Mars Base

"Students, today, one of our outstanding cadets completed his graduation assessment ahead of schedule. Fleet Admiral Liang Xingchen will now personally confer his rank!"

After Li Fulai spoke, Liang Xingchen stepped onto the stage, and the audience immediately erupted.

"Who's so incredible that the God of War of the Federation is personally conferring his rank?"

"General Liang Xingchen! A hero of humanity! He actually appeared right in front of me!"

"Wasn't General Liang's information classified? Is it really okay for him to appear so openly?"

"It's classified from outsiders, okay? We're a military academy, part of the Federal Fleet ourselves!"

"Will I get arrested if I take a picture right now?"

"What do you think?"

As Liang Xingchen took the stage, the audience below fell into chaos, with whispers filling the entire hall.

"Quiet!"

Li Fulai shouted, and the hall instantly fell silent. The dean still carried some authority, even if he could be rather shameless in private.

"What kind of behavior is this? You are soldiers! Have you forgotten even basic discipline? Now, Cadet Lin Fan of the 55th Fleet Command Department of the Military Academy, please come to the stage."

So it was him? No wonder. He was the prodigy said to appear only once every thousand years in the entire academy. No wonder General Liang Xingchen had come in person to confer his rank.

The crowd below instantly understood. After all, Lin Fan's monstrous talent had long been common knowledge throughout the academy.

When it came to command ability, no one in the entire academy could rival him. Even the instructors willingly admitted defeat. He had even thoroughly crushed the famous Wood Scott before—a currently serving colonel and a genius commander many called the next Liang Xingchen.

And Lin Fan's reputation as a monster did not stem from that alone. What was even more terrifying was that besides his command talent, his research talent had dazzled everyone.

During his three years at the academy, he had occasionally produced research results. The key was that he did not focus on a single discipline, but had dabbled in every field.

His most famous achievement had been designing an artificial gravity device.

A few years ago, the academy had still been without gravity. It was only after Lin Fan designed the artificial gravity device that the academy became no different from Earth.

Even the artificial gravity currently used by the Federal Fleet came from Lin Fan's design.

Of course, Lin Fan felt that he had not wanted this either. Who could blame the system for handing out technology every time he completed a mission?

At this moment, Lin Fan had already changed into the Federal Fleet's black uniform and stood before Liang Xingchen. He came to attention and saluted, his movements impeccably precise.

Liang Xingchen looked at Lin Fan and nodded in satisfaction. He turned, took the rank insignia from the tray held by his adjutant, and solemnly pinned it onto Lin Fan.

"Congratulations! From today onward, you are an official soldier of the Federation!"

"Yes! I will not disappoint the commander's expectations."

At this point, the people below were practically dumbfounded. The insignia on Lin Fan's shoulder was that of a colonel.

Lin Fan was only nineteen, okay? A nineteen-year-old colonel—who had ever heard of that?

Yet all the cadets found it perfectly reasonable. After all, whether in fleet command or scientific research, Lin Fan's monstrous reputation was simply too resounding.

For a nineteen-year-old colonel to appear, not a single person raised an objection. That in itself was quite unbelievable.

The next moment, applause filled the entire hall and continued for a long time.

Yet Lin Fan, standing on the stage, was a little excited, because the system's adorable voice rang in his ear.

"Ding! Congratulations, host, for completing Mission 2: Raise rank to colonel. Reward: one vial of gene enhancement serum, placed in system storage."

This was gene enhancement serum, something that had always existed in all kinds of human novels and film productions. How could Lin Fan not be excited?

But no matter how excited he was, he could not take it out and use it now. So although his heart churned with excitement, Lin Fan maintained a stern expression.

Emma stared blankly at Lin Fan on the stage. As she applauded, she softly spoke in a voice only she could hear.

"Next year, I'll go to Mars Base to find you!"

At four in the afternoon, after the rank conferment ceremony finally ended, Lin Fan bid farewell to Li Fulai and embarked on the journey to Mars Base with Liang Xingchen.

Three days later, the Petrel-class Destroyer carrying Lin Fan arrived at Mars Base.

This was Lin Fan's first time coming to Mars since transmigrating. The entire base was built in Mars's orbit and consisted of a small space city, thirty-eight large orbital starports, and countless small and medium orbital starports. The Fourth Fleet's twenty thousand warships, along with countless civilian vessels, were stationed here.

Why were there so many civilian vessels? The main reason was the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. As the Federation's only current source of resources, it naturally had to be exploited heavily.

However, under the current circumstances, mining the Asteroid Belt carried a certain degree of danger.

Although the two sides had not gone to war since Federation Year 52, the Oakes Empire had continuously dispatched small fleets into the Asteroid Belt to launch surprise attacks, primarily targeting the Federation's resource mining ships.

Therefore, one of the Second Fleet's main tasks was to patrol the Asteroid Belt and protect the resource mining ships. As a result, countless small-scale battles had still broken out in the belt over the past six years.

Thus, eighteen of Mars Base's thirty-eight orbital starports were currently used by resource mining ships and transport vessels.

"So this is Mars Base? It's truly spectacular!"

Lin Fan looked through the warship's observation window at the scene before him. In the military starport within his view alone, no fewer than a thousand warships were docked, presenting an immensely spectacular sight.

Thinking that there were another nineteen military ports like this, Lin Fan could not help feeling stirred.

Before long, the destroyer docked at the port of that small space city, which was the headquarters of Mars Base.

After disembarking, Liang Xingchen brought Lin Fan to his office and had his adjutant notify Liang Xue to come over.

Lin Fan had no idea who Liang Xue was and did not pay it much attention.

"This is your appointment. Take a look."

After the adjutant left, Liang Xingchen sat in his chair, glanced at Lin Fan standing ramrod straight before his desk, and handed him a document.

Lin Fan accepted the document and quickly scanned it. He was deeply shocked. Liang Xingchen had actually given him a fleet directly.

The document stated that, upon the recommendation of Fleet Admiral Liang Xingchen, commander of the Fourth Fleet, Lin Fan was exceptionally promoted to colonel in the Federal Fleet and simultaneously appointed commander of the Fourth Fleet's 101st Mixed Fleet, effective immediately.

"The 101st Mixed Fleet is the newest experimental fleet of my Fourth Fleet. It has a total of 144 warships: nine carriers, nine battlecruisers, eighteen cruisers, thirty-six destroyers, and seventy-two frigates."

"In addition, Mars Base will assign a medium-sized starport as the exclusive base of the 101st Mixed Fleet."

Hearing this, Lin Fan found it somewhat strange. Ordinarily, a medium-sized orbital starport could dock fifty battlecruiser-class warships and five hundred destroyer-class warships.

But Liang Xingchen was telling Lin Fan that a medium-sized orbital starport would serve as the exclusive base of the 101st Mixed Fleet?

That was highly unusual. Did one hundred and forty-four warships need such a large starport?

"You're wondering why I'm giving such a large starport to the fleet as its exclusive base, aren't you?"

"Yes, Commander!"

"That's because this new starport used to be a warship testing port. It can only dock a little over a hundred warships. The rest of the space consists of various production workshops. Do you understand?"

As he spoke, Liang Xingchen gave Lin Fan a meaningful look.