Chapter 569: The Perfect Girl
Lan Jue followed her eyes to the pretty girl heading their way. Just as Xiaosu had exclaimed, she had quite the figure. She was around a hundred and eighty centimeters tall, with an hourglass figure from the front and the sides. Every slope and curve was a treat for the eyes, making his heart race.
From where Lan Jue and Xiaosu were standing they could only see her in profile. She had a pale face and long eyelashes that curled up like an old pinup poster. Long red hair reached all the way down to the crest of her buttocks. She lithely moved down the street looking at the storefronts. Her alluring silhouette slithered tantalizingly beneath her black flight suit.
Lan Jue grinned. “I didn’t expect there’d be a woman on your level anywhere else in Moonfiend. Do you know her?”
Xiaosu shook her head. “I don’t know why, but something seems strange about her. A woman like that is very rare in a pirate clan.”
“Oh? Why?” Lan Jue asked.
Xiaosu replied. “These are pirates, very different from the men of the three Alliances. Even as Queen it was impossible for me to stop my people from pillaging and taking women. These ladies become depressed and hopeless – playthings for men of power.”
She pointedly looked at Lan Jue as she finished the last sentence. Lan Jue pretended like he didn’t understand. “So you’re saying she belongs to some strong pirate?”
She shook her head. “No, she clearly doesn’t. Otherwise how would she still be a virgin?”
“A virgin?” Lan Jue looked back at his tactician, shocked. “How do you know she’s a virgin?”
The commander rolled her eyes. “A practiced eye. I’m surprised you don’t have it, surrounded by a cloud of beautiful women like you are.”
Lan Jue rubbed his nose and chuckled sheepishly. “I don’t get it! I felt some energy from her but not much. She seems like a second or third level Adept – very average. If she’s still a virgin then that would explain things. Not a strong female pirate, but a girl. Probably protected by someone to keep her out of trouble.”
Su Xiaosu’s face scrunched as she thought. “Maybe, boss. You aren’t enticed when you see a girl like this? She really does have quite the body! She’s…. fuller than Mika, such a tiny waist, long legs. One can’t help but appreciate what they see.”
“We’re here to do a job,” Lan Jue said, annoyed, “not for you to play matchmaker. Let’s turn back, it’s about time.”
The woman that was their focus moved on, too, headed for a nearby building. After Xiaosu’s constant teasing, he couldn’t help but get a closer look at her. She looked like she wanted to go inside, but something stopped her. She turned her head, and her pretty eyes met instantly with Lan Jue’s.
When their eyes met Lan Jue froze. She really was something else.
She was the kind of beauty that made men forget to breathe. Her eyes were as captivating as the rest of her. Indeed, ‘gorgeous’ was the only word Lan Jue could think of to describe this twenty-something pirate princess.
Pretty as her eyes were, though, there was no emotion within them. She dragged her eyes away from Lan Jue, looked at the door for a moment, then walked into the building.
Curiosity flashed in Lan Jue’s eyes. “You’re right. There’s something different.”
His fellow commander snickered. “I bet you want to get a closer look.”
Lan Jue rapped his knuckles against her forehead. “I don’t mean anything like that. Even from far away she could feel my gaze. At my level of cultivation, I can hide my Discipline from most. Only level two or three, but she knew it. Impossible, unless that’s her Discipline. And she seems a little too perfect. There’s no such thing as a flawless beauty in reality. She’s incomparable, hardly human.”
Xiaosu smiled. “Alright, boss. You say you’ve got no interest but the way you’re describing her, it’s like she’s a fairy. Let’s head back, we’ve seen what there is to see. Now we have to set about tearing it apart. We should get some clothes and change, first. It’ll be hard getting into Luna dressed as laborers.”
“Yeah.” Lan Jue didn’t want to create any more problems than he already had. Strange as she was, she was a pirate and that was that. He still had business to take care of.
The two of them got back to the slums as the sky was darkening. Several of Fourth Brigades recon teams had begun to trickle back. Each one came with another piece of information for them to mull over.
Su Xiaosu’s knowledge helped inform the scouts of where to look and what to look for. By the time night had fallen, everyone was back. They had what they needed to proceed.
Lan Jue convened the Division leadership for a meeting.
“Things aren’t bad, but they aren’t good either. From what we’ve been able to dig up, there are more than thirty thousand pirates stationed on this planet alone. Among them are enough pilots to make their own Division, over a thousand mecha suits combat-ready. For air support they’ve got twelve battleships and twenty patrol boats. Altogether, that’s about fifty percent of the Moonfiend Pirates’ total strength. The rest are disseminated across the other two planets.”
“The most troubling fact lies in how dispersed they are. There are several areas that work independently, centered around the airship hangar. There were three hangars, but now there are five and they’ve all got targets we want to hit. The biggest one used to be exclusively used for Moonfiend Pirate ships. It’s got enough space for seven battleships. If we want to cripple their ability, then Third and Fourth Brigade aren’t going to cut it.
“On the other hand, having them separated means that the nearby city’s defenses can’t cover everything. It’s unlikely they’ll be checked, too, so getting in won’t be too hard. What we need to discuss now if how we’re going to pull this off.”
Su Xiaosu offered her suggestions. “The more targets there are to hit, the harder it is for us. We need to focus on priorities. Battleships in particular can do a lot of damage, and if we let them get airborne we’re likely to face casualties. Even a ninth level mecha pilot wouldn’t survive a blast from a battleship’s main guns.”
The Coffee Master, his face hard with concern, joined in. “Third Brigade doesn’t have enough people to pull it off. A single big hangar would be no problem, but five separate targets… it’ll be hard to keep track of all those spinning plates.”
The Bartender was nodding in agreement. “It’s a real problem. I’m not sure we can take control as fast as you need. With this being the case, you’ll need to make a choice – see if Zeus-1 can handle one of the bases itself. With its Blinding Stone, it should be able to hit them hard and take the hangar out before they know what’s happening.”
Xiaosu rejoined. “Zeus-1 could probably handle a hangar on its own. The biggest one is protected by a shield. A head-on attack is impossible, and sneaking in would require a lot of people. We’d need a team for each ship there, probably most of our Division.”
If there had been only three airship hangars, as they’d thought when the plan was made, then Third and Fourth Brigade would have been able to take one each. Comparatively, it was a much easier operation; Majesty and the Photographer deal with the other planets, brigades one and two take the palace, while three and four take the surroundings. All they had to do was deal enough damage to erode the pirates’ chain of command. If they didn’t know where to go or who was after them, they’d scatter.
However, that was the old plan. Now there were more problems than they could manage all at once. The addition of just two new targets threw everything out of whack.
The Gourmet’s thoughtful voice joined in. “Leave one to me.”
The Pharmacist spoke right on his heels. “And the other to me.”
This made the Driver laugh. “I’m not a big one for people acting the hero, but here they are when you need them.”
Lan Jue looked at his two volunteers. “It’s dangerous. You’re facing battleships.”
The Gourmet grinned back at him. “No danger there. If it gets a little hot, I can always disengage. At any rate we’re here to sabotage, and you haven’t seen the kind of damage a Paragon can do if they put their mind to it.”
“Speed is what’s most important,” the Pharmacist reminded them. “I won’t have any troubles in that regard, or in destroying their control systems. I’ll need more information on precisely where those controls are, then I’ll be good to go.”
In more ways than one, the Pharmacist was just as formidable as a new Paragon. With the Banishing Blade and her own Discipline he had nothing to fear. This went double for the Gourmet, who was a true Paragon.
Lan Jue nodded decisively. “Very well, then it’s decided. Bartender, you and your brigade are responsible for taking the largest hangar. You’ll have command of First Brigades’ Alpha Squad as well. Other the Pharmacist who has her own mission, you can feel free to spread them out as you see fit.
“Coffee Master, you and your people will be here. Handle this base as quickly as you can and if possible try to spare one of the battleships. Use it to give support to the Bartender. You have to make sure there’s nothing left, no ships for the pirates to escape in. Lay it all to waste then wait for news. When the job is complete, it’ll be time to move on Luna.”