Chief of Staff Danquil stayed behind on the Osiris, and Anton followed Captain Shepard into a limousine sent by the Athenian Autonomous Council to meet the chairman of the Council.

The building of the Athens Municipal Council of Self-Government is splendidly built, and there is a huge statue of the goddess Athena on the roof. As soon as they got out of the car, Shepard said to the president's secretary who had sent them, "The committee building is really magnificent!" Anton muttered secretly: "It's the same as the parliament building in Mycenae..."

As soon as you enter the hall, it is even more magnificent, almost every column is decorated with gold, and you can see the carvings that are not repeated every few steps.

"The committee is really rich." Anton said.

The secretary smiled: "Because we can do business with HER, of course, you can rest assured, we will not do business involving arms." ”

"Afraid of being put on the hat of sending weapons to the enemies of fellow Europeans?"

Shepard glanced at Anton and motioned for him to be friendly.

Anton scratched his head: "I'm sorry, this building reminds me of the 'Mycenaean' parliament building..."

The two were ushered into a velvet-carpeted conference room, where they entered the former secretary's custody of the weapons Anton had carried. There were three people sitting in the conference room, and when they saw Shepard coming in, a middle-aged man in a white suit came over and shook Shepard's hand, and greeted him warmly: "Brigadier General Shepard, look up for a long time!" I am Hearn, the president of the Athens Municipal Council! ”

Shepard replied, "Thank you President Hearn for the invitation, but I'm no longer in the Covenant, just call me Captain." ”

President Hearn smiled and nodded, motioning for everyone to sit down at the conference table and talk.

As the group sat down, President Hearn stood up first and gave Captain Shepard a brief introduction to the history of the city of Athens and the history of the Athens Municipal Council.

"Your unwillingness to go along with the colonial satellite Mycenae after its surrender to the HER is something that our committee admires very much, and allow me to salute you on behalf of the citizens of Athens!"

President Hearn bowed to Shepard as he spoke.

"Don't dare, I can't afford it, old man."

President Hearn raised his head and asked in an intriguing tone, "Captain Shepard, what do you think of the city of Athens right now?" ”

Shepard looked out the window: "I'm sorry, I've only been in Athens for a short time, but I think it's a beautiful city." ”

"Yes, Athens is beautiful! It was once infinitely glorious and brought time to the entire Mediterranean, but it also declined. Athens would not have been glorious again without illustrious men to govern it. ”

"I agree with you, President Hearn."

"It's a pity that I'm not an outstanding person now, and I can't bring Athens back to its former glory on my own..."

Shepard didn't answer this time, and quietly watched what Hearn had to say.

"You just said that Athens was beautiful, yes. But because of HER's invasion of the earth, beautiful Athens had to be surrounded by that high wall! ”

President Hearn looked out the window at the steel walls along the coast of Athens with a look of great regret. Anton asked, "Didn't you build these walls?" ”

"How could the committee allow such an ugly thing to appear in Athens?! It was forcibly built by the New European Union (NEU)! Even though Athens was chosen as a protected neutral historic city, the NEU did not stop working. ”

"Listen to you, don't you like ancient Athens very much? I believe that ancient Athens also had walls, and Athens needed to be protected. ”

"Yes," said President Hearn, putting down his hand, "but it won't be that ugly. ”

"What exactly are you going to say?" Shepard asked.

"I'm sorry, Captain Shepard, but I can't help myself when I talk about beautiful Athens being shrouded in ugly walls... What I want to say is that the NEU interfered too much with Athens, and now Athens is autonomous, it no longer needs the protection of the NEU, and of course we will not seek the protection of the HER. ”

Shepard sensed that the conversation was going in a bad direction, and he tried to change the subject: "Ahem! President Hearn, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but you promised to provide ample supplies and support to the Osiris..."

"Don't worry, Captain Shepard, I was about to say this. Because of this war, Athens has a chance to be reborn, and I want to restore Athens to its former glory! But this cannot be under the rule of the new EU and HER, and Athens will be reborn under the leadership of the Autonomous Council! ”

"What the hell are you going to say..."

"I mean, I'm going to lead Athens to independence!"

Shepard looked displeased: "President Hearn, I'm a soldier and don't know much about politics, but I don't think it's a good time for Athens to become independent. Whether or not to become independent also requires the vote of the people of the whole city of Athens, and cannot be left to the discretion of the committee. ”

President Hearn waved his hand, "Those citizens? They won't understand anything, and they'll be grateful to me when I bring Athens to glory! As for your statement that this is not a good time, I cannot agree with it. If it were in peacetime, the NEU would definitely send troops to take control of Athens. If there was no HER rebellion, how could those colonial satellite city-states in the universe succeed on their own? All I wanted to do was to make Athens a city-state again. ”

"You're not an astronaut, so I'm afraid you don't know much about colonizing satellite city-states. Take my hometown of Mycenae, for example, which surrendered to the HER shortly after independence. Moreover, do you think that now that Athens is a neutral city, the NEU will not send troops? ”

President Hearn smiled mysteriously, "I know they're back, but it's not the same with the Osiris. ”

“… What do you mean by that. ”

"The Osiris doesn't have any backers now, and Athens is willing to pay a lot of money to hire the Osiris to protect Athens! Captain Shepard, will you join me in making Athens glorious again? ”

I talked so much just now, it turned out that it was all for this. Captain Shepard stood up and said with a serious face, "I'm sorry, President Hearn, but I led the Osiris to fight against the HER. But listen to you, you're just going to make the Osiris the domestic dog of the committee, with all due respect! The Osiris is leaving Athens today. ”

"Don't worry, Captain Shepard."

President Hearn tapped the table three times, and a group of guards with guns rushed in. Anton wanted to pull out his gun to protect Shepard, but when he touched his pocket, he remembered that the gun had been taken away before entering the conference room.

"Damn it!"

"President Hearn, are you going to detain me?!"

"No, no, no, I don't dare to detain you, I just want to keep you for dinner, and I hope you can think about what I said while you wait, Anthony?" Hearn called a young man and introduced Shepard: "This is my son, he is the head of the security department of the committee, if you want to get through, please knock on the door and let him know." ”

President Hearn left with the others, and Anthony stood guard outside the conference room door with four guards.

Anton asked Shepard with a look of annoyance, "Captain, what should we do?" ”

Shepard was also angry, he looked out the window and said, "The Osiris is in danger today..."