Cutting Down on Ground Forces

Lucia leaned her head on Qin Hao's shoulder and whispered a few words. At last, after Lucia left, Qin Hao reluctantly returned to his room.

Lying on the bed and switching channels mindlessly, he had no idea what he was looking for. He simply could not rest his mind.

Right then, someone knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Qin Hao asked.

"I am looking for Qin Hao," a man replied outside.

"Just a moment!" Qin Hao got out of bed. As he opened the door, he saw a young military officer standing outside. At twenty-something, not much older than Qin Hao, this young military officer was already a captain.

"Are you Qin Hao?" The captain was polite.

"Yes, Sir!" Qin Hao immediately replied with a salute, since the military officer was higher ranked than he was.

"General Rice is asking for you. Come with me." That captain was courteous and smiling. But his haughty attitude was plain to see, judging by the fact that he did not bother to introduce himself.

"Yes, Sir!" Qin Hao knew that the captain looked down on him, but what could he do? The military officer was a captain, multiple ranks higher than he was.

He followed the young captain, walking past a long corridor and taking a twenty-minute ride on a hovercar to come to the bridge of the Federal Honor.

As the hatch hissed open, the captain stepped into the bridge of the Federal Honor with Qin Hao followed closely behind.

"Wow!" Qin Hao was coming to the bridge of a flagship for the first time. Looking through the giant pane of windows, he could see the stars outside. Giant monitors were displaying various information that a private like Qin Hao had no idea what that data meant.

The captain came in front of the command station and saluted a few middle-aged men in white military uniform. "General, Qin Hao is here!"

One officer, blond-haired, nodded. He then turned to look at Qin Hao. "So, you are Qin Hao?"

"That's right, General!" Qin Hao stepped out and saluted. He had never met this middle-aged man before, but he knew from the insignia that this man was a Major General.

"Very good, kid!" That blond-haired general smiled. "My name is Rice, captain of the Federal Honor, interim commander of the Seventh Fleet of the Federal Navy," he self-introduced.

"Good to see you, Sir!" Qin Hao saluted for the second time.

"Please be at ease. I need to find out something from you," Rice said with a smile.

"Yes, Sir!" Qin Hao nodded.

"Professor Palmer said you have special intel about the mystery of the missing soldiers in the Coales Valley, right?" Rice's question had also attracted the other high-ranking officers' attention.

"That's right, Sir!" Qin Hao turned on his battlefield recorder and projected the footage.

"Look, General, this is the footage of that day." Qin Hao described what happened that day while playing back the footage.

Major General Rice nodded thoughtfully after Qin Hao finished.

"I have a question!" A combat staff suddenly raised his hand.

"Please speak up!" Rice nodded.

"The sound wave had hypnotized Professor Palmer and that combat medic, but not you. Why was that, Qin Hao?" the combat staff asked.

"Yeah, why?" The others also nodded at the question. According to Qin Hao's narrative, a sound wave had hypnotized the 20,000 troopers and lured them to be slaughtered in the Coales Valley. He was the only one unaffected. Was this not strange?

"I can explain. I have an inborn condition where my perception of the waveband of sound was narrower than normal people." Lucia had taught Qin Hao this narrative before she left.

As much as she was clueless, fragile, and timid, she was extremely thoughtful. After Qin Hao confided in her, she was having his best interest in heart. Mindful of the potential problems he might face later, she used her professional knowledge to help Qin Hao navigate the situation that might land him into trouble.

"I see." Rice and the combat staff nodded. They did not doubt what Qin Hao had told them because this had always been the war between the humans and the insectoids. It was very unlikely that Qin Hao was a spy, and he had no reason to lie.

"We need to study this matter, which is clearly a problem. If hypnotization happens on the battlefield, we will be in deep trouble!" Rice nodded.

"Professor Palmer has started a new research project on this. I am confident that he would get a handle on the problem," one combat staff said.

"I hope so. For the time being, we had better not send any ground troop," Rice said after some thought.

"Yes, General!" Those combat staff quickly jotted down his instruction.

"All right, you can go take some rest, Qin Hao. I will ask for you again when necessary." Rice turned to look at him.

"Yes, Sir!" Qin Hao saluted, then left as he had no business in the command level.

That captain who brought Qin Hao here earlier sent him back to his room. This captain must be Major General Rice's adjutant.

"Phew!" Qin Hao lay on the bed and let out a sigh of relief. Lucky for him that Lucia had whispered into his ear before she left. Otherwise, he could not have answered the combat staff's question. The last thing he wanted was to let people find out about his insectoid gene and be sent to the lab for dissection.

However, after averting this crisis, Qin Hao could take a few days of rest on the flagship. Rice might summon him anytime, so he was not asked to return to his division yet.

In this way, Qin Hao did not have to go back to the barracks where tens of men stayed in one room. He could enjoy the treatment that only senior military officers got to enjoy. Probably James, the division commander of the 106th Division, was also getting the same treatment on the battleship.

Time flew, and half a month had since passed. Palmer's research had gotten no new breakthrough. So the humans were cutting back on ground troops as the threat of hypnotization to humans was too great. Before a new solution could be found, Rice did not want to sacrifice the life of his soldiers anymore.

Life was good for Qin Hao these few days. With good food and a warm bed, not even counting the gymnastic equipment in the officer lounge where he could work. The difference in the living environment between here and the low-ranking soldiers was like day and night.

The only thing that irked him was that he was the lowest-ranked private in a place filled with lieutenants and captains. Not to mention most of them were the aid-de-camps of some even higher-ranking military officers.