved in the battle, with 139,021 personnel. 391 starships destroyed, 207 ships wounded, 79,122 killed in action, 29,112 wounded. On the Imperial side, 1,039 starships participated in the battle, 159,316 participants, 1,006 starships destroyed, 33 starships captured, 5,093 captives ......" Federation Commander-in-Chief Rolbo cut one of the cigars in his hand, cozying up and lighting it, and said to the commander who was reading out the report, 'Alright, there's no need to read from the book, I've read all of your reports, let's just discuss what to do next." That commander put the report away and said, 'I think we should ride out the victory and send the fleet into the Empire's hinterland to expand the battle." Another commander said, 'I don't agree with this viewpoint, I think we should play it safe and steady, now retrieve the fleet and repair it, then talk about entering the empire's hinterland afterward. Now that the Great War has just passed, the fleet's ships need to be repaired and the combatants need to be replenished, striking out rashly will be costly!" The different opinions of these two were like a switch was flipped for this discussion, in a moment everyone began to talk, in addition to the opinions of these two, there was even a plan to solve the threat of the neighboring countries first. Edward shook his head in annoyance at the dozen or so toad-like noisy guys in the meeting hall, he looked around and wanted to find a chance to bolt. Rolbo had long ago noticed Edward's absent-mindedness, he tapped the table with his finger to signal the group to stop, and said, 'Alright, you guys will discuss it yourselves after the meeting and hand in your report proposal, all of you disperse first." Edward was overjoyed at the words, he thought that he finally didn't have to stay in such a noisy place, it was like sitting on pins and needles for years, he lifted up his butt and was about to leave, but he was called by Rolbo to stop, 'Edward you stay." Edward held back the ten thousand reluctance in his heart, turned around and slowly walked over. Rolbo opened his mouth and said, 'Can't you take the initiative? Thinking about what? Speak up, what, and make me stay alone to ask you to speak up?" Edward was embarrassed for a while and said, 'I didn't think of anything, I didn't think of anything in the mess." After these days of getting along, Edward knew this Commander-in-Chief's temper, a cannonball temper caught fire when it was ignited, and he turned his face away after getting angry and forgot about it. Rolbo was just about to get angry, Edward immediately jumped ahead and said, 'Armistice negotiations, negotiate an armistice with the Empire." 'Armistice negotiation? You're holding back half a day to come up with such a stinky fart?" Rolbo was directly exasperated and burst out in joy. Edward took out a star map, placed it on the table and opened it, saying, 'With our current fleet numbers, even if we enter the Empire's hinterland to achieve more battle results, we won't be able to keep these star zones that we just took. With the annihilation of the Empire's Grand Fleet, they have only lost a third of their fleet numbers, and there are still another two thousand starships spread across the Empire's major border regions. If we attack hastily, we will force the Empire to draw out their fleet despite the threat of the frontier to turn back and take care of us first. At that time, not only will we be knocked back to the Star Bridge, but the resistance forces in the other star regions will take the opportunity to develop their own forces due to the weakening of the pressure on the borders. If we take advantage of the fact that we're only occupying the area near the star bridge now to ensure space for the fleet to move around, leaving a bridgehead for a full-scale attack in the future. Then we can take advantage of the truce to develop our own strength, and once the time is ripe, we can drive straight in. Besides, an armistice treaty is something that can be torn up just by finding a reason to tear it up. If the Commander-in-Chief's goal is to take the entire Milky Way, then our enemies will always be more than just the Empire, there are also resistance forces in other star fields." Rolbo quietly stared at Edward for a long time and said, 'You guy is really scary, not only do you repeatedly make strange moves in your tactical deployment, even your strategic vision is so long term, Barr this guy really got lucky picking up such a precious lump like you." Edward froze and asked, 'Do you know my father-in-law?" 'More than knowing him, when we were kids, we even went up the tree together to dig out bird's nests." Rolbo grinned, then asked, 'How is Brenda?" 'Pretty good pretty good, all good." Edward didn't know what kind of relationship these two had, and didn't dare to talk nonsense, so he could only casually snicker. 'Alas, your father-in-law is a son of a bitch, snatching away my childhood friend Brenda, this revenge I can't avenge in this life." Saying that, Rolbo exhaled a puff of smoke with a big grin, then turned his words around and said, 'I'll take those suggestions you just said as an official report, I'll pass it on to the Governor." Seeing that he was about to leave, Edward busily stood up and said, 'There's one more thing I'd like you to pass on to the Governor, taking Andre Star Fortress is only a guarantee that the Federation will not be defeated. The key success also lies in increasing the productivity within one's own starfield and allowing the Free Federation starfield to prosper, there hasn't been a single war since the beginning of time that hasn't been a fight for national strength." Rolbo nodded and turned around, just about to leave, when Edward added, 'Andre Star Fortress has been taken, there will be no more war within the Federation starfield, so please grant me permission to resign." 'Resign? You think so! You stay here and obediently pay off the debt for your father-in-law!" Rolbo didn't even think about it and said as he walked away. 'Why? He's not my biological father!" Edward continued, 'Then Elina and I have to go back to Dosas and get married!" 'Wedding leave granted, resignation out of the question." 'And a honeymoon!" Edward shouted at the fading Rolbo. 'All but resignation granted!" Rolbo said, walking around a corner and out of sight. Elina came running over with gusto from a long way behind Edward, hugged his arm and asked, 'Well, was it granted?" He said with some disappointment, 'No." Disappointment spilled out of Elina's face, and in no time at all these complicated sadnesses congealed into glittering glitter back and forth in her eyes. Edward looked a little distressed and said hastily, 'Marriage leave is granted." These shiny things, after all, ran out of her eyes and rolled out one by one down her cheeks, and Elina raised her fists and hammered them on Edward's chest, pouting, 'Then you said it wasn't granted." 'Ugh, I'm talking about quitting his job he didn't approve." Edward said, taking Elina by the shoulders and proceeded to tell her, 'The honeymoon vacation is granted as well, and aren't you going to the Centauri spiral arm? Better start planning your route now."