False bargaining chips on an open channel, a probing gambit by wasteland raiders
The line of green characters hovered like will-o'-the-wisps in one corner of the screen, creating an eerie contrast with the menacing silhouette of the approaching ship outside the Bridge.
[SOS: Key T/N-001. Coordinates locked. Do not respond.]
T/N-001.
Natasha.
A cold glint flashed in the depths of Gwen Stacy's eyes.
Almost simultaneously, a piercing alarm shattered the silence of the Bridge. Red light replaced the soft illumination, illuminating the two clerks' pale faces as if they were startled birds.
"Chief... Chief! It's ' Bloodfang '! We're surrounded!" Xiao Zhang's voice trembled uncontrollably as he pointed at the few ugly warships pieced together on the main screen, covered in sharp blades and cannons, as if he were seeing monsters from the Abyss.
"Shut up."
Gwen Stacy's voice wasn't loud, but it was like a cold ruler, instantly settling the chaotic atmosphere on the Bridge.
The alarm stopped abruptly.
She slowly stood up, straightened her impeccably dressed Liaison Office uniform, and walked to the Control Console.
On the main screen, a rude communication request is violently assaulting the Shuttle's firewall.
"Bring them in," Gwen Stacy instructed calmly, "Public channel."
Xiao Li's fingers trembled slightly, but he still did as instructed.
After a crackling sound of electricity, a face covered in burns and mechanical implants filled the entire screen. The person grinned, revealing a mouthful of teeth mixed with metal and decay, and the voice sounded like it was being squeezed out of a rusty blower.
"Listen up, you guinea pigs of the Management Committee. I'm Hark from ' Bloodfang.' You have thirty seconds: shut down your engines, activate your shields, and submit to boarding inspection. Otherwise, I'll blast you little Tin Can, along with the tender flesh inside, into cosmic dust!"
Behind Hark, a burst of laughter, a mixture of alcohol and violence, erupted.
Xiao Zhang and Xiao Li's faces paled even further.
Gwen Stacy's face remained expressionless. She didn't even look at Hark's repulsive face, but instead lowered her head to carefully examine her neatly trimmed nails.
"First."
She spoke, her voice steady, with the emotionless tone characteristic of someone long accustomed to being in a position of power reviewing official documents.
"According to Article 3 of the Management Committee's ' Code of Conduct for External Communications,' all unofficial designations are considered provocative. We have the right to suspend communications."
"Second." She raised her eyes, her gaze finally landing on the screen, but as if looking at an inanimate object. "I am Gwen Stacy Stacy, Director of the Multiverse Crisis Response Liaison Office, Negative Zone Management Committee. Please address me by my title."
Hark's smile froze on his face. The laughter behind him gradually subsided.
They had plundered merchant ships, raided mining teams, and even clashed with TVA patrols, but they had never seen anything like this. The other party was clearly a sitting duck, yet spoke like a high-ranking official inspecting the place.
"Huh! Section Chief?" Hark chuckled dryly, as if he'd heard the funniest joke in the world. "I don't care if you're a section chief or Director! Open the door or you're dead!"
"I cannot activate the shields," Gwen Stacy. "Our ship is currently on the highest priority escort mission, S-007. The item on board, codenamed ' Sample X-37,' is a source of highly psychoactive radiation recovered from the Abandoned Timeline XN-734."
Her voice was measured and deliberate, each word clearly reaching the other person's ears.
"According to the Technology Division's assessment report, the non-targeted mental contamination radius of ' Sample X-37 ' is 30,000 standard units. Any unauthorized physical contact, or a breach in the energy shield within 500 standard units, will cause its containment Force Field to fail. At that time, the sample will instantly vaporize, and the Chaos cognition virus it carries will contaminate every organic life form in this star system."
Gwen Stacy paused slightly, her gaze sweeping across Hark's face on the screen, which was gradually freezing in expression.
"Infected individuals initially experience sensory deprivation, followed by an uncontrollable urge to self-harm and cannibalize their own kind. Ultimately, in a state of extreme frenzy, their brain tissue liquefies, leaving them as an empty shell capable only of transmitting contamination. The entire process is irreversible and there is no cure."
Inside the Bridge, you could hear a pin drop.
Xiao Zhang and Xiao Li stared in horror, their mouths agape, as their department head calmly fabricated a terrifying story that would haunt a child's nightmares for a lifetime.
The arrogance on the faces of the bandits behind Hark had vanished, replaced by an expression of suspicion and fear. They were desperados, but they didn't want to die so mysteriously.
"You... you fucking bluff me!" Hark roared, his bravado masking his inner cowardice.
"You can bet," Gwen Stacy said calmly. "Also, I need to remind you. According to Article 34 of Chapter 17 of the Management Committee's ' Wartime Special Asset Transfer Regulations,' any attempt to intercept, probe, or threaten S-rank escort mission with force is considered a direct declaration of war against the Management Committee."
She stretched out her finger and gently tapped the air, and a virtual document projected with Scarlet glow of Highest Access Privileges appeared between her and Hark.
"All participants, including their respective factions, affiliated groups, and homeworld, will be included in the Management Committee's ' Indefinite Retrospective Liquidation ' list. The implementing body is the Stability Maintenance Office. The person in charge Director Hela."
Hela.
When Gwen Stacy uttered the name, Hark's mechanically modified eye flickered sharply.
That crazy woman from the Stability Maintenance Office, that Goddess of Death who could throw Undead Fleet into the battlefield like cannon fodder, just to flatten an asteroid blocking her way.
Hark's Adam's apple bobbed, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
An adjutant behind him leaned close to his ear and whispered a few words. Hark's expression was uncertain, clearly indicating that he was going through a fierce internal struggle.
The allure of wealth and the risk of annihilation clashed fiercely in his mind, which was corrupted by desire and alcohol.
After a long while, Hark took a deep breath, and the ferocity on his face suddenly disappeared, replaced by a stiff, fake smile.
"It's Chief Stacy! It's a misunderstanding, all a misunderstanding! We were just... on a routine patrol, yes, a routine patrol. We didn't expect to run into you here on official business."
He waved his hand, signaling his warships to retreat slightly and release the lock on their Main Cannon.
"However, since this is S-rank escort mission, we, ' Bloodfang,' as the 'security maintainers' of this star system, have an obligation to ensure your safety. How about this, Director Stacy, let's find a place to discuss the price of the 'escort' service? What do you think?"
Xiao Zhang and Xiao Li almost cheered.
Success! With just a few words, the section chief subdued this group of fierce-looking space pirates!
A faint, formulaic smile finally appeared on Gwen Stacy's face.
"Yes. We also hope that the issue can be resolved in a peaceful and friendly atmosphere."
She had barely finished speaking.
On the screen, Hark's face, plastered with a fake smile, suddenly snapped shut, revealing a sinister and cruel grin at the corners of his mouth.
"Peace and friendship?" He chuckled softly, the laughter growing louder and louder, filled with mockery and ridicule. "Little girl, you've played your stalling game quite well."
Gwen Stacy's heart sank.
"Unfortunately," Hark's smile vanished, his eyes turning as cold as an Abyss, "I hate it when people treat me like a fool!"
He suddenly waved his hand and roared.
"All Fleet! Main Cannon charged!"
"Ten seconds left! Melt that turtle shell of hers!"
Inside the Bridge, the atmosphere that had just cleared up instantly froze.
In the center of the main screen, a blood-red number suddenly popped up.
[10]
The cold, mechanical countdown echoed through the deathly silent Bridge.
[09][08]
The two clerks instantly lost all color in their faces, their bodies stiffening like statues.
Gwen Stacy's pupils shrank to the most dangerous pinpoints the instant the blood-red numbers flashed.
She lost.
She didn't lose because of a lack of strategy, but because of the information gap. She couldn't understand why the other party, who had already wavered, would suddenly become so resolute.
unless...
Unless the other party's purpose was not robbery from the beginning.
The green distress signal flashed through her mind again.
[Coordinates locked.]
It's Natasha.
She somehow confirmed to these bandits that there was no source of spiritual pollution on her ship.
A confined prisoner was able to precisely control a group of ruthless interstellar bandits, even going so far as to put himself, the Liaison Office Chief, to death.
This ruthlessness and energy sent a chill down Gwen Stacy's spine.
[07]
[06]
Time is flying by.
In Gwen Stacy's mind, countless Contingency Plan were frantically being rehearsed, clashed, and then rejected one by one.
A call for help? Communication has already been blocked.
A counterattack? The firepower of a single light Shuttle is futile against the entire Fleet, like a mantis trying to stop a chariot.
A lead-mercury coating that physically isolates Psychic Power scanning... faking false energy signals...
etc.
Gwen Stacy's gaze suddenly sharpened, landing on an inconspicuous corner of the Control Console.
That's a real-time feedback diagram from the engine compartment.
The command that Xiao Li executed redirected the excess energy from the B-3 circuit into the Sixth-Cycle Matrix of the ship's hull.
matrix...
Lynn.
A detail she had deliberately ignored shattered all the fog like lightning.
When Lynn summoned her at the Central Hub Starport and secretly assigned her this "Border Patrol" mission, he gave her a data Chip.
"Just in case," he said calmly, yet with an undeniable weight, "If we encounter problems that can't be solved by procedures and rules, we'll activate it."
That Chip contained only one instruction.
Energy is channeled into the Sixth-Cycle Matrix.
That's not a coating designed to block Psychic Power scans at all!
[05]
[04]
"Xiao Zhang!" Gwen Stacy's voice suddenly rang out, clear and decisive, without the slightest hint of panic.
"Here!" Xiao Zhang straightened up instinctively.
"With my Highest Access Privileges, activate the ' Hive' -class Shuttle's emergency evacuation Contingency Plan, codenamed ' Thunder '!"
"Yes!"
Xiao Zhang's fingers flew across the keyboard, bringing up the final Contingency Plan he had never imagined he would need.
[03]
[02]
On the Bridge of the Bloodfang Fleet's flagship, Hark licked his chapped lips, his eyes filled with bloodthirsty excitement. He could almost see the sleek Shuttle turning into a dazzling cloud of fireworks under the salvo of its Main Cannon.
However, just as the countdown was about to reach zero...
A sudden change has occurred!
The seemingly docile and harmless Shuttle suddenly had countless dark blue arcs of electricity flash across its smooth lead-mercury coating!
The electric arcs surged and intertwined at speeds imperceptible to the naked eye, instantly forming a miniature matrix so intricate it was terrifying!
The next second.
"Buzz--"
A silent, invisible, Directed Electromagnetic Storm erupted from the Shuttle's center!