Chapter 262: Setting Sail

The *Dominion* and the mobile suits of the Actaeon Project were incorporated into Li Boyong's command sequence.

Immediately after the *Dominion* entered the port, he called the five pilots to his office. After some winning over and reminiscing, he let Sven and the others retire, leaving the Xia sisters behind.

It had been a while since they last met, and the Xia sisters' aura, which had finally warmed up a little, had become cold again.

"Sorry, because of my negligence, I let you participate in the counter-insurgency operation in Kyrgyzstan."

Li Boyong sighed, put down the report in his hand, and apologized to the Xia sisters.

The so-called counter-insurgency operation in Kyrgyzstan was actually the clearing of a Coordinator refugee camp somewhere in Kyrgyzstan by the Blue Cosmos forces in the military after Junius Seven dropped.

On the surface, it was called an anti-terrorism operation, but in essence, it was a retaliatory massacre.

The mobile suits of Actaeon all participated in that operation, which was a kind of deterrent warning of "using a sledgehammer to crack a nut."

At that time, Li Boyong had not yet descended to Earth from the moon, and coupled with the communication obstacles after Junius Seven, he couldn't stop the Xia sisters from participating in that operation.

"Why is Teacher apologizing?"

Xia Yulan tilted her head, looking somewhat puzzled.

Xia Yufang, however, understood Li Boyong's meaning, pulled her sister's sleeve, and said: "Thank you for your concern, Yulan and I are fine."

After a pause, she added: "We're already used to it."

Already used to it...

Li Boyong felt inexplicably unhappy upon hearing this; no, or perhaps it should be called awkward.

Recently, he had been plotting military backstabbing and political struggles with Wang Liumei, making him feel like he was becoming increasingly hypocritical.

Hypocritically saying sorry to the Xia sisters, hoping they could regain normal human emotions, etc.

Clearly, he really needed the Xia sisters as combat power to gallop on the battlefield for him.

Thinking about it this way, he was actually no different from those guys in LOGOS...

The fact that the Xia sisters were still emotionless tool people was the best evidence.

"By the way, Teacher, is there any news about Lady Shihe?"

Just as Li Boyong was falling into self-loathing, he unexpectedly heard Xia Yulan's question.

Sensing a trace of concern for Shihe from the other party's question—that was an emotion only normal people would have—Li Boyong's mood suddenly brightened again, with a kind of old-father-like relief.

The Xia sisters back then wouldn't have had such normal-looking expressions...

But regarding the answer to the question, Li Boyong chose to evade: "There is no news for the time being."

He speculated that it was highly likely Shihe was in the ZAFT camp, but now that the two sides were at war, it was very difficult to find her tracks.

After chatting awkwardly with the poker-faced sisters for a few more sentences and feeling that the sisters were really not good objects for conversation, Li Boyong let them return to the *Dominion* to rest, while he went to the base headquarters to handle the paperwork, which was officially incorporating the *Jones* aircraft carrier, the *Dominion*, and a series of mobile suits into his command sequence.

After replenishing supplies, Li Boyong led his unit to set sail.

Now he had a carrier battle group consisting of the *Jones* aircraft carrier, two cruisers, and two frigates under his command, as well as the powerful *Dominion*.

In terms of mobile suits, he possessed three Gundams produced by ZAFT—Chaos, Abyss, and Gaia—as well as the five Gundams of the Actaeon Project. There were also nine Windams from his other Phantom Pain pilots.

The five Gundams of the Actaeon Project were assigned to the *Dominion*, Li Boyong's own Windams were assigned to the *Jones* along with the mobile suits of the Three Stooges, and the remaining eight Windams were assigned to the two cruisers respectively.

This level of combat power, if it could be completely mastered, could be said to be quite easy for attacking some ordinary military bases.

The fleet set sail from San Antonio Naval Port, heading south all the way through the Panama Canal into the Pacific Ocean.

On the bridge of the *Jones*, watching his fleet pass through the Panama Canal and sail into the vast Pacific Ocean.

Li Boyong couldn't help but feel a sense of indescribable relief. Thinking back to when he first arrived in the CE century, he was just a rookie MA pilot who could be cannon fodder at any time; he never expected that he would now be able to command such a detachment.

"I'll leave the bridge to you all; I'm going to check on the situation of the pilots."

After giving a casual instruction, Li Boyong left the bridge and headed to the hangar.

After Li Boyong left, the captain of the *Jones* on the captain's seat said with a subtle tone: "Our Colonel seems to be an unexpectedly gentle man, calling those disgusting tools 'pilots'."

After a pause, he continued: "Or is it because there are some interesting toys hidden inside?"

Others on the bridge looked at each other and smiled upon hearing this, revealing looks that all men understood.

Their commander's doting on that blonde girl was also quite famous in the unit, and all kinds of gossip were flying around in private.

The atmosphere on the bridge gradually became "gentlemanly," but someone spoke coldly, destroying this harmonious atmosphere.

"Discussing superiors behind their backs is not a good habit."

I saw a blonde male officer next to the captain's seat coldly reminding his colleagues. This person was the direct adjutant assigned to Li Boyong by Phantom Pain, so naturally, he had to maintain his superior's authority.

"Sorry, it was just a joke; I'll definitely pay attention next time."

The captain smiled and laughed it off, casually skipping over this topic.

The adjutant said nothing more and cast his gaze back to the ocean outside the bridge.

Speaking of which, the composition of this detachment was actually quite complex. These aircraft carriers and the officers and men originally assigned to the ships belonged to the Atlantic Federation Navy and were later incorporated under the command of the Phantom Pain unit. The mobile suits, pilots, and subsequent logistics personnel assigned to the ships belonged to Phantom Pain.

As for the *Dominion*, it was originally in the Space Force sequence and was temporarily incorporated under the command of the Phantom Pain unit after the war broke out, carrying the Actaeon series of mobile suits, pilots, and logistics personnel.

So, from ordinary soldiers to commanders, it was reasonable to have some small frictions in their daily lives.

Fortunately, the commander level was relatively restrained and kept their subordinates in check, not daring to cause too much trouble for Li Boyong, this commander who was rumored to have an extremely deep background.

After all, this Colonel was now being promoted as a hero who saved the Earth, and his prestige among the grassroots soldiers was very high. The military headquarters had specifically deployed so many elite units from the Navy and Space Force this time, naturally wanting everyone to cooperate well with this Colonel Neo to achieve some results and serve the purpose of boosting military morale.

After all, they had suddenly declared war and even used nuclear missiles, only to be beaten back; the morale in the military could be imagined.

The higher-ups really hoped that this Colonel could use beautiful results to reverse the low morale. ===== CHAPTER 263 =====