On the border of the Sea of Star Spirits, a fleet of over forty ships is sailing, their outer armor bearing the insignia of the Rock Elves civilization.
These spaceships are specially designed long-range vessels by the Rock Elves civilization. They look somewhat like mining ships, but are rather bulky. Their main onboard weapons are lightweight plasma cannons and cutting particle beam guns.
A galactic-level civilization, relying solely on its own spaceship technology, can at most move between galaxies. Even with stargates built by advanced civilizations, a galactic-level civilization still needs to manufacture specific types of spaceships to travel across star systems. Fuel and energy technology is a hurdle, which is divided into short-range and long-range ships.
For galactic-level civilizations, long-range ships are a very precious type of vessel, and their construction difficulty far exceeds that of short-range ships.
In order to transport the Evolutionary Totem back from the Black Star Army in a distant star system, the Rock Elves dispatched a long-range fleet. The previous fleet was attacked by the Blood Gold Organization and was completely wiped out. This force is the second batch. Using stargates, they traveled between Galaxy for a period of time before arriving at the Black Star Army's base to receive a new batch of totems. After a long journey, this long-range fleet finally returned to the Sea of Star Spirits.
In the command room of the flagship, the Rock Elves commander solemnly instructed the crew:
"Everyone, stay alert! The last long-range fleet was attacked in the border region of the Sea of Star Spirits. We've entered the enemy's operational range. Report any unusual activity on the detection radar to me."
"Understood," the crew member in the command room replied, his expression highly tense.
Cluster-level and above civilizations are accustomed to long voyages, but for the crews of galaxy-level civilizations, every voyage outside their civilization's jurisdiction represents the unknown and danger. Leaving their borders and without the protection of their own civilization's fleet is like entering the deep sea from the coast, or moving from a high-security zone to a low-security zone. The deep and dark universe is full of hidden risks.
Law enforcers don't just appear out of nowhere; various interstellar forces are active in this arena, and they'll never know how many eyes are watching them behind the silent, wide-area quantum communication channel.
"The next stargate is eighteen days away. We can jump three star systems to leave the border region and enter the outer edge of the second ring of the star field. The border is the most dangerous, but as long as we don't encounter any enemies during this period, we will be basically safe," the commander said.
However, no sooner had he finished speaking than a piercing alarm sounded on the spaceship.
His mouth seemed to be blessed, and spaceship signals appeared from all directions simultaneously, allowing him to break into the enemy's encirclement that had been set up long ago.
"Again?! Who leaked our whereabouts?!"
The commander's expression changed, and he gritted his teeth. This was too much! They were just targeting our family to fleece us.
If it weren't for Lord Black Star's help, we would have lost everything again.
The attackers, numbering over three hundred ships, quickly surrounded the prey, releasing space bubbles that restricted warp jumps to prevent their escape.
Inside the attackers' flagship, a tall crystalline creature hovered in front of the command room's massive porthole. It was a polygonal crystal, without limbs or facial features, only two pale blue tentacles materialized from psychic energy, gently swaying.
This crystalline being, Kolangsta, is the leader of this attacker group. He is Calamity Grade psychic, a senior mercenary of the Blood Gold Organization, and a former traitor to a crystalline civilization. He absorbed a large amount of the spiritual power of his own kind to advance to the Calamity Grade, which led to his being wanted by the authorities. Years ago, he joined the Blood Gold Organization and became a senior officer.
An encirclement quickly took shape. Kolangsta used his telekinesis to vibrate the air, creating sound waves and controlling the frequency to speak.
"Release the magnetized pulse radiation wave to eliminate the enemy's shield. The vanguard will approach the enemy and engage in boarding action. Avoid long-range bombardment that could damage the cargo. Our objective is to seize the intact Evolutionary Totem."
The Blood Gold Organization has been keeping a close eye on information regarding the Evolutionary Totem appearing on the black market. Not long ago, a highly reputable anonymous black market account posted a job to steal a totem, which revealed the whereabouts of this Rock Elves force. The Blood Gold Organization immediately accepted the job.
They weren't after the reward money; their real aim was to hoard Evolutionary Totem and then hand them over to civilizations in need. This would not only earn them more bounties but also secure their support. Han Xiao had gained immense political backing through the Evolutionary Totem, and the Blood Gold Organization and other forces secretly plundering them all wanted to share in this influence.
Completing the employment is not important; hoarding totems is the main objective. However, the Blood Gold Organization has no intention of violating the employment agreement. They don't need to hand over all the totems to the employer. As long as they use damage during battle as an excuse, they can decide how many totems to hand over, and they can embezzle the rest. This is standard practice for the Blood Gold Organization.
Because of the recent months of raids, the civilizations that made the purchases are keeping it a secret, so totem intelligence circulating on the black market is extremely rare. There aren't many transport units whose locations have actually been pinpointed, and the main value of this hire is the discovery of the Rock Elves' whereabouts.
Because the Blood Gold Organization had a successful precedent of stealing Rock Elves, they trusted this intelligence to a certain extent. After privately verifying the information with another large intelligence organization that managed the Interstellar Black Market, the Blood Gold Organization felt at ease and took action, ambushing the transport troops along their route in advance.
The Blood Gold Organization's fleet was several times larger than the Rock Elves', like a pack of wolves surrounding a flock of sheep.
The next moment, invisible pulses of radiation were released from the Blood Gold Organization fleet, enveloping the Rock Elves fleet. The effect was immediate; the Rock Elves ' shields flickered, as if there was a malfunction, and their protective capabilities were greatly reduced.
This pulsed radiation, generated by a strong magnetic field, can interfere with and neutralize electromagnetic and ion-type shields, but it has no effect on Psionic Energy and dark energy shields, which are primarily used by galactic-level civilizations.
The two sides quickly closed the distance. The Blood Gold Organization used its storm pods with magnetic chains to bite into the Rock Elves ships. When they hit the storm pods of the opposing ships, they released a traction magnetic field, slowly pulling the two ships together and completing the boarding.
In Kolangsta's command center, images of boarding troops appeared one after another.
"Report, I have boarded the ship, feeling well, and am en route to the ship's control room, clearing out any resistance forces along the way."
"Very good." Kolangsta said slowly, "Speed up the pace, I..."
Before the words were finished, the video feed in the command center suddenly went completely black, leaving everyone stunned.
Immediately afterwards, the communication link was filled with the sounds of fierce fighting, as well as the cries and screams of the boarding troops.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack! There are other troops on board!"
My armor is malfunctioning!
The sounds of battle lasted only a short while before the communication links fell silent; all the boarding forces had been wiped out.
Everyone in the command room looked on in astonishment, turning to Kolangsta and waiting for his orders.
Kolangsta was also surprised and uncertain. Just as he was about to speak, a static sound suddenly came from the screen in the command room.
Sizzle--
The next moment, a blank humanoid figure made of white noise suddenly appeared on the screen, emitting an indifferent mechanical voice.
"Following the Dominion's command, I shall take over this place."
"Who are you?"
"Under the Dominion's throne, Formless Ghost."
As soon as the words were spoken, everyone in the room noticed something unusual. They saw raised, flowing lines appearing on the metal bulkhead, like snakes swimming within it.
The crew members hurriedly moved away from the surrounding bulkheads, huddled together, staring intently at the bulkheads with expressions of panic.
"What happened... Ah!!"
Before the words were even finished, the alloy ground beneath the crowd's feet suddenly deformed. Without a sound, a cactus-like iron tree sprouted from the crowd, and countless metal thorns pierced through the bodies, instantly causing blood and flesh to fly everywhere!
Boom!
Kolangsta unleashed a powerful psychic attack, shattering the iron tree in an instant.
The shattered metal fell to the ground, but was absorbed by the ground like molten liquid. Then, the command room deformed violently, and the metal seemed to turn into flesh and blood, closing in and frantically compressing the space. The whole room seemed to come alive.
Kolangsta hurriedly used his telekinesis to shatter the porthole and escape into space, only then seeing clearly what had happened.
The entire ship began to flow like nanoparticles, its metal deforming drastically and becoming unrecognizable, like kneaded clay. Several other spaceships nearby exhibited the same phenomenon.
Kolangsta was greatly alarmed.
--The Formless Ghost, one of the Apostle Weapon, is a contagious nanomechanical virus that splits like spores. It can parasitize and manipulate metals and machines, and can also transform metals into nanoparticles, making them part of itself, thereby continuously increasing its size.
Meanwhile, from the Rock Elves fleet, a black tide spread out, and densely packed mechanical troops, empowered by the Mechanical Force of the Quantum Non-Distance Transmission Channel, decimated Blood Gold Organization's ships one after another.
Upon seeing the Black Star Army insignia on the mechs, Kolangsta immediately understood and was utterly horrified.
"Black Star?!"
Upon realizing the enemy's identity, Kolangsta was instantly filled with despair and lost the will to resist.
The Formless Ghost led a ranged mechanical force to escort the Rock Elves fleet. With Han Xiao's current abilities, even without the Dominator's Descent, a ranged mechanical force of 100,000 men would be enough to easily deal with several hundred Blood Gold Organization warships.
The battle was a foregone conclusion; the entire enemy force was taken prisoner.
Kolangsta had nowhere to escape. Even though he was Calamity Grade, he was powerless against the current mechanical forces and was quickly subdued, forced to wear a device that suppressed his mental powers.
Without his telekinetic powers, given his physical structure, he would need help even to turn over.
After the battle ended, Han Xiao's consciousness descended through the quantum network channel into a perfectly intact Blood Gold Organization spaceship, shaking his head and chuckling.
"These guys really took the bait."
"My Dominion, I have fulfilled my mission."
The floor of the command room deformed, and metal coalesced into a human shape, kneeling on one knee. It was the Formless Ghost, whose true form was nanoparticles, and whose appearance could change in countless ways.
"You've worked hard," Han Xiao said encouragingly. "Let me take over from here."
In the blink of an eye, his consciousness followed the spaceship's quantum network link, invading the Blood Gold Organization's internal database in reverse. He traversed the quantum network rapidly, jumping between quantum network servers in an instant, and physical distance became meaningless in front of him.
With Beyond Grade A virtual mechanic personally taking action, the Blood Gold Organization's intelligent firewall proved to be ineffective, riddled with vulnerabilities in Han Xiao's eyes.
Not long after, Han Xiao, far away at the Black Star Army headquarters, opened his eyes. The dazzling Mechanical Force flowing in his eyes gradually subsided, and he smiled slightly.
"Found it."
"Dominion, what should we do with the remaining prisoners?" the Formless Ghost asked.
"They're all bad, kill them all... Oh right, except for that crystal organism, bring it back to me, I'll see if I can extract its juice... uh, crystal powder."
Han Xiao gave a casual reply, then exited the Quantum Network Vision, selected the whereabouts of three high-ranking Blood Gold Organization, and sent them to the Crimson Dynasty official in charge of totem affairs.
The Blood Gold Organization's high-ranking members are elusive and quite mysterious, but once they lock onto you, it's very difficult to shake them off.
If this task were done by a player, the steps would be very complicated, requiring them to search for clues everywhere. However, it was very simple for him; he only needed to pull on one thread to extract all the information.
Once the intelligence was delivered, the control panel immediately responded, indicating that the mission was complete.
[[Warning] Completed]
[You have gained 15 million experience points, 1000 Crimson Dynasty contribution points, and 1 random reward.]
Before long, the Imperial liaison responded.
"Thank you for your information, Lord Black Star."
"It's a small matter. What are your plans for dealing with these three high-ranking officials?"
"Haha, Lord Black Star, you're just asking a question you already know the answer to."
"That's true. Obtaining someone's whereabouts this way doesn't seem like proper communication." Han Xiao's eyes darted around. "How about this, let me take care of one of them."
"We're on the same side. Since you're interested, the Empire doesn't care."
"Okay, that's settled."
After hanging up the communication, Han Xiao sent the target's intelligence to Rotel.
Rotel joined the Legion a year and a half ago, and most of the time he had nothing to do, since the Legion didn't offer him many assassination jobs. This time, however, he had a job opportunity.
Han Xiao planned to let Rotel test his skills, so that his assassination techniques wouldn't become rusty.
Furthermore, after a year and a half of observation and guidance, he felt that Rotel was capable of establishing Assassins Mutual Aid Society on his own and could be trusted, so the plan could be put on the agenda.
I'll leave right away.
The communicator received a concise reply from Rotel.
He didn't care why he wanted to Assassination Target. After a year and a half of getting along, he had come to trust Han Xiao quite a bit, and his impression of the Legion was getting better and better.