If you’re really unwilling to be settled in places with poor conditions or too close to the front lines, you can always take a few steps back, follow the supply line of the transport ships to more convenient places for settlement, which would barely meet the ’nearby settlement’ preferential terms.

Of course, the number of veterans each year in the Alliance is particularly large—considering the size of the army, it stands to reason. Positions with certain governmental characteristics simply cannot accommodate everyone. Mainly, it’s still various levels of officers who are mostly settled through this method.

However, ordinary soldiers and sergeants actually have it relatively well. After they retire, they often directly receive a relatively high social rank, which directly translates to a pretty decent monthly allowance. Even if there aren’t any good positions, living is not a big problem.

The young and strong, without any particularly outstanding merit, and not of high rank, tend to be placed by the Alliance Veterans’ Resettlement Bureau into Technical Academies through a special channel for further study. A good student becomes an engineer; at worst, they’re a skilled worker.

Or if settled on a planet with not many worker positions, such as an agricultural planet, more land is distributed. The land on Empire’s agricultural planets is state-owned, so rather than being farmers, they are more like businesses leasing state-owned land as farm enterprises with agricultural workers. However, due to the differences between agriculture and industry, farms often can obtain contract terms that last for ten, twenty, or even fifty years. Rent is not expensive, taxes are paid, and crops must be sold at a unified price.

But overall, large farms, large-scale mechanized production, along with purchasing quotas, ensure that unless encountering extreme situations, farm owners generally do not incur losses.

Being a small farm subcontractor might even be a bit more comfortable than being a skilled worker or engineer.

If that’s not viable, a substantial retirement fund and some employment and entrepreneurship guidance may be provided. Not misleading at all, usually just making a convenience store in a residential area, engaging in the food or construction industry... In short, whatever you want to do is fine.

For those who are really unwilling to settle nearby, have families back home, or want to return to their hometowns for no other particular reason, the Alliance is also supportive.

It wasn’t very convenient before, but as time goes on, it becomes easier to resolve.

The Alliance’s shipbuilding industry is becoming increasingly developed nowadays.

This is both the orientation of the Alliance Government and actively implemented by the local administrative officials.

The reason being the shipbuilding industry has a large scale and can accommodate many workers, mostly technical workers and engineers, making it an ultimate industry. As long as a shipyard can be introduced, it often brings a leap in economic development for the entire planet.

Features like being technology-intensive, high added value, good growth potential, strong relevance, and driving force... these all factor in. As the core of the production chain, it can drive the development of a whole bunch of industries along with it, linking a vast number of high-level positions.

The local governors who manage to introduce the shipbuilding industry to their planet, star sector, or even star domain, often get promoted. This is both a direct assessment indicator of the administrative leaders by the Alliance and because the development of the shipbuilding industry often leads to substantial economic growth in the region. The latter is precisely the core political achievement of local main officials.

Of course, this has also led to some issues. Some people, with high aims but low abilities, forcefully launching projects regardless of the actual situation of their area, have caused some negative impacts.

If the project eventually lands successfully, it’s still counted as a positive outcome, even if the local area doesn’t actually support the basic industries needed for shipbuilding, leading to a large number of components needing to be purchased from outside with particularly high production costs, outgoings exceeding incomings. Nevertheless, the related foundation can be made up for, and eventually, it can have its utility.

Yet, there are some cases where the project ultimately couldn’t land, causing enormous waste.

In either case, the corresponding officials receive severe penalties.

But no matter what, the shipbuilding industry within the Alliance has developed at an extremely rapid pace. It isn’t just about building warships; even those with much lower technical content, merely building ordinary merchant ships and transport vessels also have great value.

The core limit to trade between planets is the lack of ships.

Under the immense scale of the Alliance and the entire Empire, no amount of interstellar spaceships is too many.

The military needs a large number of transport ships for supplies; trade requires numerous vessels; even the most ordinary interstellar flights, for personnel exchange, are valuable.

Many places’ so-called shipbuilding industries just specialize in building ships of the ’Travelertier’ kind.

Or even smaller ones that can only carry dozens of people.

Yet it is precisely these spacecraft that support a significant number of interstellar flights.

The Alliance’s official Star Navigation Company actively procures vessels and opens up one fixed route after another for material transit and personnel transport.

And those veterans who wish to return home can take these empty-cargo logistic supply ships to return to the rear, then use the now-developed interstellar transport of the Alliance to go back to their hometowns.

Sure, this might take a long time, not only the journey but also waiting in between flights. But for many veterans who yearn for a homecoming, all the waiting is worthwhile.

And once they return home, they can often receive hero-like treatment.

Their experiences, including those who didn’t go back to their hometowns, opting for nearby settlements with significant life changes—even if they didn’t become wealthy in another world, at least they lead much better lives—the shared stories motivate generations of newcomers to step into the Alliance’s recruitment office, dreaming of earning accolades.