Super Mothership
At the same time as the other four pirate fleets began their raids, Nie Yun led his Ghost Pirates fleet away from the densely populated star regions of the Locke Consortium, traveling stealthily along the way until they reached an extremely remote route…
When he saw that desolate yet incomparably familiar planet, a burning intensity involuntarily appeared in Spartacus's eyes.
“Ryan Star! We… have finally come back!”
“Roar!”
“We're back! We're finally back!”
“Wuuuu~”
Cheers and the sobs of many people rang through the communication channel.
The Ryan people had waited far, far too long for this moment.
Ryan Star.
Although it was named after Ryan, it was not their homeland.
Instead, it was a gigantic prison where the Ryan people had been imprisoned!
And today, carrying advanced weapons and commanding a powerful fleet, they had returned!
They had returned alongside Ghost Captain—the man who had given their race hope!
Although the Locke Consortium had deliberately strengthened the defenses here after the Ghost Pirates' previous raid on Ryan Star, the unfavorable situation on Gemini's side had caused Chloros to withdraw another batch of forces.
As a result, only fifty warships remained.
Under normal circumstances, the combat power of fifty warships would have been enough to intimidate most pirate factions and more than sufficient to deal with the Ghost Pirates' previous attack.
But the Ghost Pirates of today were no longer what they had been…
“Everyone, maintain radio silence! Keep your stealth systems active!” Spartacus growled.
Only then did the excitement in the communications channel gradually subside, returning to silence.
Tens of thousands of mechas activated their stealth modes.
They were like a group of assassins lurking in the darkness of night, quietly closing in on the “jailers” guarding the prison.
Yet inside their hearts, emotions surged like a mountain torrent on the verge of bursting its banks.
800,000 kilometers…
600,000 kilometers…
400,000 kilometers…
It wasn't until they had approached within 300,000 kilometers that the fleet's radar, which had been patrolling Ryan Star's high orbit, finally detected something unusual.
A slight disturbance began to spread.
Under optical stealth, visual-detection radar became ineffective. Only mass-effect radar could still function.
And mechas were small targets with relatively little mass, allowing them to approach much closer before being detected.
Thus…
They could launch a surprise attack!
Almost at the exact moment the stealth force was discovered by the enemy, somewhere in the void a million kilometers away, a fleet painted completely black slowly emerged from concealment.
There were more than 300 ships.
“Order: Fleet, deploy into combat formation!” Nie Yun commanded.
Shields rose.
Cannons unfolded.
Their blatant intention to attack was completely exposed!
That's right.
This time, Nie Yun was going to use the same trick again.
He was here to abduct people once more.
At this point, he wasn't short of money.
He wasn't short of weapons or equipment.
What he lacked was manpower.
So while everyone else was targeting the Locke Consortium's wealth, he was targeting the tens of thousands of excellent soldiers on Ryan Star.
The mechas advanced first, with the fleet following behind.
They launched a coordinated assault by entering the enemy's radar detection range at almost the same time.
This was a classic opening maneuver for a stealth assault, bearing a striking resemblance to the old Earth's concept of “infantry-artillery coordination.”
“Enemy attack! Raise the alarm!”
“Pirates! It's those pirates again!”
“Good heavens! How can there be so many warships?! Call for reinforcements!”
The Locke Consortium's remaining fleet quickly reacted.
They rapidly entered combat formation and began deploying combat mechas.
The more than ten fortress cannons that had only recently been installed in high orbit around the planet also began charging one after another.
“AB formation! Alternate cover… For Ryan, charge!” Spartacus roared.
The mecha's engines spewed out a long red trail, like the most blazing flames burning within his heart!
“For Ryan! Charge!”
The Ryan warriors' morale was already at its peak.
They didn't need any verbal encouragement.
With red eyes, they followed the wingmen ahead of them and launched themselves into the attack.
The two-mecha formation, one in front and one behind, faced an enemy fleet that had already reacted and was now unleashing everything it had.
The lead mechas obviously had to shoulder the greater risk.
“Follow mode! Everyone, protect your comrades! At worst, if we die, our rating drops and we get demoted. But if they die, their military merits will be deducted and their ranks reduced!”
Through the short-range two-mecha link, the lead wingmen and the Ryan warriors' mechas behind them moved in perfect synchronization.
Their movements and evasive directions were completely identical, as though they had grown together.
It was obvious that this mode had been designed to provide better protection for the main mecha behind them.
“Don't worry. If we're going to die, we'll die before them.”
“If I can get a five-star review from a Ryan comrade, I'll even earn military merits if my mecha gets destroyed. Only an idiot would be afraid of dying.”
“Exactly. Their lives are worth a lot more than ours now. I've already thought of more than a dozen poses for throwing myself in front of enemy fire. I'm just trying to decide which one looks the coolest.”
“Hey, hey! Stop thinking about how to get yourselves killed. If you cooperate properly with your comrades, you can increase your favorability too. I heard that once your favorability reaches the required level, there might even be a recruitment mode unlocked later!”
“Hmm… I've already started imagining myself walking down the street with a group of Ryan warriors who are eight feet tall and eight feet around the waist, flirting with married women. Myehehehe…”
“……”
The so-called “AB Formation” could be considered a unique assault formation of the Ghost Pirates.
It abandoned the “Three Talents Formation” traditionally used by the Ryan people and instead adopted a two-person main-and-wingman configuration.
The key was that every Ryan warrior in the “Hammer of Destruction” mecha corps was assigned a fearless wingman…
The “Ghost Knights Reserve.”
That's right.
They were the legendary immortal heroes, the natural enemies of bosses, the locusts that devoured experience, the adventurers who roamed countless worlds…
“Players!”
Through their previous large-scale airborne assault—their debut invasion of the Gold Coin Pirates' territory—Nie Yun and the Immortals had basically trained their “Group Descent Technique,” an ultra-S-grade skill, from beginner level to introductory mastery.
After several closed-door discussion sessions, along with specialized adjustments and optimization of various details, the “Immortal-branded” psionic signal towers had now advanced from the 4G era into the 5G era.
The signal transmission range hadn't necessarily increased by much, but there had been tremendous improvements in areas such as low power consumption and ubiquitous networking.
Simply put, the system could now support more players being online simultaneously, and they could remain connected for longer periods.
Although, aside from the three brothers, no player's mental attributes had yet reached the extraordinarily high threshold required to “independently bear the consumption of descent,” bringing in tens of thousands of “reserve” players during a low-intensity war was still more than enough.
The sea-of-mechas tactic could effectively counter the heavy cannons of warships, but close-quarters combat was extremely dangerous, so the death rate of mecha warriors had always remained high.
This was also the main reason the Locke Consortium had purchased the Ryan people as cannon fodder in order to reduce the amount of compensation they had to pay to the families of fallen soldiers.
Therefore, Nie Yun had developed the heavily policy-biased “AB Formation.”
One Ryan warrior was paired with one player warrior as a wingman.
The player was assigned the more dangerous and riskier combat position, using the player's “immortal attribute” to reduce casualties among the Ryan warriors.
That was the essence of this formation.
Advances in technology had allowed Nie Yun's long-standing “human-machine mixed formation” plan to finally begin experimental implementation.
A group of Ryan warriors with sky-high morale, combined with a group of players who regarded death as nothing, formed tens of thousands of such pairs.
The moment they charged into the enemy's air-defense perimeter…
The outcome of the battle was essentially no longer in doubt.
Mechas fell.
Warships burned.
After paying a certain price, countless red-eyed Ryan warriors stepped over the corpses left behind by the “jailers” and charged headlong into Ryan Star's thin atmosphere.
Across Ryan Star's dim night sky streaked what might have been the most brilliant meteor shower the planet had ever witnessed…
TL Note- Raid....
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