"Ah, So... Jade Gate. Anyway, I'm back." Marshal Yu gazed at his loyal, familiar planet and the two stars—one red, one silver—at the center of the system, his heart full of emotion.
Seen from orbit, New Jade Gate still appeared yellow-brown and grass-green beneath its atmosphere, radiating a distinctive desolation and oppressive weight. It was clearly the kind of frontier planet where interesting stories could unfold.
Higher in orbit, the Commonwealth observation station and the Empire's forward base faced each other from afar, maintaining a restrained silence.
Come to think of it, the Empire had been in complete control of New Jade Gate's orbital space for over a year, yet it still hadn't cleared it out. Yu Lian had never expected that.
This was beyond amateurish. It was outright treason. He would never have imagined that, after all this time, the Imperial Army could have sunk so low.
Of course, it was also possible that the Commonwealth garrison on New Jade Gate had launched those objects into orbit after the "de facto" ceasefire.
And although there were still quite a few small and medium-sized warships and system patrol craft in the New Jade Gate system, they were probably there just to perform the routine formality of maintaining a "fleet presence."
Or perhaps they were there to deter pirates? After all, the Southern Heavenly Gate and the Gate of Glory had changed hands several times in just one year. Keeping watch over the New Continent's trade routes was naturally proving difficult, so there were always "free folk" looking for new horizons.
Yu Lian hovered in orbit above the planet, with the brilliantly lit city of Tulong spread out beneath him. Compared to when he had left, the city seemed to have grown considerably. Its lights and steel buildings formed an artificial