Counterfeit Hero

Chapter 1608: Chapter 64: The Port

With the entire escort of an A-class fleet, the President Ship was heading for Capital Hydefield of the Feiyang Republic.

For the people on board, drifting in the boundless universe for a full two days was boring enough to be painful. Still, compared to wartime it was much better: at least on this kind of trip you could drink a bit, chat, play cards in the living area, and watch TV programs through the accompanying electronic ships or the omnipresent signal projectors along domestic routes.

War Fire was still burning in every human city. Every TV channel was running war news.

Besides the not?so?surprising reports like some country’s key department being hit by Western Alliance sleeper agents, or some Fei Alliance Fleet of the Northern Battle Zone clashing violently with a Western Alliance Member Countries Fleet, there was even a bizarre story from the Northwest Star Domain: a certain Fei Alliance Member Country and its Western Alliance neighbor were quietly keeping a tacit understanding, and the hundreds of ”fierce battles” they’d announced had in reality produced casualties that hadn’t even broken into double digits...

All kinds of people appeared in the news.

There were unlucky bastards arrested for embezzling military funds, blowhards who had shouted grand slogans before marching off and then collapsed in less than a day after reaching the front, politicians trading insults on the campaign trail, a rich man who’d been caught manufacturing and smuggling counterfeit strategic materials to profiteer off the national crisis, spies being arrested, and of course no shortage of young Heroes who’d become famous overnight in battle and were now worshiped and adored by girls.....

The job of the news media was to take fragment after fragment from different places and then, on TV, splice them together into a bizarre and broken human war world under War Fire.

And for these two days, the biggest focus of attention was actually these same people watching TV news inside the warships.

Hundreds of TV stations were tracking Hastings’ movements. At this most critical moment after Francis had been assassinated, Hastings was returning under the halo of his great victory at Constant Star Leifeng, and this journey itself had enough news value, enough room for people’s imagination to run wild.

On TV, anchorwomen and guests were spitting all over the mic as they analyzed what Hastings’ return to Feiyang at this moment would mean for the evolution of Feiyang’s political situation, what kind of challenges Leefer—already the new Military God in the public mind—would face, and how much damage the overt and covert struggle between the two would inflict on the Fei Alliance.....

Watching the warship they were riding on from the TV screen, thinking about themselves inside that warship on TV, sitting here watching the warship on TV, was a very strange feeling.

Like setting two mirrors face to face, an infinite and pointless loop.

When Hydefield Fifth Television Station of Feiyang finally plastered a long string of station and program logos across the screen and kicked off the news preview with stirring, heart?shaking music, the biggest bar on the President Ship was already crammed with officers from different countries.

These men in different uniforms were all shoulder?to?shoulder, faces flushed, staring excitedly at Fatty at one end of the bar.

Fatty gauged the length of the smooth wooden bar, then, amid a chorus of cheering, shoved the beer glass hard. The frothy beer slid past one excited face after another that were roaring and shouting, streaming toward the other end of the bar.....

At last, just when everyone thought Fatty’s glass was going to rocket off the bar, it stopped with half its ”body” hanging out over the edge of the counter. It beat the other glass beside it by almost two full glass lengths.

With a boom of noise, the bar exploded into cheers. Officers and soldiers whistled with abandon, slamming tables, stomping their feet, clapping, swearing and shouting....

A Chuckna officer whose face had gone the color of grave dirt tried to turn and bolt for the door, but was immediately tackled and pinned by a bunch of officers who’d been expecting just that.

By the time everyone dispersed laughing, the unlucky guy who’d tried to skip out on his tab had been stripped of every last coin in his pockets; even his uniform and trousers had been pulled off. He stood in the middle of the bar wearing only a pair of show?offy underwear with a tiny white bear stitched on it, eyebrows drooping, giving a sheepish grin to several snickering female officers.

Fatty squeezed through the crowd, snatching and grabbing until he collected his share of the stake money, then happily stuffed it into his underwear, hiding it snug against his dick. He bellowed, ”Who’s next?”

Fatty’s challenge was quickly taken up. An officer from Tatania rolled up his sleeves, picked up a beer, and stepped up beside Fatty. Another howl went up around the bar. Officers waved their banknotes, scrambling to place their bets. Baz, Mombarton and the other Bandit Army mecha pilots who’d followed Fatty along were so busy taking money and writing down wagers that their hands were a blur....

Watching the jubilant Fatty at the bar, Margaret, helpless, glanced once at the TV that nobody was paying attention to anymore, then hooked her arm through Ann Lei’s and walked out of the bar.

The uproar behind them swelled and dipped as the bar door kept swinging open and shut. Officers drawn by the noise were jogging down the corridor, streaming into the bar in an endless flow.

Fifth Television Station was Feiyang’s biggest news channel. Almost all the important current affairs programs were concentrated on this channel. Whenever a major event happened, the public’s first reaction was to switch to Fifth TV’s news, and get the ”truth” of events from its 24?hour continuous coverage.

Unfortunately, very few people understood that in this world there is actually no such thing as absolute truth. Even the Feiyang President lives surrounded by the lies and sugar?coated statements of the officials around him. Besides, even if you see something with your own eyes, the angle you’re viewing from, or the sharpness of your vision, can introduce error.

At least this time, the truth was not in the hands of that pretty host whose face was flushed bright red with excitement.

Outside the ship’s portholes, a Constant Star far away began as a tiny bean and grew larger and larger.

Dazzling light flowed across the hulls of the escorting warships, until the fleet slipped into the vast shadow of a half?lit, half?dark ocher planet.

The peculiar side of the Bentley Star System battle was known to Hastings, and little kid and Fatty knew it too.

Francis’ death meant Leefer’s steps toward the pinnacle of power had sped up. And the Bandit Army’s victory in the Southeast Star Domain, together with Hastings’ return, made him instinctively feel threatened.

No one knew how he’d won this time. The general public clearly had no chance of figuring it out.

Never expect everyone to have enough rationality and judgment when you yourself can’t get to the bottom of the truth. Margaret had understood this since she was a child. Neither Hastings nor Fatty had any intention of seizing on these irrational points to look for a way to hit Leefer.

On the television at this moment, a blood?stirring video was playing, several hosts giving excited commentary. The news of victory in the Bentley Duke Star System had descended so quietly, so soundlessly. It hadn’t caused the slightest ripple—at least not on this ship.

If Barbara and Leefer knew that, when their victory’s news arrived, Hastings was reading a book, and Fatty had his cap tilted askew, gambling and drinking with a crowd, this old one and this young one utterly nonchalant, not even interested enough to glance at the screen... they would probably wonder what kind of expression to put on.

”How much longer until we reach Hydefield?” Ann Lei, whose voice, temper, and looks were all equally soft, asked Margaret casually.

”We’re already here.” At the end of the corridor Margaret turned a corner and pulled Ann Lei over to the edge of a wide, transparent, semi?arched balcony.

The two girls’ pretty, delicate figures stood side by side. As the fleet altered course, a giant planet emerged from behind that ocher?yellow world.

Hydefield, the spaceport of the largest and most prosperous city in the human world, was already close at hand.

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The largest spaceport in Feiyang is Spaceport No. 72, which was only completed a year ago.

As the fleet drew near, the massive white space structure, located between the Capital Star and Satellite No. 1, slowly unfolded the hemispherical main entrance of the port, which under normal circumstances remained sealed.

Hastings’ return was a major event for the entire Feiyang Republic. Dozens of patrol battleships, large and small, were cruising in the inbound lane to clear the way. More than twenty inbound channels beneath the port had been temporarily shut down, and passenger liners and cargo ships on the lane had been ordered to hold outside the reception perimeter.

No one had any complaints about this decision.

Because the one they were making way for was Hastings—the Military God who single?handedly forged Feiyang into the universe’s number one superpower!

Never mind a mere twenty or thirty minutes; even if they had to wait a whole day, no one would grumble. Compared to a little waiting time, people cared far more about Hastings’ personal safety.

Watching the President of Chuckna Ship slowly approach the berth, the crowd waiting on the pier gradually fell silent, whispers dying out as everyone quieted down.

Berth No. 1 and the adjacent berths at the port had already been placed under strict Feiyang Army lockdown. Even the port workers had been ordered to withdraw, replaced by military security units.

Every two meters stood a fully armed soldier, face cold and stern, looking as if a great enemy might appear at any moment.

You have to understand, to welcome Hastings, this pier had practically gathered all the senior government officials and top military brass of the Feiyang Republic. Among them were not only Hastings’ supporters, but also his opponents.

Not to mention others, several Generals under Leefer’s command and the most pro?Leefer faction within Congress were also present.

In addition, there were high?ranking officials from the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, Interior, Transportation, Finance, Justice, Homeland Security, and generals from the Military Department.

If a battleship somehow broke through the port defenses and fired a single shot at the pier, the Feiyang Republic would basically be finished.

Under the crowd’s gaze, the ship finally settled into the berth. As the tug locks clamped onto the ship’s docking interface and the green light came on, the main hatch at the bottom of the portside slowly opened.

Hastings, seated in a wheelchair, was pushed out of the hatch by Margaret.

The welcoming crowd, led by Congress Chairman Gambier, strode quickly forward. Even from a good distance away, everyone could already see Hastings’ bloodless, deathly?pale face.

Some people grieved, some sighed, some calculated, some secretly rejoiced.

That rumor circulating among the Fei Alliance high?ups seemed to be true.

The heavens are about to change!

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. Transitional Chapter. The subsequent plot is still being arranged, not going very smoothly, so there’s no story progression today.

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.(To be continued. If you wish to know what happens next, please log on to www.qidian.com. More Chapters are available. Support the author, support legitimate reading!)