Vow of Silver Dawn Chapter 31

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As usual, above
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Chapter 31: Good News
By 国王陛下, Translated by 74translations

"Good news."

In the underground base's meeting room, An Ping's face was gloomy, and delivered that statement in a way that suggested anything but."

"The Xuanming has been lost."

The single statement was met with an intense reaction by the team.

	Uncle Xu wore a grave expression, and had gotten out of his seat, "You mean that viral stuff that a drop of could contaminate a whole water table, that could kill a hundred thousand people?"

	With exasperation, An Ping sighed, "Yes, but if I could trouble you to remember the second half of the information next time, the Xuanming is a new kind of biological raw material for water purification, and over in the south, Yanghan City's new water purification system has a rather pressing need for it."

	"I thought I remember reading that Tian Luyao's squad escorted it from the Li Mercantile Habitat Station?" Lü Nan questioned.

Zhuang suddenly raised her head, "The fat old man who raised three Vual Cats?"

Uncle Xu darkly smiled, "Soon he'll be the destitute old man who can't even raise one cat, given a los of that size... hey, look on the bright side, if he can't care for them, he'll be looking for people who'll take them in, this is your opportunity!"

"But then the kittens will be apart from their owner."

"As far as kittens are concerned, they are the happiest when someone's there to care for them, and Zhuang, you've recently made a deposit..."


Lü Nan smacked the table, cutting across Uncle Xu's chatter.


"Who's responsible?"

"It's not clear. It was lost aboard Li Station, and apparently Tian Luyao didn't so much as even touch the container at any point during transport," An Ping replied.

"But payment's already been processed, yeah?" Uncle Xu said, with a grim smile.

Ignoring him, An Ping continued, "Based on the latest reports, it seems there was a fairly experienced team of thieves aboard Li Station at the time; we have not a few incident reports of their successes. It does also seem that Tian was likely derelict in his duties."

"Since he retired, from raising cats to blaster training he's been negligent in just about everything he's done," Lü Nan commented with a sneer.

"That he should not wish to return to front line action after having witnessed the death of his child before his eyes is only natural, I think." An Ping said.

Lü Nan didn't let up, though, "Natural should be to grind your enemies to dust and scatter them to the winds, not to run home and try and raise some Vual Cats as replacements!

As it was clear that this conversation wasn't going anywhere, the two quickly fell silent.

At last, Shawn finally had an opportunity to ask a rather basic question.

"If I may, why is this news considered good?

Pausing, An Ping smiled, "Good question. It's because it means the Boss is sending us out."

Taking a moment before continuing, "As we discussed, the Hongxing Squad is responsible for all of its own income and expenses. Put another way, as long as we get the Xuanming back, then all the pay will come straight to us."

Still worried that Shawn still might not get it, he went on, "The unit of thieves already aboard Li Station have many victories under their belt, their bounty is likely to be great."

"When black eats black things get brighter," Uncle Xu interjected.

Though he kept his silence for a moment, Shawn nodded to show his understanding.

The reward for "black eating black" was of little consequence to him, as Jedi do not seek worldly possessions——though being able to pay back his debt faster could only be a good thing.

That said, encouraging this kind of "black on black" aggression wasn't exactly something he should be doing as a Jedi Apprentice. As an advocate for balance, this sort of thing inherently encouraged greed, and was ill-conducive towards an environment in which people did not wreak havoc, and could easily result in a chain reaction that would intensify conflict.

From another perspective though, they were liberating the dangerous Xuangming virus from the hands of thieves, and enabling its use for water purification.

That would no doubt be just.

So Shawn had no resistance to the idea.

This reaction seemed to interest Uncle Xu, "Hey, why don't you seem at all interested in making a ton of money? If it doesn't matter to you, why not help finance my research? I guarantee you if my work bears fruit, it'll be remembered for generations!"

Shawn didn't believe him for a moment, "What's the mission plan?"

"The situation is urgent, so we'll all be heading out on this one. In two hours, we'll be aboard the Hongxing making for Li Station. I've already called an old buddy of mine, Zhu Junshen, who'll be waiting for us," An Ping answered."

Shawn committed what heard to memory, and when he noticed that An Ping had not continued, asked, "And then?"

To which An Ping asked back, "What do you mean 'and then'?"

"After we get to the station, what do we do then?"

An Ping wore a baffled expression, "Didn't I already say? We get to Li Station, find the Xuanming, raid the thieves' hideout while we're there..."

Shawn's brows furrowed as he listened. It felt as though the two of them were on completely different wavelengths, and he couldn't help but wonder if he hadn't accidentally made some glaring oversight in his studies of the Qiankun Language.

How was he unable to have a normal conversation?

The Jedi Apprentice had no choice but to calm himself and try to explain, "What I wanted to ask was: What exactly should be doing? How are we dividing up the team? What are our individual assignments? How will we work with one another? Do we have a plan of operation? If this is an emergency, what's our contingency plan? What happens if something unexpected happens, do we have a plan for that? What if that's no good? Do we have a backup for that as well? What if..."

Before he could finish though, Lü Nan interrupted.

"Enough enough! Get to the point will you!?"

Shawn inhaled deeply, and to get his point across, carefully chose his next words, "I think we lack a reliable plan of action at the moment."

Lü Nan shot him a look, "Plan this plan that... what, you can't do anything without a plan!?"

Shawn's brows only furrowed even tighter, as her words seemed to be completely devoid of any logic.

"It's not a question of being able to do it, but doing so under the guidance of one. The mission will go smoothest if we have one. It's like cooking, you use a recipe..."

Before he could finish though, An Ping's hand met his face with a loud slap.

"A recipe eh? You really know how to stick it in it, don't you, newbie?"

At the same time, Lü Nan's eyebrows shot upwards, and with great indignation she shouted, "I have never used a recipe while cooking!"

Understanding suddenly dawned on Shawn, "No wonder..."

Even though he had not said the second half of that sentence, it made no difference.

The atmosphere within the meeting room instantly stilled, and Uncle Xu produced a bacta spray in one hand and some bandages in the other, going into combat medic mode instantaneously.

An Ping unfurled his mechanical arm, and tried to obstruct Shawn——but quickly withered under Lü Nan's icy glare.

Amidst the standoff there was a sudden beeping from Zhuang's waist. The girl looked down, and say "The Hongxing's already in the hangar, and the maintenance droids are here,  I should also hurry over... if that's all right?"
The girl's gently timbre successfully managed to defuse the situation, and even Lü Nan seemed to deflate, as she nodded and said, "Hurry over then, we'll be counting on you."

She smiled, and brought a hand to her big cap, "Leave it to me!"

On seeing this, Shawn knew: This was his chance to get away!

"I'll go help too."

Lü Nan grunted, but as she went to speak An Ping had already started.

"I remember you saying you had a bit of technical expertise, and you were Chen's assistance aboard the *Silver*, so yeah, go ahead."

With Shawn's departure, the mood within the meeting room significantly relaxed.

Lü Nan took the initiative, "Sorry about that, I got ahead of myself."

An Ping sighed, "It doesn't matter, no harm no foul. The kid's clever, though, he won't make that mistake again."

Lü Nan made a dismissive grunt, "Clever or not, let's see how he does on the mission. He might've exceeded expectations here, but there's been not a few who've been like him that have died while out in the field."

"I know he reminds you of..." An Ping began, unable to help himself.

	"Enough, don't waste your breath, go and prepare. Can't let the kid die for real." Lü Nan paused, before adding, "He still owes the boss a million."

An Ping forced a smile.

And wondered why she couldn't just be a bit more honest with herself?

Translation Notes
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!