From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 587 Atlas Psychic Boy
"Master, the children still want to stay in Atlas?"

Amber asked Master Ian Stormrage as she walked on a tree-lined path in the psychic area of ​​Zhongsi Academy.

In addition to his routine meeting with these young psychics, he also came here to give these children one last chance to choose.

In his opinion, these are a group of children after all, and they still have a long way to go in the future with many paths to choose from. They don't necessarily have to stay in Atlas.

Even if I stay in Atlas forever, I don't have to get my hands stained with blood one day in the future.
Moreover, Amber always felt that the practice of training a group of orphans to be "killing machines" from an early age was a bit too cruel - although Amber never considered herself a "positive character", being considered a "hero" was already a very good evaluation.

Amber admitted that when he adopted these 13 young psychics, he briefly thought about training them to become Atlas' own "psychic agents", or if it was in a strategy game, he would do so without hesitation.

But now it is obviously not as simple as in the game. Amber will have to watch these 13 children grow up, so he couldn't convince himself to train them for a while.

I asked Ellenita to find Master Stormrage, just to guide the psychic growth of these children correctly and prevent them from going "psychic rampage" one day in the future.
Ion Stormrage: "After you asked them last time, Mr. Amber, I also communicated with the children several times, but they still want to stay here. Well, not only do they want to stay here, but they also want to join Atlas like everyone else."

"Others?" Amber asked with some confusion.

"After the psychic training class moved to Zhongsi Academy, I took the children to visit the Zhongsi Memorial Hall in the academy several times. There are many stories of the employees who sacrificed their lives in the Atlas Group, as well as the several wars that the Atlas Group has experienced so far."

Ion Stormrage spoke slowly and calmly:
"These children no longer have any impression of their parents, and the memories they had at the Federal Psionic Research Institute were not good either. So coming to Atlas creates a stark contrast for them. Under such circumstances, it is normal for them to feel dependent on you in the Atlas Group."

"Dependence" Amber whispered the word, pondering it in her mind.

It was during this time that a man and an elf also came to the classroom where the 13 children were currently.

Ian Stormrage gestured for Amber to come in and then opened the door of the classroom for her.

Amber, who was rarely nervous, took a deep breath, then looked up and walked into the classroom dedicated to psychics.

Since he was going to go directly to the deployment bay, he was wearing the Atlas Group's commander's field coat, which attracted everyone's attention as soon as he entered.

"Mr. Amber!" An older boy was the first to react, and then the boys and girls in the classroom also greeted Amber excitedly.

"Mr. Amber is here to see us again!"

"Any new story this time, Mr. Amber?"

"Mr. Amber, my psychic power has broken through again!"

"Me too, Mr. Amber!"

To be honest, Amber never expected that after bringing these children back, they would be so dependent on him. Every time he came to visit these 13 psychic teenagers, they would appear very happy - especially when he shared recent interesting stories with these children, or praised their improved psychic power.

And Amber also received a lot of "positive feedback" from their reactions. Although they were all psychics classified as "dangerous people" in this world, Amber still felt the liveliness unique to teenagers in them.

Therefore, he did not look at these young people with tinted glasses like other forces. When Master Ion Stormrage taught everyone how to control their psychic powers, Amber actually wanted these young people to return to normal life, instead of growing up in the atmosphere of Atlas Group, which was destined to deal with blood and fire.
Soon, after chatting and playing with the 13 children for a while, Amber checked the time and asked everyone seriously again:

"I came here today for another important matter, which is to ask you about your future plans. I know that after living in Atlas for so long, you are reluctant to leave this atmosphere, so I have slightly adjusted my last idea."

Amber paused, looked at the boys and girls' eyes, and continued:
"I can narrow down the scope of your future guardians to the Atlas Group. In this way, you will still be a part of Atlas, and after you become adults, you can officially join the Atlas Group through your own efforts.
It's not that I think you can't help, quite the opposite. Some of you actually meet the criteria to join a special forces, but I don't want your hands to be stained with blood. You have the right and should grow up in a normal living environment like other ordinary children.

I promise that your adoptive parents will love you more than your biological parents, and other than coming to Master Stormrage for psychic training regularly, your life will be no different from that of other Atlas employees."

After saying that, Amber looked at everyone calmly, waiting for the children's responses.

After a moment, Foster, the oldest of the 13, raised his hand.

"Mr. Amber, are we going to make a decision today?"

Amber shook her head: "Of course not, I will give you enough time to think about it, and you can give me an answer when I come to visit you next time~"

Then he looked specifically at the youngest boy, Torres. Although this little fat boy had lost a lot of weight, his habit of eating snacks had not changed at all.

"Especially you, Torres. You have to think it over carefully. If you have a guardian to look after you, you can still eat your favorite snacks in the future. But if you join the special forces, you will be subject to military management. At that time, you will not be able to decide what to eat~"

"what?"

Torres's face suddenly fell, but another little girl next to him quickly pinched his arm, making him put away his depressed expression.

Amber was no stranger to this little girl either.

Pru, at that time in the basement of the institute, it was she who covered Torres' mouth to prevent the little fat boy from "confessing" under the temptation of snacks.

Amber looked at their little actions and smiled but didn't say anything. After looking around at everyone again, she spoke:
"Like I just said, the choice is in your hands. During this time, think carefully about what kind of life you want to live in the future. When I come next time, I will hear your answer~"

After finishing this somewhat serious topic, Amber played with the children for a while to relax the atmosphere again, and chatted with Master Ian Stormrage for a while before leaving.

Before leaving, the words of this elf old man who looked like Master Yoda also made Amber fall into deep thought. "For these children, 'becoming you' is more tempting than living a happy and prosperous life."

Amber: "Why would they want to be me?"

Ion Stormrage: "It's very simple, because the psychics in the human world have been treated too unfairly. The government even guides ordinary people to exclude psychics in the folk, and then makes these desperate 'aliens' join the official organization to work for them.

But Amber, you showed them another way. You let them know that psychics can also fight for a future for themselves. And everything that Atlas Group is doing now just proves that you are not just talking nonsense. This way is indeed feasible. This is more effective than the countless brainwashing propaganda films that we showed them in the Psychic Research Institute."

It can be said that the words of this "Master Yoda from another world" opened the door to a new world for Amber.

"Perhaps I could make Atlas a 'new home' for human psykers?"
-
A-Bava-Ku Asteroid Fortress, Deployment Bay 322.

All warships of the 'Red Hand' special strike team, as well as the combat units on board, were assembled within the specified time.

After all, if soldiers are late for combat missions, they will have a high performance bonus deducted and will be disqualified from the year-end performance evaluation, and officers at all levels will be held more accountable from the bottom up according to their military rank.

When the punishment mechanism is set up strictly enough and is enforced without leniency or discounts, the probability of such problems that can be avoided manually will approach zero.

At least since the establishment of Atlas' combat forces, no matter whether it is the fleet or the ground combat forces, there has never been a case of being late for battle attendance assembly - in fact, more than 90% of the federal garrison troops and the private soldiers of the imperial nobles can do this.

Even the regular armies of the Federation and the Empire cannot guarantee that every unit can achieve the same emergency attendance punctuality rate as Atlas.
After Amber finished her visit to the psychic training class, she immediately took the high-speed commuter elevator to the deployment bay outside the asteroid fortress.

However, when he and others boarded a battleship that served as the flagship of this operation and commanded the special strike team to begin the departure procedure, they also received the latest news from the research vessel.

They discovered that the fleet of the 'Foundation for the Quest for Truth' appeared near this Forerunner Research Institute.

"No, how did they find us here? Isn't this research institute located in a 'void area'?"

The 'void zone' that Amber refers to is a 'dead place' in the universe where there are absolutely no other celestial bodies around.

The area where this Pioneer Research Institute is currently located is a typical "void zone". The nearest planet is hundreds of light years away. Under normal circumstances, it is impossible for any living creature to approach here.

If Saleh had not conducted a needle-in-a-haystack search based on a rough coordinate in her memory, Amber and her team might never have discovered this research institute.

This was originally the intention of the pioneers to set up this research institute here. After all, this is a place to study "immortality". If possible, they would probably want to stuff this research institute into the subspace - this was indeed one of the site selection plans for this research institute back then.

However, according to Saleh, the situation in the warp is more complicated and dangerous than the Jeram people imagined. The Jeram people have studied the warp for many years, and after sending out many expeditions without return, they finally gave up their research on the warp...

Although Amber was curious about why the Truth Seeking Foundation could find this place, she thought that this foundation was established to dig up the graves of the forerunners. In addition, it has been established for so many years and there must be some gains. So it is not impossible for them to find this research institute.

The Atlas research vessel in front is, to some extent, actually also a professional reconnaissance ship.

After all, working alone in the wild every day requires some ability to "seek benefits and avoid harm". In addition, Amber spared no expense in the construction of the research vessel, so in terms of reconnaissance capability, it is also at the T0 level among all current human warships.

So in addition to reporting the discovery of traces of the Truth Seeking Foundation's warships, the archaeological ship even sent back a reconnaissance report on the Foundation's fleet.

In addition to informing the rear of the size of the fleet, the most important information in the report was that it was discovered that there were multiple capital ships in the fleet...

"Now we have even the capital ships? There are even four battleships among them..."

Amber frowned as he looked at the reconnaissance report, because in his memory, the Quest for Truth Foundation had a battleship in the second DLC - at that time, the official strengthened the combat effectiveness of a wave of early NPC forces, and the Quest for Truth Foundation was one of them.

"That's not surprising, Boss..."

A combat staff officer on the bridge replied:

"After the strategic decisive battle between the Federation and the Empire, some of the battleships of both sides were lost to the public. Now, if you have acquaintances in the major black markets, you can indeed find a way to purchase battleships..."

Hearing the words of the operations staff, Amber nodded.

In the previous war between the two major human forces, not every soldier and every warship could show enough bravery and fearlessness.

Due to reasons such as disappearance, defection, getting lost in the melee, etc., many warships were ultimately unable to return to the team.

The situation where ships that were judged as "scrapped" by the repair dock after being damaged in the war were secretly resold to the public by some people with ulterior motives was also common in the rear areas of the Federation and the Star Dragon Empire...

"If the other side has battleships, we still need to be a little more cautious. Although I don't believe that these battleships can recover their combat effectiveness in a short period of time..."

After thinking for a moment, Amber felt that the things in this research institute were relatively important. She didn't want others to get there first, so she continued to give orders:
"Pass on my order, the 'Red Hand' strike team will set sail at the scheduled time, and the jump coordinates will be adjusted to the second hidden coordinates!

The reserve strike team 'Strong Transport' will begin to assemble immediately. Once assembled, they will set out immediately and be ready to support the battle! "

(End of this chapter)