Super Mothership
When Gold Fang returned to the base with a large shipment of purchased supplies, he found the place practically deserted. The usually bustling port was now almost empty, with only a handful of people left.
"Lord Gold Fang, you're back! I'll arrange for the cargo to be unloaded right away!" One of the dock personnel hurried over.
"Tell me, where did everyone go? Why's it so quiet?"
"Eh? Lord Gold Fang, didn't you know? The Boss took everyone out yesterday. I heard this time it's a really big score!"
"A big score?" Gold Fang froze for a moment before breaking into a grin.
Although someone was backing their organization financially, there were more and more mouths to feed at the base every day, and that had already begun to worry Gold Fang.
Living off savings was the greatest taboo for pirates!
As an ambitious and aspiring "future chairman," Gold Fang had repeatedly urged Nie Yun to go out and hunt for fat targets, but Nie Yun could never be bothered to move.
He even said something like, "If we're not making a move, then we're not making one. But once we do, it'll be enough to last us three years."
How many "three years" did life even have?
Looks like the boss had finally become impatient. That was great news!
"Go! We bought a batch of fine liquor this time. Bring over a few bottles. I'm in a good mood today—I want to have a couple of drinks with the brothers!"
"Right away!"
...
"The enemy is closing in! Everyone, stay alert!" shouted one of the Gold Coin Pirate Corps' squad leaders at the top of his lungs.
Although firepower was being divided across several directions, the Gold Coin Pirate Corps' defensive installations were exceptionally well-developed. Along the way, Nie Yun's meteor spearhead formation was still subjected to relentless bombardment.
By now, the "Missile Defense Drones" had been almost completely expended. The meteor chain that had originally stretched for hundreds of kilometers had been reduced to only its final short segment. The rest had been blasted into cosmic dust, leaving behind a shattered trail resembling a ribbon of smoke.
At this rate, it wouldn't take long before the Gold Coin Pirate Corps completely pulverized the remaining meteors. However, the distance between the two sides had also become dangerously close.
"Launch countdown: three minutes... 10... 9... 8..."
The moment the countdown reached zero, the several hundred meteors at the rear suddenly split apart, revealing metallic objects resembling shipping containers.
The armor plating at the front of each container swung open with a loud clang, exposing silver launch rails inside—two on each side, eight in total—all aimed directly at the now nearby Gold Coin Pirate Corps base.
The next instant, arcs of electricity began dancing along every launch rail.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" Hundreds of powerful electromagnetic launch systems fired tiny black dots toward the Gold Coin Pirate Corps' base at speeds exceeding Mach 10.
A closer look revealed that these black dots were black-painted humanoid robots.
They wore cold-looking fully enclosed tactical helmets with 270-degree linear mechanical visors. Four bulletproof armor plates protected their chest and back, while reinforced armor covered the vital areas of their limbs. Their overall appearance resembled RoboCop.
By combining mechanical race technology salvaged from several "Destroyers" with the Wolf Empire's technological products gathered recently, Nie Yun had once again begun upgrading mainstream humanoid combat weapons.
This robot, which Nie Yun named Little Black, was incomparably superior to the fragile skeleton-type robots used previously. Its combat capability comfortably exceeded the average standard of the Wolf Empire.
In the remote backwaters of the Shattered Star Region, it could easily be considered an elite-grade weapon of war.
If not for the cost of large-scale mass production, Nie Yun would even have equipped them with miniature energy shields.
"These are... robots?" Even Gold Dagger was momentarily stunned when the reconnaissance systems transmitted detailed images.
He had originally assumed the enemy had hidden a mechanized force within the asteroid belt for a surprise assault. He never imagined they had concealed such tiny machines instead.
In reality, the Gold Coin Pirate Corps' base defenses were now nearly complete and had suffered very little damage, allowing them to maintain formidable firepower. Combined with fifty thousand defending mechs, it would take at least forty or fifty thousand attacking mechs to have any hope of breaking through.
A small pirate group like the Ghost Pirate Corps simply couldn't afford casualties on that scale.
After all, mechs were nothing like these compact robots. Even with Mechanical Bugs essentially cheating, the Ghost Pirate Corps' industrial capacity could barely produce fifty thousand mechs per year.
Therefore, Nie Yun selected Little Black as the main force for this beheading operation.
Only these robots, standing under two meters tall, presenting tiny targets that were extremely difficult to lock onto, could withstand such tremendous instantaneous acceleration and achieve a high-speed breakthrough.
For this operation, Nie Yun brought every one of the fifty thousand units he had painstakingly accumulated, forming the Ghost Knights.
"Beep! 'Rise of the Pirate King' first closed beta test... Player login channel now open..."
As the AI announcement sounded, the robots' electronic eyes lit up crimson immediately after launch. Their flight packs activated, allowing them to adjust their orientation and quickly scatter from formation.
Thanks to their tremendous initial velocity, the robots spread out like a celestial maiden scattering flowers, charging directly into the Gold Coin Pirate Corps' mech defensive perimeter in a loose formation.
"Intercept them!" The Gold Coin Pirate Corps squad leader immediately issued the attack order, and every defending mech raised its weapons.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" Dense energy beams streaked toward the incoming tiny targets.
However, locking onto small targets traveling at over Mach 10 relative speed while constantly making unpredictable evasive maneuvers was no easy feat.
Despite the barrage, the robot army rapidly slipped past the defending mech forces. The cost was just over five thousand destroyed robots—less than one-tenth of their total strength.
The second wave of attacks came from the base's dense anti-aircraft defenses.
After fighting the Mechanical Race for so many years, the Wolf Empire certainly hadn't gained its experience dealing with robotic swarm tactics for nothing.
Shotgun-like anti-air laser storms swept across space while EMP pulse shells erupted into clusters of blue light. Large numbers of robots were blasted apart before they could even get close.
After enduring layer upon layer of intense bombardment, fewer than ten thousand robots ultimately survived and successfully broke through the defensive fire.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" Each robot fired grappling hooks that embedded themselves into the nearest available objects.
"Screeeech—" High-strength graphene cables rapidly extended, producing showers of sparks from friction while the flight pack engines operated at full power to assist with deceleration.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Pulled by their grappling cables, the robots traced wide, gradual arcs before crashing heavily onto the exterior of the Gold Coin Pirate Corps' base.
After suffering enormous losses, this suicidal assault force had finally reached the Gold Coin Pirate Corps' Star Chain base.
"Damn! This really is a hell-difficulty map. Losing eighty percent of the team right at the start? Seriously?" Lancelot clung tightly to an armor plate as he looked back at the still-exploding battlefield behind him with lingering fear.
Rise of the Pirate King was a new expansion map. However, since no player had yet reached the extremely demanding requirement of 20 Spirit points, Captain Ghost had opened this special beta test to encourage players to continue striving toward that goal.
The fifty thousand beta testers selected through multiple rounds of screening were all outstanding performers from the previous season of the Civilization Front. Their combat abilities were exceptional, and they also served as the reserve force for the Ghost Knights that Nie Yun intended to establish.
Once their Spirit reached 20 points, they would officially become full members, forming one of Nie Yun's signature ultra-long-range rapid deployment forces.
Since military personnel were professional soldiers whose training was naturally geared toward warfare—and because they received priority for the first wave of enhancements—they occupied roughly forty percent of the available slots. The remaining sixty percent were divided among elite civilian organizations from around the world.
Given the strength of the Knights of the Round Table, they naturally secured a place. However, after only the first breakthrough assault, just three of their twelve primary combat members remained alive. Even their leader, Arthur, had not survived.
After all, in this kind of suicidal mass charge, surviving required not only extraordinary skill but even more importantly... luck.
Without wasting another second, Lancelot detached the flight pack from his back.
With a loud "Click!", the specially designed flight pack locked itself directly onto the base's outer protective layer beneath his feet.
Lancelot then extended the grappling claws from his hands and feet, scurried forward on all fours for more than ten meters like a lizard...
...and immediately crouched down while covering his head.
"Boom!" A tremendous explosion tore a massive hole through the armored layer where the flight pack had been attached, sending huge quantities of air and debris venting into space.
Besides providing tremendous flight capability, the flight pack also served as a one-time work of "art."
While Little Black possessed much more advanced performance, its ammunition capacity had likewise increased dramatically.
The demolition succeeded.
Ignoring the tremendous decompression, Lancelot relied on the gripping power of his claws to cling to the surface like a gecko before swiftly crawling through the newly blasted opening.
At the same time, nearly every lucky survivor who had successfully landed performed the exact same maneuver.
In an instant, explosions and smoke erupted all across the Gold Coin Pirate Corps' base...
TL Note- New DLC?
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