"Pilots! I want you to reach your designated tactical positions within twenty minutes. Launch your attack thirty minutes from now. I'll create the conditions for you and watch you reap the rewards. Whatever you imagine yourself capable of, you will surely accomplish. Maintain formation! Stay calm! Don't forget any of the tactical maneuvers you've learned. I guarantee that if you can carry out everything I've said, you'll realize that the power to change this universe is already in your hands."
Yu Lian's voice rang through the cockpits of every fast boat. He wasn't making any impassioned speech or delivering some florid parallelism. He simply spoke in a calm, measured tone, as though stating an objective truth.
Second Lieutenant Mars Cook still felt that he should have continued being a promising rowing champion. He should never have muddleheadedly joined the military, only to find his first real battle taking place on such a grand scale. Yet as he listened to his superior's voice, he suddenly realized that his hands, pressed against the controls, had somehow stopped trembling.
Come to think of it, when Lieutenant Rozes had come looking for him, he had said that Yu Lian had asked him to do so, believing that Cook had been born with an eagle's heart. A true eagle belonged in the sky, battling the heavens. How could its strongest feathers be clipped so it could stand in a zoo for people's amusement?
And so, while he had still been drunk on the glory of being a rowing champion, he had suddenly found the championship trophy far less appealing. Ignoring Big Sister Liuli's objections, he had enlisted on the front line and become a member of the experimental unit known as the "Tiger Leopard Cavalry."
Thinking about it now, he felt as though he had