Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 822: The "Tools" I Picked Up
"I don't think this is the key point." Yeger shook his head. "Don't you find it strange? Just now, we were fighting to protect Yaguna Kator, and now we are asked to turn our guns around and attack the person we are protecting? I have been a soldier for so many years, and I have never heard such an order!"
"Maybe... Yaguna Tor really rebelled?" The lieutenant muttered with a hint of doubt.
"So, the black fleet is a rebellion suppression force from the Ark? But if that's the case, why didn't we receive any prior notice, not even a so-called 'secret order'?" Yeager's words contained a hint of anger. "Have you ever thought about what would be waiting for us if the people on Yaguna Tor didn't let us retreat?"
"yes……"
Before the lieutenant could give the answer, Yeager answered himself: "The whole army was annihilated."
"Ahem...Colonel, keep your voice down..." The second lieutenant looked back at the door of the medical room with a worried look on his face, and then lowered his voice and said to Yeger, "Questioning the order from above is..."
"So what if they question us? When we were fighting the Black Fleet, did the people above think of us?" Yeager said angrily. "If this is a game of chess, we are not even a pawn crossing the river! If it weren't for the group of people on Yaguna Kotor asking us to withdraw from the war zone, I'm afraid we would have been labeled traitors after we died in the battle... As for our families, let alone pensions and subsidies, we are lucky that we were not implicated or held accountable."
The lieutenant had a wooden face - he wanted to say something to refute Yeger, but found that he could not say anything.
Yeager was right. In the original plan, the entire Zero Fleet, including them, was a pawn that could be abandoned and sacrificed. In order not to alert the "mutineers" on Yaguna Tor, not to mention beforehand, not even during the battle, the Zero Fleet was given a single retreat order...
The entire Zero Fleet was considered a part of the "rebels" by the Ark's top brass, but Yeager dared to say that until now, the vast majority of the Zero Fleet had not figured out what had happened.
On the contrary, it was those people on Yaguna Tor who were confirmed as "traitors" who gave Fleet Zero a way out and allowed them to evacuate the battlefield... so that they would not become cannon fodder, or become abandoned pawns that were crushed into dust on a meaningless battlefield.
And now, the black fleet that was carrying out the suppression mission was destroyed by the "rebels", and the upper echelons of the Ark, who had originally decided to abandon the Zero Fleet, remembered them at this time - remembered them as the abandoned pawns saved by the "rebels", and asked them to turn around and deal with the so-called "rebels" to complete the mission that originally belonged to the "enemy" of the Zero Fleet.
Have the Ark's top leaders ever really treated themselves as human beings?
Yeger couldn't help but have doubts in his heart.
"Lieutenant, have you ever heard of a Chinese proverb from the old era?" Yeger suddenly asked.
"W-what?" The lieutenant obviously didn't understand what Yeager meant.
"Those who are righteous will have many supporters," Yegger paused, "but those who are unrighteous...will have few supporters."
"Colonel Yeager... Although, although I don't understand what you are saying..." The lieutenant turned his head to look at the door more frequently, "But I always feel that you seem to be saying something very dangerous..."
"I don't know whether Yaguna Kotor really rebelled, but now, I——"
Before Colonel Yeager could finish his words, the second lieutenant covered his mouth with his hands: "Colonel! Stop talking... There are security officers on board..."
Before he could finish his words, three security agents in gray uniforms walked in from outside... All three of them had serious expressions, and it was obvious that they had heard the conversation inside the corridor.
"Yeger Novikov, captain of the air combat force of the heavy cruiser Betelgeux of the Zero Fleet, with a rank of colonel, right?" the leading agent said in a cold tone, "We have recorded what you just said..."
"So?" Yeager pushed away the frightened lieutenant and looked at the security agent fearlessly, "What do you want to do to me?"
"In theory, you should be taken back to the Security Bureau headquarters for interrogation immediately, but considering that Fleet Zero and our ship are about to carry out a combat mission, I decided to detain you in the ship's confinement room until the combat mission is completed—"
"Wait a minute!" The lieutenant quickly stood between the two men and reached out to stop the security agent who was about to come up to take him away. "Major Yeager was seriously injured in the previous battle. He must stay here for treatment... If, if you are worried, you can leave someone here to watch him. I guarantee that he will not do anything that violates the rules."
After saying that, the lieutenant turned his head and blinked hard at Yeger a few times.
"But I don't think that Colonel Yeager will be able to stay here and receive treatment peacefully." The agent pushed the second lieutenant away and walked towards Yeager. Even the medical soldier who wanted to step forward to stop him was kicked to the ground by him.
But just as the agent was about to reach out to grab Yeger's arm, Yeger suddenly kicked him in the face, and then jumped off the stretcher with a somersault!
The wound on his back that had just been sutured broke open again, and the oozing blood immediately dyed the sterile suit worn by Yeger red, but he seemed to feel no pain at all, and his movements were not affected at all. He quickly grabbed a large syringe used for dispensing medicine on the cart beside him, pulled out the cover on the needle, and stabbed it into the arm of the Security Agency agent!
"Ugh!"
The agent screamed as his arm was pierced by the thick needle. He stumbled back a few steps, pulled out the pistol from his waist, and pointed it at Yeger who was about to pounce on him.
At this moment, the second lieutenant who was pushed away stood in front of him first - the second lieutenant wanted to reach out to grab the gun, but the security agent pulled the trigger without hesitation, and a loud gunshot echoed in the infirmary.
The deep red blood slowly spread across the lieutenant's waist and abdomen. The lieutenant covered the wound with both hands, looked at the security agent who fired the shot with some disbelief, and then fell to the ground.
"Fuck you!" Yeger cursed angrily and slammed into the arms of the Security Agency agent. He first hit the opponent's chest with a powerful elbow, and then snatched the opponent's gun that was released due to the blow to the chest. He turned the gun around, aimed at the Security Agency agent's chest and fired three shots in a row!
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
The two men fell heavily to the ground together, and a security agent behind them was about to draw his gun, but a medical soldier sneaked up behind him and knocked him unconscious with a folding stool.
In a blink of an eye, only the last and youngest one was left of the three security agents who entered the infirmary. From the inconspicuous silver chrome-plated copper button on his collar, it can be known that he is just a trainee agent in the "internship period".
(Note: The decorative copper buttons on the collars of the official uniforms of the Security Bureau agents are original copper color, while the decorative copper buttons on the collars of the trainee agents who have not yet passed the internship period are chrome-plated silver-white. Apart from this, it is generally difficult to judge the position and rank of a Security Bureau agent from his clothing and decorations.)
Yeager raised his head from the arms of the dead agent. His bloodstained face looked a little hideous. He raised his gun, pointed the muzzle at the last trainee agent, and whispered, "Since you heard the conversation between me and the lieutenant, you should also know what mission the higher-ups want us to carry out, right?"
"But...but this is an order..." the trainee agent said with some stammering, "No matter what the order is, we must obey..."
"Why?" Yeger looked straight into his eyes and asked again.
"Because... because, obeying orders... is... the military... is our... duty..." The trainee agent originally wanted to say that obeying orders is a soldier's duty, but then he thought that their Security Bureau did not seem to belong to the military sequence, so he changed his words to "ours".
"No, you're wrong." Yeager whispered, "Our duty is to protect the humans on the Ark and the only remaining spark of human civilization in this universe... not to obey those... damn orders!"
"What...what...do you want to do?" The trainee agent's words became increasingly incoherent.
"Since the top leaders have determined that Yaguna Kotor has rebelled, then as Yaguna Kotor's escort fleet, we are of course also considered rebels... Isn't that what they judged when the Black Fleet attacked before?" Yeger said with a smile, "In my opinion, at least the people on Yaguna Kotor left us a way out, and the top leaders of Ark have never cared about our lives!"
"You want to betray?" the trainee agent exclaimed. He said these four words very fluently, but as soon as he finished speaking, Yeager had already pulled the trigger.
"Bang!"
Yeager did not shoot the trainee agent, but simply knocked off the holster hanging on his waist, and then said to the medic: "Tie up these two guys, and also, hurry up and rescue the lieutenant!"
Several medical soldiers rushed forward and tied up the trainee agent and another agent who was knocked unconscious. However, the medical soldier who went to check on the second lieutenant turned around, shook his head at Yeager, and said, "The part that was shot was the pancreas... The amount of bleeding is very large. Even if he is sent to the medical cabin now, it is already..."
Having said that, the medical soldier sighed and did not continue.
"Fuck you." Yeger cursed calmly, but the calmer he appeared at the moment, the more intense the anger accumulated in his heart... He took a look at the body of the security agent. He was shot three times in the chest at close range, two of which pierced his lungs and one hit his heart. He was already dead.
"Gray dog... No, you are worse than a dog." Yeger whispered, "At least a dog can tell who is kind to it and who just wants to eat its meat."
"Colonel Yeger... what... should we do now?" After tying up the two security agents and stuffing large bags of hemostatic cotton in their mouths, several medical soldiers looked at Colonel Yeger.
Yeager was the only survivor of the "Betelgeuse" air combat force. The other pilots who had taken off did not even have the chance to return to the mother ship for treatment... The wounded admitted by the "Betelgeuse" cruiser were basically transferred from other severely damaged warships... and all of these people were injured in the battle with the Black Fleet.
Several people did not survive the transfer, and after arriving on Betelgeux, many wounded died of their injuries because they could not get a place in the medical cabin... The medical soldiers saw all these soldiers die.
The medical soldiers of Fleet Zero are all veterans drawn from various war zones. They have witnessed no less death than the combat troops, or even more... But such a meaningless sacrifice would make anyone feel uncomfortable.
What's more, they look at it from the perspective of a party involved, rather than a bystander.
What Colonel Yeager said was absolutely correct... The Ark's top brass didn't treat them as human beings at all. They... and even the entire Fleet Zero, were just "tools" that could be summoned and dismissed at will.
Moreover, it is a "tool" that had originally been abandoned by the "owner" and was now picked up by the "owner" from the "trash can" because the "new tool" was broken.
But they are human beings, living people, not mindless tools.
"I will disobey orders." Yeger said firmly, "I will not carry out such orders."
"But if you disobey orders, you will be considered a traitor!" a female medical soldier said worriedly.
"We were already considered as mutinous troops." Yeager looked at the medical soldier who spoke, and then pointed at the bodies covered with white cloth in the corner of the medical room, which had not been treated yet. "Why do you think they were killed? Who killed them?"
The female medic bit her lip and said nothing more.
"What's more, what lies before us now is clearly a mission to send us to our own death."
