It was also at noon on this day, February 3, 830, Galaxy Common Era, in a remote, unrecorded, and rarely visited star system in the Andromeda Galaxy, millions of light-years from Earth.
Elinore Bonaparte, Naval Captain and Admiral of the Thirteenth Security Fleet, part of the Blue Star Commonwealth’s “New World” Garrison Command, let out a loud sneeze on her bridge. She twitched her elegant nose, played with her braid, looked at the unfamiliar stars outside the window, and shook her head, puzzled.
A battle had just ended. Her Fourth Security Fleet’s destroyer and three assault ships only had minor scratches. But not far from them lay a scattered scene.
A destroyer-sized modified ship was split in two, floating in space as debris, while two dilapidated armed merchant ships were missing parts, as if gnawed by some indescribable monster. Five other ships were in relatively perfect condition, but their engines, shields, and all weapons were completely shut down, like salted fish thrown on the ground, closing their eyes and waiting to die.
“Captain Naruk reports that the battle has ceased, all pirate ships have been suppressed, and all enemies have surrendered!” The speaker was Lieutenant Colonel Kong Qingyu, already over fifty years old. A veteran of the navy, he was also the second-in-command of this small security fleet. As a naval veteran, he was naturally not very pleased with the young Commander, who was only half his age, but that was in the past. After several victorious battles, coupled with this almost perfect battle of fewer against more, any dissatisfaction and doubt naturally vanished.
In the military, especially in frontline combat units, office politics can be both difficult and simple: just lead your subordinates to victory.
“Where is Sanmengzhi, the Black Hat? Don’t tell me a mere pirate would die with his ship!” Elinore said.
“Captain Naruk is checking. Don’t worry, if he’s alive, he won’t escape.”
Elinore nodded, then shouted to the lower deck of the bridge: “Ina, thank you for your hard work. Check the main gun’s status. We might need to use it later. Also, I heard Sanmengzhi has good things on him, they’re yours.”
On the lowest deck of the bridge, Lieutenant Ina Hilika, currently serving as the main gunner and fire team leader of the fleet’s flagship, the Dreadnought fletcher 211, popped her head out from her seat and gave Elinore an OK gesture.
“Should we knock out another pirate ship? Maybe then, the Black Hat will surrender himself!”
“No need! These are all our spoils of war now! Whether we can pay the remaining balance for those two Rangers depends on this haul!” Elinore exclaimed.
“What an age of Valkyries!” Kong Qingyu looked at the two young and beautiful girls, watching them converse innocently like sisters, filled with emotion.
The biggest contributors to this battle were indeed these two girls.
First, Elinore Bonaparte, as the supreme Commander, after defeating two fleets belonging to the Black Hat Pirate Group, quickly found out the recent operating area of Sanmengzhi, the Black Hat.
Sanmengzhi was also a well-known and influential pirate in the “New World,” with a bounty of 25 million letter stars, and several of his subordinates had bounties exceeding 10 million. Excluding the “sub-fleets,” his main fleet consisted of a modified old destroyer, four assault ships, and three armed merchant ships, with several thousand pirates in total. In terms of theoretical combat power alone, their fleet would be more than twice that of the Thirteenth Security Fleet.
“Because of this, he will never let us go. So, we will stay put and wait for them in the CD487 star system!” Elinore said.
“But I heard that Sanmengzhi is a very cautious and cunning pirate. Won’t he suspect we’ve set a trap?” Kong Qingyu objected. Even he doubted whether this young Commander had any reinforcements, let alone the pirates.
“We just need to hang the figurehead of the pirate ship we just destroyed behind us. They will definitely show up.”
This demon goat figurehead was from Sanmengzhi’s first pirate ship, the Black Iron Mason. It later gradually became the symbol of the Black Hat Pirate Group.
Later, as his fleet expanded, he transferred his flagship to a larger and better Dreadnought, and handed over the Black Iron Mason to his trusted subordinate, forming a sub-fleet.
Unexpectedly, the sub-fleet had only conducted a few operations before being caught red-handed by Miss Elinore Bonaparte, who was “determined to suppress bandits and bring peace to the New World.”
“If Sanmengzhi doesn’t show up after we’ve disgraced their pirate group’s symbol like this, he shouldn’t be in this business. However, if he truly has such composure and endurance, then I’ll admire him, and we’ll just consider this a patrol training for everyone,” Elinore explained to everyone.
If Sanmengzhi truly had such composure, the morale of his subordinates would have crumbled. The fate of a pirate leader who has lost the hearts of his subordinates needs no further explanation, does it?
She looked at her subordinates, who were suddenly enlightened and eager to try, but she did not tell them that she actually had no reinforcements.
Elinore was right. She waited with the Thirteenth Security Fleet in the star system for less than a day when Sanmengzhi led his main fleet, a massive force, to attack.
Then, the Thirteenth Security Fleet, already prepared and on high alert, chose an unconventional combat method. Elinore immediately ordered the formation to disband, allowing the three assault ships to leave the formation, feigning escape, leaving only the solitary Dreadnought fletcher 211.
The pirates probably thought these navy ships were scared out of their wits and became even more arrogant. The flagship, assault ships, and the armed merchant ships behind them even became dislocated in their formation.
“Capture this ship! I will mount the Black Iron Goat Head on her! I will name her the new Black Iron Mason! As for all the goods, crew, especially the female crew, they are all yours!” Sanmengzhi encouraged the pirates, immediately eliciting excited cheers from his subordinates.
In this universe, there would certainly be some differences in racial reproductive isolation and sexual aesthetics, so pirates were not necessarily excited for those reasons. However, slavery still existed in this universe. Human slaves were the most valuable, and female human slaves were more valuable than male slaves, which was common knowledge among pirates!
In any case, for whatever reason, the pirates’ morale instantly soared.
Then, a heavy blow from the Fletcher’s main gun directly slammed into the flagship Black Devil, as if someone had punched you fiercely in the nose from a hundred paces away. The pirates were instantly stunned.
The front of the flagship Black Devil suffered a heavy blow, with half of its bow caved in. What pained Sanmengzhi even more was the Obsidian Dragon King figurehead he had bought at a high price from the black market, which was said to have special mysterious functions. In that instant, the Dragon King’s head had vanished without a trace.
But the pirates hadn’t even had time to raise their shields yet.
“What kind of cannon is that! It’s so accurate? No, why does it shoot so far?” Sanmengzhi and the pirates were dumbfounded.
At this moment, the fletcher 211 began to slowly retreat, creating distance from the enemy fleet, and then fired another shot.
This time it didn’t hit the flagship, but it hit a very fierce assault ship next to it.
The third and fourth shots finally missed their targets, but the shells grazing the fleet finally triggered the shield’s energy reaction. The pirates, who had belatedly activated their shields, finally saw the conical projectiles in the magnetic reaction of the energy entanglement.
“Is it a railgun?”
“Nonsense, where would a railgun have such a range?”
“It should be a new model, right?”
“Uh, if it’s a new model, that’s not surprising…”
“It’s too strange! Why would new ships and new cannons be used in the New World?”
The Commonwealth had a considerable gap in shipbuilding technology compared to the two great empires and could not overcome many technical difficulties. After losing the legacy left by the empire, they couldn’t even build Dreadnoughts. However, in the development and research of some ship components, Earthlings’ strength had always been very good, especially skilled at tinkering with various large cannons.
Coupled with the comprehensive cooperation with the Alliance in recent years, they had indeed produced many good things.
For example, the recently sea-tested fletcher 211-class Dreadnought and its new type of rail main gun and gamma laser main gun were the latest achievements.
In the pirates’ minds, shouldn’t new ships and new weapons all be in service in the homeland? There’s really no reason for them to come to this New World!
But who was Elinore? The Commander of the Bonaparte family! She was now commanding a security fleet, so assigning a new ship to her as a flagship through her family’s influence was not only reasonable and legal, but also not illegal at all?
Furthermore, finding ways to assign some experienced old military officers to the sub-fleet was also very reasonable and legal.
In any case, Elinore Bonaparte’s fishing tactic was a great success. And Lieutenant Ina Hilika, who became the main gunner on the fletcher 211, was even more divinely assisted, and her kite-flying tactic was also a great success.
The pirate fleet’s formation had completely broken apart, and the armed merchant ships were left behind, only to be suddenly intercepted by the naval assault ships that had rushed over.
The firepower on the assault ships was indeed not strong, but dealing with armed merchant ships was too easy.
On the other side, the Black Devil had taken too much damage and was completely cut in half by a railgun shell.
Under these circumstances, the pirates finally couldn’t bear it anymore and could only surrender.
Under the threat of the security fleet, the pirate ships shut down their engines, shields, and all weapon ports, and all pirates were herded into the cargo hold for inspection.
By the end of the battle, the 13th Security Fleet had only 3 dead and 10 wounded. All ships had sustained some minor scratches, which could be repaired by the fleet’s maintenance team alone.
Furthermore, not to mention the bounties on these pirates. The cargo and the ships themselves were now everyone’s spoils of war.
Just as Elinore was wondering where to fence the goods, she received a report from Captain Naruk, the assault team leader.
“Captain, we have found Sanmengzhi. He states he is willing to surrender and has important matters to report to you in person.”