After all 25 officers had reported their names, the communication officer gestured to Patrick to tell him that this was the last one joining the team. Patrick said in a calm voice, “Tell me who you are, officer.” This person wasn’t excited or eager, and the channel was silent for a while. A deep breath was coming from her heart as if trying to control her emotions. After everyone was starting to feel worried, a calm voice finally said. “This is Emerald Wilson, and my code name is Wild Kitten.” During her exile, Emerald had recollected her reunion with Patrick many times. When she was feeling desperate for being captured and taken as a slave on the spaceship, when she was happy for winning the fighter commandeering right and beating the Zergs, on every occasion, Patrick’s face had been in her mind, his voice replaying in her ears. She didn’t know when he had become her strength to survive in the unthinkable. She had imagined him calm if they ever contacted or met each other again. Perhaps he would say. “You did a great job. Stay beside me and don’t leave.” while a deep smile would be lurking in his dark eyes. She had never imagined it like this, where they were far away from each other, with several planets between them and hundred thousand mercenaries listening in on their conversation, him being the Commander and her a pilot. They couldn’t say anything to each other. Only the cold helmet close to her flushed cheeks and the stones crawling silently in her sight reminded her of the incoming life-and-death battle; and that it wasn’t a nightmare. Without meeting each other again, they had to part forever. She knew, and he did too. From captains to junior officers, everyone who knew about their relationship understood that at this moment, in front of the hundreds of thousands of mercenaries, she was several minutes away from a certain deadly mission, but nobody could say it out loud. They couldn’t say if she was the Commander’s woman and whether she had to participate in the assignment. They couldn’t ask her to stay because she had led the Zergs there, and staying at the same place was useless. As the two species confronted each other, millions of humans were faced with death, regardless of whom they were associated with. All the Dark Lightning soldiers and millions of soldiers would join them. She was just taking the first step. While on the Dragon, Patrick heard the familiar and soft voice again in his ears, like soundless lightning which lit the silent and anguished corner in his heart, which he had restrained from any other feelings. She was alive; he never imagined that she was alive. She survived the fight that destroyed the whole Alliance; she also rescued several hundred people by seizing a spaceship from the Zerg when they captured her. But now, she was in his army, a vanguard that bore his highest mission where dying was their only choice. Her clear and seemingly calm voice was like a steel needle pricking his heart quietly. He suddenly recollected her small face, warm and soft fingertips, her blushed cheeks and wide eyes in his arms every night, and her shining eyes, which were even more brilliant than stars in the night on the day she left him. His breath remained calm, but it seemed to be from far away as if he was trying to sync with the breath of the woman who was in the Stone Belt at the other end of the channel. In the past, present, and future for her whole life, she was his woman until death. But he couldn’t protect her and had to let her die. Was it really Emerald or part of his soul that was going to die? He felt the silent anguish he had restrained for so many days resurface in his heart. He looked up and saw all the officers in the operation center looking at him. He transferred the microphone from his left hand to the right. Patrick didn’t know that in the officers’ eyes, the Commander’s handsome face was extremely dark. The officers knew some of the stories between Emerald and Patrick and were more silent than their Commander. Harvey grabbed the collar of the man beside him and asked, “What did she say? Is that Emerald? Is she?” After getting the affirmative answer, Harvey tried to say something but failed. Around Emerald, everyone felt weird and could only keep quiet. Foxy and Robert’s eyes were wet. Rosalind on the Zerg’s spaceship didn’t understand the situation. And Colman cursed, “fuck!” During their short silence, Emerald had understood him. She took a deep breath again. She could control herself not to sob aloud, but she gave out a low sigh unconsciously. The sigh, however, was like a feather gently slicing Patrick’s heart---making the originally stone-hearted Commander suddenly as rigid as a dead statue. She calmed herself down and added with a firm voice. “Thank you, Commander. I will try my best.” “I will try my best to accomplish the task. I will try my best to live and come back to you.” She continued in her mind without forming the words. Back at the command center, Patrick’s face was ice cold at the sound of Emerald’s voice. Everyone could feel his anger in his expressionless face, his rage in his cold eyes. After the short silence, he said with an extremely cold and hoarse voice. “Kitten, try to survive.” This was the last order he gave, knowing that her chance was extremely small. At this moment, he didn’t call her by her title. He called her “kitten” in front of the whole army, he called her “kitten,” ignoring what everyone else would think about him. His woman, his kitten. He asked her to survive. The communicator was turned off. Emerald’s eyes were wet. She stripped off the helmet to wipe her tears, careful not to let her comrades notice her silent cry. Douglas, who had noticed that something was off, kept staring at the Cheetahs in front of him without saying a word. Here, everyone was a husband who had family and friends. They had already been in her place. The Zergs would arrive soon, no matter if they marched forward or stayed behind, their chance of survival was minimal. Perhaps dying here honorably was more meaningful than dying under the Zergs’ revenge.