by <unknown>
Hearing Boss Bai's call, they immediately moved close to the "National Protection Army".
Boss Bai had been a famous brutal bandit at the peripheral worlds of the Imperium in the first place. Everybody knew that he had gathered a bunch of most ferocious space pirates into the "National Protection Army", which had remarkable performances in the previous battles and demonstrated a high combat ability.
Naturally, most of the lone starships were willing to follow Boss Bai's command, because it would increase their odds of survival.
"Warship 11985, reporting to Commander Bai. Our warship has been connected to the tactical system of Alloy Virus. We will follow Commander Bai's commands!"
"Warship 56237, 'Sun Chaser', reporting to Commander Bai!"
"Warship 35223…"
The ignorant shield warships, arsenal warships, cyberwarfare warships, and comprehensive supply ships all approached the "National Protection Army" that was hiding in the dark.
"Very good."
Boss Bai sneered and gave orders to those starships. "Please fully open the ports of the Spiritual Nexus on your starship so that I can send the latest battlefield data and secret orders to you. I have the highest command from Commander Yun Xuefeng that needs to be conveyed and carried out in time!"
While talking, Boss Bai sent the secret orders that were endorsed by Yun Xuefeng's soul signature to those starships.
Although the orders were rather obscure and ambiguous, it at least suggested one thing: Boss Bai was Yun Xuefeng's trusted subordinate, and he was carrying out a top-secret mission that directly came from Yun Xuefeng.
"Now, hurry up and open your Spiritual Nexus and your mainframe crystal processors so that the data can be synchronized. Then, I can tell Commander Yun's specific commands to you!"
Boss Bai sneered, "You guys are terribly lucky to have been chosen for such a critical mission. Hehe, your future is nothing but promising!"
The starships that approached the "National Protection Army" were mostly the warlords' troops from the peripheral worlds of the Imperium. They did not have a high combat ability themselves or any influential supporter. How could they dare defy the National Protection Army, which had been Yun Xuefeng's favorite recently and which boasted a tough combat ability?
Some people were even secretly delighted, really thinking that they had been involved in a fortuitous incident!
Therefore, none of the commanders of those starships suspected anything but opened all the clearances of the battle network to "Alloy Virus", allowing abundant data to be filled into their mainframe crystal processors.
Chapter 2563: Coercion |
However, after only three seconds, the commanders of those starships realized that something was not right. What Boss Bai sent over was not the harmless battlefield data but the lethal crystal processor viruses mixed in the data.
The crystal processor viruses that had never been seen before corrupted their feeble defense systems like ghosts instantly, slightly "modifying" their starships and locking their starships in the "absolute security mode" where the allies could not be attacked.
In the "absolute security mode", the identification system of the mainframe crystal processors would automatically detect all the allies within the firepower range and block all the attacks that were aimed at allies.
The mode was mainly applied in the scenarios where the enemy and the allies were too close and a barrage might accidentally damage the allies.
However, there was not a single hostile warship within hundreds of thousands of kilometers from either themselves or the National Protection Army. Why was Boss Bai blocking their attack ability?
Of course, starships were too important to be controlled by external forces. Through the soul signatures of the captain, the deputy captain, and the fire control officer, it was still possible for them to change the starship's status with "manual unlocking".
However, it would take at least a minute and a half for the starships to exit the "absolute security mode" through "manual unlocking".
However, when the captains realized that something terrible had happened, alarms that were as gloomy as the knells echoed on their bridges, implying that the scanning waves were hitting their spiritual shields hard. They had been locked onto by the "National Protection Army".
Caught in the "absolute security mode", they had temporarily lost the ability to attack their "allies". However, the "National Protection Army", as their ally, showed no sign of mercy at all. As long as it barraged, they would be destroyed and reduced to broken iron coffins drifting in the dark vacuum in half a minute!
"Boss Bai!"
"Commander Bai!"
"Bai Xingjian!"
The captains were all greatly shocked, their cold sweat dripping from their eyebrows to their nose. Fearful, they asked, "What's the meaning of this?"
"Nothing. It's just a… safety measure that Commander Yun asked me to take."
Boss Bai smiled casually in the communication channel. His eyes were like two deep wells where venomous fogs were floating as he stared at the frightened captains scarily. Dragging his tone, he said, one word after another, "Commander Yun told me that the future of the Imperium depends on this battle, and the victory of this battle depends on your valiance more than anything else. However, many of you are vacillating, disloyal people who have other plans. Not only are you slacking off, but a lot of people are also thinking about defecting on the battlefield and selling the comrades next to you, trading the Immortal Cultivators of the four families for your own fame and fortune… AREN'T YOU?"
He finished his sentence in a thunderous roar. Together with the angry look on his face, even Boss Bai's weaselly appearance became more dominant and intimidating than ever.
As if hit by lightning, the many captains subconsciously backed off even though Boss Bai was just on the light beam. They shook their heads and said, "No, we never have such plans!"
"You don't?"
His arms akimbo, Boss Bai burst into laughter. "Do you really think that the four families are blind and deaf, and that Commander Yun is an idiot that you can deceive and manipulate freely? Hehe. Let me tell you the truth. Commander Yun knows exactly what you did in the past few days!
"Many of you have shares in the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors or the major stores, warehouses, and carriers fleets under the Business Alliance, don't you?
"Every one of you has a dozen accounts where tremendous free coins are saved. Should the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors be destroyed, those free coins will immediately become nothing, won't they?
"A lot of you have sent your trusted subordinates as your spokespersons to the Seven Seas Grand Market, where they are in the closest contact with the leaders of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors right now, right?
"A lot of you have done things that are against the interests of the Imperium. You even intentionally let the new warships encounter 'space storms', while you actually smuggled them to the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors. Those warships are exactly on our opposite side right now and are used against us, aren't they?"
The four consecutive questions flabbergasted all of the captains. They were almost hugging each other to shudder together.
"What should I say about you?"
With one arm on his hip, Boss Bai pointed at the camera with the other hand, almost reaching the tip of the noses of the captains through the light beam, as if he couldn't have felt more regretful. After a long rampage, he finally took a deep breath and calmed down, saying sullenly, "Of course, you all had your reasons. There are too many people exactly like you in the entire Imperium. It is truly unfair to blame you alone."
"That… That's right."
The captains who had fallen into the trap, as if seeing a life-saving buoy, hurried to nod their heads and said contritely, "It is indeed unfair. We-We were forced to do that!"
"Therefore, Commander Yun is willing to give you an opportunity. As long as you listen to me obediently and
accomplish Commander Yun's upcoming mission, not only will your misdeeds in the past be forgiven, there will also be great benefits for you."
Boss Bai grinned hideously. "Of course, in case any of you goes feverish and does anything stupid in desperation, it is not outrageous that I have taken a few 'precautions', is it?"
"No-No, it isn't!"
They were the weaker party in the negotiation, and their secrets had been grasped by him. What else could the captains have done except for shaking their heads hard?
"In that case, join the battle formation now!"
While talking, Boss Bai sent different coordinates, as well as the sailing routes that were set according to the coordinates, to the dizzy lone starships, letting them continue to approach his main troop.
It was not until those starships were included in Boss Bai's fleet that they discovered the starships controlled by the Fist King, Xiaoming, and Wenwen were hidden right next to them. They couldn't help but be stunned by the unbelievable scale and control of the "National Protection Army".
"How-How is it possible?"
"How could the National Protection Army have jumped to the Seven Seas Space Zone in such an organized way? It's… It's an impossible miracle without the navigation of space gates!"
"Why is the National Protection Army so huge? Is this really a temporary fleet jumbled by pirate gangs?"
"The starships only less than fifty thousand kilometers away from us are like cold meteoroids. We did not detect them at all in the beginning. What kind of stealth modules are they using? What kind of crew is maneuvering those 'invisible' starships?"
All the captains who joined the battle formation just now had a headful of questions.
But they did not have the courage to ask any of them.
It was because they discovered that they had been separated and divided by the "National Protection Army" neatly. Almost every starship was surrounded by a couple of Boss Bai's starships, which were showing the bloodstained tusks to them blatantly, as if they could rip the newcomers apart in ten seconds.
The newcomers were like the members of the daring team, or cannon fodder, who were forced to lead the charge by the fully-armed elite soldiers in their behind in the ancient battles.
If they backed off, the sharpest blades would chop their heads without any hesitation.
In such a massive and chaotic battlefield, destroying their minor starships was even easier than crumbling a few ants.
Whether or not they believed in Boss Bai's bulls*it, the captains were left with no choice except to walk on with him until the dead end.
"Good."
Boss Bai's creepy laughter echoed again. "It seems that you are all smart people who understand 'silence is gold'. I believe that our cooperation will be very pleasant. You will not only survive but also be complimented by Commander Yun. You may even have the privilege to meet Commander Yun himself in an unexpected place!
"Now, let's go and gather more lone warships into our battle formation. Remember, only when new starships join and are placed at the front will you be moved to the second echelon. The more starships join us, the more behind you will be in the battle formation, and, naturally, the safer you will be.
"So, I do not need to explain to you what you should do, right?"
The whole of the next day, Boss Bai cruised at the edge of the Seven Seas Space Zone.
Under his command, the weird coalition fleet was like a shark, which had a keen nose but was almost transparent, allowing it to avoid the hunting fleets of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors from hundreds of thousands of kilometers away while gathering more and more lone warships.
Most of the lone warships did not have any objection to his command. After he showed his high-level permission in the "Flying Lightning Super Command Chain", they volunteered to open their Spiritual Nexus and mainframe crystal processors, before they joined Boss Bai's battle formation obediently.
It was exactly like rolling a snowball. At first, it took great efforts, but as Boss Bai's fleet took shape and expanded into one of the largest temporary fleets that had gathered most smoothly, more and more starships of the attackers were attracted to him. In the end, he did not even need to search for them, and the starships were already approaching him in a hurry.
Naturally, there were indeed certain disobedient "rogues" that he countered.
Some of the warships of the warlords who thought they were powerful, or the warships of the experts who had multiple Colossi, or those controlled by the Immortal Cultivators of the four Kurfürst families, despised Boss Bai who was just a space pirate that had only risen recently, unwilling to follow his command.
However, most of them, after reading the secret orders issued by Yun Xuefeng in person and witnessing Boss Bai's demonstrational barrage, decided to swallow their pride to avoid trouble and succumbed.
By the time the fierce battle of the first day was about over, the starships under Boss Bai's command had been multiplied. It was not until then that he encountered a real tricky target.
The target was not one starship but another temporary fleet that had just been temporarily gathered.
The commander of the fleet was an expert from the Song family, one of the four Kurfürst families.
Coincidentally, the expert of the Song family was also a marquess of the Imperium, who was known as "Marquess Hushan"!
Chapter 2564: Tiger at Dawn! |
"What 'National Protection Army'? What 'Boss Bai'? Who the f*ck do you think you are? You are asking a marquess of the Imperium to follow your command?"
On the bridge of "Alloy Virus", the hologram of a tall and cocky noble was displayed in front of Boss Bai.
Song Changlie, Marquess Hushan, was exactly like Li Wuji, Marquess Yongchun, two months ago. Raising his head high and looking at Boss Bai with his nostrils, he said in despise, "Are you too blind to see the emblem on my flagship, or are you mentally deranged because you have taken wrong medications?"
Song Changlie, Marquess Hushan, had every reason to be arrogant.
His confidence came not just from his identity as a center noble of the four families, or his title as a marquess of the Imperium, or the three Colossi on his flagship "Tiger Roar", but also from his remarkable command ability and reasonably good luck, which allowed him to avoid the hunting and sweeping of the defenders in one day and gather a thousand loose starships to form his own temporary fleet.
While it was slightly less impressive than Boss Bai's side, Song Changlie did not believe that Boss Bai would be bold enough to challenge him with those untrained soldiers.
If the guy dared to challenge him, so be it. He still had three Colossi, all used by his most trusted family members. He was not afraid at all!
"Please calm down, Marquess Hushan."
Faced with the guy's haughty reply, Boss Bai retained remarkable humbleness. He said rather hesitantly, "It is the order from Commander Yun that I must gather the loose starships at the edge of the space zone and condense them into a battle formation as soon as possible to attack the Seven Seas Grand Market at the center of the space zone.
"Look, it has been a whole day since we jumped over, and Marquess Hushan's team is still wandering at the edge so far away from the central battlefield. It doesn't seem very appropriate, does it?"
"Are you insinuating that I am a coward?"
Song Changlie's eyes immediately grew sharp. Pointing at the tip of Boss Bai's nose, he cursed aloud, "You damn prisoner, bold slave, and disobedient dog, do you have any idea who you are talking to and whose tactics you are questioning?
"Don't presume that I do not know your background. Commander of the bulls*it 'National Protection Army'? Hahahaha. It's truly the greatest joke! You were just a bunch of humble space pirates and stray dogs who lived in panic all day. Yet, taking advantage of the competition between the four families and the reformists, you have assumed the skins of humans and pretend that you are humans too.
"Remember who you are. A dog is always a do
g. It cannot change into a human because it wears the skin of the 'commander of the National Protection Army'! I have my own plans about how to fight the battle. It is not the place of a dog like you to comment on my decision!
"Besides, hehe, you accused me of cruising at the edge of the space zone for a whole day, gathering the fleet instead of launching an attack at the Seven Seas Grand Market? Haven't you been doing the same?"
"If I may let Marquess Hushan know—"
Boss Bai was truly a man of manners. Looking at Li Wuji who was secretly chuckling in a corner, he said unhurriedly, "I was doing it under the direct instruction from Commander Yun…"
"Then, let Yun Xuefeng speak to me in person!"
Song Changlie interrupted him rudely before Boss Bai finished. He sneered and said, "Don't presume that I do not know what's on Yun Xuefeng's mind. He's hoping that the fleets of the other families will lead the charge and die with the desperate rebels of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors before he jumps out and claims all the benefits, isn't he?
"Hehe, does Yun Xuefeng really think that other people are idiots who will risk their lives for him? Help me forward my reply to your 'Commander Yun'. Since he is eager for accomplishments, why doesn't he lead the charge with his 'Landslide'? Isn't he one of the 'two pearls of the expedition army' on par with Lei Chenghu? I'm sure that the rebels of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors would immediately kneel and surrender the moment they hear his name, right? Haha, hahahaha!"
"Marquess Hushan, if you insist on that, it will be rather tricky for me."
Boss Bai sighed rather helplessly. "You've seen Commander Yun's secret orders just now and testified my permission in the 'Flying Lightning Super Command Chain', right? Under such circumstances, if you are still unwilling to listen to my command, according to the martial law of the Imperium…"
"The martial law?"
Song Changlie couldn't help but burst into laughter. He laughed so hard that his face was red and his tears were almost flowing out. Patting his belly, he said, "Forgive me, but the 'Flying Lightning Super Command Chain' system installed on my warship, as well as all the communication units on all the starships, have been compromised in the space jump. So, it is impossible for us to be merged into the unified battle network of…'Commander Bai'. Why don't we keep cruising in this space zone until all the communication units are recovered?"
