Chapter 22: Little Wild Kitten

Later, her comrades described her action as "courageous."

It was an unfair fight—one Zerg against two wounded air force pilots, a weak female pilot, and a frightened guard.

Zach's gun had no bullets left. Although he was an excellent fighter, the wounds on his body hindered his moves.

The wounded officer trying to save the coast guard couldn't move at all and lost his gun in the fight.

Emerald, who was physically the weakest, was holding a dagger to stab the Zerg's body, but the dagger broke by the hard shell. Her face and body got hurt by the Zerg's legs.

Suddenly, they heard a sound resembling an underground explosion! The fight ended with that sound. They all kept still as they were entangled in the girl's claws, one underneath, one on top, and the other in its arms. The Zerg had stopped moving.

Resembling a little girl with purple blood smeared all over her face, Emerald crawled out from under the Zerg's belly. She held a grenade in her hand and looked a little dumb. However, she was the only one who had been able to avoid being bitten by the Zerg by staying under its belly.

"Good job! Emerald!" Zach signed and closed his eyes, laying down on the ground. On the other side, the officer and other guards killed the other Zerg and collapsed tiredly on the ground.

Emerald looked at her wounded comrades, feeling exhausted and almost fainted.

"Phoenix, Phoenix!" she shouted to the communicator on her wrist, "There may be other Zergs that escaped. Please search Moon Sally."

Emerald was right. There were other Zergs indeed, in fact, over 20.

Some Zergs had started fleeing to land up to a kilometer away from the beach on which the Zerg spaceship had crashed. Zach had killed only five of them. Before Emerald had arrived, those Zergs had to crawl over the visitors like a wave in the sea.

On a one-kilometer radio by the coast, bodies or parts of bodies were scattered around everywhere. The beach was soaked in blood. The air force hadn't arrived yet, and ground defense had been unable to resist the violent Zergs. At this speed, they would cause an uncontrollable disaster.

Luckily, their invasion ended on the road to the Moon Sally government.

Twenty or some Zerg bodies were laid beside the road in an orderly row. Purple blood soaked the gray road 50 heavily armed soldiers in black suits looked coldly at the Zergs.

Moon Sally's mayor had followed the senior officer in front of him, "Director, you were wise to have the soldiers well-prepared to save us from such disasters, your great deed is…"

Kenzo didn't respond to the obsequious officer. He was wearing his black suit as usual and stood on the second floor of the government building. He was looking at something through a telescope.

Harvey stepped forward to him and asked in a low voice. "Boss, is there something wrong?"

Putting down the telescope, Kenzo smiled, "I suddenly remembered that we lost a kitten in space."

At the Phoenix, they had organized a graduation ceremony for Emerald, who had passed the assessment test. In Emerald's eyes, the wilderness of space had never been as beautiful as it was tonight.

All the men were wearing white vests and camouflaged pants, looking strong and handsome. With their hands clasped behind them, they stood straight in front of one Snowberg.

Harrison was wearing his military uniform, also clasping his hands behind him. He squinted and saw Emerald stepping closer to him.

Ground soldiers and other technical officers were all standing on the second floor, looking down. Emerald looked up to them and saw a pair of gentle eyes.

She took a deep breath and then stepped in front of Harrison, who gave her a sincere glance and then took a pair of wave-shape shoulder straps to put on her shoulders from the first officer.

"Congratulations, second lieutenant."

Emerald's voice trembles slightly. "Thank you, Colonel." She raised her right hand in salute. After Harrison, all air force soldiers return her military salute.

"This is your night, second lieutenant. But don't drink too much, tomorrow you need to go to city hall and receive your honor." Harrison had barely finished speaking as a surge of young men rammed him and the first officer from behind. Young men completely surrounded Emerald with smiling faces. She couldn't stop smiling.

This was her night. She had passed the basic assessment and could receive the honor from the captain. From tonight on, she was an officer in the Federation.

But like all things, she knew this too would pass.

****

"Emerald, we conjured up a fabulous nickname for you!" Zach grabbed her shoulder. "Come here."

Emerald was taken to the Snowberg, which had been parked for a long time. Two words were written across the Snowberg's body in big, bold red letters.

"Do you like this nickname?" someone asks her with pride.

"Little…" Emerald is still slow in reading, not to mention the scribble. She frowned. "The latter two words, I can't read them."

"Little illiteracy." Zach teased her. "It matches you so well!"

Emerald was speechless.

The men laugh.

On the other hand, a kind gentleman disagreed. "Stop kidding." Then he turned to Emerald and said proudly. "It's a strong nickname ---- Little Wild Kitten!"

All the men applauded.

Emerald was still speechless.

"The nickname suits you so well! It was my idea!" Zach suddenly lowers his head to her ear, with his breath close to her face, "Killing a Zerg spaceship and a Zerg! Aren't you wild?"

Emerald remained calm and turned her body aside to avoid Zach's kiss. He then straightened his body and smiled as everyone was watching them.

"Thank you. But I don't like this nickname."

Her protest got lost by the overwhelming cheering of the crowd.

"Little wild kitten! Date me!"

"Go away! I'm gonna teach a little wild kitten wrestling tonight!"

"Leave them be, little wild kitten!" Someone laughed. "Just ignore these bastards and come dance with me!"

"Alright. It's okay if you do like the Little Wild Kitten." Emerald gave up and went to the man who invited her to dance. But she couldn't help but turn around and glare at Zach, who had come up with this terrible nickname. Zach looked at her with shining eyes and a goblet in his hand.

The next day, Emerald woke up with a splitting headache.

This had been the first time for her to be so drunk. Now she was feeling terrible, and she swore never to get drunk again.

After getting up, she found that most people in the dorm were still in a deep sleep. Zach and one other man were lying on the ground, snoring loudly. Without any hesitation, she took a pen and wrote two words on Zach's face after she looked them up in an e-dictionary and went to wash.