Landing, Betrayal (Part 2)

Grand Rhine gritted his teeth and sneered. "Last time, I was piloting a small patrol boat from the Danube Company. That little thing was only fifteen meters long—we didn't dare get anywhere near this planet. But this time..." Grand Rhine chuckled and rubbed his hands together as he asked Gu Xiechen, "Deputy Commander, shall we do it?"

"Do it!" Gu Xiechen gave the order decisively. "There are no artificial objects in the planet's outer space. Even if there are natives on this planet, their technological capabilities cannot be very advanced. All ships, activate shields at full power and charge in at maximum speed." This time, even their smallest fast assault ships had a standard length of forty-five meters. The near-supersonic storms were dangerous, but not enough to pose much of a threat. As long as they proceeded carefully, they could easily break into the planet.

With the largest transport ship leading the way, the small fleet plunged into the planet's atmosphere at top speed. The transport ship's enormous frame and powerful engines held back the raging winds, and the fleet passed through the ten-kilometer-thick storm belt without mishap, entering the calm lower atmosphere.

The ships' external sensors fed back a tidal wave of data, and countless figures refreshed across the command cabin's light screens at breakneck speed.

Everyone stared blankly at the data on the screens.

Gravity, atmospheric composition, humidity, temperature—all the figures were nearly perfect. This was a planet ideally suited for human habitation.

Unable to wait any longer, Gu Xiechen ordered several dozen unmanned reconnaissance drones deployed. Minutes later, the images they returned showed that the planet's vegetation was ninety-seven percent similar to Earth's, while ninety-five percent of its land animals either currently existed on Earth or had existed there in the past. In footage returned by one drone, a group of black-and-white giant pandas could clearly be seen lazily chewing bamboo in a grove!

The small fleet descended slowly. The howl of the plasma engines startled the animals in the dense primeval forest below. Large groups of gibbons shrieked as they fled from the treetops, while flocks of brilliantly colored birds of paradise, each trailing two-meter-long tail feathers, chirped and gathered into a rainbow cloud stretching for miles before slowly rising into the air and leisurely flying toward distant mountains.

"My God!" Grand Rhine screamed. "This planet is priceless! My God, one-tenth of this planet belongs to us! Oh my God!"

Gu Xiechen felt his blood rush to his head as well. He shouted, "Land immediately. Let the first echelon land first. All fighters, disembark with me. All ships, remain airborne and stand guard. If nothing unusual happens in half an hour, all ships land at once." Gu Xiechen could barely suppress the excitement in his heart. As long as he seized control of this planet, it would not take long before he possessed the absolute strength to confront Gu Juechen head-on!

The heavy patrol ship Hellhound crushed several hundred-meter-tall trees as it landed. Before the heat waves stirred up by its plasma engines had faded, its hatch slowly opened and the heavy boarding ramp lowered. Fully armed, Gu Xiechen led Grand Rhine and the other experts of the Seventh Regiment down onto the planet's surface.

Beneath their feet was soft humus. When Gu Xiechen's combat boots stepped on the rich soil, black mud actually oozed out with a squelch. This land was so fertile it practically dripped oil!

An excited cheer came through Gu Xiechen's personal computer. "Deputy Commander, data from a drone ahead shows a strong energy reaction. There's a massive Zakra Crystal vein ahead!"

Gu Xiechen, Grand Rhine, and everyone who heard the news felt as though their hearts had been struck several times by heavy hammers. A massive Zakra Crystal mine? Rare metal deposits were plentiful throughout the universe, but Zakla Energy Crystal veins were not so abundant. Many veins only yielded a few hundred cubic meters of Zakra Crystal. A so-called massive Zakra Crystal mine contained at least ten thousand cubic meters of Zakla Energy Crystal. The Earth Federation had set the price clearly: one cubic meter of Zakra Crystal was worth one hundred million, and ten thousand cubic meters meant one trillion!

"We're rich!" Grand Rhine said, drawing in a blissful breath.

Gu Xiechen leaped onto the trunk of a large tree. Gazing over the endless forest, he too took a deep, intoxicated breath. "We're fucking rich!"

One trillion. The more than one hundred thousand mercenaries of the Hell Angels Mercenary Group could each receive an even share of ten million! Enough for everyone to spend the rest of their lives drowning in luxury. That was the allure of interstellar development: immense risks brought immense rewards. The planet before them undoubtedly offered the Hell Angels Mercenary Group a chance to rise. The Hell Angels Mercenary Group was destined to become a major force in the Federation.

"What a pity!" Grand Rhine raised his head and smiled at Gu Xiechen, who stood on a branch several dozen meters away. "Mr. Gu Xiechen, none of the profits from this planet have anything to do with you!"

"Hm?" Gu Xiechen turned around in surprise. Grand Rhine knew his real name? But... how was that possible?

Grand Rhine raised his right hand toward the sky, clenched it tightly, and swung it down with force.

The heavy patrol ships, light patrol ships, and fast assault boats brought by Grand Rhine opened fire at the same time. Their launch tubes were loaded with hypervelocity armor-piercing missiles. Nearly a hundred high-speed missiles almost simultaneously pierced the armor of one patrol ship and three transport ships Gu Xiechen had brought.

The patrol ship and transport ships hovering in the air were torn to pieces without the slightest ability to resist. Buried along with them were the mercenary warriors Gu Xiechen had brought and all the large equipment.

Miserable screams rang out from inside the landed Hellhound. Two adjutants who disagreed with Grand Rhine suddenly struck, instantly killing every mercenary in the command cabin. They activated Hellhound's internal defense system, locking all the soldiers in the other compartments inside.

Great fireballs and metal fragments fell from the sky. Descending with them were twelve pitch-black fast assault boats, each painted with a golden unicorn at the stern, along with six gigantic transport ships five hundred meters long.

"Grand Rhine!" Gu Xiechen's head spun. He glared at Grand Rhine and roared.

Grand Rhine stared at Gu Xiechen with a sinister sneer. "Don't blame me. I'm not a traitor! I became one of Sacred Unicorn's men long ago! This time, Mr. Gu Xiechen, you have no chance at all. On this newly discovered, unfamiliar planet, you cannot possibly have any chance! Raise your hands and surrender obediently. My orders are to capture you alive!"

"Capture your mother!" Gu Xiechen fled into the dense forest like the wind. He moved like a ghost, borrowing force from branch after branch, and in an instant vanished into the boundless woods. As he ran, he kept throwing away every weapon and piece of equipment on his body. Those items all carried tracking devices from the Hell Angels Mercenary Group, and Grand Rhine could use them to find him.

"Damn Grand Rhine! Damn Sacred Unicorn!" Gu Xiechen cursed furiously as he fled. He heard footsteps behind him, but those people's movement techniques were clearly nowhere near his level. Gu Xiechen sped through the forest like a gale, quickly escaping more than ten kilometers and leaving the pursuers far behind.

This was a trap. Without question, it was a trap laid by Grand Rhine and Sacred Unicorn. But such a costly trap seemed to have been aimed at Gu Xiechen alone. Why?

After throwing away all his equipment, Gu Xiechen watched two small ground-attack aircraft streak overhead. Having only just escaped a short distance, he turned around and raced back the way he had come.

At the place where they had landed earlier, a crude camp surrounded by armor plates had already begun to take shape. Siren, his silver hair flowing and dressed in a silver robe, stood in the center of the camp, angrily berating Grand Rhine.

"Bastard! You let Gu Xiechen escape after such a perfect opportunity? You useless waste!"

"Catch him! Send men out and catch him! Otherwise, how am I supposed to negotiate a deal with those people from the Gu Group?"

"This is Sacred Unicorn's opportunity, Sacred Unicorn's chance to rise! But without the weapons provided by the Gu Group, how are we supposed to hold this planet? Do you know how much capital it takes to develop a planet? Without those idiots from the Gu Group supplying weapons at low prices, we'll go bankrupt before Sacred Unicorn can swallow this planet!"

"Bastard, waste, idiot! Such a perfect opportunity, so many warships, so many men—couldn't you use your brain? You just watched him escape?"

So that was it! Gu Xiechen's teeth itched with hatred. Silently, he climbed a large tree closest to the camp and slowly snapped off a straight branch.

The Snow Soul Divine Claw tore at it lightly a few times, and Gu Xiechen shaped the one-and-a-half-meter branch into a sharp throwing spear.

Slowly gathering the gang energy throughout his body, Gu Xiechen infused a strand of Snow Soul Divine Gang into the throwing spear. A thin layer of ice covered the spear, making the hastily made weapon sharper and sturdier. Glancing at Grand Rhine from the corner of his eye, Gu Xiechen swung his hand and hurled the spear viciously at him. Without even looking at the result, he turned and fled.

Siren was still cursing Grand Rhine madly when Grand Rhine's eyes suddenly widened. A pale, frigid spearhead pierced through the center of his forehead. The bone-chilling cold sealed Grand Rhine's blood vessels, leaving not even a trace of blood on the spearhead. Siren stared blankly at Grand Rhine as he slowly fell. Only after a full thirty seconds did he suddenly come to his senses, transforming into a streak of silver light and plunging into the forest.

By then, Gu Xiechen had long since vanished without a trace.

Siren trembled with rage. Hovering high in the air, he shouted sharply, "Send out three reinforced battalions! Every innate-level fighter is to lead the pursuit! Capture him alive... no, kill that bastard!"

Siren narrowed his eyes and said coldly, "Capture him alive? Doesn't seem possible! But his head is worth a fortune too!"

Three reinforced battalions, nearly three thousand hardened mercenaries, rushed out of the camp under the command of nine fighters. The experienced mercenaries swiftly followed the faint traces Gu Xiechen had left in the forest.

On this unfamiliar planet, Gu Xiechen had to face an army alone.

Reinforcements from the Hell Angels Mercenary Group could arrive in seven days at the earliest, and they did not even know the exact location of the wormhole.

This was a dead end designed to kill him.

Comrades, this week is almost over. Will there be more featured recommendations next week...

Hurry up and throw in those recommendation votes... (To be continued)