Lieutenant General Sylvester and the soldiers of the Far Shore Military District all felt that this so-called "adapt as circumstances require" didn't sound like a proper order that any respectable person could have come up with.
They had thought that the bigwigs on Earth had already reached the absolute limit of shamelessness, but they never imagined that those people could keep lowering the bar.
Lieutenant General Sylvester looked at the young secretary's face behind the holographic projection. He knew this clerk wasn't the one who should be responsible for this, but he still wanted to punch him right in the nose.
Yang Mingzhao had probably guessed as much. All he could do was speak with utmost sincerity.
"I'm very sorry, Commander. The President and Cabinet are holding an emergency meeting. There's no precedent for this sort of thing in the history of the Commonwealth, so a full assessment and calculation are indeed necessary. Even the decision-makers in the central government will naturally show some hesitation and caution. I hope you'll understand."
As he spoke, the man clasped his hands together, and an appropriately apologetic look appeared on his affable face.
Seeing how proper the other man's attitude was—and how pleasantly he spoke—Lieutenant General Sylvester suddenly found himself unable to get angry. He merely muttered, "But haven't there been cases of pilots and warships defecting before... I mean, seeking freedom?"
"That was during the War of Independence. And the most famous case involved only a single destroyer, whose crew were mostly born on Earth or had relatives from Earth. But this is the first time we've had a senior official like Mr. Hector River. We've already checked his record. He's young, but he's served as mayor of a thirty-thousand-person space city in the imperial capital. Before joining the Grand Marshal's Office,