After saluting Xiao Ran, Brigadier General Mok revealed a rare smile. "Major General Xiao, you're the fastest-promoted person I've ever seen in UNION."
Xiao Ran shook his head with a smile at Mok's words and spoke frankly. "That may be true, but when it comes down to it, it was only a deal of mutual interests. I was able to take this position not only because I recaptured the base today. There were other reasons as well."
Brigadier General Mok nodded and looked through the bridge windows at the Black Astray parked on the deck. He understood what had happened, but did not say it aloud.
This was a typical exchange of interests. What Xiao Ran possessed was what UNION needed. Although their gains over the past few days had been considerable, wreckage was still just wreckage. It could not compare to an intact MS, especially one with a complete set of technologies. With the world situation changing constantly, possessing powerful military strength was the foundation for safeguarding one's interests. Paying the price of a regional commander in exchange for the full technology of a new MS was a deal in which both sides would come out winners.
But for Xiao Ran, hiding among the enemy and trading MS technology with them made it difficult to say whether this counted as aiding the enemy. Still, if Xiao Ran himself were to speak of it, he had great confidence in this deal. Even if UNION obtained the Astray's blueprints, those materials would absolutely not be complete. If UNION truly built according to the data Xiao Ran provided, the resulting machines would at most reach the standard of mass-produced M1 Astrays.
What Xiao Ran would gain was the actual military command authority of the Japanese Special Economic Zone, as well as... the