Super Mothership
"Red Dragon, you're an idiot. But I never expected Messiah to be an even bigger idiot!"
Although this move of striking at the root of the problem had caught Flint completely off guard, the situation was not bad for Black Sail at all. In fact, it suited their interests perfectly.
The Dragoons had essentially abandoned their own stronghold just to deal with a bunch of insignificant fence-sitters. It was like trading a rook for a pawn in chess.
With only Red Dragon left standing as a lone knight, how could he possibly stop their all-star lineup, complete with rooks, knights, and cannons?
Without those fence-sitters, Black Sail and the Madmen still had nearly a thousand warships combined—and all of them were elite vessels.
Even if they failed to eliminate Red Dragon this time, simply advancing steadily and capturing the Dragoons' base would be enough to crush the Twin Dragons faction beyond recovery.
Maintaining a fleet of nearly a thousand warships required the resources and foundations of one of the Seven Great Pirate Groups. Capturing one or two minor pirate bands would never compensate for that.
Without logistical support, the Twin Dragons would only grow weaker with every battle. Being driven out of the competition would merely be a matter of time.
This strategy was completely backward—abandoning the essentials to chase trivial gains. Utterly foolish!
"With so many fewer people to split the loot with, I really should thank you all," Flint said with a relaxed smile.
"Really? Do you honestly think there'll be any loot for you to divide?" Red Dragon looked at him mockingly.
"Hmm? What do you mean by that?" Flint frowned.
Even though the Dragoons had long since decided to abandon their base, an organization of their size couldn't possibly relocate everything in a short period of time.
Even if all personnel and valuables had been evacuated, the heavy equipment and supplies that couldn't be moved still represented an astonishing amount of wealth.
"Heh."
Red Dragon said nothing more. Smiling, he took out an oddly retro-looking wooden box—a square device with a pull handle—and placed it on the table.
"What's that?"
Flint was well-traveled and knowledgeable, but as a pirate lord who had never watched anti-Japanese war dramas, there was no way he could recognize such a "work of art."
"Heh-heh!" Red Dragon grinned.
"A little toy a friend gave me. Its name... is a plunger detonator."
The moment he finished speaking, Red Dragon grabbed the handle with both hands and slammed it downward.
Before Flint could understand what he was doing, a flash of light suddenly appeared outside the viewport.
Startled, he immediately turned to look.
Like most pirate factions, the Dragoons' base had originally been hidden within a vast asteroid field.
But now, the ring of asteroids surrounding the base was disappearing in wave after wave of blinding flashes.
Asteroids over a hundred kilometers across and meteoroids only a few hundred meters wide alike were being shattered to pieces by violent explosions.
After a chain of detonations resembling an endless barrage of camera flashes, enormous gaps appeared before everyone's eyes, forming a long vacuum corridor.
Everyone sucked in a cold breath.
Even from such a great distance, they could still feel the world-destroying power of the explosions.
How many super bombs would it take to cause destruction on such a terrifying scale?
Even Red Dragon himself, the person who had triggered the detonation, was stunned by the sight.
The power of these bombs was... somewhat shocking.
As expected of high-end products manufactured by the Mechanical Clan...
That's right.
These bombs were the Pluto Series developed by Elder Yu and his team.
When Red Dragon and Messiah had first opened the cargo hold and seen an entire ship packed with bombs, the expressions on their faces had been priceless.
Were these people allies... or terrorists?
Bringing an entire shipload of explosives to a diplomatic alliance meeting was a first even for them.
Had Nie Yun not repaired the Red Dragon beforehand and established a certain level of trust, they might have fallen out on the spot.
"Heh-heh! The base is right over there. Go ahead and take it—I guarantee I won't stop you."
Despite his words, Red Dragon's fingers continued to toy with the detonator handle in front of him.
Compared to simply pressing a button, this plunger detonator felt far more satisfying.
What had the Ghost Captain called it again?
Oh right.
A sense of ceremony.
Mechanical Bugs: "..."
"You..."
Flint was both furious and alarmed. He had clearly guessed what Red Dragon intended.
The explosions this time had only targeted the outer perimeter of the base.
Once they actually entered the base and began looting, the next thing to explode might very well be the entire facility itself.
Judging by the yield of those bombs, blowing the entire base into oblivion would be no challenge at all.
They truly intended to perish together with their enemies!
The three leaders of the Red, Yellow, and Blue Pirate Groups instantly turned green at the sight.
Their emotions became every bit as colorful as their names.
Sound could not travel through the vacuum of space, but that glaring stretch of empty void looked even more like a silent warning.
A wordless deterrent.
"Want the spoils of war? Then turn to ashes along with the entire base!"
"If I can't have it, I won't leave so much as a drop of soup for you..."
That was the message they were trying to convey.
"These lunatics!"
Cursing under their breath, the three pirate leaders tacitly made the same decision and simultaneously withdrew from the Black Sail fleet.
The base was gone, and any loot that could compensate for their losses was now tied to countless bombs—visible, but impossible to take.
If they stayed any longer, were they supposed to wait for Flint to have a sudden attack of generosity and reimburse their losses out of Black Sail's own treasury?
They were all grown pirates. Such naïve thinking couldn't even pass through their brains.
Even the last few small pirate groups that had remained relatively loyal to Black Sail chose to leave as well.
To them, participating in a battle that offered absolutely no profit was a very un-pirate-like thing to do.
However, like the pirates who had withdrawn earlier, they did not leave immediately. Instead, they retreated to a safe distance and watched from afar.
Although the battle was no longer profitable, the pirates' enthusiasm for watching the spectacle only grew stronger.
This clash of dragons and tigers had been full of unexpected twists.
Everyone wanted to see who would emerge as the final victor.
The fleet of the Black Sail faction continued to shrink after being struck by the Twin Dragons' two consecutive punches.
In the end, only the thousand-ship coalition of Black Sail and the Madmen remained.
After a burst of anger, Flint quickly regained his composure.
"Heh. How naïve."
He shook his head and laughed.
"You think this can threaten me?"
"Even if I gain absolutely nothing today, I still win."
Flint remained perfectly clear-headed.
Although he felt it was a pity to lose access to the Dragoons' wealth, destroying the Twin Dragons' base had always been his primary strategic objective.
"If you've got the guts, then blow up the base right now. I'll respect you as a real man."
Flint had already seen through the trick.
The threat of detonating the base was clearly just a bargaining chip placed on the table.
If they had truly intended to perish together with their enemies, they would have kept it secret and waited until his forces entered the base before triggering the explosion.
That way, they could at least inflict some casualties.
Making such an open threat only proved that they lacked the courage to actually go through with it.
"Mm! You're right. Unless we're pushed to the very end, of course we won't choose to destroy our own foundation."
To Flint's surprise, Red Dragon admitted it openly.
After a moment of silence, Flint asked,
"What? Do you actually think you can turn things around at this point?"
Red Dragon responded with a mysterious smile.
"Not exactly. But what if I told you that once things become truly hopeless, we'll blow up the base and then go seek refuge with someone else?"
Flint's expression changed slightly before quickly returning to normal.
"Heh! Stop bluffing."
"Even if you wanted to defect, do you really think the other great pirates would take you in?"
"Can you accept the Dark Temple's religious brainwashing? Or Karon's extreme biological modifications using cloned bodies?"
"And as for Gold Coin, that skinflint who would swallow people whole without spitting out the bones..."
Flint sneered.
"After absorbing your forces, he'd probably sell you to me as slaves for ten thousand Shattered Star Credits each. Do you believe that?"
Clearly, Flint had long since ruled out that possibility.
A partnership as unshakably loyal as the Twin Dragons was already exceedingly rare.
Did anyone seriously expect a bunch of pirate lords to be saints?
Given the personalities of Red Dragon and Messiah, they would never entrust their fate to people like that.
"Mm! You're right about all that."
"But who told you we were planning to join them?"
Red Dragon's words caught Flint off guard.
If not them, then who?
Other than those three factions, who in the Shattered Star Region would dare oppose the combined forces of Black Sail and the Madmen?
Did they have a death wish?
At last, Red Dragon revealed the answer.
"We're planning to join that dead-fatty Jinlok. What do you think?"
Flint: "..."
TL Note- Reversal...
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