Ye Chong did not expect to be hit even before Coxcomb could stabilize itself after the warp jump. He shook his head to clear his mind, and looked outside.
Here, in outer space, were numerous starships. Mechs were flying everywhere. Laser beams were shot, creating silent but bright and violent explosions in the skies.
Ye Chong was startled. Was he really at Fal Galaxy?
"Shang, what’s happening?" Ye Chong asked Shang for guidance.
"It looks like a fleet of ships were attacked by space pirates." Shang was also uncertain. It was chaos out there. They could see damaged starships and mechs engaged in battle everywhere.
Ye Chong studied the scene, and agreed with Shang’s deductions. None of the starships here appeared to be warships, and that was a relief to Ye Chong. As long as they did not meet the Freedom Alliance, Ye Chong was not too worried.
What was odd, however, was how this starship fleet was composed of starships of all kinds of models. Usually, a starship fleet would be made up of ships of the same model for convenient resupply. The fleet he was seeing now was of the extreme opposite. Besides, there was only one large ship, a Zika class starship. It was designed very differently from Coxcomb, its angular body made it look more agile than Coxcomb.
Fid looked calm on the surface, but was growing anxious inside. The battle was stretching on, and the pirates more than he expected.
The entire fleet was mostly made up of civilians, hoping to escape the war by moving to the Csebesini Galaxy. Due to the high risk of encountering space pirates in their route, they had hired three mech squads for security.
In truth, they were already targeted by the space pirates right from the beginning. This mostly civilian starship fleet was a ripe target for the space pirates. Hence, the surrounding space pirates had came together to plan this assault.
The situation would not have been so damning, had not one of hired mech squads actually ran off out of fear of the large crew of space pirates. Now, it was only Fid’s Oak Leaves and another mech squad called Red Lion fighting against the attack. Many of the civilians had also took to their mechs and joined the fray, battling against the space pirates to save their loved ones. It was because of them that the battle had not ended swiftly against their favor.
The battle was more vicious than the space pirates expected. They did not expect the mellow civilians to actually fight with their lives. These civilians had fought without regard of their own safety, coming in droves like moths into the fire, hoping to end spread of danger in exchange for their lives.
They all knew that their loved ones were right behind them. From here on out, they could only move forwards! Everyone was emboldened by desperation. Strong men led the battle, followed by the young, then the women. It all happened silently, without any screaming or moaning. No one hoped to survive the fight, only wishing that their lives were enough to save the elderly and the children in the starships. For this meager possibility, they entered the battlefield.
The battlefield was silent, even as mechs clashed in sparks, metal against metal, ending in fire, light, blood and flesh splattering into outer space. In their suicidal attack, they only hoped to die with the enemy. As the explosion engulfed them, they looked back at their starships with a soft gaze while the fire consumed their bodies and reduced them into ashes.
The space pirates paid their price heavily for every starship they won.
Fid understood the severity of the situation, but there was nothing he could do. Just then, his second suddenly pointed towards the holographic screen and said, "Squad Captain, look!"
Fid raised his eyes to the screen, and saw a massive starship slowly heading towards them.
The sudden appearance of such a massive starship had gained the attention of the comman
ding station from both sides. However, the head of the space pirates found that it was only one starship, and felt relieved. Under the circumstances, no one would possibly volunteer to get involved in the mess. Since the other party was only a single ship, they would simply finish it off as well if it decided to interfere. The head of the space pirate crew watched the bulky starship with a cold smile. So what if it was a Zika class starship? His men were now all hungry for a fight, and he still had control over his crew, so he was not afraid of any surprises coming from them.
Ye Chong studied the battlefield on his holographic screen with a cool look. Those people charged towards their enemies without hesitation, even knowing that their lives were forsaken. Behind them was an alloy door. Without any sound, the holographic screen illuminated Ye Chong’s face, hiding his expression.
When Ye Chong saw the children through the window behind the alloy door, he finally understood. One of the space pirates had finally cleared the last line of hurdle. The fight he went through with the suicidal opponents had also left him with a deep thirst for blood. The floor was littered with broken mech fragments. The children behind the alloy door were all crying in fear as he smiled menacingly with greed. In a moment, once he destroyed the alloy door, all the treasures within would be his! If all those civilians were stopping him so earnestly, there must be something very precious within!
"Disparity in strength could not be overcome by courage alone," thought Ye Chong. This strengthened his resolution to become stronger. Only then could be truly be in control of his own destiny.
Suddenly, one of the heavily damaged mechs on the floor rose and pulled the space pirate into an embrace. The mech activated its engines and went straight against the ship’s wall. They broke through the already damaged hull of the starship, flying into outer space.
This sudden turn of events caught the space pirate off guard.
Ye Chong could see that the damaged mech had a broken pilot cabin. As they flew into outer space, the mech pilot’s face immediately ashen, the result of cyanosis. His face, however, was traced with a smile, and the result was eerie. In the next moment, both mechs exploded into flames, engulfing both the owner of the eerie smile and the space pirate.
Ye Chong looked at the smiling face in a trance. He felt like he was hit at a vulnerable spot deep within him.
Under the glowing fire of the explosion, Ye Chong’s expression was unreadable.
Ye Chong looked on desolately. Those civilians had fought so desperately, probably to protect the ones they love. He, on the other hand, did not even know who his parents were. His Papa was dead, and he was left all alone. No, there was still Mu and Shang, but did they need his protection? Ye Chong felt a certain bitterness rise within him.
The holographic screen flickered in a multitude of colours, reflecting off Ye Chong’s face. The changing colors, however, only made him look even more desolate. In the next moment, however, Ye Chong quickly returned to his usual indifferent manner.
Shang kept his silence throughout.
"Shang, let’s go." Ye Chong spoke up plainly. The battle was too complicated, like a full scale war. Unless he revealed the full extent of Coxcomb’s firepower, he could not tip the scales of the battle by himself. Besides, Ye Chong could find no reason to interfere. On the trash planet, once a hunter overcome its prey, it would never leave the prey’s offspring alone too. Such was the law of nature.
While Ye Chong was not afraid of these space pirates, it would still be a terrible annoyance if they took him on. At the very minimum, his travel would be delayed, and there were too many things that he needed to do right now. He must hurry to planet Rainbow, which had a mystery related to his Papa. What Ye Chong needed to do right now was to solve this mystery.
Nevertheless, just because Ye Chong ignored them did not mean that the space pirates would return the favor. A few space pirate mechs flew towards him, blasting their laser guns against Coxcomb. In truth, the leader of the space pirates did not want to be involved with this massive starship. However, his underlings were now all excited from their raid, and were no longer under his control.
After a few rounds of laser beams, the Coxcomb was left with only a few tiny dents. Their level of attack was only barely worth mentioning against Coxcomb’s thick hull armor. However, Ye Chong raised his brows at their attack. He was not in a good mood since he came here, and now that the other party came to provoke, Ye Chong could not help the anger slowly rising within him.
It was not in his nature to not retaliate. In truth, if not for the entirely different level of power of the Three Forces, Ye Chong had never stopped himself from retaliating against any attack. Besides, these mechs here were just like clowns to him. With mechs and mech pilots of this level, they were a piece of cake to him.
Ye Chong deployed Puppet and slipped into the pilot cabin of the clown mech.
"Ye, leave some for me!" Shang shouted as he waved Recursion at him.
When Coxcomb’s hatch opened, the few space pirate mechs retreated a little. To them, a massive starship like this often came with more than a hundred mechs for security. At the moment, these space pirates could still think rationally. If the mech that came out were too many to handle, they would simply retreat. After all, they still had plenty of backup behind them.
After a long while, a single mech flew out, and a thin, ugly one at that. The pirates gave a good look at the mech, and could not help but laugh out loud, momentarily forgetting about the battlefield.
Ye Chong was used to the opponent’s reaction when they saw Puppet. In any case, that was his intention. Even if his enemy was weaker, why not make it easier by lowering their guard?
Ye Chong looked at the enemy. The scene was only too familiar, almost an exact copy of what happened when he rescued the team of five earlier. Just when Ye Chong was about to move, a thin blue beam shot across the sky, and Ye Chong watched as one of the mechs before him exploded into a fireball.
Ye Chong started. Before he could recover, another two blue beams shot past him, and the remaining two mechs went into flames as well.
The three mechs exploded into fragments, raining onto Puppet.
"Hehe." Shang's laughter came from Puppet’s photon processor. Ye Chong looked back helplessly towards the ship, and saw Shang behind the hatch, waving Recursion frantically as though he knew Ye Chong would be watching. Those three blue beams must be his work. Shang must have aimed for the enemy’s energy cells to make them explode. Given that he hit on target for all three beams, Shang must be as good a shot as Mu. Ye Chong was impressed. If Ye Chong found that Mu’s three shots had hit at the exact same location, perhaps he would be even more impressed.
The leader of the space pirates saw everything, and his face twisted. "M*therf*cker, who asked them to go near that ship? You, you and you, pass it down, no one is cleared to go near that ship, or I’ll make them regret it." The pirate leader jabbed his finger at his underlings in panic. He was deeply terrified on the inside. "F*ck, so there’s a super sniper mech pilot with the ship, no wonder they sent out only one mech. That super sniper pilot was terrifying, to hit the energy cells with all three shots! And it’s weird, that sniper rifle, it fires blue beams, and the sniper didn’t even pause between shots. F*ck, is that really a sniper rifle?"
He knew exactly how terrifying a sniper mech pilot equipped with such a dangerous sniper rifle could be!
Sniping was a relatively unpopular specialty for mech pilots, but also a powerful skill. Sniper mech pilots were the top of the cream in shooting skills, and unlike other mech pilots, they focused their training only in shooting, and were less competent in close combat. They usually used sniper rifles as their main weapons, and aimed for single killshots. These mech pilots were particular in choosing their weapons. In general, they were all very powerful characters, and with their almost flawless shooting skills, even a normal heat ray gun would be formidable in their hands. Any enemy caught in their sights could perish at any time.
However, even though sniper mech pilots were powerful, it was difficult to earn the title due to the high level of skills that came with it. Sniper mech pilots were coveted by all forces and organizations.
To think that there would be one here! The pirate leader cursed again at the idiocy of those three fools, not acknowledging how he had implicitly allowed them to go near the massive starship earlier.
Like the pirate leader, Fid was shocked, but was immediately overjoyed. If the crew of this starship could help him, then they might stand a chance. If the ship had a capable sniper mech pilot, even if the other mechs had only average battle capacity, they would still amount to a formidable force. He did not know that the entire Zika class starship had only one passenger.
A sniper mech pilot could change the course of the battle!
"Quick, send a distress signal to the ship. Let them know we have only civilians here, and hope that they would assist us!" Fid commanded in haste. Given the situation, every minute was precious.