Vow of Silver Dawn Chapter 49

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You know
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Chapter 49: Mercy is Never Easy
By 国王陛下, Translated by 74translations
Notes at the end.

	Generally speaking, when people say things like "I'll remember you," it probably means there's little they can do other than hold a grudge.

	A dog whose bark was worse than their bite, it could be said.

	With Longtou having left his bark behind, the raid on Dui-4399 was officially at an end.

	A total victory for the Hongxing Squad. Not only had they retrieved the Xuanming and come into possession of all the ill-gotten spoils contained here, but more importantly they had slapped Longtou across the face, which was enormously satisfying.

	That said, they had been left with a few questions to sort out——namely, what they were going to do with all these commoners they had found tucked away in this base.

	It turned out that within the Squad, there were many quite divergent ideas of how to deal with it.

	——

	"I understand wanting to help these people, but there are simply too many." An Ping shook his head, "We have twenty-seven survivors here, and the Hongxing has space for six. We could bring a handful with some difficulty, but we wouldn't have space for a single person more.”

	Shawn raised an eyebrow, "Six? Captain, how are you counting..."

	Seeing An Ping look towards Lü Nan with something of a pout immediately answered his question: Already fairly tall to begin with, Lü Nan's fondness of being armoured and armed to the teeth meant that she alone occupied two seats.

	An Ping spoke again, "The Hongxing was designed for specialist work; much of the interior space has been filled, so normally wwe have to be quite selective about the spoils we take, else we'd never have any space at all. Even if we flattened all twenty-seven into pancakes, we still wouldn't be able to fit them all. At most we could get five or six pancakes, would you have us make them draw lots to decide who gets to go?"

	"We don't have to bring them aboard the Hongxing," Shawn said."

	An Ping laughed in spite of himself, "What do you propose then? String them up and hang them from the wings?"

	"I propose we commandeer the freighters they have in the base," Shawn said, I passed by the control centre in the basement, and I saw their hangar has three freighters and more than twenty smaller shuttles, the transports of those rich noble types that'd come here. I've checked with our survivors, and 5 of them could fly those freighters.

	An Ping's smile gradually faded; He found that Shawn was exceptionally observant.

	"We didn't come here to save people."

	"We didn't come to leave them to their deaths, either," Shawn retorted.

	An Ping regarded the stubborn new recruit carefully, and trying to dissuade him, said, "Give it up, they're already dead."

	Shawn wanted to laugh, "I have never seen so many dead people who were capable of talking and walking!"

	An Ping sighed, "I'm not the Boss, I'm not as eloquent as he is, but you should understand what I mean. You want to save those people. This kind of bleeding heart... This kind of kindness is praiseworthy, but your effort is not, it is an encumbrance to others.

	Shawn refused to accept this, and continued to argue, "All we would need to do would make another demand of Ning Tao, have him give them one of his freighters. How could he refuse us?"

	"Of course he'll agree," An Ping said, "But he'd also be certain to go back on that deal. These survivors have seen the worst of the Qiankun Corporation, you think Ning Tao would let them go home alive? There's nothing he wouldn't do to keep them silent!"

	Shawn let out a long sigh, of course, he had considered that... but to hear someone else say it, it didn't exactly make him calm.

	"To ensure their safety, we could keep a hold on Ning Tao until they were clear..."

	"There's no point!" An Ping declared, "You still don't get our situation, do you? We're walking on a tightrope here.  Our little band is five people strong. On Dui-4399, we are completely surrounded! Our only leverage is our ability to threaten Ning Tao's life. What we can't do is show any weakness, and give him a way to threaten us! We cannot begin to negotiate with him!"

	Shawn nodded to show he understood, but before he could open his mouth to speak again, An Ping cut him off, "No matter how elaborate a scheme you've come up with is, there's no way you could simply erase the risks inherent. The more you want to accomplish, then the more it'll cost, and right now you have no way to make up those costs! Without the help of your squadmates, you wouldn't even be able to keep yourself alive, so how do you propose to keep the rest from dying!?"

	By this point, An Ping's voice had reached a degree of undisguised anger, but Shawn was still going to try to convince him.

	“I know I'm new to the squad, and I haven't earned the right to act unilaterally, to say nothing of asking you all to accompany me, but I am still a member, and therefore I have the right to what you all do, too——Of our spoils from this mission, I should have a cut, too."

	An Ping paused, but immediately understood what Shawn had in mind, and so quite sternly shouted out, "Have you lost your damn mind!?"

	"Given that the Hongxing Squad aims to be self-sufficient, I'd like to offer my entire cut as pay in exchange for hiring you all to help me with this..."

	"And if you can't afford us all?"

	"Then put it on my tab. If even the Boss can let me just owe him a million, then I should hope the Hongxing Squad wouldn't be very stingy."

	Having reached this point, An Ping had nothing to retort with.

	Shawn, at his wits end, was determined to save these people.

	Having heard enough, Uncle Xu stood up, "Xiao'en, can you really not restrain that bleeding heart of yours?"

	Shawn thought it over, and smiled, "Could you go three months without your drugs?"

	"Huh, that bad huh?"

	To Shawn, it was that bad. There were twenty seven lives here, and there was a chance to save them that was not being acted on. To Shawn, that was tantamount to murder!

	And he would never be able to forgive himself for being so cold.

Or maybe it was just as Uncle Xu put it, a symptom of a bleeding heart, and a derogatory statement that ‘bleeding heart’ was....

But in this universe, as long as it did not come at the cost of others, surely a few more bleeding hearts could only be a good thing?

Shawn didn't feel he made the wrong decision, though he respected the Captain's point of view as well. It was his hope that in this moment they could come together and reach an agreement.

An Ping was attentively gazed upon by Shawn, and felt himself give a little.

"We'll do this, since it concerns the whole squad, we'll take a vote. Uncle Xu, you first."

"Are you trying to pick a fight, Captain?" Uncle Xu said, incensed, "Making me go first, you villain? Fine. I'm opposed. I've got plenty of spoils, enough to fund me for half a year. I don't need more."

An Ping nodded, "With me, that makes two dissenting votes. Next is Zhuang."

With that, he produced his communicator and put the Hongxing through.

"Zhuang, you've heard what we just discussed, share your thoughts. If I can offer a friendly suggestion, vote against."

Zhuang Yuanying was silent on the other end for a moment, and rather than side with An Ping, after a moment said, "If we can help those people, I think..."

An Ping cut her off, "Right, got it, you'll vote with the handsome young newcomer."

Uncle Xu seemed to take particular issue with the notion of "handsome" and "young," and with grit teeth said, "Captain, could you count my vote twice?"

"Cut yourself in two and teach your other half how to speak, and then I'll count your vote twice," An Ping said to the ugly, jealous, doctor, before turning his gaze to whom he had the highest hopes.

Lü Nan.

As both options had two votes, the deciding one would be cast by her.

And if he knew Lü Nan, then she'd probably vote against.

After all, it was those closest to her who had died because of the inaction of those near, and Lü Nan was not the sort noble enough to pay back indifference with good, to act heroically was not in her nature.

When it came to the question of so-called "innocents," Lü Nan could be even harsher.

With An Ping's expectant gaze upon her, Lü Nan scoffed and directed a question at Shawn.

"Newbie, are you aware that even though these people were 'fortunate' enough to have survived, they're effectively socially dead?"

Shawn nodded.

It wasn't hard to guess why. An Ping had just told him that there was no way the Qiankun Corporation would let them just return home. Right now, it would be Ning Tao, using whatever method he could to silence them. If he failed, then some other official would take up the task, and the situation would not change.

Even if they did somehow make it home, they'd find that they'd been already written off; the Qiankun Corporation having already legally declared them dead in their absence.

Even Security Bureau personnel, placed in cities to protect the people, would not hesitate to raise their blasters against them.

Seeing Shawn's acknowledgement, she continued, "Then do you know that these people won't necessarily be thankful? They might complain and ask why you couldn't save more, some will think you, the Qiankun Corporation, and the Qinglong are in cahoots, and others will simply be too cynical to be grateful."

"But there are people who would genuinely appreciate it, correct?" Shawn replied, "Besides, I don't want to do this because I want to be thanked, so it wouldn't matter either way. And it's not like only the 'noble' should be permitted to live. Even if they aren't grateful, they're still innocent, and don't deserve to be here."

Lü Nan sneered at that, "A typically bleeding heart response. I'll give you a hundred points for making me retch, though."

Shawn just shrugged, though it was disappointing, it wasn't unfair.

There wasn't a way for Shawn to force the others to see things his way, and he understood why people might be reluctant to act in the way he would prefer.

	If Lü Nan voted against, then there was nothing that could be done about it. Shawn wasn't going to make a fuss any more than he had with An Ping or Uncle Xu.

But before she would cast her vote, Shawn still had one last thing he wanted to try.



Translation Notes
Damn no translation notes that’s crazy

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 Engineer
宁涛 - níngtāo - Ning Tao, ex-Qiankun Corp Military big shot
龙头 - lóngtóu - Longtou, ostensibly a title more than a name; the Dragon’s Head of the Qinglong

https://74translations.wordpress.com/

Thanks for reading!