Chapter 143 Second Stage

A few days later.

"Ah…" Volga Leader yawned, casually threw out a card, and asked Melos across the table, "Hey, how long are we going to stay on this native planet?"

At this moment, the mercenary group's executives were playing cards and chatting in the hall. Hearing this, they all turned to look at Melos.

"We can only leave here after solving the problems on this planet. It's not like I can control it," Melos said, shaking his head helplessly.

Everyone subconsciously turned to look at a military factory outside the window. It was Han Xiao's mechanical modification room. At this time, Han Xiao was repairing a captured assault ship.

The mercenary group had been on Planet Aquamarine for more than a month. Besides selecting players, there was basically nothing else to do. Most of the time, they were extremely bored.

With the perspective of interstellar mercenaries, the entertainment life on Planet Aquamarine was naturally very limited. Besides playing cards, there were no other activities, and many people felt their bones were about to rust. If this incident had a reward, many people could still endure it, but this was Black Star's order, and everyone could only helplessly comply, hoping that things would be resolved quickly.

After the last failed attack, DarkStar did not come to Planet Aquamarine again, seemingly fearing the combined strength of Black Star and the Godora fleet. Instead, news of DarkStar attacking other disaster planets was constantly coming in.

However, as Godora deployed more fleets to the disaster planets, DarkStar's attacks often ended in failure. Like Planet Aquamarine, the Godora warships waiting in outer space had reached nearly three hundred, and other disaster planets were similar. However, the scale of the DarkStar fleet had also increased, still putting pressure on Godora.

Godora had to divide its forces to protect more than a dozen disaster planets, and its fleet was scattered, stretching its forces thin. DarkStar, on the other hand, did not have such disadvantages, appearing and disappearing unpredictably and taking the initiative.

The Garton Star System was in dire straits. In contrast, Planet Aquamarine had only suffered one attack, and the enemy had been repelled. Therefore, the disaster relief situation was good, and things were looking up. The environment in the six nations and the shelters was quite stable.

Inside the military factory.

Dang dang dang…

Some small auxiliary robots climbed up and down the scaffolding, welding the ship's armor, with electric sparks flying everywhere, and the sound of metal hammering was incessant, creating a busy scene.

Han Xiao controlled the mechanical arm, transforming into various forms of tools to repair the ship's damage. This kind of large mechanical limb could not only be used for combat but was also often used for the modification of large machinery, like an enlarged hand, moving as he wished.

Some time ago, the mercenaries recovered the wreckage and brought back sufficient materials. He then began to repair the captured ship, which was already seventy or eighty percent complete. He also gained some experience in repairing large machinery, which was better than nothing.

"Check for damage," Han Xiao said, stopping his movements.

"System self-check in progress, buzzing… Ship damage level 0%, buzzing…" The assault ship's intelligence had been replaced by Phillip.

In addition to repairing the assault ship, Han Xiao had also created some precision machines to enhance virtual technology, strengthening Phillip's calculation speed. Risda also optimized Phillip's algorithm structure, and Phillip's efficiency had increased by two or three times compared to before.

The performance bonus of the machines controlled by Phillip had become higher, and the bonus it provided for his virtual intrusion had increased by about twice as much as before. Phillip still had some gap compared to Risda. Constantly strengthening and nurturing his own artificial intelligence was a long-term task for a virtual mechanic and could bring high returns.

"The last one is also repaired. It can be used normally," Han Xiao said with a satisfied nod, snapping his fingers. All kinds of maintenance machines automatically retracted.

Most of the mercenary group's current fleet consisted of rented travel transport ships. The nine assault ships supplemented the fleet's firepower, and they were also completely his own spoils, a very fruitful harvest.

After taking a sip of water, Han Xiao took out his communicator and habitually browsed the mercenary group interface.

The scale of the mercenary group was now hundreds of times larger than before returning to Planet Aquamarine. After this period of operation, he had recruited more than 100,000 players, and the number was still growing every day. It was already an undisputed super-large mercenary group!

Although the players' current strength was not strong enough, with their growth rate, each of them was a potential stock.

"When we enter the interstellar, I can provide them with massive task resources, and they will give me massive wealth in return. With so many members, the status of the Black Star Mercenary Group can skyrocket again. At that time, the name of Dragon Emperor's Outlying Armed Forces may no longer be just an empty title."

Thinking of the role that a mercenary group of hundreds of thousands of people could play, Han Xiao was full of anticipation.

It was just that due to the Heteromorphy Disaster, his mercenary group had to stay on Planet Aquamarine temporarily. Now, they were just accumulating strength. Only by solving the Heteromorphy Disaster could they truly enter the interstellar and exert their power.

Han Xiao had been paying attention to DarkStar's movements. He was waiting for DarkStar to launch its next plan, which would be the best time to hand over the Primal Hunter in his hands.

…

Leaving the military factory, Han Xiao went to the conference room. According to the schedule, today was a meeting for Godora and the shelter's high-level officials to discuss disaster relief. This kind of regular meeting was held every few days, and he was already used to it.

Arriving at the conference room, Bennett, Nagokin, and others were already waiting there. After Han Xiao took his seat, a few people nodded to him, and then they began to discuss the problems encountered in disaster relief. Han Xiao didn't care about this, so he didn't interrupt.

After talking for more than half an hour, everyone stopped the topic. Nagokin changed the subject and said, "Now, our Godora is in a stalemate with DarkStar. The enemy is constantly attacking disaster planets, while the War Bureau is constantly sending reinforcements. The two sides are engaged in a tug-of-war."

Hearing this, Han Xiao then said, "Sounds like it's not very good."

Nagokin said helplessly, "We don't know how many fleets DarkStar has, but we have to protect more than a dozen disaster planets, and our forces are indeed not enough. This is DarkStar's scheme to force us to divide our forces. Although the situation is currently at a standstill, if DarkStar is willing, as long as they mobilize a large force to attack one disaster planet, we will definitely not be able to stop them. So, the situation is not optimistic, but the enemy has not done so."

"Do you have any countermeasures?"

"Yes," Nagokin nodded. "In response to the weaknesses of scattered forces and long distances, the War Bureau has decided to use military warp orbit base stations, which will be deployed in a few days."

Bennett asked suspiciously, "What is that thing?"

Han Xiao thought for a while and said, "You can think of it as a military teleporter."

Military warp orbit base stations were strategic weapons in interstellar warfare. Within a certain range, they could lock onto two or more coordinate locations through a directional wormhole generator and form a fast teleportation channel between the coordinate locations, allowing fleets that were far apart to quickly support each other and watch over each other.

This device was as large as a space fortress and had a high level of technology. Only advanced civilizations that knew how to build stable star gates could build it. Godora's military warp orbit base station was an important military supply purchased from a higher-level cluster-level civilization in the Shattered Star Ring, and it was very expensive.

Deploying a military warp orbit base station required setting up anchor points at each teleportation coordinate, and the location of the base station had to be in the center of the area formed by these anchor points, like the center point of a spider web, leading in all directions.

With this device, Godora would make up for the weakness of its forces being scattered on more than a dozen disaster planets. These escort fleets would watch over each other, and no matter which planet DarkStar attacked, support could arrive in two or three minutes, shortening the journey by thousands of times. In this way, DarkStar's attacks would no longer be a threat.

The War Bureau was willing to use important strategic weapons in this incident, which meant that they did not want to be in a passive position all the time.

Han Xiao raised his eyebrows. "This is an expensive strategic weapon. DarkStar will definitely attack your base station."

"Of course, the enemy will do that," Nagokin said, not worried.

Since the War Bureau dared to use the base station, it naturally deployed enough fleets to protect it and even take the initiative. Even if DarkStar's movements were erratic, they would definitely come to attack the base station. This would give them control of the enemy's next action and give them enough room for preparation.

Han Xiao's eyes flashed, and he shook his head.

In fact, the Godorans were not really anxious yet. Although DarkStar's attacks had caused some losses to Godora, the worst hit were the disaster planets. It had not caused Godora to suffer any major damage. The Godorans still thought they could control the situation.

But he knew that DarkStar was not so easy to deal with.

'The base station is out. DarkStar's next plan should be coming soon,' Han Xiao thought to himself.

Nagokin was about to say something when a faint noise suddenly rang out in the distance, as if it were very far away.

The next moment, the noise quickly expanded, from far to near, sweeping over the entire shelter like a tsunami, omnipresent!

Boom boom boom—

The ground rumbled, and the windows trembled slightly under the noisy sound waves. Bennett stood up abruptly, his face full of surprise.

"What's going on?!"

Bennett hurriedly opened the screen in the conference room and brought up the surveillance images of various locations in the shelter. He saw that the originally orderly shelter had become a mess. The long-lost Heteromorphy Disaster riot had appeared again, and even the refugees who had already been injected with the inhibitors were acting up.

The situation outside the shelter was even worse. Even the shelter guards were getting sick.

Even the people who maintained order were gone, and the order that had finally been established collapsed instantly.

The riot of tens of millions of people was like an avalanche!

Crowding, roaring, tearing, fighting…

In addition to the melee, more people were running frantically, rushing towards directions far away from the shelter, as if the shelter brought them great fear and they just wanted to escape from here. The escaping people formed long lines, running in all directions. The dense crowd outside the shelter quickly spread out, and some people fell to the ground and were instantly submerged by the crowd that followed closely behind.

The players were dumbfounded, and soon some people discovered that the total progress of [Heteromorphy Disaster] was plummeting like a flood!

"T-this…"

The sudden chaos shocked Bennett and Nagokin.

Han Xiao's expression changed slightly. He stood up and said in a deep voice, "This is… the second stage!"