Aston Baer closed the communication, let out a long breath, and then carefully took out a perfumed, embroidered handkerchief from his pocket to wipe his sweat. If this guy wasn't sweating profusely and fidgeting like a crab in a steamer, he would really look like a pretentious little Empire noble.
"A-anyway, that's what happened. They agreed to let us dock. Everything is still going smoothly," Baer said to Yu Lian behind him, wiping his sweat.
"Very good, thank you for your hard work. Once this operation is complete, Commander will definitely apply to the military for the cancellation of your arrest warrant. With the great achievement you've achieved this time, plus your influence around the Far Shore Nebula, you might even get the rank of a vanguard general. Then I'll have to salute you."
"You're too kind, I'm truly ashamed..." He quickly licked his lips and put on a humble attitude, but his eyes flashed with longing and greed, perfectly embodying an outlaw who was dizzy and flustered by a sudden amnesty package. Either this was his true emotion, or his acting was good enough to compete for a Yage Mi Award in the Commonwealth.
Baer hesitated, then said, "...But I really can't guarantee that the Empire won't be suspicious. This tactic is still too dangerous. Yu Lian, we can still retreat now."
"Mr. Baer, are you scared?" Yu Lian smiled. "If you're really scared, I can understand. But, as the saying goes, no pain, no gain! If you can't help this time, your surrender will be meaningless to us."
The pirate gritted his teeth and nodded vigorously. Since it had come to this, he could only go all out.
He opened a 3D structure of the space station and pointed to a light spot, saying, "Later, if we enter the port, we should be at Pier 1 or 2 here. This is Kerna's civilian pier. However, I applied for ship repairs, and they agreed, so Pier 1 is more likely. It's closer to the shipyard."
He then swiped on the image, pulling out a passage pointing to a certain area on the lower level: "This is the shipyard. It was put into use last year. Many pirates buy ships from them, and they can also modify ships."
Yu Lian observed the location of the shipyard, pondered for a moment, then directly opened all the information the other party had provided and quickly scanned through it. Then he let out a sarcastic sneer: "Hehe~~~"
Baer felt that this laugh particularly infuriated him, but he couldn't say anything, so he could only accompany the other party with a "hehehe" for a while, and then continued to explain: "From Pier 1, this is the commercial district..."
"Isn't this just a pirate den? It even has commercial and entertainment districts!" Ina, who had been listening with relish nearby, was a little surprised.
"Even pirates and the underworld need to communicate. Information, supplies, weapons, and even manpower all need to be exchanged. This Kerna City, controlled by a 'neutral party,' serves precisely this purpose. But with transactions, there is naturally a flow of money, and entertainment facilities will naturally arise. To put it simply, all known civilizations, their early cities also slowly expanded from fixed agricultural markets."
Ina nodded. She didn't quite understand, but she showed some respect, considering how hard Yu Lian was teaching.
Baer continued, "The commercial district is quite large, so we should be able to hide. After passing through here, it's the restricted area of Kerna City."
He then marked a large red area on the 3D map: "Once we approach, we'll be driven away by the security. They really will shoot. Last time, Spharo of the Black Blade Brotherhood, drunk and making a bet with someone, ran to the restricted area and shouted. He had only taken two steps inside when he was shot into pieces by a hail of bullets."
At this, Baer shivered again: "That Spharo was very powerful, a famous sword master in the underworld! And he was much stronger when drunk than when sober, but he didn't even last a second..."
The implication was that the security personnel in the city were actually well-trained Imperial soldiers, and they should not be taken lightly.
"What about their forces?" Meng Jiao asked in a deep voice.
"That's unclear. Anyway, what I've seen, those patrolling and standing guard outside, are always over two hundred people, plus some combat robots."
Robots? Yu Lian was a little surprised; he had always thought that the Empire was the most resistant to combat robots.
"If you want to shut down this fortress's shields and weapon systems, you can only capture this place. However, I truly know nothing about the situation there, so I can only rely on you," the pirate said.
Yu Lian nodded.
The pirate hesitated, "Yu Lian, is this your first time in Kerna?"
"This is my first time (in this life) hearing about Kerna," Yu Lian laughed.
"...We can still go back now." Baer said this for the second time. Unfortunately, everyone pretended not to hear him.
Baer looked out the porthole at the fortress getting closer and closer, his face full of confusion, and gradually fell into a daze. It wasn't until the Thirteenth Fleet warped into the battlefield from the edge of the star system that he recovered from his previous state.
After all, the act had to be complete. Since they were being chased, they should look like they were being chased. Soon, two destroyers and two assault ships suddenly accelerated, breaking away from the main fleet, and chased the Dark Abomination at full speed. When they brought the enemy within theoretical maximum range, they immediately opened fire.
He no longer cared about aristocratic demeanor at this point, directly wiping his face indiscriminately with the handkerchief. The confusion and daze on his face still lingered, but he still forced himself to cheer up and tried his best to command the ship.
So, after nearly another half hour of cat and mouse, the Dark Abomination also "realistically" took four or five hits, and even sparks flew from the engines at its rear.
Everyone felt that without further support, the Dark Abomination could last at most five more minutes.
Fortunately, the fortress's firepower in the opposite Kerna City finally opened fire to provide cover, and dense ion beams wove a tight blockade in the airspace behind the pirate ship.
The Earth warships, facing such firepower, were clearly hesitant and had to start decelerating. However, they still didn't seem to want to give up, launching another volley of missiles from afar. Unfortunately, the distance between the two sides had already widened, and it was no longer the best shooting era. By this time, the Dark Abomination had entered the protective range of Kerna Space City.
The gravity generators from the fortress released invisible force field fluctuations, disrupting the missiles' targeting parameters and turning them completely into a group of chaotic headless flies.
Most of these missiles fell into the net of fire woven by the fortress guns, being torn to shreds. Finally, only one passed through the fire net and hit the target, but it only grazed the side, failing to penetrate the armor, leaving only a scratch after the explosion.
At the same time, a squadron of fighters also roared out from the fortress.
These were not the Holy Wing and Underworld Fox fighters currently mainly equipped by the Empire, but Sea Eagle 3 models from the Minlan Republic. However, their combat power was by no means inferior to the former two, and they were enhanced for high speed and high firepower, especially adept at intercepting medium and small warships.
It must be said that to clear its name, the Empire was truly working hard. One must know that the arrogant Empire had always believed that their technology and military industry were paramount in the universe, even looking down on the Alliance's cutting-edge weapons, let alone the Minlan people, who could only be considered a second-rate power. However, it was also truly difficult for those Empire pilots, who had to pilot unfamiliar aircraft.
The Commonwealth Fleet hesitated for a moment, finally not forcing the pursuit, and retreated to rendezvous with the main force.
The Empire pilots, flying the unfamiliar Sea Eagle 3 models, escorted the Dark Abomination back into the port in a protective formation.
Baer was right; they were indeed guided into Dock 1 by the navigation lights. The scale of this dock was not small; there were as many as eight cabin-style berths capable of accommodating large ships like the Dark Abomination, and even more smaller berths.
Considering that this was, after all, in the Far Shore Nebula, such a scale of engineering appeared quite astonishing.
At least, Ina looked dumbfounded, like a country girl entering the city for the first time. After all, the Commonwealth's largest New Lushun fortress in the New World was only of this scale.
To put it bluntly, building a ten-story building in the city wouldn't draw a second glance, but if it were built in a Himalayan mountain valley, anyone would feel shocked and have profound respect for the builders' dedication.
The Dark Abomination finally slowed to a stop, and with a slight tremor, it completed its docking with the berth.
Baer then indicated that he should go deal with the port's Person in charge.
According to the original plan, Yu Lian and his companions would hide in the ship, choose an appropriate time to infiltrate the enemy fortress, and seize the opportunity to destroy the interior of the fortress, including but not limited to shutting down shields, blowing up the defensive core, destroying the gravity simulation system and life support facilities, eliminating enough enemies, and so on.
It sounded like a reckless plan, but it wasn't without the possibility of success. Similar battle examples had often occurred in past wars. Moreover, with the Thirteenth Fleet's current forces, taking Kerna City by force was impossible. So, a coordinated inside and outside attack naturally had to be considered.
However, just as Baer was about to leave the ship, he was suddenly called back by Yu Lian.
Baer gave a wry smile, helplessly touching his stomach: "You're not going to not trust me even now, are you?"
He had already been forced to swallow a capsule containing a nanobot bomb. If he made the slightest unusual move, he would be blown to pieces, dying a miserable death.
Not only him, but all the pirates on board had swallowed this discordant little device.
After all, these pirates had only surrendered less than 30 hours ago, so everyone couldn't immediately trust each other wholeheartedly.
"At this point, I have no choice but to trust you! And I truly appreciate you bringing me into this fortress, I'm sincere about that," Yu Lian smiled. "It's just that I suddenly feel it's better to temporarily switch tactics."
Yu Lian's smile made Baer truly feel a deep sense of crisis, and his mind instantly went blank. He stammered, wanting to open his mouth, but felt a dry throat and couldn't say anything.
The pirate stared blankly as Yu Lian pulled out a rectangular crystal, about the length of a palm, from his embrace, then waved to his companions: "Everyone, according to the original plan, hold my hand. Then follow me and repeat, 'Nokail Saen Visabart.' Ina, it's Nokail, not Nokarl! Try again! Yes, that's the correct pronunciation."
Meanwhile, outside the dock, Angmang General Tadan watched the Dark Abomination completely stop and power down, his eyes sharp as knives.
Below the ship, damage control technicians and medical personnel were on standby, but they were not the first to board. At this moment, over a hundred Imperial… well, space station security personnel in powered exoskeletons, fully armed, had already descended onto the outer hull, ready to breach the ship and launch an assault.