The Farming Saint in the Starry Wasteland (Elizabeth Schofield) novel Chapter 356

2/2

10:49 am Ppp

Chapter 356 One Thore and and Forty–Eigh

Chapter 356 One Thousand and Forty–Eight

Elmer paused, then straightened, and with his one working arm raised a clean, formåga

“Ms. Schofield, I need to say this in person.” Elmer’s voice was quiet but carried weight. “If it weren’t for the product you sent General Hewitt, my team and I wouldn’t be here on leave right now. We’d have been medically discharged. Or worse four vegetables stabilized our mental power injuries when nothing else was working. They gave us a chance to recover I won’t for

that ”

He meant every word.

The mission had gone wrong fast. Several members of his unit had taken severe mental power trauma in the field, the kind that conventional medie

could only do so much for.

It was

SOM

had sent through the Hewitts that had turned the side, steadying injuries that had been heading

edge of the worst possible outcome out the woman in front of him.

pected this. She’d sent those things to dabout it, no thought of who might be

off. “It worked out. That’s what matters

orner of her mouth lifted, just slightly e all the farm produce you could eat

laughed, the tension in his face easin that day ever comes, I’ll take you

at settled, they got straigh

ng here whole, nad rearranged everything Elmer

eturning what he’d quietly transferred to her,

you ever do decide to leave the service, the offer stands.

appreciate that, Ms. Schofield. I’ve still got time left to serve.

turned and gestured to

who’d disembarked

Commander and

panying fam

him, where a crowd had formed in the time they’d been talking, rows of ves into neat columns without being told, standing in almost total

yone is present and accounted for. 327 discharged veterans, plus children, and parents, totaling 1,048 individuals. Complete personnel files are

this. She hadn’t been, not quite. The columns stretched across nearly half the landing area pale light of Planet A001, and the scale of it settled into her chest with a quiet thud.

group of vetted veterans and their families needing placement, a fair number of them, see what a few hundred at the outside. Not this. This was a small town picking up and moving.

stood the veterans. They’d traded their uniforms for matching dark civilian clothes, but the Backs straight, eyes steady, the kind of stillness that gets into a person’s bones after years of

1/2

10:49 am P p pp

Chapter 356 One Thone and and Forty–Eigh

6 Free Coma

Many of them carried visible injuries. Missing limbiumeven gaits, the evidence of what the work had cost them. But none of them looked defeated. There was something quieter in their fares, the particular calm of people who’ve been through enough that uncertainty doesn’t rattle them anymore, watching the horizon with level eyes

On the right stood their families/White haired elders leaning on each other.Women holding themselves together with visible effort.

Children of all sizes, held by hand or in arms, wide–eyed and curious, taking in this unfamiliar planet and the woman standing at the head of their column. The ones young enough to fidget or fuss were gently, wordlessly settled by the parents beside them before anything could escalate.

The whole formation, veterans and families, grandparents and toddlers, was almost uncannily quiet. No murmuring. No shifting. Even the children were barely making a sound.

The only things moving were the wind picking at jacket hems and loose hair, and the low reechanical cooling of the transport ships in the background.

It was a kind of discipline that told Elizabeth something real about how the military chose and shaped its people.

Elmer had caught the flicker of surprise in her expression and read it wrong. He leaned in slightly. “Ms. Schofield, Commander and Mrs. Zaylee were all very clear, please don’t feel any pressure. These people have all been through a first round of vetting, clean records, reliable character, but you don’t have to take all of them. Take whoever fits the farm’s actual needs and capacity. Anyone you don’t select, I’ll personally relocate to other Hewitt holdings or placement sites elsewhere. You won’t be left holding anything you didn’t choose.”

It was exactly the right thing to say, and said the right way, no pressure, no implied obligation, just a clean transfer of choice back to her. The Hewitts, whatever else they were, knew how to treat people.

Elizabeth felt the warmth of it settle somewhere practical.

“Can I walk the line?” she said, and nodded toward the formation.