Two days after the Special Division returned to Crest, He Yuan settled into a comfortable rhythym. Awarding of merit wouldn't hold until a week later so he was focused on finishing the procedure for Yang Xue's Mandron Division.
888 had confined himself in his host's mindspace, vehemently refusing to come out even after being coaxed by He Yuan for a while.
On the third day, He Yuan suddenly received a notification to his office landline.
[[Marshal Court Hearing Between Plaintiff, Lieutenant Colonel Jin, And Defendant, Sergeant Major Yang, On Charges Of Attempted Murder. Date: The Seventh Day Of The Fifth Month Of The Plexian Calendar]]
He Yuan raised a brow. That was in two days. Jin Qi had filed a case against him in the Marshal Court? Ha. It seemed it was almost time for him to leave the Task realm. He'd noticed that the looks he'd been receiving lately had been more uncomfortable than usual but since he had very little time to sort through things before he left, he paid no mind to them.
Even his bracelet that had been safely packed away before he went on the mission two days ago was still packed away. He calmly opened a compartment in his desk and retrieved the bracelet. After activating the bracelet, it took three clicks to log on to the Federation Network and then he was taken given a surprise.
#MANDRON SOLDIER ATTEMPTS MURDER OF SUPERIOR DURING MISSION!
#LIEUTENANT COLONEL JIN SUSTAINS MAJOR INJURIES DURING MISSION. LOSES BOTH OF HER LEGS TO HORRID CREATURES!
#MANDRON SOLDIER, SERGEANT MAJOR YANG'S, MIRACLE GENES DEEMED USELESS AS REPLICATION IS SCIENTIFICALLY IMPOSSIBLE!
#DANGEROUS NEW SPECIES DISCOVERED ON SUB-PLANET AER!
#JUST IN! LIEUTENANT COLONEL JIN SUES SERGEANT MAJOR YANG TO MARSHAL COURT. HEARING IN TWO DAYS!
The surprise had actually come from the third piece of news. He didn't think the Coalition would discover the truth of Yang Xue's genes so soon. It was no wonder this Marshal Court Hearing had quickly been set up with no hesitation. The Marshals were obviously using this opportunity to dump him.
He Yuan looked down. The comment section was exactly what he'd expected it to be. These past two days that he'd been holed up in work, the first four news articles had already been spread so now everybody was more focused on the last one.
[[#User638dhnj: Just seeing that Lieutenant Jin is finally suing that horrible mandron to Marshal Court and I'm all for it!
#MountainDew: After seeing Sergeant Major Yang in the news so much. I have come to like this aloof mandron a lot. I honestly don't think he's the kind of person that would harm his superior.
#ShiBai: @MountainDew, Shut up and throw that bracelet of yours in a waste shredder.
#Dhae: I already said this mandron was nothing good but did anyone believe me? No! Now look, he had tried to kill Lieutenant Jin! I'm kinda convinced that General Ding had been innocent and had been set up by this ill-natured mandron!
#BaoBao: @Dhae, Are you an idiot? How could you even compare the two? General Ding is clearly a bad person. The mandron is also horrible but there's no need to try to absolve General Ding of his own sins!]]
He Yuan was too lazy to continue at that point. The truth was, even if Jin Qi hadn't sued him, he would have sued her before he left the realm anyways so this was a win for him.
-------------------------------
On the day of the Marshal Court Hearing, He Yuan went over to the Technica Department to make a request before he was escorted to the venue by two soldiers. Since the Hearing was holding on Crest this time, civilians weren't present but a few reporters had been given free passes into Crest to capture it life under the request of the plaintiff aka Jin Qi.
The Hearing was taking place in a closed off hall on the highest floor of the Third army HQ and the minute He Yuan walked in, all eyes zeroed in on him at the same time. Unlike during Ding Weimin's trial, the amount of people present included, Ten out of Eleven Marshals -due to the Second Marshal's relation to Jin Qi, he was not allowed to join the panel but he was present and over at the gallery with the rest of the audience.
There were also some reporters, a lot of soldiers who were currently not on active duty, Jin Yusheng, First Lieutenant Taepher and Second Lieutenant Bo in the witness box and, of course, a sickly looking Jin Qi seating on a wheelchair in the Plaintiff box and staring at him with enough hatred to melt iron.
As soon as He Yuan was enclosed in the Defendant's dock, all Ten Marshals struck their gavels at the same time, signalling the commencement of the Trial.
This First Marshal was also the one presiding over the Hearing this time. He eyed the mandron with a little dissatisfaction. They had all had great plans for the mandron's genes but who knew it would turn out to not be useful afterall? As for the reason for this trial...
He turned to Jin Qi. There wouldn't have been a case if not for the fact that Jin Qi's record of the event tallied with First Lieutenant Taepher whilst He Yuan's record of the event tallied with Second Lieutenant Bo. This meant that there was a 50/50 chance of either side being correct which also meant, Jin Qi was able to find a loophole and sue the mandron successfully.
The only motive anyone could think of for the mandron to attack the Lieutenant Colonel was the fact that Jin Qi had apparently 'snatched' Ding Weimin from him years ago and whilst this motive does not seem well.... Motivating enough, no motive was negligible in the law so they could not rule it out.
Besides, all four accounts of the event seemed to indicate that there was enough time -although small but enough nonetheless- for both Sergeant Major Yang and Lieutenant Colonel Jin to escape fairly unscathed so what exactly had happened in that small window?
A Hearing was different from a Trial as there wasn't enough evidence so they were not here to give a verdict but to hear things clearly from both sides. The Trial would naturally commence immediately after the Hearing.
"Sergeant Major Yang. You have been accused of the attempted murder of your Superior, Lieutenant Colonel Jin. How do you plead?"
He Yuan cleared his throat. "Not guilty."
A couple of soldiers shook their heads slightly in disbelief whilst the Second Marshal in the gallery folded his fists on each other. Truthfully, he was against Jin Wi's hasty decision to sue the mandron. He'd been in the middle of carrying out his own investigations and looking for expert doctors when he'd suddenly heard the news.
He'd gone over to confront his granddaughter but had been met with wails and screams. He had been -and still was- a little disappointed. He had expected Jin Qi to keep a cool head at all times but after receiving news of her permanent disability, she seemed to have lost it and just desperately needed a scapegoat to vent on.
As for Yang Xue.... If it turns out that the mandron had indeed acted against his granddaughter.... His nostrils flared and anger flashed through his eyes. Even death would be too light a punishment!
On the other hand, Jin Yusheng had on a neutral expression. He hadn't been in support of Jin Qi's decision to sue the mandron. Especially since he found out about what she'd done at the second Xor queen's cave. This was too rash!
Up on the podium, the Marshals merely nodded. They hadn't been expecting the mandron to admit to it right away anyways. Next, First Lieutenant Taepher was called up to give his account of things and then Second Lieutenant Bo. A lot of people were skeptical about why Second Lieutenant Bo would stand on the mandron's side.
How was it possible that Yang Xue had been the one to come up with the idea when the other three were much more experienced? It seemed so farfetched and Second Lieutenant Bo lost a lot of credibility in their eyes. What exactly had the mandron offered that he'd willingly sold his integrity as a soldier?
Jin Qi was also given the ho ahead to state her own account of things. When she got to the crucial part, she elaborated. "I had chosen to go last because I wanted to make sure my soldiers had safely exited the cave but when I got to the exit. Yang." She swallowed through clenched teeth and this just made the soldiers and viewers watching become very emotional.
This was a woman who was ready to sacrifice herself for her soldiers. Such a strong pillar of society but what did she get in the end? Hatred surged in their hearts for Yang Xue.
Jin Qi cleared her throat then. "Yang Xue had ejected out of his Tech suit and activated the self destruct sequence to take me down with it. Luckily, I managed to dodge out of the trajectory of the Tech suit in time but I wasn't quick enough to escape the creatures."
The First Marshal nodded in understanding. After all, another team had been sent to Aer. Since they'd gotten the report if how those creatures seemed to be averse to natural light, they had blown open the roof of the cave and those things had dried up immediately.
At the bottom of the cave were numerous parts of Tech suits that appeared to have been excreted by the creatures and also in a crater in the ground were the remnants of Yang Xue's Tech suit. Just like Jin Qi had stated, they found out that the Self destruct sequence had indeed been initiated after hours of careful complication and examination of the various pieces of the motherboard.
The Marshal's took note of this before the First Marshal went on to ask, "If Sergeant Major Yang had indeed tried to kill you, how could the fact that he had laboriously dragged you with him for over two hours until the both of you were found by the rescue team be explained?"
Jin Qi took a deep breath. "That would be a question only Sergeant Major Yang can answer. The rescue team had found us around coordinates 15°22'15"N, 30°10'5"W."
Her answer was self explanatory, those coordinates were actually towards the thick forests of Aer with all kinds of unidentifiable creatures. It could be said that since Yang Xue had been unsuccessful with blowing up Jin Qi, he had decided to drag her all the way to a place where no one could find her and let her bleed out and die.
Afterall, her upper body was still covered in her Tech suit and there was no way he could have been able to do any real damage when he had lost his own Tech suit. As for the fact that he had wrapped her knees to staunch her bleeding.... Even if this appeared as if he was trying to save her, it could also be said that he had staunched the blood so they wouldn't leave any blood trail that could lead the rescue team to find Jin Qi after he had disposed of her.
Over in He Yuan's mindspace 888 felt uneasy in his heart. Jin Qi was actually no joke. She'd actually covered all loose ends meticulously. If she hadn't been too hasty back at the cave, she totally could have been able to take out his host. He became angry again.
He Yuan could actually hear his system's teeth grinding in anger and he gulped. He hadn't had a map so he could only drag Jin Qi in the direction he could fairly recognize. Although it was on the way to the thick grassland, he would have reached the mountain that they'd landed on first before reaching the grassland!
"She's clearly just spinning convenient tales!"
[You still have the nerve to argue?] 888 growled.
He Yuan sighed in exasperation. "Fine. I admit it... The situation could have gone really bad. I was wrong."
888 narrowed his eyes. He felt helpless as he couldn't exactly tell if his host was being sincere or just trying to shut him up.
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