Somewhere in the Shattered Star Ring, three small warships bearing the insignia of the Black Star Army cruised through space. All of them were Blitz-class Shuttle, known for their speed.
This unit is responsible for tracking suspicious transport fleets. The Black Star Army has now deployed such tracking teams in multiple star systems in the Shattered Star Ring, creating a tight net.
In the command center of the lead ship, the captain carefully stared at the star map in front of him, which marked the patrol routes of the squadrons. If any suspicious forces were discovered in the area of responsibility, or if a new mission was assigned, it would be displayed on the star map.
"I heard that two days ago, a suspicious transport fleet was spotted in the next sector. The clues are sporadic, and it seems we've lost track of it. Do you think it might have wandered into our territory?" An adjutant next to him chatted casually with his colleague.
"It's great that they actually came. Tracking a suspicious fleet is a merit. We've been patrolling here for months and haven't had a single proper mission yet. If we're unlucky, who knows when we'll get our credit."
The other person's tone was tinged with envy.
The patrol missions were tedious and boring, and the captain didn't stop his subordinates from chatting. He thought the same thing. Although he was just a junior member of the legion, he had a strong desire to improve himself. As long as he accumulated enough merits, he could exchange them for elite training qualifications in the legion. Investing in himself would be beneficial for promotion.
Dudu--
Just then, a red dot of light radiating ripples suddenly appeared on the star map, accompanied by a notification sound. This was a field investigation mission issued by the monitoring department, which usually indicated that the space buoy had detected a suspicious force.
"A mission has arrived!"
The captain's eyes lit up, realizing his opportunity had arrived. He immediately ordered the fleet to change course and head towards the marked coordinates.
The three spaceships immediately turned, their engines emitting iridescent light, and shot towards the depths of space.
After sailing for some time, the team arrived at the target location and easily activated the detection devices. Thirty or forty spatial folds appeared on the radar screen.
These are the traces left by high-speed jumps, each representing a spaceship. These traces will disappear over time, but they have not completely dissipated yet, extending outwards and indirectly indicating the course of these dozens of spaceships.
"A total of forty-one jump trajectories indicate a small to medium-sized fleet. Follow the tracks and get on board!" The captain said without hesitation.
The team sped up, following the warp trail, and after two hours of tracking, a desolate asteroid came into view.
The trail ends here, indicating that the target has exited the jump mode.
"Report: The target has disappeared. It may be temporarily staying on this planet to collect resources, or it may be hiding on the far side of the planet in an ambush. Please give instructions for the next step." The adjutant glanced at the radar that had no warning signal and spoke.
The captain hesitated for two seconds, then said, "Ship Number Two, scan the planet's surface. Ship Number Three, circle around to the far side of the planet. Ship Number One, where I am, will stand by, keep the engines running, and ensure we can evacuate at any time."
"Receive."
The three spaceships immediately split up and took action, and soon the results were in.
A fleet was discovered anchored somewhere on the planet's ley lines. The faction markings on its outer armor indicated that it belonged to a local commercial conglomerate. It was currently mining underground gas resources, and the scale of the operation matched the number of warp traces, making it the target that the team was tracking.
"Issue a wide-area communication requesting to obtain their identification codes," the captain said.
The Super Star Cluster Alliance's transport fleets use various methods to deceive the public, with disguising themselves as troops from other organizations being one of the most common tactics. If a Legion tracking team catches up with a suspicious fleet, they will usually first request to check the other party's identity. If it is a misunderstanding, they will let it pass.
Generally speaking, checking the identities of transit fleets is the responsibility of the Civil Security Forces, and the Black Star Army, as a private armed organization, does not have this authority.
However, might makes right. Now that the Black Star Army is tracking the Modo Civilization's transport fleet across the entire star system, normal organizations will give them face and not want to cause trouble for themselves. Most of the civilizations in the Shattered Star Ring will also have no objections and will turn a blind eye.
Occasionally, when the tracking team encounters the real target, the enemy might strike first, which is an unavoidable risk. Therefore, the tracking team generally avoids prolonged engagements and maintains constant communication with the Intelligence Department. This way, even if the tracking team is lost or encounters difficulties, information can still be relayed back to the monitoring department to confirm the target's enemy identity.
At this point, the tracking team sent a communication request to the transport fleet, but it went unanswered.
The captain immediately became alert. "Something's wrong. Prepare for evacuation immediately. Report the situation..."
Before he could finish speaking, his mind suddenly went blank, and his vision became blurry. He remained in this state for a moment before his thoughts returned to clarity.
However, when he saw the scene before him clearly again, his whole body stiffened, and an overwhelming fear erupted from his heart, instantly destroying his reason.
He found himself surrounded by a prison cell, his body firmly strapped into a cell, unable to move.
He was terrified.
One second I was in the command center of the shuttle, and the next second I'm here?!
Before he could figure it out, his head spun again, and the surrounding environment changed once more. He found himself in a transparent glass room, surrounded by a group of enormous black beetles that were stirring around him.
His gaze pierced through the transparent walls of the room, and he was immediately filled with terror. He saw towering giants walking outside the room, their figures so large that he couldn't see their end, and he couldn't make out just how tall they were.
Everything in sight seemed to have grown countless times larger.
"What exactly is going on...?"
The captain muttered to himself unconsciously, but instead of hearing his own voice, he heard a faint hissing sound.
He was slightly taken aback, looked down at himself, and a chill suddenly rushed into his mind. He was so frightened that his soul almost left his body, and he couldn't believe it.
His body had transformed into a black beetle, just like the insects around him!
In an instant, he understood something.
It's not that the world has gotten bigger, it's that I've shrunk!
Just then, intense orange flames descended from the sky, filling the entire glass room and freezing his thoughts in a blazing white expanse.
boom--
In a single breath, all the black beetles were burned to ashes.
An operator in a white lab coat moved the experimental flamethrower aside, glanced at the residue inside the glass box, and gave an "OK" sign to the team leader not far away.
The team leader nodded and reported to the communication screen, "Commander, target eliminated."
"Um."
On the flagship, the fleet commander nodded and turned to look out the porthole at the view.
Two of the three shuttle ships in outer space had already been destroyed by their sudden concentrated fire, turning into fireworks in space. Only the Number One ship, which served as the command ship, escaped the scene by jumping over the enemy's deliberate detonation.
The escaped spaceship had all its crew members replaced by different souls beneath their bodies!
"The plan is going smoothly."
Nodding slightly, the commander turned to look to the side and saw a dark crystal mirror floating in mid-air, about fifty centimeters in diameter and no more than three centimeters thick.
The Soul-Switching Twins stood before the mirror, their hands sinking into the surface, up to their wrists, as if being swallowed up, causing ripples to spread across the mirror.
This mirror is a wondrous Universal Treasure known as the Soul-Switching Device!
"That's enough, stop now!"
The commander shouted.
Upon hearing this, the Soul-Switching Twins slowly withdrew their hands. The surrounding soldiers immediately stepped forward, moved the Soul-Switching Device away, and placed it in an extremely secure safe, keeping it away from the Soul-Switching Twins.
Seeing this, the Soul-Switching Twins casually glanced at the mechanical turrets protruding from the walls and ground around them, aiming at them, and let out a nonchalant laugh.
These turrets are safety devices to prevent them from acting erratically. They are remotely controlled by AI, and the Soul-Switching Device only works on biological souls. It is useless against mechanical AI.
The commander then withdrew his gaze, looked in the direction the shuttle had fled, and whispered:
"The assassins we prepared beforehand have already infiltrated the enemy ranks. With us acting as bait, we should be able to lure them out..."
"A tracking team from the Thousand Lights Star System was ambushed while pursuing a suspicious fleet. Two of their ships were destroyed on the spot, with only one Escape with Your Life..."
At the Black Star Army's headquarters in the Shattered Star Ring, Nero finished reading the report in a low voice, looked up at the several officers in the room, and said:
What do you all think?
Mia's tone was decisive. "The situation is clear. This transport fleet has made its move, so it's almost certainly someone from the Super Star Cluster Alliance. Immediately mobilize troops from the area surrounding the incident site to track the target."
"I find it a bit strange. The Super Star Cluster Alliance's forces generally don't take action because engaging in combat would expose their identities. Most of the time, they try to shake off their pursuers. Encounters usually happen because they didn't spot their pursuers and were caught off guard... But since they've taken action, they shouldn't have left any survivors. That's how it's always been in the past."
Tomar muttered to himself.
He studied magic under Lagi for decades. Although his teacher was incompetent, his talent was simply too great, and he has now risen to a high-ranking position. He has a good relationship with Nero and is now considered part of Nero's inner circle.
"Perhaps the surviving ship escaped in time, and the Supercluster forces knew the intelligence would be leaked, so they didn't want to waste their energy on pursuit and preferred to spend their time escaping," Mia guessed.
"That makes sense," Tomar said, seemingly unconvinced.
"Let's ask the survivors about their specific situation first."
Nero thought for a moment and instructed his assistant to contact the captain of the surviving spaceship. After a while, the communication was connected, and the person on the screen was the captain of the tracking team.
"Recount your ordeal exactly as it happened. I need to know all the details."
The captain in the video glanced at the camera, nodded, and put on an expression that was both lingering fear and burning anger, then recounted what had happened.
The soul beneath this body has been replaced by a suicide soldier prepared by the Modo Civilization. The effect of the Soul-Switching Device is not simply to transfer the souls of the two bodies. The soul that "possessed" the body can also inherit most of the target's memories. After all, the body's brain is also a memory storage device, like a Tu Shu.
However, this memory will not naturally merge with the new soul; it needs to be slowly sorted out and read, and some parts will be missing. Generally speaking, the older the memory, the easier it is to lose, while the most recent memory is basically complete.
There is a rejection relationship between different souls and bodies. Some telekinetic practitioners or psychics can perform operations such as reincarnation or possession, but the success rate is extremely low. Fording and Morning Star are examples of this.
The Soul-Switching Device can greatly increase the success rate of soul transfer, approaching 100% under normal circumstances, but it is affected by the strength of the target and the user's strength. At the same time, the rejection between the physical body and the soul is greatly reduced when a soul transfer is completed using the Soul-Switching Device, and there will be no strong rejection reaction.
Soul transfer is only one of the functions of the Soul-Switching Device; this thing is quite miraculous and has other effects as well.
After listening to the report, Nero offered a few words of encouragement and was about to end the communication.
At this moment, the "survivor's" eyes flashed, and feigning grief and anger, he shouted:
"We are now the closest unit to the enemy, and I hope to continue this mission, continue the pursuit, and avenge my comrades!"
"... Can."
This request was perfectly reasonable, and Nero had no reason to refuse.
He hung up the call, and Tomar spoke again:
"Nero, now that the target knows their whereabouts have been exposed, they will definitely change their plans and not head towards the transport line, but instead split up to escape. I suggest we take the second option."
This is not the first time this has happened. If the transport units are exposed, they are basically abandoned. Even if they continue to be tracked, they will not be able to find the Super Star Cluster Alliance's secret stronghold.
"That's right." Nero turned to Iso beside him, his tone apologetic, "Well... Lord Iso, we're troubling you again this time."
"It's nothing," Iso waved his hand dismissively.
The so-called second option is to use Iso's abilities to send him to the scene of the incident, where he can use relevant clues to make on-site predictions, foresee multiple future possibilities, and obtain more clues.
To obtain clearer prophecies, more mediums are needed. This method has proven effective in practice. For several months, Iso has not simply stayed at headquarters, but has conducted multiple field investigations under heavy protection, using this method to find many targets for the Black Star Army.
Nero nodded and said loudly:
"Without delay, prepare a spaceship immediately and send Lord Iso and his escort to the scene of the incident."
On the other side.
A certain star system, a certain planet, a certain base.
Manison stood with his hands behind his back in front of a virtual screen, squinting at the content displayed on the screen.
This was secret intelligence from the Ancient Star Desert headquarters, from an informant he had planted within the Modo Civilization many years ago.
The above only contains a brief message:
--The Soul-Switching Twins have been transferred away from the base, Soul-Switching Device has been taken from the warehouse by the military; its destination is unknown!
"The Soul-Switching Device... If I'm not mistaken, the Modo Civilization used this Universal Treasure to deal with him. Perhaps I can..."
Manison muttered to himself, a strange light flashing in his eyes.