In the silence of space, no one would notice a small escape pod eject from the cargo hold of an automated transport ship.
That was the lowest specification escape pod, which just barely had enough volume to envelop one person inside.
Every level of the transport ship was equipped with over a dozen such pods, though they were seldom used since actual transport ships tended to have the fewest crew members of all ships.
Five seconds after the pod had separated from the transport ship, it was already a hundred kilometers away from the vessel.
In the deep cosmos, unnoticed by all, a bat-like flying craft appeared, its dense black color even darker than the starry sky backdrop.
Approaching the drifting escape pod, its microwave resonance engine began to function.
This high-tech, fuel-less engine from a parallel universe demonstrated its highly subtle and covert utility.
Silently, it towed the escape pod into an asteroid belt.
...
A private spaceship belonging to the Tang family was flying along its predetermined route.
Donald sipped on Boman Manor's thirteen-year-old red wine, the invigorating grape aroma finally suppressing the faint irritation in his heart.
The luxurious leather sofa in the private spaceship perfectly cradled his body, allowing him to stretch out every fatigued muscle.
After indulging in a sip of wine, he laid his head on the sofa, his gaze not on the swaying liquid in his glass.
"After all these busy days, the only real rest comes while on my way to deal with some troublesome matter."
His pale face displayed a rare sense of comfort—at this moment, away from those dimwitted teammates, and away from those disgusting competitors, he was still the second-largest shareholder of Loki Heavy Industry.
Recalling that pretty yet timid girl, he sneered through his nose.
Signing billions in orders, it was just a temporary fix at best.
With your company in ruins and your staff in disarray, it's like a dragon without a head...
Even if my Blue Capital Military Group's products fail, it won't matter.
Because your Extreme Special Soldiers are on fire.
Ha, go ahead and sell them, sell as many as you can. Reader support at M*VLEM*PYR made this translation possible.
The better the reputation, the greater the benefits I'll reap when I eventually take control of Loki Heavy Industry.
When I get involved in the Mecha production line, I can instantly enjoy a wave of ready-made profits.
It's just my own hands doing the work, after all—it's only a matter of whether the left hand or the right hand makes more money.
As for that kid...
Hmph!
Donald's eyes were cold and sinister. After he returned from Bemo Planet, he planned to start taking over Loki Heavy Industry and to get rid of that kid for good.
All these recent messes, whether related to him or not, would be blamed on him.
So, he had to die.
Donald, despite his meticulous calculations, never imagined that the mastermind behind all these recent troubles was actually the same person—Mu Fan.
The private spaceship's pilot stared blankly ahead as he monitored the flight.
For this established flight route, manual operation was unnecessary. All that was needed was to set the destination parameters, and the ship would enter an autopilot cruising mode. However, for a professional private ship pilot, remaining focused during flight was a totally routine matter.
150 kilometers ahead of the ship, a scattered asteroid belt was moving along its orbit.
Based on the massive volume of Blue Capital Star, the ship had just escaped Blue Capital Star's gravity and was traveling at approximately 32 kilometers per second.
In five seconds, it would reach that asteroid belt.
However, the pilot's face showed no worry, for at the asteroid belt's speed of movement, in two seconds there would be no interaction between the two.
Such seemingly terrifying situations were all too common in interstellar travel.
However, when two seconds had passed and the asteroids had moved aside, a piercing alarm suddenly blared from the cockpit.
Three pilots stared dumbfounded ahead; as senior pilots for the Tang family, they had run countless missions for over ten years, and yet now they could only stare blankly ahead.
No need for an alarm, they saw the incident unfold, and as the truth became clear, a chill ran from the soles of their feet to the top of their heads, turning their faces pale with fear.
As the asteroids passed, instead of the clear cosmic starry sky, some shadows were revealed…
A warship covered in heavy armor and bristling with giant cannons emerged from behind a not-so-small asteroid, its sharp prow resembling a massive blade.
Following the appearance of this warship, another black warship half its size quietly emerged from behind it.
Only then did the engines start, and the huge propellant muzzle began to glow with a faint red light.
With such proximity to the atmosphere and, most critically, after the mecha combat competition, had the Military Department of Blue Capital Star not more than doubled their surveillance level of outer space?
When the engines at the rear of the leading giant ship started, a surveillance satellite in space immediately noticed the activity here.
As they scanned and detected those formidable muzzles on the warships, a piercing alarm immediately rang out from the ground monitoring center.
This alerted the already highly-strung soldiers, due to the mecha combat competition, but as they clearly saw the images on the monitors, the highest-ranking officer at the monitoring station, a captain, let loose a curse:
"Damn it to hell."
"Sir, what's wrong?"
"Quickly, contact the Blue Capital Star Military Department's command center, the headquarters, says the competition's, uh, the..." stumbling over his words, he struggled to think of what to say.
"Sir…"
"The last warship from the combat competition has appeared again!"
Finally, he wrung a particularly apt term from his mind.
The reason for the captain's certainty was because the flagship was too distinctive, with its super-long blank deck, towering command bridge, and that fierce giant blade at the prow.
This was the warship that had escaped from the Great Harmony Cannon at the end of the combat competition...
The problem was, how the hell had it come back? And it had reformed into a mini fleet formation.
It seemed the enemy had brought their interstellar mother ship.
From the moment the alert was received, the Military Department of Blue Capital once again heightened its alert level, and within just 10 seconds, several fleets began to lift off from various mountainous terrains.
Five warships, appearing in an instant, started to thrust and quickly split into five positions surrounding the center, blasting a scatter of light towards the front.
Countless ion sparks intertwined into a net in space, and the private ship began to decelerate drastically.
Caught off guard, Donatello's wine glass flung its contents onto his face; if Sai hadn't grabbed him in time, he would probably have ended up plastered against the rear cabin door.
"What the hell is happening?"
The electromagnetic net finally fully enveloped the civilian-grade private ship.
The engines boomed as they lost thrust power, and the entire ship instantly lost all electromagnetic signals.
However, what was strange was that after a few seconds, it recovered...
The three pilots realized they seemed to be trapped within a sealed, super-large force field; while communication within the field was unimpeded, they could no longer communicate with the outside.
It was as quiet as another world.
"Young master, we've encountered interstellar bandits," said one of the pilots, pale-faced as he stepped forward, his complexion far paler than Donatello's.
"Bullshit! This is Blue Capital Star, use your goddamn dog brain and think, why would bandits come here to seek death?"
Pushing aside the downcast pilot, Donatello charged into the cockpit.
Less than a second later...
"Shit!"