Mars Base

"Classmates, today, one of our outstanding cadets has completed their graduation assessment ahead of schedule. General Liang Xingchen will now present them with their rank!"

After Li Fulai spoke, Liang Xingchen walked onto the stage, and the audience immediately buzzed with excitement.

"Who is this amazing person? To have the God of War of the Federation personally bestow their rank upon him?"

"General Liang Xingchen! A hero of humanity! He's actually here before me!"

"Wait, aren't General Liang's details classified? Is it okay for him to appear so openly?"

"Classified for outsiders, perhaps. We are a military academy, a part of the Federal Fleet itself!"

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

"What do you think?"

Seeing Liang Xingchen ascend the stage, the hall erupted in a commotion, filled with whispers.

"Quiet!"

Li Fulai's loud shout instantly silenced the crowd. The dean still possessed a certain authority, despite his somewhat mischievous demeanor in private.

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

So it's him? No wonder. The academy had always boasted about this prodigy, said to appear only once in a millennium. It made sense that General Liang Xingchen would personally come to present his rank.

The crowd immediately understood. Lin Fan's reputation as a prodigy was already widely known.

His command talent was unmatched within the entire academy, even the instructors admitted defeat. Not long ago, he had even decisively defeated the famous Wood Scott, a serving colonel and a genius commander many called the next Liang Xingchen.

Furthermore, Lin Fan's prodigy status wasn't solely based on his command abilities. Even more astonishing was his research talent, which blinded everyone.

In his three years at the academy, he had consistently produced research breakthroughs, not just in one field, but across multiple disciplines.

The most famous instance was when Lin Fan designed the artificial gravity device.

It was hard to believe that just a few years ago, this academy lacked gravity. After Lin Fan designed the artificial gravity device, the academy became almost indistinguishable from Earth.

In fact, the artificial gravity currently used by the Federal Fleet was also based on Lin Fan's design.

Of course, Lin Fan himself stated he didn't intend for this, as the system would constantly send him technical advancements after each completed mission.

At this moment, Lin Fan had changed into the Federal Fleet's black uniform and stood before Liang Xingchen, at attention, saluting with meticulous precision.

Liang Xingchen looked at Lin Fan, nodded with satisfaction, turned, took the insignia from his aide's tray, and solemnly placed it on Lin Fan.

"Congratulations! From today onwards, you are a formal soldier of the Federation!"

"Yes! I will not disappoint your expectations, Commander."

At this point, the entire audience was stunned. The rank on Lin Fan's shoulder was colonel.

Lin Fan was only 19 years old. A 19-year-old colonel – had anyone ever heard of such a thing?

However, all the cadets felt it was entirely reasonable. Lin Fan's reputation as a prodigy in both fleet command and research was too well-established.

The fact that a 19-year-old had become a colonel surprisingly elicited no objections from anyone, which was itself an incredible feat.

The next moment, the entire auditorium erupted in thunderous applause that seemed to last forever.

Meanwhile, Lin Fan, on stage, felt a surge of excitement as a pleasant system voice echoed in his ear.

"Ding, congratulations to the host for completing Mission 2: Promote military rank to Colonel. Reward: one tube of gene enhancement serum, now stored in the system space."

A gene enhancement serum! Something that existed only in human novels and films. How could Lin Fan not be excited?

But no matter how excited he was, he couldn't take it and use it right now. So, despite his inner elation, Lin Fan maintained a perfectly serious expression.

Emma, in the audience, gazed at Lin Fan on stage, clapping her hands, and softly whispered to herself, audible only to her, "Next year, I'll come find you at Mars Base!"

At four in the afternoon, Lin Fan, his commissioning ceremony finally concluded, bade farewell to Li Fulai and embarked on his journey to Mars Base with Liang Xingchen.

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

This was Lin Fan's first time on Mars since his transmigration. The entire base was constructed in Mars' orbit, consisting of a small space city, 38 large orbital starports, and countless medium and small orbital starports. It was home to the Fourth Fleet's 20,000 warships and innumerable civilian vessels.

Why were there so many civilian ships? The primary reason lay with the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. As the Federation's sole source of resources, it naturally required extensive mining operations.

However, under the current circumstances, mining the Asteroid Belt carried significant risks.

Although the two sides hadn't engaged in open warfare since Federation Year 52, the Oakes Empire consistently dispatched small fleets for surprise attacks within the Asteroid Belt. Their primary targets were the Federation's resource extraction ships.

Therefore, one of the main tasks of the Second Fleet currently was patrolling the Asteroid Belt to provide protection for resource extraction ships. Consequently, over the past six years, numerous small-scale battles had still broken out in the asteroid belt.

As a result, 18 of the 38 orbital starports at Mars Base were dedicated to resource extraction and transport ships.

"Is this Mars Base? It's truly spectacular!"

Lin Fan gazed at the scene through the destroyer's observation window. Within his line of sight, a military starport housed no less than 1,000 warships, a truly magnificent sight.

Thinking that there were 19 other such starports, Lin Fan couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion.

Soon, the destroyer docked at the port of the small space city, which served as the headquarters of Mars Base.

After disembarking, Liang Xingchen led Lin Fan to his office and instructed his aide to summon Liang Xue.

Lin Fan didn't know who Liang Xue was and paid it little mind.

"Here is your appointment, take a look."

After the adjutant left, Liang Xingchen sat down in his seat. He looked at Lin Fan, who was standing ramrod straight in front of his desk, and handed him a document.

Lin Fan took the document and quickly scanned it. He was very shocked, as Liang Xingchen had directly given him a fleet.

The document stated that, upon the recommendation of Fourth Fleet Commander General Liang Xingchen, Lin Fan was to be promoted exceptionally to Federation Fleet Colonel and concurrently appointed Commander of the Fourth Fleet's 101st Mixed Fleet, effective immediately.

"The 101st Mixed Fleet is the newest experimental fleet in my Fourth Fleet. It comprises 144 warships, including 9 Aircraft Carriers, 9 Battlecruisers, 18 Cruisers, 36 Destroyers, and 72 Frigates."

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

Hearing this, Lin Fan found it a bit strange. Logically, a medium-sized orbital starport could accommodate over 50 battlecruiser-class warships and 500 destroyer-class warships.

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

This was quite unusual. Did 144 warships really require such a large starport?

"You find it strange that such a large starport is being used as the exclusive base for the fleet, don't you?"

"Yes, Commander!"

"This is because this new port was formerly a warship testing facility, capable of docking only a little over 100 warships. The rest of the space is occupied by various production workshops, do you understand?"

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