The atmosphere in the palace cooled to freezing point. The instant Chen Lin’s big belly appeared at the door, disbelief froze on all the elders’ faces.
“Wei Biao? What are you doing here?” The emperor frowned and asked with a cold voice.
“Emperor, you still don’t understand? I thought Emperor is smarter than this.” Chen Lin’s pair of small eyes glanced over the elders and finally stopped on the emperor’s face.
How many years has it been?
He was excluded from the center of power in Empire. No matter how many terms, the abducted crown was far away from his grasp. But today, the “influential elders” all looked at him with fear.
Emperor stared right into Wei Biao’s eyes and ordered, “Arrest him.”
The commander previously loyal to Empire didn’t move.
His reaction validated the emperor’s suspicion, Third Empire stationed in the capital committed treason. The brave division was the proudness of Empire before, but the emperor never would have thought that the commander he personally appointed would stand here.
The emperor’s throat felt dry, but he still squeezed out a word.
“Why?”
“We can’t win.” Wei Biao’s response was brief.
As a previous PAC soldier, his grasp on the battle was more superior than anyone in the palace. When he saw the missile hailstorm, he realized that it was an uneven war from the start.
The only chance of winning was to launch an attack against NAC’s outpost when NAC was unleashing its firepower on Guru Tribe.
But the smokes of the uprising sealed the fate of Empire.
The slaves at Donggang Plantation became insurgents to force the two divisions at the frontline to retreat. Federation took the opportunity to line troops west of Gang River to hinder the movement of Empire’s First Division…
Empire lost the opportunity to attack the NAC outpost.
When NAC’s missiles were resupplied and the bomb in the electromagnetic pulse cannon was reloaded, NAC with an absolute firepower advantage meant that Third Division stationed in the capital was only awaiting their death. If they wanted, cleansing the entire capital will only require 1000 combustion missiles.
Wei Biao trusts that they had the ammunition.
“Just because of this?” The emperor squeezed the words out difficulty.
Wei Biao didn’t look at the emperor in the eyes, he lowered his head.
“Emperor, please step down.”
“What if I say no?” The emperor narrowed his eyes and signaled the guards beside him.
“Sorry, I just want to live with my brothers.” Wei Biao raised his head and put his hand on his waist.
The pupils of the emperor instantly contracted.
Behind Wei Biao, the fierce soldiers with rifles stepped into the palace…
…
The gunshots lasted ten minutes; blood soaked the carpet of the palace. The guards and soldiers engaged in intense crossfire, but the ending was evident. The difference in number could not be made up by shooting.
When the shooting stopped, the elders all died under the fire of the Third Division soldiers.
The emperor on the dragon chair looked at everything in front of his eyes blankly without being able to say a word.
Wei Biao wanted to keep the emperor’s life, but Chen Lin took out the pistol hidden in his pocket and personally killed the poor elder on the dragon chair.
Seeing the emperor had already died, while Wei Biao was displeased, he had to let it go.
The Third Division quarantined the palace; the death of the emperor didn’t cause a ripple in the Empire on the brink of collapse.
When the news was controlled, Chen Lin immediately came to find Zhao Baodong to deliver the message of surrender to NAC. After an hour, when the NAC airship arrived above the capital, the residents of the capital just realized…
The sky just changed.
“Is this the capital?”
On the drop pod of Order, Jiang Chen observed the arena just ten square kilometers in size from above. Inside the arena was filled with concrete structures and crude tents; narrow paths mixed among the buildings.
“That’s right, this is their capital.” Beside Jiang Chen was Zhao Chenwu, looking at the palace from the top. His voice carried a hint of mockery.
The drop pod was lowered by graphene cables.
Bathing in the fearful sights from the square, Jiang Chen along with ten soldiers in power armor stepped into the middle of Capital Square.
Empire’s Third Division already dropped their weapon and first surrendered to the NAC force.
Eleven survivor locations of Empire were categorized as NAC’s economic zone governed by an elected government and supervised by a NAC-sent director responsible for the defense of the location.
When Chen Lin waiting on the square saw Jiang Chen, he immediately came to greet him with a complemental smile.
“I’m Chen Lin, I’ve been awaiting Mr. General’s arrival.”
Jiang Chen examined the last elder of Empire before he focused his attention on the man behind him.
“I heard you were a PAC soldier?”
“That’s already history.”
Jiang Chen noticed when Wei Biao said this, he used “history” instead of “past”.
Without saying more to him, Jiang Chen then glanced over to Zhao Baodong with his chest raised high, he nodded, pleased.
“Excellent, you did great this time.”
“It is due to General’s mentoring,” Zhao Baodong replied, his face flushed.
To receive such a grand compliment, he will definitely be promoted. While excited, Zhao Baodong used the opportunity to suck up.
“That’s enough. No need to suck up to me. If you have nothing to report, go stay for a bit on the airship. You will be rewarded along with the soldiers.”
“Thank you, General!” Zhao Baodong was ecstatic.
Being left hanging by Jiang Chen, Chen Lin began to feel anxious. When Zhao Baodong came to find him, he promised that if he did as told under NAC’s directions, when they conquered Empire’s capital, he would be guaranteed wealth and glory.
Now that the capital was part of NAC’s territory, and when it was time for NAC to fulfill the promise, Chen Lin became unsettled again.
Just as Chen Lin was hesitating if he should remind Jiang Chen not to forget about him, Jiang Chen looked at him with an ambiguous smile on his face.
“Looks like you’re the last elder of Empire.”
“General, you’re being funny.” Chen Lin’s back was bent and he awkwardly laughed, “Empire is already kneeling in front of you, there is no more elder.”
To the flattering attitude of the elder, Jiang Chen grinned and said.
“There definitely should still be elders, but from now on, you’re working for me.”
“General… the other elders are all dead,” Chen Lin carefully said.
“Dead?” Jiang Chen paused and looked over to Wei Biao.
“Dead due to resistance,” Wei Biao briefly answered.