Although the Free Army was growing rapidly, they would suffer significant damage if they chose to clash directly against the other factions who were eyeing that planet. Their rise to power had not been an easy climb, and god knows how long it would take for them to recover if they suffered too much damage. After all, there were countless people who would love nothing more but to kill them while they were weakened. If they could obtain Cillin’s cooperation though, then it would be a very different story. There were plenty of energy ores on the planet to share around anyway. More importantly, Aikenseth said it was a good opportunity to return the favor they owed, and she agreed.
“When will you begin the operation?” Cillin asked the question that concerned him the most right away. They still had a lot of preparatory work to do.
“Fifteen to twenty GAL days from now,” Blue replied. They had spent the past week or so preparing for their voyage to the planet. Countless people had lost their lives before they even made it to their destination because they were too hasty, and the Free Army wasn’t about to become another pointless statistic.
“I need half a day to consider my response.”
“No problem.”
The first thing Cillin did after ending the transmission was to check out Mo Heng’s progress. After noting that the fighters were all at the final stage of their construction, he proceeded to hold a crew meeting to obtain their opinion on this.
As expected, Cary and the senior Hunters immediately turned excited when they heard that the energy ores were comparable to the fabled White Night. Everyone else was pretty thrilled as well.
“About the fighters…”
Mo Heng waved his hand immediately. “No worries. Ten days is enough time for me to wrap up everything, and even if it isn’t, it’s not like I have to finish the job in the base. The starship’s hangar is a perfectly acceptable place to work, isn’t it?”
“What about you, Xi Kai?” Cillin looked at the researcher who was rubbing his chin and thinking about god-knows-what.
“We’re fine with this. The starship has everything we need anyway.” Materials weren’t the only things Xi Kai had brought back from the Mist Bodhisattva Empire. He had brought back multiple sets of equipment—one for the base, one of the space fortress, and one for the little starship they used to travel around the galaxy, and a couple more spares—so he would never run into a lack-of-equipment problem.
Wheeze was jumping around in excitement as well. “We’re all in agreement then! We have to go, Cillin! This is money we’re talking about! We can sell them even if we can’t use them!”
Cillin gave the restless cat a pat on the head before declaring, “Very well. Begin the preparations immediately. I will inform you all when the plan is ready.”
After the meeting was over, Mogas immediately went up to Cary and commented, “Hey dude, I’m beginning to think more and more that joining the Eleventh Squad is one of the wisest decision of my life. Not only do we get custom-made fighters, armors and luxury food, we even get to participate in top-tier missions like this! My blood is boiling just thinking about it!”
Cary chuckled. “There’s a reason we all call him commander, you know?”
Xiao Shang patted Mogas on the shoulder. “Give it your all. It goes without saying, but excellent performance is rewarded with excellent bonuses.”
Meanwhile, Cillin had contacted Blue and gave her an affirmative response. They immediately jumped into negotiations and hashed out the details. When it was time, the Eleventh Squad would meet up with the Free Army at the designated coordinates in Sector V.
After the negotiation was over, Blue cut off the transmission and looked at Aikenseth and Reysen, who were sitting not far away from her. “It’s done.”
Reysen said while wiping down his gun, “I’m not trying to be a downer, but isn’t the Eleventh Squad a brand new squadron? A B Squad of Vanguard no less? They don’t even have enough crew or ships to make up a fleet. I’m worried they’ll drag us down when we carry out the mission.”
Aikenseth disagreed with his assessment, however. “I agree that the Eleventh Squad is tiny, but Cillin is a very strange man. You probably noticed this already, but he is far more capable than he appears. It’s why I thought he belonged to a great family of Sector H back then. It’s one of the smoothest escape we’ve ever had, and I highly doubt it has anything to do with us.”
“I agree. Yes, he’s one of the Great Four, and yes, he’s the commander of the B Squad, but how many B Squad commanders have the ability to influence the administration of Sector H? And let’s not forget that that he’s somehow acquainted to the Food King himself,” Blue said.
Aikenseth paused for a second before continuing, “Returning the favor isn’t the only reason I wanted to add him to our operation. You know me. I would not have made such a hasty decision if they were weak.”
“What did you learn?” Reysen stopped wiping his gun and looked at Aikenseth.
“While I was speaking with the Food King, he told me that Cillin had connections up there,” Aikenseth pointed three fingers at the sky.
Blue and Reysen understood the gesture immediately. He was referring to Sector A, B and C. If Cillin really was connected to the three Sectors, then it made perfect sense to upgrade their evaluation of Cillin by a long shot.
Back to the Eleventh Squad’s base, Moon was watching porn in his tiny room using a top grade audio visual equipment as usual. His mind wasn’t on the video though. He had been doing his best to keep his thoughts under control so that they would not affect the surrounding equipment, but he couldn’t always be aware of it as a matter of course. The reason he kept his audio visual equipment turned on was so that he would notice immediately if he had lost control.
It was at this moment Sigma flew over while still holding the box and said, “Moon, Xi Kai has come up with the first draft of the project plan already. Once it’s finalized, we’ll begin mass-producing the new robots.”
One hand propped beneath his chin, Moon moved his fingers a little before turning toward Sigma. He asked, “It’s been a while since you lived with the Eleventh Squad, Sigma. Are you happy here?”
The childish robot tilted his head and answered honestly“Of course! The Eleventh Squad has you, Wheeze, Czedow, and even the descendants of the Xi Family. Cillin had given me a lot of help, and everyone else in the Eleventh Squad is pretty nice as well. I’m just waiting for Reefia and Suyi to wake up now. When Chip is repaired, the five of us will finally be able to explore the universe together with the Eleventh Squadron!”
The blue strip on his face curved into what passes for a wide smile for a robot.
“You’re happy, huh…”
Moon extended his arms as if he was stretching before rising to his feet.
“Hmm? Where are you going, Moon?” Sigma asked while following right behind his brother.
“I’m going to speak with Cillin about our wages.”
“What? B-but that’s not very nice… we all live here now… sure, most of the base was built by me, but… but…”
“If you have time for buts, you should spend them checking out your fruit garden. It would be terrible if the trees are dead when we take off, don’t you think? Oh, and don’t forget to bring some fresh fruits to the ship!”
Cillin was surprised when Moon requested a meeting with him. He was checking out the observation data Blue had given him regarding the planet, and he found himself agreeing that its surrounding space was pretty bad. It was no wonder it had killed countless people until recently. The reason the Free Army hadn’t lost anyone when collecting this observation data was because they had scanned the planet and its environment from afar. Otherwise, he would not be surprised if they suffered some casualties.
In fact, one of the interesting things Blue mentioned was that not one person who landed on that planet had ever made it out alive. The lucky survivor she mentioned before didn’t die only because he had stayed on orbit the entire time. According to him, the reason everyone who landed on the planet died was because a “ghost” had killed them all.
This was why the Free Army and the rest of the factions who had their eyes on the energy ores hadn’t made a move yet. To go in without preparation was to commit suicide. Of course, none of them believe that there was an actual ghost haunting the planet. It could only be a strange species or an illusion.
Cillin didn’t try putting away the documents on the table when Moon walked into his room. He asked, “What’s wrong?”
“There’s something I need to speak with you about.”
“Is it something to do with the planet?” Cillin tapped at the projector sitting beside his arm and brought up the hologram of the planet. It looked just like every other non-habitable planet with one exception—the surface was covered in many shiny, reflective dots.
Moon tilted his head as if he was curious how Cillin was able to arrive at the conclusion, but he nodded and said, “That is exactly right.”
Moon flew up to the hologram and stared at the planet for a bit. Although the blue strips on his face barely moved, Cillin could feel that he was watching it very, very seriously.
“White Night is, in fact, not the name of the energy ores.”
Cillin simply kept quiet and waited for Moon to continue.
“It is the name of someone we once called the ‘White Ghost’.”
Moon lifted his index finger. His fingertip opened up to project the hologram of a girl.
The girl was pure white, literally. There wasn’t a part of her body—skin, hair, pupils, eyebrows, and more—that wasn’t pure white in color.
She had white hair that stretched all the way down to her ankles, and they moved constantly as if they blown by the wind. Her eyes were filled with childish innocence, but a closer look would reveal that that innocence was hiding a cold, mechanical indifference.
“She does not have a physical body. She is a program; a living program. My master told me that she was the most successful experiment of all the experiments they had carried out in their attempt to create the five of us. Unfortunately, they were unable to create a physical body for her, so she was left behind to look over the remaining energy ores.”
Cillin figured out a few things when he heard up till this point. One, the energy ores that seemed as potent as the fabled White Night were in fact, one and the same. Two, the man-eating ghost that lived on the planet was a “guardian” the Xi Family had created and left behind to protect their assets.
“Why are you telling me this now?” Cillin asked.
Moon had not spoken about this when he brought up the mission during the meeting. It was clear that he had thought through things carefully before he finally decided to visit Cillin.
“I want to take White Night into the squad. I don’t care who gets the energy ores in the end, only that we could retrieve her safely.”
“And how do we do that?”
“I’ll negotiate with White Night when we get there. We’ve never met, but I have the data my master had left behind. It should be enough to get things done. You just need to make sure that this area isn’t damaged no matter what.” Moon pointed at a particular spot on the planet. Unfortunately, it was the spot with the most amount of energy ores. This would not be an easy task.
“I’ll do my best.”
“Thank you!” Moon said before adding in a mysterious tone, “There’s a reason White Night was known as the ‘Ghost’. I’m sure she’ll be a great addition to the squad.”