The Ancient Battlefield
Anyone familiar with the history of the Alliance would know about the war that took place between the Pan-Human Alliance and the insectoids more than two thousand years ago.
The cause of the war was a little ridiculous. An insectoid aristocrat bought a young and beautiful human girl as his slave to help him dress and eat. The two of them fell in love after spending some time together.
Blinded by love, the insectoid aristocrat abandoned everything he had. He brought his beloved girl through the dangerous Wild Star Region, ready to return to the girl's hometown to see her parents. Then, the two of them would travel the galaxy until the day they grew old.
Unfortunately, dreams were always beautiful, but reality was always cruel. At the time, the Pan-Human Alliance and the insectoids were already at loggerheads over the mineral resources in the universe. Both sides were amassing troops at the border, and everyone knew that the war was inevitable. It was just a matter of when it would start and who would start it first.
The poor insectoid aristocrat happened to arrive at this critical juncture. His spaceship was captured by the Pan-Human Alliance as soon as it reached the border. Without any explanation, the sentimental insectoid was sentenced to death for being a spy, and the girl was sent back to her hometown.
Originally, this matter was only a small conflict between the two sides, not enough to start a war.
However, when the girl's public speech on television was secretly sent back to the headquarters by insectoid spies, the insectoid warriors could no longer suppress the anger in their hearts, and they started a full-scale war in anger.
The girl claimed on television that she was kidnapped by the insectoid aristocrat and was tortured day and night. As for their love, she said that it was a scheme she used to escape. She vividly described how evil the insectoids were, how she used her wits to trick the evil insectoid aristocrat, and how she bravely escaped back to the Alliance.
Of course, the people who did not know the truth were furious. They all condemned the cruelty of the insectoids and demanded that the Alliance immediately send troops to wipe these evil creatures off the star map.
The ones who were the happiest about this were the generals and marshals in the Alliance's military department, because the girl had made up this story under their instructions.
Their goal was very simple. War was imminent, and the story of a weak girl who was bullied by the insectoids and bravely escaped in the end was the best way to arouse people's sympathy and the warriors' desire to fight. It was simply the best show to mobilize people for war.
However, the military never expected that when this story reached the insectoids, it would become a powerful weapon for the insectoids to spread the word about how shameless the humans were. The war that had been brewing for many years finally unfolded amidst the rage of the generals on both sides. This war lasted for over three hundred years.
From the first shot to the end of the war, it had been 327 years, 5 months, and 11 days. Countless soldiers and warships had become the sacrifices of this war, forever left in the unknown and unknown corners of the vast sea of stars.
After more than three hundred years of tug-of-war, the economy and morale of both warring parties had hit rock bottom. No one had the ability to continue the war, so the long peace negotiations began again.
This was truly an absurd comedy. More than three hundred years of war and countless lives had been lost, but in the end, neither side had gained an inch of territory. Instead, it had been reduced. The Wild Star Region, which had originally been divided evenly between the two sides, became a military buffer zone, a paradise for pirates and mobs from then on.
Of course, this was all what Xia Fei had learned from the secret files in the library. The Pan-Human Alliance was like any other government organization; they would never admit their mistakes. They would only use flowery words to whitewash everything.
Xia Fei recalled the story of the war as he boarded an Amarr Executive-class frigate. He had rented this ship from Andy for five dollars a day. Next, he would be piloting this ship to the battlefield two thousand years ago, hoping to salvage the parts he needed from the shipwreck.
Xia Fei had spent a lot of effort on Lunar Eclipse, and he did not want to leave it in the Wild Star Region unless it was absolutely necessary. Given the current situation, the ancient battlefield was Xia Feis only choice.
Are you sure you don't want me to come with you? I can hire someone to make a few trips for me. Its fine, Sarah said as she walked Xia Fei to the door of the warship.
Xia Fei smiled. "I'm just using the salvager to fish it out. I can do it myself. You should continue with your work."
Sarah nodded and did not say anything else.
Old Allen watched Xia Fei and Sarah talk, and his murky eyes suddenly brightened. The wrinkles on his face gradually smoothed out as if he was happy about something.
Xia Fei waved at Allen and Sarah and slowly took off in his warship, heading toward the ruins of the war two thousand years ago.
The Amarr Executive-class was one of the smallest frigates in the universe. It had excellent maneuverability, but its armor and shields were relatively weak.
Andy had installed two hull detectors and two salvage devices on the ship according to Xia Fei's requirements, allowing them to scan and salvage the wreckage of the warships.
There were countless ancient battlefields in the Wild Star Region, and Xia Feis destination was a place 740 lightyears away from the base. There was once a small fleet of the Pan-Human Alliance that had been ambushed by the insectoids, and hundreds of warships were permanently left there.
Seven hundred lightyears was only a short distance in the universe, so Xia Fei arrived at his destination in a single jump.
Looking from afar, the wreckage of a warship could be seen floating in space, with countless metal shards surrounding it, giving off a feeling that it was a lifetime ago.
Xia Fei entered the wreckage area and turned on the two detectors at the same time to scan the wreckage. The results were quickly displayed on the screen.
Xia Fei had already entered the list of parts he needed into the computer, so the AI would automatically alert him the moment he found something he needed.
Since this battlefield was relatively close to the base, it had been salvaged by countless people over the past two thousand years. Xia Fei spent more than an hour scanning the entire battlefield, only managing to salvage a few unimportant parts.
These parts could actually be bought from Andy, but salvaging them would save him some money, so Xia Fei did not give up on them just because they were unimportant.
Smiling, he picked up a pen and ticked off the list a few times, removing the parts he had already obtained from it. The salvage work had just begun, and Xia Fei was very curious about picking up cheap things in the universe, so he found it very enjoyable to work.
How long do I have to keep doing this? I might as well buy another ship and leave the Lunar Eclipse here. Phantom came out of the Moore Stone and said in a bored tone.
Xia Fei rolled his eyes. Throw it away. Where can I find another top-tier warship if I throw away the Lunar Eclipse? Is there something wrong with your head? Besides, this ship cost me seven hundred million star coins, so I can't bear to part with it.
Phantom sighed and returned to his little world. Then you can slowly salvage it here. Who knows, you might be able to gather all the parts in eight to ten years.
Xia Fei pursed his lips and ignored Phantom.
The warship took off again and arrived at another wreckage area. The situation here was not much better, either. He had only managed to salvage one part in two hours, and the efficiency was not as good as before.
The novelty of salvaging the wreckage slowly faded, and Xia Fei began to feel bored. He opened the map of the wreckage that Andy had given him and looked at it seriously.
The map had marked out all the known ancient battlefields. The green areas were relatively safer because they were closer to the base, but these relatively safe areas had already been salvaged by countless people, so there was very little left.
The yellow areas represented a certain degree of danger, either because the environment was unstable or because it was near pirate-controlled areas. The red areas were death zones, and the black areas were even more unapproachable.
Lighting a cigarette, Xia Fei carefully weighed the pros and cons and decided not to scan the green wreckage area anymore, for it was just too inefficient.
The warship suddenly took off and arrived at the yellow danger zone closest to Xia Fei.
This ancient battlefield was very large, and from the number of wreckages and the state of damage, it was clear that an extremely intense battle had taken place here. Countless insectoid warships overlapped with human warships, and the two sides were very close to each other. It was practically a desperate melee.
The ship's detector immediately began to work. A red laser beam shot out from the top of the warship, transmitting the condition of each wreckage and the composition of its parts to the AI computer.
This time, Xia Fei changed his strategy. He removed all the parts that he could buy from the computer, leaving only the thirty-four key parts that he needed the most.
The warship nimbly traversed the wreckage, searching for the things it needed.
About twenty minutes later, the screen suddenly flickered. Xia Fei had found a complete laser radar positioning system on the wreckage of a Caldari Heron-class frigate. Though the system was a bit old, it could still be used on Lunar Eclipse.
Xia Fei was overjoyed. He lightly tapped on the screen, and the salvage device immediately began to work.
There were three steps to salvage the wreckage. First, determine the location of the needed item. Once the location was confirmed, a laser beam would be fired from the salvage device, creating a circular hole in the thick armor. The laser beam would then continue to penetrate and cut out the needed part from the hull according to the preset procedure. Finally, a tractor beam would pull the part from the wreckage back to its own cargo hold.
The whole process was done by the computer, and it would only take a few minutes from the start to the cargo hold without any manual intervention.
An hour later, another part that Xia Fei desperately needed was found, and the salvage operation began again.
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