Landing, Betrayal (Part 1)

Two eighty-meter heavy patrol boats and three three-hundred-and-fifty-meter Class 1 transport ships slowly ascended from the Hell Angels Mercenary Group base.

Nine completely black Earth Federation patrol ships cruised about ten kilometers away. After a perfunctory verification of the password, they allowed Gu Xiechen's small fleet to enter space.

The two barracuda-shaped heavy patrol boats possessed combat capabilities above the average. The Bearded Commander had spent a considerable sum to acquire these two prized vessels from decommissioned Earth Federation Army ships. Modified with parts sourced from the black market, these heavy patrol boats boasted firepower and maneuverability equivalent to a Class 3 Earth Federation active-duty warship, though their defensive capabilities were slightly weaker.

As for the three Class 1 transport ships, due to the inherent limitations of transport vessels, the Bearded Commander had also spent a significant amount on them. However, this only allowed them to travel slightly faster than ordinary civilian ships. Some armor had been added to critical areas, and three small-caliber light cannons were mounted on the bow and stern respectively. These minor modifications granted the three transport ships a degree of self-defense capability.

Gu Xiechen was unfamiliar with the piloting procedures, so everything was handled by the professional crew of the Hell Angels Mercenary Group.

The ship's computer calculated the optimal flight path. The five fully loaded ships used the Moon's gravity for a course correction. The ship engines gradually increased thrust. After five days and four nights of acceleration, the five ships approached two-thirds the speed of light. As soon as the captain of the heavy patrol boat 'Hellhound', where Gu Xiechen was located, gave the order, the warp engines of the five ships simultaneously spewed out scorching blue plasma streams. The five ships instantly broke the light barrier and entered Subspace Warp Light-Speed Cruise.

Subspace Warp Light-Speed Cruise technology was provided by the Roman people. It was precisely with this technology that humanity gained the qualification to leave Earth and venture into the universe. During subspace cruising, the ships traveled at standard light speed, but relative to the normal space where Earth was located, their relative speed reached a hundredfold or even higher.

After half a month of subspace travel, Gu Xiechen's small fleet emerged from subspace into a new starfield. Surrounding a massive giant star, there was a chaotic asteroid belt.

The Alpha Starfield, the third arm of the Milky Way galaxy, was the first resource starfield opened up by the Earth Federation.

The Alpha Starfield contained over a hundred resource planets, rich in various rare metal ores that Earth desperately needed. Currently, only three resource planets were being developed and utilized. In the Alpha Starfield, only one asteroid, comparable in size to the Moon, possessed a thin atmosphere and an extremely primitive biosphere. The underground caverns of this planet were rich in powerful beasts based on coupled carbon-based and silicon-based genes. This planet, named 'Alpha One', was the core planet of the Alpha Starfield. The headquarters of the Danube Heavy Metal Company was located on this planet.

The harsh natural environment of Alpha One made large-scale immigration impossible. The entire planet was inhabited only by over thirty thousand miners from the Danube Heavy Metal Company and a guard force of over a thousand personnel. Some time ago, the beasts from the underground caverns suddenly launched a beast tide attack on the mining area, resulting in heavy casualties among the thousand-plus guards. Grand Rhine, the commander of the Seventh Regiment of the Hell Angels Mercenary Group, led over two thousand four hundred mercenaries to provide protection.

Gu Xiechen stood in the patrol boat's command cabin, browsing all the data on the Alpha Starfield. It was easy to imagine the significance of discovering a new wormhole in the Alpha Starfield. A new planet suitable for large-scale immigration would inevitably trigger a surge in the development of the Alpha Starfield. According to Earth Federation regulations, once the Hell Angels Mercenary Group obtained the mining rights for one-tenth of a new planet, they would secure the mining rights for one-tenth of the resource stars in the Alpha Starfield!

The Danube Heavy Metal Company had only begun preliminary mining operations on three resource planets, and yet they had already risen to become one of the top three mining companies in the Federation!

Gu Xiechen clasped his hands behind his back and ordered, "Tell Grand Rhine to find an excuse to gather half of our brothers here to rendezvous. We must not arouse the suspicion of those people from the Danube Heavy Metal Company."

The five ships hid behind a derelict asteroid, making it impossible for the detectors on Alpha One to detect their arrival. Less than two hours after Gu Xiechen issued his order, a massive transport ship, over five hundred meters long and typical of mining companies, arrived under the escort of one heavy patrol boat, three light patrol boats, and six fast assault cutters.

Gu Xiechen's patrol boat docked with Grand Rhine's patrol boat. Grand Rhine, along with several officers from the Seventh Regiment, came to meet Gu Xiechen.

"Vice Commander!" Grand Rhine, who was short but powerfully built like a mighty lion, saluted Gu Xiechen. The two deputy commanders of the Seventh Regiment behind him looked at Gu Xiechen with indifference.

Gu Xiechen sized up Grand Rhine and said coldly, "Bearded Uncle has put me in charge of everything here. Our mercenary group will conduct preliminary surveys of this planet and establish an advance base on it. As long as we are the first to establish our own base there and transmit the survey data back to Earth immediately, we will gain one-tenth of this planet and the surrounding starfield! Any objections?"

Grand Rhine straightened his body abruptly. "No objections!"

One of the deputy commanders behind Grand Rhine said indifferently, "With just our three thousand-plus men, can we survey a new planet? Don't forget how many lives were lost in the initial stages of surveying the Federation's current colonial planets! I maintain my opinion: we should report this news to the Federation immediately. The Federation's bonus will be enough for all the brothers to retire comfortably."

Another deputy commander sneered, "Of course, we admit that if we successfully survey this planet, the rewards for the brothers will be greater. However, the risk is too high!"

Gu Xiechen stared at the two deputy commanders, who stared back coldly. Gu Xiechen shook his head and asked Grand Rhine, "Grand Rhine, you are the head of the Seventh Regiment. Are you afraid of danger?"

Grand Rhine took several deep breaths and shook his head nervously. "Fortune favors the bold, Vice Commander. We are mercenaries; we risk our lives for profit. That's our nature."

"Then, I will make the decision!" Gu Xiechen declared resolutely. "Everyone, listen to my command. We will go to that planet, strive to establish an advance base, and conduct preliminary surveys. All actions must be taken with caution. If we discover indigenous aliens on the planet's surface, we will try to coexist peacefully with them as much as possible!"

Pressing his lips together, Gu Xiechen smiled faintly. "Hopefully, they are still in a primitive society. That way, we can appear before them as Heavenly Gods."

Grand Rhine and the officers behind him burst into laughter. This was indeed the most ideal scenario in interstellar development. A planet with a good natural environment and a large indigenous population, if they were still in a primitive stage of civilization, the Earth Federation could easily control them. In this way, even the initial development manpower would be secured. Moreover, the natives would not be considered citizens of the Earth Federation, so they wouldn't need to be paid wages regardless of how much work they did!

The two deputy commanders who had voiced their opposition also laughed, though their laughter was somewhat peculiar.

Gu Xiechen could understand their feelings. Having had their opinions overruled by him, their ability to laugh indicated that their psychological fortitude was quite good.

"Then, regarding the Danube Company, what are your movements?" Gu Xiechen asked Grand Rhine the most crucial question.

"They have no way of knowing. The excuse I gave them was that we were going to hunt down the beasts in the underground caves, and they were more than happy about that," Grand Rhine replied confidently.

"Very good, let's depart!" Gu Xiechen ordered. "The reinforcement teams from the Third and Fifth Regiments will arrive within seven days at the earliest. We have enough personnel."

The two small teams merged into one. Under Grand Rhine's guidance, the small fleet flew for three days and arrived at the most chaotic asteroid belt in the Alpha Starfield. Here, a large number of meteoroids whizzed by at any moment, and interstellar dust rubbed against each other in the void, igniting numerous flashes of light. The spatial temperature here was as low as minus two hundred and ten degrees Celsius, while in some active meteoroid zones, the friction between large meteoroid streams and interstellar dust generated temperatures exceeding thirty thousand degrees Celsius. Every meteoroid that flew by rapidly left a dazzling trail of fire in the vast expanse of space.

This was a forbidden zone for life, a hellish place. It was truly a mystery how the extremely bored Grand Rhine managed to discover a new wormhole in this area while piloting a patrol boat.

Carefully avoiding dozens of fire streams splashed up by meteoroids and the countless meteoroid fragments generated by the collision of two small meteorites, the small fleet slowly approached the core of the asteroid belt.

Here, a rare oval void with a diameter of over fifty kilometers existed. In the center of this void, only thirty-odd scattered meteoroids of various sizes were suspended in the air. In the middle of these rocks was a dark hole that occasionally emitted a large amount of far-infrared radiation. This hole was the most miraculous wormhole in the universe, a shortcut that could instantly transport one to another starfield.

Gu Xiechen ordered the launch of several small armed satellites and magnetic levitation mines around the perimeter, and then hung three positioning signal generators near the wormhole. Subsequently, the small fleet resolutely entered the wormhole.

The moment the ship they were on plunged into the wormhole, Gu Xiechen suddenly felt something familiar about his surroundings. However, he dismissed this strange sense of familiarity. In this vast universe, there were too many things that felt like déjà vu. Stars, planets, small meteorites – these things had been seen in too many places.

The people inside the ship felt a wave of dizziness, followed by bright light penetrating the high-strength bulletproof glass at the front of the command cabin.

In the starfield ahead, there was a star comparable in size to the Sun, around which seven planets of varying sizes were orbiting. Of the seven planets, the other six were all gray, worthless rocky planets. Only the second planet was a vast expanse of green and blue. The green represented forests and grasslands, while the blue represented oceans and lakes. From a distance, on this planet, which was twice the diameter of Earth, the ocean area accounted for more than sixty percent, and the land area accounted for about thirty percent.

The planet's atmosphere was extremely thick, at least three times that of Earth's atmosphere. Using satellite remote sensing, the upper part of the planet's atmosphere was densely packed with turbulent air currents. Visible white air waves were rapidly traversing the upper atmosphere, and remote sensing data indicated that the speed of dozens of major air currents approached the speed of sound!

Gu Xiechen, Grand Rhine, and everyone in the command cabin couldn't help but gasp as they looked at this terrifying data.