The nearby star looked huge, almost like a burning wall in the background, pouring its fierce and scorching sunlight on the surface of a black barren planet. This was a 'plasma star' that was obviously not suitable for human habitation. It had an overly thick atmosphere, and the atmospheric composition was too ionized. The violent solar wind of the nearby star blew the thick atmosphere like a natural electrolyte, causing every square mile of the planet to erupt with more than 20 violent lightning strikes at any time. The upper part of the atmosphere became a thick plasma cloud, while the endless thunder and lightning below the atmosphere scorched the earth, turning the entire crust into an obsidian-like conductive spherical shell in the continuous electrolysis and melting. When overcharged, even one-third of the planet would be covered in bright silver light, making it look even more magnificent — but also more deadly.
No one could survive on an electric plate as high as a billion volts, right?
On the dark side of the plasma star, there was a huge and old space station floating in the air.
It was a huge building that looked like a spool. The main part was a cylinder with a long axis of more than 200 kilometers and a radius of about 50 kilometers. At each end of the cylinder was a huge steel ring with a radius of 100 kilometers rotating in the opposite direction. The function of this huge space station was unknown. This huge space station maintained on the dark side of the planet, relying on its own power to maintain this posture to avoid the overly strong solar wind. From this, it could be concluded that this space station was a creation of a civilization below the stellar system level: they did not have the technology to build a spatial entity within the magnetic current barrier of the sun and use its own energy field to stay safe and sound.
This huge space station had reached the scale of a space city. In the 'lower civilization', it was a magnificent creation, but it was obviously not young anymore. Its surface was mottled and covered with scars, and some places were obviously missing something. The surface of the space station should have been covered with lights, but now only one-third of it was shrouded in light. In the middle of it were five petal-like semi-circular landing platforms, but two of them were piled with junk and were dim. They must have lost their functions. Obviously, no one had repaired them.
This was the base of the privateers.
First of all, I did not expect a group of privateers to have their own space station. Looking at the scale, they definitely did not build it themselves. At the very least, it must have been created by some country. If we did not think about it seriously, the plasma star that the space station was based on could also be counted as the wealth of those privateers. Ah ha, a privateer with a space station and a colonial planet. Don't say how much of an exaggeration they are, they can still bluff.
Secondly, I did not expect anyone to dare to live in such a dilapidated space station. Were the people inside not afraid that the power system of the space station would suddenly stop? The solar wind behind the planet was enough to make such a fragile unshielded space entity explode in just fifteen minutes.
Originally, Visca's plan was to let the Void Rogues swagger in front of the privateers and then righteously announce that they had occupied the legal property of the Empire. After that, they would need to go through a beautiful bombardment (carried out by the general of the Empire) and finally capture the leader of the privateers, the big sister, alive. After that, they would have to use chili sauce to pry information out of the other party's mouth. However, this plan was turned into a cute tear in the eye of a certain violent loli. Also, after seeing that the space station in front of us might disintegrate at any moment and that it looked like a refugee camp, I finally decided that in the spirit of poverty alleviation, it would be better not to scare them …
My elder sister thought that maybe we should try the infiltration methods that seemed interesting in the movies. We could use our brains to sneak into this group of privateers and then scam some information out of them. It should be fun. This fun plan was unanimously approved.
The Void Rogues maintained their concealment on the sunny side of the plasma star. (The Federation's cutting-edge spaceships would not worry about a mere plasma storm. It was a technological difference whether or not they had an energy shield.) Big sister and I brought Visca to a small shuttle and swaggered towards the space station.
Naturally, the moment we entered the other party's cordon, we received a warning from the other party.
"Unknown spaceship ahead. This is the Dawn Ark space station. You have entered our air defense line. Please immediately identify yourself and slow down. Otherwise, we will launch an attack!"
"Tsk, a bunch of reptiles. That's pretty decent."
Visca snorted in disdain from the pilot's seat. I took over the communication. "Tell your boss that we are here for business."
"Business? This is a residential space station. Other than supplies, we don't need anything else … Yup, I think we did order a batch of food. I didn't expect it to arrive so early. Are you the special agents of the Roland Gale Financial Group's food department? Please show me your business license, production license, health license and batch inspection report. "
… It was really troublesome to continue to complain, so I ignored it this time.
"Maybe you're mistaken about one thing. I'm looking for you to do something more valuable. Some interesting gadgets from the other side of the Grand Nebula. I'm looking for the big sister here — that's what the Beckham brothers call her."
The voice on the communication device was silent for a few seconds. Then, it changed to a slightly older man. "I'm afraid you are looking for the wrong place. This is just a space colony. We do not accept supplies from irregular channels."
"Then forget it. There are plenty of privateers around here. They will only pay a higher price."
"Ah Jun," Big sister leaned over and muttered. "You are really good at bluffing."
"There is no technical content. Privateers can't even be considered pirates. In the era of the universe, they are just a bunch of gangsters. Do you expect them to have good counter-espionage skills?"
As expected, although the person on the other side sounded more mature, due to the unique nature of privateer 'business', he couldn't determine whether I was telling the truth or not. More importantly, it wasn't like there wasn't a similar business that came knocking on my door. After thinking for a while, the person on the other side replied doubtfully, "Alright, your landing code is AE689. I will guide you to land. Hmm, what kind of spaceship is that? Can't you interfere with the general guidance frequency? "
"It comes from a new technological system. Of course, it can't be interfered with. I guarantee that even the military can't crack its navigation technology. How is it? Not bad, right?"
This time, the person on the other side finally believed me. His tone was much more relaxed. "Could it be that you got it from the military … Ah ha, I almost forgot the rules of this industry … I will give you the code. You can find a place to land. There are people waiting for you there."
It was so easy to sneak in.
Privateers were an inconspicuous organization. Usually, no big organizations would bother to deal with them. Naturally, they didn't have to worry about being infiltrated by spies. In this chaotic universe, even declaring war could be done without a reason. Small organizations like privateers that didn't care about anyone were even less likely to be dealt with by the security department. So, they were truly free people. But then again, it was easy for any organization to annihilate them. They didn't even have to pay any price.
This was the current situation of the 'scavengers' who were at the bottom of the pyramid of armed forces in the universe.
It was also because of this that it was easier to sneak into the space station of the privateers than expected. As long as there was a lame reason and didn't reveal any power that could threaten them, the gangsters in the universe wouldn't have their guard up. I've never heard of any delinquents from middle school who needed a password to form a small team.
This old space station didn't have perfect port management. After our shuttle landed, the other party didn't even scan the cargo hold. Only a team of staff wearing spacesuits walked out from the sealed door and gestured for us to get off the shuttle.
I opened the shuttle cabin door and carried the spoiled Visca to the landing platform of the space station where the gravity was slightly lower. Then, I extended my hand to help my sister down the gangway. Then, I turned around and waved at the spacemen who came to receive us.
They were all petrified and no one answered me.
… Huh? What's going on?
I looked at them in surprise. Through the fully transparent mask, I could see that these spacemen had a terrified expression on their faces. Every one of them was petrified and didn't move at all. What's going on? I looked down at myself.
I was clean and tidy. Other than the fact that I was a street vendor, there wasn't anything wrong with me. Pandora was wearing the black dress that I had sold her previously. That was normal. My sister was wearing a white dress. She looked clean and elegant. Based on her dressing, there shouldn't be anything wrong …
It would be nonsense if there wasn't anything wrong! What the heck, this landing platform was directly exposed in space! When Chang 'e landed on the moon, she even ate a Foundation Establishment Pill. Have you ever seen an astronaut in the International Space Station wearing a singlet outside the cabin?
Our family was used to walking around in space. However, in the eyes of these humans in spacesuits, we, who were also humans, were behaving in such a manner.
"What are you looking at!" Visca bared her teeth and waved her fist at the spacemen. Mental communication boomed in the minds of the spacemen. "You weak humans, is it strange to see people who aren't wearing spacesuits?"
This girl immediately excluded my elder sister and me from the category of humans, but this made the Spacers on the other side nod their heads in understanding.
I landed on the platform to establish my authority. Although I had no intention of establishing my authority, it was obvious that I had attracted the attention of these privateers. They immediately invited us into the space station and told me that they had sent someone to inform Big Sis. They also said that the shuttle that we had boarded would be temporarily kept by them. I didn't think much of it. I took out the remote control and pressed the button on the shuttle twice. Beep! It was locked and pulled down. This was a special anti-theft lock designed by Bubble for space battleships. It came with a built-in spatial anchor function. Even a Death Star Fortress would have a hard time pulling this shuttle away. In all honesty, our little shuttle was the only bright thing in this dilapidated space station.
My child's mother really had too much free time.
"It's really messy here." Walking in the long corridor of the space station that seemed to have an uneven gravity, my sister leaned over and whispered, "It's like the slums."
You expect a bunch of privateers to manage this kind of space station. How good can they be?
I don't know how long this place has been built. In any case, every metal deck that we saw along the way was covered in rust. The railings of the suspended bridge were also dirty. All kinds of graffiti and posters had covered the original color of the metal walls on both sides. The originally bright and clear personnel corridor was already like this. Needless to say, the warship passageway under the suspended bridge looked like a junkyard. Yes, it was a junkyard. It was filled with battlefield trash that came from who knows where. There were a few rusty engineering robots and a group of workers in singlets lazily rummaging around inside. The place that was supposed to be the warship's ejection port now had the word "dismantle" written on it and a circle drawn around it.
"Hey, how is it? It's pretty big, right?"
The person leading us forward was a dark-skinned man wearing a dark brown work uniform and a yellow leather work cap. When he talked about this space station, he didn't feel embarrassed at all. Instead, he seemed proud. "This entire space station is Big Sis' private property. I heard that Big Sis used to be a prestigious family. It was only after several space wars that her family declined. However, this space station and the silicon ore planet below it all belong to her family …"
This wasn't the first time this long-winded man had brought up this topic along the way. I could tell that Big Sis' prestige here was extremely high, even to the point of personal worship. However, I wasn't interested in that at all. We were here to buy information from that 'Big Sis'. You could look down on the local tyrant's insignificant power, but anyone would have to admit that the local tyrant often knew many things that you couldn't get no matter how much you paid. For example, the Holy Temple army that had disappeared and no longer had any contact with the outside world. For example, the Federation army that had just been attacked and was currently missing. That Big Sis definitely knew some clues about them.
Liliana had even preached to a privateer group. I really didn't know what that girl was thinking …
"Bohan, if you don't mind going back to the mines and getting whipped again, don't change that mouth of yours!"
Suddenly, a powerful male voice came from the front, causing the long-winded dark-skinned guide in front of us to abruptly stop talking. Looking towards the source of the voice, we saw two bald men that were as strong as bulls standing at the end of the floating bridge. They were looking at us with unfriendly expressions.
Such a strong sense of deja vu. The Beckham brothers had a high appearance rate.
Also, I keenly noticed one thing. Although the two brothers in front of us were wearing the same coarse work uniform, one of them had used green paint to draw a large leaf pattern on his chest. At the very least, the shape of the leaf and the paint were the closest. For such a bright pattern to appear on the dirty clothes, it was obvious that it had just been drawn. Needless to say, I guessed that this was the person who had just completed the 'exorcism'.
Was he really going to change his job to become a priest?
"Beck! I heard that the two of you encountered an Interstellar Ghost outside? " The black man called Bohan didn't mind the other party's taunts. Instead, he became even more talkative. He shouted loudly, "You even destroyed a battle mech. That pilot named Ken was mentally unstable when he came back. You still want to change your job to become a priest? Is that thing your god's robe?"
"You shut up!" The bald man who spoke with a Beijing accent slapped the green mark on his chest. "I really saw a miracle. A while ago, a calamity came … You saw how powerful the Holy Temple Army that came to preach. I'm warning you, be careful with your words! If it wasn't for the Goddess telling us to cherish our lives, I would have smashed your skull! "
… These people must have come from Hebei, right?
"I heard that you used our brothers' name." Beck was the bald man with a green mark on his body. He was really going to change his job to become a priest. He looked at us suspiciously. "Indeed, there are people who come directly to the privateers to do business. Us brothers have never been tight-lipped. But to be honest, you don't look like you're doing business."
I ignored him. We weren't. If it wasn't for Big Sister's sudden desire to play infiltration, our warship would have already arrived at your doorstep.
"Alright, I don't like to talk, huh? Come over here. Big Sister is very interested in the shuttle that you brought. It looks quite advanced. The people from the Angels should be buying the technology of this type of light fighter, "Ham shrugged and walked over." Hurry up and leave after you're done with the business. Don't blame me for being blunt. We don't like to do business with you people from the military, especially when you steal from your own people to sell. Small people like us can't afford to offend you if you get implicated … "
It seemed like he thought that we were from some official faction in the Eastern Sky. He thought that we were selling our country's new technology as goods. Furthermore, from his tone, it seemed like something like this wasn't rare. In this universe where new technological products were emerging endlessly and the country's structure was extremely chaotic, where everyone didn't have any sense of patriotism and only cared about self-preservation, selling one's country was considered a business activity?
In the end, we boarded a special train in the space station and were brought to a cabin that was obviously different from the others. Alright, it was actually just an ordinary living area in the space station. However, this was probably the only place that was clean and brand new.
A clean alloy corridor, bright lights, silver-white cabin walls, and an automatic entrance guard that gave off the smell of advanced technology. I finally felt like I was in the space station and not the old goods market on Trident Street. This was where Big Sister lived.
The Beckham brothers pointed at a silver-white cabin door that had the words "Queen's Boudoir" written on it. "Big Sister's room is right in front. You can go in by yourselves. She doesn't allow us to go in casually."
After saying that, the brothers left.
Big Sister and I exchanged glances. Visca took two steps forward and forcefully pushed open the unlatched alloy door without even knocking.
It was … a very ordinary cabin.
At first, I thought I would see a magnificent treasure room filled with pearls, agate, jadeite, and white jade. The walls were covered with gold foil and the floor was inlaid with diamonds. A beautiful lady with an eye patch sat on a red velvet chair. She wore a pirate hat and a black jacket, her legs crossed as she puffed out smoke and used the iron hook on her hand to clean her ears. When we entered, she would chuckle and say in a low voice, "Jack, we still have a score to settle …"
What do you think we've reached?
But in reality, it was just a very ordinary living cabin. The cabin walls were simple and unadorned, and it was less than thirty square meters in size. On one side of the wall was a folding space-station bed, and next to it was a gray writing desk. On the other side was a large metal cabinet, and next to the cabinet was a wooden dressing table. It was the only luxury item in the entire room, and the big sister was standing in the middle of the room with her back facing us. She was a woman who was 1.7 meters tall, with purple curly hair that reached her shoulders, and wore a dark leather jacket.
I couldn't see her face and could only judge from her back. Her figure couldn't be compared to Big Sister's. She should be a young woman.
However, the big sister didn't react to our arrival. She was busy scolding someone. There was a large floating screen in the middle of the room. On it was a middle-aged man with a gloomy face. He was being scolded like a grandson by the big sister.
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