826 Great Cosmos Corps
At the same time, the location data sent out by the marker had reached a certain desolate planet a few Star Zones away through its quantum link.
A mountainous disc-shaped battleship was parked in a crater. It was completely metal gray colored, and its diameter was more than thirty miles. The material used was an ordinary alloy considered to be the most basic spaceship battleship material in the known universe. This disc-shaped battleship had anti-gravity suspension and highly condensed nuclear thrusters. Its hyperdrive technology was very elementary. If there were galactic residents there, they would know that the technology level of this battleship was somewhere between the level of a Star System civilization and a planet surface civilization.
The only technology worth mentioning was that it had quantum communication technology.
There were a large number of frozen sleeping capsules at the bottom of the cabin where countless ship members were sleeping in. Only a very few were awake and maintaining the functions of the spaceship from the bridge.
Dozens of creatures wearing simple battle suits were busy in front of the control desks. These creatures were rather short, with gray skin and six arms.
This time, an alert suddenly popped up on one of the control desks.
“Beep! Marker 0278 is activated. Location data received.”
All the people in the room suddenly turned around and swarmed toward this control desk, speaking among themselves. Then, a tall creature that was clearly of a different species pushed the crowd aside and squeezed to the front of this control desk.
“Out of my way, let me take a look... Hehehe... Have we discovered another new planet?”
This tall creature was clearly their leader. He was close to three meters tall; the others around him were only as tall as his knees. He was wearing full metal armor that made clanking sounds as he walked. He looked absolutely barbaric, even more ferocious than the Beastmen, and did not match the aesthetic of most human shaped beings.
“Great Chieftain Kikiga, we lost contact with this marker a long time ago. Now that it is activated, it means that our marker has been discovered by an unknown intelligent species! They have repaired the marker!” One of the operators was rather nervous.
“Isn’t that even better? We can even make them slaves and give them to the Great Emperor. The Great Emperor loves new species!” Kikiga laughed out loud.
“Gre—Great Chieftain, it’s not that simple. The target this time is different from the races we have invaded in the past. The fact that they can repair the marker means that their technological level is close to ours. There are only a few in the entire universe who have this kind of technology! The target this time isn’t going to be easy to deal with! The reason they repaired the marker might be to look for us.”
“What, they dare look for us‽”
Kikiga’s expression became fearsome. He said furiously, “What an ignorant bunch. Have they not heard of us, the Great Cosmos Corps? They want to track us? They must have a death wish!”
If Han Xiao was there, he would not be a stranger to the name ‘Great Cosmos Corps’. This was a native organization of the Flickering World. It was once a wandering civilization that had lost its mother ship to a disaster. It was originally wandering in the center of the Garu Star Cluster looking for resources to sustain life.
When they started wandering, they searched for planets around them through markers and gradually discovered some undeveloped civilizations. Due to the complete lack of trust and means of communication, they eliminated all the civilizations they had met and robbed a ton of resources and technology. Gradually, they got used to this method of development and turned from a wandering civilization into a galactic pirate organization.
As most of the native civilizations in the Garu Star Cluster were very weak and had no contact with each other, this organization became unstoppable in the central area of the Star Cluster. Through robbing others, they had accumulated a ton of resources and manpower, and there were no longer any civilizations nearby that could match them. Hence, these people thought that they were the kings of this universe and called themselves the Great Cosmos Corps.
It was obvious how arrogant these people were just from this name they gave themselves.
Afterward, the Great Cosmos Corps started to explore toward further areas. Of course, with their technology, they had no way of figuring out the overall structure of the Star Cluster, so they were completely ignorant of what was in the unknown areas and could only slowly explore.
Although they had taken over many planets as their territory, they did not do a complete exploration of this Star System and lacked all kinds of fundamental facilities. They thought that they ruled over this area just because they had some of the planets under their control. Compared to the control the civilizations in the known universe had over their territory, these people were a complete mess.
This was a lawless Star Field that had yet to be explored, which was why special organizations like this had appeared. They had control over an area much larger than Star System civilizations, but they were weaker than the weakest Star System civilizations. Due to the lack of opponents, they felt very good about themselves.
Being ‘strong’ in their mind was only based on the standard of the natives.
In the previous life, the dynasty left very little information of this organization throughout the exploration of the Garu Star Cluster, and Han Xiao had quite a good laugh from reading it.
However, the ‘hidden mission’ status was quite misleading when Han Xiao discovered the marker. It made Han Xiao form a preconceived idea that this was from some mysterious civilization. Furthermore, in the dynasty’s records in the previous life, it did not mention the Great Cosmos Corps appearing in the south border Star System of the Garu Star Cluster.
The dynasty only had very brief records of the Great Cosmos Corps, as this native organization was way too weak and made the most common and frequent mistake which natives made—being arrogant. There was nothing about this that was worth recording in the eyes of the dynasty. In his previous life, the dynasty carried out their exploration during the version update, and the players did not experience it. By the time they officially entered the Flickering World, the Great Cosmos Corps was long gone, and Han Xiao had only found out about them through the very brief record the dynasty had on them. It did not feel important, so Han Xiao did not have a deep impression of them.
Therefore, he did not think about it for the time being and did not know that this organization was the mission target. Nonetheless, even if he did know, it would not make a difference.
“I—I think it would still be better to report this to the Great Emperor,” the operator said while shivering. “We might not be able to win with the forces here...”
“What did you say‽” Kikiga slammed the table with rage. He was testy and prone to anger.
“Don’t be angry, Great Chieftain. The Great Emperor has made you responsible for this area. If we make our own move on something this significant, the Great Emperor will not be happy about it!”
Realizing that the Great Emperor might be angered by this, Kikiga shivered, and his rage disappeared. He then said with hesitation, “Then... let’s report this to the Great Emperor.”
The others hastily contacted the Great Emperor and held their breath. Very soon, the projection of a person appeared on the screen.
The person on the screen was a humanoid in dark purple armor and a bright-red half-shoulder cape, only showing his head. He had messy black long hair and pale skin, and the metal mask on the bottom half of his face covered his appearance. His eyes were filled with coldness. Thick, muscular, and enormous tentacles extended from behind him, covered in some armor as well, like multiple mechanical tails surrounding this person.
He sat on a metal throne of a battleship. Behind him was a metal wall with the logo of the Great Cosmos Corps and the skulls of many different beasts. This person was the leader of the Great Cosmos Corps, Atimo, who also called himself the Great Emperor of the Universe.
Kikiga immediately stood straight as he saw this person.
Atimo raised his eyelids and said with a cold tone, “You’d better have a reason for disturbing me.”
Kikiga shivered. He had become one of the chieftains because of his exceptional combat capability. Despite being bad-tempered, he was afraid of Atimo from the bottom of his heart. Under the constant reminder of the operators, he finally completed reporting what had just happened and cautiously waited for a response.
“So, you were discovered by an unknown force with advanced technology?”
“Yes, what should we do?”
“Invade their planet, rob their technology, snatch their resources, and eliminate and enslave them,” Atimo said with the same cold tone. “Do I still need to teach you these things?”
“Un—Understood.” Kikiga hastily nodded.
After the communication ended, Kikiga breathed a sigh of relief. He then stared at the operators around him with rage and loudly yelled, “You heard it! The Great Emperor has told us to eliminate the enemies. Wake up all those who are asleep; we have a war to fight!”
...
Two days passed in a flash. Han Xiao’s main fleet officially departed and left Planet Pangurus, only leaving some behind to mine the resources.
The next planet that Han Xiao was planning to personally explore was an average resource planet in the first Star Zone of the border Star System.
The famous planets in his memories were spread out in many areas. Compared to the entire Star Cluster, the first Star Zone was tiny. Other than Planet Pangurus, he had a rough image of about ten or so planets in the Star Zone, all of which he had personally visited before. Some of them were resource planets that he had visited to rob resources from other guilds, while others were functional planets such as stargate stations and supply stations of sorts.
The Black Star Army exploration team and the Senico exploration team’s millions of spaceships split up. According to the current progress, it would take about seventeen to eighteen days to finish exploring all the planets in the first Star Zone. This meant that it would take about half a year to finish exploring this Star System, and most of that time would be spent on travelling.
After all, not every planet had natives, and it was easy to explore normal planets.
As for the Special Task Force, as they would be travelling nonstop in high-speed spaceships, they would be able to build a long distance stargate route in just four months. In this time, Han Xiao felt that he should be able to visit all the planets that he had a memory of in this Star System.
On the other side, a few battleships deviated from the others, carrying the mechanical troops that Han Xiao dispatched, and headed to the location of Kikiga and the others.
Inside the spaceship, rows of mechanical soldiers were on standby under Sparta’s control. They were completely still.
Inside the cabin, however, there was a group that was completely different from the lifeless mechanical soldiers—they were the mechanical lives that Han Xiao had created.
“Guys, this is the first time the master has sent us out to a battle. We must not disappoint our master.”
In the wide room, dozens of mechanical lives were either seated or standing, looking at Psionic Prime, who was speaking with a formal tone.
As soon as his sentence ended, a silver mechanical life who was leaning back on the sofa spoke with a simulated impatient tone.
“Humph, we’re all first-generation children of the master. You were just born the earliest, yet you think of yourself as our leader?”
There were thousands of first-generation mechanical lives that Han Xiao created personally. Psionic Prime was their leader, but some mechanical lives were not satisfied with that.
Mechanical Lives had emotion modules. Due to different original models, they would shapeshift into a body shape of their own preference through nanotechnology.
“According to the bloodline relationship of flesh beings, I’m your older brother, Silver Flash,” Psionic Prime said.
The mechanical life who spoke was called Silver Flash. He had always been envious of how Psionic Prime would always be on Han Xiao’s side. Psionic Prime was just a Hovering Fissionist; the master’s favorite should be him—a thick, long, and manly Planetary Obliteration Cannon!
“Fight! Fight! The winner gets to be the older brother!” A black-red mechanical life who was clearly shorter than everyone else jumped left and right and cheered. Its original model was a dark energy hovering artillery. Its name was Scarlet Flame.
“Stop messing around.” Psionic Prime waved.
“No!” Silver Flash suddenly pounced at Psionic Prime, shattering the sofa below him.
Psionic Prime instantly split up from his human shape into multiple hovering guards, causing Silver Flash to go right through him and miss.
Pa!
With one hand pressed on the ground, Silver Flash’s body spun as he launched a kick toward Psionic Prime. He was a Planetary Obliteration Cannon, so he did not dare fire inside the ship and could only use close-range combat techniques.
Two hovering guards suddenly assembled and turned into a palm, grabbing Silver Flash’s leg. Then, Psionic Prime returned to his human form and threw Silver Flash right over his shoulder.
Bang!
The bulky mechanical body crashed onto the metal ground and made a dent.
“Still want to play?” Psionic Prime held tight onto Silver Flash’s hand and emitted a restraining force field from his palm, preventing Silver Flash from escaping by nano-shapeshifting.
Silver Flash fell onto the ground. One of his legs was caught, and the other kept kicking at Psionic Prime like a child fighting, but his attacks were all dodged by Psionic Prime.
As the two mechanical lives fought, the room became a mess. The mechanical lives around quickly backed off and gave them space.
Mechanical lives had been sparring all the time inside Han Xiao’s secondary dimension army base, so the others were all used to it.
“Are you guys not properly oiled? Come on!” Scarlet Flame cheered from the side.
“Don’t destroy the spaceship! Go to the combat room if you want to fight!” a ranger mechanical life yelled.
At this time, all the mechanical lives’ movement suddenly stopped. Sparta’s cold voice appeared out of nowhere.
“The master has finally given you guys missions, and you’re making such a mess‽ All of you, reflect on yourselves!”
Mechanical lives had free will, but Han Xiao’s artificial intelligence had a higher control priority in their fundamental logic that was only lower than Han Xiao.
Usually, Han Xiao would let the mechanical lives move freely to maximize their growth. However, Sparta did not want to let these mechanical lives keep making a mess, so he took away the control these mechanical lives had of their body and made them walk back to the cabin and stand still.
However, although these mechanical lives could not control their bodies, their minds were still active, and they were still arguing through their network link.
“If this was an open area, you’d already have become a pile of trash!” Silver Flash yelled.
Psionic Prime just chuckled. “Hehe.”
“It’s all your fault,” the ranger said. “None of us can move now!”
“Silver Flash... when we’re done with the mission, I’m going to dismantle you and send you back to the master to be rebuilt!” Oathkeeper growled.
“You think I’m afraid of you? Let me fire at you if you have the guts! Let’s see if you can even be rebuilt!”