Admiral Marcus Sterling, a five-star admiral of the Federal Fleet.
As the commander of the Mars Base and the Fourth Fleet, he had a rather unique habit: he would spend at least half an hour browsing the fleet's internal forum every day.
So, this big boss of the Mars Base sat in his office and opened the internal forum to browse.
Upon entering the forum, he saw an incredibly popular post at the very top, titled: [The Fourth Fleet's Most Deadly Dog Food!]
Curious, Marcus Sterling naturally opened the post immediately.
But what did he see? The post contained a video—that wasn't the crucial part. The video featured his daughter—that wasn't important either, as his subordinates had filmed his daughter and posted her on the forum quite a bit over the years.
In the video, Adrian Vale and Lena Sterling were sitting side by side, which was fine.
But the key was that Adrian was holding a piece of chicken to Lena's mouth, and Lena very naturally opened her mouth, then showed a hint of happiness.
Marcus Sterling's eyes widened, somewhat shocked! Had Adrian recovered his memory?
Marcus Sterling immediately came up with a reason, believing it was the only possibility. If Adrian hadn't recovered his memory, how could things have progressed to this extent in just a few hours?
He played the video over and over, watching the hint of happiness on Lena's face after she ate the chicken. Marcus Sterling was very emotional at this moment; it was the first time he had seen such an expression from Lena.
However, Marcus Sterling soon thought of that girl, Adeline Hart, feeling a headache.
It seemed he needed to find time to have a good talk with Adrian. Since things were like this with his daughter, how was he going to handle Adeline Hart? He needed to give an explanation!
From that day on, Lena slowly adapted to Adrian's changed treatment of her. So, at every mealtime, the two would hold hands and go to the mess hall, then go crazy with their public displays of affection.
Well, all in all, Lena was changing for the better, no longer that eternally frozen block of ice.
Three days later, Marcus Sterling arrived at the 101st Task Force's base with more than ten warships.
In addition to bringing warships, personnel reinforcements, and promotion orders to major general, he also brought an unexpected surprise for Adrian.
It was a silver-white warship, larger than a battlecruiser, almost the size of an aircraft carrier.
This was a custom-built battleship-class command ship, originally the Federal Fleet's new flagship allocated to Marcus Sterling. However, a certain someone, for the sake of his daughter and future son-in-law, directly sent it over to serve as the flagship of the 101st Task Force.
Adrian liked this behemoth at first sight. Its streamlined hull, silver-white paint, and overall design were full of aesthetic appeal.
With the addition of this flagship, the 101st Task Force's roster also increased by one ship, now totaling 145 warships.
Before Adrian could finish admiring his new ride, Lena had already gathered all the personnel of the 101st Task Force at the port for Marcus Sterling to preside over the promotion ceremony.
When Marcus Sterling helped Adrian put on his major general insignia, a system sound echoed in Adrian's mind.
"Ding, congratulations to the host for completing the mission: Promote military rank to at least Major General. Reward: Junior Gene Enhancement Potion Manufacturing Technology!"
"Ding, new mission 1: Promote military rank to Lieutenant General. (Completion reward: Brain Domain Development Potion Manufacturing Technology)"
"Ding, new mission 2: Become the commander of a sub-fleet, with a scale of over 1,000 ships. (Completion reward: Detailed Explanation of Level 1-6 Civilizations)"
"Ding, new mission 3: Destroy 3,000 Ochus Empire warships. (Completion reward: Complete Star Map of the Orion Arm, including faction distribution)"
Hiss, these rewards are all amazing. The Brain Domain Development Potion can greatly enhance the Federation's research and development capabilities.
The Detailed Explanation of Level 1-6 Civilizations is also very important, as it can help humanity understand how cosmic civilizations are classified, which has significant reference value for how the Federation plans its future development.
And the most crucial one is the complete star map of the Orion Arm, which even includes faction distribution—this is simply a priceless treasure.
With this, humanity won't be completely lost after leaving the solar system; instead, they can formulate the most suitable strategies based on the star map and faction distribution.
However, there's a very important question: destroy 3,000 Ochus Empire warships. System, it's been 7 years of ceasefire, are you messing with me?
"Ding, the system detects that this ceasefire will last for a maximum of one year. Host, please abandon your fantasies."
Uh, what does the system mean by this? Does it mean there will be changes? It seems I need to prepare in advance.
As for the Junior Gene Enhancement Potion Manufacturing Technology he just received, Adrian thought about it and decided to send it to Dr. Harold Bennett in another one or two weeks.
Otherwise, it would be too abnormal. After all, it hadn't even been a month, and he had already sent three revolutionary technologies.
Soon, Adrian's promotion ceremony was completed, followed by others in the fleet.
After two battles, everyone had earned military merits, and many already had enough merits to be on the verge of promotion.
Ultimately, a total of 319 people in the entire 101st Task Force received military rank promotions, taking a full two hours to complete.
After everything was done, Marcus Sterling and Adrian together visited the progress of the warp engine project. Dr. Harold Bennett informed them that testing could begin in three days.
Admiral Sterling expressed his satisfaction, but he was soon unceremoniously chased out by Dr. Harold Bennett again.
Marcus Sterling didn't say anything; he was used to it, wasn't he? He left Adrian with a simple instruction to treat his daughter well, then departed.
Time flew by. During the ceasefire, Adrian lived a very disciplined life, doing only three things each day.
First, handling daily official duties; second, conducting system training; and third, enhancing his relationship with Lena.
But today was different. Today was a big day—the test of humanity's first warp engine prototype. Even President Solomon Vale himself came to observe the test.
In the dark void, a frigate was parked, with the warp engine prototype already installed inside.
The test involved warping from Mars to Earth. The current distance between the two planets was approximately 200 million kilometers.
In a research vessel not far away, Dr. Harold Bennett was leading hundreds of experts, continuously checking various data and making the final preparations before the experiment.
"Doctor, all checks are complete, no issues!"
"Hmm, President Vale, then we shall begin!"
Dr. Harold Bennett could disregard Marcus Sterling's face, but he had to give face to Solomon Vale, if for no other reason than Solomon Vale being Adrian's father.
This scene made Marcus Sterling speechless. "I thought you didn't even give face to the President before? What's wrong? Now that you know the President is Adrian's father, you've become so polite?"
Seeing Marcus Sterling's speechless expression, Adrian struggled to hold back his laughter beside him. He naturally guessed what Marcus Sterling was thinking.
"Good, then let's begin!"