Vow of Silver Dawn Chapter 30

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Chapter 30: Medical Personnel
By 国王陛下, Translated by 74translations

	The moment Shawn heard Lü Nan's voice, sirens blaring like volcanic eruptions began to sound in his head.

	At the same time, he noticed out of the corner of his eyes a sight most utterly outrageous.

	Beside him, atop three platforms, were eighteen crude automated gun turrets!

	And it was eighteen muzzles that Shawn found himself staring down!

	In a fraction of a fraction of the seconda, Shawn's perception stretched out into infinity. He could hear the guns triggering. He could hear the whine of the blaster bolts charge.

	It was at this point Shawn realized the person who had actually been trapped was him.

	Shawn didn't mind so much that these "gun turrets" were "outside the rules."

	For one, they hadn't actually agreed upon any "rules."

	On top of that, ultimately it reflected a failure on his part to consider all possibilities. Given the simplicity of the mechanisms, it was likely that Lü Nan had hidden what she needed in her armour from the beginning.

	As for how they were aiming, well that was a mystery.

	How was a person without six arms and three heads going to use all those guns? Well, firearms expert that she was, Lü Nan found a way to make full use of them, and if anything, simple gun turrets were just logical, really.

	Up until now, Lü Nan had fired only three times, was it possible she had spent the whole time just waiting here for him?

	When Shawn had determined that his opponent hadn't moved, he should've considered that she would've shored up her defenses, and there were few ways simpler than a gun turret!

	It really was careless of him.

	At the same time, Lü Nan's foresight was quite something. High up above her head, none of these gun turrets would have been able to fire on targets on the ground.

	In other words, Lü Nan had concentrated all of her firepower right here. She knew from the start that Shawn might dodge every shot, and then be forced to try and take the high ground that was the only viable path to victory.

	Met with such shrewdness and battlefield savvy, Shawn couldn't help but be won over by the woman.

	Won over, yes, but that wasn't to say he conceded. While he might've greatly admired his opponent, the Jedi Apprentice would not admit defeat until the very end.

	Even if neither side won, he would never yield.

When he saw the flash, Shawn threw himself forwards. Guided by the force, he reacted with impossible speed, twisting through the air, and managing to avoid most of the concentrated fire.

Despite having still taken some of the unavoidable blaster fire, which was causing him a great deal of pain, Shawn had successfully broken through, and leapt down from his platform, coming face to face with Lü Nan.

At this moment, he and Lü Nan were no more than five metres apart.

At this distance, even if Shawn was racked with pain and dizziness, and even if he was seeing stars, and even if his vision was failing, and even if he was on the verge of slipping into unconsciousness...

There was no way he was going to let himself miss his target!

——

Awakening from blackness, Shawn first felt only the stinging of a brilliant white light upon his eyes. It smelled of familiar compounds, which told him he was in the underground base's infirmary. Every spot a training bolt had struck him still stung incessantly.

	Shawn couldn't help but internally sigh. He had only just become a member of the Hongxing Squad, and he had fainted twice already. Granted, both times were the result of combat, but it still left an unpleasant taste in his mouth. If his Master could see him now, then that truly would be unbearably shameful.

	While he was lost in thought, Shawn suddenly found himself looking at an incredibly wrinkled face.

	It looked much like Uncle Xu's, but significantly older. If Uncle Xu could pass for 73, then this face was 84 at least.

	The old man's face twisted into a smile, and with a hoarse voice said, "At last, after five years you're finally awake..."

	Startled, Shawn almost immediately leapt out of the bed.

	What did he say!?

	Uncle Xu just stroked his chin, "To think, I, once a handsome 37-year-old, have now become a handsome 42-year-old..."

	In his heart, Shawn thought that no-one had asked for him to demonstrate his mathematical ability, and would much rather an explanation for what he meant by five years!

	Seeing the panic in Shawn's eyes, Uncle Xu's expression changed to one of pity as he began to explain, "Lü Nan, oh, how that woman likes to play with fire. The training rifles' power outputs were set too high, and exceeded safe operating limits. You were hit several times, and in the end you were shot one last time in the head from above... if you still feel some pain there, that'd be why."

	Uncle Xu's voice was full of grief.

	"Lü Nan really did go too far, even a training rifle shouldn't be aimed at the head, and even though she said those turrets lacked accuracy, what did that matter? All the guns were being remotely controlled by her, and at that distance, how could they not land headshots!? But saying that now is much too late, you've already slept away five years..."

	Before Uncle Xu could finish however, Shawn had already sat up on the bed, and began to give his own assessment, "Your acting is exaggerated, and your lines are nonsensical. Your test has been the least skillful."

	Naturally, Uncle Xu was caught a bit off guard.

	Shawn didn't believe any of that “five years” nonsense. Though he was rather startled when he had just woken up, the Jedi Apprentice was able to quickly ascertain the state of his own body.

	He had slept for a few hours at most, and had evidently received appropriate medical aid while he was out, as the lingering pain was nothing that was particularly alarming.

	As for why Uncle Xu looked like he had age years in the span of a few hours, perhaps he had taken more drugs?

	Taking advantage of Uncle Xu's silence, Shawn quickly looked around, and found a familiar tall figure at his neighbouring bed

	One of Lü Nan's shoulders was wrapped in a thick bandage, and on her face she wore an amused smile.

"Uncle Xu, I already told you, the kid's a lot cleverer than you. You're just embarrassing yourself trying to trick him."

Uncle Xu retreated a few steps from Shawn, the enthusiasm on his face waning, "So filled with calculations at such a young age, so deep in his thoughts, you can tell the kid's never had a girlfriend!"

This confused Shawn. While it was certainly true he hadn't, he wasn't sure what calculations had to do with that. Was it perhaps some kind of Qian System cultural thing?

His attention was quickly drawn to the state of Lü Nan's injury. Judging from the thickness of the bandages and her awkward posture, Lü Nan's injury was more serious than the ones that had knocked him out.

	What happened?

	Shawn certainly didn't recall inflicting such a wound upon his opponent.

	Uncle Xu laughed, and wiped his face, once again becoming his handsome 73-year-old-looking self——the dense wrinkles revealing themselves to be nothing more than makeup, before sighing deeply, "Oh, Xiao'en, now you're one of Hongxing Squaddies, you'd best keep in mind that while we may never know who amongst us is the most intelligent, the most foolish will always be the woman to your side!"

	Lü Nan unceremoniously grabbed the monitoring equipment beside her bed, as if preparing to smash it.

	"Wait wait let me explain!" Uncle Xu cried, running over to protect his equipment, "I can justify that!"

	So full of righteousness was his voice and so pointed was his gaze that even Lü Nan, mid-motion, stopped.

	He could justify that?

	Once he had saved his equipment, and let out a trembling sigh, he turned to Shawn and continued, "She had done something to the blasters you were using, and the power output of the one in your hand was more or less firing what you could call, "live ammunition." It's a good thing she reacted in time, else you might've just blasted her in the face."

	Shawn's eyes went wide. That didn't seem possible.

	Lü Nan had "done something" to the blasters? When had she done that?

	Uncle Xu continued to explain, "To be precise, every gun had been set to lethal power levels, the only ones that weren't were the ones she grabbed. As to why..."

	"When you're on your own turf, you'll obviously have an advantage over someone new. There wasn't any chance I'd have gotten hit, and if I did get hit, in the vitals no less, it'd just prove I was some waste of a person who didn't deserve to be alive."

	Uncle Xu pointed a finger at her head, "You hear her? She's got issues, I swear."

	"Where does drugged up reprobate like you get off saying others have issues, huh?" Lü Nan retorted.

	Still self-righteous, Uncle Xu fired back, "I am a doctor, so naturally I'm qualified to make such a diagnosis! You were seriously injured, and you were still absolutely refusing to put on a bandage or take something, to say nothing of bacta!"

	Without looking up, Lü Nan replied, "I must remember this pain, it is my shame."

"You trying to relive the glory of your youth is the real shame, we're a criminal gang hiding out in a wasteland, the time for honour has long passed," Uncle Xu said with some disdain.

	At that Lü Nan did not rage our shout, but instead made a faint harumph, before passing out.

	Between "glory of your youth" and "long passed," Shawn gleaned that their conversation had moved towards the past, which seemed to be a touchy subject.

	Shawn decided that he'd best not pry, and took the opportunity to change the topic, "So what's my next test? Uncle Xu, do you want to test my first aid skills?

	Uncle Xu just shrugged, "I'm not like the captains, if you could see through my disguise and not get tricked, then you're probably alright in the head,

	Shawn noded, "In other words, I have only one test left? Ms. Zhuang-"

	Uncle Xu sputtered, before laughing so hard he sprayed a bit of saliva onto Shawn's bed.

	"Never call her Ms. Zhuangb, you show her that kind of formal respect(a) and her heart would stop!"

	Stopping himself, Uncle Xu then said quite seriously, "Well, I'm exaggerating a little, but you should probably know that for a person with her disposition, between testing someone and dying she'd probably pick the latter."

	"And also, didn't we already tell you? The Hongxing Squad doesn't have entrance exams, that was just some nonsense the Vice Captain got in her head. And look at the mess she's made! We were pleasantly welcoming you in, and it almost became her funeral!"

	As he spoke, Uncle Xu was also prodding Lü Nan in her injury, which prompted her eyebrows to raise automatically.

	With a bacta spray in his hand, Uncle Xu advised, "Lü Nan, give it up will you? You've felt enough shame, it's time to let things heal now. Let it sit and this'll get worse."

	To which Lü Nan, "You jest, even if I did die from my injury-"

	But she was suddenly cut off by an ear-splitting base alert.

	A moment later, came the quiet voice of the soft-hat wearing Zhuang, "A mission came in, the Captain wants all of us, now!"

Immediately grabbing Uncle Xu's collar, Lü Nan then demanded "Hurry up and fix me, I have to be good to go!"



Translation Notes
a The specific terminology used here is 刹那 (chànà), which is a transliteration of the Sanskrit क्षण (kṣaṇa), which is originally a Buddhist term meaning the smallest possible moment in time. Since the author hadn't ever used this specific term up till now, I thought it appropriate to try and approximate that, and I thought "a fraction of a fraction of a second" communicated the "feel" of that kind of instant better than just saying something like "a millionth of" or "a billionth of," which are quite small time frames but the terminology is a bit cold and technical for what ought to be a heart pounding moment.

b Shawn calls her "庄原瑛前辈" - Zhuāng Yuányīng-qiánbèi. Qianbei is an honorific that means senior, more in terms of position than actual age. There's not really an all-purpose equivalent in English that I can think of, but for the weebs, it's similar to the Japanese senpai.

肖恩 - xiāo'ēn - Shawn, Jedi Apprentice
莫斯提马 - mòsītímǎ - Mastema, Jedi Master
李钰 - lǐ yù - Li Yu, Commander of the Silver Knights
白 - bái - Bai, Li Yu’s droid
安平 - ānpíng - An Ping, Captain of the Hongxing Squad
吕楠 - lǚnán - Lü Nan, Hongxing Squad Sniper
许伯 - xǔbó - Uncle Xu, Hongxing Squad Medic
庄原瑛 - zhuāngyuányīng - Zhuang Yuanying, Hongxing Squad (?)

At any rate,

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Thanks for reading!