Chapter 31 Decay

'Well, how can I put it, much smoother and highly automated." Edward briefly described his experience. Elina was just about to open her mouth when the communicator on Edward's wrist rang, he looked down to see that it was the Marshal himself calling, without thinking he answered the communication. 'Marshal Rolbo!" He saluted. 'No need to be polite, this is an unofficial call," the Marshal continued, "Have you departed yet?" 'Already departed, Marshal." Edward said. 'Oh, then you don't need to come back for the peace talks, I was just telling you, that suggestion you made last time, we took it on board, an Imperial ambassador will be coming to Starburg tomorrow to discuss the truce, that brother of yours called..." The general looked down at the document and continued, 'Alphonse, after signing the armistice agreement it will be handed over to the ambassador as a prisoner of war to bring back to his country, don't do anything small, it's not like I'm insensitive." Edward's heart thumped, he had originally planned to secretly release Alphonse privately if the upper peaks did not take his armistice proposal, but as a result, this idea was seen through, and he could only honestly reply, 'Yes, Field Marshal." 'Also the matter of Elina borrowing information through your authority, I won't pursue it, you two can just turn around and give me the technical research report separately." After the marshal finished speaking, he hung up the communication, leaving the two on the bridge staring blankly at each other in a cold sweat. After a long time, Edward spoke first, 'It's a good thing we're not being pursued, otherwise we'd both have to be court-martialed." 'Impossible! Technically, there's no way it could have been discovered." Elina said while shaking her head. 'You're right, technically it's not even possible. Think back to the General's words, he knows that you were the one who used my access to borrow the information, think about it, there is absolutely no need to consider what is technically possible or impossible with a third party present." Edward began to think, and Elina's scalp tingled as she listened. He continued, 'Do you remember that strange gesture he made with Starport Junior when he went to the civilian Starport? Brother Pedro is afraid he has joined the Federation Secret Guard." He murmured and continued, 'I'm afraid the ship has already installed a repeater, reporting our position to the Federation through hyperspace at any time." Elina was so panicked at this point that she was at a loss for words and asked, 'What then, should we still leave?" 'Why don't we leave, it seems that the secret guards have infiltrated the Empire's hinterland, otherwise it would be useless to install a repeater that only knows where we are." Edward rubbed the leather seat underneath him and continued, 'That means that the Marshal's communication just now has two meanings, one is, don't try to defect, I'm watching you. The second is, go ahead and have fun without worrying about Imperial spies, our people will keep you both safe." He stroked the grain of the leather on the seat and murmured to himself as he contemplated, 'This seat, is it leather?" Elina opened the operator on her wrist and dragged out the part of the drawing to look at it while summoning the Silver Dragon operating system for a self-check. 'Ugh, I advise you not to waste your efforts, even if you find it what can you do? It's not like you can dismantle it." Edward said with a sigh. Elina blushed slightly and said, 'At least I'm going to clear out the recording device in the sleeper compartment, we're going on a honeymoon not a live broadcast!" Edward's eyebrows jumped up and he said, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, hurry up and find it, I'll dismantle it when I find it, we can't have that in the sleeping compartment." After two people and an AI worked hard for almost an hour, they finally found three repeaters on the ship, luckily these three repeaters only had the function of constantly sending out the location, no audio or video function. 'Ugh, it looks like people are just trying to keep us safe." Edward said placing the seat to recline on it. 'Whatever, just know where it is, Silver Dragon, put on a movie." Elina also put her seat down and leaned against Edward's, the two of them holding hands as they waited for the movie to play. 'When's the folding leap." Edward was a little impatient, he hated this state of idleness. 'You have to get out of this star's gravitational range, or else there will be a disturbance, and then what do you do when you make a folding leap and you appear to be inside the star?" Elina said. Edward adjusted his posture and said, 'I'm going to get some sleep, you can watch it yourself." Elina was so caught up in the plot that it took her a while to reply, 'If you're going to sleep go to the sleeper and sleep bad." Seeing that Edward had stopped answering, she moved closer and looked at it for a while marveling, 'Saying you're going to sleep, did you install a switch!" Inside the officer's cabin on the starship Dragon Rider within the Empire's borders, the old white-haired general was thought to be smoking a cigarette and talking to his staff. 'Halbo, you're just a staff officer, this is an order from the Imperial Emperor, we'll just carry it out." The old general said. 'General Danny, why did the emperor accept the peace talks, weren't you the ones who encouraged it?" Halbo argued reasonably. 'We just told the Emperor that we should concentrate our superior forces on suppressing the rebellion in the Virmir Star Area, and as it turns out, that's indeed what we should do." The old general replied stoically. 'I see you want to hold on to those mining stars you invested in the Virmir region!" Halbo said, he secretly clenched his teeth in indignation, he had several times respectfully advised the Emperor that it was simply harmful to allow military personnel and officials to participate in local economic activities, but every time he had no response at all to his respectfully advised words. The old general took a drag on his cigarette and slowly said, 'Halbo, you don't think that you are the only one who has the interests of the empire at heart, if there is no empire, what is the use of all that money for us guys?" He said, knocking his pipe in the ashtray and refilling it with tobacco. Then he said, 'Where do you think the ore produced by those mining stars is sold? It's sold to the star state of Mihail, next door to Virmir! The shipyards over there are producing starships non-stop, and it will take three years for us to return to the level of combat power we had before the Battle of the Star Fortress! Do you think it's the right time to siphon off the fleet from Virmir Starfleet? Do you think we'll be at peace after driving those barbarians from the Free Federation back to the Starbridge? On the contrary, we've never needed a stable rear as much as we do now!" The other party's gradually higher pitch stunned Halbo. However, the other party had no intention of stopping and continued, 'Do you guys who talk about the wrong things for the country know about the current situation, if a reform can undo the decline, do you think that the emperor he won't go for it? Do you think that prices are rising, the people's grievances are boiling these emperor he does not know? Do you think money is still called money when there is more of it? No! We people have long been tied to the empire, we have no choice but to drink poison to quench our thirst, we can only suppress and suppress again!" Halbo sank his breath, he refused to give up the chance to convince the other party and spoke, 'Start reforming now, within ten years we can return to the level of the late emperor's rule, I think it's still not too late!" The old general let out a long sigh and said, 'Ten years, what a ten years. If we give up the suppression, the empire's territory will shrink back to within the silver disk of the galaxy within five years, and the many star states on the various spiral arms will have long since become independent. At that time, even if you succeed in reforming and restoring the country's power, those lost territories will have to be recovered one by one, and at that time, the Empire will be facing the Galaxy where the great powers are all over the place. The Empire has been lying in a hotbed of prosperity for thousands of years, and has long since lost the vigor and determination to reunite the Milky Way." 'Instead of inevitable decadence it's better to let go! The Empire's slowly declining national strength is accompanied by repression everywhere that is accelerating the depletion of our national strength. I think we should make a decision on the spot and implement reforms, even if the empire's boundaries return to the vicinity of the Silver Plate, when our internal adjustments are in place and our national strength is restored, we still have a chance to reunite the Milky Way. Otherwise, the empire will really slowly decay until the empire's old legs can't support that huge bloated body." Halbo said. The old general did not retort, but only pondered something deeply, when suddenly the ship's radio interrupted his thoughts. 'We are about to enter the location agreed upon with the Free Federation, please have the captain and other relevant personnel come to the bridge quickly." 'Let's go, when we get back, I will introduce you to his majesty, if you are willing to convince him you go ahead, until then you don't want to make much of a fuss." The old general finished and stood up ready to go to the bridge. 'Thank you!" Halbo saluted and then followed behind the old general as they walked together towards the bridge. On the bridge, the communications commissioner had been waiting for a long time, and he asked for instructions before connecting the communication with the signal source of the Free Federation. 'Hello! I am the commander of the Free Federation fleet, Admiral Walther, welcome." The voice of that Admiral Walter came through on the image of the communicator. 'Greetings, this is Admiral Danny, captain of the Dragon Rider, I'll take the trouble to ask you to navigate for us." General Danny said.