Vow of Silver Dawn Chapter 39

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You know how it goes
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Chapter 39: To Fight a Dog, One Must First Fight its Master
By 国王陛下, Translated by 74translations
Notes at the end.

	Shawn's suggestion was quite the morale boost, but the difficulties that awaited them remained unchanged.

	"Captain, I've finished analyzing the coordinates."

	From aboard the Hongxing, Zhuang Yuanying timidly transmitted the results of her calculations, which were now being displayed holographically.

	In the middle of the system's asteroid belt, there was one massive twinkling red dot.

	Dui-9776

	"Here, huh...." Uncle Xu said with quite a strikingly despairing expression, like that of a weary old man who had known too many deaths of his own children.

	"What's special about this one?" Shawn asked curiously.

	Uncle Xu glanced at An Ping, who just scratched his head before saying, "Well, seeing as this is your first mission, we don't really want to be just walking you through this stuff, but given that you've made a good show of things on Li Station so far, and the situation's changed.... Well, basically, this is the Qinglong's old nest."

	Shawn nodded, unsurprised by this revelation.

	If any pirate fleet got their hands on a weapon of mass destruction like the Xuanming, they wouldn't be able to leave it just anywhere, so naturally they'd stash it where they thought it most safe. That much was obvious.

	But given Uncle Xu's reaction to Dui-9776, it was clear this was no ordinary hornet's nest.

	"Think of it like a small military base. From its defensive satellites to its labyrinthine core, the Qinglong have been at this for decades, and the best of their best have been packed into this one spot," An Ping said.

	This description seemed surprising, "Does no one care about something that obvious?"

	"They're the Qinglong," Uncle Xu ridiculed.

	"Tell me more about the Qinglong, then," Shawn said.

	"I suppose it's best we familiarize you now," An Ping said.

	And so the Captain introduced the newcomer to the foe they were about to face while taking their ship into space.

	"The Qinglong are one of our most dangerous rivals. In the last ten years, the Silver Knights and the Qinglong have had over 30 engagements of varying scale, and while we were more or less victorious each time, our losses were heavy. More worryingly, their losses were heavier every single time, and yet never did they ever seem the slightest weakened for it, returning stronger every time. There's no other band of pirates that we've had to stamp out so repeatedly."

	Shawn pondered that for a moment, before saying "So essentially, the Qinglong aren't much like pirates at all?"

	"You've grasped the heart of it," An Ping said, "An organization like them doubtlessly has the backing of a military, so even if they do get totally eradicated, give it some time and they'll just reform."

	"Have they been totally eradicated before?" Shawn asked, interrupting.

	An Ping stared blankly, before breaking into a smile, "Well, no-one's ever been able to inflict a blow so fatal, so how about we make that our objective this time? Zhuang, if you could begin preparations."

	With her orders, Zhuang set off.

	Uncle Xu made quite a mournful noise, "Captain, must we? Dui-9776 never has a crew of less than three hundred combatants, and never less than a dozen patrol fighters around it. Even if we counted Zhuang's droids, we've only got a strength of twelve! If we can get the Xuanming back it'll be a miracle, let's not tempt fate against those few hundred lunatics, okay?"

	"On this rare occasion, I do agree with Xiao'en. The only reason the Qinglong seem like they can always come back is only because they've never been truly stamped out. If one day someone truly did exterminate the lot of them, I highly doubt their backers would have much interest in backing the second Qinglong," Lü Nan said.

	With both the Captain and Vice Captain having apparently lost their minds, Uncle Xu immediately found himself without the spirit to even despair. The mission would be if nothing else, eventful.

	Perhaps it would be for the best to pop a pair of pills and just forget about it.

	While Uncle Xu went back to his room in search of drugs, Zhuang ran in from the control room saying, "Coordinates set, we're ready to head off!"

	Lü nan rolled her shoulders and cracked her knuckles, raring to go, to which An Ping just smiled and said, "Well, let's be off then."

The conical ship was quickly shuttling down the special course Zhuang had calculated, and soon after they had left the station, the ship was soon met with the sight of the asteroid belt.

	The Hongxing charged forwards without hesitation, weaving through the asteroidsa. With the occasional impact upon their shields, Shawn couldn't help but feel a bit nervous.

	But soon his gaze was caught by something much more interesting.

	Amidst the densely packed rubble, there was a collection of quite calmly drifting asteroids.

	Within the Dui Asteroid Belt, there were what felt like an infinite number of objects. The Qiankun Corporation had most recently announced that the asteroid designated Dui-14223 was open for development, and every asteroid like it fetched enormous prices...

	But the thing that astonished Shawn was that of the objects he could see, not one of them was Dui-9776!

	From what could be seen on the Hongxing's scannerb, the position of Dui-9776 in their charts and reality were completely at odds!

	Had Zhuang perhaps made a miscalculation, and put them on the wrong path?

	Conversely, An Ping was smiling and full of praise, "Ha, not bad Zhuang. I knew you'd be able to figure it out."

	Zhuang bashfully lowered her head and took off her hat, saying "It's nothing, just doing my job..."

	The Vice Captain however furrowed her brows, "Captain, what are you on about? This isn't Dui-9776 at all!"

	"Obviously not. This is Dui-4399. I'd have thought you'd remember it."

	Lü Nan paused for a moment, and after closely examining the holomap, suddenly shouted, "Isn't this the base of the Qiankun Waste Company!?"

	Uncle Xu explained to Shawn, "At one point, the Qiankun Corporation's Security Office was nicknamed 'Waste Disposal' because they 'took out the trash.' To try and eliminate the Qinglong, they sent several warships and hundreds of fighter craft to their doorstep. They ended up being garrisoned here for half a year, ate up all the supplies that their sponsors had provided, and left, having never even found a single trace of them..."

"But I'm sure you've guessed the truth of the operation already. The Corporation's security forces are by no means slouches, and even if they were utterly incompetent, they outnumbered the pirates dozens of times over. Even just being here for half a year, a blockade like that should've killed who knows how many Qinglong, and yet somehow after that half year, the Qinglong seemed to have grown!" An Ping said.

	At this, Shawn suddenly understood, "There were collaborators!?"

	"You got it," An Ping said, "At the time, the official charged with the fleet was the Dui Sub-bureau Deputy Chief, Ning Tao. In all likelihood, he was a Qinglong boss, or an agent of one. The failure of the operation got him blacklisted, and the Qiankun Corporation terminated him on the spot, but half a year later he was given a fairly cushy posting as a consultant for Xiarun Pharmaceutical. Then a few years later, he went back to the security bureau, and is now the Chief of the Dui Sub-bureau."

	It all seemed so unbelievable to Shawn, "He could do that!? Haven't the people protested it?"

	Uncle Xu smiled mirthlessly, "Of course they did, that's why Ning Tao's constantly making a show of trying to get companies from all over to support more crackdowns in an attempt to wash away the shame. But none of them actually care, so no-one contributes, and the crackdowns never happen."

	Such a shameless gesture left Shawn speechless, for it quite succinctly conveyed the three-word idea: Resistance is futile.

	The Qiankun Corporation couldn't possibly care less for what the common person thought.

	While they were speaking, Anping had piloted the ship to quietly hide behind one of the larger meteorites, to avoid having a direct "line of sight" with Dui-4399. Having done that, the ship then released a number of tiny recon probes, rapidly making for Dui-4399.

	The recon probes were clearly not of a standard make. They moved with astonishing speed, and returned to the ship less than an hour later, full of scan data.
	An Ping transferred their data to their holodisplay, and after a moment the bare surface of Dui-4399 appeared before them.

	With An Ping's inputs, the projection quickly transformed, focusing on where manmade structures had been set up, consisting of temporary shelter that had long since decayed from disuse.

	Obviously, the remnants of the military expedition from several years ago.

	In the centre of the ruins, nestled in between the military structures was a manor or sorts of an entirely distinct architectural style, with a round courtyard, lush with greenery and vibrant flowers, with an artificial river and fountain providing irrigation.

In the centre of that garden was a simple unadorned square building.

	Lastly, and most importantly, outside the small building stood a pair of uniformed security personnel.

	To think there'd be people on this supposedly abandoned rock!

	It was at this point Shawn suddenly thought to wonder, why did the Captain want to come here, and not Dui-9776?

	"Captain, do you think the mastermind behind the Qinglong is watching from here?"

	"Given that the Qinglong posess the Xuanming," An Ping began, "would you be calmly letting some murderous pirates handle a weapon of mass destruction?"

	"Everyone knows to keep their pets on a leash, after all," Uncle Xu added.

	"Obviously, Ning Tao's not actually with the troops, what with his running back and forth. And it's doubtful he's ever thought of himself as a target, so compared to Dui-9776, the defenses here are a lot less tight. If the Security Bureau's main forces were here, our probes wouldn't have come back. Looks like the new Chief's pretty careless, and hasn't realized his own value."

	At that, An Ping couldn't help but smile, an expression which Shawn shared, as he fully understood An Ping's intentions.

	Fantastic!

	If they could just grab Ning Tao from Dui-4399, then they could use him to force the Qinglong to return the Xuanming. That way, they could avoid needing to dive into the hornet's nest at all.

	And if the Qinglong didn't ransom him, then it would be seen as a dog biting the hand that feeds it. The Qiankun Corporation wouldn't forgive easily. Given the Hongxing Squad's propensity for violence, or rather, the guiding principle of being self-sustaining, meant that breaking a few bones to "encourage" a ransom wouldn't be unlikely.

	The only question was whether or not Ning Tao was actually on Dui-4399!

	"In all likelihood, the two guards at the front are the cream of the crop, and that kind of elite would only be deployed to protect a VIP. For a place as desolate like this, it's unlikely anyone like that but Ning Tao could be here. Either way, whatever we take should be more than enough to cover our costs."

	"And then let's blow it sky high before we leave, for effect," Uncle Xu added.

	An Ping nodded, "As Dui-4399 is Ning Tao's secret home, the Qinglong are going to be in contact. In truth the Qinglong are going to have to be the ones actually in charge of security, since in order to maintain the facade he wouldn't be able to send out security forces much. So any problems that arise, the Qinglong will come."

	"Still you remain the most devilish of us all, Captain!" Uncle Xu praised.























Translation Notes
a This isn't important, but in the real-world asteroid belt, the average distance between objects is about a million kilometres, and in fact requires quite a bit of effort to get close to one. I think in reality, any asteroid field with a densely-packed Star Wars-esque asteroid field, regular impacts shattering objects and sending them flying apart would very quickly make the densely-packed asteroid field into a very sparsely-packed one.

b technically it says radar but I thought scanner just sounded way better in context.

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
田路遥 - tiánlùyáo - Silver Knights something-or-other, the one who lost the Xuanming

At any rate,

https://74translations.wordpress.com/

Thanks for reading!