Chapter 169

169 A forgotten enemy

The Republic....., the thorn in the federation’s eye, a problem child that no one wanted to talk about. Onyx Federation’s stance on the Republic was clearly demonstrated by the way this dark history was erased.

No one spoke of the Republic so much so that only five percent of the population knew about it.

During the exodus mission from the dying earth, the fleet of space arks performed a series of space jumps seeking a suitable home for humans.

After several jumps with half their supplies gone, they finally found themselves an appropriate star system and settled on one of the most suitable planets.

This should have been the end of this tedious journey in deep space but things weren’t so simple. The planet was ridden by bloodthirsty beasts that were incredibly difficult to deal with.

When they initially landed on the planet there weren’t any issues.

They began to settle down and build what should have been new earth. A month in and people began to disappear one by one in the dead of night.

It was then that they realized that this planet wasn’t vacant. Its occupants were underground lying dormant. Now that easy prey was within their reach more beasts crawled out of the ground like devils crawling out of hell and blood was spilled.

In less than a week a quarter of the population was slaughtered hence the royal family and the advisory council had to come up with a solution.

.....

The royal family wanted to do another space jump. They were certain that the next jump would lead to a far better star system that they would thrive in but they were met with a lot of resistance.

People were tired of staying in a cramped space in hopes that there was a better world out there. What if such a place never existed and this was the best they could get?

This was the beginning of two separate factions each with its own ideas of what the future of mankind should look like. It was also at this time that there was a breakdown in the royal family.

Two brothers, one who didn’t have any knowledge of space jumps and space charts but wanted to inherit the throne, the other a genius also known as the savior of the human race disagreed.

The decision on the future of the human race suddenly changed into a fight for the throne. Things were tense between the two factions resulting in several confrontations both verbally and physically.

A vote was cast and most people voted to stay. They wanted to fight these creatures and bring humans on top of the food chain so they could thrive just like on old earth.

A plan was drawn and on the night they attacked the creatures right at the source the faction that lost the vote gathered some resources and took off into space. This had been their plan all along. No vote was going to stop that faction from leaving.

To be fair they calculated the percentage of resources they could take based on the number of people leaving with them.

Having lost the fight and half their population dead, they returned to home base only to find that everyone who voted to leave was gone.

Some regretted that decision and most blamed the federation for their loss. They strongly believed that if they had fought together as a unit against those beasts they would have won.

Best

The prince who had been abandoned by his family because he had chosen to lead the republic broadcast a call with his brother asking him to be reasonable and return with the space ark.

The two brothers confronted each other with their argument escalating beyond reconciliation. It was at this moment the Federation made an enemy out of the Republic and vice versa.

This enemy was soon forgotten by the Onyx Federation but Zi Xingxi was insinuating that the sleeping giant had finally found a way to exact revenge.

Considering the fact that the Republic lacked the knowledge of how to perform space jumps and didn’t possess the charts mapping out the universe her conjecture seemed ridiculous.

Zi Xingxi didn’t care what they were thinking. She snorted coldly before saying, “You directly and indirectly, killed the only person who could help you find the Republic and hit them where it hurts.”

She removed her feet from the table and stood up with a nonchalant attitude. “You can come after me all you want but I will lay waste of your entire army and once I am done I will slaughter each and every one of you....,” she said looking in the Marshal’s direction, “so I highly suggest you think it through carefully.”

After saying this Zi Xingxi left without looking back. It was at this moment she began considering withdrawing Zi Han from the military academy. She feared that it was like sending a defenseless lamb into the wolf’s den.

Unfortunately, Zi Han didn’t agree with her. He was just as stubborn as his father which was incredibly frustrating.

Her words seemed to have worked because they didn’t pursue the matter further. Despite that, Zi Xingxi remained vigilant. Like she said before taking away her baby was the same as directly killing her. She loved her son so much and would sacrifice her life for him.

***

The atmosphere in Scylla Military Academy was especially tranquil for the past two weeks. That’s because the students were going through the most torturous experience in their entire lives.

They were going through their exams for the miscellaneous subjects they deemed irrelevant. Yes, these subjects could be the difference between life and death on the battlefield but that didn’t stop them from hating it.

Today though marked the end of this torturous journey and these dignified cadets had big plans. One wouldn’t guess the organizers of such an event. It was the so-called upright and smart students of class one.

As soon as the exam time was up, Zi Han who had been looking forward to this very moment jolted out of his seat just as the examiners exited through the main door.

With a menacing chuckle, he whispered something to Shorty before walking over to Yi Chen’s desk.

With his fingertips pressed on Yi Chen’s desk, he leaned down and asked, “Class president Chen, how do you intend to celebrate finishing the exams?”

Yi Chen looked up with his head tilted to the side and said, “We haven’t finished.... we still have an entire semester of intense training.”

Zi Han waved his hand before resting it on his waist saying, “Ai Chen-ge, you know what I mean.”

Yi Chen stretched out his hand and stared at him with an arched brow. Zi Han immediately understood what he wanted. His lips twisted unnaturally before he took out Mr. Twiggles.

“He is with me this weekend,” said Yi Chen while squeezing the shark plushy’s fin.

Zi Han reached over to take the plushy but Yi Chen dodged his hand with a slight quirk at the corner of his mouth.